Tuesday, April 29, 2008

3 miles yesterday lifting me to 23.5/83. I figured out that this weekend I raised my miles/day for the year from .638 to .697 which seemed significant. Of course by not walking today I've already dropped to .692, so maybe I need to focus on bigger-magnitude changes.

Pumped my first-ever $40 tank of gas last night. Ouch. In other news, I took the bus to work this morning.

God's Politics has been an interesting read. I like his counterpoint to the voodoo-economics wealth gospel preached by most political religious groups - I really like his prioritization in the context of Old Testament prophets - but he's really really full of himself. I believe his anti-Bush stance is his personal belief, but it's relentless (and surprisingly repetitive) bashing detracts from the promise of offered solutions rather than politics as usual. He also has a somewhat naive belief that the UN could effectively take over for the US and would be welcomed as liberators - he could be quoting pre-Iraq Cheney with one letter changed. New ideas, yes, but I don't think Iraqis would welcome UN troops keeping the peace and supporting the government any more than Americans. I wouldn't mind being wrong on that point - I just don't think I am. For now, Metaconcert's arrived, so God's Politics will resume after the full Julian May series.

Go Hawks! I like Garnett's Celtics, but I like upsets even more.
posted by Unknown 2:40 PM | 3 comments

Monday, April 28, 2008

Sorry I don't have more to communicate right now, but 3.5 miles yesterday for totals of 20.5/80.
posted by Unknown 7:08 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, April 26, 2008

2.5 miles today, so 17/76.5. Nothing else to currently report.
posted by Unknown 10:24 PM | 0 comments

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

2 miles today (hotel treadmill!), making it 14.5 for April and 74 for 2008. Woot woot.

Would a good foreign policy be to pretend we don't have a superior military? If we weren't confident that we could beat any one and probably two large-scale opponents, how would we try to achieve our goals? I know the leadership usually says the military is the last resort (that is almost evil in its willful denial of so much pain), but they move forward knowing they've got it to fall back on. And we do have it to fall back on, but it seems like being the underdog is what leads to creativity and improvements. Just a lil random thought.

Saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall again with another friend - still rocks. I think one of the things I like about Apatow's movies is there's no one to really be against. Everyone's flawed, everyone's got good points, doesn't make every decision OK, but it's just people without the all-too-easy Good and Bad to force our understanding.

There's an ad for some plasma TV that suggests that when the family's all booked up with school and jobs and activities like sports and play, bring them together to watch TV!!! Avoid any of that exercise or meeting other people or education - sit on a posture-destroying couch to mindlessly absorb mass-produced entertainment in silence. God Bless America!

Yeah I'm cynical tonight. It's been 2 days since I saw Wife, and looks like I have 2 more. I'm sure I'll be in a better mood then.
posted by Unknown 9:54 PM | 1 comments

Sunday, April 20, 2008

3 miles in the gym on Thursday, so 12.5 for April, 72 for 2008. We'll see if I can get anything going while I'm in Dallas. I also finished Colbert's book I Am America (And So Can You!) today, and since I'm headed to Dallas before Metaconcert arrives, I'm picking up Jim Wallis' God's Politics. Should be an interesting read.

Saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall tonight. As with all Apatow movies, there's one scene that seems more intended for shock value than an integral part of the story, but otherwise it rocked. These comedies keep living up to their billing - looking forward to Pineapple Express this summer.
posted by Unknown 12:07 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

1 mile today - shin splints kicked in strong so I'll try more stretching and hydration. Appreciate the comment on the last post about the elliptical machine - they're not set up for my weight but I look forward to the day when I can use them. For now, 9.5 and 69 miles.

Finished Surveillance a little too early - only a few minutes into the busride home, leaving me no reading material for the rest of the trip. Alas! And now I haven't been able to find its sequel Metaconcert at Half Price or B&N or at the library. I ordered it expedited shipping from Amazon, and until I get it, I think it's time to read Stephen Colbert's book.

I'm headed to Dallas Sunday. One of our clients has had some scalability issues, so I'll be onsite to deal with any installation issues directly. Gonna miss Wife, but hopefully it will just be a couple days. Worst case is a week. I also hope I have Metaconcert in hand by then. :-)
posted by Unknown 10:00 PM | 0 comments

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

2.5 miles this morning, so 8.5 for April and 68 for 2008. And since I renewed my gym membership for $30 (quarterly) last week, each gym visit has cost $7.50. We'll have to see if I can get that under $1 per, or even $.50.

Seems like tax day inevitably brings out all the columnists thundering about how horrible our tax burdens are. I'd never mind paying less, but if we believe there's any benefit to strengthening the weakest link in society, to having resources available to all regardless of "worth," taxes are pretty much what it's going to take. Government could just about always do a better job of handling them, and should improve, but I definitely can't complain about my net. It's funny how we focus on the 15-30% we don't have instead of the 70-85% that's at least partially enabled by the system as it works now.

