Category: opinion

Tuesday the 16’th of December

One more final to give, two sets of grades to calculate and turn in, and some other chores to do.

Ok, it is now Thursday the 18’th and grades are in. I’ll probably make a couple of supplementary videos to help them with their weak areas.

Emotionally, the past few days were a roller coaster, much of it my doing.

Here are the walks:

December 12: commuter walk (2 miles)
December 13: 8.2 miles in increasingly awful conditions: 2:38:09 (19:24 pace) on campus loops.

December 14 (after basketball game): 2.27 commuter
December 15 2 mile commuter (snowy)
December 15 2 mile commuter (yuck)
December 16: Markin;lane 1 for mile 1, lane 2 the rest of the way. 50 laps: 1:26:42 for 6.25 (13:52) 14:23, 14:01, 13:50, 13:41, 13:37, 13:30, 3:34
December 17 (yesterday) 5k commuter somewhat slick
December 18 (today)6.23 at 16:42: damp; very few slick spots.

Yes, it was cold and snowy.

Weight workouts:

Sunday; some straight bar deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 225
Wagon Wheel: 10 x 250

Monday: pull ups (very cold) sets of 7 (one sloppy set of 10)
bench: 10 x 134 Swiss, 3 sets of 6 x 150
high incline: 10 x 94, 5 x 115, 5 x 110

Wednesday: pull ups: 9 sets of 5, one set of 6-7 trying to keep my legs together and not “cheat” by contacting the uprights
Bench: 3 sets of 10 x 134 Swiss
High incline: 10 x 94, 2 sets of 5 x 115
Wagon wheel: 3 sets if 10 x 200

Other: I went to the on campus “keep busy” basketball game vs. D3 North Central. The game wasn’t close (as expected) 86-53. But it was interesting to sit next to someone who did marathons and knew about McNaughton Park. And lots of guys got to play. Fan reaction was mixed.


Last Saturday football

That was the last day before “the tree crash”
I walked 2.2 miles, did rotator cuff exercises, and 3 sets of deadlifts 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 225, all low.

Then Harry and I went to watch the Illinois State Redbirds play the Youngstown State Penguins. The game had been moved from 2 pm to 12 to avoid some incoming bad weather. And we got our game in!

And the game itself:

Well, YSU drove for a field goal, got an interception, and drove for another field goal. Another drive (92 yards) and it was 12-0, after missing the 2 point conversion. But back came the Redbirds! They got a 75 yard touchdown drive, got an interception, then drove 39 yards for another touchdown and now it was 14-12.

Second half: a big kick return set up a short field for another touchdown and now ISU lead 21-12. YSU responded with a drive of their own to make it 21-19, but then came ISU with good field position after a punt ..now it was 28-19 going into the 4’th quarter

But the 4’th quarter has been a nightmare for the Redbirds and this was no exception: the defense collapsed and YSU rolled for 21 straight points to make it 40-28 with just over 5 minutes to play. ISU had no answer for the YSU quarterback who accounted for 328 passing yards and 200 running yards. A late TD cut it to 40-35 and ..for a brief second there was hope: the ISU defense did force a 3’rd and short. But what else; ISU gave up another long quarterback run to seal the game.

Total yards: 561 to 348. That isn’t going to cut it.

So, I had a football blast.

I had planned on going 10 miles on Sunday morning. But instead: I heard what I thought was thunder and a crash. And I woke up..lounged around, heard tapping and..well, the top photo was after the tree branches had been taken away. The bottom 2 is what awaited me.

I did most of the work to get the vehicle out (a neighbor lent a hand) and then, after the tree professionals cleared the big stuff up, I loaded up 6 contractor bags full of smaller debris. I squeezed 2 miles of walking and 3-4 hours of academic work.

You just never know what awaits.

Empathy

I’ve heard the word “empathy” a lot. Here is my understanding of the word: it means being able to put yourself in the place of another person and understand them.

And here is another case of a liberal/conservative divide: when a liberal says “empathy”, they mean “for the marginalized classes” (which often, but not always, include them, of course.)

To me, this is yet another reason why, politically, liberals lose so damned much.

If you are going to make the case of why someone, say, should pay more tax, or why the government should provide some benefit, you have to understand how most voters will see it. And you have to convince the voters why THEY would be better off.

Saying STFU, “check your privilege” convinces no one outside of academia (or other bubble areas).

I believe this is one reason why so many men have dumped the Democratic party.

One thing that liberal activists do not get is that the average man is much closer to the garbage man working in 15 F conditions or the construction worker pouring hot tar in 95 F conditions than they are to the CEO pulling in 7 figures.

