Modeling Leadership

Leadership is a strange and wonderful thing. But what can I say about leadership that hasn't already been said countless times? I've taken courses on leadership, read dozens of books on it, given classes on it and I've been in positions of leadership. I've even taken to heart the saying that there is no training for leadership except leadership, meaning leadership can't be learned from a book, but it is learned and understood purely through one's experience with it.

I've come to learn, as anyone who has ever been in a leadership position, that one size doesn't fit all. I've had to use different styles with different people, and that's the way it should be.

Good leadership often goes unnoticed. But it can bring out the best in people, win battles, shape a nation or simply keep a person on the right path for their life.

Bad leadership never goes unnoticed. It does often get ignored, however. It, too, can bring out the best in people, but it can also be responsible for destroyed lives, frustrating work environments, and in many cases will break down the morale of a group to the point where no one even cares and the potential of the group to be a cohesive unit or the possibility of the true leaders in the group to rise up succumbs to the chaos that so quickly develops in this type of environment.

So, in keeping with the theme of understanding leadership, what about those people who think they understand how to lead, but really all they do is model what they've seen? What if it becomes obvious that they don't understand the principles behind the leadership they've been under or experienced? How does one handle that type of person?

That, I think, is one of the toughest questions to answer and one of the toughest types of people with whom to work.

One has to consider that this person is unprincipled in their leadership. They may not be unprincipled as a person, but they just don't understand the reasoning behind what they do. They are simply behaving like they thought they have seen other leaders behave. In their mind, they are doing everything right, which is normal from a psychological perspective.

And because they are the leader (in this case, they are really in a management position, not a leadership position) it's likely that they will attempt to use their position- instead of their principles- to preserve their power. There's is likely an inferiority complex involved in the person's psychological makeup, thereby creating a wall of defensiveness that is difficult or even impossible to break through.

So, I guess the real question is, how does one transform a bad leader into a good leader, or even a bearable leader? I'm not sure I know the answer to that. Every person is different. Every leader is different. And even reducing the entire debate down to rational, black and white issues that one can merely fix is entirely wrong.

But, even if the opportunity arises that you can "fix" the person, should you? Or should you just chalk up what you've learned from this person and use that experience to be a better leader yourself?

Difficult questions indeed. And unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

Arbitrary Softball

I've never really been into sports. In fact, in High School, I actually lettered in Chess, as you may know if you are a faithful reader. But, I do have some experience with pretty much every sport, as it seems that sports are almost a requirement to learn while in school.

The other morning, we were told to show up for PT almost an hour early to "cheer on the unit softball team." I'm down with that.

So, I show up and it turns out that "cheer on" means "play on." Great. Just what I've been dreaming of for months: the opportunity to demonstrate my lack of athletic prowess in front of my entire unit.

Turns out that mostly everyone was just pretty average. In fact, I was able to make two RBIs and got complimented on my outfielding skills by the Battalion Commander. I don't know, maybe his expectations were low because we were picked to be on the team at random.

So, it turns out that I'm now officially on the team and we have to play a couple times a week until June. I guess we'll see how that turns out, but I'm feeling like I need to head down to the local batting cage and get some practice.

The Shadow knows...

Yesterday was a very cool day for me. I did something that confirmed for me the direction I want to take my Army career.

For the past year, I've been tossing around the idea of whether or not I want to branch out into the medical field. The Army has a great P.A. program (IPAP) and I've kind of thought I might want to cross over into that field.

Psychological Operations isn't really working out for me, and I've only been in this job for about five months. Sure, being part of an elite organization is pretty cool and the training opportunities are second-to-none, but in the end I will have very few marketable skills, especially since I don't want to go into Marketing after I leave the Army in 6 to 13 years.

So, since I have the opportunity to talk with people that actually do the job I'm thinking about, I thought I would shadow some P.A.s and Nurses down at the Army Hospital. I had to get permission and all, but that was easy.

I worked for an extra four hours after my normal work schedule last night, just hanging out with the two P.A.s and the Nurses in the ER and I must say that what I saw of being P.A. has me totally stoked for becoming one. It is exactly what I want to do.

It fits my personality, my natural talents, my intellectual curiosity, and it is virtually recession proof. I don't think I could ask for more.

So, next year, I'll drop my packet (that's Army-speak for apply) for the IPAP program and we'll see what happens. I have a lot to do until then, but I have about 10 months until the deadline next year and I am totally going to need every day of it to get ready.

