This Page Intentionally Left Blank

February 29th is a freebie day for all Blog365 participants.

For that reason, this blog post will (sorta) be left empty.

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Overtime, Sit-Ups, and Chinese Buffet

I’ve worked quite a bit of overtime this week and I actually have the weekend off.  Currently I have no confirmed solid plans for the weekend but that is fine.  I just like the idea of doing nothing anyway.   If I don’t end up finding something to do perhaps I will get some things done around the house.  I might even find time to work on my Arcade Cabinet if I find the time and feel like spending a little money.

Today I hit my milestone of 30 sit-ups.  I even felt like I could have done more but I refrained for reasons already stated.  This is a good sign.  I may find myself breaking them up into smaller numbers throughout several sessions in the day when the number gets insanely large.

I am rewarding myself with Chinese food because there are vegetarian options (though some of the buffets in town have more than others).  I know it sounds counter productive to go to a buffet when trying to lose weight but I’ve worked hard this week and I’ve done a great job with sticking to the sit-ups.  It is worth mentioning that I am down to 225.  In case I haven’t mentioned it before my goal is 200, though I may keep going until I reach 180.

I highly recommend doing the one sit-up at a time thing.  I happen to know someone who did something very similar a long time ago and it recently came back to me.  I was thinking for some reason that the idea was original but then I was reminded that I do know someone who did something just like this once.  Of course, they eventually started doing a bunch of other things to work other parts of their body but this is what started it all for them and the results were amazing.

Now…  I’m off to stuff my face.  Watch out vegetable lo mein, for I am your worst nightmare!

Twitter Followers, Blog Popularity, Sit-Ups

Reaching 77 followers on Twitter today was somewhat of a shock. It happened rather suddenly and without warning. I jumped 9 followers in less than thirty minutes. This means I now have more Twitter followers than Myspace friends. This is both bad and good news. The bad news is that most of the people on Twitter, though funny and interesting, are not generally people I know in real life (with some exceptions of course [ @alericb @shortcircuit @yamez4u @hankb @monsula @spacegogglez ]) whereas the people on Myspace are generally people I do in fact know in the real world. This means I’m more popular online than in real life.

Still, this works out rather well because it falls in line with my plans to become Clarksville’s most famous blogger. I’m not sure that is a worthwhile goal but it is a goal and judging by my Google Analytics stats I’m making great progress. While I don’t in fact know for sure that there aren’t other popular bloggers who live in Clarksville, it is fairly reassuring to see that some of the things people have searched for in Clarksville have lead them to me. Not counting the people specifically looking for me, there have been quite a few people looking for bloggers in Clarksville and they are finding me.

Knowing that most of my traffic seems to be people who come directly to Jacefuse.Com through Google search results means that my site has content that people are looking for. Though, a large number of people are also finding me through my Yahoo profiles and Myspace page but traffic is traffic and any fame is still fame. I consider my blog popularity a work in progress and my goal for Technorati is to score at least 50 by the end of the year.

In other non-net-ego related news… my sit-ups are working. Today I did 28, and while the number might seem pathetic to anyone who actually isn’t a lazy computer nerd, for me that is quite a progression. Tomorrow morning I will start the wake-up sit-ups to double my effect. I still intend to add no less than one every session, or two new sit-ups per day. The number will not stop increasing until I feel satisfied with the results.

Really, though, the best sign that they are doing their job isn’t only the fact that my stomach DOES feel firmer, but also the fact that I was able to do the first 15 today without any trouble. I felt as if I could have pushed myself to 30 fairly easily but I didn’t want to force myself into doing 31 in the morning. In fact, I plan on doing only 29 tomorrow morning and 30 tomorrow evening.

The last item on my list of junk to write about is an article I saw at Digg. It was about women in relationships finding single guys more attractive when they are fertile. That is somewhat disturbing to me because it falls right in line with a trend I have noticed over the years. I don’t really feel the need to get into too many details about such things but I will say that for whatever reason women who are in relationships really love me, especially those who can have kids and particularly those who don’t have any yet. It’s somewhat disturbing to know that my biggest female fanbase is a group of women that even if I could be with, is a group that thatI really shouldn’t even entertain the idea of being with for a whole slew of reasons. (So, I generally don’t.)

