Category: Daily Blog

This is my Daily Blog category.

Bike Ride

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Daily BlogLeave a comment

I just came home from my bike ride and I did almost the same distance that I used to do on my regular bike rides before the accident.  Which means my body was already prepared and ready to go.  I fell 2 miles short of my past typical bike rides were which was fine.

Before my typical average miles were 11 1/2 miles going at an average speed of 11.9+/- miles per hour riding for typically 1 hour burning 550+/- calories and 64+/- fat calories.

So, I just need to get back to that point where I can do that and then some starting today.  Today by the way was 9.273 miles, average speed of 10.6 mph, time was 52 1/2 minutes, calories were 439.2 and fat calories were 43.7.  That’s pretty good, it’s getting close to what I was doing before, almost.

Oh and the camelbak was great.  I had 70oz of iced water in it and when I came home I poured the rest in a big blue cup and it filled it up and those cups are 32oz.  So I drank a little more than half of the water.  When I took it off I noticed that the only places on my shirt that were wet were where the camelbak was like the shoulder straps and my back was wet in the shape of the bag lol.  It looks funny.

And the skull cap was also great.  It kept my face dry and sweat out of my eyes and off of my sunglasses and it kept my helmet strap dry until I got home and by then it was just so soaked that the helmet strap was getting wet.  But that’s fine because my eyes and glasses were dry.

Bubble On The Sun

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Yesterday I was thrown into a total panic.  Just before Darrin went to work he told me about this story he saw on the news about this bubble that is on the sun and that by 2012 there will be a solar flare that will knock out all the satellites and will end all life as we know it.

Now, when you hear this what comes to mind?  I’ve watched the Nostradamus specials on the history channel and the discovery channel all telling that he stopped writing about what will happen in the future so they think that since there is nothing after November 2012 that it will be the end of the world.  Basically judgment day right?  Well, when Darrin told me that the sun will “end life as we know it” it put me into a total panic.

I was thinking all day that you know, there’s nothing we can do about it.  There is no way we can fill up a spaceship and board it with all the humans and animals and leave because we don’t have one yet.  Stargate SG-1 is just a TV show, not a reality.  The government can’t just start gathering people and animals and take them to Colorado and bring them to the Stargate and put them on another planet.  It’s not real.

The government might have some contacts with aliens from other worlds and contact them and ask for their assistance to find us a new planet and come beam us up Scotti and take us to our new planet.  But I highly doubt they know any aliens and if they did they’d probably want to eat us.

Darrin calls on his lunch break and by then my world is in complete chaos.  In my head people are running in the streets looting stores and turning over cars.  Digging underground bunkers which would do no good if the earth blew up.  I asked him what he was talking about.

He said that the ozone layer wouldn’t be enough to protect the satellites and they would basically turn off or be disrupted or something.  That the electrical grids would probably shut off too and we would be thrown back in time by 100 years, not literally but as far as our technology.  The earth is not doomed to destruction and Jesus is not coming to claim the souls lol.

WHEW!  Basically we wouldn’t have satellite TV or radio and they would have to find a way of repairing the satellites and/or replacing them and they would have to work on fixing the electric grids to turn our power back on.  We probably wouldn’t have cell communication or email or tv or whatever.  We would have to start reading again and the stores would have to use their brains to sell things instead of a cash register because no electricity and all…  And all the food would go bad because they need power to keep cold.

But, time will tell what will happen.  Perhaps they will have it all figured out by then and they will have Solar panels more in play than they do now for grocery stores and any other business.  People will be able to afford solar panels for their houses.  I need that because of my bipap machine.  If I have no electricity then I’m going to die because I have to sleep with a mask pushing air into my lungs, no air = no life.  I die.  So this isn’t good for me.  Unless I can lose 75lbs in the next 4 years I’m pretty much screwed.  That is if the fat is what is causing sleep apnea.  I don’t know that it is or it isn’t.

At any rate, now is a good time as any to start taking this diet seriously.  I mean, dead seriously if you know what I mean.  Maybe if I can lose all this weight then I won’t need the bipap machine anymore.  That’s 1 less dependant.

As far as my electronics are concerned.  I have a little solar charger that I can plug into my electronics to charge their batteries.  They also sell backpacks that have a solar charger on them so you can charge things so while I’m riding my bike I can be charging things like my mp3 player, PSP and Kindle (if I have one by then).  If the cell phones don’t work then it won’t matter if my cell phone is charged up or not.

If the TVs don’t let us see TV anymore then we can all start talking to each other again and read books and maybe the kids can go outside and play and get skinny again.  Perhaps this would be good for humanity to shed all these pounds of fat.  If the kids can’t play with their PlayStation 6 anymore because there is no electricity then they can go play Basketball 2.0.  I mean, that’s why people have back yards right?

Maybe the bike trails will be packed with people and they will have to turn it into a 4 lane bike trail instead of it’s 2 lane bike trail.  Who knows.

All I know is that 4 years isn’t too far off.  Yeah it might seem like it is to some people but I’m 38, going on 39 in a couple of months.  These last 4 decades have gone by too fast so 4 years is nothing to me.  4 years can come in the blink of an eye so be prepared for it.

