I was doing great at the gym. I dropped 20 lbs and was attending near every day. Then back in April I became sick for weeks on end. I finally got better and began going back to the gym. This lasted until they were closed for about a week for flooding. Tried again to go back and get into the groove. Then they flooded so bad they were closed for a month.

During this time I was riding my bycicle for excercise and did ok. The gym opened again and finally I am back in the zone. I have gone every day for the past 9 days. The days without personal training I ride my bike there, do cardio and some weightlifting on certain days.

I am finally caught up. I am ahead of my best weight back in April. I have caught up and moved past to be a bit over 20 lbs down. This bodes well because I am hitting the gym hard (twice yesterday, morning/afternoon) and started keeping a food journal and counting calories.

It requires more energy for a fats ass to move across the room then a person in shape. We have more mass and need more energy to move it. This is good but our metabolism turns food to fat faster then a healthy person.

I track the calories eaten and burned for exercising. I have been keeping my consumed calories between 1500-1800. I am feeling the difference. If I can keep those two sets of numbers within range of each other I'm good to go for the day. You burn calories just for breathing and doing your normal daytime routine. Between exercise calories and regular routine calories I have been burning more calories then consuming them.

Studies show the only proven long term method of losing weight and keeping it off is to regulate your diet and exercise daily. No fad diets, no starving yourself, no special dietary supplements bought at 3 a.m. from an infomercial.

Yesterday was the first day I burned more calories straight up then consumed. This is not a realistic (nore safe) goal for every day. It should only happen twice a week at the most. When I have personal training mornings mixed with extra cardio after. Then when I bike back for more cardio in the evening.

I'm posting this as a way to help spur myself along and not for any "at a boys". Don't bother leaving any comments. They wont go through.

Twenty plus lbs down. Way too damn many to go.

Whenever I get the urge I'll blog away. I'm not a big fan of the type of blog that goes into minutia on a persons daily life. Sitting here drinking morning coffee reading how someone is sitting there blogging while drinking coffee sounds as stimulating as watching a car rust. This is my reason for not posting regular updates.

With that said let's go to the news. I am an online news junkie. Politics are one of my favorite stories. Sometiems they bring hope, other times they make you want to grab the garden shovel and dig a hole for hiding the body.

Todays rather worrying news story (that I'm sure most people will not notice or take for granted) is good old President Bush. One of the most important ingredients in Bush winning the election was playing the fear card. He whipped the country into a frenzy of fear linking terrorism to everything from carrying toothpaste onto an airplane to weapons of mass destruction...that were never found.

I personally doubt their existence. I served in the First Gulf War and I have a better chance of believing Obama can walk on water (if you doubt this turn on cable news) then iraq having WMDs.

Do I believe they have had and have used chemical warfare in the past? Without a doubt. The US Government was kind enough to inform many of us after the fact.

Do I believe they have nuclear weapons. Not unless Valerie Plame built them with an erector set after baking a yellow poundcake. As more facts are coming out the more it is being shown what kind of fearmonger Bush has been.

While ramping the Fear-O-Meter and bashing Democrats for being wimpy on defense (not hard to bash what was true) he squeaked by with a victory to continue in office handed to him by Diebold, his Governer brother and the US Supreme Court. Nothing like the ignoring the popular vote.

Then again we are not a democracy. We are a republic. The dumbed down difference is in a democracy the people directly elect those in power. In a republic the people elect representatives who use their powers decide who is in power.

We in the US elect representatives to the Electoral College. Amazingly enough these representatives are not legally bound in most states to vote for the desires of their constituency. Think about that for a moment.

Independence limited
Freedom of choice
Choice is made for you my friend
Freedom of speech
Speech is words that they will bend
Freedom with their exception

...And Justice For All
Metallica

Put down the flashlight, it wont stop you from being scared when the lights go out when this thought haunts you late at night.

This upcoming November we have the privilege (ranting about the pathetic who do not vote will have to be covered another time) bought and paid for by our forefathers blood and preserved by their future generations of voting for the next President of the United States (POTUS).

So what does good old Bush do to prepare his depature from the biggest job he will hold in his life? IMO he is ramping up to help his parties attempt to stay in power. The fearmongering has begun again.

U.S. Headed for 'Heightened Alert' Stage

In a nutshell this means they are announcing as the election grows nearer the threat level will grow higher. The same kind of garbage Bush used to help his cause in the past.

On the bright side due to Franky Roosevelt, Bush can only serve two terms in office. Unless of course he finds away to suspend habeas corpus (again) so we can't find what torture cell he has hidden the Constitution in.

~The Dad

This is a decent neighborhood with lots of kids playing all over the place. The only real complaint I have are the idiots who burn rubber and excessively speed up the street. My street runs horizontal to a main road but has no stop signs or lights so people cut through and scare the hell out of me with how fast they go. With all the kids out playing it's just way wrong.

It seems a neighbor that lives kitty corner to my backyard has added a second dog to her house. The new dog tore her house up when she was at work one day so she had to take action. She had a dog walk hastily assembled (plywood floors and crooked fencing) where the dog has to stay all day. Nothing like being stuck in a confined area with non-absorbent floors where you have to defecate.

*rolls eyes*

The problem is the new dog is not exactly thrilled with being left all alone in the confined space. He is very vocal about it. He whines and howls loudly all morning and afternoon long. The first time this happened was a weekend about 2 weeks ago give or take. and my neighbor next door (his yard shares a property line with her) and my neighbor across the street away from her place and I got together.

