AmbianceForce.com

It’s my 31st birthday and I think for the first time I can recall I feel like I’m older. Now that I am settling into my diet, I am looking into starting some exercising. I figured I would get the diet going first then work into the exercise routine in a bit. I’ve scoped out the Plano city rec centers and for only $130 per year, they are not only really nice and well equipt, but the annual membership costs just a few dollars more than the monthly membership at the last gym I went to.

Well, I actually had a fairly relaxing holiday weekend. Work has been kicking me hard lately. We found a good deal on Craigslist.org for a used washer. Our washer decided to die this last week. With three kids, no washer is a really bad thing. We knew it was sick, but we were hoping to make it until February so that we could get past the holidays. Oh well, it was a great deal and we’ve wanted a nice front-loading machine. A front-loader uses about 14 gallons of water per load as opposed to a top-loader that takes 40 gallons. What really astonished me was how well it works. It actually cleans better than the machine that just died.

And it was good! We had a good Thanksgiving. It was relaxing. It was entertaining. It broke my diet. It was a perfect time for Matthew to take a flying dive from the back of the couch and slam his head on the coffee table giving himself a giant bump on his head and a mild concusion. Now, maybe next time he’ll listen when I tell him not to do something because he can get hurt… ok, who am I kidding, he’s a 3 year old boy! He has already learned to ignore me and I assume that this will just be life with rambunctous boys. Wish me peace as this fatherhood thing seems to only make me worry more each day than the day before…

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. What was your day like?

Discover (the magazine not the Dicovery TV network) has a recent (10 Nov 2008) article by Tim Folger titled “Science’s Alternative to an Intelligent Creator: The Multiverse Theory“. With the cosmological theories that prop up the long-term premises of evolution rapidly fading, being disproved, or forced to contend with mounting contradictory evidence that they can not explain; scientists seeking desperatly to maintain Nietzsche’s declaration that “God is dead” have been furiously trying to modify their cosmology for the last few years. Now, it appears, that some are latching onto the Multiverse Theory as their great hope to stave off admitting that they were created. This theory comes to us from the busy beaver mathematicians who study string theory. In a nut shell, they say that there are at least 100,000 different universes existing on top of each other in some funky sci-fi like attempt to find any desperate idea they can come up with to disprove a dependancy on God. Frankly, I think I would be more inclined to consider the aging and failing theory of evolution over this. And they mock Christians for having faith in God. I mock them for having faith in this madness! Compared to these desperate theories, a heavenly creator sounds far more believable.

I said I wouldn’t do it, but I did.

If you recall, this last summer I ran some upgrades and updates to the software that powers this blog (wordpress.org). During the database upgrade, for some reason some garbage ASCII characters were introduced to most of the older posts on the site. I said I didn’t plan to go through them and clean them up. Well, I did.

I decided that I needed to update the categories for posts on the site and organize things better. Until now, all posts were just placed in the default “General” category. I figured, as long as I was going through and updating the category assignment for every post on the site, I might as well clean up those pesky garbage characters. So, enjoy the clean site.

To help with my winter weight loss challenge, I have enlisted the help of an online health tracking site, fitday.com. I can track my weight, measurements, moods, activities, and diet. It’s a really handy tool to help you count your calories and generate reports. By clicking the link below, you’ll be able to see my progress over the next few months. I have a very aggressive goal of being 150# on 13 Feb. Technically, it is twice the medically accepted safe weight-loss rate, but I should be alright as long as I can keep to it. The sad part is the holidays are coming and my favorite foods are everywhere!

http://fitday.com/fitness/PublicJournals.html?Owner=ambianceforce

Some people at work decided to do a winter weight loss challenge. $100 buy in and 3 months is all it takes. The person who loses the most by percentage takes the entire pot, which is around $1000 at the moment, and maybe growing next week. For weigh-in, I waited until after lunch and I held everything in all morning. Needless to say, I lost 7 pounds in a single day! Now, when Feb 13 rolls around, hopefully, I’ll not only be a slimmer, healthier, and sexier me, but I’ll have the cash to get a nifty Valentines gift for Christie as well. Anyway, wish me luck.

…about politics and economics.

http://liberty.edgeboss.net/wmedia/liberty/cpo/2008/20081027_convo_bm.asx

Don’t forget to vote tomorrow it is both your right and your duty!

And, in honor of the election, I give you this pic that I snapped with my phone while at Kroger the other night.  Christie and I both had a hearty laugh.

Sorry.  For those who noticed, the site was down this week because someone forgot to update their billing info with their web hosting company after moving earlier this year. Unfortunatly, due to security, I had to spend a couple days of forms and faxes of identity confiming materials in order to get the host to unlock the account for me.  Now that the bills are paid, I’m back for another 2 years!  Enjoy!