Doug-at-large

Mon-chan certainly sleeps a lot!

They are definitely interested in each other!

doug

Cute, huh?

doug

I couldn’t resist. I got another Java Sparrow! This time a cinnamon flavored one.

These photos show him on his way home on the train, arriving at home and side by side Hao-chan’s cage. I’m keeping them separate until they get used to each other. The idea is for them to become friends and live together!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187941&id=634775725&l=de3808ea25

His-or-her name is yet to be decided.

I’ll upload some more photos. He/she is quite cute. As soon as it explored around a bit, it hopped on the perch and curled up into a ball and went to sleep.

These photos are from my iPhone but I have some better ones too.

doug

This is one of the best optical illusions I’ve ever seen. Click the image to see it full size.

While there appear to be alternating blue and green spirals, the blues and greens are actually the same color! Go ahead – check the RGB values yourself!

Please also visit my new social network for dieters, Diet Harbor (a safe harbor for dieting mutual support).

http://dietharbor.com

doug

The Tokyo Sky Tree, when completed, will be the tallest artificial structure in Japan, almost twice the size of the Tokyo Tower.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Sky_Tree

I noticed I can see the Sky Tree growing from my bedroom window! I think it’s over 300 meters high already – almost half of its final 634 meter height. This photo was taken from my bedroom window.

Click on the photo to see it full size.

doug

It looks like it’s been 2.5 years since my last real diet diary post, saying I needed to “tweek” my diet. After that it was like a slow-moving car wreck, and I gained everything back again. (sigh)

After so many rebounds can I lose weight again? Or is this like Susan Boyle’s theme song where “there are dreams that cannot be?”

I don’t really feel like I have the confidence to start journaling *yet again*.

Yet I know from decades of experience that it truly is the only way for me to lose weight.

Believe me, I’ve tried EVERYTHING else and the only thing that works is limiting calories and exercise. And the only way of limiting calories (for me anyway) is to journal everything I eat.

The problem is always that after 700 days or so… I just start rebounding.

But I really do have to lose weight, get blood sugar and cholesterol under control, etc. It’s like an emergency already.

In my “last great diet” that started in June, 2005 and last about 2 years, and where I got down to 79.8 kg before rebounding to 125 kg yet again I got very used to beginning my week on Fridays. It seemed comfortable – and a good safety blanket for the weekend starting with bonus calories.

Well, tomorrow is:

- Friday
- January 1st, 2010
- The start of a new decade

It’s like… a sign that I really should start.

Plus I have to travel to Boston in the late spring and will probably end up in economy class, which is really uncomfortable for a 13 hour flight at this size and weight. Another incentive.

So I feel like I should just throw out everything too fattening tonight (like a tube of mayo staring at me) and just somehow, some way find it in me to start my diet over yet again. Even though I have no idea how to deal with the rebound I feel waiting for me down the road. And without the confidence that “it’s time again!”

But I have to start somewhere, right?

doug

A summer festival near my house tonight…

Shinkoiwa Bon Odori – a summer festival near my house tonight.

The Sumida River fireworks were tonight. This was taken from my 3rd floor veranda at my house in Shinkoiwa in Katsushika, Tokyo.