Outperforming the outperformance: Blowing the lid off the Doc's head

Intro

So I had my visit with team Quilici in some 90 days today. It was a lot of fun while it lasted. Now I know how it feels to be Julio Jones and blow up the combine. Unfortunately, reports of my god-like mastery are going to be greatly exaggerated as a result of a few clerical blunders. I intend to set the record straight in this blog entry.

The Official Story

So, after spending my customary 20 minutes in the waiting room, I was directed to room 1. This is where team Quilici weighs the patient, measures blood pressure, and takes your body temperature. My weight was 237.5 today. This was very close to the reading my Tanita at home gave me earlier in the morning.

The nurse practitioner who saw me immediately thereafter could not conceal how impressed she was. "It looks like you've bee loosing a lot of weight recently; 65 pounds in the last three months. You are making very rapid progress! Much faster than expected."

Of course, I rejoiced at the sound of those statements, but I wanted a bit of clarification. "What is considered normal progress? What would Dr. Quilici have projected in terms of weight loss? What did you estimate my weight would be?"

She answered, "40 to 50 pounds is considered great in 90 days. You are moving much faster than the rest of our patients. Your BMI is already down to 33. If you keep going at this rate you're going to be all done by your next visit in 90 days."

So, at first blush, it would seem that I blew the lid off their projections. 50 pounds was considered the top. My score was 65. I shredded the roof by 30%.

Ah! But there was more. I produced my BodPod documentation from the California Health and Longevity institute. I showed her that my actual fat loss was greater by at least 4 pounds, as I had actually added four pounds of lean weight to my frame.

She was very impressed. Normally, they expect lean losses mixed with fat losses. They just hope the lean losses are not particularly great. They certainly don't expect lean weight gain. We settled on the figure of 69 pounds of pure fat loss in 90 days. I walked out of there feeling like Superman.

You see! This is proof positive that I really am better than all these weak bastards. Better by 38-72%

Bringing it down to earth

Not so fast there Mr. Roof Shredder! It didn't take too long for me to figure out that the math had to be wrong. The first crack in the picture occurred when I back-checked my weight figure. Can it be true that my weight 90 days ago was 237.5 + 65 =302.5?

No way Jose! That was not the figure 90 days ago. I remember as clear as a bell that the score stood at 281.0 the last time I stood on Dr. Quilici's scale. Somebody must have made a clerical mistake. Somebody recorded my weight at 302, when it was 281.

There is more proof. The Bod Pod clearly documents the fact that I lost approximately 18.569 total pounds of body weight over the past 42 days. That actually consists of 22.636 pounds of fat and 4.068 pounds of lean gain. In order for the 69 figure to be true, I would have had to have lost some 46.364 in the 48 days prior to my first Bod Pod.

No way Jose. It didn't happen like that.

I called Quilici's office to verify, and they did indeed have my weight as 302 on March 28, 2011. That's not the only clerical blunder. They had my top weight at 325, not 330. I know for a fact my weight was right around 330 before I began the liquid diet. Might have been a tad higher than that. There is no question that it was higher than 325.

The Correct Score

On Quilici's scale, my weight dropped from 281.0 down to 237.5 between March 28 and June 28. This is a difference of 43.5 pounds. However, we should still factor in the 4 pounds of lean weight I gained during the past 42 days. Ergo, I lost 47.568 pounds of fat weight in the 90 days between March 28 and June 28.

This is a wee bit to the high side of his projections, but my losses are within the normal range according to Dr. Quilici's predictions. I am inside the pocket.

This is an average of 0.5285 pounds of pure fat per day over the course of 90 days. This required an average caloric deficit of 1,849.86 kcal each day for 90 days. That is a total of 166,488 missing kcal during this period. That's pretty impressive, really.

All of this is in pretty close accord with the numbers I have been calculating and publishing during this time.

Projections

The Nurse practitioner is not quite correct when she says I'll be all done by my next visit on September 29. Follow my reasoning.

• The Bod Pod had me at 240.082 last Friday.
• The Bod Pod stated that I had 91.454 pounds of fat on my frame last Friday.
• Dr. Quilici's scale and my scale closely accord.
• The Bod Pod is 0.85 pounds lighter than either my scale or Dr. Quilici's scale.
• According to our scales, I have lost another 2.582 pounds
• The Bod Pod would probably call it 3.432 pounds.
• I haven't slacked off the workouts, so I'll bet that was all fat weight.
• The fat loss figure could be a little higher than 3.432, but we'll go with that estimate.
• Ergo I should now have 88.022 pounds of fat on my frame.
• Another 47.568 loss will put my fat weight at 40.454 pounds.
• If my lean weight is, say 152, my total weight will be 192.454.
• 40.454/192.454 = 21% body fat.
• I will be about 4% shy of my final goal as of September 29.

Nevertheless, things are going pretty well. I have dropped a total of 92.5 bricks of butter. I am pretty much on track for victory here.

The problem of Mars (and Venus) in Scorpio

Intro

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I seem to like a considerable number of women with Mars in Scoprio. The trend is similar, but not as pronounced, for Venus in Scoprio. Understand that this blog post is not so much about my personal romantic predilections as it is a blog post about a software developer who is attempting to find an algorithm that will model a real world phenomenon accurately. Understanding this problem, and being able to phrase it correctly, is step one towards modeling the thing in code.

What is the meaning of Mars?

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is our second closest neighbor, and the planet most resembling our Earth. It is still the leading candidate for terraforming experiments at some point in our distant future. Its orbit requires 687 days, or a little less than 2 Earth years.

In Greco/Roman mythology Mars & Aries are one and the same dude. Aries is the god of war, son of Zeus and Hera, and the illicit lover of Venus. In terms of power, he was second only to Zeus. He was not a particularly good or likeable guy.

In astrology, Mars is known as a lesser malefic planet. The placement of malefic planets in your chart describes the specific problems, challenges and obstacles you have to overcome in your life. Mars is a personal planet. Its placement is reasonably distinctive from one chart to another. Mars describes your ability to take action, your desire, your sex drive, and your physical energy level.

Allegedly, it either partially or fully describes the sort of lover you are. According to many, Venus also plays a role in this drama as well.

What is the meaning of Scorpio?

Scorpio is the 8^th sign of the zodiac. It occurs during the mid-fall season. It is a feminine, fixed water sign. It is co-ruled by Mars and by Pluto. Scorpio is strongly associated with intensity, passion, and secrecy. Scorpios are alleged to feel intensely but not express themselves visually. They are supposed to be extreme. They either love something or they hate it. There is not a lot of middle ground with a Scorpio. Scorpio is supposedly rules the male genitalia. Scorpio is also the sign ruling psychic phenomenon. Scorpios are supposed to be the most intuitive people on the planet, and the legend says they are always a bit psychic.

What is the meaning of Mars in Scorpio?

Mars co-rules Scorpio, so Mars has the home field advantage in Scorpio. The traits Mars represents are more powerful when this planet is located in Scorpio.

Folks with Mars in Scorpio are supposed to independent, self-reliant, self-disciplined, but driven by their passions. They can be obsessive and compulsive. When obsessed with something, they are consumed by it completely. They have incredibly high energy levels, and shrug off fatigue. They are private about their goals, and pride themselves on their self-discipline. Allegedly, they “attract hidden sexual energy they might not be prepared to handle.”

According to all sources, this is the absolute highest sex-drive setting in the entire zodiac. Some jokingly refer to this as the nymphomaniac setting. Individuals with this setting have to release their sexual energy regularly, or their health suffers. Unless railed in by other factors in the chart, this will always express itself in strong sexual activity. They’ve got animal magnetism, and they know it. They are sexually possessive, and do poorly unless they have an all-or-nothing partner.

