January 25, 2008

Random Friday


[By Crabby]

Sorry About the Mess!
I've been trying to change my template, and what looked fine on my computer is apparently a disaster on everyone else's. Will do my best to get things up and running soon! Anyway, on to the Randomness..

Tired of Good Food/Bad Food?
If so, then you may not want to read about how regular consumption of grapefruit might increase breast cancer risk. Or even that there's more good news about extra virgin olive oil. (Recent research suggests it may help prevent cell aging, osteoporosis, and cancer. However, the headline seems to promise more than the article delivers--I like olive oil anyway so I'm totally prepared to believe it'll cure anything).

Oh, and there's also more confirmation that oatmeal is really good for you. Too bad I just don't like it at all unless it's a cookie. A hot bowl of oatmeal? Blechh. But I know all the rest of you love it in all its bland gloppy glory, so don't mind me. (Note: the oatmeal item was discovered while browsing the Happy Hospitalist--a cool blog written by a hospital internist who, like me, has lots of opinions but who, unlike me, actually knows something about medicine).

Which Gym is Best: Big Chain Or Local Place?
According to Consumer Reports, your best bet may be a local gym, not a national chain. The New York Times Blog has more, noting that "national chains were often criticized for long wait times for machines, problems with contracts or fees, poorer cleanliness and less adequate locker rooms than other gyms."

As someone who has taken a lot of road trips, I've visited many Wonderful and Awful gyms--and the chaininess or locallyness of them didn't seem to figure in much. My recommendation? Take advantage of day passes and work out a couple of times before you sign up anywhere, national or local. No huge nationwide survey is going to tell you whether the gym down the street will keep the temperature sauna-like or blare weird music at you or have friendly instructors or great equipment or long waits or smelly locker rooms. Gotta find that stuff out yourself before you fork over big money.

Fat Because You're Broke?
It's no secret there's a link between obesity and socio-economic factors. But for a great no-holds-barred exploration of why these two often go together like coffee and Krispy Kremes, you have to check out this post (and the follow-up) over at Violent Acres.

For example: "Celebrities aren’t wearing size 00’s because they possess more self discipline or willpower than you....These people aren’t better than you. They’re richer than you and it’s likely that they spent more on their bodies than you made last year."

I was new to Violent Acres, and liked the screw-it-all honest style of writing, so I went to look for the comments section so I could suck-up and maybe siphon off some new readers share my appreciation of her writing, but guess what? No comments. Want to know why? Check out her FAQ:

"Why don’t you allow comments on your site? Why don’t you post your email address?"

"Because I don’t want to interact with you...I don’t want to feel obligated to reply to your boring emails. I don’t want to take time out of my day to moderate your silly little comments... Networking is just a fancy way to say ass kissing and a link from you is not important enough to me that I’d actually pretend to like you."

Damn, she saw me coming!

Another Reason Why Crabby Will Never Appear on Jeopardy:
Besides not knowing much about anything, I apparently have an appalling slow reaction time. This slightly addictive self-test is billed as way to figure out if you're tired, but even wide awake, I discovered I suck relative to other people when it comes to reaction time. I tested two different times of the day--didn't help. The thing that's cool about this is that it counts the milliseconds and you get instant feedback as your time gets better or worse. When it's over, they tell you what's average--which for some of us, can be really depressing.

And This Is Why Crabby Will Never Ever Get on A Roller Coaster:
This is either a very funny or very painful video, depending on how much of an anxious wreck you are. Being the high-anxiety type myself, I treated it as an Dire Warning: do not EVER let anyone talk you into doing something you know is going to scare the crap out of you. (How's that for personal development advice? All you "face your fears head on" folks can count me the f*ck out).

Anyway, check out this poor newscaster try to be a good sport and do a live report on a new roller coaster. (Note: it takes about 2 minutes to get to the good/horrible stuff, but it's worth it, and as usual, turn the sound down).

Don't Lie: LOI.
So there is now a new movement to stamp out the misleading and inauthentic use of the acronym "LOL" by web users who are not actually laughing out loud. The use of "LOI," (Laughing on the Inside) is suggested as a replacement, and this is an idea which Cranky Fitness heartily endorses.

And finally, a gratuitous Lolcat psychological test:

Funny Pictures
(Plenty more lolcat silliness at icanhascheezburger)

So have a great Friday everyone!

36 comments:

  1. Oh Crabby! That cat picture has me GLAF (Grinning Like A Fool - how does that suit ya?)...But I'm always a sucker for cute cat pictures.

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  2. Me too, javachick! (Though I'm kind of getting tired of the lolcat-speak--I think at least some cats probably know how to spell better than that).

