New Thing 148, New Thing Every Day: Try an Entirely New Weightlifting Exercise

As part of my effort to combat the effects of my MS, I have been lifting weighs for the last several months, mostly three mornings a week. Since I can't stand for very long, I find things that I can do from a chair. Today, I started a new one that I have never done before, and that I think will be a good long-term addition -- the seated bent-over row.

New Thing 147, New Thing Every Day: Read Gen. George Patton's Speech To The Third Army

Generally considered Patton's greatest speech, his Speech To The Third Army rallied his troops in 1944, prior to the invasion of France. On Memorial Day, it seemed appropriate to read one of the great speeches from our greatest war. It is powerful, and profane, and colorful, and I suspect got those men ready like few speeches could have.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton%27s_speech_to_the_Third_Army

New Thing 146, New Thing Every Day: Do a Research Paper for Graduate School

Ugh. I have written many papers in my life, but none in the last 25 years or so. Today, I have finished and submitted my first research paper for graduate school (for my final prerequisite), and I am pretty proud of it. Hope I get an A.

New Thing 145, New Thing Every Day: Try Convenience Store Sake

I have had sake a few times at Japanese restaurants and it has never really been my thing. Then, as you may recall, I went shopping at an Asian grocery a few months ago and one of the things I got there was a bottle of tiny little single-serve bottle of sake that looks to me like something you would buy at an Asian convenience store. That bottle has been in my refrigerator since then and I finally tasted it today. Leigh tried it, too, and we agree that it tastes like cheap white wine (something we know quite a lot about) that has gone bad.

Oh well. At least we tried it. On to the next New Thing.

New Thing 144, New Thing Every Day: Try to Mail Someone a Truck Stop Post Card

Yes, this New Thing definitely goes on the list of Totally Obscure New Things, but my very longtime good friend Kim Yates suggested it, and it made my list.

BUT THEN...

I went to two different truck stops and it looks like truck stops do not sell postcards anymore. The closest thing I could find was a stand of greeting cards, so I bought one and am mailing it to someone. Oh well, it is still doing something new, took a little effort and thought, and gave me an excuse to reach out to someone.

New Thing 143, New Thing Every Day: Attend My Rotary Club's Monthly Social

Bizarrely, I have been a pretty committed Rotarian for 18 years, a member of this particular club for maybe eight years, and it has had an informal, monthly social for over two years, and I have never, ever attended. No reason, it has just somehow worked out that I have never gone.

Today, I fixed that. After work, we had our social at DogMaster Distillery, and it really was a nice time, catching up with people over tasty beverages.

Yes, I will make a greater effort to go in the future.

New Thing 142, New Thing Every Day: Get a Therapeutic Massage (Tawnee, at Wellaware)

In 46 years of life, I had actually never had a professional massage of any kind, and it seemed like it was probably about time. I posted on Facebook to find someone to do it and received many, many excellent suggestions. In the end, though, I had to go with Tawnee Benner because she is the wife of my college friend Mike Benner, and none of the other suggestions are married to a college friend. How could any of them have competed with that?

Fortunately, Tawnee is a trained, professional massage therapist at Boone Hospital's Wellaware, so I knew she had to be good. Today, we had a half hour session and it really was pretty great. If I do it again, I will definitely call Tawnee; and I absolutely recommend her.

New Thing 141, New Thing Every Day: Tip 100%

I have been planning to tip 100% somewhere since I started doing my New Thing Every Day, and today I finally found the perfect place. My friend Larry Schuster and I went to breakfast at Lucy's, the diner in downtown Columbia, and they are closing forever on Friday. That means folks are going to be looking for jobs and a 100% tip will be more helpful than usual. My breakfast was just under $9.00 -- I really wanted to do it right, since it would be my last Lucy's breakfast, ever -- and I left $18.00. It was not a huge amount of money, but I felt good about it, and hopefully the server will find it helpful.

New Thing 140, New Thing Every Day: Read "What To The Slave Is The 4th Of July?" Speech by Frederick Douglass

As much as I have learned about Frederick Douglass over the years, I had never read one of his speeches, and this one really was powerful. One thing that struck me was the anger he expressed, and the fact that it was an incredibly gutsy for him to give it to what I am sure was an almost entirely white audience.

