| Dork! |
[Nov. 27th, 2020|11:09 am] |
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| Dorking out |
[Oct. 10th, 2008|08:43 am] |
I was waiting in line for my tickets to BlizzCon yesterday. I started talking to the group behind me and for some reason one of the guys started the "I bet you don't have this" and busted out his amateur radio license. Both me and the guy next to me break out our call signs (I'm KA3ZIM btw). He kinda freaks considering most people don't even know what HAM radio is any more. He says "Alright, what about this?" and throws down his carry conceal weapon permit. Both me and the other guy both throw down ours. "Dude, you're in the wrong line to try to out dork people." I was actually just impressed to be talking to 2 other ham radio operators and CCW holders. It was quite amusing.
Today on to BlizzCon. If any of you are going to be there (Cr1stina) let me know. |
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| Tri Tri again |
[Sep. 10th, 2008|01:13 pm] |
This Sunday was a little nuts. I did the Pacific Coast Triathlon. It is my 3rd and I'm definitely getting better, but this one was by far the most competitive one I've done. I finished in 107 minutes, which isn't bad for me. My last, I did in 90 minutes, but this one had 3 more miles of biking and a half mile swim, instead of a 100 or 150m swim. So, adding 17 minutes isn't too bad.
The event started at 7:57 for me, but I had to be there, get situated and set up before 7, since that's when they closed to the transition area. So I got there around 6, walked 1.5 miles from the car to the start and setup. A friend of mine and her daughter came to see what Tri's were like and to cheer me on. The course was brutal. I started the swim on the beach, ran out and got crushed by a wave and pushed almost all the way back out. Ran back in and started swimming. I got kicked, and smacked and did some kicking and smacking of my own. With 30 people all swimming together, you just run into each other. I had a guy in front of me just zig zagging back and forth. Probably not meaning to do it, but was just really hard to pass him. Overall I was pretty frustrated. I did in 20 minutes, should have been 15, but I just couldn't get comfortable. I kept getting distracted and couldn't relax and find my rhythm. Plus my wetsuit zipper was messed up and scratched the hell out of the back of my neck. Cindy was at the beach to cheer as I went up the STEEP hill to the bike.
Hopped on the bike and started on the hilly course. The whole 12 miles was hills, either uphill or downhill, no flat and the hills were long enough that you couldn't just coast down one and make it up the next. I had to work to get up each one. Took me almost a full lap to get my heart rate down from the swim and then I blew through the second half of the bike. Took me about 47 minutes for the bike, which was 7 minutes slower than I wanted, but only 2 minutes slower than I figured.
Dumped the bike, switched shoes and started the run. Right out of the gate was Cindy yelling and then a few people from the Tri club I belong to and they all started yelling for me, so I took off feeling great. Most of the 5k was on trails, then you go down to the ocean and trudge through loose sand to the water's edge. That worked great since the sand was more packed, right until a wave came up fast and then I was running in soaked shoes. Once I was done with the beach, you go up an even steeper hill back to the trail. They even warn you in the briefing to save something for the hill, it's hard. I had to walk to the top, then started running. I saw friends again, who were yelling and then the announcer started yelling for me and I ended up sprinting to the finish line. All in all, it was my best Tri so far and almost my fastest 5k time. I did the anaheim 5k in 31 minutes flat and did the 5k at the end of this tri in 31:30. I was quite happy.
So, all of this before 10am on Sunday. I went home, took a shower and napped for an hour. Then off to the grocery store to get ready for dinner. We were having Laura, our tattooist friend and her new hubby over for dinner. I made hummus, scarlet snapper, and sauted fennel, with sardenian ravioli cookies for desert. The new guy doesn't drink, so the 3 of us ended up going through 5 bottles of wine. It was quite the entertaining evening. |
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| Weekend |
[Sep. 2nd, 2008|02:30 pm] |
Friday, we went out drinking with some friends. Had a decent time. I wanted to quit early so I could get up early on Saturday for a group swim at the ocean, but that was foiled by staying up till 3:30am.
Saturday, chilled at home. Did a lot of laundry. Played some WoW. Decided to run to the gym for a swim. I didn't take my keys since I don't like carrying much at all while I run. I ran there, swam, and had to walk most of the way back since I still wasn't recovered from drinking and not sleeping enough the night before. I get home to find out that the wife had come home, and left again, and locked the door. So that sucks. I spend the next 30-45 minutes trying to find one of the security guards that wanders the complex. I finally gave up and went to one of my neighbors. He lent me his phone to call the front office. They said they'd call the office and get someone to call me and let me in. After another 30 minutes of waiting for that, I call again. This time another person tells me they don't do lockout service after hours. This pisses me off, since they should have told me that first and seriously, after hours i the only time you need lockout service. I call the wife and she's now an hour away and been drinking so she can't come back to let me in. So, I climb up onto the roof, climb over the apartment and drop down onto the balcony and in the back door. It was a little scarey since I had to step down on a window for our balcony, which I wasn't sure would hold my weight, then down onto a table, then the ground. I made it, but overall the night sucked.
