Why Blog?

A friend recently posted a blog (by recent I mean probably a month now) about not sure why to blog and what the point of her blog is or something along those lines.  So, I started thinking about why I keep a blog.  I mean, I know why I don't do it.  I don't do it for readers, because the only people who read this are people who know me.  Well, I suppose that's not true, but what is true the only people I'm aware of that read it are those people.  I mean, I get about 500 hits per month on my blog, and they can't all be from people I know.  Surely some just haplessly found themselves on my blog.  Either way, the point is I'm not out trying to get readers and be blog famous.  I also don't have some sort of theme or issue that I'm writing about, it's just really whatever strikes my fancy, though I'm not for violence (subtle joke).

I guess the reason I write a blog is just to organize my thoughts, to kill time, and to give people a hit about what's going on with me.  Some people who read this I don't talk to daily, so I guess reading allows them to see what's up and has helped in conversation later because they'll say "Oh hey, I saw you working on this, tell me about it." which is something I really enjoy.  I also kind of like the idea of it being a historical log of my life.  I suppose Google will be around for some time, so my kids or grankids may wonder what I was up to or what my life was like and they could theoretically look back at this.  That's something I know I'd like to be able to do with my grandparents, or great grandparents. 

Anyhow, much like my blog this is rambling so away I'll go.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Winter is coming!  Or so it appears from Lowes.  Really, guys?  Can't we calm it down a bit and wait a little longer.  It's still freaking AUGUST.  Though, since this is Michigan, I guess we should always be prepared.

Pissy Pee Pants

The last week or so Fluffy has taken to just taking a leak in the middle of the floor, which usually means that there is an issue with bladder stones.  However, unlike other times she didn't have any red in her pee so we were worried it may be something else.  So yesterday we took her in and they took a look at her and took some samples.  Today they called back to let us know that in fact crystals were forming and we got her on some special food to fix her PH level and get rid of the crystals.  This is good news and within a week she should be doing much better.

The sad side is that they found some lumps on her belly that could be kitty titty cancer.  The x-rays didn't show it having spread anywhere, so that's good, and the expectancy was six months to four years.  However, given her age four years is probably her normal expectancy anyway.  We're going to look at some information and determine where to go from here.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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This chart tells me that our cat is right there at the last line before the red in which is considered geriatric.  Sam on the other hand is well into the red now.  WOOO! Old pets. 

Unshared

I enjoy sharing experiences with people.  There's something about doing things with others that is really appealing to me.  To have these events, projects, etc. to work on and experience is for me something that helps bond you with others.  Luckily I've had a lot of that from many of the projects and things I've worked on.

At the same time I feel like there's a lot of that missing in the family portion of my life.  It seems that growing up with my sisters wasn't really something that pulled us together and it seems perhaps it actually did more to push us apart. Just something that occurred to me as I was watching a Vlogbrothers video.  They've done a lot of great stuff and it seems to have brought them together.  Anyhow, just some random thoughts.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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I enjoyed that the sun dial in the stair area was so bright that it reflected off the glass.  Pretty cool looking, and lucky i noticed it at the right time.

Ten Books

Today I was tagged in one of those new versions of the chain letter which comes through social media.  Side note: does anyone remember chain letters?  Like real ones?  Did anyone else ever get one?  I got one as a kid from one of my friends.  I don't remember if I sent it on to anyone, but I remember getting one.

Anyhow, the idea was that you list 10 books that really have stayed with you for some reason or other.  I generally don't do them, but I thought I might as well since I didn't have much going on and it was a fun one that is all "hey reading, yay!"  The problem I had with it is that it doesn't have you explain why you picked the books you did.  Since I felt an explanation was a bit much for a single status, I figured I could just write a blog about it.  So here is the list of books that I picked.  The rules were: I list 10 books that have stayed with me in some way and tag people to do the same. Don't take more than a few minutes and do not think too hard. They don't have to be the "right" books or great works of literature, just ones that have affected you in some way. Then tag some friends, including thee person who tagged you, so they can see your list.

My list is:

• The Harry Potter Series, by J.K. Rowling.
  I think this is probably an easy one.  Everyone knows that I really love these books.  I think it's a totally fun story but it also has a lot of great life lessons and thoughts in it about everything form racism, prejudice, and oppression to light hearted things like growing up, being different and finding your way.  I love the books, so it's at the top of my list.
• Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
  I picked this one because the image of the walls screaming at the woman, which apparently was entertainment of some sort really kind of stuck with me as a image of people getting sucked into trashy tv shows about faux celebrities who are celebrities only because they are celebrities.  i.e. the Kardashians, Paris Hilton, etc.  Of course it more obiously sticks with me because it's about censorship, about control of minds, and of course the effort to break free of that.
•  Night, by Elie Wiesel
  Being someone who is a history teacher, the story of the Holocaust is terrible and heartbreaking.  I remember reading this book in the 10th grade and learning about the war and what happened.  It was also about the time that Schindler's List came out, so there was a lot of focus on this.  In conjunction with reading this we also took a field trip to the National Holocaust Museum and Memorial.  It was quite the experience and reading the experiences and the thoughts about it were quite lasting for me.
•  The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green.
  Kids with cancer.  Kids with cancer that remind me of a real kid with cancer.  I enjoyed this book.  I liked that he wanted to make a book that was kind of real life, and showed people could live a happy and full life even if it was a short life.  Sure, it's a YA book, but it's a good book and I really enjoyed.
• The House of Sixty Fathers, by Meindert DeJong
  This was a book that was read to us in elementary school, but I'm still going to count it.  I don't really remember what grade we read this in.  I'm inclined to believe it was probably 4th grade, because I really remember my 4th grade teacher reading to us regularly.  I'm not sure why this book stuck with me, but something about the story was interesting to me.  It's about a kid in China escaping the Japanese during World War II and due to flooding he's swept back down into Japanese territory.  I remember him talking about how hungry he was and describing the rice fields and then finally making it to a US base.  It was a cool story, or at least I thoguth so as a kid.  Perhaps not if I revisit it.
• Waiting, by Ha Jin
  I hated this book so much.  It's the story of a couple in China.  They work in the city but the man has a house in the country that he goes to once a year.  He was forced to work in the city I believe I can't remember the details, but the fact of it is that the man lives in the city as a scientist, and his wife lives on their farm.  He sees her once a year, and has fallen in love with another scientist.  They have been together for some time, and I'm talking a decade or more, but he can't bring himself to divorce his wife.  So, the entire book is them waiting to have a life together, or waiting to make a decision, or waiting to move on.  It's all a bunch of waiting an no one ever moves on.  I myself was waiting for there to be a point.  Thought perhaps that was stupid, and perhaps the point is that it's stupid to wait and waiting will just waste your life away.
• Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry
  I think this was kind of my introduction to The Holocaust.  This was also one of those books that were read to us in elementary school.  We did a lot of reading.  I remember them talking about their life before the German's invaded and how she said one of the soldiers that stood at the corner had a long neck.  I really enjoyed this book and after it was read to us I read it a couple of times.
• The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
  Another book I actually didn't love.  This one stuck with me because I felt that the main character was a coward and pathetic.  I also felt that he didn't grow and stayed that way through the entire book.  He ended the book a coward just as he started it.  I read this for a class on literature from the non-western world, and I was the only one in the class who felt he didn't redeem himself.  It was quite the discussion.
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie
  This was also from my world lit class, but this one I just loved.  It was a story written for a child, but it was fantastical, whimsical, and just all around fun.  It's a good book and I highly recommend it.  In fact I feel like I'd like to read it again.
•  Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi
  This is a graphic novel, but it's the story of a girl growing up in Iran during the time of the revolution, well slightly before to slightly after.  It's a really neat story to hear it from her perspective and from someone inside.  We hear about Iran and it's kind of this faceless bad guy, so it's interesting to hear about it from someone with a different perspective.  There is a sequel that I also recommend, though it chronicles her time in Europe after leaving Iran.  Very good, but I liked the first one best.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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I want to know what my coworker did to get this mug.

