Chicken recipe

• boneless, skinless, Chicken breast

Batter

• eggs
• Garlic
• dill
• Paprika
  

Breading

• Corn flakes
• Mrs dash lemon pepper
  

Batter, bread, Bake at 400 for 50 minutes

Blood pressure woes

I found out that my blood pressure was 160/90. That is what I get for eating that ham and cheese. Anyway, I thought it would settle down at the end of the day, but it would settle down at the end of the day. It didn't.

So, I ran on the treadmill for 20 minutes. I was all sweaty. A couple of hours later, my blood pressure was 123/80. That is much better. I believe that the sodium I exude through the sweat helped to relieve the blood pressure.

Anyway, in my search for low sodium snacks, I found the following foods were great:

• Shredded wheat cereal
• Sweet potatoes
• Grits
• Honey mustard pretzels. (a little high, but lower than most.)
• raisins
• air-popped popcorn
• Carrots and other veggies
  

Surprisingly, the following had a high sodium content:

• Bread (especially English muffins)
  
• Chicken breast
• canned mushrooms
  

I have done bland before. After about a month without salty food, one gets used to it. Here's to bland for life. At least I won't be taking pills for making salty choices. Keeping my blood pressure down will keep my heart and veins/arteries from wearing out at an early age.

Puritan goes Hollywood

Cook noodles.

• 1 jar cheese dip
• 2 cans cream mushroom
• 1 can cream celery
• 1 lb frozen california blend vegetables, thawed and chopped
  
• 4 oz Romano cheese
  
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 can tomato soup
• 4 bay leaves
• garlic powder
• dill
• 1 lb turkey meat, diced
  
• 2 lb noodles
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
  

Mix everything together except noodles
simmer
boil noodles
drain
pour sauce over noodles

About abortion

Abortion kills a developing child. Inside the mother, the developing human depends on the mother for nutrients. This is not much different than the case of a newborn. A newborn has to be fed or it will die. He has no inkling of how to feed himself or stay safe.

Spiritually, this falls under "You shall not murder", Exodus 20:13 . The fact that a human in the womb has cells which divide classifies it as life. To stop those cells from dividing through a deliberate intervention would be considered murder. This also has legal implications. Science is clear hear. Once the egg cell is fertilized and starts to divide, that is a living organism. I only mention this because there are people who would say "so where in the bible is abortion forbidden?" However, it does not have to be in the bible. It is in the law as well.

Logically, a woman can do with her body what she wants. Every cell in her body has the same DNA. However, the developing human in her uterus has different DNA, and is not her body. The organism (whatever we decided to name the stage of development) inside the pregnant mother is, in every cell, a totally different human organism than the mother. As such the developing human should have rights. Every human should have the right to live, even if that human is dependent on someone else for survival. This also applies to people who are incapacitated.

Why isn't abortion an issue with domestic pets? We could say that a dog with an unwanted pregnancy should have an abortion. This does not usually happen because it is acceptable to kill a surplus of domestic pets. Therefore, an unwanted pregnancy is allowed to go to full term and the offspring are either adopted, or killed. This is the common practice in China for unwanted children. It is more natural and less expensive to let a child die from natural causes (neglect) than to terminate the pregnancy through surgical methods.

Therefore, I am certain that no argument on any moral or legal grounds would justify abortion. The only exception that would be permissible is if the mother would most certainly die carrying the child to term. Especially compelling would be the case where the death of the mother would also kill the developing child, anyway.

Awesome stove-top lasagna

I made some awesome stove-top lasagna today. Here are the ingredients:

• 1 lb meat
• 1 lb lasagna noodles
• 6 oz cottage cheese
• 3 oz Romano cheese
• 4 oz Mozzarella cheese
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 can stewed tomatoes (with onion and green pepper)
  
• 1/2 onion, cubed
  
• Italian seasoning
• 1 can mushrooms
• 1/2 can black olives
• 1 can spinach, drained

Brown and drain the meat.
Break the noodles into thirds and boil for 12 minutes. Drain.
Add spaghetti sauce, onions, and mushrooms to the meat. Simmer
Liquefy canned tomatoes in a blender. Add to meat. Season to taste.

