Amy’s making me watch March of the Penguins.  So far, it’s been about these totally bizarre looking birds that can’t fly and have chosen to live in the Antarctic.  It’s cold, windy, dark, cold, cold, dark, cold, and windy.  There’s lots of walking to the same place to get food – oh – it’s 70 miles away, they don’t have cars, and they don’t walk especially well.  There’s been a short romantic section that’s cute, followed by more cold, eventually some eggs, which occasionally break when they are transferred from mom to dad (since mom has to go get food again – yes – 70 miles away).  Eventually the eggs hatch and the babies are born, but the mom’s are away getting food (and some of them are getting eaten by seals.)  Did I say that it’s cold? The moms get back minutes before the babies starve, feed them, but then send the starving dads away to go get food (yup – 70 miles away.)  Oh – some of the babies freeze to death (it’s cold), the mom’s get devastated (especially since they have to tell the dad, assuming the dad survives the seals), and try to kidnap other babies (unsuccessfully.)  Seagulls make a special guest appearance and eat some of the babies.  Over the next few months, the moms and dads keep alternating going to the grocery store (70 miles away) to get food, although the grocery store (the ocean) gets closer as winter draws to a close and the ice melts.  Once summer arrives (in November!) and the babies turn into teenagers, the parents get divorced and the cycle begins again.

Morgan Freeman is magnificent as the narrator.  Lots of death.  Some happiness.  Beautiful photos.  And – according to Amy, “the babies are really cute.”

What happens when you cross Jack Bauer with Google Maps?  While I doubt this had anything to do with Google’s stock movements on today and last Friday, you never know.  Thanks Derek.

I have a rule about what I can eat the week before a marathon.  It’s a simple rule – I can eat anything I want, and as much of it as I feel like, as long as it is primarily carbohydrates and protein.  Today’s lunch (and yesterday’s lunch) was at Jerry’s Deli in South Beach.

Matzo Brie and Kasha Varniska.  That feels somehow fitting for a high carbo/protein meal in South Beach.

Jenny Lawton pointed me to ASCII Star Wars.  If you are a Star Wars fan, this is mindblowing.

If you are into 24, Slate has an excellent interview with Michael Loceff – one of the key writers for the show.  Thanks Rick.

As part of my running habit, I typically run on a treadmill in the winter when I travel to a cold city (it’s just a lot easier than schlepping warm clothes around and finding my way around a strange city in the dark.)  I woke up in Chicago today, headed downstairs to the “fitness room”, and spent some time on the treadmill.  Usually I’d watch a movie or MTV, but neither was happening on the TV attached to the treadmill so I ended up being stuck with CNBC.  Closed captioning was on because of the little sign on the TV that said “get headphones from the front desk” which was five floors below me and I was already a minute into my run when I figured out that a headset wasn’t going to magically appear (I guess I wasn’t the first person to be perplexed that there were no headphones easily available.)

CNBC was a comedy show this morning.  I never watch Squawk Box (or CNBC for that matter).  Joe Kernen – the anchor – could give Jon Stewart a run for his money.  When setting up his interview with the CFO of Xilinx who’s stock was trading down 5% after their earnings release yesterday, Joe said something like “Xilinx makes field programmable gatorade.  If you want green, you can have green flavored.  If you want orange, you can have orange flavored.  I have no idea what a field programmable gate array is – I just like saying it.”

Later in the show, after Becky Quick interviewed a smiling talking head about the a lawsuit filed by The Center for Science in the Public Interest against Kellogg and Viacom about junk food advertising aimed at kids, Joe once again went on a rant saying “but – I don’t want to tell my kid no when he asks for those fatty french fries – because I want a fish filet sandwich.  Where are the pop tarts – give me a pop tart.”

To top it off, I think the person transcribing the closed captioning must not have spoken very good English (or didn’t know how to type, or was stoned) – the text streaming across my screen (i.e. “Moto rollover” for our friendly neighborhood Chicago-based cell phone manufacturer) was more fun than my morning Suduko puzzle.

My current favorite 24 gossip site has an awesome description of Jack Bauer’s terrorist destroying Treo 650.  This is no ordinary Treo – not only does it blow up terrorists, it also takes really awesome photos (much better than any Treo I’ve ever seen.)  I’m guessing this is the new model, the Treo 650KA (“kick ass”).

USA Today has a great profile up of Ben Casnocha.  Having known Ben for a couple of years, it’s an accurate (and inspiring) profile of him rather than an overreaching ego puff piece.  If you don’t know Ben, he’s a remarkable young man who writes prolifically on his blog about his thoughts, life, ideas and experiences and a teenager, entrepreneur, and thinker.

I was first introduced to Ben by Greg Prow.  Greg pulled me aside one day and said “hey Brad – you’ve got to meet this kid – he makes me think of what I bet you were like as a teenager.”  I responded that I hoped this wasn’t true for Ben’s parents’ sake, but that I’d be happy to get together with him.  We had our first meeting a month or so later – which was a presentation on Comcate (Ben’s company). 

While I wasn’t motivated to pull out my checkbook and fund Comcate, I started a dialogue with Ben that has evolved into a really nice friendship.  I look forward to knowing him for a long time.

Apparently, yes.