Ugly Furniture

Another great one from JasonM

Are you there Markstrat? It's me, Jonathan.

Since a new whirlwind of classes spin up next week to usher in the spring semester, I wanted to take a moment to record my thoughts on my biggest challenge from last semester, aside from my professors attempted instance of death-by-case-study-presentation.

My Strategic Marketing Management class employed this online simulation known as Markstrat. With the class split up into groups, the teams spent time each week making decisions on what products to develop, where to sell them, who to sell them to, and how to do it all within the budget. Each Monday the professor ran the simulation and we found out how we did against the other teams competing in the virtual world.

I found the simulation both educational and fun. The simulation does a good job of getting you to think about resource management, market segmentation, product placement, advertising, and the way to have conversations with a team to come to a mutually agreeable strategy.

Markstrat does a pretty good job of simulating what might happen in the course of business, and you can find some common tips and tricks with a Google search. Here's my own addition to the pool of knowledge.

1. Sweep the leg! - Take no mercy on competitors. If you have the chance to shut someone out, go for it. They only stand to come back and take you out. No need to relearn the lesson you should have taken from Saving Private Ryan, right?
2. Knowledge is Power - Invest in marketing research, especially the semantic and MDS scales. Over time they get more useful as you can infer trends and use the calculators built into the simulation (although you should always sanity check those results).
3. Fully fund your IRAD! - Talk about a lesson directly applicable to the day job. During R&D, pay to minimize cost to produce the product. It's a short term pain for long term gain.
4. Vodite FTW? (maybe) - Some will say the first to enter the Vodite market will win the game. We were the first to enter, and the market didn't mature fast enough to catch the enormous market size of the Sonites. Ruling the Sonite market wins the day, and Vodite just shores up your victory.

However*, as much as Markstrat simulates the real world game of marketing successfully, there are a couple non-intuitive gotchas that I will list to help save a future team of Markstratters some trouble:

1. Those are speed holes - The winning team spent little to no money on research and developing new products. Instead, they set perceptual objectives and spent advertising dollars to move the perceived rating to match the ideal rating. For those of you that are reading this and don't speak Markstrat, this essentially means the team, instead of developing a plastic version of the product, the told the market segment that wanted plastic that the wooden version was actually plastic, and the market segment bought it. As a result the team didn't need to spend as much on R&D, whereas we sunk costs to develop new products delivering what customers wanted.
2. Death to Spoofee - Our group made the mistake of treating a customer's desired value as a threshold, not an objective. In other words, we looked at a target price of $500, or a power rating of 7 and said, "If we set the price at $475 and the power at 8, we're giving them more of what they want for less money." Unfortunately the way the simulation works is that if the customer wants to pay $200 and they have the option of two identical products, one for $190 and the other for $200, they will prefer the $200 product.

For those of you embarking on your Markstrat journey, good luck!

*Note that my team did not come in first, so keep that context in mind as you read my feedback.

Manicotti Filling

Christmas traditions make up some of the best traditions. On my mom's side of the family we rotate homemade ravioli's and homemade manicotti from year to year like a whimsical carousel of cheesy deliciousness. Over the weekend Jackie and I did a "Sunday on Saturday" dinner where we had several close family over to enjoy some homemade pasta, with gravy, gravy meats, and manicotti. We rocked some Frank Sinatra in the background to help set that eye-talian mood.

I want to put the complete recipe set here, but we'll start with the manicotti filling. This is based off the "well...about a handful of this, and a scoop of that" directions that you'll get from any Italian grandmom coupled with some more quantified recipes on the Interwebs. The result was pretty dang tasty, but not yet perfected.

Ingredients:

2 lb ricotta

1lb shredded mozzarella

1/2 c grated "Macaroni Cheese" (go for Pecorino Romano)

2 eggs

1 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 tbsp chopped parsley

Instructions:

Dump it all in a bowl and mix only long enough to evenly distribute ingredients. Fill the manicotti crepes as directed.

Finer details:

- Find a place that makes their own homemade mozzarella, and does a good job at it. At the very least don't us the solid block of mozzarella next to, or including, the Polly-O. See that oblong tube that looks like it's got water in it? You're on the right track.

