Never Despair

Who needs a lucky clover when you have bullets? Maybe she just waned Starbucks to know that she meant it when she said “splenda not sugar”. For the record she had a badge on her belt too but I couldn’t get a discrete shot of it.

Originally published at The IggBlog. You can comment here or there.

Y'know, the only thing that surprises me about this story is that it didn't happen here in the US, first.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3542183.html

Is it really awful that I kinda sorta maybe might somewhat think that that "Party In the USA" song might be just a tiny bit catchy?

...

Shuddup.

Buyers who have owned their current homes at least five years would be eligible, subject to income limits, for tax credits of up to $6,500. First-time home buyers - or people who haven’t owned homes in the previous three years - could get up to $8,000. To qualify, buyers have to sign purchase agreements before May 1 and close before July 1. (Boston.com)



So having bought my home 4 years ago, I'm not elligible for anything... except higher real estate taxes? (Not that I'm looking to move)


Anyone want to buy a forclosure, fix it up and rent it out (with all our spare time)?

Happy Halloween (a little late)!!

This really does sum up the feelings of more conservatives than one might think, and something we've been saying for a while now.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZWI2NDcyNWVkMjJiYjcyNTVjNDFmNzQ1ZTczMDQxZDU=

Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” was promoted as an alternative to traditional conservatism. Bush promised to be a “different kind of Republican,” and he kept that promise. He advocated government activism, and he put our money where his mouth was. He federalized education with No Child Left Behind — co-sponsored by Teddy Kennedy — and oversaw the biggest increase in education spending in history (58 percent faster than inflation), according to the Heritage Foundation, while doing next to nothing to advance the conservative idea known as school choice.

With the prescription-drug benefit, he created the biggest new entitlement since the Great Society (Obama is poised to topple that record). Bush increased spending on the National Institutes of Health by 36 percent and international aid by 74 percent, according to Heritage. He oversaw the largest, most porktacular farm bills ever. He signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a massive new regulation of Wall Street. His administration defended affirmative action before the Supreme Court.

He pushed amnesty for immigrants, imposed steel tariffs, supported Title IX, and signed the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance-reform legislation.

Oh, and he, not Obama, initiated the first bailouts and TARP.

Not all of these positions were wrong or indefensible. But the notion that Bush pursued conservative ideas with “dogmatic fixity” is dogmatic nonsense.

Most Democrats were blinded to all of this because of their anger over the Iraq War and an often irrational hatred of Bush. Republicans, meanwhile, defended Bush far more than they would have had it not been for 9/11 and the hysteria of his enemies.

Quite so. There is a very wrongheaded idea out there about what a "conservative" is. FOX is finally catching on, and trying to capitalize on the frustration of truecons, and is rebranding themselves a bit. And they're still missing the point.

If you're the praying type, please lift up the soldiers, civilians, families, and responding emergency services at Fort Hood today. 12 dead, 31 wounded, one suspect killed, two others in custody.

Evil is alive and well my friends.

Please pray.

My stupid red slider phone was showing signs of aging and abuse, and I was starting to outgrow it. It was pro at using the internet 120x120 pixels at a time, texting, and streaming internet to my laptops via bluetooth (still a favorite trick of mine). But the signs of aging and abuse were starting to show... the chassis was made of cheap plastic and was getting beat (the battery cover didn't really "stay on" so much anymore), and the battery life was standing up well to time, but still degrading. And there may or may not have been a rapid deceleration incident involving my hand and some asphalt. The phone was a trooper no doubt, but my 2 years was up and I had the opportunity to look around.

There was a buzz about my workplace when the new iPhone 3GS came out. The regular iPhone 3G was getting cheaper, and my company is in bed with AT&T. When the new 3GS came out, the price for an 8 gig 3G dropped to 50 bucks for employees here, along with a discounted rate plan including enterprise unlimited this-and-that. That put it into "I'd be stupid not to" territory. So 50 bucks later and a few clicks on a web form, and I have myself an iPhone. Don't get me wrong, I hate Apple as a company. I think they have terrible business practices when dealing with other companies, and their dedication to customer lock-in is worse than Microsoft. But They have some really good hardware. My boss put it best, "I had so many reasons to hate the iPhone before I got it, but now it's probably the coolest thing I own". Gonna have to agree with him there. I still hate the company, but this is an awesome little piece of hardware.

Originally published at The IggBlog. You can comment here or there.

So, y'know what hurts? Renegade Rows. Renegade Rows hurt.

