Geocaching II

I've continued to adventure and look for more caches in the general area of my house. Kelly even joined me tonight as we headed off to a local park and bike trail. I'm sitting at a total of 8 official finds with a 9th one that I have to answer some questions for.

Sunday Night:

Find #3: Sunday night I realized there was another cache in the park where I made my first find earlier that day. So I rushed back and quickly found it in the roots of a tree. There were no goodies in this one as it was quite small. Signed my name and was happy with to notch another one in my belt.

Find #4: This was one that I had tried earlier in the day but needed pants and shoes to go for. I returned and found this one in a matter of seconds. The cache was awesome as it was carved into an actual log and left there. Signed and fled this park as quickly as possible. Supposedly the back of this park is a hook up for local perverts and I wanted out of there as quickly as possible.

Monday Night:

Find #5: This one was hidden in a tree on a soccer field. I had tried this one Sunday but there were police hanging around the area and I didn't want to appear suspicious so I moved on. Came back and grabbed it on Monday. This one was quick and easy. Honestly, prying the paper out of the tube was harder than finding the thing.

Unofficial Find: This is an Earth one. You go to the spot and answer various questions. This one is going to require some creek stomping to get an answer so I just need to get motivated.

Monday was a little tough as I missed 3 others after this. One I just looked in the wrong spot and two others had people buzzing about so I gave a fairly shallow search.

Tonight:

Kelly wanted to see one of the nature trails and there were nearby caches so I had a partner in crime for this adventure.

Find #6: This one was a short way off of a bike trail. Kelly spotted the hollowed out tree trunk. This one was a huge jar with all sorts of goodies inside. Kelly's favorite was a little eraser animal.

Find #7: This is one that I had missed the previous night. It was in a hollowed out tree. I looked and looked and couldn't find it. I suddenly looked up and there it was. I felt kind of silly for having missed it the previous day.

Find #8: This was on a different part of the trail and Kelly and I decided to make the trek as this one would be fairly easy to get. The terrain was a little rough to navigate once we got there but I spotted it in a tree. Grabbed it and signed and we headed home for the night.

Great night tonight. 3 for 3 which had me feeling better considering Monday wasn't as productive. The weather is unfortunately going to get much hotter so I will probably lay low until the weekend rolls around again. I may snipe one or two gimmes through the week but I probably won't attempt multiple finds for a few days.

The verdict so far on geocaching is that I'm loving every minute of it. I can't wait to get home and go out looking for a new cache. I've also gotten in a ton of exercise the last three days which is awesome. I would recommend this activity to anyone that's interested.

Get out there and find some buried treasure!

Geocaching and Me!

This is an activity that's been on my radar for probably about 11 years. I first came across the idea in an issue of Knights of the Dinner Table. The writer wrote an editorial on it in one issue and the characters became obsessed with it around the same time. It sounded like a cool idea. Alas, it was 2001 and I was a college student and a GPS was a pricey item. So I forgot about the idea for a long time until I heard it mentioned on some random podcast. I remembered what it was and I was excited and wanted to go home and look it up. I forgot about it for another 4 months as life just kind of happened.

Until this week.

I guess before I go into things. I should mention what Geocaching is. If you don't want to read that much. It's essentially a GPS powered treasure hunt. People hide containers in various places and post them to a site. You then use your GPS and a series of clues to find the container. You then sign a log book and you can leave some little item for the next person to find it.

I set out this morning and spent a few hours trying this out. For starters, it was great exercise, I came stomping back to the house a sweaty mess and my Nike Fuel Band had almost 1500 pts. built up on it. And my wife said she hasn't seen me this excited and happy about something in a very long time.

Cache #1: I made the strategic error of wearing shorts for this one. I found where it was hidden but there was overgrown plant life and I didn't want to risk poison ivy so I passed and decided to come back at a later date.