No Balance

So, I was planning on doing a little rant on "kids these day" about how they seem to have no ability to balance and avoid their responsibilities then complain about how they suck and can't succeed all while never putting their full effort into anything.  It's something I'm seeing on Tumblr a lot these days, probably because school is starting back up.  So, I was going to rant because it drives me absolutely crazy, but I decided that instead of doing that it might be more helpful to try and discuss some things one can do to avoid being overwhelmed.

Step One:
Realize that everyone you know who has gone to school, done a job, or done whatever it is that you're overwhelmed about, has been exactly in your shoes.  You are not special.  You are not doing anythign someone else hasn't already done before you.  You are not a pioneer who no one can relate to because you're out in some terra incognito.  People, probably thousands of people, or possibly millions, have been where you are now.  Unless you're the first person on Mars, you are not doing something many other people haven't already done.

Step Two:
Realize Step One, and look at the people around you.  Identify who among them have done what you are doing.  Talk to them.  TALK TO THEM.  Don't just say "I'm stressed out" or something like that.  Talk to them and ask them specific questions.  Say "I'm having a hard time with X, when you were doing X what did you do {in order to avoid whatever stress problem you are having}"?  The people around you are wonderful resources.  If you talk to them, ask them questions that lead you to solving problems that you're having, they will provide you with a lot of information.  While they are doing that constantly remember step one.  The second you forget step one you will start saying "well it's different for me, I have to do xyz"  NO. It is not different for you. You are not exempt, you are not special re-read step one.  Utilize the knowledge of those around you who have gone down this trail before.  Don't ignore it simply because it's hard or not what you want to hear.

Step Three:
Plan ahead.  Go over whatever it is that you have going on and plan for it well in advance.  You see that you're having an exam or major project due somewhere in the semester?  Start blocking time off now so that you can take care of it.  You know there's a big event at work that is going to eat into your study time?  Start making notes on a calendar so you can get ahead of your other work. The key to this is seeing where your time demands will be and planning other things around it so that you're never in a situation where you can't do everything you need to.  You know that you're going to need money for a big expense, start saving it now.  Example: The semester is going to come every single year at the same time and you know books are going to cost you a couple hundred dollars.  Well, there are 52 weeks a year, if you take $10 a week and put it in your savings, you'll have $520 which may cover your books for the entire year.  Planning ahead can save you expense of having to take out too many loans, or stress of having to figure out how to pay for something that you fully knew was coming.

Step Four:
Cut out distractions.  This is a hard one, and if you can't do it through will power then there are apps that will help you lock out distractions for certain periods of time.  If you need to study, DO NOT log onto social media.  DO NOT turn on Netflix or the TV, DO NOT respond to texts or calls.  Put your phone in airplane mode, stay off the Internet, keep the TV off and STUDY.  A lot of people spend hours and hours studying but really they're just fucking off procrastinating.  If they actually put all the distractions away and got right down to work they'd find that they had A TON more time to actually do things.  One will find that breezing through the work means that you can actually go to a movie, hang out with friends, or if none of that is around then enjoy social media or games without that feeling of stress because you know you SHOULD be doing something else.

Step Five:
Prioritize.  This is an important thing.  You need to look at everything you have going on and prioritize them.  For example, when I was in school I also had to pay the rent, food, etc.  So I had to have a high priority to make enough money to actually live.  If you're living at home or in a dorm this won't be as important so you can make study your priority.  If you have a scholarship then obviously grades are a major priority.  The point is that when you're looking at your life you need to put things in a proper order.  You've got "Shit that MUST get done" "Shit that should get done" and "Shit that would be nice".  Meeting your financial needs, meeting your academic needs are both in that MUST category.  Everything else goes into the other categories.  Sometimes this means making choices that you don't like such as forgoing social engagements, not buying that thing you want to buy but saving for books, a trip, a car, clothes, a game, music, movies, whatever it is you want to buy.  If this is hard then set up a board and put the priorities up there, and when you're faced with a choice you can say "ok what category is this in?" I'll give you a hint: Hanging out with friends, playing games, social media, all are in that "it would be nice".  I'm not going to lie, this is a period of life where you may not have a TON of free time to do all the things you want to.  It will pass, and you are going to have to learn to prioritize and live with perhaps having to wait a week or two to do that thing you want to do.

Step Six:
Create a To Do list.  The list of course would be prioritized because you need to focus on the most important tasks first.  Yeah, you may have a quick little 15 minute assignment and you want to do it first because you don't want to do the other one that's more time consuming, but if it's the monster of a project that is going to be most important for your grade, then get to work on it first.  It may take more time than you expect and it will be better to get it out of the way first and then allow you to focus on other things later.  Keep the list up to date, and put everything you need to on the list.

