Thursday, May 8, 2008
I have a blog? What?
Okay, so now that all that detailed new years resolution stuff is out of the way, my story of the moment:
So I drive up to my local McDonald's and I order a double cheeseburger with big mac sauce. This little trick is a golden egg that I learned from my friend. One dollar for a delicious and "lower" calorie sandwich that I coined the "little (cambo) mac". I mean... this order kinda goes in line with my losing weight resolutions, at least I didn't order the BIG mac, right? BIG mac is for BIG tummies, heehee :).
...no homo.
Anyway, when I was ordering to the telecomm, I was very polite (with pleases and thankyous.) In fact, I was probably TOO polite and passive, here is why I say that:
I'm not even kidding. They stereotyped me!! Or they just ran out of "special" stickers. For the sake of a gooder story, I'd like to believe the the former.
Well... I thought I actually had a better story than the one I just gave. But I really don't. I ate the sandwich and went on with my merry life and thats about that. I feel like I'm ending my post on a dull note, so here is a random link:
http://www.thingsididlastnight.com/
End.
footnote1: Amount of readers figure based on random survey of 1 persons (including me.)
Friday, March 28, 2008
Back From the Dead...
Words can't describe the feelings I feel
when I see this picture.
In actuality, these stats are from way back in November. And I'm 5'5, assface. But anyway, these actual pictures were taken as our Before pictures about three weeks ago at the end of February. Since then we have agreed to a competition that whoever has the lowest body fat % and the best body by July 4th, would win a paid airplane fair to Vegas ($150 dollar maximum) from the other person.
"I like how our skin tones caused the camera to have different white balances and how glazed we are and how homo we are.
Starting Specs
Me: 5'8 162 lbs 17% body fat
Din: 5'4 153 lbs 15% body fat"
That gives me three full months to drop these stats and workout more. I believe I have already made some pretty good improvements since this picture. I don't want to get too crazy about it but I'm not gonna lose to that punk. I'll try to keep everyone up to date with my status, I'm making a body fat graph in excel.
P.S Take note that Chris Chen has a scratch across his stomach because he slipped in his socks during the middle of a beer pong game and cut his stomach on the table. The solo cups went FLYING into the air while he was flailing like a swimmer with no water -- they crashed all over the ground and soaked his jeans. Then he had to wear sweatpants the rest of the night. Oh, and yes, this contest/these pictures are questionably gay. But I mean... uhh... ...man, whatever! :]
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Top 10 Reasons to be a Ninja Warrior
Haha, I think having these unnecessarily ridiculous skills would be so awesome. Makoto Nagano has inspired me to push myself to the limits of useless strength and obstacle course skill. But is it REALLY useless? Here are ten reasons why I think ninja skills would be useful:
10 - When someone asks me what I do in my freetime, I can say: "Oh, nothing much. I'm just a ninja on the side."
9 - Kaba Modern might ask me to join their crew to do somersaults. I'm going to do that finger scaling thing with my hands to pass the preliminary tryouts :]
8 - Black makes people look slimmer, its a two birds in one stone: health and style.
7 - The ability to back flip is useful in almost every situation I can think of. Beach, Drunk at Parties, Job Interviews.
6 - Who wouldn't be impressed/dumbfounded if they saw a guy walking around the entire gym on only his hands!?!
5 - I'd be one step closer to being the next Jason Bourne. And folks, that's one step closer to amazing.
4 - I could dunk on 10 foot rim standing at 5'5. Think about it. Yeaaaaaaah...
3 - Imagine what kinda CRAZY things you could do in bed. "So who's gonna upside down tonight baby?
2 - Since I don't have multiple lives like in video games, I need to be fully prepared for any situation that involves running away from:
A) An angry Mob with pitchforks
B) The cops
C) The last girl I tried to spit game at
D) All of the Above
1 - Because I can dress like a ninja on a normal weekday and actually look cool.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
I'm a slacker!!
Thanks to some motivation from my friends, I'm going to pick blogging back up!
In terms of resolutions, I dropped a few, and picked up on a few. I still manage to read current events everyday, and I am now a reading a book for about an hour every night. On the other hand, I haven't drawn anything at all recently, nor have I played the guitar. Unless of course, you count the guitar hero controller as playing the guitar.
you with acoustic guitar hero
- This weekend I went to Massanutten for Miguel's "Silver Selebration"
- Miguel doesn't know how to spell.
