Vvajk

Aerial Video & Photography RC Helicopter Sale

2010-04-13T17:55:00.006-06:00

I'm officially throwing in the towel on my Aerial video and photo business. The rigors and demands of my full time job coupled with the responsibility of helping raise four kids have left me without the time required to devote to this business. I feel that for $1600 I'm practically giving this away. This heli could be used as a professional Aerial imaging ship, or just flown for fun as a hobby. Hopefully I can sell it and buy a nicer TV so the kids can watch Spongebob in HD. = )

Any questions, email me at blongmore@hotmail.com

JR XP9303 HELICOPTER TRANSMITTER

THUNDER POWER LITHIUM POLYMER BATTERY CHARGER

NICD BATTERY CHARGER

WIRELESS VIDEO/AUDIO DOWN LINK (so you can see what you're shooting)

HELICOPTER

DARING HOVER OVER WATER

IN FLIGHT AGAIN

PHOTO I TOOK OF MY NEIGHBORHOOD

QUICK CLIP OF ON THE JOB FLYING

LITTLE 15 SECOND AD I DID FOR WEST MARK CU

SOME ON BOARD FOOTAGE FLYING OVER THE SNAKE

My Answer To The Pirate Situation

2009-11-20T16:49:00.007-07:00

Well, this post is a little different than my typical health & fitness post, but I hope you'll all bear with me.

If you've been paying even scant attention to the news you should be aware that the Somali pirate attacks seem to be back on the rise in the last little bit. I don't know if that's because there is an actually "Pirate Season" or if they have just been kind of laying low since their last failure when three of their buddies ended up on the bad news end of some Navy SEAL sniper rifles.

Given my current employment in the field of national security and anti-terrorism, I was brainstorming the other day, and wondering what could the USA and her allies do to combat this problem. Let me first of all dispel any misinterpretations that may come from the picture I posted above. Let's be clear and identify this as the terrorism that it is. I think it's important that the UN and the USA classify them as terrorists instead of pirates. The word pirates in today's culture carries too much of a Hollywood branding of adventure seeking, peg-legged, hook-handed swash bucklers cruising the Caribbean in cool ships flying the Jolly Roger and drinking rum while singing, Blow The Man Down.

Alright, so here's my solution to the problem:

These terrorists are cowardly criminals, and it has been demonstrated they will tuck their tails and run if a crew demonstrates any form of a stiff resistance. So, if I happened to own a shipping company that was forced to sail in these dangerous territories, I would hold a meeting with all the other owners of similar shipping companies and propose the following: That we take a normal looking tanker and convert it into a disguised war ship. You could do things like have what would seem to be normal shipping containers on deck, that can actually collapse away to reveal 20mm cannons and .50 cal machine guns. Outfit the tanker with a small, fast and deadly attack boat. There's a lot of different options I'm sure.

Hire a regular crew to run the ship's day to day operations, but also have a secret crew aboard, maybe some guys out of Blackwater with special training to use the provided weapons as well as trained in close quarter combat and armed to the teeth that can deal with a boarding if it comes to that. Then just run the ship around through the normal shipping lanes, acting all innocent until they are attacked by pirates. When the pirates attack, strike back with no mercy. You fire on them and pursue until you've destroyed them. Maybe let one get away once in a while to spread the news. Change the appearance of the ship from time to time. I don't think it would take long for word to spread.

Right now the reason it has become so popular for these pirates to engage in their business is because companies and nations have been willing to pay ransoms much of the time. They have grown rich without little risk to themselves. At least until last year when they found out what a SEAL sniper can do from a fantail. But, if they knew that any ship they attacked could turn out to be heavily armed with experienced warriors aboard who will not only defend the ship and repel the attack, but will pursue them to their utter destruction, then my guess is you will see a sharp decline in these activities.

The problem is cost, but seriously, how much are they paying in ransoms and lost cargo every time a ship is hijacked? It would seem to be a cost saver in the long run. And if you're like me, the cost to benefit ratio wouldn't be all that important. I'd be willing to take some loss to be able to strike back at these cowards of the sea and send them to a watery grave.

The latest Roadblock

2009-11-07T16:05:00.005-07:00

Well, it looks like over time, I've developed a case of plantar Fasciitis in my right foot. Here's a little explanation of Plantar Fasciitis:

The classic symptom of plantar fasciitis is heel pain when you take your first steps after getting out of bed or after sitting for a long period of time. You may also have:

Stiffness and pain in the morning or after resting that gets better after a few steps but gets worse as the day progresses.
Pain that gets worse when you climb stairs or stand on your toes.
Pain after you stand for long periods.
Pain at the beginning of exercise that gets better or goes away as exercise continues but returns when exercise is completed.

It's a condition that I've been aware of for a while, but has not been severe enough to impede my daily life. . . until recently that is. It may have been the backpacking trip in September that pushed things over the edge. It has gotten to the point where the pain doesn't fade away after a few steps in the morning, but stays with me every single step throughout the day.

This condition has really put a damper on my cardio workouts since I really like to run on the treadmill almost every day. Now, I've come to the conclusion that I really need to address this situation and can no longer just grit my teeth and run through the pain. The only thing to do is to let it rest and heal as much as possible. I've gained five pounds now due to this whole thing, and I take full responsibility for that. I'm the one who came to the conclusion that if I can't run, then there's no point in working out. . .and if I can't workout, then why bother eating right either? a dangerous dangerous thought process right?

Well, I've snapped out of that and am drawing a line here and now. I am not going to let Plantar Fasciitis cause me to gain back all the weight I have worked so hard on getting off. It's been two weeks since I've jogged now, and there is a HUGE difference in the pain now. It's still there, but it seems that I'm on the mend. I have to substitute other cardio in the place of running, and this has been a psychological challenge for me. I've just had it so ingrained in my head that running is such an optimum form of cardio, that anything else just isn't worth doing.

This week however I forced myself to stay off the treadmill after my lifting and did all my cardio on the elliptical and spinner bike. I even had a couple of cheat meals, and voila! I lost two pounds! So, I'm pleased. This was a big milestone for me mentally, because I was able to demonstrate to my subconscious that weight loss is indeed just as achievable with other cardio besides running. Now to just keep it up until the heel pain is gone.

The only obstacle now is, the only piece of cardio equipment I have at home is a treadmill. My workouts at work are the good ones where I have the other equipment available to me, including a stairmaster. I have to wrestle with a decision now. I want to get something for home, but can't afford an elliptical and a bike. So, which one for now? Eventually I'd like to have both. Especially because I think it'd be great if the wife and I could workout side by side at nights after the kids were in bed while we watch our TV shows on the DVR. We could go twenty minutes on either machine, and then switch and do twenty more. I see myself getting an elliptical first at this point. Seems like you get just that much more out of an elliptical than a bike, what with the arm movements and all.

Well, until any further developments. . . over and out.

Rocky Mountain High

2009-10-13T17:47:00.008-06:00

I just wanted to dedicate a blog post to the recent backpacking trip I took with good friends into the Boulder White Cloud Mountains of the Sawtooth Recreation Area in Central Idaho. We covered about twenty five miles in four days through some of the most beautiful and rugged scenery on planet Earth. It was great to have my brother along this time, and though we ran into our share of problems, all in all it turned out to be a success in my thinking, although there are some who would probably disagree.

For starters the route I had planned out for the group is a seldom used route where the trail isn't always clear, safe, or not there at all. We were discouraged by a forest ranger to go this way, but of course, we just had to do it anyway.

The major mistake was at Baker Lake where the trail forked and we were at a loss. The map we had didn't show that the trail forked. I was pretty confident that we needed to go right, but there was one in the group who thought we should go left. He volunteered to hike up ahead on the left trail to scout it out. Upon his return he reported that left was indeed the way to go. I still didn't feel right about it, but thought I'd give him the benefit of the doubt, as he is older than the rest of us and to my thinking has had a lot more of this type of experience. This turned out to be a big mistake.

To make a long story short we ended up on no trail at all, following a stream up into a steep, God-forsaken canyon strewn with giant boulders, massive fallen trees, twisted gnarled brush, and to my delight. . . bear crap everywhere. Down in the trees I couldn't see the peaks around us, but as soon as we got up out of the tree line, I realized that something wasn't right. I dug out my map and compass and quickly discovered we had over shot our intended destination, known as Slickenside Creek, basically a waterfall that tumbles down a steep gorge we wanted to climb to get to Noisy Lake.

This mistake cost us a day of hiking. The next day proved to be difficult as we had to climb the Slickenside Creek gorge and up and over 10,000 ft Windy Devil Pass all in one day. This turned out to be a monumental challenge to the group, straining muscles and relationships along the way. There is no trail up to the pass and we had to bush whack our way following my map and compass. There were still questions and disagreements about which way to go, but this time I refused to let anyone sway me from where I knew we needed to go. At last we came to the top of the pass and were rewarded with a tremendous sight of the Boulder Chain Lakes over the other side.

The rest of the hike went without a problem, but this was an amazing trip. I could sit here and write a small book if I really went into detail, but I'll let the pictures do the talking for me. I think I will do this hike again some day. I think it could be much more enjoyable without the mistakes and arguing.

The Intrepid Explorers ( I'm the one with the white T-shirt)
Castle & Merriam peaks beckon behind us

Yours Truly at the top of Windy Devil Pass feeling elated

The final push up to the top of Windy Devil Pass

The clear blue mountain waters of Noisy Lake greet
us after a grueling climb up Slickenside Creek

The treacherous path up Slickenside Creek
one wrong step and you'd roll all the way down

The shimmering waters of Baker Lake, last of the
clear, well marked trail

Castle & Merriam peaks stand as sentinels almost
defying you to continue onward

We hiked into the evening every night trying to make
up for lost time from mistakes and getting a late start

Sometimes Life Just Happens

2009-08-26T18:42:00.003-06:00

Well, thanks to that pretty little thing on the right, I haven't been able to do much, and that includes working out. Let me introduce the world to Macy, my fourth child and second daughter. She was born on August 9th, and life has been a whirl wind ever since. Between family and friends helping out by bringing over meals and snacks for our family, and just having little to no sleep at night, the whole work out / eat right routine has been majorly interrupted. I am happy to say that I have only suffered the gain of a few pounds, which isn't bad considering the glutton I've made out myself sometimes. I don't just fall off the wagon, I jump off, doing flips in the air and laughing insanely all the way to the ground.

This is exactly what happened the last time I was on a successful path to fitness, and we had a baby. The difference this time, is I have been monitoring what's happening to me, and basically, I'm just not letting myself off the hook this time! Today was my first real day of working out and eating right, and it feels good. It feels good to know that I'm back on track. Maybe I'm not at the same cruising speed I was at before, but I AM back and slowly increasing the accelerator. It should take a couple weeks to get back to where I left off.

One thing motivating me is my backpacking trip coming up in a few weeks. My buddies and I, are doing a 20 mile four day hike in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. It's high altitude and rugged terrain. I don't want to be the guy at the end of the line that everyone else has to stop and wait for. So, there's some motivation for me to lose as much weight and get in the best shape I can by mid September.

Well, more to come eventually.

Over and Out.

So Close No Matter How Far

2009-07-16T19:31:00.003-06:00

Well, I haven't written much lately, because not much lately has happened. Since the 4th of July I have been plagued by the inability to really get back into my program with full force. I've been eating correctly for the most part, and I have been exercising here and there, but I've been indulging too much in bad food over the last couple of weeks. The good news, is that I've been maintaining my weight loss. I haven't gained any weight back and so I'm happy with that.

I've been thinking that maybe I have been hitting it really hard non-stop for a while now and that a little break is called for. Just some time to step back, look at my goals, guage my progress, and recharge the batteries. If I can do this without gaining weight or getting seriously out of shape than I don't see the problem with it. Like I said, I'm probably still doing my program at 90% and I'm pretty much maintaining.

The key is to get back into full swing shortly. I can't allow myself to become complacent now. And that would be easy to do. I'm so close now to achieving my goals. I can't suddenly lose focus and drive on accomplishing the end result that I want and desire. NO! Good enough, will not be good enough this time!

Also my Accumeasure body fat calipers arrived the other day, and I measured my body fat percentage. It was around 24% which falls in the "average" category for a male my age. So, I have a new short term goal, and that is to get that percentage into the teens ( falls into the ideal category ) within the next five weeks, and about ten pounds to go along with it. That is going to be difficult since baby number four is coming to the family in about four weeks. I'm going to have to really focus to not let all that interfere with my program. Sure I probably won't get to workout and eat exactly right for a few days whent the baby comes, but I will do what I can.

Its kind of funny how I'm almost in exactly the same situation as I was the last time we had a baby, three years ago. I was five weeks into Body For Life and had lost about ten pounds and was crusiing along great in the program. Then my son Bridger was born. It threw me off my program. People were bringing by meals for our family and treats, etc. I never got back on program and three years later I woke up and had gained all my weight back and more. So, here I am facing the same scenario again, except this time I'm actually five pounds lighter...And this time I WILL NOT GET THROWN OFF TRACK!

Dividends

2009-06-30T12:53:00.002-06:00

When my oldest child was born eight and a half years ago I was 265 + pounds. I had stopped counting after 265. My three children have never known me as anything but overweight and breathless. Although I'm not at my goal yet, I am now down to 215 pounds and in the best shape my children have ever seen me in.

Last night at my parent's house I got to reap some of the dividends of my hard work. At one point in the evening while inspecting my dad's garden with him, my daughter stole the ball cap off my head and took off running, giggling insanely as only little girls can do. A few years ago my reaction would have been to call after her to give me my hat back. But, instead I took off on a sprint right after her! When she saw my hot pursuit, she squealed for her brother to help. My six year old son joined forces with his older sister as they played keep away from the old man.

We ran and ran around the back yard, as I hunted them down one at a time, the kids giggling and screaming with delight. Eventually we all ended up on the trampoline where a giant wrestling match for the hat ensued. In the end we all lay panting on our backs looking up at the lavender sky as the summer sun slipped under the horizon.

It felt good. It motivated me to continue on this journey and see it to the end. I want to be there for my kids. I want to be active and healthy for them. It's moments like last night that motivated me to start this difficult process in the first place. And I gotta say. . . it has all been worth it.

Milestones

2009-06-22T05:49:00.005-06:00

I've let a while go without posting to my blog, so here's a brief recap of what's been going on. First of all, I am glad to say that the weigh loss has been coming along pretty good. I think I've been averaging about two pounds lost a week. The last time I weighed in a few days ago I hit 214.8 lbs. I was pretty stoked to hit under 215 lbs. It's kind of a mile stone for me. A few years ago, I did Body For Life for five weeks and was doing great. Then for some reason when my last son was born I just completely walked away from it, and gained all my weight back. Well, I have officially passed by the weight I was at when I abandoned my last attempt. So, this is a major milestone for me. Now to keep pounding away at the fat.

This week is going to be pretty tough though. There have been a lot of call ins at work and we are very short handed which has forced a lot of overtime on those of us left. I will be working about 40 hours overtime this week by the time it's all done. Not much time for getting workouts in. I am trying to continue eating right for the most part, but have had a couple free meals. Plus, I am not getting good sleep which I hear is essential for good weight loss and muscle building. For example: I got forced to work a twelve hour shift (not counting the two hours it takes to commute back and forth) yesterday - Father's Day. I wasn't very happy about that, had to miss my Dad's BBQ. Then while I'm here, a guy calls in for the night shift which caused a split shift. Basically what that means for me is I got to go home at 7pm but had to be back by 1am to start an eighteen hour shift. So yeah, going to get about two hours of sleep out of the next thirty six hours.

These types of things happen in life once in a while. I'm expecting that this week I probably won't be losing weight. I'll be happy just to maintain, but I won't be surprised if I gain a pound or two just because of the hectic circumstances and lack of time to plan out good meals and working out. That said, the key is I'm not all down and depressed about that fact. In the past, a week like this would have been enough to knock me off the wagon for weeks. But, this time I feel so much more in control of things. There's not this desperate feeling that I'm losing control, or an overpowering pull to give in. I know that when these awful days are behind me, I will unceremoniously and quietly slide back into my regular routine and move on with my weight loss goals.

For now, here's to reaching a milestone!

Over and out.

The Real Power of The Mind

2009-06-09T13:44:00.007-06:00

Well, today was the big weigh in. According to the scale I lost one pound this last week, bringing me down to 219 lbs on the dot. That brings me to a total of about 13 lbs since I started this seriously. One pound doesn't seem like much, but it's still a loss, and I will take what I can.

On the bright side, I think I had one of those weeks where maybe I traded a little fat off for muscle. I'm really feeling it this week in the fit of my uniform and gun belt this week. I think I lost inches this time around as opposed to just weight. I really need to invest in a body fat calipers, or at least just start taking measurements to guage my progress as well. In a way I guess I do take measurements. I always am aware of what hole on my belt I'm using, and how close I am to graduating down to the next hole. Or how much looser other clothes are beginning to fit. But, that is going just by feel more than actual numbers. I will have to make an effort on my next days off to get the measuring tape out of my wife's sewing kit and at least take some measurements.

I wanted to take some time to write more about the mental side of things. Just that, this morning I was listening to a radio talk show, and there was a phsychologist on as a guest. He was talking about the power of the mind, and here's a couple very interesting points he brought up: Apparently they've done some tests on people with multiple personality disorder and discovered some extremely strange things. For example: Some schizophrenics actually have thier eye-glass prescriptions change from personality to personality. And, while one personality can be really allergic to cats, when they switch to another personality the allergy is gone!

Stuff like that! Sounds hard to believe, but what does that tell us about our minds? It kind of goes along with what I've read in Tom Venuto's writings about reprograming our brains, and convincing our subconscious minds of what we are supposed to look like. I wonder how many weight loss enthusiasts are out there, that are aware of just how much our mind power can come into play when trying to get into shape and lose fat. I am just beginning to chisel at the tip of the iceberg, I think, but it's a subject I intend to explore more deeply.

By the way, the picture above is of Norman Bates from the Hitchcock movie, Psycho. He knew the power of the mind. = )

We Are What We Think

2009-06-07T13:49:00.005-06:00

It's still a few days away from my weigh in, but I'm feeling pretty good. I had to put on my Sunday go to meetn' clothes this morning, which I haven't worn in about a month and I was pleasantly surprised by the fit of my pants. They were nice and loose. I had to put my belt on the third to the last notch. I could have gone one more really. So that was cool.

I'm pretty proud of my compliance this week to my program. I've stuck to the meal plan pretty good, and have been getting my workouts in too. Good ones.

Which brings me to my other thought. The importance of visualization. It's important to continually visualize what you'd like to see yourself looking like. The other day, I was running on the treadmill while listening to the Beowulf movie score on my ipod. I know it sounds a bit silly, but for some reason I really was getting caught up in the music. As I ran scenes from the movie played in my head, and I just kind of got stoked, pumped, energized. . .whatever you want to call it.

In this newly motivated state, (maybe it stems from my viking heritage) I bumped up the treadmill to a faster speed. It wasn't long before the sweat started to flow. the muscles started to burn, and my lungs were heaving for air. With the thunderous strains of the music score roaring in my ears, I locked my own gaze in the mirror. For a moment in my mind I became Beowulf. I wasn't running on a treadmill anymore, I was locked in mortal combat with the monster Grendel.

It's funny now to think about it, but I can't deny the powerful effect it had on me at the moment. I was pushing myself harder and longer than I normally would have. Since then, I've been thinking about how much of a mental game this all is in the end. How much of our ability and potential are hidden and locked away behind doors of self doubt, fear, laziness, or complacency. It's all a mind game. Our bodies are merely robots that only react to the input we give them. Calories in vs calories out. Over eating is a mental problem. An inactive, sedentary life all stems from our minds.

Just some things to think about I guess.

Over and out.

No Time For Contentment

2009-06-04T03:58:00.004-06:00

I have now reached a point in my weight loss and fitness efforts where I have been before. I am far from my ultimate goal of six pack abs, but have also come kind of far too. You have to understand something about my personality. Something about myself that I have known for years. I am laid back and easily content. I am not typically a hard driven, goal oriented person. I have to set a goal just to set goals.

My current fitness level is about as far as I usually get before dropping off the program and gaining my weight back. Not because of discouragement. It is my own success that is my enemy. At this point I am feeling pretty good about my accomplishment so far. My clothes are fitting much more loose and I can see and feel a difference. And there is a part of my personality that now says, "Alright that's pretty good. Let's settle down and take it easy now for a while." Basically there is a part of me that is content with my current fitness level.

The problem is I know that deep down, I know that this contentment leads to complacency, and that leads to failure. Thankfully, this time around I am aware of these self sabotaging tendencies of my past. This time around will be different. Not only am I shedding pounds of fat, but along with that fat in a way, I am also attempting to shed some of the old me. That part of me that back in high school just barely got good enough grades to keep my good student discount for my auto insurance, even though I could have gotten straight As if I had wanted to. That part of me that has never bothered to set goals that are too hard, or venture out of my comfort zone.

So, I'm writing this particular post to myself. Do not sell yourself short by deciding to be content with where you are at now! In the end it is a cop out. For once in your life get out of that comfort zone and actually believe in yourself! Believe it and you will achieve it!

