Fitness/Wii fit

The Wii Fit is a video game that works you on scale like board to help improve your fitness level.

Once it gets cold I tend to back off on the running and lose quite a bit of my level of fitness. As years go by the cumulative affect is pretty bad though not pot bellied my BMI said I was over weight, maybe fifteen pounds.

So what did the Wii fit do for me we got ours at Christmas time and using it daily has shown measurable results. First I noticed in the spring instead of struggling to get back in the swing running 2-3 miles I was ready to go with much less pain and heavy breathing. Secondly my coordination has improved to a point where my balance is much better. Thirdly after thirty some years out of High school I weigh the same as I did way back then.

Now I wouldn't attribute everything to the Wii fit but I believe it made me feel good enough and strong enough to push me to exercise and eat better giving me that initial boost back to better health.

Whose business is it?

Working in the steel industry I've seen many times where an account goes unpaid due to bankruptcy. So this story caught my eye from the Cleveland Plain Dealer " Republic must resume supplying American axle". A county judge in Michigan ruled the Canton steel company Republic had to resume supplying material to the struggling auto parts manufacturer. Republic had stopped shipping when in a sec report American axle had said it may not be in business much longer.

My problem with all this is who is going to pay for this material if the company folds. You see the court just mandated that Republic act against it's own best interests. Because you know what happens to bills when a company folds they go bye bye. This can be brutal for the companies left holding the bag. That's why the sec demands reports so that suppliers and vendors are aware of the financial status of the companies they deal with.

Once the government starts meddling in private business it's awful hard to get their noses back out of it.

What do you need?

A couple of days ago I posted about a survey on what people think they need. Today I would like to change the focus to government.

Here in northeast Ohio there has been a lot of talk about reforming county government due to the corruption in Cuyahoga county. My question is in this day and age with cities running together do we really need state,county and city governments. I think not' a practical solution might be eliminating county government all together. If we allowed the state to appoint administrators by region with staff of about 100 many redundant jobs could be eliminated. This would also lessen corruption being that every four years a new election would have a chance to change the political landscape. You say we have this now well not quite you see on the county level especially around the bigger cities parties are entrenched Dem or Rep. Where on a state level we see control flip-flop from one party to the other.

Fathers

I'm a couple of days late for Father's day. Reading around the internet and watchng Tv and movies fathers tend to be cast as idiots. a society that consistently portrays any segment in this light is not very healthy.

Wisdom comes from our elders and experiences if our society is to act wisely we can not continue to knock out one of the pillars of wisdom.

What do you need

Pew research did a poll asking which of these items is necessary in your life.
car 88%
landline phone 68%
clothes dryer 66%
air conditioner 54%
television set 52%
home computer 50%
cell phone 49%
microwave oven 47%
satellite or cable TV 23%
dishwasher 21%
flat screen TV 8%
Ipod 4%

A few observations on the results if 23% say they can't do without cable or a dish how many of the 48% that say they can do without TV are lying.
Secondly I would like to ask the question the other way around what can you do without. The only thing listed above that I would say I could not do without is my car. Modern society is too spread out to truly be free without a car.

Obama 's good idea

I don't agree with Obama very often in fact almost never but in a story from the U.K.'s telegraph I found an idea I like.

Anyone who lives by a large midwest city has seen the stories of city blocks with half the houses vacant. In the story they highlight Flint, Michigan With forty percent vacancies and a population suffering twenty percent unemployment it's no wonder the populations been cut in half. So how does Obama resolve to fix this problem. The proposal is to bulldoze huge tracts of properties returning them to open fields . Destroying that which makes the cities look and feel blighted might be the only way to make them viable again.

Haiku #10

A time for all things
Going to the vet today
Goodbye to Lizzie

Amazing/baseball

Sometimes the most interesting things to happen at a game don't happen on the field.A story from Friday's Cleveland Plain Dealer recounts the story of a retired auto worker Larry Quesenbberry who attended Wednesday's Indians game. In the fourth inning Larry caught a homerun ball. Not amazed yet ,well 4 batters later he caught another homerun ball

Now I've been to a lot of games in my life and have never even caught a foul ball or batting practice ball. As a side note he also caught one a few years back and attributes it to location. For future reference he sits in section 182 row A so there's the location, happy hunting.

Detroit automobiles

I'm reading Tramp Royale by Robert Heinlein it's a travalogue detailing his trip around the world in 1953-54. In stead of just sightseeing he tends to look at each country in a geo-political manner. One of the points he raises is the fact that one of the most universally coveted pieces of wealth in the world is the detroit automobile. Fifty years sure makes a difference G.M and Chrysler can't give away their product and Ford is only just now starting to make new headway. Detroit became compaisant sure that they would always have the advantage letting the competition pass them up. If we aren't advancing and perfecting our industries someone will be more than happy to take advantage.

Now is the time for America's industrial giants to rededicate their businesses to being the best in the world being American isn't good enough anymore.

Haiku #9

The creek of a chair
Early morning quiet time
Loudness of movements

Health care

In reading about health care reform I came across a statement that shows why reform is so difficult. A government official stressing the need to get health care expenses under control to aid the struggling economy said we need to cut back on health care. Not spending mind you but trips to the doctor or E.R..

It seems to me that most solutions like the one above tend to be distasteful to a large group of people. Massive reforms are hard to move forward when representitives are always trying to get re-elected.

A better method is probably working on the externals, living healthier life styles,litigation reform(malpractice limitations)regulating the way drugs are marketed, and stiffer penalties for bill padding. These are all ideas that could potentially reduce the costs of medical care without reinventing the payment process.

June: Book Review/Ninety minutes in heaven

Ninety minutes in heaven written by Don Piper with Cecil Murphy is the account of Don's near death experience and recovery. Subtitled a glimpse of heaven I found the real compelling part of this story not to be the discription of heaven but near heaven experience on earth during Don's recovery.

Don leads us on a journey of personal growth and discovery for him and his family and friends. Teaching us to reach out and help each other so that we can all glimpse heaven through our fellow man.