- I gained 4 pounds.
- It was awesome!
- If by awesome, I mean sucks ass. (Thats two to three weeks worth of exercising!)
- Indeblue was too long ago for me to remember, that article isn't coming!
- I got paid 3 dollars by 6 people to be quiet for 30 minutes
- I won!
- That being said, I'm still working on controlling the decibel LEVEL OF MY VOICE. People on the other end of the table often join in on my "whispered" conversations.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Budgeting for February 2008
197.78 spent in gas in ONE MONTH. WOW. It makes sense though, because just in the month of January I drove round-trip to upper Maryland (Wisp) , and twice round-trip to Charlottesville. There is also a large chunk of spending for the Gifts category, but that because I ended paying off my credit card for a couple Christmas presents in January.
The good news is that I still seem to be able to deposit a significant amount of my money into my savings account. Still, I'd like that savings number to be higher than 54% of my total spending; I'd like to shoot for 70%. So the next step from here?
I am going to try to make a budget based off of my ridiculous January spending habits where I ended up spending more money Snowboarding than I did on random gadgets or Bars/Clubs. We'll see how this ends up, I hope my February 2008 Expense chart looks better than this one!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
ABS DIET POWERRR -- ITS OVER 9000!!
---
I have been getting a lot of questions about my A.B.S.D.I.E.T.P.O.W.E.R resolution that is in the health section of my resolution. Here are the basics of the diet:
I learned about the ABS Diet from Mens Health. The fundamental concept is that instead of eating less often like a majority of diets, you eat more often. By proportioning your meals six times a day, you increase your metabolism and burn more calories throughout the day. In addition to this, your body will never go into starvation mode. Since there is a sufficient amount of energy in your body at all times, your body will never feel the need to store energy as fat for emergency energy purposes. Read more in-depth about its concepts here.
A typical workday for me goes like this if I'm not dead tired from the previous day:
8:15 AM Go running on a treadmill at the local work gym
9:45 AM Eat breakfast, typically an egg sandwich on whole wheat muffin
10:15 AM Take One-A-Day multivitamin, Vitamin E, and Calcium Pills
12:30 PM Eat half a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread
1:30 PM Sometimes I get hungry around here and eat carrots and almonds that I keep in a bag at my desk
3:00 PM Eat some more unsalted unsweetened almonds
4:00 PM Eat the second half of my turkey sandwich
6:30 PM Eat dinner -- Ranges from leftover fried rice to salmon (my favorite)
8:00 PM Workout in my basement and dance in-front of a mirror while on constant lookout to make sure I don't get caught
8:30 PM Get caught by my brother while dancing in front of a mirror and proceed to beat him up
As jam packed as the schedule seems, it is basically routine for me now to eat like this. The last time I dieted using the ABS Diet routine and workout schedule, I lost a whopping 12 pounds. I didn't lose it in two weeks like this ridiculous advertisement below, but it only took me about 6 weeks.
This time around, I am starting off the diet a lot skinner, 12 more pounds would probably be impossible. Still, I hope to have proportionally equivalent body fat losses to my first trial while following the ABS Diet this time around.
So why the periods in the A.B.S.D.I.E.T.P.O.W.E.R? They are acronyms for the 12 essential foods that I try to fit into my diet. As a rule of thumb, Mens Health recommends eating at least three of the 12 "power" foods a day to gain a healthy, protein rich diet.
Almonds and other nuts (... yes, I love nuts)
Beans
Spinach and other green veggies
Dairy
Instant Oatmeal (I don't do this one)
Eggs
Turkey and other lean meats
Peanut butter (a very good source of protein if chosen correctly)
Olive oil (or as the Wifey McCutie Rachael Ray would say, some E.V.O.O)
Whole Grains
Extra Whey Protein (Are they allowed to use adverbs as acronyms? CHEATERS.)
Raspberries and other berries
So these are the 12 power foods that I try to fit into my diet. Surprisingly enough, I was able to produce that list without having to reference the website. All in all, this is a very summarized overview of the diet that I am following. If you are considering a diet, I highly recommend the ABS Diet for these reasons:
- I can still party (drink beer) and it lets me live my life without feeling like a prisoner calorie intake
- The diet allows for one or two times a week where I get to eat whatever I want; thus I can enjoy my weekends and restaurants without the nutritional guilt trip
- The proportioned meals made my stomach smaller, meaning I feel full much faster and easier now
- I love eating, now I get to do it all day!
