Have I mentioned that running really sucks? Well it does. Especially when it starts getting colder or when you’re at high elevation near the grand canyon - or both. Such things tend to aggravate my athletically-induced asthma. Not to say that like its a crutch - it simply means I have to work harder to reach the same level of cardio fitness. Which is fine - ’cause I’m not going to let a little thing like asthma or my disdain for running keep me from reaching my goals.

I forgot to post my stats from my run near the canyon. I got to Williams rather late and between the cold night air, the elevation, and the fact that I didn’t have any good cold weather running attire, I only made it a mile before calling it a night and looking for dinner.

• Oct 11th
• Run 1.01 miles - 9:36 (133 cals)

Today I thought I would see how much my eliptical training was helping me by going for a fast 2 mile run. I started out at the Navy Training target of 8:30min/miles over my somewhat hilly course. I even reached a 7:41 pace. Unfortunately, this was a vast over-estimation of the elipse’s impact. My 2nd mile was pretty painful, dragging my pace down considerably. Read more

So a week after a company-wide diversity training program was held at British Airways a woman was suspended for wearing a small metal cross necklace. Now in BA’s defense they claim that she wasn’t suspended just sent home on a (manditory) leave without pay - which is really quite different from suspension. She was told that she could not return wearing her cross in a visible manner: wearing it under her clothing was acceptable, but if anyone ever saw her cross again, she would be disciplined.

Now what makes this outlandish is that Islamic women at BA can wear their full head and face coverings since that is a part of their religion - yeah.

So why is it that it seems diversity and tolerance these days seems to mean the acceptance of all things except Christianity? A provative adult bookstore billboard is "ok" but a large cross on a hill is "offensive". Uttering "Jesus" as a curse word is totally acceptable on TV, but mentioning the man is taboo.

How can the followers of Islam kill so many people and yet its Christianity that has the bad rap. Often after this point is made in the debate, the crusades are brought up. The crusades were misguided and a LONG time ago. Get over it. Islamofascists are killing people today. Just turn on the news. Take for instance the Pope that quotes someone else regarding Islam as violent religion. The Islamic world responds to this with, ta da, violence. Where is the outrage directed? The Pope for saying such "offensive" things. It seems insane. There are those that argue this is proof that Christianity is the one true religion. If its all sheepeople following stories made up by man - why is man trying so hard to destroy it? Read more

No solution in sight for U.S. gun violence is latest sunshine coming out as "news". It almost tempts me to become a journalist - after a few years you just recycle the same stuff over, and over…. "More than 30,000 people die from gunshot wounds every year, through murder, suicide and accidents." Which sounds bad until you realize 15,000 people die each year from falling down. Where is the outrage against gravity?

Of course the Gloom & Doomers are in full swing with an election just around the corner. But I’m just getting sick and tired of the endless negativity. I know it’s easier to recycle all the ways the world is going to hell… guns, global warming, big oil, smokers, random offensive crosses… but COME ON. Here’s a concept, go out and actually find a NEW and INTERESTING story - instead of recycling the latest scandel for two weeks.

It’s been a bit since I’ve added some top shelf quotes to my site…

"That makes me angry, and when Dr. Evil gets angry Mr. bigglesworth gets upset. And when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset, people DIE!" Dr. Evil, Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery

"Good, bad. I’m the guy with the gun." Bruce Campbell, Army of Darkness

"If we’re going to be damned, let’s be damned for what we really are" Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek Next Generation

"My only words of wisdom are just [radio edit]" Kid Rock, Cowboy (Radio Version)

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This week was apparently monsoon season.? All of my training was indoors.? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday included 60-70 minutes on the elipse (for a 600-700 cal burn) and the standard navy training of pushups ect.

Just one more week until I gotta look ripped for my Blade costume…

Since it’s been raining a lot the last two days, I’ve been using the old Elipse instead of the standard run or bike. But how much is that accomplishing? The built-in counter in the Elipse rolled over 1000 calories before I hit an hour… doubtful.

So I set out to find an approximation on the web. Calorie calculators abound but some are hard to use and all of them have different numbers. For instance running a 10min/mile pace for 6 miles (1 hour) will burn 793, 684, 680, or 900 calories depending on whom you ask. (I used a 150lb male as a nice round number)

I personally liked this calorie calculator the best. It was simple to use and had some fun activites. Did you know you burn 90 calories an hour watching TV? That’s a full 9 more calories than sleeping! Vaccuming, ironing and general cleaning are a much better way to keep that girlish figure. So remember that the next time you’re eating bon bons and watching Oprah - your man is being messy to help you lose that weight. ;)

So a little know political blog called the Strata Sphere has caused Senator Harry Reid a great deal of trouble. Apparently the Strata posted some info on some shady land deals by the Senator. Then one of the site’s visitors (someone familar with Nevada’s court documentation of land titles) posted pages and pages of Reid’s deals. We’re not talking speculation here - actually court documentation of land transfers. A bit hard to refute.

Well then old Rush Limbaugh caught wind of it and brought it to national attention on his radio show. With that, the cat was officially out of the bag and Reid is now busy ammending his ethics disclosure to Congress regarding the land deal to "ensur[e] all facts come to light."

Reid decides to amend ethics reports

…The deal began in 1998 when Reid bought undeveloped residential property on Las Vegas’ booming outskirts for about $400,000. Reid bought one lot outright, and a second parcel jointly with Brown. One of the sellers was a developer who was benefiting from a government land swap that Reid supported. The seller never talked to Reid.

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Finally made it home! Our last hotel’s wifi was down, so here’s the last of the trip… We woke to find our hotel surrounded by a parade for the Pino Bean Festival (you can’t make this stuff up).

When we finally made it back to the Volunteer State it was finally starting to feel like we were on the home stretch. In Memphis we didn’t have time to take in Graceland, but we did see the Pyramid & St. Jude’s

This morning I found my hotel’s continental breakfast lacking. No joke, they had cereal but no milk, sausage but no eggs, and muffins but no butter. Luckily there was a Denny’s next door - there seemed to be a lot of Denny’s in the West.

Speaking of the West, apparently it hasn’t been completely tamed. I snapped a pic of an actual dino attack right by the road!

The Grand Canyon can be summed up in just two words: it’s BIG. Seriously. The Canyon is astonishingly large. I had seen it previously from a plane an it didn’t seem that cool. But in person, in real life, it’s sooo big that I fear that words or pictures will never capture it. Never adequately describe it. You must go see the canyon that is grand to truely appreciate it.

Nevertheless I have tried to capture a small bit of the spectacle in images below.

The following two panos have been created using about 20 pics each from a single point and the program Auto Stitch (its free and its awesome). The second pano looks a little weird because it wrapping so far around a single point that the perspective seems odd (since we normally can’t see 250 degrees of a landscape at once - at least without turning our head).

These last pics are from the spot I chose to stop and enjoy a stogey. Smoking a cigar and watching the Sun set over the Grand Canyon - it doesn’t get much better than this!

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