Wednesday, December 25, 2013

merry xmas

Just a collection of xmas photos since I don't like to type out posts on my phone.












Friday, December 20, 2013

lyfe

Life has been going great for the most part. I have no real complaints.

I'm going to try to sit down at a computer sometime in the near future and compose a real post.

Just wanted to check in and say I'm still alive,  just in abstentia.


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

My recent life in pictures (and a few words)

Oh, where to start.  This all might not be in order and there might not be a lot of content but I love my family and I'm using this as an excuse to show them off.

Recently we went to the mountains to go sledding.  Well, to watch our child go sledding in reality because I'm too old and that's just not fun for a fat aging asthmatic (though I did go down once).
I did not dress warm enough either.

Not a lot of pics but a before and after of my lovely fiance who transformed from an Eskimo to an Ewok within 30 minutes.

My phone added effects on it's own!




We all ended up shopping recently to purchase a shirt.  We had our boy, her sisters boy and her brothers boy all together at the same time and they wanted to do some posing.  The following is the results.  Notice how we have almost every color of the rainbow with us :)






We went to Ethel M's in Henderson to view the Cactus Garden while it was all lit up with Xmas lights.
We went last year and will probably continue to make this a family tradition as it really does look lovely late at night all lit up, even if it's chilly.



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We ended up having someone ask us to take their picture and in return they would take ours as well.  Two out of the 3 that they took turned out good - the last - not so much.




And some Video



Today was day 2 of inventory - on my way home I had to pick up some prescriptions and I thought I'd treat myself to a relaxing adult beverage!


Friday, December 06, 2013

All I want for Xmas

It's funny, in the past few weeks I've had a few customers snap at me because I wished them a "Happy Holidays" where as they want me to say Merry Xmas instead.
Shit, Xmas was still a month away the first time I said it - how about people stop being so f'n sensitive and just accept some joy instead of sucking it all away with their closed minded beliefs?

Today I came home and, for the first time, did a routine from Jillian Michaels.  My love seems to like her and she is a great personality on the Fat Person show she is part of.  On Xbox fitness her first workout of (30 day shred or something like that) is free and then you need to pony up a little bit of money to unlock all of it.  I'm cool with doing the free one for a week and seeing what I think about stepping up my game afterwards.

Lets just say that my ass was thoroughly kicked.  I feel like I did OK for my first time through it and my "score" was good. (lets face it, this is part of a Video Game system and we are in a golden age of Video Games so of course there are going to be scores and rankings and stuff.)  I wasn't perfect and I have a lot of room for improvement especially with certain exercises.  There were several cardio exercises where I just flat out had to quit for about half of the workout because I couldn't breathe but I pushed myself as far as I could.   There were several exercises where I was trying and I barely scored anything because what I was doing was not enough to even register as actual physical exercise.   Oh Jillian, I'm still exhausted an hour later and want to nap (but I need to get my tush in gear and get ready for work).

I'm going to do this routine one more time over the weekend and get some other exercise in on the other day, probably just cardio, as next week is going to be Inventory week which means 12 hour days and I'll be too tired to actually get exercise in before or after work.

Baby Steps.

In recreational news I am still playing Diablo 3 and started playing Grand Theft Auto 5 finally.  About 6 hours into it and enjoying it much better than 4 which I stopped after less than 10 hours of play.  Still doing a little bit of Knack on the PS4 now and then as well as I debate whether or not I want to bother trying to platinum it or not.
I'm also playing Paper Mario Sticker Stars on the 3DS.  So, most of my systems have some sort of game that I'm progressing in.  Maybe after the holidays I'll be able to set up a schedule where I can play once or twice per week regularly instead of just on random occasions.
Biggest problem is cannot play games like GTA5 anytime the child is around because .... well... because that game is just nasty in both content and language.