- If you find a place that makes homemade ricotta, bonus points.

- Put a paper towel over the ricotta before mixing to remove excess moisture.

Tips and tweaks welcome in the comments!

2009 - Top 5 Games

Despite the action and adventure of 2009 I still managed to get my game on.

5. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

You don't have to be new to be a great game in

2009. For one reason or another I didn't pay this game much mind when it came out, thinking it was a home-hum Tomb Raider knockoff with better graphics designed to sell some PS3s out the game. It turns out to be a great new title from Naughty Dog with an interesting treasure hunt story, fun characters, terrific gameplay. If you've got a PS3, pick this one up at the bargain bin near you.

4. Half Life - Episode 2

The "Games I missed" roundup continued with the next adventure with Gordon Freeman. Thanks to a computer that can actually run games I decided to give this one a spin. Highlights include fun with the gr

avity gun, progressing along a story I'm rather interested in, and the all around superior gameplay for which the series is known. If you're into FPS and haven't played through Half Life, go for it.

This game also marked the first game th

at I downloaded as opposed to buying. Three cheers for instant gratification!

3. Burnout Paradise

Brain: Off. Fun: On! I had a lot of fun whipping around Paradise City burning out, flipping, and road raging my way to Elite status. For those of you that, like me, can't stand the agonizing discipline required to play a "driving simulator", this arcade racer fits the bill nicely for several hours of fun.

2. Bioshock

Proving once again that I'm nothing if not a budget gamer, I picked up a copy of Bioshock for the PS3. To regurgitate what pretty much every review stated, this is one atmospheric game. The world of Rapture is wholly immersive, and when you add to that superior graphics, sound, fun enemies, a sandbox of powers and weapons, and this add some compelling story you make one of the best games I've played. Get out and buy this one before the Big Sister comes knocking in a couple months.

1. Uncharted 2

Hands down game of the year, maybe even game of the decade. For all the reasons I liked the last game, I liked this game. However, the creators took every gameplay mechanic and made it sing. They took the already astonishing graphics engine and took it to the next photo-realistic level. They took the game through all different destinations so it was no longer the jungle/cave/ruins combo of the last game. The characters are well animated and well-acted which added greatly to the enjoyability of the storyline.

I really took note of the pacing of the game, mostly because I found zero convenient opportunities to put the game down. I'm used to reaching a point in a game when I can put down the controller, save, and come back later. For the 12 hours of gameplay I never felt like the pace let up. I was always ready to see what was around the next corner, and I was always delighted at what I found when I got there.

This game is everything that any Indiana Jones move was (or in the case of the 4th one, tried to be). If you have a PS3, get it. If you don't have a PS3, this game is enough fun to consider getting one, and between the lower price point, the upcoming 3rd installment of God of War, and Blu-Ray, it's becoming an easier choice than ever.

The Disappointments

Not all games get the JC seal of approval. He's some lowlights of 2009.

Killzone 2, winner of the "It's not you, it's me" award

Out of about 12 hours of gameplay this first person shooter felt fun for about 2 hours of it. Highlights included the part when I wound up with a lightning gun, mostly because I didn't have to pop and shoot my way through any more gritty environments. I won't deny the game is really beautiful, and the realism of the AI and the challenge is commendable.

I'll give the game the "it's not you, it's me" title. I'm at the point in my life where I have enough frustration and challenge in the rest of my life. That's not to say when I play a video game I want a peaceful walk in the park with only one button to do it all, but even on normal difficulty this game left like a chore. I probably tried playing it the way I wanted to play it, as opposed to how the designers wanted me to play it (i.e. daring to leave cover "guns blazing" which was a sure way to die in 3 seconds)

Ultimately, too hard core for me.

Looking Back on 2009

To stray from my traditional blog posts, I'll start out by getting to the point. Two Thousand Nine was a monumental year for me with many moments that will live with me forever, and they almost all include my beautiful baby daughter. My life changed a lot this year, partly because of magical little Layla Marie, but other on-goings kept me going on. Let's look at where I started and where I find myself now.

