Exercising for YOU

I'm glad I've reincorporated workouts back into my life.  I had definitely taken some time off during most of October/November/December.  Easing back into it with just 2 days per week have really worked to my advantage.  It's just enough to make a difference for weight loss and make me feel good, and also just the right amount so that I'm not bored by doing the same few machines over and over 4-5 days/week.  Not to mention the fact that it's been just enough to motivate me to keep going every week! <br /><br />Right around the start of the new year I was trucking away on the elliptical reading an article in a magazine,  and it talked about how important it is <i>not </i>to<i> </i>compare your weight loss journey to others.  It talked about how you do what you have to do for <i>yourself - </i>what feels comfortable for <i>you</i>.  It mentioned how there are countless studies that say you must do x, y and z {in terms of exercise} in order to achieve "real" results.  What really rang true to me in this article was that it stressed how each weight loss journey is unique to that individual.  <i> </i><br /><br /><ul><li>You<i> do what </i>you're<i> capable of doing.</i>  <i> </i></li><li>You <i>do what feels right for </i>you <i>at this point in your life.  </i></li><li>You <i>can achieve "real" results just by doing something so </i>simple <i>as walking every day.  <br /> </i></li></ul><br />Yes, you can challenge yourself, but you don't have to make the exercise part of weight loss so overwhelming by telling yourself that you must do 10 variations of weight moves and 5 levels of intensity on the elliptical/treadmill/stairmaster, etc, every single day in order to achieve weight loss success.  I was definitely getting to that point with exercise.  I had spreadsheets of exact things I needed to be doing each day at the gym.  Sometimes this proved beneficial, mixing up the monotony of my typical routine.  However, what it really did was drive me away from the gym... for almost 3 solid months.  Why?  Because it all just became overwhelming.<br /><br /><div style="color: #999999; text-align: center;">{I don't really want to make this<br />weight loss journey <span style="color: #999999;">any more difficult/stressful/overwhelming </span><br /><span style="color: #999999;">than it already is.}</span>   </div><br />Before blogging, I would say I didn't struggle much with comparing my journey to others.  However, now that I read a lot of weight loss and fitness blogs, I have found myself thinking: <br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>"Well they are doing 5 days/week at the gym, I need to do the same!  They are doing all these weight moves and cardio intervals, I need to do the same!  Otherwise, I'm not really measuring up in this 'weight loss community' and I'm not going to achieve 'real' results."</i></blockquote><br />At this point in my life right now, I want <i>simple</i>.  I know that walking works.  I proved that to myself as a sophomore in college, when I lost 50 lbs, bringing me to my lowest adult weight ever.<br /><br />By no means am I saying that <i>you </i>should just walk or run and nix the rest of the exercise choices.  No.  Lifting weights can be fun and obviously provides great health benefits.<br /><br />But, if you're finding yourself overwhelmed at the thought of all there is to do at the gym, try starting simply first.  It really has made all the difference for me.       <br /><br /><b style="color: #674ea7;">Can you relate to this?</b>

Exercise Exercising for YOU

I'm glad I've reincorporated workouts back into my life.  I had definitely taken some time off during most of October/November/December.  Easing back into it with just 2 days per week have really worked to my advantage.  It's just enough to make a di…

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Vertigo for Life

<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">by guest contributor Dan Auiler</span></span></i><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mSy7uqYMb3N3Bo1O6fcC21NtQ2vcxYG5Bl0iui6xyPbQhNtWVu_gzY33VmsPM8aee8Q1vzQCscmKFSjTvuWvptr-8tPZ1I5JAE9oqGOLIZ8zV6VzmzSF6txYIsm6l87J1dxvBqn8R5hd/s1600/saul+bass+2+b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mSy7uqYMb3N3Bo1O6fcC21NtQ2vcxYG5Bl0iui6xyPbQhNtWVu_gzY33VmsPM8aee8Q1vzQCscmKFSjTvuWvptr-8tPZ1I5JAE9oqGOLIZ8zV6VzmzSF6txYIsm6l87J1dxvBqn8R5hd/s1600/saul+bass+2+b.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A month of <i>Vertigo </i>is light sentence. Most of us who encounter this film end up serving life sentences. Our lives, our thoughts become trapped in the vortex of the strong currents this film produces. <i>Vertigo</i>'s meaning and importance in film have become so varied and vital that choosing one tendril spinning out from one of John Whitney's Lissajous diagrams is challenging - but keeping that line of thought from swirling back into the film's center and tossing you out on some other surprising shore is just about impossible.</span></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><a name='more'></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BzB31mD4NmA?rel=0" width="420"></iframe></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The film has become something I can seldom approach head-on, in a straight line. For example, the original idea for this blog post was to look at <i>Vertigo</i> and the films of Chris Marker. But even on the way to introducing the idea, we encounter John Whitney. John Whitney was the groundbreaking computer animation filmmaker who not only invented</span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">computer controlled animation, but hand-machined the devices himself out of surplus Air Force engines. It was on one of these devices that Whitney created the opening spiral designs that Saul Bass used for the title sequence.</span></span><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7yyQeHdQDXU?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And now, aiming still at Chris Marker, detoured out of essence to a brief John Whitney nod, we encounter another 20th century giant, Saul Bass. The very look of the last hundred years, let alone the way movies open, have been impacted by the vision and design abilities of Saul Bass.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Selecting Saul Bass, John Whitney - these are obvious choices today. In 1957, these guys were not household names even to filmmakers. One of Hitchcock's remarkable abilities was his choice in collaborators. Other posts this month have outlined the other key components of the design team for <i>Vertigo</i>. Bernard Herrmann, Edith Head, Samuel Taylor - again, hindsight provokes us to ask how the film could fail.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQWUuqMf7mVMEy2xw1JSOKvmS4w2xeChDm2WtNpJn_1-BiQQRtSQdil1Jk3YGJKaA2ub0ezR00sdjgkyiT0RAW7fU5lskcV546eqQTIathWdAQk3A9pde5YrGc6KOTz8Gi9ujknbIxv1re/s1600/la+jetee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQWUuqMf7mVMEy2xw1JSOKvmS4w2xeChDm2WtNpJn_1-BiQQRtSQdil1Jk3YGJKaA2ub0ezR00sdjgkyiT0RAW7fU5lskcV546eqQTIathWdAQk3A9pde5YrGc6KOTz8Gi9ujknbIxv1re/s1600/la+jetee.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>La Jetee</i> (1962)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Now I'm far from Chris Marker. But I thought you would appreciate the detour. Marker has also been a life-long devotee of <i>Vertigo</i>. His break-out short film <i>La Jetee</i> references the film's famous tree sequence; <i>La Jetee </i>is a further examination of the aspects of time, obsession and our movable points in time. (here is the complete text to <i>La Jetee</i>: </span><a href="http://www.markertext.com/la_jetee.htm" style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>La Jetee</i> by Chris Marker</span></a><span style="color: black;">)</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Marker, in a later work of opposite dimensions, <i>San Soleil</i>, tours San Francisco and <i>Vertigo</i>'s film locations, marking in film at least the first of the pilgrims to visit Lombard Street, Fort Point, the Legion of Honor art museum, San Juan Bautista. <i>Vertigo </i>aficionados feel compelled to make this pilgrimage. It was my first trip after college. I'm not sure why this was so vital - but I am not alone. (There are several paid tours of the film sites available)</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i> </i></span></span></span><br /><div style="text-align: right;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAgQqf0jLnHob02A1hhaifwO0bLXSpmmwQlrAfieHwWWHWgsVfW-u6IX3N4EgC63spTcU1YysY3F7jNZEy0G2cbxOhJuefTndZRN32aHRZo8zhanXjlawX4-DAyiI5A0rfj5bAyTOzYOq4/s1600/chris+marker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAgQqf0jLnHob02A1hhaifwO0bLXSpmmwQlrAfieHwWWHWgsVfW-u6IX3N4EgC63spTcU1YysY3F7jNZEy0G2cbxOhJuefTndZRN32aHRZo8zhanXjlawX4-DAyiI5A0rfj5bAyTOzYOq4/s1600/chris+marker.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Filmmaker Chris Marker</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Vertigo </i>and its production history led me to discover Marker. His reference to the film in his own was the starting point. Now I'm fascinated by his total mess-with-your-head understanding (or non-understanding) of time. The English version of <i>San Soleil</i> begins with these lines from TX Eliot's <i>Ash Wednesday</i>:</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"Because I know that time is always time</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">and place is always and only place</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And what is actual is actual only for one time</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">and only for one place."</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What then is the time and place for <i>Vertigo</i>? This is a profound question in the structure of the film. It is an even more profound question for us, the film's fans.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What is the time and place of this film in our lives? For me, it has been the gateway, the worm hole, the central vortex around which all of Hitchcock's films and subsequently my own psychic life turn.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Use <i>Vertigo</i> as a starting point and then lose yourself as a wanderer. My latest encounter on the <i>Vertigo </i>trail is the three-part video essay curated<span style="color: #990000;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/vertigo-variations-pt-1-20110921" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration: none;">here</span></a></span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">at</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> the Museum of Moving Image. This is accessible but heady stuff.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There are other "better" films even in the Hitchcock canon, but <i>Vertigo </i>is perhaps the most profound pop film. Everyone chooses which films lie closest to their own heart, their own story.<i> Vertigo </i>is that film for me.</span></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="372" width="448"><param name="movie" value="http://www.movingimagesource.us/flash/mediaplayer.swf?id=158/976"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.movingimagesource.us/flash/mediaplayer.swf?id=158/976" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" width="448" height="372"></embed></object></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjax1r6UwNlB9eHzb8KnhG6B9f30w0i8gVxJfLpB1pGkg0z2XVVVwqSnLYXrGx_JZpr79T2ie_jzWJkVvwHttl6Ndm51qO1zVRmvbt5swdrsYuEeJMr_778E5W2-CarNaGnuJkt1ELPpa35/s1600/vertigo+book+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjax1r6UwNlB9eHzb8KnhG6B9f30w0i8gVxJfLpB1pGkg0z2XVVVwqSnLYXrGx_JZpr79T2ie_jzWJkVvwHttl6Ndm51qO1zVRmvbt5swdrsYuEeJMr_778E5W2-CarNaGnuJkt1ELPpa35/s320/vertigo+book+cover.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;">Dan Auiler is the best-selling author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FUEM0E/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=hitchcblog-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B005FUEM0E&adid=0SRR1ZSGX9A4SMT0GPMQ&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fvertigofalls.blogspot.com%2F" style="color: #990000;"><u>Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic</u></a><i> </i>(St. Martin's Press 1998, Kindle 2011) and <u>Hitchcock's Notebooks</u> (HarperCollins 1999). In addition to his writing, he has taught for more than 20 years in the Los Angeles area. </span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">Dan is considered one of the foremost authorities on Alfred Hitchcock and has made appearances on CNN and other major networks as an expert on Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and general film history.</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">It was after reading Dan's painstakingly researched and thoroughly insightful book on <i>Vertigo </i>that The Lady Eve was inspired to undertake <i>A Month of VERTIGO. </i>Dan's blog is <a href="http://vertigofalls.blogspot.com/" style="color: #990000;">Vertigo Falls</a>.</span></div>

A Month of Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock Chris Marker Dan Auiler John Whitney La Jetee San Soleil Saul Bass Vertigo for Life

by guest contributor Dan AuilerA month of Vertigo is light sentence. Most of us who encounter this film end up serving life sentences. Our lives, our thoughts become trapped in the vortex of the strong currents this film produces. Vertigo's meaning a…

