PDXPup

I’ve got nothing to do these days except coach, make food, screw around on my computer learning new software programs and work out. Since I started working out regularly again, after taking a, oh…probably 6-year hiatus from doing so seriously, I’ve lost almost 20 pounds. Right now, I’m about 20 over my collegiate playing weight, so I think I can get there by perhaps the first of the new year.

I took a long break from working out with any serious intent because there is nothing I hate more than running. In a word, it sucks. I realize there are very talented athletes who are runners so I’m not saying their sport sucks, I’m just saying I don’t enjoy it. At all. When I stopped playing soccer, I stopped having to work out on a regular basis. As a goalkeeper, most of my fitness came from a lot of up and down, back and forth, short sprint kind of fitness. So, even with a walkman, there is nothing more tedious or boring to me than going for an hour long run. And after beating my body up for a little over 10 years, I took a break.

It’s just that break was a little longer than I wanted/anticipated. Breaking my wrist didn’t help, because I didn’t think the doc was that serious when he said I couldn’t do anything. I went for a run about a week and half after my surgery, and my arm felt what I imagine sausage to be like; it got all swollen and puffed up and incredibly tight in my cast, like a little Irish sausage. So that was the end of that for about 4 months. And after I got my cast off, t was almost fall and I was working, so I didn’t really care. Now, I figure since I’m not doing much else, I don’t really have an excuse not to work out. Like people would see me and go “seriously, you don’t do anything all day, so you have no excuse to be overweight.” And, like any good Catholic, the shame and guilt overwhelmed me into doing something about it.

Now I go for runs, which I still find distasteful no matter how anyone tries to spin it for me. The Precor is a nice change here and there, and I have some workout videos with a super-peppy leader that I would love to meet so I can kick her. But they seem to be doing the trick. And I’m praying whatever that sharp, stabby pain in my knee that started killing me on and off for about 4 years starting my senior year of college doesn’t make another appearance.

As always, music is what gets me through the tedious parts of working out. I moved recently, and my new running loop is actually quite brutal. It’s the only thing I could map starting and ending at my house that’s two miles, and I refuse to go to track. But it’s mostly uphill and then a bit downhill and it is basically death. Yesterday, I was able to shave a couple of minutes off my time from when I first did it by forcing myself to run, no matter the pace, for six and half minutes and then resting for three and a half. I was listening to a pretty good mix that helped me not want to just fall over into the nearest ditch. I can’t claim sole credit because I had iTunes Genius do some work. I picked the M.I.A. song “Paper Planes,” and it did the rest from there. So maybe that’s something I’ll do a little more regularly here: post some workout playlists because maybe you’ll like them and they won’t make you want to fall over into the nearest ditch.

1. Paper Planes
M.I.A.
2. Music is My Hot, Hot Sex
CSS
3. Great DJ
The Ting Tings
4. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Vampire Weekend
5. Knock ‘em Out
Lily Allen
6. Walking With a Ghost
Tegan and Sara
7. Radar
Britney Spears
8. Ready For The Floor
Hot Chip
9. Keep the Car Running
Arcade Fire
10. 15 Step
Radiohead

This took from from my kitchen, out the door, and around the two-mile loop and back to my front door…all told, about 35 minutes.

Have you seen the story on ESPN about the tampering charges the 49ers are filing against the Jets? I just took a gander at it this evening and there is one thing in the story I find quite alarming.

It’s not that the 49ers have yet to sign their number one draft pick, Michael Crabtree…a guy they picked 10th and just graduated from Texas Tech.

It’s not that the Jets are accused of telling Crabtree they might give him more money.

Heck, it’s not even because Deion Sanders is involved.

It’s because Crabtree, a young man who has yet to play one single down let alone practice with the team at all, has refused the 49ers offer of $20 million over five years…16 of that 20 million is GUARANTEED.

So here we have a guy who was an All-American at Texas Tech, who is making no money now (I don’t know who would be dumb enough to sign him to an endorsement contract since the biggest benefit of endorsements is to have the athlete/celebrity actually using your products in their venue of work), and is turning down a guaranteed $3 million a year because he thinks he’s worth more than that? HE WAS THE TENTH FUCKING PICK! What has he earned? What has he done to deserve more money than that? Here I am, can’t even afford freaking health insurance and am working my ass off for every penny I get, and this fucking guy can’t even sign a goddamn contract that will guarantee him $3 million a year.

This whole world of athletes and their money makes me absolutely sick. When A-Rod signed his deal with Texas, I just sat and wondered “What could he possibly do with all that money?” Why do athletes feel the need to drain the owners dry to stroke their own egos about who is more valuable as a player? A-Rod might have been making $25 million a year, but the Rangers couldn’t afford to buy any good players to put around him, so they sucked and A-Rod went to the Skankees. Why can’t these superstar athletes get paid what they need to live, maybe buy everyone in their family a new house and a car and maybe a flatscreen and a PS3 and call it a day? My parents just about had a stroke when I told them I was giving my full athletic scholarship back to the program my senior year so my coach could recruit a player from out of the country. And that was in flipping college, where student loans have to be repaid. (thankfully, I ended up getting a different scholarship for my senior year, so things worked out, but still…I think it took a couple of weeks for my mother to speak to me again.)

It’s baffling to think how many people are desperately going broke and this asshole thinks he should make more money.

I’m done ranting. I just saw that story and it made me mad enough to blog. What a dick.

So this universal health care thing…interesting, right?

I have been sort of keeping tabs of this controversial topic but not really engaging anyone in a dialogue about it, only because it I no longer am insured, medically speaking. It’s a bit of a big issue for me, and because I am still comprehending all the areas of this issue, I don’t feel comfortable debating the “Pro” side of it.

