Windows Live Writer Addendum

 I may have spoken too soon.  It appears that I installed an older version and not version 1 Beta 2 which should have read

1.0 (12.0.1183.516)

instead of  

1.0.1 (6)

Ah well, I’ll giterdun

Windows Live Writer Resurrected!

I ended up having to go into the registry with RegEdit and remove the key pointing at the WordPress account I had setup after the first install.  There are several and not entirely centralized. 

The Uninstall needs to clean up the WLW registry entries better.  This is Beta software so, I expect to find some problems (I still grrrr).  Of course that is my complaint about most of the Windows software out there.  I have no knowledge of Macintosh software other than a brief Hypercard coding foray when I had access to a very old machine.

It’s the production “gold” software that really chaps my ass.  BLOAT and haphazard (half-assed) coding seems to be fairly common.  Not that I EVER did any of that in my code (Buah ha ha).

Anyway, I’m up and running.  Hopefully this version fixed the image upload problem.

Moonflake – Caution: This blog contains opinions. Comments may contain nuts.

I came across moonflake while smurphing the web today. It’s caution under the title struck me as humorous and I started reading. Thumbs up!

Careful though, it’s rated PG13.

The Quest for Protein

Last night I had meat balls in a kind of hunter sauce.  I didn’t really care for the sauce so I didn’t capture any to bring to work for tweeners and lunch.

Breakfast was my standard fare of 2 – 4oz carton’s of 2% cottage cheese.

I brought zucchini, fried okra, and sliced tomatoes for lunch.  Gotta love summertime.

Lunch was a quest for protein, yet again.  The $9 Salad Bar has rotisserie, fried and some sort of Jamaican chicken for sale.  I’m thinking rotisserie.  I may get enough for Lunch and tweener along with a side of green beans.

I picked a dark quarter of rotisserie chicken (leg/thigh)  and since it came with 2 sides.  I selected cole slaw and black eyed peas.  I left the mashed potatoes, gravy and fried wedges alone.  I couldn’t eat the veggies I brought so, I left them for the tomorrow.

For Dinner, I had some pork palliards and green beans swimming in garlic. 

Late evening, it was a cheese quesadia.  The flour tortillas were not on my list of “Good Eats” (on of my favorite shows on TV)

[composed and posted with ecto $$$]

Windows Live Writer

Windows Live Writer was killed on my machine and couldn’t be resurrected. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr  It was probably my own fault ….

• I saw that Beta 2 was out
• I checked my Help About 
• it said I have v1. 
• I downloaded  the “updated version”
• I tried to install
• it said “you have a newer version than this”
  • I guessed that it was because I had added templates
  • It was probably already the Beta 2 version. Head Smack
  • Still shouldn’t have broken anything
• I uninstalled my original copy
• I installed the “updated version”
• Broke ass shit Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
• Now when it loads I get a “WTF is WordPress” kind of error
  • For those who want to see the actual wording of the message
  • An unexpected error has occurred within the application.
  • System.ArgumentException: Client type WordPress not found.

So now I’m trying out new offline blog tools

• Ecto – $17.95 after a 21 day free trial
• BlogDesk – $0 aka Free

This was posted using Ecto.  I think it’s a little pricey /:)

The Quest for Easy Protein Sources

 It’s 10:30 am and I’m 30 minutes past my “feeding” time.  I brought enough protein for breakfast, lunch and one tweener however, I’m still one tweener short.  I had 2 - 4oz containers of cottage cheese (22g of protein about 20 short of what is desirable) and one large plum for breakfast.

Now, I’m scouting for my mid morning meal.  I brought in left over fried green tomatoes for the vegetable and I needed a protein source so I broke out the Bumble Bee Chicken Breast (26g of protein again about 20 shy of desirable) that has been in my drawer here at work for mumble moons.

The southwestern seasoned one has an interesting flavor and I can’t quite identify what it is.  It doesn’t really taste like chicken. 

I removed most of the breading from the fried tomatoes to lower the carbohydrate count besides the fact that reheated greasy cornmeal/flour is somewhat nauseating.  The Bumble Bee Chicken is less than 1 g of carbohydrates.

Lunch will be seasoned green beans, and a 3/8″ slice of rib roast (~38g of protein) that I cooked on the grill along with 1/2 a sweet potato.  I’m not really supposed to eat the sweet potato and I may 1/2 it again and eat that at my next tweener. 

I’ll be looking for veges for the second tweener.  I have a second slice of the rib roast for my protein source.

How I Quit Smoking For Good

I have a little counter on my blog space that says

SUCCESS followed by the number of weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds since I smoked my last cigarette.

I had tried every half way viable stop smoking remedy or method on record and until this last venture, I’ve never stopped more than a few days (read hours).  I’ve even tried them in groups.

Let me tell you, lighting a cigarette while wearing a patch and chewing nicotine gum will give you ONE HELL OF A BUZZZZZZ.  After about the 3rd puff, there were little white explosions behind my eyes.  You probably would not believe how fast a man can drop his pants, rip a patch off his ass, snuff out a cigarette and spit gum across the room… simultaneously!  That seems funny right now but believe me, it was not funny at all while it was happening.

I continued to smoke for 10 years after that.

