Blaming "they"

Why are we afraid to claim responsibility for things as humans? Why must we blame a third party, so as to avoid conflict or personal responsibility? Inevitably, that third party is the ubiquitous "they." What triggered this post was a snippet of a conversation that I heard while walking through the gym. You have to walk by the racquetball courts on the way to the weight room, the area was packed with people. As I walked by a court, I heard this:

Man who I assume was playing but getting told to leave: "So, if you don't have a reserved court, you can't play? Does everyone have a reserved court here?"

Woman who had the court reserved in advance and who was getting on court: "Yea, I don't know, all I'm doing is what "they" told me to do..." In her most apologetic tone.

Seriously!!?? Not that you have to be an asshole but how about: "I'm not sure, but I have a reservation for this time so I'd appreciate it if you'd let me on the court."

People are so afraid of ANY conflict, so we resort to passing blame on anything and everything. Even when someone is wrong, they often blame "they" as the entity who "told me to do it." The best way to cut someone off when they have to dead to rights, is simply to admit it. Yes, I screwed up, sorry it won't happen again.

I'm convinced some people have kool-aid that pumps through their veins.

Parking: back in vs pull in straight

This is something that has confused me ever since I started driving, why do people back in to parking spots? In the military we do it because our vehicles are often large and have limited visibility. We have a "ground guide" assist and back the vehicle in, makes for a good combat park and ease of use when pulling out.

Backing in you Honda Civic...or even your SUV? Seems like a complete waste of effort to me. Let me shoot down some arguments "for" backing in, as I can anticipate there are some. The most prevelant would be "it saves time when I leave.". In a vacuum, yes you can probably pull out faster than I can back out of a spot, but not THAT much faster. Also, economics teaches us that there is no such thing as a free lunch, you pay for everything in some form. By that I mean you pay, and your currency is time, for backing in by losing time on the front end, which when examined as the big picture effectively negates any time savings whatsoever. While you are wasting time backing carefully into a spot, I've already pulled in, parked, and am walking across the parking lot.

Think about this too, when you back into a space, you oftentimes have to fit in between two spots with cars, so you have to be careful. When you are backing OUT of a spot, sure you have to look but you have the entire lane to back into, thus giving you much more battlespace to operate it!

I could keep going, but I've already squashed the argument...I win the "backer-inners" lose. Haha

Youtube Vid of the week

Hilarious....

click here

'nuff said!

Why are we such terrible drivers here in America?

I lived in Germany for 5 glorious years. The shorts answer as to why drivers in that country are far superior to drivers here is: they follow the rules, utilize common sense, and drive with someone other than themselves in mind.

Following the rules: Driving to the right, only utilizing the left lane to pass. Here we think we should just drive in whatever lane we want, this causes traffic problems.

Common Sense: The misperception is that there are no speed limits on the autobahn. This isn't true. There are areas with no speed restrictions, but when dangerous areas approach limits are imposed. It is expected that drivers utilize common sense for these systems to work, to police themselves. Can you imagine if we had areas with no limits? Carnage...absolute carnage would result.

Not being selfish: Driving with the greater good in mind, I refer back to the "drive right unless passing" example. How many idiots have you seen cruising at 55mph in the left lane, holding up traffic, causing frustrated drivers to speed up and make a dangerous right lane pass?

But whatever, it is what it is.

Ignorance and the double standard...

So I'm driving home and listening to XM radio. Flipping through the stations and hear this (paraphrased): "yea cause what niggaz need to do is let real niggaz in the game, cause these old niggaz are afraid of change...niggaz don't know etc"

This horse has been beat to death, so I won't lay out what's no doubt been addressed before. All I'm saying is, that shit is retarded and projects monumental ignorance...

Fuck it.

The joy of working the weekend...

One of the joys of working the weekend...getting up at 6am on Sat and Sun. I'm going to make up for it by going in late tomorrow. More to follow tonight when I'm drunk (of course).

Should I stay or should I go now...

So I'm in a class, sitting here doing everything but paying attention. I've already signed in, so I'm technically "here" the entire time and will meet that requirement. I can leave with no issue, I'm the 2nd highest ranking dude here...

I am at a crossroads if you will, a crucial decision making point...

When you are bored...

