Nope

CHASED off

Sold off

Told off

Signed off

Take off

Bought off

Picked off

Ripped off

Write off

Walk off

One off

Pissed off

Ticked off

Stand off
Fall off

Pay off

Stay off

Day off

Layoff

Roll with the change

Clear, sunny, cold, morning. Fall isn’t around the corner, it has rounded the corner... and it is setting up for a nice long stay.

For the past few months riding to work has only required a t-shirt and on occasion arm warmers:But this morning needed a full on hoodie. As I got ready to leave the house I looked at the thermometer to see it was a surprising 47 degrees out side. Forecast for this week: more of the same, with a chance of rain. Expect the exact same for the next, oh, about...eight months. Things might change a little bit, chance of rain will become chance of sun, and the low temperature now, will become the high.

Season seem to mark change, of course in the weather, but also in our lives, in our day to day routines. Whether it’s for the better or worse, and no matter which side of it you’re on, there is someone else who feels just the opposite. And more importantly, there is not thing you can do about it. But give it enough time and things will change again and then again.

The fall reminds me of going back to school, football and extra layers, rainy days in front of the TV. I like the crisp mornings. I like shedding layers after a long ride. I like change. But most of all... I like snowboarding... We’re one step closer to winter!

Sugar, we're going down

(Yes, it is, I agree, and here's what I think:)

Ok, seems we are back on the food topic. I can’t help it... people keep being stupid, so keep pointing it out.

Anyway, apparently, according to the Corn Industry, High Fructose Corn Syrup aka, HFCS is ok for us. There is a new ad campaign with 2 tv spots where they tell us how wonderful it is, and how we should read more about it at http://www.sweetsurprise.com/

Where to start... how about this little gem from the web site: "Myth: HFCS is not natural". OH Awesome, its natural, cool, ill take 10 boxes. Does this claim fool anyone? Ugh, unfortunately, I’m sure it does. Can I just point out the obvious... and seriously, I’m no rocket scientist, but simply because something comes from “natural source” doesn’t make it good or even, not bad. Cocaine (benzoylmethyl ecgonine) is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coco plant. Um, hello, Cocaine – comes from a plant, so its natural, its will still kill you, and pretty quickly Im sure!!!

Take it a step further... is HFCS natural? Here is how its made:

First, cornstarch is treated with alpha-amylase to produce shorter chains of sugars called polysaccharides. Alpha-amylase is industrially produced by a bacterium, usually Bacillus sp. It is purified and then shipped to HFCS manufacturers. Next, an enzyme called glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further to yield the simple sugar glucose. Unlike alpha-amylase, glucoamylase is produced by Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat where one would likely see little balls of Aspergillus floating on the top. The third enzyme, glucose-isomerase, is very expensive. It converts glucose to a mixture of about 42 percent fructose and 50-52 percent glucose with some other sugars mixed in. While alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are added directly to the slurry, pricey glucose-isomerase is packed into columns and the sugar mixture is then passed over it. Inexpensive alpha-amylase and glucoamylase are used only once, glucose-isomerase is reused until it loses most of its activity. There are two more steps involved. First is a liquid chromatography step that takes the mixture to 90 percent fructose. Finally, this is back-blended with the original mixture to yield a final concentration of about 55 percent fructose--what the industry calls high fructose corn syrup.

Ok, welcome back to the English part of the Blog. I lost track of how many words I can’t pronounce and have no friggin clue what they even mean... I can’t fathom what part of this would be considered natural. But as long as the base ingredient is corn, we can spin this baby as totally all natural and healthy!

Giving these guys the benefit of the doubt, if you eat it in moderation its not that bad...Ok, so cut back on soda right? Wrong, its in everything. Eating a normal diet of food from the store is going to give the average person WAY more than a moderate amount.

Really, you ask? Take a look at common items that have HFCS; bread (yes bread), most cereals, pretty much any sweet drink, candy, ketchup, cookies, cake, frosting, basically all sweet food, medicine, cough syrup, vitamins, crackers, ice cream, jams, jellies, syrups, pastries, most salad dressing, all kinds of sauces, dips, chips, some soup, granola bars... and the list just goes on and on.

