Well as you can tell by the title, I DID IT!!!! Now we'll talk about my exeperience the drive out started rough as I didn't bring my GPS because I thought my friend's blackberry could direct us....it didn't do a very good job and after crossing the Queensborough bridge, we had trouble finding the LIE. FInally we drove to Astoria and got on the grand central to the LIE (Long Island Expresseay)to the Hamptons. I was really nervous because I wanted to carb up but the restaurant closes at 10, it takes 2 hours to drive and we started at 7:45 but with the mishap, we were behind schedule. I had brought 2 cans of Chef Boyardee in case the retaurant was closed. We got there at 9:45 and they were extremely patient letting us sit and eat long after closing time. I had a lot of pasta, bread and water so carbing up was done, now it was just go home and wait for the next day.
I woke up at 3AM and couldn't fall back asleep. At 5:30 I began preparing for the marathon. Oddly the last time I put on the peteroleum jelly to prevent chafing for a training run, it was real surreal but this time, the last time I'll ever have to do it, felt like just any other day. I had brought a zip lock bag of Frosted flakes and ate that. At 6:30 I woke up my friend, took a G1 packet and drank a 20oz of gatorade. So far everything was going as planned. We left at 7:00 as it says it takes 40 minutes to get to the start of the race from my friend's house. We arrived around 7:30 and I went to check the superfluous items, keys, cell phone and a G3. I had 7 GU goo in my shorts because my goal was to finish in 5 hours and these are supposed to be taken every 50 minutes. I also had a pack of SHotblock, which should be taken 15 minutes before the race. When I tried to check the things, they told me I needed a bag. I went to another table and asked if they had a small bag, the woman took my bag ticket and threw it away and told me that she didn't have one. I asked for the ticket back, and she gave me a T-shirt ticket and said it was the same thing. Then I see a big sign that said "Problems" so I went over there and told them of my predicament, they gave me a zip lock bag and mentioned she'd get in trouble by the person's whose bag it was. I didn't care, I put my stuff in it and walked back to the bag counter. I wanted to call my friend to see if she left yet but my phone had no service. As expected, they didn't accept my bag ticket so I went back to the lady who threw it away and told her i needed it back. She tried telling me that she didn't know which one it was but as it has my name on it I told her, "I DO!" and she handed me the box, I quickly found my tag and walked over and checked my bag. Then I started stretching, at 7:45, I ate all 6 shotblock gummies. Then I waited in line for the bathroom. Strapped to me was my fuel belt with two waterbottles of gatorade and one of water. When I got out of the portapotty, it was empty as everyone went to the start, so I walked to the race start.
Everyone was confused at the start, the race started but nobody seemed to realize it, so people kept telling us and we went. I started 8 minutes after the race oficially started. I was wearing a sweatshirt which I was going to take off 8 miles into it. The point was, the e-mail I got from my friend told me to run slower than normal for the first 8, then normal after that. I wore the sweatshirt to slow me down. It also said not to weave so when I got stuck behind slow people, I ran at their pace unless they walked than I went by them. Some moved over, then I passed them as I was not weaving. It was a relaxing part, I eavesdropped on runner's conversations and at mile 4 or 5, I realized I was sweating profusely and debated to take off the sweatshirt, but I didn't. There was a water stand by mile 8, so I poured water on myself knowing that the extra weight of wet clothing wouldn't be a problem because I was taking off the shirt soon anyway. I passed mile 8, and threw the shirt off, looked at my watch, which I had started the stopclock when I started the race and saw 1:26, the slowest I've ever run 8 miles, but that was the point. During this time I didn't sing any songs to motivate me as I kept telling myself that the race doesn't start till mile 8. Once someone remarked how they could see me Lebron jersey under the long-sleeve T-shirt so I pulled it up so he could see the "Sux" part, no reaction except "Oh:" I didn't keep with the gatorade every 20 minutes at this point because I was taking it easy.
Now the race had really started for me and I ran at my normal speed. The crowds thinned out by now so I didn't have to weave too much. At mile 6, the half marathon and marathon split, and after the split, cars are allowed to be driving so I did cross the street once so that cars would be coming toward me rather than behind. As I got on the road that ends in a hair pin turn(mile 11) some people on their way back cheered me on. I didn't return it, but just said "Thanks" as I wanted to conserve energy. A couple ran by and got excited because they were from Cleveland, and the front of my jersey said Cleveland they stuck their hands out and I gave them 5. THere were very few spectators but the few that remained would cheer me on and call me "Cleveland" I kept going till I got to mile 16, looked at my watch and saw 2:44, I had just run my second 8 miles 8 minutes faster than the precious 8, which is called a negative split and exactly what I intended. Now the hard part.
