It is purely a Hallmark holiday, created by companies to make $.
   

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I don't think it has changed me that much, especially since I basically haven't blogged much for over a year now.

The only thing I hope it used to do, and will continue to do if I keep at it, is to keep what little writing skills I have slightly honed.

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I don't get sick very often, but I just got over a dozy of something.  (Well, not "just", as I am finally finishing and posting this a month and a half later.)

I think it was just a cold, with perhaps a bit of flu and my normally mild seasonal allergies thrown in, but I was almost completely out of it for about 36 hours.

I was off Super Bowl weekend, and was really looking forward to the game.  While not a fan of either team (I actually pretty much "hate" both teams involved this year, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.), I just love all things football.  Growing up, football consumed much of my life.  I watched it every weekend, mainly the NFL, but a fair amount of college, and even occasional High School, USFL, and Arena League games.  I played football almost every day back in grade school thru high school.  I collected football cards.  I played tabletop paper football at lunch every day in the cafeteria.  I still own and play a handheld Mattel Electronic Football II game.  More recently, up until about 7 years ago I got together with friends to play touch or tackle football almost every Sunday.  And I was addicted to fantasy football for about ten years, playing it back when we had to use pencil and paper and do all the scores by hand.  But I digress.....

So my sister was throwing a little Super Bowl party, and I was really looking forward to that as much as the game itself.  I love Super Bowl Party food.  Chips, chili, dips, soda, hot dogs; I'm drooling just writing about it.  I had gone out the day before and bought a bunch of stuff for her party, just to make sure she had my favorites on hand.

I had been feeling a little under the weather (what does above the weather feel like?) for a day or so, had the sniffles at work on Thursday.  Friday and Saturday got worse, as I was becoming more and more congested.  I  took some Nyquil on Saturday night, which always work great for me, hoping to knock the cold out and sleep it off.  Sunday was just a horribly awful day for me though.  Whatever congestion I had Saturday tripled by Sunday afternoon.  I literally could not drag myself out of bed on Sunday.  Not only was I incredibly congested and have a horrible headache, but I was amazingly weak and drowsy.  And my mind wasn't working very well at all.  I spent about 36 hours in a state of semi-consciousness.  I couldn't sleep well, as I had to blow my nose every 60 seconds, and the sleep I did get was short bits of "am I dreaming or is this real?"  I'd jerk myself awake, reacting to these strange dreams.  I'd hear the phones ring, and would say hello, but the phones were still several feet away, unanswered..  I'd occasionally have moments where I was conscious enough to know that I should return the phone calls, as perhaps my family and friends were worried about me.  But I could not get my arms and legs to move.  Seriously, I almost feel as if I was drugged.  It was a pretty surreal 36 or so hours.

I was awake enough to use my remotes to turn the game on that evening, and I caught bits and pieces of it.  But is was more like the Stuper Bowl for me.

I could probably drag this out into three full size entries someday, but, for now, I'll just list them.

1 - Discovering and fulfilling God's purposes for my life.

2 - Having a career/job/focus on helping others.

3 - Getting my crap stuff organized.

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The secrets to understanding women.
   

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I used to love to read.  Back in elementary school, I loved the day (each month?) that the Scholastic catalogs and order forms would show up.  I loved the annual book fairs.  I even volunteered some in the library.

But while I still buy a lot of books (mainly due to my OCD/collecting/hoarding behaviors), I seem to rarely read them.  I'm ashamed to say that I probably only read two or three books last year, possibly less.

But like many things in my life, 2008 is going to be different when it comes to my reading. For starters, I have three "daily devotional" type books that I read each day.  I'm actually completing this entry on February 22nd, and I'm proud to say that I'm 53 for 53 in that reading.

In addition to those goals, I am going to try to read three books each month.  Yep, I'm violating the Rule of One and going for three!  But actually, I'm using a version of RoO by reading one each of three different genres.  Each month I plan to read one book from my Christian/Religion library, one book of nonfiction, and one graphic novel.  Before you knock comic books (graphic novels), remember that comics are just words and pictures.  There is no limit to how good the words can be, and no limit to how good the art can be.  I've read many "comics" that I would easily pace in my top 100 books of all time.

Anyway, I was successful in January, and am into my February books.  Later, I'll write brief reviews for each book that I've read.

Better question, why am I in prison?

I imagine that most of the common foods would be available in some form, so it would be best to choose some delicacy or rarity that would be hard to find in the joint.

I have a weakness for Heath bars, those chocolate covered bars of toffee goodness.  I've been buying either the bite sized pieces or the small Halloween-sized bars for years, and keeping them in the freezer.  A couple of them a day has been a palate refreshing routine that I would miss greatly.

