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.