A Shout Out to H.L. Mencken

 "One of the most irrational of all the conventions of modern society is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected....That they should have this immunity is an outrage. There is nothing in religious ideas, as a class, to lift them above other ideas. On the contrary, they are always dubious and often quite silly." 

H. L. Mencken

Dude lived in Baltimore and admired Friedrich Nietzsche.

I've never lived in Baltimore (yet?) and I admire B.F. Nietsche.

Dude knew Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Dreiser.

I met Jonathan Kozol ["All the money spent for public education in America ought to come from federal taxes that are equitably distributed with adjustments only for greater or lesser costs of living in various sections of the nation and the greater educational needs of certain children."]-- yes, that Jonathan Kozol-- in Boston in January 1978.  It was after a Marshall Tucker concert.  I found his number in the phone book and he answered.  This led to him picking me up at the Little Copley and taking me to his brownstone where we spent several hours engaged in deep conversation.  This meeting was after he'd been to Cuba.  He showed me a poster from Cuba which authorities had allowed him to bring back to the United States after he explained that he needed "it to understand the Cuban people."

Dude loved Huck Finn and so did I, albeit I suspect for different reasons.

Dude wrote under various pseudonyms and so do I.

Dude's pseudonyms were never spoken of as "sock puppets" and mine certainly have been accused of being trollish in purpose.  [I neither embrace nor deny my inner troll nature in this post.]

Dude had a chemistry set at home when he was a boy.

My dad gave me one of them for Christmas one year but my mother decided that it was dangerous and threw it out.  [To my mother, almost all Christmas presents from my dad must have been somehow "dangerous" because she threw out almost all of them].

Dude like photography as a kid.

I got to know and love my cheap digital camera as an adult.

Dude was a famous writer.

I am a non-famous blogger.

Dude is one of the people I would love to have coffee with, along with Oliver Sachs [#1, sorry H.L., I hope you don't mind being #2], and Martin Millar and my paternal grandmother.

So, H.L. Mencken, here's my shout out to you.  I'm sorry that you still aren't around but I'm glad that you lived.  Thank you for being you!

sapphoq itching for a coffee

A Bit of Knowledge Misinterpreted Yields Phun

In breaking news today, words have power.  So much power that our national insecurity depends on what you write about on social media.  Want to show off your pictures of your recent trip to San Diego?  Or perhaps your memories of the phone phreaks you have known and loved?  Or complain about gas prices or the pork you ate in a restaurant last night?  You still can, but you run the risk of having an agent from the Department of Homeland Security notice.  You will generate some work for them in the form of typing a memo perhaps, although your personal identifying information may be removed [/snark] in the interest of your ahem privacy rights and concerns.  If anything bad happens to you as a result of exercising your diminishing freedom to self-express, it's your own fault because you have been given this warning.

Even Columbian coffee won't fix this,

     radical sapphoq

http://epic.org/foia/epic-v-dhs-media-monitoring/Analyst-Desktop-Binder-REDACTED.pdf

Now that I've Lost the Weight

I took the picture with my digital camera and I tubed it.  So go away copyright police.

I lost 63 pounds and have kept it off for fourteen months. My issues with achieving a healthy diet and proper exercise are ongoing. Some of the specific challenges that I face include ice cream and candy, readily available snack foods, not drinking enough water, salt retention, and cold weather. I can sum those things up in two words. Those words are LAZINESS and IMPULSE.



I will take a pause here and tell you that I am not a fan of the "attaboy/girl" school of getting things done. I have found that having cheerleaders who burst out in hosannas for every bit of progress and non-progress really doesn't help. The issue here is self-esteem, not other-esteem. I have to be my own cheerleader and my own honest critic. The feel-good generation created failure and victimhood. It didn't work well with kids and it certainly doesn't work with adults. The bottom line is results. A pat on the head or hand and a "poor you" is demeaning, patronizing, and stifles the struggle to change. If something is worth having, it is worth working for.



