amkean pronunciation

2011-11-05T09:33:00.001-05:00

powderhorn park

2011-11-01T06:30:00.001-05:00

On Saturday, there were these three men hanging out in the park on a day when it was too cold for most people to really be hanging out in the park. Although the 2 liter bottles of soda on the picnic table they were using were notable, the most salient thing going on with them for me was the radio they had blasting the Greg Kihn Band's "Breakup Song."

"Breakup Song" includes the parenthetical "(They Don't Write 'Em)", but I imagine even that won't help most people remember which song this is. It's one of those songs that you'll know it when you hear it, though. There are so many songs like that from the 70's and 80's especially where I know the whole song but I don't know the name or the singer. I like doing those songs for karaoke. "The Breakup Song" is recognizable for the often repeated phrase "they just don't write 'em like that anymore." It wasn't that long ago when I was first able to parse the words in the phrase instead of just knowing it phonetically. The song also has the "ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba" part.

Anyway, I hope those guys enjoyed their day off in the park. I think people just hanging out is maybe third on the list of what park people are doing. Hanging out ranks above birdwatchers and below team sports players and dog walkers. It might be below regular walkers, too. There's ultimate frisbee practice there all late summer and fall. Ultimate is probably fun, healthy, and inclusive, but my visceral reaction is not positive, perhaps because of my experience with ultimate in college.

The UNC club was just being started by nerds who named the team "The Dark Side," and I went to one practice, I think. Then one of the nerds connected to the computer I was on doing whatever the IM equivalent was of that time. I did not have a positive reaction to this interruption. Also, he was in the same computer lab I was. I knew who he was, but he didn't know me. So now ultimate is ruined for me for life, and I started playing a new real sport, one with a ball, because almost all real sports have balls, not frisbees.

What's the quote I think from the ESPN book about what makes a sport? Cardiovascular output and some form of defense?

running prefs

2011-10-31T06:30:00.002-05:00

We ran the Monster Dash half marathon on Saturday, and I said that I wouldn't be doing any more Team Ortho races. I had signed up for the series last year, which included Saturday's race, and so I was already financially committed for Saturday. I made my proclamation as we were waiting in traffic to park to get to the start. They won't miss me at their races, which are enormously popular. I really have enjoyed the small races I've run, without the hassles. Like getting a parking ticket while running in to packet pickup. I missed the sign that said "No parking 4-6pm" because the parking meter said "enforced until 4:30." I thought the timing was terrific since it was 4:45, but it turns out the timing couldn't have been worse. Had I been a little later, I would have seen all the vehicles there with parking tickets because the whole block got them. Instead, my 10 minute window was when the ticketing occurred.

Yes, we're watching and enjoying "American Horror Story."

running, lately

2011-10-08T07:52:00.001-05:00

We ran Twin Cities marathon on Sunday. I hadn't run this marathon in 10 years or something like that, because I thought I could only run one marathon a year. This thinking might be true for me if I want to do a good job in a marathon. I'm not sure that you even really need to train for a marathon if you start out able to run a few miles without collapsing and don't care how long it takes you. People can run farther than they think they can. Running fast is another story, however. I've moved toward accepting the "just participating" position with running, but it's difficult. Lots of good runners don't think they are trained for a marathon because they would like to run a good marathon.

As far as winter runs go, the Securian half marathon in January was always a good one, save the inexplicable mixup this year where they placed the turnaround for the out-and-back course too soon. I can't comprehend how that mistake gets made, since the course would be something would would know about a long time before race setup begins. Well, we all PR'ed at the 11.7 mile distance. Team Ortho, whose races are geared toward those who favor participation over speed, has the Polar Dash after the new year. I would recommend Team Ortho races to new(ish) runners. There are lots of choices for Thanksgiving and Christmas runs. Kenyon, Minnesota puts on a 5k in February. Hopefully they will close the course to traffic this year so I don't have to run around moving cars on the route. I did Rocky's Run last November, which is a cross country race. That was a good, small race with a good long sleeve tee. I can't figure out how to register for it right now, but it's on November 6. I'll probably do it this year. If ever there were a race to run barefoot, that would be the one.

FMG doesn't stand for what you probably think it does

2011-10-01T07:36:00.002-05:00

FMG doesn't stand for what you probably think it does

At one point in my life, around junior high-ish, I decided that the ideal litmus test for a potential girlfriend was whether I could picture hanging out with her at Valleyfair. Plausibility was no restraint in my imagination. I could imagine being on a ride with every cute girl at my school and discovered that some pairings just didn't feel right. (In no way does this mean that I would have said no to someone I couldn't picture myself with on Excalibur. The exercise was PURELY academic.) Maybe I learned from doing this that I valued personality in a potential partner, but probably not at the time.

I always say that I don't really remember junior high. That's not exactly true. I remember lots of things, lots of moments, but it's almost as if I was not quite present for those memories. I don't know that there's been a more anxious time in my life. I didn't know how to act or what to do, and it seemed as if other kids did.

At Grass, Troy F. made fun of my "Beastie Bucks" t-shirt. The school newspaper had a gossip column in which my initials never appeared. I guess the word "sophisticated" would be too much to describe the gossip column, but it was actually entertaining and funny, more so than you might think from junior high kids. I was a member of the Red Carpet Club, which helped introduce new students to the school. I don't remember getting recruited for the club, getting trained, or most anything about it except for my first charge immediately becoming more popular than me. Glad I could help. First day of Spanish class, choosing Spanish names. Steve U. shouting "I'M JESUS!" "It's pronunced hay-ZOOS, Steve."

I could go on.

This awkwardness is part of why I tried to get a job at that level when I changed jobs. For as much as people say how hard that age is, apparently there aren't a lot of openings because I didn't get a single interview for a junior high age job. It's always seemed easier for me to get along with younger kids. I don't know how much longer I want to work with a population that ignores you when you say "hello" and rejects all teaching that doesn't look very traditional (and then complains about how boring the class is).

On the other hand, I probably wouldn't have the opportunity to create a misconceptions list based on all the things that a single loud student vociferously lectures the rest of the class on. "If I say something's right, it's right," he was heard to remark last week. The week before, he derisively questioned another student about not knowing why 666 is a "bad number." "It's the devil's birthday!" he explained. They worked out together that the devil was born (!) on June 6...uh...year 6.

trenchant

2011-09-17T08:04:00.001-05:00

Another annoyance is when someone speaking to a group (usually the speaker correcting himself rather than being corrected) says something like this:

"Welcome back, guys!" [then hastily] "And girls!"

Everyone knows your warm comments weren't reserved exclusively for the males in the audience. No one was offended.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Sharing my gift for putting a finger on human nature, as always

2011-09-11T09:13:00.002-05:00

I planted the backyard garden around July 23. Since then, it's barely rained here. This is frustrating for two reasons: 1) The transplants need water to survive B) IT'S A RAINGARDEN

I really like the TV show Bob's Burgers. I get the sense that it's really, really close to cancellation, but I'll enjoy it while I can. The voices are tremendous, just a murderer's row of voice talent.

Last night at the outdoor Oktoberfest event at the Herkimer, Amy remarked on how smoky it was, even though it was outdoors. We've become so accustomed to smoke free indoor places that it's very noticeable when anyone is smoking anywhere. I know a number of smokers, but I still don't get smoking. I get being addicted to the nicotine, but I don't get public smokers. Whatever inconsiderate thing I do that I haven't thought about, I don't think it's putting carcinogens into the bodies of other people. Going back to the state fair, there were plenty of people who were smoking in the throngs. I feel like many smokers would/could wait until they were in an area where there weren't many nonsmokers to have a smoke, but the State Fair clientele has many of the people who don't really think about that. There's a difference, though, between the rude State Fair smokers and the rude Herkimer smokers. While the State Fair smokers are unrefined, the Herkimer ones are self-absorbed.

Reading the first Game of Thrones book and enjoying it tremendously. No one will get this: Now, wait...is he trying to tell us that Valyrian steel is high quality?

Gardening

2011-09-09T19:51:00.000-05:00

In 2008, I attended a raingarden workshop after wanting to have a raingarden for a long time. Still, I didn't act on that workshop until last April or May when I finally hired a consultant who designed a raingarden for the yard in addition to a native garden for the rest of the yard.I wanted the garden just to be environmentally friendly, mostly. Besides, I wasn't willing to put work into a lawn because it seems wasteful. Dad helped me near the end of July to excavate in the backyard on one of the most sweltering days of the summer. We got Subway and a half dozen Powerades at 3pm for lunch. The raingarden took about 24 manhours of work. A couple days later I spent maybe 14 hours over the course of a week on the front yard (larger area, but no excavation or leveling needed).

Before, north side

after

south side, before

after

here's the dry creek bed that supposedly routes water from the house to the RG

maybe I'll get pics from the front, but I'm not going to fix this formatting.

Minnesota Voyageur 50 Mile

2011-09-06T06:06:00.001-05:00

I have nothing against the kids saying "not gonna lie," but it seems as if the linguistic place for a phrase like this is when one might be expected to prevaricate. Instead, the kids will use it to start any expression of opinion. "Not gonna lie, I like sleeping." My big goal for the summer was to run a 50 mile trail race, and I did it. When I signed up for it, I thought that this would be a one-and-done deal, but I suspect that I will run another ultra race.I would estimate that I walked about half of the 50 miles, because any uphill of significance gets walked by amateur ultrarunners. These walks are a good chance to hydrate and to commiserate with your fellow runners. "Commiserate" implies that we're miserable, but there are generally high spirits in these races, except maybe towards the end. Even with wet feet from running through streams and with flies buzzing my head, I think I was enjoying myself. Actually, the flies made me just the tiniest bit insane. There were only 150 or so runners who started the race, so the runner get thinned out. I was wondering what I looked like from 500 feet behind me when I would take swipes at the air at random times.It was only the last 8 miles or so that I really felt tired. I had some cramping when I'd lose my footing a little and muscles were asked to respond quickly. To paraphrase Rilo Kiley, my legs weren't going to be taking any more requests. It wasn't significantly different from a marathon because although it was longer, the intensity level was lower. In running, you make any distance challenging. I'm really tired at the end of a 5k because I'm running much faster. I'm not, however, hiding under blankets after a 5k because I feel as cold as I've been in my life. I left the A/C going in my hotel room and the body wasn't liking it. I recovered from that, though, and made it to the Black Bear casino bar, where I nursed a Fat Tire and $5 worth of video blackjack while watching the Twins. The point is that if you've completed a marathon, I bet you could complete a 50. My favorite thing about the 50 mile (and the Afton 50k run on the hilliest course I've ever seen)? Eating while running.

oh, yeah. I forgot for a second.

2011-09-01T06:39:00.002-05:00

Having two parallel but contradictory things in one's mind: It's like when I was planning on watching TV, but the power went out. Now I have to find something else to do. Well, I can't watch TV for some reason, so maybe I'll turn on the computer. Oh, right. The only reason I'm on the computer is because the power is out, and the computer also requires power. This has happened to me when the weather changes my plans, and I'll think of a backup plan that is also nixed by the same weather that caused me to change my original plans, or when I think that I should avoid running an errand because of some traffic issue, but then plan an alternative that is affected by the same traffic.

I feel my not remembering a specific instance is making this post quite abstruse.

State Fair 2011

2011-08-30T06:52:00.002-05:00

When getting dressed to go to the State Fair, an event where you'll be seen by one of the biggest crowds in Minnesota, you might make some different wardrobe choices than I would. Maybe the family-friendly fair isn't the place to wear your shirt saying "I'll stop staring at your boobs when you stop wearing them on the front of your shirt." Yes, I saw that shirt, and no, I don't believe it makes sense either, but the word "boobs" is written extra big for attention. Why not wear clean clothes to the fair? I'm not sure if a gross, stained shirt is preferable to the option of no shirt at all, chosen by several young men, uncomfortable with the 80 degree heat. If you're going with your wife, you could wearing matching clothes, I guess. Either the exact same shirt, or both shirts advertising, say, Fox Racing.

June thoughts

2011-06-23T19:57:00.004-05:00

The song "disintegration" from The Cure just came on Pandora Radio and just about made me cry because it took me straight back to those dramatic high school days when I'd retreat to my room and turn up the volume loud on my JVC boombox. The Disintegration cd was on extended repeats in that room. Angst, etc.

Re: the Minneapolis marathon.
Me (thinking): That guy looks exactly like Craig Finn, lead singer of the Hold Steady.

Yes, Craig Finn ran the MPLS half marathon. What?

I meant to get to this part of my trip, but here goes. I went to the US Army Quartermasters Museum in Petersburg, VA. I think I said I wished the people who knew how to organize a museum in Richmond would have helped out here.

I suspect that this museum was designed without the help of a professional museum-person, whatever they're called. First off, it's difficult to get to. It's inside Fort Lee, an active Army base, so you have to go through security to get inside. This barrier to entry is not described anywhere, as if it's assumed that you understand the ins and outs of going onto Army bases. The signage isn't terrific, so I just had to enter the base because it was the only option that made sense.

Upon first entering the museum, there was no welcome. No person, no sign. Figure it out.

OK, then I found my way into the main permanent exhibit. I think a good characteristic of an exhibit is that there is a clear path that covers everything. This was not the case at the Quartermasters Museum. There was really no path. I had to try to cover everything piecemeal, and then had to backtrack at the end because I missed stuff.

There were videos as parts of some displays, but they didn't appear to be carefully edited. The footage was of soldiers describing whatever they were describing, but they were recorded with a handheld camcorder most likely, and the videos just showed a soldier talking for five minutes. The interviewees weren't miked, so the audio was terrible and you could hear "The Ledge" by The Replacements in the background as well as you could hear the speaker.

The sad thing in all this is that I was there because I think logistics is really interesting. I would love to learn more about the quartermasters, but this museum fell far short of its potential.

Technology influencing art?

2011-05-15T13:38:00.005-05:00

Instead of creating, I've been consuming, and one of the things I've been consuming is AMC's newest original drama, The Killing. I like the show.

Something interesting happened on last week's episode. Here's the scene: The detectives visit a mosque to look for a guy, and take off their shoes as they enter, putting the shoes in the cubbyholes provided. They don't make it very far into the mosque, however, and the mosque guys speaks to them while they're still next to the cubbyholes. After the speaking goes nowhere, they get their shoes again, and then you see the detective has a piece of paper with a clue written on it.

While watching this, I thought, "now where did she get the paper?" I would have continued wondering but for the magic of the DVR. She didn't get the clue from the guy they were talking to, so it must have come from the shoes. Sure enough, upon watching the scene again, I saw one mosque-goer amidst the several who were coming and going during the scene slip something into the detective's shoe.

This is a very interesting directing decision for me. Conventional visual storytelling dictates that you show the detail to call the audience's attention to it. Cut to the woman inserting the slip of paper, or the character switching out the real artifact for the fake, or linger on the door that was unfortunately left unlocked. Instead, The Killing had this scene where almost everyone watching would have missed the detail. Even if someone noticed the woman reaching into the cubbys, there's little indication besides the general area that it's the detective's shoes she's doing something with.

So you're faced with the audience saying, like I did, "where did that note come from?" So my question is, was this decision enabled by DVR technology? Did the director say "they can go back and look?" Generally, I prefer subtle, and I was pleased and excited when I went back and found my answer in the episode. But the DVR is nowhere near a universal technology, so it would seem...bold?...to put an essential detail (as opposed to something like an easter egg) somewhere where most everyone will miss it if they're not looking for it.

