Mon -- Off
Tues -- 10 miles easy. To Blean Woods and around 7.5 mile black trail and home.
Weds -- 12 miles easy. Picked up Jim in Whitstable, returned home.
Thurs -- 7 miles easy. Around reservoir near Myers Ashby with Matt.
Fri -- 5 miles, w/ 2.8 mile cross country race. Saltwood Boxing Day Run, 5th place and personal course PR (17:19) with 2 mile warm up.
Sat -- Off
Sun -- 7 miles. Harrietsham 10k (8th) with 1 mile warm up. Set 5k and 10k PRs (17:21, 36:24)

Total: 41 miles.

Three PRs in three days: a stat which makes for yet another PR!

New Zealand's Dominion Post has an early report on Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine's trip to New Zealand and pictures Fry with a hihi, or stitchbird, at the Karori Sanctuary.

Their visit coincided with the release into the sanctuary of five hihi, or stitchbirds, raised at Mt Bruce in the Wairarapa, which captured the attention of both Fry and Mr Carwardine.

There are fewer than 1000 hihi in the wild, with the 33 sanctuary residents the only settlement of the bird on mainland New Zealand.

"It's got a beautiful bill, good for poking down flowers," Fry says. "It looks like a hummingbird."

I'm back Weight Watching, counting points, grimly, grumblingly, but I am counting them. The last few days, okay, two weeks have been a food party for me, but I promised myself I'd get back on track on New Years Eve.

Tv On The Radio - Dear Science. This album will take you to a different world. It has so much depth to it. I'm not a super fan of their past albums but this one is a home run. Trust me if you need to get away and there is no where to go put this album on. Listen to the lyrics of "Family Tree" it will change your life..........

Two days after setting massive personal records (PR) over ~2.8 miles at Saltwood (see below), my brother and I decided to add a final road race before the end of the year. The Harrietsham End of Year 10k was a well-organized event taking place on a cold and somewhat breezy morning. The course was all paved and a little frosty in spots. The first half was downhill to flat and, being an out and back, the second half was an uphill grind.

I went out very hard from the off and was shocked to see 2:55 on my watch through the first km. Either the marker was short or I started out at a sub-30-minute pace! Either way it was way too fast and I knew I would be paying for it later. I went through the second km at 6:17 (3:22) which was a bit slower (33 min pace), but still way too fast. The field was a strong one for a race with less than 200 runners, and a pack of 5 or 6 guys had already put considerable distance between myself and a guy who overtook me in the first couple of kms, and who I was now pacing off. I managed to keep my pacer close through the first half, and we hit the 5k mark in 17:21. Considering 17:21 would be a 40 second PR for me in a 5k race, I was gearing myself up mentally for a very tough second half.

I have just finished a great running novel, which I would recommend to anyone who wants a primer on the mental side of racing. Once a Runner is the story of a college track star who puts life on hold to achieve his inexplicable desire to run faster. He ultimately understands that getting the best from yourself as a runner is less about the physical than it is the mental, and that journey through the second half of the book culminates in a beautiful and highly inspirational (for the runner) last few chapters, which I won't go into right now, but would recommend as required reading for all runners.

Anyway, I tried to utilize a few of the lessons that I took from the book as I headed back up the hill with the wind in my face, and focused on covering distance and maintaining form, while refusing to ease up and take the easy route back to the finish line. Ultimately, I was unable to catch the guy in front of me. However, despite serious fatigue I was able to fend off a fast finish from behind and cross the line in my second PR in three days: 36:24 (a PR by 1:05).

1980, the booktower(de boekentoren)in Ghent, a famous rock-star...for the Belgian zine Ché.

"If I were going to start a county I would use Red Yellow and Blue." and the capital would be in Auburndale, I added that last part! These guys are my new find of the year and I can't wait for my albums to come out!

Netflix recently changed the DVD shipping process when your first choice movie is not available at the shipping center nearest you.

Now, if your first choice is not available in your local shipping center, we immediately send the next locally available movie in your Queue. And whenever possible, we also send your first choice from another of our 55 shipping centers throughout the U.S. When this happens, you end up with a complimentary extra DVD rental.

Previously, if the movie you wanted was not in stock locally, we would simply try to send it from another shipping center. Since this DVD was typically delivered from farther away, it took longer to arrive and you could end up without a DVD for a few days. This was especially inconvenient for our members on 1-disc plans.

