Meandering Thoughts of a Weak Mind

Update

2012-01-21T15:03:00.001-06:00

Two weeks and still no decision. My homestudy is still apparently awaiting approval by the regional administrator. This wouldn't bother me so much, except that I keep seeing and hearing all these commercials about how much need there is for foster parents and begging people to become foster parents. Maybe if the process didn't take six months or more......

Quick, Rant-Free Update

2012-01-08T22:19:00.002-06:00

Well, I cleared another hurdle. The board, whoever they are, approved my home study. Now it is being passed to the Regional Director for approval. If he approves, my home may be opened for foster children this week. Will post when I can. I also have some weird work news and a couple of rants I want to do. Hopefully I can make the time in the next couple of days.

Detour PATH to Fatherhood

2011-12-22T13:36:00.002-06:00

I recently, well 6 months or so ago, discovered a co-worker was a new foster parent. This was something I had considered several times in my life, but always post-phoned until later for some reason or other. The last time I thought of it was about a month previous to this and I was in the process of divorcing, so I assumed a single man would not be eligible. My co-worker was a single mom, so this put me to thinking and I did an internet search. According to the info I found, marital status, sex, income, religion, all played no role. The only requirements were to pass a criminal background check, undergo training, agree to continued training, have enough of an income to not need the board fee to survive, have an appropriate home and time to care for the children. There later turned out to be some other stuff, and they didn’t mention an endless ability to do paperwork and unending patients (not with the children, with the whole application process).

I think pounced on my co-worker and quizzed her. She more or less confirmed what I found, although she did warn me that DSC would be “all up in my grill about my personal bizness and who I was sleeping with”. She sometimes tries to talk “street”. Considering she is a native Tennessean from the Cumberland Plateau, it sounds odd hearing “street” with native hillbilly “twang”. I found nothing to worry me about this, I’ve been cleared for state and federal jobs and have a carry permit, background checks are almost second nature to me. As far as the rest, sex is something I vaguely remember, but haven’t experienced in about 3 years. So I called a 1-800 number and left contact information. The next day, I was called back and more information was taken. Then I was called again the next day and told about PATH Classes. They sent me information in the mail about the classes. The next ones started in August. I signed up and was confirmed. This was quick, everyone said there was a massive need for foster parents. Then it slowed down. There was some confusion, since they had just started a new method of teaching the Parents As Tender Healers (Tennessee likes its cute acronyms) classes. Formerly, they were 10 weeks long. In an effort to encourage more foster parents, they went to a 5 week course, with the remaining half of the hours to be sort of an independent study done within the next year. This in itself was confusing because the course was 6 weeks and there were 2 nights of classes the last week. It later came out that the final 2 classes on first aid and medicine administration weren’t considered PATH classes. Anyway, I spent one day a week from the end of August through September driving 60+ miles one way and attending 5 hour classes, except for the last 2 which were 5 hours long and in the same week.

The classes themselves were not bad, but the system was new and people could join in the classes at any time, rather than start with the first class, they would just have to make up any they had missed. As a result, there was never the same number of people in class. The first class there were about 10 of us. The second over 20, on at least 2 nights we had over 40. Initially we met in a conference room at a motel. The air conditioning was broken, after the third meeting at 90 – 100 degree’s Fahrenheit, one of the attendees was pastor of a local church and offered their conference room and meeting hall. It was air conditioned and free of charge. It also added about 10 miles and 15 minutes to my drive.

There was never the correct number of handouts or certificates. People never seemed to pay attention, often missing something, then having to ask, or getting off topic. It reminded me a lot of staff meetings and training at work. The first day of class we were given a 50 pound packet of forms, most of which had to be filled out. There were all kinds of things, many of which were not clearly explained. It was suggested we go ahead and start this as otherwise it might become overwhelming. Fortunately, I am a state employee and as such have become accustomed to redundant paperwork. We were given assignments each evening (aka homework) These were turned in the following class. Toward the end, we were each interviewed by our instructor, who had to recommend us or not as potential foster parents. Incidentally, if you want to adopt in this state, you must undergo this process and must foster the child or children for 6 months before you can adopt. So we had some adoptive parents in our class. Also, if you have family placed with you, in other words, are fostering relatives, due to the parents’ death, incarceration, temporary or permanent loss of parental rights, then you have to undergo this process even if you already have the children in your care. These people tend to gripe about having to go through “this” for “something they already have”.

After this comes the home study. This is a process that is either handled differently out of different offices, or changed when they changed the way class was offered. I was told about a week after completing the classes I would be contacted and I would be interviewed 3 times, once at my home. My home would be inspected on one of these visits. My co-worker said she only had one interview, at her home and it was 4 hours long. So I waited. Two weeks passed and nothing. I emailed my instructor, nothing. Finally after a month, I was insane. I had spent the time during class getting my home ready based on a checklist in the 50 lb packet. I had cleaned and scrubbed and painted and rearranged and bought furniture. All my electrical outlets have plastic covers over them. Just vacuuming the carpets now requires carrying a pry bar from room to room. My medication, even vitamins and ibuprofen are locked in a heavy plastic toolbox. My cleaning supplies are in my bathroom sink protected by a padlock. I have my fire alarms, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors installed and graphed onto a floor plan of my house. That plan is laminated and taped to the fridge. It shows all exits, includes the location of the fire extinguishers, and all emergency numbers.

My back bedroom now has two twin beds. The children can’t just sleep on the utility room floor; each child has to have a separate bed. There has to be a designated sleeping area, separate from the other areas of the house, the sleeping area has to have a window. This last part worries me, because it makes me think that someone was keeping kids in a dark closed in room somewhere at sometime. It wouldn’t be a rule unless someone was doing that. If you wonder why I have two twin beds, it’s because they were free, I really wanted a bunk bed set. Also, I am not being kid-greedy. I originally started this because after I separated I had given up on the idea of a family. She hadn’t wanted kids, so I gave up at that point, but now I am alone and I would like to try to be a father. My life is currently my job. I have time, love, and patience and want to try. This seems like a good way to explore being a father. I have people watching over me, so hopefully I can’t screw up too much. True, I may start with a child with issues, but they need someone. If things work out and we bond, I may get hurt if I have to give him back, but adoption is not out of the question. Either way, I can experience part of fatherhood, and do some good. But the two beds are because I was told these kids rarely come as singles.

Finally in late October, my co-worker gave me contact name and number. She lives in a different county than I do, so her case manager is in a different office than I would be dealing with. I called and was given the contact information for my office. I had already talked to a couple of people, who would only tell me someone would contact me. I was worried, because the instructor for our class did not have our final completion certificates either, and was supposed to have mailed them. No one ever contacted me, I was having to do all the contacting. That wasn’t helping much. Finally, after I called the number my co-worker gave, I was contacted and assigned a case worker. My first appointment was on Halloween. It lasted an hour. I was given another packet to fill out and instructions. I was set with an appointment to have my fingerprints taken for a background check. She asked lots of questions. Next appointment was a month away. I gave her copies of pay stubs, driver’s license, car insurance, health insurance, carry permit, divorce decree, birth certificate, a health recommendation from my doctor, references, car registration, and proof of pet vaccinations. We did a walk through of the house.

The packet was a very noisy packet asking about my childhood, income and expenses, religious practices. It asked a lot about handling situations ect. The second interview lasted 3 and ½ hours. We filled out a ton of paperwork. Many of the questions involved how I dealt with stress and anger, my childhood, any issues with medication and alcohol, how I relaxed. We also discussed household rules, how would I punish a child, how would I deal with different types of behavior. At this point, my background had been checked both by local and state law enforcement, my credit and driving record were checked and everything was okay. She made a couple of recommendations for the house, I submitted my paperwork on what types of children I felt best working with. The next appointment was two weeks away. I fixed what she wanted on the house, did my floor plan and emergency contact number, gathered the remaining paperwork for her and prepared for the last interview. She took my picture and pictures of each room of the house and the exterior. We went through the checklist. By the way, every gun, even the bb guns is locked in a metal cabinet and each has either a trigger lock or a slide lock. The ammunition is stored in a separate cabinet, also locked.

Today, 12/22/11 my homestudy is being presented. I should know if I am approved sometime next week. I have jumped through hoops for the chance to help some children. I understand that they have to thoroughly check me out, so I am trying to be patient. It just isn’t easy at this point. I had hoped to maybe have a child for the holidays. That seemed like it would be so much fun.

I am both frustrated and excited. My caseworker seems to feel I will be approved, although probably restricted to no more than 2 male children, no infants, only minor behavioral problems. I asked for 1 to 2 male children between 3 and 10 years of age. Seems like a good fit to me.

Let you know when I know.

Holidays and Facebook

2011-12-22T07:49:00.001-06:00

Facebook really annoys me. I enjoy some of the things on it, like keeping track of birthdays of friends, relatives, coworkers, friendly coworkers and total strangers. It has also allowed me to reconnect with old friends, classmates, ect. And gives me a way to easily share in some of their important moments and let them share in mine. It also makes griping, bitching, moaning and being sarcastic easier than ever. It does annoy me though, first I hate the resent redesign, I really hate how it now determines what is important enough to make my news feed and slaps everything else onto a tiny ticker in the corner, unless I am lucky, I have to visit each friends homepage to see what happens since it seems to miss a lot of interesting stuff. I am not even going to venture into the stupid little games. But two of the biggest gripes I have involve my friends. Apparently as we gotten older a great many of them have found faith and I am very happy for them and wish them the best. I do however get annoyed at their method of displaying their faith. I don’t like religion. That being said, no I am not an agnostic or an atheist. I have made my proclamation of faith, confessed my sins and invited my savior into my life. I do belong to a church and I do believe in God and the word of God. I consider faith a deeply personal thing. I won’t be making hourly, daily, weekly or monthly posts proclaiming that unless I copy and post this message I am a bad Christian or I don’t love Jesus or something. First, if I remember my Sunday School lessons right, that could be considered passing judgment on someone, and I’m fairly sure the Bible says that’s God’s job. Second, that’s a very negative way to witness, and again, I thought that while the Bible stresses the importance of witnessing, it also states you should avoid any actions that might lead others astray or prevent them from accepting Jesus as savior. Do the people that post these really think spamming the social network equivalent of a chain letter is going to convert a non-believer? If you want to post that God is wonderful, more power to you. If you want to post that God has made a beautiful day, good for you. That might lift my spirits to read. If you want to make a post about how your faith helped you through a difficult time, that’s inspirational. If you post about being at a particular church or enjoying the company and fellowship of friends, those are good. They let me know you are enjoying your life and faith. They show witness in a powerful and positive way. And they let me know that your faith is real, and not a copy and paste note. Faith is a deep and personal thing that makes you stronger and wiser, religion, to me, is a tool used by people to do horrible things to other people.