When I determined that I wanted to lose my excess poundage, this was a decision that I had to make. Once I truly made the decision, there were actions that followed. I found a support group to go to weekly. I went to the family doctor and discussed a healthy weight goal. I read about nutrition and weight loss. I cleaned out the refrigerator. I put on my walking shoes and hooked up the dog.



Here are some things that I've taught myself to do that are now a matter of routine for me: When I want ice cream or candy, I think about it before getting it; I don't keep ice cream or candy in my house; I don't add salt to any food on my plate; I rarely eat cold cuts; I eat half as much as I think I ought to and exercise at least twice as much as I want to; I remind myself that nothing tastes as good as a healthy weight feels. There is one thing that I don't do. I don't count calories. Instead, I use a plate guestimate. On an average sized plate, one quarter is for meat or protein, one quarter is for starch, and one half for fruits/veggies. I allow myself one serving of fat per meal (it's needed for digestion) and I endeavor to eat two low-fat yogurts a day. (I am lactose intolerant but I can eat yogurt). I weight myself once a week and adjust my eating accordingly. I strive to stay within five pounds of my target weight, although I have strayed within eight pounds.



Within the past year, I have had specific measurable results. My good cholesterol went up, my bad cholesterol went down, my triglicerides went down. I no longer have sleep apnea and no longer sleep with a c-pap machine (in consultation with my ear, nose, and throat specialist). I lost nine inches from my chest, ten from my waist, and ten from my hips.



Other things that are not quantifiable have also occured in the past year. I donated all of my fat clothes. I am able to slowly jog for longer periods of time in the woods. It is easier for me to negotiate my way over and around fallen trees and other obstacles. And the dog, who now goes for longer and more challenging walks with me, has lost weight too.

Dad Shoots Daughter's Laptop and I Do Understand Why

This is the vid that went viral on YouTube.  A parent fired nine bullets into his daughter's laptop because she had ranted on FaceBook [FB] to her friends about having to do daily chores with lots of cursewords.  Dad had spent 130 dollars on new software for her and updated her laptop for six hours and then found her FB curse-laden rant.  Daughter also had blocked parents-- and church friends but not the family dog-- from reading that particular post.  [N.B. I read that bit about the blocking of church friends and the family dog somewhere but I couldn't find it again].

here is the direct link to the vid in case the embedded one here is not working for you:
http://youtu.be/kl1ujzRidmU

sapphoq says: There are things that even a fresh pot of coffee won't fix and this may be one of them.  Dad had said he wasn't able to get her attention with the less extreme method of grounding her for three months last time she did something dumb on FB.  I salute him for getting through to her in possibly the only way that would have worked under the circumstances. 
                        My parents both worked full time when I was younger.  By sixth grade, I was doing all of the grocery shopping for the week and trotting a week's worth of clothing down to the laundrymat.  On top of that, I dried the dishes every night, made my bed every morning, and vacuumed and dusted on Saturdays.  I went to bed at 9p.m. right on up through the end of high school.
                        So yeah, kids need discipline.  That's part of what being a parent is about.  To the family, I wish you the very best.  Dad, I know you will stick to your guns.  Daughter, I read you've been offered a job in a local ice cream parlor or cafe or something.  I think that is a great and I hope you will say yes to that job.
                        With that, I'm out.

http://www.facebook.com/tommyjordaniii/posts/299559803434210

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-dad-puts-bullet-in-teens-laptop-20120210,0,7989379.story

http://www.gopusa.com/theloft/2012/02/11/daughter-rants-on-facebook-dad-shoots-laptop/

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/670011--angry-dad-who-shot-daughter-s-laptop-on-youtube-stands-by-public-punishment

http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2012/02/10/dad-who-shoots-his-daughters-laptop-speaks-out-and-responds/

http://www.wbtv.com/story/16907290/dad-shoots-daughters-laptop-after-seeing-facebook-posts-about-parents

Oh Noes, Not That

The latest tag I made using friend's willing kitty.  It is copyleft so all you anti-copy nazies can just go away now.


sapphoq