Monday, December 29, 2008
countdown to 2009...
This year will be the first year in several years that I'm not on pager duty for new years. I'm pretty happy about that because it is one less thing to worry about. However, I have yet to decide what, if anything I will be doing that night. The last several years I've gone to see a friends band play but this year they are playing an hour and a half from my house. I'm not real excited about the though of driving that far on new years and am leaning towards not going. It's a long drive on small roads on one of the most dangerous nights of the year to be driving. I'm not sure I really want to take that chance. In addition, I'm really feeling like I don't want to drink much - I really don't want to start the new year with a hangover. My other thought is I really don't want to spend a lot of money. If I go a long ways or decide to drink, then I need a hotel room and a cab to get back and forth - money I don't need to spend.
But if I don't do that - then what? I'm not really interested in watching all the festivities on TV... I'm not really interested in going where there will be big crowds... I'm kind of leaning towards a quiet night at home, maybe playing on the wii or doing something more positive than drinking a lot. But I have friends that do want me to come out and that makes it kind of a tough choice. I've been burnt out on the whole bar thing lately. Kind of bored with doing the same old things - ya know?
I am spending a fair amount of time each day playing the wii fit and have some very sore muscles to show for it. Each day starts with a body test which gives me my weight and BMI. Of course to be really accurate, you need to do that at the same time each day which I've yet to manage. Right now, my focus is more on making sure I do it and varying my routine enough to keep it interesting. I start off with the step and advanced step and do them at least twice each. From there I either do yoga, strength (which is pilates) or more aerobics until I get to 30 minutes. Then I take a break and come back to do whatever else I feel like after that. My weight is up two pounds over the last week but since I'm not doing it at the same time every day I don't know or really care how accurate that is. Plus some days I'm in sweats and others I'm in jeans so I'm sure all that makes a difference. I'm still focused on getting to feel better rather than anything else and think once the soreness starts to fade I will feel quite a bit better. Well that and when I start getting better at some of this stuff. My balance is particularly bad so I'll be really happy when that starts getting better. I think that is probably a big part of why I feel so far out of shape. I've noticed that I don't move with the same ease and control as I am used to and really want to get that back. I know - I shouldn't find it shocking that such things fade with time as you don't use those muscles as often. I do find it funny that my wii fit age was as low as 36 before I got so sore and now it is up to 39... it will come back down as I adjust to the new activity level. I'm actually kind of glad for the soreness because it reminds me of what I need to be doing in order to get to where I want to go... in this case the old saying is true - pain is just weakness leaving the body!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
mind and body....
Through my teenage years I was active in sports and I would spend a lot of time playing various card games with my Mom. We got into a routine of playing every day for at least a while. Those are some of the memories I treasure most, just her and I sitting, playing, laughing and talking the afternoon away. I was thinking of that the other day - it bothers me that it seems to me that my brain moves slower than it used to. It also bothers me that my body doesn't respond as easily to activity as it used to. then it dawned on me that the brain functions much like a muscle - the more you use it, the better and more efficient it works. Hmmm... I haven't been challenging my brain any more than I have been my body. I can either feel bad about how I used to be or I can step up and start doing something about it. I decided to start doing something about it.
I'm not big on new years resolutions. Culturally we have a mind set that they are discarded in relatively short order and we all laugh and sympathize with each other about our lack of will power. So this isn't a new years resolution, it isn't a resolution at all. It's just a choice to start focusing on myself and committing to start making myself better than I am right now. I know they say you need solid goals but I'm not at the point that I want to do that. Right now the goal is to start working my mind and body more regularly and accept whatever the outcome of that is. I don't feel I must lose 20 pounds - although honestly I'd really like to. I just need to be more healthy no matter what weight and shape it makes me. It's much more about how I feel rather than how I look. To me this was a huge bright light bulb when I realized that is what my priority should be - and now it will be going forward.
BTW, on the wii fit tonight, my wii fit age was 36 which made me feel pretty good since I'm 41. Now I just wish they would make a balance board game that has a lot of the step and rhythm boxing type things on them. I'm having a lot of fun with those but there aren't a whole lot of varieties of them. I'm considering getting something like dance dance revolution even though it is on a flat pad rather than using the step. I think that will help keep my activity level up and provide new challenges. Still - wii games designers - more step and rhythm boxing please!!!!!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
On bailing out the auto industry....
