| (no subject) |
[Jan. 31st, 2012|10:37 am] |
Happy 75th birthday, Philip Glass. These are the days, my friends, and these are the days my friends. |
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| a cri-de-coeur |
[Nov. 29th, 2011|04:39 pm] |
In 2005 I faced a crisis point with my weight. By 2008 I had lost 100 pounds and for a brief period of about six months I held a "healthy" weight.
I am now within 20 pounds of crisis point once more.
If I talk to a coach, doctor or nutritionist, I learn what i must do. I have to eat no sugar, very little fat and around 1800-2400 calories a day. I can eat nothing that tastes good (if you tell me that diet food is remotely palatable, you are lying to me). My fat intake can only be olive oil or flaxseed or fish oil. I should drink no alcohol or any beverages apart from green tea and water. I should eat 5-10 servings of vegetables a day, 2-3 servings of fruit, and a moderate-low amount of lean proteins and eliminate starches such as potatoes, rice, pasta and bread. Whole wheat bread or pasta can be consumed in limited amounts (like, a slice of bread or 1/2 cup of cooked pasta)
I should be working out roughly 45 minutes to an hour per day, 5 days a week, consisting of a mix of strenuous cardio and difficult weight training.
Every coach, nutritionist, etc. on the face of the planet will tell me this, with slight variations on particular allowable carbs or fats, I know because I've asked and I've looked.
But here's the thing: I fucking hate that shit. And it doesn't work. I ran triathlons and worked out hours a day and lost maybe ten pounds. The triathlons themselves were fun, the grinding out workouts for months without a race on the calendar burned me out quick. I ate no sugar for months, and only vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats, and lost maybe five pounds. Weight Watchers worked a few years ago but they nerfed the men's program because it was making the women jealous. WW is useless for men now, I calculated roughly 3500 cals/day allowed last I checked.
Fighting as hard as I can and being rock solid, it takes me three months to lose ten pounds and about three weeks to put it back on if I slip up even slightly.
The only thing that worked - the ONLY THING that truly cut weight, was six protein shakes a day for two months, eight hundred calories or so. That worked. That cut bodyfat. It was hard as hell to sustain but I did it, even though I'd get dizzy every time I stood up from a chair. I took a vacation from food.
If I eat food, not too much, mostly plants, or limited amounts of whatever I want, and enjoy it, and sit at the table for a proper meal with vegetables and meat and a glass of wine, and exercise moderately, life is great, I enjoy what I eat and learn a lot and have fun, but at the cost of my long term weight and health, and my pants no longer fit.
I cannot tell you how much I envy all the skinny hipsters slurping down cocktails and eating braised pork belly in any one of New York's restaurants. How do they do it? How do they wear size 32 jeans and eat in places like minetta tavern? I don't understand. But I hate them for it.
I dunno what to do. Or rather, I know what to do, I just don't want to do it. So days go by. |
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| Kickstarter |
[Sep. 27th, 2011|11:31 am] |
So, a year or two ago I found out about Kickstarter, a site for crowdsource-funding of art projects. I have funded to varying levels a half dozen projects, and here's what the results have been:
Kentucky Route Zero: a magic realist adventure game.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/149077132/kentucky-route-zero-a-magic-realist-adventure-game?ref=users
This is a video game with a surreal, American-gothic feel to it and it looks like it has a lot of style. I kicked in a few bucks and I occasionally get postcards and updates with neat stuff. They seem to be making progress on it.
Poorcraft: A Comic Book Guide to Frugal Urban and Suburban Living!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ironspike/poorcraft-a-comic-book-guide-to-frugal-urban-and?ref=users
This is a comic with guides to living on a budget from people with real-world experience. Some really interesting and useful info in here. It met its funding goal in 2009 and they're still working on it, apparently - I do get periodic updates on progress.
Designing Obama
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simplescott/designing-obama?ref=users
This is a hardcover book compiling all the graphics and identity work for the 2008 Obama campaign, which had really great graphic design. They met their funding goal and I got my book a couple of months later. Looks great, very high quality. And my name is in the book as a backer. :)
Electric Sheep Reloaded
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2052006434/electric-sheep-reloaded-0?ref=users
This is ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) pfarley's comics project Electric Sheep, which I have long admired but I'm afraid Farley has a tendency to start things and not finish them - I share that tendency, but I also don't ask for money to do them. This project met its funding goal in May 2010, and since then the website has been relaunched with about five pages of new content and that's it. It's been reasonably static for many months, but Farley occasionally posts mea culpas and promises to deliver new content in "August", then zilch. Kind of disappointed in this one.
Brooklyn Brainery Needs A Home
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soma/brooklyn-brainery-needs-a-home?ref=users
The Brooklyn Brainery is a neat educational project where you can go learn how to make pickles or whatever and I was happy to donate. They were funded in June 2010. We were supposed to get a cooking lesson at home but after a few emails back and forth and a promise to "get back to me", they never did. Now it's been over a year. I should bug them.
