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It has not been a good month, but you could have probably guessed that from my posting activity. That said, I continue to climb at least 20 flights of stairs each and every day. It is definitely a permanent habit now. Today I climbed 100. What motivated me? The incredibly uplifting Alice in Chains of course, lol.
Dirt (Alice in Chains album)
The songs on the album focused on depression, anger, anti-social behavior, drug use, war, death, and other emotionally charged topics.
Oops! ;)
In all seriousness, that's a great album. Pretty dark though!
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The death of our pet cat near the end of January marks the turning point. I think it was a trigger for allowing winter's doldrums to take center stage. Let's just say summer can't get here fast enough.
On a lighter note, I'm roughly 7 pounds lighter than I was on February 28, 2012. This is pretty much in line with what I would have predicted at this time last year. The path to get here was not nearly so predictable.
I'm also seeing a pretty substantial improvement in my ability to play scales on the guitar. I played pretty much every day in February. Seeing improvement is a great motivator. It doesn't burn many calories though. Go figure.
See Also:
The "Free Lunch" Weight Loss Plan v.000
21 comments:
Okay Mark, we have to get you back. First and foremost you're experiencing a refocus of your focus. No problem just keep going and understand (aka learn) from the increased focus. This is good whether guitar or exercise. Second, we need your expotential insights. Something is changing (yes your weight) but something else. Need your insight.
Sorry to hear about your cat. Loss of a loved one is always tough.
dd,
"Focusing is my #1 priority. It's just that other things are more important right now."
I'm reusing the template that the General Manager used on me when I quit my last job.
"Employees are our #1 priority. It's just that other things are more important right now."
I replied with silence and slightly sarcastic eye movements. After a few seconds he opted to concede my point. He chose wisely. I wasn't planning to say another word until he saw the flaw in his argument, lol. Sigh.
I was a rat who desperately wanted off that sinking ship. In hindsight, it actually did sink.
Have no fear though. There are a lifetime's worth of exponential trend failure charts still lurking within me (and this economy).
TJandTheBear,
Yeah, it's still pretty somber around here. It takes time to heal. I didn't want another dog for a year when my last dog died. Our "new" dog is close to 10 years old. We got her as a puppy. Time flies.
We went over 3 years between, and now our "new" one will be 10 in August.
I always like to say that a lot of people wouldn't have kids if dogs lived longer. ;-)
TJandTheBear,
I always like to say that a lot of people wouldn't have kids if dogs lived longer. ;-)
I agree. In fact, if dogs lived shorter then I might even have kids right now.
We're dog people. I confessed to my girlfriend recently that I have loved no other creature as much as I loved my last dog (dachshund terrier mix). I got her as a puppy. We'd been through a lot. She died of mouth cancer at around age 13. The vet came to our house. We put her down after her last meal (a large steak). That was about 10 years ago. Tears me up to this day just thinking about it.
I was taking care of a friend's cat (while he was out skiing)for the past week so I get the attachment.
On that note, I allowed myself to ignore my eating regimen the whole week and now I have like 10 lbs to show for it (!)
Went through a $70 bag of groceries from Trader Joe's over the week.
Main culprit was the 24 cans of sugar pop. Had wanted to get Coke Zero but the sale that week was on Pepsi products so I had to go with Pepsi Throwback and Mt Dew Throwback
Back on the chain gang losing through the 180s again. Now that the weather's warmed up maybe I'll be biking more at least.
Troy,
We took care of our neighbor's dog for a week while they were on vacation. They brought us back a very large box of delicious cookies from Hawaii. It took us a week to eat all 55 cookies, but by God we managed to finish them all off, lol.
It was hopefully the final push to 208 (as seen in the chart). March is starting off a bit better. It's probably too early to tell, but perhaps I'm nearing the seasonal peak of this cycle.
For lunch today I had two of the great national dishes of European cuisine - an English pork pie and a Portugese custard tart. And the sun is shining on this mild Spring day. Yippee!
DeLong this AM:
"Thus it was the financial crisis, not the collapse of the housing boom, that gave us our First Lost Half-Decade"
My comment:
This is my head asploding.
The collapse of the housing bubble (the "boom" was 2003-2004) caused the financial crisis!
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=gfz
blue is YOY consumer debt take-on
red is YOY payroll job growth
Trillions of dollars borrowed via suicide lending etc. 2002-2006 but not going to be paid back!
The foreshock of this coming reality hit the Finance world in Feb 2007, but they were able to postpone events for another year+
back on topic, I've discovered a new life rule:
http://i.imgur.com/TxG8g2h.png
No junk food when I'm over 180lb!
I've ignored that Rubicon twice now (late 1990s, 2005) and there's not going to be a third!
Troy,
"The foreshock of this coming reality hit the Finance world in Feb 2007, but they were able to postpone events for another year+"
This is an interesting thought. I've often wondered what might have happened if .gov would have stepped aside in the very beginning and allowed Bear Stearns to fail.
Had the Fed not seemed like such a pushover, investment banks (and AIG) might have managed their businesses more carefully. After all, what's Wall Street to worry about when an accommodating Fed shelters them from the CONsequences of their folly.
If BS had failed, investment banks, hedge funds and plain old regular banks might have resorted to getting their !@#$ in gear and sorting out their problems.
There were alternatives to helping out AIG with $85B in credit, in my opinion. After all, wasn't AIG still rated double-A before their collapse? Therefore, AIG could have contacted its CDS counterparties and asked them better collateral terms while it still had that rating. The bond insurer ACA did this and its counterparties gave it six months to come up with the money. And ACA did not have the diversified businesses with valuable assets elsewhere that AIG did.
But that was before the Fed bailed out BS and set the tone for moral hazard to the rescue. And allowed AIG to remain in denial for months.
Troy,
"The foreshock of this coming reality hit the Finance world in Feb 2007, but they were able to postpone events for another year+"
This is an interesting thought. I've often wondered what might have happened if .gov would have stepped aside in the very beginning and allowed Bear Stearns to fail.
Had the Fed not seemed like such a pushover, investment banks (and AIG) might have managed their businesses more carefully. After all, what's Wall Street to worry about when an accommodating Fed shelters them from the CONsequences of their folly.
If BS had failed, investment banks, hedge funds and plain old regular banks might have resorted to getting their !@#$ in gear and sorting out their problems.
There were alternatives to helping out AIG with $85B in credit, in my opinion. After all, wasn't AIG still rated double-A before their collapse? Therefore, AIG could have contacted its CDS counterparties and asked them better collateral terms while it still had that rating. The bond insurer ACA did this and its counterparties gave it six months to come up with the money. And ACA did not have the diversified businesses with valuable assets elsewhere that AIG did.
But that was before the Fed bailed out BS and set the tone for moral hazard to the rescue. And allowed AIG to remain in denial for months.
i bought some nutrisystem and jenny craig from Bernanke, wholesale
"Employers added a much-better-than-expected 236,000 jobs in February as the labor market continued to shrug off a recent payroll tax hike and the prospect of big federal spending cuts."
vs:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=gmJ
via mish I see FRED has an interesting datum -- multiple jobholders!
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=gnh
I am trapped in Rocksmith! Apologies! ;)
Troy,
"The rich have all the money.
They have millions of ways to beat it out of the poors, while the poors only have 2 ways to beat money out of the rich."
What are the "2 ways"?
1) felony robbery/burglary/theft
2) redistributive taxation
Troy (& Fritz_O),
3) Strikes
Oops. I think that ability was lost with the advent of the new modern global economy. Never mind.
Fritz_O,
I released one of your comments from blogger's SPAM filter. Sorry that it took me 4 months to spot it trapped there!
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