5 Things We Learned This Week 14 of 2012 (animals, weight, exercise, brain, war)

 

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. We like to share what we've learned each week.

1. Lose Pounds Overnight

   My husband discovered that if he does something active after 6 p.m., he can lose 2-3 pounds overnight! He eats supper around 4:30 when he gets home and then has a light snack sometime during the evening. He doesn't know if this will work for everyone, but it works for him!

2. Alligator Snapping Turtle

   This is a short informative video from behind-the-scenes at the Cincinnati zoo with an alligator snapping turtle.  I didn't even know there was such a creature and now I also know it eats mice! The male stays in the water his whole life and the female only comes out to lay her eggs.


(50 cents per legitimate comment during March goes to The American Cancer Society by sponsoring Mrs 4444 and Lucky Lady in The Race For Life.)


3. Exercise

   I came across an article in Women's Health that listed Ten Exercise Machines to Avoid with a suggested alternative exercise. I was surprised it had the leg extension machine listed because it was hard on the knees. It seems my knees hurt less when I keep up with doing that one. When I asked a friend about this who is going to get certified to be a personal trainer, I got this response:  

   Wow what a DUMB article! Why would they recommend doing sit-squats which keeps ALL of your weight free-floating on your knees rather than sitting on that machine that you LIKE-which is FAR more stable and isolating to the area you want to work on??!
   My easy answer- keep doing the machine that you like. It is a better machine for an area of your body that needs the help.
   I do suggest lowering the amount of weight you use by a plate or two and try turning your legs slightly inward and outward with your sets. This will use different quadricep muscles. Also, you can point your toes or "dorsiflex" your toes on the movements to change it up.
   Give it a try!
   That exercise they were recommending is VERY difficult and "advanced".
   No reason to switch or "confuse" your muscles if the seated leg curl is working for you. 

4. Brain Training

   When reading "How Brain Training Can Make You Significantly Smarter" it said researches have come up with a brain training program called luminosity that you can participate in online.

5. War

   
   Until I read Home Front by Kristin Hannah, I never realized that some military personnel actually have the job of picking up blown off human body parts--ugh! This is a book both Gerard and I liked very much about a family of four that had a shaky marriage, two girls, and the wife gets deployed to Iraq. She is a helicopter pilot in the reserves. This is one of our favorite reads of this month!

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A Cool Treat For Abby

Gerard found a new treat he wanted to try for Abby when we went grocery shopping at Giant Eagle Saturday and wanted to get a video of her eating it for the first time. Of course, Abby wanted to share it on our blog so here it is:


I thought it was pretty funny when Manny (our cat) came over and Abby grabbed the whole junk and chomped on it like a bone to keep it away from him. I hope she didn't get a headache from eating it too fast since I'm sure it was still plenty cold. (None of us received anything for this endorsement.)

 (50 cents per legitimate comment during March goes to The American Cancer Society by sponsoring Mrs 4444 and Lucky Lady in The Race For Life.)

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The Hunger Games Movie Did Not Disappoint

source:  Amazon.com

We went to see "The Hunger Games" movie yesterday and enjoyed it very much.  It followed the book really closely and my favorite scenes in the book were all in the movie too.  It did cut out a bit of the beginning so the relationship between Katniss and Gale didn't seem as close as it was in the book.  Other than that, it moved along as I pictured it and was captivated throughout.  Gerard was on the edge of his seat and didn't get bored!

I couldn't imagine how the movie was going to capture the awesomeness of the fire costumes for District 12 but it did!  It really was fun to watch the book actually come to life.  I felt sorry for Peeta when he said he had no chance to win it. 

The actors and actresses were all excellent!  We absolutely LOVED watching this!  The biggest plus for the books I think over the movie is that in the movie, we don't really know Katniss's thoughts like we do in the book, but the movie is great!  If you want a peek, here is the link to the Official Hunger Games Movie Trailer.  We of course look forward to seeing the next movie of this series based on Catching Fire.

