Well, I actually made a full week! I've worked out every day for seven days, at least once per day. AND I weighed in this morning at 199.2, which is the lowest weight I've had since, well, since I started weighing myself again last weekend. Yay me! Of course, I have a day full of football and food I still have to get through.
Also, I'm a grandma! Well, not exactly. A friend of ours, a kid we had coached back when we were all quite a bit younger, just had a baby on Wednesday. We kind of looked out for her when she was still in high school, and she has always jokingly (semi) referred to us as her parents. So now that she's a mommy, that makes me a grandma! At age 34. Without ever having had kids. What a weird world.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Weigh-in: 199.6
Not my low of a few days ago, but not the 200 of even yesterday. Very interesting. Of course, weekends are when I find it hardest to behave, food-wise, because I'm home all day with exposure to snacks AND we tend to do silly things like eat out or order pizza on weekends. So, I guess we'll see tomorrow's weigh-in. Cross your fingers...
Not my low of a few days ago, but not the 200 of even yesterday. Very interesting. Of course, weekends are when I find it hardest to behave, food-wise, because I'm home all day with exposure to snacks AND we tend to do silly things like eat out or order pizza on weekends. So, I guess we'll see tomorrow's weigh-in. Cross your fingers...
Friday, January 09, 2009
Stupid $%&#^&* SciFi channel keeps canceling my shows. Just watched the final episode of Stargate:Atlantis. Not incredibly impressed. Best moment by far was the revelation that the newest member of the Daedalus class ship will be named "the General Hammond" after the late Don S. Davis' recurring character. Got a little choked up at that one. But otherwise the episode was full of "eh" moments. For a final episode it was simply...unremarkable. Apparently they are creating a third piece to the "Stargate" phenomenon, called Stargate: Universe. Perhaps instead of creating new shows that relate to the Stargate story out of pieces that try to be fresh and new but very obviously are patterned on previous characters and situations, and they could just go back to what worked: Jack, Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c. Please?
This week just isn't going according to the original plan. I was supposed to be working out, eating better, and losing weight. Instead, I seem to be stuck in the same place that I've been for at least a year now. It's like being in an episode of Star Trek or something.
Yesterday I had that weird double weigh-in with two different weights two hours apart, and I spent the rest of the day wondering which one was the REAL weigh-in. Well, apparently the first one was closer to the "truth", because I weighed in this morning at 200.0 AGAIN (see several previous posts this week). WTF?
Actually, I shouldn't be asking WTF because I know for the most part what happened. As I explained yesterday I didn't work out yesterday morning because I was so tired. So that certainly threw my metabolism for the day back to its slow pace. Although I did manage to hit the gym yesterday afternoon to swim, that wasn't enough to do anything other than perhaps maintain whatever my morning weight had been. But then we decided to go out to dinner last night, where I had a cup of certainly high-calorie soup (overloaded potato--all that starch! and fat! and carbs!), a big breaded chicken sandwich with ranch dressing poured over it, AND a side of smashed potatoes (more starch! and fat! and carbs!).
So I guess the fact that I'm still sitting at $#%&^@* 200 lbs should be considered a blessing. It could have been worse.
Yesterday I had that weird double weigh-in with two different weights two hours apart, and I spent the rest of the day wondering which one was the REAL weigh-in. Well, apparently the first one was closer to the "truth", because I weighed in this morning at 200.0 AGAIN (see several previous posts this week). WTF?
Actually, I shouldn't be asking WTF because I know for the most part what happened. As I explained yesterday I didn't work out yesterday morning because I was so tired. So that certainly threw my metabolism for the day back to its slow pace. Although I did manage to hit the gym yesterday afternoon to swim, that wasn't enough to do anything other than perhaps maintain whatever my morning weight had been. But then we decided to go out to dinner last night, where I had a cup of certainly high-calorie soup (overloaded potato--all that starch! and fat! and carbs!), a big breaded chicken sandwich with ranch dressing poured over it, AND a side of smashed potatoes (more starch! and fat! and carbs!).
So I guess the fact that I'm still sitting at $#%&^@* 200 lbs should be considered a blessing. It could have been worse.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Well, there are ups and downs in this little endeavor, of course. Both, this morning. I woke up at 4, as I have done each day this week, to walk the dog, get my stuff together, and get to the gym by 5. To my dismay, I found two things: 1) I was REALLY tired and 2) my weigh-in was 200.2, up .2 lbs from yesterday. I surmised that the +.2 was probably the result of some Mexican food overindulgence last night, and that the tiredness was a direct result of staying up to watch several episodes of Ghosthunters. While the +.2 SHOULD HAVE motivated me to go hit the gym extra hard, instead I succumbed to the tiredness and went back to bed.
But here's the funny part: when I got up the second time, at 6, I weighed myself again. This time, I weighed in at 199.4. Somehow, in my sleep, in two hours, I managed to lose almost a pound! Man, if this were a perfect world I could SLEEP off my weight! Just imagine! Sleep for 12 hours, lose almost 5 lbs! I'd be going to bed as soon as I got home!
Anyway, I'm a bit disappointed in myself for not making it to the gym this morning, but I'm hoping to at least make it this afternoon and both trips tomorrow. Maybe I really will manage to lose actual weight this week. And get some sleep, while I'm at it.
But here's the funny part: when I got up the second time, at 6, I weighed myself again. This time, I weighed in at 199.4. Somehow, in my sleep, in two hours, I managed to lose almost a pound! Man, if this were a perfect world I could SLEEP off my weight! Just imagine! Sleep for 12 hours, lose almost 5 lbs! I'd be going to bed as soon as I got home!
Anyway, I'm a bit disappointed in myself for not making it to the gym this morning, but I'm hoping to at least make it this afternoon and both trips tomorrow. Maybe I really will manage to lose actual weight this week. And get some sleep, while I'm at it.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Today's weigh-in: 200.0
Well, I'm back where I started on Sunday. I guess that's good; technically it's almost a 1/2 lb weight-loss this week. Of course, when the week started with a 1/2 lb GAIN, that isn't so great, but I do still have three more days to go. It's possible, if I can stay on track, I might end up with a whole pound! Yay!
I did better about working out yesterday. The same routine in the morning, and then in the afternoon I hit the pool. It wasn't pretty. I'm really glad now that I didn't participate in the "old timers" swim meet my in-laws tried to get me into over Christmas. Not only had I not been in a pool since the summer, but it would have been at altitude too. Yikes. As it was, I barely survived the first 100 yards yesterday without stopping and panting. I only did 1200 yards, but it's a start.