Here is a link to the speech (as well as some very cool information about Douglass) -- http://www.freemaninstitute.com/douglass.htm

New Thing 139, New Thing Every Day: Try Kombucha

One of the themes to my New Thing project is getting myself to try activities or foods or whatever that are popular in some quarter, but that I otherwise might not try.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Kombucha, "Kombucha is a variety of fermented, lightly effervescent sweetened black or green tea drinks that are commonly intended as functional beverages for their supposed health benefits."

I had a tart cherry version. It was fizzy and sweet/tart and was fine, but not really my thing. Maybe I am healthier now, though?

New Thing 138, New Thing Every Day: Read Churchill's Blood, Sweat & Tears Speech

I found a great list of 25 Speeches that Changed the World and I am going to work my way through it. The first was Churchill's speech, basically declaring war on Germany, signaling the beginning of World War II.

Here is the link to the article about the 25 speeches -- http://list25.com/25-speeches-that-changed-the-world

Here is a link to Churchill's speech -- http://www.speeches-usa.com/Transcripts/winston_churchill-blood.html

New Thing 137, New Thing Every Day: Try Chinese Orange Beef Tenderloin

Here is my New Thing from yesterday. I did it then, I was just so tired last night that I did not get it posted. So here you go.

I am just so glad I tried this; it is now absolutely one of my favorite dishes at ABC Chinese Cuisine. I definitely recommend it.

New Thing 136, New Thing Every Day: Check Out http://www.staggeringbeauty.com/

Okay, this is one of the more weird websites I have seen. Definitely worth 30 seconds of your life.

http://www.staggeringbeauty.com/

New Thing 135, New Thing Every Day: Read a Speech by Kim Jong Un

In a way, Kim Jong Un is one of the most important world leaders of my lifetime, and yet I had never heard him speak or read one of his speeches.

Here is a link to the speech I read. It is kind of like our State of the Union.

http://www.ncnk.org/resources/news-items/kim-jong-uns-speeches-and-public-statements-1/kim-jong-uns-2017-new-years-address

Here are some passages that particularly struck me.

• We conducted the first H-bomb test, test-firing of various means of strike and nuclear warhead test successfully to cope with the imperialists' nuclear war threats, which were growing more wicked day by day, briskly developed state-of-the-art military hardware, and entered the final stage of preparation for the test launch of intercontinental ballistic missile; we achieved other marvellous successes one after another for the consolidation of the defence capability.
• Thanks to the heroic struggle of the Kim Il Sung's and Kim Jong Il's working class and all other people, the ambitious goals the Party set for the 70-day campaign and 200-day campaign were attained with success and a fresh breakthrough was made in the development of the national economy.
• During the 70-day campaign and 200-day campaign we created a new spirit of the times for building a powerful socialist country, and our people's trust in the Party and confidence in socialism grew firmer. 
• We should concentrate our efforts on implementing the five-year strategy for national economic development. This year is of key importance in carrying out this strategy. In order to open up fine prospects for the implementation of the strategy and develop the country's overall economy onto a higher plane, while building on the successes gained last year, we should attain the goals for this year's struggle without fail.
• "Let us accelerate the victorious advance of socialism with the great spirit of self-reliance and self-development as the dynamic force!"–this is the militant slogan we should uphold in this new year's march. 
• Upholding the slogan of self-reliance and self-sufficiency, every field and every unit of the national economy should launch a dynamic struggle to increase production and practise economy to the maximum, and thus carry out the plan for this year on all indices.
• In this year of the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army, we should raise the fierce flames of increasing the military capability.
• Last year, south Korea witnessed a massive anti-"government" struggle spreading far and wide to shake the reactionary ruling machinery to its foundations. This resistance involving all south Korean people, which left an indelible mark in the history of their struggle, was an outburst of pent-up grudge and indignation against the conservative regime that had been resorting to fascist dictatorship, anti-popular policy, sycophantic and traitorous acts and confrontation with their compatriots.
• The improvement of inter-Korean relations is the starting-point for peace and reunification, and it is a pressing demand of the whole nation.

