Archive for the 'A Day in the Life' Category

Biggest Loser, Domains from the Past, and facing down the Reaper

Published on May 16, 2012 in A Day in the Life. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

I’ve had a pretty good day today. For starters, Both Denice and myself have managed to follow our raw vegan eating plan today. I feel beyond great. I have 28 days left to the final way-in for my work’s Biggest Loser competition. I’m behind, but I’m confident that if I can maintain things between now and then, I should be able to take the victory with ease. We’ll see.

In other news, I have had someone approach me to purchase my old domain name, ‘SpiritfX.com.’ It’s been a long time since I’ve used SpiritfX, so I think I am inclined to let it go. I do have a slight sentimental attachment to it, but it’s nothing I can’t get over if the price is right. Besides, that old domain name has a lot of bad karma for me surrounding it.

Also on the web front, I just finished a paid (yes, with actual money) web design job. It was a pretty simple site, but I think it came out well. Check it out if you’re so inclined… Charles M. Hall Alumni Association.

And on a sad note, yet another one of my close family members has been delivered a diagnosis of cancer, and a particularly nasty form of cancer at that. It’s such a dreaded disease. I’ve watched several friends over the years waste away with it. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Hopefully, this fate doesn’t await my realities… hopefully.

If you would like to pitch in to help find a cure for cancer, I am doing the Relay for Life. Any donations are greatly appreciated!

 

Midnight Rider rides again

Published on May 7, 2012 in A Day in the Life. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This past Saturday I got to do a moon-lit ride in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. I arrived at Cade’s Cove around midnight. The loop road is eleven miles long and very hilly. The moon was magnificent. It felt so good in the misty mountain air, I would have dispatched with my clothes and rode the Cove au naturel, if there weren’t so many other riders out that is. It was an awesome experience, and well worth getting off my ass for. Thank you Denice for not letting me wuss out and stay home. I’ll post the video on the Youtube channel when I get it edited.

Should have got a better camera

Published on April 17, 2012 in A Day in the Life and Technology. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I’ve been using my new camcorder, the Sony Bloggie Duo for about a week now, and I believe I have made a mistake in getting it. I love Sony, and for the most part, I am very satisfied with the Sony products I have used. However, the Sony Bloggie has been somewhat of a disappointment. It has a lot of cool feature that my antiquated Flip did not, but the audio sucks. It blows! The video is pretty good, but if the audio isn’t … it’s useless. I’m going to try to cleanup the audio with my video editor tomorrow. Hopefully that will work until I get acquire a higher end camera.

‘Wake’ the Dead

Published on April 12, 2012 in A Day in the Life and Philosophy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

When I came home from work today, I got the dogs out for their walk, and I noticed a hearse backing into one of my neighbor’s driveway. I had to do a double-take because I wasn’t really expecting to see the last ride of the departed making a pit stop right across the street from my house. Well, I did some snooping, and it turns out that my neighbors had a death in their family, and had opted to do an at-home funeral, commonly called a ‘wake.’

Being the odd species that we are, we tend to build all manner of strange customs and rituals around the event of death. Some cultures bury their dead, others burn them, and still others prop them up in their living rooms to have a little quality time before sending them on their merry way. Back in the old days is was a tradition that someone had to be with the body continually throughout the wake, which usually lasted a couple of days. You really didn’t want it going any longer than that, especially if it was warm. Anyway, some poor soul had to take the honor of ‘staying up with the dead,’ which involved just that… staying awake next to a dead body for the entire night. No thank you.

Today, by and large, we tend to isolate ourselves from death, much like we do with every other part of nature. Death is something that happens to us that is beyond our control. We fear it, and push it out of our minds. We invent elaborate mythologies called religions that we use to convince ourselves that we will not actually ‘die.’

Death is a hard subject to think about, I know. I think about it more than is probably healthy. The feelings I have about death now are more sadness that fear. It is sad to think that something so beautiful as life will come to an end. Everything beautiful will eventually wilt away. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I want so badly to leave the world a better place than it was when I arrived. I want wonderful and beautiful things to continue, even if I can’t. I just hate the finality of it I suppose.

 

Yes, it is normal for grown men to watch cartoons

Published on April 3, 2012 in A Day in the Life. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been on this Avengers kick ever since I found a sweet little cache of the old animated series on Netflix. I’ve watched over a dozen episodes in less than a week. I guess it’s just my excitement for the long awaited, live action, Avengers movie coming out in May of this year. Can’t wait to see that movie. I blew my last movie on the retarded Hunger Games. Denice was not pleased, to say the least. So, I’m going to have to take her to see a really cool chick flick before I inflict more science fiction on her. It’s only fair.

Anyway, not much has been happening this week. Work is busy, like usual. My mom is back with her stalker boyfriend. So much for the Order of Protection. I suppose I failed to explain to her what the purpose of that document was. Anyway, I’ve tried real hard this time to avoid violence. The balls in psycho-boy’s court. I don’t think he’s a physical threat to my mother, and for his sake I hope I’m right. We’ll see.

Oh, I also found out that Hank Pym (Ant Man) won’t be in the Avengers movie. WTF? He’s my favorite Avenger. I relate to his character more than just about any other superhero. He’s a guy who is brilliant, and his brilliance gives him extraordinary powers. The catch is that his power often puts him in situations where he is forced to use it for violence (which he abhors), for the greater good. It’s hard when deep down inside you are gentle, but the world thinks you’re a tough guy.

