Chronicles: Alan B. Rowley II - Success Warrior - ECoach - P90X

Success Warrior Diet Program: P90X Journal (Cruise Plan Days 154 - 134) - Part 2

Disclaimer: P90X is tough and you should be in decent shape before going all out using this system.  You could certainly use P90X to get fit but listen to your body and only do what you can.  This is *my* journal and I do not advocate that anyone do what I'm doing.  Some of it is probably very foolish and you should do your own research and/or consult with a doctor before doing crazy stuff like this.

Here's an additional disclaimer for this post.  You might want to give reading this post a pass if reading about the following topics would be less than pleasant for you: violent and messy flu symptoms, gore, and my butt (sometimes all combined).

In my last post, I started with my excuses of why I haven't done P90X for the past month.  I would like to continue those excuses here from where I left off.

I made an appointment on my way out of the doctor's office for the following week so that I could have the stitches removed from my butt.  Next was the 2 hour ride home in the car.  Imagine sliding into home base for 150 miles and you'll get the picture.  I now know why we have two butt cheeks.  One won't do the job.  It takes both of them to support the weight of our body.

I couldn't wait to get home.  Not that anything was fun.  Walking hurt.  Sitting hurt.  Bending over . . . fogedaboudit.  Anything that I dropped was staying there until next week.

I was scheduled to have the stitches out on Thursday morning.  Right before that, Wednesday night happened.

Success Warrior Diet Program: P90X Journal (Cruise Plan Days 154 - 134)

Disclaimer: P90X is tough and you should be in decent shape before going all out using this system.  You could certainly use P90X to get fit but listen to your body and only do what you can.  This is *my* journal and I do not advocate that anyone do what I'm doing.  Some of it is probably very foolish and you should do your own research and/or consult with a doctor before doing crazy stuff like this.

Here's an additional disclaimer for this post.  You might want to give reading this post a pass if reading about the following topics would be less than pleasant for you: violent and messy flu symptoms, gore, and my butt (sometimes all combined).

Days 154 - 134: I only managed to get a couple of workouts in during these days because of two medical factors.  I have to tell you that it really bites to have 20 days of the plan, uhh, flushed down the toilet but it was unavoidable.

Allow me to explain.

Ron Paul: The Battle Continues

I don't comment on it much anymore because we all know that's it's happening every day.  I thought I would do a quick update though on some recent events.

The Republican Party in Nevada and Louisiana changed the rules for participation every few days throwing everything into complete confusion.

In Louisiana, hundreds of Ron Paul supporters were forced to fill out provisional ballots that were counted and McCain was announced to be the winner.  Ron Paul came in second but they haven't released numbers so we don't know by how much or if the discounted Ron Paul votes would have changed things.

In the debate last night, here's a breakdown of speaking time for candidates:

Romney: 21:11, during 13 times
McCain: 16:00, during 13 times
Giuliani: 13:50, during 11 times
Huckabee: 12:11, during nine times
Paul: 6:31, during six times

Less than half the time than Rudy, who Ron Paul has beat in every primary and caucus except New Hampshire (which is being recounted).

But don't expect the recount to change anything.  Campaign official picking up the ballot boxes are doing everything they can to lose citizens trying to keep an eye on things.  The cop escort and the van with the ballots are speeding through school zones, cutting through parking lots, and doubling back in an effort to get out of view.

All that along with the usual Old Media brown out.

The fact that he's done as well as he has speaks volumes about the response to his message when people do actually finally hear it.

Fred Thompson's Last Episode

Cue the Law and Order "dunk-dunk" sound to end this episode.  Fred Thompson has dropped out of the presidential race.  Not that he ever really seemed to be in the race.

That's good news for Ron Paul.  One less distraction for the Old Media.  They have a hard time concentrating on what's important as it is without having a TV star in the running.

The Ron Paul media brownout continues of course.  Lou Dobbs has a poll up asking which candidate can best deal with the economy.  Ron Paul isn't one of the possible answers.  What's funny is that Ron Paul supporters are voting for Edwards to give the poll a new look.  Edwards is, of course, winning the poll by a huge margin.

A new term has come out of this election: Ron Paul Republican.  It's a term that hearkens back to what Republicans used to stand for before the NeoCons hijacked the party.  People are starting to run for office as Ron Paul Republicans too.  The Ron Paul Revolution is not about putting one man into office anymore.  It's gone beyond that.

Speaking of NeoCons.  Rudy still has his people working for free.  Huckabee asked his people to work for free.  Some are and quite a few are leaving the campaign.  McCain is trying to get a loan for $3 million to keep his campaign alive.  They probably all wish that Super Duper Tuesday was here already.

Mitt's good to go of course and Ron Paul raised another $2 million on Monday so he's moving right along.