Being sorta old school in my lifting philosophy, I don't tend to use too much trendy fitness industry fads or nomenclature. I doubt I'll ever step on a Bosu Ball, or whatever they're called. I remain highly suspicious of those stackable step things. And I don't really think too much about stuff like "core activation", for instance.

But here, I'll make an exception, because it a perfect word for the situation.

Renegade Rows: Core Activation defined. Period.

I'm gonna go console my ego and my, oh, entire trunk or so, with a showerbeer. Whew. Good workout.

My workout and diet have both been back on track these past few days. So that's something. I'm really committed to dialing everything in over the next few months and getting, "at my age", into the best shape my life.

Today I'll be doing battle with a 50 pound kettlebell. I'll be doing clean and presses, and mixing them with pullups, and swings and snatches, in the manner I described here.

Today though, I'll end with some Turkish Getups. And, for the first time in a long while, I'm gonna try my hand at the ol' Renegade Rows.

Ow, preemptively.

In the loss column though, is my commitment to writing. I'm about, oh, 3000 words behind on NaNoWriMo already. Sigh. I know that while I'm not a natural born author, nor am I the worst writer to ever walk the Earth. But I can't.get.anything.done.

It's discouraging, to say the least.

I read once that the more important a task is for you to complete, the more resistance you'll face. If that's true, me writing must be pretty damn important, which makes me feel all the worse for giving up so readily.

It's not even the writing so much as what the constant abortion of my plans says about my character. It's a useful mirror, I guess, but I just think the reflection is ugly. "So do something about it, then," is the obvious answer.

I've been trying, and failing, for about 15 years now. Clearly, I'm not doing it right. I'm still looking for a piece to the puzzle that I'm not even sure exists.

So Stephen got his first two teeth this week. (bottom middle, just barely poking through) He seems much happier now that they are through.

"What have you been doing, Terence?" asked a voice.
"Building." replied the tortoise.
There was silence.
"What have you been building?" broke the silence.
"Roots."
There was a somewhat more tentative silence.
"You're building roots?" asked the voice.
There was yet another silence. This time the silence was prepared. It took a trip down to the local Home Depot and purchased a quantity of nails, two by fours, and glass-reinforcing tape. It wasn't going to be brok...
"You don't *build* roots, Terence. Roots grow." asserted the voice. The silence stared down at its ruins and shook with fury. What was the point? All that work and what result? Money down the drain. Why bother? To think that it went to the trouble to...wait, what was that? It was...itself. Bigger than ever, even! The preparations must have held, despite appearances. This was so exciting!
"It actually worked!!!" shouted something that was once a silence. "Shit." it said.
There was another, different silence. This silence looked at what was formerly a silence.
"Look man, don't judg..." started the something that was very clearly nothing at all resembling a silence.
"Well, I'm building roots." replied Terence. The non-silence glared at him.
The voice said nothing.

The silence grew. Roots were built.

So Friday night was fun... Saturday was less so. Went to bed about 4:45 on Sat morning, woke up to go home about 7:45... Nicole drove. When we got home, Nicole took care of Stephen until 12 while I tried to take a nap then we switched (she had to work that night). Fortunately, Stephen took a nap in the afternoon, cause I just don't seem to be able to deal with 3 hours of sleep after a night of drinking anymore. But we'll have some good Halloween pics up soon.

http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/small-world/1

Wasn't gonna lift today, but I reckon I'll do a squat-centric session right after work. Why the hell not, right?

haha, I had actually left my gymbag here at the office after my last session. The shorts I used are meant for this kind of thing. Fast dry, all that. The tee shirt? Not so much. It's shockingly not smelly, but still slightly damp.

From two days ago.

Ewwwwwwwww.

...but that must have been a helluva workout.

:P


edit: Actually, now that I think about it, I think it's the same shirt as my profile picture there. A bit more shredded up, but yeah same one. Ha!

Man, I was sick for a while there.

Finally feeling pretty good, but still hacking now and again, still a little congested. Not too shabby though, all in all.

Tried going to the gym last night, and while it wasn't a disaster, nor was it too impressive. I was just weak, even if I didn;t feel tired. The sickness definitely took something out of me. Ah well, to be expected. Hoping that the next few sessions build me right back up.

Thinking of starting the Couch to 5K gig again, too. So frustrating that I used to run pretty good distances and now can't do 30 minutes of running. It's still my stupid shins more than my wind. But that would build up slowwwwwwwly, which I need, and my dropping weight should lessen the jolt to my joints. 20 minute sessions, tagged onto the end of lifting? Might work. Might work.