Dave Dash

Goal-setting for weight loss

2006-06-25T00:00:00-07:00

Well losing about 20-25 pounds (of mostly fat) in the year before my wedding definitely had the intended effect of receiving positive comments from friends and family. I secretly had the intent of not just being able to lose weight, but wanting to help others lose weight too. There's no reason to suffer through anything if you can't use it to better yourself or others later.

Since I've met my current goal (160 by wedding), I think I'm going to have a new goal, and I'll use this opportunity to walk people through the way I lost weight --- sort of. I took a lot of liberties with my daily diet, and I don't recommend that others do the same. I do recommend that people write down any drastic changes that they might be contemplating and their desired goals and discuss them with their doctor or other qualified professional. Everything that I mention in this blog is purely anecdotal and should not be construed as best dietary practices.

Determining your motivation

Before you determine what a new goal is, you need to find a reason to even lose weight. If you don't have a good enough reason, losing weight is tough. Reasons only need to be good enough for you. Here was my reasons for losing weight by my wedding:

Look thinner by the time of my wedding
Be able to say I'm in the medically recommended weight zone
No longer be subject to my brother teasing me
Feel better
Make it easier to do other physical activities that I enjoy
Not have to look at that big bulging gut.

Any of those reasons is sufficient. For example, who wouldn't want to look their best for at their wedding. I had the benefit of receiving a lot of attention from friends and families. We had an Indian wedding, and Indian aunties really notice the weight changes --- which in a way can be pretty nice when you are intending to lose weight.

In the week following my wedding, I've seen my weight rise out of that "recommended weight" zone. I want to be firmly entrenched in that "recommended weight" zone, and then I'd like to start gaining muscle mass. Once I'm at my new target weight, I'll be firmly entrenched in that weight and if I can continue decent eating habits and do strength-training, I could reach somewhere in the 150s and have strength to show for. It goes back to the "making it easier to do physical activities" goal. I like being able to lift boxes, people, etc, without exerting too much effort.

Determining a weight

Having a reason to lose weight should be easy enough. Determining how much weight to lose is another proposition all together. This is an excellent time to get the opinion of a professional. However, if you are fairly certain that you are overweight, you can usually play it safe by saying a 10% weight loss. If you or anybody close to you has the slightest worry that this might be an unhealthy weight, check with a doctor.

I had been floating between 175-185 pounds for a number of years, I decided on 160 for a goal. At the time it seemed ambitious. I had tried losing weight before, but not to that extent. The idea of being in the BMI range for a healthy weight seemed like a fantasy.

It's a fairly good idea to pick a goal that is significant. I could have set my sights low and said, I'd like to be 170 pounds, but that's not much of a change. Physically it's very little change, as I remember. The idea of hitting 160 pounds, however... I couldn't even remember when I was last 160.

I decided that each time I hit a goal, I'd re-assess where I am, and see if it made sense to lose or gain more weight. At this time I feel like I could lose more, so I'm going to shoot for 15 more pounds. Putting me at 145 pounds. Beyond my occasional 14 miles I bike to and from work when I'm called in, I am planning on adding in at least some abdominal exercises.

Determining a date

Your goal date is probably more important than your determined weight (as long as the weight you pick is healthy). When I started, going from 185 to 160, seemed crazy and way faster than I expected, but over a year's time, that's only half a pound a week --- which is quite reasonable.

An arbitrary date to reach a goal might not mean much to you. For me, I picked my wedding day --- and it had the intended effect of getting a lot of attention. Luckily for me, I can determine if I kept the same weight-loss pace as I have, I'd be around 145 pounds by Christmas. The nice thing about this being my second goal, is I can determine whether or not I liked that pace. If the pace seemed too relaxed I could just adjust the date or weight to suit me.

I'm picking New Years Day, 2007 as my new goal date. I'll be 145 pounds by then. It'll be a good time, because this is when many people decide they should start losing weight. At that point I can serve as an example.

Determine what you are willing to do to achieve the goal

Setting a date and a measurement for a goal is a huge step. In fact, you could probably achieve your goals with just that information alone. The other necessary steps will just come into play. However, it is helpful to know what you'll do and won't do to get to where you want to be.

Let's be clear, dieting is simply burning more calories than you consume. What will you do to achieve that? You can either burn more or consume less or both. The bulk of my weight loss was from consuming less. Burning more, for me, did help, but not as much as people would like to believe¹.

Do both if you can, but don't get hung up that you can't bike to work (even though you can) or that you have no time to use that treadmill. With some dietary adjustments it should be easy to lower your calorie intake to the point where your body starts wearing down on its reserves.

Personally I also picked a few specific things I was willing to give up. I was willing to give up sugar (not everyday, but regularly), fried foods if I had to, and even dairy products. Omitting foods didn't make me lose weight, but it did prevent me from snacking. Snacking for me made having a calorie deficit nearly impossible.

I also had to accept that I couldn't stuff myself at mealtime. Late night pizzas, all-you-can-eat buffets --- none of that. My fianceé-at-the-time (now my lovely wife) was very good at convincing me that I only needed to eat until I was no longer hungry. That alone, helped quite a bit.

