The Static Existentialist

SETIcon

2010-08-08T00:31:00.004-04:00

You know you've made it when your institution has its first "con." Such as it is with the S.E.T.I Institute in Mountain View, CA. SETIcon, as it is called, will be taking place in Santa Clara, CA on August 13-15 with a great line-up of speakers. I'm just hoping they will have a way to make a video record of the speakers available to those of us who are unable to attend. Just a few of the speakers on the agenda include former astronaut Rusty Schweickart, Jill Tarter the SETI Institute's director and inspiration for Jodie Foster's character in the film Contact, Isaac Asimov's daughter Robyn Asimov, and SETI Radio host Seth Shostak.

Though I knew of its existence in its early stages I didn't became acutely aware of S.E.T.I. and its work until I read Carl Sagan's first and only novel Contact. Once the movie premiered I was stunned at its profoundness and how it put our thinking on the possibility of extraterrestrial life in a context I had not considered: that of the vast distances involved in our stellar neighborhood and our isolated position relative to the rest of the stellar population in the Milky Way.

Now with the Internet community such as it is I am a devout follower of S.E.T.I.'s work and am able to stay up to date on the various projects and work taking place there. It will be fun to post about S.E.T.I. events and their work whenever something interesting comes along.

Let's hope one of those "events" will be the one that tells us we have a galactic "neighbor."

Ridley Scott's Space Jockey Get's A Ride

2010-08-07T00:39:00.010-04:00

The news about Ridley Scott planning a prequel to his original movie Alien as a reboot to the franchise was like manna from heaven for this aficionado of sci-fi cinema. When it premired in 1979 my visceral reaction to the opening shot of the Nostromo silently filling the screen as it crawled back to its home base of Earth after a mining mission on the planet Theda was so strong it still seems like I only just saw it a few hours ago. I think I must have sat slack jawed for the first twenty minutes of Scott's opus as I tried to visually digest the new benchmark of expectations being set for future movies about space and space travel. One of the most haunting scenes or images of that film was when Hurt's character was standing in awe before an alien traveller's body who had obviously not survived a violent explosion from within still strapped to his flight deck chair. That image was so strong and intense anyone who re-watched this movie would wonder about the story of this "space jockey" and the circumstances that brought him there:

Now it looks as though the days of wondering are over. Scott is going to tell his story. According to the evocative director in an interview the film will take place 50 years before the Nostomo stumbles upon the space jockey's body. Early speculation is a target release date set sometime in 2011.

Yummy.

A Stellar Image From A Steller Obervatory

2010-08-06T22:26:00.012-04:00

Its builders claim the European Southern Observatory houses the world's most advanced optical instrument. The photo they posted today certainly makes it hard to argue with their claim. That "instrument" is an 8.2 meter diameter main mirror coupled with four movable 1.8m diameter Auxiliary Telescopes. We are told that when they work together, in groups of two or three, to form a giant 'interferometer' this "allows astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with the individual telescopes." This enabled the ESO to be the first Earth bound observatory/telescope to capture the first image of an extrasolar planet [eso0842]. One of the 'very kewl' things about this observatory, which is based in southern Chile, is each of the four auxiliary telescopes have names that originate from the indigenous peoples of the area: The Mapuche. The names of each of the auxiliary units in the Mapuche language have very specific meanings: (1) Antu -which means The Sun [UT1]; (2) Kueyen -which means The Moon [UT2]; (3) Melipal - which means The Southern Cross [UT3]: and finally (4) Yepun - which means Venus.

The ESO web site also tells us this region of Chile on a moonless night is so dark and low in light pollution you can see your shadow from the stars in the Milky Way. Anyone, even those with a mild or fleeting interest in astronomy, would surely love to visit this area and experience an evening with a telescope. The image in question, Super Nova 1987A, is quite an impressive event where the star's material has been ejected by the explosion at 100 million kilometers per hour. We further learn from Astronomy Now Online the image shows the star's ejecta that took 10 years to catch the previous ring exhaled by the dying star:

How impressive is that? I'm sure the cache of future images of the ESO VLT won't rival Hubble or the new James Webb Space Telescope to be launched in 2014. But if the image of Supernova 1987A above is any indication I'm sure we won't be disappointed.

One last little factoid about the ESO facilities. The wing that houses the denizens of this community of researchers was featured in the last James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. Now that's worth a martini shaken, and not stirred to know.

