Success Warrior: Alan B. Rowley II - Beachbody.com, P90X, Voluntaryism, Voluntarism

Disc Golf Evolution and Life

My brother and I played the course near his home on Thursday.  A switch in plans made necessary by a babysitter glitch.  It turned out to be a very surprising day.  This is the only course we played last year and the first course that we played this year, near the end of June.  Now, near the end of August, we don't look like the same players from two months ago.  We don't keep actual score, which is unfortunate.  Instead we just keep track of where we are in relationship to the other guy.  If I had to take a guess, I would say that I have taken at least 9 strokes off my game for this course.  I'm going to tell you, as best as I can, how that happened and then, as a bonus, I'll relate it all to life for my readers that don't give a rat's ass about disc golf.

1.  I changed my discs.  I bought a bunch of different kinds of discs, took them to a football field, and chucked them over and over to see how they all flew.  If you have friends that are discers, you could borrow discs to reduce the price of the learning curve.  I just read about different discs and tried the ones that I thought would help me out.  Some did.  Some didn't.  Some are in my bag.  Some are collecting dust on my shelf.  If anyone wants a 175g Innova Champion Groove or a 171 g Innova Star Monster or Discraft Xpress (unknown weight), let me know and I'll send you the one you want.

2.  My favorite driving disc (a 166g Innova Viking), I ended up with on accident.  I threw my 175g Innova Star Destroyer on a really crappy drive.  I threw what I thought was the same disc for my second shot and it was a much better throw.  When I picked up the disc for the third shot, I realized that it wasn't mine.  I hiked back and found my disc to finish the basket.  When I started practicing on the football, I found that the Viking flew the best for my style of throwing.  And yes Mark, had the owner put his info on the Viking, I would have gotten it back to him.

3.  I changed my grip.  I didn't want to change my grip but if I was going to compete with my brother, I had to give up the familiar and try a disc golf grip.  I tried several and ended up with a two finger grip.  I still use my fan grip when I'm closer and want to take better aim but my driving is all done with my new grip and it has probably added a minimum of 50 feet to my drives and sometimes a lot more (usually when I don't want a lot more).

4.  I played several different course this summer.  New courses, new looks, new challenges.  Trees, elevation, water, 100 degree weather, blisters, and lots of very nice people.  By playing different courses, I was forced to try different kinds of shots.  I've thrown hyzers, anhyzers, tomahawks, skip shots, forehands (some that were incredibly crappy), and whole bunch of weird positions like kneeling, splits, and just about facing the wrong direction.  Most of the weird shots weren't very good but some were surprising and all of them were a great experience.

5.  I played against my brother, which was equal parts fun and challenging.  This last time out, he still won 2 out of 3 rounds but they are always close.  If he wasn't better at driving than I was at the beginning of this season, I wouldn't have felt compelled to get better.  Now we are talking about entering tournaments so we can find people better than us to play against, while still having fun.

6.  Having nothing to do with the game itself but just a bit of trivia for you that I found out after our last series.  If you drink copious amounts of Blueberry-Pomegranate G2 Gatorade, the next day your poop will be an alien-esqe neon green that pretty much glows in the dark.  Try it and see.

All of these things added up to a much improved game and provide lessons that can be used in any area in life:

1.  Try different tools.  Read different books.  Get a different perspective.  Find objects that truly make you better and more efficient and get rid of the rest.  It's not about having the most discs in your bag, it's about having the right discs in your bag.  Don't be afraid to try something new and give it away if it doesn't work out for you. 

2.  Some of the best things that happen in life happen by "accident".  I don't believe in accidents but some great things can happen without conscious planning.  Be aware of those opportunities and don't be afraid to try something new that happens across your path.  It may be just what you needed.

3.  Try different approaches.  Read books, watch videos, read magazines, talk to people.  Learn different ways of doing what you're doing and see if a new way feels more right for you.  Don't get locked into a pattern out of ego or complacency.  You lose nothing by giving a new approach a shot.  The old way will still be there to fall back on if nothing works out but my guess is that you'll find something that at least tweaks the old way to be a little bit better.

4.  Go to new places.  Get out of your comfort zone once in a while.  New experiences create more experience.  You don't have to do great at it.  You just have to try something new.  It's about fun, learning, adventure, and breaking out of patterns.  You may find that your comfort zone is more interesting when you return and you may find yourself returning there less often.