P.S. Upon reading online reviews of the episode, it seems as if everyone is just satisfied that somehow, in the course of 3 minutes, a note got slipped into the detective's shoe. One review mentions rewinding the scene, but all the others just move on. So maybe it's not so bold, but I sure was confused when the paper appeared in her hand.

Richmond the next

2011-04-20T05:59:00.003-05:00

I used my first full Richmond day to go to museums. Indoor stuff. I went first to the National Park Service Tredegar site, where I had the place to myself. "Do you want to see the movie?" "Obv." That's exactly what I said, as far as you know. There's not a ton of great stuff at this site, but some good overview maps and videos.

Next to the NPS site is the American Civil War Center, a private museum. I paid the admission and spent maybe 15 minutes inside. There's a thematic unity to the museum, looking at the motivations of homeland, union, and freedom. There were videos that I didn't watch because I didn't want to take the time, and they seemed inauthentic. They weren't reenactment videos, just multicultural people standing around talking about Civil War issues. So it was kind of a flop, but the Quartermaster museum in Petersburg might want to consult with them about museum cohesion.

The exception to the indoor stuff was my morning visit to Hollywood Cemetery. Again, they were using the off season to do construction, but I was still able to see the graves of Jeb Stuart and Jeff Davis. Not to mention James Madison and John Tyler.

I went downtown to the Museum of the Confederacy, whose name makes it sound rednecky, but is actually one of the best Civil War museums around. It's engulfed by the VCU hospital complex, and there was much fanfare for the then Final Four-bound VCU basketball team while I was there. I parked in the hospital ramp and walked the wrong way so that I went around a superblock to get to the museum. It was there I realized I had forgotten my podcast in the car, but I figured out the short way back. I'm guessing the podcast is the same that you could rent at the museum, but it was informative and better than just looking and reading. I took the Confederate White House tour, which was okay. The tour guide was dynamic.

Intro to Richmond

2011-04-17T19:41:00.003-05:00

The civil war sites in and around RIchmond were less crowded than the ones that were farther away from metropolitan areas. This seems to not make sense, but I think it's one of those things were if there's a tourist attraction in your own town, you know that you can visit it anytime you want, so you may never actually visit the place. The sites are really, really spread out as well.

I changed hotels in the trip south, and it was a bit of a downgrade. Still nowhere near "sketchy," but the Fredericksburg hotel was a really good deal. I really like hotels. I like being the boss of a place and feeling like it's a special night, and I can order out food and channel surf. One of my favorite hotel stays was when I got stranded by bad weather in White Plains, NY. I was forced to do nothing. Loved it. Watched "Joe Millionaire."

Upon first arriving in Richmond, I went to Cold Harbor battlefield. The earthworks there are awesome. As the ranger said, "we could use them today if we started fighting again, God forbid." The whole time I was there, I had Cold Harbor and the novel/movie Cold Mountain conflated in my mind. I've never read the book or seen the movie, but I was wondering how the book related to the battle and if it was worth reading from a historical standpoint. I took the absence of the book in the park bookstore to be a "no." However, because the two aren't related as far as I know, I have to withdraw that conclusion. In and around Cold Harbor are other battlefields from a different campaign, the Seven Days. Because I wasn't following that one, I didn't go to those sites. This caused me a little anxiety in that I was there, I didn't know when I would return, but I wasn't seeing these battlefields. I got over this by imagining that I could return someday.

I spent a few days in Richmond, and it was good planning to get Cold Harbor out of the way in that first evening as opposed to just going straight to the hotel.

Spotsylvania Court House

2011-04-14T05:59:00.003-05:00

Luckily, my feeling of being alone at the national parks was ended when I drove up to Manassas. Not only were there plenty of cars in the visitor's center lot, but my tour seemed to be coinciding with a boys' lacrosse team outing. Although half of the team were wearing kepis and I wouldn't mind having them in class for a day to see what it's like when your kids value school, my estimation was that the trip to a historic site wasn’t decided by majority team vote. The chaperones/coaches asked questions, but the kids were just staring or starting to whisper on the tour that was the whole team and me.

I only spent a few hours in Manassas. I had finished my driving tour in the morning, and then did the podcast tour. I found the Manassas battlefield to require the most imagination, so I didn't stop at every point on the field. Also, there are modern busy roads going through the park unlike the park-only roads at other sites. From Manassas, I hustled to the Chancellorsville visitor's center, where I got the driving tour cd so I could get an early start the following morning.

This I did, and I was done with the Chancellorsville tour and back to the visitor's center before it opened. The young female park ranger who helped me the night before at Chancellorsville (who I had previously met at Fredericksburg that first day) told me that because it was the slow season, I could watch the video on demand the next day instead of having to follow the "every half hour schedule." The 40 year old male ranger the next morning did not offer the same deal, so after I entered the building at 9:03, I had to wait until 9:30 for the show. There was a countdown clock on the wall.

Every site has a video. Most sites have some sort of theater. It's clear the videos aren't produced centrally because they vary widely in content and tone. Some are like watching Ken Burns. Others feature re-enactors. Some are clearly outdated. James Earl Jones and Richard Dreyfuss were two recognizable narrators. One of the Appomattox videos has a clear positive spin, as in "everyone was now friends again" type of vibe. Sometimes the videos cost money, and some are free. Sometimes they're included in admission cost, although not every site charges. One exception to the video rule was Cold Harbor. No video there. That only might have been the smallest center I saw, though. The closed captioning wasn't working on one screen, which meant that I wasn't distracted by the words which I CANNOT HELP READING.

On to Richmond, and I did the Wilderness and Spotsylvania tours on the way, although at Spotsylvania, I encountered the other problem with off-season travel. They were doing a controlled burn in the park, so much of it was off-limits. They didn't mention this when I bought the driving tour, not that I expected them to, but it would have been nice. In many of the visitor centers, there was maintenance work going on. The interpretive labels were gone at Spotsylvania. I'm guessing all this will be done for the summer season.

Spotsylvania was the hardest site for me to imagine. I never really got my bearings, partly because I could only see a little section of the battlefield. There were lots of cars parked in one spot, the Bloody Angle, where you'd expect to see tourists, but all the cars were personnel. This was the story the entire trip. When I drove to Catharine Furnace on the Chancellorsville site, I saw another car parked there. Inevitably, this was a local runner. I could count on this happening with rare exceptions. It would be really good running at those parks.

Fredericksburg

2011-04-11T06:00:00.002-05:00

The way spring break was supposed to go was that I would get away from the extended winter here in Minny by traveling south, and by the time I returned, spring would have arrived. The temp wasn't too bad once I got back, but the first morning I woke up in Virginia, there was snow on the ground.

Concerned about the ability of Virginians to avoid running into my car with a bit of snow on the ground, I changed my plans for my first day and stuck around Fredericksburg. Off season park rangers are generally very happy to see you. I went to the park office first thing after a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, and talked to the rangers a bit.

In the basement of the F'burg museum, there's a relic from a tent that Henry H. Sibley designed. I had never heard that the namesake for my high school and the first governor of Minnesota invented a widely used tent. This is because there were two Henry H. Sibleys in the same era, one Yank and one Reb. I took a picture of bizarro Sibley's grave marker.

I did more trip advisor research on my lodging for this trip compared to last year's trip. This meant sacrificing character for increased peace of mind that friends of the housekeeping staff wouldn't be hanging out in my room when I was gone. The Battlefield Inn has its charms, but sometimes predictability is okay.

The Fredericksburg podcast tour is excellent. It was the first one I listened to, and the best one. I did the driving tour of the battlefield as well, but the walking tour gives you the sense of the most famous part of the battle.

Much imagination is required for all these battlefields, because they don't look much like they once did. Parts are preserved pretty well, but I'm talking about the big picture. Unlike at Shiloh, there are people living there lives right there on the battlefield.

It was on my first day that I fortuitously went to the Chatham house (because it was on the driving tour; I might have skipped it otherwise) and found myself the only tourist there. I got a personal tour from the Milwaukeean ranger, who kindly provided me a list of Civil War sites I ought to see during the rest of my travels.

I quit the day early in order to get my veggie chili mac and watch basketball. I moved seats at the bar to get closer to the HDTV, and the one guy watching the game wanted an assurance that I wasn't cheering for Kansas vs. VCU before he decided if he was going to be hostile or not.

weekend update

2011-04-09T18:27:00.003-05:00

My student considered my spring break activity of visiting battlefields to be the lamest, and that was before she learned that there weren't any actual battles going on in the year 2011 when I was there.

A macro overview of what's been going on:

During spring break two weeks ago, I flew into Charlotte, stayed in Huntersville, had breakfast in Chapel Hill, and supper in Fredericksburg, Va. Battlefields I visited: Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Richmond, Petersburg, and Appomattox. Touring during the offseason is nice. I was the first person to Appomattox the day I went, I was often the only person in the park buildings. No worries about traffic or crowding. On the downside, there were no special programs. Only one building was closed for the season, though. I returned to Huntersville in time to attend the Rush concert in Greensboro. My first time seeing them, although in high school they were playing across the street at Target Center while I was watching Primus at First Ave. Les Claypool asked us "Why aren't you over there? No, seriously! It's Rush!"

I just joined the Ed Bearss appreciation society on FB. A new thing this year was that I downloaded podcast that gave battlefield tours. This offset the problem of not having as many tours in the offseason. I didn't have any Ed Bearss tours like I did at Vicksburg, but the park rangers I listened to were very good.

What else do I talk about on here? I was not happy with the end of the college basketball season. If the favorites hadn't been knocked out, I wouldn't have the disappointment I experienced through the simulation heuristic.

Bowling league ended. Softball starts Wednesday. We did not win bowling.

Running has been going differently. I've been doing speedwork consistently, following a minimalist protocol. I feel like I'm in decent shape except for not running for two weeks around spring break, but I don't know if I can run the three marathons I've signed up for this year without doing mileage. I would have won a race this year, albeit a small town one, but I went the wrong way once I took the lead. The brain wasn't working correctly. After spring break was where my training regiment went off the rails last year, so we'll see how it goes from here.

Obviously, the writing isn't going great. It's so much easier to follow a physical regimen which has a distinct outcome and finite ending time than to write. If I go running, I know that every step is getting me closer to the finish. With writing, there aren't short-term wins.

I plan on making my first bike ride of the year tomorrow in addition to visiting St. Cloud. Nine weeks still summer.

2011-01-01T01:58:00.001-06:00

brother ali afterparty vip woo

2010-12-31T21:41:00.001-06:00

yes, that is a RAINBOW wristband which gave me all contents on table gratis

2010-12-24T17:49:00.000-06:00

N.C.

2010-12-04T10:26:00.002-06:00

I had a good visit to North Carolina. We did the usual Huntersville things like Brixx, the singing bears, Regal Cinema (Harry Potter), Fox and Hound, and burritos (I got Salsarita's at the airport). The kids were really fun. We went to the Ren Fest and saw the Ren Fest version of professional wrestling--the jousting tournament opening round.

The Carolina festival is comparable to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. The N.C. state fair is significantly smaller than Minnesota's, but the Carolina Ren Fest is almost as big. It's the same feel with some of the same attractions (vegetable justice, Tortuga Twins, but no Puke and Snot). It was nice to go since the river stymied my attempt to visit the Minnesota fair.

It was not a good weekend to be a Carolina fan. Friday night I was with the local Carolina Club to watch Minnesota beat UNC. I kept saying "there's no way the Gophers win this game because they're the Gophers," but then they won. Then they blew a 10 point halftime lead to Virginia. Anyway. We got to Chapel Hill early Saturday to see if the football team could fare better against NC State. Alas, no. I also got destroyed in Bags/Cornhole before the game because I just think I'm a mediocre athlete with the coordination bit.

Speaking of athletics, the running has slowed with the wintry weather of late. And I can't find the shoes I want for sale in my size. I did finish the book "Born to Run" which is motivating and reinforces my drive to run an ultra. You have to run to do that, though.

2010-11-20T11:44:00.001-06:00

2010-11-20T09:45:00.001-06:00

2010-11-19T18:03:00.001-06:00

birkdale

Rocky's Run

2010-11-07T17:54:00.002-06:00

I ran my first cross country race of my life today. Two, actually. We ran the U of M course, which is on the golf course, which is a great place to run in barefoot shoes. Or "toe shoes" as the other guys wearing them said to me. I raced a 5k first, and then ran an 8k easy. My jogging early on in the 8k was rewarded when the runners way ahead of me stopped running and looked confused. They'd missed a turn some ways back, as had I, but they had farther to backtrack. The Gopher women's cross country team ran the 5k with us. Again, I wish I had run cross country in high school the year I quit soccer.

I feel like I can give a better assessment of the VFF toe shoes at this point. I love how my running has been invigorated by minimalism, but I'm realizing there are alternatives to the Vibrams. If you don't put them on exactly right, your toes can get scrunched. I'm not certain if the problem with my little toe last weekend was a fluke or not. It still hurts sometimes in the shoes, but maybe that's because it's sore.

A minimalist shoe without toes would solve two problems. The first is the attention the toe shoes draw. I really don't want to be the toe shoe ambassador at every race.

The bigger problem is that if it's 45 degrees outside, my toes get cold wearing these shoes, which makes them impractical for year round running. And I run outside year round. I don't want to go back to conventional running shoes this winter. Having your toes separated prevents them from keeping each other warm.

I don't think there's a particular advantage to having toes in one's shoes as opposed to having a shoe with a big toe box. It's not as if I have chimp toes, individually prehensile. I'm looking at options for this winter right now to continue barefoot running in the snow, like Hank and I did yesterday at the ski slopes.

TWIS: This Week in School

2010-11-06T05:56:00.003-05:00

A blond white male student was attempting to negotiate with me to leave school 10 minutes early because his ride was there. A black female student, observing the exchange, asked if we were brothers. I guessing this girl has never been in a class before with someone who is a sibling of the teacher, so I don't know where she got that idea. I let the comment go, but the boy started asking why she would say that. "Because you look alike." After that, other students got involved, telling her to stop talking as if she'd just said something very offensive. Which made me start to feel a little offended. What? This is so bad, being compared to me?

My fourth hour comes to class right after lunch. One girl was near my room as I was greeting at the door, but then when it was time for class to start, she wasn't there. About five minutes later she showed up, and I confronted her about being late. "I had to eat more food," she said. "You're supposed to be in class," I replied. "My food is more important than your class." Oh. Okay.

People.

2010-11-05T05:43:00.002-05:00

I was driving into the alley the other day when a guy was digging through a trash can while his dog was a little bit in my path. So I waited for him to notice that I was there so he could move because really, alleys are for cars. One reason alleys exist is to make sidewalks safer, so really, that's where a pedestrian and his dog ought to be. There are no trash cans to dive through on the sidewalk, though, so I can see this guy's problem. I waited, patiently, for almost ten seconds before the guy saw me and then quickly moved out of the way. I started to drive by when he made a huge flourish as if to say "HERE YOU GO, YOUR MAJESTY."

The nighttime custodian comes in my room after school to empty the trash/recycling. He surveys the floor every time and comments on the cleanliness. One time, he said "There's always gotta be one teacher who lets the kids throw paper on the floor." This, after I had already picked up the floor myself and didn't think it was so bad.