So, uhm, yeah. Common soon: A bunch of questions for the ladies. FNORD Especially the hot and single gals in the Clarksville area.

Vegetarian Sausages…

BK Veggie Burger

So, overall I would have to say the BK Veggie Burger wasn’t terrible. That doesn’t mean I would recommend you go out and try one, unless of course you just have some crazy need to try one because I tried one. Not at all. If you like meat, as most normal humanoid people do, then stick to the traditional cow-burger.

This thing, in my opinion, serves only one purpose: Novelty. It proves that if the cows were to go extinct tomorrow then Burger King would be able to keep offering up something. Though, after having tried it, I’m not exactly sure that most burger fans would be too crazy about fast-food burgers if cows were to go udders up. Veggie patties might be a fun experiment for those trying to watch their fat and calorie intake but for the rest of the world there are much better alternatives. If you are at true vegetarian* then you probably wouldn’t be eating at Burger King in the first place.

On the other hand, it wasn’t any worse than a regular McDisease Burger.

* I am technically not a vegetarian since I eat fish, eggs, and dairy products.

Big Mexican Dinner

So it seems my brother has entered into the world of blogging. By Blogging, I don’t mean some shitty Myspace blog, either. I mean a real blog. A blog that isn’t powered by how many friends he can add to his profile or how many idiotic surveys he can fill out. I mean a Wordpress powered blog hosted at his own domain.

Oddly enough he didn’t even ask me for very much help. A few questions here and there (most of which he never even waited for me to answer) and he was off on his own.

So if you get bored and need something to bore yourself further with, check out his site… Big Mexican Dinner. I really liked the previous domain he had chosen, which was Creepy Fat Guy, but hey, whatever. Big Mexican Dinner is cool in its own kind of way.

So, uhm, yeah.

Push Ups and Sit Ups

I took my shower and did my sit ups. I added push ups to the list and in a strange sort of way it felt kind of neat. By neat I mean the cramps in my groin and lower back made me think “wow, it’s neat that I’ve gotten so terribly out of shape and never realized it.”

I somewhat impressed myself with push-ups, though. Being able to do 20, albeit slowly, really was a shocker to me. Perhaps it is the muscle groups I work the most while welding, or perhaps it is because even though I have been filling out my mid section the rest of me is still in fairly decent shape. Whatever the case may be the push-ups bothered me a whole lot less than the sit-ups.

I did 20 sit-ups, though. I was only aiming for 16 but I figured while I was on the floor I might as well add four more. Tomorrow I will aim for 22. I know just a few more each day doesn’t sound like it’s going to help me out, but keep in mind that I aim to do more every day from here on out. That means if I do something stupid like make the jump to 25 or 30 tomorrow, then Monday I’m going to have to do more.

Jumping too far ahead too fast will just be limiting me in the future. I plan to move ahead. Not move back, nor maintain. Move ahead only. Kind of like my Geometry Wars score; nothing less than more is good enough. Better is good; amazing is best.

Now, about those Kung-Fu classes….

Unbusy

It has been a long while since the last time I can honestly say I had nothing to do but stay home and clean.  At least since before the new year, anyway.  Tonight I find myself in that situation and I’m almost glad.

I’m going to take a shower, clean this place up for as long as I can take it, then I’m going to go grocery shopping.  Then I’m going to buy myself something neat and gadgety and maybe an new video game or two.  Then I’m going to come home, cook something different, and sit down for the evening to play video games.

Tomorrow, I’ll continue cleaning and playing games and I’ll be satisfied knowing that for the first time in a long time I didn’t answer to anyone or do anything for anyone other than myself.

Also, the iPhone will be set to quiet mode.  I don’t want to hear a peep out of it.

Thirty Something

So there I was, welding. Another day. *spark spark spark cough* When suddenly the idea hit me. Then I kept welding and forgot about it. It probably wasn’t a very good idea anyway. Later on I had another idea, then another. Eventually I had an idea I would remember. It was probably a bad idea, too, but I figured I would let this one stick. I decided to start doing sit-ups every night after my home-from-work shower.

