Diet

OK, so, yesterday was a red-letter day. It was the first day in about 5 years that I have weighed in south of 200 pounds. I’m working on getting to a healthy weight.

It’s pretty easy to figure out what your BMI is using this site this site.

And your target weight using this site.

My target is a BMI around 24.2, which for me translates to about 176 pounds.

Here’s the graph so far. The white points are weigh-ins and the red line represents your “probable actual weight”. The green lines are the variance between your weight and your weigh-in weight. Over time, the green lines should get shorter:

If all goes according to this table, I should hit my target around April:

For 5.0′ 11.5″ with target BMI: 24.2
Starting at 199.2 lbs with weekly loss of 1.33 lbs
Target weight: 175.98 lbs

12/24/2008:	199.20 lbs, 27.39 BMI (Overweight)
12/31/2008:	197.87 lbs, 27.21 BMI (Overweight)
01/07/2009:	196.54 lbs, 27.03 BMI (Overweight)
01/14/2009:	195.21 lbs, 26.84 BMI (Overweight)
01/21/2009:	193.88 lbs, 26.66 BMI (Overweight)
01/28/2009:	192.55 lbs, 26.48 BMI (Overweight)
02/04/2009:	191.22 lbs, 26.30 BMI (Overweight)
02/11/2009:	189.89 lbs, 26.11 BMI (Overweight)
02/18/2009:	188.56 lbs, 25.93 BMI (Overweight)
02/25/2009:	187.23 lbs, 25.75 BMI (Overweight)
03/04/2009:	185.90 lbs, 25.56 BMI (Overweight)
03/11/2009:	184.57 lbs, 25.38 BMI (Overweight)
03/18/2009:	183.24 lbs, 25.20 BMI (Overweight)
03/25/2009:	181.91 lbs, 25.01 BMI (Overweight)
04/01/2009:	180.58 lbs, 24.83 BMI (Normal)
04/08/2009:	179.25 lbs, 24.65 BMI (Normal)
04/15/2009:	177.92 lbs, 24.47 BMI (Normal)
04/22/2009:	176.59 lbs, 24.28 BMI (Normal)
04/29/2009:	175.26 lbs, 24.10 BMI (Normal)

BTW, I’m using the Hacker’s Diet Online for weight tracking and graphing.

Seattle Photoset

These are photos from my recent trip up to see Michael and Jamie in Seattle. We also went on a little photo safari in downtown Seattle.

Leger Brosnahan - 1956

Leger Brosnahan - 1941

I think the building he’s standing in front of (now called “Beauty Express”) is pictured here:

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San Jose Christmas Parade

Proposition 8 — Just say NO

Proposition 8 in California is attempting to change the state constitution to legally define “marriage” as one man and one woman. Arguments For and Against.

It’s controversial, I know, but I’d like to present the case that this is a new restriction that is being added to the definition of “marriage”, which has over the past decades undergone a serious reduction in restrictions. Some people would, of course, argue that man + woman has always been implicit in the “traditional” definition.

You can look at the current Merriam-Webster definition.

Here’s a base pseudo-query for the set of people who I think can currently marry each other:

"Person A may marry Person B if:
	neither is currently married
	AND neither is too-closely related
	AND neither is too young
	AND the number of people participating in a marriage is two
	AND neither may be coerced into marriage"

I think that’s a pretty good representation of a fair set of rules.

Consider this predicate that the “Yes on 8″ folks seem to want to add to the definition of marriage (or they would argue - “make explicit”):

	"Person A may not be of the same gender as Person B"

This explicitly excludes homosexuals from the concept of marriage. I personally think that’s incredibly unfair. It’s not like the loss of this right would make homosexuals stop existing or somehow reduce homosexuality. It’s simply mean.

Now consider these other predicates that have been stripped from the concept of “marriage” over time, sometimes legally stripped.

	"Person A may not be of a different race than Person B"

	"Person A may not be of a different religion than Person B"

	"Person A may not be of a different nationality than Person B"

I’ll point out that the world has not ended with the removal of these three restrictions, and the human race trudges along just as it always has.

I think the primary reason people wish to add restrictions to who can marry derives from a fear that somehow a man + woman marriage will be somehow diminished or that it will become fringe to be “straight” or that it will create an unsuitable environment for the raising of children.