I almost caved in this morning when the alarm went off. 4 a.m. really is way too early. But I know from sad experience that, as hard as it is to get out of bed in the morning, it's still easier than making myself go by the gym after work, when I'm tired and all I really want to do is go home and spend time with my husband and my dog. So I dragged my sorry self out from under the warm covers into the chilly house and set off on my morning. Meh. At least I did it. My goal is to actually make it to the gym all five mornings this week. Only two more to go!
Well, I'm back where I started on Sunday. I guess that's good; technically it's almost a 1/2 lb weight-loss this week. Of course, when the week started with a 1/2 lb GAIN, that isn't so great, but I do still have three more days to go. It's possible, if I can stay on track, I might end up with a whole pound! Yay!
I did better about working out yesterday. The same routine in the morning, and then in the afternoon I hit the pool. It wasn't pretty. I'm really glad now that I didn't participate in the "old timers" swim meet my in-laws tried to get me into over Christmas. Not only had I not been in a pool since the summer, but it would have been at altitude too. Yikes. As it was, I barely survived the first 100 yards yesterday without stopping and panting. I only did 1200 yards, but it's a start.
I almost caved in this morning when the alarm went off. 4 a.m. really is way too early. But I know from sad experience that, as hard as it is to get out of bed in the morning, it's still easier than making myself go by the gym after work, when I'm tired and all I really want to do is go home and spend time with my husband and my dog. So I dragged my sorry self out from under the warm covers into the chilly house and set off on my morning. Meh. At least I did it. My goal is to actually make it to the gym all five mornings this week. Only two more to go!
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Weigh-in: 200.2
That's an improvement over yesterday, at least, but I'm still not at my Sunday morning weight of 200, and I've gotta work extra hard to get below 200 by Sunday. Of course, it would help if I would A) stick to my exercise plan and B) eat right.
I didn't hit the gym yesterday afternoon, despite my original plan. I did my all-too-frequent Monday afternoon driveby, where I look at the parking lot, grump about how many people work out on Mondays, and say to myself, "Well, I'll just go home and do sit-ups and push-ups and take the dog for a long walk." When I get home there's always something to distract me from the sit-ups and the push-ups and the long walks. And even worse, I drag my husband with me--instead of going to the gym, when he hears that I'm just going home, he just comes home too.
It used to be that we talked each other INTO working out. One would be sitting around and the other would say, "Hey, let's go play racquetball" or "Let's go skate" or "Let's go ride bikes." When we were both being good about working out we'd prop each other up and encourage each other. We'd make sure we both made it to the gym. But now we're in the habit of talking each other OUT of workouts. One will call the other and say, "Are you going to the gym?" and the other will say, "Well, I was going to, but I really don't WANT to" and the first will say, "Fine by me; I'll meet you at (fill in the name of the restaurant)." Even if we plan to work out at home, it just ends up not happening.
I feel extra-bad about it, because I'm the one who is at least getting the morning workout. My husband doesn't usually make it to the gym in the mornings, and when I cop out on an afternoon workout like I did yesterday, I deprive him of the opportunity to exercise. I've got to start sucking it up and doing the afternoons, because if I don't, I'm afraid he won't get the chance to either.
I also need to make better food choices, especially when we go out to eat. That should be the time to get a SALAD (unless it's something extra-special, like Texas de Brazil). I did slightly better than usual last night, when we ate at Taco Bell, because I opted for items from the "fresco" menu, which basically seems to be a substitution of chopped onions, tomatoes, and cilantro for the shredded cheese that usually accompanies a Taco Bell product. However, I should have just gotten ONE item, not two. I got a burrito and a taco. I need to learn to cut the portions back!
*sigh* I hope tomorrow's weigh-in is better. I did hit the gym this morning, and I WILL go to the gym this afternoon.
That's an improvement over yesterday, at least, but I'm still not at my Sunday morning weight of 200, and I've gotta work extra hard to get below 200 by Sunday. Of course, it would help if I would A) stick to my exercise plan and B) eat right.
I didn't hit the gym yesterday afternoon, despite my original plan. I did my all-too-frequent Monday afternoon driveby, where I look at the parking lot, grump about how many people work out on Mondays, and say to myself, "Well, I'll just go home and do sit-ups and push-ups and take the dog for a long walk." When I get home there's always something to distract me from the sit-ups and the push-ups and the long walks. And even worse, I drag my husband with me--instead of going to the gym, when he hears that I'm just going home, he just comes home too.
It used to be that we talked each other INTO working out. One would be sitting around and the other would say, "Hey, let's go play racquetball" or "Let's go skate" or "Let's go ride bikes." When we were both being good about working out we'd prop each other up and encourage each other. We'd make sure we both made it to the gym. But now we're in the habit of talking each other OUT of workouts. One will call the other and say, "Are you going to the gym?" and the other will say, "Well, I was going to, but I really don't WANT to" and the first will say, "Fine by me; I'll meet you at (fill in the name of the restaurant)." Even if we plan to work out at home, it just ends up not happening.
I feel extra-bad about it, because I'm the one who is at least getting the morning workout. My husband doesn't usually make it to the gym in the mornings, and when I cop out on an afternoon workout like I did yesterday, I deprive him of the opportunity to exercise. I've got to start sucking it up and doing the afternoons, because if I don't, I'm afraid he won't get the chance to either.
I also need to make better food choices, especially when we go out to eat. That should be the time to get a SALAD (unless it's something extra-special, like Texas de Brazil). I did slightly better than usual last night, when we ate at Taco Bell, because I opted for items from the "fresco" menu, which basically seems to be a substitution of chopped onions, tomatoes, and cilantro for the shredded cheese that usually accompanies a Taco Bell product. However, I should have just gotten ONE item, not two. I got a burrito and a taco. I need to learn to cut the portions back!
*sigh* I hope tomorrow's weigh-in is better. I did hit the gym this morning, and I WILL go to the gym this afternoon.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Well, I at least kinda started out on the right foot this morning. I did make it to the gym, which is a good thing. I did my standard (or at least what WAS my standard) morning workout: 50 crunches on the crunch machine (I really should do these on an exercise ball instead, I guess), 30 back/sides on the back/side stand (don't really know how to explain it--it stands at an angle with a brace for your feet and a pad for your hip area, and you lean over it and rise back up), reps on some of the leg machines (what I call the "gynecology" machines that do your abductor/adductor muscles of your hips and thighs, the calf press, and the quad and hamstring machines), and then 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. Since my morning workout is pretty much all machine-oriented, I should do non-machine stuff in the afternoons, such as swimming, running, biking on a real bike, etc. It all depends on what is available when I get to the gym, and how crowded it is.
