My goal for 2012

I have decided that this is the year to run a marathon. I have run 7 halves and want the challenge of the longer distance. The Ottawa Marathon takes place the week after graduation so the timing will be good for all. It is later in the season but I am hoping that the higher latitude will mean coolers temps. The route looks fairly level too. I will probably start training right after new year. My goal will be to run in less than 4 hours. My goal for my first half was under 2 hours which I just made by 13 seconds.

For the true Beach Boys Fan....

Of which I am one. It is fascinating to see how the music on the album is constructed. It is a shame that it was never released in 1967 when it was done. I don't expect that it would have had the same impact as Sgt. Pepper's did but it would have changed the way that the Beach Boys were perceived .

Very Funny Video

Breaking Bad

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Good Movie I Saw

I really liked this movie, especially the attention Scorcese paid to the history of film.

Unlocking a cell phone

I am very proud of myself for unlocking an old ATT cellphone from so I can use with any sim card I want from any provider I want. I bought an unlock code online for $7.99 and then went to a T Mobile booth at the mall. I bought a "pay as you go" sim card for $20. When I inserted the T Mobile sim card, my ATT phone told me it was an invalid card. I inputted the unlock code and it is now unlocked. So now I also have a new cell phone number which I could consider my personal number.

New Song for the band to do

For our 10/29 date

Race Results

I am reasonably pleased with my results. The weather was perfect: cooler and sunny. I was hoping to set a personal record but missed by 45 seconds. I may be able to attribute that to a bathroom stop at around mile 4. If I had gone in advance, I might have beat the time. Oh well. Next time.

Funny Cartoon

Classic British Film

Still one of my favorite Hitchcock films.

If I had a Facebook page I would post this

Grrrr

Darn weather. I was planning to go to this game.

Jon Stewart at his finest

Here is Jon Stewart's take on the right wing's response to Warren Buffet's op-ed in the NYT that he and others in his income bracket are not taxed enough. In today's WSJ, Harvey Golub of American Express is using the line that the Faux News commentators threw out:  50% of American don't pay any income tax.They need "skin in the game."

The section on how well of the poor have it is particularly devastating. Interestingly, blaming the poor for their condition is not new. Even Ben Franklin felt this way in the middle of the 18th century, as I found out in Nash- The Urban Crucible



                       

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Here's part two.

                       

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

                       


                       

Very Good New Yorker Articles

by Stephen Greenblatt, a pre-eminent Shakespeare scholar and general editor of the The Norton Shakespeare. This is on his reading of The Nature of Things by Lucretius, which I read for a Latin Lit in Translation course in college. I of course never got nearly as much out of it as he does. He writes at one point how his mother obsessed about her own death and would frequently tell him that he might not see her again when he went off to school. This passage from Lucretius is especially profound.

 
The other article I like from this week's is

A Critic at Large

Is That All There Is?

Secularism and its discontents.

by James Wood August 15, 2011

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/08/15/110815crat_atlarge_wood#ixzz1VDRIQR70

I have a friend, an analytic philosopher and convinced atheist, who told me that she sometimes wakes in the middle of the night, anxiously turning over a series of ultimate questions: “How can it be that this world is the result of an accidental big bang? How could there be no design, no metaphysical purpose? Can it be that every life—beginning with my own, my husband’s, my child’s, and spreading outward—is cosmically irrelevant?” In the current intellectual climate, atheists are not supposed to have such thoughts. We are locked into our rival certainties—religiosity on one side, secularism on the other—and to confess to weakness on this order is like a registered Democrat wondering if she is really a Republican, or vice versa.

Don't Bend it Like Beckham

The MLS All star game was fun from the point of view of a United fan. The All Stars looked very anemic as they lost 4-0. No one on the team looked impressive. We had good seats in the corner which, it may be a rationalization to say, are preferable to seats at the center line. We were much closer to exciting action and saw two United goal. Of course we were far away from the action the second half especially since the MLS did absolutely nothing worthwhile. But if we were in the center we'd have been far from both centers of activity. Watching the mid-field play is no where near as compelling as what goes on in the box. Here is a view of a Beckham free kick on which he not score. It shows what the view from the seats looked like and how totally inadequate a Blackberry camera is. The guy in front of me had an IPhone which was taking great pictures.