There will be bouts of hunger. You are starving your body. You are telling it, hey, I'm not eating enough to maintain this weight, so please chew on my reserves. The danger of course, is that your reserves are fat and muscle. Some dietary, and exercise changes can make that loss appear to be mostly fat. This time around, I'm willing to stick to the same course. It worked before, it should work again.

Determine what you won't do to achieve this goal

Equally as important to what you'll try to do is what you won't try to do. It might be important to establish that you will not exceed a certain calorie deficiency/day. It might also be important to you to not jump on fad diets. Whatever it is, you should find out what you don't want to do, make sure you are justified in feeling that way, and then stick to your guns, unless you've been scientifically proven wrong. It's far too easy to get caught up in a numbers game and start sacrificing your health just to meet the right number on the scale.

Conclusion

If you know what you want, when you want it and are willing to take steps to achieve it, you'll be fine. Goal setting is important in just about every facet of life, not just weight loss. Realistic goals can get you where you need to be. Make sure you're setting up some realistic goals.

So to recap my own goals: New Years Day 2007 I will be 145 pounds. I'd like to hear if other people have some weight related goals in the comments and their strategies.

Last summer I biked about 70 miles a week, but the bulk of my weight was in the winter when I started working more and more from home. ↩

"Just so fast" OR Random

1998-12-27T00:00:00-08:00

So yesterday I went to my cousin's engagement party and hung out with Egypt, Su', Tina, Leena, Aradhana, Shiela, and whomever else.
It was pretty fun, I guess. Err.. maybe. Tina, Leena, Su' and Aradhana had a real good dance (albeit there was a technical difficulty). Towards the latter part of the night there was dancing, and I hate dancing, but everyone, including my uncle pushed me to go on stage and I made a fool of myself since I have no talent in dancing at all. Odd that I listen to so much electronica and techno music.

Afterwards I was conned into going to Woodbury in a van that had way too many people in it. We (Tina, Leena, Aradhana, Titu, Sunita, &c) stayed at Tina and Leena's main floor. We stayed up till 5:30 AM or 6:00 AM just chatting watching half of Austin Powers, etc. It was fun It was nice to hang out with people that I hadn't hung with since oh, I dunno... hmm OSA which was in July. It was also neat meeting someone who's visited my school all the way from Milwaukee twice who is also a clone of Su'. I learned at 3:00 AM you get hungry and late at night everybody becomes like me... crazy. That, and people have wierd sleeping habbits, from kicking to enpillowing to talking. Quite amusing.

I left around noon. It was a nice break from being at home and not doing anything substantial. It's also nice to be with friends that I've known almost all my life.

Anyway... today Molly and I saw Patch Adams. I am definitely looking forward to the real Hunter "Patch" Adams visiting Allen Hall in February. My uncle and his family are coming over tonight. My little cousin, Joshna is very adorable. I saw her yesterday, although I never talk to my cousins. I feel bad, because soon they will be Germans.

I don't feel like writing much more tonight. So bye-bye.

InSoc - we make life easier

1998-12-05T00:00:00-08:00

"They're after me!"

I read more of Insoc.org. The guy is really really cool. His music is awesome. He's good at the computer stuff he does. His propaganda is hillarious. I also agree with his opinions on drugs. I wish more musicians were this cool.

So I was reading this astrological reading...

VIRGO (Aug. 24-Sept. 23): If you want something enough you will eventually get it. Your heart tells you that is true even if your head says it is illogical. Of course, if the something you want is something you were destined to have, it could arrive any time - like today, for instance.

This tells me nothing new. The first sentence is something that a lot of people believe, but their is no real way to prove. The second sentence probably applies to everybody. There are some things that just aren't feasable that we may want. If I'm destined to have something, yes of course I could have it at any time.

I really love this journal thing. It's an excuse to not talk to people individually. Why bother? Most people are bound to not give a care about one or two (at least) of the things I talk about. Why risk having one of your ideas ignored? So I have this journal system. I can post any damn idea I have that I feel needs to be shared. If someone's interested and they read it, they can talk to me about it more. If they aren't interested they just skip over it and I don't feel like an idea of mine has been ignored or not understood.

I think I know why I dislike my roommate. He's inconsiderate. I'm currently working on my final paper for speech and he's currently watching Street Fighter videos with a friend. He could have asked. It's blatantly obvious that I'm working on a paper. I'm not going to make a situation awkward and ask him to not watch this. It is his room too, I just wish he's be a bit considerate.

Ugh, I was a bit foolish to eat a Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner. Not only do I remove the ham inside it, but the cheese that's in it doesn't agree with me. It's a pity that the insides of me are so much like my brother (lactose intollerant). One day they'll synthetically make food that tastes good.

Homeward

1998-11-24T00:00:00-08:00

Caption not available.

Well one final journal entry before I leave here and go home. Sunday I bought a new CD called For The Masses. It's a bunch of remakes of Depeche Mode. Since age three or so I've been listening to Depeche Mode and the Cure. My brother was into those two bands and it just rubbed off on me. Lo and behold their is the Cure doing a cover of World in My Eyes. Meat Beat Manifesto which "Kwis" introduced me to sounds like an even more electronic version of Depeche Mode. They did a remix of Everything Counts which is one of my favorite dM songs. Rammstein is a scary band, they did this version of Stripped, another of my favorites... this sounded very very scary - a stalker version of the song. A lot of it was very "alternative" sounding. In the 80s Depeche Mode was alternative... alternative today is so different sounding. I don't even want to get into this topic of genres. Some of the songs I missed were Blasphemous Rumors and A Question of Time. That's alright though, the originals suit me just fine.:)

I also bought a $65 keyboard drawer. It has neat gel rests for my keyboard and mouse (which is on a sliding tray), it's easily removed so I can use it at home too. I love this thing and is definitely worth getting. "It feels like breast" as one floormate remarked about the gel rests.

