Workout Log 12/14/2007

Sitting stationary bike

  • Level 10
  • 20 minute duration
  • Max heart rate: 168 bpm
  • 194 Calories
  • 5.57 miles
  • Cooldown for 3 minutes at Level 5

Torso rotation machine

  • 40 lbs resistance
  • 2 sets
  • 12 reps each

Back extension machine

  • 40 lbs resistance
  • 2 sets
  • 12 reps each

Abdominal machine

  • 40 lbs resistance
  • 2 sets
  • 12 reps each

Chest press machine

  • 40 lbs resistance
  • 2 sets
  • 11 reps each

Rowing machine

  • 40 lbs resistance
  • 2 sets
  • 12 reps each

Walking track

  • 3 laps
  • 11 laps is equal to a mile

An Antidote to the Most Vile Venom

On my lunch break at the office, I had a musing about myself to reflect on the life I have lead. This one hit me like a bolt of lightning, so I just went typing away in a flurry. It’s not the path I ever predicted to follow, but I do not regret the experiences that have molded me. Life is both filled with good and bad experiences.

I think that I have come a long way as a man. I have been on both sides of life and death with living to tell the story. I have come to learn at age 23 some of the life lessons that my family tried to instill in me. Life is terribly short and people die soon. I wish that I would have forgiven the fallen instead of letting my grudges come to pass. Now, they are long passed and they cannot hear my sorrow. This has been something that has bothered me for a long time.

I finally have learned to forgive myself. Five years of sin and personal delusions. I have not forgotten, but I have learned to forgive. My “suffering” feels lighter. My “pain” hurts less. But that all was not possible until one person finally said “I forgive you.” To my friend, I say thank you. That is enough to get me on the road to recovery. I realize that with the road to recovery, there will be challenges that may ask me to really understand myself. After the end of my life of chaos, I understand what people mean when they say “You have to fall, before you can understand how to walk“. It’s more a saying that I have found to carry a powerful meaning: “Failure is a means to learning how to become successful.”

Workout Log 12/13/2007

Workout notes: I woke to sore muscles all over and with exams having me running with “insomnia mode”, my body was not healing properly. So I ended up waking at 9:00 rather than the 6:45 I was hoping for. I feel much better though. The workout is short, but I do not intend to skimp on any cardio, because I do need it. I know my “redline” for my heart rate… At the moment I top out at 182 beats per minute and I can keep this state of redline for almost 40 minutes straight. Hopefully, I can get some sleep tonight and seriously get a great work-out tomorrow.

Total Body Crossramp Machine

  • 371 Calories
  • Crossramp Level 6 (to train major leg muscles, arm muscles, and chest)
  • Resistance Level 4 (for 20 minutes) then Level 5 (for 20 minutes)
  • 3.39 miles
  • Duration: 40 minutes with 5 minute cooldown

Walking track

  • 8 laps (11 is equal to a mile)

Random Blurb and Ranting on a Cold, Rainy Day

I have lived in a small suburb for damn near all my life, so I have seen some interesting things with my 23 years of living… One thing that amuses me about the majority of DFW area drivers is that rainy roads and rain instantly sets off the “panic mode” on many people’s minds and their driving gets offensive rather than defensive. Naturally, rain or adverse weather conditions makes drivers learn to bide their time and take a slower pace to avoid any additional delays from getting into an accident. I see the following annoyances with the drivers in my city panicking:

  • Failure to go below the speed limit
  • Reckless lane switching
  • Heedless stomping on the brakes at the absolute last second
  • Hydroplaning

Unfortunately for me being a roadster (tiny) manual transmission driver, this puts me and other fellow drivers at risk for some careless person to suddenly panic or behave poorly on the road. I know on my way to the gym at 8:00 that there were 2 multi-car pile-ups from some clown losing control of their vehicle. Here’s the irony of it all: it took place in a SCHOOL ZONE! A twenty mile-per-hour school zone. I can only imagine that the reactions of the asinine drivers must have been embarrassing to hold up school traffic from their short witted thoughts.

The last exam of the semester was today for me, boy… was it a doozy. The questions blitzed my mind and ransacked my memory banks to thoroughly exhaust me completely. I mean, the class was great but for some reason… that exam “kicked my ass”. I know that I actually enjoyed my classes this semester, but I wish I could have dumped more time on them… It sucks having to work and go to school, but that is the price to pay for freedom. With the holiday season here and the office spitting out more and more paperwork, I hope to increase my intake of hours to pay off things and maybe have a little money to spend on myself. I am not sure if I can afford to attend school next semester, but I may ask family if they are willing to make a plea bargain with me… I just don’t think it will bode well though, unfortunately… I pray that ’round tax time… I should be seeing a bigger return for working a whole year with a company that does not use shady methods to write off taxation.

