Friday, December 23, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Friday, May 06, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sponsor my half marathon by donating to Relay for Life
Help me beat cancer!
I am running the City of Plattsburgh Half Marathon on Sunday, April 17 and I would love for you to sponsor me. I will be wearing a special t-shirt that features my Running Semicolon design on the front and cartoons of my sponsors on the back.
All you need to do is make a donation of any amount to get your cartoon added to the shirt (I won't quarantee that it will look like you, but I will do my best!)
If you need time to think about it, I am going to be wearing the shirt in several races this year and will always be happy to add a face to my effort.
Please make a donation today! by clicking on this link: Graser's Relay For Life Donation Page
Tom
this is what the front of the shirt will look like!
And I hope the back will look something like this!
Click here to donate today
I am running the City of Plattsburgh Half Marathon on Sunday, April 17 and I would love for you to sponsor me. I will be wearing a special t-shirt that features my Running Semicolon design on the front and cartoons of my sponsors on the back.
All you need to do is make a donation of any amount to get your cartoon added to the shirt (I won't quarantee that it will look like you, but I will do my best!)
If you need time to think about it, I am going to be wearing the shirt in several races this year and will always be happy to add a face to my effort.
Please make a donation today! by clicking on this link: Graser's Relay For Life Donation Page
Tom
this is what the front of the shirt will look like!
And I hope the back will look something like this!
Click here to donate today
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
I only did four and then I quit for some reason.
My top twenty albums
These are not the 20 albums I like the best. They may not even be the albums that most influenced my musical tastes. They are 20 albums that mean something to me. I have left a lot of early stuff out.
I am not good at remembering years. I am attempting to put this in some sort of chronological order, but I am not sure if it will be 100 percent correct.
So we start in high school. I was a Plattsburgh High School Hornet and everybody was listening to Elton John and “Stairway to Heaven” was the last song of every school dance. When I got home I listened to music that others did not.
1. Todd Rundgren – “Runt”
I probably should have picked “Something Anything” it is a better more complete album. I found Runt long after I found Rundgren. It was in a cutout bin at a department store. I don’t think it cost more than 2 bucks. It is notable because it is all Todd. He is every voice and plays every instrument. This was in the days when that wasn’t easy. It’s an amazing feat when you think about it. In college I traded my copy of “Something, Anything,” to a girl for a copy of Steely Dan’s “Pretzel Logic.”
2. Steely Dan – “Countdown to Ecstasy”
I guess the above entry indicates I should have chosen “Pretzel Logic.” I chose “Countdown to Ecstasy” because of two songs – “Bodhisattva” and “My Old School.” The first song will, to this day, hypnotize me and the second song conjures up a memory of unbridled joy. I happily and distinctively recall my sister Ellen, my buddy Tony Vavra and me playing air band to this song, over and over and over on the third floor of my parent’s U.S Oval house in Plattsburgh, N.Y.
3. Joe Jackson – “Beat Crazy”
Back in the pre-Internet days it took a little work to follow your favorite artists, especially if your faves were not the faves of everybody else. I always knew what Joe Jackson was up to and I always knew when his next release was going to be. “Look Sharp” and “I’m the Man” cemented me as a fan, but “Beat Crazy” floored me. I remember trying to explain it to a girlfriend, “It’s like reggae for punks,” She didn’t get it. “Listen,” I said, “There’s nothing nice and nothing hopeful. It’s all anger. It’s punk!”
4. Neil Young – “Tonight’s the Night”
I knew that Young and Steven Stills played together in Buffalo Springfield, but I could never understand his association with the group Crosby, Stills and Nash. Those guys sang those pretty harmonies and Neil Young sounded like, well ..Neil Young. He certainly wasn’t a singer like those guys, I thought at the time. Then one night I was in the listening room in the library at Oswego State University. I picked this album out of the stacks, put on the headphones and dropped the needle. I had a musical epiphany. Crosby, Still and Nash might sing harmonies, but none of them, alone or collectively could sing a lick next to Neil Young. On “Tonight’s the Night” Young opens up a vein and bled his songs on the studio floor.
Here's the wordle this drivel produced:
These are not the 20 albums I like the best. They may not even be the albums that most influenced my musical tastes. They are 20 albums that mean something to me. I have left a lot of early stuff out.
I am not good at remembering years. I am attempting to put this in some sort of chronological order, but I am not sure if it will be 100 percent correct.
So we start in high school. I was a Plattsburgh High School Hornet and everybody was listening to Elton John and “Stairway to Heaven” was the last song of every school dance. When I got home I listened to music that others did not.
