There are people wearing frowns
Who will screw you up
But who would rather screw you down

-- Love, Forever Changes, circa 1967

A fantastic album, in my opinion the best album of the '60s, and one of the top 5 all time. If you like rock music, especially psychedelia, check it out.

It is frustrating to work hard, be basically a good guy and try to do good stuff, and run into so much ugliness. Last night I contemplated leaving the sport entirely for the first time. One thing that helped improve my mood was watching The Two Towers, the second LoTR movie, filmed in New Zealand. There is a scene just near the end of the movie (and this was the DVD special "Director's Cut" version, so I'm not sure if it was in the theatres) where Frodo, Sam, and Smeagle are in these duned woods with gnarled trees. I don't know where this scene was filmed, but I'll swear it looked exactly like Woodhill Forest in New Zealand, a place I wrote about in April and orienteered on a map called "Hobbit Woods". Even if it wasn't, check out the movie to get a feel for what has been described as "the best O terrain in the world". Got me back on track to thinking about what O is about.

There is a reason why DVOA will not be holding a WRE in '04. There is a reason why DVOA may not hold a sprint A meet in '05, (that in the back of my mind was slated as a team fundraiser), despite my personal desires to do both of these things. If you feel (or don't feel) USOF could use people wanting to do these sorts of things, or could benefit from these sorts of things to enhance quality, competitive orienteering, or otherwise have opinions of experiences with the USOF sanctioning process (positive or negative), write to your USOF leadership with your views.

Anyway, I've been encouraged by a few people to keep writing. I want to try to add something of value to each post rather than turn it into Rage Against the Machine.

I read somewhere that every X pounds overweight you are costs Y seconds on your 10K time. When I stared, I was at 240. Worked my way down to 176. Then to 166. But can't seem to break down to my goal of 150. I think I can be faster if I get to 150. Anyway, I started calorie counting. Hard to believe I would do something like this. Better yet, I found free software that helps, and, despite a clumsy user interface, works well. The beauty of this software (or approach) is it forces discipline, and really shows how grabbing a quick handful of chips on the way out the door really adds up. Moreover, studies have shown that dieters who use calorie counting logs are more likely to maintain discipline and meet their goals than those who don't.

Anyway, the software is web based, check it out here.