I like this story from a medical study (keeping in mind its hard to only consume a "moderate" amount of HFCS unless you are specifically trying to aviod it)

Some recent studies have reported that "Rats normally live for a good two years," explains Meira Fields, Ph.D., research chemist at the USDA in Beltsville, Maryland. "But the rats in my study fed a high-fructose, low copper diets are dying after 5 weeks." One of the few human studies of low-copper, high-fructose diets was abruptly stopped when 4 of the 24 subjects developed heart-related abnormalities, according to Fields. High fructose diets have also been implicated in the development of adult-onset diabetes. Fructose, especially when combined with other sugars, reduces stores of chromium, a mineral essential for maintaining balanced insulin levels, according to Richard Anderson, Ph.D., lead scientist at the Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.

Solid proof, no, interesting, yes.

OK, OK all else aside, no matter which side you are on, this is what does it for me: your body has no clue what to do with this stuff once you eat it! As we learnd earlier in how HFCS is made, it is already broken down into two parts, fructose and glucose. "The body’s cells don’t register this already broken down fructose as a signal to increase insulin production (as it would when it breaks it down itself) to burn it up, and so instead it gets stored as fat. Furthermore, The body interprets the sweetness as having eaten food, but doesn’t register any of the calories. This makes the body crave something more; and this is where the epidemic begins." Source

What really bothers me is that these TV ads are completley misleading, and while what they are saying may be remotlely justifiable, they are walking a VERY thin line. It reminds me of when, as a kid, my parents asked if I broke the window, and with a completley straight face I look my parents in the eye and say "No", totally confident I was being truthful because I knew fullwell that the baseball that I threw was really what broke the window. Was it the truth, yes, was it totally misleading, yes. Did it take my parents long to figure out the real truth, not at all.

I guess in reality, I should not be suprised by this. It is there job, as a business, to make money. So, when the company that produces HFCS has commercials telling us that its ok to eat it, its kinda to be expected. Just take a second to think about the source before you bite (pun intended)! One thing I have learned is that the source of information can be just as important as the information itself.

Maybe this is a strech but it makes me wonder, when big tabacco added the filter to cigarettes, were there all kinds of ad campaigns telling consumers how much “cleaner” and “smoother” and “healthier” they had become?

Well, guess in the long run, we are all gonna die any way, might as well taste some good "food" before we go.... So, yeah, I'll take fries with that.

the value, or lack there of, a dollar

85 Billion dollar loans
Shadow financials
Freddie Mac
Fannie May
AIG
Lehman Brothers
Depleted FDIC
Recession
Depression

buy yours now, before they're gone

Coheed & Cambria

Great band, Great video!

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Celebrity News

very Alfred Hitchcock-ish

Game on!

Work has been really busy the past few days.... I have been sending out resumes like crazy. So, as you have noticed, no blogging! Don't worry (because I'm sure you really are) each day that goes by without deep insight full words of wisdom, gives me more time to ponder and eventually, when I do get back, make things all the more profound!

Anyway, speaking of resumes, that brings to mind school, and school of course mean Texas Tech....and Texas Tech football season is back on! I am gonna try to make it a point to watch more games this year. Not only because I am alumni (man, that still sounds so weird) but because they are awesome.... 500 + passing yards and hundreds of yards in rushing, you are guaranteed an action packed Saturday. And if they game isnt any good at least you can watch a drunk Mike Leech going for it on 4th and 25 in his own zone!

This week, its SMU at 6, Texas time on FSN, Guns Up!!!

Use it or Lose it

(Classic office prank)

As the saying goes if you don’t use something you lose it.

First thing that comes to mind is the mind. If you don’t do anything, all day, day after day... you’ll go friggin crazy. You really will lose your mind. I am basically at that point right now. And as time goes on with nothing to do, the more that you want to do nothing! Now, if an opportunity to “analyze some data” comes along, it’s all I can do to make my self look at the work. Not because Im too busy, but because my brain is gotten all mushy and it’s hard to focus on anything in particular.
Imagine a young kid sitting in a swivel chair for the first time just spinning around for until eventually the chair pops off its stand and spills its contents into the floor. Its getting really hard to refrain myself from just spinning away....

Second thing that comes to mind is employees. If ya don’t give them something to do... they are gonna find something to do... Probably something you don’t want them to be doing. Either way, use ‘em or lose ‘em.