This time will be different. I am not going to be content and stop here. I have much more to do. I can do it, and I will do it. I will continue to attack attack attack, until the enemy is utterly destroyed. This isn't a diet or a program that I am doing temporarily to shed a few pounds. This is my new life. These are new habits I am forming for life!

Over and out!

Damage Report!

2009-06-01T19:13:00.003-06:00

Well, I weighed in last night, even though I was thinking about avoiding the scale after this week's debauchery with food and travel. My thinking was that I had probably gained weight, and I didn't want to depress myself by seeing the damage on the scale. Then, I realized that what I was actually doing was avoiding accountability. In Tom Venuto's book he talks about being accountable. And that lack of accountability is one of the biggest reasons people fail on diets.

I mulled it over in my head, as I stared at the scale in the corner of the training room at work. I was already dressed down for my nightly PT session. Then, I just decided, that I was avoiding accountability and responsibility for my actions if I did not weigh in. So, I stepped over to the digital scale, turned it on, and stepped on. To my surprise and relief I can say the damage isn't too bad. Looks like three days of complete abandonment of my eating principles cost me a gain of about 1.6 lbs.

Of course I'd rather have seen no gain at all, but I'm not going to complain. That's not a bad price to pay. And I can see how my new lifestyle is starting to embed itself in my brain and becoming habit. I know in times past a three day departure from my routine would have usually ended as a complete abandonment down the road of everything. This time, it wasn't even a struggle to get back in step with my new way of living. In fact, this time it was a relief to get back in the swing of things. I couldn't wait to get home, back to my healthy food. I couldn't wait to feel the pump of swollen muscles in the gym, and a sweat soaked t-shirt clinging to my skin as I pushed for one more minute on the treadmill, bike, or elliptical.

Am I obsessing about my health, nutrition, and weight loss? I hope so! That's what needs to happen to fully reach my goals. . . an obsession! Priority number ONE!

Goal for this week: I am going for two more pounds on the scale. By the time I workout on Tuesday morning at work, I am 218.2 lbs or under. I am two pounds lighter of fat because, I have eaten correctly and stayed with my program of working out. I have pushed myself this week to make sure I get those workouts in and that I am giving it 110% in the gym. I have also dutifully kept track of my calorie intake in my food journal. This has given me the baseline I need to keep track of my progress and to know where I stand at the end of each day.

Over and Out.

The Comeback Workout

2009-05-31T04:17:00.003-06:00

I just wanted to note real quick the great workout I had today. I'm proud of myself for getting in there and getting it done. I'm calling it my comeback workout, because it's the first time since being back from Oregon that I Felt really good. I don't know if it all came from a deep desire to punish myself for the days I was off my routine and program, or if I just started to really get off on the endorphins.

I was busy all day long. I had to get the kids' inflatable pool set up, and I had to assemble the boys' basketball pole and hoop, which took all day pretty much. And on top of that, I had to try to do some repair work to my truck. I was getting kinda down as I saw my window of opportunity slipping away for a workout. I wasn't even going to do it, but around 8pm I just suddenly got a burst of will power, and I went for it. I just did weights, working chest, biceps, and forearms. I really got a good pump, and felt great at the end.

It was like I stood up in defiance or something. I know that most likely the scale is not going to love me tomorrow night, but I've decided I don't care this week about the scale. The main thing is, I'm feeling back on track, and with the program again. In fact, I might just skip the scale for a week, and just set a goal to work really hard every day. I also got my eating back in check today, and I'm feeling great about that.

I'm recognizing my mistakes this week, and why I made them. A main mistake was I didn't really set a goal for this week. I knew that I would be falling off the wagon when I went to Oregon, and I think on a subconscious level, I actually planned to fail this week. I never made a plan for success during the trip. Now, that I know that, I can plan better in the future for life's disruptions.

So, here's to another week. I might have taken a couple of steps back, but now I'm going to charge ahead. . .like a linebacker, and plow through into the next week.

Over and out.

Back in The Saddle

2009-05-29T09:52:00.003-06:00

I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about this week. It's been one of those weeks where a wrench was thrown into the gears of my routine. I had to fly to Portland, OR. to help my brother move here to Idaho. We got up early Wednesday and flew to Portland, spent all day sweating and grunting as we loaded up all his stuff into a U-Haul. Then straight away, we took off, trying to beat rush hour traffic. We ate once at a sandwich shop at around 11am before loading the U-Haul, and I don't think we stopped to eat at a Wendy's until around 6pm maybe. By this time I was ravenous and there was no way I was settling for a salad. So, I went for some big burger and fries. At the gas station we bought chips and licorice, and we didn't stop again till 2am to check into a motel.

The next day, right back on the road until we got burgers again at a Jack in The Box at around 11am. I didn't eat again until I got home around 5:30pm that night. I was dying for something healthy. I immediately made and consumed a chicken wrap with tomatoes, I guzzled water all night, and snacked on some carrot sticks. I have to say that for two days, I basically broke all the rules and went against everything I know about losing weight, I'm not going to beat myself up about it too much since a lot of the main factors were out of my control.

The main problem was allowing myself to get too hungry. When you go as long as we did between meals it is almost impossible to resist temptation when you're standing there at a Wendy's to order food. It's also impossible not to reach into those chips and licorice when you're really hungry. I'm used to eating every two to three hours, so my body was wondering what the heck was going on! The other bad thing is, that getting that hungry, was probably putting my metabolism into "starvation protection mode" and slowing waaaay down to conserve energy. Then when it was suddenly bombarded with high fat calories, the sensible thing to do was to store as much of that energy as possible.

On the bright side, I think I expended a lot of calories loading and unloading the truck those two days. What effect it had, I don't know. I am feeling a bit apprehensive about my weigh in Sunday night. I'm afraid I might have done enough damage to negate some of the progress I've made up to his point. The good news is I have two days before my weigh in to try to recoup back some of that two days of debauchery. Honestly, I will be pleased if the scale just stays the same and shows no loss, but no gain either. I have a feeling at this point though, that I might be showing a couple of pounds in the plus column.

I just need to plow forward. Get back in the saddle so to speak. And that's going to be the difference. In times past, I might have given up after a week like this. In times past, two days of debauchery would have led to an entire week of it, and then eventually to an entire abandonment of my plan altogether. I may have gained a couple pounds this week when all is said and done, but that is not going to stop me or discourage me from continuing onward. I knew when I began this, that not every week would be perfect. I knew I would suffer from set backs and some disappointments. The key is going to be to not let those set backs and disappointments discourage me, and cause me to self-sabotage.

Arighty then. . .enough typing now, it's off to the basement for a workout. Back in the saddle!

Over and out.

Another Week Down. . .In weight that is.

2009-05-23T12:13:00.003-06:00

Alright! Today was weigh in day, and it turns out I was pleasantly surprised with a weight loss of 3.2 lbs! I'm pretty stoked about that, but to be honest that's losing more in one week than I really should. Anything more than two pounds a week, and you're running the risk that some of that loss is lean muscle, and I DON'T want to sacrifice lean muscle just to feel better on the scale.

I was surprised because I was not adhering as strictly to my program as I have before. At least in terms of working out I wasn't. Unless you count playing paintball for a day, and working hard physically in my garden and yard as working out. I did get one official workout in out of four days. The one thing I did do right was stick to the correct eating plan pretty well. That reaffirms what I've been told before; that what you eat is 90% of how effective your weight loss plan is going to be.

Anyway, this next week will be tough to keep it up. I have to fly to Portland on Wednesday with my brother, and then we're driving back Thursday. Staying with any kind of program those two days is going to be pretty tough. I'm expecting we'll be hitting McDonald's restaurants on the road and crap like that. I'm trying to come up with a plan where this little trip will have the smallest impact possible on my current fitness gains. I hate to go backwards after the hard work I've put in over the last several weeks. We'll see how it goes.

For now I'm just reveling in my new level of leanness, and enjoying the success thus far. I can see into my future and I know I'm on the right path. I'm armed with the right knowledge and I have the will power to stay on this path until I have achieved my goals.

Over and out!

Exercise Can Be Fun

2009-05-20T16:15:00.005-06:00

This morning I went and played paintball with some of my friends for a few hours and had a super fun time. And talk about a workout! Lots of running, crawling, ducking, etc. I've been playing paintball now for about twenty years, so this wasn't like anything new to me, but I've never looked at it as a form of exercise. It was just something I did.

After today I thought to myself that I would be in great shape if I found a way to play paintball every day! And it wouldn't even be a task, or a chore. It'd just be plain ole' fun. I would just have to watch my calorie intake is all.

I think that's part of being fit and in shape. Not just spending time in the gym and counting calories, but living a more active lifestyle period. On top of working out and eating right, I could play paintball more often, maybe start up mountain biking again. Stuff like that.

Well, that's my thoughts for the day. Today is supposed to be my back workout, but I'm struggling coming up with the drive after playing paintball. Maybe later tonight. My weekly goal of losing two more pounds is quietly whispering to me in the back of my mind, "Don't skip your workout. . . .don't skip it."

Trust me you get plenty of exercise trying to avoid one of these welts!

This Week's Goal

2009-05-18T20:32:00.002-06:00

I'm at work while posting this, so I'm going to have to be quick and to the point. I just want to jot down my goal for this week. I think I'm going to chance it and go for another two pounds on the scale.

So, during this week, even though I have four days off starting tomorrow . . . I am not changing from my routine. I am not slacking off just because I have done so well so far. I am continuing the attack. I'm kicking the fat while its down. I am eating five to six low calorie high nutrient meals a day. I am eating on average between 1700 and 2000 calories a day. I am maintaining a strict training schedule where I work out every day, and on Saturday when I come to work I am weighing two pounds less on the scale, or I'm noticing definite changes in how my uniform and gun belt are fitting.

BOOOYAAAAH!

Over and Out

Two more pounds. . . outta here!

2009-05-16T20:41:00.002-06:00

Well, despite all my ranting and raving in the previous post on how I'm not going to let the scale determine how I feel about my success this week, I am happy to report that I did meet my goal by losing two more pounds! And it feels great. The scale tonight officially read 221.8 lbs. Which is close enough for me.

That makes a total of about nine pounds lost in about a month. That's right on track with Tom Venuto's two pounds a week rule for sure long-term weight loss. I'm feeling pretty good.

Now I have to go back and read my food and fitness journal I've been keeping and read about what I did this last week to make it a success. Like how many calories did I average a day, and what foods did I eat, etc. I pretty much already know, but it helps to go back and review while planning for the coming week.

Now to think about what kind of goal to set for next week. Do I dare go for another two pounds? Why not? what's the worst that could happen?

Another post to follow when I have it figured out.

Over and out.

Staying Positive

2009-05-16T15:39:00.002-06:00

Well, tonight when I get into work is when I have my weekly weigh in to see how I'm doing. Last week, I weighed in around 223.5 lbs and I set a goal to lose two more pounds by today. I'm a little bit nervous about it because I cheated yesterday a little bit an weighed myself on the bathroom scale at home and it didn't seem to show that I'd lost. If anything the bathroom scale shows I may have gained! I will just have to wait and see what the digital scale out at work says and go from there.

On top of all that though, I've been thinking about this past week. I set that goal and I have to admit that it did wonders for motivating and driving me to eat right and get my training in every day. Tonight, perhaps the scale will not reflect the past week's efforts as I fear, and that's the danger of using the scale only to measure my success. So, I'm going to do my best to not allow the scale to determine how I feel about this past week.

In Tom Venuto's, The Body Fat Solution, he talks about how from day to day our body weight can fluctuate as much as five pounds, factoring in just water retention and things like that. To feel successful, all I really need to do is look back on this past week. I feel really good about how I ate, and trained all week. I stayed motivated, and had a strong will power. The other thing going for me, is I can feel for a fact that I've lost some fat as my clothes are fitting looser than before. I got to work last night and strapped on my firearm and duty belt, and it all felt a little looser than a week ago. And that's the true measure of success In this whole get into shape business. It's quite possible that I've been adding muscle and losing fat simultaneously and they've been canceling each other out.

The scale is good tool for measuring some success, but it shouldn't be my primary motivation from week to week. Of course, it eventually has to reflect my efforts. If I can get down to less than 10% body fat, I sure as heck will weigh less. Man look at my rambling rant today! You'd think I'd already weighed and found that I'd gained ten pounds by the way I've gone off today.

Regardless of what the scale says tonight, I'm going to just continue to charge forward with the same plan. I'll have to reset my goal and try again for next week. It's probably time to take some measurements as well. I'll update when I get the scale results as soon as I can.

Over and out.

Guilt-Free Hamburger & Tator Tots

2009-05-12T21:00:00.004-06:00

About an hour ago I got back from one of my favorite local burger joints, Leo's Place, in Idaho Falls. At Leo's I enjoyed a big ole' half pound burger and a plate of tots, plus a diet Coke. And the awesome thing is, I can honestly say that I didn't "cheat, fall of the wagon, depart from the program", etc. In times past I'd probably be sitting around feeling guilty for such a decadent pleasure as a burger and tots.

But since my recent enlightenment I know that little free meals like mine tonight can be enjoyed occasionally and I can still continue to lose weight. The danger in times before would have been a feeling of guilt, which would lead to a feeling of failure, which would in turn lead to a feeling of hopelessness, which would eventually lead to a binge. . . causing more feelings of guilt and hopelessness and probably abandonment of the program entirely.

Those days and those feelings are in the past now. Tom Venuto believes in living life. We aren't robots, we are human beings. We require variety in our lives and simple pleasures. This isn't an excuse to eat whatever I want all the time. But, as long as I don't over indulge by stuffing myself, and ninety percent of the time I eat only the good, healthy, nutritious foods, and stick to my training program, then I will be fine. The weight should still come off. Maybe slower than a lot of programs out there, but it will be for sure and life long.

Tomorrow will be like any other day for me ninety percent of the time. Get up, eat a good healthy breakfast, workout, etc. I weigh myself on Saturday. That gives me plenty of time to get the burger out of my system.

Just about through this day

2009-05-11T20:07:00.004-06:00

So far today, I'm hanging in there. Today is a day off from work. I have to have extra will power on these days not to eat bad for me foods. The bad part is, I work rotating twelve hour shifts, so I get four days off in a row. That makes it harder to stay good all those days. My wife made some banana bread, and chocolate chip cookies the other day, that have been calling my name all day. So far I have been able to resist their call. I keep remembering the goals I wrote down in the last post and how by Saturday I want to be down two more pounds. I think it has really helped me through this difficult day. Tom Venuto may be on to something with this idea of putting your goals in writing and reviewing them often.

This morning was a day off from lifting, but I jogged on the treadmill this morning for about thirty minutes. twenty minutes of H.I.I.T (high intensity interval training) and then ten minutes of moderate jogging. I burned about 450 calories according to the treadmill. Not bad.

It is 8:15PM and I'm only up to 1400 calories eaten so far today. That's not enough. I need to eat something soon with about 300 calories in it and that should be good for me today.

Tomorrow I am planning on a leg workout. I'd like to actually get down to the gym and do some free-weight squats if I can since I don't have a squat rack in my basement gym. But, if I must, I can do dead lifts and dumbell squats in the basement. Either way I have to make it happen. Maybe tomorrow I'll allow myself a free meal. Nothing out of control, just something I'll enjoy, but a decent portion.

That's it for now. Over and Out.

Vision & Goals

2009-05-09T11:44:00.004-06:00

First of all I have to congratulate myself on a loss of two more pounds this week. I weighed today and was stoked to see I am now at 223 lbs. I was at 230 lbs about three weeks ago. What I really need to do is get a pair of body fat calipers so I can start tracking my body fat % instead of just pounds lost. I lift a lot of weights and so actual loss measured in pounds might not be as signifigant.

But for now, here's a short term goal for me: Next Saturday I am down to 221 lbs. Two pounds a week is considered the maximum you want to lose every week Anything beyond that, you are in danger of losing lean muscle mass, and I don't want that!

Tom Venuto advises that we should put our goals in writing, and read through them often, as well as re-write them several times. It somehow solidifies our intent into the subconscious. So here's a little try for me.

VISION: My vision is that at forty years old (currently I'm thirty six) I am in the best shape of my adult life. I have been staying on the straight and narrow for years now and have figured out exactly how to maintain my optimum weight, health, and body fat. I am eating healthy, nutricious meals ninety percent of the time. My energy and activity levels are through the roof, and I am an example to my friends and family of what they can achieve and accomplish with the right amount of knowlege and motivation.

LONG TERM GOAL: For now my long term goal is: I need to come up with a date, but roughly in three to four months from now, I have lost thirty pounds of fat. I weigh somewhere in the area of two hundred to two hundred five pounds, the main thing being my body fat percentage is under fifteen percent. I am fitting into clothes I haven't been able to wear in years. I am still aggresively pursuing even a leaner fitter body, because I'd like to see my six pack at least once in this life. I feel great and look great too.

Ok, well there we go. I need to come up with some more specific stuff for that long term goal, like a date and body fat numbers and weight and stuff, but I think that's pretty good for now.

Today I worked chest and biceps. I really burned them up too! Good solid workout.

My theme for a while is: "If pain is weakness leaving the body, then hunger must be fatness leaving the body"

Over and out.

2009-05-06T20:30:00.006-06:00

I just finished reading "The Body Fat Solution" by multi-champion natural bodybuilder, Tom Venuto. I'm not new to Tom's philosophy or techniques. Last year I read his E-book, "Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle" Also known as "BFFM"

I have to say I've never read an author on the topics of health, nutrition, and weight loss that makes as much common sense as Tom Venuto. Tom immediately slices through the murk and fog out there permeating the fitness world, and gets right down to basics. Basically (pun intended) it all comes down to calories in VS calories out. If you want to lose body fat then you have to force your body into what Tom calls, a calorie deficit. Essentially, burning more calories every day than you consume. According to Tom, there is no miracle pill or miracle diet out there that will yield the kind of results promised in all the glossy ads in the fitness magazines.

A new twist however, is Tom's emphasis on the power of the subconscious and mind control. In fact the whole first third of the book deals with issues like, emotional eating, relapse, goal setting, etc. I found Tom's insights on these subjects to be invaluable to me. One of my favorite parts of the book is when Tom asks the reader to imagine that he could go into a "software" store and buy software that you could reprogram your brain with any habit or belief. . .what habits and beliefs would you buy? Then he goes on to say that this is literally possible with some mental training. Just great stuff.

So, now I'm into this BFFM and seriously going to go for it. I feel like my eyes have been opened wide and with the knowledge I've reaped from Tom it is possible for me to obtain the level of health and fitness I desire. In fact, I lost five pounds just while reading the book. It had the effect of immediate motivation on me. So, I will be using this blog as my personal progress journal. I'll be recording my weight loss, my food consumption, my workouts, my goals, etc. By doing this publicly on the net I hope to be able to force some pressure and accountability on myself. I plan to (Gulp) post before and after pictures eventually.

This isn't one of those 12 week crash course weight loss extravaganzas. It's going to take time. I have probably a good 25 - 30 lbs to lose and I figure I'll be losing maybe 2 lbs a week tops. . .that would be a good week! But, slowly and surely will be the winning strategy in the end.

So here's to success for me! And maybe down the road I will be able to help and inspire my friends and family to go for it too. Below is picture of Tom Venuto I have decided to use as my personal inspiration. Something to set my sights on.

Mind you he does not take steroids, fat burners, and all that garbage.

What's With The Gunmen?

2009-03-10T21:40:00.003-06:00

Nothing here super in-depth or profound. I just am sitting here after reading on Foxnews.com about another gunman, this one in Alabama, going on a killing spree. This following another incident on Sunday where a gunman entered a church and shot the pastor to death.

I am a gun owner. I believe in the second amendment. And it just makes me wonder what it is about a democrat occupying the Oval Office that suddenly tends to bring out the crazies on these killing sprees!

Am I blaming Obama and the dems for this? Absolutely not. But, I just cringe when I hear these stories. Because, I can guarantee that Obama and his fellows would love to ban guns if they thought they could get away with it, and these nut-jobs running around on killing rampages just give them more ammo to propel their anti-gun agenda.

Sigh. . .

I can hear the cries for congress to take swift and decisive action on "all these dangerous guns" It's just a matter of time. One more shooting spree and Obama will "be forced" to do something "for the safety of Americans and their children".

Just an update & cool pic

2008-01-18T02:02:00.000-07:00

Not much going on. Just to drop a quick update on life. As far as the aerial photography thing goes, I did my first paying job this fall. YEAH! It's official. It was a TV ad for a local credit union. When I get permission I will post it somewhere on the net. It turned out pretty good. Helicopter is currently in Utah for improvements so it can be ultimately ready to be put through the paces of production demands. We will have a better idea of how things go in the spring. Hopefully it goes well enough to at least pay for itself! I can't believe the time and money that's gone into this wild hair-brained scheme.

On another topic; it's been snowing like crazy here this winter. Still nothing in the valley like I remember it as a kid, but its still a considerable amount. I have a seven year old daughter and it's the most snow she's seen in her young life. Anyway, it snowed all day and I got what I consider a beautiful picture of my Alaskan Malamute, Tundra basking in the idealistic conditions...for a Malamute that is. Over and out.

MUSH!