Step Seven:
Take breaks.  Get up and go outside for a walk.  Do something active.  Step away from your work for a couple of minutes.  This does not mean going and watching TV, going on the internet or doing those things that distract you and then suck the time up and before you know it you've been "on break" for five hours.  Move, drink some water, do something else for a few minutes.  But set a timer so you don't over do it.

Step Eight:
Calm down.  That's a vague thing that people say, so let me be more specific.  NEVER COMPARE YOURSELF TO SOMEONE ELSE.  There will always be someone that can do whatever you are doing better than you.  It's safe to say you are not the world's top ANYTHING.  That's not a negative thing, that's just pointing out that there will always be someone who did it better, faster, whatever.  Don't compare your life to someone else, it's not the same and will never be the same.  Just stop comparing.  Don't say "Oh so and so did it and I can't I must suck!" or "So and so is getting by, what's wrong with me."  You don't know what's going on inside someone else's life, so don't compare.  Also, don't focus on the stress or the to do list.  Focus on what you're doing and ignore everything else.  Take it all in small chucks.  I have to do this.  I have to get THIS done.  When it's done just worry about the next step.  Once you have a plan just break it out into the pieces and don't worry about finishing it all, just worry about finishing what you are currently working on.  It takes discipline, but focus on your present and ignore everything else.  Ignore your past, ignore your future, ignore the things you could be doing, that you'd rather be doing, ignore it all except what you're doing now.  Be in the moment and don't think about anything else.  If you spend too much time dwelling on those things then you end up in this downward spiral.

Anyhow, that's just some tips.  Perhaps I'll revisit.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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I tried to get a better picture but it's always hard because it's at an intersection and driving and whatnot.  But this is a creepy statue of a family.  You've got the mom, dad, and kid.  But the creepy part is they are all naked, and the dad is holding the kid up in a way that looks like he balancing the kid on his business.  It's weird.

Back To School

Well, today was the first day of my classes for the semester and I wasn't exactly looking forward to it.  Right now I've only got one class, but there's another one that doesn't start for a few more weeks that I have my eye on.  The issue will be figuring out how I want to pay for the class.  It's not for my specific program, but it would probably be something beneficial to the other things that I'm working on right now.

The class I'm currently taking is taught by one of the guys that I had last semester.  So, here we go into the world of classes.  See you in December, Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Instead of a picture how about a little video just for funzies this one time.

Free Weekends

Well, as you know generally I work the UM football games during the fall in order to raise money for the theatre company I work for.  Well, the first game of the year is this Saturday, and it turns out we won't be doing them this year.  We couldn't get enough people to commit to doing them, so we decided that if we didn't have a reasonable lineup for the games then we'd just not do them.  No one needs that kind of stress, was the line of thinking.

So, that brings the upside of not having to work games for the first time in three years, but it brings the trouble of needing to find a replacement for the funds we would have normally got.  That's a bit stressful.  We have enough funds to keep us going for a while, but for long term and expansion it makes it a bit more difficult.  Though, a lot less hassle for me, and gives us all more free time.  So, hopefully this will turn out well.  I suppose if not we can try again next year.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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What kind of nut keeps a desktop that looks like this?  I mean honestly?  How does one find anything?  Maybe that's why this person is such a grumpy asshole.  I mean, if I had to deal with this kind of shit all the time I'd be pissed too.  Seriously, look at your life, look at your choices.  Get it together.

Construction Complete

Construction is officially complete on the basement.  All that is left now is to take care of the paint touch ups and then move into the room whatever it is we decide we are going to move into the room.  I'm pretty sure we're going to put my office down there, which is fine.  I'm a little afraid of flooding since it's happened twice in the past five years, but I suppose we'll go with it and see how it goes.  The spring I think was the time it happened.  Perhaps I should just replace the sump pump to be safe?  I don't know  Put two pumps down there in case one fails?  Well, they sell pumps that have backups in them.  Who knows.  What I do know is that the room is done and looks a lot better than it did before, feels very dry, and smells better too.

In other news we went to downtown Ypsi to get breakfast at some place called Beezys.  The food was ok, but I didn't care for the set up.  You enter and then order from a line and wait to be called to pick up your food.  This leaves you searching for a table and then waiting like a vulture to grab one when they get up to leave.  It was really busy so this was somewhat stressful for someone like me who prefers order and to know what the heck they are doing in situations like this.  Anyhow, it was ok, the eggs were good, the potatoes were acceptable, and the french toast was not my thing.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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I don't know, I feel like this store front is trying too hard to sell me some bullshit.  I mean, Success, Victory, MIRACLE!  and what the hell is that in the window?  It's like something covered in tissue paper?  I don't know, it's silly.

Blogless

I've spent the past some odd minutes sitting around trying to figure out what I want to write about today.  I think I put about seven different titles and then deleted it.  So, perhaps today we won't do anything, we'll just let it slide by.  Not much to report anyway, just the birthday party for a three year old.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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After Jasmine went to work, Ronan decided to sit on her bed and stare out wistfully as he awaited her return.  He's so dramatic sometimes.

Seeking Admin

I feel like I need an administrative assistant just for my regular life.  Someone to keep my calendar, make arrangements for me, do some research work for me, take care of tasks that I don't have time to get to.  And of course they would need to take care of the mail, which is the one thing I hate more than almost anything else.  It would really be a help.  Though I also think that I need to instead just really budget my time better.  Perhaps a cook/maid instead.  Would save me hours a week on doing laundry, then I could have an actual breakfast in the morning instead of what I take instead. 

I just need more time in the day.  Or perhaps a time turner.  Then I could sleep for as long as I want, exercise for as long as I need, get in all the entertainment I need, and then have time to do all the stuff I need.

Perhaps the answer is a personal robot.  I hear they're coming for our jobs.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Visiting my Gran and mentioned that I lost my sunglasses, she said I could use hers.  What do you think?  Let me know by meeting me at 3:30 at Denny's for the early-bird special... I'm getting the Grand Slam!

I'm Game

Tonight and last night I did something I haven't done much lately, I sat down and just played a video game.  For the entire evening.  I just hung out in my office playing the new Sim City game, and it was delightful.  I actually even ended up staying up a little later than I usually do because I just was having such a nice time. 