Manchester United vs. MLS All-Stars

I really thought that I was going to missed seeing United on this tour. My original plan was to see them this Saturday vs. Barcelona in D.C. I would then fly to Las Vegas from Baltimore. Unfortunately, the game is in the evening so it made getting a flight impossible. So my second choice was the All-Star game in Newark. When I checked for seats though they were inexplicably sold out. That struck me as very odd as I didn't think soccer had increased in popularity to that degree even if it is Manchester United. A few weeks ago, I got an email with a special 4 game package that included the All Star game so I bit. It turns out the game is being held at the smaller stadium of the local team, the Red Bull, which holds only 25,000, not Giant Stadium which holds 70,000. That explained the ticket disappearance. I have really good seats so I am pleased. This will the 4th time I am seeing them: 2003 in Philly vs. Barcelona, 2004 vs. Bayern Munich at Soldiers Field in Chicago and last year in Philly again vs. the Philly Union, the MLS team.

Still hotter than hell here

It is still miserably hot. It is definitely not weather for yard work, which of course I don't mind. It is even too hot for just sitting on the deck and reading. The heat has messed up my running schedule a bit. I am training for the Philly R&R half again. I was supposed to do 8 on Saturday. My original plan was to get up at 5:30 and run while it was still cool. But even at 6 am it was in the low 80s. So instead I went to the gym and did it on the treadmill. The limit on the machine is one hour which gave me 7 miles. I stopped the machine and restarted to do the extra mile I needed. It wasn't quite as tedious as I assumed it would be because I was listening to a podcast of This American Life. The theme of the show as The Psychopath Test, which looked at what went into creating the test, had two segments related to it and then tested the member of the show's staff to see if they had any tendencies towards psychopathy. I won't give away the ending. I am happy to say that I don't think I have psychopathic tendencies, at least based on the interview with developer of the test describing the characteristics of a psychopath.

Also so hot that I decided that my office needed a thorough cleaning. It was very dusty so I got out my trusty mini-vac and went to work. I also started throwing out lots of stuff related to work: brochures, books, electronic equipment (two full sets of Clickers.) I also bought a new paper shredder to get rid of all of the old sales and personnel stuff I accumulated over 25 years.

Burning Man

Funny story. My old boss will be going to Burning Man Festival in Nevada. She went to see some friends in San Fran awhile ago. One of their friends was someone she hit it off with during the visit. Somehow the topic of the Burning Man Festival came up. None of them had ever attended but they both thought it would be fun.  She made plans to fly back and go with him. He borrowed a small RV from some of his friends, which she said barely sleeps two. So now she has the anxiety of going the festival along with spending a week with someone she doesn;t really know. The schedule looks interesting.

Summer Reading

Since my fall class, I have gotten into the good habit of reading books again. I have developed an interest in pre Civil war 19th century US. It started when I read A Nation of Counterfeiters and Born Losers for class which both spent a considerable amount of time in that period. So I felt I
needed more familiarity with what happened. The first book I read was What Hath God Wrought. There was a lot of coverage on abolitionism and and slavery so I decided I needed to know more on that. I chose to read all 1600 pages of The Road to Secession by William Freehling. He taught for a bit at my college though after I had graduated. There was a lot of detail but he writes very engagingly so it was enjoyable. After making my way through to secession, I realized I didn't know much about the Civil War, beyond what I remember from Ken Burns 20 years ago. I read Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson. This is an excellent book. He teaches at Princeton and is a coauthor on the textbook by Murrin. I was worried that it would just be a list of battles but, while there was some of that, it was much broader. The toughest part of reading books on this period is that the Republicans are the good guys and the Dems are the racist proslavery party. The Irish come off pretty badly too. For all of the talk about being at the bottom of the social hierarchy --"No Irish Need Apply"-- , they were virulently anti-black and were responsible for the draft riots in NY City which killed lots of free blacks.