Cache #2: I wandered a little bit back and forth looking for this one and then I saw it. A giant hole in a tree. I got a little closer and there it was. A little black container. I pulled it out and shook the dirt off. There was a little flashlight, a piggy toy, a mint and some other various things in here. I signed off on their logbook and headed off. I made my first Geocache find!

Cache #3: This one was on a little trail near a pond. Unfortunately it had been found and destroyed. The destroyers ruined a perfectly good David Bowie cassette too! Jerks. Oh well, I kind of sort of found this one. So 2 successes on the day.

Cache #4: I realized there was a second cache in this park so I walked towards it. My GPS was flipping out on this one a lot so there was a lot of back and forth. I found a tree with a big hole in it but it was going to be a blind reach and grab so I backed off from it. I checked when I got home and that's where the item was. I may go back for this one more in the fall. The overgrowth was pretty bad and I want to make sure there aren't any animals lurking in said tree.

I spent about two and a half hours of my day doing this and I absolutely loved it. I was outdoors, I saw some places I would never have seen before. I had to use my brain to find the various hidden caches and I got a load of exercise out of it. Earning almost 1500 Fuel Points like that is no easy feat.

I realize I need some gear for this. I should probably make a little kit with a knife, pen and some goodies to leave in the caches I find. Being prepared for the situations is always good. After #4, I will probably make sure to research any cache before I go for it. It's not that I didn't enjoy the chase, I might have just waited on that one considering where it was hidden.

I went 2 for 4 on my journeys. I know where the other 2 are and it will just be a matter of getting back to them. There's numerous around where I live so I think I will have a lot to keep me occupied until I decide to branch out a little more. I plan for this to be something to do early on my Saturday and Sunday mornings. I plan to tackle 1 or 2 a week depending on what's going on.

Stay tuned, I will keep posting updates as I continue to explore this new hobby.

Being sick

2012 hasn't been the greatest of years for me healthwise. I started off the year with a good old fashioned ulcer. Then a couple of weeks ago a spider bit me and gave me cellulitis. I was also randomly losing hair on my body and head during this time so I got that checked out. Turns out I have borderline low iron and low thyroid hormone production... yippee!

The main lesson I've learned from the various tests performed on me is that...

NURSES SUCK WITH NEEDLES!!!

I had to have blood taken today and she left an ugly bruise on my arm. And this is after a nurse left a hand sized bruise on my arm after a failed IV attempt earlier this year. Seriously, I've learned to really appreciate the nurses that get in there, do a minimal amount of damage and send you on your merry way.

So if you're a nurse and reading this. Either you suck and I hate you or you're awesome, please come and do my IV because you won't maim me in the process.

Rant over for today. Tune in later for your regularly scheduled program.

Eating Healthy

Food. I would say food is probably my biggest vice in life. I love food that is bad for me. I love pizza, potatoes, hamburgers and various other things of badness.

Food is the real battle when it comes to weight loss for me. Exercise? That's easy. If I get in the habit of exercising, I do it no problem. Plus, I like exercise. I like going outside and walking or otherwise doing physical activities. I'm a better person when I'm exercising and being in shape makes even simple everyday things easier.

Food is tough though. I'm not a big vegetable guy. I don't like greens so salads are right out the window for me. I like fruits but I'm very picky. I'm picky with apples and bananas to the point that I just avoid them. There's nothing worse than going to the effort to pick out some fruits at the store only to get them home to realize they weren't that good.

It's really a battle for me to find healthy choices for food and to not want to murder myself after a few days. This time around I'm doing okayish on the food front. I'm eating these Emerald breakfast nut blends. Those usually run 180-190 calories and have a variety of nuts, dried fruits and yogurt covered raisins. I'm trying to do soups for lunch a and mixing in a sandwich here and there. On a good day, I get through my first two meals only using about 600 calories.

