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Category Archives: Personal
Happy New Year!
Here’s to a productive 2013 with projects getting completed, jobs prospering and the country moving forward on equality!
Run!
I dragged myself out of bed this morning to go for a run and boy am I glad I did! I ran a bit further than my goal, I am quite awake right now and I have now ran over 1300 total miles with Nike+!
That’s enough miles to run from Purdue to Boston and 1/3 the way back!!
More Than Just A Couple
Today, in an email from Indiana Equality Action, I learned that there are 614 rights and responsibilities denied to Justin and I as we are not able to get married in the State of Indiana. These are on top of the 1,138 rights and responsibilities granted at the Federal level. So now we’re up to 1,752 ways I am being denied rights and responsibilities at both the State and Federal levels of government.
How can anyone reasonably claim that to not be discrimination?
Click the photo to view all 614 items.
Molly
A quick post with some pics of Molly from just after midnight Sunday evening. Yes, we have a Spider-Man bedspread on our bed. It is as awesome as it sounds!
Backyard Panorama
Saturday before dinner I went outside and played around some with the new Panorama mode on the new iPhone 5. I’d heard that there were apps that could do this before, but I have never used those so thought I’d finally give it a shot. The first try was interesting but I went to a different part of the pond and the second attempt was more visually stunning due to the more consistent lighting. Enjoy!
Purdue Half Marathon and 5K
Yesterday was the first annual Purdue Half Marathon and 5K. It was a pretty cold day ( 43º according to the Nike Running app), but the race itself was pretty fun.
As it took me days to fully recover from the half marathons that I have run, I have decided that they definitely aren’t for me. I congratulate those that did run it, but I’m perfectly happy to run the 5k alone.
I’m also happy with my overall time although it definitely is lower than the first 5k I’ve ever ran back in 2010.
OVERALL RESULTS: (Number finished = 763)
Place Age
Overall Grp Name Pace FINISH
-------------------------------------------------------
74 11 KEITH MCDERMOTT 07:57 24:42.5
The hardest part of the entire race was definitely the climb back up the back of the stadium. That is quite a steep incline! (You can tell where this was on the track by looking at the darkest part of the heat-map for my run of the 5k to the right. I actually just walked part of the way up!)
Despite the one slow-part I encountered, I did enjoy the race and would definitely run it again and recommend it to others. It was the inaugural race so of course there will be kinks to work out, but it can only get better over time!
Enjoy a small gallery below of pics of runners from the half marathon and others in the 5k portion as well.
Hair-b-Gone!
Today I decided that I was kinda sick of the long hair. So, I chopped it all off. That is all.
TCF: Afterthoughts
Today, Justin and I took the TCF (Test de connaissance de Française) at the Alliance Française de Chicago. I have taken a French class at the Alliance as well as private tutoring to help me to prepare for the test while we both took advantage of many resources to study practice tests for the TCF (All resources we used are listed below. Links are provided if available.)
While we will not know the results of the test for 2-3 weeks from now, we are hopeful that at least I was able to obtain an A2 level of French in both oral express and comprehension. The language structure and reading comprehension portions of the test were not important for us however we tried to do the best possible that we could regardless. I felt like I stuttered a lot during the verbal expression, however looking back I think it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I was able to expand on several topics while staying in-line with the theme. Justin didn’t do bad as well and hopes to possibly reach a basic A2 level.
Resources used:
- French Faster private tutoring (Thanks Zarrina!!)
- French classes from Alliance Française de Chicago
- TV5 TCF Website
- Réussir TCF book
- Belin TCF book
- TCF 250 Activities book
Pastor on Obama and Marriage Equality
The video above is difficult for me to watch because the Pastor’s voice is pretty hard to follow just because of his intonation. However, it’s one of several great videos which have come out recently from various churches ever since President Obama stated his stance on marriage equality. It’s well worth watching the entire video!