The Yin Blog

Stealing from crime victims to help kids. . . .

As a parent, I'm pleased relieved that Portland Public Schools won't get trashed in the new budget, as had been indicated earlier; this year's funding level has been anemic enough as it is, with most classes at my son's elementary school having 30+ students. It's hard to imagine what a $27.5 million further reduction would have done.

However, a good chunk of the money being used to save the schools from further pain is actually being, well, stolen from crime victims. As the Oregonian notes, $56 million comes from a tobacco lawsuit. That money is the state's portion of punitive damages, which by state law is supposed to go into the crime victim fund. Kids are important, but so too are crime victims, and the law directs that money to crime victims.

It's hard to feel good about this.

More "terrorists" in Portland?

Someone sent some suspicious white powder-filled envelopes to Congress from Portland.

USA's "White Collar" and anorexia(?)

I really like USA Network's "White Collar," about the unlikely partnership between FBI Special Agent Peter Burke and con artist Neal Caffrey (on supervised release from his prison sentence as a special consultant). Like many of USA's shows, it doesn't really break any new ground in format or plot, but it puts together an ensemble cast and just lets them act.

But wow, actress Hilarie Burton, who plays Caffrey's on-and-off girlfriend (an insurance investigator) is absurdly skinny. To compound things, she goes around wearing sleeveless shirts or dresses a lot, which only accentuates how skeletal her arms look. Talk about Hollywood's obsession with women being thin . . . yikes!

Interesting perspective on recent terrorism sting cases

Here's an interesting perspective on the various terrorism sting cases that have been in the news lately. After identifying the recent suspects, J.M. Berger writes:

None of this means that these guys aren't dangerous, and none of this is to argue that they shouldn't have been arrested. But they are not lone wolves. They are essentially al Qaeda volunteers -- people who step forward and offer their services to a terrorist organization that can provide them with resources and support.

Real lone wolves do exist, and they do present a threat. Only three terrorists have succeeded in killing Americans on U.S. soil since the 9/11 attacks, and all three were arguably lone wolves, albeit with complications....

 

Feb. 20 - I don't get Presidents' Day off

Like most private employers, mine does not give Presidents' Day off. That wouldn't make any difference in terms of working out, of course.

The plan for the day was to run 10 easy miles. My older son N had the day off, but my wife dropped him off at a Lego camp at the local science museum, but as always, J was the limiting factor, and I didn't get him off to preschool until past 10:15. I had stuff to do, including picking N up at 3:30, so I decided before getting on the treadmill to trim the run length to 8 miles.

However, when I got to the gym, all of the treadmills were being used or in need of service. D'oh! Well, I could use some more leg strength, so I got on the stairmaster, set it at level 8 (out of 20), and started climbing away. Naturally, after just a few minutes on it, I noticed that a treadmill had opened up.

I got off the stairmaster, grabbed the treadmill, set the incline to 1%, and started running at an easy 8:57 pace. For the first four or five miles, I read a few chapters from Absolutely Small: How Quantum Theory Explains Our Everyday World. I actually took a year of hardcore quantum physics in my sophomore year at Caltech, but I remember very little of it. This book is written for mathematically literate non-science majors, so there are a few equations but it's mostly descriptive. Now I understand why cherries are red and blueberries are blue!

When I logged this run at Fitocracy, someone left this comment: "Also, you read a book on quantum mechanics while clocking an average pace of around 8:30m/m? Can I give separate props just for that?"

Heh heh. Actually, math/science seems like a pretty good thing to read while running on the treadmill. You can stop to ponder the math in your head, which is a pretty good distraction from the tedium of being on the treadmill.

Anyway, splits were 9:04, 8:56, 8:57, 8:56, 8:48, 8:34, 8:07, 7:19. Heart/lungs felt really strong throughout, though of course the last mile was a bit taxing. I could have carried a conversation easily for the first five or six miles.

My right hip did feel twingy during this run, so afterward, I used the foam roller. OH MY GOSH, that thing is incredible! I have to get one for myself . . . .

That role playing Portland couple . . . .

I was interviewed earlier today by KGW about the local case involving a Portland couple who, while "role playing" on Valentine's Day evening, ended up attracting the attention of nine(!) police cars. The role playing involved gagging her with duct tape and putting her, naked, into the truck of the car while they drove around. Neighbors and a store manager called 911 . . . .

The couple was initially charged with disorderly conduct, but at the arraignment today, that was reduced to a violation, which they pleaded guilty to.

That seems about right to me. This doesn't seem like the kind of case that should result in any kind of serious prosecution, not even a misdemeanor. It was consensual, and no one was hurt, nor even intended to be hurt. (Of course, the nine police units were unable to respond to other calls during the time they were tied up, so there were collateral effects on others.)

Still, I think it's undeniable that the neighbors and the store manager acted entirely appropriately. I remember a case once where two defendants carjacked a couple, locking the male in the trunk, and repeatedly raping the woman in the backseat. They then drove to a convenience store, and both defendants got out of the car. The woman had the presence of mind to drive away, which was a good thing since she and her boyfriend might well have been killed otherwise. This could have been a really frightening and horrific situation. Calling the police was the right thing to do.

TV round-up: the Grammies, "Once Upon a Time," "Smash"

I don't normally watch the award shows, as I've got better things to do than to listen to a bunch of celebrities fete one another, but we did TiVo the Grammies last night. I'm clearly a dinosaur when it comes to music, as most of my awareness of pop music seems to have ended with the 1990s, though I do know a few recent musicians/groups like Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, and some others.

