Happy Holidays

CFI Announces Blasphemy Contest Winners

Grand Prize winner is: "Faith is No reason." by Ken Peters of California

In addition to the Grand Prize winner, there were four other winners. Their entries were:

“There’s no religion like no religion,” submitted by Daniel Boles of Thailand
“I wouldn’t even follow your god on Twitter,” submitted by Michael Hein of South Carolina
“The reason religious beliefs need protection from ridicule is that they are ridiculous,” submitted by Michael Nugent of Ireland
“I survived the God virus,” submitted by Perry Bulwer of British Columbia, Canada.

Also Happy Thanksgiving the American Way:

Going Rouge

Shouldn't you read a book or magazine first before you write a book?

Oh, Sarah, please please please run again in 2012.
Country first, children and family can come later right?

Adios

Muchacho, Senor Lou Dobbs. Vaya con dios. Hasta Luego.
Good bye and good luck at the Cartoon Network.

"Life's a lot like Poker, you can't win if you don't play."
Loudon Wainwright III as heard on 1690 AM Voice of the Arts radio station tonight on the way back from a quick run of a couple of miles. Saw a magnificent sunset around 5:45 as I was heading into the Silver Comet trail at the East West connector. It was one of those rare fleeting moment that we often take for granted in nature. The pastel pink, lavender, indigo, yellow, red and orange colors lasted only about 5 minutes and then, all of a sudden, the sky turned gray and black. Man it got dark real quick around here this time of the year. The temperature was hovering around 58 degrees with a slight drizzle and when I stopped I couldn't tell if it was sweat or rain on my hair. Another one of life's little mysteries.

My next pair of running shoes

Brooks Launch
Flash Gordonish...

Immigrants are people too.

Illegal or Not.

* No budget, No time, No space, and everything is due yesterday. Ahhhh, the glamorous life of a public school teacher.

* One, two, 1, 2, You know what to do!

Halloween

This was the scene of our neighborhood. Nobody came for Trick or Treat this year.
Guess there'll be plenty of candy for us next month.

How to MoonWalk

This is the best ever version of How to Moon Walk:

The Choice is yours

* I'm unprofessional according to the authority. But at least I am not rude or incompetent.

* Life's a game. I get to make up the rules as I go along. Guess who always win at the end of the day?

* Words of wisdom: Nobody gives a bleep about yo' pretentious words of wisdom.

Peace out brothers and sisters!

Nobel Peace o' Crapola Prize

* Yeah, Yo, congrats Barack on the prize, but the REAL Man of Peace is Dennis Kucinich.

* Everything is better with condensed milk.

* Have Fun. Or Else.

* Don't Ask. Don't Tell. Don't Think.

The first Socialist

Jesus AKA J.C. was the first socialist.
How else would he be able to equally divide 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to feed 5000 people?
Oh, heck I don't know what I'm talking about here, I ain't even Christian.
Oh I believe in God, only I spell it N-A-T-U-R-E.

Favorite Quote

Here's my new favorite quote:

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction." E.F. Schumacher

My Rules for an Art Teacher

Love Kids. Love Art. Be Bold. Respect Everyone. Think Deeply. Transcend paper cuts. Open your heart. Smile more. Go the extra mile. Rest. Play. Listen to music. Don't talk too much. Life's too short. Enjoy the moment. Do your best & Hope for the best. Be compassionate. Be Patient. Be Silly. Look. Think. Create. Try again. Re-Invent yourself. Just Start it. Keep it simple. Wing It. Make the hard stuff easy. Make the easy stuff hard. Practice. Keep your sense of humor. Do No Harm. Don't let 'em see you sweat. And most importantly, Know when to stop.

Schools closing in Georgia

I got 2 words for the county, and one of them is BITE...
When other counties close their schools, nobody reports to work. Because it's a waste of time, energy, resources and money when there is no need to do that. It's just common sense.

Today we finally got to see Mister Sun, out and about after brief appearances over the last five days. CNN was reporting yesterday that some areas in Atlanta got 20 inches of rain over three days. But of course this is CNN we are talking about here.
But seriously, 9 people died during this remarkable flooding over the last few days. Schools, businesses, major highways and interstates were shut down. At one point 200 roads were closed and 17 counties in the state were declared a state of emergency. This was way worse than any snowstorm or cold weather conditions that Georgia had ever seen. Do people still believe we don't need the government in times like this?

Anyways, I had a day off from our school district closing so I went running OUTSIDE at Silver Comet Trail. It was nice, warm, sunny and dry, surprisingly there were not many people at the trail when I went around 3 PM. There was no traffic either. Ran for about 30 minutes, sweated like a pig and almost stepped on a four foot snake on the ground.

More Proper running techniques

Here's a blog by a 46 year old David O'Meara. who runs sub 5 minute mile
http://blog.onemilerunner.com/

ATL Track Club Singleton Race Report

Tucker, Georgia, Saturday 9/12/2009

My goal for this 5 miler was 9 minute mile pace. So I finished in 44:30 which was not as bad as I thought. I've been slacking in running every day the last month or so and it affected my endurance around the 4th and last mile. The first couple of miles were fine, I tried to relax and take it easy. As fatigue set in around the half way point my shoulders and feet tensed up. Felt tight the last two miles and at the finish.

I did not have time to warm up properly because it took about 35 minutes to get there and I waited in line another 15 minutes to go to a porta-pottie and had to jog to the starting line right around 7:30. There was a spectacular sunrise around 7 AM when I was pulling into the Sam's Club parking lot, next time I should remember to take a picture. I also saw and talked briefly to Herb R., a volunteer with ATC who is featured in a profile of this month's WingFoot magazine.

My 3 things to remember when I'm running:

1) Find your center

2) Concentrate on Relaxing

3) Focus on Breathing

And of course listen to your body, keep it under control and adjust accordingly. I should try to not worry about the other runners in front of me and just think: I'm racing against myself.

West Side, Yeah boyyeeeee......

A cool behind the scenes interview with the ladies of Disgrasian, a very funny blog.

...But it's art!

Edward Kennedy 1932-2009

Major Jerk

This bozo was on NPR the other day talking about his hatred for Medicare.

News Flash!!! Town hall meetings AKA circus freak show

Hey members of the Party of NO. You guys lost.

Big Time. Landslide. Get Over it.

* On a lighter note, I ran 2 miles in 15 minutes today. Finally, I'm hitting the 7 minute mile mark. It took about 5 months, but when I began running regularly in April, I couldn't even jog continuously for more than 10 minutes or a mile at a time.

This morning I got up at 5 AM, it was a muggy 75 degrees. I warmed up thoroughly by walking and jogging in the Target parking lot for about 25 minutes while waiting for Bally Total Fitness to open up. The lights came on at 5:41, guess someone showed up late for work, it was supposed to open at 5:30. I went inside, picked the nearest treadmill and ran like heck for 15 minutes at the speed of 8.2 or 7:20 mile pace. It felt great, I could run another 2 miles but I looked at my watch and it is 6 o'clock. I got to be at work by 7. Went home, took my quickest shower ever, drank my breakfast yogurt, ate a GU gel packet with Accelerade and water, got dressed, fed the cats, did the litterboxes, and drove to work. Stopped at Rev for a large coffee. Got delayed for about 5 minutes there. I signed in at 7:02. I was in the cafeteria right at 7:05 for the start of my day at the elementary school.

BRUCE LEE QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own"