Someone should write a book based on this guy’s idea. Basically, he makes an RPG game out of his social life. It could be called (hopefully without infringing on any Parker Bros. trademarks) “The Game of Life”. I wish I had time – I think it would be extremely fun to write (and read).
On a side note, check out this loser’s homemade bumper sticker. He’s got his act together…
I went on a great 42 mile ride this morning with my friend Chip (who has an excellent TREK Madone). Took just over 2 hours at a pretty good pace (Took most of the Rio Grande Bike Path). I may do a short 20 miler tomorrow. I burned through 2000 calories on that ride! And, we just missed a major accident on the trail (we saw the ambulances and big blood spots, but not the riders that got hurt).
This Video from Whose Line is it Anyway, is one of the funniest things ever shown on television. Here’s a happy couple checking the results of a pregnancy test. And, don’t forget about Tom Cruise Killing Oprah.
Been having a good week, getting things done and relaxing. Kevin sent me a cool AJAX javascript library called prototype.js which looks sweet, especially for handling a lot of AJAX typical javascript interaction. AJAX (aka Web 2.0) is great, and I think it will be heavily utilizd in the future – with heavy emphasis on portable/PDA/cell-phone browsers with limited CPU capabilities.
Some random/fun links: FrigginFunny videos ( many funny videos), A Gamer’s Manifesto, and of course show me all the blueprints!
I finished all of my Global Business papers last week (16 papers and one case study evaluation). I’m glad those are done! They weren’t bad, and it’s one of the more useful types of homework – it won’t be graded harshly, just get them written.
As for working out, I’m up to 182 at 13.5% body fat. I’ve been eating more protein and slightly more calories. I’ll be doing some more aerobic exercise this week to see if I can bring the weight AND the body fat % down a few points.
Janet, Jonah, and I went to Copper Mountain Colorado this weekend for a nice family vacation. They had great deals at the Copper Lodge, so we drove up there Friday afternoon and just got back this evening. Here’s a quick run-down of how things went:
Friday
I left work a tiny bit early and we got on the road about 4pm. The drive should have taken about 6 hours from Albuquerque, but we missed a turn, and took a round-about way through Abiquiu (and though about getting a house on the lake there), then up through Chama. We stopped at Pizza Hut for dinner, and after the driving rain, we got to Copper Mountain about 11:30pm. We checked in and made some plans for the next morning.
Saturday
We slept in a little, then went down to the mall/shopping area and had a nice breakfast. We brought along Jonah’s bike, but not ours (they didn’t fit in the Benzo) so we rented a couple of Giant AC MTBs. They rode well, and the disk brakes were nice. We got all ready and rode up toward vail on the road trail. We rode nearly all uphill for about an hour+ until Jonah was too tired to go further. It was maybe 10-12 miles up the trail. We then turned around and coasted all the way down. I spent much of the time practicing wheelies 
After changing and a quick lunch we took Jonah to several of the activites around the lodge area. He went on the trampoline/bungie jumping aparatus for a while, then we moved to the paddle boats around the lake, and then the climbing wall (and Jonah made it to the top!). We then went up the mountain on the chair lift, then rode back down. Jonah was a bit nervous (we could tell by the white knuckle grip on the chair lift), but was relaxing as the ride went on. We went to dinner and ate while Warrant played outside (and yes, they even played Cherry Pie).
Sunday
We got up early and ate quickly at the small cafe. We got “Equipment Haul” tickets to take our mountain bikes to the top of the mountain on the chair lift. We got to the top, and Jonah seemed confident enough to try a blue square (“moderate difficulty”) mountain bike trail. We went around a few switch backs (where he got off) and then at one point he lost control and pointed straight down the mountain – scaring Janet and I half to death. He was able to stop, but we decided we’d better take the green circle (“easy”) trail the rest of the way. 100 yards into the easy trail, BOOM! he fell… Not a single fall on the tough trail, but we get to a semi flat road and splat! It was one of several, but he was okay on all of them. We made it down in about an hour and then toured variuos paths throughout the complex for another hour or so. We turned in the rented bikes, changed, went to lunch, and then did some more padal kayaking, bungee trampolining, and rock climbing. We had a good steak dinner in the East Village, and then went back and saw Poison playing! We didn’t stay too long . I took a picture and put in on Flickr.
