Yesterday I started the P90X fitness program. You may have seen the infomercials -- it's a many-DVD training program that is designed to lean me down and muscle me up (some, nothing grotesque).
Well, ow.
The first DVD was an hour of pushups and pullups, followed by 330+ reps of various ab exercises. No, I did not finish. I sucked floor mat for a good portion of the workout period, and spent the rest of the time staring up at my disobedient noodly appendages draped helplessly over the pull-up bar.
Mister Cheery Pants on the video kept telling me it was all right to be a weak-ass jello-bellied drag-ass, and that soon -- soon! -- I would be as mighty as he and his fat-free iron-slinging dance troupe.
Mmmyeah.
Ow.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Last minute Halloween!
What with being sick last weekend, there wasn't much time to throw together a costume. (We were planning to attend a friend's costume-required party on Halloween night.) I briely fantasized about making a Lt. Uhura (original Star Trek) dress, but since I didn't leave the house all weekend, no luck there. Instead, my colleagues at work decided to get dressed up as witches, went to the Halloween superstore for some strategic accessories, and much fun was had by all. 
M helped me style my hair in a gravity-defying pseudo-mohawk, spray it orange, and bought me some enormous orange eyelashes that convinced me I need to wear fake eyelashes more often. And I find the black nail polish to be appealing somehow. Perhaps it's time for a brief goth period for me? Ha ha, okay just kidding.(click on the images for larger versions)
Mom's response: "It's not as cute as the one we took of you when you were a toddler."
Well, duh! ;) I have the same dopey grin at least. Thanks Mom.
When life gives you lemons, play Halo
Or, no trip to Pt. Reyes in October.
We were supposed to go to Point Reyes again last weekend with our friends E&S, but instead both of us got very sick. My version included an inability to eat anything fatty, a generally nauseated feeling, and exhaustion. K's version was mostly about feeling like crud. Since I wanted to be distracted from feeling hungry and K wanted to be distracted from feeling like crud, we played Halo. We finished Halo 3 on Heroic, and started again with Halo (original flavor) and eventually got to Halo 2. Along the way we compared rendering complexity, interface design, and game design. it's very cool to see what has changed (quality of graphics, complexity/diversity of user interface) and what hasn't (basic weapons design and usage, HUD, cooperative play mechanics). NB: the fall-off-the-platform sequences at the end of 2 still suck.
Machinima enthusiasts are great Halo users as well, and apparently certain game elements were included in Halo 3 to facilite video creation - like providing an "at ease" stance when the Master Chief is carrying a weapon (he's not aiming his gun so you can see his face, making it better for dialog scenes). The guys from Red vs. Blue appear to have contributed some humorous moments during actual gameplay as well.
E & S did manage to get to Pt. Reyes on Saturday, whereupon their double-bagged trail mix was eating by an enterprising mouse. (Apparently the rangers knew about this and warned them, but no one quite counted on just how enterprising the mouse was.) They had a really good time, as expected. While we didn't exactly have a really good time, we were at least distracted for a time from feeling like crud. I was still tired into this last week, and kept resting.
We were supposed to go to Point Reyes again last weekend with our friends E&S, but instead both of us got very sick. My version included an inability to eat anything fatty, a generally nauseated feeling, and exhaustion. K's version was mostly about feeling like crud. Since I wanted to be distracted from feeling hungry and K wanted to be distracted from feeling like crud, we played Halo. We finished Halo 3 on Heroic, and started again with Halo (original flavor) and eventually got to Halo 2. Along the way we compared rendering complexity, interface design, and game design. it's very cool to see what has changed (quality of graphics, complexity/diversity of user interface) and what hasn't (basic weapons design and usage, HUD, cooperative play mechanics). NB: the fall-off-the-platform sequences at the end of 2 still suck.
Machinima enthusiasts are great Halo users as well, and apparently certain game elements were included in Halo 3 to facilite video creation - like providing an "at ease" stance when the Master Chief is carrying a weapon (he's not aiming his gun so you can see his face, making it better for dialog scenes). The guys from Red vs. Blue appear to have contributed some humorous moments during actual gameplay as well.
E & S did manage to get to Pt. Reyes on Saturday, whereupon their double-bagged trail mix was eating by an enterprising mouse. (Apparently the rangers knew about this and warned them, but no one quite counted on just how enterprising the mouse was.) They had a really good time, as expected. While we didn't exactly have a really good time, we were at least distracted for a time from feeling like crud. I was still tired into this last week, and kept resting.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
"Normal" Life
At the risk of invoking the Doom Gods, I'll say that life and work have been somewhat calm recently. The week of vacation did me a lot of good. Family time was fun and relaxing (mostly). Camping was very relaxing. Work has been going through a brief lull where I'm neither traveling a ridiculous amount nor working on a LOT of projects at the same time. I'm learning to make time for quilting and house cleaning again. (Who knew that ironing could be so relaxing?) I even managed to go shopping with my girlfriend R this past weekend and bought about 50 wrap dresses.
Trust me, I am enjoying it while I can!
