Mar
7
Fat Blogging - Stage 1
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So the day after the visit to see Dr Marks, the first stage of the process begins. It was a three step process:
1) Don’t change what you eat but keep a diary of what you eat
2) Get a pedometer and measure how many steps a day you are doing
3) In the same place, jot down your mood 3 times a day, at the major meal times.
This phase ended about two weeks ago. It was a bit scary/embarrassing to see how I was eating. Too many snacks, too many lunches out. The pedometer didn’t work 100% actuarially but it showed that I wasn’t doing enough exercise. The mood also showed that when I was down, I tended to eat more.
So left me at Stage 2, and will post about this again soon.
Molly
Feb
23
Fat Blogging - Morbidly Obese! Time to act
Filed Under Fat Blogging | 3 Comments
In many ways its not easy to right the above heading but its not the time to sugar coat this! Over the last year, things have busy, things have been hard and I haven’t looked after myself very well. I have always been overweight but my weight ballooned up and got out of control. It was time to act. About 2-3 months ago in conversation with our doctor she suggested it was time act on this on two fronts.
Firstly, as a result of the weight gain I started to snore. Poor Lidia (my Wife) sometimes can’t sleep the snoring is so bad. So one of the first steps was to see a sleep specialist to see if I have sleep apnoea. My snoring started and got worst as my weigh increased. The doctor said this is probably because the fat increases around the throat and as the throat naturally gets small over night, the fat causes it to get smaller again and this causes the snoring. I am now waiting to do a sleep test and the doctor said that the best thing to do for now is trying to lose weight.
Secondly, I went to see Dr Sharon Marks, from Monash University. Dr Marks is the coordinator of the Obesity Clinic at Monash Medical Centre. She weighed me and took my height and gave the verdict that I knew was coming. I was Morbidly Obese! I don’t know about you, but that term does strike a cord in your mind that isn’t pretty. It extracts an emotion like wow but the fact is that its true.
Sharon went on to explain about how it is considered a disease and that people suffering from it are always going to have trouble losing weight for a number of reasons:
1) Your Metabolism starts to slow down.
2) Seeing you weigh so much, its harder to exercise. Not only is it hard at the time but chances are that your body is going to hurt more the next day.
3) Just general moral and environment issues.
For these reason, some medical intervention is normally needed to get back on track. One option is to have surgery. The two options presented where Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Band (better known as Lap Band) or Intragastric Balloon. The first involves using a band filled with liquid to block the amount of food that you can eat and make you feel fuller. The Balloon goes into the stomach and again makes you feel much fuller. Both of these options where to us (Lidia and I) last resorts and but definitely not out of the question.
The other option was to use drugs or food replacement supplements. The drugs do things like make your body less likely to absorb fat or suppress your appetite. The Food replacements are thinks like bars and shakes and the likes that you take to replace normal meals. Drugs might come into in the long run but the first point of call is the Food replacement in the form of Optifast. It is a program that has bars, drinks and soups that you have to replace your meals. It sounds promising and the option that we have decide to go down. This was decided about two weeks ago so tomorrow I will follow on with what the steps where from our initial consultation.
Molly
Jan
31
Holidays nearly over
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Well my holidays that started on the 11th January is coming to an end with me starting back on call this Sunday. During the holiday I have been to visit my mum and dad in Warrnambool and a 5 night stay in Lakes Entrance.
Lots of catching up on things including appointments, shopping and the likes. One of the highlights still to come is Patty and myself going to see the Aussies playing the Indians in a T20 cricket match tomorrow which we both are looking forward too.
Alex starts 3 year old kindergarten today and Patty started Grade 1 yesterday and had a great day. The holidays also saw Alex hurt his foot (we never found out the problem but spent 5 odd hours at the Royal Childrens Hospital making sure its not serious) and my cars antenna coming totally out (thats why I am in the office today waiting for it to be fixed).
I hope to have more posts on this blog in the coming months/year. I also am trying to work out what to do with the Mollyzine site. At this point I am probably looking at trying to set it up as a portal to my other sites.
Molly
Jan
7
Second Life, Skype, Even Google Won’t be blocked by The Australian Government?
Filed Under Internet | 19 Comments
Scare Mongering! Remember when it used to be the term used to describe the way the Howard government used to justify the war on Terror. You know, be vigilant, the guy next door could blow you up, is it safe going to the footy or is a terrorist trying to blow you up. This was the line of arguments that the government used to go into Iraq and remove their government. Didn’t the anti-war campaigners get after the government telling us that Terror strikes although not completely out of the question are unlikely.
Well those that oppose the Clean filter are starting to use the same tactics. They are using the Chicken Little defence that the Sky is falling, the Sky is falling. Leading the charge is Duncan Riley, who wrote a brilliant example of scare mongering in his post tilte: “Will Second Life, Skype, Even Google Be Blocked By The Australian Government?”
I’ve been discussing on Twitter and elsewhere this week exactly what may be blocked by the Great Firewall of Australia once our nanny-state Government decides to implement it (we’re not sure exactly how yet either, could by via Regulation/ Declaration via ACMA, of by Act of Parliament).
