Beating a Dead Horse

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Say things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Comparing the state of dead horses in todays environment.
10. Change the requirements declaring that "This horse is not dead."
11. Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.
12. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
13. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."
14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
15. Do a Cost Analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
16. Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.
17. Declare the horse is "better, faster and cheaper" dead.
18. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
19. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
20. Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

from: http://www.thehumorarchives.com/joke/Beating_a_Dead_Horse

Earthquake...

Writing with a purpose for a change ...

So .. this morning we had an earthquake. The epicenter was in Illinois but it was about a 5.2 and we felt it pretty good here.

It was literally at 5:38 this morning and I know that because at 5:39 I sent a 'Holy shit! Was that an earthquake?' text message out then called someone to make sure it wasn't a weird dream.

I figured it was so because I remember the last earthquake and here is a quick recap .. I was in between classes so I came home take a nap. Into the napping part it felt as if they were jackhammering in my street. Oddly enough they WERE actually doing construction at the time .. but were gone to lunch, so it wasn't unbelieveable until I looked outside and saw no one. Hence .. the earthquake ..

This morning when I woke up and things were rattling I knew right off the bat what was happening. My front bedroom window rattled and creaked pretty bad so it had to be decently stronger than the last quake. I think it may have lasted about 15 - 30 seconds but I was barely awake.

I hate to say this but I will... earthquakes are fascinating to me and I ONLY say this because I don't live near them and I am ignorant of first hand knowledge in regards to how dangerous they are. I'm guessing it is the same with a lot of people who don't live in an earthquake zone because all I heard today was 'did you feel the earthquake? wasn't that cool?' Again .. to us it's a little rattling and a few crooked photos about once every 5 or 6 years .. we are fascinated because of ignorance .. but at that same time that is one of the reasons that I don't live close to a fault line ... so I prefer the ignorant fascination to knowing how bad they can be. Same applies to hurricanes ..


Here's the best part ..

In my opinion we humans get so self absorbed into thinking that we are the ultimate dominant force on the planet. We have completely taken over this place and our hands have removed the natural element from just about everything that we can. We're ruining the planet and doing damage that we haven't quite grasped the extent of.

This quake and every other natural disaster like this, as bad as they really are, send a painful reminder to us that we are NOT invincible and that everything is NOT within our control. While for some people this reminder wipes out their comforts that they had yesterday, for distant people like myself, that little shake was a gentle reminder to quit taking things for granted.

Now combine that with the weather that we've had for the past few months (and tonight) and I'm, as always, concerned with where things are headed..


Sorry for any typos .. thiis is from my babytop.. :)

A Few Updates .. :)

I need to get on here more often ...

1.) We did the Papa John's 10 Miler this past weekend. For 3 reasons I'm not 'allowed' to do the races anymore, but I decided to test the waters and see how it goes. Needless to say we're doing a 5k on the 12th of April (with the intent of running the whole thing) and then the mini - marathon on the 26th (i think .. it's that saturday). I came in at 2:12:22 and came in 12 minutes ahead of the 3 people I was with. Considering one is consistently WAY ahead of us and I am not a runner by a long stretch, I was pretty pleased.

2.) I got Derby press passes for myself and two others. I am thrilled about that!! This is my 3rd year shooting the Derby events and I can't wait to take advantage of the additional access!!

3.) I ordered myself the Nikon D300. I needed a longer lasting 2nd camera and the D1X batteries are shot lived. This is supremely rated and will be very loved in my house. I think it will be great because we all know that I won't put down the D50 for a second, so now I'll just consistently carry two cameras ... I can't wait until it arrives!

4.) We're up to going to the gym 6 days a week now and putting in 1.5-2 hours. I'm really pushing myself on the weight training .. at this point I'm going for getting my upper body and mid section in better shape.. look good now but there's always room for improvement. I'm pretty pleased with things right now but while I'm using the gym as a work de-stress tool I may as well make the most of it .. :)

5.) We had a flickr meet this past weekend and it was a pretty good time. I definitely learned that it's better to not announce that you hate your photo being taken because that causes people to take more of them. I probably should have just went with it .. but if you saw 90% of the photos of me you'd know why I hide .. I know I know .. we all hate photos of ourselves but I can't help but think mine are just awful!!

UGH ..

So .. I've taken sick .. and probably more sick than I should be out of my own stubborn attitude.

Yesterday I went to an all day long Pervious Concrete seminar downtown. I woke up that morning feeling like I had a UTI. I went to the store, bought a box of cranberry pills, and figured I'd see how I felt after the seminar. Well, I felt fine, went to the gym for a hour and a half, came home, and no worries.

Then, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like, well .. shit. I did not know what was wrong with me. My earlier pain was back and in addition I was feeling sick, running a fever, cramping real bad, ... It kinda freaked me out because I didn't know what was wrong with me.

