Sunday, August 17, 2014

The ice bucket challenge put me over the edge


Since last weekend was action packed and wild, I wanted a low key weekend this time to rest up for the beginning of the school year on Monday. Apparently that meant watching lots of movies, now that I think about it.

We watched Neighbors together (it's about a frat moving in next door to Seth Rogen and his wife and new baby). It wasn't really much to write home about, but if you are looking for a mildly amusing movie with no real plot that you can watch while browsing Instagram and occasionally look up to stare at Zac Efron, this is for you.
 


I'm on this weird kick of reading memoirs of prison/concentration camp survivors. I got really mad because Eric was watching some dumb movie where a guy had a choice between biting off his own fingers or being killed and I was like THAT IS DISGUSTING, turn it off. And he was like "you are really going to tell me that's crossing the line with the books you read?".  Anyway, in that vein, I've wanted to watch Schindler's List for years now, but I haven't because it's hard to get mentally ready. I finally tackled it this weekend, watching half Friday and half Saturday.

I also plan to finally watch Gone with the Wind, because I like to watch it at least once a year, and had planned to watch it this summer but time got away from me. I could probably watch that movie every day, if I had three hours of time with nothing better to do (actually I did have that, all summer, so I'm not sure how I'm just now watching it, or why I never learned to crochet or wrote that novel). I should have reread the book.




I took another Facebook break. I really enjoyed the break I took in the fall when trying to conceive was making me insane. This time, it was the ice bucket challenge that put me over the edge. Obviously donating to a charity that researches how to stop a debilitating, awful disease is a great thing. So why am I being subjected to all these videos of people who would apparently rather douse themselves in ice water than give like ten bucks? The vast majority don't even mention ALS, or if they do, it's very brief and I feel like it hasn't actually raised awareness that much, other than the fact that there is a disease called ALS that nobody wants to donate money towards. Please, post a video of yourself in a wet tshirt instead and see how many likes you get. Plus, it's August. If we really want to make it a challenge, let's do it in January, and then maybe I'll be slightly more impressed.

I finally saw one too many "look at my boobs oh yeah ALS" videos and immediately de-activated. It's a good time to anyway, because the first week of school turns into a contest of "who can work the hardest" and "who has the cutest most pinteresty classroom" and I seriously don't care that you painted your file cabinets or are leveling books at 9pm. If you were really working so hard, you wouldn't be posting to Facebook.

That's my rant, I realize that these are very minor things especially in contrast to my reading material, but everyone gets annoyed over dumb stuff and I'm happily not annoyed at all anymore because I'm not seeing it. I'll probably be back in a week and get just as annoyed, but feel free to give a sister a shout out if the ice bucket thing finally dies down. In the meantime, I'll briefly enjoy having one less way to waste my time.


I generally just find replacement time wasters, but I did have a few moments of attempting productivity this weekend. I folded and put away baby clothes in the new dresser (and based on this five pound thing, included clothes up to 3 months). I also bought ingredients to make a few Pioneer Woman freezer recipes for some post baby dinners, so that's my exciting Sunday afternoon plan.

I keep saying I'm going to get back on a grown up schedule of going to bed and waking up early, as opposed to my summer schedule of sleeping from around midnight - 9am. That's been a major fail so pretty much I've screwed myself and I'll most likely fall asleep at midnight tonight and then have to be up at 5:15 tomorrow morning. And don't tell me it's practice for the baby, there's no advantage in "practicing" sleep deprivation, I'm not in the army. Last night I couldn't remember where we stored the Wubbanub and couldn't sleep until I got up and found it, because the baby clearly needed it IMMEDIATELY.

Here it is. You can see why it was an essential item for a fetus.

One more thing that happened this weekend, I was officially approved to graduate and now, after four long years of pointless papers written in APA format, I have a master's degree. The ceremony is in December, and as much fun as it sounds to pay for an overpriced cap and gown that I'll wear for three hours of my life and bring a two month old to a long, boring event, I'll be skipping that, so posting on social media is the extent to my celebration. Believe me, not having homework to do after a long, exhausting day at work fills me with more happiness than walking across any stage ever could.

I forgot to even tell Eric until I was writing this post. Clearly a proud and significant time for me.

I'd also like to toot my own horn because I had a solidly decent week of workouts. Two spin classes, two Body Sculpt classes, and two days on the elliptical. Not terrible. I still take a rest day each week. It's likely it's not really necessary to take a rest day from a week that includes modified non impact gym workouts that are mostly under an hour, as opposed to a tough marathon training week, but I'm used to it and I like my rest days.
 

 
Thoughts on the ice bucket challenge?

Is your workplace a major contest over arrival/departure times, who's working the hardest, etc? I'm so over it. If I'm actually at work late or early it's because I'm actually busy and I don't have time to police the parking lot to see who's arriving when.
 

