Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Exercise08:31 AM - Weigh in

Forgot to weigh myself yesterday, did it today.

Current weight as of February 28 @ 6:30am: 148.8 pounds.

I figure measuring my waist and hips every four weeks should be sufficient, making the next measurement due March 13.

listening to: Tori Amos - Cruel (live)

Monday, February 27, 2006

08:35 AM - Bleargh, I dun feel so good

I managed to throw my allergies outta whack Friday night and Saturday morning, and I'm still recovering apparently. I want a new immune system, damnit, one that won't launch WW3 against harmless unarmed civilians (i.e. pet dander, dust, etc.). The worst part was that most of the manifestation was in the form of asthma chest tightness, must've hit that damn inhaler 8 or 10 times on Saturday. How stupid! Now, the top of my airway is all pissy so that it feels irritated whenever I take a really deep breath or exhale all the way out.

And even though I turned out the light before 10pm last night, and slept reasonably well all things considered, I'm still groggy. I was really tempted to call in sick, but I figured maybe I'd be better off, in terms of how much I aggravated my air ways and such, by coming to work rather than staying home (there are virtually no allergens, at least to me, at my work place, so no matter how itchy or coughing or wheezy or eye-watery I am, coming to work will usually clear it up). But damn, I can't think worth a shit. And then because my throat is pissy and I hadn't eaten anything yet, I was starting to feel a little barfy. Urgh. Eating my yogurt seems to be helping, though I had to force myself to do it.

Yeah, I'm being all whiny and stuff. And other than my allergies being pissy it was a great weekend, especially Saturday. I got to meet lots of cool blessedly nerdy folks, my dad came over to show off his new car, and last night we had a nice dinner w/ my parents and grandfather for my mom's birthday. I just feel rather weak and slightly ill and feel like bitching right now. I'll talk more about the good weekend stuff when I'm feeling better, and maybe even get some of the pictures up that we took.

feeling: tired and sick and augh
whining no longer being accepted

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Life11:36 PM - I couldn't resist making this Bucky icon

I have other stuff to say, lots and lots, but not the energy to say it. Good and crazy weekend thus far.

But, I was catching up on my comics for the day and had to make this icon. Sometimes I definitely feel this way. Like, "uh... wha?" Only usually it's not because of utter stupidity as in Bucky's case. :p

dot dot dot

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Friday, February 24, 2006

Fun stuff10:52 AM - New phrase that made me giggle

Read this on f'opolis about someone's now ex-boss:

[...] he has his head so firmly crammed into his colon bits of corn get stuck in his hair.
feeling: amused
listening to: Sheryl Crow - Leaving Las Vegas
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Exercise Life09:59 AM - Too bored or something to update

I think I messed up my whole week by waking up at 1am Tuesday to make sure I'd maybe get to see the end battle of the AQ event on Whisperwind. I still missed it, with the only thing I got to see at the gates being tons after tons of Anubis characters spawning, with a fuckton of lag while everyone tried to kill 'em. Missed the gong too 'cause I didn't get home on time. Ah well. Was up till about... 2:40am. So ever since then I've been behind in my sleep and my sleep schedule's been shot to hell.

I finally got the plants watered last night, and a littl cleaning. That's after the 2 and a half hour nap I took, and after a late dinner. (Dinner was good; Chilis has a thing right now where you get 2 meat selections and two sides, so J and I split that with me getting grilled salmon and getting the veggies and him getting the mesquite chicken and loaded mashed potatoes. Ended up even with $2 apiece for iced teas spending, after tip, $10 per person.) I finally shredded all the junk mail I'd set aside, and got all the old catalogs I wasn't keeping into a paper bag for J to take to the recycling place near us. This morning I paid a few checkfree.com bills and the trash bill that'd just come using US Bank's bill pay function. There's still a lot of cleaning I need to do today after work, and I need to get some cat litter so I can actually add some to their boxes.