Now, to put some clothes on and get some caffeine in me so that I can function at work before my weekend off.  Oh, inventory week is going to suck like always.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Holiday Spirit

So today I'm at the local grocery store to buy a six pack and the lines are longer than I'd like them to be.  I was searching for the shortest line when a couple with approximately 14 carts full of crap said that I could go ahead of them since I only had one thing.
I thanked them and walked up to my next place in line.
While waiting I heard them talking about decorating their tree and the lady was asking the guy if they should buy candy canes to add to the tree or not.  There was no real answer given, it was a short conversation.

When my turn came I bought my beer and a box of candy canes.  I turned to the couple and thanked them again for letting me go ahead and told them that I was leaving behind the paid box of candy canes for their tree.

The lady and the cashier both got a huge grin on their face and the lady thanked me and told me it was really sweet.
I thanked her one last time for the kindness and headed home.

The day before as I ended my day of work I bought each of my employees a $5 gift card and had it placed in the cash office.  I sent out an email to them and let them know that I appreciated all the help they have provided especially during the busy holiday season and let them know that they just had to get a manager to get the card out of the office for them.

$5 isn't much but it'll cover a snack and a drink.

Ho
Ho
Ho

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Getting Thinner with Xbox Fitness

Today I decided to take the next step towards the new Thinner me.  Yes, Cardio and eating better has gotten me so far but today I decided to start adding some routines into my exercise lifestyle.

So, with that being said - Lets jump to the fact that I have new toys, namely the Xbox One - or the Xbone to some. It was a Xmas present. Yes, I am spoiled and yes I got it early (opening presents on Xmas is for children heh).

So I was browsing and looking to see if they have any free games for launch to entice people and the only two I discovered were Killer Instinct which is not a full version and it starts off by telling you that in order to earn achievements and rank on the leader-boards you have to purchase some version of the game.  I think it ranges from $29.99 to $14 billion dollars or so if you want to make sure that you get all of the upgrades and characters and levels as they are released.   I played one fight and decided that I still hate fighter games and deleted it.

However the other thing I found is a gem, a not advertised and well hidden gem and it's Xbox Fitness.
It works in conjunction with the Kinect and I have a feeling that it won't remain free for long (but I sure hope it does or at least has a reasonable price).  There are a lot of free exercise videos including BeachBody, P90x and Insanity.  I, however, opt for things that can be done in about 10 minutes or so because I really don't want to die in front of a TV and Video Game System.

Today I tried my first exercise which was a 10 minute Ab Workout and afterwards I was  a little short of breath and a bit tired.  I consider those both wins.

The great thing is that in conjunction with the Kinect you see yourself next to the trainer and a silhouette of yourself doing the workout. You get instant feedback telling you that you need to raise your legs more or you need to keep up with the instructor or that you're a lazy bastard who should probably just put in Call of Duty instead because this is not for you.  Every exercise gives you challenges and gives you a score and a star rating (1 through 5) so that you can push yourself harder and get better.

After one workout I am happy with it so far.  I've got about 5 months to get myself in better shape for the wedding and the Honeymoon in Hawaii and today begins my toning journey.
Today I started at 218 pounds (I've been in this range for 2 months now) and I'm down to a 38 pant size (because I put my pants under my fat instead of around my belly).  My belly is sitting around a 46 or 48 and this is the main area that I'm going to be focusing on.

I'll be 100% happy if I stay near my current weight but shrink the gut so I look better in dress shirts and eventually my Tux.

I've come a long way but there is still much left of my journey.

As for my fitbit - last week I did nearly 81,000 steps and went for over 35 miles.

and because no one comes here for the words.... Todays pics I stole from The Chive.






Sunday, November 24, 2013

size 38 pant

Today I bought 2 pair of pants for work.
Size 38.
My size 40 shorts are getting to be too baggy.

That is all

Monday, November 18, 2013

Getting back on track with More Yoga Pants

(NOTE: Due to Google determining that this post violated policy because people are sexualizing yoga pants (6 years after it was posted none the less) I have deleted all of the Yoga Pants.  You can thank google for being fucking lame:)


At the beginning of November I had week with a bit over 65k steps.
Two weeks ago I went for over 80k steps.
This past week I ended up with 90,314 total steps.
I am quite happy with my progress and I'm starting to get back on track and get more active again.


