Rant: no one cares what you think unless…

I see a lot of ranting on the internet; I get it; it is a way to blow off steam.

But…

Unless you have something someone else wants OR if you can withhold something someone else wants, no one really cares what you think.

Business: don’t like the customer service? Well, unless poor customer service actually HURTS the business, it will not improve no matter how much you complain. People tend to go by price alone and do not reward customer service with their dollars.

Politics: yes, politicians want your money and your vote. But some right winger in Kentucky or Oklahoma will not give a rip what I think. Come to think of it, the left wing won’t care either unless I have money to give them (and I don’t).

So all of these “this ends now” or “we’ll vote ’em out” stuff means, well, nothing.

Yes, local politicians might care BUT look at how horrible the voting rates are for local elections. Ironically, people tend to not vote in races where their votes might make the most difference!

Personal This is kind of painful to admit, but unless people *want* your company…well…this advice is tough medicine but I think it applies. If you want to be popular, you have to have something that makes people feel better about being around you (wit, or..well..respect for what you DO or what you ARE.)

Softball treat

My final exam schedule worked out so that it is very “late loaded” (first one is Saturday) so I could make some of the MVC softball tournament.

It was chilly and windy and I was..much to my embarrassment, somewhat underdressed. But I saw Illinois State beat Valpo 4-1 (and saw a home run); (final 3 innings) and then I got to watch Bradley’s 4-0 win over Indiana State, which had the potential to have been a much bigger victory. BU loaded the bases in the first inning but a potential grand slam was blown by the wind just outside of the foul pole. In fact, several potential home runs ended that way (one by Indiana State). It really wasn’t that close of a game, but now BU faces Drake who is ranked no. 25 in the nation (and deservedly so).

I plan on going.

Workout notes: weights only; weight 185.5.
rotator cuff, pull ups (5 sets of 10, 1 of 5) bench: 10 x 135, 1 x 190, 2 x 185, 7 x 165 (note: empty gym; I had more reps with 190 and 185 in me), military: 10 x 50 standing, 15 x 50 seated, supported, 10 x 40 standing, 10 x 85 barbell), rows: 2 sets of 10 x 110 machine, 10 x 50 each arm, plank (2:30), side plank, head stand, crow, goblet squats: 8 x 30, 6 x 50, 6 x 50, knee stretches (put the 4 lb. ball off of the mat, more progress), etc.

Forgetting

After yoga (held crow for 30 seconds..it IS getting easier). Knees: slightly more flexible. Slightly. Weight: 185.

No, that isn’t very fast (1:41 for 8.1 is slow for a “run”) but the effort was far easier than Tuesday and I got more practice with the hills.

Steamboat 15K: the last time I went under 1:30 was 2014, and in those days, my 8 mile training runs at a relaxed effort were about 1:20. Now-a-days, these are 1:36 and that ratio leads to a predicted 1:48 for Steamboat..which is what I’ve been running my practice 15Ks in. Oh boy. I need to set realistic goals.

PENTAX Image

Yes, I powerwalked it in 1:55:52 in 2017 and 2:15:55 (hot..easy walked it in) in 2018 but sadly, I’ll have to do it without Lynnor this year.

Forgetting: I am looking at an abandoned paper (from 2015) and had spend some time figuring out what the heck I was doing. No, I wasn’t an idiot. 🙂

Peoria Flooding, deplorables, etc.

Workout notes: weights and walk:
rotator cuff, pull ups (5 sets of 10), bench: 10 x 135, 2 x 185, 6 x 165 (no spotter; had to be conservative), 10 x 165 decline, military: 4 x 95 barbell, 10 x 85 barbell, 10 x 45 dumbbell. rows: 10 x 180, 10 x 200, 10 x 200 Hammer machine, goblet squats: 6 x 35, 6 x 50, leg press: 10 x 210. headstand, plank (2:30 (bent arms)), side plank, knee stretches; held crow for 20 seconds (did several), walked 1.5 on the track and 1.5 outside.

Peoria flooding (credit on the photo)

Red line: part of the path that is underwater. Light blue box: Riverplex. Dark blue: part of the path that is runnable (north of the Riverplex..though the goose loop..a side loop..is flooded.) But yes, you can run from the Riverplex and follow the trail all the way to Toulon, IL. (it is quite a haul though; 33-35 miles one way?)

Personal: a local bunny has been on our porch.

It is not especially scared of people.

Deplorables Just for context, here is the actual Hillary Clinton quote:

Speaking at a fundraiser in New York City on Friday, Hillary Clinton said half of Donald Trump’s supporters belong in a “basket of deplorables” characterized by “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic” views.

