Go Outside

You may have seen this ad for the new PS4 touting online play where the two people sing about their Perfect Day spending it with each other.





The way I read into this ad is that it is better to spend your time online than being an active participant in the real world.

This is fine to do if the weather does not permit going outside or you have a physical malady that prevents you from going outside or you are waiting on the cable guy but if none of those things are prevalent, you should enjoy the outside.

I love playing video games. Have my entire life, since Pong was introduced to me at some young age that I can barely even remember, 2? 3?, who knows.  I spent many days of my youth of my high school years and that decade after delving into that addiction either in a solo fashion or with friends in the same room.  When Xbox Live came about, I was on that faster than you can say whatever is said to be on something quickly.  I loved MechAssault, played that sumbitch for hours online, through the lag and dropped connections of that early Live experience.

Though, thinking back now that I'm in my 30s, living life out there among people and experiencing life would have been better time spent.  Would I still played video games, sure but maybe not spend so much time on that could have been better time spent.

Of course I say that knowing that being online was better, easier to me than being around new people.  Hell, even online I was just playing a game, I was never much of a talker during the games, didn't engage with the other players.  I would and still do, avoid small intimate type games of only a few people playing on a team or in a free for all.

Who knows, perhaps if I did stray out into the world meeting new people, engaging with others, I possibly be over shyness that I have with new people and talking to them.

Either way, this just boils down to me and everybody else, if you can go outside, do so.  Don't waste your days making a conscious decision to stay in just to get that next big worthless achievement that only you could possibly care about.

Grilled Update

Here's a little update from my Grilled article back from April, I finally got a Weber.  I received a couple of weeks ago as a gift a Smoky Joe Weber, which is perfect for two people.

It went together easier than the Backyard Grill one that I got in April, partly to it being smaller and being a table top model.

Now using the Smoky Joe for the first time, is like using most any other charcoal grill; add charcoal, light charcoal, wait for the coals to get hot.  Cooking is the same for any other charcoal grill, add meat to grate, cook till desired level of done is achieved, remove and enjoy.

BUT

The true beauty of the Weber, as stated back in April, is that you can close the dampers to effectively shut the fire off.  The coals died out in about 30 minutes, the grill was cool to the touch and I was able to move it to back under the carport.

Tip Shaming

Tip shaming seems to be the new thing to make the rawr on the internet. Now this is where a tipper writes some shaming sort of comment along with a low tip. The comment is along the lines of finding a better line of work to religious clergy giving ten percent why should the server get eighteen percent.

I don't believe in tipping a particular amount regardless of service received, the server is not entitled to a good tip in my book. Tips are based on the service received in my book, poor service is a poor tip, good service is a good tip. I base this on having been in and around restaurants my entire life, I understand that servers get half of minimum wage and they live off their tips but that doesn't excuse poor service.

Take this evening, my girlfriend and I went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner, the service was poor to say the least. The girl that waited on us seemed to be watching her daughter while at work and/or was new to serving; forgot to hand us straws, refill drinks and slow to get our order. She got about ten percent of the ticket maybe a touch more; I do not feel bad about this.

If the service was better, more would have been given. I do not believe in tipping a base amount because of the job that one decides to do. If you work for tips, you should be going above and beyond to get good tips, poor service does not equate good tips.

Just my two cents.

Dreams

Had a dream last night that I went over to a childhood friends house during Christmas to check out their swag and two of the things they got was miniature set of Transformers Dinobots and a human Bruticus.  The human Bruticus is the odd part of this as the Bruticus toy was a Transformer combiner of five Decepticons but they of course were robots and not at all human.

No idea what it means or if it means anything at all.

Depressed

The past few days I have been depressed and feeling a little out of it of sorts.  I haven't been able to really put my finger on it to as to why seeing as I have a girlfriend that loves me, family too, have a job that pays, a roof over my head and I am in great health.

So why is it that I am depressed?

After some recent reflection during this quiet morning, I came to the conclusion that it is because I am broke. Seems lately that I have been spending all of my bi-weekly paychecks with just some scraps to live off of till the next paycheck comes through the bank.  This is really a silly practice that I have gotten myself into, so much so, that it is causing me undo stress, grief and depression; that I need to amend my ways to stop it.

The sad part of all of this, I could stop using Herbalife and save a ton of money but lose what I am gaining in being healthy; seriously, aside from this little depression, I haven't felt this good in my whole life.  Well, except when I was a child but then you have no worries of money or bills needing to be paid or such other nonsense.  I would have some more money then, if I was to stop.

Or....

I could stop making excuses for myself, get off of my ass and find some people that need help being healthy and help them.  I know I can do that.

But...

I always seem to be able to hinder myself before I even begin.  Locking up on the initial conversation, stammering through the details and not being able to cohesively put forth my knowledge in a way that is convincing.

Eat To Lose

You want to lose weight, be it just a few vanity pounds or over 30 plus pounds or anything in between, but are not sure where to begin.  Maybe you hear some anecdotal advice that if you do this or do that or eat this one thing, the pounds will just drop off.  You are bombarded by constantly by ads for green coffee beans, magic dust, raspberry ketones, acai berry, exercise machines that target specific areas, shoes or other clothing and a thousand more things that will make your head spin around in confusion.

The truth is, none of it works.  You might get some results from these gimmicks but once you stop using it, what is lost will come back.

The best way to lose and keep it off is with a balanced NUTRITIOUS diet and exercise. What that means is 4-6 oz of lean protein, vegetables, salad and a small bit of carbs; if you just have to have them.  Exercise does not mean turning into a gym rat or running marathons every week.  Exercise can be as simple as walking , gardening or any activity that gets the heart rate up above a sitting on your ass level.