It is recommended that these individuals study Yoga, martial arts, meditation, or all of the above as a means to taming their intense passion and channeling it in constructive ways. As a matter of record, I happen to know two females born in 1984 who have this setting. One is my half-sister. She is teaching Yoga as means to pay for college. The other is a girl at work whom I favor greatly. She just happens to hold a 2^nd degree black-belt in Tae Kwon Do. What a co-inky-dinky.

Just how attracted are you anyway?

Just how attracted am I to women with Mars in Scorpio? Plenty. Because I am a quantitative guy, I have kept a little black book on women who have aroused me both in real life and in the media. I have been careful to find out as much about their birth days and origins as possible. I have compiled all this information into a master matrix so as to study the patterns found there.

There are 498 distinct women in this list. I have broken them down into their 12 sun signs. There are 102 distinct women on this list with either Venus in Scorpio, Mars in Scorpio, or both. 56 of them have Venus in Scorpio. 62 of them have Mars in Scorpio.

It should also be noted that 67 of the names on the master list have their Sun sign in Scorpio. This exceeds all other Sun signs by sheer quantity of names. This is a greater quantity than 2^nd ranked Aquarius (55 names) and 3^rd ranked Capricorn (53 names). None of my Scorpio scores exceed 337, so the Scorpios are unable to compete with Aquarians, Capricorns, and Pisces on the basis of points. Aquarius, Capricorn, and Pisces all score much higher on average than Scorpio.

Nevertheless, it would appear that I like Scorpio a heck of a lot more than I am willing to admit to myself. I have to tell you, I was horrified a few moments ago when I saw that Scorpio defeated Capricorn 67-53. That was one of those shocking upsets that make you scream “NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” I shook my head muttering “that just can’t be right.”

Unfortunately, the facts have been confirmed. There are 67 names on my Scorpio list. There are only 53 names on my Capricorn list. I am humiliated. I suspected Aquarius was doing extremely well. I hold these women in very high esteem (especially Alice Eve). However, I did not expect them to beat out Capricorn 55-53.

What is the problem with this attraction anyhow?

So Dave is attracted to a lot of women with Venus and Mars Scorpio? So what? What does that mean? It means a headache for the mathematical modeler in me, that’s what it means.

As I have mentioned several times before, my moon is in Aries, and my Venus & Mars are conjuncted in Leo. Fire, fire, fire baby. I’m all masculine fire under the hood. Scorpio is a feminine water sign. Fire and water don’t mix. Worse, Scorpio and Leo are squared against each other. This means conflict. Just think of Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford shooting it out in the BCS championship game.

If a serious, sober, mature astrologer would look at my twin Leos, compare these to the Taurus/Scorpio combos I seem to like so much, and say… I regret to tell you this, but it probably just wouldn’t work out for you two in the end.

Now surely, there is a lot of heat there. I frequently mistake Scorpio women for fire sign women. As I first noticed and wrote down the names of those 67 Scorpio women, I predicted that many of them were Aries or Leo. I was wrong. These were Scorpio women. It must be the intensity that fooled me.

Leo/Leo is a pretty fierce combo. This is not exactly one of your less romantic or less sexual combos. Leo/Leo might not be able to keep up with Taurus/Scorpio, but I’d give her a run for the money. You can imagine someone with a higher sex drive setting being attracted to someone else of an even higher sex drive setting, even if that matchup is not good in the long run. This might be one of those simple cases where you just like something that isn’t good for you… like cigarettes or deep-fried Mac ‘n Cheese.

Nonetheless, as a computer programmer designing a synastry engine, I have to find a way to handle this type of scenario correctly, and report on it accurately. Right now, this looks like a bastard of a task. I am not sure how I am going to handle these Square situations.

This is hypothetical, how much do you like them in the real world?

I had a conversation on this very topic with my little brother just a few weeks ago. I regretted to inform him that I actually sent flowers to that 2^nd degree black belt on her birthday about two months ago. This stunned him. He knows I don’t do that kind of thing. He knows that’s way out of sorts for me.

So, let’s consider that case for just a moment. I will code name this female BB for her 2^nd degree black belt. BB was born on 5/10/1984 somewhere in the now united Germany. I don’t know where, and I don’t know when. She is a Taurus. Her Moon is in Virgo. This means she should be biased to find herself a Virgo man. Her Venus is in Taurus, and therefore exalted. Her Mars is in Scorpio.

Adjusting her chart for relocation to Los Angeles, Sirus 1.1 says BB and I have a bunch of pretty good scores. The romantic and sexual attraction score is 191. Everything is in the range of 180 to 230. That is a very good and workable set of scores.

I think most of you would find her objectively beautiful. If you don’t there is something profoundly wrong with you. BB is a class act. She has no known bad habits. She is athletic. She runs marathons. She holds a second degree black belt. She is smart. She has been promoted at work several times. She is a well-trusted employee.

I first met and conversed with BB at a mutual friend’s birthday party some three years ago. He’s a Leo guy. Interesting how several of my buddies have turned out to be Leos, now that I have checked. There were a number of air and fire people there, including Top Gemini. Of course, I was not aware of any of this at the time. I wasn’t much into astrology then.

There weren’t many people at the party I felt comfortable conversing with. For some reason, I overheard BB mention that she had passed her black belt test. Now this was a subject that had interest for me! I studied Shotokan when I was kid, and my heart never entirely left Karate when I joined the ranks of the Football mavens. I tried to strike up a conversation with her on the martial arts.

BB was very hesitant to begin a conversation with me on this subject. She interpreted this as a party hit. It was not. I really just wanted to kill some time talking about the martial arts with someone who was interested in the subject. After about two minutes she figured out I wasn’t making a pass at her. We wound up talking for over an hour on the martial arts and other subjects. At the time we didn’t even know we worked for the same company. I played two rounds of croquet and went home… alone.

Interesting how the Virgo dude winds up talking with the Taurus girl for an hour at the Fire/Air birthday party. How the hell do we find each other like this?

Unbeknownst to me, during that time BB was recovering from a badly broken heart; the result of a workplace romance. This was indicated by our mutual friend as the key reason why she did not want to talk… at first. Years later, I discovered that the culprit was a certain Capricorn dude I know and am very friendly with. Now ain’t that just perfect? What an earthy triangle this is.

Rumor had it that BB was expecting me to make a follow up. I did not. I figured she was out of my weight class. In recent months, BB did various things to attempt to gain my attention in the lunch room. I was doing what I usually do in the lunch room: Engage in deep conversations about NFL Draft, personnel and coaching moves, as well as general offensive and defensive strategy. I have some good buddies who can discuss these subjects pretty deeply.

BB attempted to interrupt one of these conversations, as it hit a fevered pitch, to tell me she had successfully run a marathon the day before. I regret the fact that I kind of shrugged her off to continue discussions on the lock-out. That was a mistake.

On another occasion, I was washing out my coffee cup, and she came over near me to grab some paper towels. When I looked over at her, she gave me one hell of a chocolate eye. That was a fairly unmistakable look. I was rather stunned by this. This was one of the earliest incidents occurring shortly after my gastric bypass surgery began to produce serious weight loss.

Even as of this point, I did not know that BB was a Taurus. I didn’t know she was a Taurus until they posted the May birthday list at work. Rumor had it she was a Gemini. When I discovered she was a May 10^th baby, it came as a great shock. I immediately text messaged my brother with the news and implications.

I decided I would go big or go home. That was when I decided to send her some carnations for her birthday. According to the lore, carnations indicate fascination. That was the correct message to send to BB. I think fascination is the correct term for it. I am fascinated by her.

Guess what? Absolutely no response. I’m talking about no indication of any kind. Since then, all her attempts to gain my attention have ceased.

This was extremely disappointing. Although there are women in my personal and public sphere with higher scores according to Sirus, I would still rate BB as a premiere prospect; this despite the fact that I know elemental incompatibilities exist, and she appears to be disinterested.

