Friday, April 30, 2010

2010.04.30 Friday

Woke up at 6a with Kelc. I was mentally wide awake by the time she turned off the alarm. But eventually went back to sleep.

Woke back up around 10a and drive down to Shipley's Do-nuts. Mmm. After that Lindsey wanted me to go to school with her to print off some work; don't know why but I went and just goofed around.

Came back and Kelc was home from school, already sleeping. We watched some It's Always Sunny, and tv, then took a nap. After that we went over to UTA's relatively new student center / gym. I showed Kelc how to do some weight training stuff.

Josh drove his new Pontiac GTO. Pretty sweet. V8 6.0L, probably way too much power for such a small car.

Then for dinner, Pei Wei. Yum. Actually, too yum. Too full. Solution? Walk around Academy for a while and get things as desired. I looked at some tents and mountain bikes. Surprisingly, the bikes there, the 26" mountain bikes with front shocks, start right around $100 bucks. That doesn't seem too expensive, but some of these brand names I've never heard of and don't exactly trust. Plus, just about everything that could be made out of plastic, is made out of plastic.

After that, we went to some place that is just like Berry Cool; just a frozen yogurt and infinite topping place. I'll just say that I'd much rather have some Rice To Riches.

Went back home, watched some of The Office, then Smallville, then Kelc passed out. Oh well, tomorrow should be a pretty fun day.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

2010.04.29 Thursday

I turned my alarm off this morning, but then I could keep hearing it faintly beeping so I smacked the snooze button again. ... beep beep beep ... The thing wasn't turning off. WHAT'S GOING ON? Turns out Hab's alarm sounds really similar to mine, and I could hear it faintly from across the house. Good timing too...

Went to a lengthy lunch meeting that served us some Rudy's BBQ, but that also threw off my gym plans. Dang.

Left work early and picked up my car from the Mazda Service Center. The sunroof looks in much better condition than before. It looks like it sits in the hole much better this time. The guy I worked with at the center said they had to contact some higher-ups and bitch and complain so that they would cover this under warranty. I was afraid that I was going to have to do all that complaining, but this process has been mostly painless. More businesses should be like this.

Went home and started packing my stuff for a trip to Arlington. I needed to load up some music on my MP3 player and decided it was a good time to figure out my my player stopped working with album art. The way I organize my music, the cover art is attached to each song, and not included as an extra file in the directory (so yeah that wastes a bit more space, but if the song is separated from the folder, all the information is attached). This used to be fine, but lately has stopped working. Well, I kinda figured out where the problem lies. The way Windows 7 installs a generic media player driver, it doesn't work perfectly with my Creative Zen Vision: M 30GB. This was only determined after I tried many different versions of ID3 tags, different picture formats, and without any success. I tried downloading some drivers and software from Creative to handle this, but it wouldn't install on Win 7. After playing around with that some, I found out that the driver download from Creative's site defaults to Win XP (and 32-bit), so it just would not work whatsoever. I found a Windows Vista (64-bit) driver and was able to get that to install without having to do any "compatibility mode" tweaking. Then I transferred an album over, and BAM, it worked on the first try. Sweetness! Then I started copying all the music (that I haven't listened to yet...) to my player. BAM, new problem. Every time I try to copy a huge chunk of albums with Creative's Media Explorer (which is an add-on to Window's Explorer windows) it would cause Explorer.exe to crash. I can copy 2 albums, but not 10; 4 albums but not 5. I guess 4 albums at a time is my limit to transfer. That's stupid, and doesn't even make sense. Ugh.

Anyways, left for Arlington. It's so nice being back in my own car. Since it is a Thursday (though it doesn't feel like it) the roads were pretty clear. I set my cruise control a few miles after I got on I-35, and only had to adjust it a couple times by the time I got to I-20 near Fort Worth. Besides the occasional group of people that felt like going 80mph at night passing me, there was an out-of-control 18-wheeler that was one of those livestock trailers. It almost hit me twice, coming up from behind at 80, and when it cut over to the left lane to pass. Asshats.

Made it safely, went to bed.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

2010.04.28 Wednesday

Not as groggy this morning, but I also made sure to drink a bunch of water before bed, and the urge to urinate definitely helps encourage me to get out of bed.

Well work went alright. I went to the cafeteria with some coworkers which I haven't done in a while.

Stayed at work late so Hasbro and I could go straight to the fields. 5 minutes prior to departure for said fields, I get the phone call I was expecting all day; my car is done. Perfect timing. Actually joked about how great it would be if they called a few minutes before we were leaving for the game. Turns out they didn't do all the paperwork correctly, so it's a good thing I'm going to wait until tomorrow to pick it up.

