2009.06.15
Monday's open thread
A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.
What are you acting on today?
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Not sure yet, but I think we'll be calibrating the sight on my wife's graduation present. She thinks it's the coolest gift ever, next to the dagger and sword I got her at the Highlander Festival a few years back.
Comment by Other John — June 15, 2009 @ 9:50 am
"Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday that “there’s some real doubt” that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was legitimately reelected president of Iran"
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23720.html
Way to put that foreign policy experience to work Joe.
Comment by Marked Man (mark) — June 15, 2009 @ 9:59 am
OJ...you can't leave me hanging on that suspense. What did you get her? And what degree did she get?
Comment by Ed S. — June 15, 2009 @ 10:27 am
Watching the plumber dig under my porch chasing a water leak and feeling my checkbook get lighter and lighter.
Comment by Patrick — June 15, 2009 @ 10:43 am
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/weekinreview/14harwood.html?_r=1
Interesting....even the GOP is finally giving up on Reaganomics.
Comment by Kristen — June 15, 2009 @ 11:19 am
Sorry to keep you hanging, Ed. She got her certifications for Medical Massage Therapy, so she can run a practice affiliated with various doctors and chiropractors in the area. She doesn't like the day spa approach, but rather the more scientific/medical approach (sort of strange since she's far more liberal than I am). She's been opposed to having firearms in our house for a long time, even though she grew up with them (though didn't use them often). She finally warmed to the idea of a .177 caliber compressed-air pistol because she liked the way it looked and felt, and it would also help to deter anyone should they try to enter the house. While I would prefer traditional firearms...airguns are about all we need. I'm considering a .177/.22 air rifle with interchangeable barrels for the two calibers, because at most all I need to do from time to time is pick off a groundhog that starts burrowing too close to the house. Between those, our sword and knife collection (all quite usable), and ongoing martial arts training...anyone would be ill advised to enter our house without our granted permission!
Comment by Other John — June 15, 2009 @ 12:31 pm
Congratulations to her! Next time I'm in the area, maybe she can help me with this neck pain....
Sounds like you live off the road a bit, though. If only I were so lucky. The way houses are built up here...all you have to do for an extra bedroom or bathroom is open your window.
Comment by Ed S. — June 15, 2009 @ 1:12 pm
In other news, Big Brother now wants to check your e-mail from other countries to check for a virus or such. No worry, they say it will be much like a customs check. For those of you wondering, no George Bush has retired and had nothing to do with this one!....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31338666/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/
Comment by TScottW — June 15, 2009 @ 1:50 pm
Ed, she probably could! A friend of our has had chronic back and neck pain for nearly 20 years since a bad car wreck. She's seen doctors and chirpractors ever since. After a few sessions, a lot of her pain eased and it made the chiropractors work go a whole lot more smoothly. Another friend with chronic shoulder pains has also had them largely go away with a few sessions...it's amazing what it can do.
And no...we're not really off the road that much, but we are in a rural community with a lot of space around our home. The closest neighboring home is about 100 feet from ours, and including our lot, we have about an acre of undeveloped/cleared land surrounding our house. The groundhogs live mostly in the overgrowth in a vacant parcel behind us, but have gotten too close to our house for my liking. I was content to leave them be, until one of them charged me while I was on my riding mower. We don;t want any of our cats to get tangled up with them, or for us to find burrow holes under our house...so the time has come. Unfortunately, state law prohibits trapping and moving them to a new location, so even if we trapped humanely, they'd be killed by the USDA Wildlife folks. So, for only a handful of dollars, we'll take them out with some hollow point hunting pellets. I'm still not enthralled with the idea of killing them, but I don't see any other option at this point. After growing up in a neighborhood like the one you mention...I'm thankful to have the breathing room!
Comment by Other John — June 15, 2009 @ 1:59 pm
Re: How To Do A Safe Detox
If you want to lose weight, there's a much better and simpler way.