Your wife and daughter have been out of town for 10 days...you are in the gym late at night (past 9pm) and it's practically dead....

What else is there to do besides record yourself lifting weights? I've got vid of myself racing motorcycles, why not with the weights?

I must state that I had to utilize free software to convert my blackberry vid to wmv so I could upload it, that is why there is a watermark in the middle of the screen. Without futher delay, here it is...

315lbs on the bench

115lbs (each) with the bells

I might not be able to run you down, but if I catch you...it's over!

How in the hell do they escape?

When I leave I put my dogs (Mini-schnauzer and Pomeranian) in the upstairs master bathroom. Ok, we are talking about a door knob (not one with a handle) on the bathroom door...and yet, invariably, probably 50% of the time when I come home they have escaped and are downstairs waiting on me. HOW is this possible? You can't push the door open, isn't possible. My only theory is that the Schnauzer jumps on the toilet, to the sink, and then somehow paws until the door knob opens. But, how? She can't grip with a paw.... I say the Schnauzer because the Pom is an idiot, you look in his eyes and see the black abyss, not too much going on in there.

Maybe I'll hook up a camera and monitor them. I'm interested in just how they get it done...

More gym frustration...

Today, driving around the gym parking lot....for like 10 minutes looking for a spot to park. What the hell is going on? Dec 24th all over again? Did I accidentally go to the mall? Freakin ridiculous.

Here is what happened. I'm sitting on the upright chair, the one where the back is at a 90 degree angle, so as to give you maximum support for shoulder type exercises. I'm doing dumbbell shoulder presses, each dumbbell weighs 105lbs. So, not too light, my heaviest set. Once you are complete, you don't exactly set them on the ground. You can't really rotate a fatigued arm/shoulder down while maintaining positive control of the weight while "placing" it on the ground. A huge strain on the shoulder with a heavy weight could cause injury. So, I bring them down quickly, and release them about a foot off the ground. 105lb bells make a decent noise on the rubberized floor when you set them down. I HATE people that throw weights, so I never do that, but if you read my previous explanation, I felt justified in making a little noise.

Enter tool-bag #1, the volunteer guy who cleans up the gym and passes out towels. After that set I walked over to the water fountain, he motions to me (I had earphones in) and says, "don't throw the weights." I responded "hey, those are 105's, you don't exactly set them down." Then he goes on about how the weights get broken (hmm, maybe if you didn't have old ass weights and actually used the ton of cash you get from membership fees and grants to fix the WEIGHT room instead of investing in stupid cross training or cardio step rooms which never get used). Bottom line, I just looked at this tool, put my ear phones in and turned my back and walked away, not sure if he was still talking or not.

Amateur hour at the gym...

Wow.......WOW

Ok I knew this would happen. No place to park, extra crowded, barely can walk around the equipment.....I step away for 30 seconds to take a drink and someone is trying to use my shit. Hello! I'd be happy for everyone that's here at the gym now if I knew they would stay and make an effort, sadly....most will quit after a week, and the rest after 2 to 3 weeks. They will cite being too busy, just can't get back into it, excuse 1, 2, 3, 4 etc etc.

I'm not saying we all need to workout like 6 days a week, but our society is in danger, we throw garbage down our necks, never exercise and wonder why we and our small children are fucking FAT. And then............oh it gets better............and then..........we expect taxpayers to pick up the tab for your medical bills!? Wait, it's a disease! Someone forced me to eat 5 whoppers in one day!

Look, if ya need help, just ask. If you want to stay and workout, I applaud you. If you need a spot, I'm your guy. But, don't come here half-hearted and take up space, only to quit.

I'm not sayin, but I'm just sayin.

What you want to do, need to do, and what actually will happen...

I just made my "to-do" list. I'm staring at it, it fills up one side of an envelope...hell the envelope itself is a "to-do." It's the notice that I got from Brinks (alarm) that my CC had expired and I needed to renew and pay up 2 months past due. Dammit. So yes, once again I stare at this list, realizing the the biggest effort was racking my brain in order to come up with the list itself, knowing that only about 1/3 of the things on here will even be attempted... But I feel better for identifying these things, actually one required a short email to be sent, took about 30 seconds, and as I crossed that item off of "the list" it felt pretty good. Mission accomplished. Celebrate by taking a shower, not shaving (it's been 3 days) and going to Barnes and Nobles. From there I can buy Starbucks Coffee (I really don't like it all that much) and be around people while chipping away at my list.

