Did you know?

[The following service announcement was received in my eMail today. Amazing news. Another shining example of why Al Gore invented the Internets!].

I didn't know this, did you? Checked my boxes today, and lo and behold, there it is! I've been using aluminum foil for more years than I care to remember. Great stuff, but sometimes it can be a pain. You know, like when you are in the middle of doing something and you try to pull some foil out and the roll comes out of the box. Then you have to put the roll back in the box and start over. The darn roll always comes out at the wrong time. Well, I would like to share this with you. Yesterday I went to throw out an empty Reynolds foil box and for some reason I turned it and looked at the end of the box. And written on the end it said, 'Press here to lock end'. Right there on each end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place. How long has this little locking tab been there? I then looked at a generic brand of aluminum foil and it had one, too. I then looked at a box of Saran wrap and it had one too! I can't count the number of times the Saran wrap roll has jumped out when I was trying to cover something up. Unbelievable that the little lock tab was there all the time and I never knew.

8 Days

I just recently finished 8 days of juice (liquid) fasting! The picture above is from day 8's morning juice setup. Included are apple, carrots, blackberries, lemon, ginger, watermelon and grapes. Yummy. The wine didn't make it into any morning juice combos, but did find its way into most evenings. I like to do communion every nite.

I pretty much made too much of a juice every morning, and had at least 1 very large one every day. Cathy shared on the weekend. Then a couple evenings of green/veggie juices, otherwise homemade veggie broth. Lots of water, herb tea, and a few cocktails. All but one day, I stopped by the local Booster Juice and got a double shot of Wheatgrass juice.

I got most of my education and inspiration from this book (click on picture for link) which I've had for several years. I've been waiting to be nicotine free to do a real fast, and the time finally showed up!

I also had three colonics here. The last and only other time I had one was with my girlfriend Marlene somewhere in the desert near Tucson in the early 80s. That's surely worthy of its own story someday. Believe me, there's a few stories waiting to be told from around those times. My most recent colonist is about 24 years old, and cute like a 24 year old therapist should be. It's a bit difficult letting it all go when you're practically naked, a tube stuck in the right place, and well, you know. I'll leave it at that. I would include colonics again once a year or so perhaps, more than that seems a bit too corrective for your bobJuan. Some of my closest friends have already figured out where the weight loss from this fast came from.

My reasons for doing the fast were primarily cleansing. I am so happy to be done with nicotine/smoking. So, I figured let's get it on and get some of that outta here. I lost almost 10 pounds. I could drop a few more. I had things set up where for the most part I could stay calm and inactive, hell, you know me, that's my MO. Remember, do nothing, and achieve all things!

Some obversations/lessons:

• When you're fasting, if there's plates and forks/spoons in the sink, they're not yours.
• I normally eat a LOT of food every day
• After a few days, it's easy to not eat
• It's nice not to have to think about eating for a few days
• Don't go to 3 grocery stores in a row, on the same day, while you're fasting
• You don't have to be nervous, it works out pretty easy to do this, besides you can quit anytime!
• It's mostly education and attitude
• While you're juice fasting you can save on dental floss!

I am very pleased with the experience. I expect to make fasting a regular part of my life after doing this. Maybe once a month for a few days, or once a week for a day, something like that, I imagine. My friend Maria recently did 10 days of the Master Cleanse. I think I may try that someday too, though it seems more radical than what I just did.

Since I quit smoking, I'm liable to try anything!

Monkey Free!

20 Minutes

You may remember a little over a year ago, I did a little ditty about my monkey here. In many ways my monkey has been my first true love for 32+ years. I mean obviously she's been the most important thing in my life, given the amount of time and attention I've devoted to her, not to mention how much $$ I spent on her! Nothing else in my life got even close to getting between me and her. And no matter how many times I've tried to leave her, and it's been hundreds, I always let my #1 Squeeze (or is that wheeze) back. Usually within a week. All my intimates know that when I say she's gone for good, it's just a wink-wink affair, and that they'll see me with her at our next social engagement. I kick her out, and then two or three days later, I'm sneaking around with her, bit-by-bit until the next thing you know, she's back on the porch full time. My girl Cathy has been very patient and kind about all this. It must be difficult to share me with such a wicked bitch porch-monkey! About 3 months ago, on March 6th, I kicked 20 Minutes out for the last time. I can blog with absolute certainty that I'm finally on the other side. After 32 years of pacifying her every 20 minutes of every single day I can also say that I KNOW what that game is like; been there, done that, and it's time to move on. For the first 2 months after I kicked her out, I got myself a stuffed sock monkey to have out on the porch. Seemed easier than having a cold turkey hanging around. And it was. And though she wasn't quite the same, she comforted me until I could get completely over 20 Minutes, and for that I am grateful. But now, even the little-friend monkey can't be found around these parts. Don't ask me where she went, I bet you can find her at Walgreen's, that's where I got her. I'm now monkey free. If I can do it, anyone can!