ANNOUNCEMENT: When I mention an MP3, I normally will upload it to "the MP3 Server." Some of you wonder what this server is. This server is not run by me, and is not mine to delegate access. A good number of the visitors of this page know of the server and how to connect to it, this is why I frequently use it to upload my MP3s. If you do not have access to this server and want one of the MP3s I mention, I can send it to you if you live in my hall, or I can at least point you in the direction where I found it (usually MIRCX).

I finished Speaker of the Dead. My hall has not yet purchased Xenocide which means I am bound to magazines and writing on the flight home. I should have just purchased this book at the bookstore today. What I did get at the bookstore is a nice legal pad and pad holder and a nice shirt. That cost about $40 total. I think I'm going to have to buy less stuff and start saving money.

Yesterday while watching the X-files there was an add for Ally McBeal featuring Ally going at it with some other woman. I watched it while packing up. What a stupid show. I think I know a Chinese version of Ally McBeal back in Minnesota.

Okay, so I am going home tomorrow. Leaving UIUC at 10:25 AM to Detroit. I'll be at Detroit at 12:55, leaving at 1:40 and then reaching my final destination at 2:32 PM. My incomming flight to MSP is 1137. I will be coming into gate 18 I believe.

Stink free

1998-11-22T00:00:00-08:00

Stinky will not be present in my life until 29 November 1998.

Clinton recieving instructions from the mother-computer via an old-fashioned radio.

I came up with this neat idea, that I might hope to expand on later. Many of us who are fairly adept with using computers tend to come across at least a few people who are very unskilled at using a computer and often treat it as a delicate instrument that at anytime may cease to function and thus must never be experimented with beyond the ways which they are taught. (Say that seven times fast. No, really do it. Say it and record it and then send it to me.) The problem with this relationship with a computer you become computer-illiterate. Which isn't a bad thing, except you can't get things done. This is why software needs to be by default very wizard like. Not the stupid paper-clip in office, but Kit from Knight Rider, Jane from Speaker for the Dead, Computer from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Holly from Red Dwarf and to a lesser extent the organism from Sphere that took over the computer and made everyone want to kill everyone else (with none of the killing of course). The main reason for making computers like that, is that they have a persona and they do things for you. You communicate to the computer like you would communicate with a friend or slave. For those of us who would rather not have that, we could disable it. Please support Artificial Intelligence.

My dorm light went good-bye. I work in darkness now. Actually I work in the bask of a florescent study lamp from Jack's desk which is adequate for computer work. What errors I encounter will be adjusted through corrective surgery...

By the way, the song that I said was really cool is actually Jeane Michael Jarre's Oxygene 16 performed live in Moscow... I found most of the concert live, but only this track was 128/44 (and mislabled). I've uploaded all my stuff to the MP3 server. I've listened to a few of his other works and they are okay, but none were as impressive as this. Of course this is also the only good MP3 I could find of him (a mislabeled one at that).

There exists a World Jewish Congres... WJC... hmm... interesting. Sounds a little too much like World Wide Jewsih Conspiracy to me.

I've noticed a lot of people on my dorm leave their TV on, and don't actually watch it. It might be laziness or it might be some type of "security" that they get from the TV being on. I know that the TV gives me "company" when I eat alone at home, but I rarely do that anymore. This might be for the same reason. So I ask: [form disabled]

A lot of my friends here on campus have older computers that require non-SDRAM, either EDO or the "other kind." If someone can point me in the direction of how to distinguish between the types of RAM, that'd be great. Also, if any of you have this type of RAM lying around, please give it to me.

Now you may be thinking, "Dave, you're all the way in Urbana." I'm coming back Tuesday and their is a Thanksgiving Party at my house this Friday. All are welcome, just email me so I know you're coming. It's best to let me know if you're coming by Tuesday night for sure. If you've already told me that you are coming, then don't worry. Thanks a lot. Hope to see you soon. And to all my friends living on the east and west coasts, hope to see many of you during Winter Break. Unless I hate you. Email me if you want to know if I hate you.

Stinky makes a stink.

1998-11-20T00:00:00-08:00

"Whee!" Soaring through space, Stinky's PSX will never be seen in Urbana-Champaign for a very long time.

Wednesday we were little kids again at Fat Don's (a campus specialty restaurant). We played with the Ketchup and the Steak Sauce Bottle.

