Sunday, November 23, 2008
10 Annoying Things
(1)Political ideology. Political ideology qua political ideology doesn't annoy me. What's annoying are people who believe a particular political ideology contains all the cures to society's maladies. Nonsense.
(2) Religious discussions. Both the religious and atheists are equally annoying. The religious presume the moral high ground, with atheists presuming the intellectual high ground. By presume I mean assuming to be true without any supporting evidence. Not only that, but I find the question of whether or not God exists wanting for practical meaning. You may as well ask how much yesterday weighs. More importantly, a personal belief system is just that, personal. Shhhh.
(3)Celebrity magazines. It's jarring that a market exists for this type of magazine. It demonstrates two things. First, regardless of age, some never mature. Second, a significant number of people wallow in quiet desperation.
(4) The current level of discourse. I'm not asking for much. I'm just asking that, should you send me an email or some other missive, it be apparent you know the difference between "your" and "you're."
(5) Homogeneity. Sameness is boring. Boring is annoying.
(6) Media as social narrative. From a psychological standpoint, I understand the need to give our environment order, and the necessarily attending framework with which to create that order. That framework just shouldn't consist of talking points, sound bytes, Newspeak, and Ted Baxter. Instead, how about reading a book written by some social commentators. Cornel West, Howard Zinn,Robert Nozick, and Noam Chomsky come to mind. Whether or not you agree with their ideas, you can be sure "vapid" won't apply.
(7) Using the word "existentialism." It's overused and rarely understood.
(8) Starbucks. Their business plan is unconscionable.
(9) Wal-Mart. See above.
(10)Using the word "postmodernism." See number seven.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Made It Home
Looking For The Game
Miles Davis & Flagstaff
One Last Stop
Heading Home
Friday, November 14, 2008
Maggiano's
Pool Lounging
Went to the pool, had a few drinks and relaxed a bit. As I mentioned before, we were a little tired of fast food. So for lunch we went to Whole Foods for soup and salad. True story. Didn't make it up.
Last Day
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Scottsdale AZ Wanderings
Whataburger
Kobe Beef
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Cousins Subs
We picked up some Cousins Subs. Pretty good. Now rolling back to the room to have a cold brew and take a nap. You could make this up, but I'm not.
Doing Nada In Scottsdale
The Morning Walk
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger
In-N-Out Burger
Monday, November 10, 2008
Trinidad,CO.
4:25 AM
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Rolling Out In The AM.
Speaking of which, there was a ridiculous call by the refs. Manning, in a practical sense, was beyond the line scrimmage when he passed the ball. The initial call was illegal forward pass. The right call. The Giants, however, challenged the call and won.
The rule states the passer's entire body must be past the line of scrimmage when the ball is released. The officials ruled that Manning's right heel was even with the line of scrimmage, despite the rest of his body clearly beyond the line of scrimmage. Practical meaning anyone, Anyone? No? Then, how about a split hair? You can't make this up
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Trying again.
Football On Chill Day
Watching Ohio State put it to Northwestern. This just in: Pryor is a beast. Nope, I ain't making it up.
Saturday Relax Day
Coming home from the gym. Listening to some old school hip-hop, MC Breed.If you haven't guessed by now, I ain't making it up.
Friday, November 07, 2008
Conformity Is The New Cool
Cool doesn't mean cool anymore.Cool used to mean something or someone is unaffected and unconcerned with accepted social conventions and institutions. James Dean, Marlon Brando, and the more contemporary Johnny Depp, Tyson Beckford and Megan Fox embody cool as traditionally defined. The traditional definition, however, has come to a different meaning.
Cool now means, or perhaps has become synonymous with, conformity. Something or someone becomes cool once accepted by the masses. Khakis,a particular style of haircut, black pants with blue shirts, polo shirts, or any sports apparel with its logo emblazoned on your body. These things are cool because the masses approve of them. You're cool because you wear masses approved garments, and behave in a masses approved manner.
That's not cool. That's conformity. We've morphed cool into conformity. Splicing the word cool with the definition of conformity; creating incongruity between what is said and reality, distorting reality. The reality is having mass acceptance isn't cool. It means a bowl of instant oatmeal is more interesting than you. I ain't making it up.
Monday, November 03, 2008
End of First Day
It will be a helpful gadget if it guides me towards meeting my stated goal of losing 2 lbs. this week. That means a weigh-in of 208 lbs. on Sat. morning.
If I have an issue thus far, it's the Net Calories feature. This is a helpful feature, I suppose, but I'm unsure what number to shoot for. To explain, they have a Target Calories to shoot for each day. Then, the instructions indicate that I should aim to consume that number of calories on that particular day. This is where my issue comes in.
In the next sentence, you're instructed to keep an eye on the calorie bar across the top of the watch. It gives you a visual graph of the number of calories consumed that counts towards your Net Calories for the day.
If your calorie bar gets full, or close to the end, you're instructed to eat less or exercise more to reduce your Net. So is the idea to simply keep the calorie bar from reaching full, and ignore your Target Number of calories? I ain't making it up.
By the way, I made this post from my phone. It only allows 1,000 characters. So if my explanation was a bit Delphic, I'm blaming it on Verizon.
First Day With My Mio
Today I'm supposed to consume 2,350 calories (the goal is to lose 2lbs/week--right now). If I hit that number, my Net Calorie reading will be 1631. I guess we will see how it goes. I do have to admit, however, 1,631 calories seems like an absurdly low number for someone my size (6'2", 210). So I'm going to monitor my energy levels and adjust my caloric intake as needed.
No, this isn't turning into a fitness blog. It's just that I bought this thing and want to use it. And since this is my blog,not yours, I'll write about whatever I want. I ain't making it up.
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Mio Watch
I settled on a Mio Watch. It's like a personal trainer on your wrist, or so they say. I'm not certain how I feel about that. Whenever I think of personal trainers, I think of some meat head screaming at me, and me slapping the shit out of him with a dumbbell. Then, a trial that ends up with a face-to-face meeting with Bubba. If it's all the same to you, I'll pass on incarceration. So I generally stay away from personal trainers.
But back to the watch. You enter your age, weight, fitness goal and all that. Then, it gives you a target for number of calories to be consumed in a day. It also tracks your heart rate and counts calories burned during your workout. So it seems like a pretty spiffy gadget. An unexpected spiffy gadget in my case. I was just looking for a sport watch that tracked my heart rate with reasonable accuracy. This thing is dead on accurate, which isn't creepy, or even creepish, but it is a creepism. I ain't making it up.