Keep up with our Adoption!

This is our Adoption Blog. Read it to keep up with where we are in the process.

In the meantime, I'm doing what every good parent is supposed to do and I'm preparing to be a parent as well as I can.

My current reading selection: Parenting the Hurt Child.

Great book. Really, really good. I would recommend it even for parents who have children the old-fashioned way.

Mah Rig

In the Army, we all wear uniforms. There are universal standards for wear of our uniforms, like what kind of boots we are allowed to wear, and there are local standards, like what kind of cold/wet weather gear we are allowed to wear.

This standard of uniformity exists everywhere in the Army. In about 99% of all units, what each Soldier is supposed to look like every day is prescribed in some kind of Commander's SOP. This applies for the uniforms and even the body armor that we wear. (Our body armor is modular now, so we can attach different types of pouches here and there, depending on the mission requirements.)

Now that I'm in Spec. Ops., my life isn't so ordered. Oh, I still have to look like everyone else does on a daily basis, but I actually get to "personalize" my body armor, which is pretty cool. I don't mean I get to wear flair, a la Office Space, but I do get to use whatever pattern and type of pouches I want and I can put them wear I want.

So, I started with two pouches. I have a pouch that I used to keep my weapon cleaning stuff in and today I bought a large pouch to hold my Camelbak bladder directly on my IOTV, instead of having to carry it around.

I don't quite have a vision for what I want this whole thing to look like, but I think I'm getting there. When I finish it,I'll post a picture.

Has it been that long?

What? Where have I been? Geez, I don't know. But topics are piling up in my brain screaming to get out. And I need to do something about that before my head explodes.

The Winner of the election is the Loser.

I've been following the election very closely. For a very long time, I was pretty sure that Obama was going wax the floor with McCain. McCain has run a very poor campaign, and quite frankly, on that criterion alone, he deserves to lose.

But, what we face in this election is definitely a different direction in the country, either now or in a couple years. The party that wins will be the losers.

Let's start with the Democrats first. Barack Obama is the most liberal/leftist candidate I have ever witnessed run for POTUS. He is an absolute socialist/Marxist. (His mantra of change is not a lie- most that are voting for him really don't understand the breadth of change that he will bring to this country.) The fact is, the Democrats essentially cheated to have BHO nominated. They nominated the most far left candidate possible. And if he wins, he will also have a Supermajority in Congress with which he can pass any law his socialist heart desires. And don't forget, he's not going to stop his leftist colleagues in Congress from passing whatever they want, either. The GOP will have zero say in the matter if the Dems get a filibuster-proof Congress.

So, what kind of bills will be passed? All you have to do is look at how BHO has run his campaign to see. Free speech will be drastically limited through passage of the Fairness Doctrine. In one case, the BHO campaign tried to silence a certain campaign from talking about voter fraud because they deemed what was being said as "false." (Does that matter? Once you have the power to silence truly false statements, silencing statements with which you disagree are not far behind.) If you look at how the station in FL was treated when they interviewed Biden in a way that the BHO campaign didn't like, then you might see a glimpse of what is to come.

And you can look at the tax cut/raise stories all over, about how his campaign has started to lower the top amount that will be taxed, from 300k getting tax hikes down to now 150k getting tax hikes.

Look at his associations, and you will see what kind of people he will surround himself with in office.

And so on.

But how is this a losing proposition for Obama and the Dems? As it always happens, the Dems will far overreach with the power that we will have given them. After passing punitive tax legislation, restricting free speech, socializing everything in their grasp, the American people will finally understand what Change BHO meant.

And because of that the GOP will have an extremely easy win in 2010 or 2012. And it is possible that they might actually stay in power for a long time this time.

Now about the GOP.

From 1994-2006, the GOP held a comfortable majority in Congress. But every election, it seemed the GOP slid toward bigger government, massive spending, etc. They have completely forsaken the principles upon which the 1994 Revolution was founded. The GOP practically refuses to fight against the Democrats, which has contributed to their loss and the trashing of the "GOP brand."

If the GOP wins, then the same people will remain in office. The GOP will remain stagnant and the Democrats will be able to regroup, learn from their mistakes (which they do much, much, much better than Republicans) and come back again with a vengeance in 2010 or 2012.

So, in a way, I'm almost hoping for a huge Democratic victory. If that happens, then the GOP's house will be cleaned out of the slackers and in 2010/2012, a new breed of Republicans that actually care about why they were elected will rise up from the ashes.

