Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Recently I've heard some inspiring phrases that I'd like to post. When it comes to working out here is an inspirational message that I think really pushes me at the gym:

"If you aren't uncomfortable, nothing will change."

It's probably pretty easy to go to the gym and walk through the motions but if I leave feeling tired and sweaty, I think that'll make the next visit a little better.

I can't remember where I heard the second one but here it is:

"Life is full of choices and it's those choices that define who we are."

It's like we only have one shot at a "choose your own adventure" book, so don't lead your life through the pages of the bad choices.

I like the part in the book where Liz and I are. I think we've made good choices up to this point and I hope it continues to lead us in the right direction.

Liz and I often talk throughout the day on google chat, well I thought I'd share a funny conversation:

So I heard on the radio the other day that 80% of people give up on New Year's Resolutions by January 14th. So I thought I would update anyone who cares on how Liz and I are doing.

Liz
1. Still hasn't had any carbonated drinks. She is having a very easy time with this and apparently it will be a year long accomplishment.

2. She has gone to the gym at least 3 times a week since the beginning of the year. I realize it has only been 2 weeks but I think she is really enjoying it. Every time she comes home she tells me about how much further or longer she ran than the last time she went. She'll keep it up without any trouble.

Michael
1. I am having a harder time with the no carbonated drinks goal. I haven't had any but there are 5 cans of coke in our fridge and that is *killing* me. I tried to strike a bargain with Liz so that when we fly to Colorado in March, if we aren't actually on the ground then having a coke on the flight doesn't count at all. Apparently when you are 30,000 feet in the air, resolutions still count... nuts...

2. I haven't started on any of the wood projects although one of my other resolutions needs to be done first in order for this goal to be achieved.

3. We're working on the word "ramp". We tried a while back to make her learn "go to the ramp" and "down the ramp" but since Thanksgiving she has completely disregarded the ramp because she learned she is big enough to jump on the furniture. But just the word "ramp" in general is what we're trying. We're also gonna try and teach her "shake" but she has no clue what we're doing when we take her hand and move it up and down. In fact, after she eats her treat, she nibbles our hand to stop.

4. The bead board is getting done. I have the base boards installed and most of the bead board up but just have to manage to navigate it around the windows. Then I'll put up the chair rails. I really *really* screwed up on one of the joints so I'm hoping that we can cover it with caulk and paint. As far as the deck and garage go, I haven't started. The deck might be a priority since it's in plain view of everyone, but the garage needs to be fixed so we can park in it and I can continue on wood projects.

DISCLAIMER: I tried to make this as neutral of a post as possible, but if I anger anyone by insulting a certain politician, sorry.

This is just one of the terms during the election I have gotten tired of. Yes, I am paying attention to the election. This is the first time ever for me believe it or not. I am not sure why though, maybe I will have a revelation as I write this post. While the parties decide on their candidate of choice, I have watched the speeches, watched a lot of the debates, and even watched Obama get interviewed by Oprah last Spring. Even though I am becoming more informed, becoming more opinionated, and am being engaged by who is in the lead in state races, I still won't be voting. I have many beefs with politics so I thought I'd jot them down, but good lord, where do I start?

The Media:
Media is the only source of information. The thirst for intriguing stories and storylines drives the election, not the people or what they stand for. You never know what comes first, the story or the storyline. The other day I saw a headline on CNN that said something to the affect of "Does Obama Lack Experience?". I realize they are trying to inform voters blah blah blah, but really all it did was bash a candidate. This is a fantastic way to influence dumb people. I'm sure there were some people who turned on the TV and thought "that's a good point, Obama lacks experience". Or another example today, I saw a headline that said "America Ready for an Independent". I am not disagreeing because I think having just two parties is ridiculous, but says who? When the only way you can stay informed is by watching these "analysts" talk about the candidates, then you are not getting the truth. And that's the truth.

The Uninformed:
Only half the registered voters actually voted in the 2004 election. You can't tell me that 120 million people knew everything there was to know about Bush and Kerry. I say only Bush and Kerry because let's face it, no one else mattered. I'd be willing to bet a whole lot on the fact that 60 million of those voters only knew what is generally acceptable from a Democrat and Republican. Nothing of their track record or who they are as people, but only, for example, that Republicans are against abortion and Democrats are for it. So I've heard the argument that if you are an informed voter you should be there, at the very least, to cancel out the uninformed votes from the other side. But I'm sure there are just as many on both sides so really it doesn't matter.

