Step off of the wrong path.

Today, October 30th 2007, I will begin a path that I've traveled before. This path is scorned by some and praised by others, and yet others have no opinion. Low Carbohydrate (LC).
If you are among the doubters, you may find your self rethinking your position. On the thin side, this means reduction or removal of unbalanced carbohydrates from the diet. Sugar, and the lie of "fortified" cereal products are gone. People of time past treated cereal foods as starvation food, and yet in the modern American diet, it's King. You can see how this is wrong, can you not?
LC, to me, means a focus on eating an adequate amount of protein and the majority of the remaining food to come from fruits and veggies.

Goal. Drop 40lbs of fat in 13 weeks.
Now, before you get all huffy about that not being healthy... please not that I will be only loosing 13lbs from where I was 12 weeks ago.
In fact, I managed to put on over 18 lbs in 34 days. That is insane.
If I told you I was going to drop 18 lbs in 34 days, you would tell me it's unhealthy. I'm actually expecting to catch some flack from the amount of fat I will be dropping.
Here's the catch. I will not be starving myself. Quite the opposite; I plan on exceeding the RDA on every level.
Today I exceeded the RDA for EVERYTHING by a minimum of 17%.

So, game on.
Daily progress report.


Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 32ft
(accurate to within 144ft)

Thought of the day.

Every now and then go away and have a little relaxation. To remain constantly at work will diminish your judgment.
Go some distance away, because work will be in perspective and a lack of harmony is more readily seen. - Leonardo DaVinci

Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

12 and 12

I've decided, that as a result of the emerging global economy, and the shrinking word base, that I need to learn some key phrases in many languages.

So, I propose to you.. my friends, family, and strangers:
What Phrases (looking for 12 total), and
What Languages (again, looking for 12 total):

Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 21' 18.7 W157' 51.5
Elevation: 340ft
(accurate to within 17ft)

When independent thought fails.. .. steal.

Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it. -Joseph Conrad

How are you going to respond when the Clock-Radio of Challenge emits the Irritating Buzz of Opportunity? Are you going to roll over and hit the Snooze Button of Complacency? Or are you going to wake up and, after performing the Bodily Functions of Preparedness, boldly grasp the Toothbrush of Tomorrow? Dave Barry

I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine. Fritz Perls

I think the mistake a lot of us make is thinking the state-appointed shrink is our friend.

I'm tired of being worried every day. Seems there's detour signs keeping good things away. JUKE BOY BONNER I'm Getting Tired

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. -Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

It's not denial. I'm just very selective about what I accept as reality. -- Calvin

Large doses of coffee can be lethal. Ten grams, or 100 cups over 4 hours, can kill the average human. [hmm.. there goes my idea of filling the hot tub with coffee.]

Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge. Paul Gauguin (1848 - 1903)

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.-- Bertrand Russell

Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim - Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you. (Ovid)

Some things...arrive on their own mysterious hour, on their own terms and not yours, to be seized or relinquished forever. --Gail Godwin

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts. Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind. -Maya Angelou

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things, which escape those who dream only by night.Edgar Allan Poe

WARNING! Never attempt to directly fax anyone an image of your naked buttocks. Always photocopy your buttocks and fax the photocopy.
Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

Needing of some jovality...

And I found the following:

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070907

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20050330

Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 110ft)

Pet Peeve #7

How fsking hard can it be?
Kindergarten, IIRC.. That's when I learned the concept.

Inside the lines.

And don't go making excuses that because you have a SUV that you should have a little leeway.
If you can't drive it... DON'T DRIVE IT!

I'm going to put a razor in my trunk (because I can't get IN to my car) just for you. Chances are, I'll be nice and only fix that nasty little SUV problem you have via two tires. Chance, being a fickle mistress might cause me to, after I've crawled into my car from the opposite side, reverse my car out and fix the remaining two tires. Do you feel lucky?

In retrospect.. I was in a rent-a-car.. why did I try to limit the contact of my door edge and your pretty little, I can pee farther than you, statement? I should have...made a little more room. I'm sure your door panel would have given a few inches with the proper coaxing.

Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

PolyPhasic?

Hey wasn't there a bunch of stuff here about me trying some crazy ass Polyphasic Sleep thing?


Yup..

Moved it to it's own blog.
Not Enough Time

Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

Name that song...

This thing is slowly taking me apart.
Grey would be the color, if I had a heart.
Come on and tell me.
And I'm starting to scare myself.