New Thing 134, New Thing Every Day: Write a Dream Bucket List

Here we go!

·      Visit every continent except for Antarctica

·      Go on a world cruise

·      Meet the US President in the Oval Office

·      Get a red convertible Mustang (reminiscent of the one I owned for many years)

·      Go to the Academy Awards

·      Play poker with $100,000

·      Own a tall building

·      Have a company I started go public

·      Donate $100,000

·      Establish a permanent scholarship

What is your list?

New Thing 133, New Thing Every Day: Check Out Eagle Knoll Golf Course (Hartsburg, MO)

Working off and on in Jefferson City since before Eagle Knoll opened in 1996, I have driven past the sign and the exit to get there maybe 10 billion times, at a bare minimum. Yet I have not one single time turned off the highway to check it out. Today was the day, as I returned home from Jefferson City on a BBB visit.

Walking around is not really my thing, so I checked it out from the car and got a decent picture of the course's green rolling hills. It really does look like an incredible course, and it is kind of amazing that it is off highway 63 like that. A cool little neighborhood has developed around it. Definitely worth checking out.

New Thing 132, New Thing Every Day: Write a Letter to a Military Service Member

I found this great website that allows folks to send letters to military serving overseas. I am pretty excited to be able to say thank you.

http://www.amillionthanks.org/send_a_letter.php

New Thing 131, New Thing Every Day: Visit http://ilooklikebarackobama.com/

Seriously. This guy looks exactly like former President Barack Obama.

http://ilooklikebarackobama.com/

New Thing 130, New Thing Every Day: Go to Eat Fit Go Healthy Foods

Eat Fit Go is is like a combination restaurant/market where you can get really tasty, very healthy meals. I went there for a chamber ribbon cutting and really liked it. You should definitely check it out.

https://eatfitgo.com/

New Thing 129, New Thing Every Day: Support a Kickstarter Campaign

Kickstarter is a website where entrepreneurs, artists, and others can raise money for their projects. Sometimes, these fundraising campaigns are super successful and raise many times the amount they were trying to raise. Most are only moderately successful, and many do not meet their goal. Those that do not meet their goal do not get any of the money and it is all returned to the donors.

Supporting something on Kickstarter has been part of my plan since I first created my New Thing list, and then my friend Ellis Benus launched a campaign this week to help fund his new app, so that was a great opportunity.

Leigh and I contributed $50.00, which gets us several copies of the app and a t-shirt. Yay!

If you want to support a cool new app that allows you to automatically backup all the photos from your mobile devices to your home computer without the cloud -- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1876309800/stash-my-pix?ref=user_menu

New Thing 128, New Thing Every Day: Donate Children's Books to Ronald McDonald House

Really, every aspect of this New Thing was super fun. I went to Yellow Dog Book Shop on 9th Street and found a bunch of high quality books, a few that I had read and others that I would have enjoyed at the right age. I had never been to Yellow Dog, so this was fun, all on its own.

Then, I had a chamber ribbon cutting for Ronald McDonald House, so that was my chance. Terry, the director, was there and said they would be happy to add the books in their library. Isn't it cool that they have a library? Of course they do.

I think everyone who reads this should donate books to Ronald McDonald House, or to some children's charity where children could put them to good use. Just a thought.

New Thing 127, New Thing Every Day: Participate in a Focus Group

I actually got a call last week from a national focus group company, asking me to participate in one. They wouldn't give me any details -- just the time, location, and the fact that they would pay me $125. A little money is always nice, but I said yes because it seemed like an interesting experience and would be such a great New Thing.

Unfortunately, I can't really report anything about the experience because I signed an agreement that I would not divulge any details, and they even filmed me agreeing not to say anything. All I can say is that it was a focus group about community issues. Oh, and I can say that my friend Monty was also there. The content and experience were very cool and I am so glad I did it. Hopefully I can repor on the details at some point in the future.

New Thing 126, New Thing Every Day: Make a list of Charity Events I Might Create

Over the course of my life, I have created many, many fundraising events. A lot of those were pretty ordinary receptions or banquets or galas or whatever, and some have been way out of the ordinary. Today I made a list of eight events I might want to create at some point in the future; a few of them are actually already being planned or considered for later in the year. Creating the list was very fun, and now I feel like all of them will get done sooner rather than later.