28 Days

2010-08-06T15:00:00.008-04:00

In Steve McQueen's classic racing movie "Le Mans" he explains to the wife of a racing colleague who died the previous year in a fiery accident why he still races in a sport so fraught with danger, "For us there is only racing. The time in between...is just waiting." For Gator alumnus and fans alike its no different. There is Gator football season and all the time in between is just waiting. That's why hearing the news that Gator football practice started yesterday is like mainlining adrenaline. Being jacked for a new season and salivating at the prospect of another run at an SEC championship, revenge at Tuscaloosa for last years SEC Championship game loss, the debut of John Brantley as the new on the field leader of the offense, and the return of Urban Meyer makes the rush even greater.

That loss to Alabama last year in Atlanta still hangs in my throat along with a bad taste in my mouth that simply will not go away. I don't know if Brantley is the guy to make things right but the anticipation is almost unbearable. There is a lot to sort out. Will Andre DuBose be the guy we think he is capable of being? There's that issue of depth at linebacker. What's Meyer's plans for a possible appearance of Trey Burton with some wildcat time at QB. What can we expect from the Freshmen? And finally, the QB position. Will Brantley be the QB we think he can be? The time to sort all this out is almost upon us.

Yep. For us there is football season. All the time between is just waiting. That wait is almost over. In 28 days / 20 hours/ and 36 minutes its going to be game time at the swamp.

I'm already there.

Spooky

2010-08-06T12:21:00.008-04:00

When I recently saw the news about the incident in China recently on my BBC World News wire where the government shut down a regional airport because of a fiery ufo overhead I stumbled across something I didn't even know existed: a National UFO Reporting Center. As a raging skeptic when it comes to reports of extraterrestrial life visiting earth I still found this sight to be utterly fascinating. Wikipeida tells us the National UFO Reporting Center was founded in 1974. Curiously enough and coincidentally when you visit the actual site you will quickly discover that this past month of July had a record breaking number of reported sightings since its founding: 658. This beat their September, 2009 record by 63 sightings. It has a pretty extensive data base and several ways to contact the center (i.e. phone, e-mail, web site, etc) from anyone in the general public to report an unidentified flying object.

For me the world of Ufology is fascinating in itself because of the interest I have in spaceflight and NASA. Its just that I find the possibility of earth being visited by life outside the confines of our solar system unable to overcome the realities of the physics involved to overcome the vast distances in question. Despite my healthy skepticism I find the MUFON and attendant UFO community organizations around it fun to follow as an indulgent guilty pleasure. Having said that I want to make it clear these communities are filled with respectable members of society and professionals from a variety of scientific fields which is why it so fun to follow and fascinating. Still, I guess its sort of like those individuals who read the gossip rags and follow the Internet celebrity gossip sites as guilty pleasures but are loath to admit it to anyone. All I know is its fun to follow and write about and I'm admitting it!

Ageless

2010-08-05T09:46:00.010-04:00

I've finally accepted the fact that for years Hollywood's dearth of good scripts for women has been par for the course in a world where under 30 female "leads" fulfilling their role as screen ornaments for the male star is the norm. About the only "leading" actress left that can carry a film by herself anymore is Angelina Jolie amid a swirling montage of speeding cars and disposable emasculated male characters whose ass she has or will kick in the linear timeline of the plot. So imagine my surprise to discover that the highest paid actress in 2009 wasn't the scene chewing Ms. Jolie but none other than the 46 year old Sandra Bullock who is her senior by eleven years. No doubt Ms. Bullock is still renowned for being filmdom's sexiest bus driver but 2009 saw her carrying a leading role by herself in two smart crisp roles that only she could have pulled off: The Blindside & The Proposal.

For many years my favorite actress has been the 75 year old Dame Judi Dench whose formidable acting skills make any role, no matter the size, the one thing you remember about the film when the credits roll. The best example of this is her turn as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare In Love. Despite Gwyneth Paltrow getting Oscar's nod that year for best actress it is Judi Dench who actually steals the movie with her paltry 8 minutes of screen time. Trust me, after watching this film its her you remember and not the waif-like and pouting Ms. Paltrow long after the credits have rolled.

My "how kewl is that" sensibilities are in fine working order this morning as it finally dawned on me that Hollywood's cache of female stars are being led by these two ageless women over 45 whose sexiness transcends age through their talents and self awareness of who and what they are. Watching Ms. Bullock and Ms. Dench wield their power in a male dominated industry has been fun and refreshing for me over the past decade or two. And the best thing about this is they aren't showing any signs of even being done yet.

