Song of the Week: U2 - One

U2's One is my favorite song from my favorite band.  Not my favorite song of all time, I can't seem to decide on that one but it definitely isn't it.  (Depending on my mood, U2's Beautiful Day is occasionally in the running for best song ever but most of the time One is my #1 from them).



Adam Lambert did a great rendition of One during his time on American Idol.  One of my top 3 favorite performances on AI (although I admittedly have only viewed one full season and have just seen a spattering of clips from the other seasons).

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Exercise Journal
Saturday - Dog Walk, Cardio: +2
Sunday - Dog Walk: +1
Monday - Dog Walk, Wii Fit: +2
January Final: +35
Goal Exceeded by 4!

Next month, the goal is to average half the days at 30 minutes (1 point) and half at 1 hour (2 points) for a total of 42 points.  I'll need to make 7 more points than I did last month and I'll have 3 fewer days to accomplish it.  Any missed days will be absolutely killer.

Three Things Friday, 1/28 Edition

The Good - I was extremely productive this week both at work and otherwise.  Not sure where all the focus came from but in addition to getting an insane amount of projects completed at work this week, I also did: 2 bits of exercise every day this week, took the puppy to the vet, got some work done on my car, did some work/research on my finances, spent time with the family, tons of housework including some furniture repair, and more!  The only downside was a definite lack of blogging time.

The Bad - Ummm, I've got nothing.  My week was more awesome than yours.  Deal with it.

The Best - GREEN BAY IS GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!  THE PACKERS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!  SUPER BOWL, SUPER BOWL, YAY!!

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Exercise Journal
Tuesday - Cardio, Dog Walk: +2
Wednesday -Circuit Training, Dog Walk: +2
Thursday -Dog Walk, Wii Fit: +2
Friday - Circuit Training, Dog Walk: +2
January Total: +30
Difference from Goal: +2 :)

Song of the Week: Mark Ronson and The Business Intl - Bang Bang Bang

Actually had some free time tonight and totally forgot to post.  Ack!

This song has been stuck in my head for weeks.  Alamo Drafthouse is playing it as the music for their January preview.  It's extremely catchy and was a huge hit in the UK debuting at #6 in July.



Good night!

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Exercise Journal
Saturday - Dog Walk, Cardio: +2
Sunday - Dog Walk: +1
Monday - Dog Walk, Wii Fit: +2
Cumulative Total: +22
Difference from Goal: -2

Where did "Danimal Quackenberger" come from? and 3 Things Friday

See that title at the top of the blog?  That's my nickname and it has been for a full decade now.  This is the story of where "Danimal Quackenberger" came from.

On the way home from a high school debate tournament, we stopped for food at the Waco 6-pack.  A number of my classmates went to Pizza Hut where they had children's animal books for their kid's meal.  They bought one and while we were eating dinner we started to assign a person to each of the animals in the book.  When they got to the duck, my name was nearly unanimously exclaimed by the table.  The reason was that I wanted to learn and get better and would follow the more experienced members around "quacking" questions at them.  Or at least, that's how the story goes, I was in a different restaurant at the time.

The next day, I showed up to class to find a number of people quacking at me and I thought "What the hell?!".  I had no clue what to make of it and quickly found it annoying.  I was no longer "Dan" but people were instead calling me "Danimal".  Then it was "Danimal Quackenberger".  It kept going and they kept quacking and eventually the situation grew from annoying to frustrating.

And then one day, I embraced it.  I took on Danimal as my name among my friends.  It grew into my online persona/avatar.  When it came time to do Secret Santa, I gave a children's toy duck that quacked and played music as you pulled it along the ground by a string.  All of my friends loved it, the teachers hated it (and one of them eventually threw it under the portable building to get rid of it).  Our final exam was a 1 minute impromptu speech on a topic drawn out of a hat.  For my speech, I stood up for 60 seconds and quacked and a friend stood there and interpreted.  I received a 100 for my effort.

The End

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3 Things Friday:
The Good - I had a "Don Juan" breakfast after a multi-year hiatus.  Delicious!
The Bad - Rex Ryan is still talking.
The Best - Green Bay ran Atlanta out of their own building by a score of 48-21.  One of the most dominant performances of any team all season.  Fun!

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Exercise Journal
Thursday - Dog Walk: +1
Friday - Circuit Training: +1
January Total: +17
Difference from Goal: -4

Web Find: Literal Movie Trailers

Here's a literal interpretation of the Tron Legacy trailer:

IMO, far better done this way, or at least far more hilarious.

