Having not had time to go for ages, we went and saw an awful lot of fillums in very quick succession. The week after the last three, we went to see The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, Triangle and Halloween 2 (strangely odd, strangely pants, strangely great). At least for one month the cinema are no longer making money out of our unused loyalty cards! Goodness knows when we'll find the time to go again (we've planned it a couple of times but I have been crap and wimped out in favour of snuggling on the settee with cats & snacks). We also bumped into rfbooth and chums at one film (well, we snuck up behind him and irritated him while he was trying to watch the credits) which was nice, if brief, as I haven't seen him for ages.

This lack of free time and filmage and general relaxation is simply down to work. Mr W and I have both been working late at night during the week, and either bringing work home for the w/ends or going in to ensure we don't get distracted by... sofas and cats and snacks. There's a theme here, you notice.

After a particularly horrendous week at work (one of my colleagues was dismissed, and I've copped for most of his workload which are now all director level complaints. Yay.), I took a day off to go Adventuring with Unusual Guru Wilbur. We started off at Alderley Edge, and then worked our way back, stopping all over the place for tea and rummagings in bookshops. The oddest thing about Alderley Edge was that a lot of the shops aren't open. There's notices in the windows with numbers to ring if you want them to open up for you, but surely then you feel obliged to buy sommat once they've made the effort to let you in?? It's a cunning ruse, but it didn't work on us, for we ran away most swiftly to other places with shops that were actually open to passing trade and tea-drinkers such as ourselves. In the evening, to make my adventure complete, rfbooth and I had planned to go for a curry, but during the day he was influenced by a character in his book to go for Japanese instead, so that we did, and had a marvellous time (even though I couldn't get into the loo - mostly due to my own incompetence).

On the Moozik front, there's been some band camp (including one Wednesday where there was a band but no camp coz the rehearsal hall was locked tight against us); and at choir, I sang a solo a while back at evensong, and was told to sing it at a morning service so more people could hear it, which I duly did. 3wks later I'm still having people coming up to say that it was v moving (I'm hoping moving in a good way, but I'm too scared to ask!); and I'm still honoured to be asked in the first place.

I also went to Mr W's choir concert (Durufle's Requiem - yummy) and got roped into turning for Mr I've-got-a-Big-Organ. Of course, as it wasn't planned I wasn't dressed for it, and as usual The Dean looked disappointed in me, but hey ho. My clothes certainly do not affect my ability to turn pages, and I'm sure they didn't adversely affect anyone's enjoyment of the performance. Humph.

Bookage: I've read Stephen King's Just after Sunset and just started twig_wonderkid's & Laurell K Hamilton's Danse Macabre which is the 57th book in a series that gave up on having a plot around book 3 and has been degenerating into badly written soft porn ever since. Hmmm. I plough on in the hope that the original rather good theme may resurface, but I fear I am fighting a losing battle.

Earage: Again, I have paid the nice lady to stuff candles into my head, which was lovely and relaxing. Although for the accompanying reflexology head massage made my legs go dead. Again. Most odd.

I've just read that over, and every paragraph ends with me humphing. See, I'm all about the joy at the moment!

I've now lost a total of 18 pounds, 12 more to go!

...that I'm going to have to update this 'ere website real soon now.

Hi everyone.  Long time no post, and I'm sure no one remembers me.  I am really into eating fresh local seasonal produce, but I was so surprised at the number of calories in a Wendy's Cheeseburger I just had to post!  So I frequently get a kid's meal when forced to eat fast food, and I like Wendy's b/c you can get the mandarin oranges instead of fries and the burgers are pretty good.  Plus the fries aren't really that great at Wendy's so I'm not tempted.  I know the cheeseburger you get in the kids meal at McDs has like 300 calories, but I thought the cheeseburger at Wendy's looked smaller than I remembered.  Turns out I was right!  only 119 calories!!!!!!  making it easier to stick to a healthy calorie goal.  I almost don't believe the Wendy's Nutrition site.  I think it's correct however b/c I remember not feeling very full afterwards... 

