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lovemesomesurveys · 4 years

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What's your favorite accessory?: I haven’t worn any in awhile. What is the last article of clothing you bought?: A shirt I bought online. What does that article of clothing look like?: It’s black and says “Keep your distance” on the upper left side and on the back in big letters it says, “Thank you for keeping your distance.” Which is better: candy necklaces or Ring Pops?: Not a fan of either one, honestly. What's your favorite kind of soda?: Coke or Dr. Pepper.

What program do you use to play your mp3s on?: I use Spotify on my phone for music. If you've taken the SATs (or PSATs/ACTs/etc), what was your score?: I never took them. How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?: A lot. Do you honestly care how much the woodchuck could chuck?: Not at all. What time do you wake up every morning?: More like late afternoon around 3ish :X What was the last movie you rented or bought?: We rented You Should Have Left on On Demand last month. Do you play Dance Dance Revolution?: I never played that. I can’t. If so, what's your favorite song to play?: What do you think of the Kool-Aid man?: I don’t think anything about it. Do you like Dane Cook (he's a comedian)?: I know who he is, but I’ve never really heard his stuff. Have you had a song in your head today? What is it?: Not so far. Have you ever humped someone to greet them in school?: Uh, no. I don’t greet people that way. Who would you rather have sex with: Prince or Billy Idol?: Prince has passed away, but regardless I wouldn’t want to have sex with either one of them. What was the last concert you went to?: Green Day back in 2009. What is the next concert you are going to?: I don’t have any plans for one as of now. There aren’t any concerts right now anyway and who knows when there will be. What is your favorite board game?: I just love board games. Do you think Jade Puget is really awesome?: I had to Google who that was and while I am familiar with the band they were (are?) in, I don’t know who he is. What's your favorite punctuation mark?: Period. And that’s on periodt! ha. What foreign language do you take in school?: I took Spanish all 4 years in high school and 1 semester in college. Have you ever read any of the Chronicles of Narnia series?: Nope. Do you hate Harry Potter as much as I do?: I don’t hate Harry Potter. How many times have you seen the movies in the Star Wars series?: Several times. What is your favorite anime?: I don’t watch anime. Do you own a lava lamp? Blacklite? Fiber optic lamp?: Nope to all the above. Do you write it as "favorite" or "favourite"?: Favorite. How many bracelets do you own?: I don’t know exactly, but quite a few. How many bracelets are you wearing?: None. What's your favorite flavor of Pocky?: Chocolate banana. What's your favorite way to wear your hair?: I just always throw it up in a bun. What brand of gum do you most often chew?: I haven’t had gum in years, but I used to always get either Orbit, Stride, or 5 Gum. Do you believe in the Zodiac somewhat?: Nope. What's your Zodiac sign?: Leo. What's your Chinese astrology sign?: I don’t know. If you were to attend an art school, what subject would you major in?: I wouldn’t attend an art school. How old is your PC?: I have the 2017 Macbook Air. Do you have any 16-bit video game systems in your house? (ie Sega Genesis): No. When was the last time you got some film developed?: Uhh. I have no idea, it’s been several years. What was on that roll of film?: If you were to get a tattoo tomorrow, what would it be of?: I’ve wanted to get ‘free bird’ for a long time. When you turn 18 (or already have), what did/will you do on your birthday?: I turned 18 13 years ago D: Anyway, I went out of town to one of my favorite cities with my parents, brother, and cousin and spent the day there. Can you use a hula hoop?: Nope. What is the longest distance you've ever walked?: Years ago a former friend and I went all over San Francisco by foot (er, by wheels for me). Do you wear eyeliner?: When I wear makeup, yeah. I haven’t worn any makeup in like 3 years, though. Has anything been bothering you physically lately?: Of course. Always. How about mentally?: Always. Do you already have an idea of what you wanna do for college?: I already went and graduated. What's your favorite kind of fruity candy?: I’m not a fan of fruity candy. How long do you think you could do jumping jacks non-stop?: I can’t do any. What do you usually use your tokens on at the arcade?: I haven’t been to an arcade in several years, but aren’t tokens just used for the games? What else would I use them on? What's your favorite kind of fruit?: Bananas. What's your favorite kind of Coca-Cola or Pepsi (Vanilla, lemon, lime, etc.)?: Regular Coke. What do you think of eyeball jewelry?: Eyeball jewelry? What kind of deodorant do you use?: Secret. The powder fresh one. Have you ever had a lemonade stand?: No. What's your favorite font?: Cambria, Georgia, Verdana, Tahoma, and Times New Roman. What size and color do you use with it?: Typically just 12 and black, but it depends on what I’m doing. Like, I often do my Bible studies on Google Docs, so in that case I’ll switch up the font color. What's better: glitter or rhinestones? Rhinestones because they’re not a big, annoying mess like glitter is. Glitter is really pretty, though. If you were given a $50 gift card to an art store, what would you buy?: Some nice markers and pens. Do you like taking pictures of yourself?: No. Are you fairly photogenic?: I’m not at all. What was your first job?: I haven’t had one. If you could have wings, what kind would they be (bird, insect, bat...)?: Omg I saw “if you could have wings” and instantly thought of chicken wings cause I’m hungry lmaoooo. Anyway, uhhh I guess I’d have bird wings. What do you order at your favorite fast food place?: Depends which fast food place I go to, which would either be Chick-Fil-A, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, or McDonald’s. What kind of sauce do you get with chicken nuggets?: Ranch and BBQ. Do you like making sandcastles at the beach?: Nah. I like just chillin’ at the beach. If you had a tricycle/big wheel when you were a kid, what did it look like?: I didn’t. Did you have streamers in the handlebars of your bike?: Would you put streamers on your bike now?: I don’t have a bike. What is your favorite McDonald's toy you've ever had?: I used to love those mini Beanie Babies and Barbies they'd give you. <<< What was your favorite toy that you broke when you were a kid?: I don’t recall. How do you like your hamburger?: With cheese, mayo, mustard, ketchup, and pickles. What's your favorite kind of juice?: I don’t like juice. What is your favorite belt you own?: I don’t own any belts. What is the most obscure thing you've found at a thrift store?: I don’t go thrift shopping. What's the weirdest thing you've seen while taking a walk?: Uhhh. How often do you go for a walk?: I don’t go on walks. What does your discman look like?: Discman? Wow, this survey is really old. What is your favorite kind of Pop Tarts?: Frosted brown cinnamon sugar and frosted strawberry. When was the last time you colored in a coloring book?: A couple months ago. If you were able to sell your soul to someone, how much would you charge?: I wouldn’t do that for any amount. What would you buy with the money?: What instrument's sound makes you smile?: I love the piano. Do you like to be tickled?: No. Does tickling turn you on?: No.