Pogo Presents World Remix
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/663695822/pogo-presents-world-remix-tibet?ref=users
The remix artist who took clips from Disney and Pixar movies and edited them into groovy ambient techno pieces is doing his thing with a bunch of footage shot in Tibet, this looks awesome. The funding goal was met in March 2011 and he's since gone to Tibet and is now, presumably, working on editing. Last update was in July, but this kind of thing takes time. Looking forward to this one.
Refillable Bamboo Notebook
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jaybill/refillable-bamboo-notebook?ref=users
This is a notebook with bamboo covers. Mine will have the Arecibo radio telescope graphic on it. It was funded in February, still waiting for my notebook. In an update, the project artist claimed "personal things..I'll spare you the gory details" for the lack of production, and that 84 notebooks remain to be sent out. He apologized and promised to send out the orders as soon as he can. I'm patient, but cripes, I could have bought a notebook in a shop eight months ago.
Detroit Robocop Statue
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/imaginationstation/detroit-needs-a-statue-of-robocop?ref=users
This met its funding goal in March 2011, and raised $50,000 for a nice Robocop statue in downtown Detroit. How awesome is that? The answer: extremely awesome. They are working on it now. This is super exciting and I can't wait to see it.
In total:
Projects funded: 8
Projects delivered as promised in a timely fashion after funding: 1
Projects still in production: 7
Projects apparently idle or delayed: 2
Projects where I didn't get my reward as ordered: 2 |
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| Rick Perry Hates America |
[Sep. 22nd, 2011|09:58 pm] |
From the debate today.
Now, I'm no expert, but I remember another Presidential candidate being photographed without holding his hand over his heart at the National Anthem, and his patriotism, country of birth, secret motivations, 'hatreds', etc, was called into question by cable news pundits, widespread chain emails, blogs, etc. It was a regular feature on news channels for many months. Somehow I don't think that'll be the case this time.
There's one thing different between that Presidential candidate and this one. I don't know what that is though.. can't quite put my finger on it... |
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| Holy crap this looks great. |
[Sep. 12th, 2011|11:54 pm] |
A first person shooter where you've got a flak jacket and a news camera. Why hasn't anyone come up with a game like this before? I'm in.
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| 9/11 |
[Sep. 11th, 2011|02:05 pm] |
Riding the Elevator into the Sky
by Anne Sexton (1975)
As the fireman said:
Don't book a room over the fifth floor
in any hotel in New York.
They have ladders that will reach further
but no one will climb them.
As the New York Times said:
The elevator always seeks out
the floor of the fire
and automatically opens
and won't shut.
These are the warnings
that you must forget
if you're climbing out of yourself.
If you're going to smash into the sky.
Many times I've gone past
the fifth floor,
cranking upward,
but only once
have I gone all the way up.
Sixtieth floor:
small plants and swans bending
into their grave.
Floor two hundred:
mountains with the patience of a cat,
silence wearing its sneakers.
Floor five hundred:
messages and letters centuries old,
birds to drink,
a kitchen of clouds.
Floor six thousand:
the stars,
skeletons on fire,
their arms singing.
And a key,
a very large key,
that opens something –
some useful door –
somewhere –
up there. |
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| Pretty much |
[Sep. 9th, 2011|11:42 am] |
Shh, nobody tell them Reagan raised taxes. They might all spontaneously combust. |
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| Cheney Wanted To Shoot Airliners Down On 9/11 |
[Sep. 8th, 2011|12:12 pm] |
Bloodthirsty lunatic psychopath monster he is.
I like this picture because it's the only picture of Cheney smiling that I've ever seen. He is not ever happy unless holding an expensive instrument of killing in his hands.
Newly published audio this week reveals that Vice President Dick Cheney's infamous Sept. 11, 2001 order to shoot down rogue civilian aircraft was ignored by military officials, who instead ordered pilots to only identify suspect aircraft.
That revelation is one of many in newly released audio recordings compiled by investigators for the 9/11 Commission, published this week by The Rutgers Law Review. Featuring voices from employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and American Airlines, the newly released multimedia provides a glimpse at the chaos that emerged as the attack progressed.
Most striking of all is the revelation that an order by Vice President Dick Cheney was ignored by the military, which saw his order to shoot down aircraft as outside the chain of command. Instead of acknowledging the order to shoot down civilian aircraft and carrying it out, NORAD ordered fighters to confirm aircraft tail numbers first and report back for further instructions.
Cheney's order was given at "about 10:15" a.m., according to the former VP's memoirs, but the 9/11 Commission Report shows United flight 93 going down at 10:06 a.m. Had the military followed Cheney's order, civilian aircraft scrambling to get out of the sky could have been shot down, exponentially amplifying the day's tragedy.
Far from sending fighters to chase after the hijacked aircraft, as Bush administration officials have repeatedly said they did, the new audio tapes paint a picture of bedlam and unpreparedness.
more here |
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