We want you to receive DVDs as quickly as possible, so we’re taking extra steps to ensure you have another movie to enjoy if your first choice will be delayed.

This change took effect Dec 11, 2008 and applies to all Netflix members.

This Associated Press article and Stephen Fry's Twitter feed say that he, Mark Carwardine, and the rest of the BBC crew, are flying down to New Zealand very shortly to begin their hunt for the 90 remaining Kakapo. Very best of luck!

Kakapo numbers have almost doubled since the original series from writer Adams and naturalist Carwardine, but there are still currently thought to be only around 90 of the parrots left in the world.

In New Zealand, the protected areas of Codfish Island and Anchor Island offer the kakapo a safe haven from predators and allow ecologists to closely monitor the species and mating behaviour.

Fry and his crew are visiting five conservation sites on the mainland and on off-shore islands, those behind the show said.

Just passing along some cute snail-themed holiday images I found. I especially like the festive shell cozy. You'll see what I mean when you click here.

Update 12-30-08:
Couldn't resist adding one more holiday link to Snail's Tales.

Happy New Year

Audio

Digital Mystikz - Miracles - Deep Medi Musik
Anquette - Get off your ass and Jam - Soul Jazz Records - SJR
Supreme DJ Nyborn - Versitile Extension (Remix) - Random
Ugly Man - DJ ye Yah - Soul Jazz - SJR
Dubwise - 7th Extension - D Music - DML
African Dub - Chapter Two - 17th North Parade
Ganjah Posse - The Jeep Dub - Nervous Records
Don Covay - Bad Luck - RPM
Little Willie John - Endless Sleep - Kent
Sunny Dae & The Knights - Rock Around the Clock - ACE
Dub Specialist - Dubbing Lecturer - Heart Beat
Big Youth - Stepping out a Babylon - Negusa Nagast Production
Glenmore Brown - Mediating or Own Way of Life - Pantomine
Ray Charles - Snow is Falling - Prism Leisure
Tony Joe White - Set the Hoom - Munich Records
Bo Diddley - Diddley Daddy - MCA Records
M.I.A. - Paper Planes - XL
Freshly Ground - Pot Belly - Wrasse
Kitty, Daisy & Lewis - Going up the Country - Sunday Best Recordings -
Andy Haas - The Ruins of America, part 1 - Resonantmusic
F*** Buttons - Sweet Love for Planet Earth - ATP
U Roy - Linger yuh Linger - Precious Sounds
Lloyd Parks - Ordinary Man - North Parade
Impact All-Stars - Ordinary Version - North Parade

As noted in my pre-race post, I had a number of goals coming into my third run around Saltwood. In ascending order they were: finish top ten, finish in a course PR, beat my brother across the finish line.

With course conditions just about optimal for a winter cross-country race in England my expectations were high as I toed the start line for the 34th running of the Boxing Day Run. Aside from one or two patches of sloppy mud, my pre-race warm up (which involved a couple of trial fence jumps for the second of five hazards that had to be negotiated) revealed firm underfoot going. Considering the conditions, I opted to wear my newly acquired, rubber-spiked cross-country flats.

From the off at the village green, I went out at a strong but conservative pace, tucking into about 11th or 12th place. I knew full well that at least 50% of those in front of me were caught up in an adrenaline-fueled frenzy that would last no longer than a mile, and sure enough I began picking a few of them off as I settled into a rhythm across the school playing fields. As I had pre-run this first section of the course, I knew it would be important to get to the first hazard ahead of any type of pack to avoid losing time at a bottleneck, so I pushed hard to get in front of two guys on the slight downhill from the playing fields to the one-person-wide footbridge, which leads to the second hazard and the first gate.

With my two trial jumps over the fence to the side of the gate, I was confident of being able to take it in stride, and was relieved when my hand plant on the top of the fence was solid enough for me to clear it with ease. Immediately following the fence jump is the steepest section of the course across a field to a stile (two planks of wood offset to allow people using public footpaths to climb over farmers' fences). I heard some very heavy breathing behind me half way up the hill, and put in an extra effort to ensure that I wasn't passed before the third and fourth hazard. I got over the stile fairly efficiently, ran up the 10 or 12 steps to a swing gate, and proceeded up the rest of the hill to the Big Field. It was here that I was passed for the first and only time during the race, and to my dismay the boy passing me could have been no more than 15 years old. Anyway, he looked way stronger than me so I let him go in the vain hope that his young age would bring him back to me later in the race.

