Weight Controllingness.

Static weight is nigh impossible. Keeping your weight within a certain box is certainly doable. The devil is in the details.

I am having a tough time transitioning from a sloth job to an active one. I used to sit on my butt for a good 7 hours a day at work. That was reduce from 40 hours to 34. The rest of the time I would put my butt on other weight bearing devices. I did walk, then run to and from work, adding an hour of heart pumping goodness. Later I took to running two to five miles in the morning, prior to work and on days off.

Now I am on my feet for eight hours. If I am in early (opening) or late (closing) I spend one to four hours pulling pallets, stacking boxes and moving TV's around. My days off tend to reflect the ass on things. Oh, I am riding my bike to and fro nearly every workday adding 40 minutes of heart pumping goodness into the mix.

You can probably see how my old caloric intake of 1400 to 1800 calories can not fuel me. Getting the right amount of Cals into me has been a see saw of too little and too much. I would find myself exhausted with two hours left on my shift, only to down 200 calories and be back up in fighting shape.

I think I have come up with a gooder plan, but I am still looking for the gooderest.

According to my handy RMR calculator I need 2000 calories on my days off and 2600 on work days. This would be to maintain a 185 pound frame. My kyptonite has been snaking after dinner due to hunger then gluttony?? A want for a taste of something, regardless of its value...

My feeling is that waiting till 10:00 AM to have breakfast then eating every two hours for supplementation of fuel is a good route.

I have my egg burrito (280 cals), then at first break yogurt and Nutragrain bar (80 cals and 140), lunch, sandwich and Lean Cusine (150 and 230 calories), last break nutragrain bar (140 calories). Which puts me at 1020. Leaving 960 or 1560 depending upon the day.

Cataclysm.

When you choose to play a computer game, and that game is an MMORPG, there comes a point where you have done it all. Or you have done as much as you want to, or can, depending upon gear etc...

Anyways...

You can always go back and start an alternate character (aka alts). Lets say you want to be a Tauren instead of an Orc for once. The thing is this. Been there done that... The last thing you want is a game to become a chore to play.

Here comes the Expansion! This is where they re-invent the game and package it and sell it to the 12 million people playing. When you consider that this particular form of entertainment costs less per month then any other entertainment offering by an outside supplier (yeah, lets not split hairs here). A redo of your virtual world can be a fun time.

So this December the World of Warcraft is releasing Cataclysm. Where a heretofore presumed dead bad guy (bad dragon) rises from the ashes and opens a can of whoop ass on the planet of Azeroth. Nick named Death Wing. He does what super-villains attempt to do, mess up the world pretty badly. We heroes now have to make it through the maze of storyline and finally confront him.

Back in 1994 Blizzard came out with a computer game called Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. This was a strategy game that laid the foundational back story for the World of Warcraft. They released Warcraft II in two parts, then Warcraft III in 2002.

The writing staff for Blizzard went in depth with multiple story lines and intriguing characters and history. This rather rich tapestry has been laid out in a number of Books, Graphic novels and of course, in game.

When World of Warcraft entered the market in 2004 there had already been several successful MMORPG games, they took the best aspects of the successful ones and built upon that adding a remarkable lore.

Imagine, if you will, a favorite work of fiction and you can suddenly interact with said book on a personal level, with friends. The immersion effect is quite overwhelming and very cool.

The Blizzard folks do not take themselves all that seriously and pop-culture references abound.

So this next expansion is looking very fun and promising. (BTW I can send you a free trial of Wow if you would like)

Plants vs Zombies Music Video

GW Bush interview.

This is a really good interview of President Bush.

Doctor Who - Meanwhile in the Tardis - Scene 1

This is just one of the many reasons this is an awesome show!

STOP THE OBAMA TAX INCREASES.

I concur, contact your Representatives and tell them to: STOP THE OBAMA TAX INCREASE!!

Attack of the pallets.

I am going through band-aids. Working with cardboard boxes and wooden pallets provides any number of scrapes and cuts. Yes, I have some nice leather gloves and I do use them when stocking. While I am sure that has saved my epidermis time and again, I do not wear them every minute and it is surprising how sharp an innocuous box edge can be.

My latest is a 1/2 inch scrape on the left side of my middle finger on my left hand. This is one of those that I did not notice until after the fact. I was moving blue tooth I-pod device blister packs. Go figure...

We have a bit of a scramble prior to rolling up the doors. There are pallets of items in the walkways, flat bed carts filled with cardboard and old stretch wrap and bands. Each needing to be stocked in a correct manner. Televisions have two stickers and an envelope that need to be put in specific locations that do not cover text (if possible) and there can be a layer of dust or oily residue that does not allow the quick bonding of the afore mentioned.

Some items need to be rotated so the newest is on the bottom. Other items are just resistant to being stacked. There is an ever increasing set of tricks you employ to bend the packaging to your will.

My strengths lie in some spacial geometric gift, to figure, on the fly, stacking patterns that allow the most items in the smallest area. Also, the speed and precision to employ said patterns in a minimum of time. The strength to move heavier items also helps.

The coolest part, to me, is working with Jean-Paul or Joel, who share the same strengths. Recently while stocking the kitty litter with Jean-Paul, we found that picking up the product in a certain way and tossing it a certain way allowed the other to quickly stack the item with the facing perfect just in time to catch the next.

This built a mutual respect and created an aspect of challenge and fun for the project.

A couple of nights later, I had finished the facing of my area (Hard lines) and headed over the help sundries.

"Okay, I have six minutes left on shift, who needs help?"

"You can't do anything in six minutes." was the response from a fairly new hire.

Looking at a knowingly smirking Jean-Paul I stated "I bet we can break down those two pepsi pallets in six minutes."

With a succinct nod from Jean, we wordlessly assumed a two man assembly line and hefted the rather heavy cubes of soft drinks into their location. Stopping only long enough to shift to the second pallet.

A short time later, job done I panted (slightly) "Okay, I got two minutes left on shift, who needs help?"

I think her jaw is still on the floor.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy my job?

Obama the most successful progressive president ever.

So the spin is that the voters wanted more progressive government and Obama did not deliver. So they voted far right...

Even Obama is saying that the voters do not understand what he has done for them.

I find that the voters know exactly what he did to them and wants to do and thus, voted accordingly.

Truth

A midterm election is a referendum on the president.