316.4

7.5 mi run

-- iPhone post

318.6

5.25 mile run


-- iPhone post

318.4

7.5 miles


-- iPhone post

320.4

7.5mi walk/jog


-- iPhone post

320.2

-- iPhone post

322

weight: 322

I'm going to use this blog to track my weight for a while... i've been slowly creeping back up since loosing a lot of weight, so it is time to loose weight again

-D

Test

Testing


-- iPhone post

It's been a long time

It has been a long time since I've posted here. In the past I've mainly focused on news which kinda irked me. Politicians or people doing stupid things. I won't stop that, but reading others' blogs has led me to think that maybe I should just write more about me too. So in the coming months I'll try to do that. I can't promise anything interesting, goodness only knows I think I lead a boring life. I haven't dated in years. I've had some serious crushes, but that's as far as it has gone. I sort of dated a girl last year, but she was separated, and decided to give her husband another chance. My life is basically work, volleyball, working out, occasional handing out with friends, and cooking (see other blog). But I'll try to make it interesting. :)

-david

Televangelist Calls for Chavez' Death

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/22/national/a200632D93.DTL

Pat Robertson called Monday for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. That's really religious of him. Loving your fellow man and all. Sigh

daylight savings extension

I love daylight savings time, except that I find it hard to get to work on time. :p But did you know that the last extension of daylight savings time was passed mainly because of lobbying by various companies which would benefit from it. These included theme parks and other businesses which depend on the tourists.Congress is now considering extending daylight savings time by two additional months. According to CNN, Rep Ed Markey, D-Mass, says: "'The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use,' said Markey, who cited Transportation Department estimates that showed the two-month extension would save the equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil a day."Um, is he saying we are creating more daylight by extending daylight savings time? Well, that's just silly. They would just shifting which hours the daylight occurs in. Instead of burning electricity in the evening, people will burn it by turning on lights to get ready for work/school in the morning.http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/07/daylight.saving.ap/index.html

Things

As an example of how things are going right now: I need new tires for my car

Cat rides for 10 miles on top of car

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/03/03/national/a131241S51.DTL

Is your cable programming about to get fined

Cable, satellite next in line for indecency fines?

It looks like Alaskan Republican Senator Ted Stevens wants to apply the broadcast decency standards to cable and satellite tv and radio. This is absolutely insane! This is a subscription service that people pay for. I pay to get access to this content, the government should not be restricting it. What next, decency standards for the internet, magazines, newspapers? What is decent? According to the Parents Television Counsil, the primary source of complaints to the FCC, the portrayal of religion on TV is too negative and doesn't conform to the Christian standards in the US!!! Write you Senator and prevent these changes from passing.

Florida HS censors year book photo

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/02/25/national/a150332S21.DTL

Well, I said my last post was it for the day, but.....

Oh my god. You should read the article above. A Florida high school principal pulled the year book photo of a female senior who was wearing a tuxedo. The school system has no formal regulations for dress code in the photos.

I think my favorite quote is from a supporter of the principal: "When uniformity is compromised, then authority no longer holds". Is Florida still in the US? Don't we support the differences among us? Sigh.

Oh, I've failed to mention the student is a lesbian, but really, that shouldn't matter at all.

gummi road kill

http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/25/news/fortune500/kraft_candy.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

Ack, last one for today, I promise. Ok, who out there who has eaten Gummi bears can say that they haven't bitten the heads off of them. Have you not tried Gummi worms? There are Gummi of all variety where a common thing to do is to bite off their heads or other body parts because it looks funny. And what of Peeps chicks... so many heads have been bitten off in the name of humor. So why is this different. So what if Trolli produced some "road kill" Gummi. I thought it was funny. But sigh, the SPCA of New Jersey got upset. What's next? Are all Gummi going to have to be non-animal shaped? Sigh.