I don't generally have a lot of time for video games.  It seems like once I'm done with work and walk the dogs, eat dinner it's nearly time for bed and I never get around to getting all that much done.  I mean, playing video games isn't really getting anything done either, but it was nice to have a little time for myself and to do something I like doing.  Probably won't have a ton of time to do stuff like that starting next week when classes start.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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I believe we should just calling these "quickies" instead. It can be a cute little nickname.

Why Don't People Care

So, today is going to be a bit of a post regarding current events, or more how people are viewing current events.  Specifically, I've been seeing a lot of tweets, posts on social media, and so on that all ask a question that I'll sum up as "why do white people not care about what's going on?"  In these I've seen a lot of people trying to explain why they think this is.  Some of the explanations pull in a wide range of possible reasons, but I think really it just boils down to something more simple: People don't care about things that they can't see or doesn't impact them or someone they know directly.

Now, that's not to say this is true of everyone, but in general people care about the themselves and those around them.  Once you get to things that are outside of that the whole issue becomes abstract.  The people impacted become faceless blobs instead of individuals.  They put it in the context of their own experience and what they know and if something is happening outside of that reality they just don't necessarily care.

I saw one conversation where one of the participants went on a long discussion on how he felt that the reason was probably related to fear and guilt from slavery, reconstruction, segregation, etc. etc. but I think that probably gives people way more credit.  I don't think the average white person probably ever, or rarely ever, considers those things, much less feels guilty about it.  I doubt the average person who lives in some subdivision in your average little town really ever thinks about race much at all, because as I said it's outside of their reality and therefore it's not something the care about.  It's an abstract happening somewhere else to someone else.  They'll see things on the news, but they aren't thinking about why things are the way they are, just that they are that way.

When I was a student teacher I had to visit the classroom of another teacher.  I was teaching in a school where in my entire day of over 120 students, I had maybe 3-5 that were not white.  The class I was visiting was a class on law and they were covering I believe the OJ case or perhaps it was the Rodney King beating and the subsequent reaction.  Either way the student was completely clueless about the events, and came at it from his perspective.  Basically the argument boiled down to the reasoning of: black people go to jail more, because more black people commit crimes.  This argument comes from his reality of "when you commit a crime, you go to jail" and doesn't look at anything beyond the surface or outside of the way he knows the world.  The teacher did a good job at challenging his thought process.  In the end they didn't have time to go further into it because it was the end of the day, and I would hope that they would revisit it later.

However, the point of the story is that in his safe, Leave it to Beaver, perfect view of the world seeing things outside of how he understood it didn't make sense and therefore he didn't care about it.  Commit a crime = go to jail.  Problem solved, all the thinking that needs to be done on the matter is done, time to move on to things he cares about.  He didn't think about the history of why people are in the positions they are.  He didn't think about segregation keeping an entire portion of the country in positions where they couldn't advance, couldn't succeed, couldn't even live where they wanted.  He didn't think of the ramifications of the past 400 years or how little time has passes since the civil rights era.  In the end it was all abstract to him and outside of his understanding of the world.  It didn't fit into the little boxes that he organized the world into, so he just put it in the box he understood.

Perhaps if you press people then they will get defensive about segregation, race, white privilege,  and so on.  But that's not why they don't care about things going on.  They don't care because it's something happening somewhere else to someone else.  It's out of sight out of mind, it doesn't fit into how they see the world.  In addition, I think it's an overestimate that more people are aware of current events.  They probably know bits and pieces, but haven't been following the story so they just don't know, and therefore don't care.

Is any of that an excuse?  No, but that is an answer.  People do need to be aware of what is going on in the world, but they aren't.  I'm often advocating for people to pay attention and get involved, be aware of what's happening in your area, in the country, in the world.  Be involved by going to meetings, voting, whatever the case may be.  I also think people really do need to start looking at the world and instead of just accepting it, asking why the world is the way it is.  Once we can look at the world and understand where we are and how we got here it becomes easier to start looking for solutions.  People need to get outside of their own little worlds and realize there are a lot of people, a lot of differences, and a lot of complicated reasons that the world is how it is. 

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 252
Well, my plant is dead.  For anyone who has been following it.  I saved this plant when a co-worker threw it in the trash.  It lived for about a year really well, then slowly died despite my efforts to save it.  Unfortunate.

Run For It

Today we had a bit of a thunderstorm blow through.  I was, however, able to finish my run before it hit, which was nice.  Actually, it was a bit of a race against time.  As Becky picked me up from work I looked at the radar and saw that it was on the way.  We got home and I changed immediately and then went for my run.  Today was a short run, which is just about a mile.  I do short runs on days between my longer runs on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's.

So far the running has been going well.  I'm using an app that is designed to take lazy couch potatoes and get them ready to run a 5k.  I just finished week 4 of the program, which is over half way.  I was actually pretty surprised yesterday because I was able to keep up with the intervals without much trouble.  The app has you run and walk and run and walk at set intervals and slowly ramps it up.  So for example the first week I was only running a minute then walking a minute and a half.  Then they upped it to running a minute and a half walking a minute and a half.  Right now the intervals are run for three minutes, walk for 90 seconds, run for 5 minutes, walk for 2.5 minutes, repeat. 

I'm a little off on my days because of some rain so my "week" doesn't match up to a calendar week.  That means that on Wednesday I'll be starting my new running week and the intervals will increase again.  I guess we'll have to check back tomorrow to see how it went.  Either way my pace is good, and my endurance is increasing.  Hooray for that.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 251
These tiles are a little swastika-ey.  I know the house was built before that, and I imagine this was put in before that, but at the same time, there it is.

Faux News

I had an interesting conversation today with a family member who was talking about what's going on in Missouri.  It's interesting to see that the people who they are around and the shows they obviously watch are effective because as you talk you can hear all the talking points.  This extended beyond just the discussion of the events in Missouri and shifted into some broader discussion where again you could hear the talking points from the airbags on television.

It was a pretty interesting experience that when these things were repeated that I would counter them with a different idea and how the whole thing just kind of crumbled apart.  I think that's why it's important to talk about these kinds of things because when you're in your own little echo chamber and getting these great one liners they sound like they're an actual argument.  But the second that it's challenged and there is another angle conveyed then it starts to seem less true. It turns out that as you talk about things that even if you're on opposite sides of an issue that once the talking points are taken down it's clear that there really is a lot more common ground on an issue.

