Wakey Wakey

Its New Year's Eve, a time where people stay up and ring in the new year with celebration and copious amounts of partying. For me, its going to be easy to stay up late because you see, I just woke up.

This requires some explaining: my girlfriend (oh yeah, did I mention I'm off the market? I'll get into that at a later time) has a theory about how people who have the inability to realize just how much potential they have and instead live out their lives in depression and mediocrity are living in a dream-like state. Clearly, not a good dream. But to snap out of that funk and realize there's SO much more, to take stock of your life and realize that it needs an overhaul, that is waking from that dream.

So what's this mean for me? It means I'm shaking things up a bit! I'm learning to get it through my head that I'm important and I deserve a better life than what I'm living right now. Also, I'm finally getting it through my head that now truly is the best time to get some serious work done on myself in practically every way.

With that, here are my resolutions for 2011

-Lose as much weight as possible. I'll be very strict on this.
-Exercise every week. Also strict.
-Finish the first draft of my novel.
-Start the D&D campaign setting I've been thinking about for ages but have yet to write.
-Get Less Than Super ready to start shooting by summer.
-If I get Disability, get into physical therapy and better my health and quality of life.
-Get out of the house and go do something at least three times a week.
-Spend every Saturday cleaning my room, bathroom, and car. This will be easier than it sounds since weekly cleanings will keep clutter and messes to a minimum.
-Do a thorough dusting of my room once a month.
-Get a job when I'm physically able to.

A daunting list, but nothing on it is terribly difficult. The first two will be tough, I admit, but I'll be damned if I'm going to keep going this way. I deserve better, and no one or nothing will stand in my way anymore.

After all, how can they? They're still dozing.

An Old and New Concern

That other journal entry I mentioned in the previous post? Still can't get to the photos. So in the meantime...

I see antiques and collectibles from the past, things made with remarkable craftsmanship and quality, items built to last long, maybe even longer than their owners, and I wonder about the stuff being built today. Mass-produced stuff made of materials that are built to last maybe until the next version of the same thing comes out a few years later. We focus on the cheaper stuff; cheap materials, cheap labor, cheap packaging, cheap cheap CHEAP.

The reason why I wonder is because I'm concerned about a future scenario, one where my kids or grandkids see things that were built in my lifetime before they were born and think to themselves not "what a beautiful antique" but "what a piece of broken-down garbage". Such a future sounds quite bleak, at least from a cultural standpoint.

Perhaps I'm wrong. I hope I am. Maybe I'm just not seeing where all of the uniquely-forged items are, or maybe I don't know of the companies that want handmade quality that'll make you a one-time customer because you never need to replace it.

But you know, perhaps that obscurity is what will make the future antiques that much more appreciated.

Holy Crap!

Whoops, kinda forgot about this.

Uh... my bad?

I've got a journal entry in mind, but it requires visual aids and I can't get to the photos right now. As soon as I can, though, I'll post something nice and beefy.

The Sleep Challenge

The events of this week are enough to fill an entry of their own, and they shall do that. However, before I do anything else, I must make this post.

Those of you who have read my previous blog may be aware that I like to challenge myself in ways that will help me grow. And as this is all about rebuilding myself, I figured that a challenge like this one would be most appropriate. And what challenge is that?

THE SLEEP CHALLENGE

Simply put, for the next month I will be in bed with my laptop off and trying to sleep by 2:00am. I figure this should be simple enough, as most of my friends tend to be asleep already by then so I shouldn't really have any excuse to be up any later than that. With this I hope to establish a reliable and set sleeping schedule which will help me both physically and mentally, both of which certainly need a bit of work.

I will not punish myself too hard, as this will be a difficult task, but I must find a way to reward myself. Any ideas?

374.4

The number you see above is my current weight in pounds, measured two days ago using my new scale. Believe it or not, this is not the heaviest I've been, though its not far off.

So why am I telling you this? I simply want it made known to those who read this, so you can see how far I've come when that number is far, far smaller.

Muscle Murder 5000

So this weekend I'll be doing something I've never done before; act in front of a camera.

Eric Vega, a friend and colleague of mine, decided to start filming shorts for YouTube a while back and has been using actors from CSUS in his work, and not long ago decided to hold a very open audition for future projects. How open? Well, if you e-mailed him with your info and he knew who you were, you were more or less in. So I sent off a message and he replied by telling me that he would definitely use me in the future, which I've been looking forward to since. It seems that time has come with "Muscle Murder 5000", a sketch he's written and will be shooting this Saturday. I won't spoil anything, but I'll definitely post it here as soon as its online.

I admit, I'm a little nervous about this. Not only have I never acted in front of a camera before, but this is the first time I've acted at all since my back injury became as serious as it is. I'm forced to wonder if my back will hold out ok, but I must remain optimistic. Besides, who knows what doors this may open for me?

Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me

Well no, actually they won't, and this does remind me that I have a great little rant on coulrophobia that I'll do in the future, but nevertheless I find myself unable to sleep.

This is counter-productive for many reasons, the largest being that regular amounts of sleep can help you lose weight, which as you may know is my core goal for the time being. Not sleeping, on the other hand, stresses your body out, increases blood pressure, and wonkifies your system (medical term, I assure you), making it hard for it to do anything, let alone burn off excess calories. And seeing as how I can't do much else at the moment, I would like for my body to be able to do at least that.

Why can't I sleep? The usual culprit, pain. Nothing new and exciting there. But I figured I would at least get this all down before I attempt more sleep, which shall happen right now.


...ok, now.

NOW!

...damn it...

Oh, and I still immensely dislike iced tea. But I haven't given up. Maybe I'll dream about iced tea and wake up and suddenly like it. And if that works, I'm totally going to dream up other things like cleaning my room on a regular basis and math.

