In the late 90′s, I lived within walking distance of a Borders store. It was the first time in my life that I’d had easy access to that kind of place. I enjoyed regular trips to the store’s cafe, where I’d usually order a vanilla Coke and then spend some time browsing the nearby magazine racks. I’d start with the music magazines, reading anything that looked interesting. Then, I’d move on to the technology mags (usually the Mac-centric ones), if I was still in the mood to read. I’ve often wondered if this type of behavior is exactly what these stores had in mind when they all opened in-store cafes. It’s likely that Borders made more pure profit from my purchase of vanilla Cokes than it would have if I had just bought all of the magazines I happily read for free. And while that’s great for Borders, it’s not so good for the magazine companies. Even so, lots of people were still buying magazines, so maybe it didn’t matter if some of us were using our local bookstores as libraries. Or, maybe not.

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Tags: PASTE Magazine
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I’m somewhat discouraged to note that FIVE MONTHS AGO I wrote about how I had determined that, in order to lose weight, I had to keep my daily calorie counts under 1500. And since then, I’ve only managed to lose a couple pounds. This is kinda pathetic, and it’s the ultimate proof that I’ve been having far too many 1700 – 1800 calorie days. And when I get to this level of caloric intake, I don’t gain weight, but I don’t lose any, either.

Since the beginning of 2009, I’ve lost 25 pounds. And that achievement shouldn’t be downplayed. But I need to lose more. At the beginning of last year, I set a weight loss goal for myself. I started the year at 253 pounds. I wanted to get below 240 by my birthday (July 11th). I beat the deadline on that goal by almost a month. It was a big deal, because I knew that if I managed to get below 240, it meant I was doing something right, as all of my previous weight-loss attempts never passed the 240 mark. Right now, I’m at 228. And I’ve been at 228 for awhile. I’ve decided to give myself another goal. This time, I want to hit 220 by year’s end. It’s a reasonable goal, and I believe I can do it. I know what I need to aim for on a daily basis (1500 calories total). I just have to do it. And yesterday and today, I have! I made specific choices about my meals that helped me to keep my calorie counts low. Of course, these are things I’ve known about all along. But habits tend to control a lot of my behavior, especially when it comes to eating.

Breaking the cycle. It’s never easy.

Tags: health, life
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Yesterday, my sister held a luau-themed get together. Partially for fun and partially to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary.

Jen, enjoying a pina colada.

Ma with grandson (my nephew) Kyle.

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Tags: dog, Flickr, life
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Jen and I met with our insurance agent today. We wanted to go over our existing homeowners and car insurance policies to make sure they were still adequate for our needs, and we also wanted to get some information on life insurance as well as health insurance.

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Tags: life, money
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Almost two weeks ago, I decided to upgrade from my old iPhone 3G to the new iPhone 4. Here’s a few photos of the new phone.

Brand new iPhone 4, still in the box.

New iPhone 4 on the right, in comparison with the old iPhone 3G on the left.

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Tags: Apple Computer, Flickr, iPhone
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As a belated anniversary present to ourselves, Jen and I spent a couple days last week in Solvang, CA. We stayed at the Kronborg Inn, which turned out to be a pretty nice place.

Kronborg Inn sign, with requisite windmill feature.

Jen, sitting at the table on our hotel room’s balcony.

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Tags: California, Chumash Casino, Flickr, Santa Ynez, Solvang
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Jen and I had lunch today at Muzio’s Grocery & Deli in downtown San Luis Obispo. This is the first time we’ve been to Muzio’s, and it didn’t even dawn on me until after we got home that the business we visited had recently moved. Muzio’s used to be on Monterey Street, but it is now located in the new Wineman building on Higuera Street. (We mistakenly believed it to be a brand new business.)

Muzio’s has a kind of rustic decor, with comfortable seating inside, as well as some patio dining tables out front. The deli lists its sandwich offerings on a series of blackboards behind the counter.

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Tags: California, Flickr, food, Muzio's Grocery and Deli, San Luis Obispo
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We went to a show last night here in San Luis. Our friend Erk gave us a tip that Australian band Tamarama would be in town. So, once again we found ourselves drawn to a concert based on the bill’s opening act. Which is too bad for us, as openers always have the shortest sets.

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Tags: Anuhea, California, Flickr, music, San Luis Obispo, Stranger, Tamarama, The Green
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We’ve been asked (and by asked, I mean told) by new owners here at the park to make some minor improvements to our home. One of the things we were asked (told) to do was to give the place a good cleaning around the outside. We did have a power washing done a couple years ago, but we hired someone to do that. This time, the management here loaned us their power washer. We hadn’t ever used a power washer before, so it was a learning experience.

The power washer, wrapped in its attached hose and power cord.

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Tags: Flickr, life
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Last night, while I was playing World of Warcraft, I wanted something to listen to other than the game’s built-in music. I was pretty much caught up on podcasts, and just wasn’t all that interested in anything else in my iTunes music library. I clicked over to the Radio tab in iTunes, opened the Hard Rock/Metal directory and clicked on Big R Radio 80′s Metal FM. I’ve been a fan of this type of music since I was a kid. I don’t hear ir that often these days, so it was nice to get a refresher course via this Internet stream. I was able to identify pretty much every artist straight away. A couple dozen songs went by before 80′s Metal FM stumped me (was never much of a Kingdome Come fan, anyway). It’s likely that, if a band’s video aired on “Headbangers Ball” between 1988 and 1993, I owned that band’s album(s). While listening to 80′s Metal FM last night, three tracks really jumped out at me.

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Tags: Dokken, guitar, music, White Lion, Whitesnake, YouTube
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