Farewell to the $1 cup of coffee

This morning, I stopped in to the best coffee shop in Columbia(Lakota) to get a refill on my mug and do some reading. There was a sign on the counter by the cash register informing customers that they had to raise the price of a cup of coffee from $1 to $1.25. I have long boasted that Lakota was the only place in town (and maybe in the country) that you could still get a high quality cup of coffee for $1 (after tax). There was always something so fulfilling about handing the cashier a one dollar bill and walking away (no change needed). I am proud of Lakota for holding out as long as they could. The sign also informed customers that they had held the $1 price for 10 years! Impressive. And $1.25 is still the cheapest cup in town.

This doesn't affect me too much, because about a year ago, I made one of the wisest investments I have ever made. I bought a Lakota mug. Refills on the mug? 75 cents. That's like 16 ounces of high quality coffee for 75 cents! And they are keeping that price the same.

So, farewell $1 cup of coffee. And thank you to Lakota for looking out for the little guy.

The holiday flab cycle

Every year, I see more than a few articles about "how to keep the weight off around the holidays". I am not sure how many people actually succeed in this endeavor, but I would guess the number to be very, very small. This year, I gave up trying. In fact, I think the flab cycle is natural and may even be a healthy thing for humans.

I became convinced of this yesterday, when my wife had a snow day from school and I decided to stay home from work and spend some time with her. On the way home from my doctor's appointment, we began to crave all sorts of foods. Cookies, chicken fingers, toasted ravioli just to name a few. They were all very fattening foods and it made me ask, "what is it about cold weather that makes me want to eat stuff that will make me fat?" The answer dawned on me - it's my body trying to insulate itself for colder weather. It's a natural cycle of getting fat in the winter and thin in the spring/summer. That's why in the summer I crave fruit and salads and tofu (not really). We settled on making Double Doozies (homemade frosting sandwiched between homemade chocolate chip cookies). We both ate one and then felt sick the rest of the afternoon. But, I recovered and ate 3 more that night.

Also, if on January 1st I am not disgusted with myself enough, I may not be motivated to make that New Year's Resolution of losing some of the flab. So, I need that little extra to push me over the edge of disgust. If I am successful at keeping the weight off around the holidays, I may become content with the pre-Thanksgiving version of myself, which was already flabby, but not flabby enough. So, I think the holiday binge is an important part of actually trying to become healthier in the long term.

fashion

This summer, my wife and I took a trip to Chicago with her parents and brother. Overall, a great trip. We did spend an afternoon on "Magnificent Mile" aka Michigan Avenue. It's not something that I really get into much. I don't buy designer clothes and I hate consumerism more and more every year that I am alive. But, when you go on vacation with other people everyone has to be flexible. I was helping my wife pick out some clothes at the only store that she will really shop at on Michigan Ave. - H&M. I was soaking the whole experience in and thinking about something...

If you really stop and think about how the fashion industry operates; isn't it a little backwards? What is and is not fashionable should be dictated by the consumer, not the producer of the goods. If you think about it, the way that the fashion industry works is that each season, fashion magazines and websites and tv shows (which are driven by their advertisers - the producer of the goods) come out and tell you "here are the new fall/summer/spring fashions". They tell you what is fashionable and then people go out and buy it.

The way that it should work is that they come out with new stuff and people decide whether or not they like it, buy or don't buy it, and the amount of people wearing those items at the end of that season determines what is fashionable and what isn't.

It's sort of like when there was a new kid that moved into your elementary school. Your teacher didn't introduce him by saying, "this is Johnny, he's from Illinois, and he is very popular." Instead, your class got to know him, figured out whether or not they liked him and then he was deemed "popular" if lot's of kids liked him.

Fashion should be determined by the consumer after the fact, not before. After all, the people that have the most to benefit from it shouldn't dictate these kinds of things.

what is a sport?

Can I say that I love the Summer Olympics? It is such a great event. And I plan on spending many August evenings in front of the TV watching great athletes do what God has created them to do. My favorite sport is track and field, but there are very few Olympic sports that I don't enjoy watching. Some of these "sports", in my mind, may not actually be sports. Which leads me to think about a proper definition of what is and isn't a sport. This is a work in progress and I would really love some input here to help me refine this. What I have so far is a one-part definition:

The primary "engine" that "motors" the athlete must be the Human Body.

