As Atoms Collide
So, things are going pretty well around here. I've been working enough to live on tip money and save my paychecks. I'm nearly to the point where I can seriously start whittling away at my debts. It will be a fine day when I am debt free.
I'm soon to become store manager at Crust. I'm somewhat excited and somewhat anxious. It's still an hourly position though, so there won't be any ridiculous 70 hour weeks for 40 hour pay. I'm slowly, but surely being trained for the position. There's going to be a lot of fixing to do around the restaurant because there's been little genuine leadership for a long time and the work ethic is shabby. But the tiger that is Manager Ryan is more than capable of fixing the issues.
The workout routine is going very well. I've lost about 16 lbs since I started and I'm putting on quite a bit of muscle. Come Friday I will have put in a month of lifting, and I'm thinking about tweaking my weight schedule again (MF full upper body, W abs and legs, TuThSa cardio.) I'm seeing some serious strength gains in my upper body, but I've had to pace myself in regards to my legs. I was actually losing strength in my quads because I was over training them. I've since dropped the 30 min on the elliptical machine and added a regular 3 round workout on the heavy bag to my lifting days. I’m up to an hour on the elliptical on my cardio days. My cardio fitness is definitely improving. I feel better than I have in a long time. Over all I'm really proud of myself for sticking to it.
Books... I finished the Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies a while ago. I reread a few chapters in The Story of Philosophy and now I'm about half finished with The End of Work by Jeremy Rifkin. It's about the effects of technology on unemployment. Rifkin's thesis is that industrial/agricultural automation and the restructuring of the workplace around information technology will eventually eliminate the need for a significant workforce. He predicts that we are moving toward an essentially workerless world economy. The second half of the book (which I have yet to read) basically lays out two paths this could lead down. Path A is a global crisis where the vast majority of the working class are unemployed, devoid of purchasing power and struggling to survive. Path B is a restructuring of society and a radically egalitarian redistribution of wealth. There's apparently an optimistic side to the book, but I haven't made it there yet, so I'm feeling a little extra paranoid lately. My daily diet of CNN isn't helping this paranoia. I'm forcing myself to not spend all my money on dry goods and ammunition.
In lieu of stocking up on oats, iodine and shotgun shells, I'm contemplating ordering a new laptop soon. In a couple more weeks, I should have enough in the bank to justify shelling out $350 for an Acer Aspire One. It's not a powerful computer, but it is cheap, extremely portable and rank with spiffiness. Plus a guy at work has made me really want a Linux machine.
The Good: 1. A steady income 2. Feeling physically better 3. Feeling more confident 4. Kittens 5. organic, local pulled pork BBQ from the Cumberland Farmer's Market 6. Drinkable Lo Carb Beer (MGD Light 64... not great, but drinkable and only 64 calories/2.4 carbs) 7. My first scheduled back-to-back days off in a long time (Yay Monday! Yay Tuesday!)
The Bad: 1. Mountain Isolation 2. Not having anyone with whom I can discuss the implied epistemology of Zen Buddhism and/or the proletarianization of the middle class 3. Double shifts at crust on Sundays.
The Ugly: Skeezy Crust dishwater.
"Senior
officials of Russian energy company Gazprom, including
personal associates of Vladimir Putin, met in Anchorage
with Alaska's Department of Natural Resources to discuss
investing in energy projects in the state. Governor Sarah
Palin said that she did not know about the
meeting. Putin's black labrador was given a
satellite-monitoring collar. "She looks sad," said Russian
Deputy Minister Sergei Ivanov. "Her free life is over."
"She is wagging her tail," said Putin. "That means she
likes it." "
-Harpers Weekly, 10/2/08
I'm soon to become store manager at Crust. I'm somewhat excited and somewhat anxious. It's still an hourly position though, so there won't be any ridiculous 70 hour weeks for 40 hour pay. I'm slowly, but surely being trained for the position. There's going to be a lot of fixing to do around the restaurant because there's been little genuine leadership for a long time and the work ethic is shabby. But the tiger that is Manager Ryan is more than capable of fixing the issues.
The workout routine is going very well. I've lost about 16 lbs since I started and I'm putting on quite a bit of muscle. Come Friday I will have put in a month of lifting, and I'm thinking about tweaking my weight schedule again (MF full upper body, W abs and legs, TuThSa cardio.) I'm seeing some serious strength gains in my upper body, but I've had to pace myself in regards to my legs. I was actually losing strength in my quads because I was over training them. I've since dropped the 30 min on the elliptical machine and added a regular 3 round workout on the heavy bag to my lifting days. I’m up to an hour on the elliptical on my cardio days. My cardio fitness is definitely improving. I feel better than I have in a long time. Over all I'm really proud of myself for sticking to it.
Books... I finished the Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies a while ago. I reread a few chapters in The Story of Philosophy and now I'm about half finished with The End of Work by Jeremy Rifkin. It's about the effects of technology on unemployment. Rifkin's thesis is that industrial/agricultural automation and the restructuring of the workplace around information technology will eventually eliminate the need for a significant workforce. He predicts that we are moving toward an essentially workerless world economy. The second half of the book (which I have yet to read) basically lays out two paths this could lead down. Path A is a global crisis where the vast majority of the working class are unemployed, devoid of purchasing power and struggling to survive. Path B is a restructuring of society and a radically egalitarian redistribution of wealth. There's apparently an optimistic side to the book, but I haven't made it there yet, so I'm feeling a little extra paranoid lately. My daily diet of CNN isn't helping this paranoia. I'm forcing myself to not spend all my money on dry goods and ammunition.
In lieu of stocking up on oats, iodine and shotgun shells, I'm contemplating ordering a new laptop soon. In a couple more weeks, I should have enough in the bank to justify shelling out $350 for an Acer Aspire One. It's not a powerful computer, but it is cheap, extremely portable and rank with spiffiness. Plus a guy at work has made me really want a Linux machine.
The Good: 1. A steady income 2. Feeling physically better 3. Feeling more confident 4. Kittens 5. organic, local pulled pork BBQ from the Cumberland Farmer's Market 6. Drinkable Lo Carb Beer (MGD Light 64... not great, but drinkable and only 64 calories/2.4 carbs) 7. My first scheduled back-to-back days off in a long time (Yay Monday! Yay Tuesday!)
The Bad: 1. Mountain Isolation 2. Not having anyone with whom I can discuss the implied epistemology of Zen Buddhism and/or the proletarianization of the middle class 3. Double shifts at crust on Sundays.
The Ugly: Skeezy Crust dishwater.
"Senior
officials of Russian energy company Gazprom, including
personal associates of Vladimir Putin, met in Anchorage
with Alaska's Department of Natural Resources to discuss
investing in energy projects in the state. Governor Sarah
Palin said that she did not know about the
meeting. Putin's black labrador was given a
satellite-monitoring collar. "She looks sad," said Russian
Deputy Minister Sergei Ivanov. "Her free life is over."
"She is wagging her tail," said Putin. "That means she
likes it." "
-Harpers Weekly, 10/2/08