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

Mute Math

While we were waiting in line to meet the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on Tuesday night, a chatty woman who almost goes to more concerts than me and I do security for the dang things suggested that I check out Mute Math.  She bought Alanis Morisette tickets once because Mute Math was opening for her.  She drives all over the country going to concerts.

I told her that I would check out Mute Math and I have done that.  I watched a video on YouTube which was cool because all the action is backwards but the singing is frontwards.  I can't embed it so go check it out yourself: Typical by Mute Math

I'm listening to their self titled CD now.  It's okay.  Probably not something that I will be coming back to listen to again but I enjoy listening to music that I've never heard before. 

Don't forget to take my presidential poll.

CNN Republican Debate: Who Is Ron Paul?

We ended up getting a little bit of a late start to come home so I missed the first 30 minutes of the debate.

"I wouldn't say that I really miss it," - Office Space

Tia sat down and watched some of it with me but eventually decided to go do homework.

"Ron Paul never gets to talk," she said as she was leaving the room.  She doesn't follow politics very closely but since I've been talking about Ron Paul so much, she wanted to see what the guy had to say.  She never found out.

It seemed like the questions and responses went to candidates in about this order:

Does Anyone Else Find This Odd?

Even now, mainstream media states that Ron Paul's ideas are radical. 

Ron Paul believes that our country is based on a supreme law called the Constitution and that the government should abide by that law.  He has pointed out many places where the government has broken the law and says that we should bring the government's actions back into compliance with the law.  He states that if there is something in the law that we don't like, we should change the law and make Amendments rather than just break the law.

For this, his ideas are called radical.

What does that say about our country, our government, and our media when following the law is considered a radical idea?

Don't forget to take my presidential poll.

Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 10

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

Monday morning, I went to work in plain clothes.  The chief took me out to breakfast at Denny's. 

Have you ever had the feeling that everyone is looking at you?  I have.  That morning at Denny's.  Most of the people were probably travelers and had no clue who I was but that didn't stop me from thinking that they were all looking at me.

We had breakfast and then went back to the office.  I don't remember what I did that day or the next.  I was in plain clothes and probably just hung out in the office doing nothing but killing time.

I do remember what happened Monday night after I was home.

Commentary for November 26th, 2007

How about some awards today?

The award for the candidate that hasn't learned an incredibly valuable lesson yet.  Envelope please.

Hillary Clinton, with this beautiful comment on how she would fix the Social Security problem:

"I don't think I should be negotiating about what I would do as president. You know, I want to see what other people come to the table with."

Even after taking quite a bit of heat about not being able to take a stance, she continues complete ambivalence.  I don't know about you but this statement says to me, "I have no clue how to be president so I'm going to see what my opponents say, take a poll of likely voters to see which idea they like the best, and then I'll say what I'll do."

"If I was president, I would . . ." is a staple in a candidates vocabulary and it should be.  Maybe Bill will make all the decisions for her between blow jobs.

Success Warrior Diet Program: P90X and Turbo Jam (Week Ending 11/24/07)

Disclaimer: This P90X review is just one guy's journey through 90 days to see what happens.  Your results will probably be different based on any number of things (diet, intensity, other activities) and you should be healthy enough for hard workouts before you start this program.

11/18: I got up this morning and managed to put a DVD in through blurry eyes.  I chose Turbo Jam's Learn and Burn so I could get a sense of what I was getting myself into. 

The first ten minutes goes through the 11 key moves, Chalene calls them, in slow motion so you can learn them.  After that, you do about 16 minutes at a faster pace that covers the moves so that you get a sense of what they are like at normal speed.  It's lots of punches and kicks, while crunching your abs.  I think it's going to be fun.  I want to try one of the full speed workouts tomorrow.

I was going to do a weight circuit after lunch but did yard work and packed up some of the things in my office instead.  It wasn't exactly exercise but it was necessary. 

I've gone back to my clean diet.  I needed to.  I've put some fat back on my gut and I'm not going to let that go unchecked.  I still have until June to get into the best shape that I can.  I'm going to be doing my version of P90X doubles as many days as time allows.  I want to get back to where I was when I hurt my throat and then blow right past that and see if I can find my abs.  =)

Commentary for November 24th, 2007

Very short post for this blog today because Trey, Tia, and I are going to go play in the park because a weather reprieve.

NHasks.org has put out ads in newspapers asking all the presidential candidates to answer a set of questions.  The public then gets a chance to rate the answers based on straightforward, truthful, and responsive the answers are.

I think this is a beautiful thing.  Candidates are encouraged to actually answer the questions without double-talk, hyperbole, and innuendo.  They are still free to be vague if they would like but they will obviously get ranked down.

