A 10K Is Not A Marathon

• Marathon: noun
• 1 : a long-distance race: 
  a : a footrace run on an open course usually of 26 miles 385 yards (42.2kilometers) 
  b : a race other than a footrace marked especially by great length
• 2 a : an endurance contest 
  b : something (as an event, activity, or session) characterized by great length or concentrated effort

When it comes to running events, people need to be more realistic. A 10k race, 6.2 miles, is NOT a marathon. 

"Great" length implies a long distance, not easily accomplished. A marathon takes months of training, not just running for a while. A marathon lasts a long time as well. If you finish a race in an hour or less, it's not a marathon. You wouldn't call one episode of your favorite show a marathon, would you?

It is generally accepted that a marathon race is a set distance of 26.2 miles. An ultra marathon is any distance greater than this, but usually 50 or more miles. A half marathon is ALWAYS 13.1 miles, adding to the acceptance of a marathon as 26.2. 

I understand that not everyone is a runner, however, if you are trying to become a runner, PLEASE learn about running! You will not see a running or sports focused magazine refer to a marathon as anything but a 26.2 mile race. You will be seen as an idiot if you approach other runners and talk about your "marathon" that was only 6.2 miles. What happened to the other 20?

I have run 2 marathons and walked 2 more. It took months of training. It was painful at times. It took dedication and resolve, and I am very proud of myself for having done it. 

Calling your 10k a marathon takes away from all the hard work I put into those races. No, sorry, you did NOT in fact run a marathon. You ran a 10k. Learn the difference. 

Strong Man = Strong Woman?

It all started with graphics like this =

i took this from a milspouse group on facebook

I've seen a couple images like this now. I hate them. I completely disagree with this statement.

My first argument - There are MANY strong, smart, talented Soldiers who are not married. They don't have the support of a wife, yet they still do their jobs and live good lives. 

Now you might say, what about their mothers? Yes, all of those soldiers have a mother. We don't get into this world any other way. But how do we know what their mothers were like? What if a Soldier's mother died when he was very young and he was raised by his father? What if his mother was a POS and he grew up strong, loyal, and loving despite the odds? Even a strong mother is not a guarantee.

Especially in the past year, what about gay Soldiers? There are more and more Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Seamen who are marrying their partners in states where it is legal. They still do not get federal recognition for this commitment. And there is no strong Army wife in their life. Who's going to recognize their strong Army husbands?

Which brings up my final argument - do women not make strong Soldiers? What about the Army husbands that ARE recognized by the Army? They are just as supportive, loving, and giving as Army wives, if not more so for their acceptance of a stereotypical female role - the supportive spouse. How do they feel when they see these super girly images that seem to ignore their existence? 

So no, I will not ever share images like this one. I do love my husband, and I support my husband in all he does, but he also loves me and supports me. He would still be strong if I were not around. He would probably have joined the Army sooner, and gone into a combat position. 

It is not the spouse that makes a Soldier good or bad, it is the Soldier. And I just can't let statements like these run around without putting my thoughts out there. So here are my thoughts - This graphic is total bullshit. (I didn't even get into the discussion of bad wives who drag their Soldiers down with them!)

Common Sense + Facebook =

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. As in, there is a serious lack of common sense when it comes to Facebook.

Lately, I keep seeing this story being shared on Facebook:

You will love this one, I haven't stop laughing yet.

For those of you who have never traveled to the west, or southwest,
cattle guards are horizontal steel rails placed at fence openings,
in dug-out places in the roads adjacent to highways (sometimes across highways), to prevent cattle from crossing over that area. For some reason the cattle will not step on the "guards," probably because they fear getting their feet caught between the rails. 

A few months ago, President Obama received and was reading a report that there were over 100,000 cattle guards in Colorado . The Colorado ranchers had protested his proposed changes in grazing policies, so he ordered the Secretary of the Interior to fire half of the "cattle" guards immediately!
Before the Secretary of the Interior could respond and presumably try to straighten President Obama out on the matter, Vice-President Joe Biden, intervened with a request that...before any "cattle" guards were fired, they be given six months of retraining.

'Times are hard,' said Joe Biden, 'it's only fair to the cattle guards and their families be given six months of retraining! '

And these two guys are running our country,

Passed on to you without further comment...

I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING - - - -

OH LORD HELP US!!!!

I can honestly say that I remember reading this about Clinton. It has been the same story about multiple presidents of both parties. Know what that means?

IT'S NOT TRUE!

Seriously, people, if something like this were to actually happen, you think they would let it leak out on Facebook? No! If it ever did get out it would be through the media. FACEBOOK IS NOT THE MEDIA. (Yes, is it social media, but not "the media.")

There's another one about spiders that hide under toilet seats and bite your ass. Really? And supposedly a guy got bit by one of these spiders on an airplane. AN AIRPLANE. I'm guessing that the only people who believe that have never used the toilet on an airplane. The seats are tiny and the flush has so much suction it almost drags you in. You think a spider could live in that?

Look, I know snopes.com may not always be the most accurate, but to date, it's never let me down. So do me a favor and check things out before sharing them on Facebook. Or at the very least, think twice about it. Does it have a source? Does it sound too good/absurd to be true? Better to keep quiet than open your mouth and prove you're a fool.

Reply To All: Please Don't

OMG, haven't posted on here in ages!

But instead of bitching to the hubs, I decided it was time for a post. Hope I haven't written about this before.

Reply To All - this button should come with a warning label. I'm a member of an organization that sometimes does e-voting via email. I do (somewhat) understand hitting Reply To All when responding, voting, etc. so that everyone knows what's up.

HOWEVER, when someone sends an email saying, "Hey, there's a meeting at this time on this day for those of you that signed up."

OH. Oh, oh, oh.

