Life Lessons

There was a time in my life when I was an absolute mess. I was going nowhere and doing nothing...and I was angry. Oh boy, I was mad at the world because, of course, it was the world's fault that nothing was happening in my life. I never considered looking at myself and seeing what I was doing. I was great on blaming everything and everyone but short on accepting any responsibility at all for my behavior. I don't like to remember the type of person I was back then. I was a first-rate asshole.

I had an epiphany one day when my father finally laid it all out for me. It was harsh. It was blunt. It was given to me out of love and it stabbed right into my soul. The following clip gives the gist of what that talk was about. The words are not quite the same but the meaning is very much there. Watching and listening to Rocky make this speech to his son brings back my own father's talk to me.

It was something that changed my life....and not a moment too soon.

The Boyd and Jay Show

As I mentioned earlier, my friend Boyd and I have teamed up to challenge each other. We do this because we seem to share a common trait that is really pretty common among a lot of people we both know.....we don't stick to doing what we know will work. Losing weight and getting fit is a terribly lonely goal. It's our body and, ultimately, any success or failure is entirely up to us. It's also a goal that takes a tremendous amount of effort and time, so it's very easy to lose focus and shelf your desire for other needs that crop up every day.

A lot of people get around this by getting a personal trainer. I really can't afford one... a good one...one that will ride me like a drill instructor on meth. Some people join groups at gyms such as Terry with Crossfit or Sean who not only works for a gym, but seems to live in it as well. That would be great but there are no options for that where I live. Often times, I am literally the only person at my gym through my entire workout.

So Boyd and I have come up with something. We are going to support, encourage, and hold each other accountable. We're making videos....lots of them. Each of us will be making one every other day. We hope to make them entertaining and inspirational to others, especially as the format evolves over time; but the major purpose of the videos is to remind us that we are not doing what we are doing alone.

And you don't have to do it alone either. The internet makes the world a very small place. Comment or email. Share our experience.

Making Time

There's the old problem that I've often had and I bet that many others have complained about as well. Trying to fit in an exercise routine among all the other things that need to be done during the day.

"I don't have time to go to the gym. I've got things to do and places to be. I sure wish I had a little spare time...then...oh boy, look out...I would really get fit then. If I only had the time."

Well, I do have the time.

Really, one hour a day, that's all. That's even including the drive time back and forth to the gym. One hour. The length of one brain rotting TV show. I could probably do without an episode of American Idiot and not have it effect my life in the slightest. I don't think that I can say that about exercising.

So I'm back to a daily gym trek. I'm going sloooooooow. In the past, my enthusiasm led me to overextend my capacity and I've dropped off due to extreme soreness. That and I've had an overweight friend almost die from a heart attack pushing too hard at a gym recently. As much as I hate to admit it, I need to take into account that I'm not in my twenties anymore and that some of my body parts are a bit worn.

Slow and steady is the ticket. Steady is the key.

Monday Cat Blogging

Kiss that $25 Goodbye

Remember this? I posted it last year when several people on YouTube were getting together to have a bit of challenge. It seemed like a great idea at the time; support each other, have fun, and toss in twenty-five bucks just to make it interesting. Nothing like friendly competition to help with the old motivation.

But then everything started to get.......how shall I say this.....complicated.

The rules were vague and seemed to shift day to day. Money from everybody was sent to one of the participants to "hold" and that never seemed quite right to me. This participant also threw out deadlines for photos and progress which, though not effecting him since he was unemployed at the time, was a bit of a chore for the rest of us with busy schedules. Then the original finishing date was canceled and a new one delivered; by this same individual, with a demand for an additional $25 to stay in the game.

I think that was when most of us decided that enough was enough and drifted off. I believe the challenge ended last month though I haven't heard anything about it, and I really don't care. Whoever wound up with the money, plane fare, or whatever it was decided the prize would be...I hope they enjoy it with my blessings.

Why am I blathering about this? Because, despite the dysfunction of the $25 challenge and it's egotistical leader, I still see the value in them. Challenges let you focus your goals and compare your best with others. I'm still in the $100 challenge originated by Brian which has clear cut rules and goals, plus lets you hold on to your own entry fee. The money is not all that important since I would feel good about any of the people in that challenge winning.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be doing a one on one challenge with my friend Boyd. No money. No prizes. Not even any bragging rights or humiliation to the loser. Just a couple of guys spurring each other on in trying to do what we have both wanted to do for a long time....get physically fit.

