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Wingnut of the Day: Duncan Hunter
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) made this insane statement on C-SPAN.
"I think if you have to hit Iran, you don't put boots on the ground. You do it with tactical nuclear devices, and you set them back a decade or two or three," Hunter said in an interview with C-SPAN. "I think that's the way to do it --with a massive aerial bombardment campaign."Most of the Iranian casualties of a "massive aerial bombardment" will be civilians. Does Hunter think no civilians will be in the 25 mile blast radius of a nuclear explosion? Iran and neighboring countries will be uninhabitable. The fallout could travel for years across the Earth. Hunter's solution is scrap the talks between the United States and Iran and commence with genocide and environmental damage to the Earth. It is scary someone this stupid is in Congress.
Labels: duncan hunter, iran, wingnuts


text:
Or at least someone different. This is Avram, and I am performing one of those silly post high-jacks. I regret the silliness of my actions, but clearly not enough to refrain from posting. C'est la vie.
I have stolen this 'blog for the purpose of praising my wife--who has caught another of her atomic death colds, and so has not quite felt up to posting. This is why the post on sugar has retained its pride of place on the first page of her 'blog for so long. Not that she loves to talk about her eating habits so much, but rather that she has not felt up to talking about much of anything lately. This is a sad state of affairs, but one which I am unable to help her with. I do what I can, but even superheroes are powerless against the ravages of disease.
So, to give you, the gentle readers of my beloved wife's 'blog, something to read, I have, without her knowledge, borrowed this 'blog for a moment (a regrettably brief moment, as I still have homework yet to do), in order to mention how much I am grateful for my wife. I do not to tell you of how wonderful she is, for you get to read her words, which is almost as good as talking with her. Not as good, but still, a pretty close second. I appreciate Thora in particular for her concern for her family, and at the same time for my scholarship. She continuously attempts to push me to further academic heights. I would not be where I am today, without her ready assistance and support (and sometimes prodding).
I haven't time to speak to more of her myriad virtues, as I have much to do this week and today, but suffice that I love her.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
And Now--For Something Different
Or at least someone different. This is Avram, and I am performing one of those silly post high-jacks. I regret the silliness of my actions, but clearly not enough to refrain from posting. C'est la vie.
Posted by Thora at 12:03 PM 5 comments
Friday, January 22, 2010
What, more discussion of Sugar? Doesn't Thora have a life?
A couple of notes - I was just going to write a long comment, bet then I just decided to go with a post format instead.
First, Jami and Jen, thanks for your immediate kind feedback. Don't worry about feeling guilty. There are so many blog comments that I really meant to write, even had the window up to do so, and then just....never wrote.
Sarah, it's true, I would never last through Lent - and I think I've just convinced myself I shall never try. Angela - I didn't just fall off of the wagon because of the lack of comments. I actually had been feeling dis-satisfied with the whole fast for several days, and I suppose I hoped that some positive, "You can do it!" comments would make me feel like it was worth finishing out the month. I do feel better, but not from eating (or not eating) sugar as much as not having to worry about it. Camilla - I would do it again, but I think my personal limit is two weeks. That's enough time to detox, and feel Christmas sugar overload cured, without feeling unnecessarily deprived.
And to everyone, the chocolate chip cookies were good, although not perfect, because Avram went to buy me chocolate chips (since we had none in the house), and the store was closed since it was after nine, so he just went to CVS and came home with milk. At this point I could have given up, but I had already sifted the flour and put in baking soda and salt, so there was no turning back. So I chopped up two ounces of semi-sweet chocolate baking squares I had, and cannibalized half a package of my Andes mints for the remaining chocolate needs. So, they weren't perfect cookies, but they were good, and I now know that I have never missed out by not buying the Andes mints baking bags.
But, even with the mishap, I did not regret eating the cookies. For about a week I had begun reading dessert blogs, and the dessert sections of our cookbooks, and drooling over all of the selections. I really do enjoy making desserts - the challenge of trying new recipes, of learning new techniques, of feeling my baking skills stretched. Plus of course eating the creations. I found that I was missing that whole aspect as much as sugar itself. Since making the cookies I haven't even had one bite of Andes mints (well, besides what was in the cookies themselves). I wasn't really addicted to sugar before hand, and I don't feel like going out and binging on sugar before. And now with eating sugar again, I haven't even had all the time, even with the chocolate chip cookies hanging out in our house.
I guess I realized that I would rather just eat sugar in moderation rather than go off of it wholesale, because then I feel deprived in my life, and then I start focusing on it unduly. I guess (should I ever diet) that I should never follow one of those diets where you cut out all fat, or all sugar, or something, because it makes me focus on what I can't have, and not on what I am eating.
I've never liked binding myself to silly oaths, promises, etc. just for the sake of the oath itself. I don't feel like my "honor" is at stake if I change my mind mid month and decide that I didn't want to do it anymore anyway. Of course, for serious things (all religious oaths, etc.) I consider myself bound forever. For things like, "I won't eat sugar for a whole month" turning more into, "I won't eat sugar for 19 days, because then I'll be sick of the whole process, and just want to bake a dessert already, and stop looking at dessert cookbooks, and we'll call it good, " - I feel fine about leaving that behind once it ceases to help me, and rather I feel bound by it. More like, a guideline. Now, if were something important, like I was diabetic, and not supposed to eat too many carbohydrates, then I think I could have the self control to not do so. One thing I realized with not eating sugar is that I could be in social situations, where people around me were eating sugar, and not do so myself, and it was doable. I didn't even really miss the sugar, and more just had to fight the mentality of not celebrating reciprocity with the group.
Also, in the end I realized that I just like trying to be moderate more than extreme. Ok, so now I've blabbed on and on about this topic - I just wanted to try and be a little more clear on the subject.
Posted by Thora at 3:47 PM 12 comments
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Two Sentences
Since nobody commented on my last post, and because of everyone who was doing it, I was the only one who had never fallen off of the wagon, and most of all, since I hadn't eaten any sugar in 19 days, and I was bored of it, yesterday Avram and I made chocolate chip cookies, and they were yummy. The End.
Posted by Thora at 11:51 AM 10 comments
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Sugar Fast
For the month of January for the last couple of years my sister Camilla has done a sugar fast with whomever will join her. This year, feeling the effects of a two week Christmas vacation that included cookies, ice-cream, donuts, and candy, candy, candy, every day of those two weeks, I agreed to join her. I even got Avram to do it with me, since I told him I couldn't do it alone, and I needed his peer support.
I'm not really on a sugar fast, where I avoid all refined sugar in every product, including bread and condiments. I'm more on a sweets and candy fast. I still have jam on sandwiches, and have even on a couple of occasions had maple syrup on pancakes. Since I set out knowing that I did not intend on giving up raspberry jam and maple syrup, I don't feel guilty for all of the sideways sugar I'm imbibing.
However, just abstaining from official sugary foods has been enough for me. I don't consider myself as having a huge sweet tooth - we do not routinely buy candy or chocolates, and only have it in the house for holidays like Halloween or Easter. I do like making desserts, and for the past year have been slowly working on improving my dessert repertoire, since traditionally I have embrace cooking for its savory aspects more than its sweet ones. I find myself as the days pass, and I'm on day eighteen of the fast (I started one day late, since that's when we went home from Christmas Vacation), I long more and more for really yummy desserts. Tender cakes with a fine crumb and a fluffy frosting. Dense, chocolately brownies offset by a light chocolate frosting. Warm chocolate chip cookies with the chocolate chips still gooey. These are the building blocks for daydreams, my phantasmagorical castles (fashioned after the style of Candyland and Hansel and Gretal) in the sky.
Despite my inner longings for sweets, I have been a fortress of self control on the outside. Whether in public occasions, where there was birthday cake or cookies for the taking, or at home, where in the top shelf of my kitchen cupboard I have hidden away two almost full packages of Andes mints - Christmas spoil - that I had been saving until I was home again, I have stood firm. Mostly because I have realized that as nice as the chocolate frosted cake smelt, it was only a box cake, with store bought frosting. Yummy, to be sure, but as Mr. Darcy says, "[The dessert] is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me." The cookies were snickerdoodles and chocolate with white chocolate chips - good, but Mr. Darcy came swimming into my mind again. (Which makes me think of his impromptu swim on his estate in the A&E Pride and Prejudice movie, which in turn has nothing in common with this post except for the drool factor induced by both Mr. Darcy and sugar.) I feel the same way about the Andes mints just feet below where I sit writing.
Not that there was anything wrong with these desserts, and if I weren't trying to detox from eating candy like it was about to be outlawed I would have enjoyed them with no qualms whatsoever. I just realized that if I was going to fall off the wagon and break my own commitment, it had better be for something like homemade cheesecake with chocolate sauce and raspberries, or a molten chocolate lava cake with whipped cream (not that I've ever actually had one, but I am 100% sure I would love one if I did). The picture of the homemade cheesecake is me, nine months pregnant with Lydia, in our old Provo Apartment. Good times.
In a Man for All Seasons Sir Thomas More says, "...It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?" Avram and I always use this phrase, and here I think, "it profits me nothing to break my agreement for all the homemade cheesecakes...but for cheap, store-bought chocolate?" Apparently no sugar brings out the movie quoting side of myself.
I'm not doing this to lose weight (hah! I'm pregnant. I've been gaining weight steadily this month), nor to adopt a lifelong stance against processed sugar. I'm already planning to make a delicious dessert on February First to celebrate a return to the sweetened world. I may even eat desserts when I go to an overnight Women's Retreat a sister from my ward is doing this coming weekend, since I've been planning on going and eating them most of January. This way it doesn't count as an impulse, weak-willed moment, but rather a planned digression from the norm.
The whole purpose of the fast, to reduce the amount of sugar I am used to eating, has certainly succeeded. I had a bite of a graham cracker that Elisheva was eating several days ago, and it tasted like a cookie. I think next year I'll do it again, but reduce the time to two weeks, since I feel sufficiently detoxed now, but still want to finish out the month just to prove I can.
Posted by Thora at 2:44 PM 3 comments
Friday, January 15, 2010
Now I'm Hungry for Watermelon, But I Won't Be Stereotypical and Make Avram Go and Buy it Offseason
Sometimes in the depths of Winter, I like to remember that there really is more to life than snow boots, chapped hands, and old apples.
Posted by Thora at 10:56 PM 5 comments
Thursday, January 14, 2010
All my creative brainwaves
Aww, thanks for all the comments, ladies. I do already have a lot of yarn, and I know how to knit. So that would be a good thing to restart. It's nice to know I'm not the only one with this problem sometimes. I also love your idea, Jen, of doing a book group. But they sound so daunting to start up - I wish I lived in the same time zone as you, and could just come to yours. Ditto on the play group.
I must have been on Aleatha's brainwave, because I already had the pictures for another food post, and just went and wrote out the 'recipe.' Go and check out an Easy Chicken Dinner.
I was going to post more, but doing the chicken post took all my creative brainwaves out of me.
Posted by Thora at 8:37 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Break on Through to the Other {Clean and Organized} Side
I've spent the month of January thus far cleaning and organizing our house. We traded bedrooms with our girls, so they now have the large room, and we have the small one. I love having a smaller room - I suppose I am backwards in this way. But now we are next to the bathroom, which is nice for early Morning showers (Avram) or middle of the night toilet runs (pregnant Thora). Before Elisheva would often wake up if we even went into the bathroom to brush our teeth - which made for difficult hygiene. Now my teeth are thankful for the ease with which I can brush them. Also, the girls' amount of toys and stuff far outweigh our own needs, and so they finally have proper room to play in. Someday I dream of having a separate toy room for all of my children, and then just stacking them up in bunks for sleeping, but that day will have to wait. Until then it's nice to know they at least have room for playing - before the toys were so scrunched up that they never really played with them, and if Lydia did pull something out, the room immediately felt messy from the extra junk moving around. I'll take pictures after I've completed the transformation (all that is really left are hanging the pictures).
The New Year and New Decade, not to mention the below freezing weather and snow, have inspired me to completely overhaul my house. Oh, yeah, and our "little" mice problem has been a motivating factor as well. I've never had such an ease of keeping our kitchen cleaned up after every meal - the thought of little mice yuckiness touching any dirt, or being happy by any crumbs makes me feel like the kitchen is practically cleaning itself, and I'm just along for the ride. We have mice - sad but true. I'd blog about it, but I think it would depress me, and gross you out. So I won't. We've killed four so far, in the last month, and finally yesterday our Management said that they would call mice exterminators. Let us hope that they are true and prompt to their word, and that we will soon enjoy our house with our family alone, and none others sharing it.
Moving back on topic, in the terminology of Flylady, my house is now 100% free of hotspots in any room. Hotspots are areas that attract clutter or mess. Stuff like a convenient shelf (or desktop, in my case) at the front of your house that gathers the random mail, important papers, junk, things that need to be sorted/filed/dealt with. I was going to take pictures of this as well, but by the time I got my camera out, it was dark outside, and I didn't want gloomy shots. And I've organized my linen closet, electronics drawer and random junk drawer, the shelves of our bookcases that always attract things we want to keep out of reach of the girls, and even the games shelf. See, I have to put this out on the Internet so that I can feel special, because no one thus far in my entire life has spontaneously opened my electronics drawer (kept in my upstairs hallway), and exclaimed over how well I have pared down on the random ear buds that went to nothing, and how they see no sign of the outdated and outmoded technological gadgets we had lying around, waiting for the resurrection to give them new meaning to their life. In a nutshell, my blog validates me, and my activities.
All I really have left to conquer is the two desk drawers, one more random drawer, and the walk in closet (which I am thinking of of magically transporting to another dimension, so I don't have to deal with it. It is the last holdout of random junk I don't know where else to put/what else to do with it.) Then my house will be completely and finally beautified. Oh, sure, I could clean out the inside of my fridge, or organize my food cupboards, but let us not be ridiculous.
As I've face down the end of my daily activities, except for maintaining this state of cleanliness, which never completely happens, I have been faced with a stolid truth. When my house is completely and utterly clean, I don't know what to do with myself. I do not mean to imply that I am someone who glories in cleaning, and whose hobbies are accomplished via Comet, Lysol, and a Vacuum. Rather, I am such a lagging housekeeper that when I finally do not have nagging responsibilities to accomplish around the house, that really should have been done yesterday, if not last month, I don't know what to do without that sense of vague guilt. Thus far, I usually pick up some good, or fluffy, books, and read until my house falls apart again. A falling apart house puts me right back into my comfort zone, and I once again know where my place resides in the universe - the grubby corner, next to a large bookcase.
