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How strong would you be? November 13, 2009

Posted by shwaldman in Family, Society.
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BiggestLoserlogo
In the face of tragedy, how would you react? How would any person react if their life was turned upside down? Tonight, for my treadmill entertainment, I watched Season 9, episode 7 of The Biggest Loser. On it, the contestent Abby was a main centerpoint of the show and ultimately ended up being eliminated, but that is not the point, for her.

Her story is horrific. Two years prior to the show, her husband and two young children were killed in an auto accident. (Another driver was travelling over 100 MPH and smashed in the car those three were travelling in.) She joined the show, in part to lose weight, but it has become more evident that she needed the support and motivation to find herself. After seven weeks on the show, it is quite evident that she was crazy strong – not in a physical sense, but emotionally. She aired her very private lose and while she had grieved and moved on from the lose of HER ENTIRE FAMILY, she also lost herself. This show is hard for its contestants. They have to battle their weight gain and (usually) some underlying cause.

This woman truly demonstrates a strength that is admirably. I think she is starting to know this on her own, but she is an inspiration to many people, not for the way she performed on the show, but for the way she is living her life.

On another note from this episode, one contestant managed to set a new record for weight lose on this show. He lost a total of 101 pounds after being on the “ranch” for only seven weeks. Yes, that is almost 14.5 pounds per week – 2 pounds each day! That is crazy.

25 Random Things January 30, 2009

Posted by shwaldman in Family, Fitness, Politics, Society, Technology, Work.
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Taken from my note on Facebook. Here are 25 random facts, comments, thoughts about me…. should this be on my “About Me” page?

1.) I try to come up with one blog entry every day, but only have two or three per week (if that) – coming up with 24 more things is going to take a while!
2.) I have had 4 different breed dogs since college and hope to keep trying different ones forever.
3.) My favorite number is 3 or 33.
4.) I had most, if not, all my high school memorabilia stolen from a storage unit fifteen years ago and still think about things I lost.
5.) I am thankful for Facebook for connecting, even if only indirectly, from friends, old and new.
6.) I listen to 15-20 hours of podcasts each week.
7.) I wish I had more time to exercise.
8.) I love spending time outside in all kinds of weather, which is why Michigan is a great place for me to live – we get four very distinct seasons.
9.) I wish there were 25 hours in a day and sleep wasn’t necessary.
10.) I love watching most kinds of movies (no slashers) and have trouble turning even the worst movie off. I have to believe that it is going to get better.
11.) I have run two marathons and hope to someday run a couple more.
12.) I have watched every season of Real World and find the intrer-personal dynamics super interesting.
14.) I am little superstitious, but only the basic stuff – knocking on wood, avoiding the number thirteen, not walking under ladders.
15.) I have suffered from back pain since high school. The chiropractors and regular exercise keeps me going.
16.) I wish communications were easier and we could all be open enough to just hear other people’s opinions without taking it personally.
17.) My musical tastes include Billy Joel, Kelly Clarkson, Heavy D & Da Boyz, Boyz II Men, and Justin Timberlake.
18.) My favorite “recent” movies include Crash, Ray, Seven Pounds, all the Bourne movies and tons of documentaries.
19.) My favorite TV shows include American Idol, Private Practice, Wipeout, The Office, Chuck, Hopkins, Biggest Loser, and Jon Stewart.
20.) Since 2000, I have done software application support on the same software in four different employment capacities: Developer for the vendor, 1099 consultant for users, Implementer for the vendor, and Analyst for the client users.
21.) I am a strong introvert and believe all these words are going to make it impossible for me to talk to anyone for the next week.
22.) I am not a very good swimmer, but still hope to complete a few triathalons in the coming years.
23.) I have had 5 cars since college and by far my favorite was my the 39-month lease on the RX 300.
24.) I love taking photographs and wish I was better at it, had more time to do, and could figure out a good way to manage them all.
25.) I am excited and scared about raising two boys into this wild world of ours.
26.) I am so lucky I am married to a wonderful woman who will love me through thick and thin.

Family Pictures September 9, 2008

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I think it is cool to be able to share family pictures on the web. I remember growing up having bags and bags of photos in a  paper bag. We used to have to print out all our pictures to see them.

Google Photo Gallery

Now I have thousands of pictures on a hard drive and this is only a little sample. I also recommend the Picasa Photo Album tool. It is a very simple application to manage all the pictures you have on the computer. And you can do basic editing like red eye removal and switch to black and white.

Fun Run and 5K August 11, 2008

Posted by shwaldman in Family, Fitness.
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This weekend Alec, Lisa, and I did the Milford Memories Fun Runs. We all ran the 1 Mile together and then I managed my ways through the 5K. It was a great morning and nice way to finish off a fun weekend. Here a couple of pictures.

Nice (Cold) Weekend October 29, 2006

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Two nice “relaxing” weekend days this week. First on Saturday we went up to meet some friends at a college football game. It was a 90 minute drive. There was no defense on either end, but that made it fun to watch. I think there were 16 touchdowns in all. Unfortunately, I missed quite a bit of the game tending to the little one who wouldn’t sit still for long. We almost made it through halftime. He just wanted to walk around and see all the sites. He was generally a good boy, but he had to be doing what he wanted at the time. Watching the game was not it.
 
Sunday was another day with firends – a graduate school classmate of my wife. We spent some time with them at their house, then out to a nice lunch at Red Robin. As usual little man was a little shy at first, but once their little girls started interacting with him, we warmed up. Afterwards, we went over to Chocolate World. It was quick little visit – got a free piece of chocolate and a virtual tour of the process. And of course, we had to pick up a treat for the ride home. But this all wore out Mr Man. He was asleep before we got to the main road. Unfortunately, that meant we needed to get on the road and drive the 100 minutes back home. He did sleep the whole way, which is always good.
 
Winter is definitely on it way though. It barely got into the 50s all weekend. Have had a few nice days in the 70s throughout October, it is tough getting used to the idea of the cold air, but it seems like it is here to stay for a while.