In which I look at my data.
One of the interesting things about using software to count calories is that it does all sorts of interesting math. Behold, my intake from last week:
Of course there are many other things to track, like sugar and iron and fiber and so on, but it is interesting to note I’m always under what (they think) I should have for protein and over on sodium. I mean, WAY over on sodium, holy shit way over.
I don’t worry about the protein. From what I understand, your body has to make it out of amino acids anyway regardless of what you eat, and I get tons of those grazing on fresh veggies the way I do, not to mention that overconsumption of protein has been linked with ass cancer. So. Moving on.
The sodium intake is interesting, though. It’s freaking EVERYWHERE, all processed foods are packed with it, and if you’ve ever read the label on a can of tomatoes (or tomato juice) it’s just shy of astonishing.
All those high-fat days are ones where I ate something nuked. (I work a full-time job, so I eat a lot of TV dinner-type crap.)
Anyway, long story short: being an American and eating well are pretty much mutually exclusive. Even if you try to do it, odds are you’ll fail. Isn’t it fun living in a rich country?
Note: While my fat intake is probably high, it’s not as high as it looks. This is because when I enter things into the software, I often approximate: I might have had homemade potato soup, but I choose a commercially-prepared item which generally has more fat since most of it isn’t actually vegetarian.
In which I remind you to protect your data!
A co-worker just told me a story: While sitting in a restaurant with his wife over the weekend, his car was broken into. The thief got, among other things, his wife’s laptop, and on that laptop was a spreadsheet – unencrypted – containing their full names, SSNs, dates of birth, credit card numbers, the codes and online logins for all their credit cards, and all their account information. Their kids’ information – full names, SSNs, DOBs – was also included.
They drove like bats out of hell to a nearby rest stop, got on wi-fi with his laptop, and canceled all their accounts. But everything the thief would need to perform full-on identity theft for four people was in that spreadsheet.
The moral is this: don’t keep mission critical crap in unencrypted format on a portable machine! And if you must use a password database (which you should, since all of your online accounts should have different passwords), use an encrypted application and protect access to it with a very strong password — one with capped and lower-case alpha characters and numbers and special characters.
On the same co-worker’s advice, I use KeePass for all my secure information, and I keep it on a thumb drive. Once in a great while I print a hard copy and file it, but I don’t keep the info on my laptop.
Be safe, my babies. Because you really don’t want to spend an entire weekend – or two, or more – closing accounts, buying SSN protection, and then being financially crippled until your new checks and credit cards arrive.
In which I accumulate.
Yesterday, my tax refund was deposited into my account. (I put basically all of it into savings ’cause I’ll need it to see Amma in Seattle at the end of next month.) Yay!
Today my PO box contained my new MOO cards! I love MOO cards. So cute. You should get some. And trade with me!
I’ve been starving for a week, just hungry all the time. This morning I took an Emergen-C with my breakfast and am not dying of hunger. Lack of B vitamins, perhaps? I bought myself two boxes and will continue supplementing for awhile longer.
In other news, I’m freakin’ stuck at Free Rice again. (Thanks, KJ. Sheesh. You had to bring it up, did you?)
In which there are both aliens and my ass in the same entry, but I totally wasn’t abducted or anything.
SETI@home sent me a lovely email today reminding me that I’ve been a member since 1999 (!!!)… and that I haven’t returned a work unit in 153 days. The last unit I returned was from my work machine, but my employer made me remove BOINC about a week after I installed it – the bastards – and I just never got around to installing it on my laptop.
Until now! Let the data crunching begin!
New topic. Ready for the segue? Too bad, ’cause there isn’t one! Dieting is, in its fifth week, suddenly getting difficult. My caloric intake has been inching up steadily for the past week, and now I’m closer to 1500 calories – on a typical day – than 1200. I’ve just been hungry lately. (It’s probably the damned curse messing with my hormones.) I seem to have my hideous water retention problem under control though; restricting calories and exercising (well, a little) has the unintended benefit of reducing my overall sodium intake and keeping me from bloating up like a waterlogged corpse.
After losing 8 pounds right off the bat my weight has remained the same for the past two weekly weigh-ins, but I’m still losing inches: there’s just no reason for someone of my height to be walking around with 40″ hips, just none at all, and I’m safely back into the 30’s now and boy does my ass look better. Yay! (Note: If you know me IRL and tell me I don’t need to lose any weight, I’ll smack you, swear to God, right in your face.) (I mean, the whole weight-loss process and the necessity of it just irritates me, but one does what one must.) Long story short, both my dog and myself should be utterly svelte by late summer.
Speaking of summer (ta-dah! a segue!), I’ve got gigs coming up all over the place. (RB is a gig-booking fiend, especially considering that the band he’s booking has never done a show before and is therefore entirely imaginary thus far.) What I don’t have is gig clothes. I have got to go shopping, but I keep giving my money to dentists and veterinarians instead. Maybe I’ll get Becca to use some of her second-hand store fu to help me find a few cool pieces of clothing, before I start showing up to paying gigs in my fucking pajamas. Or maybe I can just get a t-shirt with an alien on it, and wear it to every single gig we ever do, and become known as “that singer with the one alien shirt she always wears.” A gimmick’s a gimmick, right?
