I smell something...and it ain't fish

A few years ago there was a man that was shot to death just outside of the Jacob Price Housing projects in Covington, KY.



This poor man lived in the suburbs about 15 or so minutes away from this area and his family could not understand why he would be in this Covington neighborhood in the first place, let alone be shot. One news story went as far as to show the victim's daughter testifying that the last thing that her father said to her before he walked at the door that morning was that he was going out for some "candy".

Low and behold, just a few days later, this random shooting turned out to be drug related. The "candy" that the gentleman was trying to purchase was not the kind marketed to children.

This leads me to a story a news story that that reported of a house that caught on fire in Indian Hill (one of the richest areas in the Cincinnati and the country) due to a burglar trying to light up a crack pipe in the home. Apparently, the only reason why this "burglar" broke into the house in one of the wealthiest areas in the country was to find a nice, quiet place to get high.

I do not buy it. There is something else that is going on. I will give it some time so see if anything more comes of it.

How To Write A Novel

If you clicked on to this post to find out the best way to write a novel and to get it published and make millions of dollars, that you are as out of luck as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.

Last night I had a long conversation with a friend of mine who has recently been laid off from her job as a professor at one of the local universities here in the area. Luckily, she is still getting paid through the summer but she us going to have to begin looking for a new position fairly soon.

Due to her eclectic sense of cooking and her background in Anthropology and Sociology, I suggested that she use this time off to script a book of her favorite recipes, including anthropological.sociological anecdotes for each entry. I think it would be great. In my trying to convince her, she was a bit hesitant, citing my 5 year quest to complete my murder mystery. I made a pact with her to finish my novel if she took heed to this idea.

The only thing that I could get my friend to agree to was to think about it, which usually means that she has already disregarded the idea as a farce.

Keeping the latter end of the bargain, today, I have been editing the first several chapters of my murder mystery, over a hearty/delicious lunch at Kaldi's.

My goal is to have this novel completed by the end of this year.... I know, I know...most have heard this promise before, but a kid has got to dream...right?

The Battle With Narcissus

Or should I say, the battle with not becoming him.

I woke up this morning and had a brilliant idea to take a few pictures of myself to help document my progress in becoming more fit. In another stroke of clarity, I felt that I may even post the pics on here for you to view. I took a few snap shots with my camera phone and was not pleased with any of the pictures. I even felt a bit embarrassed.

Then I thought to myself...am I being conceded? Am I flailing down the same path as Narcissus (though his demise was all Nemesis' fault)? Is that the type a person I am, or the type of persona that I want to portray?

Whatever the case, I did not post the pics on here (as you can tell), but I do think that taking the pics will help me to know when my fitness goals are reached, since I have discontinued using tertiary goals as a benchmark (thanks B!).

Anyway...

I picked up some information about a couple of 5k races coming up next month. If I keep up this health kick, maybe I will be in good enough shape to walk one...lol.

A New Job...A New Life...

Not necessarily a new life, but its as close to a new one as anyone would need. It is the end of the second day of my new job and I am loving it. The people with whom I am working with, I can actually hold a descent and constructive conversation. In addition to this, there are a number of different professions that work in my building and my department supports all of them. I love working with such a varied clientele, coming from all sorts of backgrounds and not simply academic (its much too over rated)

Today was an easy, but exciting day. I turned in a few papers concerning my great benefits, received my parking permit and last but not least, I found the fitness facility that is actually in my building! I have not figured out if we can take personal time to work out but I did see that there were fitness classes offered at lunch time that lasts one hour (we only get 30min for lunch) and a personal trainer that comes a few times a week!

Now there is no reason why I should not be able to reach my fitness goals. I guess the only way I could do so is if I get too swamped with work....

LOL

I Love New York...(Cincinnati)

VH-1 has been trying to piggy-back on the success of reality television by placing had-been actors/performers in a house together and seeing how they interact with each other. One of the most notorious of these has-beens was Flava Flav, former member of Public Enemy. He was so popular on the show that he was given a spin-off reality show where women competed to be his girlfriend.

The MADNESS does not end there...

Subsequently, one of the women vying for a spot in Flava Flav's life captured America's hearts so much that VH-1 felt compelled to slap her with her own television show.

"I Love New York" (New York being the nick-name given to the woman by Flava) has been on for at least one season, and I was bored enough one Sunday afternoon to watch its marathon, which ended in a finale.

I can not say that its the greatest show, but its like a car crash...sometimes, you just can't help to watch.

I found some video of New York;s wannabe suitors. I so have to say, she does have some good taste in men.



Going For A Jog..... - video powered by Metacafe



Vote For Ya Boy - video powered by Metacafe



MR.GETRIGHT - video powered by Metacafe

Now....And Then

Mark Wahlberg was one of those one hit wonders back in the early 1990's, piggy backing off of the success of rappers bridging the divide of gansta rap and pop (mainstream/popular) rap music such as C&C Music Factory and Vanilla Ice. I have to admit that as a nerd growing up in a working class neighborhood, I was enthrawled with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, and from the following pic, I am sure some of you can understand why.

