Category Archives: Blaaawg

Alexander Hamilton

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So thanks, Brenna for getting that ear-worm of a musical stuck in my brain. Enough that I start to write to get things unstuck our of my brain, and interested enough about the guy on the ten dollar bill to read his biography.

Interesting chap, things I never knew. As the song goes, “how does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore…” those people usually don’t get a head in life, let alone be featured on currency.

Reading the source material for part of the musical has been somewhat fascinating. Usually I’m more for fiction and imagination than reading a fact based biography. But Hamilton is a fascinating fellow.

He really was non-stop. He had a set of principles that he lived by, and also broke. He was probably a man of faith, but not always a church-goer. His younger years were troubled by just surviving, then he became and aide-de-camp to General Washington. Still ambitious enough to walk away from that (in part where the musical sways away from the facts) because he was frustrated in not getting a command. Still became a war hero at the battle of Yorktown.

I’m still at the start of where his life goes in the politics of the new nation, and I’m sure that will be fascinating too, to see him go toe-to-toe with Jefferson and Madison, let along Aaron Burr.

The musical has lyrics that activate my brain more than other catchy ear-wormy songs. The way the types of music are blended, from rap to jazz to plain old ballads and show-tunes.

Anyway, I have more to share, more to write, I can’t write a novel for NaNoWriMo, but I can make the commitment to blog each day. I think it is a healthy habit to get things out of my brain, and into words. So stand by, who knows where my brain will go.

Sometimes I do eat – Food Porn and I’ve lost almost 40 pounds

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imageThe nanny-like Center for Science in the Public Interest has disclosed this years Xtreme Eating 2010 list.  This year they’ve aimed there laser-like sensationalistic dietary probes at the following fine dining institues:

  • Five Guys Burger and Fries
  • Cheesecake Factory
  • California Pizza Factory
  • P. F. Chang’s
  • Outback Steakhouse
  • Chevy’s Tex Mex
  • Bob Evan’s

With the surprising shocker that these houses of hash have menu items that are full of calorie laden entrees.  I’m shocked, shocked… actually, I’m not… and really, CSPI you are a bunch of amateur hacks! Have you never seen an episode of Man versus Food, or Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?  Them there shows can really show you how to stack on the calories!

Now, if you haven’t been paying attention, I’ve been on a weight-loss journey for the past 8 months (and probably for another 8 months, and possibly even beyond that!) and while staying within my calorie goals have managed to dine rather successfully at the aforementioned eating establishments (and others too!).

Five Guys isn’t too bad, hold the cheese, share the small fries with my son, and I’m out the door with about 900 calories (not to say that pre-diet I would scarf down 2000 calories with hardly batting an eye).  Logging my calories has opened my eyes to what I used to eat, and I’m much happier keeping within the boundaries of my calorie counting way.

I will say I don’t like eating at Cheesecake Factory because they don’t publish nutritional information either on their website, or in their menus.  To earn my business, restaurants should provide nutritional information in an easy to understand manner.  The Lose It! application has a good selection of Restaurants that do provide their menus nutritional information publically.  Which Five Guys Burgers and Fries does, even though they top the list of the CSPI’s bad boy’s of food, I’m not thinking a lot of people go to Five Guys for their lighter fare.  It’s a hamburger joint for cripes sake. 

The key, in my journey, is to know what I’m going to eat, and even plan my restaurant visit before I get there, knowing that I might eat a lighter lunch, or add a few more minutes at the gym to keep on track.  And sometimes, the more rare the better, it’s okay to let loose and get a belt-buster, and then get back on track the next day.  No guilt, steady progress, keep moving.

Not necessarily Tom Sawyer’s Island…

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There he goes again, blogging about the *sing-song* LOST Disney Attraction Petition. 🙂

Well when you get a reference from OC Weekly, Yahoo! Buzz, Perez Hilton and the Orange County Register, taking a cue from The Other McCain, you milk it for all it’s worth.  This blogging business is a rough and tumble world, and the only thing you can really do to generate traffic is to.. well, blog. 

So this is in response to Disney-O-Rama’s post: Should Tom Sawyer Island Be Turned Into LOST Island

Apparently a group of hardcore fans of the ABC show “Lost” have started a petition to persuade Disney to create a “Lost” island at Disneyland. The “Lost” attraction would replace “Tom Sawyer Island”, which is seen as being outdated, even with its newly created tie-in to “Pirates of the Caribbean” film series.

