LongTom

Expensive dog food, yes. Cat-viar.

^ Favorite Halloween story: It's May 2nd. I'm in my driveway sawing up lumber for raised beds for the vegetable garden. A neighbor goes strolling by, pauses, looks on a minute, and says, "Oh. I was half expecting you were building something for Halloween." < Happened again last night. Some kids walking a puppy came by while I was unloading groceries, and said "you're the guy who does the Halloween house, aren't you? We always come by." V Have anything you are infamous for with the neighbors?

Oh, I meant, not gonna open that can of worms again. I actually have a pair of Ren-Faire lace-up fantasy over-the-calf boots that look pretty decent. English pence for buttons, fold-over tops, the whole nine yards. I may have to try those out under my slops. Not that my slops are particularly period accurate either, but then that's not the point of this thread. Of course, that kind of begs the question: are baggy old canvas slops sexy? (I know, I know... depends on the guy. )

^ Dressing as a wizard for a Halloween costume contest, taking my turn on stage, striking a wizardly pose, and knocking down an overhead lampshade. < Likes Halloween a lot. V Like Halloween?

Of course, we will have to see him repent of selling his soul to the evil corporation, in some fashion. Otherwise the "real bad guys" win. But it's an interesting path he has to tread. On the one hand, he has a perfectly legitimate (societal) interest in the suppression of piracy. On the other, absolute power corrupts absolutely, which is pretty clearly personified in the form of the East India Company man (whose name I forget at the moment). To which league of evil will he ally himself in the end? Anarchic rogues, or despotic tyrants? Or can he walk a middle ground that thwarts them both? (Sheesh, I can't believe I just wrote that about an adventure flick.)

^ Likes shiny stuff. And sharp stuff. Sharp shiny stuff even better.

I used to complain that I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet. So I asked him, "Hey, can I have your shoes?" Speaking of shoes, I had somebody tell me last Friday (pirate night at a local restaurant) that I really needed to trade my shoes for a nice pair of boots. Bucket boots, no doubt. Not gonna go there....

^ CrazyCholeBlack, with a plaque underneath proclaiming "Posed The Most Surreal Question Ever, May 10, 2007." < Confused. (does it show much?) V Why are you a pirate? (I don't care if there's another thread for that. My turn, my question. Nyah, nyah, nyah.)

I have been known on occasion do have that effect on women. Don't know how, but it's been done before. I told'ja ta brush yer teeth before dancin' wit the ladies...

So when I show up in a tricorn, argyle socks, and a Speedo, I'll expect compliments on my good posture. Yeah, frock coats are good. So are double-breasted vests.

Maybe I'm misssing something really obvious here, but it seems to me that the prospect that the game is (finally) coming out in a month is a reason for it to be interesting again. It does sound like quite an amazing, addictive time sink. I daren't even start. But it sure sounds fun!

So what would you suggest for those of us fellows who own physiques that are less statuesque? (Oh, my physique is statuesque, all right. Like the rock creature from that episode of Star Trek, the one with Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Khan...) You know, to show us off to better advantage? (And no, " a bag over the head" is not being helpful...)

A buttonhole that has an opening much wider than its button will not stay buttoned. The fabric flexes with the movements of the wearer, the buttonhope gapes, and the button falls right out.

^ Sonic art. (Commonly known as music. Traditional forms preferred. Traditional Irish, Trad jazz, trad whatever.) < not enough opportunities to play in a group. V Passing the question along.

Did my biking all week. I really need to pick up the weight workout again. It seems like I only lose the weight when doing both all week. 3 weeks was a long time to slack off. My ribs and back seem to be basically all better, finally, so I have no excuse. (Grrrr. A pox on drivers who don't use their turn signals.)

^ No, unless you count right after getting off the Salt'N'Pepper Shaker at the county fair when I was five. Cotton candy, hot dogs, toddlers, and gee-force: a winning combination. Mmmmm, mm! < Went to Disneyland for the first time in nearly 30 years a couple of weeks back. PotC as cool as ever. V How much of a Disneyland junkie are you?

I got a rock. No, wait, that can't be right.... I got a Crow, named Thedra. My profile reveals that I am modest, solitary, flexible, inquisitive, and ...uh... something else, which I forget, since I didn't save my results. Deeply distrustful of giving advertisers cyber-artifacts of myself, maybe. Yeah, that's it.

Ohhhhh yeah. I get tired and cranky in the evening, or hungry earlier than planned in the morning, and out comes an extra snack. But I can keep it going maybe 3 days out of 4. Me too. For a while I was doing weights and skating with a friend, but our schedules changed, and it just fell apart. It's hard to keep going when the only person who is paying attention to whether you do or not is you. That's why I really like blackjohn's virtual workout buddy system here. Just knowing there is somebody listening helps. (And that you are expected to report in regularly! ) Welcome to the group. I look forward to hearing about your next steps.

You've certainly come to the right place. As blackjohn says, we can do this together. I can sympathize about eating for reasons unrelated to hunger. My thing is to eat while I read, which is a bad idea because it's too easy to consume a whole box of something without paying attention. I have had to put myself on an eating schedule: breakfast-snack-lunch-snack-dinner. The good part about it is that this works out to only about two to three hours between opportunities to eat.

At least one diet program I've tried (Body for Life) actually recommends one "free day" off the diet each week. The theory is that that prevents your metabolism from getting the idea that the outside world is experiencing a famine. It also helps keep you from feeling too deprived, since on that day basically anything goes. (Okay, within reason. "20,000 Calories Under the Belt" may be a bad idea...) It may also help with willpower during the week, to be able to say "okay, I'll hold off on the cookies 'til Sunday," rather than "never? hell with this, this isn't worth it." This seemed to work for me. (though I had to back off on their very aggressive weight workout because it gave me tendinitis. I'm doing my own weight scheme, but their diet scheme, and it's working.)

Yesterday I bicycled 18 miles in the hills with a buddy. Got home from that and my littlest one wanted to go riding too, so we went out again for maybe a mile, on the flat. Congrats to Asukaru on the inches lost. I wouldn't worry about the numbers on the scale for now. It sounds like you are in the phase where you are building muscle, which is denser than fat. Even if the scale doesn't budge another ounce, you are still improving your shape, in every sense of the word. If you start feeling discouraged by what the scale says, and react by really bearing down on the calorie intake, you can put your metabolism into a starvation panic, at which point your body actually starts sacrificing muscle mass in order to make up the missing calories -- in preference to fat mass, which under those circumstances it considers emergency rations of absolute last resort. (Arrgh! Stupid bodies!) A good trap to avoid. (hmmmm...rock hard calves and outer thighs, you say...can't help wondering if we are eventually going to get treated to "after" pictures....?)

even contemplate. Who but...

Naive question: Isn't the clothing something like an order of magnitude less expensive than the boat? Be that as it may, I agree with William: when you are out on the water, the boat minus the costumery is practically no loss in enjoyment, at least in the short term. The reverse, not so much.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." (Bertrand Russell / 1872-1970)

Funny you should mention that. There is a very interesting History Channel series, called "Crusades" by Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, who despite that dubious credential, seems to have done a reasonably scholarly presentation of the subject. Definitely not the Crusades you learn about in grade school or Time-Life book series.