I also really need to find some time for both some cardio and some upper body weights. I figure I'll do a few small sets of crunches and a couple sets of pushups, then 3 low-rep sets of handweight work (curls, triceps, etc.). Then I guess I'll hit the treadmill. J's calves have been acting up (he thinks they're cramping) when he runs, so I suspect he'll not want to go to the gym today. I could go by myself, of course, but given all the cleaning I still need to fit in, and the fact that the time it takes for me to walk downstairs and then back up again is far less than travel time to & from the gym, I'll probably just use our treadmill.

All I need to do in the computer room is file all the paperwork that needs filing, then straighten up the floor and my desk area. Then I guess it's on to the bedroom to finally put away all my clothes for once. And dinner somewhere in there. If I have any energy left at all I'll clean the bathroom, at least washing the tub/shower walls and sink, and sweeping up the floor.

All I want to do right now is crawl back into bed and sleep for a few more hours. But, I'm at work instead, and I don't really have time for a nap this afternoon. So I guess I'll just be sleeping in farther than I should tomorrow morning. Probably set my alarm for 10 so I won't sleep till 1pm.

feeling: sleepy
whining no longer being accepted

Monday, February 20, 2006

This site01:10 PM - A bit of a template change

Since paging my category archives started blowing out with out-of-memory errors (even tried making the pages much longer, to no avail), and some of my large categories are ridiculously long without pages, I'm finally going to change my template for them. (This started when I went to version 3 of MT, which was a long time ago; I'm just now thinking about this.) Instead of showing whole posts, I'm just going to show the first bit of each one with a link to the permanent post's link.

So if you use the category archives much, you'll definitely see those pages change to be much, much shorter.

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Life10:30 AM - Weekend overview

J and I got to hold our new nephew this weekend. They're in KC, so we stayed Friday night and Saturday night at J's parents' house, which is a little under halfway to KC. He is such a cute baby! So tiny still. Eeee! Also, hiccups that won't go away make him good & angry, hehe. He slept on me for quite a while, and then later he slept on J a few hours straight. :) Their dog & cat seem to be pretty used to him now, and not causing too terribly much trouble.

Since we weren't home, no real exercise for me. Not much in the way of veggies either, but I can deal with that. Got to have yummy barbecue in the form of a place called Oaklahoma Joe's while we were in KC (they're actually across the river in KS). I didn't end up eating dinner that night, 'cause it was 3pm or so when we ate lunch and I was seriously tired when we got back to J's parents' and not really hungry.

I totally forgot to weigh myself this morning, so I'm just going to wait until next Monday to see how that's going. No point anyway, since I didn't get any cardio in last week. So I'm just going to try to rededicate myself to exercise this week. Plus errands. Gonna go get more kitty litter tonight, maybe see if Famous Barr's President's Day sale is still going and if they have any 515s in my size. (Turns out I have not one pair, but two pairs that are worn in the thigh up by the crotch. Grr!) Then I'm going to see about picking up something nice for the wedding in two weeks. Then the whirlwind o' cleaning begins for the rest of the week. Probably actually start this afternoon before dinner & class, by shredding all the stuff that I set aside for that purpose, then maybe going through all the old catalogs on the kitchen table that mostly will be recycled.

listening to: Nightwish - Nemo
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Thursday, February 16, 2006