While I consider myself to be a hardcore fan of “Lost” as well, this is a bad idea in so many ways.

First, thanks for your support and linking to the petition, next time, try reading it, I’ll help you out, the short preamble says:

LOST is one of the best television series to ever be broadcast on television. Disney should give this awesome show it’s[sic] due and create a LOST Island attraction at one of it’s Disney theme parks. Just think of the locations that can be immortalized in a Disney location.

While it does say Island, it is not specific to Tom Sawyer Island.  It’s more a reference to the location that LOST is centered on “LOST Island”.  The petition isn’t trying to define where in the Magic Kingdom it should be placed, but that the idea be considered by the powers that be to include some LOST themed something.  Heck, most LOST fans would probably be thrilled at a Dharma snack bar, selling Dharma branded concessions.  Executive Producer Carlton Cuse thinks an E-Ticket ride is a better idea.

You may think turning Tom Sawyer Island into LOST island is a bad idea, and many agree with you, but that doesn’t discount the concept of a LOST attraction. I admit that my first impression was centered around using Tom Sawyer Island, and Damon Lindelof tweeted about putting a Polar Bear on the island, so I don’t think it’s a terrible idea.

I haven’t been to Disneyland in 15 years (give or take 9 months), so I’m not up to date on the layout of the park or changes that have been made.  My memories of going to Disneyland in my youth (30+ years ago) have very fond memories of exploring Tom Sawyer Island, hiking along the trails, going into caves, checking out the neat forts, pretending we had guns, and the sailing ship circling the island.  As a “hard core” LOST fan, all of those elements that I remember of the attraction of Tom Sawyer Island, are repeated concepts in the mystery of LOST island, and recurring themes in the plots of the show. 

Do kids need to know all the deep mysteries of LOST to have fun on an LOST themed island.  Just as kids don’t have to wade through or even be familiar with Mark Twain’s character to enjoy the current rendition of the Island.  My two boys (7 and 10) would LOVE it, maybe their friends down the street might be clueless about the theme, but they’d probably love the imaginary games they could play exploring the island.

Adults would come to the attraction, but that’s one of the things that Disney does extremely well, is create experiences where generations can share their enjoyment.  Examples: Every Pixar film made.  When Disney gets off it’s game and starts shooting solely at a younger generation, well I have two words for you: Miley Cyrus. (that’s a joke, Hoss).

I’m glad you do agree with the concept of the petition (I’ve shown it’s not TSI specific) and agree with the points you make here:

Don’t get me wrong – I think the idea of a “Lost” style attraction where fans can physically experience what they have watched for 5 plus seasons now is a great idea. I just don’t believe that Tom Sawyer Island should be sacrificed in the process.

If the Disney powers-that-be take this petition seriously, maybe more suitable locations would be “Disney’s Animal Kingdom” in Orlando or possibly the new Disney resort that is being developed in Kapolei, Hawaii.

The Hawaiian location would be a supreme location for such an attraction, so I do hope you’ve signed the petition.

Thanks for taking the time to form a well thought out response to a self-admittedly kinda silly idea.  Your post is proof that the silly ideas (like a theme park in Anaheim of all places) can generate some real ideas, and some awesome fun.

Blog Pimping…

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Looking at my Google Analytics blogging stats. Some observations:

  • I get more traffic blog-baiting DocJensen than starting a LOST Disney petition.
  • Hardly any of the blogs/articles about the petition, have driven traffic to this blog.
  • Twitter is a good way to bring people in to read your blog, but not necessarily to comment.
  • It’s probably because my followers just tweet me back. 🙂 which I LOVE.
  • it does look like the ‘lost disney petition’ might finally overwhelm such favorite google searches as:

And finally, it appears that the person that most reads my blog, is … probably me *facepalm*

Blog Redesign…

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I know what you are thinking… what blog.  Well I want to state for the record, my blog and I WERE ON A BREAK.  That thing with Facebook, was just a thing.  I’ll blog again, promise. *ahem*

Anyways, it was time to streamline my blog, and get it working for all the millions of iPhone users that could visit my humble web home.  So I installed the WPtouch plugin, and stripped down the the theme to match it somewhat, and viola, a ready platform to fill with my blather. Woo!

This will be a bit like looking in the mirror at the barber shop, but to show my non-iPhone readers what they are missing, let me display the following screen capture.

dablog via iphone

dablog via iphone

Summing up

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I want to start something new that will hopefully use this blog other than a sucking black-hole of dullness.  But first I’ll quickly summarize what’s happened since the way-to-big tv was bought.

