Just spoke to UNR Extended Studies. They’re going forward with the interviews. Guess I should get ready. ;-)

From the Reno Gazette-Journal:

UNR halting new state-funded hires

Faced with a projected $2.1 million shortfall partly caused by soaring utility costs, the University of Nevada, Reno has implemented an immediate hiring freeze on state-funded teaching and staff positions.“Just as our own personal utility bills have escalated, the university’s utility bills have skyrocketed - in our case, more than $650,000 to date - beyond what we initially had anticipated,” UNR’s Provost and Executive Vice President John Frederick wrote in a campuswide e-mail Monday.

I’ll be making a phone call in the morning…

Whenever I set a personal best, the first words out of The Bride’s mouth are, invariably, “Don’t you think you’re doing too much?” (She stopped saying that recently, but only with great willpower.)

My response: “What is the point of having limits if you don’t keep pushing them?”

The United States Marine Corps says it better: “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” Booyah, Baby!

You know where this is going and I must beg your forgiveness, but I’m burning on an endorphine high as I write this. In January, I’ve done eight 30-minute rides so far (and four 20-minute rides). These are the distances in miles. If you want to know my average speed on these rides, simply double the distances:

Jan. 09: 7.15 (14.3 mph average)
Jan. 10: 7.70
Jan. 17: 8.25
Jan. 20: 7.11
Jan. 26: 8.18
Jan. 27: 7.80
Jan. 28: 8.30
Today : 8.80 (17.6 mph average)

That’s 7.9 average with a 23% increase in distance from the first ride to the last. According to bikejournal.com, I’ve burned 5,600 calories this month when including the 20-minute rides. I’m aiming to complete ten miles in 30 minutes.

In the grand scheme of things, especially in the world of bicycling, these numbers are nothing, but like all things relative, they mean something to me and all of this would have been totally unthinkable a few short years ago. I’m a techie by trade, and daily exercise is pushing a mouse and a good diet means not supersizing.

But then my personal fitness hero, Aunt Lily, re-entered my life and she’s a marathoner (!!!). A close relation of mine is physically fit? Get out of town on the horse you rode in on. And so is her significant other, the Zinger, someone for whom I have an infinite world of respect. They have this incredible love for life. Amazing.

My catchy line at this point is usually, “When I grow up, I want to be just like them.” The fact is I am grown up, so no more excuses and no fear. I can’t run like them, but I can fly on a bike.

Speaking of which, I rode to Dayton last October and I coasted down the big hill at about 41 mph. Reading the current issue of Bicycling magazine and found a blurb about Alpine bikers who regularly descend mountain roads at an average speed in the 50s. Holy cow. Think how fast I would have gone if I’d had a street bike instead of a mountain bike. (grin)

By the by, Aunt Lily is training again so check out her blog, dudes.

Distance: 8.80 miles
Time: 30:00 minutes
657 calories burned

Took the day off from the gym to give my legs and knees a break. Will probably work on class stuff and other crap.

If you haven’t seen the SNL Narnia video, please come out into the sunlight. The world is pretty and we miss you. Here’s the West Coast response for you.

Bumped in an old high school teacher at the gym yesterday, but I doubt he remembered me. It’s funny how people can be a large influence in your life for a chunk of time. This particular one dominated every room he was in and had little to no patience with hyper-hormonal teenagers…and our bunch were the ones who behaved ourselves at Cartoon High. Today, he’s in his seventies and has shrunk to half of what he was. It was kind of a spooky encounter.

In the category of getting your knees cut off: President Bush among many others advocated “intelligent design” (ID) as an alternative method of introducing creationism into K-12 education. It’s a nice catchphrase to rally around and gives credence to the faith-based belief that a Great One (no, not him or him) developed a universe from a cosmic blueprint.

It sounds good, except for teeny-tiny, oh so little insignificant detail: somebody forgot to check with headquarters. A scholar published in the Vatican newspaper wrote that ID was ideology and not proven science, and that biological evolution “represents the interpretative key of the history of life on Earth.”

“This isn’t how science is done. If the model proposed by Darwin is deemed insufficient, one should look for another, but it’s not correct from a methodological point of view to take oneself away from the scientific field pretending to do science.”

Here’s a summary of the article. Memo to creationists: back to the drawing board. Pun intended.

I don’t have a problem letting kids learn about ID in public high school as long as it’s taught as an alternate method. I suspect it’d be a waste of time because kids today are so much more worldly that they were fifty years ago. They cut their teeth on the scientific method, for the most part.

Dropped in this blog somewhere the mention of Barry Bonds quitting the World Baseball Classic because he wants to be healthy for the upcoming season. ESPN reports the athletes participating in the WBC will have to undergo Olympic-style drug testing for all performance enhancing supplements, hormones, and condiments (like sweet mustard - it’s a dog). It will not be the cursory examinations previously mandated by Major League Baseball. Coincidence, Mr. Bonds?

We all have our addictions but methamphetamine users are in a special hell of their own doing. Check out these pictures.

Did the bills and found we don’t got the capital to cover our debits (surprise), so I gave up on My Ultimate IPod Dream and bought one of the cheaper models. Now the bills are a little happier and my conscious is not so angry.

And now after playing with the darn thing, I’m having that “having is not nearly as satisfying as wanting” feeling. There’s a reason Greed is a Deadly Sin.

(That aside, please feed my hungry little IPod. :))

The fun never stops. After setting a new distance record on the stationary this morning, came home and found the interview package from UNR Extended Studies (EXS) (verbatim below). The butterflies in my stomach have turned into Boeing 747s with firewalled engines.

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Interview schedule for Robert Moore

Friday, February 3

8:15-8:30
Review interview questions

8:30-9:30
Meet with committee, conference room

9:30-9:35
Short break for candidate

9:40-9:55
Presentation and Q&As with EXS staff, Room 109

9:55-10:10
Meet with Associate Vice Provost, Dee Henderson

Presentation Information
Our staff would like to get to know you! In order for this to happen, please be prepared to deliver an informal ten (10) minute presentation to the entire Extended Studies staff regarding your motivation in applying for this position.

We’d like you to tell us why you feel this position meets your career goals and why you want to working in Extended Studies. We’d like you to address the following items, but you are certainly not limited to these, if time allows!

- What skills will you bring to this position?

- What motivates you in the workplace?

- What is your management/training style?

- What is your preferred/strongest communication style?

- How do you function in a constant multitasking environment?

- What expectations do you have of your direct reports and consequently what expectations should they have of you?

- What expectations do you have of Extended Studies and what expectations should the organization have of you?

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Distance: 8.30 miles
Time: 30:00 minutes
609 calories burned