Professionally I started out knowing this would be the last year as ELDP manager and by the end of the year I would be in a new job. Starting off 2009 I got to manage one of the best, most mature programs with some of the strongest stakeholder support. We had what I would argue the top participants in any program whose intelligence, drive, enthusiasm and humor were contagious in a way I can't describe, but it made me leap out of bed every day.

I knew that the awesomeness of that job would not be matched. Some would say that's lowering my expectations, but I call it setting the right expectations. The circumstances of the job are just too unique to expect lightning to strike twice. Professionally the year pretty much turned out as I suspected, but was it a self-fulfilling prophecy?

I moved on from the old job feeling that I left nothing on the table. I experienced so much, learned about myself, expanded my network, skills, and met tons of cool people whose success I look forward to watching unfold in the coming years. I'm in a new job, I like it, so let's call this area of life recapped and move on to something more exciting.

How about grad school? Earlier in the year I said now is the time to go for it. Actually, it was more like, "well, its not going to get any easier, so why might as well get to it?" I'm now 8.5 credits into pursuing a Villanova MBA and its going well. I haven't taken more than one course at a time yet, so we'll see how the accounting and finance course load pans out in 2010.

Oh, and this year I completed my Toastmasters Competent Communicator. For those keeping track that 10 speeches that bring me further away from sucking at public speaking. Thus far it's been one of the most rewarding personal or professional development endeavors I've ever done, and I recommend Toastmasters to everyone.

So that's the business side of life. How about the fun stuff?

We went to scores of parties, dinners, cooked a lot of great meals, had people over, attended a wedding, and all that before Layla arrived. How many infants can say they've already been to a Weezer, Blue October, and Blink 182 concerts along with a couple comedy shows? (none because infants can't speak. duh.)

On September 14th my life changed forever in the most wonderful way possible. I guess my perspective changed a bit, but I don't know if my habits changed much yet. I still get my game on, managed to still hit the gym, completed the ACS bike-a-thon, and remain on top of all the latest Joystiq posts.

The last three months are a blur, but I like that when I shut my eyes and think back I can see the baby's smile. I can see her finding her hands for the first time. Focusing on Jackie and me realizing we're two different things. My first baby projectile vomit. First 2am night wondering what the hell is wrong with this baby and what the hell is wrong with me and oh...she smiled! Seeing how much joy she brings to Jackie and me and the family and friends that meet her. Enjoying my renewed relationship with my mom now that we have the baby to bring us together.

Finally, I feel most grateful for my loving, patient and beautiful wife. I'm far from a perfect person, but when you find someone that sees you for the nucklehead you are, but loves you anyway, you gotta thank heaven every day. As if tolerating my bad jokes, inability to prioritize, workaholism, vanity, stubborness, and other aspects of the Ugly Side was not a gift enough, she brought Layla into the mix thereby proving she is, in a word, amazing.

Where are we going next?

As we look into 2010, the game plan is simple. All about the baby. This is the year of firsts. First tooth, first crawl, first walk, first fall, first birthday, first word, and I intend to be there for all of it (while also kicking ass at work, pulling a 4.0, riding another bike-a-thon, and all the other distractions along the way).

Happy New Year indeed!

Of ratings and rankings

It's been a while since I posted one of my Toastmasters speeches. This little gem was # 9 of 10 in my competent communicator series. One more to go!

Remember, the views and opinions of this blog are Jonathan's, and do not reflect those of any people or institutions with whom Jonathan associates himself. In fact, Jonathan does such a poor job communicating that what he posts here rarely even appropriately reflects his views and opinions. Nevertheless, I figured this would be timely given what many people go through at their jobs this time of year. Enjoy, and good luck!

Fellow Toastmasters and guests. I’d like to start this discussion with some thinking about your ideal body weight. Has anyone here ever looked up their ideal body weight before? If you were 5’10”, and you weighed 200lbs, you would be defined as “overweight.” If you dropped 10% of your weight, you’d be180lbs. You’d be near your ideal range, but still a little over. So if you dropped another 10%, you’d be at around 160. Odds are you’d be feeling a little lighter in your step, have a little more energy, and a little more confident. You’d have trimmed off the fat that keeps you down.