What brand of condoms do you usually use?: I haven’t had to use any. What was the last CD you bought that you really liked?: I don’t even remember the last CD I bought. When was the last time you had a papercut?: Like a month ago, actually. Hurt like a mofo. I literally heard it slice through my finger D: Who's one person you absolutely hate and why?: No one but myself. What makes you think a person is absolutely obnoxious?: If they’re arrogant, cocky, and rude. What was your favorite Pokemon?: I liked Jigglypuff. Did you watch the Power Rangers when you were little?: Nah, I didn’t get into it. What's better: Ben and Jerry's or Dairy Queen?: To be fair, I’ve only been to DQ like once and it was when I was a kid, so I can’t say for sure but I do like Ben & Jerry’s. If you could go over to someone's house right now, who's and why?: I wouldn’t. Are you good at playing ping-pong?: Never played. Do you like to chew on things?: I only like to chew food. What's a nervous habit of yours?: Picking at my nails. Do you like to paint your nails?: I used to. It’s been a few years since I last painted them. Would you be able to fit in a kiddie pool?: Yeah. What makes you giggle with glee?: I don’t giggle with glee. When you read the comics in the paper, what do you go for first?: I haven’t done that since I was a kid, but I loved the Peanuts, Family Circus, Blondie, and Garfield comics.

#personal #text #survey #surveys

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realmendopilates · 6 years

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Learning to be an Animal

Sports Illustrated, February 12, 1962

There is a happy band of people, of which I am an aspirant member, who are distinguishable anywhere by their springy step and "saved" look from the mass of their contemporaries who shuffle and shamble in untidy corpulence around us. We know that we are saved because we faithfully attend exhausting but exhilarating sessions at the Joseph H. Pilates Universal Gymnasium on Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan.

For it is here that Joe Pilates, a white-thatched red-cheeked octogenarian, his wife Clara and Hannah (who came in for a lesson 25 years ago and stayed on) bark their stern commands as we twist and stretch and complain through the exercises forming the core of what Joe, with his Germanic taste for scientific nomenclature, calls Contrology.