So yeah, we got to the fields a bit early. But really, once it hits a certain time in the day, if I'm not in the right mental state, my productivity just plummets.

The game started off slow, and a bit shaky. We let some runs through, but we made up for it later. Also had some pretty spectacular catches on both teams. The team we played was really friendly. I think the ball we played with was throwing off both teams, as we had quite a few "walks" allowed on both teams (probably more than my entire previous seasons combined). Not the fault of the pitchers.

Went to Doc's afterward and met some more cool people. Played this "game" where there is a ring tied on a string, and you swing the ring to a hook that is on a wall. It looks easy, looks a little silly, is actually pretty difficult (and more difficult with more alcohol). We played against some girls and beat them. I like beating girls. Battle of the sexes...nobody wins, so might as well claim victory right?

Went back home and was kinda restless, so I played some THPS3 and managed to beat quite a few more goals. I don't know how this game used to be easy for me, but I'm starting to struggle on some of the harder challenges.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

2010.04.27 Tuesday

Man, what is up today. So incredibly groggy. I think my body just decided to go into hibernation mode or something.

I called up the service center about my car, and I got to talk to the technician that was assigned to my case. They will be covering the replacement as part of the warranty coverage (awesome). Now the real question is, why did this happen, and will this happen again? So far this process has been mostly painless, just a tad scary when glass is crackling above my head. It's not common that service centers will do expensive repair work without at least some hassle. I was even provided a loaner car without much hassle. I'm impressed.

Ended up going to the gym finally. Did bike, chest, tri, and abs. Tomorrow is kickball, and hopefully Thursday I get a chance to do back bi and legs.

At home, I cooked up a pizza and worked on logging more of my music listening experience. Made it to over 470 albums so far, with no slow-down expected for a while. I also played some more THPS2 and was able to 100% one of the characters. The good ol' days of gaming, where you would spend hours accomplishing tasks just to watch a 1 minute video as a reward. Nowadays, we have youtube to satisfy our video needs.

I must have spaced out because I don't remember doing much else, just showered then bed.

Monday, April 26, 2010

2010.04.26 Monday

Woke up with energy. Sets a good mood for the day, a nice change.

Kinda skipped out on lunch today. Woops. Also got busy talking with coworkers, so no gym. Woops 2.0

Got home and finished the last few episodes of Curb. Feels so good to be done with something. I'm actually pretty well satisfied with the end of the 7th season. It really feels like closure and well done. That makes me worried that the 8th season they are signed-on for will bomb, but then again it's HBO, and they wouldn't put something on unless they think it will make customers happy. At least, that's what I think...

Played some THPS2 and was almost able to beat the game without cheats. I say almost because I ended up turning on slow motion so I could land tricks at the high speed my character was going.

Now what do I do? Oh yeah, I had been working on music... it's been a while. I could also jump into hyperspace with BSG. For now, sleep.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

2010.04.25 Sunday

Slept in pretty late today. Played some more old games, then cooked a bunch of vegetables for lunch. Green beans, asparagus, broccoli, hummus. Yummus!

Played some more games and watched some more Curb. I'm so close to being done. But then I looked it up, and HBO is going to be airing an 8th season. That makes me kinda sad. I thought I could just blow right through the whole series, but I guess they aren't done. I can always start up (and finish) something else while the last season is being aired.

Went over to my parent's house to help out with a few things. The sprinkler system might have a leak, and the garage door could use some bolts. Just more stuff to deal with. One thing that I'm starting to notice a lot more is how much stuff they have, but it's all like half-working or just parts that go to something else. Lots of junk to deal with.

Ran some errands and called it a night.

2010.04.24 Saturday

Woke up, called that repair center again. Going to get the ball rolling on this car issue. It was stormy last night and would have been terrible if the rain busted through.

Played some old PS and PS2 games. Oh nostalgia.

Eventually made a trip over the that repair center, and they took my car in and gave me a loaner to use until they figure out what to do with my car.

Helped out around the house and stuff. Went to home depot. Yadda yadda yadda.

Had a nice jam session with Justin and Habibi. My finger feels like a lot of skin is worn off.

Was supposed to go out downtown for A's b-day, but the gf and roomy wanted me to hang out with them instead. Just another one of life's tough choices.

Friday, April 23, 2010

2010.04.23 Friday

Man some crazy drivers out there. "OH HEY GET OUT OF MY WAY. I REALLY WANT TO GET TO WORK FASTER THAN YOU." Do these people really want to get to work faster? Is there some time-trials competition I'm not aware of?

