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Mike McDowell dot com is all mine!

Mike McDowell — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 07:15:50 +0000

I did it. I did it. I did it! I finally got mikemcdowell.com! And, yes, I am rejoicing with all the fervor and feelings of accomplishment as somebody who skillfully landed the parking spot in front on the grocery store. I realize that I didn’t do much to secure this domain, but I have been chasing it for EIGHT LONG YEARS. I checked in regularly, and as the expiration edged closer, I checked multiple times a day.

I am so happy right now. This is the best way I can express my joy:

Next step is, of course, to decide what the hell to do with my domain other than a silly redirect to this blog.

Daily Show Realizes Twitter’s Awesomeness

Mike McDowell — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:50:38 +0000

Been meaning to get this posted after seeing it a while back. Some of you may have already seen it, but I think it’s worth sharing. It’s hilarious. If you don’t think so, you’re too tightly wound. It’s The Daily Show‘s take on the Twitter phenomenon.

LINK TO VIDEO (couldn’t get the video to embed on WordPress for some reason)

This is Why You’re Fat

Mike McDowell — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 07:27:07 +0000

Corndog Pizza (thisiswhyyourefat.com via flickr)

I came across this outstanding blog called This is Why You’re Fat, which asks people to submit photos of food they find that is just blatantly unhealthy. I’ll admit, some of the food on this blog made me really hungry (like the 60-pound Rice Krispy Treat, or the Corndog Pizza). Most of the foods included bacon (Wolfy, there’s a lot of new recipes for you to try).

But, after getting through six pages of fat-laden foods, it really made me think about the people eating these foods. Now, I’ve never counted calories in my entire life, but it can be pretty obvious which foods are healthy, and which aren’t. Americans are among the most obese people in the world. Part of the reason for this is sedentary lifestyle, part of it is diet. It’s kind of scary. I tapped into some research – some of the visual results are below. One is a chart of the U.S. that breaks out the percentage of obese adults in each state. The other is an animated gif that shows the progression of obesity in the U.S. since 1985 (you may have to click the image to get it to the animated version).

I’ll keep checking the blog to marvel at the kinds of things that people are eating. But, jeez – something’s gotta change if we’re ever going to reverse this obesity epidemic in the United States.

Fattest States 2008 (calorielab.com)

Obesity in US 1985-2006 (Wikipedia)