Runester

Well, my diet is pretty much on a holiday hiatus. I haven’t binged or anything, but I’m not sticking super close either. Part of it is the desire to enjoy shared meals with others, from the office pizza party to the upcoming Christmas dinner with Lisa’s mom. The other part of it, is the odd ‘out of the normal routine’ these two weeks always elicit. In any case, I’ll probably have two or three “Christmas Pounds” to lose before I’m fully back on track.

In other news, I’ve going podcast crazy! I started with one or two RPG related podcasts, but now have been listening to a podcast about ‘real women’ from Leann, and to a couple of music podcasts. The music podcasts, especially “Well Made Music” reminds me of the college / indie music shows that used to be on 89X radio in Detroit - back when alternative music was actually alternative and not just another variation of pop. This music is totally different, but the sense of musical exploration, of being introduced to something that I’ve never heard before and to a whole music scene that is ‘not from here’ is certainly present. And, the host Neil, has a cool Scottish accent.

The only downside to this amazing wealth of resources and communities and podcasts available online is how easy it is to live in a bubble completely unique from anyone else around you. In other words, there are over a thousand people listening to “Fear the Boot” - but I’m the only one living in my area. The same goes for “Well Made Music” and probably some others. Some activities are funner to do in groups, but that’s hard when the ‘group’ you belong to is geographically dispersed around the world.

Interestingly enough, the “House of the Harping Monkey” has a virtual inn in the online world called “Second Life.” They’ve had meetings there and used that shared virtual space to meet listeners and fans whom they’ve never met in RL (real life). Is this the harbinger of things to come? Is this some indicator of trends that will continue or just a momentary fad that will fade when people ‘get serious’ and pull out of their virtual lives? Who knows? It just occurs to me that the pull of human hearts and human minds to form communities of interest and families of intention is stronger then geography.

Well, I did OK this week, but not great. I made it to the gym on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday but not today (Thursday). I can help my record by making it in tomorrow, though!

I’ve already seen a marked increase in performance. I realize that I’m just reactivating dormant muscle fibers - but it’s nice to see the weights and the reps both go up.

The Restaurant Fire

While I was in Michigan, I was able to take some pictures (with my Treo700p) of what was left of Izzy’s Bistro, and the restaurant where my father works now, Jack’s on the Waterfront. I was also able to find a couple of pictures of Izzy’s before the fire, from an old website some previous owner had set-up.

Izzy’s Before the Fire

Izzy’s After the Fire

Jack’s on the Waterfront

I’m just wrapping up a very pleasant weekend spent with Lisa. We went and saw the new James Bond flick, “Casino Royale” - and it was very good! Daniel Craig makes a great James Bond, and this film really seems to be getting back to the roots of action hero instead of gadget-guy. Well, done.

I wasn’t exactly on-diet this weekend, though Saturday was my “day off” and I did pretty good on Sunday (well, there was that piece of pumpkin pie!). Tomorrow morning, I’m back in the gym and back on track. I can say I’ve lost what little weight I gained before my two (2) weeks in vacation in Michigan. Everything from this point on will be new progress.

After speaking with my brother about his business ventures this weekend I learned something new and disheartening. Nothing is ever as easy and straight forward as you hoped. He does research on a business and gets to know the current owner and looks at the books and assembles his co-investors and then … the soap opera begins. These facts were hidden and that person who hadn’t even made an appearance before decides to cause trouble now, etc., etc., etc.

The point? That the hard part of being an entrepreneur is not the financials or the operations or even the risk. The hard part is managing the intangibles and the constant background level of chaos that exists. Do you know why you’ve never read that in a book on business management? Because while high-falutin’ intellectuals are theorizing about how business should be managed with fancy whiteboard diagrams, the reality is stuffed up toilets in the women’s room and a vindictive ex-employee spreading rumors to your regulars.

I am happy to report that I’ve made it to the gym twice! That’s more this week then in the last two (2) years! May not sound like much, and to someone who works out all the time like my brother, it’s pretty amateurish - but it’s not bad for me.

I did legs and abs today, plus twenty minutes on the bike. The only part that was pitiful was the abs. Next time I’m going to use one of those Elasti-Balls and really get the range of motion to flex my abs. Lying crunches just didn’t do much.

Monday, of course, is upper body again.

OK, so I made it to the gym yesterday but not today. Why? Well there are some excuses but no valid reasons. Excuse 1, it was my game night and I didn’t get home until after 10:30 PM. Excuse 2, I stayed up to watch Medium (which had been TiVo’ed) and didn’t get to bed until after midnight. Excuse 3, I woke up too late and too tired to prep and go. The truth is, I could have made myself get up around 8:00 AM and go to the gym. I would have been running late all day (which I ended up, anyway!) but at least I would have gotten in.

Anyway, nothing special going on tonight which means I shouldn’t have any challenges to doing my night-before prep, which will make tomorrow morning easy (again). I’ll build this habit one day at a time, whether it kills me or not. Stay tuned.