Archive for October 9th, 2006
Okay, a few posts ago, I quoted an article about Trent Lott and how he stated that all Iraqis looked the same to him and how he couldn’t understand what was going on in Iraq.
Well, I just saw Mr. Lott on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and I think Mr. Lott’s comments were taken the wrong way - including me. Jon Stewart asked him about those comments and Trent Lott qualified his “all look the same to me statement” by saying that when he sees folks from say Mississippi, (my example since I don’t remember his exact words), he doesn’t see like Catholics, or Baptists, or Methodists - he just sees Americans. So, when he sees pictures of say Shiites or Sunnis, he just sees Iraqis. He also stated that he couldn’t understand why anyone would kill anyone else in the name of religion - as in why he couldn’t understand why a Shiite would kill a Sunni for example.
So based on this interview, I think Trent Lott was taken a bit out of context.
October 9th, 2006
Gah, I should just have a category called Consumer Whore.
I like to watch movies - plain and simple. There is something about silence when I am alone at night that bothers me - so when it is late, I like to play DVD - just to have something going on in the background. It kind of started in Portland since Tom would work really late a lot and he would also go to bed really early. I would watch movies to kind of keep me company during those times.
The closest video store to me is Blockbuster. I don’t particularly like Blockbuster since their selection of movies is pretty limited - in my opinion at least. Then again my opinion is based on going to indie video stores in Tucson, (Casa Video) and Portland, (Clinton Street Video). Clinton Street video had such a large foreign section it was awesome. I could totally get my fill of Japanese gore movies there. Blockbuster is pretty blase when it comes to selection in comparison.
I did sign up for the Blockbuster rewards program though. It is $10/year, but you get 1 free movie rental coupon a month. I don’t know if the pricing structure is different in other states, but all videos- new and old - are like $4.79 to rent! Yikes! So by spending $10, I get about $60 worth of coupons. I can dig it.
They also like to push their Blockbuster online service whenever you rent something to. It’s basically Blockbuster’s version of Netflix. I have never tried Netflix, but I have wanted to, but a 2 week free trial is pretty short - expecially being in Hawaii since what are the chances that they are going to have a major distribution center here? Pretty slim I would say. Same thing with Blockbuster, but last time I went to the store, I got a trial code for 1 month free trial.
I am trying it out right now and the nice thing about Blockbuster online is that you also get a free movie rental coupon a week - which is good towards new releases as well - unlike the rewards free rental, which is only good on non new releases. The movies do take a few days to get here since most of the movies I have rented have been shipped from San Jose and so it also takes a few days to ship them back. I still have a couple more weeks of the trial and I am still debating if I should stick with it for a few months. They do have quite a few exercise DVD’s to rent - DVD’s that I have wanted to try but did not want to spend $10 or more and hope that I would like it.
I wonder if I should bring back a movie review section ala Jordan Hoffman. I knew him when I went to NYU all those years ago.
October 9th, 2006
After reading through some of the support forums at Wordpress, I think I have figured out where most of my comment Spam is coming from. I am now clearing out over 20 spam comments a day - except for today - I had 72! Jeebus. It seems that what spammers do now is something called trackback spam. So, they spambot doesn’t actually leave a comment, but does a trackback to whatever post from a webpage.
The only good thing about it is that the more trackbacks you have, the higher your search ranking becomes. Not that my search ranking would be low anyway, I mean come one, if you are searching for me, this is pretty much the only page that should come up.
How do you defeat these spammers? Well, to do that requires that you turn your trackbacks or pings off. Wordpress users - this can be done in your control panel under ”manage” I believe, I’d have to double check, but to really make sure it is turned off - when you are writing a post - in your sidebar there should be something called “discussion” and you would need to make sure that “allow pings” is unchecked. I used to have the ”allow pings” turned on, but now that I turned it off, I have the arduous task of manually editing all of my other posts to turn it off. Ach.
October 9th, 2006
There is a notice on the Shape Magazine website about a couple of bills currently in Congress. Here’s the link.
The Personal Health Investment Today Act of 2006 (PHIT) would allow you to put aside up to $1,000 annually in a pre-tax savings account to pay for exercise programs and equipment, sports league fees and health club memberships.
