Month: November 2011

  • 2011 Tulsa Black Friday Turkey Trot

    2011 Tulsa Black Friday Turkey Trot, taken by an unknown person who messaged it to me, thanks!

    Jenn and I completed the 2011 Black Friday Turkey Trot this morning. It was a good course, relatively flat and fast, and a well supported race. It was run by Fleet Feet and I extend a heartfelt “good job” to all the organizers and volunteers.

    I say “relatively” on the flat course description because I live, train, and run in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, which are decidedly not flat. ((In fact, I found running the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco to be something of a let down; the hills were taller, but not harder.)) There are hills on this course, but most of them are gentle and gradual. There is one steep up and down over the railroad tracks which will get you if you don’t know how to maximize your efforts on hills like that, but that’s the only one. Unfortunately, you have to do it twice, because this course is a two-legged out and back, starting at 3rd and Denver, heading down 3rd past Kenosha where you turn around heading back up 3rd. You then make a right onto Detroit where you pop over the railroad tracks, go a bit, turn around and come back over the railroad, make a right back onto 3rd and head back to the start.

    This is also one of the few race courses where you can stand back from the finish line about a quarter mile and legitimately shout, “It’s all down hill from here!” Let it be known that if you shout that phrase, and it’s not true, Dante has a special circle in Google Plus waiting just for you and I will hate you for the rest of your life. It is not all downhill if there is any uphill at all, and you don’t understand just how painful even a slight uphill can be at the end of a race. Don’t shout that phrase!

    Jenn and I both enjoyed this race and would do it again. The wind was blustery, but hey, it’s Oklahoma. I think it was a wash at the end of the race because where we had a headwind on the way out, we had a tailwind on the way back (and vice versa, of course). I turned in about a 24:20 for the 5k, which was better than expected and Jenn did about a 29:45.

  • Black Friday Turkey Trot

    The 2011 Turkey Trot Logo

    While crazy people are shopping, other crazy people are running. Go us!

    Today’s Black Friday Turkey Trot is a 5k, and the first one of these I’ve run in a loooong while. Weather looks crisp and clear. We’ll see how we do.

  • TSA Security Grope

    01-05-11—311

    Today, traveling to Tulsa to visit my family for Thanksgiving, I was thankful to be groped by the TSA.

    As we all know, the TSA randomly ((It’s not that random at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson. If you don’t get in one of the lines that leads to the backscatter machine, you don’t get selected, according to my observations. So, terrorists, make sure you get in one of the other lines, and you’ll be ok.)) selects people for screening in the backscatter scanner. I don’t personally care whether or not TSA people are looking at pictures of my junk down to the micron level; I care that backscatter machines give me a not-inconsiderable dose of radiation that I don’t think is necessary for any kind of security measure. So, I opted out ((Actually, I said, “No, thank you,” and the TSA person didn’t even bat an eye, just pointed me over to the holding bin.)).

    After opting out, I was escorted to the screening area by a man who explained in great detail about how he was about to feel me up. He was careful to explain that he’d be using the back of his hand on various parts of my body, and precisely how he was going to run his hands up my legs until “resistance is encountered” ((As I tweeted earlier, when I was being escorted to the screening area I told the guy, “This better not be as invasive as what I’ve seen on the internet.” He responded with “What do you mean?” I am still flabbergasgted that he either didn’t know what I was talking about or, that he was being disingenuous.)). He then proceeded to examine my collar, my belt and run his hands over pretty much all of me with the exception of my feet and my head ((there’s a lesson there somewhere.)).

    I won’t go into detail about my personal opinions about the TSA, I’ll only note that noted security experts don’t believe it is contributing to an actual increase in security. Billions of dollars are being dumped into a system that is by definition always behind the latest plot. It was interesting to me that when I opted out of the backscatter machine, I had to walk through the regular scanners before being searched. And my bags didn’t go through any additional screening beyond the normal xray.