The author Toby does a number of other game and movie trailers.  The Harry Potter trailer stands out as another particularly good one but there's plenty if you click around youtube.

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Exercise Journal
Today - Dog Walk: +1
Cumulative Total: +15
Difference from Goal: -4

Save the World! - Cruise Control

HAI!  So it's been awhile...oops...

Did you know that you can be a more fuel efficient driver just by using cruise control?  A 2005 study by Edmunds.com revealed that on average you decrease your fuel consumption by 7% when you use cruise control versus typical highway driving.  That means you're producing 7% less pollutants when you drive from point A to point B.

What if you hate the tree-hugging hippies and don't care about the environment?  Cruise control means that you'll be able to drive 7% longer between fill-ups saving you money.  So join the tree-huggers and use a little bit of cruise control to save yourself a few pennies (and the world!)

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Exercise Journal
Thursday - Cardio, Dog Walk: +2
Friday - Dog Walk: +1
Saturday - Cardio: +1
Sunday - Dog Walk: +1
Monday - Dog Walk: +1
Tuesday - Dog Walk: +1

Cumulative Total:  +14
Difference From Goal: -4

Really need less things happening so that I can cut into the gap a bit more

Web find: Who's that Pokemon?

When you're feeling sad, frustrated, or down (I wouldn't know this feeling, I'm too awesome for it), then you can watch this video a few times and you'll instantly feel better.



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Exercise Journal
Tuesday - Dog Walk: +1
Wednesday - Dog Walk: +1
January Total: +7
Difference from goal: -5

Song of the Week: Linkin Park - Somewhere I Belong

I really like Linkin Park.  This song is by Linkin Park.

I like fire.  There is fire in this video.

I always liked Gundam growing up.  There are Gundam models in the video.



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Exercise Journal
Saturday - Cardio, Dog Walk: +2
Sunday - Dog Walk: +1
Monday - Circuit Training, Dog Walk: +2
January Total: +5
Difference from goal: -5

Three Things Friday

The Good
I've blogged every day this week!  The holidays and some motivation issues had hindered me a bit but I've posted every day since Monday.

The Bad
One of my co-workers was in a car accident last night.  She's going to be ok but there will be some recovery time.  Keep her in your prayers!

The Best
I saw Black Swan tonight.  The film is pretty much par for the course for Darren Aronofsky.  If you liked his other films (other than The Wrestler which doesn't feel quite like one of his films but is still quite good), then odds are you'll like Black Swan.  If you didn't, then you probably won't like this film either.  Not going to say more than that because I don't want to spoiler it.  But it's *really* good.  For me anyway.

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Exercise Journal
Today - Black Swan > gym: -3
January Total: 0 :(
Difference from goal: -7

Oi, I really need to work on this and be focused for the remainder of the month.

Football: The NFL Needs a Seeded Playoff

At first I was tolerant of the 7-9 Seahawks making the playoffs but unhappy about their hosting a playoff game.  Over the last few days I've given it some thought and I'm no longer cool with this.  So what if they won their division?  The NFC West was 25-39 as a division, -322 in division point differential for all 4 teams across 16 games, and no team in the division finished with a positive point differential.  This has to rank among the worst performances by a division in history.

The NFL keeps a ranking of the 32 NFL teams that employs the same tiebreaking procedures that are used for wild card tiebreakers.  An examination of this list shows that 6!! teams that did not make the 12 team playoff are ranked higher than the Seahawks.

The status quo has the top 6 teams from each conference making the playoffs with the 4 division winners from each conference seeded #1-4 within their conference's playoffs.  Two at-large teams are added in as wild-cards and are seeded #5 & 6.  The Seahawks were able to get in ahead of a superior team and take a higher seed (playoff advantage) simply by winning a weak division.  That's ludicrous!  This system also allows for an elite team to be bumped to a low seed (playoff disadvantage) if they happen to play in a division with another elite team.  This year the 12-4 Ravens are a 5 seed in their conference while two 10-6 teams are seeded higher and have an advantage over them as a result.  That's just wrong.

