Author: Brian

Living is dying [B5 – 17 March 2004]

blogiversary

For the 30 days following this blog’s five-year anniversary, I am reposting some favorite, popular, or unique posts. Feel free to contact me to suggest some of your favorites. If you’d like to comment, click through to the original post.

From the early days of my blog, when I was still trying to figure out what to write, and when, comes a post that’s reflective and thoughtful. It came at a time when I was redefining what I could do in physical terms – Just three days prior to this post, I ran in my first-ever 5K race, the 2004 Shamrock Run, after having been exercising on and off for a couple of years, and a couple of months of “training” for the race.

I was on a steep weight-loss curve – after having resigned myself to the fact that I was just the size I was, and that couldn’t change.

Obviously, I was wrong. I could lose weight; I proved it to myself in the most dramatic fashion.

I could run; again, the proof was in the doing.

These early reflections, below, are still with me even today. I’ve internalized the idea that I can set goals, and that I am not carved in stone. I can change.

Here’s to the future.

*****

First, I understand that fat cells never (or rarely) ever die. They grow and shrink, but you never really change the number of cells you have during your adult life.

Second, I understand that fat cells are where your body stores toxins and poisons and other gunk that doesn’t get filtered out by your liver.

Third, it’s my understanding (as well as making logical sense, assuming the above two assertions are true) that when someone diets, their fat cells dump the poisons and toxins along with the fat. It’s a side-effect of dieting that I’ve read of in several books.

Lastly, I’ve been fat for at least my entire adult life.

That all being the case, then during this whole process of shrinking from 225 to under 180 lbs (or for that matter, from 240 in August 2000, my highest weight ever), I’ve been dumping, along with the weight, poisons that I have carried around with me for my entire life.

I don’t know if it’s scientifically true… but I’d like to think it’s metaphorically true.

So in many ways, I am, in fact, a brand-new person. Or at least, cleaner. I’ve shed more than weight; I’ve rid myself of past hates and fears… At least.

I feel… great. Amazing, in fact. I don’t want to leave behind my past; it’s what made me what I am. But there are certain parts of “the old Brian” that I am not going to miss at all.

This is apparently all part of my adjusting self-image. Brian is dead… long live Brian.

Barack

General

After the disinterest I felt before the presidential election in 2000 (followed by annoyance and anger as the results dragged on – then the whammy of 9/11), and the growing and burning fear and need for change in 2004 (which, of course, did not come, and became anger and desire to work even harder)…

…now, the day before the election, I am electrified. I can see the polls, I know what they say, but I have also felt the gut-punch of reversal of expectation, and the numbness in the face of the worst possible outcome (by the worst possible president). And the feeling from the last election tempers my excitement.

And yet, still, I dare to hope that maybe, America is awake enough, aware enough of our endangered status in the community of nations, to make the right decision. We only need 50%+1, and yet, as long as the polls aren’t wronger than they’ve ever been wrong before, it looks as though there’s more than enough awake aware Americans to make this change happen.

As John Hodgman says, today feels like the last day before the last day of school. Or just a day before something big.

C’mon. Barack me, Obama. We need it.

If I spend all day holding my breath or seeming distracted, please understand.

Bros [B5 – 28 February 2004]

blogiversary

For the next 30 days, I’ll be reposting one from the archives every day. The posts will include “B5” and the original date of publication in the title, and will be tagged “blogiversary”.

This is a fun short one, inspired by a night with my friends.

Enjoy.

*****
Went out tonight with friends. Played some darts, had dinner at Hoda’s (it was very good. One friend had been to Turkey before, and she proclaimed the food at Hoda’s to be top-notch).

Afterward, we went to shoot some pool, and while I was waiting for my shot, I noticed a guy in his early twenties, and dressed in a t-shirt and baggy jeans.

His t-shirt read:

“Bros before hos.”

The bestbestbest part was — He was playing all alone. No bros, no hos.

Happy Five Year Blogiversary

meta

Five years ago today, I started a blog.