Hello! I am a 171 cm tall 20-year-old woman. Over a year ago I got my weight from 79 to 68. Right after having achieved that with a lot of exercise and limited calorie intake, my life changed dramatically and I started eating junk more often and stopped exercising regularly. I had moved onto my own into a new city to start university, and my studies were a huge disappointment, and that affected me psychologically: I stopped caring about my daily calorie intake and about whether my food was healthy. My ovaries had also developed several huge cysts and they had to be operated. All in all my year was very bad, and my weight climbed up to 73 kilos.

I left my home country, Finland, to move to my boyfriend's place to the Netherlands in May 2009, and I started going to the gym and running actively again and my weight stayed in some 72 kilos for a while. But then I got an office job where I worked long hours and didn't mind exercision after my workdays. I also snacked quite abundantly. When I lost my job after 5 weeks (blame the crisis), I found out that my weight had gone up to 76 kilos.

I have tried to do something to my weight lately, I have gone to the gym 2-3 times a week and run occasionally. I have often tried to eat less, but lost control of my eatings towards the evening and night :( My weight has only gone up, now I weigh 77 kg.

Since a couple of weeks I am exercising 3 times per week in the gym and running intervals 2-3 times a week. I have eaten with a -1000kcal to -500kcal minus most of the time. I realise that I often can add more weights into the machines I train with in the gym, and my running starts to feel lighter every time I do it, and that makes me happy! Still I haven't lost weight, although I fit a bit better to my clothes than a few weeks ago. Maybe I have built up some muscle instead.

From now on I will weigh myself on Fridays. I want to reach 73 kilos by 4-12 (73 kilos is exactly my limit for light overweight in the BMI), 69 kilos by 1-1, and finally 66 kilos by 22-1. This means that I need to lose one kilo every week. I will post here on whether I'll have met my goals and tell you about my progress. Posting here is a good motivator!

I want to ask what kind of a breakfast others here attempting weight loss eat? Do you make it rather abundant or minimal? What do you include in it?

I thought I'd post my progress so far:

Since my first post on 10/21, I've lost 8 lbs.

I went from 173 to 165.

I have not been starving myself. I've spread my meals out to 5 a day, cut junk food, no sodas or lemonades/kool-aids/fruit punches, very, very little candy. I halved the sugar I put in my coffee (coffee tastes so nasty to me but I'm getting used to it). And have exercised at like 4 days a week for 30~40 minutes. I also am doing little things like parking farther from the grocery store entrance. Whenever I get hungry in between meals (3 - 4 hours in between them), I'll either eat a small fruit snack with water, or I'll just drink water.

My water intake has been about 10 glasses of water a day.

I think that this has been so easy because prior to me eating this way, I really did turn to food for comfort. My mom has a mental disorder that unleashes havoc on everybody she knows, and I realized that during her last breakdown, the second I hung up with her, I immediately wanted my boyfriend to go get me a milkshake or a burger. Instead, I went to the gym and exhausted myself by going too fast on the bike machine (who I have lovingly named Hector) and it was just as satisfying :)

If I can do it, you can do it!

So I will not even bother to update the weight status. It has not changed, and it is not worth devoting my mental energy to at the moment. But, I will pose a question to you all: What are your feelings on canned fruit? I know that most people will say that fresh is always better, and it is, but it's also usually out of season in the northeast. I mean really, even apple season is over right now. And honestly, for some reason no matter how much I want to be the type of person that snacks on an orange, or a pear, or blueberries, I'm just not. I don't grocery shop that often so the fruit in my kitchen is always past its prime.

Recently I discovered Del Monte's 100 calorie canned fruit in extra light syrup (really, its not overly sweet like I expected) and theyre really good. They're the perfect snack sze, and I think they might be a good way to get that necessary fruit into my diet. What does everyone else think?

Hi there,
My name is Kendra, and currently I am a food addict. I have been since i was a child, but it gets worse as i get older.
Currently, i weigh 240, and I want to be healthy. But, sometimes when I'm stressed, I eat everything i see.
I remember a incident where i ate 3 meals from Taco Bell, 2 from mcDonalds, and a box of swiss cake rolls. I threw up soon after, but i longed for more.
I find myself wanting to eat a whole cake, when i should only have a piece.
I want to eat EVERYTHING..
i'm surprised I'm not heavier. I just don't know what to do about it. I work and I'm a mother, and I have no time to go to a support group.
Hoping that this place may give me some help or advice.
Thanks Guys.

