A Return of Sorts

Lots of you guys already know this, and to quote a phrase my old boss used to say about past work experiences, "In a previous life...."
I worked at Walt Disney World.

I was there for about 4 years starting the summer before my senior year of high school.  Hired in to be a cast member for Magic Kingdom attractions/entertainment (which ended up being more of a food service with a show, but I'll get to that later) at The Diamond Horseshoe Saloon Review & Medicine Show.
It's closed now - probably being used as storage or a character meet & greet space (just like the Animation Studio at "Hollywood Studios" is a cold empty husk of the magic it once held).
While it was open, we served cold sammiches and chips and ice cream and sodas while a stage show with magicians, singing cowboys, and can-can girls performed.
It was an entertaining food service attraction.
We dared to blur the line between departments.
Because of this, I was able to cross-train at a few other close by attractions like Haunted Mansion, which was the best because it was the only place you could give your face a rest from all that smiling and being nice to people.
(...hello, Jesse. consider this a virtual hug.)

(awkward pic pose)

2 years later, I moved over to Typhoon Lagoon to be a lifeguard.  But not one of those cool lifeguards like those that got to dive the shark reef for most of the day or like the guys standing above the wave pool.  I was a shallow water guard.  Which meant watching people float down a lazyass river, telling kids not to climb rocks, ster-bac bluing the snorkel gear, and tube stacking.
Before we were even allowed to stand poolside with our whistles, there was, of course, a certification class where were taught CPR and other life-saving techniques in the deep end of a pool at a YMCA.  An older gentlemen in our class ended up having a heart attack in the pool during a session and we had to do a real life emergency rescue....

Anyway, during this lifeguarding phase, I was also taking classes over at Valencia 3 days a week and working 12-14hr days. Sometimes picking up event shifts that had me clocked in from 6a.m. to 3 or 4a.m.
Make no mistake, lifeguards party just as hard as they work and I had some of the best drunken nights of my life that I probably shouldn't remember.
(...Neil?? I think you're the only one from back then who may or may not read this. HI!! ...also, luckily for us, I can't find any pictures at the moment.)

The park would close for two months in the Florida "winter" for renovations & maintenance and would send its cast members to the other parks and resorts on property. I was sent into retail at a gift shop at the then-named Disney Institute (now called Saratoga Springs) which was the most boring gig but gave me an awesome opportunity to do a claymation short film as a part of the resort's "area awareness" training.
The resort used to run 2hr workshops that people could take in gardening, animation & claymation, and a few random other things....photography was in there, I think.  Apparently, people don't want to learn on vacation because it doesn't appear they do that stuff anymore.
That day in the claymation shop, we were broken off into 4 groups of 3 or 4 and my group was inspired by Bambi Meets Godzilla (below) so we did a similar little ditty but instead it was a pink poodle floating down a river on a raft and it gets eaten by a purple tentacled monster from below.
It took us 2hrs to complete a 12 second clip.  Will do some digging to see if it's hidden in a box in a closet somewhere.

When Typhoon reopened, I went back to lifeguarding before itching to get back to the entertainment side of things and auditioned to be in....no...wait....to be A Friend Of the Disney Characters and ended up being great friends with Rafiki, Pluto, & Eeyore over at Camp Minnie Mickey (recently closed) at the Animal Kingdom (...hello, Bambi, Michelle, Jen, & whoever else may be lurking....HUGS!!) just after its Grand Opening.
(Had some pretty fuckin' awesome drunken nights while I was here, too.  *daydreamy sigh*)
(bleh....some not so awesome, too)

And then I tried to swing into being a Puppeteer for the Lion King Show (recently closed) over at Disney's Animal Kingdom but got caught up in a stupid union thing that fucked over my chance. Pissed off (mostly with myself), I picked up odd shifts here and there, becoming friends with Brer Fox, Mr. Smee, and Wendell the Country Bear over at other parks & resorts and then left to become a photographer at Animal Kingdom (3rd party), which was still kinda fun because then I was taking pictures of all my friends who were Friends of Disney Characters, but really kinda sucked because we were doing the same framing, seeing the same character poses...for hours, for days, for months.  And with a shitty manager.
I got burnt out.  Fast.

