Captain's Log

Like many hopelessy optimistic folks, I took it upon myself to once again write New Year’s resolutions. To this end, I found myself in the gym yesterday trying to accomplish one of these goals. My goal: to get in good enough shape so that I can do chin-ups unassisted.

My theory behind this is that if I can do a chin-up without killing myself in the process, then I’m at a very good muscle to fat ratio.

That’s the idea anyways. The practice, well… may be a while. Last night, after having neglected going to the gym for several months (in part because I can’t get my gym partner to go anymore), I discovered I was worst off than I was before I joined the gym!!!! Ughhhhhhh!!!

I used to be able to do 3 full sets of chin-ups… with maximum assistance on the chin-up machine of course. The chin-up machine has counter weights that can be used to counter your own body weight, making it so you have to pull up less weight during a chin-up. With a 100 lbs taken off of me (the max you could take off), I could do the chin-ups, albeit slowly.

But not anymore! I could do a couple. But I barely made a complete set.

/sigh

Well alright. No matter. All challenges come with obstacles. If they didn’t, then they wouldn’t be a challenge now would they? So it looks I’ll need to play a little catch up (curse you winter holidays and your delicious candies, turkeys, and hams!!!).

Stealin' it from a friends' list (just another crime ;-) )...

If you saw me in a police car, what would you think I got arrested for?

Answer me, then if you want, post to your own journal and see how many crimes you get accused of.

I just found out that one of my favorite authors, Michael Crichton, has died. He was the author of many great works including Jurassic Park I & II, Sphere, and Congo. His works were fantastic reads that combined one part science, one part fiction, and a healthy dose of thriller. Many of his books were so popular that they became movies (though often butchered by those Hollywood hacks... case in point, "Jurassic Park II" & "Congo" were very good books). His stories were cautionary tales that more often than not told us about how science and technology wielded carelessly is indeed a dangerous weapon.

His death, in the same year as the death of Gary Gygax and George Carlin, makes this a very disappointing year.

Let's take a moment to mourn a great author.

Well at least I do better than my Ford Ranger. :-)

31 miles per gallon

Created by The Car Connection

Vs lbh ner ernqvat guvf, guna lbh unir gbb zhpu gvzr ba lbhe unaqf.

I could survive for 1 minute, 6 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Hey guys,

Recently a coworker and I took a stress test for fun to see how susceptible we were to stress. On a scale of 1 to 100 (where less than 31 is considered good), I scored a 52 (yay me?) But incredibly, my coworker scored a 67!!!!

Then we got to talking and it occurred to us that it seems unlikely that anyone can get below the 31 mark (short of being a Buddhist monk, and even that’s a close one).

But why ponder this, when I can try and find out! So if you guys are up to it, take the below test and let me know what you score. Feel free to PM it to me, add it as a comment, or even as your own blog entry.

***

For each of the below questions, assign one of these values to it…

1 – Almost always
2 – Often
3 – Sometimes
4 – Rarely
5 – Never

___ 1.) I eat at least one balanced meal a day.
___ 2.) I get 7 to 8 hours of sleep at least 4 nights a week.
___ 3.) I give and receive affection regulary.
___ 4.) I have at least one relative I can rely on within 50 miles.
___ 5.) I exercise to the point of perspiration at least twice a week.
___ 6.) I smoke less than half a pack of cigarettes a day.
___ 7.) I drink fewer than 5 alcoholic drinks a week.
___ 8.) I am the appropriate weight for my height.
___ 9.) I have an income adequate to meet basic expenses.
___ 10.) I get strength from my religious beliefs.
___ 11.) I regulary attend club or social activities.
___ 12.) I have a network of friends and acquaintances.
___ 13.) I have one or more friends to confide in about personal matters.
___ 14.) I am in good health (including eyesight, hearing, and teeth).
___ 15.) I speak openly about my feelings when angry or worried.
___ 16.) I have regular conversations with the people I live with about domestic problems
___ 17.) I do something fun at least once a week.
___ 18.) I organize my time effectively.
___ 19.) I drink fewer than 3 cups of coffee, tea, or cola a day.
___ 20.) I take time for myself during the day and enjoy this time.

And here is what your scores mean…

20 – 30: You did it! Somehow you live a life not prone to stress. Congradulations you dirty rat (I’m envious :-) )! So how do you do it?