Now how kewl is that?

Nature's Raw Power

2010-08-05T00:05:00.007-04:00

My reading on lightning tells me its a thinly charged column of air rapidly heated to three times the surface of the sun. This 'Astronomy Photo of the Day' from July 20th in the skies of Athens, Greece is one of the best this year. I'm sure this was a spectacle that would have made even the mighty Zeus flinch from his throne atop Mt. Olympus. I never cease to be astounded by nature and its power. To get a glimpse of that power like the above photo should give pause to anyone not humbled by that power.

Chinese Media Wants To Believe

2010-08-04T22:32:00.010-04:00

Recently a well publicized (well, on the Internet anyway) UFO sighting in China's Zhejiang provincial capital Hangzhou caused quite an international media stir (except here that is). The photographic and subsequent video record of the actual sighting aren't very convincing. I've seen to many video clips of old post cold war ICBM & lost derelict spy satellite boosters succumbing to Newtonian law and finally finding its way back to the insane world that launched them in secrecy no longer able to cling to their anonymity. The Hangzhou airport sighting actually looks pretty mundane in light of past clips of old spacecraft hardware giving up the ghost and de-orbiting to a fiery end.

I was just somewhat amused this event caused this much excitement with the weighty logical explanations on hand for what they obviously observed. Though I'm sure there's a little Fox Mulder in all of us when it comes to the possibilities of extraterrestial life. I reside quite comfortably in my skeptic's easy chair when it comes extraterrestrial visitations due to the distances involved and the resources needed to make the trip. As to the possibility of the existence of life as we define it outside the confines of our solar system I am definitely in that camp. This puts me in the S.E.T.I. school of thinking as opposed to the Roswell mindset and the expectations associated with that community.

Chandler Parsons' Buzzer Beater! Go Gators!

2010-01-03T17:54:00.002-05:00

Wow! Check out this buzzer beater by Chandler Parsons of the Gators! UF steals one before the SEC tournement begins at 11 - 3. Lookout SEC!

Geocache Find #2

2009-07-18T16:45:00.006-04:00

Hail To The Chief - 5!

We went out on our second geocache expedition today and the first since our inaugural find in North Carolina back in June. What a blast this new hobby is. Even Jamie, our 3 1/2 year old daughter got into it. We plotted two geocache possibilites and printed them out and took off with gps and camera in hand. Of course as we turned onto the freeway it started to rain. We looked over our first target and decided we knew the area it would be in but not the exact location. Part of the fun is guessing the clue(s) and going from there.

As we arrived the rain abated some and Martha jumped out to take a look around. We knew it was in a magnetic box from the clue so we surmised it would be attached to some kind of metal. She stumbled around for about 5 minutes and nothing. Then we decided it was actually ok to park where we were and all three of us got out after looking at our printouts and reading some of the comments from previews finders and found another clue...we were looking on the wrong side of the street. I saw a structure I was sure it would be attached to and got down on my hands and knees to look around. Having no success I started to get up when I heard my wife shout out "I found it!" What a little rush that was!

She held up her prize grinning and waited for me to produce the camera to mark the occasion:

Of course we made sure it was not near the actual location in the photo. No spoilers here. We found the token inside a couple of finders ago had left and decided to leave a memento of our own. We left a small military pin with the needle broken off commorating the U.S. Army. As this particular President was a former general we felt compelled to honor him.

All in all that was really fun. Also just found out through the geocaching web site how to sort by distance from my house the geocaches in my area. I think its a safe bet we will hit all of them and who knows,....we make make a couple ourselves and start paying back the fun.

Geocaching

2009-07-18T00:42:00.006-04:00

Whenever I was a kid I never got into scavenger hunts or related recreational activities that involved hunting for items based on clues. Funny what age does to a person. So, this past Fathers' Day I got a GPS Magellan 1412 Roadmate. After one day of trying it out we were hooked. Then my wife told me about the geocaching phenomenon she ran across on the Internet while we were on vacation. As we made our way back home to Florida we decided to try our hand where my folks live in NC. After doing a little reading up on the geocache experience via its web site we printed out our first target and along with my brother, my wife, daughter and myself, we took off.

