multiplexer

This is a Dreamwidth test post. I am merely testing.

Noting to see here. Just move along.

From Select Smart 2004 Presidential Candidate Selector, it told me I should endorse:

1. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (92%)
2. Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat (91%)
3. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (86%)
4. Gephardt, Cong. Dick, MO - Democrat (79%)
5. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (76%)
6. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (76%)
7. Lieberman Senator Joe CT - Democrat (72%)
8. Graham, Senator Bob, FL - Democrat (70%)
9. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol IL - Democrat (70%)
10. Libertarian Candidate (63%)
11. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (11%)
12. Bush, George W. - US President (8%)
13. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (-5%)

Apparently, I would rather vote for some crazy, unnamed Libertarian candidate or the insane Constitution guy before Dubya. Apparently, the Republicans just can't count on me for support.

Dean came out on top. I'm not horrendously surprised. I probably could have attended meetup yesterday in Rockville, but I was just dead from drop and release.

I have no interest in politics today. The entertainment that is politics bores me! Except that Kerry got an endorsement from John McCain -- that's kind of interesting.

The weekend was the weekend. We went over to the 80's party at meercat and snidegrrl's Apartment Party Palace on Saturday with capital_l in tow. ect had produced several SWANKY discs of groovy 80's mix (although I realized sunday that there was a distinct lack of Van Halen so my tiny fist -- IT SHAKES!). Jack apparently put up some pictures. The blur in the exceedingly ugly orange and pink sportscoat is me. I don't think there are any non-blurry pictures of me. However, you can see devolutionary wearing the Power Pyramid. Are we not men? We are DEVO.

And, of course, I crashed at around midnight, because I am OLD and LAME and OLD.

I have been assured that dharsai and bronzemountain are cool. But I think the group of One Million People (okay, about 30) was intimidating. Hrm.

And, technolope is coming to DC next weekend. I'm hoping to see him, even for the briefest of brief.

Sunday I crashed -- sick, head stuffed up, chest stuffed up, head hurting, ears hurting, that kind of thing. I played a million hours of Dark Cloud 2. Must... build... stupid... little... town. The game is like crack.

Today I weight train (ow) and work until my eyes bleed. Drop on Thursday.

I came in to 10 new political messages in my inbox this morning. Time to start procmailing the suckers.

Strom Thurmond is dead. Long live Strom Thurmond. He lived 55 years too long. Am I bad for doing the Strom is Dead Happy Dance? Perhaps.

The LGBT decision from the Supreme Court must have killed him. Finally. The ACLU has a new site for further LGBT issues that stem from the decision. It's the "Get Busy, Get Equal" activism drive. They have little buttons you can stuff on your website, like so:

I'm naturally very happy with the decision, since I'm a huge "Keep the Hell Out of My Bedroom You Dirty Fuckers" person. Homophobia makes no sense to me. It's not like you're going to catch gay. It's not an airborne disease. "A gay person looked at me! Now I'm going to catch gay!" And what the hell do you care what people do in their bedroom? Worse, why do you care only about gay people, when straight people are just as twisted and kinky -- and often more so?

Thank God for sanity.

I'm sending the following letter to the Dean Campaign. It's under the cut for your enjoyment. I had to submit through their comments page, so I don't know if anyone will ever see it or if it goes to /dev/null.

( My First Harrassment Letter! )

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '04, here I come.

In other news, we lost power somewhere between 2-4pm yesterday afternoon, and the bastards from Allegheny Power didn't get it back on until 5am. ect and I stayed at a Motel 6 last night, because there was no way we could stay in a 100+ degree house. Sure, we could have huddled in the basement, but... Eric had to be at class at 8am, and that just wouldn't have worked. The Motel 6 was fine. Mildly crappy, but all we did was sleep there. But man, did it piss me off mightily.

I am positive that there is somewhere, on my body, that does not hurt. Perhaps a small toe. Perhaps a spot behind my knee.

I need to start drinking much more water after lifting weights. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow.

I have to do this one lift called the 'overhead press.' It hits all the muscles that sit idle from typing all day. I sit down to the machine, adjust the weight down, and lift. Everything from the front of my chest all the way over my shoulders and down my spine cracks in one loud orgy of cracking. I'm good and warmed up before I sit to this machine -- it's the 6th or 7th on my list -- but these muscles have been stubbornly not moving all day, and now they're lifting 35 lbs. It's almost disturbing how loudly my shoulders and back crack.

A second press. Same cracks.

A third press. Now cracks and the hot burning feelings as the acid comes screaming out of my muscles in black torrents.

A fourth press. Cracks and acid and the pain as the uberknot in my left shoulder instantly comes entirely undone as the muscle floods with blood. The whole trick of massage is to get the blood flowing into the muscles and the muscles to move. That releases the knot. This machine does an hour massage all in one go. Now I'm gritting my teeth.

By time I get to twelve presses, I can feel the muscles burning, the lactic acid burning, and my left shoulder screaming. But it was the right weight, because I felt the actual muscle burn in the last three pushes, just like I'm supposed to. I write down '35 lbs' on my sheet and glare at the machine. Stupid machine. You'll get yours.