Completely disenchanted & struggling, I left theme parks/entertainment/hospitality all together to go swimming in the tech pool for about 14 years.

And, so here we are.  15 years later and I've returned to entertainment.
In the form of Mad Cow Theatre.
Which, unbeknownst to most of you, has been a goal of mine for the past year+ and is on my list of things to accomplish for 2014.
I seriously couldn't be happier or more excited at present and will share more details next week!!

ARGH - CLIFFHANGER!!

Does This Blog Make Me Look Fat?

So I changed the colors and fonts.  New year, new look.
I also cut my hair off and haven't updated any of my profile pics yet.
I've been stockpiling things to talk about so things seem more interesting.
That's half of the truth.  The other half is that I've been writing more.  In a book. With a pen.
But in that book that I'm writing in with a pen....I stated my 2014 goals and blogging weekly was one of them.
It's only mid-February. It's still early enough in the year.

Admittedly, I've been slacking here due to overthinking.
What day should we stick with? Should it even be an assigned day? What to write about? Should it be a recap? If not, what kinds of things should it focus on? Should it focus? Can I focus?
Until I get overwhelmed and don't know where to start anymore....

Like I just did now when I went to facebook to reply to a message.
So many people doing so many awesomely great things....who the eff cares about my thing when there's SO much awesome out there?
Then I feel small and insignificant.  And then I remember that we're all small and insignificant.
So, then I'm stricken with inspiration and I'm like, "FUCK YEAH, THERE'S SO MUCH AWESOME, I WANNA CONTRIBUTE TO IT, TOO!!"
But then, when I do....I feel like my contributions suck and there's no way it could ever be as awesome as the awesome that's already out there.
But then, I think, if I don't keep contributing to the awesome, how will it ever be even close to meeting the potential of someday being awesome?

And really - the best way to tackle all of this chatter in my stupid noggin is to
SHUT THE FUCK UP AND DO WORK.

There's nothing to show for overthinking things.

The important thing is to start.  Somewhere.  Anywhere.
And what better time to start than now?

See you next week!! :)

2013 Highlighting the Ups

Matthew and I were at dinner the other night talking & getting excited about what we want to do in 2014 and discussing how we thought 2013 went.
Apparently, I had my cranky pants on because I said it was an "OK" year and he said it was "pretty fuckin' awesome".
I've realized since then that unfortunately, and for some stupid reason, my noggin was choosing to highlight some of the more awkward 2013 moments instead of all the seriously amazing things that happened.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to write out the rundown of awesome (and skipping over all the not-so-awesome), not to be a douche braggart, but to further reinforce those in my head instead of those less than optimal and maybe it'll help you do the same. I've seen your facebook posts about how crappy the year was and/or how you're ready for 2013 to be over and it's ok if sometimes we need reminders to clear our perspectives.

January was again full of drunken shenanigans at the Scottish Highland Games.  I dove head first into renovating the Dollhouse of Horrors and started building out stage pieces for the Bloody Jug Band...some by request, others not so much. We also saw Charlie Murphy down at the Improv.

February was more Dollhouse of Horrors work and a trip to Helen, GA.  We also went to see Muse at Amway Center and I cried a little bit at how amazing their show was.

In March, we saw the Dropkick Murphys again, I puppeteered for the Bloody Jug Band's video for "Roadkill Boys".  This was also the month we did Whole30 for the first time and I submitted my last photo for the 12month long Inspired class I'd signed up for in January.
Yep...I totally fell out of it for the rest of the year because of shiny new things and being inspired elsewhere.  But I'm glad I went out with a bang.