The hamptons marathon has a steep hill from mile 17.5 - 19. I kept telling myself that I was close. I got through it. I noticed lot of people walking, in fact, it seemed more people stopped to walk/stretch/go to the bathroom than didn't. THe advice I received of "It's not worth it to stop" seemed wrong now. There weren't many gatorade stands in the beginning but I had mine and took a sip every 20 minutes. I hadn't used much even with taking a sip after the GU, as I did find something to wash it down with. At this point (mile 16 or so) I threw away the water bottle with water as there are a lot of water stations. As I passed mile 19, I told myself that the hard part was over and it's just smooth sailing from here. Now every stand had gatorade and water, which I liked. I think it was a good idea to put the gatorade stands at the end of the race rather than throughout. By mile 22 or so, I abandoned my plan to only take gatorade every 20 minutes but every time I saw a gatorade stand and every 20 minutes with the ones I had strapped to me. a couple times, they coincided but not often. At mile 20 or so, I realized that the hard part really did take a lot out of me. Mile markers seem to be very far apart now. The "Auto Pilot at mile 20 that carries you through the remaining 6.2" that my friend claimed work was not working. I kept looking at my watch at mile markers and it seemed that I had slowed to 15 minute miles. So at 24.2 I decided that there was no point to keep running since running wasn't much faster than wallking as I can walk a mile in 20 minutes.
I did this at the 2nd hairpin turn, (mile 24.2) it had been almost all uphill so the return trip should be downhill. BUt when I was looking at it, it still seemed uphill. When I stopped to walk, I was extremely dizzy but after walking for a little bit, I regained my equilbrium. As I watched 2 women passed me and one cheered me on, I said, "Let's go" and started runing, within 30 seconds they stoppped to walk, which was kind of a buzz kill for me. I started alternating between walking and running. I looked at my watch and realized that even if I walked all the way to finish, I would still finish before the 5 hour goal. This was patantly false but math had abandoned me in my tired state. I was around mile 25. I was happy that at mile 19, we met up with the half marathon course because the mile markers and every 5k markers for the half marathoners, gave me more indication how close I was. With the half marathon, you only add 0.1 rather than 0.2 to every mile marker for miles left. I saw I had 3 minutes left before taking another GU. I decided to walk tll then, I did so and then started runing and didn't stop till the finish. Before mile 20, I realized that even though the Dixie cups were only a fourth full, It was still less than the sips I take. So I took my sips, than threw away the rest. Now, I carried the cup taking small sips...it usually took about 0.2 miles to finish it.
At this point (after mile 19), I couldn't occupy my mind, it was really bothering me how far the mile markers felt. I didn't sing all the songs that motivated me, I was just exhausted. Before the race, I said if a woman passed me toward the end, it would motivate me to speed up. Many woman passed me throughout the race, never did I use it as a motivation point. Sometime around mile 25, an ambulance passed by which was really a buzz kill but I kept going. I ran by mile 26 and immediately looked for mile 13 for the half marathoners to tell me I was 0.1 away. I found it and other people cheered me on. I turned a corner and there was the finish line, I heard my mother scream and many other people cheering. I then kicked it and sprinted past the finish as I heard my name announced and I was from Brooklyn and it was my 1st. I received my medal and cape. Some guy who worked for the marathon chased me down and kept asking if I was okay and directed me to a water stand. I took out the last water bottle (I threw away the other one when it was empty) which was half filled with gatorade and showed it to him. I drank the rest then tossed the water bottle. I knew this was my last run so I wouldn't need it anymore. I then unstraped the fuel belt and threw it to the side for the same reason. The guy took this as a sign I wasn't okay. BUt I assured him I was, I could hear my friend and my mom calling after me but all I wanted was for the 5 minute countdown on my watch to expire so I could do my cool down stretches. I forgot to stop the stopwatch, realized it with about 2 minutes left of the 5 mintues so I stopped it and subtracted 3 minutes so my finishing time was 4:51. The official time was 4:56 and since in the beginning my watch was 8 minutes off the official time, I think it may have been 4:48, both logic work (the countdown and my memory) so one is true, one is false, I really don't know which one. But I did accomplish my goal of sub-5 hours no matter how you look at it.
The 5 minute countdown expired and I collapsed down to do my cool down stretches. My friend's husband told me it was a bad idea, but I knew I had to do it. I lifted my leg and started. My dad helped me keep it straight. I wasn't very friendly at this point because my dad didn't realize when I was going to switch even after telling him that when my hand reaches "4" I was switching. So I called out switch. As I went through, my thighs cramped a lot. I kept looking at a snack stand and my friend kept asking if I wanted anything but I couldn't form the words that I wanted fries. As it was misty rain and 60 degrees, perfect running weather, bad everything else weather, they seemed to be getting impatient, but I told them it would take 30 minutes and I wanted to finsih my stretches. Suzanne, the woman who cheered me on in between 24.2 and 25, found me and gave me a bottle of recovery water that they give you for free. I had my mom take off my tag and retrieve my stuff. Finally I finished my stretches, chugged teh G3 recovery and the recvoery water realizing the recovery water was very salty. THis helps most runners but I knew from previous experience it doesn't help me as my body overheats and I get the chills, which is exactly what started to happen at first but once i overheated, I never went to the other extreme. I posed for pictures with my friend and my parents and then walked to my friend's car. I realized my arms were killing me along with my thighs especially. I made my way to his car and then sat in the back seat with my legs spread out across. My calves began cramping majorly and I kept stopping it by putting one foot on top of the others and pulling my toes back but lifting my leg to put on the other hurt bad and took a decent amount of time, meanwhile I was still cramping.
