Success Warrior: The Blog That Embraces ADHD

Taking a Breather

Remember when the Millineum Falcon comes out of hyperdrive and all the stars stop blurring and come into focus?  That's how today has felt.  Everything just stopped.  The whole world slowed down.  And I'm quite enjoying the feeling. 

I cleaned up the tumbleweed from the week of wind storms that we've had and I have mowed the lawn but other than that, I really haven't done a whole lot.

I went to lunch with Tia, who had just finished taking the final exam in her statistics class.  She felt good about how the test went and that's a load off of her shoulders.

Now, I'm just doing some light reading and not planning on doing much more other than teaching karate tonight.  I had planned on taking part in a very active class tonight but with my ab injury, I'm going to have to be content to watch a very active class tonight.

That's what I did for this morning's exercise class.  I supervised as they burned out a record number of circuits.  Bastids.  I think they did it just to taunt me.

On that note, that's all the effort that I'm going to put into today's blog post.  If you'll excuse me, I'm going to continue with my "ahhhhhhhhhhhhh" moment.

Keeping My Head Above Water

I don't think it could ever say that I'm slacking even when I feel like I'm barely treading water.  I have so much going on that I can never say that I'm bored.  Still, that half out of phase feeling has persisted for this week so I'm putting off a couple of blog posts that were planned for this week until next week. 

Did anyone try the plyo box circuit?  It's a challenge.

Here's the plan for next week:

Sit down tomorrow and make sure that I have my dayplanner and notes up to date.  I really, really need to clean off my desk.  Besides the slightly lost feeling, this has been the thing nagging at me the most.  I'm a clear space kind of person.  I like open areas and dislike clutter of any type.  Luckily, Tia is the same way so we our house is very open.  We have never owned a coffee table because we don't want anything sitting the middle of the living room.

I'm going to have to do a bit of juggling with my schedule next week because I have City Councils meetings every night except Friday.  It's budgeting time.  Our city is fairing better than many but we are going to be cutting back in areas so there should be some interesting discussions.

My lead karate student will be teaching my class for me on Wednesday.  That part has already been arranged.  Monday nights I usually video the exercises for the week.  I may still be able to do that after my meeting Monday night.  Tuesday is usually City Council so that part takes care of itself except that these meeting will be longer than most of our regular meetings.  Thursday is usually a night with the family so that part just ends up being lost and that's never a good thing.

Next week is the last week for this month's exercise plan.  Thank goodness.  No Mercy March.  There were some tough workouts this month.  I'll be switching things up, like I always do, but I'm going to change the focus for the month.  The workouts will still be challenging of course but maybe just a hair further back from being puke-worthy.

I'm still taking feedback on the possibility of a new political blog about the local politics of my city.  So far, all the votes are in favor of me just speaking out on what happens.  It would be kind of a political oddity to have a blog where I don't have the marketing division write the blog posts for me.  I'll just say what I have to say because I think that what I have to say is important.  It seems unnatural in politics to be open and honest but I think I'll give it a shot and see how it turns out.  If I am re-elected, it will be good for the city.  If I'm not, I'll have a bit more time for other things.

I will really be interested to hear the comments from people.

I'll be working on the format for the new blog and hope to have the first post out in a week or so.  You know, you've seen what the week looks like so I'm not sure when the first post will happen.  My posting goal will be to update about once a week.  Maybe one post before a city council meeting so that people know what's coming up and then one after a meeting with any highlights of what happened.

You know, I had more rambling to do, but whatever else was on my mind has gone, which is probably for the best.

***

I am an Independent BeachBody Coach for BeachBody.com, a company that offers fitness programs, supplements, and equipment that have absolutely changed my life. 

Have you heard of P90X?  That's BeachBody.  They also have Insanity, Turbo Jam, RevAbs, Brazil Butt Lift, and many more.  They have some of the best exercise programs on the market.  These aren't just DVDs but are complete programs to transform your body.  They also have the hugely popular, and what they call "the most important meal of the day", Shakeology.