As I approach this parabola of cleanliness that turns back into what I usually call "home sweet mess" I'd like to break out of my inexorable mathematical equation of a life, and actually maintain a clean home. I was thinking, perhaps I need a new hobby - one to do in the afternoons while Elisheva is sleeping. Perhaps I need more places to go during the week - currently we leave the house only when necessity calls (Lydia's playschool and grocery shopping at the same time, usually), although I remind myself that could be a function of the season, and not just my laziness. I used to attend the Library story time, and I'd like to incorporate that back into my life again.
I know that once I have three children, I'll be quite happy, at least for the first little while, in spending all my time not feeling completely overwhelmed. Until then though, what can I spend my free time on? Lydia thinks it should be playing Peggle with her through all hours of the day, but I am fairly certain there must be better past-times out there.
I suppose I'm not completely asking for advice (although any offered is welcome), since I am in a state where I am already vetoing anything I think of. Part of the difficulty is I need to think of something that is 100% free. And more than just reading, because as much as I love to read, we have already seen that this leads (in and of itself) back to mess. What do all the other stay at home moms out there do with their time? I was going to say free time, but I realize that most people would laugh at the idea of having free time every day. I do read blogs, but I feel that I can only do this so long every day before I feel that I ought to be doing something else. Yes, yes, I could write blog posts. If Lydia stopped climbing over me, while we played princesses (and I read on the Internet). We don't have T.V. hooked up. I do already spend time with Lydia every day on writing. She can now read four words: zoo, no, cat, dog.
Am I the only one who feels like they have extra time on their hands that could be used for self improvement? Should I just play with my kids more? And does anyone have any oil paints and canvases they want to get rid of, because I've always wanted to try painting?
Posted by Thora at 8:09 PM 11 comments
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Books I read in 2009
In order to form a more perfect blog layout, I'd like to clear the reading list for 2009, so I can begin anew on 2010. (What is it with me and book lists for these two last posts?) This is the first time in my life I've ever listed every book I've read. In fact, in third grade I got a D in English because we were supposed to list every book we read, and I didn't. Bad Thora. So now I am redeeming myself, but don't worry, I don't expect any of you to read this list - making a blog post is just a convenient way of recording the list down for my posterity, who also won't care.
Way post edit - so I just realized that Oh, Pioneers isn't on this list, yet I know I read it recently. So consider it added.
(This is supposed to be up here, but I didn't realize it until I was up to February, and no way was I going to re number the whole list: Alcatraz and the Knights of Crystallia, Brandon Sanderson, listed at number 92).
1. Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett
2. The House of Many Ways, Dianna Wynne Jones
3. The Year of the Griffin, Dianna Wynne Jones
4. The Dark Lord of Derkholm, Dianna Wynne Jones
5. The World of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan and Teresa Patterson
6. The Gathering Storm, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
7. Belgarath the Sorceror, by David and Leigh Eddings
8, 9, 10, 11. Books 1, 3, 4, and 5, in the Belgariad, by David Eddings
12. Fantasyland, Dianna Wynne Jones
13.The Sapphire Rose, David Eddings
14. The Ruby Knight, David Eddings
15. The Diamond Throne, David Eddings
16. A Darkness at Sethanor, Raymon Feist
17. Silverthorn, Raymond Feist
18. Anne of the Island, Lucy Maud Montgomery
19. The Linnet Bird, Linda Holeman Crown
20. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimon
21. The Magic of Recluce, L.E. Modesitt
22. Raney, Clyde Edgerton
23. Three Sisters, Anton Chekhov
24. The Mark of Zorro, Johnston McCulley
25. Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov
26. Magician: Master, Raymond E. Feist
27. Magician: Apprentice, Raymond E. Feist
28. Four short stories by Flannery O'Connor
29. Tuck, Stephen Lawhead
30. Scarlet, Stephen Lawhead
31. Hood, Stephen Lawhead
32. The Princess Bride, William Goldman
33. Confessions of a Part Time Sorceress, Shelly Mazzanoble
34. Gulliver's Travels, Jonathon Swift
35. Major Barbara, Bernard Shaw
36. Across the Wall, Garth Nix
37. The Ponder Heart, Eudora Welty
38. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
39. Meeting Amazing Grace, The Lundbergs
40. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
41. Human Diversity, Richard Lewontin
42. The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse
43. Delta Wedding, Eudora Welty
44. Sunshine, Robin McKinley
45. Chalice, Robin McKinley
46. The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley
47. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
48. The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder
49. The Knot in the Grain, Robin McKinley
50. The Door in the Hedge, Robin McKinley
51. The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot
52. Adam Bede, by George Eliot
53. 101 Living Rooms
54. A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
55. Jo's Boys, L.M. Alcott
56. Little Men, L.M. Alcott
57. Sanditon, by Jane Austen and "Another Lady"
58. Oh, Pioneers! by Willa Cather
59. Avalon, by Stephan Lawhead
60. Rose of the Prophet, volume III, by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman
61. Rose of the Prophet, volume II, by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman
62. A Sister's Test, by Wanda Brunstetter
63. A Sister's Hope, by Wanda Brunstetter
64. These Happy Golden Years, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
65. Little Town on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
66. The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
67. By the Shores of Silver Lake, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
68. The Little House on the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
69. The Rose of the Prophet, by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman
70. The Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
71. Miss Delacourte Speaks Her Mind, by Heidi Ashworth
72. Posession, by A.S. Byatt
73. On Fortune's Wheel, by Cynthia Voight
74 - 79. The Seventh Tower, volumes 1-6, by Garth Nix
80. Abhorsen, by Garth Nix
81. Lirael, by Garth Nix
82. Sabriel, by Garth Nix
83. Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
84. Making Money, by Terry Pratchett
85. Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen
86. Rachel & Leah, by Orson Scott Card
87. Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones, by Brandon Sanderson
88. Remind Me Again Why I Need A Man, by Claudia Carroll
89. The Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan
91. Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, by Brandon Sanderson
92. Alcatraz and the Knights of Crystallia, Brandon Sanderson
93. The White Dragon, by Anne McCaffrey
94. Dragonquest, by Anne McCaffrey
95. Country Living, Your House, Your Home, by Randy Florke
96. English Country Cottages, by Sally Griffiths
97. The Undomestic Goddess, by Sophia Kinsella
98. The Organized Home, by Randall Koll
99. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
100. Another Day, Another Dungeon, by Greg Kostikyan
101. Dragonsinger, by Anne McCaffrey
102. Golden Arches East, edited by James Watson
103. The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope
104. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
105. Midnight Sun (half finished), by Stephenie Meyer
106. Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer
107. Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer
108. New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer
What do we learn from this list? I read a lot. But also, I read a lot of fluffy fantasy. If I distilled this list down to books I would wholeheartedly recommend for an excellent reading experience and/or importance in history or world thought, the list would be a lot shorter. I was thinking to myself how I feel like I didn't really do much this last year, beyond the day to day grind. I've really felt that I didn't complete much of lasting importance, besides the normal child raising. Well, maybe the fact that I've read a book on average every 3.37 days, and perhaps this explains something. But really, I'll go weeks without reading a book. The last book I read was back in the beginning of December. Which means I really go in spurts, reading books every day for a week, and then not reading for a month, and such like.
I did like keeping a list. Sometimes I would think about the dumb book I was reading, and realizing that it had to go on the list after I finished it, which I think helped improve my reading choices. And I did accomplish one of my 2009 goals, to read more non fiction (hey, for me the few non-fiction on there is reading more. I'm really bad at non-fiction).
Posted by Thora at 10:13 PM 1 comments
When Saw we Thee a Stranger?
Often I go through life in a little bubble, composed of me, and whatever family is with me. I see and interact with others - cashiers, store clerks, other cars on the road, but everyone else is the 'other,' in little bubble worlds of their own. Today, through an act of charity and random act of kindness, I suddenly felt connected to another.
Elisheva and I went grocery shopping while Lydia went to her weekly playschool. This week, because of tight finances, we only had our WIC vouchers, and whatever Christmas cash we had been given to shop with. Avram did in fact gain residency in Ohio, so we have in state tuition. The class he is T.A.ing also gained its 60 students, so he also had a job (even if at half his previous stipend), and half his tuition was paid. Unfortunately, as we found out late last week, this did not include a subsidy on our Health Insurance, and so our Insurance for the family jumped from a $100 a month to $500 - more than we pay in rent. Plus the lump sum amount for the whole quarter was due this last Monday, along with our half of the tuition and other various fees, or we faced steep late fees that would keep getting steeper. (And no, we can't un-sign up for the Insurance - we have to have it for the rest of the school year).
We had thought we'd have a couple weeks to work out tuition, and so Monday found us scrambling around to find a way to come up with almost $4,000. Avram signed up for the extended payment plan for tuition, halving the amount due on Monday. Then they also applied the portion of the Hugh Nibley Fellowship that came into the University that same day, which took care of over another thousand. That left us with another $1381 we had to pay that day. By scraping together every last scrap of money in our checking and two savings accounts, we covered the amount, saving us from late fees. Yay! But that also left us with no grocery money, or other money for anything until the Student Loans came through that Avram applied for on Monday as well. (Which when we get our tax refund, we'll be able to pay off all the student loans, so we won't even go into debt. Yay!)
Meanwhile, that leaves us with Christmas money (from various Christmas cards) left for groceries and other expendables until the loans gets processed. Not a huge deal - all of our bill sare paid that are due until near the end of the month. However, we did decide to use a lot of our WIC vouchers now, so we could spend as little as possible (yes, we use WIC. We've used it since last August - I fought getting on it, because I liked being completely independent from any financial aid from anyone, but when we were getting Elisheva vaccinated at the State Health Clinic, the WIC people were so excited for us to get WIC that I caved in. It's been very nice - after Elisheva turned one I was surprised by how much our food bill increased.)
As I went through the grocery line, the cashier was quite flustered by all of the many vouchers I had, and how the various food items worked with them. Then she was replaced by another cashier who couldn't get the cash register to work right with one of the vouchers. Finally she found a supervisor, who finished the transaction. Meanwhile, as the twenty or so minutes passed with all this, three people pile up in line behind Elisheva and I. I felt so bad that we were taking so long, but they all were very patient, including the woman directly behind me, and the medic behind her. He even got called away on a call, and had to leave his groceries, but people were still not glaring at me.
Finally, the WIC transactions finished, and my own groceries rang up to about $20. I went to get my cash, and the women behind me, who had been there for as long as I had, asked me if she could pay for my groceries for me. It wasn't much money from her end, and as I thanked her profusely I know she'll never know just what it meant to me. But today, for our family, it was a lot. I teared up, and didn't share our life story with her, but I thought about how usually we have enough for our groceries. But this week, until we get the loans processed, we didn't, and how much even that small amount of money, not to mention the gracious giving from a stranger, meant to me.
Someday, I'd like to pay that on. Not just paying for a hassled mother's groceries, but waiting in line for almost a half an hour for the privilige of doing so - and still be gracious about it. I love having the tender mercies of the Lord in my life. Avram got residency, Avram got the T.A. job, and now we have the kindness of a stranger to help sustain us. I have a lot to be thankful for.
Posted by Thora at 3:53 PM 6 comments
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
You can just start calling me the Literary "Snopes"
So I just looked at a list that my friend got as a meme and posted on Facebook, about the top 100 books that says, "The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?"
She was suspicious of the list, but went through and marked it anyway. This was the list:
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 1984 - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini -
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Ok, so for those of you who don't space out at large lists, did you notice some oddities in there, like that the Complete Works of Shakespeare is number 14, and that Hamlet is number 98? Not to mention the odd conglomeration of pop current books with heavy duty classics. The BBC really thinks that most people haven't read at least six pop novels in their life, plus a few classics from their school years?
So I put on my detective duty lenses, and went and....searched the Internet. But not before I first figured out that I had read 52 of the books listed. It may be a bogus list, but I don't mind crossing stuff off anyway!
After putting in, "BBC 100 books" (Sherlock Holmes has been calling, and asking me to share my Obsessive Compulsive abilities to notice tiny details to lead me to solve crimes, but I can't share this much talent all at once), first up on the list was this highly legitimate website, which for those who cannot be bothered to go there, is from the BBC itself, and not from another meme.
According to their own press, "In April 2003 the BBC's Big Read began the search for the nation's best-loved novel, and we asked you to nominate your favourite books."
The resulting 100 books are (Now, notice the major differences. If you don't, don't worry, I'll point out a few after I list the list. Feel free to point out more in comments).
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
What do we notice? The real, legitimate origin of the Meme list was merely a popularity poll of the British Public, whereas the Memed list was trying to make some claim about how ill read people are, and so tried to both Americanize the list (so you can feel better than the average Joe, who hasn't even read 6) while also adding a lot of extra dusty tomes to make the list look more "legitimate." Because all of the English majors I know out there have read the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Including Troilus and Cressida. And all three parts of Henry the VI (I'm looking at you, Matt. Do not disappoint me). Not to mention that most people don't read the Bible all the way through, even if they're religious. Also they cut out ALL of the Terry Pratchett, which should be a crime in and of itself - especially when inserting Dan Brown in his place. Roald Dahl also got cut down to just one book - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
For an interesting table of the replaced books (which was 37 in number), check out this blog post at Purple Car. I guess whoever made the Meme list didn't like fantasy, since all the popular fantasy was taken off (except for the super popular, like Tolkien, Harry Potter, Dark Materials) and replaced with American pop novels.
Guess how I made out on the real list? Still 52. Maybe I'll stick to the first list, since most of you, apparently, have only read 6 items on the list. Or maybe since I've read 52 very popular British Books, I can be honorarily British.
Posted by Thora at 8:55 PM 9 comments
Sunday, January 3, 2010
To My Mother: Thanks
The girls loved their Christmas PJs! (Pink works wonders on three year olds). Also, there is a lot of other Christmas stories I'd love to share, but our camera died again. This time I think for the final time, so I have to wait until Avram's parents email us a CD of Christmas photos, and without cute pictures, I just don't have the heart to write about Christmas. I don't know how our pioneer fore-bearers managed their blogs, without any pictures to post. That must be why we venerate them so.
Posted by Thora at 9:03 PM 6 comments

