Feel the fever coming You’re shaking and twitching
I began week 3 of my 5K training this afternoon. Because I’d had a pretty good session on Sunday, I was expecting an easy time of it tonight. Not to be. It was actually rather difficult. This week, the training consists of: 5 minutes warm-up, 90 seconds jogging, 90 seconds walking, 3 minutes jogging, 3 minutes walking, 90 seconds jogging, 90 seconds walking, 3 minutes jogging, 3 minutes walking, 5 minutes cool-down. That last 3 minutes was really tough. I very much wanted to stop jogging before the time was up, but I forced myself to power through it. Ugh. Hopefully, days 2 and 3 of this week will be a little easier.
After that, I met with my Liturgy Goals subcommittee. We didn’t accomplish as much as we had last week, but we did move the process forward. So I’m counting this a win.
Do you ever have dreams that seem very real, and even after you’ve woken up, and realize that it was just a dream, you still tend to believe what was true in the dream? Yeah, me neither.
Ok, really I experienced this when I woke up this morning. I had dreamt that I’d won a $10,000 shopping spree to Best Buy. I knew right away that it had only been a dream, but all day I was distracted with thoughts of what I was going to buy.
the beetle bugs are zooming and the tulip trees are blooming
I called in sick to work today. When I woke up, my throat was very sore and the pain continued into my ear. I hoped that it would resolve itself after taking a shower, but no luck. So I called in. With the recent anxiety at work and the meeting I had to prepare for tonight, the threat of not feeling well was all that was needed for me to decide.
So, I watched tv, played some LOTRO, did some writing, made a big lunch (steak, mixed vegetables, chicken flavored rice), and tried to take it easy. Then tonight I went to my Knights of Columbus meeting. I rather dreaded going to the meeting. Not because there was going to be anything unpleasant or what have you. But because when I have a free day, I don’t want to worry about evening committments. Once it was all said and done, it was fine. But it does make me think I should say “no” more often.
Half day at work tomorrow, with the morning dominated by a campus-wide Planning and Budget meeting. Yeah. That will be fun.
Scotty…
When teleportation is finally possible, where will you beam yourself first?
Inherent in the question is the idea that this new technology will allow me to go someplace that I really want to go or someplace that’s difficult to go to. I mean, why would I say, “The kitchen”? That would be really stupid and a waste. Will this technology be more cost effective than what we have now? You know, it is possible to purchase trips to space, to the international space station. Just takes money. Will teleportation cost as much? Will it be cheaper to drive or fly to any of the places I’d like to go? Will teleportation be a novelty and ultimately nothing more than a fad? I’m not one to jump on bandwagons for their own sake.
Let’s assume that it’s cheap/free to use this technology. When will it actually arrive? Tomorrow? Then I’ll go to Portland. 5 years from now? Then it will depend on where I haven’t gotten to by then. I’ll tell you what it will do if this is a cheap and ubiquitous means of travel. It will prompt me to live in a more remote area than I would currently accept. If I can get back and forth to people and services, why live in a crowded area at all?
All my heroes are dead and gone…
…killed by bad writing.
Once upon a time, there was a brilliant, shining star of a show called Heroes. Heroes tried to explore how people might really behave/react if they suddenly acquired super powers. Anyway, I do not take it upon myself to try to give you the entire premise and backstory of the show. No, I am here to rant about how bad the writing got and about glaring inconsistancies and torturous plot holes that never, ever got explained. Verily, the writers never tried.
Here are just a couple that I’d like to point out.
#1 This is the biggest for me. In the first season, the ‘boss’ bad guy was Mr. Linderman. His power was to heal others. Well, he dies at the end of the season. At the end of season 2, one of the main characters, Nathan, is shot. So at the beginning of season 3, he’s taken to the hospital, hovers near death, yadda, yadda, yadda. All of the sudden, we see Linderman is back! Whoa! He heals Nathan and is a recurring character for several episodes. Then we learn that it really isn’t Linderman, it’s a character who has telepathy powers, including planting thoughts in the minds of others. This whole affair is important to the story the writers are trying to tell. But they never go back to explain how Nathan healed! It’s like the success of the show depended on viewers not paying attention! Crimeny!
#2 A popular character from season 2 is Adam. We meet Adam back in feudal Japan. His power is that he heals from pretty much any wound. This also allows him to live for centuries, maybe longer. In season 3, Adam has lived long enough to be in the present day. Ok. The big bad boss man in season 2 is Arthur Petrelli, father of Nathan. Arthur’s power is to steal/take for himself the powers of others. But Arthur has been lying in a hospital bed for a couple of years, on a ventilator. Adam is brought before Arthur, and Arthur takes Adam’s healing power. Which causes Adam to crumble to dust due to extreme age. Later in the season, there’s an eclipse which takes away the powers of all the Heroes (and Villains). You see, it’s sort of implied from the beginning of the series that an eclipse is the way that people got powers in the first place. So the eclipse giveth, and the eclipse taketh away. Silly to begin with, but whatever.
So, my question is, why didn’t Adam crumble to dust during any of the hundreds of eclipses over the past several hundred years??? Again, the writers must think that we the viewers are complete idiots!
I have more, but I’m too disgusted to continue.
Ciao.
I just want your extra time and…
Today’s post brought to you by the question: If you had a time machine that only let you spend one hour in a different time, what date would you go to?
If I spent some time thinking about it, I might come up with some different ideas, but my first reaction is that I would like to go back to February or March of 1987 and spend an hour talking to my younger self. Certainly I would give myself some tips about what to do and where to invest money (a la Biff in Back to the Future). But the most important thing I would tell myself is to go for it and kiss Angel.
I have never been, very forward/bold/assertive/brave. At the age of 17, I had never kissed a girl, and my first ‘girlfriend’ was Angel with whom I was in a play. She was 15 and we were both a bit shy. We only were together for a couple weeks and it was all so awkward and innocent; all we ever did was hold hands. I had the opportunity to kiss her, but I was too shy and had no idea how to approach doing so.
It would be 4 more years before my first kiss. I have always regretted not going for it.
Three to Visit
Today’s assignment: talk about three countries I’d like to visit.
In no particular order, I’d like to visit Ireland, Australia, and Canada.
Ireland has appealed to me for a large portion of my life. In part because I am a sliver Irish (at least 1/8 and as much as 1/4), and because I really like Irish music. I’d love to travel around from pub to pub enjoying the music and maybe joining in on my bodhran. I once told a roommate of mine, himself from Killarney, if Ireland isn’t like it’s portrayed in The Quiet Man, I’m not sure I’m interested. Well, he said it really wasn’t, but I remain curious.
Australia has only recently become a desired destination for me. I love the Aussie accent and I wonder how long it would take for me to convincingly emulate it. I really like that tipping is a somewhat foreign concept down there. 🙂 I love languages and I would like someday to travel to places where different languages are spoken, but I am 40 and pretty much travelled nowhere so far. So maybe a country like Australia where English is the language but different accents and vocabulary can cause just a little confusion is a good place to start.
Canada. My grandparents are from Canada and my mom and a couple of her siblings were born there as well. In 2000 I took a trip up to Vancouver and spent a few days there. I loved it. French is one of the languages of Canada and I spent many years studying French. It would be great to have the opportunity to practice speaking it a little.
I’m not terribly adventurous and rather inclined to inertia, but I really would like to go visit some of these places someday.