My brother had just purchased a top line Tom Tom being the first time we used his because of the reading it gave in degrees as we had not yet figured out you can convert your gps reading on the site to fit your readout. It was geocache called Person County Line in a location that stradles Person and Durham counties adjacent to a river bank. We had no idea what the dynamic was and was not even sure what we were looking for save a 35mm film cannister. With GPS in hand my brother found it almost immediately while my wife and I were stumbling around! My wife produced a pencil and we logged our first find. It was awesome. My brother thought nothing of it and did not find it interesting in the least. But my wife and I were hooked.

My wife and I are trying to find outdoor activities for our little girl since she adores the outside. This is a great way to enjoy it with her. I'm looking forward to doing other things with her as she gets older such as birdwatching, surfing, biking and well, you get the idea. I've just set up our cache targets for tomorrow in an area called Hanna Park in a small bedroom beach community called Atlantic Beach, FL. We are pretty excited to try our hand and see just how good we are. I'll post about our progress or lack of progress at it permits. Stay tuned...

The Golden Age of Gator Football?

2009-07-17T16:05:00.004-04:00

Why is the man smiling?

You would be too with his record. A record btw that's unprecedented. Also, Sporting News has just annointed him the best coach in college football. I keep wondering if I'm dreaming.

In my senior year at the University of Florida the Gators went 0 - 10 - 1 (the tie was with Georgia Tech if you are wondering with Steve Spurrier as one of its assitant coaches). Up to that time the thing about the UF football's "golden age" is there wasn't one...not really. I guess the 1960's under Doug Dickey was about he best they could do and Spurrier's Heisman trophy year. Usually when you hear alumni from other schools talk about a "golden age" for their alma mater it seems it is always some x number of years ago that requires a taxing of their memory to get all the details just right.

I'm just lucky. There is no doubt we are in the golden age of Gator football. Spurrier stated it all and put us on the map. But Meyer has taken us to heights I never imagined. Two national championships in three years? Wow. I still can't believe it. If the football gods keep smiling it just might be three in four years. The only bad thing about that is where do you go from there? I don't want to turn into the model Alabama alumnus that always seems to favor digging up Bear Bryant and have a cadavor, or what left of it, as a preference over anyone of the replacements that have graced the sidelines since his departure.

But the thing of it is, I don't have to tax my memory. Its all on my DVD collection. And I can relieve it anytime when I feel like it. Damn. Someone pinch me. Let's see how long Urban can make this last. No matter what happens now, I'm satisfied with the memories I've got in HD.

My Friday Garage Project

2009-07-17T15:30:00.006-04:00

BEFORE

AFTER

In 90 deg. heat padded with a little rain this was what I was able to accomplish today. Garages can be either a bane to your existence as a repository for junk you can't bear to part with or a wonder area for activities if you decide to use it for something other than parked cars. My wife was parking the van in the garage (the Mercury was past that some time ago) and now we are using for an exercise area. As you can see in the photos it was not fun and it took a lot of time because of the small stuff of which some have still to be resolved by my wife as to its fate. Any way, I'm glad that's over and now I can pick up my little girl from day care and enjoy some pool time!

The Diet Begins - Again

2009-07-17T08:33:00.002-04:00

That skinny kid starting out above was even bigger than I was at that age. The diet starts again today. I've got to get down to fighting weight for the coming school year or it will be more physically taxing than normal. Last nights weight in was 260 lbs. At my height that overweight. My goal is to get down to 210 to 200 and according to the AMA I'm still overweight at that point.

I don't know why this is so hard but my struggle is along with most of America now it seems. So here I am trying again to do this. Think I'll go with the low carb route with lots of active exercise. Walking and swimming and a rowing machine to boot. No excuses. I've got six weeks to get a good start before school starts and now is the time. If I don't start doing something soon I'm going to start to look like Orson Wells at the end. Thank God I'm not there yet. But I want to live a long time to watch my 3 1/2 year old grow and be the person she wants to be. I think I'll put up a little tracking module in the side bar to help motivate me. Anyway, today starts...now where is that orange to start off the morning....

THE Evian Rollar Baby Ad

2009-07-16T14:23:00.004-04:00

No commentary needed here. This is just plain uproariously funny and inspiring. My guess is they are complete CGI fabrications. If not, wow, somebody's been doing some interesting eugenics work somewhere...