Exercise08:54 AM - Body toning exercises: Arms

  1. Triceps #1:
    • Start standing, feet wider than shoulder width apart, bent at hips with back straight and horizontal with the floor, with a weight in each hand and elbows at sides, upper arms horizontal and lower arms vertical.
    • Straighten right arm so whole arm is horizontal, then return.
    • Repeat by alternating arms.
  2. Triceps #2:
    • Start standing with a weight in the right hand, right arm straight up by head.
    • Bracing right arm with left hand just past the elbow on the upper arm side, bend right elbow to lower weight behind.
    • Repeat, then switch arms and do repetitions.
    Optional:
    • Sit on a chair or a ball; keep feet together for an extra workout of core muscles to stay upright.
  3. Shoulders #1:
    • Start standing, feet shoulder width apart or a bit wider, holding a weight in both hands at one hip.
    • Raise weight straight up to a little higher than shoulder height, then lower diagonally to the other hip.
    • Repeat symmetrically on other side.
    • Repetitions should continue to alternate sides, raising up straight and lowering down diagonally.
  4. Shoulders #2:
    • Start standing, feet shoulder width apart, holding a weight in each hand.
    • Raise both arms up at sides leading with thumb part of hand and palms facing same as you are, to shoulder high, making a T shape with your arms as the top of the T.
    • Slowly lower weights back to starting position.
    Optional:
    • Raise with arms at a 45 degree angle with your body instead of out to sides, still leading with thumbs and palms sideways.
    • Raise arms straight in front of you, still leading with thumbs, palms facing each other.
  5. Bicep curls:
    • Stand with feet shoulder width apart, shoulders back, with arms close at sides and a weight in each hand, palms up.
    • Lift weights in both hands by bending only elbows, until weights touch upper arms, then control weights back down to starting position.
    • Repeat.
    Optional:
    • Sit on a chair or exercise ball.
    • Sitting on a chair or exercise ball, with feet wider than shoulder width apart, do one arm at a time with that arm's elbow placed an inch or two above that knee, making sure to keep a straight back.
  6. Hammer curls:
    • Same position as bicep curls, except palms face inward, motion to bring weights up to touch upper arms remains the same.
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Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Exercise03:16 PM - Body toning exercises: Abdominal

All exercises should be done "belly button pulled in to the spine."

  1. Basic crunch:
    • Lie on floor, knees bent, feet shoulder width apart, hands behind head.
    • Lift shoulders off the ground, then lower them again.
    Optional:
    • Hold the last one in an isometric.
    • Instead of feet on floor, lift feet up and cross ankles, with knees over hips.
    • Do with calves up on an exercise ball, knees still bent, instead of on the ground.
  2. Half-position crunch:
    • Lie on floor, knees bent, feet shoulder width apart, hands be hind head.
    • Start with shoulders halfway up into full crunch position.
    • Do crunches between halfway and all the way up.
  3. Oblique crunch:
    • Lie on floor, knees bent, feet shoulder width apart, hands behind head.
    • Rotate to lift right shoulder up to left knee, then lower to floor.
    • Repeat by alternating which elbow is being brought to its opposite knee.
    Optional:
    • Instead of feet on floor, lift feet up and cross ankles, with knees over hips.
  4. Rock & reach:
    • Similar to oblique crunch.
    • Do half by rocking to the right, then when rotating to the left reach with your right hand to the outside of the opposite knee, then o the other half the other way starting by rocking to the left instead.
  5. Glamour move:
    • Start lying on the floor with one knee in towards chest, the other leg straight out but up at a slight angle. Shoulders should be off the ground using abs, with the hand on the same side as your bent knee at your ankle and the other hand out above your head.
    • Switch everything so the other leg is pulled in and the first leg is pushed out, and arms are in opposite position.
  6. Bicycles:
    • Start lying on the floor, hands behind head, one knee in towards chest, the other leg straight and out at an angle from the floor.
    • Pull the other leg in and the first leg out.
    Optional:
    • Raise shoulders off the floor.
    • To make it easier, increase angle between straight leg and floor; to make it harder, decrease it.
  7. Bicycles + obliques:
    • Same starting position as bicycles.
    • Each time one knee comes in, rotate from the waist to touch the opposite elbow to that knee.
    Optional:
    • Follow each set of bicycles immediately, no pause, with these.
  8. Sitting rotations:
    • Start sitting up, knees bent, feet shoulder width apart.
    • Put hands behind legs, and using abs lower top half towards the floor until arms are straight.
    • Cross arms over chest with fingertips touching shoulders.
    • Rotate from the waist to the left, reaching forward with the right hand and behind with the left hand to touch the floor behind.
    • Repeat by alternating rotation direction.
  9. Standing obliques:
    • Stand with feet shoulder width apart, with a weight in each hand.
    • Lean to the right side, lowering the weight in the right hand and raising the weight in the left hand, then come back up straight using abs.
    • Do repetitions on the same side, then switch and do them on the other side.
    • Back should remain straight, with shoulders back and stomach muscles taut.
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Exercise This site02:37 PM - Getting ready to make some blog spam