Part two of my rant:

I hate the posts that proclaim saying anything other than “merry Christmas” is somehow leaving Christ out of Christmas. First “Christmas” means “Christ’s Mass” or communion, or the Lord’s Supper. Second, Jesus wasn’t born on or near December 25. The Bible doesn’t state exactly when Jesus was born, but it does say he was born 6 months after John the Baptist. Based on evidence in the Bible, John was probably born in early April at Passover, This is based on when Zachariah would have been serving in the temple and encountered the Angel who made the announcement of John’s conception. If Jesus was born 6 months later, assuming a normal term of pregnancy for Mary, he would have been born in September. The birth of Jesus was not considered an important event to celebrate by the early Church, which was more concerned with the death and resurrection. When Charlemagne decided to make Christianity the national religion of Rome, there was an issue. The new Christians tended to continue to celebrate the Pagan holidays, particularly the winter Solstice, December 25. Since taking a holiday away was likely to result in revolt, they cooped the “bad” holiday with a good one. Later, in the US of A it was determined that since the Christians stole the holiday from the non-Christians, it would be okay to steal it from them, so they added a fat guy in a red suit with flying livestock and turned it into a contest to see who could spend the most money they didn’t have while pepper-spraying the most competitors.

My Tastes are Changing

2011-12-19T13:11:00.001-06:00

I’ve noticed something. I had always heard that as you aged, your tastes in things changed. I always assumed that meant I would eventually start to like boring things and that it would pertain mainly to movies, music, books, art. My musical taste hasn’t really changed a lot, although some of what I did like, I now recognize as crap, a lot of it stills stands. My taste in genre hasn’t changed much, still mostly hard rock and heavy metal, although occasionally I will venture into classical, jazz and fusion. Literature wise it’s similar, mostly still like fantasy, mystery, and detective type stuff. Dropped most of the action stuff, unless it’s really well done, not much time for books written to formula. I have noticed a lot of change in food though.

I never had much use for cauliflower and broccoli was edible only if smothered in cheese. Now I like both regularly. Of course learning how to roast and steam them didn’t hurt. Spinach was a chore to eat, then one day I tried some creamed spinach and liked it. Now raw spinach leaves are on most of my sandwiches and a key ingredient in most of my salads. I also use it in stir fries and other dishes. Iceberg lettuce has been replaced by romaine and butter leaf 90% of the time.

I never drank coffee, then around college coffee became fashionable and I occasionally drank a cappuccino. This lead to lattes, and when Starbucks located our area, frappacinos, and next I was consuming the pre-packaged drinks out of convenience stores. Now I have coffee pots in both my home and office and I own a coffee bean grinder. I am even contemplating an espresso machine. The highly sugared and steam milked drinks and iced treats are still rare, but normal coffee with a bit of agave nectar or honey have become a near daily drink.

Beer is something I never drank. After college I did occasional drink one with a friend, although I tended to nurse a single one all night. Now I usually have a few in the fridge. It isn’t a regular drink, but occasionally I will drink one or two on the weekend. You won’t catch me downing Budweiser or Miller, but if you come by the house, there is a slim chance you might be offered a Dos Equis or Killian’s Red. A six pack tends to last me for months. As far as liquor goes, I used to enjoy an occasional mixed drink. My ex-wife introduced me to shots. I had always favored the sweet mixes so my first choices of liquors tended to be the sweeter ones or the ones with less flavor, mainly vodka, rum and amaretto. I have noticed that with vodka, brand seems to matter, as the cheaper ones are much harsher to drink. Not so much with amaretto and rum, although I did develop an appreciation for the spiced rums, with Captain Morgan’s and Myers as favorites. Whisky never pleased me. I tried Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort and neither tickled my palette. A friend and coworker recently convinced me to try Maker’s Mark. I liked it. He has also suggested a Tequila, I find the versions of Jose available here not to my liking, although the few times I’ve had Patron Silver I have been pleasantly surprised. He has now found another Kentucky whisky, Buffalo Trace he has suggested.

I am not sure if this is maturing, or just hanging with different people, or just slowing going insane, but I am finding I like things now that I didn’t then. I am also finding this in activities.

An Update on My Weight Loss Progress

2011-10-06T11:25:00.001-06:00

If my home scales can be believed, I am now down to 260 lbs. That's 15 less than in July. The thing is, I am not really trying. I have snacked occasionally, giving in to the allure of ice cream and peanut m and m's. I usually treat myself to a pizza or two, usually store bought frozen or cook and eat from a grocery rather than restaurant on weekends or to some other non-healthy food. Mostly though, I like my new way of eating, it is amazing how much more energy I have and how much better my mood usually is. I don't feel deprived either and I have taken to exploring new ways to cook foods and even new foods. I recently found that beets are a rather awesome vegetable. Last night I made latkes using beets, sweet potatoes and carrots rather than potatoes, they were wonderful I also found a black bean burger recipe I like. My current goal is to wean myself from the diet sodas. They need to become a sometimes food. I am finding that I can eat all I want, even snack, and still approach a more healthy weight. Eating less calories than you burn is the only way to lose weight, but I think that all calories are not equal and by paying attention to where your calories are coming from you get better quality calories that are not only nutritious but which also help control your desire to snack. I am not in any danger of becoming a vegan or even a vegetarian, but I am finding those are good places to go to discover both new recipes and how to cook stuff that isn't meat.

I grew up in the Southern US and traditionally vegetables were cooked one of 3 ways:

1) Boiled until they were a soggy, unrecognizable lump at which point they were smothered in salt and covered in some type of sauce or fat or both (butter, margarine, grease, gravy, cheese, ect.)
2) Fried in fat until unrecognizable then heavily salted and covered in something. (usually reserved for potatoes)
3) Covered in flour, cornmeal or breading and fried until unrecognizable then salted. (okra and squash come to mind)

Also, no meal was a meal without meat (you could substitute beans, but they were usually flavored with scraps of inedible meat), or bread of some type. I was out of college before I discovered you didn't have to have meat in a sandwich. Unfortunately it was only a few years ago I tried a meatless sandwich. My first was a felafel, my next was hummus. My first meatless burrito involved a portabello mushroom cap marinated in Caribbean jerk sauce and grilled.

Linux Land

2011-09-28T10:18:00.001-06:00

Well, I am approaching the one year mark on switching to Linux and I have learned many things. I started out running Sabayon on both my laptop and desktop. Sabayon is a Gentoo distribution that is a rolling distribution. For those of you who might stumble on this lacking a background in Linux buzzwords, here a a few very simple explanations. Linux is an operating system for personal computers based on the Unix operating system used on larger computers. It is considered powerful and stable but not generally user friendly. It is open sourced, mostly, meaning anyone can get the code and modify it for free, mostly. There are basically two major bloodlines, or flavors, of Linux, Gentoo and Debian. I believe Debian is the larger. The difference between the two is beyond my level of geekness, however I think it has to do with when operations are compiled, or perhaps when the os is compiled. Brands, or styles, or schools of Linux are referred to as distributions. Some of the more popular distributions of Linux are Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Open Suse, Mandriva. These are, I believe, all open source, they are most definitely available for use for free. I also believe they are all Debian based. Gentoo based operating systems seem less popular. The rolling distribution means that rather than publishing updates set times a year, the system was updated constantly. There was an update manager that checked regularly for updates and notified you so you could download and install them. Fedora did the same though and it wasn't billed as a rolling distribution.

There are some things on Linux that is the same regardless of distribution, however other things may work differently in different distributions. There are two main desktops, which are not directly linked to the operating system ala Windows, gnome and kde. Kde is set up sort of like Windows, main toolbar on bottom, menus on left, while gnome is more like Apple OS with the menu bar on top and menus on the left. The window appearance can be customized out the ying yang, but Sabayon and Fedora defaulted to the windows look with the min, max and close buttons on the right top and the toolbar to the top. Ubuntu defaults to the Apple look with them buttons on the upper left of the window and the toolbar appears at the top of the desktop when the window is active. The latest version of Ubuntu however uses a desktop called Unity. The toolbar is a disappearing bar on the left of the screen, the toolbar is on the top with the available controls on the right. It is hard to get used to but very pretty. I have not played with the new version of gnome much, but I think it might be a bit more like Unity.

I was told Sabayon was not a good distribution to start with. I didn't really get that because I thought things were going well with it. Sabayon is definitely a pretty distribution. I think maybe because I was used to fighting with things to make them work, I didn't realize how much extra effort I was putting into it. There were a lot of things that weren't working right when Sabayon and I parted ways. I installed quite a few updates on both my laptop and pc. I was running Sabayon with gnome2. Sabayon upgraded to 6.0 and installed the gnome3 update. My pc never recovered. I couldn't boot into the desktop and the recover mode would not boot. I could get into terminal though and was able to uninstall and reinstall the desktop, however the system did not run very well. It was extremely slow. I finally gave up and reinstalled, which crapped out. I was able to get my laptop to boot, however it did not like gnome 3 and went to the default desktop which was an ugly version of gnome 2 with no 3 d effects. I used this to download and install Sabayon 6 kde. I ran this successfully for a while. I did download some other distros and tried booting to live cd's. Sabayon was the only cd that did not loose my monitor, so I went back with it. I did download Sabayon 6 gnome also, but was afraid to boot it. I tested some distros on my lappy and went with Fedora on it, once the pc was running again. Everything was fine until I had a school assignment that required me to create a podcast. The pc would not recognize my usb mic. It saw it but no changes I made in my sound setting would stay. After pondering abit, I tried an experiment. I unhooked the hdmi cable from my monitor and re-hooked it as super vga. It now let me boot live cd's with ease. I wasn't real happy with Fedora, and I missed my gnome 2 desktop. I really had only 2 problems with Fedora. It seemed very stable, although I didn't stress test it. The first issue I had with Fedora was probably my fault. I had installed a non-repository program and I had accidentally installed it as root. I then had to uninstall and reinstall it as a standard user. After that, whenever I used it, I would get a steady stream of security alerts. It was a minor annoyance, but not major. The other issue I had was that the repository seemed much smaller than Sabayon's and many of the programs I had grown used to weren't available. I originally chose Fedora because I had a blue scheme, similar but brighter than Sabayon and had good reports on the internet. It did install quick, booted quick and seemed very stable. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, although I didn't like the default office suite, there was a second one in the repository.

I wanted gnome back on my desktop, but after several live cd's I went with Ubuntu 11.04, but because it was so damn different. It's bright and colorful and warm where Sabayon was wonderfully blue, black and cold. Unity is taking some getting adjustment, but overall I like it. Once I installed the proprietary video driver, I was able to switch back to hdmi. Otherwise everything is awesome and so far everything works with no fight. I set up my surround sound and have great sound and the mic works. I think once I get used to the desktop, I will be good. I rather like it, it's quick and seems stable. I was actually able to set it up and install everything on both computers in a single Sunday afternoon and still did my assignment on time. I feel a bit guilty about abandoning Sabayon, but oh well.

