Books and Paintball

In just 2 days i finished off an entire book: "Same Kind of Different as Me". Very good read, and would suggest it to anybody. Biography is probably my favorite genre of writing, and this one ranks up there among my favorites. Not only is the story moving, the setting of the story is in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area, and in the area of Shreveport, LA ... both places i am very connected to as i have spent years there throughout my lifetime.
So far I've finished 3 books this year, the aforementioned one and:
"bowerman and the men of oregon" the biography of legendary running coach and nike co-founder bill bowerman.

"Jesus of Nazareth" by Joseph Ratzingher, who is better known as the current Pope.





today looks to be a good day to go play paintball with the guys on the football team... hopefully there will be some fotos of that soon.
sj

Human Feats/Physical Challenges/Stunts/Creative Competitions

Humans throughout history have always been concerned with competition, and have been creative in coming up with ideas for various competitions. What is it about us humans that seeks for this rush of testing the physical limits that a body could dare to withstand? We see humans doing things such as running Marathons, Ironmans, scaling the world's highest mountains, and swimming across the English Channel. These sorts of accomplishments i can somewhat get a grasp on. Someone once asked a famous climber why he climbed mount everest, his response: "Because its there". That's a fair enough answer for me. I have run 4 marathons, and my response as to why I wanted to do it would be along the same lines of reasoning. However, in this post, i want to focus on some of the newer/crazier/more creative challenges that are out there. The marathons, Ironmans, and Mount Everest Climbs I can begin to understand, but there are some new competitions and challenges that are just hard for me to accept. I probably should do some more research and find some more crazy events for you, but here i want to list for you some of my favorite crazy/wild/insane challenges that us humans have decided to take on:

1) Beer Mile. This one isnt too out there or too extremely difficult, but it is a competition growing in popularity. On paper, the competition is fairly simple: You have to run 4 laps (equalling a mile), but the catch is that before you run each lap you must dring a 12 oz can of beer with a minimum alcohol content of 5%. Fastest time on record: 5 minutes, 9 seconds
Click here for the official beer mile site, complete with records, official rules, etc.

2) 24 hour treadmill run. This has been an event that has been around for longer than i thought. Again, the rules are fairly simple: how much distance can you run on a treadmill in a timespan of 24 hours. The world record is 153.9 miles
Click here for more info on the 24 hour treadmill run

3) Hands on a Hard Body. This is a crazy competition held annually in Longview Texas. It is a competition held by a car dealership. Several people are in the contest, and they must keep 1 hand on the car. Whoever keeps their hand on the car the longest wins the car! (short breaks are given every once in a while!) But just imagine the sheer discomfort of trying to stay standing and not fall asleep.
Click here for an article about the competition. I believe the article states the record for the longest time

4) 24 Beers/24 miles/24 hours
This is pretty insane. Run 24 miles and drink 24 beers all within a 24 hour time period.. pretty crazy, i wouldnt ever want to do it, but its do-able.
More info here

5) McDonald's Dollar menu challenge. Eat everything on the McDonald's dollar menu.
Probably a lot tougher than it sounds.
Click here for more info

6) Finally, there is free diving. Free diving is diving as deep as possible in one breath without the assistance of motorized machinery or underwater breathing aparati. There are several categories for free diving such as with our without fins, with our without weights. The overall record blows my mind away: 214 meters deep!!! are you kidding me? Insanity.
Click here for more info

Share with me some of your favorite crazy competitions!!!

what the announcers didnt tell you about the Giant's win

At some point in the second half, I randomly waved my arm in a "tomahawk" style fashion. By tomahawk I mean the style of Florida state football or Atlanta braves baseball... if you still dont know what im talking about use man's electonic best friends, google or you tube. Anyways, I did the wave without the indian chanting theme that goes with it. However, a guy sitting behind me saw me doing the arm motion, and he mustered up a loud, basey, animal-dying like form of the indian chant. The giants happened do good on that occasion, so we began implementing it more and more. Soon we had many people in the sports bar on their feet, doing the tomahawk chop and chanting the indigenous chant as well. Everyone knew the tomahawk chop had nothing to do with either of the teams, or this particular super bowl, but i think that was the genious of it. It just stuck. Several began losing their voices by the time of the final game-winning drive of the Giants. People walking past the bar looked at us like we were freaks, partly because we were watching football in the first place, but definitely because we were chanting to the tomahawk chop. I cant help but think that a little of our mojo from down south helped push the New York Football Giants to victory.