In which I’m waiting for the results of the blood work.
Bindu has a heart murmur for which she may or may not need meds. She does not have ear mites, but she did get her ears cleaned. She’s obese – she weighs 36.1 pounds, up from 29.8 six months ago – and has to lose weight. She received a parvo/distemper shot. She may or may not have diabetes for which she may or may not need meds.
They said they’d call me Tuesday or Wednesday.
I spent $150 at the vet today.
I also watched a movie, failed to do laundry, showered, went to band practice, and may or may not have put a scratch in my grandmother’s car with a bush or fence or something while parking (I’m not sure if the scratch was there before or not).
Over all, despite the lack of real trauma, a fairly high-stress day for me. Going to bed early.
Hurumpfh.
In which my luncheon over at El Sombrero has left me overfull and sleepy.
Work: My employer publishes an online newsletter each month, and all the employees write little articles for it. I chose to write my article for May on blacklists. Did you know that during the last quarter of 2007, an estimated 95% of email traffic was spam? Ninety-five percent!
Someone’s paying for all that stolen bandwidth, and I bet they’re pissed.
Food: I just had a cheese & onion enchilada with rice and beans for lunch. So good. So high-calorie. So awesome.
That has nothing to do with anything, really… except maybe deliciousness.
Dog: Bindu’s appointment has been rescheduled for Monday. I wrote it down wrong and went yesterday morning but there was no vet available to see us. I hope she’s just old and fat, and not truly sick.
Band: I went to open mic last night, and outside in the beer garden had the obligatory “How much do you really care about this band?” discussion with the guitar player.
I’ve had this conversation with at least one member of every single solitary band I’ve ever been in. I’m not sure how my showing up at practice, sitting in at gigs, and being totally gung-ho in general causes other musicians to wonder if I’m committed or not. I’ve been playing for twenty years and never made a living at it, but I’m still doing it: does that fact not speak for itself?
He was nice enough about it, and I suppose considering how much work he does booking gigs he deserves to feel proprietary, but through no fault of his own I’ve just had that talk too many times and it bugged me. (I mean, would it be terribly bitchy to point out that despite the earnestness of The Talk, none of those other bands still exist?)
Books: I finished this last night. Brilliant, transcendent, gorgeous. I love Kay.
Movies: I’ve had a Netflix vid that I haven’t watched in a month. I think it’s three episodes of Doctor Who.
Weather: See this? ‘Nuff said.
In which my plans are quite suddenly changed.
Saturday night my entire band had a long practice. After, Curtis and I went out and Becca showed up. We met a wine writer from Seattle and hung out with her all night, even dragged her to after hours for a bit. I got drunk. Around three in the morning, Curtis and I finished up the curry and rice I had stashed in the fridge and he crashed in the front bedroom.
Sunday, the weather was GLORIOUS! Clear and breezy, and had to be at least seventy degrees out! We went to brunch at 26 brix (and let me tell you, the bloody mary was awesome) and then wandered aimlessly around town until Curtis had to go record with RB. We even stopped at the miniature airport and watched the enthusiasts fly their little planes around for awhile.
Monday, I did – among other tedious but necessary online things – my taxes. I’m getting a refund! (I was so poor last year that I actually qualified for EIC. Go me.) Apparently I’ll be getting $300 for my rebate, too, which is exiting because I’ll TOTALLY need it to see Amma this summer.
I was going to try to see Her in New York in July, but not only has the ticket for the dates I wanted doubled in price in the past 6 days, but it turns out that one of the other techs at work has already gotten those dates off for vacation – so there’s no way I’ll get them off, too.
Now I’m scrambling madly to get organized to see Mother in Seattle, since people are taking vacation days during all the other tour stops I’d like to go to (not only New York, but Fairfield and Chicago too). The Seattle programs are complex because there’s a day of public programs followed by a two-day retreat and then a public Devi Bhava. If I’m going at all, I either register for the retreat or I only see Mother for one day. Since it costs just about $200 to fly to Seattle I’d rather go for more than a single day… so now I need to sign up for a retreat with no on-site housing in a town where I know no Amma devotees. Gah!
(You know, I should have known this would happen. I contacted the Seattle satsang by email and am doing seva remotely – placing notices on various online boards about Mother’s visit – but of course it’s going to work out that I have to go meet the Seattle satsang properly, and probably work like crazy at the programs and the retreat too.)
In other news, Bindu’s going to the vet for blood work tomorrow. She’s gotten fat since we’ve been here (because grandmas are indulgent and feed dogs table scraps, and give them milk and lunch meat every single night before bed) and now she drinks and pees so much that I’m worried about diabetes. She’s exhibiting some other behavioral changes too, which is why I’m actually worried: she can’t walk the 12 blocks to work with me on Saturdays without a rest at the halfway point, and she seems sleepy and cuddly more than tired or overheated.
Send the good blue dog your non-diabetic thoughts, if you would, and I’ll let you know what we learn when the results come back.
In which I use Google as a spell-checker.
There are several words I have never bothered to learn to spell. When I want to use them, I type them into Google and then when it says, “Did you mean: amenable?” I copy the correct spelling and paste it into my email/blog post/trouble ticket.
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Instagram has become unusable crap, so please click the icon below to see my latest pics.
4 random books from my Library!