If you are used to Windows, but want to switch but don't want to much strangeness, try Mint. It is the version of Linux set up to mimic Windows as much as possible. If you are computer literate any distribution that uses a kde desktop will be easy for you to pick up. Many times you can download either the kde or gnome version. If you prefer Apple os and want your pc to work similar any gnome distro will work, although Ubuntu 10.8 will have the windows already set right for you. If you just want to try something different, Ubuntu 11.04 with unity might interest you.

Weight Loss

2011-07-20T07:40:00.003-06:00

I've made many posts about dieting, exercise, ect. I have tried many things. I have also noted on more than one occasion that dieting is not the answer, because dieting is a temporary thing and even if it works, when you stop and go back to your normal behavior, the weight comes right back, usually with friends. Well, I passed the 300lb mark. I went well past it into the 330lb range, around the end of last year. I just more of less let myself go completely for over 2 years. Mostly I was inactive, spending almost all of my time in front of a computer screen, usually while eating frozen pizzas, sandwiches or microwave food. As a result of the economy, our insurance at work has gotten crappier and crappier. This last go round, the cheapest insurance offered for my area was a BC/BS ppo. They offered 2 versions, normal and a cheaper version that required you to fulfill certain goals toward improving your health in return for lower premiums and co-pays. That's the one I went for.

I was on 2 blood pressure medications, a beta blocker and a diuretic as well as an anti-depressant and acid reflux medication. I use a cpap machine for sleep apnea. My doctor has been harping on me for some time about weight loss. Considering that I originally went in for chest pains, who can blame them.

Well as of February when I went in for the initial physical for my insurance plan, I weighed 311 pounds. I was reading an entertainment blog of all things where one of the staff writers was reviewing a documentary about whole food dieting. He relayed a personal story about having major health issues, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, obesity, ect. He was on about 20 different medications. He switched to a whole food diet and dropped about 30 pounds in 2 months. Within 6 months he was off all but 3 of the medications.

I had heard of a whole food diet, but thought it was the same as a raw food diet. It isn't. A raw food diet consists of eating only uncooked foods. A whole food diet consists of eating unprocessed foods, you can cook them however you want.

You want to avoid processed foods as much as possible. I am not fanatical about it, but most of what the diet advocates makes sense. I now buy mostly fresh vegetables and fruits. If I can't find fresh I will look for frozen. I try to avoid canned anything as much as possible. I buy whole grain cereals and breads. The above mentioned writer also cut out all his dairy and most of meats. I try to limit red meat to 2 servings a week, although I sometimes fall short of that goal. I try to eat fish 2 or more meals a week, and at least one day a week I try to eat no meat at all. I try to eat mostly chicken or turkey. I don't eat a lot of rice, but when I do it is long grain wild rice rather than the white rice. My breads are whole grain if possible. I try to not eat out more than once a week. I am smart enough to know if I start to crave something and refuse myself, eventually I give in, so if I crave a cheeseburger I try to make one at home, where I know what goes into it. If not I try to make that my meal out for the week and I don't have the fries. I do eat sweet potatoes, but not white potatoes. I love my cheese, but I have cut way down on it. I never drank a lot of milk, so that was no issue, although oddly enough I am eating high fiber, whole grain cereal. I was just topping it with yogurt and blue berries, but now I eat the yogurt and berries on the side, and use almond milk on the cereal.

I started exercise with just a daily walk, then added a light strength training regiment. I now do Zumba 5 times a week and strength train 4. I walk if I don't zumba. I am also deep cleaning the house and rearranging furniture, when that ends the Zumba with be 7 days a week. So far I am down to 275 and only take a calcium blocker for blood pressure and the acid reflux as needed instead of regularly. I almost never need it. I feel so much better. I have also learned a lot. Butter leaf and romaine lettuce are much more versatile than iceberg, kale is not my favorite raw vegetable but mixed into a salad or stir fry is palatable. Mangos are awesome if you learn how to tell when they aren't overripe. Jicama is a neat fruit that is crunchy and crisp like a water chestnut but a bit sweeter. They are a great snack or sliced into a salad. You can also slice them and use them like chips to eat salsa. Chilis are a great source of vitamins. Broad leaf spinach is good in stir fries and salads. As a general rule you want to eat lots of colorful foods, although carrots and corn tend to have a lot of sugar, so you might want to avoid using both in the same dish.

Weight Loss

2011-07-20T07:40:00.002-06:00

I've made many posts about dieting, exercise, ect. I have tried many things. I have also noted on more than one occasion that dieting is not the answer, because dieting is a temporary thing and even if it works, when you stop and go back to your normal behavior, the weight comes right back, usually with friends. Well, I pass the 300lb mark. I went well past it into the 330lb range, around the end of last year. I just more of less let myself go completely for over 2 years. Mostly I was inactive, spending almost all of my time in front of a computer screen, usually while eating frozen pizzas, sandwiches or microwave food. As a result of the economy, our insurance at work has gotten crappier and crappier. This last go round, the cheapest insurance offered for my area was a BC/BS ppo. They offered 2 versions, normal and a cheaper version that required you to fulfill certain goals toward improving your health in return for lower premiums and co-pays. That's the one I went for.

I was on 2 blood pressure medications, a beta blocker and a diuretic as well as an anti-depressant and acid reflux medication. I use a cpap machine for sleep apnea. My doctor has been harping on me for some time about weight loss. Considering that I originally went in for chest pains, who can blame them.

Well as of February when I went in for the initial physical for my insurance plan, I weighed 311 pounds. I was reading an entertainment blog or all things where one of the staff writers was reviewing a documentary about whole food dieting. He relayed a personal story about having major health issues, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, obesity, ect. He was on about 20 different medications. He switched to a whole food diet and dropped about 30 pounds in 2 months. Within 6 months he was off all but 3 of the medications.

I had heard of a whole food diet, but thought it was the same as a raw food diet. It isn't. A raw food diet consists of eating only uncooked foods. A whole food diet consists of eating unprocessed foods, you can cook them however you want.

You want to avoid processed foods as much as possible. I am not fanatical about it, but most of what the diet advocates makes sense. I now buy mostly fresh vegetables and fruits. If I can't find fresh I will look for frozen. I try to avoid canned anything as much as possible. I buy whole grain cereals and breads. The above mentioned writer also cut out all his dairy and most of meats. I try to limit red meat to 2 servings a week, although I sometimes fall short of that goal. I try to eat fish 2 or more meals a week, and at least one day a week I try to eat no meat at all. I try to eat mostly chicken or turkey. I don't eat a lot of rice, but when I do it is long grain wild rice rather than the white rice. My breads are whole grain if possible. I try to not eat out more than once a week. I am smart enough to know if I start to crave something and refuse myself, eventually I give in, so if I crave a cheeseburger I try to make one at home, where I know what goes into it. If not I try to make that my meal out for the week and I don't have the fries. I do eat sweet potatoes, but not white potatoes. I love my cheese, but I have cut way down on it. I never drank a lot of milk, so that was no issue, although oddly enough I am eating high fiber, whole grain cereal. I was just topping it with yogurt and blue berries, but now I eat the yogurt and berries on the side, and use almond milk on the cereal.

I started exercise with just a daily walk, then added a light strength training regiment. I now do Zumba 5 times a week and strength train 4. I walk if I don't zumba. I am also deep cleaning the house and rearranging furniture, when that ends the Zumba with be 7 days a week. So far I am down to 275 and only take a calcium blocker for blood pressure and the acid reflux as needed instead of regularly. I almost never need it. I feel so much better. I have also learned a lot. Butter leaf and romaine lettuce are much more versatile than iceberg, kale is not my favorite raw vegetable but mixed into a salad or stir fry is palatable. Mangos are awesome if you learn how to tell when they aren't overripe. Jicama is a neat fruit that is crunchy and crisp like a water chestnut but a bit sweeter. They are a great snack or sliced into a salad. You can also slice them and use them like chips to eat salsa. Chilis are a great source of vitamins. Broad leaf spinach is good in stir fries and salads. As a general rule you want to eat lots of colorful foods, although carrots and corn tend to have a lot of sugar, so you might want to avoid using both in the same dish.

I'm In Shock

2011-06-30T10:17:00.003-06:00

I am in shock, shock I say. Or rather, I was in shock, the anaphylactic kind. By the way, my spell checker hates the word anaphylactic, it wants to change it to prophylactic. It's an interesting story. Actually it isn't and if you hang around, your asking for it, but here goes. On a Friday, pretty much like any other Friday, I did nothing out of the ordinary. Around 9:30 PM or so, I decided to let my internet connection have a rest and I went to bed with a book. I had a headache so, I took two normal strength aspirin. I became interested in the book and read until about 11:00. Then I turned off the light and tried to drift off to dreamland. About 10 minutes later my chest and stomach were itching like crazy. The first two fingers on my right hand were feeling odd also. They were slightly numb, stiff and just basically uncomfortable. I got out of bed and turned my light on. My hand looked normal. I went to the bathroom and raised my tee shirt. I had red welts running down my torso. My mouth felt odd too, a bit dry and my tongue was not right, it felt a little thick. I had never experienced this before, but I had seen it on a couple of occasions. I went to my kitchen and prowled through my cabinet. I had no Benadryl, but I did find another antihistamine, and I took one. I could barely swallow it, my tongue felt as if it barely fit my mouth, and my right hand was visibly swollen. I dressed quickly and went next door. My parents finally answered and after I explained in slurred speach what was happening, my father drove me to the emergency room. By the time I got into the car, both hands were swollen so bad I could hardly use them, I could barely talk, I had hives running from my right wrist halfway to my elbow, and I itched like crazy from my neck to my groin. I was also beginning to worry, I could barely swallow and was wondering how long I would be able to breath. When we reached the hospital, they took one look at me, made me sign a form ( I am not sure what I wrote, and really have no idea if it can be read, I could not close my fingers around the pen), and sat me down and asked lots of questions about my activities, allergies, ect. I couldn't tell them a lot, until that night, my allergies were limited to poison ivy and tobacco smoke. They then stuck me in bed and jabbed a 37 foot long steel girder in the back of my right hand and wiggled it around until they found a vein. I didn't care, I felt nothing until they hit the vein. They then gentle sucked out a couple of liters of blood and disappeared. They returned with a library cart filled with about 900 syringes. He pulled out a couple.