It's also a good chance to change the subject away from the images the news is pushing because they need people to watch so they can sell advertising.  Instead of the stories of "riots" and "looting" you can shift the conversation away from that and look at the situation from a bigger picture.  You can talk about incarceration rates, police abuse of power, police militarization, institutional racism, media portrayal, gun culture, poverty, and so on.  As we talked about it it seemed to me like minds were shifting a bit, perhaps not all the way, but they weren't quite so set on just the story coming out on the news and it was good that I was able to present another side of the story that perhaps wouldn't be heard otherwise.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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While I was out for my lunch walk I got to the top of a hill near my office that has a small wooded area right on the corner of two streets.  It's a nice place to have it since the hill is quite steep when you're walking it, so it's nice to get a bit of shade after going up the hill.  Today the sun was coming through the trees and leaves, and I thought it looked pretty nice.

Beginning Of The End

Well, summer is almost over, and nothing makes that more clear than the fact that next week is the start of classes again.  Right now I'm registered for another coding class at WCC.  I'm in a program for webcoding and usability, which has a coding portion, a usability portion, and a graphic design portion.  I'm half done with the coding and usability portions, and after this semester I'll be totally done with the coding portion.  Next semester will be the final class for the usability portion, so that will be good.  However, I've done nothing on the graphic design portion because none of the classes meet at times that I can attend, which is a real pain in the ass.

I'm not entirely sure why I'm bothering if I can't get the certificate in the end.  I also don't know if it's really something I overly enjoy doing.  But, I guess I really don't enjoy doing much of anything, so at least it pays more and isn't what I'm doing now, I suppose. 

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Ronan being a lazy ass and airing his balls out in the breeze from the window fan we had going. 

Floored

Last night we stayed up till about 11:30 working on the floor. We are almost done but I got a little pissed off at the flooring and had to walk away.  There's this pain in the ass part in the closet where the floor isn't flat and I can't get the floor in unless it somehow floats an inch or two above the ground, which seems unlikely.

I guess it's good that it turned out like that though because I got a good amount of sleep and got to work on it early this morning.  Things were still a bit frustrating today but as of early evening the floor itself was done.  There's still a lot of finishing work to do like reattach all the trim, put the closet doors back on, finish up the closet floor, and then we have to go buy a bit more trim to finish it up and throw some fresh paint.

It actually looks really good, so that's a positive that all the work was worth it in the end.  It also smells fresh and clean and it doesn't feel so damp.  I think the carpet really held some moisture in it, which would also explain the musty smell down there.  It will be good to finish it too so that I can move to other projects.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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This is the tall grass outside my office.  It's sprouted little toppers.  Seems to me like it's just kind of showing off.  Perhaps a little peacocking to impress the regular grass.

Gotta Get Back To Hogwarts

I've been thinking of rereading the Harry Potter books.  It's been a long time since I read them and I've been kind of off of reading lately, maybe it would help me get back into it.  It's always nice to read something you love, even if you've read it a dozen times. I think mostly it's just been far too long since I've read it and I'd like to visit that world again.

Thinking about it, I feel bad for all the people reading it for the first time and going bananas for it, because they really missed out on quite a journey and experience of the books just coming out.  The fun of having to wait and spending time speculating about what is going to happen, looking for clues hidden in the books and knowing that no one else knows what is going to happen.  They also will never have a chance to experience a book release, or watch how they exploded into these crazy fun events.  It was a really great thing to have a chance to take part in, and people just picking up the books, or picking them up in the future won't have that same experience.

It's fun to be a part of something and to watch it unfold, especially something as huge as Harry Potter.  Being part of an experience that's being shared by thousands or probably millions of people is quite a thing. 

Picture(s) of the Day:
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This is the tunnel from our building to the building next to ours.  Its kind of old and looks a bit like some tunnel to a secret base or something.  The doors at the end have a nice 1950s look like you'd see in some sort of movie.  Today the lights were on, so I guess that's a plus since it really brings down the creepy factor.

Crack Is Whack

Tonight after taking a shorter run I decided that I'd do some work on the basement floor.  This seemed like a great idea since I really hadn't done anything since Sunday, and Jasmine had been working on it through out the week.  So, after my dinner of left over Zingerman's sandwich from lunch, I headed down into the basement to get to work.  There are a lot of cut outs in the basement which is a real pain in the ass when dealing with floor.  I guess it probably wouldn't be as much of a problem if I had a saw for cutting something long and thin, but all I have is a miter saw and a jig saw, so it's not exactly fun.  That being said, I was able to get one of the small cut outs done pretty easily so that was a plus. 

After getting about three more layers into the floor I did a quick inspection and found that the floor had shifted a bit too far one way in a few spots so I needed to shift it back the other way.  Shouldn't be a big problem, and for the most part I was able to get it where it needed to be.  However, on the final board I was doing it resulted in pulling the row next to it out of place.  The result was a huge crack between the boards.  Normally shouldn't be a problem, however, the end that came out has a slanted edge so there was no way to bang it back into place.  So there it is, sitting there with a half inch crack.  After spending some time trying to figure out how to fix it, we gave up and faced the only solution. 

So, at 8:50, after about a week of work, we pulled the entire floor up to get to the third row of boards we put down so we could fix the giant crack.  In 15 minutes we undid hours of work because of that bitchy little shit of a crack.  In the words of someone, somewhere: horseshit.

Once the floor was back up we cleaned up the dust that was everywhere from the top of the boards and some of the bits that fell off as we removed it.  Took us about 30 minutes before we could really begin to work on putting the floors back in. The good news in all of this is that we had some issues when we put it in and there were some areas that weren't quite so tight.  After all this time working I learned a number of tricks and methods to fix that problem so all the planks we put back in are a lot better and tighter than the ones we originally put in.  In fact, the final product is a lot better than it was before we had to pull it all up.  So while it was really annoying, we were able to get about half of the floor back in before we stopped at 11:30.  That's not so bad for two hours, especially given that it was probably originally about 8 hours worth of work.  It does save a lot of time not having to cut and measure since that was already done.  So, hopefully tomorrow we can get it back to where it was originally, and then finish it up over the weekend.  I'm not looking forward to the door area, which is on an angle, or the weird little closet and cove area near the door which will be a lot of cutting.  But, it's about 40% done right now, and hopefully by tomorrow night we'll be back to the 75% done we were at.

