Diet Update

We actually ended up going to Central market to see if they had shark. My wife suggested this. I can think of three possible explanations why...

1. She really likes Central Market


2. She thinks I do.


3. She really wanted to find out what shark tastes like.

I, on the other hand, don't really like Central Market and I'm pretty sure that shark tastes like fish. In any case, they didn't have any shark. Apparently it's out of season right now. I didn't even know there was a "shark season" other than on the Discovery Channel.

Instead we got haddock and salmon. When I asked for the salmon, the girl at the seafood counter asked me which kind, ____ or ____ (I don't remember what they were). I didn't really know which kind I wanted.

Now, I know a lot of people who, like me, have no clue about this sort of thing would try to play this off as if they knew exactly which one they wanted and chose one of the options at random and hoped that it didn't suck. This is especially true in a place like Central Market and doubly so at the seafood counter where you've got a lot of people browsing the expansive selection and seemingly knowing a lot more about seafood than I do.

I, on the other hand, really have no problem in letting my ignorance about certain topics show through. I'm competent in enough topics to be comfortable in exposing my vulnerabilities in places where I have really limited experience. So I asked, "what's the difference." The blank look on her face told me two things...

1. Most people don't ask that question.


2. she didn't really know.

Granted, her shock from item 1 may have caused item 2 to merely appear to be the case. Either way it took her a couple of seconds to collect her thoughts before offering that ____ had a more buttery taste. Since she didn't offer any information on the other one, I had absolutely no reason to have opted for that one so I chose the buttery tasting ____. I could have asked for more information, but that bit of info coupled with the price per pound marked at the front of the display was sufficient at the time for me to chose one that hopefully would not taste like shit.

Additionally...

On the menshealth.com site, I finally found where to click to regenerate my diet after making some changes. That has made it much easier to tailor my diet. I still haven't got it quite to the point where I want it, but it's getting closer.

Does it HAVE to be this difficult?

People seem to be going out of their way to make my life more difficult than it needs to be.

I have to take my wife in next week for some dental surgery. Not a big problem (for me). I simply take the day off work, get up early, pack her and our daughter in the car and drive her to the appointment. Then I can spend a couple of hours shopping or whatever with my daughter and then go pick the wife up when she's done, right? Wrong. The dentist wants someone to BE THERE THE ENTIRE TIME! What? Why? Who knows. All they'll say is that they need someone to be there.

OK. Minor adjustment. Now I'll just have to sit in the waiting room with my daughter for a couple of hours. Nope. Sorry. They don't allow children in the waiting area. WHAT? Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?

OK. So now what do I do? Drop Dee off at one of those pay (through the nose) by the hour day care places? Find a friend that can baby sit starting at SIX IN THE FREAKIN MORNING? What we end up having to do is this:

I'm taking Mom to the appointment and dropping her off. A friend (a very good friend, mind you) is going to meet us there and stay in the waiting room for several hours until she is released and then drive her home.

OK. So that's all settled. Right? Hope so.

Next Saga:

I go online thinking there's got to be a place that I can enter in some information and some goals and have someone (or some program) suggest a workout and diet regimen complete down to the gnat's ass.

I found such a program at menshealth.com. It's very comprehensive, it asks you lots of questions establishes your goals, then spits out a workout routine and a diet and even gives you a place to track your progress. Great! Exactly what I was looking for. The diet part will also generate a shopping list for you so you can stock up on the stuff you need.

So I created the shopping list for next week and started looking through it. I begin to see entries like this.

• 1/2 medium apple
• 1/2 medium orange
• 3/4 cup grapes
• ...

Now remember this is for an entire week. There's tons of entries like this. The program seems to go to great effort to not duplicate any meals. As a result you need to buy a a lot of different items in small quantities. Not the most efficient way to shop!

Then I see this item on the shopping list:

• 8 oz Broiled Shark Fillets

SHARK? Where the hell am I supposed to buy shark? OK, yeah, I can go all the way across town and probably find it at Central Market, but I'm pretty sure they don't carry it at the local Kroger's where I normally shop.

But there's hope for both of these situations. There's a feature that'll let you select any meal and replace it. No problem, right? I just consolidate the meals. I don't mind having the same breakfast 3 days in the week. I can consolidate the menu and have less variety and a more efficient shopping list. Right? Wrong.

I started with that shark entry. I click on "replace meal" and it comes up with another screen where it's supposed to give you a list of alternate menu choices that'll fit your diet. How many alternate choices do you think it came up with? If you said ZERO, you win a cookie.

Now, understand... shark wasn't the only thing on the dinner menu. There are plenty of other items. However, the program apparently is trying to target a specific fat/protein/carb ratio and shark steaks were the only thing that would fit into that schedule.

I DID manage to get around it though. It has the option on that page to "Never see this menu selection again" which I checked. However, it stays on the menu until you regenerate it. Unfortunately I don't see any way to just regenerate the menu. So I had to tell it I was switching to a different diet plan (it offers like 4 different diets) and then switch back to the one I wanted. THEN it regenerate the diet without the shark steaks!

It really shouldn't be this difficult.

It's called a ''Laser''

Went to play "Laser" tag with a couple of friends Saturday at Main Event in Fort Worth.

If you've never done it, it's pretty cool. You put on a vest with sensors and lights and you have a "Laser" gun that you use to shoot other people. But rather than being just a free-for-all, you work in teams. In the version that we played, you got extra points for tagging a light located inside the opponent's base.

You've got a limited number of shots and "lives." but you can return to your team's charging station to get more.

We had lots of fun and our team won! Woo Hoo!