I've still got a ways to go before I'll be hitting 100k weeks regularly but I know what it's going to take and I just have to push myself to get there.  The big thing is that I need to make sure that on my work days I get in my 15k steps no matter what.  This will help to make up for the days when I don't work and I know I'm going to be lazy (especially when I don't get to the gym).  So, that is the first thing.


Today I accomplished that go and did over 15k at work.  Tomorrow I hope to do the same and then I have off Weds and Thurs and I'm going to try my hardest to get motivated to get to the gym for an hour each day.


This will be hard because I do have a new Video Game System sitting at home begging me to spend precious time with it.



I finished season 5 of Dexter and will be starting Season 6 within the next few days.
I think I'm going to use Dexter as a way to stay at the gym a bit longer.  Watch a full episode as I'm at the gym which will make me go about 50 minutes and then I just have to get myself to do the last 10 minutes just to hit an hour.  I'll try this a few times and see how well it works for me.




 Now that the new generation of video game systems are here I'm going to need to go through my older games and set aside those that I'm going to actually play and those that are just going to be there to look pretty.  I'm also thinking about getting a binder for each system (older gen only) and putting the discs in the binders and getting rid of the cases so that I can free up some space.  This I haven't talked myself into but it's been something I've been thinking about.  PS1, PS2, Game Cube, xbox, Xbox 360 and PS3.  My game collection does take up a pretty good amount of space.




I'm too distracted by the pictures to continue.... I'll have to follow this up with something else in the near future.









Sunday, November 10, 2013

The woes of A Pittsburgh Steelers Fan

2003 was the last time the Steelers had a losing season.  It's been a while.
Before that it was 1999.  We have been good for over a decade.  We have been consistent.  This year is very painful to watch. I'm hoping it's a one year abirition but it sure doesn't feel like it.
Last season was 8-8 and this season I suspect we'll get bout 6, maybe 7 wins but I do feel it's going to be below .500.

We do have some tools in place but without an offensive line it's getting harder and harder to win games.  Drafting two guys in the 1st two rounds last year was supposed to sure us up along with Pouncey, but injuries have decimated us once again and we are left playing people like Guy Whimper and whoever that center is that was rejected during the season and released.

Bell seems like eventually he could be good, but when you get excited about a guy carrying it 20+ times and still not reaching 100 yards - is there really anything worth getting excited about?
Jarvis Jones is going to be an impact player as soon as he figures out how to play in the NFL.  He looks like a rookie at times.  Worilds has not developed into the guy they thought he would and is only a fill in until Jones is ready to go or until we stop getting injuries (as I write this Woodley was injured again and didn't finish the game against Buffalo).

The secondary looks awful this year.  Ike Taylor appears to have lost a step and Clark/Polamalou just don't appear to have the same chemistry as before.  When you are forced to start either Allen or Gay (who we got rid of previously because he was awful) in the corner position you know there are issues.

There is no pass rush and the Defensive Line doesn't appear to know how to fill the gaps to stop the run.  Heyward is no Aaron Smith and Ziggy Hood only made a good relief guy.

We have Big Ben and a great receiving core in Brown, Sanders, Cotchery and Miller but without time to protect the QB and without a running game that actually puts fear into the defense it's hard to rely on that. This is why we are forced to settle for so many field goals when we reach the red-zone.

Oh, it's a painful year to be a Steelers fan but it could be worse.
Some teams go through this every year and not once or twice a decade.


Friday, November 08, 2013

Dirty Old Man

Today I decided to be a nice guy and offer to help out one of my associates with loading some product for these two ladies.  One of them was probably the mother and the other the daughter that I placed to be somewhere around the 18 year old range.