So what happened here? Was this just a case of a magnetic Mars in Scorpio attracting hidden sexual energy in ways she was unprepared to handle? Was this merely a case of me seeing those hungry looking eyes, and turning on for the wrong reason? Who knows…

The ultimate point

It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory. Don’t get caught up in the disappointing story of me and BB. The ultimate take home points are as follows:

1. I don’t make many passes at women
2. I have a pretty iron-clad policy against workplace romances
3. I don’t send flowers to girls on their birthdays

I violated all of these rules for the sake of a Taurus girl with her Mars in Scorpio. She was enticing enough to me to cause me to act all out of sorts. Ergo, the conclusion is simple: I am, in fact, super-attracted to girls with Mars in Scorpio. It’s not just an abstract list of names and dates.

I think the following conclusions are in order:

• Squares do have considerable power to create attraction.
• They don’t work out so well in the end.

Perhaps it is as simple as breaking the romance score into two figures, negative attractors with a minus sign, and positive attractors with a positive sign. A composite absolute value will indicate total attraction, but I will break it into positive and negative categories.

Bod Pod 4, the War to settle the score.

So I made my fourth visit to the California Health and Longevity Institute this morning. I don't want to play coy with you folks: I was very disappointed by the numbers. Whilst the progress was positive, and everyone congratulated me on 'good' results, these were the weakest numbers yet.

This was not as expected. I put in a hell of an effort during this two week cycle. I was expecting my best result set ever.

The cycle was hampered somewhat by my vacation in SF and the food poisoning I inflicted on myself there. However, even inside these negatives, there were positives. My brother and I walked up and down the hilly streets of San Francisco just about everywhere we went. It's really the only way to get around. I worked out on 2 of the 4 days that I spent there. I would have made it four for four, but the food poisoning stopped me cold for two days. Even so, I ate nothing on those two days. I just couldn't. When I arrived home, my weight was around 238.9

So just what were the numbers anyhow?

• My total body weight decreased 5.256 pounds to 240.082 pounds
• My total lean mass increased 1.478 to 148.628
• My total fat mass decreased 6.734 pounds to 91.454 pounds
• My body volume decreased 2.784 liters to 107.38 liters
• I shifted my body fat percentage to the right 1.91%

Most people would call that a victory after a vacation with food poisoning. Once again, I defied the laws of medical science by adding lean weight at the same time I reduced fat weight. This is a hard trick to pull off once. I've done it 6 straight weeks in a row. Most would say it is even harder for a 44 year old man with advanced osteoarthritis in his knees.

I would remind them I have had gastric bypass surgery and I am using a powerful pro-hormone. I have every advantage in this battle. I should be winning by larger margins.

I just don't feel the reward is commensurate with the effort level. During this cycle, I added Olympic rowing to my regime. I now hit 20-21 minutes on the treadmill, finishing at an incline level of 9. This generally burns 300 kcal. I immediately move to the Olympic rower, nail 2.5 KM for around 125 kcal. This usually requires 12-13 minutes. From the rower, I move to the bike and finish with 20-21 minutes for around 300 kcal.

That is a grand total of 55 minutes of exercise for 725 kcal.

I walked out of the gym after 7 such workouts during this cycle. I did this cycle twice in a day on two separate days. If you invested that much blood, sweat and tears in the gym, you would be expecting your best all-time result also. I didn't just get it. It's precious little reward for so much effort. I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't disappointed.

Still, I guess I should be thankful that I have improved 6 straight weeks in a row. I have not gotten hung up on a frickin' plateau. There have been several slow periods during this weight loss program. There are moments of sewing and moments of reaping. Sometimes it takes a week or two for your hard work to bear some fruit.

Hopeful, my biggest cycle is immediately ahead of me.

I will see Dr. Quilici on Tuesday. I have some interesting paperwork to show him. I have an affidavit from my notary public for him. It will be interesting to see what he says.

Over the past 42 days I have done all of the following:

• Reduced my body fat percentage 6%
• Lost 22.636 pounds of pure fat
• Added 4.068 pounds of lean muscle
• Reduced my total body weight 18.569 pounds.
• Reduced my total body volume by 9.731 liters

Essentially, each week I am changing my body fat percentage 1%, losing 3.772 pounds of fat, reducing my volume by 1.622 liters, and adding 0.66 pounds of lean. This is what I have done for the past 42 days.

If my next 42 days look like the past 42 days, by August 5 all of the following will be true:

• I will have 68.818 pounds of fat on my frame
• I will have 152.696 pounds of lean weight
• My total weight will be 221.513 pounds
• By body fat percentage will be less than 31%
• My body volume will be 97.649 liters

Ultimately, that isn't too bad.

I figured out what's wrong with the Sirus Engine

So, it took some time for 5,005 facts to coalesced in my mind, and for all this information to snap into a coherent conclusion, but the magic moment finally arrived this morning. I finally tweaked on the fundamental problem of the Sirus engine.

As I mentioned in previous blog posts, some professional astrologers have criticized the Sirus engine for mechanistically measuring angles between planets. From their perspective, this just isn' the right way to go about process of synastry analysis.

It took awhile for me understand precisely what they were saying, but now I think I understand them perfectly. Furthermore, I can honestly say I agree. I agree because of my own test cases, not just because of abstract philosophical reasoning.

First, understand that I (personally) have been troubled for sometime by a number of false positives and false negatives that Sirus has declared between me and an assortment of women. In some cases, Sirus has insisted that we should be attracted. In some cases, it says we shouldn't. In either case, I have immediately known that the predictions were wrong.

Consider the case of Claire Danes. Claire Danes is an Aries born on 4/12/1979. As I have mentioned several times on this blog, my maximum theoretical hot date is 4/13/1979. Claire Danes was born one (1) day early. She still has a blistering romance score of 508 versus me.

Folks, I don't want to play coy with you. I have known about Claire Danes for some 17 years. Never once did I suspect she would be a match for me. I should have been stalking her and fantasizing incessantly about her if these scores are actually legit. Nope, not even one time. I just don't feel it.

Of all the troubling false-positives I have encountered with the Sirus engine, the case of Claire Danes has been (by far) the most problematic. Her sun is in Aries. This is a bad match for my Virgo Sun. Her Mars is in Aries, which is a good match for my Leo. Venus is in Pisces. Her Venus is a very bad match for my conjuncted Leos.

Why does Sirus declare a match? Why is the score 508? Because of a fluke of celestial mathematics, the Davison Harmonic Means chart shows a conjunction of Mars and Venus, hence our score shoots right through the frickin' roof. Forget the fact that her Mars/Venus is Fire/Water and mine is Fire/Fire.

Most pros would weigh the elemental conflict of our Sun, Venus and Mars, and declare that there is no match here, despite what the Davison chart says. Given this elemental conflict, I understand fully why I feel no connection to this fine woman. There's nothing wrong with her. She just isn't for me.

Now consider the case of a woman from Thousand Oaks I will code-name CC. CC was born on 5/11/1985 in Ventura California. I am wildly attracted to her. Given the option to pounce on her I would do so immediately. Rightfully so. She is a Taurus woman, I am a Virgo man (trine). Her Venus is in Aries (Trine). Her Mars is in Gemini (Sextile). Looking at it from a purely elemental perspective, she is a fine match for me. No professional astrologer would be surprised to hear that I am attracted to CC. On the contrary, it is to be expected. They would be alarmed if I was not.

What does Sirus have to say about me and CC? Sirus says our romantic and sexual attraction score is ZERO (0). Yep, that's right. Sirus says the score is ZERO. Of all the false negatives I know of, the case of CC has been the most troubling to me. I know for a fact the score isn't Zero. My gut tells me the score is very high. I think she's fantastic. She's been smiling at me in the gym, too. This girl excites the hell out of me.