PTC

I plan on checking out the PTC website more soon, http://www.parentstv.org/, but here is an interesting article were they basically look at religion on t.v. for a one year period. Their statistics seem to show that religion is, on average, treated in a positive and negative light almost equally. But then conclude that this is not good enough since "90 percent of Americans believe in God and 80 percent of those polled believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ". So the PTC is not just trying to remove what they call smut from TV, but are trying to increase the amount of religious references, specifically Christianity, on broadcast TV.

http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/religionstudy/main.asp

FCC gives a good ruling? Can it be?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/25/fcc.indecency.ap/index.html

The FCC rejected complaints by the Parents Television Council (PTC) about the WB show Angel. Its about time we hear about the FCC rejecting one of the PTC's complaints. This is a group complains about every little hint of sex, nudity, language, and adult situations on t.v.. This group is responsible for a vast majority of the complaints the FCC receives. I wish there was a forum for the rest of America to respond to these complaints. How do we know what their complaints were? How do we respond favorably about a show to the FCC?

sex ed

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6894568

A new study finds that anstinence only sex ed classes had no effect on overall teen sex rates in Texas schools. Schools with and without the program showed the same increase in rates. We were all teenagers once (unless you aren't that old yet), and we should all know that teenagers are going to think and do things despite the school telling them that its uncool. In fact, its probably more dangerous to even mention sex in the schools without safe sex education then it is to just not mention it at all. If you are going to talk about sex to teenagers, at least tell them all the options. Encourage them to wait, but at the same time teach them how to protect themselves. I could rant about this for a while, but I have work to do and I want to enjoy the weekend, so I will pick this up another time

Not much is happening

Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do

Its been a pretty slow week. Not much to be all happy about or upset about either. I could bitch about Iraq, how private accounts does nothing to fix social security, how social security does need fixing, smokers, the FCC, or any number of topics. But instead I'm just going to look forward to a nice weekend filled with sun, beach volleyball, and jambalaya. Oh, and tomorrow is sushi day! woohoo! I'm not really catholic, but I still follow lint. Odd.

Have a great weekend y'all

"The Hamdog"

I think I might have had a cardiac event just reading the description of this dish at a Georgia bar:

"The dish, a specialty of Mulligan's, a suburban bar, is a hot dog wrapped by a beef patty that's deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions and served on a hoagie bun. Oh yeah, it's also topped with a fried egg and two fistfuls of fries."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/diet.fitness/02/14/southern.staples.ap/index.html

arg

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

it feels good to yell sometimes

FCC

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/26/apontv.the.jitters.ap/index.html

I love the "Family Guy". It is a great show, for adults. This is why Fox airs it at the end of its evening blocks. This should be late enough for most kids. Does everyone let their kids stay up late now watching TV? If so, it should stop. Networks should be able to show what they want after a certain hour. I was surprised to hear that Fox is now so worried that they feel they need to blur out a cartoon rear end on a show airing after 9pm (8pm central).

Sigh.

I believe that the FCC has gone too far. They have been focusing on attacking networks over nudity and language, but ignore what is probably worse for America's children: violence. Also the networks should be obligated to produce more educational programming. Not Saturday morning cartoons, but programming which children will actually learn from. I'm also going to throw news into the mix. Why can't there be programs like PBS' Frontline, Nova, and Nature on commercial television. Even in a compressed 30 minute format, I think programs like this would make a difference to all Americans, but adults and children. People will claims its not "commercially viable". Well, mandate that all the networks have to do it and you will have a level playing field.

Kathy's Ramblings

Cool cat Kathy says: "link me! link me!"

http://schrenkrap.blogspot.com/

I just saw an episode of the 'Thirsty Traveler' featuring wines from Chile. One segment dealt with the carménère grape, a "lost" grape originally from France. I should research it more and get a bottle to try. Its suppose to be in the same group as merlot (which it was mistaken for). Also, I really want to visit Chile at some point.

Sigh... "Maryland test a problem for deaf students" (CNN)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/11/deaf.test.scores.ap/index.html

Of course deaf students would have problems with identifying words with similar sounds. I wonder if they had a Braille version of this test for blind students.

CNN: Feds paid pundit to push Bush policy

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/07/bush.journalist.ap/index.html

Wow. This just seems wrong as do some of the other "informational" ads I've seen from the government. I can see why we need ads to inform people about new services they need to apply for and take, but not to promote a law which requires no action on the part of the general population. This was just federal dollars spent to make the Republicans and the Bush administration look good, especially leading up to the election (notice his contract was for 2003 and 2004).

been away for a while

Went home for the holidays.. hopefully I'll get back info blogging in the next couple of days. f

FCC goes after the Olympics

Apparently the opening ceremony might have contained something naughty and now the FCC is investigating. Why? Can't we as a society enjoy a beautiful artistic show put on by another country, another culture. I don't remember any nudity, but perhaps there was a little, or the hint of some. But certainly it wasn't overtly sexual, this is the Olympics after all. Could it be any different than nudity in statues around the country, or in art in our gallery? We don't shelter ourselves from this, so does it matter if there was some real life nudity of TV as part of what was clearly an artistic performance. Please write to the FCC and tell them to stop!