So I was turning onto the frontage road of mopac, and I'm making a right turn at a yield sign close to an intersection that has a light. The frontage road actually has the green light, so they are zooming on by, which is fine. The speed limit is I think 45-50mph. Anyways, I look to the left to see if there any cars in the right lane (the one I'm merging onto) and there aren't any cars, so I take off. A good 4-5 seconds later, I'm still picking up speed and going maybe 35-40 mph (I don't feel the need to really blast the accelerator in these conditions) some douche-koo is right on my ass honking at me. I'm pretty confident that this guy got over to the right lane to pass people in the middle and left lanes. First off, fuck you dude. Passing on the right is very douchey. Second, I was in the lane for 4-5 seconds already, you can't honk because I -cut you off- because I was already clearly in that lane. Seriously, do you want to get to work that badly?

Later on, I was trying to change lanes and there was a nice gap between a toyota prius (in front) and a ford explorer (behind). So I turn on my turn signal (blinker/directionals) to show my intentions of changing lanes, and the ford explorer starts speeding up to close off the gap. Woah buddy. What did I do to you? I'm still driving as calmly and as politely as I can; does having one more car in front of you really bother you? Apparently YES it did bother them. I still squeezed my nice short car in the gap before it was too dangerous to do so, but this then caused them to put on their blinker and wait for a gap in the lane to the left to go ahead and pass me. How much did they end up passing by? They just went in front of the prius and then exited the freeway. How much time did this save them? Lets find out...

Length of my car: 180.7 inches, or 15.05 ft
Length of prius: 175.6 inches, or 14.633 ft
Length of explorer: 189.5 inches, or 15.792 ft

Now let's assume that there are plenty of gaps (even though the guy was tailgating me)
[Explorer] [gap] [My Car] [gap] [Prius] [gap]
Let's also assume that the gaps are two car-lengths, or ~30 ft.

The total amount of distance the Explorer has to overcome is roughly (15 x 2) + (30 x 3) + 16, or a total of 136 ft.
Let's also assume that we were going only 60 mph instead of the speed limit of 65, justifying the desire to pass the two vehicles. 60 mph is equivalent to88 ft/sec.

(136 ft) / (88 ft/sec) = 1.55 sec

Can you believe that crap? Was that really worth the extra gas consumed to bullet around two cars, and then proceed to exit? I'm starting to get really tired of crazy drivers making the roads more dangerous than they should be.

--

Work was pretty interesting. My carpool was more like a carshower; flying solo. I ended up being super productive, and also stayed late, so I felt pretty good about myself.

And then disaster struck. I guess I must have jinxed myself or something. On my way home from work, I'm driving down 183 cruising along like I normally do. Since I left work so late, and people on Friday tend to leave early, the roads were rather clear. Cruising along near 183 and 290, then POW... some loud noise out of nowhere. Was that a rock? Did I hit something? Is somebody shooting at me? Well there isn't really any cars around me, and nothing in my read view. What the heck was it? Well I got a hunch, and opened up the door to the sunroof (or moonroof, or whatever you want to call a motorized window on the roof) and the entire thing was shattered. What...the...f.... I really have no idea how to react to this. If I pull over, it's not like I can fix anything. Guess I'll keep cruising along (at much less than the speed limit now). I could hear pieces flying off the top of my car, and cracks still forming. Holy crap.

Once I got home, I took some pictures of the damage. The glass appears to be being compressed, and bowing upwards. NOT COOL. By the time I called the repair center, I was 5 minutes too late. Crap.

The adrenaline from the whole experience lasted for an hour or so. I was ready to take a nap, but other people wanted me to go out. I kinda did both.

We went to Luster Pearl, which seemed like a frat house bar, then to Clive bar down the road. Both pretty cool places. About halfway through the night, I started getting really exhausted. I mean, look how long this blog post is.

Zzzz.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

2010.04.22 Thursday

Well I couldn't get to sleep last night, so I'm super groggy this morning.

Not much happened at work. I had a lunch provided to me today, which was nice. Pizza is always a good choice (unless it's gross pizza, this time was awesome).

The weather is getting pretty gloomy, and might clear up some by Saturday. What is there to do when it's so gross outside? Well typically I do the same things so it doesn't affect me much.

I watched a bunch of Curb last night. Some episodes are clearly better than others. But hey, I'm rounding the last corner before the final stretch. . . I'm on the last season already. It's exciting, and disappointing at the same time.

Cooked up some chicken last night. Trimmed the fat, cut into bite-size pieces, threw on some seasoning, and into a pan with some oil. Turned out pretty good. Probably would go better with some rice but I decided to be lazy and just get ready for bed.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

2010.04.21 Wednesday

Yawn. Hump. Day.

