In memoriam: Arthur C. Clarke
Posted on March 19, 2008
CNN.
Author Arthur C. Clarke, whose science fiction and non-fiction works ranged from the script for “2001: A Space Odyssey” to an early proposal for communications satellites, has died at age 90, associates have said.
It was 2001: A Space Odyssey that really turned me on to science fiction. A man in space…A psychotic robot…An alien monolith…The search for the human origin, even though those on the search didn’t realize it.
I’ve enjoyed sci-fi since. Whether it’s Star Wars, Star Trek, books, teevee, or film, I can watch or read science fiction for hours. And it’s all because of Arthur C. Clarke.
Thank you, Mr. Clarke, for your gift to the world, and your gift to me.
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Fat Challenge Day #10
Posted on March 18, 2008
The Fat:
I weighed in at a jaw-dropping 195 lbs this morning. I was shocked. Happy, but still shocked.
The Food:
- Breakfast:
- Homemade sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit
- Lunch:
- Peanut butter and jelly crustable sandwich
- Small cup of sweet tea
- Snack:
- Half a 100-calorie Oreo cookie bar
- Dinner:
- Roast beef, turkey, and cheese sandwich on Italian bread
- Pasta salad
- Small glass of apple juice
- Snack:
- 3 Girl Scout Caramel Delite cookies
- Drinking:
- Water throughout the day (over 100 oz)
- 1 1/2 bottles of Vitamin water (one bottle sipped with water throughout the morning, 1/2 bottle before dinner)
The Fitness:
Today was a busy day (lunch with Mini), so I didn’t get to do any individual exercise. I did use my lucky little pedometer, though, and walked over 7,000 steps.
The Sleep:
I slept well last night, but, since I had a headache, I didn’t read anything and the dark hour was mostly me lying on the couch in the dark.
I’m not getting any better with getting up when the alarm goes off…I’ve got to find the motivation to get up and get busy…Otherwise, I’m never going to have enough time to bicycle to work.
The Summary:
Today was a good day. I wasn’t really hungry, I didn’t feel the need snack, and I didn’t have a headache. AND my weight was down. Teh. Hawesome.
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Fat Challenge Post #9
Posted on March 17, 2008
The Fat:
The weekend caught up to me. I weighed in at 197. A pound more than yesterday.
The Food:
- Breakfast:
- Two servings of trail mix (spread throughout the morning)
- Lunch:
- Leftover Grilled barbeque chicken with cheesy brown rice and broccoli and cauliflower
- Snack:
- Half of an untoasted bagel eaten in quarters throughout the afternoon
- Dinner:
- Baby spinach greens salad with cucumber, peppers, onion, and raspberry walnut vinegarette
- Toasted half of a hotdog bun (instant Italian bread!) with butter, garlic, and rosemary herb seasoning
- Pasta with tomato sauce with cheese
- Drinking:
- Water throughout the day (over 96 oz)
- One glass of sweet tea with dinner
The Fitness:
I walked for over 40 minutes and went 2 miles.
The Sleep:
I went to bed a little late last night, but woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 7am and rolled out of bed at around 7:15.
The Summary:
Other than the slight setback from this weekend, which is entirely my fault, I feel pretty good. I’ve got to get a better plan for the weekends…
Also, there’s something I have to address with Fat Challenge:
Fat Challenge,
I want to make this work, I really do. I’m keeping honest by writing my intake of food and my exercise. But listen, if, as a result of eating healthier and trying to lose weight, headaches are a side effect of our partnership, I quit. I can deal with tummy rumblings, and gas (more veggies than I’m used to), but I can’t deal with the headaches every day.
I don’t want to sound like I’m giving you an ultimatum, but look, make the headaches stop or we’re through. I’ll be a happy fat guy with a fine head as opposed to an unhappy not-as-fat guy with a headache. Really.
