Kim’s Comments (group member since Sep 17, 2008)

Kim’s comments from the Runs with scissors group.

I did not go swimming or to class on Friday due to the fact that I felt a little oogie.

But, on Saturday, I found out just how much this stuff is helping, and I didn't even know it. One of my best friends, Connie, had her brother end up at the Cleveland Clinic. (Long story short, he thought he was experiencing something he had 3 years ago that almost killed him. It has something to do with fluids building up in his stomach.) So, Connie's mom doesn't drive and Connie and her fiance (whose birthday it was) were supposed to go camping. Enter the favor of asking me to take her mom downtown to see her brother.

Now, most of you know, this is the same place that the boyfriend works in the gift shop of, so the plan was that if I dropped her mom off, he could bring her home. So, I drove her down, got her into the place (all on the first try, and I have only been there one time, and that was the day the boyfriend and I went down to see if this was where he wanted to work), got her up the brother's room, went back down to the gift shop where I got a bottle of water and a granola bar, only sat down long enough to eat the bar and have some water, found my way back to the car, still had free parking time on my garage ticket, and was on my way home before it hit me.

I did not HAVE to sit down once, did not feel any knee or back pain, and had not been short of breath during my entire journey around the clinic. The boyfriend and I figure I covered between a 1/4 and a 1/2 mile in all of walking.

How cool is that?

Whoo to the hoo!

Welcome to banned book week 2010. According to the Plain Dealer today, 4, 312 books have been challenged in school and public libraries from 2000-2009. This means that these books were attempts at removing or restricting a book.

1,413 were because of "sexually explicit" material

1,225 "offensive language"

109 for being "anti-family"

34% were class rooms, 33% school libraries, and 23% public libraries.

Just this year,the Menifee, CA,Union School District removed the Merriam-Webster Collegiate DICTIONARY because a child found the definition of word! (Gasp!) The word, "oral sex."

It's a dictionary. It supposed to define words.

When I was in high school,there was a restricted shelf in our school library because the junior high is connected (literally) to the high school and the younger kids share the library. On this shelf were books like "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid test" and other books that parents had felt junior high kids maybe shouldn't be reading. If you were in the high school, no problem.

Ironic thing, the county library is right next door and doesn't restrict any one from reading any thing.

I always found that amusing.

That's fine as always. Remember, the start date for a read just means you are encouraged to post about it on or after the date. All discussions are open ended.

In today's paper, there was an interesting follow up to this story. Now, in before I get to that, the parish in question above, has still been meeting against the bishops' wishes to S.R.O. every week. The parish priest has told the bishop that he would like to meet with the bishop and the diocese along with 10 lay representatives from the parish. The bishop has yet to respond.

On that note, a local priest and a Methodist minister have joined together to write to the Vatican rep in D.C. They feel that the bishop has caused a rift with the diocese that makes it hard to be Catholic in Cleveland. The letters refer to the bishops' actions as "despotic and cruel". They go on to say that he targeted mostly inner-city parishes and has harmed the diocese's reputation.

The article said that the bishop was escorted by "armed police" to give final masses and un-consecrate
the parishes in question. If you need an armed guard to close down a church,shouldn't that tell you something?

Don't worry about it. Post when you can.

We will start the discussions on (or after, depending on when the blasted thing arrives at the library) October 5.

I gathered that. O.K., so now we have D.J. with "Brave New World", Narzain with "One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest", Paul (and possibly A.Vulture) with "Ender's Game" and me with "Animal Farm" (if the library ever gets my copy!).

Each person will be the leader of that post.

You know how I keep saying that I want to reach a mile by Christmas? And that I wanted to reach 3/4 of a mile before the end of October?

Well.......

I DID A 3/4 MILE YESTERDAY! I am so proud of myself, I could explode (which would be pretty gross)!

I started swimming at 1:10 p.m. and finished by 2:00! Not bad for my first time!

1 mile, here I come!

O.K. so far we have "Brave New World", "Animal Farm", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and possibly "Ender's Game" as our reads so far.

Cool.

I agree with this,as I read it first and brow-beat him into reading it. It does have some of the over-tones of post apocalypse type of fantasy, and as this is the first of three, there is a lot of set-up, but it doesn't feel like set-up.

I did a half mile yesterday as well as on Wednesday, making this the second time ever that I have done an entire mile in one week. 3/4 mile here I come!

