New Outlook on... Stuff

After months of relying on an aging Canon Digital Elph that had a cracked LCD screen and then eventually my unreliably shoddy cell phone, I was finally able to grab a new camera this past weekend. Thanks to Costco's mathematical error, I was able to pick up this Panasonic Lumix at an even steeper discount than advertised. Rest assured I will be using the HD-quality video record feature to its max -- on the most pointless things.

So no more of this...

... but rather more Blund in crystal clarity!

I Made the Times!

My friend who works for Seattle Public Schools has had a few of his maps featured in the Seattle Times, most recently for the proposed new school district zones for the upcoming academic year. Now apparently it's my turn! One of my maps is featured in a Times article about our garbage collector's challenge to its customers. Technically it's not in the article, but in a small section of an attached .pdf of a newsletter, and technically the map was a collaborative effort between our graphic designer and myself, but huzzah nonetheless!

Here's the article: Garbage collector issues $50,000 challenge to 5 neighborhoods
Then click the "Neighborhood map (PDF)" in the "Related" inset box. (direct link )

The Power of Bacon Compels You

Tonight, I had dinner with my friend. My feelings for her had grown over the months, and towards the end of our fantastic meal I asked her what she thought about us getting together. I was soundly rejected (with a very good reason). Crestfallen, I drove to Trader Joes and picked up two packages of turkey bacon. So... the day pretty much came out to a push.

Master of Mystery

I wonder if Sister can guess what I got her for Christmas.

Wouldn't it be trippy if it was a pony?

Mini-Vacation

So while I originally had essentially Dec. 17th through the 23rd off, I decided to forgo the second half of my time off and go to work on Monday. There is a lot of work to do and unfortunately my coworker might potentially be overwhelmed, as he has not had as much time on the routing program as I have. I will be able to push some more time off over to next year (over the 40 hours I was allowed to originally), but unfortunately this means that Christmas week will equal a normal work week for me. So with technically only two days off work, I had to make the most of it!

Bowled Away
Brian and I had our best joint game, as he rolled four off of his career high score and I three away from mine. Exciting 'til the end and makes for a good picture! And dang I really need to replace my camera as my phone's just doesn't cut it. Looks like Brian's iPhone did the trick though:

Turky dances were busted out on both sides.

Canada II: Canada Harder
I'll admit I didn't really want to go back to Canada so soon but I was... persuaded, so on Thursday Anne, Jason, Trevor, Hilary and I went up North. No near death experiences this time, but some good times were certainly had. I was talked into getting a fancy jacket to boot! Some pretty decent Chinese food, but also a sour experience at a restaurant where a waitress followed me to the door because we did not put enough of a tip in. Lastly, advice to readers: don't try and make small talk with the border patrol agents, especially when they are about to clear you across.

The 218 flavor gelatto shop, La Casa Gelato, on VENABLES.

I See You, Frog
I saw James Cameron's Avatar on Friday and Disney's Frog Princess on Saturday. Avatar was very cool to watch and the 3D actually worked and may have enhanced the movie (I'm in the mindset that 3D in movies is nothing more than a gimmick). Story was nothing great, but the visuals are worth the price of admission, with lush colors in the detailed environments stealing the show. And speaking of colors, it was refreshing to see a 2D animated movie in The Frog Princess after years of seemingly endless 3D productions; way to go back to the roots, Disney. The film was very good with some decent songs (no great songs though, I felt like) and an engaging story. I actually liked it better than Avatar. And I liked that the lesson in this Disney flick is that hard work is the way to get what you want. Plus Keith David sings!


So now I'm hoping for a relaxing Sunday (preferably filled with a Seahawks win) in preparation for a potential long week ahead. Luckily I'm not a big Christmas shopper so I won't have to deal with that ridiculousness. Man, has this year gone by fast or is it just me?

Artsy Fartsy

When I was a little child I enjoyed drawing. So while in college when I had an abundance of free time (self made abundance), I started trying to get some of that artistic enthusiasm back. I recently found the results of this while scanning through my computer, and decided to put together an impromptu portfolio. It starts with my pencil drawing days (using the grid transposing system found in children activity books) and lasts through some of my 3D endeavors. Looking at all this stuff is inspiring me to try and get back to it once again, so maybe soon I'll have something new to add.









Ah, memories. Check out the album for more pictures and details.

Art

Better, Stronger, Faster...?

As promised, my Fitness Challenge is over and here is a writeup. I really wanted to be able to get my body fat tested again right after so I could compare and contrast with where I was before I started, but unfortunately have not been able to find a good time to go to the body fat testing truck. Now with my work schedule the way it is, I might to be able to until after the year ends. So what did I get out of my 1.5 months? My weight may or may not have increased. My early morning nude weigh-ins fluctuate between 156-160 from seemingly day to day, so I am questioning the validity of my scale (again, damn you Brookstone!). I'm carrying a little less fat in the abdomen area (sorry, no pictures for your viewing pleasure) which would suggest to me that while my weight has stayed the same, I have lost some body fat. I can see some outline of the abs!

I have increased the amount of weight I push and pull compared to what I was doing at the beginning, so that is good. Next time I'll keep track more scientifically, probably bring a notebook to the gym to notate what I do. Food however, has been my biggest problem. Most days I was able to track and eat my goal of 3200-some calories. But other times I'm not sure I even broke 2000. Ironically this would be on weekends when I would wake up late, have breakfast, and maybe nothing until dinner, which would be massive. In the workday I would have been prepared from the night before, making sure I had packed fruits and yogurts and lunch and nuts and everything I would need. This massive calorie variation could not have been good for my body at all, and is the biggest thing I need to address for next time.

So after taking this past week off from the gym (both because of crazy work schedule and being a little sick), I'm already planning my next phase. My torso is... thin. I feel almost scarily so, so I'm going to see about bulking that up. I'm not sure what exercises there are to increase size in the abdomen area -- maybe I'm just genetically locked in this way? I'm going to see about pumping my arms a little bit as well, as I usually neglect them for my much more important (or so I feel) muscles in the lower half of the body. On the food front I want to try and eliminate as much saturated fat as I can, and see if I can decrease the amount of added sugar and sodium I intake. As such, I will be cooking more basic meals and eating more raw vegetables. I'll probably spend the next few days formulating a plan; increasing consistency in all aspects will be key to make sure this all works out the way I want it to.

This and That

How about another series of updates?

Dry Spell Over
Some of you know that I had a recent crisis of being unable to find my face lotion anywhere to purchase. I had been perilously close to running out of my face moisturizing liquid with the risk of squeezing the bottle and having nothing coming out increasing everyday. Having been to three Targets over the past three weeks (they are the only store that sells it), I was on the verge of having to try another brand. Luckily, I returned to the first one I had checked (Factoria) and they had received a new shipment -- fully stocked shelf. Disaster (and having to make a hard choice) diverted.

Prevents dry skin, and protects me from the sun's harmful rays!

First and Cold
You know the best part of winter? Playing football in the snow. Granted there was minimal snow (just a few flakes here and there), but there's nothing like looking up for the ball before catching a touchdown pass with snow swirling all around you. But damn... was it cold! I'm not sure why/how some of my friends were wearing shorts.

I'm pretty sure we played at a higher level than the Seattle Seahawks did today.

Brook-spam
Could Brookstone send any more marketing e-mails? I gave them my e-mail address to save $10 when I bought my scale a few months back, and my Outlook has been absolutely bombarded by them since then. It wasn't until yesterday that I finally had enough and unsubscribed.

Two of them within two hours!

Early Riser

Nothing like getting to work at 5:30AM to find out the meeting has been cancelled. No matter though, as I'm planning on getting in at 6AM all this week. That's right -- ridiculous hours are back! Following a twelve and a half hour day on Thursday with not getting out until 10PM on Friday, I'm in the home stretch of route improvement time for my company which means I'll be going hard until my vacation begins on Dec. 17th. It's not helping that I seem to be coming down with something...

Those keeping track will notice that my "Fitness Challenge" ended last week. I'll throw together some sort of update soonish!