Once up on the Big Field, runners are afforded a visual of those in front and a chance to count off your position while also seeing who you might be able to pick off before the finish. I set my sights on fifth and sixth: a guy who was clearly hurting and a lanky runner wearing the colours of Folkestone Running Club. I caught the guy in sixth with relative ease and by the 90 degree turn on the field I was slowly making ground on the long-striding Folkestone runner as we headed to the last hazard. By the swing gate, and the wooded section of the course, I had maybe ten meters to make up on fifth (which had now become my goal finish place). Taking a quick look back, I could see that I was putting significant distance on those behind, so felt confident that if I could pick off the guy in front I would finish top five.

Feeling in my element under cover of trees and on nice double-track trail I pushed hard on the downhill, making up a few meters. After the wooded descent, there is a fairly steep pitch up to the final uphill pull. I could see my lanky foe struggling on this section and knew he was done, so I put in a big effort and easily made up the ground pushing into fifth place before summiting for the descent to the finish. I felt absolutely great on the uphill, and was going as fast as my legs would carry me (rather than my lungs), which was a very good feeling and a sign that I am in very good aerobic condition right now.

The run down the last section of footpath felt controlled, and a quick look back as I hit the road back into the village confirmed that I had a lock on fifth. With nobody else in sight in front, I concentrated on keeping form and pushing as hard as I could into the finish. I was elated to see a low 17 minute time on the clock in the final few meters, and punched the stop button on my watch at 17:19, a 1:31 PR!

My brother Matt finished in his own course PR of 20:03 (beating my time from last year), and Jim came in for another PR at around the half hour mark. My 7-year-old cousin Thomas ran across the finish line in an impressive 35 minutes and was followed by his mum and younger brother William a few minutes later. Another fun Boxing Day Run.

A debut album for this guys. The whole album flows great. You can't go wrong with Organ's and drums! For a first album its unreal and has a mix of sounds that you will enjoy.

This chic will rock your socks off. Some say its the future of music. Her singing sounds smooth but so haunting. She has vision and she mixes and writes her own stuff. I have a feeling I'll be listening to her for a long time.

So much to write, so little time!You may be surprised to learn that during the festive season I shall be attending a variety of campsites across the North Island of New Zealand. I need hardly say that it was not my idea. However, I have now become accustomed to the notion, and I am even looking forward to the trip, armed as I am with a sizeable quantity of loo roll and handy camping gadgetry

Sweet Emilie slipped away the night before last. She was holding her beloved husband's hand. At a time when we celebrate the birth of Christ, we mourn the passing of loved ones who are not here to share this time of celebration.

By far their best album to date there is even a mention of parting down in Ybor City, which is like 30min from my house. A great Southern rock sound that makes you proud to be an American.

It has been difficult locating my Christmas spirit this year. I've been homesick, and blazing hot sunshine and a thirteen hour time difference from old friends and ever-expanding family puts a dampener on any chance to remedy the issue. On the way home last night I was nearly reduced to tears when I saw a tiny penguin chick that was clearly ill, floating with the current in the harbour.I

Each song is like a mini movie and demands your attention musical and visional. The lyrics are some of the best in todays world of music. If this album doesn't get you rock'n then I don't know what will.

Mon -- off
Tues -- 8 miles up to Horsetooth via Spring Creek, back down Audra Culver ~ 1,500ft
Weds -- off
Thurs -- Flying to the UK
Fri -- 5 miles w/ 3 laps of the university route
Sat -- off
Sun -- 13 miles out to Whitstable and back, the back leg being at a leisurely pace with one of my oldest buddies, Jim.

Total - 26 miles with very little climbing.

I am calling this a taper week in the build-up to the annual 3 mile romp through the beautiful Kentish countryside, starting and ending in the village of Saltwood. My brother is harboring thoughts of beating me this year, so with sibling rivalries in gear, I am preparing for this run as something of a goal race.

I ran the course in 20:10 last year for a fairly disappointing 20 something place finish, after just finishing out of the top ten in 2006 with a time of 18:50. Being in much better shape this year, I am hoping for a PR, top ten and, most importantly of all, victory over my brother. I took my screw-shoed Inov-8s for a test run up in the woods today, and I think they will do well in providing decent traction through the sloppy conditions that are typical at Saltwood.