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One of those days…

<p>It’s Monday morning. Adelyn’s cry quickly gets me on my feet. I rush in to pick her up and see that it’s only 4am. Not how I planned to start my day…or at least not the hour I planned to start my day!</p> <p>Maybe it’s when you pour yourself a bowl of cereal and realize there’s no milk left. Or maybe you get to the gym and find that you forgot to pack an important part of your workout gear…your shoes!</p> <p>Whatever it may be, you can’t let it derail you! </p> <p>It’s just been one of those days where I don’t feel like myself and I’ve had to consciously tell myself STAY ON TRACK! I think it all comes back what I mentioned in my <a href="http://weightloss-stories.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-going-to-be-different.html">post last week</a> about this whole process and how it’s a head game. </p> <p>One day at a time, I can do this!</p> <p>I’m proud to say I’ve been on within my WW points all day! It’s a warm 60 degree January day and I’m going to take my baby girl on a walk! Vitamin D is always good for the soul!</p> <p>So here’s my two cents friends…even if it is “one of those days”, don’t let it derail you! Stay on track, push through, and remember tomorrow’s a new day! </p>

One of those days…

It’s Monday morning. Adelyn’s cry quickly gets me on my feet. I rush in to pick her up and see that it’s only 4am. Not how I planned to start my day…or at least not the hour I planned to start my day! Maybe it’s when you pour yourself a bowl of cerea…

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How to send emails using Microsoft Word and Mail Merge

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">There are times when I need to send out the same emails to a whole lot of people, and after trying one method after another I decided it was time to teach myself Mail Merge.  I took screenshots of my journey which I will now share with you in case you want to do something similar. What a timesaver it has proved to be! Now why didn't I think of this a whole lot earlier!<br /><div id="__ss_11339815" style="width: 425px;"><b style="display: block; margin: 12px 0 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/fionabeal/create-emails-using-mail-merge" title="Create emails using mail merge">Create emails using mail merge</a></b><object height="355" id="__sse11339815" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=createemailsusingmailmerge-120130143733-phpapp02&stripped_title=create-emails-using-mail-merge&userName=fionabeal" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><embed name="__sse11339815" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=createemailsusingmailmerge-120130143733-phpapp02&stripped_title=create-emails-using-mail-merge&userName=fionabeal" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><div style="padding: 5px 0 12px;">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/fionabeal">fionabeal</a>.</div></div><br /><br /><br /></div>

Microsoft Slideshare Tutorials How to send emails using Microsoft Word and Mail Merge

There are times when I need to send out the same emails to a whole lot of people, and after trying one method after another I decided it was time to teach myself Mail Merge.  I took screenshots of my journey which I will now share with you in case yo…

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Library Assistant - Silver Hill Hospital

<strong>Library Assistant</strong> - <span style="color: #48286d;"><strong>Silver Hill Hospital</strong></span>, one of the premier psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals in the country, seeks Library Assistant. Part Time Days, 12:00pm – 5:00pm, Saturdays & Sundays. AS Degree or Undergraduate Student, excellent customer service and computer skills required. Library experience preferred. Duties include a variety of clerical and library tasks, basic support services and services to patrons. Responsibility for routine circulation, shelf maintenance and clerical functions using an automated circulation system. For consideration, please send resume to: <a href="mailto:careers@silverhillhospital.org">careers@silverhillhospital.org</a> or Human Resources, Silver Hill Hospital, 208 Valley Road, New Canaan, CT 06840; <a href="http://www.silverhillhospital.org/" target="_blank">www.silverhillhospital.org</a>. EOE M/F/D/V.

Library Assistant - Silver Hill Hospital

Library Assistant - Silver Hill Hospital, one of the premier psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals in the country, seeks Library Assistant. Part Time Days, 12:00pm – 5:00pm, Saturdays & Sundays. AS Degree or Undergraduate Student, excellent c…

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Children’s Librarian - Torrington Library

<b>Children’s Librarian</b> - [salary unknown] The <span style="color: #48286d;"><b>Torrington Library</b></span> is seeking a Children’s Librarian who is energetic, enthusiastic, organized and creative with superior customer service skills who will enjoy working in a busy environment serving a diverse community. Successful candidate will be flexible, able to work as part of a team, have a willingness to learn, a love of working with children and a passion for public service. An opportunity to work in an architecturally-beautiful building in a downtown setting. The successful candidate will possess: Experience working with children; Ability to work with parents; Ability to assume full responsibility for operation of Children’s Room; Ability to be proactive and plan ahead for programs and events; Supervisory skills; Ability to plan imaginative programs for children from birth to 12 years; Ability to contribute to our website; Strong written and verbal communication skills including the ability to communicate effectively and positively with library visitors of all ages; Proficiency in desktop applications including Excel and Word; Ability to work collaboratively with schools and community groups; Knowledge of children’s literature and ability to maintain and develop the collection; Ability to assist in short and long range planning for library services. Responsibilities include but are not limited to: Programming; Outreach, both on and off-site, including coordination of our annual Doorway to Learning Initiative; Preparation of statistical reports; Working collaboratively with library director and taking direction as needed; Design of promotional materials and news releases; Collection development; Administration of juvenile materials & program budgets; Supervision of Children’s Room assistant and other staff as required; Keeping Children’s Room in order and decorated seasonally. Covering service areas beyond the Children’s Room as needed. This is a full time, salaried position, 35 hours per week including evening and Saturday hours. Also includes paid vacation, sick days and medical benefits (employee only). Submit resume with cover letter postmarked no later than <span style="color: red;">February 15, 2012</span> to: Library Director, Torrington Library, 12 Daycoeton Place, Torrington, CT 06790-6399. No phone inquiries, please. EOE.

Children’s Librarian - Torrington Library

Children’s Librarian - [salary unknown] The Torrington Library is seeking a Children’s Librarian who is energetic, enthusiastic, organized and creative with superior customer service skills who will enjoy working in a busy environment serving a div…

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Reference Librarian I - Guilford Free Library

<strong>Reference Librarian I</strong> - <span style="color: #48286d;"><strong>Guilford Free Library</strong></span>. 24 hours per week - $18.84 hourly - no benefits. Strong public service skills are required for this position. Duties include: assisting patrons in selection, organization and interpretation of materials; instructing patrons in the use of the library’s collections including online databases, downloadable materials and evolving technologies; performing duties relating to maintaining and administering the Library’s various information systems, including the library website; acting as a library representative to professional organizations, Town officials, community groups, schools and businesses. This entry-level professional position requires an ALA-accredited Masters of Library Science. Candidates who are close to completion in an MLS program may be considered. Application and job description are available at: <a href="http://www.ci.guilford.ct.us/human-resources.htm" target="_blank">http://www.ci.guilford.ct.us/human-resources.htm</a>. Application deadline is: Friday, <span style="color: red;">February, 10, 2012</span> at 3:00PM. Applications may be mailed to: Mitch Goldblatt, Director of Human Resources, Town of Guilford, 31 Park Street, Guilford, CT 06437.

Reference Librarian I - Guilford Free Library

Reference Librarian I - Guilford Free Library. 24 hours per week - $18.84 hourly - no benefits. Strong public service skills are required for this position. Duties include: assisting patrons in selection, organization and interpretation of mater…

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Library Media Specialist - Redding Elementary School

<strong>Library Media Specialist</strong> - <span style="color: #48286d;"><strong>Redding Elementary School</strong></span>. .4 FTE Library Media Specialist position is available beginning April 2012 through June 2013. Candidates must hold the appropriate certification for this position. Hours: 8:00 a.m. - 2:50 p.m., two days per week (Tuesday and Thursday for 2011-2012 academic year; 2012-13 academic year to be determined). Salary and Benefits: In accordance with the bargaining unit contract. Ideal Candidates Will Possess: Enthusiasm for teaching and learning; motivation to work as part of a team to integrate library/media with grade level curriculum content; desire to implement emerging technologies to support 21st Century skills; ability to meet the diverse and developmental learning needs of elementary age learners; strong collaboration and communication skills; strong technology skills and familiarity with a variety of reserach databases, Follett Destiny software, curriculum related Web sites, and Microsoft Office Suite software. Responsibilities: This part time position works in tandem with a full-time library media specialist. Both teachers are responsible for the library media instruction on a set schedule in an elementary setting. Additional collaboration includes embedding technology and media literacy and 21st Century skills into existing curriculum, kindergarten through 4th grade. Applications will only be accepted online at the Central Office Web site: <a href="http://www.er9.org/" target="_blank">www.er9.org</a> under the "Job Openings" link. Applicants must submit the following: Formal letter of application, resume, three letters of recommendation, official transcripts of all post-secondary education, copy of appropriate CT certification - Library Media Specialist. Application Deadline: Until filled. The Redding Board of Education is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Library Media Specialist - Redding Elementary School

Library Media Specialist - Redding Elementary School. .4 FTE Library Media Specialist position is available beginning April 2012 through June 2013. Candidates must hold the appropriate certification for this position. Hours: 8:00 a.m. - 2:50 p.m…

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Library Assistant III - Otis Library

<strong>Library Assistant III</strong> - <span style="color: #48286d;"><strong>Otis Library</strong></span> has an opening for a Part Time Library Assistant III to work approximately 20 hours per week. We are looking for a positive and organized individual who has superior customer service skills. Responsibilities include: general patron assistance, circulation duties and services, excellent computer skills and ability to learn new technologies, eBook knowledge, and the ability to relate to patrons of all ages. Daytime, evening, and Saturday rotation hours included. Library experience and LTA preferred. Please send resumes by e-mail to <a href="mailto:bfarwell@otis.lioninc.org">bfarwell@otis.lioninc.org</a> or by U.S. mail to Robert Farwell, Director, Otis Library, 261 Main Street, Norwich CT 06360.

Library Assistant III - Otis Library

Library Assistant III - Otis Library has an opening for a Part Time Library Assistant III to work approximately 20 hours per week. We are looking for a positive and organized individual who has superior customer service skills. Responsibilities …

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Part-Time Children’s Department Assistant - Berlin-Peck Library

<strong>Part-Time Children’s Department Assistant</strong> - The Berlin-Peck Library, Berlin, CT is seeking an enthusiastic, forward-thinking person to complement the Children’s Department team. The candidate will plan and present programs, assist patrons and other duties as they present themselves within the department. Please see the <a href="http://www.town.berlin.ct.us/filestorage/193/209/PT_Children%27s_Dept_Assistant_1_26_12.pdf" target="_blank">complete job description</a> <img alt="PDF icon" src="http://www.ctlibrarians.org/associations/10663/files/pdf.jpg" /> . The position is 20 hours per week plus every 3rd Saturday. Salary is $18.00 per hour; no medical benefits. Please send a resume, meaningful cover letter and a <a href="http://www.town.berlin.ct.us/filestorage/193/209/emp_app.pdf" target="_blank">Town of Berlin application</a> <img alt="PDF icon" src="http://www.ctlibrarians.org/associations/10663/files/pdf.jpg" /> to: Office of the Town Manager, 240 Kensington Road, Berlin, CT 06037 by 12:00 p.m. on Friday, February 17, 2012.

