You all have to suffer a little more of my Princess Bride fascination (or is it an obsession) a while longer!
I scored this shirt about a month ago but it didn’t arrive in time for me to wear at the feast on Valentine’s Day. No bother though, it’s still funny and clever. One can never go wrong with Vizzini’s final words, with or without the Commodore 64 graphics I think it’s supposed to be emulating.
The new year has been rather productive with my health. I have a long, long way to go but I think I may have finally got the permanent change I’ve wanted to happen rolling. I was doing really great in 2011…until my treadmill crapped out within a few miles of Jose’s house (this is virtual traveling). All my momentum evaporated as I was jumping through the hoops to have it repaired. Mind you, the ProForm people were great, the problem was the regional repair person who dragged it out. The dude who actually fixed, he was awesome. Then I had my blood screened after about a month of the semi-inactivity which resulted in a rotten picture. I think everything was a wreck, namely the Triglycerides. The remaining indicators retained slight improvements. I can only imagine what the numbers were in mid-July!
A couple celebratory months at the end of 2011 didn’t help: White Castle, beaucoup sugar, some booze, continuous snacking, etc.
I did get cracking with the treadmill on January 2 to spearhead the year and in anticipation of my upcoming annual screening. Too bad I was doing it in a half-assed fashion figuring mid-February would give me the opportunity to kick off with better numbers than 2011.
HA!
They ended up being close to the same so even more was “undone.” Yet I didn’t fret, I tend to start in a redeemable spot. It will only grow harder to control because I can’t stop aging. I know this already firsthand through my frustrations with weight loss. Dropping a few pounds in my twenties, relatively easy, running and salad lunches; it was my successful plan around 1997-98. By the time I was over 35, the previous stuff was a bust. Maybe fat has a cumulative stubbornness?
Besides the march of time, the doctor decided to throw in a new wrinkle, some blood test to detect diabetes. My score was marginal and I wasn’t too worried, even the doc’s literature put the odds at 5:1 against having the life-altering condition. To me, contracting diabetes is the apocalypse if I had to give up pasta.
I took her advice (the doctor was a lady) to get a more thorough blood test. Thankfully, I found a place open on Saturday mornings to undertake the two-hour process. I don’t recommend doing this unless you have no choice.
What was involved? First you have to fast at least eight hours before the first blood draw. With the starting benchmark established, you must drink a rather gross sugary soda; it tasted like an unpleasant generic-brand. Blood is drawn again 30 minutes later followed by another 30 minutes and a final time after an hour. The objective is to measure how well your pancreas and/or liver process the sugar. I rarely drink non-diet stuff plus I’ve managed to keep my major resolution of drinking unsweetened tea, thus I felt pretty ill until I ate. My left arm was pretty bruised afterwards, why mess up both, I had to drive!
I’ll cut to the chase. The verdict came in before I took some time to enjoy SXSW…I don’t have diabetes but I need to keep pushing on the running, fruits, vegetables and liquids.
How’s it going? Running is solid. I am up to two miles/session, five days a week. I plan to raise my speed. When I can maintain 6 mph, the distance will climb back to my record 2.3 miles/session. I hope to make 2.5 miles/session the regular routine. Eating (or snacking) on fruits/vegetables, close to five servings a day, has been harder. The junk food/garbage has been scaled back too, I keep being distracted by other concerns when I really want to eat the berries I scored at HEB. Liquids are a huge success. I already scaled back the sweet elements in my Starbucks poison of choice and HEB carries this fantastic brand of unsweetened iced tea at a good price.
I hope to have a blood screening by my birthday to re-assess the strategy, treadmill willing, it’s the foundation to me succeeding since dietary changes aren’t enough. Ergo, I will never go with all the implausible diets I keep hearing about, people need to get with the program on exercise, it cannot be avoided. The diet I love to ridicule the most involves the no-carb/heavy protein schtick. Of course it works, the key element is called diarrhea! Crudeness aside, I am getting somewhere as the BMI indicator on my site shows I am now under 31.
On to being under 30 and the doctor saying I’m now only overweight, not obese!
Not like you could easily see it, my playoffs-progression counter down in the lower right part of the site. I know one person caught it because she told me how amused she was over me posting my high scores from Pinballz.
Anyway, with their dismal loss Friday and other teams who has a chance in the conference winning, the Stars are now mathematically eliminated. Ergo, if they still won their remaining 13 games, the 26 points would only give them 74 in the standings while the current team in eighth has 75.
Onward to this being the…WORST. SEASON. EVER.
I’m not choked up about it. We put down our first 25 percent toward renewing our season tickets as a show of confidence. Meanwhile, Dallas may succeed in holding on to first in the Pacific Division and the playoffs are a cinch. They owe it all to Vincour, Larsen and Bachmann who plucked away during our season. I know Big D took Garbutt too yet I wasn’t impressed.
Now to get across the finish line around Mid-April, relax and then see how things shake out after July 1. The biggest concern will be the NHL and NHLPA ironing out a new CBA.
You too can now learn all about 31st Century real estate and becoming a stinkin’ rich landlord by mastering the revolutionary Bender Pennybags technique! Just remember you won’t be a great as him…or as wealthy…or as sexy.
