Umpqua Trip Report Part 2 - Gaze at the Wonder

Leaving from the campground, due south, it was about 90 minutes to the edge of Crater Lake. The hollowed out volcano in which the lake rises immediately from the horizon, quickly taking over your entire field of visions after you enter the park.

About a mile from the North gate, we crossed a wide empty section of barren land which had been decimated thousands of years before when the eruption that made way for the lake occurred. The Native Americans in the area have a long oral tradition which includes stories of the explosion which shook the earth and blackened the skies.

Since I was lazy about posting this right away, and many of the finer points have slipped away. I'll shut up know and leave you with some pictures.

Also - go there. It's beautiful. Seriously.

Thoughts on Completing 12 Weeks of Crossfit

For a number of reasons, I've taken a little while away from the intertubes (or at least blogging). The election got too scary after the first debate to be funny and some last days of sunshine took precedent over spewing incoherent non-sense into the void.

The election is over.

The sun is gone forever (or at least May, assuming the Mayans are wrong).

 Please forgive me for being a bit extra self indulgent and intellectually light today.

In mid September, I started Crossfit with Meg out of a feeling that if I did not do something radical to change my habits that they were going to kill me. Not in a dramatic way mind you, but something slow and sad brought on through diabetes, emphysema and liver disease. I got winded on one flight of stairs. I was 214lbs. A six pack every night was an unnoticed part of my routine.

The last picture taken before I started class. Please take note of the beautiful man titties

Jump Start brought about immediate changes. For the first month, I adhered very strictly to Paleo to the frustration of many. I went to classes twice a week which I augmented with nightly runs and walks of 2-6 miles. By the third week, I had lost 24 lbs, and transitioned 6-10 additional lbs from fat to muscle. It was a revelation.

As the second month began, I started taking harder classes and going three times a week (MWF). The classes for these last 8 weeks have been block programming focused on building essential skills and strength. The experience is very different from my Jump Start class both in the level of difficulty and in the level of commitment from other students. There is a sense of shared motivation and suffering in these classes that builds a community. While my weight has  stabilized, I am seeing significant changes in my body both in size and strength.

Where them titties go?

Where I am struggling is maintaining a commitment to Paleo. After the first month, I started letting myself have treats on Saturday. By the end of the 6th week, I was finding that my "cheating" had made an incursion into weekdays, and that I was only following strict Paleo about 3 days a week. Now will come the challenge of re-igniting my motivation to shop, prep, cook and eat foods that are better for me.

For three years I had built a "balanced life" where self-indulgence was on one side of the scale, and money was on the other. I told myself that as long a I had a good job, the rest would sort itself out. 12 weeks ago, I added crossfit to this balance, and changed the way that I think about almost everything.

Umpqua National Forest: Trip Report Part 1

With the long winter rains approaching, and a seemingly endless summer of house guests coming to an end, it was time to make a break from reality and head to the forest. While there was some effort to set an agenda and destination prior to departure, these lofty goals gave way to the realities of a long work week and time to recover from crossfit.

And so it was last Saturday morning when we departed Portland with a car packed full of camping gear, vegetables, liquor, potable water and a freshly purchased map of Oregon and started driving south toward Umpqua National Forest.

After looking at camping options, we settled on Toketee Lake Campground nestled along the shore of Toketee Lake. The campground is very basic, but has large campsites separated by trees. The two downsides of the area are the constant white noise from the nearby Pacificorp hydro power assets, and the lack of a water spigot.

Having eaten and set up camp, we set off for the Umpqua Hot Springs. The sign for the hot springs has been removed and replaced with this little gem.

After 90 minutes driving up and down the same 9 miles of forest road looking for the turn off, we finally went by slowly enough to notice the Sharpied sign above and pulled into the parking lot dusty and victorious.

The hike in from the road is about 1/4 miles and includes one steep incline. The hot springs are very unique! They are a series of pools made from clay and stone that are embedded in the side of a hill. There are 9 pools in total, and as you move down the hill the pools get cooler. The pool at the top is an estimated 110 F, with the lowest pool being a toasty 85 F.

The site is dog friendly for the most part, and Senna made some friends. The only concern for friends beasts (animal and otherwise) is the presence of a cliff which is undetectable once the sun goes down.

The pools themselves have a teal color from the minerals in the water. As the light conditions change, the color of the pools is quite striking.

We hiked out in the dark, and got back to the campsite. With the moon rising late, we got an amazing show from the stars.

The next morning, we set off looking for something fun to hike. On the horizon, we saw a volcano looming the landscape around it. It took two hours to find a forest road that would bring us in the right direction. The road itself was an unimproved rutted dirt job, and the Subaru was at it's limits. Finally, with 3 miles of road ahead of us, we reached a series of water bars that brought us to a halt and pulled the car off and loaded up our back packs.