A Perfect Cycle:
Now I don't think anyone would have predicted that Bush would go to war with the whole world and cause this much disdain for the U.S. internationally, but isn't it the goal of each party to eventually undo everything that a previous president from a different party did? It really is a pendulum swinging back and forth from one party to another to see who can do a better job. And the word "better" is so skewed when it comes to a president because there are still people who think Bush is wonderful, all that means is the pendulum will continue.

The Superficiality:
Politicians are trying to so hard to please everyone to get every vote, that debates are superficial. I'd love to count the number of I-am-an-agent-of-change's, I-have-the-experience's, and that-is-what-I'll-do-as-president-of-the-United-States's that have been in each debate. It's almost impossible to find real stand points on each candidate and even if you do, there's no promise that's actually what they will fight for if they became president. And furthermore, even if you do find a real stand point on each candidate, it's amazing how many of the democrats and republicans have identical view points. So that begs the question, how are you to choose a candidate for each party based on anything other than who they are as raw people and as raw leaders ?

The Parties:
How are we to elect the best candidate when the only thing anyone cares about is the Republican and the Democrat. I hate the whole idea of parties anyway. It's borderline coercion. It's an organization for the most part dictating the views of the representatives. It's hard to believe that of all the people running for president, there are really only 2 opinions on how to do anything.

Apparently it's my civic duty to vote for the candidate I think would be best suited to lead the country. Do I vote even though I don't like any of them? But there is a main reason why I haven't voted. On Tuesday there was the New Hampshire Primary. After only 11% of the votes were gathered, they had already declared McCain as the winner of the state. 11%!! That to me is insane. After about 60 or 70%, they declared that Clinton won the state as well. Not all the votes were in but they could already announce the winners. All an election really is, is a very large and more accurate public survey. That's why they have the +/-4% error in most polls because they don't feel like they've interviewed enough people to make it exact, it has to have an error percentile. So the more people they interview the smaller the percentage goes. Out of 220 million people, if they get 120 million people polled, I'm pretty sure that percentile will get closer and closer to 0%. So what difference does it make if I go vote or not... not much in my opinion. I know everyone says, every vote counts, and yes it does. But I'm sure if I got motivated to vote, there is someone else who got motivated to cancel out my opinion.

So I'd rather sit back, watch the fun, and see what the very large survey comes out to be.

Well for anyone uninformed, this is a good page, but then again it does come from a media source. And surprise surprise, all the party lines define the opinions: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.abortion.html

That's my rant. Maybe I'll change my opinion come November, but I doubt it.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I enjoy New Year's Resolutions. Now I will also say that I think they are dumb but I do think they important. Why are they dumb? I don't think it should take a new year for you to decide to change something about yourself. I think that should happen all the time and anytime that is necessary. Why are they important? Because it invokes the motivation to change in people who otherwise wouldn't do it.

Throughout the year I am constantly trying to change or improve in any way that I can. It doesn't take the new year for me to start a training program for a marathon or make an attempt at losing weight. But every year I take the opportunity to write down my New Year's Resolutions and because this is not my blog, it's the Fulton Family blog, both Liz and I will document what we are looking to achieve in the new year. And here they are:

Liz:
1. To go as long as possible without drinking a carbonated beverage (coke, sprite, diet sprite, etc...). We talked about it last night and Liz's record for the longest she has gone without a soda is 1.5 months and mine is 2 months. She is aiming to beat both those records in 2008.

2. There are two goals in this resolution because they go hand in hand. One is to not gain any weight and the other is to go to the gym AT LEAST twice a week. Back in May and June before the wedding, she was always going to the gym and doing cycling classes and lifting weights and she wants to get back into that routine. For a wife with a full time job this will not be easy, so this is an awfully lofty goal that we think she can achieve.

Michael:
1. My first goal is the same as Liz's, and that is to beat my record for the longest I have gone without a carbonated beverage (beer excluded).