2007-09-21T02:18:00.000-06:00

Just a quick note about a recent undertaking. Currently we own a four and a half year old Alaskan Malamute. Her name is Tundra. She's very strong and in fact her litter mate, Badger, from Cascade Malamutes Kennels, I believe, is the current IWPA champ. Tundra is pretty strong and I think she'd be a good puller. I'd like to get her into pulling in some of the pulls held by the International Weight Pulling Association (IWPA).

Well, today her training began. It wasn't much, but it was a good start for a dog who had never been harnessed up to something. We took the bicycle trailer and after a fashion were able to rig it to her harness. With my four year old and sixteen month old boys riding along we went on about a mile walk. At first Tundra was nervous and kept looking back, wondering what in the world was following her. But, it didn't take long for her to fall into step and figure out what was going on. She actually seemed to enjoy the excercise.

This phot of Tundra was taken during her first hike, the day after we brought her home...about a year ago.

I went to Home Depot tonight and bought some hardware and a couple wooden dowles to improve the rigging so she can pull more comfortably. For now just pulling the bike trailer around will suffice for training until she's used to the harness and pulling. Eventually and gradually we'll start adding weight to increase her strength and get her used to pulling against resistance. I will try to report our progress on the blog.

Out of Bordom

2007-09-15T19:46:00.000-06:00

Made this little music video of friends and me playing paintball back in 94' At the same time I'm testing to see if I've succesfully been able to link my youtube account up with my blog. Here goes.

Up We Go....

2007-08-17T04:43:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to post an update with my efforts to start up my aerial video and photography business using UAVs ( Unammned Aerial Vehichle ) or radio controlled helicopters in my case.

Cool news is I have made a contact with a guy who I won't name without his permission here, who is somewhat of an expert in the field and has agreed to build for me a custom helicopter for the purpose of taking Aerial video and photography. I am really excited about this one. This means that I will be selling my Bergen EB shortly. I just can't seem to chase down all the vibrations in this gas powered heli and have decided to give up on it. Meanwhile my new heli will be electric powered, which will mean much much less vibrations to deal with.

The goal to have the new heli in the air is Sept 1st. Also that week I have a TV shoot scheduled for a local bank here. So, that will most likely be my first paying job in AP. I am excited but also scared to death. I hope it all goes well. Right now the main concern is getting this new heli up and going in time to do the shoot on schedule.

The new heli is going to be a mesh of about five different brands of helis out there. Basically we are taking the best components of some and combining them with others to create kind of a super Frankenstein AP heli. It will be one of a kind.

I worry about the amount of debt that I have incurred to get this business going. Maybe I should have just been content with how things are going for me now without having to start this business. I just hope that I can at least make enough money to pay it all back and get out of debt. Of course I also hope that I can be wildy succesfull with it too. Time will tell.

At least very soon I will get to actually get out there and really give it a go. For the last two years I have been screwing around with this gasser trying to get it in good enough shape to do the job. But, it's always been one problem after another with the engine tuning and vibrations, etc. I have several potential clients I've wanted to pitch to, but haven't had the confidence in the heli to actually be able to tell people that, YEAH I can go out there and do this for you.

With this new heli in the works, I am ninety nine point nine percent positive that I will have the correct tools to do the job now. I can finally get out there and do it. Now I just need to see if I can get people to pay me for it!

Here we go again!

2007-06-27T01:34:00.000-06:00

It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people are. Did I say stupid? Maybe I should just call them Scum of the Earth. I am now refering to another story that just popped up on the Fox News website. Apparently some idiot lady from MI is sueing Mars Candy because a Starburts chew caused her jaw to lock up! That's right. And she thinks she is owed $25,000.00 for her pain and suffering.

Once again quoting from the article. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,286855,00.html

one Boston-area woman says the candies are so chewy, they should come with a warning label.

Yeah whatever lady! As if a warning label would have stopped you from stuffing your face with Starbursts.

Muawad says McArthur offered to negotiate a settlement with Starburst's insurer to pay for her rehabilitation, but the company said no way. A spokesman for Mars refused to comment.

Go Mars! Stand up! I hope Mars drains every last drop of its corporate finances to legally bury this moron.

McArthur says she just wants to make sure nobody else meets the same end she did when she decided to indulge her sweetooth.

"I don't want to see anybody else have to go through what I have gone through from eating a piece of candy that was supposed to be soft chew," she said.

Oh my hero! I'm so glad there are people out there like Victoria McArthur. Champions of liberty and fairness to watch over the rest of us....willing to take on the big, evil, nameless corporations all out of care and concern for her fellow shipmates here on spaceship Earth. Gee I wonder which charity she plans on donating her $25k to if she wins. Maybe she can help children of the Ozarks get dental care or something.

Give me a break people! We've got Thousands, maybe millions of radical islamists in the world plotting our extinction, and here we are sueing candy companies for being too chewy! No wonder they think we're weak and have the confindence to attack us! Look at us!!

The United Communist States of America?

2007-06-14T19:25:00.000-06:00

Is this what it's coming to anymore in this country? I am specifically writing about the story I read about Kellog bowing to the will of advocacy groups to reformulate their LEGALLY distributed products like Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, and Pop Tarts to meet more "nutritional" guidelines. To read the whole article go to Fox News:

I will be quoting here from the article.

The Battle Creek, Mich., company avoided a lawsuit threatened by parents and nutrition advocacy groups worried about increasing child obesity. Kellogg intends to formally announce its decision Thursday.

The company said it won't promote foods in TV, radio, print or Web site ads that reach audiences at least half of whom are under age 12 unless a single serving of the product meets these standards:

Remember this is AMERICA! When did minority advocacy groups in this country get this kind of power? American companies are becoming slaves bent to the whims of these lunatic groups who can use the court system to destroy companies and people who don't conduct legal business in a manner that these groups deem acceptable!! Twenty years ago if this happened, Kellogg would have laughed it off knowing that any judge in the country would toss a case like this out.

"By committing to these nutrition standards and marketing reforms, Kellogg has vaulted over the rest of the food industry," said Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "This commitment means that parents will find it a little easier to steer their children toward healthy food choices — especially if other food manufacturers and broadcasters follow Kellogg's lead."

Unbelievable! Parents will find it easier to STEER their children toward healthy food choices!? This is ridiculous. This Mr. Jacobson is assuming that we as parents in America have no control over what our kids eat and do not eat? Especially the younger than twelves? COME ON! I don't wake up on Saturday morning and see my kids eating Frosted Flakes and think to myself, "Gee...I sure wish my kids wouldn't eat that crap...sigh...but what can I do?" WRONG! My kids eat what I give them to eat. I do the shopping. I make the choices of what cereal goes in the cart, not the kids! There's no "steering" going on at my home.

I love to reward them once in a while with a sweetened cereal. It's been a family tradition that on your birthday as a kid you get to choose a cereal. You know...Cookie Crisp, Frosted Flakes, Fruity Pebbles, Lucky Charms etc. But on a regular day you see my kids eating oatmeal or Cheerios, or Grape Nuts, or Shredded Wheat. I'm not such a moron to feed my kids straight sugar all day long and then wonder why they are fat, and neither is the rest of America's parents.

Sueing companies like Kellog, KFC and McDonald's is not going to do one bit of a dent in this country's obesity problem. This country needs nutritional education! It's 2007 and we are still going by the USDA's food pyramid that's been around since the 1940s. Despite a few modifications over the years it's the same dang pyramid. Maybe it's time for a revaluation on our nutritional approach as a country. Forcing companys through litigation is not the answer here! What's next, Nintendo, Playstation, and XBOX? How about that for contributing to obesity? Let's sue the gamer industry next to put microchips in consoles that force them to shut off after a certain ammount of play time every day. Yeah, parents don't know what's best for their kids. Let's introduce a robomom and robodad while we're at it.

Back To The Drawing Board

2007-06-04T09:27:00.001-06:00

Well, today is day four of my new Atkins diet. I have spent two years trying to do the Body For Life program and have not made much progress. Sure, I have had good weeks with BFL, I even lost 12 pounds in 5 weeks on BFL once. Unfortunately, I can't seem to stay with it consistently enough to keep the weight off, and have spent the last two years gaining back twenty five pounds. I can say that in my experience with BFL I only lost weight if I was working out every day as the diet prescribes. The plus was if I stuck to the diet part but missed the workouts I did not gain weight. So, it's a great way for me to maintain my weight, but I just don't think I can use it to lose signifigant body fat.

I am not blaming the diet or program itself, but more my personal life and schedule. I work fourteen hour shifts four times a week and overtimes on top of that. I have a wife and three kids plus two dogs. Getting to the gym consitently is not easy. I believe if you have the time and schedule to get into the gym than BFL will work for anyone. But, at least on Atkins you lose weight whether you are working out or not. If I miss a workout on Atkins it isn't a big deal. I still lose weight.

Why back to Atkins? My first experience with Atkins I lost around thirty five pounds. I read alot of negatives about Atkins on the internet that made me wary to do it. I found these negatives to be false in my own case. Here's what I found to be untrue for me.

1- Atkins will make your cholesterol go up
2- Atkins will cause your blood pressure to rise
3- Atkins will make you grumpy and irritable
4- Atkins will make you tired and non-energetic
5- The weight you lose on Atkins is mostly water and lean muscle, not fat.
6- You will gain all the weight back that you lose.

These were the major things I was hearing about Atkins when I started it. I found every single one of those to be wrong in my case. In my job I have to get a complete medical physical every year. My first physical after eight months of Atkins was A+ My blood pressure was down from the year before. My resting heart rate was down. My HDLs were up and my LDLs were down. I was not irritable or non-energetic. My blood sugar stayed nice and level all the time so I never felt that mid-afternoon "crash" that alot of people feel every day. And as far as gaining the weight back....well what diet out there can you go off and NOT gain back the weight. My mistake was going off in the first place.

I also have to mention a recent study out of Stanford, the longest of its kind to date, where the Atkins diet came out on top by a significant amount. The study shows that people on Atkins lost 40% more fat than people on the next best diet. The article I read didn't mention what the "next best" diet is.

So, here's to another try at weight loss, one that I know from personal experience works. From this last study I can do it without fear or doubts to the benefits. I'm thinking that I can probably slowly transition to more of a BFL lifestyle once I lose the weight I want. I will probably count the carbs still. If I start gaining weight, I will cut back the carbs until I find the magic number. So, I guess in the end I will be doing kind of a blend of Atkins and BFL. Atkins For Life? I would do this just because I find the food choices and diet of BFL preferable to Atkins. So, if I can use Atkins to lose the weight first, then BFL to maintain, that would be ideal.

I will keep my progress posted here.

ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY!

2007-05-27T03:41:00.000-06:00

I just rented and watched the movie, "Rocky Balboa" tonight. Let me first admit before the world that I like the first four Rocky movies. I know they are considered campy and cliche by most of the world out there, but I like em!

I rented the movie basically expecting another heaping serving of the same old Rocky movie formula. I have to admit I was a bit surprised at the depth of character developement that went into this one. It is mostly a character piece really that deals with issues of growing older and feeling out of touch with one's potential. It also deals with family relationships. Rocky has to overcome negative feelings from his grown up son who is tired of living in Rocky's shadow. He also has to combat his loneliness as his wife, Adrian, has passed away.

I don't want to get all into the plot and all, but just thought that the film showed alot of guts. Stallone puts his soul out there for the audience, and one can't help but to wonder if he is personally dealing with these similar issues in his real life as he deals with growing older.

The message is clear. Never give up on what you want to do. Don't let other people tell you what you can and can't do. There is a great scene where Rocky puts the smack down on his pouting son, and gives him a talk on the reality of life. Basic message, stop mopping about like a victim and blaming this and that for your failures. Stand up and hit life back with all you have!

All and all a well acted movie with a positive, up-beat message. I think I will be adding this one to my personal library.

Have a turned my blog into a movie critic blog? Nah. I'm just going to start putting crap like this on here too. Books, movies, thoughts, etc.

The Slaughter of Noobies

2007-04-25T00:24:00.000-06:00

Had a great day of paintball last Saturday, the 21st. We actually had seventeen people show up to play. We played in the river bottoms which aren't quite yet lush and green so I wore my brown realtree camo which seemed to work superbly.

The weather was what I would call perfect. I'm not sure of the temps but it was on the cool side with the sun behind clouds often, and a few intermittent sprinkles of rain throughout the day. We played for about three hours.

The first game was Mutant. I was on the human team, but a bunch of new and very young players volunteered to be mutants. I felt bad for them as I saw them getting mowed down, so I rushed into the open to give them a chance, and BINGO I was hit, so I joined up with the mutants, who went on to eliminate all humans...as usual!

The next game was Spawn, which we played for quite a long time. I had numerous kills in the game, but was also taken out many times. It was pretty confusing with so many teams. I think in the future with that many players it will be better to play three man teams.

After Spawn we played a game of Grand Bush ( protect the president ) we sent out four snipers, and made history by having our very first female president. She did a good job and ordered her men well. The snipers were defeated easily. Afterwards the four snipers were complaining that 4 vs 13 was just plain impossible. So...Clay, Jon, Blake, and I ( all seasoned players ) volunteered to be the snipers for another game of Grand Bush.

We devised a simple diversion / flank plan. Clay and Blake hung back near the flag that the president is supposed to capture, while Jon and I hid ourselves off to the side. Eventually the president and her men moved right past us and got into a fire fight with Clay and Blake. Once the shooting began, Jon and I made a dash right up the center of the field, and caught the whole group unawares from behind.

The rest of what happened just seems like a blurr to me. I just remember putting my sights on the whole group, and ripping off automatic rounds from the Egrip A-5 with extreme prejudice. I could here Jon's gun next to me doing like wise. The noobies were in a dead panic as they danced around flayling their arms in the air as if trying to swat the paintballs like they were angry hornets. All the while they were yelling "HIT HIT HIT!" But due to some lingering survivors we continued the barrage for a bit more until the entire group had been eliminated.

I almost feel evil for implementing such an effective plan on a group of mostly newbies. But....IT SURE WAS A KICK!!! HA HA HA!

After playing a few times now that my A-5 is all modified to look like the real thing, I am starting to have second thoughts. I find that although the gun sure looks cool, it might actually be impairing my performance as it is now twice as long and twice as heavy and cumbersome. I'm starting to think I made a mistake getting all that after market crap. I might be looking to sell it all, and strip the gun down to it's basic original look. I will still run the Egrip, and a remote line, and probably buy a nice barrel like the kevlar Black Cell from Special Ops Paintball.

First Paintball Day of The Year

2007-04-07T18:33:00.000-06:00

Well, I got my first paintballing in for the year. I played on a six acre forested field with about six of us. Not a huge turnout, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

I did pretty good actually. I was quite pleased. I had a total of about seven eliminations, with myself only getting eliminated about three times. Not a bad ratio. I ditched my Flatline barrel and went back to playing with my old Armson, and was very happy with the results. I kinda feel like my old self is back....the old self that oppenents needed to be wary of.

At one point in the game I actually flanked a guy from behind so bad that I ended up too close to shoot him, so called out for him to surrender, which he was more than happy to do. There was another memorable moment when it was two guys vs me and both were moving for me. I was able to eliminate them both as they moved up on me. That was pretty fun.

The field is called Fast Eddy's in Blackfoot, Idaho. I almost didn't go because I'm generally a little shy and felt apprehensive about just showing up by myself and playing with a bunch of guys I didn't know. Amazingly, I got there and actually knew a few people including the owner, who I have played paintball with once before when we just happened to meet up playing outlaw one day. Plus, I made contact with two other players from my home town that were interested in getting together. So, two fresh recruits! That's just what we need.

Well, hopefully there will be more paintball games to report as the summer goes on. Not just his one.

A Ray Of Hope

2007-03-28T04:39:00.000-06:00

Well, things may be looking up as far as the fitness goals go. For about a year now, I have been trapped in a bunker at work, and not let out to workout as often as I need to, in order to really make any headway. I have just found out that as of April 1st, I will no longer be required to work in this position. This will most definatley allow me more opportunity to run a more stringent and controlled routine. Hopefully once and for all I can get back into the Body For Life routine and take it all the way this time. I have been so discourage lately as I've seen myself gaining weight over the last year, pound by pound.

In the paintball world I'm a bit frustrated as well. I am hoping to get a game going for sometime in April. The weather should be nice enough by then. I hope. This is Idaho!! But, the major frustration is realizing that I don't have much of a player's pool anymore. Almost all of the original gang is moved away. I'm going to have to try to get out there and recruit some fresh blood into the paintball pool.

I flew my helicopter for the first time of the year. Didn't fly all winter. It flew great. Nice and smooth with no incidents. I am a bit rusty and am not as confident as I was. For now I will just have to take it slow and easy and gain back my confidence. No reason to rush it.

cough....cough

2007-03-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

That's been me for the last week. Sunday night I felt a tickle in my throat that caused me to cough a bit. I thought I had inhaled some dust or something when moving a refrigerator. Monday morning while driving to the gym I felt a bit of tightness in my chest associated with a small cough, but I felt well enought, and went through with my workout.

About half way into the workout, I suddenly felt very drained. My lungs were burning, and there was a raspy, raw sensation in the back of my throat. I came to terms with myself and admitted that I must indeed have come down with something. I quit the workout, and went straight to the sauna hoping to sweat out whatever it was afflicting me. Unfortunately some kind of virus has entrenched itself into my system, and has been reeking havoc on me all week. Runny nose, pounding head, stuffy sinuses, terrible cough, aching muscles and joints etc.

The fact that I've been working these last four days hasn't helped me in getting any better. Getting up at 4:30 am every morning, and not getting to bed till 11:00 pm. AAARGH! I get the next three days off, so tonight after I get home, I'm going to do a double dose of Nyquil and try to sleep for three days. Then maybe I will feel better.

Kudos to my wife who has gotten in a workout every day this week, and done a good job on her eating. Meanwhile she leaves me in the dust.

Hmmmm....Go figure

2007-02-21T05:13:00.000-07:00

This is strange. In my previous post, I lamented about not being able to lose weight even after a very dedicated week. I also mentioned that my discouragement led to four days of eating oblivion including raw cookie dough late at night on the couch.

The really strange thing is after all that, I weighed myself today, after two days back on the program, and I am down about three and half pounds! What the HECK?! I don't know what to make of it, but I will take what I can get. It's a mystery for sure. It goes to show that you can't rely so much on the scale. I should not have allowed myself to become so discouraged last week.

Today went good. I ran on the treadmill for twenty minutes before coming into work. It was a little tough since my hams are pretty sore from my all out sprint the other day to keep the job, but I did push through it, and it felt good.

As far as food goes, I have stumbled onto a culinary discovery that will make things nicer. When I bring food to work, I try to make it as easy and simple as possible. I love fish, but lately have been finding it harder and harder to gag down a can of tuna a day. Never fear! I found these great little pre cooked, sealed packets of marinated salmon steaks. These are absolutely delicious to me. tonight I had one with a portion of brown rice, and green beans. Bill Phillips would have burst his buttons with pride if he had seen my plate.

Well, that's it for today.

I get to keep my job

2007-02-20T05:37:00.000-07:00

Well, another year has come, and once again I had to prove my worthiness to keep wearing a gun as a responder on the job. No biggie, but I still get all nervous for it for some reason. Probably because I'm being timed by an X-Oakland Raiders player. We just call him The Griz around here.

Anyway, to keep my job, every year I am required to run a half mile in under 4:40, and a 40 yard dash starting from a prone position in under 7.8 seconds. I made my run in about forty degrees this year, which was nice compared to the six degrees I ran it in last year. Due to the cool air however, I always try to run a moderate pace and try to beat any land speed records. I ran my half mile in 4:05, and my 40 yards in 6.45. Not bad. Could be better if I could lose a good 3o pounds.

Well, I am working on that. I hate to report that last week after not losing one pound after such a successful week before of working out, I kinda fell off the wagon, and ate whatever for four days, including a bowl of cookie dough with my wife while we watched episodes of 24 till three in the morning. The good news is, I talked to my friend Jon, the personal trainer, and I think we figured out why I didn't lose weight.

Basically, in trying to follow Bill Phillips' advice on working out on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, most mornings I wasn't eating anything till noon! Which is unacceptable according to Jon. Which makes sense. You gotta start the metabolism up asap. So for now on, if I want to do the empty stomach thing, I need to get up and to the gym earlier. No more sleeping in. Otherwise, it would be better for me to just go ahead and eat something before heading to the gym. The other problem, is my diet isn't as strict as it was when I tried Body For Life last spring. Mainly I have been eating these collossal sandwiches, that are probably holding me back as well. So, I'm cutting out the big Dagwood daily sandwich.

I am happy to report that despite my own laziness, today ( monday ) I began once again the program with new hope for success. I had a great upper body weight lifting workout to kick it off. So the new goal is to lose 5 lbs in two weeks. Hopefully I can at least see some results this time. If not, it will almost be tempting to go back on Atkins again. Just for the results. I kinda wonder how it would work to do the Atkins diet while working out the Body For Life way.

nuff for now.

Update

2007-02-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while! I guess there really hasn't been alot to say about paintball these days. Unfortunatley we only got together once last summer to play and that was the last time I basically posted. Yeah it was pathetic. Even mediocre half-hearted paintballers make it out more often than once a year! Anyway, as we approach the nearing of spring I am in a new mode of enthusiasm for paintball, and am gearing up for what will hopefully be a great summer of balln'.

