Wasatch Back- Ragnar Relay Series

At the beginning of the year I set two goals for myself: get in shape and keep a journal. Instead of a journal I decided to do what all the cool kids are doing and start a blog. As you can tell by my FOUR blog posts that that goal did not last long. I am proud to say that my exercising did last a little bit longer...maybe even a whole month longer. Needless to say, I did not stay on the wagon long. There have been a few times in which I have tried starting my exercise routine up again only to awake the next day wondering if I got ran over by a car instead of spending a half hour on an elliptical.

Over the past month or so though my sister-in-law has been bringing up the "Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay Series." The concept, she explained, was that it was a really long race that could take about 24 hours or so to complete. Obviously, one person would not run the entire race but instead you have a team of runners who take turns and run about 3 different legs in the race each leg being about 3-4 miles long. The way she explained it seemed as if it wouldn't be too hard. Yes, I would have quite a bit of work a head of me to get in shape, but maybe this is exactly what I needed to get my butt in gear. So I decided to look more into this relay race. It is a 187.9 miles long. I did the math. If our team had 6 runners, each running 3 legs of the race, that is still 10 and a half miles EACH LEG. The other thing I learned tonight is that my sister-in-law is apparently an exceptional salesman...or women.

However, I am determined to do this. So I went on a "run" tonight. I left my apartment at about 9:06 and when I got back home the clock read 9:32. I was gone for 26 minutes. Of those 26 minutes I might have jogged for a total of 12-15 minutes. The distance? No idea. A couple miles at most. All I know is that about half way through I felt an uncontrollable urge to heave. I think the only think that stopped me was that I was so thirsty that maybe it made my throat too dry for anything to actually travel inside of it. But after finding out that I will be running 3 legs of about 10 miles each, quite frankly, I am screwed. At the time my sister-in-law was telling me about this race I wanted to establish that our family wasn't actually going to try and win the race or even finish in the top 50 percentile. I assumed as much seeing how they were, after all, extending an invitation TO ME to join the team. However my new concern has stooped to wondering if I will even be able to FINISH the race. But I am hoping that I will be able to continue with my exercise and blogging goals. I will continue to try and post on here to keep a record of my progress. We will see what happens!

Who does Obama think he is?

So last night was Obama's big speech to congress, or the United States, or...who cares, really. Ya, I'm sure he had some important stuff to say but nothing that would affect me. I'm one of a few people who will remain untouched by whether it is a republican or democrat in office since I'm single and don't make a lot of money. There's not really too much that affects me, unless there's a draft of course.

ANYWAY, the main reason I have called this meeting is to discuss my first moment of frustration I have had with Obama (well first since he's actually been in office). So last night he had is "important" speech on. However, last night was also a Suns game with the big return of Borris Diaw and Raja Bell to the valley since they were traded. And like every Suns game, I was looking forward to watching it. But as game time neared, I realized my roommates were watching TV already. And let me clarify...I realized my roommates were watching MY tv. Oh, and there is another TV IN THE OTHER ROOM at my house, but no, they watch mine. And what were they watching might you ask? Not the Suns game! Nope, they were watching the "important" speech. But whatever, I hadn't been to the gym yet today, so I figured instead of putting up a fuss, I'll go the the gym and watch the game while I work out. I mean, after all, my gym has 10 different tv's, so the game has got to be on. So I get to the gym and start looking around to see what tv has the game on. And I kept looking, over, and over again. Mostly just because I couldn't believe that NOT ONE tv, IN ARIZONA may I remind you, had a PHOENIX SUNS game on! Nope, not one! But you know what they did have on? On EVERY tv?? That's right, this "important" speech. 10 tv's and EVERYONE with Obama! And so I asked the nice staff if they might be able to change ONE tv to the Suns game. I got a look that made it seem as if I asked this staff member to help me loose 100lbs in a half hour workout. But they were "unable" to change the channel since this is what everyone wants to watch tonight. Apparently "everyone" means "some" now.

Affection vs. Attention

Yay, so I have a new psychological development I once again come up with while I was with my friend from work. I think I need to keep him around, he seems to be a good source of contemplation.

So he was talking about his lovely, but more so psycho ex-wife. And I was talking about this girl who I have had sort of a on again, off again relationship with. Both of these girls we both concluded desire attention. His ex-wife he said didn't even care what kind of attention she got, as long as she got attention. And I will be the first to admit that I am a sucker when it comes to women, and this girl I'm pretty sure has realized that. She likes to drop those lines where she is fishing for attention, the kind like "I don't think I'm very pretty." Ya...that crap. In fact she just texted me with one now...but because I'm a sucker I usually bite and give her the attention that she longs for.

