Post Recharge

I came back to lab this morning, bright and early.  No workout in the morning which was sad, as now it is the evening and I’m just too pooped to work out.  I was hoping I’d have the energy to do Travel Fit but I’m not sure if I can even do that.  Despite having a really crappy storm to drive through rush hour traffic, I worked at a great efficiency in the morning.  I hit a ton of different projects all at once.  Whenever there was a feeling of, “ugh, do I have to?” I replaced it with, “Get it done!”  I didn’t have any panic or overwhelming feelings at all, or if they crept up, I brushed it aside.  I even got my H1N1 shot in downtown and ran my way back to bus in the rains and back to work to do more experiments.  Ate a dinner a little bigger than I had wanted to, got into a small FB skirmish, but nothing too horrible.  If I can manage to get my 40-80 minute workouts in, I’ll be pretty happy.  That said, I haven’t done any chores or spent much time with my poochie, but right now, the immediate goal is to get the exercise in first.  And now that I’ve futzed on the Intertubes for our two hours, I think it’s probably a good time to hit the sack.  Good night!

Shopping Alert! – Ryka Sale

Trolling the Intertubes as I do, I stumbled upon a shoe sale at Sears and Holabird that may yield in fruitful Ryka purchases.  Now, it’s not as big as it could be — there was the time I got some shoes for over 70% off but there are a couple shoes that range 40+% off for select sizes.  Shipping is free if it’s above $49 at Sears and $64.95 at Holabird.  (Don’t forget to pile on BCB for some cash if you have the account set up!)  If you’re interested, I posted the links:

Women’s Ryka Shoes at Sears

(COUPON CODE:SEARS5OFF50 for $5 off of $50 — may invalidate BCB)

• Ryka Womens Influence – White/Silver/Red for $34.99 (50% off)
• Ryka Flare Run – Silver/Platinum/White for $35.99 (40% off)
• Ryka Assist XT – White/Silver/Blue for $41.99 (40% off) – you can read about my review for these shoes here.  I’m seriously thinking about getting a second pair.
• Ryka Womens Outdoor Lace-up – Dove/Gray for $35.99 (40% off)

Women’s Ryka Shoes at Holabird Sports

• Ryka Pursuit Lady for $34.99 (50% off)
• Ryka MC2 Lady for $39.95 (50% off)
• Ryka Ramble Lady for $29,95 (60% off)
• Ryka N-Gage Studio Mid WSL Lad for $44.95 (40% off)

Happy Shopping!  Link to the post to spread the love!

Learning to recharge

I’m not the kind of person who takes vacations.  Even when I have the opportunity, I usually feel bad for not accomplishing enough at lab.  During the winter break, I bring it down a couple notches, but this year, I was plagued with a stomach virus and a nasty, nasty cold.  I tried to work whenever I could physically move, but that ended up being a critical error, as I made mistakes, lost science, and just got generally pushed to the brink in my work.

I was told by many people that I needed to take a break, and this weekend, I thought I would listen to them.  It hasn’t worked out the way I planned, though.  I’m still suffering from insomnia terribly — when Ambien isn’t working, there’s a problem — and I’ve managed to go to bed angry the last two nights.  So today, after being unsuccessful in my usual “Carpe Diem” Sunday mentality, I’m trying to “chillax” my way to sleep.  So far, I have been playing beautiful music by Chopin, drinking herbal tea, and enjoying my evening skin regimen.  (I must say, the regimen is a lot nicer ever since I switched to the organic brand “ilike”.)  I also popped in two pills — melatonin and diphenhydramine.  I hope to not rely on either even by tomorrow, but we’ll see.

As I try to envision a happier day tomorrow, I’m focusing on a kick ass circuit workout (either Imax Extreme or the Viper or Body Max 2) and a trip to the spa.  These goals are the two things I have in mind, and they’re things I enjoy to do, so I’m hoping I’ll come through on them.  I do have a myriad of other little things I need to get done, but they are to be done AFTER I get my workout and spa trip in.  I’ll report in tomorrow with my progress/accomplishments.  🙂

Shopping Alert! – Xbox Live Deals

My Xbox Live Gold membership (well, I guess technically it’s in my husband’s account) was about to expire in February, so I’ve been scouring the Intertubes for some good deals.  Here are the two best I found (and since these are prepaid services, there is no tax on these items):

• Xbox Live Gold Prepaid 12 month Subscription Card @ Amazon for $30 – I feel that Amazon has been matching the price of other retailers (such as when Dell had the prepaid subscription for $35, they dropped it to that level), and now that Walmart dropped it to $30, Amazon has followed the same pattern.  I don’t shop at Walmart, so Amazon with free shipping seems like a good choice.  (Although if you can stand shopping at Walmart, you can use Bing Cashback to make it a little cheaper with them.)  I don’t think I’ve ever recalled this subscription card dropping below $30, so you’re doing fine at this price.
• Xbox Live 12 month Gold Subscription + 1600 Xbox Live points @ Costco for $50 – This buy was the deal I bought.  I just love shopping at Costco in general, so whenever they have a good deal, I jump on it.  1600 points on their own usually go for $20 (because Microsoft is evil that way), so I was definitely getting a discount either way I looked at it.  I had been eying the 1600 points anyway because the Live points that work on the Xbox also work on my Zune, so I figured that I’d get the hubbie the Gold and myself the points (they’re two separate cards).  However, when it was delivered, my husband asked that the points be deposited in his account so he could continue to download special Xbox gold games at a discount.  (I think he’s waiting for the second Penny Arcade game to go on sale like the first did @ 50% off.)  Technically, we could sync the accounts, but we’re too lazy to merge the two, as I have everything set up in my domain and he has everything set up in his.  I’m sure the points will be used, so I’m not too worried.   I’m still considering getting a second pack, but we’ll see… the cheapness will eventually set in.

