9.8 Miles!

Holy cow, Bonnie and I ran 9.8 miles this morning! That's the longest run I've ever done in my life. We thought we'd pushed 9 or a little more, got home and checked on the Gmaps Pedometer and I think we were both quite surprised at the result.

So, my motivation right now—besides just the general need to stay healthy—is Lake Tahoe. We're going next summer with Bonnie's family, and I'd love to look good enough to not feel self-conscious taking off my shirt to play in the water. I haven't felt that for... well, I've never felt that :)

Anyway, what works for you to keep you motivated? What do you enjoy doing to stay healthy?

Is Firefox Going Too Far?

So, I've been hoping HTML 5 would finally see the light of day, after how many years waiting. And I've been pleased with the support Safari's had from I believe version 3 on. Well, I thought it seemed a little funny and curious when I saw an unexpected message after updating to Firefox 3.5.2 the other day. On the "What's New" page (found here), it said that "Firefox 3.5 is the first browser to support open video formats, allowing movies to become part of today’s dynamic web pages without requiring a plug-in."

Now I'm not going to argue the point about "open video", still looking into what that is exactly. However, I am going to argue that Safari has had non-plugin-requiring video for quite some time. I didn't know exactly when that occurred, so I started searching. The first reference I found is from the WebKit site, HTML5 Media Support. This was from 12 November, 2007. That's a ways back, and at this point, support of the video tag was already in the nightly builds. Then I found a post from streaming video site about how Safari was the first to support the new HTML 5 media tags, called Apple's Latest Safari Browser First To Support New Video And Audio Tags In HTML 5. This one comes from 4 April, 2008.

So I have to ask, is it just me, or does this seem quite presumptuous of Firefox to act as if they're the first to provide video content sans plugin? Am I just reading this too wrong, and the focus of their statement is really supposed to be about "open video", because it's not really the impression I get.

In either case, I am grateful that HTML 5's future can be helped by support in a much larger market share browser such as Firefox over that of Safari. I look forward to the future of media in HTML.

Looking for responses here, from the zero people who read my posts who even care about this discussion :)

Wicked!

Wow, just listened to it again last night... I'm getting very excited to see it again, only 7 weeks to go! Some wonder what the fuss is about with this retelling of an old classic. Well, I'm here to tell you, it's not just hype. This show is all about substance.

Let's take the subject matter, to start with. While on the surface it seems to be a show about righting the story we all know and love from the Wicked Witch of the West's point of view, deeper listening shows us it's actually about much more. Such topics as: accepting people for who they are; learning from everyone, no matter their race, political views, status; asking whether we make people who they are by how we treat them; social and political oppression; right and wrong, and how our personal point of view is just that, not necessarily the truth.

One of the things that I find so entertaining about the show is the well-put-together lyrics. And it's funny, because when I first heard the show, some of that bothered me. But as I listened more, I caught more of the double-entendres and how witty the dialog and monologue often is.

A couple examples. The first is early in the show in the song The Wizard and I, sung by Elphaba. She sings about how she sees a vision of the future. In this vision she sees all of Oz celebrating because of her. Little does she know, that celebration is not because people love her, but quite the opposite. She continues in the song with such statements as, "I'd be so happy I could melt," a clear reference to The Wizard of Oz movie. Another line I love which shows Stephen Schwartz' brilliant writing is in Popular, maybe the most accessible of all the songs in the show. The song is all about how Glinda is helping Elphaba learn to become popular. In the song Glinda sings:

And with an assist from me, to be who you'll be, 

Instead of dreary who you were... well, are. 

There's nothing that can stop you,

From becoming popu-ler... -lar

Brilliant! Mixing familiar pronunciation of the word 'popular' (pop-yoo-ler instead of pop-yoo-lar) with the actual content of the show, and making it work... not every writer can do that.

I think one reason I love the show so much is because I know the story behind it, having read the book, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. I don't read a ton of novels, but this is one I've read twice. While I can't recommend it to everyone, due to some downright naughty parts, I do recommend it to any adult who is particularly interested in the show, and can look past the language and content in some parts. Don't get me wrong, the whole book isn't like that, but there are parts that are inappropriate, especially for young audiences.

Anyway, I love that Gregory Maguire created a completely alternative understanding of the classic story. It doesn't feel cliché, yet treats the whole story and adds twists we wouldn't expect too. Then, on top of that, the musical takes it a step further and adds additional tie-ins to bring the book and the movie even closer. Probably one of the funniest lines from the musical is when Boq, a Munchkin, brings a drink to Nessa, Elphaba's sister, while at a party. She asks what's in it, and he replies, "Lemons and melons and pears." "Oh my," Nessa exclaims! I don't want to give away too much, but the ruby slippers are dealt with too. Does anyone else find it odd that the iconic ruby slippers aren't ruby in the original 1900 novel? My guess is that because the movie was a landmark in color pictures, they wanted to spice it up. Any other ideas?

I love this show. The music, I haven't even mentioned. It is truly wonderful. Melodic, fun, fantastic chords, intense, intriguing, recurring themes. It's truly a musical for the ages, and is appropriate for all of them too :)

Only 49 days to go! If you couldn't tell I'm looking forward to it.