First off, don't you have the list of people who signed up? I know I did not put my name on that list, so why am I getting this email? I don't want to go and never showed any interest in going.

Second, when responding to said email, is it necessary to let EVERYONE know that you can or cannot make it? I wasn't interested in the first place! I don't care if you go or not! You don't have to hit Reply To All and let everyone and their mother know that you can't make the meeting at that time. Let the one scheduling the meeting know that you won't be there and leave me out of it!

Seriously, people! I get this all the time. I've even seen it on dumbass forwards. Someone sends a forward to everyone on their contact list (coughDADcough), and someone else replies To All with their response/request to never be spoken to again. I don't know you! I don't give to flying monkeys! (Whew, glad for some last minute censorship there.)

I would love to see the Reply To All button have some kind of pop-up warning before letting people hit send. Something like, "Are you sure you want to send this to everyone on earth? Are you a total dumbass?" I know some people would still hit OK! and complete morons and send me inane crap that I could not care less about. But maybe, just maybe, a few of them would stop and think about it, and I would not get so angsty when checking my email.

/rant

Don't Shop Here!

Yeah, so it's been a while, but I've been busy. Time for a mega rant.

I bought a pair of shoes on Famous Footwear's website, www.famousfootwear.com. I have a rewards card for that store since they had a decent one back in KS. I had to create an account to use the rewards card.

OK.

I get the account created, and see my shoes still in the cart, and click to purchase, and it says my cart is empty. What?! Fine. So I go back and add the exact same shoes to my cart again and make the purchase. Then I leave the house to run errands.

I get home and find 2 confirmation emails waiting for me. Huh? Yep, 2. Apparently, when I thought the order hadn't gone through because it said it didn't go through, it actually went through. And once the order is being "processed" you can't cancel it. Not online anyway. Yeah. Last thing I want at this point is to have to call someone and probably be on hold forever. I sent an snarky email to customer service.

Their response was to tell me how to return them. Gee, you are so helpful.

So, with a plan to immediately return a pair to the store, I wait. They got here today. Not bad. Took 6 days.

Mind you, this is 2 pairs of the exact same shoe. Same size, same color. I get 2 different sized boxes. I open the smaller one and find a shoe box that fits snugly in there with a packing slip. The boots are still all packed with paper and crap, like they are brand new.

The second box is bigger, the shoe box moves around a little, and they have those air pocket packing things. The shoe box looks a little squished. The tissue and cardboard stuffing is not in the boots, one boot is unzipped, and they look just generally tossed back in the box. Like someone else tried them on or returned them. Couldn't they at least repackage them nicely? And one of those stupid silica gel packs popped open, so I had tiny beads rolling around that had to be collected and thrown away before the dog got one. Then, to top it all off - NO PACKING SLIP.

That's right, there was absolutely no packing slip in the second box. Thank god I had one in the first box so I can return the stupid things! Of course I'm keeping the ones that look brand new and unworn.

So yeah. Not ever buying shoes from Famous Footwear's website. Ever. Never ever. They make me angry.

I am however excited to wear my new boots.

Who The Hell Thinks They Have The Right To Rewrite A Mark Twain Classic?!

Here's the CNN Video Link

Seriously? I mean, really? They want to remove the word "nigger" from Huck Finn and Mark Twain.

That's right, I used the word, instead of saying "n-word" like they're doing on CNN. To me, it is just a word. I would never use that word when describing another person. I use that word when referencing the way white people used to refer to blacks.

I read both of those Mark Twain classics back in school. We were taught that the books were written to sound like the people of that time spoke. The people of that time called black people niggers. It's a historical fact. When I was in school, it was understood that, just because it used to be acceptable then, it is not acceptable now. If any of my classmates had been caught calling someone else a nigger, they would have been corrected and disciplined.

In my opinion, this is a simple matter of laziness. People, teachers even, are too lazy to teach students about context, about history. They would rather just change the word "nigger" to "slave." So does this mean we are going to pretend that black people were never called horrible things? Does this mean we are going to pretend that the racism and bigotry weren't as bad as they were? As they still are?

History is history. No, we can't change it. No, it wasn't always good, BUT, we can learn from it. We have learned from it. We ended slavery in our nation. We pushed through with the civil rights. Look at our current president!! Imagine what people from the time of Tom and Huck would think about Obama. Look how far we have come!

I am completely disgusted that people think they can rewrite Mark Twain. They are, in my mind, trying to change history. And it's not going to work. It is censorship, and I believe it is wrong.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass...

I promise I won't drag this out.

I have a few friends that believe "we" should stop being "politically correct" and only say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays."

I would agree, if we all celebrated Christmas. But as it is, I celebrate Christmas and Chanukkah. I have friends and family that only celebrate Chanukkah. I have friends that celebrate Yule instead of Christmas. I probably have some friends that don't really celebrate anything at all.

Thing is, when you see someone on the street, how do you know what they celebrate? I have been known to respond to a "Merry Christmas" with a "Happy Chanukkah," even if it's past Chanukkah. Then again, I'm a bitter person.

So why is it so wrong to wish someone a Happy Holidays, knowing that it includes any winter holidays they may celebrate. When I wish someone a Happy Holidays, I mean it to include the new year as well. I will NEVER be offended when someone wishes me a Happy Holidays, because that includes all the winter holidays that I choose to celebrate. I do, however, get sick of hearing Merry Christmas all through my Chanukkah celebrations, even on years like this when Chanukkah is over well before Chriatmas.

In other words, it's not rude, or offensive, when someone wishes you a Happy Holidays. Perhaps they do not celebrate Christmas, and wanted to include you if you do. So take it easy and stop pushing your holiday on everyone. Stop being offended if they want to include you in the happiness of their season.