31 - 40: You’re vulnerable to stress. Probably not telling you anything new, am I? :-)

41 – 50: Seriously vulnerable to stress.

51 – 60: ???? Don’t know. They don’t actually list this range on the chart for some reason. Yet this is where my score lands. Go figure.

61-100: Extremely vulnerable.

100+: Redo your math you silly wabbit! There are only 20 questions and the highest you can score is 5!

Dragon-Con Review 2008

It’s that time again. The time when yours truly reviews his experience at the latest gaming convention. Or in this case, Sci-Fi convention.

At the end of last month, I traveled to the exotic lands of Atlanta, GA for Dragon-Con.

Now for that much anticipated moment, a review of the games I played. Plus, a bonus commentary of an exhibit I visited that had nothing to do with the con.

( The X-Men Go to Hollywood!! )

( Whisper In The Dark )

( Predator: Everyman For Himself! )

( Look Out Ocean's Eleven )

( Simon: The African Adventurer )

( Heroscape: The Massacre )

( The Loveboat, Guest Starring Cthulhu! )

( Enter the Pygmy Dragon VII: With Six You Get Egg Roll? )


( The Georgia Aquarium )


Overall

For the serious gamer, I would not recommend Dragon-Con. Dragon-Con was cool, but the gaming aspect was really only a minor part of it. And the DC administrators treated it as the red-headed step child it was. I had numerous problems registering for games. The online registration window was only two weeks. The system was bad enough that I accidentally got overcharged and then eventually told I hadn’t paid yet (which was very untrue). The ticket line at the con for gamers wasn’t even set up till late. And the overall attitude of the people in charge was a very “We’re just doing this because we have too.” kind of attitude.

But overall, it wasn’t a bad experience. I still had fun. And I might try it again. But next year, if I go, I’ll be doing a lot of things differently. Not the least of which includes not scheduling games for 9am in the morning. And maybe taking the time to tour Atlanta, possibly even find time to goto Savannah.

I love Gold's Gym. They are the only gym I know of that spoils their members with a Cardio Theater. A dark room with a movie screen and a couple dozen cardio machines.

The idea, or at least what I thought, is to get your heart going with a really cool action movie. But I have got to wonder about the person who selects movies for my gym. Today I came in and they had "You've Got Mail" playing on the screen!

"You've Got Mail"? Why of course! I mean nothing gets your blood going better than Tom Hanks flirting with Meg Ryan over a laptop. And when I think action movies, "You've Got Mail" is always at the top of my list. I mean Tom Hanks plays such a convincing action hero, I can see him duking it out with Bruce Willis. Can't you? :-D

Hmmm... I wonder what other heart pounding action fliks they'll show.

The English Patient?
The Notebook?
The Bridges of Madison County?

What films do you guys think they are going to choose next?

I just recently saw two ads that made me think. The first was a Crack In The Box ad. I was thinking, that for the first time ever, Crack In The Box has released a sandwich that I won't even eat! And that's saying a lot since I'll eat just about whatever heart choker concotion that franchise will put out.

So what is it that I won't stick in my gullet? It's a Nacho Cheese Burger! That's right. They take a perfectly good burger (well, as about as good as one could expect anyways), and cover it in nacho cheese sauce (probably Rico Cheese). Blechhhhhh!

The other ad I saw, was one for Car Max. They have a commercial where a gas tendent literally charges a man the shirt off his back for gas. So the guy relunctantly takes off his shirt and obliges.

What strikes me funny is, I would love to have some tendent make that offer! I mean seriously, all of my shirts are $20 or less! That's less than half a tank of gas!

Today a young lady contacts me on MySpace talking about that quiz I posted in my blog (see last journal entry, "I'm losing my powers!!").

We get to talking back and forth via message. But of course I'm curios who she is, since she has no photos of herself and I don't reckognize anything on her profile. So I ask her flat out if she knows me. This is her response...

"Nope, don't know you. Just looked up 'dork' and saw your profile. :) "

ROFL!!! That was so funny it almost brought tear to my eye!

So I think I'm back now! I'm regained my title as "Dork"! Who knows, maybe you'll find my picture next to dork in the dictionary one of these days (not that that matters... who uses a dictionary nowdays :-) ).

I just recently tooks a test on OkCupid and discovered I no longer qualify as a geek, a nerd, or a dork. I... I... Oh god this is so hard to say... I'm...