My friend's husband got lost on the way to the restaurant and we were going near my friend's house, which was about 40 minutes away. During this time I badly needed sustenance. My friend had caramel in the car, so I tried that after being assured she had water. Now that I had water, I took another GU packet as I had 2 unused ones (I brought one extra in case I ran slower than expected and 1 was given to me at mile 17). I was really tired and lightheaded and I badly wanted to get to the restaurant. I had been championing steak the whole previous day and since I finished so that's where we were going. FInally we got to the restaurant and I couldn't get out of the car. My friend offtered to help, I grabbed her arm but didn't want to pull on her as I knew she couldn't support my weight. I managed to get to my feet. I grabbed the waist of my pants because I literally couldn't lift my arms. I shuffled my feet toward the restaurant and made it very slowly feeling the worst I've felt ever from running. I got to the resaurant, still wearing the cape and sat down next to my mother, who gave me a sweater and other clothes. She told me to go the bathroom to put on pants but I absolutely refused to do any extra walking. As waitors came by I kept chanting "Beer, I need beer, someone get me beer" The waitor poured me water but I was done with that; I needed calories. Finally he asked what kind of beer, I said Coors Light and he brought it and I took a sip and it was freezing cold and refreshing. As I kept eating and drinking I started feeling better. When we left the waitor congratulated me, shook my hand and told me that I look much better now than when I walked in. My dad was happy to see color restore to my face. I was still sore but I could lift my arms at least. I turned the corner to recovery.
After that, I went back to my friend's house and took a long shower, which I desperately needed. They went to sleep, I tried to sleep but somehow couldn't. I was in a lot of pain but my head felt fine unlike when I finished. I redid the math, and realized that my last 10 miles I averaged 12:27 miles, which includes all the walking I did between mile 24.2 and 26.2. By extension, there is no way I was running 15 minute miles between 20 and 24 as I thought I had been. My math or memoy was wrong when I made that calculation at the time. Now for the first time, I had a regret, maybe I could have finished without stopping. I started getting an itch to try again but that faded quickly. I kept telling myself that most people I saw walked at some point so I was fine. The rest of the day was spent resting, going to dinner, and resting some more. I was really sore and stairs were a problem, especially down. I didn't fall asleep till midnight even though I went to bed at 10. THroughout the day, people were texting and calling about my race. I welcomed all of it. Next day we had breakfast and drove to the city. When I woke up this morning (same day as driving back to the city) it finally settled in that I had run a marathon. It feels amazing and the regret I had from walking is long gone. I'm so happy I did it, but I would never do it again. The one thing I don't understand is despite all the fluids I was drinking during the race, I never had to go to the bathroom. During all my long runs, I had to go to the bathroom but just held it. I never did, I guess I was burning it off that quickly. I tell myself now that given how bad of shape I was when I finished, if I hadn't stopped to walk, I may have collapsed or even not finished. Who knows if that's true, I"m never doing it again.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Psyching up for Marathon
Excuse me, as I do something very corny. But I want to psyche myself up for the marathon. Hamptons marathon, I’ve ran Zakopana, Poland; Wroclaw, Poland; Krakow, Poland; Vienna, Austria; Berlin, Germany; Bratislava, Slovakia; Brooklyn, NY; Commack, NY Cleveland, OH; and Manhattan, NY in preparation for you. You killed the first Greek that tried your relative, this one is coming for vengeance. I’ve left sweat and blood on concrete sidewalks. I’ve ran through sore muscles and pain. I’ve ran till I couldn’t run anymore and walked my way through. Many times I wanted to throw in the towel, but I made the promise that I would keep going until I got injured or until you and meet face to face. Well, your minions couldn’t defeat me, now you got to do it yourself. I’m coming for you, so bring it on. Your 26.2 miles vs. mostly my legs but other parts of my body too, one will prevail. So, on 9/29/12, I got one thing to say to you, “JUST BRING IT.”
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Economics of a family
I've been labeled many things so this post may label me as Anti-woman but that's fine. It isn't a secret that nowadays parents no longer raise their children. The children rearing is left to nannies for the rich and high school girls and/or day care for the not-so-rich. This is almost exclusively caused by the feminist movement. I'm hesitant to say that the latest generation is more corrupt and reprehensible than my generation or those above me because every generation says that about the subsequent ones. Even Egyptian hieroglyphs have this message and a couple hundred years ago, Baldassar Castiglione wrote about it in "Book of the Courtier." But if it is true, I think the lack of parents raising their children is to blame. My question is, "Why is it chauvinistic to say woman should stay at home with the kids?"
I am an economist so I make simplifying assumptions in order to make sense of the world. Today's assumption is that women are better than men at everything. Fair enough assumption, I'm not being anti-women, and men are too cowardly to speak against this so there, we're off to a good start. Women are better than men at work and at raising children but sometimes the woman can't do absolutely everything. There needs to be teamwork. So, what can a man help with? In economics, there is a law called "The Law of comparative advantage" it states that if there are two countries in which one country is better than the other at making two goods, it is still beneficial for the countries to trade if the inferior country focuses on the item where the gap between ability is narrower. For Example, if country A is much better at making textiles and slightly better at making computer chips than Country B, Country A should devote all it's effort to making textiles, and Country B should devote their efforts to making computer chips and then Country A trades textiles for computer chips. When this is done, Country A and Country B have more textiles and computer chips than they would have if they divided their efforts amongst the two goods. In this way, everyone gains and nobody loses, which in Ecomomics is called a "Pareto improvement." Now, how does this law relate to a family?
