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April 21, 2005
One More and Then I Swear I'll let this Whole Food Pyramid thing Go
So I was hunting around the My Pyramid site to check out all the pyramids and I couldn't help buy laugh at this image. I immediately captioned it:
"oh crap, look all the food has fallen off the food pyramid, let me climb to the top and see what the heck is going on"
Now doesn't this remind you more of Chutes and Ladders than a dietary guideline... Ok I'm done.. I promise... No more Food Pyramid Rants (or Basketball posts).. next up will be something much more interesting.
Posted by gkleinman at 11:51 PM
April 20, 2005
The New Food Pyramid - You've Got To Be Shitting Me!
In their infinite wisdom the USDA has updated the new food pyramid. I'm told that there are actually now 12 pyramids which makes about as much sense as their key one. Now instead of foods and pictures of foods in a nice and easy to understand and read symbol, they've created a rainbow of fruit colors (perhaps inspired by Lucky Charms) and a guy climbing the stairs of the pyramid to the top. So what was yellow again? Did I get my orange for the day?
This has to be the most lame brain idea that the USDA has come up with in a LONG time. So ask yourself, do you trust the same morons who came up with this for the safety of your food? I don't. There was a time when USDA prime meant something, now it's clear they're so concerned with not offending all the food lobbies in the pyramid they've settled on something that is absolutely worthless to EVERYONE. So thanks USDA, first off you've done a crappy job with Mad Cow, now with obesity running neck and neck with smoking as a leading killer you've gone and made it even harder for people to get a handle on what the heck they should and shouldn't be eating. Also it looks like your climber dude is skipping some steps there, perhaps you skipped some steps in actually MARKET TESTING this puppy.
Posted by gkleinman at 11:49 PM
Blazers Win! - Beat LA in Final Game of The Season
So it was one of their most losing seasons in a long long time, and I griped through much of it. But there's still a great satisfaction when the Blazers beat the Lakers. Also went to the game tonight with Hannah who enjoyed the game. Again the best part.
It's a relief to be at the end of this season. It was a tough one as a fan. Now I'll sit back and watch all the playoffs and enjoy the game without the stress of rooting for a team I know won't make it far for a while.
Also planning on hitting the gym more. I've gotten of my routine between travel and colds and really want to get back in the groove of running.
Posted by gkleinman at 10:02 PM
April 19, 2005
Preempted by The Pope
Damn Network News. Went down to KATU this morning to do my monthly segment for them, and the show got Preempted by the announcement of THE POPE. Well at least it wasn't a complete loss, I went down to Stumptown for an AMAZING Latte!
Posted by gkleinman at 3:27 PM
April 18, 2005
Woo Hoo 94.7!
Got the good news today that 94.7 FM (which used to be KNRK and is now '94.7 Alternative Portland) wants me to do a regular DVD segment on air. (Every Wednesday AM at 7:50am). This is so very cool because the station manager Mark Hamilton is an old time DJ from one of my favorite stations growing up in the Bay Area - Live 105. Also I've ALWAYS wanted to do something with a modern rock station, ever since I was in high school... So it's nice to accomplish a long term goal. Since you're reading this here blog I'll give you a sneak peek at the segment:
Posted by gkleinman at 2:28 PM
April 17, 2005
I Must Be Dreaming - The Blazers Win A Game
I'm still in shock. The Blazers actually WON a game tonight. Sure it's only the 3rd win since they fired Mo Cheeks and replaced him with someone who ISN'T a coach. Sure most of this season has been pain and misery, and there isn't a player on the team who hasn't talked about a trade or phantom injury. But... they won... at least 1 more... Simple pleasures I guess. Oh did I mention it was against the Jazz, the only team in the division with a WORSE record....
Honestly it was more fun going to the game with my son Aaron. He enjoyed the game (especially the popcorn). But in the end of the day, taking your son to a game... who cares if they win or lose.