They have equipment and supplements in addition to Shakeology and popular exercise programs.  Visit BeachBody.com and click on the "Shop" link to see everything they offer. 

There is also a business side to all this fitness that you can take advantage of.  Whether you're looking to just make a couple hundred extra dollars in fun money or are looking to take complete financial control of your life, BeachBody can help you get there.  If you have a desire to be more fit and would love to help other people do the same while making some money at it, visit BeachBody.com and click on the "Coach" link.  Team up with me and I'll help you reach your goals, in fitness and finance.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook.

A Little Break From Fitness

At least as far as this blog goes.  Not that I'm going to take a break from fitness, just from today's video because it's not done yet.  Man-oh-man, the workouts I've devised this month have just been tough.  Yesterday's leg workout had me on the verge of puking.  Today's chest and abs workout wasn't that bad but only barely. 

I finished a set of the toughest push-ups I've ever done and I just laid there with my head straight down on the mat, unable and unwilling to even try to move.  I haven't done a video on these push-ups yet but I will, I promise.  Hardest push-ups I have ever done.  A little something that I came up with to make up for the fact that I don't do bench presses right now.  I had to find a way to make push-ups as hard as lifting hundreds of pounds on a bench.  I have succeeded and I will share that with you in the future.

Speaking of videos to come, I did a new version of the knees to feet jumps today.  I was just messing around and I thought of something that would make them just a tad more difficult.  If you thought they were hard before, wait until you see what I am doing now in my class.  Crazy stuff.

Tonight, I have to find time to edit and upload a bunch more karate videos.  I try to create three a week.  It's going to be four this week and I usually have them up by now but I'm still a half a beat off on my schedule.  I'll be trying to get all of those done tonight if possible.  Editing them is easy enough because I don't do a whole lot of work on them but the uploading takes time.  They have been getting more interest though.  In fact, today someone texted me asking me how to find my videos.  I don't know who it was that texted me but I told them how to find my videos.  If anyone else is wondering, it's pretty easy, just like everything else online for me.  Just go to YouTube and search for successwarrior and you'll find me.

I have a bunch of students that I need to thank for getting in front of the camera and letting me hit them, sometimes a bit hard.  I'm not going to mention their names here in case they don't want to be that famous but I want to make sure that they know how much I appreciate them helping me.

The whole reason for the martial arts videos is to show some of my former students what I'm currently teaching.  I have a bunch of black belt students where I lived before moving out here and our system is different enough that they would probably be somewhat at a loss if they went to another school.  Not that they couldn't figure it out but a lot of schools out there are very traditional and sometimes what they do doesn't really make sense in today's world.  I'm not going to knock any of them but I'll just say that each school has it's purpose.  Some maintain tradition, some are spiritual, some are sports, and the sole purpose of what I teach is to win street fights.  It's not pretty.  You won't become one with the Universe.  You aren't going to learn any rules for fighting other than the three that I was taught:

1. If he can't see, he can't fight.
2. If he can't breathe, he can't fight.
3. If he can't stand, he can't fight.
4. Take away at least one, try for two, and go for all three when you can.

My system attacks the eyes, ribs, and knees . . . a lot, plus a good share of strikes to the neck and groin because those can affect multiple goals.

On to the next subject, local politics and I want your opinion.

I'm running for re-election for the City Council of my city, West Wendover Nevada.  It's going to be a very important election this year and I'll explain more about that later but here's my question: Should I start a blog that tells what's happening in local politics?

On the plus side, I would be able to get my version of what's going on out to the public.  We have two local papers and one of them is very much anti-me.  The other paper is much more neutral.  The Internets allows everyone to have a voice so I'm considering having a blog where the subject material is the inside story of the local political scene.

On the con side of that are two things.

First, most of the readers of this blog are probably not local.  I'm getting hits from around the world so I would have to create a new readership.  It's something that would be possible and is much less troubling than the second point.