Significant events of last weekend

2010-11-04T05:21:00.004-05:00

I ran a half marathon in my VFFs, which was going to be the farthest I've run in those things. However, I didn't allow enough time to take into account that I was parking two miles from the start line, so I ended up running those 2+ miles before the actual race even started. That shorter distance was mostly on grass, which will become significant later on.

I raced past the start line, past the 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 minute mile pace markers where the distance got wider and wider as the pace got slower, and finally found the bag drop where I could leave my sweats to pick up at the finish so that I wouldn't be cold at the end. I considered not checking a bag, and that would have been a really bad idea for reasons to be described later. I then ran back to get with my pace group with about a minute to spare since the race started a few minutes later than the scheduled time.

No one recognized my costume beyond "crazy hair guy."

I didn't spaz out at the start, instead running a conservative first mile with the intention of running negative splits. This worked until I hit an asymptote, but I didn't slow down after that, either. Normally, I'd be gutting out the last few miles, but I felt fine on this run. My big leg muscles weren't dying like in prior races of this distance. I credit the shoes. I was able to finish with a nice kick.

The shoes have drawbacks as well, though. Five days later, and I can still feel tightness in my calves. This isn't as big a downside as having the bottoms of my feet slightly bruised from running on pavement for that far. I've only run on grass this week, although I guess I could have put on conventional running shoes. Somehow, I got blood underneath one little toenail. I've heard runners talk about losing toenails, but it's never happened to me before.

We were supposed to take a shuttle bus back to the start, so I found out where the shuttles would be and we found the sign indicating the shuttle stop. We waited there about 20 minutes with about 20 other people before people started questioning whether we were in the right spot. But there's a sign that says we're in the right spot! On the other hand, there was a bigger group of people on the other side of the rose garden. Still, I didn't move because I had a sign backing me up. Then I saw an actual bus on top of the hill, not where the sign was, so I moved to the back of a now very long line and waited 40 minutes to get on the bus which was about 15 minutes more than if I hadn't stuck to my sign position and switched spots right away. It wasn't super cold, but I was glad to have my sweats while waiting for that bus. Not everyone in line did.

When I got home from the race, we were relaxing on the couch when I decided I just wanted to check in on the Stewart/Colbert rally to see what was going on. I hadn't been that interested in it to begin with, but I watched that thing until the end. It sucked me in and was entertaining and a little inspiring in a cynical age. Especially in light of Tuesday's events. I know they have lots of space to fill with election analysis, but isn't 95% of the result explained by bad economy and employment is bad for incumbents?

In case you were wondering, it's November 4 and I'm not planning on doing Nanowrimo for the first time since 2003. I don't feel like I'm in a place to do it right now.

The Charter School Myth

2010-10-27T20:43:00.001-05:00

Another take on WFS, this one focusing on mainstream public vs. charter schools.

throwing around "love" without caring

2010-10-23T06:50:00.005-05:00

Because I love love love Soul Asylum and the Gear Daddies, you might think I'd be equally fond of the Jayhawks, but I'm not. I like them, but alas, my caring doesn't go quite so deep for them. Maybe it has something to do with the way the band members seem more aloof, or else it's just the style of music that I can't get into as much. Everything I just said applies to Golden Smog as well.

For an example of a band I loved because they were mine, you could take Luscious Jackson. I read about them somewhere, bought the cd, liked it, listened to it a lot, and then became extra attached because I didn't know anyone else who liked them. Judybats, same thing.

The Luscious Jackson fandom came around the time I switched preferences to female voices. Primus was my very favorite band when I was in tenth grade or so, probably end the end of high school, although I had been growing out of them. The first time I heard Ani DiFranco's "32 Flavors," I fell in love with Ani. She was my favorite for a long time (with Liz Phair a close runner-up) until her style changed and I eventually switched to Tegan and Sara.

I was thinking yesterday about writing about music brings to mind High Fidelity. I haven't read the book in a long time, but I think I could write about music in the way it's written about in that book. What I remember is that it's less about the technical aspects of the music and more about the social aspect of music and how music relates to people. Although it's written with more authority than I feel.

This has always been something I've wondered about: How people can be so certain of their correctness. When I'm writing about, say, public education, I have to some myself from qualifying everything I write with "probably" or something similar even though that's what I'm thinking. Speaking of remarkable self-assurance and education, I think I maybe wrote about the book Educating Esmé before. If I did, I wrote about my trouble understanding how the eponymous author would lay into the assistant principal or whatever she did, lecturing and judging others, all in her first year, when most teachers are struggling to figure out what's going on. Not Esmé though, she had it all figured out. (Her website has as its central quote "Reading is a civil right" attributed to, you guessed it, Esmé. My feeling about platitudes is a topic for another time. And now I'm second-guessing myself for making this mildly critical statement.)

I will post this before talking about my hair metal fandom or pop music of Norway.

these bands

2010-10-22T07:29:00.005-05:00

I have no interest in being a music critic. You know how Insane Clown Posse did "Miracles?"

In "Miracles," ICP says in a sense that to understand something takes away from the enjoyment of it. While I beg to differ, I sometimes have this feeling about music when I realize I have almost no critical vocabulary for processing whether a pop song is good or not. I KNOW WHAT I LIKE DAMMIT! Rationally, I think I'd appreciate songs more if I knew more about music, but on the other hand, I might find myself unable to stomach some of the crap I enjoy right now. It's like finding out what goes into a hot dog or something. Permanently ruined.

Rather than evaluating music on its own merits, I simplistically just "like" music, especially if I associate it with a particular memory or time in my life, just like a self-centered person would do. Here's what comes to mind, arranged in whatever categories come to mind as I'm writing. (You know I rarely edit my shitty first drafts in this blog, right?)

Bands I Love Love Love:

Superchunk. Like many of these, they won my heart live. In high school, I was an aspiring music snob who never really got over the hump. At that time, I would have talked about how great local music was without really being able to offer a reason why. (Reason: Live shows.) When I got to Chapel Hill, I decided I really needed to listen to Superchunk and they clicked with me. I saw them at Cat's Cradle and then at First Ave ten years ago.

The album Here's To Shutting Up came out around the same time I bought my house, and I listened to that album over and over again when I was here waiting for my roommate to move in. Every time I hear the intro to "Art Class" I smile. I love "Phone Sex." I'll listen to that thing from beginning to end and never get sick of it.

Soul Asylum. "Sometime to Return" was my theme song going away to college. That song and "Cartoon" were next to each other on the album Hang Time so I think of these two together. They helped remind me of Minnesota when I was still getting over homesickness.

The Gear Daddies served the same purpose. I listened to "Strength" on repeat after my freshman year incident, just like a dramatic person would.

This post is long enough. Sometime maybe I'll address other love love love bands/albums/songs or:
Bands I Love(d) because they were mine:
Bands that didn't make the list that you might have thought would have:

To read about ICP's recent outing themselves as evangelical Christians, look here. I read the AV Club interview with ICP but still don't understand exactly how scientists are lying, as they accuse in "Miracles."

SNL's parody, only funny if you've seen the original:

Drinks at the Turn sample chapter draft

2010-10-21T07:04:00.002-05:00

A quick Google search for "almond cream seltzer" garners zero results, but that was my favorite drink to order if a golfer offered to buy me a drink after caddying nine holes with nine to go. At the 'Set, tipping caddies was prohibited, and golfers would offer you a (soft) drink in lieu of a tip when they bought drinks after nine holes.

I don't know the reasoning behind the tipping policy. Maybe they did it just because they could. These were some wealthy members so they could afford to tip generously. The membership included prominent community members, so maybe they didn't want to lose votes for being bad tippers. It was said that one or two members would sometimes tip a caddy on the sly, and guests were not held to the policy. Except when one of the club's biggest jackasses noticed a guest about to tip a caddy and ran over yelling "no tipping! no tipping!" as if a 15 year old getting an extra $10 would collapse the entire social order. During tournaments, you'd hope to get a guest and then spend the entire four hours of the round trying to figure out if you were going to get tipped or not. Usually not, even if it seemed as if your golfer was sending signals that he was.

So you'd take your drink at the turn, which usually tasted pretty good after a couple hours' work, and you'd get to enjoy it away from the golfers because there was a cutoff at hole 10. A cutoff was where the caddies would stand down the fairway (off to the side) so that we could be where the balls were going and thus find them for the golfers more easily. The trouble was that on a hole like 9, it was really hard to see and track a ball being hit, so then the golfer would be approaching and you'd sometimes have no idea where the ball was. Did he duff it so that you had to backtrack with the bag? Was it in the opposite rough? Was it over the hill on the fairway? You'd try to read the golfer to see where he was headed, but sometimes he'd ask where he went and eventually you were experienced enough as a caddy to say that you didn't see it, which was reasonable. Despite the reasonableness of this statement, it didn't stop some golfers from getting upset because the whole point of the caddy being up here is to see the ball better. Even though the golfer never tried watching a ball from that vantage point.

Anyway, at 10 there was a cutoff where the golfers weren't hitting balls straight at you and there was less "trouble" for them to get into, so you could enjoy your drink and talk with the other caddy for a bit. When they had it, I'd be drinking an almond cream seltzer. They were out of it a lot, and they only carried it for a couple years or so. Some other caddy turned me on to the drink. I don't remember the brand, but there was a bottle with the label "almond cream seltzer" and the bartender would just pour it over ice.

This violated a principle of caddy drink ordering, but because the almond cream was so very good and also rare, it was okay. The principle was to maximize your drink return. A drink was a drink in the golfer's eyes, so why not order something awesome? (I am not aware that any other caddies observed this principle.) Instead of ordering a coke, where the bartender just put ice in the styrofoam cup and pressed the button to fill the cup, order a cherry coke, where they'd put that cherry syrup in. That's taking advantage of your free drink. You can get a coke anywhere.

Usually you'd go up to get your drink with the golfers. The clubhouse had a little indent across the road from the #9 green with a little window to order drinks from. You'd go up the steps, stand on the bricks and listen to the golfers talk about whatever, then order your drink from the bartender when it was your turn. I ordered cherry cokes a lot once they stopped having the almond in stock, but from time to time, I'd get a Shirley Temple if it felt like a Shirley Temple day or if I'd already caddied in the morning and ordered the cherry coke at that time.

With either drink, there'd be a maraschino cherry in it and then you'd have to decide it you were going to drink it a little faster than you'd like to free up your hands for caddying, or savor the drink but be handicapped and have nowhere to dispose of the cup until hole 11 (also a cutoff).

I don't remember ever ordering anything besides those three drinks unless it was an ice water if I thought that would taste the best on a very hot day. As for the golfers, it was usually a mixed drink or a soft drink, hardly ever a beer as I recall (and never a Shirley Temple).

caddyshack

2010-10-16T06:12:00.002-05:00

Last weekend, we were talking about Somerset golf course, how it's still pristine, and how we ought to write a book on the life of the caddy. I spent at least parts of 10 summers in that dump of a caddyshack which amounted to a clubhouse, and I was thinking about how tame it was considering that there was no adult supervision in the caddyshack. My perception of the average teenager may have shifted after being in alternative education for 11 years, but we didn't got beyond "boys will be boys" shenanigans there on our own.

Rolé and I talked about how the book would have chapters on "jobs," e.g., the oft-threatened pond job and the less common pine and sand jobs. A rookie caddy, known as a "fly," would often be told they would be thrown in a pond on, say, Derby Day, the biggest tournament of the year. Sometimes this actually happened, but probably far less often than it did during the 70's.

The caddyshack was covered on the inside with graffiti marking important events such as historical pond jobs. This is the historical evidence that indicates the existence of possible pine jobs, because I am not aware of a pine job happening while I was there. The graffiti implies that the lawlessness was greater back in the 70's. Perhaps there was a crackdown. I remember when I told my parents I was going to caddy that Dad knew someone whose sons had caddied there and found the social experience to be unpleasant.

One example of how tame it was when I was there was the treatment of female caddies. The caddyshack was by no means welcoming to girl caddies when I was there, and girl caddies usually didn't last long, but caddies weren't crude and disgusting to the girls, at least not to my memory. Not that being unwelcoming is admirable, but it could have been way worse.

Maybe the caddymasters kept things reined in. The caddymasters were college students, generally, although they seemed older. The line of authority that separated the caddymaster from the caddies was sometimes blurred when the caddymaster would get caught up in some exciting gambling action. The gambling was always low stakes, though. I don't remember ever seeing drugs or alcohol in the caddyshack, although I wouldn't be surprised if that were more common in the preceding era. The pro shop was another story.

You'd have to include a chapter on shaftball. We took golf club shafts, usually ones that used to be full golf club but had been broken, and used them as bats to hit a tennis ball. The caddy yard was the diamond, you'd play pitcher's hand, and it was a strike if you hit the basketball hoop pole between the marked lines. Hitting it over the caddyshack was a home run. Unsuccessful batters got their names printed on the caddyshack walls for the K record. The most memorable shaftball moment was when a frustrated batter whipped the shaft whereupon it became embedded in the leg of another caddy.

Talking about the golfers would be fun.

follow up to WFS post

2010-10-09T06:25:00.002-05:00

I'll say in this separate post that laypeople should be involved in discussions about educations because everyone's a stakeholder. But let's not assume automatically that the best practices of the 1950's in education still are best today. "It worked for me" and "I turned out fine" is what we hear, but what if you had more options when you were a kid? I don't think a vast majority of people got excited for school.

I may have made teachers sound like one monolithic group in agreement about education, but unfortunately, many, many teachers operate under the same assumptions as the "laypeople." It's a minority of progressive teachers who are following current research and adapting it for their classrooms.

I actually think the school system should be completely rethought. What are the outcomes we really want? Not just the outcomes easy to measure or the ones we learned were important when we were in school. Yes, schools are incredibly expensive. We could save money and offer far more choice in education to students by expanding online education. Use the concept of the long tail to offer niche classes available to students across the country.

Do students need to show up to a physical building every weekday? The costs of building operation and transportation could be greatly reduced with a model that combines online and experiential learning.

Sure, there's value in the social interactions at school, but
1. couldn't we put alternative social activities in place that won't spill over and become issues for classroom management, and
2. the current model takes away student autonomy in order to work with groups of students.

How would this work with whatever special needs population you want to talk about? (Poverty, ELL, special ed, etc.) Well, I believe if you were starting from scratch, you'd have the money to address underlying issues with these populations in a more direct way instead of trying to get an existing system not designed for those kids to stretch to meet their needs, as is the current practice.

These are half-baked ideas and like I said yesterday, I don't have any politically feasible ideas. Just a wish list.

Waiting for Superman

2010-10-08T16:08:00.004-05:00

I just saw Waiting For "Superman" (WFS from here on) and I have some thoughts.

I actually liked the movie despite all the criticism I've heard launched at it by teacher types and the union. It's shining a light on one of those problems in the world that I generally try not to think about from day to day because it seems too intractable and thus depressing. This particular problem however, hits close to home geographically and vocationally. This is going on virtually everywhere in the United States. It's obviously our responsibility, unlike, say, stopping the Taliban from treating women as inferior beings. Because I'm in education and know something about it through my experience, this is an area in which I have some expertise. Not that I have any sort of politically feasible solution.

While watching the movie, I wanted to do something, to do a good job in my classroom and to help the kids in the movie who are young and eager and will soon have their enthusiasm crushed thanks to the school system. For that reason, I liked the movie.

But as someone who has experience in education, I have many problems with the movie. The main one, which forms the backbone of the entire film, is that the movie equates good test results with learning and education. As in, these schools have good test scores, so they are excellent schools. As in, these schools have poor test scores, so they're failing. As in, KIPP schools improve test scores, so these are excellent schools. (WFS also implies all private schools are good schools, too.)