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  3. I can't stand the acronym LOL for whatever reason... It is kind of a nails on a chalkboard thing. Odd, I realize.

    Anyhoo - I'm with you on the rollercoaster front! No f'in way!
    EVER!

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  4. (dial up whine) The new template took m u u c h looooonnnnnnnggggerrrr to load than usual (everything else is loading at its normal not very fast rate this morning) and the side bar is at the top, with content beginning more than halfway down the page. (/whine)

    Gyms: no mention of the single most important factor--location. I joined the Y because it was right next door to work. I got over there to work out almost four days a week average. (They were usually closed on Friday before I got off.) Getting there is at least fifty per cent of the effort.

    Mary Anne in Kentucky

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  5. PS It's not just Safari weirdness; the sidebar is at the top in Camino, too.

    Also. One cupcake is Insufficient Chocolate!

    Mary Anne in Kentucky

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  6. I agree with previous commenter ... the new template really isn't three columns. It's one at the top and two at the bottom. Much scrolling ensues.

    I think if you could tweak the width of each segment it might work. I had to do that with a sidebar thingamajig once.

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  7. I see the hourglass and the kissing people.
    How many cupcakes do I win?

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  8. Any comment about facing your biggest fears always cracks me up - it makes me think of my friend whose greatest fear is getting eaten by a bear. We often joke about helping him to face up to that sort of thing...

    I miss the cupcakes!

    Oddly the only shortened thingummy used in emails that gets to me is ROTFL. I just think if you have to type it, you're not on the floor. I do like the LOLcats tho.

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  9. Help! Okay, so the 3 column thing works on my IE and Mozilla, so I'm not seeing the weird sidebar on top thing. I tried tweaking the margin settings, did that help?

    Arrrggggh!

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  10. Everything looks okay to the Bag Lady, except for the deficit of cupcakes... (and she has dial-up)

    Great Random Friday, as always, except the Bag Lady doesn't have enough patience to wait for the links to load (she really wanted to take the tiredness test, but her reaction time to the loading time was too quick!!)

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  11. I thought there was just a long cupcake as a post for awhile, which was evil.

    Then I finally realized I had to scroll down to find the post.

    More tweaking to do, methinks.

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  12. Sorry to keep asking (and I'm loving all the other comments, sorry to be template obsessed)--has it gotten any better yet or is it still one long column?

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  13. Crabby,

    Have you ever tried oatmeal pancakes? Then you get the oatmeal with the gloopiness you don't like! If I'm recalling proportions correctly, take 1/2 C oatmeal, 4 egg whites, 1/4 C cottage cheese and some vanilla and spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves, that kind of thing). Blend in a mixer, then cook like pancakes. I heat them up and eat them plain as snacks, or you could add some fresh fruit to jazz it up.

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  14. It's a bit better.
    But I gotta say...the pop up ads are really pissing me off.
    Not a fan...at all.

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  15. In Firefox, I've got the first two columns scooted over to the right, with the third column forced to the bottom.

    Screenshots:

    First two columns scooted over
    Third column forced to the bottom

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  16. ^Popup ads? What popup ads? *hugs Firefox*

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  17. Ackkk! This template stuff is too frustrating. Thanks Chickengirl, and everyone, for your help. I've meanwhile lost the big cupcake picture, and am too sick of messing with this for now.

    And sorry about the pop ups! But I gotta get a little $$ in to justify all the time I spend on this whole blogging thing. I pretty much take what Blogher gives me, and sometimes, unfortunately, that means annoying ads.

    Oh, and oatmeal pancakes actually sound promising, good idea Leth!

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  18. It just looks like a kitty belly that needs to be rubbed!

    I confess, I took the cupcake...

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  19. Cute kitty...I just wish they spelled better...Anybody have a quick cure for painful fingernails?? I just got my acrylics off and my thumbs are killing me...

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  20. So that's where the cupcake went, I was wondering, Missicat!

    Still need to do some work to even get back to the old template, and then a LOT more work, apparently, figuring out the third-column thing. Thanks everyone, for your help and patience.

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  21. Apparently, I'm too awake to sleep on a clothesline - what ever that means!

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  22. Okay, missicat took the single cupcake, but who took the rest? Quick, icing check....

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  23. Crabby, I just love the random stuff you find...it's pretty entertaining and much of it actually does make me LOL.

    And I'm not just saying that to siphon off new readers (well, maybe just a little).

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  24. This late in the day, it looks good to me, except the missing cupcakes.

    Much prefer LOI and have been tired of the lolcat-speak from about the third one I saw. I do like the pictures though. However I am still asleep according to your test, so what do I know.

    I am with you on the rollercoaster though - no way on earth would you catch me on one of those things.