And as I have mentioned before, the basis for our making a moral judgement about which predicates to include is highly determined by our upbringing and experiences.

Would a loving homosexual couple that wanted to adopt (or use donors) and raise children really be so bad for society? Sure, they’d be teaching them that gay marriage is okay because for those children, it would be. Sure, they’d be potentially confusing other children because they had two mommies or two daddies, but come on, if the children were happy, healthy, and well-adjusted, would that be so bad?

Ultimately, who we are as a society is decided by how many of these restrictions we wish to place on the concept of “marriage”.

I am very much against exclusions without showing harm.

Vote NO on 8, please.

Twilight Series

I don’t talk about books much, but I’ve got to recommend Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series.

It’s rare that I cruise through Borders and decide to pick up a “popular” book, much less a teen angst vampire series, but hey, sometimes, it happens.

Anyway, I picked up Twilight on a whim and sat down with it on Tuesday (10/21). I finished it 7 hours later.

I went back to Borders on Wednesday to get the second book, New Moon, but they didn’t have it. I had to drive to Barnes and Noble to get it. When I got home, I sat down and 6 hours later, I needed the next one.

I got Eclipse on Thursday. Finished it and got Breaking Dawn on Friday.

At about 12:30 am Saturday, I finished Breaking Dawn and finally came up for air.

I must first congratulate Stephenie Meyer on her magnificent story and characters. What took her years to create I consumed in a little over 30 hours of reading. It was like the thirst of her vampires.

It is a strangely addictive series with action and adventure and the characters are wonderfully developed. It covers a wide range of topics in addition to the traditional good vs. evil and right vs. wrong threads that any vampire novel has:

• Friendship and loyalty
• Definition of family
• Rivalries and feuds
• Commitments and treaties
• Recklessness and cruelty

In the end, I was most struck by the topics that seem (in retrospect) to exemplify the Christian/Mormon faith:

• Abstinence prior to marriage
• Rights of the fetus over the health of the mother
• Life after death
• Eternal Marriage

The author is, of course, a Mormon (having attended BYU), and I can’t really fault her for including her own beliefs in her novels, whether intentional or not.

Regardless, I enjoyed it immensely.

BTW, they’re making a movie of the first book: Twilight.

World of Warcraft financial crisis

David O’Rourke wrote this:

• • the guild bank is fundamentally sound
• • we need to take decisive action
• • the NPC Reserve will inject a much need economic stimulus into Azeroth
• • we’re going to let the DKP system fail and let the markets work it out - guild leadership should not meddle in the market of DKP
• • the Vendor reserve will buy up all the sub-prime Hearts of Darkness to get them off the books and get the Auction House working again
• • our friends across the pond on the PvP servers will co-ordinate a Heroic Badge overnight lending interest rate reduction to send a clear message we have no idea what to do about this crisis
• • we have nothing to fear but the expansion
• • My opponents’s proposal would reward the top DKP holders will access to the guild bank for over two weeks prior to the people who don’t read this forum - that’s not change - that’s more of the same.
• • I’m not going to discuss any success or failure in Sunwell Plateau - the real issue is we shouldn’t have been there in the first place - and I had the judgement to say so in numerous guild votes - if I had been Guild Master we wouldn’t been in Sunwell Plateau looking for gear of mass destruction - and we wouldn’t be in the mess of having repair bills of over 200g everynight for the past 4 winterveil festivals - my opponent voted yes on Sunwell Plateau and therefore does not represent a meaningful change in guild leadership.
• • Wellfare epics remove people’s incentive to ignore family and friends and let them know it’s ok to run low level content over and over and over again to obtain badges of justice - this degrades the accomplishments of the socially retarted and lessens the value of all gear - we have to restore the dignity of grinding - and help people play continuously so we can reduce the % of our population for which wellfare epics have become the only method by which they equip. their toon.
• • I intend to propose a full range of health benefits for all the citizens of azeroth - I will pay for this proposal with a flat tax imposed on the top quentile % of DKP net holders - most citizens of azeroth will see no reduction in DKP accumulation rates
• • it’s very very important that all guild members vote - but please don’t vote for anyone’s opponent
• • 12 party talks are the solution for negotiating with all ninja terrorists
• • the 25 man raid surge strategy is working - and yet my ALT won’t, even in hindsight, admit he has no idea what I’m talking about
• • My Friends…
• • I’m going to sound good while saying nothing…let me distract you with a story about how I lvl’d to 70
• • less than 5% of DKP holders produce over 45% of the DKP value - but net returns as calculated against the original war-craft release date clearly show a decline in value for heavy-rune cloth health-per-second-squared rate of return - this clearly indicates that WOLK will be delayed - and thats why we need a reduction of total network lag right now and not 5 years from now - any fool can see that!
• • I did not have /sexual relationship with that toon!
• • History? What’s my place in history? Hell that’s all backed up on the blizzard servers and put in the tape archive!
• • Achievements are overrated!
• • It’s the auction house stupid!
• • We can not allow Horde characters to obtain 81-point talents - it would be a game changer
• • There is a shadowy organization called “The GMs” that really run everything - they’ve always run everything - and this recent crisis is their fault, their creation, and their plan. Your life is an illusion of free will and we’re all just electrons on this big universe called a “server farm” - pull plug from the wall and see the truth - or leave it plugged in and be comfortable in your illusion - you can handle the truth - can’t you?
• • All I’m saying is we need the experience of someone who’s been held captive in Zul’grub - faced down Ragneros - and completed a 45 min baron in sub T1 gear - you want that steady hand that’s been there before GM release dates - played the beta - and knows what’s like to queue to login - sure my opponent has T8 gear and awesome gear artwork - but he wasn’t playing when WOW was in beta!
• • The G8 (the 8 wealthiest guilds) will set up a server wide lending pool to enable every citizen of azeroth obtain their lvl 80 mount - it’s a fundamental dream of all toons to have these mounts - and to support these mounts I’m proposing a 90 day moratorium on account fees for ppl with less than 2 accounts - we don’t need to help the people with 2 or more vacation accounts - but if your account is your primary account it won’t be hacked for 90 days while you work out with the GM’s how your going to get all your stuff back.
• • we must not allow a DPS gap!’
• • I will run instances with no attunements or pre-conditions - it’s the only way to make progress and see the content - to do otherwise would simply allow the game makers to control my toon
• • Listen to me very very closely here - if we have a world boss in sight and the gear to take him out - and the guild membership refuses to stop doing their dailies and come help me get my drop - I will PUG that world boss take him out and let that world Boss know PUG or no PUG he is a target and we’ll do what it takes to get some loot!
• • I’m so proud to announce that my running mate and future Vice-Guild-Master for all of azeroth will be Leroy Jenkins!
• • Effective immediately all guild bank deposits will be insured against loss for up to item lvl 181 for each unique account holder - member BDIC return of item not guarenteed to have enchants and GEMS restored.

Magnificent Inefficiency

Let’s play: “Carbon Footprint Maximizing Traveling Salesman With A Lot Of Time On His Hands”. Suppose you want to fly from Orange County, CA to San Jose, CA. This is what American Airlines came up with (look at the second set of flights):

Embarrassing America

Now that McCain has apparently already won the debate, I’m looking forward to it actually occurring.

As I sit here, I wonder how many of my friends are thinking the same things: “Is it possible that McCain/Palin could win because so many Americans will vote republican because they always have and don’t know any better?” “Is it possible the news of the shenanigans that McCain/Palin are pulling has not actually reached the vast republican base?”

I live in fear of people being so irrational or so apathetic that they think the republican party as it exists today (not traditional, small-government republicanism, which has some things going for it) is in any way going to do the right things for America as a whole.

It’s pretty clear that the choice of Palin as VP is so bad that even conservative pundits are hoping she’ll drop out. I for one don’t want an “ordinary person” to be VP or President. I want the best and the brightest to lead us, and I’m not narcissistic enough to think that the candidates need to be like me.

America has a problem: Too much of its population no longer values education and experience. Good looks and charm will only get you so far.

I’m appealing to any republican who may read this blog (which, I’ll admit is likely to be no one), please use your brains, investigate the facts, and please make a rational decision.

Please, don’t embarrass America three times in a row.