Day 141

Try not to stare directly at it lest you be sickened.

So I finally did it. I shaved my head today. I don't have to constantly worry about how messed up my hair is when I go out in public. I have very fine hair and it's a bitch to manage. Having a shaved head frees me. This isn't exactly new territory for me as I had my head shaved briefly in 1991 (basic training) and through various periods starting in 2004.

Hair talk aside, today was an average day. I had to move everything from my walls this morning so the exterminator could do a thorough job. We don't have a bug problem. These visits are quarterly to help manage any crawling critters that manage to make it into the house. The problem was that our last visit was well before Hurricane Ike struck, which makes it early September. I know they tried to schedule an appointment in early January, but I was in Los Angeles at the time and I completely spaced about calling them back. Time goes by and here we are in May. I also got my annual termite spray done. The good news - no termite activity for hopefully the next 365 days.

I also bought a handheld light meter today. I was originally looking for something with spot-metering as my DSLR doesn't have that capability. I'm trying to move on to more compelling compositions and the ability to spot meter a scene is going to be important. The meter also does reflected and incident light readings. The incident readings will help with staged portraits. The reflected readings will come in handy for my medium format film camera with the touchy shutter release.

And today I got to see Terminator Salvation. I must say I was pretty impressed. They didn't fiddle at all with the backstory, which is very refreshing (I'm looking at you, Star Wars and Highlander franchises!). I won't give any spoilers here, but I liked the movie. The door was left open for a 5th release. It will be interesting to see how they handle the assasination of John Connor in future releases. Anyway, enough of the geek stuff.

It's rather late here and I have a lot of PT paperwork ahead of me in the morning, followed by running around in the afternoon. To all you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I bid you goodnight.

Day 140

(Our) Edge of the Universe

Normally I don't like to post those images that I worked on with this blog (that's why I maintain a flickr page and Primordial Light) as I try to reserve this for quick snapshots. Today, however, I forgot to take a picture. So, here you have it - above is my latest creation. I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I enjoyed creating it. Now I just need to find a way to get a good print out of it, but that's an altogether different adventure.

Sharon is watching television at the moment. She is so cute when she does that. Her attention lasts for only about a minute, but she really gets into it for that time. The first time I noticed it was when 102 Dalmations was playing. Every bark that came from the television got her attention and she would watch the screen, even with Ozzy biting away at her back and neck. It's just fun to watch her do that sometimes.

I was pleasantly surprised at their behavior today, although I did suffer a setback with Sharon last night. Late last night I needed to correct her behavior when coming back into the house from a relief session. I didn't hit her, but I did need to scold her. Since then she's shied away from me more than usual. Sharon came from a home with 2 women. The lady we got her from said her brother played with her all the time. The thing is, when it comes to people Sharon is more readily friendly with women than men. I'm just wondering how rough the previous owner's brother was with Sharon. I guess I'm just going to have to work to earn her trust again. She's a very well behaved dog and very eager to please her master, but it looks like we still have a ways to go with her development.

Damn, this blog is slowly starting to turn into a dog-blog. I guess it's only natural since those 2 little monsters take up most of my free time lately. I'm enjoying it though. I know once they reach adulthood they won't need my attention as much, but sometimes you just can't wait until they reach that point.

I just noticed that Sharon is really getting big - with nose pointed toward feet she is almost 24 inches long from crown to rump. She's just around 13 weeks old... she's gonna be big. A typical GSD female is 22 to 24 inches at the front shoulder. The body proportion is typically 8.5 units high to 10 units long... she is definitely going to be a larger specimen.

Anyway, dog talk aside, today was a fairly normal day. I was able to give myself a general target for my planned photo shoot. I do need to work out a couple of other things as well, the most important being having permission to go on this trip, but at least one variable has been solved. I'm really hoping I can do this photo shoot. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while.

At any rate, I have an exterminator coming to my house in the morning to do a quarterly spray. Keeping bugs out of my house is a good thing. So, to all of you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers - I bid you goodnight.

Day 139

The original little blue pill... the one that will help me get a good night's sleep with my headache.

Headaches really suck. I get migraines every once in a while and if I don't take something soon after sensing the onset I can become a basically useless human being. I have one right now for which I already took some painkiller. Hopefully this will keep the edge off the pain long enough for this to pass.

I'm looking at Sharon and Ozzy right now sleeping peacefully. Today they were up for quite a while and are pretty much lights out for the evening. They're both angels when they're sleeping, but little hellions when fully awake and belly-full. When they get to playing both dogs will snarl and every once in a while I will hear a yelp as one has bitten the other too hard. All in all they get along great. We were really lucky to have gotten 2 basically friendly puppies.

It appears that Ozzy may have had a touch of Canine Pink Eye. When I looked at him this morning his right eyelids were a little swollen but not as bad as last night. Also the sclera was nowhere near as red as last night. Add to that he was responding to my fingers waving in the right peripheral vision area and it appears he's going to be fine. I didn't find anything about Pink Eye being a reaction to standard Rabies vaccine so it stands that he probably got some dirt in his eye or took a tooth from Sharon during one of their marathon play sessions. Either way I'm just glad he is alright.

I was rather amused by the salesperson at my door today. She was trying to sell a new security service in the neighborhood and offered free equipment for the opportunity to post a sign in my yard. She kept engaging in small talk at intervals and poking fun at my mannerisms while going through her sales pitch. This appeared to be an interesting tactic to keep the conversation going as I'm sure she gets a lot of doors slammed in her face. At one point we even debated the merits of vehicle emissions testing and their supposed purpose. In the end I told her that I wasn't really interested at this time. The human contact was nice (since I work alone most of the day) but most salespeople that come through are people that I usually have to get nasty with in order to get them to leave my door.

Between that and my errand running, today was pretty average day. Tomorrow looks to be a little busy, so at this point I need to get some sleep. To all of you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I bid you goodnight.

Day 138

I felt like a proud papa earlier this afternoon. I took Ozzy to the vet to get his final shots. The doctor told me that Ozzy's health is top notch and that his body's musculature is superb. He congratulated me on the job I've done with him, although I can't take credit for his musculature. You see, Ozzy thinks he's a cat and often I can catch him trying to gauge whether he can make a jump or not. He'll even sit on my Polk Audio R40 speakers, which are 3 feet tall. If only the doctor could see the stress we go through each day as Ozzy runs a close 2nd to Marley for hyperactivity.

I ended up not going to the gym today as the muscles surrounding both shins were tight as hell. This is nothing more than my body punishing me for the 2 month hiatus. It sucks because walking is not all that comfortable when those muscles are so tight. I honestly didn't think I would be able to give a good go on the treadmill. They're still tight even at this late hour, although not as bad as this morning. It's funny - we like to think of ourselves as big and tough, but it's often those tiny little muscles that give the most nagging pains.