Toxic dialogue

One thing that bothers me is some of the actions of ICE.
Yes, a nation has the right to control immigration. Yes, one should obey the laws. And yes, even Democratic presidents deported people. Personally, I wish we would reform a guest worker program to get people here that can and are willing to do beneficial tasks.

But that discussion is for another day.

What ICE doing is, well, unethical, incompetent and reckless. Yes, business has a saying “go fast and break things” but in an area where an error can seriously harm people’s lives, the humane thing is to MAKE SURE. Here is a case where a legal immigrant with a clean criminal record was secretly deported. In his case: he lost his wallet so he went to the appropriate agency to get a replacement green card, and that is where ICE got him. Actions such as these discourage people from acting ethically and following the law.

By all means, enforce the law, but do so ethically, competently and as humanely as the situation reasonably allows for. Yes, one has to be rough and harsh if one is, say, deporting a violent gang member.

Medicaid Rollbacks One misconception in liberal circles is that illegal immigrants do not get Medicaid. That WAS true up until 2020 in most states. But in 2020 (the year COVID started), aid was extended to all, without regards to legal status, in come states. Yes, that made sense at the time; after all, the COVID virus was highly contagious and didn’t care about your status. Fewer infected meant that fewer could pass it along.

But now that is being taken away. Yes, a host country can decide which non-citizens are eligible for subsidized services.

Why I don’t talk about important stuff

For me, the important things are:

  1. Welfare of my family and loved ones. Their conditions are private.
  2. My job, and it is not good to broadcast proprietary information in public.
  3. Events of the day: political and social issues.

So, only 3 is fit for public discussion, and I just have no interest in putting it out there. There are many reasons. I’ll vent about a few of them:

  1. Low quality discussion. Say, I take exception to the way ICE does things (yes, I think that law enforcement should announced themselves, show badges, etc.). So, if I say this, some moron will say “oh, so you are in favor of illegal immigrants just coming over whenever they want?” (no, I am not) “Oh, you must be against deporting illegal immigrants.” (no, I am not). I just happen to believe that law enforcement should be as human as practically possible and that we ought to have better guest worker programs.
  2. I do not love everything associated with “my side” (I am a Harris voter). I agree with many Trump voters on a few issues. But, I am not a single issue voter, and yes, Trump seems to attract many who ARE xenophobic, racist, approve of fascism, etc. But where I do say this, people would accuse me of thinking that most Trump voters are evil and stupid, and I do NOT believe that. This brings me to
  3. While I voted for Harris and would do so again, given the choices that we had, I think that most Trump voters are really no worse that most Harris voters. In my opinion, both sets of voters have their virtues and their shortcomings, as do I. And, sadly, it is THIS point that would have me on the outs with many who voted the same way that I do.

The fact is, I think many of the attempted implications “if you voted for X, you must be in favor of Y” are just outright false.

Sigh. No, I am not smarter, more moral, or more virtuous than most. But I believe that if I *really* spoke my mind about all issues, well, I’d probably get disowned at home and have no friends left anywhere.

And…here is the kicker: I honestly believe that some of my beliefs ARE WRONG. But I don’t know which ones they are. I don’t have all the facts. I am not well informed on everything. And I am capable of getting emotional and making logical errors. On the other hand, this does not mean that I have any desired to listen to half-baked nonsense from other people. I am often amazed at how confident others are in their opinions, including those whose self confidence is a mystery to me.

Fantasy

I admit it: I am too beholden to fantasy.

At times, it screwed me up. I remember watching James Bond movies and thinking “if only I were X enough, women would find me that appealing”, forgetting about the hokey plots, the ridiculous “shoot-em-up” where he kills expertly but the opposing squad is “Storm Trooper” hopeless.

My love of spectator sports is like that too: those one watches, whether D1 or professional are outliers; the latter are extreme outliers. Forget being LeBron; you aren’t (probably) aren’t even going to be G-league or even D1.

And I think some of this influencer stuff/OnlyFans is also fantasy.

Imagine: an attractive woman is interested in you and isn’t after anything! Real life: she might want your attention for her ego, or want something you can do for her, etc. And of course, real women age, get sick, eventually need walkers or rolators, get chronic coughs, have noxious relatives, etc.

But that “influencer” or “model”: flirts with you, shows interest in you (yes, fake interest, of course), etc. It is fantasy, and I think the best ones are not merely among the “hottest” but also know how to make men feel better about themselves.

It is an escape from real life, with its aches and pains, limitations, worries, money crunches, potential layoffs, demands, baggage from loved ones, etc.

