O.K. enough of the hampster dance nonsense. Sorry 'bout that, just a blast from the past. But moving on to more fun things...
and i think this has made the rounds, but it's just too funny to not share.
Anyway, where have i been?
Well, i was off last week at Rotary PETS training for three days in K-Zoo.
What's PETS, well now here's a fun thing... President Elect Training Seminar. Yep, so not only am i rotarian, i also was elected the new President for the club. My social conscience knows no boundaries.
Just another example of my Vote of Mike'08 qualifications.
So, i've been gone and there may be little droppings about the great international work rotary does to eliminate Polio, and provide clean water; not to mention the local rotary clubs work within their respective communities.
Movin' On....
Due to Saturday being a Rotary Day, i missed my scheduled 20 miler. This sucks and i think i will make it up on this Saturday. This week is a scheduled 7 mile step back weekend. Well, i don't think i can step back anymore then the 20 becomming three last weekend. So, let's do it Saturday or Sunday.
At least then i will only be 7 miles behind for the two week total. i really need to focus as i seem to be cutting things too short. In reality, i am so far ahead of the first marathon plan, but i want to get a better time, so i am trying to keep my focus.
With the weather, finally, shifting, i ran Monday in the 80 degree day. Yippeeeeee!!!!! And, of course ran tooooooo fast. Nothing Painful, just a real fast, for me, under 8 minute pace, four miles followed by 4 at 8:20. Piece of Cake. Today's 8 miles will be a little slower, i promise myself.
So what else is new........
Well, Fun Guv and i have been watching documentaries lately. It's not been intentional, but so many good ones have hit our library lately. We saw;
An Inconvienient Truth , about bad spelling: Al Gore can be witty, who'da thunk it? Very candid, and i confess to being an Al Gore fan, if possible. Funny topic lately over lunch with a buisness partner was my friends firm disbelief in global warming. But ask for any true data,...well my friend didn't really have anything but right-wing opinion. At least Al had some facts.
When the Levees Broke, could be Spike Lee's greatest work. Wow!!! if you didn't see the HBO special, watch this. It's heartbreaking, honest, powerful, and loooooong!!! Too hard to watch in one sitting. Thank gawd, Spike broke it down to different Acts.
The US versus John Lennon, well this one really goes back to the video at the top here. But the nice back story, truly draws parallels to todays involvement in Iraq. Funny to see protestors 30+ years ago carrying signs to end the war, and bring the troops home or "Support our Troops". i think history has spun that protestors were anti-troops, not so. This documentary really brings home the paranoia created by using phrases like "homeland security", to gather support. The soundtrack is cool too. Ms Tessmacher, shame on you for not seeing this yet.
This Film is not yet Rated, ahhhh censorship, ...as american as apple pie. Want to see how the ratings board represents a cross section of Americana??? Not for the kids though, cause really this film avoided the voluntary ratings board, ....kinda. Lot's of deleted scenes from movies with original NC-17 ratings, that later received R ratings. Not for the folks out there who dislike violence, accurate depictions of sex, and/or marionettes defecating on each other.
That's it for now. As usual, i had a ton of other things i wanted to rant about, but..... another time perhaps.
thanks for reading
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
A big hearty welcome to MIR!!!!
Thursday, March 15, 2007
First Post Revisited:
Saturday, March 11, 2006
thanks to anyone who happens to stumble upon my blog. It started innocently enough as i was responding to a blog from a friend, who i am running a marathon with, regarding how she is writing a blog to document the training for said marathon. (Actually, it's the chicago one on Oct 22) I ended up creating a blog to respond.So what the hell? let's give a go and if anyone ever looks at this great. If not then o.k. too. It's sorta like a internet keroeke... kariokkee... kareoke.. for all the unpublished writers and most likely a few published writers to just babble.Which brings me to my point, or close enough to something to call it a point. Random thoughts, babble, just junk and maybe not some junk will be my topic du jour, or du bi-weekly, du whenever. etc. 'till next time
Posted by Mike at 10:16 AM
Well there it was and here i am. A year has passed since i wrote this note. i should have known it right from the start. Seems i'm not alone in the voyage of self-discovery, wanting to achieve more and push farther than previosly thought possible. (thanks, Sting)
i guess as i look back and occasionally read old post to see where i've been, i am pleasantly surprised that i have consistently improved the context of the blog. Somethings have changed, like the appearance, the counter, what i have done with development as a runner, etc.... but the consistent development of my voice, which is still developing, has been fun.
Anyway, nothing too witty to say about an anniversary, except, like most in my life, i'm a day or two late in doing anything about it.
Running Stuff: Maybe this should be health stuff, as i am beginning to really enjoy cross-training? i ran 2 miles on Monday. It was a unique occurance for mileage in the plan. Go with it. Except, Mack wanted to run with me. So i did my two, and ran a third with her at her pace. 12:00/mile, a couple walk breaks but not bad. She's still wanting to do a 5k this summer.
