Update

I know, I know, I haven't written in a while.

The truth is, I have been working a lot, going to kung fu, spending time with Victoria, and when I sleep, I sleep like the dead, recently. And also, wtf is in the air??? My eyes have been itchy for like, a week now. Damn allergies.

So, if you read my previous post regarding IF, that is going well, so far. Granted my last post was only a few minutes ago, but regardless, it's still going well. I was about to do San He for my 1st time today, but then I heard my email and like the Pavlovian slave that I am, came running.

This weekend is shaping up to be busy and nice. If you read Victoria's blog you will see that, yes, she is indeed moving to live at my house with me. Yes, this is a big step. I know this and do feel that we are ready for it. To me, she is way different from any girl that I have ever dated and I have never known that this is what I want so freakin' fast. You know what they say though about opportunity or something. I'm too lazy to Google, but well, you have to take it when it comes.

At any rate, that will be happening gradually over the next month, so we won't be consumed with it all weekend. But, let's back up.

I was planning on going to class today, however, I am pretty effing sore from yesterday brown belt work. Also, I went back way to far on a rollover during warm ups, which caused my neck to make a noise that I hadn't heard in a while. My upper back is all sore and feels shitty. So does my right heel for some reason. I am a mess. Bleh...

Tonight, we are going to see the new Indiana Jones movie at the Alamo. That should be fun. I can't wait to eat =).

Tomorrow, I am not sure what we are doing during the day, but I will need to clean up a little bit to get my house ready for the next UFC PPV which is tomorrow. I am having some friends over to watch it. That is always a good time.

Sunday, we are going to move some of V's stuff over, particularly clothes and essentials.

Monday, we don't really have any solid plans, but I DO need to pack and get ready for my trip. My loose itinerary for next week is as follows:

• Tuesday - Leave for NYC @ 720am out of Austin. Arrive @ LaGaurdia Airport or "Satan's Asshole, as I like to call it" (Dane Cooke) at around noon EST. Go to boss' house in NJ. Go home to parent's house in Staten Island.
• Wednesday - Go to Long Island, work. Leave for Boston from LI.
• Thursday - Work in Boston. Stay over.
• Friday - Finish work in Boston. Go back home to parent's house in Staten Island.
• Saturday - Stay in Staten Island, visit with family.
• Sunday - Fly home to Austin.

 

IF

(Intermittent Fasting)

So, I finally got to read the book "EatStopEat" and I loved it. I won't spoil all of the good parts (so you read it hehe), but what I really enjoyed the most was how the author (Brad Pilon) dispelled common myths and misconceptions about how fast effects the body. To date, I had subscribed to the common knowledge that, well, everyone else does.

Suffice it to say, I am going to be trying this theory out. Actually, I am trying it today. Victoria offered to try it with me which, I thought was really cool. So, we stopped eating at around 930pm last night. The next time I will be eating is at the Alamo Draft House tonight when we are watching Indiana Jones.

The basic idea behind this is as follows:

"Diets" or "eating plans" most often fail in the long term. Sure, in the short term, they might work really well. How many of you have tried the "South Beach Diet" or the "Abs Diet"? I have. I got pretty good results for the first couple of months, then pretty much said "fuck it, this is way too much work", and went back to whatever I was doing before I started.

FAIL.

Some of the myths/misconceptions that this book speaks to are:

• the idea that fasting will kill your metabolism.
• the idea that you will lose muscle mass from fasting.
• that eating 6-8 times per day will "stoke" your metabolism.
• why eating "plans" or "diets" typically fail once you extend the observation period.

The bottom line is that reading this book really made me think about some of the ideas that I have accepted as conventional wisdom. What I like even better is that the claims that are made are backed up by scientific studies and data. They are not just said and expected to be accepted. I would recommend this book to anyone, if nothing more than to just have some new ideas to think about in the health/nutrition arena.

It is currently 11:13am. I have not eaten anything since 9:30pm last night. Overall, I feel just fine. I do feel some pangs of hunger, but they come and go. I am trying to not think about it. Ultimately, I would like to be able to do this 2x/week.

Which brings me to talking about some things that I am doing to get ready for my next test.

1. Josh Hillis fighter workout which is 3x/week (starting on Monday).
2. Lots of jump rope.
3. Lots of form practicing.
4. San He Chuan 3x/day ( I am shooting for 3x/day, we shall see how that pans out ).

Anyway, to sum up, right now, I am about 205-210 depending on what day and what scale. As I move forward with the above AND with IF, I will post changes, if any.

 

She's F**king Obama...

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

For real???