Fortunately the girder was still embedded in me, so they could pretty much just pump me full of whatever without making new holes. I also had somewhere between 70 and 11,000 various sensors attached to me. The medical looking dude pumps something out of one of the syringes into me via girder express. That's Pepcid, he told me. I mumble about my stomach being fine, but he said not to worry, Pepcid is an antihistamine. Who knew? He then gave me steriods. I didn't grow mucsles, though. He then warned me that he was going to give me Benadryl, but he would have to do it slowly. He then proceeded to pump flaming sulfuric acid into me slowly. I was once given Phenergan in the hip when I had a kidney stone and I could not eat or drink due to instant barf syndrome. Up until this point that was the most unpleasant injection I ever had. It may still be, my opinion varies. The Phenergan was more intense. The flame seared through me, but then it was gone. Maybe because they gave it all at once. The Benadryl wasn't as hot, but it lingered melting its way slowly through my arm. I had to check visually to see whether or not the arm was melting. It took about 7 hours to inject the stuff into me. The wall clock lied. I know I was there. The medical dude then told me that I might get sleepy. I did not believe him, as my body was twitching and vibrating so much I had to be floating about 3 feet over the bed. I felt freaking weird. I was twitchy and nervous and jumpy x 12 million. On the other hand, my tongue felt almost normal and the hive seemed to have gone down, even if my hands would not close. I asked the dude and he said the meds he gave me were doing it. Ten minutes later my dad wandered in. He asked how I was doing, and I tried to explain that I had no fucking idea. I was sleepy, but too wired to stay still. Dad wandered over to the monitoring equipment and said my blood pressure was good.... Great. The doctor wandered in. He had been by a few times monitoring something or other. He asked a lot of questions. A cute lady came in and stole my insurance card, then brought it back and filled out paperwork for me. Then doc came back and quizzed me again. Now for the last year and a half I have been taking 2 blood pressure medications. One was a beta blocker and the other a diuretic. I also took an antidepressant. In the doctor's opinion, I had suddenly became allergic to one or more of these. He thought the beta blocker was the likely culprit. He instructed me to contact my regular doctor. He wrote me a script for steriods, and instructed me to buy pepcid and benadryll and to take two steriods daily for 5 days, 2 pepcid in the am and a benadryll every 4 hours. I was also to sleep standing up, well propped up. I slept, very nervously. My normal doctor is not in on Saturdays, but the clinic she works at is open and one of her partners was in, so I saw him. After the usual poking and prodding, it was determined that I had lost 21 pounds in the last 3 months (yay whole food diet and walking) my blood pressure was still good despite over 36 hours with no blood pressure meds, so he put me on a calcium blocker to replace the other meds. He took my steriod script, wrote me his own, so their pharmacy could fill it, wrote another for a stronger antihistamine than benadryll, but told me to by the Pepcid over the counter. I was instructed to not get hot, not be in a hot place, not to eat hot food, not to take a hot shower, you get the picture, heat is bad. I was to see my normal doctor on Friday. Here are a few facts, taking steriods and antihistamines makes one a bit twitchy. The average temperature for the week was 93 degrees Fahrenheit. I normally indulge in hot coffee only occasionally, but craved it all week. On Thursday I was out of steriods, so felt a bit better. On Friday my bp was good, so we did not add anymore meds. I traded 3 daily meds for one, which I can hopefully quit if I continue to lose weight. Now I took my bp meds around 6AM. I took one antidepressant at that time and a second pill about 8 PM. I had my little episode around 11 PM. The ER doc thought the beta blocker was the culprit, the clinic doc thought the diuretic was. My doc blames the antidepressant. Moral: You can become allergic to anything at anytime regardless of how long you have been exposed to it. I took 2 of those meds for 18 months and the third for over 3 months. I had no warning, it hit hard, fast and scared the hell out of me. I am keeping pepcid and benadryll tablets in the house now. If I have another scare I am taking two of each and running for the ER.

OOO That Smell

2011-06-09T12:43:00.003-06:00

I once heard a comedian, I can't remember which one, who claimed that all men always wanted to see every woman (regardless of her appearance or age) naked. He's wrong. I am a man, I checked this morning to make sure, and I am a probation officer. I have female clients, at least that's the gender listed in their files. Very, very, very few of them would I wish to see even partially unclothed. There is an old phrase about undressing someone mentally. Not only do I not do that with 110% of my caseload (the very few clients I get who might be considered reasonably attractive I tend to know too much about to allow myself to even consider them as anything other than clients) there are probably about 20% that when I see, I mentally add insulated coveralls, heavy arctic parka with hood, snow mask and dark sunglasses. About half of those I also add a biological warfare suit for my protection.

Case in point. Yesterday one of my female clients showed up wearing denim shorts about 3 sizes too small for her and a low cut loose-fitting tank top. This lady was not particularly attractive. She was not fat by any means, but she really had no business dressing like that in public. She especially should not have come into probation in that garb, or lack thereof. I very definitely did not want to see anything and spent the interview in fear something would pop into view and I would be scarred for life. Our health insurance has very limited psychiatric benefits. Too make matters worse, she smelled horrible. She claimed she had been moving from her former house to an apartment, which was why she was dressed that way. I guess the smell was unwashed sweating felon, however it was a stench I normally associate with dumpsters. I was trying to interview the woman without looking at her and while breathing as little as possible. I knew I had to be fast, because that is the sort of smell you don't want to have around for long. It is the sort of smell that will make itself at home, eat the leftovers out of your fridge, hog the tv remote and stay way to damn long if it gets the chance. Not to mention I was trying not to vomit on my computer. I got her out as quick as possible. I thought about doing a drug screen, but I am currently on good terms with most of my female coworkers and I would like to keep it that way for a while if possible. I was too late, the smell had settled in and was trying to burn the paint off the walls and melt my filing cabinet. By the time I left work, it had set in on me. I smelled it all the way home. Once home, I stripped and dumped my clothes in the wash. I took a long, hot shower. And I could still smell it. It wasn't in my hair, I don't have any. It was such a strong smell, I was afraid to eat anything. I finally decided an exorcism was called for. To perform the exorcism I used the following ingredients. Two slices of whole wheat bread, 1 slice white onion, romaine lettuce leaves, 1 slice tomato, two tablespoons humus with tahini sauce, 4 strips of bell pepper, three pickled Serrano chiles with a couple of the included carrot slices, and a couple of dashes of habanero picante sauce with a slice of pepperjack cheese. That way I had supper and an exorcism at the same time.

My Problems with Linux

2011-05-20T07:59:00.001-06:00

I decided, a few months ago, to do something I had been pondering for a couple of years. I decided to try Linux. I had never done it for fear of losing everything in a hard drive crash and burn. I had recently replaced the second hard drive in my PC though, and the laptop had a new operating system anyway. I created a backup image of my PC hard drive saved to the new second drive. I had long ago fell in love with the looks of Sabayon, so I downloaded not 1 but 2 of the latest distros, one of x86 KDE and one of x86 gnome. I then reread everything I could locate about dual booting, then shrank my windows partion and installed Sabayon KDE on my PC. It went smoothly, so I did the same on my laptop with gnome. The install was a piece of cake, it loaded all the drivers and everything first go. It took some adjustments, but I soon figured most stuff out and could look up the rest. Gnome took more adjusting than did KDE of course. Unfortunately, while trying to do everything I did with windows, I found one job I couldn’t find an open source app for, so I downloaded and installed some trial ware. It made my sound act funny, so I tried to uninstall it, and in the process somehow mess up my operating system. I couldn’t get back into the operating system on booting; it would not accept my password and the login screen looked wrong. In desperation I reinstalled Sabayon. I reinstalled it 3 times, because my 3-d effects would never again work right. I finally, on an impulse, installed the Gnome version and everything was golden. Until about 3 nights ago, when an update made me again lose my 3-d effects. Not only the effects, but unless I change my windows manager from compiz to metacity, I can’t resize or move my windows. I tried everything I could find on the internet and nothing has worked. I finally resorted to reinstalling, that didn’t help. I downloaded the 64bit amd install DVD and tried it, twice. It worked, until I update the system.

I downloaded live cd’s of Fedora, Ubuntu 11.04 and 10.10, Mint 10, and Opensuse. They would all boot up, but just before completely loading I would get a lost signal on my monitor and everything would go black. Rebooting back to the hard drive I tried several times to purge Nvidia Drivers, reinstall, revert to older version. None of that worked. I reinstalled conpiz, fusion icon, css numerous times. I finally tracked down that my video card wasn’t loading glx extensions when the drivers loaded. I reinstalled all my x11 components. I also consulted google, and located the folder where the extensions were supposed to be. The folder was there. The contents were there. It was an hour after my normal time to sleep, so I crashed in frustration. As I was going to sleep, I thought how odd it was that the live cd’s weren’t working, even if they didn’t have Nvidia proprietary drivers, they should still have the free drivers, and my lap top had booted to the live Opensuse and even had 3d effects. So when my cats decided 4:15 AM was the appropriate time to be fed breakfast and then refused to let me go back to sleep. I force-fed myself caffeine decided to quickly swap out my video card. I thought I had an exact duplicate, but the other card turned out to be an older agp card, rather than pci express. I put the old card back in and hooked it back up to the monitor. I restarted the computer. After another shot of caffeine, on a whim, I loaded fusion icon and switched windows managers to compiz. The title bars didn’t go poof. I did the control-alt-right arrow and the cube rotated. Apparently my problem was a video card that had become improperly seated. One of the cats likes to wander around behind the computer, so I bet she wiggled it loose. FACEPALM – almost a week to fix what I probably should have thought of at least second.

Adventures in a Winter Wonderland Part Two

2011-01-11T14:22:00.000-06:00

Sorry it’s been a bit since my last post, much has happened. I want to finish out the lovely day I started talking about though.

I had packed a (now slightly squishier) lunch, so I didn’t leave my office building that day. All of my scheduled clients called to reschedule, of course, so basically it was a “talk to the other 4 people that made it in and catch up on paperwork” day for me. When it was time to go, I did my best impersonation of a polar explorer and went to the parking lot. I put the key in the door of the car and turned the lock, almost. The key went in, but the lock did not move. I moved to the passenger door and tried it again with the exact same results. A coworker came by and asked what was up, when I explained it, she produced a cigarette lighter and we attempted to heat the key and insert it into the lock, but to no avail. The lock remained frozen in place. I returned to my office and phoned my father. He did the rather still quiet slippery drive into town and a badly bent key and a can and a half of de-icer and we were still no closer to entering the car. He drove me home and back to work the next day. The car locks were still frozen. A coworker drove me to a auto supply store around 10 am, where I purchased two small cans of lock de-icer. I squirted some de-icer in the driver’s side lock and tried the key, It turned easily. I then went to the passenger side, but just used the key, It opened also. The sun had been shining directly on the car. I put some de-icer in anyway, hoping to get rid of any remaining water in the lock.

I knew that car had a habit of the doors freezing. It is older and the gaskets don’t seal as tight, but in this case, the cylinders in the lock froze. That has happened to me before, and to make matters worse, this was an older GM product that uses the smaller keys with the teeth only on one side, making the lock entrance very small. We haven’t had much snow in the last 6 years of so. I think 2003 we had at least one larger snow. I used to keep lock deicer in my pants pocket all winter, my old mustang occasionally had a lock freeze. I also kept de-icer on hand, but was lulled into a false sense of security. I currently have a can of de-icer by my front door and a can of lock de-icer in my pocket. I keep a second can of de-icer and a second can of lock de-icer in my desk at work. It has snowed at least 3 times since my adventure. We had snow on Christmas, snow the following week and it snowed yesterday and today. There was accumulation with all of the mentioned snows. We also had a snow, where it snowed, then rained and washed it all away on the same day. I haven’t needed my arsenal of ice weapons yet though.