Last night was speed work. 7 miles total, with 3 1600's @ 7:32 pace with 800 meter cooldowns between. A couple miles getting to and from the track and, voila 7 miles.
This was the first real test and, with the wind and rain, i was set up to fail. i didn't. The 3 times were all under 7:30, or right at 7:30 (like the third and final). a few moments required a final 100m sprint, or what could have been called a sprint, and i think i came the closest that i have been yet to puking after a hard run, but it's in the books. No more running at the track for 2 weeks when i attempt 4 1600m's @ 7:32.
Other Stuff:
Soooo General Pace thinks homosexuality is immoral, indecent, whatever.... "i mean, i'm sitting here on the bench....i mean i'm sitting here on the group W bench, cause you want to know if i'm moral enough to join the army after being a litterbug"-- paraphrased for Alice's Restaurant
Cause our army has been asked to behave soooo morally.
Thank God, this soldier isn't gay. That would be immoral.
* btw...i sure this isn't the way all our soldiers behave, and this is not a "don't support the troops" moment. ...but just like a few extremists make all muslims appear scary to some people, a few moments like this can make all US troops appear scary to others
Thanks for reading
Monday, March 12, 2007
Monday Quick Hitters....
Running stuff:
Ran 29 miles last week. Too much as i made up 6 miles missed the previous weeks. i ran Sun, Mon, Wed & Sat; 6 mi, 4 mi, 6 mi (tempo 4 @ 7:50, total for 6 8:03 pace) & 13 miles (shoulda been 16 miles, oh well)
Lifted weights on Tues, and had tennis lesson on Friday, with about 200 crunches at least 4 times this week, i'm starting to feel a little better about my fitness and looking better ( i mean, i only have one direction to go) -shameless plea for sympathy.....
Running Lesson for the week, do not follow a tempo run with a long run and go out toooooo fast. Ooops, a couple contributing factors to the shortened long run, or just lame rationalizations: went too fast, dressed too many layers for spring heat, extra weight of 2 liter camel-pak, sore calves from tennis.
Part two of lesson; Burnout potential increased. i have to remember to enjoy the training and enjoy the next marathon. If i get too hopped-up on the idea of running a marathon in my home town, i could create a bad experience and a crushing emotional defeat. Relax, trust the training program, follow your own advice.
Non-Running:
Vote for Mike '08 (part 1).....Does anyone still think we did not go to war for economic reasons or that class warfare is not being waged in the good ole US of A? Bushco wants another 8000 troops to surge (escalate the war) on top of the 20000 already asked for. Same week....Haliburton decides to move corporate headquarters to.....drumroll......Dubai. Ta-daaaa!!!
(picture Drew Carey making hand gestures a la "The Aristocrats" while saying Dubai, wait...didn't you see it?)
(part 2)...FBI admits to abuses in the following of the Patriot Act, what a oxymoron of true patroitism, which led to 20,000 + (admitted) wire/phone taps of American citizens. we didn't see that one coming either...next thing....no weapons of mass destruction will be found, ...it's crazy....
(part 3)... this one leads into a little religion so i apologize, but....reading through the Bible, i have noticed that Jesus (fairly central character in the New Testament, and the Koran btw) tells his disciples, those who are not against me are with me. Rough translation, most likely, not a direct quote, a few thousand years and all....but the meaning is totally opposite of Bushco's "those who are not with me, are against me" mentality.
Still Reading the Bible:.....Scary moment of truth in Bible as i read it.....In Luke, if interested....Jesus cast out some demons and townsfolk ask...
hey, wait a minute how do we know you're not Beelzebub, and you're tricking us by casting out your own demons to gain our loyalty? Again, most likely not a direct quote, you get the gist.
Jesus responds in his very wise manner that a demon casting out other demons, would hurt their, the demons, cause. i like this passage as it shows the power of inclusion vs the destruction of division. Jesus even makes mention that a demon would divide with phrases like.... "those who are not with me, are against me"...wait.... sound familiar?...something reads deja vu -esgue....probably nothing, just ignore the feeling...it'll go away....
Yep, i'm breaking my rules for too many topics and too long of a post....massive brain dump going on here.... i mean the dump is massive, not so much...y'know...my brain.
Washington Twp: Ok... really i'm shifting gears here and not so much tongue-and-cheek, anymore. i've been watching a ton of stuff on a local, incredibly sad, tragic and horrifying murder in Washington Twp. As i have mentioned, this is thing i read about a lot, and so close to home, very scary stuff.
Essentially, although i guess this has made national news, husband reports wife missing after 5 days, she commutes to Puerto Rico, not unheard of. He gets a lawyer, doesn't share bank records with police, but he's seems to be enjoying the public eye....tv interviews, pleas to help find wife, etc....