April started with a trip to see The Marvelous Mehegans up in Corning, NY.  I took a banjo lesson, we finally ate at Cask & Larder and Ravenous Pig, saw Tony Bourdain at Hard Rock, and visited Disney. This is also when I started thinking about a miniatures.com contest entry.

May was, of course, insane with a Mother's Day pool party that got way more rowdy than what was intended, a concert poster design class on Skillshare, a couple of BJB shows, and was capped off by a trip to New Orleans, LA for my & Pannacakes' birthdays.

June included a Glassman show at Peacock that was pretty killer, a visit with Vaughn & Jen to pick up one of my favorite purchases of the year (Betty & Veronica pictured below), jury duty selections for George Zimmerman, and was also when I received my walking papers from the company I'd worked for over the previous 12 years.

July started off with new hair to celebrate my corporate departure, a crazy 3rd of July party at Pannacakes', followed by a rained out pool party at the Merriam's for the 4th, a Khal Drogo costume for Matthew, the 8th Annual Summer Bomb, a couple of visits to DRIP, and Marilyn Manson at Hard Rock.

August had a The Cult show at HOB, another couple of BJB shows, a trip to Busch Gardens followed by a viewing of Blackfish, a Danny Leggett show, Cedric's surprise birthday party, a drunk monologues shoot (shut up, I'll get to that later), and a trip to Ocala to see April and her fam.  Made a fake movie poster for a friend's birthday and finished up a painting for Cedric & Michelle's anniversary.

September we rocked our own logo for a Labor Day weekend pub crawl, went and saw Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes at Hard Rock and then went to see them again during the Gentlemen of the Road festival weekend where we also saw Mumford & Sons and stayed at a dumpy St. Aug beach hotel.  And we attended a lovely DIY wedding.

In October we went to see Terribly Odd's Haunted Mansion inspired show, Ghost at Amway Center where they shook my pants and hair, I made a mermaid costume, had the best weekend at Spooky Empire where I finally met Tom Savini, hugged Bill Moseley & Ve Neill, told Glenn Hetrick that I'd be his huckleberry, fingered Kane Hodder's left gloved hand during a photobomb, and sang "Goodbye Horses" to Jason Mewes. We finished off October in Austin, TX to celebrate my & Matthew's wedding anniversary and dress up like the 11th Doctor and a Reptilian Shapeshifter for Halloween, and met up with The Krutikovs for some kick ass high-end mexican food with the first best mescal drink I've ever put down my neck followed by the best burlesesque show I've ever seen.

November I made a sideshow freak light-up sign out of an old guitar case & built out two rickety crate shelves for the Jugly Art show at Peacock and then Matthew & I left to spend a week in Amsterdam for his birthday where I lost my passport.  If you ever lose your passport in another country...hope you're in Amsterdam.  They were so nice and the whole process was a lot smoother than expected. We also met some great & crazy party people and Matthew gave up a Heisenberg shirt to a loud Scotsman. We spent Thanksgiving in Arizona with Matt's family during which we had a lovely evening strolling through the botanical gardens looking at giant lit up Chihuly glass sculptures in awe.

And so here we are at the tail end of December and I've submitted my Evil Dead Cabin to the miniatures.com contest before deadline and am making a Gatsby-style dress for New Year's Eve. We had a crazy drunken Pannacakes party, and a silly family presents exchange day that included Cards Against Humanity and boxing robots. We spent Christmas in San Francisco where we saw Brian Setzer Orchestra on Christmas Eve, Matthew got his first proper straight razor shave, dim sum in Chinatown, lobster bisque & crab salad at Pier 39, and we ate some pretty awesome food at some pretty awesome hotel restaurants and had The Best gin & tonic either one of us had ever had and the second best mescal drink I've ever put down my neck.

And peppered in throughout the year we were bombarded with Harlem Shakes, BatDad Vines, Breaking Bad, Red Weddings, Doctor Who, A Fox That Says Things, Goat remixes, Miley Cyrus' tongue, Blurred Lines, Twerking, Grumpy Cat & Li'l Bub, and an Astronaut Singing Space Oddity on the freakin' Space Station.