I could still do better. I still drink Coke Zero which is bad for me. I should drop it but I've made so many other food sacrifices this year and that turns into an excuse to not stop. I eat too much Fast Food. I make better decisions when I go for Fast Food but Wendys is my go to "I had a crappy day, I want to stuff my face" eatery. I eat too much red meat. I'm always going to eat too much red meat though, red meat is delicious.

Eating healthy for me is a daily fight. I have to get up when that alarm goes off in the morning and tell myself that I have to watch what I eat that day. Otherwise, I'll just do whatever I want.

I've really liked being 20+ lbs. lighter and the stress is on to keep it off now. It's a daily grind, a hard daily grind but for me, if I want to keep the weight off I have to do it. That's my life. I want something, I have to do the work for it.

Back at it...

Got back to the exercise this weekend. I walked 1.84 miles on Saturday and did 2.02 miles today. It felt good to get back out there after the cellulitis outbreak I had at the end of May.

I've also started writing again. I was listening to a lot of Gunsmoke on my Ipod and it kind of spawned a western setting story in my head. I've been writing a little bit here and there for it. I don't have much, yet but it seems to be going from my head to computer pretty easily. I haven't determined how long the story will be. I was thinking of doing it as a series of short stories and see if there's a novel there at the end. I'll just have to see how it develops over time.

Next week, Kelly and I are going to go watch cartoons at a local theater. I've been wanting to do this for years but we always forget. It'll be old Warner Brother cartoons on the big screen. I'm really looking forward to it.

Chikara High Noon Review

I mentioned Chikara briefly in another post but I thought I would review the show I watched this weekend and go into it a little more.

Chikara is an American independent wrestling promotion that operates primarily out of PA. It has branched out over the years to more and more Mid-West states. The style is primarily based on lucha libre. That means that a lot of the roster wear masks and wrestle a more high flying style. The promotion is also largely comedy based and a lot of the characters are ridiculous and the angles are comic bookish or just silly. Chikara has existed for about 10 years now. I've followed it pretty heavily for about 5 of those years. The DVDs used to be $20 a piece so following wasn't easy. Thankfully, the DVD price has gone down to $15 and has made getting a few shows here and there a lot easier on my wallet.

Anyways, High Noon was the first Chikara iPPV (internet Pay-Per-View) ever and it was a highly successful show. This show was also the first time that Chikara had crowned a singles champion for their promotion. I unfortunately missed the iPPV live but I had been dying to get the DVD. Well, I finally bought it and got to watch it. So here we go...

Jigsaw d. El Generico

This was a high flying affair. It was a pretty short match and it was action packed. This was a good pre-show match as it got the crowd pretty worked up for the show.

Fire Ant and Soldier Ant d. Young Bucks

Both teams came into this match with 2 pts. (you need 3 pts. to earn a title shot, this means you have to win three matches in a row). The early goings where mostly comedy based as the Bucks were frustrated by the antics of the Ants. Things turned into a really fun hard hitting match. The end was really great as the Bucks went for their finisher More Bang For Your Buck and Soldier Ant managed to evade the move and got the win after rolling up his opponent. This match reminded me why I love the Colony so much in Chikara.

Sara Del Ray d. Jakob Hammermeier

This wasn't really much of a match really. It was enjoyable enough I guess.

Green Ant d. Tursas

This was to settle a long term grudge and I loved this match. It was just a brutal hate filled match as both men seemed like they were out to cause harm to the other. At one point Green Ant couldn't turn Tursas for a Texas Cloverleaf and just started kicking him in the back until he finally turned. It was a really cool visual and really showed the complete disdain these two had for each other.

Colt Cabana d. Archibald Peck

This match was pretty much pure comedy. Peck tried attacking Colt before the match and at one point came off the top rope and crashed to the mat when Colt bent over to pick up his towel. This match was hilarious from start to finish as Peck was constantly thwarted by the antics of Colt.

Icarus d. Gregory Iron

This match was okay but kind of forgettable.