Now, my friend and I are both very different in our habits, or really how we handle women. He is the type of guy that is fairly hands off, doesn't give out a lot of attention, not the super affectionate type. Where as he likes to make fun of me and call me "needy" when I just think of myself as affectionate. And maybe it's justification for myself? But in the course of this conversation with my friend, to distance my personality from theirs (since there are some similarities) I realized the difference is affection vs. attention.

Both of these girl required attention to be given to them; some people just have to have it. While there are those of us who love to give attention (I call it affection, it makes me feel better about myself).

Conclusion: I waist a lot of time with this girl. For as much as I love to give affection, it wares if the person you give it to only takes and never returns. So I end up purposely trying to make her mad so she'll stop talking to me. It's actually quite fun to do, and I'm quite good at it. Ask my mom, I knew EXACTLY how to push her buttons growing up...

Cords and My Bachelorness

So yesterday we had two new roommates join us glorious in our bachelor pad. Along with them came some extra toys to join my band of mind numbing, pleasure increasing electronics. So now in our family room we have the combination of my 52" LCD TV, Surround Sound, Blu Ray Player (compliments of Mommy and Daddy from xmas), Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 which was joined by their Playstation 3 and Apple TV. So pretty much we have enough electronics stuffed into my entertainment center to make any Best Buy home entertainment center drop to its knees and shed tears of shameful resentment. Now adding these two devices proved to be slightly more of a challenge than I had originally thought (this could have something to do with my sporadic OCD occurrences). But it took my about 30-45 minutes to arrange and rearrange the devices and their cords so that everything would fit right in the entertainment center. And as I took a step back after all was completed I noticed the extensive maze and entanglement of cords that were spewing out from behind the television. And since I've started this his new way of keeping a record of the random things that occur in my life, I thought I'd take a picture and write about it!

But I got to be honest, I really don't think the pictures does it justice! But as I sat back at stared the glorious mess of cables I realized that as far as the entertainment center goes, this one has pretty much reached the pinnacle of its Bachelorness. and I must admit that I am quite proud of the fact!

Now after this proud moment of mine I made a trip to my room and as I looked around (and since I already had cords on my mind) I noticed the explosion or long, skinny, bendable and flexible awesomeness coming from the four corners of my room...

Here is my guitar system with amps and cords...not a lot, but cords none the less...

This is part of my new electronic drumset. And being electronic it has a lot of cords for each drum part, the foot pedals, headphones, power cord, audio input, etc...you get the idea.

And then my desk the computer and recording devices I hook up to it, printer, speakers, TV, DVD player and again...you get the idea. 

And then since I was on this kick of all the different cords I have in my collection, I remember the mother load of cords, the ultimate collection bachelorness...

My DJ Gear!! Now this picture TOTALLY doesn't do it justice, but I wasn't about to spend another half hour just to set up my DJ gear to take a picture of all the cords. But I would say there are an easy 25-30 cords that are used to set up this system. And for some odd reason...I feel strangely satisfied by that.

But if cords can on some level represent your level of bachelorness, then I, my friends, have reached the pinnacle of it!

Progression vs. Regression and the First Black President

Let me first start off by saying that in no way do I have anything against having someone who's black lead our country. I am with the majority of the population of the world even that believes it is a break through of monumental proportions. Now that being said...

I was listening to the radio this morning, sports 620 KTAR with Doug and Wolf. It's a radio show here in the valley of Arizona that my brother and I listen to every day on the way to work. They were talking about our new president and how Doug was bothered by the possibility that Obama was elected president simply because of the color of his skin. Again, having a black president does not bother me, but I too am troubled by the possibility that that was an underlying cause of why he was elected, and not because of character. And Doug elegantly stated what I have thought all along but was not able to say as well as him. He talked about how everyone believes that by having our first black president, it shows huge leaps and bounds our country has made and the huge progression that has taken place. He and I both don't disagree; however, believe that it does not show true progression. He brought up the subject of blacks in sports associating it with the Steelers head coach who is black who brought his team to the Super Bowl this year. Now the fact that he is black has absolutely no bearing on the media. No one cares that he is black, only that he did a good job this year coaching this team. So Doug posed the question...which shows more progression? A big deal being made about the first black president, or that fact that color isn't even an issue with this coach? I strongly feel the latter is the higher of the two. Again, both great strides, one is greater than the other.

Now the rebuttal brought by Wolf on the show was that since this is the first black president, it becomes I big deal. It was an excellent point made and one that cannot be refused. Jackie Robinson, the first black player in baseball, was and is still a huge deal, again, because he was the first. However, no one today thinks twice when they see a black player in baseball or really any sport for that matter.

