June 29, 2006

Superhero (Final Fantasy)

This is a fan video of Final Fantasy VII to X. The music is a performance of Stephen Lynch. This is primarily a video for irony, since [spoiler] Cloud is infused with mako (drug-free boy) and Tidus is an outsider to Spira (immigration dude). Not to mention Zidane the bandit as (Justice guy).
**The above was written by the author of the piece, I personally do not have a clue about FF but I enjoyed the song.

June 26, 2006

Weight Loss



Technically its 'Mass Loss' right? I mean if I moved to the moon I would weight much less (0.166 Earth Standard). Anyways, I got married and gained weight, I attribute this to being happy. Unfortunately my 'happiness' has come with more wear and tear on the body and borderline diabetes.

During Collage I was in the best shape and weighed 185 lbs. For quite awhile after that I was around the 195 mark and then started going up. My personal 'best' was 281. Mostly I have hung comfortably around the 275 mark.

Well over a year ago, Tina starting pestering me to join her TOPs club and I said no. She said something about loosing the weight and if after a year I had'nt I would join. I did not agree to that either.

Well a year came and went and low and behold I was around the same weight. I thought about my options and came to the conclusions that I was tired of carrying the extra weight, so I joined and so far so good.

I have this mental image of myself and it must have been locked in back when I was around 190 cuz I continually am suprised by how I look in pictures.....

Anyway, I quickly found out that loosing mass isnt simply a matter of eating less and exercising more. I dropped quickly then stopped. I decided to look into what happened (I was very dissapointed I wasnt loosing) and figured out I was eating around 1500 calories a day.

I further found out that my body would adapt to the lack of food by slowing down. It's some stupid survival thing... If evolution existed wouldnt our bodies also speed up to burn any calories over what we eat?? Anyway.

I started looking up the daily calories needed to sustain a man of 200 lbs. I found out that like Republicans and Democrates, there is no agreement on this. I found listings that said 1800 calories a day to 3400 calories a day. I used the exact same criteria each time.

After going through about 15 websites I took the average and it was around 2100 calories a day. So I now eat 500 for B-fast and 500 for lunch with 1000 for dinner, leaving 100 slop room.

So far this has worked out okay. I have lost around 20 lbs. And the Tops club has been fun, I am the token mail person, and the first spouse to join our particular chapter.

Confession is supposed to be good for the soul.

June 23, 2006

Connor on the phone



Connor is one of the biggest joys in my life. He rarely fails to make me smile. He is too clever and funny with a happiness about him that is infectious.

He definatly knows what he likes and very expressive in that regard. He loves being outside, car trips are great even if its just to the store and back.

Recently he likes talking on the phone. His being Autistic makes this an interesting event.

June 15, 2006

[GM]Dave

This is a pretty funny blog. I do not know who he is or anything. It's Title is Bannable Offenses and its centerpiece is [GM]Dave who is a supposed MMORPG Op for FF XI. Here is a sample

[GM]Dave>> Hello, Adventurer.
[GM]Dave>> I understand your intelligence is very low.
Player>> Uhh... no, my stats are fine.
[GM]Dave>> Who said anything about a stat?


Read the DMV bit...

Oh you Can find it to the right under my links!

June 12, 2006

Whats in a name?

I was given the name Lee. I have been bestowed the names Dad, Daddy, leebert, el-hombre arana (long story). Red, and probably more that a therapist could bring out at $150.00 a session.

In high school I was introduced into the powerful world of the PDP-8! A computer so powerful and awesome it took up an environementally protected room. With it we could converse with other schools in our area. For some reason I took the gender challenged name Sheila.

Along comes the Internet and chat and you get that ability to choose a non-de-plume. I started out cautiously wanting to be non-descript and go with a gender neutral name. So I went with Bobbie, unfortunatly my finger slipped and I started my E-life as Bobbir.

I dropped that one in favor of Puck. Taking my queue from Midsummers Night Dream by Billy S. and my love for the NHL.

This was a good fitting persona until Mtv had thier reality show and the guy named Puck in it was an @$$-hole.

During this time I got involved in some IRC wars and taking over channels and other stupid activites. I went with Shiva for that stuff. or -=$hi\/@=- to strike fear in the hearts of mortals!! Pissing people off looses its luster after awhile.

So I dropped Puck and Shiva into the dust bin with Bobbir and Sheila... I opted for something more unique and from out of my Pencil and Paper RPG days I yanked the name Grasp. It was not commonly used and worked well enough to keep until this day and beyond.

Several online RPG have either active or inactive characters of mine with that name. I do have an alt as well that I discovered while doing anagrams. Eeriest Elk.

I like that one alot and I have saddled my fair share of characters with that one as well.

My wifes online names was much easier she used Suella and has pretty much stuck with that one.

So here is a shout out to all those alter-ego's! (Keeka, Suella, Llama Hunter, Thrain, Tall Fire, Kitten of Death, Jad then Pilot, Kage, Trozan, Rook, Cyricx, Lazerman, Hellfury, and all those my fevered mind cannot recall!)

Elk says Hey!

June 08, 2006

choosing choice deciding decisions.

My kids have a constant wail about things not being fair. As anyone who has been out in the real world for any length of time can tell you, life isn’t fair. Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. In and of itself fairness and life do not walk hand in hand.

I prefer to look at choice. Choice is a very powerful thing, its control over your life. It is the ultimate freedom. Its also the ultimate tyranny.

June 02, 2006

Batwoman a Gay Superhero?


It's hit the internet. DC comics is reviving a 50's character and the big news is she is a lesbian.

Now my main question is why? Would we get the same headlines if Batwoman was Asian? How about if she was a Rush Limbaugh fan? I'm sure DC comics broke the story to get sales. Controversy sells. It doesn't have sustained sales though. That takes a good writer and artist and a good concept to work with.

Maybe DC is trying to expand sales among the lesbian market? If they are going to go this route why not go all the way? Why fall into the olympian\supermodel figure with the long flowing tresses that have become the staple of comics?

Or maybe they are going to explore the sexuality angle. Some girl on girl action to cater to the pervert crowd out there? I am still not sure why this is such a big story out there. Personally, if a characters personality is based upon thier sexual preference, I just dont see the long term being anything other then cliche'.

Batwoman is a Lesbian... So what? What else is she?