Archive for May 2008
Travels with Schatzie: Days 11-14 Boise
I really have enjoyed Boise. I’ve been staying with a college friend of mine, Shannon for the last few days, sitting on her couch getting fat and watching TV. She’s been feeding me really well, too much I think. I’ve also worked at a Starbucks on Broadway to get a few hours. That was a fun experience, met some cool people and earned a few dollars.
Visited with my Aunt Renee and Cousin Blake and had dinner with them at the Lock, Stock, and Barrel. Phil joined us, and we had prime rib, delicious. We rode around town first for a while. I have found Boise extremely easy to navigate, and even so have gotten lost more than four times. Three times just yesterday.
Knees are still bothering me a bit, but hopefully they will get in line after another day’s rest.
Thank you to Theresa for sending my ground cover, apron, and that bottle of soap bubbles to blow in case I get bored. If I get stranded in the middle of Utah, I’ll use them to signal for help.
Hello again to Ms. Hall’s class. Thank you for all your questions and good advice. I will answer a few more of your great questions:
- I have been sleeping ok, mostly only five or six hours a night, but I’m getting used to sleeping on the ground. And, unfortunately, I did not bring any stuffed animals. Phil will have to do for the next few days.
- I have not gotten hurt in like five days, new record.
- Idaho has been pretty flat so far, but there have been a lot of horses, as well as cows. (Idaho is apparently the third largest dairy producer in the US.)
- No snow right now. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Check out my new pictures, and I’ve started adding to the bicycle quote page. Also, I apologize if any of you have tried to email me without success. That will hopefully be up and running soon.
Tomorrow, Friday, Phil and I are going to head out with the goal of reaching a campground near Grand View, ID, about 90 miles away.
See ya!
Dow dodges doldrums as dollar dwindles
Dow Chemical plans to raise prices by 20% next week on its products in response to surging energy costs. Another US chemical major, Huntsman, followed that announcement with its own calling for 25% price increases on all products.
Dow CEO Andrew Liveris blamed failed US energy policies. Perhaps he’d do well to take a step back and see that energy policies are victims too.. of monetary policy.
Just to illustrate the impact that this will have on American consumers, take a look around you. A vast majority of what you can see or touch is made from or includes petrochemicals.
Even if only half of consumer goods were to rise by only half the proposed increase, Americans would be calling on thinner pocketbooks to cover higher prices on the same products.
This, friends, smacks of inflation. The US government’s solution: Fight higher prices by printing more money. Brilliant.
BREAKING NEWS: Nepalis say nay to nepotism
AFTER 240 years of monarchy, the recently elected Constituent Assembly of Nepal has voted to become a Federal Democratic Republic and gave King Gyanendra of Nepal 15 days to vacate the royal palace. Plans are reportedly in the works to turn the palace into a national museum and heritage center.
Sources are unclear as to weather “15 days” meant business days or included weekends, a technicality which could potentially give the king 6 additional days to pack his bags. TSJ editors are also eager to find out if the royal family can expect their damage deposit back, but surmise that due to the inefficiencies of the democratic process we will likely not find out for some time.
Travels with Schatzie: Into Idaho
Today’s ride was only about fifty miles on easy roads, but I’m glad for the rest. My knees are feeling the strain a little bit, and I think a couple days of rest in Boise will be good for me.
This night was spent in an RV park outside Caldwell. I met a guy named Jeff, who fed me a massive meal of steak, vegetables, baked potato, beans, toast, and yogurt (to help with digestion, according to Jeff). We talked for a long time about the possibility of aliens in the “new Area 51,” how “you can’t trust anyone these days,” and the probably end of the world in the 2012, according to hard scientific evidence discovered by various ancient American societies. I was really glad to be eating something other than Cliff Bars, jerky, and stale bathroom water. A couple of beers were really welcome.
The Front Porch: Ben Affleck/Sudan bad for salads
RECENTLY, following the lead of a multitude of Hollywood do-gooders, Ben Affleck, like a modern day Mohammad, has returned from Sudan* and prophesied the plight of the Sudanese to the masses. According to E! Entertainment News, Affleck noted the potential for civil war and demanded we turn our attentions to the plight of the Dark Continent.
While The Bruce is supportive of humanitarianism, he does not feel that celebrities are put on this earth to impress upon us their eternal wisdom. You are here to entertain us, not inform us. It is your role to comment on society through artistic expression, not with news briefs or protests. If you so choose to take up the cross of good samaritian, please do so in a way that actually serves, like Mother Teresa, or Paul Newman.