5.  Travel the path with people that will make the journey fun and watch for people that will challenge you to be a better person.  Fill your life with both kinds.  In some things, they may be the same people.  In other things, you may have fun people for some activities and challenging people for others.  They make the journey worthwhile.

6.  You're bound to see some weird shit from time to time.

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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Snippets

You may have noticed that I have taken a few days off from my blogging.  If you didn't notice, I'm hurt. 

My schedule has been changed and it has thrown me out of my groove, which is okay because I've thought about blogging and more specifically, is there anything I want to do with this blog.  Should it have some kind of purpose or topic.  After giving it some thought, I decided that my topics would be more heavily weighted toward fitness, much much less to politics, some journal entries, more humor, and disc golf until it gets too cold.  So really, nothing is going to be changing from what I've been doing lately.

Today is just going to be some short catch up topics and previews:

My replacement Vibrams are already on their way back to me.  Hassle free.  My hope is that the toe blowout was a freak accident and not an inherent quality of the shoe. 

Speaking of blowouts, my right sandal bit the dust on the way back from walking Trey to school today.  They were old and I'll probably have to pick up a replacement pair today.  I can't go without any summer shoes.  No Vibrams.  No sandals.  No way.  I can't imagine wearing shoes and socks except when necessary.

Luckily, I am heading into civilization today for a bit of disc golf.  My brother and I were planning on trying some new courses today but we've run into a snag so we'll be playing his local course this week, Logan and Brigham next week, and Pocatello the week after that.  We're trying to get in as many rounds as we can before it turns cold.  I watched a couple of videos of people playing disc golf in the snow and I just don't think I could bring myself to do it, as much as I hate my hands being cold.

Although I'm cutting way back on the political talk, I will have to do a couple of posts here and there.  One of which is going to be about all the surveys that I'm getting from the Republican Party.  They are amping up for the elections and are trying to find out what I think about the direction of their party and the evil Democrats.  My first answer to their question is: Do you really want to know what I think?  Really?

Here's a quick snippet from a phone survey (not from the Republicans) about the Nevada governor race.  I was supposed to choose between raising taxes on just the evil mining companies or raising taxes on everyone equally.  I voted for "not raising taxes on anyone".  Yeah, that wasn't a choice.  I chose not to answer the question.  Mining companies have lobbied very well in Nevada and kept their taxes very low compared to everyone else and now that the state is strapped for cash, they are looking to tap that source.  The choice is obviously rigged.  Raise taxes on you or on some faceless mining company?

For those that have expressed interest in my workouts, I'm hoping to start recording them next week and then getting them up on this blog within a couple of weeks.  I'm trying to rearrange my room to allow for easy video-ing with minimal exposure to the participants that don't want to be on camera.  I'm also going to create shorter videos explaining individual exercises.

I noticed on our walk to school today that when kids are old enough to walk to school by themselves, they do.  If they aren't old enough to walk to school, the parents drive them. 

Here's something that I forgot about until today.  CapitalOne has tried a creative new approach to correct their poor choices in the past.  They (and pretty much everyone else) gave out credit cards to everyone with a pulse during the housing bubble.  Didn't matter if these people could pay or not.  Pick a card, any card.  Now, of course, without the ability to tap the ATM formerly known as the Home Refi, people are defaulting en masse on their credit cards.  To make up for this, CapitalOne raised my interest rate from 7% to 18%.  No fault of mine.  I don't usually use a credit card but we put a medical bill and a car maintenance bill on there so we didn't have to tap our savings.  So, of course, before the new interest rate went into effect, we paid off the card.  I'm sure that everyone else that's in our situation will do the same.  How driving away your good customers works into a sound business plan, I'll never know.

College starts next week.  I'm already looking forward to the end of the semester.

Yes Mark, that part of my blog won't be changing either.

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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Go Bees!

As you can see by this picture, we were down close to first base.  Nice.  As you can also see from this picture, there weren't a lot of people on the third base side.  If you ever want great seats at a baseball game, go to a game in Utah on Sunday when all the Mormons are in church.  Shorter lines in the beer concessions too, which is hypocritical weird.  I didn't have beer.  I had ice cream.  Short line there too.

We started the day by driving 4 miles out of town before realizing that the tickets were still back on the table at home.

"I thought you got them."

"I thought you got them."

