Thanks to the hard work of the folks who purchased Valve's Potato Sack promotion, the Portal 2 alternate reality game has finished, and the long-awaited sequel is now available on Steam. The game officially releases tomorrow for consoles and PC, but since the Steam version is compatible with SteamPlay, it's also available for the Mac from day one.
"The purpose of the event is to give people the opportunity to step outside of their comfort zone, do something active and crazy and awesome," said event spokesperson Greg Bostrom.
Around the 3-mile mard, things really start heating up.
Runners have to leap over logs of fire.
"I had to take a pretty good leap to get over it," said runner Jessica Melkner. " And, the smoke it probably the hardest thing."
Runner Jessica Geurra said, "It was hotter than I expected. But, you're not really thinking about the danger when you're out there. You're just having fun."
To cool off, athletes then take a swim in a mud pit.
"Oh, the mud was awesome," said runner Laya Ecob. "I loved getting down and crawling. I felt like I was in the military or something."
And, after you roll around in the mud, runners didn't have to worry about getting their cars dirty. They just took their shoes off and threw them in the pile."
"Green Sneakers is an awesome partner with us," Bostrom said. "They take these muddy, used shoes, clean 'em up and donate them to third world countries and families in need in the U.S."
Green sneakers expects to collect more than 176,000 pairs of shoes this weekend.
"Trying to work for a good cause is a good thing," said Hein. "So, I think not only do we have fun and good exercise, but then we get to donate our shoes. It's great. It's a win, win."
Passover is not simply a Jewish holiday; it is an invitation to be free and a method for achieving freedom.
The holiday of Passover takes it’s name, according to the Hebrew Bible, from the ancient Israelites last night in Egypt. On that night, some 3,200 years ago if the story is historically accurate, God “passed over” the houses of those leaving Egypt, sparing them from the last of the ten plagues: the death of the first born Egyptians. The Hebrew name for Passover is Pesach, from the word meaning to pass over.
Passover celebrates more than a one-time liberation though, inviting each succeeding generation to confront the oppression and slavery of it’s own era. Passover celebrates freedom -- past, present and future, both national and personal. And it’s surely not limited to Jews as both the Bible and later rabbinic commentaries portray as much as 20 percent of those participating in the exodus as having been non-Israelites.
According to the Talmud, the foundational text of Rabbinic Judaism, in every generation, every person should see themselves as a slave who is being liberated from Egypt. This seemingly impossible task, the obligation to feel that we are characters from a distant past, is perhaps best understood as being possible when we appreciate that the Hebrew word for Egypt is itself a kind of pun.
In Hebrew, Egypt is called “mitzrayim,” literally a tight spot. Celebrating Passover is about identifying those “tight spots,” the “egypts” in our own lives and in the lives of others, and seeking liberation from them.
The central practice of Passover today is the Seder --the family table centered dinner party featuring story-telling, conversation, eating matzo and drinking wine. While there is a “standard” text, called the haggadah (Hebrew for “the telling”)around which this is all orchestrated, the key to the whole thing is a question-based approach in which anything can be asked and all people are invited to offer their own answers.
Questions and questioning are central features of freedom and each is celebrated at the Seder. Passover reminds us that we are only as free as our minds and spirits are. Physical freedom is a necessary, but insufficient, component in the freedom we all need.
While it often makes for somewhat chaotic evenings, that family and intellectual tumult, so often associated with Jewish culture, is a sacred expression of the freedom which Passover celebrates.
There are physical signs within the tradition as well. Eating matzo at the seder not only reminds us of the food eaten by ancient slaves, but of the path to freedom which we all seek. In fact, the unleavened flatbreads are described by the ancient rabbis of the talmud as bread which provokes questions and invites answers.
The eating of the matzo is paralleled by drinking four cups of wine at the Seder. The four cups are meant to remind us of the four terms which the Bible uses to describe how God liberated the Israelites.
The wine itself is a reminder of the divine-human partnership, the covenant, which is necessary to achieve true liberation. Just as God/nature provides the grapes but require human technology and effort to turn the juice into wine, liberation requires our participation. Liberation, the wine reminds us, doesn’t just happen. Neither we as individuals, nor the world in which we live, will be free until we are part of the process.
Passover invites us to be free -- to free ourselves and our world. It brings together family, friends, and food in the context of lively conversation, inviting us to find the freedom we all seek. May it be so for each of us, whoever we are and wherever we may be.
It's Patriots' Day in Boston, which means two things: the Boston Marathon and ... more angst over $142 million man Carl Crawford.
Saturday was a day off for the Red Sox's prize free agent acquisition to clear his head. Sunday, Crawford back in the leadoff spot and the Red Sox won, despite his 0 for 4 performance that dropped his batting average to .127.
In an interesting wrinkle, the Red Sox will stick J.D. Drew in the leadoff slot against the Blue Jays' left-hander, Ricky Romero.
As for Crawford? As Francona told news reporters:
"Right now he's having a tough time, and when you're leading off it gets magnified. Moving him down should help him. If he doesn't get hits it should lessen the burden."
Of course, Francona tried that once -- in just the third game of the season -- and while that sort of worked for one game, clearly it didn't do much long-term good. Crawford went 2 for 4 out of the seven-hole, but is a combined 5 for 51 when batting first, second or third.
The questions: Is Francona's proactive approach proper, or creating a constant state of panic? Should he just stick Crawford in the first, second or third spot and ride with it?
For what it's worth, Crawford made all his starts for Tampa Bay out of the No. 2 hole last year. Perhaps he thrives with familiarity.
The Red Sox certainly must stumble upon a solution soon. Or this season will become a marathon, indeed.