Basically, anything could happen to me tomorrow and I would be totally screwed. Is it my choice to go without health insurance? No…not at all. But I am at a place in my life where I can only afford so many “necessities.” I put that in quotations because I have car (and renter’s) insurance because it is required by law in the State of Oregon. I have a cell phone; but I have no other phone service so it’s a necessity. Internet service seems to be a necessity these days; especially as I continue searching for a job, and now a new place to live, it is apparent you can’t do either without access to Craigslist or LinkedIn or Jobdango. My student loan payment just increased (it was planned) and it’s quite a necessity to keep that loan in good standing. Then there’s my monthly rent, food and gas bills. So because of all that, I can’t afford health insurance with what I make from coaching soccer, though it sounds exciting and lucrative. PDXPup, Inc. sometimes operates in the red.

I mean, if I figured out tomorrow I had cancer, I might as well let the disease take me because there would be no way I could afford the treatment to beat it. And that is precisely why I don’t understand the health insurance system, because it seems like a gigantic scam to me. Here, pay my company $200 (!) a month just in case you get sick. You might never get sick, but we’ll still keep your $2400 a year. You might not get sick in 10 years, but we will still keep your $24,000 (if we haven’t raised your premiums, ever). It’s maddening just to think about; and please understand, I was appalled and mad when I had insurance! I was also extremely grateful I could afford to get my wrist fixed because I had insurance; my wrist would still be broken today if I hadn’t had insurance in 2007.

But I think the most jaw-dropping thing about watching the news and soundbites about healthcare reform is how many people have it wrong, and don’t really care to get it right. I read a blog from a guy who is a writer in Los Angeles, and he’s a pretty straightforward guy and not a democrat by any stretch of the imagination. He wrote this post recently about healthcare, and I couldn’t agree more. And he’s right to call some of these people debating the issue stupid; it’s not a way to engage anyone in a dialogue about the issue, but most of these people don’t want to discuss the issue…they just want to call Obama a fascist/socialist/Marxist/Communist and show up at Town Halls with Hitler mustaches and loaded firearms because it’s their 1st Amendment right to do so. I watched the video embedded in that post and it is absolutely alarming how uneducated some people are about the nuts and bolts of the issue. I mean when you have congressmen who have said they won’t read the health care bill because they’re just going to vote against it, it’s alarming to me because these people hold public office and represent the people in their district. I would be pissed if Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley did that.

And at the end of the day, I have to agree with “Valeri” who commented on that particular blog post when she said: “I don’t think the Republicans see how hypocritical they are being (I also don’t think any of them know what the words “socialist” and “communist” mean, or the difference between the two). Why is it that suddenly they are just expressing their first amendment rights, but people protesting the Iraq war were un-American and didn’t “support the troops”? Every conversation at that time ended with a conservative telling a liberal to “Move if you don’t like it!” You know what? If you don’t want healthcare reform, move. But you are going to have a bitch of a time finding a first world country that will let you bring your gun that DOESN’T have universal health care. Oh, wait… there ISN’T ONE.

Have fun in Kenya, suckers.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

I need money.

No, not the stability of a monthly income that will keep me living a glamorous life of Wii and Top Ramen.

A butt-load of cash. A lot of it. I'm looking from someone with Buffet-type money (that would be Warren, not Jimmy, though I'm sure Jimmy's made a killing from The Cheeseburger Song.). A Richard Branson (Manson? No, pretty sure it's Branson) who will help me bankroll my next dream for utopia:

NRN.

What is NRN, you ask? Well, it will be the next NBC, ABC, CBS and, though I loathe to add them, Fox and The CW. What will be on NRN? Well, it's all in the initials:

NO REALITY NETWORK.

Yes, NRN will be a haven for smartly scripted comedies and dramas with brilliant actors and production teams who will be paid well for their services. Great shows like "Dollhouse" and "Chuck" should haven't to have droves of fans sign online petitions to save them because they don't earn ratings like "American Idol" and "The Biggest Loser."

"Arrested Development" was one of the best shows on television before Fox yanked it from the airwaves because it wasn't doing well in its' timeslot. A little advice to current network execs from someone who has been watching TV for a little over 25 years: shows generally don't do well in their "timeslots" if their "timeslots" change at least 3 times a season. If you want proof, just look at "The Cosby Show," "Cheers," "Seinfeld," "Family Ties," and "Friends." That's why those shows earned NBC the Thursday night repuation of "Must See TV." It wouldn't have happened if NBC plopped "Cheers" in Tuesdays at 9, then Fridays at 8:30, then Mondays at 10 all in the same season, now would it?

Here's the other innovation about NRN: shows will be rotated on a seasonal basis, but with very limited repeats. So while a show like "Samantha Who" runs during the Winter/Spring, another show like "How I Met Your Mother" would run during the same timeslot in the Summer/Fall; both would have a traditional schedule, but instead of airing a summer of repeats of one show, you get a new show to watch while the other takes a break and gears up for the next season. Reality shows started because people got bored of watching reruns in the summer and 6 weeks in the winter and spring; this alleviates that problem.

Gone are the remakes/spinoffs of "90210" and "Melrose Place." Back are smart sassy shows like "Privileged" and "Veronica Mars." Gone are "I'm a Celebrity! Get Me Out of Here!" and "America's Got Talent," and back on TV are "Pushing Daisies" and "Dirty Sexy Money."

Who's with me? Who's going to help me launch NRN? What shows do you want axed and what shows do you want saved?