Part-Time Children’s Department Assistant - Berlin-Peck Library

Part-Time Children’s Department Assistant - The Berlin-Peck Library, Berlin, CT is seeking an enthusiastic, forward-thinking person to complement the Children’s Department team. The candidate will plan and present programs, assist patrons and othe…

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<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWlFImmIoblSPsUZQ48XQAZu1HNlWwaA_ceQl_QckTinf16A2IMxZjIH86sPQ1mjkQJML3Jz-Az2bgbXY3rmrxhKWjqMB8gceZCW0ELDc_r6BQYyhgj0ZcCm0UlyJeAvv0xgEDZQlX8Xii/s1600/Conspiracy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWlFImmIoblSPsUZQ48XQAZu1HNlWwaA_ceQl_QckTinf16A2IMxZjIH86sPQ1mjkQJML3Jz-Az2bgbXY3rmrxhKWjqMB8gceZCW0ELDc_r6BQYyhgj0ZcCm0UlyJeAvv0xgEDZQlX8Xii/s400/Conspiracy.jpg" width="281" /></a></div><div style="color: #351c75; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Financial Illiteracy of Those Who Mock Conspiracy Theorists</b></span></div><br />Article by Anthony Wile via Daily Bell<br /><br />From Social Psychological and Personality Science (SPPS), a journal from the independent publisher Sage Publications, comes an article that has predictably seen wide distribution on the Internet. It implies that those who believe in globalist CONSPIRACY THEORIES are illogical – even downright nutty.<br /><br />The article is entitled  "Dead and Alive: Beliefs in CONTRADICTORY CONSPIRACY THEORIES" and the thesis of the article is that people who believe in conspiracy theories eventually become so immersed in them and so mesmerized that they do not realize they are holding contradictory beliefs.<br />"Conspiracy theories can form a monological belief system: A self-sustaining worldview comprised of a network of mutually supportive beliefs. The present research shows that even mutually incompatible conspiracy theories are positively correlated in endorsement." (SPPS Abstract)<br />"Conspiratorialists" become so distrustful of "government" and "authority" that they will impute any and every kind of malevolence to them.<br /><br />Thus it is that people can claim, on the one hand, that Osama bin Laden is "dead" and died years ago, while simultaneously claiming that bin Laden remains alive and that US and Pakistan government authorities are not being truthful about him and his physical state.<br />Of course, I've never run into anyone, who claims that bin Laden is ALIVE. But it's true that here at the Daily Bell we've run articles explaining that bin Laden probably died years ago. <br /><br />The SPPS article would likely have you believe this is an outrageous conspiracy theory. But given that FOX news ran a report on bin Laden's death in 2001, and given that Pakistan's former president Benazir Bhutto herself claimed that bin Laden died in the early 2000s (supposedly as the result of an assassination), it doesn't seem so far-fetched to speculate that bin Laden didn't die as the result of a US raid in 2011.<br />But that's almost minor stuff. Articles like this, despite their scientific patina, are deeply illiterate. Why so? Because invariably such articles won't deal with the bedrock financial illiteracy of current economic and political paradigms.<br />Imagine if the world were based on lies. Well, unfortunately, that's the truth. The lies go far beyond "who shot JFK" or whether the US government was directly or indirectly involved in 9/11.<br />When one uses the logical framework of Austrian, free-market analysis to analyze the Way the World Works in the modern age, one inevitably comes to the conclusion that modern society is built around fundamental untruths.<br />The first one is economic: It is the idea that central bankers can efficiently and effectively set the price of money. They cannot.<br /><br />Every time central bankers decide on how much money to print or where short interest rates should be, the decisions are "fixing" prices – and price-fixing never works. Price-fixing distorts economies and causes a wealth shift from those who create it to those who don't and may not know what to do with it. Over time, aggressively mis-priced money causes first recessions and then depressions.<br /><br />The second lie is that laws and regulations are necessary and that they can save society from "anarchy." In fact, anarchy is only the absence of government. That's the real definition. And absence of government does not necessarily imply "chaos." Just as setting interest rates fixes the price of money, so every law and regulation is a price fix as well, preventing someone from doing something within the context of the marketplace. This also constitutes a wealth transfer.<br />One can have a perfectly adequate and satisfying society without formal government, certainly without the kinds of intrusive and murderous governments we've got today. History is full of examples of societies that flourished with at least minimal government, especially societies where power truly flowed from the bottom up.<br /><br />The third lie is that government is essential for purposes of defense and defending its citizens. But a quick survey of modern wars shows a disturbing tendency of governments – especially certain Western governments – to foment the very wars that citizens believe they're being protected from.<br />War is the "health of the state" – the way that those in power consolidate their hold while punishing their enemies using phony pretexts having to do with "treason" and "leaking classified information." Sound familiar?<br />It is what we call the Internet Reformation that has gradually shed light on the fundamental untruths permeating modern society in both the developed and developing world.<br /><br /><b>The Internet, like the Gutenberg before it, is a revolutionary device that has allowed people access to information that was hitherto denied or covered up, especially in the 20th century when the power elites control over society was perhaps at its apex.</b><br /><br />A conspiracy likely DOES exist. The Internet easily reveals not just facts that illuminate it, but also PATTERNS that show the same command-and-control strategies implemented throughout history, over and over.<br />It is easy, unfortunately, to mock those who believe in so-called "conspiracy theories" because the truth of what has occurred in this weary world is so extreme and shocking that most people simply cannot believe it. What truly horrifies us becomes a target for mockery. It's a defense mechanism.<br />What is it about the UN, IMF, World Bank, International Criminal Court, world Health Organization and hundreds of others lesser known globalist facilities that people who deny or decry modern "conspiracy theory" don't understand?  <br /><br />An entire gamut of globalist entities has been superimposed on the world in the past 75 years. Most recently − only this past week, in fact − the US military held a formal exercise over the skies of Los Angeles using the same black helicopters that conspiracy theorists were mocked for mentioning not a decade ago.<br />But the biggest issue by far – bigger than even the establishment of the facilities of the New World Order – is the fundamental illiteracy of those who choose to support modern society as it is today and as it has evolved over the past 100 years.<br /><br />While human societies have always been based on fairly bizarre rituals, it is safe to say that the current crop of behind-the-scenes leaders have raised statist insanity to a new level.<br />Every part of modern society, from its basic economic building blocks to its liturgical belief in dysfunctional "laws and regulations" to its deep-seated reverence for the manipulated destruction of war, is questionable on a factual basis.<br /><br />The reality of modern society is increasingly pathological – and the ones with the pathology are those who lead the rest of us along using paradigms that are evidently and obviously dishonest and dysfunctional.<br />Articles that mock the looniness of "conspiratorialists" need to deal with the fundamental economic and sociopolitical dishonesty of their own assumptions. They should begin by admitting the evident and obvious logical fallacies of the "modern" society they celebrate.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_wbohNbQ6AKxvIl0HlNRF6ARe-bZ2sgyx7NpjjwsRIioRm2zj-rNg8W4A6DxLA3erWbNLGk2F_eNszGrD48ecvKUQcowq3f4wkB9rWg4ehIU5uDQtB6GncvAOSLcFDJHD2MCjkAYk_8z9/s1600/2424492-2-see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_wbohNbQ6AKxvIl0HlNRF6ARe-bZ2sgyx7NpjjwsRIioRm2zj-rNg8W4A6DxLA3erWbNLGk2F_eNszGrD48ecvKUQcowq3f4wkB9rWg4ehIU5uDQtB6GncvAOSLcFDJHD2MCjkAYk_8z9/s400/2424492-2-see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>WHY DO CONSPIRACY THEORIES WORRY THE ESTABLISHMENT?</b></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>By Ray Storch</i></span><br /><br /><div style="color: red;"><b>Don’t forget the Information Highway:</b></div><br /><span style="color: red;">THE ROMANS created roads in order to move their armies faster and thus became an empire</span><br /><div style="color: red;"><br />THE BRITISH created the railroads in order to move their armies faster and thus became an empire</div><div style="color: red;"><br />THE USA created the Information highway (Internet) in order to obtain more information and control cyber space and thus became an empire. </div><br />In all three cases it gave the civilizations a strategic and political advantage, but at the same time also provided adversaries similar gains. Nevertheless the benefits surpassed the disadvantages, for all three civilizations ended up becoming empires who dominated the world. The downside, as history has proven, is that empires are destined to fall, sooner or later…….<br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Conspiracy theories Mainstream Media versus Alternative Media </span></b></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKIL7O0QNrrssgpByiRxWRewrhMv0TysLPcl65RVVNU6PDzQiVueZUtqxMo4nkRfiXELjZ8LDpJIP7rHObO1akxzUAIMYrASdTwofzzOAi5RWsssArSuFmO1uBjCh1hREzXdnvkrO3qMg/s1600/climate-change-conspiracy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKIL7O0QNrrssgpByiRxWRewrhMv0TysLPcl65RVVNU6PDzQiVueZUtqxMo4nkRfiXELjZ8LDpJIP7rHObO1akxzUAIMYrASdTwofzzOAi5RWsssArSuFmO1uBjCh1hREzXdnvkrO3qMg/s320/climate-change-conspiracy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Why do mainstream media and the political establishment oppose conspiracy theories so vehemently? Could it be because these theories are not so farfetched after all?<br /><div style="color: blue;">The internet turned out to be journalists and politician’s best friend and worst nightmare at the same time, for they are unable to control it. In the good old times one had to “believe” what media reported, without the option to verify the content. Now with the internet and its research options things changed and thus people don’t take everything for grant what mainstream media and the political establishment tries to sell or tell them. </div>Thus it comes of no surprise that these entities are becoming increasingly worried and therefore will do everything in their power to portray conspiracy theories, alternative media and information forums etc. as the creation of lunatics and thus something that cannot be taken serious, for it threatens their credibility. <br /><br /><br /><br />The proof on how uncomfortable mainstream journalism is with conspiracy theories is shown in an article published in PROFIL, an Austrian weekly magazine. The article is in German and reads as follows: <br /><i>Via Profil.at </i><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Vom Hören sagen</b></span><br /><br />Oslo, der 11. September und was Barack Obama, CIA oder die Rothschilds damit zu tun haben: Als Nachrichten getarnte Verschwörungstheorien drängen aus dem Internet in den Mainstream. Obskurantismus wird zum Massenphänomen.