Gil Can Run!A blog on Running and all the crap that runs through my head while doing it

Oct 30th A mixed bag this weekend

I started out Saturday with a really tired, tough run. I felt like crap and it was super difficult. Then today, I woke up and ran and I felt like a brand new person! Today’s run was like night and day. I suppose crepes with a pear compote might be a good run fuel. That was breakfast today, I did pretty well with that.
I’m feeling better overall, even though my legs are still a bit more tired than normal. But that’s a matter of needing new running shoes. However, believe it or not, new shoes are low on my list of priorities, as the limited budget of an ESL teacher can make things difficult. If I have to slow down and reduce mileage, then so be it. I’m a little reticent to buy these New Balance they sell in Europe anyway, as they are all made in China, and while the US exploits so much labor around the world, and damages its own workers for profit, the Chinese track record on exploiting their own workforce, particularly on behalf of Europe and the US is atrocious.
The real answer is to train myself to be a barefoot runner, but I don’t think I could survive that. My feet are massively flat, and as much as I hate shoes, they do bring me a level of comfort. Honestly, however, that is the responsible way forward, certainly won’t go that way for now unfortunately, but I know in my heart that is what may need to be done, unless I can get some shoes that aren’t made from sweatshop labor again. At least the model I can buy in the US is made in the US.
Sometimes I wonder if I worry too much, honestly. We all have doubts in this world, but the fact is I know that all humans are deserving of basic things, I talk about that a lot. One of those things is decent living conditions. I think I need to take some serious time and write all that down. I think in that, there is something to share with humanity. We shall see. I’m going to cut this short at this point. But keep up the fight, don’t forget the struggle.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 26th Best Interest

Today was a tough run. But I kept a good pace, stayed in line with what I’ve been running most of October. It’s really cold back in the Northeast US. My heart goes out to all my friends running through this cold snap, and remember, I’m still running in shorts and a t-shirt and will likely be doing so for most of the late Autumn/Winter! Haha, not to rub it in or anything.
Speaking of which, it’s getting to the point in my home state, where it will become illegal for utility companies to shut off utilities, due to the cold temperatures. Now, if your utilities have already been shut off, they don’t turn them back on, but at least in the middle of the Winter, you’ll have heat even if you have trouble paying your bill for any reason.
Of course the downside of this, the private utility companies feverishly search their records to try and shut anyone off who isn’t paying before the deadline. If they had a software problem, and didn’t send you a bill for months, or if they made a mistake, they don’t care, they see you didn’t pay and they move to shut you off. Because they’re not in the business to provide warm homes to their customers, to see a customer smile, to know their customer’s children are safe and secure, no. Like any other business they are there to make money, to turn a profit, so they can pay dividends to their shareholders. When it comes to basic needs, heat, water, gas, electricity, why would we trust these services to an entity with no need to provide decent, or reasonable service. As is, gas, and many other services are monopolies for your municipal community. Meaning you have to buy from the gas or water “authority” which is merely a private consortium regulated relatively loosely by your state government. But you don’t have a choice.
We see this with the people in Flint, Michigan, who still don’t have decent water to drink. And we find this in a relative of mine who had their gas shut off this weekend, even though they are a good customer and have been paying, they simply didn’t know, because they weren’t properly informed, that their account number had changed. This is wrong, this has always been wrong. There are things that all humans need that are not in the best interest of private industry to provide easily, or readily. If a company needs to turn a profit for its shareholders, and the choice is between turning that profit or fixing pipes they know are rotting, they will pay off the shareholders, we’ve seen it! Not just now, but historically, every time the choice gets made, profits get put over people.
This is why I argue we must abandon our ideas of supremacy, that some people don’t “work” or are “lazy” and so don’t deserve x, y, or z. We must start to look at each other as equals and that all of us are entitled to be here, and should have the basic things all people need to survive. If we are going to continue in our system that creates and demands poverty and oppression, then we must pay our part for those who are victimized by the required poverty and oppression. The system is not a natural state of being, natural laws cannot be applied (for those thinking of trying to corrupt Darwin). If you want to disagree then prove to me, don’t shut me out, prove to me that if all things were equal, if everyone had the same education, worked as hard, had the same drive and desire to be whatever, that no one would have to flip burgers at McDonald’s, that no one would be folding clothes at the Gap, and no one would be a greeter at Walmart. Prove it. Make the argument that somehow the system we have can survive without poverty. At which point, explain to me why companies don’t pay livable wages to people? Ok then