I think that gearing this blog strictly towards paintball might have been a mistake. There just isn't enough to write about at this point to keep the blog going day in and day out, hence the major lack of posts over the last several months.

So, I have decided to just have a themeless blog. Yep, it's going to go in no particular direction. It's just going to be me. If paintball happens to be dominating my thoughts then the posts will be on paintball, or fitness, or RC aircraft, my job, my family, whatever. But, I still want to specialize on paintball to a degree, and make a concerted effort to still put it at the top of the list.

So now that's out of the way, here is a life update:

As far as the aerial photo business goes, I have all my gear and equipment together, and am just waiting for the weather to warm up so I can get out there and do some flying.

I am back on Body For Life after several false starts. I finally had one solid week without missing a workout, and staying on the right track diet wise. Although for some strange reason I didn't lose one single pound. I am very perplexed. I am not losing faith however, and will continue on and see how this next week goes. So for the record, Week One - 0 pounds lost. =(

As far as paintball goes, after playing last summer, I have decided to give up on the Flat Line barrel for my A-5. Don't get me wrong. It's a good barrel for
reaching out there far. But, the accuracy just isn't up to my standards. So, I have gone back to my trusty old Armson that I bought clear back in 1994. It still does well. Plus, both barrels can be interchanged pretty easily so if I decide I want to go back to the Flat Line it will be no big deal. Chances are though, I will sell it and try to put the money towards the new Tac 8, which would be a serious pistol to have, not that I need one, but really WANT one!

Well, that's all it in a nutshell. I'm not going to go so long this time without a post. Now that I can allow myself other topics to talk about.

Cool Stuff....Very Cool

2006-10-13T00:11:00.000-06:00

Just a quick explanaiton of the pics below. I had the chance to go down to Utah and particpate in the production of an episode of Home Makeover Utah. Readers of this blog don't know that on the side of my nine to five, I have been trying to break into the aerial photography and video business via small unmanned RC helicopters. I ma just about ready to open my own doors for business. Anyway, these are some pics of me working along side Gary Travis, notable RC heli pilot and cinematographer, at the shoot. He was allowing me the chance to work with him and operate the camera for him that day. It was cool. Hopefully I will get the chance to work similarly with him in the future. And hopefully I can get my own thing going.

ALMOST PARADISE

2006-07-11T02:33:00.000-06:00

Wow! I finally get to recap a day of paintball on here.

On Saturday July 8th ( way too late in the summer to be having the first paintball game of the year ) ten of us gathered at the field I've nicknamed, Ruby Ridge. For some pics and a description you can see the previous post. Ben was taking pictures at this game, so maybe I can eventually get some emailed to me to post on here.

We started at about eleven in the morning. The weather was sunny and somewhere in the mid to upper eighties I guess. It was a little hot for my taste, but the heat didn't seem to affect anyone's ability to have a great time! Aside from a couple of quick games of center flag we spent the next four hours playing strictly an attack and defend type game using the old farm house.

All in all it turned out to be a pretty action-packed day. I brought five hundred rounds with me, and only had about forty or so left at the end of a just a few hours. For me, that's a lot of shooting. We had the following players show up:

Brady
Jon
Joe
Ben
Steve
Phil
Blake
Clay
Rusty
Brian

My favorite kill of the day has to be when I was on the attacking team. We had killed all the defenders in the house except for one. After giving him a few chances to surrender and come out with no response, I decided to make an entry into the house. With my team mates covering me through the windows I made a rush from the front door and into a corner in the living room. I looked back at the doorway to see that Joe had followed me and was in the doorway. I was looking at him getting ready to take the hallway, when I saw him suddenly look up at the ceiling. My eyes instinctively followed his to the half exposed, rotting rafters ten feet up.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw Rusty, the last defender, standing above the doorway precariously balanced on the rafters, drawing aim - trying to find a clear shot at me through the rotten boards and slats. With my A-5 set to full auto I immediately fired a good ten round burst into his belly and chest, the final round ending up in a big green splat between the eyes. He had opened fire at me at the same time, but somehow had missed me. Unfortunately for him, Joe and several others opened up on him the same time I did. Stunned and blinded Rusty continued firing his gun off. I was yelling, "he's out! He's dead! . . . Rusty YOU ARE DEAD!" One of his rounds hit me in the upper left thigh before he finally got a hold of himself and quit firing. I'm not sure how many hits he had recieved by that time.

My favorite death of mine, had to be my second time as a defender in the house. I don't remember much about the particulars of that battle, just how it ended. I do remember attackers getting up to the windows and sticking their guns in and firing wildly around the room. Once I shot Joe in the wrist three times as he jammed his gun through the window opening. To be a defender in the house is a crazy experience. The sound of the paintballs impacting on the walls is really wild. The guns all sound so different in there too. It just basically sounds like all hell is breaking loose, and it actually pretty much is!

Anyway, it was down to Steve and I as the last defenders, and the situation was getting desperate. Paintballs where flying everywhere, and we were pushed back into the last two rooms of the house with big open windows all around us. Suddenly I hear Steve yell "grenade!" I could't believe my eyes when I saw a Tippmann Squadbuster flopping around on the floor at Steve's feet spraying blue paint all over his pant legs. I have to say that in my fifteen plus years of paintballing that is the first time I have ever seen a grenade eliminate a player. A few moments later, all by myself, I was eventually overwhelmed and eliminated. I believe Clay did the honors through a window that was on my left.

The other memorable moment was Joe's big charge at center flag. Joe and his whole team decided that they would all sprint in the open towards the flag while shooting simultaneously. They hoped to overwhelm us with aggressive speed and fire power. We read what they were going to do, and when the game began we all went to one knee and hosed them with hundreds of rounds as they ran to the flag. I can honestly say I never let off the trigger the entire duration of the game. None of us did. I would have to guess that it was about twenty seconds of non-stop firing before it was over. I went through probably one hundred rounds just in twenty seconds.

To sum it all up, it was probably one of the most memorable days of paintball I've had. What an awesome place to play, and what a great bunch of guys to play with. I hope we can do it again soon. I invite my fellow players who were there with me to post comments and tell us your favorite kill, and favorite death.

Out.

Knockn' on Heaven's Door

2006-06-10T22:19:00.000-06:00

Finally a paintball update!

Well, we have officially set July 7th or the 8th as a game to get together and finally play some paintball. I personally don't plan on waiting that long, but that's the day that everyone is going to travel to come play this one.

Today I found what has to be the COOLEST place I've ever seen to play paintball. I've nicknamed the place, Ruby Ridge.

It is an old abandoned farm stead about a three mile drive from my home. How great is that?! There is an old house, along with out buildings, canals, bridges, and sheds. It's all over grown with tall grass, weeds, and trees. This is an ideal spot to play. I can't freakn' wait!

I am so excited for the new dynamics that buildings and structures, along with canals of water are going to add to our playing experience. Plus it has a lot of trees, brush and open areas. It's the best of all worlds.

I just hope it isn't too good to be true. I hope the property owner doesn't change his mind and decide to not allow it.

Anyway, not a real long entry today. Just wanted to talk about the new place to play.

Started Body For Life back up yesterday after three weeks off and four pounds added. Gotta get back on it. current weight: 12lbs

Limbo

2006-05-18T13:06:00.001-06:00

Well, I am currently floating around in diet limbo for the moment. Body For Life was going great. It still is I guess. This last monday began week six. So far it's gone like this: Week one lost two pounds, week two lost three pounds, week three lost three pounds, week four gained one pound, week five lost two pounds, Week six gained three.

Beginning weight 217 lbs. Current weight 211 lbs. Total weight loss = 6 lbs I was down to 208 lbs at one point making a total loss of 9 lbs.

There has been the complication this week of my wife giving birth to our third child ( a boy ). Because of that I have been on the "my wife just had a baby" program, which consists of eating lots of frozen pizza, fruity pebbles, and the only excersice I get is chasing the other two kids around, doing dishes, laundrey, etc.

I am happy to say that the diet is going great otherwise. Those three pounds gained will be gone as soon as I can get my life back into the regular routine. Despite the weight loss, I have also begun to notice an increase in muscularity. Nothing that would blow you away, but changes are taking place. Changes that feel good. I can't wait to get back on it. I think this is going to be the path to my goal, and it feels good to be on that path.

I think that I will allow myself a two or three week extension on the twelve week program to make up for the last two weeks.

------

The weather has gotten very nice lately. The temps are in the upper eighties the last few days. I have been fondling my paintball gun wishing to get out and play. I have heard that the river bottoms where we usually meet to play is currently under water from the snow run-off. I have a friend that owns some land up in the foothills, several acres, and mentioned to me that we could play there if we want. It would be a little farther to drive, but it would also be a basic private field for us. That would be awesome. I just need to hook up with him, and have him drive me out there, so I can know how to get there.

As far as putting a competitve team goes, I haven't given it as much thought lately. I am a bit discouraged over it. Joe is moving out of state to the Mid West to got to med school. Jon and Ben both live three and four hours away. That just leaves a few of us here to form the team. Hopefully I can do some major recruiting this summer and come up with at least five or six guys who'd be interested in joining the team. Maybe by Fall we can actually start some serious team training.

Anyway, once the baby situation gets squared up, and life gets back to normal a little bit, I will schedule the first game of the year. Although it probably won't be eveyone else's first game.

Limbo

2006-05-18T13:06:00.000-06:00

So Far So Good

2006-04-19T10:57:00.000-06:00

Ok. It has been about two weeks since I began Body For Life. Today is actually day sixteen. It seems to be going pretty good so far. In two weeks I've lost five pounds. My friend, the personal trainer who recommended this, says that five pounds in two weeks is terrific. So, I am pretty excited.

I have been keeping a journal where I log every workout, and every meal. It has been helpful to go back and look at previous workouts and use the numbers to plan future workouts. It also has been a great motivator. Knowing that I have to write down my workouts and meals in a journal helps keep me in line. I also took before pictures, and am going to take pictures every four weeks throughout the entire twelve week program, so I can track my progress that way. This is also a great motivator. Knowing that my next pictures are in two weeks makes me want to really work hard over these next couple weeks. I wonder if any change will be noticeable in just four weeks.

I am feeling pretty good so far. I can feel my muscles hardening, and my waist line seems to be getting smaller just by the feel of my pants. The energy level seems good, and the diet is actually a pleasure to be on in comparison to the low-carb dieting I was doing before. For the record: Starting weight: 217 lbs. After week one: 215 lbs. After week two: 212 lbs. Total loss so far: 5 lbs.

I thought we'd have played some paintball by now, but the weather has been atrocious! It's been snowing the last two days. This is one of the worst springs I think in my memory. Today is looking pretty good though. I think I will go fly my radio controlled helicopter.

Unexpected Surprise

2006-04-03T10:30:00.000-06:00

Today was day one of my attempt at the Body For Life twelve week program. I got up this morning at 7:30 and was at the gym working out by 8:10. I planned ahead of time what my work out would consist of last night, going by the guidlines in the Body For Life program.

I have always considered myself a hard-hitting customer when it came to weight training, so I wasn't too concerned about today's work out. In fact, I will admit that I was a little skeptical at first. Is it possible to really get in a good weight training work out in just forty five minutes? Especially when training chest, shoulders, back, triceps and biceps? Personally, I thought that this work out would be a little amateurish for me. I figured Bill Phillips had designed it for those with little or no experience in the gym.

I am here to say that this morning I got served a big slice of humble pie! This work out was intense! I felt the blood rushing to my muscles after each exercise. I could barely keep my arms from shaking on the steering wheel on the drive home. In fact, It hit me so hard, I was unable to finish the work out. I walked out on the last few sets of biceps. I was just too exhausted to continue. Bile was rising up in my stomach from exersion, and I felt like I was going to vomit if I continued! So much for my earlier concerns.

Tomorrow will be a cardio day. No need to get up early and head to the gym. I can do that on my treadmill here at home. So, here I begin the journey with the first day being a success as far as I'm concerned even though I didn't finish the work out. I still pushed myself.

Day 1 - 217 lbs

It's The Final Countdown

2006-03-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

The weather is still snow and rain forecasted for the next ten days! So, paintball is still out of the question. Even if it was nice, we'd still be playing in a mud bog. The weather can't be hideous forever can it?

I just finished "Body For Life" by Bill Phillips, and my eyes have been opened. Apparantly I've been going about this whole get in shape journey all wrong. The book makes a lot of sense, and I have decided to accept Mr. Phillips' twelve challenge. Today is Friday, and I have decided to mark this monday as my first day. I'm pretty excited, and yet a little aprehensive. I see the before and after pics of people who've succeeded following this program, and I get all excited. I can't believe the change these people were able to make in just twelve weeks!

I guess the only thing that I am nervous about is getting all the workouts in. Without going into a lot of detail, the nature of my job is going to make some days virtually impossible to work out. I'm going to give it my best however. A missed workout here and there shouldn't destroy everything. The good news is that under Bill's program the workouts are pretty short, so squeezing them into a busy schedule shouldn't be as tough.

Anyway, I plan to keep a regular update on here as to my progress, and workouts and dieting and stuff. I think I will take a before picture, and then one every three weeks, so I can see a photographic record of my progress.

We shall see how it goes.

Desperate times are calling

2006-03-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

Today is another judgement day. I weighed myself, and found that I've lost maybe one pound at most. I am just a little over 209 now, according to the mechanical scale. Maybe I've lost a little more, since it seems like I was on the heavy side of 210 last week. All in all, it's no great cause for celebration. I'm happy that I didn't gain at least. This week wasn't filled with an abundance of workouts either, so I can't complain too much. Work was just scheduled so that the work out opportunities weren't there. I am happy to report that twice during this week I broke my running records on the treadmill. I've never been much of a runner, and have never run continuously for more than three miles in thirty minutes.

At the beginning of the week I did run 3.25 miles. I hit the 3 mile mark at 29:20 min, and continued on just for the sake of breaking my record to 3.25. I am happy to report that this morning I broke that record. I started at a 10:00 min mile pace for 5 min. Then I increased the speed to 8:34 and ran that for 15 min. Then back to 10:00 for 5 min. and back to 8:34 for the last 5 min. In the end I have the following new records:

Longest time to stay at an 8:34 pace = 15 min.

Fastest time to run 3 miles = 27:10 min

Farthest to ever run without a rest = 3.5 miles

So, the weight loss may not be going as fast as I'd like it to, but there is some progress and something to be proud of. Also, have gotten some comments that my face is looking slimmer from a couple people, and my pants and duty belt at work seem to be fitting looser. I wonder if I am depending too much on the scale. I have been lifting weights a lot, and eating a lot of protein, so maybe I'm losing some body fat, while building some muscle, and therefore weight loss isn't translating to the scale.

Be that as it may, I'm thinking of adding Hydroxycut™ to the equation. To be honest it goes against my principles. I'm not a big beleiver in using drugs and supplements to attain fitness. If you can't attain it naturally, you won't be able to maintain it naturally. That's been my philosophy on that. But since this last ten pounds has been so stubborn coming off, I'm starting to think about using it just to fire off these last ten to fifteen pounds. Then go cold turkey. I am going to call the nutrition store today, and ask some questions. How does it work? Does it suppress appetite, or increase metabolism, or both?

Well, that's about it for now. Nothing paintball worthy to report today. It snowed last night, and the 30-40 mph winds are blowing it all over today. Looks like a scene from the Antarctic. Just waiting for the weather to warm up. That's it for now.

The Joy of Outfoxing

2006-03-05T03:44:00.000-07:00

Out of boredom, I thought I'd post one of my favorite paintball memories, for posterity.

It was sometime in the mid-nineties, and a group of about ten of us had gathered for some recreational play in some river bottoms that line the banks of the Snake River. After a few friendly games, we noticed another group of about ten guys in full camo approaching us, paintball guns slung over their shoulders. They too had the same idea. They seemed like nice guys, and it wasn't long before it was decided we should band up and play together as one large group.

We played a few mixed games with them. By mixed, I mean we were all mingled together...no us vs them mentality. It was all fun and games, until they decided that they wanted to take us on. Their most out-spoken player said, " Hey how about us versus you guys for a game?" Suddenly the competitive juices started to flow. Don't get me wrong. They were the consumate good sports, but you could feel that somehow a lot of pride was being laid on the line. We all felt a burning need to beat these guys, and show them who was king.

We agreed. The format would be simple. Elimination. Each team would start from opposite ends of the field. The goal was simply to eliminate the other team. No flag to capture or other objectives to win. The last team with a surviving player on the field won. We seperated and startd walking to our respective sides of the field. My mind raced for some kind of strategy to use against these guys. I was more used to capturing a flag or achieving some other objective in order to win.

Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head. It would be a risky plan, but if we could pull it off it would work great. When the whistle blew to start the game. We sprinted towards the other team as fast and as quietly as we could. When we reached close to mid-field we quickly went about burying our team mate, Jon, under a pile of branches, grass, and leaves. With Jon completely camo'd, and the other team not in sight yet, we faded back towards our base, taking cover in the trees and undergrowth.

It wasn't long before the other team began to appear in a skirmish line, emerging from the forest- one by one- like phantoms from a mist. We let them come a little closer, and opened fire. For a little bit we traded fire with them, until they eliminated one of our guys. That was our signal to fall back slowly. As we fell back, they naturally pushed forward, and to my much delight, they pushed right on past Jon, who still lay motionless under his hiding spot. Once we knew they were past Jon, we stopped our feigned retreat, and really opened up aggresively on them, moving, shooting, flanking, and pushing up a little. This was all to cause distraction - to get them so they had tunnel vision. Jon waited patiently for his signal to start the main phase of the plan.

With a loud war cry, I charged like a kamikaze towards the other team, firing at them as fast and wildly as I could, and also keeping myself in the open to present an irresistable target. The other team fell for my distraction technique, as all of them were firing like mad to take me out. Which in fact, they did. I felt the hot sting as several paintballs impacted on my chest and legs. Raising my hands I called myself out and started walking over to the side. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jon emerge smoothly from hiding. His gun reminded me of a coiled snake about to strike as I watched him take aim at the back of one of the unsuspecting opponents.

To wrap things up, let me just say, Jon had single handidly eliminated at least half of the other team, before any of them had any idea what was happening. The remaining four opponents collapsed on themseleves as our team rushed in for the kill. With Jon firing a hail storm of rounds at them from behind, and seven of our guys doing the same from the front, while charging and flanking, they didn't stand a chance.

The game was over. There were handshakes and smiles. War stories shared. The other guys were in utter awe.

One of my favorite things about paintball is when you put together a plan as a team, and follow that plan, using solid tactics and team work, and come out on top. It really is the icing on the cake in the sport for me.

HItting The Wall

2006-02-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

210 lbs! For the second week in a row! I'm kinda bummed. 210 seems to be my wall lately. I can't seem to drop below that number anymore. A couple of years ago, I was able to get down to 195. Now I can't seem to get past 210! I know however, that I havn't been as diligent this time around as I was last time. Last time there was no cheating whatsover! Not even little sugar-free candies. I guess I can't complain too much. I did cheat three of the last six days or so. Actually, maybe 210 is good news. I cheated quite a bit, and didn't gain any weight. On top of that, I didn't get the chance to work out as often as I wanted at work. Only two workouts out of five days. So, maybe being able to sit back and say that I had a crappy week, and was still able to maintain my weight is a good thing. I guess I'm just tired of getting stopped at 210. The difference is, is that usually at this point, I would yo yo back up to 215, and then start the cycle over again. NOT THIS TIME! I won't give into dispair this week! I will stay with the diet this week, and I will workout when I can.

The workouts are going to be the hard part. I will be spending a lot of time assigned to a post this next set of work days that won't give me a chance to workout. You have to understand. I work a twelve hour shift combined with an hour and a half commute each way. I leave the door at 5 Am / PM and don't get home until 8:30 AM / PM Not really a chance to workout after work. But, maybe I can get in some quick ten min. runs or something on the treadmill. Bottom line, I plan to be under 210 next week. I'm going to attack this.

I'm glad I sat down to post on my blog. Before I sat down to write, the left-over pizza, and rasberry filled donuts were calling my name without mercy. Now I feel a boost of strength to resist those calls.

No paintball news this week. The weather is warming up. Much of the snow is melted. The temps were in the mid 40s this week. Right now it's pouring and the wind is blowing. The ground is a soggy mud pit. But, you can tell warmer weather is around the corner. Hopefully I will be posting some paintball related stuff soon. That's it for this week.

Lose weight.....throw grenades!

2006-02-21T18:01:00.001-07:00

Today is day five since my new recommitment to losing weight. I promised myself that I would post my results every week on here, to kind of help motivate me, and as a way to track my progress.

So here's how the last four days went.

Thursday: Started diet. Ran for 2.5 miles on treadmill. Later that night at work had a good chest / triceps / stairmaster workout

Friday: Woke up ran 2 miles on treadmill. Had back / biceps / stairmaster workout later that night at work

Saturday: No workout at all. I had to deal with frozen water pipes when I woke up, and at work I was stationed in a high secure area where working out is not possble. I will refer to the area for now on as the bunker.