<br /><b>Von Sebastian Hofer</b><br /><b> </b> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbJrd8-OwDuCHKiEkG1SamyIRznHsGMiYRLYYdJonLb-La7dNcx773KRvB1bcDBhv4WTAtzqtEidtSZeRCGOHeB3bMbOv0OOIapN1W6zTOv3uVRkTjWIUw_Q2oKyaoDWUA2Lh21TiAHFuL/s1600/mainstream-media-blind-bias-peoples-cube-sad-hill-news.jpeg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbJrd8-OwDuCHKiEkG1SamyIRznHsGMiYRLYYdJonLb-La7dNcx773KRvB1bcDBhv4WTAtzqtEidtSZeRCGOHeB3bMbOv0OOIapN1W6zTOv3uVRkTjWIUw_Q2oKyaoDWUA2Lh21TiAHFuL/s320/mainstream-media-blind-bias-peoples-cube-sad-hill-news.jpeg.jpg" width="233" /></a></div>Manchmal ist das Wesentliche für die Augen leider unsichtbar. Zum Beispiel in Oslo, vor allem in den letzten Tagen. Zum Glück durchschaute Paul Joseph Watson, Blogger und Radiomoderator aus Austin, Texas, im Gegensatz zu allen beteiligten Behörden die Hintergründe von Anders Breiviks Wahnsinnstat sehr schnell, auch wenn sie ziemlich kompliziert waren. In groben Zügen lief die Sache, Watson zufolge, so: Über eine vom britischen Geheimdienst MI5 infiltrierte rechtsradikale Hooligantruppe namens English Defence League wurde Breivik von hochrangigen britischen Politikern und Geschäftsmännern finanziert und instruiert, um Norwegen auf diesem Weg für seine allzu palästinenserfreundliche Nahostpolitik abzustrafen. Belege anbei. Auch ein Einfluss der libyschen Al Kaida sei denkbar, müsse aber noch näher untersucht werden. <br /><br />Das Online-Forum, in dem Watson seine Sicht der Osloer Anschläge erläuterte, heißt Prison Planet, sieht aus wie ein ganz normaler Nachrichtenkanal und verbreitet doch sehr viel mehr, nämlich die reine, letzte und geheime Wahrheit. Also das, was die etablierten Medien offensiv verschweigen, Politiker bewusst verbergen und konspirative Cliquen hinter dicken Polstertüren zurechtbiegen. Dass diese Wahrheit irgendwie mit dem Ende der Welt (wie wir sie kennen) zusammenhängt, wird dabei gern betont (ohne dabei allzu konkret zu werden) und mit Werbebannern für Wasser-Entgiftungsanlagen, Überlebenscamps und krisensichere Goldmünzen auch marketingmäßig sehr anschaulich aufbereitet. Das eigentlich Seltsame an Prison Planet ist aber nicht seine krude Mischung aus Verschwörungstheorie, Infotainment und blankem Wahnsinn, sondern die Tatsache, dass es sich um ein Massenmedium handelt. Und dass es keineswegs allein da draußen ist. <br /><br />Im Internet hat sich in den letzten Jahren eine Art Hintergrundrauschen ausgebreitet, ein immer dichteres Netz aus verschwörungstheoretisch unterfütterten Nachrichten, Filmen und Dokumenten, das längst nicht mehr nur Paranoiker und Ufo-Gläubige einfängt, sondern zunehmend den ganz normalen Medienkonsumenten im Visier hat. Über populäre Seiten wie Prison Planet, Infowars oder Zero Hedge, millionenfach heruntergeladene Filme wie die „Zeitgeist“- oder „Loose Change“-Videos, über amerikanische Talkradio-Shows oder internationale Nachrichtenkanäle wie den konspirativ veranlagten Sender Russia Today erreichen Verschwörungstheorien heute ein Massenpublikum. Auch die etablierten Medien können sich dem Reiz der Geheimniskrämerei immer schlechter entziehen. Vor wenigen Tagen berichtete das ARD-Kulturmagazin „ttt“ geradezu euphorisch über den deutschen Publizisten Mathias Bröckers, der eine Verschwörung hinter den Anschlägen des 11. September 2001 wittert. Wohlwollender Off-Kommentar: „Auch zehn Jahre nach den vier tödlichen Flügen, nach dem Tag, der die Welt, unser Denken, unsere Ängste veränderte, gibt es noch viele offene Fragen. Mathias Bröckers stellt sie.“ Und macht damit ein richtig gutes Geschäft.<br /><br />„Man darf nicht vergessen, dass Verschwörungstheorien meistens auch gut gemachte Unterhaltung sind“, sagt der Freiburger Amerikanist Michael Butter, der seit Jahren zum Thema forscht. „Sie erzählen tolle, spannende Geschichten, wobei man oft nicht genau trennen kann, wo die Wahrheitssuche endet und wo die Geschäftemacherei beginnt. Man darf Verschwörungstheorien jedenfalls nicht damit abtun, dass man sagt: Das sind ein paar irre Paranoiker am Rande der Gesellschaft. Im Gegenteil: Es handelt sich um Massenphänomene.“ Dementsprechend erfolgreich werden obskurante Thesen für einen wachsenden Markt aufbereitet und immer unverschämter auch in die politische Debatte geworfen. Im republikanischen US-Vorwahlkampf wird, angeheizt von den verschwörerischen Thesen der prominenten Talkshow-Moderatoren Glenn Beck und Alex Jones sowie dem Anti-Establishment-Furor der Tea Party, schon seit Monaten allen Ernstes darüber diskutiert, ob Barack Obama nun wirklich und wahrhaftig Amerikaner sei oder nicht vielleicht doch ein ausländischer, mutmaßlich islamistischer Verschwörer. Ein zweites, europäisches Beispiel: Vor wenigen Wochen outeten sich etliche Schweizer Politiker als 9/11-Skeptiker. Auf der Online-Plattform www.911untersuchen.ch äußerten gleich mehrere Nationalräte ihre Zweifel an der offiziellen Version von den Anschlägen in New York und Washington. Der ehemaligen Berner Regierungsrätin Dori Schaer fiel dazu der folgende Beitrag ein: „Offen ist, ob 9/11 nur benutzt, bewusst nicht vermieden oder sogar durch US-Stellen inszeniert worden ist.“ <br /><br />Neben politischen und ökonomischen Interessen hat die gegenwärtige Verschwörungs-Hochkonjunktur aber auch eine mediale Säule, eben das Internet. Denn wirklich neu ist das Phänomen nicht, wie Michael Butter erklärt: „In den sechziger und siebziger Jahren gab es dieselben Theorien und wohl auch dieselbe Menge an überzeugten Verschwörungstheoretikern. Nur taten sie sich damals wesentlich schwerer, ihre Thesen an den Mann zu bringen.“ Im Netz dagegen fallen die traditionellen Kontrollinstanzen weg, das publizistische Ethos funktioniert online nicht oder nach ganz anderen Regeln, die Grenze zwischen Fakt und Fiktion verschwimmt, die Informationsflut wird undurchsichtiger. In diesem Umfeld werden Verschwörungstheorien als regierungskritischer Bürgerjournalismus oder „Alternativer Journalismus“ verkleidet und von „Presseagenturen“ wie dem französischen Alter Info (das mit Vorliebe iranische Propagandabotschaften und Hisbollah-Kommuniqués unter seine Meldungen streut) oder „Nachrichtenkanälen“ wie Infowars verbreitet. Obskure Spinnereien bekommen den Anschein von seriösem Expertenwissen, verbreiten sich in atemberaubender Geschwindigkeit und gewinnen allein schon durch ihre massenhafte Präsenz an Glaubwürdigkeit – ein sich selbst verstärkendes Hörensagen, das auch von der antiautoritären Grundverfasstheit des Internets profitiert, derzufolge das Establishment schon einmal a priori verdächtig ist. Den Soundtrack zum „Truth Movement“ liefern regierungskritische Musiker wie der Wiener Rapper Kilez More, die Werbung für einschlägige Nachrichtenseiten erfolgt per Graffiti. Verschwörung ist auch Popkultur. <br /><br />In diesem Rahmen verdeckt die Frage „Wem kann man noch glauben?“ leider eine viel wesentlichere, nämlich: „Was sollte man eigentlich wissen?“ Der Politologe Peter Filzmaier erkennt darin ein Symptom von „erschütternd geringer Mediennutzungskompetenz: Viele Leute erkennen den Unterschied zwischen seriöser Berichterstattung und obskuren Verschwörungstheorien schlicht nicht.“ Kein Wunder: Wenn auch in seriösen Medien Information und Entertainment zunehmend zum Infotainment verschwimmen, wenn sich Wissenschaftssendungen mit Ufos und Atlantis beschäftigen und politische Talkshows über islamistische Verschwörungen debattieren, erscheinen auch abstruse Konzepte wie eine von Freimaurern, Illuminaten, jüdischen Bankiers und der Bilderberg-Gruppe angestrebte „Neue Weltordnung“ nicht mehr ganz so abstrus.<br /><br />Dazu kommt, dass neuere Verschwörungstheorien an ihren vernünftigeren Enden durchaus anschlussfähig für eine rationale Gesellschaftskritik sind. Dass der ehemalige US-Vizepräsident Dick Cheney aufgrund seiner engen Verbindungen zur Rüstungsindustrie auch private Interessen in den Irakkrieg schickte, liefert ebenso begründeten Anlass zu weiterführender Spekulation wie die enge Allianz zwischen US-Politik und Wall Street nach der Bankenkrise 2008. Michael Butter: „Was Verschwörungstheorien verbindet, ist, dass sie in mehr oder weniger verzerrter Form auf echte oder wahrgenommene soziale Probleme hinweisen, zum Beispiel auf ein wachsendes Misstrauen gegenüber der amerikanischen Politik. Auch deshalb sollte man sie durchaus ernst nehmen.“ Der Vietnamveteran, Ex-Wrestler und ehemalige Gouverneur von Minnesota Jesse Ventura, Star der vom US-Kabelsender TruTV ausgestrahlten Reihe „Conspiracy Theory“, garniert seinen soeben auf Deutsch erschienenen Bestseller „Die amerikanische Verschwörung. 9/11 und andere Lügen“ denn auch mit einem Zitat von Albert Einstein: „Blinder Glaube an die Obrigkeit ist der schlimmste Feind der Wahrheit.“<br /><br />Der schlimmste Feind der Vernunft wiederum ist die Angst. Zum Glück können Verschwörungstheorien auch diese verringern – oder zumindest in geordnete Bahnen lenken. Es mag schrecklich sein, von unbekannten Mächten kontrolliert und getäuscht zu werden, aber eben nicht ganz so schrecklich wie die Vorstellung, dass ein 32-jähriger Psychopath nicht daran gehindert werden kann, in einer guten Stunde 68 Menschen zu erschießen. So etwas kann nicht wahr sein, also muss mehr dahinterstecken. So wie es auch nicht wahr sein kann, dass kein Staatschef, kein Zentralbanker der Welt ein echtes Rezept gegen die Kreditkrise hat. So hilflos kann die Politik doch nicht sein. Also muss sie lügen. Verschwörungstheorien bieten Erklärungen an, schließen Zufälle aus und verringern so die Angst vor dem Chaos. Alles hängt mit allem zusammen, und das hat alles schon seine Ordnung so. <br /><br />Weniger klar ist die ideologische Ordnung hinter der Verschwörungsaufdecker-Szene. Auf die These, dass hinter den Anschlägen vom 11. September ein Regierungskomplott steckt, können sich amerikanische Rednecks und Schweizer Grünpolitiker, antisemitische Norweger und New Yorker Globalisierungskritiker gleichermaßen einigen. Wo alles auf undurchschaubare Weise mit allem zusammenhängt, wo 9/11, Bankenkrise, Waffenlobby, Freimaurer, Klimawandel, Islamismus und Grippeepidemien Teil derselben Verschwörungsszenerie sein können, kann es auch zu seltsamen Allianzen kommen. Die Welt der Verschwörer ist eine Scheibe, die sich so rasend schnell dreht, dass rechts und links schwer voneinander zu unterscheiden sind. Der Freiburger Experte Michael Butter: „Verschwörungserzählungen schaffen Kollektive, von denen man sich zunächst gar nicht vorstellen kann, wie sie zusammenkommen konnten. Wenn man konkreter hinsieht, erweist sich aber die Schlüssigkeit dieses Prinzips: In dem gleichen Grundgerüst können, mit kleinen Veränderungen an den entsprechenden Scharnieren, rechte wie linke Ideologien andocken.“ Auch die wahrste Wahrheit muss schließlich interpretiert werden. Bleibt es bei der Interpretation, stellt das nur ein intellektuelles Problem dar. Dass es dabei bleibt, ist leider gar nicht so sicher. Der deutsche Historiker Wolfgang Wippermann hat diesbezüglich jedenfalls Bedenken: „Wir unterschätzen die Wirksamkeit von Verschwörungsideologien. Dieses Denken ist gefährlich, denn Ideologie ist nicht nur falsches Bewusstsein, sondern auch ein Indikator von realen politischen und historischen Vorgängen. Das wird verwirklicht.“ <br />Andererseits: Das ist der CIA bestimmt schon längst bewusst. Und die hat schließlich ihre Mittel.<br />1.8.2011

