Miike Snow, "Animal"

I like these totally manageable but effective tips for the start of the new year. (Yes and Yes is a great blog)

Image: source.

"Visitors at the APS Museum’s Dialogues with Darwin exhibition are invited to continue the discussion of Darwin and his ideas by posting their own thoughts, questions and comments using sticky notes."

Keeping Women in Science on a Tenure Track: "Single women without young children are roughly as successful as married men with children in attaining tenure-track jobs." Ugh. (Thanks for the heads up, PC)

"Why Jim Needs to Remain Huck Finn’s 'Nigger'" Recent edits are "abstinence-only education for race." Well said, ColorLines.

"It is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be a reason the more for us to do it." - Rainer Maria Rilke

“When people are sad, they don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change. When they get angry, they aren’t interested in logic, they aren’t interested in odds, they aren’t interested in consequences. When they get angry, they realize the condition that they’re in- that their suffering is unjust, immoral, illegal, and that anything they do to correct it or eliminate it, they’re justified.” - Malcolm X

yes yes yes

Image: source.

Public library love! Seriously, renewing my library card when I moved home was one of the best things I could've done.

The Fall 2010 edition of Pace Law Review is "Opening Up a Closed World: A Sourcebook on Prison Oversight" via

Image: source. I'm trying.

Reading Julia Child's My Life In France was one of the most enjoyable reading experiences I had in the last year, so I'm definitely curious to check out this new book of her correspondence. I bet she was a great pen pal.

Currently reading: Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer: Even as someone who has no interest in risking life and limb on the side of a mountain, I was immediately sucked into this book. That said, it is totally stressing me out to read, since the tension and life-and-death tone of being on Everest is so vivid - yikes.

Today's planned workout: 6 mi run, 30 min swim. Today's actual workout: yet to be determined! Since I ended up going back to the gym last night for a 2nd workout, I let myself sleep in this morning (till 7 instead of 5:30) which means that I'm going to have to fit in another evening workout. Still planning on still doing the 6/30 though. In other training news, I went ahead and ordered the bike trainer. I'm pretty nervous about it (making it work in the garage, getting used to it, using it enough to make it worthwhile etc), but also excited.

A long time favorite, the rarest of gems - a sad song that doesnt make me want to slit my wrists. In fact, it sort of reminds me that being heartbroken is a time-honored and widely-shared phenomenon that connects the human race and affirms that I'm still alive. Doesn't quite make it enjoyable. But close.

Emily Gould on Eileen Myles: A Portrait of the Artist Engulfed in Flames

Today's planned workout: 6 mi run. Today's actual workout: 6 mi run. But slow and lots of start and stop, and generally frustrating. Being sick for 2 weeks really messed with my lung capacity, or something, and I'm struggling to get back. The super cold weather doesn't help, and I've reluctantly been forcing myself to embrace the treadmill. Hoping to feel back on track in time for my half marathon. Edit: I had a burst of evening energy and headed to the gym to run 3 more mi on the treadmill and 15 min of laps in the pool - it felt good.

Photographs of philosophers.

"Jason Lazarus is interested in images with intensely personal meaning to their owners — even if he doesn’t know what that meaning is. That’s why he started his project, “Too Hard To Keep,” in which he solicits emotionally charged photographs that people might otherwise destroy." via Fresh Air

Interesting. Its Workers Aging, Japan Turns Away Immigrants: "Japan faces an imminent labor shortage as its population ages, but it has done little to open itself to immigration."

Jezebel gives Chrissie Wellington some much deserved love. As someone new to the world of triathlons and professional triathletes, Wellington has been a real inspiration - she seems to have a great attitude and be widely loved, in addition to kicking ass.

"What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains." - Tennessee Williams

e.e. cummings

I'm considering shelling out about $150 for this bike trainer - it's on sale (down from $250) and my informal triathlete advisor (my co-worker who is an IronMan pro - and also a marathoner and a serious crew racer) told me it's a good deal, and a must have for year-round training. I'm sort of bummed because I wanted my next purchase to be this baby, and they are gonna call me when it's in at the running store, but I actually think the bike stand is a more immediate need.

Because it's so cold and icy out, its hard for me to go running and biking in the early mornings before work (hard not because of waking up early, but because the cold is hard on my knees and the slip and fall threat is high due to ice) - I think the bike stand will address that problem. Also, I think it's important for me to get "miles" in on my actual bike, as opposed to the ones at the gym.

Ugh, triathlon and marathon training is turning out to = $$$ . . . but I really can't complain because I feel amazing and am pretty excited about these goals. Plus I'm planning on these being lifelong pursuits so I guess the initial investment is a little more palpable . . . Now I just have to convince my parents to let me take up space in their garage with a bike and trainer . . . Alternately I'll get ride of my bed and put the bike in my bedroom and just sleep on the floor (no, I'm not kidding).

Above: random image.