But what if you decided, “Hey, that worked great! Let’s drop another 10 percent!” So over the next year you went down to about 145. What if you did it again? 130lbs. You’re now underweight. Anorexic. You’ll feel weak, short of breath, and people will comment on your brittle skin and emaciated look. What started as healthy weight loss eventually caused more harm than good.

I’d like to keep that lesson in mind as we shift our focus to corporations. Companies, like people, can get fat. When they do they also have ways of getting in shape, and this time of year we’re all very familiar with the cornerstone of efficiency. Performance reviews. Today I’m talking about a specific piece of that puzzle, knows as the forced distribution.

For those of you unfamiliar with the forced distribution, it was made famous by Jack Welch as the CEO of GE in the 90s. The distribution says that if you take a company’s population, you can separate your performers into the top 20%, the middle 70% and the bottom 10%. The top 20%, those are your stars. They get the best raises, the top training, and are in line for that next promotion. The middle 70%, they’re essential to the organization. They get decent raises, some training, and some will even move into that top 20%. The bottom 10%? Well, they get what’s left, essentially, a poke in the eye.

But in fairness, the better companies will still invest time in that 10%. Maybe they need a better job, or a little extra coaching, or maybe they’re best employed at another company.

However, I am here today to share with you that while forcing a distribution may work in some cases, it does not work in all, and it is certainly not a long term solution.

I’ll share a specific example first. Say you take that top 20%, and you put them into a special program. Some will say that you have to take that new population of stars and force a distribution on them. So that means that some of that top group will be classified in the bottom 10%. Whoever falls into that category now gets little to no raise and possibly flagged as a poor performing employee.

A common explanation for that case is, “Well, even in the NBA someone has to sit the bench.” Or, “well, even in the Olympics someone gets the bronze, or no medal at all.” However, think about why you pay your employees. You pay your top performers above average raises to ensure they get a competitive salary. If you don’t pay them that salary, they can, and will, be recruited away to a firm that will.

By taking someone in the top tier and forcing them into the bottom 10%, they get a lower than average raise. Your forced distribution just deflated their wages, and made them susceptible to other firms that can come in and say, “Hey, we’ll pay you what you’re really worth!”

So what other clues do we have that a forced distribution might now work?

I think the biggest clue is that even GE, the pioneers, do not force the distribution anymore. It’s obvious why they did at first. A professor at Drake University found that forcing a ranking results in an impressive 16% improvement in productivity the first year. However, over time the gains dropped off to six percent, and then to zero by year 10. What drives that decrease?

Think of what the distribution implies. You do not give your employees an absolute goal; you give them a relative goal. So no matter what you say about teamwork, when you force a distribution there will be, to some degree, a part of the employee that looks to another employee and thinks, “It’s either you…or me.” Overtime you risk turning cooperation into competition, and that will decrease productivity.

Finally, think of our weight loss analogy. Eventually, you run out of fat to trim. Just like you start to lose your muscle mass, a company will start to lose their good performers. So while yes, there are situations where a forced distribution will improve productivity, we now have enough long term evidence and exceptions to know that there must be rationality in the process. Nobody wants to work for an anorexic company.

Note to self

After all these years, this movie still makes me wistful...

http://www.hulu.com/watch/12706/dirty-work

To provide a little extra insight into my sad, strange formative years, this is by far the single most watched comedy among my friends and I. That hurts, but you know what hurts the most? The lack of respect. Well, except for the other thing...

Gym Stats

Another fun by-product of gym note taking is I can now generate statistics! I know, I know, try to contain the excitement.

Since the 21st of August, 2006, I have numbered my workouts. I split the lift into 4 days you could call push, front legs, pull, back legs. So workouts are numbers as 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 2a, etc.

On the 27th of September 2009 I completed lift 145D. I don't record cardio, but I hit it at least once a week. Thus I can figure out the number of lifts based on notes and add 1 lift per week to cover cardio. Since I know the dates, I can figure out what percentage of days I worked out over a given year.