As something of a side bet, my brother, Jim and I will be competing in a handicapped system of best percentage time improvement versus last year. Considering my level of fitness last year, I certainly have a margin of imrovemnent to expect and am not totally out of the running, but as my brother has put in his first serious year of training in 2008 (training for Amsterdam Marathon), he is definitely the odds-on favorite in the handicapped version of the race, with Jim a close second. Either way, it will be a fun day as always, and the beer always tastes better after a good slog through the mud.

Earlier this month, gorilla park rangers were delighted to encounter five new Mountain Gorilla babies on the slopes of Mount Mikeno, all the more remarkable given the continuing armed conflict in the country.

The park director, Emmanuel de Merode, later described the discovery of five newborns at the outset of a month-long census as “quite phenomenal”, given that the endangered gorillas’ habitat has long been a war zone in the conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“They’ve had a growth of about 11 per cent in 10 years, less than two per cent a year. To get five births in a group of 30 is about 15 per cent growth. It’s quite tremendous and very unusual,” he said.

This album has one of the best songs of 2008, 'Sex on Fire.' The main thing I like about these guys is their sound keeps changing. They are hitting the big time, its just hard to say which album put them on the map this one or their last album, Because of the Times?

There's another opportunity to see CNN's Planet in Peril over the holiday period. According to my listings it should appear on Thu 12/25 at 10:00 PM, then again early Fri 12/26 at 1:00 AM and 4:00 AM. The programme features host Anderson Cooper trekking with Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund staff in the Virunga mountains of Rwanda.

OHMYNews.com has a review of a new book entitled "Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin" by Samuel Turvey, a research fellow at the Zoological Society of London. Mark Carwardine describes the book as follows... "At last someone is publicly mourning the tragic extinction of the Yangtze river dolphin. This is a highly authoritative, well written, thought-provoking and timely book". The review itself includes this passage...

Turvey's elegiac twilight trawl between the Yangtze's soggy mud banks heavy with wet grass and tree skeletons consumes six sorry weeks of 2006.

After covering the middle section of the great river twice, he and his peers become increasingly despondent, resentful, almost mutinous, irked by funding problems and failure.

The book is also available as a Kindle edition, and also at Amazon.co.uk.

I've been working on this project for a few weeks now and its finally coming to completion, so I thought I'd document it here so others can save some of the time and hassles I have had in getting to this point.

When I bought a new MacBook for myself, I convinced Steph to ditch her P.O.S. Windows XP machine and take my old MacBook. We now needed a few thing:

• Home file server for sharing documents, photos, etc
• Automated back up system (TimeMachine would be ideal, but I didn't want to purchase a TimeCapsule for the network based backups. I'm cheap!)
• Shared printing (again, I'm cheap, I don't want to buy a new printer and my existing printers don't support networked printing)
• Home-based VPN to allow me access to the home network when on the road

So the obvious solution was to repurpose Steph's old Dell box into a server to support our needs. Here's what I did:

First, I replaced the hard drve with an unused 160GB SATA drive I had sitting around. After burning a CD from an ISO of Ubuntu 8.10 Server (Intrepid Ibex), I installed the server and got it up and running on my home network with a static IP address. The server is called "papaya". The initial install included an ssh daemon for remote access so I could work away from the console. Eventually the box will be headless, but for now its connected to my home office KVM.

Next, I configured ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) to start locking down services. First, set the firewall into the "default deny" mode (a.k.a. whitelisting of approved inbound connections):

sudo ufw default deny

And then I added a rule to allow inbound ssh from the local network:

sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 192.168.5.0/24 to 192.168.5.2 port 22

Next I installed netatalk to support AppleTalk, allowing me to connect my MacOS X systems to papaya's shared disks. I started with directions from here and here, but I found they didn't work exactly as presented, and I needed some tuning to make it work. (See the referenced links for more details on all of these steps, I just distilled this down to the most important info.)

First, install netatalk with encryption support (required by MacOS X):

sudo aptitude update
mkdir -p /tmp/src/netatalk
cd /tmp/src/netatalk
sudo aptitude install devscripts cracklib2-dev dpkg-dev libssl-dev
apt-get source netatalk
sudo apt-get build-dep netatalk
cd netatalk-2.0.3
sudo DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=ssl dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc
sudo debi
echo "netatalk hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

Note the last line, it places a hold on any updates to netatalk when running updates on the Ubuntu server, this is necessary to prevent updates from breaking the installed version. Next I configured netatalk by editing a few files. First, /etc/default/netatalk was modified with the following configuration:

ATALKD_RUN=no
PAPD_RUN=no
CNID_METAD_RUN=yes
AFPD_RUN=yes
TIMELORD_RUN=no
A2BOOT_RUN=no

Next, edit /etc/netatalk/afpd.conf by adding the following line to the end of the file:

- -transall -uamlist uams_randnum.so,uams_dhx.so -nosavepassword -advertise_ssh

Now, configure your shared volumes in /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default by adding the following lines to the end of the file (make sure its one line!):

/media/TimeMachine TimeMachine allow:username1,username2 cnidscheme:cdb options:usedots,upriv

This mounts a shared volume named TimeMachine located at /media/TimeMachine (your mount point may vary, this is an external 1TB USB drive at the moment). List the specific users who should be able to login to the share with their credentials. The remaining options have to do with dealing with invisible files/folders which are used by MacOS X. I actually created a handful of shares, each of them with different functions (TimeMachine, generic file share, etc.).

Now we restart netatalk:

sudo /etc/init.d/netatalk restart

Unfortunately, this share is not publicized to the local network, which I wanted for ease of use. So I set up Avahi, a daemon for Apple's Bonjour zero-configuration service:

sudo apt-get install avahi-daemon
sudo apt-get install libnss-mdns

Edit /etc/nsswitch.conf to add the mdns service to the end of the line beginning with hosts. In the end the line should look like:

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4 mdns

Next, configure Avahi to publish the service. Create a file with the name /etc/avahi/services/afpd.service containing the following XML:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?><!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
<name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
<service>
<type>_afpovertcp._tcp</type>
<port>548</port>
</service>
<service>
<type>_device-info._tcp</type>
<port>0</port>
<txt-record>model=Xserve</txt-record>
</service>
</service-group>

Note that this sets up Avahi on port 548 and tells Avahi to publish the device as an XServe, which will make papaya appear as an XServe icon on any Macs connected to the network. Open port 548 to listen for inbound connections:

sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 192.168.5.0/24 to 192.168.5.2 port 548

Restart Avahi to publish the servers:

sudo /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon restart

Woohoo, now I have the server publishing its shares to the network which are seen by my Macs, as seen below.



Now we need to configure the Mac to be able to use papaya as a TimeCapsule without paying for Apple's hardware. Drop to a command line and run the following (on your Mac, not Ubuntu!):

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Mount any of the remote volumes from the Mac and use the TimeMachine preferences to select the remote system for backups. TimeMachine will actually create a disk image on the remote system and utilize that image for its backup volume. Or, in my case, maybe not! But we can easily fix that. Use MacOS X Disk Utility to create a new disk image as a "sparsebundle disk image". The naming is very specific and in the format machine_name_MAC_ADDRESS.sparsebundle. For instance, if your machine name is joeyjr and the MAC address of the primary interface (en0) is 00:13:24:1f:12:10 then the name of the disk image should be:

joeyjr_0013241f1210.sparsebundle



Note that the MAC address separators have been removed. How do you find the MAC address of the primary adapter? Drop to a command line and execute the command ifconfig, it should return something like:

lo0: flags=8049 mtu 16384
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
gif0: flags=8010 mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863 mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::223:32ff:febf:cd2%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
inet 192.168.5.114 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.5.255
ether 00:23:32:bf:0c:d2
media: autoselect (100baseTX ) status: active
supported media: none autoselect 10baseT/UTP 10baseT/UTP 10baseT/UTP 10baseT/UTP 100baseTX 100baseTX 100baseTX 100baseTX 1000baseT 1000baseT 1000baseT
en1: flags=8863 mtu 1500
inet6 fe80::223:6cff:fe7f:5cd%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
inet 192.168.5.3 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.5.255
ether 00:23:6c:7f:05:cd
media: autoselect status: active
supported media: autoselect
vmnet8: flags=8863 mtu 1500
inet 192.168.94.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.94.255
ether 00:50:56:c0:00:08
vmnet1: flags=8863 mtu 1500
inet 192.168.200.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.200.255
ether 00:50:56:c0:00:01

The lines after en0 refer to the primary adapter, in this case the ethernet adapter, and the MAC address is found on the line in bold.

Create a sufficiently large image (i.e. 500GB) (note: this image will only take a few MB until it is filled, so this can be done on a pretty full disk) and move it to the root of the share you wish to use for TimeMachine.