Ozzy's eyes were red earlier. I think he is really tired and fighting it. He may also be having a reaction to his Rabies vaccine. I tried to research it, but could not find anything on red eyes after the shot, so my guess is he's tired. He's sleeping soundly right now. I'm a little concerned at this point but will wait and see. I gotta get him licensed too.

Other than the above, my day was pretty standard fare for a Monday. Tomorrow I have to go stand in line to renew the registration for my Outlander. I need to get there early as there is usually no line during the first 30 minutes of operation for the vehicle registration office. Traffic court, now that's a different story at 9 am and if I want to avoid that line, I need to get into the registration office.

There is no picture tonight as I didn't really think to take one today. Hey - I'm only being honest.

To all my faithful and not-so-faithful readers I bid you goodnight.

Day 136+1

I look like a big red beached whale, but whatcha gonna do?

I had a chicken and black bean quesadilla with a slaw with a southwestern style lime vinaigrette. It was a good lunch. I'm going to have to tweak the vinaigrette a little, but overall I was happy with it.

Today (Day 137) was pretty lazy for me. I woke up at 7 am to 2 dogs screaming to go outside. I let them play for an hour, took a nap, woke up, let the dogs out again, made lunch, watched TV, took another nap, replaced a doorknob, watched TV, ate dinner, snapped a few photos, let the dogs play, went to the gym, came home, had snack, made blog entry...

Yep, that was my day in a nutshell. I was supposed to cut into the ceiling above my refrigerator today, but the person who was going to help me never showed up. I'm a little disappointed because I didn't even get a phone call. So, because of this I can't really say I was productive at all, although my photos turned out quite nice (www.flickr.com/yankee-in-texas). My trip to the gym was my first since mid-March. I know one person who may be reading this that's probably ready to give me a good tongue-lashing. I deserve it and I'm getting back on track.

Yesterday (Day 136) was a little more filled. I pressure-washed my driveway in the morning. Let's just say it was a little overdue. It's amazing how much better the property looks from the outside with a clean driveway. Next weekend I'm going to do as much of the sidewalk as I can (hose and AC cable limitations).

Then we proceeded to take Ozzy and Sharon to the dog park. Sharon had a much better experience this time and even mixed it up in the small dog area. She did ok in the big dog area, but she's still pretty skittish around other dogs. There was another GSD puppy in the park. I talked to the owner for a bit and she told me that her dog was really skittish at first as well, but eventually through good socialization became more confident. Given the improvement I've seen in Sharon I'm confident that she will be more normal socially given time and patience.

I do have one other superficial concern about Sharon. A good chunk of GSD's by her age (about 12 weeks) already have their ears standing erect while Sharon's are flopped. I read that in some GSD's it can take up to 7 months for their ears to stand fully erect as somehow the standing ears is linked to the development of their adult teeth. The 7th month is about the time most large-breed dogs have all of their adult teeth set. I really don't know how to tell if she has soft ears (which is a recessive gene in GSD's, considered by breeders to be a defect) or if possibly there were injuries sustained in the musculature of the ear. Perhaps it's wishful thinking on my part, but it often appears that the ears are standing a little higher than they were the day Sharon became a member of the family. It won't change anything if her ears don't stand up as I will love her just as much, I just wish I could know if it was going to happen or not.

Later that afternoon I met my uncle's new Labrador Retriever named Mickey. Mickey was apparently dropped off at a vet tech's residence. The vet tech couldn't take care of it so he advertised on Craiglist and my uncle took the puppy home that day. The puppy was only about 4 weeks old when it was dropped off (now about 5 weeks old). Mickey is cute. At this point he's about the same size as Ozzy was at 2 months. The dog is going to be big... I would be interested to see which one is bigger at adulthood (my Sharon or Mickey).

After that my day pretty much progressed slowly. I watched Get Smart on cable and then went to the theater to watch Angels and Demons. I must say that I was pretty impressed with the latter. I thought the story flowed much better than the movie adaptation for The DaVinci Code. After reading the hype about how the movie is anti-Catholic, I have to say that I didn't find it in the movie at all. I found the movie telling the story of a flawed man using the power of religion to further a flawed belief in the letter of Catholicism. A key character and his story-line was left out of the movie (thereby changing the motivation used to set the chain of events in motion) but it was adapted well. In the religion vs. science angle, a good job was done in balancing the debate by giving the positives to both sides (something the book really doesn't do). Overall, if you just want to see a good movie with an original plot, by all means go see it. If you're looking for a religion-bashing flick, you may just want to rent a copy of Religulous instead.

I was going to write this last night, but again, late movies = falling asleep on the sofa after turning on the laptop. At this point I will need to wrap it and get some sleep as I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. So, to all of you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I bid you goodnight.

Day 135 Redux

Say "Hello" to Sharon... she became a member of the family on 3 May 09 (That's day 123 in Project 2K9-speak).

Ok, so here we are at the end of Day 135. The day itself was fairly uneventful. I spent most of my time at home making sure the Beagle and German Shepherd Dog didn't kill each other fighting over chew toys and such. Sharon is much bigger than Ozzy, but the difference in size is no deterrent to Ozzy trying to establish is Alpha status. Sharon generally defers, but sometimes will stand her ground and get the better of Ozzy.

Sharon does not like going for walks. She walks with me mostly out of fear that I am getting too far from her. She has been improving on the leash, but she runs whenever she sees me come out of my kitchen with it in my hand. Ozzy, however, starts going nuts with anticipation when sees the leash. The skittishness on the part of Sharon does cause me some concern about her social development. German Shepherds can be dangerous as adults if not properly socialized. Tomorrow she's making her 2nd trip to Bill Archer Park as we work on her socialization. Ozzy - well, he's just going to have fun no matter what.

Other than my dogs, I really don't have much more to say about today. Tomorrow I get to pressure wash my driveway (oh yay :-/) and maybe cut into the ceiling about my refrigerator (double yay :-/) so it has the potential to be a long Saturday. The weather forecaster's are calling for rain tomorrow, which I hope at least waits until after we get back from the park with the dogs.

As promised, here is a picture of Sharon taken a couple of days after we brought her home. I haven't really taken any pictures since then and right now she's asleep. To all my faithful and not-so-faithful readers I bid you goodnight.

Day 135

Wow, almost a month has gone by since my last post. Talk about busted projects. I know I have a more interesting life than this. Buckling down is gotta be the watchword. Here's a little recap...

- Had a birthday party - most of the guests were my wife's friends;

- Woke up at 5:00 am on April 29 to find myself in the middle a pond. The water was about 1/4-inch from the lip of my front step. Thankfully none got into the house. People who lived in the Cypress area all their lives can never recall being flooded - ever. The Cypress, TX area got a total of 11 inches of rain in 24 hours;

- After the water receded spent the rest of the afternoon trying to dry out 3 cars;

- Went to the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University on April 30;

- Bought a 2008 Ford Edge on May 1. Our Solara had 176,000 miles on it. It was still in good condition but we needed something we could depend on better due to the fact that without the car we can't work;

- Got another puppy on May 3. Her name is Sharon and she is a German Shepherd Dog (believe it or not the word 'Dog' is part of the proper name for the breed). At 10 weeks old she was flea-bitten pretty bad and had a microbial parasite giving her orange diarrhea. We gave her a flea bath as soon as we got home and spent 2 hours combing out her coat. A $200 vet bill took care of the parasite (to be fair, it did include shots and an exam). The housetraining oddysey continues...

