So I parked in the garage in a slightly different spot on President’s Day since it was rather empty. There were a number of spots open that usually are not available when I arrive at work because so many people got to sleep in. Anyways, so I park next to a wall, and what do I see? None other than my name (spelled like I spell it) written on the wall!
How freaky is that? Excuse me while I go find out if someone is stalking me. If that’s you, can you kindly let me know? Thanks a bunch.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
This is the 10th amendment to the United States Constitution, which effectively limits the power that the central government has. Have we forgotten this? Whatever happened to letting states decide things for themselves? Or even more, giving the rights to the people (without having it become a law).
On the cusp of the likely signing into law of the Economic Stimulus Plan by President Obama, I can’t help but wonder how we got to this place. This place is one where the federal government gets to control so much of such a wide variety of areas. Will spending more of (essentially) our money revive us? I have my doubts as that has been tried before by FDR’s administration.
This whole administration change has been interesting while I’m reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, who would likely say that what President Obama stands for some of the most ultimate in evil because he is taking from the competent and giving to the incompetent.*
What can we do? Perhaps decentralize the government a bit, huh? Not only is the government fairly unable to spend all of that money in a wise way, but they (at least in my mind) are going against the founding documents that this country is based on. Pragmatists will argue that desperate times call for desperate measures, but ideals are not just nebulous vapor. They are the foundation. Don’t let the foundation rot just so that the roof has new shingles. You can imagine the effect or even perhaps read about it here.
* - Amusingly, I say this as if I know Rand even though I’m only halfway through the novel. So if you know contrary please let me know but don’t spoil the novel for me!
So I finished the half marathon back in October. And at the time I said that I wanted to eventually build up and do a full marathon.
Well I started to train for the Los Angeles Marathon! I haven’t registered for it yet just in case something happens during my training until the price increase. (Amusingly it increases on April 1, 2009 since fools and marathons go hand in hand.)
Many out there (myself included sometimes) wonder why people do these types of things. For me, it’s just something that I think would be an excellent chance to do. I’m not getting any younger. It’s a physical challenge that is a great goal to use to stay in shape. And it could be full of all types of life lessons. In the Bible there are allkindsofreferences to it, and I think that is because there is so much that we can learn from doing things like this. How will I truly understand illustrations that I have not participated in myself? Because as we all know, experience matters!
What will I learn? Will I finish? How long will I take? Stay tuned for all of this and much much more! Perhaps I will blog more about training for the marathon than I did while I was training for the half marathon. Perhaps.
Wanting to do something new is an excellent thing. It’s often worthy of admiration whether that means keeping a commitment or trying something new.
As the new year has rolled around, there have inevitably been a slew of new resolutions that people have made. They want to be healthier, they want to be slimmer, they want to be more productive. Whatever the case is, they are trying to be better than their old selves.
It’s made me think recently about two of the things that I do: programming working out (well a little anyways).
The thing that they have in common is that they need to be done right. What is right in a world of relative truths? Well, Reader, that is a good question. Right is correctness. It is the lack of error. It is proper form, and it is successful execution. It is, in fact, an absolute.
As people are trying to exercise and get healthy, they’re trying to do it as quickly as possible. And often people will burn themselves out with all of the effort that they’re putting in. Combined with a poor view (e.g., the goal is not to be skinny, it is to be healthy) and inadequate preparation, this is a recipe for disaster. By the time that February rolls around, most of the new year’s resolutions have fallen by the wayside.
There’s no use in trying to do 50 pushups as fast as you can if your form is incorrect. And there’s no use in trying to optimize a portion of code when the entire thing doesn’t work to begin with. Get back to the basics.
while(date<'2013-01-20')if(date=='2009-01-20')crowd.release(pomp,circumstance)if(BarackObama!=Jesus)derek.exclaims('Amen to that')elsework=BarackObama.work()crowd.judges(work)