So, we made a quick turn-around, which was lucky because the next exit is 36 miles down the road.  You know, there's not a lot of reason to get off the road on the Salt Flats. 

Back home and off again and a couple of hours of driving across the most barren landscape on the planet, we met with a couple of friends (Ron and Lisa) for lunch at PF Chang's.  I showed Trey the secret to using chopsticks.  Pick one up and stab the food with it like a fork with only one tine.  Worked like a charm.  My 3 years of living in Japan did not go to waste.  I can say "mushi mushi" and can stab crisp honey chicken with a chopstick.  Not that I know what "mushi mushi" means but I can say it.

We ordered enough food to feed a small Asian island and then I did my damndest to make sure that no "to go" boxes would be needed.  No point to "to go" boxes when you live in the middle of a god-forsaken desert.  By the time the game is over and you've driven home for a couple of hours, the food is suspect.

If you aren't allergic to seafood, I highly recommend the crisp honey shrimp over the crisp honey chicken.  We didn't order them both today but as of today, I have tried them both and the shrimp is hands and lots of little tiny legs above the chicken.

From there, we drove to the ballpark formerly known as Franklin Covey field and is now called something like Spring Mobile field or something.  Times must be hard for Franklin Covey.  There must not be much call for day-planners for the unemployed. 

"Let's see, what's on the agenda for today?  Ahhh, find a job.  Good thing I penciled that in or I might have forgotten."

We watched a very good game where the lead changed a couple of times and was tied a couple of innings and the home team came away as the winners by 1 run.  Trey enjoyed the game much better this year, probably because he's a year older and we went to a matinee game.  He really liked it and he finally high-fived the mascot (who he has been afraid of since we started going to the game).

You need to check out my pictures on Facebook to see the chief (Ron) sitting next to the mascot like they are best buds (link a the bottom of this post).

After the game, was the long trip home, where it's really hard to have too much compassion for Trey when he whines about "what can I do?" for the 2 hour trip.  He has a DVD player, a Nintendo DS, and some cars.  When I was a kid, I had nothing at all.  Nothing.  Watch out the window, tease siblings, or sleep.  That was the choices.  Trey ended up playing some game that comes as part of the Shrek 2 DVD.  How rough is that?

Summer is coming to a close and we've had a great time.  We made a list of things that we wanted to do this summer and we have done most of them plus a few.  This has to have been the best summer we've had since Trey was born. 

He's sound asleep now and tomorrow is his first day of kindergarten.  Can you believe it?  My little boy is starting school and my second daughter is starting her senior year.  It's absolutely amazing how quickly they grow up.  I've been reminiscing lately about Trey's birth day.  Maybe I'll share that tomorrow.

Have a great night!

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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Charlie Brown's Kite Eating Tree . . .

is omnivorous.

Can you see the bit of blue glinting in the son about 12 feet up in this disk golf eating tree?  Bastard!  Got my disk on 2 out of 3 rounds but I'm getting ahead of myself on this story.

The story starts at six in the morning when I did my killer intense ab workout.  What does that have to do with my disk golf story?  Nothing really but how many people can say that they did 60 minutes of super intense ab work at six in the freaking morning.  I'm still going to try and tie this back into the story, if for nothing else but for the chance to say that I worked my abs like crazy (at 6 in the morning, you know).

Anyway, after a shower and breakfast I was on the road to Solitude, which sounds like a slow, boring movie about some guy who loses his family to tragedy and has to find a new life for himself.  Road to Solitude starring Tom Hanks.  Look for it this Christmas.  Warning, it's a chick flick.

I arrived at Solitude only to find out that they are having a disk golf tournament that will span 3 days and there isn't any open play until about 3:30.  I have to be on the road by then so Solitude is out.  Damn you Tom Hanks!

Speaking of which, Tom Hanks ran out of gas about 20 miles out of Wendover last week.  It made the local paper.  The local tow truck fixed the problem, free of charge.

When my brother showed up, we made the command decision to try the course at the University of Utah.

"You know where that is?" I asked.

"Nope."

"I was hoping to follow you."

"Guess I'm following you," he said.

So I lead and quickly got on the phone with Tia.  It reminded me of a scene out of Criminal Minds where they call the computer geek, "Baby Girl", on the phone while they are desperately trying to find the serial killer before he kills again.  Coming out of the canyon even added to the suspense as I lost cell coverage and the phone went dead.