If I can’t at least marinate a chicken in it, there’s really no point to me supporting your cause.
*Read more about Sudan here,
it is in fact quite serious and should not be handled in any way by celebrities.
Travels with Schatzie: To Bend and Beyond
Today started by using my toilet shovel for the first time ever. It served its purpose well and covered the morning’s ablutions with a requisite six inches of sand.
The 45 miles into Bend has been somewhat of a struggle, as I think I overworked myself a bit yesterday, but I’m hoping to get another 40 miles in before bed tonight. The goal is Brothers, Oregon, which reminds me that I should probably call my brother sometime soon. Also, everyone should check out his band at ktkrock.com
Right now I am resting in a Starbucks and catching up on entries before hopping back on the bike. By the way Abby, I don’t think I will make it down to Sunriver, since I am a little behind schedule as is, and I need to get on eastward. Thank them for me please.
Thanks again to Ms. Hall’s class for some more great advice and good questions about my trip. I will answer some of them now:
I have seen several big bridges along the trip so far, and each has proven somewhat terrifying in its own way, whether that be from speeding traffic, a debris strewn roadway, or from a catastrophic first step if the bike should decide to send me plummeting over the ragged edge on a whim. Or to put it more succinctly: They were neat.
I have seen many animals, some of them not smeared across the roadway. Today I saw a bald eagle lofting over the high dessert of central Oregon, searching for tiny mice and squirrels (one of which ate a hole in the side of my bag of trail mix the other day). I have also seen dozens of crows, several deer, herds of cows, armies of rodents, and a multitude of other flora and fauna.
Lastly, yes, I do have a few bruises and scrapes. Check out the Photos in the sidebar for some upclose and personal pictures of these.
Talk to you guys in a few days.
Whale meat theft – Greenpeace swings The Big Stick
FRESH off the BBC news feed comes a whale of a story. Greenpeace, who in this instance has removed their “wacko eco-terrorism” hat and donned their “holier than thou whistle blower” hat revealed that indeed Japanese whale meat had been stolen and sold prior to government release. Early reports allege that at least a tonne of whale has been affected.
This quantity sounds large, but when taken into context only accounts for roughly 1.5% of a single full grown whale. Just the same, TSJ advises readers against buying your whale meat under the table at reduced prices as it could likely be tied to this incident.
FYI: NFL CBA now MIA
NFL owners unanimously voted today to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the NFL players association. The most important ramifications of this action are that unless a new CBA is in place the 2010 season will be uncapped and the possibility of a strike or lockout if a new agreement is not worked out within the next few years. As mentioned in the article, outside council for the NFLPA mentioned that the players will ask for a greater share of the revenue in the new agreement. Gene Upshaw, the NFLPA union president also mentioned that if the uncapped year occurs the salary cap is most likely gone for good. Although it is obviously early in the process of establishing a new CBA, the players union is off to a roaring start towards a strike/lockout situation. How idiotic and greedy can the players be? One of the main reasons that EVERY single owner voted to opt out of the CBA was that for many of the teams the revenue sharing was already to high compared to the expenses.
On the bright side this at least this will allow the league to hopefully fix the outrageous salaries for rookies taken early in the draft. Only in the current NFL could people who have not had a single play get money on par of the upper echelon of league veterans. This ridiculous rookie salary inflation coupled with the difficulty of projecting college players into the NFL is one of the main reasons teams like Oakland, Arizona, San Francisco, and Miami are almost always perennial contenders to be in the top ten draft picks. So much of their money gets committed to rookie players who turn out to be busts that they cannot afford decent free agents and thus inevitably return to the top of the draft order.
Sea-Tac invites disaster; NSA competence in question
Retired lieutenant Army colonel Greg Alderete and Chris Clodfelter, a former senior master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, arrived at Sea-Tac International Airport on May 8th to pick up a two-star general flying in from Portland.
Apparently without realizing, the two were able to drive onto the runway with no challenge, inspection, or even concern from security personnel. What’s more, officials said subsequent investigation “revealed no problems with the airport’s security.”
“We were sitting there, the engine idling, nobody around, when all of a sudden I realized: We’re out on the goddamn runway,” Alderete recalled. “We’re in a gassed-up, seven-passenger van, and no one really knows who we are. We have an unobstructed path to the main runways, the commercial gates, the whole place. It was unbelievable.”
