Walking Man

So, I've been walking this year.

A lot.

Earlier this year, I decided that my goal for this year would be to try and walk 2018 miles in 2018.

As of today, I'm on my fifth pair of shoes for the year, and I have just a little bit under 100 miles to go to reach that goal.

As of tomorrow - if I can get out and do my daily walk as planned - I will have walked twice as much this year as I have last year.  Including running two (official) half marathons, and walking several unofficial "What the heck, let's see fi we can do 13 miles today" hikes.

I don't want to walk nearly as much next year.  I'm happy that I set myself a hard goal, and very happy that I'm going to meet it... but walking 5+ miles every day gets old fast.  I do like to take a longer walk every now and then, but I think I will enjoy my time much more if I don't have to focus on mileage.

So I think my goal for 2019 will be to walk in 19 new cities.  That should actually be pretty easy - I think I've managed a good two dozen different locations outside of Pittsburgh proper this year, just looking for new places to wander.

When I first started walking last year, I was doing it for my health.  Now, I'm doing it because it's a habit, and because I enjoy visiting new places and taking pictures of interesting things along the way.  I've been posting my photographs on Facebook, but I've been experimenting with using Flickr instead these days.  If you'd like to take a look, you can find me there as Walking Samrobb.

Also True

Truth

Wow. Been a while.

Sorry for that.  I've had a bit of a lot going on lately, you see.

Some things that are going on...

• I've been walking.  Like, a lot.  Easier on these old knees than running.  My goal is 2018 miles in 2018, and I'm currently at 1846 miles.  On track to complete that.  Yay!
• Oh, well.  Walking is easier than running, but I've done some of that, too.  Two half marathons, in fact.  The first was - kind of - an accident (at least the running part); the second was to prove to myself that the first wasn't a fluke.  (Spoiler warning: it wasn't! :)
• I've been working as a moderator/admin on another web site.  Takes time.  Totally worth it.  We save lives, one person at a time.
• MY company got bought out.  By the Evil Empire, which these days, seems to be the Least Evil Empire.  Maybe even the Somewhat Cool For A Company That Age Empire.  Liking it a lot so far, at least.
• I've been working on loosing weight.  Approaching my goal of getting under 200 pounds for the first time in three decades or so.
• I've been writing.  Like, a lot.  Successfully completed NaNo this year.  In fact, I ended up writing the story before the story I wanted to write, so I've got 70k of Book 1 written and about 30k of Book 2 queued up and ready to go.

So, yeah.  A lot going on.  For various reasons, I'm starting to think that FaceBook ain't the place to be anymore, so I've been checking out MeWe and generally liking the more quiet nature of life over there.

Goals for next year are still pending.  One of them will be to publish something.  Actually, I've got three somethings in the works.  Let's see how many of them make the grade.

So, there you have it.  Hopefully some more writing snippets will be going up sometime in the near future. My first novel is going to be a tender, sensitive book about a young man coming of age on the streets of Pittsburgh as he questions his childhood relationships, his family's strictures, and his place in society as a whole.

... nah, just kidding.  It's about graffiti writers who kick the living snot out of creatures from Faerie that try to screw around with their city.  Because if there's one thing that Pittsburghers hate more than Browns fans, it's eldritch horrors from beyond that make it hard to go shopping in the Strip.

No Shave November

You know, I'm not really much of a "do this for the cause" sort of guy. Probably why I'm generally a libertarian. So I've never been one for "No Shave November", just because I'm usually growing a beard anyways, because winter.

On the other hand, I've just found out that - according to some feminists - men growing a beard to raise awareness for prostate cancer is "problematic". Because patriarchy, or something.

Which pretty much means I'm going to grow a beard every November out of spite. Because while I might not do it for a cause, I will DAMN sure do it if someone looks down their nose at me, sniffs, and tells me that I shouldn't do it.