Jamie's Rapture

2009-07-16T10:03:00.009-04:00

This is absolutely my favorite image of my daughter to date. My wife took this shot this past Sunday when we decided to spend the morning at the beach. It is from our new SLR digital Canon Rebel XS with a 58mm lens. She doesn't remember the settings she used and it was almost a throw-away shot. But when I reviewed her series I was caught by the stunning beauty of not only my daughter in a througtful repose, she's 3 1/2 years old, but the detail captured with this camera. The resolution of the water droplets on her face are stunning. I will be looking to make a 5X7 framable print of this for our home.

I'm going to call it "Jamie's Rapture" simply for the fact on that morning she had a blast with an age equivlent friend and his parents and their niece. So did my wife and I...

Btw, if you click on the image you will see the actual size and get a better look at the stunning detail of her face. This camera is just awesome...

The Darling of Lawn Mowers via Consumer Reports

2009-07-15T10:39:00.001-04:00

Well, here it is - the one and only Cub Cadet CC550SP self propelled push mower. The trouble I had getting it is a story in itself. After going through three mowers in 5 years my wife and I decided we'd had enough of the Wal-Mart cheapie Murray/Brigs & Stratton push mower at $165.00 a pop. When the last one threw a bearing after just 18 months that was the final straw.

We decided to head for the library and take a look at Consumer Reports and what they had to day. In their Nov. '07 issue they rated and had a nice review of the current riding and push mowers on the market. Thier darling of the push mowers was the Cub Cadet CC500. After reading their review and deciding the price seemed right, from $259.00 SMRP (sale price) we decided to take the plunge with its 3 yr. warranty. The problem was one could not be found in Jacksonville, FL. The closet one we could locate was in Yulee, FL nearly 30 miles away. I gave them a call and they indicated they had two at $289. I said Cub Cadets website said otherwise with a sales promotion. They agreed and said I could have it for that price. I would be by next morning.

Upon arrival they were a little taken aback when I came in. A gentleman had been in an hour before and bought both of them. They thought that was me who called. Since they were out they offered the CC550SP (self propelled) to me for $10.00 more - $20.00 off Cub Cadet's web site promotional offer. I took it. They were awesome. Since they didn't have one on site they had to get one from there other store twenty miles away. After waiting for an hour and a half they arrived with the new mower out of the box and ready to go in hand. It started to rain right then, really hard, and then it would not fit in the Mercury. So I picked it up the next day in Martha's (my wife) Ford Freestar van. I took a photo once I got it out because it looks so damn kewl, well, for a lawn mower anyway. I will give my citical reivew once I take her out for a spin and see what all the fuss was about at Consumer Reports.

New Blog Design Blues

2009-07-14T11:31:00.000-04:00

As you can see I'm in the process of redesigning my blog. I'll tweet the world when I'm satisfied with the new look. Its really harder and more time consuming than I anticipated. I wanted the header to really reflect the dynamic and feel of the site and I'm still wrestling with it.

I've been over at BTemplates where they have hundreds of new blogger 3 column blogs and I'm still sorting out what looks best and has the right fit for the Static Existentialists needs.

I'm almost overwhelmed with the variations available and the possibilites they all offer. One can only marvel at the capabilities of human creativity and the potentials it offers for all of us. While I'm still slogging through the redesign I'll be posting on a regular basis. Btw, hat tip to KU's Medical Sciences university web site for there little under construction image which I borrowed for the post. It's funny they mispelled "Siences" in the header. Guess they need to check that.Here's to the existential lifestyle and the future ahead...

Tick, tock...

2009-07-13T12:07:00.000-04:00

For the existentialist, the passing of time can be one of the deep anxieties of human existence. Whenever I'm in a contemplative mood reflecting on my mortality this deep anxiety can be quite troublesome. Most of the time I can look into the eyes of my beautiful little daughter of three, whose entire life is spread before her with an infinity of possibilities, and this troublesome anxiety gets put back in its box until my next reflective mood.

