Tim Ferriss, Slow Carb Diet

I started the Slow Carb Diet based on the book "The 4 hour Body" by Tim Ferriss over three weeks ago.  While my weight has fluctuated, I am down from 193 to 183.5 with little exercise, light walking.  I have had epic binge days, this past Saturday I had three donuts from Dunkin Donuts, angel hair pasta with broccoli, a bag of m&m peanuts, a 20 oz. bottle of Squirt, can of cherry coke, can of regular coke, 12" cheese and pepperoni pizza, Extra large coffee with cream and sugar.  My weight spiked five pounds after that, weighing in on Sunday at 188.5 off of the 183.5 Saturday morning weigh in.  I should mention I am a 5 foot 10 inch male.  Aside from my binge days, which according to Ferris prevent your thyroid from switching you down into starvation mode and keeps your metabolism guessing, I have followed the diet pretty close to his guidelines, occasionally I may have a pork sausage or a bit more 4% cottage cheese than he suggests having but all in all mostly accurate.  I have also not has as many beans as he suggests.  My review of the diet so far, after three full weeks, is that its a great way to adapt to a healthy lifestyle and long term plan.  The binge day, while counter intuitive, does seem to be helping me with cravings for things I would want and probably abandon the diet for if it wasn't allowed on the one day per week. 

Which American City Has The Most To Offer?

I realize this is a subjective argument depending on a variety of factors, age, interests, marital status, income etc.  After living in the Bay Area, Michigan, Chicago, New York City, Southern Florida and visiting over forty states I often wonder which American city is the most dynamic, has the most to offer, where is the vibe the best?  My biased opinion is the west coast for me personally, Portland, Seattle, San Fransisco and even LA to lesser extent.  I live in Chicago now and the city is vibrant, energetic and has over 77 unique neighborhoods.  Public transportation is solid, not as good as NYC in my opinion, but you can get most places by bus or train.  Chicago also has a dense urban core, the loop, which the city radiates out from, stretching as far as southern Wisconsin and northern Indiana.    The bay area has the B.A.R.T. which is pretty solid as well, and that area cannot be surpassed in regards to natural beauty, funky vibe and outdoor variety of activities.  New York City is not as clean as Chicago but offers a unbridled enthusiasm which makes it an exciting place to live.  Someone once said, "it's like a soda, it just keeps bubbling up to the top."  When I lived and worked there, it was before, during and after 9/11 and I lived in Manhattan.  In those days the lower east side and Williamsburg where the hip areas, Brooklyn was just starting to become cool and the place to be.  I visited this past September and while hanging out with a Director of Photography buddy of mine in his Alphabet City condo, he lamented that all the good stuff was now going on in Brooklyn.  I'm eager to find out what others think? What do you believe to be the city with the most to offer an early 30's, artistic type?

some paintings ive done

Jim Morrison Died Forty Years ago today

actually that isn't completely true, he died in the bathroom of the rock and roll circus a day or two earlier of a heroin overdose, and was snuck out of  the club a la "Weekend at Bernie's" style and then brought into his apartment and left in the bathtub.  The owner or manager of the Rock and Roll circus confessed years later to have seen him dead in the toilet.  The person who had sold Jim the pink Chinese heroin that was especially deadly in the summer of 1971 leading to many overdoses, did his absolute best to cover this up.  Selling the lethal dose earlier to Janis Joplin and many others was one thing, but this was just too much.  Had Jim Morrison not become such a drunk and ruined that life, he would still be living today and would be a great poet. 

some photos

Punch Drunk Vomit

In the city of Chicago bars are the preferred outlet for socialization.  This is great, if you are a heavy drinker as years of having a problem with booze can go by nearly undetected.  Even police have been known to look the other way when people drive drunk here.  The problem comes in when you don't drink, are relatively young, and still want to be social.  This city, is a city of drinkers.  Bars, are far less tolerable when sober, people are far more annoying when you are not drinking, and they are progressively lubing up.  