This year, like all other's before it, has included lots of ups and downs and were it not for the downs...how would you know just how up the ups are?
Plus, you'd probably be an insufferable asshole.

Even if you're a generally positive person like me, and incredibly lucky with a shit ton of ups, there are times that the Veil of Crap can fall down over your eyes to muddy your vision.
I am SO grateful for how up my ups were this year and I appreciate having those downs when they came along....but there's No. Possible. Reason. a down should ever overshadow an up....so remember to not let them, ok?

Thank you, Matthew for reminding me of that & helping to remove my Crap Veil.
You're absolutely right....2013 was pretty fuckin' awesome.

Cheers, everyone, to 2014!!  May your ups be fuckin' killer and your downs be valuable lessons to overcome.

The Evil Dead Cabin

For the better part of the past few months, I've been workin' on this little ditty for this little contest.
You buy the shell and dress it up how ever you want.
Most of the furniture is bought except the couch.  I made that, the curtains, the reel-to-reel, and the Book of the Dead.

So, without further ado, may I proudly present to you, "Ash's Cabin: In The Off Season"....uh, in one inch scale....

Yes, I realize it's missing a porch. I'll get back to that.

I have most of what I need to build the porch but had to sacrifice a porch swing chain for the cellar door and I felt the interior was a bit more important before the deadline.
So, we'll see what happens a little later and...y'never know, maybe Ash will even show up.

Fat Saga BREAKING NEWS!!

So I just jumped on the scale this morning and I'm actually down 9lbs!!
Not the 6 or 7 I thought it was when I posted yesterday.

FUCK YOU, FAT!!

*happy dancing*

Fat Saga Update: Weeks 4 and 5

I skipped posting last week.  Felt like a vacation week with the 4th being on a Wednesday.

Again, I'm still eating really well, but lately my gym routine has sucked.  I've been only twice a week for the past two.
Trainer Brian said that eating was more important than workouts so I don't feel as bad as I probably should.
When I do go, I hit it hard.
Lifted legs yesterday and my butt cheeks are sore.
Gym soreness rules.
I should go more often just for that.

After the first month, I'm down about 6 or 7 lbs.  Just shy of my two pounds a week goal.
I reckon if I were stickin' to the gym better, I'd have done better with meeting that.

Cheers to month 2!!

Dance Class The Other Night

We hustled all night with some stumbles on hammerlocks.

Later in the evening (back at home), we decided we wanted to try doing a tango to this The Kills song:



And we want to do a waltz to The Game of Thrones intro song (skipping the middle part that gets slow):



So we'll be practicing to those songs.  I gotta find a good hustle song for us to practice to.  In the studio, we practiced to MJ's Billy Jean last night before someone switched it up again.  The music is difficult in there because there are folks practicing competition stuff so the music's constantly changing.

Also, I don't think I showed off my new shoes, ones I had on Pinterest - the ones Instructor Brian says are 'angry':

------------------------------------
UPDATE!!
We found a song to hustle to!

Fat Saga Week 3 - State of Guts

I don't feel like weighing myself today.
I'm still eating well.  My jeans fit better.
I went to the gym 3, maybe 4 times.
Slacked off over the weekend because we were in Siesta Key and its been so rainy.
Rainy mornings command me to stay in bed a little while longer.
But I did manage to get up and after it this morning.
Hit the grocery store for more fancy water, meat, veg, & nuts.  They didn't have my favorite grass fed ribeyes, sadly.
Will check back tomorrow.
Raw organic cashews* are effing awesome.  I've also picked up raw organic sunflower seeds, walnuts, and almonds.

Matt & I had an interesting conversation this morning while I was eating my grass fed burger with cashews, post workout.
He (Matt, not the burger) was eyeballin' me and asked how the red meat was treating my guts.

I hadn't really thought about it up until this point, but in the past, after going to steakhouses and crap with friends, my guts were always pissed off with me from whatever I'd eaten.

