No Ta*lent Ass Clo*wn.

I just have that in my head. (You're laughing, Jenn, aren't ya? :) )

Annnnnyyyyway, I still don't have much to say here... it's been a quite week, and I'm really looking forward to packing up and going away! I leave next Tuesday for wonderful Lassssss Veggasssss!!! I'm getting pretty excited, can ya' tell??

Prepping for a trip sucks, as we all know. I had to do the typical drug store trip, and that always costs at least 50 bucks (probably less for you guys, damn you all to hell).

So, other than laundry, I'm pretty well ready to go.

Farhenheit 911 is open... and I do plan to see it, possibly while in Vegas since there is a theater in Sam's Town. I've talked to quite a few people now who have seen it, and they are from all sides of the fence politcally. The same sentiment was echoed time and time again. This movie should be seen by every American who votes. Supposedly a big ol' Nascar guy, Dale E. J*r, actually told his pit crew to see it, adding that it was important for Americans to see. I am unable to verify this happened through any news agency online, but it seems to be the standing report (reported by a Sports News commentator during a race the other day). If indeed he said that, that's great. Reaching more people and giving them a chance to see it and make their own decision is the best thing.

My friend noticed that a women's golf open is being sponsored by Cial*is... which just struck me as really funny. :)

I think I'm going to get a spray-on tan thing because no matter what I do I can't get any kind of color on my lower legs... which I know is a problem for most people. I've read reviews and all that jazz, and they seem to be pretty well received. Well see, I'm still a little afraid of being orange, but it doesn't seem that really happens anymore....hmmm.

Toot, toot. Yeah. Beep, beep.

I am beginning to wonder what is going on here. I think I posted not long ago about a very happy man in traffic who was all smiley/wavy to me.

Tonight, I dragged a friend out with me to grab an ice cream, and also asked her to snap a few pictures of me for the site. I've been out for so long, I needed to grab something quick.... so at least I have a handful I can use for pics of the week now.

So while we're hanging around, and she's taking pictures, I'm on a picnic table and she's standing to the side taking a couple of shots, and I hear a beep. It was just a quick little beep like when you're saying hello to someone on the street from your car, etc. I turned, saw the guy and turned back around. I thought he was trying to get someone's attention.

He's coming down a road that empties right across the street from the bench I'm on, and I then hear "beep beep beep". So I turned around again, and he's smiling, looking right at me, and giving me a vigorous thumbs up. Apparently it was my attention he was trying to get.

I burst out laughing and gave back the thumbs up. I was amazed. It occured to me that he might be making fun, but then my friend said "wow, that's one happy guy,... guess we know there's an FA in town". And I have to agree, he was just far to happy... not laughing, not a smirk, but a broad, toothy smile plastered on his face.

I looked at the picture of his view and realized that if I was an FA coming down the road and saw that hanging out on a park bench, I'd probably be pretty damn happy as well. :)

Beautiful day!!

It is really lovely here today. Nice sun, cool breeze, warm, but not too warm. Ahhhhhhhh. Perfect weather. I think I've mentioned this before, but if you live near a coast, you know the salt water smell. It's so great.

My area has other smells that are sometimes great, sometimes not... they run a thin line. I am around seaports, and sometimes you can smell fried fish... which sounds like it would smell bad. I must admit though, sometimes it's just this mild, almost sweet drifting smell on the air, really subtle. Then there are the days that it's like you nailed a filet*o*fish to your face. Those are not quite so nice. :)

Anyway, lately it's been really lovely here... weather, smells, nice evenings. I just get a feeling it's going to be a nice, relaxing summer with friends. At least I hope that's the case, sounds like a nice way to spend a few months, yes?

Over the weekend I was with friends for a going away party. My friend Big Cutie Melonie is moving to VA in a few days and I'll certainly miss her. She's a really nice girl, and I hope she finds a great new start down south.

I've been working a little bit on my tan, trying to get some color before I head off to Vegas and turn into a crispy critter. I actually have color you can see (miracle for me, oh-white-one), and I'm hoping a few more weeks of sun and some electra-tan visits will help me along. I'm still going to slater on the ol' sunscreen while there, but it would be nice to have that "sun kissed" look.

