Swayed

Loss aversion, value attribution, force of commitment, the chameleon affect, the irrational pull of fairness, and the altruism center vs. the thrill seeking part of our brains, all prove to me that we can't always trust ourselves. Sway probably could have been a 1000 page book if they wanted to include story after story about these forces. Reading about loss aversion and the force of commitment reminds me of the incredibly bad decisions the contestants on Deal or No Deal made. When contestants reached a high dollar amount and then started to open cases that lowered their deal offer, they began to think irrationally and make poor decisions - all in the name of recouping the loss form opening that last case. Essentially, it came down to placing a bet that had horrible odds that nobody would normally make. But, the contestants on Deal or no Deal continued to do it. After being offered over $200,000, a contestant irrationally continued to open cases until they were down to the final 2 cases - $5,000 and $1. The contestant figures I already lost $200,000, what's another $5,000. When, in actuality, the contestant showed up with nothing and can go home with $2500 by taking the deal. 100% chance to make $2,500 or a 50% chance to make $5,000. In any other circumstance, the person would take the $2,500 but not on this game show.

Ran a quick 3.1 miles yesterday in around 24 minutes. I must have chosed the fast treadmill as the Nike+ sensor recorded 3.2 miles in the same time. I never really thought that the calibration of treadmills would be different from one to another. But, this does seem to be the case as everytime I run, I get different results. It also seems that the speed of the treadmill effects the Nike+ sensor as an increase in the speed on the treadmill does not give as much of an increase on the speed of the Nike+ sensor.

The irresistable pull of irrational choices and a recap of runs

Had a good week of running last week. Ran 4 miles on the treadmill on Monday, 4.8 miles outside on Tuesday and ran 6.2 miles on the treadmill on Friday. Felt great during the tread mill runs, but felt terrible running outside. This is starting to be a pattern. I can't seem to run outside very well lately, but I am tearing it up on the treadmill. Friday's run was my best ever. I ran 6.2 miles in 44.18 (although the treadmill read 6.2 miles in 43:48 - the calibration is slightly off) for an average pace of 7:07 per mile. I ran the first mile in 7:52 just getting warmed up. I hit 4 miles at 38:50, pushing 9.7 mile/hr in the last half mile. Slowed down to catch my breath in mile #5 and increased back up to 9.4 miles/hr for the last half mile again.
My Ipod Nano is acting funny - when I ended the run, I did not get the summary I had anticipated or the acknoledgement that I achieved my fastest run for the third straight workout. When I tried to look back at my history it showed that I only ran 3.25 miles. The Ipod also shows that I have no saved runs. When I plug the Ipod into my laptop and synch it up, it clearly shows my last run being 6.2 miles. Very odd. I will have to go to the forums to see what is the issue.

Started to read Sway by Ori and Rom Brafman this weekend. I love it. More than haflway done with this short 200 page book. The stories and the studies that they site are all very intriuging. I also appreciate the segways between topics - very well written, easy to follow, and fast paced.

Reaching the promised land

Finished up America's Prophet by Bruce Feilier over the weekend. While this book was very interesting, I struggled thru much of it. I drifted quite a bit and often found that I had no idea how the author transitioned to a new topic. Of the 3 books that Glenn Beck recommended to read, I would rank them 1)The Age of the Unthinkable, 2)The Survivirs Club, 3)America's Prohpet. I really had no idea how every generation in America has raised up a "Moses." From Christopher Columbus to the pilgrims to George Washington to the Liberty Bell to Abraham Lincoln to the Statue of Liberty to Harriet Tubman to Martin Luther King Jr, the story of Moses has been ingrained into our society. Incredibly enlightening since much of my life I believed that Religion played little to no role in shaping this counrty. Taking into account the recent court decision that a National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, I think more people need to learn the history of this country as it actually was instead of the revisionist history that is being touted in the schools and the media.
Some great nuggets from this book include the Supreme Court ruling banning the Ten Commandments in courthouses has perpetuated by a publicity stunt by Paramount for the movie The Ten Commandments.
Great quotes - "With freedom comes great repsonsibility." The great men that shaped this country knew that. The great men that lead us out of slavery knew that. The great men that perpetuated the civil right movement in the 20th century knew that. Do we still know this today?