I would start with a nice round number. The number would be 30. I figured I once was able to do thirty sit-ups without any problems. This of course when I was much younger and hadn’t built such a well rounded body. In fact, the last time I saw 30 sit-ups I was probably about 15.

I programmed my phone to remind me at 5:00pm to do sit-ups with the pop-up message “SIT UPS! MOTHERFUCKER!” So my iPhone has now become my iDrillSargent.

Today it went off right as I was getting out of the shower (I’m so predictable) and of course I held myself to it, sorta. Turns out I can’t actually do 30 sit-ups. In fact, after 10 I was kind of sucking like a hypostomus plecostomus in a tank full of algae. I forced myself to do 15 and promised myself tomorrow I would do more. In fact, every day from here on out I will add one and I will not stop adding until I either reach a ridiculously high and boring number or my gut ruptures and I am no longer able to do any more. Judging by the way my stomach felt after only 15 sit-ups I suspect the later might happen sooner than I would like.

Still, this can only help me get back into shape. The vegetarian diet is doing wonders for some aspects of my health. I have lost weight and I don’t feel nearly as bogged down. But a diet alone can only go so far. I’ve not felt like doing any walking, jogging, roller blading, or anything else involving stepping out of the front door ever since the hellishly cold (sub-70’s) weather started late last year, but I plan on resuming that when the weather warms up again. I did, after all, buy those shoes and sweats just for that purpose.

It might not be a bad idea to sign up for some kind of activity such as Kung-Fu or something. I also might want to consider waking up 30 minutes earlier and adding sit-ups to my wake up routine. I don’t want to over-do it though. The worst thing I could do is injure myself to the point of hindering my video gaming performance.

I still have some Geometry Wars achievements to unlock and I need to be in prime shape for that. Everyone knows the best video gamers are round which is the perfect shape for sitting on one’s ass.

So, uhm, yeah. Make no mistake about it, I’m in perfect shape. Round IS in fact a shape.

Farking Team Mates

Today was one of those days that felt like every action I took was countered by lead weights on my feet or my body moving through sand or sludge or something.   No matter how hard I tried I simply couldn’t muster the energy to move forward.  I was working alone and though I normally at least attempt to do what is required today I didn’t even care.

The will, strength, and desire simply wasn’t present.  I could have just as easily laid down on my workload and fallen asleep on it as put forth any effort to finish it.  3:00pm rolled around and I had what was normally about 2 hours worth of work left to do.  All of a sudden, everyone in my department showed up and started helped me out.

3:25, only 5 minutes till the end of the shift, and it was amazingly all finished.  I didn’t even know what to think.  Teamwork?  Why?  I didn’t care.  Why did they care?  I even vocalized my opinion that they were wasting their time.  I simply didn’t care.  The universe’s expanse is not big enough to contain my vast amount of apathy right now.  Yet these determined souls were not going to let my work go unfinished.

They were under no obligation to help me, and though I have done the same for all of them on some days it certainly isn’t the normal practice in our workplace.  I’m not exactly sure what got into them.  To make things even more puzzling, our boss, who I will from now on refer to as Wally, wasn’t even present.  He left at lunch.

The only thing I can figure is that the universe knew I felt like total crap, it knew I wanted to fail miserably today, and in an effort to nullify my efforts to succeed in being a failure, it infected my co-workers with some asinine sense of camaraderie and motivation.

Bastards.

Sick Vacation

I don’t actually get sick days from work.  What I get are vacation days that I’m allowed to use any way I want in blocks as small as 2 hours at a time.  Today I had to use 8 to get out of work because I was really too sick.

I’ve had the whole fever and vomit thing going on, and have spent most of the time cuddled up in bed.  Around noon I was finally able to make some chicken broth and noodles (no actual chicken, just broth in case you are wondering) and finally keep it down.

I really don’t feel like writing, but the amazing thing about little things like this is that it actually makes a pretty good “what’s going on” kind of blog.