1,944 posts later, here I am.

I don’t really know what to do to celebrate this event, other than to thank anyone who continues reading, and anyone who has read me in the past, and everyone who will read me in the future.

Sometimes I’ve got too much to say, and sometimes I can’t think of anything to say. All I really know is that I’m going to keep on saying things as long as I can, and I’m thankful to the internet for providing me a place to say them.

My daily visits have ranged from almost 500 a day, to around 175 per day in the last couple of months – likely due to my not having had much interesting to say lately. But I’m not doing this for fame. I’m writing for myself, and every single reader who finds something interesting here is a gift above and beyond.

The more successful blogs tend to have a focus on one topic; I don’t think I could ever limit myself like that. But there are several topics that tend to stand out more than the others; strip clubs and movies are the only ones I have tagged right now, but I intend to go back and tag the other topics soon, like politics, and atheism/religion. Exercise showed up a lot, until I split that off into its own blog at its own domain.

Aha! I thought of a project for celebrating my blogiversary! I’m going to re-post one post a day from the archive for the next 30 days, representing what I think are the best writing I’ve done, or the most popular posts, or uniquely showing what I do that no other blog does.

If you have any suggestions or favorite posts, feel free to leave a comment, or otherwise let me know.

Update: Turns out Blogger counts draft posts among the total. I currently have 63 draft, unpublished posts, so my total published posts, including this one, are 1,880. I regret the error. – BrianM 7:01 PM 11/02/2008

“Zack and Miri Make A Porno”

Movies

Kevin Smith, the writer and director, has a genius that is hard to deny. He writes honestly about how he feels, in a plain, straight-forward style. Of course, what he feels is a) a sweet adoring love for the beer-drinking, just one of the guys type women, and b) an adolescent glee at foul language and filthy jokes.

Just like many, many other people (both men and women) of his generation.

“Zack and Miri Make A Porno” made me laugh, and it made me wish I was Seth Rogen, and made me wish I knew a woman like Elizabeth Banks. Every character in the movie had at least one moment where I busted out a laugh. And even though I detected a strong hint of a double-standard (one of the plot points involves comparing the number of other people Zack and Miri get to have sex with in the course of making their porno), I think that that’s simply more Kevin Smith honesty. And, like a comedy is supposed to, it all turns out well.

The plot itself is thin and essentially summed up in the title – but the comedy all comes from the characters themselves.

Two points of interest when I saw this movie: a pair of women, one of whom was dressed head-to-toe in what appeared to be a modern version of a burkha, walked out of the movie after less than an hour. I wonder what, exactly, they expected based on the title of the movie, and why that surprised them? I’m probably assuming that they were Muslim, and I’ll admit to not being very tuned in to religious concerns, but I don’t recall any specifically anti-Islamic jokes in the movie. My thought is that they were turned off by the overall language and tone, though I could be wrong.

At least they didn’t stay long enough to see the shit that happened to Jeff Anderson’s character (who is more famous as Randal from “Clerks”).

Second, after the credits rolled (I always stay to the end of the credits), a couple were looking for something that had fallen out of one of their pockets, and the guy said to the girl, “Tell me something. If I just finished watching a fucking Kevin Smith movie, why is it that most of the trailers were for chick flicks? I don’t get it.” The girl laughed and said she had no clue.

John Jonathon John Sean Hodgcoultroderelson

General

The men in the following pictures will all be in Seattle, in the same venue, next week.

Can you tell them apart?

They’re just a mish-mash of hair, glasses, white skin, and the occasional beard.

I would love to be there but I probably can’t. Details here.

Oh, sure

General

So I wait until the next-to-last day to sign up for this year’s NaNoWriMo… and they’re down for server maintenance?!

It may be working when you read this, but as of right now, when I’m typing these words, clicking that link shows me an apology and no word on when they’ll be back up. OK, I lied, one word: “jiffy”.

As in, they’ll be back up in a.

Their Twitter feed has a little bit more information:

Sam and Russ are working on one of our database servers right now. Thanks for your patience!