I'm not politically correct.  I just call it like I see it.  Is that something that's going to backfire on me.  Can you be honest and frank in an election or am I better off just keeping my mouth shut?  I don't necessarily want to get into mudslinging but I can tell that there are some not good things very possible for this city depending on who wins the election.  Should I just come right out and say it?

What are your thoughts?  Would any of my fitness readers be interested in hearing about the local politics?

Regardless of your answers, I would appreciate a show of support by having everyone join the Facebook group that I created for my campaign.  (Let me know if that link doesn't work - I'm not sure if it's correct)

***

I am an Independent BeachBody Coach for BeachBody.com, a company that offers fitness programs, supplements, and equipment that have absolutely changed my life. 

Have you heard of P90X?  That's BeachBody.  They also have Insanity, Turbo Jam, RevAbs, Brazil Butt Lift, and many more.  They have some of the best exercise programs on the market.  These aren't just DVDs but are complete programs to transform your body.  They also have the hugely popular, and what they call "the most important meal of the day", Shakeology.

They have equipment and supplements in addition to Shakeology and popular exercise programs.  Visit BeachBody.com and click on the "Shop" link to see everything they offer. 

There is also a business side to all this fitness that you can take advantage of.  Whether you're looking to just make a couple hundred extra dollars in fun money or are looking to take complete financial control of your life, BeachBody can help you get there.  If you have a desire to be more fit and would love to help other people do the same while making some money at it, visit BeachBody.com and click on the "Coach" link.  Team up with me and I'll help you reach your goals, in fitness and finance.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook.

Are There Any Rs? In the Fridge?

 
The post on whey protein is going to have to wait for a week.  I want to do a little more reading about it first.  I know that it's good for you but I'd like to add a bit more to it than that.

I got the Wii hooked up to the new TV for Trey yesterday.  We're getting closer. 

The thing that's missing is that I can't have the Wii and the DVD player hooked up at the same time.  The TV is set up for HDMI cables mostly so my older electronics just aren't up to speed.  There is only one set of RGB hook ups so I'm going to have to go with plan B while looking at plan C.

I still feel like I haven't recovered completely from last weekend.  My desk is cluttered, which is unusual and I just don't feel like I'm on top of my game.  I will have more to say on this subject next week sometime.

And now it's the weekend again so all I want to do is have a nap.

Nap?  Run?  Nap?  Run? 

It's a toss up at this point.

I really want to run but nap would probaby be the wiser choice considering that I have to work tonight.

Is there a way to fit both?

I don't think so.

Decisions, decisions.

Can I Get A Do-Over?

I'd like to start today over please.

Random Bits

So the rat bastard punky Phil saw his shadow today and we're going to have a longer winter.  Figures.  I need to move south as soon as humanly (or groundhoggedly) possible.  Or find a way to convince Phil to make a different choice.  Bribes?  Threaten the wife and kids?  Take away his food?  Phil weighs about 30% more than his wild cousins and likes food.  Maybe the way to a groundhog's predictions is through his stomach.

I have made it to my weekend and have a couple of days off (as long as you don't count the two city council meetings tonight as obligations that completely wreck the joyous feeling of having a couple of days off with no commitments).

Not that it's even obligation free for me because of college.  Of which, I have done nearly nothing for several days and that can't be a good thing.  The next two days will be a mixture of college and getting more organized.  I haven't even started reading any Shakespeare yet.

Speaking of the bard, thank you to everyone that helped on the sonnet.  It got a perfect score from everyone except the French judge but I think she's on the take.  Throwing her score out and it came in perfectly. 

Naturally, since it turned out to be about my blog, the instructor asked for my blog address and is onto the fact that I have several English majors helping me out with my homework.  She's cool with it though so we're good to go.