Internet Explorer 8

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I downloaded the new Internet Explorer 8 from Microsoft’s website and installed it last night before I went to bed and this morning I loaded it. I looked at it for a few minutes and it didn’t really look any different. Other than the fact that it created a whole new toolbar for the Paypal button on its own toolbar by itself but luckily it had an X next to the toolbar so I was able to close it.

I wasn’t too impressed because it looked just like the previous IE7. I closed the browser and all of a sudden without any warning I started getting this error message and I’d close it and another one came up. I closed that one and another and another over and over again. There must have been 100 all for the same 2 errors. It would warn me about 1 error and it told me the number (which I didn’t think to write down) then I closed it and it told me about another one with its own number (again…).

The only way to get that crap from continuing was I had to reboot the computer. Yeah, I think I’ll stick with Firefox, thanks though.

Believe or Deny

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I know this falls under the category of something I don’t like to talk about but this is just something that has been bothering me for such a long time.

Why do people believe in something that has never been scientifically proven but yet they deny something that has been scientifically proven?

The people in the middle east deny the holocaust yet there are pictures, it’s in the history books.

Some people deny the dinosaurs because of their religious beliefs.  Hello!  Dinosaurs have been dug up.  They aren’t Styrofoam bones you know, they are real bones.  They weren’t faked.  Some people think they were faked but what would that prove?  Science has proven that the earth was hot and had to cool did it not?  I’m not an expert but I have seen a few documentaries on the Discovery channel about the big bang theory (no, not the TV show although I do like that one hehe).  But just because the dinosaurs were not in the bible doesn’t mean they never existed.

Some people deny the existence of ghosts.  There is indeed scientific proof of the existence of the afterlife.  I watch Ghost Hunters every Wednesday on Sci-Fi channel and they have absolutely caught voices of children, voices of confederate soldiers, voices in other languages (GHI) plus there have been images from the thermo-cam that shows heat.

Speaking of which, I was sitting in my desk chair and Darrin was laying in my bed and he asked if our cat jumped on the bed and I looked and said no, she’s out on the patio.  Then I asked “did you feel like a cat jumped up on the bed and is walking around?” and he said yes.  His eyes were closed.  I’ve felt that so many times.  I’ve even blogged about our ghost cats.

Yet even though all these things have been proven, the religious people whether they are Muslims (who deny the holocaust) or born again Christians (who deny dinosaurs and ghosts) absolutely will not believe in them yet they believe in a god that they have never laid eyes upon or have never had any scientific proof of “its” existence.  How can you deny something that is proven yet worship and swear by something that has never been proven?  I don’t understand where the logic is in that.

There has been discussion about how you can’t see god but you know he’s there.  You can’t see the air but you know it’s there.  You can’t see space but you know it’s there.  Uh, actually, yes you can.  That again has been proven.  You absolutely can see space through telescopes.  You can see the stars, planets, galaxies.  That’s another thing, people absolutely deny that aliens from other planets might exist.  Are people that arrogant to think that of all the galaxies and of all the planets in those galaxies that we are the only living breathing thinking beings out there?

I believe in ghosts, dinosaurs, the holocaust and aliens.  I’m sorry if that upsets people but that’s the truth.

Dumbing Down in Bakersfield

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Ok so I’m at the corner market buying eggs and a loaf of bread. I go to the counter and there are 2 women standing in front of the counter purchasing their groceries, I’m on their right and there is a woman on their left. The woman on the left asks “ok how much is 2 plus 6?” and the woman on the right says “um… 12?”

Excuse me? 12? Is that your final answer? I seem to recall covering this in elementary school and although I don’t remember everything from when I was in school, I definitely remember how to count and the correct response is 8. But my question is, why are you asking how much 2+6 is in the first place? It’s a no brainer. It’s an automatic answer in your own head. Sigh.

Can’t Sleep

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I have to take Ambien to help me sleep because I have ADHD really bad.  If I don’t take a sleeping pill I’m up all night.  I’m a real bad insomniac.  I would love to be able to just lay down and bam I’m asleep but I can only do that when I’m so exhausted from lack of sleep lol.

I also have Sleep Apnea which means I gotta wear a mask on my face which forces air into my lungs through my nose and that’s also why I need ambien.  Believe me, if you were me you would not say jack shit about drug abuse by taking ambien because wearing that mask and having the air forced into your lungs doesn’t make falling asleep easy.  I’ve had it for a few years too and I still can’t sleep without a sleeping pill.

My problem though is that I think I’m becoming immune to the effects of the ambien which is why I lay in bed for 2 hours with my eyes closed but brain still open for business.

Well, my first ambien I took was only half a pill (for this very reason) so I’ve already taken the other half and now I’m ready to get back in bed.

Until tomorrow…

No Energy Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I was woken up by the doorbell today at like 10 something am cause this guy wanted to mow our lawn since we have let it go lol.  I had already planned on mowing it today and so Darrin told him we were going to do it today.  I got in the shower to wake up then sat and watched TV for maybe 20 minutes and decided OK, I’m going to go mow the lawn.