- Finally got rid of our 1995 Nissan Pathfinder via a donation to the Houston Can Academy. Getting rid of it feels like closing a chapter on an old life. It's funny how attached we become to our cars.

Anyway, there's a quick recap of what's been going on. I left out one thing but we'll see how that goes later. First I want to say congratulations to my sister who just found out she's pregnant. I'm also planning a trip this summer to do a photo shoot. If everything works out ok for me on that thing I left out, this will be the last chance I have to a photo shoot for a long time. The only thing that remains is securing permission for the trip.

At any rate, I need to get back to work. I'll have a redux done tonight along with a photo of Sharon. To all my faithful and not-so-faithful readers I say "Have a nice day!"

Day 110

This didn't hurt Ozzy so much as it interrupted his biting spree.

I need to stop staying up so late.

Right now my dog is roughing up the towel in his kennel. It's his ritual when he gets a new towel to get it all balled up. For some reason he likes to sleep on top of the big lump that is created. For most people that kind of arrangement would cause a serious back problem, but he seems to love it.

Ok, let me introduce you to my dog. His name is Ozzy and according to his papers he is almost 3 months old. Ozzy is a Beagle complete with gumdrop nose and big soft ears. What sets him apart from most is that he is predominantly black. Most of the Beagles I come across are predominantly tan (or red as some seem to prefer). Oh yeah, the markings on his muzzle are assymetrical, which I honestly find really cool.

We've had him for a little over 3 weeks now. He seems to be getting bigger by the day. I didn't get to see the parents so I don't know if he will be a 13-inch or 15-inch Beagle, but I really don't care. When we picked him up his name was originally going to be Charlie, but I decided it was too close to Marley and I didn't want my dog to be associated with that movie in any way. For some reason the song "Crazy Train" popped in my head and our new puppy was dubbed Ozzy.

On Sunday we took him to the Millie Bush Bark Park in the west Houston area. He had a blast with the large area to run around, all the new dogs to meet, and all the people who lavished their attention on his cuteness. We had him in the small breed area as he was getting a little frightened of the large dogs in the general area. I plan on taking him again tomorrow as I plan on taking the day off.

Hopefully I'll have the pictures from the Amon Amarth concert up soon. I haven't really had a chance to process those as of yet. I went to the Commemorative Air Force air show on Sunday and was a little disappointed. It's not that it wasn't cool, I just expected a larger show. I didn't bother taking any pictures.

Well, at this point I'm almost 2 hours into day 111. I need to get some sleep. I bid all of you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers a good night.

Here is a second photo to try to make up for my slacking.

Day 108

I promised an entry last night. I got home from seeing Fast and Furious last night and turned my laptop on. I sat on my sofa while it booted up. Next thing I remember I'm waking up to take Ozzy out for his morning bathroom rush.

The weather was pretty lousy waking up this morning. Thanks to my puppy I was up early so he could go pee. I suppose it's better than having urine stains on my carpet, but I just wish he would let me sleep in one of these mornings.

I was pretty lazy today up until about 3 pm when I had to put together an interview. Like I said, the weather was pretty lousy. It was pretty dark outside and we had to have the lights on most of the day. My poor dog couldn't play outside today so we had to bear the brunt of his puppy energy. My right arm is receiving new scratch and bite marks each day, although he is slowly learning not to bite daddy.

This evening, however, was far more exciting. I got to see Skeletonwitch, Goatwhore, and Amon Amarth live. I'm a big fan of Skeletonwitch so to see them would be worth the price of admission to me. I'm not so much a fan of Goatwhore as they venture a little too far into whole Satan-schtick for my taste, but they delivered the goods tonight. I was very impressed. But Amon Amarth was the draw. I was wondering how their brand of mid-tempo Swedish death metal would translate into a live set. Let's just say it translated very well. I interviewed the guitar player for Amon Amarth and will work over the next day or 2 to get it transcribed and posted.

It was definitely a long night and I need to get up early. West Houston Airport is hosting an airshow featuring combat aircraft from World War II. I'm looking forward to going and taking lots of photos. So, to all my faithful and not-so-faithful readers I bid you goodnight.

PS - I'm sorry to do this on a third entry in a row, but it's late and I'm kinda tired. I promise to have a picture for the next entry.

Day 94

Metallica has made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I must say that it has been a long time coming for metal in the Hall of Fame, but after Black Sabbath and now Metallica it seems as if metal's mark on the music world is finally being acknowledged.

I still remember the first Metallica album I ever owned. It was Master of Puppets. I first heard it it at a friend's house back in Cincinnatus, NY. The opening song, "Battery", literally blew me away. I had never heard anything played that heavy or that fast in my young life (I was 14 at the time). I remember not being able to understand a single word being screamed and not able to discern drumbeats. I was dumbfounded. My friend then played "Damage, Inc." and again I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was then decided that I really didn't like it.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and the cassette is sitting in my mailbox from the BMG Music Club (how many of you metalheads weren't a member of either BMG or Columbia House?). The reason I ordered it? I have no clue. When the time came for me to order something, that was the album I chose. This time I was not constrained to listening to only 2 songs and I had access to the lyrics as well.

The album was pure crap. I didn't like it at all. The singer only screamed and the band members played their instruments too fast to be any sort of cohesive unit. Now bands like AC/DC, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Motley Crue - now they knew what they were doing. But the one thing I could not do when it came to Master of Puppets was to stop listening to it. At a time when AC/DC saw the heaviest rotation in my stereo, Metallica started to take over and Master of Puppets was the jumping off point. Needless to say, I was hooked into this heavier metal. Metallica was heavier than Priest or Maiden, which up until that point were the heaviest bands in my rotation. I was still mainly into the more commercially viable metal (in Cincinnatus we took what we could get), but this allowed me to seek out and appreciate more of the "not so ready for prime time" non-label-friendly stuff that polluted our ears (and record stores). Master of Puppets had become at that point the greatest album ever.

For my art class in my freshman year I did the Master of Puppets album cover in watercolor. It turned out pretty good for a first time watercolor painting (except for the strings; I tried to mask them out but they ended up looking like white thorn bushes). In my sophomore year art class we did a unit on calligraphy. The project for the unit consisted of doing a phrase in calligraphy. I decided I couldn't do a 3- or 4-line phrase and went all out with the lyrics to "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)". While people may not have liked the lyrics all that much, they were definitely impressed with the scale of the project.