Sunday was the shooting class. That was crazy fun. We shot while running, switching hands, kneeling, lieing on the ground, rolling over, all sorts of stuff. I loved it.
Monday was pretty mellow. Cleaned my guns. Played some GTA4. Finished the laundry.
Sunday I've got my Triathlon, so this will be a pretty mellow week, with little to no drinking and moderate exercise. The race is going to be tough, so I want to be ready. |
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| Shooting fun |
[Aug. 31st, 2008|09:09 pm] |
I went to a handgun class today. I've been to these guys 5 times previously, taking their level 1 and 2 classes, as well as a night shoot. This was level 3. There was a ton of stuff and we thought to start busting out camera phones and cameras to take some video.
( Videos )
It was a great time and for $50 for 8 hours of shooting/training, it's a deal. |
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| Texas |
[Aug. 5th, 2008|06:26 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  hungry | ] |
Got back from Texas on Friday. Holy crap was it hot. 100+ days for most of it. On Sunday it was 108... that's just not funny. All of the work stuff went fine. We passed the audit, which is important, since it's my job to make sure we do that. I'm training someone else on it, so next year I can sit there and read a book while he answers all of the questions.
Friday I hung out with the wife and played a little WoW while she was studying.
Saturday biked for 24 miles over 90 minutes. I need to get the pace up just a little so that should be 30 miles in 90 minutes, but I was trying to take it easy, which makes it ok. The problem is now my running. My bike pace and my swim pace both keep me in the top half of my age group, but my running is at the bottom. My best 5k time so far is 31 minutes, which is one of the slowest in my age group. And that's comparing my 5k alone to their 5k at the end of a triathlon. I really suck at running and need to figure out what to do about that. I'm not sure if it's my technique and need someone to coach me, or lack of practice and I just need to run. I'm hoping I just need to run, but some how I doubt it.
Sunday was another 37 minutes on the bike, and 35 minutes running. Neither was especially fast, mostly because of my ass (well crotch) being sore from biking and my aforementioioned sucking at running.
This week will be a nice recovery at work. The boss is gone as is half the team. |
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| Where my dogs at?!!? |
[Jul. 29th, 2008|07:01 am] |
So there's my new foo dog. 3.5 hours of fun. Now I get to go back to get the other half done, which she estimated at 4 hours. Yippy! |
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| san diego |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|04:00 pm] |
Ditched out of work after lunch and rode down to San Diego. Now I'm chilling at the Field with a cigar and enjoying myself. I know the field is a gimmick and tricksy and false, but I still like it. As far as the cigar, its no Gran Havana, but they got pwned by the city (hax) and don't even really sell cigars.
Tomorrow is ink time. I'll post some pictures as I'm going. |
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| Masquerade! |
[Jul. 13th, 2008|10:50 am] |
A thousand faces on parade, masquerade, look around, there's another mask behind you...
Last night was Labyrinth of Jareth, the best Halloween party, even if it is in July. There seemed to be a large number of steampunk and fish type people. One guy was the creep deep water glowy fish. There was King Triton, quite a few chicks in sea shells and fish nets, not the stockings, but big 2" sized fish nets. The best was the steam punk Ghostbusters. They had big ol packs on that emitted steam and started making noises when they turned it on. It would shoot smoke with a flashing light when they "busted" a ghost. Very cool.
Did some dancing, some drinking, then had a woman tell me, "You have a thingy! That's awesome." When she realized what she said, she got a little flustered and apologized, but I thanked her anyway. It was cute.
Friday night was the Magic Castle. It was as entertaining as always. Drank a lot, but not too much, like last year, and had a wonderful time. I managed to bust a trick this time. I caught a marked card when the guy was having me count cards. Being able to go to the castle more would certainly make living in LA tolerable. I'm still not going to choose to move though. |
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| Happy Fourth of July! |
[Jul. 4th, 2008|07:14 am] |
Have a great day today. I may not be happy with the current leadership, or happy with where the country's been going, but I still love it here and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Plus, this is one of the great holidays. Its not one of those wussy holidays where you give presents or even have to deal with your family. This is the holiday that celebrates kicking the shit out of the British by blowing up more shit. It's the only holiday where you're expected to get drunk and blow things up!
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| Triathlon of DEATH!! |
[Jun. 23rd, 2008|12:40 pm] |
Sunday I ran the San Bernardino Tinman Triathlon. It started at 8am and was already close to 90 degrees out. It was rough. I got through the 5k in a little under 40 minutes, which is slow, even for me, but given the heat, that was fine. I hopped on my bike and began riding. After about half of a mile, we get to a hill. I keep pumping and am passing people. I'm feeling good. Its hard, but I'm doing it. The problem is, the hill keeps going, and going. After a little over a mile of the hill, I'm hurting. People are walking. I passed a guy on his back with EMTs giving him oxygen. I finally give up and start walking. A couple of people pass me while I walk, but they start walking right after me. The hill was about 2 miles long and 500 feet up, which is pretty significant, especially in the 90's. I finally get to the top, after seeing 4 more people with EMTs, get some water and then fly back down the hill. I was doing 30+ for most of the downhill. From that point on, I did not get passed once and passed quite a few people. I ended up in 288th place out of 360 finishers, but there were bib numbers up to 1100, so a lot of people didn't finish.
