Why I Voted For Barack Obama.

This post is more about organizing my political thoughts into something coherent than actually stimulating a discussion, so to that end I’m disabling comments on this post.  Disagree if you like–that’s fine–but you’re not going to convince me that you’re right, just as I’m not going to convince you that I’m right.

I voted for Barack Obama primarily for the following reasons:

• He is adequately progressive on social issues.  That is important to me.
• He has demonstrated, over and over again, a capacity to think about issues in a way that no president (or anyone else, for that matter) has in my lifetime.  I have confidence that, under his administration, he will not make any “knee-jerk” decisions, or pander excessively to special interests.  His decisions will be considered and rational.
• His plan for troop management in Iraq and Afghanistan is tolerable, though it would be great if he could find a way to get troops out of Afghanistan as well.
• His tax plan is also tolerable.  I can understand why the upper-middle and upper class aren’t a huge fan, but from where I sit (few assets, low income, student loans), Barack’s tax plan is what I need.

 
I admit that Barack has made a few mis-steps in his campaign, though–nothing huge, but enough to give his detractors some cannon fodder.  The Jeremiah Wright incident, going back on his word on Campaign Finance stuff, his comment about “bitter” Americans “clinging to their religion and their guns,” and generally distancing himself from much of the traditionally conservative base in the south.  These incidents reflect the fact that Obama still has some skills to master at the highest political level.

I also admit that McCain has alot going for him–at least, he did before his campaign got in full swing.  He absolutely one-ups Barack on experience, and has demonstrated that he can vote against party lines (though, under the Bush administration, he supported Bush more often than his campaign would like us to believe).  He would make better decisions regarding the “War on Terror” than W, and I think he’d pander less to the special interests than W as well.

However, I just couldn’t bring myself to vote for McCain over Obama.  Here’s why:

• He’s conservative on the social issues that matter a lot to me.
• I believe that, largely, a McCain administration would not be a significant change from the current administration.
• His choice of VP seems to be pretty poor.
• His tax plan, and his plan on energy, seems slightly inferior to that of Obama–at least where I sit in my life right now.
• Overall, his campaign has taken a striking turn from how McCain presented himself a couple of years ago.  Gone is the Straight Talk Express (which I kind of liked, and definitely respected), and in its stead is something much less forthcoming and much more confrontational.  
• Lastly, there have been hateful comments made by supporters of each candidate.  However, in my opinion, the amount of hate on the McCain side is greater than on the Obama side, and McCain and Palin haven’t exactly done their best to quash it.  The amount of people that are voting for McCain for some hateful reason or another (“Obama is not a Real American,” “I don’t want a black president,” “Obama pals around with terrorists,” etc) is mind-blowing to me.

 
A McCain presidency is not what we need now–this country needs to put differences in political opinion and vote for a candidate that will speak for moving us away from eight years of failed policies and towards finding real solutions to the major problems our country faces today.  I believe that Obama is better equipped to tackle these problems in a way that is satisfactory, not only to me, but to the majority of this nation.

If you disagree with me, all I really hope is that it’s because of issues–maybe you like McCain’s tax plan better, or maybe you like his approach to alternative energy better.  That’s fine I guess–that’s the point of democracy, after all.  Just as long as you don’t support McCain because you “can’t stand the thought of a Muslim Arab President.”  That just doesn’t make any sense, plus it’s an awful, hateful thing to say.

If you agree with me, please vote for Barack Obama as soon as you can.  Especially if you live in Indiana!  We could use your votes!

Just Finished an Update of my “Online Presence.”

This time, the update included the following:

• Update the front page of my website, adding links to my Capstone research and a few other things
• Updated my resumes to reflect up-to-date research and experience
• Updated Deleted my CV (hadn’t been updated in two years)
• Got rid of the “pictures” section on my website (if you want to see pictures, go to my Facebook)

Speaking of my Capstone research, I think I have nailed down a topic!  I have gotten tentative approval from the Music Informatics department to do research on “Designing Undergraduate Education in Music Informatics.”  It will consist of a detailed analysis of Music Informatics curricula around the country, and an instructional design for a Music Informatics course at the undergraduate level, which currently doesn’t exist anywhere in the U.S. that I know of.  Lana thinks it’s a good idea for a project, so that surely means that this project will be a success!