But enough of the trip down memory lane. I watched part of the acceptance speech. I saw Jason Newsted standing up there with James, Lars, Kirk, and Robert. I don't know if Jason is in the Hall of Fame along with the current members. If that's not the case, he should be because he was a member of Metallica through their biggest period. I also hope that Cliff Burton is given the posthumous honor of induction. It leaves me to wonder about Dave Mustaine. Although he didn't even play on Kill 'em All, he did help write most of their debut album and a couple of songs on Ride the Lighting. I would hope that he at least gets some acknowledgement for his contributions to early Metallica. Trust me, they needed him. If you don't believe me, head over to Amazon and order the Metal Massacre anthology, which contains the earliest recorded Metallica. The orginal version of "Hit the Lights" was pre-Mustaine Metallica and based on that song alone I'm sure many wrote off any future for Metallica.

At any rate, I'll raise my water glass and say "Congratulations" to Metallica. They were key in creating the metal scene in the United States, not to mention their influence on the rest of the metal world. As part of the big-four of American metal (the other 3 being Slayer, Anthrax, and Dave Mustaine-led band Megadeth) they helped set the stage for explosion that was yet to come. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will never be the same.

Well, to all you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I must bid you goodnight.

PS - There's no picture again tonight as with my new puppy I haven't had a chance to take any in a few days. Not to worry, though, they will soon be once again forthcoming.

Day 90

** Note: This is posted on Day 94, but is the original post intended for Day 90. I was reminded that I was falling behind again. I really need to do better at this.

Of the four states of matter, gas is probably the most interesting to me. While not all compounds can exist in the definitive forms (solid or liquid), all matter can, at some point, exist as a gas. Plasma, which is the 4th state of matter, is actually the most abundant state of matter in the universe, but is an abstract extension of the gaseous state.

A solid is that which has a definite shape and occupies a definite volume. A liquid is that which has a definite volume, but an indefinite shape. A gas has neither a definite shape nor a definite volume. For those curious few who made it this far, plasma is pretty much a nucleus floating in a sea of free electrons, which allows free movement of negative and positive charges which gives plasma certain properties apart from gases. In the universe plasma is by far the most abundant form of matter, but in our world it is the least talked about.

There are 2 processes where a compound or element can change to a gaseous state - evaporation and sublimation. Sublimation is the process where a chemical goes straight from a solid to a gas. Fog machines produce fog by melting dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide). Carbon dioxide cannot exist as a liquid... it goes straight from being ice to a gas - hence we get fog machines. Evaporation is that process by which a chemical goes from a liquid to a gas. I think we're all pretty much familiar with the term.

To see evaporation in action one can take a pot of water, turn on the stove, and watch the water boil until there is eventually nothing left in the pot. The water is still present, but its state has changed. Since gas has no fixed shape or volume, that same mass of water vapor now may occupy the entire room.

Of course, once the water evaporates, the presence of the water is for the most part intangible. When it comes to gases, it is most often the case that we can only smell them, which is a good thing when a grocery bagger does something silly like putting the ammonia and bleach in the same bag (for those who don't know, when you mix ammonia and bleach the reaction yields pure chlorine gas which is a very bad thing for breathing). Then again, in some cases if you can smell a gas, it is much too late to do anything about it (mustard gas and hydrazine are classic examples). Extreme examples aside, sometimes it is taken for granted that we even have air to breathe because of the intangible nature of gaseous matter.

Evaporation itself is mostly what inspires this post. When heat energy is applied, the kinetic energy level of matter increases. All matter has energy stored in it's bonds called potential energy. This potential energy, sometimes called resting energy, maintains the arrangements of molecules in a compound. As one can imagine, solids have the most potential energy whereas gases have very little potential energy. On the flip side, gases have a lot of kinetic energy, also known as energy in motion, whereas solids have almost no kinetic energy.

This is where it gets counterintuitive - condensation (gas to liquid) and freezing (liquid to solid) are heating processes whereas melting (solid to liquid) and evaporation are cooling processes. In order for condensation and freezing to occur, the kinetic energy must be converted to potential energy. This is accomplished as the molecules absorb the kinetic energy. Liquid water to ice absorbs energy, even though is has to be cold in order for freezing to occur. Conversely, melting and evaporation release energy. It takes energy to break the arrangements of the molecules, but that breaking converts that potential energy to kinetic energy. In this way, the molecules are considered cooled. It is screwy, but when you move into areas such as thermodynamics and meteorology, it begins to make sense.

So what does this have to do with anything in real life? I believe we have all had that time when a dream we've held onto has vanished. There as many reasons for this as there are people on this planet. My own recent experience has seen the ingredients necessary for evaporation come together. The only question that remains is if the water will be taken off the fire before it comes to a boil and the dream is all but gone.

I will wait and see what happens at this point, which is really all I can do anyway.

There is no picture today as, to be really honest, I just didn't have it in me. Goodnight to all of you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers.

Day 85

I strained my brachioradialis... I don't like this so much :-(

Grrr...

It's been a while since I posted. So much for the commitment I made at the beginning of the year. Some things have happened to get me side-tracked on a few things but I'm slowly coming back around. I just need to get my head straight again.

I won't go into too much detail in this post as to what was going on. I'll allude to that stuff in the future. As for now I need to move forward...

But then the question is raised - which way is forward? This isn't as easy as it sounds. Moving forward can be a loaded statement depending on where you've come from. Of course, if you subscribe to my theory of singularity then you never really move forward; you pretty much just move around the central source of gravitas. Just like a Singularity at the center of a black hole (the point in space-time to where all matter caught inside the black hole's event horizon is pulled), the singularity of your life is that single point on which you base your life.

Then again, it's 2:21 am on Day 86, so this kind of thinking starts to hurt my head sometimes. I know I just got started, but it is 2:21 am.

Since it is that time, I think I will call this a day. I need to be up in about 4.5 hours anyway. I have a lot to do before heading to Corpus Christi on Saturday. So to all of you my faithful and not-so-faithful readers - I bid you goodnight.

PS - Someone I know probably wouldn't agree with the inclusion of the following, but sometimes there is a need.


"Lateralus"

Black then white are all I see
In my infancy
Red and yellow then came to be,
Reaching out to me
Lets me see

As below so above and beyond
I imagine
Drawn beyond the lines of reason
Push the envelope
Watch it bend

Over thinking over analyzing
Separates the body from the mind
Withering my intuition
Missing opportunities and I must
Feed my will to feel my moment
Drawing way outside the lines.

Black then white are all I see
In my infancy
Red and yellow then came to be
Reaching out to me
lets me see

There is so much more
That beckons me
To look through to these
Infinite possibilities

As below so above and beyond
I imagine
Drawn outside the lines of reason
Push the envelope
Watch it bend

Over thinking over analyzing
Separates the body from the mind
Withering my intuition
Leaving all these opportunities behind

Feed my will to feel this moment
Urging me to cross the line
Reaching out to embrace the random
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come

I embrace my desire to
Feel the rhythm
To feel connected
Enough to step aside and

Weep like a widow
To feel inspired
To fathom the power
To witness the beauty

To bathe in the fountain
To swing on the spiral
Of our divinity and
Still be a human

With my feet upon the ground
I lose myself
Between the sounds and
Open wide to suck it in
I feel it move across my skin

I'm reaching up and reaching out
I'm reaching for the random or
What ever will bewilder me
And following our will and wind
We may just go where no one's been
We'll ride the spiral to the end and
May just go where no one's been

Spiral out. Keep on going...