21 comments:

  1. Am I the only person who really doesn't get the ice bucket challenge? Am I just too old? I don't care if people dare me to do stupid shit - I'm not doing it. Also I heard they either 1) do the ice bucket AND donate $10 or 2) donate $100.

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    1. Can you tell me where you heard that? I'm trying to prove to a friend that even if you did the challenge the point was that you still donate something, but he doesn't believe me.

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  2. If you've seen one ice-bucket challenge, you've seen them all. Total waste of time. Just donate the money, if you are so inclined, its a good cause.

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  3. Hey Cynics, Hold That Cold Water: Why The Ice Bucket Challenge Worked
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2014/08/15/hey-cynics-hold-that-cold-water-why-the-ice-bucket-challenge-worked

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  4. I never heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge. I feel truly blessed.

    Have you read Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Supetys? If you like concentration camp stuff, it will blow your mind. It is not a memoir, but compiled from survivors' stories into a can't put down novel.

    I read it months ago and I have never forgotten the first line. It's truly an amazing book.

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  5. A combination of the ice bucket challenge and the realization that people are making up hashtags for their weddings has made me quit Facebook for a bit as well #idontgetit

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    1. I will defend that bc my sister did it and it was awesome to be able to see all the pics easily the next day. But the ice bucket challenge is still dumb.

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    2. Fair enough-- I didn't even think of that. Definitely still agree with you on the ice bucket challenge.

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  6. There is so much about the post I love: 1. Yes, my coworkers play who was in the office the latest. I always pipe in with a "I left at 5 pm". I've worked really hard to change this in my dept, including doing presentations. It's kind of working. 2. Over the ice bucket challenge. I haven't watched one video. 3. Yeah, practicing sleep deprivation just sounds like wasting good sleep hours. Foolish.

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    1. Please share your secrets for success in #1! I say it's called working smart and not demanding gold stars for being a martyr if you stay late here and there.

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  7. I'm totally with you on the ice bucket challenge. I have some friends who are police officers and they were doing one for another charity a couple of months ago. I don't know if someone was inspired by the ALS thing or if the ALS challenge came out of the cop thing...regardless, once they finally finished it, I thought I'd seen the end of it. Now it's totally caught on with ALS and I'm just over it. It's not even about the charity for some people. It's about sharing the videos of themselves. I've been thinking about removing myself from FB for a while now. I just can't pull the plug. I feel like I might miss something important...like news about a new race!

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  8. The Ice Bucket Challenge is killing me. Yes, I know it is raising money BUT most people are completely missing the point. Originally, it was dump water and donate $10 or don't and donate $100....then it turned into dump water and don't donate anything! Drove me crazy. Sigh.

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    1. I didn't even know about the $10 part until you and Ashley commented! Sadly that seems to have fallen by the wayside, at least on my Facebook feed.

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  9. At my workplace, I'm always the hardest worker.

    Also, I'd like to see a boiling water challenge. Let's make this a thing!

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  10. I roll my eyes at the ice bucket challenge. those kinds of things annoy me, just donate already, I don't watch any of the videos

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  11. "And don't tell me it's practice for the baby, there's no advantage in "practicing" sleep deprivation, I'm not in the army." I am going to try and burn that sentence in my brain. Someday I will probably be pregnant, and someone (probably my dear husband) is going to make a comment about sleep deprivation being practice for the baby. I need to have your response ready when that day comes!

    Congrats on your Masters!

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  12. You are supposed to donate, even if you do the challenge. I did $25, plus $1 for every like I go on Instagram/Facebook, which was about 90$. I know not everyone does, but if even half of the people do, that's a ton more money going into ALS research during a traditionally slow giving quarter.

    Congrats on the masters, and have a good first week of school!

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  13. Ah, the ice bucket challenge. Yeah, I got tagged to do that and just - no. I donated instead. I have no problem donating at all, but the whole thing just rubs me the wrong way too...

    Congratulations on your masters!

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  14. I can't bag on the ice bucket challenge bc the whole point is to donate money to the organization. And anything that encourages supporting a charity gets an A-Ok in my book. There have been articles also showing how much money has been raised in large part to this ice bucket push.

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  15. Someone is donating to ALS since they raised 8.6 million in a day so I don't think people are just doing the challenge and not donating. I donated but I have no interest in dumping ice water on my head. I sit in it enough after a long run so we'll call it even.

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  16. Congrats on the degree! I think I mentioned this, but I have absolutely no regrets over skipping my graduation ceremony. You should celebrate in a way that is much more exciting :)

    I can't say I'm totally anti-ice bucket because I respect the "marketing"- if you can get your organization that much recognition and money on that short of a time scale, that takes some serious skill (and it is a good cause). Then again, I'm not that into Facebook and seeing those videos constantly does annoy me. So I lean anti-, as much as is possible without me sounding like a terrible human being.

    I think there are time keepers at every job. I'm pro-efficiency: work hard, then get the hell out of there so I can do something else (which is usually bike, run, swim, or eat, of course).

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Thanks for commenting! Comments make me probably more happy than they should.