My Crappy Website

Have you ever seen an obese old person? I mean like 65 or above? Me neither.

Last night the wife and I watched the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. The documentary was a real eye opener and made us both realize that we need to change our eating and exercising lifestyle. Neither of us are extreme overweight but we do have more weight then we need to have. If you are overweight “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead” is a MUST SEE.

Yesterday I turned 47. I am 5’8″ (170 CM) and right at or a bit above 200 lbs right now which is considered obese. Almost 15 years ago I retired from the Army and was hovering around 180 lbs. So it appears I am gaining about 1.15 lbs a year. If I keep this up I’ll be close to, or over, 250 lbs by the time I am sixty-five. I will be morbidly obese. I am not unhappy about my body (I have a bit of a gut) but know that getting my BMI back down where it needs to be will make me healthier and happier. I also smoke a bit less than a pack of cigarettes a day which I know is not good and I plan to stop this also.

One of the main reasons I want to start eating correctly is that over the last 10 years quite a few men where I work have died. I WANT TO LIVE!! All these men were in their mid 50s, smoked, and had a very unhealth diet. During our lunch breaks they (and I) would be eating a lot of fatty sausages, or schintzels, french fries, etcetera. One of them just fell over dead in his office. I was in the room watching him die as the medics electrically defibulated him EIGHT times. They were able to bring him back to life, and keep him alive, but he never regained consiousness. Five days later wife had to make the decision to pull the plug. I don’t want my wife or anyone in my family to have to do that. Especially if it is preventable.

There is also a man at my work right now that is basically killing himself. He smokes like a chimmney. I don’t know how many cigarettes he is smoking a day but I never see him without one in his hand. He eats enourmous amounts of junk food and has already had heart surgery due to clogged arteries. He has a constant smokers hacking. You can actually see his body changing. He is getting huge and his face is completely red due to high blood pressure. He is fat, sick, and nearly dead. I truely beleive that he will not make it to the end of 2011. It is sad to watch but the saddest thing is that all his problems are probably self inflicted and if he would just change his lifestyle he could regain his health. He has a beautiful wife and great kids? Doesn’t he want to be there for them?

I saw my ex-brother-in-law Gary at my son’s wedding in March of 2011. I did not recognize him. He must have been over 400 lbs. He was in his early 50′s. We sahres some small talk and it was good to see him again. But I could see he was not in good health. I went to my daughter’s wedding in June 2010. Gary was not there. He died during kidney stone surgery a few months before. He left a wife and two college aged sons. He always had a problem with kidney stones but would he had lived through the surgery if he was not morbidly obese? I don’t know but I believe so.

I see the early signs in myself also. I cough a lot because of smoking. I have a hard time bending over to put on my socks or tie my shoes because my muscles ache. I get winded quickly when climbing stairs or a steep hill.

I want to live a long healthy life and I know that it is MY EATING AND SMOKING HABITS AND CHOICES that can make a difference. I am gonna be a grandfather in November or December and I want to live to watch my grandchild grow. I want my older years to be healthy years and I think that with a proper eating and exercising lifestyle that I can do it.

The crazyiest thing about losing weight and getting healthy is that it is not complicated. You don’t need pills, a stomache band, or expensive fad diets. You just need to eat rigth and get your fat ass off the couch and out of the house. You don’t need to join an expensive gym since walking or riding a bike is FREE!!!

I have decided to change my lifestyle and I plan to write about my progess. I believe writing about it will help me stay focused. Also I have a lot of friends that are in the same situation and I hope that they too will do something to change. I want them to be around for a long time!! Otherwise I am gonna be very lonely when I am 85 years old!

Getting a new tattoo. 24 years after my first one.

A good friend of mine recently got an iPhone 4 and asked me how he can use it to create, edit, and store documents such as Excel and Word. I was gonna write him a lengthy email explaining how to do this but I figured it would be better to write here so more people can use my method.

First off you need to get a DropBox account. DropBox is online storage where you can place documents online so that they are always available to you. It is completely secure and there is even a public folder where you can put documents you want to share. DropBox gives you 2 GB of free space and you can earn more by referring people to them. They also have a very reasonably priced subscription plan where you can get 50 GB of space. Right now they charge $9.99 for 50 GB and $19.99 for 100 GB. I only use the free space am am up to 3.5 GB due to referrals. You can install DropBox on all your computers and your files will be synced. Dropbox also keeps the most up-to-date version of you files on your PC and/or iPhone/iPad so that you can access them when offline.

So….go to http://db.tt/VLNxuRi to install DropBox on your PC, MAC, or Linux machine. Yes, I get more space if you join by clicking the link.

Now that you have DropBox set up on your computer, you now need to go to the Apple App Store on your iPhone / iPad. Search for DROPBOX and install. IT IS FREE!!

Now that you have it installed on your iPhone / iPad just click on the DropBox icon and you will see the directory structure like shown below.  See that folder that says “Public”? That is where you put documents that you want to share with others.  Others can see, but not edit these documents unless they download them.

Just tap one of the folders to enter it.  Below you can see I entered the Public folder

You can not edit or create documents in Dropbox.  You need Office 2 Plus for this.

