N things make a post

17) It’s the 17th week of 2013. I think.

12) I’ve been married 12 years.

11) My car (which currently isn’t starting) is 11 years old.  Probably needs a new battery.

8) I’ve interviewed eight potential coworkers recently.

5) Five loads of laundry today. This is not counting the mattress cover and comforter, which went in the dryer on high to kill dust mites.

3) I worked late 3 nights last week. (Planning not to do that this week.)

2) Two electrostatic air filters washed.

1) Sounders won their game 1-0.

What’s notable with you today?

Friday Fun

OK, let’s talk about some fun stuff. @52stations tweeted this link:

I also think today’s a day for Matt:

Because

Anything you want to share?

What is with Ina Garten?

Just for grins, I looked at which search terms have been most popular so far this year.

And so far?

Variations on the blog name: “living 400 lbs”, “living 400″, etc.
Variations on the blog topic: “400 lbs”, “400 pounds”, “super obese”.
Variations on Ina Garten’s weight: “ina garten weight”, “ina garten weigh loss”, “ina garten weigh loss 2012″, etc.

Apparently people are curious, or apparently I’m weird for mentioning it.  At least it’s mostly leading to this post and not speculation.

Another popular one that gets on my nerves is “what to do when your sore”.  Can we just be clear that it should be “what to do when you’re sore” or “what to do when you are sore”?  Please? :)

Monday Music: Let’s Dance

Specifically some dance music from some of the new-to-me performers at Norwescon!

From local jpop artist Rai Kamishiro’s new album is “Doki Doki Feelings“

Lyrics are on bandcamp.

Chiptune artist Jonny Nero Action Hero.  Here’s his Doctor Who song “Exterminate“:

Lyrics are on bandcamp.

And from nerdcore artist Klopfenpop comes “Don’t Panic“:

Lyrics are on bandcamp.

Late Forties?

On if the things that WordPress includes in its blog statistics page is “referrers”, aka, links people have followed to my page. Some are perennials, such as search engines and other fat blogs. 

Recently one was to a forum I didn’t recognize. Curious, I followed it to a discussion of fat and health, where I was cited as being in my “late forties”. 

Me: “LATE forties? 46 is LATE forties? Sure, I’m over 40, but … 46!!  Not 49!!”

Anyway. I’ll be over here waiting for the AARP welcome packet with my hair dye & Daria DVDs.

Music Monday

Lyrics are here; to quote the author, this is “[t]old from the point of view of a project manager at a certain little company in San Rafael, CA, sometime in the mid-1990′s…”

Smile

This gave me a smile :)  What’s been a reason for you to smile lately?

Being An Adult

My favorite thing about being an adult — about having a nice home to live in and an amazing-and-wonderful-and-often-super-difficult job and a loving/working marriage and debt that I pay on time — is that I get to self-determine what my grown-up life looks like. Being able to choose to do (and yes, even to buy) silly shit without remorse or self-recrimination is my greatest reward for being a grown up; being able to trust that it’s okay to like the things I like and to not worry about whether they’re appropriate or acceptable is one of the best feelings in the world.

— Lesley Kinzel at XOJane

“Now that you’re an adult, take refuge in the fact that some things are beyond your control. You owe it to yourself to steer clear of people who are harmful to your health.”

― Andrea Lavinthal, Your So-Called Life: A Guide to Boys, Body Issues, and Other Big-Girl Drama You Thought You Would Have Figured Out by Now

“Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.”
― Dr. Seuss

In Which I Get Fangirly

The most recent episode of The Big Bang Theory is a perfect example of what I hate and love about the show.

Sheldon’s “talking to” Alex? Terrible. Not just terrible in what was said (which it was) but also out of character. Sheldon isn’t good at reading emotions or dating, but he isn’t cruel.  Sheldon not asking his “Council of Ladies” what to say to Alex?  After he’d asked what to do?  Sheldon is nothing if not thorough; if he’d asked for help he’d have wanted a clear answer.

And yet, Leonard telling Penny:  ”Are you feeling insecure? Because that’s my thing and if you take that away I don’t know what I’m bringing to this relationship.”  That’s amazing. Leonard is reassuring Penny, while also acknowledging that he has been insecure himself.

  

And the glasses?  Hubba hubba.

First I like that Penny flat-out ADMITS she finds science boring. But she is smart. She’s also an actress, so she does a little acting.  And Leonard’s reaction is sweet.  ;)

[Note: These clips do not include fat jokes, but the show does have some. Please do not start watching the show if this will be a dealbreaker for you.]

Things to Read

If you can (not allergic to eggs etc) get your flu shot. Yes, really.

The Kindle edition of A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master” by Rachel Held Evans is $1.99 right now. I enjoyed it, and not just for the debunking of the “Wives are required by God to appear pretty/sexy” meme.  (Rachel is also the author of “How to win a culture war and lose a generation“, “15 Reasons I Left Church“, and “15 Reasons I Returned to The Church“.)

Guns do kill people (at least in the US) in one graph.

How the late Jack Klugman helped people get needed medical care.

The Fat Nutritionist post on “Stuff people assume I believe vs. stuff I actually believe” is cool, but it’s sad that it’s needed.  (See also comments on how if I keep exercising I’ll lose weight.  No, not necessarily, and that’s not the point anyway.)

And check out Barry Deutsch‘s take on “Reality Television“.