Mount the TimeMachine share from above. Open the System Preferences, choose the share as your TimeMachine volume and let it go to work. If you did everything correctly, bacups should begin. My 160GB backup took at least 8 hours, if not longer.

Now backups are great, but they only work for me if you can restore from them in a crisis. How do I define a crisis? Not restoring a file that has been accidentially deleted by using the TimeMachine application, that should work as long as I have the volume mounted. How about Installing MacOS on a blank drive and having the MacOS installer pull all of the data from your networked backup?

In theory, everything should work as follows. I have not done a full disaster recovery yet (though I will before I depend on this as my only backup solution) so take all of this with a large grain of NaCl. Boot from the install CD and start the terminal from the Utilities menu. In the terminal, mount your afp file share:

mkdir /Volumes/timemachine
mount_afp afp://username:password@papaya/TimeMachine /Volumes/timemachine

If the disk is mounted you should be able to find your .sparsebundle in the directory /Volumes/timemachine. Exit the terminal and now open the Restore from Backup utility. The restore utility will find the remotely mounted TimeMachine volume and allow you to restore from that point.

OK, we now know we can back up and restore from the backup. That's all good news. Let's get some printers set up. I have 2 HP printers, a HP LaserJet 1100 which runs on a paralell port, and a HP OfficeJet 5510 All-In-One, running from the USB port. First, ensure hp-lip and cups are installed:

sudo apt-get install hplip
sudo apt-get install cups

Run the hp-setup command to set up your printers (follow the prompts):

sudo hp-setup

Configure cups to listen on port 631 for remote printing and configuration by editing /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

# Allow remote access
Port 631
Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock

And configure cups to allow remote administration at http://papaya:631/:

<Location />
Allow all
Allow all
# Allow shared printing and remote administration...
Order allow,deny
Allow all
</Location>
<Location /admin>
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
Allow all
# Allow remote administration...
Order allow,deny
Allow all
</Location>
<Location /admin/conf>
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
Allow all
# Allow remote access to the configuration files...
Order allow,deny
Allow all
</Location>

See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=736489 for more information on configuring cups. I'm not perfectly happy with this yet, I believe it can be locked down further, but its good for now.

Now, open the firewall to allow access on port 631:

sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 192.168.5.0/24 to 192.168.5.2 port 631

Restart cups:

sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart

Now I browse to http://papaya:631/ to manage configured printers. With the printer URLs in hand I can add remote printers to my MacOS X machines through the Printers preference pane. Printing on the LaserJet is a bit wonky at times, but printing to the OfficeJet is perfect. I still need to set up remote scanning, but that's a project for another day.

The VPN is still a work in progress. I'll post details on setting up OpenVPN once I have had chance to configure and test it completely.

(All the info posted herein is for informational purposes only. Use this at your own risk as I will provide no support.)

Much as I love New Zealand, there are certain cultural traits among its people which I take very serious exception to. One of them is su casa es mi casa.* I'm not sure if I'm being peculiarly British, or just a tad anal, but I usually wait to be invited in to someone else's house before I enter. Not so in New Zealand. Today was the pre-Christmas Street Party, and regular readers will be able to

Frame 26 from the comic 'The Secret of Esther' , I'm working on.

Audio

Onra – Shhhhh – All City
Arthur Russell – Habit of you – Audika
Blevin Blectum – Real live escargot – Aagoo Records agoo15
Sideshow – If alone (Appleblim & Komonasmuk remix) – Aus Music
Propa Tingz – Hustlers' Concerto (Boss dub) – True Movement mp3
Dennis Brown & I Roy – Wolves & leopards / Step on the dragon – Heartbeat
Pole – Alles gute – Scape sc56
Dub Providers & Echo Ranks – Clean up your act dub –
Disrupt – Roots im tapeloop – Jahtari
Mongrel / AMS – dub – On U Sound mp3 pre-release
Big Ned – Killer – Optimo
Annie Bandez – All I want for Christmas – Durtro Jnana
The Qemists - Dem Na Like Me (Subscape Dub) - Ninja Tunes
Jupiterdogs - Take it so the sun - Palimpset Recordings
Kirameki - Drown youself - Bearsuit Records
Thunderheist - Jerk It - Biga Dada
Vincent Jiarkqwski - Dirty Capsule - DC Recordings
Daedelus - For Withered Friends (feat. Michael Johnson) - Ninja Tunes -
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive - Rough Trade
Nitin Sawhney - Days of Fire Featuring Natty - Cooking Vinyl
Neil Halstead - Paint a Face - Brushfirerecords
Natasha Lea Jones - Fate No Fall - Nastasha Jones
Charlie Stewart - Santa Claus won't come this year - Viper records
Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Abkco
Malcolm Middleton - We'ew All Going to die - Full Time Hobby
Alabama 3 - Peace in the Valley - One Little Indian

This album is hard to describe but you can tell these guys are looking for some purpose as to why the world is so screwed up. Its almost a coming of age album for the forgotten youth.