Office2 Plus is not free if you want to be able to create or edit documents. I am not sure what the price is right now since I have already activated the edit document functions.  For Excel spreadsheets you can only edit .XLS files, not the new .XLSX files. So remember this if you want to be able to edit your spreadsheets.

Here I open a Word document in Office2 Plus, edit, and then save it.

Here is a list of some of Office 2 Plus features:

WORD PROCESSOR FEATURES

1. Word 97-2010 (.doc & .docx) compatability.
2. Character formatting including bold, italic, underline, font face, size, color and highlight.
3. Paragraph formatting including indent, left, right, center and distributed justification style.
4. Bullets and numbering.
5. Support for tables, and images.
6. Full text search capability.
7. Copy and paste.
8. Undo and redo.
9. Auto-correction and auto-capitalization.

SPREADSHEET FEATURES

1. Excel 97-2003 (.xls) compatibility with support for multiple worksheets.
2. Multiple cell types, including Numeric, Date, Time, Currency, Percentage and Text
3. Cell formatting options, including bold, italic, text and background color, cell sizes and alignments.
4. Merged cells, text wrapping and freeze panes.
5. Copy/cut/paste operations.
6. A range of functions, including date/time, math, statistical, string and trigonometric functions.
7. Import/Export to and from desktop computer over wifi network.
8. Tight integration with Google Docs, enabling direct editing of Google Docs spreadsheets.
9. Access spreadsheet files stored in a MobileMe iDisk account or any other WebDAV-based server.

You can find out more about Office 2 Plus and how to use it here: http://www.bytesquared.com/products/office/iphone/more_info.asp

You can also link the following online storage sites to Office2 Plus.

1. Google Docs

2. Mobile Me

3. myDisk

4. icloud

5. box.net

6. Other WebDAV sites

Avoid alliteration. Always.

Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)

Employ the vernacular.

Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

Contractions aren’t necessary.

Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

One should never generalize.

Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”

Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.

Be more or less specific.

Understatement is always best.

One-word sentences? Eliminate.

Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

The passive voice is to be avoided.

Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

Who needs rhetorical questions?

Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

Bring a weapon. Preferably, bring at least two.

Bring all of your friends who have weapons.

Bring their friends who have weapons.

Anthing worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.

Only hits count. Close don’t count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss.

If your shooting stance is good you’re probably not moving fast enough nor using cover correctly.

Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (lateral and diagonal movement are preferred).

If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a big weapon and a friend with a big weapon.

In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived and who didn’t.

If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running.

Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting is more dependeant on “pucker factor” than the inherent accuracy of the weapon.

Use a weapon that works EVERY TIME. “All skill is in vain when an angel pisses in the flintlock of your musket”

Someday someone may kill you with your own weapon, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.

In combat, there are no rules, always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.

Have a plan.

Have back-up plan, because the first one won’t work.

Use cover or concealment as much as possible. The visible target should be in FRONT of YOUR weapon.

Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.

Don’t drop your guard.

Always tactical load and threat scan 360 degrees.

Watch their hands. Hands kill. (In God we trust. Everyone else, keep your hands where I can see them.)

Decide to be aggressive ENOUGH, quickly ENOUGH.

The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.

Be courteous to everyone, freindly to no one.

Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

Your number one Option for Personal Security is a lifelong commitiment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.

Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun, the caliber of which does not start with at least a “4″.

If this does not make you smile, there is something wrong with you.

A crab and a lobster are secretly dating. Pretty soon, the lobster tires of the lying and tells her father, who then forbids her to see the crab anymore.

“It’ll never work, honey.” he says to her. “Crabs walk side- ways and we walk straight.”

“Please,” she begs her father. “Just meet him once. I know you’ll like him.”

Her father finally relents and agrees to a one-time meeting, and she runs off to share the good news with her crab sweetie.

The crab is so excited he decides to surprise his beloved’s family. He practices and practices until he can finally walk straight!

On the BIG day, he walks the entire way to the lobster’s house as straight as he can.

Standing on the porch, and seeing the crab walking towards him, the lobster dad yells to his daughter…..

“I knew it! Here comes that crab and he’s drunk!”

Here is Sarge the Wonderlab at today’s puppy treff.  He loves messing with his girlfriend Luna the Saint Bernard.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair – get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault , so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Again, I am just amazed at all the new medical procedures that are comeing out today. Sure this is just research but it is one step closer to eliminating this horrible disease.

Researchers are working on a “smart bomb” drug delivery system which they say would actively search out and destroy cancer cells within the body.

It would also have fewer side-effects than conventional chemotherapy, says Deakin University’s Associate Professor Wei Duan, who heads the project in collaboration with scientists in India.

“Cancer cells are particularly difficult to kill as they contain so-called cancer stem cells, the root or seed cancer cells that are resistant to drugs,” Dr Duan said in a statement.

“While current treatments kill the bulk of the cancer cell, the cancer root escapes the therapy and can regenerate into a new cancer mass.

“The aim of our research is to develop a smart bomb that can penetrate the cell and release the drugs within the cells, rather than from the outside, and kills the whole tumour, root and all.”

Read the complete article….