The Workforce Health Improvement Program Act of 2005 (WHIP) would eliminate the tax you pay on subsidized memberships to health clubs.
From what I have seen here, it looks like the bill would allow you to set up a kind of Health Spending Account for fitness. Of course, the thing I most want to know is if the exercise programs and equiptment mentioned would include exercise DVD’s and exercise shoes. 
If so, I would be sooo freaking happy with that. I also noticed at Amazon that they are going to be selling the Firm TransFirmer. Yea I know, another stupid name for a fitness gadget. I actually bought one when they first came out when I was in Portland and I really liked it. It’s bascially an adjustable step that you can use at 6, 8 or 14 inches, but you can also angle it at an incline and in some of the videos, they would have you stack the 6 inch portion in front of the 8 inch portion as a mini staircase. I was in pretty good shape when it first came out and it would still kick my ass. The set at Amazon only comes with the 3 original DVD’s and the best DVD’s for the set were actually the add on’s - the Jiggle Free series - yea another stupid name.
I wanted to bring it back with me to Hawaii, but the thing is so freaking huge that the shipping for it alone would have come out to over $100!!!!!! I am excited about this being at Amazon since it qualifies for the free super saver shipping! Yay! If I do decide to get it, I wouldn’t have to pay shipping!!!!!!!!!!! I figure I could always ask Tom to send me the Jiggle Free DVD’s if I do get it too.
I really do need to step my fitness regiment though. When I got back to Hawaii, my friend Fred mentioned that some other friend of his was thinking that a bunch of us should take a trip to Morrocco next year - which would be so awesome!!!! Fred’s parents actually just went on a cruise to the Mediterranean also and I mentioned to him that I have always wanted to go to Greece. If Tom and I hadn’t broken up, I was actually going to go on a crazy backpacking trip to Europe for a month or two this year. Fred thought a trip to Europe might be more interesting and so if I can save enough money, I think we are going to go on a crazy backpacking trip to Europe next year - either right before or eight after our 35th(!) birthdays.
I am pretty excited about that. Shit, I was so excited about going to Europe this year that I already bought a nice travelling, convertable rucksack and did a lot of research about places to stay and what kind of gear I would need. If we can pull this off, I think his sister would go with us and well, whoever else we can find who would want to do it. (Hint - Kristen if you read this, you are invited to come along! - again if I can pull this off!!!!)
October 9th, 2006
I didn’t get to workout the last couple of days because it has been unbearably hot and humid. For a couple of days in a row, it was like 90 degrees Fahrenheit - in the house! - with probably about 70 or 75% humidity. I was able to get through this summer without turning the air conditioning on, but I had to the last couple of days.
Yesterday was no exception, it was still hot, but I figured I just had to workout since I am PMS’ng and when I get PMS, I eat a lot of chips and chocolate. Yum!
I figured I should take it easy, so I decided to do the Leslie Sansone 2 mile walk last night. I mean, it is an EASY workout - but I was sweating so much because of the humidity. I didn’t want to strain myself too much because of the heat and so it was a good workout to do. I am finding that I do like this DVD a lot though. I like that it is so simple that I can do it on a day like yesterday when I am tired and don’t want to strain myself. I haven’t tried the 4 mile walk on the DVD yet since that one is almost an hour long and I find that I would rather do a couple of short videos back to back rather than 1 long one nowadays.
I was originally set on just doing that DVD, but afterwards I decided to do the new Sculpting Ball workout from the Firm since it was only another 30 minutes. I do like this video - but okay, I do find one part annoying - there is a short cardio section in it and Tina cues “Samba! inside leg” - which is fine - but she says the cue the same way for every repetition and it just kind of bugs me for some reason. But I do like it though. It incorporates a lot of “core work,” (Ugh, core work is such a fitness buzzword that is so annoying I wish it would die out already), that really gets to me for some reason. The cardio section is easy and low impact, but it also really strains my back with all of the twists. Like I mentioned before, I do need to work on my lower back strength, so it is no biggie, but I did have to stop the DVD and stretch my back out for a few minutes though, which I’ve never really had to do before. Hmmm.
October 9th, 2006