As we said earlier, women are better than men at everything; they can go to work and work the system and get promoted and bring home more money than men. They are also better at raising kids and keeping a clean house than men are. Now, we need to see where the gap is least. I think it's fair to say that the gap in women's ability over men is far narrower when it comes to the workplace and earning a paycheck than it is for child rearing, and keeping a clean house. Since men are closer in ability to woman at earning a salary than they are at child rearing and keeping a house, it would be advantageous for the man to devote his efforts to earning the paycheck for the family and the woman to take care of the kids and keep a clean house. This way the husband and wife (again, assuming that all people with children are married, as I said before economists make ridiculous assumptions to simplify things) get more money and more child rearing and cleaner house than if they split the responsibility amongst the two of them. I think the future generations would benefit if house wives stop looking at their duty as inferior to a man's, it's just simply logical for them to do it.
Signed copies of my book can be bought at the bottom of this page.
I am an economist so I make simplifying assumptions in order to make sense of the world. Today's assumption is that women are better than men at everything. Fair enough assumption, I'm not being anti-women, and men are too cowardly to speak against this so there, we're off to a good start. Women are better than men at work and at raising children but sometimes the woman can't do absolutely everything. There needs to be teamwork. So, what can a man help with? In economics, there is a law called "The Law of comparative advantage" it states that if there are two countries in which one country is better than the other at making two goods, it is still beneficial for the countries to trade if the inferior country focuses on the item where the gap between ability is narrower. For Example, if country A is much better at making textiles and slightly better at making computer chips than Country B, Country A should devote all it's effort to making textiles, and Country B should devote their efforts to making computer chips and then Country A trades textiles for computer chips. When this is done, Country A and Country B have more textiles and computer chips than they would have if they divided their efforts amongst the two goods. In this way, everyone gains and nobody loses, which in Ecomomics is called a "Pareto improvement." Now, how does this law relate to a family?
As we said earlier, women are better than men at everything; they can go to work and work the system and get promoted and bring home more money than men. They are also better at raising kids and keeping a clean house than men are. Now, we need to see where the gap is least. I think it's fair to say that the gap in women's ability over men is far narrower when it comes to the workplace and earning a paycheck than it is for child rearing, and keeping a clean house. Since men are closer in ability to woman at earning a salary than they are at child rearing and keeping a house, it would be advantageous for the man to devote his efforts to earning the paycheck for the family and the woman to take care of the kids and keep a clean house. This way the husband and wife (again, assuming that all people with children are married, as I said before economists make ridiculous assumptions to simplify things) get more money and more child rearing and cleaner house than if they split the responsibility amongst the two of them. I think the future generations would benefit if house wives stop looking at their duty as inferior to a man's, it's just simply logical for them to do it.
Signed copies of my book can be bought at the bottom of this page.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Training runs complete!
Today was my last training run; 8 miles. Rather than do my normal course of making it a loop to end at my apartment, I had it end on Park Avenue and Broadway because there is a big fountain with lots of water spraying toward the center. As I past this on previous runs, I always wanted to run through it to cool down but as it was normally about half way and I didn't want to run over 8 miles in wet shoes, I never did. Today, in celebration for the training runs being over, I jumped into the fountain and walked around to cool down. It was awesome. Now a quick look back of my 6.5 months of training.
I’ve come across a lot of adventures during my runs. I’ve had old people stick their cane in my path, people drop suitcases causing me to jump over and pull my groin with about 8 miles left, I’ve ran through shin splints, massive tightness/pain in my calf, nagging knee and arch pain. I’ve even ran drunk to prepare me for running on tired or not-100% legs. I think I will need this for the marathon, as I don’t expect to feel 100% throughout. I’ve had four people say they would run with me, none did. I’ve been cheered on by Greeks, Asians, and blacks, one who just happened to be fluent in Greek. I’ve been heckled by little kids and a black guy telling me his girlfriend runs faster than me. I’ve received both praise and condemnation for the Lebron jersey I wear. I had the marathon date be pushed up from Early January (Disney), to Early November (NY) to 9/29/12. One thing I never did though was sit down or get off my feet because I could no longer stand. I did stop to walk a few times (Approximately 7) but never did I sit to rest. Some say this is bad because that means I never pushed myself to the Max, but I say it’s good because I kept trucking. Those times I was forced to stop because I couldn’t run anymore I consider pushing it to the max. All in all, the experience really sucked and I will never do it again but there’s just one more run left!
I’ve come across a lot of adventures during my runs. I’ve had old people stick their cane in my path, people drop suitcases causing me to jump over and pull my groin with about 8 miles left, I’ve ran through shin splints, massive tightness/pain in my calf, nagging knee and arch pain. I’ve even ran drunk to prepare me for running on tired or not-100% legs. I think I will need this for the marathon, as I don’t expect to feel 100% throughout. I’ve had four people say they would run with me, none did. I’ve been cheered on by Greeks, Asians, and blacks, one who just happened to be fluent in Greek. I’ve been heckled by little kids and a black guy telling me his girlfriend runs faster than me. I’ve received both praise and condemnation for the Lebron jersey I wear. I had the marathon date be pushed up from Early January (Disney), to Early November (NY) to 9/29/12. One thing I never did though was sit down or get off my feet because I could no longer stand. I did stop to walk a few times (Approximately 7) but never did I sit to rest. Some say this is bad because that means I never pushed myself to the Max, but I say it’s good because I kept trucking. Those times I was forced to stop because I couldn’t run anymore I consider pushing it to the max. All in all, the experience really sucked and I will never do it again but there’s just one more run left!