And we plan to have a hell of a lot of fun doing it.

Stay tuned.

Please Don't Arrest Me

I'm rather busy this week in case anybody is wondering why I'm not doing much in the way of blogging. I'm doing training the next few days with area law enforcement. At the police station. Surrounded all day by big men carrying guns.

There was a time in my misspent youth where that would have been pretty much unthinkable...but if I had thought about it.....would have caused severe anxiety and panic.

One benefit of a clean conscience, I suppose. Plus my age seems to avail me a certain level of respect and deference.

Or perhaps they feel that if they really want to take me down, it wouldn't be too much effort.

Easter Cat Blogging

Identity Theft

I Love This Show....I Hate This Show

The Biggest Loser. In case you've never heard of it, the show gathers about a dozen very overweight people and they compete against each other to see who can lose the most pounds. Like all "reality shows" the primary entertainment is with the interpersonal interactions with the contestants.

I'm really hooked on this show. Being that I'm into losing weight and attaining fitness, it's interesting to see how other people are able to achieve their goals. I also find it inspiring because these people are seriously obese....but they pour their hearts into making a transformation of themselves. They work out. Hard! I mean, hours every day of intense exercise with a trainer riding their backs every step of the way.

That's why I hate this show as well.

Who has the option of secluding one's self from the world for a few months to train like that? Not me. As much as I want to lose weight and get fit, it's not the only thing I have going on every day. I have to go to work. I have to maintain a relationship. I have to take care of my household.

I guess I'm just grousing. I get inspired by the contestants putting in real work and achieving real results. Yet, like any reality show, there is very little reality involved.

Still....a good show. If you've never seen it, I recommend you watch an episode. You will get hooked.

MRE....Just Like Mom Use To Make

Well....not really....but not too far off the mark.

Meals ready to eat. The newest thing in military field rations and on every survivalists wish list. I ran across them a few days ago and, being interested in convenient ways to eat, decided to pick up one just for kicks. I got a beef enchilada thing and you just plop it in a bag, pour some salt water that's provided inside, seal it up, and wait for the little catalyst warmers to steam heat them for about 10 minutes. Rip open the pouch and gobble down the chow. I expected it to taste, at best, like nothing at all.

It was surprisingly good!

I mean...lip smacking good!

Light years better than any microwave dinner that I've ever had. I may start buying these things. The drawback is that they are rather high in calories, but I guess that's to be expected since they are designed to feed a combat soldier and not some flabby old couch potato. They are a damn sight tastier than the canned rations they gave us when I was in the military.




Of course...with enough hot sauce...you could manage to choke most of it down.

Monday Cat Blogging

Springtime in Kansas

Sometimes, I really miss living in Texas.

Monday Cat Blogging

It's Spring!

About bloody time too.

It's Gotta Be Rock N Roll Music

Just about the only place where I ever listen to the radio anymore is in my truck. Even then, it's only when I am driving alone these days because I have a tendency to turn up the volume...primarily because I'm old and deaf, but also because I like to rock out with good music. Sing along. Play air guitar and drums with the steering wheel. Things that make people believe I am having a seizure at stop lights and embarrass the hell out of my daughter when I drove her to school in the mornings.

It's getting harder to do that these days out here in Kansas. Spinning through the dial on the raid-ee-oh is increasingly becoming an exercise in annoying frustration. Country music dominates most of the selections and, while some of it is okay, I find most of the stuff sounds pretty much the same and get bored with it very quickly. Then there are the religious stations. They are actually kind of interesting, especially when they are preaching about the apocalypse and all that good stuff; but it's not what I need to put my groove on driving to work. There is one Spanish station that is kind of cool but I spend all my thoughts trying to translate the words to the songs rather than just enjoying the music, which sounds all the same to my ear anyway...kinda like rap. Oh, and then there is the classical music station...okay, but Mozart doesn't lend itself much to air drumming.

My one consistent oasis has been a rock station....a hard rock station. None of that namby pamby hip hop, or bee bop, pop, disco, or boy-band sludge. They played stuff that would get your adrenaline going and realize where the term 'heavy metal' came from.