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 25th Not a bad start to the Month’s end

October is almost gone, would I have liked to go faster today? Yes, but that’s not always going to happen. I was a bit slow, tired, and stiff to start, and it reflected in my times. Still, not a bad run at all! With 4 days to go I’m averaging 8:40 mins/mi (5:23 mins/km) for the month. If I put that pace into a marathon that’s a 6 minute PR for me. My latest long run is a little slower than that, however, I clearly have the endurance and strength to make it happen, can I keep my mind focused over the course of a race again? Who knows. I am right at my average miles for the month over the past 2 years, so I’ll be a little over that come Halloween.
Speaking of Halloween, they don’t go so crazy about it here. But still, should be alright. They are more partial to Carnival of course. And the Church isn’t so keen on people celebrating a “Pagan” holiday. Forget the phony “War on Christmas” for years the various churches have had a war on Halloween, which, let’s face it, is the most fun holiday for most kids. I still love the food and togetherness of Christmas and Easter, but come on, Halloween is the best.
Then a week later, just two weeks away, the shitshow that is the US Presidential Election is over. Believe it or not, I can’t wait. It’s so much stress. Reading stupid shit from people you otherwise consider intelligent, only showing themselves to be completely ignorant of either, how it works, why it’s against their own interests, or that they are exposing an internalized bigotry, or some other Tom-foolishness. Of course sometimes, it’s that people you assume to be intelligent aren’t as smart as they appear. Some people are married to their idea of selfishness, that they are better than others, and those others simply “take” from the government. Whatever the reason is, it’s annoying. The worst part is, only 50-55% of those who can vote will. People will whine and complain about corruption, or lack of choice, when they’re the ones that cause it, by not bothering to involve themselves in the process. My favorite are friends who think folks should just flock to the Libertarian candidate. First, let’s disregard the fact that all “Libertarian” candidates are just failed Republicans, but let’s look further at the complete moral bankruptcy of the Libertarian philosophy, which completely disregards that the Government is there, not to grant rights to the people, but to protect the rights which people have simply by the fact of being alive (the same problem the GOP has, shocking). It them goes so far as to believe that somehow getting rid of things like the EPA and the Department of Education are good things, because why does anyone need a standard education, or clean drinking water? And we see what Libertarian policies have done in places like Kansas, where they have to say Evolution isn’t necessarily true and teach creationism alongside, but look at Michigan, where the people of Flint still don’t have clean drinking water, what the fuck people? “But those politicians are Republicans” yes, but they are using Libertarian philosophy, private industry will solve the problem, we don’t need the government to do things, private industry keeps the best interest of the people at heart. No, no it doesn’t. Fuck Libertarianism.
Ah, but what about the Green Party? You agree most with the Green Party platform, you’ll say to me. It’s true, I do. But when you run a Doctor who brags about helping to remove mercury from vaccines, ugh. Just ugh. Apart from the fact that Thiomersal has been in vaccines for decades, and was phased out for most vaccines quickly in 1999, we still have this discussion, because people are fucking stupid. It was only ever removed as a precautionary measure, there is no proof anywhere (the ONE study that claimed a link to autism was debunked years ago) that this, or any mercury compound causes autism. Thiomersal also could be found in nasal sprays, eye drops, ointments, creams, and tattoo ink, among other things. Is it dangerous in high doses? Yes, so is another compound, salt. Salt contains another anti-bacterial element, Chlorine. would you put bleach in your food? That’s essentially chlorine, or would doing so cause you to die? Let’s use the anti-vax logic on this, well then why do you put salt on your food? You’re making yourself sick!
Wait, no you’re not, you actually need compounds like salt to live! So no, no one who buys into any level of the whole vaccine thing with mercury. Not a Doctor, no one. Because it wasn’t mercury in the vaccine, it was a mercury containing compound, used in many things as an anti-bacterial preservative. So that kind of kills that choice for me, and I would hope it does for anyone else. So until third parties sort their own shit out, I want no part of it.
The trick is, you all have to participate. If 95% of people participated, there would be a third party, maybe a 4th. And politicians would have to have a more complete vision for the nation, their state, their municipality. But when you only have to court 25-30% of the voting public, why do you need to be so thorough? It’s a game of money, resources, and to get the biggest chunk of a very small number of people relatively. Because truly the fight is over just 10% or so of people who will vote, who generally make up their mind based on something that’s probably more esoteric than the news or you, or even the politicians themselves even think. It gets this way, because people generally don’t vote.
So it will all be over in a couple weeks and we can either go on as normal, or we get to worry for 4 years if the madman in the White House will just decide to do something stupid because someone was mean to him. That is literally the choice.
I need some fun music:

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 23rd A quick weekend

Yesterday totally flew right by me and I didn’t post, but I did run. I went a little shorter than normal on a Saturday, I’m really starting to think my best option on Saturdays is going to be to wake up super early and run, then eat and catch the train to work. Today I managed to get a good run in after waking up late and being slow to get out the door. I have to be happy with what I have done already this month though. After a shaky May and June I have turned this year back around, and got myself on track, and this month I am going even faster than I have gone before.
Meanwhile, it’s Sunday, I’m trying to relax, take it easy, get a few things done around here, laundry mostly. I don’t have anything I can focus enough to say at this point. So here’s some Jeremy Rifkin:

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 20th Today was tougher

My legs are tired, and so it was tougher than usual. They should be tired, 20 miles (33km) Sunday, then 5, 5, 5 (8, 8, 8km) Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. That’s asking a lot from my body. I usually do 35 miles Sunday-Saturday, so a couple days early is a little extra effort, and coming off a bad cold adds a little more. Speaking of which, all is clear, what is left is still up there, but slowly I am getting rid of all the excess.
What was really nice on my run today was lots of puppies to say hi to. I don’t know why, but there were 3 or 4 Labrador pups being walked. I notice these things, because while I wave and smile to people, I always say hi to dogs. I like saying hi to dogs, it’s just a thing. They tend to be more polite and responsive than people, ha!
Speaking of polite, so the final US Presidential shitshow occurred last night. From what I’ve read, Senor Drumpf did not help his cause at all, at one point referring to Sec. Clinton as “That nasty woman” which has led people to start posting things saying, “It’s Hillary, Madame President if you’re nasty!” A play on the Janet Jackson song. Got me laughing this morning. The other take-away it seems, is that he still won’t say if he will concede gracefully, as he should, if he loses. It shouldn’t even be a question, but as he keeps going on about “rigged” elections like a fucking cry-baby, it’s a concern. Look people, he’s a fucking cry-baby, if you support him, you support a bag of shit who can try and dish it out, but he can’t take it at all. It’s never HIS fault, he always blames someone else. Is that who you want running any country? No, but you keep lying to yourself, whatever gets you to sleep at night.
In about 4 weeks he will start claiming he never wanted to be president, and within a few months he will claim he never even ran. Him and his awful offspring will start a cable news network, it will fail miserably. It will have the alt-right superstars, like Alex Jones, by the way, who did an interview for Alex Jones’s crazy-ass website? Dr. Jill Stein. Thanks, can’t trust the Green Party now either. Part of the problem is, people give whackos like Alex Jones power by treating him as legitimate. People like Alex Jones are the very worst of our society. They know nothing, they don’t want to know anything, they just want to believe what they want to believe. They will stretch anything they can into whatever will hurt the people they want to try and hurt. That’s what they do. They have no concern for facts, they have no concern for reality, only what fits into the story they’ve written in their heads. Too many people fall into that. And I understand why now, or I think I do.