So, that’s it for today.  I’m sick, and you get to read about it.  Isn’t blogging great?

Take It Away Now…

I feel like just throwing a bunch of shit away.  I’m something of a pack-rat and there is a bunch of stuff in this house that I really don’t need.  Yesterday I started by putting a lot of cardboard boxes out with the trash without really being sure that the trash dudes would actually take it. To my surprise they took the entire heap of it.  I was very happy to see the pile gone when I came home.  This has inspired me to throw more junk away next week.

I think I will start a weekly ritual of going through the house and finding junk I do not need or want and throwing it away.  Maybe over time I can get rid of almost everything and reduce my belongings down to the bare minimal needs.

Unfortunately there are some things I just won’t be able to throw away.  Old computers and other old electronics I just cannot throw away.  It isn’t that I don’t care to part with it, I just hate throwing things into the landfill that really shouldn’t go there.

Still, maybe once I have thrown out all of the junk that I can safely throw out there will be enough room that I won’t mind having computers from the stone ages collecting dust.  I could always donate the old computers to some organization but I’m afraid if I do that they’ll just end up in the landfill anyway.

On the other hand I could just set them up to run Seti@Home.  If I find aliens maybe I can contact them and ask them to come get me off of this planet.  I really am ready to leave, I think.

To The End, Over and Out

I knew it had to happen eventually.  I knew it was coming and though I didn’t know how or when I knew that the time would come and that even though I felt that I could control it for a while I figured that when the time was right I would know.

Inside of me the anxiety built until it was overwhelming.   Would this even result in the relief I sought?  Would the time be right or would I just further make an ass of myself?  Could I do this without just starting another endless cycle of meaningless gestures and sounds?  Would it pass over like a mild breeze or would it rip through like a thunderous storm?

I had the answer I anticipated and I can honestly say I feel better for it.  It was finally too much and I had no choice but to let it out.  Like demons trapped within me I could hold it in no longer.  The moment of truth would be both a devastating eruption and a serene sense of achievement.

I farted.  (Yeah, I know, you saw that coming.)

FNORD.

Video Game Addiction

I have a video game addiction, but even though I’m hooked I find it amazing that life has a way of keeping me from playing as much as I would like.  Even so, when a new game comes out I simply have to have I suffer from some kind of overwhelming anxiety until I cave and finally buy it.

Maybe this is some kind of problem, or maybe I just spoil myself way too much.  I’m trying to curb my spending to include only top notch titles.  If I can keep myself from going crazy until Spore is released it’ll be a miracle.  I do know I’m going to have to at least get Super Smash Brothers Brawl, though.

Still, in the past few weeks my urge to buy a PS3 has been getting stronger and stronger, and it is probably a good thing that Spore is coming to the Wii, PC, and Mac, but not the PS3.  Otherwise I would probably use that as an excuse to finally cave. Grand Theft Auto for the XBox 360 is also going to make it easy to put off buying a PS3.

Let’s just hope there isn’t a really good reason to buy a PS3 between now and Spore’s release.

Basic Computer Skills…

A user who is new to computers can be expected to have minor issues. In rare instances they may even make a mistake or two that require them do complete reformats. Those instances should teach lessons though. Over time someone using a system should become comfortable with basic tasks.

For this reason it really pisses me off when people who have been using computers since Windows 95 cannot handle the most basic tasks. In fact, it REALLY pisses me off when they come crying to me for help doing things that brand new users who have never had a computer before figure out on their own after 15 minutes of searching the web.

From now on I’m making it a rule that I refuse to work on any computers for anyone. Period. I no longer have the patience to deal with people who simply refuse to take the initiative to solve their own basic problems.

Do You Ever See Me On The Web?

I imagine one day anyone could find themselves asking it to someone. The question: Do you ever see me on the web? I don’t mean at MySpace or Twitter. Running into me on AIM or Yahoo doesn’t count, either. They’re directly social and their purpose is to put people in contact with each other.

What I mean to ask is, do you ever stumble upon me at other places? “He who walks in wet sand leaves prints.” I tend to visit a whole lot of sites that are up and coming just to take a quick look around while the site is taking off. I create an account if necessary and often times never return to the site again (Orkut/Jaiku). Sometimes I abandon the site and return months later to discover that I rather like it (Twitter/Pownce).