I could give you many more false positives and false negatives, but Claire Danes and CC are all we need to form a working hypothesis. The absolute bottom line is that the Sirus engine does not respect elemental compatibility enough. It places far to much stress to the exact numerical quantity of the angle.

For instance, a 60 degree angle is a 60 degree angle, even if it violates the ideal of elemental compatibility the 60 degree angle is supposed to represent. A 107 degree angle is not a trine, even her Sun is located at 21 degrees Taurus and my is at 9 degrees Virgo. Evidently, a 115 degree angle is not a trine, even if her Venus is located at 10 degrees Aries and my Mars is located at 5 degrees Leo. Above all examples I have seen, this is the most puzzling. Every resource I have read indicates 115 degrees should be counted as a trine. The score should not be zero (0).

Most philosophers of astrology would object to this hard 'n fast quantitative evaluation as a type of putting the cart in front of the horse. The mathematical angles are a useful shorthand denoting that the signs are compatible. The absolute angle is not as important as the sign. When you disregard the sign in favor of the angle, you just flipped the priority system upside down. You have your priorities in reverse order.

More importantly, you actually obtain bad results. You will introduce error into your synastry engine if you take a hard-angular approach. This error will be expressed as false positives and false negatives.

The moral of the story is clear: Don't favor the angle over the element. Elemental compatibility is the thing that really matters. The exact quantity of the angle is of secondary importance.

Sirus also gives far too much weight to the Davison chart, a chart I consider more and more dubious, suspect and doubtful every single day. I, myself, am thinking about dropping this chart from my scoring system. I will still provide the Davison chart as a secondary resource, but I will do so with red-flag warnings. I intend to warn people that the Davison chart is a doubtful and very recent innovation. I will mention the fact that it produces suspect results. It should never be favored over straight elemental analysis.

After making this discovery, I went through a list of 107 troublesome names. The list contains both false positives and false negatives. These are women Sirus says I should love, but I don't. These are women I do love and Sirus says I shouldn't. When I made this list, I was smart enough to write down their Sun, Venus and Mars signs. I already knew these bodies were critical in synastry analysis.

As I went down this list, I was impressed by how much my simple elemental approach would clear away the cob-webs of confusion and error. Most of the women I liked had Fire combos or Fire/Air combos on their Venus & Mars. Isn't that just perfect for a Leo/Leo guy like me? Most of the women I didn't like had Water/Water or Water/Earth Combos on their Venus and Mars. A few also has Earth/Earth combos.

There is still one series of problems that must be dealt with. There are a small minority of cases where I am massively attracted to women who have water on Venus or Mars. Most of these case involve the presence Mars or Venus in Scorpio.

It would seem that I like a lot of women with Mars in Scorpio and/or Venus in Scorpio. And why not? This is the absolute highest sex-drive setting in the zodiac. It is hard not to like women who exude that much raw sexual power.

Nevertheless, there is a difference between what you like and what's good for you. You may like Hostess Twinkies. They aren't good for you. By the same token, I may be turned on my the Scorpionic Mars, but that isn't necessarily good for me.

Mathematically speaking, Leo is squared against Scorpio. That is a fire/water conflict, which is the most incompatible thing in the Zodiac. Still, there are all these weird cases in politics lately where Leos and Scorpios have married and had rocky roads on the way to great political power.

I am going to have to figure out what I do with the Squares. They do seem to produce attraction, but this attraction is not necessarily good in the long run.

One more key question: How does this new realization affect my own private goals in life? Specifically, will this change the plan to find the 3/12/1986 Pisces code-named La-La? Actually, the answer is No, the goal will not change. I still plan to go looking for this woman. I took another look at La-La's chart after making this discovery and she does appear to be fully elementally compatible with me.

Specifically, La-La's Sun is in Pisces, her moon is in Aries, her Venus is in Aries, and her Mars is in Sagittarius. We have an opposition, a conjunction and a pair of trines there. Those are true angles and true elements. She still looks like an excellent match up. This appears to be one (among many) that Sirus got right.

The 1990 Cowboys: Water and Earth

So our series on the elemental compatibility of the great dynasties has now reached the 1990s and that means the Dallas Cowboys. For me, this was a good one. I enjoyed these Cowboys. They were comprised of a number of 1966 babies, like myself, and they oppressed the 49ers something fierce.

Don't let anybody con you. The Cowboys got the better of that rivalry, and it wasn't all that close. That is why they were the team of the decade and the 49ers were not.

I enjoyed the 1990s Cowboys for a lot of reasons. Probably the most important was the black-eye they dealt to the West Coach offense. The Cowboys brought back the 4-3 defense after an era when the 3-4 was completely dominant. Their fast 4-3 defense was more than able to control the 49ers very, very powerful WCO.

Further, the Cowboys played a pretty conventional I-Formation Erhardt-Perkins offense. They ran on 1st & 2nd down most of the time, and they passed on 3rd down. The plays and the play calling were simple. They were just so talented nobody could stop them. They beat the hell out of their opponents in their one-to-one match ups. Even though the offense was basic and simple, it seemed like a flying circus because it often resulted in explosive plays.

I found these guys easy to like. That is probably because they were primarily Water and Earth guys, perfectly compatible with a Virgo guy like me. If you are a Virgo, you can't help but be proud that the Water and Earth alliance whupped the Air boys of San Francisco. No wonder these teams didn't like each other.

I find it interesting that Troy Aikman is a Scorpio and Michael Irvin is a Pisces, and these two are still best buddies to this day. Scorpio and Pisces is one of the greatest match ups on the synastry board. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were a Scorpio Pisces combo. So to were John Gotti and Sammy the Bull Gravano.

I find it more interesting that Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith (Taurus) are 180 degree opposites. As you know, opposites attract. Taurus and Scorpio just might have the most powerful oppositional attraction of them all. These are both very fixed and stubborn signs, so if they agree in the beginning, they will always agree with each other.

It was my impression that there was never even the slightest crack in the unity of Aikman and Smith. These two were teammates and battle buddies for life, period. The end of the story. You couldn't divide them. There was no need to mention it. It was just understood that these two were on the same sheet of music.

It's also very interesting that Alvin Harper is a Cancer and Jay Novacek is a Scorpio. Troy had excellent timing and chemistry with both of them. So we have one each of the three water signs in the reciever corp: Michael Irvin (Pisces), Alvin Harper (Cancer) and Jay Novacek (Scoprio). That's a perfect trio.

I also find it interesting that this chemistry this receiver corp began to break down when Alvin Harper left and Aquarius Kevin Williams showed up.

The one big exception is Moose Johnston. Of course, the Moose is an Aquarius. Nevertheless, he was an instrumental part of this offense, and a highly regarded teammate. This must have been a case of special affinity.

This entire unit was under the command of an Taurus offensive coordinator by the name of Norv Turner. Scorpio Troy Aikman has so much regard for this particular Taurus that he asked Norv to introduce him at his Hall of Fame induction. This was at a time when Norv's rep was at a fairly low ebb. That's oppositional attraction folks. This is also the stubborn loyalty of the fixed signs.

So I have an error correction and retraction to print, dear readers. As it turns out, the Jimmy Johnson who coached the Cowboys is a Leo, not a Cancer as I originally thought. As it happens, there are a lot of Jimmy Johnsons in world of sports and football, and one of them is a Cancer. I find it interesting that Terry Bradshaw's best buddy is a Leo.

Obviously there is a lot of affinity between us Virgos and 'dem Leos; a lot more than I originally suspected. I've been learning a lot about this lately.

The fact that Jimmy Johnson is a fiery fire sign guy sheds much light on why Troy Aikman was so hesitant to play for this guy, why he never fully trusted Jimmy, and why that relationship never really blossomed.