Posted by gkleinman at 9:38 PM
What I've Been Reading
For no other reason than I'll wrack my brain trying to remember what I read about 6 months from now. Here are the books I've been reading lately and some thoughts on them:
Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America by Morgan Spurlock - I really LOVED Super Size Me, and it's one of the many things that influenced me to get cracking and lose some weight (I managed to drop a hefty 50lbs). So when I got a chance to check out an early copy of Morgan's book I jumped at the chance. I had already read Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser and the 'life changing' Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and the Future of Life on Earth - by John Robbins (which I think everyone should read). So I was very familiar with the territory that Morgan was traveling. Bit what I liked a lot about 'Don't Eat This Book' is how Morgan takes a more light hearted and satirical look at the subject. Of the 3 books I've mentioned it's probably the most 'approachable' and the best 'intro' into starting to think about what you eat. Great job Morgan!
Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War by Evan Wright. Got this book through BzzzAgents which was a nice surprise. I had read Jarhead and liked it, and so was interested in checking out Generation Kill, which was... a really great read. A lot more like an action docufilm than a political essay. I'm sure they'll turn this puppy into a film.
What's up next is:
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond (A running theme here... books with long titles). I picked this one up on an impulse buy at Costco. I've heard good buzz on it and it looks quite interesting. It's however VERY LONG at 575+ words... Wish me luck.
One I'm thinking about buying:
The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson - which looks too cool not to buy...
Posted by gkleinman at 10:40 AM
April 16, 2005
Oregon Wine - Yum
Trying to restart the blog with a bang.. or at least a whimper. So I thought I'd post up some thoughts about wine. If for nothing more to remind me after I promptly forget which wines I've tasted lately and how I felt about them.
The 'wine thing', all really started last weekend when I was out at the Oregon coast with my extended family for a mini-family reunion. Heather and I opened up a bottle of Girgich Hill wine we've had for many many years. It was a special bottle my dad gave me for our first or second anniversary (he's since passed away).
I must have been inspired by Sideways, because I've been waiting for a special occasion to open the wine, but realized that opening the wine WAS a special occasion. It was a 1992 Carneros Select Chardonnay and it was so buttery and yummy, it reminded me how much I like wine.
So of course that bottle was followed up with another at dinner the next night. We went out to a place in Seaside called Kalypso. Which was quite yummy. The owner of the place 'upgraded' our bottle of pinot to Hinman Vineyards Pinot. It was quite yummy and not all that spendy.
When we got back to Portland, Heather and I went wine shopping (on a date we had on Friday...) Ended up tasting a number of wines, and really liking two from Sheridan Vineyards from Washington. They had a Cab Franc which had an amazing 'nose' so berry like and flowery. Really outstanding. We went from wine tasting to a wine bar. Heather had a Zin from Roe Sham Bo vineyards which I liked and I had a dessert wine which a) I can't remember what it was called because b) I didn't love it. The wine tasting we did was at a place here in Portland called vinopolis, and after the tasting we picked up a bottle of Evesham Wood - La Give Bleue Pinot Noir 2003. We enjoyed that tonight with dinner. At first I wasn't bowled over with it, but as I sipped it it won me over.
Other wines on my mind include the Sineann Zin which I have to get my hands on, the Cloudline Pinot which was recommended to us at Vinopolis and Archery Summit, which we have a bottle of 2000 pinot aging and saving as I type this.
Hope this wine kick continues through the summer, it's a lot of fun.
Posted by gkleinman at 11:28 PM
Double Dare - Two Thumbs Up
I had the opportunity to catch a very early check disc for the Documentary 'Double Dare' from Capital Entertainment. Really enjoyed the documentary. I'm always amazed when watching a doc when they follow someone for quite a while and then about mid way through the film something really major happens to them. One of the interesting things on the DVD is an interview with Quentin Tarantino who talks about movie magic, and how much he hates seeing the 'behind the scenes'. I really have to agree with him. Some films you just don't want to see how they did it all. You just want to have the image of the film in your head as you saw it, free of all the elements which constructed it. But I digress... Double Dare gets a big two thumbs up!
Posted by gkleinman at 11:22 PM
It's BAAAACKKK - Geoff's Blog
After a false start last year, I'm picking back up and trying to make another run at doing my blog. This time around It'll be alot less formal, a lot more random and hopefully a lot more fun. So if anyone ever does read my blog.... Hopefully you'll enjoy the new new blog. Or rather The New Old Blog. (A titling reminiscent of a great pub here in Portland... The New Old Lompac, which aside from being way too smokey has very good beer.
Posted by gkleinman at 5:25 AM