That means I tend to visit a lot of different sites and I tend to leave a lot of comments. Once in a while I stumble upon one of my own comments that I have forgotten about and discover that it has become a top search results or top score (such as my Robomower review at Amazon.Com).

The longer I am online the more of these footprints in the wet sand I know I will make. That is also true for people I know who frequent many sites. I fully believe people will start seeing people they know in unexpected places on the web. Online social identities will start to become mainstream and it won’t be uncommon for the average person to have an online identity with a social network of it’s own and separate from that of its real world counterpart.

Then of course we have this whole OpenID thing going on. Yahoo jumping on that bandwidth because apparently having only ONE really big repository of all of your personal shit [Passport/Live ID] isn’t enough. I wonder if the internet is really ready for this. This very system which is supposed to simplify things seems to also complicate some things, not to mention issues with trust and security. I’m still not convinced it’s safe. I don’t think it’s unsafe in the eating uncooked meat that has been floating down a river for days kind of way but unsafe in the logging into a child porn site with your social security number kind. All of that aside though, one thing it will do is solidify our online identity.

I find myself wondering though, will accidentally finding online the people we know in real life become common place?

Happy Pagan Holiday

Today was originally a Pagan Fertility Festival.

In modern times it is a Hallmark and Hersey day.

Enjoy your Pagan Holiday(TM)!

Mid Week Lameness

Today was a fairly easy day.  I had a partner at work and we had a fairly easy workload for the first half of the day.  After that, I was moved to fill in for someone who went home and he already finished most of his work leaving me to mostly do not much more than clean up his mess.

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly and after leaving work I stopped by Petsmart to check out their selection of tanks.  It seems the store in Murfreesboro had less tanks, but they had larger ones.  Clarksville seems to have more, but most of them are smaller (and I hate the designs.)

Sometime in the next few days I’ll be doing my taxes.  We’ll see how much money I am able to budget myself for the upcoming projects which include both putting fish tanks throughout the house and finishing my Arcab.

More to come.

Protected: Phoenix Rising: How It All Began

An Obession Begins….

The year was probably 1978 but it really isn’t important. A very young boy was on a field trip with his class somewhere in Germany. It was cold, the snow was falling heavily, and most of the children were happily getting on sleds and riding them to the bottom of a very long and steep hill. All of of the children were enjoying themselves except that one boy. He was busy freezing his nuts off.

While all of the other children were frolicking like complete fucking idiots in temperatures not fit for penguins, this one boy was wishing they would all die in a blazing fire. At least then he could warm himself next to their roasting corpses. What he didn’t know at that age was that burning human flesh smells horrible. He also didn’t know that soon he would be saved from this freezing hell by the warmth of a small stone building where he would have lunch. With that lunch he would have his first taste of something that would turn into a life-long obsession.

It wasn’t human flesh (at least I don’t think it was.) He was given a bowl of soup which contained good sized round pieces of salty meats. Though he didn’t know what it was, once he discovered them in the soup, it became his personal mission to find them all and eat them. He did and it warmed him and made him so happy he almost forgot how much he hated the cold (and Germany as a whole.)

Later that evening when his mother asked him how the field trip went he told her about his amazing discovery. His mother asked him if it was “sausage” and though he didn’t know he said he would like to have it again. A few days later she prepared for him a meal that had sausage, but it wasn’t the same. He liked it though, and went on to discover many other types of sausage.

I was that young boy. Today my sausage obsession continues even though I haven’t eaten it now for what is about 43 days. One day I will again enjoy the delicious flavor of ground meat encased in the intestines of the animal from which it comes.

Just not today. :(

12 Hours At A Time

It looks like the overtime is starting back up again.  Since I have vowed to at least work 8 hours of overtime per week I will be accepting all overtime offered until I have at least 8 for the week.  Since I didn’t work any last week that puts me 8 hours behind my goal.   To catch up, I plan on working 16 extra hours this week, making this at least a 56 hour week.

