Weight: 160.5
But that number is going to go up since I just lifted weights tonight.

I have actually been very busy and only got the chance to work out once last week. Also the weather sucked and my gym was closed. But I still lost a bunch of weight.

Actually, I am thinking of putting the breaks on my weight loss a little. Remember those tight sexy pants I talked about last week? They are no longer tight (although they are still sexy and also fashionable and hip). I even went on a shopping spree and got more pants (spree = one more pair), which are looser now too. I knew I would have issues buying clothes before I reached my goal weight, but I was sick of wearing clown pants. I want to get my hip new thin fall wardrobe, but I have no idea what size I should buy.

I may have to reevaluate my pants size goal since I want to loose a bunch more weight, but I think I may get down to a 30” or something at this rate. I should note that I haven’t officially reached 32” yet. The Calvin Klein jeans I have marked 32” fit fine, but when I was trying on Levi’s 32” they were too tight. And as Jim points out pants marked 32” are looser than they used to be. However, I think the 32” I am referencing (Levis when I was in high school) are fairly close to the Levis of today. I unfortunately don’t have any of my old pants left.

I also had my first taste of fruit in three months today: I had a handful of some decent blueberries at work. Berries are relatively low in carbs and are what Atkins recommends adding as one of the first fruits. Good thing blueberries are coming into season.

I am glad I am finally thinning out since I will get to go to the beach soon for only the third time this summer. On a normal summer I would have been to the beach three times last week, fat or not. Damn you weather!

Fascinating article in Wired about synthetic diamonds via Ampersand via Blueheron.

Two companies, Gemesis and Apollo Diamond have created processes to synthesize gem quality diamonds inexpensively. There are great benefits not just for gems but for semiconductors as well.

It also could screw over one of the worst monopolies in the world: De Beers. They create artificial scarcity and get stones from less than totally ethical situations and created the engagement ring tradition as a marketing ploy.

If I ever get engaged and I need to buy a ring I would make a distinct effort to buy a non De Beers ring. I would have gotten a Canadian diamond before, but this looks even more interesting. My grandfather was a diamond merchant and I would love to reset one of his rings with a high quality synthetic diamond.

Shots I took from NYC’s blackout two days ago. They are from Sam’s roof and from Tompkins square park. It was an incredible experience

Most of the images were taken with long shutter speeds, up to 16sec. It was darker than it looks.

The skyline after the sun went down. Some buildings downtown had generators	The only illumination comes from the traffic on 2nd ave	Urban campfire on Sam’s roof
The lower east side in darkness	Moonrise over the city	Tompkins. I didn’t get a good look at these women until I took this shot
The bonfire in Tompkins Square Park

To Matthew Yglesias, Tacitus, John Holbo and the folks at Plastic who linked to this site, I would like to direct you to my site as well.

Some other retouchers:

• Motorskills
• Catchlight Digital
• Vis Vatae
• Leo Chapman
• Digital Illusion
• Lee Stokes

It’s not such a big deal thought. People have been altering and improving images since they originally created them. I always say it is the job of the image makers (photographers, retouchers, stylists and designers) to create an image which captures the feeling one gets in the objects presence, not simply to record its reflection of light. For example a shot of a cinnamon bun should make you almost taste and smell the food, not simply be a recording of the object. Retouching is just a means to that end and is no more “fake” than good lighting or careful styling (although it is often more flexible).

Weight: 164lbs
Has been fairly stagnant this week but I am happier than ever. Let me explain.

My pants (size 38” mostly) are way too loose, but I have been putting off buying new ones until I had lost all the weight I wanted to. I frankly couldn’t afford it and I wanted to take the opportunity to get a hip new wardrobe anyway. But the clown pants were driving me nuts. So I stopped by Filene’s Basement today and tried on some 34” pants. They were too loose. That’s right too loose. Not only that but the ones that fit were 32”. 32” was my pants size from puberty until late college, when I wasn’t fat. 32” is my goal waist size. I am a 32” now and they aren’t even tight. Woo Hoo!

So I got some nice Calvin Klein pants which are fashionably worn out. They look quite hipsterish. They are much tighter than any pants I have worn in a while but are quite comfortable. I like ‘em tight; no more pleats for me.

No I am certainly not done yet by any means. I may fit nicely into these pants, but my gut still spills over them. I am also still technically overweight (although that seems to matter little).

Jim, who just came up to my town, links to the Sizing Down Clothing Exchange (via Jessica Grieves), which aims to be a place where people loosing weight can get intermediate sized clothing for less money. It would have been perfect but it is alas only for women’s clothes.

In other diet news Kuro5hin had an article about low carb dieting. The comments attracted the usual arguments on both sides, but I did find out something very interesting there: Atkins was hardly the first low carb diet. There was a popular diet in the 19th century called the Banting Diet. Harvey Banting came under similar criticisms that Atkins has come under from the medical establishment and others. But it worked and gained quite a following; Dieting was even referred to as “Banting” for a while. People have been ignoring the benefits of a low carb diet for a lot longer than I though.

Weight: 164.5 lbs.

Why I haven’t posted a fitness entry in while: my scale broke. I replaced it (actually Sears replaced it) with one of the same model, so I assume the weight will be consistent. I actually hopped on my brand new scale four days ago and was happy to see it read 163.5 lbs. I gained a little since then but it is good to see that I am still loosing weight even when I am not weighing myself every day.

Exercise isn’t nearly as intense recently due to a combination of business and laziness. I haven’t hit the weights in almost two weeks; I have mostly been running, swimming and biking. I like the exercises where you actually move forward although I worked out in place on and elliptical trainer today.

I am eating plenty of candy: all sugar free and low carb of course. I have always been hugely fond of chocolate and I don’t know why this diet should put a stop to my copious chocolate consumption. The problem is that most of the candy bars, like the Atkins ones, aren’t very good and are fairly expensive. They are perfectly suitable when you are hungry of course, but they taste like cheap candy. Hence my experiment with brewing my own chocolate. I have found a pretty good bar though made by Yamate Chocolatier and sold at Whole Foods. You don’t know how many of these I can eat.