I would like to preface this post by saying that I absolutely LOVE my new job. I have learned more in the past few weeks regarding development than I think I did at my last job in a whole year.

The difference now, though, is dealing with small clients that have somewhat strange requests from time to time.

Case in point (sent in by a male, nonetheless):

Question.

One of my FAVORITE hobbies at work is checking on ticket availability at ticketmaster.com

However, this morning when I was trying like a mad man to get the BEST MADONNA tickets I possibly could, I think I “tried” too many times, and it seems ticketmaster blocked our IP address!

This has happened in the past, but only for like ten to fifteen minutes at a time. I have been unable to log in to ticketmaster for 4 hours and now I’m concerned. Especially because tomorrow morning, WHILE I HAVE TO BE HERE, more tickets are going on sale at 9am.

Some people have mentioned a program that resets your IP address for you, but I’m thinking that doesn’t sound like an option.

Any ideas on what I can do to sneak back on to ticketmaster.com

My 1st response:

Is this for real? We have help him get Madonna tickets??!?!?!

Then I sucked it up and actually responded:

A) I do not know if this substantiated. How would we know if Ticketmaster “temporarily blocks an IP address”? All I could really find on this topic is this article from Slashdot:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/10/07/2332237.shtml

B) If you were going to try and sneak back in, you would have to make the site think that you had a different IP. The only way that I know of to do that is to use a proxy. There are MANY ways to do this and they are as simple as a google search away. Here are some that might work:

1. FoxyProxy - http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org/ - Complete details for download setup on this site. This is a plug in for Firefox.
2. Proxy Changer - http://www.proxychanger.com/ - If you use IE…
3. Listing of available proxy servers: http://www.publicproxyservers.com/

I am not sure if this will work, however as I found this on Ticketmaster’s site:

Proxy Servers

Some online service providers, such as AOL or Prodigy, use a device called a proxy server. Proxy servers save copies of sites on their server rather than connecting users to the Internet or the specific site requested. In most cases this works fine.

Using a proxy server might prevent you from purchasing tickets because you need to access our ticketing system directly. If you do not know if you are accessing the Internet through using a proxy server, contact your Internet service provider.

Access Ticketmaster.com through a direct Internet connection and not through any service using proxy servers.

My recommendation would to calm down and try less. I don’t think we should be helping clients “sneak” back into web sites after they had been blocked due to what the site has deemed to be “malicious” or “questionable” use.

Pretty funny IMO. I should start a web site or something... like the Chronicles of George (go here if you have never been, it's hilarious).

Me Me MentaliTy...

I thought I would go in reverse order with this one. Read the article first, then see comments below:

May 12, 2008
In The World And In Ourselves
Feeling Fed Up With Humanity

From time to time, we may all feel fed up with humanity, whether it's from learning about what's going on around the world, or what’s going on next door. There are always situations that leave us feeling as if people are simply not capable of behaving in a way that is coming from a place of awareness. Often it seems as if people are actually geared to handle things in the worst possible way, repeatedly. At the same time, none of us wants to linger in a judgmental mood about our own species. As a result, we might tend to repress the feelings coming up as we take in the news from the world and the neighborhood.

It is natural to feel let down and disappointed when we see our fellow humans behaving in ways that are greedy, selfish, violent, or uncaring, but there are also ways to process that disappointment without sinking into despondency. As with any emotional response, we honor our feelings by feeling them fully, without judging or acting on them. Once we've done that—and we may need to do it every day, as part of our daily self-care—we can begin to consider ways that we might help the situation in which humanity finds itself.

As always, we start with ourselves, utilizing our awareness of the failings of others to renew our own commitment to be more conscious human beings. We are all capable of the best and the worst that humanity has to offer, and remembering this keeps us in check, as well as allowing us to find compassion for others. We may find ourselves feeling compelled to serve people who are suffering injustices at the hands of other people, or we may begin to speak out when we see something that we don’t think is right. Whatever the case, the only thing we can do is pledge to serve the best, rather than the worst, of what humanity has to offer, both in the world, and in ourselves.

If you have read my postings in the past, you already know how I feel about this topic. I am, almost on a daily basis, disappointed, let down, disgusted with how people treat each other. Whether its across the globe or in my neighborhood, I am saddened to see the lengths that people will go to to hurt someone else.

I think a really big part of all of this is the "me" aspect of today's society. It seems that more and more people don't care about anyone other than themselves. As long as they are getting what they want, all is good in the world. This mentality makes me sick. There is a difference between looking out for yourself to take care of yourself versus stepping on whoever you need to get what YOU want.

Anyway...