Adventures in a Southern Winter Wonderland Part One

2010-12-13T11:40:00.003-06:00

I live in Tennessee; we are in the Southern United States, but just barely. We still have winter’s although usually just unpleasant rather than really nasty ones. As a result, we don’t respond well to snow. We really have no idea how to deal with it and tend to go into a major panic if more than two falling flakes are seen. The early part of last week, winter sent us a diversion. It snowed for 2 days in a row, pretty steady. It would snow and the ground would turn white, then stop and the sun would shine and it would go away, only to repeat the cycle. You couldn’t get into a grocery store without a swat team to clear a path. Then it turned warm and everyone was running around without coats and happy. That lasted three days, and then it turned nasty. The bottom fell out of the temperature and it started snowing and it was serious about it. It snowed all day and night Saturday and Sunday and is still going on Monday. Locally we have between 4 to 14 inches, just depending on what part of the area you are talking about.

I got up a little early this morning. I knew I would have to deal with the snow which meant a slower drive to work, plus time to clean and thaw out the car. I ate and shaved faster than normal. Then I bundled up, two shirts, heavy pants, two pair of socks. I dug out my heaviest winter coat, insulated water resistant gloves, and a knit cap. Donning a pair of boots and this gear, I gathered a broom and then I did a stupid thing. I had a friends laptop that I reinstalled the operating system on over the weekend and my lunch. I opened the door and had to force it open against the snow. Until this point I had only the television news to go by and they were reporting this area as having from 3 to 6 inches. People kept calling in and claiming there was more out there, but I wasn’t paying attention. When I stepped onto the porch I sank into the snow. It reached the bottom of my knees. I fought my way through the snow, and basically fell off my steps. I stumbled plowed through to the driver’s side door, dropping my lunch several times. I used the broom to knock the snow off the door and immediate car top. The door was a little stubborn, but did finally open. I was I put my cargo down and started the car. Then I knocked the rest of the snow off it. I then cleaned off my porch steps and then went to the mailbox to put a couple of items in. This resulted in a couple of embarrassing falls, as I couldn’t see my driveway, yard, ect and the snow depth was anywhere from just above my ankles to halfway to my knees. I had used my leatherman to try and measure the snow depth, as it has an eight inch ruler on it, but the snow was deeper than eight inches on the car. My guess would be about 9 inches deep. When I returned from the mailbox, I swept a path across the porch to my front door and went into the house. The saving grace here is that the snow is a dry snow, so it wasn’t clinging and despite rolling in it a few times, I wasn’t soaked through. I retrieved my cell phone and turned off lights and stuff, locked up and drove, very slowly, on a road I could rarely see to work. I don’t think I slid but once on a curve where I had to leave the single track of ruts because of oncoming traffic. So far, none of my appointments have shown up, all but 4 have already called and cancelled. I had thought to leave early so I wouldn’t have to drive home in the dark, but unfortunately the one person who has called and not rescheduled is my very last appointment. He plans to be here.

Where's The Beef

2010-11-07T06:20:00.002-06:00

There have been several times when I have wondered why suddenly everybody and their brother is advertising angus beef. Every fast food restaurant suddenly has an angus except maybe Dairy Queen. Walmart sells angus burger patties and ground beef. Why? I grew up in a rural area and to the best of my knowledge Angus is a breed of cattle. Is the meat of one breed of cow better than all others. It seems to be more expensive. I finally though about this while in front of the computer rather than driving somewhere in my car and I looked it up.

Angus is a breed of cattle, actual two breeds, Black Angus and Red Angus. I believe there may even be subsets in the breeds. They are the most Popular breed in the US. They were brought to the US in the 1800's. For a long time most of the beef in the US came from Angus and Hereford cattle. So why did that change and why suddenly is Angus become such a marketing buzz word?

Well there are two things that make Angus beef different. First both Angus and Hereford have more of a protein called myostatin. Myostatin inhibits the growth of muscle. In other words, Angus and Hereford have more fat in their meat than other breeds of cattle. Second, Angus beef has very fine marbling (the fat is mixed into the lean meat very well).

If you are above a certain age then you may remember how it was decided that eating fat made you fat, so all kinds of stuff became low-fat or fat-free. Well angus beef went out-of-style. It now seems to be back in fashion as a premium food. Part of this might be due to the fact that most women work outside the home now, so slower cooking methods that tenderize the leaner, tougher beef that became standard are no longer practical. Part of it is due to the work of the American Angus Association. They created CAB (Certified Angus Beef), Certified Angus Beef requires that the beef produced if from either a certified Angus or from an animal that had a certified Angus for one parent. It also has to meet standard for marbling and 9 other strict standards. Less than 10% of beef produced meet this standard. So buying Angus beef means you get better meat right? Wrong. Buying CAB marked meat means you are getting a premium cut of meat. But the majority of Angus beef being sold isn't CAB, but we've now bought into Angus being better, so most people assume it is all the same. CAB meet sells for considerably more than other types of beef. You can rest assured that the Angus burger McDonalds sells isn't made from CAB beef. Another thing to consider is that the fast food chains have a major impact on the beef market. They now know people will pay more for a "premium" burger. So if the demand expands, unless the government gets involved and sets standards, suppliers may stretch their definition of what Angus beef is.

Now is Angus beef any better? Some people think it tastes better and is more tender. Well taste is determined by preparation method and fat. Since angus beef has a higher fat content, it may taste better than a leaner cut prepared the same way. Fat can also have a lot to do with tenderness. On the other hand, another cut of the same grade meat would probably taste the same to most people.

Incidentally, the Wagyu cattle breed has similar marbling and possibly even more fat than the Angus. One variety of the Wagyu is where "Kobe beef" comes from.

Recent Events

2010-11-05T14:05:00.002-06:00

Things seem to have snowballed for me recently. It's hard to describe but it seems like I need more hours in the day just to cope with the minimum things I need to do, much less things I want to do. I realize that some of it is inefficient time management on my part, but I also seem to lack motivation and energy. I finally worked around to making a doctor's appointment for myself a week before my blood pressure medicine ran out. I hadn't been taking it like I am supposed to, for instance sometimes forgetting either 1 or 2 days on the weekends or skipping the pee pill part of it on days I have court of morning training at work. That pill runs me pretty regular to the restroom from 8 to 11 or so, and all the people from the outlying offices come in for the training as it is mandatory, so there is only 1 bathroom for all the men and only 2 for the women. Even if I can hold it until the breaks, I may end up driving to the nearest gas station for relief. I was prepared for bad news only to find that my blood pressure is down a bunch. After discussion with the doc, she confirms my opinion that I am suffering from depression. She put me on an antidepressant that is also supposed to provide some energy and motivation. She warned me about possible side effects including suicidal thoughts, insomnia, paranoia, ect. I am paranoid most days anyway so probably won't notice that and as I told the doctor, I am more worried about homicidal thoughts than suicidal ones. I have only been on it for 2 days but so far I am sleeping like a baby.

In more interesting news, we had an election. On the local front of said election, there were 2 interesting referendums, neither of which I could vote on. I live very close to the line between the county I live in and the county I work in. I actually spend more of my waking time in the work county as it is where I do most of my shopping, movie viewing, eating out, ect. The county I live in is the economic equivalent of a tumbleweed that hasn't blown away yet, and has little to offer. In the county I live in, the county seat (where I don't live) had a referendum on liquor by the drink. In simple terms, the county has been dry for my entire life, stores with the proper licensing can sell beer and malt liquor drinks and a few restaurants can sell beer with a meal. The liquor by the drink would allow establishments to serve stronger alcoholic beverages for on-premise consumption. It would still require licensing by both state and city governments and would obviously be regulated. The proponents of the referendum argue it would bring in additional sales tax, possibly some new restaurants and employment. The people against the
referendum proclaimed higher crime rates, particularly dui, hell fire, damnation, prostitution and violence in the streets, Mel Gibson visiting town in full apocalyptic glory. Now for some prospective on this. This is a small town growing visibly smaller by the year. The largest town to the north is a thriving small city which has liquor by the drink, to the northeast is a county with a county seat so small, it doesn't even have a chain fast food restaurant, but it allows the sell of liquor. The largest store sits right over the county line from my home county. The largest city in this area is the one I work in. It allows liquor by the drink and just voted in a referendum for liquor stores. This is to the south. They are going to allow 4 and expect them to possibly be open by the end of the year. The largest city to the east offers both liquor by the drink and by the bottle. So only to the west does it require more than a 20 minute drive to by either a single drink or bottle of the demon rum. The county I live in and the one I work in are both dry, but both county seats now sell liquor by the drink, and the work county will soon have liquor by the bottle. This makes sense because a smaller city in the same county voted it in last year and made over a half million in new taxes alone. Now as far as the city in my home county, I don't suspect liquor by the drink will make a huge difference. It's a small place, it isn't going to attract a major chain restaurant, I don't think the demographics are there. There are two existing ethnic restaurants that might benefit a bit, so maybe a little more tax. The dui rate is already high, so I doubt this will contribute, most of those guys prefer Coors or Bud to The Captain or Jack. There aren't any bars or clubs inside the city limits, so unless the zoning commission allows one in, I don't see any issues there unless it gets passed as a county referendum.

Other news, Jack in the Box closed the local branch. This sucks for me. I have 2 places where I like to eat breakfast, both are close to work. One is the Dairy Queen, where they have great breakfast burritos (excellent salsa) and the biscuits and gravy is good too. The other was the Jack in the Box. I loved their breakfast bowls. They also had a grilled breakfast sandwich that was good. Now I am down to one. I tried the new Burger King, but none of there additions seem that good. As far as they go, I still think the old croissanwiches are their best offering. Their breakfast bowls are about half the size of JINB and the only meat is sausage, of which BK's isn't that great. The also dropped the chicken biscuit which was my other item when I had to eat breakfast there. But on the positive side, we are getting a Blue Coast Burrito, which is apparently what happens with people from California try to cook Tex-Mex or Ari-Mex. That being said, maybe I can finally try a Baja Fish Taco. The building is done and they are hiring.

