Busy, busy.

Got back in town last night at 8:30 after being in Orlando for 4 days. House settlement is early next week, we think.

EU continues to help keep poor people poor.

By restricting the free movement of people, primarily from Africa, who's only means of air travel is deemed unsafe.

I wonder if they recognize at all that the people on these airlines do so of their own free will, and are willing to take additional risk to travel. I wonder if they even considered the possible consequenses of this ruling.

Yessssss!

This is great news!

It starts to make up for some of the rulings we've seen over the past few years.

Required Reading

Great stuff on the Source of Wealth at Coyote Blog.

When you see the sad stories on Oprah about the poor people wherever they are, refer back to this. The solution is allowing people to use their minds more freely.

Don't they have anything better to do?

Seriously.

And why is poker bad, but state lotteries good?

Thing is, with the current Congress, this could pass.

Look out! It's a training post!

Worked up to a much harder than it should have been deadlift of 405 today. Did some light supplemental and accessory stuff.

I pretty much need to start things over - as usual, two steps forward, one step back. My conditioning sucks, I've been eating like a fool, so the most impressive part of my physique is my belly. I have to get back into shape, get my work capacity back up, and get back to it. It will be a couple of weeks before I really get back on track because of work and settling on the new house.

Workout report is in the log here.

Shocking News!!

The Republican led Congress allows itself to spend more money. You know, those smaller government fiscal conservatives.

Well, it is an election year.

Top Down, Baby!!!

Today is probably my favorite day of the year. Why March 10, you ask?

Well, it's not specific to the date, it's the frst day of the year I can put the top down on my converitble. According to my reading, it's 76 sunny degrees today.

Got up early, got some work done, washed both cars, and got into my office around noon. I actually wanted to drive in instead of work form home, it gave me an excuse to drive my car! With the top down, baby!

Training Update

Believe it or not, I trained today.

Worked up to a pretty easy 315 bench, then did some DB pushin', some tuggin', and walked on the treadmill because I am fat and out of shape.

Details here.

Odd rules lose customers

I'm a Verizon Wireless customer. Have been for many, many years. Frankly, in my area of the world, there is no comparison to the coverage and signal of any other carrier (at least, until fairly recently). Verizon has always been reasonable, I don't have service issues, they provide a good value for my hard earned dollar.

I'm required to carry a cell phone for work, and as such, my very, very, very large company reimburses me a portion of my cell phone bill. I recently received approval to spend more money on a data plan, so I can now go get a Smartphone or a Blackberry.

My plan: Get a Treo 650, bump up my plan from 1350 minutes to a plan that is 1350 minutes and unlimited data (an additional approximately $30 per month). Our IT guy is in the office today, so he can get me up and running with e-mail on my smartphone, and I become more productive.

One little snag - I upgraded my phone in September, so I am not eligible to upgrade my phone until next September. I stop in the store, thinking this should be no big deal, since I'm adding a data plan, and I work for a very, very, very large company that spends lots of money.

Apparently, it's a big deal. I can not get the phone on my current plan. I can, however, get the phone on a new plan - so instead of having a smartphone I use as a phone and PDA, I can have my cell phone with my current plan, and I can have a smartphone on a data only plan. The cost difference - the data plan is $50 a month. Of course, that's now a 2 year deal, so I would end up in this never ending cycle of carrying multiple devices.

Now I understand why they have the upgrade time limits, but don't you think they could reason past the rule to see that I'm going to spend $350 now on a phone and $180 more on service if I get the Treo today, vs not spending anything extra until September? Are they taking more than $180 loss on the phone? I can get the phone from Palm with no service agreement for $519.

From the Little Things That Irritate Me file:

A recent study finds that:

A mere 28 percent of Americans can name more than one of the "five freedoms" granted by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Why does that irritate me? Because the Constitution does not grant any rights to us. It describes and limits what the government can do. We get our rights from our humanity, not from the government.

So now I've done a study that shows that people who do studies don't understand the Constitution, either.

School rules: we decide what you look at on the internet at home

Well, they do in California, anyway.

20 middle chool kids were suspended for looking at a Myspace site that apparently threatened a girl in the class. At home.

Goody!

Squatting

Worked up to 445 today, which is a PR. Not everything I wanted, but not too shabby.

Done with an Inzer Champion on (size 38), straps down, loose wraps.

We'll check the deadlift next week.