Ggain some (more) weight America

I could start in with obesity bashing but really, what's the point? (plenty of time for that later)


Instead, lets look at something more entertaining.


Go to theDaily Nutrition Calculator, enter your info. and go see where you need to be as far as caloric intake goes.


Currently, as a 6'3", 190lb active male...

You'll need at least 4,645 calories to maintain your current weight and activity level.
1. From fat: Only up to 30 percent, which is 1,394 calories or 155 grams.
2. From protein: About 15 percent, which is 697 calories or 174 grams.
3. From carbohydrate: About 55 percent, which is 2,555 calories or 639 grams
...Don't forget fiber: At least 53 grams.

Unless you don't mind stuffing yourself constantly, much of this increase will have to come from extra fat, which provides more than twice as many calories (9 per gram) as protein or carbohydrates (4 per gram)

Isn't that just great!? That means I get to eat 5 Big Mac's (a total of 2800 calories, 150g of fat, 235g of carbs, 125g of protein) for lunch and still have plenty of calories to waste on a huge steak dinner.



Now, on the other hand, say a 30 year old male of average height who is lightly active wants to maintain weight at 180lbs. He would have to consume 2,895 calories per day to do so.


Stop the clock... Isn't that still the 5 Big Mac's worth of calories? But wait, this is America, we don't maintain, we're still on the path to uber obesity... that means, somehow, some way, most americans are stuffing their faces with MORE than 5 Big Mac's worth of food per day. In-f*cking credible isn't it?

--Symple

Corpse Bride Themed Lappy

Studying gets old. Sometimes you have to crack open P-shop and express yourself. In this case, I redid the desktop theme on the lappy. Nabbing various icons that were Googled I threw together a little tribute to Mr. Tim Burton and stop motion animation.


The background was one of those five minute deals... just for fun. However, if you would like a copy, you can pick one up here. Note: that's the Corpse Bride skinned winamp tactfully placed in the middle of the screen. (Please refrain from being amazed.)

--Symple

Holy crap am I old. . .

The final year at USD begins tomorrow. . . It will be my 3rd official year of studying in the business admin program here at the U. The returning freshmen are as dumb as ever, and everything else is about the same too. I'm ready to be done, but it will be hard to give up the slack college life and step out into le real world.
This year will definitely be full of crazy experiences now that everyone I know is 21+ (that '+' is for all us old bastards.)
Who knows, maybe the MBA will get put on the 'to-do' list before the year is over.

--Symple

Going, going, already gone...

Good day all you happy people who happen to read this. This is the offical last post from Germany. Stopped by Silber Quelle with One Cool Cat this evenin' and pounded down 2 Mai Tai's, followed up by a Planters Punch a little bit later at Knochenhauer. It was a fitting end to the almost year-long stay in the land of good food, great beer, sauerkraut, kartoffeln, usw.

I'll be missin' the place, that's for sure. Honerable mentions of the year (this is off the top of my head, so don't kill me if you're not on this list!):

Mike, Nora, Livi, Raul, Sandra, Ignatio, Orsi, Abel, Monkia, Atilla, Aleksandra, Rafa, Evangelia, Martin, Britta, Carsten, Eulalie, Joaquin, Fazilet, Matthias, Connie, Mirco, Marianna, Timo, Raymundo, Alenka, Sherritt, Amrol, Gary and everyone I forgot.

Ciao everyone,
Symple

Hell, I laughed.

It's not much, but reading an article about how-to-get-eaten-by-sharks is a nice break from the 'Terrorist Threat' crap everywhere else.

If you dont want to read the full article here are a few excerpts:

2. STICK TO MURKY WATER The Australian government, which ought to know, claims sharks favor “turbid” or “silt-laden” water. When 14-year-old Lydia Paulk danced the incisor tango off the coast of Texas recently, she was picking up beer bottles from the ocean floor, which kicked up sand. If you’re not in Texas—and, thus, the water is beer-bottle free—small shells and loose rocks make an acceptable, albeit less classy, substitute.

6. COORDINATE YOUR WARDROBE Bright, contrasting colors are to the ocean what tube tops and belly rings are to the dance floor. “I’m easy, please eat me,” they telegraph to sharks, as if they were overly fragrant men from New Jersey.

Have fun kids.

--Symple

Shady Happenings in the WF

So this guy rings the doorbell yesterday, I answer the door... There stands a mid 30's unshaven lad with pinstriped slacks, a tacky shirt, large gold earring, wallet-on-a-chain, and oldschool Benz still running behind him.
Needless to say, the WTF alarm in my head had been going off before I even opened the door.

So I open the door a bit and he immediately starts running his mouth 100 miles an hour about some "Staubsaugmachine." *raise eyebrow* "Sure." I say, "And what exactly is a 'Staubsaugmachine'."
He then tries to explain what this thing is and why he was there using as much technical jargon as possible. Trying to sound imporant no doubt.
Apparantly the thick American accent and the Wyoming T-shirt weren't enough to clue this genius in that I wasn't German.

A few minutes later, I figured out he was talking about a vacuum, and that apparantly he was a vacuum repair technician and or door-to-door salesman. (Again, this cat looked like the slimy used car salesman from hell.) At about the time this guy was getting fed up with my obvious lack of technical expertise relating to Vacuums, Brigitte walks in and gives the guy the same 'WTF' look that I did. Imagine a 76 year old lady giving the 'WTF' look, it was priceless.

After a few short words, she had this guy heading for his benz with a disgruntled look on his face. Later that afternoon, I see the same Benz parked across the street, and this guy is busy unloading what looked like exactly like suitcases. . . Vacuum salseman my ass.


Moral of the story: Don't be some shady piece of crap and try to pull one over on a 76 year old German lady.

--Symple

How deep? Too deep.

It's Friday. Finally we can all wind down from the long work week, sit back, kick our feet up, and enjoy the weekend. We can grill with friends, go to our favorite weekend hangout, and enjoy a nice tall glass of:


Ok, stop. That was all just a lie. Put the beer down and come back to reality. Its the weekend, and you're still just a poor college kid who doesnt own a coffee table to kick your feet up on (other than the upside down beer case with a slab of plywood on top).

Yes, yes, sometimes I think we get a little ahead of ourselves. Just when we think we've made it and its all just desserts
... we realize that there are still a lot of things to finish before its possible to move on. Sometimes we need to take a step back and have a look at the big picture. Its very easy to take everything for granted, to just assume what you have now is great and it will stay that way. If we don't realize that it's possible to lose the grip on everything we have, then we have already lost.

However, if we do realise that what's there might change, we have a second chance.Within that chance, we may or may not have any clue which direction to follow but the fact that it exists is enough.

Sometimes life presents up with lots of great opportunities, and it's really hard to decide which route to take. Sometimes life makes the route selection a littler easier by giving us milestones, or allowing us to set goals for the future. It's more comfortable knowing where we are going and where we may end up.

Occasionally however, we are constantly jumping back and forth and it is very overwhelming. We have no idea what the future will bring, what lies around the next corner.
      In the end I guess that's the fun of it all: Not knowing. If our lives were already planned out, all of our goals, dreams, longings, heart-breaks, and experiences were already defined... the point of living, being a part of the human race, would no longer exist.

..Symple