My kingdom for a pedometer
When I started the MOVE program at the VA in West LA, they gave us a pedometer at the second meeting. It was free and we were told that if we lost it, they would not give us another. I fell in love with my pedometer. No, I don't have a fetish for tiny accelerometers inside of black plastic. I loved what it did for me. It made me track my steps. As a result over the period of a few weeks, I increased my daily average number of steps by 100%. I would check it periodically (almost obsessively in fact) and if I was behind where I felt I should be at that point in the day, I'd take extra steps. I even made plans to do something I hadn't done in ages, walk across the length of a mall just for the walk. Sadly that went awry due to car troubles.
Last Monday I lost my pedometer. I looked everywhere for it. No luck finding it. I tried to get a replacement from the MOVE program, offering to pay the cost of the item. No go. They offered me a free pedometer but it didn't work. As a result I'm guessing that when I weigh in today I will not have lost any weight over last week's result. Now it must be noted that last week's weigh-in had me down five pounds over the prior week, which is unusual. So a re-gain of a pound or two wouldn't be surprising. However, in my mind, any weight gain will be the fault of the missing pedometer.
One way or another, I will have one again by tomorrow night. Either they'll give me one at the meeting this morning, when I can hit up the program director rather than one of the people in the PERC (don't ask), or the one I bought on-line that's not exactly the same but has the same basic features, will arrive.
* * *
Why is the majority of the media leaping to the conclusion that Raven Symone has come out and stated she is a lesbian? That's not what she said. She said: "I am very happy that gay marriage is opening up around the country and is being accepted,” the actress said in a statement through her representatives. I was excited to hear today that more states legalized gay marriage. I, however am not currently getting married, but it is great to know I can now, should I wish to."
This is what Brad Pitt said on the issue back in 2006: "Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able." I don't believe anyone took that to mean he is gay. I highly doubt that Jennifer Anniston would have been willing to "beard" for him during their marriage.
Pauley Perrette, star of "NCIS" has also said she won't marry her male fiancé until gays can legally marry. No one is calling her a lesbian.
Maybe our definition of what a media outlet is has been expanded. Maybe we just have more people reporting and commenting on the events of the day. But it seems to me that as we have so much more information at our fingertips, the number of "journalists" who attempt to read into what has been said to create salacious headlines has increased exponentially.
* * *
It's going to be a rough month schedule wise, and this week will be the worst. My trivia team and I are in a competition which means we have to play the next four Mondays. I am teaching a class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and working on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. We are supposed to play trivia on Wednesday. I'm already bowing out if we have a Friday event, because we have to play in the semi-final rounds of a tournament we are in on both Saturday and Sunday.
I got tired just writing that. So I won't play on Friday this week, and may skip it other weeks this month. I may bow out on Tuesday nights this month, since teaching will force me to miss almost every Tuesday game starting in September for 90 days or so.
I mention this because before my most recent hospitalization, I'd have just "sucked it up" and gone. Now I won't do that. My desire to avoid another stay of even one or two days in that place has me making different decisions. If I can only play trivia two nights per week, plus the semi-final and final of that tournament this month, so be it. I won't bore you by repeating that line from "Top Gun" yet again.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Just once I'd like to see some celebrity's website saying something other than how wonderful and in-demand they are. Several (I won't name names) would be much more truthful if the main page said "while my career is in a steep decline, I'm still seeking work and doing whatever I can to remain relevant and of note."
With the proliferation of shows about the "wives", how long before we get "Wives of McDonald's Employees" or "Hooker Housewives" or maybe "The Real Housewives of Vernon" (a city in the L.A. area with a population of only 90)?
It took Subway restaurants 23 years to reach 2,000 locations. Anytime Fitness, a new model of gym passed that number in less than half that time. Would you get a tattoo showing your "gym colors", if the gym paid for it (I sure wouldn't)? Over 1,000 of their members have done so.
Women change their hair color all the time. How would people react if a man who'd always had brown hair came to work one morning as a blonde?
Is being re-elected mayor at the age of 4, after having been elected the first time at age 3 indicative that Robert Tufts has a future in politics?
Do the producers of "Dancing With the Stars" really think bringing back Maks is going to help?
Is the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) using classified information to make arrests, and then covering up how the arrest was made? Sure looks that way according to Reuters, who claims a secret DEA Special Operations Division is doing just that.
This Date in History:
25 – Guangwu claims the throne as emperor after a period of political turmoil, restoring the Han Dynasty after the collapse of the short-lived Xin Dynasty.
642 – Battle of Maserfield – Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Northumbria.
910 – The last major Danish army to raid England is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward the Elder and Earl Aethelred of Mercia.
939 – The Battle of Alhandic is fought between Ramiro II of León and Abd-ar-Rahman III at Zamora in the context of the Spanish Reconquista. The battle resulted in a victory for the Emirate of Cordoba.
