Pets and People

I hear a lot about pets these days getting all kinds of modern medicines, and apparently joint replacement and other highly sophisticated medical procedures. There are people starving all over the world, and we are paying thousands of dollars to pump our cats full of high cholesterol medicine and joint replacement? PETA must love this - I mean, if a dog is the same as a person, they should be guaranteed the same rights to health care, I suppose. Maybe Hillary can throw in universal coverage for all our pets, too. For those rational people out there, how about we either let the cat deal with her hypertension, or put her to sleep, and send our money to people who desperately need modern medicine? You could save several lives with the money you were putting away for your dog's hip procedure, or you could provide your dog with a couple more years of frolicking and leave those other people to their own devices. What?

Sometimes I wonder...

Sometimes I wonder if people say or write things, almost like clues, as if they want you to know something they would never openly tell you. Or maybe they are just careless, or the message isn't intended for you. Sometimes I wonder if someone knew that you already know something they have done, if they would admit to it, maybe even apologize. I guess people aren't all that different from celebrities - you have to confront them before they admit to anything. Look at the Atlanta resident who really disappointed me recently. I was a big fan of this individual throughout college and really enjoyed the whole whirlwind. Quite an experience.

Just recently he confessed to some pretty horrible crimes only after being cornered by all of his associates. And now he is suddenly very apologetic - real sincere.

I guess you could be somewhat culpable for some one's actions if you don't take steps to prevent them from continuing. But then, who would have thought they would have continued? Sometimes changing something you don't want to forget is quite a hassle, after all.

Anyways, I'm not much for confrontation - I'm slowly learning you can't force someone to make a decision. I know enough, and the rest I may never understand. We all have to make our own decisions, and become them.

I will go in this way
And find my own way out
I wont tell you to stay
But I'm coming to much more
Me
All at once the ghosts come back
~Dave Matthews, #41

Today I went on a "recovery" ride after a tough 70-miler yesterday. I left the farm around 6pm, and traveled west, through farm country, towards the Delaware River. The landscape was picturesque, as the sun slowly approached the horizon over the gently rolling farmland. I spent a lot of time looking sideways at the corn stalks, now as tall as me on a bike, or the other various produce, now mostly fully mature. Looking sideways is a reliable way to hit a lot of potholes, but it's worth it, for the most part, minus the really jarring wheel-eating holes that threaten to blow a tire or send me to the ground, making short work of my shaved legs.

After a brief warm-up, I started to feel pretty good, so I pushed the pace a bit, especially on my return - also somewhat motivated by the fast approaching dusk. I was surprised how good I felt - my legs were spinning very smoothly, and before long, I found myself losing track of everything. I started experiencing those lapses in time, like when you are driving a long ways, and then suddenly you snap out of some distant place, only to wonder how you got to where you are, and how you managed to stay on the road and not end up in a ditch or plastered to a tree. Supposedly you are really just hypnotized, and the driving, or in this case pedaling, has just been relegated to some part of your subconscious, as you drift off into daydream land. But I wasn't just cruising along casually. At one point, I snapped out of it to realize I had just been out of the saddle, hammering up a curvy hill, and my heart rate was around 170, nearly my lactic acid threshold. This wasn't some lonely drive on a straight, flat road, for hours on end - this was me, pounding the pedals, working hard, and yet completely zoned out. It was rather odd, and while I pondered this, I slipped into my hypnotic state once again.



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Now playing: Counting Crows - Anna Begins
via FoxyTunes

Miles from Coltrane

There's this great John Mayer song called Comfortable. It's only on his live release, so you probably don't even know it, but it's a great song. It's about moving on from one girl to the next. He is still stuck on his old girl, and reminiscing on some of her finer points. There is this great line about the ex: "you could distinguish Miles from Coltrane." What an awesome line - that's my kind of girl. And honestly, it isn't that hard - Miles Davis plays the trumpet, Coltrane the sax. A little concentration should allow most people to make the distinction.

There's another great line in the song, too: "I love you, gray sweatpants, no makeup, so perfect." Word. But in the end, he can't get over the old girl. "I want you back" he sings. Then again, good things may be yet to come.