Back to the organization thing.  The bane of my life.  I'm going to be trying to set up some kind of system that keeps me on track with the important stuff (like writing this blog) and still allows me to spin off onto tangents (look!  something shiny).  It's probably going to take some kind of nifty balancing act but I have so much that I want to accomplish that I can't go around living an impromptu life (or worse, waiting to the last second to get things done - you know, like reading an entire work from Shakespeare and writing a paper on it).

I read today that the government in Australia is doing everything it possibly can to keep its housing bubble from bursting.  They have inflated their bubble worse than the United States did and put tons of people into houses that can't afford the payments.  It's probably all going to come crashing down this year and it's probably going to be very ugly. 

I've been giving the whole double-dip recession thing some thought and it really only applies to the stock market.  Everything else, like jobs in particular, has been and still is in recession.  WalMart is dumping something like 11,000 jobs and Verizon is cutting closer to 16,000.  States and cities are starting to cut employees.  GDP was up in December but everyone that I have read said that it was a mirage created by companies restocking inventory and nothing really changed for the better. 

Speaking of recessions and being organized (not using the flow of this blog post in any way as an example of my ability to organize), I haven't been tracking my investments at all because I figured there wasn't much point at the moment.  Anyway, I decided to check in on them today and was pleasantly surprised by the build-up of dividends in my account.  I'm just going to reinvest the money but that was a nice little surprise.

Also, I forgot that I owned gold stock.  How do you forget something like that? 

When I was talking to some gold miners several months back, they were incredibly happy with the Obama administration.  The price of gold is secure as long as The One is in charge of the destruction of the US dollar.  They are going to start mining gold about 30 miles away from here in the next couple of years.  They are still trying to figure out how big the vein is but all signs point to very profitable.  They spend millions of dollars in drilling test holes and paying off the government just to see if it's going to be worth it to actually mine the vein.  They are very optimistic about this site. 

If I didn't need the money for a down payment on a new house, I would hold onto this house until the mine opens.  That's going to drive housing prices way up in the area. 

Enough rambling, I need to actually do some other things before the city council meeting.

***

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.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook 

What We Value

I'm afraid that I'm not going to be able to do today's topic justice because I'm eyeballs-deep in trying to finish up the college semester.  So, short and sweet:

We (and this time I mean "we") are going to have to consciously choose where we place value in our lives.  Consumerism has to die and the people who continue to push that idea have to set straight or ignored.  We cannot evolve to the next level if all our focus in life is buying things we don't need to replace things we don't use to solve problems that never existed in the first place. 

The New Math

 
$200 billion is going to be used to create jobs and pay down the $12 TRILLION debt.

Mwuaahahahahahahahahaaha!

And, you may find this part hard to believe, but that's all I'm going to say about the latest insanity.  It's not plausible enough to even discuss further.

Speaking of numbers though, it's 17 freaking degrees here and it's supposed to get down to -1.  Have I mentioned my aversion to cold?  I'm actually dealing with it better than normal by bundling up more than normal.  I'm not allowing myself to get cold despite the weather. 

Okay, I did make the mistake of going out in 30 mile an hour winds and zero degrees this morning to shovel snow while layered inappropriately.  When my right ear fell off my head and shattered on the ground and blew out in the desert with the snow that I was shoveling, I came back in for some better gloves and a hat. 

Where is all that global warming at?  Oh yeah, I forgot. 

You know, when you pay someone millions of dollars to find something, they *are* going to find it, even if they have to make it up. 

Too bad there isn't a whole lot of money to be made in the truth.

I watched a video the other day about some of the cool inventions that are not going to see the light of day because it's possible to lobby the patent office to not allow new patents for cool stuff.  The quantum scientist in the video was in the same trap as so many other people.  His answer to the problem was to educate the people in the patent office so that they could make choices independently.  Now, I ask you, where is the money in that?

If you really wanted to change the world and allow all the super-cool inventions to help the people of earth, you wouldn't try to educate the corrupt.  They know what they're doing and they're making good money doing it.  That would be like trying to teach Obama economics.  You can educate all you want, it's not going to change the decision process.  That process is done in the "memo" section of the check for millions of dollars: "Don't allow new helpful energy technology."