The reason I said I "kinda" started out right was because my weigh-in was WRONG. I managed to gain almost half a pound between yesterday's weigh-in and today's. Probably had something to do with the pizza, beer, breaded fish fillets and tater tots I consumed over the weekend. I needed to get it out of the way, since it was my last weekend of freedom, so to speak. But it does hit on the temptations that I have to deal with. For example, we got a bunch of candy in our stockings at Christmas and brought it home with us. What do we do with it? We bought our favorite beer while we were on vacation and brought it home with us because they don't sell it in the South. What do we do with it? My sister-in-law sent pieces of her husband's birthday cake home with us because we missed his party. What do we do with it? We have all kinds of probably unhealthy food in the fridge and cupboard (Hamburger Helper, Hot Pockets, tater tots, etc). What do we do with it? This is where the self-control and portion-control issues kick in for me. It's one thing for some people to have candy around the house; they can resist the urge to scarf it all, and consume it a piece or two daily. Not me. M&Ms and Hershey's Kisses disappear by the handful when I'm around. One piece of pizza turns into four. I really need to be vigilant.
At school it won't be quite so hard. I can only eat what's available, since I really can't run out and pick anything up in the middle of the day. If I can limit what I eat to what's healthy, and also limit the amount stashed in my desk (even good things can be bad if you eat too much of them), and chew gum or suck a mint when I need something in my mouth, I might be able to restrain myself.
It was interesting to see the New Year's resolution crew at the gym this morning. Not quite as many as there have been in years past. I figured it would be packed, but there really weren't significantly more people there than there had been the last time I'd hit the gym before work (beginning of December). Maybe I'll see them this afternoon...
The reason I said I "kinda" started out right was because my weigh-in was WRONG. I managed to gain almost half a pound between yesterday's weigh-in and today's. Probably had something to do with the pizza, beer, breaded fish fillets and tater tots I consumed over the weekend. I needed to get it out of the way, since it was my last weekend of freedom, so to speak. But it does hit on the temptations that I have to deal with. For example, we got a bunch of candy in our stockings at Christmas and brought it home with us. What do we do with it? We bought our favorite beer while we were on vacation and brought it home with us because they don't sell it in the South. What do we do with it? My sister-in-law sent pieces of her husband's birthday cake home with us because we missed his party. What do we do with it? We have all kinds of probably unhealthy food in the fridge and cupboard (Hamburger Helper, Hot Pockets, tater tots, etc). What do we do with it? This is where the self-control and portion-control issues kick in for me. It's one thing for some people to have candy around the house; they can resist the urge to scarf it all, and consume it a piece or two daily. Not me. M&Ms and Hershey's Kisses disappear by the handful when I'm around. One piece of pizza turns into four. I really need to be vigilant.
At school it won't be quite so hard. I can only eat what's available, since I really can't run out and pick anything up in the middle of the day. If I can limit what I eat to what's healthy, and also limit the amount stashed in my desk (even good things can be bad if you eat too much of them), and chew gum or suck a mint when I need something in my mouth, I might be able to restrain myself.
It was interesting to see the New Year's resolution crew at the gym this morning. Not quite as many as there have been in years past. I figured it would be packed, but there really weren't significantly more people there than there had been the last time I'd hit the gym before work (beginning of December). Maybe I'll see them this afternoon...
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Well, after my weigh-in this morning, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is, I managed to not gain any weight on our Christmas vacation. The bad news is, I didn't lose any weight either. I weighed in this morning at 200.0 lbs, technically a .2 lbs loss from my weigh-in on Dec. 19 before we left, but that could just be water weight so it really doesn't count.
I would love to lose 2 lbs each week, but I know from past experience that a 2 lb drop is not likely. I would just like to have a loss each week. I need to get back to my two-a-day workouts, and I need to get back to weighing in every morning and recording the data in a spreadsheet.
So, now that I have a starting place, I can get started for real. I hope....
I would love to lose 2 lbs each week, but I know from past experience that a 2 lb drop is not likely. I would just like to have a loss each week. I need to get back to my two-a-day workouts, and I need to get back to weighing in every morning and recording the data in a spreadsheet.
So, now that I have a starting place, I can get started for real. I hope....
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Whew. Well, it's January 3, and we're finally back home (as it were). We left on December 19, so it's been a long and enjoyable holiday, and I can't say that I'm really for it to be over. Everything returns to normal with work and such on Monday, so the rest of today and tomorrow will be dedicated to decompressing, regrouping, and preparing for the work week. Meh.
Haven't weighed myself yet to see what the ultimate damage is from the Christmas food season, but it's sure to be ugly. I'll wait until tomorrow morning, when hopefully food and such is out of my system, to get my starting weight for the New Year. I'm sure it's gonna be a bad one...
Haven't weighed myself yet to see what the ultimate damage is from the Christmas food season, but it's sure to be ugly. I'll wait until tomorrow morning, when hopefully food and such is out of my system, to get my starting weight for the New Year. I'm sure it's gonna be a bad one...
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Happy New Year! As usual, I am considering the same resolutions as I have for the past few years. I guess I'm not very creative (or very well-motivated).
My main concern is, as it has been every year, weight loss. I weighed myself before we left for our Christmas vacation, and I was sitting at about 200 lbs (25 lbs heavier than my last successful run at weight loss, three years ago). The scale at my in-laws' has had me at about 195, but I don't know how that compares to my scale at home, so I'll have to wait (weight?) a few more days until we return to know whether the holiday has been particularly damaging. I've tried to be good.
Anyway, as I am well out of the weight ranges for my kayaks, and we have an annual paddling trip coming up in the middle of March that will require me to spend quite a bit of time in my boat and a lot of winter paddling gear for multiple days in a row, I'll need to lose as much weight as possible and get in much better shape so I can survive the trip. That trip will be March 12-15, which is pretty much exactly 10 weeks from today. I'd love to get 20 lbs off by then. It will mean being pretty dedicated to the two-a-day workouts that I was so good at several years ago. It will also mean being much more careful with what and how much I eat, something I've NEVER been very good at.
I'm also motivated to lose the weight so I can get off the blood pressure and heartburn medications I've been taking for several years now. My blood pressure is a bit high, not horrible but certainly not great since I'm only 34. And the heartburn thing is a pain in the butt--I take Prilosec OTC daily and it does a pretty good job, but it would be so much nicer if I didn't have to deal with it at all. If I can shed some weight, I should be able to do away with the daily meds. That would be nice.
The rest of my resolutions are as they always are: get more organized, keep my house cleaner, do a better job at keeping up with my school stuff...pretty typical, all of it.
So anyway, Happy New Year to one and all. I hope everyone has a safe, prosperous, joy-filled 2009. And...we're off!
My main concern is, as it has been every year, weight loss. I weighed myself before we left for our Christmas vacation, and I was sitting at about 200 lbs (25 lbs heavier than my last successful run at weight loss, three years ago). The scale at my in-laws' has had me at about 195, but I don't know how that compares to my scale at home, so I'll have to wait (weight?) a few more days until we return to know whether the holiday has been particularly damaging. I've tried to be good.