Financial Illiteracy of Those Who Mock Conspiracy TheoristsArticle by Anthony Wile via Daily BellFrom Social Psychological and Personality Science (SPPS), a journal from the independent publisher Sage Publications, comes an article that has predictab…

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EATING: YOUR COMPENSATION AND DEFINITION OF VALUE

<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Somewhere along the line you were told you suck. You were parented or “friended” into being something other than yourself. You were told to change who you are, otherwise your mom and dad wouldn’t like you, your friends wouldn’t accept you, society wouldn’t praise you, and without someone’s opinion to tell you if you were doing a good job− you’d never know what your value was. In short, your value is externally created. It has to be earned.</span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When someone says you’re doing great! They add to your value. When someone judges you negatively, they have the power to take from your value. Think about how you react when someone angrily honks their car horn at you. Do you react by feeling angry and defensive? Does that random stranger have the power to make you feel emotionally threatened? Is that because other’s reaction to you is so important to your perceived value? You are at the mercy of other’s judgment, other’s opinion, and other’s validation in order to define your success, the quality of your soul, and the value of your life. </span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When this type of value based on external approval is instilled from childhood, you’re doomed to believe that how people perceive you is the truth of your value. You’re judged on your religion, what you wear, how you talk, your education, your job, how much money you make, how many friends you have, how big your breasts are, how big your truck is, your children’s success following the rules, and any other definition of value that isn’t necessarily the truth. So eventually we are all the same, wanting the same exact things in life, and we are waiting for someone or something to tell us what to do. </span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is why consumerism has become such a large part of our culture. Businesses tell you what services and products you need to feel better about yourself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They create the illusion everyone is buying it, they slap their logo on what it is and the more people you see with that logo, the more you feel you need to buy it. Some of the most valuable things that increase value are: money− or buying power, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>education, where you got your education, your job, your house, your car, your clothes, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>your parent’s/childen’s accomplishments on this scale, and your ability to have and attract sex. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sad part is that if any of those ideals are taken away or lost, you actually believe your value is less. </span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Because you’ve given outside influence the power to define your value, that influence has the power to control you, your actions, your spending, you motivation, the way you make decisions, and how you perceive yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>You don’t have self-worth but instead, money-worth, clothes-worth, religious-worth, sexual-worth, body-worth, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fill-in-the-blank-worth. Those outside influences are what you think brings you happiness, but also are the influences that can be lost to create stress and sadness.</span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How much of your life was created for you? Decided for you? Directed by something else you thought was in charge of your happiness? What I’ve noticed is that when the most important dictators of your value judge you poorly, the easy way to feel better about it is to seek out another form of validation. For example, if someone in your family is sick (which tests the idea that you were taught happiness comes when there are no problems) and you have to take them to the hospital, do you eat to feel better about it?</span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When one level of value is decreased, in order to feel better about it you’re going to need to find something else to compensate. How many of you compensate with food? Do you eat to feel better about all of the vulnerabilities in life? Has eating become the only stable emotional reinforcement that only you control? Finding a way to control emotional stability is why we have behavioral addiction.</span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The question I have is what if you decided your value wasn’t defined by your parents, religion, spouse, children, job, money, and your body? What is your true authentic value? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you were the creator of your value and didn’t need an action, object, or person to define you, your happiness would be something you create rather than receive.</span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you eat to compensate for the vulnerability of the world, I suggest you start by thinking about the things, people, objects, and actions you believe define your value. Recognize why they’ve become such a large part of your identity. Seek to find your identity without those addictions, and from there, allow the inevitable vulnerability and fear of rejection, when you allow yourself to be authentic. No matter what others judge and what their opinion of your value is. This is the foundation of self-worth and is the only true source of happiness that isn’t vulnerable to anything other than existence of life.</span></div>

EATING: YOUR COMPENSATION AND DEFINITION OF VALUE

Somewhere along the line you were told you suck. You were parented or “friended” into being something other than yourself. You were told to change who you are, otherwise your mom and dad wouldn’t like you, your friends wouldn’t accept you, society wo…

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Super Excitement - It Never Fails

It is Super Bowl week. It "officially" begins tonight with the kickoff of the Pro Bowl. It ends next Sunday when a new Super Bowl champion is crowned. In between there are parties, Media Day, interviews, overblown analysis, and NBC shoving their stars in our faces as much as humanly possible. I hear a new show is premiering on Monday...I think it's called "Smush."<br /><br />But even with all of that ringamaroll, I still find myself excited. Any sports purists out there may wave their hand and wish that it was 1976, where the Super Bowl festivities consisted of four quarters and a performance by Up With People. I, on the other hand, say bring it on! Read on to find out why.<br /><br /><b>1. It sure beats watching the snow fall</b><br />The Super Bowl is placed at the most ideal time of year: the time when NOTHING is going on. Christmas cheer has finally worn off, the idea of shoveling for a fourth time in one week gives you a headache, and the Oscars are still weeks away. March Madness is a tiny pinprick in the distance, and even though "pitchers and catchers reporting" sends you into spirals of glee, the season still doesn't actually begin until April.<br /><br />What else are you going to do the first weekend of February? It is an opportunity to set aside the mundane everyday tasks and figure out how an office pool really works. I personally plan on going to the store and selecting food items I wouldn't normally choose. TGIFriday's green bean fries and queso dip, for example. (Probably not together.) <br /><br /><b>2. It is entertaining to watch non-sports people try to talk football</b><br />A lot of people may hear their friend talk sports and think they're nuts. After all, this friend hasn't watched a lick of football all season and is taking their knowledge of the Big Game from...Access Hollywood? I, on the other hand, laugh and enjoy them as they sound...silly. (They are our friends, after all. Let's be nice.) A lot of times they spout off information just because they want to fit in. But occasionally they actually are interested in what people have to say and want to sound smart around the water cooler.<br /><b> </b><br />I, for one, enjoy sounding intelligent as I recall the last NFC team to win back-to-back Super Bowls (Cowboys in '93 and '94) as they scramble to remember the name of the Patriots' tight end (Rob Gron-kow-ski, to help you sound it out).<br /><br /><b>3. Everyone knows who is playing!</b><br />Sure, this matchup of the Patriots and the Giants is incredibly intriguing...if it was 2007 and the Patriots were 18-0. Sure, Harbaugh Bowl would have been a lot more fun. But everyone knows who is playing. People will be whispering "Patriots" or "Giants" during meetings. They might even be mentioned in that morning's sermon. For one week, everyone will have two teams on their mind. And even though your heart bleeds Honolulu Blue, you'll probably be rooting for Classic Blue or Navy Blue for three hours. <br /><br /><b>4. ...the Commercials...</b><br />Even for all of the Patriots-Giants talk, the only way that the game gets more talk than the commercials on Monday would be if Tom Brady and Eli Manning decided to switch sides in the second quarter. So of course people are going to get excited for the prospect of the commercials! I have to say "prospect," because it's likely that only three or four are really going to make you laugh or make you think. There will be eighteen stupid beer commercials, ten animal commercials, eight movie trailers, and one commercial that comes out of nowhere and really makes you wonder, "What was that about again?"<br /><br />So there are four reasons that I always get excited for the Super Bowl. I will do my best to avoid the overhype and NBC promotional material and enjoy the aspects that I like. If you do the same, I'm sure you'll enjoy this little break in the monotony as well.

Super Excitement - It Never Fails

It is Super Bowl week. It "officially" begins tonight with the kickoff of the Pro Bowl. It ends next Sunday when a new Super Bowl champion is crowned. In between there are parties, Media Day, interviews, overblown analysis, and NBC shoving their s…

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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvriSkisIRuxuaSU59-_CvPAEp3hOTBl7fRSfdunikRMXa079vIVeeMeGG20_J3VqKuiBDJYAKpgyEhd8qgBoh-pB3_L3OyYJkZcETKwIw-ggP-ykWDGKELBjbjquvUv38IUV6uypcy-K/s1600/90b541fa409db47097dd415c86b2a672.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvriSkisIRuxuaSU59-_CvPAEp3hOTBl7fRSfdunikRMXa079vIVeeMeGG20_J3VqKuiBDJYAKpgyEhd8qgBoh-pB3_L3OyYJkZcETKwIw-ggP-ykWDGKELBjbjquvUv38IUV6uypcy-K/s400/90b541fa409db47097dd415c86b2a672.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-large;">  </span></div><div style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Israeli Exports to Turkey rise 42% to equal exports to Germany </span></div><br />What we are made to believe is one thing, what occurs in reality is another. This obviously applies in geopolitics and is one of the causes as to why conspiracy theories becoming increasingly popular amongst a broader spectrum of internet users and thus causes eyebrow rising among the “ruling establishment”. <br />Take for example the current eco - political rift between TURKEY and ISRAEL. For month now we are made to believe that relations between the two nations are going down the drain, due to the GAZA flotilla incident, (see <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2011/09/turkeys-middle-east-chess-game.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2011/09/turkeys-middle-east-chess-game.html</a>) and that this rift will have serious percussion's on the Geo-strategic situation in the MIDDLE EAST. Looking at the latest economic trade figures between the two countries it becomes evident that reality is somewhat different then what we are made to believe. <br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">According to latest data, exports from ISRAEL to TURKEY rose 42% to $1.85 billion in 2011, while exports to GERMANY totaled $1.94 billion. This showcases that deteriorating diplomatic relations between the two countries has not affected trade.<br />ISRAELI exports to TURKEY totaled $132.1 million in December 2011, 51% more than in the corresponding month.<br />ISRAELI imports TURKEY rose 20.6% from 2010 to $2.1 billion in 2011, <br />resulting in a trade deficit of $321 million.<br />ISRAELI exports to EGYPT and JORDAN rose 26% in 2011. </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Stats obtained via Globes </i></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Witty Turks </b></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSqpDI6Z-0tHu7gFWMS9vZZXCGetCHI8r51qYODnVZuL94scExeZDqmI6GiELkjTa2Kaf0o7NmEKlhTacdoSl68BCBH3Q2A6lNnwr81jDRBIpMdsgvegkAuxe-TfWMTkS291Enf0vmMrSk/s1600/balanced_seesaw-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSqpDI6Z-0tHu7gFWMS9vZZXCGetCHI8r51qYODnVZuL94scExeZDqmI6GiELkjTa2Kaf0o7NmEKlhTacdoSl68BCBH3Q2A6lNnwr81jDRBIpMdsgvegkAuxe-TfWMTkS291Enf0vmMrSk/s320/balanced_seesaw-001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>As for TURKEY one should also not forget that it plays a similar game with IRAN. On the one hand TURKEY is in alliance with the USA and the EU in supporting the tumbling of the SYRIAN regime which is supported by IRAN. TURKEY on the other hand, officially at least, does not considers IRAN as being its favorite neighbor but nevertheless assists IRAN to bypass the oil embargo by facilitating INDIA with HALK BANKASI bank transactions so that INDIA is able to conduct its oil trade with IRAN in gold. Last but not least TURKEY seems to keep a political backdoor open by only adhering to sanctions against IRAN’S nuclear program if imposed by the UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL, which is a no go for RUSSIA and CHINA will never ratify these sanctions, thus giving TURKEY the leverage to deal with its neighbors according to its eco-political needs.