Monday, January 28, 2008
An Unavoidable Temporary Hiatus
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Wisp 2008
That's a low calorie, low carb, low fat pizza. No, not really. I mean, I already assumed I was going to eat pretty bad this weekend, and there is mistake number one. Eating bad here and there isn't that big of a deal, but every time I have a "trip," I take it as an excuse to go nutritionally wild. First it was San Francisco where I gained 3 POUNDS IN 3 DAYS. That's pretty bad, and this weekend was similar to that. I wish I had a picture of the giant jar of cheeseballs that basically 4 guys managed to crush in two nights. A few cheeseballs here and there, alright; constantly eating them while playing beer pong? Disastrous! It's disappointing to work hard and eat well 4 or 5 days out of the week, and then totally negate all of it in two or three days of partying.
May the spirit of college live on forever :]
I feel like the reason I eat so badly is because these trips are "vacations" to me and I should treat as such by fully relaxing. In afterthought, I'd be just as happy and have just as much fun without the random detrimental eating. I think I am turning these small weekend trips into excuses. Excuses won't get me to my 10% body fat goal, commitment will. So again, I face the same decision this weekend. I will be going to Charlottesville / UVA to visit some friends and possibly snowboard. Charlottesville has some of the BEST restaurants to eat at that I really miss. The plan this time around is to still go to all the restaurants. However, on this "vacation" I hope I can be smarter about the portions ... or just in general.
It may seem like I'm being too overly cautious or analytical about my health and nutrition, but really it's now or never. If I start slacking this early in the year, who knows what is to come later on? For once, I want to be proactive and really stick to it.
On a side note, here is a clip of some Rock Band action at my Wisp house. Man I love that game:
Edit: Since some people have asked: Miguel and
Terro are dancing, Chris Chen is singing, Victor is on
the drums, and I think thats Christine on the guitar.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Filomena
This week is Washington DC Restaurant Week. I've never been to a restaurant week; basically it's expensive DC restaurants at "normal" prices. For 30 to 35 dollars, you can choose an appetizer, a main meal, and a dessert from a limited menu. Tonight was really fun and my first restaurant week experience at Filomena was a good one. Filomena is an Italian restaurant in Georgetown. Their limited menu was still larger than most restaurant week menus. I went with three other friends from summer school: Matt, Kris, and Miguel. It's been a while since all four of us from our infamous Summer of Sausages '04 have gotten back together as a group. It was nice reminiscing over good eats. Talking about eats, here is a breakdown of what we ate and my review (keep in mind I am not a food connoisseur whatsoever): If you want to skip all this and read the overall review, goto the bottom.
Appetizers
Bruschetta Trio -- Of the appetizers, I think this one my favorite. The smoked salmon with Creme Fraiche was soooo good, a great way to start off the night. It had the flavor of a smoked meat with the sweetness of a cheese. As I write this, I realize I know nothing about technically analyzing food, to me things are either tasty, really awesome, or damn-that-was-good. Anyway, Bruchetta Trio, good job, you are damn-that-was-good. A+
Funghi Alla Fiorentina -- This was stuffed white mushroom caps in a spinach and Italian Cheese. There were comments on the table about the cheese being too sweet but I thought that the bitter taste of the mushroom mixed well with the sweet tasting sauce. B+ Funghi, B+.
Arancini -- This was rice balls with mozzarella, bolognese meat sauce, and Italian rice. If you cut it in half, the cheese and rice oozed out. It was like a heart attack in a ball, and really now, any heart attack in a ball is heart-teriffic. B+.
Calamari Fritters -- I try calamari where ever I go. I love squid and I think there are so many variations of it that it's worth it to find the places that make the best calamari. This place was not one. The calamari was standard at most, they only had the main portion/the body of the squid. The little crispy and squiggly calamari tentacles were non-existent, and that's my favorite part. Calamari's acronym is C. Just like it's grade!
Vongole Oregantana -- This was Jumbo sized clams with a bread stuffing, almost as if they were fried. The garlic and butter were also stuffed in (as opposed to a dip) making this a pre-made present to the tongue. Aside from the Bruschetta, this was probably my second favorate appetizer. With lemon squeezed on the clam, it was Clamtastic. A+!