Instead of updating my all encompassing list of exercises, I've been wanting to have a post with each type of exercises, that I can keep updated and refer to later as needed. So there are going to be at least four other posts today, one for each category of exercises. Feel free to ignore them if you like, they'll all be fully cut so they don't take up a lot of space on the main page.

whining no longer being accepted

Gardening07:37 AM - Peace lilies are more awesome than I thought

I figured they only bloomed once a year, and that a plant the size I have only made one flower each time.

I've had this one since the summer of 2004, when my grandma died and it was one of three living plants at her funeral. I'd say no more than four months after taking it home is when it first bloomed. I went through a time or two this year where I wasn't watering it as often as I should, and it spent a lot of time looking rather droopy, but I never let it go so long that it actually nearly died or lost lots of leaves or anything like that. It still made its one flower around the same time it did in 2004. I've been making sure to water it often for the past month or two again. A bit before I really redoubled my efforts at remembering to water the plants we have, I noticed it'd made another flower. Huh? Cool! I figured that even though the weather doesn't change much for it, since it's an indoor plant, it still had some sort of builtin sensors that any other plant has and still had a specific time it would bloom, and then that was it.

Then it made another one. So now there are two pretty white peace lily flowers in it.

So, it makes me wonder... since it's always inside, just how often might it bloom so long as I'm watering it regularly, occasionally adding a few drops of liquid plant food to the water I'm using for it and the others? Is it going to keep making flowers every three or four months? More often? Is this an anomaly? I hope it'll do it more often, because I like them. :)

What else is kinda nuts, is that I've not only managed to revive the snapdragons (I ended up keeping them inside the whole time, since the squirrels ravaged the ones I'd originally taken home, also from my grandma's funeral), but one of them is blooming like it's going out of style. Lots and lots of pink flowers. What's even neater, is this is the plant that's the same color as all four of the original ones. I hope they other ones follow suit! The one that makes yellow flowers is also on the side of the pot nearest the window. There's one bare spot where one plant never really "took", that I think I'll fill with another one once the hardware store nearby starts putting them out for sale in the spring. I'd like to have that pot full to bursing with green snapdragon leaves and all different color flowers. :)

I might just continue keeping them inside so they don't get eaten. It's either that or find some kind of hard-to-climb pillar to set it on outside on the back patio during nice weather. It'd have to be one that couldn't blow over in a storm though, like with a ridiculously heavy base (as in, I wouldn't be able to pick this pillar up at all), and an inch or two high lip all around the top so a pot can't be blown enough to slide off. I don't think they make those though, so if a storm came while I was at work it'd all fall over and probably shatter the pot. :(

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Exercise Games & Gaming Life12:42 PM - So tired

So I did three loads of laundry yesterday. We actually had enough darks to do two loads of 'em, with all the jeans, sweatshirts, t-shirts, underwear, and socks. I wish really big washing machines and dryers didn't cost an arm and a leg. Would've saved me an hour. Ah well, all three loads really needed doing, and now it's done.