That is, unless I’m forced to work Saturday.  If they force me to work this weekend, then I will end up with 64 or more for the week.  I don’t exactly look forward to a year full of 60+ hour weeks but considering how badly I need the money right now I don’t really see any alternative.

I have several projects I’m supposed to be working on.  I need to knock those out to help get the amount of junk occupying my mind down to a minimum. It will be much easier to work the overtime without burning vacation if I don’t have to worry about projects on the home front.

Ugh.  I think my gift of going without sleep will probably prove its usefulness this week.

So, uhm, yeah.

My Weekend, Feb 8-10th, 08

This weekend was spent with Drano down in Manchester. Since she no longer has access to a computer she doesn’t get online very often and we don’t communicate as often as we used to. This was also the first time I’ve been down to Manchester in almost exactly a year.

Normally she comes to visit me since she has such extremely flexible hours. This week, though, I had planned to take a half day off on Thursday and a full day Friday so that I could go down there and help her out with a few things. Instead I found myself taking off a half day Wednesday to visit my father before going down to Manchester Thursday afternoon.

Friday I watched her give some gal a tattoo. It was her only appointment all weekend so the rest of the time was spent just dealing various things she needed taken care of. before we committed the rest of the weekend finding ways to both waste time and money.

Friday night she managed to get herself a new kitten. The annoying little beast apparently suffered some kind of serious anxiety after the move from its previous home because that night it meowed and yelled all night. She was going to name it Echo at first, then Siren. It calmed down finally and did really well last night so she’s stopped using the other more vulgar names we had temporarily given him after growing tired of his fits. I believe she has finally settled on the name Pan.

Last night we ran to Wal-Mart for some junk food and as a way to pass some time and ended up coming home with a 10 gallon aquarium and a bunch of neat decorations. We set the tank up and got it ready for some fish. Today around noon we went to the only pet store we could find without having to drive to Murfreesboro or Nashville. A small black shark, some neon tetras, a few mollies, and 2 different type of algae eaters now take residence in her tank. I didn’t think to take any pictures but I’ll have her send me some and I’ll be sure to post them.

The adventure reminded me how much I loved aquariums and I think I’m going to put a 150-200 gallon tank in my living room as I had originally intended to do when I first bought the house.

The day went by rather quickly and 6 o’clock rolled around way too fast so I had to hit the road. I walked into the door at exactly 8. I’ve been doing house work ever since. Now I’m waiting on some laundry to finish before heading off to bed.

Tomorrow begins another shitty work week.

So, uhm, yeah. Oh, and as usual she found ways to completely annoy me with her fickle and indecisive nature.

Yahtzee and Call of Duty 4

Everyone knows I hate reality based First Person Shooters such as Medal of Honor and Call of Duty.  I hate them because they’re normally reserved for the unseasoned gamers with hero fantasies and a need to fulfill some imaginary role of self imagined patriotic machismo hero bullshit.  Oh, and as games they suck.

Yahtzee, it would see agrees with me, normally.  But he has taken a rather unexpected liking to Call of Duty 4 and he says it in a way that even with my own knack for wordplay  I could never bring myself to so eloquently state.   If you haven’t seen his review, you really should go watch it.

Given that he tackles almost all of the points of a RWIFPS (Real World Inspired First Person Shooter)  and goes on to suggest that this game doesn’t really suffer most of them it has made me consider picking it up.

I’m fighting myself on this issue for a few reasons.  The first of which is I see no need to encourage the inevitable Call of Duty 5.  Activision never used to be bad about regurgitating a successful title until it was dull and lifeless and I would really hate to see them resort to an Electronic Arts business model simply because it has worked so well for the evil empire of rancid gameplay. Still, as a diehard gamer, good is good and if COD4 really is good enough for Yahtzee, it might just be good enough for me.

On the other hand I might just rebuild my gaming PC and buy Crysis.  Call of Duty 4 appeal mostly to the aforementioned grunt-minded gamer and I really would hate to lump myself in with that group of tasteless cockslappers.   At least there would be some prestige in saying that I have a machine that can run Crysis.