Maarburg the Mad
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.99' W158 01'06.31
Elevation: 32ft
(accurate to within 71ft)

Naptime.

Today was a rather interesting day, like an anti-day from my life.
I woke up later than I had wanted, but I'm on holiday, so it's no big deal.
I hopped on the computer and checked work e-mail, just to see how badly I'm going to have to make it up to Kel. Worked on a few things for awhile.

Then I took a very nice nap, with the vague notion that I will go for a ride later, but, y'know.. that will happen when it happens. The notion of taking a nap, with out setting a timer, and just really relaxing, seemed so foreign. So alien.
I actually had to overcome anxiety about not being anxious. Got in a good meditation and calmed down.

Gotta do that more often!


Great fsking nap.


Maarburg
Meatspace coordinates:
Latitude: N 39.91
Longitude: W 105.09
Elevation 5480ft

TIL 7711

Today I learned:
Seeing a movie, for free, 5am (soul adjusted time) is cool and difficult at the same time. Who catnaps during Harry Potter 5? Me apparently.

There are some really, really big big shops in CO.

Kathleen came out of her crate and was ready in less then 15 minutes. Amazing. PKQ (whom I had just met and is exactly as I expected) was still having issues putting her bike together. Hope I didn't rub any salt into a wound.

There is no fsking air in CO. Someone took it, and the locals are all to hypoxic to notice.

We are all damaged. Though, apparently we are all damaged in entirely unique ways.

I have a new friend, Tiff, a little crazy (a good thing in my Friend Ranking System) and a hell of a lot of fun to be around. (Caveat: Tiff, is technically, not a new friend. Though this was the first F2F) If you judge yourself by the quality of your friends, my net worth went up a lot today.

10 hours of sleep after 30 hours of being awake (and only sleeping 3 hours the night previous) will mess you up.

Maarburg
Meatspace coordinates:
Latitude: N 39.91
Longitude: W 105.09
Elevation 5480ft
(accurate to within 110ft)

TIL 7707

Today I learned:
Sometimes.. it's not as bad as you think it is.
and
If you're not paranoid.. you're not paying attention.
and
Don't ever ever say the words (in any variation) "Things couldn't get worse."
All that does is prove to the universe that you have a limited imagination and have no concept of pain and suffering.

I bought two new CD's today.. Marylin Manon - Lest We Forget and Disturbed - Ten Thousand Fists

To my suprise, both CD's have covers that I'd never heard and thouroughly enjoy.
MM covering Soft Cell's Tainted Love and Dis covering Genesis' Land of Confusion.

Both very very nice.
And I hate Covers.


Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

FMH

Hold on a fragging minute!

Aren't we supposed to be living for something.
Aiming.. achieving.. striving to succeed?

Why am I spending every ounce of energy to live through everything.
My daily goal is to survive to the next day.
WTFC...

Lame.

Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

TIL 7626

Today I learned:
1. I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions. -Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness, 1952
2. Apparently.. telling a major vendor "Bite Me" will only get you a scalding looks and thump upside the head. I'm taking that to mean I'm still on the bosses good side.
3. Some will. Some wont. So what.
4. You are all alone, right here, right now, totally seperate and totaly connected to everything.
5. I really do like coffee.

Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 72ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

7625 TIL

Today I Learned:
#Life is more like TV that I thought.
#Never hit 'reply all' to the VP of Sales and a key vendor with the text 'Bite Me'
#It's never as bad as you think. It's much worse.

Maarburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 52ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

Of Compulsive Flossing and Super Powers

I hate dentists. When I was still in high school I went in for a teeth cleaning. That guy was an incarnation of Satan. Not in the good way. Every part of my mouth he touched hurt. Now I know why he was wearing a mask. It was to hide the glee he took in inflicting pain. Evil Bastard. That’s what he was, and so was the rest of the staff. Short version is that I avoided going to the dentist. I had adopted the notion that they were all evil bastards intent on causing pain.

I went 19 years without seeing a dentist. Add to that the fact that for a good number of years I thought turning 30 would be the end of the world.

Wednesday afternoon one of my teeth started to hurt. Now this tooth, it had caused me a bit of pain in the past, but I wasn’t going to see an Evil Bastard. Any of them. The pain got worse. Vitamin ‘I’ just wasn’t doing it. By 11pm I was taking about 1gram of ibuprofen an hour. When Thursday morning eventually came, which seemed to take it’s sweet ass time to get there, I knew that either I was going to take the tooth out, or I was going to have to visit an Evil Bastard.

