Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Where ya been, Merry? Getting a medal.

Quote du jour: People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent. - Bob Dylan

What, you noticed the silence? You wondered where I'd been?

Well, here are some possibilities...

Things I might have been doing lately instead of blogging:
  • Plotting. Creating conspiracies brilliant novels requires very little noise apart from hair-tearing and under-the-breath swearing.
  • Taking over the world. Granted, this usually tends to require a bit more noise. And minions.
  • Suffering from TITSTP syndrome. Sadly TITSTP (This Is Too Stupid To Post) syndrome can shut a blog down. I've seen it happen. You go to post something, look at it on the screen, and then come to the conclusion that pure white blank space would be a helluva lot more interesting than what you've written. Fortunately... I ... am... immune... sorta...
  • Work. No. That can't be right. I can't have been sacrificing everything else in my life at the altar of Work. Sorry. Unacceptable. I've been slaying dragons, ravishing handsome princes, climbing Everest. Something like that.
  • Exercising, damn it. Um... well, I could have been doing that kind of thing. In reality, not really. Sorta. Does that count? No, I didn't think so. I have been updating the sidebar, pitiful as it is. I need some kind of accountability. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that I need to keep this blog going the way I had been doing it.


Maybe I should be doing this differently? Is it time for a change?

I mean, I'd had a great thing going here. I set up a schedule, posted it for all the world to scoff at see, and then I'd have to get the exercise in or declare a fail. And it was great... for a few years. I'd gotten to the point where I saw exercise and those damn green vegetables as part of daily life rather than an occasional penance. Good things were happening.

And then.

Does the fact that something worked for you in the past mean that it should work for you For Always?

silence

Um... that wasn't a rhetorical question.

silence

Really. I was hoping someone would chime in here.

crickets

Fine. BE that way. I mean, it didn't seem that much to ask, but if you're going to be like that, well, fine. What worked for me in the past ain't doing the job now, but I'm not about to ask you for suggestions. Not if you're going to be like that. I'm going to sit in the corner and feel sorry for myself instead.

You know... I may not be good at a great number of things, but I have a clearly outstanding talent for the 500-meter Self-Pitying Whine. Do they give medals for that?

Site du jour: 5 Fundamental Practices that keep you from writer's block. (From the blog How to Plan Write and Develop a book.)

Exercise du jour: Look. I'll walk, or I'll cycle, or I'll elliptical. Then I'll come back here and say I done it. That's as good as it gets right now, plan-wise.

Hmmmn. Not sure if it's a semi-fail or a semi-win. Cycled a whole 3 miles. It's a dark and stormy night; I gave up and rode part way on the Max. Heard tell that tomorrow's another day.
Thursday: Cycled 8 miles. Want to do more tomorrow.

19 comments:

ari_1965 said...

I see the rumor that you went into a deep decline when you admitted to yourself that you were not going to get an invitation to the royal wedding is true.

If you want my two cents on this, I think you should keep on with noting your exercise plans and how you lived up to them or blew them off. You walked 36 miles in January 2011. Most of us did not walk 36 miles in January 2011 because from the living room to the refrigerator and back again doesn't add up to much in mileage.
You can be proud of those 36 miles. But if you don't note that you walked them, you might not know that you did, and you might call yourself a schlub unfairly.

Amanda said...

On the plus side, your "my old way isn't working anymore" fit isn't like mine, wherein I hit the kitchen and start producing baked goods in mass quantities.

You know where I stand on this -- shoot, you even quoted me. It isn't about One! True! Right! Way! It's about what's working for you now. The green leafies and exercise are always going to be components in what works (there are some nice core rules: 1) move more; 2) eat less), but how you go about accomplishing things can swing hugely on the whole fit lifestyle pendulum.

Sometimes I focus more on whole grains than green leafies. Sometimes I'm more of a runner than a walker. Sometimes I sprint. Sometimes I loathe my treadmill with the fire of a thousand suns and would rather kill myself on the elliptical.

You'll work it out. Eventually something will light up. I figure as long as I keep plodding along I'm doing something right.

The Merry said...

Luckily, I'm too lazy to hit the kitchen and cook things. :)
Unfortunately, there's always convenience stores :(

And it's true that I'm feeling bereft since Prince William decided on some lesser woman instead of waiting for me to come along. I guess he wasn't the prince for me after all. Oh well.

Elaine said...

Glad you're back, no matter what the reason for your absence!

Lee said...

And, so it seems, it all comes back to the Royal Wedding. We are but pawns.

