Plan B

You all probably know I'm a lazy slob. Not in a totally lazy, slob in every aspect of my life, but close enough. So I'm trying to change things. I finally got up the nerve for step one. I disconnected my DVR tonight. I'm going to rock it old school and set my cable at 12 channels. I already watch far too much t.v. and for what? I love my shows, but in the words from Fever Pitch "...have they ever loved me back?". Add the DVR on top of that, and I have completely atrophied into a couch slug. Well no more. The DVR cable box goes back tomorrow and I'm moving the t.v. in my bedroom out and not reconnecting it. It's not much, but I'm hoping it will bore me into getting more exercise and getting more done. Or at least, it's one less reason to stay in bed. So I can lose weight and find a guy to give me a new reason to stay in bed. ;)

(it's been a ridiculously long time since that was the case. All my slutting about in college has been erased by the subsequent nunnery I've endured in my book.)

I also joined a weight loss competition at work, and I've lost 2 lbs since my first weigh in 2 weeks ago. It's not much, and I know I'm going to do better, but it's progress and I'll take it. I'm back up to my max weight (200) and would really like to get back down to mid-range college weight, 140-150 is fine. But I haven't been under 170 in 10 years so it's going to be tough. Obviously that won't happen in the next 10 weeks, but 20 lbs is possible. I think an additional 20 or more is possible by Reunion, so hopefully my old friends can welcome back the old me and my newer friends can get used to the new me. I'm thinking 1% per week? we'll see.

I was going through old pics and found this one from Formal 1996. This is my new goal photo of what I'd like to look like again. I've included a current photo for reference. At least I'm wearing red in each. I've edited out the innocent.

Before:After:
I hope I have an After, after picture to post after 10 more weeks. Wish me luck.

Prepare to be creeped out

Just for a little light entertaining read about the guy that lived 7 blocks from me. Here are a few articles about what was hopefully just his active imagination.

Update: Confession to psychiatrist led to search
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/37178474.html

Update: Man's psychiatrist sheds light on bizarre story
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/37185029.html

Dead barber's home yields creepy stash
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/37188529.html

Racine police to scour files in alleged 1950s murder
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/37209304.html

Seitz's fantasies stun even his psychiatrist
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/37365524.html

Police review dead barber's psychiatric records
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/37466554.html

No he never cut my hair...

I cherish my luck.

I am on one of my mood highs the last few days. I think it is a combination of the end of my period, getting my hockey tickets (GO WINGS!) and a long trip to Houghton, Detroit and Chicago coming up in 2 weeks. Even getting my car towed for expired tabs and unpaid parking tickets Friday (Yeah I know, I'm a lazy irresponsible bum, but at least I recognize that it is entirely my fault.) can't ruin my mood.

I have the best friends. Really, I can't express how completely captivated I am with all of you. You are the most amazing, caring, fun, outragous, inspiring, intelligent, wonderful people. How I get to be lucky enough to have the honor I don't know, but I wouldn't trade my friends for anything.
Moving so far away, and I have great friends, some I hadn't talked to in years, or only knew casually, that include me and invite me out all the time, help me when I need it, give me crap when I need to be straightened out. Even their friends are great, treat me like one of the group and like they've known me forever.
Friends that I moved away from or moved away from me, they keep me included, come out when I'm in town, open their homes to me without a second thought, stay in touch although I am terrible at it myself. I miss you all so much.
People I haven't seen in years, we pick right back up like there was no time in between. I marvel at that every time. Some of them I haven't seen in ten or more years, but as soon as we say hello, it's like that time apart never exisited. How does that happen? We've all changed, but at the core, we are still friends. It is remarkable.

Follow my thoughts...Houghton to Orange Roughy.

I was trying to explain how far Houghton is from Milwaukee. So I was looking at Michigan on Google maps. And Mackinaw caught my eye...

My Wisconsin-native coworker is adamant that Mackinaw and Mackinac are pronounced differently. Which is irritating for 2 reasons.
1. They aren't. Both are pronounced "naw".
2. I'm from Michigan. She's from Wisconsin. Mackinaw is in my state so it is pronounced the way I say. I'm not even getting into the proper spelling of Cheboygan...

So I then went to http://www.m-w.com/. Which also has the handy tool of pronouncing words for you. Which proves the correct pronunciation is naw" Listen here yourself: http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?ggmack02.wav=Mackinac It's silly I have to prove this, but...

I also searched Mackinaw. And found out there is such a thing as a Mackinaw Trout. Which is described as 'a large dark North American char '. Char? They just aired an episode of Iron Chef where they were cooking Arctic Char, I wonder if they are related...

So I search Arctic Char. Same genus, different species. But the wiki entry also refers to 'the Monterey Bay Aquarium "Seafood Watch" program. So I look that up...