I readily admit I think the Monopoly franchise wore out its welcome years ago. Does anybody remember when it all began? The initial offerings (Elvis, your city) were amusing but the sports leagues must’ve been a thorny process; I know which NHL teams I would put in place of Baltic and Mediterranean Avenue. Lately, I saw a Klingon version. I’m guessing all the pieces with writing were in the fictional language.
Matt Groening’s creations (I have the Simpsons too) loan themselves to the game better though. The shows have neighborhoods, locations and characters who readily buy into get-rich-quick schemes! My favorite touches with Futurama:
What makes the game more priceless for me is the anecdote it came with when I bought it. I bored the poor Dragon’s Lair clerk about being a member of the third-place team in the GWD Futurama tournament. Two of the people behind me were from the second-place team. D’oh! Wait, wrong show.
Mr. Reid does an excellent job on taking these crooks and cronies to task on their fuzzy math…no, let’s just call them outright lies. The same lies they told in the Eighties about blank tapes and the VCR; the same lies they recently told about blank CD-R media. The real issue is the lack of an issue as his “math” proves.
The main guys Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy
I know what you’re thinking, it’s “These guys are still around?” Pretty much, the Cult was making a big push at SXSW for their upcoming album Choice of Weapon due in May. My friend Chip from Waterloo Records asked me to come on down and since I was able to swing Friday off, I decided why not. These guys were considered the premiere band in the Eighties’ Psychedelic revival (see XTC’s Skylarking and Dukes of Stratosphear stuff, early Hoodoo Gurus, The Three O’Clock and the one-hit wonders Doctor and Medics are the quickest examples I can pull up). Most kids who shared my love of “Alt Rock” at Marquette had the Cult’s second album Love. When it came to Marquette, this would be a very small number.
How were they 25 years after their pinnacle? Besides being 40 minutes late, the Cult still lived up to expectations…loud but enjoyable. They did the hits the crowd wanted/knew, “Rain,” “Wildflower,” (or was it “Lil’ Devil,” they sound similar to me) and “She Sells Sanctuary.” The two upcoming tracks were pretty good so I will probably buy the new album. Unlike some in the audience, I didn’t complain. It was a free performance sponsored by Waterloo Records. One guy jokingly shouted, “We want our money back!” To him I asked, you bought Ceremony too?
People’s behavior when they light up doobage hasn’t changed. I spotted this older dude behind me sucking it down on his one-hitter and just like all “busted” tokers, he offered me some; the gesture of here, take a hit. I told him, no thanks, chuckling to myself about how I haven’t been put through the Narc-litmus test in some time.
…then there’s Scooby Snaks a bein’ eaten!
I never thought of Shaggy (nee Norville Rogers III) as being the Dirk Diggler type with the ladies but it would explain why he slouches when he walks.
I know this will automatically draw the ire of the “savvier” (aka, really more dependent or addicted) technology users via their standard, unimaginative rebuttal of “get off my lawn,” but the results from this rather crappy poll annoyed me. Yeah, I should just move on, ignore it, etc; yet c’mon…Serenity is a better Sci-Fi movie than The Empire Strikes Back, Blade Runner and The Terminator? There’s democracy and then there’s just outright ignorance and/or idiocracy. Since this was done through the Web, I think the more likely culprits are Whedonnites voting multiple times. Time had the same problem in 1999 when Kemal Ataturk won Person of the Century.
This led me to organize my own poll for only fellow Sci-Fi fans/friends whose opinions I respect. Some of them will go to the mat for Serenity which is fine, I also know they are well-versed in the other films. Does this mean they agree with me? Hell no. I myself have a certain affection toward some films (Strange Days quickly comes to mind) in this genre but there a few I will readily concede to like Blade Runner; it nails many key elements to qualify despite me not be enamored of it.
There was another flaw I removed from io9’s choices, Superhero flicks being in the running. I have nothing against them. Richard Donner’s two Superman movies still hold up and I’m impress with Marvel’s current winning streak since Iron Man. They just aren’t true Sci-Fi, they’re really their own genre because Superheroes are a synthesis of Sci-Fi (Iron Man), Fantasy (Thor) and Action (The Dark Knight); the examples are primarily one with good doses of the others. Space Operas are allowed along with Post-Apocalyptic and Distopians. If the movie leaned more toward Horror or Comedy, I leaned toward its removal.
Here’s the part I think will give the participants more confidence in it. The candidates I have submitted are being reviewed by another judge who I think will strengthen the choices’ integrity. It’s my friend Les. We have disagreed about numerous things, mostly about technology and writing styles. However, there is no one else I can think of who couldn’t bring more legitimacy thanks to his background: a Master’s degree in English/Writing, he has a larger body of published work than I will ever have plus a greater knowledge in the genre. I can only hope he got the list and had time to help me pare it down to 64.
Meanwhile, keep an eye out for my brackets and I will abide by the majority in the results, even if Serenity could win, yeah, fat chance. Who wants to take a shot? Say so we all…in the Comments or an e-mail. (Battlestar Galactica was a TV show, it won’t be a competitor).