Granted - the big three have done nothing worth noting to try and prevent this from happening. They seem to spend money like there are no limits. Paying workers most of their salary for not working just doesn't seem like the brightest business model to me. It's been more than three years since hurricane Katrina hit and gas prices jumped to $3 a gallon. That kind of made me take a look at gas mileage as something that needs to be strongly considered. I know the car companies have made strides in improving gas mileage but there is such a very long way still to go.
For the average person - the math is pretty simple.... you need money to survive, keep a roof over your head and food in your belly.... so you need a job... and a way to get too and from that job. When it takes $60 a tank to fill your SUV - how far can you realistically afford to drive to work? I'm not bashing SUVs - I have one myself. I like to take road trips and I want a vehicle big enough to take passengers in comfort and big enough to haul my camping gear. But I did trade down from a 4x4 V6 (16 mpg) to a 2wd 4 cylinder to pick up the extra 4-6 miles per gallon (there were other reasons as well - primary being I wanted to be able to carry more than one passenger at a time). In town if I don't need to haul anything other than myself - I prefer my motorcycle at 55 mpg or my scooter at 83 mpg. So yes, I have an SUV that gets 20 - 22 mpg but I also have other, cheaper alternatives as well.
Back to the car companies... if they go under, it effects many other businesses... including a lot of mom and pop businesses that are near the various manufacturing plants. Diners, day care centers, gas stations, bars... the trickle down effect could be huge. But what good does it to make cars no one can afford? And are they even the cars people want if they can afford them? Honestly - who is going to buy a car right now without concerns about how long that car will live? How much it might cost to maintain?
I think the car companies need to take a good look at real people and see what their needs are and then figure out how they can meet those needs. They need to make "made in America" a symbol of pride and quality, of innovation, of affordability and dependability. We do need need to save the car companies - we can't afford not to. In turn they need to adjust and learn how to take care of the consumers that are indeed their lifeblood.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
hard apple cider and more...
Tomorrow I'm going to start my second batch and this time I'm going to add a little thing of cherry flavor to the cider and see how that goes... other than that I'm keeping it exactly the same as the first batch. Well and now I'll know better than to attempt the siphon again unless I'm actually looking for a buzz that is!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
The world has gone crazy...
The world indeed seems to have gone crazy. The only thing I can think to say is that compassion and understanding is something we need to try and focus on as a society right now. Understand that the people around you are going through hard times as well and cut some slack. It won't fix anything, but it sure might make things a little easier to deal with.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Toksee chat widget
or maybe a different one?
So far have dad very little luck getting any widgetbox code to work...
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
So now what?
So now what happens? Food prices go up because the trucking industry has got to keep up with rising fuel costs. People that were just barely making ends meet are totally screwed. They need gas to get to work, they need food to feed, cloth and house their families. I suspect we are going to start seeing more extended families living under the same roof for one thing. There will be an increase in cheap transportation - from public transportation to bikes, motorcycles and scooters. Already Aldi is seeing drastic increases in sales - so we're going from name brands being priority to just getting as much food for our money as we can. The fastest growing segment of crime? Stealing food.
More long term effects - people that were doing okay but not great. If they have been putting money in their 401k - they will stop doing that. You can't save for retirement at the expense of feeding your family. What about people with adjustable rate mortgages? Ouch! They are getting a serious double whammy. Not only are they paying more for everything else - but their house payments are going up. So the housing market drops and suddenly people are trapped upside down in mortgages they can't get out of. What do they do?
Where does it end? It depends on why this is happening. Is it political? I'm serious - we are in a presidential election year and in the middle of what looks like an artificial inflation in gas prices with it's ever expanding ripple effect. Who will ride in and save the day? Will it be just prior to the election? If so - who gets the great PR for saving the day? Never mind that it smells like a setup and mostly likely whoever does save the day was guilty in the first place. Just like any good TV detective will tell you - you have to follow the money. Who stands to profit most? Who has the means to pull off something like this? I don't have any answers but I'm thinking if we pay attention - we'll be able to get a pretty good idea...