…from about 3 hours ago.

And their latest (as I type this) tweet:

And no, this is not our attempt to make you think about your novel instead of surfing the forums. 🙂

Harrumph.

Undecided voters? Here’s the change you need

General

What? You’re still on the fence on the presidential election? What are you; nuts?

Here, cribbed from the Willy Week’s blog, which in turn cribbed them from Barack Obama’s campaign book “Change We Can Believe In”, are a list of positive reasons to vote for the man who will very likely be our next President:

  • Automatic workplace retirement plans: Require employers who do not currently offer a retirement plan to enroll their employees in a government direct-deposit IRA. Employees keep the plan even when they change jobs. If they want, they can opt out.
  • Mid-East: Begin planning a responsible withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Instead, focus on fighting terrorists in Afghanistan. Launch a “diplomatic surge” in the Mid-East: train & deploy civilian diplomats to Syria, Iran, etc..
  • Minimum wage: Raise it to $9.50 by 2011. Afterward, index it to inflation.
  • Universal health insurance coverage: Offer an opt-in low-cost government insurance plan to every American—even those with pre-existing conditions.
  • Education: Further fund zero-to-five education programs & after-school enrichment. Pay teachers more; hold them more accountable. Offer a $4000 college tax credit to students willing to contribute 100 hours of public service, annually. Expand Pell Grants.
  • Tax policy: Lower or maintain tax rates for families making less than $250k/year. Raise tax rates for those making over $250k/year. Remove tax penalties on married families. Reward parents who pay child support with an EITC tax credit.
  • Cars: Double fuel economy standards within 18 years. Get one million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015. Cut taxes for Americans who buy fuel-efficient vehicles.
  • “Green” jobs: Create five million enviro-forward government jobs in clean energy, biofuels, hybrid automobiles, fuel infrastructure, low-emissions coal plants and a digital electricity grid.
  • Clean air: Reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2050. Institute a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce emissions. Invest in low-carbon nonpetroleum fuels.
  • Veterans: Fullly fund veterans’ medical care. Increase the number of centers treating Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and other specialized injuries. Work to end homelessness among veterans.
  • Nuclear nonproliferation: At all costs, prevent Iran from developing and testing nuclear weapons. Eliminate North Korea’s nuclear weapons program (seems unrealistic). Phase out Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) from the civil sector. Provide additional funding ($16m) to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Reduce US and Russian nuclear stockpiles. Ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
  • Global warming: Reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2050. Spend $150bn over 10 years to develop and deploy climate-friendly energy sources.
  • Foreign aid: Double foreign financial assistance to $50bn by 2012. Double the size of the peace corps to 16,000.
  • Lobbying: Employ no registered lobbyists in an Obama administration. Ban gifts to executive branch employees. End no-bid contracts over $25,000. Create a “Google for Government” so that regular citizens can track federal grants, contracts, earmarks & loans.
  • Civil rights: Overturn the Supreme Court ruling that makes it harder for women to file pay-discrimination claims. Preserve women’s rights as elaborated by Roe v. Wade. Support civil unions with equal rights for same-sex couples. End the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the US military.

Geek

General

Catching up with my friend Ken this morning (I haven’t seen him since he dropped me off at home eaaaaaaaarly Sunday morning from a Hallowe’en party), he mentioned (among many other things) that scientists had discovered a potential habitable solar system not far away.

Ken couldn’t remember all the details, so he dug up the article he remembered, from the Huffington Post.

As soon as I saw that the system was Epsilon Eridani, I pointed out, ironically, that that’s where the planet Vulcan, from the “Star Trek” universe, is located, home to Mr. Spock and others.

And now, googling around, I realize, I’m not the only one to make that connection:

[Astronomer Massimo] Marengo [of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics] adds, “Of course there is disagreement among Star Trek fans about whether the planet of Mr. Spock could be at Epsilon Eridani, because it is such a young star and Vulcans are supposed to be an advanced civilization.”

Geeks are everywhere.