Hey :)

So I've been having knee to calf to ankle pain for about 8 days now. Didn't stop me from exercising though. I kind of feel like if I miss a run, or miss my usual exercise routine it's like I'm eating a fast food burger. I know I shouldn't feel that way, but I do =/

Then yesterday I bought sneakers. I never really wore sneakers before. Anyways, I was able to go for 20 minutes on the elliptical (it's kind of like a treadmill, only bigger) instead of my usual 15 (five minutes, rest, restart = routine). No pain at all! Then I went for my usual 15 minute walk around the neighborhood. No pain until about six blocks, then I had to turn around but the pain wasn't so bad.

I'm thinking that my leg pain came from no foot support. Before sneakers, I was using Icy Hot bandages for muscle pain. And I don't recommend it. It works but not for long and it's majorly pricey.

It's been over 40 days since I've started my diet and I'm still craving junk food (fast food, sweets). I've read somewhere that you can break a habit in 28 days. Anyone know if that's true? Or is it normal to still crave junk after 6 weeks of dieting?

Week 6 of Diet
Starting Weight: 260 lbs
Current Weight: 245.6 lbs
Goal Weight: 130 lbs
Age: 18
Height: 5'8''

I'm new here, looking for some support and motivation to help me with my new lifestyle challenge. I'm attemping to follow a meal plan and exercise more to lose weight. Currently I am about 275lbs and I am worried about the long term effects of being obese, especially diabetes. I am very depressed because of my body issues, so I'm trying to change things in my life. If anyone wants to be buddies to help motivate each other, let me know! (No ana/mia people though, hearing about people beating themself up for eating 500 cals is hard when I'm eating like 2000 cals...) Here are some basics for my goals:

Age: 23
Height: 5'7"
CW: 270lbs
GW1: 250lbs
UGW: Whatever makes me feel good!

*x-posted*

On Friday Home Secretary Alan Johnson sacked Prof David Nutt, head of the governments own Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, for "campaigning against government policy"; which loosely translates as reiterating uncomfortable scientific findings that do not support decisions made by the government.

And in doing so he has created all sorts of trouble for himself.

I do not believe that politicians should be making policy solely based on the information provided to them by scientists; often the research is as far the practicalities of the real world as the idealism of the political philosophies.
But there is definitely something wrong when, as in this case, the politicians make a decision in advance and then ask a body of well respected, highly qualified and eminent volunteers to consider a question only in the hope that the science supports their opinion.

But even more so when the real nub of the question turns around something that actually has been researched with reference to the real world. The scientists do genuinely think they understand the impact of reclassifying cannabis between class B to class C, because that situation has already happened. They have discovered, unsurprisingly, that users, potential users and dealers don't give a monkeys either way; people didn't magically start thinking it was ok to do pot, nor did usage or dealing increase.

So if you choose to ignore that advice and research, why ask the scientists at all?

Because (according to the commentators) all the government wanted to do was send a message; but not a message to drug users, or young people who might be drawn into using pot or ecstasy; no, a message to the voters that they are not soft on drugs.

But surely the role of politicians is to envisage policy, and the convince us of the rightness of it, not to bow and scrape to the fickle reaction of the media, and the luke warm and instant, pot-noodle-like will of the man in the street.

Voters have no idea of what is right, or clever, or fair; not without help.
Only this morning a woman from a charity supporting parents applying to get their children into the school of their choice admitted, and not even grudgingly, that if parents were successful they thought the system was fair, and if not that it was unfair.

They don't realise that an increase in social mobility doesn't improve life for everyone, it just means that more people go up and more people come down. Fairer? Probably, but not without casualties that they haven't considered.

It all comes back to Strictly...; doesn't it always.
On Saturday the Great British Public voted for the people they thought might fall off the bottom; the ones that couldn't dance anyway, the ones that were ripe to go. And they did this without any thought for the consequences.
As a result they made a girl dance again, a girl with tears of pain in her eyes from dancing on damaged foot. For the first time I saw someone not just nervous of a dance off, not just upset and disappointed, but genuinely scared. I thought she'd actually cry out when they announced she was in the last two. And it was heart breaking, as she struggled through her routine again, high heels now discarded for ballet pumps.