2. To build at least 4 wood projects this year. Recently I have been working more in the garage on some wood projects. I wanted to include a couple pictures from the recent projects. The top one is the islands of Hawaii with pictures on the islands that we went to. The other one is a magazine rack I built for my brother-in-law for our Secret Santa Christmas exchange. I learned a valuable lesson, that glue does not stain the same color as wood does. Well, I want to improve my skills in woodworking and I already can tell you that the first project will be a coffee table for our "sweet room" and another project will be a woodworking work bench. The last project will be something made out of wood for my Secret Santa person next Christmas.

3. Teach Daisy 4 new tricks. The reason why 4 makes sense is that it gives me 1 trick and 1 wood project every 3 months. I think 6 would be too much and make it a chore rather than a goal. I want to have motivation to teach Daisy some commands so that she becomes better behaved. She is such a great dog and I don't want to be complacent.

4. The last resolution is to finish the projects that I started or intended to start around the house. They include finishing the deck, finishing the bead board around the blue bedroom upstairs and putting up peg board in the garage for better organization.

So what are your resolutions going to be?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Ok we had to do it. I am seeing these links everywhere and curiosity got the best of me. Go to the link, it's hilarious:

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1847136791

I think anyone with a blog would understand the feeling of sitting down to write an entry and not knowing exactly what to write about. So I thought I would just start with the events from our lives as well as the holiday season and we'll go from there.

New Job for Liz:
In early December, Liz started a new job. I would say the company but I don't know if that's an appropriate thing to say on a blog, besides, I think most everyone who reads this blog knows what it is. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a huge step forward for her in career growth, personal growth, and personal happiness in general. Her job title is the administrative assistant to the Senior Vice President. There are tons of reasons why this job is much better than the last one but I think there are two pros that trump all the rest. The first reason is that she is just a happier person for it. She is working with reasonable people and is working in a quiet atmosphere. You'd think in most jobs you'd take those characteristics for granted but we know now that you shouldn't. She is no longer in an office in which her clients have the opportunity to yell at her. When she comes home from work she may still be tired but she is anything but unhappy. The other glaring reason is that she is seeing how her work makes a difference and that it's appreciated. At her old job, no matter what she did or how good of a job she did, it was never recognized or appreciated. The clients still treated her like crap when she tried hard to make them happy and her superior gave her no respect when she worked so hard to deserve it. But I think it's nice for her to see exactly how she is making a difference and that what she is doing is benefiting the company in a way for it to prosper. I hope all these good things won't change because it looks like she is setup to have a fantastic year in 2008.

Our Pups, Daisy:
Daisy has had a rough December and it is not going to get any easier. At the end of November she had a bout of diarrhea that she got from my cousin's dog Yoshi. She got over it pretty quick but then in the middle of December it came back with a vengeance and we had to take her to the Vet where she got some good canned food as well as some medicine. She is finally over it and back to normal which is fantastic. Then this past weekend we went down to Hilton Head where we stayed in a resort where they don't allow dogs. She being so small and quiet, we figured we'd have no problem taking her. For the most part we didn't have any problems but it also meant we had to be conspicuous and take her out after dark in the woods and take her out in the morning before the sun came up. Since it was winter, it was much more manageable since the sun came up at 7 and went down around 5. So this meant we had to make one trip out during the day with her so we took her to the beach during those times. It was impressive she did so well in a new place but it was rough on her when you consider the 5 hour drive both ways. This coming weekend we are going down to Atlanta but we aren't able to bring her so she is staying with our friends Matt and Meg. This is awfully generous of them since they have two cats who aren't exactly friendly. We visited once and one of them liked her and the other one slapped her in the face, so we'll make one more visit tonight and see what happens.

After having Daisy for 4 months now, Liz and I both agree that getting her was a fantastic decision. It was a lot more work than we anticipated but she has just been a dream. I don't think we could have asked for a more well behaved dog and while she still has her annoying habits, they aren't things we can't work on with her.

