Keeping it surreal

Because you demanded it...

2009-05-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

I have a new post so all of you can oooooo and ahhhhhhh!

Well I've been working on the night shift again. 7pm to 4am which hasn't left me much time to have a life. Instead I've been paying off bills, doing more projects at work and mostly just trying to stay alive in this economy. I did recently purchase my first brand new car (2009 Honda Accord) which was a thrill for me. I'm not a big fan of the car buying experience but I got through it mostly unscathed and took advantage of one of the good parts of a bad economy: New cars are nearly being given away! If you're looking for a new car then now is definitely them time. I got my car for nearly 3,000 under the dealer invoice so I was able to get a lot more car for a lot less money (leather seats, sunroof, etc) so that was a nice surprise. The only downside is that I have to pay the thing off. However, my credit union got me a 2.1% interest over 60 months so the interest payments are as close to nothing as possible...yet another great advantage of the bad economy...great interest rates.

Workouts are non-existant but the summer is here and that's usually where the motivation starts so I'm hoping to start running again. Otherwise not much else to report. Hope everyone is doing well.

New Year Fun

2009-01-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

I figured I'd start the New Year off with a new post. I've fallen off the running bandwagon since I came back from vacation in September but I'm mentally a lot healthier after some goal setting which I did over the Holidays. I'll talk about the goals in a later post but suffice to say I think it's exciting to have something big to look forward to. Right now I'm cleaning out the apartment again and I'm amazed at how much stuff I still can get rid of. Amazing a lot of stuff I'm getting rid is...well...storage bins lol. I've got rid of so much stuff last year...I just never got rid of the stuff I kept that stuff in. Some of it will be thrown away, the rest I've find an interesting use for in the kitchen. Still it will be nice to get some of this stuff out of my way! Hope everyone had a happy holiday, a great new year and are on track to stay with their resolutions!

11 months of work angst finally paying off

2008-10-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

Back in December I was handed the task of making our current lab ISO compliant as well as being helping to design the new, larger lab which we would move into later on. Well we got our location recommended for an ISO certification and this week we finally started moving into the new lab. Below is the link to the photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29472776@N06/2922389442/in/set-72157607830520075/

It's not fully functional yet but it's looking great so far!

Allright...it's been 2 months :)

2008-10-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone I'm back to blogging a bit. I've been out of it for the last 2 months due to a long vacation, some crazy work stuff and just generally being away from exercise. I'm around 192 pounds right now so to say the least I didn't make me goal weight on Sept 1st and I'm 2 pounds over my original goal weight that I set for the first goal back in the summer. However, I'm back, I'm working an 8-5 schedule these days and making some headway in a lot of other areas so we'll see how long it takes me to get back on track.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Jeremy

Good Eats

2008-08-04T20:51:00.001-07:00

Just a little video I made of cooking some quesidillas last night.

The Full Story

2008-07-05T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here are the finer details of my 4 mile race from yesterday!

I rode to the event with Lara and another runner named Lori and immediately realized that this was something completely different than all of the swimming races I had done in college. Some women biked 19 miles from the next town over and then ran this race! No I had my levels of psycho in college; Swimming lakes, doing 10,000 yards a day and holding pace for crazy intervals, but some of these people just blew me away.

I decided that I would try to keep pace with Lara, who wasn't entirely sure she would be able to run the whole thing...also she had a much cooler watch than I did; I had no watch. She said that if she needed to walk then her watch would be able to set walking/running intervals to keep to so we could at least keep moving as much as possible. Still I figured if we both ran together and kept each other motivated we would probably run the whole thing.

The race started and Lara and I stayed pretty close to a large group for about the first mile or so. I honestly was worried I wouldn't make it much more than about a mile because my body just felt really strange and I was breathing hard. I suspect it was probably due to running a bit faster than I usually do which was confirmed at the 2 mile mark when Lara told me that we had hit the 25 minute mark. I'm usually hitting high 25's and low 26's there and that's on a flat grade treadmill and we definitely had hills on our route.

At the water station near the second mile I managed to find new ways to take in water; through my nose! Needless to say this is something I'm going to have to work on because I'm definitely someone that dehydrates during a race and I just can't think that snorting water is going to benefit me in any way. I did however, pour some over my head and drench the bill of my hat in water as well. After the water station we ran a mostly flat, declined path up until about the 2.5 mile mark. Another great thing to see were people standing on the sides of the road cheering us on which was another motivating factor to keep on. Lara kept screaming at the cowbellers "More Cowbell" which seemed to help.

When we hit mile 3 I hit a wall like you wouldn't believe. It started up a hill and although it wasn't a steep hill it was enough to make my brain and my body start to conspire against my confidence in finishing this damn thing. For me it was definitely a gut check and I had two choices at that point. I could either try and keep pace with Lara and possibly wind up stopping and eventually walking or I could throttle back and finish the race. I finally told Lara that I was going to throttle back a bit and I would see her at the finish line. To be honest that last mile was one of the most mentally taxing moments of my life. I literally had to turn my brain off for about 15 minutes in order to finish it. I vaguely remember the last mile until I got to within about a quarter of a mile of the finish which was at the track of the middle school. Once I got on the track I started picking my legs up a little more, got as much of a sprint in as I could and finished strong!

Needless to say I'm very happy and feeling very accomplished. I don't really care whether I finished last or not, I know that I finished and that was what was important. I've lost nearly 30 pounds since April, I've run a 4 mile race and I've lived to tell the tale. I can only get better from here!

I did it!!

2008-07-04T12:25:00.001-07:00

Yes I finished the 4 miler and ran the whole way! I did it under a minute (we'll call it 55:30) and I had fun as well. So I accomplished all three goals lol.

Overall the race was good, I kept pace with Lara, the friend that made me do it. We ran pretty much side by side for about 3 miles. At the 3 mile mark I hit a damn wall...oh and a hill! I just adjusted my pace, kept my feet moving and made myself go further and farther. At the 2 mile mark Lara and I both agreed that we were NOT going to walk and agreed to kick the other one in the butt to keep going. At about the 5k mark when I hit the wall I told Lara to keep going and I would keep her in sight. Bastards had hills on the last mile and that really killed me!! I finally got back to the finish line which was the track at the high school and made it across and made a bee line for the water/gatorade station and the sprinkler lol!

I'll try and write a little more later on...right now I think I need a nap! But I did it!

Holy Cow

2008-07-02T02:47:00.000-07:00

I've been watching the U.S. Olympic Trials for Swimming and things are nuts over there! 6 World Records in 3 days! What's even crazier is that one of the women who broke the world record didn't make the team! That's how fast this team is going to be in Beijing!

Also a very interesting site for the Trials. It's in Omaha, NE which most people don't think of in terms of swimming hotbeds. Even more interesting is that it's a temporary pool set up in the middle of the Qwest Center. So what they've done is built a 50 Meter temporary pool as well as a warm up/warm down pool in the middle of an arena. And it's fast! I was told by one of my swimming partners last summer that the 1984 Olympics used a temporary pool as well so I suppose it's not recent technology, but to but it in the middle of a sporting arena sure seems strange. As a former swimmer I can't imagine what it must be like to swim backstroke and looking at that ceiling!

New updates and a message for Jen (soul custody)

2008-06-28T21:03:00.001-07:00

So a friend of mine decided to call out my manhood last week and I grudgingly entered a 4 mile race on July 4th. The 4 on the 4th is it's being called. Nevermind the fact that I haven't run over 2 miles straight, or that it's outside or that it may be blazing hot. No I would never let any king of logical thinking deter me from that. Most people train for a 5k...what does Jeremy do? He says screw that 5k noise you pansies...I'm running extra!

Yeah...go me. I'm sure there will be comedic photographic evidence. Dear lord.

Also...Jen/Soul Custody...you've blocked me from reading/commenting on your blog!! You gotta let me back in :)

179.8...wtf!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

So it's been about 2 weeks since I updated and I found that I was hitting a weight plateau and constantly running about 185-187 and maybe dipping down to 183 here and there but overall just not making any progress. I decided to go an re-examine what was going on because when I hit a while, more often than not I usually wind up letting the wall not only prevent me from going further but I usually wind up regressing back to my old habits.

Upon examination I found that I wasn't exercising as much which overall is fine. Exercise has been the 'gravy' of this entire weight loss journey so to speak. It's helped me get my metabolism up, but it's not been the biggest reason. My lack of fast food and regular colas were the biggest reason. Well I noticed that I was still avoiding those two big problems, however, I had resorted to eating out about 5-6 meals a week at restaurants and even though I was drinking water or diet coke my weight wasn't really moving and if anything I felt sluggish which was making me apathetic about exercising as well. I'm sure if I had let my extended free days keep up I would have eventually gained some of the weight back, gotten incredibly discouraged and fallen back to the old habits. So what did I do?

Well I actually went back to some basics of eating and nutrition. I pulled up fitday.com and started looking over the website again. I also looked over my EFL cookbook and looked at some of the meal plans BFL champions had used. Additionally I looked at a lot of non-BFL material as well because I wanted an overall idea of my options. I checked out a website called the theweighwewere.com which had a lot of success stories and ideas that I found invaluable as well. Bottom line, I found myself at the grocery store at 3am rededicating my life to healthier eating and getting back on track.

So what happened? Well my weight finally stopped spiking and plummeting and I've slowly made my way down to about 182 pounds consistently and after a run on a really hot day this week I actually hit 179.8 lol. So I suppose the subject line is a bit of a teaser but I guess it was kind of cool to see my weight that low if even for a few minutes (before I chugged a lot of water and had a bananna lol) just to remind me that I'm still on track for my goal of 175 by Labor Day.

I've been happy with my eating as well. I've found some more recipes that really target a lot of my favorites styles of food, I've also really cut down on the red meat the last few weeks which has made an incredible difference as well. Don't get me wrong I'll never give it up completely, but I have to admit that although I like the taste of steak more than I like chicken, the post meal feeling is a lot better with chicken lol.

Also this week I've been consistently running for at least 13-26 minutes and doing between 1-2 miles without stopping. Major improvements on the running front. Not sure If I'll be ready for the July 4th 5k but I'm certainly a lot better off right now than I was 2 months ago!

btw Tom? Can my Rangers stop winning one and losing one? We've been at around .500 for nearly a month!!

183.8 Lbs

2008-06-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've not updated in a while. I'm also posting on accountability blog with Indy Girl, Carol and Becka so I've been better about keeping up over there :)

So despite the heat outside I've maintained my running, albeit, on the dreadmill indoors. I have to admit that it's not as bad now that I've lost all of this weight, but I still hate being a mouse on a wheel!

Two positive things today!

1. My apartment manager didn't even recognize me today. I had a maintenance problem in my apartment last night and went by to thank them for the quick assistance today. Well for the first two minutes she didn't recognize me and I keep in fairly decent contact with them. Then she says..."Wait...Jeremy? Oh My God! I didn't recognize you! You've lost weight!" Needless to say I had a bit of a moment of smiling and told her that yes I had.

2. I'm down to 183.8 pounds!

Progress so far,,,

2008-05-21T20:20:00.001-07:00

Okay so this blog is about accountability. I'm posting some results! The picture on the left was me in March 2007 at around 235 pounds. The pic on the right was taken this afternoon at 188.8 pounds. I think I'll put this one on the fridge :)

188.8

2008-05-21T14:49:00.001-07:00

That's right folks...188.8 pounds. New territory!

Okay I got everything from Monday and Tuesday under control. Got my water and normal eating when I'm hungry, portion control, etc done. Today I ran on the treadmill for 15:30 will walking about 9:30 so I'm feeling pretty good about the progress there. I finished up with a 20 minute walk outside just to get some sun and fresh air.

By the way did I mention I'm down to 188.8? Monday is completely forgotten!

I guess the PMA helped!

Ugh and...well...ugh

2008-05-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

So I got on the scales this morning before work and noticed that I was nearly 196 pounds! SHEESH!!

I'm going to need some extra PMA to get through this week because of the fact that I have a customer at work that is out of control and numerous other things I'm trying to juggle and then seeing THAT above lol.

I dunno...this is what happened to me with BFL. I got great results and couldn't keep my eyes on the prize after that because it seemed easier to juggle if the progress was always there. I'm sure this will normalize during the week, but a lot of this is about your PMA and I just need to make sure I keep that on track. Grrrrrr this is not what I wanted going into Memorial Day weekend lol.

Drive to the next goal

2008-05-17T05:36:00.000-07:00

Well I'm not officially starting my new drive until after this weekend. Although I do plan to get some moderate exercise in, my eating will probably not be the best as I decided that it is okay for me to have a few meals that aren't exactly healthy as a small reward. However, I will be going shopping tomorrow afternoon and getting my weekly meals bought.

So what's next? Why trying to get down to 175 or if it becomes an inches game only...size 31 jeans. The last time I was down at this weight/size was...well...probably before the turn of the century lol. My fitness goals will be to run for 30 minutes without stopping (preferably 43 minutes since that is my current run/walk 5k pace!) get more swimming in, start taking a harder look at what I eat, drink more water and get more 'outside' time this summer to work on that tan lol.

I rewarded myself by purchasing some nike running/fitness shirts. They kind without the sleeves. I put them on in the dressing room and was amazed that they fit (a large this time instead of an XL) and also that my stomach wasn't grotesquely making a spectacle of itself by rearing it head from beneath the fabric. The fabric makes it way down to the tops of my hips just fine.

I want to thank those of you that have checked in on my blog. I think you for your support and I'm trying hard to keep commenting on your blogs. That's another area I'm hoping to get better with as well.

Okay I'm off for my Saturday run!

190 Baby!!

2008-05-15T16:56:00.000-07:00

Okay it's 190.2 pounds per the scale but I'm counting it!

Whew...I can't believe I actually did it. I mean I can, but it's just been such a blast getting to this point! I've had help, encouragement and the verifiable results have just been gravy to be honest!

Well the new goal is now 175 pounds and I'm setting the due date on that by the middle of August. I haven't been that weight since probably around 1999 so it will be interesting to see the results.