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Okay, so with every top 10 best list comes a top 10 worst list, though in this case, I didn't see a lot of bad movies this year, so I've had to make a top 5 list, because a top 8 would then necessitate the need to see movies like Shark Night 3D, and with a name like that, you know its gonna be bad. So anyway, here's my top 5 worst movies of 2011 list. Enjoy.
5. Green Lantern- A superhero movie that is worse than Elektra? Yes, Green Lantern, you win. This film is ridiculous. Okay, here's its main problem: it was written by the guys who wrote that short-lived superhero family show No Ordinary Family, which had bad dialogue and writing all over the place. Well, this one has all of that, but its crunched into a two-hour timeframe, so you don't have time to recover. Hal Jordon's character is okay, but he's not really memorable, and Ryan Reynolds didn't give a damn about his role at all. The plot doesn't make sense; I was sitting there, trying to figure out how that happened and why that was going on and so forth. The film stops and starts so often that by the time the movie was over and I came out of the film, I just felt exhausted. It's not good. Not good at all.
4. New Years Eve- The antithesis to Lost, this film had about twenty characters that just didn't matter. I'm weeping in frustration as a write this, I really am. The movie's about New Years Eve, but it didn't even stay in theaters long enough to last until New Years eve. This was just a boring plot mixed with useless characters that will be forgotten by all who saw it the moment they walk out of the theater.
3. Conan the Barbarian- Yeah, the unofficial sequel to Clash of the Titans… and it's as bad as that description makes it out to be. This movie had one good thing in it and that was Conan's character. Like Green Lantern, this one is okay, but the action scenes are cheesy and the lead actress in this film plays the dumbest character on the planet. The editing is weird, the end fight scene is really anti-climactic, and its just a really bad time. Don't see it.
2. Priest- This one I actually didn't see in the theaters; I saw it with a friend at his house. Dude purchased it from Apple TV. Dude. Really bad purchase, man. Anyway, I don't even know who the main actor is; he's some guy that always stars in really shitty movies, and doesn't seem to realize that they're bad. Everything about this movie made the plot of Green Lantern make sense. Really bad purchase, just sayin'.
1. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1- Y'know what Twilight is like? Twilight is like aids: it's there, you see it, you hate it, and then you forget about it. And then it comes back, but its even worse. This movie is the worst of the franchise, and yes, I saw it. It certainly wasn't by choice; my strings class, which is comprised of five girls and four guys, went to see this film in celebration of one of our classmates coming back from Germany for Christmas break. Yeah, that really happened. This movie… just… I can't even. These actors, I swear, never seem to understand that they can't act at all! Usually I don't criticize the actor's acting ability; I criticize the director's ability to direct the actor. But for God's sake, guys. If this movie were a person, it'd be Hitler. Yeah, that about sums it up.


