The GI tract/running conflict is a formidable foe. It lurks within as a lingering nuisance, but every now and then strikes with the hammer of Vulcan.

One day last spring we were doing a tempo workout. I was running up with the faster group for a while, but towards the end they started to dust me and I was left stranded in no man's land between the faster and slower groups in our long distance squad. There was only a mile or so remaining when the gods began to stir. 1 second...ok I acknowledge that is beginning to happen...2 seconds...can I hold it?...3 seconds...I should prolly find somewhere to stop...4 seconds...!!!!!!!! I just started laughing hysterically. 4 seconds? 4 seconds!!!?!?!!!!! Are you kidding me? I mean cmon I'm good at this. I do this several times a week. I have like a 98% success rate! But 4 seconds?!?!

Luckily Fate was on my side (I guess) and the road which I was running on at that point was surrounded by foliaged, forested, wooded...woods. So I hastily located the nearest water source, a creek, or what would qualify as a creek for my purposes. In my late May 1984 suit I rinsed myself and my shorts thoroughly, while holding off bouts of uncontrollable laughter.

After regaining composure I resumed and finished up my run on the track. Gary Andrew (former coach), in his usual too enthusiastic mood (interestingly, I found out yesterday that enthusiasm literally means "having god enter the worshipper" - sounds like I was the enthusiastic one) exclaimed "Ahh, John! How did it go?"
I just replied, "Ya know, Gary, it was a good run. It was great. I felt great out there. Very strong."
"Well that's swell...glad to hear it."

Time and space are the SAME GODDAMN THING! Two ways of looking at the exact same property of life. There simply is no difference between the two. For our limited human senses it is easier to think, view, and explain things in terms of two convenient perspectives (passage of time and movement through space) of the same damn physical phenomenon. Our handicap in this regard is the tendency to view worldly phenomena as static.

A case scenario: Maria Sandoval, a UNLV student, asked Hilary Clinton in the Nov. 15 Democratic presidential debate whether she preferred diamonds or pearls. The five seconds that it took Hilary to give her repulsive answer ("i want both" geez what a harlot) is a convenient perspective that explains the same phenomenon as the perspective that explains the necessary distance in space it took to move the molecules that unfortunately formed together to create Senator Clinton's body and resultant, and regrettable, speaking capability that soiled my ears at that moment.

Think about it. According to Big Bang theory (that is, empirically established scientific fact) the universe is continually expanding in one direction, away from some fixed point. Point A will be some distance further from that point after some time amount. Point A cannot move to its new location without time, and time cannot pass without the movement of point A. Now one can say that they are mutually dependent, or one can be logical and realize they are one in the same thing.

In 1915 Albert Einstein demonstrated his general theory of relativity by elucidating the linkage between space and time through brilliant experiments. You screw with movement in space enough and time starts to change, and vice versa. Thus a time machine, or for that matter, a space machine, would merely reverse the direction of Big Bang expansion, i.e. move the molecules back to their dinosaur forms closer to that original fixed point in space.

Communist

Death! Death is the topic of today's post, as the ghastly hand was laid upon two notable men recently.

Six days ago the greatest of the great, the wizard, the genius Robert James Fischer, affectionately known as "Bobby" Fischer (Bobby Fischer, Where is he? I don't know! I don't know! well I think we do now cuz he's dead) passed away. He was 64. The Chicago born Jewish Fischer has been the only American to win the World Chess Championship, and he was flashing his talent on the chessboard from the very beginning. A glimpse into his life:



Here is the prodigal lad of 13 in a New Jersey YMCA, trying his hand against adults...21 of them. The undaunted Fischer won 19 of the games, lost one, and stalemated the other.

Fischer...victorious, self-assured, confident, elegant, robust, handsome, of sexually reproductive age.....certainly a healthy individual.

The grandmaster in a rare shot not playing chess, but rather pinball, on Coney Island. The facial structure is just...stunning.

A match that, like so many other things (Olympics, Space race) symbolized the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. Fischer defeated the Russian great, Boris Spassky, handedly.

Wow

I enjoy chess; perhaps one day I'll learn a thing or two about strategy. Themed chessboards are also of interest. I've seen Lord of the Rings chessboards, Big Five (the large African mammals) chessboards, chessboards that reflect social and political movements. I think a philosopher theme would be sweet, Reason-based vs. Faith-based. The king and queen on Reason would be Aristotle and Aquinas, Plato and Augustine on Faith. Appropriate candidates would fill the remaining slots...but the pawns! What a mind-boggling decision! They could all be different people or the same person. Faith's pawns - self-flagellating Carmelites or Mormon bicyclists with ties? And gracious Reason! - cynical spectacled raised-arm professors or modern high teenagers? (seriously, their logic would make Kant cry) The possibilities are too numerous to fathom. But Faith would surely be light and Reason dark because Reason is the work of the Devil, obvi.

Our other man of note is Heath Ledger who died yesterday in his Manhattan apartment of unknown causes, perhaps a drug overdose. He was not 64 but 28. I have seen all his movies save two, Brokeback Mountain, which I will prolly see at some point, and the highly anticipated, for me at least, Batman: The Dark Knight, which is scheduled to release sometime this summer. I am highly anticipating this movie and Ledger's role because 1) the Joker is such a ridiculous character and compared to Ledger's other roles it will be a solid determinant of his acting ability and 2) my favorite actor and one of the greatest actors of all time Jack Nicholson played the original Joker (arguably one of the greatest cinematic characters of all time) in the original Batman of 1989. Besides Nicholson's obvious acting prowess as exhibited in his movies, his career spans from 1958 to 2008, and no male actor has won more Oscars for Best Actor than his three (Walter Brennan also won three and Katherine Hepburn won four).