LaShaune said...

I was really hoping/expecting beautiful photos of the gown, crown jewels, head toppers (oh, those are hats) and the carriage.

But either way...I'm glad your back. Sometimes taking stock of what works and what doesn't is important. Keep using what works - if it aint broke, don't fix it.

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Wow. Way to hurt my feelings with all those accusations, so-called "Merry". Maybe you should change your name to so-called "Snarky".

No wonder Prince Inbred IV dumped you.

McB said...

Guess we can no longer refer to it as "Merry" olde England.

ba dum bum

May well be time for a change. Like going a little easier on yourself. Instead of slaying dragons, maybe you could settle for speaking rudely at a lizard.

Oh, and btw, you have excellent taste in minions.

messymimi said...

Yes, i noticed the silence, and wondered, but people gotta have space if they need it.

No, what worked in the past won't always work. If you find something that works better, use it.

Whining doesn't burn many calories, unfortunately, but dragon slaying does. When you get done, come tell us about that, too.

KDJames said...

Oh, for godsakes. How am I going to know how badly I'm FAILING at all things related to exercise and clean living if you stop writing blog posts about all the things you're doing right? Or trying to do right. Or thinking about trying to... Wait. What were we talking about?

I figured since it was that time of year again, you had stopped blogging to teach the rest of us pagans a lesson about guilt and deprivation. But then I see you've linked my blog to the phrase "brilliant novels" so clearly, ahem, CLEARLY you're just being lazy and sarcastic. Again.

I find that completely unacceptable. Knock it off. Crankily motivated and sarcastic suits you much better.

[Hey, if your friends can't beat you up in public, what the hell good are they? I mean really?]

BTW, I expect to see at least one picture of Mr. Jackman on Friday. I'm sorry to hear that wasn't working for you, but it sure was working for me. Plus I think I'm going to need an antidote to coverage of The Royal Welding.

ponstoth: little known and eminently polite vulgarity used by Brits subjected to unwarranted media coverage of their antiquated conventions, loosely translated to mean "upon god's tooth" -- which makes no sense whatsoever, unless you're British, then it's wildly hilarious. In that dry sort of way they have of being hilarious. And, er, wild.

Lou said...

Please tell me* where it states that what works today will work tomorrow... or the next day...

Ain't gonna happen!!

Think new... and interesting...

Go for it, woman!

GatorPerson said...

Merry dear,
Repetition didn't work for Sisyphus; so maybe it doesn't work for you, either. OTOH, maybe you're a better man than Sisyphus.

WapakGram said...

Oprah said today that exercise was one of the four pillars to looking 20 years younger. So it has to be true. :-) (She then went on to say how she didn't have a lot of time for it now. So hey, if Oprah is slacking off, cut yourself some slack woman. )
How about I stay old and on the couch? No, well then as KDJ said, get Mr. Jackman up here to motivate me.

I miss reading your voice.

solarity said...

Hey, when I find something that works for me, I'll let you know. (I can get yoga done every day that I'm not too sick to go to work, but I don't have a clue what motivates that. It's not feeling better, because that didn't work for years and years, and then suddenly, there I was on the mat every day.)

Mary Anne in Kentucky

["ressisti": essspecially ssstrong resistance.]

Andrew Opala said...

The excuse sounds reasonable to me!

Anonymous said...

So, yesterday I typed in an extremely witty and insightful comment (or maybe just a dorky jumble of words, whatever) and now it is not here. When I hit submit I got bounced to a highly annoying ad that told me I could start a new blogger dot com blog. NOT what I wanted to see. Am I buried in the SPAM folder again? Or did I just get eaten?
Julie

The Merry said...

Blogger must've been feeling hungry; you're not in spam land, Julie. I'll try to feed Blogger more often. Maybe that way he won't eat comments.

London Mabel said...

Yay you're back!! I missed you!!

Hell I don't care what you post, I just always enjoyed your pics, or your quotes, or your updates, or your site recommends (like today's!) I say, don't worry about being too structured, cause that's what can be tiring sometimes. A simple: "I walked" is enough, if all you want I accountability, if that works for you. And if some days you have a cute little quote to tag on to it, or picture, or site, then bonus! If not, then sufficient! Or if you just ate convenience foods, distract us with a quote, we'll never know.

Well anyway, welcome back. You were indeed missed, gal. :-)

Gina Fit by 41, Maybe 42 said...

Great quote from Dylan. I will use that in the Sunday school class I teach.

We're not exactly the same people we were two years ago; what worked then may not be as effective now.