I also managed to sort through a good deal of mail. I catch bills (yay for most of them being either the same every month, or available in checkfree.com so that I already know about them before they arrive! but I snag the others right away too) but the rest kinda falls by the wayside. I went through all the crap on the kitchen counter, so there's about 12 I need to open to figure out if they're something to file away or CC offers in disguise, the rest is all prepared for sacrifice to arcane gods via the crosscutting shredder. :D

I went ahead and moved up to 4 pound weights for my tricep and shoulder work in my class, and 6 pounds for biceps. Since each exercise is one long set, I paused for two reps in the middle during triceps to sort of break it up into two. Same with shoulders, only since we break those up into two types anyway (lifting up with arms halfway between going up in a T and going up straight ahead, then lifting with arms straight ahead), it was easy to find a halfway point in there to break it up with. I just skipped the last two angled ones, resting, then skipped the last couple forward ones, so instead of one long set of... 36 reps, it was two sets of 16 reps. We do bicep curls the same way this time around, with half being palm up and half being palms in, so I broke those up in there as well. Wtih the added weight I needed that little pause.

I was even good and tried to actually add the a 2 pound weight to my leg work. Oog, I can't believe how much difference two little pounds can make when trying to get through the whole thing. Crazy!

I think I was unconsciously "cheating" with ab work too, and finally noticed it. As in, I was doing the crunches and not exactly doing them wrong, but I wasn't keeping my abs super tight during them either. I was skimping on the "belly button in to your spine" part. Big difference between the two, but I'm finding I still can keep up the same amount with doing it right. If I keep making myself do that part, I should be able to make bigger improvements. I actually am able to do more of the bicycle part at the end, and am actually doing the elbow-to-knee rotations that we alternate in, instead of stopping my legs and only doing the upper body part then. Yay, muscles.

Even though I'm running on less than 5 hours of sleep, I still want to go do cardio today. Then dinner, perhaps at our favorite Mexican place since we haven't gotten to go the other two times we planned on, then more chores. I want to go through all my paper crap on the kitchen table, then figure out what to do with the catalogs I'm actually keeping, so the kitchen won't suck. In fact I think I know exactly what I'll do with 'em: we have a magazine holder that has really old catalogs in it that I can put 'em in. And I'll move that from the livingroom to the computer room, where a lot of the catalogs spend time anyway. D'uh.

I think WoW will get a pass, save for me logging in to see my PvP rank (I suck at it still, and my gear is highly subpar compared to other 60s who play both sides, but I gotta gotta see my rank, even though my limited time to play only has me to rank 4 so far, hehe) and churning out another essence of water to crank some more gold. With the PvPing thing, it's sadly far easier for me to eventually get in via the queue system, than to find regular groups for things like strat, scholo, etc. Too many damn hunters, and too many of them that can't be trusted to, I dunno, speak English on an English-speaking server, etc. So inevitably whenever I see LFM for those, they already are full on hunters, or someone who's wanting to start a group already is a hunter. Plus, PvP has a shorter time commitment. Sure, I may wait in queue for an hour, but I can go grind scorpid blood in the hopes I can eventually have enough of it to turn in next time the Faire comes around to get that tasty pendant. Or I can grind various other faction for other rewards. And then at most the PvP round will last 20 minutes, and then I can either requeue or log off if it's starting to get late. No 2-4 hour commitment added onto an hour of trying to get into a group and get said group fully fleshed out so we can actually start raiding.

feeling: sleepy
whining no longer being accepted

Monday, February 13, 2006

Exercise11:50 AM - Weigh in

Current weight as of February 13 @ 6:40am: 152 pounds even.

Didn't have time to find the tape measure this morning. Will edit to add this in this afternoon. (No real point to measuring at a specific time; weight may vary throughout the day but besides a total food gorge waist, hips, etc., should all be consistent.)

Current waist measurement: 34.5"
Current hip measurement: 38"

It would appear that I very much do not possess an hourglass figure. Fortunately the top of the "big three" measurements (being bust) is not even smaller than the waist measurement, for I would rather be a cylinder than a pyramid. :p I figure by the time I've lost all the excess and just have a normal amount of body fat, I'll be looking at a 25-26" waist and 34-35" around the hips. Yes, my waist has gotten far more of the excess than my butt ever did.