1068 – Byzantine–Norman wars: Italo-Normans begin a nearly-three-year siege of Bari.
1100 – Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
1278 – The Siege of Algeciras ends in the context of the Spanish Reconquista pitting the forces of the Kingdom of Castile against the Emirate of Granada. The battle resulted in a Granadan victory.
1305 – William Wallace, who led the Scottish resistance against England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London where he is put on trial and executed.
1388 – The Battle of Otterburn, a border skirmish between the Scottish and the English in Northern England, is fought near Otterburn.
1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America, at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
1600 – The Gowrie Conspiracy against King James VI of Scotland (later to become King James I of England) takes place.
1620 – The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America.
1689 – 1,500 Iroquois attack the village of Lachine in New France.
1716 – The Battle of Petrovaradin takes place.
1735 – Freedom of the press: New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published was true.
1763 – Pontiac's War: Battle of Bushy Run – British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run.
1772 – The First Partition of Poland begins.
1781 – The Battle of Dogger Bank takes place.
1824 – Greek War of Independence: Constantine Kanaris leads a Greek fleet to victory against Ottoman and Egyptian ships in the Battle of Samos.
1858 – Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It will operate for less than a month.
1860 – Charles XV of Sweden of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway in Trondheim.
1861 – American Civil War: in order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).
1861 – The United States Army abolishes flogging.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge – along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops attempt to take the city, but are driven back by fire from Union gunboats.
1864 – American Civil War: the Battle of Mobile Bay begins – at Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Battle of Spicheren is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.
1874 – Japan launches its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in the United Kingdom.
1882 – The Standard Oil of New Jersey is established.
1884 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor.
1888 – Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip, commemorated as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route since 2008.
1901 – Peter O'Connor sets the first IAAF recognised long jump world record of 24 ft 11.75 in (7.6137 m) The record will stand for 20 years.
1906 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, King of Iran, agrees to convert the government to a constitutional monarchy.
1914 – World War I: the German minelayer Königin Luise lays a minefield about 40 miles (64 km) off the Thames Estuary (Lowestoft). She is intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS Amphion.
1914 – In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed.
1916 – World War I: Battle of Romani – Allied forces, under the command of Archibald Murray, defeat an attacking Ottoman army under the command of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, securing the Suez Canal and beginning the Ottoman retreat from the Sinai Peninsula.
1925 – Plaid Cymru is formed with the aim of disseminating knowledge of the Welsh language that is at the time in danger of dying out.
1926 – Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.
1940 – World War II: the Soviet Union formally annexes Latvia.
1941 – World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.
1944 – World War II: possibly the biggest prison breakout in history occurs as 545 Japanese POWs attempt to escape outside the town of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
1944 – World War II: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
1944 – World War II: The Nazis begin a week-long massacre of anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000 civilians and prisoners of war in Wola, Poland.
1949 – In Ecuador, an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 6,000.
1949 – The Mann Gulch fire kills 13 firefighters in Montana.
1957 – American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuts on the ABC television network.
1960 – Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta, becomes independent from France.
1962 – Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
1963 – The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
1964 – Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow – American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1965 – The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 begins as Pakistani soldiers cross the Line of Control dressed as locals.
1969 – Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
1971 – The first Pacific Islands Forum (then known as the "South Pacific Forum") is held in Wellington, New Zealand, with the aim of enhancing cooperation between the independent countries of the Pacific Ocean.
1974 – Vietnam War: the U.S. Congress places a $1 billion dollar limit on military aid to South Vietnam.
1979 – In Afghanistan, Maoists undertake an attempted military uprising.
1981 – Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.
1989 – General elections are held in Nicaragua with the Sandinista National Liberation Front winning a majority.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Neil Armstrong
Vern Gosdin
Herb Brooks (thanks for that miracle, Herb)
Roman Gabriel
Loni Anderson
Maureen McCormick
Janet McTeer (loved her in "Tumbleweeds")
Patrick Ewing
Kaylani Lei
Carl Crawford
Lolo Jones
Movie Quotes today come from the original "Fun With Dick and Jane" starring George Segal and Jane Fonda, because I'm in the mood for something amusing:
Raoul Esteban: [at the unemployment office] Look what your card says, Aerospace Executive.
Dick Harper: Yeah, but I'm not that anymore.
Raoul Esteban: In here, man, you are what you were.
#2
Telephone customer: [Dick and Jane are robbing the phone company as the customers cheer] Someone's robbing the phone company. Bless you.
#3
Jane Harper: Interesting that the only two jobs you think I am qualified for are a secretary and a prostitute.
Dick Harper: You're not qualified to be a secretary.
#4
Dr. Will: Say "I am!"
Dick Harper: [pointing a gun at Dr. Will] Stick 'em up!