(Disclaimer: I overwithhold to make sure I don't have to come up with a payment, so this is more of a getting-money day for me, which makes me happy. But the principle still holds on taxes in general.)
posted by Unknown 3:16 PM | 0 comments

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Quiet yet quasiproductive weekend. Watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which wasn't that great for me. I hear the big moments are better on a big screen/audio system. I can accept that - also, like 2001, I think it was much more impressive when it came out. I also saw Lucky You, a poker movie with Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore (and Robert Duvall, who I think should have gotten higher billing) that I don't believe made it to theaters. And it shouldn't have. Quite bad but excellent for in-movie commenting. Tonight I'm watching Return of the Jedi, with possibly the most applicable Star Wars quote for me: "I don't think the Empire had Wookies in mind when they built this thing."

I visited a church for the second time today - I think I like the pastor. Both of his sermons have thrown a new angle at me, and I like getting new stuff to think on. Specifically, in talking about Saul's conversion on the road to Tarsus, he pointed out how much the already-Christian Ananias was tested when he was called on to heal Saul - he had to overcome his fear of Saul turning him over to the Romans and forgive Saul for all he'd done against Christians, based on faith alone. Not an angle I usually hear on that story.
posted by Unknown 8:26 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, April 12, 2008

2 more miles this morning, so the new totals are 6 and 65.5. I was hoping for 4 since it's a Saturday, but the front outsides of my shins were hurting by the first half-mile, so I figure it was a good push. If I can keep up my gym attendance, I'm going to try to throw in some non-walking activities next week and see if that relieves the strain on the shins. On the plus side, I've also made it through an entire Newsweek and Science News in these 3 days, which is always fun.

Last night I finished My Name Is Asher Lev. I was surprised at how much I liked it - it was powerful, but I really disliked the protagonist and didn't feel the climax was a positive experience for everyone involved, not even a character-building one. It could just be that my mindset really isn't that of the artist - I don't know. I'd be interested in feedback from anyone else who read it. I think next up will be Surveillance as I kick off the next Julian May series - this one's only 2 books.

I'm feeling a bit of dissonance with my reading recently. I feel a strong impulse to DO more - get involved with organizations and/or projects, and part of the impetus is from my reading - I'm starting to realize I'm a sucker for the noble biography, even in magazine article form. Yet when it comes down to what I want to do, it's ALWAYS reading. Doesn't matter what kind - I have no trouble settling into magazines, fiction, non-fiction, religion, academic, whatever - but that seems to be my absolute default mode. Being with people in almost any context still surpasses reading, but it surprises me how little importance I end up attaching to other activities. Tough to tell where causes and effects stop in this, and from the inside my analysis is unreliably biased. But I'll see what I can figure out.
posted by Unknown 12:05 PM | 1 comments

Friday, April 11, 2008

2 more miles this morning, so 4 for April, 63.5 for 2008 (that's 36.5 miles remaining for the next Slurpee, hmph (also since 12oz Slurpees are 30g carbs, they are always legitimate snacks)). I don't know why but the somewhat-symmetry of 63,5 and 36.5 attracts my attention, even though it's meaningless unless you really need to know numbers' relation to 99. 64 and 36 would actually be much more meaningful as it's sum of squares and thus a right triangle. Maybe I paid too much attention in geometry. Yesterday I found myself wondering if I could remember if there were any special properties or rules of numbers that break down to unique prime numbers instead of repeated ones (i.e., 70 is 7x5x2 but 12 is 3x2x2). Couldn't remember any, but I couldn't get it out of my head for at least 15 minutes. I think my wife is now even more afraid of passing along my genes to unsuspecting heirs.

While walking this morning, I encountered a few articles (yeah I read on the walking track - it's an excellent use of the time) that reminded me why I subscribe to Science News despite a lot of fairly boring, technical articles. First was this article explaining that the memory-clearing process that results in Alzheimer's brain plaques is 10 times more active in young adults than in advanced Alzheimer's patients. This suggests the problem isn't that this activity starts/increases in older people, but doesn't slow down to match the rest of the brain's slowing processes. For some reason I connected this to the claim that continued learning should help stave off Alzheimer's and wondered if that's just keeping the intake processes more active to match the not-as-slow destructive processes. This fascinates me, as this is probably my biggest fear about getting older. That story was immediately followed by an article on why tape tears when you try to pull it off something, and then a story on tracking people's cell phones to determine that we still use animals' predatory travel patterns, which is fun for Big Brother implications as well as leading to questions of how different our civilization and all of its infrastructure is from animals in the wild. It's this kind of mix that keeps me interested, and shows how science is more useful than those physics labs where we discovered that our high school's equipment couldn't really measure gravity.