In that sense, one would think the Grammies would have even less appeal for me than, say, the Emmys, given my love of TV. However, the Grammies do have one undeniable advantage: musical performances are short enough that they can be done on the show! Of course, just because a performance fits timewise doesn't mean that it fits in any other way.

Like, what exactly was that exorcism song/dance with Nicki Minaj???

Well, because of the Grammies, the ratings were down for my favorite new show, ABC's "Once Upon a Time," but my dual tuner TiVo doesn't force me to choose between two shows. In the episode "Skin Deep," the show delved into the Beauty & the Beast myth, except the "Beast" was Rumplestiltskin. (Belle was played by Emilie deRavin from "Lost.") All I'll say is that this was a fantastic episode -- it moved the plot forward a bit in terms of letting us -- and some of the key characters -- know who exactly knows the truth about Storybrooke and the Fairy Tale Land, and it showed a fully three-dimensional characterization to old Mr. Gold . . . . I've said it before, but this is why I think TV is ultimate a superior form to movies: when done right, TV allows epic serialization that dwarf what movies can accomplish, with the result of much sharper characterization, plot, themes. I'll grant that Michael Bay can do some things with the movie form that TV can't do, but you can only watch flicks like "Armageddon" so many times before you get bored.

And with that, it's time to comment on NBC's "Smash." I might not be the target demographic, but I was intrigued by the pilot episode. (It conflicted with ABC's "Castle" and CBS's "Hawaii Five-0," and I don't have a triple tuner on my TiVo, but fortunately NBC has invested so much into "Smash" that it's rerunning on more or less all of NBC's cable properties, so I was able to record a later showing.) It's a serialized drama about the creation of a musical based on Marilyn Monroe, with Katharine McPhee (from "American Idol") and Megan Hilty competing for the lead role, and lots of detailed backstories of the writing/producing team (Debra Messing and some guy), the director (Jack Davenport, horribly dull in "FlashForward" but appropriately smarmy here), and others. I applaud anything that's not another cops and robbers procedural, and this does show ambition.

TV round-up

I ended up passing on ABC's "The River," as the pedigree, while impressive, suggested it wasn't going to be for me; I'm not a fan of horror like "Paranormal Activity" or "The Blair Witch Project." Did I miss anything?

Meanwhile, "The Voice" is every bit as good as it was last season, except that Christina Aguilera is so massively annoying. The other judges have very good chemistry, even (especially?) when they're bantering with each other. I like the Blake Shelton-Adam Levine interactions the best -- far better than anything on "American Idol" or "The X Factor." But wow, Aguilera just cannot stop interrupting others with her puerile attacks.

"Alcatraz" is barely hanging on in terms of my TiVo season pass. If I'm grading on a curve, I'd give it a B-. (Yes, my TV curve is somewhat more lenient than my law school grading curve, except that I don't watch shows with C or worse grades, which would be the equivalent of failing out. If only I were a Nielsen viewer . . . .)

Game Day Rival 5K race report

Today I got up at 8 am, ate cherry yogurt, dealt briefly with squabbling little boys, and then headed out to the Game Day Rival 5k race. (The theme of the race was something about BYU vs. Notre Dame.) The race site was Mt. Tabor park. Mt. Tabor is a extinct(?) volcano in northeast Portland.

Going in to the race, my goal was to finish in 22-something minutes. That was before I realized what the course was actually going to look like, which is to say, very hilly. The start/finish of the race was at the park station/picnic area. From there, it was a short downhill stretch, then a brief flat segment (the only flat segment of the entire race), and then a long slog uphill, then back downhill, then back uphill, more downhill, and a final uphill stretch.

It was a chip-timed race, so it theoretically didn't matter when you started, but from my previous experience with an Uberthons race, I found that starting near the back gave me a false sense of confidence, as I passed lots of people and felt comfortable, but ended up with a fair amount of cardio capacity left in the tank at the end. This time, I started probably nearer to the middle of the pack. I thought it would be closer to the front, but there weren't as many runners as I expected.

(Maybe that's not surprising. It was COLD and WINDY. This is, after all, earlier February in Portland!)

Anyway, I got off to a good start, quickly catching up to the wave of runners who started immediately ahead of me, and continuing to pass more and more runners. When I hit the first uphill slog, my pace slowed a bit, naturally, but it didn't feel like a titanic effort to keep running. I guess that outdoor running -- which involves lots of hills around where I live -- has paid off. Still, it was long stretch. I finished the first mile in 7:05, which included a chunk of that uphill stretch. The second mile included more of the uphill slog and then a good deal of the downhill part. This was my slowest split -- around 8:02. I'm not exactly sure because I forgot to trigger the split function on my watch. (Also, my heart rate monitor stopped working early in the race, so I don't have heart rate data.)

The course turned away from where we had come from and kept going downhill before hitting a turnaround -- more uphill. This was the hardest stretch for me, even though it wasn't as long of a hill as the earlier slog. Leg fatigue was much more of an issue than heart/lung capacity. I finished the third mile in about 7:47. The last 0.105 miles was disappointing. No leg strength for any kind of serious kick.

So, I finished in 23:59, or 7:43 min/mile. I was 13th out of 93 finishers, 12th among all male 5K runners, and 3d for my age group (40-44). The overall winner of the 5K was a 47-year-old guy, so go 40-somethings!

Should I support a novel that hypes vaccine conspiracy theories?

Today's Kindle Daily Deal at Amazon is a thriller about a documentary film maker who uncovers a conspiracy to conceal the dangers/risks of vaccines. I love conspiracy novels, but I find myself loathe to support a novel -- even realizing that it's just a work of fiction -- that seems to provide fuel to the ridiculous anti-vaccination movement. I think I'll pass.