Tag Archives: Nonsense

Competitive Weight Loss Program

As an aside to my regular happenings, I joined my co-workers in a big fat loser competition.  We started last week and I weighed in at 187.4lbs.  Which is close to my actual naked weight of 180.6lbs.  The competition will last eight weeks (final weigh-in just before Thanksgiving break) and is percentage based.  I’m aiming for a ten pound loss, which is about five and a half percent either way.  (Right?  Someone help me with my math.  Thanks.)  We’ll have to *weight* and see how it goes.  Not sure if 5.5% is enough to be competitive against the rest of the office, but since there are no official rules and anything goes, I plan to bring donuts and cookies.  For them, not for me.

And that should be "big fat-loser", not "big fat loser."  It makes me laugh however you say it.  Which probably means we’re saying it wrong.  But you get the idea.

Wish me luck.  The winner gets $227.50 and second place gets $97.50.

Update: 10/3/08

Thompology has joined the competition .  Although his entry is an unofficial one, this will definitely add some entertainment to the compteition, and probably keep me more motiviated.  (Trash talking in real life is way different than trash talking in the office.)  Game on!  And, good luck.

A Relatively Quick Hello

I want to say welcome and thanks for stopping by to all of you whom I’ve encountered in the last 8 or 9 days.  Be it in real life or virtual, social-media life.  I’m happy to have you over, and I aim to keep you as mostly entertained as possible, even if it means I have to sell sea shells by the sea shore to do so in front of a video camera with a half broken lens.  I’m here to please, and pleased that you’re here.

To keep this as simple as possible, and brief — the drum we’re to be with marching is not what you’d expect from your usual run of the mill beta tester.  Which is to say, “don’t expect what you’d typically expect.”  The name tags are real.  The lies are real.  The laughter is legit.  The smile was purchased from a friend I used to know back in middle school.  Still, I trust that you trust me to share with you, and I appreciate that.  I am clearly obvious and obviously clear without being blatant about wanting to meet, greet, and chat with all you fine people.  We’ll have to exchange cryptically coded memos as the year wears on.

All that aside, I’m looking forward to further exploration with all of you.  And those things I told you, they’re almost all true.  We’re gearing up to make seven documentaries about the long lost soul of a great underground statistician known as the unknown.  Equivalent to forty-two hours of gut wrenchingly good and somber times.  You’ll have a hard time and be well pressed to find anything like it anywhere else on the InterWeb.  I mean it.  I really do.  My producers are getting upset that I’m even saying anything about it right now, but that’s of no concern to us.  So stay tuned and stick around.

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Weak Wednesday Wrap

The truth is I have several posts, each somewhere between 30 and 90 percent complete.  I’m hesitant to rush any of them, and I’ve been too distracted this week to bother with finishing any.  Can you blame me?  What with TechCrunch 50 and DEMO ’08 going on, there’s a ton of startup coverage which I’m compelled to read, even if most of the companies have been less than interesting.  The commentary is great.  So far two companies from TC50 have impressed me, at least what I can get from all the secondhand feedback.  I’m holding off with any reviews until I see all the companies.

In the meanwhile I promise (mostly) to finish some of these half-done posts very soon.  They include, but are not limited to, and could be bumped: a recent blog-find I want to promote; one of my favorite Sacramento restaurants; title tackling; and, my first impression of Picasa’s latest feature addition.

Loads of good stuff on the way.  In the meanwhile, remember to follow my Stumbles or my Feedreader shares .

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Cheese Return In Another Life

I don’t know what it is, and don’t get me wrong, I enjoy fresh Provolone cheese, but if I were ever to return in a future life as a stick of Provolone cheese, I would be very disappointed.  It’s just so plain and boring.  But it does go well with crackers and salami, so there’s always that.  And maybe that’s just it, isn’t it?

Anyhow, I couldn’t say for certain which type of cheese I would like to return as, maybe a Pepperjack or something, but even that seems too easy.  I like the spice, but it’s not really the flavor of the cheese so much as it’s the additive.  Perhaps a nice aged cheddar from Wisconsin.  I like the sound of that.

Monday Mashup – Olympics, Guest Author, TV, Twitter…

  • Olympics 2008 – It’s going full speed now in Beijing, and there just isn’t enough time in the day to keep up with watching all the events and happenings, so Google will undoubtedly play a large role in my staying up to date and not up to late.  Google has even included a handy summary box of the Top Three Medaling Countries in search results for “Beijing 2008 Olympic Games”.  They obviously know what’s important to those of us in a hurry.
  • Guest Authors – I’ve spent some time considering whether or not to allow guest authors to share in my blag space, and finally settled on the idea that it would be okay.  Or at least that it would be worth trying out.  So that guy Josh will take the first shot at it, writing as JoshGZ a column he calls “America, This is You”.  Look for his posts on Tuesdays at irregular intervals with the first one running tomorrow.  Be sure to let him know what you think in the comments.
  • Watching TV – I’ve been following HBO’s latest miniseries Generation Kill, which tells the true story about a group of US marines through the first 40 days of the Iraq war.  It’s based upon Evan Wright’s book that he wrote after joining this particular group of marines to write a collection of articles for Rolling Stone magazine as they invaded Iraq.  I’m half way through the seven-part series, and so far I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen.
  • Twittering – I’m still a fan of  Twitter, even if it has reduced the feature set in an effort to keep the service up and running.  However, I’m not nearly as active as I originally was, and I have to wonder if that’s because I’m spending more time blogging and emailing or because I’m just not as excited about the service.  It’s tough to cram everything into 140 characters, but it’s fun trying to share clear and concise messages that other people may find useful or interesting.  So keep an eye on my Twitter stream, and we’ll see about improving use.