Xanga apparently started this featured question thing sometime last year.  It seems like a pretty good idea, and perhaps one that I'll use on a regular basis.  I tend to hold off on writing, waiting until I have a "really big" or "cool" story to share.  But since my goal is to just start writing more, perhaps I'll endeavor to answer this question every few days or so, just to keep my fingers limber.
   

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We had to say goodbye to two of the best pets in the history of pets recently.

I'm still gathering my thoughts and a picture or two to celebrate Kimba and Sheba, and hope to post a full entry for each sometime in February. 

FreeRice is a site I stumbled upon not too long ago. They are a non-profit organization that works with the United Nations World Food Program to donate rice to starving nations. The rice is paid for by advertisers to the site.

The site is a very simple page that features a vocabulary quiz. For every word you get correct, 20 grains of rice are donated.

I can keep talking about it, but if you haven't clicked the link already, go do that first. It's charmingly simple.

Sure, a couple hundred grains of rice might not make much of a difference, but multiply that per day, for each person visiting the site, and it adds up. 25,000 people die every day of starvation, even 1 a day is too many in these times. This website is making a small dent in that number, and I, for one, have added the link to all of my bookmarks and toolbars, and try to visit it several times a day, if only for a couple seconds. Every little bit can help.

And even if I didn't care about starving people (which, in all honesty, I really don't since I haven't given up my petty little life and joined the mission field), I'd visit the site anyway just for the free vocabulary building. This is from the site's FAQ:

How does playing the vocabulary game at FreeRice help me?

Learning new vocabulary has tremendous benefits. It can help you:

* Formulate your ideas better
* Write better papers, emails and business letters
* Speak more precisely and persuasively
* Comprehend more of what you read
* Read faster because you comprehend better
* Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
* Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
* Perform better at job interviews and conferences
* Sell yourself, your services, and your products better
* Be more effective and successful at your job

After you have done FreeRice for a couple of days, you may notice an odd phenomenon. Words that you have never consciously used before will begin to pop into your head while you are speaking or writing. You will feel yourself using and knowing more words.

My high score so far is 43 by the way.

I've pretty much always been overweight, even as a kid I was developing a bit of a belly.  But I must admit that it has gotten increasingly worse over the last 20 years.  That was around when I started at the hospital, and perhaps getting a job where I sit for 12+ hours at a time led to the ever increasing me.  I used to look at people as I walk down the street, see what most would at least privately say was a "fat" guy, and know that I was nowhere near that size.  And I'd see a fit guy and think, "I'm pretty much a few pounds from that".  Well, in the last year or so I have begun to realize that perhaps when people see me walking down the street, they see the fat guy.  So yet another one of my resolutions this year is to lose weight.  And using The Rule of One (trademark pending), I decided to lose (at least) one pound per month.

So to prepare for this exercise (no pun intended actually), I needed to weigh myself.  Luckily, I have a scale in my bathroom.  I've been weighing myself fairly regularly for years, since it is right there after all.  I've always had this dream of someday getting back down under 200.  I'd be deliriously happy to get to 199.99 even.  I've been over 200 since college, and as high as 240.

However, for the last 12 months or so, I have been a remarkable model of consistency.  I have weighed 220 or so every single time I step on the scale.  Of course, weight varies by a pound or more throughout the day, and the scale is not a digital one, so the 220 can be read as 218ish or 222ish.  But I was right at that range, solid as a rock, a rock made of pudding though.  So even though that is well above my desired or healthy weight, I've been quite proud of myself actually.  It was well below my all-time high, it was within a good year's diet and exercise of my 199.99 goal perhaps, and there had to be something really good about being so consistent.

The more I thought about it though, it was strange to be so consistent, especially when I knew that the previous six months had been full of lots of fast food and almost no exercise.  And I could look in a mirror and not see "a fit guy just waiting to emerge", but almost see someone anyone would have to call "a large individual".  Perhaps I had a tape worm?  Perhaps I could get it to multiply and help me meet my magic weight!

Well, it was nothing as interesting as a tape worm, or a malfunctioning mirror.  There was a simple reason for my confusion.  My scale was broken.  Yep, I'm not sure when it happened, but it is most assuredly broken. 

I almost don't want to say the real number.  I will of course, but it hurts.  It is not my all-time high at least, so I have some consolation, but it still so high that I am not realistically looking to see my 199.99 anytime soon.

I weighed myself at two "independent weighing stations", and both confirm that I weigh 237 pounds.  It was very disappointing to hear that after being so happy with my supposed weight all last year.

I basically gained 17 pounds in one minute.  Hey, that could have been the blog entry title.....

So here goes.  I'm giving up double cheeseburgers at McDonalds this year, and exercising daily, be it ever so slightly.  Hopefully that will make a bit a difference each month.

I'll try to remember to update that number each month.