The key is that the Australian Government wants to block anything that is pornography, inappropriate material, illegal and violent, at least those are the words used in the various press reports. The censorship loons and the do-gooders are naturally focused on porn, so lets just take a brief look in that direction.
So Duncan went on to list services that could be “blocked” by the clean filter. So I thought, I will look at what he wrote and add my thoughts. I added a comment to Duncan’s blog and to my surprise (well not that big a surprise) it was censored (i.e. Deleted/removed) (see image of the blog post with the comment). Oh, well. You would have thought that Duncan would want to debate and get his point across, but instead he decided name calling would be a better option. But never fear as I happen to have a copy of the comment and so here it is:
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Its good to see you talking the issue instead of just playing the man/women as you have over most of the last posts. Lets look at each item you bring up:
1) Second life: Yes, I think it risks having problems, but there is an easy solution for Second Life to not be completely banned, Clean up there act on the sick/illegal stuff and make itself compatible with the law. Have some way of having areas that are for activity’s that fit in the 15+ category and the 18+ category and then police those areas. Build a way that ISP’s can run the age test they are required to do under the policy when people are hitting those areas. Having said this, my (poor) understanding is that SL is a 18+ environment anyway (isn’t there a kids version, did Scoble get banned for letting his kid play it at a conference?) so ISP’s simply need to run the 18+ age test.
Verdict: No need to ban if they clean up the “beyond sick, and likely illegal” stuff
2) Skype: Skype isn’t really a website, its a Phone service. The government has laws for Telephony today and I would image they would apply better to Skype.
Verdict: Hardly likely unless it or its users are breaking laws in relation to telephony
3) Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, Usenet: Yes they have some things that will need to be subject to the age filter. They may also be subject to having illegal X rated porn so could be asked to remove that or risk being banned (which I guess could be banning the individual group or banning the whole thing).
Verdict: Could have some content that could cause banning although it is more likely to be just the groups that offend rather then the whole service
4) BitTorrent: Bittorrent is an interesting one. Although it is possible to use the service in a legal manner, I think it goes with out saying that High, majority of the time (I would estimate 80-90, but Duncan might have better figures) it is being used for “illegal” means namely downloading TV SHows, Music, Movies, etc that would break the copyright law. Would the government expect the ISP’s to just block bittorrent because of this? Maybe. So I will give you that there is a concern here especially if the Media companies see it as a way to protect their property. Having said this, don’t you think something else would popup?
Verdict: Could be in Danger
5) Email: Come on!
Verdict: What do you think!!!!!!!!
6) Twitter: May I just add a comment here that I am glad you didn’t just add things to the list to Scare Monger (lol). Yes, it is possible, but more likely not!
Verdict: Is possible but so is that one of my websites gets bought by FairFax for 40 million dollars. Is either likely? No!
7) Blogs: Interesting. Yes I am sure there are some blogs that will be banned. I am sure there are some that will be restricted to 18+. Another group will be made 15+ and the majority will be left alone. It will depend on the content, much the same way some magazines anyone can buy, and some have plastic wrapping and can only be bought by people over the age of 18 and a small number are not allowed to be sold in this country.
Verdict: Horses for courses. Most fine, Some 15+, some 18+ and a some blocked completely
Google: Yes google will be asked to participate and make sure that there seach results and other properties comply to the law but the thought of them being blocked is about as likely as me being the Next PM!
Verdict: Does this even warrant a verdict?
9) Internet Archive: Yes they will have to comply to the policy or at least I should say that the ISP’s will have to have them comply to the policy but this would be a small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, part of their Achieve so its unlikely a complete ban would occur. On a side note, do they have a porn policy? I am sure if it was worldwide illegal stuff (like kiddy porn) they would probably want it remove any.
Verdict: small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small, small chance some parts of the achieve could be blocked/restricted but on whole they should be fine.
Lastly, it is interesting you say blocked. Have you described to your readers that blocked actually means that the content could be rated 15+, 18+ or (as you want to get the point out there) completely illegal/not allowed in Australia in which it would then asked to be taken down or banned? I also had a laugh that you used the term “nanny-state”, as other Get This listeners probably did as well! In summary, good to see you back on the issue and not off in the weeds play the person, not the issue.
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So there you have it. I will be interested if the debate gets back on track away from the name calling.
Molly
Dec
11
What would happen if the 12 days of Christmas really happened?
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This brings back memories of going to work with my dad during the end of the Christmas Holidays. The local station use to play this version of the 12 days of Christmas by Irishmen, Frank Kelly. Some one put it on Youtube and I am putting it here for your enjoyment.
What are some of your favourite Christams Carols, funny or serious?
Molly
Nov
26
Hello world! Its me again
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Hi all,
I have had a site over at mollyzine.com but after recently getting my eldest son (Patrick Malone) a domain and trying to decide if I completely scrap what I had done on the old site, decide that I would go the whole hog and get PhillipMalone.com and use this purely as a personal site for me, family thoughts and ideas.
I have this bad habit of not updating sites but I hope this one will be different. Drop by and leave me a comment if you wish.
Molly