Month: February 2013

February 27, 2013
Max Life, Religion , , ,

Thoughts on the challenges that the new Pope will face…

When it was announced that Pope Benedict XVI was stepping down, I wondered what the real reason behind his decision was.

As the leader of the Catholic Church, I like to think that he was aware of pretty much everything that goes on among the rank and file priests around the world.

Therefore I cannot see any reason why he would not be aware of the appalling instance of priests that sexually abuse children.

The Pope, is, or at least should be, the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church and as such should, in my opinion at least, be responsible for bringing to justice those that abuse the exalted positions that allow the predatory priests access to those that they crave.

To me, at least, Pope Benedict failure to change the Vatican’s traditional methods of handling child sex abuse by priests and so abuse of children is criminal.There is no way that he was unaware of what goes on in the churches around the world. Every time you are exposed to the news, it seems that more and more cases spring to light almost daily.

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February 27, 2013
Max Life, Technology , , ,

So, you want to cut your cable bill…..

I am not sure when paying over $200 / month for cable TV, Phone and Internet became normal, but apparently this is pretty much what ‘everybody’ pays.

Decently fast internet is $65, the rest of the bill is consumed via Phone, TV and numerous little add-ons. Having a DVR costs over $20 / month, the actual DVR rental is $9.99, then you need the service too – which adds another $10, plus taxes and regulatory fees. Oh and HD programming costs a few dollars too, and so does basic cable and many other things. Log story short, cable TV with a DVR costs about $115 / month.

Luckily there is an alternative.

Almost 100 channels are available for free. All you need is an antenna and a TV that is capable of receiving digital (ATSC) signals.

The major issues though is that I simply do not watch TV live, I record a few shows each week and watch later.In other words, I need a DVR.

So, my journey started wwith finding an open-source DVR that I could use to record Hawaii-Five-O and Elementary to a format that I could playback on my WD TV Live or my jailbroken AppleTv.

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February 3, 2013
Max Diet, fitness, Life, Photography , , , ,

Too fat to be photographed…..

Yesterday a friend posted a link to a blog entry called ‘So you’re feeling too fat to be photographed . . .’.

All of the comments on the link were overwhelmingly positive.

But to me, the idea that even family and friends will look past the blubber is a little weird. Sure I look at the latest photos of my family and think ‘yeah, its lovely to see them’, but I also think ‘good grief, that loved one has put some pounds on since the last time I saw a photo’ or similar…

I notice and I am sure that I am not alone.

So reassuring fat people that you look great to your family, when, well, you are actually obese, or more, seems wrong.

So I wrote a comment that basically said that I thought that the ‘you look great to your family’ concept was right up there with ‘everybody’s baby is beautiful’ and that rose colored glasses prolong the issues. Simply anyone that is tipping the scales at the obese level (or more) has a much larger chance of running into serious health issues later in life. Fat is not healthy.

I may have also suggested that in pretty much all of the examples, that they looked to me like they all needed to get there fat asses to the gym and stop inhaling calories. But as the thread is long deleted, I cannot exactly remember.

I did have the grace at least to mention that one of my personal motivators on my weight loss journey has been a photo of myself looking rather rotund.

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