So far my stomach has shrunk, I'm getting some tightness in my arms and legs and I'm hoping that I can start a little more weight workout to help that along as well. But hey it's a great day! Now I gotta think of a little reward for myself!

191.2

2008-05-14T17:11:00.000-07:00

So this is like the night before christmas now. I'm 1.2 pounds away from my weight goal! After looking over my stats from 2005-2006 BFL challenge I'm actually only 2.2 pounds away from my BFL challenge ending weight as well. Very interesting.

191.8....sorta....

2008-05-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

Well it's been roughly a month since I started all of the self improvements in my life and so far it's been working very well. My finances, work, homelife, eating and fitness all seem to be working in relative harmony. That's not to say there haven't been considerable ups and downs, but overall, I have tracked everything over a month and I've noticed that by keeping my daily journal it's allowed me to see where I'm developing trends and how to fix them.

What has this done? Well overall it's helped me stop eating fast food again, gain some recognition at work, keep the apartment clean, exercise most days, drastically improve the quality of my sleep and overall just give me something I didn't expect: More time!

So that's good.

Well on to the subject heading. Well I got down to 191.8 after a fairly grueling workout on Saturday morning. Aided by heat, humidity and working out on an empty stomach and unusually light eating week due to allergies and some eye and ear swelling. I'm back to around 193-194 right now which seems more apt for the weight goal that I'm at. So in roughly a month I've gone from about 206 pounds down to about 193.5 which is pretty darn good. What is the secret to my success so far?

1. Stretching
2. Getting some hands on coaching with my running
3. Mixing up the exercises (swimming, FX Machine, Treadmill, trails, outside running and Recumbent Bicycle)
4. Just getting off my ass just to do a 3 mile walk just to get outside.
5. Dream Dinners for new food ideas and portion control for retraining my body and stomach to eat smartly. Slowly cutting out most of my dairy intake and cutting off non-diet sodas and fast food entirely.
6. Daily Journaling - This helps tremendously. I can post the details to my blog but then I realized...I can omit in public. I can't lie to myself. I've found it easier when I keep myself updated.
7. Setting smalls goals and achieving them to get a taste of empowerment. Then setting larger goals back by the confidence of the smaller ones.

So far so good.

Also here are the new 5k Pace stats:

44:04 for the 5k
14:11 per mile

(based on 20 minutes of running/walking alternating ever minute)

Dream Dinners

2008-05-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

About 2 months ago I was given a Dream Dinners gift certificate for an award at work. I had been wanting to give it a shot but just really hadn't made the time to go. Then after I started working out again and realizing I needed to do more cooking for myself I remembered the certificate and booked a session. I went with my supervisor and his wife who wanted to give it a shot as well.

All in all it was a great experience. You choose the meals, mix the sauces, marinades and other ingredients as well. It was a little pricey for about 36 servings (about 160 dollar, which didn't include the gift certificate) however, it did help me become comfortable with the food prep. I am going to try one of the meals today and give me review. Everything looks delicious and they had a sample of Chicken and Sausage Paella for next month that was AMAZING so I'm pretty sure I may be back if only for that!

At the moment I'm down to 194.8 pounds and the size 34 pants needed another notch in the belt. I'm 4.8 pounds away from my goal and I'm maintaining which is great! Hope everyone is having a great week!

196.8...and 34

2008-04-30T04:07:00.000-07:00

Well I'm down some more weight and over halfway to the weight goal of 190. The size 34 is what the waist of my pants are at now. My size 36 jeans were literally falling off the other day at work so I pulled out the pants I had from the BFL days and they fit perfectly.

I did another 3.76 miles yesterday and dropped the times a bit. The running mechanics are getting a lot better. It's very empowering to feel my knees actually responding positively to running correctly by the pain going away. It's really strange because when I run correctly I feel very smooth and aerodynamic. Much the same way I feel in the water when my stroke is working like I want it to. The only thing keeping me from running more is...well...my aerobic shape :) I'm happy to report that my run/walk 5k is now under 50 minutes so I guess I'm going to have to start looking at 5k races sometime soon!

198.6

2008-04-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

No that's not my temperature. That's my weight! I've managed to lose about 8 pounds in about 17 days so I'm pretty darn happy about that. Again I think it's due to the shock to my system of getting rid of bad eating habits, eating well portioned meals and exercising again...but I'm not going to complain. So I'm nearly halfway to my goal of 190 lbs! How kick ass is that?

Also went for another run/walk today using the new mechanics. 14 minutes of running, however, I did 3.76 miles in about 59 minutes. I did a few calculations and that tells me that is about a 49 minute 5k. If I can get that under 40 minutes just doing the running and walking I think I'll enter a race soon!

I hope everyone is well!

All Around Success

2008-04-23T01:44:00.001-07:00

Well I started at around 207 pounds on Day 1 and it's now about Day 14 and I'm hovering around 200 pounds. Overall I think this is just the "fast" fat that tends to come off after you change your eating and activity habits so I have no reason to believe that this trend will continue at this pace. However, I'm not going to let the spoil how ecstatic that I am. The running is still a little frustrating because of the change in mechanics because it requires my constant attention to make sure that I'm not falling back into old habits again. Still, I'm very happy that I'm making strides there. The home, work and finances are part of these goals as well and all seem to well under control. I'm finally learning to juggle at the age of 34!

Portion Control

2008-04-21T03:06:00.000-07:00

Well that's the new watchword for me these days. That's the one thing I think I had a problem with during most of my attempts at curbing my bad eating habits. I've been making a concerted effort to actually watch my portions and see if that helps. Additionally someone told me about an experiment in which one night they presented plates to people and let them eat. To a tee they all cleaned their plates and got second helpings. The next night they were presented full plates of food, however, this time they were blindfolded. Each one of them become "full" before they finished the plate. Made me think of the old phrase of my eyes being bigger than my stomach. Now that I've started limiting my portions but spreading out my meals a little better I definitely feel less bloated and more active.

In other news I'm sitting at work trying to figure out a way to break my habit of Diet Coke intake :)

What I've been up to...

2008-04-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

So I've been out of touch...terribly sorry about that. Work has been busy but on the flip side...so have I!

- I've decided to stay in my apartment for the time being, but in order to do that I had to get some stuff rearranged and make better use of what I had. So I went ahead and made a lot of changes that opened up a lot of room to breathe. Needless to say I've made the place a lot more harmonious and livable.

- Work is getting better and I'm starting to get a handle on the responsibilities of my new job. It's not remotely easy but it is becoming more manageable to be sure. Overall it's going to take a lot more patience and time on my end to feel like I've mastered the position so I'm not going to stress on that anymore.

- I've started a daily journal which is keeping me in check. It's a little too boring for public consumption but I'll probably just starting putting the abridged versions on here about once a week. I've started a few financial and fitness goals and I've been keeping the journal about a week now and it's really keeping me honest!

- I've started running again with the aid of a friend who runs. She is teaching me hot to improve my stride and basically helping me understand that my running ability needs to be reworked from the ground up. She explained that a lot of my mechanics were what caused my injuries and frustrations in the past. She said it's going to take a while to get me where I need to get but I'm happy for the hands on training. I'm paying her back by adjusting her swim technique as well.

- No I'm not dating her nor will I date her :)

Karaoke anyone?

2008-03-17T16:10:00.001-07:00

Allright folks since no one commented on my Holland video and focused on the girl I'm gonna send you something else to enjoy lol!!

There is a website called www.altools.net (don't forget the .net) that has some pretty cool software. Well this link takes you to the download page for an MP3 player that allows you to link the song to online lyrics, which, if the lyrics are found, will display them on your screen Karaoke style! It's the bomb!

Enjoy

I'm from Holland

2008-03-11T01:24:00.001-07:00

So half of my current co-workers are based in The Netherlands and last week the sent me a pretty funny video. It's apparently a spoof of a popular song in Holland but I felt this one deserved a viewing.

Enjoy

http://www.jaggle.nl/index.php/site/comments/from_holland_rrrriemiks/

P.S. The girl thing is complicated and most likely crashed and burned. Apparently she has some "issues" so needless to say all was not as it seemed.

So I've met a girl...

2008-02-24T02:27:00.001-08:00

...not going to try and ruin it but we went out tonight and...yeah...I hope to keep you guys posted on this one :)

Head Above Water

2008-02-19T06:50:00.000-08:00

Well I'm back to updating this damn thing. Well I'm on week two of my new schedule which is currently 3am to noon. I'm in the middle of new job training which is helping fill in a lot of gaps I didn't realize were there. To give you a brief overview, I've been promoted from an Initial Response Engineer to an Escalation Engineer. For those of you in IT that means I've moved from about Tier 2/Tier 3 to Tier 3/Tier 4 in terms of supporting internal and external customers. Last week was filled with 16 hour days because in addition to starting the new job we also had an internal audit for our ISO preparation and I'm happy to say that my long hours and hard work paid off as my team and especially my part in the audit passed with flying colors. No non-conformities were found! See this is one of the reasons I love working for this company as opposed to my old one. When I worked long hours at my old job I didn't have anything to show for it...just long hours! At this job I can point to point to results!

I'm hoping to start swimming with the Masters team this week or next week now that my schedule has calmed down considerably. It's funny as my boss's wife works with a member of the team and they asked about me at dinner the other night. They miss me...they really miss me! I'm excited to get back in the water...not so excited about the long road back to getting in swim shape. Oh well I'll get used to it again I suppose.

Nothing new on any other fronts. I'm looking for a new place to live as my lease is up at the end of April but at the moment I'm not seeing anything that's really catching my eye so I may go month to month until the summer which is when most of the housing seems to open up. No dating news as of yet but I'm hoping that will change now that I'm on a schedule that doesn't suck the life out of me...as much.

Tales from the valley...

2008-01-22T19:32:00.000-08:00

So I'm back from Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale, San Jose, Santa Clara, etc) and I'm tired but I do have some interesting news:

I got the promotion!

That was the main thing that I could tell you guys. I've sorta known about it since December but it was never really official but now it's official so I guess I can talk about it in public.

CA was interesting for someone who is not used to that sort of thing. The ethnic diversity was pretty surprising as well. 30% Caucasian, 30% Hispanic, 30% Asian and the rest were a mix of other races. Pretty interesting but it reminded me that I was definitely out of my element. However this did make for some great restaurants of which I sampled many.

The work side of things was good. I got some training, met a lot of people that I normally only talked to on the phone. I did not, however, get a chance to really get out of the San Jose area so I'm sad to say that I didn't get to explore much. Maybe next time.

Things at work are going to be very different from now on. I guess in a lot of ways the promotion is part of that but overall it's taking me to another level in the organization that will help me develop a number of other skills that should help me take on some other opportunities in the future that will help me realize what I ultimiately will enjoy doing.

Hope everyone is doing well.

I'm alive...

2008-01-10T16:21:00.001-08:00

Just an FYI to all my fans. I'm alive but I'm buried in work and a crummy schedule right now. I'm working 4pm to 1 am Monday to Friday and a few hours on either end being used for work projects. So the latest news:

- I interviewed for a promotion in December that I'm hoping to hear about very soon
- I'm going to California for a week for job related stuff
- My swimming pool has become a zone for gang land shootings. I'm still trying to figure out whether or not to stick it out because I love the team, or go to a shittier team but in a safer neighborhood.
- No love life prospects at the moment but that's okay because I don't have time for it :)

Hope that will satisfy you all until my next update sometime in...ohhhh...2010!!

A little help from the King

2007-11-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I passed my certification. However, I think the biggest piece mojo I received was by channeling the Spirit of the King (aka Elvis Presley) 12 hours before the test. Here are a few pics of my halloween get up at work.

Whew!!

2007-11-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Well folks I'm officially certified!! Took the test on Thursday and passed!!

This is an exam for the ENS (Extreme Networks Specialist) Certification that is offered by my company. The basics are a written portion and three hands on labs. Each portion is worth a maximum of 300 points for a cumulative total of 1200 points. You need to score a minimum of 900 points on the exam in order to earn your certification. I aced two for the labs and would have aced the third exam but made a stupid mistake and didn't realize it until my time was nearly up and figured that I should try to keep the amount of points I was going to earn instead of winding up with absolutely no points. Needless to say I scored a 950 on paper but I know I scored an 1130 had I not made that stupid mistake and ran out of time before being able to correct it :D

Needless to say this will be a stepping stone and some bargaining power that will allow me to move on to other jobs at my company and probably negotiate a better salary. It's also a great certification externally in case I move onto another job in which uses Extreme Networks equipment.

As for the workouts, I suffered a bit during the beach trip and taking the time out to study for the exam. I have gotten back into the groove and went to swim workout yesterday and will plan to attend the morning workouts from here on out as I am now working 4 pm to 1 am these days.

Hope everyone is well.

I'm at the beach...

2007-10-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Allright I haven't updated in a while because I've been hunkering down at work to get this certification taken care of!

However...this weekend I'm taking a well deserved break at the beach :)

So true...

2007-10-05T05:11:00.000-07:00

And I couldn't resist my third post of the day...

2007-09-24T15:16:00.001-07:00

A little before and after action...

2007-09-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well I was asking around for pictures that my friends had taken over the years to add to my photos. My friend Laura (not the one mentioned in the post below!) has taken some pictures of me at an event back in March and than again about two weeks ago and WOW the difference is amazing. I know that I had gotten heavy (I mean damn...245 pounds is pretty heavy) but I guess I hadn't realized how I looked to the camera and to everyone else. Anywho I found two pictures to share to give you guys an idea of the progress I've made since March. I've gone from around 245+ lbs to about 202 (give or take a pound) as of this afternoon.

In these first two pics I'm around 245 pounds. As you can imagine I've had a few drinks in this picture.

In this second picture from the same night you'll notice the ripped pants because I had to SQUEEZE into them to put them on. By the end of the night the pants sorta gave out. How embarassing!

Finally the picture from Labor Day weekend. I'm around 210 or so in this pic so considerably less tonnage and NO ripped clothing!