Sunday: Once again, no workout because of the bunker again.

Monday: Ran 2.5 on the treadmill first thing in the morning. Also weighed myself ----210 lbs = a 5 lbs loss. not bad.

Now I am at a crucial point. I usually can get down to 210 and then I destroy it all by cheating on the diet. Well, today would have normally been a cheat day, but not today. I am hanging in there. I really want to kick the effort into overdrive, and see how fast I can get down to 200. I think I will do some lifting later tonight Back and biceps.

PAINTBALL

So, it's still snowing. Talked a lot this week with Clay and Jon about the itch to play. We all agree that it't time for winter to end. I got my A5 all pimped out exactly how I want it now. It has a stock, raised sight rail, Egrip, 42mm red dot sight, flatline barrel, raider shroud, and false magazine. I have to admit, it's a little heavy now with all that stuff on it, but it sure is wicked looking! I will post a pic of it in the future.

I was going to get rid of the Flatline barrel, cause I felt like it wasn't as accurate as I'd like, but then I realized I had gone with a remote last summer and no stock, so there wasn't anything to brace against my shoulder. The inaccuracy I experienced might have been due to that. So, I am going to give the Flatline another chance. It's worth it since the barrel puts 150 ft of extra range on your gun, that others don't have.

The only other thing, is I found this cool kit you can get: refillable grenades.

We as a group have never used grenades hardley. Mostly due to the expense. A typical paintball grenade averages around $5.00 a piece! That's just too much money for most of us. Although there have been many times when a grenade would have come in handy, for the money we do without. Except maybe for now. These grenades average 1$ a piece. Much better. I still need to talk the guys into going in on the refill kit. For practice purposes we could just fill them with water. I talked to Clay, and he's for it. I gotta find eight guys willing to fork over $12.50. That would get them 3 grenades, each one reusable up to five times. So, $12.50 for 15 grenades essentially. That's only 83 cents a pop. You can't ask for much better.

I Think I Can...I Think I Can

2006-02-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

I guess for this post, I’m blogging just for the sake of blogging. We got three inches of snow today. BAH! It’s supposed to be getting warmer. Spring is right around the corner...right? Anyway, there isn’t much to report in the paintball world, which is the main theme now of my blog. If the weather ever warms up, then perhaps I will become more active here.

Thanks to idahopaintball.com. I have learned of a tournament being held in Ontario, Oregon in May. There isn’t a whole lot of information available yet. All I know is it’s the first weekend of May, and is a four man team tactical scenario tourney of some kind. Sounds right up our alley. I’ll have to wait until more information is available. It would be a five hour drive, but we could stay at Ben’s ( team mate ) house in Boise to cut costs. Right now I’m thinking we could have Myself, Jon, Joe, and Ben as the team, and Rett whitesalamander. as an alternate, and moral, and logistical support. He could drive down from Portland for the event. We will have to wait and see how the details fan out. More later.

As far as my personal fitness gains go, I’ve been better sadly. At this point, I am on a text book Yo Yo diet. I will start up Atkins, and do it faithfully for a week, and lose three to five pounds, then go off the diet for a few days and destroy any progress. This has been going on now for a couple of months, and I am just about fed up with myself. I am on the verge of a major rebirth. I can feel the personal loathing building to a boiling point. I know I have it in me to do what I need to do to accomplish my goals. For now the plan is to use Atkins faithfully to get down to two hundred pounds. Once there, I will switch from Atkins to the Body For Life program by Bill Phillips. I will use healthy diet, and plenty of activity and exercise to maintain a weight under two hundred. Every few weeks, I will switch back to an Atkins type diet to try to lose a few more pounds. Hopefully after a while, I can be closer to one ninety by doing this.

Part of that plan is to make myself more accountable for my failures as I blogged about before. For now on, I will be recording in this blog my fitness ups and downs as often as possible. At least once a week, I will make a report including times worked out, what work outs consisted of, diet, and current weight. I figure it will help keep me in line knowing that I have to post the results on the internet for all the world to see.

So here goes the first entry:

As of now my weight is 215 lbs. I lifted weights yesterday. chest and triceps. No cardio. I am pretty sore today, so that’s good. Benched more than usual. Which is weird, cause it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve lifted. Today, I worked a long shift, and didn’t get the chance to workout. I followed a strict Atkins diet all day, which I destroyed by eating pizza, a donut, and some candy when I got home. Tomorrow is a new day. NO CHEATING! and I will workout. There’s no excuse not to.

Every dog has his day. . .FINALLY!

2006-01-21T00:16:00.000-07:00

You are looking at Costello, the Alaskan Malamute who has taken best in show for the 2006 AKC Eukanuba dog show. What a specimen! I mean look at the neck, head, chest, and massive paws of this stud. This is no small honor for the behemoth dog. He took home near $80,000 in awards and prizes. He is the first dog in the history of the show to take home ALL the top honors single "pawed" And not only did he take best in show, but he also resoundingly won the viewer's choice award too! Incredible.

Why am I making such a big deal about this? I am a big dog lover. Currently I have three of them mooching their existence off of me, including. . .yep you guessed it; an Alaskan Malamute.

This is Kodiak. Sorry about the photo, I pulled it off of a low res video, and he was moving, so it's a bit blurry. He's eight years old, and one hundred and sixty pounds of teddy bearish, snuggling, fur-shedding, affection. This is a great breed, despite the wolfish appearance. Very loving gentle giants, who can get serious if the situation calls for it.

Anyway, cheers for Costello! I have been waiting for a Malamute to win for a long time.

The Great American Hero!

2006-01-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well, you are looking at him. A classic G.I. Joe action figure like I remember him from my childhood of the 80s. What a great toy. My brother and I had several G.I. Joes including vehicles, and played with them constantly. Other kids were into He-Man, or Star Wars, but for me and my brother it was G.I. Joe all the way! I loved how when you bought a new action figure, the back of the package would have a little profile on the character. His age, birthplace, specialties, and how he came to join the Team. I was especially proud of Alpine, the expert G.I. Joe mountaineer, because he was born in Idaho, and that's where he learned to climb so good.

Now that I'm grown and have a son of my own, I have regretted that G.I. Joe seems to have fallen from his former grace. I don't know how or why it happened, but sometime in the 90s the toys began to decline. The scuplting, and imagination that went into the characters didn't seem up to snuff. The vehicles got more and more ridiculous. The ultimate sin was when they started making honorary team members out of celebrities like Mr. T. The utlimate being a figure of Refrigirator Perry of the Chicago Bears, weilding a steel football attached to a chain. This was the clap of doom to the great traditions of G.I. Joe in my mind.

Now the reason for this post. I have often wished that someone would come out with a similar toy like the old G.I. Joe, so that my kid can enjoy the same fun that I had. Yeah, there are some cheap knock offs out there, and some honestly, aren't too bad. But last night, as I browsed the toy aisle with my kids, all my fantasies came true when I saw the resurrection of my old hero. There he was not only in his former glory, but in glory to surpass my wildest expectations. The G.I. Joe Sigma 6 series action figure. Eight inches of fully posable, well made, studliness.

I am so glad to see this revival in coolness. In fact I might have to buy a few of my own. ( just for collectable purposes of course )

I might have to start with one of my favorites, Snake Eyes.

Isn't he so COOL?

GOOOOOO JOE!!!!!

Accountability

2006-01-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

I did something today that I haven't done in a few months. Something that I've come to believe is vital to my own success in achieving my personal fitness goals.

I weighed myself.

Yep. That's right. I have been ignoring the scale for the last few months. Mostly because I knew it had nothing good to tell me. So, like an Ostrich with its head in the sand, I walked past the scale every day, refusing to acknowlede it.

This morning I realized that by ignoring the scale, I wasn't holding myself accountable for my life style. As long as I didn't step on the scale, I would never really know how bad I'd been lately. I realized that if I'm ever going to achieve my desires, then I have to hold myself accountable.

For now on I will weigh myself once a week, and force myself to behold the consequences of my actions for the week, whether they be good or bad. I think this could be one of those things that might give me just that little extra boost of will power to overcome the little temptations that come my way during the week. That donut might be less appealing if I know I have to confront myself on that scale in a few more days. Or it could give me the motivation to get that work out in that I'm thinking about skipping. I will say to myself, " you don't want to just weight the same as you did last week do you?"

This week I got in two workouts while at work. Nothing major to report. Some weight lifting, some running etc. I didn't go too hard, as I am just getting back into a routine. I will gradually increase the intensity as time goes on. My new goal is to work out at home on my days off more often, not just while at work. My major goal this week is to workout on my birthday to help counter the cake and ice cream coming later that night. I mean it IS my birthday after all. I'll be 33.

No paintball news so far, as we are still under a blanket of snow.

Rethinking The Spec Ops Positions

2006-01-06T16:58:00.000-07:00

After a little thought, I am wondering if it would be a mistake to follow the Specops positions too rigidly. Don't get me wrong. I still like the idea of positions, but I think having certain players locked into certain roles might not allow for the flexibility that I'd like to see on my team.

Here are the positions and how I feel about them currently

COMMANDER - I think out of all of them, this position is the most neccessary. Even if you intend to do nothing else, I think it would be pure foolishness not to elect a commander for the team. So for now that one stays.

Sniper - I'm up in the air on this one. I hate to see someone so locked into this position that they aren't capable of anything else should the need arise. I'd like to see more what I call a sharp shooter. Someone who has the basic ambush, observation, and technical shooting skills as a sniper, but his equipment is such that he can step up and switch to something else in a second without being limited by his gear, ammo and gun. In short. I'd love the whole team to be able to assume this postion, and unassume it at any given time.

DAGGER - This is supposed to be a light weight, hard charging forward guy. It should be played by someone of a smaller frame, quick, and in good shape. according to Specops, he should always be found at the fore front of the fight mixing it up in an aggressive fashion. I guess I have no problem with this position. Except again, I would rather see someone that can play this, but when the situation calls for it he can settle down, or play back when needed. Or be sent on a stealth mission instead of something in your face. But, having someone who's willing to play this aggresively would be nice.

SABRE - this is the medium rifleman. In my opinion this is the foundation of the team. This is what everyone on the team should be capable of playing. A whole team of Sabres that can switch to sniper or dagger and back out again when they want would be fine with me. These are the guys who get the job done through the use of good team work and solid common sense tactics.

BROADSWORD - This is a heavy rifleman. not as mobile as the Sabre. He carries a lot ammo and grenades and is not afraid to use them. He should be laying down a lot of supressive fire, keeping the enemy at bay. This is ok, I guess. I would rather just take a Sabre or two, and alott them more ammo, and call upon them for cover fire when needed. No need for a specialized position here.

HAMMER - The only thing seperating a Hammer from a Broadsword, is a special gun you have to buy from Specops, that is capable of firing off 30 rnds a second. So, in my opinion this is a luxury position, not a necessary one. If I had a player willing to go out and by the Hammer gun, then yeah sure that would be fine with me.

Anyway, I am not trying to cast a bad light on Specops. I like the basic idea of positions. But, I think each team needs to tailor those positions to fit their own needs.

For me, I see us all mostly being a bunch of Sabres with mabye one or two guys willing to run up front as daggers, and a couple of guys packing more ammo to lay down lots of fire when needed. And everyone on the team being well skilled in ambush, camoflauge, and flanking like a sniper. Basically a bunch of Sabres who can adapt their tactics and style fluidly from situation to situation.

That's the team I think we should be trying to achieve.

A side note. I used to get comments when I talked about other stuff. Hmmmmm must not be anyone out there who cares about paintball. :(

Progress Report

2005-12-17T04:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I'd make a quick post, just because it's been so long since my last one. There has been no progress so far since my last post to filling slots in the team.

However, I have done a lot of thinking over strategies and what not. One big question I am having at this point, is this: With a ten man team, who is going to play in what positions? And how many positions do we duplicate.

At this point, I think the best route for us is to practice and train using the Special Ops positions found on their web site.

HAMMER - Super heavy gunner
BROAD SWORD - Heavy mobile gunner
SABER - Medium rifleman
DAGGER - Light rifleman ( recon )
SNIPER - well a sniper is a sniper = )
COMMANDER - leader

You have six positions here, and all but the Commander can be duplicated. What I need to figure out is how many of each position should we have, and where on the field do we place them? I guess once we get a real team together, and start practicing, everyone can start to get a feel for which position(s) suite them best, and we can also discuss as a team how and where and what we want to do. I already have some ideas about some fundmentals we should maybe look at.

For example: We need organized offense and defense. We should have guys on the team that specialize in defending, and guys that specialize in assault. One thing I'd really like to set up is plays. Yep, plays just like a football or basektball team. You could have pre arranged plays that are designed for certain situations, and during the game a commander, or squad leader can call out a play, and have it immediately executed. No questions, or confusion, or having to sit and make on the spot plans, which waste time. Nothing complicated or overly done. Like if a commander yells out ZULU! ZULU! It could mean something as simple as; regroup at our base, or lay down suppressive fire whith two flankers on that position.

Well that's the update for now. Unfortunatley there is snow on the ground, and the temps are in the single digits these days, so there hasn't been any paintball lately. As the weather starts to warm up, maybe we can get some games going, and I can start recruiting for the team. The SPPL regionals are in July. I don't know if that gives us enough time to get a team together and practice enough to be much of a threat. So, maybe I'm looking at getting a team together to spend the summer practicing, and then enter the SPPL tourney the next year. I hate to see a whole year go by though.

No Room For Pride

2005-11-05T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I got some feedback from some good experienced paintballers from a forum at specialopspaintball.com

I asked about my idea of using sectors. Has anyone tried anything like this before? If so, how did it work?

I got a good answer, and it has changed my plans for sectors.

Instead of dividing the field up into imaginary sectors, you overlay an imaginary football field over the paintball field in your mind. The actual field doesn't need to be one hundred yards long, as long as the fifty yard line is pretty close to the real center. And instead of the yards going like this: 10,20,30,40,50, and back down;l 40, 30, etc. You just keep adding up: 50, 60 , 70, and so on. Your home base is always at the one yard line. Basically you are dividing the field up into hundreths. There probably won't be any need to get anymore specific than five yard marks. Then you just refer to actual areas on the field like this; thirty left, or thirty mid, or thirty right. To get a little more specific you could go with mid-left and mid-right to name in between the middle of the field, and left or right.

So let's say your sniper is up field a ways, and runs into an adversary patrol. A radio exchange between him and his captain would go something like this, " Juliette, Charlie. Three bogies sixty right moving fast your way.

" Juliette copies. Charlie hold your fire. Bravo, and Lima. Set up a hasty ambush at thirty right. Charlie when they are in the trap you close the door on them from behind. "

" Charlie copies "
" Bravo copies "
" Lima copies "

This will be much easier to learn and use than my sector idea. I'm a little bummed cause I really liked my sector idea. But, part of being able to put together a good team is going to be having the ability to recognize when someone else's idea is better than yours, and being humble enough to admit it, and use that better idea.

Finding That Edge

2005-10-26T17:08:00.000-06:00

I have been thinking a lot lately on some of the small things a team could do in a tournement to gain tactical advantage over an oppenent. One huge advantage I think to a team would be familiarity with the field being played on. If we intend to compete in tournements, one big obstacle we will run up against, especially in the woods ball scenario is trying to coordinate and be effective on unfamiliar terrain. So, I've come up with a solution to the dilema. It doesn't really solve the problem entirely, but I think this system if practiced, and put into play by a team could give a team a big advantage that they would have normally gone without.

My idea is to mentally picture any field you come upon sectioned up into six sectors. You can see my illustration of what I mean below.

You don't get to play on a perfectly rectangular field usually, so I drew a randomely shaped field to show what the sectors might end up looking like typically. Sectors one and two would always be the nearest to your teams home base. In this case the blue box, represents the home base. You start on your left and begin numbering left to right.

I think using this, a team could arrive on a field they've never been on before, and still be able to somewhat communicate to each other more accurately of what's going on out there. Imagine your forward man or sniper is somewhere in sector three, and spots an enemy patrol moving in his direction from the other side. He can simply guestimate the sectors and give decenty accurate info over the radio of enemy movements without having to be expertly familiar with the terrain. As long as he's pretty sure of about where mid field is he will be pretty accurate. i.e. "Lima, Juliette I've got four bogies sector six moving slowly towards sector 5, copy?" Just one quick sentence, and the whole team can now visualize pretty clearly what he sees and react accordingly. This would be much better than, " Johnny this George. I can see like four guys. They're about one hundred hards to the front and right of me, and they're moving kinda diagonal across the field. Kinda by the middle."

I would like to give this a try. It will take some dedication and practice to get it down, but I think the advantage to learning this would be well worth it. In fact, If the team gets it down pretty good, then I would like to take it one step further by dividing each sector into quadrants. So you'd have Sector Two Alpha, or Sector five Bravo, etc, and be even more accurate while communicating on the radio.

It might be too much and too complicated to learn though. But, it might be worth a try. I know we use nicknames for a bunch of spots on the field we play on now, and it really works well to our advantage to call out on the radio, " Ambush at Arnold's trap!" Why give up that kind of advantage just cause you happen to be on the road?

Ch ch ch Changes. . .

2005-10-23T23:56:00.000-06:00

Well, I am considering giving up on this blog in a sense. Not abandoning it entirely however. I think I am going to give up on my rather lame attempt at providing profound remarks on the latest news and current events. Once in a while something might enrage me to the point of posting something here, but I think for the most part I am going to leave that kind of political analysis to the pros. Instead I am going to start narrowing the range of topics on here. I would like to start focusing in and making this more of a blog centering on my paintballing. And since my performance on the field is directly affected by my own fitness level, I will most likely make some fitness comments as well.

There's kind of a reason for this sudden switch, and that is I am seriously considering putting together a real team and for the first time in my paintballing career competing on a competition level. i.e. tournements and the like, instead of just shooting it up with pals in the woods on the weekends. So let this post be the first in the beginning of my newly themed blog about my journey in pursuit of excellence in the competitive paintball world.

------

As the season for outdoor paintball winds down I'm getting depressed. I didn't get to play as much as I wanted to this summer. Work schedules, and especially the weather did not work out. This spring was way too wet and cold to play, and the summer was DANG HOT! I enjoyed a few games this fall though, and made a new vow not to let the weather play such a factor in going out or not.

Ok so here's what I want to do. I want to put together a ten man team and compete hopefully next year in the SPPL. I've been glued to the web site ever since I discovered it, and the more I think about it the more I want to do it. This tourney has me written all over it!

First things first. I have to find ten to twelve guys willing to do this. It's going to take dedication, and commitment to do this, and I can't afford to have any last minute flakes on the team. So, selecting and putting together a team is going to be hard. I have about six guys now, they are:

Myself ( Lima )
Delta
Bravo
Juliet
Hotel
Alpha

For their privacy I've given them code names for the blog.

One major problem with this group is that Bravo and Delta both live four and three hours away respectively. And Juliet may be going off to med school. So, who knows how this will turn out. Gonna have to start keeping my eyes open for potential candidates to join the team. Not only do I need to get a team together, but I need to find a group of guys to practice with. Another team perhaps, or a group of recreational players that would be willing to help us practice. Basically be our tackling dummies. This isn't as easy as it may sound. To be a tackling dummy wouldn't be your typical day of playing paintball. Lots of stops and starts, and probably lots of getting hit. Being asked to do things you wouldn't normally do in a regular game. The most important thing at this point is to find a TEAM. . . no team no tourney.

Well, that's it for now. I will be on to update as time goes on.

Uber Geek

2005-09-24T14:40:00.000-06:00

I was just thinking about my hobbies and interests the other day, and what an uber geek I really am. An uber geek goes beyond just geek. A normal regular geek might just be someone who's good at math and got a good job in computers. Or just some guy who likes Star Trek a little too much. But, an uber geek is something different. An uber geek is geeky in all sorts of ways, and to the max. Ok, so maybe I'm not a complete uber geek, but I'm definately a geek. Anyway, I started thinking of how I can tell if I'm a geek, or just an uber geek, and as I thought and thought, I sort of started coming up with a mental list of uber geek indicators. So, I decided to share on my blog my top ten indicators that you are an uber geek. So, in the tradition of Jeff Foxworthy, but probably not as funny and creative, here you go.

1 - You've ever mixed your own soundtrack for playing Dungeons & Dragons

2 - When you get together with friends you always get discouraged trying to squeeze XBOX time between your busy paintball, and radio controlled car schedule

3 - Your senior year in high school you were voted MVP of your debate team

4 - You've read Lord of The Rings more times than your pastor has read the bible

5 - You have contempt for anyone who claims to be a fan of Lord of The Rings, but has never even read the books!

6 - You recently broke up with your long-term girl friend because she refused to email a picture of herself to you.

7 - You're 32 years old and your kids have to drag you out of the action figure isle at Toys R Us.

8 - You're frequently on a waiting list for a new video game release.

9 - You own a real sword, and you're actually pretty good with it. You're pretty good with a bow-staff too.

10 - You host your own blog site.

Well, there you have it? Are you an uber geek like me? I'm not saying I qualify with all ten of those indicators, but sadly many of them I drew from my own life. But, I'm not telling which ones. NO WAY.

Go Ahead. Take God Out!