text:
Photo by myself in Midtown.
During the Veteran's Day Parade earlier this month, a policewoman directed traffic.
I couldn't find a statistic for female officers in the NYPD. My guess is that it is quite low. I rarely see women in uniform.
New Yorkers have a much better relationship with the police these days. A few might check passengers' bags outside subway stations, but generally, New York's finest maintain a low key image.
I've been attacked by spammers recently posting about escorts and viagra.
Please know that I check for spam every day. So don't even try it.
Related posts: Policing the Subway, Midtown, On the Job and Police Line, Do Not Cross.


text:
Eighteen Months.
For a child, it is an eternity. For an adult, a mere year and a half. And for an aged senior, it is the passing of a few holidays
For me…it seems a decade has passed. Has it really only been a year and a half? Has it really only been a few holidays? Has it really only been 18 months?
Since my sweet twin passed away?
Getting out of bed today was a challenge. Staying asleep. Head buried and hidden from the world is so much easier. If I'm asleep I'm not sad.
(But you're not happy either.)
I don't feel the emptiness.
(And you don't feel the joy.)
I can hide from the world.
(But you'll miss what is happening!)
I won't cry.
(And you won't love.)
~ ~ ~
So here I am. Awake. Alert. And feeling every second of every minute of every hour tick by.
Today is a hard day. A challenge day. A day when the elephant of grief comes to visit and sit on my chest and I try to remember how to breath, and move through my day. To continue to be.
I continue because of my beloved. And our child. And our children. And our dogs. And our cat.
I hold on to every reason to continue on at times like these.
Fortunately, the hard days are fewer and farther between. The pain does not lessen as many said it would.
It hasn't gone away as some said it wouldn't.
It is a constant.
But, as those who know said, you get used to it.
It is a state of being.