As I am taking an urban history course in the fall, I thought I should read some urban history. I chose Gotham- A history of NY. This is massive: 1300 pages and I probably won't finish it. It is too heavy to travel with. Again, it is very readable. My guess is the books I am reading for the class will be shorter and more focused.

Finally, I chose a smaller book to read when I travel in two weeks. It was referenced quite a bit in Battle Cry so I thought it would be worth reading if for no other reason than to confirm my opinion of 19th century Southerners as villains.

Woody's Latest

Saw it awhile ago and thought it was very enjoyable

what every dog owner needs

A doggy belly band from www.pawlicity.com

Race results

Slower than last year but still under 8 minute pace so I am pleased.

REVOLUTIONARY 10K RUN

Race Date:07-04-11

Bib Number
First Name
Last Name
City,State
Sex Age	M 55
Time	49:27.48
Pace	7:57.5
Chip Time
Chip Pace
Distance	10k
Place	174
Gender Place	146/347
Age Group Place	M50-59: 25/95
Masters Age PLP	64.67

Very humorous

From Happy Place

New Running Trail

I found a new running trail and did my 3 miler on it today. Map It was mostly uphill so it was somewhat strenuous. I did the red Honey Hollow trail up to the Copper Hill Trail to parking. It took me 14 minutes up and 14 minutes down hill on the way back. It was also used by horseback riders so I had to dodge piles for the first part of the route. Next time I plan to continue on the white Ridge Trail and down the Summit Trail back to the road . From there I will run along Fiddler's Creek road to parking on Brick Road. So it should be a 4 or 5 mile run. Some of the trail was not very worn so I had to jump over thorn buses. I avoided deer ticks or I didn't see any on me. No animals other than a ground hog under a bridge near the creek.

New Old 97s album

Listen here.

Or Watch

While Bruce was mourning Clarence

this other titan of music passed away

Wild Man Fisher

Rest In Peace

So this is how it works!

very cool animation of a piece from an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Der Mensch als Industriepalast [Man as Industrial Palace] from Henning Lederer on Vimeo.

Learning to Sing

For some strange reason, my left elbow has developed tendonitis. I don't know whether to attribute it to different way I need to hold my arm when I play the banjo. But I get a sharp pain when I grip something tightly. I am thinking of laying off the banjo lessons for awhile until it improves. I might even curtail my guitar playing to see if that helps. It is something I am loath to do. I have often thought of what I would do if when I got older, arthritis or some other debilitating condition prevented me from playing. It would remove something from my life from which I derive a lot of pleasure. So maybe I will take singing lessons instead. I ordered a few basic texts complete with audio CDs to get myself started. I have no visions of being a great singer, just better than I am now.

Banjo Song

I am trying to learn this song.

Very competent rhythm guitar

New favorite Song

I hope to see this band soon. They are on tour.

Good Cause

Good Cause

Douchebag

And to think, I liked this guy (see below.)

Very humorous

Favorte New Site

Literally Unbelievable

Run To Remember

It was a humid day although not all that hot: upper 70s. All the same, the humidity took its toll on my stamina. I had hoped to exceed my personal best of 1:47.16 from 2009. I had trained very hard and my long runs during training were at a pace which should have beat it. But I just had no 2nd or 3rd gear during the race. I ran a comfortable pace and would slow down when I felt that I was tiring. In the past under cooler conditions, I could take the speed up a bit and then recover for a mile. I didn't dare do it this time as I feared that I'd be totally drained. That happened in Philly last year. I was running a good race and decided around mile 8 to pick it up. Then came a long sunny stretch and I started to really tire. By the end I was in survival mode: I just wanted to finish. I finished at 1:47.40 . I had no energy for an end of the race sprint. This time I was in the same mindset: just finish. Though I did have energy for a sprint if you'd want to describe it that way. The spectator might not have thought it was. I finished in 1:53, not terrible but not as good as I had hoped. Combined with Manchester's thrashing at Wembley, it wasn't the results I was hoping for on Friday afternoon.

Encouraging Article

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/on-your-marks-get-set-measure-heart-health/