2005-09-16T18:25:00.000-06:00

Ok, so the nasty little debate over The Pledge of Allegiance is back. Goody. For the past few days I’ve been listening to both sides go at it back and forth. Both sides heatedly and passionately battling it out in the arena of thoughts and ideas.

Let me set something straight right off the bat here. I do believe in a supreme being, a creator, God, or Great Spirit if you will. I believe that we are a nation under God, and that it was through his intervention, and his will that we even became a country. I believe that He sustains our existence as a nation from day to day. I also believe that when we as a nation ultimately turn our backs on him, then we will reap the whirlwind.

That said, I don’t think that taking the words “under God” out of the Pledge is going to spell out our ultimate demise. After all, the original version of the Pledge didn’t even contain the phrase. But, is it so necessary? I mean what is the big deal with these atheists? They say it’s unconstitutional for a child to be forced to acknowledge the existence of God. Last time I was in school, nobody was being “forced” to recite the pledge! We had a member of the Jehova’s Witnesses in our school, and when we said the pledge she would just stand silent. No big deal. Can’t these atheist kids do the same? Can’t we just avoid dragging the country through the muck on this?

On no. Some little attention starved attorney, has to have his fifteen minutes of fame, at the expense of the nation. Well, you know what? I almost hope he gets his way in this. I almost hope the Supreme Court decides in his favor. Cause, you know what I’d love to see? I’d love to see the kids in the schools of this country stand up as one voice and tell the courts and politicians that enough is enough! That we are sick and tired of our right to free speech, and our right to pray, and to have clubs, and to read certain books, and study certain topics being trampled on by lawmakers all in the name of “separation of church and state.” Here we have a free country where supposedly the right to express ourselves is the most valued sacred right we have, but enter one of our public schools, and the thought, and speech police are watching from the front of every classroom.

Imagine a judgment being made to remove the phrase, “under God” from the pledge. Now imagine a pep-assembly at a high school at Anywhere, USA. Think of the kids reciting the pledge, and when it comes to the omitted phrase, as one united student body, they all include “under God” extra loud, and extra clear. Think of this happening all across the USA. How awesome would that be. What are they going to do about that? I’d love to see it. I’d love to see crowds of kids gathering every morning before the bell rings in front of their school to independently recite the pledge, and acknowledge this country’s freedom as a divine gift. I would love to see it. Love to.

It might be crazy enough to work

2005-09-11T03:59:00.000-06:00

Just read an interesting article on the Fox News website. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169052,00.html

It's titled: Pentagon Considers Nuclear Deterrent for Terrorists

Here are some phrases from the article that caused me to pause a moment after reading them.

- A Pentagon planning document being updated to reflect the doctrine of pre-emption declared by President Bush in 2002 envisions the use of nuclear weapons to deter terrorists from using weapons of mass destruction against the United States or its allies.

- in a changing environment "terrorists or regional states armed with WMD will likely test U.S. security commitments to its allies and friends."

- the U.S. needs a range of capabilities to assure friend and foe alike of its resolve

- "U.S. forces must pose a credible deterrent to potential adversaries who have access to modern military technology, including WMD and the means to deliver them."

- In such cases, deterrence, even based on the threat of massive destruction, may fail and the United States must be prepared to use nuclear weapons if necessary."

- U.S. policy has always been purposely vague with regard to when the United States would use nuclear weapons and that it has never vowed not to be the first to use them in a conflict.

Anyone else find those excerpts interesting? I'm still deciding what to even think about all this. Is this the right road to be heading down? A big part of me says, YES. Nuke em' and be done with it. But, another part of me thinks of the old saying, " you reap what you sow. " If we were to start using nukes, what Pandora's box are we opening? On the other hand, I think of when we had Bin Laden cornered for a bit in Tora Bora. Anyway, they are pretty sure he was there, and barely slipped through our fingers, leaving his followers behind to fight us to the death. Imagine if we'd just nuked the mountain side. Hmmmm. It sure is tempting isn't it?

I think a bit more on it, and you know what? I'm for it. I am for taking a hard stance against these villians. They don't think like you and me. They only understand violence, and slaughter. We are eventually going to have to start playing hard ball with them if we expect any peace. They have families and loved ones too. Maybe they'd be less willing to conduct the work of death if they knew our retaliation would not only consume their lives, but the lives of their families as well. I'd love to see the look on Bin Laden's face if a week after 9/11 we had started nuking the whole Mid-East. One terrorist sponsoring state after another. And the look on Kim Jong's face would be pretty priceless too.

AMEN BRUTHA!

2005-09-09T20:42:00.000-06:00

I found this while surfing around. I think it hits the nail on the head of how many of us "angry white males" in America feel. Beware of a little crudeness.

Enjoy-

George Carlin

- I Am Your Worst Nightmare.
- I am a BAD American.
- I am George Carlin.
- I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some mid-
level governmental functionary with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts squirting out babies.
- I'm not in touch with my feelings and I like it that way, damn it!
- I think owning a gun doesn't make you a killer.
- I believe it's called the Boy Scouts for a reason.
- I don't think being a minority makes you noble or victimized.
- I believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac, you'd better do it in English.
- I don't use the excuse "it's for the children" as a shield for unpopular opinions or actions.
- I think fireworks should be legal on the 4th of July.
- I think that being a student doesn't give you any more enlightenment than working at Blockbuster. In fact, if your parents are footing the bill to put your pansy ass through 4-7 years of college, you haven't begun to be enlightened.
- I believe everyone has a right to pray to his or her God.
- Hillary Clinton is a carpet-munching lesbian... not that there is anything wrong with that
- My heroes are John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, the Simpsons, and whoever canceled Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
- I don't hate the rich. I don't pity the poor.
- I know wrestling is fake and I don't waste my time arguing about it.
- I think global warming is a big lie. Where are all those experts now, when I am freezing my ass through a long winter?
- I've never owned a slave, or was a slave, I didn't wander forty years in the desert after getting chased out of Egypt, I haven't burned any witches or been persecuted by the Turks and neither have you, so shut-the-#$%!-up already.
- I want to know which church is it exactly where the Reverend Jesse Jackson preaches. And where does he get his money. And why is he always part of the problem and not the solution.
- I think the cops have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you're running from them.
- I also think they have the right to pull your ass over if you are breaking the law, regardless of what color you are.
- I think if you are too stupid to know how a ballot works, I don't want you deciding who should be running the most powerful nation the next four years.
- I hate those bastards standing in the intersections trying to sell me crap or trying to guilt me into making 'donations' to their cause.These people should be targets.
- I think if you are in the passing lane, and not passing, your license should be revoked, and you should be forced to ride the bus until you promise to never delay the rest of us again.
- I think beef jerky could quite possibly be the perfect food.
- I believe that it doesn't take a village to raise a child, it takes two parents.
- I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement.
- I think Dr. Suess was a genius.
- I'm neither angry nor disenfranchised, no matter how desperately the mainstream media would like the world to believe otherwise.
- I believe if she has her lips on your Willie, it is sex, and it is sex for both of you. This even applies when you are President of the United States.
- If that makes me a BAD American, then yes,.. I'm a BAD American.

What's Your Opinion?

2005-09-05T11:11:00.000-06:00

I friend of mine asked me to post a question on my blog and see what others out there think of his current situation. I haven't gotten a comment on my blog for a while, and so I don't know if anyone is even reading anymore, but here goes anyway.

He is a newly wed of about five months. About a year ago his wife bumped into her old high school boy friend. They were a couple for about two years, and were sexually active with each other. She broke up with him their senior year, because he was making her uncomfortable. Basically stalking her. They've had no contact until running into each other accidently a year ago.

I guess the boy friend is married now with kids.

Well, he immediately starts calling her all the time, and sending her text messages on her cell phone, and by her own admission has said a couple of things that she said were inappropriate for a married man to say to another woman.

Here's where it gets wierd. The four of them, ex-boy friend and his wife, my friend and his wife, all get together and do stuff as friends. They will have dinner together, or whatever, and sit around talking about the good ole' days of high school and stuff. Everyone but my friend who didn't go to school with them.

This whole situation makes my buddy very uncomfortable, and he hates going over there, and doing that. He thinks it's dangerous for their marriage, and that x-boy friend has more on his mind than just being friends. He's tried to talk to her, but she is VERY stubborn and determined to keep up this so-called frienship. He asked me to blog about it, and see what the opinions of others might be out there on the situation. He'll be checking in to read your posts, and he'll probably eventually show them to his wife.

Your help is appreciated

Scatter Brained

2005-08-25T04:48:00.000-06:00

Well, what can I say. It's been a while since my last post, and that's mostly because nothing worth mentioning has really happened of late. I actually have a lot of thoughts swirling through my brain right now, and I think I will randomely just jot them down until I get tired. So, here goes.

That lady down in Texas protesting the war is dishonering the memory of her son. He volunteered. He made the ultimate sacrifice, but she detracts from what he did for us with her little tantrum. On the same note, he did die to give her the right to protest. So there you have it.

I'm tired of the Natalie Halloway story. People go missing every day. Why all the attention just to her?

I'm starting to think that buying and caring for a horse might be cheaper than filling my cars with gas anymore. But, I'm not blaming the president for prices. It's the market, and the market - they say - will correct itself if left alone. At least cars don't run on Nyquil.

Cinderalla Man starring Russel Crowe is an excellent movie that everyone should see. It meant a lot to me, because my late grandfather was a Golden Gloves boxer during the same era. Chalk it up there with movies like Hoosiers, Iron Will, Rudy, and Remember the Titans.

Never pay anyone to hydroseed your land. Especially some twenty year old high school drop out with a mohawk and pierced nipples. Pay them to level it, and then plant the grass yourself, or you might end up all pissed off like me.

I love this time of year. The temperature starts cooling off, and you can tell Fall is right around the corner. Fall is the best.

Well, those are some random thoughts that tend to cross my mind about every day lately. Maybe next time I will be a little more focused on one particular topic.

Out.

Maybe a small thanks can go a long way

2005-08-10T05:19:00.000-06:00

The other day I had to come into work on my day off for some extra training. What a day it was! For anyone new here, I work as a security officer at a nuclear complex.

Anyway, we got trained on the HK 69 grenade launcher. Yep, I got to shoot real grenades. It was pretty cool. I got a real "bang" out of it. = )

I also got to be trained on the FM 240 Bravo. For those of you who don't know, the 240 is a machine gun kinda of akin to the famous M60 that you see in all the movies. What a weapon. This is the swivel-mounted gun that you see on TV, mounted on the turrets of Humvees in all that Iraq war footage. After shooting of a belt of ammo, I actually almost felt pitty for Al Qaeda. I can't imagine squatting behind a mud wall while someone fires off bursts at you from that gun! What a nightmare that would be! At least it would be a short nightmare. But, also a HOOT to shoot. Everyone should have one!

But now the point of my whole post today. At the end of the day we did a combat scenario exercise with equipment that we call Miles Gear. Miles Gear ( and I may be spelling it wrong ) is basically a high-tech Laser Tag system that allows you to use basically a real gun, but shooting blanks.

The scenario pitted four of us against two snipers in the sage brush approx. 500 yards down range. It was a moving and tactics exercise. I partnered up with a guy named Chris and off we went leapfrogging through the sage brush desert. After about ten minutes of running, diving, shooting, crawling, and picking cactus needles out of our skin, I was exhausted! Suddenly I realized I had gained a new appreciation for our guys over there in Iraq. It was around 101 degrees for us, and I thought I was going to die from the exertion. My throat was parched, and my legs felt like rubber. I thought to myself while catching my breath behind some cover, " Man, those guys in Iraq have to do this in heat and conditions waaaay worse than this, and on top of that. . .IT'S REAL!

I just want to say, hats off to the American Military. They really are sacrificing over there for us and deserve our honor and respect. I don't care what end of the political spectrum you fall on, or if you agree or disagree with the war. These men and women deserve your respect, and your support. I can't imagine if I was there putting my life on the line, and hearing some of the crap coming out of people's mouths over here. So, here's my small and insignificant way of saying thanks to the troops. A lot of us believe in you.

Just for the fun of it

2005-07-26T22:41:00.000-06:00

I never thought I'd say this, but running can be fun. Yeah, seriously! All it took for me was to get off the treadmill, and go for a run outside.

For the last several days during my alotted workout time at work, I've been finishing up with a two mile run down a dirt road that winds through the sage brush out here.

Tonight I ran as the sun sank below the Lemhi Mountains to my left. It's at this time of night the desert comes to life. I saw rabbits scurrying out of my path, and a huge desert owl of some kind gliding gently in the evening breeze on huge wings. I noticed that even the desert is beautiful in its own rugged sort of way. My lungs were engorged on sage scented air, and for the twenty minutes I ran, it was just me, and the desert, and the mountains in the distance.

I am realizing some things lately about fitness and staying in shape. If you can find something new, different, or enjoyable, then it goes from being "excercise" to a hobby or an activity. For example. I have fallen in love with mountain biking lately. As I pedal along the rutted paths, steering around and over different technical obstacles, I don't even notice my own heavy breathing, or pounding heart because I'm having a killer time!

The new goal is to continue to explore ways to make fitness fun, fresh, and enjoyable.

Shadow Spawn gets censored!

2005-07-21T21:55:00.000-06:00

Today, I got up and first off mowed my 3/4 acre lawn. Then I hacked some brush on my property with a machete until I was a glistening sheen of sweat. After that I came inside, and hit the weights on my new olympic weight set. Did some back, biceps, and triceps. After that we packed up the kids and went to the lake. I swam for a while. . . nothing tremendous. Then we came home and I went on about a ten mile bike ride through the surrounding hills of my home.

Whew! What an active day, and I feel great! I think I ate pretty sensibly all day too. Just got to maintain this level of activity and I’’m bound to lose some weight.

Now for my topic of the day.

All this week, I have been engaging in political debate on another blog named americablog.blogspot.com These guys are extremely on the fringe of the left. Very liberal. It has been fun to take them on in the arena of words. While doing this I have been called a Nazi among other unmentionable names in the comments section. Our views are so different, that many of them think I am kidding and just trying to generate rage to attract attention to myself. By the way, if you are thinking about going there, be fore warned that it is a site laced with profanity and very adult topics sometimes, so be careful.

Anyway, I was involved in a debate over homosexuality yesterday that earned myself tons of criticism, and not to mention attacks from the creator of the blog John Aravosis, who supposedly has a law degree, been a guest on several talk shows such as O’Reilly Factor, and claims to speak five languages. Anyway, I posted a comment stating a belief I held about homosexuality that I won’t get into here, and boy did they all get angry with me. They all called me names and bashed me on a personal level, but nobody would counter what I had said. I even challenged them. I asked them to counter my point. All I got in reply was, “ You have no point.” I must have really gotten to them, because I little while later when I went back to continue my argument, I found to my shock and amazement that my comments on that post had all been deleted from the web site. Everyone else’s was still there, but mine were gone.

This is the final point I want to make. They continually rage on that web site about the freedom of speech, and the right to express yourself. Well, I just want to make this observation. They sure love the freedom of speech all right. . .unless you say something they don’t like. Then you get censored, and erased. Can you imagine how they’d behave if the tables were reversed?

Daddy, are there such things as monsters?

2005-07-15T11:11:00.000-06:00

Last night my four year old girl got out of bed and came to me because she was afraid. I asked her what she was afraid of. " What if the orcs come?" She asked, her big blue eyes glistening, and wide expecting an answer.

"Don't worry about orcs ( it's pointless to tell her they don't exist ) Daddy can kill any orcs that try to come in here."

"What if they have swords?"

"Daddy has guns. Now off to bed."

As I tucked her into bed and gave her a kiss I thought to myself what an innocent time childhood is, when fictitious orcs are your biggest fear. Monsters aren't real, yet to her they are. Then a darker thought clouded my mind as I remembered the eighteen Iraqi children killed by a homicidal bomber on wednesday, and the score of kids that have been in recent news as victims of murderous predators. I grimmaced and thought to myself, monsters are real. And they are more terrible in real life than any imaginary orc.

The real monsters come in the form of terrorists, murderers, molesters, abusers, drug dealers, the porn industry, and many other nameless forms. As a father I wondered how to protect her from the real monsters. If she could only just stay afraid of orcs for the rest of her life.

Today I sit in fatherly indignation at the evils lurking in the world. Who would plow through a gathering of children and blow up themselves in a vehicle, killing all the kids, just for the chance to get at two Americans handing out candy? What monster is capable of such evil? I think of the sicko, Joseph Duncan, who kidnapped Shasta Groene, and while repeatedly assaulting her sexually over the next several days bragged to her about murdering her family. The real monsters are out there. The evil is real, and for crying out loud, the fight needs to start getting REAL.

I for one am sick of hearing that 9/11 was our fault. That we need to see what we did to make the terrorists mad at us. I am sick of hearing all the crying and weeping over the so-called poor conditions at GTMO! I am REALLY REALLY tired of finding out every time a child is murdered that it turns out to be a repeat offender, who should have been in jail!

This isn't about republicans, democrats, liberals or conservatives. I'm just a father, husband, and American and I know I'm not alone in my desire to protect my family, and my freedom. I see evil at the doorstep. I see the monsters in the dark, for who they really are. . .Monsters, and they should be treated as such.

It's All About Lifestyle

2005-07-11T15:56:00.000-06:00

Wahhhh! The vacation is on its last gasp now. Only three of the twelve days left! And I didn’t get to do half the cool stuff I was hoping to do. The white water trip got postponed, and the paintball game fell through. Jeeze! I did make it up to Mesa Falls for a day with the family. Mesa Falls is a gorgeous waterfall up in the mountains of Idaho that border Yellowstone, and Grand Teton National Parks. Took some pics and amazed the kids, and realized it’s been way too long since I’ve been out in the mountains. Gonna have to start planning some backpacking, and camping trips. Right now though the temps are in the high nineties, and so we’ll most likely wait for things to cool off.

I’ve got a new diet and exercise program I’ve been trying out for the last couple weeks. It’s called the JUST WATCH WHAT YOUR EATING, AND BE A LOT MORE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE program. So far it’s been great! I have started biking every day now. I started with a six mile ride into the rolling hills near my home. that’s been now increased to ten miles and includes spontaneous excursions onto dirt paths that wind away mysteriously into the hills. I have been trying to include the whole family in my new program, so my wife accompanies me on many of these rides, and the kids follow behind in a bike trailer. We also go to the pool as a family now about every other day or so, and swim. My wife spends time with the kids in the kiddy pool at the beginning, while I head to the lap pool and swim laps for fifteen or twenty minutes. The other day started with a swim, then got home and went on a bike ride, and then later walked the dog for two miles. I figure hey! you gotta notice a change if you start having days like that. Right?

On top of all that, I bought a three hundred pound olympic barbell set on Saturday. I am still shopping around for a bench though. But, once that’s all set up, my days will also include quick, high intensity weight lifting routines. I got a mega deal on the weights, and the sale was ending that day, so I just bought em.

Last and finally on my list of ridiculousness is I have been itching for a kayak lately. Once the white water rafting trip got postponed, I realized how much I was really looking forward to doing it. Now I unexplainably find myself on the internet reading articles and blogs dealing with white water kayaking. I don’t have a lot of “river” experience, or boating experience at all, so the thought is a little daunting. Am I going to get myself killed? Luckily I have a neighbor who is an avid river runner, and former guide. At least I have his brain to pick. And maybe, just maybe he’ll agree to take me along some time to show me the ropes.

Final thought: My prayers go out to the people of London. They deserve our honor. They stepped up in our defense when we needed them, while others turned their backs to us in fear. I hope they catch the cowards responsible.

The Lettermen Leave an Impression on Gen X

2005-07-06T18:57:00.000-06:00

Last night my parents took my wife and I to a Lettermen concert that was held here at our civic auditorium. Yep, that’s right. . . The Lettermen, as in “ Put your head on my shoulder”, and “When I Fall In Love” Lettermen.

As a member of the much misaligned generation X, I must admit, that I wasn’t sure what to expect as my wife and I took our seats on the sixth row back from the front of the stage. Oh, I’m no complete stranger to the works of the Lettermen. I remember hearing those unforgettable ballads on my Dad’s vinyl records while growing up. I have to admit, I was almost frightened on their behalf, as I waited for the concert to begin. Yes, I was doing the math. “ Let’s see. Not sure when they hit it big, but let’s say maybe 1965 they were maybe 20 - 25 years old? That would put them somewhere in their sixties? Maybe getting close to seventy? Can they do this?”

Suddenly they were announced, the music started, and my fears seemed on the verge of realization when I saw three bent-over, bald, or gray-haired old men walk out on to the stage in tuxedos. But. . .Then they started to sing. I was astounded and amazed. The same melodious, harmonizing voices from my childhood filled my ears. My eyes refused to see the truth for what it was at first. I leaned in towards my wife and whispered, “ Those voices don’t even match. I can’t believe those voices are coming from those bodies.”

For the next two hours I sat enthralled with the music, a stupefying grin plastered on my face. They sang a mixture of patriotic tunes, and some of their hits from the sixties and seventies. When it was over, they got a standing “O” from the audience. I rushed home to bu y a CD from Amazon. Yeah, I’m a sucker for music.

