[housekeeping] how to stay alive

Not to put too fine a point on it, world's turned on it's head on the personal front. More - once I come up for breath.

[breakfast] an english exercise

As I can't leave the job just now, I'll bring part of the job to you - the English part. The task - fill in the gaps and make the verbs in bold in to the correct form. They might already be.

For teens look___ to keep weight off, it doesn't have to be a breakfast of champions, but it should to be some kind of brea___st -- and preferably a he___hy one. Yet another study confirm that adole__ents who sk_p breakfast have a higher ri_k of being overweight.

"There's a pretty sign___ant inverse association between how frequently kids report breakfast and how much weight they eat gain over time, and we take into ac__unt other diet__y factors and ph__ical activity," said Mark Pereira, co-a__hor of the study, publish in the March is__e of Pediatrics.

"It's inter___ing to note that the kids who eat breakfast on a daily basis overall have a much better diet and are more ph__ically active," Pereira said.

Added Dr. Peter Richel, chief of pediatrics at Northern Westchester Hospital Center in Mount Kisco, N.Y.: "Grandma and Mom are right. When we s_ip breakfast, especially in the teenage years, then kids tend snack and graze."

Election Day Report (Albeit Very Late)

So, I will not be talking about the results. Zapatero´s party, PSOE, won but not by enough to have an absolute majority in the Congreso de Diputados. Here are some photos of the day, with explanations ;-)This is the first polling place I was able to find. I woke up at 9 a.m. with the intention of finding one in my neighborhood (Tetuán). Unfortunately, I didn´t realize they only open some high schools (where the polling takes place) for polling, not all of them. So I spent thirty five minutes trying to find the one in my neighborhood before going to an area that I knew better than my own neighborhood, pathetic I know!

The list of who votes where with regards to the interior of the school. People from one street vote in one room, others vote in another, etc.

These photos are just for fun. The school isn´t too far from a church. There´s always at least one member of La Guardia Civil on the street on Sundays, they have a barracks nearby. So I decided to take his photo w/o him realizing.

After lunch, I finally made it to my barrio´s high school for the elections. Here I was able to take every single list for the parties that could be elected to the Congreso de Diputados and their version of the Senate. The Senate´s ballot was much simpler than the Congreso´s. I had to come back later and finish the job, as I was only able to take about 10 of the 40 lists for the diputados before someone looked at me with a ,"What are you doing?" look on his face.

Izquierda Unida observer. Iu is the only hard left party that ever garners any votes. When I mean hard left, I mean borderline Communist!An advisory about the elections (forget what it´s about and am too lazy to translate right now).


The end of the night, about fifteen minutes before the polls closed. We were given estimates by gov´t TV a few minutes later. They weren´t too far off.

[housekeeping] issues

Readers, for five days, major things have been happening with me on the personal front, fundamental things.

They came to a head last night. I shall be blogging as soon as possible but this is very important what's happening here and it must be attended to.

I apologize to regulars and will be with you as soon as I can. Everything's fine so don't worry. Have a lovely remainder to your Friday.

There is truly nothing interesting in the news.

We have rain.

[superhero] when it's best not to be

Sometimes a glowing report signs your death warrant. the conventional wisdom was that Admiral Fallon was forced out over his criticisms of Iraq. There is another take:

Which is why, after reading Thomas Barnett's Esquire article on America's CENTCOM commander, I knew that Admiral William "Fox" Fallon would be forced into retirement. After reading the article, the men around that table would have thought as I do: that he was lucky he wasn't fired. In truth, I would have busted him to Seaman Recruit.

On Tuesday, Fallon submitted his resignation.

Barnett's piece has to rank as one of the most embarrassing portraits of an American officer in US military history. Both for Barnett, as well as for Fallon.

If this is the true story, then it might have availed Fallon to have the Esquire piece pulled. No one likes someone presented as a superhero when he is one of any number in the field of battle. One would have thought they'd have learnt from the MacArthur demise.

[truth] seven deadly sins

Greed:	Low
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	Low
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Medium
Pride:	Medium

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com

H/T Jams

Actually disagree with gluttony - I'm anything but. Think lust should rank higher for me.