Tried to be rather productive today, but as usual there are lots of obstacles. No biggie, it's the nature of the beast.

Went home and watched more Curb and ate a snack of hummus. Then took a nap. Woke up from the nap really gross feeling and sick to my stomach. Maybe it was the hummus, or maybe it was my body's crappy way of falling asleep. Carpooled to the game.

Third base with your mom. Or at least, that's what we call it. Our second game of the season, went better than expected. The other team seemed a bit off, or out of sync for the first half, which allowed us to pull ahead. We had a guest player filling in, Mark. He did really well for his first time, and I'd like to give a shout-out/thanks for him stepping up to the plate... and kicking balls. We ended up winning, even though I managed to cause us to get outs most times I went to kick. On another bummer note, the pitcher on the other team walked Justin, and pushed Molly home, but the ref didn't count that run. What.The.Deuce. That was Molly's first run too; so proud of her. That pitcher on the other team was quite an interesting player though. I'm going to go ahead and say he was one of the best players I have ever seen in super social kickball. He totally plays strategy and knows how to pitch and trick people. And to top that off, he's an older gentleman, not some sporty teeny bopper. Crazy. In other news, we've definitely created a pretty close knit group, while at the same time we are open and have fun with new people. Great times.

Went home, watched a little more curb, ate some late dinner. Dinner was broccoli and bacon-popcorn, plus some hummus later. Tomorrow should be better.

2010.04.20 Tuesday

A Tuesday like no other. Or is it?

Work was more exhausting than normal this morning. Guess I'm just tired from workouts and changing things up. Today was the first day trying a fish oil (omega-3) supplement. I guess we shall see how that goes. It shouldn't have that great of an effect on me, but then again, I don't really eat fish.

Today's workout was a pretty weight-intense back/bicep workout. I also managed to measure my height, 5 foot 9 baby. What's weird is that I can make myself taller if I think about stretching my spine.

After work, watched some curb, seinfeld, and cooked myself a steak. The steak turned out pretty good for being the first time cooking this way. I pan fried the beef round, and made some gravy with the leftover juices. Pretty proud of myself. *pats self on back* Now the question is... can I replicate the success with various types and thicknesses of meat?

Went over to my parent's house to deal with some 'stuff' and get ready for a weekend garage sell. I'm having a hard time really letting go of old game systems. I really grew up with that stuff, and it just feels weird letting that go. What do you think? Should I save the hardware and (try to) let my kids enjoy it? Or should I keep the stuff and maybe consider selling at a higher price since it might be collectible? Or should I try to modify the systems for other electronic projects?

Back home kinda late, still watched some curb. Definitely speeding my way through this series. :-D

Monday, April 19, 2010

2010.04.19 Monday

Black Monday. Or is it red Monday? Whatever it is, it's not a good Monday. Jobs are being sliced away slowly, but shouldn't have any affect on my area. It always sucks to have to let people go. Business is cold-hearted.

In better news, a "new" cafeteria is open at work. Well, a "grand re-opening" is happening, with promise of better food selection, healthier items, and better prices. We shall see how this one turns out, considering the food provider is exactly the same.

Today's workout was sorta a lighter chest/triceps day with abs on top.

After work, kinda goofed around and watched tv. Ate some old funky food for dinner, and then decided that I really need to pick up some fresh food from the grocery store.

2010.04.18 Sunday

With all the energy drink I had last night, you would think the hangover would have been worse, but surprisingly it wasn't that bad. Maybe it had something to do with how many vitamins are loaded into that energy drink.

We went for a quick walk and let Murray poop. Yum.

For lunch we tried to go to Hullabaloo's, but then found out we left too late and ended up going to Jimmy John's, which still rocks.

Whilst we were eating, we watched Breaking Bad. The pilot episode was actually rather awesome. Makes me curious to see how the rest of the show will pan out.

Drove back to Austin, fixed a computer, watched Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (which turned out to be better than expected, the movie moves really fast, definitely liked that), then went to Taco C for dinner. Not really the healthiest of choices, but hey I'll take a day or two off from my healthy eating. Some change is better than no change.

2010.04.17 Saturday

Late night, last night. Kelc doesn't handle traveling very well, or late nights, or expending more energy than normal.

