Revision and Redemption

At my school, kids can revise their work almost until the cows come home.  I hope you'll let me revise some recent posts.

1) Someone on NPR said that the correlation that appeared with "no" votes was with candidates who are up for reelection.  I don't have another source to confirm, but that kind of data gets me excited.  I like looking for patterns!  My students, apparently, do not.

2) I'm a bit overwhelmed with the thought of 100% local.  I think I'd like to revise to 80% local (I'll base it off how much I spend).  I don't think I'm going to go out and buy bananas, but I may need some oatmeal.

Amazing Graphic

Edward Tufte would be proud.

This map shows the Yes (gray) and No (red or blue) votes in the House yesterday regarding the bailout proposal. I am surprised that this does not look at all like the current electoral map (btw, Florida is in a dead heat). Click on the map for the actual visual in the NYT. I have lots more to say but I have to run to class.

Uprising

Just watched Michael Moore's new film, "Slacker Uprising."  Moore is making the film available for free on his website or at iTunes (where you have to watch it within 24 hours of starting it).  If you agree with Moore's politics it's a little depressing.  The movie follows him as he tours over 60 cities in the battleground states of 2004 with the goal of getting young people to vote.  He does put quite a few opposers in front of the camera, with varying degrees of clarity about Moore.  I definitely admire Moore's passion and that he has been able to make a career of following his passions and talking to people about it.  Roseanne Barr's bit is too much for me personally but the best line of the movie is hers: "George Bush has deficit attention disorder."

It's a free movie, so I recommend it and do what you can to contribute to the voting process, whether it be helping register voters, working the polls, or talking to voters about the issues.  Something like 50% of eligible voters did not vote in 2000 and 40% did not in 2004.  Certainly, no one is required to vote, but it's just hard for me to understand the concept.  This election has inspired me to be better educated and informed for this election and those that follow.  There have been times when I've walked into the polls (for a local election) and the candidates were unknown to me.  Thinking about people in this country who don't vote for a president because they dont know enough or can't decide makes me feel uneasy and as a result, I feel uneasy about myself being unprepared to walk into the booth on any future election day.  I hope you'll join me in educating yourself so you are confident about every vote you make on November 4.

Voter registration deadlines are here:  rockthevote.com

Going For It

I did some hotel booking today for two big events:

1) Bec and I are officially going to Nevada on November 1 & 2 to talk to voters.  I think Adam's coming too and maybe a few more.  I'm pretty excited but need to study up for some tough questions.  I will also start practicing my nice persona.  I've already been working on this with my students and it's going well in my 1st and 2nd period classes...3rd and 4th make it harder to be nice.  They are so chatty!  Granted, some of them have diagnosed reasons for this, but it's still harder.

2) After my long run today, I bit the bullet and signed up for the Eugene Marathon on May 3 (despite the old logo here, it will be in 2009).  I've been thinking about doing this since last May and the rate goes up in a few days, so I thought, why not just sign up now?  So, I'm going for it.  Am I being patient?  My PT would say that I need to be able to do 100 single leg squats before I run it, so I'll get back to that soon (right now, it's all I can do to just get my run in).  

My run today was great.  I did 14 and felt like I could have run 18 (I say that since I run the 4-mile loops around Stanford campus and I had another lap in me for sure...hence, the signing up for a marathon).  Although, I almost didn't survive.  Around halfway through my run, I tripped and did a slow-motion-flying-through-the-air fall to the ground on the trail next to "Lake" Lagunita (has this ever had water in it?).  I was in my running skirt and so the worst of it is right below my hip where my skirt flew up and left me unprotected.  I have a huge bump there and "trail rash" up my whole left leg (similar to my Mt. Yale tumble in the summer of 2004).  I can totally "see" where I fell on my NikePlus profile...it's a big dip down in pace.

Barring any more disasters, I think I'll be able to tackle the marathon training (which officially starts for me on Dec 29...the type A in me has this already planned), but first I need to figure out how to best use the 10 weeks in between the half and that start date to keep my fitness up without burning out.  The last few training days have been tough and for the first time since I got back to running, I didn't want to go out.  I got it done and did well, but I started this training program when I got to Nicaragua.  Doesn't that seem like a long time ago?  I was 27 then.

My Eat Local Challenge

It's Eat Local Challenge time around here and I'm going to try to do it again this year. Last year, the month was September. This year, it's October, so I'll get to experiment with what's local now.

The organization promoting this asks participants to make a statement of participation for their personal challenges. Mine are as follows.

1. What's your definition of local for this challenge? 

For me, local will be anything within 100 miles of The Lo, when I'm in town.  Local also includes the small town businesses that make my community so great.