My Family is a Backward Bunch of Redneck Hicks

Last night one of my cousins sent out a joke to our family email list that was supposedly about a news article from the aftermath of hurricane Katrina:

Katrina Devastation Continues One of the local television stations in South Louisiana actually aired an interview with a black woman from New Orleans. The interviewer was a woman from a Boston affiliate. She asked the black woman how such total and complete devastation of the churches in the area had affected their lives. Without hesitation, the woman replied," I don't know about all those other people, but we haven't gone to churches in years. We get our chicken from Popeye's."

To me, this joke is racist. Furthermore, if you can believe SNOPES.COM it didn't actually happen.

I pointed these two things out to my cousin (and everyone she CC'd in the original email):

Did they really now? http://www.snopes.com/katrina/humor/churches.asp Nice to know that broad streak of racism is still alive and well in our family. Rick--

Now I KNEW I shouldn't have responded with anything. In fact, I'd previously decided that I wouldn't bother with these types anymore. However, I said "fuck it" and sent the email anyway.

What came back (almost immediately) was pretty much what I expected.

No Ricky, I’m not a racist. It was just a bit of humor. I’m sorry that we all can’t be “politically perfect” but maybe if you stopped looking so critically at your family you might find that we are not as stupid and ignorant as you might think. Lighten up. I didn’t ask for verification or dispute of the email. I got it from a friend and got a chuckle. SO I thought I would pass a little humor along to my family. I forget that some of us can’t do anything without you picking it apart for how it is “wrong”. Get over it. I sent it to my “black” friends even and they thought it was funny too. But regardless, I will not tolerate your insults and assaults about your family being racist bigots. I didn’t say too much the last time when you said it about your mother, she can defend herself, but don’t attack me. We tolerate your abnormal decisions about your life and don’t criticize your decisions. We accept you, why can’t you accept us?? Kristin

Oh, where to start? Where to start? OK. Let's start at the top.

I’m not a racist.

Just because you SAY you're not a racist doesn't mean SHIT! As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. The action of forwarding this email was essentially the same as saying, "hey! let's all laugh at the stupid N----!"

It was just a bit of humor.

"Hey! I was just joking! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." Sound familiar? I can't count how many times I've had to say that because I said something I thought was witty and someone took it seriously. It's the same here. She may not have mean the joke to be racist. Hell, she didn't even write it. But it's all right there. Would it have been as funny if it hadn't mentioned the woman being black? Would you have just assumed she was black?

I’m sorry that we all can’t be “politically perfect” but maybe if you stopped looking so critically at your family you might find that we are not as stupid and ignorant as you might think.

I don't try to make any claims of being "politically perfect" in fact, I'm sure you can easily find a dozen or more instances in this blog where I've been "politically incorrect." Sometimes it's intentional, sometimes not. Also, nobody's as stupid and ignorant as I think they are. It's simply not possible.

I got it from a friend and got a chuckle. SO I thought I would pass a little humor along to my family.

I saw this earlier myself, before she sent it to me. The difference is what I did about it. Did I send it off to everyone I know? Nope. I simply ignored it. However, she feels the need to forward it to everyone she knows. Not what I consider to be the smartest of options (and this girl wants to be a lawyer - would you hire a lawyer that sent around this kind of garbage?)

I sent it to my “black” friends even and they thought it was funny too.

I'm sure most of her black friends thought it was funny and harmless. But would she tell it to a black person she didn't know? Would she tell it in a crowded room with a mixed audience of strangers? I doubt it.

But regardless, I will not tolerate your insults and assaults about your family being racist bigots.

The truth hurts, huh?

We tolerate your abnormal decisions about your life and don’t criticize your decisions. We accept you, why can’t you accept us??

I'm pretty sure she's referring to my atheism here. While it may be true that they haven't criticized my atheism lately, I think they've simply grown weary of it and have figured out that I'm not going to change just because they say so. However, for a long time, that's about all I heard about. In any case, I don't see how accepting my being an atheist should translate into the idea that I'm supposed to accept them being racists as that's clearly the implication here.

I've also received email from my mother as well as one of Kristin's friends. I won't bother with the email from my mother too much, it basically just said "get off your high horse." But the mail from Kristin's friend was pure poetry.

I thought it was funny...lick my dirty n----- ass. [censored by me - RTC]

I also received a phone call from my dad who basically tried to tell me that it's ok if they send around racist jokes because you see it on TV all the time. Then my mom got on the phone and ranted and raved because I upset Kristin with my reply and now she was upset and she was about to get on the road to Marksville and that if I didn't let up and get off my high horse they were going to start in on my atheism again. I figured I'd heard about enough of that so I hung up.

Then I sent this email:

Since all you people want to do is pass around your stupid racists jokes and you feel the need to somehow make ME out to be the bad guy for pointing out what should be obvious to you in the first place, I'm taking down the careyfamily email list. Rick--

Then I went out and removed everyone from the list.

Another Year Older

Well, I've gone and done it. I've had another birthday. Now I'm one year closer to 40. By "one year closer" what I really mean is "one year away." Had fun, though. Went out to Cowtown Sushi and ate lots of Sushi, Sashimi and other stuff. Then we went and crawled around a bookstore for a while before heading home to relieve the baby sitter. Yes, gone are those wild hedonistic parties of yesteryear. Actually, come to think of it, that's pretty much been the excitement level of my birthday parties for many years.

I also went to the Texas Frightmare Weekend on Saturday where they screened American Nightmare and we did a reunion panel hosted by Joe Bob Briggs. It was fun. Lots of weirdos there, though. I felt right at home.

Blogs that Blog about other Blogs are Lame

To that end...

I loved Wil Wheaton's blog entry today about going to Disneyland. Here's the link:

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2006/02/the_one_about_s.html