Some people like to count calories, which is great but remember to find out what your minimum calorie intake should be to lose weight is and make sure that is the number you end on everyday.  If you exercise or workout, you want to replenish what you burn to help maintain the goal of getting towards that minimum intake goal.  Example would be if you have to consume 2000 calories a day to lose weight and you go to the gym and burn 800 calories, you should consume a total of 2800 calories to offset that the 800 that was burned up in exercise.  The reason this should be done, is that if you fall to far under your minimum, your body can enter starvation mode.  This is when your body converts the food that you eat into fat and will use lean muscle as fuel as it is easier to convert that into energy rather than trying to convert the fat stores into energy.  You could lose pounds during this time but will be losing muscle mass instead of fat; this is why a balanced nutritious diet is important.

You have to eat to lose weight.  That does seem very counter intuitive but it is the truth.  You think that eating got me fat and so not eating will make me skinny.  Think about this, would you rather be skinny and sickly or skinny and healthy?

Moon

I step outside onto my porch, the coolness of the evening touches my face, the dampness of the wood is felt under the soles of my feet.  The yard is bathed in a white gray light from the moon that casts an ethereal glow over everything.  I look up to the Moon and feel her gentle pull on my skin, hear the mournful calling of her sorrow on my ears.  The pull becomes overwhelming to the hold that Earth has on me.  I feel almost weightless; with a slight hop, I leave the ground and begin to ascend to my Gray Mistress.  With a slight force of will, I accelerate faster into her arms.

Grilled

I like grilled food and enjoy grilling food as well.  I am by no means a grill master but just simple meats done simply; I am however, as it seems to be, a grill snob.

What that means is that I enjoy charcoal grills and grilling, I am not a big fan of propane or propane accessories.  I've also grown up around Weber grills and enjoy them very much and that is where things get dicey.  See, recently I purchased a grill for my girlfriends place since we both enjoy grilled foods.  The grill I purchased was not a Weber but some cheap knock off Backyard Grill that was purchased for 42 bucks at the local Wal-mart.  This decision was a financial one at that time seeing as I didn't have the money to plop down on the Weber of similar size; this decision was quickly realized a mistake.  Upon getting the grill home and starting assembly, it was easy but was held together by several screws and bolts and washers whereas a Weber is just pushed together with minimal tools and or screws and bolts and washers.

The assembly did not deter me or shake my belief that this knock-off Weber would be just as good as the original but I would be proven wrong.

The beauty of a Weber is in the design that allows you to close off the air flow through tightly fitted vents on the top and the bottom which allow you to control the heat of the fire and to help conserve your coals once the grilling is done by shutting off the air flow.  The Backyard Grill has loose vents on the ash catcher on the bottom and a vent on top but the bottom ones are much too loose to stop all the air flow.  This is also compounded by the top warming rack that is connected through the hinged lid, again loosely, which allows more air into the grill with the lid down.  With all this air flowing into the grill causes it to burn hot and you cannot just let the meat cook slowly but must be fretted over like a over protective parent towards a sheltered child.

Why is this an issue to me?  Because a large bag of coal was purchased at the same time of the grill and was used for a total of three to maybe four times grilling.  A similar bag on a similar sized Weber (22.5") would last easily twice that for the amount of grilling that was done with the Backyard Grill.  That grilling was for two people cooking two pieces of meat and once some baked potatoes as well.

Next time I get some extra money, I will be getting a Weber and more coal.

And if someone has a Weber they want to trade even up for a low hour grill, have I got a deal for you.

Weight Loss Update

It has been a year since I started using Herbalife to lose weight and during that time I became a distributor with the intention of becoming financially independent from having to work for someone else; that has not happened yet, but I am still looking towards that goal without changing it.  When I started my journey, I was at 224 lbs and 33% body fat; now I am at 207 lbs and 24% body fat.  Is that a huge change, no, but for someone that started going to the gym to workout for three years before starting Herbalife and having only lost 5 lbs during that time, it is a huge change for me.

Also within the past year, my mom has gone down from 250 lbs to 193 lbs.  She has struggled with her weight her whole life as well and now feels much better about herself, she is not where should would like to be but is very happy with the results she has gotten so far.

I even started my girlfriend on some Herbalife product to help her with some issues and with the help of aloe,  protein bars, and some other items, things are going much better for her.

I would love to help anyone that needs help in losing weight, as that is what I really want to do and am passionate about.  I want to reach those level 10 results and help everyone reach those results as well.

*Herbalife products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. However, when the body is getting complete nutrition at the cellular level amazing results can occur!

Shop Herbalife

Check out iChange

Necromance

Each moment that passes the spade digs deeper and deeper into the earth. Each thrust into the moist soil removes more dirt that gets him closer to the buried casket. The sound increases every moment till the next noise is of the shovel hitting the casket lid with a thud.  More scrapping continues as more dirt is removed from the lid and then silence for a few moments.

Then with a pop and rush of fresh air, the lid opens to a moonlit night.  A lantern is waved in front of my face then placed off to the side to illuminate the open casket while he continues. Gently he brushes the dirt that had fallen on my face away. Tenderly stroking my cheeks and running his hands through my hair.

I wish to open my mouth to scream out but am unable to do so.  Fighting back does no good as the muscles of my body are too weak to lift themselves, let alone fight off a hundred plus pound man. I can only wait for it to end and for him to leave me in peace.

Being dead sucks.

Future

The future is this huge looming thing that stands in front of us.
Overwhelming us with the enormity of the possibilities that could be.
Too terrified to act from fear of choosing incorrectly, we then choose an act of not acting.
Instead of looking at the whole picture, we must focus on that first step then the next and so forth and so on.
A lack of beginning is a lack of wanting.