Journal of today’s activities:

I celebrated my 50th birthday today. The last time I celebrated a birthday without any obligation to the Bureau of Prisons was in 1987. Many close friends called to express their good wishes, but my wife worked today so I spent the day home alone. I ran in the morning as I must stay in tip-top shape. Later this month I will speak in several different forums, including an audience at Stanford University and a different audience at Santa Rosa Junior College. More importantly, a television film crew from the PBS NewsHour is scheduled to film me teaching at a San Francisco City Jail in early February, and the following day I’ll speak at the Santa Clara Convention Center for the 2014 State of the Valley Conference. In all of those presentations, I’ll do my best to help more people understand prisons, the people they hold, and strategies for growing through confinement. Today I worked to create a slide deck that would help the audience follow along with my speeches.

Also, I received a teaching evaluation from San Francisco State University today. Those who would like to read how students responded to me may read the full report by clicking the following link to a PDF document.

Teaching Evaluation

• Days since my release from 26 years in federal prison: 155
• Miles run today: 14.5
• Miles run this week: 57.8
• Miles run this month: 142.63
• Miles run in 2014: 142.63
• Miles I need to run to reach my 2,400-mile running goal for 2014:
• Number of miles I’m ahead of schedule or behind schedule: 44.08
• Today’s Weight: 161