  Israeli Exports to Turkey rise 42% to equal exports to Germany What we are made to believe is one thing, what occurs in reality is another. This obviously applies in geopolitics and is one of the causes as to why conspiracy theories becoming increa…

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Current Affairs - Argentina

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzOzogBfeHiJdS-2tns1-8OLmbsz0jn1AC21XjTfhCvP5YTvaJYLKmm3P1YAG_kXvRnOSPsNqPkLExf3-tAj7YbZgID0FfXVRxsq8AIiS4aj7hYb4-2fWq1HRbneAfe4wi81iYf1rvKPBJ/s1600/mapa_bariloche1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzOzogBfeHiJdS-2tns1-8OLmbsz0jn1AC21XjTfhCvP5YTvaJYLKmm3P1YAG_kXvRnOSPsNqPkLExf3-tAj7YbZgID0FfXVRxsq8AIiS4aj7hYb4-2fWq1HRbneAfe4wi81iYf1rvKPBJ/s320/mapa_bariloche1.gif" width="269" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>ARGENTINA NABS IRANIAN-HIZBALLAH CELL, ABORTS THIRD HABAD ATTACK</b></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Via DEBKAfile Sat. 28 Jan 2012</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />ARGENTINA has captured a three-man IRANIAN-HIZBALLAH cell and is hunting for the rest of the network, according to exclusive DEBKAFILE sources. Its counter-terror police were a step ahead of attacks plotted against several of the 10 HABAD centers in the country, part of a worldwide joint terrorist offensive against ISRAELI and Jewish targets.<br /><br />The three-man cell was captured in the ARGENTINE resort town of SAN CARLOS DE BARILOCHE, 1,680 kilometers from Buenos Aires, a favorite starting-point for ISRAELI backpackers touring PATAGONIA and the ANDES.<br />ARGENTINA'S anti-terrorist FEDERAL SPECIAL OPERATIONS GROUP, known as T4, waylaid the three terrorists on tips from US and ISRAELI intelligence. In their possession were incriminating documents and maps.<br />HABAD hospitality centers and Jewish institutions in the country were then shut down and given extra security guards, as was the ISRAELI embassy in the capital.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6AwTQNWcCg4sFh67NFi2sfcUxc7gE2uEYmBf7PTQhvZxfWhmHUimpaa7yPkjS6xeHtOJh3nG4tfNH3cjK4-PkPOWMaiOZ6J4zyHqb6Gz9EvClPZM8NBilEMCSUD86c24_8TJ8yDIO5bp/s1600/Bariloche+Argentina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6AwTQNWcCg4sFh67NFi2sfcUxc7gE2uEYmBf7PTQhvZxfWhmHUimpaa7yPkjS6xeHtOJh3nG4tfNH3cjK4-PkPOWMaiOZ6J4zyHqb6Gz9EvClPZM8NBilEMCSUD86c24_8TJ8yDIO5bp/s200/Bariloche+Argentina.jpg" width="197" /></a></div><br />In 1992, the embassy was attacked by IRANIAN terrorists killing 29 people and injuring 242. DEBKAFILE'S intelligence and counter-terror sources reveal that one of the things the investigation seeks to discover this time is whether the captured IRANIAN-HIZBALLAH cell was given a safe house, guidance and aid by family members of World War II Nazi criminals who won sanctuary in ARGENTINA.<br /><br />At the time of the ISRAELI embassy bombing twenty years ago, the IRANIAN and HIZBALLAH terrorists were suspected of working hand in glove with local pro-Nazi elements.  ARGENTINA, GERMANY and ISRAEL never confirmed this.<br /><br />The terror alert BUENOS AIRES declared this week was also communicated to CHILE, PERU, URUGUAY and MEXICO, in case additional Iranian-Hizballah teams were heading for Israeli and Jewish targets there too.<br /><br />

Current Affairs - Argentina

ARGENTINA NABS IRANIAN-HIZBALLAH CELL, ABORTS THIRD HABAD ATTACKVia DEBKAfile Sat. 28 Jan 2012ARGENTINA has captured a three-man IRANIAN-HIZBALLAH cell and is hunting for the rest of the network, according to exclusive DEBKAFILE sources. Its counter-…

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The Plan

<p>First of all, thank you sweet friends for all your kind & encouraging words on my <a href="http://brings together friends, families, businesses and communities in team-based wellness challenges designed to promote positive lifestyle change">post yesterday</a>! It means so much that you’re still out there and didn’t give up on me!</p> <p>I thought I’d update you on what I’m doing to lose weight.</p> <p>As many of you know I became a <a href="http://weightloss-stories.blogspot.com/2009/07/im-still-aliveand-im-lifetimer.html">lifetime Weight Watchers</a> member in June 2009. My goal weight was 161. Why 161? No reason other than the fact I was happy with my weight there and I was ready to go for free!! So that’s what I am doing, Weight Watchers,…for life! <img alt="Winking smile" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-winkingsmile" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrhHqaYYOwozwT6S80j_yKuwJZrLyzhRJC9cQrqmxsGm73kayI0pci_HD0n4keUObVh-yhikWrn9JburyA7CEBrnv4jKsRvDzP3E5tqXOf9vUALABAjbBuhDOsMVvOiE2zflfc81Y9-swf/?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none"> I’ve still got a good number of lbs to lose before I can go for free again, but it’s more than attainable and I KNOW I can do it!</p> <p>Currently I get 37 points per day. I get an additional 7 because I am nursing. Before Adelyn was solely nursing and wasn’t on solids yet I got 44 points/day. I think 37 is going to be much better for my weight loss. </p> <p>I’m also getting in about 4 workouts/week. I either go over my lunch break and get in a quick 30 minutes or I go in the evening after I’ve put Adelyn to bed. Sometimes its hard to go at almost 8pm, but I have to keep telling myself I CAN DO THIS!</p> <p>Another motivation is <a href="http://www.livehealthyiowa.org/default.aspx">Live Healthy Iowa</a>. From their website:</p> <p align="center"><em>Live Healthy Iowa brings together friends, families, businesses and communities in team-based wellness challenges designed to promote positive lifestyle change</em>. My work encouraged people to get teams together.</p> <p>So one of my staff members & I got 2 teams together and are having a little friendly competition! There are 8 members on my team and we named ourselves the “Sweat Sisters” because there are 2 sets of sisters on the team! Our main goal is activity minutes. Not only will increased activity help my weight loss, but it will also help my Live Healthy Iowa team!</p> <p>That’s the plan friends! Help me stay accountable and soon enough I will be at my lifetime weight again and won’t have to suck it in when I shimmy those jeans on! Ha! <img alt="Smile" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7aVuK3ftkuxRet92QylXfD_cGB2IvQ-pXBgL_Esdd-Y4C4v43QrAZaM3tP8Tl82b3cFuMVA13U4gXniIakeOP_zR0M0SKoMit26RwgJscx_E3TTDtGw_OxMiVPczSubd03FJyzTI9SwN/?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none"></p>

The Plan

First of all, thank you sweet friends for all your kind & encouraging words on my post yesterday! It means so much that you’re still out there and didn’t give up on me! I thought I’d update you on what I’m doing to lose weight. As many of you know I …

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Vertigo: Alfred Hitchcock's Edifice to Obsession

<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">a video blog by guest contributor Brandon Kyle Goco</span></i></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8h98cjr5QYTShX9sbO0VuRVYfAWvtKbgbKsjoIeA_adh0vkdrhMB5nE2z4LchPFkD1mSB6-scrNaH5LSOI_2TW5OJo8Wg22W4Ygon4LIn2jCzF_K2hLrwy2ogHHnbXFP_9s3iZ_x-Jn_d/s1600/Brandon+Kyle+Cinephile+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8h98cjr5QYTShX9sbO0VuRVYfAWvtKbgbKsjoIeA_adh0vkdrhMB5nE2z4LchPFkD1mSB6-scrNaH5LSOI_2TW5OJo8Wg22W4Ygon4LIn2jCzF_K2hLrwy2ogHHnbXFP_9s3iZ_x-Jn_d/s400/Brandon+Kyle+Cinephile+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: small;"><b>Brandon Goco</b>, guest host of Turner Classic Movies’ monthly podcast series for October 2011, is both a film student and a movie fanatic. He has penned well over a hundred individual blogs for the TCM Classic Film Union, has his own blog, <a href="http://brandonkylethecinephile.blogspot.com/" style="color: #990000;">Brandon Kyle the Cinephile</a>, and has only recently taken up video blogging. At the age of 20, Brandon is currently attending a California State University, majoring in film studies and working part-time as the production coordinator and general manager for the university’s local television station. He has dreams of becoming a film director or film preservationist some day. </span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Brandon on <i>Vertigo</i> <span style="font-size: small;">(</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">he recommends his video be viewed in 720p)</span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: small;">: </span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ly0KIyN400w" width="560"></iframe></div>

A Month of Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock Brandon Kyle Goco Vertigo Vertigo: Alfred Hitchcock's Edifice to Obsession

a video blog by guest contributor Brandon Kyle GocoBrandon Goco, guest host of Turner Classic Movies’ monthly podcast series for October 2011, is both a film student and a movie fanatic. He has penned well over a hundred individual blogs for the TCM …