Combine meat, noodles, black olives and cheeses
Eat up. Yum!!

Also, you can add Parmesan cheese and garlic.

Ran another 5k

The weather was excellent. 53 F and calm. No sun. I got another 5k run in today. Finished in 30:04. No splits this time.

Some of the trees were a shocking shade of red contrasted with the dull gray fog. I saw and heard a crane fly by down the street.

Pedometer milestone

I reached a new milestone with my pedometer. It is a Pikachu GS, and turns over at 10,000,000 steps. This is the second time I am turning it over. Accumulated 3444 days to turn it over to 20,000,000 steps.

There were also times when I didn't wear it at all. I think the longest stretch was about 8 months.

Running 5k

I finally got my running distance back up to 5 km today. It was cold. I hardly sweated. My split times were:

• 1 9:37
• 2 19:07
• 3 28:24
• 5k 29:19

Who sells C-cells

A friend of mine asked, "what kind of batteries does this take?"

To which I replied, "C cells."

And my friend said back, "C cells sea shells by the sea shore!"

New record time

I just ran 2 miles this morning with a new record time. I did it in 18:04. I used to run 5K in 18:20, so I am a lot slower now. I am hoping that I measured the course wrong. It really felt that I was going faster than 9 minute miles.

I was running barefoot, of course. A couple weeks ago, when it was cold, I tried running 2 miles, but after the 1st mile, my feet were numb. I wore shoes for the second mile. That made my knees sore. I guess it is true that shoes mess up your knees.

Anyway, yea for my fast time :-).

Barefoot running resources

Here are some barefoot running resources:

Wikipedia: Abebe Bikila and Zola Budd

Also, some web sites: http://www.barefootrunner.com/ and http://shodless.com/

What your parents know

I grabbed this from Facebook:

• Age 4: Mom knows everything!
  
• Age 8: Mom knows a lot!
  
• Age12: Mom really doesn't know eveything.
  
• Age14: Mom doesn't know a thing!
  
• Age16: Mom who?
  
• Age18: that's old school.
  
• Age 25: maybe Mom knows about this.
  
• Age 35: let's ask Mom before deciding.
  
• Age 45: I wonder what Mom would say about this...
  
• Age75: I wish I could ask Mom about this.

Sea shell twist

Here is a twist on the old "She sell seashells" tongue twister.

She sells sea shell sushi by the sea shore.

Contentment and comparison

The more you compare yourself to others, the less content you will be with yourself.

-Jeff Delinck

Many people are not completely happy. Especially if they are looking to earthly things like food, money, and popularity to satisfy them. There is a certain enjoyment that they try to attain. If I am only seeking for my own enjoyment, I know when I am enjoying myself, or I am happy.

The minute I start to compare myself to others, however, I might find a person who is enjoying himself to a larger extent. Either he is watching a larger TV than me, he has more leisure time than me, he is healthier than me, his grass is greener than mine, the list is extensive.

However, if I am doing what I know is the right thing, and doing it to the best of my ability in my current situation, I should be completely happy that I have done what I could and feel no need to change that.

Network tools and categories

There are some buzz words trying to categorize some of the offerings on the internet. First, some definitions.

Media: Text, pictures, video, and sound.

Audience: The recipients of media.

Social: 2 way interactions with groups of people. Among business associates, this is also called networking. The social audience is typically a dozen to the low hundreds.

Advertising: Announcing news with a pointer to some content.

Broadcasting: 1 way information dissemination usually to an anonymous audience. The audience of broadcasts can be scaled up to thousands or millions.

• Facebook, linkedin, and Myspace would be examples of social media.
• Email among personal contacts is also social media. It is sharing media with contacts.
  
• Email lists sent by companies is broadcasting and advertising.
  
• Chat rooms and virtual worlds are social interaction, not social media.
• Webcam chat rooms, like stickam and justin TV are also social interaction.
  
