The Great CD Purge

Why in the name of god do I still own some of this stuff?
When is the last time I listened to this?
Do I even remember what crap is on this?
Holy crap I still have that?
My god, what was I thinking?

If you find yourself asking one, if not all of these questions repeatedly, you might also be in the midst of a CD purge.

Please see a doctor immediately as you may be causing severe back problems from lugging them around all over the place.


So, having three cd cases, cds in my room, computer room, car, and work bag, and two Avon boxes of jewel cases has helped me to decide it was time for the Great CD Purge of 2007.
Oh and the fact my computer is dead and I am recording everything I used to have on there onto JoVanna's computer is kinda helping the process...

...and delaying it as I have to listen to everything to decide if I want it, and which songs I wish to record before dropping the cd in the:

'To Take To Slackers' Pile
'Cd's i think someone else has' Pile
'Cd's I don't think are mine' Pile
'Crap nobody in their right mind would pay good money for' Pile
'Use as target practice' Pile
'Recorded Cd's someone else might want' Pile

To Take To Slackers Pile

Slackers, for those of you not from the Columbia area, is like Record Exchange or Vintage Vinyl in St Louis. For those of you not from the Columbia or St Louis area, those are CD trade places. The difference in this case is that I know a person at Slackers. A manager person. She takes good care of me when I visit her store. I imagine I might make a bit more in trade there then I would make somewhere else. Items in this pile include: (so far)

• Bare Jr Sampler
• Beastie boys Anthology The Sounds of Science Disc 2
• Beverly Hills Cop III Soundtrack
• Blues Traveler Live From The Fall
• Butthole Surfers Pepper Single
• Cibo Matto Stereo Type A
• Harry Connick Jr. She
• Craig David Born To Do It
• Daft Punk Around The World Single
• FireWalk Light A Fire
• The Fold Feeling Like Failure Now
• Guano Apes Proud Like A God
• Sophie B Hawkins Whaler
• Incubus Stellar Single
• Kottonmouth Kings Royal Highness
• Metallica Unforgiven II Single
• Metallica Memory Remains Single
• The Steve Miller Band Greatest Hits 1974-1978
• Moby Play
• Mudhoney Piece Of Cake
• Jimmy Page & Robert Plant No Quarter
• Pearl Jam Vitalogy
• Phantom of The Opera Highlights Broadway Cast
• Postal Service Give Up
• Qkumba Zoo Child Inside Single
• R.E.M. Great Beyond Single
• R.E.M. Monster
• Rage Against The Machine Killing In The Name Of Single
• Rush Test For Echo
• Joe Satriani Time Machine
• Save Ferris I'm Not Cryin For You Single
• Squirrel Nut Zippers Hot
• Steppenwolf 16 Greatest Hits
• Type O Negative Cinnamon Girl Single
• Wedding Singer Soundtrack
• Weezer Blue Album
• Peter White Glow

If any of you want one or more of these, let me know, I'll find out how much I can get on trade for them, and sell them to you instead for that price!


Cd's I think someone else has Pile

I think some people I know have these, but I haven't a clue who...If you do, any chance of returning them? Please?

• Guns N' Roses Appetite For Destruction
• Animal House Soundtrack
• No Doubt Tragic Kingdom
• Elvis #1 Hits
• Tool Aenima

I would love to have each and every one of these back. All five great cds...

Cd's I don't think are mine Pile

I bet some other people want these back as badly as I'd like mine back, let me know if you think one of them is yours...

• Mr Holland's Opus Soundtrack
• 311
• Stone Temple Pilots Core

Recorded Cd's Someone else might want Pile

Lots of these I recorded from other sources. I have now downloaded them to my computer, and have no desire to listen to them as just the cd's they are. Any of you want them? Let me know...

Actually this list is too long, I'll post it another time...

Deuces,

Dave

Belief-O-Matic

Belief-O-Matic!

The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches my beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that my views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa. Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with my professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with my thinking.