The exemplary "good" classrooms shown in the movie show students raising their hands and answering basic/recall level questions. I'm guessing that Guggenheim, the director, did not even consider critical thinking ability as a desirable outcome for students. Reading and math are easy to test and that's what the movie talks about most. Reading and math scores. No coincidence there. We test what's easy to test, which is recall of facts, reading comprehension, and ability to solve textbook math problems.

Even Geoffrey Canada, one of the hero reformers in the movie, doesn't care for this emphasis on easily measurable outcomes. But the movie lauds the KIPP program for increasing test scores, and shows the call and response classroom activities to support what great schools these are. Sing-song call and responses are good for learning basic facts, but a member of the public might think after watching this that 100% of education in schools should use that model.

Good education gives students flexible, universal skills. Skills like problem solving. Good education promotes creativity. What I've learned in my professional development looks nothing like what Guggenheim is promoting in the movie. One reason is that real problem solving and creativity are difficult to assess. Difficult, but not impossible. Imagine an educational system where we give every student individually and in teams a research-based (and labor-intensive) assessment where they're presented with an ambiguous situation which measures problem solving, creativity, and the ability to work as part of a team. This assessment could require reading, writing, and math skills. It could require or at least reward a scientific, systematic approach to the problem. Social studies knowledge could be embedded. Imagine how priorities would change in the classroom! But that would be way more expensive than an existing standardized test.

On the other hand, it was really sad to see a curious first grader in the movie already being turned against school because of the school environment he was in. I'm not saying there's no problem. I just don't think WFS gets into any sort of depth about what education is.

The implication of WFS is that education consists of students learning specific skills, and in one of the movie's animated sequences, it explicitly goes even further. In the sequence, the voiceover says something like "it seems as simple as this, teachers give the knowledge to students" while showing a cartoon teacher opening the skulls of students and pouring in the ABCs with a scoop. I was waiting for the next part where they addresses how this model of education is outdated by at least 30 years, but it never came. Guggenheim believes, apparently, that education involves good teachers imparting their knowledge to students. This is reinforced with all the "good teacher" animations showing the good teachers talking in front of a class. (Bad teachers are reading the newspaper.)

This is what's deeply frustrating about the discourse on education in this country. Because someone went to school in their childhood, they feel as qualified as anyone on the subject of education. They don't know what they don't know, that education has changed and is changing.

The most salient change in this case is everything we now know about how the brain learns. Most laypeople don't know about how the brain acquires, stores, and recalls information best. It's not by listening to a really good teacher lecture and ask recall questions. The emphasis on skills and the idea that teachers plant knowledge in their kids give me the impression that this is the layperson's idea of what education is. The harm, then, is that lots of people will see this movie and accept the compelling case made when Guggenheim makes the assumptions he does.

I'm not saying basic skills are important. Reading is so important. When I wrote about the problem with an extended school day, I was coming from a secondary-centric point of view. Having a longer school day in a KIPP school would improve reading and other basic skills, I'm sure. It might also burn out your teachers.

At the very end, during the credits, the text on the screen reads something like "We know what works: good teachers + high expections + strong standards" and I'm probably forgetting an element or two. Let's assume for a second that the recipe works in all cases. (Try putting a great teacher with high expectations and strong standards in a terrible school. See if that yields outstanding results.) In that case, what's the sticking point?

The "good teacher" part, according to WFS. The unions are upset about the movie because they are presented as the primary impediment to having the world's best educational system. I think it's more complicated than that, but in my second year in a union, I have to say that the primary concern of the union seems to be to protect its membership as opposed to having the best schools possible. So some of the points made about unions by WFS are well-taken. It's actually in the long-term best interest of the teachers' union to provide a way to remove terrible teachers. The rub, as it were, is how we decide who's terrible.

There's a slide presented in WFS saying how only 1 in 2500 teachers lost their license in Illinois compared to 1 in 57 for physicians and 1 in 97 for lawyers. Why should these all be comparable? Why would a doctor or lawyer lose a license? I'm guessing for doctors, repeated incompetence perhaps. For lawyers and doctors (and teachers), ethics violations. Losing a professional license is a harsh consequence for egregious behavior. I'm not convinced of the applicability of this statistic, but I guess I'm not sure exactly why right now.

Here's what may be the source of the statistic. This article reprints it, but changes the teachers losing their license to teachers being fired. Obviously, this makes teachers sound way more protected than they are.

They spend a lot of time talking about how you can't fire a teacher. It's impossible. And then later, they talk about how it's difficult to fire a teacher, but it can be done. Frequently, WFS doesn't differentiate between the rules of different jurisdictions. (Which they do address as part of the problem, which I would agree with.)

At least WFS talks about the original need for teachers' unions. It does not, however, stick with that storyline to the point where they would explain what a union ought to look like in contemporary times if they're such an impediment.

Polarizing Michelle Rhee is lionized by WFS. Her observation that school district politics keep adults happy at the expense of kids is trenchant, but her methods! Trumpesque. "You're fired." WFS lays out her innovative proposal to create two pay scales for teachers, one with tenure and one without. The one without doesn't allow for tenure, however. This is just one time in WFS where it's assumed that more pay will motivate teachers to improve. "Why can't we [financially] reward great teachers?" asks the director. "Because the teachers' contract doesn't allow for it." Some readers have already seen this video, but for others, it's worth watching. In short, my interpretation is that current research in motivation says that if teachers are paid a decent base salary, having financial incentives won't improve teaching.

Guggenheim pokes fun at the extensive paperwork required to work with a teacher needing improvement, and the description in WFS sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare, but why shouldn't we intervene and help struggling teachers? They chose the profession, which indicates at least some of the requirements to be a good teacher. "We have to observe and then have a conference with the teacher after the observation." I don't understand what's so crazy about that.

Maybe another reason that WFS feels anti-teacher to some is the labeling. "Failing schools. Dropout factories." You know there are good staff in those places. You know that the odds are stacked against them to begin with. How do you think it makes them feel to hear their school that they care enough to work in being called a dropout factory? "Tough shit," some would say in response. "That's how the world works." Education is not the real world. These are children. This is not a business. At no point in the entire 102 minutes of the movie did they talk about the importance of the teacher-student relationship in learning.

Again, I liked the movie and think it's valuable. I just felt as if it got a lot wrong on the fundamental question of what education is. There are definitely far too many classrooms in this country where education is not happening, but what WFS proposes as a solution isn't what I think of as great education, either.

etc.

2010-10-07T09:26:00.002-05:00

Things I've done but haven't written about: My second duathlon wherein there was no single speed category so I got no prize. Stayed up for the end of the Twins last night. Third verse, same as the first. Tried to attend the Renaissance Festival last weekend, riding my bike two hours to Chaska only to be stymied a mile from the entrance by the road being underwater. Started a new bowling league and rolled far above my average the first game back. I'm excited for the season. I played in a handball tournament a mile from my house, and I love my VFF footwear (although I do not wear them for handball). I got the house reroofed and fixed some other stuff. I improved the yard last weekend. I've gotten sucked in to fantasy football. I made it through September at school. No small feat.

The Cuddly Twins

2010-09-18T08:59:00.002-05:00

I haven't been watching Twins games all summer. I've been to a few at Target Field, and although I've lost track of what the team's been doing for days at a time, I've watched a lot of the games this season.

In the current era of success for the Twins, starting in 2002, they've developed a habit of regular season success followed by postseason run droughts. As a fan of a baseball team, this is preferable to me than to have a World Series season followed by lots of suckitude. Maybe a Marlins fan would differ here, but I find the regular season lots of fun. Much more so if your team is good. So I've gotten season after season of meaningful baseball this decade, even if the team has fallen short in October.

This team is different, though. Here's the first Twins team since 2002 where the batting lineup contains no weak links. When the Twins would face the Yankees in the postseason, a Twins lead was, from a standpoint of my anxiety, no better and perhaps worse than if the Twins were behind, because any single Yankees batter could go yard at any time. When Melky Cabrera is batting 9th in 2009 or Matsui batting 7th in 2003, the Yankee order is deep. Meanwhile, we had Mientkiewicz batting 3rd in 2003.

This year, when the Twins field their best team like they did in Chicago, JJ Hardy was batting 9th. No slouch. This year, the Twins have some power threats. If the pitching hangs on to consistency, it could be a successful postseason for the first time in a few years. And the Target Field temperatures will get lower and lower.

Fantasy Football

2010-09-08T04:38:00.003-05:00

I joined a fantasy football league for the first time in my life. It's a work league, and they invited me after a couple people from last year dropped out. I figured it would be entertaining and promote camaraderie.

My concern is that I don't really need more entertainment in my life. Yesterday after school I spent a lot more time than I thought I was going to working on my roster, and I spent $4 (hopefully) improving it. Time and money. I am pretty sure that this will cause me to spend more time watching football, and I might get the Red Zone package which will cause me to spend more money. It will be entertaining, but again, I've got plenty of entertainment options already. I haven't been bored in a long, long time.

The draft was fun. We had our table with 11 people around it, ordering food and drinks with a draft board at the end. You'd fill out your label with the player name and they'd stick it up on the board. Meanwhile, I was looking through the draft cheat sheets I'd both printed out for free and purchased. Yes, I bought an $8 fantasy football publication.

Sometimes in the past I haven't even watched the Vikings games, especially when it's nice out, which shows my level of interest in especially early season NFL games. I don't think that I'll suddenly watch every game I can on Sunday, but I'll likely watch SportsCenter and/or check the league website with frequency after the games.

I picked low in the draft, so I was taking a "best player available" approach. This left me rich in running backs and poor in receivers, although I don't have a single blue chipper on my team. Matt Ryan is my starting QB this week.

Meanwhile, I'm completely revamping what I'm doing in the classroom. But I'm not talking about that right now.

VFFs

2010-09-07T05:24:00.003-05:00

I did get the Vibram five finger shoes this summer. I saw the interview with Christopher McDougall on HBO's Real Sports and was intrigued. I'm kind of a sucker for "natural" things. McDougall wrote a book with a premise that modern heavily cushioned shoes change the human running gait, contributing to injury. A big piece of evidence is his time with the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico who run great distances wearing basically flip flops without the stress injuries of the Nike world.

I ran a 5k with them on yesterday, and a guy asked me about them while running. That's probably the worst thing about them—the attention they get. That, and the fact that I'm not very good at fitting them to my feet. Sometimes they're comfortable, and other times I have to adjust them before they're comfortable. Running in them blasts the calves and it's kind of fun. It's been motivating for me this summer to have them to run in. The best is sprinting up the stair/hills in the park where only the balls of my feet barely touch every other step. It's liberating.

my bicycle

2010-09-03T07:59:00.003-05:00

Also, I got a bike this summer. I rode it like a madman all summer and wondered why I hadn't had a good working bike in so long. One reason was that I was doing PCA work and you can't cart a PCA client around on a bike. And then I just got into that habit of driving and didn't think about how much I could be using a bike.

I had a class at the U and wondered exactly how I was going to park there. I thought I ought to take the bus, but bus service in the Cities is not awesome. Oh, wait. I'll just bike. I even did a practice run because I hadn't had my bike for long. I discovered that I could get to campus in less than 20 minutes, which is probably about the same time it would take to drive and less time than the bus.

I commuted every day to class and did some recreational rides, too. I haven't ridden to my job in Brooklyn Park or the training I had in Maple Grove. I don't want to spend 3 hours riding every day, and there's no buses that go to BP in the morning. When I tried to find a bike/bus combo on the metro transit site, they told me to leave Monday afternoon to get to school Tuesday morning.

I started bike shopping with only the vaguest idea of what I wanted, then I figured out with the help of friends that I wanted a single speed. At first, I was skeptical because only insane or intense bikers ride single speeds. Except then I remembered that I had a single speed when I was 8, and I wasn't a particularly intense cyclist back then. There's been only one time, on the hill next to the Walker Art Center open space, that I've had to get off and walk. Otherwise, I work hard on the few hills I do come across, and most of the biking in the Cities can be easy.

MInneapolis Duathlon

2010-08-30T05:42:00.004-05:00

I did the world's largest duathlon yesterday. The format was 5k run-18 mile bike-5k run. I'd never been in a bike race before outside of any informal heats on Winslow Avenue. There were some training days put on by Team Ortho leading up to the event and I attended one of them to get an idea of what the transitions would be like.

Besides seeing an example transition area during the training session, we ran-biked-ran. I biked the complete course in between my runs and found it enjoyable. During the actual race yesterday, I wondered if there was someone behind me holding a bungee cord attached to my back.

I didn't help that it was one of the windiest weekends we've had, or that my wave started at 9:30 when it was already feeling hot, or that I ran the second run after 11 in the morning when it was legitimately hot.

I'm glad I didn't bike to Eden Prairie the night before, which I was thinking about doing. I was still feeling the effects of Tuesday's run yesterday when I sprinted in my VFFs because a dog was sprinting attached to me.

The Team Ortho races are popular and fun, which means they fill up early and are expensive. The free stuff is better than any other races, and yesterday's race included a free beer at Brit's, where I was told they would have valets to take your bike. In reality, the Brit's parking garage was reserved for bikes and you just parked your own there while 15 year olds served as security at the door.

The one uh-oh moment happened when I was putting my bike on the transition rack. It's tricky because my bike is too tall to fit under without leaning it sideways. Some people made a comment about how my bike was too tall and then said I was in the wrong place. I don't know how they knew because I never cracked the code on the bibs. It must have been my wave number. Anyway, they told me my transition area had closed a long time ago. "That's crazy," I thought. "It can't be full." I asked a volunteer who confirmed this, but I remembered then that it wasn't closed because it was full, but because that's the scheduled closing time. When I had learned the day before that I would be starting at 9:30 instead of 8:30, I completely forgot about the transition area times. I was directed to a race official who took my bike into my transition area, and then I had to run back in being politely yelled at by volunteers because I forgot my helmet number. And then I still had to sit and wait.

xkcd wins again

2010-08-28T12:46:00.002-05:00

This is so very frustrating for the teachers of the maths. Technology more than a decade old! More or less the same price as when it was first introduced! Defying normal patterns of technology!

Boundary Waters

2010-08-27T07:00:00.004-05:00

I made my first trip to the Boundary Waters a couple weeks ago. In order to show that you know about the BWCA, you should now ask me "Where did you put in?" Kawishiwi is the answer.

Growing up, we went car camping a couple times, and that was the extent of my camping experience. I was sick of hearing about how great the BWCA was and never having been, so I jumped at the chance to go.

We left on a Thursday after work and made it almost out of town before...well, guess what happened when we said "That strap is flying free. What do you think would happen if it got caught in the wheel of the trailer?" The strap breaks clean is what happens. So we re-strapped at the only Holiday that doesn't sell fishing licenses and then had to stop again. Lots of driving later, we stopped at another Holiday in Two Harbors that had a broken fishing license machine. We made it to a National Forest campsite late, had celebratory Surlys, and bedded down next to the Temperance River.

The next day started with chips and salsa. Andy and I were the rookies on the trip while Mike and Scott told us whatever they wanted because we didn't know any better. It was fun to complain about not knowing things, like that we were supposed to bring a breakfast for that morning.

