How can I calculate the calories in my exercise regimen? Or Wiener and I are working on our fitness.

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . May 31, 2009 . 1:25PM

I promised this wouldn’t turn into my weight loss blog, and I’m sticking with that plan. However, that doesn’t mean that you won’t hear about aspects of my journey. It’s a big part of my life right now, and, until it becomes second nature to me, it feels like an overwhelming aspect that is permeating everything, not just my eating habits. I’m having to relearn all kinds of things: how I eat, how I sleep, my daily schedule, and, most especially, fitness.

We live in a nice, safe neighborhood that is filled with well-manicured lawns and well-designed sidewalks. Daily, Duder, Weiner and Pea lose their noodles over people who walk or ride bicycles past the house because the area invites us to get out and move. I have a membership to a local place, but the beauty of the weather, when it hasn’t been raining, has beckoned me to get out and move. Well, that and the dogs are eating us out of house and home and I’m afraid that they won’t be able to get up the steps if they don’t exercise soon. I’m not kidding. Weiner could pass for a Sumo-dog and Pea is getting close to Shamu proportions.

So, I ordered them some harnesses because they are adept at getting out of collars, especially Pea who is like Houdini. For the record, I like Puppia harnesses and I don’t get paid anything to endorse them. They are comfortable and they keep my dogs safe. That’s what matters to me.

What I’ve been doing is taking the dogs around the neighborhood several times. They are so good! They don’t do their business on anyone’s yard and they walk at a brisk pace, which keeps me on track. Pea is good for a couple of trips around, which is good for her little legs. However, this is where Weiner isn’t just good: She SHINES. She’s like a miniature Energizer Bunny. She will go around the block as many times as you’ll take her. She’ll walk quickly and be a good dog. There is no sniffing for a sweet spot. She’s all business. We’re here to walk.

I wondered how effective our walks were as exercise. I go for about 45 minutes. Thanks to a book I’m reading, I was pointed to a website, CalorieControl.org, that tells me exactly how effective my walks are and I was blown away. I’m not going to tell you how many calories I burn while taking care of my dogs, but it was a lot. How many calories are you burning every day? Was it more or less than you thought? This is a great resource and I’m glad to have found it.

My dogs are just glad to get out of the house.

Dorothy Parker and her misconception

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . May 30, 2009 . 2:33PM

Tina Fey's glasses help define her as a professional

Dorothy Parker once said, “Men seldom make passes. At girls who wear glasses.”

As a proud glass-wearing member of society, I’m wondering what gives her the idea that men are dissuaded by a good pair of specs? Frankly, I think they provide character and lend intrigue to a woman. Without them, I feel almost naked. My glasses are one more way for me to give myself a little bit of mystery.

And, let’s be honest, without them I have a bit of a moon face. There is the awful truth. It’s out and now I can’t take it back. Moony face moony face.

With my glasses, I feel smarter, more confident and, in some ways, invincible. I certainly can see, and that helps a lot. I didn’t need glasses until I was 21. I was doing support for a well-known blogging site and was spending quite a bit of time on the computer. Things began to go blurry and I started having some severe headaches. When my eyes were tested, they pronounced me with astigmatism and sent me on my way with a pair of retro shaped shades and a comment to come back yearly. And so I have.

I keep trying to make the pictures of me without glasses work, but frankly, they aren’t me and they just don’t. Being myself is sexy. Being myself is real. Besides, without my glasses, I can’t see what’s happening around me anyway, so it wouldn’t matter if someone was “passing” or not. I’d imagine it’s similar to the concept of beer goggles. I like being able to see. I think that’s sexy.

Use of human cadavers as crash test dummies?

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . May 29, 2009 . 1:56PM

Back in the 1990s there was a song by a group called The Crash Test Dummies and the main lyrics were “mmm mmm mmm mm mmm mmm mmm,” which was sung in a monotone voice. I kind of feel that way after watching a live link video that discusses how human cadavers that were donated to science are used in many ways that the public is unaware. In this case, they are being used to develop safer vehicles, which I think is great, but the family is not notified that their body will be abused, which seems unethical to me, in many ways. Take a look at the video and we can talk more about this.

The controversy over the practice is that the bodies, once turned over to science, have no guarantees as to what type of “science” they will be used to test. Many people make the assumption that the body will go towards the furthering of medical students education, some kind of cancer/terminal illness research or something that the deem equally changing for all of humanity. The idea that their loved one could end up further broken due to testing car standards has people appalled and angry.

My opposition to this stems from all of those ideas as well as the idea of desecration of a person once they are gone. We have other means of testing these vehicles and we use them. If a person knows that their body is going to this purpose, I believe that is one idea that is fine. If they have no idea that they will be further used to this extent, it opens a whole other can of worms.

What are your thoughts? If this was your loved one and you had donated their body to science, would you be ok with the practice?

Mario Bros Japanese Edition: Commentary via Steve

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . May 28, 2009 . 3:11PM

You really can’t have a blog named “Blueshelled.com” and never talk about Mario Bros. You just can’t. It tells you a lot about me as a person as well as my age and my hobbies as a child and adolescent. I remember the first time I saw a Nintendo and my first experience with the game. I went over to my friend Maria’s house and she had a Nintendo. I’d grown up on a farm and the concept of a Nintendo was new to me. We’d had an Atari, so I knew about Pong and Pacman, but what was a Mario Bros (which I pronounced then as “Maw-ree-o Bras”)?

My first question, when watching Mario play was “Yes, but how do you fall?” Oh, I was to learn how to fall pretty quickly in the coming weeks, as I slowly became nothing less than an addict. Later, when I got my own Nintendo, I moved on to Final Fantasy I, which is still my favorite game ever (Fighter, Thief, Red Mage, Black Mage for the win, people), but Super Mario Bros is where Nintendo and I became friends.

At one point, during that first summer of meeting new people and spending time with my new friend Maria, she accused me of only playing with her for her Nintendo. I’d like to think that wasn’t true, but when I say I was addicted, I’m not kidding and addicts do crazy things. I enjoyed time with Maria, but, when we moved a year or so later, there was a lot of childhood drama and our friendship faded quite a bit. We still talk to this day, thanks to Facebook, but I have her to thank for introducing me to the gaming system that single-handed stunted my social life.

Every now and then, I find something that reminds me of my Super Mario Bros addiction and will make me laugh until tears run out of my eyes. This video is one of those things. It is Steve, who really enjoys his Super Mario Bros and is quite animated about.

Warning: There is some foul language in this video, as there generally is when you aren’t very good at a video game.

Husband pranks wife: will rot in hades

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . May 27, 2009 . 10:43AM

This isn’t me…because if it was, that would be the end. Of what? Don’t you worry about that.

Happy Wednesday.