So far, only Ron Paul has answered the questions.

I can just see the campaigns of some of the other candidates where debates are going on to decide if they should even take part and if they do take part, how should they answer, and who should write up those answers.

Take a look and check back often to see if any of the other candidates are willing to take a stance.

Don't forget to take my presidential poll.

Meme: Lifelines

I have to get going to the store.  We have a family party today and I have been asked to bring my football dip (a chili queso kind of concoction) so we need to get up to the store and then get back to make it so we can get to the party and eat way-way too much.

So I'm doing an easy to answer meme from Friday 5 today.

If you were on a game show and could phone a friend for help, who would your lifelines be for sports, arts & music, literature, history and geography, and science?

Sports: my brother-in-law Michael.  We were playing a game at a family party a while back and came across a sports question about women's soccer.  He was in another room watching football so we just yelled the question to him and he yelled the answer back and he was right.
Arts & Music: tough one, probably go with my dad by default.
Literature: my dad.  He has read more books than anyone I know.
History and geography: my dad.  A lot of those books were about history and geography.
Science: PTE Rick.  I used this lifeline a couple of times when I was taking physics last year.

When you need someone with muscles to help you with a task, who’s the first one you call?

Nick.  One of my karate students.  He's strong and always willing to help out.

When you need some creative help with ideas for a project, who’s the first person you call?

My wife.  I usually write but if I need to get some thoughts clear enough to jot them down, I'll talk to her.  I will explain things out and she asks questions and it forces me to be more clear.  Then I head for the computer and type it up.

When you have a moral dilemma and need advice, on whom do you rely most?

Jesus.

Yeah, just kidding.  The guy causes more confusion than anything.  Not that I blame him because I don't think he had any idea all the crap that people were going to write about him and all the weird ideas that were going to become "laws".  Poor guy gets a bum rap.  He probably turns over in his grave everytime someone uses his name to further their own personal agenda.

The real answer is that I can't remember the last moral dilemma I had.  Life is pretty clear cut for me.  I focus on taking care of my family and not interfering with other people's lives. 

For advice, I usually talk to my wife and we explore different aspects of situations.  She's studying psychology so she's a great choice.  She has a strong sense of what is right and wrong without forcing her right and wrong onto other people.

When you need to know the best way to get somewhere, which of your directionally-gifted friends do you call upon first?

Yahoo! Maps.

Commentary for November 22nd, 2007 - Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving, and even more importantly, it's my birthday (on the 25th but I always lump the two together). 

Here are some of the things that I'm thankful for:

Number one is my wife.  She thinks that I like my son better than her but it's not true.  I see my son more.  My son *needs* me more.  I feel extremely responsible for his development but Tia is the guardian angel of my mind, my heart, and my well being.  If you're a Heroes fan, I'm Maya and she's Alejandro.  If you don't know that the means, watch season 2 of Heroes.  If you do know what that means, be thankful that Tia is here for me and has been for 7 years.  Just about everyone that knew us before we got together said our marriage wouldn't last.  In 7 years, I can say that our marriage has just gotten stronger and stronger.  We started out as great friends and have become such wonderful partners in everything that it's amazing.

Donuts Are Dangerous

This story was requested by PTE Rick.  If you would like to request a topic for me to write on, please leave a comment in this post.

I'm a Navy brat and have lived around the world.  I ended up living in Idaho for a couple of years and it happened to be when I was 14.  The cool thing about living in Idaho when I was 14 was that I was able to get my driver license.  Idaho is still a farm state and the kids in the family needed to be able to drive to help out with the farming.  I never did any farming unless you consider midnight garden raids farming but I didn't turn down getting my driver license.

At the time, we had one of those big-ass Chrysler station wagons that was big enough to host a Wimbledon tournament inside it and a 68 Cougar that was a really horrible green color that hasn't been since the 60S unless you happen to be a parent of an infant on Enfamil and seen what it looks like after human processing.

Not only did this car not have power steering but I swear that it actually had extra resistance on it to make it even harder to turn.  I kid you not when I say that in order to make a U-turn, I would put both hands on the same side of the steering wheel and pull hand-over-hand to get the wheels to turn. 

Hell, now they have cars that will parallel park for you and you don't even have to touch the steering wheel.

Anyway, one rainy day, my dad let me have the car for some reason.  Rick was my next door neighbor at the time and went with.  We picked up Shane and Blaine who only lived about a half mile away and then we went to the high school.  Blaine somehow ended up riding shotgun which seems odd to me looking back now.  Not that Rick was complaining in the least when all was said and done.