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  • Orange You Glad

    It’s always nice to achieve long-term goals.

    In March, I ran a half-marathon in Washington, D.C., in a time of 1:49:45. That was 15 seconds better than my goal, and I was happy.

    I planned to focus on shorter distances for the summer, try to set a new 5K personal best, and see if I could make a run at a 1:45 half-marathon in November.

    The 5K record fell in my first attempt in June, followed by a blazing new 4-miler record in July.

    I woke up on Sunday in rainy, windy Raleigh thinking I might be able to get close to 1:45, but would at least beat my time from March. I ran with my sister-in-law, Bethany, for the first seven miles (we had the same goal time). Through 7, we were about 25 seconds behind that pace.

    As the rain fell even harder, I broke away, finishing with miles of 7:46, 7:44, 7:51, 7:42, 7:18(!) and 7:40. Add that all up (plus the 34 seconds to cover the final .1 miles) and I came in at 1:43:08.

    Needless to say, I was pretty happy with that outcome as evidenced by one of the photos here. Note that I look somewhat miserable during the others, and one is clearly not me.

    Of course I need to give credit where it’s due — to my awesome orange shoes. So far this year they have been on my feet for four races, all of which were new personal records.

    Next up, a Turkey Trot 5K on November 21. Can the orange shoes go 5-for-5 in 2009?

    November 5, 2009 running shoes Uncategorized

  • The Smell of Cheap Living

    Before the meal was finished cooking, it was the smell that took me to another place.

    I didn’t have to taste it. That smell is so distinct it has a permanent place in my memory.

    All of a sudden I was taken from my kitchen in Virginia back to the tiny thing in our Maryland apartment that fit the loose definition of a kitchen. I’m still not sure how more than one of us stood in there at the same time.

    The trip back to College Park was made possible by the meal that quite literally got me through grad school — hot dogs. Or more specifically, Bar S hot dogs.


    The absolute cheapest hot dogs you can buy

    I’m not sure I want to know how many of those things I ate during my time at the University of Maryland. I was working two part time jobs and subsisting on a steady diet of peanut butter & jelly, pasta and Bar S.

    The hot dogs — at 10 for 99 cents — were such a staple that I didn’t even write them on my grocery lists. I automatically picked up two packs of hot dogs and two packs of buns. I’d say I easily went through at least a pack a week between lunches and dinners (and snacks).

    Since I lived there for a year, that would work out to eating more than 500 of them.

    I was at Giant last week and actually had hot dogs on my list. Since none of the quality brands were on sale, I thought I’d take get nostalgic with a nice pack of Bar S (which now come in packs of 8 and cost more like $1.50).

    It only took about 20 seconds in the microwave for that very distinct smell to come wafting through the kitchen. I’m sure my roommates at Maryland, Jon and Jason, would immediately recognize it as well.

    Though they’ll probably live much longer lives having not ingested so many of the “quality” products. I think I will give Bar S some more time before trying them again. Nostalgia needs a break.

    November 2, 2009 food hot dogs Uncategorized

  • Five Friday Thoughts

    I have a post I’ve been meaning to write all week but definitely didn’t get around to. Look for it Monday.

    In the meantime, here are Five Friday Thoughts:

    1. If you buy a product that has a “patent pending” label, they should send you some sort of notice if the patent is approved or rejected.

    2. If every auto insurance company can save you hundreds of dollars by switching to their service, why don’t they all just lower their prices by hundreds of dollars and stop wasting the ad money.

    3. DVRs should have an option to add your own labels or notes to your recorded shows so you can let others in your house know you haven’t watched that one yet and they shouldn’t delete it.

    4. Jay-Z, because you keep asking in your song “Run This Town”, nothing’s up with me. Sup with you?

    5. Twitter should follow Google’s lead and do special features for holidays by creating trending Tweet lists for historical events. Wouldn’t it be entertaining to see how the Boston Tea Party, Moon Landing, Nixon’s resignation or Elvis’ death would have trended?

    October 30, 2009 Uncategorized

  • Up in Flames

    “It was a pleasure to burn.”