"Nooooooooooooo!" I screamed picturing the poor girl being buried alive while I drove aimlessly around cursing my luck.  Then I remembered that I was just trying to find a disk golf course on a college campus and that I knew where the campus was so all was not lost.

"If you can hear me, I'll call you when I'm out of the canyon."

Tia did her best to guide me in despite the fact that Salt Lake city has made the street signs small enough that you can't actually read them until you are right under them, going straight, while Baby Girl is saying, "That's the street that you want to take a right on."

Damn you Tom Hanks!

A little zig through construction and a zag back up the hill put us in the area.

"You should be there," she said.

I pulled into a parking lot and we looked around.  We were, in fact, as close as we could be since the road that went to the course was also under construction.  You know the joke right?  The two seasons in Utah?  Winter and Construction.

It was near 100 degrees so my disk bag actually had more Gatorade in it than disks.  I would end up drinking all of them plus a couple more that I had in the cooler in the car when I got back.

Let me tell you the cool part of the day.  I was actually out-driving my brother.  There were several factors why this might have happened:

1. I changed my grip, dropping my long-beloved Ultimate fan grip and going with a two-finger grip that gives the disk much more speed leaving my hand.
2. I changed my main driving disk.  I was using a Destroyer and I changed to a Viking.  I still like the Destroyer for shots that I need to keep near the ground but my Viking just absolutely sails.
3. My brother seemed to be struggling from basket to basket.  Something in his game has changed and he wasn't sure what it was (not that it stopped him from beating me 2 to 1, in a best of 3 rounds day).
4. I did 60 minutes of killer ab work at six in the morning, giving me that much more power on my throw.  Hulk Smash!

So, it was about 100 degrees and we started playing around 11:30 and played for 3 hours. 

"Okay, here's the plan.  Let's wait until the hottest part of the day in the middle of August and then go throw Frisbees around on the dead grass that has been burned away from the blistering heat for three hours.  Ready?  Break!"

The good part about the plan was that we were the only fools out on the course.  Not that there were lots of people out there, all of whom were smarter than us, looking at us saying, "Look at those two fools."  Nope, other than the construction guys taking break under one of the few trees that offered shade, we were the only two people out there at all.  If you're willing to risk 3rd degree burns to your forehead, you can have the course all to yourself.

My brother won the first round and I played a really amazing second round, which included an ace (a hole in one) and my longest putt success ever.  I was on, despite the fact that I had a blister on my foot and my forehead was about to spontaneously ignite.  My brother wore a hat to protect his head.  Down to one fool on the course.

Like our other long days, the third round came down to stamina.  Who could be the least sloppy after playing for a couple of hours in 100 degree weather?  This is the round that you see in the picture at the top of this post.  Following this shot, I tried a forehand shot to finish getting to the basket.  I tried 3 forehand shots for the day and I'm usually pretty good at them for short to medium distance.  Today, I was as good at my forehand shot as the president is at bowling (except that I'm not going to mock the Special Olympians).  I threw my shot from this tree so that it landed under the next tree.  Under!  Under an evergreen.  I was able to throw a recovery shot from there that gave me an easy shot to the basket but all the baskets are Par 3 so it put me down one. 

By the end of the front 9, we were tied.  It stayed that way all the way to hole number 17, which is a basket with a slight right turn to it.  I put my drive into a tree.  Not the same tree but just as sadistic and did it such a way that my next shot was going to be a forehand shot.  Lovely.  That shot hit another tree.  It didn't go under the tree but it cost me a stroke and the game.

Up for next week are a couple of 9 basket courses: Utah State University in Logan and John Adams in Brigham. 

Is La Beau's still in business? 

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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Odd Bits

After less than 3 weeks, my Vibrams have failed.  The seam on the right big toe came unstitched.  I was at my moms working on her computer when I looked down and saw part of my big toe where I should distinctly not be seeing my big toe.  Not that I mind seeing my big toe, mind you.  We're on good terms but I shouldn't be able to see my big toe when wearing brand new shoes, even if they are a bit on the freakish side.

Tia said that she read a review from someone that had the same problem and the shoes were replaced without further problems.  I'm hoping that's true.  I absolutely love these shoes and hope that it's not a defect that happens to all of them. 

So, I'm wearing sandals again.

