July 27, 2004
Stuff..
Today I took my brother and one of my cousin's kids (about age 10) out to Dead Timber to go fishing. They went out with my dad last night to get bait but apparently they didn't get any. We used the fake lures but they're not as effective. We also tried to catch some frogs. we cause a few but they're pretty small. We wanted to catch one of the large bullfrog out there for a frog jumping contest this weekend. [This weekend Beemer is having it's annual "play daze" celebration. Once a 3 day thing now is a parade, some live entertainment and a handfuls of fundraiser, which takes place primarily on Sunday]
I just returned from visiting my buddy Eric. [as you may recall he's the one I've mentioned several times before.. currently married 2 kids, living with parents.] He was watching the kids while his wife and mother were out shopping. They will be baptizing their children (both under age 2) this weekend and he needs a new pair of pants. Turns out we currently wear the same size. :) now, that says nothing to those of you who don't know both of us personally but considering he's 50lbs lighter and about 6 or 7 inches shorter, I find it pretty interesting. It does confirm that I have short legs though.
He and his family say I'm looking great. I have lost roughly 50 lbs at this point. After the first month I started to slow down fairly quickly, but still was loosing about 5lbs a month. I suspect that the slowed loss was just part of the natural process. When my grandmother passed away I pardoned myself and ate "normally" with full intention of going back on induction after things were back to normal. However after the 4th of July things got a bit complicated again. On July 5th in the middle of the night my grandpa had a bad heart attack, and later passed away about three days later. The funeral was the following Saturday. It was eerie... to be in the same place and see family and things again after only a couple weeks. I had long suspected that one my grandma passed away from Alzhiemer's disease that my grandpa wouldn't last much longer .. but.. he was doing so well. He was on borrowed time already.. so his passing was not a total shock, but.. that never makes it any easier.
As you can imagine sticking to a strict regimen that Atkins requires wasn't terribly appealing. I tried to get back on induction about a week ago but that didn't happen.. I found myself becoming addicted to carbs again.... an addiction in the more traditional sense... more of a dependency I suppose. As with many things success is not achieved by the path of least resistance. This week I'm taking the bull by the horns, and now, Tuesday, I'm on day two of induction again. We'll see how things go.
I recently purchased a DVD burner, as well as a video to USB2.0 MPEG2 converter. Haven't had a chance to really use it yet. I installed all the software it came with and I ended up maxing out my Windows system partition. I had to uninstall a lot of stuff just to make my computer reasonably functional again. The drive is 10GB in all divided into to NTFS partitions. At one point in time I had Win98 and later moved to Win2k. Well I used win98 less and less and less and stopped all together. Some time in the future my Windows 2000 install got hosed by a HTA browser hijack (damn typos) . I was about to do a reinstall but I ended up putting winXP on instead. So I've had a dual boot system so as to preserve my files on the win2k install... however.. I've never used the win2k install since and If I ever do go back it needs to be reinstalled with SP4 added anyway. SO... What I've contemplated doing was reformating the hard drive and forming a single 10GB NTFS partition. However its' only 10gig. and it's a real chore to reinstall an OS and put back al lmy files even with the DVD burner and external hard drives. If I had the spending money I'd just get a new hard drive and do a fresh install, this would have the added benefit of keeping my files in one place without having to back them up. (plus I'd have room for a Linux install, currently I'm using a live CD for my Linux needs) ironically I need to fix a couple more computers around here so I can afford to upgrade my own.
As you've probably inferred by now, money is tight. I'm not working at Wimmer's anymore. I'm conflicted about that turn of events. I mailed off applications to two places this morning and I've been tweaking my resume. I had a job interview in Omaha a week ago, but that was a joke. I want to get money, move out, grow a social life. uh, if you're an attractive female, have money you can spare to give me (give not lend) , have a cheap place for me to live or all of the above please let me know.
I just returned from visiting my buddy Eric. [as you may recall he's the one I've mentioned several times before.. currently married 2 kids, living with parents.] He was watching the kids while his wife and mother were out shopping. They will be baptizing their children (both under age 2) this weekend and he needs a new pair of pants. Turns out we currently wear the same size. :) now, that says nothing to those of you who don't know both of us personally but considering he's 50lbs lighter and about 6 or 7 inches shorter, I find it pretty interesting. It does confirm that I have short legs though.
He and his family say I'm looking great. I have lost roughly 50 lbs at this point. After the first month I started to slow down fairly quickly, but still was loosing about 5lbs a month. I suspect that the slowed loss was just part of the natural process. When my grandmother passed away I pardoned myself and ate "normally" with full intention of going back on induction after things were back to normal. However after the 4th of July things got a bit complicated again. On July 5th in the middle of the night my grandpa had a bad heart attack, and later passed away about three days later. The funeral was the following Saturday. It was eerie... to be in the same place and see family and things again after only a couple weeks. I had long suspected that one my grandma passed away from Alzhiemer's disease that my grandpa wouldn't last much longer .. but.. he was doing so well. He was on borrowed time already.. so his passing was not a total shock, but.. that never makes it any easier.
