m69

yay, pitchers!

well, i'm aiming to have the hip replacements in before i turn 80, give or take about 15 years. preferably give.

and yes, the framer will be shooting. though sometimes i think it would be easier to do it myself - hard to translate what you see to someone else when it comes to photography. but we think we found a spot and sort of blocked our ideas out this weekend. now we just have to wait for favorable weather, time off work, all equipment, ect.

p.s. you know alcohol's bad for your liver, right?

that was too many letters and not enough words to understand. a-hem. best course of action: hug your dog. that makes the world better. i really thought i had something to say, but apparently i don't.

oh, i think a long time ago you told me i should seriously consider everything before i turn something in to SG. i have, and i'm sure lots of virtual freaks will harass me. that's easily ignored. i'll keep the friends i have but i'll just beat the rest off with a stick. besides, i want to have good stories to tell when i'm old and have two fake hips.

yes.

Theodore an Av...what do you think?

lol, you funny. mmmmmm.....yams!!
I don't think I'm a loud American, especially when travelling alone! I don't ever want to be an "ugly American" and someone should slap me if they ever catch me in the act!!! You say Torontonians are loud, but I'll tell you what, when Mike and I were there for the film festival last year the non-stop parade of hot women on the street was unreal. Is it something in the water?
I was in Madrid, Barcelona and then up on the north coast, mostly in El Sardinero which was beautiful!!!! Where do your friends live? Wow, you have friends all over the globe!
Oh, and those are some sexy ass feet ya got there!

Paula is my sup, but I only met her once, on the last day of training. Otherwise I've hardly even seen her. I have a bunch of "aux 2" meetings this week, so maybe one of those is with her.

well, my camera can be a point-n-shoot, but it also has full manual functions which i do use. the techie-computer parts of it are beyond me, but the website says it has 6 million recorded pixels... whatever that means. i'll assume that means something to you. not a bad little dude for a gift i really didn't want and tried to give back - i was worried it would errode my use of my minolta... and it has.

can't i just pretend you have a foot fetish?

i'd have so many more pictures to post but almost all of my digital photography taken before this year is on my computer (this one being the framer's) which doesn't have much in the way of photo-size-adjusting software... and i think they're BIG files. but i will certainly keep your wishes in mind and share what i can.

there was a Japanese drumming show in town awhile back, and i made note and meant to see it. but i think it came at a time when we had a money crunch and were also pretending to be hermits. how was it?

dude, thanks for the tips, but I guess I should have warned you I was vegetarian and alcoholic. But the strip clubs sure sound good! Don't know if I'm bold enough to go on my own, but Mike has also told me they're much better than in the States. Being the planner extraordinnaire that I am, I already booked a really cool studio apt. in Quebec City for 4 nights. http://pages.videotron.com/hdouce/Stu-appang.htm
It says it's in Old Quebec, it's decently priced and it looks pretty cool!
I managed to pass myself off as Canadian when I was in Spain (I was there when the war in Iraq broke out), but I'm not sure I can pass myself off as Canadian in Canada! But I'll try to pretend I'm from Vancouver. I just have to avoid the word "about" I guess.
I'm also going to try to learn some French before I go!
Thanks for all the tips. 15 years ago I would have taken you up on all of them!

Will it make you feel better to know that I won't be going anywhere warm now for quite a while? Besides, you're Canadian and, thus, inherently able to absorb cold better than the average person.

wow, that IS cold. it got to be 50F here yesterday, though it didn't feel quite that warm. still, it's February... there should be more snow on the ground.

and now i think i finally understand Canada, thanks to your verbal diagram. a-hem, lovely. actually i've been to Quebec City twice - once to ski and once to chaperone a trip of 13 year olds with our former French teacher. never noticed any rudeness, but perhaps we caught them on good days. what amuses me most is how they're uber French (stop signs that say "arrete" instead of "stop" like in France.) fun stuff, but i wouldn't want to live there - that's for sure.

ha ha, i love your imitation of local french... j'aime speaker le french beaucoup sometimes.

