Random Nonsense

Roflcopters....

Ow...

But, no headaches! So that's good.

I started back today after a two week absence. It was my last session with my trainer, which really sucked because here I am, tired, recovering from Pride, and generally not at my normal operating capacity, while trying to keep up with my trainer's expectations which were set back when I had been going to the gym semi-regularly for a year.

I am sure I could have said, something along the lines of I'm tired, still adjusting to this medication, a little under the weather from all the debauchery of the weekend, but no. My stupid stubborn ass decided to push through, and say nothing. I felt rather accomplished at doing so well, until, moments after my workout, I found myself in the adjoining Starbucks, desperately trying to get my shaking hands to steady long enough to pay for a fucking protein shake. The exhaustion hit me so hard I could barely function. I sat there, despondent in the lobby, sipping water for over 10 minutes.

Every so often I would have to choke back some bile so I wouldn't throw up, and take another sip of water. My walk home, in the 90 degree heat, took at least three times longer than normal. Fortunately I had the foresight to get more water before leaving. I had to stop again at another Starbucks for more on the way home. I was definitely well-hydrated, which probably prevented this from escalating in to something really embarrassing.

Once home I flung myself on the couch and almost immediately passed out for a nice two-hour nap. I feel much better now, but I am still weak. Ugh. I think maybe I should have given myself another day or two before heading back, as I suspect the overwhelming exhaustion is directly related to this medication I am taking. It is a very well-known, safe medication, but it does mess with blood pressure and blood sugar. So, it takes a bit for your body to get used to it. I was told to give it a week. I probably should have given it a week and a half judging by my experience today.

I think tomorrow is going to be a cardio-only day. I can tell I'll need some time to recover from this.

Great. So I had to stop lifting because every time I do so I get a throbbing headache. So, doc, it hurts when I do "this" so I quit doing it. Now I am just waiting to go see him in person so he can hopefully tell me what the fuck is wrong with my head.

I vaguely recall hearing something like this before, and it wasn't life-threatening, but it did require cessation of all activities which might trigger said headaches for a number of weeks.

This does not bode well for my thus far highly successful attempt at getting in shape. At a recent checkup my trainer was actually surprised at how well I was doing. My BMI was right on target to hit 10% in July. No more. No more...

Fuck.

Quote from an article:

"His opponents criticized him for offering rhetoric and not solutions. But month after month, millions of voters believed."

Taken from this article.

Sheep. All of them.

He better fuckin' win.

So this morning I was running a few minutes late. I could have still made it to work with plenty of time, but I hate getting there and not having a few minutes for a quick breakfast and some coffee. I decided to call a cab; something I have been trying to do less often.

So the taxi arrived promptly, and I was pleasantly surprised as I hopped in. The first signs I should have gotten the fuck out and called another taxi came when I had to tell him the address three or four times before he "got it." I was still a little tired though, and I hate to be one of those people who assume everything is always going to go awry. So, instead I just put my seatbelt on and settled down for some quiet time during the ride.

Almost immediately the guy begins rambling, commenting on the weather, traffic, random signs posted on random businesses, and mingled with stuff that was utterly incomprehensible. No, he wasn't making smalltalk. I barely had any silence within which to interject polite, noncommittal responses. He changed the subject so frequently it hardly mattered anyway. I found him a little annoying, but while he may have been a little on the loopy side, I didn't see anything in his driving that made me worry. So I just shrugged and sat back. He was doing his job.

Work whizzed by at about 40mph. I looked over my shoulder as it sped past. I had just told him a block in advance that my stop was coming up. So I piped up again, "Sorry, but I think you just went passed my stop."

Another block went by. What the fuck!? This guy is ignoring me!

"Excuse me, but you missed my stop, it's back there."

Another block went by. I made sure the door was unlocked, grabbed my backpack, and prepared to get out at the next red light. That's right. I was actually getting ready to flee. This guy was not listening to me, and those of you who know me, I have a loud voice that carries. You don't just not hear me when I talk. I was pretty convinced by this point the man was insane and should be committed, or he was deaf.

Finally a red light came up. I put my hand on the door handle and turned to him one last time, "Hey! you missed my stop! It's way back there and I've told you three times now."

That's when he stopped his rambling, which had been going on for four blocks now, and turned back to me, "Oh! I thought you said 2800."

Arrgh!

So he proceeded to flip a bitch, without turning the meter off, and then miss my stop by another half-block again, flip another bitch, and then stop in the middle of the road when there was a load and unload zone right in front of him.

Wow... I was too freaked out to remember to get his taxi number. Luckily I still got to work in time to have my breakfast. I'm never calling Yellow again. From now on it's Orange Cab.