The India tour I was planning to take with Mom in January was unfortunately cancelled due to lack of interest, so we are in a flurry of considering new options. K and I may check out Shanghai for Thanksgiving. We may head to Italy in January. The planning period with endless options is enjoyable and (because I am who I am) somewhat brief. I'm looking forward to the next adventure!
And with the A's out of the running, I'm really hoping the Red Sox win the World Series. Go Sox!
Trust me, I am enjoying it while I can!
The India tour I was planning to take with Mom in January was unfortunately cancelled due to lack of interest, so we are in a flurry of considering new options. K and I may check out Shanghai for Thanksgiving. We may head to Italy in January. The planning period with endless options is enjoyable and (because I am who I am) somewhat brief. I'm looking forward to the next adventure!
And with the A's out of the running, I'm really hoping the Red Sox win the World Series. Go Sox!
Pt. Reyes in September
This is becoming a good habit!
K and I went on another three-day trip to Point Reyes National Seashore. This time we were at Coast Camp right next to the water, and were joined by our friends D and M. We had originally planned to hike over Mount Wittenberg to the camp (we've done this before and it's a nice way to burn some calories plus the scenery is a great Pt. Reyes sampler) on Friday, but K's company ended up having a team-building day so we went there first instead.
Team building for a game company means: paintball! K's sordid past includes some hard-core paintballer years, so he had the gear and the attitude to have some fun playing. I watched some of it, but wandered off for a part of the time. His colleagues were very nice about inviting me to join, but I was happy to pass on the bruises and bonus sweat. We were headed camping, after all.
We managed to get into camp before dark, but there was no sign of D and M. Unfortunately, between the heat, paintball, and hiking, K had triggered himself a migraine. Our stove was nearly out of gas, so it took forever to cook dinner, plus we waited a good while for D and M to show up (enjoying some primo star-gazing in the process, at least until the unbelievably bright moon showed up). In the end, K went to bed with barely any food (but a lot of Excedrin) in him, and D & M made the hike in glorious full moonlight and found the camp just fine. M cheerily said, "I think I've pitched more tents in the dark than in daylight!" as she did exactly that.
A note about the moonlight: a recent New Yorker article talked about how cities are _over_lit. Planners (and people) tend to favor more light, with the assumption that that means more visibility and more safety. However, it turns out that humans are really well adapted for low-light seeing, and studies have shown that _less_ light often results in lower crime and vandalism. Plus, there's the environmental effect whereby some animals navigate via the brightness of the stars (newborn sea turtles, for example), and since cities are now brighter than the ocean reflecting the sky, they're getting misdirected and dying in great numbers. My personal test of wandering around camp without my headlamp on and, later, under just the moonlight confirmed that I could see just fine. Not particularly detailed, but fine enough to find my way, not get hurt, and notice other moving objects on the trail. The article prompted me to downsize our porch light, and I'm glad I did. Now, how can we get more cities to work on decreasing their light pollution? (Yeah yeah, I've seen the Simpsons episode.)
When we woke up in the morning, there was a deer in our camp.
Saturday we opted for the Coast Trail, which somehow ended up being a round-trip hike of about 9 miles, including side trips to Sculptured Beach and Arch Rock. The tides weren't with us, so we couldn't do any really cool exploring, but the hike was beautiful and we saw lots of birds (mostly pelicans) and a few seals. M is a very entertaining energizer bunny. She gets these weird urges to run, and apparently D has a collection of photos of M running away from him. (So far, she always comes back.) She definitely helped the miles go faster. I think.
We were pretty pooped by the time we got back to camp. D was darn near zombified ("Braaaains...") and we managed to summon enough energy to make dinner (yummy pasta) and plop into bed. We'd planned a moonlit trip to the beach, but we were all fast asleep by then.
The next morning we packed up the camp, walked down to the beach, and proceeded to sit there for a few hours. It was great. Peaceful, relaxing, sunny...D was man enough to go swimming (nutbar), and after the initial I-can't-breathe-it's-so-cold shock, seemed to have a good time splashing around. Thankfully the undertow wasn't acting up that day. We saw seals, horses, dogs, and even some more albino sheep. (Yes, SHEEP.) We were there long enough to watch the tide come in, and eventually peeled ourselves away and headed back to our cars.
That night we managed to tidy ourselves up enough to head into the city for dinner with my Dad (mmm...chicken), and slept well in our own beds. The next day: chores and Teh Haloz. Ah, vacation!
K and I went on another three-day trip to Point Reyes National Seashore. This time we were at Coast Camp right next to the water, and were joined by our friends D and M. We had originally planned to hike over Mount Wittenberg to the camp (we've done this before and it's a nice way to burn some calories plus the scenery is a great Pt. Reyes sampler) on Friday, but K's company ended up having a team-building day so we went there first instead.
Team building for a game company means: paintball! K's sordid past includes some hard-core paintballer years, so he had the gear and the attitude to have some fun playing. I watched some of it, but wandered off for a part of the time. His colleagues were very nice about inviting me to join, but I was happy to pass on the bruises and bonus sweat. We were headed camping, after all.