Your friend,
Thomas
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Fat Challenge Post #8: A new week
Posted on March 16, 2008
The Fat:
Surprisingly enough, even after yesterday gorging, I weighed in at 196 lbs this morning.
The Food:
Today was a pretty good food day.
- Breakfast:
- Sliced hard-boiled egg sandwich on ciabatta bread with baby spinach greens and blue cheese
- Snack:
- Handful of popcorn chickens and Combos
- Dinner:
- Grilled barbeque chicken with cheesy brown rice and broccoli and cauliflower
- Snack/Desert:
- Small Frosty from Wendy’s.
The Fitness:
No real exercise, though I did 4 loads of laundry in the morning and walked a bit while talking to the OOPS artists.
The Sleep:
I got plenty of sleep and woke up at 7am feeling quite good.
The Summary:
I’ve got to figure out a routine for the weekends. That will help me from “bored eating” throughout the days.
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Open Letter to the Jacksonville Daily News: Shame on You for Shoddy Coverage of Soup in a Bowl
Posted on March 16, 2008
Dear Jacksonville Daily News,
Shame on you for only sending a photographer to the Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts‘ Soup in a Bowl event yesterday. And an even bigger shame on you for having a photograph and a slightly over-run sentence for your coverage in today’s newspaper.
With a staff of over 30 professional journalists, I would’ve expected more from you. But, of course, you never fail to disappoint me, Jacksonville Daily News. Shoddy reporting, poor grammar, and no proof-reading is but a summary of your shortcomings. Now, I must add a lack of interest in local events to that list.
It’s no wonder that the citizens of Jacksonville and Onslow County are mostly unaware of the vast majority of events held in the area. Your inability to provide coverage is clearly the cause.
Shame on you, Jacksonville Daily News.
Your embarrassed reader,
Thomas
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» Filed Under Arts, Events, Freedom ENC Communications, INC, Jacksonville Daily News, Jacksonville, NC, Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts, Onslow County, NC, Open Letters | 3 Comments
Fat Challenge Post #7
Posted on March 15, 2008
The Fat:
I seem to have collected a half-pound and weighed in at 196.5 this morning.
The Food:
Today was a tough food day. It was Soup in a Bowl at the Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts. Instead of reposting the entire listing of soups, read the post. I have no clue the caloric value of any of the soups nor do I know what the serving sizes were…I do know that I probably over-ate.
The good news is that the soups pretty much filled me until dinner.
- Dinner:
- Two hotdogs with sauteed onions and spicy mustard
- Noodle salad
- Two Girl Scout Caramel Delite cookies
The Fitness:
None, other than walking to the Council for the Arts.
The Sleep:
I went to bed a little late last night, but it’s the weekend.
The Summary:
Today was a wash…I ate too much and didn’t exercise. Blah!
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Soup in a Bowl
Posted on March 15, 2008
As I’ve mentioned, the Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts held their 6th annual Soup in a Bowl fundraiser today (photos available here). I’d say it was a pretty rousing success, especially in the “Darned Good Soups” category.
I had five hot soups plus one cold soup and two breads (there was a total of about 20 soups available). Here’s the rundown:
Soup #1: Matzo ball soup. After Ms. Steinfeld’s post on good matzo ball soup, I decided that, since it was readily available, I had to try it. I’m glad I did. The balls were sinkers, and pretty darn dense (in a good way). The soup had carrots that were cooked perfectly. Overall, I can easily see why Emma calls it Jewish Penicillin (luckily, I’m not allergic!). I could easily slurp down gallons of the stuff while laid up in bed with a cold.
Soup #2: Cold orange and tomato soup. This was an interesting combination, especially cold (the thought of warm oranges turn me off!). It was almost like a V8 drink, but only orange and tomato. I thought it was very good, but because it was so thick, I couldn’t drink all of it (and still have room for more soups!).