This was a tough decision.

I had waited too long. Buried my head in the sand and hoped that everything would be ok. I began to call around to find a dentist that could see me right away. Perhaps if I’d been to the dentist in say, the last 19 years, I’d know that Evil Bastards take Thursdays off. Close to an hour of calling later I reach an Evil Bastard that has a nice receptionist. She said that the Evil Bastard, she didn’t call him that of course, could see me as soon as I could get there. On one hand, I was relieved; the pain might stop soon. On the other hand, there was a good chance that this Evil Bastard was a big enough sadist that having a sweet and concerned sounding receptionist just added to the fun; I could almost hear the whir of a drill bit in the background. I told the Evil Bastards pain thrall that I’d be there as soon as I could. I got directions and headed out the door. The EB’s office was next to the states largest shopping center. As I got close, there seemed to be a lot of police everywhere. The street that I’d planned on taking was closed. Blocked off by cruisers. Did they open a Krispy Kreme? I parked a few blocks away and walked in agony.

When I got the office, the minion of pain behind the desk did a great job of pretending that she was worried about me. After filling out the Patient Information Survey, or was it “Your Going To Scream And By Signing This, We Get To Enjoy It”, I was seated with a glorious view of the Pacific Ocean. The Evil Bastard showed up a moment later. He wasn’t wearing a mask. Ok, now what does that mean? We talked a bit. He asked for a little history, and I told him that all Dentists were Evil Bastards. Ok, so I managed to be a tad politically correct at that point. He explained the pain scale from one to ten, with one being a little pain. I told him that the previous night and that morning I was at eight to nine. I told him that I was at a six then. This is all before I opened my mouth. He said that he needs to take a look and will not touch anything. He looked, and kept his word. I saw this as just another little thing to make me lower my guard. He applied some topical pain numbing gel to the tooth and gums around the tooth and did a closer inspection. His minion took an x-ray of the tooth. EB kept asking me where the pain level was, saying that the longer I could go without getting a pain shot, the better blah blah blah. I honestly don’t remember why. I figured it was bullshit and just glee seeking.

When the x-ray came back he told me it was a badly abscessed tooth and gave me three options:
1. He could give me some pain meds and I’d end up in more pain. (I read this as pulling my own tooth out with pliers in the garage)
2. He could drill an opening and relieve some of the pressure, but it would be just a matter of time before it became infected again.
3. He could pull the tooth and there was a good chance that the pain and infection would go away.

This is the point where everything seemed very surreal. I had been in some serious pain for about 20 hours. I managed to get about a hour of sleep when I chased eight 750mg Ibuprofen with rot gut vodka. I must have said I would have to think about it as he asked for the pain number (now seven) and walked away. Was he really going to take my tooth out.. just like that? In retrospect, it doesn’t seem all that implausible, I was thinking of doing it myself. There was an even chance that Doctor Pain Bringer was going to at least pretend to numb my aching tooth. When he came back I told him to yank it. He used a topical numbing patch on the roof of my mouth and said that the roof of the mouth is very thick. When he was ready to give me the first shot, he said “This will hurt, but it’s going to feel better in two seconds. Ready?” I mumbled yes and while I wasn’t looking, he swapped the needle with a dull pencil. That was a 9 on the pain-o-meter. It was a long pencil too. I counted onemississippi twomississippi threemississippi FOURMISSISSIPPI FIVEMISSISSIPPI SIXMIssissippi and the pain dropped back down to a seven. A tear had dripped down into my right ear. He gave me brief nod and said he’d come back in five minutes and the pain should be at zero. “Finally”, I thought to myself.

(I realize that this blog has Flossing and Super Powers in the title and I’ve yet to mention either. They’re coming)

I tried to pay attention to the pain and by pure force of will, make it recede. Very slowly, it dropped to six, and then to five. The dentist came back, and asked how I was doing. I said, “Five.” and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
“Hmm, we need that to be zero. Let’s get you another shot then” as he thrust the needle (Yes, the needle this time) into the roof of my mouth. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
When he came back, the pain was no longer in my tooth, but in my whole jaw bone on one side, and the roof of my mouth was almost flat from the teeth on one side to the teeth on the other. When he returned, I mumbled “Four” and the look on his face was genuine astonishment.
“A few more minutes” he said turning and walking away.
The pain had not subsided when he returned the second time. He gave me the third shot into the pincushion, er, roof of my mouth and walked away to talk with his staff.
When he returned, the pain had gone away, though the feeling of surrealism had increased ten fold. I told him zero and he wiggled the angry tooth to confirm. I could feel it moving, but the pain was gone. Of course, my entire head was numb, including the opposite side ear.