In the mean time - stock up on long shelf life food. If your not already budget consious - get that way. Start thinking and planning ahead because in spite of what I said about when will this end - I doubt it will just poof away overnight. There are pretty fair odds that we are in for some tough times for a while here. If you have extra - please - support your local food pantries. With it being summer - be aware of your elderly neighbors - especially if they are on fixed incomes. They most likely can't afford to run their AC even if they have it. It's time to stop focusing on "me" and start working together and taking care of each other.
Peace,
Carol
Monday, June 9, 2008
New free traffic websites
Sorry for the big gap in posts - it has been crazy busy here lately! Mix in a nasty fight with the flu that seemed it would never end, a week in the hospital, working crazy hours at my day job, and the launch of four new free traffic websites and you start getting the picture of what a crazy life I've had lately.
Before I get into the new websites and all that I want to tell you how I ended up spending a week in the hospital for something that was so easy to prevent it is just crazy. First I have to admit - my eating habits are wicked bad. I'm a long time computer geek, am single and always busy. So food for me is something I toss in the microwave and munch on while working. I came down with the flu first and followed it up with a nasty cough that came very close to going into pneumonia. During all the time that was going on, I had no energy but was still working constantly and eating worse and worse. By the last week before going into the hospital I had stopped eating. All I was doing was drinking soda and propel. I finally went to the ER because of the cough and they gave me cough syrup with codeine... turns out I'm allergic to codeine. I started getting really confused and lost my short term memory. I don't remember much about a couple days there but it was getting worse and worse. Lucky for me my friends realized something was going really wrong and they came to check on me and ended up calling 911. After nearly a week in the hospital they started me on B1 and within a day and a half my brain started clearing up.
By the second day I was able to be released from the hospital. I've been through all kinds of tests trying to figure out the reason I ran so low on B1 and the only explanation they can come up with is malnutrition.
I think the thing that scared me the most was B1 deficiency hits your brain - which means you can't save yourself. You have to have someone else realize there is a problem and act on it. I've always depended on my brain - my day job is a UNIX server admin - troubleshooting is my bread and butter. I have to be able to think and remember. It took a couple weeks on B1 before I started finally feeling like my brain was coming back up to speed. Now it has been just over a month since I've been out of the hospital and I don't miss a day of taking my vitamins. I'm trying to eat better, sleep more regular and stuff like that but even just the addition of a good multi-vitamin plus an extra B1 has got me feeling a good ten years younger. And it was so very simple to prevent if I had any idea it was happening.
Now, looking back I can see symptoms going back at least a year but much more seriously over the 3-4 months before I went in the hospital. I noticed my memory getting worse - I assumed it was because of age. I turned 40 last summer so I really thought that was what was going on. Wrong. So if you take nothing else from this - find a good multi-vitamin and take it. If your memory starts going downhill - try some B1 and see if that helps. It's an easy fix - I think a bottle of B1 was like $3 at walgreens.
Okay - so that was my public service announcement - on to the rest of my update...
Like I said - I have four new sites - two traffic exchanges and two text ad exchanges... I launched WhyClickTraffic.com and WhyClickAds.com
before my hospital stay and TrafficWolves.com and TextAdWolf.com a week ago.
I love the script the traffic exchanges run on. I knew the first time I surfed an exchange with this script that it was the one I wanted. It has a progressive surf ratio so the more you surf, the more you get for surfing. You don't have to use credits for banner or text links - they are in rotation as long as you have credits in your account. There are surf contests and lottery drawings and random credit give aways. It's just a great traffic exchange for surfers - which is why I had to have it! Check it out for yourself at WhyClickTraffic.com and TrafficWolves.com
My first text ad exchange - WhyClickAds.com - has a special offer going for the first 300 members - we only have about 85 more openings before this special is gone for good... you get a free pro membership, 3 solo ads and 1 banner with 1000 credits - just for signing up. (Hint: there is also a special offer on the member page that you can get a free gold upgrade at http://www.WhyClickTraffic.com as well).