During our help I heard talk about her father and say that he was old at 40 and that he got offended that she thought he was forty because he really is only 38 and all I could think was "fuck, I'm the same age as this guy and I'm oggling his daughter right now."

During the load we had two heavy muscle racks to load into the back of their soccer mom van.  While we were doing this the daughter decided that it would be a great time to strap two younger children into their child seats in the back of the van.

She did this by climbing fully into the van and standing up/bending over where I got way more of a view down her shirt than I was expecting.

I'm quite sure she was doing it on purpose. I am, after-all, a pretty sexy beast.
It's the gray hairs and the bulbous nose.

This is pretty much what I was looking at minus the baseball glove and weird headset.
It wasn't until after this that I overheard the conversation about her "old" father that I pieced together that she was probably about 16 or so and really started to feel like a dirty old man.

My other customer interaction occurred the day before when I was talking with two or three other guys near the hardware desk.
The one guy was talking about how poor he was and that he was going to have to turn to stripping to make a living.  I interjected that I would make a great stripper.
He looked at me and said "I know you've been losing weight and all but I don't think you are quite stripper material yet."
I responded "So, yer saying that chicks aren't into stretch marks?"

Just as I was saying that this lady customer came walking up the aisle and as she heard what I had to say she had a huge grin on her face.  I pointed it out and said "see, even she laughs at me" and as she walked by us she made sure to say (loud enough for us to hear) "Nope, No we sure don't like stretch marks" and everyone had a big laugh at my expense.


Thursday, November 07, 2013

weekly grrouchie recap

Last week I walked 65,633 steps - which is less than 10k per day which is a complete failure if you ask me.
Even if I have some small days the big days need to make up for it.
Ugh, feeling quite disappointed when I opened my email and read that stat.

I only walked 30 miles.
My heaviest was 219.4 pounds and lightest was 216.1.
I really feel like my final weight for the long run is going to fall somewhere between 210 and 220 and I'm cool with that.  I still want to get more trim for the wedding but overall I am quite happy with myself.

The good news is that as of yesterday I have officially walked 500 miles since getting my Fitbit. I do know that I've been more active (in general) because of this little trackings device and because of that I am quite happy with the purchase.
There is a new version of it that just came out and I'm trying to convince someone to buy it for an Xmas present (though really that could be a present to myself).  There are two big improvements from the Flex that I am wearing to the Force (which is the one that just came out).  First big difference is that the Force tells time, it acts as a watch.  I kinda dig that feature so that I don't have to constantly explain to people what that thing on my wrist is.
The second is that the Force counts flights of stairs traveled. That might not sound that cool but it is another metric recorded and will push me to take the stairs more often and to possibly go out of my way to take more flights of stairs for the exercise value.
Every little bit helps right?

As far as Video Games go I only played 3 hours 43 minutes worth of Diablo 3. It's not much but at least I got some time in.
What distracted me from getting more gaming in?  Well I'm glad you asked.
I've been trying to get caught up on comics and TV Shows.

As far as Comics I finished off Hunger which is set in the Marvel Ultimate universe and has turned into something else which I think is going to be universe wide.  So, I probably won't continue reading that as there is too much else that I'm getting.
Next Wednesday the last issue of Dexter is coming out so that drops another item off my monthly pick up list as well.  Then there are only one or two more issues left in Robocop to help make some more room.
All this is good and dandy because I'm sure that there are other things that will come around I'll start collecting.

As far as TV Shows go I finally finished off season 4 of Dexter.  I loved the entire season and thought it was absolutely brilliant.  It rivals season 2 for my favorite right now and even though I had the ending spoiled for me it still ripped my heart out.  WOW.
I've decided that I'm going to finish off Dexter before jumping into anything else that I want to watch like Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

I'm really getting close to pulling the trigger on GTA V at this point but just haven't done it yet.  Also the PS4 comes out next week and even though I have no games for it I've got a tinge of excitement for it.  I'm really going to have to invest in a multiport HDMI adapter and figure out some sort of shelving system to set my systems up in that doesn't look horrible nor take up a lot of space.

