What is with the people that don’t flush the toliets? I mean, do these people not flush at home? If so, why do they feel the need not to in public? If not, good god that’s gross.
Blog
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America’s Growing Threat
This weekend, while my rear-end was recovering, Erin and I needed to kill some time so we visited the mall up in Oak Lawn (wow that website sucks). Neither of us are really “mall people”, but there is a movie theater there, so we thought we’d see if anything decent was playing. Turns out there wasn’t, so we needed to waste time some other way. Now, the rest of this entry isn’t meant to bash these people, but more of an observation of what we saw. Some people may get upset with what I’m about to say, I can’t help that other than inform them that they shouldn’t read what follows.
Both Erin and I like to people watch. It’s interesting to see what kinds of people are around us and just to watch them go about their days. Having a camera to photograph these moments is also fun, but alas, no camera this time. So, this time, Erin and I decided to play a game of sorts. Both of us are quite disturbed by the growing trend of obesity in America. Be it from fast food lifestyles or just plain laziness, the trend is getting quite disgusting.
For those of you who know me, know that I’m quite skinny, but that’s because I work at it by doing things I enjoy. I’m usually do some sort of physical activity (for more than an hour) five or six times a week. I also don’t eat fast food, nor drink high caloric beverages (soda, choco-moca drinks, etc) multiple times a day. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t eat high fat foods and instead only eat nasty health foods. Erin also is a skinny person. She also is active (though not as much as I am), and eats well. She is also in school to become a physical therapist, so she sees this all the time. Yes, we both have biased views on the subject, but at the same time, it’s hard not to see what’s going on.
Our game was to see what kind of ratio we would get by seeing if people were overweight. This was in no way a scientific study. To begin with, we were watching people at the mall. The mall is not known for people that are highly athletic. Also, we were just judging people on how they appeared with their clothing on. Granted, we did give many people the benefit of the doubt when it wasn’t obvious. Also, do you include old (>65)? For our “study” we didn’t. We also tested two different areas of the mall to see if it made a difference (as far as we could tell, we didn’t include the same people twice).
Our findings came back with a staggering >60% of the people we saw were overweight. This is being generous too, if Erin was reporting our findings, she would’ve said around 75%. Now, from my rough calculations, I’d say of those, more than 50% were “grossly” overweight. One case in point was a woman in a motorized wheelchair. Erin asked me if I thought the weight was due to the motorized wheelchair (broke a hip or something and couldn’t walk), or if the wheelchair was due to the weight. Other observations seem to point out that this is not gender, race, class, or age specific either.
What really saddens me is that it’s not age specific. It’s the largely overweight kids that scare me. These kids aren’t doing it to themselves as the older adults are. The parents are effectively killing them off by influencing their food decisions and activities (or lack thereof).
Many people will complain that it is genetics that causes them to be this way. I throw a large BS in their direction, because if that were true, then why the sudden upturn; why isn’t the rest of the world experiencing this same problem? I think it more comes down to the fact that as American’s we have become lazy, and with the proliferation of junk food (and it being easier to obtain than non-junk food), we, as a nation, have just let go.
In my mind it’s disgusting what people have let themselves go to. However, it’s not only disgusting, but incredibly bad for them in the long term. Just the added weight on their joints will wreak havoc later one, let alone what their blood vessels look like. It’s not just average-joe that’s overweight either. It’s the medical doctors, the ones that should be setting the examples for average-joe, that are just as bad. And don’t even get me started on the “American fix” to this problem: Gastric Bypass Surgery.
It would be interesting to further this “study” some more, at various other places. I think it would also be beneficial to actually keep more scientific tally, than just yes, no. Maybe we can move down to Michigan Ave sometime soon and try it again.
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O’er the Hills and Through the Mud
Talk about another great weather weekend. So far, two in a row. I hope this trend continues. Anyways, this weekend was another first of the summer months: Mountain Biking. I brought up my bike to Chicago this weekend and on Saturday we went to the Forest Preserve District, and visited the Palos trails. The main trails used for running, horseback riding, biking, etc, were nice and easy. However, as soon as you got off the main paths, it quickly went to mud (at least the one we jumped on). We were actually out there for quite some time, especially since it was the first time this year.