Freedom, Slavery and run #3

Page 96 - "The newly freed slaves remain trapped in a web of servility; they are passive, weighed down by oppression, frightened. They have the misplaced notion that freedom means lack of responsibility. 'The Childish and irressponsible slave or subject is free in ways the republican citizen can never be.'"

Felt good running again today on the treadmill. 4.12 miles in 29:45. Recorded a personal best for the mile at the end of the run at 6:46.

1 down.....49 to go

Finished "Liberty and Tyranny" yesterday and started to read "America's Prophet" by Bruce Feiler. This is the 3rd book that Glenn Beck suggested to read on his program a few months ago. I have already read "Survivor's Club" by Ben Sherwood and "The Age of the Unthinkable" by Joshua Cooper Ramo. Both of those were excellent books that I have found myself bringing up in everday convesation latley. 50 pages in, "America's Prophet is very interesting!

2nd run and tyranny posing as righteousness

What a great line! "Tyranny posing as righteousness.." Found on page 126 of "Liberty and Tyranny" For me, this line sums up this book perfectly. Tyranny as defined by dictionary.com is "arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power". Righteous is defined as "The quality or state of being in accordance with virtue or morality." So, by hiding behind the mask of doing what is virtuous and moral, the government has been able to exercise and unrestrained use of power. After seeing what has transpired in congress over the healthcare bill, this quote also sums up the current state of our republic.

It is virtually freezing outside today. Temperature in the 30's with some April flurries blowing around. It doesn't get much better than April snow. As such, I decided to run inside on the treadmill. I ended up running 4.11 miles in 29:47 for an average pace of 7:13 min/mi per the Nike+. I felt really good running as I gradually increased my speed throughout from 7.6 miles/hr finishing up at 9.3 miles/hr. Tiger Woods was nice enough to congratulate me on my fastest mile. Too bad he had just missed saving par on the 4th at the Masters. I also heard that Tiger still has not met a hole he has not liked.

First Run and the manipulation of laws

Knocked out the first run of my goal today. 4.11 miles in 34:34 at an average pace of 8:24 min/mile. Burning 451 calories per the Nike+ Ipod. I will be uploading all of my runs to Nikerunning.com. I ran today on the newly opened in-plant fitness trail at my workplace. I am not too excited about running it again as I would prefer to leave the plant and run along the lake or in some nearby wooded lots. The trail was very tough to run on as the gravel that they laid out was not compacted. It felt like I was running on sand at times. Also, the trail took me right through the middle of the avenue where some people were yelling at me for running through the plant - a long standing rule that has since been abolished to accomodate healthy lifestyles. So my pace was slower than usual for these reasons.

Page 53 of "Liberty and Tyranny" points to Wickard vs. Filburn, the 1942 Supreme court case which concluded that a farmer growing wheat on his own land for his own purpose is still subject to federal production limits even though it never left the state. Somehow, this still falls under intersate commerce laws defined under the constitution. This began the much abused practice of the judiciary manipulating law in order to promote the Statists agenda. This grants more power to the mighty government and takes away from the individual states. I never realized how important states rights are to a free society. Seeing how much the states are now relying on the federal government lately, I guess many more people don't realize that either.