Spectral Envoy d. Ares and Tim Donst

This was one of those garbage brawls that you used to see in ECW or the WWF around 1999 and 2000. These guys brawled through the building. The stipulations to the match gave the ending away but this was a fun brawl. Ultramantis Black really shined in this one.

Eddie Kingston d. Mike Quackenbush to win the Grand Championship of Chikara

Great main event here. Both men gave off the impression that they wanted the belt bad. Kingston was playing up that he injured his knee and Mike worked a little heel to get the fans solidly behind Kingston. Kingston got the win after just unloading on Mike at the end to become the first ever Grand Champion of Chikara.

I'll be honest here. I've never found a Chikara show that I didn't enjoy on some level. But I loved this show. This show got me excited for the product and my first reaction was to want to watch more Chikara. This show had it all. Hard hitting main event style, garbage brawls, grudge matches, lucha libre, comedy and spotfests. It kept you on your toes from start to finish.

What Influenced Me as a Writer

I think this article might be a little counter-intuitive to some people. The biggest influences on my writing have all come from television more than other writers. Sure, Terry Pratchett and Discworld has probably had some influence on me but Discworld came into my life much later and after my writing had started to take shape.

I tend to see myself as a comedy writer more than anything else. I like trying to be funny, I'm good at being funny and I've developed my writing sense of humor a lot over the years. So with that said, there are a few shows that have had gigantic influences on how I write, the kind of jokes I go for and how I structure myself.

Looney Toons:

I loved them as a kid and found a new love for them as an adult. Honestly, this is where I learned the rules of comedy. It taught me how to effectively use pop culture satire and it taught me how to be subtle in my approach to things. Especially as an adult, you really see the deeper comedy in Looney Toons. Foghorn Leghorn is suddenly this obnoxious sexist loudmouth instead of just being a loudmouth. If you haven't watch them as an adult, you should give it a try, there's really a new layer to the cartoons.

The Simpsons:

The Simpsons was arguably the biggest life influence I've ever had from a television show. I was 9 years old when the show's first season began and I watched faithfully until my early 20s. The biggest thing I've learned from the Simpsons has been character interaction. The Simpsons was a great example of how deep and well developed characters create the comedy and can almost write themselves in a lot of situations. I think I've developed a more natural style to my writing thanks to the Simpsons.

Mystery Science Theater 3000:

If you've never seen this show. It's a guy and two puppets watching really bad movies from the 40s, 50s and 60s and making fun of them while they watch. I can't point to specific things this show has influenced but I was watching this show on an almost daily basis for a long time.

Monty Python:

Why? Because you can't be funny without having seen something they've done. If you disagree, well then you're a dirty hippy. Get off my lawn... no really... get off my lawn... damn kids...

Falling in love with my wife...

July 2nd marks our 4th dating anniversary, February 27th is our wedding anniversary. Naturally, this time of year is when I reflect back on our early days as friends, a couple and why I fell in love with and decided to marry Kelly. Where to start then... well I was 27 and Kelly was 26 when we met. She was settling into her career and I was a nobody working a warehouse job at the time. She replied to my ad on Craigslist, we met, hit it off pretty well and then some months later we decided to become a couple.

Our first date was at a Bob Evans. I remember she hugged me and her hair smelled really good. The waiter was being kind of a pest as she couldn't decide on what she wanted. At one point he was even standing about 10 feet behind her waiting for her to pick. She realized this and asked if he was hovering and I said yes. So we order and then we both started making fun of the waiter. I believe we ended up theorizing that he was a furry and was ultimately a pervert. That broke the ice really well and it allowed me to open up and be funny. I thought she was really cute so that helped too.

The thing you have to understand about me is that I have a really dark sense of humor. If you know me in real life, you most likely haven't seen this side of me come out often. I'm not ashamed of my sense of humor but I do try not to offend those around me and I could literally offend almost anyone out there. Kelly, loved my sense of humor and could hold her own. I didn't have to worry about offending her and it really made her an endearing personality to me.

