Running fast, flat out, is the best feeling on earth.

When I run my legs are big pistons driving my feet against the ground. My heart sticks up into my throat and beats against my chest. My face drips sweat and my nose burns. Sometimes I think if could get just a little more speed, lift myself just a little higher off the ground, I’d up and fly. I know it.

All the other kids bring their bikes out to Richards Field. It’s not that I don’t have one, I do. I’d rather run. Last summer Nate learned from his brother how to put a baseball card in the wheel. Now everyone’s done it. You tie it right across the fork and it sort’ve pops till you’re going fast. Then it hums, like you’re riding a motorcycle.

The field is two blocks over from my house. It’s a real airfield, or at least it used to be, back before there were jets and all. Just one big flat grassy field where planes would land. No control tower or even a radio. There wasn’t so many planes back then, so nobody must have minded much.

There’s even a pole for where the windsock used to be. It’s lying right out in the middle of the field, split in two. If you roll it just right, there’s all kinds of bugs and worms underneath. But that’s Richards field, all bugs and grass and hitchhikers that stick into your socks and hair. They’ll itch if they don’t hurt. Spiders too.

You can find things in Richard’s Field. Old rusted bolts and bits of metal. Nothing big, just little things from the planes. Maybe a lock-nut, or a retaining screw, or some of piece of bailing wire. I’ll pick them up sometimes and wonder where they’ve been.

When I’m running out in Richards Field and no one is around, sometimes I’ll start humming, real loud-like. Maybe it’s not that I’m running too slow, maybe it’s the sound. Maybe that’s why I’m not flying. Sure, I’ve got plenty of baseball cards. I do. But when I’m running, there is nothing to attach them to.

My roommate, Sarah, and I woke up early this morning to whip up some cool, Strawberry-Banana goodness.

Tomorrow we’re trying coffee-bacon-toast delight.

My roommate Dean created this video about some peculiarities in our store bought eggs:

Watch the Video

Now I’m not sure what these guy’s are doing with their chickens, but frankly the result is a little freaky. With a name like “Lally Farms,” I think anyone would be suspicious.

I made some tacos tonight (eggs, grated carrot and some sliced red pepper on top) and was greeted to the doubly-yolked surprise. Though honestly, the surprise has worn off since this has been going on for weeks with multiple cartons of eggs. Now it’s just foreboding.

+Update: Checkout this blog entry from Notes on an Eclectic Mind about what double yolks may signify.+

I got my first harvest from the community garden today. Truthfully I’ve been eating cherry tomatoes off the vine for the past two weeks but this zuchini was my first take-home meal.

Only half the zuchini ever made it into a hot saucepan with a little extra virgin olive oil; I just kept munching away raw it was so good. Sliced moderately thin, the zuchini quickly seared and I threw some corn tortillas on top to soften. Then, before the zuchini lost its crunch, I dropped it out onto the tortillas with a bit of kosher salt and just a hint of black pepper. A touch of cheddar cheese on top and a balsamic-spinach salad with some fresh sliced red pepper made it a meal.

Delicious.

I took a cruise out past the Harbor Islands today. U.Mass Boston runs a ship every Tuesday that’s free for students and staff, $5 for everyone else except VISTAs, who with proper haggling, can ride for free.

Today was overcast but everyone was in good spirits. So though we had only mediocre views of the islands, the Captain was very forthright with information about them. Two islands I found particularly interesting:

Long Island: Missile silos were placed here during the Cold War to protect the Eastern seaboard. The missiles have long since been removed and the silos left empty, except for one. Today, a missile silo on Long Island is filled with thousands upon thousands of school textbooks. What they’re for, the Captain didn’t say.

Gallops Island: Named for Harbor Pilot John Gallop, this island was farmed for much of the 18th and 19th century. When family and friends came to visit from off-island, they would bring with them rabbits for the children. These rabbits, doing what rabbits do, multiplied, and today the island is overrun by longtails. I suspect that they rabbits were actually brought to be eaten rather than as gifts but perhaps the Captain was giving us the G-rated tour.

The photo above is Boston Harbor’s outer berth just south of Deer Island. Ships will offload a portion of their cargo here for a shallower draft. This enables the ship to enter Boston Harbor at anytime, as opposed to waiting until high tide.

For tourist info on the Boston Harbor Islands visit the Visitor’s Guide and for more nutty info read this article.

The wind blew off the North Sea with a chill and the beach stones were flat, dark and round.

The Dutch holidayers on the beach were in sharp contrast to those whom we had ridden out with on the morning train, yet immutabily they were the same. The quiet politeness with which they interacted in the cramped cars had been replaced with open smiles and shouts on the brisk and windswept sand. Shirts and pants had disappeared, replaced by bathing suits and wide sunhats that could only have been carried in the close confines of the train.

Lisa and I walked side by side down the beach; jeans rolled up and socks balled into the shoes held in our hands. Lisa’s jacket flapped back and forth against her side; water raced forward and sucked back into itself. A man and woman emerged, dripping and naked; his pubic hair glistened the same as the water on her breasts. Couples, we smiled to eachother as we passed.

Above, the sun shone weakly in a pale sky. Soft rays cut through the darkness beneath the clouds rolling in from the sea. Shadow and light alternated across the sand, swooping across roped-off deck chairs and the long tents with their own colorful stripes. Beyond, light and shadow flowed up the dunes and over, out of sight.

It’s July 4th, 2006 and boats are huddled in the late afternoon on the Charles River in anticipation of Boston’s Independence Day fireworks display.

Any relation to persons, places, things or actions are purely coincidental. Get over yourself.

Island94.org has undergone some revision today; I hope you noticed. I upgraded Drupal to 4.7 and rethemed the site.

Drupal 4.7 adds a lot of really great features, the main one, from a ‘nifty’ perspective is free tagging. This gives a lot more granularity to organizing posts. There is also a lot of nice stuff under the hood. I had been a little lax in upgrading my old Drupal install, so the upgrade also fixes a couple of security issues as well.

The theme is a major change from the old design. I had really liked the woodcut motif that I grabbed from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi but it was starting to show its age. Also, looking under the hood I was always reminded of my own inexperience at the time I put it together.

With the new theme I had a couple of things in mind:

First off, I really wanted to better separate posts of a personal nature, from that of a professional or fictional nature. I’m fairly prodigious in creating media, it’s mostly a matter of audience. I don’t want some boss reading a slasher tale thinking I’m a psychopath, or my mom reading halfway through some technical post to realize she doesn’t care. I’m really excited about the hats theme, not only are they simply beautiful, but they help to quickly convey what overall category the post falls into.

Secondly, Drupal’s the standard interface is beautiful and intuitive, but when a couple thousand websites start using it, it has become a little rusty. Much of my time in designing Drupal sites is making sure it doesn’t look like Drupal.

Lastly, I really wanted to fool around with some soft gradients and big bubbly icons. I’ve been pulling from the Open Clip Art Library for the most part and using Inkscape and Gimpshop for editing.

I hope that my new theme is both easy to use and beautiful. At the moment, I’ve pretty much given up on Internet Explorer compatibility. Maybe something to do later, but frankly, I am a little tired of dealing with its nonstandard quirks.

I started work on the design yesterday morning using Luka Cvrk’s Small Studio as a base, and considering I didn’t get a vacation day today (it is Monday, July 3rd), I am happy with the result. I hope you are as well.