text:
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
We're back!
We hunted down a 9-volt battery to finish up our turbidity testing (we eat potatoes, but the turbidimeter eats 9-volt batteries). We ended up staying at Alecia's house in Kigali even though she had already left for the states, so Bernie, John Peter and I stayed up watching the movie "Sahara" (terrible movie) and some music videos. We shared a pizza and talked about American culture and John Peter's future at MIT.
On Friday morning we loaded up our 4 check-bags, 3 carry-ons and a walking stick and headed to Kigali International Airport (it has to be International because there are no other airports in the country). We said our goodbyes and thank yous to John Peter and headed into our 39 hours travel adventure.
Upon arrival in Kenya we were told that due to the unrest in Nairobi, KLM did not want its flight crew to overnight there. They told us that we were being routed through Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, just to change crews. Due to this delay, we missed our connecting flight in Amsterdam (by 5 minutes) and ended up spending an extra 8 hours in Amsterdam airport. We made it back to my apartment in Boston around 8pm on Saturday, after having left Alecia's place in Kigali at noon on Friday. Add a 7 hour time difference to that and you have 39 hours of travel. Bernie's flight was at 9am on Sunday, so after 4 loads of laundry, lots of unpacking and repacking, and 5 hours of sleep, we were back in a taxi heading to Logan International. A 2 hour flight and 3 hour bus ride got him back to Wisconsin and a ride on the T got me back to Tang Hall.
Now I am busy downloading GPS points and sorting through our 945 photographs. I will post some of the best ones soon for everyone to see.
All in all we had a wonderful experience and are glad to be settled in one place for a few days at least. I will post a link with pictures soon, but here is one of Bernie, John Peter and myself at the airport.
Kelly and Bernie
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Hi all!
This will likely be our last post from Rwanda, as we are leaving for Kigali tomorrow. This morning we presented our work to the Vice Mayor and some other important people (these are the same ones that we met with on Monday). It went well and John Peter did all the translating for us.
This morning after the presentation we drove to Bisate to collect our last rainfall samples and to remove our setups. It has been dreary weather, but we are here to collect rain, so no complaints. Back in the US I printed some of the pictures that I took last year and we gave the hard copies to some of the local children, who really enjoyed them. We were also caught in the middle of recess from school and found ourselves in the midst of a sea of children. As we have done in several different groups now, we juggled rocks for them and they backed away shyly when we asked them to try. Everyone got a good laugh out of it.
We said our goodbyes to the clinic staff and distributed cleaned "agachupas" – bottles to the children that have been particularly sweet to us. I am going to miss Bisate and all the children, but I think we are both excited to come home too.
Kelly and Bernie
Monday, January 14, 2008
Fun in the sun...and the rain
We hope everyone is doing well. We sure are. Aside from the short-lived tummy troubles, we are enjoying abundant rain and consequently abundant lab work, which makes the data oh so rich and creamy.
On Saturday we visited the National Museum of Rwanda, which is located in the south of the country, in Butare. We had a 3.5 hour drive to get there, but it went by quickly (as did the country) because there was so much diverse scenery to take in: agriculture, more agriculture, and even more agriculture, but of different crops in different climatic zones and soil types. I enjoyed this thoroughly. We saw the headwaters of the Nile (before it even reaches Lake Victoria), which was quite turbid, and the entire floodplain was covered in farm fields. So far, this is completely in line with the rest of the country that we have seen; all agriculture.
The museum visit was striking, as the subsistence groups of pre-colonial times were alive only 100 years ago. We saw all sorts of objects that are still in use today in the rural areas.
Sunday and today (Monday) we spent collecting samples and running them in the lab. The guy who sweeps the floor at Electrogaz, the utility company, must unplug a lot of cords when he is working, because we endured many power outages today, and had to heat our incubator with hot water bottles. This morning we had another tribulation, as our meeting with the mayor of Musanze district went something like this:
0715- Met Mayor
0717- John-Peter explained our work
0724- Mayor asked if we had a research permit
0724- No, we didn't
0724- Apparently, we needed one from the National Statistics Institute
0729- Mayor informed us he had another meeting
0730- John-Peter re-iterated that we had permission from the government agency with whom we work
0733- Mayor invited us to come again
0735- Conclusion of meeting
We found out three minutes later that the mayor was going on holiday for two weeks, starting tomorrow, but that if we did not meet with him it would be a great insult.
But, so goes it here. Our co-worker here, John Peter, is a fantastic program manager, and is able to guide us through the red tape and language barriers.
Our days here are quickly drying up, but thankfully, our samples are not… because we heated them with water bottles. Anyhoo, we hope everyone back in the States is well, and enjoying the northern hemisphere. We will be back soon, to share all the germs we gathered from the wonderful, cute, sickly children.
Bernie and Kelly
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Work Work Work
Sorry for not writing sooner, but we have been very busy with our lab samples! We have had 3 rain events now and are up to our elbows in labwork. We have a lab setup in our room, complete with microbial testing, an incubator, pH and conductivity testing, and all of our field samples. It is quite the setup, but it is working well.
The children here have been absolutely wonderful. Although they are covered in snot and constantly coughing, they are very sweet and display their bright smiles and waving hands when we pass. Bernie and I have both been trying to get involved in the culture and are learning to play with some of the children's toys and to balance things on our heads (I carried a wooden chair on my head the other day).
Our Kinyarwanda is improving in leaps and bounds thanks to the guards at our house. One speaks enough English to form full sentences and the other knows only a few words. With the help of our dictionary we have learned quite a lot from them.
Last night Karisoke Research Center had a party for some of its staff that were leaving and for the party they hired Rwandan dancers (who were formerly orphans living on the street). They danced traditional dances in costume, it was amazing. I have a short video clip to share when we get home.
We are planning day-by-day, depending on the imvura (rain), so we do not know what our plans are. This weekend we might travel to Butare (in the South) to see something different.
Hope all is well at home!
Kelly and Bernie
Monday, January 7, 2008
IMVURA (rain)!!
On Saturday we hiked Bisoke volcano, which has an elevation of 3600 meters at the top and was about 2500 meters elevation where we started. It was hot and sunny on the way up, but quite cool near the top due to the elevation. We didn't see any large animals, but saw lots of gorilla poo, and buffalo footprints. We had lunch at the top overlooking the Congo side of the volcano and the crater lake in the middle. What a view, it was even worth getting the huge blisters on my toes!
It finally rained overnight on Saturday and we collected our first rainwater samples!! Our "gizmos" seem to be working and we were able to collect 12 rain samples. We then spent all day yesterday doing labwork...until 2am! It is very exciting to see the apparatus actually working, now we are waiting for all those samples to come out of the incubator.
We have heard that the news from Kenya is bad. As a result of the problems in Kenya, Rwanda is anticipating a fuel shortage since the fuel is typically transported through Kenya. We are confident that everything will be fine, but we are trying to stay up on the news.
Back to labwork now! Sorry I am not posting more pictures, but they take a long time to upload.
Hope the news is good at home, we heard that Huckabee and Obama won the Iowa primaries!
Kelly and Bernie
Friday, January 4, 2008
We have had quite a fulfilling week! New Year's Day was spent relaxing and catching up, but we did make our first trip to the isoko (market) to exchange money and pick up some lab goods. In contrast to Ghana and the US, the streets are surprisingly garbage-free, but there are people walking everywhere, which gets very overwhelming since most of them just stare at us.
Our Kinyarwandan is steadily improving, thanks to the lack of English speakers and the patience and enthusiasm of our new friends. It is amazing how much we can communicate using only nouns, gestures, and our very limited knowledge of French and Kinyarwandan.
On Wednesday we were able to set up our first "gizmo" which is the very scientific term for our water collection apparatus. With the help of Sakindi and Joseph (said the French way) we successfully hung and secured our first 4-bottle array. We also collected our first water samples from some of the new water tanks installed in the village. There is a table in our room that we have setup as our lab space and the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project lent us an incubator to use for the next 3 weeks. Unfortunately, the microbial tests smell like bad cheese after a day, meaning that the room does also, but we do not mind.
Thursday was gizmo setup #2 and #3. One was on a local roof made of rusty iron sheeting and the other was on a clay tiled potato storage house. As usual, we were constantly being observed by a horde of children who all asked us for "agachupa" (bottle) to which we replied "Oya" (no). Our first microbial results turned out well, although there was some coliform in our drinking water. Luckily there was no E. coli present, and we have strong tummies (no one has gotten sick yet).
Today John Peter (our colleague and translator) was in Kigali, so we were stuck without any English speakers. Our Kinyarwandan vocabulary grew exponentially as a result. We have a meeting later today (in English, I hope) and unconfirmed plans to hike a volcano tomorrow, but all in all everything is going well.
Now we just have to wait for rain.
We hope everyone is well at home and enjoying abundant snow and cold weather (just to rub it in, it has been ~80 degrees and sunny everyday).
Kelly and Bernie
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Umwaka Mwiza!! (Happy New Year)
We are staying with Veronica, an Italian woman who researches the mountain gorillas, at her house right across the road from Karisoke Research Center (read or watch Gorillas in the Mist if you don't know what I am talking about). Right now there is no one else staying there, but Winnie, a German primatologist is there sometimes.
Yesterday was great! We visited Bisate Village (our study site) and saw all of the new changes from last year. It was great to see some of the people that I worked with last year and to see all of their new projects. The children were friendly and both Bernie and I practiced our Kinyarwandan greetings! Most of the people assume we speak French, and are very surprised when we say "mwarwmutseho" (good morning) to them.
In the afternoon we set up our lab equipment on the desk in our room and later took a stroll down the main road to visit a friend from last year. We are getting used to being called "Muzungus" again, but got more smiles as we tossed around our Kinyarwandan words.
Last night we had dinner with friends and then went to a local orphanage with a friend of Veronica who helps run it. There were about 40 boys that we met between ages 6 and 20. For the New Year, Alberto (the Italian friend of Veronica), made this huge (maybe 10 feet tall) effigy out of hay and food sacks on top of a huge pile of wood. It is a tradition in Northern Italy to burn something to bring good luck for the New Year.
Words cannot express how much fun we had with the boys. We laughed and danced around the fire, cooked ibigori (corn) among the coals and shared banana juice with them. They were all smiles as we took their pictures and danced to their drumming. The stars were brilliant with Orion's Belt directly overhead.
Bernie made a friend, who happened to also be named Bernard. He was one of the only boys that could speak a little bit of English and he was very nice about translating what he could for us.
All in all, the evening was fantastic and we proceed to sleep for 10 hours! Hopefully tomorrow we will go back to Bisate, get some water samples and setup our sample equipment.
Happy New Year!
Kelly and Bernie


text:
Yom Kippur was this past weekend.
I think about it each fall, not because I celebrate the Jewish Day of Atonement.
But I do remember the day with fondness.
Years ago when I was serving as bishop, I had been meeting with a couple over a series of visits. In our last session together, the brother observed that it was Yom Kippur. He was grateful that the Day of Atonement reminded him to enjoy the blessings of the atonement in his life.
As I drove home from that interview, I thought about my son. At the time, I was unhappy with him and his choices. Two years earlier (almost to the day, as it turned out), I had written a self-righteous letter encouraging him to take advantage of the atonement in his life.
On this particular night, I got home and found that letter, reread it, and then wrote a new one. In the new letter I apologized for the first. And I acknowledged that it was I who needed to seek the blessings of the atonement.
Yes, I was his father. Yes, I wanted what was best for him. But brow-beating him into submission was the wrong way for me to invite him to come unto Christ. And, looking back on key events in our shared lives, I realized that I'd done more than my share of brow-beating, albeit subtly at times.
That was years ago. I'm pleased to report that my son is a forgiving man, and that we enjoy a wonderful relationship. I have my son and the atonement to thank for that, because through the atonement I am able to change. And I'm grateful for Yom Kippur to remind me.