I hit the jackpot for MP3s. I've found all these neat live Aphex Twin and Orbital songs. The only difference from a studio and live cut is an audience and it sounds different slightly. Sometimes the sound is a little low quality, due to who recorded it, etc. The Orbital songs from Birmingham tend to have too much bass... that forces me to have to deal with Winamp's equalizer. The song of the week is an Orb song. Supposedly it's Toxygene live in Moscow, but it sounds nothing like the two other versions of Toxygene that I have. It's very space-future sounding. I've listened to it so much that I can't place it with another song that I've heard, becuase it's too familiar. The other two Toxygenic songs are mass-media-future sounding. Like something we'd have sometime soon. Supposedly the new Winamp (2.04+) are supposed to get rid of skips and stuff, but that's not happening. Oh well. I'll try to get my latest collection to the MP3 server in the sky before I leave. I'll at least start uploading by Sunday. I'd hate to go home and find myself musicless... although my CD-player supposedly works... and I could go CD shopping with my Jewish friend.

I'm really being pushed I guess. My Thanksgiving break will be relaxing, but I fear I'll be spending a lot of time composing a rough draft for my speech on an inclusive education model. Dammit, I need a day. Not just a day where I have no obligations, but a day where I have no future obligations to worry about. I have an outline due Friday, stuff to read, a paper due next week, a speech in a few weeks, end of the quarter soon, immunization tests that need be done, credits that need to be transferred properly, class registration that needs to be properly done.

Stinky made a stink tonight. I have witnesses, Neal, Mike, and anyone else who was unfortunate to walk by my room. I had to leave my room and go talk to the Katie with the red hair. Eventually the stink faded away. I don't want to sound like I'm exaggerating, but it was really bad. Mothballs and open windows should cure the room.

I heard Stinky talking to Josh in the hallway and I asked Josh in ICQ what Stinky said about the PSX (PlayStation):

You'll be really happy...he said he's not bringing it back after Thanksgiving...cuz he's gonna have to study for finals...Don't celebrate TOO loudly...:):)

If all goes well, this is a permanent thing.

Dave changed Fort Max

1998-11-05T00:00:00-08:00

"Moving the journal over here was a great idea. I just hope the users don't mind that we reuse old graphics, woman."

I've started reading CNN, more often. I'm sure you will notice the side effects. And also relating to the page... I've placed the journal on the opening screen and I doubled the length of data that gets displayed. I updated the Calendar, the Friends page and fixes the random problems with how links open.

I heard the KQRS apology regarding the comments made regarding the Hmong. The result is that they have given in to Citizens Against Racism. There will be no more Talk with Tak, featuring Tak the person from Grand Forks with an accent that's surprisingly Oriental sounding. I guess not stating his race does not matter. I think KQ should make up a new character with an accent that can't quite be traced. :) I'm interested in what others think of Talk with Tak or what you think would define something as being racist.

Jesse the Body was on KQ. He also made the front page of the Daily Illini (not the feature article, but the front page nonetheless). Most of my news that I throw at you is usually computer stuff, so here's something from Maximum PC that mentions "the wrestler."

[McJorgenson](mailto:dalamar -at- ftmax . com) sent me this link.

Apple has a new deal where you can Rent-to-Own an iMac for $30 a month. Sure, it sounds like a good deal. Only a little bit more than unlimited Internet access... except you realize that this is for 67 months. After the first year or two you'll feel like your machine is really out-dated. Then you realize that you are paying $30 for the next 43 months for an outdated computer that, from many peoples view points, wasn't very good computer brand new.

Matt Sundberg graduated from High School today. Slacker.

Anybody who uses the mega-gigantic dryers in Allen Hall should not leave their laundry in their for more than 10-15 minutes. It's really annoying, because if you don't use those and have a decent ammount of laundry, you have to run your load a few times.

The 52 lbs. package has been spotted in Cach, IL at 9:47 PM today. It should be expected to arrive tomorrow or Monday. The last time I saw something at Cach, IL I got it the next day or the day after. That was of course in MN, but now that I live in IL, it should be here sooner. That's right, I live in IL. I am IL.

I wonder if I've regained control of my will power. Jack's Taco Bell poster finally fell. Jack missed two classes today because he went to sleep at six in the morning.

I took my second math test. It hurt.

I love this song. "Give it to me, baby!"

(no title)

1998-10-31T00:00:00-08:00

I guess Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0b2 was not supposed to be announced to the world like BetaNews did. Luckily, I installed it before Microsoft did anything. I should probably redownload it for a better build, but I don't care that much. Beta 2 fixed my shortcut/shares and other miscellaneuous icon problems. It installed smoothly (smoother than any other IE, that I can remember). It's worth upgrading to if you have 5.0B1 otherwise don't bother, it may not be worth the hassle.

My mom sent a signed affadavit (actually my dad signed it) for my netcam. I forecast that I will get it around the middle of December at the latest. She also sent a package via Airborne Express filled with Candy. :)

I'm voting for senator Mosely-Braun, the incumbant. It was between her (Democrat) or Jim Davis (Natural Law Party). The Republican candidate didn't fill out this election survey, the libertarian and the US Taxpayer both annoyed me. The Reform party was okay. I agreed with a lot of what Mosely-Braun and Davis had to say, but Braun was a little bit better in most issues. I'll decide on whom else I should vote for later. I'll probably default to Democrat or Natural Law Party (because they are a promising third party with many views akin to mine).

My song of the week is Juno Reactor's Feel the Universe (Kox Box remix)... I'll upload Feel the Universe to the MP3 server of choice. It prompted me to download more Juno Reactor and more Kox Box and other Techno MP3s I could dig up. It's funny, I tend to always have more Techno MP3s than the MP3 server. Even after uploading all I have, I end up finding more stuff.

