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After a larger response than I thought I would get, I’m putting this disclaimer here. This was going to be just a bunch of silly semi-out-of-context quotes from tonight’s debate. Then I heard the bit at the end of this post, and put it here as a record to have for later. I determined that it was too short of a thing to stand on it’s own and I didn’t really analyze or put much thought to it, other than that it occurred and that I would just pose a question that hopefully someone would have an answer to. So, instructions are this: read the first part for some cheap laughs, then read the end and let me know the answer if you have any insight. Thanks!

I watched the whole debate and these people actually said these incredibly stupid things:

Mike Huckabee - “Just because we didn’t find the weapons of mass destruction, that doesn’t mean they weren’t there.”

Mitt Romney - “I don’t care about the voters. I care more about the other guys on stage.”

Mike Huckabee - “I did hear what Chuck (Norris) said. I was standing with him, and I didn’t disagree with him, at the time, because I was standing next to him.”

John McCain (on the previous awesomeness) - “Now that Sylvester Stallone has endorsed me, I’m sending him over to take care of Chuck Norris right away. And I’m going to get him, too!”

Then there’s this gem:

Moderator: “Will you do for Social Security what Ronald Reagan did in 1983?”
Overheard on TV as a whisper: “(raise taxes)”
Mitt Romney: “I’m not going to raise taxes.”

WHO THE HELL IS TELLING ROMNEY WHAT TO SAY??!!

Here we go again! It’s resolution time and for lots of people, that means weight loss. It’s well documented that many people start out with a ridiculous goal, don’t see an immediate change, then give up completely by the time February rolls around. Most gyms rely on this fact when offering new memberships. I’m sure you’ll start seeing ads for gym memberships in the coming weeks. What they won’t tell you is that you must pay for a long membership period upfront (usually at least a year or two) and there are no refunds. Most also charge a large start-up fee as well. Some gyms will let you pay monthly, and will allow you to cancel if you decide to stop going. These are few and far between, but they usually will still charge a large start-up fee as well. The gyms know you will stop coming after a month or so and want to get as much money out of you right away before you quit.

Why do people quit? I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that people set unattainable goals for themselves and get discouraged when they don’t see big results as quickly as they would like. I set an
ambitious goal for myself last year. I would lose 80 pounds. It was a little too ambitious. I didn’t quit going to a gym, because I was never a member of one in the first place. I was very determined when I started, and lost about 10 lbs. Then I leveled out and started getting bored, like most people. I put the weight back on and hit pause until about May. Then I really started working out. I started riding my bike to work and back a few times a week and really started to notice a difference. Then I changed my diet and stopped eating processed food almost altogether. The hardest part about that was just finding the time to cook for myself. I had gotten lazy, and frozen pizzas were easier than making a stir fry from scratch. But I like to cook, so it wasn’t any kind of torture or anything to start cooking for real again. Anyway, I’ve lost about 40 lbs. of the 80 I wanted to lose. I don’t feel a lot of disappointment because I know I’ve accomplished something significant, but I’ve always got that nagging thought in my mind that I failed at another resolution.

So, this year I will make my resolution attainable, but not exactly easy. I will lose that last 40 lbs. I’ve done it before, and I know I can do it again. I think that if people just set attainable goals for themselves, they would actually accomplish them, and possibly that end of February depression that a lot of people seem to get would be avoided. What do think? Do you have an attainable goal this year?

While I’m on the topic, qualitative goals are cheating! “I resolve to be a better person.” What kind of weak-ass crap is that?! How do you “be a better person”? Aren’t you already a complete person? How can you be better? You can’t resolve to evolve. (Heh, resolve to evolve. I like that ) I suppose the talented chimpanzees that you see on TV dressed in people clothes could resolve to be better people, but you? I don’t think so. Set yourself an attainable quantitative goal, and I think you will be much more likely to achieve it and will be happier about yourself once you do.

I got this in my email at work today. It was accompanied by a bunch of Cyrillic letters offering something. It seems as though the only spam I get at work are messages advertising drugs and fake real estate offers in Russian. Anyway, the latest image made me chuckle out loud at my desk. Here it is:

I’ve been on vacation since I got out of work on Friday, but tomorrow is the real start of everything. My friend Matt and I are driving down to Louisville to check out the Louisville Slugger factory, eat and drink at the Bluegrass Brewing Co., check out the Reds affiliate AAA Louisville Bats, then hit up a Meat Puppets concert.

The next day we are driving down to Memphis and are going to visit Graceland, the Blues and Soul museums, watch the ducks march at the Peabody, and get crazy-go-nuts on Beale Street. On Thursday we head back to Cincinnati to hopefully tailgate a little bit before the UC football game starts. Then on Saturday, I am driving up to Berea, OH to perform in their Oktoberfest and driving back down on Sunday for the incredible WEBN Labor Day fireworks.

It’s a busy week, but I’m looking forward to it as I haven’t been on a real vacation in about five years.

The University of Cincinnati begins its football season in a month and I am getting really excited. I renewed my season tickets in April and have been patiently waiting for them ever since. UC will be much improved this year and will be the best team I’ve ever seen play here. After spending 5 years in the band and going to every home game when they weren’t so good, it’s hard not to be excited about this. I may even do alumni band this year at homecoming so I can sit in my preferred seats. My real seats are in the front row of the North end zone in the “Black Hole”, as they are calling it. However, I prefer to sit with my friends near the band. Anyway, GO UC!! Louisville sucks!!