My newest text exchange TextAdWolf.com is running on the very popular script like TextAdProfits.com made famous. I'm getting ready to start a big referral contest there so keep your eyes open. But until then - if you sign up, then click on advertising and enter promo code startmeup you will get 3 solo ads and 3 banners with 1000 credits each, plus 1000 extra credits.
So that is, believe it or not, the short version of what has been going on here the last several months. Hopefully your life has been much calmer than mine!
Peace & Much Success,
Carol
PS Take your vitamins!!!!!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Addictive and fun new Advertising website
You buy these really cool advertising cubes for under $2 (website is in pounds rather than dollars so Im not sure the exchange rate. In pounds it is 1 per year)
You get funds into your account for referrals, clicks and visits to your referral page. Im a premium member so I get $1 for every 30 hits to my referral page and $2 for everyone that joins. Then you use the funds to build the value of your cube and try and get it onto the first page. When your ready, sell your cube and make a nice profit. In addition you get commissions based on what your referrals buy.
Not only all that but your cube gets traffic to your website because members log in and click everyday because they get funds for it.
This is a very cool site - I highly recommend checking it out because once people find out how fun and addictive it is, it will grow fast. I've been playing with it for a week now and my original cube is up to position 60 so it is on the front page and above the fold - which means it should get a pretty decent amount of clicks. And because it is above the fold - it should be worth a pretty decent amount if I wanted to sell it.
After I bought my cube I added my referral link into my hit tracker/rotator at hitsconnect.com
(if you use traffic exchanges you really need a good rotator with a tracker like hitsconnect so you can see which exchanges give you the best results. Not only that but if you use a lot of traffic exchanges like I do - if you use a rotator you can change your promoted websites on the rotator rather than having to go to each individual traffic exchange. If you don't want to pay $20 for a hitsconnect membership, check out freerotator - they have almost as many features for only $12 a month. Okay I'll get off my soapbox and continue my original train of thought).... So as soon as I added the link to my rotator it is being promoted on like 20+ traffic exchanges. So the hits start rolling in which gives me funds to improve my position. So that jumped me up enough, I decided to buy some hits from linkgrand.com - they are a PTC that is very affordable - get 1000 20 second hits for $5. I've used them a lot and my experience is that you don't get a great response for paid programs through them but you do get good response for free and ultra cheap programs. So I advertised there and got some sign ups and lots more hits and before a couple days went by my cube was valued at $169.
That was so much fun, I bought a couple more cubes and have been playing with them.... and did I mention - while I'm playing with cubes and such - my website is getting some pretty decent traffic? Indeed it is...
So if your interested check it out for yourself - all links open in new windows:
Monday, April 28, 2008
what if you had to tell someone the most important thing and they were never going to beleive it?
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Myspace vs Yuwie - battle lines are drawn
What the heck is Yuwie and why do myspace and facebook care?
Social Media... it is what web 2.0 is all about... we twitter, we digg, we stumble we utterz and we mutterz... we're on myspace, facebook and utube, and we blog, micro blog, photo blog and everything else. We chat, text, and IM and what is that old way - right - email. Web 2.0... nice... it is the way we are moving... we have all these amazing ways to communicate and share and shrink the globe down even smaller. So what is the other thing the internet has always been about - and don't say porn - because while true - it isn't the answer I'm looking for here... the other thing besides communication is money. Yes the dot com bust came and went but there is still a ton of money on the internet and more being made all the time. Why else would google spend billions on it's latest toy? Any Microsoft trying to buy yahoo... It's all about the advertising money. Do you think the ad revenue generated by myspace or facebook - do you think that would be a fairly large sum of money? I don't know but I would have to guess it is. And that money just might be in a bit of danger in the coming years.... let me tell you why...