On one hand it was horrifying to see and realize how much weight I had lost after my first BFL challenge that ended in January of 2006 but amazing to see that I've made SO much progress since then!

Great fun!!

2007-09-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

I don't know if any of your are familier with the New Zealand parody band "Flight of the Conchords" but if you haven't seen them before you are missing out. The had a 12 episode series on HBO this summer that is going to be renewed. The series follow a their everyday lives as two rather dim witted musicians who have a terrible manager that can't get them decent gigs. The musical numbers below are from their live shows in the past that they use as sort of daydream montages in their show. Great stuff. I have my friend Lara to thank for this. Enjoy!!

Perfect

2007-09-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

someecards.com always seems to have the perfect card for the perfect occasion! This seems to be the card I should send to the normal girls that I just can't seem to make it work with :)

Fuk Yahoo

2007-09-19T01:47:00.000-07:00

So this evening I was insulting someone and created and assigned them the name "Fuckface McAsshat". After doing this I was astounded at how much I enjoyed the name. I mean really...who comes up with cool names anymore? So I was bound and determined to trademark and copyright this little gem. So like the good little yahoo minion I am I went to their email page to register the name. Unfortunately Yahoo feels I have a dirty, filthy little mouth and refused to honor my request. However, I refused to let it go:

fukfacemcazhat@yahoo.com

I win.

WTF?

2007-09-06T00:13:00.000-07:00

Okay someone sent me this and it just really freaks me out...

I just learned how to run after 34 years...wtf?

2007-08-28T16:14:00.001-07:00

Okay big breakthrough in running...in fact you're all being held accountable!! Why didn't anyone tell me about running from the balls of my feet instead of heel to toe????? I've been running heel to toe all my life!! Then tonight someone says "try running on the balls of your feet" and I just looked at them like they had three heads. THen I sort of tried leaning forward and just walking on the balls of my feet and HOLY @#$!$ it MADE SENSE!! IT WAS LIKE LEARNING HOW TO READ!! I started a few drills doing it, then did a mile of mixed running and walking...and folks...I did the mixed running walking mile in about 12 minutes!! As opposed to the FULL running WALKING the last few days of around 15 minutes!! HOLY COW!! This is amazing!! It's going to take a while to get a adjusted to running like this but it feels SO MUCH more efficient, I feel faster...and hold cow my hands and arms don't look ridiculous anymore!!

More to come later...to be sure...

Back to running...

2007-08-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

So I decided that I was feeling brave enough to add some running back into my routine. The results are mixed but only due to the fact that it was too damn hot today! I was however able to run around 8 minutes without stopping and felt like I could keep going! Basically I ran the better part of a mile (about a 12:30 pace) and the only thing that stopped me was my stomach felt like it might start cramping and I started worrying about some kind of heat stroke. I may try again in the evening...but wow folks! I can't believe that I was just...running...really running!
Now I might be able to really get myself back into great shape by being able to perform two heavy calorie burning exercises in the same week!!

Rangers 30, Orioles 3

2007-08-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

I don't think I need to say anything more. Wow.

It's. Too. Damn. Hot.

2007-08-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been out of blogs and myblends for a while. Life, work and swimming have been pretty much taking up all my time!

The DAMA swim team is going well. Trying to make 2-3 practices a week there and make up's at the YMCA. Went to dinner with a few DAMA swimmers on Friday night and talked about running and then they seemed to want to talk more about setting me up with their friends. I'm worried about that since they asked me all sorts of interesting questions I'd never encountered before. It seems I may have inadvertently signed up for yet another matchmaking service. Yeesh.

Nothing new on the dating front. I'm still being completely celibate and actually learning to love it. I'm meeting all sorts of new people through DAMA and a few new people through my friend Sarah. Overall I'm not looking but I'm not saying that a few people haven't caught my eye. However, E-harmony is gone and can suck eggs for all I care!

Work is pretty difficult, however, I am making a considerable amount of progress there and I'm pretty happy with the results. I feel that I've learned and progressed more in the last 4 months on the night shift than I have working in the last 4 years. No joke! Hopefully that means I'll be able to parlay that into another certification and start making more plans on what career path I'll be wanting to move into next.

So Carol will stop whining :)

2007-08-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

Wow I just looked at my blog and realized I haven't updated there in about 3 weeks. Overall that tells you how busy I've been at work!! We are going through some major changes and even though I work midnight to 9 am during the week I'm also have to attend conference calls and training sessions in the middle of the afternoon as well for 2-3 hours at a time, that plus driving, plus sleeping plus...well not a whole a of sleep now that I think of it, plus other things that HAVE to be done mean that Jeremy is having to make the choice between the sanity of swimming or the sanity of blogging! Thankfully I've made a few updates here as well.

Overall swimming is going well but only at the bare minimum for now. I'm hoping to open it up a bit more next week as things SHOULD slow down but overall the next 90 days at work (Until the holidays) are going to be insane because of some changes we are making in our division. Good changes, positive changes, changes that mean the way for promotions, raises and honing of skills, but changes that mean my already raw and scarred nose will be still to the grindstone!

I did some timed swims on Sunday at the Chapel Hill YMCA and was not happy with the results. There were people in the way and the water was high, warm etc, but overall I felt those should not have mattered considering where I feel I should have been. However, I know that I've not been swimming as much do to work and I take a TINY bit of solace in that, but still, I really wished I had been able to get in the pool more because I just don't feel like I've grown much more in my aerobic base since about the first week of July and thus hitting the wall in swimming progress is tough to deal with.

Hopefully more interesting stuff in the coming days either swimming or work related!

Site Update

2007-07-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

I've updated most of the blog addresses (thanks for the reminder Udenia) and I think I'm all good. If I've missed one let me know. I'm looking for a new song to replace the old one I had but I'm just not finding what I want yet. Or rather the one that I want doesn't exist anymore. I would use You Tube but it's been a little skiddish lately as well. Hopefully these adjustments will allow me to peruse and comment more frequently on my blends blogs.

Harry Potter

2007-07-22T21:42:00.001-07:00

Okay folks just finished up all the Harry Potter (including HP7) and additionally a rough week schedule wise at work so I'm hoping to be back to normal this week in both updates and working out.

Carol you asked what I thought about the HP5 Movie about a week ago and I'll say that I thought it was pretty good considering the amount of storyline they had to trim to make it into a 2+ hour movie. I was unhappy with so many of the omissions (The centaur teacher, Harry Potter getting back at the ministry with Rita Skeeters Quibbler Article, no mention of the prefects badges or Ron's amazing Qudditch Cup winning performance) however, they did what they had to do to stay on target for the last two books. Still...I felt a little cheated on some parts to be honest.

Now as for my views on book 7 I'll just say you'll have to message me on my blends and get my personal views...I'm respecting JK Rowlings wish that we give everyone enough time to read Book 7 before spilling any beans or plot points!

Chug chug chug

2007-07-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

Well the swimming is going better this week. Haven't been able to finish a complete workout in the time allotted yet but I'm getting there. I think the times will start dropping again real soon as well. Birthday was kinda lame as everyone was on vacation or had to work. I'm planning something at the end of the month to make up for that. I've been posting on blends again which is probably why I've not been posting as much here.

Workouts this week will be tough to meet because my schedule has been tinkered with in that I'll be working during the evening workouts and will be cutting into my sleeping to make a morning workout. Overall it's only going to really affect one day, however, it's screwing up the sleeping patterns between two normal weeks that is really going to be hard to get back on track.

Last Friday I went out with a few members of the team for beers and mexican food. We sat outside and listened to a band and just had a nice time. They were eager to get all the dirt on my social life and other stuff. One of the ladies is from Italy and has a great sense of humor but isn't completely educated on American slang and Idioms so we would make jokes about our everyday lives and she would need us to fill her in on what some of those jokes mean. It strange to be sitting at the same table with people that were Iron Man Triathalon finishes/placers and swimming with an Olympic Bronze Medalist. However, I think it's good. The one thing that got me off track with BFL was the actual physical distance I felt from everyone I was communicating with on the blogs/tracker/myblends. I have to admit that having someone there to push you in person goes a LONG way to helping you out.

Nothing new on the dating front. I've decided to completely stop using any form of online matchmaking anymore. Too many people on there that shouldn't be on there, too many people fresh out of marriages or long term relationships and trying to immediately date again, too many people that just don't want to date but just meet people as friends and as usual too many people that just aren't right for me. At my age it's hard to meet people that are single and compatible but I'm finding it harder to do it through a stupid digital box. There are a few girls on the swim team that I think are single and a few people on the team that like me well enough to set me up with their single friends or at least let me meet them and let me makes the moves. That's more how I like to meet people to date anyways...get to know them first, become friends and see if it leads somewhere. Not talking to someone via email, meeting them awkwardly for the first date under dating pretenses and then trying to see if either one of us can put a round peg into a square hole. I'm tired of that to be honest...all of my long term relationships came about after I knew the person for a while and THEN we decided to persue something. Why break that tradition right? And yes...there is a girl that I have my eye on with the swim team but really it's more because we just have a lot of fun joking around between sets. She's nice and funny but I'm fairly sure there is about an 8-10 year age difference (I'm the older one) and that could be a dealbreaker in the long run for anything beyond friends. But hey...I'm open.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

CRAP

2007-07-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

Well folks I slept through my workout today. Not suprised by this but a little dissapointed nonetheless. This is one of the unfortunate cases in which my job tends to eat into my schedule.

I went into work last hoping to be out by 8 am, home by 8:30 am and in bed by 8:35 and sleep till around 4 or 4:30. Seems plausible right? Well we had unscheduled training until 9:30 today, didn't get on the road home until about 9:45. Got home arond 10:15 and got into bed...tossed and turned and probably fell asleep around 11. Then for some reason I woke up around 1:30 and couldn't go back to sleep for the life of me. Then finally I resigned myself to trying to stay up until my workout started. Bad idea...so I laid back down and fell asleep again around 4 pm, didn't set the alarm as I figured if I wake up in time I'll wake up in time if I don't I'll just get rested and see if I can make up the workout tommorow at the YMCA instead. It's not the actual swimming I miss tonight...it's swimming and pacing myself with people. Grrrrrr.

Allright back to sleep.

Late night special...

2007-07-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

Yeesh I've gotta start making a schedule so I can find a way to bring some weightlifting into my weekly routine without A) Interfering with my sleep B) Not doing it right before I go to sleep and C) not doing it the same day that I swim.

This should be interesting. The only days that I have available to lift would appear to be Sunday and Thursday. Tuesday are for work, sleep and Trivia. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays are for work and swimming. Needless to say I've gotta find some kind of way to put it all together while working this god awful shift!

In other news I've just realized that I've dropped about 30 pounds since around the middle of March. Someone from our California office was visiting our office yesterday and told me that I was looking slimmer and asked me if I had lost any weight. I quickly calculated the time it had been since I had last seen this person and sure enough it was 4 months and 30 pounds ago.

Great workout...bad cramps!

2007-07-09T17:59:00.000-07:00

Well I am completely and totally thrashed at this moment!! Just got back from my first REAL workout with the Masters team and lemme tell you I'm wishing I was heading to bed in about 2 hours instead of heading to work!! Sheesh! Let it be known that i have the speed but those folks have got the stamina and having a cramp in the middle of a sprint set didn't do me any favors! Overall I feel good...mentally I'm a little beaten down because I still have a long way to go but overall it's nice to have people to pace you. I felt faster than my last timed 50 and 100 yard freestyles so I have a feeling those will be coming down in the next week as well. I did a 100 Yard Freestyle without kicking (because of the cramp) in about 1:12 tonight and I was pacing with another swimmer so I think those current best times will be dust by the end of next week. Now I need to find a ton of bananas!

Back to work

2007-07-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well I had a nice 3 day weekend then I'll work 4 days this week and then I'll have another 3 day weekend next week (my birthday is July 14th...hint...hint) and in between I'm hoping to have some great updates on my swimming progress. Perhaps even a pic or two as per your requests. Don't count on it though!

Carol Transformers was actually pretty darn good. I'm not a fan of Micheal Bay movies at all (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, etc) but he the film was written by two guys who work with J.J. Abrhams (Lost, Alias, etc) and they sort of kept the dialog pretty good. John Tuturro and Anthony Anderson were pretty darn funny as well so overall if you get past a buncha hokey robots it's a pretty good movie.

Die Hard wasn't as good as the first three, and the fact that NO ONE seemed to know who Bruce Willis's character was in the entire film seemed a little strange, considering he had built up quite a reputation with the Police, FBI, CIA and NSA by the end of the third film. Justin Long (Hello I'm a Mac) and Kevin Smith (aka Silient Bob) were nice comedic additions though. The action was pretty intense, but still, a bit sub-standard for the normal Die Hard movies.

1408 was actually a little disappointing. It seemed to WANT to be a supernatural/horror movie and was well on it way. Then it seemed to lose it's way when it started to briefly became a movie about bereavement and loss of a child. Like most Stephen King films it has a great buildup but just doesn'tseem to deliver in the end. Fortunately Stephen King's books don't have this problem.

Allright folks I gotta sign off, meet some friends for dinner and carb up for tommorow workout!

Oh hell yeah...

2007-07-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

Okay I kicked a lotta ass today and made some major drops in times:

50 Free
************
June 2007 - 32:50
July 7, 2007 - 29.85

100 Free
************
June 2007 - 1:19.57
July 7, 2007 - 1:11.23

Needless to say I'm very very thrilled. I'm sure the new workout suit didn't hurt either. Sorta of a cross between swim trunks and a racing suit, but considerably less drag. At least now I know that I getting where I need to be.

And just to let you know where I am overall compared to my personal bests...

