Saturday, October 18, 2008

Weight Watchers Day 1

Well, I attended my first weight watchers meeting today. I signed up for the monthly pass, and got weighed in at 347.2 lbs (I left my shoes on for convenience). My first goal is 10% which is 34 pounds or a weight of 313.2 . Honestly, I have no clue how long it'll take me to get down there. I don't even remember the last time I was that low. According to the book I got for my first meeting, my healthy weight is somewhere between 205 and 211 pounds. That's a whopping 140 lbs I need to lose. I have very strong doubts that I can pull that off. But it's one goal at a time, and right now, it's 34 lbs.

At first there were only about 5 other people there. But more stragglers came in over time. Not a very lively group, but the group leader Marcie seems like a really nice woman. She lost 65 pounds on the plan. The topic of discussion was discovery, related to columbus day. she had items for each letter of the word discovery for visualizing goals, etc. I'm not sure how much I'll take from the meetings, but I'm going to commit myself to going to them just for the fact that it forces me to weigh in and keeps me honest. After the meeting I stayed for the new member session, there were 5 other people there, but 3 of them had been members before, so there was only myself and an older gentleman who were really "new". We calculated our point allowances, my came out to be 47, but 44 is the maximum on the plan, so 44's my number. the main thing I learned is it's not so much trying to stay as far under your number as you can, but using your number as completely as you can. I need to eat 44 points worth of food. So as a result I've got my work cut out for me trying to find food to eat. I looked at a couple of cookbooks they had for sale, but they didn't really catch my eye. I did, however, buy a fancy digital scale that you can use to weigh items directly into points values, so I'm hoping that that will help me get a handle on those food items that don't match the online points tracker. I'm going to have to really start digging up some new foods to eat, which I knew was going to be the hardest part for me. The geek side of me likes the fact that I've got the digital scale, plus the mobile version of the ww site so I can track points and look things up on the go.

If anybody has any good recipes or cooking sites/recommendations, please send them on to me either in the comments or to my email. Any help I can get with food will be much appreciated.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Childrens' Hospital - Coming soon to TheWB.com!

I gotta make sure she's got the right type of arm guts in there!

Admission

I'm obese. It's a big, literal and figurative, problem. And it's something that I can't control on my own. I've tried, and failed. I am hereby admitting that I need help with it. I'm going to go to a Weight Watchers meeting this weekend. If it goes well, I'll commit to a month's worth of it. I will be as open to it as I can (control freak be damned). I'm blogging this to admit to it, and hopefully as a motivation to stay up with it. I'm going to do my best to blog about my progress.

Currently, as of this morning, I'm 6'4 and weigh 342 lbs. Last time I was at the doctor's office (last week), I was 345, and he said I needed to lose 100 lbs to start.

I'm medicated for high blood pressure, esophageal reflux disorder (acid reflux), heart rhythm, and sleep apnea (pills and cpap machine). Most, if not all, of these things should get better if I'm capable of losing that much weight.

I know I'm not very physically attractive at this weight. I know that there are women who have been discouraged/bothered by weight when I've met them. Losing the weight should help with my confidence and my physical attractiveness.

My father died from heart related problems. I don't want to die the same way.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

wow....this is disappointing

So...this guy had the supreme court deciding whether he was too morbidly obese to be executed. according to the article he's 5'7 and 267 pounds. So I looked up the bmi calculator and found that he's 41.8 I put in my stats, 6'5, 340 lbs, and my bmi is 40.3. I'm moridly obese enough that the supreme court would've debated whether or not I'm too fat to be executed.
clipped from www.cnn.com

Inmate executed after Supreme Court rejects obese argument

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Ohio death row inmate was executed Tuesday after the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute plea that he was too overweight to be executed.

His lawyers have argued that the inmate-- at 5-foot-7 and 267 pounds -- is "morbidly obese," and has gained about 70 pounds since his incarceration at age 19. Prison food and confinement in his cell for 23 hours a day, limiting his opportunities for exercise, contributed to his weight problem, his legal team asserted in recent court filings.

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Friday, October 03, 2008

The 2008 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

ingloriously stolen from io9.com:

Last night, the Annals of Improbable Research held its 18th annual Ig Nobel Prizes. The prizes are awarded for scientific and social achievements "that first make people laugh, then make people think." And this year’s winners include studies on puzzle-solving slime molds, the spermicidal capabilities of Coca-Cola, and the economics of ovulating strippers.