Ron Paul or Hillary

The Republican Party doesn't seem to understand.  There is only one Republican that can beat Hillary and they are trying their hardest to suppress him.  Check out this fair and balanced report by Fox News.  The first time they report on it, Ron Paul is in third place.  The second time, he's in second place.  You wouldn't know it unless you look at the numbers at the bottom.  You would think McCain was in second the whole time and Huckabee was in third.

It's not the fact that Ron Paul is more pro-peace than Hillary is kind of, sort of, anti-war, maybe and that he knows more about national economics than she can ever hope for.  It's much more simple than that.  Ron Paul is not going to quit and even if he didn't run as a third party, the Revolution will write his name on the ballot.  No matter which Republican candidate the bought and paid for system puts in place, that candidate is going to lose 5-10% of the vote to Ron Paul. 

In essence, the Republican party which has been hijacked by the NeoCon party is so scared of Ron Paul ruining their evil plans that they would rather have Hillary as president.  That's something that should scare us all.

On a side note, the Revolution is doing another money bomb today and only asking for $10.  They want to see how many people they can get to contribute as opposed to how much money they can raise.  Even if you're a Democrat, you can help derail the Republican party with $10.  https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate/

Back from the Dead

Wednesday night, Trey and I came down with the flu in a bad way.  I'm back up today.  He's not.  Poor kid.  He still had a fever of 103 last night and has just been miserable.  As such, the only time I was sitting upright was when I was forced to and I haven't been blogging as some of you may have noticed.

I did lay on the couch and watch political news and one thing has become apparent.  Most people just don't get it and my blog isn't reaching a large enough audience.  Not that I'm going to stop blogging but I may cut down a bit on the wordage to free up some time.

I have a deadline at the end of February for my book and I really need to get serious about finishing the final edit.  I have decided on a new introduction which will take some time to write and there are 3 chapters that need a slight change of theme. 

That's where I will have to put most of my words for the next 6 weeks.  I'll keep tracking the Ron Paul Revolution as well as I can and when my body is back up to full operation, I'll jump back into P90X and journal that. 

I will say this about Ron Paul today.  He keeps beating Rudy.  How cool is that?  He also is not going to drop out of the race.  He is going to continue to spread his message for as long as he can and that might be all the way up until September.  The Revolution doesn't have plans on stopping, not even then.

One other small note on Ron Paul.  My precinct was allowed 4 delegates.  3 are for Ron Paul and one is for Fred Thompson.  The neighboring precinct was allowed 2 delegates.  Both of them are for Huckabee.  Mitt may have won the popular vote by being a Mormon but the delegate battle is still on.  There will be a county convention in March to whittle delegates down before going to the state convention where they are whittled down again before going to the national convention.

This is my first time caucusing (and obviously my first time as a delegate) and I have no idea what I'm doing but I'll keep you updated on how things play out.  If I make it all the way to the national level, I'd have to go to Minneapolis.  Darn.  =)

Ron Paul Coverage on Russia Today

I'm sorry that I haven't had a chance to blog.  Believe me when I tell you that I have a lot to say, especially when it comes to the economy.  Last spring I said that we were headed for a recession and now the Old Media is finally starting to admit it.  I would like to tell everyone who lied to you (Bush, Bernanke, Paulson, Greenspan, and all the rest that were part of the propaganda), "I told you so."

Now, if I could just get more people to listen.  My financial blog gets a fraction of the readers that this blog gets.  I get the impression that people don't want to hear about it.  2007 had the largest inflation rate in 17 years and 2008 is going to be worse.  People are going to hear about it but they are going to get a lot of lies along with it.

Like Bush begging for oil.  Whatever.

Anyway, with any luck, I'll be back on my blogging schedule tomorrow after another doctor visit and we'll dive into the fray and see what we can disect from the Old Media propaganda machine.

Here's another funny video.  The video isn't funny.  It's just funny that Ron Paul is getting more coverage around the world than in the US.

Blogs, newspapers, supporters, are showing up all over the world.  Foreign countries are rooting for Ron Paul, for the obvious reason.

P90X Update Delayed for One Day

I spent so much time today writing up my view of the different economic solutions presidential candidates are offering that I don't have time to update my P90X journal today.  There isn't much to update, as I will explain tomorrow, but I'll see what I can do about at least making you laugh.

For today, in this blog, I'm just going to post a video of more Ron Paul Revolution craziness.  First, they get a blimp.  Now they have the longest limousine in the world.

Fox In Damage Control Mode

There is no denying the Ron Paul effect.  It's powerful and people looking for advertising dollars know this.  Even Fox Propaganda News knows this now.  That had to be tough on them.  Tougher still is the conundrum they find themselves in.  They are still a business and the number of viewers they have is an important number when selling advertising slots.  The question for Fox is how to get Ron Paul on their network without letting him point out how stupid the 5 NeoCon candidates are.  They'd have better luck trying to prove that Britney Spears is a fit mother.

