Partisanship is a good thing

Here in the States we've recently had our Congress hold the Attorney General in Contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents relating to a weapons walking program that the ATF was running.  Basically, the ATF lost track of a goodly number of the weapons and at least one of them was used in the murder of a Federal Agent.  Not too surprisingly, the vote went largely down party lines, although several Democrats defected and if I recall correctly one Republican abstained.  The cries were raised, even before the votes, that partisanship was rearing its ugly head again, and the people should be outraged.

Personally, I'm deeply thankful for it, and I rather wish we had more of it.

Obama-care Ruling

I will start this out by saying I was at first disappointed and confused by the US Supreme Court's ruling on Obama-care.  At first, it really didn't make sense to me and I was joining in with the crowd who were screaming about a massive increase in government power, and how there was now no limit on it because all they had to do was tax you on something to try and force you to do it.

Right now, I'm feeling glad that I made myself take a step back and think about it, because if you look at it honestly and openly, we've let Congress have that power for years and years, it's just been phrased differently.

Congressional Approval ratings in the US

Yeah, I have politics on the brain again, or more accurately the way they're covered here in the US.

Taxation in the United States

Yeah, it's a mess.  While we're far from alone in having a screwed up tax system, it's the one I deal with so it's the one I care the most about.  All this talk of the Buffet rule lately got me thinking about it, and apparently I'm in the mood to write today :-)

Meh

Not a whole lot to report.  Market's been in kinda a slump so not a lot happening there.  I've been slacking a bit on the exercises, which is part of the reason I'm posting today, writing about it tends to help me remember to do it ;)  Costume might not make it due to finances, but there's still hope if I can find something suitable at one of the local Goodwill type places.  Might check on my way home tonight, we'll see.

Victory!

Made my first stock sale today, 21% return in a little over a month.  Taxes are going to take a chunk of course, but at my current bracket it won't hurt much.  Probably could have gotten more, but didn't feel like pushing my luck.  Putting the money right back to work, maybe someday this silly hobby of mine might actually turn out useful.  Can't really afford to just throw a ton of money at it, so I just toss a little at a time in the fund and let time and patience pay off.  It'll take a while, but five or six years down the road I might be able to use it to treat us to something special now and then.  Not looking to get rich off of it, it's just a combination of fun and a way to make a little fun money on the side.

Insert clever title here

Been slacking a little on the exercise lately.  Need to get back into it.  Hopefully going to bed extremely early last night will help, been staying up to late lately and it was starting to wear on me.  The Daylight Savings Time change didn't help either.

Woot!

Managed to remember to weigh myself this morning.  Down a few pounds, nothing huge but as much as I could have expected.  It's very much possible it could just be a timing thing, but  I'm going to take it :-)  Now I just need to keep things up, keep slowly building up the exercising and getting my eating under control.  Progress is good, continuing progress is better!

Not much to see here

Somehow this is turning into a blog about me exercising....weird

Anyhow, actually got off my duff this weekend and did some crunches and pushups.  I was not pleased with the pushups.  I know it's been a long time, but I still thought I'd be able to do more then I did.  Going to have to work on that.  It's a silly thing to judge myself on I know, but still.

Still managed to forget to weigh myself. I think I'm going to have to pick a different day/time so I get it done.

The good news is I can tell some minor differences already.  Might be all in my head, but anything that keeps me going seems like a good thing in my book.

Urg

Managed to pull a muscle in my side while doing desk exercises a while ago.  It's better now, but just goes to show I rather need to be doing this.  Also managed to forget to weigh myself Friday night like I was supposed to.  I'll have to send myself home with a note or something.

The good news is I was able to chain together a nice string of exercises yesterday over my lunch break.  Still nothing impressive, but it's a sign that I'm improving.  Soon I will no longer be a mouse potato!

A bitter Twinkie to swallow

I was checking my Yahoo email a little bit ago, when I noticed an article about Hostess union workers threatening to strike.  Being a curious guy who likes his treats I decided to check things out.  What I found rather surprised me, although maybe it shouldn't have.

Status report

I'm finding this useful to keep myself motivated, so I think I'll keep it up.

Slowly ramping up the reps on my desk exercises, which I'm taking as a good sign.  Basically going at them until it begins to be something I have to push myself to do, then going a little further.  Not going too far past since it's been a while since I exercised for real and I don't want to hurt myself, but making a point of keeping track and making sure that it's actually an effort, since it's kinda pointless otherwise.

Nothing to see here, move along

Posting mostly because I feel like it.

Progress!

Bought some new jeans over the weekend.  Yay new clothes!

Well, pants.

It counts.

Seriously, it counts as progress.

Okay, okay, I'll get more.

Soon.

Honest.

Random things

Just a few random things:

Just a couple days after saying that I wanted to work on my ego's resilience the hot water heater at home dies.  That was a nice chance to work on that, thanks Universe.  Working on getting it replaced now.

Working on getting a generic Mad Scientist costume together for Demicon, a local Sci-Fi/ Fantasy con I go to every year.  Actually helping out with it this year, mostly because I wasn't happy with how it turned out last year.  D's actually doing a block of children's programming for them, and I'm helping with that and providing whatever support they want from me, most of that to be determined.  Nothing too fancy, lab coat and some gadgets most likely.  I'm slightly sad I can't find a lab coat like the one they used in Dr Horrible, but the more I think about it the more I wonder if it's some kind of butcher's coat given the way it buttons.  Hrm.  Possibly more on that in a later post.

Actually have started working on the exercising thing.  Nothing major, just some random exercises at my desk when I think of it, which has actually been fairly often.  Not as effective as a concentrated exercise routine would be, but a lot better then the nothing I've been doing.  It's something I'm more likely to stick with, and hopefully it will help me move into a real workout.

That's about all I can think of for now, so It's Posting Time (Cue Power Ranger's pose and music).

My name is Wil, and I'm a geek.

Yeah, just in case you hadn't figured it out.

What brings that up this time is the source of a personal revelation.  Yesterday I was watching 'Yu Gi Oh the Abridged Series' and had an interesting little epiphany about myself.