So, I started sending out applications the other day (on company time). Even got a few good leads... but who knows. I think if I sit here long enough I will at some point collect a nice pink piece of paper and a check to go with it. That wouldn’t be too bad. Then I can sit at home and do nothing there...
So, anyway, before my brain slowly dribbles out my ear and down the side of my head into a puddle on the desk, I came up with a top 10 ways to kill time at work.

10. Surf the net. – pretty obvious, but it works, and its not like your ever gonna run out of net, even though there are definitely days I think I get pretty close.

9. Look up dream vacations. – Caution, this could lead to impromptu purchases of said vacations, which is fine, but could get expensive!

8. Research other jobs - dreams of a brighter tomorrow.

7. Take up smoking - Big time killer here! Going out side, smoking, walking around, each smoke break can last 10 minuets, with just a few before and after lunch, you have knocked out a whole hour!

6. Buy stuff on ebay. My co-worked spends lots of time on ebay, shopping, selling, buying… you can truly find anything you would ever possibly want, and even if you don’t buy, its fun to window shop

5. Take coffee breaks – I don’t really want coffee all day long, but taking a break to walk around and get some Java breaks up the day. Especially, if you go somewhere other than the closest place to get coffee. Sure they have it on my floor, but they also have it in the lobby, and it take way longer to get all the way to the lobby than it does to walk down to the lunch room. There is also a much higher chance of running into some one you know, in the lobby, which could lead to a conversation, there by killing even more time.

4. If you have something to do, do it. Then delete it, and do it again. This is a good one because even though it’s redundant it keeps you busy and more importantly makes everyone else think you are really busy.

3. Schedule meetings with other people that have nothing to do. This is great because it kills time for you and others while also giving the appearance of looking busy and productive!

2. Office pranks – office pranks are awesome and totally not done often enough. Don’t get caught though, the point is to kill time, not your career.
(tons of cups half full of water)

The Number One way to kill time:
1. Dream up awesome new titles for your job and then order business cards with that title. Stuff like “Strategic Initiatives and Network Optimization Project Specialist”, just off the top of my head!

I think i have offically lost it.

Workin for the (3 day) weekend....

There is nothing like a 3 day weekend to make you realize you don’t want to go back to work.

The name Labor Day is a bit ironic, considering is a day most people don’t have to go to work in honor of the holiday. I’d probably have called it “labor day off”, or simply “I aint goin day”.

When I worked in the Financial Center 3 day weekends were totally not worth it, especially when they fell the 1st or 15th. The day after the holiday everyone bombarded the branch with “urgent” banking needs. There would be a non-stop slew of people from the moment the doors opened till we locked up that night. Working in an office, it’s not so bad. In fact, no one seemed to miss a beat. Or maybe they did miss the beat, but no one really cared.

I am in favor of 4 day work weeks. I would put in an extra 2 hours a day to get a whole other day off. Think of all the stuff we could accomplish with an extra day off. So many times we are limited because of only having Saturday and Sunday… but with an extra day there is SO much more we could do.

3 day road trips
3 day camp outs
3 full days of snowboarding
3 full days on the lake
3 day home improvement projects
3 day get a ways
2 days of stuff and 1 day to recover
or
1 day to play really hard and 2 days to recover

As you can see, the list of possibilities is endless! Pretty much you can do anything you would have done with a 2 day weekend... AND MORE!
But until I can convince HR to implement a 4 day work week, here’s looking forward to Columbus Day, Oct. 13th!!!

Ewww that smell

Its a slow day.... I really got nothin' for ya, but I came across this interesting story on wikihow.com

Pretty much, its a story about how to eat the worst thing you have ever , or more likely never, smelled. I haven't even heard of a Durian, but apparently they smell horrible! Frankly, they dont look too great either.

Whats funny about the article is that half of the whole thing is how to get your Durian home, because the smell is SOOO bad. Here are some points to consider:

• Avoid traversing crowded public places


• avoid riding mass transit as a courtesy to other passengers


• if you must use mass transit, ride in a sparsely crowded car or bus seat away from everyone else


• consider driving home or riding a bicycle


• if you use a car make sure to open the windows!

This friut better be the most delicious thing I have ever tasted for all the trouble it is to travel with. Not to mention the toxic smell it produces. Which by they way, why would I want to eat something that smells so bad your not even supposed to bring it near other people?!?

