Jul. 02, 2008 - 8:49 a.m.
~ daily news ~

Erg, as Mag*gie would say. I should be embarking no some flights soon, and I'm not excited about it.

Other interesting articles, blogging in China and predicing Olympic champs based on GDP. I bet the latter doesn't work in distance running. That's why I love running. Most of it is about natural talent and hard work. Technology helps, but only so much, and can be trumped by talent. When I started running in the 90s, some nations' athletes still competed barefoot in international cross country meets.


Jun. 30, 2008 - 10:06 p.m.
~ photo friday ~

Woo hoo! I was noteworthy for PhotoFriday for great outdoors. So many people enter this, I figure where you are on the list and how catchy your link is has as much to do with it as anything, but still, pretty cool. This photo was taken near Art*ist Point in Northern Washington near Mt. Baker.

I am hoping for some wild west photo ops soon. I am seriously displeased that the NPS website has been down for 48 hours! What is the deal?


Jun. 28, 2008 - 9:06 p.m.
~ yoder begley ~

Tremendously inspiring run by Amy Yo*der-Beg*ley.

I love the Summer Olympics. I'm not sure whether my favorite events are track or gymnastics. The latter has the major advantage of getting TV coverage. My favorite track events are often not aired. The race above, for example, which I really wanted to watch, was shown on USA at midnight (3 hours after the race). I don't get USA.

The track Olympic Trials are all carried out at one meet. Screw up at that meet and you're out of luck. This has the advantage of being completely fair, unlike gymnastics, for example, where the top 2 gymnasts are chosen at the Olympic Trials and the remaining 4 are chosen by a committee. Often those chosen were not those who scored the highest.


Jun. 26, 2008 - 4:54 p.m.
~ immigration reform ~

Great article on immigration. We should be on our knees begging the top PhD and MS students out of Stanford and MIT to stay.


Jun. 25, 2008 - 4:55 p.m.
~ frustration with blogs ~

Argh. I was just fighting with Movable Type on my photoblog. What a waste of time on a beautiful day. I know if I just set aside some time I could organize everything and get it working the way I want - but is it really worth it? What's the point, really? I think I'd be exceeding the amount of time reasonable to spend on it. Grr.


Jun. 24, 2008 - 10:51 a.m.
~ bottled water ~

I think the whole bottled water thing is a little unfair. Are the bottles used in soda not just as bad as the bottles used in bottled water? Yes, bottled water is available from the tap, but I think that is somewhat irrelevant since people clearly prefer bottled water on some level.

I'd support a law that banned spending city money on ALL bottled beverages, including soda, water and juice, but singling out bottled water seems ridiculous. (The offending beverages, under my law, could still be sold in larger bottles.)

I'm sure someone has done the trade between running a moderately stocked and not modern and water-saving dishwasher to wash the glasses people are using the drink the beverages and harm of getting rid of that hot water not to mention the energy to run it AND the energy to clean the water to use on the dishwasher versus the energy to create and dispose of the bottles. Are people still using disposable cups at the water cooler?

These days, I have an old water bottle that I refill over and over from our water fountain. I also drink bottled juice from time to time. My favorite beverage is seltzer water, preferably flavored, but that's not available at work. It USED to be, and I think the bottled water controversy is the reason it isn't anymore. This makes me rather grumpy because seltzer water is, unfortunately, not available from the tap.


Jun. 21, 2008 - 11:04 a.m.
~ when she runs for senate ~

I certainly find Michelle Oba*ma being referred to as Obama's "baby mama" insulting. The journalist is angry because feminists haven't reacted as angrily when a potential first lady is insulted as when a potential president was insulted. I actually had heard none of the insults I'm supposed to be mad about, though, because I don't pay a lot of attention to First ladies - not Michelle, not Bill when Hillary was running, not Laura, and not Hillary when Bill was in office. Hillary really did not come onto my radar until she ran for Senate (though age has a lot to do with that.)

However, when Michelle runs for president - or Senate - I'll start paying as much attention to the insults she gets as the insults that were paid to Hi*llary when she ran. Hillary was a groundbreaker. Michelle is an incredibly accomplished woman supporting her husband. Good for her, but not exactly groundbreaking. I wonder if she will be as insulted as much as Hil*lary was when she was first lady? My parents did NOT approve of Hil*lary, especially my Dad. I was too young at the young to really get a true sense of the national feeling outside my own house.

Anyway, Michelle Obama will be just another first lady (hopefully, unless McCain wins) as far as I'm concerned. I was listening to NPR this morning as I drove home about the scandals about McCain's wife's cookie recipes. First, apparently, on her (or his) website, she (or a staffer) had posted "family" cookie recipes which apparently were on the Rachel Ray website. Then, Home Circle or something interviewed both first ladies and they had to provide cookie recipes. McCain provided one later found to be from Hershey's dot com.

There's nothing wrong with cookie recipes, but it says something when Ms. McCain is getting flack for not having an original family recipe. Who has such things? Don't they have anything more useful to ask First Ladies about?

I pondered to myself whether they would have asked Hil*lary for them if she were still in the race - or Bill? They photographed the presidential spouses in some magazine - maybe Vanity Fair, in a "beautiful" and sort of sexy manner. I think they offered both Hillary and Bill the chance to participate but they both declined, appropriately.