See there is a smaller company - building a social networking site just like myspace or facebook... but you know - that has already been done. What can this little guy do to get in on those big ad dollars that the big players are making... hmmm what if this little guy offered to share the ad revenue with the members? Would that make them start backing away from the big guys and moving to this new site? Yes... it will be a trickle before it becomes a flood. I mean why not? You do all the things you already do but you make a little money at the same time. Only makes sense... and over time - that trickle will become a flood and either myspace and facebook will start sharing revenue with their members or they will gamble and lose it all... I'll still keep my myspace page and all - it is a great place to be... but you can bet I also have my Yuwie page and I'm ready for when that trickle starts growing into a flood... I'll be ready to cash some nice checks then.
How about you? You ready to cash some checks for doing what you already do anyhow? The things you do that make money fr myspace or facebook - you can do on Yuwie and make money for you! So give it a go - tell your friends and let's get this party started!
JagerBombs Away!!!!!!!
Hit me up when you get to the other side - I'll hook you up with some great info about just how you do make money - and baby it is easy breazzy all the way to the bank.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
affection at home and out and about....
So the same behavior in a same gender couple is inappropriate while it is perfectly acceptable in the opposite gender couple. And, mind you this is behavior taking place inside the home. I was stunned into not being able to comment at the time. I am a very affectionate person - my whole family is. Hugs and kisses are how we say "hi", "i missed you", "i love you", "good to see you", "take care", "good-night", "I'm happy for you", "I'm sad for you", "I wish I could help", and anything else we can think of. I don't censor myself about hugs and kisses like that. I am a lesbian but I don't give any thought to hugs and kisses with anyone I care about no matter what gender or sexual orientation. As long as the other person is comfortable with that level of affection then I'm good. There is nothing sexual about it.
I find it completely ridiculous that the whole issue was that the lesbians daughter would find it okay to kiss another girl... wow - if the daughter should turn out to be gay she won't have to go through all the self hatred and stress of trying to come to terms with discovering you are the worst kind of different a person can be. That would be a total shame wouldn't it?
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Idiots & morons or just not thinking?
So here I sit this evening and the weather forecast is call for "thunder freezing rain" tonight... after we got a sleety snowy mix today that makes it look like a giant slushie threw up outside... so if they are right, we are going to have a thunderstorm and the rain is going to freeze when it hits the ground. Beautiful. I live in St Louis, Mo for and for those that don't know it - we got hit with a major ice storm last year that was just insane. Well first in late summer we had a major wind storm... on the news they said it was the great tree pruning... there are about 6 different routes I can take to leave my house and get to a major road. Of the 6, 4 were blocked by trees down... not limbs - trees... 100 year old trees laying across the road - everywhere. I lost about a 90 year old elm to that storm although it didn't split until a couple weeks later. So then we get this major ice storm and my other elm of the same age lost probably a good 1/3 of it's limbs and somehow lived. Most of the city was without power for a week after both of those incidents. I'm not looking forward to "thunder freezing rain".
So what is my gripe? You know I have one... this isn't random... I decide to run to the store this afternoon before the ice... it is a St Louis tradition. We go buy bread, milk and eggs on the eve of winter weather. Well I bought bread, lunchmeat and alcohol but I don't have a family to feed so I'm allowed... I drive to the store which is just two long blocks away and the roads are passable but slush covered... and ice pellets are falling out of the sky. I find a parking space and walk to the store. I go to cross from the parking lot to the store and the people in cars are not even slowing down for the stop sign by the door so the people walking are stuck standing out in the weather waiting. This is a level parking lot - there is no reason for them to not stop - except that they don't want to wait an extra 15 seconds in their warm sheltered car so that the people wading through the slush, getting hit with ice pellets, can cross to cover and get out of the weather.
15 seconds... 30 tops... but it is too much to ask for most people. They don't notice or care that the person walking is getting rained, snowed, or sleeted on while they are warm and dry in their vehicle... they don't care that there is a big red stop sign and a pedestrian crossing...
So honestly - why have we become so self centered that we don't pause to consider that person out in the weather... that we can't slow down for 3 seconds to allow a stranger to merge safely on the highway... that we can't just take a moment to be considerate of another person and do for them what you would do for a beloved parent or grandparent. You don't even have to be actually nice and hold the door for someone... just be a little considerate.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Way too much working this weekend!