No more.

That station switched its format to "alternative rock"....which, as near as I can figure out is a completely accurate label because it is definitely an alternative to anything I would call rock music.

Sigh. I use my Ipod now. It's just not the same. The damn earphone buds keep popping out.

Monday Cat Blogging

Athletic Supporter?

Fitness would be a lot easier for me if I had developed the habits of an athlete in my youth. Things like working out in a gym, running, sweating, being sore....would all be things that I am use to and probably even enjoy.

The problem is, I never got into the whole jock lifestyle. I sucked at sports. Even in Little League, I was stuck way out in right field with the hopes from my teammates and myself that a fly-ball would never be hit to me. P.E. in school was nothing more than an hour every day being humiliated in front of my peers by a fat sadistic coach. I had no interest at all in high school sports, preferring to play in the band as an escape from an activity of which I had no natural ability in favor of one I had a modicum of talent.

So I didn't like jocks. I didn't like exercise. I was an "in-too-lectual" and looked with contempt toward those who trained their bodies. I considered them vain and shallow. I even thought of those who enjoyed watching sports on television as fairly brain dead ex-jocks trying to live vicariously through steroid enhanced actors in fantasy contests. To me, watching athletes perform was akin to watching porn...I couldn't understand the attraction of other people playing while you sat passively and observed.

And here I am, after all this time, trying to become an athlete. I go to a gym. I talk about reps and sets and refer to parts of my body by muscle groups. Unless I'm drenched with sweat and have a bit of pain, I don't feel as if I have accomplished anything during the day. Still, it's a chore. To push every day when it would be oh so easy just to let things slide. I'm trying to make the transition from exercise being an unpleasant task, to a habitual one, to being a fun activity that I look forward to each morning.

Athletes are made... not born. I'm a work in progress.

Monday Cat Blogging

Tempus Fuggit

Daylight savings time really messes with my head. That's because my head takes a few days to get use to the concept that it is dark longer in the morning and lighter longer in the evening. It takes a while to train my brain to ignore visual cues and convince my body that...no...it is not being forced to wake up an hour earlier than usual. Then there is also the problem of going to bed at my usual time (according to the clock) when I'm not sleepy.

Plus, it is going to take about a month before I get around to setting all my clocks and watches up one hour.

Except for the one in my pickup. I never can remember how to set the time on that so screw it, I'll just wait for November and it will be showing the right time once again.

Time for a New Computer

I really didn't start out wanting to get a whole new computer. Originally, my thoughts were to get a nicer monitor...maybe spend a couple of hundred bucks at the most. So off I mosey to Best Buy after I eyeballed their ad both on paper and online.

I walk in to the store that was blasting out some crappy music through their speakers and I'm asked by an annoying blue shirt every couple of minutes if "I need any help".

No...I'm just looking and comparing a few monitors right now so I send them away, but they just stand right there beside me making me nervous, like they expect me to slip a monitor in my pants and walk out the store or something. Eventually, they do go off to pester some other customer and I have time to think and decide what I wish to buy. After a while, I come to a decision.

Nobody in sight. I wave my credit card in the air in the hopes of attracting the attention of somebody who wishes to take my money. Nothing. There is even a lull of silence while somebody is switching out one CD of incomprehensible rap crap for another.

I break up a gang of clerks trying to hit on some young girl and point to what I've decided to purchase.

"Oh...we're out of that"

"It was in your ad that came out today."

"Yeah, but we don't have anymore of them."

"Hookay how about this one", I said, pointing to what was my second choice...a bit more in price but one I was willing to settle for.

"Uhhhhh.....no more of those either."

I kind of rolled my eyes and said "just which of all these monitors you have displayed here do you actually have for sale?".

He then proceeded to show me a fine selection of 3 crappy monitors that I had no interest in buying. He did offer to sell me the display models....no discount....no warranty. No thanks.

Long story short; I went elsewhere to look for a monitor. I discovered that I could just get a whole new computer for not much more than I would pay for a high quality monitor. I started considering that my old computer was beginning to show signs of breaking down and decided to just take the plunge.

I wouldn't go back to Best Buy if they were giving out cookies and back rubs. I have a nice new computer to play with and didn't have to wade through all the bullshit to get it.

Though....I am stuck with Vista now.