CheezyOranges

I’ve been doing the diet outlined here for 2 weeks. I’ve seen absolutely no change in my weight at all. Actually, I’ve gained 3 pounds, which is really discouraging. I’m running at the gym every other day, I’m walking or biking the off days. I’ve even started lifting weights (lightly) too. There’s no way I’ve gained muscle exactly at the same rate I’m losing fat (if I’m losing fat). I was expecting my pants to be falling off me by now.

So I’m changing my plan to this. Today is a down day, and I can tell already its going to hurt, alot. 20% of my normal caloric intake is about 400 calories. That’s going to be hard to do, even with the protein stuff I bought yesterday (which tastes terrible - I’m hoping some splenda will rectify that). But yeah, I ate about 1.5 hours ago and I’m already feeling my stomach going “Hey! Eat.”

Granted, I haven’t been rigorous on the “slow-carb” diet, probably eating too many veggies. But I still should’ve seen *SOME* results. But every time I weighed myself at the gym I was exactly where I started or higher. Grah. And Greg has lost 11 POUNDS these past 2 weeks. And my mom has lost who knows how many pounds these last few months. Why can’t I share in that, too?

I’m never buying a Foxconn Motherboard again. EVER EVER. Why on earth would they create a motherboard, package it with a Video-out header, and then not allow the stupid thing to work. AUGH.

I’ve been working on this all weekend, trying to build a HTPC as a suprise for when Greg gets back. “Guess what? I built a TIVO while you were out!” happy, right? Not quite. I got the packages on Friday, and was excited to get started. Everything fit (tightly) into the case, and it booted up beautifully. The initial setup went like a breeze - props to the tutorial folks over at Ubuntu.
Then, I thought, “I can connect it to the TV now and see if it works.” and Lo, it doesn’t work. Needless to say, after multiple times of having to open the case and reset the CMOS because I have no video from either source, I’ve given up. What’s the use of having this if it doesn’t show up on the TV? Ugh.

Newegg is still an amazing place to buy stuff from, and I’m pleased that their returns process is so simple. However, the manufacturer shouldn’t have led-on its customers like this. I shouldn’t HAVE to return this board and buy a different one. But, this is the simplest solution. Return this and get a new board with an AGP slot and a video card. That’s the only solution.

But, now I know. I should’ve opted for a tad larger case, though cooling on this one hasn’t been a problem, its a tight fit for everything in there. Plus, I had to replace the power supply because it was just too damn loud. And i know never to touch foxconn anything.

The business world really needs to understand the concept of sleep, and how good too much of it is for workers. I hate getting up when its still dark outside. Especially in school systems. Its no wonder people are more depressed and crazy when they’re in college. They don’t get any sleep because someone thinks its a good idea for classes to start at the crack of freaking dawn. I don’t know about you, but I can’t learn anything if I’m asleep.

And they cause trouble like them too. Poor Sylvanis, our kitty, has *another* UTI. I would’ve waited until this afternoon to take her into the vet but there was blood, and I didn’t want her suffering any more than she needed to. So to the emergency vet we went. Far from an emergency, but I didn’t want her to pee all over the house or to be in pain. So, she’s on wet food until her medication is gone. Last night, after she got home from the Vet she was all lovey dovey and happy like nothing happened. Weird cat. I guess she’s on wet food for good now since she won’t drink her water.
Silly cat.

This article was written at a student at Loyola Marymount University in response to the Virginia Tech shootings. This is a similar article from our own UCF Future.
I see something wrong here. The article from the Loyola paper points to “electronica,” the continuing immersion of our society into electronic devices and pass-times, as the reason that the shooter was so deranged. UCF’s paper suggests that also. One thing that I don’t enjoy about the fallout from events like this is that personal responsibility goes out the window. Yes, more should have been done by others to get the kid the help he needed, and its probably our disconnected society that may have forestalled that. However, we shouldn’t completely forget about personal responsibility, either.
UCF’s article mentions how FSU has publicly announced its new and improved security committees, including a loudspeaker and 3 task-force committees. Yay. Loudspeakers don’t work, especially in bad weather. All you hear is “blah blah blah blah blah” more so if you’re right under the thing. And additional committees wouldn’t make response time faster. If anything, they’d just bog down the decision making process.
Personally, I think the VA tech administration did all that it could do. Who could’ve possibly guessed that a domestic incident would turn into 30 people dead? The fact that they did email everyone is astounding. Talk about a university up on the times. And honestly, what student is going to allow their university to send them text messages? If its anything like the emails I get on a daily basis from my university, it’d be ignored.
Then there’s the gun-control people, for and against. I’m of the belief that guns should be a little better controlled and regulated, but when a bad guy wants a gun, he’s going to be able to get it. Yeah, the store that sold that gun to the kid is probably going out of business now but that doesn’t help the kids who got shot, does it? And in this case, we really need to examine our society. Lack of guns won’t do anything in a society that is violent, arrogant, and selfish. People will find other tools to murder each other with.
The violence and nastiness permiating our society does come, in part, from media like video games and movies, but again - personal responsibility. Who lets the little kids SEE these movies and play these games? There are ratings on the things for a reason. When I had a job at Gamestop for a summer, more than once I would alert a parent to the rating of a game (say the parent is buying an M game for their 8 year old) and they’d shrug it off. These parents are a danger to their children, if only because they don’t care!
Before we go blaming the standard scape-goats, I think we all should take a look at the examples we’re giving our younger generations. Personal responsibility means keeping the kids from the violent games and movies until you know they’re ready for them, instead of blaming the media for the violence later. Sure, the violence will still be there, but it’s not really the problem is it?

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Yesterday turned out ok in the end, but I woke up with a horrid headache and it felt like my stomach was in my throat. I didn’t throw up, but I just went back to sleep. I think it was the large amount of chocolate I ate the night before. That or the half sandwich I ate after Greg from What a Burger. That or the sushi. Shouldn’t have been the sushi. But you know, come to think of it, after eating it it did vaguely remind me of that sushi we got from Snovs that tasted just the same way. And that made me sick too. So yeah, maybe it was the sushi.
So I went back to bed, and went with Greg to work when he went to work at like 1. We had quizno’s for lunch and I went and got Thai for dinner which was EXTREMELY yummy. And I helped him get some work done on his website which he’s been bugging me for for a few weeks now.
It was nice to kinda have an “off-day” seeing as work has been somewhat non-stop for the past 2, 3 weeks. That means good money, but little sleep and/or free time. Even weekends seem rushed.
So it was nice to have a day to spend with Greg and it was fun, if not a little boring because I didn’t have much to do, but it was good to spend time OTHER than just sitting at home watching television.
So back to work today. Its Mardi Gras! And also free pancake day at IHOP. Yay.