Run, Runner!

As those of you who have known me for a long time can attest, I have never been able run for any kind of distance. The problem for me is not muscle endurance or strength, I can walk just about forever and I'm plenty strong, no for me the the problem is air. Once I start running I simply can not breath. This has also been a problem with hiking at high altitudes and I have always believed that this inability has kept me from reaching some of my loftier health goals over the years. However, after my recent success with all this weight loss, I thought I'd attack the problem again. So I charted a course through the neighborhood and started trying to run it. Needless to say I ran into the same old problem. This time however I had another resource - my boss at Avenues. This guy is an ex-army DI and knows a fair share about getting men in shape. I sat him down and talked it over and he came up with some really good advice that I was able to use. In short I was able to adapt a new breathing technique. I told him about the progress I've been making and, well, he still thinks that I'm still not really getting it, but perhaps he doesn't understand how serious this problem has been for me over the years. In any case, the deal is I can now run the entire original course I mapped out through the neighborhood.
So how far is that? I got in the car last night reset the tripometer and measured it. I was pretty sure this was going to be a humiliating experience when I was done, but I was surprised when it turned out to be seven tenths of a mile. Then I reset the tripometer again and mapped out a new course that is just over a mile and that's my new target. I've also checked out how many calories each run burns off and plugged that into my caloric spreadsheet and I'm keeping a close eye on my progress.
The bottom line of all of this is that I am probably in the best shape of my life right now and I am setting some really lofty goals for the coming year. In the next couple of weeks I'm looking forward to a new wardrobe as my current clothes are starting to look pretty ridiculous on me.

Gina joins SAG - It's official!

Just a few moments ago, it became official. Gina has joined the ranks of the Screen Actors Guild.
She just left their offices in NYC with her SAG card, a list of agents and all the productions filming in the NYC area for the next month. As regular readers will know this has been a long time coming.
This is the fulfillment of a dream for Gina and I could not be more proud of her.

Scenes from our lost Pirate Weekend

From the log of the 'Intruder' - diary of Captain Mad Wolf - The Pirate:
Weather clear.

This past weekend Bloody Mary and I made port in Maryland. We arranged quarters land side for both days so that nothing would get in the way of our plundering and bawdy good times. Sadly, some the crew had been swept off course on the last night, but they managed to make it back to the ship, so we pressed on without them.

We shared our first day with friends and drink. We kept the blood spill'n to a minimum so as not to get chased off before the first night.

Ah, Pirate love.

The second day we were in high spirits and met up with even more friends

Ah, the very spirit of the day.

Drinks and songs at one of the local taverns.

This here be the very king of the port. First we were gonna hold him for ransom. Then we thought to just kill him outright, keep his rings and sell his clothes to cover our bar tab. In the end, he turned out to be so merry a fellow, we shared some laughs and some drink and let him go.
"Save the King!"

I can't remember clearly who some of these scurvy dogs are, I know Mary of course and there's Bonny Kate back there, and . . . ah . . . that other lass was named Mellisa, I think,
She weren't much of a talker, as I recall.
But clearly we were well in our cups, and having a grand time of it.

I'd like to tell you more or show you more pictures, what with all the hot wenches, the lip fencing, the seductive food eating contest, Mad Mike the Emu Lover and other saucy stories,
but alas, we all took a solemn oath -
"What happens at Pirate Weekend,
stays at Pirate Weekend!"

A principle of achieving ultrahigh light dispersion that makes use of surface plasmon polaritons on nanostructures.

Uh . . . . what?

This makes the technobable on Star Trek: The Next Generation sound reasonable by comparison.
Read all about it - if you dare.

Dieting and the Quantum properties of Calories

As anyone even remotely familiar Quantum Mechanics knows, certain sub atomic particles change their behavior based on whether or not they are observed. Well I have discovered that Calories are Quantum Particles, or at least, they behave in the same way. Those of you who know me, know of my lifelong struggle to avoid diabetes and control my weight. I’ve been too heavy for too long a time. The trick is I don’t always look too heavy because I have a Mesomorph body type and I carry it pretty well, but really I’ve been too heavy. I have been really careful about my diet for, well, just about forever. I almost never eat any fast food or pork of any kind if I can help it. I rarely eat steak or chicken, and then only the leanest, best cuts I can find. I do eat a lot of fish, grains, and vegetables and so on - but even after years of working out, cutting down and watching my portions; I was healthy, I was strong, but I was still just too heavy. When I did “Revelations” for instance I was over 200 pounds, I won’t say how much over, but I was over. (As an aside there is nothing like having lots of video of yourself to really inspire you to watch your diet, let me tell you.)
In any case, as of today, I can report I’ve got it beaten. Today I am 185 pounds and I plan to lose just a bit more in my efforts to get “really ripped” as the body builders say. How did I finally and at long suffering last do it? What was the final thing that I changed allowed me to start really losing and keeping off the weight?

Nothing.

Well, that’s not exactly true. It’s true that I’m eating the same, very careful diet and now it’s working, but not because I changed the diet itself. As near as I can tell it’s working because I made a spreadsheet of the foods I eat, with the calories for each food and I keep a week long list of what I eat per day. I also weight myself every morning and 'presto' now it works.
So it seems that calories like quantum particles behave differently if you watch them very carefully. I want to stress here that the actual amount of the calories isn’t all that relevant. What is crucial is the exactitude with which you measure your calorie intake. Check the labels and don’t round the numbers, count everything and see if it works for you.

Pat Condell tells it like it is

I'm probably going to alienate some of my friends (to say nothing of my family) with this, but it needs to be said and this guy says it right.



Mr. Condell, I agree with you 100%.

Lakewood Renaissance '07

Just a couple of quick pictures here.


We took the grand kids on Saturday.
They had a great time
but they wore us out pretty quickly.

On Sunday though we went back for more and stopped in for some shopping.

Next weekend we're headed to Maryland Renaissance Festival for
Pirate weekend.

Sneak Preview - Bionic Woman Rules!

No, it's not a mistake, you read that right.
I got to watch a sneak preview of the pilot for this upcoming series and I was seriously surprised.
Take one part Nikita, three parts transhumanism, mix in a few actors from Battlestar Galactica and what do you get? One really excellent new show! Like most of you I thought this was going to be just terrible. I thought three, maybe four episodes - tops and this show would probably be among the first of the new shows to be canceled and to be fair that might happen I suppose but it won't because this is a retread of a weak idea.
This is a whole new ballgame and I'm planning to stick it around.

Moon 2.0

I would love to be involved in a project like this.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Sorry for the lack of post here lately. We've been all over the place, Virginia, Philadelphia, Maryland. Gina has landed a role in an independent film, and has been chasing print, and some other auditions. We were waiting for some good news for Gina on a particular show, but it hasn't come through yet. As I tell her though, if not this time, then the next time, if not the next time the time after that. She's sending out her new comp cards and we're getting a very positive response all around.