(Gory tooth removal details here – removed so I don’t wright a Michener novel)

He finished up and told me that the abscess was worse than the x-ray showed. If all went well, I should heal up fine. He packed some gauss into the gap and told me to bite down Delirious, I got up, thanked him and went to settle my account. He wrote me a prescription for Vicadin and Amoxacillin and headed off to the next patient. As I spoke with the nice receptionist about my follow up appointment and current charges, the pain began to creep back. By the time she had run my charge card the pain was back up to a five. This was 20 minutes after the dentist (yes, I did not call him an evil bastard) had finished. Not wanting to be a wuss, I tried to deal with it. As the pain rose, my ability to pay attention to the receptionist failed. I asked her if it was supposed to hurt and she scurried off to get the dentist.

I’d like to say that the look on the dentists face was.. something interesting.. but I just don’t recall.
He asked, “Where’s the…”
“Slebin” I mumbled with a mouth full of pain and soggy guass.
He hurried me over to a chain and popped ten to twelve shots into my mouth, along the gums and swollen roof of my mouth. He was very surprised to see some one shrug off three shots and said that those shots should have lasted at least three hours. The new shots usually last eight hours, though he thought that I would only get four or so. He told me to go fill the prescriptions and go home, I was going to be in for a long day. The pain gradually dropped down to around two, which is below where I usually bust out Vitamin I. Heading back to the office (I blame that on the drugs), I started to feel a little tired.

Walking into the office, I do remember seeing the looks on people’s faces. I must have looked like shit. After stumbling around the office for a few minutes I was sent home.

I drove to the drug store and decided to close my eyes for a bit. I passed out for an hour and a half. The pain was back. Vicadin only took the edge off the pain. I ended up taking the Vicadin with 750mg of Ibuprofen so I could focus enough to work.

I feel privileged. Most people don’t ever get to discover what their Super Power is. Mine? I’m nearly immune to certain pain medications. When I called the dentist, such a fine fellow, and told him how quickly the medication wore off, he said that in 17 years of dentistry, he’d never had someone metabolize the painkillers that quickly.

But what about the flossing, you ask?

At my follow up visit, a week later, the hygenist taught me about flossing. Lack of flossing is why that tooth got abscessed.
Fear of a pencil being driven through the roof of my mouth has turned me into a compulsive flosser. I carry floss with me now.

Thanks for reading.. go floss your teeth.
And make sure to get down into the gums.

Maarburg.

Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98 W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 16ft)

I don't understand.

The most popular way that nations make electricity is the burning of natural gas.
Iran is estimated to have the worlds second largest natural gas reserves; numbering nearly 16% of the total.

Why is it thinking of using nuclear power for electricity?

Option One: Iran knows that the world is rapidly running through it's gas and oil reserves and is trying to get nuclear power online before the cost of oil and natural gas extraction drive the cost of using fossil fuels through the roof.

Option Two: Nuclear Bombs are great deterrents to invasion and intimidation.



Marburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

Just started reading Getting Things Done

and found this interesting quote:

Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs."
-Vaclav Havel

Marburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

Unnecessary.

What's the deal with 'u' following 'q'?
Always.
(OK, not always, but damn near often enough to be considered always.)
Quickly, think of a word that has the letter "q" but not the letter 'u' behind it.

If you came up with more than just "Qantas", as in the airlines, you probably are very familiar with the Arabic or Hebrew.

In fact, there are only twelve words recognized as legal for use in scrabble in North America that do not have a 'u' following a 'q'.

So my question is.. why do we bother typing the damn 'u'. To me, it just seems like an unnecessary step. North America has over half a billion people, and lets assume that only 1/2 of them are literate. So you have 250,000,000 people typing or writing this completely unnecessary vowel.

Think of the productivity gains.

Question to Qestion
Quotation to Qotation
Quarter to Qarter
Qualified to Qalified
Queen to Qeen
Quick to Qick.

