The Best (or Worst) Laid Plans...

Well, as Jack Benny used to say. We got thrown for a loop last week in my family. My Mom fell and broke her hip. She had it replaced and is in rehab currently. My brothers, nieces, nephews (too bad English doesn't have a collective gender neutral for that level of family), uncle, and dear family friend are taking turns visiting and helping her. 

This is partially why I did not post in this blog yesterday (though I've established and intend to continue a weekly post on Wednesday). I don't think anyone is subscribed, and I'd be surprised if anyone has even noticed the pattern, but it is not a good thing to do in the beginning of what I intend and hope is a long and fruitful tradition, and it was a goal of mine in November to write daily and I missed a day this week.

If I had planned better I would have had a post "in the can" and been prepared for not being able to write on Wednesday.

Something else that happened due to my own poor planning was that I forgot to mention that I participated in Movember again this year in November. That is, I grew a mustache (or let my mustache grow) in November to raise awareness of Men's Health Issues, specifically prostate cancer and dementia.

My Father died of pancreatic cancer, but before that, he had prostate cancer (for which he was successfully treated). My Father-In-Law had dementia and broke HIS hip, which ultimately impacted his departure from our company. I find it interesting that the identical purple ribbon is used for both of these conditions.

My Mom also has dementia, so this story turns round and round.

I planned to raise awareness of men's health issues and failed to use the platform already at my disposal in this blog. 

No plan survives first contact with the enemy even if that enemy is your own poor planning. I'm going to have to up my game.

What are your plans for the rest of the year? How are you going to adjust them once they are put into action?

Belated - Weekly Report, Kαλό Mήνα, etc.

Happy April everybody.  I missed reporting last week and I missed wishing everyone a happy new month.  To top it all off I posted my "Papa Story" in the wrong blog (I've also posted it in Papa Stories so no worries).

Let me tell you a bit about P90X.  The system is designed with 12 different exercise routines.  5 of them are cardio based (Cardio, Plyo, Core, Kempo, Yoga) and 5 of them are circuit based weight training.  Each week you do a circuit day, followed by a cardio day, circuit day, cardio day, circuit day, and finally a cardio day.  There are two more DVDs: an intro disk and an Ab Ripper X disk.

Since you have 5 cardio and 5 circuit disks each they do 3 of each type in a week.  They then divide the whole program into 3 phases.  There are three really hard weeks in each phase followed by an easier week.

I'm in the last week, which is an easy week by design.  I'm on Day 85 today.  Since I had to miss 10 days throughout the program I've decided to do an extra hard week before I bring it in with an easy week to finish.

As if that weren't confusing enough, the hard weeks are divided into a more general routine and a more specific routine.  For instance, in the general week you get a disk called "Back and Arms," in the more specific week, one of the disks you use is, "Back and Biceps."  In Phase 3 you do one general week, one specific week, one general week, one specific week and a rest week.

I'm adding in a hard general week.  BTW, I'm still at 227lbs and my knee still bothers me.

I think my knee is going to bother me forever now.  I don't think it will ever stop being something of an irritation.  I will probably have good days and bad days, but I suspect that it will be generally down hill now until I need to get it replaced some years in my future.

On a much brighter note, I DID finish my Level 2/3 Girl Scout Outdoor training.  I'm now certified and our Girl Scout troop can officially go tent camping.  So we can check that goal off as completed.  Hooray!

That gives me an idea for this month's poll: 
Are you still following your New Year's Resolution? 
I say that I am.  Is anyone else?

In my monthly goal review, I'm on track for P90X, and my Girl Scout goals.

We did not go on a date in Quarter 1, so that is a fail so far.  However, there are 4 quarters of course, so I can still get 75% in this category.

I have met with my mentor and I think I have the new jobs board at work figured out.  I attended a class on setting up your career development in our new system.  So that is all positive for finding a new job, but there is nothing currently out there for me to apply to.

I'm working on the Gold level of Unit Service for our Boy Scout District's Journey to Excellence.  It will take all year to find out how we do, but it's looking good so far.

I have not really worked on the Fortnightly History Podcast, but now that two of my primary goals are coming to an end I should be able to work on that more.  I'm also getting ready to start riding my bike to work again.  When I do that I will have more time to think about things, and I will have a better view of the trees in the neighborhood.

The weakest spot in my work on learning Greek.  I havent' done much in that vein, but I have decided that I am going to get up from my desk and walk around a bit each half hour.  When I do that I will study my Greek flashcards.  This should help me a bit.

Let Cthulhu Month Begin!

It's October again and you know what that means, no, not that, it's Cthulhu Month.

Here's my first image.  As usual I'll be posting a blasted image of one of the Great Old Ones each day.

This is a picture of me in our kitchen, oh wait, there's something wrong, what could it be?

Oh, I know, this is our old kitchen, we've remodeled since I had this image created.

I'm also going to be recording the nightmare I experience while deployed in support of the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina.

I'm also going to post The Night of the Purple Fog at Papa Stories.

Got to get to work.

William G. La Fleur BG (Ret.) 1942 - 2010

My father died last night.  He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2008, and after over a year of chemothearapy he had come home.  He had been being cared for by his family for six weeks before finally succumbing to the desease, surrounded by family and friends.

He had been a US Marine, retired Captain of the Chicago Police, retired Brigadier General in the Illinois Army National Guard, a Silver Beaver awarded Scoutmaster, Rochelle and Flagg Center Firefighter, son, brother, husband, father, and grandfather.

He is greatly missed.

He donated his body to science.

Visitation will be held on Friday April 9th from 3:00 to 6:45 p.m. at Unger-Horner Funeral Home, 400 N. 6th Street Rochelle, IL with a celebration of Life at 7:00 P.M. and Memorial Mass will be held at St Patrick Church on Saturday April 10, 2010 at 10:30 a.m. Memorials may go to donors choice.