Had a Really Nice Long Ride Today.

According to my training schedule, today I was scheduled for a 51 mile, 3:00 bike ride followed by a 30 minute run. However, this morning I felt really good getting out of bed. So, instead of riding for three hours, I ended up riding for 4 hours and 25 minutes! And it felt really good! I will now describe how awesomely my ride went, in complete nerdy detail, for your “enjoyment”.

The weather was a bit nipply (60 degrees and breezy), but I wasn’t too chilled for most of the ride. I ended up riding 76 miles from Bloomington to Morgantown via Martinsville and back (gMap of route). About half was on flats and the other half was rolling hills. I stopped briefly each time through Martinsville and in Morgantown to refill my bottles.

I wore my aero helmet and arm warmers with a sleeveless, short-inseam tri-suit for maximum tri-geekage. I consumed approximately 90 ounces of water, 1,000 calories of a custom Infinit carbohydrate mix (which is delicious and works really well for me) and 1 Power Gel containing 110 calories. I would have liked to have had one more gel, but that was all I brought. I also took 200mg of caffeine right before leaving, and the Infinit and Power Gel had about 175 additional milligrams of caffeine as well. I also got coffee (50mg caffeine) in Morgantown. Caffeine is a (legal) nutritional supplement that, for me, gives an amazing performance boost with no significant drawbacks.

Part of the reason I think that the ride went well is that I experimented with a much slower cadence than I usually use. Normally, when I’m cruising along in zone 2 (steady pace) or zone 3 (strong but still somewhat comfortable), I’m rolling at about 90-95rpm on the pedals. Today, I kept it between 75 and 85rpm for almost the entire ride (which was mostly zone 2). My HR was lower, my breathing was slower, and I felt more calm and controlled. To top it off, the 30 minute transition run afterwards felt much stronger than it normally does after my long ride! My legs felt fresh and my running cadence was nice and high! Experiment: success!

This bodes well for next season’s long races…

A Funny Thing Happened at Tutoring Today (Politics/ Religion.)

Today, I broke the First Unwritten Rule of Tutoring at the Ivy Tech Tutoring Center: DON’T get into political discussions with the students you tutor.

I did not do this by choice, however. This was completely and involuntarily forced upon me. This is the tale of my political discussion with a sweet middle-aged lady who is wonderful to tutor, good at the math she brings in but completely off the page in terms of politics and religion.

She likes to come in to the tutoring center to get help with college Algebra. We like to do a few problems and chat about things like her job, family, Lana, you know, small talk type stuff. Well, today things were different.

She was opening up her email, and asked me for instructions on how to print out an email. I showed her how to do it, and noticed that the subject line of the e-mail was “Sarah Palin.” Unprompted by me, she decided to profer her opinion of Sarah Palin onto me, which included such views as “God chose her to guide this country,” “she has more experience to run this country than Obama” and “she’s a great candidate because she seems so normal and down-to-earth.”

OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT (that’s the voice in my head). I smiled and nodded, saying things like, “yeah it’s a complex situation” and “yeah, that’s interesting” whenever she paused for air. I didn’t dare interject my actual opinions, for fear of making an already-awkward situation even worse.

After about 10 minutes of about how McCain and Palin are the right choice for this country and how Obama hangs out with terrorists, she starts talking about religion, mentioning that Obama would “choose his muslim faith over his christian faith, if he had to choose” and that “we need a president who can preside over this nation, under God.” She then asked me, “so do you go to church?”

Shit, she asked me a direct question. I guess I have to say something. So, for lack of anything else, I said: “Um, I’m Jewish.”

For some reason, that seemed to satisfy her. “Well, that’s good. The roots are there,” she said. Then, she asked, “So, how often do you go to temple?”

Shit, she asked me another direct question. I decided that it was time to start lying. I told her that I used to go to temple every week until graduating high school (lie), and that when I graduated high school and moved away from home for the first time (lie), I found it harder and harder to get to temple regularly (lie). In fact, I told her I have been considering getting back into a regular routine at the temple (lie) and that this conversation was giving me pause to reconsider my current habits (lie).

