John Denver

Checked out a bunch of John Denver CDs from the public library. They contain a bunch of songs apart from his well-known classics. I can't wait to listen to them.

Crain's

Ya just gotta love Crain's. What a wonderful resource.

Working out or cleaning

I wanted to spend a large part of the evening working out. Instead, I had to put some clutter away... and I'm nowhere near finished. Rats.

Frustrating

I've got a friend, a very dear friend, who sometimes frustrates me greatly. It's like she keeps missing these points that I try to make, and so she barrels through the conversation as though I hadn't said these things.

For example, we were talking about why the parents of a certain friend of mine did not show up at her wedding. She said, "It's such a shame that they didn't approve of the groom."

I said, "Really? Is that why they didn't show up? Did the bride tell you that?"

"No, she didn't... but her parents weren't there, so they must not have approved."

"We don't know that," I pointed out. "It's plausible, but we don't know what the real story is. Maybe they simply had a fight."

"It's so sad that they didn't approve," she went on.

I tell ya, sometimes it's enough to make me want to tear my hair out.

The four kids at a swing dance

I was attending a swing dance last night. They were not swing dancing.

Instead, they were shaking around like maniacs. Not just for one or two songs, mind you, but for practically the whole dance. At least, for as long as they were there.

Some would say "Who cares?" At least one guy thought they were funny. Another guy said that they were annoying though, and I have to agree with that.

Here's the problem: It was a SWING DANCE. If you're going to attend a swing dance, you should at least make a token effort to dance swing. If you want to do your own thing, go somewhere else, please.

Mind you, this doesn't preclude acting goofy for a couple of songs or so. I've seen people breakdance during a couple of songs, for example, and I've even done it myself.... but not for the entire dance.

If you attend a country dance, the expectation is that you'll dance in a countrified style. You might not know how to do it well, but you should at least make some sort of effort. Shaking it around and doing wild stuff just isn't appropriate.

Go somewhere else instead, kids. Please.

He is aggravating

I have to deal with this one fella who is... problematic. To say the least.

He's arrogant, he's classless, he's selfish, and he's utterly dishonest. He's also manipulative and underhanded. I wish that he wasn't a part of my life.

What a jackass.

Too much stress

I have way too much stress in my life. It doesn't help that certain people in my life are infantile and extremely difficult.

What a jackass

This certain fella is a world-class jackass. He's arrogant, he's abrasive, he's tremendously dishonest and he can never admit to being in error. What's more, he has no people skills to speak of. No diplomacy, no ability to hold his tongue. Oh, and he has a tremendous sense of entitlement.

What a jerk.

Speaking of abdominals...

Speaking of abs, I wish that I had more time to work mine. I'd really like to develop some washboard abs myself. I have a pretty strong core, and my abs are fairly well defined. I can't claim to have real washboard abs yet, though.

It would help if I could drop a little bit more body fat. Over and above that though, I do need to develop larger, stronger abs muscles. I'd like that.

Erin Elmore and the abs

So I saw this clip on YouTube where Apprentice Season Three candidate Erin Elmore was washing the washboard abs of some male model. That behavior was just plain inappropriate. If a man had done that to a female model, he would have been considered a real creep.

It's possible that Elmore thought she could get away with it because of her looks. She was prone to reminding the viewers that she was a former beauty queen, for example, and she did like to flirt with the Trump. Ultimately though, that's no excuse. In fact, it's a terrible excuse.

The 21st

It's the 21st of August. Yay.

Shows I'm watching nowadays

Fringe
Bones
The Big Bang Theory
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Gilad: Bodies in Motion
Mythbusters
Human Target
Castle
Psych

Wrong line of work

I was looking at the work that this one woman I know created. Let's just say that I think it's perfectly clear that she is in the wrong line of work. No doubt whatsoever.

Riker

Say "Riker" and most people will think of the character played by Jonathan Frakes. Today though, I was reminded of Robin Riker, a successful but relatively obscure actress.

Boy, I haven't heard that name in a long time. Years, in fact.

Yow! Yowza!

Why aren't there any models like this out there anymore? Or if there are, I sure don't see them in the print media.

Actually, I take that back. I did see one such model in a print catalog once. Not often, though.

So envious

I am so envious of D. So very envious. He really lucked out.

Dang.

Hope this works

I really, really hope that this works this time. I hope it works.

Sadly, I've learned not to hope for much. Rats.

Trying to be optimistic, but I think I also have to be realistic. Ugh.

Firefly birthday

The following makes for a suitable birthday greetings for fans of the short-lived TV series, Firefly:

Couldn't get ahold of no flour, so it's mostly protein. In fact, it's pretty much what we just had for dinner. But I tried to get the frosting as chocolatey tasting as possible.

Student humor publications

I picked up a copy of the student-published humor magazine from a local university today. It was... bleh.

That's the problem. Most people think they can write funny stuff. Few people can.

Back in my high school days, I was on the staff of our school paper. Every year, we published a spoof issue. We also got students who wanted to write for the spoof issue alone, and not for our regular issues.

