Are you out of the box if you dream of eating real food?

I dreamed last night that I cheated by eating out of the Decision Free HMR box. I do not remember what food I cheated with in my dream other than it was good and i knew i was cheating so I do not even know what to guard against!

HMR

I have started a medically supervised weight loss program.  It is affiliated with Health Management Resources (http://www.hmrprogram.com).  The program consists of meal replacements, medical supervision, physical activity, group “classes”, record keeping, and contact with a trained educator.  Of course, I can’t do anything by the book.

I went to an orientation for the program at a local clinic but it will be a couple of weeks before my “class” starts and I don’t see the doctor for the first time until next week.  Once I decided to go down this path though, I also decided that I did not want to wait a couple of weeks.  So, today was my first full day to attempt the eating portion of the program.

I’ll receive specific instructions when I see the doctor next week but they tell you enough at the orientation to understand the basics so I don’t think I’ll find myself in too much trouble.  I also spent about a week researching online to see what other people have said.  I was surprised by the relative scarcity of content from program participants either in blogs or elsewhere.  Although, I suppose I should not have been surprised.  Weight is such a personal, sensitive topic.

Based on my situations, it is my guess that the doctor will recommend ’The HMR Decision-Free Diet.”  So, I have started that using the basic parameters they described at the orientation.  Essentially a minimum of 5 to 7 shakes per day (a “shake” can be a shake, a pudding, chicken soup, or hot cereal).  Once you have met your minimum, if you are still hungry, you can more including the entree or meal bar.

Today hasn’t been too difficult.  I expect that the next few will be though.  I’ll be surrounded by family making a big deal over the traditional Christmas meals and there I will be surrounded by all that food but not partaking.  I don’t expect it to be easy.

Where has the time flown?

much changes in a short time

Weird dream last night

July 31, 2009 6:11 AM
Weird dream last night. Mom, dad and I were riding a train. I don’t know where we were going nor where we were coming from. I had a seat all to myself where I was laying down resting until I woke up realisng this stranger had taken up residence practical ontop of my feet. As I apologized trying to sit up, she started moving closer and closer into my personal space.

At thy point I gathered up my stuff and moved out (to the tune of her protests) and over to where my parents were. They were glad to see me but did not understand all of the commotion because they had missed what had happened over in my seat. There was plenty of room but for some reason my my mom got up.

I started dropping stuff, as soon as I would get something picked up, I would lose the next thing. Then I dropped my iPhone and it skittereed out of reach. I nearly went into a panic trying to get to it but mom came to the rescue and brought it to me.

Then I went exploring, looking for the bathroom, I think. This was some big train, clickery clack or not, because I when I found the restrooms, I discoverEd that we were on the sixth floor. Then around the corner, forgetting that I needed the restroom, I discovered the open air sleeping areas with real beds. As I kept exploring, I found a variety of state rooms with a variety of types of people.

Then I realized I was lost. So I started trying to find my way back. Only to find myself going through doors into more unfamiliar locations. Finally, I went through a door that I really should not. I wad outside and the walkway was lined with industrial pipes and I could see a a train official at the end of the hallway who started my way. I was going to be in Trouble. So is turned to run back the way I had come.

On the other side of the door, I discovered myself in a dirty, dusty dried up waste land. I met someone who was excited to see me as if they were excited to see me. They just had to show me something. The something turned out to be the dried out, stripped bare remains of the train that I had been on. The person said, it wad lost 10 years ago, no one was ever found. And somehow, don’t ask me how, I knew that the day it had been lost had been the day I had been on the train.

I woke up!

Impressions?
- I don’t remember ever having this dream before.
- I now want to take a cross country train ride, I’ve never done that before
- Dad has been dead years now, so it always seem weird to meet up with him in my dreams, but most often, as in this one, it is comforting.

Fast Paced Change, Kindle Inflenced

The pace of change is beginning to make me feel old even though I am not. I’m not sure how I would survive without my iPhone even though I know I once did. I feel lost without my dvr rewind even though I know I’ve lived in the the now, in the past. Even my friends and family live a facebook life bringing reconnection with the past.

Even though I have returned to long-form reading, technology has changed the way I read and what I read. I’ve always liked the sci-fi and fantasy genres but didn’t read in those genres much. The reason? I would invariably start in the middle of the series and then have trouble finding subsequent novels in the series. It just flat pisses me off to have a good story broken up over several books and find myself missing parts. I once read ‘Winds of War’ simply because I was required to read ‘War and Rembrance’ for a class.