Now, I told you earlier I had tried just about any halfway viable stop smoking method, well I’ve tried a few not so viable as well.  My trip to the Holiday Inn hypnotherapy session was one of those.  Imagine this scenario:

• You pay $45 to a lady at a table and go into a hotel conference room with roughly 100 other people. 
• The hypnotist starts his show by hypnotizing a dubious looking young lady to stand stiff as a board
• He leans her over and places her between two chairs
• He then sits on her and continues his spiel
• He informs us, the audience, that he will do the stop smoking session first and then he will do the weight loss session.  Anyone in the weight loss session could step out if they desired.
• MEANWHILE, a Black Baptist Church Revival is going on in the adjoining conference room.
• The hypnotist starts his “stop smoking” spiel, trying to get you to drop into a trance like state.
• All the while he is going on about how you would really like to quit and that cigarettes are nasty, you hear PRAISE THE LORD and lots of folks feeling the spirit coming from the next room.
• This went on through the weight loss session too.
• I can go back as many times as I like until it “sticks”!

I lit up a cigarette before I was all the way out of the hotel!  I think I gained a few pounds too.  Praise the lord, pass the loot!

My last attempt to quit started with a call to a clinical hypnotherapist.  Yes a “HYPNOTIST” but wait read on, it wasn’t just any kind of hypnotist.  It was a real clinical hypnotherapist trained in neural linguistic programming.  I scheduled a 2 part session with her for February 5th, 2007.  I also called my MD and received a prescription for Chantix.

I started taking the Chantix 5 days prior to my hypnotherapy appointment – you have to load the stuff starting out with a smaller dosage.  By the 5th day, I was up to full strength and I attended the first hypnotherapy session.  The first session was all about paperwork, taking little surveys which told the hypnotherapist how I would best be treated.  After that, she sent me to lunch and told me to smoke my heart out but be back by 1:15pm.  I went to lunch, had a few beers and smoked away at the bar.  The steak and cheese wasn’t bad either.  I put out my last cigarette at 1:15:30 pm just before I walked back into her office.

For the next hour or so I listened to her in a quasi trance state (I was aware of everything that happened) while she sloshed a bottle of water back and forth.  Basically she impressed on my mind with mental imagery and affirmations that I was no longer a smoker and every time I had a desire for a cigarette, I would replace it with a drink of water.  I have a tape of it that lasts 45 minutes.  The session to me seemed to last only 15.

I haven’t smoked since I crushed up a package of cigarettes and threw them in the little woven basket at the therapists office when I walked out.  What I did do was piss my brains out for the first week and wear a path in the carpet at work going to and from the bathroom.

I also gained 15 pounds before I got that somewhat under control.  I have since, through exercise, replaced some of that gain with muscle.

I still have urges to smoke.  They are momentary.  Sometimes, I don’t believe I will ever get over it but it’s manageable.

Fat Loss Kick Start

One of the first tips or assists in the PN Body Transformation Challenge was posted on the PN Forums as a Fat Loss Kick-start and the basic premise was that for the first two weeks you only eat

Foods that fly, swim or run

Foods that are green and grow in the ground

After two weeks you start adding carbohydrates back in slowly.

Weeks 1 and 2
Eat the same way you have above BUT EVERY 3RD DAY, have a more normal level of intake, complete with a small amount of healthy carbs (fruits, whole grains, etc) with every meal. For example:

Mon and Tues – Flies, Swims, Runs and Green
Wed – Same + carbs
Thurs and Fri – Flies, Swims, Runs and Green
Sat – Same + carbs
Sunday and Monday – Flies, Swims, Runs and Green

And so on till the end of the 2nd week.
Weeks 3 and Beyond
Follow the Precision Nutrition plan to accomplish your body transformation goals.

The Precision Nutrition Body Transformation Challenge

Precision Nutrition (hereafter known as PN)is holding a competition called the PN Body Transformation Challenge. To enter the competition, you signed up and included before pictures, body statistics, medical and performance test results etc. The prizes were outstanding for the winner and first couple runner’s up.

I failed to get my challenge in on time and I can invent quite a few excuses for why but that’s what they would be, excuses.  

I feared failure.

Ok, now that I’ve admitted that to the blogging public. I want to move forward.

I’m going to unofficially take up the PN Challenge. If When I win, I will receive no prizes other than a healthier body.  To aid me in successfully completing the challenge, I’ll be using PN resources. PN has a fairly large support forum (see PN link) with lots of people that are willing to help along with a fairly extensive library of support materials. I already own a copy of the Precision Nutrition System which gives me a a well thought out diet plan. So, I’m good to go.

Dr. Berardi has pointed out quite forcefully what the PN Challenge is not.

Although this post is about kick-starting fat loss, and many of you will likely prioritize fat loss, I want to be really, really, ridiculously clear on something. The Precision Nutrition Body Transformation Challenge IS NOT a fat loss challenge!
We are looking for fat loss, lean gain, improved health markers, and improved gym performance. So don’t get fat loss-obsessed here. Not only might it reduce your gym performance AND your health, it will definitely reduce your chances of winning!

 I’ll be posting my stats in future posts.

My First Windows Live Writer (WLW) Post

 I decided to try out Windows Live Writer (WLW).

The interface is clean looking.  Seems a little slow but that could very well be this dinosaur COMPAQ Deskpro EN I’m using.

Table Formatting works?

Weight Distribution	4/16/2007	7/26/2007	Delta
Lean Mass (lbs)	156	168	+12
Fat Mass (lbs)	94	87	-7
Total	250	255	+5

I just threw these numbers up as part of the test of WLW.  I’m not tremendously pleased with these results and I doubt the accuracy since I’m using a Tanita Body Scale.  However, the numbers should be sufficient to identify a trend since I’m using the same piece of measuring equipment at the same time in the same way.