• YouTube and blogger, wordpress, et. al. would be examples of broadcasting to an audience. Although there are comments, I don't consider the initial post to be the beginning of a conversation.
• Twitter can be many things. From a personal account with a small group of followers, it can be considered social media. If the account is corporate, it could be advertising.
• Shared bookmarks (such as delicious and digg) are also advertising, not "social bookmarking".
  

Electronic Gizmos and Gadgets

I now have a collection of electronic gadgets. Each one serves a purpose and saves worry, time, and hundreds of dollars. Let me explain. I am not counting the cost of WiFi at home because I would most likely have some form of WiFi at home with or without these handy gadgets.

Music:

Slacker radio has free service. I can run down the battery listening to music and not worry about not being able to get a phone call. It is refreshed with WiFi at home. The music is downloaded in a "Cache" area. Other services like Rhapsody and Zune charge money for music service. The fees start at $9.99. Savings are $119.88 per year.

"Smart" phone: Palm TX, Kindle

The advantage of a "smart" phone like an android or a blackberry is the ability to run applications and access the internet. The Palm TX has WiFi and is fast. Also can take notes, play games, keep contact information, run spreadsheets, read documents. The Kindle is slow and does not have Wifi. It does have 3G, however. Most data plans for cell phones are $15 to $30 per month. Therefore, I can use it as my connection to the internet when I am not in a WiFi spot. Savings on 3G: $180/year

Phone service

I use pay as you go I only pay 10 cents per minute. Mintues roll over and don't expire for a year. My phone also doubles as a watch, stopwatch, timer, and calculator. Most phone service is $30 per month. I pay about $70 per year. So, I save about $290 per year on phone service.

GPS

A GPS device. No service fees. Verizon charges $9.99 per month for VZ Navigator. Also can be used as a phone book for the points of interest. Savings of $119.88 per year. (That is about the cost of a GPS)

Camera

I know a lot of electronic devices have this built in. But at 12 Megapixel and 3x optical zoom and a good flash, the picture quality is much better than the built in camera of a phone.

My net savings by using all these gadgets instead of an all-in-one phone is $709.76 every year. That is not chump change. Although, all together, they get pretty bulky.

God makes all kinds

If you do not like me because I am ignornat, I can be sent to school and educated. If you do not like me because I am dirty, I can be taught to wash and be clean. If you do not like me because of my unsocial habits, I can be taught how to live in society. But if you do not like me because of the color of my skin, I can only refer you to the God who made me.

Pain

I like pain. It is my body's indicator that I am doing something harmful.

Even the soreness in my muscles after a workout is an indicator that the muscles are healing and getting stronger. They should heal before I use them again so I can gain more strength.

Sausages

Here is another tongue twister: I saw Sid's sausage sauces.

Clams

Here is a tongue twister: Can you do the can can with the clam can clan?

Simplify spelling

This blog is in response to an msnbc article about protesters to the spelling bee. I did not write this, but it is clever and really pushes the point. I did find some similar posts at the Spelling Society.

Having chosen English as the preferred language in the EEC (now
officially the European Union, or EU), the European Parliament has
commissioned a feasibility study in ways of improving efficiency in
communications between Government departments.

European officials have often pointed out that English spelling is
unnecessarily difficult. For example: cough, plough, here, hear, bow,
bough, through and thorough. What is clearly needed is a phased
program of changes to iron out these anomalies. The program would be administered by a committee of top level staff chosen by the participating nations.

In the first year, for example, the committee might suggest using "s"
instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants in all sities would
resieve this news with joy. The hard "c" could then be replased by "k"
sinse both letters are pronounsed alike. This would not only klear up
konfusion in the minds of klerikal workers, but typewriters and
keyboards kould be made with one less letter, a signifikant savings.

In the sekond year, bekause of growing enthusiasm, it will be
announsed that the troublesome "ph" would henseforth be written "f".
This would make words like "fotograf" twenty persent shorter in print.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be
expekted to reash the stage where more komplikated shanges are
possible. Governments would enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. We would al agre that the horible mes of silent "e"'s in the languag is disgrasful. Therefor, we kould drop thes and kontinu to read and writ as though nothing had hapend.

