Apropos of Nothing 2 - Run of the mill randomness!

clark · 2004-03-10 10:00:13

"I am not a Number!"

Anyone place it?

Shaun Barrett · 2004-03-11 05:25:45

"The Prisoner", (Patrick McGoohan).

Palomar · 2004-03-11 06:54:01

*I had a very unique dream last night. I dreamed a total eclipse occurred over my area. The sun and moon were larger than they are in real life, and during the final phase of the eclipse were enshrouded in black, roiling clouds. Golden-orange showers of sparks, similar to the fallout of fireworks, streaked downward out of the clouds. It was an awesome site, overwhelming actually, and I remarked to my husband my fear the solar sparks might ignite something on the ground. It was if the sun and moon were grinding together, creating those long cascading showers of sparks.

I've never had a dream like that before. Too bad we can't download unique dreams onto DVD or something, huh?

--Cindy

Byron · 2004-03-11 07:05:28

Very interesting dream, indeed. Did the day turn dark, like in a real solar eclipse? Weird how the "impossible" occurs in dreams like this...

This reminds me of an actual solar eclipse I saw in May of 1985...it was a pretty dramatic event, even though it wasn't a 100% total (it was officially an annualar eclipse, but very, very close to being total.) What amazed me the most was how quickly it got dark towards the end, as if someone was turning down a giant dimmer switch...you could feel the air temp drop suddenly and all the birds going quiet, etc.

B

Shaun Barrett · 2004-03-11 07:44:35

As we get older, diets are definitely good things to get into, Cindy. But my advice is not to treat diets as diets but as permanent lifestyle changes.
About two years ago, I stepped onto the bathroom scales and staggered back in horror! I was 4 kg (~9 lbs) over the weight I'd fondly imagined I'd always been since my early twenties.
It had snuck up on me because, in my earlier years, I'd been able to eat almost anything I wanted without putting on weight. But as we get older, most of us find that's no longer the case. And there is evidence now that high-sugar and high-carbohydrate intake is not only fattening but may be associated with accelerated aging as well. One longevity researcher I read about recently is so convinced that sugars and carbohydrates shorten your lifespan, she's all but given them up! (A bit fanatical, I think.)

I know the Atkins Diet has been subject to adverse criticism lately, particularly from the people who've advocated high-carb diets over the past 30 years. But I find it interesting that, back when I was a kid in the late fifties and early sixties, fat people were really quite rare and you tended to notice them. They stood out - in more ways than one! Back then, everybody ate butter and eggs and drank full cream milk. They ate red meat 3 or 4 times a week, if not more, with potatoes and vegetables. Nobody was into oats and bran and muesli and pasta, and highly processed sugary foods were relatively uncommon compared to now.
In the old days, people weren't scared to eat real natural foods, including meat fat and milk fat etc. Our everyday diet was much closer to the Atkins Diet than the stuff we started eating in the late sixties, seventies, eighties and so on. And obesity was unusual!

I now tend to eat more eggs, meat, fish, fruit and nuts. I don't fret too much about a little bit of fat. I still have cereal for breakfast with a banana, because I like it(! ), but maybe a couple of times a week I have crispy-fried bacon (fat and all) and fried eggs. Lunch is usually a boiled egg and chicken with 'non-diet' thousand island dressing and a handful of nuts (roasted and salted cos I like 'em that way). My evening meal is more varied and does include pasta maybe twice a week but commonly consists of old fashioned meat/fish, mashed potatoes (love 'em! ) and vegetables .. good wine ... fruit but no dessert!
Oh, and I drink a cup of coffee with breakfast and lunch but not at night (keeps me awake).

I've done all this because I needed to do it. I needed a lifestyle change because my body was getting out of control with what I was doing to it. Or at least, it was beginning to control me rather than the other way around!
I'm back to 74 kg again now, same as I was at 25 years old, and my weight varies very little. It did take me about six months to lose those extra 4 kg but that's O.K. Crash diets and relapses are apparently especially bad for the system.

Cindy, I admire your determination in taking back control of your food intake. I think it's all too easy for us these days to just go along with the trend in the developed world towards eating too much, and too much of the wrong things!
But be careful not to aim for a quick weight loss by denying yourself everything you enjoy. I believe that's not only bad for your metabolism but bad for your morale! Better to just reduce the total amount you eat, more so with sugary foods and carbs, but allow yourself small amounts of the things you enjoy. Then you can adapt to making your new 'diet' just a part of your life instead of something you 'go on' and then 'go off'.

