|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| i think bill simmons is hilarious.
"Kansas City beat Oakland, which beat Denver, which beat Cleveland, which beat Cincinnati, which beat Jacksonville, which beat Green Bay, which beat Seattle, which beat San Francisco, which beat Buffalo, which beat San Diego, which beat New England, which beat the N.Y. Jets, who beat Arizona, which beat Miami, which beat St. Louis, which beat Dallas, which beat Washington, which beat New Orleans, which beat Tampa Bay, which beat Minnesota, which beat Carolina, which beat Atlanta, which beat Chicago, which beat Indianapolis, which beat Baltimore, which beat Philadelphia, which beat the N.Y. Giants, who beat Pittsburgh, which beat Houston, which beat Tennessee, which beat Detroit, which beat NOBODY."
though rich also found this article, which was pretty entertaining. football...the sport of divos. apparently.
here's to the post-season drama to unfold...man, this is better than episode 12 of a korean mini-series.
| | |
| accountability
accountability is an important part of life. it's a little tool that's critical towards maintaining personal integrity. you would think we'd be able to do (or not do, as the case may be) things on our own, but...
FAIL.
so with the 2009 season beginning again, and starting at 6 weeks out with 15 pounds to lose, i started early on the new diet and cardio plan to cut weight. (in addition to regular workouts). i figured, lose 2.5 pounds/wk, and try to do it without starving this time.
so i've been trying to force myself to gym it at noon, but that's usually about the time of day i get lazy. so in order to motivate myself, i came up with a motto for lunchtime: "no gym, no lunch". pretty self-explanatory. the new diet basically means i'm hungry all the time, so that's pretty good incentive to jump in a pool or hop on a treadmill.
except after day 1 of two-a-days i was dead tired and crazy sore. i was debating skipping the gym on tuesday, so i wouldn't be poopy for tkd that night, when my boss comes into my cube and sees that i'm still here.
"what, no gym today?"
"i'm really tired and sore.."
"but you said no gym, no eat! time to go!"
and he went to get his jacket and physically walked out of the bldg with me bc he had to go to the bank.
don't ever tell people things if you don't plan on doing them...
| | |
| thanksgiving weekend
on cars:
my cousin called me an SUV virgin. i'm not sure what that means, but it followed my recounting of attempting to park her new honda pilot in the city on weds night. i thought everyone would be gone since people skip town on thanksgiving weekend - but no. apparently people come INTO the city on weds night to watch them blow up balloons for the parade. go figure.
at one point, i got fed up and just found a spot (that may have been too small) and resolved to fit the boat into it. it wasn't pretty. my first attempt left me at such an angle that i couldn't even get OUT of the spot to retry. meanwhile cars down the one-way street thought i was LEAVING and therefore threw hissyfits when they waited around and realized i was going to parallel park it again. the doorman of a building across the street finally took pity on me and navigated me into the spot.
it was all very traumatic...but i wedged it in without any damage to the car.
note to self: don't own an SUV in the city...
* * * * *
on prayer:
i love when kids pray:
"heavenly father, thank you for this bird who gave his life so we could eat. and for the farmers who plucked him. amen."
i'm thankful to have family outside of family who i can spend thanksgiving with.
* * * * *
on black friday:
bbans will (and did) call me a shopaholic - but the reason i had the car was that i was going to attempt the unthinkable: midnight madness at woodbury. since i wasn't going home this year anytime before the holidays and my cousin was away this weekend, this was my only chance to have a car and get my dad's christmas shopping done. (every year, he gives me a list of all the people he needs to buy gifts for, and i buy and wrap them.)
so...i left my apt in manhattan at about 10.30pm figuring, it takes about an hour to get there, and maybe 30 minutes to circle for parking, so i could start somewhere near midnight, be home by maybe 6am.
FAIL.
by 11.30pm, i was stuck in a long line of shoppers attempting to get anywhere within sight of the exit, and was relegated to putting the car in park as i rotted in traffic.
by 12.30am, i could see the outlets...as i passed them...they had closed off the exit when the parking lot filled up, and directed everyone to overflow parking at a park-and-ride 4 miles away.
by 1.00am, i had parked my car, only to step out in the cold and realize there were hundreds of other overflow parkers, waiting for this mythical shuttle bus that would take us to the outlets.
by 1.15am, i was rotting in line for the buses, which would take 50 people at a time. there were 200 people ahead of me.
by 2.00am, i stepped into my first store.
it reminded me of that moment during our TLC hiking trip when we'd climbed down all these rocks and some ridiculous decline and jison had gone ahead to check out the waterfall at the bottom. and we called out "is it worth it??" and there's a slight pause before she shouted back..."NO!"
seriously - 3.5 hours to get to stores where there were velvet ropes outside and lines to get in with up to 2 hour waits, and my car parked so far away that whatever i bought - i'd have to carry...
i reiterate: FAIL.
but we had passed the point of no return long ago, so i was determined to knock off everything on the list at no less than half off retail prices.
at the end of the day, it was a successful trip, and i returned to manhattan at...10.30am. a full 12 hours after i had left.
at least i was able to park the car easily this time. and at $1.71/gallon in jersey, gas prices made my day. i lugged everything up to my apt and somehow woke up at 11pm.
great, it put me exactly back on japan time.
| | |
| japan
1. business class is freaking awesome. it's like nike uniforms, gmail's email collapsing capabilities, and tabbed windows...once you've used it...you can't go back.
