Yep. Title says it all. But you know I’m not that “unwordy,” am I?¹ Today is my 12th anniversary. I’ve been married happily to the same woman for 12 short years. We’ve raised a child together. We’ve loved each other. We’ve had a great life even with the ups and downs of trying to make it our own that msot people go through. And I plan on having a great life with her in the future.

July is just a big month for us. My birthday was the 10th. Her birthday is the 25th. So I bought her an iPhone. She never liked mine until she got her own. Isn’t that the way it always works? Oh, and I have to say thank you to Lady Rose of Diet Pulpit. She knows why. I had to think carefully about the gift though. I only knew that she didn’t really mess with my iPhone much. But I also know my wife. I mean, I considered things dealing with horseback riding because she loves horses². I also considered something fairy based because she loves fairies. But both of those would have been things she would only have been able to use for a temporary time or just have sit around collecting dust to look pretty. So I took the plunge and it paid off. She loves it. Uses it often.

I know. I know. This post just seems all over the place. There’s a good reason. Just thinking about how happy I am with my wife makes me go all giddy. Messes with my brain too. In a good way. So, help me out with the discussion and answer me this question:

Why do you love your significant other?

1. I know unwordy is not a word. Sheesh. [«]
2. so things like equestrian clothing came to mind [«]

Posted by Saphrym | 30 Comments »

Yep. Going to talk about dieting again. I was recently tagged for a meme by John, but you guys know I never follow the rules of memes. I will go ahead and tell you my fitness vice though: lack of exercise. I can blame it on lack of time, but that’s just an excuse. Until I decide to do it, I guess it won’t happen. But I did manage to have some breakthroughs in my dieting. And I’m going to tell you about them because I think they’re much cooler than surfing those top rated diet pills sites. Of course, fi diet pills are your thing, feel free if it works for you. It doesn’t work for me.

I told you guys about Diet Power recently. It’s a program that monitors my caloric intake and weight loss and tells me how many calories I can have per day to get one day closer to my goal. Well, check out this graph from the program:

Notice the line is going down. That jump at the beginning was when I started the new calorie based diet¹. But after that, I’ve managed to make the line go slowly down. Now, the straight line at the top is my current progress. It follows the red line. The straight line below that one heads to my goal of 200 pounds by April of 2009. They don’t match, but I’m working on that. I’ve tended to eat a few more calories than the program allows per day because I’ve been trying to find foods that “trick” me into being full. So the fact the weight line is going down is one breakthrough. As for the “tricky” foods. Well…

I bought a Magic Bullet a couple of days ago. That’s not an affiliate link. It’s to the best source of information on the machine. But for purchasing it, I recommend looking one up on eBay. I got it for much lower than the price on that site. But basically, it’s an awesome blender. I’ve been using it to mix my Slim-Fast shakes and I recently added smoothies to my diet because frozen strawberries, bananas, water, and Splenda make a 150 calorie 16 ounce smoothie. Gotta love it!

Also, it’s great for just about any chopping and food processing. It really DOES clean up as quick as they say on the infomercial. It really is as easy to use. I love it. And here’s a neat trick if you’re dieting and feel hungry. It’s also good for adding water to your diet². Fill the mug up with ice, add an extract of your choice³, add a little Splenda to it⁴, blend, and you’ve got flavored ice with no calories whatsoever that you can eat with a spoon. It makes you feel like you’re eating even though you’re only drinking flavored water with no calories.

So there’s my tips for doing some dieting. I’m hoping that my smaller meals that I’ve started eating⁵ will lower my weight even more. We shall see. Between those two products, I hope to see some great results soon. I’ll scream it right here if I do.

Feel free to share your own Magic Bullet recipes in our forum: Magic Bullet Recipes

1. as I’m no longer diabetic so the low carb diet was actually hurting me in other ways such as cholesterol [«]
2. Diet Power tells you how much water you need in your diet too [«]
3. I like raspberry, vanilla, or cherry [«]
4. Or some other no calorie artificial sweetener, but I prefer the taste of Splenda [«]
5. To stay in line with what Diet Power allows me [«]

Posted by Saphrym | 6 Comments »

Every time my birthday comes around I start reflecting on philosophies. Don’t ask me why. Must be one of those silly “growing older” things. Well, it happened again today. But I’m going to use this post to tell you all about it and at the same time answer a meme.

So, here’s seven things you need to know about me before I start:

1. I’m Caucasian.
2. I was raised Baptist.
3. I’m male.
4. I was born in the United States.
5. I live in the United States.
6. I’m a Southerner.
7. I’m right handed.

Ok. So some of those might be a little obvious. But it’s important for you to know them. Or is it?

First, let me say, “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist.” Avenue Q. Love ‘em. Here’s the song if you haven’t heard it:

Now. Back to my philosophy. Let’s take that phrase just another step:

Everyone’s a little bit biased.

It is absolutely human nature to be biased towards some group they belong to. Humans like to belong to something and they normally protect that group fiercely. Religious wars are based on a bias towards a certain religion. Fights break out in the streets over a bias towards a certain race. People get beat up in back alleys because of a bias towards a sexual orientation.