[Edited on Feb 28, 2006 11:35AM]

well actually, the dog spoke to me. he's half Australian Cattle Dog and half Rottweiler, so he has one blue eye and one brown eye. i was a little bit stoned and we were sitting in my room, and he just locked eyes with me and we had a telepathic conversation. he told me he has a crush on his companion, the framer, and then everything made sense. the way he always acted and all - he is terribly obsessed with my man. very messy separation anxiety which he is working on getting over. anyway, it was enlightening. yes, i sniff old books - it was a weakness that found me back during my days in France. and i've actually seen George Clinton twice - both times a blast, but strangely i still don't own any of his albums. are you a fan?

i guess i'm not canadian enough for joke #2. but #1 sure amused me. since we're on the subject of foreigners and bars:

an englishman, a scottsman, and an irishman are sitting in a bar. they each order a beer. the englishman goes to take a sip and finds a fly floating in his drink. he shoves the glass away and asks the bartender for another. oddly enough, the scottsman finds a fly in his beer too. so he reaches in and plucks it out with his fingers, then takes a long, hearty swig. well now of course there's a big fat black fly floating in the irishman's drink as well, and he starts to turn all red and puff up, and he yanks the fly out of the glass, holds it up to his face and yells "Give me back my beer!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAAH

nice jokes. Canadian Tire! I'll Start With You

goddamn survey.... grrrr. fine, i'll do it:

5 WEIRD HABITS

1. I like to sniff old books.
2. I start my car (a hybrid) with a push-button.
3. When I smoke, I have to communicate with someone or something - be it making love, talking to a dog telepathically through his one blue eye, whatever.
4. I have to brush my teeth in the mornings before I eat or food tastes gross.
5. I like to swing on swing sets at night.

FIVE JOBS YOU HAVE HAD IN YOUR LIFE:

1. assistant groomer
2. "playtime associate" at a pet resort
3. server at my favorite restaurant in the whole wide world
4. receptionist at a salon/spa
5. magazine intern

FIVE PLACES YOU'VE LIVED:

1. Indianoplace, IN
2. St. Brieuc, France (7 weeks)
3. Oxford, OH (college)
4. Differdange, Luxembourg (1 semester)
5. Bloomington, IN (birthplace)

FIVE PLACES YOU'VE BEEN ON VACATION:

1. Kenya - all over
2. Interlachen, Switzerland
3. Ireland - all over
4. Barcelona, Spain
5. British Columbia - all over

FIVE WEBSITES YOU VISIT DAILY:

1. SG
2. Yahoo! news
3. Yahoo! mail
4. my bank account
5. PETA.com

FIVE OF YOUR FAVORITE FOODS:

1. chocolate
2. tomato basil tofu w/ anything
3. Indian Stuffed Burrito (at my favorite restaurant in the world)
4. eggplant parmesan
5. homemade quesadilla

FIVE PLACES YOU WOULD RATHER BE:

1. in the mountains!
2. in the mountains!
3. wherever my love is
4. Oregon, Washington, Northwest
5. At the lottery head office collecting 24 million dollars (i'll one up you here)

FIVE ALBUMS YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT:

1. Rusted Root - When I Woke
2. Ani Difranco - any album
3. Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
4. Beck - Sea Changes/ Mojave 3 - Excuses for Travellers
5. Bjork - Homogenic

FIVE BEST CONCERTS YOUVE ATTENDED:

1. Rusted Root - Cincinnati
2. Phish - Indianapolis (their last one)
3. Suicide Girls/ Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re- Indy (does that count as a concert?)
4. Paul Simon - Indy
5. George Clinton & PFunk- Granville, OH

FIVE WEIRDEST PLACES YOUVE HAD SEX:

1. on a rock in a national forest in New Hampshire
2. in a car
3. in a cornfield - hey, i'm from Indiana
4. in my living room by the front door windows while possibly expecting company
5. my mom's bed - eeeeep! don't tell!