Decrease your daily caloric intake, decrease your daily carbohydrate intake, decrease your daily fat intake, decrease your daily sugar intake. In other words; eat less processed and canned foods and eat less sugars. Eat more fresh raw vegetables and fresh cooked vegetables and get regular exercise. Make sure you continue to get plenty of protein (multiply your weight by 0.37 to get the # of grams of protein per day, it's okay to eat a bit more, protein is not something that you can really overdo). Protein is essential to maintaining healthy muscle mass.
Furthermore, do weight training in addition to cardio. Many women believe that weight training will cause them to "bulk up" and look too manly. Unless you're curling 60+ lbs and benching 150+ lbs, that's not the case. Use 15 or 20 lbs free weights. It will give you a lean physique instead of a skinny, yet still flabby physique. (Kate from LOST vs Paris Hilton) This will also help reduce body fat, as opposed to just weight (some of which will be muscle loss).
The vast majority of "snack food" is nothing more than fried breads and/or corn with flavoring or a mixture of nothing but various sugars. Most people eat way too much carbohydrate-rich foods (specifically corn-based foods) and way too much sugar (canned foods, soda, candy). Eat more fresh greens and fruits. Spinach, lettuce, kale, cabbage, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, lean meats like grilled chicken breast, and so on. (cut down on corn, as corn is high in both carbohydrates and high in sugars) These things don't have to be bland, either. Spice up that chicken breast with a nice Jamaican rub, blackening, marinade, etc. Instead of rice, serve it with some kale cooked in vinegar, lemon, and tarragon, or maybe some asparagus. There's a wide variety of spices, herbs and flavoring agents out there to be used. Also, vegetables and salads tend to take a bit longer to digest, meaning you will feel full for longer.
This doesn't mean you have to give up carbohydrates. Just don't eat bread with every meal. Don't eat chips every day. Don't drink tons of sugary drinks (cola) every day. Try to buy free-range meats instead of farmed meats (farm raised cattle fed strict corn diets are often sick and require many antibiotics, free-range cattle eats more of their natural diet, grasses, and thus have higher protein value and less fat).
Colonics and other voodoo weight loss are not only unhealthy, but they don't work. You might shed some weight starving yourself and using laxatives for a week, but you will also be malnourished, vitamin deficient, have lost more muscle mass than fat mass (muscle weighs more than fat per pound), and you will most likely just gain that weight right back. It's not worth it. Losing weight has to be a lifestyle change, not just a quick fix.
Comment by George — June 15, 2009 @ 6:25 pm
@ TScottW (post #8): This is just silly. Use Google's GMial. GMail has built-in anti-virus that automatically scans all attachments. BTW, if anyone doesn't have anti-virus software, I highly recommend either Avast! Home Edition ( http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html ). It's 100% free, low footprint (meaning they use up very little of your computer's resources), and is very thorough.
If you need a firewall, I highly recommend Comodo ( http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/ ) or ZoneAlarm ( http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-pc-security-free-firewall.htm ). If you are using Windows Vista, Vista Firewall Control by Sphinx Software ( http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/index.html ) is a great option. All of the listed firewalls are low footpint, 100% free, and very good. Comodo can be annoying, but it is one of the best firewalls I've ever used. ZoneAlarm is good for novice users, as it tends to not pester the user as often. (comodo will ask to reverify connection permissions after a program, like Firefox, updates to a new version) Vista Firewall Control actually uses the built-in firewall of Windows Vista. It writes scripts in Vista's firewall log to block outgoing connections. This functionality is included in Vista's firewall, but prompting was disabled by Microsoft because testers thought it was too tedious. The only prompts that Vista's default firewall will ask for is incoming connections.
Comment by George — June 15, 2009 @ 6:45 pm
AVG has a free anti-virus that is also very good.
Comment by Jack — June 15, 2009 @ 8:37 pm
"In other news, Big Brother now wants to check your e-mail from other countries to check for a virus or such. No worry, they say it will be much like a customs check. For those of you wondering, no George Bush has retired and had nothing to do with this one!...."
It would be interesting to see how they would force all of the Internet routers to re-route all of the email through them.
Comment by Jack — June 15, 2009 @ 8:39 pm