“Within 30 seconds we could have been flooring it down the runway,” Clodfelter said. “They couldn’t have stopped us.”
“With a van full of weapons we could have shut down the entire aviation system,” Alderete said.
So sad TSA, so sad. And here we’re supposed to believe the hassles are for our own good.
Flacid Penis? Could be Heart Disease.
TODAY from the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, we find that researchers at Chinese University Hong Kong have discovered a strong correlation between diabetic men, their penises and heart disease.
Diabetics who suffer from erectile dysfunction should be on high alert for future cardiac troubles while penis snatchers should beware of snatching from diabetic men.
Who says economics isn’t fun? Some games:
Here’s an interesting quiz that comes to us from this site.
Match the following figures to their economic significance in the US (see comments for answers):
1. $38.6 Trillion
2. $9.65 Trillion
3. $13.7 Trillion
4. $ 7.1 Trillion
5. $ 2.7 Trillion
6. $ 0.5 Trillion
A. The surplus equity value of all residential housing in the United States
B. The defense budget of the United States
C. The United States Gross Domestic Product (2007)
D. The present value of unfunded social security obligations
E. The 75 year Medicare “Solvency Gap” (75 year present value of unfunded Medicare obligations)
F. Total outlays in the federal budget (2007)
While you consider the dire truth, here’s another game created by American Public Media that supposedly lets you try your hand at “balancing” the US budget. [I couldn't get it to work but the glitch might be temporary.]
Travels with Schatzie: My Fitness Goal
I have long searched for ways to challenge myself and push the limits of my abilities. I have always loved to learn and experience new things, expand my mind and the capabilities of my body, and I have realized that one of the best ways to motivate myself to these ends is to share my goals with others. This website is designed to do just that; by sharing my journey across the United States with as many people possible I hope to motivate myself to succeed at this somewhat daunting proposition and to hopefully encourage others to embark on similar challenges in order to improve themselves as I wish to improve myself.
I will be departing from Issaquah, Washington on May 14th, 2008 on a cross-country bicycle voyage that will take me through over a dozen states, down countless highways, to meet hundreds of new people in new cities and towns across the country. My hope is to reach the coast of Maine by the middle of July and to begin what will hopefully be a much less arduous journey back to the Northwest. I will be camping much of the way, pulling my tent and all my gear in a small trailer behind my bright orange bicycle.
I have spent much of the last six months planning, organizing, dreaming about my trip, and now it has finally arrived, and I will be departing in a short two weeks, hopefully to sunny skies and hordes of tearful well-wishers. I am moving out of my one-room log cabin, storing my meager possessions in big blue Rubbermaid containers and old Starbucks boxes, quiting my job as a Physical Therapy Aide, and more or less abandoning myself to the vagaries of the open road.
I will continue to work for Starbucks along the way, as I do enjoy eating on a regular basis, and working is in that vein a necessity. I will keep that to a minimum and hope to mostly ride my bike, enjoy the grandeur of this continent’s natural splendor, and try to push myself to new levels of physical understanding. I feel a compulsion to raise awareness of the dirth of physical health in this country, and the ever-present need for healthy eating and exercise in everyone’s life, but especially for the young. I will attempt, therefore, to promote the cause of youth fitness along my journey and through this website for the duration of my trip and hopefully far into the future.
I hope you will follow along with me on this journey and visit my personal website while continuing to read updates and exclusive writings from my trip here at The Sagamore Journal.
O.J. Mayo – an ode to Frankenstein
WITHIN the last several months, we have been exposed to more evidence of major league baseball’s ridiculous lack of control over performance enhancing drugs, the Patriot’s “Spy-gate” scandal, and now recent allegations that O.J. Mayo – a collegiate basketball player for the University of Southern California – has been receiving money and benefits since he was in high school.
This is all because of overwhelming focus put on well, winning.
Fans and players both are becoming eerily similar to Dr. Frankenstein. Our ambition drives us to madness such that we are blind to the monster we have created. It is only when faced by their effects that we become aware of our sins, and like Dr. Frankenstein we are more disgusted by the situations themselves than by our own actions that gave them life. We have all placed too much emphasis on the “win at all costs” ethos that has ensnared athletics.
In the end we have to remember that sports are just games and games are meant to be fun. When we start cheating to win is when sports stop being fun for the participants and the fans.
It is not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. Play only to win and you will inevitably lose. Play for fun and you’ll win every time. No regrets.
