Box of Brains Home

The New Brains

I quickly realized that trying to maintain this blog by myself and keep it interesting was going to be a losing proposition.  I decided to reach out to some friends and relatives for assistance.  These “brains” that you see at the top of the page along with others, who will be listed down the left side, represent some of the most interesting and intelligent people you’ll want to know.  I’ll let them write their own bios and toot their own horns, but I’m expecting that through their writing you’ll get a good feel for who they are and what they’re about.  We have people from across the country working in a variety of fields.  We have a lawyer, a blacksmith, a salesman, a therapist, and just all-around interesting people.  Enjoy!

Weight Loss Essentials

Okay, I talked about keeping a food journal, but that’s only part of the picture.  The very first thing you need to do is get a scale.  Doesn’t have to be fancy, or digital, but you can pick up a decent one at www.target.com for $25.  Next, you need to figure out what’s in the food you’re eating.  There are a couple ways to go about doing this.  We should all be looking at the ingredients in the foods we’re putting into our bodies, but this can be time consuming as well as tedious.  I do check ingredients while shopping and try to only have healthy foods in my home to start with, but once they’re home, there’s an easy way to figure out what you’re eating.

During my weight loss I joined www.livestrong.com for free.  This is Lance Armstrong’s website and whatever your stance on him personally is; don’t let that prevent you from utilizing this excellent website.  Once at the site, you’ll want to sign up and then head to “My Plate” under the “Daily Plate” heading.  The basics are quite easy and you should have them mastered in no time at all.

I know we’ve all heard that we should drink 8 glasses of water every day, but how many people know what a glass of water actually is?  I’m talking volume, not a physical glass.  One glass is equal to eight ounces, which is equal to one cup.  This is not a huge amount.  I recommend taking a measuring cup, filling it with one cup of water and pour it into a standard glass you have at home as well as a glass or mug you have at work so you can ditch the measuring cup and just fill your glass to a certain point and know it’s eight or sixteen ounces.  I have glasses at home where there’s actually a line that’s equal to eight ounces, and the mug I have at work is equal to sixteen ounces.

Now, once you have your measurements, you’re ready to start drinking.  Water that is!  On the right hand side of the page at “My Plate” you will find a section labeled “Daily Water Consumption.”  Simply click on “Add a Glass” for every glass you drink, and once you reach eight glasses it will let you know that you have completed your requirement for the day.  Now you can still drink and add more, but getting the eight is the important thing.  Now I have also given some thought to when I’m drinking the water.  I normally have two glasses before I leave in the morning, another two before lunch, and two more after lunch before I go home followed by two more in the evening.  When I first started out I was so gung-ho that I would often drink all eight before lunch!  I considered just stopping there, but quickly realized that although it is better to drink all eight period, you just can’t stop at noon.

The danger with drinking everything in the first part of the day is that you will be thirsty the rest of the day, which may lead to drinking other types of liquid.  I must caution you to be very careful of what you drink outside of water.  Tea and coffee are fine as long as you don’t add cream, sugar, etc, and watch your caffeine intake as well.  Soda should be tops on your list to cut from your diet.  I’m including diet soda here.  Now diet soda is better for you in terms of calories, but with the amount of chemicals listed in their ingredients I’d steer clear.  I do know there have been studies done linking diet soda to overeating, cancer, etc.  I don’t know the validity of those studies, but just steer clear of diet soda all together.

Next:  Eating and Recording

N.O.W. Bashes Letterman. Really?

I started watching “The Joy Behar Show” recently and have enjoyed most of the content thus far.  Tonight Joy had the president of N.O.W. and a sexual harassment lawyer talking about the Letterman issue with comedian Nick Dipaolo.  In her last couple of shows Joy has talked about this topic a bit as has everyone else.  To this point her position has been that while Letterman may not have pressured the women that worked on his show to have sex with him, the women that did not have sex with him either because they were not approached, or turned him down were the real victims because perhaps they didn’t have the same opportunities for advancement, on air time, etc. 

I can see this point.  Perhaps this was the case, and if someone were to come forward and make a claim in this vein, they might be due some compensation.  That’s just it though.  No one has ever come forward.  Now if someone does pop up tonight, tomorrow, or ten years from now, I’ll have to think about this again, but until that happens, we should leave the man alone.

So now the president of N.O.W., Terry O’Neil, has blasted Letterman over his admission that he cheated on his wife with women on his show.  She would like CBS to take a look at it’s own board of directors, and if at least half of them are not women, “half of them need to be made women immediately.”  Now getting past the logistics of having these men have sex changes, it’s just not going to happen overnight.  In any case the suggestion that you should take X number of people and remove them from their positions simply because of their anatomy is ludicrous. 

How are we ever going to come to a place of equality when the organization that is supposed to represent women has this as their very first “solution” to a case of sexual harassment that hasn’t even begun to be proven?  Ms. O’Neil wants to fire X number of men and replace them with X number of women.  I’m not saying there isn’t X number of qualified women that currently work for CBS that could do as good if not a better job, but what about Mr. X and his compatriots that have just lost their job after working Y number of years for CBS?  Is this what equality is for this group?

Now let’s turn to Gloria Allred, billed as a “Victims’ Rights Attorney.”  I’d imagine to get on a television show that Ms. Allred has plenty of experience in this area of law, and I’m going to assume she has done much good for the world.  I’m the last person to deny that sexual harassment takes place, and when it is identified, I believe the best thing to do is to shut it down hard and fast.  Still, when Nick Dipaolo was doing his shtick he must have referred to women as “girls” and Ms. Allred shouted him down for demeaning women.  Please.  Show me where it’s written that you can only refer to a woman as a woman and not a girl after Z number of years on this planet.  Same goes for men and boys.