Once you cut into it, if the smell hasn't scared you off... then you have to actually put it in your mouth... but look at it...

gross. No thanks. Even if this does taste great, it just seems like far more trouble than its worth.

If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, then I think I will just go with that.

Bikes of Excess

If your going to ride, do it in style! Here are some must have bikes to look good on the go.

The Orange Crush Bike

This bike was inspired by the "I need a bike for every occasion" idea. A road bike, a commuter bike, a grocery bike, and apparently a cool drink on a hot day - Orange Crush bike! Shoot, I'd feel cooler just riding it. I do wonder though, if you gonna build a whole bike dedicated to getting a drink, shouldn't you put on a cup holder? humm.

The Pink Tandem Bike

This would be, I guess, for any girls who want to go on a ride with a friend. Pretty sure this one is gender specific. I cant picture a couple dudes rollin out to the gym on this. I guess if you really need a purpose to ride this bike it would be the "going to the bank bike", because it is from an ad campaign for WaMu.

The Coco Chanel Bike

For the fashion conscious rider we have the Coco Chanel bike, I guess you could use this to get to the mall when they Beamer or Bentley is being detailed. Might still want to have it valet thought, for $12,000, I dont think I'd leave this one locked to the bike rack. There definitely isn't ample room for thousands of dollars worth of clothes, so this would obviously be used only when jewelry shopping. Im sure you could get several hundred karot worth of diamonds in the saddle bags!

For the guy who has everything, the 24 karot Gold Bike

This bike is, well, worth its weight in gold. For a mere $18,000 you can have your very own, one of a kind, gold bicycle, complete with security guard. I really have no idea where you would go on this bike, but I do know you would get there is style! They say you can't drive a Mercedes into the board room, but I guess you could roll you bike in there... but, that might not get the responce intended. Heck, a $3.99 can of gold krylon would achieve the same look, and who really knows what its made of?!?

And incase you were thinking anyone whos owns one of these really does have a problem with excess, I present you with this guy...

...who has stole 2,685 bikes. With over 10 rented garages full of bikes not to metnion a shop and his own home, this would far and away have to be the definitoin of excess. Police still dont know what he was planning to do with all of them all. I had up to 6 bikes at one time and I thought my place looked more like a bike shop than an apartment. I cant imagine what 2,600 bikes would even look like!

Movin' On Up

Want to move to Seattle? Let me help...

If you are one of the "lucky" ones you can move here.

This is 1521, oops, Fifteen Twenty-One

For a modest $2.5 to $10 million dollars you can call this home(sorry, not the whole thing, just one unit). It will be the second tallest residential building in Seattle with 38 stories and 143 homes. It is being build right across the street from where I work, so I have watched as it climbed its way up.

Im sure this is perfect for some people, but even if I had the money, I think I'd pass. If I was going to spend a couple million dollars, I would rather have a house or two. Instead of a glass box, I think I would go with a place that had a garage, patio, yard, maybe even a window that I can open to get some fresh air... for a few million I can think of A LOT of stuff I would rather buy. But then again, if I had a couple million to buy a condo here, I'd probably already have that other stuff anyway. And, I guess I can get a garage, patio and yard at my summer house, or winter villa....

Nutrients vs Food

Meat, aka Matt from Canada, my #1 (and probably only) Canadian reader left me a link to this article on the heels of my rant, Fill 'er up, about our misguided attempt at vitamin consumption.

It was written in early 2007, and I will forewarn you, its long, really long, but set aside some time to sit down and read it. Seriously, its extremely thought provoking and whether or not you believe it or dismiss it, its worth thinking about.

I can't really even begin to summarise the whole article, but I will point out one topic in the article. It wasn't until the late 70's that scientist started to pull apart and put back together our food in attempts to make what we eat healthier. Ironically, it was the late 70's and early 80's that the US obesity epidemic really got started.

So, read on... and if you have any feed back, let me hear it.

IT happens

Live, work and ride in Seattle and you’ll see some crazy stuff. I have seen quite a bit but today was a first for me.