Woke up today and grabbed a nice fruit breakfast, played with Murray some. Headed off to Lowe's for some home improvement gear. The task at hand? Take out 6 bushes, and a brick+mortar planter box out in front of the happy couple's house. The tools? A bow saw, a hatchet, a sledgehammer, a pick axe, some gloves, and a touch of elbow grease. 6 or so hours later.. we needed to add a wheelbarrow to our list of tools to haul out all the materials. At Lowe's there was a very helpful, rather cute girl working in the gardening section. She pointed us in the right direction for the right wheelbarrow to suit our needs. Unfortunately, we could not thank her enough for her assistance, although I tried.

For dinner, a magnificent four-cheese marinara sauce with bow-tie pasta, itallian sausage, toast, and a Malbec wine.

Once the drinking commenced, the music, games and hookah came out.

2010.04.16 Friday

Ahh relaxing day for me. Actually, I woke up and had to take an un-comforting poop, but the rest of the day went well.

Watched some Curb Your Enthusiasm, then went on an errand spree. First stop, Auto-Zone. I took back many quarts of used oil and donated to their big bin, which will eventually get recycled and resold as Auto-Zone oil, or other brands. I also checked out some air filters and oil filters. Turns out my selection of oil filters is rather limited, and I don't see that changing any time soon. Really sucks too, since the style I have only wastes the part that decomposes quickly anyways; it doesn't waste metal every oil change. But the downside is that it takes longer to change and is a bit more complicated. Time is money... Anyways, the air filters are more pricey than I thought. 15 bucks for a disposable paper one, or 50+15 for a reusable with cleaner solution. This is such a tough decision, I will hold off for now. More research is necessary.

After that, quick stop over at Discount Tire Co. for a tire rotation. The guys at this place really rock. Every time I've gone there, they haven't pushed to try to upsell anything. They are just honest about their work. I really commend that, and would take my car back for work any day. They said "if I'm not experiencing any vibrations or handling problems, there is no need to re-balance your tires, unless you really want to, so we'll just do the free rotation and get you back on the road". A+

After that, Academy Sports and Outdoors. What for? Well originally I just wanted to hop in and out for a pair of sunglasses, but ended up looking at new shoes, camping gear, water sports, coolers, fishing gear, and weights. Luckily, I only walked out with sunglasses and a can of bug repellent.

Had some lunch, took a nap. Goofed around most of the evening. Converted some more flac into mp3-v0 so my mp3-player would be ready for the car trip. I started researching things about my mp3-player because part of it doesn't work anymore. The two better selling points at the time of purchase (it was in direct competition with the ipod video, 1st gen) was that the Creative Zen Vision:M had 1. Divx and Xvid support, and 2. FM Radio (with recording). Also, the price was the same, and the capacity was the same, so it made sense to go with something that had more features. Years later, the headphones that came with my player started getting a short, then I went through a pair of etymotic ER-6i's, that lasted for a few years of heavy use, and now I'm on my third set of headphones, Etymotic ER-4s, and surprisingly, everything about my mp3 player still works except for the FM Radio, and of course the player has some scratches. Anyways, long story short: I was looking to see what happened with different firmware releases and modding and whatnot. At some point during the Zen Vision: M's life, they took out FM Radio-Recording ability, but then upon later releases decided to reinstate it. I don't know if the flip flop caused issues, or some electrical shorting, or even just the FM Radio chip died. -- I also found out there is/was quite a community that deals with modding the Zen Vision M. Luckily, I have Version 1 of the hardware, which includes a more reliable 30GB hard drive. A lot of later revisions had hard drives that didnt last as long, or didnt like being jostled around as much. If mine every dies, I can pop it open and slap in another 1.8" hard drive and be up and running in an hour or so. I have also seen people use a Compact Flash card instead of a hard drive, meaning less power consumption and faster loading. Very Cool!

Met up with Kelc, and headed out to BCS for the weekend...

Thursday, April 15, 2010

2010.04.15 Thursday

Got that groggy feeling, plus a half-headache. Super bleh.

Throughout this week, I've been tacking on things I need to get done in the near future. Since I have Friday off, it seems like a good time to get that stuff done, but we shall see...

Went to crawfish etoufee. Feels like forever since I had been there, and it was very good.

After work, went home and squeezed in a nap. Totally just crashed on my bed. After that, I met up with TM for dinner. I hadn't seen him in forever, yet we really don't live that far apart. Sorta the same thing with Rudy. I definitely need to set something up with him soon.

