Correct English Grammar

It absolutely pains me to hear or read someone giving a well researched presentation of facts make a blunder with grammar. I'm usually listening or reading intently and then BOOM "your's".

"That's not a word," I think, "that's a silly mistake for someone to make that's making an educated argument. How much can I believe anything this person says if I can prove that s/he doesn't know how to use the language?"

Now I don't care what they're saying. I'll try to read the rest of the article or listen to the presentation, but it will happen again and will grate on me. It's all I can think about for at least 5 seconds afterwards and now I've lost the thread of the story. I've gotta go back and reread if it's an article, or just try to pick back up if it's public speaking.

I'm going to post some common mistakes here, just hoping that someone will read it and improve their grammar. Correct spelling and grammar will never hurt you in a professional situation.

1) it's: This means "it is" not "its" which is the possessive of "it."

2) your: This is the possessive of "you." This is not the same as the contraction of "you" and "are," "you're."

3) an: This is a different word from "and." This made reading a bit of history about the "Baghdad Battery" nearly impossible to read.

4) apostrophes: These don't allow you to make a plural. Generally the letter "s" does this for you, all by itself. If you're not sure, look it up!

5) quotation marks: These don't add emphasis. They are used to say that something is not necessarily genuinely as it seems.

6) exclamation points: These do all the emphasizing they need to with just one. Adding more doesn't change anything, but it makes you look like either a dolt or a hyperactive child.

7) question marks: Only one of these is needed to get the job done. When you have three, does it mean you're trying to ask the question three times? That doesn't make sense.

8) ellipses/... : These are formed by putting three periods in a row. Not four, nor two, nor as many will get you all the way across the screen.

I know I'm missing something here. Have anything to add to this list?

Some things are really messed up

For example, the Safe Haven Law in Nebraska.


Back in July, the law was put into effect, saying that you can drop off a child to any hospital within the state's borders and as long as you haven't been beating them, you're free and clear. This isn't a bad thing, really. The only problem with it was that unlike every other state, Nebraska didn't include an age limit on the kid. Every other state that has a Safe Haven or Baby Moses law limits the age of the child to between 3 days and 1 year. I agree, somewhere in there, you've realized you can't do this. It's not going to work. What are you going to do? Give the kid up for adoption, without all the hassle of giving the kid up for adoption.

Things were going fine, no babies were even showing up. People wanted to keep their kids. Hooray!

Then September came, and two people dropped off a kid on the same day. One was like 5, and the other like 16.

Why?

"Behavior problems."

I hate people.

Then came another two months in which another 30 something kids were dropped off. At first, they'd all been from Nebraska. Then, someone realized the law didn't require that the kids didn't have to reside in Nebraska.

"Woohoo! KIDS! We're going to Nebraska!"

I really hate people.

What really cheesed me off was the fact that people were angry about the law and not the activities of the people dropping off their kids. They called the legislators lazy and irresponsible. They're just trying to help out some babies and kids who really need help. It's the lazy and irresponsible PARENTS who should be ostracized here.

I hate people so much.

Then there's this. A basic summary: Someone from Iowa is protesting Nebraska because they passed any version of the Safe Haven law. This is coming from someone whose state allows gambling. You don't have the high moral ground here, so shut it. They then go into the price tag associated with opening up a special session to get the legislators to come back and revise the law, aka put in an age limit. (Just so you know, they did - 30 days. That's pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the logarithmic scale of similar laws.) But my favorite line in the whole article is regarding the cost to the person dropping off something else:

"
The penalty for abandoning an animal in city limits is $200 plus any cost incurred by the Humane Society to take care of it.
"

Classy argument there, WOWT.

Pushup Challenge - Closure

I successfully completed the 100 pushup challenge. It took 7 weeks total, but I did it. When I did, it was pretty easy into the 80s, and then I really started to feel it. It was probably more of an anaerobic burst of strength that did it, but I did it anyway. Since then, I haven't continued doing 50 two times a day as I had originally planned, but now do more like 20 whenever I want to. At least now I can drop and give 20 whenever I want instead of falling apart at the 6 pushup point.