We started on the blue trail near Bullfrog lake, then met up with the green, then orange, then yellow. We took the yellow trail to the brown, and not having any idea where we were (nor how far we were from anything, headed back. All of these trails were wide trails, no single track, so the it wasn’t that much excitement. However, on the way back, we jumped on the dark green trail by Joe’s Pond. This was a single track, and about 50 feet into it, it got pretty muddy. On the map, they don’t show it going past the road, but in fact it does, and with the meandering stream down there, it went from muddy, to, “holy crap, are there ANY dry spots?” and “That creek is kind of intimidating with the rocks and stuff.” Needless to say when we came out at Pioneer Woods, we were covered.
It was an awesome time though. Too bad my ass took the blunt of it, and it’s incredibly sore now. But, my bike didn’t attack me like Erin’s did. She has metal pedals, and both of the back sides of her ankles are hacked up pretty well. Thankfully, I came out relatively unscathed.
I hope next weekend is just as nice, because I could definitely handle doing that again. In fact, I left my bike up with her, so it’s all set. Granted, it’s more to do with the fact we thought we were going to go riding again on Sunday, and never actually got around to cleaning them off.
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Paid Programming
Usually during lunch, I watch something that I’ve downloaded on my xbox. However, today my xbox was in pieces, so I was forced to watch what was on during the noon hour. Now, mind you, I don’t have anything but basic cable (stations 1-22, I should just an antenna and be done with it, for as little as I watch), so this greatly limits what I can view. For those of you that watch TV during this time frame, you know that there are soaps, “news”, children’s shows (which I’ve also watched), and infomercials.
Ah yes, the bane of the TV watching experience, infomercials. What really makes the infomercials horrible during the noon hour, are who they’re marketed to. These are definitely not the same programs that are run at 3am, assuring you that you need this product in order to make your kitchen complete. Instead, these uber-long commercials are directed to the stay at home, sedentary mom and the retiree who’s looking for more to life.
From 12-12:30 CST, it is always for some weight loss type product. It seems as though Beach Body has permanently purchased this block of time on the WB. Today’s commercial was for Yoga Booty Ballet (I can’t even make stuff up that good). Now, aside from the name and the fact that you get a kick out of watching these TV shows, why on God’s Green Earth would you actually sit down and watch this, let alone take it seriously? Let’s look at the typical components of a fitness related infomercial.
- Celebrity Spokesperson (probably not anyone that’s really in their prime currently)
- Real-life Customer Results (remember, these results aren’t typical, or so says the fine print)
- Catchy Name (it’s got “booty” in it, it must be cool)
- Unbelievable Deal Only Good for Next XX Minutes (only, online you get the outrageous deal ALL the time)
- Upsell, but no additional price (oh, we get a squishy ball AND 7 day diet book)
- Compare to Competing Products (I’d have to buy how much for a home gym?)
From 12:30-1 we have a different demographic to attempt to seduce. This time we always start off with some business-type person talking about the wonders of this herbal supplement. Or, maybe it’s an older couple that have tried said herbal supplement, and it’s changed everything about them. To contrast the fitness infomercial, let’s admire the components of the herbal supplement commercial.
- Medical Doctor (I can take an M.D. after my name too, but that doesn’t mean it’s real)
- Real-life Customer Results (remember, these results aren’t typical, or so says the fine print)
- Catchy Name (in our case ViTal, for, I guess, vitality?)
- Unbelievable Deal Only Good for Next XX Minutes (only, online you get the outrageous deal ALL the time)
- Upsell, but no additional price (oh, we get an extra two months supply absolutely free?)
- Compare to Competing Products (Botox is how much?)
Alright, lets be honest, who sees the similarities between the two? Maybe I’ve cracked the infomercial code and could be come a millionaire?
- 1) Come up with crap product
2)???Use above formula
3) PROFIT!!!1I mean, are consumer’s really that dumb that they are easily swayed by someone sounding excited? Apparently they are, since these commercials wouldn’t be around if they didn’t work. But they are fun to watch, to see all the other techniques they use to sway people in. Things like black & photography for the before results, vibrant colors for after; sad faces on the people before they’ve lost their weight, jovial faces for after, etc. It’s quite scary how people must be easily swayed.
Oh yeah, and why do they always state that this has been a paid program? Are not all commercials paid, or is this something the government has put in place?
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Climbing
I haven’t talked much about climbing lately. It’s probably because I haven’t really done much exciting with it. I head to the gym 1-2 times per week, and just work on the same stuff over and over. Whatever, it keeps me in shape.
