BURN NOTICE

It's embarrassing to admit how little time it took me to plow through 111 episodes of Burn Notice on netflix. Embarrassing enough, that I will not admit it. I will admit only that it took more than a week, and far less than one month. Great show about a spy, Michael Westin, who has been 'burned.' That is cut off from his previous support network and life as a spy.  So if you are looking for some great TV on a cold wintry day, I might suggest that you give Burn Notice a try. Be prepared for some sleep deprivation, as it is very difficult not to watch the 'next' episode. (110 times)

Your Food Diary For:

Saturday, November 25, 2017

BREAKFAST	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
Grits	400	88	6	8	1,240	4
Kirkland - Bacon	200	0	15	15	875	0
Nutty Oat	250	46	5	11	393	7
	850	134	26	34	2,508	11
L U N C H
Taco Bell - Hard Shell Taco	680	48	40	32	1,240	4
	680	48	40	32	1,240	4
D I N N E R
Pot roast	300	6	9	44	0	0
Eurest - Classic Bread Stuffing	200	25	9	5	876	3
Yams	300	72	0	2	90	40
	800	103	18	51	966	43
S N A C K S
Ice Cream Bar	480	33	39	6	150	3
	480	33	39	6	150	3
Totals	2,810	318	123	123	4,864	61
Your Daily Goal	3,227	403	107	162	2,300	121
Remaining	417	85	-16	39	-2,564	60
	Calories kcal	Carbs g	Fat g	Protein g	Sodium mg	Sugar g
	*You've earned 1,297 extra calories from exercise today

If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 223.7 lbs in 5 weeks.

WHAT COLOR IS THE SKY ON YOUR WORLD?

There is a scene from the 1980's NBC TV comedy, Cheers, where Cliff (mailman) is spouting off some nonsense and Frasier (psychiatrist) asks him: 'What color is the sky on your world?'

On Wednesday, while driving back from Peoria my daughter and I were discussing our experience on the Segway.  Apparently, she enjoyed the Segway as much as I did.  It was truly great fun.

She asked me: 'Instead of getting a car when I am 16, can I get a Segway?"

I do not know where she got the idea that she is getting a car, especially at 16.

I didn't (but I could've) asked:  'What color is the sky on your world?'

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 Wednesday MENU

breakfast    apples                                                                               216 calories
lunch          Jason's Seafood Gumbo, Turkey sandwich, flatbreads   1041 calories
dinner         Kale Crunch, dehydrated Okra, spinach salad                1796 calories

total calories consumed 3052 calories

calories burned

NO WORKOUT.   I am not sure if my legs felt wobbly from the 90 minutes zipping around on the Segway.  Perhaps, my legs were simply tired from too many consecutive days of working out.  Perhaps I was just tired from a lack of sleep the past few days.  Whatever the reason, I simply could not gather the willpower for a workout.  Normally, it takes willpower for me to skip a workout.   

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Wednesday net calories 3052 calories

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from Forbes....

JUN 16, 2014 @ 10:31 AM The Surprising Successor To The Segway That Could Revolutionize Urban Transportation

  by Zack Schildhorn 

Several years ago, I had the great fortune to interview famous inventor Dean Kamen. While his achievements are many (he holds over 440 patents, devised the wearable drug infusion pump, and founded one of the world’s largest youth science organizations), he is perhaps most widely recognized for his biggest flop: the Segway. Code-named “Ginger” during its secret development in the late 1990’s, this two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle held the promise to revolutionize transportation and reshape entire cities. Famous venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins bankrolled the effort with close to $40 million at an unthinkable early valuation of half a billion dollars. Tech luminaries Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezosthought the idea worthy of an even more valuable investment: their time. Both met privately with Dean on numerous occasions to offer counsel and contemplate their involvement with the project (and would go on record affirming their excitement). When word of a wondrous new invention and its high-profile supporters leaked prematurely to the press, “IT” became the subject of rampant speculation and hype, the media sensation culminating in a live unveiling on national television. The Segway seemed on a fast path to be a very big deal.