The entire left side of my back feels like it's been through a minor law war in Asia. "Never get involved in a land war in Asia!"

My weight has not changed one iota in 5 days. I lost 6 lbs very fast, and now my body stubbornly refuses to move. I'm eating less, I'm working out, so it's a bit of a mystery to me. It's likely that my _body fat_ is going down and my weight is going up due to, well, all the weight training. In fact, it's coming off so fast off my legs that it's just gross. So one of three things is happening:

1. I am not eating enough. My body is going into starvation/conservation mode.

2. I am eating too much. I find this staggeringly unlikely, as I'm starting to suffer from headaches and the Powerful Hunger, and I track every calorie I eat. I ate 1200 calories yesterday, and burned 350 on machines and cardio workout.

3. The wet, water-logged fat is turning into muscle and attaching itself to my legs. Muscle, of course, weights a whole heck of alot more than fat.

It's likely a combination of 1 and 3. So snacking it is, just to keep my metabolism up. The SUPER metabolism has not kicked in yet -- damn you clomid! -- because of the hormone supplements.

Hmm.

But I wanted to hit 8 lb mark by tomorrow. Won't happen. Sigh. Alas.

ect has lost so much weight that he has to put another hole in his belt. His jeans no longer fit. Now he's baggy-butt Eric. And this is just from adding some walking and some working out into his schedule.

Today was the MoveOn "Primary" to vote to see who they will endorse of the possible Democratic Candidates. The MoveOn endorsement means lots of money, avenues into advertisement, the beginning of name brand recognition, and a little bump in legitimacy. Not much -- it's like being endorsed by Slashdot, but close.

The possible candidates are:

Moseley Braun

Howard Dean

John Edwards

Dick Gephardt

Bob Graham

John Kerry

Dennis Kucinich

Joe Lieberman

Al Sharpton

Not a heartwarming group. Alas.

I can eliminate Braun, Sharpton and Kucinich -- two for having no name recognition and nothing that makes them interesting, and one because he's Al Sharpton.

In the second group are the Has-Beens: Lieberman and Gephardt. I think Lieberman is just tired after the Gore thing -- and just being Joe Lieberman -- and Gephardt has been in every Democratic Primary since 1984. I don't want to see them anymore. It gives the party and the primary process this old, tired, stodgy, failed feeling.

We have the 'statesmen': Graham and Kerry. Graham is dull and uninteresting. I write him off immediately. John Kerry, every time he looks like he's going to step up to the plate and do something interesting, he backs down and mumbles something about reaching across the aisle. It's nice that he's actually starting to be a bit pro-active, but he seems too nice, too polite, and not enough fire. The vibe I get is not that he wants it, but that he's entitled to it. I'm not keen on entitlement.

So that leaves John Edwards and Howard Dean. I find Edwards to be slimy. He has a coat of film. I can see it in his pictures. He's all shiny.

I voted for Dr. Dean, ex-Governor of the Free Republic of Vermont.

As a bonus, looking through his literature, the man is insane. I prefer my candidates to be crazy. And he's pro-gun. So he's a crazy, somewhat-liberal, somewhat-centrist, pro-gun Democrat who likes to shake his fist at the sky and scream about War and misuse of money and deficit. And mostly, he seems to have some fire.

I'm more interested right now in people who want it then people who feel entitled to it. I'm looking for someone who is willing to fight and won't fold. I don't think any of them will give me what I'm looking for, so I'm looking for the guy with the most entertainment value.

If anyone cares, the campaign page is here. Sadly, I cannot find a good link to order swag. If you're going to stand around and scream, dammit, there should be swag involved. It's a moral imperative.

Yes, I'm currently listening to RUSH. It's mostly a coincidence.

ect and I drove up to less than lovely Trenton New Jersey on Saturday through rain and muck and endless traffic for Joe Mancuso's wedding. The entire experience was kind of eerie and strange and naggingly unpleasant. It wasn't seeing Joe get married -- that had its own surreal qualities -- I just felt like there was this life and I was there and now I'm not there anymore so I'm just watching it from the outside.

I spent most of the time talking to theshunter, catching her up on my more immediate life. I talked to other people -- hi, how you doing, how's life -- but it was all... I don't know. I said to mcniadh that everyone and everything felt old. However, there is a vague, slim chance that Mark might be moving to Gaithersburg, and that would make me do a happy dance. So I've found that those who I liked to hang out with -- the very original Bursley crowd -- I still do, and still feel comfortable around, but it's gotten to be a very Through the Looking Glass feeling.

I was assured that people have livejournals. I am currently tracking them down.

We returned home around 12:30-ish to wonderful, glorious Germantown and slept the sleep of the sleepy.

On Sunday, we were well and truly jacked for people to hang out with -- damn you all and your l33t social lives! -- so I was forced, alas, to spend the day with ect and talk to him and stuff. I went outside and was the Murderer of Weeds, pulling six handfuls of weeds out of my tiny plot. It was the first time in months that it didn't rain on a weekend, and the plot needed to be dealing with. As of this morning, it still needed to be dealt with. There were survivors attempting to struggle to sunlight, and several I pulled before I went to work.