When humans started out, we looked for explanations as to why things happened. Why were there floods? earthquakes? volcanoes? hurricanes? why was there death? starvation? Whatever, and the answer was, “The gods!” The gods, changed to God, and humors, and the stars and all manner of other things. As we gain more knowledge, we still look to, “Why do I have discomfort? Why is the world not perfect?” And by and large we still look outside of ourselves.
In the modern world, we have all bought into a system. We’re told that the system works, the system is good, the system is just, and we believe them. But then we start learning the system doesn’t work, the system isn’t good, the system isn’t just. So we start asking, “Why?” Some people come up with the answer, “It’s a conspiracy, the illuminati, the bilderbergs, the new world order,” whatever. They look at politicians, they fit them into that, or they fit them into their doomsday, apocalyptic scenario. The problem is that to “fight” this people pull away and say “I’m a sovereign citizen, I can do this on my own.” Firstly, you can’t do this on your own, humanity is a social species and we require help from others. Secondly, it’s fundamentally the wrong way to go about it.
The system has to change, and we have to work together to forcefully change it. We need enough people to stand up and say “No, we’re not going to let this operate in this manner anymore.” That is never going to happen when in the United States, the most powerful nation on Earth, the nation where the change is needed, possibly the most, gets a total of 55%, on a good year, of eligible voters voting. 2012 saw 53%, I imagine this year it may end up being lower, but I’m not a pollster so I don’t know, but I know many people are not excited about voting. 28% of people voted in the primaries, that’s massively low too. As I’ve said, in “off-year” elections it can be less than 20% of people voting in some districts, and even lower in the primaries, if there even are primaries.
So it’s not some shadowy conspiracy, it’s you, it’s your lack of participation, it’s your lack of overall interest. But people are not interested in hearing about that, they’re not interested in thinking about that. They say the politicians don’t represent how they feel, well the politicians have tons of marketing and studies that show they don’t have to worry about how you feel, because you’re NOT GOING TO VOTE, and you’re definitely not going to vote in the primary. What interest do they have then, in listening to what you have to say and addressing the issues you want them to address? They need to worry about courting the people who are going to vote. End of. That is their job. If you voted, if everyone voted, things would change, because they would have to pay attention to everyone. Go vote every year for the best candidate you can find, and vote in primaries for the best candidate you can find, and if you can’t find any, then run yourself, or encourage someone you know to run, and give them the support they need. You want a rallying cry for this? “Save the Humans” there it is. You don’t think that’s proper, let me tell you, if we don’t address things like climate change and extinction of animals, ignorance of science, the fact that all human beings deserve respect, food, water, clothing, shelter, if we don’t start doing these things now it will be too late to save us very soon, if it isn’t already too late. Who’s to blame? We all are. Me, you, the person next to you, the Presidents, the Kings, the Prime Ministers, the Businessmen, the Billionaires, each and every one of us has fucked this whole thing up. Stop blaming someone else.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 19th Running and stuff

