Santa Claus is Real

Santa Claus is as real to me as he is to millions of children around the world.  No I am not crazy and my family does not need to worry about me losing my mind.

Santa, to me, represents the spirit of giving, of love, of  peace, and of unity in the world.  The twinkle he puts onto a child’s face, especially a child who has been withdrawn from the light for so long, is precious and should be cherished.

Santa is a symbol of the goodness that we as a people all have inside of us to share, especially at this time of year when we remember the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  He is a symbol of how the love of Christ can be shared among all mankind.
As was said by the famous Francis Pharcellus Church :

Yes Virginia there really is a Santa Claus.  He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

To all my friends, have a very merry Christmas.  May your minds be filled with the wonder of imagination, the joy of giving, and the spark of adventure.  May your hearts be filled with the love of Jesus Christ, peace, and love for those around you.

Time for the 6 month post…

Wow, I really suck at blogging!  I guess I just lost motivation with all the termoil that occured this year.  First, I lost my wife’s Grandmother to stomach cancer, then we lost my Grandfather to parkinsons disease.  Mix in the wedding of my brother, layoffs at work and all the fun politics and you have my life so far this year.  Due to this eclectic atmosphere I have really not done anything to better my personal health.  In fact I am just about in the same place I left off.

I have done a few things though.  I found out that I am predispositioned for type II diabetes but luckily my A1C came back as normal.  My sugar is still a bit high in the mornings at 110 (<100 is desirable) and my cholesterol is normal although the medication I take (Advicor) seems to be causing my liver a little trauma.  The DR. says there is nothing to worry about, I just need to get checked again in 6 months.

So, now what… Here I am once again on the path of recovery. I have cut back on sugars and am reading a new book that I have found very informative and entertaining.  It is called “You on a Diet” by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz.  Both men are medical doctors and know their stuff.  I am going to give it a serious try and start over again.

If you are interested, come along for the ride.  I can’t promise to blog every day but I will try to get on here at least once a week.  I think I have all of about 2 readers now woohoo!  Let’s see if that improves.

Overall I think I am writing this more for me than for anyone else but I hope those who do read get something out of it.

Catch you on the thin side of life..

Bryan

Been away for awhile…

Sorry for anyone who has actually been reading this blog.  I have been away and have not had a chance to really work on anything new.  I would like to get back in the habit and let you in on the adventures I have been having as of late.  I promise to update you more once I get settled back into my routine.

Keep smiling!  I will be back soon

Dumbest Teenager Ever!

This has to be the funniest thing I have seen come out of a teenagers mouth in a very long time.  His parents cut short their Gold Coast holiday after a party at their house attracted up to 500 alcohol-charged youths — who damaged police cars with bottles and had to be dispersed with the help of a police helicopter.

…

It could get worse, the Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said the police were considering billing him up to $20,000 for the intervention. Neighbours called police after the number of teenagers, attracted via text messages, the internet and email, swelled to 500. Ms Nixon said if the young man did not pay, the community in effect would pay for his irresponsibility. Up to 30 police attended the party in Galloway Drive along with dog squads, transit police, divisional vans and a critical incident response team.

As a follow up, it was reported that the teen was arrested as he attempted to plan another party in two weeks time.  He has yet to take off the yellow sun glasses.

The Tom Cruise Scientology Video They Didn’t Want You To See

I have heard a lot of crazy stuff out there and given, there are a lot of different ideas in the world regarding religion. This one takes the cake. I found a website willing to post the video online (many others were taken down after being contacted by the “church” of scientology. I am not posting the video here, simply passing you the link to where you can watch it. Click on the picture to follow the link. My comments follow the picture link below

Ok, here is what stands out to me:

1) Tom has lost his mind, or it has been taken from him by the evil Xenu

2) How is it that Christianity is all a farce when there has been conclusive evidence that Christ lived and existed on this planet? Even the athiests admit that!

3) Why are Scientologists building a landing pad for Space Craft that is attached to a large underground vault in the Rocky Mountains?

4) Why is this scene so disturbing? I don’t get why they needed to do this, the guy took a picture of the building.

5) How does shock therapy cleanse the body of anything? This link is for what the auditing session is for and what is used, taken from the Scientology website. This link is a discussion on how shock therapy works and what it is intended for. For me, it seems that principals of Scientology are being driven into impressionable minds using a type of aversion therapy or programming. You can decide for yourself.

Ok, enough of that… I guess all in all the best thing I can say here is that these guys make other what would be seemingly different religions look like pre-school.

Week 2

Phew, well I made it to week 2 and I am still alive.  It was a long week but suprisingly I don’ t feel as sore as I expected too.  I developed my routine to allow me to have three good solid days of excercise per week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  Unfortunately this week I was not able to work out on Saturday because my 1 yr old son, bless his curious and good natured heart, decided to hide my shoe insert and it took me a good day and a half to find it in my other son’s racetrack box.  I did my excercise Sunday night before bed.

 Overall I feel pretty good and can really tell that the workouts are making some differences in my body.  I still have this crazy desire to get sugar but I have been working to curb it by eating apples and oranges.  I also cannot seem to get enough water into me.  It seems as if I am going to float away!

I will add an update to the pictures later on today when I get home from work.   Have a great day!

Campaign 2008

         I have been asked many times who I support for the upcoming presidential race by both friends and family and I have to admit, I am still a little undecided; although I am leaning towards Mitt Romney for his positions and presence.  Overall I have tried to keep my options open as there is not yet a clear candidate stepping ahead for the Republican party.  As for the Democrats, I just can’t see myself voting for any of them as their standards are not inline with mine.         