At the outfitters where we picked up the second canoe and permit, we had to watch the mandatory video on how to improve the BWCA while you're out there by setting up camp furniture for the next group out of pine boughs and stumps, how to make sure your trash, cans, and glass bottles sink all the way to the bottom of the lake, and how other campers like it if you provide entertainment for them, preferably something with a lot of AutoTune. The best part of the video was the bear. Two campers are minding their own business when a bear lumbers along until the bear is about 10 feet away from them. The man stands up and makes the goofiest Karate Kid pose (without the leg lift) and the woman starts banging pots and pans. The bear scampers off. Getting the trained bear must have blown their budget for the rest of the video, because all the footage seemed to come from one youth group excursion.

We also got lessons on how to treat the rental canoe, which the occupants of the rental canoe disregarded for the rest of the trip. Many times I'd hear that canoe scrape rocks, and I could always count on Andy's head whipping around to see Scott's reaction since Scott's name was on the rental.

Scott and Mike fished while we were at camp, and what were we supposed to do? "Get water," a task that took ten minutes. For the other 2.5 hours, we made beverages. This behavior led to a rationing on the last full day in, unfortunately.

I kind of thought I suffered permanent nerve damage on my first portage. It was like caddying doubles, but with a tour bags filled with rocke with narrow straps. And a backpack that weighed as much as a kindergartener. On the way out, I knew I had to take the longest portage, about 1 klick, so I distracted myself by counting steps, and it was effective. Using one arm at a time also saved the shoulders. Too bad I got that advice on the last portage, but I'm happy to report that I appear to have made a full recovery.

I'd go back. Rationally, I knew while I was there that I was in a remote area that takes effort to get to. In my gut, though, it didn't seem qualitatively different from any quiet lake. This isn't to say that I didn't appreciate what was there. But I think going up there for a week would help to immerse you in the environment.

Pedalpub

2010-08-26T05:37:00.003-05:00

One highlight of the summer has to be the Pedalpub.

On July 20, we met up at the Happy Gnome to take a tour of the Selby/Grand Avenue area. I hoisted a keg up onto the contraption and found a seat. Our driver made us sign our lives away and listed the rules and consequences which included no puking/peeing by penalty of abandonment. I think "no falling off the Pedalpub" was another one, but that had more natural consequences.

Being that it was July 20, it was a warm night, and the amount of sweat I was generating offset the cold beer going in. We made stops at Billy's, Wild Onion, and Sweeney's. Before the trip, I was thinking that we wouldn't really want to stop because you're paying for the Pedalpub and you can drink on the Pedalpub wherever you are. Turns out that it was nice to take a break from pedaling for a while here and there.

People would come out of their houses to look at us on the Pedalpub. Lots of pictures were taken of our group by people we didn't know, most likely because of the Pedalpub but possibly because the group consisted of only beautiful people with awesome genetics. We were in the way of some cars, which generally were of good humor about the whole thing.

"It's a hoot!"

Cutting through my veneer of cynicism

2010-08-25T08:38:00.003-05:00

Those "Values" advertisements have been around for a while now and I've always wondered where they come from. Now they have a website listed, but for a long time, it was just a billboard promoting some value. Who pays to advertise persistence? The Foundation For a Better Life, as it turns out. They say they aren't religious and don't accept donations. It's pure good, I guess, which gives them a pass for the billboards featuring Shrek for the value "believe in yourself." A fictional character can be a role model, but it undermines the value when the character is merchandised ad nauseam.

The billboard pictured above actually has a really good story behind it that you've probably heard. Basically, the two women carrying the other are contributing to their own loss by carrying her.

I don't know if it's typical "back in my day" thinking to say sportsmanship has gone downhill. I'm no scholar on the matter, but I imagine some of Ty Cobb's opponents would beg to differ that players were all gentlemen back in 1909.

A story like this softball story is a good antidote to some of the stories which make people think that sportsmanship is going down the toilet. Crazed little league and hockey dads, for example. Sometimes I wish I were a basketball ref and a team pulled the inbounds play stunt where a player pretends to collapse of a life threatening situation and then the ball's inbounded for a winning basket. I would T up the entire team so fast even if the rules don't prohibit the play, which they've probably been amended to do. What a horrible play to teach a team.

Say what you will about World Cup soccer, and I intend to say more, but when a team gets a free kick they don't feel fits the spirit of the game, then kick the ball directly to the other team. This bit of sportsmanship in soccer is, however, heavily overshadowed by the gamesmanship of diving, so never mind.

Why an extended school year/day is the wrong way to go

2010-08-20T13:11:00.004-05:00

The school I used to work at has changed their school day to "provide XXX minutes of instructional time" for students. Basically, they've extended their day as a result of the state DOE finding out how short the school day was. I believe this is directly opposite of what schools should be doing to better educate kids.

What could be wrong with giving kids more school? Well, besides the not-at-all moderate reforms needed for public schools as an institution, giving kids more of something that's not working isn't going to help. If I get cancer and start taking enemas to treat it, it doesn't matter how many enemas I take. I won't get cured.

The real answer as to what's wrong with this approach is that it's missing a critical component. Extending the school day or school year adds instructional time without necessarily adding time for teacher preparation and professional development. The best thing for most schools right now would be to trade time spent with students and give teachers the time, training, and support to plan awesome lessons.

There's nothing inherently wrong with extending the school year, but there needs to be a more than proportional increase in teacher prep time, and it has to be there throughout the school year. You can't give teachers an extra week at the beginning or end of the school year and have that substitute for planning time during the school year. A good teacher will monitor and adjust, and needs time for the adjustments.

The really good and dedicated teachers will work that much harder on their own time if there's more student time. Other teachers will find ways to kill that time. Some would get burnt out more quickly.

My understanding of teaching in Japan, often used as a model of excellence in teaching, is that there's much more time (and a structure) for lesson preparation and refining lessons.

And then stupid politics gets involved where legislators don't respect teaching as a profession and it's easy to call for more instruction when teachers already get the summer off. And then if you have half days of instruction here and there, what do parents do with young children?

I have to meet this week to discuss our school's math goal which will involve test results. They used the euphemism "problem solving" for test results last year, but it sounds like they'll just call it "math" this year. Fulfilling.

I got my Boom! on.

2010-07-04T18:09:00.003-05:00

We ran the new TC half marathon today. We got soaked. It started raining about 20 minutes in, then started pouring 10 minutes later. It was a really crowded race. There wasn't any point where it really opened up, although we weren't running it super fast because it was so humid at the 6:30 AM start and also not training for the marathon carried through afterward.

There are so many more long (10 mile or more) races in the Cities than 10 years ago. That's a good thing, except that the races are counterintuitively getting more expensive. You might think with more competition that the race prices would get cheaper, but apparently there's enough demand. And races are expensive to put on. The New Prague half is cheap. Today's half was about twice the price.

I don't care for the grammar of the slogan on my shirt (as shown in the title of this post). Don't put sentence-ending punctuation in the middle of a sentence. COME!! ON!

copa

2010-07-02T15:40:00.002-05:00

I'm watching the World Cup. I've watched a lot of World Cup now that I have HD and satellite. It makes a big difference for watching sports. I was supporting the U.S. side, to use the parlance of the event, but I wasn't crushed by their departure. This isn't Carolina basketball. It was frustrating watching their games, because for one thing, why did every breakaway vs. the Ghana goalkeeper end with a low shot if he was saving everything low? For another thing, more generally, the Americans did not look like maestros. They didn't have the ball on a string. Their passes weren't spot on. (To be fair, lots of teams were having trouble with their crosses.) The Americans didn't look like an elite team. Donovan and the coach received a very warm welcome from the crowd on The Daily Show, and Jon Stewart asked them questions about their success. I can chalk up the applause to a "we support soccer" vibe, but the success of the Americans is questionable.

Today, the Ghanaians won be over.

John Oliver's training montage here was hilarious.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

World Cup 2010: Into Africa - Vuvuzealots

www.thedailyshow.com

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Political Humor

Tea Party

Flint, Michigan

2010-06-22T20:34:00.003-05:00

This must be the nice part of Flint. There's a newish Qdoba and the Motel 6 beats every motel I stayed at on my Memphis trip (save one). The gas station clerk was very friendly. I have no complaints about Flint.

I do have complaints about my online classmates. The new week opened yesterday, and we have a discussion response due tomorrow. I don't know about my internet access tomorrow, the due date, so I thought I'd get it done early. Except that in order to comment on a classmate's post, a classmate has to post something. I still, 36 hours after the week has opened and 16 hours before a response is due, no one else has even posted an original post, let alone a response.

My other online class? Same situation except that there's no response due. I'm not sure if responses are graded or due or what because the expectations aren't completely clear. Still, I'd trade an ambiguous online class for having to go to the U four days a week starting in the 2nd half of July.

As we were unloading the car, I noticed Hank walking down the sidewalk by himself after letting himself out of the propped-open motel room door. He was going to get ice from the machine, I think.

Grandma's 2010

2010-06-20T13:25:00.003-05:00

The curious thing isn't so much that I've been silent, but that the 8 or so blogs of friends I follow have also simultaneously gone quiet or silent.

It's Grandma's Marathon weekend, and I'm watching World Cup soccer. I like a lot that my summer vacation coincides with matches every morning.

I learned that training properly for a marathon really does make a difference. Twenty years ago, there were a lot fewer marathons and fewer people in those marathons. The conventional wisdom was that although running was a salubrious endeavor, the marathon itself was detrimental to health. It was a test requiring extensive training and not to be repeated too often. With the increasing popularity of ultra races and the Oprah-ization of the marathon, people are focusing more on the participation rather than the time. I heard someone near me at the start saying he'd run 10 times this year.

I did almost all of my long runs, but I didn't build up weekly mileage, which I now believe is probably more important than long runs. So I ran the slowest marathon I've ever run, even slower than my first one. On one level I'm okay with that because you reap what you sow, but then again I wonder what I was doing instead of training. Not blogging.

Yes, I am watching Treme

2010-04-27T20:15:00.003-05:00

I've only watched two episodes of Treme so far, but that's enough to see David Simon's stamp on the show. I fully expect at the end to hear the percussion that signaled the end of each episode of The Wire.

I started watching Jericho, too. And Band of Brothers. I watch all of these really slowly because how much TV can I watch in a day?

Just when I think I'm going to get caught up on TV viewing, they continue with Lost and Glee and then there's no off season for HBO shows. True Blood will be back.

Not to mention Twins games. And outside.

rock in the house

2010-04-18T07:44:00.002-05:00

The weekend started out normally, with me deciding not to run as has been the case on so many of these days lately. Spring break (and specifically, CHG's spring break) really messed up my running momentum.

The weekend took a turn around 7:30 Friday night when I started to feel increasingly cold. I got into bed. Couldn't warm up. I got into a sleeping bag, then got into bed. Still freezing. Took my temperature. Fever. Took Nyquil. Woke up a couple hours later having changed from intense chills to profuse sweating. Woke up and ran the 25k trail run. After 10 miles, I felt as if I'd run 20. There's certainly a multiplier because trail running is worth more miles than pavement running, but it's not x2. Normally, I fantasize about what I'll eat after the run, but when my running companions started discussing getting breakfast, it was completely unappealing. Anyway, I finished, and in doing so got a long run in for the first time in weeks.

I blame a virus.

I fell asleep in the car ride home after having made CHG drive due to my burning knees and general ill health, then couldn't sleep that well at home, but felt well enough to curl.

I got to go to the St. Paul Curling Club and get some curling instruction along with a practice match. It would be fun to be in a curling league. I had some good shots right away, and I think I might be Olympic material. Especially if I would have the teflon shoe, which I didn't yesterday.

The curling event started off with a talk in the upstairs bar, which is all wood and feels like a "club." There was a tense moment when the speaker was asked to speak up, and he basically replied that (hugely paraphrasing) "you can't hear me because the group is too big and if you all shut up there wouldn't be a problem." This was 15 seconds into the presentation, and I thought about how I think that in my classroom sometimes, but you can't really say it.

Graceland

2010-04-11T10:30:00.002-05:00

My parents weren't big Elvis fans, which meant that because I was 1 when he died, I never became a big Elvis fan. (Instead, I became an ABBA fan, but that's a different story.) I walked out of my day at Graceland feeling like I'd been missing out for not knowing The King.

There's a lot of video throughout Graceland, and in this footage of press conferences and interviews, Elvis seems charming, self-deprecating, and immensely funny. In spite of the major bling, nothing about him seemed pretentious or fake.

You learn about how generous he was. Now I know that Graceland, run by the estate, is going to be biased. Maybe that's why they put canceled checks to charities on the wall and display the human-sized plaque given to him by the City of Memphis for his charitable works, to give you proof. I'm convinced, though, that he was a really, really nice guy.

And what would it have been like to be a guest hanging out at Graceland mansion in its heyday? It's just a huge playpen for adults.

As you might imagine, Graceland doesn't talk much about the years after his divorce when he started going downhill to his death. The last stop on the tour before his grave is his racquetball court, converted into a huge awards room and playing his Hawaii special. Remember when they used to have "specials" on TV? I got excited for specials.

I didn't know that Elvis had a logo. Love it.

The TCB is obviously "taking care of business," and then the lightning bolt adds "in a flash" to the end.

Every single exhibit exits you through a gift shop. I was really tempted to buy Elvis sunglasses, like the kind he wore when he met Nixon.

There was one place on the tour where I saw myself in the mirror with my baseball hat and audio tour headphones. I did not like my resemblance to Bartman.

Elvis was really, as Ed Sullivan said, defending him against his critics who didn't care for his gyrations, "a real decent, fine boy."

Assassination (and carnage) vacation

2010-04-11T10:06:00.002-05:00

The whole thing caught up to me when I reached Elvis's grave. I'd spent the previous day exploring what was the bloodiest Civil War battle at that time, at Shiloh. I'd spent the days before that at Vicksburg, the site of a 47 day siege where Union soldiers threw dead animals into the creek giving fresh water to the town in order to give dysentery to the Confederates. These battlefields were spots where all these young men died too early. I'd just sort of been taking it all in and seeing the spots where soldiers were ordered to assault superior fortified enemy positions on high ground in what were virtually suicide missions. The terrain around Vicksburg would exhaust a hiker, let alone a soldier with shoddy shoes carrying a pack and getting shot at.

So after basically falling in love with Elvis Aaron Presley during my Graceland tour, I got to the end, his gravesite, and the weight of all these men dying in their primes (or in Elvis's case, not too far removed and with much more to give) finally got to me.

So I wasn't exactly well-girded when I reached the National Civil Rights museum. I went through a range of emotions going through that place. Right away, I watched the video that was recently done and I was so impressed with the craft of the filmmaking and felt like I was punched in the gut with another man killed in his prime. I was furious with the descriptions and photos of the good ol' boys who were on trial for killing blacks and their allies because these defendants were relaxed, smiling, joking, and generally smug because they knew no jury would convict them. Then I got to the spot where MLK's motel room is recreated on the actual spot and felt sad again.

So...spring break. Woo.

Shiloh run

2010-04-04T09:39:00.002-05:00

Where I Ran in Shiloh
Find more Runs in Shiloh Nmp, Tennessee

Most of the street names on this map are inaccurate. I ran early in the morning, at daybreak, and so I didn't encounter many people. There's a loop where you run through an interpretive tour of Indian mounds, which I completely missed in the car.

