In an effort to find the magical and memorable things to do for Valentine’s Day, people turn to polling each other, striking up conversations at work, and even graffiti on public transit (strange but true).
If you’re looking for some ideas of what to do, and what not to do, for a Valentine’s Day event, there’s no need to look beyond this article. If these ideas don’t spark your interest, they may still spark your creativity.
Below are compiled the best ideas and the worst ideas. Peruse and choose.
There’s a wacky tradition for some wacky folks on Feb-you-ary second. It has something to do with a critter named Punks-ah-whatever-you-want-to-call-‘im the prairie hog. “Ground” hog, if you’re hungry. Well, we in Great Salt Lake City are hungry! That’s why out west we have a tradition similar to the one out east but more fun and it ends in food. Who doesn’t love a tradition that ends in food?
Our tradition is similar in that it involves animals. They have their Punks-ah-hoggy and we have our Salty Stewart.
Salty Stewart is the name we give to the unlucky groundhog in the groundhog family who pokes his head up first sign of Spring. Maybe he sees his shadow, and maybe he doesn’t, nobody’s ever really talked to a groundhog before. The point of the tradition isn’t to go talking to critters. The point is to celebrate Springtime with a good hearty mess of pottage. After all winter waiting for the snow to melt and chewing on dried up old carrots out of the cellar, it’s nice to get a decent meal.
The whole reason we name the groundhog Salty Stew is because it isn’t just a fancy-pants title—it’s also how you find him on the menu. Salty Stew is our hero, our mascot, and our dinner.
Should you want to join the festivities, here’s how to prepare:
Salty Stew
2 lbs. ground groundhog
2 lbs. kielbasa, sliced
2 lbs. black beans, cooked
2 lbs. carrots, sliced
1 lb. peas
1 lb. tomatoes, diced
4 medium potatoes, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 cups water
2 tsp. inland sea salt
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. black pepper
Brown meat with garlic and onions. Drain off the grease and transfer to a large pot.
Add beans, carrots, peas, tomatoes, potatoes, and water. Stir. While stirring, add salt, cumin, chili powder, and black pepper.
Cook on medium/low for at least one hour.
If you can’t seem to catch you a groundhog, and your local market doesn’t carry any, substitute the meat of your choice.
Swearing is a powerful thing, when you’re taking an oath, or making a promise. And I did.
I promised myself that the next time I had any trouble whatsoever with my hydraulic brake system, I’d make it one hundred million times better by switching to a mechanical, cable brake system.
I swore it and then I did it. Here for evidence is the picture positive proof. Above is the front and below is the rear brake.
First kudos go to northwestbicycle.com for having and delivering the absolute best parts in the known mountain biking universe. The delivery was prompt, even though I chose to make an order at a difficult time of year. One of their sales associates described the past two weeks as “nuts”. Probably a good sign for their business, if they’re so busy to call it “nuts”.
I seriously hope this shameless plug for them makes it even more nuts. Do all your bike shopping through Northwest Bicycle. They’re the best!
Hopefully you’ll notice from the pictures that I didn’t have to get new discs. I used those from my previous brake system.
Rear brake ((Origin8))
Second kudos go to Origin8.
(I purchased the Origin8 Slick Compressionless MTB Brake Cable/Housing Kit Front and Rear 3000mm/1500mm & 2800mm 5mm/1.5mm Black, along with the Origin8 Vise II PM MTB Mechanical Disc Brake Front or Rear Black X2)
Origin8, who made this brake system, makes it easy to install, and everything necessary was included. By the way, if you plan on upgrading to this particular system and purchase the same items listed above, keep in mind you’ll need some brake levers. I didn’t buy any because I already had some that would work with this mechanical cable brake system.
The immediate reward is this: I had the extremely happy job of trying out, or in other words, test driving, my new brakes and they are phenomenal. They perform beautifully. In fact, the difference between the stopping power of the mechanical versus the hydraulic is not even discernible. The real test, of course, will be time: How much maintenance will go into the upkeep of this cable brake system. I suspect much less, and truly my experience is this: cable systems are worth much more in the long run than hydraulics. I had some of the first hydraulic brakes when they were a new idea for mountain bikes, and though they were built well (I had Magura back then), they still failed due to aggressive riding—or should I say aggressive crashing? Hahaha!