Anyway, as I am well out of the weight ranges for my kayaks, and we have an annual paddling trip coming up in the middle of March that will require me to spend quite a bit of time in my boat and a lot of winter paddling gear for multiple days in a row, I'll need to lose as much weight as possible and get in much better shape so I can survive the trip. That trip will be March 12-15, which is pretty much exactly 10 weeks from today. I'd love to get 20 lbs off by then. It will mean being pretty dedicated to the two-a-day workouts that I was so good at several years ago. It will also mean being much more careful with what and how much I eat, something I've NEVER been very good at.
I'm also motivated to lose the weight so I can get off the blood pressure and heartburn medications I've been taking for several years now. My blood pressure is a bit high, not horrible but certainly not great since I'm only 34. And the heartburn thing is a pain in the butt--I take Prilosec OTC daily and it does a pretty good job, but it would be so much nicer if I didn't have to deal with it at all. If I can shed some weight, I should be able to do away with the daily meds. That would be nice.
The rest of my resolutions are as they always are: get more organized, keep my house cleaner, do a better job at keeping up with my school stuff...pretty typical, all of it.
So anyway, Happy New Year to one and all. I hope everyone has a safe, prosperous, joy-filled 2009. And...we're off!
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Awww, it's time for the babies to go. The puppies are eight weeks old now, and the first two have gone to their new homes (as of this morning). Another one is due to leave this afternoon, and the other two who will be leaving will go later this week. The owners have decided to keep Ayumi, the littlest and wildest of the puppies (girl, yellow collar).
Good luck to the babies. I hope their owners are prepared for how wonderful (and bratty) these puppies really are.
After watching the SEC championship game last night, and watching the team that had been undefeated through the regular season lose their first game and their shot at the national championship, I am fully convinced of one thing:
I HATE THE BCS.
I refuse to accept that there can be teams with undefeated records out there that will be denied the opportunity to compete for the national championship because they come from the wrong conferences.
The BCS does not identify the best teams in the country. Instead, it favors teams from certain conferences over others, convinces coaches to lead their schedules, and encourages teams to be unsportsmanlike and run up the score. The BCS conferences become convinced that their shit somehow smells better than everyone else's.
Look how many blow-outs there were this season. This isn't necessarily because some teams were "that much" better than others. It's because the BCS considers those stats in their computer analysis.
Look how many upsets there were this season. That indicates that the ratings of the AP, coaches, and BCS don't mean shit.
A perfect example of the disparity in college football is the game I attended: the University of Tennessee's homecoming game versus the University of Wyoming. Tennessee, an SEC team that has perennially been in the hunt for BCS rankings and has played for the national championship, scheduled their homecoming with non-BCS conference (Mountain West) Wyoming because they figured it would be a soft game that they could win in the midst of a difficult schedule against teams that are "better". Instead, Wyoming came in to the Vols home field and handed UT another loss. After the game, ousted head coach Phil Fulmer (who lost his job because his team could not perform to the SEC standards this year) said, "In this day and age in college football, anybody can beat you" (Knoxville News, 11/9/08).
This is pretty true, as demonstrated by the number of upsets during the course of the season. The NFL mentality of "any given Sunday" (meaning that on any given game day any team in the NFL has a reasonable chance of defeating any other team) has changed the face of college football. There are plenty of "Cinderella" teams in Division 1-A that have won the Big Game. The fact that priority is still given to some conferences over others is unfair and violates the spirit of competition in college sports.
The BCS causes a self-perpetuating cycle. By giving preference to teams in some divisions and not others, those teams get national exposure, which brings with it money from the BCS games and TV contracts. Skilled high school players opt to attend the BCS schools because it brings them more opportunities to play in big games and enhance their chances of getting scouted by the pros. Because the BCS schools can attract better players, they are more successful, which validates the BCS and starts the whole process over again.
No school from a non-BCS conference can truly get a fair shot at a national championship while the BCS exists. The only fair way to run college football is to create a playoff system to give all teams the same opportunity.
Here's my suggestion:
1) Teams need to adjust their scheduling during the regular season. There are eleven Division 1-A conferences (twelve if you include the "independent" schools). These conferences should do their schedules in a similar manner to the NFL. Each season the NFL divisions schedule three kinds of games: divisional games, conference games, and inter-conference games. Each division plays games against another division in the opposing conference. The MLB does something similar. The college teams should do something like that. Each Division 1-A team should play three kinds of games--games again conference rivals, games against other BCS conference teams, and games against non-BCS conference teams. The regular college season would probably have to be expanded to fit in the necessary games.
2) There should be a playoff between the winner of each conference. The team with the best record from each conference will have an automatic place. Now, many people will argue with this and say that a system like this will exclude some good teams. And they'll cite the game between Florida and Alabama as an example. Alabama was the number one team, and they would have been the winners of the SEC if it weren't for the SEC championship game. It's very true, that sometimes the best team isn't always the team with the best record. But to me, if you are the best team, you will end up with the best record. The way teams schedule their games now, they don't necessarily end up with a schedule that reflects their true worth. An expanded schedule may help establish the best teams a little better. This way there will be a more accurate representation, because teams will have played a wider variety of games. Also, much like the professional sports leagues, college football could also include "wild card" teams. Perhaps they can be decided in the same manner as pro sports: the team with the best records after the conference winners could get wild card births, or perhaps those who feel we should keep the rankings might suggest that the highest ranked teams outside the conference winners should get the births. I would feel better about using the records, since the expanded schedule should have better established the strongest teams.
3) The playoff will establish which teams should be playing for the national championship. This is truly the only fair way to determine these teams. The teams that make it to the first round of the playoffs will earn money, much like the bowl teams do. Then for each successive round the teams make it to, they'll continue to earn more money. The team that wins the championship will earn the most. But there should also be TV contracts with all the conferences, and each team in the conference should earn an equal share.
A playoff system will give teams from every conference an equal opportunity. The national champion could come from any conference. Every school will have the chance to recruit quality players, because they might get to play for the championship and they'll get TV exposure, just like every other team. This will make it more likely that all the teams really will end up pretty equal, and then the best team really will win the national championship.
I know this is just a pipe dream. No one involved in a BCS conference or in the BCS committees will ever agree to parity in college football. The Big 12 and the SEC will continue to think that they are all that and a bag of chips, and they will continue to get the bulk of the money, the bulk of the bowl games, and the bulk of the best players. And every season there may or may not be a "Cinderella" team that might really be better than the BCS "best".
I hate the BCS.
I HATE THE BCS.
I refuse to accept that there can be teams with undefeated records out there that will be denied the opportunity to compete for the national championship because they come from the wrong conferences.
