Knowing the Geese By Name…

Today’s walk: about 10 miles (probably a bit more); I started at the Riverplex parking lot and walked to East Peoria and around Bass Pro until the path ended (32 minutes; probably about 2.3 miles) and then walked back; I then did some around the goose loop; past the field, along the dam at the arena entrance.

But I saw the domestic goose and its friend that hangs around some Canadians as well as the white face family of 4. In short, I recognize some of the individual geese by sight…pretty sad. I hope that these geese stay away from the hunting areas.

Later: the behind the knee area hurts a bit; it might be a weather ache plus my not using orthotics for regular walking around.

Post
The main stream media can’t afford to tick off a group by appearing to be “unbalanced”. Hence Republican lies and ridiculous assertions are likely to go unchallenged.

Hence, blogs and rapid response will be more important than ever before.

Jobs

The yin: we are still adding jobs rather than losing them.

The yang: given a growing “potential work force”, we need to add a certain amount of jobs just to break even. We are right about at the break even rate right now:

(from here)

My wife had adequate warning and other topics….

She has no one but herself to blame.

There are some other funny things at this site (where I got the above from):

Here is another one my wife can relate to (albeit with the sex roles reversed)

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I’ve had a couple of these, especially in crowded high school hall ways.

And no, I’ve never carried facebook check-ins this far.

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Bloody Truth About the Bible – Fox News Video – Fox News

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Bloody Truth About the Bible – Fox News Video -…, posted with vodpod

Satan, Santa, Gigs, Cold and Jobs…

Yes, it is better to add jobs than to lose them. But the growth is still too anemic to make a serious dent in unemployment (which is dropping…a little)

Though the economic debate is hot, much of the country (northwest mostly) is going to be cold this week. Right now Illinois is unseasonably mild and since it is on the edge of the projected map, should return to seasonable temperatures.

Humor

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Gossip
I found the blog “not always right” about the wacky things that some customers (or potential customers) say. I happened to enjoy this one:

Customer: “I need a new laptop. I want one better than the one I have. I want to spend no more than 600 dollars.”

(After finding out that he has a machine running Windows 98 with 512 MB of ram and 60 GB of hard drive space, I provide him several different laptop choices within his price range. They have either 3GB or 4GB of RAM, running Windows 7.)

Customer: “No, no, no! I said better! I have 512 memory, but you keep recommending only 3 and 4! Also, 7 is way lower than 98! Get me someone who knows what I mean by better!”

It isn’t the ignorance that I am laughing at; it is the attitude that this customer just “knows” that they are right and that the professional is an idiot. Yes, sales people are sometimes idiots but here…well…dumb people are often the most cocksure.

News of the hilarious
Someone was upset that some car shows wouldn’t accept his cars:

Blevins said as he pointed to cars he refinished with skulls and devil’s horns.
Blevins told News 5 his cars were banned from area car shows, [...]

So he put up a sign in front of his house praising Satan:

It’s not a light display you’d expect this time of year. “I was just horrified, horrified,” Deborah Jones said of the first time she saw the sign.

Bright red letters saying “The Devil’s Inn is closed until Judgement Day”, along with a message reading “Satan Satan Hear My Plea, Satan Satan Come To Me” illuminate the side of Highway 19-E each night.

Evidently this is too much for some of the local bumpkins:

But with a controversial message in plain sight, some who drive by don’t see it that way. “Knowing that a child could ask a parent is Satan really there? Is Satan in his home? What is a parent supposed to say to a child,” Jones told News 5 Friday.

One could tell the kids that Satan is a fictional character that less enlightened people once believed in. Really; it amazes me that people in a non-third world country would be up in arms over this. Sure, in a Muslim country this guy would probably be put to death, but we (correctly) condemn that sort of backwards behavior. So our fundies and religious whack-jobs aren’t as ignorant and backwards as those people. But we are supposed to be more advanced than that.

Jingle Bell 5K run: 2011 run finale

I didn’t know whether I wanted to do this race as this race has been a total zoo in the past (2005, 2008). This one was no exception; most of us were lined up at 9:55 (10:00 scheduled start) and the start finally went off at 10:15. Much of the crowd was chanting “Start The Race” as we stood there getting rained on (it was in the 40′s…warm for this time of year in Illinois).

Still, it was fun to kid with the other runners; Theresa and I tried to sandbag each other.

I got to the Riverplex in time to register and start some individual yoga and rotator cuff exercises at 9; at 9:30 I went outside and jogged 2 easy miles. I felt good.

But the start: I was a bit stiff at first and we did come to a halt; as usual there were way too many slow people lined up at the front (though not as high a percentage as in years past). So there was some mild broken field running but by 4-5 minutes into it I was running ok. I was breathing a bit too hard too early going up the small incline. Mile 1 came at 8:14. I stretched it out a bit and tried to concentrate on turn over. Mile 2 featured a downhill and I got that in 8:02 (16:16). This mark came just before we exited the gooseloop. But then came a small incline and I went to feeling good to feeling “OMG, I hope I don’t have to walk!” very quickly!

I told myself to focus on turnover and bending the knees. At this time my glasses fogged up; I couldn’t see the spandex of the ladies passing me during this stretch.

The last mile was kind of ugly (8:26) but I kept moving and crossed the finish line in 25:35 (my watch, 25:45 official). This was 8:14 minutes per mile which was good for 233 out of 1096. I walked a cool down mile.

This was faster than my Boo Run 5K on 22 October (25:48) and much faster than the 27:30 to 28:00 that I was running in September.

One other note: a key workout of mine has been the “Deek” 8 x 400 with 200 float and adding a final 200 to get to 5K.
In 2001, I did this workout on a track and did it in 22:35. My 5K race after that was 20:47. I ran my 5K in 92.0 percent of the time it took to do this workout. Now, I ran the same workout in 27:33 and raced (approximately) the same course as today in 25:35; this is 92.8 percent.

Some things are just consistent.

Note: I wore green tights under shorts, a red shirt and a red and white striped “Santa/Elf” hat…and I have a white beard.