21 August 2006 to 30 March 2007: 68%

2 April 2007 to 1 October 2007: 70%

5 October 2007 to 11 October 2008: 65%

16 October 2008 to 27 September 2009: 62%

Conclusion: I don't like this trend!

Activity not recorded includes lawn mowing and 3 mile dog walks. Since there's plenty of walkers with potbellies and lots of dudes that have to wear a shirt while mowing the lawn as a courtesy to their neighbors, I don't count those as significant activity moving me towards my fitness goals. However, recent activities such as fatherhood and grad school have tempted me to lower the bar on what I call a workout. It's only a matter of time before workout 240c is recorded as, "walked to the far stall for the morning constitutional."

Gym Notes Roundup

Sometimes the gym serves me as a random thought generator. Since I carry a notebook with me, I sometimes write down said random thoughts. I actually write one phrase a day, and looking back on almost 3 years of gym notebooks reminds me that when lifting, I usually write gibberish.

However here's some that I feel like archiving here. These aren't the daily phrases, but the random thoughts I write in the back of the book. The extra fun for me is figuring out where I was in life when I wrote them

• Don't focus on the time you don't have, focus on the time you do have.
• It must be nice to get a new hair cut. I'm at the point in life where my next new hair cut is "bald".
• Good dog's name: Hurley
• The moment you realize that now matter what you do someone will be unhappy is a liberating one.
• Given the condition of Ballys, the fact that I don't go there and still pay dues should be deductible as charity.
• You don't have it figured out, and don't think you do, because it only hurts more when you realize you don't.
• Run with actual pumpkins!
• Sonic Boom!
• Gyms should have a book of the month club. First month: New Rules of Lifting
• You know you've hit the big time when you have 2 stair wells leading between the same 2 floors
• We've been gifted so many candy dishes that even Willy Wonka would find it excessive.
• There's people that see it in me, and people that don't. I don't wait to be led/managed/mentored by people that don't.
• Because I choose to
• People shouldn't complain that married people get special treatment for the same reason I shouldn't complain handicapped people get special parking.
• Maybe the point of sports talk is that it's so benign. Politics and religion get people fired up, but maybe sports don't matter just enough.
• A dog? I'm not sure if I'm ready to have something in the house she loves more than me
• Writing a letter feels so 1930s...like after I should go to war or something.

Yeah, good thing I wrote down those gems, eh?

Oh the places you lift

With the closure of Cherry Hill's Philadelphia Sports Club I joined Super Fitness. Upon joining a new gym (again) I decided to take a trip down the memory lane of lifting.

Gym	Start	End	The Good	The Bad
500 Bell Road	1993	1994	Cheap free bench in my bedroom plus a Men's Health book and I was off and running.	Often sacrificed lifting in the name of one more round of Street Fighter 2.
7 Brambling Late	1994	1996	Convenient location of weight bench in my bedroom. Learning to lift in a 7x10 room prepared me for the possibility of having to exercise in jail.	How good of a workout do you get in a 7x10 room?
17 Covington Lane	1996	1998	Monsterous basement provided enough room for a treadmill, bench, and OCD arrangement of plates on the floor.	Jumping rope on concrete for several months led to knees of a 70 year old man when I was 17.
Werblin @ Rutgers	1998	2002	Spend enough time isolated with math, science, and introverted people and you gain appreciation for what would already be an amazing gym. State of the art facilities, and best-in-class pool provided 4 years of engineering stress relief. Also home to the largest Asian dudes I've ever seen.	First experience of old guys in the locker room that liked to brush their teeth naked. Learned valuable skill to walk in a locker room while looking at the ceiling and not bumping my knees on anything.
Winter break: YMCA	Winter 1999		Cheap.	Not too inspired by co-members. Show up with teeth and without diabetes and you're already in the top healthy 1%
Winter break: Rohrer	Winter 2000		And on the 7th day, God (with funding from the Sonk family) created the Rohrer	They stopped offering student discounts. My desire to work out is only exceeded by my desire to not spend more than $100 a month to do so.
Ocean City Library	Summer 2000		Cheap. Highlights include the jazz boxer, torn biceps, music station that took it to the Wiggity-wild wild west,and "The Bouncer"	What could be bad about a gym in the Library? Oh, right, it's in the library.
Ocean City Islander	Summer 2000		First experience with a gym that had chalk for lifting.	Threw out my back attempting a clean-n-press. "My back, the chalk does nothing!"
Ballys - Echelon	2002	2004	Three years of payments ends up with dirt-cheap renewals. Got to lift with Uncle Tony!	Pool contents: 90% water, 9% chlorine, 1% band-aids
Ballys - MT. Laurel	2004	Present	Closer to work. Less floating band-aids than other Ballys.	No pool.
Philly Sports Club	2006	2009	Clean. Fresh towels from the desk. Never crowded. New equipment. Courteous, friendly, responsive staff, passed it on the way home from work. First gym Jackie agreed to join because the other clientèle did not give her the heebie-jeebies.	Closed down to build a CVS. A F*&%ING CVS!
Super Fitness	2009	ASAP	Cheap, around the corner, hours from 5am-11pm are conducive to the wonky schedule of new-fatherhood.	Going from PSC to SF is liking giving up your Porsche for a Jetta. That's right, I'm still bitter about my Jetta.