Hell!!! What a boring lecture from a boring old f***!!
But it works for me.

Palomar · 2004-03-11 08:48:42

But I find it interesting that, back when I was a kid in the late fifties and early sixties, fat people were really quite rare and you tended to notice them. They stood out - in more ways than one! Back then, everybody ate butter and eggs and drank full cream milk. They ate red meat 3 or 4 times a week, if not more, with potatoes and vegetables. Nobody was into oats and bran and muesli and pasta, and highly processed sugary foods were relatively uncommon compared to now.
In the old days, people weren't scared to eat real natural foods, including meat fat and milk fat etc. Our everyday diet was much closer to the Atkins Diet than the stuff we started eating in the late sixties, seventies, eighties and so on. And obesity was unusual!
I now tend to eat more eggs, meat, fish, fruit and nuts. I don't fret too much about a little bit of fat. I still have cereal for breakfast with a banana, because I like it(! ), but maybe a couple of times a week I have crispy-fried bacon (fat and all) and fried eggs. Lunch is usually a boiled egg and chicken with 'non-diet' thousand island dressing and a handful of nuts (roasted and salted cos I like 'em that way). My evening meal is more varied and does include pasta maybe twice a week but commonly consists of old fashioned meat/fish, mashed potatoes (love 'em! ) and vegetables .. good wine ... fruit but no dessert!
Oh, and I drink a cup of coffee with breakfast and lunch but not at night (keeps me awake).
I've done all this because I needed to do it. I needed a lifestyle change because my body was getting out of control with what I was doing to it. Or at least, it was beginning to control me rather than the other way around!
I'm back to 74 kg again now, same as I was at 25 years old, and my weight varies very little. It did take me about six months to lose those extra 4 kg but that's O.K. Crash diets and relapses are apparently especially bad for the system.
Cindy, I admire your determination in taking back control of your food intake. ..
Hell!!! What a boring lecture from a boring old f***!! : But it works for me.

*Byron: Yes, the eclipse scene in my dream was very dark; from the eclipse itself and the dark clouds combined.

*Hi Shaun:

Oh no, I didn't think that way at all about your post. I thank you for your encouragement and the advice.

I wish a mere lifestyle change would work for me. It unfortunately does not. I have very slow metabolism (some of it is genetic...I've seen photos of my maternal great-aunts...enough said). Added to this, the time I spend in my work on this computer.

I know exactly what you mean about overweight people being relatively rare decades ago (I recall the 1970s)...because I was one of them (especially ages 8 to 15). I have to severely restrict calories and etc. to keep my weight down. I have tried merely eating less and simply "watching" what I eat (as you seem to be doing) combined with exercise; doesn't work. This is regardless of whether my work day is 8 hours long (as it used to be)...how much worse now at 10 hours a day on average. And again, this despite exercising at least 5 times a week (brisk walking, some work with weights, etc.).

It is especially frustrating as food is just about the only "vice" I have. Added to this, my voracious sweet-tooth; I have to avoid the bakery sections of stores and frozen dessert aisles for fear of attacking something. Ha ha.

There's only 1 time in my life I've been able to eat as I'd like and keep losing weight: While working at McDonald's in my early 20s, paying my way through college. I was busting my patootie for hours on end.

Ah well, I don't want to sound like I'm feeling sorry for myself. But weight issues really are a -struggle- for some people, which naturally thin people with high metabolisms often don't understand (-not- implying anything towards you, btw).

A few months ago I was about to just throw in the towel. To hell with it, I'll eat what I want. Life's short, it's one of my genuine enjoyments in life. But I see the obesity surge all around, I care more about my health now than ever, and I definitely don't want to move into old age decades from now as an obese person (which itself is another new phenomenon -- elderly obese people; even 10 years ago, most old folks were relatively thin or average weight).

Thanks again for your comments.

--Cindy

clark · 2004-03-11 09:07:41

Martian Joke.

What did the disgruntled Martian husband say to his shrewish Martian wife?

You're like a breath of refreshing Martian air.

A breath of refreshring Martain air. Hey-oh!

Guess you had to be there.

Byron · 2004-03-11 14:21:08

I've done all this because I needed to do it. I needed a lifestyle change because my body was getting out of control with what I was doing to it. Or at least, it was beginning to control me rather than the other way around!
I'm back to 74 kg again now, same as I was at 25 years old, and my weight varies very little. It did take me about six months to lose those extra 4 kg but that's O.K. Crash diets and relapses are apparently especially bad for the system.

