Monthly Archives: August 2010

In case you missed them, my top 10 posts…EVER!

Posted on August 31, 2010 by unfinishedperson | 8 Comments

On Sunday, I looked back at my reading in the month of August. Today, I look back at what were my top 10 posts this past month, some of which were written this past month, others that were written earlier this year (no, these are not really my top 10 posts EVER, that was just to draw you to read this post).

Counting backwards:

10. A Heluva Good race? Eh, not really, but Jimmie Johnson wrecked. Woo hoo!: The second part of a series about my father, sister and I going to our first NASCAR race.

9. The Story of Right Hand, Left Hand: A combination Patron of the Week and Flashback Friday post, on the subject of forgiveness, and my personal favorite of the month, so if you click on only one link (which I’d prefer you click on all of them, of course, but…), then click on this link.

8. The worst part of waking up: Another post about my father, sister and I going to Watkins Glen, but with coffee as the centerpiece.

7. Up jumped the boogity, boogity, boogity: The first part of the series on our going to the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen earlier in the month.

6. Survey says: Classics can be “page-turners” too: The summation from a first part in which I asked, “Are ‘page-turners’ always ‘pulp fiction?‘ “

5. Patience for stupidity: Something I don’t have.

4. Introducing the Patron of the Week: Little Miss I-Don’t-Want-To-Pay-All-My-Fine-Because-(insert excuse here): Where I introduced my new series Patron of the Week.

3. Patrons, what a bunch of bastards: Which wasn’t a Patron of the Week part, but pretty much sums up the feelings of one of my co-workers on the subject of patrons.

2. Rachael Ray and her Glasgow smile: A post from April of this year where I was creeped out by Rachael Ray’s smile. Don’t believe me it’s creepy. Just look. I dare you.

1. Why can we defriend: A post from my new Facebook category in which I discuss the fine art of defriendship.

I also want to give special recognition to Chris for possibly the best comment of the month, in which he responded to another post from April of this year about my pet peeve of motorcyclists who ride motorcycles without helmets (scroll to the bottom of the comments for his well-thought out comment, with which I cannot disagree totally). I’m not sure if I’ll always give a special shout-out to a commenter every month, but in this case, I thought it was noteworthy that he had considered the post so thoughtfully. Thanks, Chris.

Also yesterday’s Motivation Monday post is still sitting there, waiting for a comment. Please stop by and give it a comment, so it doesn’t feel all lonely. Thanks in advance.

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Posted in Body, Mind, Soul, Unfinished rambling

Tagged blogging, Books, Facebook, Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen, humor, Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR, Rachael Ray

I don’t see Jupiter rising

Posted on August 30, 2010 by unfinishedperson | 2 Comments

Each Monday (or at least this was the plan back at the beginning of 2010) I write a post for a theme I call Motivation Monday, usually based off a quote from Dr. George Sheehan, especially from the book titled Dr. George Sheehan on Getting Fit & Feeling Great. The book includes three books: How To Feel Great 24 Hours A Day, Running and Being and This Running Life.

So today’s Motivation Monday post is a companion piece to my alter ego’s post that was put up earlier today called The worst part of waking up in which Unfinished Rambler wrote about his father’s addiction to coffee. It got me thinking about what gets us motivated, in the morning, afternoon or evening. For some of us, it might be coffee; for others, trying to lose weight and maybe for others, stress and trying to relieve it.

Lately, and by lately, I mean, the last six months to a year, not much has motivated me to get out the door morning, afternoon or evening. Tonight, though, I was motivated by a friend’s message on Facebook in which he talked about seeing Jupiter rising (see end of article) — even though, according to linked article, I was a few days late anyway. He suggested that I walk up to a park nearby where I live so I could see the night sky since I couldn’t see Jupiter from my backyard because of trees in our neighbors’ yards and couldn’t see it from the front of the house either because of streetlights. So I did and couldn’t see anything up there either.

Of course, after all this, he told me that

Btw – you waited too long. Gotta catch it when it 1st rises.

Well, thanks, Jeff, for that information, after the fact, but thank you for at least getting me out the door.

Speaking of Jupiter rising, I was reminded of this song:

So what motivates you morning, afternoon or evening to exercise?

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Posted in Body, Motivation Monday

Tagged Coffee, motivation, Motivation Monday, Running

The worst part of waking up

Posted on August 30, 2010 by unfinishedrambler | 22 Comments

When I wrote about my dad, my sister and I going to our first NASCAR race earlier this month (first three posts), I purposefully left out one part of the story.

