That the folks at McDonald’s are once again aggressively pushing the “super size” meals? It was interesting that, they stopped doing that after the backlash against the “high calories” and the obesity caused by these meals a couple of years ago. Do you remember the “Super Size Me” movie from 2004?
Looks like it is back to business as usual :-).
Quotes from the recent Democratic and Republican Conventions..
Democrats : Bill Clinton “People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.”
Republicans : Sarah Palin “‘In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.
You know what one of the biggest joys of running is?? You can eat a full sized steak, some mussels with beer and top it all of with a tripe fudge chocolate with caramel and ice cream… and still not feel guilty about it :-). That was my dinner last night with my friend Brian and I was able to run 18 miles today without breaking a sweat (alright.. I am exaggerating here 🙂 ).
Another successful week of training. Was able to do all the mid week runs and the long run. Hopefully, will be able to keep it up till the marathon.
As most of you saw, I only ran 10 miles in week 11. I was supposed to run 16 miles that Saturday. I ran for 10 miles and did the one thing that any runner would dread to do.. I stopped, gave up and took a cab back to the starting point. I was exhausted from running in the sun and thought that I would have a sun stroke.. Everyone, I spoke with said that I did the right thing by listening to my body..But long distance running is as much (or more of) a mental challenge as it is a physical one. I felt crappy the whole day when I remembered that I gave up..
That night I was going through my e-mails and read all the encouraging and supportive e-mails, I received from friends and familly when I told them that I was running the marathon this year, to raise money for uneducated and unprivileged kids in India.. I felt that I had a mission to accomplish and that I couldn’t give up on these kids. And did I kick butt this week :).. I woke up at 4 in the morning on Saturday and ran the 16 miles I missed last week. And not only that.. I also increased my speed to an average of 10 min/mile.. Thx guys..
I was out of country for the first two weeks of August and could not keep up with my running schedule. And boy, has it been taking a toll on me on the long runs. If there is one thing, I would advise to folks that want to run a marathon, it is to keep up with the training schedule.
Scenario 1 : I am waiting in line to check in my baggage for an international United airlines flight. A couple in front of me is trying to check-in their baggage. There is some conversation going on between the agent and the couple regd the weight of their baggage. While the conversation is going on, the agent decides to check in the couple baggage and puts it on the conveyor belt..And here is what happens next
Agent : Ma’am, one of your baggage weighed 69.5 lbs and the other 70 lbs, the extra charge is $150. We charge $50 for baggage exceeding 50lbs and up to 70 lbs, and $100 for baggage exceeding 70 lbs and up to 100lbs.
Couple : !!!%^%&&^.. Ma’am, the second baggage is only 70 lbs, why are you chraging $100.
Agent (in a nasal tone) : Ma’am, the rule says 70 lbs and above.
Couple (intimidated) : Yeah, but is it only 0.5 lbs more than the first one and up to 70 lbs is only $50 right?
Agent (in I make the rules tone) : Ma’am, I am not going to argue over this.. It is $100 for 70 lbs and more.. period.
Couple (nearly in tears) : OK, can we at least take out the 0.5 lbs of weight form the baggage so that we don’t have to pay $100 for it?
Agent (in you dare to speak back to me tone) : Ma’am.. the baggage is already checked in, you cannot take the weight out, you have to pay $100
…
…
..
Couple end up paying $100 because one of their bags was 0.5 lbs extra!!!
Does anyone find this sad? I understand the need to put limits and charge for excess baggage. But shouldn’t the agent have used common sense and made the call not to charge the couple $100 for 0.5 lbs!!! This is a good case of where employee stick to rules and are not given the freedom to make meaningful judgments.. Read Joel Spolsky‘s article about his recent experience at Starbucks and his reaction to understand what I mean :). No wonder United is in a death spiral!! 🙂
Scenario 2 : My second leg of the international trip was on a Lufthansa flight. There was a strike by the ground crew in Frankfurt and Lufthansa couldn’t get the required food into the flight. And here is how the crew handled the issue
I don’t remember a single passenger complaining about the lack of the “second” meal. And I will fly Lufthansa again, despite this issue. the lesson here is not to apologize multiple times, but how all the crew in the flight (ground crew, flying staff, serving staff) were informed of the issue and ensured that they provided the customers with an alternative and followed up on the issue..
Disclaimer : The united agent, might be an exception or might have been having a bad day..but somehow I sense the issue is bigger than that :)..
I came to know this method, when I saw one of the IT techs use it to troubleshoot some Internet connectivity issues.
To clear any saved username/passwords (i.e. Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer etc) in Microsoft Windows, do the following
control keymgr.dll I tried this on Windows XP and Vista.
I am in India, on a business trip and haven’t been able to catch up on my mid week runs. Had to settle for a 7 mile run for the long run too. For those that have travelled to India, I am sure you will understand, when I say that India is not the most frendliest place for runners :).. This is in spite of the media attention on the 3 year kid that completed a marathon :)..
My friend, Hafsa, shared this poem with me and I thought more people would enjoy it..
I’ll show you the moonlight but not the moon, the scene but not the crime.
I’ll show you the footprints but not the feet, the ore but not the mine.
I’ll tell you the story but not what it means. That’s for you to define.
I’ll give you the words and the pictures. But the rest of it is mine.
–Poem by McNeney