I did our tenants lawn then I did the front of our lawn but not the side, I filled 1 green can with just all the cut grass but I really didn’t feel like I had enough energy to finish.  Besides that the lawn mower kept stopping and it won’t turn back on now so I’m going to leave that to deal with tomorrow.  The green cans go out tomorrow night so I have a full 24 hours to get it done (git-r-done hehe).

I went to the kitchen to make a ham sandwich for lunch and I got all the dishes from yesterday that I had no energy to do plus there is a dryer full of t-shirts that I have to fold and a washer with whites I need to dry.  I really need to get some energy.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I just feel very lazy today.

You know how when it’s a crappy gray day outside with storm clouds and you tend to feel depressed and it makes you lazy?  That’s how I feel but the sun is shining and it’s nice outside.  I don’t know why I’m feeling this way.

I also want to read but don’t feel like it and I have to watch the first 3 episodes of Dollhouse on Hulu so I can talk about that.

Maybe I’ll go make a latte.  I’ll have to go to Albertson’s on my bike to get some creamer because a latte isn’t a latte with just milk, it tastes so much better with flavor.  Yeah, I’ll go do that, I bet you then I will have so much energy I won’t know what to do with myself.

Electronic Glue

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I found this Firefox add-on called Glue.  What it does is when you are searching for a book, CD or movie on say for example Amazon or the Wal-Mart website and you are looking at let’s just say a book, this bar comes down on the top of your screen with little icons which are pictures of people who have also visited that book through whatever website.  You move your mouse over their picture to see what they said about the book.  If there is blue around their box it means they loved it but if it’s yellow then they wrote a review.

I actually like it because it saves me from having to scroll down and read a lengthy review.  This allows you 140 characters so you can leave a short to the point review.  It’s a lot easier and if a person likes the same thing you like then you can add them to your friends list so that you can see if they like other things you like.

For more about Glue  please visit: www.getglue.com/quickstart.html

Edit: When they first started it was always the top but then they changed it to the bottom.

Octomom

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

There is this story that everyone is talking about.  This woman who is unemployed and not married had 6 children but she is addicted to having children.  I believe that she had all of her first 6 children via fertility doctor.  I know that she went back to the fertility doctor for her other 8 kids that she had all at once.  Apparently they were all frozen and she didn’t want them to go to waste so she had them all put inside her.

“The Web site posted photographs from inside Angela Suleman’s disheveled three-bedroom home, where Nadya and her brood also live. Heaps of clothing pour from an open closet door and a carpeted bedroom, where a bed sheet serves as a curtain, is cluttered with cribs.”

That is a quote from The Associated Press, yes, I admit, I googled it for this blog.

This woman’s mother is so upset with her for doing this because she doesn’t have any help and expects her mother to help her.  There is only so much help a mother can give to her daughter who now has 14 children.  But what gives her the right to have 14 children with no job and no husband?  She sent her story to all these companies like Pampers and Gerber because she wanted free diapers and free baby food.  They apparently had no sympathy for her because they didn’t respond to her.  I don’t blame them because her story is a liability to them.  They can’t afford to be associated with someone who is abusing her god given right to have children and also abusing the system.

If she has no job and no husband, how is she supposed to support all these children?  Welfare?  Exactly!  She is putting her dilemma on the state.  So everyone gets to pay to raise her children.

I was watching Chelsea Lately tonight on E! and she asked “why is it that this woman can have 18 children but gay people still can’t get married?”  The audience and 2 of her 3 panel members were clapping.  The 2 clapper were women, the other one was a guy who is obviously homophobic since he didn’t clap.

You have to be secure with your own sexuality to be comfortable with gay people I guess.  I know lots of straight people who are rednecks who are the last people you would think would be gay friendly but they are.  So think about that.  How did this go from the Octomom to gay people?  LMAO!

Digital Mail

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

No I don’t mean e-mail.  I mean scanning all of my paper mail into pdf files.  See, the thing is, I’m afraid that if I don’t keep my mail as documented proof of whatever then I need it then I’ll be screwed.  So I’ve been keeping all my bills and invoices since 1996.  Starting with Bank of America Statements.

I have tons of stuff like credit reports, medical records and invoices and whatever, publisher’s clearing house invoices, cable bills etc.  All this stuff is just piling up and overwhelming so I’ve decided that it would be so much easier if I could just scan it all and make folders like Bank of America and Social Security and Bright House etc.  Then just make the files like bank of america jan 2000 etc.

I’ve been seeing commercials for Kinko’s that they will scan all your paper documents and put them on a cd for you so you can throw out all that stuff.  I think I can do it on my own thank you.  I think it’s a very good idea too, I can keep these files on a hard drive website for safe keeping just in case there is a fire and my computer dies along with all my cd’s.  Although then I risk hackers getting all my information lol.  You are never safe I swear lol.

I don’t know, I’m thinking about getting a flash drive that I can just put it all on and keep it in a safe place.  I would like to get a fire-proof safe to put all of my pictures in along with flash drives of the pictures.  Or maybe a small fire-proof safe for storing flash drives.  That would be cool yes?  Or if there is a fire all I have to do is grab all the flash drives and get the heck out of the house.  Hopefully they would all be water proof.