I just had a fantastically bizarre, blissfully carefree, debauchery filled weekend. It really was one for the ages! Honestly, the timing of this four-day weekend could not have been better! Today, I am recovering from untold amounts of alcohol. Most people who know me, know I like to party. Generally though, I do so no more than once a week, and usually only once or twice a month. Well, this week begins my new workout routine, diet plan, and general shift in lifestyle. Knowing this, I decided to just let loose this weekend, not give a shit about anything, and have as much fun as I could in these final four days of my current modus operandi.

I engaged in all things Peter: drunken conversations about physics with a complete stranger (explaining why CERN is NOT going to destroy the world), to tearing off in to the evening with a gaggle of gay boys headed to an after party, drunken pool, drunken golf (I know right? WTF?), video games, fried food, and cute boys! Looking back, I can honestly say I was a little out of control, but that was the idea. It wasn't a downward spiral, but more like skydiving, when you know that ripcord is there but you wait until the last second to pull it. It was an absolute blast. Alas, today is the day the cord is pulled and I float gently to my new life, leaving all that nonsense behind (at least for a while).

My friends all threaten to slay me when I mention this, but I am officially on a diet. No, no, not that kind of diet. Let's call it my nutrition plan, diet has far too many negative connotations. I'm still going to be eating over 2000 calories a day. I'm just going to be focusing on the quality of the food that I eat. No more junk food. No more overindulgence in sweets and fats. No more drinking. I'll be eating tons and tons of lean, protein packed foods, and non-sugary carbohydrates. Five days a week I am going to be hitting the gym, and hitting it hard. My workouts will include four days of high intensity cardio for 35 minutes, and three days of weight training. I'm taking B.C.A.A.'s, two protein shakes, and a super high-tech multivitamin which will allow me to burn fat and build muscle simultaneously (something that is actually quite hard to do).

If all goes well, in 2-3 months I will drop 12 lbs of fat and gain about 8 lbs of muscle. I will be around 10% bodyfat. I'll be hot. YAY! From there I'll probably focus on building a few more pounds of muscle, maybe trimming just a bit more fat (I'm not sure yet), and then maintaining myself at a lean 150 lbs. By then my body will need enough calories that I can probably be a little less restrictive with my eating habits as long as I make sure to do my cardio!

So then, goodbye for now, old life. It's time for me to focus on me, and to concentrate on my health and well being.

I have my meeting with my new trainer tomorrow! He's gonna measure me from head to toe and get all my stats! I'm going to pester him about swimming too. I can't wait to start doing that! I've always loved water, I should have thought of using it to get in shape a LONG time ago. Weights just aren't my thing.

I feel like I have been better than the majority of people about working out, but I also know I haven't been doing it right. I think it's time to start doing it right, too. Tomorrow is the first day! I'm ready!

May 27th!

Now it's happy timing!



Yay for fun guy!

I know some of you have something against 24-hour fitness. However that is where I will be working out from now on. I took a little tour. They have better equipment, no out-of-order signs in sight, private showers, a lap-pool, and master trainers for dirt cheap (I got five, fifty-minute sessions for less than it costs to sign up as a new member at most clubs, not even counting the free sessions I get for signing up). Nineteen dollars a month, and no contract --- pay as you go --- gets me access to everything; free classes (over 70 a week), tanning (not that I would do that... might as well take up smoking too), swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna (I hate saunas, but hey!), and no worries about the suits coming to shut the place down. Then, there is the whole 24-hour thing. I'm practically nocturnal, so I can totally see myself working out at 2 am! I'll have the pool all to myself! Not to mention, when I finally get a job at corporate I may be keeping odd hours.

It's probably quite a bit more cruisy than Gold's but fuck, I've been ignoring trolls for ages now, and I'll be surrounded by much hotter people than myself. I wont even register on their radar.

I burst with glee every time I think of Gold's trying to debit money from my account, and getting denied by my bank. I can't wait to see the number I save as "DO NOT ANSWER" appearing on my phone when they call to bitch about it. I'll relish listening to their voice mails as they futilely attempt to get me to call them back without revealing what it is they are calling about (That was always my favorite). It's their version of phishing.

Anyway, I ramble. Long story short, Gold's tried to burn me, now it's my turn to show them how to really burn someone; them! They are already hemorrhaging members. I won't be surprised if the cancellation fallout from this at least equals the number of people who worked out at the Convention Center.

Oh... hell... no...

So, my gym has just crossed the wrong person. I go to the Gold's Gym at the convention center downtown. I really like it. I get a nice view of downtown while I am doing cardio. I like the classes and the instructors. It's in a really convenient location for me. It's also closing down. Amend that, it's closed. They shut the doors at 3pm today, for good. I literally got an hour notice. They started letting people know last week, but I was going later at night and no one told me.

What the fuck?

