I have been busy all day designing some highly fashionable items for Keep Lubbock Flat and Lifestyles of the Poor and Pathetic.
Most of the Keep Lubbock Flat designs will be up as the week continues, but you can get your Lubbock Urban Achiever gear ordered and ready for league night this Friday.
Buy my stuff or I will go on a floss strike!
ONLINE STORE
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
Living with Ed
Living with Ed is on HGTV on Sundays at 10pm. I caught my first episode last night. It is a real-life documentary show about actor Ed Begley Jr., his family life in California, and green lifestyle. I rarely stop to see what is on HGTV, but I noticed that Ed was on and knowing him to be a green activist that walks the talk, I decided to check it out.
It was good stuff. This episode happened to be about Ed's birthday. The most important thing that he said during the show was his choices of daily transportation. He has four in order of importance. He either walks, rides his bicycle, drives his electric car, or finally drives his hybrid. To quote him from his website, "Picking up a few small items is not the sort of chore you need a 2,500 pound machine for." Truly a master of the obvious. He walked to the market with a backpack to get some fresh vegetables for his soup. After the meal, his wife Rachelle Carson, presented him with a new electric bicycle. It was a nice gift and he seemed to be pleased. The show is oddly humorous and also entertaining, and while seemingly geared to the Boomer generation, it really has something for everyone.
Interesting is Ed's home. In this episode it showed, without much explanation, a great deal of features. Pictures of solar panels, a solar oven (which Ed used to make a soup for his family), herbal garden, and Ed creating electricity by riding his bike on the porch were curious. Hopefully the show will go into greater detail about all of Ed's "green" friendly stuff.
So far the best details can be found on Ed Begley Jr's website. I have been linking, browsing, and reading up on this stuff for hours. If you are truly ready to get "green", I suggest you take a look. The best links are the FAQ's and Speech at UCLA. If you at least want to save some money at the grocery store, on electricity bills, or live healthier, it is worth the time spent.
For you prideful Texans out there, do not dismiss this as "California hippie celebrity tree-hugging nonsense." I think Ed is on to something. He isn't just providing lip service as many in Hollywood do, this man is trying to lead by example. Something I admire very much. While everyone is sitting around and debating the aspects of energy, hybrid cars, and potential crisis; Ed Begley Jr. is out there solving the problems for his own family. Something the whole could learn from.
SIDE NOTES AND A.D.D. THOUGHTS:
Makes me want a wind and solar farm right near Texas Tech, then all would be good in my world. For the life of me, I cannot understand why West Texas doesn't power the rest of the state with wind, something we seem to have in never ending abundance. Did I mention we get on average over 300 days of sun per year in West Texas? I just did.
This week the State of Texas legislature is deciding the fate of 11 COAL plants for TXU. I bet you it passes. I wonder if their is any money changing hands under the table?
EDIT: I just received an email from the producers of Living with Ed and wanted to pass along the shows official website. It is www.livingwithed.net
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
The Sports page will contain infidel lies in the morning.
Do not believe anything on ESPN either. They may report that the Texas Tech Red Raiders got beat very badly by Missouri. I watched the game myself, it didn't really happen. Several key players did not play, and a great deal of seldom used players saw action. I cannot explain that fully either. Praise be to Coach Knight. Have faith that he will destroy the infidels.If you hear that the Lady Raiders beat Texas by one point by way of a late three point shot, believe it. This is true.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Healthy Lifestyle update
I have gotten a few emails about my status and the expected "what are you doing?" questions.
By status or stats, I have lost 26lbs in 58 days. Probably more because I'm fairly sure I was over 315lbs. I feel better and realize that as good as that is stats wise, I still have a long way to go to be optimum. As of Monday, I weighed 290.5lbs.
My goal is to wear a red Speedo to the Tech-SMU game in September and look dead sexy. Hey, if you got it, flaunt it!
What am I doing?
I exercise on a Cybex elliptical trainer. For those that do not know, it is a machine at my gym that makes me feel as though I'm running up stairs, but it isn't a stair climber. I am able to stay at a high exertion rate for 40 minutes now. It burns over 600 calories in that time. I do this 5 times a week.