The BCS does not identify the best teams in the country. Instead, it favors teams from certain conferences over others, convinces coaches to lead their schedules, and encourages teams to be unsportsmanlike and run up the score. The BCS conferences become convinced that their shit somehow smells better than everyone else's.
Look how many blow-outs there were this season. This isn't necessarily because some teams were "that much" better than others. It's because the BCS considers those stats in their computer analysis.
Look how many upsets there were this season. That indicates that the ratings of the AP, coaches, and BCS don't mean shit.
A perfect example of the disparity in college football is the game I attended: the University of Tennessee's homecoming game versus the University of Wyoming. Tennessee, an SEC team that has perennially been in the hunt for BCS rankings and has played for the national championship, scheduled their homecoming with non-BCS conference (Mountain West) Wyoming because they figured it would be a soft game that they could win in the midst of a difficult schedule against teams that are "better". Instead, Wyoming came in to the Vols home field and handed UT another loss. After the game, ousted head coach Phil Fulmer (who lost his job because his team could not perform to the SEC standards this year) said, "In this day and age in college football, anybody can beat you" (Knoxville News, 11/9/08).
This is pretty true, as demonstrated by the number of upsets during the course of the season. The NFL mentality of "any given Sunday" (meaning that on any given game day any team in the NFL has a reasonable chance of defeating any other team) has changed the face of college football. There are plenty of "Cinderella" teams in Division 1-A that have won the Big Game. The fact that priority is still given to some conferences over others is unfair and violates the spirit of competition in college sports.
The BCS causes a self-perpetuating cycle. By giving preference to teams in some divisions and not others, those teams get national exposure, which brings with it money from the BCS games and TV contracts. Skilled high school players opt to attend the BCS schools because it brings them more opportunities to play in big games and enhance their chances of getting scouted by the pros. Because the BCS schools can attract better players, they are more successful, which validates the BCS and starts the whole process over again.
No school from a non-BCS conference can truly get a fair shot at a national championship while the BCS exists. The only fair way to run college football is to create a playoff system to give all teams the same opportunity.
Here's my suggestion:
1) Teams need to adjust their scheduling during the regular season. There are eleven Division 1-A conferences (twelve if you include the "independent" schools). These conferences should do their schedules in a similar manner to the NFL. Each season the NFL divisions schedule three kinds of games: divisional games, conference games, and inter-conference games. Each division plays games against another division in the opposing conference. The MLB does something similar. The college teams should do something like that. Each Division 1-A team should play three kinds of games--games again conference rivals, games against other BCS conference teams, and games against non-BCS conference teams. The regular college season would probably have to be expanded to fit in the necessary games.
2) There should be a playoff between the winner of each conference. The team with the best record from each conference will have an automatic place. Now, many people will argue with this and say that a system like this will exclude some good teams. And they'll cite the game between Florida and Alabama as an example. Alabama was the number one team, and they would have been the winners of the SEC if it weren't for the SEC championship game. It's very true, that sometimes the best team isn't always the team with the best record. But to me, if you are the best team, you will end up with the best record. The way teams schedule their games now, they don't necessarily end up with a schedule that reflects their true worth. An expanded schedule may help establish the best teams a little better. This way there will be a more accurate representation, because teams will have played a wider variety of games. Also, much like the professional sports leagues, college football could also include "wild card" teams. Perhaps they can be decided in the same manner as pro sports: the team with the best records after the conference winners could get wild card births, or perhaps those who feel we should keep the rankings might suggest that the highest ranked teams outside the conference winners should get the births. I would feel better about using the records, since the expanded schedule should have better established the strongest teams.
3) The playoff will establish which teams should be playing for the national championship. This is truly the only fair way to determine these teams. The teams that make it to the first round of the playoffs will earn money, much like the bowl teams do. Then for each successive round the teams make it to, they'll continue to earn more money. The team that wins the championship will earn the most. But there should also be TV contracts with all the conferences, and each team in the conference should earn an equal share.
A playoff system will give teams from every conference an equal opportunity. The national champion could come from any conference. Every school will have the chance to recruit quality players, because they might get to play for the championship and they'll get TV exposure, just like every other team. This will make it more likely that all the teams really will end up pretty equal, and then the best team really will win the national championship.
I know this is just a pipe dream. No one involved in a BCS conference or in the BCS committees will ever agree to parity in college football. The Big 12 and the SEC will continue to think that they are all that and a bag of chips, and they will continue to get the bulk of the money, the bulk of the bowl games, and the bulk of the best players. And every season there may or may not be a "Cinderella" team that might really be better than the BCS "best".
I hate the BCS.
Friday, December 05, 2008
Well, I started out well.
I managed to hit the gym both Monday and Tuesday mornings, and also Tuesday afternoon. I was feeling pretty proud of myself (and pretty sore).
Then Wednesday morning came. When the alarm went off, I did a quick status check of all systems, and realized I was stuffy, my throat hurt, and my stomach didn't feel very good. I opted out of the morning workout, figuring I'd hit the gym on my way home from work that afternoon. However, I did not count on getting sick once I got to school that morning. After a couple trips to the bathroom before school, it became apparent that I wasn't going to make it. I ended up taking my first sick day in 6 1/2 years. Needless to say, I didn't make it to the gym. Thursday morning I also opted out, not in any hurry to reignite the illness (still stuffy and sore-throated, but not barfing). Thursday afternoon I couldn't work out because of a swim meet. That left this morning. Still snuffly, I decided against the morning workout (much to the dog's dismay). That leaves this afternoon. I do need to make the effort to get there.
The good news is that, despite the gap in the middle of the week, I've managed to lose 1 1/2 pounds between Monday and today. Of course, all the yakking I did on Wednesday probably facilitated some of that...
I managed to hit the gym both Monday and Tuesday mornings, and also Tuesday afternoon. I was feeling pretty proud of myself (and pretty sore).
Then Wednesday morning came. When the alarm went off, I did a quick status check of all systems, and realized I was stuffy, my throat hurt, and my stomach didn't feel very good. I opted out of the morning workout, figuring I'd hit the gym on my way home from work that afternoon. However, I did not count on getting sick once I got to school that morning. After a couple trips to the bathroom before school, it became apparent that I wasn't going to make it. I ended up taking my first sick day in 6 1/2 years. Needless to say, I didn't make it to the gym. Thursday morning I also opted out, not in any hurry to reignite the illness (still stuffy and sore-throated, but not barfing). Thursday afternoon I couldn't work out because of a swim meet. That left this morning. Still snuffly, I decided against the morning workout (much to the dog's dismay). That leaves this afternoon. I do need to make the effort to get there.
