While the hostile takeover would be absurdly facile, it would be self-defeating and yield a hollow victory.
So, no choice but to continue wandering in the wilderness. Maybe I can get some tailored hairshirts to make myself comfortable.
If I start to style myself as Diogenes, which may be apt, I should afford myself time to think. So, I did.
I devised a solution to the problems. It is draconian, autocratic, and would be a bitter pill. But, I would be fine with it.
It addresses the adverse selection issue and many other issues. Still, it is all for naught. Merely a thought experiment. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
Note
It has been suggested by a wise person (who will remain nameless to protect the innocent) that we need to change the culture.
I wholeheartedly agree. That is ultimately what I want as well. My reforms would not pass unless the organization sees the need for them. It is like AA, I think. You have to acknowledge a problem exists. And we are so not there.
Still, on the subject of culture change, I think I will turn back to Gramsci. I haven't read his stuff in its entirety, and it is important.
Anyway, probably time to squelch my political/philosophical/organizational dynamics rants here lest people get turned off.
Rowing Machine1:30:00 20.46 km (4:24 / km)
A good row. One of the better long, slow ones recently. I did a very good job keeping it at 20 spm or below. It would creep over for a stroke or two before I brought it down. I did a good enough job that I rewarded myself with 5 minutes left. Then, the strokes went to 30 and then 35 and the splits went to 200 and then 156. There was some gas in the tank I see.
Rowing Machine5:00 [1]
Cooldown.
Weight training5:00 [2]
45 pushups and 100 ab things total, divided into 3 sets.
Note
One of the most rewarding things about being an athlete are those moments when your legs are springy, when you are lithe and limber, and when your muscles most certainly do not suck.
At one point, and admittedly for but a sliver of my life, I knew those moments well and saw them often. Today, and in recent years they have been fleeting and sporadic. Yet, they still occur, even if they are more often latent.
It is this potentiality, however, that makes it all worthwhile. Knowing that that feeling can still be summoned. It may take longer, it may be harder, but it can happen.
One day, be it next year, five years, 10 years, or more, those moments will be no more. It may be unrelenting injury, decrepitude, or something else. I really hope it is not due to mental weakness, but that is also a possibility.
But, it is not this day. [At this point it seems like I need a passage from Lord of the Rings, but I think I'll spare that for now.]
"Shealy believed that all people sought symmetry and purpose in their lives, something that lifted them up and made them feel better about themselves; and here were eight oarsmen, having worked so hard and sacrificed so much, catching something magical and doing race after race, each oarsman making the others better. The feeling made them not just confident but also complete, and it was magnified by the knowledge that what they were accomplishing was pure in its amateurism. They were doing this because they wanted to, for no reward other than the feeling itself."
Run1:00:00 [2] shoes: 9 2007 Saucony
Run with Dasha. Down toward TJ's.
Weight training30:00 [3]
A very good circuit. Probably the best possible with dumbbells.
"It was in its way a very macho world. The egos were immense--they had to be for so demanding a sport. Men of lesser will and ambition simply did not stay around. The oarsmen were almost to a man highly individualistic and exceptionally compulsive."
"The harsh weather, which drove off most of his contemporaries, drew him in. He had always felt comfortable in such weather. From the start he had a sense that this was a sport in which he could excel, for it required only strength and dedication, not skill or grace or timing."
Bike30:00 [2]
Level 6
Run30:00 shoes: 9 2007 Saucony
1 minute on, 1 minute off, from 10 to 25 minutes.
Last minute fast.
Weight training3:30 [2]
About 180 crunches--for the duration of Radio Nowhere.
"There had to be a form and purpose to life. That was one of the interesting things about rowing. Those who competed at this level did so with a demonic passion. Yet there was no overt financial reward at the end, nor indeed was there even any covert financial award, a brokerage house wanting and giving special privileges to the famed amateur."
Two today because they are so good.
"One could understand the son of a ghetto family playing in the school yard for six hours a day hoping that basketball was a ticket out of the slum; it was harder to understand the son of Beacon Hill spending so much time and subjecting himself to so much pain to attain an honor that no one else even understood. Perhaps in our society the true madness in the search of excellence is left for the amateur." [emphasis mine]
True dat, as they say.
[editorial cheap shot]: The search of excellence may be the domain of the amateur competitor, but certainly not that of the amateur event organizer. There, benighted mediocrity is the coin of the realm.
"In truth, deep down, he liked this aspect of the sport because it permitted ordinary and not particularly talented young men and women to reach beyond themselves. 'I think,' he once said, 'that what I like about it is the chance to be a hero. Every day in what seems like a very ordinary setting there are heroes in every boat, people reaching down to come up with that much more energy to make it work. I like that, I honor it and I think that it is special in this world.'"
Note
I so want to not besmirch my AP log with anything political (aside from orienteering politics) but it is hard to stand up to the gale force exultation going on, so much in the same way that I had/have to howl at the moon to cope with the heavy hand of the market tossing me about, I guess I have to say something to release the tension.
Gabe called me out of the blue, and I had dinner with him and his brother Larry. They are out of the blue, and even Canadian, but they voted red.
We were undercover though; in hostile territory. Gabe, bless his heart, didn't even know who Ron Paul is. Larry did, though. I knew he was the smart one!
"He was able to pull more weight than men far bigger and stronger than he, and he was willing to punish himself to an uncommon degree to achieve his objectives."
Run1:00:00 [2] shoes: 9 2007 Saucony
Rocky II was on while I was doing this. Not an especially good movie, or not really good at all, but it does have a few moments/themes which were redolent (not that kind of redolent) and therefore I find it worth watching.