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color coded

I stare at these bookshelves a lot. Most of the action in our house happens in this room. Barbie's wardrobe is stored just below these shelves, as well as puzzels, legos, movies, games. Everything. And of course there is the TV as well. I watch a lot of TV. I love TV. So again, I stare at these suckers all the time.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRXZxK6-W53wVhhusdd7czdxKZxfwDv-ytNoON-A-fwN_gLkaDgr-0V9EUNmsUVye_aNGFnWJE4qxjBc5gycvTCyAJ4OJt0SRsQrgjQptbmBcIg7xn_OXiP2cwBywI-1aSx-NEZP_iVdcr/s1600/PB180944.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRXZxK6-W53wVhhusdd7czdxKZxfwDv-ytNoON-A-fwN_gLkaDgr-0V9EUNmsUVye_aNGFnWJE4qxjBc5gycvTCyAJ4OJt0SRsQrgjQptbmBcIg7xn_OXiP2cwBywI-1aSx-NEZP_iVdcr/s640/PB180944.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">every bookcase looks a little better with Aiden in the middle</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: center;">And as I stare, I always think to myself, "You really need to paint the back of those suckers. I am over that brown. Why didn't you paint over that when you painted the rest of the room?" <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_bk4QE1nO-cB0DC1KxlViOy4MNW28gDjCtPrLzQKCYEoIsrDvIlWsPsoMFlmP1TeE8kRQbuHUc5mqS3MGTJJkv3CHuy5BU4HOIfY2XUgqAtPGJBIExLau9OIuQoWTt5CW27r45e7DMwT/s1600/PB180940.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_bk4QE1nO-cB0DC1KxlViOy4MNW28gDjCtPrLzQKCYEoIsrDvIlWsPsoMFlmP1TeE8kRQbuHUc5mqS3MGTJJkv3CHuy5BU4HOIfY2XUgqAtPGJBIExLau9OIuQoWTt5CW27r45e7DMwT/s640/PB180940.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>"You need to find something to actually go in those big picture frames if you are going to hang them up you lazy fool. A picture of a flower on its side is not doing it for me."<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ0egRNP3Y6okDVvj5umwAwQ487H4rJDF_WZRBXfES8GdKg16D5wT_6wWK680KBtvX7FBCppZfhaG3Nra80SYnmW2IyYG6qvKCxaTWlkkK-9ubpxLEFA9msx4vb9Rq9WoXRFjqKSbKcMlM/s1600/PB180942.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ0egRNP3Y6okDVvj5umwAwQ487H4rJDF_WZRBXfES8GdKg16D5wT_6wWK680KBtvX7FBCppZfhaG3Nra80SYnmW2IyYG6qvKCxaTWlkkK-9ubpxLEFA9msx4vb9Rq9WoXRFjqKSbKcMlM/s640/PB180942.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">good gracious the lighting down here is awful</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="text-align: left;">So a few weekends ago I had the rare treat of an entire 24 hours with no one to take care of. I took it as a sign. (to paint and drink cocktails) So, </span>I stripped them down, clean up about a pound of dust (does anyone dust bookshelves on a regular basis) and taped them up. Buh bye brown.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLrmugxnsAM8B9RyL-92qh1u-gnb2EcGjY07VqxSFXf-3riUb4b_CUyruUoKZLz9yF_lucmZ5cMZ5GnnAq2_NULhtbqdWr3HWLDgPAX15Fb3NO_cp1PIb39nO1vyS9lHmZdZIkMIkVNsk/s1600/PC161942.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLrmugxnsAM8B9RyL-92qh1u-gnb2EcGjY07VqxSFXf-3riUb4b_CUyruUoKZLz9yF_lucmZ5cMZ5GnnAq2_NULhtbqdWr3HWLDgPAX15Fb3NO_cp1PIb39nO1vyS9lHmZdZIkMIkVNsk/s640/PC161942.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>I looked thru my <a href="http://pinterest.com/ladybaum/" target="_blank">pins</a> and found that I'm obviously loving the whole color coded look. Like this.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcxMOl1IHRcj2Kuz3FueQ0_jro6_QjeBNvIMH8jf8pu1B8TNIILaAMKnKJ72ac_uiUXtrdFprVsV2H_FZhzE8JLKDq69kG5gWe6SRiqBW9I6JE0aTgn3CAChu4CwQR-8q39czJAsik2zKC/s1600/6896205649170813.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="513" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcxMOl1IHRcj2Kuz3FueQ0_jro6_QjeBNvIMH8jf8pu1B8TNIILaAMKnKJ72ac_uiUXtrdFprVsV2H_FZhzE8JLKDq69kG5gWe6SRiqBW9I6JE0aTgn3CAChu4CwQR-8q39czJAsik2zKC/s640/6896205649170813.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/6896205649170813/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></td></tr></tbody></table> Or this.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHaF2WJElTB6iMfTumL3v-8iHGdX3WwNabrL7Q1aQCgjV2FnnkJLUi82QV3AmaHsw1Wdk6pXTaWTinmor80-CLUY-pEI2vj5xdje2v2pfC7c68C9ccuT-fWbtgmVpSdIcr99Ak1PIRWfId/s1600/art-of-display_26.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHaF2WJElTB6iMfTumL3v-8iHGdX3WwNabrL7Q1aQCgjV2FnnkJLUi82QV3AmaHsw1Wdk6pXTaWTinmor80-CLUY-pEI2vj5xdje2v2pfC7c68C9ccuT-fWbtgmVpSdIcr99Ak1PIRWfId/s640/art-of-display_26.jpeg" width="390" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/6896205649083028/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></td></tr></tbody></table>As a side note - isn't it funny to look thru your boards and find you pin ten variations of the same thing? Subliminal design. Hey, that would be a good name for a business...I'm getting off track.<br /><br />To go polar opposite of the brown, I wanted something fresh and clean, but not white. I liked having a color of some kind back there. Martha pulled thru with just the right fresh, clean but not white color. (I need to get better about keeping paint chips so I can remember the name of the color)<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgikyLdNULvYPvSDxRZik3wVyXwKws6sKSycf5SD9WQ_8qvZT8-YpgSL9YIbOIpwcGIMr5dMYjy1xPvjjrybOQc8-WDoH1lVj4hUki0uFADwJPJvlOkqBUL1rWgMBbiWD93Grm21QeTV-C4/s1600/PC161943.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgikyLdNULvYPvSDxRZik3wVyXwKws6sKSycf5SD9WQ_8qvZT8-YpgSL9YIbOIpwcGIMr5dMYjy1xPvjjrybOQc8-WDoH1lVj4hUki0uFADwJPJvlOkqBUL1rWgMBbiWD93Grm21QeTV-C4/s640/PC161943.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanks to the power of the internet...voila. Painted shelves.</td></tr></tbody></table>Much cleaner. Much brighter. A good start. Now lets see if I have enough books for a rainbow.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKnsbGBJcIXb7Y_-l6DtPZ6qhyphenhypheniZYXhPCju96w2bqJcZPxr_ywQfStxBCexIUhT4D98eFWrk27MeLAdl5bSrv2qDEU7phgyEX2F3uNCqSrU-bedHcb3mPCObhEBS4KPp7DpeNnxs0MkJU/s1600/P1273405.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKnsbGBJcIXb7Y_-l6DtPZ6qhyphenhypheniZYXhPCju96w2bqJcZPxr_ywQfStxBCexIUhT4D98eFWrk27MeLAdl5bSrv2qDEU7phgyEX2F3uNCqSrU-bedHcb3mPCObhEBS4KPp7DpeNnxs0MkJU/s640/P1273405.JPG" width="426" /></a></div>Who knew I had so many red books? And yellow? Crazy.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg__fMvIhVh6f9ndba_jc9e2qmsn6r6d3nG5dkzmTor696ZwCgWTiTO3_4NlfOQDFgW4WqYhnyf7dH175CA5SK7sIbZzj53v-bclsqg2BNmXwonIZGmofDlS3tGcKmiEC5bKD9nEeyeU5bi/s1600/P1273408.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg__fMvIhVh6f9ndba_jc9e2qmsn6r6d3nG5dkzmTor696ZwCgWTiTO3_4NlfOQDFgW4WqYhnyf7dH175CA5SK7sIbZzj53v-bclsqg2BNmXwonIZGmofDlS3tGcKmiEC5bKD9nEeyeU5bi/s640/P1273408.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>An afternoon of finger painting and I had some new artwork...from Amelia. Not me. My finger painting days are behind me.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoVpcIUQ_DCmjojPZdg9eDuSoMIeo1zbIqz2NcCxT-sDyJiFtV5iDFvmEJtsMA5QvtnGiUaFE0hJ7G1rfGQ-7VP41yFjl1IL0ZYCB7PJkfecKeS2tjHLRvduX29idfk_nTVF430MGEKD3/s1600/P1273410.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoVpcIUQ_DCmjojPZdg9eDuSoMIeo1zbIqz2NcCxT-sDyJiFtV5iDFvmEJtsMA5QvtnGiUaFE0hJ7G1rfGQ-7VP41yFjl1IL0ZYCB7PJkfecKeS2tjHLRvduX29idfk_nTVF430MGEKD3/s640/P1273410.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>Old cup/bowl/whatever it is made by me, age 8<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC3kgfU7NDUckbqVEPkHl1xWa2QEh9N2xIZDUz21uUh0cYIi4f8SjX5h9UeDqP-r-Te4HjY4-EPTtpk8LYTOAmheyuqpTTU_wlb4GEQl3AagDk2-JM3BhSrzjKz_t3C8-F9lonxCXckrbC/s1600/P1273425.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC3kgfU7NDUckbqVEPkHl1xWa2QEh9N2xIZDUz21uUh0cYIi4f8SjX5h9UeDqP-r-Te4HjY4-EPTtpk8LYTOAmheyuqpTTU_wlb4GEQl3AagDk2-JM3BhSrzjKz_t3C8-F9lonxCXckrbC/s640/P1273425.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOHgtgNDKMxPUeSq8KdVQ-SEJuG0Yyxx0Xbj9Fwwom9Rhm7QyitrGFbkYUTZdHva5ZlaEPai65GzhKFALdfYCawNEzQJbw5dxOxcK2JRyjHM5dquwu4NDAJAoayAcQnVweO38fazJ7keUM/s1600/P1273447.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOHgtgNDKMxPUeSq8KdVQ-SEJuG0Yyxx0Xbj9Fwwom9Rhm7QyitrGFbkYUTZdHva5ZlaEPai65GzhKFALdfYCawNEzQJbw5dxOxcK2JRyjHM5dquwu4NDAJAoayAcQnVweO38fazJ7keUM/s640/P1273447.JPG" width="426" /></a></div> Rainbow continued on the other side. I apologize for the horrible lighting.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja2ixgmUAMldyfrDMGzpEJWkUT7Ndja22jKEtkvZ9mqeOLB7WsyFOm-ybwEJw_fgeUmwfemmLpfH_FtKWCLToLl05kpENi8pc2DL_uV40AT0sB699IJuRiyOCYazfiS1avtLxJGNM21STb/s1600/P1273450.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja2ixgmUAMldyfrDMGzpEJWkUT7Ndja22jKEtkvZ9mqeOLB7WsyFOm-ybwEJw_fgeUmwfemmLpfH_FtKWCLToLl05kpENi8pc2DL_uV40AT0sB699IJuRiyOCYazfiS1avtLxJGNM21STb/s640/P1273450.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>The finished product with the Olivia stamp of approval. Not a huge change, and not a lot of work but it makes me feel like I've done something. And its nice to stare at something new while watching TV.<br /><br />Have you made any small changes around your house lately? Is this all the motivation I need to get started on some of my bigger projects? And more importantly, who's ready for Monday's RHOBH reunion show? Viewing party at my house!

color coded

I stare at these bookshelves a lot. Most of the action in our house happens in this room. Barbie's wardrobe is stored just below these shelves, as well as puzzels, legos, movies, games. Everything. And of course there is the TV as well. I watch a lot…

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It's Going to be Different!

<div><div><div>It's been 5 months since I last posted and I've finally decided to come out of hiding! J/K I've actually just spent these last 5 months figuring out the balancing act of being a working mom! If you want to see what we've been up to feel free to hop on over to our family blog <a href="http://bangertfam.blogspot.com/">here</a>. </div><br /><br />Ok now it's time to spill my guts! My last post I left you guys with was about conquering week 3 of C25K and I had made some WW friendly freezer meals. Well, pretty sure I haven't ran since then and all those freezer meals are gone! ;)</div><br /><br />I went back to work from maternity leave part time on September 6th and then full time on September 12th. That was a major few weeks of transistion for me. I did not like leaving my baby everyday. But the weeks went on and I adjusted. I'm still not a fan of leaving her at daycare, I'd much rather be home with her, but it's just one of those facts of life that you have to deal with.<br /><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702178879187564322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxzs5gLYLameENXw6-ZHrdopcsFIKKgYIkdyALJhMzqxqY68uDS77ZSqX7x_k69YvKk5MrPGvOIR1jQ0VkOmaVELyHqIVJ0pfILCBP92YIAAzjSdehXLNKxofQJiy5-InxfbnSOs-1Brl9/s400/IMG_0821.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; height: 267px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" /><br />Ok I'm getting de-railed....<br /><br />So once I was back to work I joined Weight Watchers at work, which was perfect. The weekly meeting was right on campus where I work. Over the next few months I lost about 10lbs of post baby weight. Then November came...<br /><ul><li>I had a work trip away in state.<br /></li><li>Thanksgiving.<br /></li><li><a href="http://bangertfam.blogspot.com/2011/12/mommys-home.html">I ended the month/started December with a week long work trip to Vegas</a>.<br /></li><li><a href="http://bangertfam.blogspot.com/2012/01/omaha-christmas.html">We celebrated Christmas a week early in Omaha with my family. </a><br /></li><li>And then the week of Christmas & New Years. {read: calories galore}<br /></li></ul><div>What are all those things? Excuses! That's it plain & simple. </div><br /><div>In those 7 weeks I went to Weight Watchers 2 times. Naughty, naughty! The scale showed it too, I gained 5 lbs. Eeekkk!!<br /><br /></div><div>After the New Years I vowed I need to get back on track & lose this baby weight. We didn't have enough members to keep our at work meetings going so I had to drive off campus to the local meeting in town. And that is what I've been doing for the past 3 weeks! Haven't missed one yet and have no plans to!<br /><br /></div><div>So that brings you to where I am today! I've started working out again, either on my lunch break or after I put Adelyn to bed. As far as food goes...sit back & let me tell you about me & food!<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702179760129478770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSM7O5SqE5ezQCXTmIA_8vKzNaTI52jXVY_GJbJpbvsI7MCOMI7_7W28eAPNqdIaFU8wm0ksrUy4KNJquen1lKiaetBxJj9vTR37nZl379uvLt4DK81-xCub4V_yeJ3_GXPEqeFFDxIOtF/s400/IMG_0808.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; height: 267px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" /></div><br /><div>I think a big part of it is such a head game for me. I weigh in on Thursdays. In my head I tell myself I can eat what I want on the weekends and then buckle down and make up for it M-W. I've done that the past 3 weeks and sure I've lost, but it's been minimal, -.6lbs or -.4lbs. </div><br /><div>I have to be honest with myself. Doing that isn't going to get me back to my goal weight. It's just a vicious cycle and it isn't the point of the program. Eating like that was in no way benefiting me.</div><br /><div>So here I am, out there for all see {read}, <strong>this week is going to be different</strong>. I'm not going to spurlge this weekend, I'm going to track what I eat, workout, and next week I will see the reward when I got to my WW meeting! </div></div>

It's Going to be Different!

