DARJIX

I apologize in advance to any vegans looking at this page. You may not want to read any further.

I have gained a ton of weight while working in Arkansas. Ok, maybe it is not quite a ton, but definitely >10 lbs. This is probably the result of eating too many “Cheddar Bombs.” I have blogged about this before. But in case you didn’t see my earlier post, a Cheddar Bomb is a 1/3 pound of hamburger covered with 1/4 – 1/2 lb of cheese.

(11:53:59 AM) Sal Darji: How much cheese is on a cheddar bomb?
(11:54:02 AM) Sal Darji: 1/4 lb?
(11:55:07 AM) Aaron Gresko: Probably
(11:55:24 AM) Aaron Gresko: It is so nasty
(11:55:28 AM) Aaron Gresko: and delicious

I’m not sure about the total amount of cheese, but it overflows the burger and covers an entire plate. You have to cut up the cheese and stack it on top of the burger, like Ralph Schaffner has done below.

Bob Hull took this photograph with his iPhone.

I was so frustrated when I went to get replacement lenses for a pair of glasses that I own and it cost me 200 dollars. And that doesn’t even include the frame that I provided! I left the doctor’s office feeling ripped off. I suppose I could have charged them to my VSP, but I was saving that benefit for a pair of sunglasses.

Well, I did some research, and I figured out that the whole eyeglass industry is quite monopolistic, dominated by Luxottica. I did find a few blogs that are dedicated to cheaper glasses. Get Better Glasses and Glassy Eyes both advocate going online to get glasses. So I decided to try it out.

I ordered the glasses above from Goggles4u. I did have a service question for them, on a Saturday, and they responded within 8 hours.

My glasses arrived after about 15 days because I opted for the standard shipping. With a discount coupon, the total was under 25 dollars.

Bizarrely, the glasses have “Golfer” etched on the side. They know me so well! I’m debating on whether or not I should color them in or leave them to be Engrish hip.

The key is that they work and they look good. I can’t tell the difference between the 200 dollar lenses and then 25 dollar glasses.

I’m seriously thinking about canceling my VSP and just relying on my medical coverage from now on.

Here are some places to get cheap eyeglasses:
Goggles4u
EyeBuyDirect
39DollarGlasses
Optical4Less

Some more interesting stats from the CDC:

The total number of beds in hospitals has declined steadily from 1,465,828 in 1975 to 946,997 in 2005. Surprisingly, the occupancy rate has also declined from 76.7 to 69.3 in the same period.

Our national health expenditures went from 27.5 billion dollars in 1960 to 1,987.7 billion in 2005.

In 2005, our health expenditures as a percentage of our GDP was 15.3%. Canada’s was 9.9%. France’s was 10.5%. Germany’s was 10.6% Iceland’s was 10.2%. Correspondingly, our per capita health expenditure was higher than every other country listed.

Marijuana use by seniors in high school has declined from 33.7 percent in 1980 to 18.3 percent in 2006.

The number of people considered obese has gone from 13 percent in the 1960s to 34 percent in 2004. 67 percent fall into the overweight or obese category today.

I’ve been sitting on the bench, waiting for a new project to be assigned to me. Since I am not in Bentonville, I have been eating a lot healthier. Also, it keeps snowing here, so I keep shoveling out the driveway. This is how I lost three pounds in the last week.

I may be going back to Bentonville again in January. If I do, I will try very hard to eat healthier and get some real exercise.

One of my favorite places to shop in Massachusetts is Ocean State Job Lot. If you live near one, I highly recommend you go check out their deals. Most of it is unnecessary crap, but they usually have a great selection of staples. Occasionally, there is an item that you need at half the price you’d find elsewhere.

I was in there the other day looking for some things for Tracey‘s workshop yesterday and I found something on my Christmas list at a significant discount. I found a Taylor Digital Scale with a body fat analyzer. The scale was $20 at Ocean State, but is $35 on Amazon. The body fat analyzer is supposed to be used as an estimate, but the actual scale is very precise. It is much more precise than my $5 Ikea scale – that is for sure.

My scale tells me that I way 13 pounds more than I did before I went to Arkansas. And on top of that, I have approximately 24-25% body fat. I need to start working out and eating healthier, and I hope I can bring that down to 15%…which is considered healthy for my age and height.