Don't ask me what Contrology is. Don't ask Joe either, for orderly exposition is not one of his talents. It has something to do with rational tension and relaxation of the muscles, and it comes from a profound knowledge of bodily kinetics begun three quarters of a century ago when Joe as a child in Germany began observing his fellow children at play and animals bounding through the forest. Later, when he was making a living as a boxer and a circus tumbler he began developing a series of exercises to relax him after an exhausting day.

The full principles of Contrology were revealed to him during World War I. His circus was caught traveling in England when the war broke out in 1914, and Joe and all the others were interned in an abandoned hospital on the Isle of Man. Here, as weeks lengthened into months and years, he watched his fellow-prisoners sink into apathy and despair, with nothing to do but stare at the bare crumbling walls of their prison, nothing to break the daily monotony but the inadequate meals (for the German submarine blockade was slowly starving England) and an occasional walk around the bare courtyard with nothing to look at but an occasional starveling cat streaking after a mouse or a bird.

It was the cats which did it. For though they were nothing but skin and bones - even the most animal-loving prisoners could hardly spare them anything from their own pitiful rations when their own children were begging to be fed - they were lithe and springy and terribly efficient as they aimed for their prey. Why were the cats in such good shape, so bright-eyed, while the humans were growing every day paler, weaker, apathetic creatures ready to give up if they caught a cold or fell down and sprained an ankle? The answer came to Joe when he began carefully observing the cats and analyzing their motions for hours at a time. He saw them, when they had nothing else to do, stretching their legs out, stretching, stretching, keeping their muscles limber, alive. He began working out an orderly series of exercises to stretch the human muscles, all the human muscles. He began demonstrating these exercises to the dejected figures around him, and since they had nothing else to do, they began to do the exercises too. Awkwardly and timorously at first, but under his firm supervision they became more and more confident, more and more bouncy, like cats. They ended the war in better shape than when it started, and when the great influenza epidemic came sweeping over all the countries that had fought in the war, not one of them came down with it.

Once free, he came to America because that is the place to be when you have a new idea. He designed and built machines for carefully graduated stretching exercises, he rented a loft, he opened his Universal Gymnasium, up the street from Stillman's Gym, an institution built to other specifications. Little by little the word got around, people began coming in, people from professions which demand complete and precise control of the whole body, ballet dancers, opera singers, Laurence Olivier, Yehudi Menuhin.

When I came to join this band, he greeted me as he did everybody else. He lay down on his eighty-ear-old back and commanded, "Step on me." I hesitated. "Don't be afraid," he said. "STEP!" Gingerly I put one foot on his belly, one on his chest. "You see," he said. "It's easy."

Later I stood before him in the mandatory black trunks and he poked a scornful finger into my poor bare flesh.

"Typical," he said in ringing Teutonic tones. "Just like all of them! Americans! They want to go 600 miles an hour, and they don't know how to walk! Look at them in the street. Bent over!. Coughing! Young men with gray faces! Why can't they look at the animals? Look at a cat. Look at any animal. The only animal that doesn't hold its stomach in is the pig. Look at them all out on the sidewalk now, like pigs.

"By exercising your stomach muscles you wring out the body, you don't catch colds, you don't get cancer, you don't get hernias. Do animals get hernias? Do animals go on diets? Eat what you want, drink what you want. I drink a quart of liquor a day, plus some beers, and smoke maybe fifteen cigars.

"And what do Americans do? They play golf, they play baseball, they use half of their muscles, a quarter of their muscles. They get fat, they go jogging, they go on crazy diets, they jump up and down in crazy exercises, they have bad backs, they have beer bellies, they slouch, they complain, they have hernias.

"So, you want to learn how to do better. It's all up here, in the head. Lie down on the mat. Don't flop down, go down smoothly, like this, cross the arms, cross the legs. Now, legs in the air! Grab your ankles! Of course you can't reach them, no American can. All right, grab your calves. Make it your knees. Straight the knees! Bend forward! Now reach! No, you have to think first! Think! Up!"

It may take months to learn exactly which straining set of muscles and tendons is the object of that Up!

In the meanwhile, the neophyte is ever under someone's scornful eyes or encouraging grunts, learning the Pilates ropes - the varieties of pulls, twists, bends, crouches which he says use 25 percent more muscles than circus acrobatics and fifty or seventyfive percent more than baseball (pfui!) or golf (double-pfui!), No jumping or running, which put unnecessary strain on the heart; in fact, almost everything is done flat on your back or your stomach. No weights ("Do animals lift weights?") No bulging biceps.- Joe is more interested in muscles that will hold you up up than those that will let you knock another fellow down.