Not so much anymore.  (knocking on wood)
I haven't had any uncomfortable issues and not much in the way of IBS pains/noises either.

The more I think about it, the more I realize, HOLY CRAP (literally)....I was effin' my body up big time to be in that much discomfort.  It wasn't like chronic pain or anything, but I seriously can't recall being in ANY over the past 3 weeks.

Nowadays, the only time I ever hear the belly monster is when I'm hungry.  It isn't due to borborygmus.

So, that's cool.

-----------------------------------
*which are NOT legumes.

ps.  THIS is the fuckin' business.  A small slice of that in a hot cast iron skillet with pink salt and throw one of those aforementioned ribeyes in, maybe some asparagus....that shit is perfection.

I'm Cranky - Meh Monday

I don't mean to be short or snippy.
Sometimes, I'm stricken with moments of asshole.

1 out of 1 Snoops Approve The New Lair Table

You Know You're Fat When -or- A Declaration

1. Your 'fat' jeans are tight.
2. You break a sweat trying on different outfits.
3. XL shirts don't hide the rolls.
4. Your tits muffin top.*
5. The spot where your thighs touch threaten to start a fire when you walk.
6. The spot where your thighs touch are the only hole worn in your 'fat' jeans that are now tight.
7. You look like a stack of mower tires from behind.
8. Your elbows are but mere dimples.
9. Your underwear rolls down when you sit.
10. Your shirt rolls up when you take it off.
11. An Englishman calls you the "softest bird" he's ever danced with.
12. You wear your husband's swim trunks to a waterpark.
13. You sunburnt your stretchmarks.
14. You stand in the mirror and see a more fit you underneath the fatsuit you're currently wearing.
15. All pictures with you in them, suck.

Seriously, you guys....I've been a horrible disappointment to myself over the past year or two, or three, or six.

I even told me so a couple weeks ago when I tried (and failed, yet again) to keep a weight loss journal**.

This one lasted for not even 2 weeks.

ARGH!!!

Back in November, I started actin' like I was going to tackle this thing for real and wanted to do a 365 photo/vlog project and blah blah blah.

That one lasted about 2 weeks, too.

I HATE THE TWO WEEK CYCLE!!

Why do I do that?

Why am I letting me down?

Pannacakes just recently told me she hit a goal and is treating herself with some junk from Amazon.

I have no goals.

I've never had any real goals.

I usually just say what I want and then later on (days, weeks, months, years) it happens, but its not like I have a goal set list.

So, here it is.

I'm saying it, outloud, to you and the rest of the universe:

I WANT TO LOSE 30LBS BY THE END OF 2012.

We have 7 months left of the year.

That's 28 weeks.

And that's roughly 2lbs per week (with an added little challenge thrown in)

Here's how I plan to do it.  (holy crap...is this a goal??)

• Gym 5 days a week.  Bonuses if I have dance class or other high movement-type outings.
• Knock off the beer consumption drastically.  If I have any, it'll be dark and heavenly and 2 is my cutoff.
• Cut out the carb intake.  No breads, pastas, noodles, or other baked goods.  Even whole wheat type crap.  This has worked for me before, why don't I go back to what works?
• Lean meats and veg.  Fruits in the a.m.  Nothing crazy or new here.
• No friggin' CHEESE.  This one's a bitch.  I fuckin' love cheese...BUT like I said, I've done it before.

Its just time for me to do this again.

I don't like the way I feel.  I don't need anyone to make it a competition.  I don't need to keep talking about it.

What I do need is encouragement, constant reminders, and to fuckin' DO IT ALREADY.

If you don't like something, change it, right?

Its time to fucking change things.

----------------------------------------------------

*I'm so not mad at this one.  It took me getting fat to even have tits.

**Written in the book Pannacakes got me that has a picture of a chihuahua dressed up like Michael Jackson on the cover.

Sometimes Ya Just Gotta Dance

Back in October, Matthew and I celebrated our 7 year itch.
I snatched up a groupon for Arthur Murray classes.