At first, Damian and Tomas are laughing at the Tomahawk chop, but soon later they are enjoying being part of the action.



julian and guido, the only ones rooting for the Patriots, are stunned

books and el salvador

well, one book i am giong through as a liesure book is South America on a shoestring by Lonely Planet. I like to pick it up a few minutes before bedtime and learn about other places, and perhaps give myself an "imaginary" trip to wherever I am reading about. I like learning about the history and background of the countries. A few nights ago I was reading over the El Salvador section. I was stunned to read about their civil war that happened in the 80's. I try to consider myself a decently educated American, with some knowledge as to what is happening around the world.. but I really had no idea of what happened there in the 80's. Perhaps I was too young, but still, it is recent enough that I should know about it. I learned that in El Salvador, 75,000 people died in civil war. There were many brutal deaths, including the killing of preists who spoke out against the government. Another 300,000 people fled the country. Using rough population data, this means that 5% of their people fled, and 1.25% died. If these statistics were carried out to the USA, this would be the same statistical impact as if 15,000,000 people fled the country, and 3,750,000 died. Plus, the US government spent over 6 Billion to help in the conflicts. This post is not about taking sides on the US government, more about me being brought to a pensative place in thinking about how i relate to the world. I also remember being moved in this way when i watched "hotel rwanda". I was again fairly ignorant of what happened over there. Sure i knew there was some strife, but i did not understand the scope of the killings, savagery, and devastations.

I will comment on the other books I am reading in the future:
I am reading or will read:
"no desperdicie su vida" ... the spanish version of dont waste your life by John Piper
"jesus of nazareth" by joseph ratzinger... who is well known as the current pope, Pope Benedict 16
"Bowerman and the Men of Oregon" by kenny moore. this is a biography of the most legendary track coach in the USA. He coached many olympians, and started making running shoes out of some kind of rubber material placed on his waffle iron at home, and eventually co-founded nike.

i wanted to get away from the more "manistream" Christian writers and books for a while.

peace
sj

2 things becoming less frequent in Argentina

ok, so although Argentina has a lot of manifestations and some public unrest here and there about certain issues..... there really has been No MAJOR governmental problems in a while. I'm referring to problems such as military cous, resignation of presidents (forced or not), total economic colapse, etc.
Another thing that seems to have gone by the way side is new posts on Scott Jackson's scottinargentina.blogspot.com blog page. Let 2008 begin with a post within the first 10 days of the year. No, im not sure if i will keep up the rate of 1 post per 10 days. would i like to??? sure. New years resolution? im not a big fan of resolutions..... i did realize i havent been doing some quality reading in a while.. so i bought a few books to read. I wont mention which ones right now, because doing so will give me a reason for another post later!!! hahaha. now taking book read suggestions. comment board is open for book suggestions, or whatever else anyone out there wants to tell me via cyber space.
scott j, down south

See for yourself: Amazing Argentina

Watch some videos of some great places in Argentina and decide which place would you like to visit the most.

Clip 1: One of the most fotographed and visited glaciers in the world: Perito Moreno Glacier



Clip 2: Iguazu falls, in the northermost part of Argentina.



Clip 3: Patagonia!



Clip 4: Mendoza



Clip 5: Can't leave out magnificent Buenos Aires, accompanied with Tango music

election fraud, mosquitos, football, and karaoke

election fraud: several newspapers have reported a crisis here in cordoba, as it recently was voting day to elect a new governor, and one candidate won by a 1% margin. most people here feel like there was some sort of a scam that went on, and "officially" they are doing a recount. meanwhile, there have been several manifestations going on in the streets, causing a lot of noise, street closings and traffic jams, and various street filth.

Mosquitos: I am currently well aware of the mosquito nuiscance, as i have a couple itchy bites today. warm, wet weather ahead means that ill have to stock pile off, raid, and any other concoction. the war is on!!

Football: yesterday was cordoba's yearly flag football tournament. my team got second, losing only to the team that won the tournament. plus, several guys from the team enjoyed watching "nfl sunday ticket" here at my place.

karaoke: a cafe that i go to a lot offered their upstairs room for us to use to help people learn english, so we did an english karaoke night. after singing "amarillo by morning" i had to explain the meaning of "buckin'" and a few other frases from the song.

chau
scott jackson
ps dont forget to check out www.houston2009.blogspot.com if you are crazy and daring enough to commit to running a marathon that is over a year away.