Though Young Marky Mark has flourished into the sophisticated actor Mark Walberg, he has left his good looks behind, but by the looks of this pic, you can take the boi our of the pho ghetto but you...well, you know the rest.

Down To...Ohh who Cares...

The exercises regime is going alot better than I had expected. Since I am a lover of foods, I would think that it would be hard to simply stop eating when I was full instead of eating everything that was placed in front of me (thanks mom).

Surprisingly I got some good advice from B and from reading Ben's (another one) website.

I did have a bit of a cheat day yesterday where I did not work out and eat an exurbanite amount of food. All be it healthy, but I think, after work today, I am going to have an "evening of beauty" starting with a hard core workout.

Cleaning Out My Office

Due to the fact that I will be beginning a new job and an entirely new organization, the last week at your old job is always weird. For the past few day, I have been giving a bevy of Goodbyes and explaining my new position to everyone. Though I am staying in the same industry, it seems that everyone at me current job hasn't the slightest clue about where I am going. Very strange.

But as I tie up loose ends and explain to my supervisor (who is new as well) what I actually do, I am in the process of getting all the junk and extraneous papers out of my office. It is so amazing the amount of paper that I have accumulated over the two years that I have worked here. Most of which I had not seen in over a year.

It makes me think in this day of age of computer storage, the amount of paper that we actually use should be next to nil. But yet I am literally throwing away (recycling) thousands of pieces of paper. What a waist.

Here is a before video that I made of my office in researching new and innovative ways of creating a training module when I first arrived here Jan of 2007.

YouTube Video Spoiler

OK...I guess this would not be THAT interesting to those who live outside of Cincinnati, but I thought that this was pretty neat. The publicist(?) for the Cincinnati Ballet lives in my old apartment (which just so happens to be next door to my current apartment). She used the the outside of my current apartment in a "webisode" promoting the ballet on YouTube, but the scene that takes place inside was filmed in her current apartment (my former apartment)

Freaky

Anyway..watch it and vote for your favorite.

Do You Remember Kool-Aid?

I was reading this post over at Boy And His Breifs and it reminded me of one of my favorite drinks as a child. Kool Aid. Remember when we were a child and there were only a few flavors to choose from? I guess there are still only a few flavor to choose from but in our new world of marketing, the names had to be supped up so catch the eye of the consumer. Instead of just the original 9 flavors, there is now an entire arsenal:

Apple
Arctic Green Apple
Bedrock Orange
Berry Blue
Black Cherry
Blastin' Berry Cherry
Blue Berry Yum Yum
Blue Moon Berry
Blue Raspberry
Bunch Berry
Candy Apple
Changin' Cherry
Cherry
Cherry Cracker
Cherry-Lime
Cherry Subway
Cola
Eerie Orange
Golden Nectar
Grape
Grape Berry Splash
Grape-Blackberry
Great Bluedini
Ice Blue Island Twist
Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade


And that's just a few of them.

Due to the sugar factor, I have not made (or even consumed) this sugary drink in over a decade! Miraculously, I found some kool-aid packets that I had snagged from a friend of mine when she was moving out of town last year and decided to make a pitcher.

I found my self having to read the instructions as I had forgotten how much drink one packet made, and the right amount of sugar to add. Needless to say once that "whatever" flavor touched my tongue, I was immediately transported back to 216 W. 15th street in Covington, KY on a hot July afternoon.

I feel like singing the theme song to "All In The Family"...lol

Not What I Was Thinking

Take a look at this...

2 1/2 Miles!

So I managed to move these tired old bones 2 1/2 miles on the treadmill. That is a feat in of itself. It took me about 40min to do this. I guess this is a good place to start. I can only get faster from here.

184 Lbs?

I was doing so well, but as I stepped on the scale, it turned out that I had gained two pounds over night!

This could be from a number of things from the fact that I was wearing sweat pants to the fact that muscle wieghts more than fat. So I have decided to dis-continue counting the pounds.

I think that this may be a bit more rewarding for me.

Today I am tackling another 2-mile run.

Wish me luck

Looks Like Its Going Pretty Well

I ran 2miles yesturday and plan to do weights today.....

Lost 2lbs as of yesturday

1 Day Down...20 more pounds to go.

I guess it would not be correct to say that my goal is to loose 20 lbs, but you get the idea. I did pretty well yesterday.

I stuck with my prescribed diet and hit the weights, formulating a good arms.chest workout and did 30 minutes of cardio. I was not too impressed with my cardio out put thought (it took me 30min to go 1.52 miles) but its a start.

Today, is a cardio day, so I'll do 40 mins on the Treadmill....how far do you think I'll go today?