07.29.07

Rise of the Titans Custom Magic Set Released

Posted in Geek at 6:23 am by Evan

I worked my ass off on the geeky endeavor. Per usual.

http://www.misterorange.com/Titan

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07.24.07

Forty Pounds

Posted in Family at 6:44 pm by Evan

That’s how much I’ve lost so far.

Me and my eating habits, we’ve changed a bit. The change began with my appendectomy. They weighed me going in and said, “Mr. Erwin, you’re 373 pounds.”

And my jaw went southward.

That is weight I am not comfortable with. My stomach had been giving me more and more problems until most of my days were spent worrying about whether I took my Prilosec or not. When I didn’t, I would writhe the next day until it subsided. It was no way to live.

Plus, being fat is no way to be. Been there for a looong time. Working on not being there anymore. It’s difficult, of course, but not as difficult as I expected.

I know that sounds like bullshit, but it is what it is.

I began at the beginning of May, and here we are almost in August. Three months of changing how I eat, what I do, and how I conduct myself around food.

The first thing was the drinks. You gotta get rid of em. I honestly think there is no way to successfully lose weight and drink even a single Coke per day. Maybe one per week. But I wouldn’t do it. The taste differential (at this point, anyway), is pretty dramatic. In other words, you’ll only frustrate yourself by drinking a lot of Aspartame and following it up with a ton of sugar.

So, that was right out. The drink that got me started was Diet Lipton Green Tea Citrus (say that three times fast) and I’ve never looked back.

Another thing that really interested me and wish had been communicated as a kid: 3500 Calories, no matter how or when you burn them, will remove a pound from your body. Cut enough or burn enough calories and the weight WILL come off. You burn X calories per day no matter what happens, and so reducing your Caloric intake to ensure you burn 3500 Calories will mean you’ll lose a pound.

Of course it’s more complicated than that, but it’s also as simple as that.

It kind of frustrates me that either that was not communicated to me, or it wasn’t communicated in a clear enough fashion. As a kid I thought that weight loss was a huge endeavor. The first time I lost weight I didn’t even change my diet (which sounds as insane as it was). I simply went to the gym and began burning so many calories that my daily cheeseburger and fries couldn’t keep up.

Nowadays I eat a (LOT) less and drink all of the diet drinks I can get my hands on. I still love soda, but this soda is calorie free which means it doesn’t impact my weight loss in the slightest.

As for exercise, I’ve been working on sweating more, and have recently begun twice-weekly tennis matches with friends of mine. It’s been fun and the results are pretty dramatic.

But what about tracking my weight loss? How much have I lost per week? Honestly, I don’t know and I don’t care. I don’t even own a scale. All I know is I feel better, look better, and don’t have any problems with my eating habits.

Then, of course, I got bronchitis. Damnit. Off to the doctor I go. And when you go to the doctors office, they have to weigh you.

Then the woman said something really strange. I explained to her that I had drastically changed my diet and was working as hard as I could. I was hoping for a big number.

Then she said, “Well, don’t get your hopes up.” WTF?!

But of course, as you can tell from the title of this post, so far I’ve lost forty pounds! Woohoo!

I was hoping for thirty, but that was just above and beyond what I expected. I’d like to thank Tony for originally inspiring me to do this. The man is now on the skinny side of the equation and I think that’s great.

I’d also like to note that virtually all of my stomach problems have disappeared. I rarely fret about taking my Prilosec and if I forget it I don’t even notice. Matter of fact I haven’t taken it in almost a week and I’m still doing just fine.

Who knew diet and exercise could be so good for you?

Anyway, I’ll keep on keepin on, and you’ll be sure to hear about it.

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07.17.07

xkcd Does It Again…

Posted in Geek at 2:21 am by Evan

Another winner from my favorite webcomic xkcd:

Motherf@#$ing blue shells!

The MarioKart Wii game coming next year could actually make me buy one. It was the impetus for me to buy the Gamecube, after all…

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07.09.07

Tidbits

Posted in Family at 4:02 am by Evan

This guy WILL kill you in your sleep. Or maybe while you’re awake. Or maybe right now. *shudder*

PostSecret returned. Me and Ericka were freaking out last week. Quite frankly, I’m surprised there wasn’t more talk about it. I guess it’s that PostSecret is everyone’s favorite read but is tough to read about, because it’s (often) like reading an open wound. Regardless, thankfully Frank is up to the challenge and I’ll be delving into others’ fascinating secrets for years to come.

Recent favorited videos:

Planet Unicorn 3:

Weird as hell. But just as funny.

Flight of the Conchords, “The Humans Are Dead”

Hilarious comedy folk duo who are actually good at it. They recently got a show on HBO. Some of that comedy you just get or don’t. I love it.

If you enjoyed The Humans Are Dead, here is “Business Time” which is their most popular YouTube vid (almost a million viewings):

As a child of the 80’s, this makes me so happy it’s ridiculous:

The memories it invokes are just magical. Zelda (and Mario, and Sonic, and Metroid, and so on) are just part of who I am. Ingrained in the fiber of my being. Who doesn’t know the Mario theme, you know? But it’s not who knows the Mario theme, it’s who knows the original Final Fantasy theme. Now that’s a nerd for ya. I was shocking my friend a few months ago when I could name every video game ringtone he had. Fun stuff.

This last video is apparently an oldie but a goodie. Some guy is trying to sell some POS fake Katana swords and injures himself.

Note to viewer: The real stuff doesn’t break when you hit it against a table top.

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