Monthly Archives: May 2009

You Are What You Believe You Are

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The Comic Book Store Guy - Not YOU!When you hear the term “Geek” what do you think of?  If you’re a self-proclaimed Geek perhaps you think of a highly intelligent person who enjoys some of the less mainstream entertainment in modern society.  Perhaps you think of someone who is good with computers or who always has the latest technology.  Maybe you just think of someone who likes to wear black t-shirts with sarcastic sayings on them.

If you’re not one of the Chosen, though, you might have a different view of our society.  You might see Geeks as being socially awkward, unwashed, and out of shape losers who live in their mothers basement and work in a comic book store.  Society, on the whole, doesn’t paint a very pretty picture of Geeks as a general rule.

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Words of +WIS : Life Is Like A Mop

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Stanley Spadowski's ClubhouseSometimes you just hafta take what life gives ya, ’cause life is like a mop and sometimes life gets full of dirt and crud and bugs and hairballs and stuff… you, you, you gotta clean it out. You, you, you gotta put it in here and rinse it off and start all over again and, and sometimes, sometimes life sticks to the floor so bad you know a mop, a mop, it’s not good enough, it’s not good enough. You, you gotta get down there, like, with a toothbrush, you know, and you gotta, you gotta really scrub ’cause you gotta get it off. You gotta really try to get it off. But if that doesn’t work, that doesn’t work, you can’t give up. You gotta, you gotta stand right up. You, you gotta run to a window and say, “Hey! These floors are dirty as hell, and I’m not gonna take it any more!”

– Stanley Spadowski, UHF (1989)

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In Defense Of The Walking Dude

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Randall Flagg from "The Stand"When I started out this project I specifically picked a group of folks who I knew had some very different takes on the whole weight loss and fitness field.  I did this for a variety of reasons, but primarily I did so because I know there is no such thing as a “one size fits all” solution when it comes to weight loss and fitness and that having multiple perspectives on certain subjects is a great way to help our readership find out what works best for them.

Take, for example, the article that Rafe wrote the other day about doing something other than walking in order to get in your daily exercise.  It’s a fine article, and the exercise he mentions certainly seems challenging, but in reading it I felt the need to write a response and give you all the “other side” of the coin.

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Video Games Don’t Make You Fat. Food Does.

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THIS is why you're fat

America is, undeniably, getting larger around the waist line.  As a matter of fact obesity has become such a problem here that back in July of last year Senators Chris Dodd, Tom Harkin, and Jeff Bingaman introduced the Federal Obesity Prevention Act of 2008.  This bill was in response to what Dodd called “a medical emergency of hurricane-like proportions” in our country, and would have established a government strategy for preventing and reducing obesity.  This strategy would have included short- and long-term goals for childhood and adult obesity rates.

Which, in Orwellian terms, meant that the United States Government may have taken a direct interest in America’s waist line if this Bill had passed (it was referred to committee back in September of 2008 and has not been brought back up in the current session).

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Tips For A Healthier Breakfast

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The BlobBreakfast.  It’s the most important meal of the day.  That’s what they tell us anyway.  I’m not entirely sure who “they” are, really, but I know that from a very early age it seems as though every adult in your life was telling you how important it was that you get in your bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs before heading off to school in the morning.  Heck, they even put it into our cartoons.  If you’re a flannel wearing member of Generation X like me you may recall Timer, a shape changing yellow guy who sang to us about breakfast being so important that we might want to consider things like leftover chicken legs if we were out of eggs.

So yeah.  Breakfast is important.  We all know this.  Thing is, somewhere along the line a lot of us forget it.  The desire to get an extra twenty minutes of sleep in the morning often results in either no breakfast or hitting up your favorite doughnut chain for something that, while delicious, is loaded with calories and very little nutrition.  If you’re trying to improve your health, though, kick starting your day with a nutritious breakfast is an important step on the path of doing so.   Research has shown that people who eat breakfast are “significantly less likely to be obese and diabetic than those who don’t.”

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Boring School Stuff

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Just making a list here for my own records so that I can update accordingly (and get a piece of paper off of my desk).  This is a list of classes I need to take before I can enroll in the B.S. program at Saint Petersburg College.

  • BUL 2241 – Business Law
  • MAN 2340 – Human Factors in Supervision
  • MAN 2528 – Introduction to Project Management
  • ACG 2071 – Managerial Accounting
  • ENC 2210 – Technical Writing  *Currently Enrolled*
  • CGS 1822 – Web Site Essentials
  • CET 1171c – Personal Computer Systems Repair
  • CIS 2321 – Systems Analysis and Design
  • CET 1172c – Personal Computer Systems Repair II
  • COP 2837 – Visual Basic .NET Programming

Two Quick Updates

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The Muppet Show's NewsmanThe Virgin Healthmiles program that I wrote about in this post now has a membership program that individuals can sign up for.   The initial fee is $29.99 and that includes the first month, and just like your typical MMORPG there is a monthly fee after that of $12.99.  Considering the fact that you can earn up to $500 in rewards in a year you only have to make it to Level 3 to see a “profit” from that in your wallet (and you’d most definitely see one on the scale).  For more information check out the information and registration page on the Virgin Healthmiles site.

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Meet The Geeks : Michael C. McGreevy

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Michael C. McGreevyI’ve been struggling with this particular post for a while now.  Technically?  I’ve been struggling with it for about six months.  As I said in my introductory post the other day I came up with the idea for ShrinkGeek over a year and a half ago, but we’ve had an actual blog running as a testing ground since November of last year.  During that whole time it was always understood that at some point we’d all write an introductory post about ourselves for those of you who come to the blog that don’t know who we are already.

As I’ve tossed and turned ideas for this post around in my head I’ve tried to decide where exactly I wanted to go with it.  Do I talk about my geek cred or my experience as a blogger?  Do I mention the fact that I’m an actor?  Do I bring the fact that I’m a parent into the mix?  What about my career?  Is the fact that I’m an I.T. Professional relevant to what I have to say here?  Do people want to know why I reject the term nerd and embrace the term geek?  Should I keep it short and sweet or is this going to be a post of epic length?

Am I worrying about this too much?

Eventually I just decided to sit down and start writing, and as I’ve been doing so I’m reminded of the way that Hollis Mason started “Behind the Mask” in Watchmen – Start with the saddest thing you know.  Since this is a health and fitness blog I figure I’ll start with the saddest thing I know of in my own life that fits that criteria.

In the year 2000, when I was 27 years old, I had two strokes.

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Video Game Aims To Teach Diabetics to Manage Their Blood Sugar

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The Magi And The Sleeping StarWhen you think “educational software” what comes to your mind?  If you’re a parent like me you might think of the amazing Reader Rabbit series.  Maybe you think of language education software like Rosetta Stone or the supplemental DVD-Rom that came with one of your college text books.

I’m fairly certain you wouldn’t think of a an adventure game with a diabetic main character.

Well, the folks over at Game Equals Life have decided to try and change that particular perspective with The Magi and the Sleeping Star.

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