Seriously. Enough of the cold weather in middle America. It's time for baseball, 75-degree days and severe weather. This winter crap has got to go.

Hell is not supremely hot. It is supremely cold.

First and foremost, I got to see family this weekend, which is always good. As family get-togethers do, ours evolves from how-is-it-going conversation to the hot topics of the day.

1. Bill O'Reilly vs. Geraldo Rivera on FOX. In a nutshell, some young people were killed by a drunken driver, and that drunken driver happened to be an illegal immigrant with priors but without the deportation that should have happened after each previous offense. What makes it worse is that the previous offenses were alcohol-related.

So, Billo has Geraldo on to discuss the situation in Virginia Beach. O'Reilly's argument is that the tragedy there involving the car crash underscores how bad the illegal immigration problem has become, and Rivera maintains that this is an issue about drunken driving more than it is illegal immigration.

Bottom line: O'Reilly plays to the easily manipulated middle-class crowd not with logic but with emotion. For him to say that this tragedy is an immigration issue would be like saying it were a prostutition issue if the drunken driver had been a whore.

It's illogical, and unfortunately O'Reilly's followers haven't mastered the rules of logical argument. While I'm not the biggest Geraldo fan in the world, I do respect the guy immensely on many fronts, particularly this one, in which he was 100 billion percent right on.

It's not that illegal immigration isn't a problem; I'd say it is, just not to the extent the right would have you believe. I'd also say the drunken driver in this case should have been deported after the first offense. However, to turn this tragedy into a statement about illegal immigration is illogical, cheap and offensive, and it truly underscores just what a bad guy O'Reilly is. A bitter, bad person.

2. Songwriters. There was some discussion about disposable versus indisposable songwriters. While I really like a lot of what Diane Warren and David Foster have written over the years, their music is almost completely disposable. I'm not sure how to quantify that except by saying that it's disposable.

Over the years, I have found much more musical pleasure by experimenting with independent music, with stuff that's a bit edgier, with stuff that is mainstream but not too mainstream. If you'd like an example of somebody whose songwriting is indisposable, listen to Ryan Adams' song from 2005, "Meadowlake Street."

Listen to Laura Nyro's classic CD "New York Tendaberry."

Listen to Carole King's "Tapestry."

Experiment. Get a subscription to Yahoo! Music Engine or Rhapsody. It's worth it if you're a music fan, not only quantitatively but qualitatitively.

3. Dudes and crying. My dad was a water faucet, but the rest of my family just abhors crying of any sort. Male or female, they see it as weak and consistently make fun of it. So, we're talking about this at dinner, and I realized how different I am from most of my family although I didn't really mention it considering my take is so vastly different from theirs.

I not only find crying to be healthy. I think it's valuable to anybody who does anything creative. Personally, I can turn it on and off with ease, but I'm a highly emotional individual who happens to also be creative. It's a recipe for tears every time, although I'm no sap.

I'd go so far as to say I feel bad for people who look down on crying, in general, as a means of personal emotional release because, to me, it's a part of the whole of human experience. It's also a huge stress reliever, a cathartic way to just get out a lot of internal nonsense. To completely bottle up emotions is a recipe for a heart attack or stroke.

It's pathetic that society frowns upon that so much.

Those were the big issues of the weekend. As we move into what I hope will be more of a springtime pattern, I'm adjusting my goals and efforts toward shedding another 10 pounds or so by Memorial Day, and to that end, I'm going to use this blog to keep myself honest.

I'm going to document what I eat and how much I exercise.

For example, today I had:

• coffee for breakfast


• 2-piece original fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy, cole slaw and a biscuit from KFC for lunch


• 2 8-oz glasses of RC


• 5 pieces of Hershey's miniatures


• 1 popsicle


• a tin of sardines in water after working out for 15 minutes on the treadmill


• a salad with romaine lettuce, baby spinach, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower, topped with a dollop of Miracle Whip, which is really underrated as a dressing for greens


• a bowl of Progressive chicken, cheese enchilada soup

For the next three weeks, I am going to document what I eat and when and how much I work out in hopes that I manifest the truth about my habits in black and white. Furthermore, I hope a kind soul out there with knowledge (Richard?) will evaluate what I ingest and offer advice.

One of my brothers swears by Hydroxy Cut to help him, and I've got some in the fridge. However, I'm not taking anything supplemental until I evaluate my diet over the next three weeks. Now, it won't be a true free-for-all in that I'm going to try to eat smart but not deprive myself.

I'll have dessert but will try not to pig out just as I try every day not to pig out. The difference for these first three weeks is that I will allow myself to fail if I absolutely can't withstand the temptation.

I'll try to keep the alcohol intake to a minimum. My brother bought me a six-pack of Bass Ale for winning our NCAA hoops tourney challenge, but that beer is so good, I'll probably just have one at a time over six occasions.

Movies watched over the weekend:

1. "Swimming Pool" ... grade: A. I've seen this one twice now. Loved it.

2. "Borat" ... grade: A-. I've seen it three times now. Liked it a lot, although I'll admit it's silly.

3. "Talladega Nights" ... grade: A-. Really, really enjoyable.

4. "The Departed" ... grade: UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLE. One of the best movies I've ever seen, period. It's a bad-ass guy movie. Can't recommend it enough.