- Tool (2001)

Day 49

I'm holding up the frame... you wouldn't smile either if you had to hold this heavy frame up ';-)

Right now I can barely lift my arms over my head. I added arms and shoulders to my rotation this evening and on my last routine I went heavier than I should have. While I didn't injure myself, I can tell I'm going to be a little uncomfortable in the morning. I really need to quit stopping and starting when it comes to working out.

It's actually a good thing that I was even able to go to the gym, seeing as most of the morning and part of the afternoon today I had a headache that just lingered.

Other than that there's really nothing exciting that happened to me today. I did some paperwork, listened to some music, and watched some television. I did make a killer salad dressing for dinner tonight. Oh yeah, that in itself is an achievement - I have eaten salads 3 meals in a row. Now that is scary.

When it comes to expression we all have our mediums. Some are visual, some use music, some the written word. For me I straddle the visual and the written word. And when it comes to written word, I go more for prose than poetry, which is why the last time I wrote an original poem was sometime in 1992.

As much as I've been trying to use my own words to express myself, I find sometimes someone else puts my thoughts down perfectly.

With that, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I leave you with the following lyrics from the band Primordial.

"Heathen Tribes"

This is my church
It stands so tall
And proud it has done for all time

It has no walls
Yet its vast halls
Reach from shore to shore

Whatever shore
You know as your own
We stand as one, we stand alone

And we are born
From the same womb
And hewn from the same stone

And from the frozen Baltic
I watched the sunrise over Athena
I walked the battlefields of Flanders
And saw dusk fall at Cintra

And beneath the spires of Sofia
And fields of crosses at Arnhem
Armenius stood tall in Teuteborg
Senatus Populusque Romanus

To the fjords of Hordaland
In shadows of ancient Albion
And to the shores of a thousand lakes
Saint Vitus dance in Praha

Yet when to Ireland we return
I know that I am home at last
And with every sun that sets
It takes me nearer to her earth

To whatever shore you know as your own
We stand as one, we stand alone

- Primordial (2007)

Day 47

Where's my iPod?!?

Normally when I work out I listen to new music. This time I really didn't feel like listening to anything new, even though I had some quality tunes that had yet to be heard. This time I decided to make a playlist of my favorite Metallica songs. Some of my metalhead readers may be turned off by that fact, but I really don't care. Despite the transformations they've gone through over the years, they have managed to put out some of top shelf heavy metal. I'm sorry, Darren, but this is one point of contention you and I could never resolve, but it's all good.

The cool part was that I got nearly 3 hours of music on one playlist, which got me through both my morning cardio and my evening weight training. I got some from every album except Garage Days... and S + M. Listening to some of the older songs brought me back to the days when I first got into Metallica (Master of Puppets!!!!) way back in 9th grade. I remember at that point I was one of only 2 in my school I knew that appreciated Metallica, having been introduced to them by the other person. Even the "metalheads" in my school didn't appreciate the sonic assault that was "Battery" or the lyrical genius that was "Master of Puppets" or the intense anguish of "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)".

It's not to say that I was an instant fan - it took a little while for it to sink in. But here's the kicker - even though I didn't fully appreciate it at first, I couldn't stop listening to it. Perhaps it was a morbid curiosity about the appeal of the music, but it definitely grew on me. It was Metallica that opened up the world to a more mean, more gritty brand of heavy metal for me. While I wouldn't be into the extreme stuff for many years yet, I didn't limit myself to the crap the major labels tried to push down our throats in 1980's (almost ruining heavy metal in the process).

The negative energy? Well, some is still there, but things are definitely turning for the better. Even though my birthday is still 2 months away, I definitely have an idea of what I want this year. I really think I could get a lot out of it. I'll keep you all posted as I try to figure out details and figure out a way to see if it can be done.

Thus ends my post for Day 47. Owing to the necessity of waking up early I must bid all of you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, a good night.

Days 43 - 46

Here we are with a multi-day post. On day 43 I had a wicked headache that wouldn't even let me go to bed at a decent hour. I woke up late on Friday morning, which threw a big kink in my plans for that day.

I don't know why, but for a few days leading up to Saturday I was feeling out of sorts. Physically I was fine, but something seemed to be eating me pretty bad. I felt down for a few days and Friday evening I was rather cranky. My wife sensed it Friday evening and asked me if something was wrong (one of those please talk to me kind of things) but I told her maybe I was just tired. I was careful not to snap at her for anything because she didn't do anything wrong.

The fact is I don't know why I had been feeling down. On Saturday I just felt emotionally drained. I ended up crashing at about 7:30 pm and slept for close to 15 hours. That's not to say that all my negative energy is gone, but it waking up this morning I felt better than I had in a couple of days. We'll see...

I took a few days off from the gym and went back this evening to work on my legs. Hopefully the initial shock is gone and I can wake up relatively free of muscle soreness. Working on my legs is paramount as I try to build lean muscle in my large muscle groups. Every pound of lean muscle requires an extra 30-40 calories per day in energy consumption. Provided one doesn't take in any more calories from food, a caloric deficit can eventually be created. Of course, weight loss isn't immediate until the body burns through its supply of glycogen. Only after one burns through the glycogen supply will the body move to tap energy from fat.

Well, at this point I have to call it a night as it is nearly 1 am on Day 47 and I need to be up in 6 hours. To all my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I bid you goodnight.

PS - No pictures tonight as I really wasn't feeling up to it for a few days. Pictures will return on Day 47. Thank you for your understanding.

Day 42

Pump it up, man!

The good news from this morning was that the soreness level in my legs was considerably lower than even last night. The bad news was that my legs were incredibly stiff. Stretching and massaging relieved it for about 5 minutes, but then the stiffness came back with a vengeance. Needless to say, I skipped my morning gym run. Walking around this morning was difficult enough.

The other good news from this morning was my weight. I know last week I fell through a personal milestone. As we all know weight can fluctuate by a couple of pounds each day depending on how much we ate, fluid levels, etc. After falling through the milestone I went back above it, then hung right at it for a few days, and fell through it again this morning. This to me indicates a trend is forming. This is good news indeed.

I know that some people can lose weight quickly, but my problem is that I have a voracious appetite. I always have, even during my unexplained 40-pound weight drop in the winter of 1989/1990. I have made strides in changing my dietary intake, which has helped start what is a downward trend. And even though I'm not losing weight very fast, my clothing is starting to fit better and some of my clothing is even a little too big now. Yay me!

