A Weighty Rant

Time for a bit of honesty, full disclosure and the like.


I'm fat.  Or, at the very least on the overweight side of life.  Hell, according to my BMI, I am obese.  (I think BMI is bullshit anyway.)  I've been trying for a long time to get my weight down.  And I have.  I topped out at about 275 (124.7 kg) in 2006.  As of Monday (26 MAR 12) I was 244.8 (111 kg)  So, slow weight loss for sure.  And I've gone up and down since.  I've been less in the past six years, but its never easy.


Now, in the past year I've really started trying to make a sustained change.  And I've been succeeding.  A year ago I made the goal to run in a road race.  And I completed that goal!  Last September I ran in a relay triathlon with my dad.  And in October, I started training in America's Best Defense (a combo of Muay Thai and Krav Maga).  Recently, I was invited to move up to their Black Belt Training program.  So, I'm feeling pretty good about how I am doing regarding my weight loss and fitness.


Now to re-wind a bit.


A couple of months ago one of my cube mates was going to order her self something from the local Chinese take out.  Looking at me (and another larger co-worker) she said "Hey, you should know what item x is."  Really?  I know that she did not mean it in the way it came out, but there were several other ways to ask this question.  But you ask the fat kid about a take out menu item.  How might that make him feel?  I shrugged it off as a joke and moved on.


Since then, her and the co-worker that invited my ire today, would talk about diets, and working out etc, etc.  Neither of them really need to do either.  But what galled me is when they would complain how they are fat.  Neither of them are no where near fat.


Really?  Again, you feel the need to say this in front of the kid whose been trying for years to loose weight?  Typically, my skin is much thicker than this, but today it just grated on me.  And in talking to various internet friends it was pointed out that people like my co-workers are just looking for attention.  I know this.  Which is why I did not jump down their throats.


So, rant over.  As I always do, I will keep my headphones on and ignore the world around me when I am at work.  I know I am doing well, my family knows I'm doing well and my friends know I am doing well.  And those are the only people that matter.

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

Daniel Craig!  Harrison Ford! Clancy Brown!  Keith Carradine!  Directed by John Favreau!  What's not to like about this movie!


Cowboys and Aliens tells the story of a loner (Craig) who awakens with a futuristic piece of tech on his wrist.  Kinda cool looking.  Loner wanders into the town of Absolution where Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford) runs the town.  Loner (who from now on shall be known as Jake Lonergan (cause that's who he is we find out)) butts heads with pretty much the whole town and is thrown into jail.


This is when the aliens attack.


As the townspeople freak out about what is happening, Lonergan steps up points his wrist at the alien ships and that think on his wrist?  Just so happens to be a weapon.  Score one for the humans!  People are taken, so Dolarhyde and Lonergan team up and set off with a posse to get their people back.


You may have noticed that to this point I neglected to mention the female lead in this film, Olivia Wilde.  She plays Ella, who knows more than shes letting on.  Could not tell that from her acting though.  She was probably the weakest link in the film.  I know a lot of people think she great, but ever since I've seen her on House, its always been a feeling of meh that I get when I see her.


I liked this.  Other than Wilde it was a fun and entertaining movie.  I'm always a huge fan of Westerns and sci-fi, so to see them mixed together like this excited me.  Its not the greatest piece of film ever produced, but its good for a watch or two.


I give it 9/13.
328/1280 on my Flickchart list (24MAR12)

Downfall (Germany) (2004)

Downfall stars Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler, and tells the story of his final twelve days as the Third Reich comes crashing down around him.


I liked this film.  It is realistic in its portrayals of the players involved... to an almost creepy degree in some cases.  Ganz's depiction of Hitler is spot on from everything I've read about him in the closing days.


I'm not sure what else to say about this film.  There was one particularly creepy moment where everybody in the bunker are discussing ways to kill themselves so as to avoid capture by the Soviets.


I think this falls into a category similar to Das Boot.  Yes they are both movies about the Germans during World War II.  However neither one is anti or pro.  They both tell a story about the people involved.