I just registered for the Cherry Blossom 10-mile race here in D.C. I'm not very excited about it. In fact, I don't really want to do it. The only reason I am is because S is doing it, and she wants me to do it too. Initially I wasn't signed up, but she knows somebody who was registered but can't go, and she got him to transfer his bib to me. So, I guess I'm in.
I'm just not a big fan of races like this. I don't get the appeal. I like running okay, but I'm not into it enough to seriously train and meticulously log my times and all that. So, I won't have a goal, other than finishing, but finishing is not a challenge, as you only have to keep a 14-minute-mile pace to finish in the allotted time, and that's really slow for 10 miles. I jogged 5.5 miles today at a 10-minute-mile pace, and it was very leisurely. (I'm a bit hungover today for the first time in months. I played trivia, and then afterwards, we went to this cool, dive-chic bar, and the '90s-era hip-hop was bumpin' and everybody was movin' and groovin' in their seats and singing along -- You lied to me... yes, I tried, yes, I tried... -- and next thing I knew I was a six-pack deep, realizing I was going to have to book an Uber and pick up my car in the morning.)
I figure I will have to practice, at least a bit, before the race, so I'll probably run for 45 minutes to an hour a few times a week. It will actually be a pretty good complement to my Krav Maga training. I'm not worried about the running at all. The main reason I don't want to do it: It starts at 7:30 am! That means I have to wake up at like 6:00 am to get there on time. I hate waking up that early for anything, and it will be doubly bad because I'll be anxious about it the night before, which means I won't be able to sleep, which will only make me more anxious and so on. Another example of how society favors the lark, even though we owls can't help the way we are.
Speaking of not being able to help the way we are, S and I finished the Ted Bundy documentary. He was a very sick man -- literally -- I think he had a mental illness that compelled him to kill young women. Perhaps his sickness was the result of abuse from when he was a child. I seems nobody really knows for sure, but the movie does allude to this possibility. And if this is the case, then how much do you hold what he did against him? It's not an easy question to answer, and it's one that applies to transgressions far less serious than murder. With substance abuse, for example, we're learning more and more that addicts are basically controlled by their disorders, and it's not really an issue of willingly making bad choices. The same thing is true for people who suffer from depression or bipolar disorder. Most of the time these illnesses don't manifest in violence, but sometimes they do. How should we handle sick people who hurt people because of their sicknesses?
I don't know. But the best answer I can come up with is that you don't hold them accountable for being sick, but you do hold them accountable for not getting help. This is not a particularly satisfactory solution, because you can just peel it back a layer -- what if their sickness is preventing them from getting help? -- and you are left with the same dilemma. But it's the best I can come up with. It's essentially the adage: You can't control how you feel, but you can control how you act. I don't know if this actually true or not, but I think the best we can do is to behave as if it's true, until we learn more about mental illness. In the case of Ted Bundy, he couldn't help that he had violent, sexual impulses toward young women, but he could have (and obviously should have) managed them and gotten help before he hurt his first victim.
Another complicating factor is that people often don't have the resources to pursue mental health care, and/or they don't want to endure the social costs and stigmatization that comes with admitting they have a problem. The latter has gotten much better in my lifetime -- I mean, you now have professional athletes in the "manliest" of sports raising awareness on such issues, unheard of even 10 years ago -- but it's still not where it needs to be.
In conclusion: It's okay to think awful thoughts and have terrible impulses that are damaging to yourself and others, but it's not okay to not treat them. Either that or every event in history of the universe past, present, and future, was determined the instant the Big Bang occurred, and we are just a collection of particles interacting in an amazingly intricate way to give us self-awareness and the illusion of free will. That's possible as well. And if that's the case then I'm predetermined to change the subject right now and stop thinking about it.
I took Lil' S1 to see The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. It was okay, tolerable, which is all I can really ask for from a kids movies. It's mostly just madcap nonsense, but there's at least a semblance of plot line running through it. The jokes were a bit too wink-wink for me. Lots of meta-humor and little asides that are meant to go over the kids' heads. (Example: Somebody says they finally understand Radiohead, and Lego Batman replies, "Bro, you should check out Elliott Smith.") Those are kinda funny, I guess, but the reason jokes like that work is because they play against our expectations. If the entire movie is filled with them, then they stop being funny. Also, my general gripe applies in this case: It's too long! It's actually only 1:47, which isn't outrageous, but it felt too long watching it. Ten fewer minutes would have been appreciated.
Lil' S1 certainly didn't mind though. That kid is a champion watcher -- movie, TV, iPad, what have you. He's indefatigable when it comes to screen time. His newest thing is to watch videos of Street Fighter 2 for SNES on YouTube. (It's my fault -- I showed him the first one.) For the past few days, he's been telling me about the characters, whom I already know all about, because I played that game a lot as kid. There's this monster who can turn electric, and this girl who can do a super power kick. Lil' S2 got in on it too. They both watch the videos, and then we have a battle, and they act out the moves on me. I'm usually Zangief because then I can pick them up and toss them around and stay in character. It's pretty fun.
