My Unhealthy Story and What I Need to do

As we get older, the majority of people start to think about their bodies and how we can keep ourselves from wasting away. I didn't start until 2 years ago when I finished up a 7 year bender. More specifically the last Monday of July was my wake up call.

I remember the night fairly well. I was getting ready to watch Monday Night Raw and it had been a few weeks removed since my favorite wrestler, CM Punk, won the title and "Walked out" on the company. When you are as big of a pro wrestling fan as I am, you watch for special moments that just give you the chills. You get these moments with any kind of entertainment. Well.... on this night, there happened to be one of these moments, and I missed it because I was drunker than a son bitch. It was so bad, I woke up still drunk and had to text my boss that I wouldn't be in because I was physically incapable of calling in.

In this case Irony took over. My favorite wrestler just happens to be a straight edge and I missed his triumphant return because I felt the want to pour massive amounts of alcohol down every pore and opening in my body. Do you know how it feels to be witnessing History and to blow a spectacular chance at viewing it by being plastered? Thankfully, YouTube has come to my rescue and given me back that feeling. Its the same feeling I get When I watched Chris Jericho make his first entrance to Monday Night Raw, Every time I rode Mission To Mars at Disneyland as a kid, or even my first steps in the city I love (and hope to reside in some day).

Shortly after missing that moment, my cat and I moved into a home with a different family. But this one wasn't used to seeing high quantities of alcohol move as if we were in the brewery itself. After a bit of shame, mostly from myself but received from everybody else, I gave up the nectar of the gods for roughly one year. Though I wasn't eating healthy, I lost 20+ pounds and I felt pretty damn good. I got a little cocky and changed around my drinking habits from 1-2 24 oz bombers a week to 3-4 a week and onto now where I drink anywhere between two 12 oz beers a day to going out to the bar a couple times a week and/or drinking three to four twelve oz bottles a day. I'm starting to get tired of it.

So, in the interest of getting healthy again, and wanting to be flexible like martial artists, I'm trying to turn my way around with a couple different exercises that I will be taking one day at a time and then working them into longer stretches. Also, I'm going to be keeping a daily weight count and time count for the days I walk. I timed myself the other day and walked 5 miles in an hour and a half.

Here are my keys to success

1. Limit the alcohol intake to the weekends only. Its ok if I have some during the week, some days you just need a beer and it can't be helped.
2. take up some exercising that will promote being flexible, I just started DDP Yoga
3. walking at least twice a week
4. Focusing on my task at hand. Learning Python and Ruby so I can increase the opportunities available now and in the near future when I take off from this area.
5. Make my lunch and take it to work. I spent $1.50 for a shitload of noodles and a pork steak. two of my favorite foods. I probably should make a spinach, romaine lettuce carrots and broccoli salad with as minor an amount of dressing I can stand. The real key is to stick it in a plastic bin and shake the bejesus out of it so the dressing covers the greens more thoroughly and evenly.
6. One day at a time. Rushing has no use with this.

Now for some comments from you. What are you doing to increase your healthiness? and how do you keep yourself from falling back into your vices or bad habits?

Another One Bites the Dust

Or should I say.... The dohyo?

I assume many of you readers know that I am a huge sumo fanatic. I've been watching it for the past four years after discovering it on NHK World.. There was some news breaking today that Former Ozeki Baruto is retiring after a nine year pro career as a sumo wrestler. I'm very bummed out because he has been a major player the whole time I've been watching the sport. He's retiring because of a nagging knee injury that wouldn't go away and probably will stay with him for life, to some degree.

He is in an awkward position because if he were to have pulled out of the current tournament, he would have been demoted off of the upper divisions and with that goes regular pay and benefits. Homasho was able to bounce back after a two tournament recovery period, but there is no guarantee how many tournaments Baruto would be sitting out. In the pro wrestling world, Tyson Kidd just came back from a similar injury that took 6+ months to recover from, and then a solid amount of training on top of that. Unfortunately for us fans, I think Baruto made the right choice for the sake of having a life after sumo.