I also lift weights 6 days a week. 2 days upper body, 2 days "core" or mid section, 2 days lower body. 3 days a week I punch a heavy bag and do speed punching drills for about 15 minutes. The boxing really takes it out of me. I rest on the day I bowl in my league.
I am probably burning close or over 1000 calories a day by exercise.
What do I eat and drink?
Well let's just start by listing what I have completely cut out:
Soft Drinks
Chinese buffets
Fast food with exception of tacos once a week
Here is what I eat and drink every day:
1 Liter of Organic Green Tea
3 cups of coffee
over 100oz. of reverse osmosis bottled water
1 glass of Cabernet
6oz of Organic Orange Juice
1.5 teaspoons of powdered wheat grass
2 tablets of purified omega-3
Breakfast
5 days is Kashi 7 grain cereal with %2 Organic milk.
2 days 3 organic eggs
Lunch
Organic Chicken breast tenderloin meat 4oz serving
Half an avocado
tomato
Dinner
Salmon steak-6 oz
Asparagus or Broccoli or Spinach
Hummus or Red-Green Bell Pepper
Once a week I eat a meal of whatever I want. This week I had Shepard's Pie at an Irish pub. I also eat organic chips and salsa on Sundays. I only drink beer on Friday's at the bowling center, although I did have 2 Guinness with the Pie.
Like I stated, I still have a long way to go to get optimum, but still even further in making this lifestyle work for more than just a short period of time. The hardest part for me is getting up in the morning and eating something first thing. Sometimes I just do not want to, or forget to, and it ends up making me hungry and sluggish for the rest of the afternoon and evening. If I do eat early, I'm great.
I also have completely gone organic in everything as far as hygiene and cleanliness. Soap, Shampoo, shaving cream, toothpaste, deoderant etc. I have yet to make the switch to organic in laundry and dish soap, but I'm good where I am at.
A few words on education.
Probably be best to follow the article and conversation on this blog first, as it inspires my thoughts here.
I can tell you that a great deal of students that enroll at Texas Tech are not quite ready for collegiate work, as we were in the late 80's and early 90's. Maybe we weren't either, as many of our blue blooded "tier one" brethren would have you believe.
I give credit to Tech because they are trying to supplement in the first few semesters some of those critical thinking core skills needed. Tech calls it "leveling" work, a term usually reserved for graduate students entering a higher degreed program. I should note here that not all of the entering students do this, just some with lower scores in ACT/SAT tests. With the keen observation that State of Texas high school graduates were not ready for college work, they instituted this to help new students that might otherwise fail. To my knowledge this was done in the mid to late 1990's. I could not find any study or report online to validate its success or failure, but it does make sense to me at prima facie.
What upsets me is this "leveling" should have already been accomplished, at the very least preparation wise in high school. Tech isn't trying to weed them out because that isn't in Tech's best interest as a business or University. However, Tech also wants to raise its academic standing and is investing in doing so, so they aren't going to lighten the depth of instruction to pad the graduation numbers. Something has to give and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. (Our new Chancellor wants to peak enrollment at 35 to 40k students from its present 26k.)
The downside to "leveling" is, a student here may have to spend another year and a half in college to complete a degree. That costs a great deal of money and tuition has skyrocketed since I last paid the bursar.
I think a young person in this generation that accomplishes what many did before, basically borrowing to pay for an education, has it even tougher. Imagine owing over 100k for a STATE University bachelors degree. Very steep bill. But I still believe that critical and higher level thinking are worth it, and not just for a future career.
We need more educated people that can think; and less people that are specialized, narrow, and easily led. I say easily led, because what else could possibly be the goal of the "memorize and regurgitate" doctrine? I know the world needs ditch diggers too, but the world also might need some more people that know how the ditch should be dug, why it should be dug, and where it leads to.
Somehow, the citizens of our State and many others, bought into the abandoning of Dartmouth method inspired education, in favor of standardized testing. What have we gotten for it? But before we answer that question, someone please explain intelligently and without political malice, why we discarded the tried and true methods for high school education?
