Self Accountability - part deux

Having never been afflicted by issues keeping weight off, maybe I'm just unsympathetic. Maybe I was lucky to eat and learn about healthy food while growing up, or to have developed a liking for activity. But for the government to spend time creating policies for people who can't make healthy decisions is absurd.

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It's That Time Again

It's almost the end of another year, so it must be time to reflect and resolve. Here goes...

In 2006, I:

• Got engaged (1/28)
  
• Went to Vegas for the first time (3/4-3/6-ish)
  
• Went to Palm Desert/Palm Springs for the first time (3/7-3/10-ish)
  
• Moved out of my beloved Manhattan... and in with *gasp* a boy (4/15)
  
• Got a car for the first time since high school (5/20-ish)
  
• Met an awesome group of fellow Stevens grad students... finally! (Spring)
  
• Competed in the Empire State Games Trials for gymnastics... and qualified (6/8)
  
• Turned 25!! (6/14)
  
• Moved offices to Harborside from midtown (6/19-ish)
  
• Went on my first cruise, and saw Bermuda (7/3 - 7/9)
  
• Went to Mexico for the first time - Cabo San Lucas!! (7/29 - 8/1)
  
• Saw the first of my childhood friends get married in Buffalo (8/5)
  
• Went on my first solo business trip to Chicago (9/4 - 9/7)
  
• Finished classes for my Masters in Information Systems (MSIS) (9/26)
  
• Almost saw my first baseball playoff game at Yankee stadium... rain! (10/4)
  
• Left my first job after college (10/13)
  
• Started my "first job after my first job out of college", back in midtown (10/23)
  
• Went on a trapeze for the first time (10/27)
  
• Found my wedding dress! (11/2)
  
• Traveled to Vermont (5/28), Boston (6/10), Lake Placid (11/11), Myrtle Beach (12/2)
  

As big as this year has been, 2007 promises to be even bigger, with a killer wedding on 8/25!

In 2007, I resolve to:

• Keep in better touch with friends
• Finally finish setting up the apartment
• Kick butt at work
• Go to the gym regularly
• Go to happy hour equally regularly
• Procrastinate less
• Save money
• Plan the best wedding ever!

Pet Peeves, Part 3

3. When certain people sitting in the back of a bus think it's acceptable to walk to the front before the bus stops, cutting off people who are sitting in the front of the bus at the last stop, for example, on the NJ Transit buses whose routes terminate at Port Authority.

Is there no sense of order in the world? Haven't we been taught, since kindergarten days, that we should get off of a bus or train row by row, from front to back? Possibly, some of us have missed this critical stage of development.

If it's so important for you to be the first to disembark from the bus, why not stand at the front from the time you get on, and let someone else have the seat you took up? Or why not take a seat at the front of the bus? And if none are available, too damn bad. You only have to wait for 30 or so people to get off before you do, and if people stopped clambering over others to get off the bus, they might be able to do so faster.

Heathens, all of them.

Where Has Self-Accountability Gone?

In yet another case of trying to protect the masses from themselves, one MTA board member, Mitch Pally, wants to eliminate bar cars on trains and the sale of alcohol at stations, claiming that people can drink too much, then drive home drunk from the train station.

Whatever happened to human responsibility? If I ride the train and have one beer, I know that I am well below the legal limit, completely sober, and as clear-minded as I can possibly be considering that I just spent 8-10 hours staring at a computer screen and dealing with all the stresses a corporate environment provides.

For that matter, what's the difference between going to happy hour before getting on the train and getting blitzed (you won't be sober by the time the train gets in) or driving to a bar after getting off the train?

Selling alcohol at the station is pure convenience. You can get a single beer, maybe a snack, and effectively take advantage of the time spent on the train to unwind. Would we rather someone grabs a six pack at a bodega on the way to the train and drinks that instead?

For every one person who makes headlines being an idiot, there are a couple hundred who use the service responsibly. Why remove a profitable service at the drop of a few idiots?

Article: Commuter Rails Drinking

Bombing for peace is like what?

Pet peeve: People who blindly accuse peace advocates of not supporting the troops.

Lately it seems like people who promote world peace are getting blasted by supporters of the Iraq war (see Anti Peace Sign). Don't these people, including those with family and friends in Iraq, want the troops to come home safely? Is the goal of this nation to continuously wage war? Wanting an end to the war is in NO WAY correllated to a lack of support for the military stationed there. They have been given a job, and it's being done to the best of their ability (with whatever resources they're being given from ranks above). How does wanting that job to be determined completed so that people can safely come home to their families now constitute treason? And, irrespective of the Iraq war, what's wrong with dreaming that peace could happen, or just wanting to be a peaceful person?

People are ridiculous, as ever.