Entrees
Lasagna Alla Bolgnese -- This was homemade pasta sheets on Ricotta & Mozzarella Cheese. Mixed in with the Bolognese Meat Sauce, this was a great reminder of homemade lasagna. Of the entrees I tried, this was my favorite. In the front of the restaurant was a window showing two ladies hand making all the pasta that (I assume) they are using to serve in the restaurant. Personally, I think that extra touch of homemade pasta makes and breaks a lot of Italian food. Congratulations window cooking mamas, A+.
Dessert
Strawberry Mousse Cake -- This was a very light cake. It makes sense because there was very little yellow cake, most of it was mousse. That in and of itself was a bit of a deterrent, but the strawberry glaze on top really boosted the flavor of this dessert up. Pretty good, not something I'd die for, but I'm not much of a sweets guy anyway. Outside of flavor which was alright, the presentation was really well done. So, Presentation A+, Flavor B-.
After Dinner Drinks
After dessert we were offered free Italian drinks. There were two liquors to choose from. One was called Sambooka, and the other I don't quite remember. The one I tried, not the Sambooka, tasted like a really strong amaretto sour. Each drink cup had three coffee beans in it. Individually, they represented health, wealth, and love. When put together in a cup, soaked in alcohol, toasted and drank... I dunno what they represent, take from it what you may.
Overall
Given the circumstances, its hard for me to judge if Filomena is worth the money. The average entree seems to run about 21 or so dollars, meaning that it isn't too pricey. At the front there is a coat check, and overall the place is pretty classy. One GREAT thing about Filomena is the portions, they are gigantic. I went home with half of my lasagna today, and it was the smallest of the entrees we got as a group. Taste wise, every dish was well thought out. The balances of flavors was really nice. Bottom line, if you are not on a diet, and want to eat like Super Mario, definitely give this place a try. Health, Wealth, and Love-
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Some January Doodles
I was originally drawing tonight with the intention of creating a good outline to color in Photoshop and Corel Painter. I may still do this, but more likely that not I am going to continue sketching (doodling) in my free time to regain some hand control. When I feel like I have that back to an acceptable level, maybe then I'll color a picture. It would be nice to follow this resolution and see progress in my technique and ability as time goes on. Again, like most of my other resolutions thus far, it feels good to have even taken the initiative and put something on paper.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Capital Jiu Jitsu Free Trial
Capital Jiu Jitsu
My friend Jamil asked me to go try out a brand new gym opening up in Dulles, VA. Dulles's Capital Jiu Jitsu grand opening was today, it is an expansion of their already established Alexandria location. The facility was pretty barren, they haven't finished installing all the punching (body) bags, mirrors, and equipment yet. However, they did have all the floor padding and all their expert teachers present. After the brief tour of the facility, Jamil and I took the beginners Muy Thai class. There were only 4 of us total, so it was a really good individual experience to learn the basics of Muy Thai.
The Muy Thai Experience
The first thing we did was run for 10 minutes while using a jump rope as our "warm-up" (yea right) cardio. Then we went on to learn the basics of a Muy Thai stance and a basic jab. After that was "established," we combined the two techniques together by learning the one-two punch. This involved generating power from your legs, pivoting on the balls of your back stance foot, and rotating your hand as you shot forward. The teacher had to help me a lot here, it was pretty pathetisad. But anyway, afterwards was basic knee-raise defense and roundhouse kick combinations. These were a lot easier for me with my background in soccer. To finish off the workout, we ended with 10 minutes of calisthenics. It alternated between leg exercises and chest exercises and was really intense. An hour of instruction later, Jamil and I talked to our instructor a lot about general MMA fighting. He is a really nice and humble guy, yet I'd definitely not want to be in a fight with him at a bar. He was huge and you could see his technique and intensity when we were shadowing angling the one two punch with feet pivoting. Long story short, this was a really good experience but it's 120 a month for unlimited classes. With all these other resolutions, I'm not sure what kind of commitment I can make to the gym and how much it will really be worth it.