By the way, there are only two other actors that belong in the same sentence as "one of the greatest actors of all time." Those two are Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot, The Last of the Mohicans, Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Big Lebowski, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Mission Impossible III, Capote, Charlie Wilson's War).

Daniel Day-Lewis' devotion to acting is ludicrous. During the filming of My Left Foot, in which he plays the paralyzed, wheelchair-confined Christy Brown (and in which he won the Oscar for Best Actor that year), he refused to come out of character. During breaks castmates would have to haul his ass in his wheelchair around, sometimes carrying him over camera and lighting wires. He did this to better understand Christy Brown's embarrassment. Because he maintained a hunched over position for several weeks he had two broken ribs once filming was finished.

Or take The Last of the Mohicans, where he learned how to hunt game, skin animals, fish, and live off the land in the Pisgah National Forest. He lifted weights religiously and set down his rifle only to sleep. As Bill the Butcher (another fabulous character) in Gangs of New York he kept in his New York accent off stage, and even took lessons in butchering. He turns down many offers because he spends YEARS researching his characters. Even if it weren't for the extreme devotion, his performances are impeccable.

Philip Seymour Hoffman's acting greatness is just plain obvious in his delivery. A man truly in his element.

Reactionists to an integration order assault blacks in their cars.




King, 1955, Montgomery Bus Boycott









King arrested for "hindering" a bus.




Freedom riders asleep in a church.

A few nights ago a sixteen year old kid waltzed into a high-class bar in downtown Tokyo. Suave and nonchalant he proceeded to charm the cocktail waitresses and order drinks for several customers. Some sixty odd whiskys and two bottles of Dom Perignon later his several thousand dollar tab (or equivalent) was brought to him, at which point he admitted to having no money and being underage, much to the chagrin of the seduced employees.

Apart from the fact that this kid is a badass he effectively demonstrates a principle that I acknowledge and wholeheartedly embrace, namely that life is there for the taking; if you want something badly enough, and are willing to shift your priority lists around and make the necessary sacrifices, there is probably a way to do just about what ever you want. This principle is summed up in the maxim "Where there's a will, there's a way" and also exhibited in the 1983 classic Scarface, when Tony Montana tells his sidekick "I'm going to get what's coming to me - the world...and everything in it." The active application of this knowledge certainly, more often than not, lends itself to the success, however so defined, (and regardless whether for good or bad) to the applier. It essentially boils down to ambitious enterprise with end products ranging from Bill Gates to Osama Bin Laden...and sometimes simply our affable drunk teenager.

In other news, I continue to perpetuate my beer pong slump whilst harboring vague and dim desires for additional sources of monetary income.

My first post omgomomomgogg

I'm starting a blog for the completely obvious reasons but I might as well spell them out in a logical proof:

1) I am a purpose-minded individual.
2) The purpose of life is to be the coolest one can possibly be.
3) Blogging adds immeasurably to one's coolness score, regardless of race, age, gender, and socioeconomic status.
4) One should always do what adds to one's coolness score, for one's actions should reflect the overarching purpose of our existence: to be cool.
5) A purpose-minded individual blogs.

I've just moved in, with my female counterpart, the beautiful Alea Skwara (wiki account imminent), to my new home for the next few months, a sweet ass condo duplex thing on Shearer St., about 100 feet from the Davidson College campus. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davidson_College

Five days ago I ran my debut marathon in a satisfying 2:46:56, which is 6:22 pace per mile, a distance of 1609 meters, or 5,280 feet, or 63,360 inches, whichever suits your fancy. 26.21875 of those makes a marathon, the alleged distance one alleged Pheidippides allegedly ran from the town of Marathon to the senate in Athens, Greece, whereupon he allegedly cried "Victory is ours" before expiring. It's all on Wiki. I will be using Wiki frequently in my posts. To those of you who don't appreciate Wikipedia (the online encyclopedia) or think it isn't legitimate, or whatever, a story for you. Members of the Roman Catholic Church didn't think Galileo was appreciable and legitimate. Ha! Imagine their surprise, when they figured out he was. Alas, awaken your eyes to the future, and avoid the impending suffering of societal shunning, or historical humiliatation. Those were examples of short alliteration, an enjoyable aspect of spoken and written language. I thought of one yesterday, that I found quite amusing. Maybe you will as well. Flagrant and flamboyant fashion faux pas are my forte. You see, I will drop that at a party or other social gathering of some future date, preferably sporting a fashion faux pas. It will come off as spur of the moment, impetuous, mouths will drop, etc. And I will be even cooler than I am now (hard to believe, stay with me though). In the same spirit as the commencement of this blog, I will rise. Come now, it's all Science.

Speaking of Science, some things you can expect to encounter reading this blog. Thoughts on Science (Science). Thoughts on Philosophy (what people think they know about the workings of Science). Thoughts on Religion (other thinkings of the workings of Science but mathematically probable misunderstandings and distortions of Science). Thoughts on God (??????????wtf). Thoughts on History (past workings of Science). Thoughts on Current Events (Science in Action!). Thoughts on Running (a demonstration of Science).

Anyhow, I'm off to bigger and better things on this night of nights. A clue:

This superb ______ was ______ from grain grown in the rich ______ of southern ______ . It has been produced at the famous old _______ near Ahus in accordance with more than 400 years of _____________________. Vodka (shit...woooooops) has been sold under the name _______ since 1879. .....1.75 liters.