Memphis Run

2010-04-02T17:33:00.002-05:00

The renovation noise in the hotel got me going and I didn't go running until the afternoon. It must have been close to 80 degrees, and I guzzled a gatorade after the run. I watched the Carolina game at Huey's, downing lots of sweet tea and a few beers, and didn't break the seal because I was dehydrated.

Where I Ran in Memphis
Find more Runs in Memphis, Tennessee

The Mississippi part of the run wasn't as exciting as I would have thought. They don't have retail/entertainment on the riverfront, probably because they're worried it would cannibalize Beale Street business. It looks, however, as if they're planning to extend the Beale Street fun to the riverfront. Instead of retail, they have some good park areas. Now I just ran through and know nothing about the area, but it seems like Mud Island is where the new nice development is while I didn't see many white people in the parks in the southern parks.

2010-03-31T22:24:00.001-05:00

just trying to drink my drink without someone stepping on it

2010-03-31T22:10:00.000-05:00

coyote ugly memphis

2010-03-31T20:36:00.001-05:00

jailhouse rock

What if I had used the word "vegan"?

2010-03-30T19:31:00.002-05:00

In downtown Corinth, Mississippi today I ordered a sandwich with just lettuce and tomato and I BLEW THEIR FUCKING MINDS!!!!!!!!

I asked a clerk at a store for a recommendation of where a vegetarian could eat. "My friend is a vegetarian and he eats slugburgers. I think they're just soy and corn. Do you know about slugburgers?" I replied no, and learned that slugburgers were burgers made during the great depression when meat was hard to come by. The minimal meat they had was supplemented by soy meal and maybe corn meal and sold for a slug (nickel). The modern day version also contains meat, ground pork, specifically, so the clerk's friend is a Mississippi vegetarian.

I showed up at this pharmacy/soda fountain, kind of like Sutton's on Franklin Street, and sat at the counter. After I learned the story (and ingredients) of the slugburger from the menu, I looked for another option and didn't find one, so I made my own. I heard the phrase "just lettuce and tomato" probably 10 times during my visit, a couple times contained in this exchange between employees talking in front of me as if I wasn't there:

"Just lettuce and tomato."
"Just lettuce and tomato?!"
"Just lettuce and tomato! That's what he said!"

Awesome.

I did not get a refill on my sweet tea and the girl who rang me up just kind of walked off mumbling about having to check how much to charge for my bizarre order. After the transaction, as she was walking away, she said "come back" without looking at me or smiling. Nope.

key in pocket

2010-03-29T20:12:00.003-05:00

Ran this one this afternoon.

Where I ran in Vicksburg
Find more Runs in Vicksburg, Mississippi

After not having run since last Tuesday due to sinus congestion/sore throat, I had a lot of energy today. I wasn't going to run the south loop, but I felt good after 10 miles and didn't know I had run 10 miles, and continued. By the time I'd run 13, I was tired.

I've spent the past two days exploring Vicksburg and feel like I've accomplished something. I've been talking about coming here for so long, and it's gratifying to finally have made it happen. I'm going to Shiloh tomorrow which apparently involves mostly non-interstate travel, so it might take a while. On the plus side, I discovered that my rental has a USB port which might work with my iPod. I hadn't seen it in the dark.

2010-03-28T12:45:00.000-05:00

ginormous tater

2010-03-19T18:17:00.001-05:00

propaganda in men's room at work

typical hedonistic spring break

2010-03-15T05:42:00.004-05:00

I'm actually taking a spring break this year. Instead of hoping to get things done around the house and around town, I'm hopping on a plane and taking my chances with the way the TSA causes my blood pressure to rise. I visited N.C. around the same time as some nasty weather on the east coast and my plane was way overbooked. I volunteered and got some vouchers that almost will cover a round trip flight to Memphis.

I figure I can't miss Graceland if I'm there even though I've never particularly been an Elvis fan. He's not even my favorite Elvis: Presley ranks just behind Costello and just ahead of Grbac on my list. I feel like it's a must-see, so I'll go. I'd be more excited about getting to see Dollywood.

The bulk of the trip will be visiting Vicksburg and Shiloh National Military parks. I've taken some years off of my civil war reading, unintentionally, but I will to cross these battlefields off the list. I have to see where there was an old-fashioned siege on American soil, and Shiloh has a place called the "hornet's nest." They had some good nicknames for spots with particularly internecine combat. I've already seen "bloody lane," which would be a less popular Beatles song.

not always Africa-hot

2010-03-07T13:01:00.003-06:00

One of the first things I noticed in Africa was the number of people who appeared to be just standing around. Unemployment is way higher, so I imagine many of those people were just without anything to do. Lots of men would stand on the sides of the roads, maybe looking for work? Even the employed exhibited this behavior, though. We stopped at a gas station and one guy filled up the tank while five, FIVE uniformed employees stood watching the one pumping gas. The locals would see our Land Cruiser roll up and see dollar/rand signs. The begging became so ubiquitous that I became overly grateful to speak to anyone who wasn't looking for anything from me. The campgrounds and lodges were generally safe places in this regard. Right after crossing the border into Namibia from S.A., we stayed at a camp and stargazed, where you could see the southern cross. This put the CSN song in my head for pretty much the rest of the journey.

The Felix Unite camp was the first place we stayed more than one night. This was nice in a fast-paced trip like the one I was on. We canoed the Orange River and I shared a canoe with a guy from Hong Kong who was also traveling alone and not part of my tour. He was going all the way to Nairobi via Zanzibar with overland tours.

The next camp was more in the desert, and the hat and gloves I had brought were donned. It was really cold, and most of the group was underdressed despite the packing list the tour company had sent advising warm clothes. Other people on the tour were packed as if their stuff would be on a vehicle the whole time, while I had to pack so that I could carry my own stuff because I wouldn't have a vehicle after Vic Falls. It didn't get warm on the trip until Zambia, really, although the sun was hot during the day.

40 mile week

2010-03-07T09:55:00.004-06:00

I ran 16 yesterday using pretty much the same route as last weekend, except backwards. It was sunny and felt like spring, so everyone and their dog was outside including on the lakes. The 16 miles came after two hours of handball in the morning when I was asked twice if I was American. I missed the practice last week, so I missed some new people. I'll take it as a compliment that they asked if I'm American. It's a compliment because they saw me play and I was competent enough for them so not assume I was brand-new. A German guy said I was good. The problem is that once my competition passes a certain point, I'm useless. I can dominate a mediocre team, be competent against a good team, but I'm ineffective against an excellent team. The reason the "are you American?" question is not really a compliment is because out of the 16 guys at practice yesterday, there were three Americans.

I've also finally started playing soccer in a league. I've known lots of soccer league players around here, but somehow never got on a team. That's the good news. The bad news is that I'm stuck in goal. I've received about five months' worth of decent soccer goalkeeper instruction in my life and haven't played the position since 1991. Then we showed up late for the first game and I was thrust into the goal without touching a soccer ball. It's coming back a little, although I caught a ball in the face last week that went through my hands. Not a hard shot, but a cross, so it was pretty stupid. My cheek is almost healed.

There was a Norwegian at handball and I spoke to him in Norwegian. He said something back, I understand one word, and panicked. I CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOU!!!! I forgot to talk to him about the Olympics.

Once I finished the run, I gave myself permission to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day because I earned it. There is a problem with this thinking, and "nothing" is an exaggeration. I watched the entire painful, embarrassing Carolina-Duke game. Do you ever experience the cognitive dissonance that occurs when all you hear about is what a great coach someone is, but then you see evidence of subpar coaching? I don't think Roy or Tubby are bad coaches, and I think the truth is probably that coaching is actually more difficult than is understood. You can't argue with national championships won, but the underachievement of my two squads this year is confusing. I also experience this in game time when coaches fail to coach the game well even though they have enormous reputations.

boring running post

2010-03-02T06:13:00.004-06:00

I ran 14 miles on Saturday after leaving the Senate District convention at the lunch break. I just couldn't stay there all day based on a cost-benefit analysis. I got to see what it was like in the morning and sat through 45 minutes of choosing alternates to the central committee (even though the primary delegates were chosen by acclamation).

So I left the democratic sausage making process to go running. Because I left in the afternoon, it was above 40 degrees out, and I was overdressed with long pants and a running jacket. I went along the greenway to the river where five guys dressed in fatigues were walking which was disconcerting and I might have called 911 if I had had a phone just to make a point, then went to the U of M campus, crossed the Washington Ave pedestrian bridge, and found a Big Ten track and field meet. I was passed by four Ohio State runners in their warmups, and had a TV camera right in my face, so if you thought you saw me on the Big Ten network, you did. The run went on to downtown Nordeast, then across the Hennepin bridge to downtown. I really like running down the Nicollet Mall. I crossed over through Loring Park, which had a bad reputation when I was a kid, and crossed the Sculpture garden bridge to Kenwood where there are a lot of really nice houses that are for sale. Lots of people were skating and playing hockey on Lake of the Isles, and I saw many cute dogs. I got back on the Greenway and started getting a stitch in my side during the final couple miles. Lived through the stitch, then watched curling.

It's so easy for me to be good about getting runs in, but not about other things. One lesson might be to clearly define tasks so that they are done when they're done. If I am doing a 14 mile run, that's clearly defined and chunked so that it can be completed in a short time period.

14 miles
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Olympics

2010-02-21T16:32:00.002-06:00

This is my first winter Olympics with an HDTV, and I don't think I'd be watching as much curling as I have been without the big screen. Lots of closeups on faces, and you can hear all just about all of the talking between teammates. The action moves along at a good pace, and all these things together make it great for TV.

This post from my favorite sports blog Deadspin points out how just about every Olympic coverage story on curling is the same. The poor curlers just want exposure, but they know that the story will point out how goofy it is.

As readers here know, I think HBO does high quality everything. But Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel drives me crazy. One example is Frank Deford. He has this reputation as the erudite sportswriter, kind of like when George Will talks about baseball, and he sounds okay on NPR. Maybe it's because my expectations are adjusted when I hear a sports piece on NPR. On the TV camera, Deford interviewing Johnny Weir just seems uncomfortable. Then when they return to the studio for Greg to ask Deford questions in person, Gumbel is ALWAYS WRITING NOTES AS IF HE'S SEEING THE PROFESSIONALLY PRODUCED PIECE FOR THE FIRST TIME.

On this winter Olympics-themed Real Sports, there was a piece on curling. Now if someone from the Cleveland Plain Dealer is citing the usual curling story clichés, you chuckle because your expectations are low. But why did HBO's Real Sports do the same thing? You have the resources and the experience to take a new angle, yet it was still "what a goofy sport" and "alleged athletes" and when they went back to the studio, the guys laughed at what a ludicrous idea a curling hall of fame was.

The best piece was on USOC anti-doping. The correspondent asked the USOC anti-doping guy about the whether the invasiveness was too much, and the response was that the athletes voluntarily submit to the tests. The correspondent, to his credit, called the guy on it. "They don't have a choice, though, do they?" "Yes, they do. They could choose to compete in a non-Olympic sport." Oh. So if you've spent your life training to be a world-class gymnast and then you object to having to provide your whereabouts 24/7 to the USOC, then take up knitting. The Olympics competitions are awesome. The USOC and especially the IOC are terrible.

Baboons

2010-02-20T15:34:00.003-06:00

Baboons are a part of life in Africa, like squirrels are here. One big difference is the way baboons sometimes show their incisors and aggressively pursue your food. Squirrels are just passive bastards who wait for you to set food out for birds and then descend and devour. Squirrels rarely carry their young on their breast while rooting through garbage cans, and it's even rarer to see them doing that like a person, with opposable thumbs.

I heard baboon stories before I saw my first baboon. The Swedes had taken a day trip out of Cape Town to the Cape of Good Hope, and there lived a baboon habituated to humans and the baboon had learned to associate them with food. The baboon tried to get into the Swedes' car to get their fruit, which is like crack to a baboon, but was stymied by the fact that the car was locked. When the Swedes returned to their car to find the baboon attempting to break in, Anders attempted to scare the baboon away. The baboon, emboldened by many victories over people before, wasn't having it. Instead, it showed its teeth and swiped at Anders. A new strategy was required. The human pair tried to use their advantage in numbers and abstract thought to get access to their car by using Anders to lure the baboon away from the car, then using the remote unlock to allow Maria access to the car. This might have been a good plan, however the baboon knew exactly what it meant when a car makes the aural feedback tells you when the doors have been unlocked. Upon hearing the sound, the baboon raced to the car in front of Maria and opened the door using the handle because IT'S THAT MUCH LIKE A HUMAN. Instead of taking over the car where a human could use some sort of weapon to hurt the baboon (which is illegal because the baboon was just being a baboon), this baboon grabbing the pack containing the food and climbed to higher ground. All the Swedes could do was wait and watch as the baboon systematically went through every pocket in the pack, throwing down inedible items like cell phones and opening ziploc bags to eat all of the snacks.

Our guide talked about how the baboons at the border have learned to undo the heavy straps tying down bags of grain on the backs of trucks waiting to get through the border. One or two baboons will climb up, undo the ties, and then throw a bag down to their friends. These border baboons also sometimes steal food from the people returning to Zimbabwe after buying food in Zambia. As the story goes, the baboons only steal from women, so clever women just wore trousers to go grocery shopping to fool the baboons.

When I was at the border, I saw no baboon thievery, just baboons hanging out. I got a little nervous walking within feet from baboons, but it really was just like squirrels. They ignored me, and just went about their business of staying cool and looking through trash cans.

Our guide responded to the Swedes' story with a story about how one person he knew was advised by someone to exploit the baboons' fear of snakes. This person was told that you could avoid having the baboons menace one's car like the experience the Swedes had by putting a plastic snake in the rear window. In theory, the baboon would fear the snake and leave your car alone, finding fruit in someone else's car. It also worked this way in practice...at first. A baboon went to peer into the car to see if there was anything good to eat, saw the snake, and jumped away. Not the end of the story. The baboon ran off, and the observers probably felt satisfied that their ruse worked. Moments later, though, the baboon returned with a few baboon reinforcements. Sure, they were scared of snakes, but fruit! Never underestimate a primate. The baboon pals picked up stones and went to kill the snake, KILL IT WITH ROCKS!!! Although the baboons were able to use rocks as killing tools, they didn't really get the entire concept of rock + snake + window glass, and encountered some resistance in window glass form when they tried to rain blows upon the evil (rubber) snake. With the snake dead and the glass barrier removed, the baboons helped themselves to the contents of the car.

shark diving in africa

2010-02-16T06:23:00.003-06:00

On my second day in Africa, I went shark diving. I had to pack adventure into the first couple days to give myself a make-up day in case the weather was bad. As it turned out, the weather was beautiful while I was in Cape Town, but cruddy right before I got there and right after I left.

I'd heard about the shark dives and decided it was something I had to do. First of all, when I was a kid I was obsessed with Dangerous Animals of the Sea. I learned about all different kinds of sharks and absolutely loved TV shows about sharks. I'm the person Shark Week was invented for.

Second, the shark dive passes the sniff test when it came to worrying about exploiting animals. Lots of people talked about the lion walk in Vic Falls, and I knew someone who went on it. I had considered walking with the lions, but the online debate over the ethics scared me off. Where do the lions come from? What happens to them afterwards? How does having people walking by them every day affect them? I could happily and satisfactorily answer all these questions about the sharks.

