Swim Across the Sound 2017

Alright folks.  As promised, here's the fundraising pitch:

Click here to support St. Vincent's Hospital and me!

I’ve just entered the 2017 Swim Across the Sound to support St. Vincent’s Medical Center.  For those of you who don’t know, cancer pretty much wiped out my family, taking both grandmothers, my grandfather, my mother, and even hitting my father, though he survived.  This particular event is therefore very close to my heart.  If you have a bit of time, I would very much appreciate your support.

My friend Ben took this during the 2015 Swim Across the Sound.

The Swim Across the Sound is a relay marathon swim.  We swim 15 miles from Port Jefferson, NY, to Bridgeport, CT.  My part will probably be about 4 miles, which is a long way but by no means the upper limit of my swimming abilities.  I did this event in 2015 and really enjoyed myself.  I’ve been swimming a lot this year, especially open water, and my wife encouraged me to enter after a recent 3-mile swim a few weeks ago.

More details, including support information, are included via the link below.  Please feel free to forward the link to this post to anyone you think might be interested in supporting the cause.  I’ve gotten a late start at fundraising and have been assigned to a team that needs a quite a bit of support right now.

This is a blatant emotional appeal to all the Army grads out there.
I know you can afford to support my cancer charity.  PLEASE HELP!

Click here to support St. Vincent's Hospital and me!

Thank you very much !

5 Things on a Friday: Let’s Talk about Messaging

Something occurred to me this week.  It’s this: The right way to talk about the current moment in politics isn’t to talk about the politics of the current moment at all.  In the modern world, one can find news to fit one’s worldview regardless of what that worldview happens to be.  Someone out there somewhere is reporting news with an editorial slant that agrees with whatever philosophy each and every one of us personally finds comforting.  Since people like to feel good about themselves, almost everyone has chosen to get their news from sources that make them feel some combination of smart and vindicated.

Arguing about reality is therefore pointless, and indeed, it’s becoming increasingly pointless to argue at all.  

Spoiler alert: no one is listening.

With this in mind, I’ve realized that the right way to talk about modern politics is to ignore the message and to focus entirely on the success or failure of the messaging.  In the end, it’s the success or failure of the marketing that’s going to determine the future of this country.

3200 Yards Mid-Tempo Swimming

I've done a lot of aerobic-paced open-water work lately, so I wanted to put in a better quality workout when I hit the water last night.  I didn't have quite as much time as I might've liked, but I managed just under two miles in maybe forty-five minutes.  That owes mostly to fast intervals rather than to any commitment to minimize rest breaks.

Trailers Coming Out of SDCC

This one might be my favorite...

Darkness falls across the land… Here is the first trailer for #StrangerThings2. pic.twitter.com/534mDf1Os2

— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) July 22, 2017

Right?

5 Things on a Friday: Vegas Sets the Lines

Happy Friday, folks.  I hope everybody out there in Internetland is feeling it for the weekend.

Let's get it on!

A.W.O.L.

I've been watching HBO's True Blood for the past few weeks via Amazon Prime.  I wouldn't bring it up, except that it's been cutting into my writing time in a serious way.  But I can't shake it.  Cajun Redneck Vampire Porn turns out to be surprisingly addictive once you get into it.

I just started Season 4.  I'm sure I'll be back to a more regular schedule in a couple of weeks.

4600 Yards & a Bit of Swimming Philosophy

It's been kind of a slow week since last Saturday's long open water swim.  I rode my commute a few times, but I got shut out by rain on Friday, and I only managed a little more than 2000 yards when I finally hit the pool Thursday evening.  When I got into the water late this morning, I felt like I needed to catch up.

I still don't know that I necessarily had my best stuff, but my times were decent, and I managed to hang in there until I started feeling at least somewhat like myself in there.  More and more, that's what it takes to have decent workouts.

5 Things on a Friday: Vain Hopes & False Prophecies

Happy Friday, folks.  I hope everybody out this is doing fine this week.

Long Open Water Swim

Sally and I went for a long swim yesterday, me actually in the water and her following in her kayak.  We started at the Boat Club about ten minutes before high tide with the idea that we'd swim with the current out from the club, through the mouth of the estuary, past Short Beach to Stratford Point, and on to Russian Beach.

Bridgeport Bluefish Report for July 7, 2017

We went out to the Ballpark at Harbor Yard last night to watch our beloved Bridgeport Bluefish take on the New Britain Bees for the first of a three game home series.  This year's Bluefish team is the best that Bridgeport has fielded since at least 2010.  The team is talented and fun to watch, and before last night's game, they sat a mere half-game out of first place in the Atlantic League's Liberty Division.

The Bridgeport Bluefish

Still, we weren't initially planning to go last night's game.  I got an email late in the week from the team's Social Media Director asking if Hannah could sing the National Anthem before the game and accepted gladly, though it's been over a year since Hannah had her last voice lesson.  Sally therefore scheduled a last-minute warm-up session with Hannah's old coach, and we made plans to get to the ballpark early, so that we'd be ready for the big moment.

5 Things on a Friday: Don’t Beat the Fluffy!

Keeping it short this week.  We've had a lot going on at our house, and anyway, the actual news remains as depressing as ever.

Thoughts on the Inhumans’ Trailer

Marvel came out with a trailer for their new Inhumans TV show, set to debut this coming September.  Though the show is set around an interesting concept, I confess that I didn’t necessarily love everything we saw in the trailer.  I’ll withhold any final judgments until after I’ve seen the premier episodes—available in IMAX theaters!—but at this point, the entire enterprise strikes me as something of a tough sell.

Happy 4th of July!

Yesterday was a pretty good day for me despite the fact that I had to work.  It was R-Day, which is always fun so long as I don't have to participate, and I closed out the day with a Bluefish win over the York Revolution down at the Ballpark at Harbor Yards.  Even the Yankees won behind a suddenly resurgent Masahiro Tanaka and good hitting.