Woody Woo

The other night I wandered about the Princeton campus. I love it - it's so beautiful, and cold, and warm, and strong. It fits almost any mood. I love to walk along the path that goes through the building with the outdoor square at the center, giving this strange feeling of being both in- and outdoors. Once you leave the square, you are confronted by the "chapel" that is more like a small Gothic cathedral. It's terrific on the inside, and magnificently towering from the outside. It brings back memories of the cathedral in Freiburg that I spent many a night walking around or sitting at and pondering all variety of things. I walked along the pool outside of the Woodrow Wilson building (i.e. Woody Woo), and even found the building itself appealing. Now I know I must be in a funk, because normally I think the thing looks like a monstrosity. I liked the campus that night because most of the students are gone, so it felt very empty and private. I found myself getting mad at the people who passed by for disturbing my aloneness with the campus, and yet at the same time I felt a million miles away from each person I passed. You know that mood when you are holding your lover, and you want to hug them, squeeze them so hard. You can't seem to squeeze them hard enough - it's not that you want to hurt them, just that you want to get them so close that you are one with them. It's not a sexual thing - just a desire to be so close to someone that you don't know where they end and you begin. Yeah, it was one of those nights.

I walked around the campus again, tonight (twice in 3 days, and I would've last night if not for the sudden shower). I went back to Woody Woo and watched people splashing around in the pool and fountain. The temperature was perfect with a slight breeze, and everyone seemed so relaxed and peacefully joyful. I couldn't help but laugh for no good reason, despite my funk. I even liked Woody Woo again. What is happening here? I couldn't stand it before. I guess we do change.

When I got home, I looked up into a beautiful star filled sky. Then I noticed the fireflies. Absolutely amazing - so many of them all around me. It's like tiny little lightning storms all around you. It was one of those moments you just want to share with someone because it's so cool, with the twinkling stars and fireflies.

Those songs

You know those songs that just click? You love how they sound, but the lyrics also sink right into you. There is this fantastic song by Nickel Creek called "Somebody More Like You" that does just that for me. It's about a former girlfriend - got a tinge of bitterness, but seems well-wishing in the end.

There's this John Mayer song on his new album, Continuum, that's like that, too. The song is awesome, and the lyrics just blow me away. Man does it hit home.

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

He's doing some sweet stuff with his guitar. Nice pick'n'flick John.

It's just my opinion

I'm sure you've heard someone say that. "It's just my opinion." They say it in defense of their thoughts on the matter, but it's really a pretty paltry defense of one's point of view. Of course, if we are talking about licorice, or some other completely subjective matter, I suppose it's fairly defensible (what about in the case of wine - makes you wonder if taste is truly subjective). But for any matter of objectivity, it's a pretty poor basis for holding an opinion. Essentially, all you are saying is that what you believe is what you believe. Wow, thanks for that insightful little tidbit.

I was reading this interesting article in the Princeton alumni magazine about this class being taught by Robert George and Cornell West. Sounds like an amazing class. In the article, George says that you can't really hold an opinion until you can give a complete argument for the other perspective(s). And he's dead right. If you think you are right, but don't even have a clue what the other side is saying, how on earth did you come to the conclusion that you are right? I'm not sure if it's intellectual laziness or hubris (we think it, so it must be right), and it's likely a combination of both. But the next time you are in a debate with someone, and you can't even articulate their point of view, perhaps you should do a little more listening and a little less arguing.

Self-image

I was talking with a friend last night and somehow the conversation veered towards trying to understand why people, often in large numbers, do bad things. The conversation began with the topic of cyclists. As you may well know, many of the best cyclists in the world have admitted or been implicated in a huge doping scandal. I'm now pretty convinced (sadly) that almost all of the top stage race cyclists (e.g. Tour de France) cheat, including our cancer-surviving hero Lance Armstrong (mostly because everyone who could even kind of keep up with him cheated).

But why do so many people cheat? Maybe it's just a few sour apples? Well, then I started thinking about the whole Nazi mess from WWII. Thousands of people were involved in the detaining and ultimate murder of millions of Jews. Many tried to use the now famous "Nuremberg defense" that they were only following orders. (In cycling, a similar argument might be, "everyone else is doing it, so I'm not really cheating, I'm just staying competitive" - and they have a point).

One year at college we had a speaker who came to talk about genocide. He was a christian, and one of his premises was that we are all fallen sinners. He didn't make this point especially clear, but it permeates everything he was saying. Some people are comforted by the "Nuremberg defense" because then you don't have to believe so many people did horrible evil. Instead, you can simply believe it was a few, horribly twisted people at the top of the chain of command. This speaker countered this argument with another example - Rwanda. Now you have hundreds of thousands of people involved in chopping people to death with machetes and such. Now you can't make the argument that it was just a few people up top and the rest weren't aware of the impact of their actions. It doesn't get much more in your face than hacking someone to death. Go watch "Hotel Rwanda" sometime - the whole thing was so twisted it makes you just want to curl up in a ball and denounce the human race.