Looks like you're luckier than most..hehe...

Like Cindy mentioned in her post, cutting back on food intake and exercising more doesn't always do the trick...as the human body has a remarkable tendency to get better "gas mileage" in relation to the intake of food and expenditure of calories. Last summer, when I realized that I was getting well into the "overweight" catagory, I joined a gym and embarked on an ambitious excercise program, while "watching" what I ate. Guess what happened? My weight went *up* by 5 pounds. And the harder I excercised, the hungrier I was, which meant I ate more, etc. It was quite frustrating, to say the least.

But one thing I focused on was trying to cut out the "extras"...like snacking in between meals, desserts, and not eating out as much. In America at least, restaurants have a tendency to give you a heap of food, and this makes you eat more...especially if it's good These days when I do go out to eat, I just eat enough to fill me up, and take home the rest. I follow the same practice at home...eating smaller portions, etc. I've also begun watching my carbs, trying not to eat too many pre-prepared foods, etc. After several months of exercising and what I call "food control", I do think my efforts are finally paying off...slowly but surely...lol. But it's something that requires considerable effort and disclipline, and believe me, it's not easy to resist heading down to McDonald's from time to time...hehe...

I do think taking weight off in a long-term, gradual fashion is a healthier way to be as well as encouraging the development of critical long-term lifestyle changes that are needed to maintain a lower body weight more or less permanently...in other words, it's better to lose 10 pounds and keep it off as opposed to losing 15 pounds and gaining it back upon reaching the "end" of a diet or regimen. This is also why fad diets have such high failure rates in spite of their initial successes...as people rarely stick with these kinds of diets forever, and when they do go off of them, they tend to rebound to former ways of eating, plus a bit more.

This is probably why the U.S. gov't is currently telling people that it's the little things that count, like the fact if you consume just 100 calories a day less than usual, you'll lose 10 pounds in a year, that sort of thing. But I think it's going to take more than a few public-service commercials to enduce the lifestyle changes that are needed to get this nation out of its obesity epidemic... ???

B

Mad Grad Student · 2004-03-11 22:17:54

By the way, why should animals millions of years from now look all horrible and ugly, as like (supposely) in the past. We've got koala bears and panda bears and kittens nowadays...there's got to be some cute critters in the future too, right?

Now, cute- and ugliness are entirely subjective. It's all in the eyes of the beholder. Besides, what do you mean? Did you look at all of the animals at the site? I don't think stuff like the spinkes, rattlebacks, and spitfire birds qualify as ugly. As far as the past goes, sure those guys look WAY different from stuff today, but that doesn't make them ugly. It's just the way things were done back then. What you have to realize is that thick keratin coverings didn't become commonplace untill about 100 million years ago, with the proliferation of feathered dinosaurs. Keratin, as I'm sure you remember from biology, is the tough protein that makes hair, feathers, rhino horns, and the like. Because of this, it literally wasn't possible to have cute, furry, cuddly animals, except small mammals of course.

One thing that I could see as (semi-)offensive to some people aobut The Future is Wild is the way they coldly kill off mammals. Considering that probably everyone who looks at the series will be a mammal, it cuts away at our worth as an order of vertabretes a little. I personally don't think that this will happen anyway, mammals are hardy, adaptable, and very smart, that should get us through the next few mass extinctions (And possibly to the stars!). Long live mammals!

Ugly or not, you have to give the creators some credit, they were pretty creative. I love the idea of the flish, fish just cleanly sidestep the whole process of moving onto land and just fly out of the water! There is no way in the world they qualify as fish anymore, it's a whole new order. Additionally, the evolution they played with the flutterbirds in Antarctica and siphonophores in the shallow seas is very interesting. It's nice to talk aobut something other than Mars once in a while, no? :;):

I've never actually had trouble with weight, but that's probably just because I'm 15 and haven't actually had a chance to get obese. Sorry, but I don't have any advice for you. I hope that wasn't offensive to anyone's self-esteem.

[http://www.mchawking.com]Click if you Dare!

clark · 2004-03-11 22:50:35

Just makin time till my lady love returns from a trip afar.