Alright, that's all I got for tonight. I'm quite tired, and it's back to the grind tomorrow.
Until next time...
I'm just not a big fan of races like this. I don't get the appeal. I like running okay, but I'm not into it enough to seriously train and meticulously log my times and all that. So, I won't have a goal, other than finishing, but finishing is not a challenge, as you only have to keep a 14-minute-mile pace to finish in the allotted time, and that's really slow for 10 miles. I jogged 5.5 miles today at a 10-minute-mile pace, and it was very leisurely. (I'm a bit hungover today for the first time in months. I played trivia, and then afterwards, we went to this cool, dive-chic bar, and the '90s-era hip-hop was bumpin' and everybody was movin' and groovin' in their seats and singing along -- You lied to me... yes, I tried, yes, I tried... -- and next thing I knew I was a six-pack deep, realizing I was going to have to book an Uber and pick up my car in the morning.)
I figure I will have to practice, at least a bit, before the race, so I'll probably run for 45 minutes to an hour a few times a week. It will actually be a pretty good complement to my Krav Maga training. I'm not worried about the running at all. The main reason I don't want to do it: It starts at 7:30 am! That means I have to wake up at like 6:00 am to get there on time. I hate waking up that early for anything, and it will be doubly bad because I'll be anxious about it the night before, which means I won't be able to sleep, which will only make me more anxious and so on. Another example of how society favors the lark, even though we owls can't help the way we are.
Speaking of not being able to help the way we are, S and I finished the Ted Bundy documentary. He was a very sick man -- literally -- I think he had a mental illness that compelled him to kill young women. Perhaps his sickness was the result of abuse from when he was a child. I seems nobody really knows for sure, but the movie does allude to this possibility. And if this is the case, then how much do you hold what he did against him? It's not an easy question to answer, and it's one that applies to transgressions far less serious than murder. With substance abuse, for example, we're learning more and more that addicts are basically controlled by their disorders, and it's not really an issue of willingly making bad choices. The same thing is true for people who suffer from depression or bipolar disorder. Most of the time these illnesses don't manifest in violence, but sometimes they do. How should we handle sick people who hurt people because of their sicknesses?
I don't know. But the best answer I can come up with is that you don't hold them accountable for being sick, but you do hold them accountable for not getting help. This is not a particularly satisfactory solution, because you can just peel it back a layer -- what if their sickness is preventing them from getting help? -- and you are left with the same dilemma. But it's the best I can come up with. It's essentially the adage: You can't control how you feel, but you can control how you act. I don't know if this actually true or not, but I think the best we can do is to behave as if it's true, until we learn more about mental illness. In the case of Ted Bundy, he couldn't help that he had violent, sexual impulses toward young women, but he could have (and obviously should have) managed them and gotten help before he hurt his first victim.
Another complicating factor is that people often don't have the resources to pursue mental health care, and/or they don't want to endure the social costs and stigmatization that comes with admitting they have a problem. The latter has gotten much better in my lifetime -- I mean, you now have professional athletes in the "manliest" of sports raising awareness on such issues, unheard of even 10 years ago -- but it's still not where it needs to be.
In conclusion: It's okay to think awful thoughts and have terrible impulses that are damaging to yourself and others, but it's not okay to not treat them. Either that or every event in history of the universe past, present, and future, was determined the instant the Big Bang occurred, and we are just a collection of particles interacting in an amazingly intricate way to give us self-awareness and the illusion of free will. That's possible as well. And if that's the case then I'm predetermined to change the subject right now and stop thinking about it.
I took Lil' S1 to see The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. It was okay, tolerable, which is all I can really ask for from a kids movies. It's mostly just madcap nonsense, but there's at least a semblance of plot line running through it. The jokes were a bit too wink-wink for me. Lots of meta-humor and little asides that are meant to go over the kids' heads. (Example: Somebody says they finally understand Radiohead, and Lego Batman replies, "Bro, you should check out Elliott Smith.") Those are kinda funny, I guess, but the reason jokes like that work is because they play against our expectations. If the entire movie is filled with them, then they stop being funny. Also, my general gripe applies in this case: It's too long! It's actually only 1:47, which isn't outrageous, but it felt too long watching it. Ten fewer minutes would have been appreciated.
Lil' S1 certainly didn't mind though. That kid is a champion watcher -- movie, TV, iPad, what have you. He's indefatigable when it comes to screen time. His newest thing is to watch videos of Street Fighter 2 for SNES on YouTube. (It's my fault -- I showed him the first one.) For the past few days, he's been telling me about the characters, whom I already know all about, because I played that game a lot as kid. There's this monster who can turn electric, and this girl who can do a super power kick. Lil' S2 got in on it too. They both watch the videos, and then we have a battle, and they act out the moves on me. I'm usually Zangief because then I can pick them up and toss them around and stay in character. It's pretty fun.
Alright, that's all I got for tonight. I'm quite tired, and it's back to the grind tomorrow.
Until next time...
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