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Secular Humanism (94%)
3. Liberal Quakers (92%)
4. Neo-Pagan (85%)
5. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (79%)
6. New Age (77%)
7. Nontheist (69%)
8. Theravada Buddhism (68%)
9. Taoism (64%)
10. Mahayana Buddhism (61%)
11. Reform Judaism (57%)
12. Bahá'í Faith (52%)
13. Orthodox Quaker (52%)
14. New Thought (47%)
15. Scientology (45%)
16. Jainism (41%)
17. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (37%)
18. Orthodox Judaism (35%)
19. Sikhism (31%)
20. Islam (27%)
21. Hinduism (27%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (27%)
23. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (23%)
24. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (21%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (18%)
26. Roman Catholic (18%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (13%)

Interesting that the top two and the second to last are the ones that I have considered myself at various points of my life.

Pick of the Week!

Sarcastic Dialectician For Hire.

Everyone knows I'm pretty sarcastic at times...

The 'Dialectic' part though, I'm sure most people would call me, if they knew what it meant. I'm not questioning any ones intelligence here or anything! I swear. I'm the last person to poke fun for not knowing what words mean. (Or how to pronounce them...who knew cacophony wasn't pronounced cak-o-fone-ee)

Dialectic - the art or practice of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments.

I'm amazed at how well I believe this word fits me. I enjoy using logic in an exchange of arguments to arrive at the truth. I also think a dialectic conversation is a great way to fully understand another person's views on given subjects.

I've also learned, within the fairly recent past, that this method of reaching understanding between two people can't always work. In fact, unless it's with another Dialectician, it almost never works. I've wondered why in the past, some of the people I argue with, I become better friends with, and some, worse friends. I think I've realized now that some people argue/discuss to reach the truth. Some to be heard, some to be understood, some to get things off of their chest. I think, now that I have learned this, I can become better friends with everyone I argue/discuss with by figuring out what their desire is behind the argument, not just the point they are arguing/discussing.

The funny thing is, I only found the word dialectic while looking for a word to rhyme with eclectic. Strange, eh? Finding one word that describes me by trying to rhyme with another word that fits me like a glove. Hence the web address for this blog: dialecticeclectic.blogspot.com. Describes me well, except for the blogspot.com part. There was only so much I could do there. I could probably B.S. something to make that describe me, too ,but I'm not feeling that creative right now.

And now, the segue into...

The Pick of The Week!!

Wyclef Jean - The Ecleftic

I was flipping through the Starz channels, looking for things I wanted to Tivo, and I came across ' Wyclef Jean's All-Star Jam @ Carnegie Hall ' on Starz-Black. This concert for charity (music education for inner city youth) included artists like Eric Clapton (yeah!), Stevie Wonder (sweet!), Destiny's Child (eh), Charlotte Church (strange), Mary J Blige (awesome), one of Marley's boys (good), and a bunch of teens called Clef's kids who play exceptional music for their age. They only showed about an hour of the show on the TV, but there is a DVD that has the whole thing (Xmas present??)

Now, I've had a CD called Wyclef Jean - The Ecleftic for a couple of years now, and it is awesome. I'm not sure which came first, the concert or the cd, but the have some songs in common. Good songs:

Wish You Were Here (pink Floyd cover)
911 (with Mary J Blige)

There are also a few that are older Clef songs (remakes, I know) that I like a lot:

Guantanamera
No Woman, No Cry
Gone Til November
Maria, Maria

And new remakes/collaborations:

Summertime w/Charlotte Church
Stayin Alive w/Rock Steady Crew
Now That We Found Love w/Third World
Wonderful Tonight w/Eric Clapton

And a new song he and Clapton wrote, called 'My Song'

And a few songs done by the Clef Kids:

Amazing Grace
Bach Medley
Lift Every Heart & Sing

The only bad part is that, for some reason, they had Destiny's Child doing Independent Woman & Say My Name. That was strange.

So, check them out. Either the Wycleftic CD, or the All-Stars DVD. They are awesome!

Counting My Blessings

As I'm on my way out the door to go join the old folks at the ARC, I figured I'd count a few of my blessings, as far as this current weight shift is concerned.

1) Support structure at home

JoVanna has been a huge help to me. She enjoys cooking, and now the two of us can work together to make meals that are tasty, healthy, and more importantly, made for two in the first place! As far as meats go, I can only cook hot dogs & fish. That's it. Now I can have chicken, beef, pork, turkey, it's awesome! Wow, variety in foods!

