Does this Podcast Party Make Me Look Fat?

Salutations! I have been a long time writing this post. Not nearly as long as Wheelers' Dog, but a few good months. Here it is December already and I've not posted since mid-September. EGAD!

I'm writing this as I'm watching The Dan Patrick Show on Audience Network on DirecTV. This is the sort of model that I want The Less Desirables to follow in the future. Not necessarily all our support cast on the other side of glass, but a team to work on providing a great show. That's where we'll be one day, that and other, future plans are on their way. You'll hear more about them in the upcoming months-to-a year or so. We'll talk more about The Less Desirables here in this blog post in a bit.

We know that I got engaged to the BCPF this past summer, yep, yep, yep. Everyone keeps asking when the "big date" is and we have continued to say we don't know. And nothing has changed there. We still don't have a date. But, we do have some ideas as to where. We have both been married before so we're going to fore-go the fancy-schmancy Bridezilla-esque wedding and put ALL our money and efforts into the honeymoon. I've done some looking back and of my four family surnames: Beeman, Flanagan (Paternal Grandmother), Houchins (Maternal Grandfather) and Blankenship (Maternal Grandmother) Houchins is an off-shoot of Hutchins or Hutchen or McCutchin, etc. Anywhat, those names are all Scottish. AND, because Scotland has no residency requirement, but do require you to do the civil ceremony (legal, religious=not legal) in designated places and because many of these places are castles, we're going to take a trip to Scotland to "do the deed." I hunted down the clan that my lineage belongs to, which happens to be MacDonald (mmmm McNuggets... NOT THAT McDonald's!) and will be wearing the tartan of that clan in the form of a kilt, yes me in a kilt, complete with a sporran (that little purse thingy). The crest is to the left and our tartan is to the right. So other than the date, that is up in the air, we've gotten that much closer to doing our thang. Go us!

My biz partner, we'll call him "B," just got accepted to Wake Forest's MBA program which is a feat in and of itself; a difficult program. So congrats to him!

We've talked about me finishing my degree finally from Kaplan University. I, too, have elected to go back to school and will be working on my Masters of Fine Arts in New Media Journalism from Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL. Yes this prog is online, as well. You wonder what New Media Journalism is, well you're looking at it right now. You're looking at a blog. All the links to the right here are blogs. They're what you listen to when you're listening to the show, The Less Desirables: a podcast. All these things - new media!! Woot! Go me!

Now, onto The Less Desirables. Since my last post we have a new edition to the show. My friend Eugene started out as the Official TV Guru but he's moved into being The Official Third Wheel (which is NOT a bad thing) and a creative (focus) force for the show. He's made it better and we're glad for that. At one of the "Meeting of the Minds" we talked about a Christmas party and by golly! we had a Year-End Holiday Party this past weekend. All our gurus, greatest guests and featured listeners were invited and most of them showed up and the shindig was a success!! We had our special listener, Damien from Durham come and B's parents came from Maryland (and left the next day) to be with us. BTW, B has the coolest mom in the world, just so that's known. Awesome indeed.
Thank you to Jerry Chapman, Lee & Susan Terry for your musical contributions. Thank you Finnigan's Wake for the awesome use of the space including Nicole and Holland two AWESOME servers that waded through the murk of a crowd to keep everyone completely happy! Thank you Dan DesNoyers for the awesome banners that hung with the NC TLD logo (pic coming soon). Thank you Richard Smith, as always for taking the designs that B and I have and turning them into reality for us; from stickers to t-shirt designs. Thank you PR Babe and BCPF for being the awesome significant others you are. B, BCPF and I (along with our team) worked hard to prepare for this thing and the party, as stated, was a success. I said it before: the future looks good. 2012 is The Year of The Less Desirables!

I hate New Years resolutions and the thing I'm thinking about is completely serious. Other peeps are informing me of the dangers and I'm feeling it myself. So, this is NOT a NYResolution. I am the heaviest I have ever been. I mean EVER. I won't necessarily go into the details but if you look on Facebook at the pics from this party you will see a tub of lard in a TLD shirt, albeit a handsome TLD shirt. My blood pressure is up, my cholesterol is up, I feel lethargic, I feel beaten. I have sleep apnea and I don't use the CPAP machine out of sheer stubbornness, although I wake up through out the night and can't breathe.
I have this awesome show to look forward to. I have a wonderful fiancee that I want to be here for and to take care of and live a happy life with. I have an awesome 9-year old son that I want to see graduate, go to college, get married, have kids, etc. None of that will happen if I don't take better care of myself. So that is what I plan on doing, not because it's approaching the end of this year but because I'm tired of defeating myself unnecessarily. At the party someone told me I looked happier than I've ever been and then asked how my health was. This person has known me for a long time, high school, actually and when I said, "I'm the heaviest I've ever been" her response was, "I know." She's not the first to tell me. SO, I have to do something. And I am. I need some suggestions. I need a motivation (other than "do it for her" or "do it for him" etc.). So I'm imploring my listeners and my readers to help me find a direction here. Leave me emails, comment here, comment in the comment box for the show. Do whatever you need to do but give me some direction. Whatever helps me the most. By June I want to lose at least 45 lbs. I'll give the contributor or contributors some free TLD swag. I know the owners. :)
I will say, I can't give up the beer because I get paid to do that, so while I can just have it on show nights and occasional weekends, I will not give it up completely. I already have a bad liver; if I am allowed to drink with that, I can do it and still lose some weight and be healthy.

Anyway, enough of the sad and degenerate mess, let's hit the road and have fun. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season as I'd predict to say I probably won't be writing again before January, although you never know. Good luck in whatever you do to celebrate; even not celebrating is celebrating in some way or another!

Until next post, same blog place at SOME blog time...
Scorp is dragging out....