Just thinking of the time we could all save.

(don't get me started on how 'beard' and 'heard' don't sound the same)
Marburg
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

Balance.

Why is it that even though, as a species, we never seem to be quite
as productive as we think we can be? The zen answer is that we fail
simply by trying. By wanting, and acting on that want, we create
the pain of not having, and the pain of want. And that works out…
until we have to start doing things like paying the mortgage and car
bill and food bill. That requires us to go to work. Work requires us to
succeed. Which, by it’s nature is quite un-zen. So, where does that
leave us? Trying to balance zen and non zen, when zen means that
all things are interconnected, and in fact there is no line separating
this from that. Unless we give up the house and the car and actually
live…

There’s no way that T will dig on that vibe. Though I do see hints of
the answer in simplicity. Complex answers are almost never correct.

P38Pilot
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'42.15" W157 51'32.79
Elevation: 144ft
(accurate to within 11ft)

What you wont hear in the mass media...

20060503
On November 1, 1979 Iran's new leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged his people to demonstrate against United States and Israeli interests. Ruhollah Khomeini was anti-American in his rhetoric, denouncing the American government as the "Great Satan" and "Enemies of Islam".

On November 4, amid another chaotic occupation of the grounds, a mob of around 500 Iranian students calling themselves the Muslim Students Following the Line of the Imam (although reported numbers vary from 300 to 2000) seized the main embassy building. The guard of Marines was thoroughly outnumbered, and staff rushed to destroy communications equipment and sensitive documents. Out of 90 occupants, 66 were taken captive, including three who were taken from the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Fourteen women, African Americans and non-US captives were soon released, leaving 52 who remained captive until their release in January 1981. Ayatollah Khomeini claimed he was not aware of the students' plan, but he applauded the action afterwards (Though in actuality he had been informed by the "Muslim Students" on November 3).

Former hostages Dr. William Daugherty (who worked for the CIA in Iran), Kevin Hermening, David Roeder, US Army Col. Charles Scott (Ret.), and US Navy Capt. Donald Sharer (Ret.) have alleged that Iran's later president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (elected 2005) was among the hostage takers. All of them have claimed that they are certain that Ahmadinejad is the man whom they remember from their captivity.

Col. Charles Scott recently told the Washington Times [1] that "He was one of the top two or three leaders; the new president of Iran is a terrorist."

On 10 January 2006, President Ahmadinejad declared that his government is following the "religious mission" initiated by Navvab Safavi, a Shi'a cleric who assassinated the historian and author Ahmad Kasravi in 1946 for "insulting Islam." In 2001, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, Ahmadinejad’s ideological mentor, praised Safavi and encouraged Muslims in taking similar steps against the "enemies of Islam." [15] [16]

There have been allegations that Ahmadinejad was involved in terrorist activities during the Islamic Revolution (given the gaps in Ahmadinejad's official biography for that period), and he has been connected to senior Hezbollah figure and terrorist, Imad Mughniyeh [17].

In December 2005 Ahmadinejad made several controversial statements regarding the Holocaust and the State of Israel, at one point referring to the Holocaust as a "myth" and criticizing European laws against Holocaust denial. He said that although he does not know whether or not nor to what extent the Holocaust occurred, if it had in fact occurred, European countries should make amends to the Jewish people by giving them land to establish a state in "Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska" instead of making "the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime". The statements were condemned by many world leaders.

Ahmadinejad is believed by many to belong, or to have once belonged, to the anti-Bahai and anti-Sunni clandestine society known as Hojjatieh. An Islamic society to which Ahmadinejad belonged when he attended Alm-u Sanat University was, according to an article that appeared in the Asia Times Online, an extreme, traditional, and fundamentalist group that maintained close links with Hojjatieh. Three members of Ahmadinejad's cabinet are said to have Hojjatieh backgrounds, including Hojatoleslam Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehyi, the intelligence chief who graduated from the Haqqani theological school, founded by Hojjatieh. Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, a Shi'ite cleric closley associated with the school, issued a fatwa urging two million members of the bassij Islamic militia to vote for Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential elections.

The current president of Iran is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and is currently working very hard to develop nuclear technology.

References provided upon request.


P38Pilot
Current meatspace coordinates:
N21 18'43.98' W158 01'06.29
Elevation: 12ft
(accurate to within 11ft)