That seemed to give her enough cannon fodder to continue uninterrupted for several more minutes.

Later in the conversation, when, in response to a statement to the effect of “without a Christian nation, citizens won’t have any moral guidance,” I responded with “well, a non-believer can still do the right sorts of things and be an ethical person” (not a lie), she said, “true, but the non-believers won’t get where they want to be in the afterlife!”

Soon after, we were interrupted by another student, and the conversation pittered out, thankfully.

I continued to help her for the rest of my shift as if nothing abnormal had happened. I mean, I couldn’t really confront her on this–we have a good working relationship, she likes receiving tutorage from me and I like helping her, plus I’m a huge pussy and don’t like confronting people in these types of situations.

At the end of the shift, she came up to me and says, out of the blue, “Marty, I just wanted to tell you that it’s always a joy to have you help me!” I was flattered, of course, but more than that I was happy that I had seemingly managed to pass my liberal ass off as someone who actually gave her viewpoints some credence!

Ma’am, if you’re out there, I really do enjoy working with you. You are smart and a nice person, and I look forward to helping you when you come into the tutoring center. I’m sure you mean well, and believe what you believe with all your heart. But, I completely disagree with your political and religious views. So, for both our sakes, let’s not have that conversation again please?

Are Triathletes Really That “Fit?” (“No?”)

The day after my race, I played a very enjoyable game of Ultimate Frisbee with the folks in the Informatics department. We played for about 90 minutes, and I was sensational of course. Everyone had a good time, and I felt that I didn’t exert myself too hard.

Wrong.

I am still sore from that damn game as I sit here writing this (Tuesday becoming Wednesday). My quads are so sore I can’t do a leg lift (that thing you did in middle school where you lay on your back with your hands under your butt and legs straight, and try to lift your legs straight off the ground). My core is tight. My entire right arm and shoulder is still throbbing.

My conclusion: triathletes can do swimming, cycling and running. But ask us to do anything else, such as:

• Ultimate Frisbee
• Basketball
• Chop Wood for a Fire
• Change a Tire on the Car
• A Push-Up

and we fail pretty miserably. Triathletes are not “well-rounded” in any real-life sense of the term. Our training is so sport-specific that anything that is not in the Trifecta is pretty durn challenging, at least if you don’t want to be super sore the next day.

A Clarification With Respect to my Last Race Report.

In my last race report, I mentioned that in my duathlon in Mattoon, IL, I had won my Age Group, which consisted of two people (myself, and one other competitor). Well, they posted the Official Results last night on the race website, and guess what. The other racer didn’t show up. So it was really just me in the M20-24 age group. First place out of one competitor (me). Yes.

So now I feel like I’m back in the Youth Soccer League that I played in for many years, where everyone gets a trophy at the end of the season regardless of how many games their team won. I’m so special.

(Though, I’d like to think that my time would have been competitive even if more young’uns had showed up. And I *still* negative split the two runs! YEAH BABY)

RACE REPORT: Long Course Duathlon, Mattoon IL.

Distances: 4 mile run, 40 mile bike 4 mile run
Run 1: 35:28.65 (Pace: 8:52, Rank: 27/35)
T1: 0:19.50
Bike: 1:48:54.6 (Pace: 22.0mph, Rank: 7/35)
T2: 0:20.95
Run 2: 32:55.55 (Pace: 8:14, Rank: 8/35)
TOTAL: 2:57:59.3 (Rank: 11/35, 1st in Age Group [out of 2--hehe])

I had a very good race today at the small, low-key Eagle Creek Long Course Duathlon in Mattoon, IL today. I arrived at the race site expecting a 5/40/5 race, but at the last minute the runs were shortened to 4 miles each, so it ended up being a 4/40/4 du. Also, the run was on a simple cross-country course, so that was a nice change of pace for my IT band.

My overall goal going into the race was to be able pace myself to about 8:40-8:50 miles on the first run, then just go as hard as I can on the bike and second run. I also really wanted to negative split the second run, because that rarely happens in duathlons and if I did I feel that it would reflect my ability to really pace myself over the race distance.