Bias is natural. Bias is not a bad thing. It’s ok to be proud of your background or proud of a group you belong to. The problem with bias is when it becomes so forceful that anger and hate come into the picture. And that normally happens when people feel they are being treated differently than those in another group.

“What’s your point?”

My point is this: When you get into a debate about some topic such as racism or sexism and you’re claiming someone is being one of those¹, you really need to carefully consider the level of bias within the situation. When a bias is so strong that hatred rears it’s ugly head, then there are problems.

For instance, if a group of people who are in a guild together while playing World of Warcraft decide to all meet in Vegas to hang out, is it too biased of them not to invite others to do so too? However, if a group of people decide to go kill someone who is not the same religion as they are, are they being too biased? Has hatred entered the equation at this point?²

So, before claiming racism, sexism, or some other bias, think logically about the situation. Did the other party/group truly mean to be hateful when they treated you differently than others in their group? If the answer is “no,” there is no argument needed. If the answer is “yes,” it’s time for something to be done.

• DO embrace your differences.
• DO realize that everyone holds different things to be dear to them.
• DO tolerate those differences and learn from them.
• DO understand that people will treat those who are within their groups differently than those who are not.
• However, DO NOT ever accept hatred as a treatment.

Oh. Here’s another part of this post where I completely break the rules of that meme, as I’m going to tell you an 8th thing about me:

I’m human. So are you³.

1. or any other group bias [«]
2. Both of these are extreme situations in either degree. But you should get the point. I hope. If not, I blame it on the water. [«]
3. Unless you’re a software powered robot. But then you wouldn’t understand this post anyway. [«]

Posted by Saphrym | 16 Comments »

They’re hiding.

Yep. That’s right. They’re hiding. If you use Entrecard, you probably know that credits can’t be sent to an e-mail address. They show up in the form of a code that the person who gets the e-mail can use to put the credits into their own account. What you might not know is that the code can be sent to someone else instead. So, for example, I could easily have sent a code for 2048 credits to my own e-mail address and then hidden that code within one of the posts on my blog.

Ok. So that wasn’t an example. It’s exactly what I did. Somewhere on my blog is the 2048 credit code hidden within one of my 317 posts.

Oh, and here’s the catch: It’s not written in the normal 10 character format. I’ve sounded out the letters and numbers of the code and created words that sound like those letters and numbers. So to find the code, you’ll actually have to read the words. (Example: 12345ABCDE might appear as “Wan tool tree fore fwive ay bea see dea eea.”)

So good luck in finding it. Of course, the first person to find it gets them. I’ll edit this post when that happens. And please, feel free to comment with the correct code (after you’ve used it of course) so it makes it easier for other people to know you’ve found it already. Oh, and to use the code, go to your Entrecard dashboard and click on Apply Coupon. Type it in and submit and you’re 2048 credits richer.

Why 2048? Well, I was looking at some computer memory considering getting 2 more gigs of RAM for my computer. 2048 mb = 2 gigs. The number reminded me of the pricing system at Entrecard. And I realized that almost every popular blog on Entrecard normally costs 2048 to advertise on. So instead of the normal round 1000 or 2000 credits, I decided to make it enough credits to purchase one ad on a popular blog. You get from 200 to 300 clicks when you advertise on one of those blogs. So, to whoever wins, enjoy your free ad!

Oh, and some people might want hints. So here’s a few:

• It’s in one of the other 316 blog posts on my site.
• It’s in a blog post written in the last 5 years.
• A link to the post that it’s on can be found on my new Sitemap linked on the top menu.

Does that help? (Sorry. Couldn’t help it.)

UPDATE July 7th, 2008: Well, Maria got sneaky and found a way to find that last coupon code for the 2048 Entrecard Credits. But that’s ok. I put up another coupon code somewhere on my site. So the contest is still on. Oh, and don’t bother using her method to find it. I temporarily disabled the updating of the XML file.

UPDATE July 8th, 2008: This time Paula found it by doing a spell check on all my posts. You people are too clever for my wallet. Congratulations Paula! But this will be the end of this contest. I’m running out of Entrecard credits.

However, stay tuned. I’m thinking about hiding coupon codes for much smaller amounts in every post I make from this point on. Sound good?

Posted by Saphrym | 18 Comments »

…when we found out we were pregnant. My wife’s face began shining with light from her heart. Our thoughts instantly went to diapers, maternity clothes, cribs, blankets, etc. But after the consumer in us finally gave in to the parents in us, we began thinking again of the child. A girl or a boy? Did it matter? No. It didn’t. We were going to have a child. A wonderful, beautiful gift. We had been married and trying for about 3 or 4 years. This news made those years worth the wait.

Then she was born.

Wait. I’m getting ahead of myself here. She wasn’t born instantly as we all know. She began as a mood in my wife. Guys with kids know that mood. It’s that swinging mood that punches us in the face or kisses us behind the ear. Then it was the craving mood. Ice cream and pickles? I hear people mention that one every once in a while. Sorry guys. It’s normally much weirder than that. I’m not going to describe the combinations of food that my wife craved because if you’ve just eaten your food won’t stay in your stomach.

