Tribute to an old workhorse

Last night I finally retired my old server. That’s her in the picture on the right there.

I originally picked up this computer when I was working for Staples. If I am not mistaken it was sometime in 1999. I grabbed it during the “free computer with internet service” craze. I signed a contract to use the MSN dial-up service for three years an in exchange I got a shiny new eMachines computer.

The funny thing is that when I finally called to cancel the service after my three years was up I asked them to double check my account to make sure I had fulfilled my obligation. The operator had no idea what I was talking about and told me there was no service contract on my account at all. I could have canceled at any time.

Oh well.

The specs for the machine, that are still visible on the sticker that I never took off the front of the case, are as follows :

  • 366Mhz Intel Celeron Processor
  • 32MB RAM (upgradeable to 256MB)
  • 3.2 GB Hard Drive
  • 32x CD-Rom Drive
  • 56k FaxModem
  • 3D 4MB AGP Graphics

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The Twinkie diet!

So, you tried the Grapefruit diet and decided you needed a bit more variety in your life. Or maybe you thought the cabbage soup diet was pretty keen but you were tired of passing gas all the time. Perhaps you got sick of bacon and cheese and broke down after three months on the Atkins diet.

No worries, my friends, we have a new diet for you.

The Twinkie diet.

I’m totally serious here.

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Putting on the rose colored glasses

I had a thought this morning. I wanted to write something, but I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to write about. I did some work on other things for a few hours, figuring that perhaps at some point during that time period I would have an idea and I could subsequently transform that idea into words.

It didn’t happen.

So, I thought, I’ll dig through the photos on my computer until I find a picture that I haven’t posted before that inspires me to write about it. I did some digging, and I came up with the image above. Technically speaking I have posted this image in the past, but it was on my old web site that has now been completely retired so for many of you this is “new.”

The picture is of my old boss, Brian.

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We fear change!

On Friday, November 5th, 2010, Weight Watchers made a pretty major announcement.

They are changing the POINTS system.They haven’t given out any details yet, but if the video below is any indicator this isn’t like the changes we’ve seen in the past where they have given you options other than POINTS to track your food intake (options such as Core or Filling foods). No, from the sound of it they are going to fundamentally change the way POINTS are calculated.

This scares the crap out of me.

January 21st, 2011, will mark my 10 year anniversary on Weight Watchers. While I have not yet hit my ultimate goal weight, I have managed to lose and keep off approximately 170 pounds. I know the POINTS system like the back of my hand, and I can tell you the POINTS values of many foods without having to look them up. Now? All of that may change. I’m going to have to re-learn the program all over again.

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