We are born with two ears and one mouth, so use them proportionately.

Overheard the 2 ears and 1 mouth point today and really liked it so thought I'd share. The other one I overheard once a long time ago that has always stuck w/ me is "are you listening to me or waiting for your turn to talk?" Listen, listen more than you speak, and listen actively, and be amazed at what you learn.

Speaking of listening -- @ work today the person in charge of music was playing a decade an hour. hahaha the 30s/40s were awfully dull (we were all falling asleep). The 50s kind of half and half, and the rest of the day was just amusing as we went through "music I remember as a child" "memories of high-school/uni" "wow I haven't heard that in forever" <-- of the song that was played to death a handful of years ago, to current time. Amused me anyways -- and it seemed everybody else in the office.

Line of the day "tell your quads to shut up!" from lesson this morn. hahaha the quads of course being the brute muscle of the legs -- apparently mine were trying to take all the work from the various other muscles. hahaha "get out of the way, I've got it!" Bullies everywhere! The point was entirely valid and things went well once I figured out how to apply the concept but I definitely got a good laugh out of that image. Will be interesting to see if the abs are toasted tomorrow -- tis the first time in a very long time I've been sore *during* a lesson! hahaha of course I didn't acknowledge that at the time, but I can admit it now :)

So two interesting discussions in said lesson about 20 mins apart. The first was about the futility of aiming for perfection. "You're human. You can't be perfect, and if you try you're going to fail. If instead, you try to be just a little better than your best, you'll always keep improving." Ok so that's incredibly paraphrased as the actual discussion was very convoluted and I like this version much better. hahaha but tis the basic point. And a valid one. (it's amazing how much easier it is to help my students through sport psych than to apply it to myself!) So ok I can go w/ that. And we left it and moved on to other "good but not perfect" things. And then we get to jumping. "You can't make a mistake." hahaha excellent. And how does not making any mistakes differ from perfection? Sheesh. The mistake in this case is being in the wrong place w/ my body -- and by wrong I mean a fraction of an inch. "She's too small and too sensitive to allow that; lots of others will, anything bigger won't notice or care about the movement and anything less sensitive will ignore it. But she reacts to everything you do." On the plus side -- if I can learn to ride her successfully *knowing* that this is the case, it should improve my jumping significantly. The trick is, of course, to do so before she decides she doesn't like jumping! Although the way she was flying around the other day she certainly seemed to be enjoying herself. Looking for random fences to jump even when we were only doing flat. hahaha

On a different note -- ever wanted to be a model? You may be one already! Even if you never wanted to! Facebook has given permission to 3rd party advertisers to use YOUR photos in THEIR ads. Cute eh? To turn off this option:

Click on SETTINGS up where you see the log out link.
Select PRIVACY SETTINGS.
Select NEWS FEEDS AND WALL.
Select the tab that reads FACE BOOK ADS.
There is a drop down box, select NO ONE.
Save your changes.

My friend Vince comments on this in his blog as well: http://socialmediaguru.blogspot.com/2009/07/facebook-is-using-your-face-in-their.html Which I'm sharing mostly cause the image he has to go along w/ it made me laugh.

So I have a 7:45 dressage ride time on Sunday. In Thornbury. Where? You ask... Yeah drive to Collingwood and keep going for another half-hour. "Oh 7:45's not *that* early" -- yeah that comes only from the uninitiated into horse shows. Ride time @ 7:45, means on horse by 7. Means on property by 6:30 (and *that* I can only get away with cause I'll have SuperGroom w/ me - aka Nicole :), means leave by 4:00 (and that's pushing it but I'm counting on a lack of traffic :), means load @ 3:45, means be at the barn to feed horse by 3:15. Means leaving my house shortly before 3am. Ugh. So I have a brilliant idea -- I have an acquaintance w/ a farm in Thornbury -- I'll call and get permission to leave my horse there overnight and go up on Sat. Call and she's kewl w/ this. All set right? Collingwood's a tourist town, should be no problem finding somewhere for N and I to stay. Yeah apparently it's the Elvis Festival this weekend. *THE* Elvis festival at that. Every room in every hotel, motel and B&B that's under $250/night is booked. NOT amused. So we're back to me getting up @ 2:30am on Sun morning. Sheesh. Not many years ago that'd mean just don't go to bed! hahaha I'm getting OLD!

At work we have an "all out of list" list in the kitchen that has a typical pre-printed list of items and a few blank lines. Well today when I glanced at the list it had all the usual stuff: coffee, milk, tp, etc but then the first two blank lines included: Time and Excuses. hahaha now really -- I have trouble believing anybody creative enough to work at this office is ever likely to run out of excuses, but it still amused me :)

Off for now :) Have a great wknd!