Finally, I got used to the moods. But the moods were easy compared to the days in the hospital. Those days when your wife is screaming as if the child is ripping through her very heart on the way out. She’s screaming in such a manner that you’d do anything to take the pain away. So then the other screaming starts. The screaming that comes form the husband to the nurses to get his wife some darn pain medication. Then there’s the scream of the husband as his hands get crushed by his wife. And finally, there’s the scream of the child.

It’s a beautiful sound. Or so I’m told. They took her in the delivery room while I was outside talking to my mother. “Oh, it’ll be another 20 minutes Mr. White.” “Ooops. Sorry. She was ready in 5.” Thank you very much Ms. Nurse.

But then I saw her. My daughter. And I fell in love for the second time in my life.

Posted by Saphrym | 3 Comments »

I’ve yet again been inspired. This time by the Queue Three Networks and their review of my site.

I’ve owned the domain name phantomvoice.net for a long time (over 8 years) and it has been many things for me. But now it’s going to start housing all of my fiction and poetry. I’ve copied all of the fiction and poetry from this site over there. I’m keeping the copies here just for the sake of not having broken links. But form this point on, any poetry or fiction I write will be published over at Phantom Voice.

The reason for this decision was because I really wanted a place that focuses on my poetry and fiction. This blog does not do that. Phantom Voice will. So hopefully you’ll go check it out and read my older writing. I’ll be adding new stuff to it very soon.

Posted by Saphrym | 2 Comments »

I’m not one for letting videos talk for me very often. It’s kind of like staying in laughlin hotels instead of Vegas hotels. It’s just not the same. But I’m going to make an exception in this case. However, I will start with a few words:

I met my wife in November of 1995. We met at a local BBS event. We were dancing together on the dance floor for no other reason than to just have fun. As we moved from the dance floor, we sat together at the bar and talked for a long time. I watched her every smile. I loved listening to her talk. She has such a sweet voice. Before I left, I kissed her and fell in love.

A month later, I was standing in the middle of her family’s living room. I had a radio next to me. I put in the song “True Companion” by Marc Cohn. I sang it to her in front of her family as my marriage proposal to her. Since we’re still happily married, I guess it worked. She said “yes.” Every time I hear that song, it reminds me of everything I love about my wife. So, without further ado, here’s a You Tube video with the song and the lyrics. The lyrics are important. I hope you enjoy.

(This post was inspired by “Music and Driving,” a blog post by Ken Armstrong.)

Posted by Saphrym | 5 Comments »

You know. Making changes to a blog can be like washing dishes in glass sinks. I’m serious. Sure, everything looks all nice and shiny, but cracks can appear in the system. So if you guys happen to find any bugs with my new theme, please feel free to let me know.

Oh, I guess I didn’t mention that first, but I’m figuring you saw it. Yep. New theme. Took me longer than I expected, but it’s finally done. Let me know what you think. This one should load up really fast compared to the other one I had. I also chose colors that went with the logo I use all the time. So I hope you like the new look. If you have any suggestions, feel free to share those too.

(Notice the little Saph faces on the right? I couldn’t help myself with those.)

Posted by Saphrym | 10 Comments »

I know. I know. I’ve written a bunch of posts today. But I just wanted to share so much information. And there’s another one I want to share (can you tell I’m jonesing for Spore to come out?). The following is a picture of a unicorn/pegasus I designed for my wife over the last hour using Spore Creature Creator (click it for full size):

It took me some time, but I’m quite proud of it.

Posted by Saphrym | 5 Comments »

Some people have too much money. So I’ve decided to compile a list of some items that I think are just right for those kinds of people. I know I couldn’t afford them. Might be nice if I could for a few of the items. But here it goes:

• Ironkey Thumb Drive - Ok. I understand military applications. I also understand corporate applications. But if someone in the real world (meaning those of uss in the middle income bracket and lower) have that valuable and secret of data that they ened to spend the extra bucks on the extra security, then I’m guessing that the data should be sold so you can afford the darn drive.
• Wendy Culpepper’s handcrafted jewelry - A lot of famous people wear this stuff. I mean some of it’s nice, and if she does custom work and I had tons of cash, I’d look into getting a fairy pendant designed for my wife. Or maybe I’d work on world peace. Hmmm.
• 14 MPH Cooler - That’s right. It’s a cooler and scooter all in one. Doesn’t look very comfortable to sit on. And it costs around 500 bucks. Sheesh!
• Remote Controlled Caddy - Speaking of weird things that move. 2000 dollars for a remote controlled golf caddy. Wow. I think I’d rather just pay some guy a few bucks to do it instead. Or maybe, just maybe, carry them myself? While riding around in my solar powered golf cart?

I can’t look for more. Some items in some of these places actually catch my attention and bring out the consumer in me that wants to spend money on an animatronic roommate for my daughter (cause I would have loved one when I was a kid). So feel free to look around the Internet and show me your own ideas for items that would fit this list.

Posted by Saphrym | 6 Comments »