I think I might start working on my new sumo schedule today. But I guess I need to start watching and tracking again or the schedule won't work. I wonder if there is fantasy sumo, like fantasy football, and if so, how many people always pick Hakuho.

What does the I really stand for?

The iPhone 4. The next new gadget in my arsenal. here is a short interview I conducted with myself shortly after finding out that its on the way.

What's taken you so long to get one of these mar

Simple answer? I didn't need one. I got myself an iPod touch 2nd gen about 3 years ago, around the time when the iPhone 3G came out. I needed a device to take my attention away from the boring trip to work in the mornings on the bus. 

Why would you get a version that's two years old and nearly obsolete?

I just need to play my angry birds dammit! I'm also getting it for a great price. You can get these guys "new" on Ebay or craigslist for about 200 bucks, as long as you know how to be patient and can work Ebay like a pro. If you have some geek in you like me, you can get one with a broken screen for about 100 bucks and then get a new screen for 20-30 and save a boatload of change.

What are you looking forward to the most out of your "new"/old phone?

Well. for the last few years, since smartphones have become the norm, phones have been getting more and more expensive. So to save a few bucks, I've just been buying inexpensive prepaid smartphones. What I'm looking forward to the most is having a phone that just works. I don't really have to worry about age, because I'm replacing the battery as well, and I don't have to worry about space and having a bastardized version of Android. And before I forget, I will get to play and update all of my old apps and get to use an incredible 5 megapixel camera. Don't forget the camera. I almost don't need to carry my SLR with that thing on there.

Which carrier is your phone on?

Ehhh... AT&T. The internet is probably the most expensive part of the service and they are practically forcing unlimited minutes and texts on you just so you can get the bandwidth you want. I wish I could be using T-Mobile, for their unlimited internet, instead, but I really can't complain. I got the phone for a REALLY good deal. Also, I'm not the original owner so I might have some hassle unlocking the phone unless I use it for a few months.

Maybe I will post some of the guides I used if I am successful at replacing the screen and the battery.

So in other news, The iPhone 5s and the new ipads look like they will be announced next week. Any early adopters here? if so what new features are you looking forward to?

Repel the Dwell

I tend to dwell on what I do and don't have in my life. Obviously, I spend more time on the don't. That's one of the few lessons I never seem to learn. But the never learning just seems to be one of my quirks. God..... I hope I don't teach my kid that one.

This weekend I went on a super fun camping expedition to Dixon Lake in Escondido. It was strictly a reconnaissance mission for an upcoming camping trip to the same lake in October. Mainly to iron out all of the wrinkles and to give recommendations and share warnings with the other campers that are attending the same trip. I went with three friends, two of them being the leaders of the group organizing the whole trip.

We checked into our site on Friday afternoon and setup camp. Then we drove down to the lake to get some time clocked in for some fishing. The entire drive down from the campsite, we were discussing the best ways on how we should kill the fish once we caught one. The irony of the situation is that all four of us are pacifists, even more so when it comes to wild animals.

As you can imagine, none of us caught a single fish. So I guess the whole discussion was a bust. I hope in October that will be a different case. My co-worker shared with me some neato tricks on how to get fish to bite the hook, which I'm very eager to try.

Do any of you fish? when was the last time you hit the lake? Mine was with my Snoopy fishing rod back in the early 90's. It's probably still sitting at the bottom of Irvine Lake too!

PS.... If you are a craft beer enthusiast, Stone Brewing is about 5 miles away and worth the visit. Thank you, have a nice day!

In the Wilderness

One of the things I've learned, while watching shows on Tru TV (not talking about Wipeout here), is to always expect the unexpected when it concerns wildlife. For example, I watched a docudrama about a lady who went to one of those swim with the dolphin events in the carribean and the dolphin ended up grabbing the lady's leg and pulling her under. With that, I've come directly into contact with the local wildlife over the last month or so.