This Blog May Become a Web LOG

My dad has cancer (again). My sister-in-law had suggested that my mom keep a journal and I think I may have to do that. So that got me to thinking, this is a web LOG, or a journal. Then I thought, no that's too public. Then I thought, well, no one comments even if I beg them so the 20 or less people who come here a week are probably not here to read or participate, what the heck.

It's an entirely different perspective on this blog. I've always seen it as a soap box, a public forum, a mouthpiece, a place to publish my writing and my ideas. This new perspective is that it is a private, personal journal of things I write to me for me, except that it is left out on the coffee table of the public TV room for anyone to read. Since I'm not a millionare or a teen aged girl, no one is interested in reading my thoughts. I'm safe in leaving it here in the open.

As long as I don't expect a discussion this would be a fine place to record my thoughts and feelings.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love for this blog to become the hottest thing on the net. I'd love for people to flock here for a lively debate and a really good read. I'd love for some big shot producer (like maybe Speilberg) to call and say, "Hey Prop, I read that story on your blog and I'd love to make a movie out of it, have your people call my people..."

But I'm not expecting it.

And maybe I shouldn't be disappointed if it doesn't happen.

Reading and Snow

The last poll ended with three people saying that Mystery was their favorite genre to read and one person who liked Fantasy best.

One of the best times to curl up with your favorite genre of book is the middle of a snowstorm. Here in northern Illinois it has been the snowiest season since 1981-82. Sure there is no snow now (actually there still are mountains of snow in the corners of parking lots all over, but those can last well into May) but there was a lot.

Each year I think can get by without a snow blower. Some years I regret it, but then it's too late. I have three good shovels, a pretty good system and a couple of helpers now, so if we don't get a 1979 or 1967 type snow I'll be fine.

Besides, my neighbor has a snow blower and he seems to really love using it. After he does his own he usually does mine (if I can't get there in time to beat him to it) and then he moves on down the block.

What do you do about snow? Do you shovel, snow blow, or snow plow? Do you even have a driveway or sidewalk to shovel? Do you live where there is snow? Do you live where there is so much snow that you could never remove it anyway?

Let me know, vote now.

The photo is of yours truly on our garage roof with my father (he's the one actually working) in 1979. We had to shovel off the garage roof so it wouldn't collapse under the weight. I was twelve and despite having fallen down in the photo, I did help.

What Makes an Expert?

My Dad used to always say, “This is what an expert is: ex is the unknown factor and a spert is a drip under pressure.”

I’ve been doing research to improve this blog and I’ve been looking at other people’s blogs. They all seem to know so much.

I give a run down on the topics I put on the poll to see how I stack up as an “expert” in these topics:


· WRITING FICTION - While I have been studying this topic more fervently in the last twenty years than any other (except maybe Excel) I hesitate to claim to be an expert since I have made a grand total of $10 on my writing. It’s all about the art though, right.

· DEPLOYMENT – I am an expert on Illinois Army National Guard Deployment to Afghanistan 2004-2005. That is a fairly limited topic (understatement). I don’t know how many people would really be interested or how many articles I could really get out of that. However I am currently the Family Readiness Group leader for the 108th Sustainment Brigade who are being deployed to Iraq soon. I will have a pretty good insight to what those soldiers and their families are going through.

· RUGBY - I do consider myself to be one of the most knowledgeable people that I know in this topic. I could easily become THE font of knowledge about the subject in the Chicago Area Rugby Football Union (CARFU), but first I want to watch the DVDs I have of the recent RWC. I want to watch them as if they are live and I don’t want the end to be spoiled. Give me a couple of months and I am right there.

· SCOUTING - I am an Eagle Scout and I was a District Executive for four years in the Chicago Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. I was an active scouter from age eight until age twenty eight. Trouble is, I’ve been out of the BSA all those years. I’ve been involved with the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) for the past six years, but I’m no expert there.

· ANTHROPOLOGY - I thought, “I have a BA in Anthropology, maybe I can write about Anthropology” but there are some really intense Anthropology and Archaeology blogs out there, and some of them are amateurs. I don’t know if I could add anything useful.

Then I remembered that part of the reason I wanted to study Anthropology is because I wanted to be an expert on Native Americans for our Boy Scout troop. I wanted to make the costumes we used in ceremonies and the actions of the actors more authentic. But I recently found out that there is already a blog about Scouting and Native Americans. It may be all anyone needs on the subject. Maybe I’m a little too late on this topic.

· CONCULTURES AND CONLANGS – ConCultures means Constructed Cultures. These are made up cultures and peoples. They are a combination of anthropology and fiction and I feel I have at least a good background in both of these. ConLang means Constructed Languages. I wrote a previous post on this subject. It goes hand in hand with ConCultures, but I have had less training in linguistics.

· MICROSOFT EXCEL. This wasn’t one of the choices in the poll, but I am definitely at expert level on Excel. In fact I would go so far as to say, if there is anyone out there reading this that is having a problem with Excel they can send me an email at innerprop@sbcglobal.net and I will help them.


So I guess I do have some expertise in some subjects. I’ve been thinking of taking the approach of the original Mickey Mouse Club and have a different theme each day. The MMC had the following schedule:

· Monday is Fun with Music
· Tuesday is Guest Star Day
· Wednesday is Anything Can Happen Day
· Thursday is Circus
· Friday is Talent Round-up

I could go with:

· Monday is Fiction Day
· Tuesday is Guest Star Day
· Wednesday is Anything Can Happen Day
· Thursday is Rugby Day
· Friday is ConCulture Day.

What do you think?