The composition of the offensive line is interesting. It's a mixture of Fire and Earth. Fire and Earth do mix with some difficulty. This is what is known as a ceramic mixture. It does work better if you get side-by-sides like Leo and Virgo, or Sagittarius and Capricorn.

This was a fantastic offensive line. This composition underscores the fact that the Offensive Line is a separate unit from the skill positions, and some mixture is permissible here.

The 1980s San Francisco 49ers: The Air Force attacks

The 49ers are often credited with being the first truly dominant pass-first football team. They dominated through the air. This is very fitting, because they were absolutely dominated by air sign guys.

I prepared this chart just two days ago and was shocked by what I found. This just might be the most clear-cut case of general synastry I have ever seen... were it not for one little wrinkle in the backfield.

Folks, I lived through every last moment of the 49er Dynasty. I was around when the 49ers were a lousy 2-14 football team, drafting #1 in back to back seasons. I watched Bill Walsh put these guys together. I survived all 14 seasons in which they were in the contenders for the title.

I know this story pretty damn well, and yet the chart I present to you on this blog just put an entirely different spin on that history. I was pretty amazed by what I found here.

As it turns out Head Coach Bill Walsh is a Sagittarius. This is not normally considered a good leadership sign. It's more a philosopher and world traveler's sign. The archetype of Sagittarius is the Wizard. I guess he was a wizard philosopher of sorts.

In any case, Sagittarius Bill was magnetically attracted to a Gemini kid named Joe Montana in the 1979 draft. And why not? Sagittarius and Gemini are 180 degree opposites. Do I need to mention the synastry of opposites again? Still, most felt his attraction to the kid was unjustifiable.

Joe was a skinny kid who was never declared the regular full-time starter at Notre Dame. He was an erratic gunslinger backup who had a knack for coming off the bench and giving the team a spark. As is true with an assortment of college backups these days, nobody thought Joe Montana was NFL material.

Bill did, and he took him in the 3rd round. This created quite a bit of controversy at the time in the SF media. Most thought it was a throw away pick for a team that could not afford to throw away any picks.

Fortunately, there was another Gemini dude named Randy Cross there to greet Joe when he arrived, and Walsh wanted to build a team team around his pet student. This included Gemini Mike Holmgren as his chief and best offensive coordinator. Libras like Tom Rathman and Jerry Rice. It included Aquarius boys like Keith Fahnhorst, Fred Quillan, Guy McIntyre, and Brent Jones.

Incidentally, Jerry Rice had an opposite number in Aries John Taylor. It should be noted that Libra and Aries are 180 degree opposites. Usually, there is great synastry between them. I (for one) thought Jerry and John had sensational chemistry together. Working with an Aries is usually no problem for a Gemini like Joe Montana or a Libra like Steve Young. Fire and Air go together well.

The one big wrinkle in this whole picture is the MVP of the team: The Catfish Roger Craig. I often said he was the balls of their offense. Craig often dragged Joe's ass to victory. It wasn't the other way around. I used to say, a decade or two ago, that when the 49ers start going into Canton, Roger Craig better lead the way. He better be the first.

It's a damn shame they don't see it that way. There would have been no 49er dynasty without him.

So what about this lone Cancer kid amongst a bunch of Air boys? Well, Cancer is side by side with Gemini in the zodiac. They are friendly neighbor signs. Joe is a Gemini. So too is Mike Holmgren. We also have to remember that this was and is the ideal offense for the Catfish.

I excluded the 49er offensive linemen from my diagram because there were so many of them during their 14 quality years. This unit was completely torn down and rebuild during that time. I have already noted the presence of a significant number of Air sign guys on that line.

The most intriguing thing about all of this, for me, is his choice of coordinators. I think we all recognize that Mike Holmgren was Walsh's foremost disciple and best offensive coordinator. Of course, he is a Gemini. Walsh chose George Seifert as his defensive coordinator. Seifert just happens to be an Aquarius.

Clearly, Walsh picked his people. He picked guys who we would be comfortable working with. This meant a whole slew of Air guys.

This is yet another great evidence of elemental compatibility and what it can do for your football team.

The 1970s Steelers: The Virgo-Pisces Alliance

So now we come to the famous Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s. This is the most successful Super Bowl unit in the history of the league. The same basic unit won four Super Bowls in just 6 years. So great were they that they have their own wing in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.

I find it very interesting that this unit was basically a bunch of Pisces and Virgo guys. It's a bit broader than that, owever, this is a good rule of thumb.

It would seem that Cardinal Capricorn Coach Chuck Noll selected a bunch of highly mutable Virgo and Pisces guys who he felt comfortable shaping and molding. It is a fact that Chuck Noll did control the Steeler draft. He picked his people, and he did a hell of job for the first 10 years.

His choices are remarkably consistent with the principles general synastry. Astrologically speaking, he was attracted to the types of players we would expect him to be attracted too. He didn't break the liturgy much at all.

Another way to view it might be this: The Steelers selected a skiddish gun-slinger Virgo named Terry Bradshaw and then surrounded him with a bunch of Pisces guys to try to stabilize him. It worked. It worked like crazy. It worked for four Lombardi trophies. Speaking as a fellow September 2 Virgo, I can testify that this one way to do it. Most of my business partners in life have been Pisces.

I am sure you are all a little bit tired of hearing me drone on about the Virgo-Pisces axis of opposition. You know all about oppositional attraction and synastry. I've mentioned it about a thousand times. Well folks, the Steelers of 1970s are a very good reason to revisit this subject. Just read that chart and weep.

I've also mentioned the tremendous dynamism between Capricorn and Virgo. We just saw Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor in the Packer Dynasty. Now have a look at Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw. Their relationship wasn't always perfect. Terry went through some rough spots. Nevertheless, you cannot deny the results these guys obtained together. It's one of the most successful partnerships in history.

Of course, there is more than just Virgo and Pisces this starting lineup. John Stallworth, Sam Davis, and Ray Pinny are all Cancers. That's just dandy because Virgo and Pisces are just fine with Cancer. Incidentally, Terry Bradshaw's best buddy in life just happens to be Cancer named Jimmy Johnson. Incidentally, my best buddy just happens to be a Cancer. Also, there is tremendous oppositional attraction between these three Cancers and Capricorn Chuck Noll.

Only right guard Jerry Mullins breaks the liturgy. There is usually one statistical outlier in these dynasty lineups. It's usually fine if the guy is on the offensive line. Jerry Mullins is a Leo, but he is still pretty compatible with this unit. Leo is sandwiched between Cancer and Virgo in the summer season. Ergo, Leo is side-by-side with the both of us in the Zodiac. As such, there are similarities and great friendliness.

I have been learning about the Leo-Virgo thing lately... at the office. I also made an amazing discovery the other day. There have been 5 guys I have strongly advocated as draft prospects for the Rams over the past 2 years. Those guys are Tim Tebow, Ndamukong Suh, A.J. Green, Maurkice Pouncey and Mike Pouncey. Guess what? Every last one of them is Leo. I didn't quite realize that at the time.

You notice that Pisces Billy Devaney couldn't care less about any of those guys. He just didn't want them. He'll draft the hell out of Scorpio or a Taurus, but never a Leo.

So what about Tight End Benny Cunningham? He is a Capricorn. What about running back Sidney Thunder Thorton? He is a September 2 Virgo just like Terry Bradshaw and me.

It's amazing just how self-consistent Chuck Noll was in drafting this crew. To thine own self be true.

The 1960s Green Bay Packers: True Ground Pounders

It is fitting that the 1960s Green Bay Packers are best remembered as ground pounding football team. They were very well grounded in the Earth.

Welcome to the first in a series of pieces on General Compatibility and team chemistry. The objective is to demonstrate that the great teams of NFL history just happen to have incredible elemental synastry between teammates.

This is particularly true with the offensive units, and never more true than among the skill position players. It is at least somewhat true with the defensive units, but it is not as pronounced as it is with the offense.