The weather sucks, but I drove around without incident. Yay. Went back home, watched some of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

2010.04.14 Wednesday

Andy: Humplestilskin, can I spin this day into Thursday?
Humplestilskin: Why, of course you can Andy. First off, you are awesome. Second, it's a four-day week and your hump-day dissipated in mini dust cloud that I farted out. Therefore treat this day as a Thursday because it is so.
Andy: Oh Humplestilskin, you are so great. How do you do the magic you do?
Humplestilskin: You see that crystal ball up on that shelf sitting next to a golden amulet and one of Zeus's lighting bolts?
Andy: Yeah?
Humplestilskin: Well right behind that is a digital video monitoring system and a wireless transceiver so I can watch your every move throughout the day.
Andy: ...

Went into work late today. Shifted work later as to not have dead time between work and kickball. That's right baby, Kickball has started back up. Woo Woo! Drink specials at doc's, like some bacardi rum shot and pitchers of beer. Should be a good time.

Work went at a funky slow pace. Kinda skipped lunch, but snacked throughout the day. After work, started heading out to the fields. Upon warming up, I'm pretty sure I lost my sunglasses in some area around the fields. If you find them, let me know. ... Well, the game went well. We won. Heading over to Doc's to celebrate.

Right when I got out of the car, I took a couple steps through grass and felt something give under my left foot. SonofaB. Dog shit. It was dark enough out, and the streetlights cast a shadow in such a way that I had no idea it was there. Pretty sure leaving dog shit is 1. illegal, 2. disgusting, 3. promotes diseases, and 4. ruins lives. Other than that, Doc's was fun.

Home late, sleep very much needed.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

2010.04.13 Tuesday

Felt rather rejuvenated today. That is rather odd since I went to the gym yesterday. For breakfast I had some pineapple and a strawberry. Just one strawberry. Fruit is so delicious. Does that make me fruity?

So yeah, I had two cups of coffee this morning. A bit more than normal, but damn I got a lot of work done and I think the change in diet is helping.

Went to the gym again. Did some pull ups, lat pull downs, leg presses, leg curls, seated rows, and bicep curls. I always feel like this set of workouts is less intense and less exciting.

After work, had an apple and some Garlic Lover's Hommus and finished it. Whoops. It only lasted me two servings and the package says it should last 16. Damn.

Well, I hit the 400 album mark today. Time for a mini celebration.
Started 02/02/2010
Days passed: 72
Album Count: 400
Tracks Listened: 4661
Average Number of Tracks per Album: 11.6525
Average Year Album was Released: 2001.0865
Time Listened:325hrs 44mins 4secs
Days Listened: 13.5723 days
Digital Size of Music: 36.0GB

Monday, April 12, 2010

2010.04.12 Monday

Had to poop so bad once I got to work. I was walking with the permanent clench so nothing fell out. What is up with the body not telling you poop is coming until it's already ready to go?

Well an interesting shift in diet has occurred today. For breakfast, orange juice and white-cran-strawberry juice mixed. For morning snack, tropical dried fruit mix including bananas, some orange things, raisins and some other chunks. For "lunch" i had a strawberry-banana protein shake. For afternoon snack, granny smith apple and pickle. Then for dinner, leftovers from Pei Wei and hummus. Late night snack, a mango. So really, I had a lot of fruit (except for dinner, and "lunch"). It's almost like I jumped right into the paleo diet. We'll see how it goes.

For lunch, I went to the gym, and thus the protein shake. I did a bunch of chest and tricep workouts, and some ab and leg stuff. Once I got back to work, my arm started twitching. Very annoying. I looked it up, and supposedly muscles tend to do this after strenuous activity, and surprisingly it's even more common in the left arm. How strange.

Took a mini nap, and spent most of the evening working on music. That's right. I'm working on a pretty exciting piece. Still kinda in a funk, but I'm trying things from a new angle to see if that sparks anything.

2010.04.11 Sunday

Took it easy most of the day. Watched some smallville.

For lunch we went to Pei Wei. I should look into how they make edamame.

Kelc left for Arlington and I goofed around most of the evening. Eventually I went to Sprouts to pick up some produce.

Then home and sleep. Ready for this 4-day work week.

2010.04.10 Saturday

So I really didn't drink all that much, but I have a bad headache today. I didn't have any of the other symptoms normal to hangovers, so this just sucks.

Changed my oil today. Kelc watched and helped out. It's really not that difficult of a process. And I can probably shorten how long it takes if I prepare a tad better.

Went by the neighborhood to run some errands, then went to Spiderhouse with Ray and his brother, then off to his brother's girlfriend's apartment to hang out.

Came back to the house with a mini party going.

Mmm sleep.

2010.04.09 Friday

About time for this week to wrap up.

Meetings, reports, yadda yadda yadda, and DONE. Yay.

Took a mini nap after work and got to meet the newest member of The Happy Couple's family; Murray the dog.