Monday
We got up early, had breakfast, did a quick shopping tour (I got a cool Copper Mountain biking jersey) and we drove to Denver to take Jonah to Casa Bonita (the place with cliff divers, gorillas, and an arcade). The food was mediocre at best, but Jonah enjoyed himself immensely. Because we went through Denver, it took a good 8 hours to make it back. Saw several people get pulled over too.
Since I have that nifty new camera phone, that I can use to take pictures of random things for no reason and post them to the web, I opened a Flickr account. My pictures are open to the public, and don’t really show anything other than random things I see.
So, I was adding feeds to my RSS Aggregator this weekend and wanted somewhere that would add some stock quotes to my feed. I couldn’t find any, so I reserved QuoteRSS.com. I even finished the first version, and it works! (though, not all of the formats are turned on). Maybe after I get a few subscribers to it, I’ll put some RSS Ads on there…
It was a nice day, so I asked Janet to drop Jonah off at my work, and we rode home together. Though he wasn’t too fast, and nearly crashed into a passing bicyclist (“on your left means, they’re passing on your left Jonah, NOT GO LEFT”), we averaged about 7mph with a few breaks for water. The wind was against us most of the way (as usual), which wore him out I think. We had fun though!
Finals for this semester are finally over. The Statistics final was yesterday, and relatively easy. Our group also did a presentation on Apple and their revolving door of CEOs from the 80′s through Jobs Act II. I’m looking forward to Finance next semester, as it’s one of my hobbies and I have high hopes for the class. Coming from a physics background, the concepts are interesting to me. I’ve read a ton on financial engineering, and there’s a excellent book out there for those interested in Life as a Quant.
The “heavy” lifting is much different than my previous 6 months of exercise. Sets are in the 4-5 range instead of 3, and reps are in the 4-8 range instead of 8-14 range. I feel stronger, and I’m lifting more. I have gained about 2.5 lbs, but only about .4% bodyfat, so, checking the spreadsheet, I’m about a pound more in muscle, and a pound of fat. I’ve got to put some aerobics back in, if only a little (only biked to work once this week due to finals/weather), and adjust my diet to reduce some of the fat calories. Shouldn’t be hard since I didn’t eat particularly careful last week.
Just a quick update to give you the results of the previous exercise/gel experiments, and what I’m currently up to.
First, the Gel stuff… I tried the PowerGel Cola flavored (with caffeine) and it was okay. Not something I’d go out of the way to eat, but on my long ride I had one mid-way through, and you know what? I could tell! I felt more energized about 15 minutes later. I also tried the Gu gel in Tri-Berry flavor and it actually was not bad at all. Much sweeter, so it just slid down. Just don’t get kiwi-strawberry!
My metabolism reset actually worked out well! I lost the weight I put on in two days, and went below my previous weight. I also didn’t go as low in daily calories as before, but I was still losing (probably due to my riding a LOT more). So, I upped my calories again. Now I have to remind myself to eat to make sure I get all the calories and enough protein.
I started a “bulking” phase for the next 6-8 weeks. I’m working out (lifting heavy) in the mornings before riding to work. I’m also taking more amino acids, creatine, and various other supplements. They’re not bad (since they’re mostly just pills).
Janet got back from Arizona this Sunday (she and Jonah went with one of her friends and her son for the weekend while I studied). She was at the Discovery store and picked up a Lance Armstrong Discovery Cycling Jersey for me:
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This was taken on August 1st in the morning… I weighed 178.5 and was just about 13.5% body fat. On Dec. 15, 2004 I was 50 pounds heavier!