Last night after work, I went to the gym for an hour and a half bike ride. I only made it 45 minutes before exhaustion made me cut the ride short.

I grabbed dinner on my way home, and after eating, crawled into bed where I promptly fell asleep. I slept about twelve hours, and I feel much more human today.

I think I had just emptied my tank too much and wasn’t taking in enough energy to refill. That’s the most difficult part of training, I think. And it’s something I continue to have to figure out.

I had the morning off today, so now I’m waiting for my afternoon shift to start. After work, I’m headed to the pool and then to Tempe Town Lake for a run with The Internet. Summer temps aren’t too bad yet (it’s only 100 right now), so the Lake run should be pleasant. It’s definitely becoming the highlight of my week, even when attendance is low.

I just got this email from my professor about my conference presentation.

Hi Brent,
Just wanted to let you know Jens Kjeldsen was in the audience when you gave your paper.  He said he “wanted to hear more.”  Not a bad compliment from one of the top visual studies scholars in the world.

 I’m shocked. And humbled. And excited. Just when I was beginning to think that this paper might not be all that important to the field, I get some really good feedback. I’m on (academic) cloud nine.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone. I observed the holiday early by visiting the Korean War Memorial in Philadelphia last night. 

It’s been a long day of travel, but I’m back in the Valley of the Sun. I’m excited to turn my attention toward my summer projects now that my conference presentation is finished. Tonight, however, is a chance to unwind and take a breather.

I am in you.

I’m not ready for this trip yet. And yet all I want to do right now is take a nap.  That’s a good idea, right?

You may remember that last Friday I had a flat tire and managed to get it fixed and only be a few minutes late.

This morning, I had a dead battery. Like “need to completely replace it” dead battery. So since I didn’t have a car, I grabbed an empty backpack, jumped on my bike, and rode two miles to Walmart to buy a replacement.

Except they were out. So I rode three miles to the other nearby Walmart. And they were out. Determined not to give up, I rode two miles to the auto parts store, finally found a battery, threw it in my backpack, and rode two miles back home.

Finally headed to work now. I’ll be a couple hours late this time, but I don’t think it’s a huge problem. Guess I can skip tonight’s bike workout though. And can we say fitness-based problem solving?

Meeting The Internet for a run this evening. It’s even under 100 degrees for this special (weekly) occasion.

How is it 5 a.m. already? This might be a Red Bull kind of morning. Sitting in a dark room and video conferencing all day will just be too tempting of a setting to sleep.

(I’m on a 5-minute break from paper writing.) My OCD took over and I just cleared out my Inbox. That means I have ZERO messages in there right now. Of course, you could always change that. You can even send things anonymously. I don’t guarantee responses, but I do enjoy seeing new mail notifications.