Overall I'm pretty pleased with my performance. I wanted it to be faster, but with the heat and the hills, it wasn't happening. It was a couple of minutes faster than the tri I did in March, but that one was significantly easier with nice weather and very little hills.
The next one is in September and is out of Laguna with 1/2 mile swim in the ocean, 12 mile bike along PCH, and 3.1 mile run on the beach. It will be quite pretty, but fairly challenging, especially with a half mile swim. I've got 3 months to train and get ready for the hills. It should be fun. |
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| RIP Carlin |
[Jun. 23rd, 2008|05:42 am] |
Shit
Piss
Fuck
Cunt
Cocksucker
Motherfucker
Tits |
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| Weight Loss |
[Jun. 19th, 2008|05:48 pm] |
I've finally hit my weight loss goal for the year. I wanted to drop below 200# and finally got it on Monday.
I've been going to the community college swim for fitness class and its been kicking my ass. Swimming for 90 minutes, 4 times per week is rough. The workouts are great, but there's no time for other things, like running, or biking, without being really sore the next day. I'm still pushing to do it, but only doing 1 run and 1 bike per week and sometimes not even that. It has helped and I've been losing 1 pound per week since I started the class.
The other odd thing is where I'm losing the fat. My fingers are thinner. Seriously, my ring almost slipped off in the pool the other day. Its not like I had sausage fingers to begin with, they're pretty thin already. I couldn't lose more from my gut, I've gotta lose it in my fingers. Just great. I know they say you can't pick where the fat is lost from, but serious, there are many other places to lose fat before I start worrying about my fingers.
Saturday was the Anaheim 5k, which I did. I finished in 31 minutes exactly, which is the best I've done, so I was quite happy. This Sunday I've got another triathlon which I'm starting to worry about because its been sooo damned hot out. If its going to be 80 by 8am, its going to suck. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 12th, 2008|08:30 am] |
Small government and large personal power (and self accountability) FTW! |
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| Cigars and Booz |
[May. 23rd, 2008|10:21 pm] |
Yeah, I got my bonus this year! This is great new to anyone who's been following me. It's really a question if whether or not I'm going to get a 2.5 month check in 2 weeks. I find out next week how much of a bonus I can get. It's a minimum of 15%, but I'm hoping for 18-20%, or I'll be miffed. If I got just the average, then I'll go back to doing an average job and looking for another. If I got above, I'll be happy and keep on doing what I'm doing.
For that matter, I'm going to go outside and smoke my Padron torpedo and not my Gurka Grand Reserve cigar. When I get my bonus, it'll be a Grand Reserve. |
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| Weekend Update |
[May. 19th, 2008|11:25 am] |
Friday:
Got home and went to Disneyland, well California Adventure. We haven't really been using our passes this year, so we're trying to go more often. It was fun. We ate at the Napa Rose, i think. Its a nice wine restaurant in California Adventure. Nice dinner, followed by the ferris wheel and the Tower of Terror! The Tower is still loads of fun, even knowing how it'll go. The guy in front of us had a better idea though, loosen your seat belt a little and you'll lift off your seat. He was up almost a foot when we dropped. It looked like fun.
Saturday:
Rode my welfare check bike. Its a Felt S22 that I got used from a guy in the tri-club I joined. The bike is freakin fast. It is a little more than I can really handle, but I'm hoping to grow (or in my case, shrink) into it. Its a triathlon styled bike, so you're even more forward than on a road bike. Your center of mass is moved forward and almost over the front tire. The first time I leaned into the aero-bars (the little bull horn things on the front of the bike) I almost fell from wobbling so much. Being that far forward is going to take some getting used to. When I bought it, the guy had the seat all the way up. I lowered it an inch, but that wasn't nearly enough. My gut pushes down a little uncomfortably at that angle. I really need to lose a couple more inches to be able to bike comfortably.
The rest of the day was spent as Niko Bellic, the newest citizen in Liberty City. That game is awesome. I spent about 6 hours on the game over the weekend and I just finished the "tutorial" section of the city. Hopefully there isn't much more to learn.
Sunday:
House of Blues in Hollywood for Jonathan Coulton. I loved it. Even Kristie had a good time. The opening band was Paul and Storm. They were great too. Their first song was "We're the opening band". It was a few hours of really good, dorky/nerdy music. I had a bit too much to drink, but still fun. Bought a Paul and Storm CD since we were laughing through all of their songs. I think Kristie liked them better. I highly recommend Jon to all of you. All of his music is free to stream from his site and about 1/3 of it is free to download. Check it out. |
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