So how do we deal with the fact that so many people are willing, in fact have committed, such heinous crimes? I read an article this morning in Newsweek that tied it all together really well. It's all about self-image. The article states: "People resort to denial when recognizing that the truth would destroy something they hold dear....'The more important the aspect of your self-image that's challenged by the truth, the more likely you are to go into denial'". I would surmise that most people have a very strong self-image of being a "good" person. Good people don't do bad things, especially horrible things. But maybe we aren't all as good as we think. Is there something demonstrably different about Germans, or Rwandans? Sure, culture and history play a role, but I think to be honest, we have to admit that they are just as human as we are.

If we asked most people if they are capable of participating in genocide, they would emphatically say no. But if they are no different from Rwandans, that can't really be the case, right? I'll give a less terrifying example. When surveys have asked people if they think they are smarter or better looking than the average person, some ridiculously large percentage of people say they think they are above average. But, for those of us who understand the concept of "average", that's not possible (unless there are some absolutely heinously ugly people dragging down the average - I don't buy it). Half of us are less beautiful and less intelligent than the other half. And I think many, most, maybe all of us are capable of horrible things. I think if we revisit our past, there are things we have done that hurt other people. Sometimes it was intentional, and sometimes we just didn't care. I know I have done bad things in the past.

I'm not proposing that we all think the worst of ourselves. I think this would be counter-productive and wouldn't be a true self-image either. But maybe we aren't as good as we think either. Maybe a realistic self-image would include a belief that we really are fallen sinners. And maybe owning up to this, in conjunction with some self-reflection, will actually make us "better" people in the sense that by becoming more aware, we will be less likely to do things that hurt other people because we realize we, I, can do evil, and thus I must be on the lookout. Otherwise, our self-image of being a good person will lead us into denial. Something along the lines of, "I am good, so I can't do something bad. Therefore, what I am doing isn't bad." Now that's frightening.

Jersey: Part 1

I've lived in New Jersey for 2 years, and I still don't get this state. Granted, I live in Princeton, which isn't really Jersey from a purist's perspective, but I'm certainly not in Virginia anymore. I guess I figured New Jersey would be something in between Massachusetts and Virginia (in the cultural sense - I'm aware it actually is geographically).

One of the strangest things I have noticed is how people behave with shopping carts. Where ever I have lived, Virginia or Massachusetts, the vast majority of people would return their shopping carts to one of those fenced in cart depositories in the parking lot after loading their car. In fact, in Germany, all the carts actually lock together. To get one, you have to insert a Euro, and in order to get your Euro back, you have to neatly replace your cart once you have completed your shopping.

But in Jersey, people just leave their carts where ever they load their car. Sometimes they stick the front wheels up on a curb so that it doesn't roll away, but that's about the extent of the effort expended by the majority of people. The first time I pulled into a shopping center, it was kind of bizarre to see the parking lot littered with carts. Having never seen something like this, I just figured something out of the ordinary had happened, like a freak hail storm. But I was soon to learn that this was the modus operandi for people in Jersey (or at least the Princeton area).

Maybe this is normal in other parts of the country as well, but based on my experiences, it is pretty localized. I really just don't understand it - there is a reason they put those cart depositories in the parking lot. Now the Wal-Mart employees, or whoever, have to wander all over the parking lot collecting carts, instead of getting them, already (somewhat) neatly stacked from their depositories. But this presents somewhat of a dilemma. Most people are leaving their carts all over the place, so what difference do I make if I actually return my cart to the proper location? I mean, the workers will still have to wander about the parking lot collecting carts, so what is one more that they will almost necessarily have to walk by anyways?

Nevertheless, this whole concept of leaving your cart wherever you feel like strikes me as somewhat selfish and lazy. Now I confess, I am only about 50/50 these days, but when I go home, or basically anywhere else, I am sure to return my cart. Otherwise, I will be disturbing the social order. At least when I don't return my cart in Jersey, I make sure to place it in between cars. Some people literally just leave them where ever they feel like, maybe even in the out of the way of a parking spot. Now granted, their location is not inherently fixed, so they may be rolling around, especially if it's windy or the parking lot is sloped. Which brings me to another point - it's somewhat dangerous - I'm just waiting for some little girl or old lady to get slammed by a runaway shopping cart and have an arm broken or to fall down and break a hip. Or, heaven forbid, some one's BMW 7-series get a fat dent in the door. So maybe I'll try to improve my 50/50 shopping cart returning habit. I don't want Jersey to seep in too much, after all.