Q&A, or, More Fun With Search Terms

I’m bored, so I’m going to treat some of the search terms for this blog as questions. I may have gotten a touch silly on these. Void where prohibited by law.

why don’t really fat people have diabetes

The pancreas wants what the pancreas wants.

earrings around 400 pounds

OUCH!

making kraft dinner from scratch

If it’s from scratch, it’s not really Kraft Dinner, is it?

inexpensive women’s size 7x clothing

Try Woman Within clearance.  Or eBay.  Good luck!

why were people so skinny in the 70s

Weight Watchers recipes! Also, they hadn’t quit smoking yet.

showering with a full stomach causes fat?

I….what?

how to get car out if someone parked too close

Get in another door and scoot. (May require a car you can scoot in; best to acquire in advance.)

will naproxen sodium make me less sore

Hopefully.

will 45 in seatbelt be long enough for a 350lb woman?

I think measuring might help.

colonic for flu

No.  Just….no.

Music Monday

I spent the weekend volunteering at a craft fair. Lots of walking, lots of uncomfortable seating, lots of lifting.  Physically I’m sore, but I think it was good to have the break from reality that provided.

The craft fair also had some local bands performing during the day.  One mentioned a filk of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” that I really like. Lyrically it’s better than the original and set during The Empire Strikes Back with Han Solo and Princess Leia.  It starts with them singing largely past each other about Hoth:

Him: I’ve got to go away
       Her: but Baby it’s cold outside
This whole planet is
       Hoth isn’t very nice.
Cold as hell
       It’s a one-climate planet just ice
I’m worried about Luke out there
       It’s negative sixty degrees
He’s from a desert town
       And that’s not even counting the breeze

[...and eventually they're talking with each other....]

Him: Whoa I thought Luke was your guy
       Her: He couldn’t use the force if he tried
I don’t think you know what you’re saying
       Why don’t you let me decide?
I think the cold has gone to your brain
       I’ve never been so sure in my life
So this is a thing?
       If you stay then you’ll find out
I’m not giving you a ring…
       I’m a princess, not a girl scout

Of course, if this had actually happened in the movie, it might have resulted in Luke dying and leaving Han and Leia to save the universe. Wait, they did that anyway … except for the Luke dying part, of course. ;)

Semi-Random Friday Fluff

New office currently is just mine! I’m sure that will change but I am enjoying it now.

Also! Allergies / asthma better now that I’m not sharing an office with a dog.

Changed my work computer to a giftmas theme.

Archie McPhee has a giftmas store. Googly eyes Christmas tree! Emergency Santa kit! Inflatable window! JP Patches action figure!

So far this year, giftmas gifts to myself include a BOGO offer from Making It Big’s 12 Days of Christmas offers.

 

I <3 the “Mark Reads” discussion of the Newsflesh books (Feed, Deadline, Blackout.)

And a peppy little tune to help your Friday:

 

Silly Moment

“Time of the month or sneeze guard?”

— The man of the house, as I added a few pads to my bag before work.

X Things Make A Post

Yes, I voted.  (Yes, hopefully the USians will stop talking about elections soon!)

I spent the weekend at a sci-fi con.  I was not the only too-big-for-size-24 in the hotel, which is nice.  Serious body variation FTW :)

Michelle at The Fat Nutritionist wrote about “food addiction”.  (The quotes probably give away my opinion.)

ThisIsThinPrivilege.tumblr.com/ is an interesting ongoing conversation about degrees of size privilege

A pharmacist’s  flu shot FAQ covers the basics.

You can spend time just refreshing calmingmanatee.com

Good News Network can be nice.

What’s up with you?

Things to Read

From Paul Campos discusses the failure of a “sophisticated and expensive attempt” to validate the hypothesis that “significant long-term weight loss improves health outcomes”:

It will probably come as a surprise to most readers to learn that this hypothesis remains almost completely unconfirmed by the medical literature – in part because we simply don’t know how to produce significant long-term weight loss in a statistically significant group of people, so the hypothesis has been impossible to test.

The study, called Look AHEAD, has been covered elsewhere.  Participants lost 5% of their body weight and maintained that loss for over 11 years.  Yes, the researchers considered a “significant” weight loss to be a 5% loss from baseline.  Not “reducing BMI to “normal”".   Losing 5%.   If losing 5% of your weight would put you in the “normal” BMI bracket, it’s likely you’re there already.

And the study found that maintaining that “long-term, significant” weight loss didn’t improve health outcomes.

Lesley Kinzel discusses “glorifying obesity” with sarcasm and smarts.

If reminding folks that fat people are people first — that they are individuals and not some monolithic amoeba of disease rolling itself over the planet, and that their bodies are not shameful, not ugly, not embarrassing, not immoral, but as worthy of acceptance as every other body is — if THIS is the same as glorifying obesity, then bring on the glory. I will carry the banner. I won’t be sorry, not for my part in changing our culture around bodies in general and not for my own body that I live in, right now — I won’t be sorry, and I won’t apologize. Neither should you.

And if you want a smile, you should read Jess Zimmerman on Moses, the baby elephant, and his adoptive family.  Moses also has a blog maintained by his human family.

Working For The Weekend

During dinner a friend pointed out that this weekend will be WorldCon, DragonCon, and PAX.

Toss in the Republican National Convention and my Twitter may EXPLODE….!!

Yes, it is indeed leading up to the American three-day weekend known as Labor Day. I will spend a couple nights in the mountains. What are your plans, if any?