The prizes were awarded in a ceremony at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater in ten areas:

* Nutrition: Massimiliano Zampini and Clark Spence for demonstrating that, when the sound of eating a potato chip is modified, the eater believes the chip is fresher and crisper than it really is.
* Peace: The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.
* Archeology: Astolfo G. Mello Araujo and Jose Carlos Marcelino for demonstrating how the actions of an armadillo may scramble the contents of an archeological dig site.
* Biology: Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert, and Michel Franc for discovering that fleas on a dog jump higher than fleas on a cat.
* Medicine: Dan Ariely for demonstrating the high-cost placebos are more effective than low-cost placebos.
* Cognitive Science: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Hiroyasu Yamada, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero, Akio Ishiguro, and Agota Toth for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles.
* Economics: Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur, and Brent Jordan for discovering that a lap dancer’s ovulatory cycle affects the tips she earns.
* Physics: Dorian Raymer and Douglas Smith for mathematically proving that a heap of hair or string will inevitably tangle itself into knots.
* Chemistry: Sharee A. Umpierre, Joseph A. Hill, and Deborah J. Anderson for demonstrating that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and Chuang-Ye Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang for discovering that Coca-Cola is not an effective spermicide.
* Literature: David Sims for his study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations.”

The 2008 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Debates - get rid of 'em

These debates are interesting, but it's mostly for show. I say we do away with the debates and worrying about how the candidates are saying things and switch to a Big Brother/Real World style situation. Take the last 4 months before the election, and put all 4 of them in the same house and force them to live together, give them topics/questions, but not shine a light on them and let them know when people are watching for their answers.

UPDATE: Make them prove their claims. if they dispute something the other one says "You voted for" "Obama didn't vote for" PROVE IT! cite your sources!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Book-spines turned into stories

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Wait, what?!

Watch these...




Watch CBS Videos Online


and seriously try to convince me that she's qualified to be the second in line to be president of the united states of america. Seriously. She continues to boggle my mind every time I hear her open her mouth.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

I hope people protest this post

I had a really long post written up, but stupid clipmarks barfed on it. Anyways, read the story, and if it makes you go "What the fuck?! Why would they do that?!" then you and I are on the same page
clipped from www.newsnet5.com

Workers Protest To Get Their Ponderosa Paychecks

The Ponderosa restaurant shut down last week, after nearly a dozen other locations closed earlier this month. Dozens of North Olmsted employees were left without jobs and paychecks.
Boukzam said he tried to sell some of the restaurants, but the deals fell through last week and he had to close several locations, including North Olmsted and Elyria.

The workers held a protest demanding answers and their last paychecks from Boukzam.

"I have five children and my husband doesn't have a job. We live on that paycheck, and now nothing," said former employee Chand Heer.

"It makes me upset because I have a 5-month-old son and now I don't have a job," said former employee Arrianne Songer.

"I had to ask people for money so I could pay my cell phone today," said former employee Peter Weber.
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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

I may have to buy this book

I'm an admitted addict to the LOLcats. If I ever decide to get a kitten, I will more than likely name it Kitteh, and talk to it every day in lolcat language. I would probably also end up trying to take LOLcat pictures of Kitteh and add my own captions. I'm not sure if I should be scared that the LOLcat phenomenon has gotten itself so firmly rooted in my brain that I still to this day laugh at almost every LOLcat picture I see or if I shud jus haf lotz of lulz n be happiez for the kitteh's! yay kitteh's!!!
cat

The burger team is excited to announce our NAWT SECOND (#1) Book, “I Can Has Cheezburger? A Lolcat Colleckshun”. On stands October 7th, and available for pre-sale nao at these fine establishments!


» Amazon

» Barnes & Noble

» Borders

» Penguin

Your local indie book store (find one nearby!)

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Monday, September 22, 2008

A trip through blog history..

I've been going through jennifer's blog lately, going back to her earliest posts. It's really interesting to look back on the things that at the time were significant, but now might not hold as much importance. and more interesting than that, finding the seemingly insignificant moments that ended up completely re-inventing the person she was and created the person that she is today. So I figured, why not go through my own blog and find some interesting moments that have happened. Join me :) *waves his hand in the air*


The Professional - June 2005 - This post is significant to me because of what I wrote in the body. That basically summarizes the relationship I had with Zak. I was also trying to make/keep him happy. I learned alot from my experiences with him, mostly about what kinds of people I do and don't want in my life.

TGIT - June 2005 - The apocalypse was basically somebody at work quitting. At this time, I couldn't handle changes like this. I would be wracked with anxiety. "How would we cope without so-and-so?? There's no way we'll be able to do what they did??" I had no clue what an apocalypse really was :)

life - August 2005 - This would be one of the first real tragedies since I started blogging. I still can to this day visualize myself the night of the fire. Standing in the cul-de-sac of their neighborhood, rain pouring down, firetrucks surrounding me, standing in inches of water, both from the rain and the firehoses, thunder crashing and lightning flashing, watching my sister's home and the majority of their belongings go up in smoke.