The exercises are graduated and have whimsical names: the Teaser, the Forward Rocking, the Saw, the Hanging.

Looking down from the walls of the gym are paintings, photographs sculptures of Joe, naked or loinclothed: spearfishing at 56, representing the Spirit of Air on the floor of the Nebraska state capitol at 60, skiing at 78. There are also photographs with admiring testimonials ("To the greatest,""to the one and immortal Joe"from distinguished alumni, and photostats of articles from American newspapers documenting the horrors of American posture. Through sweat-filled eyes, as you are upside down on one machine, you might see a famous publisher or producer or anchorperson bent double on another. They are all receiving the full lash of Pilatean philosophy.

"Its' the stiffness. You must open up the chest more, two inches more. Up! NO! With this muscle" poking a protuberance about his midriff which will never rise on you or me - "straight the knees! Where are you going - like an elephant?"

"Oh Joe," wails a famous ballerina. "Now you're calling me an elephant."

"I wouldn't insult the elephant. An elephant could walk into this room, and you wouldn't hear it. An elephant walks delicately. But you - clump, clump, CLUMP! Americans! Baseball players! Joggers! Weight-lifters! No wonder they come to me with arthritis! Ulcers! Animals don't have ulcers! Animals don't go on diets! Straight the knees! Out the air!"

So the minutes pass -- flipping and wriggling through the Corkscrew, the Jackknife, the Seal. It's not cheap ($5 a session, which lasts about 45 minutes) but as you go your two or three times a week, the weeks become months, and the abuse becomes scattered with a few congratulatory murmurs. Kindly Clara will admire you new sleekness, gruff Hannah will say, "Well, about time." Perhaps your head is a little higher in the street, above all the young gray faces. Aches and twinges disappear. A day comes when you are able to swing your ankles neatly into two loops hanging down from a bar way up there, stretch your body, get a firm grip on two upright poles - and climb up. You reach the top with grunts of pleasure and suddenly whoop in terror, "How do I get down?" "The same way you got up." Down you come, hand under hand, with gasps and moans and a final yell of triumph. In the hush that follows, Joe bellows out his final accolade:

"Now you are an animal"

Sports Illustrated, February 12, 1962

#realmendopilates personalvictory sportsillustrated fitness pilates

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funnyhorsenames · 7 years

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Special Spotlight: Rick's Natural Star

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March 31, 1989 - Still Alive? Raced from 1992 - 1997 Thoroughbred Gelding - United States

Part of his name came from both of his parents, and Rick was probably a former owner or someone the owners knew.

If anyone paid attention to the racing world back in the late 90's, you probably have heard the three ring circus of a story that was Rick's Natural Star. Yes, he may not have a very funny name, but his story is equally bizarre.

If you all think the owners involved with Runhappy were bonkers, you haven't seen bonkers until you knew William Livingston. In all the articles I read the veterinarian/owner been described as "Eccentric", "Different" and had "Parted Ways with Reality". It was well documented that he trained poor Rick by exercising him with through the window beside a truck and using the speedometer to gauge time. As you can see in the above video, his admission of it leaves even Tom Durkin speechless and probably horrified.

His first three races were all run in the same month. On June 5 1992 he made his debut in a MSW at San Juan racetrack, finishing 7th. On the 12th of June, he finished 2nd in another MSW. On the 26th of June, he was bizarrely entered into the San Juan Thoroughbred Derby, and end up finishing 9th, beating only one other horse and was listed as No Factor in the race.

Rick did not race for the remainder of 1992, and didn't return to the track until May of 1993. Again, he began running in quick succession in a combination of Maiden Special Weight, Claiming and Allowance races. He ran on May 22, June 3, 12 and 25, July 16 and 31, August 8, September 5, 18 and 25, October 16 and 27, November 7 and 19, and December 3, 12, and 18. During that time he only managed two wins, one in a Maiden Special Weight and another in a claiming race.

He did not race at all in 1994, and raced three times in 1995, all three in the month of August. His best effort from those three races was a 6th place effort.

And this is where it begins to get weird.

