Thursday, April 30, 2009

Purple Power and other thoughts

It seems I raised the hackles of a few people by referring to Team in Training as the purple menace, so I apologize for that. How does Purple Power People (Triple P) sound instead? It is a happy connotation, evoking thoughts of Barney the Dinosaur and Wizard of Oz like characters who dance around in circles. Whereas purple menace is more like the Phantom Menace, and Dark Sith overlords who lop the heads off of puppies. That's not what we want.

In other news, I have started putting some long term dough into TIP, a treasury-inflation protected ETF. Also loading up on more commodities. The bank stress test results are supposed to come out next week, the question is how transparent will everything be?

Had to go ahead and buy another camera to be able to use our underwater camera for videotaping, the expensive one is having menu issues and I can't wait for it to be repaired.

You can now pre-purchase the Powerstroke DVD for a $9 discount at www.powerstroke-dvd.com.

I think Bri gave me the swine flu, I am really not feeling well and have a half-Ironman in less than 48 hours.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heavens to Mergatroyd! I am shocked at some of the purple charity people's hoopla about your comment. I have to shake my head when I see comments attacking a blogger. I guess it is kind of like It's Marty's sandbox and he can play/say with what he wants to on his blog. Just from reading your posts you don't seem like a mean-spirited or elitist triathlete. Heck, anyone who is as sweet to Tassie puppy can't be all bad! But it shows your popular, or atleast have a lot of readers, 21 comments.
Dawn

Dan McGowan said...

Wow, I typically don't read the comments so I missed all the venom being spit!
I have to say that I wouldn't have gotten into triathlon if it wasn't for TNT so I do appreciate what it was for me. I had an unbeleivable coach though (thanks Vicky Y!) which I hear is rare.
TNT is a good charity but it is a business as well. St. A's doesn't have to give them that many entries but they're running a business too. At least they have a separate wave now at the end so it doesn't really affect too many AGers like it did in the past. That is the way it should be done, its just safer for everyone.
In the end, TNT is a good way to expose people to the sport as it did me. I've since spent plenty on equipment and coaching that I wouldn't have if I didn't sign up for St. A's w/TNT. I'd imagine many others who enjoy their experience will do the same which is good for those who are coaches!
I didn't see the conditions so I can't comment on whether or not it was safe for the majority. They probably could have made it optional since the majority of TNT'ers probably would have chosen not to swim since they typically dont have much swimming background. Either way, the RD is always in a tough spot in that situation and has to cover his ass since he's the one ultimately responsible.
Oh well, at least there wasn't another death that would lead to more headlines about how triathlon causes heart attacks.

Scott DeWire said...

Good luck at White Lake Marty! And tell Bri to stay away from the pigs.

Unknown said...

I found the whole thing comical. I don't have a problem with them, but I can see an issue from a coaching standpoint. By the way, Lamar called them TITs. LOL.

Jonathan said...

If it makes you feel any better, I too dared to voice negative opinions about TNT on my blog and I got lots of hate mail. And BTW, you are correct that LLS spends about 75% of their funds on research. The problem is that TNT only turns over about 75% of their money to LLS, so 56% of a TNT donation goes to research and other patient benefits. Check out http://citycoach.typepad.com/weblog/2009/09/the-kids-with-cancer-hater-vs-the-purple-menace.html if you want to read more.