Duran Duran and Atheists Inspire Me

Actually, I'm a "concerned agnostic",
but we'll cover that later. Source

Also, I can never spell Atheist right the first time. It's hard!

I have not been around here lately because I've had nothing new to report. Well, that's not true, I've been making a lot of discoveries about myself with regard to my health, but I didn't want to write about all that without some action points to go with them. Now I have a good idea of some problems and solutions though, so I am going to give you all an update.

I am addicted to sugar.
I talked about this at length today at First Person Narrative, if you care to read about it. The short of it is, I have a binging problem, but mostly with sugary things: cake, cookies, ice cream, and candy. I think the only way to "kick the habit" as it were, is to go cold turkey. So, as of today I am on the wagon. No more sweets. For now, I am limiting this to the things listed above. While i could binge on Raisin Bran and Orange Juice, I don't see that happening. I was thinking about it, and if I have ever tried to overeat something that was good for me (fruit, salad, vegetables) I get full and or sick before I get very far. I can eat a whole cake in one go, if I were so inclined, but I've rarely drank a whole gallon of OJ in one sitting. If I find that I have eaten a whole box of cereal for breakfast one morning, I will of course re-evaluate what I am restricting in my diet.

I need a sense of urgency.
I stayed up for 24 hours the other day because I needed to make a cozzerole and then deliver it to j^C's work at 6 am. I was afraid that if I went to sleep I would not get up and out the door in time, so I just stayed up. I didn't want to let anyone down, you see. People were counting on me and I had given my word. My word to other people motivates me. My word to myself is meaningless. I think this is because when you tell someone else that you are going to do something at a certain time, it creates urgency. If you are doing something for yourself, you can always put it off, procrastinate, and make excuses about why it's not really important. Somehow, I have to give my health and well being value and urgency so that I will bend over backward to make my goals happen. I'm surely worth more than 100 nameless soldiers, but I don't ever feel that way.

I need an accountabilabuddy.
Captain Tesla started the idea of Operation Healthy Initiative, and I bet she's improving her health by leaps and bounds. I stole her idea and started this blog as a form of accountability for myself, and I've gotten nowhere. Then, I started working with an online personal trainer. That's still coming together, and I know that if I start emailing her everyday, I will probably get a lot more out of the relationship. My worst problem is that I don't like working out alone, and when I am by myself, I don't push very hard, if I can even make myself go at all. It would be ideal if I could work out with Captain Tesla, but she lives in the magical land of Pensacola, Florida while I sit and rot in here in Richmond Hill, GA. I am hoping that my one and only local friend will be willing to go to the gym with me once after her 6 week postpartum appointment. Otherwise, this is a problem that is identified and as yet unsolved.

It is my hope and intention to start updating you all with pictures, in addition to working on the three points listed above.

Now, about the atheists.
It all really goes back to Duran Duran. Everything does, because they are the Holy Hair, and let's not forget it, ok? Yesterday I got the inclination to start reading about Simon Lebon. I saw the video for "Do You Believe in Shame" which up until yesterday, I never knew existed. I honestly never knew the song was even released as a single, and clearly it was not very popular as I've rarely heard it mentioned on fan sites. I knew that it was a song by Duran Duran because someone had an AngelFire fan site of the same name back in the late 90s. I always liked the name and I'm sure I had heard it at least once because it was on the album Big Thing which I owned on cassette. I am proud to say that I think I own every album Duran Duran has ever made, either on vinyl, cassette, or CD. Oh yeah, and digitally! I downloaded All You Need is Now before it was available on CD. But you don't care about that.

Anyway, I went down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, and soon discovered that this song was the first part of a trilogy written by Lebon concerning the death of a close childhood friend. The second song is "Ordinary World" my all time, end all, be all, favorite song EVER, and the third song is "Out of My Mind", another seriously underrated song from 1997's Medazzaland album. This got me thinking about the friend and I started trying to find out some more information about him. The Wikipedia rabbit hole led to a dead end on that topic, but I did discover that Simon had contributed to a book called The Atheist's Guide to Christmas. I was never certain what his views on faith were, although I suspected he might not be a believer based on the song "None of the Above".

Who wouldn't want to fall down a "Me" rabbit hole?
Source

It turns out Lebon is a "concerned agnostic" -  which means I sit on the fence a little bit because it’s too arrogant to say there is no God. I am willing to become a believer if someone could prove it to me, but I am not going to take other people’s word for it. A lot of my thoughts are in this book and it will make a great Holiday present for people – the book is quite funny and intelligent and it will get you thinking. Simon”

But how did Simon Lebon, frontman of my favorite band, wind up an essayist in The Atheist's Guide to Christmas? Apparently, the girl behind the book Ariane Sherine used to hang out outside of Warren Cuccurullo's apartment in London while the boys were cutting Medazzaland. My first thought was "Why couldn't I be hanging out outside Warren's apartment while the boys were cutting Medazzaland?" Because I was 10. Anyway,  Simon thought Ariane was a smart girl and he wanted to lend his support to her book - which was the first atheist charity book campaign (they donated all of the advance and half of the sales to The Terrence Higgens Trust). After reading about the book, I went down the Wikipedia rabbit hole once again because I wanted to know more about this chick who hangs out with my favorite band and who gives money to one of my favorite causes.

This led me to her blog, which I though would be A) active and B) about writing (since she is primarily a journalist). What I found, was a weight loss blog that had been abandoned in November 2011, after she lost her baby weight. I was disappointed, but after looking through it a little, I was also inspired. While I feel that her actual method of losing weight was less than healthy, I liked her accountability method: she took a picture of the scale every week, to document her progress. I think this is a great idea. I am going to post my scale picture on here every Monday, and hopefully that will keep me on the beaten path for the rest of the week. I think it would be rather mortifying to post 240 for weeks on end, or to have it creep back up. So, thank you Ariene Sherine for the great idea.

That should be me.
Nick Rhodes should be there too.
This photo is property of Duranasty.com.

Now all I have to do is make friends with you so that I can hang out with Duran Duran. I guess I better get on this weight loss thing first, though.