1/30/2004

One of those sites you may not have seen

Here is a page called AirDisaster.com. It has some interesting information. Take a peek.

sparta at 6:40 pm

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1/29/2004

I hope this makes it to the outside world….

The ol’ Blog is acting funny - and not “ha-ha” funny, either. *sigh* I blame the Illinois Nazis. Any-who, if this does make it out, please see Andrew’s site and Uncle Monster’s site for references to little ol’ me and my little cutie-pie son, John! Gosh - it’s great to be loved. Bye for now!

sparta at 11:05 pm

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1/21/2004

Test post

My -uhem- sys admin has performed yet another upgrade; so just to make sure everything is still intact - I am making this test post. Had this been an actual post, you might have found something educational, intellectual, or humorous. That is all.

sparta at 4:43 pm

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President’s State of the Union Speech

Wow. This guy pulls no punches; he defended without being defensive. I was pretty impressed. I think he’s opening a whole new can of worms with the push on the defining of marriage….(note: I am not stating my opinion on whether this is a good or bad idea, just pointing out that this will get some people’s hackles up). There are some things about which I’m wary, but overall, the man has been keeping his word. Whether you agree or not, he’s been following through on what he’s said. The other thing I’ve noted is that he hasn’t abandoned or backed off on anything in favor of “election year” mode. Not bad. For those who missed it: here is the transcript from whitehouse.gov

sparta at 12:52 pm

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Update

I’ve been scouring the Internet for things that might interest you - things that you yourselves haven’t already discovered - but see, I’m really afraid of that one corner of the Internet. It’s dark - and something smells - and well, I’ve ordered a suit from NASA so that I can finish my search. It’s taking a while to get here. So here’s a little about what’s been happening:

John - after receiving a “snow” covered Thomas the Tank Engine from someone (you know who you are) (and I think seeing a video with a story in which Thomas gets stuck in the snow) Johnathan has been using the salt from the salt shaker as snow for his Thomas. ALL the salt from the salt shaker. We’ve refilled it three times. *sigh*

Phillip has begun work on his Pinewood Derby car. I sure hope he wins again this year. Some of you may remember that he won 1st place in the Tiger division and went to the District race where he placed pretty well considering the competition. Keep your fingers crossed. The race is January 31st for those who want to come and watch.

I’ve been working in the library, and I also type up the stories that the school “publishes” for the kids. Okay - there’s only one copy - and it’s in that plastic, semi-spiral binding, but hey - you have to start somewhere.

Send “good new boss” vibes to my friend whose boss is quitting and taking another job. ~~~GNB~~~GNB~~~~GNB~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay that’s it for now. Hey, is that UPS? Maybe my suit is here.

sparta at 12:47 pm

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1/15/2004

Interesting “war” about to begin….

My monkey has a gripe today. He’s quite agitated, so read on……

In her articles, Sandy Szwarc discusses some of the new findings, myths, and so on regarding weight issues. The problem I can see is that some of what she says goes against the grain that we’ve all been shown to follow. Perhaps she’s trying not so much to undermine what’s out there, but to shift the focus where it needs to be. In one of her articles she mentions that there’s the possibility that the big anti-tobacco lawyers - now bored with nothing to do - are setting their sights on food. To do this, they have to set up the crisis - the obesity crisis. “If your scale says you’re 20 pounds over what this chart says, you’re obese. So what made you obese? Cookies? McDonald’s? Pizza? Just tell us and we’ll sue ‘em for you.” There are suits starting already. What Ms. Szwarc tells us in her articles is that all foods have a place in a healthy diet. All things in moderation. One piece of Fudge Overboard at Red Lobster isn’t going to kill you. A steak won’t give you a heart attack. Steak and Fudge Overboard 3 times a day (or more) every day for years might set up the conditions that kill you - but whose fault is that? Yours - for not eating more in balance.

Another thing she tells us is that too many doctors (and people) put too much emphasis on numbers. There are charts that say for a woman 66″ tall, she must weigh 135. Now, there are some places where you will find a range of 124-147, or you might even find one that gives weight ranges by body frame where from small to large frame the weight range is 118-155. What gets me is that the same place that’s willing to give ranges for different frames does not take anything else into account when calculating BMI.

I read through a web site where they interviewed a group of men who were all 6′ tall. One of them was the Pillsberry Dough Boy - one was a lean, mean, ex-marine - the others were all in between. Care to guess whose scale showed the highest number? You probably guessed it - the ex-marine. His muscles put him up at 250 pounds - 62 pounds over the range for large frame men his height. The Dough Boy weighed in at 195 - 7 pounds overweight.

