The weather and life commitments have been working against my exercise for the last 2 weeks but I've continued to march on with the weight loss. I weighed in at 288.8 when I was having my health issues at the end of December. Today I weighed in at 270.2 and that was after being up and eating, etc. So I'm excited as that means I'll be in the high 260s next week and I'm nearing 20 lbs. down.
I'm moving our exercise bike to the basement so I have some options for when it rains and is cold. Kelly and I got a little spoiled in February and March with the weather but reality has set in as April has progressed. My plan is to walk on the nice days and use the bike on rainy days. I'm going to stick to 4-5 days a week for my exercise.
I'm not super eager to go back to the gym until winter. I prefer being outside for working out, it feels less like a workout. I watch the clock less and an hour doesn't feel like an hour. On a treadmill or an exercise bike I feel every minute that goes by and I just hate the experience. Plus gym rats annoy me to no end.
So here's to my continued weight loss. 20 lbs. is on the horizon.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Advice...
Well, more a rant of sorts.
I've posted on a series of message boards and it's offshoots since roughly 2002. I've known a lot of these people, as far as their online persona, for a decade now. Anyways, one of the guys asked us for advice about a year ago. He realized he was doing nothing with his life and was living in his parents basement at 30 with no job. We tried to help him out and give some advice, he didn't listen.
He did what he thought was right and made his situation worse. Came back, asked for more advice and again didn't listen when we gave it.
Things like that piss me off greatly. I've come to learn that when someone asks for you advice; 9 times out of 10 they really aren't seeking your advice. When someone is coming to ask for advice they usually want you to validate their life decisions or the decision they want to make. People tend to react poorly when you tell them something they don't want to hear.
The next time someone asks me for advice I plan to run out of the room while screaming "I'M NOT LISTENING LALALALALALALA".
I'm not going to turn this into a giant essay or anything. I just wanted to vent a bit on the stupid things people do at times.
I've posted on a series of message boards and it's offshoots since roughly 2002. I've known a lot of these people, as far as their online persona, for a decade now. Anyways, one of the guys asked us for advice about a year ago. He realized he was doing nothing with his life and was living in his parents basement at 30 with no job. We tried to help him out and give some advice, he didn't listen.
He did what he thought was right and made his situation worse. Came back, asked for more advice and again didn't listen when we gave it.
Things like that piss me off greatly. I've come to learn that when someone asks for you advice; 9 times out of 10 they really aren't seeking your advice. When someone is coming to ask for advice they usually want you to validate their life decisions or the decision they want to make. People tend to react poorly when you tell them something they don't want to hear.
The next time someone asks me for advice I plan to run out of the room while screaming "I'M NOT LISTENING LALALALALALALA".
I'm not going to turn this into a giant essay or anything. I just wanted to vent a bit on the stupid things people do at times.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Misc. Thoughts
Weight is still dropping. I only got to walk 5-6 miles last week much to my dismay. But the scale is still edging ever lower much to my joy. I still have a long way to go but I'm starting to look good in a mirror at least.
I listened to a couple of episodes of Fear the Boot this week and it's really been making that D&D itch start to tingle a bit. I've put some consideration into going to a local shop and trying out some ads for 3.5 groups but I haven't decided yet. I really don't want to go through the turmoil of a new group of people and deal with the possibility of personality clashes and such. Plus, nerds and geeks can tend to get on my nerves and I'm not sure about subjecting myself to that. I'll see how that itch feels in another couple of weeks and go from there though. I don't think a weekly game would fit my schedule well. Maybe a once or twice a month deal.
I finally finished my Futurama watch a couple of weeks ago. It took me about a year and a half of catching an episode here and there. And... I started over at episode 1 today. I love Futurama, it's easily a top 5 show for me. I've probably seen the original season episodes around 10 times a piece. But I love the characters so much that I can just continually watch the show. I should probably finish buying the DVD sets at some point since Netflix might now be around forever.
Life has been busy lately, hence my lack of updates recently. Kelly and I are literally struggling to cram everything into the days that we need to currently. The house is a total mess right now because we just don't have the time to clean. I'm hoping things even out a little as the spring progresses.
My new obsession on my phone is Foursquare. It's really a stupid little app that lets you get points for the places you visit but it hits the right spots with me.
Kelly and I went out with her friend Emily and finding food was a disaster. We went to Planks only to realize they don't open on Sundays. We then went to Hound Dogs only to sit there for 20 minutes waiting for the waitress to take our order. So we bailed from there and went to Graffiti Burger. It was a decent place. Very similar to 5 Guys in how it works. The burgers were good but not amazing. I'd say a solid B grade for the burgers. Fries were about a B- on the scale but I think the staff overcooked them. Overall, a worthwhile place if you live on campus to try but go to 5 Guys if given the choice.