I don't know if it would be better to see the movie before reading the book or not.  I'd love to hear from someone's thoughts on the movie who hasn't read the book.  Please share your thoughts about the movie in the comments; we'd like to know what you thought about it

Our review of the book is at Grab a Book From Our Stack.

(50 cents per legitimate comment during March goes to The American Cancer Society by sponsoring Mrs 4444 and Lucky Lady in The Race For Life.)

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New Orleans Saints Screw Up Big Time!

When I first heard about the New Orleans Saints football team paid players $1,500 for knocking a player out of a game, and $1,000 for a "cart-off,'' or a player helped off the field I was shocked, angry and upset to say the least.  For playoff games, the incentive increased.

A team source familiar with the investigation told SI.com that Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma offered $10,000 to any defensive player that knocked Favre out of the 2009 NFC Championship Game.  (Source:  ESPN-NFL at New Orleans Saints Defense Had "Bounty" Fund

I think this is just terrible and it's apparently been going on for the last three seasons!  The Saints defense called it a "pay for performance" program but was actually a "bounty" pool that players contributed to. 

This is real life folks. not a book or movie.  Football is NOT war--it's a game!  It's bad enough when players get badly injured accidentally and that's the risk they are willing to take when the play; however, to have players intentionally inflict game-ending injuries is animalistic.  To play with a total disregard for the rules is inexcusable!  Where is the personal integrity?  Where is the human decency?  Where is the sportsmanship?  Where is respect in this?  Does greed and the love of money really become the motivation above all else? 

I think the coaches who implemented this practice and condoned it should lose their jobs and be kicked out of the league as well as the players who contributed to the "bounty" fund.  Furthermore, the players who intentionally hurt their opponents should pay all medical bills incurred.  Fortunately, the NFL commissioner is trying to clean up football by banning their coach Sean Petyon and their defensive coordinator is suspended indefinitely.  It is thought that some of the players will be suspended too to send the message that this practice is not going to be tolerated.    

I understand football is a contact sport and those who play expect to get hurt, but it should be within the confines and rules of the game.  To intentionally play to injure someone is just not right.  Those players who do that should switch to boxing or full metal jousting instead!  I think the Saints and the players who did this deserve everything they have coming to them. 

What are your thoughts on this?  Do you think the players are getting a bad rap and being made to look like thugs as the cornerback said?  I think they made themselves to look that way!

Read more: The Fallout of Saints Suspensions and New Orleans Saints Defense Had "Bounty" Fund

(50 cents per legitimate comment during March goes to The American Cancer Society by sponsoring Mrs 4444 and Lucky Lady in The Race For Life.)

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4 Things We Learned This Week 13 of 2012 (health, blogging, jobs, calendar)

 

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. We like to share what we've learned each week.

1. My Waist Grew

   I found out my black jeans are too tight on me! I couldn't even get them zipped! YIKES! When I measured my waist, I was shocked to see it was five inches bigger than I expected!

2. Commenting

   I couldn't leave a comment at Should Be Reading for my weekly teaser this week--it said I had to sign in and it didn't work when I tried signing in using my Twitter account.

3. Skip Tracer

   
   From reading Deceit by Brandilyn Collins, I learned that a skip tracer is someone who finds people that are missing using all sorts of special ways on the computer. This was a good book about hypocrites and deceit. (Follow the link above to my review).

4. Calendar

   
   My plan to re-use my old 2006 Day-by-Day calendar with the cute cat pictures for my desk at home didn't work out so well. I just noticed yesterday that the dates are off because this year had 29 in February and in 2006 there were only 28 days in February. I'll have to go through my other years and see what matches up with the current date. I saved them to re-use because the pictures were so cute!

(50 cents per legitimate comment during March goes to The American Cancer Society by sponsoring Mrs 4444 and Lucky Lady in The Race For Life.) Share this: