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9
You know how sometimes musicians put out "concept albums"? Like Garth Brooks when he did Chris Gaines or My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade album? 9 seems like a concept movie. Like the creator had a few really good ideas but didn't quite know how to link them together.
It's not a bad movie, in fact it's the best post-apocalyptic film featuring sackmen I've ever seen. The animation is not bad at all, story is fairly paint-by-numbers but definitely not for kids. The movie apparently was based off of a 10-minute short film which is included in the Blu-Ray. The short was better than the film imo. Not to say the feature isn't worth seeing, it's just not going to stick with you for long after you do.
Percy Jackson and The Olympians - The Lightning Thief
I'd call it entertaining crap but I wasn't really that entertained.
I will say Alexandra Daddario is insanely hot but they did the most annoying thing they could do with her. She's supposed to be a warrior princess but the first chance they got they portrayed her as weak. She's supposed to be an asskicker, trained for battle her whole life. First action outside of Camp Demigod? Run away, run away. Irks me a bit. What can I say? I'm a Whedonite for a reason. Strong female lead=hotness.
If they ever remake Xena, I'd nominate her. She even looks like a young Lucy Lawless.
Monsters vs Aliens
This movie got pounded by critics but I don't really see why. I thought the movie was funny as hell. So what if the plot was as see-through as Saran Wrap? It's not supposed to be Schindler's List. It's a kid's film with enough adult jokes to keep the older crowd happy. I was definitely entertained. Stephen Colbert was hilarious as The President.
]]>I feel pretty awesome now, aside from a nerve in my lower back that makes running really, really painful sometimes. I'm down to 161 from a high of 184, I don't wheeze when I run anymore, or not much anyway. I have a pretty sweet running pouch with a squeeze bottle and stuff and I know that there are some things I just shouldn't eat prior to runs. Looking at you, bananas.
I also know that the whole point of this was to try to get rid of the type-2 diabetes that's been the bane of my existence for the past 10 years now. Mission not so accomplished there. I'm not taking insulin anymore, which is great for my tanning and my overall moods. My sugars still hover around 200 tho, which is not so great. I feel awesome but I know it's just a matter of time before something happens. Hopefully that something is the sudden return of my sugars to normal or close enough. Dream big, right?
Anyway, Day 2 should be tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to do a straight 30-minute run without interruptions or equipment malfunctions. We shall see.
]]>Cramps in your knees really hurt.
I can run through them now.
The road next to Glencairn Gardens? Much steeper than you think it is.
Running up said road? Really dumb.
Not taking a break after running up said road and spawning cramps? Even dumber.
Finishing the run anyway? Priceless.
It's time to break out the sunblock. It was pretty brutal today and it ain't gonna get any better.
Really need to stop reminding myself to do hip-strengthening exercises and start doing them.
I hate how I can hardly breathe at the beginning of the run and have no problem at the end. I didn't learn this today, it's just a general observation.
Running tunes:
Straight RHCP today. Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik and Stadium Arcadium, randomly.
First 25 minute run on Saturday, undecided on whether to do it or just go straight to 30 just to see if I can. The 25-28-30 progression the next 3 weeks seems like a bit of a waste but C25k hasn't led me wrong yet. We shall see...
]]>The first mile I did in 10:15-ish. Don't have an exact time since I was going by the C25k.app timer instead of a stopwatch like last week. The second mile, however...somehow, and I have no idea how, I ran the second mile in under 9 minutes. There was over a minute left on the timer when I passed my house, and that's my criteria for 1 mile. It's not an exact measure by any means but the corner of the intersection past where I work to my house is almost exactly 1 mile. Running back is much harder because the first .4-.5 mile is all uphill. Somehow I took a full minute off running uphill and that's just pretty cool.
Next hurdle is running for 25 minutes. Positive attitude engaged. Dread replaced with cautious optimism.
]]>There is a bit of a downside though, and that goes with the "can't ask someone out" part. The exercise has increased my sexual appetite a lot. I guess it's a testosterone thing, I'm creating a lot more of it but it doesn't have anywhere to go. There's the obvious self-stimulation but seriously? There's only so much you can do solo. It's the time of year that the womenfolk get out their smallest and skimpiest and that is not helping me at all.