Anyway, unless you want to carry a syringe or two, oil, and tubing with you on the trail, fixing hydraulics in the middle of a ride is not an option. When hydraulic systems fail, you have zero brakes. ZERO. These are the main reasons I wanted to upgrade to cables: they’re less likely to become completely powerless, you can inspect them and actually see any potential defects, and they’re easy to maintain on or off trail.
There are moments in life when everything seems to slow down—and there are times when life needs to slow down.
A person can only take on so much before they’re overwhelmed. For instance, how many jobs can you have in a day? Most of us can only accomplish a finite number of tasks in a day. Most of us can only handle a set amount of responsibilities in a day.
“Burning the candle at both ends,” they say. And the old chestnut is fitting in some circumstances.
Your circumstance may be one.
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed trying to get ahead, or even just trying to stay alive, it might be time to slow down. It might be time to redefine your meanings.
The purpose of life and the meaning of life. Are they the same?
I would argue they’re different. To me, the meaning of life is a reason to say it; the purpose of life is a reason to do it.
So now you might be thinking, “Great philosophy, but it doesn’t help with the stress of my life.”
It could though. Once you’ve defined life the word and life the event, and separated the two, you can start to define the attributes of the two. If you’re struggling just to stay alive, but you can redefine what it means to be alive, or all of the necessities of life, then you can make it simpler. The simpler the goal, the easier it is to achieve.
For example: A man might think he needs to shave his face to keep himself in the game. But if he stopped shaving for a time and realized no changes to life have manifested, couldn’t he remove that false idea from his definition? Does he need to hold on to an idea that he has proven non-essential to life?
Likewise with many of the ideas we assign to the purpose or the meaning of life. They can be altered, rearranged, or even removed, and life continues onward.
Only 20% of new businesses fail in the first year.
80% of New Year resolutions fail in the first month.
What do entrepreneurs have that resolution-makers don’t? How is it that businesses crash on through, while diets and exercise routines simply crash? What is the difference? Why are resolutions more likely to fail? Is it the difference in the rewards? A successful business promises a paycheck and a way to eat, while a diet promises to starve. Or at least it might seem that way.
Possibly a solution to the problem is to create a reward for the resolution.
For instance, someone taking on a new diet should make sure the goal is clear. If the diet is for more balanced blood sugar, a dieter could make the goal be consistency. Chart the progress and make sure there are short term rewards as well as long term rewards. A short term reward might be a cool new gadget to hold drinks, such as a Blender Bottle. With clear expectations and rewards for the effort, success is more likely.
Another resolution-maker might want to carry on with a new exercise routine. Again, the goal needs to be clear. Is it for more endurance? Or is the goal to slim down? Or is the goal to gain muscle mass? Whichever of these, the goal can be so undefined as to be unattainable. To make it more meaningful, the goal needs to be more detailed. Someone trying to gain endurance needs to define the activity, activity duration, and energy spent. The energy spent means how much effort is put into the work. Endurance can be quantified by those three measures. Someone rating their endurance would want to measure an initial event and compare it to later events. A reward in the case of someone riding a stationary bike might be to forego music the first few times around, and then when the endurance improves, reward with music to make the activity more interesting and fun. This kind of reward also reinforces the habit.
To slim down, a person may simply want to fit in their old pants again. Easy enough for the brain, but not an easy map to follow. If a person wants to slim down, they need to define how exactly they’re going to get there. They could say, “More exercise and a modified diet.” More exercise and a modified diet are still generalized goals. If a person needs to eat fewer cheeseburgers, define it exactly so, but with numbers. How many fewer? Does anyone even know how many they eat in a week or a month or a year? If not, and the goal is a number, then it’s time to find out. If the number was twenty, make the goal be fifteen. Same with the “more” exercise generalization. It needs to be less nebulous in its formation. A person should decide how much exercise is already being done and then add to it. Say this person already exercises once a week. They may want to add one more exercise session or four. The number added depends on the person, but success depends on the clarity they give to their resolution.
Consider the business again for a moment. If a person went into business and decided to sell shorts to people who want to workout, would they say, “Let’s sell enough shorts to break even. Ready, go!”
Of course not. They would say, “We’ve spent X number of dollars starting the company. We need to sell Y number of exercise shorts to break even on startup costs, so let’s sell Y + n to make a profit! At least enough to buy lunch. Work for that cheeseburger!”
Xenosthesia.com 