No, if you wanted to change the system, you would have to scrap the current system.  You want to see green energy grow by leaps and bounds, get rid of the patent office.  Let people build the system.  We already have the technology.  It's just illegal to use it.  How will the oil companies continue their stranglehold if we can make electricity at will and cheaply?  How will politicians and patent officials get their kickbacks if they "let" people innovate?  That obviously can't be allowed.

So instead of allowing people to create answers, we restrict them to current technology and then throw trillions of dollars in stimulus money in order to try and keep the zombie system moving forward.  I may be wrong but I don't think we're ever going to get this country back to its fake economy of 2005.  If we somehow create the money for the next bubble, it will still just be a bubble and the collapse would be even worse when that one popped. 

Anyway, it's going to be -1 tonight.  Is it spring yet?

***

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.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook

Still Nursing a Cold

So,

My brain is still too much of a fog to do a serious post.  I have no idea what grabbed a hold of me but dah-ummm.  I've had two nights of very little sleep and my nose has finally been brought to a slow dribble with the use of Nyquil (hence the foggy brain - well, more than normal).

I was able to get my art homework in today, which is good because this class is the one that I'm doing the worst in.  My scores have gotten better as I've figured out what the teacher wanted.  That's always the catch isn't it?  You have to find out what the teacher likes to see and then head in that direction.

I've been lucky that my education instructor has an open mind because most of my discussions in that class have an opinion that is directly opposite of the rest of the class.  Have I mentioned that I most likely will not be teaching at the high school level.  It seems so stressful, at least around here.

First, there's the compulsory side of it.  Kids are conscripted to work for the government for 12 years (and without pay, no less - how rude!) and teachers have to deal with the fact that the kids in many cases are little more than prisoners.  Corporal punishment is on the decline so acting out is on the incline.  You can force a kid to be in the school but you can't force him to do his work.

With NCLB, the fate of the teacher's job rests on the willingness of the prisoners to work hard enough to pass tests.  That's got to be stressful.  I wouldn't think that the school would get rid of all the teachers but I suppose it could happen.  There have been a couple of schools in California that went 0 for 5 years and so the schools were given over to a private company to run.  The article that I read didn't mention if the teachers were kept on or given the boot.

Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent that I hadn't planned on going on.

"Hello, this is Captain Nyquil speaking.  I've turned off the seat belt sign and the flight attendants will be bringing around drinks . . ."

"I hope they have Hot Toddies."

"If you look out the left, you'll see, whoa, hold up, look out the right and see a mild rant about the failing school system in America.  Okay, where was I?"

I'm caught up on my art homework for the week and with a whole 4 hours to spare.  Of course, I have a class at 5pm and City Council at 7pm so it had to be done at least a little bit early.  No squeaking it in there.  Now, I have to start working ahead because there is no break for Thanksgiving but I'm going out of town.  I'm also not planning on doing any school work on my birthday (after all, what kind of birthday would that be?) so I am going to have to bust a move (do people still say "bust a move"?) and get ahead in all my classes. 

Good thing I don't have a raging cold or it might make me a bit sluggish and make the whole effort of working ahead in 5 classes that much more difficult.  Tonight will be a little bit more art work where I can fit it in but first, there is going to be a bit of Trey time.

I received GI Joe from Netflix.  Wonder if he'll want to watch that.  Sitting on the couch is about as adventurous as I'm going to get today.  I am not looking forward to City Council.  Looks like a full agenda too.

Time to go pick Trey up from school.  Have a great day!

***

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.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook 

Saturday's Catch-All

Saturday's on this blog will likely be aimed at catching up on all the small thoughts that occur to me through the week that aren't necessarily big enough for their own post.  That means that I'll have to keep better track during the week because my brain's RAM is very limited and stuff is ejected almost as quickly as it enters.

