Archives For November 2004

thought for the day

November 3, 2004 — Leave a comment

In a democracy, you get the government you deserve.

Adlai Stevenson

what are you going to do now that your candidate hasn`t won or lost?

is it really going to make that much of a difference in your personal life? is it going to pay your bills, put gas in your car? are you so upset about the result you`re ready to leave the country? is the name calling and finger pointing going to end?

i can answer all those questions in order; no, no, no and no.

nothing is going to change to any major extent, no matter who wins/won. i said this before the election and i stand by it, elections of this magnitude are decided in boardrooms. the money for all that campaigning had to come from somewhere and you don`t get something for nothing.

the price of gas and healthcare is going to continue to rise, people are going to struggle to find the jobs they want, certain sectors of the populace are going to pay to maintain the lifestyle that certain other sectors of the population are accustomed to.

personal freedoms are going to continue to disappear, whether for security or commercial reasons and the `moral` pendulum is going to continue to swing back and forth because are based on society`s acceptance.

at the end of the day, there will be no epiphanies, no massive changes, just business as usual.

i`m not a citizen, but i am a taxpayer. there is no immigrant lobby, so i effectively have no say. if you are eligible, get out there and do it.

VOTE! IT IS YOUR RIGHT!

i really don`t care who you vote for, just as long as you do.

more harm than good

November 1, 2004 — Leave a comment

because of our neighbourhood and its proximity to the university, i see a lot of people running and it`s appalling.

long ago, when i was half as young and half as heavy, i used to run; 5 and 10K races. i was pretty good; i was in a road runners club, i trained regularly, i chose my shoes carefully, i was dedicated.

it distresses me to see all these people running badly and doing themselves a tremendous amount of harm.  just watching them run, is painful, most of them have incredibly bad form; arms and legs flailing and the worst foot placement. i don`t even want to get into the ill equipped people but i do have one word to the wise, always invest in a good sports bra if you`re going running.

my knees are almost completely shot, through a combination of factors; road running, basketball and weight gain. but of the three the strain put on my knees by weight gain only serve to exaggerate the trauma i put them through running on high impact surfaces and too some extent i knew what i was doing.

road running is high stressful on the knees and ankles particularly without a good cushioned shoe and worse when you don`t run properly.

learn to run smoothly, in an almost fluid motion, the power of your stride should come from your back and not by landing hard on your feet. pounding pavement is not good for your knees. and for goodness sake don`t continue running if you`re injured.