These Darn Socks

These are my favorite socks. They're very soft and black. And you can't tell if they're inside out or not, they're all-side-out or in. Like so many socks I have, my toes have come through. Supposedly un-sight-full. Do people mend, or darn their socks anymore? These are perfectly great socks, even with the holes!

Check this out

Or this

And this

Cathy says she ain't gonna do it!

That's it, I'm gonna do it.

I'll report back!

A couple of quotes from the kitchen:

Do not overlook one drop in the ocean of virtue.

Cultivate a spirit which strives to increase the source of goodness upon the mountain of goodness.

One, Seven, Three, Five -

The truth you search for cannot be grasped.

As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean.

The dragon's jewels are found in every wave.

Looking for the moon, it is here, in this wave, in the next.

Knowing that conscious decisions and personal memory

are much too small a place to live,

Every human being streams at night into the loving nowhere,

or during the day, into some absorbing work.

No better love than love with no object,

no more satisfying work than work with no purpose.

If you could give up tricks and cleverness,

that would be the cleverest trick!

Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.

Don't try to see through the distances.

That's not for human beings. Move within,

but don't move the way fear makes you move.

I am so small I can barely be seen.

How can this great love be inside me?

Look at your eyes. They are small,

but they see enormous things.

The War

Found this at my friend John's Blog: I hate war.


click here to learn more

It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace~Andre Gide

Dear Bill

I have decided to leave you. It's been a long time, I know, we've done some pretty great things together, and there was so much hope. But over the past several years it's been getting harder and harder to get anything done, and I feel strangled in the relationship. I think the icing on the cake was Office 2007. When you guys decided to hide the little print icon that has been in the upper left hand corner of every Windows application I've ever used for the past 20+ years. It's gone. Then, last week I was needing to switch to "overstrike" mode in a document, which used to be done by pressing the Insert key, and you could see your mode in the bottom of the window (Ins or Ovr). Thats gone too. And I ask myself, how could this be better? How could it be better that I have to learn how to use a word processing system all over again? Then, last week, I get the following instructions for how to go about upgrading to the Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. ****************************** SP 3 Upgrade Notes ****************************** I’ve been looking at the Windows XP newsgroup posts about XP SP3 problems. Here is a Microsoft article on Steps to take before you install WinXP SP3https://wam.maricopa.gov/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950717(includes numerous windowsupdate.log Error Codes, if encountered during installation) Also, before installing, temporarily disable all real-time protections afforded by your anti-virus application, any anti-spyware applications, and any third-party firewall prior to installing SP3. Enable Windows firewall before you disable a third-party firewall: The machine should never be connected to the internet without an active firewall. Alternatively, disconnect from internet – pull the cable – then disable the 3rd party firewall and enable Windows firewall before reconnecting to the internet. After installing SP3 /and rebooting twice/, check to make sure your real-time protections have been re-enabled; If you disabled a third-party firewall, remember to re-enable it and disable the Windows Firewall. SP2 will go out of support in two years, at which time we will need to have SP3 to get Windows Update patches. Looks like we can stay with XP until 2014, at which time you’ll need to migrate to Mac OS X or Ubuntu. ;) Here are some instructions for removing malware. Phil, you might want to take a look at this. http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware ************************ Wow! **************************** Just this morning it took me over 30 minutes to install the latest Windows Update (which we do monthly). Had to install the Genuine Advantage something-or-other too. At least no reboot this time. I can't wait to tell my Mom how to do this! And one more thing, I'm not sure who put this together (Dell I reckon), but our new keyboards at the office. They now have all this real-estate tied up for multi-media, and you can't tell easily (very dim lights?) if you have caps-lock on or Num-lock on, without looking really close to the damn thing! I don't need to operate my CD player from my friggin keyboard! I'm working here! In conclusion Bill, Somewhere along the way we've lost our focus. We started to look for better ways to solve our customers problems and got lost in the looking, forgetting our customers all together. As soon as we upgrade to .next, everything will be better. Now, it's all about our problems, how we can be better at solving problems. It's about our careers, what technology can do for you! We do technology. I'm beginning to think it's the other way around, technology is doing us! I'm gonna give Steve a call Bill, sorry.

Here's some more from my friend Ryan: OK. Can you tell me why, after years of a clean menu system MS has devolved to the Office ribbon? Now, in Outlook if I want to spell check they have the feature on the Message tab, over to the right. Where is this very same feature in Excel? Oh, on the Review tab, naturally, way over to the left. The same functions are organized under different tab headings in different applications? What freggin’ sense does this make? After years of knowing exactly where every menu/toolbar feature is now they have to change it. Retarded! I wish I knew someone who worked at MS so I could CC them on my rants. It’s one thing to create the ribbon, but at least make it consistent across your product suite. I’d love to meet the genius responsible for this design. OK, done now. Love you too.