Tomorrow is another disk golf day at the Solitude ski resort.  This time, we are riding the ski lift, which technically will be a disk golf lift tomorrow.  I am hoping that a combination of riding the lift and *not* losing disks, we can play a couple of rounds.  It might be a little tight for me to get back for work but we'll see what happens. 

The whole "not losing disks" thing is going to be the tough part.  We probably spent an hour looking for disks last time.  With a bit more control, maybe we can cut that down.  It is an incredibly tree-ey course.  One slipped disk and you're searching through trees and brush for 15 minutes. 

After talking to my adviser, I've changed my major so that I come out on the other side as an English teacher.  I might have to learn the language more better now.  I was hoping to avoid that but it seems like the best way to go. 

I'm taking 16 credits this next semester.  It's going to be a little bit crazy, I think, but worth it in the end.  Between police work and the casino, I haven't had weekends off for about 20 years.  I'm ready to get in sync with Tia and Trey and I'm disappointed that I'm just starting now because it's going to take me nearly 3 years to get through school (including student teaching).

I'll be taking my camera tomorrow so I'll bring back pics.  I upload most of the pics on Facebook so friend me if you're interested in seeing them.

I had something else to say but it has escaped the loose confines of my mind.  It was probably the most important note of the day and now it's gone. 

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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Investing in a Lie

I've done a couple of posts in the last couple of weeks (in one way or another) about the ineffectiveness of statin drugs.  I just read another article quoting a couple more studies showing that statins don't reduce the chance of suffering from some sort of heart problem down the road.  There may be some benefit for people under 65 years of age that have already had a heart attack.  For the rest of the millions on statins, at best they are taking a placebo and at worst, they are taking a drug that will increasetheir chance of heart problems because statins interfere with the body's uptake of CoQ10 (which does actually help protect against heart disease).  Statins are the number 1 selling drug in the world and, in fact, a few years ago there was a movement started to try and put everyone in the country on a wonder drug that included all the top selling drugs in small doses.  This wonder drug would include statins.  Luckily, that movement has gone silent.

Anyway, the evidence coming out on statins got me thinking about what the view from the other side was like.

First, I think that statins were probably created for good reason.  I don't think that the pharmacy companies created this false drug knowing it was false.  For a long time, there was a belief that high cholesterol caused heart problems.  Now, of course, science is moving toward high cholesterol and heart problems being symptoms of something else (sugar and a sedentary life are high on the list of possibilities).  They created statins to combat what was seen as the problem but now what do they face?

1.  Last time I checked Lipitor was the #1 selling drug in the world.  If you're Pfizer, do you go out and shoot your cash cow in the head just because it doesn't work? 

2.  If and when the tie between statins causing heart problems gets strong enough, we're going to see attorney ads on TV like we did for Vioxx and Phen-Fen.  "Are you or have you been taking statin drugs like Lipitor?  Have you had heart problems?  Call now and get in on the class action suit." 

In trying to reverse the thinking, not all of the blame can be laid on Big Pharma.  Would the following conversation be hard to imagine?

Doctor: Well Mr. Smith, it looks like your cholesterol is up, VLDL is up, and blood pressure is a bit high.  You're heading for a heart attack.  What you'll need to do is lift weights 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week, and cut grains and sugar out of your diet so we can control the insulin response in your body.

Smith: Grain and sugar.  Is that like, pizza and beer?

Doctor:  Well, yeah.  You need to eat real food and lots of vegetables if we're going to bring your cholesterol down.

Smith:  Isn't there a pill or something that you can prescribe?

Doctor:  The FDA recalled statins because they actually increased your chance of a heart attack but you could certainly supplement with Ubiquinol.

Smith:  Can I take Ubiquinol and still eat pizza and beer?

No doubt, Pfizer and the others will be publishing reports on how statins don't increase heart problems but the bottom line is that if it turns out that statins are dangerous, the truth will eventually get out to the corporate media and become common knowledge.  Big Pharma is probably hoping to hang in there long enough to find a different drug to take statins exalted place at the top.  High cholesterol is an integral part of the western lifestyle and they are going to be looking for a way to make money on that.

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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A Common Misunderstanding about National Health Care

I was ready to move on from the health care debate because quite frankly, nothing I say is going to change anything.  Obama has promised that it's going to pass no matter what.  It's too important to his pocket bookfor the health of the nation to not pass it just because people don't want it.  He has also managed to hook a lot of people with the "you can't be denied" and the whole pre-existing conditions things.  Big sellers and I'm sure that we're going to hear a lot more about these.  I know that people are parroting them to me and this brings me to the point that needs to pointed out. 