I listened to a couple of episodes of Fear the Boot this week and it's really been making that D&D itch start to tingle a bit. I've put some consideration into going to a local shop and trying out some ads for 3.5 groups but I haven't decided yet. I really don't want to go through the turmoil of a new group of people and deal with the possibility of personality clashes and such. Plus, nerds and geeks can tend to get on my nerves and I'm not sure about subjecting myself to that. I'll see how that itch feels in another couple of weeks and go from there though. I don't think a weekly game would fit my schedule well. Maybe a once or twice a month deal.
I finally finished my Futurama watch a couple of weeks ago. It took me about a year and a half of catching an episode here and there. And... I started over at episode 1 today. I love Futurama, it's easily a top 5 show for me. I've probably seen the original season episodes around 10 times a piece. But I love the characters so much that I can just continually watch the show. I should probably finish buying the DVD sets at some point since Netflix might now be around forever.
Life has been busy lately, hence my lack of updates recently. Kelly and I are literally struggling to cram everything into the days that we need to currently. The house is a total mess right now because we just don't have the time to clean. I'm hoping things even out a little as the spring progresses.
My new obsession on my phone is Foursquare. It's really a stupid little app that lets you get points for the places you visit but it hits the right spots with me.
Kelly and I went out with her friend Emily and finding food was a disaster. We went to Planks only to realize they don't open on Sundays. We then went to Hound Dogs only to sit there for 20 minutes waiting for the waitress to take our order. So we bailed from there and went to Graffiti Burger. It was a decent place. Very similar to 5 Guys in how it works. The burgers were good but not amazing. I'd say a solid B grade for the burgers. Fries were about a B- on the scale but I think the staff overcooked them. Overall, a worthwhile place if you live on campus to try but go to 5 Guys if given the choice.
World Championship Wrestling 2-4-89
Results:
NWA United States Tag Team Champions Kevin Sullivan and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams d. George South and Bob Emery with an armbar.
The Fantastics d. Trent Knight and Eddie Sweat with the Tower of Quebec
Abdullah the Butcher d. David Heath with an elbow drop
NWA TV Champion Rick Steiner d. Mike Thor with a belly to belly suplex
Barry and Kendall Windham d. Mike Justice and Robbie Wise with a bulldog
Midnight Express d. the Terminators with the Flapjack
Butch Reed d. Jerry Price w/ a top rope clothesline
NWA World Tag Team Champions Road Warriors d. Mike Jackson and Kip Montana with the Hart Attack
Dick Murdoch d. Mike Thor with a brainbuster
Mike Rotunda d. Mike Allen with a butterfly suplex
Michael Hayes, Junkyard Dog and Sting d. Max MGuyver and the Cruel Connection with the DDT
The Horsemen changed hands from JJ Dillion to Hiro Matsuta on this episode. Flair and Windham cut pretty good promos about it. Flair's exact words:
Nice.
Tony Schiavone leaves with this episode for the WWF and gets replaced by Magnum TA. Magnum isn't quite the announcer but he's still okay.
The company is kind of in a transition here. When we get to April/May timeframe, the company will look a lot different than it does now. Windham will be gone, Luger will be heel, they'll be taping the shows in an arena instead of a tv studio, the Great Muta joins the company, etc. So things are a little slow right now but they'll start picking up quickly when March rolls around.
Overall, this show was kind of slow and boring. They're mostly hyping the upcoming Clash of the Champions and Chi-Town Rumble shows. I will be watching those and posting results and thoughts as well.
NWA United States Tag Team Champions Kevin Sullivan and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams d. George South and Bob Emery with an armbar.
The Fantastics d. Trent Knight and Eddie Sweat with the Tower of Quebec
Abdullah the Butcher d. David Heath with an elbow drop
NWA TV Champion Rick Steiner d. Mike Thor with a belly to belly suplex
Barry and Kendall Windham d. Mike Justice and Robbie Wise with a bulldog
Midnight Express d. the Terminators with the Flapjack
Butch Reed d. Jerry Price w/ a top rope clothesline
NWA World Tag Team Champions Road Warriors d. Mike Jackson and Kip Montana with the Hart Attack
Dick Murdoch d. Mike Thor with a brainbuster
Mike Rotunda d. Mike Allen with a butterfly suplex
Michael Hayes, Junkyard Dog and Sting d. Max MGuyver and the Cruel Connection with the DDT
The Horsemen changed hands from JJ Dillion to Hiro Matsuta on this episode. Flair and Windham cut pretty good promos about it. Flair's exact words:
Until you have experienced a beautiful Japanese woman, you have no idea idea of how gracious the Japanese culture is.