Starting Times

50 Yard Freestyle 32.50 (June 2007) Chapel Hill YMCA Pool/Chapel Hill NC
100 Yard Freestyle 1:19.50 (June 2007) Chapel Hill YMCA Pool/Chapel Hill NC

Current Best Times

50 Yard Free Style - 29.85 - (July 7, 2007) Chapel Hill YMCA Pool/Chapel Hill NC
100 Yard Free Style - 1:11.23 - (July 7, 2007) Chapel Hill YMCA Pool/Chapel Hill NC

Career Bests

50 Yard Freestyle: 22.98 (3/1995) SCAC Championships/UALR Pool - Little Rock, AR
100 Yard Freestyle: 51.01 (3/1995) SCAC Championships/UALR Pool - Little Rock, AR

All Units be advised...we have a man that can't keep his pants up...

2007-07-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

So I went to the movies yesterday (Die Hard 4 and Transformers) for a little bit of R and R and just to have some brainless fun. Well I put on some shorts but forgot the belt. No these are shorts that in the past I haven't NEEDED a belt for so you understand the reason why I felt it would be ornamental at the least and cumbersome at the most. Well I saw the first movie, killed an hour to eat and then saw the second movie. By the time I got back to the car I was nearly running with both hands on top of my shorts because they would barely stay up!!

I'm losing inches folks and it's starting to freak me out! I know this is a good thing but will someone think of the children???? WHY DOESN'T ANYONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN??????

Strange...

2007-07-03T23:52:00.001-07:00

So I left the YMCA today and stepped in something that looks like dog poop covered in mustard and smells about the same. That's just two bad things that go worse together and the fact that those two things somehow wound up in the evil harmony on the bottom of my shoe is very befuddling in addition to being smelly. Something is amiss in the universe...

You know your swimming lane mate is fast when...

2007-07-02T23:41:00.000-07:00

...he has a wikipedia entry describing his Bronze Medal performance in the 1984 Olympics.

Yep that's right folks...I went to a workout today for the Masters team that i'm going to join and sure enough one of the swimmers is a member of the Swedish 4x100 Freestyle Relay team from the 1984 Olympic Games.

Yeesh.

Overall I enjoyed visitin with the team and I think it's going to be a great experience. I sat in on one of their planning meetings and they seem to have a great head on their shoulders about making sure the team stays viable and healthy for years to come. Everyone was friendly and absolutely happy that I was looking to join the team. The speed of the swimmers in the advanced group is a little above where I'm swimming now but my goal is to be swimming with that group towards the end of the summer if not sooner.

I'm pretty damn excited about this to say the least. It feels strange to say it: I'm coming out of retirement!

It's late...or I guess for you folks...it's early

2007-07-01T04:17:00.000-07:00

Well I'm finishing up my workshift and all I want to do when I get out of work is jump in the pool and swim laps. This is very strange. Does anyone else feel this way about your workouts? I don't mean the "Oh man I HAVE to work out" feeling I mean the "Oh man this is better than sex" feeling. Yeesh...I think I need to check to see if there is a direct connection between chlorine and my sexual needs.

5 Straight days!

2007-06-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

Well again...I need my head checked!

Today I did my 5th straight day of swimming. I did mostly arms today so that means tonight at work I'm going to be walking around like a troll dragging them on the floor. I did get a chance to "coach" a little bit today as well. It's been nice to meet new people at the pool and a lot of people have been asking me for advice on stroke technique. I'm always flattered to be complimented and then for people to ask my advice on how to improve their strokes is absolutely awesome. I worked with a guy for about 30 minutes this afternoon and after we finished working on his stroke he was going head to head with one of the lifeguards which really made his day!

In other swim related news I decided to contact the swim coach of one of the local masters teams this weekend. I looked over their website and it appears to be a fairly tight knit group of people (sorta similar in age range and support level of the blends!) that are equal parts competitive swimming and equal parts having a good time. This was really important to me as I'm definitely wanting to become a better swimmer, but I'm not looking to having that be the only part of the reason I join a club. They have dinner parties, go to the state fair, go to movies and have superbowl parties. Sounds like a pretty good group of folks and the best part is that it's a fairly cheap monthly fee!

So I'll let you all know more as I hear more.

Today's total yardage: 2700 yards

Why? Because I'm apparently nuts!

2007-06-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well I stopped at 3000 yards but I definitely felt like I could just swim as long as they would let me today. But the kids with their swim lessons and water aerobics folks just wouldn't take to kindly to me getting in their way. Didn't really have a planned workout today so I won't list any sets. I just got in and just decided to just swim and feel it out. Hence the unstoppable attitude lol.

I did get a timed 50 Yard Freestyle in:

32.50

I also did a time 100 Yard Freestyle in:

1:19.57

Obviously these are still considerably off from my personal best, but not too bad considering it was at the end of the workout and my trunks are so baggy it's like swimming with a pocket full of bricks. I promised myself that if I can get my 50 Free down to about 29 seconds and my 100 free down to about the 1:03 and 1:05 range that I'll consider a masters team or at least try a masters meet and see what it's like. I'm not sure I like the idea of a team yet but I'm definitely liking the idea of competing again at some point.

And Yes...I'm looking at printing companies that will put the Jolly Roger on a swim cap!

Keepin on Keepin on...

2007-06-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

Well it's the end of the first 2 weeks and I'm 8 workouts down in my swimming!

Today I decided to be psychotic. Why? Because I can. Today I did 2500 Yard (1.42045 miles for those of you keeping score at home) and 1500 of those yards were butterfly kick with flippers. Now you might say..."Jeremy that's Cheating!!" alas you would be wrong!! The flippers allow more of the muscles in your lower body and your core to get a stronger workout and if you want a belly buster...butterfly kick knows no equal. Needless to say it was an ass kicker but I felt great. In fact folks I've felt better than I EVER did doing BFL. In fact I'll go further than that...I haven't felt this good since I was in College!! Needless today this goes beyond motivation and the need to getting into shape...these goes into the area of balancing the harmonies in one's life and doing the things that make you happy.

Today Workout

*************************************************************************************

Warm Up:

200 Freestyle

Kick Set:

5x300 Kick with Flippers. 3 minutes Rest between sets

Pull Set:

3x100 Freestyle :30 rest

Swim Set:

3x100 Freestyle (with flippers) :30 Rest

Cool Down:

8x25 Freestyle :20

Total Yardage: 2500

*************************************************************************************

The weight has been fluctuating up and down a bit so we'll have to see how it balances out over the next month or so. My metabolism has skyrocketed again so perhaps that's what it is and the engine just needs to gain a few extra pounds so it can burn them more effectively later. That's probably a load of crap...but I don't care.

Hope everyone is well.

King of the Pool...DETHRONED!

2007-06-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got into the pool and someone was faster. A girl from the local high school team got in and showed me who was boss. It was nice because it reminded me of how much further I needed to go in my workouts!

I swam yesteday and today and I'm experiencing some right shoulder tightness which I'm hoping will be cured by a shoulder wrap with ice. Does anyone know of a good brand or where I might find something specific for the shoulders?

Yesterdays Workout

*************************************************************************************

Warm Up:

300 Swim

Kick/Pull:

6x50 Kick
4x75 Pull

Main Set:

2x100 Swim
4x50 Swim

Cool Down:

8x25

Total Yardage: 1400 Yards

************************************************************************************

Today's workout focused on distance and upping the amount of distance per set. I was happy that I was able to swim 500 yards without stopping and without compromising my stroke. I didn't time it but I definitely got it under lifeguard training standard woo hoo!!

Today's Workout:

*************************************************************************************

Warm Up:

500 Yards No Stopping and Keep Stroke Smooth

Kick Set:

5x100 on :30 rest

Pull Set:

5x100 on : 30 (I was averaging about 1:40 seconds per 100 just pulling so I was happy for the improvement!!)

Warm Down:

8x25 : 20

Total Yardage: 1700 Yards

*************************************************************************************

Great workout tonight but definitely need to work on the shoulders!

What's the cure for soreness and exhaustion after a swim?

2007-06-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

SWIM AGAIN!!

Yup I decided to have another swim today to stretch everything out and I feel much better. Also made considerable use of the whirlpool after I was done!! I'm really starting to believe this time in the pool is becoming my new moment of Zen. Then again all my favorite shows are in reruns so lets see how this goes through the summer and into the fall! My history shows I'm not good at sticking with working out by myself on weights, running and general cardio fitness. However, I swim for over 12 years so I'm hoping that as my feel for my strokes and movement through the water have never left me that there is a part of me that will keep this going so we'll see.

Todays workout focused on doing longer distances while maintaining the smoothness of my stroke:

***************************************************************************************

Warm Up:

4x100 Freestyle Focusing on Stroke

Kick/Pull Set:

4x100 Kick

4x25 Free Pull :20
4x50 Free Pull :20
4x75 Free Pull :20
4x100 Free Pull :20

Rest 2 minutes

4x100 Free Pull :20
4x75 Free Pull :20
4x50 Free Pull :20
4x25 Free Pull :20

Main Set:

100 Freestyle at 60% Effort without reducing stroke efficiency

Cool Down:

8x25 Free on :20 Easy Strokes

Total Yardage: 1600 Yards

*************************************************************************************

And yes I just realized that I was 50 yards away from completing a mile (1650 yards) of swimming.

The Whirlpool has been a nice change. The pools at my high school and college never had one so I've never really used one for after workout relaxation. I'm hooked now!!

What the hell?

2007-06-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

I completed my 4th swimming workout today and I'm definitely feeling it today. My body is completely and totally devoid of any energy. I slept my usual 8 hours and am STILL tired upon waking up. I'm not sure what the problem is but I suspect it was do to my opening up the speed considerably in my workouts this morning.

***************************************************************************************
Workout

Warm Up:

4x75 Free :20

Kick/Pull:

4x50 Kick :20
4x50 Pull :20

Main Set:

1x50 Free (70% Effort) :20
1x50 Free (40% Effort) :60
1x50 Free (30% Effort) :60

Rest 2 Minutes and repeat Set

1x50 Free (30% Effort)

Rest 2 Minutes

1x50 Free (110%) Timed

Cool Down:

8x25 Free on :20

Total Yardage = 1300 Yards

************************************************************************************

I really spend a lot of time today working on keep the stroke smooth and my body moving without slapping the water a lot when I was getting tired during the harder sets. It's an important part of building your skills back up and it's as much mental as it is physical. Either way...I'm just damn tired!! Not sure if I'll swim again tomorrow but I may just do a nice 5-600 yards to stretch everything out and prepare for Saturday's workout in which I hope to hit 1500 yards. Once I hit 1500 yards I'm hoping to begin to maintain that distance for a bit while working on increasing speed while maintaining my form and stroke, then moving onto longer distance workouts.

Two days off now...what am I going to do with myself? :)

2007-06-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

Well I've throttled the swim workouts up nicely and guess what? The weight is really started to come off and the stamina is returning nicely. I added about 300 yards to my work out today for a total of 1000 yards. Also increased the yardage of the main sets and kick/pull sets. Not sure my body is ready to take it much further this next week but it's nice to know that I hit a "10" so to speak with my workout!

************************************************************************************

Warm Up:

6x25 Free :20 seconds rest

Kick/Pull Set:

2x75 Pull :20 seconds rest
2x75 Kick :20 seconds rest

Main Set:

4x50 IM order (Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Freestyle) :20 Rest
2x100 Freestyle all effort on a 4 minutes base.

Cool Down:

6x25 Free: 20 seconds rest

***********************************************************************************

Right now I'm purposely not timing myself in most of the swims. The reason is that I know how slow I am and I don't want that bit of discouragement lol. I swam one of the 100 freestyles in my main set and realized that my 200 yard freestyle was actually faster at one time in my life!! So to say the least I still have a long way to go for my own personal satisfaction!

Well I'm glad to see that everyone participated in the Trivia this time around. No one scored perfectly but I do have points to award.

Persephone recevied 4 of a possible 6 points.
Tom received 1 point
Carol received 1 point

The answers are as follows:

1. This Academy Award Winning Actor is the father to Angelina Jolie and grandfather to Maddox and Zahara.

Answer: John Voight

2. This Father-Son tandem hit back-to-back home runs on September 14, 1990.

Answer: Ken Griffey Senior and Junior

3. This 1993 film starred Daniel Day Lewis and Pete Postlewhite as a father and son wrongly accused and and imprisoned together for their roles in the IRA bombing of the 1970s. What is the name of the movie?

Answer: In the Name of the Father

4. Okay this one is an easy one for Lori :) Liv Tyler is the daugher of Bebe Buell and what famous American Rock n Roll star?

Steve Tyler of Aerosmith

5. What is the name of Superman's Father?

Answer: Jor-El

And the Bonus Question:

This famous actor who once played Superman's Father is in fact the father or Singer/Model/Media Bozo...Courtney Love.

Answer: Marlon Brando

Congrats to the winners. I'll try to have some new trivia up real soon!!

Happy Fathers Day!!

2007-06-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say Happy Fathers Day to all the dads and congratulations for being there for your kids. we've always appreciated it even if we were brats or still are!

So I've been really thinking about things in my life and came across an article my manager had me read a few months ago. It was an article about great leaders and what makes them great. Apparently there has been very little empirical research done on this subject, only stuff you see in the book stores or on TV. The article was written by a group that has recently finished a study over the last 15 years of managerial traits and what makes people great managers, leaders, mothers, fathers and humans. They found that people that focus on the things that they are really good at turn out to the be the people that are the most successful and happy. The people that try to be good at everything or really bang their heads against the wall tend to be the folks with the least growth.

What struck me about this article is that it spoke very logically about succeeding on your strengths and not your weaknesses. It also shined a light on some things I've been doing in my life. I've been avoiding a lot of my strengths and focusing on a lot of my weaknesses. Interesting thought right? I've been trying BFL, Couch to 5k and other fitness related challeges with marked success at the time but I was never able to sustain my workouts and fitness over a long period of time. What does it mean? Why can't I do these things? Am I an idiot or am I lazy? Maybe I'm hard headed?