Politics

As I am reading Liberty and Tyranny, I can't help but to reflect on how far I have come on understanding politics, why it is important, and how it effects our daily lives. Growing up, I could not care any less about politics, who the president was, or what debates were currently going throught the House and Senate. I could not tell you how the republicans and the democrats differed on the issues and I certaintly could not tell you what principles this country was founded on. Embarrasingly, during the 2000 presidential election, I actually thought, for way to long, that George H. W. Bush was running for a 2nd term. What changed? Just before the 2004 election, I decided that I wanted to exercise my right to vote for the first time. So, I decided to read up on the views of all the candidates running. I found that I didn't really care about the issues. My problem was that I was not rooted in any principles. My gut was telling me that I should feel one way, but years of casual observance were pulling me to the exact opposite. I didn't know what to believe or what to think. So, I decided I should read a book to help me find my way. The most popular book at the time, and from a casual principe-less stanpoint, the most touted book at the time was Michael Moore's "Dude, Where's my Country." I bought the book of off half.com and read every page. I'll admit that Michael Moore made some very compelling arguments. However, the whole time I was reading the book, something did not feel right about it. Years of casual observance conditioned me to believe that what was written in this book was truth, but I just did not agree with it. The sad thing was that I could not tell you why. I had no principles to stand on. So, I continued on. The local Erie AM station, WTAM, broadcast the Rush Limbaugh show at noon and the Sean Hannity show at 3pm. I started to listen to these guys as much as possible. Contrary to the way I felt reading Michael Moore, listening to Rush and Hannity spoke to my core beliefs. So, for the last 6 years, I have been listening to talk radio almost daily to obtain a better understanding of the world we live in. It is this progression that has brought me to Mark Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny".

Book #1: Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin

I started to read Mark Levin's book Liberty and Tyranny today. I am about 20 pages in (I would be 23 pages in if not for needing to re-read 3 pages that my mind drifted off during.) So far, I am enjoying the perspective of the statist vs. the individual. I do believe this book will help shape my arguments about small vs. big governments. For the record, I am a registered republican. Although, I would label myself a conservative first and hope the republican party follows the conservative guidlines. I will post more about Liberty and Tyranny and my own political belief journey tomorrow. For now I will stay depressed over the Indians opening day 6-0 loss to the White Sox and try to watch the end of the Duke v. Butler Final.

Welcome

Thank you for joining me on my quest to read 50 books and run 500 miles over the next year. I am sure to some this may not seem like a difficult task, but for me, this will be a great challenge. First of all, I am not a fast reader. In fact, I am probably a slower reader than the average person. What makes me a slow reader? I am incedibily anal about reading every single word in a book and I have a hard time focusing all of my thoughts on one task. That combination causes me to reread many sentences, paragraphs, even pages. It also prevents me from skipping over boring descriptions that do not add to the storyline. That aside, I have also not read many books throughout my life. In high school and college, I was a cliff notes kind of guy. I probably have more copies of cliff notes that I have read somewhere in my parents basement than actual books that I was supposed to read.

On to the running part of the blog. 500 miles in 1 year comes out to be 9.62 miles per week or 1.37 miles per day. That does not seem to be an incredible task, but I have never been much of a runner so this will be a big task for me. Growing up, I played a lot of sports. Everything under the sun, and somethings under synthetic lighting. Soccer, baseball, tennis, baseketball, bowling, football, ping-pong, etc. I was very active. Of all the sports, soccer bacame my passion. As many soccer players will say, running was always my enemy. I only ran when I had to and never anymore. It's incredible that I could go out and play two 90-minute soccer games in a single day, probably running between 10-15 miles during the course of those games and be fine. But, ask me to go run 3 miles around a track and I would struggle. I was never able to get into the mindset of running for the sake of running and not running because that's where the ball was. It's a different perspective that I am just now starting to grasp.

The third challenge of this blog (yes there is a 3rd challenge) is actually posting the blog entries on a daily basis. There are a million blogs on the net right now that are updated multiple times a day, so this would not seem like a challenge, but I have also never been much of a writer. I have never kept a journal (except for a brief semester in college when I was required to for a grade) and I have never written a review on Amazon or Google or any other peer reviewed sites. I have never even posted comments on other blogs or websites. So, writing about books that I have read and about my running habits will not be easy.

So, why would a guy who never really liked to read books, never really liked to run, and never really liked to write start a blog with an ambitious goal of reading and running? As I write this blog, I hope to figure out the answer to that question and many more.