Fairmount

I warned you about Sixth Borough before. They're still hilarious, and I enjoy this montage of a lovely section of Philly.

Philly's Skies are Clearing

Sept. 17th!

Hey Blog, Howya Doin?

Blogging is an easy thing to do. It's also an easy thing not to do. So why do I so often choose to not blog, than to blog?

I don't worry too much about not blogging until I take one of my trips down bloggery lane. I will occasionally find great joy in looking back on the early parts of this decade. I know that I will some day like to read about my experiences in the latter half of the decade. Unfortunately, I won't find such records here.

However, let's take a snapshot now, shall we?

Work is busy. Work is challenging. For the past two weeks I had this perpetual feeling of swimming against a tide, falling beneath the surface, and wondering why-oh-why did I leave ELDP island. I joked internally that I was waking up every morning and thinking, "Is this the day I quit, or get fired?" I kept that sentiment inside because I knew that neither would be the option.

Why? Because the fun part of growing up is realizing your own silly patterns. I've been here before often enough to know how I react. There's a wonderful moment when I realize, "Ah, you're going to quit, right? Like you said you would when you started all those rotations, and previous jobs? Remember how you ended up not quitting, and eventually doing a great job? I bet you'll once again remember that you don't excel because you're the smartest, but because you work harder than most. One might say you're too dumb to give up, so you'll win again."

It's like calling bullshit on myself, and I take great joy in doing so.

Outside of work, life is terrific. Oh, did I mention in this venue that Jackie is pregnant? Yep, two months to go!

The prospect of fatherhood is wonderfully exciting. Sometimes its unbelievable. Sometimes I sit back and think, "crap, I'm really grown up now." Of course, that's usually while I'm waiting for the Wii to load Mario Kart. Some things never change...

...but some things do! So fatherhood is going to rock. The road to fatherhood is full of thrills, and far less bumpy than the motherhood road our better halves take.

I now understand why wives are called our better halves, too. Seeing the perpetual discomfort and freaky things that happen to a woman's body in real time is wild. Thank you, dear!

A week ago we were watching Jackie's belly in a dark room with a light coming from another room. With the right lighting we could actually see the belly twitch as the kid, whom we gave the androgynous name, "Thumper", kicked. It's the kind of thing you can watch for hours and not get bored, like fail blog videos or a dog chasing its tail.

Speaking of the dog, Cara is still around. I mean, I love the dog! Newfoundlands really are the best breed. Obvious caveats include: you must not mind drool, or grooming a dog for 45min a week, or getting bumped around by a dog that doesn't know its own size. Also, when I write lists like that I realize how appropriate the dog is as a substitute when I'm not around.

Speaking of not being around, going back for an MBA is one of the most ambitious dumb things I've done. I've obviously forgotten any math skills from my engineering background, because if I did have them I would add up the number of hours in a week, and the number of hours I need to sleep, work, and live a happy life, and I would quickly realize I need to figure out time travel to survive.