In stark contrast to expectation, sales of the Segway were a massive disappointment. Now, more than a decade after its release, the product has been all but forgotten, relegated to niche uses like police patrols, city tours, and a nerdy take on polo. When I sat down with Dean and asked him what the world least understood about the Segway, he gave a surprising response. It wasn’t an excuse for failure, or, as might be expected of an engineer, a matter-of-fact list of reasons why the product really is so great. Rather, Dean passionately shared the vision that created so many early believers. This is the inspiring original idea behind the Segway that got buried amidst the cacophony of rumors and headlines and forgotten with the passing of time:

I don’t think people have yet come to grips with the fact that in most of the large cities of the world, almost everybody spends most of their time going just a few blocks, or at most a mile, between where they live and where they work. Yet, in almost every major city… all of what should be beautiful pedestrian space… is either a parked car, a parking garage, or a row of running cars, bumper to bumper, with people sucking up each other’s exhaust, creeping along in 3,000 pound, 20 foot vehicles with on average one person inside. It’s environmentally catastrophic, it’s inefficient, it’s unhealthy, and it defiles the original intent of cities. In a world now screaming towards urbanization… the idea that we still get around with a machine that was invented 100 years ago to get between towns and cities and to railroad stations seems absurd. 

But what if you could say to people – “Hey, this environment in the city, it was built for pedestrians!” That’s why these buildings are close together, that’s why you look outside and see thousands of people. What if we could tell you that you could get from point A to point B in the city at the same average speed as your car, but with the same mobility as a pedestrian, in a manner 100 times more environmentally friendly, and close to 100 times as energy efficient? We thought that might make a big difference in helping cities become more fun, more environmentally friendly, cleaner, and safer. We thought it would be a big deal, and I still do.

It’s hard not to admire the boldness and authenticity of that vision, and I, like Dean, think it rings just as true today. While there are many reasons the Segway failed, perhaps the simplest explanation sums it up best. As noted by Silicon Valley investor Paul Graham: “people don’t want to be seen riding them.” Changing the world is never an easy undertaking—especially if nobody wants your product.

But big ideas die hard, and the story that inspired the Segway might be entering an exciting new chapter. As a venture capitalist I can tell you with certainty: if you ever want to know what the future holds, just follow the entrepreneurs. And right now, there is a whole cadre of talented technologists applying ingenuity and effort towards making this vision real. But unlike the Segway, they’re not starting from scratch. Rather, they’re building off the momentum of an unsuspected product that’s humbly but quickly reshaping city streets around the world: they’re reinventing the bicycle.

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM

This blog professed to expose the secret of diet and weight loss.   Nothing about this blog was suspenseful - the 'secret' was revealed in the blog synopsis.

Here is the secret: Eat Less. Exercise is critical to one's health.  Exercise is not he critical component to weight loss.

Until now I had never exposed the secret to successful exercise...

Once again, there is no secret.  I believe the slogan from Nike said it quite well nearly 20 years ago, in 1988.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the hours I have spent on treadmills, ellipticals, rowing machines and StairMaster machines over these past 6 months while discovering and re-discovering all the music that I enjoyed (and never stopped) enjoying since I was in high school.   In coming weeks, I am going to discuss some of the great music from some of the great classic rock bands that have been providing the soundtrack to my exercise regiment.

Yesterday, I wanted to see if I could replicate my 2 hours on the Precor EFX 576i Cross Trainer and perhaps log a 10 mile session.  I did something different to distract me from the repetitive nature of taking 10000+ steps during the course of a two hour workout.  I brought my iPad to the gym and synced it with my Bluetooth headphones (for the first time) and watched two continuous hours of...
...CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM.