Had another really good one today, even though my legs are super tired. Sometimes all that hard work and sacrifice really pays off. I’m keeping a steady pace through my runs, I’m improving my times, things are good. As I improve physically, I get to relax a little more, which makes more improvement possible. Running when you’re not relaxed is difficult.
But I worry about things, it’s the nature of my mind. Recently, a person who has made some great music and done awesome spoken word tours, and I think has a pretty good philosophy about working people and how to help them out, has done an advertisement for Calvin Klein. I’m not judging him on taking the money because people do need to make money within this system. I’m not going to hate on him for being hardcore and making it big and being famous, and having acting gigs and shit like that. He worked hard for what he wanted, and he got it and good for him on that front. But here’s the problem.
He made a career about talking about workers, hardcore is a working-class thing to begin with. It’s about the struggle, it’s about the streets, it’s about life, and what we deal with. In the end, in the system we live in, it’s about if you put in the work, you deserve to get paid for it. To that end, I can’t disagree with this guy, he’s put in tons of work. The problem I have is with Calvin Klein, and how the parent company, and thereby the brand has treated their workers. Most of the clothes we own in the “western world” are basically made in sweatshops. Some are better than others, but basically, garment workers in the “3rd world” are treated like absolute shit. I can share hundreds of accounts of people being burned to death in shops where the doors were locked to prevent escapes. 15+ hour days, threats, physical violence, it’s all fairly horrific. Particularly with high-end clothing. When I’m buying stuff to hang out in, I try to look at my labels. Most of my shoes are made in the USA, in union factories, including my model of running shoe (although that will sadly change soon due to living in Europe). I try to buy from places I know they have at least moderate protections for workers. Thailand actually has pretty good protections for its garment workers, as well as a few other Southeast Asian nations.
The fact remains, that VanHeusen, Calvin Klein’s parent company has been caught using slave labor:
“Phillips-Van Heusen, the parent company of Calvin Klein as well as one of the largest garment companies in the world, encourages the use of beatings and passport/ID stealing to force people to work for them. What? The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released an article detailing a 200 worker strike fighting for more rights. Six of those workers were arrested for signing a document that said they were beaten, forced to sign blank documents, had their passports taken, verbally abused, threatened to be deported, and just about anything else. The workers had over 15 hour workdays, and since then, the factories were just closed and the workers were moved to another facility.”
If you’re going to talk about worker’s rights, and working class people’s struggles and what should be done to make their lives better, if you’re going to sing about it, then when the time comes, you should stand up for these things. Not advertise for the people who are among the biggest abusers.
I get that people get older and they think they’re not going to end up making a difference and making a change after all, and they should just cash in and call it quits. I understand that, and it’s a self-defeating frame of mind. Because, essentially, most people end up “selling-out” nothing ends up changing. It’s massively disheartening. I’m not going to begrudge him or anyone else. I’m not going to not listen to his music, regardless of what he’s done, the message is still true. His ideas and philosophies on the matter are still valid. I’m just disappointed in him, individually, as a human being. It is what it is, we do what we do to make the life we want in this world. It’s really hard to get through life without losing heart at some point. When you’re admired, when people are watching what you are doing, when you have the attention of a large group of people it’s very hard to ignore the money they are throwing at you.
Another hardcore guy stood up on bookfaces and stated that we would all take the money if we had been offered. I can’t say if I would or wouldn’t. I like to think I wouldn’t. At least not without assurances that they had ended their slave-labor practices. That their workers all over the world were being paid a fair, and livable wage, with reasonable working hours and good working conditions. And not a wage, relative to where they live, a wage relative to the profitability of the company.
I talk about people’s rights all the time, about fair and equal treatment. About what is right and just in this world, for humans, for animals, for the Earth. I could not profit off the suffering of others and be ok with myself. I would either have to demand that the people I am making money off of be treated properly, or as I’ve often said, the whole system needs to be torn down and replaced with something that doesn’t intentionally exploit everyone to varying degrees.
I never asked him for anything more than music that moved me, and he did that. He gave extra with his writing and spoken word. He doesn’t owe me anything, and if he can handle the advertisement in his head then good for him. No advertisement, no spokesmodel will ever move me to buy a product. Even though the parent company surely swears up and down they don’t exploit workers, I’m going to bet they do. In all, maybe the fact I’m even talking about it and mentioning the company name is a win for them. But it’s just what’s in my head.
At the end of the day we have to end how we make clothing, and the only way to do that is to be better consumers and not fall for fashion, and to pay attention to where our clothes are coming from and how the people who make them are treated, and demand they be treated better by buying as much of our clothes as we can from ethical companies, and making sure we state that loudly and proudly everywhere. Fixing this world is hard work, no song, no band, no philosopher, no religion, no company, no businessman, no politician, no government is ever going to fix it. Only we are going to fix it, through hard work and determination, staying positive, and watching what we do, what we buy into, and treating each other with the dignity and respect that all life deserves. Since, I’ve been talking about him without mentioning his name, I guess I should play a song of his:

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 18th Tired but productive

Ah, back at a computer, that feels really good. No more typing and trying to post links with thumbs! So, I’m still a little sore, and very tired from Sunday’s run. I don’t need extra miles, I’m on track for a big October as is, so I figure just get out there and shake it down a little. I have to say I was more than please with my pace, with how I felt in general, and the fact that once again I had a negative split on every mile (and on almost every kilometer). Craziness, definitely had a great run today!
This past month has been a great running month for me. I think with many of the worries of the Summer gone, the fact that I’m in a place I really want to be, I’m relaxed, I’m generally happy, have been major factors in this. A positive and relaxed frame of mind work wonders. Mental well-being certainly can translate into physical well-being, and the converse can also be true.
Meanwhile, we can all relax a little the US election is coming to an end, the super-dangerous man who only cares about himself and can even handle comedians doing their job and making fun of the stupid things he’s said and done is not looking good. But about that, neither candidate is going to fix what’s really wrong, they can’t. And you’re kind of dumb if you think they can. Sorry, it’s the truth and I need to be honest.
If you don’t like your school teaching your kids creationism, or how to solve math problems a certain way, or that the Civil War wasn’t really about slavery, shit like that, the President, even the US Congress doesn’t really have anything to do with that. That stuff is handled by your local school board, district, and sometimes the State. Those are the elections that really matter. The President doesn’t fill potholes, fix traffic lights, or makes the trash collection schedule. They don’t handle recycling, how clean the park is, or how may books are in the library. These are all local political duties. These are the things that get decided in “off-year” elections. These elections, that are so massively important get almost no media coverage (because there’s no money to be made), and generally have voter turnout in the mid-teens-to-low-twenty percent!
Now think about that, everybody who says your vote doesn’t matter, most of the eligible voters let about 20% of the people decide things that really matter. I did the math one local election, as I watched pathetic vote totals come in. It was so disheartening. So, you want things to change, you’re not happy with this politician, or that politician, go out and actually vote. Let’s say you have a town of about 25,000 people, and 10,000 of them are of voting age and are eligible. 20% is 2,000 votes. split between however many candidates. Let’s say it’s two candidates, although in local elections you’re more prone to find 3 or more. Let’s say the results end up 55% for one candidate, and 45% for the other, so how many votes is that? 1100-900 votes. There’s still 8,000 votes that never got cast, because nobody could be bothered, because they think their vote doesn’t matter, or they don’t want to try and go up against the road blocks the people that won by just 200 votes put up in front of them to vote.
You wonder why the system doesn’t work? You wonder why they lie and backstab and cheat and do what they do? Because they notice that you really don’t seem to care enough to do the one thing you can to change it. Go vote. I’m thousands of miles away, I voted, and I’ll vote next year too. I’ve voted every year since I’ve been allowed, I will continue to vote. Although it seems I tend not to split my ticket, I absolutely have and I absolutely will when there is a candidate that makes sense on the ballot. Change starts small, change it locally and that change will move up the ladder. Everything is built from the ground up, nothing is built from the top down.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 16th That’s a long run

So I didn’t run yesterday, I went long today. Pretty sore right now. So 20.5 miles (33km), and when I hit 20 miles I slowed down, but I kept a really good pace through 20.

I didn’t do much in the way of fueling. I had one cherry energy bar that I had purchased at the Rome Marathon expo, and that’s all I used. So about 150 kcal and about a bottle and a half of water. Not too bad at all. I’m starting to think we don’t need to eat as much during races as the companies that make the stuff to eat tell us.

So there is one downside to living in the historic center of a 1000 year old city and being a long distance runner. My second floor apartment does not have an elevator! It’s not too bad so far today. While it is a nice Sunday, I did have some errands to run before stores closed for the day. Unlike last year this town actually has most things open for a few hours Sunday morning.

A couple more long runs and we should be ready for the next marathon adventure. Still feeling good, keeping a good pace and everything seems to be moving along well. I do need to go to get some new shoes soon. I think I will give the new balance 860v6 a try.

Beyond that, today is just about relaxing. Taking it easy, and recovering. I’m still congested and feeling a little weak, but it’s coming around. We’ll, and watching clothes dry, and Bob’s Burgers.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 13th Still recovering, feeling weak

I did run yesterday, but without real Internet again, writing is difficult. Then I went out for some more today, and I was much slower. Well, I felt slower and more labored. Remember, you’re not actually clear of your cold or whatever malady, until your mucus is clear. Yeah, I said it! Yellow and brown this morning, but only from my sinuses, which is good. As an asthmatic I don’t want any sort of chest infection. I really hate being sick, because I know it takes longer to recover than a couple days really.

But I will get through. All we can do is our best every day. That’s where I’m at. Some days my best is going to be something incredible and some days my best is going to be a giant pile of shit. Possibly, literally. Not just with running, with everything in life.

I talk a lot about keeping positive and doing positive things to get results, t make changes. I want to take a minute to say that I in no way ignore, nor diminish, those who can’t just  “change their attitude”. There are illnesses out there like depression, anxiety, and a whole host of others that get in people’s way. Sometimes they are temporary, sometimes they are permanent. But they’re sicknesses too. We need to treat them as such and we need to respect them.

If someone had a broken arm, and you wanted to play basketball, and they said, “I can’t, my arm is broken.” would your response be, “well, just think positive and have your arm be unbroken, I’ll pick you up in 5?” No, that’s absurd. Why do we do it with mental illness? I’m not talking about being sad, or worried, I’m talking about chemical imbalances causing debilitating illness. If your friend had pneumonia, you’d take them to the doctor, you wouldn’t make fun of them for having pneumonia, you wouldn’t tell them to snap out of it.