I take this posting very much to heart as I always... ALWAYS try to consider what other people are feeling throughout daily life. "Will this action hurt someone?" ... "Will this action make someone happy?".... "Will this action make me happy without hurting someone else?"... these are all questions that I ask myself on a daily basis. Perhaps if people as a whole briefly considered these questions, even if it's only for a tiny amount of time during the day, the world would be a much better place.

... but then again... that probably won't happen. Yeah... we are still screwed.

Damn you... colors...

So, if you know me, or have spoken to me lately, you probably know that I am on this web design kick. Frankly, I suck really bad at it and am trying to get better as the days go on. I just thought this was kind of funny and wanted to share. I did a search on Google for "designing websites for coders". One of the articles I am reading has this as it's opening paragraph... very "me":

If you're one of the people who spend most of their reading time skimming through Client and Server Side Coding articles, then you probably should read this article. Yes, you: the one with your code open full-screen in the other monitor. I'm a designer and I work at a hosting/ISP company in a room with four very talented Web programmers. Together, they can develop just about any kind of application, but not one of them could develop a harmonious color scheme if his life depended on it.

Again... very "me"....

 

Feeling MUCH better...

So... as this title states, I am feeling A LOT better than I did last week. I was able to hit kung fu on 4 days this week too which makes me feel accomplished:

Monday - Golden Leopard / Snake followed by my class. Only one person showed up so I spent 1/2 of it teaching him and 1/2 of it finishing Kwon Dao (thanks Holly!).

Tuesday - Skip, too much work.

Wednesday Morning - Reviewed material.

Thursday - Reviewed ALL brown belt material with Sifu Matt.

Friday Morning - Conditioning w Sifu Bren.

I have also paid very close attention to eating better this week as far as much less processed items. I think that last weeks sluggishness was partly attributed to what I was eating and most likely not getting enough sleep.

At any rate, I have a lot of crap to do today, so I had better get back to it. However, before I go, one more bit of good news. Last night, Victoria interviewed for and got a new job. This place is right around the block from her house and is something that she is looking forward to doing. I am VERY happy for her. Way to go!! (I knew you were going to get it)

Have a great weekend!

This weekend...

This blog won't be long. I have to get back to work, but wanted to at least do a quick recap.

Needless to say, I ended the week well, weak. Last week was rough for some reason. I was more tired that normal. Anyway... Here's the quick recap:

Friday: Victoria came over after work, we ate dinner, hung out, then went to see Ironman. It was good. I liked it.

Saturday: I pretty much lounged around during the day. When Victoria got home from class, we went down to the Pecan St. festival. Here are some pics:

Keepin' the hippies going in Austin...

Mustang Sally... this one's for you, Mom...

 

... after drinking a Strawberry Daq... cute red tongue!

Waiting for my not so awesome food...

Me, still waiting for my not so awesome food...

The not so awesome food...

Victoria's new earrings! Very cool...

Saturday night, we hung out with Nik, Sarah, and Dave. Drank some beer, played some rock band... it was fun.

Sunday, we basically hung around for most of the day, but then around 4pm left to go see a play called "Speed the Plow". One of Victoria's friends from work was in it and was actually really good. It was about 1h30m long and only had 3 actors. I was pretty impressed with it.

The rest of the night was spent relaxing in preparation for this busy week to come.

K... back to work... bye for now!

Whoa... cool...

I want this:

What the...

I have felt like utter crap this week. Chewed up and spit out. I am not sure if it's the whole "getting back to class" thing or what, but I have had no energy and have not woken up any day feeling rested and ready for the day. More like, I have woken up feeling like I had been doing calisthenics or something all night. I am achy and tired.

My back finally feels almost better. It has been sore since Tuesday. I can finally bend more than 20 degrees without saying "aaaaaahhhhhhhh". This week I have found myself finding reasons to not go to class. Does my body just need the rest? From what??? This morning I woke up and said, "I think I should not do anything tonight"... but that's what I did LAST NIGHT! Maybe I will take a nap today and see how I feel after that.

I have been working a lot.

I have been working on a lot of training. Particularly at this moment, I am about 1/2 done with Flex3 training on Lynda.com. I am also trying to find out all I can about Microsoft Dynamics. If you know anything about that, I would love to hear it.

I love my new job.

Last night, I was telling V about some of the cool features of Flex3 and she just told me that it was nice to see me so animated and excited about something. It was then that I told her what I had been feeling since I started this new job. I AM excited about what I am learning. I was never happy after coming home after a day at <previous company>.

Granted, I am working a hell of a lot more than I did at <previous company> but, I love all this stuff and I feel like my employee marketability is coming back. It's like my brain had been dormant since October of 2004.

Back to Flex3 training... later.