2. What exemptions will you claim?

Tea and spices that I've already bought.
Anything I need to get me through the half marathon and training (gels, energy bars, and the like).
I'll forgo local when I'm traveling back to Boston (and I ordered school lunch for the few days after that trip since I won't have time to make food that weekend).  Maybe I'll extend the challenge to make up for that.  But, our school lunch company is a local operation called Revolution Foods, and they do as much local as they can.
Any other exceptions I make will be supporting small local businesses. For example, most of the bakeries around here do not get local flour or yeast, but buying from them supports the local economy.  Last year, I didn't eat bread for my local month and maybe I'll do the same again, but I think local goes beyond just the food but extends to the businesses that are local as well.

3. What are your goals for the month?
I'd like to shop at the farmer's market every week. I haven't been doing this because they only take cash and I hate using cash and having to go to the ATM.  I guess this needs to start this weekend since October starts on Wednesday.
I'm going to try not to eat out, but if I do, support restaurants that make a point to support local businesses (I think Borrone's qualifies since they serve acme bread...phew!).
I guess I'll have to quit my oatmeal habit.  I have it every morning...I'll miss it.  Back to the plain yogurt.  Oh man, I forgot that bananas are out too.  That was a bit tough last year.

Oooohhhh...this got me kind of excited for the jam in my cupboard that I made last spring.  I didn't use local sugar though, so I'll have to figure out if that's okay.

I looked at my local food wheel (kind of like a star chart but for food grown around these parts) to see what I'll be eating.   Here are the things I think I'll be eating: apples, mushrooms, strawberries (really?), artichokes, sweet potatoes (excellent), nuts, arugula, beets, broccoli, carrots, corn (really?), pototoes, pumpkins, spinach, and squash.  I might have to make an exception for chicken broth.  I don't think I have the time to make it myself and some squash soup might be nice sometime this month.

Things My Kids Learn

I got this message from one of my former students, who is now in college:

"Tonight I was at trivia night and they asked how old you are on your 10,000th day. I knew it was 27 before we even did the long division! Thanks for teaching me this fact that turned out to be useful."

I love that trivia night answers make knowledge "useful."

This made me smile after a tough morning.

Movie Review

I can't sleep lately, so I guess I'll blog, since I never have the time or motivation to do so these days.

"Step Up 2" might be the most entertaining movie I've seen in a while. There have been many dance themed pictures that have come to the big screen in the past few years. "Save The Last Dance" comes to mind as one of the first. Step Up 2 is great because it takes place in Baltimore, references a fictitious subway system in the city, has a street dancing group called "The 4-1-0" (a la the area code), and has some of the best dance sequences of any of the genre's movies. Now, I don't claim to be an expert, but I have seen most of them (and some of the documentaries like them), but they really gave the audience what they wanted with this one. I could have watched this movie again if I wasn't trying to get my money's worth this month.

I know I'm late in lauding this movie, which came out last February. What can I say; it just came up in the Netflix. I thought I'd review it as my friend K posts interesting ideas about serious movies on his blog. Me, on the other hand, "Step Up 2" is about as serious a movie as I can watch. It's tough dancing in the streets of Baltimore, trying to fit in at an elite private art school.

Any non-serious movie suggestions are welcome.

Okay, so I sometimes watch movies that aren't targeted to high school girls. "Melinda to Melinda," Woody Allen's choose your own adventure type movie was pretty good. The premise was that with a few simple details about boy meets girl and you could either make it a tragedy or a comedy. He presents both, juxtaposed, with the same woman playing Melinda in both (although I didn't believe it until I saw the credits). I liked the idea of the story (and Will Ferrell as Woody), but I felt as though it came up a little short. There was a little pizazz missing. I know not every movie will be "Annie Hall," but this did have a lot of potential. I did give it four stars on Netflix (as I did for Step Up 2 by the by), so I liked it, but I've seen better. That makes me want to watch more Woody Allen. In college, there was this great video store (yay B'more!) that had a "director's room." In this room, movies were sorted by famous directors, so it was so easy to pick out the next Woody movie. I loved that place. Netflix doesn't hold a candle to Video Americain. Or Donna's while I'm at it.

Who's Got Mettle?

What to do with race medals? This month's Runner's World has the answer. Donate them to Medals4Mettle. You can send them a legacy form with a description of how you got the medal, why you ran the race, and why you're donating it.

They also highlighted some funny technical running tees for the ladies. One says, " McCain: Kicking Butt in my age group," another, "Obama: The Kenyan Advantage," and the last, "08 Obama: Running the Good Race." You can find them here in the shop.

While His Ukulele Gently Weeps

One Jake Shimabukuro was at Newport this year. He was on a side stage so we didn't see his full set, but we did see him solo with Levon Helm. Shortly thereafter, there was a big article in the Sunday Styles section about the rise of the ukulele in recent years. Apparently, people find it easy to pick up...four strings instead of six. Jake was mentioned in the article and the author pointed me to his YouTube videos. They are quite fantastic! I'll include two here: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Let's Dance." The latter makes me think that the ukulele that's "easy to pick up" is not the one he's playing. He makes that thing sing!