It takes a village to raise a child, no child left behind, and up with hope down with rewarding excellence. The children aren't getting left behind, they just have to answer A,B,C,D or none of the above.
They just don't get it. Life isn't multiple choice.
I can tell you that a great deal of students that enroll at Texas Tech are not quite ready for collegiate work, as we were in the late 80's and early 90's. Maybe we weren't either, as many of our blue blooded "tier one" brethren would have you believe.
I give credit to Tech because they are trying to supplement in the first few semesters some of those critical thinking core skills needed. Tech calls it "leveling" work, a term usually reserved for graduate students entering a higher degreed program. I should note here that not all of the entering students do this, just some with lower scores in ACT/SAT tests. With the keen observation that State of Texas high school graduates were not ready for college work, they instituted this to help new students that might otherwise fail. To my knowledge this was done in the mid to late 1990's. I could not find any study or report online to validate its success or failure, but it does make sense to me at prima facie.
What upsets me is this "leveling" should have already been accomplished, at the very least preparation wise in high school. Tech isn't trying to weed them out because that isn't in Tech's best interest as a business or University. However, Tech also wants to raise its academic standing and is investing in doing so, so they aren't going to lighten the depth of instruction to pad the graduation numbers. Something has to give and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. (Our new Chancellor wants to peak enrollment at 35 to 40k students from its present 26k.)
The downside to "leveling" is, a student here may have to spend another year and a half in college to complete a degree. That costs a great deal of money and tuition has skyrocketed since I last paid the bursar.
I think a young person in this generation that accomplishes what many did before, basically borrowing to pay for an education, has it even tougher. Imagine owing over 100k for a STATE University bachelors degree. Very steep bill. But I still believe that critical and higher level thinking are worth it, and not just for a future career.
We need more educated people that can think; and less people that are specialized, narrow, and easily led. I say easily led, because what else could possibly be the goal of the "memorize and regurgitate" doctrine? I know the world needs ditch diggers too, but the world also might need some more people that know how the ditch should be dug, why it should be dug, and where it leads to.
Somehow, the citizens of our State and many others, bought into the abandoning of Dartmouth method inspired education, in favor of standardized testing. What have we gotten for it? But before we answer that question, someone please explain intelligently and without political malice, why we discarded the tried and true methods for high school education?
It takes a village to raise a child, no child left behind, and up with hope down with rewarding excellence. The children aren't getting left behind, they just have to answer A,B,C,D or none of the above.
They just don't get it. Life isn't multiple choice.
8 BILLION DOLLARS to fight resurgent Taliban
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1998986,00.html
The White House announced a major shift in its strategy towards Afghanistan yesterday that will see more aid and military help for the country after four years in which it has suffered from Washington's overwhelming focus on Iraq.
The White House announced a major shift in its strategy towards Afghanistan yesterday that will see more aid and military help for the country after four years in which it has suffered from Washington's overwhelming focus on Iraq.
Facing failure in Iraq, where violence is worsening, the US is anxious to avoid a similar catastrophe in Afghanistan.
Billions of dollars are to be pumped into Afghanistan to help build up the army and for reconstruction projects such as roads, water, schools and clinics.
About 3,200 US troops in Afghanistan from the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division who were due to return home are to remain for a further 120 days to help Nato counter an expected Taliban spring offensive.
The White House is to ask Congress next month for $8bn (£4.1bn) in new funds, which is more than half the $14.2bn Washington has spent on Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001.
Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said yesterday: "It had been over five years since we went into Afghanistan and the situation on the ground - economic and security - has changed.
"Substantial progress has been made in many areas, but it's also clear that the policy needed to be reviewed, so that we continue to improve the lives of Afghan citizens."
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, is to brief fellow Nato ministers at a hastily-arranged meeting in Brussels today. Senior members of Congress, including Hillary Clinton, who recently returned from Afghanistan, have been pressing for more resources to avoid a repeat of Iraq.
Richard Boucher, the US assistant secretary of state, who was in Brussels yesterday preparing for today's meeting, said Nato would "take the initiative" to drive Taliban fighters out of their sanctuaries to pre-empt any spring offensive.