Speaking of catch-all though, there is a law in Nevada that allows the police to cite parents whose child is "is leading, or from any cause is in danger of leading, an idle, dissolute, lewd, or immoral life."  What are the legal definitions of all those adjectives?  There aren't any.  What ever the cop wants, I guess.  

"I'm sorry but your kid plays too much X-Box and is in danger of leading an idle life.  Sign here.  Press hard, 4 copies."

Speaking of idle life, I sat in on some Junior High classes this week as part of an assignment for one of my classes.  If I had any doubts about teaching at that level, I don't know.  I'm going to have to be a college instructor.  I think I'd get bored teaching kids (and really, much of the time is just telling them to be quiet).

Part of the class, they were covering Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat.  Most of that time had to be spent on vocabulary.  This I completely understand.  Every time I read Poe, I have dictionary.com open because the dude had some words.  I think if I was ever to teach at this level, I would assign vocab homework the night before in preparation but it seemed that half the class time was spent in supervising what I would have considered homework. 

I would rather teach at the college level where, #1 the students have volunteered to be there and where you can assign the mundane as homework so that class time can be used for delving deeper into a subject.  I'd rather talk about the symbolism of Poe than what the word "conspicuous" means, obviously. 

I haven't exercised for a couple of weeks to create more time for either homework early in the morning or sleep if the homework went late into the night.  Monday, Tia and I are going to start exercising together because if I go too long without exercising, I tend to get cranky.  Homework may be enough of a distraction to keep that from happening but why risk it. 

We probably won't do much during Thanksgiving week because we'll be off playing.  I took the week off from work.  Unfortunately, there is no break for college so I'm going to be doing everything possible to work ahead next week.  I'll take books and Tia's laptop with us but I can't help but think that it would be kind of nice to actually have a break.

We are planning on going out for a nice celebration dinner on December 15th, the last day of the semester.  Get a sitter and just go sit for a couple of hours and relax.  Planning something similar for my birthday.  We're meeting some friends for lunch (where I have scheduled about 2 hours of time) so that I can just stop for a bit.  Then we're going to go see the Trans Siberian Orchestra. 

Thinking about these two days keeps me going.

What do you think about trying the terrorists in New York?

Taxes are going to have to go up but how does the president do that without ruining the election later in the year for his fellow Dems?

The story on the Ft. Hood shooting has already changed.  Knew it would.  The original was so phony that there would have to be some refining.  We'll never know what really happened.  You think the NSA is watching the blogs of those involved to see if they are breaking their orders of secrecy?

It's been a while since I've said it but I love the Internet.  It has changed the world and brought to light (or at least, highlighted the suspicious and outrageous) so much that we would have never know if we relied on the CNN/MSNBC propaganda machine.  There are still bills being introduced to curb the 'net but I don't talk about them much because I don't think much will change.

If you think Prohibition was a failure, what do you think would happen with a War on the Internet?  How do you stop bootleggers that can deliver their product wirelessly?  You might have gotten some people behind a ban on alcohol by saying that it's "of the devil" or "hurts society" but I don't think that you'll get that kind of support for a ban on information.  And how do you stop information without making it look like you're afraid that people might find out the truth?  We've seen over and over that one of the best ways to draw attention to what you're doing wrong is to try and suppress the truth from coming out.  It's a no-win situation for our government.  Try to suppress it and lose or let the information flow and fight it with spin that is losing credibility.

The FHA is making housing loans to people that won't be able to pay the mortgages because selling houses slows down the decline of house prices.  So much of the current government game is obviously about stalling.  These new loans will fail, of course (some with a DTI of 65% - good gawd), and the slide will continue.  When the FHA fails, it will require bailout money just like everyone else.

I saw BB King last night.  Terry Clark tonight.  I've posted new pics on my Facebook page.  I'll try to get more of them up before the end of the year.

And that, I believe, sums up my week.  What's going on with you?

***

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.

Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook