No gods, no kings, no billionaires
I finally got round to doing all of the photos from our Rome trip this year. Here are some nice ones! (There are more over in Alex’s pages, but your have to register to see them. Please feel free to register, but send me an email if I’m not likely to recognize your name or email address. We get a surprisingly large number of weirdos trying to register who get offended when we delete their logins because we don’t know who they are.)
Well, the diet kind of stalled at the end of week 5 (18 May). After we’d brought Alex back from the hospital that evening, we all tucked in to an enormous chinese takeaway, and things went downhill from there. I’d known that the holiday in Rome was going to be a diet killer, but I was also hoping that the additional exercise we’d be getting (walking everywhere) would keep it down to the weight gain down to a manageable level.
In the end it wasn’t too bad. I was back up to about 71.5kg immediately after Rome, but I’m down to 70kg now. Which is great. There are trousers I can wear again for the first time in two years. On the other hand, I’ve had to give away the trousers I bought in Boston in February, because I could pull them down over my hips without unbuttoning or unzipping them. 7kg makes a big difference.
My target for the current diet is still 67kg. My long-term aim is to maintain my weight between 67 and 70kg. So right now I’m at the top end of where I want to be. That feels about right. I’m content with my weight right now, but I know I’d be even happier with just a few kilos less.
The diet doesn’t feel like a diet any more, though. After eight weeks it has turned into a realisation that there is a certain amount and type of food I can eat that is compatible with being a reasonable weight. It feels like I have adopted new eating habits that (hopefully) mean my body is going to find a stable equilibrium somewhere between 67 and 70kg. And, happily, these eating habits still include the occasional bar of chocolate, and a moderate intake of pizza. Yay!
Rands just had what he described as a “Holy Duh” moment with regard to weblogging, and what weblogs are:
The painfully simple question is, “What is a weblog?” The painfully simple answer is, “A weblog is the representation of a person on the Internet.”
…
Weblogs are Net_People. Just like your circle of friends, some are particularly good at original content, some are just great at relaying links to other information. Some say too much, some say too little, but a weblog is the singular voice of a person.
Every now and then the obvious is worth stating. Sometimes it can clarify a picture nicely. For me, this ties into something I’ve been wondering about lately. Namely, what is the appropriate etiquette for reading weblogs?
Nope, I didn’t leave my phone at work. I called the lost property section of Lothian Buses, but none of their drivers have handed in a mobile phone today yet. They suggested I call back on Monday to check again. (The lost property department isn’t open at the weekend. They aren’t even open much on weekdays. 10:00 to 13:30, Monday to Friday only. Why stop there, I wonder? why not make the opening hours completely random? 07:45 – 09:50 on Mondays, 13:45 – 15:10 on Tuesdays, etc. People should pay more attention and not lose their damn stuff in the first place.)
I called T-Mobile last night and got them to put a block on the line, so that no calls can be made on my account. If Lothian Buses don’t have it on Monday, I’ll get the phone unit itself blacklisted, so that it can’t be used at all, even with a new SIM card. (Yeah, right…like hackers haven’t found a way around that yet.)
I’m not having much luck with mobile phones. My last one got destroyed by orange juice in Rome just last year. If it turns out that this one is gone, I’m not sure if I even want to get another one. Maybe it’s time to be disconnected for a while.
To cheer myself up this evening, I’m catching up on some of the non-important tasks on my to-do list. So far, I’ve added images to my “quick reviews” section, that take you to Amazon.co.uk. It’s useful not just for buying the book (should you want to), but it also gives you quick access to other people’s reviews on Amazon.
Also on the menu for this evening are some new quick reviews, some more tweaking of Paint Shop Pro scripts. I might even make a start on my “favourite music” list…
Crap, I think I’ve lost my mobile phone. It’s possible that I left it at work, but I’m fairly sure I put it in my pocket. The more likely explanation is that it fell out of my pocket while I was on the bus home. I’ve grown so used to wearing cargo trousers with large side pockets, that I’ve forgotten how shallow the pockets in my summer chinos are.
What a crap end to a crap day.