Rand and “Inalienable Rights” – The Wall Street Journal.

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Rand and “Inalienable Rights”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703983104576263323783522618.html

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D Steven Coppola Steven.Coppola

Thought for the end of July

Today has been a good day so far. I’m finally starting to feel comfortable in the single. I did 3x3k this morning with rates from 22-28. They were great and very comfortable. It was Good AT. Tim gets here this afternoon and I should find out just what is in store for me over the next couple of weeks. Whatever it is, the training time here has been great. I feel like I’m making some strides that will benefit me in the long haul.

A few things are going on today that I’m excited about outside of rowing. Buffalo Bills training camp has officially opened and with a bang. I’m excited about camp. They’ve got a new coach and a new attitude. I’m ready for the distraction that football season brings.

Also, I watched a great video of Governor Chris Christie speaking about government spending cuts on MSNBC. He owned it and it was awesome. I got a little giddy watching. I hope his policies take hold elsewhere to ease the burden on the non-government workers of America. Check it out here.

Finally, my new iphone arrives today. Its been 2 years since I last got a new phone. About time. I’m going to jailbreak and unlock my old iphone 3g so it will work on any network. It will be listed on ebay so anyone can purchase. However, just comment on this if you would like to snag it first.

Where are we Now

Well, Lucerne has ended and we’ve seen where we stand. It was a bit of a gut check, but in reality we knew we were about 7 seconds behind Germany. I think that we know what needs to get done and how to do it. Competition for those 8 seats is going to be tuff but in the end that will make the boat faster. For now, I’m in San Diego training with Dan Walsh. We’ve decided that we want to row the pair together and have started training like that’s going to happen. If we stay on that course, we’ll return to Princeton on the 15th of August to compete in a pairs trial where top finishers get invited to the big boats selection camp.

So, right now I’m singularly focused on finishing well at the pairs regatta.

Surviving the Reps in Lucerne

Today we went and raced the Repechage. If you’re wondering what a rep is, it is French for “to rescue”. It was a hard fight the whole way but we did what we wanted to do. We were close on the Brits and about 3 seconds ahead of the Italians.

Last night I watched our race from Gifu in 2005 to try to see what I could remember from it. Today, in the first 500, my only thought was “what would Dan Beery Do?” (WWDBD). All I was focused on was hearing his voice in my head going: “Whip it”. That kept us in the race because quite a few of us were thinking that. Then we settled into the race. By 750 to go I was just hearing Deakin in my head saying 2 minutes to go. Thats all I was thinking about.

Tomorrow we do the same thing and put ourselves in the hunt for a medal.

I probably wont update again until I get back to the good Ole U S and A so I’ll see yall next week.

Lucerne after Racing thoughts

So…

Racing started today with a bang. The whole race course was buzzing with activity because everyone was still in the races. We drew for our head the Germans, Australians, Dutch, Italy, and Estonia. I have to say that it was a good feeling to have some very good boats in our heat. I think it was good that we tested our speed early. The race went off at 2:48 local. Germany and the Australians shot out in the first 500 and we were left to fight our way through the pack. We got off to a fairly slow start and hit a good rhythm but I believe we just weren’t ready for the speed of an international eights race yet. This was my first 8′s race since Beijing and JR’s first 8′s race since Athens. That isn’t really an excuse but I can tell you that we’ll be ready tomorrow. We’ve been bloodied a bit but we’re still hungry. Now that we know what we’re up against I think we’ll be more on our game tomorrow.

It’s like the Americans in the North African campaign in WWII. They got bloodied but the end result was that our troops saw that there was a whole other level to take things to. Our citizen soldiers found out that a just cause wasn’t all they could rest on. They had to be tough. We’ll be back tomorrow with a little more “Whip” just like Beery would have wanted it. It’s funny. Sometimes I feel like we need to relearn some lessons just to keep them fresh.

Well, We’ll do what we can tomorrow. The race is around 4:00 local time/10:00am EST and results can be viewed live at live race viewer. The start lists and program of racing can be found here

And, as promised here are some photos from around town. I’ll take some more and put them up tomorrow.

Delay

Internets down right now. I wanted to do a quick update from my phone. All’s ok. I’ll have something more extensive tomorrow. Hopefully the internet works tomorrow.

Lucerne 2010 Day 3

Well, we’ve been here a few days now and I just thought I would update everyone on how things have been going. We had a momentous row this evening. It was a great row and all, but I’m talking more about the fact that we didn’t have to change the rig at all. After 4 rows we’re finally able to just jump in and row. Other than the fact that we’re finding a good rhythm right now and were able to peg 1:15s at a 34, we can just row. It also helps that Ned finally got here today so we’ve got a coxswain now. We’re hitting that good light pop at the front end and just push swing rhythm.
If you’re interested in finding out a little about the timetable of racing you can go here: Timetable of racing and you can find the eights entries here: 8+ entries

Lucerne has been fun. We’ve aranged with the other hotel to take our dinners there but we’re still on our own for lunches. That MotoMio place down the street has been great to us. The provide a good lunch that isn’t too expensive for a meal. But, prices in Switzerland are still a little on the expensive side. Any meal will run about 20-25 Francs, and their currency is pretty much on par with the Dollar.

Everyone is rolling into town now. The Canadians, Austalians, Italians, Kiwis and Chinese are here, and the other countries are trickling in now too. It’s getting crowded and everyone is itching to race. I can’t wait for Friday to come around so that we can get this show on the road.

I’ll try to add a few pictures tomorrow. I’m still figuring out all the coding