Having a health insurance plan doesn't mean that your medical bills are going to be paid. 

I know.  I have insurance.  In fact, I'm in that magic land of being double covered (even though I tried to cancel one of my plans but I was denied - if you know why I was denied the ability to *not* have insurance, you probably don't need to read the rest of this post).

Having insurance, I can tell you that not everything is covered.  In fact, each year, less and less is covered while premiums go up.  Insurance companies are expanding their denial of claims departments because it's cheaper to pay people to say "no" than it is to cover medical expenses for people. 

This is the point that I want people to understand going into this.

Now, you may argue that *some* coverage is better than no coverage. 

The only thing I can say to that is: at what cost?

Using a gun to force people that can afford it to pay for health insurance is going to drive the price of insurance up. 

One of the market controls on price is that fact that you can opt out.  If a H3 costs more money than I'm willing to pay, I don't buy one.  If GM fails to make their sales quota, they'll drop the price.  If everyone in the country had to buy an H3 (whether they wanted or needed one) and the government was going to take the money from people by force and pay the sticker price for anyone that couldn't afford an H3, the price would not go down, it would go up.  No one can opt out.  GM doesn't have to find the balance point between supply and demand. 

In the last article I read on the health care bill, Congress was going to put a cap on how much insurance companies could raise their premiums.  Something like 1.5% a year. 

You have to do this, right?  When you make it compulsory to have an insurance program, the price can be set as high as the insurance companies want and you can't say no.  To combat the fact that market forces have been taken out of the pricing structure and have been replaced by Congressional whim (swayed by billions of dollars in lobbying money), you have to set some kind of artificial price. 

Still, the insurance companies are private, for-profit, companies.  Since they can't deny anyone based on health, they have to control costs in some other fashion.  One of those tactics will be an increase in the denial of payment.  These companies can operate at a loss for only so long.  The only company that can afford to take a loss forever (or at least until the Empire crumbles) is the one that can print its own money.  Insurance companies can't print their own money so this leaves a few choices if their profits go down.

The first is what I've already covered.  They reduce what they will accept as valid claims.  The deny payment.  They reduce the amount of money going out.

Should the people raise enough outrage (or should it be an election year), Congress might step in and pass legislation on what the insurance companies have to cover.  If they do this, insurance companies will have Congress include a raise in premiums well about 1.5% to cover the new rules in what they have to pay out.

If Congress doesn't approve the increase in premiums, insurance companies will just close up shop and create some new type of business outside the bounds of the health care bill.  Congress wouldn't let that happen, especially during an election year, so the premiums would be increased.

This brings us back to the question that I have been asking for several years now, every time Congress passes some massive spending bill or increases troops in some poor illegally occupied country.

Where does the money come from?

The country is bankrupt.  The government doesn't have enough money to fund its current outrageous expenses.  Social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the maintenance of a world Empire are beyond Congresses ability to pay.  The government is borrowing and printing money at an unsustainable rate.

That un-sustainability is probably what is triggering this frenzied string of bail outs and stimulus plans.  The American Empire is showing signs of collapse and those at the top are trying to get everything they can before it all comes crashing down.  This topic may have to get its own post in the future.

So, for those 50 million people with no coverage, whatever bill gets shoved down our throats in the end may be better than nothing, at least initially.  I accept that if you're fighting for scraps from the government, more power to you.  Call your Rep and beg them to get you "coverage".

For everyone else that wants to discuss Obamacare with me, don't confuse having an insurance policy with having coverage.  Don't think that just because you have a plan that your medical bills are going to be paid by the insurance fairy.  Go into this with your eyes open.

10 Sword Points for the first person that comments on why my company (which is self insured) won't let me drop my insurance plan with them.

***

Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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Obama is doing better than even I expected

Long time readers will remember a post that I wrote a couple of years ago where I stated that since my candidate was suffering from a media induced blackout, I hoped that Obama would win.  Not because I bought his "hope and change" bullshit for even a second.  A quick look at his voting record, campaign contributions, and support of W's programs was evidence that he had been bought off like all the rest. 

No, my hope was that people would believe in all his marketing mantras and that he would get into office and then show people that he was the same as the rest.  Washington D.C. business as usual.  Votes sold to the highest bidder.