You may remember that Fox didn't allow Ron Paul to participate in the last debate.  I know I remember that.  Some interesting things came out of that.  I mentioned many of them before but what I didn't know at the time was that CNN was going to rerun a debate against Fox's non-Paul debate.  The rocket scientists that first aired the CNN debate put it up against NFL play offs.  Apparently, in the second airing, the debate with Ron Paul had more viewers than the brand new debates sans Ron Paul.

Fox must have seen the light and dollar signs and invited Ron Paul to the next debate.  They had to craft the debate in a way that would allow him to participate but showcase that he's not a viable candidate.

It backfired.

The Hypocrisy Heard Round The World

The results from the New Hampshire primary have gone around the world and come back.  The verdict, based on comments on websites from people claiming to be non-US citizens?

How can America use its military to force democracy on other countries when it's own elections are being rigged?

Good question.

We are "encouraging" democracy in the rest of the world and we even send officials to other countries to monitor their elections to make sure it's all on the up and up.  We have even invalidated some elections because they appeared to be fixed.

Where are the officials that are supposed to be watching over our own elections?  Maybe we could invite Iraqi officials to oversee our elections to make sure they are done fairly.

Our TV media is still trying to ram the "how can the polls be so wrong?" line down our throats.  Is anyone buying it?  I'm not.  It's not just about protesting too much but I'm also unconvinced because they aren't even considering that the polls were correct and maybe the vote results are wrong.  They could even downplay the whole thing and wonder if maybe some sort of "mistake" had been made.  One thing that I have learned about the media from this election is that whenever there is only one side of the story, there are definitely two sides of the story and it's in my best interest to go looking for that second side so I know the truth.

Where as, I think that a recount should be called for based solely on principle, I understand why Obama and Paul won't ask.  In Obama's case, it might make him out to be just as much of a crybaby as his opponent.  In Ron Paul's case, it might look petty trying to fight for 4th place and a waste of money that's better used to press on for the next election.  He has been very frugal with all the money we have sent him.  4th place won't even get him a stuffed animal so why spend the money?

It's not a done deal though.  At least not for Ron Paul.

A Terrible Way to Figure Out Who Won

A district in New Hampshire has come forward to say that they put a zero on the official form for Ron Paul's vote count when he actually had votes.  They say that it was due to "human error".  Before I get to my point of figuring out who won, let me just point something out.

Ron Paul received 10% of the vote in Iowa.  It's highly likely that he would do as well or better in New Hampshire.  It's beyond all levels of believability that he would get zero votes.  That stretches the boundaries of imagination past Hawking-esque proportions. 

Knowing this, I'm going to have to throw the bullshit flag (similar motion as the yellow flag from American football) on the "human error" explanation.

If I'm the person writing down the official numbers that I'm sending in to help decide who the next President of the United States is going to be and I got to a name that pulled in 10% in the previous Caucus and I was told to write down a zero, I would be apt to respond with:

"Zero?  Are you sure?  Not a single vote.  Maybe we better double check this before we send this in."

Seriously.  Not because I'm a Ron Paul supporter but because any candidate that's running with the pack is probably going to get a couple votes.  Giuliani was supposed to do poorly but if you told me that he got zero, I'd be scratching my head.  Zero?  Really?  I'd like to see the votes please.

Now, on to the point.

I Know Why Ron Paul Is So Popular With Grass Roots and Bloggers - Part 1

You'll hear a lot of reason why Ron Paul is really catching on with people despite the Old Media trying their darnedest to keep people from hearing the message.

Ron Paul said that the idea of Freedom, Peace, and Liberty is powerful and that's what's driving this powerful social movement.

He's right that it's a powerful message but he's wrong about it causing his popularity.

Some people point to the fact that 70% of Americans want to bring the troops home and Ron Paul is the strongest candidate on ending the Iraq occupation and future invasions.

They are right that Americans want to end the war and that Ron Paul is the best candidate to actually do that but they are wrong about this being the cause of his popularity.

Others say that the US economy is tanking and Ron Paul either understand how economies work better than other candidates or if they do understand, Ron Paul is willing to take the actions that will fix the economy.

Spot on again with the observation in general but absolutely wrong about why he's so popular.

If you want the real answer, read on.

Fox News Promotes Ron Paul

I haven't covered the Fox News Forum debacle much because it's something that has actually been getting coverage from the Old Media.  Ron Paul has become such a factor in this election that Fox has abandoned any illusion of subtlety.  Ron Paul is real.  The exclusion from the forum proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt.  With no better strategy at hand, they chose to just not allow Ron Paul to participate.

This is, in my opinion, the best thing that could have happened for Ron Paul and Fox News.