The "shark bus" was scheduled to pick me up at 5:30. It came a little late which was fine because I hadn't translated my request for a wake-up call to Africa time. I had ordered a wake-up call for 5:00. Being Africa, this meant that you'd get a call sometime between 4:55 and 5:30. My call came at 5:24 and I hauled ass to get ready, hoping I had everything packed that I needed. Actually, I moved slowly for a minute, assuming the wake-up call had been on time, before looking at the clock and freaking out. I had been sleeping soundly at 5:24, but at 1 am I had woken up and couldn't get back to sleep. Until about 4:15 when I started dreaming.

Interesting thing—although I was a little late for the bus, someone else was later. A guy was waiting outside with me and we soon learned that we were both American and that we were both doing the same safari to Vic Falls, just with different companies. Poor Aaron never got his luggage from South Africa Air the entire trip.

The shark bus took two hours (in the dark) to get to Gansbaai, the launching point. I thought it would be a long boat ride considering that when I went whale watching out of Boston, the trip out and back was as long as the time we spent watching. But no, it was a ten minute ride to anchor near seal island, a smorgasbord for great white sharks. We got on our wetsuits and the first group got into a cage secured to the side of the boat. Five minutes of throwing fish juice into the water later, we saw our first shark.

All the sharks there were great whites, just so you know. The fish juice got them close to the boat, then the deckhands would throw a huge tuna head on a rope into the water, and the sharks would try to eat it. The tuna head handler would yank the head out of the way, ideally making the shark turn alongside the cage. The boat guy would yell "DOWN!" and we'd hold our breath and watch as a great white swam by close enough to touch. Sometimes the sharks wouldn't be seen until right when they were at the bait, so they'd steal the tuna head. Other times, the enthusiastic shark would bang against the side of the cage (accidentally). Those of us in the cage weren't on the shark's radar whatsoever.

On the way back to Cape Town, there was a very deep inlet where you could whale watch from shore, but the humpbacks were shy that day and we only saw a right whale from a distance. That's where I saw my first rock hyrax, which is coming to the zoo here. Everyone there calls them dassies.

Running

2010-02-15T15:04:00.002-06:00

This weekend's long run:
09/26/2009 Route
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I covered 24 miles running outdoors over the course of 4 days on this extended weekend, and today's post-snow run was challenging in that it was like running in sand much of the way. Friday's run was challenging in the sense that a skinhead walking on the Lake Calhoun path was yelling at me saying "get the fuck out of here! I'm an army ranger!" and more unintelligible but aggressive-sounding things.

Highlights of the 12 mile run were running by the new Twins stadium and that's about it.

Precious and (500) Days

2010-02-15T14:54:00.002-06:00

I saw two movies on Friday. One was for work. Precious. This made me think about coping and resilience in teenagers. Working with at risk teens in a small setting, you learn more than you might want to about their lives. Often I've wondered how a student could function at all in school with how much their home life sucks.

I generally liked the direction of the movie Precious. I didn't cry at all during the movie, and I was told beforehand to bring kleenex. This is notable because I cry at the dumbest movies. I'm easily manipulated. I'm not sure why this didn't work in this movie, but it's probably because it lacks an emotional impact that it should have or else because the director chose not to be emotionally manipulative and I'm slightly inured to the cruelties of the world.

I also saw (500) Days of Summer. This was the exemplary 3 out of 4 star movie. Generally clever and done with a sense of humor, but stretching credulity at times. I was thinking about the movie while I was watching it in a way that took me out of the movie. The theme of whether a person is destined to be with one true love vs. the opportunity to be happy with many people was also covered in a recent This American Life.

on this special day

2010-02-07T14:32:00.000-06:00

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Stories from Africa

2010-02-06T17:28:00.002-06:00

I imagine the standards are a little different at the places meant for wealthy tourists, but sometimes the service we received in Africa was literally comical. In Rundu, Namibia, we went to breakfast one morning, and one of my co-travelers pointed out to the staff that there were no mugs for coffee. The staff simply overturned the mug on the table holding the stirring sticks, and handed that cup over. It's Africa, so you take it in stride. Even more striking was the solution of the waiter who mixed up the beers and shandies at the table. Everyone who had the wrong drink knew it because they had tasted the drinks. You've probably anticipated the waiter's solution of putting the glasses in front of the correct people. Simple and elegant.

I learned about tiger fish in Rundu. Bad ass. The "resort" we stayed at had taxidermied tiger fish on the wall. One of the activities at this place was a "sundowner cruise" on the Kavango River. When you hear the word "cruise," you have to adjust your expectations for Africa. Our cruise boat was an aluminum craft that could have carried 6 people plus a driver. I noted in my journal at the time that this was no Filo boat. One of the spots was not taken up by the other staff person who apparently was on the trip with me and two other tourists for the sole purpose of holding the snack tray. A human table. We did not see any tiger fish on the cruise, but we did see naked Angolans taking their evening baths in the river. Champagne was also included, which didn't quite make up for the fact that my room smelled like gasoline. I camped most night on the trip, but because one of my co-travelers was a very nice juvenile who stayed in her parents' room, there was an extra room wherever we stayed intended for this girl because they assume two per room. So at these places, the Swedes and I were the only campers and we'd trade off on getting the room.

If you thought you were going to take advantage of other amenities, you might find it challenging. The mini golf course was dilapidated, and the advertised table tennis was said to be broken when we inquired about it. On departure, I settled my bill then settled into the Land Cruiser for the drive. Fifteen minutes later, I was called back to the office because another bill came in from the night before that I owed. A hotel that is disorganized enough to not have your bill completely together when you're departing also can't be expected to adequately explain the charges. So you pay them and move on because it's not that much, and chalk another one up for Africa.

Super Tuesday

2010-02-06T08:12:00.005-06:00

On Tuesday, I did a couple unusual things for me. During the wintry months here, the Metrodome is opened up a couple times a week for runners to run indoors. The laps to mile ratio is a reasonable 2.5:1, which is much better than the South branch Y where we went growing up. What was it there, like 18:1? 25:1? Anyway, although running around a concrete concourse 15 times with lots of pictures reminding you of the heartbreaking loss the Vikings suffered doesn't sound like the most fun activity, there were maybe 200 runners there, and the social aspect was motivating. Not that I said one word to anyone else, but there was a feeling you were among your kind. I did notice that most people ran in pairs or small groups, which would probably make it easier once the novelty of the new venue wears off. I have handball today and a race tomorrow, so I'm not doing a long run this week. Just increasing mileage.

The race tomorrow is a 5k. I don't think I've ever run a 5k. Too short for my sweet spot. I'm running it because I entered in a competitive series to give myself some motivation and fun. I'm also starting a soccer league on Wednesday, finally, after years of intention. They need a goalie. My soccer goalie skills are beyond rusty. I hope I'm not stuck in goal all season. Also, there's no offsides in 7v7.

I went to caucus on Tuesday night. I had some resolutions to maybe present, but I forget them. And a pen. So I thought it would be okay for my first caucus to just watch. I thought of other resolutions after the fact. I did ask to be a district delegate and got elected through the "there are more spots than people who want to do it" method. So maybe I'll get a chance to support some of my resolutions later on. There was an election for presider of the meeting. The same guy who always does it starts off the meeting and asked perfunctorily "is there anyone other than me who has a burning desire to run this meeting?" and this young adult said yes, but I voted for the main guy because I thought it would go faster if someone experienced was in charge. The young dude got elected precinct chair without opposition. Rybak won the straw poll pretty easily, and Kelliher came in second. No one else was really close. I haven't been paying attention, though, and have no idea how to handicap the race.

They scheduled conferences, i.e., a near-14 hour work day, the day after the super bowl. SUPER BOWL. Sue me.

Long run

2010-01-31T15:14:00.002-06:00

I forget how much I like running long distances. It was really cold on Saturday, and it took a while to warm up.
10 miles river downtown
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I listened to Kid A for the first part of the run instead of listening to podcasts. Then I put on Silversun Pickups for the second half.

I signed up for Grandma's Marathon against my better judgment. Two years ago, I was in the best running shape of my life. Then I ran the race as if Brad Childress himself had drawn up my gameplan, and after 13 miles, I was worthless, as Jason who ran with me for the last 6 miles can attest.

I don't know yet if I'll go for Boston this year. The reason I signed up was that I made peace with the concept of running the marathon at 80% or so. There's a lot of room between qualifying for Boston and the time above which I'd be very disappointed.

Sometimes I like running in the woods by myself, and sometimes I like watching people. This is why I run downtown, for the people watching. They had some sort of emergency drill going on on Saturday. I jayran past officers with reckless abandon.

det er ingen som vil ha meg

2010-01-30T07:43:00.002-06:00

One point in repeating what Bill Simmons said about the Vikings was to note that it made me feel marginally better to know that someone disinterested could recognize that that game was a huge punch in the gut. It does not make me feel better to read Sid Hartman and hear him lionize Chilly. It's the same thing with letters to the editor. I don't plan on reading them, but my eyes idly find themselves reading why Chris from Hugo thinks tax and spend is a bad plan for America.

Here's my winter olympics preview. Olympic hockey is the best Olympic team sport out of the 4 major pro sports in the USA. With baseball out, basketball is the only competitor, and I don't find Olympic basketball compelling. I'm not sure why not. There are some really good teams that aren't the USA, which makes it fun, but I can't help feeling like it wouldn't be so competitive if the US didn't underachieve every year by assuming they don't need to practice. But I'm talking about hockey. Olympic soccer is second fiddle to the World Cup. Olympic hockey is the biggest international thing (for Americans, anyway) and you know a lot of the players on the different teams from the NHL. Hockey follows the trend of the rest of the winter olympics, which evens the playing field. You know that little countries are going to medal in the winter olympics. Norway kills, just not in hockey. But in hockey, Sweden's always good. Finland. Czechs.

I grew up watching figure skating, so I wouldn't necessarily turn it off if it was in the Olympics. Do they still show the compulsories? I doubt it. I won't watch snowboarding at all. No tradition. I am unlikely to watch downhill skiing, bobsled, luge, or whatever other sport they've made up that involves going down a cold mountain quickly. Time is too limited. I won't watch curling unless I turn on the TV and it tells me someone from Minnesota is about to curl. And that covers all winter olympic sports. signing off

The Simulation Heuristic is a cruel mistress

2010-01-29T06:39:00.004-06:00

Thinking more about the Vikings game doesn't make it any better. More than the reflected glory even, I think my favorite thing about a Minnesota sports team getting to a big stage is the attention that the team and the region get. For a week leading up to the game, all my favorite sports people like PTI and Sports Guy were talking about the Vikings. I love that.

Now Bill Simmons has the postgame podcast up. He says things like if he had to think of a devastating way for the Vikings to lose, it would have looked like the way they lost. He says in light of the Vikings dominance in the game, it's "perplexing" that they're not in the Super Bowl.

So that would be two more weeks of even bigger hype and attention to Minnesota, not to mention getting to see the Vikings play again.

The best fix, maybe, is distraction. Spring training is coming up.

Hindsight

2010-01-28T18:57:00.001-06:00

Vindication - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

I normally don't watch videos more than 9 seconds long, but I watched all of this one showing one person's foresight into the recession as Fox News correspondents ridicule and talk over him.

h/t scoot

Vikings lose in creative ways

2010-01-25T06:25:00.004-06:00

The Vikings were 1-1 in conference championship games when I was alive but too young to care. When I got to be about six years old, however, I became a huge NFL fan. Maybe that seems young, but I wasn't into cars or trucks, and it probably took a couple years for me to actually like watching the games. By the time I hit my NFL fandom stride, Bud Grant retired as coach and I had to go through the Les Steckel year. I had a Tommy Kramer jersey, but Joe Senser was my favorite.

For some reason, the first time the Vikings were in the conference championship while I was aware of it, I was watching the game on a TV in some store because the units were shopping for furniture or something. One Darrin Nelson dropped pass from the Super Bowl. They weren't even supposed to get to that game, so it was still a good ride to beat the vaunted 49ers at Candlestick and then go down to John Riggins.

I had to wait a while for the next one, and I found the one bar in the city of Stavanger, Norway, where I could watch the Vikings fulfill the destiny of their magical season, none of which I'd seen, and defeat the Falcons in the Dome. Of course it didn't turn out that way and the African dude who was the only person in the bar who was also watching the game was a Falcons fan because he had family in the Atlanta area.

I don't remember the ride to the 41-0 loss. I remember being surprised that the Vikes were one game from the Super Bowl because I didn't think they were that good that year.

So yesterday I told myself I wasn't going to get my hopes up, that the Vikings always disappoint, but my hopes got up anyway. Now I have the post-loss depression where I'm asking myself questions like "what is there to look forward to now?" The good news is that sports depression isn't that bad and is short-lived and there's plenty to fret about in my world of college basketball fandom.

Where Men Win Glory

2010-01-24T09:59:00.004-06:00

A while back, I posted about the movie Outrage saying that the outrage I'd felt toward the W administration had been tempered by time, but watching the movie brought it back. Just like that movie reminded me of the backwards time 2001-2009 was for social issues in the GOP, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman reminded me of just how morally corrupt that administration was. Infuriating. The best solace I have is that in 100 years, historians will label W as the worst president of all time.

But the reason I read the book was not to learn about the way the DOD and Army collaborated to obfuscate and lie, it was to read Jon Krakauer's latest book. I think he's one of the best writers I've read. This book had way fewer vocab words, though. I had to keep a dictionary close by while reading Eiger Dreams, Into Thin Air, or even Under the Banner of Heaven. This one had a couple I didn't know, and lots of good words I did know. I don't think my vocabulary has grown that much since I read those other books.

I swear I read an interview with Krakauer when this book was just coming out that said that the Tillman family didn't like the first draft he sent them, but I can't find that interview now. I've been looking for 45 minutes. I have to get on with my day.

mapped my run

2010-01-21T06:11:00.000-06:00

I ran this far on Sunday.
01/20/2010 Route
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It had been a while since I'd run more than a few miles, but I did fine by going slow.

Every spring, I get excited about races I could run, and then leave some to be decided the night before or the morning of, and I usually don't go in those situations. I don't like to drive far to run, which isn't a bad thing. I'm looking at everything early enough this year that I could be more competitive, which might be motivational.

I don't plan on running a marathon this year. I didn't run one last year, either. They take a lot of training time, and I could achieve the same fitness goals by running shorter events to keep the goal focus and the fun of competition.

Avatar

2010-01-19T05:55:00.002-06:00

If you're really particular about not having the movie ruined, maybe you shouldn't read this post about Avatar, which I saw yesterday. However, you completely know almost everything that's going to happen through the whole movie, so the plot isn't really the best things about the movie.

Anyway. On MLK, many people had the same idea as me: to see the 3D IMAX Avatar screening and to go to SuperTarget. I shall not describe the particulars of my incredible trip to Target, but I figured the movie would be crowded. There are only a few IMAX screens around town, and if I'm going to see Avatar, I'm going to go see it in the most spectacular form possible, IMAX. Or is it? Aziz Ansari raised a stink about "fake" IMAX screens. I'm not sure that the AMC IMAX screen is as big as, say, the one at the zoo, but the aspect ratio was noticeably different from a normal movie screen. Also, my ticket was $9, so I didn't have a ridiculous surcharge to be mad about.

It's a beautiful, stunning movie visually. The 3D is, well, not spectacular, which is to say that 3D wasn't used for the sake of using 3D. Instead, it added more literal and figurative depth to an alien world already packed with texture, color, detail, and luminescence. Eye candy all the time.

