I love what I’ve read of Murakami (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of The World) and What I Talk About had me from the first page. However, this book is different from Murakami’s novels because it is a combination of a diary, a memoir, and a running guide. Also, it’s nonfiction. For me the most interesting part was when Murakami explained his personal history. I’m rather lazy when it comes to looking up information about authors I like, so this is the only time I’ve read about Murakami’s jazz bar and the conception of his first novel.

The rest of the book is a very detailed account of Murakami’s running history, marathon training, and thoughts on physical fitness. I’m not a runner but that didn’t put me off from reading this book. Greg pointed out that when someone is a huge nerd about something (and articulate), it’s often fun just to listen to them talk about their area of focus. I recommend this book because if you enjoy Murakami (like me!) you will find it interesting and if you enjoy running (not like me…) you will probably find it relatable.

Here are some quotes that I liked. A lot of them are from the first three quarters of the book, since the end seemed to focus on running more (maybe I just wasn’t paying as much attention). Quotes are separated by line breaks:

No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough and it becomes a contemplative even meditative act.

I think this a common sentiment among artists. Immediately, I think of a blog post by Craig Thompson.

I stop every day right at the point where I feel I can write more. Do that, and the next day’s work goes surprisingly smoothly.

Basically a writer has a quiet, inner motivation, and doesn’t seek validation in the outwardly visible.

This statement really resonated with me because I think I look for a lot of validation from other people. I need to focus on my own drive more and less on what people think.

Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.

At this point I really start to wonder why, having flown all the way from Tokyo to this beautiful country, I have to run down this dreary commuter road. There must have been other things I could be doing. The body count for all these poor animals who lost their lives on Marathon Avenue is, n this day, three dogs and eleven cats. I count them all, which is kind of depressing.

This is in the context of Murakami running his first marathon. He few to Greece for some travel writing and decided to run from Athens to Marathon.

Nothing in the real world is as beautiful as the illusions of a person about to lose consciousness.

The special New England fall —short and lovely— fades in and out, and finally settles in. Little by little the deep, overwhelming green that surrounds us gives way to faint yellow. By the time I need to wear sweatpants over my running shorts, dead leaves are swirling in the wind and acorns are hitting the asphalt with a hard, dry crack. Industrious squirrels are running around like crazy trying to gather up enough provisions to last them through the winter.

Basically I agree with the view that writing novels is an unhealthy type of work. When we set off to write a novel, when we use writing to create a story, like it or not, a kind of toxin that lies deep down in all humanity rises to the surface. All writers have to come face-to-face with this toxin and, aware of the danger involved, discover a way to deal with it, because otherwise no creative activity in the real sense can take place.

I felt like a piece of beef being run, slowly, through a meat grinder.

In fact, all the site’s entries, while superficially chiding, can actually be divided into three very comforting categories:

1) Entries that don’t reflect your lifestyle choices (in my case: going nuts on St. Patrick’s Day, running marathons), and therefore make you feel superior.

2) Entries that do reflect your lifestyle choices (Apple products, recycling), and therefore make you feel like you’re in on the joke, and that you’re good-humored enough to laugh at yourself (you know–like Gene Simmons!), and therefore make you feel superior.

3) Entries that nod to commonly held comic stereotypes (white people like assists in basketball and standing still at concerts), and therefore, because you recognize them, make you feel superior.

But that sums up all the humor I dislike, so I guess I should get over myself.

The real point of this post is that I just listened to an NPR feature (oh no my whiteness is showing!) on the author. Link! Besides actually being intelligent in his summery of SWPL, Christian Lander points out how white people don’t like to be generalized, but that’s what they do to everyone else (around 4:50). SWPL and Lander are not making any leaps to making white people more accepting of privilege or race issues, but that did make me dislike SWPL a little less. I’m mostly impressed at how something so stupid can be defended in such an intelligent way.

Now I’m going to go off and enjoy some more stuff white people like (NPR, tea, and expensive sandwiches).