Spring Rain

So I've decided to post the lyrics to the one song I've actually completed (more or less). It seems appropriate for the season:

"Spring Rain"

Why do I play these games
I'm just tryin' to find you
My head is spinnin' in circles
I'm holding so tight to nothing

Chorus:
And you girl
Just like spring rain
You girl, cold but you're warming
You girl, sending shivers down my spine
You girl, feel like summer coming

Was Helen really worth,
Clearly you never saw her smile
Just a glance transfixed Paris
Meet her eyes and all is lost

Chorus:
And you girl
Just like spring rain
You girl, cold but you're warming
You girl, sending shivers down my spine
You girl, feel like summer coming

I know, you're pretty unlikely
But how can I know, standing over here
I'll walk over, see what you're thinking
You probably won't give a sh*t, but I'd rather be sure

Chorus

Here I'm sitting, staring at the wall
I'm missing someone I don't even know
It's been quite a day, and I can't think straight
And I'm wishing I was in your arms

Photogenic

I'm sure you have heard someone whisper, jealously, "she's just so photogenic". Some of us even hide from the camera because we simply think we aren't photogenic. But we've also probably heard, or come to the realization, that's it's not just that we aren't photogenic. There is something behind being photogenic - beauty. But I think I may have taken it too far - some people simply do look better on film than they do in real life, and presumably the reverse. I realized this when I was looking at some pictures of someone I know. She is a good looking girl, but almost always looks terrific in photos. Something about her shape makes her appear even more attractive in pictures. I suppose this is why people often say movie stars don't look as good in person. Two dimensions just don't capture everything in the three dimensional. But still, the "I'm just not photogenic" excuse gets old after a while.
But perhaps most importantly, there should be a noun for photogenic, like "photogenocity".

April Fools

After seeing, and almost falling for, several April Fools websites, Google takes the prize this year:
http://www.google.com/tisp/. I was about to inquire into their new, "free", wireless internet, when I read a little closer.

I watched "Thumbsucker" today. Solid movie - Keanu Reeves even did a good job (who knew?). Although not as laugh-out-loud as "Little Miss Sunshine", I think it was actually a deeper, more exploratory film about the "human condition" (I hate that phrase, it's so postmodern, but it's growing on me nonetheless). And yes, this is a very postmodern movie - not to give it away, but Keanu Reeves' character's dialogue at the end sums a lot of the movie's premises up rather neatly (too neatly?). Of course, I'll give the writers some extra credit here, because at the end of the same dialogue, he also alludes to the underlying absurdity/contradiction of postmodernism - namely, that a rejection of objectivity is a rather challenging position to take, especially when you must maintain the objective position of there being no objectivity. But I digress - it's a great ride, and points out that no one really has it all down, and sometimes people suck at communicating and relationships, but underneath it all, they are trying really hard.

Mailboxes

So the other day, as I was walking around downtown Princeton, I happened upon a post office box that was a little different from what I'm used to. You know what I'm talking about, right? Those blue metal boxes you can drop your USPS mail into that are about 4 feet high? Well, this one wasn't blue. It was painted to look like R2-D2. That's right, this mailbox looked exactly like that little robot from Star Wars we al love and adore. At the time, I figured I was just going crazy (normal thought process), but today I learned that, in about 200 select cities, USPS mailboxes are being painted to look like Rs-D2. And they have done a really good job of it, too. It looks pretty darn cool (I love Star Wars, and that probably makes me some sort of nerd). They even have a website about it: http://www.uspsjedimaster.com. How cool is that? Or ridiculous? I was happy with them sponsoring a pro cycling team, but this'll work, too.

In other news, I think, with the new bike and the beginning of Spring, it's time to start shaving the legs again. There is something to be said for smooth legs, although I confess, it takes forever.

The new bike

So I finally bought my new bike at Halter's Cycles today, as my insurance money was guaranteed . It is a sweet, sweet bike. However, because it's red, I can't name it anything having to do with blue this time (last two bikes were "Blue" and "Blue, Too"). If anyone wants to propose a name, I'm all ears. One thought is Leonidas, from 300 / the battle of Thermopylae.

Anyways, I thought I would do a few pictures cyclingnews.com style.

This season Paul will be riding a red Cannondale Six13 - a deal since Cannondale is now heavily promoting the SystemSix.

He has opted to go with a compact 50/34 crankset, which should give him more options in the hills. We'll have to see as the season progresses if he runs out of gears in the group sprints.