That's not the best part. They are automatically transferring everyone to their Broadway location, over a mile away. Sure, it's newer. It's also alot more cruisy, and a lot farther away. It is 100% inconvenient for me to go to that gym. To make things worse, they won't let me out of my contract. Also, to cancel my membership I have to send in written notice via snail mail, thirty days in advance. I don't think so!

I'm not a fuckin' amateur. I know how to deal with bullshit like this, and I do NOT take kindly to a bunch of pugnacious little trolls in poorly fitting business suits, with more money than sense, thinking they can fuck me in the ass and steal my hard earned cash. First, I know there are clauses in my contract, the one they agreed to, which would allow me to cancel early. Second, I am calling them to let them know every little thought that is crossing my mind. Third, I'll be calling the local media to tell them exactly what's going on at the convention center. They just love this sort of special interest, consumer beware bullshit. Finally, I will be calling my bank and letting them know that ABC Financial is no longer authorized to debit money from my checking account.

Oh yes, I'm pissed.

So the NDA has been lifted. I am one of the 50,000 lucky S.O.B's to be in the open beta for Age of Conan. With only 50,000 keys, it wasn't exactly open, and they have as much said they should have called it something else. Whoops! Well, sucks to be you if you didn't get one! :D I forgive them for being a little less than clear. I admit, before I actually played the game, I was highly skeptical, weighing the words of both fanbois and gloom and doom mongers equally. Now... well now I am definitely more amiable with the fanbois.

Anyway, considering the fact that this is a beta, and considering that the closed beta NDA has been partially lifted allowing some of it's participants to alleviate the concerns of the open testers (e.g. crashes, poor performance, minor glitches, and whatnot are very mild/nonexistent in the closed beta), this is quite possibly the best MMO I have played. I really felt like I was playing an excellent single player game. I tried out a few classes, and already have my Necromancer to the beta level cap of 13. Even at such a low level there was so much cool stuff to do! I haven't tried the PvP yet, but it looks like a lot of fun.

The gameplay is so tight, all NPC interactions are voice-acted and conversations are not linear! It's more like playing Neverwinter Nights or Oblivion, where there are dialogue trees. The camera zooms in, in a cinematic fashion, and you actually speak with the NPC choosing your responses. It really helps with the immersion. Thus far the storyline is quite good, too! Once you get the hang of combat, it is fast paced, hectic, and extremely fun! Skill as an action-type gamer is extremely useful. Things like running around the enemy, and orienting yourself a certain way to maximize your defense all have a real impact even in fights versus NPC's. You can really slog through a group of enemies without having to sit there and click or 'tab' each one. It doesn't feel strictly like an MMO, more like some kind of hybrid. I like it! Also, because a large part of it is skill based, I have on numerous occasions taken out four or five enemies in a big brawl, or literally been smacked down by one, depending on my mistakes. I know that in WoW, I just kind of developed a formula for most situations so that the outcome of almost every fight was a forgone conclusion (Hence my obsession with PvP toward the end). That is much less likely to work in this game from what I have seen.

The mature content isn't overly gratuitous, but the world is edgy and seedy. It's a dark, brooding place full of a lot of mean, nasty people (Particularly my necromancer, hee hee!). It is very well done! I never found myself thinking that they overdid something, or put something in just for shock value. While the world is overall dark a dreary, there are a few places with really impressive vistas. Once they work the kinks out, they will have a fantastic 3D engine on their hands!

Alright, I better stop before I totally transform in to a fanboi. Here are a couple snapshots of my character in the game. I actually made thumbnails this time, too!





P.S. Fearn, AoC honestly is not the reason I missed Thursday! I didn't really play it until Friday.

That's it. He's gone. I saw Stephen out last night. We hung out and had fun. His friends are really great. Then he had to leave. I said goodbye outside, and managed to keep it together until I got back inside to where my other friends were hanging out. Then I broke down right in front of everyone.

I'm still kind of at a loss.

I know I just posted an entry, but I came across something so disturbing I had to share it.

I realize I am getting myself in more trouble with the MySpace trolls by doing this, but check out the third page of Margaret Cho's MySpace blog here to view my response.

I almost feel sick about it.

What is with all these kids hitting on me? All these guys around 18-20 keep hitting on me! Do I really look that young? I don't think I do. I'm not old and scary yet, so it can't possibly be that they like trolls.

Back off!

Damn kids...

So, I was bored and posted a couple comments on two MySpace videos.

Wow.

It was like opening the gates of hell and having every feral little demon come scurrying out, attempting to eat your face off. I received two e-mails from individuals who have, somehow, managed to lower my opinion of humanity even further. I am not even going to check the videos to see the responses to my comments.

The first one was so full of spelling, grammatical, and logical errors that it took me a few moments to decipher that the little beast was trying to communicate, let alone what he was saying. The other, while at least coherent, was obviously written by someone who's reading comprehension was dragging at the wrong end of the bell curve.