  • It was TOO big.  Conventional wisdom is get the biggest TV in your budget, that is bunk, it should be get the biggest TV that won’t overpower your room and doesn’t make it seem like a big dark cave with a glowing window to other worlds.  Not to say I didn’t LOVE the escapism quality, but this is the living room not a media room.  We needed balance, so we took it back and got a reasonable 46″ LCD and it fits into the room much better.
  • Kids arrived safely from camps, over nighters, and other activities.
  • We didn’t swim as much this summer, a bit longer of a drive, and a longer available season (instead of the Texas pool only open during summer hours season) made it less of a priority.  But we’ll be swimming more during the fall and winter when our pool is still open.
  • School shopping was abbreviated, and we’ll continue with clothes shopping as the budget allows instead of a huge suck from our wallet.
  • All the kids are in school, can you say HALLY-LOO-JA!
  • Co-ed Softball for Angie an I start tomorrow.  I’m still considering whether a season ending injury the first game is a good or a bad thing.

And that pretty much sums up the last month of Summer.  So have fun with that.

Groovy

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You Are Greg Brady
Outta sight! Suave and all American, you tend to be clean cut and upstanding.
You’re friendly with most people and a huge flirt (sometimes even with family members!).

because all the cool kids are doing it.

inside my crazed mind…

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So I was having lunch with a friend yesterday, and as I was driving back to work I saw this sign that said:

GIANT BOOK SALE

I thought to myself, how discriminatory, a book sale only for giants, what normal sized people aren’t allowed?

then…  Oh, maybe its a sale on gigantic books, the bigger the book the better, for oversized bookshelves only.

Did I invite you to my wife’s Super Bowl Party?

I hate tag…

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But darn it, I got tagged, so I must play… besides its a post (yeah, I know thin gruel.. deal.)

  1. What time is it? 8:42
  2. What’s your full name? Jon Richard Stueve
  3. What are you most afraid of? fear is a weakness, you must snuff it out wherever you find it. oh look a mouse !!!! EEEEKKK!
  4. What is the most recent movie that you have seen in a theater? Article 6
  5. Place of birth? Portland, Or
  6. Favorite food? yes.
  7. What’s your natural hair color? what ever appears from my scalp, it varies, I’m weird.
  8. Ever been to Alaska? yes.
  9. Ever been toilet paper rolling? I unroll paper, rolling it seems unsanitary.
  10. Love someone so much it made you cry? yes.
  11. Been in a car accident? yes, once by my hand, no other cars involved, sometimes I trip over my own feet too, satisfied?
  12. Croutons or bacon bits? croutons.
  13. Favorite day of the week? none of the above
  14. Favorite restaurant(s)? yes.
  15. Favorite Flower? flowers have no purpose, see Will’s speech in ‘A Knight’s Tale’
  16. Favorite sport to watch? yes.
  17. Favorite drink? liquid.
  18. Favorite ice cream? yes.
  19. Disney or Warner Brothers? The Rat.
  20. Ever been on a ship? yes
  21. What color is your bedroom carpet? mottled.
  22. How many times did you fail your driver’s test? I don’t fail tests…
  23. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? this didn’t come by email… MAN
  24. What do you do when you are bored? Whatever I want to do – GOSH!
  25. Bedtime? often.
  26. Who will respond to this post the quickest? most likely a spambot.
  27. Who is the person you sent this to that least likely will respond? a real live reader of my blog.
  28. Who is the person that you are most curious to see their responses? Curiousity is a weakness, see #3.
  29. Favorite TV show? yes (Lost, Chuck, The Office… and the list goes on)
  30. Last person you went to dinner with? My fam, plus Dad.
  31. What are you doing right now besides being on the computer? Being a DORK! GOSH!
  32. What are your favorite colors? Blue
  33. How many tattoos do you have? None (needles, yeah right, the doctor’s aid is lucky to survive…)
  34. How many pets do you have? none, well four if you count my kids..
  35. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? chicken, though the actual form my have been egg like.
  36. What do you want to do before you die? one more Quiz… well at LEAST one.
  37. Have you ever been to Hawaii? yes. all the islands except Lanai
  38. Have you been to countries outside the U.S.? yes.
  39. How many people are you sending this e-mail to? none, see #23 GOSH!
  40. Time this survey ended? 8:50