We finally started going when we came back from Hawaii.
The first class included simple box step (which is also the rumba.  hm, who knew!?), basic tango, hustle, swing steps, and one basic turn.
Then I bought these dancin' shoes I found on sale here.  They make me & my feet happy.

They had perfect timing and came in the day before our 2nd class, so when we got there & I put them on, one of the girls who works at the studio was all, "I love them!  Where'd you get'em?"
"....uh....online?"  It kinda threw me off that someone who does this for a living would be asking me where I got proshoes.

We got Brian to tell us his sinking boat story that I'd read here.
He made it sound like it was a sore subject but patted us on the back for reading profiles.
Then he taught us turns for the rumba & the waltz.  He's dreamy to dance with.
And apparently, I'm only to be instructed by young dudes named Brian.
Here's what Matthew looked like at the studio last week, while we were waiting for said Brian:

Matthew sweated through his white shirt.  I told him he should wear a "let's get physical" sweatband for the next class....WHICH IS TONIGHT!

I love our classes.

TT - First class review

I didn't realize there were grown-ups that didn't know that yellow & blue make green. Or that red & blue make purple. Or that red & yellow make orange.

You turds all knew this, right? or should I just go ahead and consider and/or accept that my standards of general adult human intelligence is too high?? Yeah, probably the latter.

*eyeroll*

And of course there's always one in class that drags everyone else down. I spotted this chick straight away. She looks like a cupie doll but with an awesome asymmetrical hair style I was rockin' 2+ yrs ago before I got lazy with my hair. And apparently she owns a place in town called "Rich Hippie"...some boutique she says is very "colorful". I'll swing through in the next couple of days to scope the joint.

When we first started playing with black & white values....she was all "I hate grey."

Towards the end of the class with at least 40mins left, we were working on shading and tinting* and she was all, "the class is almost over. this doesn't make sense [why we're still working on stuff]. this won't be dry by the time we leave."

I addressed her last concern and she was somewhat quiet after that.

She was also the first to jet out the door.

This woman will be trouble for the class.

Next week, I will not be set up next to her.

At first I was worried about the class being full of old people but there's a pretty diverse mix of folks in there.

And one dude. His name is Donald.

And our teacher's name is Sally Evans. She's pretty cool. She said we could bring in wine & that the class has been known to be somewhat of a happy hour.

Next week, I'll bring wine.

I did learn how to keep my paints wet longer. Acrylics dry really fast which can be a little challenging depending on how big a piece you're working on. So, having them stay wet longer is a nice golden nugget of info I got to take away from last night. Also, kinda interested to play with glazing mediums, now that I know how/what they're used for.

Here's a picture of playing with black & white.

Did you know black & white make....gasp!...GREY!!?? *sigh*

Here's what it looks like when you mix colors only using primaries.

Did you know that red, yellow, and blue are primary colors!??! *facepalm*

-------------------------------------------------------

*shading = adding black to a color

tinting = adding white to a color

you're welcome.

WTH Weds - Back To School

I've recently been bitten with the 'back to school' bug.

Everyone keeps posting pictures of their kids in their 1st Day outfits and the friends that are in college are posting "back to it" messages about fall semester.

Even just saying "fall" right now seems slightly off because you can still hear the summer bugs outside making noise.

But then again, saying "fall" means my favorite month is getting closer.

*sigh*

ANYWAY, with that in mind, and with a ton of ideas for art projects coming up, I thought it would be fun to take an acrylics class at this place.

I've never had a formal art class before.

6th grade was the last art class I can recall.

Last night was the mad dash for all the procrastinators buying up supplies before classes start this week. There were a ton of people in ArtSystems just before closing. The staff was getting pissy that folks kept coming in when they were trying to close. I was in and out of there within that 10 minutes.

I even got a student discount. That shit made me giggle & saved me about $3.

Then I went to Michaels and got all the rest of the stuff on my list that ArtSystems didn't have or didn't have time for me to buy.