And find this very cool Seafood choice guide. http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_regional.aspx Which makes me very happy as I can remember a few eat/don't eat fish rules, I can rarely keep them straight and this comes as a printable pocket guide too. Did you know...

Orange Roughy is on the avoid list. See the notes from the site below.

Orange Roughy
This deep sea fish, once known as the “slimehead,” grows very slowly and doesn’t reproduce until it’s 20 years old.

Consumer Note: Orange roughy live 100 years or more—so the fillet in your freezer might be from a fish older than your grandmother!

Health Alert: Environmental Defense Fund has issued a health advisory for orange roughy due to high levels of mercury.

Summary: Unfortunately, years of heavy fishing have decimated orange roughy populations. Although fishery management plans are now in place, it’ll take decades for this slow-growing fish to recover. Another concern with orange roughy is the way it’s caught—by bottom trawling. This fishing method can damage the seafloor habitat, and we don’t know what impacts that damage might have on fragile deep sea ecosystems.

Have a nice day.

I had to ruin another person's day today. She was sure the qwerty in the qwerty keyboard was the inventor's last name. Because her 3rd grade teacher said so. I think teachers get bored and make crap up all the time. Or maybe it's just this: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/03/state/n182420D74.DTL&type=science Actually my Mom used to have fun doing that to me. The inventor is C.L. Slope by the way and he invented in in Milwaukee.

Boys are bad drinking buddies.

...and by bad I mean I feel like crap for at least a day after, and feel disgusted about the amount of money I just paid to feel like crap. I try telling them I'm not drinking, then I get strange looks and exclamations of complete disbelief. I try and have managed not to drink or drink in moderation (2 per evening) but that has not been consistant.

It is either go out with them or languish in my house, what am I to do?

What other activities can I entice them into that does not involve drinking, or at least is limited? And at a reasonable price?

A month of no internet, yikes!

I finally have my computer functioning after nearly a month of issues. My video driver was being a brat, so I got the IT manager at work to fix it for me. It's strange not to be able to read my email and look things up, I mean really, am I supposed to use the phone book to find things instead of go0gle maps, are you kidding me?!

I'm watch Pr0ject Runw@y so I'll make this short.

1. My old house in Berkley is now listed at $149,000. When I bought it just over 2 years ago, it was listed for $234,900. It makes me happy work bought it from me, but sad that no one loves it as I did.

2. I got digits from a guy on Match, right before my computer crashed. A month ago. Too late to call? Yeah probably, but a poor excuse on my part... if I had really wanted I could have gone to an Internet cafe and looked up his number.

Later!

What is the Pep+o for verbal diarrhea?

Okay, I've realized for a long time I talk way too much and way too loud. The loud part I'm not sure what I can do without obsessing about it and that would make me really unhappy to be that controlling of how I am. I try to dial it down when I hear it, and being around my family helps they are all exactly the same and it lets me hear it and recognize it. The only things I have found my volume level useful for is ordering drinks in a loud bar and leading Sound Off. :) Oh and if needed, I can speak to a large room and everyone can hear without amplification, but I've never spoke to a large enough group to make that impressive. Any votes for how many poeple I could handle in about my normal speaking voice? I'm thinking at least 200. ;)

But I'd like to work on the verbal diarrhea. I'm in a class right now and it is so obvious and annoying to me. I have NO filter. It's not going to be good for me at work in the long run.
I think the top 3 aspects are; interrupting by starting to speak before someone is done; finishing people's sentences; and wanting to answer every question, or even offer unsolicited help.

The first part might be helped by really trying to be a better listener, and to do that you have to keep your trap closed until the other person closes theirs. And not be thinking about what I would say. I think I am listening a lot because I do have something to say back, but I miss things. Maybe starting with the sales tool, "I think what I just heard you say is ..., is that right?"

My mom exacerbated the finishing sentences, she stops and waits for me to do it or asks me to all the time. I tell her to "use her words" now. My boss stops mid-sentence all the time and doesn't finish the thought, but I've tried really hard not to guess the ending and I think I'm doing ok.

I'm not sure what to do about answering everything and giving unsolicited "help". Stop and count to 5 or 10 and see if someone else will talk? Try thinking to myself what I would do? I even make little noises when I think of something and don't say it. I'm afraid I am incredibly desperate for attention, from a chil dhood of not seeing my parents much and now living alone for the last 8 years. How can I 'warn' someone on my M@tch profile and make it sound like a positive?

I really want to be quieter. I have the utmost for those people that don't say much, and then what comes out of their mouth is almost always the exact perfect thing to do. Since I never shut up, people stop listening, and since I have no filter, for every 20 bad ideas, I might have one decent one, but everyone understandably stopped listening after the first few bad ones...

I think I just need to get laid. It's been a frighteningly long time. No I won't admit to how long, it's that bad.