THANKS, SCIENCE!!!

and thank you even more, Odessa ISD.

as per a discussion we had here a few months ago... regarding why you don't want to post your picture online.

My health

My heatlh has been an issue of late as work stress increases and less and less time has been spent doing much in the way of physical activity.

At one point, in the not so distant past, I was an avid practitioner of TaeKwonDo. In these days I could spar (essentially fist fighting) for an hour at a time, getting moderately ehausted somewhere near the end. I was doing hundreds of push-ups every week (on my fingertips no less) and tons of crunches. About three years ago, that all went to hell and I just quit.

The reasons for quitting are varied, and not terribly interesting, but I basically was not ready to give up the rest of my life in order to meet the expectations of black belts within the TKD organization to which I belonged (essentially giivng up most weekends and evenings to teach, run tournaments, etc...).

As of two weeks ago, i joined a gym, and it's been revelation as to what three years of watching cartoons and B-movies will do to your physique and general health. I had a fitness assessment (of which I take some stock, but do not acept as Bible's truth for a few reasons) which suggested I had the relative phyciality of the average 38 year old. "With a few years work," the physical trainer guy told me, "You could be your own relative age." Essentially, if I totally bust ass, I stand a good chance of being 32 when I'm 32. Whoo-hoo.

Now I can only take the charts so seriously, mostly because I still recall the incident in high school health class in which I was actually off the height weight scale so far it suggested I was morbidly obese. And at this time, I was actually pretty damn skinny. I don't know if my bones are made out of concrete or what, but I've always weighed a ton for my actual physique. Getting pudgy has only made the issue amplified.

Nonetheless, I am taking the issue very seriously as I don't want to be dead. Not yet, anyway. Maybe at some point in the future, but not this year. The simple fact is that my family has a small history of heart disease, but a large one with diabetes. I need to start working on myself ASAP in order to avoid these two traps. So I am now working out as often as possible for as long as possible, and I've got a hell of alot of work to do. So bear with me as I occasionally post progress, etc...

Rationator Mirus points to an interesting story on the first "succesful" civilian space flight. Check it out.

Congratulations to Jeffrey Alan "Peabo" Peek. My pal just got hitched up on Saturday to Adriana, a girl whose standards in selecting a husband must be astonishingly low.

Jeff and I met up in 4th grade when I first moved to Austin. He was in my class and he lived down the street from me. Our buddyship was largely based around Jeff coming up with dangerous ideas and me trying to talk him down (like trying to catch rattlesnakes using my shirt for a net...).

We lived together for a year in college, went our separate roommate ways, but have always kept in touch. Jeff went off to law school in San Antonio, and has been practicing on and off in the greater Austin area (aside froma 6 month stint in Mexico). His job brought him into Adriana's realm about a year ago, and the two of them must have really hit it off as they became like peanut butter and jelly overnight.

Peabo got married on Saturday down in Old Mexico. Due to a number of limiting factors, I was unable to attend. However, Jeff's pop (PK Peek) sent along some digital photos, one of which I share below.

Congratulations, Peabo and Mrs. Peabo. Up, up and away.

I know this opinion isn't going to be popular, but can't we take a vote on euthanizing Courtney Love?

Does anybody really need Courtney Love? Isn't she really the world's most famous junkie? Has anybody ever bought a Hole record? Aren't you kind of ashamed you did? And there's that whole possibility that she maybe might have killed her husband to ensure eternal fame and fortune. And there's the very real possibility she should not be allowed within a kilometer of her own child.

Anyway, just an idea. Discuss.

Will anyone listen to The League? Probably not.

But for your viewing pleasure, PBS is airing it's own reality programming in the form of "Colonial House".

Like Manor House, Frontier House, 1900 House, 1940's House and, I think, a few before it... Colonial House is an experiment to see how a mix of modern folks do when placed into a recreation of past ways of living. Training is provided, and the participants are not asked to pretend that they're actually in the preceeding time-frame. They are asked to dress, eat, and work as if they were in the sampled time frame.

The show is run by historians and other experts, and it appears this series will take the same format as "Frontier House" and place three households into the mix.

Nobody can win. This is not a competition against each other, but rather a competition against modern expectations versus past expectations.

If the previous series are any indication, it should be well worth tuning in for. Tonight's episode is 2 hours, so it might be worth recording.