So, here's a picture of my haul:

OK, OK....I'll admit, a couple of those colors & brushes I already had.

But this is most of what was on my materials list.

Plus, paper towels.

Plus, a water jar.

Plus, one of Matt's shirts to wear backwards.

Social Experiment

Upon logging into facebook today, I noticed a certain someone had posted something about how they'd had enough of facebook.

This person mentioned cleaning out friends (something he does on almost a quarterly basis) and just using it to keep in touch with a few close family members and said that if friends need to get in touch, they can just call or text or email or comment on his weekly blog, or, or, or.....

The never ending stream of facebook friend info was getting overwhelming to this someone.

Which I found interesting....

Because this person posts something just about every 15mins....all day long.

Maybe not that often, but definitely a lot.

Now, I'm not knockin' this person.

He's a pretty interesting fella.

And what he posts is sometimes pretty interesting.

I'm just not sure I understand how you can be overwhelmed by the constant stream while you yourself are contributing to it so heavily.

Or why you'd announce that you're tired of facebook ON facebook.

If you're tired of facebook, don't log in to facebook.

Don't post anything for a couple days.

People really don't care if you have no status update for one day or two or three.

If you close your facebook account for a month, everyone will still be there when/if you come back.

Depending on how this experiment goes, you may or may not find out who this person is.

Shortly after reading aforementioned status update about the facebook fed-up-edness and upcoming purge, he posted 2 or 3 more articles, which made me chuckle.

Meanwhile...back at the ranch....

I thought I'd do him a favor and unfriend him.

GASP!!!

How dare I!

You know why I'm doing this experiment?

1. Because its completely stupid that the notion of being "unfriended" on facebook has become such a social faux pas.
2. And because he's right - if you're a real friend, you call, or you see each other from time to time, or you swap a couple emails.
3. If he's tired of it and I'm his friend, I'm gonna help a brother out and do my part.
4. And because I wanted to see if he'd even notice he was missing a friend during his next Facebook Friend House Cleaning.
5. And because I wanted to see how long it would take if this were to be posted and at some point he read it and figured out it was about him.

(those last 2 things are simply due to my childish curiosity of the interwebs)

Facebook is not the end all be all for relationships.

It shouldn't be treated as such.

Its not the glue that holds people together.

We could say that its the tube (that's what the internet is anyway, right? a series of tubes) that the glue comes in that makes sticking together easier. Convenient handling.

Instead of constantly consuming or constantly contributing to the endless data stream......

Take a step back.

Unplug.

Instead of always updating your status with where you are...

Just be there.

*****************

ps. as part of this experiment (the control, if you will), it should be said that this post is not to be linked to or shared on facebook.

thank you,

mgmt.

RockBand burns calories

Sadly, unable to enter David Lee Roth jumps.

Detox Day 5

This experiment has been kinda boring to post about.

So I haven't.

Here's an example of what I eat during the day.....everyday....for the past 5 so far:

Breakfast: oatmeal & blueberries

MidMorning: apple or hard boiled egg white

Lunch: grilled fish & steamed or raw veggies - sometimes with brown rice

Mid Afternoon: apple or carrot sticks

Dinner: grilled fish & steamed or raw veggies

3-3.5litres of water throughout the day.

See? Boring.

The first day was the toughest. I was focused on it all day to the point where it was distracting and frustrating. I packed a bunch of food with me but not anything of any real substance and by 5:00pm I was whooped.

So, lesson learned - lunches should be grilled fish, brown rice, & veg instead of just the can of tuna & raw veg I had that day.

I poo'ed like 4 times the 2nd day.

Progressively less since then.

The 3rd day there was an interesting digestive track rumble that sounded like a toilet flushing and moved the whole left side of my torso including my elbow leaning against while typing.

I just gave you a demonstration, but you can't see it.

Going out to eat wasn't too bad. Went out with mom to Jeremiah's in Mt. Dora & ordered grilled mahi and some veg. Just had to be sure they didn't drop a thing of butter on the veggies or cook with it.

