Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving

And enjoyed spending time with family, friends, dead tasty birds, or shopping (or all of the above!).

I forgot to watch The Walking Dead last night, so no recap post this week.

Thanks to Auburn’s comeback victory over Alabama, and Arkansas’s win over LSU, the Razorbacks have a shot at going to the Sugar Bowl this year.  If some of my friends can scrounge up tickets for that, I know where I’ll be on January 4th.

Mid season (?) thoughts on The Walking Dead

Since Sunday’s episode, I’ve been thinking of various problems I have with the show; sure, it’s an okay post zombie apocalypse survival tale, but the characters are pretty much all idiots.  That’s true of most zombie stories, I guess; if everyone were a loner who stockpiled guns, ammo, and non-perishable foodstuffs, there wouldn’t be much human drama.  Spoilers after the jump!

We’re walking, we’re walking…

This week’s episode opens with the two blonde sisters fishing in a canoe, talking about their father.

Again, SEGA? Really?

Do you hate your fans that much?  I mean, sure, making Valkyria Chronicles into a PSP series is one thing, but giving up consoles completely and going to a browser based experience for the next Sakura Taisen game?

Did your dog die and are you taking it out on us?

I mean, sure, Kimi Aru ga Tame was terrible, but at least it was still on a console.  And it’s not like no one wants a real Sakura Taisen game; in a Famitsu poll from last year, it topped the list of games people want sequels for.

The offshoot games (Mysterious Paris and Kimi Aru ga Tame, mainly) haven’t done as well as the main titles do; they’re practically completely different games, and if they keep making niche titles instead of a real Sakura Taisen VI, then SEGA will be killing the franchise with the death of a thousand cuts.

On the other hand, given what they’ve done to Sonic the Hedgehog, maybe they *want* to kill their beloved franchises.

That package from Japan?

If it’s over 16 ounces (454 grams), it’s high-risk and can’t be sent.

Thanks to the Department of Homeland Security’s new regulations, Japan Post has announced that they will no longer (starting on the 17th of this month and continuing for who knows how long) accept packages for shipment to the US and her territories that are more than 453g in weight.

This affects me in particular; Tales of Graces F comes out in the first week of December, and my friend in Japan is supposed to ship it to me (along with a couple books and magazines).  The total package weight is sure to be more than one pound, especially with whatever packing material he uses to make sure nothing gets destroyed en route.

Unfortunately, shipping via Japan Post is no longer an option; I guess he’ll have to ship via one of the far more expensive carriers, assuming they still will ship items to the US.

Thanks, Janet Napolitano.  I certainly feel safe now that I know I’m not in danger from all those exploding toner cartridges those Japanese Muslims have been shipping through the mail.

How the TSA counts to ten

One, two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Oh, you can’t carry guns on flights, either; better adjust that to: One, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Better watch what you say while you’re in line for your unreasonable search; new count: Three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

If they don’t like how you look or act, or if you’re not sufficiently deferential, then good luck leaving; new count: Three, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth amendments don’t really apply here, so we can leave those in.

Nine is right out.

And ten has been ignored for ages.

Final TSA guide for counting to ten: Three, six, seven, eight.

This post inspired by our benevolent overlords employed by the TSA at San Diego International.

These boots were made for walkin’

Episode 3 opens with Merle cursing on the roof of the building he was left on at the end of the second episode.  He’s reliving his time in the military, and his wrist is worn and bloody, and it looks like he’s starting to get heatstroke or something.

For what happens in the rest of the show, hit the jump!

Skip Skyline

I saw Skyline this afternoon; it was kind of a mashup between an aliens attack movie and a zombie survival movie, in that the characters are trying to hole up and hide out from the marauding aliens, and their stupidity tends to get them killed.

Unfortunately, instead of resolving the plot, the movie ends right at the climax; we don’t get to see an actual conclusion.

The trailer makes it look like a decent movie, but don’t be fooled; it’s a waste of time!

Diet update

I started my path to weight loss exactly one year ago today; I weighed in at 323.4 pounds.  I’m 5’7″ (or 5’8″ depending on the weather), so I was pretty large.  I’d been fat for years, and was absolutely sick of it.

I spent the next six months on the Medifast 5+1 diet plan, then three months on the Atkins diet, and the past three months back on the Medifast plan.  This morning I weighed in at 201 pounds.  I’ve lost 122 pounds in the past year, and I look and feel better than I have in years.

I still plan on losing another 30-40 pounds; the last couple weeks I haven’t been as diligent as I should be (I got below 200 pounds, and then celebrated by eating a bunch of food I shouldn’t, putting me back above 200).

I’ll post a week-by-week graph of my progress once I get all the data put into a spreadsheet.  Right now it’s just on post-it notes.

One year of weight loss

Maybe I should give the Twinkie diet a try

Since it worked for this guy…

To be honest, though, I’m not really surprised.  The main issue with junk food is that people will eat until it’s gone (I know I do) and not until they’re not hungry any more.  That means that you’ll eat a bag of chips instead of just a handful, or a pint of ice cream instead of just a cup, and you’ll finish everything on your plate (I blame my parents for that one, actually.  Them and all those starving kids in China) instead of pushing it away when you’re not hungry any more.

The medifast diet (which I’m currently on, most of the time (sometimes I’m weak and eat junk food)) works on a similar premise; you’re limited to roughly ~1200 calories per day (it’s also low on carbs), and the difference between what you take in and what you expend results in pretty effective weight loss.

On Wednesday I’ll hit the one-year mark from when I started on my weight loss adventure, so I’ll post a more detailed update then.