Required:  One laptop bag strap or other flex-mesh, wide strap.  Also:  Extreme caution.

Seeking a longer term stretching than 3X30 seconds, but perhaps at a lower intensity.  Configure the strap like an old book strap - place the loop under your heel and knee, set the strap in the back of the knee and the other end around the ball of the foot. 

Tighten the loop until the strap stays in place - maybe this won't work for skinny people - and tighten until the ankle flexes and the ball of the foot is pulled back toward the knee.  Excess strap end can be used to crank this down a bit for more stretch but should not be done for long.   I have the excess end coming off mid-calf height, i pass it around the other side of the strap and under so friction will hold it.

Will be test driving the low intensity stretch with attention to any abrasion or circulation problems being prevented.

"He is doomed to go on doctoring his omelette."

The Philly Geek Awards have been running for four years now. This is the third time I've attended.

The Awards were co-founded by Tim Quirino, a former coworker of mine at P'unk Avenue. He's since gamboled off to design things at Facebook.

I have to say, they do an outstanding job seeking out nominees from outside the average white male Philly programmer's bubble.

Every year I come home with a program full of stuff I need to check out immediately:

Jason Richardson and the Black Tribbles, origaminc's These French Fries Are Terrible Hot Dogs, Jason Osder's MOVE documentary Let the Fire Burn, and Kid Kazo's Philly street art are all high on my list.

Of course I've been enjoying Kazo's work for years without knowing whose it was. One of the perks of living in the city.

Kyle Cassidy, with whom many of you are familiar, was nominated in the photography category this year after serving memorably as a presenter. He was nominated for his famous photographs of librarians. Which are the centerpiece of a touring exhibition narrated by Neil Gaiman. And he didn't win. Whaaaaat!

Well... since P'unk Avenue is twice nominated and never a bride in the website category, I can relate.

And did I mention the Geek Awards are held at the Academy of Natural Sciences? Where they roll out the red carpet and let you hang with the tortoise? On said carpet?

Without question, one of the sweetest things that happens in Philly any given year. If you live in town, make a point of snagging tickets next time.

Today we canoed on the Grand- it turned out that the 2-hour 10km trip was just the perfect length for today (putting in just upstream from Victoria Street). We saw loons, and blue herons, a pair of eagles or hawks, an osprey, some kind of aquatic mammal that might have been an otter... it was serene and wonderful.

I am feeling grateful for this river, right here all this time under my nose and under my wheels. And I do look forward to developing a closer acquaintance.

As performed by my feet.

This song is inaudible to the universe at large, it plays only in my head in the illusory body I experience there.

The song is the song of Plantar Fasciitis.

It's a terrible song, I don't recommend it.

I have periodic insomnia.  About once a month, sleep will not come.  My brain is not racing.  Physical ailments are minimal and don’t usually keep me awake.  Sometimes, it happens before a calm day and I can sleep it off with no problems except the glare from the wife for sleeping the day away.  Other times, it’s pure hell going through a day on an hour or two of sleep.  Today is one of those days.

Today's canoe ride on the Grand was the perfect length: including a little detour to the one side with a little lake and a beaver dam, we spent 2.5 hours kayaking from Breslau to Freeport.  It did rain on us at the end of the trip, but only a mild amount.

We'd originally scheduled the 4-hr trip (which starts 10 km further up the river); I think that would have been a feasible length if we'd been able to stop and enjoy a picnic, but in this weather, it wouldn't have worked.

I can't believe I've lived in K/W for 13 years and never done this.  It's only $60, including taxes, for two people.

The closest we can ever get to someone is before we've been born.

Everything after that is kind of a letdown, at least from a physical contact perspective. 

I hear it's playing soon in Philly.  I'd love to go see it. I've seen the movie version with Malkovich as Tom and Karen Allen as Laura.

I doubt the special effects will be as good.