We have to start looking at mental illness the way we look at all illnesses. We have to stop using th e qualifier mental too. It’s an illness, end of. We don’t say I have a lung illness when you have pneumonia, we don’t say we have a stomach illness when we have the flu. We’re sick, we’re ill, no qualifier needed unless someone asks specifics. And we don’t make fun of the physically ill and infirmed, so maybe we should lay off the mentally ill. It shouldn’t be a taboo, I shouldn’t be a stigma, and it damned well shouldn’t be a punchline.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 11th Healing and aliens

So I got out and ran! And boy-howdy did I! For being as sick and congested as I’ve been, I was very pleased with today’s effort. 10 miles on a weekday isn’t normal, but missing a Saturday with a cold isn’t normal for me either. My work schedule is going to make Saturday runs difficult for me, but I am going to try to work around it. I felt pretty good, except my right hamstring started feeling a little off towards the last 15 minutes. I hope that nagging injury isn’t coming back.
Then I discovered one of my co-worker’s husband is a sports medicine doctor in town and will be able to give me my medical certificate to run the marathon I want to in December, and even do it all legit and stuff. So, after he gets back from running the New York Marathon in November, well do that. So I will be signing up for the Marathon of the Cathedrals.
But then I look on bookfaces today, and I see a page I liked because they usually share some chill stuff had posted an article about the LCROSS mission to the Moon in 2009, claiming that NASA had “bombed” the Moon with a 2-kiloton device, and no one knew why. But it was probably to take care of that alien moonbase someone had spotted. Needless to say, I unfollowed that mess. But here’s the big problem with it. First, for those that don’t know, LCROSS was designed to send a plume of moon dust up so that scientists could study the chemical makeup of it. How do they do that? Based on the light that is absorbed, the light they can’t see (not just visible light either), they can determine what elements are in the dust. It’s how they know the chemical composition of distant objects. All elements absorb certain frequencies of light, and we know this. How do we know this? Experimentation!
Now, yes it was a 2 kiloton bomb they used to make this happen. 2 kilotons is about 4 times more powerful than your regular every day bomb, it’s about 1/3rd LESS powerful than Little Boy (the first atomic bomb). Considering they needed to eject enough deep material to look for water, so basically, a big explosion was needed. It’s not that big of an explosion.
But for an alien moonbase, I’m sure it would not be near enough. We’re talking aliens, so they have the technology to either travel faster than light, defeat the laws of physics, or at least get around that speed limit, or they have the resources and technology to create a generational ship, either way, I doubt their moonbase would be susceptible to destruction by such a low-yield conventional device, nor nuclear device. But more than that, and I’ve discussed it before, and now I’m searching for real answers on this point. If aliens were visiting us, why would they keep it secret? Why would they conspire with our governments and not just take what they wanted and go? Their technology would have to be superior, they could easily take what they wanted. They don’t need anyone’s permission, and they damned sure well wouldn’t care what we thought about it. Do you think, if humanity were to visit another world, we’d skulk around hoping not to interfere? And if that were the case, we wouldn’t tell their GOVERNMENT!
It simply makes no sense when you examine the logic, even a little. Not only do we have no technology an alien species could profit from (not talking about economically), if they wanted our resources they could just take them and we would be powerless to stop them. It is such a silly idea. But it speaks to a larger problem we have. The use of the internet, or misuse, to dupe relatively well-meaning, yet gullible or at worst ignorant people into believing these outright ridiculous ideas. You see it clearly in things like this, but there’s also this Conservative radio host/blogger named Alex Jones. I hate saying his name. He went on this rant the other day, about how he knows people close to the President who says that they President is possessed by demons, and that Secretary Clinton is possessed too, and he knows this, because people tell him. People believe him! They believe in crap like this. It’s amazing, it’s insane, and they have a voice and a distribution channel here, on the internet.
Please, someone figure out how to curate these things, so the information that is truly just crazy, completely bogus, devoid of any real meaning can be discarded. It’s too much. It makes me so sad, because we have such great potential, and yet we waste it on such meaningless bullshit. Stupid conspiracy theories like this, and they are, lessen us all, and insults our collective intelligence.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!