Dr. Will: Did I hear you right, sinner? Are you holding me up?
Dick Harper: [imitating Dr. Will] I am!
(what's really funny about the last one is that this guy was an evangelist whose catchphrase was "don't say amen, say I am!")
Last Monday I lost my pedometer. I looked everywhere for it. No luck finding it. I tried to get a replacement from the MOVE program, offering to pay the cost of the item. No go. They offered me a free pedometer but it didn't work. As a result I'm guessing that when I weigh in today I will not have lost any weight over last week's result. Now it must be noted that last week's weigh-in had me down five pounds over the prior week, which is unusual. So a re-gain of a pound or two wouldn't be surprising. However, in my mind, any weight gain will be the fault of the missing pedometer.
One way or another, I will have one again by tomorrow night. Either they'll give me one at the meeting this morning, when I can hit up the program director rather than one of the people in the PERC (don't ask), or the one I bought on-line that's not exactly the same but has the same basic features, will arrive.
* * *
Why is the majority of the media leaping to the conclusion that Raven Symone has come out and stated she is a lesbian? That's not what she said. She said: "I am very happy that gay marriage is opening up around the country and is being accepted,” the actress said in a statement through her representatives. I was excited to hear today that more states legalized gay marriage. I, however am not currently getting married, but it is great to know I can now, should I wish to."
This is what Brad Pitt said on the issue back in 2006: "Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able." I don't believe anyone took that to mean he is gay. I highly doubt that Jennifer Anniston would have been willing to "beard" for him during their marriage.
Pauley Perrette, star of "NCIS" has also said she won't marry her male fiancé until gays can legally marry. No one is calling her a lesbian.
Maybe our definition of what a media outlet is has been expanded. Maybe we just have more people reporting and commenting on the events of the day. But it seems to me that as we have so much more information at our fingertips, the number of "journalists" who attempt to read into what has been said to create salacious headlines has increased exponentially.
* * *
It's going to be a rough month schedule wise, and this week will be the worst. My trivia team and I are in a competition which means we have to play the next four Mondays. I am teaching a class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and working on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. We are supposed to play trivia on Wednesday. I'm already bowing out if we have a Friday event, because we have to play in the semi-final rounds of a tournament we are in on both Saturday and Sunday.
I got tired just writing that. So I won't play on Friday this week, and may skip it other weeks this month. I may bow out on Tuesday nights this month, since teaching will force me to miss almost every Tuesday game starting in September for 90 days or so.
I mention this because before my most recent hospitalization, I'd have just "sucked it up" and gone. Now I won't do that. My desire to avoid another stay of even one or two days in that place has me making different decisions. If I can only play trivia two nights per week, plus the semi-final and final of that tournament this month, so be it. I won't bore you by repeating that line from "Top Gun" yet again.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Just once I'd like to see some celebrity's website saying something other than how wonderful and in-demand they are. Several (I won't name names) would be much more truthful if the main page said "while my career is in a steep decline, I'm still seeking work and doing whatever I can to remain relevant and of note."
With the proliferation of shows about the "wives", how long before we get "Wives of McDonald's Employees" or "Hooker Housewives" or maybe "The Real Housewives of Vernon" (a city in the L.A. area with a population of only 90)?
It took Subway restaurants 23 years to reach 2,000 locations. Anytime Fitness, a new model of gym passed that number in less than half that time. Would you get a tattoo showing your "gym colors", if the gym paid for it (I sure wouldn't)? Over 1,000 of their members have done so.
Women change their hair color all the time. How would people react if a man who'd always had brown hair came to work one morning as a blonde?
Is being re-elected mayor at the age of 4, after having been elected the first time at age 3 indicative that Robert Tufts has a future in politics?
Do the producers of "Dancing With the Stars" really think bringing back Maks is going to help?
Is the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) using classified information to make arrests, and then covering up how the arrest was made? Sure looks that way according to Reuters, who claims a secret DEA Special Operations Division is doing just that.
This Date in History:
25 – Guangwu claims the throne as emperor after a period of political turmoil, restoring the Han Dynasty after the collapse of the short-lived Xin Dynasty.
642 – Battle of Maserfield – Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Northumbria.
910 – The last major Danish army to raid England is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward the Elder and Earl Aethelred of Mercia.
939 – The Battle of Alhandic is fought between Ramiro II of León and Abd-ar-Rahman III at Zamora in the context of the Spanish Reconquista. The battle resulted in a victory for the Emirate of Cordoba.
1068 – Byzantine–Norman wars: Italo-Normans begin a nearly-three-year siege of Bari.
1100 – Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
1278 – The Siege of Algeciras ends in the context of the Spanish Reconquista pitting the forces of the Kingdom of Castile against the Emirate of Granada. The battle resulted in a Granadan victory.