text:
New Orleans 200 k (Birthday Bash Brevet)
I have been looking forward to this brevet for a while. Earlier in the year Dianne agreed to travel down to New Orleans with me for it. After her more difficult 200k in Franklinton, LA, I did not know if I would ever be able to get her to do another one. Since this one fell on her birthday and I guaranteed her that it was flat, she decided to try it again. What made this brevet really special was that not only was it Dianne's birthday, but it was Pat's too.
I intended on starting to train with Dianne the first weekend in June. She had some good base mileage, but needed to start ramping up. Unfortunately, we hit a snag in that my knee was out of commission because of the Mineral Wells 400k. Dianne and I were not able to ride together during the month of June except for a short 12 mile ride on the Trace my first day back on the bike for rehab. Dianne rode some with the group and purposefully got some bonus miles by herself on those rides. I was able to do rides in Arkansas and Long Leaf before the 200k.
Friday night before the ride, I went to pick up some birthday surprises. I had pin wheels for every one's bike and flashing spoke decorations for Dianne and Pat birthday present.
Saturday morning I went by Dianne's house to pick her up. We had not yet decided if we were going to do Pat's bonus miles or if we were just going to stick with the 200k. If we left with Pat from his house, we would end up doing close to 150 miles whereas if we drove to the ride start, we would only have 130 miles. I worried about Dianne doing 150 miles since her longest ride of the year so far was only 80 miles.
The drive went by very fast and we arrived at Pat's by 10:30. The weather was not too bad at the time. It was hot, but a storm was brewing and made the temperatures seem comfortable. On a whim, we decided to do the bonus miles. I hope we would not regret this later. In order to arrive at the ride start by 2:00, Pat wanted to leave at 12:30. Dennis had come in sometime near 12:00 and we were all getting our stuff together to leave. I was really glad we had gotten in as early as we did as we did not have to rush to get our bikes together. I ate a PB&J and some of Pat's famous piggies (cocktail sausage wrapped in biscuit dough) and an Ensure. I was not sure how good of a pre-ride meal this was going to be, but it was good at the time.
I decide to let Millicent the Magnificent ride on the back of the rack today. Normally she sits comfortably in the front pouch of my bike bag, but today I thought she might like a different view. This was Millie's first ride in Louisiana and I know that she was going to have fun. Tomorrow, we had big plans for her to go to the French Quarter and eat Muffalettas and benets and hang out at Burbon Street.
At 12:25, large rain drops started falling and it started thundering and lightening. I am pretty lucky as I have well over 300 miles of rain riding experience, but I have never been caught in a complete scary down pour. Dianne, Dennis, Pat and I huddle in his garage waiting to see if the rain lets up. I decide to put on my toe covers, front fender and shower cap. Since I dried out so well in the Texas rain, I decided not to bring a change of dry clothes - just socks. This ends up being a bad decision as the high humidity keeps my clothes from drying out after the rain stops. The rain does let up some, so at 12:45 we head towards the levy and Audubon Park. Millie immediately lets me know she is on the ride. I have never heard her be so vocal. At first I thought she was happy then I thought she may be upset about being in the rain. She chatters almost non stop. About 7 miles or so into the ride, the rain stops abruptly. You can see the rain line on the pavement. Millie is still chattering. It did not take long to decide that she was unhappy with her view. Maybe she is like me and just can not face backwards or maybe she was upset knowing we were headed for the zoo, but she let me know she was not a happy monkey all the way into Audubon Park.
At Audubon Park, we met Steve (did not get his last name), an architech, on his first official brevet. While waiting for the official 2:00 ride start, I moved Millie back to her pouch on the bike bag. She seemed much happier at this point.
We started the official part of the brevet at 2:00 on the dot. This is a first for any brevets that I have done with Pat. On one occasion, the late start was my fault, but we don't have to discuss that on this blog! Not far into the ride, Steve notices that I am on an IF. I immediately know that I am going to like him. We discuss custom bikes, components and trips on and off for the whole ride.
I don't remember when it started raining again, I think it was somewhere around the bathrooms on the levy. We stopped at the bathrooms and again at the gas station on River Road. If we were doing a harder brevet, we would not have needed to have stopped twice before the first control for time reasons. Since this is a casual brevet ridden in the audux style, we all stay together and stop when someone needs to stop. It really is fun, but if we were doing a 400 or 600k the extra time on the stops would eventually add up to major time. The rain continues for a couple hours. Nothing bad. We are getting a few honks - all happy - but not as many as the 300 k last year.
The ride to the first and second controls are really uneventful. I am guessing we have a tail wind as we are cruising pretty fast. We probably only averaged 14 mph on the levy and River Road, but from La Place to Ponchatula, we really pick up speed. We end up averaging 15.3 mph at the turn around. We are about 2 hours up when we reach Ponchatula and head for the McDonald's. I had purchased candles that read "52" since not only was it both Dianne's and Pats birthdays, it was also both of their 52nd birthday. They both seemed to get a kick out of the candles. I let them know that they would get to carry the candles home as I did not need the extra weight on the way back! I ate a $1 double cheeseburger plain with a small fry. I really enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Dianne bought two - one for the end of the ride. She really was smarter than me here! I must remember this for next time.
We left Ponchatula close to 6:30, I think. This was a little later than we would have liked as Dennis and Pat like to leave in time to cross the Manchac bridge before night fall. We probably would have made it except....
This route has 3 sets of nasty railroad tracks that cross the road at weird angles. On the way out of Ponchatula, we crossed one of these tracks that was much rougher on the return side. Pat went over it first followed by Dianne and then me. I hit the tracks at a very uneven spot. Millie lept from the bike bag as I hit the tracks. I grabbed her and immediately noticed my front wheel had flatted. Steve and Dianne both commented that it was weird that I flatted on the front tire. Dennis observed that I had flatted on the back. I started to correct him when I turned and noticed that the back tire was flat too!!! I could not believe that I had two simultaneous flats! Well dusk was approaching and we acted like we were part of a NASCAR pit crew! We changed both tires in 15-20 minutes all working as a well oiled machine!
We continued the ride very uneventfully after this. I am sure I drove everyone crazy though as every few minutes I said "I can't believe I flatted simultaneously"! We were still cycling strong through La Place all the way to the levy. As I was not wearing my helmet light, I could not tell what our average had been. According to Pat and Dianne, we were still averaging 15 when we hit the levy. Obviously we slowed down considerably as we only ended up averaging 13.5 overall for the return trip. We completed the official ride in 11 hrs and 12 minutes. Had we not had the simultaneous flat, we would have beaten our time from last year. Once back in Audubon Park, we were going to leave Steve, but he lamented that he was the only one without bonus miles and rode the 10 miles back on the levy towards Pat's house. We made it in sometime near 2:00 am. What a great ride!
Monday, July 9, 2007
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Tuesday, 6 December 2011
new chapter
new chapter life begin... sometimes when new comes along,a old get hurt...i'm really Confucius n don't know what to do...sometimes i hoping that i only get one person in my life...to be understand n to be with that person hopefully...dear my boo...hope u can take it slow...no need to worry about the other's n what thing come's through...the most important thing is u n me...we'll always gonna be fine dear...always...=)
Posted by acekemal87 at 15:25
5 comments:
- Anonymous6 December 2011 at 16:07
i hope everything can be ok,,,=)ReplyDelete
mcm knl je spe nie...hehe,=pReplyDelete
- Anonymous8 December 2011 at 09:18
hehehe...kenal ke???=),,, i just want to say forget the old an always remember the new one,,,maybe the new can make u more happy in ur life,,,ReplyDelete
i think i know u pretty much...kan???i hope so coz it's hurting so much something...n it's really confusing...ReplyDelete
- Anonymous9 December 2011 at 06:28
maybe,,,hehehe..ofcoz it hurt,,but u must forget it all as soon as possible..if u still remebr it u will down ur self,,n give the change 4 a new one to make ur life very2 cheerful n happy..don't make confuse or what..a new one not like a old ,,,ReplyDelete
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What Would Howard Zinn Do? or On Tokenism
Yesterday was the seventh consecutive day my students have asked me what we're doing for Black History Month and the seventh day I've wondered, "SHOULD I be doing something?"
My school is predominantly African-American (although my classes aren't) and my students' most common request is to "just have a chill day." A cardinal rule of education (or at least of pre-NCLB education) is that if your students drop their guard long enough to express a desire to learn about something, you damn sure better teach them about that something.
One of my Social Studies colleagues is highlighting a notable African-American at the beginning of each of his classes throughout February. The English department is promoting a campaign to abolish the "N" word. But __________ History Month is an approach to the study of History I have long abhorred, and I'm particularly averse to teaching Black History to black kids in this manner.
It's worth noting at this point that I am not black. I'm white, in fact, and I'm not sure how my race affects my position on Black History Month. The story I've always been told as a student of History is, in large part, a story of my people -- white people. But the stories that have always resonated with me, touched me, and made me CARE about History are the stories of oppressed people, even though I have never been the least bit oppressed.
These are the stories I tell as a teacher. Yesterday's class made no mention of Maya Angelou, Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Harriet Tubman, or the Tuskegee Airmen, but my course deals (on a regular basis) with all sorts of issues related to the marginalization of minorities. In the past week I've discussed ghettoes, government policies that perpetuate poverty, Brown v. Board, and gerrymandering.
I like to think that my treatment of students, my commitment to teaching all of them, and my emphasis on injustice mean that I am, in a sense, doing Black History every day. I mean, isn't it more important that Black kids receive quality instruction on meaningful and relevant topics throughout the year than that for one month they learn about the first African-American senator/astronaut/nobel laureate/doctor/whatever?
Of course, I live in a city with more institutional racism than you can shake a stick at, so it might actually be important to do both. It's just that the latter approach smacks of tokenism to me. I get why we have Black History Month, but wouldn't it be nice if we didn't NEED it?


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This update focuses on energy. The House of Representatives recently passed a cap-and-trade bill to massively increase energy prices. The goal is to impose more government control on the economy.
Ron Paul: Cap and Trade Will Lead to Capital Flight
Butler Shaffer: Human Life Is Destroying the Planet!
Ed Hiserodt: Obama's Energy Plan
Arthur Robinson: Power Plants Are Batteries
Arthur Robinson: Yes to Energy Freedom - No to Cap-and-Trade
Vin Suprynowicz: I Wish the Earth Were Warming
Phyllis Schlafly: Don't Fall for Cap and Tax
Floy Lilley: Windmill Farms Are Noisy, Ugly, and Ineffective
POLITICAL UPDATES are archived here.