Why The Right hates John McCain

So, it's pretty much official now: John McCain is virtually the last man standing. Well, Huck is still around, but we know, and have always known, that he'll never make it. He's just in it to be VP or SecState or something. Thanks a lot, Huck. Thanks a whole lot.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about John McCain and been doing a little research on some of the stuff he's done. And if you read this blog (population: 3?) you know that I have a love for psychology and trying to fit things into that perspective. I think I've figured out why The Right hates John McCain.

No, it's not because of McCain-Liebermann (Global Warming) or McCain-Feingold (Campaign Finance Reform- CFR) or McCain-Kennedy (Immigration). Well, it is a little bit. As someone said, the attempt at bipartisanship was nice, but what did the GOP get out of those? (answer: nothing)

I think The Right hates McCain because they lack a perception of control over him. McCain mostly votes with the GOP. He's really not a conservative, but he is definitely a GOP. He's probably a little more to the left than W, but he is certainly a Republican. There is no denying that.

The problem that most people have over him (and they probably don't even realize this) is that they feel they can't control him, or more precisely, they can't really predict his behavior. He's not entirely consistent in his voting and legislation creation.

(If you know anything about our basic needs, you would know that the need for control is our most basic need. Forget food. Forget shelter. Forget reproduction. Perceived control is our most basic need. Without it, our health and mental state deteriorates rapidly and all kinds of other bad things happen to us.)

Take any other GOP senator. Let's say... just off the top of my head... Elizabeth Dole. I don't even have to look up her voting record to tell you that she probably consistently tows the party line and votes pretty consistently along GOP lines, doesn't try to work much with Democrats and if something came up, you could probably figure out which direction she would vote. Not every member of Congress completely consistently votes with their party, but a near totality do. You can reasonably predict the direction most of them will take on nearly any issue.

McCain, and a few others, are different. Joe Lieberman has the same problem on the Democratic side. He fairly consistently votes to the Left of Center, but sometimes, he stands up for something on the Right, and the Left then whine and wail and then things settle down until it happens again.

Basically, I think that The Right simply doesn't trust McCain. He's not predictable and therefore he somewhat messes up the little box most of them have their worlds packaged into. I personally think that McCain's leadership ability leaves a lot to be desired for this exact reason, but politicians really aren't leaders so much as they are managers. Most Americans don't really understand this, but that's another story.

What most people on The Right don't understand now is that there is really nothing that McCain loves more than his own power, which is pretty much like most other politicians (This is why CFR was passed). And to keep that power, he will need to appeal to The Right, which so far he has not done because he hasn't had to or desired to. But what they don't understand is that if he is elected President (Ha Ha Ha!) the control we would have over him, or the perceived control we would have over him, would be greatly increased. First of all, if McCain is elected, it is because the GOP elected him. If that is the case, then the GOP will have likely retaken Congress, which wouldn't send any bills to him that would anger his base. Secondly, if you remember what happened with the whole immigration thing last year, I'm sure it would happen again if McCain tried to pull any dirty tricks.

So, I think that if McCain could possibly convince The Right that he'll "be good" and tow the party line from here on out, he'd probably get a lot of mileage out of that and win a good portion of The Right back from the brink of leaving the party. The only problem is, he'd lose a lot of independents, which is exactly who gave him the nomination.

A Perspective on Political Persuasion

Here's an interesting take:

Look at it this way. You've been stranded on an island inhabited by people who look like you but who have strange beliefs. They think you get more jobs by raising costs on people who provide them. They think you get less poverty by paying people to prove they are poor. They think you move toward a color blind society by requiring people to check a box for "race" on official forms. They think a jury is better informed if evidence is withheld from it. They think war is best avoided by not preparing for one. They think voter choice is improved by outlawing ads paid for by citizens (with exceptions given to the candidates themselves and newspaper editors).

Can you guess to whom it refers?

Primary Predictions

If you've been paying attention, you'd know that it's basically a fight between Romney and McCain. I'm not going to go into all the details about how McCain has gotten to where he is or why this was Romney's race to lose or whatever else I've had on my mind lately. I just want to offer a few predictions as to what I think is going to happen on and after next Tuesday (Super Duper Tuesday).

1. Huckabee will not drop out before Super Tuesday. Everyone, including Huck, knows that he cannot possibly win. But, every vote for Huck is a vote for McCain, simply because Romney and Huckabee attract basically the same voting block. I smell something fishy.
   