Monday, September 17, 2012
The taboo "I don't know"
It has recently occured to me that people are scared to death of the phrase, "I don't know." We want to believe that we have all the answers. We want to believe that everything that can be discovered has been. That is why when you publish papers, you have to reference those before you that discovered the same thing. This implies no new theories can develop. Why is it so difficult to say, "I don't know." Here are my most blatant examples.
Medicine. So many times people believe themselves to be Doctors simply because they've had a long history of medical problems. This is not what is needed to be a Doctor. You don't get an M.D. simply because you're always in the hospital for some reason or another. You cannot diagnose people. WebMD has made this worse. The recently canceled show, "House" satirized these people by having a character that does what doctors probably wants to do in berating patients who self-diagnose. The show "Royal Pains" is another example. The favorite thing of these pseudo-doctors is when real doctors, those that have gone to medical school, cannot discover a reason for an illness. This is like candy for these retarded, ignorant, arrogant pieces of trash that annoy me by offering a medical opinion with absolutely no medical training or treatment of any kind. Most of these people aren't even certified in CPR. For example, four times in my life, I have collapsed. Doctors believe it's something with my brain; whereas paramedics believe it to be my heart. Both have been thoroughly tested and scanned and all came out clean. No doctor can tell me why it happens. When I tell people this, I get all sorts of opinions, mostly trying to promote their idealogy about how I should run my life. In fact, only one person has resisted the urge to not comment on why this may happen. She having two degrees in Finance and International Business from the Stern School of Business realized that that doesn't qualify her to make medical opinons so she refrained. The answer is obvious...nobody knows.
The other blaring example of this is the classic debate between Darwinism and creationism. Here's the point, nobody has any idea how life came to be on this planet. Darwin said in "Origin of Species" that the fossil record would either prove or disprove his theory. So far, it has more disproved than proved. There has yet to be a definitive transitional species found. Archeopterox (looks like a half bird/half lizard) had potentioal but then it was discovered that the earliest fossils came much much later than the earliest full bird fossils and transitional species can't come before the end result. That and there have been no early eyes, basically all these failed species that Darwin predicted would be found haven't been. The argument against Creationism has similar problems. In the bible, God creates animals before plants....why would he do something that stupid? Plants are the bottom of the food chain, animals eat plants, bigger animals eat those animals but it's out of sequence in the bible. That doesn't work either. Why is it so difficult for people to admit the truth...nobody knows how life came on this Earth. And yes, I would say the default goes to God. but the answer to Darwinism vs. Creationism is "I don't know."
My last example is the environment. In the 80's everyone worried about global cooling to the point that they wanted to cover the arctic in black soot to attract heat. Now we have global warming fears, maybe in 30 years we'll be back to global cooling. After all, every year we get BOTH record highs AND record lows, so both theories can have the same evidence. That and you only see warming in urban areas, and farm animals produce much more potent and harmful greenhouse gases than humans, all make this argument very very weak. So, here's the point, when it comes to the weather....nobody knows. Why can't we just say "I don't know."? I don't know if it's getting warmer or colder, I don't know if it's caused my man, and honestly nobody else knows. Of course, just like with medicine when no responsible professional can prove it or disprove it, the retards come out and put forth their opinion knowing that they can't definitively be proved wrong.
In closing, Plato said, "A wise person speaks because he has something to say, a foolish person because he has to say something." and Socrates added, "Knowledge is knowing the extent of your ignorance" He even said, "I am the smartest man in the world because I know that I know nothing." Over 5,000 years after Socrates was killed, I wish today's humans could realize the same thing.
Signed copies of my book can be bought at the bottom of this page
Medicine. So many times people believe themselves to be Doctors simply because they've had a long history of medical problems. This is not what is needed to be a Doctor. You don't get an M.D. simply because you're always in the hospital for some reason or another. You cannot diagnose people. WebMD has made this worse. The recently canceled show, "House" satirized these people by having a character that does what doctors probably wants to do in berating patients who self-diagnose. The show "Royal Pains" is another example. The favorite thing of these pseudo-doctors is when real doctors, those that have gone to medical school, cannot discover a reason for an illness. This is like candy for these retarded, ignorant, arrogant pieces of trash that annoy me by offering a medical opinion with absolutely no medical training or treatment of any kind. Most of these people aren't even certified in CPR. For example, four times in my life, I have collapsed. Doctors believe it's something with my brain; whereas paramedics believe it to be my heart. Both have been thoroughly tested and scanned and all came out clean. No doctor can tell me why it happens. When I tell people this, I get all sorts of opinions, mostly trying to promote their idealogy about how I should run my life. In fact, only one person has resisted the urge to not comment on why this may happen. She having two degrees in Finance and International Business from the Stern School of Business realized that that doesn't qualify her to make medical opinons so she refrained. The answer is obvious...nobody knows.