    That’s the opening line to Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” describing the feeling of systematically destroying the world’s hidden caches of books.

    I wonder how our society would respond to a governmental anti-book policy. Sure, there are lots of us who love to read and consider books an important part of our lives. But what about those who could really care less?

    If Major League Soccer folded tomorrow, I honestly wouldn’t think twice about it while die-hard U.S. soccer fans might be devastated. The same goes for coffee — I don’t drink it, so I really wouldn’t care.

    Bradbury paints a world where leaders are scared by an informed public and sees banning books as an integral part of its control:

    “If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war.”

    It is a world of dulled senses and stilted emotions, one marked by living room walls made up of giant television screens assuring everyone that everything is OK.

    But like Winston in George Orwell’s “1984,” not everyone is content to buy into the system. Some people still think, still read those banned books even though they risk being caught and facing a fiery penalty.

    If you enjoyed “1984” you’d absolutely get into this book. In a post-story interview in my edition, Bradbury explains the difference as Orwell tackling the implications of governmental control while he deals with the societal fallout.

    The “bonus material” also adds a great tidbit about Bradbury renting time on a typewriter in the UCLA library in order to write the book. He says it cost 10 cents for a half hour, leading him to write the book at a furious pace — half of it (25,000 words) in nine days.

    Despite the novel’s themes of having to fight attacks against intellectualism and personal voice, Bradbury weaves in moments of individual triumph. He portrays humans as having a hopeful spirit, one that perseveres through obstacles that will eventually ensure their own failure.

    He writes: “It doesn’t matter what you do…so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching. The lawn cutter might just as well have not been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”

    Here’s to hoping people never lose the desire to create and share and think.

    October 23, 2009 books Uncategorized

  • If You Say So, Netflix

    Netflix is my friend.

    At least, it’s trying to get to know me and give advice to improve my life.

    That’s what led to today’s recommendation — The Crow — which Netflix served up to me in a category called “Visually-striking independent films.” How very specific of them. Of course they had to base that recommendation on something, and in this case it was my high rating of Rachel Getting Married and Slumdog Millionaire.

    I would make more fun of them trying to guess what I would like, but they happen to be right a lot of the time. Even when it comes to movies they don’t think I’d care for, they have those ranked appropriately.

    Take for example the list of movies released in the last month. Netflix says I would give 5 stars to 30 Rock: Season 3, 4.25 stars to both Man vs. Food: Season 1 and Waltz With Bashir. I can confirm that I thoroughly enjoy the first two, and I’m pretty sure I’d like the third.

    But the system isn’t perfect. It puts Best of SNL: Amy Poehler (3.25) far too close to The World According to Miley Cyrus (2.75). Barney Fun on Wheels (2) isn’t all that far behind, though Netflix is correct that I’d be much more likely to watch a singing Miley than a singing purple dinosaur at this stage of my life.

    It even gives a suggested rating for movies that haven’t even hit theaters yet. I’m happy to report Netflix thinks I would really enjoy Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day. Considering that learning of this movie’s existence was the highlight of that particular day, I’d agree.

    October 21, 2009 movies Netflix Uncategorized

  • You May Ask Yourself, “How Did I Get Here?”

    I want you to know, I’m happy you’re here.

    How you got here isn’t important, but know that your path could have been pretty entertaining for me. Especially those of you who were just looking for information about pumas.

    Some people follow the blog and see every post that way. Others got here from a link on my Facebook page, while some more may have been referred by a friend.

    I could say I’m some kind of psychic so in tune with my content that I’m able to figure all of that out on my own. But my friend technology gives me a hand with some stats about readers.

    That’s how I know about the pumas.

    Another popular way people end up here is through a Web search, usually Google. When this happens, I can see the search terms that brought them here. There’s nothing funnier than seeing that someone visited your blog after Googling the phrase “amazing true facts on pumas.”

    My new favorite, “how often should you wear sweatpants.” The blog related to sweatpants doesn’t directly answer that pressing question, but wear them as often as feels right.