For those wondering when the next “serious” reviews are coming… I will say that they will be hitting home soon. The next review will be over my feelings over the wildly popular Nintendo DS  game: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. I will give Nintendo credit for making a wonderfully refreshing game that makes even the most casual fan feel at home. Keep watching the blog, I will have the review up once I get through the game or even beat it.

Workout Log 12/12/2007

Crossramp machine

  • Crossramp Level 5
  • Resistance Level 4
  • 1.58 miles
  • 178 calories
  • 20 minute duration

Abdominal machine

  • 40 lbs resistance
  • 24 Reps (12 per set)

Squat press machine

  • Level 4
  • 48 Reps (12 per set)

Stairclimb machine

  • Level 2
  • 173 Calories
  • 10 minute duration with 5 minute cooldown

Walking track

  • 6 laps (11 is equal to a mile)

Why the Fitness Log?

I know I had Merinda ask me last night: “Why don’t you post your workout logs seperately?”

That would lead me to my reasoning… I am big on having morale keep my spirits up. I also like being accountable for my actions. By having the public aware that I am working out to say “keep it up!” or even suggest things to alter my routine to refresh things, it could serve beneficial to me. Plus with the public viewing my progress, I have to keep myself accountable for my readers.

Tomorrow, I may just weigh myself in to see how I stand now on the FitLinxx system that my city’s community gym has. That way I can post stats and even have a “starting point”. Now, if eventually the FitLinxx system can print “progress reports”that would be slick. The new gym is plenty cheap too, $65 for an entire year with pool privileges. Plenty of space to really work out, clean environment, some of the machines have “computers” that can track your progress and make sure your form is correct too! With enough space for me to expand focus into cardio while doing muscle training, hopefully my current progress can only get better… My own home limited me from doing cardio which was my limitation. I hope to reflect back to this in June and see how far I have come along.

Finals, Excitement, and a Reprive

So my last few finals are today and tomorrow. I am fighting to do battle with a paper on evaluating a symphony and sleep is killing me. Let this be a lesson to myself: I shall learn better than to procrastinate on something absolutely vital to my academic success. Don’t get me wrong, I love the topic I am writing about, but after a week of drama, rage, high speeds, and coffee… It has reduced me to a crawling pace. Once it’s all over, then my pain shall be uplifted from me from academics.

Work is getting better, I think. Progress at the office has been wonderful with regard to the new lady working with me. She fulfills the term “partner” very well as she works with me rather than being a hindrance to me. My recognition for my merits have been growing from both my superiors as well as my clients. This has bumped my morale up a notch, so I am feeling rather good about it.

I am already looking forward to the weekend as it will be good to kick back and relax. My cousin Sol is coming back in town and we’re looking to kick it “old skool“. I will also be able finally relax and rebuild on the tattered remains of my life and attempt to get it back on track. I am also trying to hastily speed up the rate of repayment to my parents so I can be square with them for their assistance. I just hope that an end to the nightmare is coming soon. I know I could use it.

A New Home and A New Haven

My friend Merinda hooked me up with a discount to Dreamhost to begin my professional musings and maybe some personal works. I thank her for her kindness and hope that my viewers will grow with time.

As for me, I would like to say a friendly hello to any potential viewers stopping by to see my site. I plan to focus serious articles on things like technology reviews to be on Linux distros, video games, mobile phones. Every now and then, there may be a personal post or rant from my life and even goof off a bit. This site will also be home to my “logs” of the day for things like my “fitness diary” or any sort of trials (i.e. 1 month with random tech item, etc).

For newcomers of my blog… Let me formally introduce myself. My name is Zero and I am just an enthusiast about life, technology, cars, and open source software. My passions are games, medicine, driving, computer & electronic modifications, and wine tasting. I am quite approachable and kind to all walks of life as experiences can open up the mind. I am a very passionate individual who seeks to learn as much as I can by immersion. For the curious, here’s what my “gear” as of today is comprised of…

  • Dell XPS m140 laptop – powered by Ubuntu Linux
  • Smartphone: Sony Ericsson P990i with a 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo (World Edition, unlocked)
  • Beater Phone: Sony Ericsson W300i (AT&T branded but unlocked)
  • Sony PSP Slim (PSP-2001) in Piano Black with a 512mb Memory Stick Pro Duo
  • Nintendo DS lite in Onyx

I have decided to host privately due to the restrictive nature of Vox imposing on the freedoms of my friends and I feel this would hinder the growth of the blog to the general public. Unfortunately, WordPress developers have not yet found a way to import posts from Vox over… With over 100 entries, that could be tedious to do by hand. Until a solution can be found, I will just hot-link any curious readers to my previous blog: My Old Home

Feel free to drop a line and say hello if you wish!

-Zero

Life, Games, Logic, and Tech