I don't think it was any of those things. I think it was just not listening to my intuition about a great many things in my life. I used to write all the time and I loved it. Yes I don't anymore...yet I have the yearning to. So I've been doing that a little bit at a time and I've found that I really enjoy it now as much as I used to. I'm also realizing that I'm probably not a great technical support engineer but I'm a damn good people person that has a broad technical background. Why have I been spending all my time trying to be more technical instead of going into product marketing or product management instead? Then the other day after lazing around trying to figure out the newest fitness fad it hit me...why the HELL did I ever stop swimming? Seriously? I was a great swimmer, it left me with great stamina, great muscle tone and a flat stomach!! Again...why was I always running in a different direction than where my strengths were leading me? Who knows. But I'm starting to realize that I'm needing to stop running and jump right back into what I'm good at.

So this week I got back in the pool. Guess what? I'm sucking wind!! But my stroke and conditioning as far as the overall swimming goes are nearly intact from the last few times I swam and certainly not far off my competition form. In fact I was in the pool not just keeping up, but to be honest, SMOKING the other swimmers that probably do lap swimming every week!! It was definitely a great motivator and most importantly it felt natural and like something I had been missing. Almost like an emabrace, a loving hug from a friend I hadn't seen in a while. Plus I miss the smell of Chlorine strangely enough! Am I still needing to get back into swimming shape? YOU BETCHA!! But I'm not hurting in my back and knees like I do when I run, I'm not feeling my tendons swell like I do on the weights and I'm actually enjoying the workout for the way I feel during the workout instead of seeing the workout as a means to an end. It's relaxing and invigorating and I hope that I keep it up.

So my workouts so far have been:

************************************************************************************

Friday:

Warm up:

6x25 Yard Freestyle (10-20% Effort) :20 rest between each 25

Drill/Kick/Pull Set:

2x50 Kick (20-30% Effort) :20 Rest between each 50
2x25 Pull (20-30% Effort) :20 Rest between each 25

Main Set:

1x25 (40% Effort) :20 rest
1x75 (70% Effort) :20 rest
1x25 (40% Effort) :20 rest
1x50 (70% Effort) :20 rest
1x25 (40% Effort) :20 rest
1x25 (70% Effort) :20 rest

Cool Down:

3x25 (10% Effort) :20 Rest between each 25

Total Yardage: 600 Yards

Sunday:

Warm Up:

2x50 (10-20% Effort) :20 Sec rest between 50

Drill set:

2x75 Stroke Drills with Pull Buoys (20-30% Effort) :20 Rest between 75
(1x25 Right arm drills, 1x25 Left Arm Drills, 1x25 Both arms and focus on technique)

2x50 Kick (20-30% Effort) :20 rest between 50

Main Set:

1x25 Butterfly (60-70% Effort) :20 rest
1x50 Backstroke (60-70% Effort) :20 rest
1x75 Breaststroke (60-70% Effort) :20 rest
1x100 Freestyle (60-70% Effort) :20 rest

Cool Down:

4x25 Free (10% Effort) :20 Rest Between 25

************************************************************************************

So I'm happy with my workouts so far. They take me about 20-30 minutes to complete and I don't even think about the time. I'm not clock watching or worrying about when I'm going to be done. I just do it. I bought a great book that was authored by Janet Evans, the gold medalist from the 88,92 and 96 Olympic Teams and she provides some excellent workouts for people just getting back into the people all the way up to swimmers looking to compete at the international level. It's not a great book for technique but it's a fantastic book to design your workouts and build a swimming base from.

And no I didn't forget...today we have a little Father's Day Trivia!!

1. This Academy Award Winning Actor is the father to Angelina Jolie and grandfather to Maddox and Zahara.

2. This Father-Son tandem hit back-to-back home runs on September 14, 1990.

3. This 1993 film starred Daniel Day Lewis and Pete Postlewhite as a father and son wrongly accused and and imprisoned together for their roles in the IRA bombing of the 1970s. What is the name of the movie?

4. Okay this one is an easy one for Lori :) Liv Tyler is the daugher of Bebe Buell and what famous American Rock n Roll star?

5. What is the name of Superman's Father?

And the Bonus Question:

This famous actor who once played Superman's Father is in fact the father or Singer/Model/Media Bozo...Courtney Love.

Have a great Fathers Day!

Trivia Answers

2007-06-14T00:08:00.001-07:00

Well everyone did horribly bad on the trivia but here are the answers

1. This Boston born bass guitarist for King Crimson and Peter Gabriel is also renown for is work using the Chapman Stick and creating the use of the Funk Fingers to simulate a percussive sound on the bass strings.

*I will accept his real name or his nickname*

The answer: Tony Levin

2. Michael Peter Balzary is known for his funk bass lines and pants made of stuffed animal dolls. What is his stage name?

The Answer: Flea

3. This bass virtuoso formerly of Weather Report was declared brain dead in 1987 after an altercation with a bouncer at a nightclub.

The Answer: Jaco Pastorius

4. This eccentric bassist whose work with George Clinton, Funkadelic and Parliament also collaborated with Deee-Lite on their massive hit "Groove Is In The Heart" in 1990.

The Answer: Bootsy Collins

5. To encourage The Who to write their own songs, their record company offered them a £500 advance if each member wrote a song on the album. What was the song that bassist John Entwistle wrote?

The Answer: Boris the Spider...And since I didn't want to make John feel bad I included his picture as well.

And the Bonus Movie Quote..name the movie!!

"Isn't this George Clinton? No. Couldn't be. It's gotta be a cover band. He'd never play the Pit"

The Answer: P.C.U....In the movie George Clinton's Tour bus breaks down and he agrees to play a party on campus.

A few updates...

2007-06-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

No more word from the girl so I think I'm safe. I've been spending a lot of time doing bar trivia with friends on Tuesday and Thursday night. Pretty interesting topics and we have even won a few gift certificates. In the spirit of Trivia I've decided to start adding Trivia Questions for each posting as well as fun movie quotes for the bonus. Why? I dont know why mostly because it will keep all of you coming to my blog and also it's more fun than most of the stories I post.

So without any further Interuptions...the game:

Today's category is FAMOUS BASS GUITARISTS:

1. This Boston born bass guitarist for King Crimson and Peter Gabriel is also renown for is work using the Chapman Stick and creating the use of the Funk Fingers to simulate a percussive sound on the bass strings.

*I will accept his real name or his nickname*

2. Michael Peter Balzary is known for his funk bass lines and pants made of stuffed animal dolls. What is his stage name?

3. This bass virtuoso formerly of Weather Report was declared brain dead in 1987 after an altercation with a bouncer at a nightclub.

4. This eccentric bassist whose work with George Clinton, Funkadelic and Parliament also collaborated with Deee-Lite on their massive hit "Groove Is In The Heart" in 1990.

5. To encourage The Who to write their own songs, their record company offered them a £500 advance if each member wrote a song on the album. What was the song that bassist John Entwistle wrote?

And the Bonus Movie Quote..name the movie!!

"Isn't this George Clinton? No. Couldn't be. It's gotta be a cover band. He'd never play the Pit"

Good Luck!!

7 Facts about me

2007-06-12T04:13:00.001-07:00

1. When I grew up I always had the suspicion that I would one day become famous. I still do.

2. I did childrens theater when I was younger. I've played Abraham Lincoln, Paul Bunyan and and Evil Jackrabbit that was the Bane of the Cabbage Patch kids. I blame my agent.

3. I often find websites of celebrities to see if they will respond to my email. So far I've only been able to exchange emails with the Pace Picante guy.

4. Three age group swimmers that I helped coach before they were teens are now state record holders in Arkansas.

5. I can rock 6 degrees of seperation with Kevin Bacon using my little known Dan Hedaya move.

6. I've written movie screenplay but will probably never submit it.

7. I once had a surreal conversation in my gym locker room while talking to a world famous comedian while we were both naked and getting dressed.

Jeremy...Department of Irony is on Line 2

2007-06-11T21:51:00.000-07:00

So apparently the news media has caught wind of my dilemma from the last post...

The title of the article?

"Google privacy 'worst on the Web'"

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/06/11/google.privacy.ap/index.html

Jeremy...Psycho Girl on line 1 for you

2007-06-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

Okay for those of you who care...I dabble in the online dating world. Most of the time it's been disappointing and dreary in regards to the folks I meet offline but rarely traumatic and scary. Some people don't look like their pictures, some people just don't ignite a spark on me and some people I just don't really care to see again. But tonight took the cake.

I had met a girl that we'll just call Alice to spare the name. We've been chatting since we met online about 3 weeks ago. Overall good chemistry, lots in common, she's a writer and seems genuninely normal. The only real drawback is that she is living in Charlotte. Well I figure why not take a chance and meet up with her? What's the harm right? So we decided to tentatively meet in Greensboro on Friday night.

Well about 2 days ago I started getting a bad feeling in my stomach. You know those gut feelings that tell you that something isn't right? well that also coincided with an allergy problem as well as some sleep deprivation issues from my night shift. Overall I'm feeling under the weather, I'm nauseous because of the allergies and now the red flags about meeting her. So I call her and tell her that I want to postpone because I'm feeling under the weather. Simple.

Not really.

I finally fell asleep and since I keep my cell phone in my other room when I'm sleeping during the day I didn't hear the umpteen phone calls and subsequent voice mail messages....

Message 1 - "hi I'm in Greensboro on my way to take care of you. Give me a call so I can more easily find you"

Message 2 - "hi still waiting for you to call me back. I'm in carrboro now. Where are you? I guess you'll just have to be surprised"

Message 3 - "Well I think I just freaked out somebody. You don't live at the address that i thought you did. Man that lady was scared. Please call me...I'm in town and don't know where you are"

Needless to say for the next 3 hours I didn't leave my apt, turned off all of the lights in fear that she was either outside my door or in the parking lot. I then notified all the friends I could find that there was a psycho on the loose. Well needless to say I'm alive. I've blocked her from my yahoo account but than I got an email from here pointing me to her block entry which I have written below:

***********************************************************************

"I'm going to make a lot of mistakes. We all do, right? However, as I embark on this journey called "single," I know I'm going to make a lot of dumb, idiotic, irrational mistakes. This is the first one.

I met a guy named J.R. online. We hit off. I didn't know if I really wanted to become attached with someone who lived 100 miles away, but I did. He was addictive. He was funny, he was intelligent, we had a lot in common. I don't know why I'm talking in the past tense when describing him because, at least to my knowledge, he's not deceased and I think I will speak to him again, er, right?

Anyway, we were supposed to meet tonight at a halfway point but yesterday he came down with a bug. He said he was extremely sick and couldn't make it. I asked him if he'd like me to come over to help him out. There's nothing worse than being sick and by yourself; it's nice to know you have someone to get stuff for you or just be there. To be honest, I love taking care of people when they are sick -- as long as the vomit doesn't fly in my face. I get a satisfaction like none other when I help someone out, and I felt close enough to help J.R. out. Waiting for him to come back online or give me a call, on a whim, I got into my car and drove approximately 111 miles northeast of Concord. I googled his name and found his address. So, for two hours, every 40 miles or so, I called him to let him know I was on my way. No response. Mmmm, he must be sleeping. Now, I hit 10 miles from his place, call again. No answer. Leave message. No worries, I have his address and thanks to Mapquest I have directions to his apartment.

Now, for some reason, I can't find the street. The last direction dear old Mapquest gave me ended. No street. No street signs! Just a main street with dozens apartment complexes. The sun is down and it's hard to see what to expect around every turn because it's unchartered territory. Again, I call J.R. No answer, leave message. Finally, after a half-hour of searching, I think I found the road and I ask a couple walking if this is the street. "Yes," they reply. I find the building number. Wonderful. I find the apartment door. Excellent! I knock. A small framed woman with a page boy haircut answers the door. Uh oh. No, J.R. Again, I call. No answer, leave message. So, here I am, drove 111 miles, spent about $25 in gasoline and now I have to turn around? Yep. That's what I did. I drove back to Concord.

Was I pissed? Hell, yeah. Am I over it? Hell, yeah. I've learned a few things in the last six hours. Never travel to a place you THINK is there. Don't invite yourself over to anyone's house if they do not live within a five-mile radius of your place. And NEVER drink a 48 oz. cup of Diet Coke when you're driving on a two-lane highway in rural North Carolina. These are troves of knowledge I am passing down to you, and a few things I will never forget as I venture into the wilderness known as dating."

******************************************************************

That's it...no more dating for me. I'm apparently TOO addictive and can't be trusted!! Sheesh!! I'm hoping that's the last I'll hear from her. I'm going to try the "ignore" tactic and hope that works. If not I'll move to nasty leave me alone emails and if that doesn't work I'm changing my name, moving to another country and becoming a brick mason!

Go See Hot Fuzz

2007-04-24T04:11:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to write a review...just providing you a you tube of the trailer. It's a great British film from the makers of Shaun of the Dead...which if you have seen that...I'll just include that as well. Not for the kiddies but definitely a good movie for those of you that love intelligent parodies that don't go for the cheap laughs.

Enjoy

Hott Fuzz

Shaun of the Dead

Start of the second week of nights...

2007-04-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

Well everyone I'm alive and well and starting my second week of the night shift this evening. It's weird keeping the schedule of vampires so I'm that I have to have "routines" to keep me awake which is good but also doesn't allow for a lot of tinkering. At the moment I'm able to stay up all night without much help from coffee or caffeine and also still able to get a workout in as well. I'm eating pretty healthy (no fast food or crap open at that time of night) and also getting some stuff done personally that is helping me as well.

The sleep schedule is still getting sorted out but for the most part my sleeping hours are from about about 10:30 am until about 6:30 pm which seems to be about right. Give's me an hour before bed to get any banking or trivial stuff done and give me from about 7 pm until about 11 pm to hang out with friends, talk to the family, etc. Overall it's a pretty good shift but they all tell me the second week is when it begins to break down on you...so I'm preparing for that.