See me unlike the rest of your friends that have advised you, would probably give you not quite perfect advice into how to lose weight. It took me about 2-3 months to figure out something that I could do on my own schedule rather than the schedule advised by any dietician or exercise expert. I don;t do the 9-5 and go to sleep by midnight. I am an all nighter so I had to adjust what I had been told.

I am only telling you this because I am in a good mood over this and am proud of myself but this is how I am losing. Just keep in mind I am sure it's not the healthiest but once you get to where you want to it's easier to try to manage.

See, I wake up at about anywhere from noon to 2pm in the afternoon after I went to bed at anywhere from 3am to 6am. Time is important and not as trival as you might guess.

Time is pertinent because it is what your body is adjusted to, not just by the advice of others who work on a seperate sleeping schedules.
I am going to start off by telling you, part of it is eating little to nothing in a 16 hour out of 24 hour time frame. If you must snack, just focus on satisfying the taste and not the appetite. For me for example, I eat a hell of a lot of turkey. It's practically the least fattening and highest protein option you have next to backed fish. It's expensive but I'd advise getting the "Boar's Head" brand of the spicey stuff. There is actually taste, it increases metabolism due to the fact it is spicy and it is filling with low fat and carb bread.
Since the saying goes at breakfast you eat like a kind, that is intended to be the one where you say fuck it. I still wouldn't dine on greasy breakfast sausage and gorge yourself on bacon if that is your time frame but I'll leave that to you. With my schedule it's the same as with any adnjustment. After about an hour or 2 after you wake up you can eat bigger. 8 of the 16 hours you don't eat can be your sleep time btw. Also never sleep after you have eaten for at least an hour. Your metabolism slows down and you'll have more time to for those fatty calories to soak up.
See, part of the thing is, is that carbs are bad and sugar is bad. The foods you want to cut out are breads,pasta of any sort and things that are over oily. Don't eat fried if you can help it and if you do, let it be chicken. For goth's sake again try not to eat fried stuff. Also cookies and dougnuts are your enemy. I eat turkey so much now that it is primarily the food I most eat. You see I don't eat a lot of veggies, btw potatos are starchy and be aware of them being cooked in oil,
One thing for me is that I have to have soda and not diet or so for me anyhow, the process is slow sometimes but with all the rest I do still effective. It would probably be more effective for you if you could cut them out and go with lemonade or water.

I know I am typing a lot but I am quite long winded, in a good mood over the loss, and kind of drunks so I don't mind going into detail.

The next part has to do with the actual weight loss versus muscular growth. As I am sure you know, muscle weighs a lot more than fat. I am mentioning this because this is important to your exercise focus. You will gain muscle and lose no fat throgh upper torso exercises such as weights and pull ups and anything else that works those muscles. The ones that really make you lose weight are cardiovascular exercise such as running, power walking, actual walking(which I find to not be as challenging as the body needs to really lose the weight) and biking.
The only way considering I wasn't born with discipline is to take it easy in exercise first. I chose biking as my exercise to lose weight. trust me, it's no where near as fun as when I was a kid. Here is a way to make it easier. Start off with any heavy exercise that is difficult to do like that with 4 miles every other day and work up to 8, then do 2 between those days because hell, when you did 8 the night before it still seems like a vacation. Expect a ot of discomfort at first but hey, it's all about what you can keep yourself doing.

The next key is sweating.
Typically you would get that in when exercising but I started all of this at the beginning of January so it's been to cold to sweat a good bit. Sweating gets the impurities out and I would say even in normal weather it would be good to do what I do. Since I don't have a sauna, I just Run a hot bath and sit in the bathroom and sweat for about an hour and then take a cold bath or shower to cool back down.
and to clean up.

Outside of that I take this herbal diet pill but who knows how much that does giving it is not chemical. I think it works but who knows. Oh and there is this buttered flavored powder called C-blocker I believe. Anytime you eat things like partas or hamburgers, make sure you put at least a tablespoon on. Don't worry, it is 20 bucks and you can't even taste it. It's also good when eating high starch stuff like potatoes to. Do what you will but I am waiting till I get to the weight I want before trusting that I can eat pasta twice a week. Hell, it's been like over a month since I have let myself eat it even with the powder which is like a butter spice of sorts. I wouldn't advise dumping a bit in your hand and licking it off though. I did that once when I ate something and forgot to put it on there. Anyhow, that way it was gross as fuck.

