Month: June 2008

Photo taken just as I was pulling up to work. I hurried into the building before it hit. Poor quality image taken with cell phone. 

I love nature photos in general but when I can catch an image of something decaying or potentially violent I find it worth saving. Storm clouds are so mysterious to me. Something about the potential behind the clouds brings a level of uncertainty which for me defines much of my life. 

I was a little disappointed with this storm front when it blew over with just a spot of rain and a little lightning. 

It’s been quite a while since I’ve worked out and I think my membership has expired so… I think I need to start doing something to get in the swing of healthy eating and exercise. For a while I was on a good diet and working out often enough but true to form I let everything slip away. To be fair it’s not necessarily an issue of being lazy or not wanting to make these changes but working two jobs and having a family put me in a situation where the time isn’t there. We  have maintained a good diet in that we don’t have lots of junk available for snacking but there’s just not that effort to fill up the fridge with really healthy choices. My low weight was around 147 a couple months ago which IMO was a little smaller than I like to be. My weight today was 155 which I feel comfortable with but unfortunately that 8 pound gain isn’t muscle, yuk!

Sitting here tonight I decided to make a trip to Burger King for a Whopper, something I recently got back in the bad habit of doing. I’m embarrassed to say I ate there THREE times last week and  loved every bite of it. I don’t know what it is about junk food but it has a pull on me right now even though I know a serving of hummus would make me just as happy. The problem is BK is right down the street and the nearest “healthy food” spot is several miles away. The other option is to go home and eat but once again I can’t say there is anything readily available that’s particularly good to for me.  I have not gone to lunch yet so I’m hoping this blog will encourage me somehow to pass the fast food up and either not eat anything or find something at least somewhat healthy.

Work is keeping me busy and I don’t know for sure when I will be able to make the move to just one job but I do know the possibility is right around the corner. I’m thinking more in terms of physical and mental well being over financial gain. I’m telling myself if I can go sooner I would love to start jogging around the neighborhood which just isn’t an option working this shift and get back in the swing of doing it right.

 Weekends these days are brilliant now that things have heated up and both days are pretty much mine. Once in a while I have an obligation but for the most part I do whatever I want to do and considering my weekdays can be really non stop it’s more than a little needed. But I hate the idea of working for the weekend. To look forward to just TWO days seems like a waste of life especially when you think about just how fast the weekend goes by. I guess it’s always like that when you are enjoying the moment or whatever. Siting here in “the cube” I swear time crawls by and my eye is constantly shifting to the little clock on the edge of the screen. 

There was a time I was big into RPG’s which would take up copious amounts of time in chunks that seemed to go by in a flash. It always pissed me off to look up at the clock and realize I had to be to work when I wanted nothing more than to finish the game. These days however I don’t have time for those games that require excessive play time to complete which is why I’ve never given WOW a chance. I could just see myself playing it for hours on end, calling into work, ignoring everyone around me. It’s not even an option with work and family so I figure why even go there.

That vow I made some years ago to enjoy each day is shot. I want to get the heck outta here.

It’s only early June but this weather is hot hot hot! It’s not just heat but the humidity has been out of control. I’ve always been a fan of high temperatures but humidity, not really. My only regret about this weather is the fact that I am STILL IN THIS CUBE!!! 

Looks like a great week besides a little rain which I suppose is good too. Today was actually in the 90’s.

Barack Obama – continuing his campaign of politics as unusual – offered a hip alternative to scripted displays of affection by political couples by giving wife, Michelle, a hug, kiss – and quick fist bump.

It was short, but sweet.

“Fist bump of hope!” wrote one Internet poster about the couple’s hand-to-hand show of solidarity.

Obama told NBC‘s Brian Williams Wednesday night he is proud of that magical moment.

“It captures what I love about my wife, which is that there is a reverence about her and a sense that for all the hoopla that I’m her husband and sometimes we’ll do silly things.

“She’s proud of me and she gives me some credit once in a while, but I actually pull some things off.”

The affectionate 11-second exchange before Obama claimed victory as the Democratic presidential nominee Tuesday emphasized Obama’s youth and ability to transcend the stereotyped political gestures of campaigns past, experts said.

“I would imagine to a young voter, this was another sign that these people are one of us,” said psychologist Drew Westen, author of “The Political Brain: The Role Of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.”

“People saw their willingness to display their affection in the way they really do – at home, or in private moments.”

It was a great alternative to Al and Tipper Gore‘s way-too-long nationally televised liplock or Bill and Hillary Clinton, in swimsuits, cavorting on a Virgin Islands beach.

The all-but-certain Democratic nominee for President, before addressing the crowd in Minnesota, shared a moment with his wife of 15 years.

As the couple met on the stage before a raucous crowd, Obama kissed her cheek as they hugged. The two exchanged a few quick words before Michelle raised her right fist, and Obama bumped it with his left.

Michelle Obama then flashed a quick thumbs up and headed offstage, with her husband patting her gently on the lower back as she exited.

“If it’s calculated, it’s a very good calculation,” said Dr. Judy Kuriansky, the well-known psychologist. “America wants to see what’s going on in the relationship.”

The fist bump, she said, “was very hip, very cool, an ‘I’m-with-it’ move. It’s almost cocky.”

When Gore planted a kiss on his wife in 2000 at the Democratic convention, many saw it as merely a opportunistic shot at shedding his wooden image.

And when the Clintons were “caught” dancing during a 1998 vacation in the Virgin Island, critics saw it as calculating – an attempt to deflect attention from the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit.

Westen said the moment shared by the Obamas seemed to rise above such criticism.

“The way you respond to it may depend on partisanship,” he said. “I think it was a remarkably genuine and seemingly unscripted moment between the two of them.

“As a married man, it made me smile.”

lmcshane@nydailynews.com

BY LARRY MCSHANE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Dan Deming had heard the rumors about the buried treasure on his central Wisconsin farm.

At first he made some halfhearted attempts to find it, and then searched in earnest for two or three years after receiving a metal detector for his birthday.

“I don’t know what I thought, if I thought it was really there or not,” he said.

The mystery ended recently while Deming was tearing down a 100-year-old shed on his property. A rusted box tumbled from the rubble and wads of currency dating back to the Depression spilled on the ground.

“I couldn’t believe it. I started running to the house with it,” Deming, 34, said Sunday. “My wife thought I broke my arm because I was just hooting and hollering.”

The bills were so deteriorated that it was hard to count the money. But the box also contained scraps of newspaper with dollar amounts written on them, a possible tally of the loot.

Deming briefly considered selling the bills to collectors, but the money was in poor condition. Instead, he turned it over to the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which redeems mutilated currency for face value, he said.

“I’m hoping it’ll be for $1,700 because that’s what the paper said,” Deming said. “It’s hard to say, though. It’s really difficult to tell what was in there.”

The legend of the buried treasure dates back more than 40 years.

“I heard from my grandfather that a man who lived here during the ’30s and ’40s was eccentric and might have stashed money,” Deming said.

When he first saw the bills, he thought they were play money. Then he saw the words “silver certificate” across the top of a $1 bill and realized it was real. He also noticed the bills were dated between 1928 and 1934.

Deming says he’ll use whatever money he gets from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to build a replacement shed.

He also plans to tear down a rickety old barn on his land, and wondered for a fleeting moment whether there might be more money stashed there.

“I’m hoping maybe there’s something there — but I doubt it,” he said. “I mean, $1,700 during the Depression was probably this guy’s life savings.”

News

Being a lover of all things strange I found this list to be amusing enough.