Not bothering to mention goals anymore, just gonna track from here on out. Can't do inch measurement goals, 'cause I don't even know what's realistic (it's different for everyone anyway, since everyone stores fat a little differently and burns it a little differently). I'm not meeting weight goals, so just a generic "I want to eventually end up weighing less than I do now" is about all that's realistic at this point.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Fun stuff Life06:03 PM - Oh, one thing I keep forgetting to mention

I totally pimped my kitty hat on Thursday. It's finally been cold enough to want a hat, so I've been wearing it since, I dunno, Wednesday I guess. I went to the salon for my hair appointment, and the young lady at the front desk adored it so much, and said how cute it was, I had to give her the URL.

Of course, I screwed it up, which I found out today. But, I called and let her know that I'd messed up and what the right link was (for some reason I was thinking "designs" instead of "knits" in the link), 'cause I'm not going to be back for at least 3 weeks, very possibly more.

Yay for kitty hats! I'm so tempted to buy one in the wine color, 'cause it's a beautiful shade of dark red. But I already have my blue one, and they're really too warm to wear when it's not winter, so... yeah I can't quite justify buying another one. Even if they are warm, comfy, cute, and hand knitted by a really cool person. :)

me in my kitty hat

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Life05:35 PM - For Firefox users who want reminders

I was trolling Firefox extensions, and found ReminderFox.

I haven't restarted to try it yet, but this looks exactly like what I've been wanting for months! Sunbird is OK, sorta, but it's more for actual appointments and stuff. It can be used for "events" and such, but it's a little... big, when mostly I just want little reminders on whatever particular day. Outlook has the ability, but it's an entire email client, calendar, meeting scheduler, etc. And it's not free. I use it at work 'cause that's what we have, but I'm not paying for it at home since it's wayyyy more than I need. Outlook Express, I'm not gonna even go there. It's still a mail client, and I don't even know if it has reminders or a calendar function or anything at all.

I've even tried Konfabulator to-do widgets, and well... yeah, they lack a lot. They don't have due dates, for one, and for another they all have some form of extraneous space taken up by cute, rounded "pretty".

I'm definitely going to give ReminderFox a whirl, and so long as it isn't crashing Firefox or running its memory usage into ridiculous (for me) numbers, I think it's going to get a lot of use.

(I did grab a few other extensions while I was in there, but this is the one that really caught my interest. And I wasn't even looking for it. :) )

whining no longer being accepted

Friday, February 10, 2006

News Links08:27 AM - A link for J to show one of his buddies

Eating badly can actually kill you.

From the article:

Scott Martin's poor diet damaged his liver so badly he ended up with severe liver disease. The 20-year-old, from Farrow Drive, Whitburn, bled to death on Christmas Eve after suffering medical complications after an operation to remove three infected teeth.

Doctors said a liver transplant might save his life but he was scared to have one.

Scott would eat only white sliced bread, fast food french fries, and the occasional plate of baked beans. He hated foreign food, and refused to eat fresh fruit or vegetables.

His dreadful diet damaged him so badly he developed cirrhosis – a condition more commonly seen in hardened drinkers.

The disease meant he developed a secondary condition, auto-immune hepatitis, which thinned his blood and prevented his body from healing properly.

whining no longer being accepted

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Exercise09:03 AM - Better week so far

Yesterday's food was an egg and some fruit yogurt, then a Lion's Choice roast beef sammich hold the bun (so, really just roast beef) with fries (their fries are so good, and it's such a little amount they give you if you don't upsize, I don't feel too guilty). Then a granola bar, then dinner. Dinner was yummy: the rest of my sierra chicken leftovers (seasoned, grilled chicken breast, and a little citrus rice) heated up, with some Foreman-grilled salmon and a salad of baby spinach + romaine "bag o' salad". Obviously, I didn't eat the whole leftovers plus that, J and I split the leftovers and the salmon, etc. So good. :)

Since we've had the fresh veggies for stir-fry longer than we usually do (and I hope hope hope the baby portabellas haven't gone bad yet!) we'll be having that tonight. Stewing meat cut up into smaller chunks, broccoli, green onion, white onion, and mushrooms. Mmmm. Oh, and we tried Bread Co's lower carb pumpkin seed bread, and it's pretty good. Just a tad dryish, but not bad, and I'd have to get used to the big pieces of seed in it, but tasty. Might have to snag some soon, along with a loaf of their whole grain bread (presliced and with freezer bags so we can keep it from going stale, of course).