The good news is that, despite the gap in the middle of the week, I've managed to lose 1 1/2 pounds between Monday and today. Of course, all the yakking I did on Wednesday probably facilitated some of that...
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
From Cracked.com:
The 5 Least Surprising Toy Recalls of All Time
By Danny Gallagher
As children prepare to gather around the Christmas tree to open gift-wrapped toys, lets take a moment to remember some of the toy recalls that companies, parents and even children probably should have seen coming a mile away. Because after all, children shouldn't be the only ones who can't sleep the night before Christmas.
#5. The Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids Doll
It's not entirely surprising that a Cabbage Patch Kids doll ended up trying to eat children. They've always had lifeless shark's eyes that look ready to roll over white and enter attack mode. Sure, it's outstretched arms look innocently huggable to a child, just like the moist mouth of a Venus fly trap looks like a perfectly good place to land in the final moments of a fly's life.
The doll was unleashed on the masses in the fall of 1996 and more than 500,000 were recalled less than a year later by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. It was supposed to eat little plastic snack foods through a motorized mouth. Lord knows how the kids got the plastic foods out of them once they were done eating them, but in many unfortunate cases, the doll instead developed a taste for bloody scalps.
Parents reported their children's hair, fingers and skin getting caught in the doll's gullet, which turned out to be so powerful, it could even rip hair clean out of its roots. There were also more difficult to confirm reports of the doll's eyes suddenly turning a bright red and the room temperature dropping 15 degrees Celsius every time you turned it on.
The CPSC ordered a recall and Mattel offered a $40 refund. They did not offer the copy of the Necronomicon that would give parents the power to send the doll back to the bowels of hell from whence it came.
Why they should have known:
Any parent with low-lying, unprotected wall sockets or sleepy pets will tell you that children love to put their fingers into anything and everything their tiny, chubby arms can reach. It's their nature. Because they can't talk and don't have the motor skills or experience to understand pain, the best way they can learn about this weird world they've just entered is to either stick it in their mouths or shove their arms halfway down it. The Cabbage Patch Kids Snacktime Doll was much too big for children to swallow, and it had a motherfucking motorized mouth, so you do the math.
#4. Kinder Chocolate Eggs
Food and toys have a strong relationship. Everybody remembers the sheer joy and excitement of finding the toy surprise in their morning bowl of Lucky Charms. Kids rarely choked on those toys because the boxes had huge flashy advertisements all over them and the toy was usually the first thing they looked for when they tore open the box with their teeth and hands like a lion pouncing on a weak, marshmallow-filled antelope.
Leave it to the Germans to turn childhood joy into unrelenting horror.
Kreiner Imports of Chicago sold the Kinder Egg to stores in the South and Midwest from March to August 1997, just in time for another Christ-based holiday that finds children eating candy-filled chocolate eggs with as much thought and chewing as Pac-Man in attack mode. Unfortunately, Kreiner's chocolate eggs were actually tiny plastic toys with a delicious chocolate shell wrapped around them.
Like a Trojan horse for the Heimlich maneuver, approximately 5,000 death eggs were recalled. The toy manufacturer, the Ferrero Group, blamed the import company for the snafu, claiming that they didn't market their toys in the United States or to children ages 3 and under. These were apparently the toy-filled candy eggs for the discerning adult.
Why they should have known:
It's an edible treat wrapped around an inedible mound of plastic with even tinier bits of choke-tastic plastic encased inside. The edible treat is chocolate, the closest thing children have to heroin. The toy might have been safer on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, but America's childhood obesity and early on-set diabetes rates should have been a huge red flag to the import company that Americans kids probably wouldn't even take the time to unwrap the thing before shoveling it into their mouths.
And, if there were any warnings about the surprise toy inside, not only would our children's low literacy rates prevent them from reading, but even the parents wouldn't know about it. The label encasing the egg was still written in German when it landed in America, so the product would have been about as safe if the packaging had been in English and read, "Warning: There are no small parts for your children to choke on in here. Viable substitute for baby food."
#3. Sky Dancers
Nothing can be more magical and whimsical to the eyes of the child than a toy that possesses the magic of flight. It's why kids have been making paper airplanes for years. Of course, flying toys lose a little magic when they like to leap up and knock your eye out of its socket.
Galoob unleashed Sky Dancers in November 1994. It was an unholy alliance between the pretty girlishness of a Barbie doll and the magic of a whirly bird. Children would put the helicopter toy on a mechanical base, pull the cord and watch its foam propeller pull it high into the sky. The company went on to re-release the toy several times as flying dolphins, flowers and ponies--all with different, presumably increasingly gay, names.
Six years later, Hasbro scooped up Galoob and found itself ordering a massive recall when it was learned the magic fairies would randomly fly in any direction at a high rate of speed and bitch slap children and even their parents like a white trash Tinkerbell after a bottle of lukewarm Jack Daniels.
Why they should have known:
To the untrained, uninjured eye, this toy might not seem so harmless on the surface. It's got foam propellers that look about as huggable as a propeller can look and it's too big for a toddler to stuff halfway down their esophagus. However, when activated by a pull cord, it becomes a hyper-kinetic missile searching for the vulnerable parts of anyone within a 3-foot radius. And, since it requires the kid who pulls the chord to stand within a foot of it, there's always a good chance it will be the kid bending his face directly in its whirring propellers of death who will feel the brunt of its fury.
The CSPC received over 150 reports of injuries caused by the toy, including scratched corneas, temporary blindness, broken teeth, face lacerations, a broken rib and even a mild concussion. The toy was pulled off the market before it had a chance to reenact the propeller scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
#2. The Easy Bake Oven
Like the Slinky, Uncle Milty's Ant Farm and Ohio Art's Etch-a-Sketch, the Easy Bake Oven has become a classic toy in the halls of childhood nostalgia. Every little girl or confused young boy had one growing up, or at least the ones who had parents who actually loved them. They could do just about anything a grown up oven could such as bake cakes and cookies, make fudge and brownies and prepare women for a lifetime of soul-crushing indentured servitude to a man who only cares if his meals and his women are as hot and quiet as possible.
But 44 years after Kenner toys created the Easy Bake Oven, it went from a cute childhood plaything that taught children how to give every kid on the block diabetes, to a menacing finger scorching monster.
The CSPC announced a recall in February 2007 after 29 reports of burned fingers surfaced and again this past summer when the latest incantation of the toy created by Hasbro baked up 77 incidents of burned fingers, 15 of which went as high as second- and third-degree burns. A 5-year-old girl even had to have part of her finger amputated. Just like a big girl!
Why they should have known:
Forget the fact that the Easy Bake Oven has always been dangerous because it lets children eat icing by the bag. It also lets children stick their fingers in an oven.
