Five Questions for the Win

Best. meme. Ever. 

Ask me, and I’ll ask you 5 questions about you and the things I know of you. Post the answers, along with these instructions, in your own space, and keep the dream alive. 

Ironymaiden asks: 

1. there’s less Bhagwan every time i see you. when have you reached a stopping place/what’s too skinny? 

As I’ve mentioned previously, the goal is and has always been “not fat.” I “stopped” at the end of January to give myself a little me time, and to enjoy myself and my new body. Since I didn’t immediately balloon to unmanageable proportions (although I did add a nice 5 lbs or so of muscle during the situps), I felt confident that I could start up (or rather, down) again after RadCon. 

At which, I might add, I did >not< have any beer.  I still have fat (or, adipose tissue, as my friend John Dalmas puts it) around my waist that I don’t particularly care for. While I’m not looking for washboard abs or a Jason Statham level of fitness, I’d like to be able to slide my hand down my front while seated and not come to a sudden stop. What measure on a scale that is, I don’t know. I’ve consulted with doctors, and we agree that I could still lose some weight safely through this method, should I care to . 

176 today, on fruit and vegetables only day. I lost two lbs through the weekend, while “cheating” with the occasional bits of cheese, rum, tequila, and pasta. It’s the practice, not the form, that seems to be working. Ask me again in three weeks when the second digit is a 6. I really don’t think I’d trend down into the 150’s range, I just don’t think that’s healthy. But ~165 might be. 

  

2. is there a piece of clothing that you loved that’s just too damn big now (please describe)?More than a few. The most keenly felt loss is the suits I bought last summer when I thought I was only going to lose another 20 lbs. That paycheck is something I’m not going to get back, and money I really could have used this last winter. Similarly, the tux I bought in 2000 is a completely lost cause, and will need a new home soon.  

However, I did talk with the man who sold me said clothes just a few hours ago, and he seemed to think that should I care to (since I clearly want to), in a few month’s time we can re-address my look and see what I want to deal with. Of late, the thrift stores have been far more permissive of my shopping habits than they were at 300, 250, and 200 lbs. 

3. do the M’s have a shot at keeping Ichiro, and what happens when he leaves? do you care? 

The Mariners are doomed. DOOMED, without the star power that Ichiro represents. And they will not be able to negotiate an acceptable contract with a player of his caliber in the next 12 months, without opening themselves up to A-Rod levels of spending and unreasonable demands.  But of more relevant need is Ichiro’s need to be a championship–caliber player. He’ll be wearing pinstripes by the end of the year, and I’m okay with this.  I did give up my season tickets this year, and I’m fine with that prospect. 

It will be an interesting summer.
4. say Nixon succeeded at getting everyone cable. what specific impact do you think it would have had on your life? 

For those not present Saturday night ( or during my many and frequent rants on this topic), President Nixon (along with long-time staffer H.R. “Bob” Haldeman) envisioned using the burgeoning cable television industry to deliver free content and services to every household in America, by expanding the capabilities of DARPA and the ARPAnet. Along with the Flying Car, and a frikkin moonbase, I view our 37th presidents premature departure from office (and the preceding three years of limited legislative influence) as a huge step back in terms of our nation’s technological progress. His successor (Gerald Ford) was a good man, but was “tainted” by his association with the Watergate scandal, and although he gets my vote for “man of the century”, James Earl Carter had other problems to deal with, and was hamstrung in office by angry hawks and a cold-war bureaucracy. 

And look what he was still able to do.  

But I digress. I think that in the Wired Nation, Public television would have had a more comprehensive and funded mandate in the 70s, leading to more educational programming. I also think that the Pentagon Papers would have been leaked far faster, possibly ending US involvement with the war in Vietnam a few years earlier. This could possibly have had an effect on my bio-father’s drinking. Since it was a major factor in my mother’s decision to leave him, everything that followed would be different, as would I. I probably would know none of you, for example, since I would not have gotten into gaming when I did, but sports and motorcycles, my “then” male role model’s interests. 

I also think that Betamax would have won the format war, since Beta is >still< being used to record news broadcasts and studio shows, and delivers a superior picture. With a "need” in American homes for displays capable of showing all of that picture, I think HDTV would have been a reality a long time ago, and something as simple as two-way video communications would be “old” technology now, giving rise to some new form that I can’t even imagine (Star War’s holo-communication was within reach in 1976, only barely qualifying as science fiction.However, 30 years later, we still don’t have it).  5. do you have a single issue that’s a dealbreaker as a voter?Foreign Policy. Get one, develop it, and apply it. But first, feed hungry Americans, and teach our kids to read.  

But If I get to apply all of my Libertarian rage at once, I’d like a flat tax, please. And a space Program. And mandatory military/government service. And….