How far away,
How far away,
Princeton, NJ;
How far away,

How far away,
Philadelphia, PA;
How far away,
How far are they,

From coconut trees, and banyan seas.... [sigh]

clark · 2004-03-12 16:04:29

Yet another Martian joke...

What did the blonde say about the dust on Mars?

I thought there was supposed be a vacuum!

Bill White · 2004-03-12 16:25:51

Just makin time till my lady love returns from a trip afar.
How far away,
How far away,
Princeton, NJ;
How far away,
How far away,
Philadelphia, PA;
How far away,
How far are they,
From coconut trees, and banyan seas.... [sigh]

If you ever go to Princeton, stop by Grovers Mill. Its where the Martians landed you know.

clark · 2004-03-12 16:41:01

I'll know fairly soon if I will have an exscuse to go. They've made an offer to my lady love that's a bit hard to beat.

My one and only trip to New Jersey was for a friends wedding after he and she both graduated from West Point. I was so surprised at how green everything was, I always thought NJ was the concrete state, not the garden state. They have colors of green you just don't see out here.

dickbill · 2004-03-13 08:07:26

In the new york times today (registration required) an article from Kim Stanley Robinson.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/13/arts/13MARS.html]http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/13/arts/13MARS.html

Byron · 2004-03-14 07:24:04

Since when did the "Nimrods" become so popular?

Don't believe me? Check this out....hehe: [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/sportsbu … rsite=espn]Don't you just love ESPN?

Pretty cool, huh?

B

Palomar · 2004-03-16 08:13:15

*I've been a bad, bad girl.

I've spent a slightly hefty chunk of $$ in one week for DVD collections of the old "Dark Shadows" television program which aired from 1966 to 1971. I just LOVE that program; the only "soap opera" I've ever watched, much less loved.

A neighborhood kid and I used to watch the shows at his home. I've since seen occasional re-runs on the Sci-Fi Channel (who only air "Dark Shadows" episodes once in a great while, and not for long). The DVD collections have been coming out since 2002 apparently...they're pricey, but worth it.

I was having a spooky heyday in Collinsport yesterday and the day before!

The lead female characters are all very enjoyable: Intelligent, determined, yet very feminine. Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard, the matriarch; her daughter Carolyn; Victoria Winters; and waitress (soon to be vampire victim) Maggie Evans. Of course, the male characters are cool and superb too.

Excellent acting all around, great suspense, spooky and marvelous entertainment.

--Cindy

Josh Cryer · 2004-03-16 16:27:58

Nah, you're a good girl, unlike a certain poster on this forum (who shall remain anonymous), you actually pay for DVD sets.

Anyway, the other night I had a dream that there were armies of frogs with dentures attacking, it was quite a bizzare dream.

clark · 2004-03-16 16:31:55

Frued's cheap armchair psychoanalysis in 30 seconds or less, or your sanity back!

Anyway, the other night I had a dream that there were armies of frogs with dentures attacking, it was quite a bizzare dream.

Eat them before they eat you.

Thank you, come again.

Josh Cryer · 2004-03-16 16:51:32

I think the frog gods were getting back at me for the time I ate a dozen frog legs at a midwest diner while traveling to Colorado a few years ago.

Having got of the phone with my mom and she told me about whitening her dentures probably played a part, too... heh...

clark · 2004-03-16 17:08:42

Indigestion and unresolved mother issues. Understood.

Palomar · 2004-03-16 20:18:32

Anyway, the other night I had a dream that there were armies of frogs with dentures attacking, it was quite a bizzare dream.

*Lol...that is hilarious, Josh. What, the frogs were -wearing- dentures, I take it? Or using dentures as weapons??

I've had some pretty wild dreams in my time...but I think yours tops all I've heard.

Yeah, I wonder how a Freudian or Jungian would interpret that. Frogs...Valentine's Day (recently past -- frog/prince)...teeth...bite...false...

So how's your romantic life, Josh?

--Cindy

Josh Cryer · 2004-03-17 03:19:29

The frogs were actually wearing the dentures, actually they seemed to be more like teeth, but ocassionally they popped out, so maybe some had human-like teeth, and others had dentures ('cuz they were old or something?). Anyway, I don't normally talk about dreams (don't think my dreams are that important/interesting), but that one was too weird to not mention.

And my love life? Umm... hmm... maybe you're on to something. :;):

clark · 2004-03-18 09:55:39

Still more Martian jokes...

Why does a rodeo clown make a goof Martian?

They know how to handle an angry bull when all they see is red.

