Pollywogs!

I’ve been looking for some interesting material which will cause people to become curious about the Democrat candidates, and I think I’ve found it.

The Democratic take from top to bottom

“What’s rocking the boat? The Internet, mostly. Every day, it seems, the Web provides another way for average citizens to be active in the political process, instead of having the effects of politics trickle down to them…

As proof, Mr. Trippi points to the disparities between donations to the Clinton and Obama campaigns. Only 10 percent of Clinton contributors did not donate the legal maximum $2,300 for her primary campaign. In contrast, only three percent of Obama donors gave the maximum. The rest of the cash came from small sums from many more people.”

90% of Clinton contributions come from people so rich they can throw away $2,300 on a campaign contribution.

3% of Obama contributions come from people so rich they can throw away $2,300 on a campaign contribution.

Among the questions raised include “Who is the establishment candidate?” and “What do the rich know about Clinton that they lavish so much money upon her?”: Who do the elite and powerful think is going to best support their special interest?

If you’d like to see some of their records in congress, I suggest this highly educational (if a bit wordy) examination of the bills they’ve authored and/or sponsored (much more telling than their voting or co-sponsor records).

So things have changed a lot for me recently. In addition to the diet, I cut out a LOT of chemicals and products from my life. Instead of a veritable cocktail of chemicals, the only ‘wierd’ thing I currently use is “hair product”, and once it is used up I’m looking for something natural.

The main thing that changed was soap. Simple old soap. It is amazing how much shit can be in something as simple as soap. So, Kelley bought a lot of handmade soaps over Christmas for gifts and she kept a surprising pile for ourselves. I did some reading about how simple soap can be, and why regular soap (such as Ivory) can be drying. Apparently during the manufacture of normal soap they remove most of the glycerin out for other uses, or they just make a detergent/surfactant (which apparently is a much cheaper process). Why add moisture back in with all types of artificial chemicals when glycerin is an ideal moisturizer naturally occurring in real soap? I even use it for shaving, just like the originators of soap did in the Middle East over a thousand years ago. Anyway, I love the natural fragrances and how well it works. Instead of using a body soap, a face soap, and shampoo and conditioner, I just use all natural soap. If you’d shudder to think of paying ‘an arm and a leg’ for ‘fancy natural soap’, Kirk’s Castile soap is a very good, much less expensive alternative (I need to get me some hemp-scented soap (although I think to have enough ‘hemp’ scent it may end up being illegal heh)). I can’t, however, recommend Kiss My Face Pure Olive Oil Soap, I don’t care for the aroma and I think it isn’t quite as gentle as handmade soap. If you feel wild and crazy, buy the good shit: Real. Simple. Soap., Chagrin Valley Soap, and Pretty Baby Herbal Soap Co. You DO smell the aroma before you even enter the shower! For hand soap we’ve refilled old hand-soap containers with a 50/50 mix of Dr. Bronner’s All-One Hemp Pure-Castile Soap (great stuff!!) and water.

Have you noticed a particular funk when I come around? I also decided that all of the weird chemicals in antiperspirant deodorants can’t be good, but I don’t have the massive sweaty man-balls of Matthew McConaughey and so needed something, so I looked around at Weis and Wegmans and found some natural deodorants. I use the term ‘natural’ hesitantly, as even the Tom’s of Maine offering has the first ingredient of propylene glycol (which I’m pretty sure they make from natural gas). So, the Tom’s of Main Natural Original unscented I think is ok. I wouldn’t use it in the middle of summer and expect it to last more than a few hours, but for the fall, winter and spring it is acceptable. Now, the J/A/S/O/N Deodorant Stick is actually quite good, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it year round.

I’m still using chemically mouth care products. Crest Pro-Health Clean Cinnamon is my favorite, I love the sandpaper texture and flavor. Act Fluoride Cinnamon rinse is also an essential.

Finally, also vitally essential is the Queen Helene 100% Cocoa Butter. Makes my hands soft like a babies ass and stuff.