So .. I was up until about 6:30 before finally getting more than 30 seconds worth of rest (I learned that curling up and not moving for about 30 minutes made the pain more tolerable). I gave up, got up for good at 9:30, and went to the doctor at 11.

Well, long story short .. my dumbass should have gone to the doctor yesterday because I just assumed that this was something like a cold and that it would just go away eventually. Instead I went to the gym and the extra blood flow and so on spread it around and made it worse. So instead of a UTI I now also have a kidney infection.

Dumbass...

Needless to say life sucks right now but I panicked and addition to my prescriptions I bought up anything and everything to make sure that this doesn't repeat and that, in general, I just do better. Now I'm just sitting here reminding myself that I really don't need to go to the bathroom and that I don't need to get sick either. Good times ...

Go Big East!!!!

So .. the Big East .. rocks ..

Here is the seeding of the Big East Teams for the NCAA Tourney ..

No. 2 Georgetown
No. 3 Louisville
No. 4 Pitt
No. 4 Connecticut
No. 5 Notre Dame
No. 6 Marquette
No. 7 West Virginia
No. 12 Villanova

The Big East is tough this year that I'd love to see one of teams win it all .. preferably the Cards .. :o)

How I Gained 5 Pounds ..

It's a simple story actually...

Work right now, ... well it just completely, utterly, supremely, and insanely SUCKS! It sucks so bad that it's bleeding into my personal life making even more problems in my life.

So .. I have been going to the gym 6-7 days a week for weeks now just to 'work away my rage' so that I can destress back to my normal level. Seriously... and it's not so easy to unwind after working at my job... it takes a good while and some hard work for me to calm down.

My year with my trainer only has 4 sessions left and I decided that I like being told when to be at the gym and what to do. So, I have started taking free weight and cardio classes because I LOVE working with free weights.

So now I'm going every day and working with weights more than I did before which leads to the 5 extra pounds.

I'm not mad though because if anything I look like I'm doing the opposite and personally I'd rather weigh more and look like I'm in shape than be skinny and flimsy. But it just stinks because I was over a personal 'threshold' / goal and now .. well I'm not. Dangit .. oh well.

I guess with my gym addiction it is a GOOD THING I don't have worse habits .. because I'd be a raging drunk by now .. ha ha

A Few Tweaks .. to keep things interesting

So .. lately I've been revamping my schedule and thinking ahead seeing as a few things will be changing over the course of the next few months.

1. Sadly enough the last UofL home game was today ... I could cry knowing that our seniors won't be back next year .. On top of it, that also means I used my last season ticket today. The season went by way too fast .. I'm sooo sad .. :o(

2. I only have 4 sessions left (I think) with my personal trainer. I am, of course, not going to renew that. Nothing against my trainer because she's awesome, but I have spent the last year getting myself into good habits that I was hoping the trainer would help with. Mission Accomplished and I think I'll do a good job of keeping it going from here on out.

3. My class schedule right now is light but it will unfortunately pick back up in June .. dammit.


Anyway ... after March Madness unfortunately I'll have a lot more free time. At the same time I'm being relative unproductive here at home lately, wasting time on this laptop, so I've decided to both work on mini-projects and also to pick up classes at the gym instead of just going and doing whatever.

Bottom line .. I like being told when to go to the gym and what to do. While I prefer to be in charge of my life .. there are times when I'll admit I prefer it the other way around, and this is one of those times.

So .. for the past two weeks I've been taking classes .. I think 4 of them a week is what I've been doing. Mainly spinning classes and free weights because the spinning is good seeing as I can't run as far as I could in the past (doctor's orders) and the weights because I love working with free weights.

Anyway I take 2-3 classes with free weights a week and 2 spinning classes a week. Then a time or two of doing whatever, either separate days or back to back .. depending on how I'm spending my evening for the most part. If I'm wasting away in the evenings, I'm leaving my house. While I'm on the 'classes' kick I'm just going to classes. Then .. when the newness wears out I'll go back to weight training.


Good times .. and I know .. no one cares but me. But .. I am obsessed with it right now and of course I have to schedule it all out and have my trips perfectly planned out. It will take a minute to get used to the new schedule and workout routine but hopefully the change in the workout habits will get me off my current plateau .. or so I hope.


So .. today we went to the 11am spinning class for the 2nd week in a row. After that I went home to shower and watch the UK game sin Patterson. Good game though. Then I went to the vet to pick up Archie's meds, to the store, and then I met Angie at 2:45 to go to the game. In a nutshell I'm non-stop from 10:30 this morning until 6:30 tonight.

Then .. nothing.

So .. this is one of those days I wish the gym was open late because I've been wired for sound and unproductive .. therefore wasting away on this device ... but .. I'm now all caught up on American Idol and I'm catching up on Lost now, although these days I honestly prefer the TV to be off.