Back Amongst The Living

Whatever illness that was visited upon me has finally been exorcised from me. I still have some lung congestion, but I was able to work out last night. While I didn't set any records on the treadmill, I did hit three miles in under 35 minutes...yeah, it was 34:56, but under 35 minutes. I'll take it.

One of the benefits of my illness is that all food tasted gross, so I subsisted on V8, fruit, and the occasional bowl of Campbell's alphabet soup. That means I dropped 15 lbs in just under 9 days due to my slo-mo anorexic diet and dehydration. I've put 4 of those elbees back on due to re-hydrating, but the appetite is still suppressed...and I'll deal with that as I could stand to lose about another 30 lbs.

Not much else is going on. It's review time at work - again. Quarterly reviews suck a mountain of arse, not sure why we don't flip to a semi-annual cycle. Quarterly reviews dilute the impact and effectiveness of the feedback, in my opinion. So, I'll have to sequester myself away and find new and exciting ways to tell my direct reports that they are meeting expectations. Good times.

Oh, a little more Taylor Swift bashing...in her latest song 'Mean' she takes some shots at someone that told her she can't sing, so she calls him 'mean'. Notice that she didn't say he was wrong, because then she'd be lying. I understand why Taylor Swift is popular with tween and teen girls, but what I don't understand is the music industry's insistence on letting her perform live. Taylor Swift is a train wreck when she sings live. Her flat delivery and 1/2 octave range coupled with her spastic gyrations and hair flips makes her unwatchable. At some point Swift's fans are going to grow up and abandon her in droves...and she just doesn't have the vocal chops to carry on to appeal to a mature audience. Her Sweet Valley High meets Judy Blume lyrics will have to evolve as well if she ever wants to be taken seriously.