Stupid cracks, runing everything causing us to redo it but in the end resulting in a better more finished project...  stupid.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Another picture that I snapped on Monday.  This was out the window at the league as it was raining.  The glass was really wavy and old looking, but none of that really came across in the photo except that it seems a little bit blurry.  Again, it's a lovely building.

Improved

I'm feeling a lot better today.  The past few days haven't been too good.  On Monday I had the sore muscles, and woke up with my throat not feeling great.  I think it had to do with the cross between the sawdust from the floor installation, the mold, dust, and other shit from taking out the carpet, and then the weather change that brought cooler temperatures and rain.  That all had me feeling like shit.  Add on to that feeling really sad about Robin Williams (which still seems weird that it hit me really hard when that kind of thing doesn't really do that), and I was just all around cranky and feeling really bad.

Today I'm feeling a lot better.  My muscles are feeling good again, the throat thing seems to have cleared up, and I had some time to process my feelings about things so that an improvement.  Also got home to find out that Jasmine had taken it upon herself to do some of the flooring so she got another few rows done and I'd say we're over the halfway mark on it!  I'm quite excited by this so that's really nice to have that done. The end is probably going to be a bit of a pain in the ass because we have some closets and angles and a ton of corners again.  But, it's mostly done at this point.


Picture(s) of the Day:
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This is a picture I snapped on Monday of some of the beautiful stained glass at the League.  It's really a lovely building.

Loss

 Last night not too long after posting my blog the entire internet exploded because the news of the death of Robin Williams.  A few people when it first broke thought perhaps it was a hoax, which is not uncommon, but it didn't take too long to realize this wasn't a mistake or a joke, but in fact he had died.  As more details came out about the circumstances the discussion shifted to depression and suicide, but it didn't seem to linger on it too much other than to say how mental illness isn't treated properly in our country and that has to change.  In other cases it seems like this would have been the sticking point everyone would talk about, but it wasn't.  Instead the focus has been more on what a great person he was, how kind, how funny, what his best roles were, greatest characters, greatest movies.

It seems incredible to me what a personal loss it seems like this has been to so many people.  I include myself in that, which to me feels strange.  I'm not one that is really affected by celebrity deaths.  To me I see them and I think "oh that's a shame, he was a great actor."  It's not upsetting, it's unfortunate, but it's nothing I really think of.  But, for some reason it was different this time.  He was someone I remember from a very early age.  I was too young to see first runs of Mork and Mindy, but I remember being very small and seeing reruns of it.  I remember the silly egg, the nanu-nanu, the alien "shit" when he bumped his head on the egg, the rainbow suspenders. 

I knew so many of his movies, and some of them I love so much.  Mrs. Doubtfire was one of my favorites growing up, something I share with my Grandma (which is the only movie I've known that she will watch more than once, over and over.)  It wasn't a surprise that minutes after the news started breaking that she called me and asked if I heard and told me how sad it was and how much she loved his movies and talked to me for a bit.  It was different with him, he was a larger force in the world that made him different from others.  He was someone who was always there, was always fantastic, was funnier than any other person I've seen.  I got to see him live in Detroit a while back, quite by accident really.  Our friend found out there were tickets to his show the next day so we bought them and went.  Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a huge fan of Eddie Izzard, but no one has made me laugh as hard and as long as Robin Williams that night.  From start to finish he was superb, and my face hurt from smiling and laughing so much.

He was able to make anyone laugh, it seems impossible for him to not be able to do that.  You see him in pictures and you see this wonderful spark in his eyes and it seems like his loss is a personal loss.  Despite never having met him, not knowing him, his loss seems like a loss to you personally.  What kind of world is it without someone as big and large as Robin Williams, and who wants to live in a world without him.  It's a terrible loss for everyone, and it seems that there isn't anyone who isn't feeling sadder because of it.  Because of that I cried, as did so many others. But I also cried at the thought that someone who brought so much joy and happiness to the world wasn't able to hold that joy and happiness for himself.  That he could be such a light for so many people, but was weighted down by so much darkness.  It's unfair that someone who could make anyone smile was stuck by the terrible weight of depression, and ultimate loss his battle with it. 

His passing is leaving a huge hole in the world that I don't think could ever be filled.  He was one of the greats that can't be replaced.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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This morning was really slow at the event.  I just sat around doing not much waiting for people to come by and pick up parking passes.  It was really kind of lame and I'm not sure why I needed to be there at all.  But, it was a nice time being in a building that looks like what you'd expect to see at an old university.  The League is really a pretty building.

A Day Off

Today turned out to be a day off from everything.  As anticipated my arms were really tired, but it turned out that my legs were even worse than my arms.  Apparently there was a lot of leg work being done, probably from all the squatting and moving.  I pretty much hurt everywhere today. I was actually really glad that it ended up raining quite a bit today because that meant that I didn't get to go running and I have some time to let my muscles rest.  We ended up not doing any work on the floor either, so we'll pick up on it again in a few days and make some more progress.

Other than that it was pretty uneventful.  The first day of the event went really well.  Started the day with some good news.  Ended the day resting.  Not too bad. 


Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 244
Here is a picture of where we left it on Sunday.  For some reason the walls look really green in this picture, but they really aren't green like that.  It's a very pale green and in bright lights actually looks more beige than green sometimes.  Anyhow, as you can see the laminate is now about a third of the way through the room.  

Stupid Laminate

 This morning we started laying down the laminate wood floor in the basement.  It was a bit of slow going because once the wall trim was down there wasn't anything for the floor to hit up against and so every time we'd knock a piece into place we'd end up with it popping a different piece out of place.  There were also these stupid angles that you can kind of see in the photo below behind the television.  We ended up working on it from about 10am until around 5pm when we realized none of us had eaten anything all day and we were all starving so we headed out to get some food at Sidetracks.

Overall the room is looking a lot better even though it's only probably about a third of the way complete.  The more we put down the nicer it starts to look.  Though after dinner having worked on it for two full days we were tired and decided to rest.  I'm worried that my arms are going to be super sore tomorrow.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 243
So, I figured I should post a complete before picture without all the wood in there.  Well, laminate.  So, here's the room with the ugly carpet and it looks pretty much like a booty.  Smelled gross too.  I feel bad for Eric having taken out the carpet and seeing how gross it was, and he lived with it all that time.  

