Quick update.

Man - I’m a terrible blogger.  I have honestly been insanely busy the last few weeks - between work, work, work, helping friends move, training, and trying not to burn myself out….I haven’t paid any attention to the dear old blog.

So, a couple quick updates: One, the vegetarian experiment has come to an end.  It was nice, but honestly, I found trying to avoid meat exhausting.  Since I had no real agenda other than to see what it was like, it was double tough.  I’m glad I did it though, and I’ve found that I carry some aversion to greasy foods that I didn’t have before.

That being said, I had a burger from Winstead’s yesterday, and I was awe-inspiring.

I’m still keeping most of my business related stuff under wraps for now, I’ll talk about it more beginning this summer.   It’s going well though, and I’m 500% the web designer/pseudo-developer I was three months ago.  Thankfully, I won’t be doing any of the actual coding on the live project

I ran five miles today, non-stop, for the first time since high school soccer, I guess. Although, I never really measured the running I did there, I just know we had one practice where all we did was run around the track for 90 minutes.  I’m guessing I went further than 5 miles that day.

All right folks - It’s bed time for this guy.  Gotta get this week off to a great start.

25 Feb 08 | Everything Else | Comments (0)

Hey Senate - stimulate this.

So, the House has already passed this, and the Senate is probably voting today - what am I talking about? A stimulus package that includes tax rebate checks to tax payers that earn below a certain income level. Because, for a family of 4, living check to check, that $400 three months from now will really make a difference!

Never mind that, if that family has half a brain, they’ll take that money and apply it to the debt that it forcing them to live check to check. Congress is hoping they’ll run out and buy an Ipod or something.

Because, it makes sense to me that the solution to the problem created by allowing money hungry corporations to give easy money to people that didn’t bother to read their mortgage agreements, do any planning, or think about whether or not they could afford the houses they were buying - is to simply give those people a few hundred more dollars.

In comparison, I managed to make it through the last year with the only debt I incurred being that of a 5 year old car (to replace my 10 year old car) that was $8-9k less than the max I could afford (but it IS a hot little car). My car payment is currently covered through June, and will be paid off by November (it’s a 5 year term). I’ve also managed to save enough to maintain my current lifestyle and not miss a payment on anything for 6 months, if I were to lose my job(s). I’ve also paid in 1 out of every 4 dollars I’ve earned this year into assorted taxes (including the ABSURD KC Metro 1% Earnings tax).

You really want to stimulate the economy? Tell people in my position they don’t have to pay more at the end of the year just because they worked their butts off to earn more. I’ll make a deal - give me back the $3500 I just paid (on top of the excessive taxes that come out of each check) - and I’ll run around town just stimulating the economy all over the place. That’s right - give me my tax money back, and I’ll spend it.

I like that idea much more than knowing I’m going to have to pay even more next year, so you can take that and re-distribute it to people that were ALREADY GETTING TAX REFUNDS!

Edit - I’m all for helping out seniors and other people who really NEED it.  I’m complaining about the checks that will be going out to people with HHI’s of 45-60k, that are already getting refunds, and bought a house to flip last year because they saw someone on TLC do it and it seemed easy.

06 Feb 08 | Everything Else | Comments (2)

Expanding Your Horizons

alternatively titled: “How to Enjoy Your Life More”

I’ve recently (in my quest to read at least an average of 30 minutes a day) been reading a book entitled “How to think like Da Vinci - Seven Steps to Genius Every Day.”  Basically - it breaks down to a couple things:

- Never stop learning.  Check.
- Take Time to enjoy life and its sensory experiences (food, music, etc…)
- Keep expanding your horizons

Interestingly enough, in the last few weeks, I’ve been doing the latter without really realizing it.  Committing to a month of vegetarianism is definitely broadening my horizons a bit.  Committing to running a half-marathon is pretty expansive.  Another aspect that has been especially enjoyable is listening to musical genres I would normally not pay attention to.  So far, I’ve focused on Classical and Classic Jazz - and it’s been pretty cool.

I’d encourage everyone to step out of the box whenever possible.  Try a food you think would be gross, or make yourself listen to music you think you won’t like.  Even if you don’t enjoy the act, you should strive to become able to appreciate the experience.

05 Feb 08 | Everything Else | Comment (1)

One week down.

Well, it’s been a full week since I started passing on animal flesh in favors of other protein sources.  I must say, it’s been easier than I expected - even including two instances of eating out in “regular” restaurants.  I feel good, and I’m not really missing meat - although the weight loss has slowed down dramatically (guess that was to be expected).  It’s probably better to keep it at 3lbs a week or less anyway.  Plus, I’ve been lifting a lot, which makes losing weight harder (but looking good naked easier).

Today marks the first day of “official” half marathon training.   I’m excited, and a little nervous.  I’m more worried about having the time to do it right and staying injury and (hopefully) mostly pain free.  We will see!

04 Feb 08 | Everything Else | Comments (0)

I’m not knocking China, but….

From these pictures I don’t see what the big deal is.  I mean, that’s been Kansas City every weekend since December.

Ok, so maybe I exaggerate - but it really doesn’t look that bad.

In other news, I yanked Twitter off my sidebar.  It’s been too screwy lately, and frankly, I’m tired of it.  I can see where the uber connected geeks that get off on having hundreds of followers love it…but to the every day guy, it’s just a pleasant distraction..that only works half the time.  I guess I’ll have to update my Facebook Status manually again

01 Feb 08 | Everything Else | Comments (0)