About three-quarters of the proposed $8bn is for the Afghan army and police and the remainder for reconstruction.
The change in direction had its origin at a Nato summit in Latvia in November where George Bush, Tony Blair and other leaders were told of the danger posed by the resurgence of the Taliban.
Ms Rice is to appeal to other Nato countries today to match the US funds. Britain and Canada, along with the US, have borne the brunt of the fighting in southern Afghanistan.
She will also press for tougher action to combat an increase in drug production and trafficking since the US-backed invasion in 2001. The US favours destroying poppy crops by spraying them from the air but the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has so far rejected this. Ms Rice will reiterate US requests to countries such as France and Germany to play a bigger role in the fighting.
Many Nato countries' forces have stayed in Kabul and the north of the country, which is relatively stable.
Jacques Chirac, France's president, agreed a compromise at the Nato summit that opened the way for troops from other Nato countries to operate outside Kabul. But Ms Rice is not satisfied with this. Poland is sending about 1,200 soldiers and Germany is expected in the next few days to announce the dispatch of six Tornado warplanes.
The US has about 20,000 troops in Nato's 32,000-strong force compared with 132,000, with a further 21,500 being deployed, in Iraq.
In one country we have insurgents, in the other resurgence, and in our own country we have decay.
I will say this now, if the President gets this money from Congress then you can forget about change happening in Washington. As if I held out hope that any would occur. I have been saying this for a while now. There is really little difference between the two political parties because they both worship and pray at the same alter of money. They may sit on opposite sides of the room, but they all eat from the same table and the lobbyist don't care who they feed as long as it is getting eaten. After all, they are just new customers.
Politicians do not want anything other than to stay at the table. That is all, resume Starbucks, fast food, television coma.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
War, Death, and Pestilence
That identifies them from left to right or Right to Left, depending on your perspective.
Jim Webb for President.
All I can think right now is, where is an American LEADER? Where? Evidently it resides in Virginia. Too bad he just got elected to the U. S. Senate. Total waste of this man's talent.
This man is a leader. Guess what this country needs? If you didn't catch the Democratic response, it is posted below. If you got to see it on television, you got to witness the introduction of a future President. Hopefully. That is what separates a hopeful, i.e. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, from a hopefully. I applaud the choice of his party in the honor of giving the Response. I promise the Democratic party pundits and elite are going to wish they never did. This man is ten times the leader of any of their current bell cows.
Former Secretary of Navy to Ronald Reagan, but a staunch Andrew Jackson populist with a in depth understanding of foreign policy in the Theodore Roosevelt sense. Vietnam veteran, father and son to veterans. Marine. He understands the history and gravity of leadership, something our last two Presidents couldn't quite grasp and unfortunately are suffering for. That suffering has spilled over to the current crisis. The crisis isn't going to get solved by politicians, the situation is too complex for them. This situation needs Senator Jim Webb.
I liked it.
This man is a leader. Guess what this country needs? If you didn't catch the Democratic response, it is posted below. If you got to see it on television, you got to witness the introduction of a future President. Hopefully. That is what separates a hopeful, i.e. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, from a hopefully. I applaud the choice of his party in the honor of giving the Response. I promise the Democratic party pundits and elite are going to wish they never did. This man is ten times the leader of any of their current bell cows.
Former Secretary of Navy to Ronald Reagan, but a staunch Andrew Jackson populist with a in depth understanding of foreign policy in the Theodore Roosevelt sense. Vietnam veteran, father and son to veterans. Marine. He understands the history and gravity of leadership, something our last two Presidents couldn't quite grasp and unfortunately are suffering for. That suffering has spilled over to the current crisis. The crisis isn't going to get solved by politicians, the situation is too complex for them. This situation needs Senator Jim Webb.
I liked it.
Democratic Response
Democratic Response of Senator Jim Webb to the President’s State of the Union Address
January 23, 2007
Good evening.
I'm Senator Jim Webb, from Virginia, where this year we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown an event that marked the first step in the long journey that has made us the greatest and most prosperous nation on earth.