Overall - I feel damn good and only get little brief cravings that don't last very long.

WAKE UP!!

I told you this stuff was boring.

ANYWAY - I took the day off today to tackle this rubble of a room:

What a friggin' mess.

Went to IKEA last night to help reorganize things in there.

Right, then.

Off we go.

I've Been DUPED!!

Not really.
Just found out that the cleanse program is a pyramid scheme.

Hadn't heard of it before and Trainer Brian failed to mention that part....that nerd.

Always after my money.
Not that it matters if the shit works.
If this doesn't work, at the end of the 24 days, then I'll punch him in the neck.

But I'm excited about it & either way, it'll still be good for me.

Here's what my grocery shopping looked like today. Look at all the pretty colors!!

Cleanin' Out My Guts

I've decided to do a cleanse/detox program.

It looks like this:

That's 24 days worth of flush.
Rebooting my system.
Getting super serious about there being less of me.

Days 1-10 include eating only fish, veg, & some fruits - along with the fiber drink in the morning & energy drink mixes. Oatmeal & brown rice if I absolutely need it.
During these 10 days there will be no breads, dairy, alcohol, fried golden deliciousness, red meat, chicken, soda, or caffeine.

Days 11-24 include meal replacement shakes - along with what I'm allowed to eat the first 10 days...and planning to also bring chicken back into play (suggested as a secondary option during the 1st 10 days - fish apparently cleans you out better).

I'm going to be super strict on myself for this thing, so saying "no." & "I can't" will be said a lot.

That part kinda sucks, but its something that needs to be done if its going to be done right.

Getting some of my favorite things in this week & this weekend (Highland Games aka ScotFest) while I can because I'm hoping to extend the change in my eating habits to go beyond just the 24days and keep it going to reach some personal goals.

This is a jumpstart.

I've done really well at the gym over the past couple of weeks - getting in there on an almost daily basis & going for walks/runs around the 'hood when/if the gym gets passed up for whatever reason.

But my eating habits really need to change and now that the holidays are over and the junk food is pretty much cleared out of the house, I figured this would be the best way to acquire new & better habits & hopefully continue them throughout the rest of the year.

Day 1 begins Monday, January 17th, 2011.

CHEERS TO LESS OF ME!!

2011-After Some Thinking

So we're a few days into the new year and I've been doing some more thinking about what I hope to get out of 2011.

More ART!!

Less ME!!

More ACTIVE!!

Less TV!!

Holy crap that rhymed.

So of course I want to create more. That's a default setting.

I'm proud of everything accomplished in 2010, but I have a couple paintings to finish up and plans for more fun things that have been on the books that need to be cranked out.

Would also like to attend more art events and visits to the Enzian (easy with new membership) & Maitland Art Center.

Go to the gym more & watch what I eat. Also a default setting.

I've put on like 10lbs over the holidays. Everyone tends to but DAMN I've really noticed it this year. The fact that I haven't been to the gym since before we went to Boston doesn't help matters. This will change.

Get up and do more.

We can lump "travel" in here too. We have a few trips that we're considering and trying to plan for the year.

Aside from that, there are so many times where I'm completely stuck (comfy) at home. Whether its movie nights, video game marathons, or when I'm working from home.....

I need NOT to be on the couch so much.

So, I'll drag my 10lb heavier ass to the office more often & be sure to get to the gym on a more regular basis.

I will take better care of myself and stop being lazy around the house.

This also includes watching less tv.

We watch a lot. Even when we don't mean to.

We love a handful of tv shows, and Sundays are chock full of football.

This will change (for the Sunday part, that'll happen post Superbowl) during the week for sure.

That's it, really.

I think.

Maybe drink less during the week.

OH!...Less family drama. That's always good but you can't really count on that, can ya?

That shit just sort of happens on its own.

But the rest we can control.

And we will.

Oh yes.....we will.