We discussed this public nuisance. We were rather annoyed. The neighbor with an adjoining property line has a passing acquaintance with the lady and he chose to talk to her about it. The problem was gone the next day.

No harm, no foul. There was a problem she didn't now about, she was informed and fixed it. Good neighbor.

Today it happened all over again. Started in the morning and continued all through the afternoon towards early evening. Being summertime with then nice weather we have on days like today I leave my windows open. I had to close them it was so overly annoying. It even disturbed my kids nap.

That is going to far.

So this evening I called up the neighbor who had talked with her the first time and explained. His wife was off work today and had already told him how screwed it it was. I asked if he thought it would be better if he continued the dialogue with her or if I should go over. He said he had heavily dropped hints and didn't know what to do next. We came to the agreement it was better for me to go, showing her it was not just one neighbor with the problem.

Let me start with these City Ordinances:

17-35 PUBLIC NUISANCES AFFECTING PEACE AND SAFETY

The following acts, omissions, places, conditions and things are hereby declared to be public nuisances affecting peace and safety, but such enumeration shall not be construed to exclude other nuisances affecting public peace or safety coming within the provisions of this chapter.

*snip*

(J) Unnecessary Loud Noise

All loud, discordant and unnecessary noises or vibrations of any kind;

(K) Noisy Animals

The keeping or harboring of any animal or fowl which by frequent or habitual howling, yelping, barking, crowing or making of other noises shall greatly annoy or disturb a neighborhood or any considerable number of persons within the City:

In a nutshell, she was not only rudely affecting the neighborhood to the point people were discussing it she was also breaking the law.

I grabbed the kiddo, put on her bicycle, walked the long way around the block as to get to her house towards the end of the trip. When we arrive she is mowing her lawn. Her two dogs are in the front yard (illegally I beleive since they are not on a leash as city ordinance demands, she has a newly installed invisible fence) are excited to see strangers approaching their territory (we never left the sidewalk).

She walked over looking a bit wary. I can understand that, I'm a tall guy, closely buzzed hair and wide (fat). Not exactly the type of stranger a woman alone wants to deal with I'm sure. I went out of my way to try and be cool and put her at ease. I did not go over to be confrontational. If I was going over to cause trouble I sure as hell wouldn't bring my 3 year old on her pretty pink bike with streamers on it wearing a pink helmet with cartoon bunnies. Not exactly the height of intimidating.

My goal was to be polite, personable yet firm. I wasn't going to drop hints, I was going to nicely let her now this is not acceptable and needs to end. I'm guessing she had a bad day. She is most likely frustrated over the new dog causing trouble and it is hot out and she had to stop mowing to deal with this guy interrupting her.

I basically said,"Hi there, I live in that house over there *points* and there is a bit of a problem. I know in the past the gent who lives there (not using his real name) has discussed with you your dog whining and howling loudly all day. You fixed it and all was good. Well today it happened all day long. I don't like having to come over here having this awkward talk but this is not acceptable. It needs to stop."

She replies with,"No need to be rude. You told me so fine."

Instead of just walking away I told her I was sorry she took it that way. It was not my intention for that. Being annoyed with her additional rudeness (the dog freaking out all day was as rude as it gets to all the neighbors) I said,"Fine. It happens again I'll call the cops."

She ended with,'You do that!"

I snipped back,"Wiil do." Then I told the kiddo to move along on her bike and we went home.

I knocked on my neighbors door to let him know how it went but he wasn't around. About a half hour later or so I called him and told him the whole deal. This way he knew if she got jerky with him he knew why.

He laughed. He even told me of another neighbor who was going batty over this.

She wanted to compound insult to injury when I tried to be adult. Next time i will print out the necessary ordinances, call the cops and lodge a formal complaint. Then I will give the addresses of those I know affected so the cops can ask them about it.

All of this could have been avoided if she had not been self centered and screwed the neighborhood and then acted the injured party. She either fixes it or not. If not I will take the only appropriate action. I'll call the police. They can deal with her telling them how rude they are.

~The Dad

One of my closest friends is called Jortal online. Jortal rents a house and in that house he lives with his boyfriend, his brother and rents out to a single dad with a 7 year old boy.

The dad is not up for dad of the year honors. He lets the kid stay up until midnight-1 am on non-school nights and play video games not appropriate for his age.

One of these games is my current favorite City of Villains. In the game you play a villain working your way up the ranks by doing various dastardly deeds. Gaining super powers (think Spider-Man but e-vile) and playing with others online. It is a violent game. One I would not let any 7 year old play.

Yesterday while he was playing the game Jortal notices he is fighting mobs (characters/monsters run by the computer and not another person online) that are below his difficulty level.

Jortal being the avid gamer automatically gives the kid advice not to fight the mobs that are so below his difficulty level they do not help you gain experience to gain more power as the game goes on.

The child doesn't understand this so Jortal made an analogy. He basically told the kid since you are in first grade would you want to go back to Kindergarten? The child said no so Jortal informed him fighting those mobs was going backwards like being sent back to Kindergarten.

Realization seemed to dawn on the young lad.

Yesterday Jortal walks in the house and the kid runs up to him and says,"I had fun killing kindergarten mobs yesterday!" Not exactly something you want the to say. No imagine if he said that in school...

Edit: Today while Jortal was at home recovering from knee surgery he was hanging out gaming online. In walks the kids dad he tells Jortal while driving down the road the kid turned to his dad and said,"Dad, I REALLY like killing Kindergartners!"

...this is why parents censor what games their younguns play.

~The Dad