2. If McCain wins the lion's share of delegates on Super Duper Tuesday, point number one will be why.
3. Because of this, McCain will pick Huck for VP. I suspect some sort of collusion.
4. As soon as it is absolutely clear that McCain is the nominee and there is no chance of anyone else getting it, the tone in the media will change. McCain will be MURDERED (no, not literally) by the MSM. No more love-fest for him. Ever heard of the Keating 5? Probably not. But you will. Did you know that McCain called his Vietnamese captors "gooks?" You will. Over and over again. Did you know that McCain had Melanoma? Oh, you certainly will. And you'll get worst-case scenarios all over the place about how he could have a recurrence of it.
5. If McCain's should candidacy should possibly survive the nine-month onslaught of vicious negative reporting and he happens to win the presidency, the millions of GOPers that contributed to his nomination will very quickly have a "Oh God! What have we done?" moment.
1. The Fairness Doctrine will be passed. Why? Because the Democrats will have a majority, possibly a Super-Majority in Congress, so even if McCain would veto it, they will over-ride it. I predict that he would sign it, as punishment to the conservatives who now are trying to mobilize the GOP to vote for Romney.
2. Shamnesty. Period. It will likely be the first law he signs.
3. Supreme Court justices? Ha! You think Bush had a hard time? Geeeez....
4. McCain will start his presidency with lower approval ratings than Bush had at his worst. The GOP doesn't trust him, even dislikes him. The MSM will ensure that McCain is well-hated by the GOPers that don't already dislike him. The Left hates him because he has claimed total credit for the success of the Surge, which has utterly embarrassed the Left on the subject of the war. McCain is in a Lose-Lose situation.
   
6. If it's McCain vs. Hillary, then McCain might possibly win because of the high negatives that Hillary has and the possibility of Nader or Bloomberg getting in the race and taking votes from Hillary.
7. If it's McCain vs. Obama, you can forget it. Obama will crush McCain. Easily. The debates will be like a train hitting a compact car.

Okay, so it looks grim now, according to my predictions. I hope I'm wrong and Romney pulls out a few victories on Tuesday so that the GOP doesn't all go into this big 5 year state of depression...

Long Overdue...

After Valentino died, we decided that we needed to honor his death by saving another kitten from the shelter. And we did just that.

Denise has always wanted a little orange kitty, so we went looking for one at our shelter. And we found one. Or rather, she found us.

We were walking down the aisle of cages and all the kitties and puppies were making all kinds of noise, "Pick me! Pick me!" they were saying....

But this one skinny little orange kitten was quiet, but stared us down, cocking her head to the side and pawing the glass with one paw, following us as we passed. Of course we had to check her out and she snuggled up to us, purring, as soon as we got her out of the cage. There was no going back after that. Our fate had been decided.

She sure was sickly, though. She had worms and fleas very bad, ear mites, too, and she was so skinny that we could see her ribs through her fur. Her face was "alien-like" as Denise would say. And after we got her first round of shots, she went through this funk and we thought she wouldn't make it. She quit eating and drinking and just laid around squeaking (barely meowing). We had to feed her kitten milk replacement for a couple of days before she came around.

She's a good cat now. Denise wanted to call her Dulce (Dul-che) which means "sweet" in Spanish, so that is her name.

She's still a little small. She's got huge ears and a very long tail, so we think she'll grow into them and maybe get to be just a bit smaller than Mr. Roboto (who is HUGE now!).

Dulce's favorite trick is to sleep on my face when I'm sleeping or watching TV. And she's very playful. She loves running around the house with her little stuffed animals in her mouth, growling at Mr. Roboto any time he tries to come near her. Every other day we have to go around the house and pick up all the cat toys that she drags out and carries around with her and put them back in their cat-toy basket.

Dulce and Mr. Roboto love to play. They chase each other around the house all the time, climbing on absolutely everything and making all kinds of noise.

Farewell, my faithful friend...

It is with great sadness that we had to put Valentino to sleep a couple days ago- a remarkably terrible coincidence, considering we lost Vincenzo only a couple months ago.

Valentino lost about five pounds since Vincenzo died, and we thought that it was because of some psychological "thing," maybe he badly missed Vincenzo, or he wasn't the alpha cat, so he didn't have "permission" to eat or something. We didn't really realize that Valentino had lost so much weight until one day, Denise began to notice that Valentino was looking rather bony, so I weighed him. That much weight was really more than just an emotional problem for a kitty, especially since we tried many, many kinds of cat food to see what he would like to eat, instead of the stuff we had been feeding him for so long. We found a couple of foods that he seemed to love, but after a bite or two, he would simply walk away, which is abnormal behavior for a cat.