What has changed? The Kindle! When I come across a book I think I might like, I simply look it up on the kindle. If it’s not the first in the series, I simply download samples of all of the available books of the series allowing me to start with the first book of the series.

How has technology changed some aspect of your life? Does thinking back over your lifetime about how much has changed also make you feel old?

The Grass is Greener (joining the iPhone community)

Yes. I now own an iPhone. The decision has been made. I have no regrets. Feel free to say ‘told you so!’

Facebook’s Mafia Wars, Peer Pressure, and Addiction

If I was a conspiracy theorist I would have to concoct a twisted mostly unbelievable conspiracy surrounding Facebook and ‘Mafia Wars.’ But I’m not.

I escaped from Facebook recently (sort of). I even wrote about it here. I thought it was a useless product (still do in fact) but a funny thing occurred post-escape: I was pressured into trying the ‘Mafia Wars’ Facebook application.

Actually, I was pressured into joining someone’s mafia. ‘You don’t have to play but just join to help me out,’ I was told. No problem, I thought. I’m not a gamer. There is not a game out their that has ever managed to keep my attention for longer than five minutes, including solitaire.

I was wrong. Boy, was I ever wrong. Hours! I have lost hours and hours playing this game and I just started. I have in fact quickly become quite addicted to ‘Mafia Wars.’ So much so in fact that I re-activated my SeekGround account on Facebook so that I could play using different tactics. I also get double the fun playing under my real identity and also playing under my SeekGround identity.

So now I need people to be my friend and join my mafia. You wouldn’t need to play, you would be helping me just by joining.

Seek Ground’s Profile

Create Your Badge

Lipizzaner Stallions – From a Photographic Viewpoint

I lucked into the opportunity to attend a show presented by ‘The “World Famous” Lipizzaner Stallions.”  I truly enjoyed the show and highly recommend that families take their children to one of the shows  at least once especially those families that do not normally have the opportunity to be around horses.

I enjoy these type events but invariably spend most of the time staring through my camera.  Which, as it turns out, typically means that I enjoy myself even more as I attempt to capture good shots within the strictures of my seat location and the often uncooperative lighting conditions.

A sample of the images that I particularly like from this night’s event follows:

In the picture above, I am drawn to the stark shadow relief.  Shadow’s are an element of the environment that I tend to keep an eye on and at times find more interesting than the actual subject.  In this case, I am also drawn to the horse and rider.  I seem to have caught them in an unguarded moment.  The rider’s seat is less rigid as he reaches forward to rub the horse’s neck.  It seems to me as if they are in a bubble all their own as if they were unaware that they are  surrounded by an audience of thousands.

In the above picture, I am drawn to the action demonstrated by the closest stallion’s tail.  Can’t explain it, I just am.

In this image, I have left the horse and rider out completely and only captured the shadow making the shadow itself the subject.  I like the angles presented and the ability to discern spaces between hairs of the tail.

The horse gave a spontaneous bow, who can resist that?

Catching a moment where the horse had only one hoof touching the ground.

Catching a moment where the horse had not a single hoof touching the ground.

This image did not originally catch my attention but on a second look the angles, colors, and symmetries pulled me in.

This is another image where the action seen in the horse’s tail catches my attention.  In this case the tail action can be seen in the shadow as well.

Catching a moment where neither the horse nor the trainer have a single hoof (or boot)  touching the ground.

This is another image that did not originally catch my attention but upon my latest review my imagination was fired by the combinations of the live action of the horse and trainer with the shadow horse and trainer.  The trainer’s left foot stands atop the shadow horse’s back.  The trainer’s right foot connects in the rear to his own shadow where you can see through the fine lines of the shadow reigns.

The horse takes a bow.

I just can not resist the flowing American flag.

This final shot was a photographic challenge.  I successfully captured all 8 horse and rider combinations but the lighting conditions were intermittent.  Evidently, there were not enough spotlights to go around so this image contains plenty of shaded or dark areas.

Whatever happenned to the paperless socirty?

Several years ago a place where I worked discussed going paperless at least in some aspects of their business. Ever since, I have noticed that workplaces seem to hold tight to their paper documentation. My perception has been that the computerizing of the workplace has created addional paper at a greater frequency than a less automated office.

In my personal life, I have found the scanning of receipts and other financial documentation more trouble than it is worth.

At the office, we pick at one another when someone does not print two sided for ‘killing trees.’

I have to wonder when we will reach a point as a society that we will get over the use of paper as the default medium for every day use.

Filters

We surround ourselves with filters so that we only hear what we want to hear. This becomes very noticeable when two people encountering the same information and experience, interpret these in substantially differing ways.