I did a 1/4 mile on Friday, but, and I am NOT complaining, I was swimming with a much stronger and faster swimmer, so I had to be really vigilant to stay in my lane and not drift into the wall. (My prefered lane is near the far wall in case of this very thing, so if I drift, I don't drift into another person.) So, I felt like I had done a 1/2 mile when I was done.


This weekend I read the best self-help type of book EVER! It is: "Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body"
by Kate Harding, Marianne Kirby.

Everyone who has ever had body image issues, is fat (and that is NOT a bad thing to be), or who is working through both, NEEDS to read this book.. The authors are fat acceptance bloggers who back up every thing in the book with hard science. I did not find this book to be overly eye-opening or shocking, but I did find it to be an affirmation of how I am trying to live my life and the philosophy behind my advocacy group, Perspective Plus (found here on goodreads only so far).

Did you know about HAES? It is a recognized idea that many doctors believe in. It simply states that you can be Healthy At Every Size. All you have to do is find a form of exercise activity that you like, and eat intuitively, which basically means eating when hungry and eating what your body is telling you it needs. NO calorie restrictions, NO forbidden foods (since food is morally ambiguous that makes sense), NO starving yourself, NO shame.

How simple is that? The book includes a list of on-line resourses as well as some books that may provide even more support.


I read this book, crying through most of it, because it hit home, especially Chapter 12, which is on dating.

So, STOP DIETING (they don't work anyway) THROW OUT THE SCALE and REMEMBER YOU ARE WORTH WHILE AND HAVE VALUE!

Yesterday was my first chance to swim. After not being in the pool for 2 weeks I did....*drum roll please*.....



a 1/2 mile! The kid's still got it!

O.K. this one is all mine. I read the book over the weekend and have book 2 ready to go. This is an urban fantasy with a new twist to the Faerie world and the changeling idea. Mythology usually has changelings as stolen human children swapped with a faerie child. Each raised by the fey or human respectively.

In Seanan McGuire's book, changelings are the part human part whatever fey their parents are. Each child has a changeling choice that must be made, a decision that decides where they live. Pure-blooded fey look down on changelings as inferior and thus how the world goes.

Enter October "Toby" Daye. Changeling and earned titled Knight Errant. She is a P.I. who gets on the wrong side of a curse and 14 years later, has to deal with the aftermath. She gets bound by a pure bloods death curse to find out the killer and well, that's all I'm going to say.

If you like Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" this is a good match for you. If you like Richelle Meads "Thorn Series" you will like this too.

Narzain, it's all yours.

O.K., so far we have 3 books for a "whatever read" listed. D.J. will be reading the "Lake poets" so that will be her discussion,Narzain will lead "The Left Hand of God" (I just read it...I'll save my comments for the discussion),and I will lead a discussion on "Rosemary and Rue."

Lance has graciously offered to sell copies of his new book, "Grundish and Askew" to group members at a reduced rate and is willing to lead a Q&A about it here, so please contact Lance if you are interested.

Otherwise, there is no one book to read since nobody said anything to me.

Next month will be "choose your own banned book" and it means what it says. Find a banned book and read it. There is an ongoing post with lists of banned books and you can search for your own.

Since I can't get in the pool this week either, I will continue with the strength training I usually do one day per/week, and do it today and tomorrow. Last week, I did it Wednesday and Friday. I did 20 arm curls, 10 shoulder presses at 40 lb., 10 at 50 lb., 20 rowing pulls at 62 lb., 30 chest presses at 25 lb., 50 ab crunches at 100 lb, and 50 leg presses at 100 lb. each day. There are still a few machines that I am unable to use as they do not adjust enough for me to fit them yet, but I feel that it's a good start.



I did 100 ab crunches yesterday,pressing 112.5 lb. and 80 leg presses at 100 lb. and 20 at 120 lb. That last one was a little too much. My knees are hurting today.

I just wanted to let everyone know that the book is due out Tuesday, 8/31/10. Wheeee!

Here are some guidelines for our group discussions.

1) Please refrain from posting spoilers unless you warn people ahead of time.

2) Please keep your comments to the work at hand.

3) Please keep me informed of what you are going to read if we have a choose your own group read, either by e-mail or by posting it under the ideas.

4) Please post all suggestions for a group read under "what should we read next" or send me an email.

5) If you suggest a book and don't want to lead, please let me know.

6) If a book contains a word that is now considered offensive, please do not use the word, but indicate it with the first letter followed by as many * as needed.

7) No attacking anyone because you don't agree with their take on the book. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

8) Any major problems, please contact either myself, or narzain, my co-moderator.

Cool. I have added the first one to the shelf already and I will add the second today.