Turns out that for the past few months, Valentino had been suffering from some kind of liver disorder, like liver cancer or some other kind of liver disease. The vet said we could aggressively treat his condition, but without guarantee of a relapse, especially considering his age: eleven. Basically, Valentino had been almost literally starving for months now, and we felt it was simply best to end his suffering. We feel very bad that we didn't catch this sooner and that he had to suffer as much as he did, but the vet did say that very soon and he would have started having seizures and other serious neurological problems. We are very glad that we will never have to remember Valentino in such a degraded position and that the last moments with him were relatively normal, him getting petted and held and loving every second of it.

I simply remember Valentino as an attention hog. He loved being petted and wherever we were, he was right there, snuggling up to us, purring his little heart out. Yeah, we called him psycho-kitty sometimes because he was so scared of everything, but that mellowed with age and while he never got completely over his skittishness, he became a very sociable cat.

I always loved how he jumped in my lap when I was on the computer, or he jumped in the bed with us and literally leaned against my side or chest, just to get petted.

He was always a finicky cat, but he loved a certain kind of cat treat and would come running when he saw the bag in our hands. I'll miss how he did that.

Valentino, I'll miss you, my friend. I know you are in better place, with no loud noises or sudden movements. I'm sure I'll see you again one day. I can't wait to pet you again.

Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto

Valentino, our striped cat, hasn't taken the loss of Vincenzo very well. He's been acting up, not eating, waking us up in the middle of the night and just being a general nuisance. So, the vet said that we should get another cat.

And we did.

We did our good deed for the week and went down to our local shelter and saved a kitty.

Denise wanted an orange tabby, and they had a few, but when she saw this kitty, she knew she had to have him.

He's a seal-point domestic shorthair. His brothers and sisters were all pretty much normal, average looking kittens, but he stood out, which is why I think Denise liked him so much.

So, since she picked him, I got to pick his name.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, I introduce you to Mr. Roboto! We call him Robo for short. As of right now, he's about 9-10 weeks old and he is as kittenish as can be. He's into everything, plays all the time and is one of the cutest things ever.

Of course, Valentino, pictured left, didn't like him very much at all at first. Lots of hissing, swatting and running away. But now it seems they are getting along a little better. Robo especially loves Valentino's tail and the more he bites it, the more Valentino swishes it around, which makes Robo even more playful.

Most of the time, Valentino just ignores Robo, even when he's getting bit all over. Occasionally, he'll fight back by giving him a swat and sometimes a bite, but Robo just keeps coming.

It's very cute.

Something Valentino has been doing is very cute. Robo will just get on his last nerve and he'll put his paw out against Robo's chest and keep him at bay, while Robo swings away. Of course, Valentino is a 15-pound cat and he's big, so it's like an adult putting their hand on a kid's forehead and allowing the kid to swing away, hitting nothing but air. It's very funny to see, but we haven't been able to get a video or picture of it.

Robo eats like a cow. He's only been in the house for about a week now, but he eats almost a full bowl of cat food a day. We think that Valentino has been sneaking Kitten Chow on the sly, but I've not seen it and Denise has only caught him once. But Robo's got a little fat belly and he's getting big now. He's healthy and happy. I'm very glad we got him, except for the fact that cats are nocturnal and they've decided that the best time to play is in the middle of the night when the humans are sleeping.

Valentino has been doing better, too. He's not as mopey and he's been eating more, though we've kind of had to read his mind when he's hungry and put his adult indoor cat food down and then take it up when he's done, because Robo seems to like Valentino's food a bit more than his own. Small price to pay, though.

And here is a video of our boys playing. Usually, they go longer than this, but this is a fair representation of what usually happens.

An interesting case of social engineering

I noticed an interesting thing the other night while I was watching television, in how certain "groups" of people are portrayed.

In African-American circles, there's a lot of outcry about how television wrongly depicts black people as this or that and how American television is actually responsible for a large portion of racism in modern America. From what I've seen and read, that is mostly viewed as borderline conspiracy theory. I'm not so sure I can say that television is responsible, but I do believe that television certainly perpetuates it, or at least doesn't do anything to abate the tide of racism that we have in our country. And really, I'm not so sure that it's television's job to conquer racism, especially Prime Time television. I certainly believe, however, that television should not be promoting racism as it appears to do on a regular basis.