On Tuesday I spent 20 minutes on a stationary bike (my ass still hurts -- the recumbent was in high demand), then 20 minutes on one of the ellipticals. I like these. The last time I tried one, I could not get any rhythm going. On these, I think the difference was that I (a) didn't have to use the moving handle parts that are attached, and (b) I could actually adjust the stride length myself. The only problem was every so often I'd lift a little too much weight off one foot or the other, and then my foot would move positions on the foot pads and it would throw me off and make me slow down till I could readjust my feet. But it worked me out much harder than a treadmill does, and gave me absolutely no pain anywhere in my feet. I think from now on, any time I can't use the recumbent bike I'll be using one of the ellipticals, rather than one of the regular bikes.

Yesterday was my body toning class, and I think I'm really close to upping the weight I use for all my arm work. Shoulders should probably stay at 3 pounds for another couple weeks (i.e. till the start of the next session), but I think I could try 4 with triceps, and maybe even *gasp* 6 for my biceps. Just to give myself that extra push, I'm going to see how much weight I can pile on Friday, just with 3 short-rep sets instead of one long set like in class. Maybe see if I can manage 5 or more pounds for 6 or 8 reps each set on triceps, 5 on shoulders, and 10 (!!) on biceps.

whining no longer being accepted

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Life Rants Technical11:25 AM - Argh

I fucking hate Eclipse & Tomcat sometimes. "OMG I'm so confyoooosed I dunno what to do except shit all over everything and make you restart stuff and rename stuff and OMGOMGOMG!!11" Makes me want to pitch the laptop right out the fucking window.

feeling: pissed off
whining no longer being accepted

Exercise08:44 AM - Short-term weight tracking

Previous weight, from January 30: 152 pounds.

Current weight, from February 6: 152.6 pounds.

Weight goal for next week, on February 13: 150 pounds.

Also, starting next week I'm going to measure my waist and hips since those are probably better ways to keep track. I already have to wear a belt with all my pants, so I'd kinda be able to tell if I had to tighten it again. But this is more precise.

Exercise Life08:28 AM - Lazy, but getting back on track.

Last week was definitely not a good week. Only got in one day of cardio, which was 45 minutes on the bike, and then Friday and Saturday I ate too much. Didn't get anything really useful done either. Thursday I desperately needed a nap, so I got no exercise done. Then Friday I ended up working an extra two hours, so no workout before dinner and no time later (though fun was had, so that doesn't bother me :D ). Saturday and Sunday i was just lazy. I didn't sleep as late as I am wont to do on the weekends, but later than I probably should've. I didn't sleep that great most of the week, so I guess that's why. But I think I only did maybe one thing on my list of things for Friday, and nothing on Saturday. I didn't even update the darn list, and still haven't.

So this week I'm going to do better. I had fruit yogurt for breakfast yesterday, had a salad at Quiznos for lunch, had a Kashi granola bar for a snack around 3pm, and had a good dinner at Longhorn (their sierra chicken, which is 2 chicken breasts and enough rice to go under both, plus veggies; I took half the rice and one of the breasts home in a box). Went to my class, where we did more of a nonstop circuit. Instead of the regular routine where we do all the exercises for one muscle group at a time, with lots of brief pauses to rest, this is where we do a good warmup and then just do all different exercises one after another, alternating what muscle groups are being worked with each, and maybe only one brief pause somewhere in the middle, then an extended stretching and cooldown at the end. I was definitely wiped after it all. Today I had a scrambled egg and fruit yogurt for breakfast, and I brought a granola bar with me for a snack (I'd like to go work out right after I get home instead of waiting until 6 or later).