My legs loosened up enough for me to hit my evening workout. I needed to get back in there or else this was going to turn into another wasted effort. My warm up on the treadmill revealed much tightness in my hamstrings and much soreness in my gracilis muscles. My walking stride on the treadmill is slightly faster than my comfortable fast stride, which probably is the biggest reason for the soreness. I made it through ok, but it wasn't exactly fun.

I worked on my back... I hope I can stand upright when I wake up in the morning.

Wow, I'm looking at what I just wrote and realized that this entry has become a workout journal. That's ok, I was pretty much intellectually void today. I even avoided politics as I pretty much glossed over the headlines in my daily reading list and didn't even bother with reading the articles themselves. I just pretty much kept my mind on the more mundane tasks of the day and trying to figure out some of the finer points of taking a self portrait using the remote shooting function of my camera software.

At any rate, I need to call it a night as it's late here and I need to get up early again. To my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I bid you sleep well.

Day 41

Heeeeeeeeeeere's Rick... looking like a chipmunk.

It finally rained today. The last time it rained in my area was sometime in December. Granted, I've enjoyed the relatively nice weather, but my grass is looking a little brown.

That was one of the highlights on this mixed day. I went to the gym in the early afternoon with no problems. It was there while I was on the elliptical that I found out the Senate passed their version of the stimulus bill. To say I was against it is an understatement, and its passage may have contributed to the fact that my heart rate was higher than I would have like it while on the machine.

I got through the hour on the elliptical without any trouble. The problem started at the end of the hour - my legs were stiff as hell and sore. Last night I started weight training and my legs decided not to wait the customary 2 days for DOM after running the elliptical today. Needless to say, I skipped my evening gym session so I can give my legs a rest. Hopefully tomorrow morning will be better.

The other highlight of the day was getting some new tunes and some museum board. I picked up the new Devian CD, which is some wicked Swedish death metal. The museum board is for mounting my photos. It seems that I was out of 11x14 board. Exciting stuff...

Except those highlights were dampened by horrible traffic. I got home so late I just said "screw it" and ordered a pizza and a couple of salads for dinner. The local pizza shop has a killer balsamic vinaigrette dressing that I'm still trying to dissect. I've gotten down a good red wine vinaigrette myself, but balsamic is a different beast altogether.

So, at this point it is getting late and I need to wake up early in the morning. I bid all of you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, a good evening.

Day 40

A media photo of my thumb running for Master of the Milky Way

Here we are again, one day older and one day... well, you get the idea.

Mondays never seem to be any fun. In an effort to make it fun today I decided to go back on my 2-a-days at the gym. I know I had planned to start them before, and actually did at one point, but life has a way of disrupting plans sometimes. My regimen consisted of cardio late this morning and started on weight training this afternoon. I hope I'll be able to walk when I wake up in the morning.

There was still no opportunity to shoot today as it was overcast all day long. It was also in the 70's today. I know my friends and family in New York and Minnesota won't be happy to know that. In all fairness, however, it did get to at least Minnesota today.

Other than that, there is really nothing to report on my day. I'm trying to ignore politics at this point because the whole thing is giving me a headache. I did read one very well written essay on modern socialism over at American Thinker. It describes how the modern socialists have created a class warfare that not even Lenin himself could have conceived. I highly recommend reading it.

So to all of you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I bid you goodnight as I head off to dreamland.

PS - here is the link to the American Thinker article - The Rapacity of Odacity

Day 39 version 2.0

I know I already posted a day 39, but as I mentioned in the previous post, it was done at the beginning of the day. Now we're at the end of the day so it's time to discuss...

Today was pretty much one of those days where I just kinda lazed out. I had wanted to get up early today, but seeing how I went to bed late last night, that wasn't in the cards. I was also hoping to get some shooting done today, but it was overcast outside. It's great if you want really even lighting, but I was hoping for some shadows. So I watched some tv, played some video games, and finished out season 1 of Entourage (great show, it's a shame I discovered it so late).

Even my dinner was a little off. Basically I braised some chicken legs but started the dish off in the same manner as gumbo. I was missing onions so I substituted some shallots I had on hand. I know that affected the flavor as shallots are subtle as opposed to onions bold flavors. I also seasoned the dish with sea salt. The flavor of sea salt is a little different as the crystals often hold extraneous minerals. All in all it wasn't a bad dish, but I think I need to perfect this one a little bit.

I did manage to get out of the house to restock my fruits. While I was driving to Costco I noticed what looked like Stratocumulus Standing Lenticular (SCSL) clouds. SCSL clouds are low level clouds that appear almond shaped in the sky and never move. The size changes, but the location never changes. These clouds indicate at the very least moderate turbulence and wind shear. Since they are low level, the wind shear becomes particularly worrisome to pilots.

I don't recall ever seeing them before without at least and accompanying thunderstorm and, if no storm is present, far away from any mountains. Southeast Texas is pretty flat territory. If I had a camera I would have taken a picture, but today was one of the few days I left it at home. More commonly when I see standing lenticular clouds, they are Altocumulus Standing Lenticular, which can be formed from orographic influences many, many miles away.

Other than that there's really not much to report. I started going through some more books today and also some of my old clothing.

Well, it's almost my bedtime so I guess I'll end this with a good night and thank you for reading.

PS - Still no picture - as I said, those will resume on day 40.

Day 39

Resumption of activity begins today.

I'm calling this one day 39 even though it is barely 1 hour into the day. I got prompted by a friend to get this party started once again as I have neglected it since day 9. I even had to consult an ordinal calendar to get the day correct.

Life has been cruising along so far in 2009. I had a relatively successful gathering at my house for the Superbowl. It was the first time I had hosted a Superbowl party. Hopefully next year I can get some more people to attend.

I also finally got rid of some old computer equipment that had been hanging around in my possession since my first computer purchase in 1996. That included 2 CRT monitors (one of them was my very first monitor), 2 scanners, and a personal laser printer. I took the desktops and scanners to one place and had to go to another to drop off the monitors and printer. The guys at the first place were cool... they grabbed it, thanked me, and I was on my way. The guy at the other place was actually kind of a dick... he wanted to charge me by the pound to drop the equipment off(!) and then when he saw that I had 2 monitors and 1 printer, he told me that it wasn't even worth it to do the paperwork. I asked him if he was sure and he said it again.

Now one may ask why I thought the guy was a dick, but you had to see the look on his face and hear the tone of his voice to understand that he didn't think much of my little deposit. Also, I have a problem with recyclers who charge consumers to take their discarded materials only to make money on the other end when they sell what they salvage.

But enough about that. I'm starting to go through some of my outdated computer books and some old college textbooks that I never sold back. I'm also throwing in some old paperbacks that I read and really didn't like. So far I've been able to salvage a lot of room on my bookshelf. I have some books in the garage that need to be sorted before I can take them all to the City of Houston Drop-Off Center.