The other blaring example of this is the classic debate between Darwinism and creationism. Here's the point, nobody has any idea how life came to be on this planet. Darwin said in "Origin of Species" that the fossil record would either prove or disprove his theory. So far, it has more disproved than proved. There has yet to be a definitive transitional species found. Archeopterox (looks like a half bird/half lizard) had potentioal but then it was discovered that the earliest fossils came much much later than the earliest full bird fossils and transitional species can't come before the end result. That and there have been no early eyes, basically all these failed species that Darwin predicted would be found haven't been. The argument against Creationism has similar problems. In the bible, God creates animals before plants....why would he do something that stupid? Plants are the bottom of the food chain, animals eat plants, bigger animals eat those animals but it's out of sequence in the bible. That doesn't work either. Why is it so difficult for people to admit the truth...nobody knows how life came on this Earth. And yes, I would say the default goes to God. but the answer to Darwinism vs. Creationism is "I don't know."
My last example is the environment. In the 80's everyone worried about global cooling to the point that they wanted to cover the arctic in black soot to attract heat. Now we have global warming fears, maybe in 30 years we'll be back to global cooling. After all, every year we get BOTH record highs AND record lows, so both theories can have the same evidence. That and you only see warming in urban areas, and farm animals produce much more potent and harmful greenhouse gases than humans, all make this argument very very weak. So, here's the point, when it comes to the weather....nobody knows. Why can't we just say "I don't know."? I don't know if it's getting warmer or colder, I don't know if it's caused my man, and honestly nobody else knows. Of course, just like with medicine when no responsible professional can prove it or disprove it, the retards come out and put forth their opinion knowing that they can't definitively be proved wrong.
In closing, Plato said, "A wise person speaks because he has something to say, a foolish person because he has to say something." and Socrates added, "Knowledge is knowing the extent of your ignorance" He even said, "I am the smartest man in the world because I know that I know nothing." Over 5,000 years after Socrates was killed, I wish today's humans could realize the same thing.
Signed copies of my book can be bought at the bottom of this page
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Egypt and Libya
Given the recent violence in Egypt and Libya, I really thought it would be obvious to all that this is a tragic event and the only proper respose is to condemn the Muslim extremists that perpetrated the acts. Alas, all I hear is sympathetic comments and catering by Americans. It doesn't surprise me that New York liberals are ecstatic since they hate this country and would love to see it burn and, technically, US embasies abroad are US territory. But I expect a little better from elected officials.
Briefly my opinion, the Muslim brotherhood needs to be addressed and codemned by the Egyptian government. They could easily go after them, the political stability in Libya isn't as cut and dry, so we should go into Libya, hunt out and kill the killers of American citizens. I've been called a racist by my peers because I value American life over Muslims. They have the audacity to quote the hundreds of thousands of Muslims killed in Iraq and Afghanistan compared with the few thousand Americans killed. We are/were (depending which country you're talking about) at war with them....our objective is to kill as many as the enemy as we can. So Go America is my response to those dead. The people at the Libyan embasy were not soldiers, one was the ambassador, there to try to promote peace. They killed him. They barely killed messengers in Ancient Greece and they loved war. I do weigh American civilian casualities higher than Muslim soldiers fighting American soldiers., In fact, i think even objectively soldiers lives are worth less than civilians. That may be against the American notion that all men are created equal but I'm okay with that. Soldiers go to war with the knowledge they may die. The greatest soldiers of all time hope to die. So, why should I be upset that they died? The ambassador didn't go to Libya to die, he went to Libya to prevent wars and the killing of more soldiers both American and Muslim. Bill O'Reilly issued a statement "In respose to the events in Egypt, no American should go to Egypt for the rest of the year" He said this because Egypt is heavily reliant on tourism for their economic stability. The fact that there was outrage over this makes me ashamed of Americans. Egypt is on my bucket list, but I can forego going for 4 months. In fact, I was invited to go to Egypt this year but me and my friend decided it was too dangerous with what has been going on the last two years between government changes and other turmoil. The biggest Muslim apologist I know who is obsessed with visiting the Middle East and has on several occassions told me, 'Don't go to Egypt this year" so how is it such a horrible thing to ask to forego going for the next 4 months? Now for our leaders.
Barak Obma...started out bad, but then he sent battleships to the Mediterraean coasts of Egypt and Libya. I would like the threat of violence be matched with actually violence if they don't comply. He also apparantly gave a stern talking to the Egyptian government who sent the army to help our embassy (Finally). He did say that he is sympathetic at how offended they got by the video....which makes him lose a lot of points with me. Muslims are the only people who kill and violently protest because someone called them violent. I really don't care about the video or what it said. By this logic, Catholics should go around killing people because of the movies Dogma, Religilous, Jesus camp, saved, The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, Davinci Code, etc etc." Jews should also start killing people due to "Passion of the Christ" Yet, you don't see this. So why Liberal is it okay for Muslims to kill becase of movies but not other relgions?
Governor Romney: I applaud that he condemned the violence and went after Barak Obama after he made his sympathetic comments but before he sent battle ships and strongly urged the Egyptian leader. But I fault him for going back and "easing" his comments. Stick to your guns, you can applaud him for taking some action but urge him to continue the threat if demands aren't met. Also, you can urge the President to say if there are still VIOLENT protests at the embassy say by next week, you will withold aid. But don't back down. As an objectivist who is against President Obama, I want someone to take a stand the way Obama won't and stop apologizing for America. These soft means don't work. And For God's sake, you're running to be President, Stop fumbling over your words. Speak sternly and confidently. This may be slightly hypocritical of me since I don't speak clearly but I'm not running for office.