Iced Tea

So as of late I've been attempting to find substitutes for soda. Don't get me wrong, I can go without soda; I did it for all of 2007 after all. But no soda and small amounts of juice would only leave me with water, and you can really only have so much water before you get sick of it.

With that in mind, I decided to try iced tea. I love hot tea, I even had it in my bottle when I was a baby, for crying out loud. Plus I'm Scottish, and that means you naturally love tea (I think I read that in some genetics book), so one would think that iced tea would be just fine. But all past experiences with the drink have proven one thing: I don't like iced tea.

But with time comes new tastes in things and I got to wondering if perhaps iced tea was like haggis, hating it at first and in time coming to enjoy it. With that in mind, I decided to try iced tea once again.

-One Week Later-

I hate iced tea.

Well, no, I don't hate iced tea. Not anymore, at least. But I dislike it very much. If I have to choose between iced tea and water, I'm picking water every time. The taste is just... ugh. I don't even know how to describe it, to be honest. Snapple especially blows, their tea was so strong that it was like tea leaves were punching my tongue with every sip (gulping was not an option, tried it once and felt like I was going to throw up). The closest I came to liking iced tea was, believe it or not, hot Lipton that had been chilled with a huge glass full of crushed ice. I think the reason for that one may be both the freshness and the ice watering down the flavor and making something not as strong as the other kinds I tried.

That said, I'm not quite ready to give up on this. If you happen to have any iced tea recommendations for me, by all means leave them in the comments so I can search for them and give them a shot. If you recommend something I haven't tried yet, I'll be sure to blog my reactions to each new tea.

Fun with numbers!

So I've returned! Yes, ComicCon was a few weeks ago, but I spent time with my friend Jackie down in So-Cal for a while, so I just got back not too long ago.

By the way, before I continue, I'd like to say I hate using the term "So-Cal", but laziness has led me to try using it. I don't see it growing on me just yet.

Anyway, I came back after stuffing my face with all sorts of wonderful and not so wonderful food (no regrets, convention rules dictate that you eat what you can when you can) and now I'm getting back to work on myself. To this end I have decided to purchase a scale. The one you see here, in fact. It has a max weight of 440lbs, which is more than I'll ever need, and with it I plan to do daily weigh-ins and keep them recorded using a conveniently-placed chart on the wall. It will be in my bathroom, as cliche as that may be, and I'll use it in my morning routine to ensure its daily use.

The main reason why I'm using this is so I stay focused. Oftentimes I forget that I should be watching what I eat, and I figure that if I use this scale daily, it will force me to become more conscious about my nutrition. Also, if I see that I'm losing weight on a regular basis, I'll gain more motivation to continue with my efforts, as now I'll be able to see them pay off. Of course, there's the chance that I'll just see myself gain weight, but I feel that seeing any gains would inspire me to change my habits accordingly before it gets out of hand.

I know it doesn't sound like much, its just a scale. But to me its a big step forward. Its one more aspect of my life that I'm taking control of, and I hope that with more control I gain, the more of me I can rebuild.

On Vacation

So yes, this was a weird time to start a new blog, but I'm taking off today for roughly a week and a half. I'll be down in Southern California (Lompoc, Camarillo, and San Diego specifically) for ComicCon and to visit with friends, and I expect to be back sometime next Friday. I'm not sure if I'll be blogging anything during that time, but if I have the time I may post a few things.

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this trip, it is definitely needed and I expect to have a terrific time while I'm gone. There will be some definite health-related challenges, but I'll be surrounded by friends who can hopefully lend me a hand.

And oh man, TRON. Definitely what I'm looking forward to the most.

Anyway, I should probably get dressed as driving without pants can be uncomfortable, so I'd better go. If I don't talk to you between now and then, I'll see you when I return!

Geek Rant: Chicken and the Egg

Every once in a while I will use this blog for my own particular quips, rants, and musings. This should come as a shock to none of you.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Its a long-debated question, though I always thought it was pretty simple. Clearly the egg must have come first because the chicken wasn't the first living egg-laying thing on the planet.

But then someone told me that they meant a chicken egg, and that sort of ended my line of reasoning.

Still, I assumed the egg came first. Along the evolutionary line, the chicken's genetic ancestor is the T-Rex (oh how the mighty have fallen indeed), and so at some point a very cold, short, and feathery T-Rex, after going through an evolutionary change over millions of years, laid the egg which resulted in the chicken. Thus, egg before chicken.

But now I hear I'm wrong again. Kotaku reports that the chicken came first after all, with scientists claiming that a certain protein found only in chickens is necessary to create the egg, meaning that the chicken must have come first.

This, I think, still raises some questions. Are we including the feathered squawking Tyrannosaurus Rex as a chicken? If not, then isn't it entirely possible that the chicken's descendant also had the necessary protein that would give it the ability to lay an egg? And if so, then does that not mean that the egg still came first?

See, this is why we need to make a real-life Jurassic Park, to solve great scientific questions like these.

What Its All About

My friend Anaya, who as of this writing is the only person following me, told me that most entertaining blogs (or at least the ones worth reading) have some sort of theme behind them. A purpose that makes them important. And its true! The ones I've been reading lately are there for a reason, and this one should have a reason too.

With that in mind, "Under Reconstruction" will be more or less about that; rebuilding myself in all ways possible so that I can do more with my life than just sit around the house and watch everyone else do something. Its not changing myself, its taking who I am and enhancing it; increasing the good and diminishing the bad.

I'm not sure how often this will be updated, I'm thinking maybe every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and weekends if I feel like it. I'm sure I'll have some schedule figured out soon enough, and I look forward to working on this.

First, I think I'll figure out if I like this layout or not...

Testing

Testing. 123.