The Girl In The Window (you will cry if you read this)

I found this lengthy article at the site of one of my favorite writers, DOOCE (caps all mine), and have only been able to read about 2 pages at a time. Please hit the link at the bottom and read Heather Armstrong's comments, also.

It is about a young girl who was emotionally and physically neglected for the first 7 years of her life. The woman who gave birth to her did little else besides basic sustenance, if that, and this poor child had nothing to signal that she was living, alive, and a human, other than her form and a heartbeat.

I am not, but hope to be, a father. And be you a parent or not, this is a story about illness, humanity, compassion, and hope unlike anything I have ever read. It is heartbreaking and soaring. I have to make some stops on the way home, and look like I'm either about to cry, been crying, or Woody Harrelson-high.

What can the human heart endure, and what can't love conquer?

The Girl In The Window

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My Blog About My Dad

Lessons In Being An A-Pipe

The Brett Favre saga continues, as he tells the Packers earlier this year that he's leaving them, then tells 'em, "Hey... daddy's thinking he may wanna hit that sweet Green & Gold ass a little more, whaddya say?"

In the meantime, the Packers decided to move on, like any healthy dumpee in a relationship, and go with a younger, thinner, QB who may need some development but is surely the way of the future.

So Brett needs attention. And he's had it for a month now. A lot of it. Overshadowing the entirety of the kickoff of the NFL season. It's not about the Packers, it's about Brett Favre. This is showing a side of Favre I don't like, which is too bad because he's a Hall of Fame lock for sure. But now he will also be remembered for waffling like this.


Another case in point, some Fart-in-Human-Form that I work with. Gawd, this guy...

Sure, he's under pressure from his boss to handle things. We all are. It's called WORK. I have some. I'm not doing it right NOW, but I have some.


See, when a guy decides that his work is of the utmost importance, he narrows his view of the world and sees only his target. And once he begins to swing wildly the arms of panic because somebody said "Uh... we need that sooner," then everyone not in his view gets hit. And until the hitting stops, the work done by everyone else suffers.


The past week has been a suffering at the end of the flail. Every email leads to a 45 minute call across 4 schedules. Every voicemail leads to a 90minute call across 15 schedules. And now... now this fella sends a round of emails to 10 people, and in the amount of time it would take one of above-normal intelligence (and twice-above-normal Handsomeness) to read the thread and make sense of something with a subject line of "Support For Group,"

The DiaperLoad calls me to reiterate what was in his email...
Because I guess I have nothing else to do...
And work only to serve him...
Which means, likely...
He's not married.


So yeah, if you wanna be an A-hole, that's a phenomenal way to do it. Demand, demand, demand, and then when your turn comes up, act like you deserve it.


Oh, and double-clicking your pen (tk-tk... tk-tk-tk-tk...) and bouncing your leg all day are not "activity," they are nervous habits for which you should have a crayon taped to your hand and your ankles duct-taped together. For crying out loud, WHY CAN'T I JUST COME OUT AND SAY THIS???


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The Work Is Out

Interval training.
Tha SHIZZ.

Do you have 90minutes to work out?
NO.
If you do, you have an incredible body, and seriously flabby personality.

You know how that Stop & Go driving burns gas outta yer car, so you don't wanna do that?
That same principle holds true for Interval Training.

High-Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, or sHIIT, is what you're gonna wanna be doing from now on for your work-'em-out regimen.

What happens is you max out your effort for a short period of time, say for 20 seconds. Then rest for a minute, let your body recover, and then you blast it again. You're shocking your body into action, and it responds by releasing a lot of growth hormone and other stuff I can't spell, all of which lead to your body looking for every available energy source not strapped to a tendon and to a bone. Such as adipose tissue, or "body fat," or "the place where feelings go and people don't." Not saying you have any, just sayin' that IF YOU DID... you're gonna wanna HIIT it.

Again, who would you rather look like?
Wrong picture. Sorry.
ANYwho...

I subscribe to TurbulenceTraining. I bought the program earlier this year, and here's what it's done for me...
1) I'm leaner than I have ever been, dropped about 4% bodyfat in 3 months. Could have done better, but that's my fault with my diet and thinking I could eat cheese without any adverse affects. There's a great nutrition plan included, which I followed for the past 2 weeks and ripped another 3lbs off.
2) My cardiovascular shape is better than ever. I did 7 full-bore hill sprints this morning (12% grade) and jogged the mile home. Sweating? You bet. Dying? Nope.
3) Strong? Uh... MAJORLY. This is both a cardio and anaerobic (muscle-building) program, so you will be getting a full body workout in under an hour. The longest I've spent on a workout here is about 55min. I was screwing around for a good 15 of that, so again, you will do better than I.

So yes, I promote Craig Ballantyne's "TurbulenceTraining" program whole-heartedly. If you want to work out 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, you go ahead. If you have any energy left when you're done, me and the rest of the HIIT'ers will be hanging out with the sexy crew.

By the way, Craig is a devotee of his own program. He looks like this...

I don't.
Yet.


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My Blog About My Dad