Take a minute to go vote in the AOL sraw poll. I don't know if you need to be an AOL member, but if you do I apologize. AOL Straw Poll.

Dead Presidents.

I wish I was talking about some loot, but nope... that Ronnie guy.

I know he was the president, and I know he's passed away and all. But closing Wall Street and Federal Offices on a Friday as a day of mourning? No. Too far.

He's not the CURRENT president (**sinister thoughts**), and it wasn't like he was taken out in some untimely way. The man has been sick, sick, sick for YEARS, his passing is a blessing... probably to him and his family who's been losing him little by little all this time. I could see if he was a victim of a crime perhaps, or some accident, etc... but he's an old man, he served us, he's going to a better place, and it seems insane to me to impact the economy for that.

Politics aside, shutting down our entire economy for a day doesn't really seem a fitting tribute to a man who presided over a decade of excess and personal debt unlike any seen prior. At least just make it a Saturday, with only federal things involved... leave Wall Street alone. It's a lame move by the Prez to make him look sympathetic to the cronies from the 80s who are still hanging on to him by a thread.

And finally, a few contributions from CN*N users which kind of mirror how I feel:

>> Your poll about the most significant parts of Reagan's presidency should have included the drastic reliance on deficit spending and the ... increase of the national debt during his presidency. Those things had a much greater effect on most Americans than the folksy charm that people seem so fond of remembering. <<

>> Frankly, I am wondering who in heaven's name all these sentimental, laudatory remembrances are about. Isn't this the president who engineered a covert triangle of weapons exchange between my country, Iran and the Contra rebels? And when questioned about it ... denied remembering anything about it? ...<<

>>Ronald Reagan was a man who tried to have ketchup classified as a vegetable for the school lunch program. Sure, it would've saved some money, but it certainly wouldn't have helped anyone's diet. He is also the man who closed scores of mental institutions, leaving people in dire need of care out on the street and eventually in jail. I do not miss him. I do not mourn him. We Americans can do much better than this.<<

>>I have studied about, and now been living in, the former Soviet Union for more than 10 years, and it burns me every time I hear that Reagan was the one who ended the Cold War. While he was a major player, he was not the only player. Reagan gets way too much credit with the ending of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight, and Reagan's policies were just a little added pressure. And let's not even go into Reaganomics.<<

Later, folks.

From the NY Times...

This article is a welcome light in the vast ocean of misinformation on the so-called statistics regarding obesity. Thank God some people are digging a little deeper to find out what the studies are really saying, not just what makes low-carb sell better. You think the diet lobby isn't just as equipped and determined as the tobacco lobby? Think again.

__________
The Fat Epidemic: He Says It's an Illusion

June 8, 2004
By GINA KOLATA

Ask anyone: Americans are getting fatter and fatter. Advertising campaigns say they are. So do federal officials and the scientists they rely on.

But Dr. Jeffrey Friedman, an obesity researcher at
Rockefeller University, argues that contrary to popular
opinion, national data do not show Americans growing
uniformly fatter.

Instead, he says, the statistics demonstrate clearly that
while the very fat are getting fatter, thinner people have
remained pretty much the same.

Let it be said that Dr. Friedman, a Howard Hughes Medical
Institute investigator and the discoverer of the gene for
leptin, a hormone released by fat cells, is not fat. He is
tall and gangly, with the rumpled look of an academic
scientist.

As an obesity researcher, he might be expected to endorse
the prevailing view that obesity in this country is out of
control. But Dr. Friedman said he was outraged by the
acceptance of what he sees as a hurtful myth, one that
encourages people to believe that if you are fat, it is
your fault.

The obesity arena "is so political, so rife with
misinformation and disinformation," he said.