Weekend Projects

Today we started the project of putting in the flooring in our basement.  As you can see from the picture below the carpet was a terrible blue and was worn to shit.  We had a backup a while back and it got all wet and gross, and turns out a bit mildewy and possibly moldy.  It smelled like crap when I took it out, but thankfully it came out very easily.  Today we basically just got the cleaning out of the old stuff, took down the trim, and put in all the underlayment, which turned out to be a big pain in the ass because it wouldn't cut with a utility knife and instead had to use scissors.

Even though we don't have any of it installed yet, the room already feels nicer and smells nicer.  I can't imagine how good it will be once the new floor is totally in.  Still not sure if we're putting the office down here or the guest room, but either way it will be a heck of a lot nicer than it was before.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 242
Here is a picture of all the flooring getting used to the basement before we put it in.  It had to sit here for at least 48 hours to adjust to the temperature and humidity.  Though it seems to me that is going to change on any given day so I'm not sure how much it really is going to help take care of that, but who knows.  

Weekending Time

 I am so happy for the weekend.  There are some major events next week that have been a pain in the ass and quite stressful, so I'm thrilled that the week is over and the planning and prep is over.  I get a few days off now and then next week four days of events and then it's over and done.  I'm thrilled.  What a wonderful time for a weekend.  HOORAY!

Picture(s) of the Day:
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I saw this cloud on the drive home and it looked a lot to me like England (note, technically this would be England, Scotland, and Wales, but you get it).  A little while later the wind blew the top part off.  A sign of Scottish independence?  No, just the wind blowing a cloud.

Annoyed

I'm really annoyed today.  I'm annoyed at people being stupid.  I'm annoyed at laziness.  I'm annoyed at everything.  People can do better than this, but they don't and that pisses me off.  They have great capacity and waste it all and that just drives me up a wall.  They have the option to be kind and good but instead are self-centered pricks.  It's annoying.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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The fountain behind my building as I come down the stairs to the courtyard.  I've taken to going on walks every 60 minutes.  Not long walks, just up and around the outside of my building to get my legs moving instead of sitting on my ass all day.  I also take walks at lunch around the entire North Campus area, which is about a mile and a quarter.

Hump Day

This week has been tedious.  I'm seriously having issues getting through the week.  My dissatisfaction with my working situation has been very high lately.  A lot of it probalby has to do with the major event we're having next week.  We host an event jointly with China where we have tons of guests and it's a massive undertaking.  Last time we hosted I had a coworker who had her shit together and managed the event.  This time it's not being managed because that coworker who was awesome is gone now.  So now it's a bunch of bumbling and nonsense.  Since I helped manage it last time I've been making suggestions and telling them what we did last time but they aren't listening to me until they've tried everything else and realize I was right to begin with. 

As of today I have around 50 guests registered from China, but I have no idea where they are staying.  They didn't book rooms like usual, they didn't get me a list, and it's got me really stressed out that we're going to have a bunch of confused people arriving on Sunday and have no idea where they are going.  Or worse they all show up to the six rooms that I have arranged and think they all have rooms.  It's a mess and I'll be glad when it's over.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Just another lovely bunch of flowers I saw as I was taking one of my walking breaks.

Barking Up The Family Tree

One of the projects this year that I wanted to start working on was a genealogy project.  There's a lot that I don't know about my family and I'd like to now that.  This is added with the idea that someday when/if I have children who become interested in this I will have helped by getting some of the information they would need from the people that had it.  For example I can talk to my gran and find out about her parents and my grandpa's  parents, but 20 years from now that may not be the case (though my gran is pretty young and her mother lived quite some time, so my gran could too).

I wasn't so lucky on all of the accounts, my grandpa died back in 2006, and I really didn't talk to him much about his family.  He once mentioned wanting to go back to a reunion and in passing mentioned that I might have gone with him.  He never went, and looking back now I should have asked more questions and should have gone with him or pushed it so that he would.  My mom actually gave me some things she wanted scanned and one was a copy from his year book.  Apparently he was like a class vice president or something.  I had no idea about these things.

Even worse is the other side of the family.  I know virtually nothing about my father, or his parents.  I know a bit about them, since we did see them a couple times.  I know my grandpa was Jewish, and my grandmother was not.  I heard that her family was originally from Italy, but my grandpa never talked about where his family was from.  Both of them have passed away so that resource is gone.  Probably the last time I saw my grandpa when he wasn't sick he talked briefly about being in World War II.  I don't recall how we got talking about it and how it evolved, but he mentioned he got medals and went and got them to show to us.  He told us he joined the army and told us the story of being in Hawaii on December 7th, 1941 (he was Army, not Navy and was off base when the attack happened).  Other than that I didn't know anything.  My mom said from what she heard he did "suicide missions" but that's about it.  Well, from my initial research I'm finding that it turns out his medal was a Bronze Star from his time in a group known as Merrill's Marauders. They were put behind enemy lines in Burma to try and disrupt the supply routes.  Apparently it was very secret, very dangerous, and a lot of people were killed doing it.

I had no idea about this stuff, and it's really disappointing to know that now when he's gone and not before when I could have asked about it.  We never got to visit much, and when we did I was younger and didn't have the same interest in history.  It's really a shame that I missed out on opportunities like this, from all my grandparents.  So, project one is to get some family stories and history recorded with the resources I still have.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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This bell tower is in the area behind my building.  Some days I pass it and I think it looks pretty cool, then other times I pass it and I think it looks like poo.  Lately I've seen it more as a poo variety.

Staying Motivated

 I have a hard time with staying motivated.  I have all these ideas that I want to actually do something about, but then I lose all motivation.  I have time to do them, but I just don't seem to have the motivation to actually star them or work on them.  I feel so sapped of energy all the time that the thought of doing work seems terrible and I'd much rather just drone away the house watching terrible home improvement shows, or catching up on Netflix, or just playing stupid mindless games like Angry Birds. 