Recently my wife and I were able to see the last eight minutes of the final episode of our favorite HBO series about a family owned funeral home "Six Feet Under" where the young Claire strikes out for New York to make a life of her own. As the epilogue begins you see Claire (Lauren Ambrose) on a lonely stretch of desert highway somewhere in the west. Set to Sia's beautiful harmony "Breathe Life" the viewer is shown a close up of Claire as the song begins. Her image then melts into a video montage of her entire life from the show's end to her death in a span of six minutes and ends with the show's standard opening of an epitatph of a person whose funeral will be handled by the family business. The beauty is striking and emotionally cathartic for the show's followers and for me it was the most beautiful ending to a series I have ever encounted and likely will ever again. That last eight minutes so defines what a life represents you are all at once struck by how short life is and how truly fulfilling it can be for many of us. It is also a beautiful metaphor on mortality. My wife and daughter demonstrate to me on a daily basis that beauty and fulfillment though every once and awhile that old deep anxiety of how life is slipping away intrudes and gives me pause.

For the existentialist it is a burden that is a price of that fulfillment.

JPL's Kepler mission getting needed attention

2009-04-10T08:53:00.006-04:00

Willaim Borucki, Ames Research project manager out of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California was just on C-Span doing a pretty cool interview segment about the Kepler Telescope project. I hope C-Span has it up later today so I can link to it. He was discussing the mission goals and what he hopes Kepler can accomplish. This mission's main goal is to study a chosen secter of our galaxy for exoplanets in an attempt to discover if we in effect are "not alone." I am looking forward to followning this project and seeing what kind of results it produces.

Sighting the ISS from the ground

2009-03-31T11:37:00.006-04:00

Found a nice amateur video taken from the top of a garage in the U.K. with a privately owned observatory of the ISS during three orbital passes overhead. Nicely done I might add. I'm still trying to figure out how to read NASA's web site tracking the ISS so I can get an observation date for an overhead orbital pass here at home. For some reason I think it is to close to the horizon here where there are a lot of trees with light pollution that will surely make it impossible to spot. But I'll keep trying anyway.

Space.com is a nice web site that has just about any information you want to know that has to do with space. The site also have a pretty cool calender of all launches into to orbit around the world with links to live video covering the event. There is supposed to be a launch this evening from the Air Force Base at Cape Canaveral as you can see here. It is tentatively scheduled for 8:32pm this evening. If the launch goes off and the sky is clear I should be able to get a nice view from my front yard. Discovery STS-119's night launch gave us a spectacular view here a couple of weeks ago. I should have shot some video. Next time I will.

Doing the blog thing

2009-03-30T10:19:00.007-04:00

Ok. Now is the time for me to get my weight loss program in full swing. Tonight I'll do a start off weight in and then start tracking my weight loss activities. I really want to get slimmed down before the school year starts next year. Something tells me I'm going to need all the physical ability and stamina I can get. It is a relief I still have my job after the program of cuts taking place throughout the state of Florida regarding education. I'm not out of the woods yet though. Something tells me we will have to go through one more round of cuts before its all over. Just have to stay tuned to that one....

Its not a diet, but a lifestyle

2009-01-26T15:38:00.004-05:00

Well my weight has finally gotten out of control here and its time to take some action. I'm not going to go on a "diet" per se but make a radical change in my eating habits. My back problems have not been solved by repeated visits to the chiropractor or a massage therapist. So it looks like I had better take the weight off now. I'm going to do a weight in tonight and make a habit of Monday weight checks. I want to add a walking regimen to this new eating habits routine. I'm not going to deny myself certain foods but I am going to use will power to monitor how much I eat. I've also discovered how much I miss salads. Right now I can't seem to get enough.

Later tonight I'll get the ball rolling with a weigh in after an evening walk. Adding a morning walk tomorrow when I get up should get the ball rolling here. Next week I will ease in a rowing machine routine to help kick in the cardio vascular variant and see if I can't get some weight of here.

George Carlin, 1937 - 2008

2008-06-23T17:03:00.006-04:00

He was one of the first stand up comedians I have a distinct memory of. The man was simply eloquently silly. That was the first two words to pop into my mind as I am writing this small elegy. He was kind of the silly side of the beat generation. A sort of Allan Ginsberg of silliness with a bent of acerbic social commentary with a smile and a "its ok if you are square. Just as long as you and I both know it."

Naturally he is most famous for his 'seven words you can't say on television or radio." But I remember him for his irreverance. His "why do they call it a parkway when you drive on it and a driveway when you park on it." His other famous line was "why do they call it a shipment when carried overland and cargo when its over water." And finally, "what do they call those two parallel lines under the nose leading to your top lip. What is that?" This is what I thought he was great at. It's what I remember the most about him.

His humor and his stinging barbs at prudish sensibilites and religious hyprocracy will be sorely missed. So long George, we hardly knew ye.