It's been 5 months since I last posted and I've finally decided to come out of hiding! J/K I've actually just spent these last 5 months figuring out the balancing act of being a working mom! If you want to see what we've been up to feel free to hop o…

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Things I'm Loving This Week

<b style="color: #674ea7;">1. Hungry Girl's <a href="http://www.hungry-girl.com/newsletters/raw/367" target="_blank">Yum Yum Brownie Muffins</a> {5 PointsPlus}</b><br /><br />These are definitely on the steeper side of PointsPlus values on sweet treats for me, especially since it's <i>just </i>a muffin!  However, they are really chocolatey and provide some hidden fiber as a bonus, thanks to the pumpkin.  They're actually a nice size too.  INCREDIBLY easy to make: simply mix <span style="color: #999999;">{ONLY}</span> the cake mix + the pumpkin puree and bake in 12 cup muffin tin at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. <span style="color: #999999;">{HG Tip: Make these in mini muffin tins to yield around 36 mini muffins at a smaller PointsPlus value!} </span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguzgAL09sN8ngryhaBBVpWgXwjGAYDz_QmBmGKZUYsL72qb1roL9WahVSJF40dW7KG55TZiagLs_b3_jYzJv3-_VoanM_hUJ4cb2JbKmlu6OZmKUCo-K22zWO9ZiZSEWEJdMk7-Zmc5Gg/s1600/brownie+muffins+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguzgAL09sN8ngryhaBBVpWgXwjGAYDz_QmBmGKZUYsL72qb1roL9WahVSJF40dW7KG55TZiagLs_b3_jYzJv3-_VoanM_hUJ4cb2JbKmlu6OZmKUCo-K22zWO9ZiZSEWEJdMk7-Zmc5Gg/s400/brownie+muffins+3.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">easy peezy</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8quTmk7iE289_IXUjUw5K3u09s9usEkcdUu0tp3ZyBDZqNBPkmMq5dlAmmUYJuWQqSQufY2EVAXL3HUVlMC5htmJwCWkQDA-bXbNwzK6Ibw5VIxwC5ZpjO4cHXUxhYrlcPQZCuuT32wU/s1600/brownie+muffins+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8quTmk7iE289_IXUjUw5K3u09s9usEkcdUu0tp3ZyBDZqNBPkmMq5dlAmmUYJuWQqSQufY2EVAXL3HUVlMC5htmJwCWkQDA-bXbNwzK6Ibw5VIxwC5ZpjO4cHXUxhYrlcPQZCuuT32wU/s400/brownie+muffins+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />You could argue that these muffins have an almost....dis-pleasurable look to them. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixOd72hil_x3hBe8_SV4SM3pBseHdR90UOaXMTpGFAVOlabeFZhaqD0xi5D9wxwmYPMMXTesivZYZhWMvnfQgj7-9oQwt0as49KAUNJD69B-LPuSKhHBm6karLlgPIYxVP1BtfC-HCECQ/s1600/brownie+muffins+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixOd72hil_x3hBe8_SV4SM3pBseHdR90UOaXMTpGFAVOlabeFZhaqD0xi5D9wxwmYPMMXTesivZYZhWMvnfQgj7-9oQwt0as49KAUNJD69B-LPuSKhHBm6karLlgPIYxVP1BtfC-HCECQ/s400/brownie+muffins+2.jpg" width="306" /></a></div> <br />They somewhat resemble what might "happen" to you if you consume endless amounts of fiber.  BUT if you can look past their....outward appearance.... and try not to think about it as you bite into the goodness, you will be glad you didn't judge this brownie-muffin by it's cover!<br /><div style="color: #351c75;"><br /></div><div style="color: #674ea7;"><b>2. Mini Chopper</b></div>I received this mini chopper as a Christmas gift two years ago.  My mom purchased it as part of a Black Friday special at Wal-Mart for $4.97.  Sometimes, you get what you pay for.  In this case, I can assure you that this less than $5 chopper has been nothing short of amazing and useful since I first unwrapped it.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbBW4wQklboCx6K2-iuZtHDBU7iNLDG3KjLqDmO77IvA-C7SJtB7cJY1UD7dQd9x1JlGNGURTf8G0X0l87tdHYX5HmR_K_zkYqoE4YENgMWHEkOE1WlKMUspywcoZgpkxWPMw4mFpNozg/s1600/mini+chopper+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbBW4wQklboCx6K2-iuZtHDBU7iNLDG3KjLqDmO77IvA-C7SJtB7cJY1UD7dQd9x1JlGNGURTf8G0X0l87tdHYX5HmR_K_zkYqoE4YENgMWHEkOE1WlKMUspywcoZgpkxWPMw4mFpNozg/s400/mini+chopper+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />I primarily use my mini chopper to get those pesky onions minced up.  I hate onions, but a lot of ingredients in recipes that I cook often call for them.  Once upon a time I would've never considered putting onions in a dish.  But since I got my mini chopper, I can get them so finely minced that I can pretend they're not even in the food I'm making!<br /><br />Of course, it's also extremely good at grinding up Oreos to make <a href="http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/easy-oreo-truffles-95085.aspx" target="_blank">Oreo Truffles</a>.  <span style="color: #999999;">{Tip: If you do make the truffles, refrigerate or freeze them for up to an hour before dipping them in the chocolate.  Otherwise you will have a mess of melted Oreo balls in your bowl of chocolate.}</span><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXbbZScAuAe7o9azHmpfefyTZj1lB9H4C5-AYRpiAeZFza6jifIlL6h7n0Ky2wTJSFlTGqpiHZCBbxnYoEF_z2HtBBkjAcVniRjOIStSLPlod_-e77ipVgZmBFPOvtL45HFchfyclGeFk/s1600/mini+chopper+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXbbZScAuAe7o9azHmpfefyTZj1lB9H4C5-AYRpiAeZFza6jifIlL6h7n0Ky2wTJSFlTGqpiHZCBbxnYoEF_z2HtBBkjAcVniRjOIStSLPlod_-e77ipVgZmBFPOvtL45HFchfyclGeFk/s400/mini+chopper+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />The stainless steel blade, chopper bowl, and lid are all dishwasher safe.  What more could you ask for in a $5 kitchen appliance?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Y9Gpjqa3eVagyznQwpaEL7sDF4HN9At_55wYehcl3ybq8aelNP4v-iuEogXCvVNwcoN5lHgO2Ruebrkri6g3J9LgAS6MnFwiMdBKkqW0tym81BmEXeVjP2ZDQWveEqebSdAFNlgI-gs/s1600/mini+chopper+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Y9Gpjqa3eVagyznQwpaEL7sDF4HN9At_55wYehcl3ybq8aelNP4v-iuEogXCvVNwcoN5lHgO2Ruebrkri6g3J9LgAS6MnFwiMdBKkqW0tym81BmEXeVjP2ZDQWveEqebSdAFNlgI-gs/s400/mini+chopper+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />I have used this chopper over and over and <i>over </i>again, and the blade is starting to get a little dull.  Any idea where I can go to get something like that sharpened?<br /><br /><div style="color: #674ea7;"><b>3.  <a href="http://www.drpepper.com/products/#drpepperten" target="_blank">Dr. Pepper Ten</a></b></div>Diet pop is an acquired taste, let's face it.  It's about the same as during your freshman year of college, when your first taste of an alcoholic beverage is, inevitably, cheap beer.  You choke it down at first, but eventually you cannot even tell the difference between <a href="http://www.anheuser-busch.com/s/index.php/our-beers/#%21Natural" target="_blank">Natural Light</a> and the "premium" beer that is the <a href="http://www.coorslight.com/" target="_blank">Silver Bullet</a>.  {That was then, however!  No way will you catch me sipping a Natty Light these days!}<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipOX_yXOEh9yoJwq015YmZTP6m6mVyq9775QTsL4fQhT4B5ImnFBeng4kJx5f9PEbZK2ARFPLnuQ0eCArbNf_6u8xBPHOtbMg6wvpQiVIL7R0KJwrJ-O-inDcTuKNckE7M3qN-hVqwx1U/s1600/dr+pepper+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipOX_yXOEh9yoJwq015YmZTP6m6mVyq9775QTsL4fQhT4B5ImnFBeng4kJx5f9PEbZK2ARFPLnuQ0eCArbNf_6u8xBPHOtbMg6wvpQiVIL7R0KJwrJ-O-inDcTuKNckE7M3qN-hVqwx1U/s400/dr+pepper+1.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br />Still, Dr. Pepper Ten is the closest variation to it's "parent" version that I've tasted yet.  Coke Zero may be a close second.  But Dr. Pepper Ten has absolutely no after taste what so ever.  And for 10 calories, I will take it!  I don't drink a lot of diet pop, but I will not hesitate to use it as a substitute for eating whenever I'm craving food.  I find it filling and it gives me a taste of something other than water.  <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Gk5pdxFuGUGSXGbBH5vcUjcBzqsnSItWrwgMalqLoeZObXsP4qEZi8Na5w9SZk5Vc_3LfFjIMn9sALUuNZI8qLq10pzFaHwv8Ld1XI1qT7AIUF9sfdmYVXi_7m8YzfZKbYK4CNhecBc/s1600/dr+pepper+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Gk5pdxFuGUGSXGbBH5vcUjcBzqsnSItWrwgMalqLoeZObXsP4qEZi8Na5w9SZk5Vc_3LfFjIMn9sALUuNZI8qLq10pzFaHwv8Ld1XI1qT7AIUF9sfdmYVXi_7m8YzfZKbYK4CNhecBc/s400/dr+pepper+002.JPG" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">click to make larger - yes, there is HFCS</td></tr></tbody></table><br />This gem was an accidental discovery whenever Joel was looking for a low-cal mixer for his Jack Daniels fix.  I'm so glad he discovered this!<br /><br /><b style="color: #674ea7;">What are some things you love this week?</b>

Hungry Girl Things I Love Weight Loss Products Weight Watcher Recipes Things I'm Loving This Week

1. Hungry Girl's Yum Yum Brownie Muffins {5 PointsPlus}These are definitely on the steeper side of PointsPlus values on sweet treats for me, especially since it's just a muffin!  However, they are really chocolatey and provide some hidden fiber as a …

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