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I Am My Niche

This says more than it means just as much as it confuses the situation all together, so let me clarify, or maybe muddle it a bit more, whichever helps most, hopefully.  And it goes something like this:

There’s a lot of talk, or advice, going around about covering the topics with which you’re familiar but also that aren’t heavily covered already.  (A niche.)  So?  Ta-da!  Here I am, right?  I mean, there’s some sense to it.  Of course I’m going to know all about me, and understand why it is the factors that push me to and fro cause me to behave and respond the ways I do.  It just goes without saying, and it’s not as crazy as it sounds.  Not to mention, I’m pretty certain no one else is writing about me, and if someone is then I’d like to know about it.

Here is where it takes a turn for the better, though.  I’m not meaning to write about me as I would in diary form.  No, I have an email blog for that particular activity.  This here niche I’m intending to cover is all the goodness that comes about as a result of the stuff that happens to me which is written about in the email blog.  Simplified — A bunch of cryptic gibberish about the goings-on that are my life is what I write in emails to people I call at home; and whatever I can learn from those happenings, or whatever ideas pop into this oddly shaped head of mine, is what I aim to pen in this here space.

Whether you read me here, there, everywhere, or no where (which doesn’t work too well,) know that I’m always writing something somewhere for, or to, someone.  Today, here and now, it’s this and it’s for you.

Thanks for reading.

For The Cost Of A Dime

Every so often I’ll start thinking about getting rid of just about everything in my apartment that I don’t really need and that wouldn’t be a hassle to unload.  Essentially, I only need a computer with an Internet connection, and a place to keep food fresh.  Maybe a few other things, but not the point.

Thompology suggested I sell all my DVDs on Amazon.com.  When he sold his this way, it was a quick and painless process which resulted in some extra cash.  Sounds great.  I want the easy process with very little effort, and I could use the extra money to further expand the research of my vice.  (Whatever that may be.)

I grab a few DVDs from my shelf, figuring I’d try it with a few before bothering with the entire collection.  No point in listing these things if no one is going to respond, right?  The first was The Matrix, which, if I was willing to, I could sell for $0.46 plus $2.98 shipping and handling.  Wow!  Not going to buy too much with that.  So I skip that one figuring it isn’t worth my time for $0.46.  I list Dumb and Dumber, which I can sell for $2.50 + $2.98 S&H.  I figure this amount is worth my time to start clearing the shelf.  I start entering all the information to set up my account and post the listing, when Amazon tells me their commission fee for this sale is $2.17.  Are you kidding me?  A joke and a half, surely.  But no, it’s not a joke, this is what they will take from my sale.  Fine, I’ll take the $0.33 difference since I’ve started the process.

The listing posts.

An order is placed within a few hours.

I make my way to the post office the following day to package and ship the order.  After spending $3.41 on an envelope and postage, it tuns out I am $0.10 in the hole on this transaction.  All I could do was laugh as I paid the fee, I’d come too far to turn back.  Not to mention, I’d already written on the envelope.   I say, “screw you, amazon dot com.”

Maybe this is just their way of teaching me I don’t know how to make money.  I suppose that’s not a bad lesson for the cost of a dime.

We’ve Been Tracking You

It’s true, we’ve been monitoring your cruise using Google Earth and Google Travel, and probably some other Google products, with which we are unfamiliar, but are using nonetheless. The photos are from two years ago, but we’re certain it’s the same ship, and it’s going about in the same way. (Route and speed.) Sometimes we can see folks up on deck, waving, and singing, probably, thinking they are kings of the world. Which isn’t the same as being a street king. That’s more like being a rouge cop, or a gang member. Perhaps part of some organized crime cartel. You don’t hear a whole lot about cartels anymore. Maybe that’s just me. I don’t know where I’d be that I’d hear about them. I’m around online, and from time to time, but you know how it is, you start reading comics in the morning and then before you know it — it’s lunch, and, well, who has time for that sort of thing? Not me, my man. That’s all I’m saying.

Anyhow, there isn’t too much time left, although there’s plenty of space, so we’ll have to leave it at this. In the meanwhile, thanks for stopping by and having a few. We all back here hope that you enjoyed your trip over there.