And he has done a much better job than I could have imagined.  I thought he would string the American People along for a couple of years.  200 days into the job and he's out of the closet already.  His approval rating is plummeting and his push to give Big Insurance trillions of dollars at the expense of the American People (expense in both wealth and health) is going to really be his undoing.

He has promised that this deal is going to go through, no matter what opposition there is to it.  It appears that's true even if the opposition is from the American People. 

Not only has he gone above and beyond in showing how corrupt our government is, he has shown that our "democracy" is a complete con game.  We don't have a democracy.  Our representatives don't represent us.  They haven't for a long time.  I've been saying this for quite some time but now, because of Mr. Hope and Change, people are starting to realize that their votes for Republicans and Democrats are wasted. 

You don't get change by voting in the same ole, same ole.

Another great thing about Obama as president is that spin is losing its power.  People are turning to the Internets more now in search of the truth.  Democrats have tried to say that all the opposition at these health care town halls were organized by the Republicans.  People aren't buying it.  Too many people oppose this plan and not all of them are Republicans.  In fact, I haven't seen many articles about Republicans this go 'round.  On some of the issues, they have watched the public outrage and then jumped on board and then tried to pretend like they had been leading all the time.  This time, it's fairly quiet.

The fact that Obama used so many of sweet spots to get elected is actually working against him now.  People are watching more closely.  He made so many promises that the people wanted and now they are watching those key points to see if he'll deliver.

Had McCain been chosen to be president, people probably would have mumbled and grumbled about all these things (he would have been doing the exact same thing) but people would have expected that.  In Obama, we have this huge build up of HOPE for a change, for a government responsive to the will of the people, for transparency, for a government that cares about the people.  The build up was so huge that there is now a matching let down (let down is too soft of a word).  The dichotomy between what was promised and what is being delivered makes the whole situation more outrageous.

Instead of ending wars, he's looking to start more.  Instead of helping people, he's helping Wall Street.  Instead of transparency, there's more secrecy because if we knew what the government was doing with the bail out money, there would be instant riots.  What kinds of cars are being bought with the Cash for Clunkers money?  Don't ask the government, they aren't saying.  You know why?  People are buying Cadillacs and H3s that get 19 mpg.  So much for green.  We only know this because sales people have come forward to let us know.  This paragraph could go on and on with all the broken promises and I'm sure that somewhere on the net, there's a list of all of them (which at this point has to be just about everything Obama ever said - are there any promises left to break?).

Obama is doing his part and doing it beyond my expectations.

Now, we need the American People to do their part.  There's too much talk of the Pavlovian response to all this about voting Republicans back into office because the Democrats are screwing everything up.  How many times do we have to switch back and forth between the two sides of our single party system before people realize that they are exactly the same? 

When will people quit letting CNN, MSNBC, and FOX tell them who is a "viable" candidate?  When will people stop trying to vote for the one that is supposedly going to win (like there's a freakin' prize for guessing right!) and start actually voting for the one that they want?

How much pain is it going to take before people unplug from the system?

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My VFFs *are* my BFFs

No surprise here at all but the concern was the initial wearing didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked.  My concern when I put the Vibram Five Fingers on the first time was that the day before I had gone on a serious hikein a brand new pair of hiking boots.  I had a blister on my big toe and who knows what other damage had been done.  So, I let me feet heal up for the most part and tried the VFFs again this week.

Once again, I'll remind readers that Vibram recommends starting out easy when wearing these shoes.  Maybe an hour or two a day until you get used to them.  I did not bother with warning again because I don't see the need since I spend so much time without shoes.

Sunday, we went school shopping.  I wore the VFFs and took my sandals just in case things didn't work out. 

Many of the blogs that I read about VFFs before I bought them mentioned that people would just come up and comment on the weirdness of the shoes.  We went to several stores and to Chili's and no one paid any extra attention to my feet and no one made mention of the weirdness.  It's not something that would change whether or not I would wear them.  I don't care what other people think of my shoes and I'm not wearing them to get extra attention.  I'm wearing them because I think these will do what I want, protect my feet while giving me a minimalist feeling.

I wore them all day without any problems.  Never once thought about putting on my sandals.  I wore the VFFs for about 10 hours. 