Oi! Great British Public! Don't complain about your politicians, about expenses and not being represented. You indolent, feckless, emotional, unanalytical, trantruming toddlers! You got what you deserved, but more importantly, you got what you asked for.

Good evening!

Got a strange question for you - sometimes when I eat ice cream I start to smell like garlic. Not "I think I smell garlic" but *I* smell like garlic. My husband has confirmed that it is not just something I am making up, lol.

Anyone know why this happens? It is not all the time, not any one brand or flavor of ice cream triggers it, any brand or flavor can cause it. The garlic-y smell lasts maybe an hour or so...anyone else have or hear of this?

I tried Google, but all I get are results for garlic flavored ice cream (which I am definately not eating!)

Thanks! :)

Have you ever had a song come on the radio that was so mind-blowing that you had to turn the radio OFF when it finished, just to avoid spoiling the memory....?

Happened to me on the way home last night: Muse's "Uprising". Depeche Mode meets Tubeway Army meets Queen meets the Dr Who theme with added rock.



I'd heard their "Knights of Cydonia" before, but it didn't grab me. Now I have context, it makes much more sense.



Cause to spent £13 on the Muse Basics playlist from iTunes...

Originally published at View from the Spaghetti Factory. Please leave any comments there.

Train firms seek longer contracts (BBC)

That’d be the train firms who, despite the promise of £400m of our money over the next two years, still want to be allowed to run things their own way. The train firms who, in several cases, haven’t even been able to make it through the regular seven-year franchises without messing up badly. And they want immunity from government intervention?

Of course they do! Without the awkward General Public complaining about reliability, punctuality and ticket prices, the Train Operating Companies can get on with their main priority… making as much profit as possible. Without central intervention, would we not see even more rail replacement buses on branch lines, designed to annoy passengers so much that they use their cars, giving the TOCs statistical grounds for cancelling the service completely? Less and less compatibility between different companies’ timetables at interchange stations?

I’m not saying that the government has done much good with the vestiges of its centralised power, but at least there’s still the potential to fix things. Rail travel in the UK is already starting to feel like a clique. Those of us who use trains regularly know all the tricks for keeping ticket prices to a minimum, and the horror stories of £100+ return tickets (with a 90-minute wait because two operators hadn’t synchronised their timetables, etc) largely involve people who rarely travel by rail. It just shouldn’t be like that, and without some means of censuring the train companies, I could see that situation getting a lot worse.

The more I think about this the dumber the question seems...But...I have to ask...

Is seaweed a vegetable?  So, if I'm trying to eat a balanced diet (think food pyramid from elementary school)...what part does seaweed belong in? 

Woke up at 4.30 this morning, couldn't get back to sleep - grabbed iPhone to look at Phillies/Yankees score...

...and it prompted me for the neighbour's wifi.

Odd. So I eventually dragged myself downstairs, wondering if we'd had a breaker trip or something. Nothing obvious, so power cycled the wifi. Went to Anne's machine - couldn't see internet or machines out in the office, so power-cycled ADSL and network switch. Internet back, but not office machines.

Out to office, power cycled switch in rack. Tapped spacebar on dorian. Zip. Farted around for 10 mins, failed to get any joy, was going to miss train so legged it. Typing this on the train, where andor at least seems to be up.

Hopefully, this should be a quick fix at 6pm when I have more brain. If not, I'll be rebuilding dorian with the bigass RAID Supermicro box sitting in the office.

But for now, FilkNet IRC's on irc.gafilk.org, and if you need me, mail this LJ name @ gmail or DM via this LJ name @ twitter.

 A big hello to all u healthyme bloggers & followers. I just joined this community in hopes of finding some inspiration, motivation & friends in my weightloss journey.

I'm unfortunately down with a cold down but after reading what's been written here, I can't wait to start on my workouts and food plans. Frankly, being sick is also just an excuse to defer the starting date.

I believe in eating proper nutrition and exercise, lots of it. Do add me if you need support or if you've advice to share.

I'll be starting on Monday, 26 oct.

See u around! :)

I saw Where The Wild Things Are and to my surprise heard Tony Soprano. He voices one of the Wild Things, it was good to hear his voice and made me miss The Sopranos

Tony "Trust Only Blood"