I posted in a previous entry about my weight loss in 2007.
Here is a picture. On the left is me a day or two before Christmas.
On the right is me last February at graduation - and I had ALREADY lost
some weight there! I couldn't find a picture from January. (I've been
bad about not using my digital camera.) I've decided to make the "after" picture my new profile picture. Hopefully next year, I'll have an even thinner one to use!
Just out of curiosity what were your best and worst gifts this year at Christmas?
For me - I think worst (though practical, sorta) was a Biosilk haircare set (shampoo, conditioner, gel, conditioning spray). I appreciate the thought behind it, but I am very particular about what I use in/on my hair.
Best - Led Zeppelin DVD - I never saw them in concert and I've never seen even a video of them. The only one I've ever seen in a video is Robert Plant. (There were other great gifts, too, so it was hard to decide which was the best.)
On another note (pun intended) I'm trying to listen/learn about the current music scene. I purchased this CD at Starbuck's yesterday. My stepdaughter told me I should learn some Mary J Blige songs because she sings in about the same range I do. LOL I may be able to hit the notes, but I don't think my voice has the flexibility to stylize like she does.
Results of last year's goal to weigh less at the end of the month than I weighed at the beginning:
17 pounds between highest weight in January and lowest weight in December! My actually ending weight was 15.2 pounds lower than my starting weight.
I'm going to set the same goal for this year.
Woot!
I can throw ALL my Roaman's catalogs away!!! I can start shopping from regular size catalogs 
Maybe during the holidays I can post a before and after picture. (Though I'm not done yet - I still have about 30 pounds to go.)
That is, if I don't break my neck or ankle or leg or arm trying LOL
Do you think Christmas' central focus on materialism takes away from the ambiance of the season?
This question of the day got me thinking about the "materialism" of Christmas. Not being a religious person myself, while I can appreciate the Christian's purpose for Christmas (setting aside that they usurped the pagan celebration "Winter Solstice") it's much more than that to me. It's a time I get to be generous with my family and friends and even strangers, without having to justify myself. I LOVE shopping for other people. This is the time of year I pull together all the charities that I feel worthwhile and donate to them (among them the Hernando-Pasco Hospice who helped my dad's last days be comfortable - his star is haning on the tree at Gulfview Square Mall in Port Richey, FL). It's also a time for me to say "Thanks" to everyone who gave me great service throughout the year - the woman who sells Streetwise on the corner, the barristas who know what I want and have my starbuck's coffee waiting for me before I get to the counter, the girl who comes in bi-weekly and cleans my house, and the guy who plays the Saxophone at the corner of Wacker Drive and Adams Street - entertaining those of us while we hurry to our trains, or the people with the Salvation Army pails who stand out no matter what the weather, always wearing a smile.
Do I mind the materialism? Not at all. Retailers have as much right to earn a profit as anyone. I LOVE going into stores decorated for the holidays and listening to the music playing overhead.
I just wish that "Freedom of religion" didn't mean "Freedom only for athiests" because even though I am not a practicing Christian, I love all the holiday glitter - trees, creches, manorahs, all of it.
There are many reasons for the season. For me, it's a chance to give and give and give.
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Peace
My computer quit working. One day I was downloading a World
of Warcraft update and it locked up (I was also working in Photoshop,
so I thought because Photoshop is a memory hog, that was the
problem.) So I shut it down and went to restart it and though
everything had power nothing would work. I tried everything I
could think of - reseating everything - memory, video
card, CPU, drive cables, power cables, etc., removing anything that
wasn't absolutely essential to running the computer (e.g. my printer,
external drives, etc.) Still refused to start up.
Methinks it needs a new MoBo. (That's Mother Board for you non-tecchies
out there.) And with a new MoBo, that means I'll have to get
a new processor (mine is about 4 years old and no longer compatible
with any current board), as well as a new video card, as mine is AGP
and they don't make those anymore. Add the cost and I could
pretty much buy a new computer instead. HOWEVER, none of the
"off the shelf" computers are very expandable, so I'm just going to buy
a docking station, an external hard drive, and use my most
groovulicious laptop (pictured). Then I don't have to transfer stuff
between my laptop and my desktop computers. I ordered a docking station and H/D from Best Buy. Hopefully it will be here soon. We're going to take my hard drives and put them in Mac's computer, move all the stuff off them onto my portable drive, then he will keep my old drives.
Today I started paying my bills and realized I didn't have Quicken on my new computer. And the last CD I have is Quicken Deluxe 2001 (I downloaded all subsequent purchases) so I had to go online and download Quicken 2008 - this time I'll copy the d/l to CD. Fortunately, my data was backed up (I back it up every time I use the program) to an external ZIP disk so I didn't have to start from scratch.
Maybe this goes along with my pacifism. Maybe I'm just extremely naive. But I believe people are inherently good. I trust everyone until they betray that trust (then it's hard to get it back.) People tell me that if I keep this attitude I'll get burned. I don't think so. I haven't been burned yet. And I've been around a lot of years. Eisenhower was in the White House when I was born.
I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!
Haha, I should know better than to blog on controversial topics. Sometimes the responses are so not what I wrote about that I can only shake my head in wonder.
For instance:
I don't believe I mentioned anything about religion of any type in my response. Being the agnostic I am, I don't really think religion has anything to do with it - though some "Christians" tend to take things out of context or pick and choose what they want to live their lives by.
For instance:
This is old Testament thinking, and for those that believe Jesus was the savior of mankind - he preached "turn the other cheek" and threw "eye for an eye" out with the trash, so to speak.
And one last remark that makes no logical sense at all in the bigger picture:
Um, exonerating a live person will allow them to continue their life, possibly seeking treatment for any "psychological" damage that may have been caused by their incarceration. However, exonerating a dead person will not bring them back to life, nor give them a chance to continue their life.
There have been so many people - proselytizers mostly - who have tried to convince me that the death penalty is humane and just. And just as the religious proselytizers can't change my religious beliefs (or lack thereof), neither will those proponents of this most barbaric form of punishment.
I am a pacifist and will remain that way til the day I die, even if it's at the hands of another. (though my last thoughts and feelings will be of betrayal by the human race if that happens.)
I am always amazed at the people who are against abortion (even if it would save the mother's life) because "Only God decides who lives and who dies" but are for the death penalty. (Or does the executioner get appointed as God for a day?)
This blog was going to be about the troubles I was having with my computer, but I'll save that for another day.
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