I really don't know why I can't get motivated to actually do things.  It seems that the times I actually get a burst of energy and motivation are only the times when I can't actually do anything.  I'll sit at work and become extremely motivated, or I'll get this burst of inspiration right before bed, but then the times when I can actually do something I just feel exhausted and too tired to actually do any work.  So, I sit on the couch watching Love It or List It, even though I know they're going to redo the basement and then decide not to move just like 90% of all the episodes (though big excitement yesterday was that this old house these people were living in had a led pipe for all their drinking water.  WHAT!!?).

Perhaps I need to take an approach like in the mornings when I don't want to get out of bed and go running.  I actually have an internal argument where I have to go all Drill Sergeant on myself and yell at me to get out of bed.  It usually takes me about 18 minutes to actually get it to work.  Maybe next time I get the urge to just do nothing I'll have to yell at myself until I turn off the TV and actually go do work.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 237

Another picture from walking.  Unfortunately the picture doesn't do these justice.  They have these very long things coming off the plants, you can kind of see it in the very bottom right corner.  They are very pretty, and today looked especially nice.

Esther Day

Happy Esther Day 2014!  I'm always unsure if I should really say "happy Esther day" since it's somewhat of a memorial.  But at the same time, the whole point of the holiday is to celebrate love, and the life of a lovely person, so I guess it's ok to say that.  For anyone not sure what this is, Esther Day is a holiday in Nerdfighteria where Nerd Fighters take the time to express their love and appreciation toward their friends and family.  Esther Day is a holiday that I enjoy because I often do feel weird telling people how much I appreciate them and care for them, but since it's the point of the day it is less awkward for me.
So, since this is a blog I'm not going to get specific, and I often send out personal messages to people, but a few I'd like to call out is of course my wife who is very supportive and a wonderful partner in all the crazy things we do.  My strange little family, so Jasmine and Tori.  To the Wachtmanns who are always there supporting us in all our activities, who never miss a show, who always want to know what we're up to, who listen to us vent and complain when needed.  Of course to Swarley who is one of the best people I know.  To the group of regulars that don't really have a name, but Eric, Keely, Michele, Sean and then added Nick and Mandi.

So, happy Esther Day, everyone.  May you fill your lives with great experiences with those you love.  May you cherish the time you have, and may you never miss an opportunity to tell them how important they are to you. Happy Esther Day.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 236
On my walk on Friday I went past this flower bed and thought it was pretty.  I kind of liked the big sculpture in the background too.  It's even prettier in the spring when all the Peony are blooming too.  Though, now it's in the late summer mode, which just bums me out.

Run Down

Today I was supposed to go running, but my legs hurt too much to do it, so I elected to take an extra rest day.  I feel like perhaps the issue has something to do with my shoes?  I'm not sure if that's possible or not, but it seems that lately my legs right above my ankles have had some terrible muscle pain soreness that isn't typical.  I wonder if my shoes are wearing funny and perhaps resulting in me running strangely?  I don't know.

What I do know is that I ran five days this week and I'm doing pretty good on my little training thingy.  I am using this couch to 5k trainer to try and get me moving more.  I'm also considering doing an actual 5k, so I figured this would be a good thing to do.  So far I've finished two of the eight weeks that the program trains you for.  The first two weeks are really easy though, so it's going forward that might be more problematic.

Anyhow, spend the day doing some prep stuff to move some rooms around in the house.  We've got to clear out one of our rooms to be transformed into another use, so that means figuring out what we need to do in order to get that done.  It's not a rush since there's some time before we will need to use it, but it'd be good to get started on it sooner rather than later.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 235
Yesterday was Jasmine's birthday so we took her out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  It was a bit of a wait for dinner since they can't seem to get their crap together, and as a result we were all very hungry.  However, we weren't too hungry not to waste some whipped cream.  There was a bit of a fight were it was flung around the table.  It was actually started by the oldest members of the group, and the result was that Jasmine had a huge chunk in her hair and some on her face.  It was amusing, and I'm kind of surprised they didn't kick us out.

Goals Update

I can't believe that it's August!  What the heck is going on!  Time is moving so fast and it really needs to calm down.  Well, being that it's been another month then I guess it's time to check in with how the goals are going.  So here we go.

Goal Number One - Get A New Job: Still nothing.  I've applied to a number of jobs this month, but nothing back.

Goal Number Two - Read At Least 12 Books:  I am still at six texts so far for the year, four of them are novels, one is a play, and one is an ancient Greek epic.  I finished The Casual Vacancy in January, in February I read Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, and Macbeth.  I started the Odyssey in March, and finished if just last month .  So six down, six to go, but I'm not sure what I'm going to read next.  I haven't really read this month at all, so I should pick something out and read it.

Goal Number Three - Go Out West: This is an option for our week long vacation this year, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to do one since time is running out for the summer.  WNot sure if it'll actually happen or not, but it's a possibility.

Goal Number Four - Be Consistently Active: Done pretty good this month as I've started running again and been very good about it.  The week of the show I had a little break simply because I was staying up far too late to actually get out of bed early enough to run.  I want to layer in some additional activities.  Still working on it though.

Goal Number Five - Digitize My Photos: Still no driver for the scanner.  I've had an idea about a work around so we'll see if that works.

Goal Number Six -  Have Seven New Experiences: My first one of the year was visiting somewhere I haven't been before, which was the Toledo Zoo, which you can read about it on my blog from April 26th.  In may we added flying first class to the list, going on a cruise, visiting the Bahamas and getting a massage.  So that gets me to five of the seven new experiences so far. This month I got to add to that going to Maine (I'll also let New Hampshire add to this since we were only in it for the night so I'm not sure it deserves it's own thing), I also got to visit Acadia National Park, I climbed an actual mountain which was pretty freaking cool.  So, that gets me to eight for the year out of my goal of seven!  WOOO!  SUCCESS!  Since I've still got a while before the end of the year I'll up the goal to 13.  That means I need another five to make it to the new extended goal!

Goal Number Seven - Work on Mystery Projects Not much movement here, but there were some minimal activities.  Nothing to get excited by, but enough that I can say that there was more than none.  So, we'll see if we can move this along faster.

So there you go, updates for the month. We'll see again next month how we're doing.  I'd like to see some more movement on the ones that have been sitting idle for a bit.  And I wouldn't mind a new job if someone could swing that for me.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 234
During the last night of the show the wind was being very accommodating to the flags.  I thought it was a cool look to have both flags flying, and a nice added to have a cast member standing there in a kilt (Tori I believe), so I thought it was a fun photo that I missed posting the other day.