Why is elemental compatibility and synastry important on offense? Because compatibility and synastry is not just for romantics. You need to be able to tolerate and work well with your teammates before we can ever endevor to do something as complex, difficult and dangerous as win multiple championships.

We can go further still. I don't know how many times I have heard big-time coaches say words like "In the end, the game belongs to the players. In the end the players win the game for each other because they love each other." That's team chemistry folks. No great love hath a man than when he lays down his life for another. In the end, the players won't make the sacrifice of blood and treasure necessary to make a run at a championship unless they have tremendous camaraderie and esprit de corp.

This won't ever develop if the players don't like each other in the first place.

Folks, it is always easier to destroy than it is to create. This is why it is more fun to play defense than offense. Good offense is a very, very difficult act of creation. It is accepted as law that offensive skill position players have to play off the same sheet of music. They must have outstanding timing. They must know each other. They must have good communications. They have to help each other out.

All of these things are helped along tremendously by great general compatibility and high synastry.

With all that said, let's consider the Green Bay Packers.

Every last swingin' member of the famous Green Bay Packer backfield is an Earth man. Specifically, we have two Capricorns and a Virgo. We find another Capricorn at TE. We find a Taurus at WR.

Only Flanker Max McGee is a Cancer (Water). That's just fine, because Water and Earth go together splendidly. We can go further. Cancer is the 180 degree opposite of Capricorn. There is tremendous oppositional attraction between these two signs. Bart Starr (Capricorn) sure looked like he had fine synastry with Max McGee (Cancer) on that highlight film of Super Bowl I.

On the offensive line we find some interesting variance. Fuzzy Thurston (Capricorn) and Robert Skoronski (Pisces) keep the general compatibility express rolling. However, Bill Curry (Libra), Jerry Kramer (Aquarius), and Forrest Gregg (Libra) are all Air boys. Of course, they are all three compatible with each other, however, they break the liturgy.

This is a common pattern in a number of dynasties. The offensive line does not need to share the same element as the skill position players, and it seems to be okay if they are a bit muddled. It seems to be vital that the skill position players be united, but some variance in the offensive line is acceptable, as you will soon see from the other pieces in this series.

I find it interesting that Vince Lombardi was a Gemini. Normally, this is not seen as a leadership sign. Further, he is not elementally compatible with his crew of offensive stars. It should be remembered that Vince Lombardi did not assemble this team. He never had draft or roster powers. One of the reasons he left for the Redskins was that he wanted those rights. St. Vince coached the guys they gave him. Those guys were Earth men.

I also find it interesting that Gemini Vince Lombardi heaped praise on Libra Forrest Gregg and Aquarius Jerry Kramer. I also find it interesting that Libra Bill Curry couldn't stand Vince in the beginning. Our contemporary Coach Curry freely admits that this dislike only developed because the young Bill was immature, full of himself, and stupid.

One other point is incredibly interesting about this chart. There are an incredible number of Cardinal Leadership guys on in this unit. Libra and Capricorn are both Cardinal signs, and 90 degrees squared against each other. Cancer is also a Cardinal sign. Seven of the 11 members of this unit are Cardinals. You would think this would lead to Whose the Boss conflict. Not so. Evidently, Bart had it all well in hand.

Maybe you can't have enough leadership. I just heard the NFL Total Access guys protesting that the Dallas Cowboys do not have single good player leader on the roster. The theory holds that they have very few playoff victories because of this fact.

The Packers of the 1960s had plenty of leaders and plenty of playoff victories.

My synastry Engine will now Calculate the Davison Harmonic Means Chart

So I stayed up a bit late this evening, forsook making a batch of vanilla ice cream, and did not lift weights tonight (as I should) in order to knock out the Davison harmonic means chart in my Synastry Engine. It's done... for the moment.

I have a design decision to make tomorrow. I need to decide whether I will beef up this class with a collection of special methods that will seek specific known relations (such as the conjunction of Mars and Venus) or build all those methods into my universal comparitor class. I am leaning towards the former.

Am I giving away too much by showing this code fragment? Hell no. The magic is encapsulated in the Chart, BodyDisposition, and Comparitor classes. I show this code because I wanted to demonstrate that calculating a Davison chart is so easy a monkey could do it.

Tomorrow, I am going to start a short series on the synastry and elemental compatibility of the great dynasties in NFL history. When I first began toying with this idea a month or two ago, what I discovered was a pretty stunning eye-opener.

I think some skeptics in the NFL are going to be quite un-nerved by what I have found.

My fear of seeing Green Lantern

As I have mentioned before, my absolute favorite comic growing up was Green Lantern. Loved the comic, bought every issue, knew everything there was to know about it, aced all the trivia questions. You would think I would be the first guy out the door to see the movie. Not me baby.

Why? There is a strong smell of cheese in the previews. I'm talking about Limburger cheese. I heard more than one wooden log panging off the tin pans as the actors delivered their dialog in the several previews I've seen. I strongly suspect this will be a dud, and they will blow it completely, much as they did with the Fantastic Four.

Yesterday, whilst in the hot sauna, I read the review in the Los Angeles Times. The reviewer summarized Green Lantern as uneven but watchable. He clearly described the presence of unnecessary and unworthy scenes in this movie.

Is he right? If the rest of the critics in this world are any guide to the movies, he was being kind and generous. A few moments ago, I checked out RottenTomatoes.com to see what the others are saying. With 160 reviewers posting, by a count of 39 to 121 Green Lantern is rotten. The strength score is 4.5/10 or just 45% of perfection. That is pretty bad folks.

Are the RottenTomatoes.com reviewers any guide to the movies? Most of the time they are. Sometimes they are not. Lately, I find that they are way, way, way too generous with bad film making. If anything, I am strongly inclined to subtract 20% or 30% from their scoring system. I am a tough grader.

Whist in San Francisco, I saw X-Men First Class with my brother, and I could not have disagreed with the critics more vehemently. The latest X-Men is greazy, cheezey and korney. The casting of Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw utterly blew up the ship. This is the worst casting decision of the century thus far. The dialog was utterly wooden and cliche. The pace was meandering. Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy did what they could to hold it together, but could not stem the tide of shitty direction.

In short, X-Men First Class is absolute crap.

How in the name of God did this movie collect a filthy 87% of the critics votes? Is it because anything with outdated and outmoded 1960s overtones of combating racial bigotry will be graded up, no matter how schlocky it is? Perhaps...

In any case, they were absolutely and completely wrong about X-Men First Class. They could not have been more wrong. What does this say about the grading of Green Lantern? Anything? Nothing?

Nonetheless, I will probably see Green Lantern tomorrow morning. My expectations are incredibly low, and I am bracing for a serious disappointment. I hope for the best, but I am prepared for the worst.

I wouldn't see it in the theaters if it didn't have Blake Lively in it. She's a very nice sun-shiny Virgo girl with a strong interest in cooking. I also happen to have a communication & problem solving score of 413 with her. Believe it or not, the lead female is going drag me out to the theater. Only her and nothing more.

A major milestone is getting ready to fall

So, yesterday was another murder day. I woke up with a little shake weight and ROM action. I went to the gym at lunch for 45 minutes of treadmill and bike. I returned to the gym in the evening for another 47 minutes of treadmill and bike. I also hit the dry sauna for 12 minutes. I would have done the wet sauna, but the goddamn steam generator was broken again.

This morning I visited the bathroom, as is my morning custom, and after conducting a little business, it was time to weigh in. The Tanita said 239.6. I am officially under the 240 mark. I have officially lost more than 90 pounds now. Further, we know the Bod Pod gives a lighter weight by approximately 0.85 pounds. My estimated Bod Pod weight this morning 238.75.

I've gone from Nose Tackle size to Linebacker size between Feb 4 and June 18. It's been rapid.