Gripes, pisses and moans

2010-10-15T08:06:00.002-06:00

I just read a story on msn which got me to thinking about one of my big pet peeves in life. There are things I don't understand and one of them is the modern methods that some industries use to do business. I have cell phone service through Verizon. I don't really have a choice. People say I do and could use AT&T or Sprint, but there coverage in my areas is sort of like shit. Actually it is shit. Verizon is the only company around that covers not just all of my state but all of my county and the surrounding counties. Even with Verizon there are some areas I have to go, required by my job, where there is no cell phone reception. I have 2 phones on my plan and I was told my plan would be $74.99 per month. That was with a 10% discount on 1 phones access charge due to my employer also being a major Verizon customer. A benefit of my job I guess. The last time I signed a contract with them, I asked repeatedly what my bill would actually be. The salesman kept giving me a funny look and quoting the $74.99 amount. He finally after about 15 minutes of arguing admitted there would be some taxes but it should still be under $90. My average bill, with no overage charges, additional data charges, or long distance from outside of the US calls is $114. 60. That's almost $40 over what I was told. I look at my bill, pick, poke and pry but there are so damn many access charges, taxes, and stuff they claim is required by either state or federal government. I don't get this. If they know they are going to have to charge $10 for some sort of federal access charge, add it to the damn plan cost. Same with state charges. I know that in many cases they may have to charge state and local sales tax and that is hard to predict the exact amount on, but I would rather know up front to expect a $95 bill with tax than a $75 bill that gets inflated to $95 with additional fees and charges then gets tax added. Also, how do I know these charges and fees are legitimate? Why aren't they upfront with them. Obviously they want to make the sale and the lower the price looks the easier the sale, but there really should be some sort of disclosure laws, something to prevent the sticker shock from having an expected $8x bill be a $1xx bill.

Also there is now a company that is offering a prepaid cell phone card that works with any Verizon phone or their phone, uses verizon numbers and costs $49.99 for unlimited mobile to mobile, mobile to land line, text and internet access. I don't have that with my phone. I have unlimited mobile to mobile with other Verizon phones, nights and weekends, and unlimited text on one phone only. I have no internet access on the phones at all. I would actually save a few bucks a month going to that plan, I just have to remember to purchase and activate 2 cards every month. You can bet in March when my contract is up and they are making all the offers to try to make me renew I will be asking questions.

The only other business that seems to be working in this way is satellite television. Now I cannot get cable where I live. They stop the cable about 1/2 a mile from my house and refuse to run it any further despite there being plenty of houses along the way. For a long time, my only option was the various satellite providers. When I first moved out I had the rather limited selection, but reasonable pricing and simple billing of Prime Star. Then they were absorbed by Direct TV. There may be other choices elsewhere, but currently Dish Network and Direct TV. To give full disclosure, I have never had Direct TV service, only Prime Star and Dish Network. I can't say for sure that either cable or Direct work this way, but Dish did. I'm not up on pricing or anything, so don't expect dollar accuracy, but basically with any type of tv you choice a package. They generally have 2 to 4 different packages usually with each advance offering more channels with an increase in price. Then there are usually some smaller sets of channels you can add to a package for an additional monthly fee. For instance there is a base package of channels that most people want, but there will be a few highly popular channels that will be available only by going to the next package.

As an example, say the basic package is 30 channels for 29.99 but they leave off the syfy channel, USA, Disney Kids and one of the ESPN channels. There isn't a subset with those, you have to go to the midlevel package which offers 45 channels for 34.99. There is a superpackage that offers all the midlevel channels plus Starz, Encore and their specialty channels for 44.99 but you don't want that. You do want history international, biography international and some of the discovery subchannels though and that group is an extra 4.99 per month. You aren't interested in HBO or Showtime but would like your local networks via satellite, so that is another $4.99 so now you have a monthly bill of $44.97 right? Yeah, right. That $44.97 bill will probably be closer to $70 by the time it is finished. There are taxes, access charges, ect that go on. I have never figured it out. Now often you don't own the equipment, so they charge rental fees on the boxes and dishes too, but even if you own the equipment, you never pay just for the package. Apparently they share a training facility for the accounting personnel with the cell phone companies.

I currently get digital cable through my telephone company. I chose the basic package plus the family add on to get some of the extra history and discovery channels. It came out about $50 a month. I dreaded the first bill, but you know what? My phone bill only went up about $50 a month.

An Open Letter to the Makers of Farmville

2010-10-13T15:11:00.001-06:00

Dear Zynga

Okay, we get it. Somehow you have crafted 3 or 4 stupid little games more addicting than a mutant blend of crack cocaine and methamphetamine. Farmville, Café World, Mafia Wars and now Frontierville pretty much dominate the social network gaming world. I can’t believe I just said social networking gaming world. That just isn’t right, but somehow your partnership with Facebook, the least private and worst secured, yet largest of the social network sites has apparently been a major success for you both. How do you do it? How do you make such repetitive and simple games so damn addicting? How addicting are they? Let me explain.

Somehow, the games are so addicting that even though they have become so FUCKING ANNOYING because of the DAMN NEAR CONSTANT POPUPS and so CRAMMED FULL OF USELESS FUCKING BULLSHIT ITEMS that they are NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAY we still PLAY the DAMN THINGS.

Honestly, how freaking many sets of stupid train whistles do you think I need???? I do not want to offer them to my friends because they already have 4 MILLION OF THE FUCKERS. The game doesn’t even make sense. I get a pop up saying I have just successfully harvested 476,000 bushels of ragweed but my market stalls are full. Do I want to offer them to my friends rather than let them spoil? Click ok. Another pop up asking if I want to post a notice to my friends’ walls about this. Well, it’s either that or notifying them via mental telepathy. Click yes. Harvest one more section, and I get another pop up notifying me that I have now found 562,000 bushels of ragweed, one bushel will be placed in my inventory and the rest will be available in my stall. WTF, my market stalls were all full just 3 seconds ago? Then I get another popup about posting it. How about a single pop up per event that says “you have just successfully harvested xxx number of bushels of skunk cabbage, 1 bushel has been placed in your personal inventory and the rest will be available for sale in your market stall. Would you like to post this notice on your wall and your friends wall? Click yes to post or FU to not?” It would be even better to just save all the notices, maybe with a counter on one side of the screen that counted the notices and then let you scroll through the list and pick what you want to claim and/or post when you are ready. The way it works now is really annoying, especially when you add in the stupid bobbing banner on the bottom of the game screen. It’s really annoying if, like me, you can only log on before and after work, so mostly I am rushing in the morning to do all the games and get to work and as I plant or harvest I accidentally click on one of the stupid toy collections notices. Seriously, the collections are annoying but at least finishing one gives experience and stuff, but that damn toy collection just gives some stupid item that isn’t worth the constant notifications of whistles, marbles, toy ducks, ect. And Café World, at least in Farmville if you clicked ahead your guy will usually still do the tasks even with a pop up open. In Café World the little chef freezes until you deal with it. And why can’t we gift more than once a day? Farmville lets us. And lengthen the time on those stupid catering jobs. It’s nearly impossible to finish any in 3 star time, unless you get a full crew, and it can take a day or two to gather in a partial crew, by then the job is already down to one star and if the items to be cooked require a day or more it is even longer. I realize that the following bitch may not by your fault, it may be a fault with Faceplant….errrr Facebook, but when I claim my gifts, one at a time, verrrrrrry slowly, it offers me the choice of returning to the gift page or entering the game, but if I am claiming items some poor friend had to fight through multiple pop ups to make, I click the link, click okay, then get dumped into the game with no option to return to my wall. Why? Chances are there are multiple posts I want to get items from. I have to be very fast on the back or home button to get them all.

Police Porn?

2010-08-24T12:24:00.002-06:00

According to MSN an Oregon State University football player (the team is called the Beavers) was found nude and intoxicated in a home where he was not known and did not belong. When the police who responded to the call of a nude and intoxicated trespasser, ordered the man to get on the floor face down with his hands behind his back, the football player responded by dropping into a 3-point football stance and charging at the officers. At this point 2 of the officers discharged their tasers rendering the addled player more addled but less playful.

The lesson of the day:

If confronted by a large, strange, naked beaver, employ battery powered electronic devices to cause spasms and convulsions until the beaver becomes fully compliant.

The History of Lawnwork

2010-08-23T07:40:00.003-06:00

Originally mankind did not have lawns. The door out of the house lead straight into the forest, jungle, ocean, ect. This was a lovely and uncomplicated system which had but a single drawback. The one drawback was that rarely one might leave the house only to be eaten by a bear or killed by natives. This could be inconvenient and could have a negative impact on one's income. Therefore man took to clearing a patch of ground around his house so he could sneak a look out the door and tell whether or not it was safe to make a dash for work. Since animals and natives are sneaky, it was necessary to not only fell the trees and cut back the brush, but also to cut down the tall grass. Once this was done, it had to be maintained. Fire would seem to be the obvious choice, except for 2 things. Rebuilding houses is a lot of work and wives tend to not like the look of charred ground. You see after man went through all of the trouble of eradicating all the local vegetation around the house, the wives went out and found weeds they thought attractive and planted them in random locations.

This created a problem. Maintaining the cleared area was time consuming and was no where near as fun as hunting large animals, fishing, or racing souped up horses. Especially if you had to do it with your bear-skinning knife. So man invented the lawn mower. The first lawn mower wasn't sophisticated. It was basically a knife attached to a stick. This was still a lot of work so man invented the teen-aged son. As hindsight, it would probably have been better to just redesign the lawn mower, but once something is invented it is harder than hell to uninvent it, see atomic bomb, Paris Hilton, the Jersey Shore, ect.

The first lawn mower wasn't called a lawnmower of course. Neither the term yard nor the term lawn had been invented yet. The first lawn mower was called the sling blade because it sounded cool. One could often get up to 10 minutes of labor without complaining out of a teen-aged son before he realized that just because the tool had a cool sounding name didn't make it any less work. Fortunately teen-aged sons aren't bright, so often you could get that 10 minutes or so by repeating the name up to 60 or 70 times. Hopefully by then the grass is mowed. Don't worry, by next week he will have forgotten anything he might have learned.

As time progressed, the wheel was invented. Man decided to attach smaller blades to the insides of two small metal wheels. Then these were attached to two larger rubber wheels which was then attached to a handle which, in turn, was attached to a teen-aged son. Duck tape on son's mouth was optional. This was the first lawnmower. It was later discovered that it could also be propelled by teen-aged daughters, and older no-longer-teen-aged-sons that refused to leave home. However, unfortunately man grew tired of making new teen-aged sons when the old ones left and he grew tired of souping up horses, so he invented the internal combustion engine. Originally thought to only be good to propel metal buggies into trees, it was soon to be discovered that if you put the internal combustion on top of a metal frame and a blade underneath it, add 4 wheels, then attach the teen-aged son and handle combination to it, you have a excellent way to wake up your neighbors. It was later discovered that if all the teen-aged sons leave the house to avoid lawn work, you can use a bigger engine and frame and add a steering device and seat and the mower will propel itself into a tree.