The biggest thing really is consistency. Your tolerance will build up and make exercising easier, it won't be as hard to go without your fav foods when you see the results and when you find your way back there, eat something you like ever week or two because 5 pounds is a lot easier to lose than 30 if you pay attention to it.
Plus try to think of it as a prize for how much of a pat on the back and how you deserve to treat yourself.
I can't lie but it all takes a while and suffering through it but it is possible with discipline.

Oh and if you are a drinker, try not to do it more than twice a week. I kind of am but even there discipline can be important for more than one reason. It can seperate the alcoholics from the social drinker.

[Edited on Feb 14, 2006 12:00AM]

where the hell did that come from? doesn't seem fair to call yourself a fat bastard - that's what other people are supposed to do. but i wouldn't worry about it anyway, i know some bastards who grew up to be very well adjusted citizens.

smiling at people for no reason is an excellent habit to pick up. somedays i make it a goal to give three compliments to total strangers. i know it makes me feel good, and you never know whose day you're brightening. random fact: i have a big ole peace sticker on my car, and i've noticed that i have to force myself to be a kinder driver just so people take that symbol to heart. (i also have a sticker that says: daddy, what were trees like?)

Mate-cheers-fair dinkum-troppo-good on ya-fuckwit-pelican- thanks for that.... let's hope you don't say it all at once! what's the "pelican" for anyway?

and so i guess i was confused, because you're actually back in canada now? and married to a canadian lady? pardon, i keep getting mixed up.

since you've been so many places... have you visited Barcelona or Amsterdam or Interlachen? when i was studying abroad in college, those were my favorite three side-trips. i know i sound like a stoner, but Amsterdam was seriously one of the most beautiful cities i've ever seen... not to mention home of lots of van Gogh. Barcelona i was partial to because of the hippies and excellent weather, and Interlachen was just Interlachen - gorgeous mountains. went paragliding there, though unfortunately they'd gotten some hazy wind blown in from... somewhere. it had a name, but i forget which.

goodness, we'll never catch up with notes like this!

nope, wasn't long at all...
i've also been fortunate enough to go to kenya on a photo safari. that was right before high school, and i remember being terrified of the idea until i got there. i think i left a piece of myself, and i can really understand how people say it feels like going home - that's where we started... wayyy over there. and that's also right about when i got over my crush on australia - in a big hurry.

snowing here again. just a little though, and it doesn't seem to want to stick : (

not that i'm all that up-to-date, but i heard you got a new conservative P.M. what's the canadian opinion on that?

and the photo shoot with me, myself, and me again went alright. i just shot lots of the same two things. posted two pictures in my folder, if you'd like to see. one putting on snow boots and one in a perfectly portrait-shaped mirror.

kfc kills babies : )

I think that I just might steal your fantasy. Hmmmmm...but I'd make it four!!!

Let's see... Mr. Hot Air Balloon owns a custom framing shop - a one man gig that puts out incredible work, but is just keeping its wee little head above water. Currently, I'm working two part-time jobs and crossing my fingers to get an assistant-editor position at a magazine I hate. So, yes, I'm still poor. And unfotunately, skiing tends to be an expensive sport if you do it right (even when you have your stepmother's hand-me-down skis, boots, and poles.)

And since you were a sit-and-get-fat-in-the-winter-Canadian, have you found any change in habits since moving to Australia? One of my part-time jobs is at a brand new arthouse movie theatre, and we sell TimTams.. cookies directly from "Auz." Do you know them? Good stuff, but I don't think I'd pay the import premium.

It's lovely that you were able to travel so much, and by the sound of things, I'm guessing you married an Australian? That's good, you got someone who can speak the language! Tee hee.

Which reminds me how you said they don't really grill shrimp (I wonder who coined that phrase)... is the country very vegetarian friendly?

Peas out,
- P

p.s. where the f is Rarotonga?