rants and raves Posts

09Mar
0

BRUTAL-ly Honest

I had physical therapy today. My usual physical therapist was sick so I got a substitute today. A brutally honest one. I guess I should talk about physical therapy in general since I haven’t done that yet.

About a week and a half ago I went in for my consult and evaluation. It was kinda odd, but based on past physical therapy sessions for other problems, I was expecting odd. She needed to observe and measure all kinds of things related to my foot, so I took off both shoes and socks. She looked at my feet while I just stood there. She had me raise up to my toes while standing on both feet. She had me stand on one foot at a time so she could look at something else. Then she made me walk up and back the room so she could see stuff when I walked. Then I laid down.

Here’s where it got really sad: she measured my calf/Achilles flexibility. When you’re laying back and you pull your toes up to a 90 degree angle (toes to the sky), that 90 degree angle is considered “0″. Pull your toes in toward your shin more, and every degree beyond 90 is +1. So you want the 80 degree angle: +10 on their scale. Ok so when I first got measured a week and a half ago, I was at -5. MINUS 5. So that’s 15 degrees of flexibility that I’m lacking. OK people, it turns out this isn’t bad; it’s ABYSMAL. Apparently the average elderly person has more flexibility in their calf/Achilles. Heck even my “good” foot is only at a +5. OK fine, my ankle and calf aren’t flexible. Whatever — fix me!!

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Posted by Caro in Life, fears, health, rants and raves, things to do
02Mar
0

And It’s Over

The 2010 Olympics have ended. Sadness. I can’t say this doesn’t come without some relief though, as I’ve been forced to stay up so incredibly late to watch these things (thanks NBC!). I swear, it almost requires me, the viewer, to do some sort of endurance training beforehand or something lol. Watching the Olympics in full = a sport of its own. Now that the games are over, I can also start reading the news again. Knowing what’s going on in the world is pretty rad. Oh there was an earthquake in Chile? You don’t say. lol

I have yet to watch the opening or closing ceremonies, but I feel that I have bored enough people about the Olympics for the last couple of weeks, so I’m gonna make this my last post on the topic. And what a better way to go out than with a news article on the top 8 winners and losers of the games? No, I’m not talking about athletes. Well not JUST athletes. Some of these other things are good too. Like winner #8:

8. Safe sex
In a victory for planned parenthood, the 7,000 residents of the Athletes Village ran through a supply of 100,000 free condoms halfway through the Games. “That’s about 14 condoms per person,” notes CBC. An emergency shipment was immediately dispatched to the libidinous Olympians.

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Posted by Caro in News, Sports, TV, rants and raves
23Feb
0

Torvill & Dean: Still My Favorite

I love figure skating. When I was a kid I used to pretend I was a figure skater and spin around on the kitchen floor in my socks. It’s something I myself am not very good at, which makes it even more spectacular to watch. I mean they do these crazy jumps and spins and the footwork too. Even just watching them FLY from one end of the rink to the other is cool. Pairs is pretty awesome, but we already know how I felt about this years pairs competition. So in the meantime while I wait for the ladies’ singles, I had my ice dancing.

Not going to lie, ice dancing is notoriously my least favorite of the 4 varieties. Especially the compuslory dance. I think those judges have their work cut out for them. Just watching people do the same thing over and over again is too much for me, much less evaluating each competitor’s. No thank you!! The original dance can be interesting. There were a couple this year that intrigued me. Of course there was also the one that confused the hell out of me – the Russians doing the Aboriginal Dance. Take a lack of impressive/challenging moves, combined with some RIDICULOUS looking costumes and a premise that already has people offended, and you get this. Seriously, WTF?!

But then last night we got to the free skate. It’s by far my favorite. I saw a few that I liked. Even two that I loved. These of course were Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s (Canada) dance to Symphony #5 and Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates’ (USA) dance to Canto Della Terra. Beautiful. Stunning. Amazing.

But still not my all-time favorite.

That award goes to Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean (UK), who were the first people to get all perfect 6.0’s in the artistic impression section of the old scoring system. For technical merit they were split 5.9/6.0. I’m not sure what it is about this dance, but I love it. Even though it’s from 1984 and the picture is horribly grainy, I could watch it over and over again. Maybe it’s the music, maybe it’s the artistry, maybe it’s the incredible synchronization. I don’t know. They start on the ground because their music was too long. Apparently it exceeded the length by 18 seconds, which they discovered they could get around if none of their skates hit the ice until 18 seconds in. Pure perfection. Here it is:

YouTube Preview Image
Posted by Caro in Music, Random, Sports, TV, Videos, cool, discoveries, rants and raves
18Feb
2

An Open Letter to NBC

Dear Executives at NBC:

While I appreciate your coverage of the variety of sporting events at the Olympics, I have a bone to pick with you.

First and foremost, these Olympics are being held in Vancouver, which is the same timezone as the west coast. Unlike games past where the events would be held in the middle of the night for Americans, these sports are held at approximately the same time we are awake. Despite this, we are not receiving footage of the competitions until 8pm.