Saturday night, and I decided I had to be social, preferably I would have sat at home and watched Celebrity Ghost Stories, but sometimes you have to interact with other members of your species, as social animals, that is necessary for the overall wellness of the condition.

Mike, A big Irish guy, who resembles in some odd way, A cousin of a mafia hit man. Met me at a small dive bar in Lincoln Park.  He was already half in the bag from day drinking at the White Sox game, his first words were.

"Hey, want to do a shot?"
"No, I'm on the wagon remember?" I replied, somewhat annoyed.
"oh...you mind if I do one?"
"Of course not"
Now this is another annoying factor of choosing to abstain from alcohol, and I encounter this mostly when on dates with women.  They feel insecure about drinking, or ordering a drink if I am not going to drink with them, so in my weaker moments I will drink with them, in my shadier moments, I will fake drink so they leave me alone.  I'll order a tonic water with a lime in a rocks glass, and keep in the straw.  This usually is enough to allow them to leave me alone.

Mike walked over to the bar, did a shot of Jameson and rejoined me with a beer in his hand.  His face turned pale and he hiccuped.  I could tell he was fighting off vomiting.  He got up, ran to the bathroom.  I sat and watched, he was vomiting for sure.

Five mintues later, like a flash, he sprinted out of the bar.  I stood for a moment at the table confused.  Then about three minutes later, a large neanderthal of a guy, staggers out of the bathroom, with a bloody nose, pants half on and vomit on his shirt.

I left the bar and called Mike
"What the hell happend?" I asked
Mike, out of breath and panting said "dude, I couldnt hold back the vomit, and people were standing in the urinal, so I kicked open the stall and puked, some guy was in there taking a shit.  I puked all over him.  We made eye contact for a minute, and my fight or flight kicked in, and I punched him in the face and ran out of  there"

So the neanderthal in the bathroom, not only did he have to use the filthy toilet in the bar, but then he got vomited on and punched in the face.  That would be enough to keep me out of bars for a long time.

Blackberry 8830>Iphone 3Gs>HtcG2>HtcEvo4g>blackberryBold9650 My smartphone Odyssey.

I did something last week that is going against the grain of the times.  I switched from Android back to Blackberry.  I left Blackberry after having the 8830 for about one year, I really loved that phone.  It was made of metal, not plastic like most phones now, had a real solid feel.  Like most people around 2008 I had a fascination towards the iphone, based on the brilliant marketing campaign by apple, they had captured trendy and cool, the scarcity of the phone like it was Michael Jackson at a concert in 1984, all the hype, it was fun to see this phenomena.  So without any real issues with the Blackberry 8830 and actually much fondness for it, I gave it up and switched to the Iphone on AT#T and joined the trend.  At first, like most I was enamored by the device, it was great to have an ipod and phone in one, the web browser was great, and all the bells and whistles.  I missed something however, I couldn't quite figure out what it was, or put my finger on it.  I had the iphone for one year, than lost it in a cab, I had heard all the hype about android, and did still miss that physical keyboard, So I decided to try out the Google G2 on tmobile.  It was cool, had some great features and apps, was a bit more clunky than the iphone, the android marketplace felt like a flea market compared to the Iphone app store.  Still something was missing, I couldn't figure out what, so I decided to switch over to Sprint and the Evo, largely because someone at radio shack had told me this was still the best phone on the market.  I had the evo for 45 days, battery drained FAST.  I tried app killer, battery saver all kinds of tinkering with it, nothing worked.  It would die within two hours, So I realized, what is the point of having this cool phone, that has all these gadgets and apps and great big screen if its powered by a weak battery.  So after some soul searching, I went full circle and realized Blackberry was the phone for me after all.  So taking a two year detour, I now feel like I had a girl I really loved, got the wandering eye, and came back only to find she is more refined, and put together than she was when I left her.