Aging and working out: right now

I’ve wanted to talk about this for a while. What is different about my workouts now than before? Note: I am 65

Of course, I’ve changed what I do: running no longer works (severe patellofemoral osteoarthritis in each knee) and swimming the crawl: I have not learned how to NOT extend (arch) my lower lumbar. And I’ve modified other exercises:
Mostly trap bar for the deadlift and wagon wheel plates for the straight bar (mostly), taking the leg drive out of the bench press (feet on a chair) and switching to the high incline (supported) instead of standing shoulder press. Pull ups: keep the knees in front of the body. This induces a small “kip” which would DQ me in a competition.

But here is the major stuff:

  1. Lots of daily PT for the lumbar, shoulder and a bit for the knee. I do this in the morning.
  2. Longer recoveries are needed after strenuous workouts. Go too long or too hard, and it affects my job. It is even more difficult to climb stairs.
  3. Aches and pains: I almost always have them. But they are far worse if I don’t move. So, it is workout and hurt a little bit (at first) or do nothing and hurt a lot more.
  4. Recovery from injuries or flare ups: MUCH longer these days. This is why I am more conservative.
  5. Pushing my limits: FAR less frequent these days. I rarely try for a max effort with the weights or with a walking race. Recovery takes longer and I want to limit the risk of injury.
  6. Performance! At my current bodyweight: at one time in my life, I could bench press 260 lb (310 is my max, but at 40 lb heavier body weight) I could do a set of 20 “less than perfect” pull ups; now 7-9 is a challenge. I can’t quite get the 10’th cleanly. Pull ups used to be 20-10-10-10 or 15-15-10-10. Over time I’ve changed to doing sets of 5-7 and even singles. Walking: last year I got under 11 minute miles for a 5K and 4 mile race, and 3:05 for the half. In terms of my walking, my unjudged PR (not being sloppy) is 29:2x and half (monitored) was 2:17 but this was 2003. My judged PR: 30:42 and 20k was 2:24 (about 2:33 for the half) Again, this was 2003. As a runner: 19:00 for the 5k, 1:34 for the half (1982 and 1998 respectively) .

In terms of the 5k (a nice benchmark), I said goodbye to sub 20 in 1999 (last did it in 1998), sub 22 in 2002, sub 24 in 2009 and sub 25 in 2014 (last time was 2014)

BUT the good part: at 65, I am feeling the way I expected to feel at 50. At 50, I still had some gusto and still could run the 5K in 24:00 or so, and at 49 I could barely break 7 minutes for the mile. 1999 (at 39) was my final sub 6 minute mile (5:59) 1998 I could run a 5:41 1600 and I last did 5:30 in 1982.

So…no, age is NOT “just a number” for me.

Visually: 1982, 2000, 2005, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2024. I am approximately the same weight in each photo (a little lighter in 2000) but the body composition is very different.

UK elections and trends

A friend of mine posted this map: it was a poll of who people would vote for if there were a national election right now:

This data represents the top line:

Here are a few notes:

UK Parliament looks like this now (House of Commons)

Note: the next election is not scheduled to occur until April, 2029, though an election can be called for before then. So there is quite a bit of time.

Also: as far as the parties: Labour is like the US Democrats, Liberal Democrats are like a centrist Democratic party, the Conservatives (Tories) are like our “Mitt Romney” type Republicans and the Reform party is a bit like the Trump wing of the current US Republican party.

Note how the Conservatives are not very popular and the Reform party is gaining on them.

But there are the local elections in May and it will be interesting to see how things pan out.

But the “standard conservative”, both here and in the US, appears to be on the way out.

The irony of what Trump is selling

First: sore hamstring, so I did a super slow walk (17:45 pace) for 3.4 miles and another 1 mile commuter walk before lunch. Hamstring is still sort of tender but is feeling ok.

Now about the title.
I just read that the Secretary of Defense Hegseth had texted a journalist about military strike plans.

Now, on what planet is such behavior keeping us safe? I suppose that MAGAS might think that tough national security is Rambo like behavior, but the reality is that being strong on national security requires discipline and attention to detail, something this administration is incapable of.

Just “winging it” might work in the movies. Not in real life.

Then there is Trump himself. He rightly decries crime while acting in lawless way and while pardoning those who committed those horrible January 6 crimes.

Law and Order starts at the top, no? I guess it doesn’t with the MAGAS.

A cheap way to feel better about myself

I admit that I’ve enjoyed following the antics of El Campeon:

Now, I do not know whether he is an expert troll who is doing it for influence and to sell shirts (yes, you can buy his shirts) or a complete moron. But, in a way, that does not matter. I watch (mostly on Instagram) and laugh. But why?

I think there is something in me that says “ok, I might suck, and I might be delusional about how much I suck but I am not this idiot”, whether the idiot is real or just a social media character. It is kind of a cheap high.