1. Todd Rundgren – “Runt”
I probably should have picked “Something Anything” it is a better more complete album. I found Runt long after I found Rundgren. It was in a cutout bin at a department store. I don’t think it cost more than 2 bucks. It is notable because it is all Todd. He is every voice and plays every instrument. This was in the days when that wasn’t easy. It’s an amazing feat when you think about it. In college I traded my copy of “Something, Anything,” to a girl for a copy of Steely Dan’s “Pretzel Logic.”
2. Steely Dan – “Countdown to Ecstasy”
I guess the above entry indicates I should have chosen “Pretzel Logic.” I chose “Countdown to Ecstasy” because of two songs – “Bodhisattva” and “My Old School.” The first song will, to this day, hypnotize me and the second song conjures up a memory of unbridled joy. I happily and distinctively recall my sister Ellen, my buddy Tony Vavra and me playing air band to this song, over and over and over on the third floor of my parent’s U.S Oval house in Plattsburgh, N.Y.
3. Joe Jackson – “Beat Crazy”
Back in the pre-Internet days it took a little work to follow your favorite artists, especially if your faves were not the faves of everybody else. I always knew what Joe Jackson was up to and I always knew when his next release was going to be. “Look Sharp” and “I’m the Man” cemented me as a fan, but “Beat Crazy” floored me. I remember trying to explain it to a girlfriend, “It’s like reggae for punks,” She didn’t get it. “Listen,” I said, “There’s nothing nice and nothing hopeful. It’s all anger. It’s punk!”
4. Neil Young – “Tonight’s the Night”
I knew that Young and Steven Stills played together in Buffalo Springfield, but I could never understand his association with the group Crosby, Stills and Nash. Those guys sang those pretty harmonies and Neil Young sounded like, well ..Neil Young. He certainly wasn’t a singer like those guys, I thought at the time. Then one night I was in the listening room in the library at Oswego State University. I picked this album out of the stacks, put on the headphones and dropped the needle. I had a musical epiphany. Crosby, Still and Nash might sing harmonies, but none of them, alone or collectively could sing a lick next to Neil Young. On “Tonight’s the Night” Young opens up a vein and bled his songs on the studio floor.
Here's the wordle this drivel produced:
Monday, March 14, 2011
Half - Marathon update
I am just past the half-way mark in my half marathon training. Seems like a good time to post an update.
I have run 93 miles in training since I started my 10-week plan on Feb. 7.
Except for two days when I was in Washington D.C., where I ran on treadmills, I have done all my running outside.
The coldest was a 3-mile run at 2 below zero. That was the only sub-zero run. There were a few more cold ones, but most of my training has been in the 20s and 30s.
I have worn a ball cap, instead of a touque a couple of times.
The mind game I have been playing is that I have been hoping that as the runs got longer and harder, the weather would getting better and more tolerable.
So far, it has been working.
I did run once in the rain and once in an ice storm.
I feel pretty good.
I have lost about 9 pounds in five weeks. If I could lose another 9 or 10 over the next five weeks, I should be in great shape for the run on April 17.
I completed a 10 mile run this past Saturday and that has me confident that I will be able to complete the 13.1 mile half-marathon. The questions that remain are: 1. How long will it take me to finish? And, 2. How painful will it be?
I am working on completing a plan to use my attempt as a fund raiser for Relay For Life.
I am just finishing up the details now.
Part of it will be a t-shirt that I am in the midst of designing.
The front will look like this:
On the back I am going to include something to represent the individual people that contribute.
Stay tuned.
I have run 93 miles in training since I started my 10-week plan on Feb. 7.
Except for two days when I was in Washington D.C., where I ran on treadmills, I have done all my running outside.
The coldest was a 3-mile run at 2 below zero. That was the only sub-zero run. There were a few more cold ones, but most of my training has been in the 20s and 30s.
I have worn a ball cap, instead of a touque a couple of times.
The mind game I have been playing is that I have been hoping that as the runs got longer and harder, the weather would getting better and more tolerable.
So far, it has been working.
I did run once in the rain and once in an ice storm.
I feel pretty good.
I have lost about 9 pounds in five weeks. If I could lose another 9 or 10 over the next five weeks, I should be in great shape for the run on April 17.
I completed a 10 mile run this past Saturday and that has me confident that I will be able to complete the 13.1 mile half-marathon. The questions that remain are: 1. How long will it take me to finish? And, 2. How painful will it be?
I am working on completing a plan to use my attempt as a fund raiser for Relay For Life.
I am just finishing up the details now.
Part of it will be a t-shirt that I am in the midst of designing.
The front will look like this:
On the back I am going to include something to represent the individual people that contribute.
Stay tuned.
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