A Scattered Brain

As part of our goal to get healthier and lose weight, both Kylah and I had wanted to find something we could do to have a more steady workout.  We thought about a gym membership but that isn’t overly feasible since we’d have to go at different times in order to watch Connor.  I have my bowling but that is only once a week and while helpful, isn’t the best way to really help get in shape.  We wanted something we could do together, at home, and not too expensive.

Enter the Wii Fit.  After a couple of weeks of looking for one and stores sold out, we finally got one yesterday.  The process starts with analyzing your balance and taking your weight to calculate your BMI.  From there, you can set a goal; and start your training in four different areas.  Yoga, which helps with stretching and breathing; Strength, nothing with weights, rather using the Wii Board and your body; Aerobics, get that heart rate pumping; and Balance, exercises to help improve posture and coordination.

After we both got our first body analysis, we went through some of the exercises.  It was actually quite a workout and fairly difficult.  The board is very sensitive so maintaining good form throughout is essential and tricky.  There is a bit of a learning curve, but we like what we see so far.  We finished up doing a two person run which really got our heart rates up.  Our plan is to each do a workout on the Wii every evening after we put Connor to bed and before we relax/watch TV for the evening.

Nintendo has really stretched the limits with their Wii console.  They came up with ideas that are so nice and fresh to help get people active while playing video games.  I’m quite impressed with a lot of the things they are coming up with.

This has got to be the worst start to a presidency in the history of our country.  And it isn’t even close.  This is a man who wants to take away all of our freedoms and liberty while appearing to try to fix things.  As individuals and families, we can’t spend ourselves out of debt; so how is it that we could even think we could as a country?

Obama’s administration is using fear, lies, and mob mentality to get exactly what they want; which is a fundamental change in policy to unadulterated socialism.  Let’s use the AIG bonus situation.  The administration acted as if it was news that these were getting paid out.  It wasn’t news, it was part of AIG’s plan from the very start.  And they aren’t bonuses as you and I would think of them; they are retention bonuses.  Which means, this is money getting paid to people who have been LAID OFF but need to be kept on board for a little while to keep the company running.  The schedule and amount was known by all those involved for a long time; but to gin up public anger, they have lied and twisted to make this seem like a shady thing.  Even if you get down to the money, the “bonuses” are 1/10 of 1% (or 0.001) of the bail out money.  I’m sure a lot more has been used even less wisely.

So, what was the fix?  Forcing them to give the money back or face 90% taxes.  Now, it is UNCONSTITUTIONAL and illegal to target a person or group of people with tax legislation.  But unfortunately with this congress and the Supreme Court, you can’t guarantee that the Constution would hold up, so to avoid dealing with it, some would rather give back 100%.  Just by ginning up public anger with these lies, they’ve imposed a 100% tax.  If they can do it to people from AIG, why on earth would they stop there?  Plan on losing all of your money in the near future if they get their way.

We are really in scary times; and the sad part is that most people are either blind to it or don’t think it will affect them.  Before they know it, they will have no more freedom, no money, and no hope.  How’s that for change?

UPDATE: It seems even the president of the very socialistic EU thinks we’re on the wrong path.

Yesterday I had a lesson to work on my recent issues with targeting as the lanes broke down and my problem was diagnosed with one approach and fixed a few steps later, literally.  So, my problem was that as I moved left, I either still came high and through the nose as if I hadn’t moved, or I’d come up really light and miss the head pin.  In comes the solution:

Even though I was starting left, my eyes and feet were leading me right so I’d end up exactly where I always was.  That explained the hits through the nose; I was really using the exact same part of the lane.  The light hits would be trying to really over correct and I’d move my target far right to try to make up for the fact that “moving” left hadn’t help.

I just needed a second set of eyes to show me that I was walking back to the right and once I realized that and started walking straight, I was able to shift to the left, shift to the right (stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight. :)) and adjust to conditions as I’ve been wanting to do.  Tonight is league so I’m hoping to put this into practice tonight.  Stay tuned.

Greetings to all,

I have to figure something out; and so far I just can’t.  The lanes at South Point are certainly different than they have been in the past.  No matter which ball I use, by the third game (and last night even the second) no matter where I start my approach, my ball seems to come high.  I keep making adjustments, and still high;  once I’ve lost the pocket for the night, I can’t seem to get it back.

The worst part is I don’t know what else to do.  I move a little, no change; I change balls, same result; adjust my target line, either the same result or something else even worse than coming in high (e.g. missing the head pin altogether).  I’m just not sure where to go from here.  I’ve been meaning to schedule a lesson for quite some time; maybe now is the time to finally schedule it.

Last night I had one of my better nights of recent memory.  I had 215, 218, 140 for a 573 series.  The first two games were as good as the scores indicate with only one bad miss between both of them.  The last game, despite the score, also only had one bad spare miss.  The lane conditions had really changed, and no matter how I moved, I kept coming high and leaving some weird spares.  I even tried to take a deep line and yes, threw a first ball gutter; and it was right where I was aiming, but didn’t recover at all and slid off.  I don’t know if I should have changed balls or what, and maybe I’m too afraid to move left of center on the approach.  I’ll have to figure out what to do when the lanes break down like that.