In the past decade or so, a new "group" of individuals has been "showcased" on television: homosexuals. From what I've observed from the shows I've watched and the pop culture I understand, I've begun to see a bit of social engineering.

Just from what I've seen, I think that homosexuals are over-represented on television, just as much as black people are under-represented and stereotyped.

Basically, homosexuals represent a very, very small portion of the population, but they are represented through television in a large portion of shows. If you look at how often black people are represented, you will notice that black people are under-represented. Meaning, that, in real life, you will more likely run into a black person (about 17% of the population) than you will a homosexual (about 3-5%, according to most studies). In fact, it is a bit more likely you will run into say, an atheist (about 9% of the population), than a homosexual, but the representation of atheists on television is extremely small. Of course, that also leads to another question: Atheism is something you can't see, unlike race, as is homosexuality. Why is it such a big deal that some characters are determined to be characterized by something that is practiced in private? Does it really matter?

Additionally, something I've noticed is the kind of representation that homosexuals receive on television. Black people are generally represented as a kind of "token" character, like "we have to have a black person on the show, or else the show won't be believable." But, in a lot of these shows, black people are given every type of character, good and bad.

However, in all of the shows I've seen where a homosexual is in the cast, they are all cast as a "super-normal" individual. No crime. No hang-ups. Just a homosexual trying to make it through life, all the while letting everyone know that they are gay. Not only is this odd, it's completely illogical.

It is unreasonable to believe that homosexuals don't commit crime or don't encounter the same societal issues that the heterosexuals do and if they do have the same struggles as heterosexuals do, it is certainly unlikely that all of them come through it as easily or heroically as portrayed on television.

Why am I getting hung up on television when we all know television is fake? Because we don't all know that television is fake. Yes, we can intellectually understand that television is fake, but psychologically, when we are exposed to the same stimulus over and over again, fake or not, we tend to believe it as reality. We are basically conditioned by television every day of our lives.

So, am I saying that homosexuals shouldn't be portrayed on television as generally good people? Am I saying that homosexuals shouldn't be portrayed on television as much as they are? Not really. What I am saying is that it is completely ludicrous that homosexuals are being portrayed as often as they are, without all the problems that the rest of us face.

Of course, I don't watch every show on television, and I certainly don't watch every show that has a homosexual on it. So, it's possible that I simply haven't observed enough television to make an accurate statement. But, isn't that the point, that the television I do watch, about 2-3 hours a day sometimes, is approximately the same amount of television (at least!) that everyone else watches? Is it really fair that African-Americans get portrayed the way they do, usually with many issues, many times related to crime or poverty, but homosexuals are portrayed nearly as often as African-Americans, but without any of the hangups?

A Question for the Candidates

Obesity is an epidemic. The cost to treat health problems related to overweight and obese Americans is now in the billions. At least 34% of Americans are overweight and 32% of Americans are obese. This number is rising all the time.

As President, what will you do to curb this trend?

Some useful health links

I am trying to live a healthier life, so I've been trying some new things.

Fitness and Diet Journal
This journal is fantastic. And it's free. It is super easy to use. It is one of the best fitness tools I have ever used.
Pose Running
Well, if you have read this blog at all, you know that I have a love/hate relationship with running. I've never considered myself to be naturally good at it. Pose Running is the form taught to professional and Olympic athletes. It's not that easy at first, because there are all kinds of drills I have to do to understand the fundamentals of the technique, but I really think this is exactly what I needed to get through my running "problem."
Combat Swim Stroke
This is a bit interesting. Since I got hurt, I've taken up swimming and I got this video. It's kind of like a cross between a side stroke and a butterfly stroke (I think that's the name.) It's supposedly super-efficient and it's not too tiring. I'm still working on it, but I think I'm getting it down.
Rock Climbing
Yes, I finally went climbing last night and I loved it, as I thought I would. I recently bought a pair of climbing shoes, these, and they were wonderful! They didn't hurt my feet and they kept me on the wall like I had claws for feet. Of course, I hurt all over, but that will go away. I'll be joining the gym on payday so I can go whenever I want.

I recommend all these products.

lolcats

I love cats.

I also love pictures of cats.

I recently discovered something called lolcats. A good description can be found here and here.