Now to go update my to-do list, maybe get some caffeine in me, and get into the work swing for the day.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Cats Exercise Life08:58 AM - I'm such a slacker

I definitely slipped on the food thing yesterday. Penn Station subs, I was all set to get a sub as a salad (probably their club), and then saw their monthly special was the steak and cheese. So... yeah, no salad but instead a steak and cheese with fries. Rest of the month we go there I'll be better, definitely. Then for dinner we did Cannoli's. I was good and broke my bread in half so I'd not eat it all and take it home, and I did a create-your-own so I'd get broccoli and chicken in. But, it was still pasta. So I ate a little too much and it was totally not balanced.

I also didn't work out. I didn't get enough sleep, though I did manage not to do my typical 12-14 hours each weekend night and so I got a reasonable amount of sleep Sunday night. I just haven't gone to bed soon enough, haven't been able to stay asleep, etc. So while J was taking a nap, I got my comics read and such, and then about 5:30 rolled around and *bam* irresistably sleepy. So I joined him. Woke up about 7, dozed off again until 7:30 or so. So, I didn't go to the gym at all.

Today I need to eat reasonably (probably be at Wendy's or something for lunch, so that'll be easy there; we have fish in the fridge for tonight's dinner). When I get home from work I need to go hit the gym. The sooner the better, for they are less crowded that way. Might even leave work a little early since I've been staying a bit later than I need to pretty much all week. Then maybe I'll spend a good hour on that bike if it's available, or perhaps try out an elliptical machine. (I've tried 'em before, and maybe I'm just used to having my legs straighten all the way when I step forward or something, but they drove me so nuts trying to get my legs the way I want that I could never get a constant rhythm.) Then later I really ought to do some crunches and such, as well as some upper body weight work. I can do those at home.


Zephyr, one of our cats, is a complete git. Every morning that I have time to scramble an egg for myself, he's in the kitchen purring and mrrring and rowring at me to give him some, both while it's still raw and after I've cooked it. Hell, even while it's cooking. I stand there eating and he rubs on my legs. Today he was actually standing up against one leg or another rowring and looking up at me. He is such a mooch. He's a Mooch Master. (No, I don't give him any.) I understand that the reason he mooches, and our other cat Pele doesn't, is that he was an outdoor kitty who never knew where his next meal might come from and Pele grew up indoors so she never had to even worry about food. Zephyr's very food-centric. However, we don't give him scraps. The only things he gets when he mooches are things we know he won't like but will try at least once anyway, like a small bit of strong red onion or something. 'Cause we're mean like that. :p But he keeps hoping, and in the past couple months he's really gotten ornery about it.

And... this latest version (1.5.7.1) of Semagic (Windows LJ updater, so I don't have to use their webpage) is pissing me off a bit. You can drag some of the toolbar stuff around, right? Well, I have my dropdown where I pick what journal I'm posting to, down at the bottom to the left of my preview/post buttons, with the date and time above that. That's where I want them. I've clicked the "save as defaults" button a bunch, but now every time I start up it puts the journal dropdown up on top next to the subject, and combines the date/time and preview/post bars on the same line below. My choices refuse to "stick". And I'm actually annoyed by the fact that I can no longer have my userpic preview below all the option boxes, because now to see it I have to have the window wider than I'd like. It's tempting to either try installing the prior version (1.5.6.8 I think) over the top, or uninstall then install the prior version. (I keep my two last downloaded versions saved, rather than just the most recent.) So far the update hasn't given me anything I needed or wanted that the last version didn't already have, and now it's not saving my window settings. Grr.

whining no longer being accepted

Life07:54 AM - Real update to follow, but...

Why didn't I find these sooner? Then again, their "find a local dealer" lists pretty much only Circuit City, and their website doesn't list this model specifically. I could buy 'em direct from Panasonic though. $15. They have a case, and volume control in the cord. I'd have found 'em sooner if I'd thought to go directly to manufacturer sites instead of retailer sites.

whining no longer being accepted