2) Support structure outside the home

The family has been a huge help, all talking to each other to remind each other about the goal. Its like having some people to whom I am responsible towards. I have also let most everyone know at work. That way, I have some help there whenever I get a craving for one of the many things I walk by on a given day at the grocery store. I must say, if you are ever trying to seriously lose weight, try not to work at a grocery store. While, I admit, I have better access to fresh produce and meats and lots of other items that are good for you, I also have Swiss Cake Rolls staring me in the face everyday. Why is that the one thing I look at and think, Damn, those look good. Of everything I could have huge cravings for, that's the one thing. How weird.

3) Liking a wider variety of foods.

The only veggies I used to like were carrots and peas. Now it carrots, peas, corn, asparagus, green beans, snopeas, lima beans, lettuce, and even sprouts are ok. I used to only like hot dogs and McDonald's hamburgers. Now I'll eat fish, steak, ham, polish sausage, chicken, turkey, etc. I unfortunately still can't fathom a way to get into diet sodas. But, I have cut those down to one a day at most. 1-12 ounce can that is. Not some giant liter bottle.

4) Having a workout facility so close to home.

The Columbia ARC (Activities & Recreation Center) is a godsend. I don't have to worry about traffic on campus or downtown. I have no trouble finding a machine ever. I think it has a lot to do with my unbalanced schedule, though. Being able to go work out at 10am some days, 6:30pm others, and 2pm still others helps a lot. Avoids the big 7am and 5pm rushes!

5) Staying away from alcohol

YIKES. I know. It's tough. REALLY TOUGH. How does one walk away from the nectar of the gods, good beer. I've done some research, and not only is alcohol usually calorie laden (at least my good beers, Blue Moon 170cal, most dark beers 150-200cal), but it disrupts the body's ability to burn fat. They say the safe amount of alcohol in a week considering my size, age, and gender is ten a week, 2 a day with 2 off days. No banking the alcohol for the end of the week though. So I could have a couple of beers a day, but, its best to stay away from the calorie laden drinks. Siiigggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh......

6) The knowledge I've done it before, so i can do it again

Freshman year of college, instead of gaining the dreaded Freshman Fifteen, I lost 30! My activity level just soared when I moved up here to Columbia. I dropped all the way to 230 lbs that year. My junior year, I had made a New Year's resolution, and was sticking to it quite well until I broke my hand. Lost 25 lbs from New Year's to mid march. For Mike & Tracy's wedding I lost about 15-20 lbs just increasing activity and trying the psycho diet. That psycho diet sucked. Sucked hard. Can you imagine a diet making you hate one of your favorite foods? Eggs. I love eggs. I hated eggs on that diet.

Well, like I said, off to beat an old man off of my treadmill.

First Goal Acheived!

5%!!!

First goal achieved, and about two weeks faster than hoped. Here's the goal layout...

9/19/07 - 10/26/07 First 5% - 17 lbs ( 37 days )

10/26/07 - 12/15/07 Second 5% 34 lbs, down to 306. ( 51 days )

12/15/07 - 01/04/07 Maintain. Do as little damage as possible over this period of time.

01/05/07 - Valentine's Day Third 5%, now down to 289. ( 61 days )

Valentine's - St. Patty's Ten lbs. Be careful on Patty's!!! Down to 279. ( 32 days, toughest stretch! Gotta pull this of to be able to let myself have a good time on St Patty's Day)

St. Patty's - My Bday Ten lbs. Down to 269. ( 51 days )

My Bday - 4th of July 11 lbs. Down to 258. ( 58 days )

82 lbs in ten months. It's a tough goal. And don't get me wrong, I'd be plenty happy with not reaching the final goal at all. I'm not even sure if it is possible. At my size, I might have too much of a frame and therefore, too much muscle to drop that far. I'll be seeing a doctor at some point to get a better idea of what I'm actually capable of, too.

I know I'm placing quite a bit into the numbers, but its the lifestyle change I am interested in. More on that another time.

Off to get some breakfast,

'Not quite as big' Big Dave