Sort of obvious but worth remembering: you want a better relationship? Work on yourself.

Left: ". . . the Rose of Jericho, native to deserts of North Africa. A resurrection plant. It is beautiful just as it is but you are supposed to put it in water . . . and it will get alive and green, then you can dry it again and use it over and over again." Source.

From The Buffalo News,

Domestic violence laws compound immigrants' culture shock: Common social practices are crimes in this country

Yesterday was my first brick workout: I did 5 miles of sprint intervals on the treadmill, and then jumped in the pool for 30 min of laps. It was definitely intense, but also felt awesome to mix up the activities. That was merely a taste though, since a few months from now I'll be putting in an hour on the bike, followed by an hour run, etc. Whew. I'm definitely feeling the pressure of training on my pocketbook, and I'm trying to remind myself that most of the gadgets I want are exactly that - gadgets I want, not need. That said, my wish list includes a stand so I can ride my bike in the garage during the winter (looking for a used one that will fit my beloved Fuji Newest), a few new pairs of running shoes (the Kinvara, another pair of Mizunos, etc) ($80 each), the Garmin Forerunner I've been drooling over for months ($250 inc heartrate monitor), an MP3 player for the pool (price varies, prob about $100)....and then eventually bike shorts, bike repair stuff, a few sessions with a swim coach etc. Sigh. Anyways, today's planned workout: bootcamp. Today's actual workout: bootcamp. Might try to hit up the pool this afternoon, but that seems unlikely since today is my first day back at work after a week off.

"Write hard and clear about what hurts." - Ernest Hemingway

Image: source.

What are we now but voices
who promise each other a life
neither one can deliver
not for lack of wanting
but wanting won’t make it so
We cling to a vine
at the cliff’s edge.
There are tigers above
and below. Let us love
one another and let go.

- Eliza Griswold

Image: from a recent cross-country ski trip to Buck Prairie.

Court Orders Counsel in Removal Proceedings for Mentally Disabled Immigrants: "The L.A. Times reports on a potentially cutting edge immigration case. A U.S. district court has ruled that two mentally disabled immigrants must be given lawyers in removal proceedings. This is one of the few times that a court has ordered representation for an individual in removal proceedings."

Image: source.

Some beautiful winter photography.

More support for immigration law clinics: "The Wall Street Journal reports on a very nice holiday gift to Benjam N. Cardozo School of Law. Kathy Greenberg, a public-interest lawyer, is giving $500,000 to the Law School to support the law school's immigration law clinic."

Santa Was in Prison and Jesus Got the Death Penalty

An infographic of Dexter's victims.

A little advice on first marathons and winter running.

“I’ve never seen compassion as an abstract noun. If you accept that we’re all composed largely of other people we’ve known, then compassion becomes a form of self-love.” Source.

“Leonardo’s Mona Lisa is just a thousand thousand smears of paint. Michelangelo’s David is just a million hits with a hammer. We’re all of us a million bits put together the right way.” - Chuck Palahniuk

Yesterday my scheduled training was 4 mi run and a 30 min swim - however, since it was New Year's Day the Y was closed. I decided to switch yesterday's and today's workouts (so I did a 6 mi run on Saturday and today will do the 4 mi sprint interval run and a 30 min swim). I think this sort of flexibility with the plan is inevitable, and acceptable, as long as I still get all the work outs done.

Image: source.

Above: liked these photos, The Art of Levitation.

The Wild Geese, by Wendell Berry

Horseback on Sunday morning,
harvest over, we taste persimmon
and wild grape, sharp sweet
of summer's end. In time's maze
over the fall fields, we name names
that went west from here, names
that rest on graves. We open
a persimmon seed to find the tree
that stands in promise,
pale, in the seed's marrow.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear,
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye
clear. What we need is here.

Image: source.

So many Kinvara raves! I give in, they will definitely be my next running shoe purchase.

New beauty from Lisette Murphy of the Tom Foolers.

Image: source.

I'd love to see an immigration law clinic at NUSL someday - this one at UC Davis sounds amazing.

Ways of falling in love.

Gorgeous calendar.

Thought this "sustainable marriage" quiz was interesting (for most relationships, actually, not just marriage).

“We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep. It’s as simple and ordinary as that. A few jump out windows, or drown themselves, or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us are slowly devoured by some disease, or, if we’re very fortunate, by time itself. There’s just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we’ve ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) know these hours will be inevitably followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning, we hope more than anything for more. Heaven only knows why we love it so.” - Michael Cunningham, The Hours

Yesterday I took a much-needed break from training after a few intense (but good) days on. The break was also because I had terrible cramps, something I haven't seen many female runners/triathletes write about and would be interested to hear more on (how do you change your training schedule, if at all, around your period, etc). Today's planned workout (the first of the 2011) is: 4 mi run (sprint intervals) and a 30 min swim.