By this tim it would be four years sins the skem began and peopl would be reseptiv to steps sush as replasing "th" by "z". Perhaps zen ze funktion of "w" kould be taken on by "v", vitsh is, after al, half a "w".

Finaly, ze unesesary "o" kuld be dropd from words kontaining "ou".
Similar arguments vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

Kontinuing zis proses yer aftr yer, ve vud eventuli hav a reli
sensibl riten stil. Aftr tventi yers zer vud be no mor trubls or
difikultis and evrion vud fin it ezi tu understan esh ozer. Ze drems
of ze E.U. vud finali kum tru.

Jehovah's witness education

Jehovah's witnesses missed Isaiah 51:6, ... and the earth will wear out like a garment... After thumbing through their bibles, and coming up with some beautiful passages, they failed to realize this was in scriptures. Let's get the message out to them.

One of the passages they brought up was Isaiah 65:17 ... Behold I will make a new heavens a new earth... But they insisted it was this same earth. They were a bit frantic because I told them the kingdom of God was not of this world. Jesus said that if his kingdom was of this world, his servants would be fighting to save him. John 18:36

Pool time

With all the heat this weekend (Fri, 5/21/2010), I decided to open up the pool. I bought some solar panels for it. Hooked them up Saturday, only to lose 1/2 of the pool water when a hose popped off. If I didn't have bottom drains, I would have run the pump dry.

So, topped off the pool with 5000 gallons of tap water (probably 50F?). 91 Ambient Sunday and sunny brought the temperature up from 62 to 67. Monday saw the temperature go from 67 to 76. Today (Tuesday), with 91 ambient and sunny, the pool went from 76 to 82F. That was enough to go in the water.

I went into the water to hook up the inside stairs. I dropped a screw and had to look for it. I don't want to step on it and have it poke through the liner. That was nice to be back in the water again. I had to go to the bottom and look for a while. It turns out the screw fell under the stairs. It was fun diving for the screw, though.

I will probably un-hook the solar panels until the pool water gets cool again. Even when the valve is bypassing the solar panels, all of the tubing and piping makes the pressure go from 14 psi to 20 psi on the system. I know the pump will be a lot happier without all that tubing.

blogging from the kindle

I can blog from my kindle, but it is a slo and painful process. nice to know it can be done, though.

Editing an existing blog from the kindle is even more painful, but it can be done.

chirunning barefoot injury free

There is an article in USA Today which supports my recent blogs about barefoot running. I suppose I could have built up the callouses more gently if I ran in the grass, but at 45 F and wet grass, my feet were too numb. I will stick to the sidewalk, thank you.

Twitter tools

I found some twitter tools. They can be found on my social and communication page. I will highlight them here.

For general posting and viewing, I like tweetree. Seesmic is pretty good, too. The advantage of tweetree is that it shows some content of links inline and offers threading of replies. Two other threading mentions are twonvo and tweet convo.

Hash tags are those words which begin with "#". To find hash tag definitions, I like to use tagdef.

Finally, to see what everyone is talking about, you can use a tag cloud map, or "listorious", a list of popular lists.

A web site for posting pictures to twitter is twitpic. To share music on twitter, go to blip fm.

That's all for now. If you know anything useful, leave a comment.

Running farther

Today I ran 2 miles (barefoot). But it took 17:41. Slow. Got to keep trying. The new callouses are holding out very well.

Running again

Ran a 7:28 mile barefoot, then ran some more. Developed what would have been blisters on the fourth toes, but they have callouses now. Ha ha.

Forgive and forget

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.

- Thomas Szasz

God has a plan

'To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.' When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better. Concentrate on this sentence... 'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'

Barefoot mile

Ran another barefoot mile this morning. Had to tape left fourth toe. Still ripped up. Got a blister on the right fourth toe this time. I ran it in 7:44. That's a smokin' for me.

It felt real good. My toes were not as numb this time. Temperature was 46 F. My calves are not as tight. Been running 1/4 to 1/2 mile barefoot since last mile.

Running again

Just ran 1 mile barefoot. 8:26. The pavement was surprisingly cold. It made my feet numb. I had busted a blister on my toe and didn't realize it until my feet warmed up.