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Let me try to keep this story about advice I've received relatively short, yet informative. Though at first you may consider the advice valid only for participants in a particular event in Montana decades ago, in the end I hope you may find ways to generalize (adopt or adapt) it to your own circumstances. Here goes.
In high school, I competed in gymnastics. The coach of a cross-town rival team and I became friends after I had entered college, and beg[u]n judging local gymnastics meets.
In the off-season, the cross-town high school coach and I also became rivals in canoe races. In one race, actually a three-legged team-relay event, in which a grade school friend of mine had run, I'd cycled, and the two of us paddled together, my old friend and I finished fourth.
Though our running and cycling times weren't stellar, we'd been white-water canoeing together for years (since high school). So we passed a number of other teams on the river, including slow rafters, and were about to overtake another when the river narrowed.
As we passed just astern of a raft running the rapids ahead of us, an inner-tube it was towing on a tail line dragged under our canoe, and dumped us immediately. We lost time swimming the canoe to shore, emptying the water from it, and resuming the race.
At the end of the third leg of the race, my old friend and I finished fourth. My rival and his team had finished first or second. In the parking lot, at the end of the race, was where I got the advice.
My rival and his partner had loaded their low-cut racing canoe on his car rack. It was easy to distinguish from ours–a high-gunneled recreational model. The advice was on a bumper sticker on his car.
As the race committee began awarding prizes, it became clear that the third-place team hadn't waited around for awards. So my partner and I received the third prize. Though I don't remember what that prize was, I do remember the message on my rival's rear bumper.
It read, "Get tough, or die!"
[356 words]
Originally published on pab's potpourri, 2016.12.17, https://goo.gl/gDoXIj
Republished with permission of the author (pab)


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Your assignment this week is twofold. Ready?
Part 1: Tell us how you sneak exercise in when you can't "get to they gym" or "the treadmill is broken" or whatever. What do you do at work/around the house/etc. to move more? Let's put our heads together and figure out how we can sneak in some more exercise. You know, I've read that vacuuming burns a lot of calories, but I don't have much carpet!
Part 2: Let us know how your week went. Let us know your goals for next week. Not your long-term goals, just your goals for next week.
See you all on Friday ladies!!!
Oh, and I corrected at least 3 or 4 Mr. Linky entries last week. Make sure you link directly to your Fitness Friday post and not just to your blog, so that we can find that entry even a few months from now. To do that on most blogs, you click the title of the post after it has been published and paste it in the Mr. Linky box. On other blogs, you click on the timestamp. Let me know if you need help!
You are all such an encouragement and I am thankful for you. Oh! And don't forget to pray for each other!


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- Back to Home »
- The Twelve by Justin Cronin
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
The Twelve is the long awaited sequel to The Passage and the second book in the Trilogy. You can read my review for The Passage HERE. A more action packed, faster paced book than the first, if that's possible, the reader finds out more about what happened to some of the central characters and those who were originally considered minor characters from the first book. Appearances can be deceptive! Like The Passage, the story often takes the reader back to 'the time before' during the time the Virals appeared to consume humanity and its way of life. The reader is then brought back to the Time of the Virals and how those characters continue to play central roles.
Like The Passage, this book is rich in characters and introduces some new ones. All are connected in some way. Again, Amy The Child From Nowhere remains central to the story leading her loyal band of friends and fellow 'survivors' further into the perilous journey to overcome the Virals and prepare for another epic battle of survival. This book has a more intense post-apocalyptic feel than the first insomuch as it's far more brutal and also focuses on the brutality of man as well as that of the Viral population. There are also quite a few surprises for the reader. This book is huge and could not be read in isolation, needing to be read as part of the trilogy. I am not sure how I will be able to cope waiting for the final instalment!
3 Responses so far.
Sheryl says:
Oooh, I like the sound of this. Thanks for sharing, JB! :) xx
Dr. Niamh Clune says:
This is going great, JontyBabe. Lovely to have a place we can read reviews.
I'm reading this now so I just skimmed but I have forgotten all but the bare bones of the first book. Curious to see how it all ties together.


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Second Baby Bumpdate: Week 20
How far along? 20 weeks Weight gain?10 lbs Maternity clothes? Only.
Sleep? Yes please. Best moment this week? We found out the gender of our baby!
Weird pregnancy moment? I puked last week. I just ate hamburger meat and it made me so sick, I puked it all up and then felt better and went to bed. Movement? Yes, lots of rolls and adjustments, kicks too, but only I can feel them. Food cravings? Nothing in particular. Still salty over sweet mostly. Anything making you quesy? Not really, minus the hamburger meat overload, apparently. Gender? It's a...see below!! What are you looking forward to? Taking Liam to Disney world!!! And riding only kid rides and eating dole whips in the heat with my pregnant belly!
And getting the nursery ready for our new baby BOY!!!


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I'm hardly in a position to write a "Secrets of my success" story; I have not broken any World Records, won any bike races, or made any headlines in recent years.
But I have come off arguably one of my best seasons of racing in 2016, with massive improvements to my cycling power numbers, running speeds, and racing intelligence, and I can't help but reflect and share my thoughts on how this came to be.
But let's rewind a bit, as it's been 3 years since my last post and it's probably best to recap a bit.
2013 saw me bike racing in cat 3, dabbling in cyclocross, running, and duathlon.
I raced the BMO Okanagan 10k in 41:50 and averaged merely 250W for the 30k Provincial Time Trial.
That season I only attained half of my upgrade points for cat 3, despite racing nearly everything on the calendar.
2014 was the first season for Peloton Racing, the cycling club Mike and I started. This led to an inspired first half of the year with the prospect of riding with teammates. Alas, with Mike in cat 2, it wasn't until the last couple weeks that I finally got to really race with Karel and JVD. If you've never raced road bikes before on an organized team, let me tell you, there is an instant elevation in your abilities. Karel and Jack made sacrifices for me and I was able to get enough points to upgrade to cat 2!
Finished the season off with 2nd place at Blitz Duathlon, after focusing on running for a few weeks but with plenty of carry-over cycling fitness.
With a jump to the big leagues (of Alberta cycling) for 2015, I knew I was in no condition to compete unless I enlisted a coach. JVD was an obvious choice as both a teammate and friend, and has a track record second to none in cycling and multi-sport.
My goals were pretty simple, work on my FTP to get my TT times at cat 3 podium level. I had no delusions about my TT ability versus other cat 1/2 men, but that would at least give me respectable times.
My other goal was to keep running on my calendar so that I could keep up my elite runner fiancee.
She would start bike racing this year as well, and both having the same coach helped coordinate our weekly workout schedule to put in runs and rides together, aka "date nights."
Well, first ABA stage race Velocity, I get 32/44 in the ITT, and subsequently dropped from the road race later that afternoon. This was going to be a looong season. BUT... my time in the ITT would have put me 3rd in cat 3!
My power numbers were up over last year and I reached my training goal. The rest of bike season went much the same; coming in bottom 2 in each ITT, getting dropped in each road race, and getting lapped for the first time ever in a criterium!
With a bit more focus on base and general aerobic strength, my running was coming along better.
I came in 3rd in the Footstock Duathlon, coming into T2 tied with first but my hands were too frozen to get my helmet off! At Blitz, I flatted right before the bike turnaround in a great position. Later in Kelowna, I set a new PB in the BMO 10K at 39:43. Oh, and did I mention I married my best friend, lover, and training partner that summer, atop Sulphur Mountain! Regardless of my lackluster race performances, this was easily the best year of my life!
Then I did something I haven't done before... I took time off. Surgery forced me to 6 weeks off running and cycling! In the past 5 years, my previous record was 3 days! As I eased back in, I took up swimming a couple times a week, and when the snow came, Mel (also coming off a month-long injury-forced hiatus) and I decided to take up cross country skiing, and loved it!
I also added stair running.
For the next 3 months, I averaged about 1-2 bike, 1 run, 1 stair, 1 swim, and 1-2 xc ski activities per week.
Oh the variety! I was loving every one, none of them feeling like a "workout," though many scored some pretty serious TSS.
It wasn't until March that I decided to re-enlist Jack to coach me, but this time my goals were different.
Bike racer. Nothing else should interfere with this plan, from March until July. One more kick at cat 1/2.
After that I could assess where I was at, switch focus to duathlon or running or bbq'ing...
I felt like my fitness level was high, despite my lack of bike time. My weight was down from the cross-training and I hit some new power numbers in Penticton camp in April. Nothing dramatic, but a good start.
More interestingly, I could recover from my workouts better and my endurance on long rides was at an all time best. Hard to quantify those benefits, but I could tell this year was going to be different.
I spent little to no time on my TT bike this year, but rather built on top of my base with some highly specific sharpening of the upper training zones.
But would it pay off in racing cat 1/2?
May 14th, Velocity ITT, 16km. Passed by my 1 minute man around km 2. My 2 min man passed me about one km later. My power numbers were dropping, and my lungs and legs were failing me. Then my Garmin mount came loose. Then my 3 and 4 min men passed me... I'll spare the expletives I was thinking, but let's just say morale was at an all time low.
I had been sick all week and wasn't completely surprised by this disaster, but the team was so supportive, with Melissa and Stephan Becker winning their categories, and several others in the top 5.
The road race later that afternoon forced me to stop dwelling on my defeat. Having been dropped in that race in previous years, I set my expectations pretty low; complete 3 laps (might as well get a ride in).
Well, 3 laps came and went and the pace was pretty modest and I started feeling good. I went to the front and pulled. I chased. I even broke away and formed a chase group that stayed away and almost caught a 6-man break. I finally felt like I was racing again! Managed a decent sprint after 140kms, good for 10th! Morale was an all-time high again, just like that.
The next day, I felt a bit of intimidation lining up for the crit. But, like the day before, I found my racing legs and hung on. Didn't tango in the sprint, but was very happy with a 15th place finish (and not getting lapped!)
The rest of the bike racing season would see me hang on in every crit and smash my power numbers. My Canada Day Crit normalized power for 1hr was 339W! 2 days later I finished 2nd in my age, 5th overall in the Great White North Duathlon, qualifying me for World's in 2017, despite little to no running.
I would finish off bike season with an 8th place finish in a semipro-stocked Tour De Bowness criterium, and among the lead group of 4 in a strong MEC century race.
Then I switched to running, and after a month of footwork, proceeded to set new PB's in the 5K (18:43), 10k (38:22), and my first half-marathon (1:24:12).
So... what lead to this breakthrough? After training and racing competitively for 7 years, how did I crack through my plateau?
I've noticed a trend among other racers in cycling and running lately and a few themes leap out.
Take Time OFF
All endurance athletes I know have something in common, some addictive personality type that is fueled by working out. It helps us deal with health, weight, stress, kids, family, etc. After competing at a high level for so long, this workout routine is so engrained that it's very difficult to break it, and yet that is exactly what our bodies and minds need to fully recover and heal after multiple seasons of high volumes and intensity.
Everyone has seen a racer sustain an early-season injury and come back near the end of the season fired up!
Hire a coach
We also often measure our success by watching others. I've certainly been guilty of coming home after a good 3 hr bike ride, feeling accomplished, only to upload to Strava to see so-and-so posted a 5 hr ride and suddenly feel like my effort was inadequate. Once I found a coach I trusted, I never had that feeling again. I knew that my 3 hours were part of the plan for the week, and that week fit into the plan for the season. A good coach will push you to try things you wouldn't even imagine doing in training, giving you an unbiased assessment of your capabilities. Whether it's forcing you to push harder, or forcing you to take a rest day, it's one thing very difficult for even the most seasoned athletes to do themselves.
Find something ELSE
Half the people reading this will immediately tune out, but here's a way to take time off your primary sport while sustaining your mental and physical fitness.
Last year I took up swimming, stair climbing, and cross country skiing and did not even think about the bike for months. It kept my weight and endurance in check, such that when I was ready to bike, I was truly ready!
Turn off the Garmin
Ok that's crazy talk, especially coming from me. Strava or it didn't happen, right?
Ok ok, I don't mean actually turn it off, but don't rely on it. What happens when doing an FTP test where your expectation is X watts? You typically achieve X watts, or lower.
Set out with a 40 minute 10k goal and that is likely the best you will attain.
Once in a while, it's helpful to recalibrate and go on feel. Push on up hills, recover when you've pushed too hard. I know it's not the prescribed pacing strategy and I know it's an inefficient use of your glycogen stores by not pacing evenly, but it's a great way to release yourself from the confines of your own self-assessed limitations.
Enjoy yourself
There is a time and place for high intensity, long endurance, or overloading training stress. But in the off-season, go on 'rate of perceived fun.' Run until you're not LOVING it anymore. Ride as hard as you like, taking the time to appreciate your surroundings, nature, your family. Take it easy, meet new people, discover new roads. If your kids or spouse isn't as fanatical about the sport as you are, now is the time to invest in the future of the rest of your lives. Find a tangentially related past-time that you both enjoy, hiking, skiing, etc.
In the end, you will all do what you wish and my only reason for writing this is that I have discovered these to have been tremendously beneficial for me and want to write it down, as I continue my eternal search for unlocking the hidden potential in myself and my loved ones. Watching Melissa elevate her performance this year and watching my 12 year old son discover his first crush with running fills me with such hope and pride that I am inspired to update my blog again.
Hopefully it won't be another 3 years until my next post!