I also wanted to go ahead and use this space to do my New Year’s Resolution Update:

• Weight: 204.4; Only lost a bit and that can be considered standard fluctuation so no real loss this month. We did have a lot of company and I’ve been eating dessert quite a bit this month, so no gain is probably just as good as loss would have been.
• Devotional: Weekends are still tougher but getting better.  Weekdays are still pretty good but sometimes I rush through more than I should.
• Bowling blog: I think I wrote, even if shortly, about each week this month so that’s good.  Also the last two weeks have seen my average going back up and that’s always good. 🙂

Overall grade: B.  Still room for improvement, but staying with all three through 2 months is better than I’ve been able to do usually.

Greetings all,

This week was a little better as far as overall scores go: 192, 184, 198; 574 Series.  All three games were above average so that is always good.  If I had made all of my non-split, easy spares (the ones that should be automatic), I would have had the following scores: 205, 216, 209 for a 630 series.  5 spares missed, nearly 60 pins difference.  That isn’t including any splits (I had two); just single and 2-pin spares that are easy.

My overall approach and release I was happy with.  I adjusted to lane condition changes better than usual and definitely focused more on each shot; even the spares.  I would hit my target mostly, I must have been lining up a little wrong that I’ll need to correct.

On a different note; Purdue faces Michigan tonight.  Go Boilermakers!

This one will be really short… kind of like my scores:

140, 170, 193; 503 series.

I just can’t seem to make even easy spares.  I would easily be over 200 average if I just made the easy spares.  Is my problem trying too hard, or not hard enough?  I don’t know; but I have got to figure out my spare shooting somehow.

Last night’s bowling wasn’t much to write home about; I had 520 series.  I mostly felt good about my strike ball but left a lot of single pin spares.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t converting them.  I missed 4 single pins in the first game alone.  That’s inexcusable!  Next week, during the 10 minutes of practice, I’m going to throw a strike ball once on each lane and then the rest of the time will be devoted to practicing the corner pins.

As a team we did well; we lost the first game by only 15 pins but won the other two and took total pins.  We’ve now won the last two weeks in a row for the first time I believe this season.  Now if only I had made those spares… we could have taken all 7 points.  Oh well, next week will be better, I’m sure.

In my efforts to maintain my New Year’s Resolutions; I want to give the following update on all three:

• Daily Devotional – I’m still finding it harder on the weekends than the weekdays so that is something still to work on.  On the weekdays, I do it nearly first thing in the morning; that isn’t as easily an option as often times I’m getting Connor up first thing.  Perhaps on weekends I should do it just after putting Connor to bed.  I hadn’t thought of that before but will try that from now on.
• Weight Loss – This is still going well.  I weighed in at 204.6 tonight so another 3 lbs or so this month.  I will be excited if / when I break under the 200 mark, but still have the goal of 190 by year’s end.
• Bowling Blog – I missed this past week of bowling so nothing there.  I hope to post again on Thursday after this week’s league session.

So, overall I’d give myself a B-.  Still areas to work on going forward, but want to remain accountable so I will continue these monthly updates.

On a couple of other quick notes:

1. NCAA Tournament site for 2009 is taking shape.  I’ve added in new visual styles for results and picks viewing that took quite a while to build but helps make the site even more dynamic and will allow me to reduce the amount of data that I have to FTP each time there are updates.  I’m more excited about March Madness than many and really hope the website does it justice this year.

2. This president is just doing a bang up job, now isn’t he? He’s everything I hoped for and so much better (exchange hoped for feared and better for worse, of course).  Nice job on an $800 billion stimulus package where almost all of it is just bloated spending and has no chance of helping the economy.  Here’s an idea: get out of the way and let the economy fix itself as it usually does.  The last time a president tried to fix an economy through wreckless spending we sunk even more into the Great Depression.  I just hope we don’t need another world war to get us out of this one… any more and I should make this a topic by itself. 🙂

Take care everyone!

Most, if not all of you, are very aware of my political views so I’m not going to go into my reservations regarding Obama’s policies and proposals.  I’m also not going to look back at the last eight years to discuss the Bush administration.  I wouldn’t be changing anyone’s opinion.  Instead, I’m going to focus on the innaguration itself and the over the top coverage.

Think about it in all of your lifetimes, has the innaguration of a new President ever been covered this much?  And for what?  I understand the historical aspect of the first black President and I respect that; but it isn’t like we’re celebrating a hero coming home from war.  It’s a change of President, something that happens every four to eight years.  This isn’t any different.

Some news agencies are anticipating this far beyond what expectations should be.  A CNN reporter stated that they expect the words from this speech to be carved into marble!  He hasn’t done anything yet in his entire career, let alone anything great to start planning a monument to him.

The news is also constantly reporting that we need to rally behind Obama.  Where has this been for any other President?  You didn’t hear this before Bush in 2000, or even Clinton in 1992.  I know the media is biased, but this seems to be a giant whirlwind of supposedly objective reporters trying to be a part of history.

The bottom line is he is just a man; his race means nothing.  He hasn’t accomplished anything yet, and the expectations that have been set are going to be very hard to meet.  Of course, to the media, he can do anything (or nothing) and will meet those expectations in their mind.