I guess I need to get past the mental issues and get a girlfriend or at least try to find a friend-with-benefits. Kinda hard to do when you freeze up when talking to anyone you're attracted to. And when I say freeze up, I mean full-on panic attack, can't breathe, can't speak.
I couldn't even get out something crude like "Hi, you're hot, let's fuck". One, it's not in my nature to do that. Hell I'm not even sure I could handle a one-night stand mentally. And two, to say I'm experienced with women would be an outright lie. As in "Hi, I'm a 33-yo virgin whose only date ever was 16 years ago, the girl had to drag me out and I ended up making an ass of myself and ruining any chance I had with her 2 days after". Yeah, I have major issues.
So I guess this is really less of a "what should I do?" than a "get over it, nerd boy". Find a date, find a fuck buddy, find a knothole in a tree or something, stop complaining about it and just do it.
Damned moon cycles. Hey you ladies aren't alone. We guys are sensitive to the lunar cycles just like you are. We just show it in different ways. Your guy's horny(ier) certain times of the month? That's why.
Anyway. There's more about me than you ever wanted to know. Maybe next time I'll write about why I'm suspicious of women throwing themselves at me. Yes, it has happened before, and in the exact same time period as my only date. Coincidence? Possibly.
]]>I not only did the 3 minute/5 minute rotation twice, but it was nearly effortless. I didn't feel the normal drain at the end like I normally do, and that just made me feel awesome. I did feel some new pains in my legs, and an old familiar one in my left knee. That's a back issue and it tells me I need to add the yoga program I've been procrastinating on to my off days. I need to get my core strengthened up.
Honestly, though? The way I feel today, the pain may just be an adjustment. I'm not nearly as sore as I thought I may be and that run yesterday was far and away the most I've done so far. It may have something to do with the 15-minute cooldown I had to do. It seems I got a little overzealous on my road route, left myself with about a half-mile walk home. Didn't mind that at all though.
So hopefully I can do this 2 more times this week and then move on to Week 5. The super happy fun week that ends with me running for 20 minutes straight. And I just got 5 down...heh....
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I always kinda thought of it as "what if Sting went really, really off the deep end?" Turns out it was a merger of Tommy Dreamer and Sabu in white face paint. Guess I was ahead of the curve way back then. Fun fact: I did the crow gimmick a full year before Sting stole it and Mark Madden tried to steal the name. Seriously.
The previous paragraph will mean nothing to people who haven't followed wrestling in the past 15 years. Sorry about that.
The stories:
Where Are They Now: Darklight Warrior
Darklight's Reform 1
Darklight's Reform 2
Darklight's Reform 3
It has an optical port which is a big plus to me. I can tell a big difference between the old Audigy 2 SE that I had to hack all over the place to make work and the newer card. Front channel is clearer, audio's about 10db louder in general. I credit the fiber optic cable for that. The old card you were forced to take a mono mini-jack to RCA converter and use an RCA cable to your receiver's COAX audio port. I'm honestly amazed that ever worked really.
As for the drivers, the ones RF include with the card are shit and as mentioned on some reviews and forums Vista will not auto find the drivers for you. Apparently Windows 7 will but it will also do your laundry and find your keys for you. I digress. I went with some working hacked drivers, or more accurately proper Creative drivers updated to work with the older cards that often work better than what Creative puts out. I used them with the Audigy until Creative actually came out with a somewhat-decent driver I'm sure coincidentally with the Win7 drivers.
For those interested, DanielK's drivers are located here. He updates the post when he does a new release. Very, very handy since Creative will (probably)never update the older stuff again and RocketFish appears to lean on third-parties to update their stuff.
I can't really complain about the Audigy finally giving out. I had it for about 3 years, it did pretty much what it was supposed to and now it's time to move on. I need to feed some high-bitrate audio through this guy to see what I get but for now, it's done some pretty good work on my music collection.
