Just wanted to update you with a few things going on with me. First of all, I think I’ve told pretty much everyone I know already, but just in case you haven’t heard, last Sunday I ran the Ravenswood Run here in Chicago. Which means I ran a 5k, which is 3.1 miles. Let me repeat that: I *ran* a 5k, as in I started running (well, jogging, but still, I made the running motions in a steady pace) in one place, and I didn’t stop running until 3.1 miles later.

I don’t want to get too misty here (though I won’t lie: I did get a little misty right after I finished the race), but this is a pretty big deal. I’ve never been a physical guy — if skinny is New York and “overweight” is somewhere in the beautiful vistas of Denver, I’ve been hanging out on the California coast most of my life, for various reasons. And for more various reasons which I won’t go into too deeply here, though maybe someday I’ll tell you all of them, I’ve decided to change that: since January, I’ve been working out and eating better and just generally taking care of myself much more. This has hardly reached its climax (I’ve got a lot more of the gameplan to carry out), but it has reached a definite first peak with this 5k thing. Back in January, and indeed, back since high school, I’d have been hard pressed to run a quarter mile without falling over in a sweaty heap. Nowadays, after lifting some very heavy weights and putting some major treadmill miles under my feet, I’m routinely finishing off three miles, and am now aiming to try and do it in just a half hour, and then go for a 10k after that. And who knows — I may eventually try running a half marathon. It seems impossible to me now, running for that long without stopping, but back in January, running three miles seemed impossible, and now I do that whenever I want. Anyway, just wanted to let you know, blog readers. Stay tuned for more.

Also, Brigwyn is a World of Warcraft blogger who runs a site called The Hunting Lodge, and he kindly asked me to answer twenty questions, some of them about Warcraft, and some about me personally (and even one about this site — boy it was crazy going back through the archives of some of the things I’ve written here). I answered them for him, and you can read my answers and his questions over on his blog right now. I don’t know if I reveal any major secrets, but anyone who’s interested in me might find it a good read. Also, Brigwyn is running this amazing auction for the great Child’s Play charity, and in there, you’ll find the chance to bid on a guest spot on the WoW Insider Show, which is a podcast that I help run. In other words, if you’ve got some money burning in your pocket that you’d really like to donate to a worthy charity, you could do a lot worse than spending it on a chance to chat with me and a few friends on a Saturday afternoon about World of Warcraft. In fact, even if you’re not a WoW fan, you should probably bid on it — it would be really funny to have someone on the show who’d never played the game, just loved doing great things for kids.

And finally, assuming that you’re interested in interviews of me, Stompalina, who is another figure around the WoW community, will be hosting me live on her Rawrcast podcast this Saturday afternoon. I don’t want to ruin anything she’s got planned, but believe me when I tell you that it will be wild and crazy and strange things will happen.

And finally, speaking of podcasts, stay tuned for episode two of The Modern World, coming to this very site next Sunday afternoon. I’ve lined up two really good interviews with two people I’ve really been impressed by lately, and I think you’ll enjoy them both.