Our wardrobe

Really interesting article on the National Geographic website regarding the billions of microbes that are on our skin. What I found most interesting in the article was the number of various microbes that were living on our skin, the fact that the composition of microbes is the same on both arms and varies over time depending on our environment, and that microbiologists refer to these microbes as "flora". It's a cool article that I suggest reading. I wonder what else is on our skin...

Holy crapola

So this morning's commute was interesting. I saw that it was snowing outside, but it didn't look like too much. How wrong I was. I left Champlin at 9:00 and didn't get to Humphrey until 10:30. Kind of a crummy drive [insert sarcastic tone]. Luckily I wasn't involved in any accidents; I saw many on the way in, and quite a few involved several vehicles. The funny (well not so much funny as ridiculous) thing was that I wasn't worried about getting into an accident until I got off the highway when some idiot almost rear-ended my car. Following a little close there buddy?! Fortunately I'm here though and the car is fine. [insert phew]

Even greater fan of Google

Google is the best search engine hands down. I'm doing a lot of research for my professional paper at the moment, and I am completely in love with the feature that combines all the sites that have the same title, which has been a great help when one of the websites that I'm trying to download a paper from doesn't work so that I don't have to do another search for it. It's all right there. It's a beautiful thing. I can't believe that I wasn't using their search engine before. Soy loca.

Some new workout/researching music

I recently downloaded the ExerciseRadio.com podcast which is a various mix of techno, about an hour long, that is pretty decent. If you're looking for some techno music to work out to instead of your regular songs, I would suggest taking a listen. Mind you, some of the music in the mix is a little strange, but each "segment" is only a few minutes long, so you can fast-forward through it. I like listening to it when I'm researching :)

I wish I would have discovered this when I was teaching those cardio kickboxing classes. Music was always difficult to find.

The start of the Hansa II season

I have gone back to my soccer roots (haha). Humphrey's intramural soccer team (actually there are two since there are so many people that want to play) faced off for the first time this Sunday, Hansa I played at 4:15, followed my Hansa II at 5:15. We play at the field house at the U and play with a soft, tennis ball-like soccer ball. The cool thing about this form of soccer is that there is no such thing as offsides, although you have to worship the whistle (they got really pissy about anyone not following the shriek of the whistle). Also the game is only two 23-minute periods, which is much more conducive to our school-kid schedules. We don't practice at all aside from game day because the team tends to have different people a lot due to regular players having other commitments and therefore bringing in subs and due to its fun nature.

In my former life as a soccer star (again, hahaha), I played primarily defense and midfielder, which is what I play now. I knew that all of the running would be a major challenge for me given that I haven't actually ran any distance for over six months now. My lungs were giving me the big f*&% you, but I decided not to listen, until they forced me to listen. When I was working out all of the time, I had my lungs trained and therefore had my asthma under control. Hopefully it will get better though; I'm counting on it.

It was a good time to be out there again, and realize how not playing since grade school really affects my level of playing now. It's a really interesting emotion when you think you are passing to the teammate to your left, and the ball ends up going out of bounds given your major miscalculation. Yes I know Mom: practice makes perfect. But to be honest, I'm not in it for the glory this time. I will give it my best when I'm out there, and that's good enough for me. I'm all about trying not to pass out :)

I love climbing!

I know that I've said this already, but I heart climbing! We went last night (we've been going about twice a week) and I can't get enough. I never thought that I would be so passionate about a sport, but climbing certainly has my vote. It's a great feeling to make that move that you've been working on and to end the night with your forearms completely spent and your fingers sore.

Last night I got over the big overhang, a route where you have to climb upside down and reach around to complete it. I got onto the two big holds up top, and was hanging by my hands for a couple seconds before getting my feet onto some holds. I was too tired to finish, but next time I will do it. It's so fun!

Negative savings rate

The Washington Post ran a story regarding the personal savings rate of the United States; it was negative 1 percent for the year of 2006, the worst since the negative 1.5 percent in 1933 during the Great Depression. One of the proposed reasons behind people spending all of their income and either dipping into their savings or borrowing more is that many of the middle-income workers are continuing their spending patterns despite the fact that they are earning less actual wages than before. This is a great contrast to the necessity reasons people spent their savings in addition to their wages during the Great Depression.

We should all be concerned given the fact that the baby boomers are beginning to retire and will be drawing social security payments. But it's ok because my generation always knew that we wouldn't have social security, and there's always credit cards right? JUST KIDDING