Does that make sense? What I am trying hard to rule out here is auto racing, horse racing, and any other "sport" that involves a motorized engine. The main objection I have at this point from people is something to the effect of, "you sit in a car for 5 hours in the unbearable heat straining at the steering wheel and see if you make it." I am not doubting that auto racing is difficult, but so is brain surgery and doing wall sits for 5 hours, but it still doesn't make it a sport. In the case of bicycle racing, the human body is still the engine, so it's still a sport. Horse racing is a horse sport, not a human sport. ESPN should have a different channel for horse sports and one for auto sports. An interesting one to think about here is bobsledding. In that case, isn't gravity the primary engine motoring the athlete?

Might be more on this later...Thoughts, please?

Opportunity Cost

When I was in 5th grade, we watched these videos that taught me lessons about Economics. There was a character named Econ and we learned about things like supply and demand and opportunity cost. Does anyone remember these videos? I tried to YouTube them with no luck.

Opportunity Cost is an interesting idea, isn't it? I think it's particularly an important idea for any election. I think most all Americans would agree that we would like great schools, a clean environment, St. Patrick's Day as a federal holiday (maybe just me), no war, world peace, health care for all, low taxes, and a strong economy. I also think that anyone who has ever run for the office of president has also wanted these things. So, we are all on the same page with our wants. It's all just a matter of what we think the best course of action to get there is and what the priorities should be. I get tired of people trying to demonize politicians by saying things like, "Bush hates the environment". I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said "Bush vs. Earth". First off, Earth would win. Secondly, do you really think Bush sits around all day thinking of ways to destroy the environment? Come on. Or, how about, "Hillary will have us paying 60% in taxes", as if Hillary really loves to pay taxes and she wants all of us to love it too. This is where the Opportunity Cost principle comes in. There is always a give and take. Some people think in order to achieve world peace there must be war in the short term. In order to have health care for all, taxes must be higher. Let's just all agree that we all want whats best for the country and try to have decent conversation about the best way to achieve that.

Opportunity Cost also plays itself out in small ways. For instance, I try to conserve water in any way that I can because I have been told that is important. I have also been told that I should wash my hands like 10 times a day. Does anyone else see the dilemma I am in? Do I wash my hands the prescribed number of times and use more water? Or do I conserve the water and not wash my hands? People have to make decisions everyday and there is an opportunity cost.

dandelions have a bad reputation

It's the time of year when the flowers are in bloom and the trees are beginning to turn green again. It's also the time of year when millions of surbananites all across the nation are frantically pouring chemicals on their yards to prevent the growth of free flowers. I don't understand it. If someone offered you free flowers for your landscaping and you asked, "what color are they?". "Yellow". "Do they require a lot of maintenance?" "None" I am thinking, "sweet, free flowers with no maintenance." It seems like a simple choice. Yet, many Americans feel the need to go to great lengths, not to mention Saturdays spent in the yard and not with family, to exterminate the dandelion. God is giving you free flowers for your yard. I don't get it.

I don't know where dandelions got such a bad reputation. What makes them a weed? I think they are pretty. It's like when someone started a rumor about a girl in 8th grade and it spread around the school and soon you found yourself believing it too. But when you actually stopped and thought about it and got to know the girl you realized she was cool and nice and pretty - heck, you might have even become good friends. I am just asking you to do the same with the dandelion.

a rule to live by

I sat down the other day and began to make a list of principles that I live my life by. These are just little quotes and life lessons that I have stolen from others or learned along the way in my 26.7ish years on this earth. It's just a few pages in the front of my journal, that I hope to continue to add to.

I will share a few here...
"If you are on time, you are late. Five minutes early is on time."
"One minute in preparation saves two in execution."
"90% of success is showing up" (Woody Allen)
"Always carry a book with you wherever you go" Because you never know when someone will be 15 minutes late to a meeting. Do you know how much reading you could get done in your life by filling in little blocks of time like this with reading?

Or, how about this one...
"Never watch a movie that has an unrated version"
This is one that I really live by. I am proud to say that, to my knowledge, I have never seen a movie that has an unrated version. This includes movies with the following in their title: American Pie, National Lampoon (Christmas Vacation doesn't count - this was before they got trashy), Saw, Road Trip, and Jackass. I mean, come on, if you need the unrated version to make money, the movie wasn't any good to begin with. I would encourage all of you to adopt this as a principle in your life and see the fruit of it.