2. the 3.5 hour bus ride from tokyo to hitachi at 30mph was excrutiatingly painful. however, what never got old was the amusement from the automated announcement that came up in some cutesy japanese voice at each stop saying "please take all your junk when leaving the bus"
3. space saving takes on a whole new dimension: we have the biggest hotel rooms in this hotel, and they're tiny. i opened the closet door and it's about a foot deep: you can only hang clothes facing you. i think in the "regular" rooms, you can stand on the bed, stretch out your arms, and touch the walls.
4. people are so...quiet. granted, hitachi city isn't exactly your bustling town, but...just in general, the volume of people's conversations...very low. (or conversely, perhaps americans are just really loud)
5. non-smoking is apparently not an option. i asked for a room switch and apparently that wasn't going to get me anywhere. so they sent up an air-purifier. which, by the way, doesn't really help. i like how the hotel is semi-fancy and there's a cigarette burn on the couch.
6. yes, the food is just that good.
7. trying to communicate with my limited 3-semesters-of-japanese-8-years-ago has been varying degrees of fail. someone started talking about the bullet train and when he said "shinkansen" the image of the sanrio character popped into my head. if they win the next contract, i vow to actually learn japanese properly...should be a fun project.
8. jetlag just might kill me. after struggling the entire day to stay awake when it felt like the middle of the night, i went to bed at 9pm. woke up at 1.30am. was so bored i actually logged into work email. and then when i sent some emails requesting spreadsheets, my boss (also on the trip) sends me "i can't believe i'm up at 3am doing work". and i almost wrote him back with "you're ALWAYS doing work. what's sad is I'M up at 3am doing work". but i thought maybe it wasn't prudent to point out the fact that i rarely do work outside of the office...so i didn't respond and hoped he'd just assume i went back to sleep. but then i realized...damn you, read-receipts!
| | |
| so last week was our tlc's turn to babysit for a tenafly tlc with kids. now, i generally like kids and i spend a fair amt of time with them...but babysitting for strangers is always a big question mark. it's like kids have a radar that you're in substitute teacher mode and you have no idea what the teacher does on a regular basis...particularly as to what mode of discipline works, or is/isn't appropriate. (perhaps pushups are not the universally appropriate punishment for bad behavior...heh)
things i learned:
1) apparently, i have "jump on me" written on my forehead in invisible ink only legible to children under 5.
the kids at taekwondo do it...my nieces and nephews do it...and this random kid i'd never met before thought it was super fun to get a running start and jump at me, head forwards. (and contrary to popular belief - kids' skulls are not soft by any stretch of the imagination). it was fun throwing him around for about 10 minutes...but then my arms got tired and i started missing...so i could only deflect him. 2) mars and venus start early
little boys and little girls are really quite different. i think i've gotten so used to being around just girls or just boys that i've forgotten how to keep track of a mixed crowd. with boys it's physically tiring, but simple - you just throw them around, wrestle, play catch...it's like having a puppy. you throw a ball, they run after it, they bring it back, and they're perfectly happy to do it all over again. with girls, however, it's mentally tiring...they require so much attention and have so much imagination. all this pretend and make-believe stuff where it's so completely interactive and they need your undivided attention... (come to think of it...not much changes as we get older...for either gender...) so you put them together and you have...chaos. while the boy was trying to ram his head into me and wrestle, i had 4 girls tugging on my sleeves saying "no, YOU'RE the doctor and i'm the assistant! no, i'm the dentist! who's the patient?" while the boy in the other room was (hopefully) being entertained by an elmo potty training video.
3) all things come full circle
it strangely brought back the nostalgia of being young and going with my parents to whatever the korean term is for small group...goo-yuk-yeh-beh? except back then, we didn't have babysitters, we were just herded into someone's room and told not to come out until they were done. no wonder korean kids come up with all these games that require no equipment, but entertain by way of physical punishment...you keep shutting us up in rooms with no toys under the threat of a parent having to be sent up to check on you, we'd inevitably find ways to justify hitting each other.
4) whoever invented the "clean up" song was a genius
watching bob deal with his self-professed discomfort with kids was pretty amusing. and how elmo at some point was replaced by sunday night football...=)
but i think the most amusing part was having the kids teach him the "clean up" song. he looked so shocked seeing the screaming masses suddenly singing like the 7 dwarfs as they picked up toys and put them away.
and if you're interested, the (grammatically incorrect) lyrics are:
"clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere
clean up, clean up, everybody do their share"
seriously. genius. | | |
|