My Passion - August 2005 - 3 years later and I still don't have a passion. Not a good trend :)

Update in Four Parts - September 2005 - The significance of this post is the fact that my mom was in the psychiatric ward. This was one of those defining moments when you realize you're not a kid, and your parents aren't going to always be there to protect you from the world. My parents were my core, my rock, my foundation for so long, and this was one of the bigger cracks to that foundation.

Sick Day Post - October 2005 - heh. This is one of those times I really wish I had a time machine and could go back in time and change the past. But then I think that I wouldn't be the person I am today, had I not gone through the experiences with Kendra that I did. It's unfortunate that this was the beginning of the last 3-4 months of my father's life and I spent it getting myself wrapped up in a woman that didn't deserve my attention. C'est la vie. One of the biggest things I learned from Kendra was the fact that my biggest strength is also my biggest weakness. My willingness to make people happy can take on a life of its own if I'm not careful, and can lead me down the path where I put other people's happiness, health, and safety above my own.


Sunday Post - November 2005 - (editor's note: I was going to go through the whole blog in one post, but I've hit so many highlights in one year, that I'll break it up by year) The significance is this one is the work stuff. This was a period of time when I really had a problem with people saying I was wrong, or saying/doing things I thought were "stupid" I still have this problem, but I think I'm doing a little better in recognizing when it's rearing it's ugly head. But working at MIS has definitely given me the experience of working with difficult personalities. A big lesson I've learned that I need to focus more on is the fact that life will rarely go the way it should. Life is going to go the way it is, and we're going to just have to make the best out of it. We can't change people, unless they themselves want to change. And just because we think something's right in our head, doesn't necessarily MAKE us right.

I'm a mess - November 2005 - Man, you'd think I was hopped up on something the way I was acting back then. Love (or a convincing facsimile) can really fuck a guy up ;-)

Been a while - December 2005 - Things get hard with Kendra around here. Had I known what was in store for me the following month, I would've ended things much sooner.


Well, those are the highlights of 2005. Stay tuned for 2006, filled with the biggest tragedy I've suffered so far, plus hopefully a couple positive things mixed in for flavor :)

Thursday, September 18, 2008

OMG

Why....why why why why why why why?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!
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painting parties, knickers, and monocles

where did this whole painting party concept come from? when did a difficult and time consuming chore become something that people want to force their friends to do with/for them? what's next? grass mowing party? deck building party? laundry party? Ho ho! those can be wild ones, especially if everyone's knickers end up intertwined with one another. Ho ho!! *puts his monocle back in his eye, since it fell out from his boisterous "Ho ho!" laughing*

Monday, September 15, 2008

sick day findings

I'm home sick today, so I'm randomly surfing the internet from bed in between naps and runs to the bathroom.

I found this bbc series called Look Around You. It's a send-off of 70s educational films.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Random Thought of the Day

I'm the most at peace sitting in a house where I can hear other people doing something. I don't need to see them, or know what they're doing. I just need to be able to hear them. Knowing I'm not alone and that someone else is there with me, brings me peace and lets me relax....

which explains why I haven't really been all that peaceful or relaxed since I moved out on my own :-P

Cat vs. Printer - Who ya got?

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Fast Food Diatribe

me: how can wendy's advertise the baconator?
me: I just don't understand

g-door: LOLOL
g-door: why don't you understand it? LOL
me: how can that be legal??
me: it's so wrong
me: in any number of ways
g-door: LMAO
g-door: have you had one?
me: yet they can advertise it all they want
me: no, thakn god
me: I'd probably have a heart attack
g-door: it's not very good LOL
me: it doesn't look good with the fancy fake meat they use for the cmomercial
me: I can imagine the real "meat" can't look that good
g-door: yeah, it looks really nice in the picture....when you get it....it's all smashed LOL
me: so, cigarette ads have to be regulated, alcohol as well. but digusting horrible for you fast food can be shown any time of day LOL
me: you know, it's like when the whole biggie-size, supersize trend came about
me: and then people got pissed off
me: and then they just changed the names
me: and everybody forgot
g-door: ahuh LOL
me: oh, ok, it's a large size
me: that's fine
me: didn't they have an extra-biggie for a while there too?
me: I think they did
g-door: yeah, I think so
g-door: mmmmmmmmmmm extra biggie lol
me: ROFL
me: I remembner the drink was gigundous and I couldn't believe how many fries they gave you
g-door: LOL
g-door: it was a lot lol
me: it's like those damn mcdonald's commercials during the olympics!
g-door: LOLOLOL
me: I want to be like a random generic supposed olympic athlete! I'll eat a piece of fried chicken on a greasy biscuit for breakfast! like they do!!!
g-door: LO
g-door: ok door!!!!!
g-door: what sport do you want to do?
me: at this point I'd be perfect for anything that involves struggling to get out of a chair and ending up winded after taking a shower. oh and anything that involves the destruction of furniture/seating due to excess weight