Vice President hopeful Ryan: Again stop stumbling over your words, but your message, when you finally got it out, was good. You codemned the violence, gave them no apology for the video that the US government had nothing to do with, and, as far as I know, didn't back down.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Get ready for a shocker. She was the best of anyone I named. Many people on the right fault her for referencing the video so much but when she referenced it she said, and I'm paraphrasing "The video was bad, but that is no excuse for what you did Muslims" I applaud that message. She strongly condemned their action, said they had no excuse for what they did and there would be consequences. Clinton was a conservative in her youth, and for the first time I saw it come out. She didn't apologize or sympathesize with attacks against Americans. And she did it in a clear, stern, confident voice. she even used the phrase "War on Terror" The right and myself were screaming for the left to do exactly what Clinton did. She did, and they still attacked her. This is what Liberals do to conservatives, they demand apologies, conservative apologizes, they scream "not good enough." I will not stoop down to liberal levels, I called for a left winger to do what Clinton did, she did it, Thank you Hillary Clinton.
Final thoughts, I hear a lot that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighters, and Muslims are no worse than Israelies, references to Crusades and Middle Ages crap etc. etc. So here is my rebuttal besides the previously mentioned, "Muslims are the only ones who violently protest and kill because somoene called them violent" which to me is proving the point. Muslims are the first people in 5000 years to violate the Olympic peace agreement. Even the war-hungary Greeks (especially the Spartans who were born and raised only to be soldiers), who when they weren't fighting other nations fought each other, put aside their differences for 2 weeks every 4 years for an athletic competition before going back to warring. In 1972, the Muslims were the first to violate this agreement.
Signed Copies of my book can be bought at the bottom of this page
Briefly my opinion, the Muslim brotherhood needs to be addressed and codemned by the Egyptian government. They could easily go after them, the political stability in Libya isn't as cut and dry, so we should go into Libya, hunt out and kill the killers of American citizens. I've been called a racist by my peers because I value American life over Muslims. They have the audacity to quote the hundreds of thousands of Muslims killed in Iraq and Afghanistan compared with the few thousand Americans killed. We are/were (depending which country you're talking about) at war with them....our objective is to kill as many as the enemy as we can. So Go America is my response to those dead. The people at the Libyan embasy were not soldiers, one was the ambassador, there to try to promote peace. They killed him. They barely killed messengers in Ancient Greece and they loved war. I do weigh American civilian casualities higher than Muslim soldiers fighting American soldiers., In fact, i think even objectively soldiers lives are worth less than civilians. That may be against the American notion that all men are created equal but I'm okay with that. Soldiers go to war with the knowledge they may die. The greatest soldiers of all time hope to die. So, why should I be upset that they died? The ambassador didn't go to Libya to die, he went to Libya to prevent wars and the killing of more soldiers both American and Muslim. Bill O'Reilly issued a statement "In respose to the events in Egypt, no American should go to Egypt for the rest of the year" He said this because Egypt is heavily reliant on tourism for their economic stability. The fact that there was outrage over this makes me ashamed of Americans. Egypt is on my bucket list, but I can forego going for 4 months. In fact, I was invited to go to Egypt this year but me and my friend decided it was too dangerous with what has been going on the last two years between government changes and other turmoil. The biggest Muslim apologist I know who is obsessed with visiting the Middle East and has on several occassions told me, 'Don't go to Egypt this year" so how is it such a horrible thing to ask to forego going for the next 4 months? Now for our leaders.
Barak Obma...started out bad, but then he sent battleships to the Mediterraean coasts of Egypt and Libya. I would like the threat of violence be matched with actually violence if they don't comply. He also apparantly gave a stern talking to the Egyptian government who sent the army to help our embassy (Finally). He did say that he is sympathetic at how offended they got by the video....which makes him lose a lot of points with me. Muslims are the only people who kill and violently protest because someone called them violent. I really don't care about the video or what it said. By this logic, Catholics should go around killing people because of the movies Dogma, Religilous, Jesus camp, saved, The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, Davinci Code, etc etc." Jews should also start killing people due to "Passion of the Christ" Yet, you don't see this. So why Liberal is it okay for Muslims to kill becase of movies but not other relgions?
Governor Romney: I applaud that he condemned the violence and went after Barak Obama after he made his sympathetic comments but before he sent battle ships and strongly urged the Egyptian leader. But I fault him for going back and "easing" his comments. Stick to your guns, you can applaud him for taking some action but urge him to continue the threat if demands aren't met. Also, you can urge the President to say if there are still VIOLENT protests at the embassy say by next week, you will withold aid. But don't back down. As an objectivist who is against President Obama, I want someone to take a stand the way Obama won't and stop apologizing for America. These soft means don't work. And For God's sake, you're running to be President, Stop fumbling over your words. Speak sternly and confidently. This may be slightly hypocritical of me since I don't speak clearly but I'm not running for office.