What has happened to that kind of talent? Yes, there are a lot of talented contemporary musicians out there, don’t get me wrong. But still, after seeing this show I was left with a feeling that there is a void in today’s world of entertainment. A feeling of longing and nostalgia gripped me as I drove home, the dial on the radio tuned to KUPI 98 Gold. I laughed to myself as I thought that maybe someday I’d be taking my kids to see a bent over, balding, gray-haired Jon Bon Jovi perform at the local auditorium, and my kids would be wondering, “ What’s happened to the music? “

A Much Needed Break

2005-07-02T17:09:00.000-06:00

ahhhh. Two more hours and my vacation officially begins. I'll have the next 12 days off. I can't wait. Gonna do some paintballing, some camping, some swimming, and even some white water rafting. I also am hoping to use these next 12 days without the interuption of work to try to get ingrained back into a solid work out routine. I won't have my job to contend with, so getting out there to the gym, or on the bike, or hitting the trail head should be a lot easier to do.

Biking has been my latest thing to do. I live in a quite hilly area, and have been trying my best to get in about six miles a day so far. I can already feel my endurance building and am getting ready to up it to eight miles. I know this doesn't seem like a lot, but try pulling sixty extra pounds worth of kids in a bike trailer behind you up steep hills. It gets my heart beating sufficiently.

Final thought today is on the 4th of July celebration. God Bless America, and all who defend her.

-Out

Feel The Rush

2005-06-26T17:50:00.000-06:00

Fervently I scan the dense foliage around me, though I know it’s in vain. Trying to be as quiet as possible I will myself to take another step. This is crazy. They are hidden and hidden well. Yet I continue to scan, hoping that perhaps I’ll catch a slight movement, a darker than usual shadow, or the sun reflecting off of equipment. Nothing. Another agonizing, twig-snapping step forward. My heart’s racing in anticipation. I know they are in these woods somewhere, just waiting, most likely drawing aim on my chest. I take a quick inventory of my teammates. The line is staying together as we comb through the woods. I finger the safety on my Tippmann A-5, yep, still good to go. Combing the woods in a skirmish line guarantees two things. One: eventually you will find your opponents. Two: You’ll know you’ve found them when they open fire on you, or a teammate, depending on who stumbled across them. Everyone in the line knows that someone is going to get it, you know that whoever it is has no ability to do anything about it either. I crouch under a branch, then step over a log. Every foot step echoes like a rock concert. Surely they can hear all of us crashing along. I draw quick aim on a shadow. . . No just a tree stump.

Suddenly, the waiting and the silence are shattered by a burst of automatic fire about one hundred yards off to my left. Someone returns fire. As I run towards the sound, I can hear paint balls impacting on trees by the dozens. SMACK SMACK SMACK. Before I arrive I hear my teammate call out “hit!” He’s out. Worse than out. He’s now on the other team! We lose one, while they gain a player! As I run up, I see my team mate, Clay pinned behind a tree, doing his best to return fire. Little splatters of paint are flecked across his goggles from a near hit. By this time it’s a full on fire fight. Dozens of rounds are exchanged by the second.

I can’t detect any fire coming directly at me, so I continue in my flanking maneuver. Suddenly I hear another of my team yell out “hit”! And run over to join the opponent. This is not going well for us. The odds have now been turned. Instead of five humans hunting down two aliens, it is now three humans vs. four aliens. Clay and Josh are both pinned down, but the good news is that I’ve just saved a bunch of money by switching to Geico! And, they haven’t seen me, and have no idea where I’m at. . .yet. I hand-signal Clay to keep them busy. He does his best to draw their fire. Every time they have an exchange I take advantage of the noise and move in closer. I still haven’t even seen an alien. Just moving towards the sound of their guns.

Then, just like a ghost one of them steps from behind a bush to try to get an angle on Clay, completely oblivious to me standing twenty feet behind him. My response is automatic as I raise my Tippmann place my red-dot sight on his back and squeeze off a quick 3 round burst. Three perfect splats appear on his back, and his hands go up. One down. I move in closer, see another one crouched behind a tree and open fire on his exposed back. Two down. They know about me now. As another one tries to adjust to my presence, he gets eliminated by Clay. The remaining Alien bolts in a dead run. He’s kinda far away by the time I get a clear shot, but not too far for my new Flat Line barrel. I let off a stream of rounds in his direction. He trips and falls, inadvertently saving himself. . .for a moment. I aim into the grass where I saw him go down, and send off another burst. His hands come up. He’s out. He sits up, my blue paint coating his forehead.

As friends we all walk back to the staging area. Pair up new teams. and spend the next three hours doing it over and over again. This is paint ball. This was Saturday night for me. Can’t wait until next time. Hope my welts are gone by then.

The weather is driving me mad

2005-06-16T07:53:00.000-06:00

I can't believe the weather around here this spring. We are technically in a drought here in south eastern Idaho for the past seven years or so, but this spring you wouldn't know it. Last month we got four times our average precipitation! Although I am happy to see everything so nice and green, and it's been nice to not have to water the lawn, the rain sure is interfering with my paintballing. The cycle of stormy weather has been perfectly coinciding with my days off! While I'm working we have pretty decent weather- low eighties to mid seventies - but, by the time I get off for a few days, the temperatures drop into the mid fifties and it starts raining and blowing. Back in my youth, we still played no matter what. Maybe I just need to toughen up.

Ok, so this week is the week to hopefully kick off and restart a workout habbit, even though I am leaving town for a couple of days. We shall see how that goes. Just for kicks I started back on the Atkins diet a month ago to hopefully jump-start some wieght loss. I haven't been overly strict, and have cheated quite a bit. To my dismay my wieght loss hasn't been as dramatic as I experienced the first time on Atkins. Two reasons I can think of. #1 I am twenty pounds lighter now than I was the first time I started it. I think that the more you need to lose the faster it comes off at first. And #2 the first time I did it I was extremely strict, and this time I haven't been near as strict. I am on the verge of tossing in the towel and just going on a calorie watch, and increase my physical activity. I guess I have about two weeks worth of grilled hamburger patties still in the fridge I need to eat. So, we'll see where I'm at then.

Blogging myself out of the blogosphere

2005-06-12T23:24:00.000-06:00

I have to laugh. When I began writing this blog, my original intent was to get on here daily, or at least weekly and jot down the daily wanderings of my mind. I never expected my blog to recieve any comments from others. Once others began commenting on my blog, I suddently felt a burden of responsibility to come up with profound, and thought-provoking topics to write about. I puzzled all day long, "what to write?...what to write?" Sometimes I was albe to scrape up something from the daily headlines. Other times, I would dig into my brain and just toss out a personal belief I hold, that might be slightly controversial. Unitl I just realized why I haven't written anything for over a week now, and the thought was like a chore in my brain. " need to blog about something....but what?" Somewhat similar to " I really need to start getting back into the gym."

Well today's blog is to remind myself why I started this in the first place. #1 I enjoy writing, and welcome the opportunity to have others be able to comment on my rantings. #2 I like the opportunity to meet all kinds of different people with different lives through this blog. What an adventure.

Well, back to it. For now on I will write in my blog without being so dang conscience of what others are going to think when they read my post. I still love the comments and hope they continue, but my blog won't be dominated by trying to attract comments, or satisfy those who may be reading anymore. Back to doing it for myself.

Whew! I feel better already. Can't wait until my next post.

Is it really about the Koran?

2005-05-30T18:21:00.000-06:00

I just want to make a short point on this whole desecration of the Koran thing.

They are all up in arms and killing people over unconfirmed stories of alleged Koran abuse. For example, the US has had to close down the embassy in Indonesia because of threats.

My question is this: Where's all the freakn' outrage by the Muslim community when one of their fellow Muslims blows up a bomb, at a mosque killing people, and most likely damaging many Korans, Where's the demonstrations and outrage? What? It's ok to blow up your holy book, as long as you don't set it next to a toilet?

My other question is, what other country in the world would be even allowing these suspects to have a Koran besides the USA?

In my point of view, these people will use any excuse at all to be violent and malicious towards us. This places and extra burden of responsibility on our media at home, and they need to recognize it. The free ride for them is over.

Common Sense Prevails

2005-05-26T14:19:00.000-06:00

Well, I am happy to report that the Union met and voted on Tuesday morning, and we will not be striking. We voted to ratify the new contract in a landslide. This was a good contract, and I am glad to see most union members had their heads screwed on straight despite the fanatical rantings of some of the members. The Union President told us that some PACE national representative actually saw our figures and said that it was an astounding raise in pay, one of the best he's ever seen, and it should be an automatic ratification. Without going into actual numbers, I can say that over the next five years, my pay will be 28% higher than it is now. That's incredible!

It completely blows my mind that there were members campaigning for a strike! I am sure they would give their reasons, but jeeze la wheeze! When is enough, enough for some people? This is one of my problems I have with unions. Some members get really greedy and think they can strike and get whatever they want.

Anyway, it's all good now. Now we all have some healing to do. A lot of ugly things were said throughout the whole ordeal.

I must be sick

2005-05-23T15:14:00.000-06:00

I am referring to the video to come out recently of a sixty six year old substitute school bus driver getting into a physical altercation with some teens on his school bus. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,157351,00.html

I was just getting ready for work yesterday afternoon and turned the TV on to Fox News just in time to see the video and a "panel of experts" discussing what had happened. In the video you basically see the bus driver in an attempt to control two boys, who happen to be brothers, basically flip out. He turns and slaps one brother who yells an obsenity at his back, and then grabs him by the neck and walks him back to his seat by the neck. Then he proceeds to go to the back of the bus and pushes the other brother against the window, and I think he puts a seatbelt on the kid.

I know it's probably wrong to sit here and try to justify what this driver did. Yes, he should have remained calm despite the outrageous desrespect these boys were dishing out to him. But, as someone who has had my share of dealing with little spoiled brats like that, I secretly took much gratification watching this driver dish out to these kids what they needed. The look on the little snot's face when that driver grabs him by the throat was priceless.

Anyway, it just kinda goes to show you how things in this world are changing. If this had happened to me when I was a kid, my parents would be more ticked off at me for being a little shi# than they would at the bus driver. My parents would have probably made me go mow the guy's lawn for a summer as an apology.

Kids these days don't have to worry about getting what's coming to them, and they know it. This is a problem. I can't imagine being a school teacher these days with no disciplinary options available.

If you're that desperate, I have some good ideas...

2005-05-17T10:19:00.000-06:00

Watching the last episode of Everybody Loves Raymond last night, I saw a trailer for the new Tom Cruise movie coming out, War of The Worlds. I now have to ask what in the heck is going on? Has Hollywood lost all of its creative talent and ability? I can’t believe all the remakes going on recently. A list just from off the top of my head.

War of The Worlds
Dukes of Hazard
Starsky and Hutch
Amityville Horror
The Haunting (not so recent but still...)
Flight of The Phoenix
The Longest Yard
The Incredible Hulk
The Exorcist
The Stepford Wives
Dawn of The Dead
Magnificent Seven

I am sure there are a ton more that I’m not aware of. So, what’s the deal here? Has Hollywood lost its ability to create something new and imaginative? Or are they just unwilling to take a risk or gamble on something new and imaginative? Surely there are screenplays out there being written that are brilliant. I can’t imagine all the ideas are used up.

It seems the trend here is to either remake an old classic, make a movie stemming from an old 70s era TV show, or make a movie out of a Comic book hero. Is anyone out there having any original ideas? Even George Lucas has fallen prey to cashing in on previous success with his new Star Wars movies.

I guess I am not really complaining all that much. In a lot of cases the remake is awesome and definitely needed to be done. But, in so many other cases it drives me nuts when the new remake isn’t as good as the original, or even worse, it is EXACTLY IDENTICAL to the original and you walk away wondering, why did they even bother?

I am sure it’s all about the money. Capitalizing on the success of the original will always be too much of a temptation for Hollywood I guess. For some of us these remakes are blasphemy, like the Muppet version of the Wizard of Oz. For others it’s an exciting opportunity to see their old favorites with better special effects, and newer, hipper actors and scripting.

For me. I’d rather see something new and fresh. Leave the originals alone. And don’t even get me going on the remaking of SONGS!

The Forger's Fire

2005-05-10T09:22:00.000-06:00

The union and the company have negotiated an agreement. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but it’s nice, at least for me, to see both sides talking and agreeing on something.

The company wanted a fifteen day extension to the contract really bad. We weren’t going to give it to them. The company is not ready for a strike. They don’t have what they call a contingency force ready yet to take over in the event of a strike. You have to understand that this is national security. If we strike, the plant still must be protected. So, what the company does is send out an “all call” to other DOE sites across the country hoping they will send extra security officers they can spare, to make up part of the contingency. Well, I guess they haven’t gotten much of a response this time. Probably because everyone is already taxed trying to meet post 9/11 standards.

So you can see that we had pretty good leverage. Giving them fifteen days was basically almost giving them everything. But, we gave it to them. In exchange we got, what I would call a pretty decent pay raise. Also, they agreed to change the wording of our official job category. I wasn’t aware of this, but for ever we have been officially described as “unskilled labor”! This is unbelievable to me. It’s not like they hand me a shovel and ask me to dig a ditch! I have more qualifications to keep up than most people out there. Everything from pistol, rifle, hand to hand combat, first aid, CPR, to working in radiological environments, and wearing a gas mask. That isn’t even the half of it. So, I am glad to see that we are now described as “skilled workers” which will justify more pay down the road.

A lot of security guys - guys who’ve been there for twenty years - are ticked off at our union for giving in. I think these guys don’t realize that this is how things are done. Both sides must give a little. That’s why it’s a negotiation instead of a gang rape. Who wants to see a strike? Anyway, I hope this is the end of all the talk of striking. Who knows though. A lot can still happen by the 30th.

Thought of the day:

I was just thinking the other day about that old commercial for the USMC. (Marines) It starts out showing a black smith hammering away on a red hot lump of metal. Huge molten sparks fly through the air as the hammer smashes away. A voice comes over, saying something like; “ You begin with raw steel. You shape it. You form it “. At this point you can see the steel taking on the shape of a sword. The voice continues on about the pounding required to form this sword. The transition from fire to water over and over, and the constant smashing of the hammer. At the end you see a Marine Corps officer holding the sword, and the voice tells us how it’s now polished to a fine perfection, and razor sharp.

I have always loved this analogy. I like to think that we are “raw lumps of steel”. If we are to realize our true potential, and become what we were meant to be, we have to endure a certain amount of time in the forger’s fire, and put up with his constant pounding. It is life’s trials and difficulties that shapes us and makes us stronger. Personally I take it further, and like to imagine God as the forger. We don’t often see the reasoning or purpose for our hardships or difficulties in life. Perhaps, we are being forged. Perhaps we are being polished and prepared for greater things to come. Perhaps, this particular moment in our life that we find so hard, is just exactly what we need. The difference between real steel and us, is we have a choice on how we will react and respond to the forger’s attempts at shaping us. I like to hope that some day I will be that razor sharp, finely polished sword. But, I am kind of afraid of the process.

The Big Face Off

2005-05-06T15:27:00.000-06:00

Well, it's down to the wire now. Looks like my union is most likely going to strike soon. Negotiations with the new contractor are not going well at all. All the other security officers that I talk to are grumbling and rumbling about striking. We've never striked before. The company doesn't believe we'll do it. I think they are in for a major surprise.

I don't want to strike. In fact, I am pretty content with my pay and benefits as they stand now. But, it seems I am alone in this thinking. I hear stories from both sides, and in my opinion both sides are being stubborn and stupid. But, I have to lay most of the blame on this new company. They could have pacified us by doing very little, and we would have settled for not much at all. But, they showed up ready for a fight, and have seemed to go out of their way to antagonize the union.

This sucks! I can't afford to go without pay for very long. This is the best job I've ever had, and I can't stand the thought of it being jeapordized by something this stupid!

There will be no crossing the line. The company, for the sake of national security, will lock us all out in the event of a strike, despite this being a "right to work" state.

So here I sit wondering what my situation will be like in the next week or so.

= 0

It's all good

2005-05-05T21:47:00.000-06:00

Well, life moves on. thanks for the sympathetic comments made by those who purused my last post. For those interested, the little tyke is just as good as ever. I worked on throwing and catching a football with him today. Funny, how I seemed to so much more appreciate that little moment now.

I must have bruised some of my ribs in the fall. I didn't workout yesterday, and will most likely skip tonight as well. My abs and left arm are tremendously sore after my incident. I feel like I've done a thousand one-armed pushups. I will probably give my body a few days to recover. Plus, the day after the accident I had to go to a hand-to-hand-combat class for work that lasted all day. It consisted of kicking and punching bags, and throwing each other around on a mat. So, I am actually pretty sore from all that too.

Can't wait to get back into the groove

Peace

Angels Among Us

2005-05-02T22:55:00.000-06:00

I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty tough guy. I never cry. I’m a big weight lifting guy. I work as an armed security guard for the government. I’ve been trained to shoot to kill, to arm bar someone to the ground, apply pressure point compliance, and handcuff them. There are firearms in my home, and not far from reach. ( for me, NOT THE KIDS ).

Today, I found out I’m not as tough as I thought. Today, I discovered there is a chink in my armor, a breach in my fortifications.

I live in an old farm house out in the country, and when we moved in there was a lot of reminders around the place of the old farm, which for the last four years I have been slowly cleaning up, mainly fencing. Today, I was unbolting and old cattle gate from a post. My wife was trimming weeds nearby, as the kids played in the yard. I finally got all the nuts from the u-bolts and was attempting to yank the gate - which probably weighs around one hundred pounds - from off the u-bolts. It was sticking. I gave it one really good yank, and to my much surprise it slipped free with ease. This put me completely off balance. The corner of the gate dropped to the ground, causing me to take a stumble forward. Being off balance and the weight of the cattle gate pulling me forward, I completely lost my balance, and began to fall, holding onto the gate in front of me. To my absolute horror I saw my two year old son standing right in front of me, completely in the path of the gate and myself!

It all becomes a blur at this point. A blur in slow motion. The worst part is it took a couple of seconds to fall. An eternity to contemplate the worst of which was about to occur, and completely out of my control to stop it. I heard my wife screaming. I realized I too was yelling incoherently. It was like I wasn’t even in my body. I remember trying to reach through the bars of the gate as I fell, trying to grab my son and actually throw him out of the way in time. I think I managed to push him, but I can’t remember. My final thought was, This is going to kill him or really seriously injure him at the least.

The next thing I knew the cattle gate and I were both atop my son. the top bar was right across his throat. He was screaming. I can’t convey in words my horror. I couldn’t get off! I was sprawled on the stupid gate, and couldn’t get off! “ I can’t get off “! I yelled, as my son continued to struggle and scream beneath what must have been over three hundred pounds of weight. I distinctly remember a small bit of blood trickling from his lower lip. At this point my wife and I had one of those adrenaline moments. I just knew I needed to get the weight off of him..somehow! Holding on to the gate with my right hand and holding it close to my chest, I extended my left hand and basically did a one armed pushup, pulling the gate and myself off my son. My wife at this point did her best impersonation of Xena Warrior Princess, and lifted the full weight of the gate and myself even higher.

We got clear of the gate, and I scooped up my boy into my arms. I was so afraid I’d crushed his tiny rib cage, or collar bones. upon examination, I am glad and grateful to report he was perfectly ok except the bloody lip. He keeps trying to wrestle with me even as I type this.

I have always believed in God, and I think he was there with me today. Maybe it wasn’t adrenaline that allowed such an exertion of strength. Which I have to add must have been a major effort. My left triceps is as sore after that two three seconds as after any major workout. My abs feel like I did a thousand sit ups today.

I wanted to take this chance to thank the Big Guy Upstairs in as public a way as I know how. I think about what a disaster this could have been. I should have been rushing to the emergency room at the very least. To get off scott free like this...

What more can I say? I got a second chance. I hope that by posting this maybe I can reach out to some of those in the blogosphere in need of a little boost. As Alabama the country band once sang. “ I believe there are angels among us...”

Peace to all.

Spirit and Body

2005-04-28T14:40:00.000-06:00

I was just kind of thinking today, as I stared a candy bar down in defiance, that it's so funny that all the things that are good for us, are hard to do, and all the things that are bad for us are easy and enticing. I think that in order to become masters of our own lives, we must learn to master our impulses and cravings.

Who are we really? What is left of us when you strip away the natural impulses, the unhealthy cravings, etc? I believe we are spirit joined with body. But, who is really in there? When you are hungry...are YOU hungry, or is it just the physical body? How about all the other desires of the flesh?

I watch my dogs and conclude that they absolutely give in to every bodily craving and desire that they experience. My Alaskan Malamute isn't going to excercise restraint if I put a female in heat in his pen with him. No more than he would if I threw a little bunny rabbit in there. But, we aren't animals now are we? Some would disagree. They think we're just a higher evolved animal and we shouldn't expect much from ourselves. If a man cheats on his wife, it's ok because bottom line he's just an animal behaving on instinct.

I think that one thing that seperates us from the animals is the ability to recognize that we are more than just flesh behaving on instinct. We have spirits, we have souls, and we feel this deep in our hearts. The great difficulty is how intertwined our spirits are with our bodies. Even though great joy, or great anger are purely emotional and derive from the mental and spiritual form of ourselves, we still have physical reactions from these emotions, like crying, or laughing.