Weightloss & Fitness Journal

2008-06-23T01:05:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow is my Monday weigh in day for this low carb diet I'm on. I strayed a bit last week but I'm back on in earnest now. I have to lose this weight by August 4Th and get as close as possible to my target weight of 210 lbs. I did pretty good today only eating some cheese and celery until dinner time when I had a pork chop and my usual salad. Yesterday I went out and bought me a brand new pair of Wal-Mart sport shoes (tennis shoes for us old school guys).

I'm trying to hold the line here on the diet and exercise. I've started to walk a mile plus each day starting around this past Thursday. I will finish this week out with this very light regime and then I hope to pick it up with a regular added regime of pool laps. With this huge in ground pool in my back yard I should try and make it work for me health wise any way. I'm convinced this weight is the cause of my asthma and the pain I'm experiencing in my left buttock and right calf and part of the thigh. Today was a very good day as it hasn't bothered me that much. And I finished mowing the front lawn today as well for even more adds exercise. It was between 80 degrees and 85 degrees today and it provided a nice sweat laden workout. By next week I've got to get that garage cleaned out so I can weigh my options on that rowing machine.

Update: Ugh! Today my weigh in was 252 lbs. So in one month I've managed to lose 7 lbs. That's what I get for the diet with no exercise. Hopefully I'm already on the road to more weight loss as I've started my daily walk again in the past week. Hopefully I'll be able to fit in a swim routine to for the sake of my lower back (or should I just go ahead and say the right cheek of my ass.) Hopefully by next Monday I will have dropped below 250 lbs. Actually a realistic goal would be to weigh in at 248 lbs. Who knows with the light exercise regime thrown in it might happen.

Hypermiling

2008-06-22T19:59:00.006-04:00

With the price of fuel now getting out of control my wife and I did a little investigating into the availability of electric motor vehicles over the weekend. I got a little excited at first because of a web site called Green Vehicles. This dealership located in San Jose California offers four vehicles that are electric only autos. My excitement was short lived because only one of the four vehicles is able to go faster than 35 mph. The one vehicle that go 80 mph is a three wheeled vehicle that seats only two. That means its out as far as our daughter and her car seat is concerned. After looking around all weekend the only one that satisfactorily met our needs was a vehicle called the Phoenix SUV which at his point is a cost prohibitive auto at $54,000. There is a buzz about the Honda Prius Hybrid getting 94 mpg.

Until then I am going to try something called hypermiling. I've been doing a bit of research on this as well. The different sites I've visited looking for tips and guides all say about the same thing. The first three things it says to do is optimize your tire pressure, make your car as light as possible, and track your gas mileage. Today I spent the afternoon doing just that pulling every thing out of the car that is simply not necessary. I also made a customized driving / fuel & mileage Journal for a 1" three ring binder. I'll check my tires again tomorrow and stop by nearby tire garage and make an appointment for tire rotation. I'm anxious to see how I start out with these hypermiling techniques. My initial goal is to top 35 mpg.

Monday (Tuesday) Weigh In

2008-05-27T16:12:00.002-04:00

Well, today I weighed myself as I've been doing this low carb diet for a week now. I didn't weigh in last Monday because I wanted to make sure I was going through with this. I would have weighed in yesterday, but it was Memorial Day and all the grocer outlets with huge weight scales for tubs like me were closed. So I had to wait until today. I went by Publix to do a little family shopping on the way home and jumped on as I was leaving. The big moment:

259 lbs.

Ugh. My guess was somewhere between 265 and 275. I'm glad I scored on the under but that like asking Ms. Kennedy how she liked her ride through Dallas other than that assasination thing. Anyway I'll try to track my meal carbs starting tonight.

The Three Column Blog I've Been Looking For

2008-05-25T22:56:00.004-04:00

Ah, I found it. Courtesy of Testing Blogger Beta. This nifty three column blog for beta is what I've been searching for. My limited capabilities on CSS were stretched to the limit and my blogger needs have epanded beyond the scope of my knowledge and abilities. It has has taken me nearly two years to tweek my main blog, Truman's Conscience to where I want it. It's a real labor for me to edit the html manually as I really have no training and I know just enough to get me in trouble.

I'll post later when time allows about my objective(s) here for this effort. I love the look of it of the basic template and I'll be trying to tweek this one out as well trying to learn the xhtml code needed for editing.