It may seem that man had conquered nature at this point, but remember those strategically planted attractive weeds? Well mowing over those weeds often resulted in serious physical
injury when the wife noticed. There were also areas close to trees and the house and other large obstacles where the mower could not cut the grass. This was bad because it is amazing how many bears, tigers and natives can hide in the weeds around a small sapling. As such, trim work was invented. Sometimes the older type mowers would work, but eventually many devices such as clippers, pruners and trimmers were invented. The first real breakthrough came when some man became confused about whether he was working in the yard or fishing and discovered that while fishing line is extremely delicate and prone to snapping and breaking if near fish, it becomes strong and extremely sharp if there are not fish around. Unfortunately it tangles like a son-of-a bitch regardless of where it is. Thus was born the weed whacker. Weed whackers come in many forms. Some are wheeled models, however most are supposed to be portable. They are electric models, most of which seem to be completely incapable of cutting weeds, but excellent at slicing through the toughest extension cords. The gas models weigh more, are almost as noisy as lawn mowers and share a few common characteristics. If using the original heads they are excellent for cutting grass and weeds, but they are best at suddenly tangling themselves into a hopeless knot around the nearest tree, post, or chain link fence. If none of these are available, the weed whacker will tie the line to its own shaft. Another favorite trick is to let you spend 30 minutes patiently winding 600 or so yards of fishing line around the spool and installing the spool in the head, then at the first opportunity it will hurl the entire 600 yards of line out at extremely high velocity into the yard of a neighbor 6 or 7 houses away. If it for some reason doesn't want to do this, it will start to rapidly chop the line into tiny segments it will fire out in rapid secession. You will send a hour of so later that night picking them out of your legs. Yet another favored trick of the evil weed whacker is to unscrew the head and lob it unexpectedly into the most inaccessible, snake and spider infested part of the yard. Unless of course, it spies a hornet, yellow jacket or bumblebee nest, in which case it will aim for that resulting in you throwing the useless weed whacker at the swarm as you dash madly for the house.

One method of attempting to foil these playful pranks is to install a specialty head on the weed whacker rather than the spool. There seems to be 4 basic types.

1. The metal blade. It looks like a saw blade for a circle saw.
Advantage: doesn't break or unspool.
Disadvantage: resounding vibration when striking solid objects, doesn't cut plants very well, cuts wardrobe, vinyl siding and flesh just fine, though. Propels debris such as gravel with high velocity in random directions but usually at the person holding the whacker.

2. The metal chain. It is a little plastic wheel with from 2 to 4 little chains hanging off it, makes you think of a ancient torture device.
Advantage: ought to cut well, doesn't unspool.
Disadvantage: see wardrobe, vinyl siding and flesh damage above, as well as debris. Also, the chains can become tangled and HIGH SPEED METAL PROJECTILES embedded in legs if the chains come apart or loose.

3. Plastic Blades: A plastic wheel with from 2 to 4 somewhat flexible, thick serrated plastic knives attached. The attachments pivot freely.
Advantage: doesn't spool.
Disadvantage: blades wear out and break, although they last fairly well. It can be a bit hard on underpinning, but probably not worse than line. These work fairly well, they can fling light gravel and dirt, but not bigger gravel. A decent compromise. They sting but I haven't lost blood or clothing to them. You can burn a bit of flesh if you have to change a blade mid-job, but that is true of all the heads. Blades are a bit more expensive than line.

4. Line: These heads use line pre-cut to appropriate lengths. The original models were excellent and you just threaded line in through a series of holes, it was a bit hot if you were replacing line mid job, but the line stayed in place and lasted awhile. Fortunately they have wised up and now use a more complicated locking system that uses spring-tensioned metal pieces to hold the string in place. This is supposed to let you use any size line.
Advantage: No spooling, cheaper than blades, all advantages of using line.
Disadvantage: Old system not really any. New system: The metal clamps seem very picky, you are supposed to be able to use any size line, but the smaller line isn't held as well. I haven't tried really large line, but I suspect the tension won't be strong enough to hold it either. If you thread the line through backward, and leave the short side of the line on the wrong side of the clamp, the line shoots out the instant you start the whacker. Sometimes the line shoots out no matter what you do. If the lines are cut too long, they either tangle around the shaft or fly off to nowhere. Sometimes, if the lines stay in, by the time they need changing they have melted onto the clamp and you burn your fingers getting them out. The heads travel really well when removed and hurled by an angry weed whacker operator.

Carnitas -- I Think Not

2010-08-16T12:58:00.002-06:00

It's been awhile since I have eaten at Taco Bell. The local stores specialize in screwing up my orders, and I usually end up disappointed as we have a couple of actually Mexican restaurants in the area now and Taco Bell's version is a rather pale shadow of the real thing. But I had court scheduled for today, I had only one case, but it was a 40 mile drive one way and I had to be there early. I knew they had a long docket, and I figured I would be there until well after lunch. I didn't take any food, as I was unsure about my day's schedule. I did have a few clients arriving in the afternoon. My person was a no-show and after sitting through 2 rounds of the docket they decided she wasn't coming and issued a bench warrant. I was dismissed and headed to the office. I wanted to get there in time to do some paperwork before my clients, so it was going to be fast food. The town I was in has very little to offer, so I hit the road. The new town big enough to be classified as more than a suburb had a few selections, but Arbies and Burger King were packed, and McDonalds was out of my way, but Taco Bell looked nice and vacant, so I whipped in the drive through. They had some sort of new taco's and one filling offered was carnitas. Awesome!!!!!!!

For those who might not know. Carnitas are "little meats" Basically pork roast is slow cooked until it is so tender it falls apart, then it is braised or caramelized, however you want to express it. Some cooks spice the meat while cooking, others prefer to let use salsa to add spice later. But the thing that makes them special is the texture and flavor. The outside is crisp, but inside the meat is tender and juicy. I guess it was too much to expect from a fast food place, but there pork basically tasted like it had been boiled in hot sauce. There was no crispy or crunchy, just generic spicy. It was a let down, and there wasn't any salsa verde or anything in the taco other than the meat and maybe a few tomato chunks. They used the bland soft flour tortillas they usually use. I wouldn't bother, the price is cheap, but it really isn't worth it. I think they also offer a steak and a chicken taco. I go to court in a different county tomorrow, it will be an all day event, as I have several cases on the docket. Hopefully we will hit the local Mexican place, as it is next door to the court, and fairly reasonably priced. Maybe they will have carnitas, if not they have excellent chimichangas.

Chiggers

2010-08-11T06:55:00.002-06:00

I forgot to explain the chigger reference in my last post. I live in what used to be called the country. Now it is really just a space between subdivisions where they have not yet put a subdivision. Mainly because I go out in the front yard periodically and act like a psychopath so no one will want to be my neighbor who isn't related to me. That's beside the point. The local mailman delivers, but he quite unreasonably insists a machete should not be required to leave the mail in my box, so when the weeds get about a foot or so above the box he starts leaving nasty notes threatening to dump my mail in the ditch if I don't cut the grass around the box. I've done that twice this year, and should probably just buy some agent orange and defoliate the area, but the local military surplus store gave me a rather weird stare when I asked for a spray bottle of it and claimed they were out. Apparently they don't keep a large stock of napalm either. I noticed the other day that the weeds were past the bottom of the box, but it was 150 in the shade, so I didn't feel like arguing with the lazy-assed weed whacker, so I attempted to stomp down the offending plants. It doesn't seem to have worked, but apparently the plants, in an effort to exact revenge, dropped chiggers on me. Chiggers, for those who have never experienced them, are tiny larva stage mites. When full grown, they eat plants, but as larva they prefer birds and reptiles, unfortunately occasionally they decide to snack on humans. They are so tiny you can't actually see one. The traditional southern wisdom says that they bore into your skin and suck your blood. This isn't correct. I have the symptoms, raised, very itchy bumps with little red/black spots in the center. I have about 6 on my right ankle, two behind my right knee and one right above my right knee and nowhere else. This is why I decided it was from the mailbox incident. I plan the machete the offending plant life when I get home.

Traditional southern wisdom offers several cures including washing the area with either kerosene, bleach, gasoline, or brick acid. I made the last one up. My favorite though, from my childhood, when outbreaks of this was common, was to paint the area with clear nail polish. It had to be clear, if it was pink or light blue your friends would make fun of you. This was supposed to smother the chigger and kill it. Now that I am older, wiser, and Al Gore invented the fount of all knowledge, the internet, I know that this is all wrong. Apparently the chigger doesn't burrow into the skin. It sets on top and can easily be brushed off, scratching the bite is enough to do it. When the chigger bites, it inject saliva into the wound. The saliva dissolves the skin which the chigger sucks up. Since mammals were never intended to be it's victim, we aren't a good one for it. The saliva irritates our skin causing itching. It also causes the skin to react making it harden the area around the bite so it resists the saliva, this causes the hard bump, the dark spot is the hole from the disolved skin, not the offending chigger, which is too tiny to see with a naked eye. It generally takes about a week to 10 days for the skin to repair itself. The actual damage comes from scratching the bites as you usually cut the skin and since fingernails play host to germs like crazy, it can cause secondary infections. If you are in a weedy area in the summer, the best thing to do is take a soapy shower as soon as possible. Hopefully you will wash the little buggers off before the bite.

Next, lets all make a pact. Tomorrow at 6:30 AM let's all go to McDonalds and order chicken nuggets, then refuse to believe they don't serve them, go to the drive-in window and argue with the server, punch her repeatedly in the face, try to climb through the drive through window, then shatter the window with a heavy object from our car and drive off. If you haven't seen the video, go to YouTube. You can probably find it by searching for "blonde, trailer-trash looking psycho bitch beating down a McDonalds employee in drive through window over chicken nuggets."

Flip-Flops, Chiggers and Things

2010-08-09T10:07:00.002-06:00

I realize that times are less formal than they used to be but What the Hell? Last month I had a client setting across from me explaining that he was going to a job interview right after he left the office. He wasn't wearing a tie, but coat and tie seem to have gone out except for professional and managerial type jobs. He was wearing a nice, dark-colored golf/polo type shirt. He was also wearing clean blue jeans. Well he was looking for a warehouse/installer type position so okay, that was probably appropriate, but he hadn't bother to shave and was wearing flip-flops, the world's most annoying foot-wear. Now today, another client, this one female, told me she was trying to get a mail-room job at the local paper and was going there after she left my office. She was wearing a tight red tee-shirt, tight grey gym shorts, and flip-flops. My office co-workers make extra money in the summer by raising baby penguins in their offices, so the thermostat is usually set to 10 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer months. As such I deduced that while she was wearing a bra, it was probably pretty thin. Oddly enough, my coworkers apparently raise monkeys and tropical plants during the winter, and the thermostat is usually move up to about 110 degrees. I think her outfit was a bit too casual, even for a casual job, although I have to admit, her ass and those shorts complimented each other rather well, and she does have nice legs. If she can keep her level of perkiness after leaving the office and has a male interviewer, she might stand a chance. Got to go spray disinfectant on the chair and get ready for my next client.