In other news I hit a milestone in my weight loss regimen on day 37, which I find pretty fucking cool. Let's put it this way... for a long time I was a little overweight, but not bad. When I tried to quit smoking in 2005 I gained a lot of weight. I started smoking again and it fell a little bit. I tried to quit again in 2006 and it started to go up again until I started smoking again. It fell a little bit and then I quit again. My weight once again jumped up until I hit the point I where I spent 10 months. So for the past almost 3 years I've been living at a very heavy level and trying to get back to at least where I was before I quit smoking in 2005. If I can get there then I know I can do anything.

For those who may wonder - I quit smoking the last time in May 2007 and have been able to stay that way.

At this point I'm going to have to call it a night as it's late (or rather early). To all of you I bid goodnight and will see you again on Day 40.

PS - I don't have a picture for today - the pictures will resume on day 40.

Day 9

Extreme unnecessary closeup

Los Angeles is a big city. Los Angeles, like Houston, is very spread out but it also has a much greater population density. There is a lot to do in this city. I was there just this past July and I know I barely scratched the surface of what the city had to offer. Los Angeles has Hollywood, famous beaches, Beverly Hills, Disneyland, 6-Flags Magic Mountain, and these are just a few of the more touristy things. My wife was in Los Angeles once 12 years ago, but did not get to see any of the city... what to do, what to do.

First thing to do was breakfast. This was to be the last meal at the hotel as the breakfast buffet cost $15 per person... but that homemade waffle was so freaking good. The first place we went was up to Mulholland Drive. I wanted to show my wife the view of the Los Angeles basin from up there. Unfortunately all we got to see was a mixture of fog and smog... it was hard enough just to see the buildings on Hollywood Boulevard.

From there we went to Beverly Hills and the world famous Rodeo Drive. Rodeo Drive is a beautiful little stretch of urban street, but just being on that road makes me feel poor. Any effects from a sick economy aren't felt in Beverly Hills. We walked around for a bit, took some pictures, and left to see where we could go next.

While trying to exit the Beverly Hills area via La Cienega, I came across The Stinking Rose. I wanted to eat there last time I was in Los Angeles, but never got the chance. We had lunch, which would have been perfect had it not been for the appetizer, and dessert - garlic ice cream. I like garlic.

We did some walking up and down Hollywood Boulevard. My wife got to get some pics with her favorite stars' landmarks and some pics of the sidewalk in front of Mann's Chinese Theater. I had no problem doing the touristy thing with my wife since she had not seen any of this before.

After spending about 30 minutes at the hotel we went into Hawthorn, California, near Inglewood to visit one of my wife's childhood friends. The last time they had seen each other was in 1996 at her wedding. They were happy to see each other, although I'm not quite sure what to make of this woman's husband. He was curt to the point of rudeness when we got there and after about 10 minutes made a not-so-graceful exit from the room. As far as I was concerned it was good riddance. My wife's friend wanted us to stay there while we were in Los Angeles, but I'm glad my wife decided not to do so. I think we would have been searching for a hotel on the 2nd day.

As we leave her friend's house I realize how glad I am took the Loss Damage Waiver on the car. The front air scoop under the front fascia bottomed out as I backed out of the driveway. I looked at when we got back to the hotel - it was scratched up pretty bad. That little voice in my head actually got through to me for once.

Off to bed we go because we have an early brunch appointment with my wife's friend. Goodnight.

Day 8

I am soooooo tired.

First off, I know I was going to try to post every day while I was line Los Angeles, but we were on the go all day everyday we were there and was tired by the end of each day. I did, however, take notes... here we go.

This has been one of my longest days ever. I got to bed around 2 am, got to sleep sometime past 3 am, and was awoken at 4:30 to get ready to head to the airport. I didn't even get to REM sleep... this is going to be a rough one.

And rough it was. I did manage some catnaps on the plane, but nothing approaching restful sleep. The flight was uneventful and smooth as glass going in. At least we were able to get an exit room seat where we could stretch our legs. Got our luggage and went to the car rental counter. The car smells like cigarette smoke and there are scratches all over the passenger side. I got someone to fill out the damage inspection and made sure every little ding was pointed out. I''m too tired at this point to try to get another car. Besides, 24 hours with the windows down or AC blowing should clear up some of the stale cigarette smoke.

The first purpose was to do a location check on the Philippine Embassy so I could get an idea of what time we needed to leave the hotel in the morning. When we left the airport, however, it was not even yet noon. My wife suggested going into the embassy and seeing if we could take care of business that day.

We got to the embassy, which is located on the 5th floor of an office building in the middle of Korea-town, at around 12:30 pm. There weren't too many people in there waiting, but the employees were on lunch break until 1 pm. We took our number and waited. As it got closer to 1 pm, however, the room started to quickly fill up as those who had been waiting since morning also came back from eating lunch. By the way, our lunch consisted of a soft drink and a shared bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. By 1 pm the room was very crowded and the first number called was 169... we had number 283.

We waited until just before 5 pm before my wife was called. We took care of things and headed back to the hotel. We ate dinner ($43 for a burger, a chicken club sandwich, an appetizer, and 2 drinks) and went up to the room. Off to dreamland with thoughts of what to do in Los Angeles on Day 9, now that we don't need to go the embassy.

Day 7

Waaaaaay too much forehead. It makes me wonder why I need a haircut.

I hate putting my cat into the cat carrier. I don't like fighting with her as she knows how to bite and still has rear claws. I also hate to have to squeeze her hard to keep her from squirming while I dump her into the carrier head first... rear legs flailing, claws out, trying to bite my hand, squirming, and white cat hair flying everywhere.

In less than 12 hours I'm off to Los Angeles. I was there in July 2008 and found what I saw to be a pretty cool city. I'm looking forward to going back. I have an aunt in Pasadena and another aunt, uncle, and cousins in Victorville, CA. I'm going to try to visit both this weekend. Besides, I think it would be rather cool to get some desert shots to add to my portfolio and my flickr page.

Speaking of pictures, I just realized I forgot to buy film for my film SLR. I use Kodak UC film in my 35mm, which is pro-level and not available at your local Walgreen's or CVS. I know there's a camera store chain in Los Angeles called Samy's. Perhaps I'll pick some up before we head to Victorville. I would love to take my Pentax 645, but that camera is heavy and not much fun for traveling.

Well, folks, I'm off to bed as I have to be up in about 5 hours for my trip. I'll continue to post what I can each as this is a project for the whole year. As for now I wish all of you a good night.

To all of my metalhead readers - pick up the new Cattle Decapitation when it comes out... this is some killer material.

Day 6

Lowering my blood pressure by supressing the production of ADH by my pituitary gland. Wine is good.

Icewine is a white wine that comes from those countries in the northern climes. Canada and Germany are the 2 largest producers of icewine. I heard once there was a French icewine, but this is probably wishful thinking on the part of some wine snobs.

Icewine gets its name from the fact that the grapes used are picked frozen off the vine. The vineyard does a late planting which brings the grapes to maturity in late November/early December. They grapes are harvested after the first frost. From there I would assume the rest of the process pretty much follows normal winemaking processes.

