Finals Start

So blogging will be slower for a good long while.

Athletically, I am getting in some ok workouts; yesterday I failed with 205 in the bench press though 195 was easy; and I did enough squats to make myself sore. Today, I did another 5 mile run (hill treadmill workout) and 1 mile walk (about 13 minutes) plus yoga.

The injury continues to heal, though not as quickly as I'd like.

So, here are some things just for the heck of it:
(for the cartoons: click for a larger version)


Now, some You-Tube videos of the snow strom in Peoria (which took place last FRIDAY, and the roads STILL aren't clear). The Peoria Pundit posted these.

The first one only lasts 16 seconds, and it shows a road that was said to have been "cleared" by the manager of the snow removal program.



This one lasts a couple of minutes or so, and shows the snowstorm in progress and what it was like on Friday.



Here, someone speaks to one of my pet-peeves. Ok, this peeve of mine is one of those weird things that I don't like but that doesn't really concern me.

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/120606/PHI_BBNS0V3M.035.shtml

Leading the charge for change is Avanti's Italian Restaurant. From there, perhaps decent people can turn the tide against the screaming scourge of society:

Ceaseless cell phones.

Certainly, cell phones are handy. I have one stuck in my ear much of the day, even when I shouldn't, like when my car is bobbling over the endless, ice-forged rumble strips that have become Peoria's new winter road system.

Still, I show enough civility to stop yakking and turn off my ringer when I walk into an eatery. Not that everyone feels so compelled toward courtesy. [...]

The other day, while dashing into the outpost near Northwoods Mall, I spotted two counter signs:

"No cell phones. Please respect your fellow customers. Thank you."

Zounds! A business that actually pushes respect? Maybe there's hope for society.

Carla Koenig, Avanti's human resource chief, says the signs were posted to improve take-out orders.

As odd as this might seem to normal people, some boobs typically would plod up to the counter, yammering into their cell phone. Then, because they obviously are very important people adept at the sophisticated art of multi-tasking, they'd continue to gab into the phone while ordering food.

As you might guess, such double conversations can confuse employees. Yet, if an order would turn out wrong, the customer would wail and moan - likely while still talking into the cell phone to someone else.

Yes, that seems nuts. But yes, it happened all the time.

"Some people are just that way," Koenig says diplomatically.

Avanti's, which at peak times serves a customer a minute, got tired of the cell-phone cacophony screwing up orders. So out came the new signs, which have quieted things down quite a bit.

Still, not all patrons bother to heed the simple warning.

"Sometimes they can get a bit rude," Koenig says.

At those times, employees try to gently point out the signs by saying, "In order to serve you better, we ask you to refrain from using your cell phone."

After that, most patrons comply - not all, but most.

"Nothing is that important (on a cell phone) that it can't wait 10 seconds," Koenig says.

Yeah, it appears to me that cell phones, while handy for emergencies, are one way in which unimportant, undistinguished people can be made to feel important.

But then again, what others do on their own time is none of my business; as one yogi on yoga.com said:

dhanurasana - 2006-12-01 4:25 PM

discipline for myself...
and understanding for others.

Wise words, indeed.

Finally, I'll post something political.

Of course, it is clear that I am a political liberal. But I don't always enjoy hanging around others who vote the way that I do. For example, consider this article from The Nation, by Katha Pollitt, who is someone that I often agree with:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061218/pollitt

Is it just my imagination or are women wreaking more evil than usual these days? We all know the reason boys don't read is that female teachers assign books about girls, and girls have cooties; and the reason half of all marriages end in divorce is that women have outrageous expectations, like that their husbands should talk to them; and the reason the Democrats lose elections is that they pander to female voters instead of being manly and tough. Oh, wait a minute, the Democrats won the last election. Women aren't just evil, they're powerful.

The article continues similarly. Basically, the format is this: Pollitt states some idiotic, sexist thing that an isolated male did, and then blasts it; it is almost as if Ms. Pollitt is collecting beads on a string.

For example:

Rape. I know, I know, it's an old charge, but Australia's top Muslim cleric, Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali, has managed to make it new. "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without cover, and the cats come to eat it...whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred." Because veiled women are never raped, at least not as long as they stay in their rooms. Sheik al-Hilali later said his remarks were taken out of context--he was only talking about prostitutes.

Yes, Ms. Pollitt, what this guy said was offensive and idiotic. But guess what? The reason most of us who follow the news know about this is because this statement was all but universally condemned!!!!

She goes on to make a valid point about Pelosi receiving unwarranted attacks due to her sex, but those points were better made here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/27/18240/635

I commented on this article thusly:

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2006/11/27/18240/635/75#75

occams hatchet...let me explain it to you (11+ / 0-)

female: "good"
male: "bad"

seriously, I think it is something like this: many pundits (mostly male) made remarks about Pelosi that they never would have made about an equally liberal male (stuff about her appearance, making points without shouting (emotional females, you know) etc.

Another example: remember that loser who ran against Hillary Clinton for the Senate? He said something about her being hideously ugly in the past..and this is some dude with a pock-marked face!

When has a male candidate ever called another male candidate "ugly"?

(ok, I call Hastert and Chenney all sorts of names, but I am not running for anything...)

Note: here, by "running", I meant "running for office".