Thursday, February 17, 2011

16 Candles, Bathsheba Syndrome, and the Craig's List Congressman

Jake Ryan. Sigh.

Flashback to 1984. I worked at the movie theater in Colorado Springs and I must have seen 16 Candles a thousand time. Such a great move and seriously, Jake Ryan? Super hottie. Cute, good hair, and ends up ditching the vacuous prom queen for the dorky girl. A girl can dream, right?

Anyways, the movie company re-released 16 Candles last week for just two nights for Valentine's Day. Just Sunday and Monday night. We went Sunday night and just had a blast. Most of the people in the audience (which was mainly gay men and women) would just swoon when ever Jake was on the screen. And even though I haven't seen the movie since 1984 (and why isn't this on TV like every weekend?), I knew almost all of the lines. And there are some seriously goods lines in that movie! "I think my brother paid a buck to see your panties last night." "Look dear, she got her boobies, and they are so perky!" as the theme from Jaws kicks in as the grandmother begins to grope her. Such a good time.

So I've ditched work this week to go to training. I haven't done any professional development in awhile so I figured I would take a class. The Architect recommended a class at the Brookings Institute which is conveniently located 2.5 blocks from my house. So I'm there. "Ethics in Action." It was actually pretty interesting. We started with Plato & Aristotle and then looked at some eastern philosophy (Confucius) and then back to Kant and some more western thinkers. Our instructor was great and I definitely enjoyed it.

I especially like the information on the Bathsheba Syndrome. Or as I call it, "When Good Leaders Do Really Monumentally Stupid Things" (think Bill Clinton, Mark Sanford, etc). So this is all from the Bible. David (of David and Goliath fame) was a great king. Lots of stories about him in the bible. But he leaves the war (mistake #1), to come back to his palace where he sees Bathsheba, seduces her, and gets her pregnant (mistakes #2, 3, and 4). Then he tries to cover up the pregnancy (mistake #5) and then when that doesn't work, he has Bathsheba's husband killed (mistake #6). See, even back then it wasn't the crime, but the coverup that get you in trouble. Anyways, if David was such a good person, a good king, etc., then why did he do this? Even today we have lots of experience with leaders who did great things in the past and then they got put into a position of leadership and they succumb to the Bathsheba Syndrome. They lose their focus, they've been so successful in the past that they think they will always be successful, they think that they can control every outcome. And they end up losing their moral/ethical compass and do something absurdly idiotic.

This past week we had the perfect example: now former Congressman Chris Lee. What were you thinking? Love the ubiquitous shirtless photo in the bathroom. If you had a good gay in your life, he could have told you that those are totally 2010 and now are kind of creepy. In addition, a good gay would NEVER have allowed you to use your real name. Or your real email address. As a congressman you must know that the NSA/CIA/FBI are always spying on us, you don't have to make it too easy for them.

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Saturday, February 05, 2011

MOPT Update

So "My Own Personal Thintervention" (MOPT) is not going well.

Oh it started well. I was eating 5 times a day. I was doing my Jackie Warner shake, plus her insane power circuit workouts, plus vitamens and I did manage to lose like 8 pounds.

And then life happened. Which is so annoying.

First I was heading to San Diego for a conference. Which I knew was going to be hard on the program, but I figured that if worked out obsessively that it would help mitigate the business dinners, conference lunches, etc. And I packed my workout clothes and it was all good. Until the plane landed in San Diego, I'm walking off the plane onto the jetbridge and I hit some uneven something that rolled my ankle. Hard. Needless to say it took all of my self control not to scream "F&%K!" But that pretty much sabotaged my work out plans.

My ankle is pretty much healed at this point and I need to get back on the program. I've invested in some whey protein powder, more vitamins, etc and I'm ready to start again. I've got no travel planned until the first weekend in March, so I've got a solid month to work the program. And I'd really like to drop 10-12 pounds before I go home in early March.

So that's the plan. Now I just need to make it happen.

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Friday, February 04, 2011

Call Your Girlfriend

Call your girlfriend
It's time you had the talk
Give your reasons
Say it's not her fault

I totally love that Robyn song.

First I loved "Dancing on my Own." Then I loved "Hang With Me." And then I broke down and bought her album. And then I was hooked on Fembot. Call Your Girlfriend. And Indestructible. Totally an amazing album.

LawyerX and I saw her in concert last summer with Kelis. Kelis was okay, but Robyn rocked the house. A short little swedish pixie she was going a 100 miles per hour and just bouncing around that stage like you just can't believe. Such a good time.

Well as I was checking out Jimbo's blog, I saw he was going to see Robyn in Bmore. Really? So I quickly checked and there were tickets still available. Score!!

So there I was. On a Tuesday night. Heading to a concert. On a school night! What a rebel! But it was so much fun. I convinced a good friend of mine from work to go with my since LawyerX had to work. We got up there in time to see the opening act: Diamond Rings? OMG. Just say no. Here's this power twink in gold lame tights prancing around the stage and doing these weird "fight the power" fist pumps. Again. No. Please. No.

But Robyn was amazing. I think it was the exact same show as last summer, but now I knew more of the songs and I think my friend was more than a little bit amused by my singing/dancing to the music. But it was such a great night. We bailed right at the end of the last song and made it back to DC just after 1230. Needless to say I was tired the next day, but so much fun.

And Robyn is opening for Katy Perry this summer and LawyerX has already gotten us tickets. So I'll get to see Robyn again then. In the meantime, I'm totally jones-ing for a "Call Your Girlfriend" remix.

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