I’m a daily reader of the USA Today. I think it’s a nice summary of the news that I can finish in about 15-20 minutes. In today’s Life Section (the Purple one in the back that no one probably reads), there is an article called Guys: Are you as fit as Obama?

Now today’s paper covers a lot of information about Obama and rightfully so. It’s a very exciting time and Obama is getting quite a bit of hype to save everything. I absolutely hope he does a fantastic job and delivers….but the expectations are set so high. He’s kind of a like a great college QB drafted with the 1st pick into the NFL onto a team that is struggling. All the fans want him to turn the team around the first season…..and we all want Obama to turn the USA around his first week in office.

Anyways, back to this article…..geared to fortysomething guys (of which I’m almost about to join). In the article, they have a shirtless picture of Obama after a game a basketball. I’m amazed that the press is following Obama like this….thank goodness we didn’t have the same coverage of past presidents. Maybe this will start an epidemic of men being body conscious by the media. I’m pulling some stats from the article. These are for the average 40’s male.
How much do you make?
Median income: $43,473
Do you have a college degree?
Fewer than 30% do.
What are you favorite sports?
Pro football is #1. Baseball is #2. Kind of surprised that baseball is holding on.
What is your weight?
189.8 is the average. The last time I was that low….was in my early 20’s. Of course the article lists that most men are overweight (there’s a shocker).
What is your height?
5′9” is the average. Wow…I’m taller than average. It certainly doesn’t seem that way on the basketball court when I play. I think Obama is somewhere around 6′2”.
Are you married?
67.1% are married. 15.7% are divorced. 2.6% separated. 1.1% widowed. 13.5% never married.
How many kids do you have under 18?
Average is 1.8. I’m crushing that number.

The article goes on to cover your chances of cancer…. 1 in 49 (higher than I thought). Also, it digs into all of our health issues (as we start to decline)….from the gut to heart attacks (3%-5% for a non-smoker) to hair (1 in 3 over 45 yrs old shows baldness) to wrinkles. Basically it’s a bit depressing. The only major positive I found is in the Brain where “a man in his late 40’s trumps his twentysomething colleagues in complex reasoning and decision-making tasks”. That’s certainly a good thing for Obama (and the rest of us) to have going for us.

Go Barak Obama!! I can’t wait to see this article in about 4 or 8 years and the onset of the 50’s.

Ok, I’ll admit I’m not a young hip teenager sporting the latest electronic gadget. However, I think my use of technology is somewhat above average as I do have the iPod classic and my wife created me a Facebook account. Hey….I even can blog without the Blogging for Dummies book. Our family has the unlimited text messaging plan for $30 per month. My wife insists it is critical for communicating with a 16 and 13 yr old. My definition of communication is that some information is passed from one person to another.

This is an example of a text message conversation. I’ll translate in the ( )
Me to the 16 yr old: Watcha doing (me using slang)
16 yr old to me: nm u (not much. What are you doing?)
Me to the 16 yr old: watchin tv
…………………….. (time passes with me expecting some sort of response)
Me to the 16 yr old: ne big plans this weekend (ne = any…)
16 yr old to me: n u (no. Do you have any?)

That useless conversation took 5 minutes of my life. If I were talking on the phone, it would have taken 10 seconds. At this point, my opinion of text messaging is that it is on the verge of electronic grunting. Just worthless noises between two organisms!!!! Of course, another possibility is that my stepson doesn’t want to talk with me…..and I’m open to that possibility.

So, is there an actual use for text messaging besides the former mayor of Detroit sending steamy text messages to his administrative staff? I have found that when I’m on a conference call at work and my wife calls my cell phone, I can quickly send a message back saying “On a call”. I also can send a text message to my cell phone company (AT&T) and they will tell me how many anytime minutes I have left in a month. Those two applications seem minimally useful. I found one other useful application and that is the NFL using text messaging for people to quietly report unruly fans to security. They call it the “rat line”.

I found an article where some teachers are starting to see teenager’s writing regress due to text messaging slang called Does text messaging hurt us in the long run? Instead of writing “you”, kids will put “u” and use other shorthand. I’ve also heard that text messaging is even more prevalent in other countries and has eclipsed talking as the primary form of communication.

My prediction is that scary times are ahead…..at least for us old folk.

C ya l8ter 2nite k