    Of course the first thing I do when I see one of those search terms that landed someone at cjhannas.blogspot.com is to Google the string myself. I like to see what their other options were for obtaining the information. Out of 344,000 results for the sweatpants query, In Defense of Sweatpants is the eighth link — just behind a blog by Anderson Cooper.

    Somehow I don’t see Anderson as a sweats guy. Maybe Google should rework the algorithm.

    October 19, 2009 blog stats Uncategorized

  • An Admirable Effort

    In August I wrote about a JetBlue offer where a mere $599 could buy you all the flights you want for a month. I hoped that with all of the nation’s unemployment woes, someone would seize the opportunity to fly to all of JetBlue’s 56 destinations.

    Well, it doesn’t look like anyone did. The promotion ended last week, but this Associated Press article does detail the efforts of two guys who at least got some fun out of the deal.

    They hit 30 cities in the span of 31 days, covering more than 50,000 miles, according to the article. One thing that may not have occurred to them–and I wouldn’t have thought of–the time they spent at hub airports like New York’s JFK.

    You can see their itinerary at their Web site, which also details their goal of spending no more than 12 hours on the ground before boarding another flight.

    With the number of flights available to and from major cities, there are a few curious entries in their plans. I do applaud their effort on September 23, when they flew from Tampa to New York in the morning, caught a lunchtime flight to Boston and capped it off with an evening jaunt to San Diego. I’ll even ignore that they wrote “San Diega” on the site.

    I think from looking at their list that there was some sort of aversion to using connecting flights. In fact, it seems like they took a lot of evening flights to New York just so they could take a non-stop morning flight to somewhere new. That’s how they spent the last nine days of the trip –San Jose to NYC, NYC to Raleigh, Raleigh to NYC, NYC to Phoenix, Phoenix to NYC, NYC to Denver, Denver to NYC, NYC to Portland, Portland to NYC, NYC to Rochester, Rochester to NYC, NYC to Las Vegas, Las Vegas to NYC.

    Having not taken the opportunity to try this out myself, I can’t say for sure there was a better way. Maybe next time JetBlue offers such a deal someone will make a better run at all 56 destinations.

    But of course that brings up another question–what did they do with all of their time in the JetBlue terminal at JFK? They took at least one flight from JFK on 22 out of the 31 days, including 29 total flights. Did they make friends with the gate employees? Is there a good sandwich shop nearby? By the end were they acting like snooty JetBlue regulars, or were they completely sick of looking at the back of a JetBlue seat?

    So many pressing questions.

    October 12, 2009 Uncategorized

  • Peace Out

    U.S. President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Friday, becoming the 97th individual to receive the honor according to the Nobel Web site.

    The announcement coincided with 98 percent of Americans suddenly deciding they cared about the Nobel Peace Prize.

    OK, I don’t have any data to back up that second sentence, but from the looks of people’s postings on Facebook this morning the number can’t be that far off. The real question is why the new found interest in a prize that has been awarded since 1901?

    I understand that some people may question Obama’s laureate status given that he has been in office for less than a year (and ballots were due barely two weeks after he took office). On the other side, there is the fact that Obama has been pushing for many of the efforts cited by the Nobel committee long before ascending to the presidency.

    But none of that is really the issue today. What I’m curious about is the outrage.

    If you’re angry about the award, take a second and think back to who was given the Peace Prize last year. In fact, take another minute since I need to look this up…OK. Ready for the answer? Martti Ahtisaari of Finland.

    Here’s another test of your commitment to honoring the legacy and preserving the intergrity of the Nobel Peace Prize–name five laureates. Ever. If you’re reading this, there’s a solid chance you’re at least 25 years old. So that would be only a fifth of the winners in your lifetime, or you can select some of the slam-dunk names from before we were born to make things easier.

    I’d be willing to bet you can nail five Oscar winners for Best Actor a lot faster, and would probably agree that their work is slightly less important on a global scale.

    Give up? Here’s a list of every Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

    It’s OK to think an event or idea is odd, and want to seek out more information. It’s OK to talk about it and have a civil discourse. But expressing outrage at something that has never ever meant the slightest thing to you just makes it look like you wake up every morning with a plan to find something to complain about, and then do it very loudly.