The Funk

Published on March 23, 2012 in A Day in the Life. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

I’ve been in a little funk lately when it comes to blogging. My apologies. It’s not that there hasn’t been a lot going on in my life, because there has. A lot of cool things are underway right now actually. I’ve been seeing a lot of success doing the 80/10/10 thing. I’m down to 245 pounds now. I was nearly 280 just a couple of months ago. I feel stronger too. I haven’t been training a lot, it’s just that things get easier when you’re not carrying around 35 pounds that you were. It’s all looking pretty good in the health department.

I’ve been getting back into mountain biking. We are slowly upgrading our Raleigh 26ers. We just installed some Ergon grips, and are going to be replacing the vintage flat pedals with some sweet clipless ones. Tour Divide begins in June, and I plan on following the racers this year. It’s my dream to do an epic race like this one day. I don’t know if I will every be in good enough shape for it, but if gives me something to shoot for.

That’s pretty much it for now. I’m going on a night ride here in a minute. Till next time.

Being the man she deserves

Published on January 25, 2012 in A Day in the Life and My Goddess. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Sometimes I take a step back from my life and think, “Man, I am one luck guy!” No, I’m not be a billionaire, and I’m certainly not anything special to look at, but I have been extremely fortunate to find myself in the loving arms of a beautiful woman. Denice is such an awesome girl, and I am so happy to be hers. I only hope I can live up to the kind of person that she believes I am. It’s a weird feeling to have someone believe in you. It is exhilarating in a way, yet in another it is frightening.

I was telling Denice about how I let this asshole on the Interstate get to me today. Normally when someone gives me the finger for no apparent reason I just blow it off, but today that wasn’t the case. I was driving home a few hours ago, going a little faster than the speed limit, when this clown gets right up on my bumper. There was a car in front of me, so I couldn’t go any faster. He eventually sped around me, and flipped me off, all while hanging his head out of his window and hurling expletives at me. I was enraged. I started to speed up to catch him. I’m not sure what I would have done if I did, but it was a moot point, seeing that my truck is a beater, and couldn’t catch the guy anyway. Well, after about a minute I realized how stupid my behavior was. Here I am, driving like a maniac in my little green beater, trying to catch an immature little punk who doesn’t know me from Adam, all the while endangering my life and the lives of everyone around me. Stupid. I quickly regained my calm, and went back to driving like a normal person.

When I finished telling Denice my story, she said that she thought it was funny because every time she would get road rage, she would hear my voice saying, “just let it go. It’s not worth it,” in her mind. I have already made that kind of impression on her. It was humbling to know that she takes my words as wisdom, and I almost ruin her image of me by letting that douche push my buttons. It makes me want to try harder to be the kind of person that she can look up to. She already is to me. I hope I never let her down again.

 

Sylar flipping out [Video]

Published on January 22, 2012 in A Day in the Life and Youtube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Sylar has a tendency to ‘flip out’ when he gets around Denice.

Rolling Thunder

Published on January 21, 2012 in A Day in the Life, Vegan and Youtube. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

It was storming when I woke up this morning. I love thunder storms. Lightning is beautiful and terrifyingly dreadful at the same time. I’m attracted to it with a sense of cautious awe. When I finally got out of bed, I tried to take Sylar out for a potty break, but he refused to go out into the rain. I had to pull him out of the door. Afterwards, we both went back to bed and listened to the thunder for a while.

We now have four videos in the can for our Carnivore Rehab project on Youtube. We’re still having a hard time keeping away from the dairy products, but we have maintained our abstinence from meat. Our weakness is Mexican food, especially chips and queso dip. If we can break our addiction to cheese, I think we will be on our way to becoming true vegans.

I’m trying to think of what to do for the next video over at the Erick’s Odyssey Youtube Channel. I’m going to give editing a try for a while. I’m not that proficient with it yet, so don’t expect much. I think I’ll do a video on the defeat of SOPA and PIPA. Stay tuned.

Basketball is better with hair bows, and a weather update

Published on January 12, 2012 in A Day in the Life. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

I’m sitting here with Denice, watching women’s basketball. I don’t know why I feel a need to preface it by saying that we are watching women’s basketball, instead of just basketball. No one says that when they watch men play basketball. They just call it basketball and everyone assumes it is men, but not so with the girls. I’m not really into the sport, but to be honest with you, I like watching the girls play a lot more than I like watching the boys. When the men play, it’s mostly about show-boating and superstars. The girls are more technical and team oriented. And besides that, it’s always interesting to see so many six-foot+ tall girls in one place.

We have enjoyed unseasonably warm weather here in the Tennessee valley for the past few days. That has come to an end. In the past twelve hours the temperature has dropped over twenty degrees, and it’s going to get even colder by morning. I fear that old man Winter is about to bitch-slap us a reminder of just how bone-chilling cold he can be. I’m ready for it. Sure, it’s going to put a hamper on my sudden mountain biking renaissance, but I’m too chubby for that right now anyway. I am dropping some weight though. In spite of the recent bad eating that Denice and I have done, we are both still down a few pounds. Hopefully, we will be able to keep the momentum, and by spring time we’ll be in much better shape to do some cycling.

That’s all for now. I’m going to go take a hot shower, and engage in one of my favorite activities… sleep.