Enjoy!  Share the post and links with your friends!

Help for Haiti (or tell the extreme Right to shut the hell up)

I’m blessed to have such a variety of friends.  That variety can extend to our political issues, as I have some pretty conservative friends, in contrast to my own stalwart liberalism.  (That said, I have some friends who are so green/liberal that I probably look like a Republican to them.)  I like to think that we all mutually respect each other, but there are times when I feel that the polarizing effects of this country land up in my living room.  One particular event comes to mind where I was chastised in my own home for watching MSNBC.  Even when I watch my liberally slanted television, I’m plenty aware and critical of it.  I’d like to think I don’t really need anyone telling me how to be a good person (or a good liberal) and that I’m self-critical enough to evaluate any information in front of me.  Mind you, Fox News is a staple in the criticizer’s home, and I rarely hear about how Glenn Beck whores himself out for his advertisers, Sean Hannity pushes the astroturf Tea Party movement, or Bill O’Reilly says that gay marriage is equivalent to marrying a duck.

But recent days have me particularly pissed.  Most people are aware of the horrific earthquake that rocked Haiti, leavings thousands dead or dying.  Most decent human beings have endeavored to tap into our better angels.  American generosity is unrivaled, and our President and other leaders have asked us to open our hearts to those in need.  But it seems that the right wing of our country, those who claim to be on the side of God, doesn’t seem to think that one of the biggest disasters to hit since the Indian ocean tsunami a couple years ago is worth talking about.

Shock Cardio for Insomnia?

I’ve always had a problem with sleep. It stems from childhood and my never really learning the right sleep methods — always sleeping too little.  I suffer from terrible bouts of insomnia at times.  It often is worst when I have my monthly reminder that I’m not pregnant (yay, to not being pregnant), but the week or so afterward can also be tough.  I’m too pooped to even work out, which in turn leads to a crappy night’s sleep.  By the time I get it all settled, it’s that TOM again, and I have to try to hit the reset button.

Lately, I have been reaching to Ambien when the sleepless nights pile on too much, but even with that magic pill, I’m pretty resistant, and I never wake up feeling fresh.  The other night, my dog Evee decided she needed to protect us from the thunder FAR away from the house, and that broke me out of my “possibly could fall back asleep” mode and into “not happening” mode.  I tried to go back to sleep, to no avail.

The next morning, I decided to try Cathe Friedrich’s new workout, Cardio Core Circuit.   This workout is going to rival Imax3 for difficulty ratings!  (That said, I have not tried the HiiT workouts yet.)  It consists of five rounds.  In each round, you have three cardio segments repeated, for a total for six rounds of cardio followed by an intensive core exercise.  The core exercise is mat work, so I lied down to do my first mat exercise.   After being blown away by the cardio and suffering fatigue from the  insomnia, I suddenly found myself having lost minutes of my workout… because I fell asleep on the mat!  That’s a first!

I fumbled through the rest of the workout, mostly skipping ahead and getting a sense what it was like since I was way too pooped to actually do it.  Got about 200 calories burned, which isn’t much, but hey, at least I got something in!

Rachel Maddow:Navigating race in America

I’ve slowly become a fan of Rachel Maddow. When she first appeared as a guest/expert/commentator, I literally rolled my eyes thinking, how is this person qualified to spout off her opinion (even though I agreed with her most of the time). All I knew at the time was that she was a talking head. I didn’t realize she was a Rhodes Scholar, or more importantly, she really studied her material. Over time, I have truly been liking her thoughtful approach to almost all the issues she discusses to that of others who are “trying to tell me how to be a liberal.” Last night’s discussion was no different, and I thought I’d embed it on the blog

Help me Intertubes!

Yes, I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I need your help.  Against a common enemy.  Microsoft.

It’s sort of annoying, because I’m in the middle of a draft writing about how the Zune HD gets a bad rap because it’s associated with Microsoft, and then I deal with this shitstorm.

I got the Ultimate Steal from Microsoft while it was still $30 to get Windows 7 Professional.  Despite its name, I didn’t get the Ultimate version, but Professional.  In any case, since I had Windows Vista Home Premium, they wouldn’t let me do an upgrade, but instead I had to do a custom clean install.  I didn’t worry too much, because I partition everything.  I have my documents on my D:, my programs on my P:, I have a recovery partition (currently Vista) on my R:, and I have a S: for scratch downloads, and my OS is reserved on the C:.  After a longer headache than necessary, I was able to download Windows 7 and install it, but of course, it didn’t retain any info from my old programs.  I go to check on statistical software for lab — got it to work.  Go to check Photoshop — no!  And the setup files I have won’t let me install on Windows 7 (despite installing just fine on Vista — I get an error about it not being at least XP SP2).  Ok, the biggest problem?  My Office programs.  When I eventually find a setup file, it’s saying my key is not legit (I guess I installed it too many times — but it’s a multi-license key and it is the correct one on my other machines).  Seriously, these are the three programs (and Quicken) that I care about.  I have an empty programs partition for the most part.  No games (I have consoles for that) or any other stupid shit.

Now, I keep on going though everything — I can (and at this rate will) roll back to my previous Vista system because everything is in Windows.old.  Here’s my issue, though: if all the program files on the other partition are intact, why can’t I pull the registry/other information into Windows 7 so it can work?  So far, the new OS has been pretty fast and I would like to give it a test run, but I need to have Photoshop and Office.  I’m in (hopefully) my final year of my Ph.D. program, and I don’t have time or money to set up a new solution with Windows 7 that can’t be fixed in the next two days.  So, if you can help me, that would be great; just please try to minimize the laughing at me.  I’m not a programmer, but I can do most things if people explain it to me, including registry editing.  I await any help…