CalvinDude.com

This is why people should never be arrested for words, other than the obvious exception of yelling “fire” in a crowded theater.

There’s a reason we have the First Amendment. And I’m sorry, but if a telemarketer calls me and I say “I’m going to burn your building down” that’s in no way an illegal threat, IMO. It’s only illegal if I actually, you know, buy gasoline and stuff and set out toward the building.

This is ridiculous.

I almost forgot to write today’s update! Oh well, that’s been corrected now :-)

I got 1,000 yards today. I was hoping for 2,000, but today I was stuck in the dreaded circle jer swim, circle swim, which meant that I had to do almost all freestyle and had to push it.

Though not as much fun as swimming long distance, it hurts a whole lot more and I think it will improve my endurance in the long run anyway, so I’m not overly disappointed. Still, it would be nice to not have to stuff everyone into the one available lane. Grrr.

Anyway, up to date totals are: 16,200 down, 1, 743,800 to go. If I get a mile tomorrow, I’ll have 10 miles done in less than a month (June 23-July 21). That would mean it’ll take me 100 months to get 1,000 miles (or over 8 years). So obviously, my pace needs to double if I’m to reach my goal in 4-5 years. And that’s going to be fairly easy to do, assuming I still have lots of free time in the evenings.

Which sadly looks like a safe assumption.

Goodness.

That’s all I can say right now. Goodness.

I am so totally exhausted. When I hit the 500 yard mark, I thought, Not bad! I can easily do 2000+ yards today! When I hit the 503 yard mark, I thought, OMG I’m so gonna DIE!!!!

Okay, honestly, that was around the 1100 yard mark. But the last 500 yards up to 1800 were horrible. I was trying to keep my calf from cramping up, so I basically did no legs at all and all arm work via the backstroke. For 500 yards.

When I got out of the pool, I could walk at a top speed of about 3/10s of a mile per hour.

The good news is when I got on the bus, I felt that warm glow over my entire body—people who’ve done a really hard workout will know what I mean. It’s very relaxing and tranquil.

Unfortunately, I had to get off the bus and walk up the hill to my house instead of falling asleep there on the bus (see also: side of the road). But now I’m home and feeling that warm glow wanting to come back, so even though it’s just barely 9 PM, I’m hitting the hay and sleeping until I feel like getting up.

Oh yeah. Before I forget, with my 1800 yards today, grand total is now 15,200 yards, with 1,744,800 left to go. When I get to 17,600 (which will probably be next Tuesday, since I don’t see myself doing more than 2000 yards on Monday) I will have 10 miles done, which will put me at 1% complete.

If you’re ever concerned that you’re a bad writer, just remember that news “journalists” get published with lines like:

…analysts have largely predicted another same-store sales decline, particularly, in particular, that competition with lower-priced rivals…

From FoxNews.

Despite some rather abrupt family news I learned today (half really awesome and half not so much—however, I don’t think I should go into details on it right now), I went swimming after work and got a mile today. Another 1800 yards down, which brings my total to 13,400 yards, and leaves 1,746,600 to go.

More importantly, it means thus far this week I swam 2000 yards on Monday, 550 on Tuesday, 1050 on Wednesday, and 1800 on Thursday, for a total of 5400 yards this week. That’s just over 3 miles. And I’ve swam 7.6 miles total. I plan on hitting another mile tomorrow—I might even try to push for 2000 yards again. If I do that, I’ll have 7400 yards (almost 4 and a quarter miles) this week.

My ultimate goal is to get 10,000 yards per week, steadily. If I do 2,100 yards tomorrow (probably not—even though my arms are basically fine, my legs are pretty much dead right now, and after the 1600 mark it was really brutal to get that last 200 yards), I’ll be at 75% of my goal in 4 weeks. This is way faster than I expected it, seeing as how the first time I swam a mile it took me about 2 months before I could get that high, and I stayed many weeks at barely getting above 1,000 yards. But I guess swimming is like riding a bike: you don’t really forget it. And so getting back into swim-shape isn’t nearly as hard the second time as it was the first time.

UPDATE:

Might as well explain the title of this piece:

So take that.

Patrick Chan passed along a great link to me last night. It’s something Microsoft has done that’s actually useful for a change! They’ve put Richard Feynman’s lectures called “The Character of Physical Law” on-line.

You can find info about it at http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/gates-puts-feynman-lectures-online/.

Unfortunately, it requires Silverlight in order to work, and to install Silverlight on my work computer I need admin rights. However, I watched part of it at home and it’s really cool physics :-D

Today, I swam 1,050 yards. This brings the total to 11,600 and leaves 1,748,400 to go. Since I’ve swum for over 3 weeks now, and also for over 6 and a half miles, I can say that I definitely notice the difference. Although I’m fairly tired right now because it’s late, I’ve had a lot more energy. Furthermore, my pants are a lot looser around my hips and they’re downright baggy on my thighs. My arms have also toned up a great deal.

Ironically, I’ve gained five pounds in the process. So I figured I probably really lost about 5 pounds of fat and gained 10 pounds of muscle. So that means if I keep it up, I should start to lose actual weight soon too, not just get more toned.

And don’t worry. I have no plans on stopping any time soon. Not when I have 993.4 miles left…

I would think even Liberals would agree that charging someone $23,148,855,308,184,500 for a pack of cigarettes is a bit…uh, excessive.

Only did 550 today, but that’s 550 more than I figured I’d do when I left work. I was fairly tired during the day, so I figured I’d just head home immediately after work. Decided as I walked toward Acacia Park that I might as well do a little swimming first. So, like I said, I got 550 yards, giving me 10,550 total, and 1,749,450 left to go.

Those of you who can do math and have been paying attention will have already figured it out, but I swam 2,000 yards today. It’s actually my personal best. Up until now, the furthest I’d ever swam was 1,800 yards. Additionally, that brings my total to a nice round 10,000 yards since June 23, with 1,750,000 left to go!