JOE NORMAL!!!!

( Read more and see my shame below... :-( )

Holy crap! I just weighted myself on the scale and for the first time in a LOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNGG time, I weighed below 240! Sure, it was only 238. And the second time I stepped on the scale 12 seconds later I somehow gained a pound. But dangit, At least I finally got the scale below 240!

Now maybe the dang thing won't scream "Get that elephant off me!" everytime I step on it. :-D

Ain't this sweet? :-)



Extinct, my ASS! from The Original Joe Fisher on Vimeo.

I found this interesting chart on another friend's LJ account (the_weeb).



It basically compares the fat/calorie intake of different foods. For example, apparently one M&M is has the same fat/calories of about a dozen strawberries!

I'm not sure how accurate it is. But it's defiantely gives you something to think about. :-)

Thanks Weeb!

Monday I went to the doctors for my MRI. And the verdict after 3 hours, most of it in my undies while wearing a patient gown? Nothing. Zippo. Nada.

No I don’t mean as in they didn’t see anything in the MRI. I mean as in they couldn’t even do an MRI on me!

Why? Well it turns out they’re a little afraid of doing an MRI on me because of this prosthesis that was installed below my eardrum. Which is understandable. Afterall, I’m sure the legal paperwork a clinic would have to dig through when a metal joint gets ripped through a patient’s skull by the strong magnetic forces of the MRI, is a bit tedious. :-D

Instead, after conducting a CAT scan to try and determine what the prosthesis was made of, they decided that they needed the doctor who installed it, to contact them.

This of course wouldn’t normally be a problem. But I got my little bit of hardware installed 15 years ago in a military hospital. Now have you ever tried getting the military to find documents from over a decade ago? I have, and it took me over a year last time to get nowhere!

Oh well. Looks like I need to consult with my current doctor and ask him what he wants to do about my knee sans an MRI.

In the meantime, I hope that dang CAT scan was covered by my insurance…

For the first time in years, the department I work for attended a retreat at Reunion Ranch. And I wish I could say it was my pleasure to go along. But frankly, it wasn’t really a pleasure. It was actually rather unimpressive.

Now it is possible I’m a jaded against this place, especially since I just earned my 4rth sprained ankle while trying to climb down into their paddle boat shore area (an area which conveniently has no way to get to without scampering over some boulders). But no, I believe I would of thought of this place as boring no matter what condition I left it in.

For starters, the master of ceremonies was as about as exciting as root canal surgery. You could tell he had done this a million times because he had no energy and sounded like he was reading his words off a cue card. The staff, though good kids, weren’t much better.

They really need to find a better way to pick teams. Basically, they went around handing random color cloth strips to different people. And of course, everyone with the same color was on the same team. This sounds good in theory, but apparently doesn’t work. The teams were so lopsided that they ranged in size from 20 people to 5!

The games were unoriginal and pretty much variations of the same two or three type of games. In fact we never left this one small patch of field for any of the competitions. This was really odd since this the place had everything from basketball courts, to frisbee golf baskets, to volleyball nets! And the most fun thing they could arrange was 3 legged potato sack racing!?!

They did have a pretty good barbecue buffet. But it did lack in selection. And just a few small things would have been great. Like mustard for example. Or at least something more than just Bar-B-Que sauce (the only condiment they had).

Finally, they were nice enough to offer free soda. But not water for some reason. If you wanted a cup of water, you had to get a cup of ice and go over to a water faucet. And I know this wasn’t much effort (‘cept of course, when your ankle is sprained :-) ). But like I said, it’s the small things sometimes. And really, how hard would it of been to have a gallon of water nearby to pour into a cup?

Anyways, if your job is thinking of hosting a team building exercise or some other event, I would recommend they search for some other faculty.

Monster Camp Preview


This brings back memories. I'll probably have to go see this if it comes to Austin. :-)

Last weekend I had the pleasure of going to Scarbarough Faire with a group of friends. If you’re interested, feel free to read about our exciting weekend below.

( Saturday, May 17 )

( Sunday, May 18 )

Overall, the faire was a lot of fun. I look forward to going again next year. And I might even head to TRF with the same group of wierdos (though I may end up taking my sister there instead… I owe her for the last time when I pretty much ditched her for a girlfriend who was there at the faire).