I read today Bill and Melinda Gates do a plan every six months together. They work out the goals they want to achieve in the coming months, what they want their kids to see, and learn and who and where they can help the most.

This guy left his band and his women and found a cabin in Wisconsin. Pretty much broke free from everything he knew and after a year long stay, he came out with a beautiful poetic album that will take you through a state of disrepair but by the end you will feel alive again!

Monday -- 6.5 miles up and down Horsetooth. Decided to go tempo once I hit the park. 55 mins total. I think this is a PR over this route; however, only the second time I have timed it (~1,500 elev gain).

Tues -- Off

Weds -- 9.5 miles. Horsetooth Trail Half course, with Spring Creek down from Towers (~2,000 elev gain). 8:58 up Horsetooth Trail.

Thurs -- 6.5 miles. As Monday, except all at easy pace.

Friday -- 23 miles. The Twin Peaks Challenge. Up to Horsetooth and around to Mill Creek along HTH course. Mill Creek into Lory State Park and up to Arthur's Rock. Took Timber Trail to the Lory Visitor Center and decided to run the road back to Arthur's trail head because the trails were so sloppy. Nomad to Towers, to Stout, to Spring Creek, to Horsetooth Falls to parking lot and home. Felt pretty good the whole way around. Much, much better than the one previous time I ran this route earlier in the summer, which ended in a dehydrated plod home. Total run time was 3:40 or so. Elevation gain was probably in the 3,500-4,000 range.

Saturday -- 9 miles (2,500 elevation gain). Climbed to Twin Sisters Peak in Estes with Chad. We had originally planned to do Estes Cone as well, but the weather on top of Twin Sisters was so vicious (winds must have been a steady 70 mph, and without eye protection that hurts) we settled for a warm-down jog around the picturesque Lily Lake.

Sunday -- Christmas Classic 4 miler (26:14). With fresh powder on the roads and temperatures in the low single digits the conditions were trying to say the least. Ended up running three minutes slower than over the same distance on Thanksgving. By beating Santa across the finish line, I snagged a pair of running socks. I also won a large pizza from Panhandlers in the post-race lottery, and picked up a pair of tiger-striped (!) running spikes for $10 on clearance from Foot of the Rockies, the store that put on the race. The spikes will be perfect for the Saltwood Boxing Day run, a 3-mile race that is fast becoming a tradition for the Clark family annual Christmas gathering. The run starts and ends in the village of Saltwood by way of hilly fields, which invariably are very sloppy.

Total: 58.5 miles and 9,000-10,000 total elevation gain.

With temperatures in the minus numbers, a pair of sore knees and a heavy week of running just completed, I have decided to take this moment to get a blog up and running. I am doing this primarily as a means of maintaining a record of my runs, something I used to do religiously, but after a six-month, injury-induced running hiatus between August 2007 and February 2008, I decided to quit logging my runs. This was mainly because I attributed my injury, in part, to an obsession with hitting weekly numbers (regardless of how my body felt).

The injury was especially unfortunate as it came two weeks before the Leadville 100, an event for which I had been logging big miles for over 12 months. I ended up toeing the line, despite barely being able to walk, and dropping 25 miles later at the Fish Hatchery. I mean to race Leadville again in 2009, and am shooting for a sub-20-hour, top-ten finish. This being my primary focus, I am sure it will be referenced frequently in the coming months.

Since coming back from injury, my running philosophy has become much more relaxed, and I have assumed a 'run by feel' approach to my training. That is to say, I run on a regular basis, but am no longer a slave to schedules, numbers or times. With that said, I am beginning to realize that record keeping is still a useful and necessary training tool; hence the blog.

A quick primer on my running career: it began as a mission to complete a marathon, which once completed (Detroit 2004, 3:28) became a mission to qualify for Boston (New York 2005, 3:07), which in turn became a mission to go under three hours (Marine Corps, D.C. 2006, 2:54).