In an effort to balance out the compact crankset, Paul will be using a 11/26 in the back. This will give him a wide range of options, but could lead to some rough, jumpy shifting. Although the majority of the bike is Shimano, he has opted for a SRAM rear cassette, both because of availability and because of the wide gear range.

A view from a day at the office for Paul (he wishes). He has customized the bike with Easton carbon fiber handlebars for added shock absorption and an FSA 110 stem. His mechanic added grey handlebar tape, which goes great with the grey carbon fiber of the handlebars, fork and tubes.

Paul also upgraded the wheels to Ksyrium SL3s. These have been heavily relied upon in the pro peloton for years. While the Ksyrium ESs would have been 5o grams lighter, such a small weight improvement is not worth the extra cost. Notice also the stylish profile design water bottle cages that were acquired at an unbelievable price.

Don't forget to send in your name ideas!

Seinfeld's Practical Life Lessons

You can really learn a lot from Seinfeld. I'm talking really meaty, profound life lessons. I would know - I have all 7 of the released seasons on DVD. Tonight I learned about the "dating loophole." This is brilliant stuff. Basically, you make a bet over something that you know you will lose (like betting Richard M. Nixon's middle name is Moe). Just don't bet that the first bicycles were called hobby horses. They were - my Snapple told me so (courtesy of real facts; what makes them more real than all the other facts?). Anyways, as a wager you bet over dinner. You lose your ridiculous bet, and bang, you are taking a lady out for dinner. What I don't get is, if once you've gotten her to agree to the bet and terms, why not win the bet? Now you are going on a date and not even paying!

300

I saw 300 Saturday night - great flick. The whole "graphic novel" concept didn't really appeal too much to me at first, but the movie was actually pretty amazing. Yes, it was exceptionally gory, and I would not recommend it to some people, especially many of the fairer sex, but it was fantastic. The battle scenes were terrific, and there was actually some meat to the story. The king's wife was a great character. She just reminded me that not only are we attempting to emasculate men these days, but women, too!

Along these lines, I was reminded of a favorite C.S. Lewis quote: "From considering how the cruelty of our ancestors looks to us, you may get some inkling how our softness, worldliness, and timidity would have looked to them, and hence how both must look to God." I also read a quote recently from a soldier who is or was serving in Iraq: "It's a war. People are going to die, and the American public needs to get over that. They need to get over that and let us do our job." I'm not arguing for or against the campaign in Iraq, but we really do seem to be becoming a soft, timid culture. At least soldiers have experienced pieces of the real world, with its wide array of problems, many horrible and quite terrifying. I'm thinking Darfur, or Iraq, or North Korea, among many others. We (the royal persuasion) live in our world of iPods, bottled water, and HDTV and forget or worse, never realize, how brutish the world really is.

Runner's High...Literally

Runner's World reports that the "[runner's high] has been attributed to endocannibinoids -- substances released with exercise that produce an effect similar to a marijuana high." Wow, pretty interesting stuff -- the legal high. And if you've ever had a really good runner's high, it's tremendous. All those lazy Americans are missing out (or just getting high the unhealthy way). Doesn't this make the government's position on marijuana look even more ridiculous?

Brrr...

I went running tonight in possibly the coldest weather I have ever run in at night (which makes it even colder, without the solar heat). Weather.com says it dropped from 18 to 16 degrees during my run, and the windchill dropped from 7 to 4 (9 mph wind). Now that's pretty cold! Still, it was a pretty good run, although my shin splint is acting up again. The first 20 minutes were painful - my fingers were burning intensely from the cold, but by the end I felt fine. It's weird, you warm up more and more throughout the run. Half-way through, I couldn't feel my chin, but by the end I could at least tell that it was there. I'm convinced if I had kept going, I would have gotten even warmer.

Understanding Minimum

Newsweek has this page in every issue with quotes and cartoons called 'Perspectives'. One quote this week was:

"'At $5.15 an hour, I get zero applicants - or maybe a guy with one leg who wouldn't pass a drug test.'
Idaho restaurant owner Rob Elder, on difficulties of finding good workers with his state's low minimum wage, compared with nearby Washinton state's $7.93 an hour, the highest in the nation.'

This doesn't make any sense, and just deepens my questioning of the education level at Newsweek. Look Rob, it's called the minimum wage for a reason - it's a minimum. You can pay your workers more if you want. In a way, a low minimum wage could be good for you. Maybe pay $6.00 an hour; then you will attract all the best low wage workers if everyone else is paying the minimum wage. I'm not trying to comment on the rightness or wrongness of raising the minimum wage, just on the idiocy of this quote.