Soup #3: Clam chowder. Wow! The chowder was great! The potatoes were big, but not too big, and cooked perfectly through. The bacon and bits of clam were also perfectly cooked and tasty. The soup was creamy and smooth and overall, not too seafoody. It’s probably the best clam chowder I’ve ever had.
Soup #4: Cajun chicken, sausage, and wild rice. Another great soup! The rice was wonderful. No under or over cooked grains and no clumps, either. The chicken and sausage had just the right amount of bite and spice. It was a great example of the perfect soup for a cold winter’s day meal.
Soup #5: Pumpkin soup. This was the best soup I had today. It was smooth and creamy. It was really thick and filling (another of the cold winter’s day soups). There was a hint of onion and garlic and maybe some nutmeg or cinnamon, but not really enough of anything but pumpkin to be a definite flavor. I’m going to hunt down a few recipes and try them out this fall.
I tried two types of bread, sunflower and salted white, and wasn’t impressed by either.
I had two nutmeg rum cookies and they were awesome. The rum kind of exploded in my mouth like those Hershey Kisses with the caramel inside. It was a flavor burst with booze! Wooohooooo!
Also present at the event was the great artwork from the 30th annual Middle and High School Arts Contest. The talent these kids displayed in their work was amazing. I was impressed and humbled by the level of dedication on display. It’s sad to know that for most of these kids, their love for art will be squeezed out of them by an education system not designed to tend to growing artists.
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Fat Challenge Post #6
Posted on March 14, 2008
The Fat:
I weighed in at 196lbs. I was surprised because I felt like I ate a lot more food yesterday than I had been all week and I wasn’t able to exercise.
The Food:
- Breakfast:
- Slightly more than a single serving of oatmeal
- Lunch:
- Half of a grilled spinach wrap (grilled chicken, mozzarella cheese, lettuce, black olives, cucumbers, and bean sprouts with tropical horseradish
- Snack:
- One quarter of a cheeseburger
- Dinner:
- One sauteed onion sandwich (with baby spinach greens and blue cheese on ciabatta bread), asparagus, and chipotle paprika home-fries. (Can I just say “YUMMY!”?)
- Water throughout the day (about 80 oz)
- Glass of tea with dinner
- Cherry Limeade on the way to the beach
The Fitness:
No lunch-time walk.
Evening walk for an hour. Uh. Yeah. It was cold and windy and the walk was short.
The Sleep:
I got home late last night and felt bad, to boot. That required a skipping of the dark hour and I went to bed around 9pm. Again, I woke up later than my attempted 6am. Maybe I should shoot for 6:30 and work my way back?
The Summary:
I’ve got to find a better way to schedule and keep to the exercise part…Also, someone asked me if I was losing weight at work. SCORE!
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The Kind of American I want to be
Posted on March 14, 2008
Normally I’d give a pathetic little sniffle and ask that you please stop calling me “un-American” or “anti-American,” but with the word “American” being used as such a nasty insult in some circles lately, I’m starting to think that perhaps I should lift my head proudly and thank you for the compliment.
Brava, Jennifer.
It seems that, while gas prices have surged above $4/gallon in Hawaii and California, the Conservative movement has been bleating about the anti-Americanism of not feeding the petroleum beasts.
Even in Jacksonville there are a few of these weak sheep. They bleat that fuel is too expensive. They cry that it’s all the government’s fault (fuel taxes, which, incidentally pay for road repair). They sniffle that they can’t walk or bicycle to work, it’s not safe outside the strong steel and aluminum walls of a several-ton car. They refuse to use public transportation available because it doesn’t deliver them exactly to their destination right this minute.
They refuse any solution because they claim the First Amendment gives them a Constitutional right to whine and complain.
These are truly anti-American people because they choose to be victims and refuse to act in their own best interest.
Me? I want to be like Jennifer. I want to take actions which save my money, and do just a small bit to keep the Earth healthy. In my mind, that’s being a good American, and maybe even a decent human.
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Food Fight
Posted on March 14, 2008
From Ze Frank. Watch it.
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