There were a lot of other qualities that made her someone I wanted to spend my life with but I'm not going to get into those very much at this point. I just wanted to throw a little story about my life in there and why I love Kelly.

Honestly, we started dating on July 2nd and I think at the time I was adamant about taking it slow and not getting in too deep to the love pool. But looking back, I think I had fallen in love with her before then. I loved being with her and she had become my companion in a lot of ways already. Today, it's hard to remember my life without her.

A little friendly advice

When you want to make a point to a corporation, think about what you're doing first. Think about who you're really going to effect with your temper tantrum. Why you ask? Because you're never going to affect the people at the top of the food chain. Your mail bomb, nasty letter, etc is going to affect some person that's just trying to make a buck in a mail room somewhere.

I work in a mail room at an insurance company currently. It's not a bad job, you get to rustle through people's mail and every day is an adventure in what you're going to find. So I thought I would give some helpful advice to people out there. I'm going to reveal the inner workings of corporate America so you understand how it works and can better communicate with said companies.

So let's get into the nitty gritty of my job. I help open all the incoming mail on an given day. This can be as high as 2000 pieces of mail on a big day. We then discern where the letter goes and route it accordingly. My job is a lot more complicated than that but that is one of the basic features of my job.

So here's some advice for you.

1. That letter you sent to the CEO calling him a "dirty inbred pig fucker" will never actually make it to the CEO. That usually goes to a Communication department at most companies. At my company that happens to be a really nice lady in her late 60s that's retiring this year. So she's the one actually reading your opinions on the mating habits of said CEO.

2. This actually happened to me this week. When you get mad at your claim adjuster and decide to be a douchebag and send in 2000 receipts to make a point, that affects me, not the claim adjuster. I have to organize and prep that into something usable for the adjuster's files. They get a nice clean document after my group is done with it. You just wasted a bunch of people's time that has nothing to do with the person you have a beef with.

3. I'm an asshole and my job is boring at times. Yes, I will make fun of your bad grammar and handwriting. Likewise, if you work at a company that has a picture directory. Mail people have to look you up constantly and will make fun of you, remember you if you have an overly horrific picture.

So there you have it, some helpful advice to better serve your needs with your friendly neighborhood corporation.

My Weekend

It was a little up and down for me over the weekend. The steroids ended up really hitting side effect wise on Saturday. I would get hungry really suddenly and get very angry on top of it. Today has been better but I can still get hungry at the drop of a hat and everything is downhill from there. I honestly don't see how guys can be on steroids on a constant basis. I was pretty up and down the rest of the day. Today was a lot better but I'm dreading tomorrow. I'm just going to need to have snacks at the ready and survive. Hopefully, I'll be feeling normal soon.

I thought about ordering the Chikara iPPV last night but my wife and I got busy. They were busy over night because this afternoon, the DVD came out already. So I ordered it and another Chikara show that I had been wanting. Hopefully those will show up during the week.

If you haven't seen Chikara, you're missing out. It's a more comedy based promotion that has a lucha libre style. The characters are colorful, there's lots of masks and the shows will have you laughing out loud. It really is a joy to follow them from show to show. I can't afford to buy every show or even half of the shows but I am always happy to support them with my hard earned money.

Today my wife and I went to the Columbus Arts Festival. It was nice to be on the river and out in the nice air. The festival itself seemed to be lacking this year. For starters, it felt like half of the event was food and outside interests and then it felt like half of the art stalls were peddling purses and jewelry. Last year we stopped and looked at several stalls, this year we kind of just gave everything a once over, enjoyed the scenery of the day and got lemon shakeups before leaving. It was worthwhile even if the festival itself was lacking.

I also have the den mostly up and running. The tv is working and I can watch DVDs on it. I also bought a DVD set at Wal-Mart that has 100 old B horror movies. I'm eagerly awaiting to dive into that. Tons of old movies that showed up on MST3K and many that unfortunately did not.