I learned something this morning - namely that monthly bus passes have their expiration printed on the back. That's why the back of my ticket had yesterday printed in vivid purple, as I discovered while trying to board said bus. Fortunately I had a dollar in change in my car, and only had to wait half an hour for the next one. Not my best mass transit day.
posted by Unknown 3:23 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Made it back to the gym in just under a month, for 2 miles this morning, giving me 61.5 on the year. In my mind, that deserved its own post.
posted by Unknown 10:14 AM | 2 comments

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Watching American Idol's Idol Gives Back special tonight. Yep it's contrived, it's packaged, some people involved probably have more PR than philanthropic concerns, but they've raised over $20 million. The genius of this showis that you know exactly what you're going to get from everyone involved, and yet tens of millions of people schedule around it. Same thing with the special - it's as schmaltzy as you'd expect but it raises a lot of money for excellent causes, so more power to it. And Jimmy Kimmel was funny. Robin Williams, maybe not quite so much.

Finished the Pliocene Exile series - it was quite good. Looking forward to May's other 2 series, but taking a scifi break in between with My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. It was a gift from the brother/sister-in-law, and I'm enjoying it so far.

I was one of 71 voters in my precinct to vote in yesterday's runoff - let's hear it for a 2.35% turnout rate!!! Naturally I voted for both losing candidates (although I think I'm glad one of them lost), but still part of the process. At least there wasn't another precinct convention to wait over an hour in. On the plus side, if voting rates continue this trend, someday my one vote will actually matter in some contest.
posted by Unknown 8:40 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, April 05, 2008

It's been an OK week - nothing much that's inspired me to write. My mom's been staying with us while my parents' floors are replaced, and that's been enjoyable conversations and time hanging out. It's also brought up an interesting question that I'll throw out to the peanut gallery before stating my thoughts: what's the purpose of public education? Pre-college, for the purposes of this discussion.

Kansas vs. Midwest in the All-Flyover NCAA Final. Go Memphis. Glad to see Roy Williams still can't win a title with player's he's recruited and trained - I bet he'll cry in the postgame press conference.

We are now caught up through Season3 of Battlestar Galactica. I am sure we'll watch Razor and the first episode of Season4 tomorrow. Tis a great show. Readingwise, I'm still moving through the Pliocene Exile series - if you like scifi, I can't recommend Julian May enough. Another Andy recommendation, although this one from 10-11 years ago - that's how long he's been a cultural authority.
posted by Unknown 9:49 PM | 3 comments

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

I realized I didn't give an exercise update in the last post. I haven't been to the gym in far too long, but I will give myself 3 miles credit for Washington walking (I promise it's a very conservative estimate), so that would be 6.5 miles for March, 59.5 miles for 2008. I will try to get these numbers up in April. Still that's 60 more miles than most of my years.

I'm not sure whether Christianity or interpersonal relationships or both are being exploited by this book, but something's getting defamed.

I had an experience on the flight to Virginia/DC that prompted me to try to write a My Turn essay for Newsweek. Unfortunately I've typed it out and thought on it a few days, and haven't been able to get it more than half the required length so I'm just posting it here. Enjoy if you'd like, or just skip it and wait for the next post.


Fellow airline passengers treat each other much like most common travelers. We avoid looking at each other more than we have to; we shuffle through too few lines of traffic; we cut each other off in those lines or getting to the overhead compartment, sometimes offering an apologetic gesture or look to assuage our guilt. I see one major difference though - if I walk through a crowded hall or driving on a freeway, nobody slams their weight into my knees.

On a recent flight, I noticed a teenage girl taking the seat in front of me and thought/hoped/self-deluded she wouldn't lean back. As soon as the plane was in the air, though, that seat came flying back as far as it could while she curled up catlike in the seat. Having experienced far too many seat-slams, I'd placed my knees at an angle and no contact was made. Over the course of the 3-hour flight, I put my legs in a closer-to-straight position (this counts as stretching for me on an airplane), only to discover her faith that the seat could go back farther as she regularly pushed hard against the seat back to see if it would go further. At one point, even the flight attendant noticed the situation and said loudly, "Wow I hope she's comfortable up there!"

I take some of the blame - I'm 6'5", so my knees are closer to the seat in front of me than most peoples'. And the airlines can take their share of the responsibility too, as they constantly take away more and more space from each passenger. However the loudest lamenters of this reduced personal space usually try to increase their own allotment by leaning back into mine. I've had people throw the seat back actually into my knees, and not move even when I yelp audibly. I've had seats come back just after the beverage cart passes through, splashing my drink onto my pants. One gentleman, on being able to feel my knees in his seat, thought they were problems with the seat and ground his elbows into the "lumps."

I have tried to explain this to leaners with a light tap on the shoulder and a friendly request to move the seat forward at least a little bit. The look I get usually implies my knees are invading their personal space, and while they accept a compromise position, they usually forget and repeat the action in an amazingly small span of time.

I'm not asking people to not lean their seats, just to use some courtesy when they do. Look back and check with the person behind you before leaning your surprisingly heavy seat towards them, especially if drinks have been served. I promise to give you as much space as I can, and most of my fellow long-legged passengers will do the same. And all of our knees will live happily ever after.
posted by Unknown 11:12 PM | 2 comments