Category: Uncategorized

A while back my doctor suggested that I get my cholesterol checked since I’m starting to get old. I don’t think I’ve ever had that tested before. It took a while but I finally got around to it. It’s a relatively easy test considering all the other diagnostic tests that can be done on a human being. The only mild annoyance was having to fast for ten hours before they take your blood sample. Even then, I was asleep for most of those ten hours so it wasn’t even that bad. Actually, I was more bothered by the fact I had to wait thirty minutes at the lab before they called my number.

Anyways, I got my results back and everything is within the normal ranges. I was quite happy to see that since I sometimes don’t eat the healthiest choices out there. I’m trying very hard to eat better on a daily basis. I’ve done a great job at reducing my sugar consumption. I don’t eat candy and chocolate nor do I drink sugary sodas. Yeah, I slip sometimes and eat like 20 Timbits but that’s not a normal thing. I’d like to tackle fat consumption next but that’s going to be a bit tougher.

Last week, I wrote a post about my enthusiasm about the next generation of video game consoles. On Wednesday, Sony introduced to the world the Playstation 4, signaling the start of the next console cycle (umm… sorry Wii U). At least from a technical perspective Sony appears to have learned from their mistakes with the PS3. No crazy hardware architecture.

If you missed the press conference, our friends from the Taiwanese news summarized the two-hour press conference into the video you see above. It’s quite entertaining, even if you don’t like video games.

For many years now I’ve suspected that I am, to some degree, lactose intolerant. That is, I cannot or do not produce in sufficient amounts, the enzyme that properly breaks down lactose. Over the years, the results of ingesting foods with lactose have been varying. I’ve chronicled my experiences with Starbucks frappucinos. Some foods with dairy leave me with no ill effects. Other times, I’ll be left with bloating and massive amounts of gas. The worst is the explosive pooping. Oh dear, the explosive pooping. Often it’s not the type of dairy, it’s the amount that determines the outcome. I also belong to an ethnic group that is predisposed to being intolerant to lactose. Many Asians cannot drink milk or eat ice cream without suffering from ill effects.

I think it’s time for me to experiment with taking lactase supplements. There are two things that have led me to this decision. First, we’re having an ice cream party at work in a few weeks. This is our reward for 100% participation in some survey that we had to fill out. Now despite my uneasiness with dairy, I love ice cream, always have. It’s possible for me to just eat a tiny bit of ice cream and be done with it but that’s smacks of being responsible. What if I want to eat lots of ice cream? Second, I went out for dinner with a friend last night. We had poutine. It was delicious but remember that poutine is made with cheese curds which contains lactose from the milk. I wound being gassy the whole night afterwards. I was passing wind like an F5 tornado.

Now the gas could have been from just the greasy fries and I might be able to eat lots of ice cream with any problems but why leave it up to chance anymore? I’m going try taking a lactase supplement with any of my meals that might contain dairy. The ice cream party will be a good test. I’ll report back with the results.

I’ve posted a few videos from the Jamie Kennedy Experiment before but here’s another one. In this segment, Jamie goes out on a date with an unsuspecting young lady who thinks she’s on a reality TV show. The date turns out to be quite amusing.

This show deserved to be on for more than the original three seasons. You can search YouTube for more.

Welcome to another edition of Did You Know?!?!? Did you know that I ate a whole box of 20 Timbits by myself last night? I felt a bit of shame afterwards and wondered how I much fatter I’ll get before I start reducing my fat intake.

Loyal readers, some of you know that in previous years I attempted a challenge in which I tried to keep the heat off in my apartment year round. Of course, this was really only a challenge in the winter time. I successfully went without heat for a few years in a row by adding layers of clothing, wearing socks, and taking advantage of some mild winters in Vancouver.

This year though, I decided to do something different. I wondered exactly how much money I was saving myself. There were many times where it got quite cold in my apartment and I really wanted to just turn on the heat instead of bundling up in multiple layers. Was I going through all this trouble just to $5 a month? Or was it a more substantial amount?

So this year, I decided to turn the heat on during the winter for an approximately two month period of December and January. I also set up some guidelines for this experiment. I would only turn on the smaller electric baseboard heater in my bedroom. The thermostat would be set at 15 degrees Celsius when the heat was on, no higher. The heat would be on only during the evening, usually after sunset and mostly after I got back from work. I would also attempt to turn it off when I left the room. The heat also would not be on overnight while I slept. Sometimes I would forget this part but the majority of the time I slept, the heat would be off.

I thought these were conservative ways to heat a portion of my apartment. After two months I received my electric bill for those months just last week. Historically, the months of December and January would garner me a bill of around $43 without any electricity devoted to heat. The latest bill amounted to $88.

Turning on the heat doubled my electric bill. I checked the rates and there was no sizable increase from last year. This was purely from extra consumption. I was quite shocked, no pun intended. Even with those guidelines that I set out, it was expensive to heat one room in my apartment using electricity.

Since receiving my bill. I have gone back to using no heat in my apartment. At this point, the comfort of a heated living space is not worth the doubling of my electric bill.

Now I know!

Several hours ago, a meteor entered the atmosphere above Russia. As it burned up in the air, it provided an awesome light show for a great number of Russians. The video above doesn’t show you the actual meteor streaking across the sky but it does catch the resulting shock wave. The massive boom catches the camera person off-guard and you can hear windows break and car alarms going off. This meteor was apparently too small to stay intact for a landing. Imagine the carnage for something the size of the meteor that killed all the dinosaurs. Nature is definitely both amazing and scary.

Loyal readers, another Valentine’s Day is upon us and rather than write a new VD-themed post, I’m gonna phone it in and direct you to the ones I’ve written in the past. There are a few gems in there and certainly a few misses but think of it as browsing a thrift store… a complete waste of time. Look for your Valentine’s Day posts here, here, here, here and here.

The video above is apparently the very first video to have been uploaded to YouTube on April 25, 2005. It appears to have been edited at least once since being uploaded because it contains an annotation near the end which was not a feature until later. This was long before YouTube was acquired by Google. One could say this video has a place in Internet history. Also of note, the video, if you go to it on the actual YouTube site, has the very first YT comment as well. It has over 50,000 likes.

So in the above picture, you see what my bed sheets looked like this morning. Yes, I wore holes into my bed sheets. So here’s what happened. Since I don’t get a lot of visitors in the bedroom (tee-hee!) I’ve been just using a single set of sheets for about the last two years. I liked the colour and the 600 thread count made for a silky smooth sleeping experience. I also washed my single set of sheets on a regular basis.

The ripped part of the sheets is about where my feet wind up when my legs are slightly bent when I’m in bed. Who knows, maybe I have active legs when I sleep. I must have just worn down the fabric in that area until there was just no more integrity in the sheet.

So I decided to remove the sheet today because the hole would just get bigger and then I’d be rubbing against the actual fabric of my mattress. I only had a flat sheet from the set so I decided to put that thing on. Flat sheets are stupid. I know hotels might use them but for a civilian like me they’re just a pain in the ass. It took me a while to center the sheet properly because one side wouldn’t have enough sheet to tuck under the mattress. The sheet also isn’t long enough to tuck in both the top and the bottom of the mattress. I wonder if these sheets will stay in place tonight. If not, I’ll probably have to go buy another fitted sheet.

Does anyone else wear holes into their bed sheets?