    So congratulations, Mr. President. Now let’s all take a deep breath, take a step back, and move forward together to find solutions to some of those major problems affecting our world.

    October 9, 2009 Uncategorized

  • No Prize for Me

    So it looks like it’s another year without a Nobel Prize for me.

    I mean, there are still a few yet to be announced but I really thought the prize in physics was my best shot. I guess there’s always next year.

    I wonder though, do Nobel winners put Nobel Laureate on their resume? Or is that the kind of thing that makes your resume obsolete?

    Maybe I should focus on winning an Ig Nobel, which may not be as prestigious but certainly seems like more fun. Plus I think you could put “Ig Nobel Winner” on your resume and people who have no idea what that is will assume you’ve won the Nobel Prize.

    If you’re unfamiliar, the Ig Nobels “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology” according to the sponsor’s Web site.

    The ceremony is held at Harvard, and includes fun customs like encouraging the audience to throw paper airplanes at the stage. The organizers are also able to get real Nobel winners to help present the prizes.

    This year the mainstream media focused on the Public Health Prize winner, who created a bra that be separated into two pieces that then become protective face masks. Yes, that is an interesting invention, but it’s not the best part of this year’s Igs. That honor should go to the guy who wanted to know if cracking your knuckles really leads to arthritis. In order to test the hypothesis, he cracked the knuckles on only his left hand…for 60 years. That’s how you get the Ig Nobel in Medicine.

    The spirit of the awards is great, since all of the honorees are really pursuing these ideas as serious science. They show up and graciously accept the awards, joining everyone else in not taking themselves too seriously. Take the Peace Prize winners, who investigated whether an empty or full beer bottle causes more damage when thrown at someone’s head.

    For a full list of this year’s honorees, go here.

    October 6, 2009 Uncategorized

  • In Defense of Sweatpants

    If you read a lot, you’ll undoubtedly come across sentences with which you disagree and even some that make you downright angry.

    But it takes a truly outlandish idea to make you fume over an article, and a particularly needling writer to open that article with a perfectly offensive sentence.

    From this week’s issue of Newsweek, I present the following: “There is nothing wrong with a man owning a pair of sweatpants, but there is something very wrong with a man wearing them in public.”

    I almost don’t know where to begin disagreeing with that sentence, but I’ll try.

    First, every man should own sweatpants (or something equally casual, possibly made of nylon). The writer’s problem with those pants being worn in public goes against a lot of what we should be aspiring towards as a culture.

    When I’m hungry and want to go to Taco Bell, I shouldn’t feel compelled to take a shower, slather on cologne and don a three-piece Armani suit. I’m going to flipping Taco Bell. The signs on the door say “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service.” My only responsibility is to fulfill the basic requirements–wearing some form of shirt and shoes.

    If Taco Bell doesn’t even mention pants on their sign of basic customer clothing, why should it matter what sort of pants I am wearing? I mean, sweatpants are delightfully comfortable. Shouldn’t we live in a world where people can be comfortable?

    How often do you see someone who is clearly trying too hard to impress with their dress? How often do we embrace fictional characters who eschew societal norms and succeed by “being themselves”? If you are a sweatpants person, who’s to say you should have to conform to what other people want to see in public? When you’re considering going outside, your thought should not be about dressing a certain way just so everyone else will have “nice” things to look at.

    If you want to see someone dressed to the nines, do it yourself and look in the mirror. There’s no need to push your visions of fashion perfection on someone who wants to be comfortable and doesn’t feel the need to try to impress you.

    During the summer months it seems perfectly acceptable for people to wear all types of shorts. So why should taking the same basic concept and adapting it for colder weather be any different? Not to mention the obvious double standard explicit in the article’s lead sentence–that men should not wear sweats in public. How would it be more acceptable for women to wear sweats? Aren’t females typically considered to be held to a higher fashion standard than men?

    Then again, I welcome and encourage everyone to wear sweats–I’m all for equal-opportunity comfort. The bottom line, sweats are sweet.

    September 30, 2009 fashion Taco Bell Uncategorized
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