Feral Beastie #1: "your an idiot kill yourself that wasnt a kurt cobain song in the kung fu dancing video retard. noobie fucking l2joke its offspring dumbass zomfg"

Feral Beastie #2: "lets see you do a one legged backflip if its so damn easy"

So, for beastie #1, I truly was in error and thought that an Offspring song was Kurt Cobain. Oops... apparently that is a mortal sin punishable by burning at the stake.

Beastie #2 seems to think that in my comment I was in some way stating that I could do one legged backflips, and that they are a piece of cake.

What strange little creatures!

So I finally did my taxes. Well, I did them a couple weeks before the dreaded date of April 15th. Anyway, so I thought I had to mail something in, but I guess it happened all electronically, because when I went to check my account balance I found a little surprise.

I currently owe a big chunk on my computer, but since I am not paying interest I have been letting it just kind of sit there until I got my tax refund. So, I see this big fat number well over 2,000 and think to myself, "SHIT! Did I start getting charged interest? I have been making my payments! My nine months aren't up yet! What happened? It was below 2000 before. SHIT SHIT SHIT!"

"Oh, wait. That's my account balance, not my credit card balance. YEY!" [Both are listed on the same page]

You critically hit your credit card debt for 2,300 dollars!

Muahaha!

Seriously, though, I never really considered myself in debt. I haven't payed a single penny in interest and I never spent more money than I knew was coming my way. Still, it feels nice!

Chimaera is ALL mine now!

So I finally got around to uploading my first YouTube video. It's nothing spectacular. It is a video of me playing AudioSurf. I managed to get the global high score for September - Satellites, but that's not saying much as it is not an extremely popular song.

If anyone hasn't played it, you should definitely try it. It's super cheap, well done, and highly addictive!

Anyway, here is the video.



The guy who wrote the game is a friend of a friend. Support indie game developers and BUY THIS GAME! He deserves it!

I just canceled all of my subscriptions to everything. WoW, EQII, EVE, Hellgate: London. I don't need to be spending 50 dollars a month for games I get bored of and can't stand to play for more than a couple hours a week.

I imagine my break from WoW will be short, EVE I will be gone at least a month, and the other two I can't imagine resubscribing to anytime in the near future. I am so sick to death of a lot of these online games nowadays. HGL held some promise but their subscription plan offers very little, while at the same time harshly penalizing anyone who does not sign up for it. I know that seems paradoxical, but it's true. I don't know how they managed to fuck that up so royally.

I miss the good old days of online gaming with Diablo (1 and 2), Starcraft, Unreal Tournament, Asheron's Call (One of the most underrated MMO's EVAR!), and QUAKE. Since then, I've noticed developers and publishers have very little to offer other than superior graphics and slightly better interfaces. We've been blessed with high speed internet, which is now the rule and not the exception --- as in the days of Diablo and Starcraft --- and vastly superior hardware. Yet, these games utterly fail to evoke anything new emotionally. Perhaps I am emotionally dead, but I feel it more likely that the industry has failed as a whole to fully take advantage of our technological advancement to improve more than just the baser aspects of gameplay.

Sure, there have been a few diamonds in the rough. Portal was an immense pleasure and I still hum "Still Alive" to myself almost every day. I find myself giggling at random GLaDOS quotes throughout the day. I even named my Zune GLaDOS! Yet these gems are so few and far between I can't keep myself entertained while waiting for the next one. Age of Conan is coming out in May, and it looks promising. Still, when I watch the gameplay videos and delve deeply in to whatever information is available, I can't help but get a sinking feeling that it's just going to be more of the same. SPORE was supposed to come out in May as well, but it has been pushed back to September. I have more hopes for that game than I have had for any in years, but it's still a ways off. A lot can happen in six months.

Perhaps I have just evolved as a player. I certainly expect much, much more than I did when I was eight years old and playing Megaman 2 on my NES. At the same time, I don't feel my expectations have outpaced technology in the slightest. I feel I have been pretty patient. My patience, however, is not endless. It finally came to an end. So, for now, I think I am done.

Good bye for now.

Are you still there?

Well, then, Sally Kern, you refuse to apologize for this? You are hiding behind your right to free speech. Sure, you had every right to say what you did. Now, we have every right to burn you down. You're already on fire, and you don't even know it.

You are an elected official. You are comparing people you are sworn to serve as a "cancer." You were speaking to politicians as a politician, and therefore there will be political consequences. Your right to free speech only protects you from legal consequences, it does not protect you from losing your job because your employers find what you say offensive, inflammatory, hateful, and unbecoming of an elected official.

Guess what bitch, we're your employers.

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I got an e-mail from HRC about this with a nifty little pre-written letter that you can send to the Oklahoma governor and speaker of the house. So, if you want me to forward it to you so you can send them a piece of your mind, let me know. Just send your e-mail address to Caffiend81@hotmail.com.