My strawberries are strawberrying. I picked two and ate them with breakfast this morning. And just when I thought they were done mad-sprouting like sprouting things, they shoot up more flowers to make more berries. These are some really horny plants.

The box of marigolds have all flowered, and are sending up more flowers. They look really fantastic, and even though there are only a dozen plants, I started them from seeds, so I'm all proud and stuff. I should take a picture of them and paste it up here.

As of today, I've also lost 6lbs. Not that anyone can tell, but my pants are already fitting better. I start weight training (10 machines, 10-12 reps, 30lbs or more) tonight, plus 20 minutes of cardio. No cheese, no mayo, no eggs, no bacon, no sausage (but I cheat here), no sour cream, no guacamole, no ice cream. But there is fat-free ice cream, so I can get around some of the last one.

I've noticed that jlj seems to prompt me into writing really huge journal entries. Alas.

Today was my "orientation" at the gym to find out how hideously fat I actually am and how much work I actually have to do to bring my weight down.

Oh boy.

I am in the "risky" category, so losing weight is the plan. The trainer also pointed out lunch as a problem area (no surprise) and told me I need to eat more (big surprise). The trick is to snack lightly between meals so I a) eat less at meal time and b) my metabolism keeps going all day long. Apparently, if it has something to chew on, it thinks it should move all the time, and starts burning weight. It makes a certain amount of sense.

Next came the fat count and blood pressure and... it got depressing. I'm fat. And now it's written down that I'm fat. Whenever I feel unmotivated, I can look at that number and go, "But I'm a big land whale."

Sigh.

Then I sat on the cardio bike, and the trainer cranked the resistance for the cardio test up too high. My left knee is like white fire under the kneecap. I had to stop and lower it and redo the cardio test, but then my heart rate was way up, so it got all flummoxed. And I did 2x as much killer bike as I needed to do, so now I pay the price with Advil.

Afterwards, time for the weight machines! Boy, I'll be feeling this for days! 12 reps on 8 different Nautilus machines, 2x a week for 60 days, and then onto the 'advanced' weight training with free weights. Just the Nautilus machines set on 'wimpy engineer' was hard. And some of it in my upper body was super hard. My legs seem reasonable, even my flabby thighs. But my upper body was hell and suffering. The Advil for my knee goes to my arms as well.

I have to do cardio machines 3-5x a week for either 20-30 minutes (cardio) or 40-60 minutes (fat burn). I have to keep moving machines and workouts or else my body gets used to it. With 2x week on the strength training, this means going to the gym every day. Thank God it's about two minutes away across the street.

Now I go to collapse and wimper for a while. Alas.

After a week of watching my calorie intake and writing down what I eat, I have discovered the name of my bane and it is saturated fats. My calorie counts, like I suspected, were way down. Even when I was drinking pop, I wasn't egregious. I'm 500-700 calories less now (no 2 cans of coke, 30 minutes of exercize) but even then, it wasn't terrible.

No, it was the saturated fats, and they were killing me. I was eating 200-300% of the AMA requested saturated fat amounts. No soft cheese. No mayo. Cut the eggs. Avoid bacon. Sausage is okay if it's the right kind of sausage and in moderation. And definitely no gravy.

Cheese, I don't think I can quit entirely. I'm very attached to cheese! If you look at my info, cheese is on my "likes" list! However, my life won't be sad without mayo.

As of this morning, I have lost a whopping 3lbs in a week. But then again, my target is 2-3 lbs/week for the next 10 weeks -- well, 9 now. It's finally started to obviously work.

In other news, I signed up for Latin at Montgomergy College -- the same place giving ect fits yesterday. Getting through Admissions was a huge pain. I had to stand in this one line, and I was stuck behind the Dumbest Girls Ever, who spent 45 minutes explaining to the Admissions Officer that they didn't need to take some placement test because they took a phantom AP exam they had no scores for and they placed really highly on the SAT which they also had no scores for. They had a stunning lack of scores. Why would you bother to lie to get out of a 30 minute placement test?

I got up to the desk. The form was looked over and she asked me, "Do you have a prior degree?" I said, "I have several." She picked up a form and sent me to a different line -- which I then stood in for a long, long time. Luckily, AvantGo kept me from going completely mad. Hurrah for the Guardian!

Once I got through that line, my form was processed, my $25 taken, and I was told I could register immediately. Have prior degree? Go to the head of the registration line! It's like being a Senior all over again. So I went home, and registered for Latin. I can afford A class. One. Single. And that was the winner -- it beat out Japanese because Japanese is only spoken, and I want written.

Of course, it's 9-12 on Saturday mornings. Joy! Latin I have to get out of bed for! I have to get a sticker and a badge, but I'll do that later. Class doesn't start until Sept. 2nd.

Happy birthday to me.............................

And now I am officially older than dirt.

I'm thirty and I haven't written my Great American Novel yet. Man. I feel like a big dumpy failure.