Thursday, August 8, 2013

Welcome to Lori Hardin

Welcome

Lori Hardin's new website for her Port Orchard Salon.  Still a work in progress, but it should be a great way to help new and existing clients get in touch with this talented stylist. 

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Google News Archives

Lori Hardin, Port Orchard Washington.  In Kitsap county.    Look what I found on Google's archives.  Baby Jamie's announcement in the Brewster paper.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Lori Hardin triathlete in Port Orchard Washingtion

Shaping up to be a good tri season this year.  Recently finished the Wentachee half marathon, with Lori Hardin and Peter Braun.  We drove over from Port Orchard and had a great time in Wenatchee.  The atmosphere was very charged and emotional due to being so close to the Boston mararthon bombings.  The race went good, and now we are looking at signing up for the Chelanman Olympic tri and the Tri Turtle tri.  We like to support local Kitsap events when we can.  Also a possiblity is the Zombie run in August.  Exited for all the events and lots of Training with Lori Hardin. 

Thursday, July 28, 2011

A Bit of Self Discovery

There have been two fairly major events for me in the triathlon scene in the last month.  First, was the Coeur d'Alene Ironman, where I was able to watch my cousin finish the most inspiring athletic event I've ever witnessed.  The second, was the Chelanman where I did my first Olympic triathlon. 

Experiencing the Ironman was one of the coolest things I've done in my life.  From the thrill of the group start where 2800 competitors hit the water at the same time, to the determination on the faces of the last swimmer out of the water before the course closed.  And of course the joy and accomplishment on the faces of the racers at the finish when they heard their names called followed by "you are an Ironman".  To be there was both inspiring and humbling. 

My own event - the Chelanman was a different sort of learning experience.  The day before the race I injured my back.  (I later learned via MRI that it was an L5-S1 herniation with nerve impingement)  I spent about 24 hours debating whether I'd be able to participate at all let alone finish.  The lowest moment was when I took my bike of the car to go set up my transition.  I hopped on to see how it felt to ride.  The pain was bad enough I almost put the bike back on the rack to go home without even picking up my race packet.  I decided I would start and abandon the race when the pain was too bad when ever that happened to be. 

On race day I was feeling okay thanks to some pharmaceutical intervention.  The swim went great.  The bike started out rough, but got more comfortable.  I never was fast and didn't have much power in my legs, but overall it was fine.  It was the run portion that was the most difficult.  I started out very slow and had to walk the first hill on the course.  After that I was able to maintain a slow pace that felt pretty normal.  It seems my stride didn't look very normal, however.  Somewhere around mile 4 of the out and back course I met a guy running with a prosthetic leg.  He looked at me trying to run and asked if I needed his leg. (In my opinion the best line of the day) 

In the end I finished, which was more than I expected.  And I think I learned something about myself.  I've always pictured myself as kind of soft mentally.  I've thought that I never had the reserve to push myself hard, to work through discomfort.  I was truly surprised that I wanted this bad enough to keep going.  It kind of felt good to know I've got a little toughness in me somewhere. 

Now if I can just rehab my back in time to get in one more race this year.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Blog Reboot

It has been an appalling amount of time since I've posted anything.  The only thing this blog has been good for is collecting spam comments.  And it has been over three years since I had anything substantial to write about other than the occasional SDA clash with good science.  I sort of grew bored with that whole topic.  Not that it has gone away, I just lost my ability to care now that I have the appropriate time and distance from the source of my frustration. 

So, it was a few years ago that I though being a bodybuilder would be a fun thing to try, and I wrote a lot about that experience.  The "iron" part of Iron Soul.  My effort was good for a below average result, and I never really worked up the passion for another attempt to see if I could improve.  The gym rat part of my soul never withered away though. It is just much more fun without the extreme dieting, fake tan and speedos.

Starting last summer I was inspired by my Superstar Wife to try a new way to torture myself.  I faced down fear of swimming and got into the triathlon game.  I did two sprint distance events last summer, that I enjoyed a lot.  Now I'm trying to take it up an notch.  I signed up for the olympic distance at this year's ChelanMan.  

Life and weather have not cooperated in my training so far, but I had a good weekend where I swam a mile on Saturday and did a 25 mile - 4 mile bike/run day on Sunday.  That has given me confidence that I can complete the distance.  Don't know yet if I'll be able to turn in a time that will satisfy me, but so far even the training has been fun.  Looking forward to race day July 16.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Dangerous Reason

When your worldview is built on a foundation of ignorance, there is no greater threat than critical thinking skills. I think most believers, if they took the time to think honestly about this, know it to be true. They often get so close, but fail to take the final step. They can recognize the danger of reasonable, critical thought, but choose to avoid thinking rather than question their foundation.

I came across a beautiful example of this in the latest Westwind (Walla Walla Univeristy's alumni journal). In Ginger Ketting-Weller's (vice president for academic administration) interview with Dan Lamberton she asks this question:

I'm not ready to get into Professor Lamberton's responce. It is a bit better than the question, but still unsatisfying. He at least admits that core tenets such as the virgin birth are unbelievable, but then seemingly retreats behind an amorphous shield of the sense of wonder this produces.

For me it is the question itself is what is interesting. Intelletually fulfulling belief is not something to be valued. The implied goal of this educational institution is to shelter students - to strengthen indoctrination. This creates a house divided. It is impossible to provide real education and shelter ignorance. Reason is dangerous to cherished delusions.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Reality vs. Dogma: Adventist Education

Thanks to Tim for passing the latest on this story along to me. As I've become increasingly detached from my Adventist past I've failed to keep up with the controversy about evolution allegedly being taught at La Sierra University. I've also failed to devote much attention to the blog (probably also a result of my increased detachment).

Recently, however, there has been a little action involving the La Sierra biology curriculum. First, a pair of articles in the Adventist Review briefly covering the pro-evolution accusations and the resulting board action. Actual details are few though the school is careful to stress its young earth creationist position and distance itself from Professor Gary Bradley who bravely says "It's very, very clear that what I'm skeptical of is the absolute necessity of believing that the only way a creator God could do things is by speaking them into existence a few thousand years ago." That is the one bright spot in the entire affair. Things rapidly go downhill with Dr. Ricardo Graham, president of the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and chairman of the Board of Trustees at La Sierra University prioritizing Seventh-Day Adventism over education.

From there things get absurd and somewhat entertaining. As of 1 June 2010, the Michigan Conference will no longer provide employee subsidy for students attending La Sierra. Money quote from the memo released:
" Resolved: To encourage each Seventh-day Adventist college and university to continue to strengthen the principles of biblical authority and faith. In support of these principles we urge continued development of educational strategies and faculties which would move these institutions to becoming centers of excellence in promoting, cultivating and defending creation science. We define creation science in the context of the recent creation week of seven ordinary, literal, historical, consecutive, contiguous twenty-four hour days of divine creation and rest as described in Genesis ".
As I've said before, I feel like I got an excellent education (not in biology) at an Adventist school. And I'm sure that the Michigan Conference is not representative of all US Adventists. But I don't see how an Adventist education can continue to be relevant when dogma is given institutional support in the face of contradictory reality.