Gregg Easterbrook, writer of the weekly Tuesday Morning Quarterback (a must-read for me every week), has argued for a seeded playoff system in which conference affiliations are ignored when setting up the brackets.  Here are the impacts that it would have:

• The top 12 ranked teams get in, the rest are out.  For this year's playoffs that means that the New York Giants (10-6) are in the postseason and the Seattle Seahawks (7-9) are out.
• Teams #1 and #2 would have first round byes and home-field advantage up until the Super Bowl (may as well leave it on a neutral, predetermined field).  This would have no impact on this year's playoffs as the #1 New England Patriots (14-2) and #2 Atlanta Falcons (13-3) already have home-field advantage and a first round bye.
• Teams #3 and 4 would have first-round byes.  Currently the #5 Chicago Bears (11-5) have a first round bye while the #3 Baltimore Ravens (12-4) do not and in fact have to travel for a road playoff game.  This is due to them losing their division tie-breaker with the the #4 Steelers (12-4).  In a seeded system, both the #3 Ravens and #4 Steelers would have a first round bye.
• Teams #5-8 would host opening round games.  This year these would be the #5 Chicago Bears (11-5), #6 New Orleans Saints (11-5), #7 New York Jets (11-5), and #8 Green Bay Packers (10-6).  Green Bay gets the home game over the other 10-6 teams off the NFL tiebreakers.
•  Teams #9-12 would have road opening round games.  This year these would be the #9 Indianapolis Colts (10-6), #10 Kansas City Chiefs (10-6), #11 New York Giants (10-6), and #12 Philadelphia Eagles.
• Seeds would not be switched around each round to protect the top teams like in the current system.  Additionally, home-field is determined by the better seed in the matchup.

This setup leaves out only 1 team that has a legitimate claim to being a playoff contender and that's the #13 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10-6).  They lose out on a lot of tiebreakers but there's really no team ahead of them that can be argued does not deserve a spot in the playoffs.  This at least puts them in a better situation than having a team with 3 fewer wins in the playoffs and hosting a game.  All in all, I think this setup is an improvement.

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Exercise Journal
Today - Cardio: +1
January Total: +3
Difference from goal: -3

One of these days I'll have some more time to try to catch up to my goal for the month.

Web Find: Sticking to Your Resolution

stickK is a website designed for those who have sticking to goals that they set.  This time of year it's especially pertinent as most of us set New Year's resolutions and then fail to meet them.  The website has a four step process for helping you meet your goal:

1. Set your goal.  This is where you plug in your goal or resolution.
2. Set your stakes.  This ranges from donating to a charity (you chose the amount, they chose the organization) to an anti-charity (e.g. the George W. Bush Presidential Library or the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library or the NRA) to a person of your choosing.  You can also set no money at stake.  Research has shown that putting money on the line triples your chance of success at meeting your goal.
3. Designate a referee.  The referee(s) monitor your progress on your goal/resolution and provide accountability.
4. Add friends and supporters.  These are the people that are going to help you stay on track with meeting your goal and can track your progress.

I created a resolution for myself.  My resolution is to be more responsible with my sleep habits, specifically bedtime.  Every week that I fail I am donating $10 to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.  Since I'm really the only one that can track my success/failure, I do not have a referee but am going on the honor system.  My friends/supporters are everyone that reads this blog entry as I've linked the commitment here for all to see.

Wish me luck!

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Exercise Journal
Today - Dog Walk: +1
January Total: +2
Difference from goal: -3

Save the World! - Plastic Grocery Bags

So I've decided that I cannot do a non-football sports entry during football season.  99% of my sports energies are channeled toward football.  Instead, Tuesdays are going to become my pro-environment posts where you can learn how to save the world.

I went grocery shopping tonight so this is fresh on my mind.  Millions of plastic grocery bags end up in landfills each year.  The best solution is to use heavy duty reusable bags that most stores now offer.  Also, recycling the single use bags (most grocery stores offer recycling of their plastic bags) is another option.  If you're just buying a few items, skip bags entirely if you can carry it out by hand.

If you don't use reusable bags or recycle the normal ones, here are some alternative uses for the plastic bags before you throw them out:

• Pet owners can use the bags to pick up pet business instead of purchasing special bags for it
• Use as packing material for fragile items instead of packing peanuts or bubble wrap
• Can be used as a trash can liner for small trash cans
• Keep a few in your car for emergencies
• If you buy paper bags for packing lunch in, consider using plastic grocery bags instead

 What other uses can you think of?

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Exercise Journal
Today - C25K: +1
January Total: +1
Difference from goal: -3

Song of the Week: House of Pain - Jump Around

This is to uplift all of the Badger fans out there after their Rose Bowl loss to TCU



Best student section in college football.

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Exercise Journal
Dec. 31 - Nothing: -3
December Total: +7

Jan. 1 - Sat on sofa and watched football as God intended for New Year's Day: -3
Jan. 2 - Dog walk: +1
Jan. 3 - Circuit Training, Dog Walk: +2
Jan. Cumulative: 0

My goal for this month is +31 points.  This would put me at 30 minutes of exercise minimum per day.  Days off hurt that, a lot.