I mostly stopped posting because it had become not fun because it felt more like a chore, especially while my arms hurt or were just exhausted when I was doing it. Plus, one of my friends made fun of me for having a blog entirely about pushups...

It's not, I swear!

Pushup Challenge! - Week 4, Beginning Again

Another great point about doing pushups is that they can be done just about anywhere, including my cubicle at work. Per the Pushup Program, I did 111 pushups total.

I've been trying to compress the amount of time between sets because eventually I'm going to have to do 100 contiguously. I had been pumping them out, and then taking the program's word for it when they said that you could take longer if necessary. Well, now I've realized the importance of shortening the time between sets. Looking ahead, in Week 6, I'm to do less pushups in a set, but more sets, and with significantly less time between them. Aieeee!

I've been thinking about how I'm going to try to keep up with these pushups after I've done 100 consecutively and the program is complete. I'll probably not do 100 straight every day, but instead do more like 2 sets of 50 each day, just to keep the arms in good condition. This will probably be more than I have been doing because the program only calls for a workout 3x per week, but I'll be doing them each day. Again, this is possible because they're pushups! I can do them almost anywhere! Yay!

Pushup Challenge! - End of Week 3

That's another 124 into the record books. I even did an extra 3 on the last set, going until I couldn't go any more. I'm feeling good, but I'm amped to go into this weekend for a few days off.

I actually did my pushups over at my girlfriend's apartment while she was playing a computer game, so it's a great activity to keep me busy while she's doing something else. Yay!

Pushup Challenge! - Week 3, Forgotten Sets

I did my 105 pushups today, but I didn't do them in the set number prescribed by Week 3, Tier 3, Day 2 of the pushup challenge. I had looked at the website earlier in the day, but didn't have it available when I did the pushups. I had remembered that there were 105 total, and that it started with 27 and ended with at least 25. So I did 27, 19, 17, 17, 25. The program called for 27, 19, 19, 15, 25. So I moved a few around and made it slightly easier for myself, which is about the mildest level of chump-tastic-ness I can perform. I don't think I changed it that much, but I hope it doesn't come back to bite me on Friday this week.

Again, totally feeling great, and my biceps and triceps are actually showing now, so I'm pretty happy.

Pushup Challenge! - On to Week 3

I just pulled off 99 pushups inside of a half hour. Granted, these weren't all consecutive, but they were as prescribed by the third tier of the first day of week 3 of the pushup program. I'm really glad I can do this many, I've been feeling better, and I'm liking the way I look better.

For some reason, I'm significantly more thirsty now, so I've been drinking more soda. Then I realized that was just counterproductive. Thus, I have switched to having a liter of water and some aspirin for my morning wake-up cup. I'm still having a soda each afternoon, but it's been a goal of mine for a long time to really kick this need for it.

I quit drinking soda for a while in high school, then went back. In college I switched to diet, which kept me, as well as my roommates, from drinking my soda. Eventually, I relapsed. I keep thinking that it can't be that bad for me, but if that's true, why can't I give it up for a period longer than 6 months?

Pushup Challenge! - Do-over Test for Week 3

Oh yes! Eat that! 30 pushups! A week ago, I could only do 15, and 2 weeks previous to that, I could only do 6. I am now officially cleared to make it to Week 3 of the pushup challenge program. I'm even going to be in the highest tier!

I'm a little worried though. The ramp up is going to get up to 99 total. That's 30 more than I did on Friday. That's a bit crazy. We'll see how this goes this time, and if I just can't do it, I'm going to just shift down a tier, and stay with the same week. I'm going to push myself, but I don't want to hurt my shoulders or anything.

I've told my co-workers about the challenge, and a few want to join up. I think we're going to do an office challenge and see if everyone can get to 100 pushups by the end of August. I hope that comes true! There's a team building exercise if I've ever heard of one. Think we could do our pushups on-hours?

Pushup Challenge! - Do-over End of Week 2

This time, the increase in pushups wasn't so steep, only increasing by 4 total, but evened out the pace. Therefor, I did a grand total of 69. This is way more than I could have hoped to do inside of a day, just 3 weeks ago. We'll see if the test says this little do-over was worthwhile on Sunday.

