The Simpson Blog

This week just whipped by. Two stops in the gym, if memory serves me right. Nothing spectacular to report here. Amanda cooked up good hearty healthy stuff all week long. The real story .... Start weight: 220 pounds Last week: 216 This week: 213 Change: -3 Total loss: 7 pounds Okay, *that* makes no sense to me. I was figuring a one pound loss, maybe.... mayyybe . And we ate like crap all weekend long -- pizza Friday night, Wendy's Saturday lunch, candy after the xmas tree lighting at City Hall, Swiss Chalet Saturday night ... I really don't feel I earned such a big loss, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's put back on by next week. But, we'll see!

Another decent week with a few trips to the gym. Cardio stuff. I've dropped down to my "skinny" pants. Not that skinny -- 38 instead of 40, but it's a change. My existing regime of pants are getting too saggy in the butt and loose around the waist. I went to the doctor for some blood work. Just wanted to see where my cholesterol, blood sugar, vitamins, transmission fluid and antifreeze levels were at. Hopped on the scale and got official medical confirmation that I'm down several pounds from my last visit. And, I asked for a quick blood-pressure test. What a surprise! Here's how my BP has scored at doctors visits in recent history: June 2002: 140/90 (Stage 1 hypertension) January 2003: 120/90 (Prehypertension) May 2005: 130/90 June 2006: 120/90 Now: 110/70 (Normal!) So, I guess eating well and exercising can have a pretty swift effect on blood pressure. Thanks for all the feedback and encouragement, gang! Doing this in public has been part of the m

I'm enjoying my new iPod. I ordered one of the new 2nd-generation iPod Nanos from Best Buy Canada. Green, 4GB. It arrived promptly in a little tiny box. I amalgamated my sprawling music library into something iTunes can manage by itself, sorted out most of the duplicates, and now I'm in the process of listening to it all and rating each song. I'm using a system I've seen outlined in various places -- one star for songs I don't really want to hear again, two stars for a song I can tolerate but would probably skip past, three stars for a song that's okay, four stars for a song I particularly like, and five stars for "this f'ing ROCKS". I've thrown together a few "smart" playlists -- fifty Rush songs here, forty Ween songs there, a pile of short 90s tunes elsewhere, and so on. I tell the machine to serve me up a pile of songs that have no stars -- unrated. Then I rate 'em on the iPod, and when I plug the critter into Little Eddie

After last week's surprise gain, I kicked off the week with a trip to the gym. I would've preferred sleeping, but I'm doing the "get off your ass already" thing and getting off my ass, already. I didn't make the full trip to Nubody's, instead opting for a sweaty cardio attempt at the apartment gym. Took on the treadmill and the elliptical machine. Even tried some jogging on the treadmill, getting good 'n soaked. There's something about having worked out in the morning that makes me want to dress better during the day. I just feel more confident for some reason. Did pretty much the same on Wednesday ... on Friday ... and even on Sunday. I haven't been to the gym this often in about eight years! I'm feeling a difference, for sure. I've noticed muscle development in my shoulders and legs. Not hulking he-man stuff by any means -- just what I suppose ought to be normal muscle to help me get through day-to-day life. My pants are loose

Free, downloadable Banff travel guide with dynamic Banff maps, useful links, playable tours, top picks, plus photos and reviews for hundreds of Banff hotels, sights and attractions, restaurants, theaters, museums… The folks at the Schmap! travel guide site have done it again! They've used four of my Flickr photos in their latest product. It's a guide to Banff, where Amanda and I enjoyed a lovely visit in the spring . They've again offered me the opportunity to offer you the opportunity to take the opportunity to download one of these beasties for free. As with the Halifax guide , I have no idea how much they're supposed to cost, but free's free.

Seth Stevenson of Slate Magazine looks at a new series of ads from the US Office of National Drug Control Policy that's quite a departure from the "drugs are evil", "drugs will ruin your brain", "drugs support the terrorists" campaigns of the past. He notes that the new TV spot titled "Pete's Couch" takes a patently realistic and utterly sensible approach at trying to steer kids away from weed. (The ads are available online, too.) (Google search turns up lots of references, including YouTube.) Seth writes... This new spot, titled "Pete's Couch," doesn't offend me. It acknowledges that smoking weed on your buddy's sofa is the "safest thing in the world." (Which is true. I actually had a friend named Pete in high school, and we did get high on his couch. No turmoil ensued.) The ad's main contention is that it's important to get off that couch and out into the world, where you can do things like ic

First flurries of the season. They are here. Light flurries, 3 degrees Celsius. It is snowing. The weatherman is calling for 2-5 centimetres today. Last year, it snowed the first time when Amanda and I were out car-shopping . That was December 3. The picture on the right is not mine. It is also not from today. It is not that snowy here. So far, it is actually a novelty to have snow in the air. Special greetings to Sandra, who delights in the snow more than anyone I know!

Back in the saddle, and starting to regain the momentum snuffed out by the sniffles and a chest full of lung butter. Signed up Monday at Nubody's gym for a year-long membership. I have regular morning commitments on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, so a Monday-Wednesday-Friday gym schedule looks appropriate. Kicked off the working out on Wednesday with a warmup, weights, cardio and stretching. To save the trouble of searching for the right machines at a stage where I'm still not sure where all the water fountains are, I took advantage of the circuit training setup. They have an array of weight machines set up in order to give a full body workout -- leg press, leg extension, leg curl, lat pulldown, shoulder press, chest press, tricep press, bicep curls, etc etc. -- then you go back to the first machine and do another set. Very handy. I'm sure that later on, I'll be moving to a more tailored/prescribed plan, once I know where stuff's at. I wasn't sore on Thursda

Regular readers and visitors to the BigAssSuperGallery have noticed my fascination and disgust with graffiti. It catches my eye wherever I go in this city. I've been especially bothered by a couple of taggers who've been prolific and destructive lately. Someone named "SAME" has been hitting homes and residences with huge spraypaint tags. And some artless twit going by the handle of "Jem" has been haphazardly spraying her tag through much of the north end -- and not even staying consistent with the stylization of her nom de crap. I keep seeing FYPT, ENDER and BOS tags all over the place, too. Now, HRM (the Halifax Regional Municipality) has launched a web site to help residents realize the seriousness of the problem, and offer solutions. The city invites people to call 911 when spotting graffiti in progress. It stresses the three Rs -- record, report, and remove. That is, take a picture of it (done), tell the authorities, and clean up the mess so these mis