...my triumphant stock market win that I finally cashed out on last week. It's especially important to note since I'm the financial equivalent of a New Orleans-style hurricane, sucking up everything in proximity with little regard for those around me.

I bought Akamai Technologies six years ago, at $9.53 USD/share. I watched it dwindle to under a dollar in that time (and bemoaned being too poor to buy more stock -- stupid lazy self-employed knob), as the market performed a falling-on-the-sword en masse. Akamai was, even then, in the aftermath of the dot-com bust, a smart buy, IMHO. They spent scads of money developing their infrastructure in the early years, when they could burn money non-stop, and no one apparently cared.

But, in 2001, there were a few things that happened that twigged me, and made me hold on to the stock; firstly, CEO Paul Sagan took a pay cut. Sounds inconsequential, but in an era of excesses and proverbial rats abandoning ship, this was a strong indicator that this guy wanted to stay there, regardless of what it took. Second was the securing of major customers, and the triumph of Akamai on Sept. 11, 2001. When sites around the globe crumbled under the weight of the lust for information that day, sites hosted by Akamai stood tall, because of the basis of their business model of distributed content.

The ultimate in tragic irony is that the man who developed the concept for the company, which was what kept information flowing that day, was one of the passengers on AA flight 11, which hit the WTC.

Anyways, for the purpose of shortsighted provincial child care funding, we needed to sell our shares in Akamai. I sold Monday at $50.13 a share. For the math challenged, including me, is a profit of $40.60 USD a share.

Now, if only SIRI would get their butts in shape.....

Two weeks ago, a fellow by the name of Bill Michl ran across the Rainy River District (where I live) in one day, to help kick off the local fundraiser to put a CT scanner in our hospital. Distance? 60-some miles -- over 2.5 marathons, from 7:00 in the morning, to 5:30 in the evening. Crikey.

Runners from across the district volunteered to run sections of it with him, including one woman who ran over halfway. I jumped at the chance to run in to Emo with him from about 7.5km out of town. The Fort Frances Times covered the story, and Heather (longtime friend and former co-worker) shot pix of the runners in action, including me -- or so I thought. Here's the pic from the dead-tree edition of the Times that day:

Bill Michl, third from right, got some help from local runners Kimberly Chorney, right, Dan Loney, Vince Sheppard, Gaydonna Baker, and Lincoln Dunn (hidden) as they neared Emo on Friday afternoon. Michl ran the 60 miles from Rainy River to Fort Frances to kick off the “Just Imagine” campaign. —Heather Ogilvie photo

I chuckled when I saw it. Serves me right for not being able to keep up the guy who ran the whole distance. I even endured the ribbing from my pal Kendall when he phoned and asked me who I paid to get my name in the paper. But then he sent me this:

Hey Lincoln!
I found an awesome program that enabled me to unhide you from the running picture in the Times. The program is so powerful that it also revealed your thoughts as you ran beside Bill. I've enclosed the photo for you to peruse. If you like, I can send you the powerful program!!
Kendall

Jerk. :P

For the record, here's some actual documentation of me running -- and holy crap, is Bill a machine. I felt like a supreme lightweight joining him, for such a small distance comparatively, and it almost killing me as much as it did.