30 Hill Challenge.

I turned 30 recently. I also wrote this article about hills recently. And then I had this crazy idea that I want to run 30 different hills in 30 days. I need to plan them out first so that I can get them into my schedule. So... I'd like your suggestions for good San Diego hills. There are all sort of hills that I can do around Point Loma and Ocean Beach and I'll do those throughout the week. But, I'd like to try some new places in North County or East County...so please share your favorite hills here. And, in case you need a reason to have that beer tonight-- drink to me being 30!

Stewart's just sayin'

I really appreciate the way John Stewart talks about teachers, so I'm attaching a link below to an entire episode of The Daily Show on hulu (hopefully it works--if not, I included the episode info so you can google it or search in hulu for it). I'd really appreciate it if you took 20 minutes of your time to watch what he has to say. His guest is author of The Life and Death of the Great American School System, Diane Ravitch, who discusses the education system in America and other countries.

This episode in particular gives me hope that there are people in this country still willing to fight for true education. That there are people who see beyond the superficial statistics and get at the real root of the problem. I don't hear many people right now with good things to say about teachers-- I find myself wondering nearly every day When did we become the bad guys?. I've been feeling frustrated, broken hearted and just generally low because of the way I hear the public and public officials talk about teachers. It's hard enough to stay positive when things are going well with teaching, but when it feels like everyone thinks you're evil or that you're greedy or that what you do can be easily replaced -- it makes me want to crawl into a hole and never come out. Actually it makes me want to move to FInland (you'll see why on the episode).

I haven't been running much lately, which is probably why my resistance to it all is down a bit...and when my skin is thinner like now, it's hard to get out on the road which makes the skin even thinner...vicious cycle, but it's people like Stewart and Ravitch who renew my hope that one day teaching will be a respected profession once again. Please watch:

The Daily Show with John Stewart, Thursday March 3, Season 16, Episode 32