Familiar Faces in Little Italy

San Gennaro is by far my favorite street fair in NYC. Best moments this year (in no particular order):

- Shaking hands with Mayor Bloomberg while at dinner with MR, JR, LS, JL and MR
- Spotting one of the girls from the Apprentice (I never see people!)
- Running into a guy from the old math days at NYU, coincidentally the same day I "ran into" another math buddy on myspace
- The traditional binge-fest with DT - Still stuffed!
- Watching the clown get dunked with TR, JL, and AC
- Cannolis, Zeppoles, Fried Oreos, and Gelato!

What does NY subway smell like?

Something smells like 6 train!

Pet Peeves, Part 2

2. When the culture of the town you live in condones people standing arbitrarily in the middle of the sidewalk such that you can't pass on either side without jumping in the road. Despite the relative emptiness of the sidewalk in question, said persons do not move over to let you pass, but stare lazily in your direction as you attempt to run around them without getting run over.

Pet Peeves, Part 1

1. When someone asks you a question, and you tell them you need to look up the answer, and (a) they continue to badger you as if you'd already given an answer and they disagree or (b) proceed to make up an answer and continue without you.

The Trouble With Jersey Drivers...

You'd think mom would give gas and brake 101 before standing in front of the moving vehicle...

Girl Kills Mom During Driving Lesson

No More Ranting

Caught Light Rail 7:59 am at Bergenline. Stalled train at 2nd street. Wait time: 10 minutes.

My New Favorite Book

Human beings are remarkable -- at what we can learn to live with. If we couldn't get strong from what we lose, and what we miss, and what we want and can't have, then we couldn't ever get strong enough, could we? What else makes us strong?

So we dream on. Thus we invent our lives. We give ourselves a sainted mother, we make our father a hero; and someone's older brother, and someone's older sister -- they become our heroes, too. We invent what we love, and what we fear. There is always a brave, lost brother -- and a little lost sister, too. We dream on and on: the best hotel, the perfect family, the resort life. And our dreams escape us almost as vividly as we can imagine them.

--The Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving

Cabo Pictures!

July 28-31 I was in the lovely Cabo with Trevor, MJ, Travis, Rico, Roger and Mel for TP BBE 2006, the Cabo San Lucas edition. Pics are here!

Empire Trials Videos!

Not exactly Olympic material, but this was the first time I've seen myself on video, and it's not scary enough to make me quit for good. :)

Uneven Bars:



Watch my beam routine here

Watch my first vault here

Ketchup

Just some points of interest:

1. In the spirit of maintaining my angry rant on NYC area transit, I just want to add that NJ transit is unimaginably worse (and no, not only because it's in Jersey). The light rail only works 30% of the time. When the light rail train is working, the elevator and/or power at my station most likely is not, prompting a shuttle bus or a fun walk down 35 flights of stairs, after the 11 block walk to get there. When it gets too hot out, the cables overheat and the trains don't run. In this case, I can take the Path train to Hoboken and catch a bus, which may or may not have A/C and takes about 40 minutes.

2. No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks... that's right folks, I have officially completed all of my credits towards my Masters degree with a very nerdy 4.0. Only one lousy $2500 prerequisite online course and $300 in graduation fees and a diploma I will have.

3. I just got back from Cabo San Lucas, and it was fabuloso. Pics soon, I swear.

Empire Trials!

Yesterday was the trials for the Empire State Games in gymnastics. I competed in 3 out of 4 events due to knee issues.

Vault: 8.05 (not bad considering a start value of 8.8 and I didn't train!)
Bars: 7.2 (missing difficulty, one break in connection)
Beam: 8.1 (missing flight series, no falls, a couple major bobbles)

These scores would have put me in 2nd place on bars and 3rd place on beam at last year's meet!

The games this year are way out in Rochester at the end of July. Not sure if it's worth the travel just to do a level 6 bar routine, but I had a blast yesterday.

Next stop: the knee doctor.

Weird...

Wow - it's so weird how accurate this is...
Crush Calculator

Louisiana Man Warns: Listening to Your iPod May Cause Hearing Loss!

Lawsuit: iPods may cause ... eh?

I don't know about you, but my favorite game is to see how long I can listen to my iPod at max volume before my eardrums start to bleed. How dumb can the government allow people to get?

I'm engaged!!

This ring looks a lot like mine, but I had to pilfer a shot from blue nile since I couldn't get a clear shot with my digi. More details to follow.

I Knew It!

If I do these, I never post the results, but I thought this was intriguing.

You Belong in London

A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock.A unique woman like you needs a city that offers everything.No wonder you and London will get along so well.

What City Do You Belong In?

New Year's Resolutions

1. Be better at keeping in touch with everyone
2. Spend more time doing things I love and trying new things
3. Keep a journal (by recommendation of my Great Aunt). Some may say a blog should be the journal, though I'm still convinced the rest of the world is on a "need to know" basis, and, for the most part, it doesn't "need to know".

A coworker of mine told me his "mantra of the year" yesterday that is also highly appropriate: No sh** in 2006. Words to live by.