Seriously, this is important

Since I started this thing a few weeks ago, I’ve lost about 13 lbs. I haven’t lost much lately, but I think that my body was just catching up, and another drop should be right around the bend. So what’s my diet been like? It’s amazing, if I say so myself. I’m not really depriving myself of anything. I just eat smaller portions now. I really think that’s the key. People are being told that they absolutely cannot under any circumstances have foods that they like. And this is a “Lifestyle” that they must maintain for the rest of their lives. What a horrible thing to lay on someone! I say if you like bread and ice cream, then eat bread and ice cream damn it! Just don’t eat a loaf of bread every day and then lay around the house, and don’t eat the whole pint of ice cream while you veg out in front of the TV. Eat your bread with a nice sandwich because bread really is good for you! (Also, you look like a dweeb eating a “sandwich” on a plate after picking everything off the bread.) Eat your ice cream, but just have a small scoop or two in a bowl with fresh fruit. Then put the ice cream away, and don’t go back for seconds. Hide the stuff in the back of the freezer so you forget it’s there. Try not to eat just to eat, but eat to fuel yourself.

I’ve been actively trying to eat as few processed foods as possible, and to tell you the truth, I feel great. I no longer use margarine. It’s real butter (unsalted) or nothing! When I make mac & cheese, it’s no longer crap from a blue box. It’s all homemade from scratch and baked casserole style if possible. It’s tastier and leaves leftovers for a week, so it’s cheaper than box junk too! Real butter, you say? Yes! Read about how margarine is made and you’ll never touch it again. The heat vegetable oil in the presence of hydrogen and nickel as a catalyst to saturate the fat, and make it full of icky trans fats, as opposed to real butter where you can just whip cream until it firms into butter. Also, whole foods seem to leave me feeling less “run-down” after eating too.

I’ve found that whole foods are generally cheaper, fresher, and taste much better than their “convenience cousins”. Homemade food doesn’t take that much effort to make, but once you spend 45 minutes cooking something and put your heart and soul into it, you can really tell the difference between it and the mutated TV dinner that claims to be just as good. Seriously, take a look at the labels on most of your convenience food. It’s full of salt and compounds only a chemist could love (or pronounce!). If you are really eating to fuel yourself, whole foods are the highest quality gas you can get and unlike the gasoline analogy, it’s cheaper than the low grade, full of who knows what convenience store gas of convenience food.

Here is a cheap popcorn experiment for you to try. I did this, now I can’t eat microwave popcorn at all. Go buy a large heavy gauge stainless mixing bowl if you don’t have one, or don’t feel like putting that one on the stove. I got mine on sale at Sears for like 9 bucks. Go to the grocery store and buy peanut oil (about 3.50), popcorn salt (79 cents for a shaker, or put regular salt in the food processor for a bit), and a small bag of popcorn (about a buck). The popcorn should be close to the expensive microwave junk. Ignore Orville’s smiling face and look probably to the bottom of the shelves for the real treasure. Take your supplies home and in the mixing bowl put 3 tablespoons of peanut oil, ½ cup of popcorn, and ½ teaspoon of popcorn salt. Popcorn salt is much finer than regular table salt and will get in all the popped kernel’s nooks and crannies. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, poke holes in the foil, and shake the thing over medium heat on your stove. It will take a little bit to get going, but once it does, keep shaking! Once the popping slows down, take it off the heat and pull off the foil. Toss the kernels around a bit and serve right in the bowlJ. You’ll never want to touch the crappy microwave stuff again.

Yeah, so I haven’t posted recently. I’ve been busy following my own advice of putting fewer groceries in my maw and playing outside. Actually, I’ve been riding my bike to work recently like I said I was going to start doing months ago I picked up some panniers at the bike shop so I can carry all the crap I have, and have been doing a couple days per week on the bike. It’s a 15.5 mile ride one way, and there are some killer hills that I can do 40 mph down on my loaded up hybrid, but have to climb at about 7 mph. I haven’t lost anything lately, but I’ve been getting compliments recently from people I haven’t seen in a few weeks or months who say they can tell I’ve lost some weight. Those always help and really give me motivation to keep at it. I mean really, who wants the compliments to stop?

I wanted to ride this weekend, but on Sunday I hemmed and hawed until about 3:00. At that point I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and started to get things together to go out to the bike path. The first thing I checked, however, was the weather. There were thunderstorms all over the place. Great, I thought. Now what? I don’t mind getting wet, especially when it’s hot out, but I really don’t want to get struck by lightning. Then I got the inspiration to actually get back on my trainer! So I dug the bike out of the car and put it on the trainer. I got into some biking clothes, set up a fan and put in a great cycling movie. (American Flyers, in case you are wondering) I rode on the trainer for a good hour and a half watching the movie while the heavens opened up outside. Pumping away on the bike during a thunderstorm is really meditative and is quite a pleasant experience. Hopefully we get more early evening storms soon (on a day that I don’t ride to work) so I can ride the trainer. (Also we really need the rain here. The grass looks like it’s August already!)