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Just a color study for an Illo I'm working on.
About Me
- Will Strong
- Author, Illustrator, Creative Guy email@example.com
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Posted by Will Strong at 9:59 AM No comments:
Labels: Color Study, Cute Little Girls, Mail, Monsters, Will Strong
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
This is fun. No, seriously. I've been doing so much boring digital color that I can't even describe to you the joy of pushing real paint around on a real piece of paper.
So. Much. Fun.
These are pretty small by the way. Just a couple of inches on each side. I glue them into my sketch book so I don't lose them.
Posted by Will Strong at 2:41 PM 2 comments:
Labels: Ball Point Pen, Oxidation, Rust, Sketch Book, Watercolor, Will Strong
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Rust Study Number Two*
Posted by Will Strong at 9:30 AM 4 comments:
Labels: Ball Point Pen, Oxidation, Preparation, Robots, Rust, Study, Watercolor, Will Strong
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Rusty Rust Rust
Just a study I did today of some rusty metal. I'm doing an illustration with a big robot in it and I want to get it right.
Posted by Will Strong at 10:06 PM No comments:
Labels: Ball Point Pen, Gears, Metal, Rust, Study, Watercolor, Will Strong
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Little White Dog
Posted by Will Strong at 5:20 PM 2 comments:
Labels: Animals, Dogs, Frisbee, Ink, Museum, Park, Photoshop Compositing, Play, School, Unsettling Close Up, Will Strong
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Eat, Eat
Some more Chinese textbook stuff for work. This story teaches about size relationships (an early math concept.) The text I got started with a kid and a cat. Cat eats and cat grows bigger. Cat eats again and cat grows bigger again. You are now bigger than the dog, etc. The only reason I could think of for the cat to be growing so fast was for the kid to be a mad scientist. Seems logical to me. What, you have a better idea? I don't write these things. I just draw the silly pictures.
Posted by Will Strong at 4:31 PM 1 comment:
Labels: Animals, Cat, Cat Food, Chinese, Dog, Ink, Kids, Mad Science, Photoshop Compositing, Possibly Poisoned Food, Radioactivity, Transmogrification, Will Strong
Monday, September 14, 2009
Pig Flu Hates Me
So, Tiffany and I got very mucho sick last week. All week. We had an unhappy visit from this guy:
I'll spare you the gruesome details but let me say it was unpleasant.
Posted by Will Strong at 3:48 PM 3 comments:
Labels: Animals, Fairies, Filth, Grossness, Hair, Ink, Nose Wand, Pig Flu, Sickness, Sketch Book, Snot, Swine, Warts, Watercolor, Will Strong, Wings
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Big thanks to Emily Bryan for bestowing the Kreativ Blogger Award to The Quirky Ladies blog. This is a cute idea....we now have to pick 7 of our favorite things, and 7 of our favorite blogs! Here's the Quirky consensus....
Dalton: Favorite thing is making my husband laugh. Corny, I know, but there's something about seeing that smile or hearing him laugh, especially when I've said something only he would get. Fave blog is Readlines & Deadlines because it's not only entertaining, it's incredibly informative.
Tara: My favorite thing is the sound of my nieces' laughter and joking around together. Their voices sound like music to me!!! My favorite blog, Penelope's Romance Reviews of course! And the Quirkies. All About Romance has a lot of fun stuff to read as well.
Kate: My current favorite thing is Macarthur's tiny little boy voice, especially when he's being sassy (though I try not to let him know that). And my favorite blog (aside from Penelope and the Quirkies) is Readlines & Deadlines - the EC Editor's Blog.
Michelle: One of my favorite things: The smell of spring in the air.
Favorite blog is Deadline Dames.
Victoria: Favorite blog is easy--Penelope's Romance Reviews :)
Favorite thing: Well, besides diving into a great book, I'd have to go with admiring a beautiful painting, or the sound of my kids' laughter.
Penny: I get 2 votes to get us up to 7!!! :)
Favorite things: (other than group hugs with my family)
1) Waking up on the first true fall day when the sun is shining and it's cool and I get a hankering for picking apples, starting a pumpkin collection and planting mums....
2) Burying my face in Lucy the Wiener Dog's neck when she's just awoken from a nap and she's all warm and snuggly!
And 2 favorite blogs....Smexy Books (awesome romance site) and The Long and Short Of It All (really fun doxie site!).
Thanks again to Emily Bryan for the fun award!


text:
They gave us a little time to let you know that I´m well in Mexico. It´s really nice here and there's a super cool mountain. The sierra madres are great. I haven´t gotten my trainer yet but I will in about an hour. I´ll let you know how my first week goes next Monday.
So the mail address is
Calle Chiapas #2202
col. roma sur
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, 64700
It´s the same as was given before. This is the mission office and you just send it there and they disperse it from there to where you are. Meeting the mission president was great.
Also, I´ve seen Gila Woodpeckers and White winged doves, a scissor tailed flycatcher, some species of gnatcatcher, a lot of great tailed grackles, and a spindalis species (kind of like a sparrow).
I already love it here! I love you guys! Awesome picture too!
[Note to reader: the picture to which Davis is referring is the one below.]