Pushup Challenge! - Do-over of week 2, mid-week

It was tough, but I completed a total of 65 pushups today. This is a huge increase from Monday, where I only had to do a total of 50. I have no idea why the program ramps up so steep for this transition.
I really had to rest between sets, and after the last set of "Do the max, but minimum 15" (I did 15, shaking through the last 2), I collapsed to the floor, and then said to myself, "Ok Self, turn over onto your back." Then I tried to roll over, and my arm was in the way, and Self said, "Yeah, f$*% that. I'll roll over when I'm good and ready." So I laid there, breathing through the carpet, realizing that I should really do some more vacuuming around here...

Pushup Challenge! - Do-over of week 2, day 1

At the end of what became an 11-hour work day, followed by an hour of trying to return one video game for credit to buy another at the web-advertised price, I finally get home. As I'm tearing out of my fancy-pants work clothes, I whine, "Aaaaand I still have to do my pushups!" My apartment isn't cold enough to cool me down after running around for awhile outside and up the stairs to my door. I try to keep costs low by keeping the A/C at 78F, but with no breeze though the windows, and being used to 73 all day at the office and everywhere else, it's hard to find that satisfying.

Anyway, I did the highest tier of the first day of the second week of the pushup program today. That's 12 pushups, rest 60 seconds, do 12, rest 60, do 9, rest 60, do 7, rest 60, and until I collapse, being at least 10 pushups. For each of those rests, the chart says that you should rest at least that long, and longer if needed. I had to take a half hour between the 4th set and the max-out set, and I still shook on the 10th pushup, almost falling on my face immediately after completion.

That's a grand total of 50 for today though, so again, something to be proud of, and I can already see the payoff when I look in the mirror. I'm starting to look like I have muscles when I'm not even flexing, my shirts are becoming tight around the upper arm and across the shoulders. After only two weeks? I'm kind of worried I might have to buy new clothes before I even reach 100 straight pushups.

Countdown to Retirement

So there are some depressing things in the world out there, but this beats it all for me while I'm working a 10-hour-day today.


Waaaaaa! I want to retire now! How can I really expect to live that long?

Maybe instead of a countdown to retirement via days, I should figure out the amount of cash-ola I'm going to need to retire securely, and then update that counter on the front page. Thoughts?

Pushup Challenge! - Test for Week 3

So today, I did as many pushups as I possibly could without taking a break. Sadly, it was only 15, which means I don't qualify to make it to the third week of the pushup program. While I'm sad about that, I am very happy to say I can do 15 pushups straight, when only two weeks ago I collapsed after 6.

I will be now taking on the program's second week, but in the highest tier.

I'm also happy to report that my girlfriend is now impressed when I flex, instead of laughing at how silly I'm being.

Pushup Challenge! - End of Week 2

Today, the pushup program required me to do 10 pushups, breathe for 120 seconds, do 10 more pushups, breathe again, 8 more, breathing, 8 pushups, breathe, and finally, as many as a could, as long as it was 10 or more. I was able to do 11 for my final set. This gave me 47 total pushups for today! That's nothing to sniffle at, if you ask me.

Later on, before going out to watch the fireworks with some friends (who are also going to do the pushup challenge), I showed them my form by doing 6 more pushups which they said weren't as terrible as the girlfriend claimed it was. Note that she hasn't done any pushups in my presence, so she might do them with her feet up on a wall, basically doing vertical pushups.

Tomorrow I test to see if I'm ready to go on to week 3. We'll see how that goes.

Pushup Challenge! - Past the Illness

Ok, so my stomach doesn't hurt anymore, and I've regained a bit of appetite. On to the pushups!

The Pushup Program called for 44 pushups today, so I pulled off 44. The last one nearly made my arms fall off. My torso wanted to just snap the arms off and take me to the floor. Just because I didn't let them doesn't mean I'm not hurting. They're resting on my knees as I type this anyway, and my fingers are messing up enough that I'm retyping every third word. We'll see how the aches go after this.

Ok, so I just sneezed, and I normally do so into my shoulder. Clean hands and all, ya know? Well I turned my head and sneezed, signaling for the arm to raise to catch the expectorant. Instead, the arm lifted about an inch and then fell off my knee and onto the floor, pretty much failing to do any good. That's how tired these arms are right now.