For Fox, it stripped away all pretense for the world to see.  Most everyone within earshot of a TV knew that Fox's mottos of "Fair and Balanced," and "You Decide," were pure crap.  Still, Fox News was able to pretend to be a newscaster.  Those days are gone now.  They overplayed their hand this time.  They should have let Ron Paul participate and tried to keep him from getting much airtime.  I think the Forum format might have made that difficult (I don't know because I didn't watch it) so they panicked and didn't let Ron Paul participate.

The New Hampshire Republican party withdrew it's support from the event because Fox News was no longer supporting Republicans.  Everyone knows that Fox is against the Democrats, no secret.  Now, it appears they also are against Republicans.  The only party that Fox supports is the NeoCon party. 

By not allowing Paul and Hunter to take part, Fox News announced as loudly as possible that they are not a news source but a propaganda mouthpiece for the NeoCons.

And they did Ron Paul a big favor.

Success Warrior Diet Program: P90X Journal (Cruise Plan Days 161 - 155)

Disclaimer: P90X is tough and you should be in decent shape before going all out using this system.  You could certainly use P90X to get fit but listen to your body and only do what you can.  This is *my* journal and I do not advocate that anyone do what I'm doing.  Some of it is probably very foolish and you should do your own research and/or consult with a doctor before doing crazy stuff like this.

Day 161:  I weighed myself this morning.  I didn't want to because I knew just from my clothes that I was back where I started but I couldn't keep an honest journal without weighing in each week.  I timidly stepped on the scale hoping that by stepping lightly, I wouldn't weigh as much.  If it worked, it didn't show.

206 pounds.  That's worse than when I did P90X last time.  I could be incredibly fat in a big hurry if I would let myself.  It would be so easy physically.  Mentally, it would be torture but if I could get past that, I think the fat would flow right on to my body.

Since that's not going to happen, I actually followed through as best I could with my plan.

As is the norm, the truth was in the middle

Let's start with the bad news:

Much to the chagrin of the Ron Paul supporters, their man didn't take #1.  He didn't even take #3 or #4.  He was 5th.  Not a distant fifth.  He was close enough that he almost tied for 3rd with Thompson and McCain.  Bad news but not terrible.

Hunter, Gravel, and Kucinich pretty much got the big donut.  That's terrible news.  For Ron Paul to be in a dead heat with two "front runners" is not anything close to the end of a campaign.

The other bad news is that Huckabee won.  Not because Huckabee is such a slimy character that he actually makes look Mitt like he has scruples but in spite of that fact.  He's a media construct, composed of fake fame, and in spite of people knowing his true nature, the Old Media was still able to give him the #1 spot in Iowa.  This is bad news.  Despite the power of the Internet and the obvious manipulation of political information by TV "news", the Old Media still pulled it off.  It's very telling of the power they still hold and bad news for Americans, not just Ron Paul supporters.

Now let's get to the good side of things:

Can You Smell the Fear?

Today is the day when we find out the answer to the age old question: Will Internet support produce actual votes?

Anyone who has gotten online knows the answer already.  The real question is: How many votes will Ron Paul get compared to the other candidates?

The most optimistic of Ron Paul supporters think he'll be #1 because the Ron Paul people have outnumbered everyone else at everything else.  It's hard to fight that logic except that some of the other candidates will be renting buses to haul voters to caucus.  You know they are scrambling today to find some way to put a showing against Ron Paul.

I suppose that's the funniest part of this whole thing.  According to the Old Media, Mitt and Huckabee are fighting each other for the number one spot.  In reality, they have people out begging voters to come out so they can try to challenge Ron Paul's numbers.  It must be hard each day to watch the Old Media lie about how strong your support is while you desperately try to find people to come vote.

The Old Media has started trying to cover itself by saying that Ron Paul could surprise people today.  Only people who don't have access to the Internet are going to be surprised.  Anyone who has even briefly looked into Ron Paul knows that he has an immense support base that blows all other candidates out of the water.

Not that the Obsomedia has given up the fight yet.

Top 10 Coaching Tips for New Year's Resolutions

This blog is unlike most of the Coaching blogs that I visit because I don't discuss coaching much or give out self-help tips.  Right now, if you care to look around, you can find a million tips (or the same 10 tips on 10,000 sites) on how to keep your New Year's resolutions.  I wasn't going to jump on the bandwagon but I've changed my mind. 

First, let me explain why my coaching website is unlike many other coaching websites.

The number one answer on the board is that I write about what I find interesting at the time.  That isn't to say that coaching isn't interesting, it's incredibly interesting to the people involved.  Beyond writing about personal finance, I haven't hit an aspect of coaching that is as interesting to people as P90X, cop stories, and the Ron Paul Revolution (regardless of your personal politics, the social movement vs. the media's attempt at control is very interesting).  I've said it before and I'll repeat here for new readers.  I write this blog for my entertainment and do it in a public forum in case other people find it interesting too.

The number two answer on the board is that people value free information at the same level that they paid to get it.