jmfargo: (Default)
So, tonight I started doing sit-ups. Well, crunches I suppose, but in my mind I still call them sit-ups, so that's what I'm going to call them here.

I can't do a lot of sit-ups, on account of two things:

1) I have a large gut that gets in the way.

2) I have a large gut with few muscles underneath it.

The best way to get rid of these two things, of course, is to do sit-ups. Well, that's just the way it is, so I'll have to deal with it.

Tonight I did 10 sit-ups. No, that's not very many, and to be truthful it's not the most I can do. My plan is to add one every night. 11 tomorrow, 12 the next day, etc, constantly pushing myself to do "one more."

Eventually, obviously, I'm going to hit a wall that I can't pass right away. It might be at 15, it might be at 50, but it will be there. All I have to do when that happens is keep pushing myself until such a time as I can do one more. Then push myself past that, and on, and on, and on.

Why sit-ups? Well, it's something I can do without any equipment, in the privacy of my own home, and it uses muscles I want to strengthen. For that same reason, I'm working on push-ups in the same manner, only even slower.

My upper arms are very weak; I can barely do wussy push-ups with my knees touching the ground. This will obviously require a lot of work. Still, the best time to start is now. I'm not even letting this horrible sore throat and chest-wracking cough get in the way.

Okay, maybe I should let that get in the way, but I'm not. If I come up with one excuse, I'll come up with 100.

Time for no excuses.

I hope.

Work

Nov. 7th, 2008 09:16 am
jmfargo: (Default)
It's the first week of the month, which means that my transcription business is booming. For some reason, the first week of the month is very busy, and then the following three weeks or so are very slow, sometimes empty. That means that I have to either make enough in the first five work days of the month to sustain my necessary income for the month, or get a second job.

I've applied to a few places.

Guess I should get to work. No class this morning, so that's more time to earn some money. I have lots of stuff that I should do other than work, but I have to earn money while I can.

Of course, what I actually want to do is work on a D&D campaign that I'll eventually be running either for a new group of players or online as a play-by-post, but that doesn't pay the bills, or get the house clean.
jmfargo: (Default)
According to what we have learned in Arabic 105, meeting somebody for the first time requires a lot of what I would almost consider "filler" speech. I know we do this in America as well, but usually the filler is quick and simple, "That's nice," or "Oh, yeah!"

In Arabic countries, a typical introductory greeting between two people could go like this:

John: Good morning to you!
Mike: And good morning to you, as well!
John: My name is John.
Mike: My name is Mike.
John: Nice to meet you!
Mike: Good morning to you!
John: Good morning to you too!
Mike: How are you?
John: Good, thank you, praise God. And you?
Mike: A little tired, praise God. Thank you.
John: I work at the university.
Mike: I'm a librarian.
John: Good morning to you!
Mike: Good morning to you too!
John: It was nice to meet you. I have a meeting, may I go?
Mike: Of course, go. Nice to meet you.
John: Goodbye.
Mike: Goodbye.

The literal translation would be different, but you're saying the exact same thing after every bit of introductory information. The "Good morning to you" translates roughly to a general statement of pleasure at learning something new. It's strange to me.

And there's a LOT of praising God built into the language. For example, if you say you're doing well, but don't say "Al-hum dul-allah" ("praise God"), it is considered strange and possibly rude.

Just thought I'd share.

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