Speaking of time travel, how awesome was Season 5 of Lost? Anyone keeping tabs on the comic-con videos this summer? It's as if they never crashed...

Speaking of crashing, it's time to end Friday before a weekend of leadership, Villanova style. Go Wildcats!

Analogesic

I'd like to compare my new job to a hamburger, but not just any hamburger. I'm talking the kind of hamburger that you order thinking, "I am SOOOO hungry. Find me the biggest hamburger you have, and then double the size of it. Put every topping you have on it, because I'm gonna eat it all."

The waiter walks away, and then 15 minutes comes back with the biggest burger you ever saw. As he approaches you think, "Ah, just the big burger I was looking for!" However, as the burger gets closer you start to realize the actual proportions.

"No problem, I can do this...just gotta loosen the belt," I think to myself. So I pick up the burger, barely able to hold it in two hands. Where do I bite first? Seems like no matter which angle I start at, the burger will probably shoot out the other side. Eventually, I'll just take a bite, "Not bad, I'm off and running, I'll kill this baby off in no time. What do they have for dessert?"

Then I realize some ketchup is running down my arm. Uh-oh, some burger toppings fell out and hit the plate. "Well, if I can at least eat the meat and roll, I'll call that a win." Ack, the structural integrity of the bun can't sustain this monstrosity! People that originally thought I could eat the burger are wondering if I can do it. Did someone just nudge my arm to try to knock the burger apart? I better eat faster! Am I feeling nauseous?

And now I just realized I didn't even notice the grad school...I mean side of fries.

Still hungry? I am.

What made me laugh this week

Thanks to XSteveMurphy

Alas, PSC, I knew it

With the arrival of a letter I watched three years of blood, sweat, and tears comes to an end. Well, I never actually bled at the gym, and I might have cried once, but since then I've learned the right way to tie the weight harness around my waist.

Yes, Philly Sports Club in Cherry Hill, NJ will cease to exist on July 31st, 2009. At first, this news bummed me out. I've grown to love the gym for several reasons. One, it's clean. Two, it has great equipment in great condition that's optimal for the workouts I like to do. Three, it is terrifically located about half way between work and home. Four, they give out free towels which contributes greatly to number one, the cleanliness. Five, I can honestly say that in 3 years I never felt crowded, and the crowd that was there was pleasant and curteous. I think I asked to "work in" on a piece of equipment once, and even that caused the person using the equipment to scamper off thinking they had done something wrong.

Number five of the list always caused me concern. Is a gym profiting if the members aren't side-by-sweaty-side in the weight room? If we never enforce the "30 minutes when someone is waiting" rule on the Precor because no one ever needs to wait, then how can we remain solvent? Thus, when the letter arrived I assumed the root cause lied in lack of attendance.

Alas, if only that were true. As it turns out the lease expired on the space that PSC rented when the property changed hands to new owners. The new owners opted not to renew the space because they had a new and far more profitable endeavor in mind.

TEAR DOWN THE BUILDING A PUT UP A CVS.

That's right, my gym is going away so that another CVS can take it's place. If I search the store locator on the CVS website, the next closest CVS is one mile away. There's another one straight down King's Highway in Haddonfield. Factor in the Rite Aid's and Walgreens of the world and you can throw a stone in South Jersey and hit a place that will re-up your Lipitor.

You know what really grinds my gears America? That we need to see more preventive activity to stay healthy. Get exercising and you might not need that blood pressure medication. I see from their annual report in 2008 that $559 Million in CVS revenue comes from filled retail prescriptions. How many of those perscriptions would not be necessary if more Americans led a more active lifestyle. The way I see it CVS treats a symptom. Going to the gym addresses a root cause. Seeing a gym torn down to build a CVS is tragic. Especially when it's my gym.

It looks like I'll be back at Bally Total Fitness come August, an easy fit since I never cancelled my member. That caused me a great deal of anguish to type since most of the 5 points I made above are the exact opposite of your average Ballys condition.

Of course this aggravation all started with my initial question, "Why is PSC going away?" So the lesson learned kids is that ignorance is bliss. Have a great week!