Needless to say, we turned them away. After all, why add someone to the staff if he or she is only going to write for one issue out of the entire year? They've got to prove their chops, y'know.

Barking Harley is back

The obnoxious barking guy is back at the gym.

He's the guy who insists on barking like a dog during the cardio boot camp classes. For a couple of months, he was absent, but now I see that he's back.

Rats.

He puts in scarcely any effort, then thinks that he can make up for this by barking enthusiastically, as though to suggest that he's on a big testosterone rush. No, you're not, you jackass. You're a poser, plain and simple.

Another gym encounter

So I was on one of the elliptical trainers at my gym. I was reading comic books, since the up-and-down motion of a treadmill or elliptical trainer makes book reading more difficult.

The fella to my right kept trying to chat me up. I guess he was bored, and I guess he didn't think that I might want to concentrate on my reading. It got kinda annoying, and so I was tempted to switch to another machine. I didn't though, since I didn't want to needlessly upset the guy. It's best to avoid that when you're at the gym, especially if you might encounter the fella again.

The worst part is that he kept making all sorts of inane comments. "So, that Wonder Woman, she's all about sex, right?" Ugh.

Looking back, I wish I had said, "Say, do you mind if we discuss this after I'm done reading?" And to be fair, the guy was probably a complete gym newbie -- the kind of fella who hardly ever exercises, and who didn't stop to think that it'd be good to have a magazine or an MP3 player with him as he stayed on the machines.

Lohan

Boy, this Lindsay Lohan gal is really messed up, isn't she? What a shame, considering how much talent she has.

On the one hand, I feel bad for her. I realize that her upbringing leaves something to be desired. On the other hand, I also think that people need to wise up. It's a matter of common sense.

Gym lollygaggers annoy me

It really annoys me when I see people attending the cardio classes in my gym who scarcely put in any effort. It's like they know they need to exercise, but aren't willing to put in the effort needed to get real results.

As another gym habitue said, if you're not going to work hard, then why bother? You're just wasting your time.

It's good to see the occasional person who really pours on the effort. There aren't many people like that. Most people need to power through with determination and really work out hard. When they are there, they help raise the energy level of the room, and they set a good example for everyone else. They're a blessing.

It's 8/8

Nothing much to say here. Just commenting on the date.

Jeric

I will never forget this fellow Jeric. He was a classmate in high school, and he was known for his rampant cheating. Nobody every cheered in class whenever it was announced that he got the highest scores during a test.

He later went to the same college that I attended. I ran into him toward the end of our freshman year, shortly before term papers were due. He pointedly asked me, "Where is the library?"

That slacker made it through almost an entire school year without stepping foot in the library -- indeed, without even knowing where it was. Lazy bum.

Really sleepy

I didn't get much sleep last night, thanks to some computer problems. Got to get to sleep sooner tonight.

The Big Apple

I want to learn the Big Apple dance routine from Hellzapoppin. Actually, there's an awful lot of stuff that I want to learn. When in the world will I have time for all of this?

No Harley? For good?

I love it. For weeks now, the ever-annoying Harley has not been showing up at the Monday night cardio bootcamp classes at my gym. He's a loudmouthed jackass who insists on barking loudly and calling undue attention to himself. He constantly cheats on his moves, and yet he acts like he's at the top of his game. "Look at me! Look at me!" is what his hooting and hollering amounts to. What a loser.

Haven't seen him in several weeks now. Maybe he's found something else to do during the summer, but I hope that's not it. I hope that he has left... permanently. That'd be great.

Half-baked solutions

More on the topic of poor preparation.

I was at a social function wherein the host had to entertain some foreign visitors. He wanted to show them a movie, but he didn't have the right DVD on hand.

This other fella -- a guy who had been tapped to help out with the event -- said, "Oh, no problem. We'll just go to Netflix and play the movie that way." Obviously, that was a poorly conceived idea; after all, Netflix streaming can be erratic at best. Unless you're lucky, it won't make for a smooth experience, and there's a very good chance that the movie might not be available.

This fella has a habit of coming up with half-baked solutions -- essentially bandages in place of proper fixes.

Poor planning

Here's another thing that I'd like to vent about. It's a little thing, but it makes my eyes roll.

So I attended a party recently where some dancing was involved. For the most part, this was not "real" dancing. Rather, it was people shaking around a-rhythmically and without much style.

Did the folks have any music prepared? Mostly, no. When they wanted music, they went to YouTube and tried to find the songs they wanted. That was just mind-numbingly dumb and a sign of poor preparation. Blech.

Speaking of encouragement

Speaking of encouragement, I'm glad that this guy Ross doesn't attend my Muay Thai classes anymore. I was frequently partnered with him, since we were at the same rank. He was a very dour fella. He routinely provided criticism, but he never provided positive feedback -- not even once. That got really old.

He was more skilled and more experienced than I, since he had prior martial arts training. He failed to understand that positive reinforcement is helpful and even necessary.

Some of the more advanced practitioners in our class understood that, which made them great to work with. Too bad he didn't. This made him a real pain.