Went out to Shiner Saloon to Justin's bands show. They got some huge PA speaker stack this time, and it was damn loud. So loud in fact, that a car burst into flames right outside.

Partied into the night.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

2010.04.08 Thursday

Really did not want to get out of bed today. I actually woke up about 30 minutes before my alarm and rolled around a bit before falling back asleep. The next 30 minutes felt like 5 of course.

Not much happened at work, or at home today. Just doing my own thing...

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

2010.04.07 Wednesday

Skeetle bop. Slightly more energy this morning, but still groggy.

For lunch? No gym today, but Taco bell! Haven't gone there in such a long time. After eating it, I can remember why it isn't the diet of choice. I always feel bloated and tired after taco bell, or most fast food in general.

Went home and goofed around for a bit. Then Z came over to catch up on old times. We had a California pizza kitchen pizza, along with some pita chips and hummus. Listened to some vinyl and watched Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.

After that, got into a discussion with Justin about the music industry and the direction things are going. And the rather ambiguous term 'indie' that is quite common in the music scene today. Really, one of the main problems is that the recording industry is hanging on to the big names as much as possible. As Justin pointed out, try and think of a relatively newish band that has gone from nothing to something and is now considered a big name. You probably won't be able to find much. All the hits these days on the radio are older bands releasing sub-par rehashed music. Sure there are some older bands still making great music, but I feel like the recording industry is committing suicide by not taking risks and investing in new names.

For the sake of argument, I'll list the last 20 artists played on 101x, and the year that band had their first charting single:
________A Perfect Circle (2000)
_____Stone Temple Pilots (1992)
_____________Soundgarden (1994)
_______Silversun Pickups (2006)
_______________Everclear (1995)
___________The Offspring (1994)
_________________Nirvana (1990)
_________________Phoenix (2000)
___________Alkaline Trio (2001)
____________________Muse (1999)
__________________Weezer (1994)
___Red Hot Chili Peppers (1989)
____________Modest Mouse (2004)
_______________Metallica (1988)
_________________Toadies (1995)
_______________Radiohead (1992)
Rage Against The Machine (1992)
_______________Pearl Jam (1991)
_________Jimmy Eat World (2001)
________________Chevelle (2000)

What do you think is happening? I only took sample from one radio station. They are supposed to be alternative, and not really a classics station. Obviously something like 93.7 is a classic rock station and they will be playing much older songs. I feel like the only time you get to hear new music on the radio is on the "pop" music stations, and that's mostly because they try to bank as much as possible as quickly as they can, knowing that popularity for pop songs doesn't last that long.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

2010.04.06 VOTE

Dear Valued Readers:
I'm taking a vote on whether I should change up my color theme for the blog. It has been brought to my attention that if you follow me with Google Reader, that you see green-on-white text and that is not conducive to reading. I don't mind changing things up a bit since I have had this blog for over a year now. YOU get to voice your opinion here.

Sincerely,
AndySk8inMan

2010.04.06 Tuesday

I can pretty much guarantee that doing weight training is good for you, and doesn't necessarily mean you will have bulging muscles. I've read studies that show weight training to be as-good, or better at burning calories than cardio workouts. Also, it's pretty obvious that it is doing something when I'm tired as hell on days like today.

Did a leg workout at the gym today. Pretty darn sure that my legs were meant for running and cardio stuff more so than weight training. Every time I do standard leg workouts like lunges and squats, my legs get the feeling like they are going to cramp.

Made some Hamburger Helper for dinner. Watched part 2 of Battlestar Galactica introductory mini-series; that turned out better than expected. I'm having the dilemma if I should go ahead and dive into a new series or not. I have so many things on my plate.

Also organized some music. This is probably going to be a pretty lengthy process of organization, but I think it will prove useful in the future. I'm also worried about running out of space now. Not cool. Actually one of my hard drives isn't even connected right now. It has an older OS sitting on it with some files. I guess I could organize some and consolidate that down.

Monday, April 5, 2010

2010.04.05 Monday

Well I couldn't really sleep last night. Probably fell asleep around 1:15a. I woke up in the middle of the night to a slightly terrifying dream. I was driving my car with the cruise control on, and then it almost felt like the car was screaming at me really loudly, and started accelerating extremely fast (like to 120mph in a couple seconds). I disabled the cruise control and put it in neutral, but the panic effects lasted for a few minutes. That was at about 4:45a, and I felt wide awake after the whole ordeal.

Started up a full 5-day week. *sigh* I'm going to try and keep myself really busy and motivated, so hopefully the week will fly by.