The worst thing on my list: Online Bills to pay. I hate them, they happen every two weeks, be it a mortgage or some other bank account draining debt. I always put it off, never long enough to get a late fee, but just to keep the $$ in my account for another day, even though there is no doubt it is already committed and doesn't really belong to me anyways. So funny how that works, but I do it every time. Stupid mortgage! I think I'll stop paying altogether and just have my mail forward to President Obama, he will save me/bail me out. What? A political jab in my Blog? Did I just do that? All I know is, after Jan 20 I will no longer have to pay my bills, gas will be 5 cents/gallon, and it will be 75 degrees and sunny every single day with a 5mph wind from the southeast. I can't wait!

Youtube Vid of the week...

Click Here

Great vid

If you have been following popular vids on the internet over the past few years you will see many familiar faces in this...

O...m...g. I am getting old

Bottom line, I just played 4 hours of football (8 on 8) on a sweet turf field... Of course I rocked the QB position, we ended up in a 31-31 tie. The "I'm getting old" part comes in because my entire body hurts now. 1st thing I did when I got in the car was to take 1000mg of Advil. I was playing both offense and defense, until I decided to get froggy and scramble for a few yards and felt my groin pop. From that point, only offense...lol

Average age on the field was probably 20, and I'm 31. So I still got it, at least somewhat :)

Now drinking a Corona, it goes well with medication.

Comedy in the gym...

I don't claim to be "Joe fitness" nor have I ever aspired to get on stage and hit poses for the crowd, but I have been a faithful gym/workout nut for no less than 15 years. Having established my credentials, there are some things that just crack me up when I go to the gym, and yesterday was no exception. Granted, I applaud anyone for getting off their ass to do something, especially given that 2/3 of our society are chubby. It's the little things that crack me up though, and I'll name a few:

1. The "little brother" shirt: Ok, I wear cutoff sleeves in the gym, have been doing it for years, but on shirts that are still an XL. We all know Abercrombie shirts fit small to begin with, so why would anyone purposely buy a Medium and wear it to the gym? It's not even a gym shirt!? When your sleeves are up in your armpit, and it's not because your guns are huge and expanding the shirt, you probably shouldn't be wearing that in the gym...or anywhere for that matter.
2. The "wife beater" in the gym: Maybe when I'm outside BBQing, or cruisin down the street in my '64 Impala on the west side of LA...but in the gym that's a NO-GO. Seriously, don't want to look like I'm lifting in "the yard" at Pelican Bay. Buy a real shirt foo!
3. Bothering me (or anyone) when in the middle of a set: I'm bent over the weight rack, doing tricep kick-backs, this kid comes out of nowhere and says "excuse me" and took me off guard, instinct caused me to step back (cause I'm a nice guy), but true musclehead probably would have been like "can't you see I'm in the middle of a set dumbass?" Just wait until I'm done and then you can go after your 15lb weights. Friggin tool. I cut him some slack though, he looked newish to the whole gym scene.
   
4. Not putting away your weights: Yesterday there was a bunch of high-schoolers in there, or maybe college age but I'm not sure. Took up a lot of space and when they left, they left their shit just laying around the side of the free weight room. Dumbells everywhere, curl bars on the floor with weights still on them, towels not thrown in the hamper...WTF? I didn't know exactly who was the culprit, but if they had been in the area I definitely would have said something. Who wants to come behind someone and have to disassemble all that shit? Friggin amateurs.

So that was just from yesterday. I have a whole list of pet peeves from the gym (80's workout clothes, underarmor shirts, tank tops with gold chains, carrying the milk jug full of water etc) but I'll save those for another time. Usually I just go in there, put on my Rage Against the Machine music and ignore everyone. Still doesn't keep me from making some observations...as you can see.

Contimplating a boring ass weekend...

One can only go to the gym so many times, maybe I'll run outside too. If it were warmer, I'd take a motorcycle trip or something, shit it's too cold to do anything outside like washing the car or yardwork.

One thing is for sure, it could definitely be a lot worse.