What I'm getting at is that to become the master of our own universe we must recognize that we are spirit matter. We have to learn to master our body, instead of the body mastering us. We must learn that we are so much larger than just mere animals acting on base instinct.

I think the whole "we're just animals" argument is simply an excuse to not rise to the occasion and become who we know we could really be.

Quote of the day:
The definition of an intellectual is: Someone who has been educated beyond their ability to learn anymore. author unknown

Keep on Truckn'

2005-04-27T22:56:00.000-06:00

Well, I am on six straight day shifts now. This was day three....three more to go. So far I have had the chance to workout twice in the last three days. Not bad. More than I thought I'd get with the busy schedule at work. The chance for a workout tomorrow looks bleak. But, if I can get one in the day after that, I will be pretty pleased. Then back to some graveyard shifts, and daily workouts.

I am frustrated because I just don't seem to be making any headway in the way of fat loss, especially around my belly. In another week or so things are supposed to really slow down at work, and that should give me the opportunity to get more workouts in and settle into a routine of some kind. One thing I've decided is to cut back my carbs a tad. I think I may be getting a bit too many. So, instead of the chicken or tuna sandwich everyday, I will be cutting out the "bread" part of the sandwich, and just eating the meat with an apple for that meal. I've done it for the last three days, and haven't noticed any big defeciency in energy during my workout. Yet, I still wonder what kind of results I could achieve with a low low carb diet like the Atkins combined with heavy weight lifting. My curiosity is very peaked in this manner despite the warnings. I don't know. I still need to give this other program a decent shot before I discount it entirely.

On a seperate note, I got some cool new upgrades for my paintball gun. I own a Tippmann A-5. I recently got an Egrip, which allows me to fire the gun at full auto ( 18 rounds a second ), and a Flatline barrel, a patented barrel with a curve on it that actually puts a backspin on the paintball, giving it one hundred extra feet in range. There are a few more things I need to get, like a stock, and a chronograph. A chronograph is an insrument that measures the velocity of your paintball, so you can adjust your gun not to shoot too fast, or too slow.

If I could play paintball every day, I wouldn't need to worry about all this diet and excercise. Oh well. Keep on Truckn'

The ups and the downs

2005-04-24T11:16:00.000-06:00

I am writing this on the tail end of a stupendous week of good dieting and excercise. I was able to stick strictly to my diet for six days, and got in a pretty decent workout for each of those days, with the exception of one day, when a fellow security officer had to work a double shift and was trying to get some sleep in a room across from our workout area. Since I quite often find myself working out between 1am and 3am when on graveyards, I decided to show a little courtesy to this guy. I still worked out, but just some weight lifting. I was planning on some cardio, but figured this poor guy would be disturbed by the sound of someone plodding on a treadmill.

Anyway, that being said I am a little discouraged, because I don't know if I have noticed much change in my body, but it was only six days for crying out loud! You need more than that to make a change. The real discouragement comes from knowing that tomorrow I rotate to five "day shift" days of work, and I will be lucky if I get to workout more than twice in those five days. And working out after work is pretty much not an option with a fourteen hour work day. Sigh...

The good news is that in a week or so, things are supposed to slow down a bit at work and perhaps then I will have more consistent opportunities to get my workouts in. Then I can really put this new program into effect, instead of this dabbling.

Free Speech or Contradiction?

2005-04-22T03:59:00.000-06:00

For some reason I have been thinking about the practice by some Americans to burn our nation's flag in protest. I remember back when George H.W. Bush made it illegal to burn the flag. I remember seeing images on tv of people burning the flag in DC and being hauled off by police. Personally I get offended when I see Old Glory being burned, stomped on, or spat upon. I see it as an act that almost borders on treason. Can I defend these feelings logically? Probably not. I am only being honest in how I feel when I see it happening.

Those who defend this practice usually cite their constitutional right to freedom of speech, and expression. They also claim they are merely practicing their right to peaceable assembly in protest to the government.

Although these are all rights that I do condone and God willing, we never lose these rights, I have to question the whole flag burning. I don't believe we can make it illegal to do so, just as we can't stop anyone from burning a Bible if that's what they want to do. But, what I have to ask is; what logic comes from burning the Flag? What is the symbolism? What are they trying to say when they burn the Flag? When I turned on the tv on 9/11 and saw Muslim extremists in the streets of Baghdad burning our flag, I could see the reason. I got the message loud and clear. But when one of us does it....

To me it only speaks volumes of a person's ignorance when they chose to burn the very symbol of the freedom that allows them to demonstrate their protest in such a way. I can't think of very many nations on God's green Earth that would permit such a demonstration. But here in America, land of the Free, it's a simple matter of free speech. But to me it is the ultimate hypocrisy. The Constitution guarantees a person the freedom of speech. The Stars and Stripes is our ultimate and most sacred symbol of that very constitution. To burn it, is in effect burning the Constitution in effigy. In my mind these people are symbolically canceling themselves out.

Instead, you should be flying that flag with pride! Wave it in the face of oppression and tyranny! By all means protest and demonstrate if you disagree with policy. That's what this country is all about...That's what that flag you are burning is all about. Think about it.

The Words of a Master

2005-04-20T21:58:00.000-06:00

Years ago I was heavily involved in power lifting. This was a two year stretch in which I went form 190 lbs to 270 lbs. I was really strong, and could do 1,000 lbs reps on the leg sled. I didn't do it alone as I had a trainer the whole two years. He is an olympic weight lifting coach for the USA, consultant to the Bulgarian weight lifting team, and has trained 36 body building champions in his time. It was a privelage to be under his wing for two years.

Now, as I strive for better health, weight loss, and muscle gain, I have recently been reflecting on this time in my life. The workouts were horrendously difficult. I reached levels within myself that I never knew existed. I pushed through mental walls that I didn't even know were there. Now as I struggle trying to lose weight, and get in good consistent workouts one of his sayings keeps popping back into my head, and I thought maybe all of us could benefit from his wisdom. He said, " Your body is simply a machine...it will do whatever you ask of it...if YOU will get out of its way ! The body physically has no concept of TOO hard, or TOO heavy. It only does what it's told ".

Just another day

2005-04-19T20:52:00.000-06:00

Cold and windy today. The weather is sucking out my paintball enthusiasm. At least I know that eventually the weather should clear up someday, and I can start playing again.

Well, yesterday was my new start on working out and diet. It felt good. The workout went well, and I am sore today, so that's good. I am hoping to get to workout tonight, but my LT. is sending us to the range to bone up on our shooting techniques, so I might not get to workout tonight. Maybe if I get done shooting in time, I will be able to squeeze something in.

Tomorrow shouldn't be a problem for sure. So that's good. Well, that's it for today...nothing profound pops into my head at the moment.

Premature Longing

2005-04-18T23:06:00.000-06:00

Yesterday's post I was all longing for paintball and glorifying the warm springy feeling in the air. Yesterday I grew nostalgic watching kids ride by on thier bikes with baseball gloves dangling from their handle bars. The smell of fresh mowed grass wafted through the neighborhood, as I sat on my Dad's porch taking in the lazy afternoon sun while burgers sizzled on the grill.

This morning I woke up to a near blizzard! Snow covered the ground as giant wet flakes fell for most of the morning.

Ahhh...Springtime in the Rockies.

SPRING IS IN THE AIR

2005-04-17T14:45:00.001-06:00

Paintball! Oh Yeah! With the weather warming up I am really starting to jones for some paintball. I haven't mentioned this on my blog before, but I have been playing paintball since it's conception in the late eighties. I love this game! In my opinion it is a game that brings all of the base elements of most sports, and combines them together. One of the great things about paintball is it doesn't matter if you are young, old, skinny, fat, female, or male...everyone is on an equal playing field. The only thing that really matters is experience.

Well, every spring I start to get all worked up over paintball. I start getting all of my gear out from storage, and cleaning it up. This spring I have ordered some stuff for my paintball marker (gun) to enhance the performance. Can't wait for the stuff to get here.

If I could only find a way to play paintball every day, then I wouldn't need to worry about excersice and diet so much. Maybe I will start up a tournement team, and try to go pro = )

If you haven't given this sport a try before, I strongly urge you to give it a shot. Most beginners that I've invited out to play with me, usually end up buying all their own gear, and become regulars.

As the summer progresses and I start getting some playing time in, I plan on posting some war stories on this blog. So stay tuned for more.

Don't know if I can take it much longer

2005-04-16T12:11:00.000-06:00

Well, update on my diet time. I sure have packed on a lot of muscle mass it seems. I am enjoying the look and feel of bigger arms, chest, and legs, but unfortunately I have also increased in body fat. I am not sure by how much, but my pants are tighter than before. My last update, I had dropped my calories down to 1500, thinking that that should do it no matter what. Turns out that this few of calories just caused me to be super hungry to the point where I would have no will power, and tended to binge at nights on unhealthy snacks and crap. I haven't really followed any semblance of a decent diet, or work out routine in about two weeks. My busy work schedule is partly to blame.

I talked to my friend who happens to be a personal trainer, and fitness consultant, yesterday. He said that reducing my calories to 1500 was the worst thing I could've done. Someone my size should be eating more. Fewer calories on someone of my size will actually result in a slowing down of the metabolism!

Anyway, I have reworked things and am going to be starting fresh and new again on monday. I would start now, but my parents are grilling burgers sunday, and I figured I might as well enjoy one last good meal before getting all serious. I am going to be back up in the 2,000 calorie range, and still eating six meals a day.

My friend also advised me that I should be trying to get in at least three cardio sessions a week, so I revised my training split.

Day 1- Abs / Chest / Cardio
Day 2- Back / Biceps / Triceps
Day 3- Shoulders / BIG cardio
Day 4- Legs / Traps
Begin with Day 1 again.

Well, we shall see. I am frustrated because I feel like I am undoing all the progress I made on the Atkins diet. It is tempting just to get back on Atkins, because the weight really does come off, and you aren't ever hungry. But, at the same time I want to be building muscle mass and become a more active person. I don't know what kind of muscle building I can achieve if on a low carb diet. Seems I should be able to add muscle if eating all that protein. Who knows. If it starts to get too drastic, I may have to go back to Atkins. Any advice from anyone?

He Thinks He's So Special!

2005-04-14T15:24:00.000-06:00

First off, let me explain why it’s been so long since I last posted on my blog. Basically I usually blog on my days off, and when there is down time at work. Well, the past week there have been no down times, or days off, hence no blogging. My schedule doesn’t permit me to blog after I get home because, I usually barely have enough time to prepare the following day’s meals and get to bed. I am out the door by 5 am and don’t get home usually until 8:30 pm. I think my wife would kill me if I spent the few precious minutes I have at home blogging.

Well, onto my topic for today.

“ I hate him! He always thinks he’s so much better than anyone else “! How many times have we heard this phrase, or even spoken it ourselves? This past week at work I heard this said about a fellow coworker. I was shocked to hear it actually. This is a person - I will call him John - that I actually have a lot of respect for, and was surprised to hear some speak so venomously of him.

John is a young married guy with two kids. He seems to be a great husband, and father. I admire his ability at work to always stay above the back biting, and politics. I’ve never heard him slam anybody else behind their back. He is faithful in his religion. Doesn’t drink, smoke, gamble, tell dirty jokes. At work he takes his job seriously, never caught snoozing on post, always scoring high on his firearms qualifications, and is dedicated to keeping himself in shape.

Is he perfect? No. Is he trying to be? I think he is doing his best, to be the best he can be. Back to the ugly phrase I began with, “ I hate him! He always thinks he’s so much better than anyone else “! I’ve decided, that in most instances this isn’t true at all. The person being criticized as pompous, or self-righteous doesn’t assume they are better than anyone. The next time you start to assume this about someone, stop and consider this: Maybe it’s not that they think they are better than you....maybe it’s that, deep down you KNOW they are better than you! They aren’t self-righteous, just ...righteous. Some people just can’t stand or abide this self realization, and their own petty jealousy comes blazing out in slanderous profusion.

I am reminded of an analogy I was once told about a bucket of crabs. I was told that if you fill a bucket with a certain kind of crab, they will all try their best to stand up and climb out of the bucket. Occasionally one will manage to hook a claw to the rim of the bucket, and begin to hoist itself out. At this moment all the other crabs will grab a hold of him and pull him back down into the bucket with the rest of them.

Isn’t this so true of humanity, and the way we treat each other. Especially one who may stand out and with their own piety reflect back to us our own downfalls and imperfections. Rather than hold up this individual as a shining example, we would rather pull them back down to our own level. We would rather not be reminded so painfully of our faults, and short comings.

Just some rambling for today.

Minutemen and Border Patrol

2005-04-07T14:52:00.000-06:00

I feel like these minutemen down in Arizona helping to patrol the US border down there are getting a bad wrap from the msm.

While doing some patrolling of my own last night, I was listening to late-night talk radio, and heard an interview with a radio reporter who was embedded with the minutemen down there, and he had some interesting things to say.

He said that although, publicly the US Border Patrol has denounced the minutemen and expressed concern for the action taking place, this reporter has seen the actual agents, the guys getting down and dirty everyday, walking up to the volunteers and shaking their hands, and thanking them for the help. He has seen agents salute the Minutemen as they drive past.

Another thing he said is that since the Minutemen converged they have seen the attempts at border crossing diminish by one half, and this was only on the second day.

Also, they are apparently having an effect on the drug smugglers as well. He told a story, of an incident when all the Minutemen radios were simultaneously jammed for several minutes. After the jamming ended everyone was able to hear a conversation in spanish for a few minutes between two men, discussing a "drop" that was going to be expected later. Many are guessing that the smugglers needed to move something, and took such measures as to actually employ the use of some kind of jamming device so that any Minutemen who saw anything would have no communications.

Myself, It was refreshing to hear these accounts from someone who is really down there. Are these people anti-immigration? No. Just anti ILLEGAL immigration. Are they behaving violently towards those crossing the border? No reports of any violence yet.

Something to consider. Many experts on terrorism are predicting that if any other major attack occurs within the US, it will originate from the Mexican border. This threat is real enough to have prompted the government to hire up to five hundred more border patrol guards. At my job we receive FBI briefings often on fugitives, and wanted terror suspects. I have heard stories of Arabs going to Mexico, and assuming a Mexican name, and crossing the border into the US illegally with more on their mind than finding a job picking tomatoes. Some of these illegals have even managed to receive government clearance and get jobs working in sensitive areas!

We have a long ways to go securing our safety. We should be commending these Minutemen for volunteering their time, and putting themselves at risk, instead of demonizing them as thugs and racists. Someone has to call attention to this ever-growing problem that even the President seems to turn a blind eye to.

Blogger Suicide

2005-04-04T19:14:00.000-06:00

Well, this post might do me in, but I must know what others may be thinking on this. First, let me be up front and apologize to anyone this may offend. I mean no offense. I'm not really trying to make a point here, but am really asking a question.

As a society we label deviant sexual behaviors such as pedafilia, necrofilia, or bestiality as being a mental sickness. Now, I'm not an expert or psychiatrist, but I think most people would agree with me that people who have these desires would be considered sick, and in need of some kind of medical help, or counseling at least. My question is how does homosexuality escape being lumped into the above category?

I realize that there was a time when homosexuality was considered a sickness, but is no longer recognized as such by the medical community. I beleive the Freud was one of the first to take such a stance. http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_mental_health.html

Is it merely because of the victimlessness of the act? The whole arguement of "two consenting adults"? Of course we condemn a pedafile. He is sick! A predator! A deviant from nature! But isn't homosexuality deviant as well? By deviant I mean deviating from the norm. I'm not trying to make a case of weather it's a choice, or inborn. I am just saying it is a behavior that certainly strays from nature's intentions. What benefit did nature intend to gain from such behavior? You don't have to be from Alabama or read the Bible to realize that it's not "normal".

So my puzzlement here I guess is what is it about homosexuality that distinguishes it from other sexual behaviors considered deviant? How does it become accepted as "normal" by much of society and the medical community, when a pedifile or necrofiliac, for example, is considered to be mentally sick?

Does it all just depend on who you talk to? How widespread it becomes? If you talk to a member of the NAMBLA, they wouldn't consider pedafilia as a sickness. Would they?

Well that's it...let the hell fire begin. "Shuddering"

Musn't get discouraged....musn't! If I could somehow reach my utility belt...

2005-04-04T00:12:00.000-06:00

All is well, I guess. My workout and diet program is now officially four weeks old. Results? Well, I still refuse to get on a scale, cause I know for a fact I have put on weight, and scales are evil devices besides. My first four weeks I did no cardio, and didn't watch my calories too much, though I did follow a diet eating specific foods. My main focus was strength training and putting on some mass. In this, I was pretty happy. I feel like I have added a lot of muscle. After just four weeks it is evevident in the mirror and when I work out. The negative has been the increase in my waist. Hopefully I will remedie that soon, as I now have added cardio into my workouts. Basically I do a straight hour of cardio every fourth day, and I have cut my calories down to around 1820 a day. After a few weeks, I will add more cardio to my routine and adjust my calories accordingly.

I do have to say that I almost can't even count week four. My workouts were good, and I made it to the gym almost every day, but week four also contained Easter, and three birthday parties! So, yeah I had a lot of crap to eat that I shouldn't have. Well, here's to week five and a new begining within a new begining.

Just for the record this is my training split.

Day 1 - Abs / Chest / Triceps /
Day 2- Shoulders / Back / Biceps
Day 3- Cardio / Abs
Day 4- LEGS
Start over.

How We think VS What We Think

2005-03-31T17:09:00.000-07:00

I heard an interesting debate while listening to talk radio yesterday. The question was basically this: How come The Theory of Intelligent Design can't be taught in public schools side by side with Darwin's Theory of Evolution? Now, I am not posting this to continue the debate I already heard on the radio. This is a question that many have asked. Separation of Church and State right? Well, this guy was saying that you wouldn't need to cram it down the students' throats like Darwin gets crammed. Just make it a voluntary class, or elective for students who would like to hear another "theory". For that's all Darwin is...an unproved theory, that for whatever reason gets taught as fact every day in America's classrooms.

Anyway my actual reason for making this post is, one guy made a statement, and I don't want to detract from what he said by telling you what side of the debate he was on. I just think that what he said was profound, and good food for thought. Especially for those of us with kids who will or are participating in public school.

I will paraphrase the best I can from memory. He said, " You know in educational institutions you always hear of how important it is to promote free thinking. But, in reality free thinking is often found to be questioning authority, or being a trouble maker. I believe that we should be teaching our kids how to think, rather than what to think. Teach them to question everything. Teach them that questioning authority is not a bad thing, if done respectfully. In the end, it isn't the answers that are so relative, but maybe instead, it's the questions that we ask ourselves that matter most.

I heard this and thought to myself, "BINGO"! I know I had a bad experience with a history prof in my freshman year in college. Where I felt I was being treated unfairly because of my own religious and political beliefs. In high school my brother had an experience with a teacher when he confronted them in front of the class, calling into question some bogus thing they were trying to pawn off to the kids. Instead of getting in trouble, he should have been praised for the courage to question. Not just lap it up.

Whew! my two cents for today. = )

Touched By an Angel

2005-03-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

I was at the gym last night working hard, when I noticed an unusual movement in the corner of my eye. I gave a quick glance and noticed a woman hopping around on one foot. At first I thought to myself that, yeah that would be a good exercise to build some leg strength. Upon further examination I realized she was an amputee. Her right leg was missing from mid-thigh down. Of course I have seen people with missing limbs before, but what made this extraordinary was her level of fitness. Her muscles were toned to rock hard shape, and her work out was just as intense as anyone else there.

As I watched her gather her crutches up under her arms and make her way painstakingly out of the gym, I couldn't help but feel inspired by her determination. I have to admit that I cranked out a few more reps after she left.

I wonder if she is ever aware of the inspiration she gives to others. It's funny how she so unknowingly touched me, and inspired me to be better, complain less, etc. Do others watch us? Do we unknowingly inspire others to do better? The thought of it is kinda scary. It sure makes me want to be a better person.

Not So Far From The Truth

2005-03-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

A while ago White Salamander posted a blog about the TNIV translation of the Bible coming out soon. In the comments he got involved in a mini-debate. In his debate. scroll down to the post titled "See Paul Run"
he expressed his fears of the trend these days for evanglicals to be too light hearted concerning their Christianity. i.e. trying to make it more hip, and contemporary as to attract more Gen-X parishioners.

I have always held the same concerns myself and was satisfied to see his comments on the subject. Well, the other day I stumbled on this article. , and it seems to support even more the truth of what he was saying.

My problem with a show like this, is what do these people really know about Christ. This kind of show just further relegates the image of Christ to that of a mythological creation. like beowulf, or Santa clause. I am thinking someone has just taken notice of the box office success of "The Passion" or the long success of shows like "Touched By an Angle" and are trying to capitalize on the success of these shows.

Making Jesus cool, contemporary, and hip isn't the answer folks. Who wants to see The Almighty, Lord of Hosts, Only begotten of The Father, The Great I Am, portrayed as a doobie smoking, walkman carrying, hippie with a surfboard under his arm giving advice to a priest strung out on narcotics?