It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President's message, nor would it be useful. Let me simply say that we in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious about improving education and healthcare for all Americans, and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans.
Further, this is the seventh time the President has mentioned energy independence in his state of the union message, but for the first time this exchange is taking place in a Congress led by the Democratic Party. We are looking for affirmative solutions that will strengthen our nation by freeing us from our dependence on foreign oil, and spurring a wave of entrepreneurial growth in the form of alternate energy programs. We look forward to working with the President and his party to bring about these changes.
There are two areas where our respective parties have largely stood in contradiction, and I want to take a few minutes to address them tonight. The first relates to how we see the health of our economy how we measure it, and how we ensure that its benefits are properly shared among all Americans. The second regards our foreign policy how we might bring the war in Iraq to a proper conclusion that will also allow us to continue to fight the war against international terrorism, and to address other strategic concerns that our country faces around the world.
When one looks at the health of our economy, it's almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The stock market is at an all-time high, and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared. When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did; today, it's nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day.
Wages and salaries for our workers are at all-time lows as a percentage of national wealth, even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world. Medical costs have skyrocketed. College tuition rates are off the charts. Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas. Good American jobs are being sent along with them.
In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table. Our workers know this, through painful experience. Our white-collar professionals are beginning to understand it, as their jobs start disappearing also. And they expect, rightly, that in this age of globalization, their government has a duty to insist that their concerns be dealt with fairly in the international marketplace.
In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base. Not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today.
And under the leadership of the new Democratic Congress, we are on our way to doing so. The House just passed a minimum wage increase, the first in ten years, and the Senate will soon follow. We've introduced a broad legislative package designed to regain the trust of the American people. We've established a tone of cooperation and consensus that extends beyond party lines. We're working to get the right things done, for the right people and for the right reasons.
With respect to foreign policy, this country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years. Many, including myself, warned even before the war began that it was unnecessary, that it would take our energy and attention away from the larger war against terrorism, and that invading and occupying Iraq would leave us strategically vulnerable in the most violent and turbulent corner of the world.
I want to share with all of you a picture that I have carried with me for more than 50 years. This is my father, when he was a young Air Force captain, flying cargo planes during the Berlin Airlift. He sent us the picture from Germany, as we waited for him, back here at home. When I was a small boy, I used to take the picture to bed with me every night, because for more than three years my father was deployed, unable to live with us full-time, serving overseas or in bases where there was no family housing. I still keep it, to remind me of the sacrifices that my mother and others had to make, over and over again, as my father gladly served our country. I was proud to follow in his footsteps, serving as a Marine in Vietnam. My brother did as well, serving as a Marine helicopter pilot. My son has joined the tradition, now serving as an infantry Marine in Iraq.
Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we serve and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love our country. On the political issues those matters of war and peace, and in some cases of life and death we trusted the judgment of our national leaders. We hoped that they would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm's way.
We owed them our loyalty, as Americans, and we gave it. But they owed us sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it.
The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable and predicted disarray that has followed.
The war's costs to our nation have been staggering. Financially. The damage to our reputation around the world. The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism. And especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve.
The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.
On both of these vital issues, our economy and our national security, it falls upon those of us in elected office to take action.
Regarding the economic imbalance in our country, I am reminded of the situation President Theodore Roosevelt faced in the early days of the 20th century. America was then, as now, drifting apart along class lines. The so-called robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the national wealth. The dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt
.
Roosevelt spoke strongly against these divisions. He told his fellow Republicans that they must set themselves "as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other." And he did something about it.
As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. "When comes the end?" asked the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to an end.
These Presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight we are calling on this President to take similar action, in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.
Thank you for listening. And God bless America.
Saw em off contraversy
The issue doesn't revolve around this shirt, there is another much more popular shirt worn by Aggies. I will be interested in how this legal fight comes out. If it succeeds, Maggie said she will be suing on behalf of all collies everywhere.
If UT wins, will they sue OU for the "upside down horn" logo? Doubtful, UT probably gets a great deal of income from the licensing Oklahoma fans indirectly pay to wear the shirt. A great source of humor for me.
Good read
Sunday, January 21, 2007
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