I was a few minuets late riding into work this morning and it changed my life forever. Its only after something monumental has happened that you retrace the steps that brought you to that very moment in time. “What if I left the house 2 minuets earlier”, “what if I rode any slower or any faster” or if I had of taken 3rd and not 5th? Changing any one of these variables would have completely altered the outcome. But alas, I was in the core, down town Seattle, on the corner of Pike and 3rd at 7:51am for the culmination of what can only be described as the defining moment of my Seattle experience.

Heading to work turning off of Pike onto Third Ave I went around the bus, who was also on the same path. I rolled through the cross walk congested with people shuffling along on their way to work. This is where I first laid eyes on subjects of my story. What I saw was a man walking his dog, a lab or maybe golden retriever mix, which is a normal site, not worthy of much attention. But it wasn’t until the leash grew taut and the man turned to see the hold up that I realized what was coming next. The dog, in all his abundant wisdom, had chosen this very place to take care of his “business”. Yes, in the middle of the crosswalk on the corner of 3rd Ave and Pike Street, in down town Seattle, pedestrians and buses be damned! As the crowd of people bubbled around the deed in action, traffic came to a halt with buses and cars waiting and watching the owner standing awkwardly, tethered to his dog, squatting, hind legs still quivering, in the middle of the street.
Of course, no camera, no evidence, no documentation of this epic occasion, which I will undoubtedly relive each and every time I see a dog walking on the cold hard streets of Seattle.

Fill 'er up

OK, I wont go into Americas obesity epidemic, I mean, Im only here for about 8 hours and I don’t want to start labeling the blog by Volumes.

But you know our country, and even the world, are in a sad state of affairs when we are depending on soda to get out vitamins. Coke has Coke Plus and Pepsi is coming out with Tava, a one stop shop for a delicious and “healthy” beverage.
Now, soda and soft drinks, in and of themselves, aren’t inherently bad, but if you are consuming so much that you need them to have vitamin additives you might want to think about cutting back. I dunno, maybe have some water or a juice, heck pick up a piece of fruit every now and then. The fact that these companies thought of these kind of products says a lot about were we put the value of actual, real, nutrition, but the fact that consumers are drinking these says even more.

(I dont even see soda on here... man, this thing is out dated)

Just incase you think that’s they only way to be “healthy”, think again. 7-11 and Starbucks wants you to be able to have a choice on they way you consume you daily vitamins. Just like some people like apples and some like bananas, some people like soda and others like coffee. Why should we limit consumption of much needed vitamins to soda when we could put it in our coffee too! In a rush to keep up with our insatiable appetites the research and development team from Starbucks came up with this great idea and this one from 7-11. Its funny though, consumer affairs tells us, apparently, coffee and vitamins don’t really mix. Coffee, and caffeinated drinks in general, limit the absorption of vitamins and minerals. Huh, so, this is really just a big scam which will lead to further obesity, diabetes, liver and kidney problems, no, that can’t be right.

But wait... There's more! All this healthy soda and your still feeling tired? Don’t worry, now you don’t need sleep either! Thanks to the creators of Red Bull and the mass marketing of Monster not to mention the other countless energy drinks, we can cut out sleep all together. Yea!
Now this is getting really good, I can drink my vitamins and drink my energy be completely healthy and live a long full life!

Ok, I will admit, even the healthiest of the morbidly obise need a quick pick me up now and then. I guess an 8oz Redbull would do the trick… or, new and improved 12oz, oh, or the newer 16oz…. oh gezzz, the *new* 24oz?!? Seriously, twenty four, liver punchin, sugar rushing, heart pounding ounces? Well, don’t worry, if you not dead yet, Monster offers the 36oz pop top can. Pop top implying that it is one (1) serving, not able to be saved for later....
(not pictured is the 24oz Red Bull)

What you’re thirsty for regular H20, but your body cant handle anything without high fructose corn syrup and your pallet can't take anything not artificially sweetened, not to mention you don’t want to miss out on your only source of vitamines? Don’t worry, Vitamin Water has made sure we don’t miss a single swig of throat choking vitamin goodness.

Well, You can bet that all this talk about soft drinks has certainly made me thirsty, not to mention exhausted, so im off to the break room, dollar in hand to get a nice cold refreshing beverage... I can only hope they have restocked the Diet Coke Plus, all this typing I'm surely low on B12 and couldn’t go on another second with out some Vitamin C, I mean, it is my only option .... right?