And then, you can race me to grab 2020 Hindsight before the election after that one

I watched the VMA’s last night, with the occasionally-attired Miley Cyrus as host…as pictured here for the purposes of increasing web traffic only:

 

It was one of the best VMAs in memory, I thought, though it was nice to have the fast forward option from my DVR recording for some performances (apologies to you Beleibers out there.)

But the reason for my post is the rambling and odd but entertaining speech by Kanye West…the most entertaining he’s been in many years, from my perspective. At the very end of it, he announced he’d be running for President in 2020, did a mic-drop and walked off the stage.

Why is that blog-worthy? Because I woke up at 3:05am, inspired and determined to contact a patent/copyright lawyer first thing in the morning, to secure the copyrights in advance of the next Presidential election after the one already in full swing.

The phrase to grab before any candidate, quasi- or otherwise?

Vote for _____: The only candidate with 2020 vision.

I got your mic drop right here, Kanye.

 

 

 

(But here's a shout out to my one other fan in West Chester!)

I'd feel self-conscious that my only post today is an update on my weight-loss process except that when I look at the list on the middle right-hand side of this blog that shows the locations of people who visit this blog, it shows that 8 of the last 9 people to visit are from Kennett Square, which is to say...the visits are from me.

Maybe proving what some people have already surmised – that I may be my biggest fan.

So, I’m at 202, having lost 6 lbs in 3 weeks.

Yay me.

Told ya.

 

Unless maybe we change as much as you wish we would when you are a teen

We, your parents, are neither as terrible as you think we are when you a teenager, nor as wonderful as you’ll think we were when we are gone.

Don't mock my macaque story!

In a staff meeting here at work yesterday, we were going down the project list when my boss mentioned that we were preparing for a new project down south called Gibraltar, and asked if any of our biologists had been there yet. I casually, but boldly, mentioned that I had.

“I’ve been to Gibraltar,” I said. “Went there on my (first) honeymoon. Got bitten by an ape.”

My boss, quickly recognizing that I was referring to a completely different Gibraltar than he was, laughed and said, “yeah, that’s not the Gibraltar I’m talking about!” and the conversation continued from there for a few minutes when suddenly, Matt, sitting next to me, said “Wait. You got bitten by an ape?!”

I laughed, thanked him and said, “Since the reality of my story is far less interesting that whatever you’re picturing, I think I’ll just leave the story right there.”

Everyone laughed and we got back to talking about the new project.

But for future reference, here is the story of the apes on the island of Gibralter, which to be more accurate are actually macaques, not apes (Oh, like YOU know the difference!):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_macaques_in_Gibraltar

And although my bite happened when I went to pet one on his head and just as I neared his head, he quickly turned, took a firm bite on (thankfully not from) my hand and went back to looking from his perch out at the ocean, it was not as bad as what happened to this guy.

The skin was broken and I kept checking it, oh, only about every 5 minutes the rest of the week to make sure there were no sudden tufts of hair growing out of my hand, but eventually it healed up and everything was fine.

(That’s the point where the few times I’ve ever told that story in person, I break into laughing like a monkey, scratching under my opposite arm.)

 

Which I bet you just did yourself.

Bet ya just can't weight to hear more about it! (Thanks for listening anyway)

Kind of a boring, totally self-serving post here, but I am going to resort to self-body-shaming as added incentive to lose weight.

After 2-3 months of vacation and lots of really, I mean REALLY good eating, I topped out at 208 lbs as of August 7th, I think it was, when I weighed myself for the first time in months. I don't have to look at the dumb government definitions of Obese to know that I'm there.

(OK, I peeked, and well, yup: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/defining.html)

So as of that day, I started cutting back on snacks between meals or desserts of any kind and have, with the exception of this past weekend, done a really good job of it.

(except when my loving and thoughtful, and normally far-more-supportive wife brings me a home treat like this from the Reading Terminal Market.)

As of Monday morning, August 17th, after the aforementioned bad (read: yummy) weekend, I was at 204, so I'm at least headed in the right direction, with a looooong way to go.

My semi-realistic goal is 193...but once I get there, and plateau for awhile, I'll try to start up again to get into the 180s.

Two years ago, I did my best diet...excuse me, I mean lifestyle change...wait, that sounds like I'm switching gender or sexual preference, so uh, eating-style adjustment (?!) and with HUGE help from Cheryl in the form of an amazing unconventional reward program that probably isn't appropriate to describe to this blog audience, I did get down to 187, I think it was.

And goodness gracious, did I ever have fun putting that weight back on! 

So, I’ll weigh in once a week on our scale and then weigh in here with how it’s going until I get to at least 193.

Anyone wanna race me?!

 

Hair's my question!

I wonder why we thank people after they tell us how much they like our haircut, as if we had stood in front of a mirror and cut it ourselves.

When we're at a museum with someone and they say how much they like a painting, do we say "Oh, thank you! Me too, though I wish he had made the coloring a little lighter."

I got your religion-based guilt right here, pal!

I'm a Quaker. The phrase "Guilty Pleasure" is redundant to me. If something gives me pleasure and isn't making the world a better place, then it makes me feel guilty.

It's a JOKE, people! (or is it?)

The way I figure it, one of the reasons Donald Trump is doing so well in the polls is racism.

The haters figure that if even Obama can be this incredibly successful, how bad could Trump be?

Maybe happiness is just a warm memory

A Facebook page I am on posted this story, listing 40 great quotes from famous folks about happiness:

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/06/40-life-changing-quotes-on-happiness/

...and asked us to pick our favorite, and this is what I wrote:

I reached overload with about the 3rd one. I stayed with it for awhile though, long enough to realize there are as many in that list that I disagree with as I agree with.

I received great perspective on happiness in one of my first jobs out of Earlham, working with what we were then allowed to call mentally retarded adults. I lived in a home - a Community Living Arrangement - with 3 adult men of varing low levels of intelligence, who had been moved out of an institution called Pennhurst that was closed down by a judge. And all 3 of them taught me far more, I'm certain, than vice versa, even though I was paid for it to be the other way around.

This one fellow, Mark, built like a fire hydrant, was about 23 years old, had Downs Syndrome, and an IQ of about 50 maybe? He was, to this day, 35+ years later, the single happiest person I've ever met in my life. The only time, ONLY time, he didn't have a smile on his face was when someone scolded him for doing something he "knew" he wasn't supposed to do. Dude even smiled in his sleep.

So I read many of those quotations from Mark's perspective and thus a number of them failed me.

And I've often wondered what the value of intelligence is in relation to happiness. Sounds like one of those riddles:

Money doesn't buy it, and intelligence doesn't enhance it. What is it?

Asleep for too long...now (perchance) to begin dreaming again

OK...I've left this blog alone for far too long now, and every time I think of something to write, I think, Well, that's not worth starting it back up again, so here is a mini-entry that I think is perfect to get things re-greased and flowing again:

"Dreams don’t work unless you do.”
– John C. Maxwell

I love that.