This all feels familiar, did I just post about this a few weeks ago or have I been intending to write about it for a while? Hopefully you don’t remember either…

So I’ve been pretty stressed out recently. But I always try to stay like a leaf in the breeze: aware of where I am and what is going on around me, but not fighting things I can’t change. So this is a story of being the leaf.

Today after work we went to Lock Haven. I needed a haircut and an outfit moderately acceptable for a pretend prom, and Kell needed a dress moderately acceptable for a pretend prom. I went to a new ‘salon’, and then we went to the Salvation Army’s Thrift Store.

After I got over the sensation of ‘stealing’ from poor people, and then recognizing and accepting the familiar tinge that disjointed minds bring to a location, I relaxed and began looking about a bit. Talked for a few minutes with a disabled guy in a wheelchair, he wasn’t all there but was pleasant to talk to. Saw an unusual woman who would shake her head in an unusual fashion when you looked in her direction. Kelley found a ‘oh yea’ dress and a couple others, and took the couple others to the fitting room and didn’t like any. She found me a suit which included the vest and pants. It looked nice and when I tried on the jacket, it was nearly perfect. The pants looked like a good fit too. I was pretty stoked. She went back and got her crazy looking ‘oh yea’ dress and it fit very nicely (except for looking like she was going to pour blood over the proceedings at the end of the night). When we went to check out, it turns out that adults clothes were $2 a piece, so we got everything for $8 since they were having a sale today. I was pretty suprised but had the presence of mind to give the lady working the register $15 and stutter something about the rest of the money was for a donation tin next to the till.

When I got home, I tried on my suit and I felt like Barney from How I Met Your Mother. I actually said out loud “I feel awesome!”, and then “I feel, wait for it…awesome.”

And here I had been in a minor sweat about putting that shopping off to the last minute, and everything fell into place like it was meant to be.

That is how I like life. Automatic. Been a while since anything has felt automatic, it is refreshing. Oh, that and the lady who did my hair made some comment about being suprised at how old I was. I am a sucker for compliments.

(along with the rest of the Democrat controlled Congress)

—

A letter sent to Senator Casey:

Would you care to comment on why you granted the Bush administration and big telcom immunity on their rampant and flagrant violation of my Constitutional rights?

Perhaps you could officially confirm your viewpoint that the Constitution is a worthless, aged scrap of paper, barely worth starting a fire with?

You talk tough about holding the Bush administration accountable, but when push comes to shove, it becomes obvious WHY THE DEMOCRAT CONTROLLED CONGRESS HAS THE LOWEST APPROVAL RATING !!EVER!!

Congress and Dick Cheney are both trying to hit rock bottom together, huh?

Here is a wild and crazy idea: if a bill has content that shouldn’t be passed, DON’T PASS THE BILL.

—

I of course had to add the links after the fact, they are for your reference so you may become better informed on the issues that are honestly important. Fuck Britney Spears, fuck Lindsey Lohan, and fuck the congressional hearings on steroid use in baseball.

We need the ability in the Constitution to be able to throw the entire set of asshats out and start from scratch with new officials. The public needs the ability to hold a vote of no confidence, followed by recall elections. Since obviously doing the next best thing of voting in an ‘opposition party’ into control of Congress didn’t get Bush and Cheney impeached…

A tale told by two.

—

His story:

What a change it has been.

A month of eating right. A month of small slivers of meat and heaping piles of vegetables. A month of finishing dinner and wanting more. Compared to coming home from work and polishing off a can of cashews…more calories in one sitting than I now get over two days…

I am eating better than I ever have before in my life. Fruits and vegetables with every meal. Reasonable portion sizes. Practically no saturated fat, and modest amounts of other fats. Very, very little refined starch and sugar.

I’ve really come to appreciate the meat in each meal, even if it is a modest three to four ounces. We’ve had a stir-fry Kell made from scratch with beef, onions and seasonings about a week into the diet, and it must have been that I was ravenous for meat and/or protein because it tasted like the most delicious thing I’d ever had in my life.

In general, while never feeling satisfied by a meal, I look forward to eating every last bit. Before, I’d never feel any gusto regarding an apple. Why would you, considering how delicious a bag of potato chips tastes? When we come home from work I can smell the delicious aromas in the kitchen from the previous nights meal. I am attuned by appreciation.