One last thing and that is that I really need to stop being lazy and start selling off my digital codes for comics on ebay.  While they don't fetch a whole lot they do help to compensate for the price of comics a bit.
I'm going to have to spend a day off and just go back through the last couple of months and put groups of them up for auction.  Every penny helps.

Finally, my November Fitness Goal - PLANKING.
I can hit a minute every time.  I hit 90 seconds once but it was tough.  Today I hit 80 seconds again.
In 5 days I'm supposed to start hitting 90 seconds as my daily target and then a few days after that 2 minutes.  That is where this challenge really starts to escalate and where I'm going to struggle.  However, I have to look at it as a challenge and while I might not be knocking it out of the park I'm showing improvement and forcing myself to get some exercise every single day which is really what this boils down to.


Now I'm going to go get some reading done and then get some shut-eye.

Nite-Nite

Sunday, November 03, 2013

A day of rest?

This is completely weird and I'm not sure how to handle it.  This is a very rare Sunday in which I have off but the Fiance is working most of the day leaving me to do whatever it is I actually feel like doing.
I could play video games all day or I could watch football all day.  I've got decisions to make and my brain is at a loss :)

What I do know is that I have a strat game scheduled for 11 am this morning but after that is over then it's FREEDOM!
Speaking of strat - I've really been debating just quitting the league and the game.  My free time is so little right now between work and spending what free time I have with the family.  Not living with them I really hate to schedule something else in a time slot when I could be spending time with them instead.  Even if it's just 1-3 hours it really does cut into the limited time I already have with them each and every week.
So, maybe it's time for one of my hobbies to bite the dust and just be done with it?  I'll keep thinking on that and get back to myself later.

I just finished my Day 3 Morning Plank and I'm happy with where I am at thus far.  I feel I'm going to get a lot further in this challenge than I expected and that's pretty cool.  Sometimes you don't know what you can do until you push yourself to try I guess.  We will see how I feel on day 10 and 15 when the times actually start getting difficult.

Last night before passing out I caught up on Deadpool Kills Deadpool and out of the 3 little mini-series in this vein this probably was my least favorite. Everything felt too rushed and there wasn't enough action.  I really feel this is one of those instances where the scope should have been cut down or they should have drawn it out to 8 issues.  Of course there is either another mini-series coming out of it or there is a 1-shot coming in January "Night of the Living Deadpool."

Also, because my comic book shop finally got Infinity Volume 2 in I am now able to start reading that series.  Of course, I'm just going to go through and read the main one at this time and when I can find a torrent to download that has the entire collection including all off the tie-ins (like with Avengers vs X-Men) I'll go through and read the entire work of art and judge it on a whole.  But, I do love me some Thanos.

Since I'm on Comic books I realize I need to cut down on what I'm buying (not reading).  It's getting time to do some soul searching and just settle on a few titles that I want to have in my collection and the rest I can get digitally.  It is a little painful but we will see what I can come up with.
The biggest problem is that there are so many good ones out there right now and a lot of little series I like to pick up.  For Instance Infinity (even though I don't pull a single Avengers book) and Robocop and the new one from Max Brooks that is costing me way more than any other comic due to me collecting a more limited version of it (that one, however, is being fully funded by this blog so I'm hoping the funds don't run out before the issues do).

So, back on topic.  Day free, strat game at 11.
After that (depending on what the 1st set of games are) I'll probably go pick up my boy and bring him back here so he can complain that football is still on while wanting me to play video games with him and watch Ridiculousness on my tablet.  It's such a shame that these new additions to my family are not into football but I guess you take the good with the bad.


Friday, November 01, 2013

PlankVember

So as I reported last time I have decided to take on the month long challenge in November to plank every single day trying to work myself up to 5 minutes total on the 30th.