Dr. Friedman points to careful statistical analyses of the
changes in Americans' body weights from 1991 to today by
Dr. Katherine Flegal of the National Center for Health
Statistics. At the lower end of the weight distribution,
nothing has changed, not even by a few pounds. As you move
up the scale, a few additional pounds start to show up, but
even at midrange, people today are just 6 or 7 pounds
heavier than they were in 1991. Only with the massively
obese, the very top of the distribution, is there a
substantial increase in weight, about 25 to 30 pounds, Dr.
Flegal reported.

As a result, the curve of body weight has been pulled
slightly to the right, with more people shifting up a few
pounds to cross the line that experts use to divide normal
from obese. In 1991, 23 percent of Americans fell into the
obese category; now 31 percent do, a more than 30 percent
increase. But the average weight of the population has
increased by just 7 to 10 pounds since 1991.

Dr. Friedman gave an analogy: "Imagine the average I.Q. was
100 and that 5 percent of the population had an I.Q. of 140
or greater and were considered to be geniuses. Now let's
say that education improves and the average I.Q. increases
to 107 and 10 percent of the population has an I.Q. of
above 140.

"You could present the data in two ways," he said. "You
could say that the average I.Q. is up seven points or you
could say that because of improved education the number of
geniuses has doubled."

He added, "The whole obesity debate is equivalent to
drawing conclusions about national education programs by
saying that the number of geniuses has doubled."

Not everyone agrees.

"It' s one thing to talk about
statistics and another to talk about what's happening to
individuals," said Dr. Marion Nestle, a professor of
nutrition, food studies and public health at New York
University. "Everyone notices that there are more
overweight people now."

Dr. Friedman, however, begs to differ. The statistics let
scientists get beyond impressions and focus on the
evidence.

He is, in a way, an unexpected figure to insert himself
into the highly charged politics of obesity. He left
clinical medicine in 1980 after discovering that his true
passion was the laboratory. By 1981, he had begun his
scientific career, and within a few years he was taking on
what seemed like an impossibly onerous task, finding a gene
whose absence made mice grow massively obese.

He keeps mementos from those days. He still has the
purchase order, from December 1986, for the first batch of
mice he used for the experiment. Hanging on his office wall
is a framed strip of white paper with black blotches, the
data that on Sunday morning, May 8, 1994, revealed he had
found the gene that he named leptin.

"To me, those data are as beautiful as the Mona Lisa," he
said.

Over the years, Dr. Friedman says, he has watched the
scientific data accumulate to show that body weight, in
animals and humans, is not under conscious control. Body
weight, he says, is genetically determined, as tightly
regulated as height. Genes control not only how much you
eat but also the metabolic rate at which you burn food.
When it comes to eating, free will is an illusion.

"People can exert a level of control over their weight
within a 10-, perhaps a 15-pound range," Dr. Friedman said.
But expecting an obese person to decide to simply eat less
and exercise more to get below the obesity range, below the
overweight range? It virtually never happens, he said. Any
weight that is lost almost invariably comes right back.

The same goes for gaining weight in general, Dr. Friedman
argued. A person who has the genes to be thin is not going
to get fat because portion sizes increase. It makes no
scientific sense, he said.

But isn't it true that we can decide to eat or not,
choosing to skip dinner, say, or pass up dessert? Isn't
that free will? Not really, Dr. Friedman said. The control
mechanisms for body weight operate over months, even years,
not day to day or meal to meal.

"People live in the moment," he said. "They lose weight
over the short term and say that they have exercised
willpower," but over the long term, the body's intrinsic
controls win out. And just as willpower cannot make fat
people thin, a lack of it does not make thin people fat.

No one, he says, can consciously calibrate their food
intake as precisely as the body does naturally. Most
people's weights remain steady, within about 10 pounds,
year in and year out. But when people count calories, they
typically err by about 10 percent. For someone who eats
750,000 calories in a year, that 10 percent error would add
up to 75,000 calories, or about 25 pounds.

Obesity, Dr. Friedman says, is a problem; fat people are
derided and they have health risks like diabetes and heart
disease. But it does no one any good to exaggerate the
extent of obesity or to blame the obese for being fat.