    With all of the furor over budget cuts and deficit spending, sinking the budget into the TSA that we seem to be may not be the best application of our tax dollars.

  • It’s a Vacation Day, So I’m futzing with the Blog

    You may notice slight changes in the blog look (if you don’t take advantage of the rss feed). I’m screwing around with a few things here and there to update the site a bit. Mainly typefaces, image stuff, a few tweaks around the stylesheet, etc.

    For example, I bet you didn’t notice that there was a very light grey margin on the image uploaded to this entry. Of course you didn’t! Because I already changed it! Clever me.

    So, if you notice that there seems to be something odd or broken about the website, never fear. Come back in a few minutes and it should be better, if ever so subtly different.

  • Amusing Typos

    It’s always fun when something like this sneaks through the filters.

    “OMG! One dollar!? Fill up the fuel tanks, Ethel! The Zombies are coming!”

  • xkcd Continues to be Genius

    image

    The image here is about 4% of Randall Munroe’s amazing and fabulous money chart. Go. Spend an hour looking at it and contemplating the size comparisons of various fiscal streams.

  • Alabama is Enforcing its Laws!

    In case you were not aware, Alabama followed Arizona’s lead in enacting Driving While Brown laws; making it so police may demand proof of legal entry into the US upon “reasonable suspicion”. Everyone knows this was aimed at the hispanic population.

    However, it seems that the law is being enforced evenhandedly, because a police officer arrested a German because he did not have proper identification with him. This German is a manager for the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, one of the major job providers in the area. ((How do you say “your papers, please” in Southern?))

    Let’s recap: Pass a law on conservative principles. Drive out the state’s agricultural workers. Start antagonizing some of the lead industrialists.

  • The Case of Knowing Just A Little

    I joke that I know enough about [that thing] “just to be dangerous.” However, it’s often not a joke, and that is particularly true when it comes to public policy.

    I follow the Streets Blog Network for their take on all things non-vehicular. I recommend you follow them, too. Alas, just like any other news organization, or news aggregation organization, sometimes they fall short of the mark.

    Like today, when they’re making the case that America has fallen behind on its infrastructure maintenance (true) because of a bad decision to build asphalt roads on “packed dirt” (not really true).

    It’s true that a majority of roadways are built in the United States with asphalt-and-aggregate poured in layers over a base of compacted material, however that material is not typically “dirt” except in the most general sense ((note that sometimes, this is actually the case. A thin layer of asphaltic concrete is laid over a base of rolled dirt, but this is for very low volume, low use roadways. )) The base layer in question is engineered to have a specific compaction and moisture content, a particular thickness based on the projected traffic volumes and truck percentage, and sometimes is combined with materials such as cement or lime to bring its material properties up to specification. Calling it “dirt” is doing the vast majority of state and local DOTs a grave injustice.

    It’s also true that asphaltic pavement is a cheap(er) way to build roadways, and that it has a reduced life compared with portland cement concrete pavement. Whether it is cheaper over the entire lifecycle of the pavement is a question that can only be answered on a case by case basis. You have to account for the initial cost of construction, the maintenance, and the rehabilitation/reconstruction of the pavement in question. This will be different depending on location. For example, are you building in Florida, or Minnesota? These have very different climate and geotechnical conditions, both of which affect the cost of pavement placement and maintenance.

    The only part of this article that is generally true is the comment that U.S. roadway maintenance has been deferred due to cost considerations. To add to that, in a lot of states it is because maintenance budgets do not get the same attention as new construction, and federal dollars are easier to get on new projects than on maintenance. Note also what I said earlier about news aggregation services. Streets Blog got this from Gizmodo and rehashed it with a brief synopsis. Unfortunately that synopsis missed the mark. Gizmodo’s article is a good description of the roadway situation both now and in the past.

  • Cambria Came to Visit!

    Our friend Cambria, whom Jennifer was a student with in the Ph.D. program at Texas Tech, stayed with us this week while she was attending a conference here in Atlanta. It was good to see her.

    Jenn and Cambria