The shift itself is pretty relaxing. It's less phone calls and more emails. But you definitely work a lot more cases. Customers in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) tend to be resellers of our equipment rather than direct end users. Thus they have money to afford competent engineers that also speak english and know how to get things done quickly. I've definitely learned a lot about Americans versus the rest of the world lol. American IT people tend to freak out and need their hands held...the rest of the world just do what needs to be done and don't complain. I suspect more that Americans are overworked at their jobs and their managers have unrealistic expectations (okay I don't suspect...I KNOW) and their European and Asian counterparts tend to have more people to help out due to cheaper labor and thus can focus more singularly on their problems. Either way...it's a LOT less stressful working with the rest of the world versus folks in North America (that includes you lovely canadians too!!)

So hopefully I'll blog more on the shift or just find other things to distract me. Either way I think I'm actually going to get a LOT more positives out of this shift than negatives and that's the important thing.

Also in exercise/weight loss news:

Down 1 pound to 212 lbs and can now run 10 minutes straight without needed a break!!

More to reports when necessary!!

Night of the Living Dead Aka My First Night on the New Shift

2007-04-16T00:39:00.000-07:00

Well it's 3:41 am local time and I'm still awake. I woke up this morning at 10 am so I at least got a fresh 8 hours of sleep before this evening. However, I didn't catch a nap or something before my shift so it's going to be a rough couple of days or weeks until I can get somewhat used to this time. I've spent most of it trying to chat with my fellow zombies but we've been a little busy with other stuff as well...which is fairly repetitive...which of course isn't keeping me awake. I may take my lunch in about 20 minutes and hopefully I can find a way to wake up. I didn't bring any workout clothes or I would have worked out on the treadmill. Dammit. This is going to suck.

No Carol...this isn't the post you were looking for either...

2007-04-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

Had to take a week off from running. Knees and back are too sore and I think I'm going to rest until Saturday and trying running again. Also I'm changing shifts on Sunday in which I'll be moving from 11am to 8 pm and will now be working midnight to 9 am.

Pros:

- Not too much work that time of night
- I avoid rush hour traffic and get to the gym when no one is around
- Will catch up on my reading and DVDs

Cons:

- I have to work in the middle of the night
- I have to work in the middle of the night
- I have to work in the middle of the night

In other news my mother's latest biopsy came back clean. So I'm relieved on that front. I'm still losing weight and still feeling positive. Can't ask for much more than that.

He's going the distance...he's going for...SPEEEEED

2007-04-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

Well after going 2 miles last run tonight I decided to see if I could at least up the amount of time running during 1 mile and also see what my time was. Well I did a five minute run 3 minute walk and 7 minute run and broke the 15 minute mile barrier:

14:55

It's still a tad slower than I was running this summer (14:42) but I was running more than I was walking and that's a good thing. My previous best these past few weeks was 15:56 on Sunday so shaving nearly a minute off my run/walk mile in less than 5 days is a pretty good sign of improvement both physically, mentally and emotionally. I really was worried that I would either give up, physically break down or get distracted in some other way like I had before and never finish what I started. Although the BFL program taught focus, this is a completely different animal for me as I don't run...never really have learned the way to do it correctly or without hurting myself early on and it's almost like learning to ride a bike!!

Also I'd like to share my 1.5 mile times for each week so far:

Week 1 29:45
Week 2 29:00
Week 3 22:23 (estimated via the mile time 0f 14:55)

At the beginning of my 5k quest I would have been happy breaking 60 minutes in a 5k...now I'm seeing the possibility of breaking 45 minutes and possibly 40 if I keep up this pace. Overall I'm just keeping my focus on keeping the feet moving and finding a pace. Also found a great song on my mp3 player which perfectly paces my runs. Tonight I felt like I could have run the whole mile but I wanted to keep myself healthy for my run Saturday and not push it. But the song definitely helped keep me on track, didn't get me winded, but definitely pushed my body and strengthened the muscles. Faster than walking but not QUITE entirely running at a full gait. I'm hoping over the next few weeks I'll find was to stop shuffle running and get my feet further off the ground when I'm running.

Otherwise nothing new to report in the world or work or dating. I'm working with my boss to get a project or some other busy work under my belt to see if I can break up some of the monotony of my daily job as well as get some "raise" barganing chips :) I'll report more as I get the feedback. Hope everyone is doing well.

Sweep the Leg...

2007-04-03T19:35:00.002-07:00

So I'm debating entering a 5k on May 19th. I'm holding off for the moment because it's supposed to occur about the 8th or 9th week of my couch to 5k program which will have me running somewhere between 28-30 minutes without walking which I ASSUME means I'll be good to run the whole 5k. Do any of you agree that this is probably the case or is that too soon to be signing up for my first race?

Also today I found a wonderful little nugget of joy. If you've seen the Karate kid then you'll enjoy this clip. It's directed by the actor who played Johnny the bully from the first movie. He not only directs but has a starring role in this music video in which he is joined by the a few the actual actor that played his fellow bullies as they live in a trailer, 20 years later, watching the movie, over and over again at the "Sweep the Leg" moment. It actually has another cameo by Ralph Macchio as well. It's a fairly entertaining clip even though I'm not entirely happy with the music.

Copy and paste the link below to enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFlQNtL8F9s

Sweep the Leg...

2007-04-03T19:35:00.001-07:00

So I'm debating entering a 5k on May 19th. I'm holding off for the moment because it's supposed to occur about the 8th or 9th week of my couch to 5k program which will have me running somewhere between 28-30 minutes without walking which I ASSUME means I'll be good to run the whole 5k. Do any of you agree that this is probably the case or is that too soon to be signing up for my first race?

Also today I found a wonderful little nugget of joy. If you've seen the Karate kid then you'll enjoy this clip. It's directed by the actor who played Johnny the bully from the first movie. He not only directs but has a starring role in this music video in which he is joined by the a few the actual actor that played his fellow bullies as they live in a trailer, 20 years later, watching the movie, over and over again at the "Sweep the Leg" moment. It actually has another cameo by Ralph Macchio as well. It's a fairly entertaining clip even though I'm not entirely happy with the music.

Click the link below to enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFlQNtL8F9s

Sweep the Leg...

2007-04-03T19:35:00.000-07:00

Disaster...and Redemption...

2007-04-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

Well I hit my first "Ahhhh shit!!" moment in my couch to 5k program. On Wednesday and Thursday I tried running on the treadmill and my calves tightened up. I mean we're talking steel poles tight. I couldn't run more than about 30 seconds before I felt like they were on fire. I've stretched like I should, eaten banannas, taken my vitamins, my glucosamine, etc and all of sudden I feel like everything is about to come to a streaking halt. So I read up on a few articles, did some alternate exercises and more importantly...rested.

So today I decided to kick the treadmill to the curb and get outside. I ran my old route from this summer and did incredible. As I told you before I was at the 90 seconds run/2 minute walk week of the program and today I decided I wanted to just push my limits a bit. So I did 3 minutes of running and 3 minutes of walking. The first half of that felt great, the last half of it I was dragging but I did it. That's right I just kept my feet moving, evened out my gait and kept the pace and conditioning going. I'm sure I looked like I was dying to everyone that could see me but I actually felt great. Also impoved my 1.5 mile time from 29 minutes down to 24 minutes and 10 seconds. Also calculated my best run/walk mile at 15:56 so I'm confident that once I'm running the whole time I can drop that by at least 1-2 minutes before I'm done. My goal in the next two weeks is to try and do a run/walk 5k and just see what my time is. My goal starting this was just to be able to get it under one hour. So I'm hoping that's still a possibility. I think so.

My weight has gone from about 225 lbs from my highest weight in March down to about 214 lbs as of today. I'm incredibly happy about that, but overall the improvements I'm seeing all over.

2007-03-28T16:29:00.000-07:00

Well so far so good...keeping up the running 3 days a week and then other forms of cardio when I want a break from the running. Feeling tight and sore but I'm beating it down with Aleve, Glucosamine and other magic pills. Also plenty of water and vitamins are helping a lot as well. I'm trying to eat 50% clean aside from cutting out soda which is working out fairly well. Yesterday we had deli sandwiches catered which was great, today we had greasy pizza. Not too great. So during my lunch break I actually ran to the grocery store and bought some semi healthy stuff to snack on at work. Man what I wouldn't pay to get a mini fridge installed here at work. I spend enough time here sometimes that I think I should rate one!!

About a month ago I bought a new camera. I digital rebel EOS 10.1 MP monster!! It's have more buttons and gadgets than I'm honestly comfortable with, but I did want to start taking photos again and decided to stop whining and start doing. I'm hoping to get out this weekend and try and take some photos and see how they come out. I'm eyeing macro and wide angle lenses but my wallet is whispering that I need to ease up...ease up. So i'm listening. Darn it.

More fun...

2007-03-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

Well I'm at work today and unbeknownst to me (but apparently knownst to others) about half of the staff is in a training session for three days and my fellow heathens get to pick up the slack. Good times.

Also I'm down 5 lbs to about 215. Obviously I want to look at other measurements for the real improvements, but overall I needed a good baseline for initial encouragement and that helps to keep me motivated.

In other news I'm going out on a second date with a girl I met this weekend. Probably something simple like dinner at one of the crazy chain restaurants. She's nice and seems to have a great sense of humor. She also runs and seems to really enjoy my sense of humor which is important. More information as details warrant of course :)

Also...Carol appears to be in trouble with our little bet on the first day :)

Another update...the trifecta baby

2007-03-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

Well everyone I've updated three times now so I think the bitching will finally end :)

Went to the second week of my couch to 5k program today and I'm sore but in the good way. My 1.5mile times last week topped out at 29:45 and today it topped out at 29:00 flat so that's always a nice improvement. My left achilles is off and on so I'm keeping an eye on that and trying to keep myself from overpacing during the run portion. Jen asked if I had tried the podcast and I'm debating. I'm more worried about the style of music throwing my pace off which tends to happen to me if I'm listening to something with a faster beat than then treadmill is moving lol.

Carol you're on!! April 27th is your pain day baby!!

Thanks for the comments I'll be back to your blogs as soon as I can.

Damn Tarheels.

Back to the Couch to 5k

2007-03-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

So I'm back on the couch to 5k plan with lessons learned about the past few times I've attempted it:

1. Start off on the treadmill if you're a first timer or REALLY out of shape!!

Why? Because there are too many road hazards, concrete is hard on my joints, and the spring and summer months are hot.

2. Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate!!

Why? Because my body needs to replenish what is loses. I purchased one of those camel back bags that you can wear around your waist with a tube that clips to your shirt. You may think it's dorky, but when you're dragging and dying looking cool I'll be dorky looking but hydrated and still going :) Still though, most treadmills have a slot for water bottles so I bring one, preferrably two bottles and hydrate. I've learned this lesson well and it's helped me get more of of the program so far in the first two weeks.

3. PACING YOURSELF!!

I have the trouble the when I start running I'll begin slow and before I know it I'm running WAY to fast. Not good because it's not a sprint right now!! The treadmill is helping me even my pace. Even just a nice brisk slow jog does the trick of getting you body to move beyond just normal walking. Overall paying attention to the pace has helped me immensely in keeping my strenght and stamina up of the 30 minutes or so that I'm on the treadmill and the 20 minutes of actual training during that time.

Today I finished my program with a 20 minute run walk pace of about 17:57 seconds per mile. It's not blazing but you know what? I did it!! 8 minutes of running and 12 minutes of walking. To be honest any pace under 1 hour for a 5k at this moment I'm happy with. What this also tell me, that if I can just keep up this pace of 8/12 running walking over 5 kilometers then hey...didn't I just do a 5k? Mental attitude is everything. Once you get over the little goals then you shoot for the bigs one. My goal right now is to be running for 25 minutes straight around May 7th. Not running crazy...but just being able to run for that long without stopping to take a breath or walk!!

Allrighty folks I'm off to meet a friend for lunch and then maybe have a few games of pool and bowling.

And remember...cheer for those North Carolina Tarheels :)

Why? Because when I run and you might

I'm back but no promises...mmm kay?

2007-03-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

Allright folks I decided to try and start updating the blog again. I suppose the reason I stopped is that I didn't have anything blog worthy to report. I don't mean excercise worthy...I just mean I didn't have ANYTHING to talk about!!

Well I don't know if I have much more to talk about but I have gotten back into working out again after I tipped the scales at 220 lbs. Those of you that followed my BFL progress last year know that I worked my way all the way down to about 179 lbs by January of 2006. Since then I've steadily fallen off the wagon, eaten poorly and overall just stopped taking care of my body.

I'm not doing any major program or fad, my goal is to eventually get back down under 190 lbs and to stay active. I just miss seeing my toes to be honest and summertime is NO time to be caught outside looking like a pregnant man. So I've been doing some light cardio on the dreadmill and trying to watch what I eat. Completely cut out the sodas again so that should help...A LOT since they seem to be the main reason I got back up to my horrifingly large self again. So I don't have any plan, I don't have any diet, I'm not doing anything but looking at myself in the mirror and just making little goals for myself on the treadmill and in the gym to get myself back to breathing normally, looking heathy and feeling better. For all of you that sent my comments in my absence I thank you for them and I'm going to try and try and get back in touch with you more to thank you personally.

As for myblends.com I may or may not go back. It's not that I don't appreciate the site or what's going on there...it's more that I'm not sure I have anything to add at this time in terms of motivation or well wishes. I'm sort of up and down emotionally myself about the weight and I suppose I'm worried about getting in over my head, posting a lot and then quitting my workouts. Right now I'm trying to do what's best and realistic for me. For those of you that might try to push me a little harder, just remember I did something like this before my original BFL challenege last year. Just sort of did a general workout and diet to get back into some sembelance of shape and then eventually started BFL. Maybe I'll get bored and want a bigger challenge. Maybe I'll start the Couch to 5k program again, or maybe I'll just be happy with what I do. Overall I'm just trying to stay positive and keep sane.

Hope everyone is doing well and like I said I'll try to keep posting more often.

What my customer is doing to me today...

2007-01-19T10:59:00.000-08:00

I would like to thank Ex-English Premier League player and current Hollywood actor, Vinnie Jones (Aka I'm the Juggernaut Bitch, Bullet Tooth Tony) for his help in re-enacting this for me.