I ran today (Friday)... out of assumed necessity. It was nice.
The web site for Maximum PC is finally online. I think it will be equivilant to the other computer sites I visit, but who knows.
Hate Microsoft, Love Linux? See this.
Look at this. I fully expect that this site would use mouseovers (the buttons change when you put your mouse over them). Strange.

(optional)

1998-10-29T00:00:00-08:00

This may be a bit boring, so it's marked optional. I've decided to put all my one-liner things at the bottom all in one paragraph. Otherwise I have three or four paragraphs of little tidbits and that gets annoying.

Tuesday night, Jack ordered a pizza from Dining Services. Jack doesn't understand that chewing with your mouth open is rude.
"Jack," I say, "chew with your mouth closed." Jack wonders with a confused half grin, "Why?" Oh, ignorant ignorant Jack, do you not know? "I don't like to hear you chew." Jack still confused, thinking it's some quirk with me. I help him out and explain, "It's impolite." Jack struggles to chew with his mouth closed, but at least he tries and at leasts I don't hear a bunch of chewing noises. Silly China-man, will you ever learn our ways? I suppose college is the only time he'd ever learn things like manners, etc.

This may or may not be out of context. From Kay's page: "Robocop and I went to bed." Oh boy, another soap-opera that I can twist.

Okay, for anybody who was wondering what Aural Stimulation was, Dimension Music cites somebody (probably from Winamp), "aural stimulation adds some high frequencies to the output, so that the ear hears high frequencies with the music. This tricks the ear into thinking that the recording is crisper, because mp3 tends to filter out most high frequency stuff, so the presence of incorrect (but unobtrusive) high frequencies makes it sound better." So it is not what I expected it to be, which would explain the unfamiliar name.

Looks like I save $299 by not buying a Matrox Marvel. No drivers for Windows NT. I'll just wait till Windows 2000 comes out. I wish Adobe would create Photoshop for Linux.

And now for the tidbits of information:

I woke Jack yesterday with Logon Rock Witch... oops, oh well... that's what happens when you have stupid sleeping habbits. Mr. "I have one class on Wednesdays."
I've decided that I should use the computer lab in our basement more often. It's quieter at many times and there is no Jack and no PlayStation.
Woo-hoo! I passed my fire safety inspection test... hopefully it's not the only test I pass.
Ever wonder who hacks the hackers?
Download this. If I choose to use this as my default laugh and laugh at more things, I think Jack will be scared of me:)

32 and 1 day

1998-10-26T00:00:00-08:00

I have a short term memory. I noticed this last year when I started using ICQ heavily. I'd message people and they'd reply and I would have to constantly look at my message history to figure out what they were replying to. This happens less and less, but it was disturbing dealing with such a short term memory. I've started to notice it elsewhere as well. I can't pay much attention in class because taking notes is difficult and keeping a lecture together in my head is hard. When I read a book I often miss important details. This happens especially if the subject matter isn't filled with vivid description or interesting.

I've started taking it easy instead of constantly being stresse over work. It's helped. It's funny my hobby is web site development and I chose the school that created graphical web browsing. It's fun to go to Help|About Internet Explorer if you use MSIE. If you like space, you'll like this. Our school has crappy Pizza delivery. It's just Totino's party pizza. It's nasty. If you go to UIUC, eat dinner, don't get the pizza from URH, if you must spend $5 and order pizza.

Winamp 2.04 has Aural Stimulation support for MP3s. I hope this is what I think it is. In other MP3 news, I just found a bunch of new MP3s from Aphex Twin, Tangerine Dream, Orb (an awesome live Toxygene), Orbital (as if I didn't have enough), Skinny Puppy and Underworld to name a few. I should be set for a while.

The Simpsons yesterday lacked some intelligence that the older Tree House of Horror's had.

Jack is back today. He woke up early (a few minutes after my final awakening). He's awake now.

News and hoaxes

1998-10-21T00:00:00-07:00

When I wake up and Jack is gone, I shouldn't get too excited. Jack can come back. Jack came back a little before 6 AM. He makes wierd noises when he's asleep. Probably hard for him to sleep when I've just woken up.

Anyway, the last week has brought some rivalry between a few "news" services on the web. The main reason was for an article printed about an MP3 virus. Beta News first posted the article. Dimension Music made a reference to this article. According to Dimension Music's Spyed, he wanted to see how many people would buy the story, and that later he'd post a lesson. The lesson was, not to trust every news source. Rather before buying into a story, try to see if it even makes sense. An MP3 virus doesn't make sense, because MP3s are read, not executed. Spyed is a smart person and I believe what he posted was true, that he was just doing a test. Unfortunately a lot of people bought the story. Spyed later apologized for this trick. In the meantime BetaNews updated their site informing people that it was a hoax. Spyed later apologizes for making BetaNews sound like an unreliable news source. This is all great. I later go to a new site, Acid Sounds. This is after reading a nice article posted on Dimesnion Music by Spyed:

Today (once again) DimensionMusic posted inaccurate information on its site. This time they warned people about a new virus floating around in Id3 tags, called "Bloat." I really don't know where Spyed (the Webmaster) made this one up, considering Mp3s cant transfer viruses (as they aren't executables), nor can Id3 tags. At any rate, pay no attention to this prank. There's nothing to worry about!