Originally, most were created to use on forums, which is why many of them will talk about "threads" which is just another word for topic.

So, I'd like to share lolcats with you. The first entry on the top left of my blog is devoted to websites that have lolcats on them. Visit them. You will laugh. A lot.

You will need to understand "leetspeak," though. You can do a Google Search for other lists and explanations of leetspeak.

And below is one of my favorites:

Hi, I'm Matt. I used to play Video Games.

I've played video games for as long as I can remember. I played the Atari 2600, I owned an Atari 5200 and I also played the Atari 7800. Before any of that, I played the Commodore 64 and played something called The Magnavox Odyssey. I've owned every Nintendo console ever made.

I played Pong. I played Pac Man when it came out. Same for Space Invaders, Galaga, Centipede and Missile Command.

Video Games have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. And now they are not.

Basically, I think it was just time for me to grow up a little bit. I realized that my compulsion to play video games was causing me much trouble.

For instance, while I was deployed, I had a lot of time on my hands. What did I do? I played my favorite game of all time, Eve. It is, in my opinion, one of the best games of all time. I had a great group of folks I used to play with.

However, because I spent virtually every waking hour playing Eve, I did nothing else. No school work. No PT. No nothing. Instead of using the internet connection I had to get ahead on my degree, I used it to play video games. I deeply regret that.

My problem is, I get too involved. I've often thought that I might have an addictive personality, that I just get far too wrapped up in things, without considering other alternatives for my use of time.

When I got back from Kuwait, I made a decision that I would spend time with my wife first and then play video games. Or, I would only play video games a couple times a week.

Yeah.

That lasted about two weeks.

I quit playing Eve, but I started playing other games, like Dawn of War and Auto Assault. I thought I would be able to take it easy and play them just a little here and there. Within a month, I was doing the same thing.

So, after a few months, I, with a LOT of help from my wife, decided that I would simply stop playing video games. It's obvious I can't handle playing them.

See, video games of today, like Eve or World of Warcraft or Auto Assault, are designed to be addictive. Really, they activate the same area of the brain that drugs activate. Once you play, it's incredibly hard to stop. Plus, because we are social beings, the socialization that comes with online games keeps us coming back for more.

So, I made the decision that I would simply quit playing. It's been a couple months and I don't regret the decision.

Like a smoker, though, every once in a while I'll get a peculiar desire to play a game, specifically Eve. Most of the time, I'll just ignore it and it goes away. Sometimes, I'll visit the website and take a look at some of the game play pictures and I'll be fine. Those incidences are becoming fewer and fewer, though.

I've since replaced my addiction to game with several things, like working out and spending time with my wife. I've lost a bit of weight and I think my wife likes having me around now.

It's not a decision I regret.

Ode to our Doughboy

On Thursday, 17 May, we made the decision to put our cat, Vincenzo, to sleep. It was truly the only humane option.

He was throwing up a lot, urinating on the floor and acting very odd- laying around on the floor, not eating or drinking and not using the litter box. We took him to the Emergency Vet who thought it was just an infection. After force feeding him medicine, which did nothing, we took him to the Vet on Monday morning, who determined that he had a urinary tract blockage. The Vet put in a catheter for 48 hours and all seemed fine. On Wednesday, he took it out. By Thursday morning, he was blocked up again. The Vet gave us greater than 50% odds that he would experience more blockage if he put the catheter back in and surgery was too expensive- and also had high odds that the blockage would return. Since Vincenzo had been suffering for almost five days already, we decided that the most humane option would be to put him to sleep.

It was one of the hardest moments of my entire life. I don't think I've ever cried so much or so hard. My wife was surely more heartbroken. She's had Vincenzo longer than she's known me.

Vincenzo lived a good, long 10 years. He was an indoor cat, so he lived a life of luxury and never wanted for anything. We loved him and showed our love to him at every opportunity. He will be greatly missed.

Vincenzo, we love you and we miss you. We'll always remember how you loved to hang your front feet off the sofa, or sleep on our shoes, or the scale, or anything else that you could find on the floor. We'll miss how you waddled when you walked. We'll miss how you would remind us every night to brush you. We'll miss how you followed us to every room. We'll miss how you would let us know that your feeder was getting low several days in advance and how much you loved Clean Water Day. We'll miss how you came running for one thing: tuna juice.

But most of all, we'll miss your ever-present company and just knowing that you were always around.

I hope God has plenty of tuna juice and clean water for you in heaven.

We love you.