Hasbro proudly rolled out their new and improved version of the classic children's toy in 2006 claiming they replaced the light bulb with its own central heating system, according to Hasbro's official Easy Bake Oven timeline.
But ... doesn't it still let children stick their fingers in a fucking oven?
#1. Lawn Darts or Jarts
Lawn darts were introduced in the '60s, a more innocent time when the world did not yet realize that children could be harmed by something as innocuous as a flying metal spike.
The CSPC finally caught on in 1988, when the toys actually killed three children. They issued a recall alert that, not only called for a ban, but also ordered any remaining darts be destroyed on sight like they were bloodthirsty zombies roaming the streets in search of kids to puncture.
Then CSPC Chairwoman Ann Brown reissued the recall alert in May 1997 when one hit a 7-year-old Indiana boy in the head so hard, it pierced his skull. The fan site, Lawn-Jarts.com questions the recall and asks what the big fuss was all about. Cracked.com may not be Consumer Reports, but we have a feeling it has something to do with the dead kids.
Why they should have known:
This toy went with the strategy of taking darts, a game clearly unsafe for children, and deciding it would be safer if it were 10 times larger, and if the rules were changed so that the target was basically your entire lawn. We're assuming that exploding tip lawn darts were also considered at some point.
It's true that, as lawn dart proponents remind us, the game is perfectly safe if played according to the rules. Of course, the reality is that it takes about three minutes for kids to grow bored with the actual game and for someone to dare someone else to stand over the target and try to catch the dart in his teeth.
Let's face it, if children could be trusted to perfectly obey safety warnings, they could be trusted with flamethrowers, too. Hell, if they could read and obey safety warnings, they'd run the world because half the adults can't even do that.
The 5 Least Surprising Toy Recalls of All Time
By Danny Gallagher
As children prepare to gather around the Christmas tree to open gift-wrapped toys, lets take a moment to remember some of the toy recalls that companies, parents and even children probably should have seen coming a mile away. Because after all, children shouldn't be the only ones who can't sleep the night before Christmas.
#5. The Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids Doll
It's not entirely surprising that a Cabbage Patch Kids doll ended up trying to eat children. They've always had lifeless shark's eyes that look ready to roll over white and enter attack mode. Sure, it's outstretched arms look innocently huggable to a child, just like the moist mouth of a Venus fly trap looks like a perfectly good place to land in the final moments of a fly's life.
The doll was unleashed on the masses in the fall of 1996 and more than 500,000 were recalled less than a year later by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. It was supposed to eat little plastic snack foods through a motorized mouth. Lord knows how the kids got the plastic foods out of them once they were done eating them, but in many unfortunate cases, the doll instead developed a taste for bloody scalps.
Parents reported their children's hair, fingers and skin getting caught in the doll's gullet, which turned out to be so powerful, it could even rip hair clean out of its roots. There were also more difficult to confirm reports of the doll's eyes suddenly turning a bright red and the room temperature dropping 15 degrees Celsius every time you turned it on.
The CPSC ordered a recall and Mattel offered a $40 refund. They did not offer the copy of the Necronomicon that would give parents the power to send the doll back to the bowels of hell from whence it came.
Why they should have known:
Any parent with low-lying, unprotected wall sockets or sleepy pets will tell you that children love to put their fingers into anything and everything their tiny, chubby arms can reach. It's their nature. Because they can't talk and don't have the motor skills or experience to understand pain, the best way they can learn about this weird world they've just entered is to either stick it in their mouths or shove their arms halfway down it. The Cabbage Patch Kids Snacktime Doll was much too big for children to swallow, and it had a motherfucking motorized mouth, so you do the math.
#4. Kinder Chocolate Eggs
Food and toys have a strong relationship. Everybody remembers the sheer joy and excitement of finding the toy surprise in their morning bowl of Lucky Charms. Kids rarely choked on those toys because the boxes had huge flashy advertisements all over them and the toy was usually the first thing they looked for when they tore open the box with their teeth and hands like a lion pouncing on a weak, marshmallow-filled antelope.
Leave it to the Germans to turn childhood joy into unrelenting horror.
Kreiner Imports of Chicago sold the Kinder Egg to stores in the South and Midwest from March to August 1997, just in time for another Christ-based holiday that finds children eating candy-filled chocolate eggs with as much thought and chewing as Pac-Man in attack mode. Unfortunately, Kreiner's chocolate eggs were actually tiny plastic toys with a delicious chocolate shell wrapped around them.
Like a Trojan horse for the Heimlich maneuver, approximately 5,000 death eggs were recalled. The toy manufacturer, the Ferrero Group, blamed the import company for the snafu, claiming that they didn't market their toys in the United States or to children ages 3 and under. These were apparently the toy-filled candy eggs for the discerning adult.
Why they should have known:
It's an edible treat wrapped around an inedible mound of plastic with even tinier bits of choke-tastic plastic encased inside. The edible treat is chocolate, the closest thing children have to heroin. The toy might have been safer on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, but America's childhood obesity and early on-set diabetes rates should have been a huge red flag to the import company that Americans kids probably wouldn't even take the time to unwrap the thing before shoveling it into their mouths.
And, if there were any warnings about the surprise toy inside, not only would our children's low literacy rates prevent them from reading, but even the parents wouldn't know about it. The label encasing the egg was still written in German when it landed in America, so the product would have been about as safe if the packaging had been in English and read, "Warning: There are no small parts for your children to choke on in here. Viable substitute for baby food."
#3. Sky Dancers
Nothing can be more magical and whimsical to the eyes of the child than a toy that possesses the magic of flight. It's why kids have been making paper airplanes for years. Of course, flying toys lose a little magic when they like to leap up and knock your eye out of its socket.
Galoob unleashed Sky Dancers in November 1994. It was an unholy alliance between the pretty girlishness of a Barbie doll and the magic of a whirly bird. Children would put the helicopter toy on a mechanical base, pull the cord and watch its foam propeller pull it high into the sky. The company went on to re-release the toy several times as flying dolphins, flowers and ponies--all with different, presumably increasingly gay, names.
Six years later, Hasbro scooped up Galoob and found itself ordering a massive recall when it was learned the magic fairies would randomly fly in any direction at a high rate of speed and bitch slap children and even their parents like a white trash Tinkerbell after a bottle of lukewarm Jack Daniels.
Why they should have known:
To the untrained, uninjured eye, this toy might not seem so harmless on the surface. It's got foam propellers that look about as huggable as a propeller can look and it's too big for a toddler to stuff halfway down their esophagus. However, when activated by a pull cord, it becomes a hyper-kinetic missile searching for the vulnerable parts of anyone within a 3-foot radius. And, since it requires the kid who pulls the chord to stand within a foot of it, there's always a good chance it will be the kid bending his face directly in its whirring propellers of death who will feel the brunt of its fury.