Now Obama being black had absolutely no bearing on my vote during the election. There are many things about him that far surpassed McCain as well as the other way around. However, there were many people interviewed during the inauguration of Obama who were so excited because he was going to be the first black president. Exit polls the day of election everywhere reported a massive, even unheard of turnout of black people to vote. And you only need one guess who they voted for. If the pure fact that it was a black man running for office that made these voters all of a sudden decide to vote then I do feel that's wrong. Now they are talking about the progression of this country when they wouldn't have even exercised their freedom, privilege and right of democracy if Obama hadn’t been running for office. That to me shows anything but progression.

My First Bit of Nonsense

So with my wealth of knowledge I have obtained from my grand total of 4 Psychology classes I've taken (haha) I've started to try and develop my own psychological theories. A lot of these theories are developed while I talk to one of my friends I work with. Neither of us know whether these theories are actually true and correct, but that's really not the important part...But I guess I come up with a lot more theories than I thought seeing how I don't remember pretty much any of them, but he does. So this is one of the reasons why I started blogging (this is the part you can now leave to read someone else's blog).

So here is the latest theory based off the question that so many of us guys wonder...why do really hot girls date jerks?

Here is my theory: Girls who are extremely beautiful put a lot of work into looking that way. This can be a sign that they look for and even require approval because they spend so much time on themselves. We all like to make ourselves look good. There are very few of us out there that spend absolutely no time in front of a mirror. I myself, will even put in an extra 5 min on myself and do things like shave and even (only if the girl is super special) put gel in my hair. But there are some of us that go above and beyond the call of duty. However, this is only one piece of the puzzle. To get the full picture, the girls that date jerks more than likely probably don't have the healthiest self esteems. When you couple that factor along with their search for approval which manifests itself through the amount of time they spend on themselves, it amplifies exponentially their desire for approval. And so now you have a very beautiful lady (that all guys are attracted to) out for an abnormally high sense of approval.

Now you have to analyze the nice guys versus the jerks. I myself am one of the nice guys. My mommy has taught me well how to respect and care for women (opening doors, complimenting, making eye contact when you talk to them, bring them flowers, all that stuff). Now nice guys are very easy to get approval from. If we find a beautiful lady, we will of course take very good care of them and compliment them, let them know we care for them, etc. However, that is too easy for this type of women. The type of women that dates jerks are only out to conquer the world so to speak. The nice guys are easy to conquer, why would they settle? They need to conquer everyone. So when the nice guy is too easy, the move on, until they eventually find the jerk. Now that they have found them, the jerk is not going to be nearly as likely to do the things that the nice guys do, thus leaving the thirst for approval from these women, unquenched. And now the girl and the jerk are stuck in an epic, eternal battle; the girl awaiting the approval from the jerk and too stubborn to give up, and the jerk never willing to give in.

Should I feel like I just wasted my time typing that out? Oh well...it was fun :p

The First Post- Why I Gave In

Ok well after months of hearing my sister in law talk about her blog and everyone else’s...and feeling like my family never includes me in any of the big family news (because apparently they ONLY post things on the blog now since apparently phones are things of the past) I decided why not...I'll give it a try!

One of my new year’s resolutions this year was to write in a journal. I have many reasons for this, none of which include the idea that people actually want to hear what I have to say. However, other reasons include the obvious of things like to keep journal of things I've done for posterity (now I'm back to assuming there will one day be people who want to hear what I have to say) and also to keep track of some of those crazy thoughts I have floating around inside of my head. And even now as I sit here typing away, every time I stop, I ask myself, "am I really doing this?" Yes, yes I am, and to simplify things, here is a list why:

1. New Year's Resolution to keep a journal
2. For posterity
3. Therapeutically- As I've learned in one of my recent psychology classes that keeping a journal (which in this day in age you might as well just call it a blog) is a very good psychological benefit
4. I have a lot of those random thoughts in my head that keep me entertained. But they are those sorta thoughts that no one else really cares to hear about...and I don't know where I'm going this...let's just call in nonsense
5. To write a book- One of my room mates has recently started blogging as well. He said that he did it because he one day wants to write a book and he was told one of the best ways to get ready to write a book is to start blogging. And it is one of my major goals in life to write a book (assuming that when that time comes I will actually have something worthwhile to share with the general population)
6. Maybe there will be some of those crazy people out there who will actually want to read what I have to say? Though I'm assuming that that list won't extend past family

So thus begins my adventure in blogging, we will see how long it lasts. And if you get bored after the first two sentences and leave to go read someone else's blog, I will not be offended. Unless it's someone's like Lindsay Lohan's or Tom Cruise's...then I'll be pissed...