One full week on the new diet and I’ve lost 4 pounds.
Archive for August, 2005
I’m wasting away to nothing…
Wednesday, August 17th, 2005Blogging for Dollars
Monday, August 15th, 2005It’s official! I am now a PAID blogger.
Introducing Help Line 2.0!
The column I write for Houston’s largest daily newspaper has now added a blog component and the Houston Chronicle had hired yours truly (the only logical choice) to manage this online resource.
The web address is blogs.chron.com/helpline
I won’t be quitting my day job yet, but I AM a media monster.
Rather random encounters
Sunday, August 14th, 2005It was most unexpected to see my friend Sahira open up for Beans Barton and the Bipeds at Dan Electro’s on Saturday.
She’s a great dancer and member of Urban Gypsy.
I think my favorite was a duet dance she did with another member of the troop that was set to tune of Dueling Banjos.
The King is dead, long live The King!
Saturday, August 13th, 2005
Last night was a bit of a treat.
Arrived at the Continental a bit early and had a nice chat with Bill Shirley.
On the bill at the CC was Ted Roddy’s King Conjure Orchestra.
The evening was a tribute to the Elvis of the 50′s.
I am not a huge Elvis fan, but something about a 11 piece orchestra with a horn section and female backing vocals kicking out the jams in that space made me a fan for the night.
It was a great crowd. The cool thing was that, while they played Elvis songs, Ted Roddy was not an Elvis impersonator. He did, however, sing in the 50′s Elvis style. It was a true rock and roll party.
The Everyday Happenings of Weebl
Friday, August 12th, 2005Thanks to Katie for this link.
She says it’s her favorite web comic. First impressions are good.
More installments at www.weebl.jolt.co.uk
Thanks, Katie. Now I want pie. How many Weight Watcher points do you suppose I can spare?
How about ZERO!
?Y Tú Qué Has Hecho?
Friday, August 12th, 2005The soiree I attended with the Latin theme combined with Cynthia’s ongoing Spanish lessons have sparked an interest in familiarizing myself more with Latin music.
The party featured a soundtrack that was most pleasant. I was even sent home with a mix CD. Thank god I am finally onboard with Kymberlie’s whole mix CD philosphy after legal counsel from Katie.
A co-worker just loaned me the Buena Vista Social Club CD featuring Ry Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrar, Ruben Gonzalez, Compay Segundo and more. It’s a very good CD and I am enjoying it at my desk right now.
And yes, I am aware that Ibrahim Ferrar has recently passed away. At least the recordings live on.
Spy Another Day
Friday, August 12th, 2005My co-host, Barrett, has always been a fan of compact, mobile computing. On of the things he has evangelized is Knoppix.
From their website:
KNOPPIX is a bootable Live system on CD or DVD, consisting of a representative collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a productive Linux system for the desktop, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it (over 8GB on the DVD “Maxi” edition).
Very cool.
Now Barrett has found something else quite interesting. I saw that he had posted to the forums at geekradio.com a blurb about Realm Systems new device, the Realm Mobile Personal Server.
From their web site:
The Realm MPS is the worlds first and only easy-to-use, secure, USB powered computing device that can be used any place, any time, on any operating system.
Basically, you can carry a Linux server in your pocket that can be connected to the USB port of any PC.
The cheesy promos they have done with Jon Lovitz not withstanding, this device looks to be quite interesting.
Funny? Or funny looking?
Thursday, August 11th, 2005Ok, it’s official. I am on a diet. Weight Watchers to be exact.
My first goal is to lose 22 pounds.
Should be doable.
I am not all that tall so being overweight tends to make me look a bit like a furry beach-ball so I have some incentive.
On the plus side I don’t drink much, especially not beer.
Yesterday I stayed within my WW point allotment. I resisted a double-meat Whataburger with all my will. It was a colossal struggle to be sure. The victory growl in my stomach heralded my triumph of will.
I chose, instead, to polish off my remaining 9 points with a shrimp salad from Berry Hill and a Lonestar at The Big Top after the show.
GO JAY!
Katie was responsible for tipping me off about the shrimp salad.
I am finding a lot of support for this lifestyle change which is a HUGE plus.
Speaking of looks, it has again been brought to my attention that I bear a resemblance to Lee Arenberg, you know, the bald headed guy with the broken thumbs from Seinfeld?
I guess it’s better than looking like the dwarf he played in the Dungeons and Dragons movie or Pintel from Pirates of the Caribbean.
JLD revisited
Thursday, August 11th, 2005Last night’s radio show was a particularly good one. The chemistry was such that the show flowed with an ease and spontaneity that is the the trademark of why I do this. Great callers and hillarious interaction with my co-hosts Phliktid, Barrett and Dwight Silverman. Of course the efforts of David Fretz who mans the phones and helps monitor the IRC channel should not go unrecognized.
If you are so inclined, you can listen to last night’s show here via streaming audio, here as a downloadable MP3 file or for the very tech savvy you can go here for the podcast RSS feed.
After the show I decided to go over to the Big Top to check out some Light Rock Express for just a short time.
I had also mad arrangements to meet up with the Legendary Robb Zipp to help facilitate the consignment of some of his stencil art at Sig’s.
It was a great evening. We got Robb all settled with Thomas, had a great conversation with Houston Press Music Editor, John Lomax and even ran into my good friend Michael Haaga, formerly of Dead Horse fame but now the driving force behind the Plus and Minus Show.
Robb eyballs his pile of art and thinks of the riches
that surely must be coming his way
Robb Zipp and Michael Haaga share a moment.
After all that we headed over to the Big Top and had a few Lonestars before parting ways and heading home.
Look at that blubber fly!
Tuesday, August 9th, 2005I had my physical this week.
Mostly good.
I am still waiting on the results of the blood work but I remain optimistic.
A little bit more distressing, though, was a stern recommendation from my doctor. Since my father died of liver cancer which spread from his colon I have to get one of those check-ups, the one usually prescribed for men over 50.
My doctor knows a specialist who performs the procedure while sedated (I will be sedated, not the doctor).
I have a consultation next week and will probably have the procedure in within the month.
It should also be noted that I have been medically declared overweight by my doctor. This means changing my diet. Something I have been meaning to address anyway. Plus, many friends have started eating healthier so I am not alone. Cynthia and I bought lots of fresh fruits and vegetables while shopping this week and even selected some Weight Watcher meals for my lunches. Yum!
I found this picture in my surfing recently.
If I lose 40 pounds I can laugh at it without feeling like a hypocrite.