Spring training has started - WooHoo! Baseball will soon be back and I can't wait. So what about the steroids thing? going to be interesting to see what happens next. I think Roger Clemens didn't do much to help himself with his testimony. Him and McNamme testified to total opposite versions was no big surprise. Clemens was not as convincing as McNamme was though and I think that hurt the Rocket in the court of public opinion.
At the same time - major kudos to Paul Lo Duca - I think his handling of it was just right. I'm sorry - I messed up - I wish I hadn't - lets move on. We don't need details, we don't need drama, we really just want our sports heros to do it the right way and discourage kids from juicing. That's all I want any how. We're all people and we all make mistakes. But part of life is being strong enough to admit that, take your lumps and move on. I don't know about anyone else but I am ready to start concentrating on what will happen in baseball this season - Go Cardinals!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
spaghetti wrestling!
So it was nice to get out of the house for a little while. It's been a busy week at work so I haven't had a whole lot of time to pay attention to the news. I know the steroids thing is going on but I haven't heard any updates on it. I'm curious if we'll ever know the truth. Noth much else in the news has caught my interest other than Microsoft making an offer for yahoo. I totally hope that doesn't happen and so far it looks like it won't. I'm a unix geek and never been a fan of microsoft. I wish I could say I'm on a mac writing this but I have a budget and a mac doesn't fit into it... So I am indeed on a windows machine - I actually like windows XP more than I've liked any of their other OS except maybe win 2000... I've used windows 2000 pro at work for well I guess about 8 years now... It works pretty good. I've had windows XP and win 2000 pro at home for several years and that works good for me as well. My old laptop with win 2000 on it just died so i went to tigerdirect.com to find a new one... found a thinkpad t43 with win xp on it for $500 and grabbed that right up. I've been using a t43 as my work laptop fo about a year and a half and I love it. So now I have another one for my personal laptop. Life is good!
Monday, February 11, 2008
internet money makers or bad jokes?
I saw another ad that says "Widow finds something that works!!!!!!" What? A vibrator? For real - that is what popped into my head... who writes this stuff?
Here let me write my own - "Homeless man finds free warm bed and food. For just $69 you can learn his secret method for earning free room and board"... would you click and pay me the $69? What is his method? Simple do something very inappropriate in front of the worst possible audience.... that is the most I'm going to say - if you can't fill in the blanks with something that would get any human tossed in jail for the night then come back when you've had a little more life experience.
No kidding, right?
You remember back in the day when you would see the ads in the newspaper saying something along the lines of send us $10 and a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope for those of you too young to know about snail mail) and we'll show you how to make hundreds of dollars a day stuffing envelopes..... and if you were indeed silly enough to send them $10 you would have gotten some kind of note or photocopy depending on what year you fell for this, telling you to rent a po box and put the same ad in the paper and then send each person the same instructions to put an ad in the paper and send these instructions to the people that reply. That is indeed the scam.
Would I like to make money online? Of course! But not by scamming people out of their hard earned $$$$. I'm sorry - I believe that what comes around goes around... so I just can't do that stuff. Sadly there are way too many out there that can. When I do find the magic route to online income - I will share it and I won't charge a dime for it. I want other people to succeed and I want to build up lots of good karma... so until next time - remember - if it sounds to good to be true - hold your nose because there is something stinky nearby!
Peace out,
Carol
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Chihuahua update!
Saturday, February 9, 2008
My chihuahua had surgery
More on Steroids
the deal last year with Floyd Landis - that makes no sense to me. Honestly. Taking "T" one day in the middle of the tour, winning the stage so you know your going to be tested for sure - it doesn't play right. Floyd is no rookie - everyone knows the stage winner gets tested. Not only that but my understanding is that testosterone has to be taken over a period of time to be of any use. A single dose doesn't do anything. It isn't like when they boost the red blood cells - that is immediate. "T" is not immediate. So why do it? I don't know and maybe it is foolish of my be I don't think he did. I think he was as stunned by those test results as the rest of the world was. I can't explain what happened or why but I don't think Floyd or any of the people around him would be stupid enough to go along with that. Do I think Lance Armstrong was guilty of doping? No I do not. And if he did - I very much hope it never ever comes out. Why? Because he is more than just the man Lance Armstrong. He is the cancer survivor Lance Armstrong and that is way bigger than one man. He gives hope to people worldwide and it would be a terrible if anything ever tarnished what he has done. So while I hated to see his racing career end - I totally respected that decision. I think had he kept going - what happened to Floyd would have happened to him. Yes I know - that means I think Floyd was set up - and indeed that is probably my leading theory about what "really" happened. We'll never know but it is the only thing that makes sense to me.