Vice President hopeful Ryan: Again stop stumbling over your words, but your message, when you finally got it out, was good. You codemned the violence, gave them no apology for the video that the US government had nothing to do with, and, as far as I know, didn't back down.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Get ready for a shocker. She was the best of anyone I named. Many people on the right fault her for referencing the video so much but when she referenced it she said, and I'm paraphrasing "The video was bad, but that is no excuse for what you did Muslims" I applaud that message. She strongly condemned their action, said they had no excuse for what they did and there would be consequences. Clinton was a conservative in her youth, and for the first time I saw it come out. She didn't apologize or sympathesize with attacks against Americans. And she did it in a clear, stern, confident voice. she even used the phrase "War on Terror" The right and myself were screaming for the left to do exactly what Clinton did. She did, and they still attacked her. This is what Liberals do to conservatives, they demand apologies, conservative apologizes, they scream "not good enough." I will not stoop down to liberal levels, I called for a left winger to do what Clinton did, she did it, Thank you Hillary Clinton.
Final thoughts, I hear a lot that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighters, and Muslims are no worse than Israelies, references to Crusades and Middle Ages crap etc. etc. So here is my rebuttal besides the previously mentioned, "Muslims are the only ones who violently protest and kill because somoene called them violent" which to me is proving the point. Muslims are the first people in 5000 years to violate the Olympic peace agreement. Even the war-hungary Greeks (especially the Spartans who were born and raised only to be soldiers), who when they weren't fighting other nations fought each other, put aside their differences for 2 weeks every 4 years for an athletic competition before going back to warring. In 1972, the Muslims were the first to violate this agreement.
Signed Copies of my book can be bought at the bottom of this page
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Tapering down
three weeks ago, I ran 20 miles, which was the longest run I was supposed to do during training. I was successful and rewarded myself by going to the beach.
Last weekend I didn't run beause I was vacationing in Maine and the running coach just said to "Taper off" but I didn't get clarification what that meant until after I got back. This week I went to my normal schedule and found myself running faster but I started geting sore again. Not sure what to make of this. The 12 mile run today went really well. It was 6 minutes faster than the pace I run my medium runs (8 miles). I have recently switched from G1 packets to GU energy shots, and given today's run and my medium run on Wednesday being 2 minutes faster than my best time to date, it appears to be working. I'm really surprised by this to be honest.
As my last post was right before I hit a wall, I'll briefly go into that. The week after my 12 mile run, I tried going 14 as that's what the schedule called for. At 12, I had to stop to walk, I figured it was just a bad day but the next week when I was to run 16, it happened again. So, I tapped out and started drinking water. I also asked the 2 people I know who have run marathons and a girl that runs double digit miles for fun for advice. They said to eat the night beore and run on a near empty stomach. Before I tried to carb up an hour and a half before the runs, but apparantly that's not how you do it. It worked! The week after the 16, it was scaled back to 14 again and I was able to run it without stopping after spending the night before eating Italian and Thai food..and a lot of it. Since then I've ran 16, 18, & 20, 12 following the carbing up strategy. I felt a lot of pain in the 18 mile but not so much the 20. Not sure why that was but I was happy to finish.
They say if you can run 20, you can run a marathon because your body goes on auto-pilot muscle memory alone mode that carry you for the remainig 6.2 miles. with that logic, I'm ready. I'm very skeptical of this though but so was my friend when she ran hers but she became a believer on race day. Maybe I will too....I hope so.
Today was the last long run of training. Now, I just have a normal week, than a week of only short runs beore the marathon. I can't wait to get it over with, but I'm still nervous despite hitting all my benchmarks. I don't think I will update this before the marathon so hopefully I finish.
Signed copies of my book can be bought at the bottom of this page.
Last weekend I didn't run beause I was vacationing in Maine and the running coach just said to "Taper off" but I didn't get clarification what that meant until after I got back. This week I went to my normal schedule and found myself running faster but I started geting sore again. Not sure what to make of this. The 12 mile run today went really well. It was 6 minutes faster than the pace I run my medium runs (8 miles). I have recently switched from G1 packets to GU energy shots, and given today's run and my medium run on Wednesday being 2 minutes faster than my best time to date, it appears to be working. I'm really surprised by this to be honest.
As my last post was right before I hit a wall, I'll briefly go into that. The week after my 12 mile run, I tried going 14 as that's what the schedule called for. At 12, I had to stop to walk, I figured it was just a bad day but the next week when I was to run 16, it happened again. So, I tapped out and started drinking water. I also asked the 2 people I know who have run marathons and a girl that runs double digit miles for fun for advice. They said to eat the night beore and run on a near empty stomach. Before I tried to carb up an hour and a half before the runs, but apparantly that's not how you do it. It worked! The week after the 16, it was scaled back to 14 again and I was able to run it without stopping after spending the night before eating Italian and Thai food..and a lot of it. Since then I've ran 16, 18, & 20, 12 following the carbing up strategy. I felt a lot of pain in the 18 mile but not so much the 20. Not sure why that was but I was happy to finish.
They say if you can run 20, you can run a marathon because your body goes on auto-pilot muscle memory alone mode that carry you for the remainig 6.2 miles. with that logic, I'm ready. I'm very skeptical of this though but so was my friend when she ran hers but she became a believer on race day. Maybe I will too....I hope so.
Today was the last long run of training. Now, I just have a normal week, than a week of only short runs beore the marathon. I can't wait to get it over with, but I'm still nervous despite hitting all my benchmarks. I don't think I will update this before the marathon so hopefully I finish.
Signed copies of my book can be bought at the bottom of this page.
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