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/16/DDGS4ABT1S1.DTL

blue action

I use to always think I was a middle of the road person as far as politics go. Socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I think its still true. However, I find myself aligning more and more with the Democratic party. It appears to me that both parties have moved to identifying themselves by social issues and ignoring most fiscal issues. And for me, if I had to choose between them, I'll vote for social "values" over fiscal ones.

All that said, I think its about time for us to start forming liberal action groups. I have a lot of respect for the conservative action groups which boycott companies and their products, or form letter writing campaigns to companies, the FCC, and politicians. These are very effective groups, and we need to form groups on the other side of these issues. Why should the only voice the FCC hear when TV broadcasts someone cursing at a sporting event be those on the negative side. While I don't think that its a great thing that it happens, I don't think it will be the end of America. This is a part of our life today, especially in high intensity sporting events. If you are afraid your child might hear it, mute during player interviews. And its best if your kid learns it with a parent than at school. And believe me, he/she will hear it at school. Why on earth do you get upset that you child might hear a curse word when you are watching a sporting even in which people risk serious injury or even death. Do you think the replays of a player's foot getting twisted 180 degrees are better for your child than a curse word? Wow, that was a bit of a rant.

Anyway, we need to start forming groups to counter this conservative onslaught to our culture. I know we are a nation founded on puritan values. But we are also a nation founded on freedoms. And that includes the freedom to broadcast anything or support anything, or the freedom to change the channel or boycott something.

Other are having this same idea. Here is a site which identifies companies which donate heavily to conservative politicians. While I'm not saying to follow this religiously, think of it as a guideline when choosing among equals.

http://www.choosetheblue.com/main.php

Well, that was a good rant. Hope it made sense, its a little late :)

Before Sunset

I just sorta watched "Before Sunset" on dvd, and I'd like to say it totally sucked. Maybe it was just the mood I was in, but damn, I don't know if I've ever skipped over entire chapters on purpose of a movie I've never seen. I just better return it on time so I don't get a late fee.

The Amazing Race rant - Jonathan & Victoria

The only reality tv show I have ever really gotten addicted to is CBS' "The Amazing Race". But tonight, and probably for more nights to come, I rant about Jonathan & Victoria. This couple is amazing. How does she put up with him? He has to be the the biggest asshole to her that I've ever seen one person be to another on any episode of this series. I only hope that this contest has opened her eyes to what a jerk he is. I know its likely that its been edited to highlight their arguments, but wow. Still, this has been a good season, and the drama between these two only adds to it and allows me to have someone to root against.

the day itunes pissed me off

Not only do I find that iTunes is a bloated application (it seems to take up a lot of memory, and takes a long time to load and quit), but I get puzzled when I log into it to buy a song and it doesn't have it. Today it was Garbage's "Special" from the ablum "Version 2.0". Why does it not have this song? I know its probably an issue with licensing or something. There have been other examples in the past. I own the cd, but its buried somewhere. I guess I'll go dig it out and rip the song so I can load it into iTunes myself.

How did this happen?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4074101.stm

Apparently the French were using real passengers' suitcases to train their bomb sniffing dogs by places plastic explosives in them, and they lost one of the bags with the explosives, so now its at somebody's home. Worse, if that person had had their bad rescreened, they would've have been in serious trouble. Also, all the bags they did this too will now be detected by dogs and/or electronic sniffers for a while because traces of the explosives will remain. Good Job! Of course the TSA has missed guns and other things, so we are no better at this.

"Former Bush campaign official indicted in phone-jamming"

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/12/01/national1609EST0631.DTL

"Former Bush campaign official indicted in phone-jamming". This sounds like its straight out of the play book of Karl Rove. Arg!

A start, and end, and creative accounting

Welcome to my Blog. I've put these up in various spots over the years and never kept up with them. Perhaps I'll keep up with this one. I should warn you that I'll likely be very random here with my postings.

Well, today I was fired from my job, and hired by the same company but now incorporated in Deleware and owned my a public company. It amazes me the lengths companies go through to juggle accounting and liability rules. Because of this, they had to pay out our vacation balances, which would be good except for taxes and the fact that I now have zero accured days a month before Xmas. Also since its a new company, they will be withholding social security and other deductions even though I've hit my yearly cap. I guess I'll get these refunded to me.

Anyway, that's it. More later.
-David