So yea, I'm sitting here at work, wishing it was time to go home. Not that I have a bunch to do at home, but seriously this place is a ghost town.

This morning attitude versus this evening...

This morning: Damn, I gotta stop drinking this fucking much, where are the Excedrin? I'm gonna need some coffee, but don't feel like drinking it, just want water. Ugh...What? Oh hell yea I'm pouring the rest of this shitty rum down the drain, fuck drinking for a while. Yup, take your ass down the drain you evil evil beverage, you obviously force yourself down my throat, it's not my fault but yours. Must go back to sleep, why did the sun have to rise today? Why are all these lights on? If my dog barks one more time I'm going to punt his little ass into next week.

This evening: Hmmm....Ya know I didn't pour out the tequila, and there is still some Margarita mix leftover. Hmmm....

Funny how that happens right? I've resisted though, probably not going to tip any back for a few days, just to give the old body a break. Besides, I'll be going on a 14 month hiatus when I start training up to leave. I remember when I went to Iraq the 1st time, they had O'Douls, Sharps (non-alcoholic beer). Disgusting...

Best gift ever!

So my brother got me Family Guy Volume 6 for Christmas. Can I get a "hell yea!" I friggin L-O-V-E Family Guy, in my opinion there has never been a more thought out, intelligent, positive learning experience provided to the public via television. Once you watch this show you will learn to laugh all over again. Actually, the shit is funny, but that's because it takes everything that we hold sacred and taboo and exploits it, steps on it, makes fun of it, whatever you want to call it. Peter is the clueless overweight moron of a dad who can't even remember his kid's names, Brian the alcoholic dog who is constantly trying to bang Lois (the mom), Chris the idiot son who has a penis the size of a baseball bat and is scared of it, Meg the OCD daughter who gets meat thrown at her at school....and my favorite Stewie the mastermind of many plots to kill his own mother. Pretty much the typical American family right there!

So I'll provide you with a few of my favorite scenes:

You gotta watch The Puke-a-thon

Stewie asking Brian about a book he's been writing for like 3 years...

Peter on X

Stewie and Brian wasted

Gay car Alarm

and this last one is fucking classic

original clip here

Family Guy version here

Now that I've offended everyone, time to go watch my movies!

Desperately trying to maintain a positive attitude...

So here is the deal, on a previous blog (a few years ago) one of my calling cards was these rants I would go off on, random tangents about shit in general that pissed me off. Almost like comedy in that, I'm pretty sure I was just identifying things that everyone else thought about, but were afraid to mention. I think I was coming across a bit harsh though, but it's a fine line between comedy and acting ignorant. With that, I shall try to walk the line, some things just can't go unsaid.

I've also included this random shot I took while downtown in Cincinnati today. I was actually across the river in Newport, looking back at the City. Just bored, checked out some stuff, and all the people wearing huge coats and shivering like it was the 1st Ice Age or something. Granted, I hate the cold, but damn...

More to follow...

Officially bachin it for 10 dayz...

That's right, just dropped my wife and daughter off at the airport, they are headed off to tropical regions for 10 days whilst I suck up the cold here in the Nasty Natti. Usually I'm the one that leaves, for 2008 I've been gone about 8-9 months out of the year, this time they get to leave me behind. Funny thing, later this month I have another 3 week school, and then end of Feb I start train-up which effectively puts me away from home for 14 months. I love what I do though, wouldn't have it any other way. I was talking to a friend the other day, she was freaking out about leaving her kids behind to take a weekend trip with her husband...lol. Makes you realize this life isn't for everyone, andthats perfectly ok with me.

Ok, just a point of interest here, it's pretty difficult blogging while driving with a knee through a city construction zone on a major highway...but I digress...

So anyhoo, back to the topic at hand, I'm rollin solo for a while. Should make for an interesting New Years celebration, hopefully I don't meet one of my dogs under the mistletoe, as they will be my only company as we bring in the 2-double-oh-nizzle (2009). Hell, I'll probably go to sleep before then, what's the big deal anyways? A man made point in time given significance yet again by men, commercialized and bled dry by retailers, and an excuse to get blasted by party-goers. Good times!

First order of business for me, stopping at the gm on my way home. Should be pretty empty this time of day, can't wait to get my lift on, gotta smack the abs hard too.

Ok, I'm out!