We set off on a 4.5 mile hike with a 2300 ft elevation gain to 8376 ft at the summit of Mt. Bailey. The trail was dusty with a constant incline for 3 miles. 3 miles in, we reached tree line, and the trail quickly turned to steep scree with the roots of scrappy pines lining the path.

The summit was crisp, clear and beautiful with a 360 degree view spanning the national forest. There was some smoke on the far horizon noticeable.

The dog, who had until then been cruising along reached her limit at the top, and was clearly feeling the altitude. After a long drink of water she collapsed in a small tired heap.

She got up for the trip down, and right as we reached 7000 ft, her tail started wagging and her energy returned.

After the hike down, we headed back to camp and made a mega dinner and prepared to set off for Crater Lake the next morning...

Today in why Mitt's Fucked: Liberal Trepidation Edition

Tonight was a tricky beast. I was watching the debate in a Portland Oregon bar which had a decidedly liberal bent to it. Obama got lots of applause, Romney got lots of boos. In some ways, it could have been like watching Independence Day from an alien bar.

In contrast, my friend was texting me from a bar in Tennessee, and sending messages to the effect of "Romney's cleaning up". These two very different settings cast two very different lights on the debate.

Now, with a couple hours behind the debate, and a couple of tequilas out of me, I am feeling nearly objective enough to make some kind of assessment of what really happened:

-Romney had a stronger debate, but gave up a lot of ground.
-Romney got in better points on the president's shortcomings
-Obama stayed on message and remained more composed
-Obama seemed muddle and reiterated lines on green energy and education that seemed hollow
-Romney genuinely lost control several times, showing cracks that made him seem like a sociopath and a wingnut

More analysis tomorrow. The key take away from tonight was that there was most certainly not a game changing moment and both candidates lived to fight another day. If Romney can string more of these together, we may yet see a real race. For all Romney has been criticized for not laying out specifics, Obama was equally evasive tonight - but he survived the economics debate, which was his biggest weakness. The question now is can Romney string some good days together, and can stand out clearly in the National Policy and Town Hall debates and bring forward his message clearly.

Bonus mindless observations:

-Why pick on Big Bird?

-Jim Lehrer would make a very good owl

-Gotta love the anniversary shout out

Today in why Mitt's Fucked: Paul Ryan can't Explain Romney Tax Plan

This morning, in my usual compulsive clicking and scanning of the New York Times, BBC, CNN, Fox News, The Daily Best, Slate, Politico and twitter I had a little revelation: Nobody is talking about Mitt Romney today. There were no headlines on anything coming from his camp, only some horse race stories and some grim statistics (for Romney) about the probability of him winning without Ohio (not good, for Romney).

I was about to close my laptop, end this blog and take up whittling, but mercifully I found this just in the nick of time I found this:

The fun starts about 30 seconds in where Chris Wallace asks Paul Ryan for specifics on the Romney Tax plan in order to counter claims that the math does not work. This is on Fox News, so the questions stay friendly and focused on proving doubter wrong. For the next three minutes Ryan beats around the bush while Wallace gently prods for some clarity on how revenue could go up when taxes are lowered 20 percent and Ryan gives up this gem: "It would take me too long long to go through all of the math". (Show's up at 2:25)

Through the whole series of questioning, Ryan squirms around giving any specifics at all. He doesn't name any loopholes that would be closed. He doesn't say who would benefit. He just wriggles invoking Reagan, bipartisanship and the old line that the plan is clear and well documented.

When Enron collapsed, Lewis Black observed (paraphrasing) If you can't explain what your business does in  a sentence, then chances are it's not honest. While this might be a little reductive, I think here we see the same thing apply to political platforms.

The Fitness Stimulus and Thoughts on my Experience with Crossfit

Over the last month, I have gone to Crossfit Portland 8 times. I have also taken on a high vegetable and lean protein diet and ditched all carbs, sugar, dairy, legumes and gluten. I have list 28lbs of fat and generally feel much more energetic and much happier than I did a month ago. Having a regular, friendly and challenging work out routine and a better diet changed me.

Tonight it occurred to me - how has this changed me? How could this affect others?

And then I thought - what if we provided a Fitness Stimulus.

We would fight our Obesity epidemic, people would be happier, and medical costs could be reduced.

There more it than that. This is an emergency for ability to defend ourselves. Two former Generals of the Joint chiefs of Staff recent put out a paper imploring a reaction to what they describe as "Too fat to fight". They are correct, 75% of 17 to 25 yearolds are too obese to be eligible for military service.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/too-fat-for-war/

And it gets worse. In 2010 Diabetes cost America $299 Billion. Fitness and better nutrition could fight this.