Weeks ago, I mentioned how our only male cat (Nemo) has been undergoing a semi-daily regimen of Prozac due to his urinating issues. Overall, it appears to work because Somara forgot to give him a dose last night which resulted in howling, screaming and a chase into our bedroom.
How does this dovetail into the Ides of March? Molly is the alpha cat (aka Caesar) and she is approaching 13 (67 for humans) so the younger cats (Nemo at 10 and Kuroneko at five) are starting to push for a regime change. This was simulated by Molly being pursued, then cornered by Nemo with Miette in tow. I doubt Molly was screeching the equivalent of “Whilst thou lift up Olympus?” nor “Es tu Nemo?” Probably, “Get away you asshole before I kill you!” She is the hardest cat to deal with after a fight; I don’t know why Molly remains agitated for hours. We did give her some Prozac recently and it only made her nastier as her agitation continued into the next day. I need to ask the vet for some alternative. I love Molly very much, I hate to see her in such an ugly light.
At least she’s in better shape than Julius Caesar.
Although it’s Albert Einstein’s birthday, my awesome Carl Sagan shirt arrived and this works because there’s a reference to Pi/Pie right above him. Good thing it’s also my “cheat day” with my diet, I think I should go out for a slice.
Remember to save the date and certain people (Helen, I’m giving a stern look in your direction) need to make their arrangements to join us in Las Vegas for our tenth wedding anniversary. It’s going to be great.
I’m seriously thinking about getting a special case of Jones made for it, especially in light of me passing my diabetes test…and I didn’t even study!
My friend and gracious Chicago host from a couple months ago, celebrates his return to the prime-number club today!
Nelson is a big Star Trek fan so this year I was able to score a good card to fit the theme and it’s funny.
Anyway, wish my friend a happy birthday, he’s a cool dude and if he’s endured me for 20-plus years, he’s a saint.
It’s Spring Break and the NCAA basketball tournament starts this week (Marquette will be eliminated in the second round is my prediction). Meanwhile, it means Austin is overrun for a week by SXSW attendees. Some co-workers had these funny bingo cards which made me laugh. I wonder if someone got a card with Quentin Tarantino, Harry Knowles, ponytails on a dude or “media badge.”
We actually saw this in movie theaters and I can’t remember why we went. I think we were bored on a Saturday morning, the Tinsel Town 20 was nearby and we were jonsin’ for the The Fellowship of the Ring to appear. Somara recently said something about us showing support for a Texas-based animation studio (now gone, The Ant Bully did them in). I do know I was skeptical about it because I am a huge fan of Dexter’s Laboratory so naturally I felt that Nickelodeon was lazily ripping off the whole boy-genius genre. This movie with its following series won me over on co-existence since Jimmy proved have numerous differences from Dexter. The closest equivalent I can give is how I like both Freebird’s and Chipotle; there’s room for both. However, Johnny Test blows, it’s the Taco Bell of cartoons and burritos. In some alternate universe, Jimmy and Dexter may team up to stop some extra-dimensional universal threat.
Jimmy remains interesting from an academic angle too. If you’ve watched the series, you’ll quickly notice how the film is a beta version of the characters: Jimmy wears shorts and loafers; Cindy’s hairstyle and clothes differed immensely; Carl isn’t allergic to much; the actors don’t have the voices done either, Jimmy’s voice is more feminine sounding. The years have been kind to it so far. Nothing appears heavily dated or requires explanation to a five-year-old child. Several jokes remain funny, namely Sheen’s disregard of shower etiquette at home.
Thankfully Nickelodeon allows (OK, licenses) the majority of their animation content to be available on Netflix streaming. I suggest this, when all the good series wind down (Walking Dead?) or go on hiatus (Breaking Bad), dust this off first and then jump over to the entire show run. Re-enjoy one of Nick’s stronger cartoons from the Aughts.
By now, many of you have probably seen the reviews, mostly negative, because Carter has been cursed with a schadenfreude vibe from the SCLM long before its release. I think they’ve been missing the point unlike this writer (not me). Who gives a crap how much money was spent making this or how John Favreau bailed as the director. Is this any good? Seems rather secondary or tertiary in the reviews/stories.
As for me, I feel they nailed it for a 21st Century audience which is rampant with some major obstacles.
Any money spent on it in 3-D is a waste. There wasn’t one moment when my brain, eyes and stomach disconnected over the airships or vast Martian canyons, as they do in simulators; ask Somara how much I panic in Vegas at Star Trek the Experience.
The plot? No need to ask, trailers have it covered despite the truncated title which I think won’t attract more women, it will just fool Michael Caine fans hoping it’s a sequel to the great Seventies action flick Get Carter.
Other than griping about the 3-D being underwhelming and making cheap jokes I couldn’t resist (see above), I do endorse John Carter with the addition of taking it in at the Alamo. Somara knows I generally hate Event Movies (what I call them, others call them Popcorn Movies; Hollywood-speak for crappy), especially when they’re derived from mediocre novels or uninteresting franchises. Yet I end up seeing probably around a third of them, I never learn. However, I wasn’t bored nor disappointed like a certain May evening in 1999.