Monday, I wore normal shoes to work and then switched into my VFFs when I got home.  I love that I feel like I'm barefoot but I can run outside to water the lawn, take the garbage out, or run to the store.  All of which I did plus I mowed the lawn too.  I did get some grass clippings inside the shoes.  Not enough that I noticed until I took them off. 

Tuesday was a work day and I switched into the VFFs again when I got home.  We went out to dinner to a new Chinese restaurant in town (which we won't be going back to anytime soon).  When we walked in, there was a sign that stated that they only take cash.  Under community pressure, they actually opened their doors before they were ready to be open so they aren't set up to take debit cards yet.  Our credit union (and free ATM) is only a block away so I decided to run there to get some cash while Tia and Trey had a seat and a drink.

Running is different.

You can't heel-strike.  The run to the ATM was awkward.  Crossing the road was uncomfortable.  I never noticed it before because I have been in a car or wearing conventional walking shoes when I've been on this road but it's really rocky.  Not loose rocks but it looks like they just poured rocks on the ground and poured tar over them.  Not foot friendly at all.  I was able to keep going without slowing down but only because I was just crossing the road.

On the run back, after crossing the rocky road, I seemed to find a stride that worked nicely.  If I was going to wear these for running, I would start on something softer than concrete and keep my mileage very low.  I don't know if I'm going to find any time for running anytime soon but since I'm a road runner, I'd probably stick with my New Balance shoes.  I might be tempted to try the VFFs on a track sometime but have no solid plans right now for that.

Today is not a work day and I have been wearing them all day. 

On a completely different subject, although I was wearing the VFFs, Trey and I went to the high school football field today for some sunshine and golf disk throwing.  They have marked the yard lines now so I was able to find out how far I can throw a disk.  I changed my throwing style today and my last time across the field, I was able to get two of my disks to fly over 270 feet.  That's not going to win any awards but it's probably an increase of 30 feet over what I have been throwing. 

Last time, I went throwing the disks in my VFFs, I ended up with a bit of skin worn off of my left heel.  Today, that didn't happen.  Last time, I ended up just going barefoot because we were just walking across the grass field back and forth.  Today, I kept the shoes on just to see if I got the heel-wear.  Nope.  Good to know for my next game of disk golf with my brother.

I have enjoyed the VFFs so much over the last few days that I told Tia that I'll be buying the cold weather variety when the weather changes.  Barefoot in the winter!  How cool is that?

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Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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Catch 44 of Statins

Statins are the number one drug sold in the world.  Statins are used to lower cholesterol. 

The first Catch 22 is something that I've already covered.  Cholesterol is the bodies healing response to inflammation in the body.  It's a good thing.  It's the inflammation that's the bad thing.

The best analogy that I have been able to think of to demonstrate what Big Pharma and doctors are trying to do is this: 

Say you went into the doctor's office with a sore throat, aches, pains, a fever, and lethargy.  The doctor returns and says, "Whew boy, your white count is off the charts!  I'm going to give you a prescription that will bring your white count back down into the normal range."

That's not what happens though.  Instead, they give you antibiotics to deal with the disease that is triggering the body's white count reaction.  48 hours later, you feel better.  10 days later and you're pretty much good to go (but you should start a round of probiotics to build your immune system back up).

The cool thing is that high cholesterol is usually caused by lifestyle so you don't even have to go to a doctor to fix it.  And you don't need to take statins for the rest of your life.

The second part of the Catch 22 is that CoQ10 has been proven to help prevent heart problems.  This is a good thing. 

The bad thing is that statins inhibit the body's ability to use CoQ10.  Research has shown that statins don't help people over the age of 65 (if I remember correctly) prevent heart attacks.  The drug that is supposed to help stop heart problems is actually part of the problem.  No surprise there.  Big Pharma runs such a huge con game that I'm no longer surprised when the truth comes out.

It will probably take years and years for the truth to get out to the masses.  There is so much misinformation to undo and the "live how you want -take a pill for the side effects" attitude of so many people to change.  You can drink Coke and eat Cheezy Puffs while watching Dancing with the Stars if you follow it up with a Lipitor. 

Or you could drink water and eat an apple and go dancing yourself and skip the Lipitor.

Tomorrow, I'll be doing a follow up post on my Vibram Five Fingers.  I've worn them for the last 3 days and need to report on how they feel now.

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Remember, I'm going to be funding my return to college by being an affiliate of BeachBody.com products so please visit the site and make a purchase, no matter how small.  Insanity has been released so go check it out.

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