         I consider myself a pro-life, moderate conservative but have not wanted to really lock myself into a title.  I will vote for whoever I think will be the best person for the job and for the person who’s values, morals, and positions are most inline with my own.  I came across a very interesting blog titled Killbuck Creek Politics.  I found the site very informative and well put together regarding research into Mr. Romney’s campaign.

After reading more about Romney’s positions and having been very interested in politics myself, I now feel comfortable stating that I believe he is the best man for the job.        

Mr. Huckabee seems to be a very good speaker yet lacks in the knowledge to manage our financial issues not to mention foreign issues.                 

Mr. McCain is a very intelligent well schooled man however, I don’t believe he is in touch with what is new in America.  His methods seem from an older era and will not serve the needs of the modern country.                 

Mr. Julliani  did very well with his work in NY city and has been rightly commended.  However, running a city and running a country are two very different things.  He is well versed in the politics of a big city but what about the little guy?  I also find his personal habits and moral history offensive to my beliefs.                  

Ron Paul… I saw the movie conspiracy theory… I don’t need to see it played out in the white house.  He is too radical, too off the path, too out of touch with the real america.  Perhaps he should join Rocky Anderson and go co-chair the Sierra club (I use to live in the Salt Lake area now three states away).                 

My endorsement goes to Mitt Romney, I hope he fairs well in the next few primary races or I may have to choose the lesser evil of the remaining candidates.

    

Who am I and what am I doing here?

My name is Bryan and I have made a new commitment not only to myself, but mostly to my wife and my children. My choice is to do everything I can to get myself healthy and live to see my grandchildren have grandchildren.

I decided to start this blog to document my progress and to keep me motivated to keep going. I will keep track of my statistics and comment on what is going on in my life as it relates to my health. Please also feel free to visit my other pages to read great stories and comments on science, technology, family life, general topics, politics and other discussions. With all that said, here I go with my Health Quest Day 1!

DAY 1

I bought a new scale the other day that allows me to keep track of my Weight, % Body Fat, Bone Mass, Body Water %, and Muscle Mass %. I also bought a set of hand weights that adjust from 5 lbs to 12 pounds per hand. My wife talked me into some resistance cords as well. The total cost of these startup items was around $80. I should also add that we bought a treadmill a year ago at a cost of around $600.

As for diet, I am going to stick to a low-fat diet of around 1500 to 1800 calories per day. Wish me luck!

Day 1 stats:

Age 33

Height 6′0”

Weight 305.8 lbs

%Body Fat 58.6%

Bone Mass 4.6 lbs

Body Water 31.6%

Muscle Mass 34.8%

Based on these numbers, I am going to work over the week to increase my water intake cutting out all soda drinks. I am also going to start on a three time a week 20 min walk on the treadmill with some basic lifting and toning for my upper body. Next checkup of stats in one week! I will continue to discuss other items in-between Mondays, but will only do an total body condition checkup once a week. See my first weekly pictures below.

No Quierro at Taco Bell

 There is an interesting play on words that occurs in the Spanish language where some words have multiple meaning depending on the context they are used in.  For example, the word Quierro from the Spanish verb Quierrer means I like, I want, or can mean I love.  In this particular instance the meaning was a bit confusing.

 I went out on lunch break to find something edible and take a nice relaxing break from work.  There are a number of small cafes and a couple of bakeries in town but they just didn’t suite my taste buds that day.

 I decided I would go for more of a back home taste and went to TacoBell.  Yes, that’s right, TacoBell, the only somewhat kind of, not really even close to real Mexican food around here, although I met a Mexican person one day.  He was a tourist passing through.

 Anyway, I pulled up to the drive through and waited for the normal rushed, “Welcome to TacoBell what can I get for you today” response.  To my surprise I heard this very Kathleen Turner (Jessica Rabbit) seductive and slow spoken type voice come across the intercom and say, “How are you today?”  I reluctantly leaned in and said, “uh.. fine thanks”.  The response was, “Well that’s very good.  Take your time and look over the menu.  Find what you like and let me know, dramatic pause… what you want and when you are ready”. 

 I immediately thought of my wife, son, and soon to be baby; swallowed hard then said, “Uh could I have a burrito #2 meal with a coke please… um, no hot sauce”.  The reply was, “sure hun, I will have that for you at the first window”.  I drove around the corner, got my food (no eye contact), then sped off.

 They sure are friendly here in these small towns!

Upclose and Edible Coffee – To your Health

 I recently came across this article and couldn’t help but comment.  I find it interesting how the world continues to try and make something that is harmful to your health actually look good.  If you read the article, you will see that in the text the author actually talks about how useless Coffee is as a drink and that there is no reason for a non-drinker to start drinking now.  But by the end of the article he is telling us that corree will help decrease chances of parkinsons disease!  So which is it?  I also wonder how many people were studied and how many of those studied were pre-disposed as high risk for parkinsons.  Was the study done on an international level?  What is the natural ratio of people who develop parkinsons as compared to those that dont?  How do you seperate groups of coffee drinkers and non coffee drinkers for those who are predisposed to get parkinsons?

Last but not least, what about the Tannins?  Thats right, those little tannins that exist in coffee.  You know, those chemical compounds that disolve the lining of your stomach.  How come they were not mentioned in this article?

Bottom line, don’t believe everything you read in the papers.  Anything can be justified as good even though it may not be. 

LINK   (Update: The original MSNBC Article is no longer available but I added a new link to a similar story)Close & Edible: Coffee – To Your Health – MSNBC.com