In many states, particularly in the deep south, obesity rates are above 30%. This creates many health problems other than diabetes and is correlated to everything from cancer to heart disease.

This clearly then is a problem that must be addressed to avert catastrophe. So how does it get done?

A $35 Billion stimulus aimed at encouraging and financing fitness and better nutrition at a rate of $1000 per American, and providing the USDA and Department of Health and Human services the ability to oversee a network gyms, leagues, nutritionists, child care, outdoor and sports stores, healthy restaurants and quality food purveyors who would be part of the program (let's call them Wellness Providers).

The WPs would compete in an ecosystem where each american could select the services which appealed to them and simply register their names upon payment to provide the WP with government dollars.

The accounts, which would be held by the government and kept in the individuals name in a payment database would be as a lump sum each year. Unspent dollars would not roll over to the next year to encourage full program utilization.

WPs would be under USDA and DHHS oversight, and would be required to provide an annual report on their activities

The program would be monitored with data available to the USDA, DHHS, FDA and  CDC. The data could only be reviewed after a 1 year delay, and only then in a manner that protected all personal details of the participants. The data could be used to measure the impact of the policy and fine tune the way WPs were  managed based on health outcomes.

If your thinking this is far fetched or a socialist plot, I suppose I can agree that certain parts might seem a little  extreme, and there are definitely edges here that I think could be rounded down and still create an effective program, ideally run over a 10 year period. In considering this proposal, the risk of not doing anything must be considered. America is headed for a disaster on many levels if we do not solve this slow epidemic.

If we act now, the benefits are almost limitless:

-Greatly reduced health costs

-Improved national security

-Improved productivity

-Reduced non-renewable resource use

This program could create an American culture of wellness and fitness and change the outcome of the 21st century. 

Today in Why Mitt's Fucked: A Campaign that was Lost in the Primaries

Turn your television or internets to pretty much any media outlet, and you will hear the following refrain over and over again from Republican talking heads:

 "Mitt has a likability issue. If people could just get to know the real Mitt, he would really connect with voters."

It makes a lot of sense. George W. Bush was palatable to moderate voters, despite having ruinous policies, because he came across as likable and seemed genuine. Romney is not going to be that guy - but in theory that's OK. There are lots of American personalities that American's don't like but whom are well regarded. Michael Bloomberg certainly comes to mind and therein lies Mitt's problem. He cannot run as Dubya, because he is not a fun or warm person, but he could have run as an experienced businessman, family man and earnest politician. Heck - he did that for a long time both at Bain and as the Governor of Massachusetts and it worked!

Instead he decided that Mitt had to become a brand, and a very conservative one, in order to win the primary. If he had held his fucking horses he might just be winning this thing now. 

Now, let's take a little trip back in time to last year when the Primaries were a total zoo. Bachmann was a presence. Perry was a favorite. Herman Cain was low profile, but intriguing. Santorum was on the periphery due to his "google problem". Ron Paul was Ron Paul. Newt Gingrich was having a late career comeback. There were more clowns in the car, but only Perry, Gingrich and Romney appeared to have any kind of credible shot at winning.

Sure, everybody got to be in front in the polls for a little while. Even this ^ guy, but nobody else really stood a chance over Romney. Let's remember who these people where!

-Cain was a serial groper who had to drop out on his own. Prior to that, "9-9-9" was his only message that made it through (for all of 72 hours).

-Perry shot himself in the foot when it turned out he couldn't get out a complete sentence at a debate. Remember the "oop" moment?

-Newt Gingrich had the terminal handicap of being an unlikable blow hard who had already proven at every turn to not be able to get out his own way. For fucks sake, he was cheating on his wife while impeaching Clinton.

Did Team Romney have the foresight and the balls to wait these idiots out? Did he have the patience watch them self destruct? Did he say, "hey, I have a $100 million cash advantage, let's wait for America to get sick of this."?

Nope.

He took the "safe" route out of all of this and beat a path clear to the right of all of them. He out Bachmanned Bachmann, he out anti-immigranted the Texan, he outcrazied Newt. He won and he won quickly. At what cost though?

Erik Fehrnstrom, a senior campaign adviser infamously said after the primary was won that the general election would provide an "Etch-a-Sketch" from the primaries hard line positions. Americans aren't that dumb though. 

Point being: Team Mitt wants so badly for America to get to know there guy and how great he is, but they spent more than a year keeping that "real Mitt" buried deep underground for when he was needed. The problem is, that now that they do need the moderate friendly Massachusetts Republican so badly, the first impression has already been made.