However, last weekend was the Climbing Club’s callout trip. Normally, I’m not all that excited about them, but this would be a great time to get Erin to start climbing. So last Friday I brought her into the gym and taught her how to tie into the rope and to belay. This way she’d be all set, and wouldn’t have to learn anything while we were down there.
We left Champaign at 5:30am on Saturday morning, and get there around 9ish, just when everyone was starting to head down to the routes. Unfortunately, I didn’t know where anyone was heading, so we just kind of hiked around for a bit. Then we watched some guy attempt a mixed route, but he didn’t know it was mix (always fun hearing someone ask if they missed a bolt). Finally we found everyone and we got our climb on.
Erin was a little nervous at first, which was understandable. However, once she finished with one route she was hooked. She was even doing the harder stuff, which impressed me. However, she did have a hard time on some of the overhung stuff. Figuring out how to get over bulges definitely set her back some, but hell, it was her first time outside, and second time roped up (she did a few easy routes at the gym on Friday). Plus she was attempting 5.10a’s.
On Sunday, we were one of the first groups out of camp (we didn’t partake in the alcoholic beverages, mostly cause we didn’t bring any, and midnight bouldering), and so we headed down to something that would be a little more easier for her, so at least she’d get the satisfaction of making it to the top. Needless to say, since we were the first ones out of camp, and it was already after 9, the route I was thinking about was already taken. No biggie, we’ll just keep walking to Railroad Rock, since I’m sure nobody will be down there. Thankfully no one was, and there is an easy 5.8 there. I setup the top rope and Erin went up. She had a couple problems where she couldn’t figure it out, but still made it to the top. Upon getting to the bottom she informed me that she’ll be doing it again, in order to fix the problem spots. Sure enough, she did, 2 or 3 more times.
I was impressed.
After I cleaned the route, we headed out, since she had 2 tests this week she needed to study for. All in all not a bad weekend. I think she got up something like 6 routes, and I got up something like 7 or 8. Granted, it wasn’t as many as I usually do, but it was still good fun.
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Grilling
Last night, to me, was the first night of spring. Erin came down for the night, and we threw around the frisbee on the quad. Then we came home and had brats on the grill. Nothing like mustard, ‘kraut, and brats to remind you of summer.
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It’s My Birthday
Yes, that’s right folks. after I hinted at it in a previous post, my birthday has finally arrived. Again, I’d like to thank the Academy for this nomination, and my girlfriend for the guitar, and last, but not least, my parents for sending me an awesome card (front, back). I don’t know where I’d be without any of you.
For the rest of you, like I said earlier, I accept cash.
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The Weather
Last night was the first night this year that the windows were opened last night. Unfortunately, I think that I won’t be able to leave them open for a long time, since it’s supposed to get a lil’ chillier later this week, but it sure was a nice change. It’s always nice to air out the apt too, especially since it hasn’t been cold enough for the heat to come on, so the air has been sort of stagnant.
Spring time is so nice.
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Bluetooth and MPx220
Well, I finally had the time and got around to setting up syncing my phone via Bluetooth and Activesync this evening. Amazingly it wasn’t all that hard (contrary to many website posts I’ve seen about it). Hell, I even bought a generic Bluetooth key off ebay.
So, now when I come home, I just have to tell the phone to sync, and then it’ll keep sync’ed while I stay around the house (I got the 100m bluetooth key, so I doubt I’ll be moving more than 300ft away from my main machine). Granted, there’s still a few more things I want, like it actually syncing to the Exchange Server, instead of my desktop, but I figure that this is working well right now. It’ll be fun to play with for awhile.
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Birthday
My birthday is coming up later this week, so everybody send me cash. No, really. However, I have gotten a gift already. It’s from Erin, and it’s a guitar! I’ve been wanting to get one for awhile now, but have always had something else I’ve needed more at the current time. But now, I have one, and I have no excuses.
So far, I’ve learned a scale, and “A Horse with No Name” (well, at least the chorus). I really need to work on strengthening my fingers, since they don’t seem to want to go where they need to currently. That’ll come with time though. She also got me a soft case and a nice chords book. We were looking at intro to guitar books, but I can already read music and stuff, so I figure I may as well just jump right in. Plus, there’s free stuff on the intarweb that I can use for that. Ah, the intarweb. Is there nothing you can’t help with?