As you can imagine sticking to a strict regimen that Atkins requires wasn't terribly appealing. I tried to get back on induction about a week ago but that didn't happen.. I found myself becoming addicted to carbs again.... an addiction in the more traditional sense... more of a dependency I suppose. As with many things success is not achieved by the path of least resistance. This week I'm taking the bull by the horns, and now, Tuesday, I'm on day two of induction again. We'll see how things go.
I recently purchased a DVD burner, as well as a video to USB2.0 MPEG2 converter. Haven't had a chance to really use it yet. I installed all the software it came with and I ended up maxing out my Windows system partition. I had to uninstall a lot of stuff just to make my computer reasonably functional again. The drive is 10GB in all divided into to NTFS partitions. At one point in time I had Win98 and later moved to Win2k. Well I used win98 less and less and less and stopped all together. Some time in the future my Windows 2000 install got hosed by a HTA browser hijack (damn typos) . I was about to do a reinstall but I ended up putting winXP on instead. So I've had a dual boot system so as to preserve my files on the win2k install... however.. I've never used the win2k install since and If I ever do go back it needs to be reinstalled with SP4 added anyway. SO... What I've contemplated doing was reformating the hard drive and forming a single 10GB NTFS partition. However its' only 10gig. and it's a real chore to reinstall an OS and put back al lmy files even with the DVD burner and external hard drives. If I had the spending money I'd just get a new hard drive and do a fresh install, this would have the added benefit of keeping my files in one place without having to back them up. (plus I'd have room for a Linux install, currently I'm using a live CD for my Linux needs) ironically I need to fix a couple more computers around here so I can afford to upgrade my own.
As you've probably inferred by now, money is tight. I'm not working at Wimmer's anymore. I'm conflicted about that turn of events. I mailed off applications to two places this morning and I've been tweaking my resume. I had a job interview in Omaha a week ago, but that was a joke. I want to get money, move out, grow a social life. uh, if you're an attractive female, have money you can spare to give me (give not lend) , have a cheap place for me to live or all of the above please let me know.
July 04, 2004
Boom!
Just over 60 years ago Allied forces launched an attack which would later be known as D-day. A turning point in WWII. Long story short our freedom was preserved and German law and culture was not forced upon us. So on this day we celebrate the freedom to do what ever we want.. and what do we do? Eat bratwursts and drink beer!
I'm well aware that this holiday stems from the signing of the declaration of independence following the revolutionary war, but freedom isn't constant. Freedom must be maintained. To do that we must do things we may not want to do. There's a paradox for you. Of course that is the human condition. Two things that separate us from vegetables and other lower life forms are that 1) we know we're going to die. 2) we don't always choose the path of least resistance. money.. happiness.. many things must be worked for just to be held in balance. The biggest struggle of all is choosing which struggle to fight against.
"Two roads diverged in yellow wood.... " Robert Frost wrote about two roads... but really there are three. There's the path of minimal resistance, and two difficult paths. Sure you could take the low resistance path and be perfectly content, but that's a risk you take there may be pitfalls that you are unable to overcome, or you may end your journey unfulfilled. I think most people would agree that one of the later two roads would be preferred. Perhaps in the poem it is assumed that you not take the first road.
"Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back." As the poem goes on he describes a dilemma well. We can't go back. We get one chance and that's it. We make the best choices we can when we come to them and we must live with the destination a choice brings us to. The trick?, to figure things out well enough to make the best possible choices each time we come to a fork.
Some of you may ask "where are we going anyway"? Well, I don't know either. But I guess if I can clear a stone or push aside a fallen log for one of the next travelers along this path, my journey will have not been for nothing.
I'm well aware that this holiday stems from the signing of the declaration of independence following the revolutionary war, but freedom isn't constant. Freedom must be maintained. To do that we must do things we may not want to do. There's a paradox for you. Of course that is the human condition. Two things that separate us from vegetables and other lower life forms are that 1) we know we're going to die. 2) we don't always choose the path of least resistance. money.. happiness.. many things must be worked for just to be held in balance. The biggest struggle of all is choosing which struggle to fight against.
"Two roads diverged in yellow wood.... " Robert Frost wrote about two roads... but really there are three. There's the path of minimal resistance, and two difficult paths. Sure you could take the low resistance path and be perfectly content, but that's a risk you take there may be pitfalls that you are unable to overcome, or you may end your journey unfulfilled. I think most people would agree that one of the later two roads would be preferred. Perhaps in the poem it is assumed that you not take the first road.
"Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back." As the poem goes on he describes a dilemma well. We can't go back. We get one chance and that's it. We make the best choices we can when we come to them and we must live with the destination a choice brings us to. The trick?, to figure things out well enough to make the best possible choices each time we come to a fork.
Some of you may ask "where are we going anyway"? Well, I don't know either. But I guess if I can clear a stone or push aside a fallen log for one of the next travelers along this path, my journey will have not been for nothing.