So I'm thinking of going into stand-up.

NOW, that's funny... or maybe not.

Mad Grad Student · 2004-03-18 23:03:28

So I'm thinking of going into stand-up.

ROTFL! Oh, you weren't kidding, oops.

How's this for a weird dream. After my Mars presentation my science teacher let us watch Mission to Mars. Did you ever see it? Gary Sineese commands a mission to Mars to rescue the only survivor of the face on MarsTM's wrath. They discover that multicellular life on Earth was deposited by ancient Martians who left their planet after an asteroid impact. If you didn't see it that's about all you'll ever need to know about it.

The movie is kind of unoftunate because it starts out getting so many things right. The mission is obviously based on Mars Direct, something I didn't realize untill I looked at the actual plan itself. The sets are very detailed, but, alas, it falls into the many holes Hollywood sci-fi movies invariablly succumb to. For example, after their tank is pierced by micrometeoroids, the engine breaks off after starting up to initiate an orbital insertion manuver, wouldn't it just run out of fuel more quickly? Additionally, when the team is out in spacesuits trying to get to a resupply module one of them overshoots and is suddenly on a trajectory that takes him into the Martian atmosphere. These guys obviously did not understand how orbital mechanics work. And, weirdest of all, the guy who overshoots pulls his helmet off, why? Seriously, they don't even try to rescue him. And, though I'm not trying to be racist here, of the first team only one person survives and, predictably, it's the black one. In horror movies the black guy always surivives. Deep Blue Sea anyone?

Anyway, about the dream. I was the one survivor of the original mission and lived for a year on Mars alone (Yes, there was a reason to all of the above). Of course, my imagination fixed most of the plot holes and technical errors. For one thing, the sky was a much pinker color, in the movie it was much too orange. One of the other crew members (I think) survived for a few extra hours while I was trying to recesitate her. That scene also looked much better than in the movie, they really should have consulted someone who was CPR certified to know how to actually revive a cardiac arrest victim. The rest of the dream played out much like the movie Castaway, and I almost wish I was actually on Mars learning to live off the land as happened in the dream. If nothing else, I found that Earth is quite stunning as a morning star from 100 million miles away.

It's kind of odd, when you consider that all of that took place in about three hours. Do you ever have dreams like that, that seem like forever but are only a few hours. As far as that type goes, this would have to be one of the best, what does the armchair Freud think about that?

EDIT: Oh, yes, before you make any I'm-a-racist jokes, I was my normal self in the dream, except aged 16 years. Hopefully this conversation wasn't heading that way, I didn't mean to offend anyone with the above comments. Not that I think anyone will say anything along those lines anyway...
[http://members.cox.net/impunity/endofworld.swf]WTF?

Byron · 2004-03-19 06:02:36

Anyway, about the dream. I was the one survivor of the original mission and lived for a year on Mars alone (Yes, there was a reason to all of the above). Of course, my imagination fixed most of the plot holes and technical errors. For one thing, the sky was a much pinker color, in the movie it was much too orange. One of the other crew members (I think) survived for a few extra hours while I was trying to recesitate her. That scene also looked much better than in the movie, they really should have consulted someone who was CPR certified to know how to actually revive a cardiac arrest victim. The rest of the dream played out much like the movie Castaway, and I almost wish I was actually on Mars learning to live off the land as happened in the dream. If nothing else, I found that Earth is quite stunning as a morning star from 100 million miles away.
It's kind of odd, when you consider that all of that took place in about three hours. Do you ever have dreams like that, that seem like forever but are only a few hours. As far as that type goes, this would have to be one of the best, what does the armchair Freud think about that?

Ever see the film "Robinson Crusoe on Mars?"....it was made in 1964, I believe. A lone astronaunt crash-lands on Mars, and struggles to survive. In this movie, the Martian atmosphere is about as thick as the air on the top of Mt. Everest, which meant you didn't have to have a pressure suit to survive, but you needed supplemental oxygen. But considering when the movie was made and the classic story it was based upon, I think it's a pretty good film...hehe

As for your long-running dream...yeah, I've had dreams like that as well...basically you have a whole movie unspooling in your head...but dreamtime always goes faster than "real time." I've fallen asleep and dreamt what seemed like at least one hour, except that I woke up to see that only 15 minutes had passed on the clock. I bet your dream was a heck of a lot better than the movie...hehe...imo, Mission to Mars was a pretty sorry movie...lol.

B

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