Experience #1
Around three or four weeks ago, I went to my favorite beach,Sunset Beach, to partake in some long awaited body boarding. I was out in the water waiting for some waves when I looked up the coast about 100 feet to some surfers who were going crazy for some dolphins that were coming near shore for some fish and playing in the waves. They came pretty close to me, maybe about 30 feet at least, but I decided to paddle in a bit to get out of their way. They stayed around for a bit but ended taking off for greener pastures. That was actually my first time seeing dolphins in that area and it was indeed pretty cool.

Experience #2
I seem to have gotten the bug and really enjoy hiking the trail to the Bridge to Nowhere. The trail goes right through the Sheep Mountain Wilderness. The first few trips through, I didn't see a single mountain sheep and I assumed it was a BS ploy. My fourth time up was on a rainy/drizzly day and when I was taking my mid hike break at the bridge, I actually saw a group of about 7 or 8 sheep walking on the hill just to the south! I wondered if I would be able to get a better view of the sheep in the future because they look pretty interesting.

This last weekend when I took the trail, I walked the majority of the trail with a guy who commonly prospects on the east fork of the San Gabriel River. He was telling me that the sheep are actually very common sights but most people are looking down at the trail instead of looking up and seeing the awesome sights. We parted at about the four and a half mile point and I continued to the bridge and a nice half hour break and watched the bungee jumping instructor setting up the rig for the morning jumpers. I then started back to the trail head and got about 5 minutes away when I heard a rustling in a bush about 10 feet away from me next to the trail. I grew a tad concerned and I looked over in that direction and saw two more mountain sheep less than 20 feet away from me! They were running parallel to the trail  and trying to get up the side of the hill. I was sooooo close that I thought one of the sheep was going to charge straight at me and I'd be running my ass right back to the bridge.Whew! That was close!!

I hope I get the chance to see more wildlife out in the middle of their habitat. They are much more interesting out there than seeing them on a day trip to the LA Zoo.

It's Time To Go

I've been wanting to write about this for awhile and couldn't find the right words. I'm gonna die ......  maybe. Hopefully. Well, I probably will someday.

I'm leaving an uber cool trip to New York City, today. I'm going by train which is mostly unthinkable mode of transportation in this day and age in the US. I'll post some updates along the way if I can get internet on my phone.

I'm not actually dying, btw.

Breaking Out of Purgatory

I just accomplished a task that I have been dreaming and procrastinating for several months. Well, more like the last year.

The quest for any artist is to have their work shown. Now, this really goes against the grain for most of us artsy type people for several reasons. Many are introverted. For others, their work is just so personal that they could never imagine their work being completed or seen by somebody else. Its just one of the grandest feelings that we get to keep ourselves realistic.

I just made that move this past weekend. I looked at about 100 photos that I shot at two different brewerys and at Griffith Park. I wasn't proud of my work one bit. And I had several great photos. But I think I'm straying away from my point.

Just because you do art doesn't mean you should stop moving forward. The way to go is to mow every person in your path down and get to point B. I just sent out my first sales pitch to have my work hung at the new tasting room of a local brewery. Its a good deal for both sides. My photo/s get shown, they get free decorations, and I get experience.The worst thing that will happen is that my photos won't get shown. Well..... They are already not CURRENTLY being shown other than my website. There is no real downside If I get rejected..

I hope this doesn't make it to the eyes of my prospective sale, but I was just looking to gain some experience and some well needed guts/cojones to take me to the next level. I obviously passed that test when I hit send in my email, even if it ends up in the spam filter. I can say now, what many other people in this world can't say is "I did it!".

This year is already starting to shape up as a big win for me! I just need to keep following the lead of my favorite wrestler, CM Punk. Because he is "The Best In The World!"


Edit
Booo.....I need a new job :'-(


Edit #2
Wow! What a ramble!

Edit #3
Do these really count as edits since I added them before I posted this the first time?