Nice.
Tony Schiavone leaves with this episode for the WWF and gets replaced by Magnum TA. Magnum isn't quite the announcer but he's still okay.
The company is kind of in a transition here. When we get to April/May timeframe, the company will look a lot different than it does now. Windham will be gone, Luger will be heel, they'll be taping the shows in an arena instead of a tv studio, the Great Muta joins the company, etc. So things are a little slow right now but they'll start picking up quickly when March rolls around.
Overall, this show was kind of slow and boring. They're mostly hyping the upcoming Clash of the Champions and Chi-Town Rumble shows. I will be watching those and posting results and thoughts as well.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
My Journey as an RPG fan...
I had been a video game player for a long time, dating back to the Atari 2600 days. The summer before I was to enter 7th grade I stayed at my friend's Dan house. He had a game called Final Fantasy and it was like a a new door was opened to me. Here was this game where you gained experience and your characters progressed. And combat was about tactical thinking and resource management vs. pure reflex and controller skill.
Needless to say, I bought the game a short time later and beat it over the course of a few months. I have fond memories of the game and I've even played a couple of the remakes and enjoyed them a lot. The remakes are a lot better as the spells actually work like they're supposed to and it removes some of the clunky parts of the original.
My love of the genre was born after finishing the game. I went and sought out any games I could find that were RPGs. Thankfully, NES games weren't considered collectible at the time so it was a matter of going to the local video game shop and lucking into some old NES RPGs. The internet wasn't a big thing yet so I had to rely on Nintendo Power back issues to figure out what the worthwhile RPGs were.
I remember that I quickly came into possession of Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy II (better known as IV), Ultima Quest of the Avatar and several others I probably can't remember. Thankfully, I got in at the right time as the next few years saw the releases of Final Fantasy III (VI), Lufia II, Earthbound, Ogre Battle, Chrono Trigger and Mario RPG.
My fandom waned as the PSX and PS2 eras progressed. The games all started trying to be 100 hour epics and I found myself getting caught up in side quests and never actually finishing the game. I still haven't beaten Final Fantasy VII because of trying to breed the stupid Chocobo to get the Knights of the Round materia.
Thankfully there were still PC games like Diablo 2 to keep me going during this time frame.
As the 360 era dawned, games like Mass Effect and the Bio Ware games seemed to draw me back in. I finished Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc. It's hard to find the time to put into 40-60 hour games though. That's really more of a hindrance to my love of the genre currently than anything else.
This is probably my top 10 favorites though:
1. Chrono Trigger
2. Final Fantasy VI
3. Mario RPG
4. Earthbound
5. Planescape Torment
6. Diablo 2
7. Phantasy Star IV
8. Knights of the Old Republic
9. Dragon Warrior IV
10. Dragon Age Origins
Needless to say, I bought the game a short time later and beat it over the course of a few months. I have fond memories of the game and I've even played a couple of the remakes and enjoyed them a lot. The remakes are a lot better as the spells actually work like they're supposed to and it removes some of the clunky parts of the original.
My love of the genre was born after finishing the game. I went and sought out any games I could find that were RPGs. Thankfully, NES games weren't considered collectible at the time so it was a matter of going to the local video game shop and lucking into some old NES RPGs. The internet wasn't a big thing yet so I had to rely on Nintendo Power back issues to figure out what the worthwhile RPGs were.
I remember that I quickly came into possession of Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy II (better known as IV), Ultima Quest of the Avatar and several others I probably can't remember. Thankfully, I got in at the right time as the next few years saw the releases of Final Fantasy III (VI), Lufia II, Earthbound, Ogre Battle, Chrono Trigger and Mario RPG.
My fandom waned as the PSX and PS2 eras progressed. The games all started trying to be 100 hour epics and I found myself getting caught up in side quests and never actually finishing the game. I still haven't beaten Final Fantasy VII because of trying to breed the stupid Chocobo to get the Knights of the Round materia.
Thankfully there were still PC games like Diablo 2 to keep me going during this time frame.
As the 360 era dawned, games like Mass Effect and the Bio Ware games seemed to draw me back in. I finished Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc. It's hard to find the time to put into 40-60 hour games though. That's really more of a hindrance to my love of the genre currently than anything else.
This is probably my top 10 favorites though:
1. Chrono Trigger
2. Final Fantasy VI
3. Mario RPG
4. Earthbound
5. Planescape Torment
6. Diablo 2
7. Phantasy Star IV
8. Knights of the Old Republic
9. Dragon Warrior IV
10. Dragon Age Origins
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Stabby kind of day...
I don't know if there was something in the air today but everyone around me was acting crazy and stupid today. I was ready to just randomly start stabbing people.