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”

She said the other half of Trump’s supporters “feel that the government has let them down” and are “desperate for change.”

“Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well,” she said.

“about half”…of course, many Trump supporters eagerly claimed the “victimhood mantle” (yes, liberals do this all the time as well)

So, just who was she talking about? Perhaps these people?

A Georgia mayor is facing bipartisan calls to resign following a report that she dismissed a candidate for a top city position based on his race. Racist remarks from one of her defenders further inflamed the controversy, revealing what some say are outdated racial attitudes long pervasive in a small, predominantly white city.

The drama came to a head Monday in the Jackson County community of Hoschton, after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Mayor Theresa Kenerly withdrew the application of Keith Henry, a finalist for city administrator, “because he is black, and the city isn’t ready for this.”

She allegedly whispered the remark to a city council member on March 4 during a closed-door session, the newspaper reported, citing interviews with city officials and documents it obtained through records requests. One of the documents, written that day by Councilwoman Hope Weeks, claimed the mayor doubled down on her comments in the parking lot after the meeting.

“She proceeded to tell me that the candidate was real good, but he was black and we don’t have a big black population and she just didn’t think Hoschton was ready,” Weeks wrote.

The mayor disputed the allegations in a statement to the AJC, denying she made any comments that “suggest prejudice.” But the story has reverberated rapidly among Hoschton’s nearly 2,000 residents and cast a negative light on the city’s leadership — a tenuous situation exacerbated by longtime city councilman Jim Cleveland, who defended the mayor.

“I understand Theresa saying that, simply because we’re not Atlanta. Things are different here than they are 50 miles down the road,” he told the AJC. “I don’t know how they would take it if we selected a black administrator. She might have been right.”

Then, he delivered an unprompted opinion on interracial marriage, which he said makes his “blood boil.”

“I’m a Christian and my Christian beliefs are you don’t do interracial marriage. That’s the way I was brought up and that’s the way I believe,” he said. “I have black friends, I hired black people. But when it comes to all this stuff you see on TV, when you see blacks and whites together, it makes my blood boil because that’s just not the way a Christian is supposed to live.”

It is a reminder that the rest of the country is NOT a college campus nor is it my personal “bubble”, with its hyper sensitive culture.

Oh, by the way: Trump’s approval ratings are UP a little bit, 44.4 at Real Clear (average of polls), and 42.8 at Fivethirtyeight.

Now these are NOT great numbers, given the current state of the economy but if he can inch into the high 40’s, that could well be enough to get him reelected. Remember that some who disapprove of Trump will disapprove of the Democratic nominee as well and might vote the “lesser of two evils”..which, for some, would be Trump.

The last President to not be reelected was George H. W. Bush. He was at 44 percent in January 1992 and at 29 percent when Bill Clinton accepted the nomination. Yes, he was sky-high before that, due to Desert Storm.

sometimes the answer is simple

Yoga, (“held crow” for 30 seconds!) then an 8.56 mile “run”. The goose loop (and parts of the trail behind the Riverplex and to the south) are underwater but the parts north are fine.

I modified the course by going “out and back” on the Sprindgale to Prospect hill (did the mausoleum hill too) and then added a small park loop (in the green space near the volleyball courts) and did an out and back to the Gateway. Yes, 11:45 mpm is pathetic. But those huge hills do slow you down, and this is somewhat better than I’ve done at other times; this “run” did have a bit of spice to it.

THAT is why it felt harder than normal. Weight: 184 prior to running (186 with shoes).

Elections: yes, Biden leads. But here is what is interesting:

Forty-seven percent of black women surveyed for the poll said Biden is their top choice to be the Democratic nominee, giving him a wide lead in the demographic over his rivals.

Another 18 percent of the black women polled said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is their top choice, and 9 percent said they back Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

Biden also has the most support among white women, with 36 percent of white women naming him as their top choice, the poll found.

Why I find this remarkable: my “Twitter bubble” is all “white men are stupid and evil”, “should get out of the way”, “should listen to women”, “should listen to women of color”, etc. Well, I suppose they mean “listen to them unless they say what I don’t want to hear which means that they’ve internalized the misogyny of the patriarchy”, etc. At times, our “woke” are like the old Bible Beaters with a different canon.

Disclaimer: I back Klobuchar and have given to her..and given a lesser amount to Harris and Booker. Those are MY 3, though…well…they are long shots, at best.

I might not try this

He is a bit better at it than I am. Just a bit. 🙂

Weights only today, though the morning was lovely.

rotator cuff, pull ups (5 sets of 10, 1 of 5), bench: 10 x 70 dumbbell, incline: 10 x 140, decline: 7 x 170
military: 10 x 50 standing (ok), 15 x 50 seated, supported (had to try twice), 10 x 90 machine, rows: 3 sets of 10 x 50 single arm, 10 x 110 machine
goblet squats: 6 x 30, 6 x 50 leg press: 10 x 210, plank, headstand, knee stretch, crow.

