Frank Broughton Times

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I made it through the first week of my quest to get back in shape and loose weight. If ya recall I started at an embarrassing 257 pounds and I am glad to report that today, 1 week later, I weighed in on the scale at 249 pounds. So there goes a couple shovels of the “bag of cement” off my belly and back.

Thanks for those who have shown support for me in getting my health back in order after the long 2009 I had on some strong medicines.  I have a long way to go, but remained determined. At age 50 and having a 2 year old son running around the house I just have to (Lord willing). I would love to see him grow up serving the Lord Jesus Christ and he needs proper training along the way, of which I am responsible for.

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Source: Lifehacker: Firefox 3.6 Officially Available, Brings Speed Increases, One-Click Themes, & More.

Windows/Mac/Linux: The oft-delayed but much improved 3.6 version of Firefox has landed, offering up faster performance, one-click themes, safer add-ons and plug-ins, better font handling, and a lot more. Grab it now.

We’ve been downloading and trying out Firefox 3.6 from the first alpha, and from what we’ve seen, 3.6 is a bigger update than the minor decimal point iteration would indicate. It ranked second only to the cutting-edge Chrome builds in our speed and performance tests, which meant there was real improvement in startup time and page rendering.

What’s new? :

• Instant themes: Point 3.6 at the Personas gallery, and you can hover over a theme to see how it would look in your browser. Click to apply it, and it’s your browser skin. You can then manage your Personas from the Add-Ons menu.
• Out-of-date plugins notifier: Start your browser up with an outdated, and potentially virus-friendly, Adobe Flash or other plugin, and Firefox will tell you and provide an update link.
• Full-screen ‘open’ video: If you’re looking at a video streaming in Ogg or another free format, Firefox can play it full screen.
• WOFF support: More intriguing for developers than users, but, still, Firefox now accepts and downloads smaller-sized Web Open Font Format fonts, allowing sites to more quickly show you their text the way they intended.
• Faster, faster, faster: Mozilla promises better JavaScript, startup time, and rendering speeds.

You can read up more on what’s new in the 3.6 release notes, but you’re probably going to want to discover its features for yourself.

Firefox 3.6 is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.

Get Firefox web browser at [Mozilla]

After a year of sitting around doing nothing but suffering from the side effects (flu like) of 48 weeks of my HCV treatment I have acquired an embarrassing bag of cement around the middle of my torso ‘er I should just say it – I am fat! Today marks the beginning of a mission: “Operation BeFit” or as the title of the post says “Operation Ditch the Bag of Cement.”

I weigh in at an totally embarrassing weight of 257 pounds. My goal is 205 by year end and <225 by summer camp in July. I am off to a good start, walked on the treadmill this morning for 30 minutes for a distance of 1.5 miles. It is a start. May I a year from now look like I did in 2004 as the picture with my daughter Hannah on the left reveals.

• When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
• Chuck Norris can light ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
• Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open.
• Chuck Norris can eat just one Lay’s potato chip.
• Chuck Norris is suing Myspace for taking the name of what he calls everything around you.
• Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because he only recognizes the element of surprise.
• Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.
• There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.
• Outer space exists because it’s afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.
• Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.
• There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’s beard. There is only another fist.
• When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.
• Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.
• Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.
• Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
• Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost.
• Chuck Norris can ride his handlebars with no bike.

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It was a long 48 weeks for sure but the end has come. I took my last pills the day before Christmas Eve. It was a great Christmas present to be med free. I still felt like I had the flu for a week or so after that. I feel great now! My energy is back. The brain fog that I had has cleared up and my mind is racing two zillion miles an hour again. I like that, but I am sure some of my friends do not. I have a lost year to make up for – so look out 8-). Food tastes normal (like really good) again. My skin is still very dry and itchy but getting better, that is one of the nasty side effects of the medicine. I am sleeping mostly through the whole night now – YES! I am so thankful I was able to do this treatment, not everyone who has HCV can tolerate it. I have some friends and relatives who could not complete the treatment. It  is a very expensive treatment, $20,0000 just for the medicine. I am thankful that is all paid for.

So what lies ahead? Six months from now I will get tested again for the viral load. If it is undetectable at that point will be in remission (technical term is SVR sustained viral response). So June 2010 will be a big day for me. Please join me in praying for SVR!

Hepatitis C is a serious disease, many have it and do not even know. Please consider getting tested! One of the best sites on the Internet for information and support is a site I found called HCV Support – the site is loaded with information and informative videos. The forum is full of very helpful and compassionate people. They helped me greatly.

Thank you for all that showed me great support this past year – I appreciate it much.