Went to the gym and busted up some muscles. Tossed up 40(each arm) inclined bench, 45(each arm) decline, and 135 on flat. I should try to push myself some more on flat, but lately I've been at the gym by myself and I still remember getting slightly trapped under weights once...so yeah. I did some deltoids workouts, an adapted dead lift, then some ab and triceps stuff. This week, I'm going to try and get some more stretching in between workouts. I hear that it helps with recovery time and gets the old juice build up out of the muscle. I've also heard that stretching before a workout doesn't help all that much, but a good warm-up makes a big difference.

At home, I ate the remainder of that chicken taco soup. Lots of protein and nutrients in that. Finished watching season 2 of curb your enthusiasm and watched the first half of Battlestar Galactica mini-series. Also worked on some of that art that I promised a few days ago. Just realized that the art is incorrect physically. Expect to see some more major differences between the hand-painted and the Gimp'd.

2010.04.04 Sunday

Easter Sunday is already here? The weeks of fasting are over. What did I give up? Well not anything in particular but I'm trying to change up my lifestyle some, and my outlook on life.

My parents fixed a nice big lunch that was shared amongst the family and Watson. Ate quite a bit, then took a mini nap to the Orange and White scrimmage on tv. UT looks quite promising this year.

Worked on a laptop to get it up and running, caught up with the family. It's funny how my brother tends to leave and hang out with his girl now when he used to give me crap about always hanging out with mine. Whatever broski.

Picked up some oil change equipment and necessities, then headed home. Watched some more Curb, showered and called it a day.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

2010.04.03 Saturday

Slept in a fair amount today. What am I going to do today? I don't really know, guess I'll watch some CurbYourEnthusiasm.

Decided to take chicken taco soup and guacamole over to my parent's house to have a lunch celebration. They all spoke praises of the food, even though my mom is rather picky. Hope they weren't just flattering me.

After that, my brother insisted that we go to the Oasis for some drinks and a view. And my, there were a few views :-P

After that, went back to play some games, then I went back to my place to watch more Curb and sleep. Almost went downtown, but figured that it would be hectic with the Texas Relays going on.

2010.04.02 Friday

Ahhh yes, a day off. Woke up and put on Pink Floyd's Animals album on vinyl and woke up to that. I'm pretty sure that was the music playing during my dream last night. Yes it is pretty weird that I hear music when I dream, but there has been a few times when my mind has composed some amazing pieces. Unfortunately I'm not able to transpose that into real life, let alone remember much from my dreams.

Spent the morning making chicken taco soup and guacamole. The guac turned out to be amazingly creamy, hope it doesn't turn brown too fast. The soup is cooking...should also turn out rather well.

Watched Eastbound and Down. Good little mini season. Supposedly there should be a second season coming in the near future. Come on HBO.

Worked on some music *gasp*. Yeah I started to inspire myself to at least goof around with sounds, and ended up with a nice instrumentation for a song, even though I couldn't figure out what melodies I want.

Started watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, and dang, that's a pretty good show. I also worked on some artwork. Hopefully I'll be done with that soon. Will definitely post it for everyone to enjoy.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

2010.04.01 Thursday

What a drowsy morning. Why doess this groggy feeling even exist? What causes my body to want to transition from wake to sleep, but tortures me every time it's the other way around.

For lunch, had to coveted Little Deli Crawfish Etoufee. Dang it has been so long, and dang it is so good.

Had some meetings, and wrapped up the week of work and headed home.

Took a small nap, then drove south to celebrate first thursday with some coworkers. I had a good time, but it's funny how we all have slightly different views of what to do while downtown.

2010.03.31 Wednesday

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DAYDAYMPHUMYDAYDAY
DAYDAUMPHUMPDAYDAY
DAYHUMPHUMPHUMYDAY
HUMPHUMPHUMPHUMPHU


Work went a bit smoother today. Still need that caffeine fix in the morning to jolt myself awake.

Skipped lunch, but was lucky enough to have a free lunch delivered to me by a coworker. They happened to have an extra box lunch floating around from a meeting. I also skipped the gym because I feel like I need a rest from that. The set from Monday is still sore, and I don't want to push the set from yesterday... and I surely don't want to do cardio.

Dinner was leftover pizza. Did some cleaning and taking care of business at home. Later on went to go see Hot Tub Time Machine. It was pretty good. In a way, it was similar to The Hangover, but the plot line is obviously ridiculous so you can just focus on the comedic setup, whereas in the Hangover they make the plot line seem possible and it just seems ridiculous and forced. Both are comdeically good, so I enjoyed it for what it's worth.

Got home late and managed to snag myself a coveted Bandoleer of Carrots. What will I get? We must wait and see.