A couple weeks go by, and friday night news breaks in with a search warrant for the home. Now really, the entire eastside metro detroit area is watching for breaking news on this odd case. People are divided on it, to this point....
...but Saturday morning, news reports wife's torso, is found in garage. Now this is all alleged and rumor, cause i want to stay impartial in case called to serve on the jury. Husband works at his dad's tool and die shop. Appartantly, his car was seen there at 4:00 am morning after the murder (why that was not reported to the police baffles me). After the horrific dismembering, body was disbursed throughout local park, and with recent snow covered. Husband goes back to retrieve torso, to avoid it being found by search parties going through the park a week prior to the search warrant. Essentially, everything else was small enough not to notice.
Husband disapears but, thank God for morons, uses his ATM card in northern Michigan and is found wandering a state park. No shoot out, and no attempted suicide (or a real lame, try to freeze to death, attempt).
So, my point, thoughts, whatever...what could have caused this? At what point does the social factors kick in? Is this a socia-path at work? Economic? Is a man whose own insecurities, with a more successful wife, the big issue? Tool-n-Die shops are hurting in this area, could work pressure play a role? Media coverage? Has this Peterson-like coverage, been due to the white upper middle class-ness of the case, while poor, and/or minority murders are ignored by the media? Was the husband given a bit of a free pass in the court of public opinion for the same reason? Up 'till the search warrant.
This isn't a sense to grasp a rationale for the murder, or justify anything. Obviously, a woman, and mother was killed, in home, allegedly, by her husband, while her children sat a few rooms away. And, we can be thankful, this didn't turn into a murder/suicide, with children as victims as well. My heart and thoughts go out to the families of both wife and husband, as both families are devastated, and to the children. 400 people showed up at a candlelight vigil outside the home recently. I believe people really do care, but.... and there's always a but with me.
Shouldn't we be just as upset about the thousands of US lives lost since the occupation of Irag? Or the estimated 650,000, dead civilian (men , woman, and children) iraqi's?
Still Reading? i think i'm done, whew...that was painful.
Thanks for reading
what's 3 more minutes? watch me.. well not me, more the metaphorical me the video, a la "Alice in Wonderland" y'know "drink me"
Friday, March 02, 2007
6 weird things about me....
but first a quick training update. i missed a 7 mile training run on Wednesday. Not something i do often, but my Rotary Club had a dinner meeting with 5 other clubs. Since i had a responsiblity to be there early to sell 50/50 tix, i missed my training run.
So do i make it up; over the next few days add a little here and there, or say "screw it" and move on?
Anyway, 6 weird things about me... thanks Animal
1. Right Angles.... not sure why, but everything on my desk is at a right angle, or 45 degrees, which i equate as a derivative of a right angle, cause two 45s make a 90.
2. i love Diane Keaton, and not entirely in a "love her work" way, but i've always thought she's incredibly attractive. Even at the tender age of 61, she looked HOT at the Oscars. LA-DEE-DA.
3. i like to use the word....Jujune. Why??? After watching "Love and Death", a Woody Allen movie starring....Diane Keaton; she used the word. We, me and roommates, had no idea what the conversation was about and had to look it up (pre-internet). Not very june of us.
4. i love to read Hemingway. This stuns me. i think his work is homophobic and racist, but i still enjoy the simplicity. Hemingway's stories about north Michigan capture the feeling of being there and i have read the Nick Adams stories over and over. There's such depth behind the simple sentences. i think i've read "The End of Something" a half dozen times throughout my life. No big deal as it's a short story. Every time i get a different feeling, in relation to my own life. No other writer has done that for me.
5. Serial killers fascinate me.... i've always had a morbid curiousity with Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Zodiac, Green River, etc.... i've read more stories on these "people" than i can remember, or even the names of all i have read about. Then Fun Guv exposed me to Ann Rule and the books she has written of true crime. The thought process of a social-path, or lack thereof..., the lack of empathy, the egocentric nature.... More on that, maybe, in another post.
6. i have no desire to meet or find out who my birthparents are.... This is a bit odd for the non-adopted folks to imagine. While i am thankful my birthmother choose to give birth to me, i am also thankful she opted to give me away. Most adoptees are portrayed in movies/TV as people who want to find out their history. i've met other adopted people who have met their birth parents and it never goes well. i prefer to keep Pandora's Box closed in this case.
Anyway, as it took me too long to update this post, as i had to filter out the really weird things about me, just to get to the palatable ones, don't expect another long delay in posting. i have a week of training to update (for those interested) and a preparation for a big one year anniversary of blogging.
Sunday is a 4 mile run in Detroit. It's a little pre-St Pat's thing, any body want to join me? Starts at noon. Anyone....anyone??? Registration is at old Tiger Stadium....
Thanks for reading