• Wheelchair-a-thon
• Eating contest
• Pop-Up Restaurant
• VIP Talent Auction
• City-wide team weight loss competition
• City-wide scavenger hunt
• Board game night
• Ping pong tournament
  

New Thing 125, New Thing Every Day: Take the First Test for My First Online Class

To get through my MBA prerequisites as quickly as possible, I am taking the last one online -- my first online class. The whole process really is kind of fascinating, with rules about taking part in "discussion" a certain number of times within a specific time-frame, and all work done online. Today, I took my first exam, which went well. I miss having the face-ti-face interaction with the instructor and other students, but it is also kind of fun to do everything online, sort of on my own timeline. I expect that the vast majority of the rest of my classes will be in a classroom, but it will be fine if a few of them are online.

New Thing 124, New Thing Every Day: Try Salted Caramel Baileys

Sometimes, the beauty of a New Thing is that it just nudges me to step out of the box that we all let ourselves get into from time to time. In my case, I drink a good bit of Baileys (which is to say, maybe six bottles a year), but I have never had any flavor except for the original. Today, I tried Salted Caramel for the first time. Now, I should disclose that I was born without a sense of smell, so I am sure my sense of taste is less sensitive than the average person; but whatever the reason, I really can't tell any real difference between Salted Caramel and regular Baileys. I lie it, though, and am happy to bring my evening to a close with a glass of it.

New Thing 123, New Thing Every Day: Visit http://endless.horse/

Seriously, what was this person thinking?

http://endless.horse/

New Thing 122, New Thing Every Day: Be a Health Advocate for Leigh

Really, the only reason this gets to be a New Thing is because the opportunity had not presented itself before. Here's the story...

Today, Leigh somehow hurt her knee and is in quite a bit of pain. She decided she needed to go to one of the local urgent care facilities and they needed to get an x-ray. Between the examination and getting to the x-ray, there was quite a bit of walking. Finally, as we made our way to the x-ray room, I said, "Should she really be walking such a long distance considering that the problem is with her knee and walking makes it worse?"

The nurse replied, "Uh..."

"Couldn't you get her a wheelchair?"

"Sure, if she asks for one."

"I only ask because it seems to me that someone in charge of her healthcare in this situation might think to do that sort of thing."

Snotty? Yes, and I do wish I had handled it with a little more aplomb. But Leigh got her wheelchair, so I will take it as a lesson learned and be happy.

New Thing 121, New Thing Every Day: Stumble Upon Bunches of Antisemitic Websites

Yes, I have lived a fairly sheltered life when it comes to some things. Growing up in small town Kentucky, I saw plenty of racism, but somehow  I missed antisemitism. I just have not seen a lot, have not had anyone say anything particularly antisemitic in my presence, and certainly have never seen an antisemitic website.

With that in mind, something just happened that was super weird and super bad. For today's New Thing, I was going to read verses from the Talmud, so I Googled "talmud verses". Try it and I think you will see what I saw -- many, many antisemitic websites.

Pretty effed up.

New Thing 120, New Thing Every Day: Try Kimchi

This is going to sound silly, but I am in the process of making kimchi, and had never actually had any. It occurred to me today that I would not know if I had made it correctly if I had never tasted it, so I made remedying the situation my New Thing for the day.

Opening it was the first part of this little adventure. Apparently the fermentation of kimchi can cause quite a lot of pressure to build. As soon as I started to remove the lid from the mason jar, kimchi juice started spraying everywhere, and continued to spray for maybe 30 seconds. It was like I had shaken up a soda and loosened the cap.

After cleaning up the kimchi mess, I tried it. It was fine. Not horrible. Not particularly tasty. Just fine. Now, when mt batch is done, I will know if I did it right.

New Thing 119, New Thing Every Day: Visit fmlife.com

This is basically a site where people can share some horrible thing that has happened to them, and other people can vote on whether they empathize or think the person deserved the bad thing. Not really my cup of tea.