On another note, Capital Jiu Jitsu also offers lessons in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Go figure. Here is an excerpt from their handout I got today:
" Jiu-Jitsu classes cover the battle-tested techniques of the Gracie family. Developed to enable a smaller-weaker practioner to be effective against opponents of all shapes and sizes. Jiu-Jits's throws, reversals, joint locks, chokes, escapes and self-defense techniques rely on loverage, making it one of the most effective martial arts in the world. "
If you didn't read that excerpt, let me give you my summary of Gracie Jiu Jitsu. So basically, if me or any of my thug friends (thug lifeeee *gang symbols*):
Use Brazilian jiu jitsu against this guy:
Any of us would win the fight because we could leverage our body weight to toss him over our shoulders and knock him out with a headlock. Ha, sounds about right... All joking aside, I am really interested in signing up for and learning Jiu Jitsu. It's a tough decision. I'll sleep on it for now, hopefully I'll be able to walk tomorrow morning!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Put your money where your... MIND is
- Create a system. Make it painless. Come up with techniques that are easy and mindless, and then make them automatic. Develop a routine. Have a place for your receipts and your bills. Follow your system.
- Make the most of on-line banking. Check your account often, and set up as many automated transactions as possible.
- Do your finances regularly. The longer you wait, the more transactions there are to process. The more transactions there are to process, the more intimidating it all seems. Don’t procrastinate. Designate a time to do your finances and do them.
- Develop self-discipline. Ultimately, this is a problem that only you can solve. You must force yourself to track your spending if it’s something that’s important to you.
- Create custom categories. Don’t be hamstrung by the default categories in Microsoft Money. (Or Quicken.) Create categories that make sense for you and your situation.
- Work with a partner. If you’re in a relationship, ask your partner to help prompt you to track your spending.
- Post a visible reminder. Frykitty suggests putting up a graph of your progress. I think that any visual cue should help: a sign, a photo, etc.
Create A System: To keep track of my spending, every receipt goes into my wallet. From the gum I purchased at 7-11 to the
A cup full of receipts. Not just any cup of receipts, a margarita cup from Bubba Gump Shrimp in Cancun where a man in a gorilla suit with a banjo who was dancing and singing around our table wouldn’t stop staring at me… But anyway, this cup that sits right next to my monitors on my desk is the key to my system. Ideally, I would record my spending and receipts the moment I spent everything. However, for the sake of a realistic system, anytime the cup overflows with receipts, I have to update and record my spending.
Make the most of on-line banking: I already pay my bills and credit cards online. The more important extrapolation from this tip is that nowadays, practically everything can be done on-line. To avoid my out-of-sight out of mind mentality about finances, I’ve done everything I can to make sure I am constantly reminded of them. On my iGoogle page, I’ve installed a gadget from ExpenseView.com (below). This means that every time I open up my web browser, whether it is at home or at work, my expenses are one of the first things I see:
The iGoogle gadget is pretty simple, and I've created custom categories so that expense tracking isn't a hassle to me. Eating out, Bars/Clubs, Entertainment, Clothing, Savings, and Bills. I figure if I have simple broad categories, it will be simple to categorize my receipts. The last thing I want to do is make this too much of a hassle that I end up not doing it. The remaining tips and tricks are encompassed within these first two explanations. This gadget is a visible reminder to record my expenses and having a system helps me do my finances regularly.
I hope this system works. My resolution is to eventually have a budget setup in February after a month of tracking. I want to track my spending meticulously enough that the budget can be accurate and realistic. For now, I think this is a good start.
Type C
Type B personality types tend to be easy going, less schedule driven people. Pretty much me.
However, for the sake of maintaining my 2008 goals, i am classifying myself into a brand spankin' new personality type, Type... *cue drum roll* C!
Type C personalities represent commitment, consistency, and ultimately, completion. For the first time in my life, I want to say I completed my new years resolutions, and actually believe myself. To do so, first I needed to make tangible new years goals. Documented in a simple Excel Sheet (there is also a link in the title,) I have categorized my 2008 new year's resolutions into 5 major aspects of my life that I would like to see positive change in: Health, Creativity and Intellect, Social, Financing and Business, and Career. Each category has its own tab in the Google document, with its own defined goals for the year. The first two columns are filled with gray because I completed making the list yesterday, January 11th. From here on out you can watch as I track resolution progress in the spreadsheet. Future posts will be updates that will detail my up-comings, shortcomings, and over-comings about completing my goals in all areas of my life.
So for today, Type C can also stand for Cheers. Cheers to a new year, and Cheers to my first of many posts!