I read this the day it came out: What storytelling risks could Avatar have taken? Every element introduced is going to come back is some form, which is good. How those elements are going to come back is very predictable, which isn't that good.

I thought the climactic sequence could have been way better. How are the Na'vi going to defeat a technologically superior enemy? Three ways I would have been happier with:

1. Have a Na'vi learn to use the sky tech like the linked post above says.
2. Use the home field advantage to win.
3. Use intelligence provided by Jake to exploit weaknesses in the tech.

Instead, the flesh and blood warriors with tooth, claw, and arrow weapons defeated the metal machines and guns with force. In the movie, the home field advantage was supposed to be part of it, but I wanted it to be used more.

I sat through the credits at the end thinking about how long it must have taken to animate the tiniest detail of a creature in the background. I'm glad I saw it.

drew barrymore talks good

2010-01-17T15:57:00.003-06:00

Somehow, every year, I follow the same pattern. I do a really good job of running starting in January, then fall off during the summer, then really fall off sometime after school starts. I ran 8+ miles this morning before the football game as part of my January push.

While running, I was listening to the latest podcast of You Look Nice Today. I started to listen to Merlin Mann on tech podcasts and recognized him for one of the funniest people I've ever heard. So I'm glad he's got a comedy podcast now. They talked about something nostalgic which reminded me of something I wanted to talk about but can't recall now and I'm just going to post this because I keep on starting posts and not posting them, END TO THAT!

I was worried about the Vikings losing today when they couldn't stop the Dallas passing game, but I see that they've postponed the pain of the Viking fan for another week. And I enjoy the victory for what it is, a beatdown of America's Team, still owned by Jerry Jones.

A list will be easy to write

2010-01-16T08:15:00.002-06:00

Things I haven't been enjoying in my life:

Going to work. I don't know how long I'll be teaching, but that's an issue for another time.
Feeling like we go one step forward and two steps back with kids.
Feeling like my kids aren't learning anything at all.
The inertia that keeps me from doing what I know I should be doing.
The way my walks aren't clear all the way to the concrete.
The way I still censor myself in this space. Having a (small) readership is a double-edged sword.
Amazon's punitive cut they take from stuff you sell on their site.
Drama at school among students, among staff, going with the new teacher contract.
Forgetting things.

Things I have been enjoying in my life:

Driving home from work. I have been very conscious of enjoying the fact that I'm done for the day.
The relationships I've developed with many students. Feeling like I'm doing something in the direction of Prez in season 4. My first instinct was to want to get rid of a student, but now I'm taking on the responsibility of working with him instead of passing him along.
The new season of Big Love. Anticipating the last season of LOST! Watching Conan go off on NBC in his monologues. Tabatha. Hung.
Friends coming over for football, etc.
The beer that is consumed when friends come over for football, etc.
Getting up super early and awake on days when friends didn't come over the night before for football, beer, etc.
Selling stuff on the internet. I sold the Mad Magazine card game that's been bouncing around in my stuff unopened since I got it at Target as child, on clearance, for 75 cents. It sold for $57.
Buying a Craigslist TV for $15 that's a huge improvement over the previous second TV.
The ease with which I've been able to complete everything I need to renew my license in a big district.
My new winter gear I got for xmas.
The animals.

Netflix again

2010-01-07T07:01:00.002-06:00

Did you know that you can put your Netflix account on hold? I did this at the beginning of the summer because I wasn't going to be watching movies. Your account (and your queue) sits there, as you left it, for up to two months. But, during the two months you have it on hold, you can change the end date of your hold. So instead of quitting Netflix, you can just take a break for a while, indefinitely even. I suppose at some point maybe you have to do something, but I kept my hold until my Christmas break.

Then I watched some movies. Extract. This wasn't as funny as either Office Space or Idiocracy, Mike Judge's other movies. I really liked Idiocracy. Extract just didn't have the quotable lines or commentary via absurdity that the other two have. Jason Bateman is always good. Ben Affleck doesn't do anything for me.

The Bourne Identity. I avoided this movie when it first came out, possibly because of my lingering resentment at Matt Damon for lecturing me in Good Will Hunting and possibly because I don't see many action movies because I think there are so many bad ones. I watched this one to be entertained, and I wasn't disappointed.

Slumdog Millionaire. I actually got this one on Netflix, but that was because it was on a queue before I recorded and watched it on DVR.

Star Trek. Really fun. JJ Abrams opens everything the same, with a teaser. It draws you in right away with you thinking "who's that? why is he wearing that? why is he angry?" Alias and Lost started the same way.

Hung and the marketing of HBO shows

2010-01-03T21:00:00.004-06:00

I infer that HBO puts a lot of effort into marketing their original series because I remember the marketing campaigns. The campaign for Big Love played up the polygamy. True Blood ran ads purporting to be hawking "True Blood," the synthetic blood that enabled vampires to "come out of the closet." Hung made innuendos about the titular endowment of the main character. For their dramatic series like these, I can't say that the marketing has made someone like me want to watch the shows. I watch the shows because of the interesting storylines and the great characters, and I don't care so much about the salaciousness or shock elements by themselves. So I didn't think Big Love would be a show I'd want to watch, but now I'm possibly more excited for its new season than for the last season of Lost. But the marketing—THREE WIVES?!—was a turn off. Same for Hung.

Now that I've watched Hung, I can say that it's just like Big Love. The crazy thing that enables someone to pitch the show in one sentence ("a pillar of the community is actually a polygamist...and his family is just like ours except in a plural marriage!") becomes just a plot element that affects how the interesting characters on the shows interact.

I finished the second season of True Blood over the break. I was considering just deleting it after it was sitting on my DVR for months and months, but the two week break gave me the time I needed. HBO shows are well plotted and have great acting. Some of the best acting in True Blood is from the supporting characters. Andy is awesome. I realize while I'm watching that I would be surprised to meet these actors in real life and learn that they're not their characters. Jason Stackhouse is played by an Australian! Come on!

The actors have great characters to play. I love Ray's kids on Hung, but I think Lenore is the best character. It's because of her universality. Lenore is an adult bully. Adult bullies cause less trauma than childhood bullies, but are way more difficult to deal with. It's the complexity. Everyone (which is to say every reasonable, well-mannered reader) has encountered an adult bully. They use psychological tactics. They are manipulative. Sometimes they are nice.

Lenore manipulates another character into a spending spree, and it's apparent that Lenore is not a good person. But I'm watching this and thinking how difficult it would be to actually extricate oneself from a relationship with an adult bully. Sometimes they are co-workers. Sometimes the bully exists in a complex social web, and doing the necessary extrication measures would reverberate throughout the web. Then again, maybe it's just an avoidance of conflict. It's easiest to develop a strategy to tolerate the bully. Is that the best thing to do?

Oh, the humility

2010-01-03T08:13:00.003-06:00

Jeni was wise enough to record this postgame interview with noted pacificist Steve Smith which we got to watch when we got home from the game.

You know, first, you know, I just gotta thank my Lord Jesus Christ, you know, without him we wouldn't be here. But, 5-8 or 8-5, you gotta play. This is why I feed my family. This is why I grew up on the B. You know, I wanna be on this field, I play for keeps. And so, it's just an opportunity to display my God-given ability, and also, uh, the whole team, and, uh, what our fans mean to us. That's our job, and we gotta play no matter what the score is or what the record.

This is what happened next in the interview:

pet update

2010-01-02T09:01:00.002-06:00

Over this break, we made our triumphant return to the dog park. I hadn't been there in a long time, and so I took the dogs on the 24th and 25th when it was snowing so much in the Cities. They love the snow. Both of the dogs sprint around, but the snow was too deep for Hank to go fast, so he had to leap from spot to spot like a dolphin. The snow is the equalizer for Jack, who can get away from Hank's bites to the back legs in the snow.

The fattest cat in the house is the one who's taken to lying on the computer causing all sorts of crazy sounds and flashes. Henry will ignore you and do his own thing unless you're sitting at the desk in the office, the place where you'd be most likely to be doing actual work. At the desk, he'll jump on you, on the computer, and remember that Henry is not dainty. He's a huge cuddlemonster when you're at the desk.

Rasheed Wallace is still running around the house chasing invisible rabbits.

Bill Simmons on Invictus

2010-01-01T14:53:00.001-06:00

Bill Simmons - Stories - - ESPN

Bill says what I said! I haven't been reading his column since they changed the RSS feed and I couldn't be bothered to find the new one, but I may start again even though reading RSS feeds is one of the most counterproductive things I do.

Tabatha's Salon Takeover

2009-12-30T12:12:00.002-06:00

I normally find TV shows to watch via recommendation, but CHG operates differently. She somehow found the show Tabatha's Salon Takeover. I've never read about this show, nor have I heard anyone talk about it. But it's really good.

Tabatha is a BAMF stylist and salon expert. Every episode, she visits a poorly run salon and "takes over." By taking over, she calls everyone out on whatever it is they're not doing to her standards and usually picks out one person in particular to bear the brunt of her ferocity.

The drama on the show is always entertaining, but the reason I'm writing about the show is because there are a lot of lessons to be learned about professionalism, excellence, and interpersonal professional relationships. I've thought about how the lessons could be applied to the classroom, and I really think they would be good for parents as well.

The heart of the problem, in most cases, is that the owner and/or manager have failed to establish boundaries and standards. Employees are either running wild or lack competence, and little corrective action has been taken. Tabatha comes in and doesn't mix up the roles of boss and friend. You, as a business owner, do not owe a job to your employees. You can't fire your students and you would have problems trying to tell your kid he doesn't belong in your family anymore, but the part about establishing firm limits is so very relevant. Employees don't always choose the best option to help the business, and kids don't always choose the best option to help themselves. Management is work, but it's required.

"peterson hands = griddles"

2009-12-30T05:29:00.002-06:00

I went to the Vikings game in Charlotte two Sundays ago. That's a long way to travel to see your team lay an egg. The Vikings always get your hopes up and always disappoint, and I guess I've internalized that a little bit because I'm not too upset about their recent losing. I'm not happy about it, but I'm resigned to it as something inevitable. Acceptance. Serenity.

insecure

2009-12-29T15:42:00.002-06:00

I was always resentful of the special treatment given to first class passengers on the plane until I got moved up to first class. Then I developed a sense of entitlement.

I volunteered for a travel voucher and meal ticket, and didn't know I had gotten an upgrade to first class as part of the deal until they started calling rows and I had to check my boarding pass to see when I should board.

The cute young flight attendant offered me a drink, and I declined, not yet realizing that drinks in first class are free. So I caught her later and got a drink the same time she gave the frat dude in front of me his second screwdriver.

I put my headphones on at one point because I couldn't stand listening to this guy anymore. I felt bad for the flight attendant. In addition to being cute, she was really good and attentive. But this guy just wanted to talk to her. I started writing down what he was saying as an alternative to hitting him in the head.

"I always stay at the Marriott," he told her after asking specifically where she was staying in Charlotte, like a stalker. I only got part of this sentence: "I'll Be Home For Christmas with Jonathan Taylor Thomas? I love that movie." "Do you get miles?" He had been places and talked to her about his experiences. It turns out they'd both been to Hawaii. "I was there last summer! Did you notice all the Japanese? And they don't speak English!" "Hotel, airfare, and car rental are all paid for by my company." "I went on a booze cruise. $25, all you can drink. I did that three times." "I was at Duke's bar every single night. I'd go into the bar and the bartender was like 'Jim, what's up?' and he'd have my drink waiting for me." "You've got to go to South Beach. The beaches are topless. You have to get over your American attitudes."

2009-12-27T15:33:00.001-06:00

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dibbie

2009-12-26T17:18:00.003-06:00

You may know already that I am a biological uncle now. I have been an "uncle" for a while, but I am very excited for Skye and Dirk and their future UFC champion.

I was in N.C. when the dude was actually born, so I got the news via text while searching for Bob's brick outside of the Carolina Basketball Museum, closed on Mondays. Connecting the dots, you know my nephew was born on Monday.

Good job.

No emotional impact for Invictus

2009-12-26T13:38:00.003-06:00

I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to say anything bad about Clint Eastwood, but I think he dropped the ball on Invictus. Maybe the screenwriters are at least equally to blame.

The problem is that you have a slam dunk of a real life story, to use a sports metaphor with the wrong sport. It's an underdog story, like Rocky, but even better. It's a team sport, like in Miracle, but with arguably more at stake politically. But at the end of Invictus, I wasn't even close to tearing up, and I don't think it's because I'm not South African.

I feel like I could have made a better movie about the real life story, and I'm not one to compare myself favorably to artists. The movie ignores the entire part of the book where Mandela is still locked up. The "too good to be true" story of the meathead rugby Afrikaners asking to sing the ANC national anthem by themselves was completely changed and totally stripped of its power in the movie. Give Matt Damon a chance to be inspirational! Explain what the hell is going on in the rugby matches!

2009-12-20T22:00:00.002-06:00

arrrgh

soul asylum reaction science

2009-12-06T11:08:00.004-06:00

We went to Soul Asylum on Friday night for their annual December show. I'm hoping they'll play outdoors sometime next summer because they're still really fun to watch. I've gone over all this before, but the thing that has really made them fun again are the new members, Tommy Stinson and Michael Bland. Dave and Danny are the same and reliable and Dave still says "you're much too kind" and Danny rocks "Cartoon," but Tommy talked a lot more last night. They've energized the band.

They played almost all of "Silver Lining" and played the old songs they normally play and the covers they normally play. I like that they still play "Without a Trace," an underrated song off Grave Dancer's Union.

The adult Filousa members and I road tripped to St. Cloud last night for Dirk's birthday party. Although the drive was longish, the food was excellent for this vegan, and it's nice to get up there to see them in their natural habitat. The giraffe is a dog toy.

I finished Nanowrimo and promptly took time off, which is still going on. It's really easy to skip a habit for one day, and then it's even easier to skip the next day, and then I can prove by induction for you that you can go many days without doing good-for-you things without much effort at all.

I'm a third of the way through my first year as a part-time science teacher. Amy said Isaac was telling her about condensation yesterday, and I was wondering if Isaac could come to my class to teach my kids about it. Do you remember learning what evaporation was? I don't. I feel like I've always known it, and that's a handicap when you're trying to explain to kids what it is. I often feel at a disadvantage as a teacher because I can't empathize. I was never in a place where I didn't "get" something that seems intuitively obvious. There are lots of things I don't get, but the concept of density seems intuitive to me, so that when I've given a million examples and kids still don't get it, I'm totally puzzled.

HBO shows

2009-11-28T21:11:00.002-06:00

I put off watching Bored to Death and almost erased the whole thing, not because I didn't think it would be good. It's on HBO and you know how I feel about shows on HBO. No, I just felt like I didn't need more TV to watch. But then I saw Zach Galifianakis was in it, and I couldn't pass that up. I wasn't impressed with the first episode because my expectations for HBO shows are so high, but then I ended up watching the last six episodes in one sitting. Ted Danson is so funny. Jason Schwartzman doesn't do anything for me, but with supporting characters like these and guest stars like John Hodgman, Kristen Wiig, and Sarah Vowell.

I finished the entire season of Curb Your Enthusiasm and just cringe the whole time. Larry David in the show is pretty much the opposite of me. "Can I give you a tip?" The episode where Larry has to cover for Jeff with Susie builds all the pieces for one awesome and hilarious conclusion. That show does the long setup for a great joke really well. Like the chef with Tourette's.

Another guest in Bored was Ana from Big Love, which starts again in January and I really find that I miss.