Pushup Challenge! - Week 2 Begins

Today I did only 34 pushups, but that's how many the program called for. I'm starting to get really tired when that max-out set comes. At least that means I did 34 though.

My stomach was killing me again. I think I may just be sick. I haven't had much of any appetite for the last two days, so I'm going to see if this gets any worse.

Pushup Challenge! - End of Week One

Today, I did a total of 41 pushups. Yay.
But I still max out at 10 consecutively.

My arms, shoulders, and back are all fine. It's my lower abs that are killing me. Am I doing this wrong? I don't remember pushups hurting this much back when I could do 20 straight without trouble. Granted, I'd been training up for a season of football then, so I was in about as good of shape as I have ever been.

Bah! I will get back in shape! I know round is a shape, but I'll accept rectangular. We men aren't supposed to have curves, dangit!

Pushup Challenge! - Initial Aches

I had no idea I would be sore for so long after doing those pushups the first day. For the first couple of hours, my arms wanted to do nothing more than hang from my neck, mostly because my shoulders had given up as well. The next day, my chest and shoulders felt like they needed stretching every two minutes. By the time I was supposed to do my second session's pushups, my lower abs were aching. On the website for the one hundred pushup program, they mention all these muscle groups, but I didn't believe it until I could feel each one aching separately.

Today, I did the required amount plus 3, giving me a total of 38 total today, the most being on my final set. Already I can do 66% more consecutively than I could just a week ago. I can see and feel results already, and all I'm doing is pushups!

We'll see how I feel about it after I get the aches from this session, eh?

Rockport Walk Test

I work in an office and am sedentary in my everyday life. So again, I am generally considered not "fit". Thus, I have been trying to improve this with a little low level exercise to begin with.

I found the Rockport Walk Test, and decided to give it a whirl. The initial test is to walk a mile as fast as you can and take your pulse immediately afterward. When I did, I came in as well
below a good fitness level, especially for my age group. This started me out in the "Blue" program.

I began 5 weeks ago, and already I've been feeling better. In fact, even though I've missed several different walks due to late nights in support of missions with terribly timed classes, I've already walked 21.25 miles, just as a part of this program. That's outside of the amount of walking I do on an average day, which is somewhere between 0.5 and 3 miles, but spread out throughout the day and taken at a leisurely pace generally.

I'll be checking in with this program as well as the pushup challenge.

Pushup Challenge! - The Guantlet is Thrown

I was reading get rich slowly recently, and J.D. has got another blog called get fit slowly. He learned about this one hundred pushup challenge, and passed it on to his readers. I checked it out mid-week, so I wanted to wave off until the next week to actually get started with it. After I decided to wave off, I realized I should square off against someone in order to keep myself motivated. Who should I call?

IO: "So, Dad, want to see who can do 100 pushups at the end of a six week program?"
Old & Bald Guy: "I could whoop you right now at pushups. Hell, I could whoop you right now in general if you weren't a thousand miles away."
IO: "Ok, Dad, we don't have to get too confrontational about this here."
O&BG: "Have some backbone and make this a real challenge!"
IO: "Alright, but maybe you should talk to your doctor first. I don't want you dying because I've challenged you to get healthier."
O&BG: "That's a good point. I need to go write that into the will. If I die competing in this challenge against you, you're out of the will."
IO: "That hardly seems like a good reason for me to try very hard at this, but then again, I believe that you're planning on leaving me your 'good' looks and a couple of twist ties from the collection in the kitchen drawer."
O&BG: "Keep it up and you might just lose those twist ties."

So the gauntlet was thrown, and so it was taken up. The first step to the program is to test yourself initially, seeing how many good form pushups you can do consecutively. I sent him a link to the website and told him to see how many he could do. I was careful not to tell him how many I did, allowing him to resist the temptation to literally one-up me.

I got a reply email this morning, in which he told me that my mother can verify he did 25 pushups.

Crap. I did 6.

So this morning, I went for the gusto and did the program as well as I could, eventually doing 27 total, though there were breaks as prescribed. We'll see how this goes, huh?