I was going to post a video of Roberto from Futurama saying he's "gotta practice his stabbing" but Youtube has failed me yet again.
It was a good day to get home and away from humanity. I try to not be a grouch or an ass, I just fail at it from time to time. Today was a prime example of that. I wasn't mean to anyone or anything like that, I was just content staying to myself and interacting as little as possible.
Thankfully, I got home without incident and despite it being a little chilly I got in a 3.1 mile walk. That brings my weekly total to 5.1 miles walked and 800 calories burned due to exercise. I'll hopefully get a 2 mile walk in tomorrow, take Thursday off and then hit the weekend hard. I think getting 11 or 12 miles in for the week is pretty doable from where I'm sitting right now. Hopefully I'll see some difference on the scale Saturday and creep into the 17 or 18 lb total range.
I was going to post a video of Roberto from Futurama saying he's "gotta practice his stabbing" but Youtube has failed me yet again.
It was a good day to get home and away from humanity. I try to not be a grouch or an ass, I just fail at it from time to time. Today was a prime example of that. I wasn't mean to anyone or anything like that, I was just content staying to myself and interacting as little as possible.
Thankfully, I got home without incident and despite it being a little chilly I got in a 3.1 mile walk. That brings my weekly total to 5.1 miles walked and 800 calories burned due to exercise. I'll hopefully get a 2 mile walk in tomorrow, take Thursday off and then hit the weekend hard. I think getting 11 or 12 miles in for the week is pretty doable from where I'm sitting right now. Hopefully I'll see some difference on the scale Saturday and creep into the 17 or 18 lb total range.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Hit my goal!
I walked 3.1 miles yesterday and hit my goal for walking 10 miles for the week. Today starts a new week and I may or may not get a chance to walk today. It will depend on how my afternoon pans out. I'm hoping to sneak in 1.5 to 2 miles with some luck and good planning though.
More Dungeon Defenders this morning. The game continues to keep me on my toes as I was attacked by my first boss this morning. It wasn't a huge disaster like the first ogre was though. I had a far better understanding of the game and my towers and the boss was taken down with relative ease. The game is now expanding to having to defend two crystals. I believe that this break provides a good opportunity for me to stop and grind a few levels. I think going forward at level 12 would be a good idea.
I went and visited my friend Justin last night. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing as we hadn't seen each other for several months. We live very different lives at this point. I'm married and working and he owns a store that takes up 100% of his attention. Justin has the right attitude about it though. He understands that life just gets in the way sometimes and that you can mean to text, call or visit all you want but sometimes it just slips by the wayside. I know I can always text and visit no matter how long it's been and we pick right back up where we left off.
Actually, those are the people I keep up with the most. Some friends really lay a guilt trip on me for getting busy and disappearing for awhile. That tends to lead to me just avoiding them because I'm busy and I don't need to hear it. I try to fit people in and sometimes that means some passage of time. I don't need to feel guilty about the fact that I have a life and I can't constantly be in contact with people.
Rant over there. It was nice to get out and hang out with a bunch of guys though. I work with all women and I'm married so I spend most of my time around women. Sometimes it's just nice to be around a bunch of guys and just let loose a little.
I'm going to try and visit my friend more. As I wrote about last week, I'm treating life like it's short and finite. That means no more putting off things like driving a bit to visit my friend at his store.
More Dungeon Defenders this morning. The game continues to keep me on my toes as I was attacked by my first boss this morning. It wasn't a huge disaster like the first ogre was though. I had a far better understanding of the game and my towers and the boss was taken down with relative ease. The game is now expanding to having to defend two crystals. I believe that this break provides a good opportunity for me to stop and grind a few levels. I think going forward at level 12 would be a good idea.
I went and visited my friend Justin last night. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing as we hadn't seen each other for several months. We live very different lives at this point. I'm married and working and he owns a store that takes up 100% of his attention. Justin has the right attitude about it though. He understands that life just gets in the way sometimes and that you can mean to text, call or visit all you want but sometimes it just slips by the wayside. I know I can always text and visit no matter how long it's been and we pick right back up where we left off.
Actually, those are the people I keep up with the most. Some friends really lay a guilt trip on me for getting busy and disappearing for awhile. That tends to lead to me just avoiding them because I'm busy and I don't need to hear it. I try to fit people in and sometimes that means some passage of time. I don't need to feel guilty about the fact that I have a life and I can't constantly be in contact with people.
Rant over there. It was nice to get out and hang out with a bunch of guys though. I work with all women and I'm married so I spend most of my time around women. Sometimes it's just nice to be around a bunch of guys and just let loose a little.
I'm going to try and visit my friend more. As I wrote about last week, I'm treating life like it's short and finite. That means no more putting off things like driving a bit to visit my friend at his store.
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