So what does all this mean? It means that good health is more than a number on a scale or a pair of stupid calipers (remember those things?). Good health means things like good blood pressure - good cholesterol numbers - the ability to go up a flight of stairs without needing an oxygen tank - eating a balanced diet - and being able to play with your kids. We all roll our eyes at the Lipitor commercials, but it’s true. Some of the fittest looking people will die of heart attacks, have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and not be able to climb 3 flights of stairs without stopping to rest. Remember what mom said “Never judge a book by its cover.” Mom also said to eat your broccoli. Both of those pieces of advice are better for you than most of the features on Oprah.

So for all of you who might have started obsessing about that scale number since the New Year kicked in, here’s my bit of advice: eat BETTER, get EXERCISE, ENJOY life…if all of that means your blood pressure goes down, you feel better, you play more, your LDL drops, and you only drop one pant size - then that’s great!

My monkey feels calmer now. Thanks.

sparta at 11:05 am

Comments (1)

1/13/2004

Okay Okay….

There are lots of things about the Japanese culture that I like - so my comment in the previous post was just an attempt at humor because - well - just like Hamtaro - some of it is unexplicably disturbing. :-)

Where have all my readers gone??

PJ

sparta at 10:16 pm

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More reason to fear the cute culture of the Japanese

sparta at 10:08 pm

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Hi, all! Here’s one of those strange things I was talking about….

Go to this page. Go. What? You’ll see when you get there. Stop it. It’s a surprise - just go and you’ll see. Sheesh, some people.

sparta at 4:29 pm

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Quick comment

I really really really love my children.

sparta at 4:15 pm

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New Things Afoot!

Strange things are happening at the Circle K, my friends. I can’t give you the whole scoop right now (there has to be –some– suspense). But soon - hopefully - I will have new and interesting things to post - talk about - complain about - show off - and so on.

Miss you! You really should write more often - and none of you send me flowers any more….(sniff sniff).

sparta at 12:16 pm

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1/7/2004

Funny thing happened at the Walgreen’s

Okay - so I’m in one of the aisles at Walgreen’s looking at something when this little girl decides to play with this fat, fuzzy, cute chicken. Now, what makes this chicken so special is that it plays the Chicken Dance when you squeeze its wing. She was having a ball dancing in the aisle while her mom looked over some things. I asked her if she liked the Chicken Dance. “It’s my favorite,” she replied. I then decided that she shouldn’t dance alone - being in the silly mood I was - so I joined her (ignoring the strange looks from her mom; they weren’t “my child is in danger” looks - more like “I can’t believe this woman is doing this” looks). The next thing I know this older woman comes up to us and asks “Can I dance with you?” I must have given her the strangest look because she immediately added, “I’m going to a wedding this weekend, and I’m sure my granddaughter said they were going to do this dance. I don’t know it.” So - as odd as it must have looked - I started teaching this older lady the Chicken Dance in the middle of Walgreen’s - to a stuffed chicken’s recording of it, no less. Suddenly, the little girl got between us and said, “I can teach this better.” And to the older lady she said, “Watch me.” The mother looked torn between being embarassed and wanting to laugh her head off. I made a graceful exit. It just goes to show - no matter what your age - you can have a good time dancing in the aisles.

sparta at 9:31 pm

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While I was there….I went to a movie!

A lot of people may not go to the movies while on vacation, but I do. I went to see Return of the King. It was great! Once again I was amazed at Peter Jackson’s vision. I don’t want to interject any spoilers, and as there’s no way to discuss the movie without talking about things that others may not be aware of (there are actually people who have never read the books, can you imagine that?), I will have to hold many of my comments until I feel that the majority of you have seen it. But I will say that I thought killing Ripley at the end was a bit harsh….

sparta at 9:22 pm

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Wow!

Okay - so I know I haven’t checked in for a while. Quite frankly - I was sick, and then I was too much into the Christmas frenzy, and then - well - writing here was the last thing I was thinking about. I was thinking about how awesome the ocean is. Standing on a 9th floor balcony watching the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico has a way of making one feel small. It also has a way of making one feel glad to be alive - glad that such beauty exists in the world. I think one of the sights that wow’ed me the most was a sunset on the day after it rained. The sky was such a wonderful shade of purple - and so bright - that it made the ocean look purple, too. *sigh*

For those not familiar with Destin….the beaches there are made of the finest (and I mean that in terms of courseness), whitest sands you can imagine. Walking on the beach is like walking on off-color baby powder. I love it.

And for those in California…nyah nyah na-nyah nyah - I’m writing this while Andrew’s driving! :-)

sparta at 9:22 pm

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