The CSPC received over 150 reports of injuries caused by the toy, including scratched corneas, temporary blindness, broken teeth, face lacerations, a broken rib and even a mild concussion. The toy was pulled off the market before it had a chance to reenact the propeller scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
#2. The Easy Bake Oven
Like the Slinky, Uncle Milty's Ant Farm and Ohio Art's Etch-a-Sketch, the Easy Bake Oven has become a classic toy in the halls of childhood nostalgia. Every little girl or confused young boy had one growing up, or at least the ones who had parents who actually loved them. They could do just about anything a grown up oven could such as bake cakes and cookies, make fudge and brownies and prepare women for a lifetime of soul-crushing indentured servitude to a man who only cares if his meals and his women are as hot and quiet as possible.
But 44 years after Kenner toys created the Easy Bake Oven, it went from a cute childhood plaything that taught children how to give every kid on the block diabetes, to a menacing finger scorching monster.
The CSPC announced a recall in February 2007 after 29 reports of burned fingers surfaced and again this past summer when the latest incantation of the toy created by Hasbro baked up 77 incidents of burned fingers, 15 of which went as high as second- and third-degree burns. A 5-year-old girl even had to have part of her finger amputated. Just like a big girl!
Why they should have known:
Forget the fact that the Easy Bake Oven has always been dangerous because it lets children eat icing by the bag. It also lets children stick their fingers in an oven.
Hasbro proudly rolled out their new and improved version of the classic children's toy in 2006 claiming they replaced the light bulb with its own central heating system, according to Hasbro's official Easy Bake Oven timeline.
But ... doesn't it still let children stick their fingers in a fucking oven?
#1. Lawn Darts or Jarts
Lawn darts were introduced in the '60s, a more innocent time when the world did not yet realize that children could be harmed by something as innocuous as a flying metal spike.
The CSPC finally caught on in 1988, when the toys actually killed three children. They issued a recall alert that, not only called for a ban, but also ordered any remaining darts be destroyed on sight like they were bloodthirsty zombies roaming the streets in search of kids to puncture.
Then CSPC Chairwoman Ann Brown reissued the recall alert in May 1997 when one hit a 7-year-old Indiana boy in the head so hard, it pierced his skull. The fan site, Lawn-Jarts.com questions the recall and asks what the big fuss was all about. Cracked.com may not be Consumer Reports, but we have a feeling it has something to do with the dead kids.
Why they should have known:
This toy went with the strategy of taking darts, a game clearly unsafe for children, and deciding it would be safer if it were 10 times larger, and if the rules were changed so that the target was basically your entire lawn. We're assuming that exploding tip lawn darts were also considered at some point.
It's true that, as lawn dart proponents remind us, the game is perfectly safe if played according to the rules. Of course, the reality is that it takes about three minutes for kids to grow bored with the actual game and for someone to dare someone else to stand over the target and try to catch the dart in his teeth.
Let's face it, if children could be trusted to perfectly obey safety warnings, they could be trusted with flamethrowers, too. Hell, if they could read and obey safety warnings, they'd run the world because half the adults can't even do that.
Monday, December 01, 2008
I'm off to a good start. I hit the gym at 5:00 a.m. I worked on core strength for about 10-15 minutes and then did cardio for 45 minutes. If I can manage it, I'm going to try to get back there this afternoon. Monday afternoons are always crowded at the gym if you get there after most people's work hours (which I'll have to do this week since I've got to proctor study hall after school), and it'll be even worse today because everyone will feel guilty about how much they ate over the weekend. I'm sure it'll be hell, but I really need to do it. I may not be able to get on a cardio machine, but hopefully I can find some weight machines open, or I might have to swim some laps instead. Cross your fingers...
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Find more videos like this on KayakMind
Just wanted to post this for the heck of it...this was several months ago, at the Tellico River. This is Baby Falls, about a 12-ft waterfall.
I can't imagine there is anything more tiresome than someone who is all talk and no action. Which means I'm pretty tired of myself. Over and over again I've tried to rededicate myself to the weight loss. Again and again I've tried to refocus my efforts. Time and time again I've tried to rekindle my motivation. And each time I've failed.
Now I'm trying again. Is there anything to suggest that I'm going to succeed? Not really. I think today's Cathy really captures the essence.
In the comic strip, Cathy's mom is the one who sells her on the idea that she can eat the pie. While I've had plenty of people encouraging me to eat this past weekend, I myself am the one to blame for my sub-prime eating problem. And there is no bailout coming for me. I'm the only one who can get myself out of this mess.
Here's what I'm trying for the month of December.
1) I will work out at the gym at least five times each week until I leave for my Christmas vacation.
2) I will go to the gym at least three mornings each work week until my vacation.
3) I will try to cut back on what I eat.
That's it; no weight loss goals, no other requirements. Really what I need to do is get in better shape. On our vacation we expect to spend two days in a row skiing. If I can't get in better shape, I won't be able to make two whole days (not to mention being able to fit into my ski clothes).
Tomorrow is Day One...
Now I'm trying again. Is there anything to suggest that I'm going to succeed? Not really. I think today's Cathy really captures the essence.
In the comic strip, Cathy's mom is the one who sells her on the idea that she can eat the pie. While I've had plenty of people encouraging me to eat this past weekend, I myself am the one to blame for my sub-prime eating problem. And there is no bailout coming for me. I'm the only one who can get myself out of this mess.
Here's what I'm trying for the month of December.
1) I will work out at the gym at least five times each week until I leave for my Christmas vacation.
2) I will go to the gym at least three mornings each work week until my vacation.
3) I will try to cut back on what I eat.
That's it; no weight loss goals, no other requirements. Really what I need to do is get in better shape. On our vacation we expect to spend two days in a row skiing. If I can't get in better shape, I won't be able to make two whole days (not to mention being able to fit into my ski clothes).
Tomorrow is Day One...
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday, November 03, 2008
A fond farewell to another of my favorite comic strips. Opus was just the most recent face of Bloom County, one of my very favorite comics. Bloom County said "Happy Trails" (the last book) in the late '80s. It came back as Sunday-only Outland, with new characters who were gradually replaced by the old ones. It ended in the mid-'90s. Then in 2003 it showed up again as Opus, with many of the same characters. And now it's gone again, and creator Berkley Breathed claims it's for good this time, as he turns his attention to children's literature. A noble effort, to be true, but I will miss Opus, Bill the Cat, Steve Dallas, Binkley, Portnoy, HodgePodge, Cutter John, Rosebud, and all the other characters. I will put my Bloom County books on the shelf with Garfield, The Far Side, and Calvin and Hobbes, and pray that Bill Amend continues drawing FoxTrot on Sundays for just a little bit longer.
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