All this adds up to one fact: The first major milestone is about ready to fall. I began this entire process because Dr. Evan Bachner, my knee surgeon, looked me dead in the eye and told me I needed to lose 30% of my body mass or I would sit down in a wheel chair sometime in the next 5 to 7 years, and never come out of it. The math is simple 30% of 330 pounds is 99.0 pounds. Bachner was telling me I needed to lose 99 pounds.

Today's measurement indicates I have lost between 90.4 and 91.25 pounds. The big marker is damn close; maybe 14 days away, maybe less. It should be noted that my rate greatly accelerated this week. On June 10th, the Bod Pod declared my weight to be 245.338. This morning, it would probably say 238.75. That is a difference of 6.588 pounds in just 8 days. That is a big loss; far faster than team Quilici would ever recommend.

It does indeed look as if I will hit that major milestone by the 4th of July. This was the predicted date according to the simple math I came up with a couple of months ago. It looks like my stats were and are right on the money.

I'm going to have a visit with Dr. Qulici's team in just 10 days. I hope I can hit 230 by that time. They will be shocked by the Bod Pod data. I am fairly certain I am outperforming my cohort. I don't think my surgery mates can lay a glove on me.

I did some fairly conservative hypotheticals in Excel based on the data I have accumulated, and you can see a snapshot at the top of this blog entry. If accurate, I will probably reach a so-called "healthy" body fat percentage by my next birthday.

This summer is going to be very interesting.

Some stunning proofs that the Sirus Engine actually works.. but not perfectly.

As you know, one of my recurring themes on this blog (lately) has been my desire to test the accuracy of the Synastry Engine found in Sirus 1.1. I have my reservations about the specific design parameters of this software, but are the ideas behind it sound? How sound are they? Can they be tested? If they are tested, will they pass any tests?

Looking for proof is getting easier and easier these days. Suddenly, I am finding all manner of evidence... at work. With my weight now down to 240.4 pounds, and paltry 10.4 pounds away from the magic 100 pound weight loss figure, females are beginning to surface. Furthermore, several previously known candidates have had there birthdays in the past 45 days.

Let me explain it to you.

Case #1: The Young Lioness

Just a few weeks ago, a young lady from USC joined our ranks. The two of us hit it off rather immediately. It turns out her birthday is 8/19/1990. Yes, I know. This means that I am very nearly 24 years older than she is. I am quite literally old enough to be her father. For all I know, I just may be older than her father.

Nonetheless, this is the one circulating rumors in the office that I look like Gerard Butler. She has shown an assortment of other signs of interest (such as inviting me to a USC Sorority party) that I won't go into.

The feeling is mutual. I love her to death. Frankly, I'm losing sleep over her. I am greatly saddened by the fact that I am just to damn old for her. If I were 10 years younger, there is no doubt I would be after her like a dog after a bone.

Nonetheless, the notion of hurting this girl is absolutely out of the question. I would shoot myself before injuring her. Because I cannot see a happy conclusion to this thing for her, I believe I have to leave well enough alone. This makes me very melancholic, but it has to be this way.

What does Sirus say?

1. Romantic and Sexual Attraction: 241

2. Similarity of Interests and Temperament: 0

3. Mutual Success and High Achievement: 39

4. Problem Solving, Communication, and Mutual Understanding: 115

5. Mutual Kindness, Friendliness, Pleasantness, and Peace: 150

6. Aggressiveness, Competition, Power, Success, or Violence: 0

7. Adventurousness, Surprises, Disturbances: 163

8. Shared Creativity, Imagination, and Inspiration: 115

The one ranking I would seriously dispute is line 2. She actually has a keen interest in football. We have already talked football a few times. I also made her Chicken Gumbo and Risotto. This triggered a 3 day running debate between her and some other office girls on the topic of how much older can a guy be before he's too old to date? I bullshit you not.

Anyway... the mere fact that 20 year old girl would bond with a 44 (nearly 45) year old guy at work is extremely improbable at best. Why would this happen?

If you look at the two charts, it's pretty straight-forward. She is mostly Fire and Earth, with little Water and no Air. I am mostly Fire and Earth, with little Water and no Air. She is an Air Adept. I am an Air Adept. It get's better. Her Mercury is in Virgo. My Mercury is in Virgo. Her fire is entirely Leo. My fire is mostly Leo. Her Venus is in Leo. My Venus is in Leo. My Mars is also in Leo. My Mars conjuncts her Venus EXACTLY.

As you know the conjunction of Mars and Venus is a dead-sure sign of attraction.

I could tell you more about my sorrows in this case, but this would be off point. The key point is that there was a fairly massive synastry reaction, and computer said it would be so. It also gives clear-cut reasons why this would be true. You may not agree with any of the precepts, but the system obtained reasonably accurate results.

Case #2: The Cancer Girl

About a year ago, our company hired a new graduate Cancer girl straight out of U.C. Berkeley. She took a fairly immediate interest in me, even when I weighed 330 pounds. It was a terrible time for me as I was suffering a lot from arthritis, and prepping for gastric bypass, which I thought was immanent, so I didn't do anything about it. I think she understood I was not in the best of health, and she kind of backed away... for a time.

Lately she has been coming straight at me, which is most unusual for a Cancer girl. These are extremely femme and maternal women, who are usually very indirect. The word associated with Cancer women is circumambulation. They kind of move around the object of their affections. They don't go straight at 'em. If you have ever seen crabs do the mating dance, they kind of circle around and around each other like a couple of boxers in a ring. This is what Cancer women are know for.

Not this one; not by a long shot. You might say she circumambulated in the beginning, but not anymore. Perhaps she has tired of the indirect approach (because it is not producing the results she wants) and she's going direct now.

It just so happens that her birthday 6/25 of an unknown year. I could ask, but she would certainly know why I am asking. She would want to know the scores. Given her physical age, and the fact she just graduated from college about 1 year ago, there are a limited number of years she might hail from. The only thing I needed to do was look up 6/25 in each of the possible years and compare them to my chart.

Based on my research, I would say the year has to be 1985. She could very well be turning 26 this year. Also, there really isn't another workable option. No other 6/25 score produces much of anything in terms of synastry. Her birthday is coming up in just 8 days. I will find out for sure then. I am laying down the prediction that her birthday is 6/25/1985.

Suppose it is 6/25/1985? What does Sirus say?

1. Romantic and Sexual Attraction: 227

2. Similarity of Interests and Temperament: 200

3. Mutual Success and High Achievement: 59

4. Problem Solving, Communication, and Mutual Understanding: 148

5. Mutual Kindness, Friendliness, Pleasantness, and Peace: 291

6. Aggressiveness, Competition, Power, Success, or Violence: 41

7. Adventurousness, Surprises, Disturbances: 88

8. Shared Creativity, Imagination, and Inspiration: 157

With scores like that, I aught to be crazy about her. Why don't I feel monster magnets hauling me in? Perhaps it is because she is a woman of fairly strong religious and cultural attachments... Attachments I don't share. At age 44, I have been down that road before in an assortment of different ways. Never once has it worked out. It has always turned out badly.

I know why match makers claim that there needs to be a commonality of culture.

Perhaps I wrote this one off immediately due to these attachments. Nevertheless, I am suspicious of this hypothesis. If the scores really are that good, I should feel the temptation. There would be a magnetic pull. I really don't feel those monster magnets pulling, as I have in the past. I like her just fine. I think she's great in her own way. I think the pleasantness and peace score is reasonable.

Much depends on her birth year. We shall see.

Case #3: The Brazilian Taurus

A couple of years ago, a girl from Brazil joined our deposits section. The first time I saw her in the company kitchen, I had an immediate synastry reaction to her. WHO IS THAT GIRL!?!? I tried not to stare at her. Most of you would not find her beautiful. That didn't matter to me. I was immediately attracted to her. The monster magnets were pulling.

