29 December 2008

Workout notes I am feeling much better than last week; I’ll do something but I am not sure as to what. I was thinking about swimming but today’s running weather is simply too good to pass up. So I might do another 4-6 miles outdoors (33 F, sunny).

When you live in Illinois, you have to take advantage of the dry roads when you can!
But I have to be wary of double workouts right now; I am almost recovered from my cold and don’t want to relapse.

Update: I did my West Peoria Cemetery course (one hill loop) in 54:14; I was 19:40 at mile 2 (10:10 at mile one, coughing most of the way) and the last 2 was 18:55 or 38:35 for the course I did yesterday. I think that the course is about 5.4-5.5 miles; I am not sure.

Articles:
Football.
This article argues (correctly, IMHO), that the Cowboys were the biggest flop of the NFL season this year. Sure, the Lions didn’t win a game, but they were expected to be terrible. The Cowboys went 9-7 in a season where they strutted about having the “best talent”.

But think about it: The last time the Cowboys were really good was the 1991-1996 era, when the won the Superbowl following the 1992, 1993, and 1995 seasons. Though Barry Switzer was the coach in 1994 and 1995, those were really the Jimmy Johnson teams. Since then (back when Notre Dame was an elite college team!), the Cowboys haven’t had a great deal of success. So, I suppose it wasn’t the owner that made them so good on the field, was it?

Humor:

see more pwn and owned pictures

Rate Your Students is doing a series about those “middle of the academic year” conferences which often features a “meat market” (places where prospective employers (aka “academic departments”) can visit with job seekers (aka “about ready to graduate graduate students”). Here is one such article. Note the associated artwork.

It reminds me of the 1990-1991 meeting I went to (the combined MAA-AMS meeting) in San Francisco; I stayed in a discount hotel (room with communal bathroom/shower down the hall) due to graduate student finances. So I get ready to walk down the hall and here goes this shapey lass walking down the hall to the shower clad in her underwear.

Communal facilities aren’t always bad.

Oh yeah, I did land an interview that lead to my present job.

Oh yes, this was right wen the first Iraq war was stating (Desert Storm) and the local San Francisco community were having protests all over the place. I remember one young woman, clad in jeans and a knitted poncho running down the street with her sign; she was just so eager to join the protest march. It was almost like being in a movie set from the 1960s.

Science: New Scientist is making it’s top 10 articles on evolution in 2008 available free of charge. I’ve got some reading to do! Hat tip to the Dawkins website.