1305 – William Wallace, who led the Scottish resistance against England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London where he is put on trial and executed.
1388 – The Battle of Otterburn, a border skirmish between the Scottish and the English in Northern England, is fought near Otterburn.
1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America, at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
1600 – The Gowrie Conspiracy against King James VI of Scotland (later to become King James I of England) takes place.
1620 – The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America.
1689 – 1,500 Iroquois attack the village of Lachine in New France.
1716 – The Battle of Petrovaradin takes place.
1735 – Freedom of the press: New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published was true.
1763 – Pontiac's War: Battle of Bushy Run – British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run.
1772 – The First Partition of Poland begins.
1781 – The Battle of Dogger Bank takes place.
1824 – Greek War of Independence: Constantine Kanaris leads a Greek fleet to victory against Ottoman and Egyptian ships in the Battle of Samos.
1858 – Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It will operate for less than a month.
1860 – Charles XV of Sweden of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway in Trondheim.
1861 – American Civil War: in order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).
1861 – The United States Army abolishes flogging.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge – along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops attempt to take the city, but are driven back by fire from Union gunboats.
1864 – American Civil War: the Battle of Mobile Bay begins – at Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Battle of Spicheren is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.
1874 – Japan launches its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in the United Kingdom.
1882 – The Standard Oil of New Jersey is established.
1884 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor.
1888 – Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip, commemorated as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route since 2008.
1901 – Peter O'Connor sets the first IAAF recognised long jump world record of 24 ft 11.75 in (7.6137 m) The record will stand for 20 years.
1906 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, King of Iran, agrees to convert the government to a constitutional monarchy.
1914 – World War I: the German minelayer Königin Luise lays a minefield about 40 miles (64 km) off the Thames Estuary (Lowestoft). She is intercepted and sunk by the British light-cruiser HMS Amphion.
1914 – In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed.
1916 – World War I: Battle of Romani – Allied forces, under the command of Archibald Murray, defeat an attacking Ottoman army under the command of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, securing the Suez Canal and beginning the Ottoman retreat from the Sinai Peninsula.
1925 – Plaid Cymru is formed with the aim of disseminating knowledge of the Welsh language that is at the time in danger of dying out.
1926 – Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.
1940 – World War II: the Soviet Union formally annexes Latvia.
1941 – World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.
1944 – World War II: possibly the biggest prison breakout in history occurs as 545 Japanese POWs attempt to escape outside the town of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
1944 – World War II: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
1944 – World War II: The Nazis begin a week-long massacre of anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000 civilians and prisoners of war in Wola, Poland.
1949 – In Ecuador, an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 6,000.
1949 – The Mann Gulch fire kills 13 firefighters in Montana.
1957 – American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuts on the ABC television network.
1960 – Burkina Faso, then known as Upper Volta, becomes independent from France.
1962 – Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
1963 – The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.
1964 – Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow – American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1965 – The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 begins as Pakistani soldiers cross the Line of Control dressed as locals.
1969 – Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).
1971 – The first Pacific Islands Forum (then known as the "South Pacific Forum") is held in Wellington, New Zealand, with the aim of enhancing cooperation between the independent countries of the Pacific Ocean.
1974 – Vietnam War: the U.S. Congress places a $1 billion dollar limit on military aid to South Vietnam.
1979 – In Afghanistan, Maoists undertake an attempted military uprising.
1981 – Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.
1989 – General elections are held in Nicaragua with the Sandinista National Liberation Front winning a majority.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Neil Armstrong
Vern Gosdin
Herb Brooks (thanks for that miracle, Herb)
Roman Gabriel
Loni Anderson
Maureen McCormick
Janet McTeer (loved her in "Tumbleweeds")
Patrick Ewing
Kaylani Lei
Carl Crawford
Lolo Jones
Movie Quotes today come from the original "Fun With Dick and Jane" starring George Segal and Jane Fonda, because I'm in the mood for something amusing:
Raoul Esteban: [at the unemployment office] Look what your card says, Aerospace Executive.
Dick Harper: Yeah, but I'm not that anymore.
Raoul Esteban: In here, man, you are what you were.
#2
Telephone customer: [Dick and Jane are robbing the phone company as the customers cheer] Someone's robbing the phone company. Bless you.
#3
Jane Harper: Interesting that the only two jobs you think I am qualified for are a secretary and a prostitute.
Dick Harper: You're not qualified to be a secretary.
#4
Dr. Will: Say "I am!"
Dick Harper: [pointing a gun at Dr. Will] Stick 'em up!
Dr. Will: Did I hear you right, sinner? Are you holding me up?
Dick Harper: [imitating Dr. Will] I am!
(what's really funny about the last one is that this guy was an evangelist whose catchphrase was "don't say amen, say I am!")
posted by me at 6:08 AM
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