It turns out she was born 5/8/1979 at 7:35 AM in Curitiba Brazil. How do I know that? She gave me that information personally. It turns out her score is 231. If you were to simply examine our two charts, you would say that score is preposterously low.

• Her Ascendant is Taurus, mine is Virgo (Trine)
• Her sun is in Taurus, mine Virgo (Trine)
• Her moon is in Libra, mine Aries (180 degree opposition)
• Her Venus is in Aries, mine Leo (Trine)
• Her Mars is in Aries, mine is Leo (Trine)

Frankly, I am not sure why the score isn't 639. Four trines and an opposition in the personal planets??? Give me a break! That is a nuclear fuel cocktail. 231 looks bloody low given that lineup. A professional astrologer would look at that lineup and declare "You two were made for each other."

The problem was, at the time, she was married and getting divorced. I was not in the best of health. I am getting healthy at a rapid pace. She's healing up and getting over it.

I like her very, very much. I think she is extremely cool. She has signaled me with her interest. The only reason I hesitate is because I know it will work out. Does that sound odd to you? Before I start that big bolder rolling down the hill, I better make damn sure I want to let it smash everything in it's path. There ain't going to be no stopping it if it starts rolling.

This could be crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, off the hook crazy.

Case Four: Top Gemini Discovered

Just a week or so ago, I wrote a blog called "I ain't feeling you, Gemini". In that blog entry, I mentioned that my top Gemini score was born on 6/16/1982.

It just so happens that there is another Brazilian girl in our company who was born on 6/16/1982 in Sao Paulo... and she is best buddies with the Taurus... and I had no idea she was Top Gemini until today.

I have to tell you that this news came as a great shock to me. This girl has been trying to get my attention for four years now. She has sent me about 301 signals that she is interested. She has always gone out of her way to be extraordinarily nice to me. Although there is some attraction there, I never suspected for one moment that she was Top Gemini.

So why haven't I taken the bait? I hate to sound like a chick, but I have a deep and abiding sense that it just would not work out. I believe it would end, and I believe it would end messy, not clean. I don't know why I am so certain without evidence that this is true. This certainty arises from unknown sources.

If I can put my finger on anything, I can only tell you she reminds me a little of my older sister. My older sister and I are infamous advasaries. Our aggression score is 650, and that is no exaggeration of the real facts. Just ask our mutual parents. Anyone who reminds me at all of my elder sister immediately reminds me of an ancient enemy, and immediately gets a red flag warning.

Now, Top Gemini happens to have an aggression score score of ZERO, and I think that just may be accurate. I doubt I would fight with her.

I have to say that this discovery has disturbed me greatly today. It forced me to wonder if I have been unfair to her, and if I have been missing out on a very good thing. She would certainly say the answer is YES. One thing is for sure: If I were to construct a leader board of the girls with the top score in the building, Top Gemini would be at the #1 spot, and she would have an 86 point lead on her next closest pursuer.

Discussion

If I were to summarize the performance of the Sirus 1.1 synastry engine in this case I would say two things about it: It's stunning, but still somewhat inaccurate. It produces remarkable results, but they are still off my significant margins in an assortment of ways.

If we were to rank these four office girls according to Sirus engine, they would order in this fashion:

1. Top Gemini 327
2. Little Leo 241
3. Brazilian Taurus 231
4. Cancer Girl 225

If I were to rank them according to my immediate reactions to them, I would order them this way:

1. Brazilian Taurus
2. Little Leo
3. Top Gemini
4. Cancer Girl

There is not much gap between 1 & 2. There is a big gap between 2 & 3.

If I were to rank them according to my current interest level, they would go like this:

1. Little Leo
2. Brazilian Taurus
3. Top Gemini
4. Cancer Girl

Yep, that's right. If Commissioner Goodell called this draft to order, put me on the clock, and gave me 15 minutes to make my decision, I would shock the world and draft the girl nearly 24 years younger than me. I am sure the critics would have a field day. My fans would be fulminating over my draft.

Mind you, I have never gone out with any one of these four females. Everything changes in the dynamics of a dating situation. You never know until you know. Still, this is how I currently see it.

The most important take away message from this blog entry is as follows: The Sirus engine is generally on track, but it isn't perfect. The arrow points in the right direction, but it is somewhat crooked. A real astrologer can look at two charts, such as mine and the Brazilian Taurus, and clearly see that the numerical score is way, way, way too low. The same dude could look at a chart like mine and Top Gemini and seriously question why the scores are as high as they are.

In reality, my experience as one of the two subjects in each of these real-world experience is close to, but not quite in line with the predictions of the system.

Final Word

I still believe we need a new engine that differentiates between good and bad types of attraction. It needs to distinguish between types of attraction that are durable and evanescent. Furthermore, there are clear cut signs as to which party will be more attracted, and which less. This also needs to be spelled out. The score is not the same for both parties involved, and evidence for this can be seen in the two charts.

The Bod Pod, Round 3

I had my 3rd encounter with the BodPod last Friday, June the 10th. The absolute bottom line is this: I did not outperform the outperformance, but it was a good performance nonetheless.

Over the last 14 day cycle I reduced my fat mass by 7.385 pounds. I increased my lean by a paltry 0.19 pounds, and I reduced my body volume by 3.644 liters.

In one sense, this is a real victory. I had a bad start to the week with a mild knee injury, but I still lost more fat mass than my gastric bypass surgeon would recommend during a two week cycle. At the same time I not only preserved my lean mass, I increased it mildly. This defies the laws of biology. I am proudly defiant.

Still, it was not all I had hoped. Since I lost the first 4 days of this next cycle on vacation in San Francisco, I am uncertain of what this next 2 week cycle will bring. I did check my weight the second I arrived home today, and the results were good. The Tanita said my weight was 242.4 when arrived home this evening around 5:00pm.

Remember, the Tanita is a tad high; approximately 0.85 pounds high. The BodPod would probably say I weigh 241.55. This would indicate a loss of 3.788 pounds already. Is such a thing possible? Well... yes. I suffered a case of food poisoning on Sunday night in San Francisco. I vomited and suffered diarrhea all Sunday night and Monday. I was barely fit for travel this morning when it was time to leave.

Of course, the dehydration that comes with food poisoning is a temporary thing. My weight could snap up again as I recover.

Nevertheless, there is progress. I continue to hear strange rumors brothers and sisters. I will give you two examples. On Saturday morning, I got a text message in my hotel room indicating that a certain female at work [I will code name her M] told several co-workers (on Friday) that yours truly looked like Gerard Butler of 300 fame.

Of course, this struck me as totally preposterous. So stunned was I by this news, that I immediately shot a picture of myself in the Hotel Room Mirror. I was trying to figure out how such a crazy, crazy claim could turn into office gossip. You can see the photo right here on this blog. Incidentally, that's fresh out of the shower, no makeup, shot with an Android phone.

I fired the photo off to my aunt and my mom, and got a nearly immediate reply from my Aunt. She said she had to do a Google image search for Gerard Butler, because she didn't know who he was, but after studying the photos, she totally agreed. She's now telling people her nephew looks like Gerard Butler.

Ask a stupid question and you get a...

Old King Leonidas is one hell of a man. You know, I was once turned down by girl who was totally obsessed with Gerard Butler. This happened back in 2007. I have often thought that if I looked more like that Gerard, my life would be happier. To hear this kind of talk is a little bit more than ridiculous.

It got worse. On Sunday night, my brother and I cooked dinner at Jamie Wong's place in San Francisco. Jamie is my brothers former (?) girlfriend and a longtime reader of this blog. I mentioned this preposterous rumor circulating at work and she said.

"You do look like Gerard Butler, but with a little Sean Connery mixed in."

Well, at least Sean is a Virgo like me. I guess I really look Scottish. You guys better quit or I am going to get a fat head.