Safefood Webinar
I suppose you had all forgotten about that webinar?
And those of you who remembered thought I had forgotten?
Well, I hadn't.
Yesterday was the day that Safefood were going to hold an on-line conference or something about childhood obesity, and I was invited.
I knew it was coming up and did a little investigating. Apparently I needed some software for it to work so I hunted for it. Surprisingly I found a version that runs on Linux so I set about installing it. About five hundred error messages later I realised that it realised that I was running an unheard of version of Linux. OK, it's Linux Mint but not a version that most people have heard of.
Anyhows I tried some little hacks and waddyaknow – it installed!
As the time approached I clicked on the link that Safefood sent me and the page promptly told me I needed to download some software. I told it to fuck off. It said fair enough and let me join this webinar thing but using a browser. I sat and watched what looked like a stuck Powerpoint thing but I wasn't hearing anything and I was seeing not much more. I hung up.
Then just out of curiosity, I tried running that programme I had installed. It hadn't appeared on my menu so I had nearly forgotten about it. Anyway, it launched and next thing I realised I was looking at people looking me looking at them. Etcetera. I still couldn't get the sound to work and I was damned if I was going to communicate via sign language so I gave them the only sign language i know, and hung up again.
Really I wasn't bothered.
When you think about it, what had I got to offer them, and even more so what had they got to offer me? Unless they were going to publicly announce that the whole obesity thing is just another scam so that qangos can leech more tax into their pockets then the whole exercise is a waste of their time and mine.
Listen, Safefood… I know you might even read this as you started to follow me on Twitter recently so here is my message to you. Solving this imaginary obesity epidemic [and how can something non-infectious be an “epidemic”?] is simple.
Lardarses broadly [heh!] fall into two categories – those that are happy with the fact and those that aren't. If they are happy then leave them alone. Those that aren't happy know damn well that eating less and exercising more is the answer.
There are those that maybe can't lose wait because of some other incapacity. Fair enough, they'll be attending a doctor anyway so they don't need any fucking bullying by the state.
In other words, people are grown up enough to know what's going on and they don't need any nannying, bullying, cajoling, prodding or "nudging" to make them change their minds. If they, or their kids are overweight IT IS NO ONE'S BUSINESS BUT THEIR OWN.
This seems to be the age of the nannying fussbucket organisations all telling us what's good for us and how we should live our lives their way and not our way,
So my message is simple.
Stop this incessant obsession about health. It ain't healthy.
How about leaving people to be happy in their own way?
Healthy and miserable?
Unhealthy but happy?
I know which I would prefer.
OK, it's Linux Mint but not a version that most people have heard of.
I have and what's more I use it because it is fucking brilliant.
As for the shafting of Safefood I 100% agree with your solutions.
Aha! Another Mintophile? I'm using Mint Petra which was only released last night [and they haven't even announced the fact as far as I know]. I have been using it for the last few weeks and it confused the hell out of that software I was trying to install. I like being awkward.
I've just had a look at their website and, as the saying goes "nothing to see here, move along". And I did.
Just another one in the crowd as far as I am concerned. There must be hundreds of thousands of these fucking sites now, all exhorting us to live healthily. Funny how there aren't so many telling us how to live happily?
I'm unhealthy, happy and not fat (especially not fat). And I use Linux Mint which identifies itself on the WWW as Ubuntu. I suppose this means I'm unhealthy, happy, not fat and have some sort of identity crisis as well? I also stopped smoking in 2005, it was my choice so the rest of you smoke it up as you please. But what I don't have is a bunch of associations, agencies, organizations and such haranguing about any one of the above or if they are, I've permanently blocked out the noise.
We also have quite a lot of lard-asses up in my part of the woods and I'd say at least half of them are pretty miserable about everything. That's their choice and their business though.
Otherwise, it's pretty much the same over here except it's a bit "thinner" what with being spread over such a large area.
I'm not sure what version of Ubuntu Mint Petra is based on [Pangolin?] but the only way I could install that software was by explicitly telling it I was using Lucid.
As long as you are happy then the rest doesn't matter. Health is only a worry if it impinges on your happiness.
Linux Mint 16 Petra is based on "Saucy Salamander" (Ubuntu 13.10). Man, Lucid was 8 versions ago. What software…if I may ask?
A thing called Fuze, as far as I remember. It is now well and truly erased from my system anyway!
pisses me off that everyone is generalized to what the correct size is. if you put my weight on someone 5'2" they would be obese, no question but because I am 6' its correct for me.
as for children being fatty fatties, kick them out as sunrise and feed them at supper, it is a no brainer to realize they aren't moving enough "playing" inside. I'd have flipped the finger at the panel too
Cat – Here's a story. When I was 24 and still in the US Navy (submarine force), I had just transferred to shore duty about the same time that the Navy started getting after overweight sailors and officers using the BMI calculator (Body Mass Index–this was the early '80's). Just to show you how accurate the BMI was back then, I weighed in at 147 pounds at 5 feet 11 inches and the BMI showed I was overweight. The chief that conducting the test was obviously looking at me, this skinny young man, knew the damn BMI was wrong but sent me to remedial physical training anyway.
That didn't last long of course. The instructor who was conducting remedial PT asked me why I was there and I told him the BMI showed I was overweight. After everyone stopped laughing he sent me back home. The chief that conducted the test was replaced. I still wonder if it actually did any good or were there other skinny young sailors sent to remedial PT because of the BMI.
I measured my BMI the other day – apparently I'm overweight! BMI doesn't seem to take into account the fact that I am six foot two and that my doc has been nagging me to put on weight?
woman's height charts only go to 5'10" after that they guess
I know exactly how much a 6' amazon goddess should weight, I just have to step on a scale =)
Never met a 6 foot Amazonian goddess before but going by the little image, she must look a lot like a cat?
Speaking of which, I can't see the image next to your name very well but it looks a whole lot like my old gray tiger cat that used to sit in front of my display when ever I was working on my computer. He was ever so helpful that way.
I carefully measured my BMI on the advice of the NHS website and concluded that I may have a problem in the future. I considered this whilst having a fag and then made the brave commitment to a more healthier lifestyle. Ten minutes later decided life is too short and went to the pie shop for lunch…..
Ten minutes? What took you so long?
I like what you told them GD. You could have added that you weren't going to buy any products they recommended.
To do that I would have to read through their site. I have more important things to do with my time. Even being bored would be more productive.
I understand that the Irish Cancer Society have said that they cannot recommend Linux Mint. They are saying that "Windows Patches" are the way to go. Apparently it is the flavouring in Linux Mint that naturally appeals to our precious children and has be shown to be risky. "Linux Mint has to recruit 20,000 new users everyday to replace those that succumb to it," their spokesperson has said.
These flavours will be the death of us all. To cap it all, I'm using the Cinnamon flavour of Mint.