We will never make progress in gender relations, race relations, ethnic relations, and sexual identity relations (I’m sure I’m missing a few relations) until we stop freaking out over every supposed indiscretion.  Just because it might taste like chicken doesn’t make a snake a chicken.  Every affair is not an instance of harassment.  Again, this might be, but until at least one person comes forward to make that claim I say leave the guy alone.  I’d imagine his wife will be dealing out punishment enough.

Our Political System

Is hopelessly flawed.  I say hopelessly because I see no way to get us back to a rationale governing body whose purpose is to serve the people instead of the special interests.  Believe me; I’ll have much more to say on this topic…

What a loser.

I’ve started to watch ”The Biggest Loser” this season after catching the end of it last season.  So far I’m a little disappointed.  More in how the “game” is run than anything.  I will say one quick thing.  Shay needs to stop worrying about everyone else and worry about herself first.

What’s coming soon?

I was just going to blow this section off for the time being, but instead I’ll list out how I see the future here.  I do a lot of internal debating with myself regarding life and the people I interact with on a daily basis.  Much of it I find hilarious and much of it I find tragic.  I’m hoping to share my personal journey with you and even if I can’t enrich your life, I’m betting I’ll be able to make you laugh.

Life in a new body

230 pounds in March, 193 in October.  What’s my secret?  You already know it – Diet and Exercise Baby!  I’ll go into this more, but if you’re serious about losing the weight, the first thing you need to do is keep a food journal.  Once you see what’s coming in and what’s going out, the loss or gains are all in your control.  More to come.

Ah the (White) Sox

A disappointing year on many fronts.  I’m sure I’ll have much to say on this as time goes by.  On to the Bears and Bulls.  Should be a great year for both!

Big time investing!

So I recently started investing.  Oh I used to have a 401K back when I had a corporate job.  That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate the job I do have.  Especially in this economy.  I really didn’t know what I was doing with my 401K and when I got laid off I just took the cash because I figured I could enjoy that money a whole lot more now than when I was 90 so screw it.  So I’ve been getting stock tips from my boss who makes larger investments.  I think that’s great, and I appreciate him sharing the information.  I’m investing in blocks of $123 myself.  Just a little different scale.  The difference is I’m addicted to it.  I invested in Citigroup for a variety of reasons I’ll get into later, but this was with the intent to hold onto it for a few years and see a great return on my money.  Yeah, I’m limiting myself to checking it once an hour.  I even keep a daily chart showing how my stocks are growing hour to hour and day to day.  A 15 cent change can alter my entire mood.  I had two good days in a row where I averaged $2.04.  Yeah, go ahead and laugh, but that’s almost a beer!  One more day like that and I could get myself a mixed drink.

So, yes, I did buy into Citigroup.  Basically the reasoning is that since the government propped them up so much, they have so strong an investment in the company, that there’s no way they’re going to let them fail.  As a result the companies’ stock will stick around $4 a share until we’re out of the woods as an economy and then the madness will start again and with any luck Citigroup will be back into the 60’s.  I always pictured myself buying into something good for the environment or backing some humanitarian cause.  In the end I decided to back myself.  Sure, you can call me a sell-out, but at least I’m not a hypocrite.  Sure, I’m searching through the stocks for tobacco and alcohol.  Figure if you’re going to risk money, your best bet is to invest in something addictive or with a finite quantity.  That’s why I’m thinking about water.  I mean there’s only so much of it out there.  If you listen to the people on the fringes of water conservation, they’ll tell you that we’re going to have a crisis surrounding water in the next ten years.  Now I’m not so sure that that’s an accurate timetable.  Sounds a bit quick to me, but I can see where twenty years down the road something might be up.  Not that I’d turn down the profits at ten years, but I hope to be sorta old by the time this world craps itself.

 One benefit to watching stocks constantly is that it soothes my need for a gambling fix.  I love to gamble.  I don’t term myself as addicted, but let’s just say I have a lot of addictive qualities.  Hey, at least I admit it.  Isn’t that the first step to recovery?  Problem is I have no desire to recover.  If I can’t afford it I just don’t do it.  Besides, the $123 I invest every month goes so much further than $1,000 does at a casino.  Of course I don’t have the chance to double, triple, etc my money in an hour or two, but at least I’m almost guaranteed to be able to play again the next day with that same $123! 

 I’d love to be able to invest in Pot.  That’s a big reason I’m looking to invest with Big Tobacco.  I’ve maintained for years that if the tobacco industry is smart, they have been stockpiling top-quality seeds in South America for years just waiting for the dam to break and weed to be decriminalized.  That way they’d be able to hit the ground running with packs of “Natural High,” and “Lucky Greenies.”  You’ve got to figure that’s going to be a huge market initially.  I’m thinking Google type numbers initially, but I’d want to sell right away because of how easy it is to grow yourself.  Most people probably still wouldn’t grow it, but that’s because pot-heads just aren’t that motivated.  I mean, let’s be serious here.  We can all make rice crispy treats, but those little individually wrapped pieces they sell in the 50-piece box at Sam’s Club for $9.99 are just irresistible!

Stereotypes

We have a 212 area code for our office in Minnetonka.  This happens to be a New York area code as we have a small office in Manhattan that I’ll never see, because only the CFO and a couple other people work there that have nothing to do with day to day operations.  In any case when people call us, the ones who recognize the area code think we’re in New York and tend to treat me in a certain way.  Kind of a “You’re in the big city so you must be smart, sophisticated, cultured, etc.”  Now what do you suppose their reaction is when I tell them that we’re actually located in a suburb of Minneapolis?  I’m pretty sure their image of me switches from young, urban hipster on top of the world to middle-aged hick on top of my John Deere.