Today however they noticed the nice flow of traffic as a result of Dimension Music telling people to visit and they have this to say:

Finally, a reliable source (Dimension Music), has reported on the current status of the next Sonique release.

I have a problem with this. News is good. Opinions are good. Putting opinions into news you report is somewhat iffy. It's okay if you're writing an article and then at the end put your thoughts at the end. It's not a good thing when your opinion of something changes and you do not explain why. This makes your opinion sound like crap. Anyway, when you visit a news site, professional or not, keep a few things in mind. Make sure yo understand what is being said. Make sure the article makes sense. If you see something that doesn't make sense, find out more information. The Internet is great because there's always a few sources of information on news topics. When you see opinions written into articles, do not take them as your own. Those are opinions of the writer of the article. Come up with your own opinion. It may just happen that it's the same, but you need to come up with this on your own. Opinions often change based on pidly little things. Base your opinions on what you observe and can verify.

My opinion: For the record, all the news services I have mentioned are to my knowledge very reliable. If they do make a mistake I can look somewhere else to find the truth, or a day or two later they'll post a correction. Actually I'm not sure about Acid Sounds. It's too new.

In my time of need it comes to me, I call it Seagate!

1998-10-14T00:00:00-07:00

Seagate is horking me a new drive today! It's [being] sent by Airborne Express's 2nd Day Air. Which is very nice. I'm happy. You see my current drive is being crowded. I also want ample space to rip CDs. Allen Hall's library has been touting their ample collection of CDs and they have stuff that's interested be, such as Moby. They also have Chemical Brothers and Nursat Fateh Ali Kahn. Well maybe not all in Allen Hall, but somewhere in the hall libraries.

I guess somehow we are going to get a lot of Transformer episodes among the minions of Allen Hall.

I saw Jack going smokey-smokey. I read a web page that talked about things you should not do in an online Journal, one was to refer to people by name unless you knew it was okay. I don't think this counts. I'm a bad bad man.

Bjork the other white meat

1998-10-03T00:00:00-07:00

I'm listening to Bjork's Hyperballad (Brodsky Quartet). I like the song very much. A long time ago I imagined having a huge office and a bunch of musicians that would play for me when I asked them to do so. I'd have them play this song a lot. As far as the non Quartet pieces go, I'd have my spies capture a cellular sample from Bjork and quickly generate a duplicate that has all of Bjork's memories with a slight adjustment making her loyal to me (otherwise she might choose to flee and become a real musician). I will at least try most of this.

Mr. Tambourine Man

1998-09-27T00:00:00-07:00

That song that I couldn't find the title of, (after Spy) I think is Mr. Tambourine Man. That's what I thought he was singing when he said "Jingle Jangle." Adam sent me the lyrics to verify my findings. It is by Bob Dylan (not William Shattner:))

They Might Be Giants over Urbana

1998-09-26T00:00:00-07:00

To sum it up, the concert ruled. I walked to Foellinger Auditorium with a group of Allen Hall residents who were going as well at about 7:30. I didn't buy anything, so I sat down. Third row from the stage on the right (facing stage). It was too near the speaker, but my ears acclimated to the loud sound during the opening act, Michael Shelley. He and the band he had was okay. It's that alternative filler music you hear on the radio. He was funny so that was nice.

They Might Be Giants finally came on stage at about 9:15 PM. They played Dr. Worm, New York City, Particle Man (with Kumbaya towards the end), Mammal, She's Actual Size, Twisting, "The Famous Polka" played once at normal speed, then sped up, Battle for the Planet of the Apes (I was a person, and yes... People did win), Spy, some song that I don't know the name of (one of the lines was "hey mister please play a song with the jingle jangle"), Lie Still Little Bottle, Birdhouse in Your Soul, The Guitar and the Conga. I followed the Conga, but didn't really Conga. The problem was, is when I tried to get back to my seat, I couldn't because the people in charge were telling everyone to go to their real seats, unfortunately mine was a third row seat. I managed to get back, they played Ana Ng and Pet Name while I struggled. They followed that with Spiraling Shape, Shoehorn with Teeth (which is neat live), She's an Angel (everybody loved this). They shot confetti out of a cannon for James K. Polk. This was about the time I was thinking that the next song would be Why Does the Sun Shine and it would be the last. Well it was, kinda. We demanded encore (like in every concert) and they came back (like in every concert) to do two more songs, Istanbul and Dr. Worm again (with a little bit of "The Boys are Back in Town" thrown in).

The show was great, and I suggest all of you to see it. Here are tourdates for places where I know people:

9/28/98	Madison, WI	Barrymore Theater
9/29/98	Minneapolis, MN	First Avenue
10/2/98	Chicago, IL	Vic Theater
10/3/98	Chicago, IL	Vic Theater
10/7/98	Cleveland, OH	The Odeon Concert Club
10/8/98	Pittsburgh, PA	Metropol
10/13/98	Philadelphia, PA	Theatre of the Living Arts
10/15/98	New York, NY	Bowery Ballroom
10/16/98	New York, NY	Bowery Ballroom
10/17/98	New York, NY	Bowery Ballroom

Other venues are here.