The good thing that came out of this is I found a really decent DLNA server to stream things to my PS3. In a nutshell, it lets me take things on my Media Center PC and watch or listen to them on my Playstation 3, It's called PS3 Media Server oddly enough. Its GUI is Java-based, seems more lightweight than TVersity which I was using previously. Makes sense since TVersity is a bit more bloated cause it handles a bunch of streaming setups. Saved my ass last night when I wanted to watch the new episode of Doctor Who.
The GUI seems a little broken in the Beta version I'm using and you will definitely want your PS3 and PC on a wired connection unless you're on Wireless-N or something depending on what you want to stream. It's a little backward in my opinion though. I watched the Doctor Who episode which was x264/DD5.1 in a MKV. Program transcoded with no glitches. I watch episodes of Bleach and Naruto Shippuuden in formats the PS3 can handle natively, both MP4 I believe, and I had to change to a wired connection so the PS3 could handle it.
Now to play some more. Makes me happy!
]]>I found out a few things today. Some good, some not so good.
Not-so-good:
I can't run for 5 minutes. Best I managed was 3:50. Second 5 I couldn't do 3.
I can hear my wheezing over my noise-canceling earbuds.
Good:
I almost ran for 4 minutes!
My ankle doesn't hurt nearly as much as it has in the past. Swelling was noticeably less.
I was wearing my fanny pack for the first time since my first run. I had to tighten it mid-run so it wouldn't fall off. By quite a bit. And that, ladies and gents, is a big-time moral victory.
I walked/ran from The Herald to Cherry Road and back via Oakland in under 35 minutes.
Saturday I retreat to Week 3 and the 3 min/90 sec intervals, just until my fitness catches up.
Running tracks:
4 Non Blondes - B,B,F,M
Pink Floyd - Division Bell
Alice In Chains - Greatest Hits
Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five
I picked up a compression sleeve for my ankle and shin. Actually worked pretty well but I could definitely feel the swelling after all was done, didn't realize it was as much as it was. Ice is my friend. I'm gonna have to get a companion for the other leg but just for balance. Do need to pick up that sleeve for the shin tho. Need full coverage it appears.
Need to pick up a pack or one of those small backpacks for my phone/ipod/keys. Anyone has some suggestions, I'm all ears.
The run today felt really good. If it wasn't for the decision to take the long steady hill at Cherry Park I would have made the whole run. I think I'm still going to repeat Week 3. There's no way I can make 5 minutes yet but I'm getting close. I walked a lot farther that was necessary for the cooldown. Had to get back to the car somehow, right. Total of about 37 minutes for about 3 miles, last about mile was a 16 minute walk. Yes, I took my time.
I decided to eat a carb bar about an hour before the run and that made a big difference in my energy. Need to get one that's not sweetened by Agave next time. Too sweet, goes better in tequila.
Also a possibly stupid and slightly personal question for running types. When you're running with those running shorts and gear do you wear anything underneath? It gets kinda...swampy if you get me.
Last on the total random subject front: Music I listen to when I run.
Lately I've been listening to:
4 Non Blondes - Bigger, Better, Faster, More. IMO one of the absolute best albums of the 90's. Really wish they did more than the one but I understand she's a major music producer and songwriter so I guess that worked out for the best.
Fade to Bluegrass. Metallica meets uptempo bluegrass. I have plenty of regular Metallica but this is pretty awesome to run to.
Blues Brothers 2000 Soundtrack. Shitty movie but great music.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Californication. Give It Away and Under The Bridge FTW,
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What really sucks is I'm motivated right now and this is just the thing that would typically demotivate me in a hurry. As I sit here typing this, all I can think about is getting back out there and running. That would be my inner Obsessive/Compulsive talking and I'd like him to stay in the conversation before the bipolar manic comes out and trolls my brain to death.
Guess I should go see a doctor but I'm hesitant. Not big into drugs and I'm afraid if It's more serious than just a sprain that it will totally derail me. Guess I need to dig my YRG (Yoga for Regular Guys) book back out and get back on it.
Reminds me of Miroku from Inuyasha. In hamster form. Just sayin.
