The Sagamore Journal

I have been extremely lucky with the weather at all of my races so far this year; a sun-drenched day after more than a week of rain and cold met us for the starter’s gun at 8:30am on Saturday. Normally I would have been worried at the late starting time, but the sun was mild and the race was relatively short, so the heat didn’t prove to be a problem. You could probably classify this race as a Sprint Triathlon, although all of the legs were closer to Olympic distance: 800 meter swim, 21 mile bike, 5 mile run. I came out with a decent time, third in my age group, and a new pair of socks from the after-race giveaway, so it turned out to be a pretty nice day. As per usual I had a few goals, some of which were met, some of which were not:

1) Finish in the top 10% of field; not quite, 44th out of 268. 3rd out of 18 in my Age Group.

2) Beat all the women; only 2 women were able to cross the line before me in this race. Actually, for some reason I was listed as a female on the preliminary race results. Had they let me collect my rightful prize, I would have been on the podium…

3) I didn’t really have a time goal for this race, considering the distance was weird and I’ve never run it before, but I finished in 1:56:40, which is less than 2 hours, a reasonable goal, so I’m going to say mission accomplished on this one.

Next race is a killer, The Chelan Man Half Iron on July 18th. I might die. Check back to find out.

Scientists have recently developed a completely synthetic substitute for a vertebrate uterus, successfully bringing several wobbegong shark pups to term inside the acrylic tank. The ultimate goal is to revive the severely endangered nurse shark population by increasing the birth rate of live sharks in captivity, a task that has long eluded scientists.

I, of course, see this breakthrough as just another step closer to the ultimate goal of cloning myself and thereafter leading an army of my clones to world domination. Of course, one noted benefit of this particular step forward is that my clones will undoubtedly be born with gills and several rows of serrated, razor-sharp teeth, reducing the number of clones necessary for world domination by at least a factor of ten.

Path to Victory!

In the marketplace of ideas the debate over Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s senate and congressional confirmation is over.  Conventional news outlets have presented the public and private debate not as analysis fueled processes but as mindless entertainment preferring emotion over substance. The standard media product is universally disserving customers in painting Sotomayor as either racist latina or perfectly evenhanded liberal, rather than providing hard discussion to her 28+ years of legal experience.

However, for those intrepid consumers who demand something more substantial than blue vs red trash, some products exist. For great legal analysis and commentary on the Sotomayor issue, one would be wise to check Tom Goldstein’s Scotus Blog. In this post Goldstein takes the backlog of Sotomayor’s decisions and provides a general picture of her opinion on race.

In the context of Sotomayor’s statement spoken 8 years ago, Goldstein takes a spin free stance on her track record as a judge regarding race-related cases:

“In sum, in an eleven-year career on the Second Circuit, Judge Sotomayor has participated in roughly 100 panel decisions involving questions of race and has disagreed with her colleagues in those cases (a fair measure of whether she is an outlier) a total of 4 times. “

My warning to consumers of all media is to never be satisfied with one source and always question bias. While the confirmation hearings are far from over, it sounds as if the talking heads have positioned themselves to be free from fair reporting, and have thus made final decisions. Decide for yourselves only when analysis and reason have come to party.

Hulu has this movie available right now. It talks about the history of bioengineering food, both economic, governmental, and biological. I’m excited for when the “Terminator gene” crosses over into the natural world and every single plant stops reproducing at the same time.

I can’t oppose progress, but when progress is dominated by such a small group of corporate interests, it is no longer measurable as progress, because the pace and direction of the change is thereafter determined by the corporations themselves.

Judged by the color of his skin.

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So if you’ve read much about The Bruce lately you’ll find that he is going back to school. As a result of this, I’ve been filling out a lot of forms and have noted a distinct change since the last time I was filling out government paperwork.

When I first started filling out these type of documents in elementary school I used to check an ethnicity box labeled EUROPEAN/CAUCASION. By the time I was in high school and college (the first time around) the box said, CAUCASIAN/WHITE. And now that I am enrolling in higher education yet again I find that I am check marking a box that has but one word beside it: WHITE.

Yes, dear friends of European decent, you are no longer completely or even half an ethnicity, you are only a color.

A beautiful day at Lake Sammamish State Park gave way to a horde of racers, swimming, biking, and running in the morning sunshine, and I was among them. For those of you who don’t know this sprint triathlon consisted of a 1/4 mile swim, 15 mile bike, and 3 mile run.  The swim was fast, and I was out of the water in under six minutes, great for me, considering my #1 goal every race is not drowning. Also, the water was warm and inviting, almost enough not to wear a wetsuit, which on the one hand I kind of which I had done, considering that my foot got stuck in transition and I lost a good 15 seconds trying to get it out. The bike was similarly fast, so much so that I doubt the 15 mile number given by the race officials; my bike computer claims it was closer to 13 miles. My race partner, Ian, and I were only 2 seconds apart after the bike leg, but luckily I beat him on transitions, getting onto the run course with a 40 second lead and holding it through to the end. I wasn’t very happy with my run time, and I definitely see room for improvement on transitions and the bike as well, but overall a great start to the Triathlon season.

Similar to the last race I had a couple of goals, mostly achieved.

1) Finish in top 10% of the field: 88th out of 929 competitors.  12th in Age Group of 69.

2) Was only beat by 9 women, with a maximum time deficit of 4:31. The women are within reach…

3) Finish in under 1:15:00: overall time 1:09:24.

Next up is the Lake Padden Tri on June 27th, a bit longer and tougher. Time to stop drinking beer and start riding my bike…

Theme For A Tapestry

The general has only eight men, and the enemy five thousand. In his tent the general curses and weeps. Then he writes an inspired proclamation and homing pigeons shower copies over the enemy camp. Two hundred desert on foot to the general. There follows a skirmish which the general wins easily and two regiments come over to his side. Three days later, the enemy has only eighty men and the general five thousand. The general writes another proclamation and seventy-nine more men join up with him. Only one enemy is left, surrounded by the army of the general, who waits in silence. The night passes and the enemy has not come over to his side. The general curses and weeps in his tent. At dawn the enemy slowly unsheathes his sword and advances on the general’s tent. He goes in and looks at him. The army of the general disbands. The sun rises.”  -Julio Cortázar, Historias de Cronopios y de Famas