What the hell....?

2007-01-16T19:45:00.000-08:00

Okay the last 3 nights I've been to about 5 different large retail chain outlets/grocery stores and have been astonished at the level of customer support I've received. I've begrudgingly gotten used to the idea of not being helped in a store they all line up about the same, have the meats here, the veggies there, the electronics in this aisle the cat toys in that aisle, etc. etc. Shopping for dummies...or at leasat shopping for those that don't expect to be helped by any of the employees. So imagine my shock and awe when I was helped at no less than five different stores. Not just helped, but repeatedly asked to be helped an annoying large number of times. At both grocery stores, stockers (who have a large number of items to stock in a short period of time) were eager to help me find groceries, cleaning supplies, walking with me directly to the correct aisle, moving pallets out of my way so I could reach the items. Today at quiznos the guy who made my soup and sandwich actually came to my table to take away a few of the trays and told me to relax and enjoy the book I was reading. Tonight I had to fight off no less than 4 Petco associates who were all to eager to help me pick out a litter box scooper and select a toy for Carly. At Wal Mart (Yes I swear to god Wal-Mart...then one in Hillborough no less) I had one of the associates help me select the best vacuum food sealer for my needs. They worked with me for 20 minutes!! To add to the round of good help karma I've been getting I also had one of the customers out in the parking lot (yes a customer) offer to put my shopping cart away from me out of the kindness of her own heart. I have to admit I'm wondering if I ingested some bad acid or I've been hit over the head because this is GREAT!! Exactly the kind of service i've always wished would come back to retail America. Anyone else noticed this in your experiences in the last month???

Updates and such...

2006-12-06T07:11:00.000-08:00

Well I decided to update this blog since it's been quite a while and many of you presumably have assumed that I am dead. Well it's a bit premature!!

Been dealing with all kinds of issues on the home front and mostly getting my shit together at home and at work. Suffice to say I'm hoping to make a big push mentally and emotionally to end the new year on a high note and start back to goal making and what not in the new year.

What's new you ask?

Well I'm a blonde now. I dyed my hair for a costume over halloween and then realized I actually enjoyed the look. I mean it doesn't look great...just different and it's sort of inspiring to make the silly little changes in life if only to show that you can do it. Sometime you just need to shake things up a little...even if it looks somewhat ridiculous.

Apartment is finally furnished again after the flooding from the summer. Got the new bed, sofa and recliner moved in the last month and now I'm looking at a table of somekind for the kitchen. Mind you that I'm still a man and prefer my spartan lifestyle so I'm sure I'll go to world market and find some medieval table with benches instead of chairs.

Job has been challenging the last few months for a number of reasons. I'm getting a handle on things so I think I'll be fine now. Just a lot of new products and customer expectations to sort through and not enough time in the day. I'll get it right eventually but it's definitely taking up a lot of my away time from the personal life.

What's going on in the personal life you ask? Well girls are here and there but so far I've decided to hold off on the love life until after the holidays and concentrate on the family and close friends during the holiday season. I've got a few hooks into a few ladies but I think they'll hold until after xmas :) Other than that I'm doing my usual going out and having fun when I can. Also reading a lot more than usual but that maybe due to the cold weather and enjoying to read by a roaring fire place.

Hope everyone is well.

Brock Samson Kicks Ass...

2006-10-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

...or Reason # 378 why I love the Venture Brothers on Adult Swim

Update...

2006-09-18T09:40:00.001-07:00

Said during an IM conversation when I was debating how best to "run into" a cute girl on jogging path...

"love feels like a sweaty man running into you sometimes"

Update...

2006-09-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

Said during an IM conversation when I was debating how best to "run into" a cute girl on jogging path...

"love feels like a sweaty man running into you sometimes"

V for Vendetta: The Graphic Novel

2006-08-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I reviewed the movie V for Vendetta and this time around I've decided to review the graphic novel. As I mentioned in my last post, a friend of mine gave me a trade paper back of the graphic novel to replace the actual 10 issues that I had lost during the flooding last month. I decided to reread it over the last couple of days and remembered what a complex and detailed piece of work it really is. The movie itself was very well done but seems really to only be a drop in the bucket of the what the author and illustrator, Alan Moore and David Lloyd, were really trying get across.

Alan Moore, Author

David Lloyd, Artist

This had been a pet project of Moore's that was on the backburner due to his ground breaking work on Swamp Thing and the Eisner award winning The Watchmen for DC comics.The story itself was written over a period of years from 1981 to 1988 under which England had been under Conservative Party rule with Margaret Thatcher. Moore, an anarchist at heart, was fearful of the times due to the cold war, the breakout of HIV/AIDS and a general xenophobic attitude of all things non-english around him. He feared that any extreme form of goverment, whether it be left or right wing politically, might do more to harm their citizens than good in order to keep the reigns of their power tight. This fear was what set the times and events of V for Vendetta. He had the setting...all he really needed was a character, the protaganist to give a reason for the novel.

During those years Moore became disenchanted with DC comics and it's eventual offshoot of Mature Comics/Graphic Novel line called Vertigo. He had been unable to retain his rights or his creative freedom and this felt crushed by DC's strict character and plot guidelines. He began to feel that this company was imprisoning him creatively and eventually financially. Thus it would appear this fight against those who would hold him back probably did more to fuel the creation of V as a character than the setting of the story. At this point he now had the finishing touches to finish, what would be his last official effort with DC comics.

When going from page to screen the movie makers tend to leave out a number of important details that made the original work so well received. However, I will add that the changes, one that were a fairly large departure from the novel, were more modeled to fit a modern viewership and thus the movie is entertaining, but as a completely seperate piece work and story in it's own right. In the movie the settings were of a government that created the problems to take control of England and thus V was more of a revenge character towards that particular government's misdeeds. In the book, the government arises out of chaos that was created by the events of a world war, when no one else stepped in to suppress the lawlessness around them. The V of the novel seemed more about restoring the right of humanity to choose it's destiny instead of revenge, although it could be argued that revenge was still a very powerful motivator in the beginning of the novel.

The book was able to capture the actual lifestyle and bleakness of the times in which the characters lived. There was a larger feeling of the government's control with cameras and microphones visible on every street corner. Instead of a political pundit on the television as shown in the movie, it was simply a calming voice on the speakers known as the Voice of Fate which reported the government propaganda as news. The governments agencies were known as the Mouth which was the broadcast of propaganda, The Eye which was the visual monitoring department, The Ear which was the audio monitoring department, The Nose which was the police, The Finger which was the secret police and all were controlled by The Head which controlled everything in the country under one leader who spent his entire working day monitoring all the elements that his groups could provide him from a control booth.

As is usual with any government, politics and infighting always seem to surface. They are kept to minor interdepartment rivlaries until V begins to bring about chaos and destruction and thus you see those rivalries become schemes and plans to take advantage of the chaos to grab power or gain more prestige. Additionally the subplots of the wives and widows of these powerful men are probably the most central to entire book, of which were completely omitted from the movie. These women were as important to the plot of the story as the female protagnist, Evey Hammond's role in her relationship with V. It would seem that in many ways the men underestimated the woman in their downfall and V understood the power in which Evey could ultimately wield and mentored her to become someone much more effective for change than he could ever be. He was created as a monster by monsters, his task was to recreate Evey as a loving mother figure for the new age of England.

Through the course of the novel controversial subjects such as Anarchy, LSD usage torture and violence are used to justify the means to an end. V's character was born of extremes and felt that extreme action was the only way to open the eyes of those around him to the complacency they had fallen into. How they had allowed their freedoms to be exchanged for the illusion of security and safety. It's certainly a bleak time for humanity and the end of the novel leaves you with the hope that they majority of the people will make the next step to save themselves from such conditions again. The consequences and future ramifications of V's actions beg the reader to wonder if his actions will really make a difference. It's an interesting account of whether humanity is willing to actually make the effort of a truly free civilization or should we become savages again until we are truly ready to control our own destinies.

Great Weekend and moving forward...

2006-08-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

Spent the weekend beering and bowling with the co-workers, hanging out with the normal friends as well as a friend from out of town and we had a lot of fun. I received a copy of the V for Vendetta and Sin City Trade Paper Backs from a friend because I lost the originals in the flood. It was a nice touch and I appreciated it. I helped them a few years ago when their place flooded and they new how upset I was when I lost that collection that I had built from childhood in one swoop. Maybe I should have asked for a new couch and new bed as well but that's what the renters insurance check is for :)

I also saw the movie Little Miss Sunshine which I highly recommend. All I have to say about the movie is that it will swear you off of enterting your children in beauty pageants or fixing up that old VW van you've had your eye on. It's one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time and the audience literally got up and cheered when the movie was over. Alan Arkin alone was worth the price of admission notwithstanding great performances from Toni Collette, Steve Carrell and Greg Kinnear. Either see it now or watch for it on DVD in a few months. Either way you won't be disappointed.

The addition of fish oils and glucosamine have helped the knee problems a bit but I'm still getting more inflammation. I'm going to try to some aleve as well as it's always been a wonder drug for me when I had back and shoulder problems as a collegiate swimmer and I'm hoping it will help on the knees as well. For someone reason normal painkillers work but naproxian alway does the trick. Still getting on with the 5k challenge and so even though I've been unable to run that last week or so I've been walking and keeping the moderate weight schedule up. Been eating clean despite moving and extended working hours so it's all good there. Work has been a little crazier with hurricane and school season starting up. I have to say I love living in the US but we have some of the laziest people on the planet. The asians, the europeans, hell even the 3rd world countries have better technical customers than the Americans for the most part. They actually read the manuals, they actually troubleshoot the problems and THEN they call us when they don't know the answer. American and Canadian customer freak out if the device shuts down or reboots and immediately calls us before A) checking for power (duh) or B) plugging it into other power outlets. It's just amazing that people get paid for being that stupid and lazy and in some cases rewarded for it.

Hope everyone is having a great week. Keep up the RAH RAH RAH and the PMA!!

Answering the fan mail

2006-08-27T00:43:00.000-07:00

This is for Tracey is response to some very tough questions in my last post:

My blog is simply a sounding board, which is by the way a VERY public sounding board, of my own opinions, ideas, thoughts and my brand of humor. Perhaps you felt that my rant about the “other” forum was as bad as what they might be doing over there, but I assure you it was a simple critique like you might read for a movie or perhaps a restaurant. It is simply my opinion. Whether or not you agree with what I write is fine and I’m not one to take down your comments lest you attack my “rah rah” supporters of which I won’t have. But to be certain any critiques of myself or of my site are always welcome. I love getting comments, cheers or jeers. I'm not ashamed to bare my soul and I'm certainly not hiding in a forum where people might be making fun of other people. If I have something to say out loud I voice it here where everyone can read it. It’s my own little R-Rated forum if you will and the admission is free to all.

However, I must admit for someone who "don't read your blog, never have, never will", you seem to know an awful lot about it’s contents and it’s “rah rah” supporters. I guess forming an opinion on something you know nothing about is common for you and I’m sure those snap decisions have always served you well in life. As to your offense at my blog, I can only assume that you are either Dave Chappelle or you're a member of that other forum that I’ve mentioned in a recent posting. I’m certain one of the two is true; otherwise you wouldn’t have had such a reaction.

I’ll admit that the content of my site might be considered offensive to some. I don’t apologize for the contents. Some people like it and I post what I want regardless of who reads it. When I state something as fact or use someone's humor or quotes I try to make sure to cite my references as I try not to post statements on my website without cold hard facts to back them up. You learn to do these things as a history major writing a senior thesis and a network engineer whose job is to detect and root out those who would cause damage to billion dollar networks. However I think you might be mistaken about having never read my blog. If you're confused and think I'm in error I'll certainly check my details and I will eat my words if this proves to be wrong. However I’ve checked my data a number of times and I don’t think I’m in error. The truth as some would say is in the numbers. Let me explain.

I won’t go into any detailed explanations of Layer 3 routing protocols, packetized data, MAC addressing, network sniffers, source and destination or any of that jazz. I’m sure you know all about such things. However, on my blog I use a tool that logs all IP addresses, locations and the ISP provider to track the amount of people that visit my site. It logs other things like the type of browser you are using and other fun stuff too. Real James Bond stuff and best of all it’s cheaper than you might think. It’s a pretty powerful tool and if you don’t have it running on your website you should PM me. I’ll gladly send you a link and help you set it up if you’re interested. But I’m getting off topic.

Since I have a great support group I'm constantly having to sign 8x10 glossies of myself to all of my “rah rah” supporters and send them out. I was noticing a lot more traffic on my blog this week from Canada, which is great because I love my wonderful blends from the North. They really kick ass and boy do they know how to party. But this week I noticed a lot of IP traffic from Oakville, Ontario. I mean this person was ALL over my blog!! I mean if they were just coming to my page to find a link to say…Jess’s blog then I might be hurt. But no…this person was on multiple times and was looking at different pages in the blog. They really seemed to be eating it up. I mean what a FAN!! As I was about to get an 8x10 glossy autographed and ready to send to this person I noticed that at least one of their visits originated as a referral from that "other" forum that seemed to taunt my fellow blends. Apparently I have quite the fan club there as well since a few others have come to my page from that forum. You know what…I’m getting off topic again.

When you commented on my blog I actually decided to pay your blog a visit for the first time in a long time. I’ll admit I’ve read your stuff in the past. Nothing too exciting but not terribly dull either. You can imagine my surprise when I actually did read that you lived in Oakville, Ontario. Thus I did the math and came to the only logical solution: You were the person all over my site this week. You have to be…the time stamp on your comment matched up exactly to the IP in Oakville and thus I can’t think of anyone else it could be.