Friday, February 8, 2008
steroids are for losers
Baseball has been my favorite sport all my life. It was my Moms favorite sport. We watched Cardinals games together. I grew up thinking the guys on the field were larger than life. I had no idea they were just regular humans with a skill to play the game. The Cardinals won it all in 1982 - for the entire playoffs that year - me and Mom got to watch every game. Dad didn't complain once about losing control of his TV for that magic October. After all the TV was his domain the rest of the year! Had I heard of steroids by then? I think probably so - I was a jock and spent a fair amount of time in the weight room. Would I have connected them to MLB? Not a chance... of course in those days the Cardinals were all about speed... on the basepaths - I have no clue about speed in the clubhouse... I still think a double steal is the next coolest play to a suicide squeeze that there is...
Yeah, I'm a lifelong baseball fan. The steroids thing makes me sick. When Big Mac told congress he wasn't there to talk about the past - I felt ill. One of my heroes. yes I'm older now and I know that baseball players are just regular guys that happen to be very good at my favorite game. But damn... that was as loud and clear of an admission of guilt as it gets. And a wimpy trying to get out of it without really lying one at that. I do admire that he was willing to make himself look bad rather than tell a lie. I'll give brownie points for that. But the he-man thing to do would have been to be honest. If he used then he should have said - I did it, I'm not proud of it, I'm sorry.
Okay, I get that it is illegal... but it wasn't banned by baseball. True baseball shouldn't have to say that illegal drugs are a no-no. But my understanding is many players got their scripts in mexico where it isn't illegal. So if it isn't illegal where your at when you did it, and baseball didn't ban it... why do you have to lie? Because even so you still knew it wasn't right.
So what up with Roger Clemens? Who knows? I really hope he hasn't been lying to the world. I really hope he isn't arrogant enough to think he could do it, lie and get away with it. I don't know the man, he never played for the Cardinals so I don't have much invested in him one way or the other. Albert Pujols on the other hand - yes he is a hero of mine. Yes I know I'm 40 years old and baseball players are just people... but I watch the game and I'm a little girl hanging out with my Momma again... When the early rumor came out that Albert was in the Mitchell report - I felt sick all over again. I was just like No - it just can't be. Luckily for me when I heard the rumor the actual report had already come out and I read it then and saw he wasn't listed. Whew!
thing is we think we know our players. We watch them on the field, we hear about the wonderful causes they raise money for, they give back to the community. We want them to be the perfect people and they just aren't. They are in an ultra competitive job that can get them replaced anytime if they fail to perform. I understand they have families and want all the best for their families and the best way to get all the best is to be the best. And if your going against guys that are juiced - the deck is stacked against you. I get it. I don't like it, but I get it.
Here is my thought for you. What are you going to tell your parents? What are you going to tell your kids? If you juice - you will get caught.
What about Barry Bonds? What will baseball do about that situation if it turns out he used and lied? You know Barry had strikes against him to start with. My biggest issue with him was anytime I saw him in front of a camera - my impression was that he looked down at the rest of the world as lessor beings. I don't like that attitude. Now to be fair - I've seen some stuff with him more recently that he does come across more humble - slightly. We want our heroes to be humble... we want to hear they are just regular people that have the gift to play a game we love and play it very well. At the same time we want them to be super heroes flying in to save the day in the bottom of the 9th. But deep down - we know - they are people to - and people make mistakes. For goodness sakes though - be strong enough to admit your shortcomings. We like to forgive our heroes unless we feel like they are playing us for fools...
So my advice to Roger Clemens - if your innocent - stay the course... if your not - confess, grovel and retire before the results on the test on all those syringes come out. But what do I know? I'm just an evil lesbian computer geek...