Overall, it was a good experience. I felt pretty good after running. It has been a while.

Use for leftover breading

Just got finished breading those pork chops or chicken legs, and have some left over? Don't throw it out! Add about 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 cup milk, and 1 tablespoon oil (more or less, depending on how much is left over). If you are using an egg for breading, put that in, too. If not, add an egg.

Then, fry it like pancake batter. Yum!

Yelling, discipline, and respect

(read time 3 minutes)

Ok. I know that James Dobson said this, but I can't find it anywhere on the internet. This is about discipline and yelling.

Children don't like when parents yell. When asked what they like the least, children will tell you "I don't like when my parents yell."

James Dobson gave this example: When a police officer walks up to a car, and pulls out his book, the person in the car is very respectful. Respect comes from the word "fear." A person who gets pulled over is respectful because they are afraid of what the police officer will do next.

If a police officer is not given any authority, except to stand on the corner and yell at the cars that are speeding as they go by, the cars will not respond the same way. I suppose some of the drivers might even laugh as they go by. So, you can see by this example that yelling will not accomplish anything.

So what is it that parents should be doing? First of all, be consistent. Don't give a severe punishment for something today, and then laugh at the same infraction the next day. Try to make the punishment fit the crime. If a child is mean to another, that child should to the offended's bidding (within reason). In many cases, time out still works.

If you must use corporal punishment, and occasionally that is indicated, spanking isn't the only way. Pressure points can be a good alternative to spanking. Also, menial tasks can sometimes curb defiance, Especially when the menial task fits the offense. For instance, you missed the bus, so you wash the breakfast dishes. I didn't have time to do the breakfast dishes because I had to drop you at school.

Don't keep repeating yourself. Often a child will wonder at what point the parent really wants something done. It could even become a game. When was the last time you asked "how many times do I need to tell you to do..."? The answer should be ONE. If you tell a child three times to do something before he does what he is told, that will be the expectation on both of your parts. Sometimes, it helps to be specific. "Get the dishes done before 7:00 pm." That way, both of you know exactly what is expected.

Also, be honest. If a child asks "do you have $10" don't say "no" to avoid an argument. Just say "yes, and you can't have it." You shouldn't feel the need to lie to avoid exercising authority. Your children probably know when you lie, and will return the favor of lying when they want to avoid confrontation. Sometimes, they will lie anyway, but don't give them a bad example.

Finally, rewards are a better motivator than fear. Try not to use food for rewards, though, because that can cause dysfunctional eating habbits. It is amazing what a child will do for money. I had an experience where a child would complain about everything. So, I gave her 10 pennies. If she wanted to complain, she would pay a penny. At the end of the day, she got to keep all the pennies she didn't use. The complaining dropped dramatically.

I found in younger children that there is an inverse relationship between time watching TV or playing video games, and grades. If the grades go down, it was caused by too much TV or video games or computer games. I would give two days without TV or video games for an F, or a week without if it was a test. Not only is it a good motivator, but the extra time away from entertainment portals gives the brain more time to concentrate and pay attention in class.

Poultry in motion

If you duck your head to take a peek, you perform a maneuver called the "peeking duck".

nature haiku

The moon shines brightly
Bringing loneliness to earth
howling coyotes

Factual haiku

First five syllables.
Seven syllables are next.
Five more in the end.

Funny haiku

Knock Knock. Who is there?
Haiku. Haiku who? Haiku-ed
I borrow some salt?

Tired haiku

It is time for bed.
Yet I twitter on and on.
I shall sleep in late.

Funny haiku

In delivery
a pregnant woman exclaims
YOU DID THIS TO ME!

Food haiku

Pizza is yummy
Tomato, crust, and cheeses
I will always eat.

Bedtime haiku

The last thing I do
before I head off to bed
is start the washer

Dippy eggs

Today, I made a treat my Grandma made. It was eggs over easy, with the yolk not cooked solid. This was served with buttered toast. After adding a little salt and pepper, break open the top of the yolk and sop the yolk by dipping the bread in. Take a bite out of the bread and repeat.

Because of the dipping, Grandma always called them "dippy eggs."