Now I will try to regain my hearing.

Come and gone...

1998-09-13T00:00:00-07:00

This Thursday I had the pleasure of having Dan, Amy and Molly stop by for the rest of the week. We had a great time. We mostly hung out. Yesterday we went to Chicago to hang out with my friend Sunita, visit the Sears Tower and eat pizza at Lou Malnati's.

They left. I think I will miss them, because despite the heat level in my room, they added something here that was nice. However, right now I don't feel that loss. I believe I am still in the same mode of not feeling loss, becuase it is interfering. I think if I had nothing to do today I would feel very sad. I however have lots to do, I have to clean this mess-of-a-room for one thing. I have an assortment of documents to organize. I have several homework assignments to begin or at least preview. By keeping myself busy I don't feel lonely. Except now I have two bottles of Frapaccino's that Molly was supposed to take with her that will linger there for a while. Perhaps late at night when it gets hot I will try to finish them.

My brother and sister-in-law bought a Saab recently. Dan Lavenda and I can hardly wait to see it. My brother is going to make an effort to visit me either this month or next, which will be nice. Well I am off to cleaning my room.

Which reminds me I got a few gifts for my brithday. My mom and dad bought me a real nice Columbia Jacket and nice gloves (which are a tad too small) and I think my mom got me some Toblerone from her trip to India. Molly got a plant for me. Her parents got me some hot cocoa that they had sitting around and Molly gave me two of her brother's CDs (one of which I already have). Katie sent me a beanbag which is on loan, which I think is a great thing because I was complaining to my mom and Molly how I wanted a bean bag or something becuase I like to sit somewhere else other than my bed or my chair to read. Marc got me HUGBEES! Thanks again everybody.

Oh yeah, on Thursday I bought my ticket for They Might Be Giants. I am sitting in Section three (of four) in Row C in seat 7. So it's a good seat:) Unfortunately I'm going Solo to it, but that's okay... Also I may be going to see Moxy Fruvous next month.

Labor Day Weekend

1998-09-08T00:00:00-07:00

My parents came on Sunday and I stayed at the Holiday Inn which is better than my dorm. It was nice, they came bringing many gifts (birthday). They left yesterday.

My brother sent with them a cool mat and a nice window fan. I'm happy.

Today I enrolled for the "They Might Be Giants" lottery. Basically I can buy my ticket sometime early on Thursday. It's wierd. I saw them last month... I want to find somebody to go with me, but I don't know people who like They Might Be Giants on campus. I may just do a solo thing. That'd be neat. By the way, the song that's been in my head this week is Ana Ng.

Oh yeah, today is the day that I decided to update my "friends" page. If you have a web page and it's not listed in the friends page, then send an email or ICQ me and I'll add it.

Brimful of Asha...

1998-08-27T00:00:00-07:00

I talked to her again... luckily we are so techno-savvy that we will find a way not to spend nearly as much money as Dan and Amy do on long distance.

Brimful of Asha is a great song. I think I like it a lot just because the one guy from the band is from India, and thus there are a ton of Indian references.

Today Heather, Brian and I went on a Hot Air Balloon ride. It was mostly going up ten feet and coming down. It wasn't all that great.

Day 18 No Molly

1998-08-14T00:00:00-07:00

ZDTV is the ultimate TV channel.

Today (or maybe yesterday) they featured the They Might Be Giants web site. They even played the Broom video.

On todays show they will apparently have Afrosquad's site featured.

Looks like I may not take the Japanese test this Thursday. I hate the Japanese teachers because they don't understand anything. I want to take Japanese, but not as a major, and that doesn't seem to click for them. Sure I've only communicated with one sensei, but making an over-generalization is easier than talking to all the Japanese teachers.

It also appears I can get to my hall on the day I need to be there.

Space Ghost from Coast to Coast is this rehashed cartoon from the 60s that is doing a talk-show. It's mildly funny. Last week I enjoyed it quite a bit. Today they did this cool thing where the first show ended with John Hensen from Talk Soup. So basically they had the first half of the show appear to be just a clip from Talk Soup. Which was amusing. Talk Soup is a comical TV show from E! that satirizes Talk Shows (night and day).

Day 14 No Molly

1998-08-10T00:00:00-07:00

I saw Pi. It was okay. I liked the music for it a lot and may buy the 5 song soundtrack (I have one of the songs already). I with the story. Mainly because it was this guy who was insane who was trying to find some magic code with his magic computer. The movie really felt amateur. I mean not just an independant movie, but it didn't seem like a good one either. It was interesting though. That made up for the movie, I guess.

No Molly Day 6

1998-08-02T00:00:00-07:00

Today I missed her.

I read a lot of Dune. I like it a lot. Today I cleaned my room further. In the early AM I was working heavily on the new site. I hope to get around to adding everything by the end of this week. I almost helped this girl get a notebook, but actually just tricked her to going to Best Buy when it was closed.

Today I went to the They Might Be Giants concert which was at the Hops festival. It was very very cool. I missed Molly. Perhaps it's because I love going to concerts with her (even though I've done so only twice). We just always have fun. This would have been especially better because we got to listen to someone for free. I am, however, home now, so I don't mind as much. We got very wet. They played a lot of songs, including new ones. I was somewhat hoping for them to play She's an Angel. No such luck.

