1
Jun

Auto racing is a stupid sport

At least Indy car racing is.

Unlike the Indy 500 last weekend, which at least finished under race conditions, today’s AJ Foyt 225 did nothing of the sort.

Of course the headlines might lead some to a different conclusion. Just check this one out from autosport.com

Ryan Briscoe fended off championship leader Scott Dixon to score his first IndyCar Series race win at the Milwaukee Mile

Ryan Briscoe did no such “fending off”!

With 3 laps to go, Marco Andretti clipped another car, three cars ended up crashing, and the race finished under caution.

The crash may have been exciting, with ABC spending about 10 minutes showing it from every possible angle, but the race finish sure wasn’t.

I just don’t understand, why the race can’t be stopped until the cars are cleared from the track, and then the race restarted?

12
May

Reverse Psychology

Pet Peeves, Whatever

I heard Barack Obama today, try to rationalize his endorsement by Hamas, as having to do with the fact he might be more open to diplomacy than John McCain.

While there is likely some truth to that statement, I don’t believe that to be the true motive behind Hamas’s endorsement. I believe Hamas is simply applying reverse psychology to an American public not well endowed with common sense.

Just think about it, what better way is there to convince a person, or group of persons, who are in fear, or total disdain for you, to vote for an “item, decision or whatever” you really want, than to imply the exact opposite decision is what you really want.

It’s just like the T-Mobile commercial, where the wife always picks exactly the opposite of what the husband wants, after which the husband uses reverse psychology to finally gain the color of cell phone he wants, so is Hamas’s decision to endorse Obama for President.

Hamas no more wants Obama for president, then the majority of Americans want to see $7 a gallon gasoline.

And why in the world would Hamas want Obama? Obama wants to pull out of Iraq, which is the last thing Hamas, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, or any other middle eastern terrorist wants.

Were we to leave Iraq,

No longer would we be spending BILLIONS of dollars on an ill conceived war, and rebuilding Iraq, rather then spending that money at home, rebuilding infrastructure i.e. bridges, roads, etc. and increasing internal security.
No longer would we be risking the lives of hundreds of thousands of brave, young Americans, and negatively impacting their lives with multiple and extended tours of duty.
No longer would we be straining our military, to the point that when we really need to defend ourselves, we won’t be able to.
And no longer will Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have the perfect training ground for learning and developing the best ways to fight and defeat Americans in battle, while at the same time killing hundreds of Americans at minimal expense.

It’s high time the American public woke up to the real threat to this country, and it’s not from outside this country. The real threat to this country is from within, and until we realize that the threats from outside will simply get worse.

28
Feb

Sometimes I wonder

Cycling, Pet Peeves, Thoughts

When I go to the gym to work out, I always expect to see personal trainers/instructors that are at least in as good a condition, or better than myself.

That, however, has not proven to be the case in the gym I frequent.

In that gym there are at least 4 personal trainers I have seen. Most look in pretty good shape, but there is one, who I see most often, who is about as wide as he is tall.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone would want to have a trainer who does not look the part of a personal trainer.

And this morning put me in that position.

I took a spinning class, and the instructor did not at all look like a cyclist, nor did he even look like he was in very good shape.

I’ve taken this class before, and this was not the case with the other instructor, so I was surprised when this person walked in. (I originally thought he was a student, but that was not the case.)

I should have known something was wrong, when the girl next to me, left after she saw the instructor. I’m not sure if she left because she didn’t like the instructor, or it was for some other reason, but it sure was strange.

Anywaze, I did the full 45 minute workout, and I managed to get a good, hard workout, in spite of the instructor.

Maybe that should be a lesson to me and everyone else.

It’s not the instructor that makes the difference, it’s the amount of effort you put into training that makes the difference.

9
Feb

Finally time to unwind

Cycling, Golf, Pet Peeves, Thoughts

Well I managed to make it home last night at a little after 7 PM. Edie had dinner waiting for me, and after 2 glasses of wine, I was able to finally unwind from the, as Becky put it, “mind numbing” meeting. (There was actually a point in that meeting, I felt like walking out and retiring, but I didn’t.)

I had hoped to leave early, and go to the gym for a short workout and jog on the treadmill, but that was not to be.

That may have actually turned out to be a good thing, as I felt really good, when I went on my bike ride this morning. I think the extra rest day did me some good.

While my hill climb times weren’t great, they were reasonable, considering how little training I had been doing, because of the cold weather.

I even went golfing afterwards, for the first time in over a week. I didn’t play very good, but again, because of the weather, I haven’t been practicing as much as I should.

Still today was a good day, in spite of the fact, when I got home, I was greeted with an email from the customer, regarding yesterday’s meeting, which required some responses on my part.

The responses weren’t very difficult, but I have a feeling, the customer may not like some of them. For that reason I didn’t send my responses just yet, choosing to talk with our sales department to get their concurrence, before I do.

Maybe I haven’t wound down as much as I thought after all. But one thing is for sure I’m not going to give it any more thought this weekend.

29
Dec

I’m a terrible person

Anxietys, Pet Peeves

Just after posting Tuesday, on my other blog, Can’t we just all get along?, today I yelled at Sylvia.

Even if I had good reason (which I didn’t), I didn’t need to yell at her. I actually think it caused me as much stress as it did Sylvia. It’s just that sometimes she gets on my nerves, and while I normally am able to walk away, this time I didn’t.

Edie and I asked Sylvia to come live with us, because we didn’t think she was happy living alone, and thought she would be better off with us. Her sister, who was nearby in Florida had moved back to New York, because of medical problems, about a year prior to her moving in with us.

And as it turned we were right. She wasn’t taking good care of herself, nor was she getting very good care.

Initially she didn’t want to come live with us (we first tried to convince her to come, right after her sister left), because she thought she would be a burden on us.

That isn’t the case, but I admit it hasn’t been terribly easy for me, (Edie is much better at this than I am), but this outburst certainly might have given credence to that belief.

I did apologize, but I’m not sure how much good that did if any.