It turned out to be a really warm October day. I didn’t need any of the warm weather clothing I brought, and towards the end of the race it actually got a bit uncomfortably warm. The first run was easy, to be honest. I let everyone run away from me and just ran my own pace for the two-loop, 4 mile run course. I ended up hitting my split pace pretty close to what I wanted, 8:52/mile.

After a fast transition, I set out to get some hammering done on the bike course. This was a course that really favored my strengths–aerodynamics and steady-state tempo riding. My aero position is very aero and comfortable, and I’ve spent a lot of time working on my high Zone 3 type of steady ride, which is what this race required.

There were no significant climbs, little wind, and the only challenge was about 2 miles of chip seal we had to ride over 4 times. I was able to keep the speedometer between about 20 and 26 pretty much the whole time, and ended up averaging a really fantastic (for me) 22.0mph over the 2-loop, 40 mile course. I passed about a dozen people on the bike, and was not permanently passed by any long course competitor.

After even splitting the two bike loops, I set out on the run. I immediately got a side stitch, and spent the first two miles waiting for it to subside while also running 8:30 miles. That was the most painful part of the race, and my abdomen was called many unpleasant names by me. Once it subsided though, I felt a lot better and I was able to hammer to the finish (I need to figure out why I always get stitches). I passed a bunch of runners in the last two miles, and I think only one long course athlete passed me on the second run.

After running a second run that bettered my first run by over 2 minutes, and a 7:40 last mile, I crossed the finish line in 11th place overall, and 1st in my age group (out of 2, haha). I really feel good about my race execution, particularly with regard to pacing. I also feel like, for the first time in several races, I left it all out on the course and I’m really happy about that.

This race confirms for me that I think my triathlon strength lies in the longer races. The training I’ve been doing has not necessarily made me significantly faster in terms of pure speed–my speeds and paces are relatively modest compared to other athletes in my age group, but I’m a lot stronger, and can hold a decent speed for a lot longer in all three sports than before. This bodes well for Ironman, where the whole key is to stay strong, pace one’s self, and not slow down in the last 15 miles of the race!

I’m looking forward to an off-season of getting stronger on the run, doing some bike intervals and working on my swim technique! For now, though, it’s time to return to watching the internet broadcast of the Ironman World Championship from Kona, Hawaii!

A Few Observations on Teaching.

With my recent enthusiasm for the educative process, I’ve been noticing that the classes I take are often exhibitions on how *not* to teach.  I guess this is somewhat useful, though it would be nice if their poor teac hing didn’t directly affect my grade.

1. Don’t sufface an example  by saying something like “it just couldn’t get any more simple than this.” Wrong.  Chances are, half the classroom didn’t follow your example and is now insulted by your patronizing comment.
2. Similarly, don’t preface an example with “now let’s do a really obvious/intuitive/simple example.”  This one isn’t so bad, especially if the example is, in fact, very simple, but you’re just setting yourself up for a situation like in #1.  (A good alternative is to use the word “quick” instead, which implies nothing about the difficulty of the example, only that it can be gone through quickly by the instructor).
3. Make the material to be submitted in homework assignments crystal clear.  Many times, grades on the very first assignment are low, and then get higher quickly as students learn what to expect from the instructor.  This is not the fault of the student.  Who does that leave?  (It couldn’t be any more obvious!)  Make all of your expectations known before collecting the assignment.
4. Don’t arrive to class late (i.e. 30 seconds before class starts) and fiddle around with the projector for five minutes.  You should have gotten to class earlier.  Also, don’t compound the issue by keeping class over time  by two or three minutes.  Some of us have to book it across campus right after class.
5. We’re in the 21st century.  There is little excuse for not using all of the awesome technology we have to improve the educative process.  Blackboards take time, are hard to read, and are vastly inferior to PowerPoint, or even a MS Word outline in most cases (the exception being something like a mathematics course, unless you’re very good at doing LaTeX on the fly).

If you catch me doing any of these things during tutoring, or during the class I teach, then you got me.  I’m sorry.  I’m really trying to learn these things.  But, it seems to me that I’m already one step ahead of some instructors–at least I am thinking about these sorts of things, because I am aware that these kinds of blunders affect the educative process in a very real (and usually bad) way.