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM was a show that was broadcast only on HBO.   Although I have never in my life subscribed to HBO - CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM quickly became my absolute all-time favorite television show ever.   I own all 80 episodes digitally on my iPad.  Usually I only watch them during downtime at airports or during flights.  CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM is surely the FUNNIEST SHOW that has ever (or likely will ever) be produced.   It finds comedy in a lot of areas that don't often get discussed in polite conversation.  I am sure it is NOT a show that I would enjoy watching with my Mom for example.   (Still I recommend that my Mom watch it - and I dare her (or anybody) to tell me that it is NOT hilarious.)  Wait a moment....that's not good enough... I double dare you!   So what is the point of my telling you this?  Yesterday at the YMCA while I was watching two consecutive hours of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM while I was having a 1500+ calorie workout on the Precor EFX 576i Cross Trainer, time went so fast that my workout stopped suddenly.   I thought that there was something wrong with the programming of the time that I had set.   Turns out there was no problem, I simply was so engaged in the CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM episodes that I lost track of the time elapsed and I DID SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE ANOTHER TWO HOUR WORKOUT.   I didn't quite reach my goal of logging 10 miles as I 'only' logged 9.87 miles.

Still after this workout... (as all 'Curb' fans can imagine...)

I felt pretty, pretty, pretty...pretty good!

LARRY DAVID playing himself in CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM

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 SATURDAY MENU

breakfast  red delicious apples (3), raw cacao goji, wasabi green peas    605 calories

lunch        Peckham Pear, chewy ginger, toffee almonds, wasabi peas,
                 cherry vanilla granola, sesame sticks, date coconut roll        1232 calories
dinner       Mariano's Huge Spinach Salad, vanilla macaroon                 1250 calories

                                                

total calories consumed 3087 calories

calories burned

PRECOR EFX CROSS-TRAINER 4:3 INTERVAL SESSION

125 MINUTES, 9.87 MILES          1556 CALORIES
rowing machine 15 minutes 165 calories

total calories burned Saturday 1721 burned

Saturday net calories  calories 1366 calories

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I was so pumped after my two hour workout - that I was not prepared to call it a day.
I jumped on the rowing machine for just 15 minutes and logged a 15 minute 165 calorie workout.
BUT AFTER THAT, I WAS TRULY EXHAUSTED.  AND IT FELT ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC!

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Listen this small number of random photos from the series do not do the show justice.  I promise you there is nothing funnier that has ever been produced.   Larry David created Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm.  If you liked Seinfeld - try to imagine a show way, way funnier.  (I know that that would be difficult - but it is true!)

These were the 4 episodes I watched from Season 4.   It would matter not which four episodes I watched...The show is unbelievably funny.   Whether these synopses sound funny or not - I don't know - I only know that they are funny when you watch them play out over a 30 minute episode.

		Title	Directed by	Story by	Original air date

		"The 5 Wood"	Bryan Gordon	Larry David	February 1, 2004
Larry faces termination from his country club if his locker is not cleaned; Larry steals a golf club from a deceased person's casket.
		"The Car Pool Lane"	Robert B. Weide	Larry David	February 8, 2004
Larry hires a prostitute (Kym Whitley) to be a passenger in his car so he can use the HOV lane while driving to a Los Angeles Dodgers game on time, and he also attempts to get medicinal marijuana for his father. Marty Funkhouser (Bob Einstein) refuses to give away his dead father's baseball ticket.
		"The Surrogate"	Larry Charles	Larry David	February 22, 2004
Larry wears a heart monitor to get a clean bill of health for his lead role in The Producers but finds himself in stressing situations such as racial encounters and dealings with David Schwimmer's father.
		"Wandering Bear"	Robert B. Weide	Larry David	February 29, 2004
Larry's purchase of an adult video causes trouble when his longtime assistant Antoinette becomes unstable after breaking up with a boyfriend. Larry gets some herbal remedies from his gardener, Wandering Bear. (synopses provided by wikipedia)