The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Indiana

January 5th and the DIET begins. I have pledged 20 pounds to the Pound for Pound Challenge at www.pfpchallenge.com . I will begin by using the Food Pyramid website – or attempting to. I logged on to www.mypyramid.gov and clicked on the Tracker option. I had to log in with a user name and password. That allows me to list all the foods I have eaten in a day’s time, the amount of exercise and calculate a bunch of stuff.

Your kindly old Uncle Rod wishes everyone a very Happy New Year. We all deserve it.

The holidays are bearing down on us with all the goodies, the big meals, the extra pounds gaining ground. We are all very close to the next step - losing all that weight we gained! That usually comes with a New Years resolution. Well we have a BIG help that might give you the motivation and inspiration to follow through.

For every pound you lose, General Mills will donate 10¢ to Feeding America™ - enough to provide one pound of groceries to a local food bank - including Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana.

This may mean nothing to some of you, but a voice from my youth has gone quiet. Majel Barrett Roddenberry has died at 76 from leukemia. She was the wife, the muse, for Gene Roddenberry, the creator of "Star Trek" and one of the principal navigators of our actual journey into the future.

She also played Nurse Chapel on the original series and the mother of Troi in "The Next Generation." She was the earth mother of Trekkies and Trekkers everywhere. She embraced her late husband's creation fully and deeply. And she encouraged and nourished the imaginations of those he inspired.

Welcome to my blog. I write this on a weekly basis on Myspace and I would like to expand it and thought I might start here. I have been doing it on a weekly basis where I make ten selections each week. I try to make them as diverse as possible where I go old to new, different actors, plot lines, etc.

(The writer limbered up with some stretching, some deep knee bends and some power sarcasm. Finally, he was ready for his performance ...)

President Bush was greeted at an Iraqi news conference over the weekend with a pair of shoes launched, one at a time, at his head, apparently a sign of disrespect in Iraq. As a result, some called by attack by shoe fitting.

I have been serving the military for over four years. Coincidentally, that's where I met my former husband Jeremie Coppess. After dating for sometime, we were happily married in Anderson, where he had lived with his mom. Immediately we decided we wanted to have children, and began trying. Well, it didn't take long because within five short weeks, we were expecting!
The day I told my husband we were pregnant was the day he walked out on us and never turned back. Our BEAUTIFUL daughter, Maddelynn Kay, is now eight months old.

So, Jay Leno, whose show I personally don't favor, has been tapped by NBC to serve his post-"Tonight Show" career as a host in the 10 p.m. slot ... five nights a week.

This is a catastrophe waiting to happen. At least I think so. And here's why.

NBC did this for several reasons, the major ones being that Leno draws big ratings and the network wants to bring down the costs of prime-time programming, that is, those big, expensive shows that pop up between 8 and 11 p.m. on the big three networks.

As an alum of Ball State, home of the Cardinals, the fiercest robin-sized bird in the world, I can only say that, in addition to being thankful for all the blessings in my life -- family, friends, home, God, forgiveness -- I can now add a bright red cherry on top.

In the grand scheme of things, Ball State's perfect season -- which it sewed up Tuesday night with an emphatic defeat of Western Michigan -- doesn't mean a lot. We all have things in our lives that are much more important to us than that.

Let's not belabor this point: "Quantum of Solace," the new James Bond film, pistol whips its audience. Grinding yet elegant action dominates the movie. Daniel Craig delivers his comedic lines with the toss-away aplomb of Sean Connery.

And that's saying something.

The opening is tough, brutal and thrilling, yet it ends with a laugh that is not only appropriate but dead-on.