    I have always thought that money had something to do with being fat but she really puts a fine point on it.

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  25. Now it all looks normal, except Hourglass Kitty ate all the cupcakes. That explains the belly!

    Mary Anne in Kentucky, not messing with her photo blog AT all.

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  26. HEHEHE! The cat picture cracks me up. And re: kitty spelling -- as you might know, my cats blog, and though one of them is fairly spelling and grammar-challenged, the other has impeccable spelling and grammar. ;)

    That alertness test was fun, and yes, addictive! I did pretty well -- it said that I "wouldn't fall asleep on a clothes line" -- my response times were in the 230-370 ms range.

    I use LOL far too much... LOI at the movement to do away with "LOL"! ;)

    Your template looks fine to me -- I'm using Firefox, if that helps!

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  27. ME GOTZ NO KUPKEKS!!!!
    But otherwise, the site looks just fine.

    OATMEAL: Cranky, you should try Bob's Red Mill Scottish Oatmeal, which is very finely cut and yummy. (I don't like any other kind.) Cook it in water and a little salt. Have it hot with butter. I hate sweet syrupy cinnamonny milky oatmeal.

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  28. I saw that Consumer Reports article on your gyms. What they forget to mention is that some of the chain gyms are actually franchises so depending on the owner, the gym can vary greatly. I go to a Golds Gym, and the owners of my particular gym have awesome taste. I talked to one of them once and they said they took in particular consideration female users, and it shows. The other Golds I went to felt like a hardcore dude gym and the locker room was just hideous and cold. So, same name "Golds Gym" but 2 totally different experiences.

    On oatmeal, I add some raw sugar and a pat of organic butter and it is real good. Fibery, but tasty!

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  29. Thanks everyone!

    Well, the reason the blog isn't in pieces anymore is I went back to a two column template. And the cupcake picture was lost in the transition--I need to dig it up again. I may start over on the 3 column thing, but right now I'm just to frustrated to even think about any more tweaking.

    And Dara, syphon away! I have NO objection to flattering comments, unlike the more no-nonsense Violent Acres.

    Stephanie, good point about the franchises--I've also seen tremendous variation in different gyms by the same name.

    But I've tried the fancy oatmeal and it's still oatmeal! I'll stick to oatmeal cookies for now.

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  30. Ugh.
    Sorry you've had a bad template day :(

    I've noticed the same thing about Gold's. THe one by my house is fantastic. THe one by my parent's house, YIKES.

    Violent Acres. I've seen her/him (?) before (just the blog, not real life. Obviously.) And it's enthralling and a little intimidating and quite entertaining.

    (and thickchick, I could go on and on about LOL, I always envision the different uses:
    lol=chuckle
    LOL=HaHa!
    LOL!!!= Ok I really laugh out loud.
    It's silly, but I still use it even though I kind of wish I didn't. And will remember NOT to in your comments, LOL)

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  31. oh, and it I love the lolcats. But seriously, it takes me a good 2 minutes staring at the words on the picture sometimes to figure out what they're actually saying.

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  32. Oh poor Crabby about the templates! This is a crazy suggestion, but you could start up a second blog site that you use as a test blog. I am pretty sure they are free with a Gmail account. You can have as many as you want. You could throw some crazy non-sensical stuff up there and then send people to it just to check out formatting. The nice thing about that is that you could work on it at your own pace without feeling like you have to keep it looking good for all of your readers and you wouldn’t loose all of you existing formatting if it doesn’t work out for you.

    I took the click speed test and did pretty well. I have to admit though, that I kept expecting the screaming scary face to pop up on the screen. If you don't know what I am talking about consider yourself lucky that one of your "friends" didn't send one of those emails to you!

    Good luck finding new cupcakes!!!

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  33. I totally misread the sentence that said, "these people aren't better than you." and thought it said, "these people are better than you." and just thought, hmmm, good to know, so that's why I'm not a size zero!

    ooops :)

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  34. "Celebrities aren’t wearing size 00’s because they possess more self discipline or willpower than you....These people aren’t better than you. They’re richer than you and it’s likely that they spent more on their bodies than you made last year."

    reading this quote made my day!

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  35. Thanks everyone, and I'll work on cupcake retrieval ASAP.

    And I know I'm way overdue for a blogroll update--many fine blogs from frequent visitors are not on there yet!

    Holly--thanks, and great idea!

    I actually did set up a separate test blog, but I didn't think to have people with other browsers and monitors check it out--it looked fine to me. But yeah, if I try again and get some volunteers to go there, I may have a better chance of getting it working. I also discovered that every time I load a new template, I lose all the contents of the widgets--I had to rebuild the "typical crabbiness" three different times! So it may be a while before I take this on again.

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