I created a page (here) to log this little exercise and keep track of it on a daily basis and I will give periodic updates letting people know how I'm feeling and if I think I'll succeed.
For the record, when I decided to do this at the end of October I thought that I'd have trouble getting to, and exceeding, one minute (which happens to be day 9) but now that I've got a couple of practice ones in and completed my first day of this challenge I'm revising my statement.

I now think that Day 18 (2.5 minutes) is where I'll experience my first fail.
I want to say 2 minutes, but I'm going to give myself the benefit and say that doing this plank exercise upwards of 3 times per day (once when I wake up, once before bed and maybe one in the middle if I have the time or desire) I'll be able to build my endurance up to at least 2 minutes over the course of the 1st two weeks.
Who knows, I could surprise myself and actually nail this whole thing.  It's all in the name of better health so I'm at least trying it.

This will hopefully be an ongoing thing where I find a new challenge or two every month and stick with them.
I'm going to want to pick two or three months to concentrate on my belly fat area as I'm going to want to look damn good when I hit the beaches of Hawaii come May!


Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Weekly Updates - slacking

Man oh man have I been slacking off something fierce since I went on Vacation.  I knew it was going to be a difficult 4 days but when I came back home I didn't just jump back into my old routine, nope, I kept on going with my vacation bad habits.  Not walking extra steps, not eating healthy, NOT saying no to those donuts or chips or whatever else I happened to be craving.
Vacation really did a number on me.

With that in mind I'm really going to right this injustice and get back on track during the month of November.
Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?

I'm going to try to get motivated to hit the gym today even for just a simple 3 mile walk on the elliptical or treadmill.  However, I am functioning off of less than 4 hours sleep and I'm quite certain that I'll just blow it off.
Tomorrow is Trick or Treating with the family and I just don't see myself making a trip to the gym after work but before the fun.
Friday is First Friday and probably the last I'll be able to go to for a while.  November is a 3 pay month and those months have that extra Friday in them and thus shifts the balance of power towards evil thus making me close every single First Friday until the next 3 pay month.  However, at least this happens during the winter months so that I am not forced to drink beer just to stay warm!!!

So, November it is.
As such I am looking through different fitness Facebook sites and crap my friends post to help find things to motivate me.
I'm also thinking about doing a weight loss challenge at work that will probably end up costing me $10 per week - but it's the motivation that is important.

So far this is what I'll be attempting in November.

I fully expect to fail this somewhere during the month - but I will keep up with it daily and see what kind of progress I get anyways.  Day 9 looks like a hurdle currently but only because I don't think I've ever hit the minute mark before, of course I've never kept up with it so who knows.  Day 30 is probably impossible but that's why they call it a challenge right?
So, who wants to start taking wagers on what day I'll initially fail?

Now, for the weekly upates

Fitbit:
75,025 total steps
10,718 daily average
33.89 miles
Weight 217-221

Even though I've been slacking I'm happy that my daily average is still over 10k.  I'm going to work on getting my weekly number back to 90k and then get back into the habit of getting in those extra steps every single day.
Ideally I want to be hitting at least 40 miles per week and I need to get my weight back down.  My lowest was 213 and I'm up from that so I need to start focusing on getting the exercise in and the weight will take care of itself.

Video Game Update:
11h 24m were played this past week (per raptr).  All of it was Diablo 3.
Yesterday I got my Barbarian to Act 2 and now I will work on progressing my Monk and Demon Hunter to Act 2 as well.  I've now put over 50 hours into Diablo 3 and mostly because I've been toying around with different characters instead of just focusing on one and beating the game for the first time.
I want to pick up GTA V and am getting closer to pulling the trigger but I need to sell some other stuff off first to justify it.  Time Will Tell.

TV Update:
After finishing Breaking Bad I haven't bothered to start sinking my mind into another serious TV Series.  I'm nearing the end of The League Season 4 and then I have to decide what direction to go next.
My currently Choices.
The Walking Dead Season 3
Game of Thrones Season 2
Dexter Season 4

Comic Book Update:
I haven't read a single one in probably 6 weeks.  I've got quite the backlog.  When I slack, I slack at everything!