Over a year later, stewards at Woodbine were preparing the entries for the 1996 Breeders Cup races when a name showed up on an entry list. Rick's Natural Star, entered in the Breeder's Cup Turf. They checked the horse's racing history, there was no way this horse could be entered. Livingston literally told the stewards "It's a free country. I can enter him if I want." The stewards looked over their rules. At the time, as long as the horse was nominated to the Breeder's Cup as a foal, had one workout prior to racing, paid a $40,000 entry free and had an available spot in the starting gate, they could run. Rick's Natural Star had been nominated as a foal, and Livingston eagerly paid the $40,000 entry fee. All the horse needed was a workout before race day.

It was known that Rick also had a breathing condition caused by a bacterial infection. Livingston claimed to have created a miracle vaccine that he had used to treat Rick and had "completely cured" his horse and made him sound again. He had wanted to use the Breeders Cup Turf to showcase the extraordinary healing powers of his miracle vaccine.

Rick was loaded into van and shipped across country, and during the trip it was known that the poor horse was tied to the bumper of his owner's car while they slept in a motel. The van stopped at Remington Park in Oklahoma, and Rick put in his required workout there, where he ran six furlongs in a very slow 1:21.46. They arrived at Woodbine five days before the race, and was told there was enough room in the gate. Rick's Natural Star, who had never run on grass, never run further then a mile, and hadn't won a single major race, and hadn't run in a race in over a year, was officially running in the 1996 Breeder's Cup Turf. He would be racing against Chief Bearheart, Diplomatic Jet, Pilsudski, Swain and Singspiel.

Lisa McFarland was assigned as his jockey and exercise rider, and in interviews she said he rolled up in his van without a feed tub, no water bucket, and not even a bridle or saddle. Livingston had to loan a saddle from the jockey herself. She had said when she tried to exercise him he would run 50 yards before coming almost to a complete stop. In early betting Rick was listed at 99-1, but on race day he was at 56-1, but still the longest shot in the field. McFarland said his odds should have been 5000-1.

On October 26, 1996, Rick was loaded into the starting gate for the first time in over a year, against multiple G1 winning competition. The gates opened, and he broke cleanly, and rushing up to the lead to run in second behind the pacesetter, Diplomatic Jet. The two horses ran together until just after turning onto the backstretch. It was there that Rick's endurance had run out, and he began to drop back, being passed by the entire field of horses within seconds. Pilsudski would exit the race a Breeder's Cup winner. Despite being listed as DNF, Outdistanced, Rick's Natural Star did end up finishing the race and crossing the finish line - almost a minute behind the other horses at a light jog. Some people say the cheers that he came back safely that day were louder then those for Cigar and Alphabet Soup in the Classic later that day.

However, the bacterial infection that had been claimed to have been miraculously cured had reared it's ugly head during the race, and Rick sustained heavy bleeding in his lungs. Two days after the race, Livingston put in an inquiry to Woodbine stewards, claiming the stewards had conspired with jockey McFarland to keep Rick away from other horses and making it impossible for his horse to have won the race. The stewards were appalled at his behavior, and not only dismissed the case, but banned him from running any horse in Ontario until he passed a Trainers test.

Livingston tossed Star back into a van and traveled across the country again, racing him a mere 20 days after the Breeders Cup - Against Quarter Horses in a race at Los Alamitos Race Course. He finished 6th in a 7 horse field.

On January 12, 1997, he was entered into a $7,500 claiming race at Turf Paradise. It was here that Rick's Natural Star's circus days were over. A trainer named Larry Weber had been watching Rick, and had wanted to get him out of Livingston's hands as soon as he could. When he saw him in a claiming race, he had a local friend put in a claim for him. When Rick crossed the finish line 8th out of 10, it would be the last time he set foot on a track. Weber quickly declared Rick as officially retired.

Rick's Natural Star was sent to Sunnyside Farm in Paris Kentucky to live out the rest of his days with care, love and dignity. Because of his strange tale, he still has many fans who come to dote on him, take photos with him, and of course apologize to him for the failings of his former owner. As far as I am aware, Rick is still alive, and would be about 28 years old. He was photographed by Barbara Livingston in October 2015, and I have not heard of any news of him since, so I assume he is still enjoying his quiet life of retirement.

Click Here to See the 2015 Photos of Rick’s Natural Star by Barbara Livingston.

Sire: Natural Native Dam: Malaysian Star (by Crimson Star)

Breeder: Dub Rice Owners: William H. Livingston / Larry Weber Trainers: Casey Jones (Like, from TMNT..?)

25 Races 2 wins 5 Places 2 Shows

Earnings: $6,092

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#horse #horse racing #thoroughbred #special spotlight #rick's natural star #crazy people

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