Schemes, Scams, and Scum

2010-08-03T07:22:00.002-06:00

I really need to stop falling asleep with the bedroom TV on, or at least making sure it is a channel that doesn't sell early morning time to infomercials. I keep waking early to weird crap. It isn't all bad, I discovered steam mops (plan to get one soon, after investigating on the internet I plan on either getting a Bissell or Shark, whichever is cheaper) and the Shark Navigator will probably be my next vacuum, although I don't currently have the loose cash, it seems legit.

This morning I woke to hear people talking in infomercial phony enthusiasm about something called the "Cash Flow Business". Having a business degree I am well aware of what the term cash flow means, but was unaware there was apparently an industry devoted to it. Basically cash flow is exactly that, a measure of the money moving in and out of a business. It is generally a short term thing. I listened to probably 10 minutes or so of the infomercial before the cats discovered I was no longer sleeping and used force to make me get up and restock their food supply, which had waned after midnight and 4 am snacking. Once I was semi-mobile, returning to sleep was not going to happen, despite still having a good 45 minutes until the alarm, so I did the facebook, email thing, sucked down caffeinated beverages and slowly became completely alert. I then remembered the TV. Now, I have fallen for a few get-rich-quick schemes, usually by talking myself past my common sense, or letting someone else do so. I have now established a few bullshit detection guidelines I will share. First, the old sayings are true: if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Second, if you can't really tell what they are talking about from the adds, it's 98% shady or a complete ripoff. Third, if it's so damn good, why are they creating more competition instead of quietly making the big bucks. Fourth, if a major selling point is the money back guarantee and how easy it is to use, that means most people are going to want their money back and will never get it back. A legitimate product may offer a money back guarantee, but will only mention it once toward the end of the commercial, if the product mentions it often, beware. Endorsement and demos or nice, but can be misleading, don't get too caught up in them. Check on the internet for any problem. Be aware that the internet tends to attract complainers, whiners, and angry people, but read each gripe and try to see if they have legitimate complaints. No product is going to satisfy everyone, but if a lot of people have the exact same issue, take note.

The cash flow thing probably isn't a complete ripoff, it seems a legitimate business but it isn't what it is being marketed as. They kept talking about how easy it was, how you just "find it, list it, make money". They advertise no selling, ect. The endorsement emphasized large amounts of money made with only a few hours of work each week. It basically sounded like I could run my home-based business from my laptop on the beach in between sessions of being sexually gratified by the large numbers of scantily clad women bearing mai tais who flocked to the aura of large amounts of cash wafting from me.

From the TV I hear cash notes and posting or listing mentioned, but several times they stated no buying or selling. Apparently what you are required to do is find owner financed housing notes. These are notes where a seller is accepting payments directly from the buyer on real estate. You try to talk the seller into allowing you to find a someone to buy the note from him. If they agree, you list the terms of the note on a special website, access of which you gain by buying the packet I guess. If an investor is interested they make you an offer. You then try to broker a deal. For instance, if the note is for $100,000 the investor my offer you $95000. You figure what commission you get and offer the seller $93000. He gets $93000 now instead of in small payments over years, you get $2000 for your effort and the investor eventually gets $5000 or the property if the buyer defaults. However according to the websites I read, there are several issues with the way this is being sold. First, they claim that there is millions of these notes floating around and once you know the secrets, you practically trip over 3 of them going to the toilet. Apparently that isn't true, they are rather hard to find. Second, the largest complaint was that the 30 day guarantee was useless because you couldn't learn the program well enough to use it in 30 days. Also, the people that tried to return it apparently haven't been able too. Third, some states have strict laws defining a broker, and doing this would qualify you as one, requiring you to become licensed to avoid criminal prosecution and possible civil liabilities. You probably want to check with your state. Also, take any claims the program makes about you not being a broker with a grain of salt, those laws vary state to state and it's going to be you in trouble, I doubt the company sell the program will help you out in court. Fourth, apparently if you buy into the program, you will start to get calls trying to sell you "extras" to "really learn how to work the program" and apparently the sales tactics are pretty hard and pretty annoying, and not cheap. Several times a $2000 figure was mentioned in numerous posts. I am guessing the guy who's name was on this program (I want to say it was Russ Meyers, but that isn't right, he's the guy that made the movies with involving large-breasted women with firearms) doesn't make his money in the Cash Flow Business.

Two other recent products I have seen on TV. These were infomercials, but not the 30 minute long ones. One is for a ceramic bladed kitchen knife that sold for about under $20 plus shipping. I won't mention the name but it looked good, and they started throwing in all the extras. Ceramic blades aren't new and they have a really good reputation, but they tend to be expensive. This looked good to me and I love knives. I googled it. I didn't buy it. I think the knife was okay, but from the complaints, it looked like the pricing was misleading, the shipping was about $40 so you ended up paying around $60 which wasn't a good deal. The customer service was unresponsive and basically it looked hit-or-miss on whether you got the product. If you didn't get the correct order, attempting to correct it usually resulted in more shipping charges being billed to your card. It was scary.

Lately I have been seeing adds for a mysterious bracelet that magically improves your balance, strength, and energy immediately when you put it on. It does this through mysterious "biowaves" or something. It isn't a copper or magnetic bracelet. Anyway, I looked it up again. Mainly because the quick demos on the commercial looked a bit familiar. I found more demos of the mysteriously powerful bracelet online. I figured the claims for Penn and Teller level bullshit, and I think I am right. First, how could a bracelet instantly have such a profound physical effect on someone. It doesn't in my opinion.

I spent a lot of time studying marial arts. I did karate, aikido, judo, jujitsu, arnis and wu shu. I had some excellent instructors and about 16 years in regular study. One of my first instructors was big on public demos, and he would often do demonstrations of miraculous things. Later, when I was a brown belt, he started teaching me how to do the demos and stuff and there are a lot of things that look impressive but are really based on the odd ways the human body works and on laws of physics.

Now in a video, you are limited by the camera angle on what you see, so I can't say 100% for sure on everything, but I think I know how each thing was done.

First video shows how the bracelet improves balance. The host stands behind a volunteer. He has the volunteer move his feet until they are close together, almost touching. He then has the man lace his fingers together behind his back. The host then claims to press straight down on the linked hands. The man falls backward into the host. Then after donning the magic bracelet the experiment is repeated but the man doesn't fall. However, in the post bracelet demo, the man is not told to move his feet and thus assumes a normal stance, giving a bit more stability, the average human stance isn't that stable front to back anyway. Next the host probably press down and into the volunteer, which would direct the force back into the volunteer and to ground, in effect making the volunteer more stable.

Second demo was another balance demo. Basically the host stood beside the man about a foot away and claimed to pull straight down on the volunteers hand causing him to stumble toward the host. When the bracelet was put on the man did not stumble, he hardly moved at all. This looked to be the same volunteer in the previous demo. First, the normal stance is again not that stable left to right, although more so than front to back. If they host pulled down and toward him at the right angle he would stumble. When the demo is done with the bracelet, the host stands a little closer and directs the pull straight down. If the volunteer is part of it, he can adapt a bit wider stance and bend his knees just a little while wearing the bracelet and lock his knees when not.

Third demo, a strength demo. A female volunteer extends her left arm straight out. The host uses both hands and easily bends her wrist down. He puts the bracelet on her other wrist and wow, he almost can't bend it. This one is easy. She probably extends her arm straight to him, so the first time he stands a little to her left so the arm is straight from her shoulder. The second time he stands directly in front of her and lines her arm up with her sternum. You tend to be stronger if you arm is extended in front of the center of your chest. This is used alot with punching and wrist locks in martial arts. You can test it. Have a friend extend his arm straight out from his shoulder with the elbow locked. Tell him to keep you from pushing it down, then try to. You should be able to do it. Now have him do the same but make sure the hand lines up with his sternum You probably can't know. Also, if the elbow is bent, even a little it is harder to move.

A cool trick to try:

Find someone you can lift. Get their cooperation first, don't just run around lifting people, you'll get locked up in a padded room or charged with some strange sex crime. Have them look straight ahead and pick them up. Now set them back down. Have them look up while you lift them again. Any difference? Now set them down. Have them look at the floor or ground and try again. Notice any thing? No I don't understand it either. It only works for lifting people, it doesn't seem to help when standing on a scale.

Ouch!!!!!

2010-08-02T07:05:00.003-06:00

It was raining Saturday morning, a lot. I mean a lot, with black skies and thunder and impressive displays of electricity and everything. It had been raining but was fine when I went to get groceries, but about halfway home it let rip. So when I got home I rushed around to get my food inside without getting it all soaked. I told you that to tell you this. I left my car lights on. I noticed a couple of hours later and turned them off. The interior light and buzzer were working, so I hoped the battery would rest and recharge. I vegetated the rest of the weekend and didn't even think of it until this morning. I went out to go to work and click, click, it was dead as Mel Gibson's reputation.

I went over to my parents' to get Dad to jump the battery, he wasn't there. Mom told me to talk the Olds but that was what he left in. I asked about the keys to his truck, as I could jump the car with it, and borrowing the truck I drove back to the house. I parked the truck in front of my car and grabbed his cables which he keeps in the passenger floorboards. Jumper cables apparently practice an art of knotting themselves up in very sophisticated patterns when bored, but I finally untangled them and attached them in an appropriate manner. Then as I was went to start the truck, I stepped into a hole, which had apparently been lurking somewhere and darted out to snare my right foot. I went crashing face-first into the ground. "Fuck sticks!!*" I said, pretty damn loud. An early morning, unplanned face plant into dewy grass and not-so-damn-soft ground can do that to you.

I got up, knocked most of the grass off, limped to the truck and started it. I then went to my car and tried to start it. It took about 10 minutes to charge enough to start, so it was pretty dead. My radio lost all memory. I returned the truck, drove to work. I ache. My right ankle hurts, my left ankle is having sympathy pains, and I had my baton in my right pants pocket and landed heavy on it when I fell, so my right thigh and hip don't feel very good. It's a Monday.

*This is a direct quote from a book I finished recently. Fool by Christopher Moore. It's a retelling of the tale of King Lear from the fool's point of view. It's done a bit tongue-in-cheek with a tiny amount of humor, rather than the overall depressing manner of most tragedies. Moore doesn't normal attempt to use period language much, he mostly writes in the modern era, though and sometimes has characters with unique speech patterns. In this book he sometimes uses Shakespearean quotes and even Shakespearean type dialogue. Allow me to quote: "Die thou vile badger-shagging spunk monkey!!!"

Its a good book, I had to read some Shakespeare in high school and college and I really don't remember that much sex, but this story had a little. Queens got shagged, princesses got shagged (a lot), ghosts got shagged (a little), castle servants got shagged, even sheep and trees got shagged. Check out the book, check out some of his others, I recommend Lamb, Blood Sucking Fiends, You Suck, Bite Me, A Dirty Job, Practical Demon Keeping, and The Stupidest Angel. I recommend avoiding Fluke, and not reading Coyote Blue unless you become a fan. I haven't read the Island of the Sequined Love Nun.