I had my first glass of icewine tonight. I was rather taken by the sweetness of the wine. It was definitely not expected. My wife seemed to enjoy it as she downed almost half of my glass. I guess this would make a great dessert wine. The bad part is that this particular brand cost $18 for 187ml. It definitely won't be an every evening wine.

I finally took a day off from the gym. My legs were really tight this morning and the blisters were burning. Last night was also my 5th day of going to the gym in a row. My foot feels a lot better so tomorrow I will be back at it.

Well, everyone, it's off to sleep as I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. To all of you faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I bid you goodnight.

Day 5

No, no, no, no

There's nothing like the first day of 2-a-days at the gym to make you really tired. I finally started them today. I decided that this first week of 2-a-days is strictly for cardio so I can build up my long-term stamina again. At this point I'm doing the power walk thing and building up to some long distance jogging. Next week I'm going to hit the weights. My only problem is my trip to LA at best will only afford me one opportunity per day to hit the gym. I'll do what I can, though.

Today was fairly uneventful with nothing really exciting to report. I've been trying to follow the reporting on the Israeli operation in Gaza. So far on most news sites I've been reading a lot of news with an anti-Israel spin. I would expect the anti-Israel stuff from the nutball liberal blogs, but the mainstream media spin truly amazes me. And the mainstream outlets wonder why they are losing money.

As much as I hate to cut this short, I am a little tired and need to do a couple of things before going to bed. To all of you I bid goodnight.

Day 4

Swoosh! Stretching my leg after getting back from the gym.

Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens and the Philadelphia Eagles on their playoff wins today. They join the San Diego Chargers and the Arizona Cardinals in advancing to the next round of the NFL Playoffs. I wasn't too happy last night about the Chargers overtime win over the Colts, but I have to hand them kudos for hanging in there to win.

Note to my friends and family Viking fans: the Houston Texans handed you guys that playoff spot... what happened?

Unfortunately my plan to start 2-a-days fell through, mostly through my own laziness. I went to bed really late last night and woke up rather late this morning. I'm not complaining though - the extra sleep felt really really good. I did go to the gym earlier this evening so it's not like I went the whole day without some strenuous exercise. I'm thinking the 2-a-days are going to start soon, but when is still up in the air at this point.

For the most part we spent the day trying to get a passport photo for my wife to renew her Philippine passport. I know you're saying that it can be done anywhere, but Philippine passports are not that easy. The Republic of the Philippines recently changed over to a Machine Readable Passport system which will apparently utilize some sort of facial recognition technology. The new requirements are to have a 3.5cm x 4.5 cm head-on shot on a royal blue background (most nations require a plain white background) with no open-mouth smiling. The royal blue background offers greater contrast so the face can be scanned by the machine. Most other passport photo places weren't aware of this and are not yet set up to take this type of photo. The cool part is the trip to Los Angeles that is coming up in a few days.

Off to bed I go. I have a long day with a lot of errands tomorrow in along with getting my billiing done for the clients. To all of you I bid goodnight.

Day 3

My thumb resting on the couch as I watch the beginning of the 2nd half of the Colts-Chargers playoff game.

It's now 3rd and 7 for the Colts in the 2nd quarter of their playoff game against the San Diego Chargers. Make that 4th and long... oh well, there's still about 33 minutes of football left for the evening. I have faith that Payton Manning can pull it through, especially against that wannabe quarterback Philip Rivers.

Today was a decent day in my world. I work up early for once and went to the gym fairly early. Of course it was crowded as for some reason the gym is always crowded early on Saturdays. I made it through my one hour treadmill experience without incident while rocking out to Witchcraft and Pantera. The bad thing is I had a blister develop on my foot while on the treadmill. This usually happens when I return after a layoff, so I shrugged it off.

Off to eat and then to the Houston Museum of Natural Science we went. Bodyworlds 2 is in Houston right now and I would like to see it. We saw the original Bodyworlds in Charlotte, NC in late 2007 and I thought it was one of the most interesting museum exhibits I had ever seen. The problem for us was we weren't the only people in Houston thinking of taking it in today. Judging by the length of the line for tickets to get in, it would seem that half the metropolitan area decided to descend upon the museum today. Off to Hermann Park we go.

The park visit was uneventful. I got one or 2 good shots in the park, but nothing really earth shattering. The bad part for this park visit, however, was the blister that formed earlier today. The blister opened while I was walking in the park and now it really hurts to step on my left foot. At least the skin didn't tear while I was walking. That event would have made the journey back to my car a living hell. I did make through a liquor store (to replace that $30 bottle of French wine, which is now a $35 bottle of French wine) and a computer store to purchase a USB cable.

It looks like my 2-a-days are going to start tomorrow. That's not a problem as now I am able to finish watching this game. The Colts are now up 17-14 and just inside Charger territory with the football.

At the risk of this turning into a live-blog of the game (and thus me earning the wrath of the NFL) I will stop this discussion. I bid you all a good night as I finish this game.

Day 2

Just got back from the gym and cleaning off my sunglasses.

A fairly uneventful day as far as days go in my world. I woke up, groomed and fed myself, and did a little bit of paperwork. Earlier this afternoon I went to the gym for the first time in 2009. I was going every day for a month in late October/early November but stopped as the semester was entering its final weeks and the demands on my time academically began to pile up. I guess for the month of December I just didn't feel like going but it's all good because this year we really didn't take in the gluttony that comes with the Christmas season. In fact, we didn't even order any petit-fours this year (and I love petit-fours).

That's not a bad thing though. It helps keep the unwanted pounds off my body. I wrestled with a nasty stomach bug in the week prior to the week of Christmas that dropped nearly 10 pounds off my body. My pants fit a little better now so that's definitely a plus. Hopefully with my pending return to full time gym-rat status I will get back down to my smoking weight. In fact, I plan on doing 2-a-days for at least a month. From there I can go further back down the slide.

Of course, eating at a Chinese buffet for dinner doesn't help with keeping the weight off.

Day 1

Bored as hell just looking at some photos on Flickr.com

I slept in really late for this first day of 2009. We attended a (mostly) alcohol-free gathering to ring in the new year this year but still got home really really late. Our host did offer a cup of champagne in celebration. I get the feeling that the hosts are mostly tea-totalers. This makes the fact that my wife talked me into giving them a $30 bottle of my favorite French wine as a gift all the more heartbreaking.

January 1st is always a pretty boring day since most places are either closed or open really limited hours. We went to see "Marley and Me" earlier this evening. I would describe it as a chick-flick version of "Old Yeller." The movie had its funny moments, but it's definitely chick-flick material. I was looking at some photos on Flickr after we got back... I need to find something else to do at this point.

I know this post is dated for Day 2 of the year, but I was inspired late in the day to do this project. The picture was taken on January 1st, so I'm still good to go. I do need to get some sleep, though.