Overall, not that bad.

Trump’s approval ratings: UPWARD tick..

Real Clear: 44. Fivethirtyeight: 42.7. No, these are not great numbers given where the economy is now. But to read my twitter feed, you’d think that Americans are going to jam the streets, clamoring for impeachment (hint: nope.)

Paul Krugman argues that some of this comes from the “enforced austerity” that Obama had going away.

Yes, many are left out of this economy and yes, much of the hard earned progress on health care is in peril (yes, people might like their current insurance…but the problems occur if/when someone gets deathly ill..(e. g. cancer).

Meanwhile: Joe Biden leads the polls, while many of the others talk to the “woke Twitter” liberals..who really aren’t that big of a part of the Democratic electorate:

Judging by the conventional wisdom on Twitter, the publication of the Mueller report should have been the defining event of the Trump presidency. If Mueller found Donald Trump guilty of obstruction of justice, the president’s approval ratings would tank. Conversely, if Mueller exonerated Trump, there would be a broad backlash against Democrats; Trump would then be well on his way to reelection in 2020.

Instead, the most anticipated news event of the year has barely left a trace in public opinion. According to Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, the government shutdown, which affected the lives of millions of Americans, had a clear and immediate impact on Trump’s popularity; the Mueller report did not. In fact, 42 percent of people approved of Trump at the beginning of March, before Mueller delivered his report to Attorney General William Barr, and 42 percent approved of Trump at the beginning of April, after Barr released a summary of the report that seemed to exonerate Trump. Now that much of the report is public, the number stands at, yes, 42 percent.

According to just about every study that has been conducted on the question, Twitter is not representative in the slightest. The Pew Research Center, for example, has found that less than a quarter of Americans log on to Twitter with any regularity. And as The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal points out, those regular users differ from the wider population: “In the United States, Twitter users are statistically younger, wealthier, and more politically liberal than the general population.”

Politics Twitter is a bubble in itself. Among the minority of Americans who regularly use Twitter, a majority never tweet about politics. According to a 2016 study, fewer than one in five active Twitter users—which is to say about one in 20 Americans—report posting about politics “some” or “a lot” of the time.

But hey, it feels good to get those likes and retweets, right?

Bombs away: Bradley wins 13-2, Chiefs win 11-3

I was treated to: 24 runs, 27 hits, 6 home runs and 1 grand slam..all in one day!

In the first: Bradley won the 3 game series with Valpo by hammering 19 hits (and 3 home runs) in a 13-2 7’th inning victory (mercy rule). The previous two games (2-1 BU, 5-2 Valpo) were very competitive but evidently Valpo’s pitching well ran dry.

The Chiefs game was bizarre. The first 3 innings took 1:25 to play:

Bowling Green loaded the bases each time in the first 3 innings! Peoria loaded the bases in the first inning as well..and got a walked in run followed by a grand slam. BG did inch back to make it 5-3 before a Chiefs barrage put it out of reach. Bowling Green walked 5 and hit 5 batters. Peoria walked 10 and hit 2 batters. That isn’t great pitching.

A highlight: a Cardinal pitcher did a rehab appearance and got 3 straight ground outs.

Some photos and video:

Bradley vs. Valpo

Chiefs vs. Hot Rods

Pre-baseball walk

Well, I’ve already attended one of two ball games this afternoon. The next one will be in 90 minutes or so.

But I got my walk in first.

This was really one of my better recent walks, which surprised me a bit. I need to work up to “double the distance at the same speed” and that will be a chore. But when I can do that relatively comfortably, I’ll be ready for a marathon.

Note: the time should lead 2:32 not 2:52.

What I think gets missed in the Caster Semenya controversy

No one doubts that Olympic athletes are genetic outliers and that the greatest Olympic champions are outliers among outliers. Well, I thought that everyone got it until I read stuff like this.

Here is the issue, as I see it: the men’s category is unrestricted; as far as I know, one doesn’t have to do a genetic test to compete in it. The women’s category IS a restricted category because men have genetic advantages in the major sports. Really..otherwise why have a women’s division.

And the issue here really is: does Semenya qualify *as a female* for the purposes of athletics? To me, that is really it. And no, I am not qualified to determine what criteria should be used.

Of course there are genetic outliers within the “female category” but ..does Semenya fall in that said category? Or is it more fair to vie Semenya as a “so-so but hardly world class” open category athlete.