No Molly Day 5

1998-08-02T00:00:00-07:00

Today (or well yesterday) I went to Best Buy with Adam and Marc. I bought volumes one and two of the Wedding Singer soundtrack. It is very very good! It's also infinitely easier than finding the MP3s for the songs.

Marc and I watched Conspiracy Theory It was an okay movie. It was pretty interesting. It featured Mel Gibson and Patrick Stewart. If you have HBO, it's worth catching.

Tomorrow I guess the plan is to stalk the band They Might be Giants at the First Annual Hops Festival. We'll attempt to listen to them for free by not going to the actual festival, but by being right outside it. This way Marc won't booze-up with a festival full of drinking buddies.

No Molly Day 3 & 4

1998-07-31T00:00:00-07:00

Yesterday and today I woke up at 9:46AM. I don't know why I wake up at that time, I just do. Yesterday I did nothing useful. Well I actually mailed the last of my thank you notes. I read Dune a lot too. Suzy stopped by and gave me a CD. This is what I call human contact. I think it was neat. She showed me some shirts for her parent's company.

Today I recieved a 9.1 GB Hard Drive as mentioned earlier. I have nothing but good news to report about it. This is the first time I've ever had to install a hard drive and I am very glad I decided to get a SCSI drive because they are easier than Jell-o to install. I was going to read the online installation guide at Seagate's web site, but it was far easier to just "wing" it. Finding a home inside my computer was kinda neat. I found a nice place under my floppy. It actually took a while to figure out how it would house my drive. There is this little cradle that unscrews from under my floppy drive. It attatches onto the new hard drive by sticking two little prongs into holes on one side of the drive while on the other side of the drive, you fasten it with a screw. I was short on computer screws so this one screw mounting was pretty handy. Then the cradle slides back into the spot under the floppy drive and you screw it tight and wallah, you are back in business. Unfortunately they didn't give me jumper-dealies so I had to steal one from a network card I had lying around in order to set the SCSI ID to 1. Then I played around and attempted to not cut the pricy SCSI cable. I succeeded and I plugged in the drive. I booted, the drive registered to the controller BIOS, and then NT started. Opened up the disk administrator and played around with it and after ten minutes or so, I had a nice new NTFS partition on the new drive. Well I copied my 2GBs of MP3s to the drive and it took under 25 minutes. I think that is satisfactory.

Today some people are going to see Shakespeare with me. I think that shall be pretty fun. It's at Lake Harriet Bandshell. I love that place.

TV update

1998-07-30T00:00:00-07:00

I stumbled on this cool ad on television. It was from Volkswagon. What made it cool was they were playing Little Fluffy Clouds from The Orb and they had it synched in such a way that the car colors changed with each beat of the song. Once again VW has put neat music to their ads.

On another note, look at this and then look at this. Or maybe look at them the other way around. Now is it just me or do some of the Apple advertisements have the same tone as the Chick Tracts?

Canoeing

1998-07-18T00:00:00-07:00

The group of kids we have for SEI II are great. They are all smart and in class they are well behaved. The girls get obnoxious during break time. Actually not all the girls. One girl is really cool and lots of people mistake her as a TA (unless they mistake Molly and I as students). She's into nanotechnology, genetics, quantum physics. Very cool kid. We'll certainly miss these kids. Marc's kids aren't that great.

Thursday we went to an orchestra concert at Orchestra Hall. We took my cousin with us too, it was pretty neat. The concert had two good pieces at the beginning. The rest I didn't like because it was all opera-like. Adam, Molly, my cousin and I later went shopping at Rainbow. Molly went home and Adam, my cousin and I had icecream sandwhiches (Kempswich).

I talked to my cousin for a while. I won't see her for at least three years since she'll be in Germany with her family. It's wierd. I think she's looking forward to it.

Friday (yesterday) at the Northrup Turnaround where we pick up our kids there were huge trucks and busses. It was of course Tori Amos and her stuff. We didn't see her, but we did see her stuff. Marc and I asked around the trucks whose stuff was whose and well we were pretty much right. I offered my kids $20 if they could bring Tori Amos to class. They failed, but I don't blame them.

Later that day Molly and I ate with Raj, Kelly and Adam. Then Molly and I went to DanAmy and we went to see the Wedding Singer. The second time around made me "get" everything. Everything made sense now that I remembered it was the eighties that the story takes place. Once again. I recommend this "Romantic Comedy." It is funnier than hell.

Today I woke up at 5, left home at about 6 and went canoeing after Paul Heinecke (and another boat went after Laureen Ojalvo) while they swam 5 miles in Lake Minnetonka. Paul didn't make it all the way. Laureen of course did, she got second place for her age group. I think she rules! Paul almost made it, but for a person who had very little sleep, did a lot of work the day before, and has not swum in supposedly 17 months... wow... that was awesome. I realize that I may enjoy canoeing when there is less weight and people on the boat. Less chance of things going bad I guess. It was nice after I finished canoeing. This was my second time going. I went before with school that was cool too. I think I should go again except with fewer people in the boat (four gets crowded).

Went to Tanya Zhu's house for her Graduation Party. Most of the people were tired from canoeing or swimming or Smashing Pumpkins the night before or a mix. Now I'm tired.