Until then, stare longingly at the newly released teaser poster for next year's Iron Man 2. Internet rumors say a trailer may be attached to Downey Jr.'s upcoming Sherlock Holmes.

Oh What a Week! Pt. 3

And now the real conclusion! Check the two previous posts for Saturday through Thursday.

Three Strikes and You're Out Friday, Nov. 27
On Friday a get together was held so that we could hang out with a bunch of people who are usually out of town. Chris was back for a few days from dental school in Boston, Poon just got back from a tour in Afghanistan earlier in the week, and Ryan and Zach were in town for a few days from Air Force training in Arizona and Texas respectively. We met at Doug and Matt's new place in Bellevue a few blocks north of Bellevue Square (which apparently was a lot cheaper than their previous apartment in Factoria, despite being larger and nicer) at 9:30pm and finally headed out to Lincoln Square at 11:45.

The original plan was to go to Lucky Strikes for hanging out, but this turned out to be an absolute disaster. The club/bar portion of Lucky Strikes is terrible. It was extremely crowded, really hot, and the music was too loud. Now these are the usual reasons for me not liking clubs in general, but take a normal club and multiply it by three. Even the people I was with that frequented the clubs were very turned off by the whole experience; the music might have been considered deafening. We were sitting on the outskirts (having finally secured some sort of seating) away from the dance floor, and we had to yell to the person directly next to us to be understood.

Fearing for having our good times ruined (and for the well being of my ears), we migrated upstairs to the Parlor. I've been a part of two attempts to go to the Parlor before, but both times the line was so long (almost to the movie theater) that we thought better of it. Because we were going at 12:15 this time there was no line and were able to get seating fairly easily. It was nice to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in a long time (some only a few times since college), and I had a very good BBQ burger to boot.

Crappy picture I snapped from the Parlor: Chris, Courtney, Brenton, Sharon, and Thuy!

Me Time Saturday, Nov. 28
I woke up to see my parents pressure washing a tree in our backyard.

It was... weird.

I spent most of the day doing a boat load of errands. Cleaning, laundry, organizing, food shopping, it was all done. Well, not really done -- my room is still a bit of a disaster zone right now even today. I found that more of my pants have small holes developing on the right cheek area -- how does this happen? I don't keep anything in my back pockets, and it always seem to be the same spot. On a unrelated subject, I'm strongly thinking of getting a larger bed (I'm sporting a twin size right now), as the extra space would be lovely. Anyway, mix in some reading and a little bit of video gaming and it made for a nice "Me" day. Missed doing my Saturday plyometrics, but whatever, it's my vacation, right?


Make it Rain! Sunday, Nov. 29
Back into the groove of a normal Sunday before I returned to work. Woke up, headed to the gym for some impressive heavy weight bench pressing with Howie, shot a little basketball, grabbed lunch, and then went to Target to buy a loofah. Unfortunately I missed almost the entire Seahawks game minus the little I saw at the gym. It would have been good to see the Seahawks win.

Ending my week off with a bang, a small group of us went to have dinner at I Love Pho, where I probably had the worst Phad Thai I've ever tried. It wasn't bad per se, it just wasn't what I thought Phad Thai is. That is to say, not slimy. Afterwards we joined larger group for a viewing of Ninja Assassin. When I first saw the preview for this movie I thought it could be good, but then everyone I talked to said it was terrible. Of our group of nine people, I think only three people genuinely wanted to see it. But in we went with Safeway candy in tow to watch an apparently really famous Korean actor, Rain (who I had never heard of), bludgeon people with a variety of ninja weapons.

It ended up being fairly enjoyable, despite all the extreme gore. That is to say that the unintentional comedy level was fairly high, with glaring holes large enough to drive a garbage truck through. And it really makes you want to be a ninja afterwards.

One of those could be me! Preferably not the guy with the cut up face though.

So... a great way to polish of my vacation. I'm looking forward to my next set of days off in December, which are currently scheduled for effectively the 17th - 23rd. Unfortunately I will be working the 24th and Christmas, so I plan on making the most of that small span of work free time.