We managed to get into camp before dark, but there was no sign of D and M. Unfortunately, between the heat, paintball, and hiking, K had triggered himself a migraine. Our stove was nearly out of gas, so it took forever to cook dinner, plus we waited a good while for D and M to show up (enjoying some primo star-gazing in the process, at least until the unbelievably bright moon showed up). In the end, K went to bed with barely any food (but a lot of Excedrin) in him, and D & M made the hike in glorious full moonlight and found the camp just fine. M cheerily said, "I think I've pitched more tents in the dark than in daylight!" as she did exactly that.
A note about the moonlight: a recent New Yorker article talked about how cities are _over_lit. Planners (and people) tend to favor more light, with the assumption that that means more visibility and more safety. However, it turns out that humans are really well adapted for low-light seeing, and studies have shown that _less_ light often results in lower crime and vandalism. Plus, there's the environmental effect whereby some animals navigate via the brightness of the stars (newborn sea turtles, for example), and since cities are now brighter than the ocean reflecting the sky, they're getting misdirected and dying in great numbers. My personal test of wandering around camp without my headlamp on and, later, under just the moonlight confirmed that I could see just fine. Not particularly detailed, but fine enough to find my way, not get hurt, and notice other moving objects on the trail. The article prompted me to downsize our porch light, and I'm glad I did. Now, how can we get more cities to work on decreasing their light pollution? (Yeah yeah, I've seen the Simpsons episode.)
When we woke up in the morning, there was a deer in our camp.
Saturday we opted for the Coast Trail, which somehow ended up being a round-trip hike of about 9 miles, including side trips to Sculptured Beach and Arch Rock. The tides weren't with us, so we couldn't do any really cool exploring, but the hike was beautiful and we saw lots of birds (mostly pelicans) and a few seals. M is a very entertaining energizer bunny. She gets these weird urges to run, and apparently D has a collection of photos of M running away from him. (So far, she always comes back.) She definitely helped the miles go faster. I think.
We were pretty pooped by the time we got back to camp. D was darn near zombified ("Braaaains...") and we managed to summon enough energy to make dinner (yummy pasta) and plop into bed. We'd planned a moonlit trip to the beach, but we were all fast asleep by then.
The next morning we packed up the camp, walked down to the beach, and proceeded to sit there for a few hours. It was great. Peaceful, relaxing, sunny...D was man enough to go swimming (nutbar), and after the initial I-can't-breathe-it's-so-cold shock, seemed to have a good time splashing around. Thankfully the undertow wasn't acting up that day. We saw seals, horses, dogs, and even some more albino sheep. (Yes, SHEEP.) We were there long enough to watch the tide come in, and eventually peeled ourselves away and headed back to our cars.
That night we managed to tidy ourselves up enough to head into the city for dinner with my Dad (mmm...chicken), and slept well in our own beds. The next day: chores and Teh Haloz. Ah, vacation!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
On the Road Again
Been a while since we posted...it's been busy.
We got out to see S&P&S&N for their housewarming and anniversary party in Merced, and it was another blissful day at the pool. They even put my name on one of the floaties! Slight drawback was that the "permanent marker" was no match for Coppertone Bug & Sun (SPF 15 and DEET), so I briefly had some very fetching black marker tattoos.
I'm in Birmingham (UK) this week, and would entertain you with a photo of my hotel room & environs, except I forgot to bring my camera hookup cable. It's a nice hotel room that looks out over trees and...another hotel. I'm rather more interested in checking out the pool at some point. And, while it is a very nice hotel room, it turns out we are some distance from the city-center, so I'm planning to be healthfully familiar with the hotel accoutrements before Friday.
We got out to see S&P&S&N for their housewarming and anniversary party in Merced, and it was another blissful day at the pool. They even put my name on one of the floaties! Slight drawback was that the "permanent marker" was no match for Coppertone Bug & Sun (SPF 15 and DEET), so I briefly had some very fetching black marker tattoos.
I'm in Birmingham (UK) this week, and would entertain you with a photo of my hotel room & environs, except I forgot to bring my camera hookup cable. It's a nice hotel room that looks out over trees and...another hotel. I'm rather more interested in checking out the pool at some point. And, while it is a very nice hotel room, it turns out we are some distance from the city-center, so I'm planning to be healthfully familiar with the hotel accoutrements before Friday.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Careful what you wish for
Remember my comment about taking all the 4.x earthquakes in the world rather than a Big One? Well, there was a 3.2 last night around midnight that jolted me awake, and a 2.7 on Saturday night that jostled my sudoku session.
The list of earthquakes in our region seems sobering at first, but the actual numbers are quite low. Could be a truck going by...could be an earthquake. Given that the wind patterns are pushing the constant sound of trains our way at night, I've got enough nightmares without actual ground motion!
The list of earthquakes in our region seems sobering at first, but the actual numbers are quite low. Could be a truck going by...could be an earthquake. Given that the wind patterns are pushing the constant sound of trains our way at night, I've got enough nightmares without actual ground motion!
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