What happens in your head when you improve your diet feels much like what happens when you decide to quit smoking. When certain options simply aren’t possible (as in, you don’t allow yourself those options), you gain an entirely different viewpoint of the things you do have.

I’ve also been exercising daily, doing three sets of push ups morning, noon and night. Practically no aerobic exercise, however…

At the end of a month of this, I had lost nine pounds, from 210 to 201. I would say it was worth it, but I don’t look much difference. I feel a bit more trim, a little more solid through the midsection, but visibly nine pounds doesn’t look like a whole heck of a lot. It seems some of my jeans fit a little looser, but nothing really amazing.

I think I ended high school around 165, and filled out to about 185 shortly thereafter. I think that is the weight I’d like to be back to. I’d been around 200 for a while, then 205, and then finally 210 the past couple years. I think it is time to start reversing this disheartening trend. Exercise and diet for the win?

Eating healthy, being healthy is all well and good, but when I look down, I want to see a six pack.

—

Her story:

One month – only 3 pounds lost

So it’s been one month on this Nazi-diet (editors note: I keep complaining about living in a concentration camp as we are only allowed to eat X at time Y, sir yes sir) and I have only lost a mere 3 lbs…..and I lost those the first freakin’ week.  Zilch since then…grrrrr.
I do have to admit that I barely exercised this month though….yea, I’m lazy..I admit it.
I though that perhaps just the cut in calories would be enough.  Guess not.

I was very flustered about the diet in the beginning but it has gotten easier over the past couple weeks.  I’ve learned how to make substitutions and have a much better understanding of proper portions.
There are lots and lots of fresh fruit and veggies involved, which I actually have enjoyed, and this means our grocery bill has gone up significantly…. average $100 a week for 2 people..this is high for us.  Especially since I’ve not purchased much meat.  I do buy organic when it’s available though and that tends to add a few extra dollars.

The first week, aside from the coffee withdrawal headache, I thought that I was feeling a bit better….but that feeling didn’t really last.  I would like to think that I am healthier but I really don’t have any proof.  And it’s not that we ate terrible before…we were into healthy foods, whole grains, some veggies (practically no fruit aside from juice & smoothies), fiber-full foods, etc.  It’s just that now we actually eat more veggies, fruit and we don’t skip breakfast…oh and our night time snacking has been severely cut (this I miss the most!) to a mere 130 calories.  Whereas I would usually eat a salty snack, like pretzels, then have something sweet, perhaps some chocolate.  I’m sure that I was eating too much at night before but now I am finding myself feeling deprived.

For example, even though I am not a big candy eater (usually only if we are on a road trip), I am finding myself craving candy, like Sprees, Jelly Bellies, Skittles.  It’s driving me mad!!!!  I broke down and bought some Jelly Bellies this past weekend (they were the all natural kind of course)…turns out they weren’t as good as I’d hoped.  I have been craving salt too!  During the second week of the diet I was having such a bad salt craving that I went to the cupboards with the intention of eating a bullion cube…only to find that what I had left were old and soft…yuck.

Anyway, we have been following the diet very well during the week but it seems when Friday night comes…well, we slip a little.  Then of course when there is a gathering, how can we pass on the snackies and alcohol?  Then Sundays at my folks…we do our best to eat appropriate portions…but we always seem to give into the sweets which taunt us from the coffee table…stuff we definitely don’t have in our house (mini candy bars, chocolate, skittles).

All and all, I really don’t mind the diet, the recipes are easy but the prep is a bit time consuming.  I like that we are eating more fresh fruits and veggies…and I actually like eating breakfast!  The only really bothersome thing is that I usually don’t feel full after eating dinner…and I definitely don’t feel satisfied. I think this is due to the lack of carbs. So I usually drink some water and take my vitamins to help fill my stomach…that usually works, physically anyway.

This month I will make an effort to exercise, continue the diet and see how it goes.  Perhaps it’s time to break out the trampoline.

Sigh.