The beginning.

In the beginning, God created blah blah blah, but the most important thing he created next to man (and woman, of course) was this bean:

Image via Wikipedia

Without it, there would be no Juan Valdez and, more germane to this post than Juan, there would be no craving for its rejuvenating properties, especially in the morning…

…all of which brings us to my father.

On the morning of the day that we went to Watkins glen, my father was, as my sister puts it, “a bear,” and by that, she doesn’t mean a cute cuddly teddy bear. Quite the opposite. Without infusion of the liquid that is produced from the aforementioned bean, my father turns into this:

Image via Wikipedia

Only in my father’s case, he isn’t leisurely on the plain. He’s standing up on two feet and baring his teeth. However, when I mentioned to him that maybe we should stop for coffee, he denied his addiction:

It’s not the coffee. It just takes a while for me to get going.

which then escalated through stages, not dissimilar to the stages of grief:

Anger, especially after we pick up my sister and both she and I mention that maybe really we should stop for coffee: “I just want everybody to leave me alone.”

Bargaining: “I can stop anytime. I don’t need it.”

Depression: “I don’t even want to go to this race now.”

(Okay, that last part was my sister after not dealing with my father’s bear-like qualities at O-dark thirty.)

Acceptance finally did happen. “Okay, we’ll pull over here.” But still with a hint of denial. “…but it’s not because I need coffee. We need gas.”

However, after getting the gas and the liquid that is produced from the aforementioned bean, he turned into this:

Image via Wikipedia

Coinky dinks? Um, I don’t think so.

* I didn’t even mention my wife’s addiction to The Bean. That’s a whole other post for another time, which I’m sure, she can’t wait to read. Take above photo of grizzly bear and multiply by 1,000 for what she’s like without her morning coffee…oh, and yeah, they’re definitely standing and baring all their teeth.

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Posted in Unfinished rambling

Tagged bear, Coffee, Grizzly Bear, humor, morning, NASCAR

Looking back on my reading in the month of August (TSS)

Posted on August 29, 2010 by unfinishedperson | 8 Comments

Image by Larry Miller via Flickr

Today’s post is brought to you by the number 5, because it’s the loneliest number that you’ll ever do…oh, wait a minute, mixing up my numbers here. Sorry, it’s early. But why the number 5, you may ask?

Simple: it’s the number of books I’ve read so far this month:

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
Godric by Frederick Buechner
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

I’m still waiting for Mockingjay at the library. I’m on the staff there, but our library director trumped me — and only me (no other patrons waiting surprisingly and no favoritism, for the record) — on the hold list, so I have to wait.

Out of the five, my least favorite was the Mankell book, the first of the Kurt Wallander series. I hope the series picks up later, but I’m not rushing to read the second one. The other four all are neck-and-neck for being my favorite of the month, but I’ll break it down a bit more for you: The second of the Millennium trilogy by Larsson and the first of the Hunger Games trilogy by Collins probably edge out the novel by Buechner and the second of the Hunger Games trilogy, because of the first two’s qualities as a “page-turner.” I’d probably then rate Godric ahead of Catching Fire, because the former was so well-written, and the latter was a bit of a let down from the first part of the trilogy.

Speaking of “page-turners,” they were the subject of two of my posts this past month:

and speaking of Godric, it was the subject of this month’s Faith’n’ Fiction Saturday Round Table discussion, sponsored by My Friend Amy, in which I participated and posted part of the discussion yesterday.

Also this month I (technically, my alter ego, Unfinished Rambler) started a new series called Patron of the Week, which I choose from among candidates at the library where I work, and I added two new categories here on the blog: The Library and Facebook. In the latter category was my most popular post this month: Why Can We Defriend, which as of this morning is one hit ahead of the second most popular post of this month and the last few months: Rachael Ray and her Glasgow smile.

Among the reasons why I only read five books this month (so far) was Netflix, including over the last couple of nights, my starting to watch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Season 2. I’ll leave you with the opening sequence of the season that features a cover version of the Blind Willie song, If I Had My Way (aka Samson and Delilah), which also was covered by other artists including, most notably, The Grateful Dead and Peter, Paul and Mary.

This version is done by Shirley Manson, lead singer of the group Garbage, who also starred in this season of the show.