"Before calling it an epidemic, people really need to
understand what the numbers do and don't say," he said.

Soldier in need of adoption??

Geez, you try to maybe do something nice and it's like this giant nightmare from hell.

A friend of mine mentioned she's adopted a couple of soldier types to send a card to, care packages once a month, that sort of stuff... and I thought... well, that's sort of nice. Generally you get assigned someone who doesn't have family, etc. So I looked into it and it's this nightmare from hell to get approved, they don't even show you upfront the type of things you might need/want to send to them, and then there are 40 other sites that say you can't send anything overseas to them anyway, so don't bother.

I have no idea what's legit or not, so it sort of makes the "can't be bothered" side of me sit right on the head of the "do-gooder" in me.

I know I have soldiers who read this, they write to me... so here's the deal, if you are a soldier, currently deployed in a conflict area (I don't mean sitting drinking a Coke at Ramstein), then drop me an email and maybe I'll just run my own little adoption program. Fatties for Infantry or something. I have other friends, I'm sure I could probably figure something out.

Tell me who you are, where you are, age, what you like, what stuff you would need in care packages, and how realistic it would be for you to receive anything and I'll figure out what's do-able.



Deal? :)

Laptop luxury.

Well, I'm back to laptop land as of last night. My old one bit the dust many, many months ago now... but this weekend I found a really nice deal for one that worked out to $650 after rebates, so I snagged it last night, and I'm on it right now. All is good with it. I wouldn't buy it for business travel, it's heavy as hell and wouldn't want to lug it around much. But for my home/wireless use, it's just fine.

On the way home from the store, I was at a traffic light and I felt someone looking at me from the car to my right. I looked over and the man in the car was smiling and waving at me... it was sooooo weird!! And when I looked over and smiled, he started waving even harder and smiled wider... LOL, I had to laugh, it was really amusing. I don't think he knew who I was or anything, but he was clearly just a very happy man who couldn't contain himself. Heather was in the car in front of me, I was sort of hoping he'd see her next... would have made his weekend! :)

So, Delaney and I have decided that we're probably going to get a car for Vegas so we can make rounds on the strip and even head off strip a bit for some different restaurants and casinos. It will be a slight added expense, and we're both sort of budget conscious right now, but I think it will be more fun in the end.

I was at Deidrababe's surprise bday party on Saturday, which was really nice and a good time was had by all. Some people got lots of pictures, so hopefully some may be floating around soon enough. I accidentally left my camera there (stupid), but I didn't take any...so not really a big deal. I was too busy chatting and goofing around. :) I wish it had been a bit warmer so we could have gotten in some swim time, but damn - it was chiiiillyyyyyyy!!!

Okay, off to try my hardest to find something to watch until Sopr*anos at 9. Woo-hoo, season ender!

Back in the saddle.


I am back from our big ol' weekend event in CT. It was pretty good... nice size crowd on Saturday, and smaller on Sunday but everyone had a pretty good time from the smiles and hangovers I saw... so all in all I'll chalk it up as successful.

I have finalized my first summer vacation plans, and off to Vegas we go. I'm going with Delaney, and we're going to be there from the 6th to the 12th. I was realy ambivilent about going this year for a few different reasons (mostly money and worrying about dealing with ghost's of Vegas trips past [knowing that I won't be seeing "ex"—for lack of a better term]). But anyway, we managed to get a pretty good airfare (and it's nonstop), and I have a couple of free nights at the hotel from my degenerate gambling last year, so it just ended up coming together and now I'm looking forward to it. In a mere 5 weeks, we're off!

I am finally done with the helper job, so that will be a nice change of pace to be home and work on my current projects... get things in order to go away, etc.

As far as other summer plans, well... we'll be heading to NJ for the NAAFA convention, and I am thinking about the Philly Bash (sorry, I don't know the link). Problem for me with Philly is the timing, it's the weekend following Vegas, so I think it might be too tight for me to get it all together - and the NAAFA convention is only 3 weeks past that. We'll see how it goes.

Okay, I'm going to go work and check out a movie or something... have a great afternoon. :)