This is unacceptable. I cannot browse the internet during the day without fear that various Olympics results will be “spoiled”. You have multiple stations on which you can broadcast. Why not show the events, live, during the day on USA? Or MSNBC? A majority of Americans have some sort of recording device (TiVo, DVR, etc.) and could tape these events to watch at their convenience. If you wanted to re-broadcast the highlights in prime time on NBC, more power to you.

This is another issue I must raise. The prime time broadcast spans from 8pm to midnight. As a hard-working, tax-paying citizen, I must get up at 6:30am to get ready to go to my job. Staying up until midnight, or in some cases later, certainly doesn’t help come morning time. And while I have no problem rolling out of bed, throwing on some clothes, and driving to work, I can assure you that my boss is less than stoked to see yawning, grumpy, bags-under-the-eyes-which-aren’t-all-the-way-open-in-the-first-place Caro. Even moving the broadcast from the 8pm-12a slot to 7-11pm would vastly improve this situation.

Finally, if you are censoring the Olympics and waiting until 8pm to show me the clips of the competition you think I might enjoy, please refrain from broadcasting spoilers. Last night I turned on the NBC Nightly News at 6pm. After several non-gaming stories, the announcer switched gears to the Olympics. Thinking this was a preview of what I would be shown later in the evening, it didn’t even occur to me to change the channel. However, without warning, the results of the Women’s Downhill were posted. Thank you for telling me that Lindsey Vonn won gold. Thank you for sharing this with me before you showed it to me in any broadcast. If you are going to keep me in suspense until 8pm, please do not spoil the results at 6pm.

Aside from these issues, I greatly appreciate your commitment to showing me what you consider the highlights of the Olympics on a bi-annual basis.

Sincerely,

Caro

Posted by Caro in Life, News, Sports, TV, rants and raves and tagged with
15Feb
2

I Agree With Dick Button

After watching some of the pairs skating, I couldn’t help but notice that some of the skaters seemed to be doing a lot of “extra” movements in their routines. In particular, they grabbed their skates quite a lot. Maybe it’s the new cool thing?

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Posted by Caro in Sports, rants and raves and tagged with
01Feb
0

A Little Consideration??

This post is going to be part invitation for discussion/opinions, and part rant. Here it goes:

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Posted by Caro in Life, Work, rants and raves
19Jan
0

Stress and Whatnot

Why is it that when I have to deal with something tedious and out of the ordinary, it’s never just one problem at a time? I’m going to go on a long rant here!

On 1/4, the first business day of 2010, I found several problems that needed to be tackled:

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Posted by Caro in Life, Work, health, money, rants and raves, things to do
20Dec
2

Swine

I went to the drug store today to pick up a refill of one of my prescriptions. I get that it’s a pharmacy so I’m likely to encounter the occasional sicky while I’m there. That’s fine.

What I have a problem with is this:

I walk into the store today and I see a kid, maybe 9 years old. He’s got a SARS mask on. OK, you’re sick and you’ve got a mask on. Good. He’s got this horrible sounding hack, so I’m actually pretty thankful that he’s got this mask on. I decided to pick up a card and some earplugs before making my way over to pick up my meds. While I’m wandering around the store, I see this kid again and again. I realized later that while his parents were in line at the pharmacy, they were letting this kid wander around the store, unsupervised. His shirt is soaked, so I assume this kid has an active fever. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this kid looks to have symptomatic H1N1. Definitely contagious. It would be one thing if he was standing with his parents, keeping his mask on, not touching anything. But this kid is wandering the store, picking up toys, touching all kinds of stuff, and the last time that I saw him, he had pulled his mask down around his neck and was only half coughing into it.

FUCK.

Granted I got my H1N1 vaccine over 10 days ago (the amount of time it takes to fully take effect) so I’m 99.9% sure I’m not going to catch this thing, but I guarantee that there are other people in this store who have not gotten their H1N1 shot. When you have a contagious disease and you don’t need to be out in public, stay the fuck away from people. Or at least keep your sick kid in the car if you have to bring him with you.

What is wrong with people?

Posted by Caro in fears, health, rants and raves
17Nov
4

Twilight

I’m ashamed to say this, but I’m now a fan. My sister has been trying to get me into this phenomenon for quite some time, but to no avail. Then I saw the previews for New Moon. It looks awesome! But I can’t see it without seeing the first one.

So it’s official. I’ve seen Twilight. And I loved it. I want to own it on Blu-Ray so I can watch it over and over again. I think I’ve regressed to my teenage years.

Posted by Caro in Random, discoveries, rants and raves, things to do
12Nov
1

Better

OK this week is better. I’m not sure where I got this “second wind” but I’m not going to question it.

I’m more settled into this new job of mine, and I’m more caught up on things related to my unpaid gig. And the first job, well that’s smooth sailing as always. I love that job.

I truly hope this isn’t a fleeting thing that will go away next week, because this week is really good. I think I can manage if things stay this way. Who cares about long hours right now? I’m about to get my first “grownup” paycheck, I’ve found time to go to the gym, and I’ve even worked out a way to continue eating well (or at least eating less junk). Maybe the issue is recharging on the weekends. I can get on board with that :)

Posted by Caro in Life, Random, Work, discoveries, money, rants and raves
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