Please tell me it was pure coincidence. I would be heartbroken to know that you are a member of a support forum that would simply exist to try and jab at myblends.com considering that you and I have some of the same blogging friends and some of the same people commenting on our blogs. Some of whom are actually members of the myblends.com forum. Does the fact that you refer to my supporters as “rah rah” and “fake” mean that you feel the same about them when they comment on your blog? I assume you do since it would appear to be a blanket statement covering our common friends. Perhaps you believe your comments about them are different than what you were whining and complaining to me about as well. I don’t know to be honest. I see lots of holes in your arguments and frankly when your blog has a link to a site that taunts the myblends forum, of which you appear to be a member in good standing of, your credibility, at least in my humble opinion takes a hit. I’m not one to say I’m perfect but I make a point of not spending a lot of time throwing rocks in houses made of glass.

You're not Dave Chappelle, and you're not funny.

2006-08-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

Click on the pics above to read more about it. It's a graphic that I have borrowed from a...well bitter man that is tired of people taking a cliche line and using it from themselves until it's completely dead and cliche!! They best part is the rant he makes below!! Love this guy!!

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=chappelle

The Story of Girlie

2006-08-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

There was once a girl named...well Girlie who had voices in her head. One voice said "I'm a Kitten" and then another said "NO I'm a sweet Ray of Sunshine" and another said "those are all silly names...just call me Debbie" and she moved all over living in grand places like New Mexico and Maryland and Canada. She had many personalities to go with those names and place as well!! Some were slutty, some were annoying, some were two faced and yet as much as she tried she couldn't find one that was funny and frankly none were very smart and usually got her into trouble. Thankfully her mother finally realized what a problem her child was, spanked her ass red and locked the door.

My blends are better than your blends...

2006-08-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

A review of the forum "my blends are better than your blends"

The latest in the craze to find a new "Tracker" brings us to the forum "My blends are better than your blends." Finally the R-rated tracker trolls have their own little cage to play in and bless them for it. First off let me state that I'm glad it's private as I hate going to the zoo and seeing monkeys throwing shit at each other. It's smelly, stinky, cliche and it loses it's appeal fairly quickly. Much like their juvenile brand of humor but more on that later. Secondly I must applaud their originality in their name as well. I mean I'm just amazed at the ingenuity, creativity and original think that went into the name "My blends are better than your blends." I mean that's the kind of creativity I haven't seen since the classic "I know you are but what am I" followed closely by the "you're cool....NOT!!" phrase which had the shelf life of M.C. Hammer and Vanilla Ice. Lastly it speaks volumes to their obvious lack of intelligence, general creativity and low self-confidence that they start a website designed to hate on other people. Hmmmm sounds a lot like the rise of National Socialism party in Prussia aka Nazi Germany. But I digress...on to the review.

The first thing you notice when you see the splash page is sheer quality. You know you're in the throes of a very stupid operation when the first thing you notice is "bullshit" misspelled as "blueshit." But wait there's more. In their rush to make it feel more like tracker they've created a site that may have MORE pop up ads if that's possible. First rule of the forum? Don't talk about the forum. Second rule of the forum? Don't talk about the forum. Third rule of the forum? Don't talk about the forum. Fourth rule of the forum? You don't use a cheap ass message board just because it's free. You see freeware is short hand for "we would still be doing doing prison time if we actually charged you for this software." Thus when you create a board it helps to A) Buy some server space and B) Shell out for some decent forum software. Total out of pocket you're maybe less a hundred bucks in startup and less than 10 bucks a month in webspace. But when did the trolls ever care about quality or creativity? Most of them probably feel that inane trivia questions for free laps tops and ipods are a small price to pay so they can feel like frugal finance wizards while they check the tire pressure on their homes. Lastly...where are the inflammatory images and pictures of blends with devil horns, mustaches or faces superimposed on fat bodies or in the middle of homosexual orgies? Seriously I'm offended they didn't make it more offensive.

Now I haven't tried to join up yet although as it's tempting to lurk. I think I'll be more offended because they probably don't have a special place to hate on me. Thus I'll just wing the rest of the review based on my assumptions of the actual forum content. I imagine it's a lot like the little yellow short bus for all the haters who couldn't win us over with their humor. A sort of Special Olympics if you will. They realized they couldn't get laughs in the real world and thus they all get together and laugh at their lame jokes, slap each other on the back and everybody wins. You know who else laughs at their own jokes? Schizophrenics. I'm sure we can all guess who their members are and the kinds of moronic behavior they engage in. Hey it's their forum and they can do what they want.

Why do I even care? Well mostly they are calling out the myblends forum by name. But I think it's something more. Something more insidious than that. Bottom line...they just aren't funny, more like an annoying mosquito. Anyone can be offensive but it take pure genius to make it funny. If you really want lessons on how to be offensive and still be funny check out Lewis Black, George Carlin, Dennis Leary, Bill Hicks, Howard Stern and many others who have stood the test of time. They were offensive yet knew how to be creative enough to win univeral laughs. The R-Rated forum twits? Their dick and fart jokes didn't even rate a chuckle save from their own cronies. I'm not offended by the kind of topics they made jokes about I'm offended at how bad they were at it. But again low IQ's breed lame ideas, and eventually they have found themselves corraled in one place laughing at each other for support like high school virgins in a pathetic circle jerk. Reading much of their "humor" in the past reminds me that they are to humor what fan fiction writers are to the sci/fantasy genre: a group of people that have no talent and shouldn't quit their day job. Frankly the refrigerator artwork of the average 3 year old holds more potential for greatness.

In conclusion I give their site 1 out 5 start only on the fact that they started their own support forum. Somebody has to laugh at these people since no one else does.

The week ahead and some new motiviation...

2006-08-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Well a few things to get off my chest about the new girl. I think it's over and done with as soon as it started. It was weird we went out friday night and we had nothing to talk about. Don't get me wrong she's a great gal but the more we did talk the more I realized that we just weren't on the same page going forward. She doesn't share a lot of my fitness goals (in fact she want's to open a bakery) we live and hour a part, and we just don't have many other common interests but...well kissing...which is really good...but just not enough to make it work. But she WAS blog worthy which is more than some of the rest lately sooooo...I think I'm heading in the right direction at least.

Woke up today and walked/ran for about 25 minutes started off on the new couch to 5k program I found on Chantal's site. Mostly walking and my back and knees are going to hate this program I can already tell. I'm going to take it easy on the back and knees but frankly I'm going to buy some stock in those icee hot pads for the knees and back. Sheesh. But...I want to do this and move on I must. I don't have any specific weight or fitness goals for the next two months aside from working up to running 30 minutes a day without any problems. I plan to eat the EFL way and keep up a moderate weight workout, but overall this little challenge is about getting my aerobic base back to where it was back in the last 90's.

I spent the other part of this morning dealing with the insurance adjuster in regards to the property damage at my old apartment. I'm a little put out because this more than anything was the reason I've been behind on the rest of the move. I had to keep everything in the closet just like it was and they waited nearly 3 weeks to finally come and investigate. Oh well as long as I get compensated for this crap it will be worth it. I have another dental appointment tommorow and a few more comping up in September since I had to reschedule due to the unexpected move. Overall things are getting a little better but I'm still having that weirdness of living in two different places. In a word it sucks. But this too shall pass I suppose. That's it for now I'll see you in the forums.

A few final words about the tracker

2006-08-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

When I originally started this BFL journey I searched long and hard for a support group that would not only help me but had members that actually responded to my questions and actually supported me. I found that in the bodyforlife-tracker and for a time I was very happy. I supplemented my support by started a blog and eventually met more and more people as a result. Using the powers of that challenge tracker and the open mike feel of the blogging community I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams and had everyone from that site to thank for it. Then things started getting silly, petty and eventually ugly around December.

You began to see a number of trolls, angry posts and frankly a lot of negativity. There was a debate about a seperate off topic forum (which I didn't necessarily have a problem with) as well as a discussion of moderation that needed to be adhered to. At that time the webmaster was nowhere to be found. All emails to him for assistance, suggestions and frankly financial help if it was needed fell on deaf ears. In short the inmates seemed to be running the asylum. Frankly I don't care what people talk about, do or say necessarily as long as it's not directly attacking someone on a forum. Dick and fart jokes, nude pictures and risque topics are and always will be topics that are discussed in everyday life. Fine I honestly have no problem with that.

My problem still came down to simple and effective moderation of the site. So what did the webmaster do? Instead of getting rid of the worst offenders he decided to build an R-Rated forum to contain them instead of giving them a harsh warning, temporary or permanent bans from the forum. Well that lasted about a month and then eventually he posted "rules" and thus he now had let everyone know, in bold print, what was acceptable and what wasn't. Well folks rules and laws are only effective if you enforce them! So they calamity ensued and to some degree I found that he was able to get rid of some offenders and in other cases he seemed to give a long rope to many who had ridden that edge for a long time. At that point I found that the tracker was no longer a safe place to live and I kept my profile active for PM's with people that I would keep in touch with there but essentially moved on.

Then came the implosion of this past weekend which is still hemorraging over there to this very moment. The webmaster had let things go too far and for too long without effective moderation and some of the key members of the trackers began to leave. People like Lori and Jennifer for God's sake. People whom I felt were fixtures in the community. Consistent Top 20 members who had been there for countless others. Then the webmaster accused Casey of trolling in a public thread. Now he claims there were smilies attached to that accusation but frankly the webmaster should have used better judgement than to do it publicly. He should have followed his own rules and PM'd Casey directly with his concerns. At that point I felt the need, perhaps foolishly in hindsight, to call the webmaster out publicly in that thread. Needless to say it was soon locked and removed.

Yesterday DreamCatcher aka Jennifer asked me to post an open letter for her to share her greivances about what the site had become and to address challenges to some of the members that felt everyone else should have thicker skin. I agree with the content of that letter wholeheartedly yesteday as much as I do today and felt it was a fair and well written op ed piece so to speak. Unfortuntely the webmaster PM'd me about 2 hours after it was written and instead of a well structured and calm email to explain that he felt the letter was not helping matters he essentially tore into me in a manner that was simliar to his behavior surrounding Casey and to be honest probably in line with my rant, in public, towards him. I wrote a firm, angry but I felt professional response back to him at which point he essentially claimed that everyone that had left were all trolls, that I had no idea what is was like to run a website and that he was a victim.

Fine. I decided that I just didn't want to pursue it anymore. I didn't want to be part of a website in which the webmaster refused to be professional, refused to seek help in moderating the board when he was clearly in over his head and furthermore someone who was blindly shooting in the dark about who the trolls were and who they weren't. So I left and I can't say any reason I would come back. You see I am a network engineer with over 10 years of experience and I've worked on not one but NUMEROUS networks with customers with billions of dollars on the line. I have to make judgements everyday and I'm constantly scrutinized for every decisions I make. However, I follow the rules and make fair calls everytime. If I don't I get fired, my company loses money and legal action is very emminent at that time. For him to tell me that because I didn't understand his position and to assume that I didn't have any experience juggling a website, network or any number of items at the same time didn't hurt me, it simply revealed that he had lost control of the situation and was grasping at straws. So like a customer who is summarily dismissed after numerous attempts over the months to assist in making the website better I decided to move to another vendor. I don't suggest you take my story as a reason to leave the tracker. You should make that decision on your own. I am simply stating my reasons, away from the tracker as requested by the webmaster, and that I have decided to find a new home in what he referred to in a public thread that was posted today...and I quote "your cloistered web community where no one else you don't like can get in or post anything you don't want to see."

I find that comment amusing.

He seems to come right out and claim that his website is indeed the anti-thesis of a support website. If you're wanting to go to a website to learn about cooking you don't go to a claymaking site. If you're wanting to see hardcore pornography don't go to a feminist book reading forum. From that statement I would gather from the webmaster that he has clearly defined a support website as one for people that should have thick skin and just deal with those who would bash on them.

I purposely took that quote somewhat out of the original context only prove a point that the webmaster is consistently unclear and doesn't seem to want to get involved in issues between members except the ones that would directly attack his site and his ability to be seen a competent webmaster. I understand and have always respected that he has been running the website on his dime, his own time and his technical accomplishments have been more than impressive. His failure, however, was allowing things to get out of control and letting his emotions dictate the flow of the website. That's bad business for everyone involved and from the looks of things he's on his way out or at least will have a long road back.

As for me I've chosen this "cloistered web community where no one else you don't like can get in or post anything you don't want to see." Why? Well damn Sherlock should a support site be about support? Should you make it a little sheltered that the morons don't get in? Shouldn't you get support instead of being bashed or shown a bunch of things you don't want to see? Sheesh out blogs are for T and A and topics on shaving the pubic hair :) The forum is for support of a commitment for fitness and we all show up to it in different shapes and sizes and have so many different needs and deeply ingrained insecurities about improving ourselves. My new forum is exactly what I need it to be and if I'm cloistured and not living in the real world then so be it. And on a final note...if he considers a silly forum on the internet the real world he's further gone that I thought :)

Jeremy Get's a little Action...

2006-08-06T21:47:00.000-07:00

Okay I decided to edit this post lol. So I went on a date last night with a wonderful woman and to say the least there was an incredible amount of chemistry and lots of just...well if you've ever experienced the lightening in the bottle feeling in your stomach about someone which I know most of you have...well that's the best way to describe it. We met for coffee at Starbucks, had a great time talking and getting to know each other a lot better, came back to her place for a few drinks and I also met her son. We sat out in the backyard and just talked and had a wonderful time. She finally sent me home at around 11 pm and let me just say the woman can kiss. Wow. So yeah I'm really really really looking forward to seeing her again.

Going for a record...

2006-08-03T05:18:00.000-07:00

...in blog updates in a week. I don't think I've been updating this much since the Jolly Roger/Tracker incidents that first raised their heads back in December. Well I decided to get out a bit last night and meet up with some friends for dinner. We had Mongolian which was excellent and I actually persuaded a few of them to help me move the rest of my stuff by the end of this weekend. I'm pretty excited about that and can't wait to get all of it into the new place and just forget about the old one. I'm feeling empowered enough to get back in the gym again as well and hopefully it will stick this time. the new Apt complex has a gym and I'm pretty happy to say it's nice new looking equipment. Now I just need to see if it works!! Well that's all for the moment I'll keep you updated on any other changes.