VogelCam

Theme Song

I’m considering making this TMBG song my new theme. Sing along if you know the words…

Oh no, no, I never go to work (X4)
On Mondays, I never go to work
On Tuesdays, I stay at home
On Wednesdays, I never feel inclined
Work is the last thing on my mind
On Thursdays, it’s a holiday
and Fridays I detest
Oh, it’s much too late on a Saturday
and Sunday is the day of rest

Vegetables are My Food’s Food!

About 8 months ago, I went to my doctor about some heart palpitations. He did a full check and the only thing he found was high cholesterol. My score was around 196, which is “too Goddamn high” to use my doctor’s exact words, and he said that I needed to stop eating fatty animals or I would have a “cardiac event” by the age of 50. He gave me two options: go on cholesterol drugs, or become a vegetarian.

Consequently, I became a vegetarian. After 3 months, I had lost a little weight, but only felt slightly better. I had my cholesterol checked and it only went down by a few points. I Still had the heart palpitations, and I was miserable because I really missed eating meat. Disappointed, I relapsed back to my normal eating for about two months.

Then I read something about how the fat from animals can actually lower your bad cholesterol, and that high cholesterol can be a result of eating vegetables! So I decided as an experiment to become the opposite of a vegetarian: I am now a “strict carnivore.” That is, I only eat it if it came from an animal. So, for the last three months, I’ve been eating eggs and bacon fried in butter for breakfast and steaks and pot roasts and pork chops for lunch and dinner. Of course, I’m perfectly content to eat this way (I love bacon!), but I was really worried about how this would affect my cholesterol. Those words, “cardiac event” keep ringing in my ears. So last week, I had my cholesterol checked again.

Below is a voice message from my Doctor.

I’ve never heard my docotor this happy before! This is the same man who took the Lord’s name in vain when discussing cholesterol, now he’s practically giddy. I’m almost afraid to tell him that I owe it all to bacon and butter! On top of it all, I’ve lost weight, I feel better, and I don’t have the heart palpitations.

“It’s It” spotted in the wild…

I wish I had a video of my wife’s reaction to seeing these It’s It boxes in our local grocer’s freezer case. I have never seen a reaction like that before—no words or breath, gesticulating wildly.
Ever since these fantastic ice cream treats disappeared from Dodger’s stadium a few years back, we hadn’t seen a trace of them… until yesterday. I ate mine in the car on the way home from the store. IT WAS SO GOOD! Pick yourself up some up at a local Vons. At a buck each they are about 1/3 the cost of Dodger’s stadium.

BMX (update)

You might recall from a previous post that I got my old BMX bike out of my mom’s garage to eventually give to my son. Well, recently I had her restored to her former glory. Big thanks to Mr. Jalopy and Jesse over at Coco’s Variety Store for doing the work! They respectfully restore old bicycles, and love doing it. It is the nicest ride in the garage now! I’ve been riding it around the block pretty much every day. I feel like I’m 15 again.

Rib-Stickin’

Occasionally we head over to the L.A. Police Academy and have lunch at the Cafe there. Today, being Monday, the special was BBQ Ribs with beans and corn. Anyone who knows me even a little can guess that I didn’t even look at the menu after hearing this. As you can see from the picture, it was a wise choice. The ribs were so good, and there was a mountain of them. I took half of it home and it only cost $6. I recommend this highly! Check out the Cafe Specials here, and plan your next trip accordingly.

TimeMachine + AirDisk + Google = Update

Ok, after exhaustive Googling (and adding curse words to the query) I was able to find this post. I tried it, and it worked like a charm. No fuss, no muss.

AirPort+AirDisk+TimeMachine=FAIL!

According to some recent news stories, Time Machine backup on Leopard finally works with USB drives connected to an AirPort Extreme base station via AirDisk. I have been waiting for this update for a long time since I originally bought the setup (AirPort+AirDisk) hoping I could back up to it, so I was really excited by this announcement. Unfortunately, It doesn’t work! I installed all the updates and tried all the prescribed methods, and still this does not work for me. It surprises me that Apple has no documentation of this new feature.

“Check Me?? No, Check You!”

In a previous post, I dreamt about creating preposterous ad slogans that would never see the light of day in the waking world. Then today while driving, I thought I might be dreaming again when I heard a political ad with the following slogan: “Check Off, California.” Maybe there is hope for my slogans after all.

Plug ‘N’ Play

I recently ordered one of these plug ‘n’ play headphone amps for my electric guitar. It’s the VOX amPlug, and it arrived today. I took it for a spin and I have to say it rocks! (literally.) I recommend this highly for anyone who wants to practice without waking the neighbors or the baby. It costs only $39 and comes in 3 varieties. The one I chose is the AC30 for that “tubey” Beatles sound, but you can get Classic Rock or Metal sounds, too.

It has an auxiliary input for playing along with your iPod. I searched high and low and finally found a small connector that jacks my shuffle directly into it thus eliminating any extra wires. If you think you might like something like this, I highly recommend ordering from Sweetwater because the are fast, friendly, and you pay no shipping.

I can do this job in my sleep…

I rarely talk about my dreams in waking life, let alone on my blog, mainly because they are usually boring work-related dreams. I call them “workmares.” Something like: I dream I’m back at the IN-N-OUT making french fries and I’m way behind and trying to catch up except that I’m me right now and I don’t even need this job, but I’m busting my ass to prove something to myself for some reason or other and then I wake up more tired than when I went to bed.

ANYWAY, last night I dreamt that I had to come up with advertising slogans to promote a ride sharing program for the city of Los Angeles. This is a little closer to what I actually do these days, so I suppose that’s why what I came up with wasn’t too awful. When I woke up, I still remembered them, so I’m sharing them here with you. Imagine the following slogans in block letters on the side of a bus or something:

Shuttle Up and Ride, L.A.!
Van Up and Do It, L.A.!
Bus-A-Move, Los Angeles!

Ok, I admit that last one is weak, but not bad for in my sleep. In the dream they told me these were too “edgy” and rejected them. I get that a lot in real life, too. Maybe it was just a “workmare.”