Image taken from Yahoo Movies

Mmmk. Hung out with my friend Chris for lunch and a movie. We went to Boom Noodle, which wasn’t that great, but hat a hot bar tender, and then we went to see Speed Racer. I’ve never been attached to the Speed Racer cartoon, probably since it was a little before my time, but I know the characters and basic idea. I went into this movie thinking it was going to be terrible because let’s face it, there’s not a whole lot behind Speed Racer. The first half of the movie was heavy on the plot, and the acting wasn’t that engaging so I got a little bored. BUT, the highlight of this movie is all the crazy CG, Mario Kart, acid trip race car driving. The last half of the movie is all crazy driving, and more dramatic plot, and much more fun. So I’d say the movie redeemed it’s self. Also, I wouldn’t recommend waiting to rent this, the whole point is seeing all the colors and bright lights huge.

My only complaint, and it’s something that applies to all action movies, is how black and white everything was. Tony Stark goes from being evil to being good, and he kills the bad guys, and there is no question as to weather or not they’re bad. The US military gets a lot of screen time, and is obviously on the good side, while crazy Arabs in caves are on the bad side. This movie did nothing to help people get over the Arab terrorist stereo type. However, it’s an action movie, that’s supposed to make money, and let’s face it, being super PC takes up a lot of time you could be blowing shit up. (and I hate myself for typing that.) I’m hoping in the sequels there’s some good vs. evil struggles.

I’m sure could gush about this movie even more, but my bus will be here soon and I still need to pack up.

Pitotubes are refillable travel bottles that use and airless pump to dispense your product. I’ve heard that high end cosmetic and personal care companies use these pumps because they help get all the product out. I first heard about these bottles back in 2006 in this CoolHunting.com post, “Cool” I though, but I’m not a jet setter so there is no need for me to have a set of travel bottles. Fast forward to now; I go to the gym three days a week, and I shower there. Dragging around an entire bottle of shampoo was getting out of hand, so I decided to find and buy the best leak proof product available, and I settled on Pitotubes. The bottles range in price from 5 to 10 dollars each, and you can get a set for 40-50. I don’t think that’s cheap, but I did my research and they came across as a quality product.

The bottles came, I filled them, and they worked great… for the first month. I’ll get into my Pitodrama after I hash out the basics of this product. So, I really don’t like the way these look. Maybe I’m conservative, but shampoo doesn’t need to look like it’s been flown in from the future. I do like how they work, as you pump out the whatever, the bottom of the bottle moves up with the liquid. I’m don’t like the pumps much because they really force the whatever out, which can result in a mess, and you can’t control the amount they pump out. This seems pretty excusable though, since all technology has it’s limitations.

Here’s what I really hate about Pitotubes: THEY BREAK. I started with six working bottles and three of them broke after about a month of regular, but not heavy, use. WTF?! I said and promptly emailed the company. I expect a travel bottle that costs 10 dollars to work for longer then two months. The back and forth I had with the rep was pleasant, and to her credit she really did cool off my bad mood and “fix” the situation. They sent replacements, and I sent back the broken bottles. The rep told me that it was bad luck and that they have a less then 2% return rate. Hmmm, well ok, as long as my overpriced, over-engineered hunk of plastic does it’s job. Which of course it didn’t. The new bottles are not starting to break.

I’m done with this company. They tried, I tried, and we obviously can’t come to an agreement on what a quality product is. I will not being trying to get my broken bottles replaced again and there is no way in hell I would think about buying any product from this company again.

Here are some alternatives to Pitotubes that I think I’ll try once the rest of the bottles crap out. (I haven’t tried any of these, but they don’t seem to have Pitotubes biggest failure, which is too many moving parts to break)

Silicon bottles by PKOH, a bit expensive, but how could a squeeze bottle break?
Nalgene set that I doubt is leak proof in air travel, but Nalgene does use some durable plastic.
Eagle Creek set I like that the bottle shape is a little less random then the Nalgene bottles.
PlasticTravelBottles.com not sure about the quality, but they certainly are cheap.