Following our move to Fort Collins, CO, my focus changed to longer distances and a preoccupation with the 100-mile distance in particular. I trained well for Leadville, and was posting some competitive trail times and finishes before succumbing to a debilitating lower-back injury which appeared to be linked to a stress fracture in my pelvic bone, an injury that had been bugging me for months but not enough to slow me down. Lesson learned. Pay attention to pain.

Anyway, I was finally forced to follow the doctor's advice and took time to let things heal. Fast forward six months and 20 pounds of weight gain, and I was horribly out of shape and finding it very hard to get motivated to run again.

Being out of shape, with nothing but steep mountain trails to train on, made getting out the door to run on a regular basis very difficult, to say the least. I finally re-found my rhythm after a friend from the Fort Collins Running Club asked me if I would pace her at the Badwater 135 ultramarathon through Death Valley. This really got me motivated to run again as it is an event that has intrigued me for quite some time, and I really wanted to be able to help Alene achieve her goal. The training paid off and I was able to pace Alene through the last 45 miles of the course, helping her hit the tape in under 48 hours for a belt-buckle finish. We mostly walked, and it was a very long walk for sure, but it was a truly memorable experience, and one that I use as a motivator on a regular basis. Alene's pictures and reports from Badwater are available from her blog.

Training for Badwater was just what I needed to get back in the groove, and soon after returning to Fort Collins I was on the interwebs looking for a late-season challenge, which quickly centered on Steamboat in September. My ambition to race in the Run Rabbit Run 50 was the final tool I needed to reinvigorate my running obsession (obsessions can be good).

By September and Steamboat, with some encouraging shorter races along the way, I felt like I was back in decent shape and ready to lay it down. Steamboat went well, all things considered. I was edged into a third-place finish after tracking Ryan Burch, who ran almost pillar to post in first, for approximately 40 miles. He was never any more than three or four minutes ahead of me and frequently within eyesight. I finally reeled him in at the penultimate aid station after working with Todd Trapp to do so. Between the last two aid stations, I decided to make a move for the win, and quickly gapped Todd and Ryan, both of whom I thought were done for the day. Turns out I was the one who was done and a few miles later Ryan came storming back to pass me and he was soon followed by Todd. I was satisfied to put it in neutral back down Mount Werner to the finish (6 miles and 3,000 feet of descent) for a third-place finish, and a goal of running sub-nine hours met (8:42).

Since then, I have set shorter-distance PRs (37:29 10K, 18:02 5k, 23:24 4 mile) and definitely feel like I am ready to train through the winter for a strong start to 2009. My first major test leading up to Leadville will be the Spring Desert Ultra 50 mile in April, an event I dropped out of at the 25 mile turnaround in 2007 after experiencing severe groin pain from about the 12 mile point. Turns out this was the beginning of the end with regards to Leadville that year.

I am also planning some epic runs through Rocky Mountain National Park and the surrounding area with Chad Johnson, another recent transplant to Northern Colorado, and someone who shares my affinity for running up steep mountain trails. Chad was a mountain rescue volunteer in Washington state before moving with his family to Loveland, so he is the perfect running partner for a mountain neophyte from Southeast England, such as myself. We're already tossing around some planned routes, and I simply can't wait for spring to get here.

Hi,

Just a quick blog entry to mention that we have moved the location of our Friends tab on the website. To access Friends, go to the homepage and you’ll find the link just to the right of New Releases at the top of the page. We haven’t modified Friends -- we simply decided this would be a better location for the link.

Gib

The BBC Last Chance To See "Radio" page has been updated again to include the full radio episode "The Answer is Blowing in the Wind". This episode features Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine in their search for the Rodrigues Fruit Bat. The site indicates that the Kakapo episode will be the next to be made available, in January 2009.

The radio series episode guide in David Haddock's "The Story of Last Chance To See" has been updated with the link to all the episodes released so far.

NOTE: This material is only available to UK users due to copyright restrictions. Boo-hoo!

This album will blow your mind. It is composed almost entirely by samples taken from other songs. It flows like one steady track and was released online for a price of your choosing.

This is probably the 9th season I'm drawing the comic 'prof Oja-Aha' for childrens magazine Taptoe. This episode explains what kind of tricks are used in movies. It's page 1 of 2, so be sure to buy a Taptoe to see how it ends... (I'm kidding, it's not for sale, you 'd have to be in a dutch school to get it.

Adapted for Cardboard by Ben Henry































































































Thanks for three great years!
-Ben