Happy Holidays:
Like I said we went to Hilton Head this past weekend and that was a lot of fun. We went down with Mama and Papa D (Liz's Parents) and Scott, Hillary, Brynn, and Callie. Her parents drove almost 1200 miles from Michigan and Scott and Hilary flew all the way from Colorado to be there. We arrived on Sunday night and on Monday we went for a very long bike ride all over the island. I mapped it and it was just about a 19 mile bike ride, and for a group of 6 bikes, I'd say that is pretty good. I have to give a little recognition to the seafood place we stopped at for lunch on Monday, I think it was called Captain Seafood (creative). I had the best tilapia or fish for that matter, I've ever tasted. It was awesome. Then on Monday night we went in the hot tub and enjoyed the night together playing Mexican Train. While we couldn't stay past Christmas because we both had to work, we spent the morning opening presents and down by the pool swimming and playing shuffleboard. I'm sad we couldn't stay longer but it was a great time.

This coming weekend we will be driving to Atlanta to see my family and it will again be a shortened weekend, we will only be there from Friday night through Sunday.

Biggest Loser:
Just to give an update on the competition, it looks like as a group we have lost about 60 pounds so far. For 20 people after a month, that's a little disappointing, but 60 is better than 0 and that's the point. I personally am down about 5 pounds but I think that will be changing very soon since I've been biking and lifting so much.

Also in case anyone wants to know, on Tuesday the greatest show in the world starts back up, The Biggest Loser season 5. Liz and I are super excited.

Contrary to popular belief, I am not obsessed with television, but there are 3 relatively unknown TV shows that I have to advertise for because they are the epitome of awesome.

American Gladiators:
I am probably far too obsessed with certain television shows but American Gladiators was a childhood favorite of mine and it is coming back on TV on January 6th. I've never been so excited and it looks better than ever. Why am I excited? Because when I was a kid this show is what I lived for. I had to watch it. I lived for the action and competition. I wanted so badly to be on it. There were two things when I was a kid that I thought, "that is something that I want to eventually achieve". The two things were be on American Gladiators and run a marathon. Well with 2 marathons under my belt and a 3rd looking more and more likely, American Gladiators looks about as unlikely a reality as sliced bread, or something like that. Well all I can do is watch and live for the nights that it is on. This might be a group watching type show, because I have a bunch of friends who are excited for it as well.

Lost:
Lost is another show that Liz and I love and it is coming back for something like 20 straight episodes beginning on January 31st. We might need to get the last few episodes from Netflix because I am not quite sure I remember everything that was going on. It was such an awesome show when it started out because while it had a ton of mystery and secrets, it didn't feel like it was dragging it's feet on the action. There were always things going on and information being handed to you as vague is it might have been. But into Season 2 and 3 it fizzled out because it got to the point where you stopped caring about the secrets because the show would go so slow and your attention span was just lost (ha! pun intended) every episode. But with the ending of Season 3, it looks like it's heading in the right direction. We'll see what Season 4 has in store.

Battlestar Galactica (BSG):
This is another "Lost" type situation where it stopped early last year and hasn't had a new episode since. It will be starting back up in March 2008 and I am frakking excited!! I think a lot people look at this show as a geeky show and just write it off, unwilling to watch it. Well it's on the Sci-fi channel and the premise is that humans created robots (on the show they call them cylons (sigh-lons) also referred to as toasters) and the robots turned on the humans. They created the capability to think on their own and realized humans used them but they wanted representation (sounds familiar based on US History). Well humans wouldn't give it to them so the cylons retreated to another part of the galaxy. In BSG, they could travel through space very quickly. After many many years of hiding the cylons came back and attacked the humans in what was almost a complete obliteration of human life. Only a few survived and they are traveling in a fleet of ships fleeing from the cylons. The leader of that fleet is the Galactica, which is a ship from the Battlestar class, just like we use the words USS for the Navy. What the humans find out is during the time, the cylons were able to duplicate the human form and now the humans don't know who is a cylon and who isnt and there is only a certain blood test that can determine it. There are 13 cylons that look like humans and we are just now finding out who they are as we move into a new season. So this whole time we could have been watching our favorite characters assuming they were on the human side but really they were cylons in disguise.

That is just a rough description of what the show is about. There is such a dumb stigma that comes along with Sci-fi, that you have to be a dork or a geek to enjoy it. BSG is just an action drama staged in a different environment. And it's one of the best shows I've ever watched.

Well that concludes an awfully bland blog posting, just informational information, imagine that. I will try and come up with something more interesting soon.

I have to give picture credits to Hillary for posting them to her album. Here's a link