Category: General

I’ve been thinking about food. A couple of internet articles (and you know how accurate and well-researched internet articles are) have mentioned an idea that I’m considering: that being the idea that if you stick to whole, unprocessed foods that have been around for thousands of years, you don’t have to worry about counting calories, you will build muscle, and your fat will melt off you. It’s called, among other things, the Primal diet, as in the diet of our distant ancestors. Basically what you could kill, harvest or gather yourself. Meats, grains, fruit, vegetables, berries, nuts…

It’s an appealing idea to me; particularly the idea that it would be a bit cheaper and require less preparation. Yes, Primal dieters still cook things; no raw meats for me, thank you very much.

I have some friends who follow this diet, too. I’ve seen what they eat: salads with some nuts and a small amount of meat.

Here’s the thing: Primal diet aficionados make the claims I mentioned above (build muscle, melt fat, never worry about overeating) and a few others: have more energy, and your tastes eventually change to where refined sugars and processed foods taste bad. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve convinced myself that changing to this diet would also decrease or eliminate my hay fever: allergies are a result of a weak immune system, and we are what we eat, and eating whole foods may build up the immune system, so…

Keep in mind that my thought on eliminating my allergies through diet is one that I have not read in any of the actual literature on Primal diets. I haven’t actually read that much about the diets; just a few things here and there, and the recommendations of friends on the internets. I think it’s interesting that my brain has basically manufactured a benefit out of thin air, born of my frustration the past few days with my allergic response to the nice spring-like weather.

At any rate, I may or may not switch my diet. I really do love doughnuts, and giving them up would be a mental strain I’m not quite ready to bear. But I like thinking about it.

I’m also a bit afraid to bring it up, since some, not all, of the folks who follow this diet are quite evangelical in their passion. So if you feel moved to comment on this post, please keep in mind that I am not asking to be persuaded. I’m just thinking out loud at this point. Don’t over-enthuse, because I feel a bit uncomfortable with that and will likely react to avoid. Just sayin’.

Hollywood is so out of ideas they’re remaking music videos.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNC5ktLBAGk&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

I’m astonished at two facts about The Runaways biopic:

• Although it seems odd that the role of Cherie Curry is being played by 16-year-old Dakota Fanning, that’s the correct age for when Cherie auditioned for the band. If anything, Dakota is a year too old.
• But Kristen Stewart does not a Joan Jett make, in my head and without having seen the movie yet.

Of course, I’ll see the movie.And this song is practically Stormy’s theme song.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adeWcAyxU4M&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

Mmmm… Newton.

Wil Wheaton has reminisced about video games, and why not? And it’s prompted me to remember old video games, too.

• Asteroids Deluxe, the short cabinet version, Elevator Action, and several others will always remind me of the 7-11 at Park Ave. Kevin and I would play that damned Elevator Action for hours.
• Dragon’s Lair will forever be associated with Kellogg Bowl in Milwaukie, OR. I remember Terry putting quarter after quarter into it, while I stood around and watched, until he got to the end one night. He had done it before, and wanted to show me that at the very end (Spoiler Alert!), when the knight killed the dragon and rescued the princess, his helmet came off and he looked like our friend Andy.
• There was a video game that involved landing on a planet that was only found at Kah-Nee-Tah in eastern Oregon; it was a black and white vector graphics game in a primitive cabinet. I can’t remember the name but I have a vague feeling it wasn’t Lunar Lander, though it may have been. I played it once during one brief glorious road trip, with Amy and Terry.
• I and others from high school would play Battlezone, the tall cabinet version, at the Kienow’s in downtown Milwaukie, a store no longer there. Steve Kilgore was the best at that game. Kilgore was also the best I’d ever seen at regular ol’ Asteroids; he demonstrated the trick of saving one small asteroid, then flying up constantly and waiting for the saucers to come out, picking them off one by one.
• I know there were games at the bowling alley in Gresham where mom and dad and Donna and Gary would play, but I can’t remember what they were.
• And the sit-down versions of Pole Position and Red Baron, and several others remind me only of the arcade at Clackamas Town Center. I can still hear the sounds of that arcade, and feel the excitement of knowing all that entertainment was waiting for me. I can hear the jingle of exchanging quarters for tokens, see the specific brass color of them, and feel the groove in one side of the tokens that made sure you could only put the token into the slot one direction. I remember the red-headed guy who worked there, then moved next door to the hamburger place after a while, and spending hours talking to him. I worked in that mall, at a small game store that sold, among other things, Dungeons & Dragons books and dice, for six long years, and spent years there prior to getting a job, and the arcade was a favorite hangout. I could write a week of blog posts about all the silly things I did or saw there.

You?

Here’s what the internet was made for: funny cat videos.

This one made me laugh out loud.

That’s what I said to the opossum in my dream that was spraying me like a skunk.

Good morning, blog.

Doot doot doot, lookin’ out my backdoor.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNczeP33Yk0&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&hd=1]

I love these guys.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w&hl=en_US&fs=1&hd=1]

Seriously. I want to give them money. That’s how much I love them.

Update:

I gave $7.99 to Amazon so I could download their album. I hope Amazon gives at least some of that to those guys.

I’m not the spoiler for talking about LOST around people who aren’t caught up.

No, the real spoilers are the folks who aren’t yet caught up who hang around when I want to talk about last night’s episode with my friend who is equally obsessed with me, preventing me from discussing all the many revelations and implications and making us talk in vagaries: You’re the real spoiler, sir!

He’s spoiling my fun!

It’s always fun when the old guy who sits on the bus mall and yells about how the God Who created us all full of sin wants us to accept His love and forgiveness for the sin He created us with, gets into a shouting match with a crazy street lady who just wants him to shut the Hell up.

Yeah. Good times. Good times that never end.