Category Archives: Uncategorized

Posts that don’t quite fit any topic

Hundred Push-Ups, Day 2

I decided to up the ante a bit, because my Day 1 Max was 8 when the minimal was 5. So today, I took the Level 3 workout of 10, 12, 8, 8, and maxed out at 12 (12, being the minimal for a max-out). The initial10 and 12 weren’t too bad… but by the sets of 8 and the max-out, that was brutal. I could feel muscle fiber getting exhausted which is good! Hopefully day 3 won’t be bad and with a weekend to relax a bit, it should be good.

Grooming Special Article: The Gift of Pure Fashion

Foreword: I’d like to thank Ivy for helping me clean this article up for mass consumption… It’s a work that I have wanted to get perfect and I can say I am proud of its release. Thanks Ivy for helping me polish this gem!

Gift giving for a male can be hard. Overrated gadgets, tech toys, and ties can get a little cliche. However, as a man, I have hope that some of you women have matured to thinking:  “Maybe my guy could appreciate good cologne!” Ties and shirts get kind of old after a while, and sometimes… we as men do need new cologne, we usually don’t have the time to shop for it. 

However, let’s get one myth dispelled and out in the open… Popular scents do not fit all people! I cannot stress this enough. Just cause you hear that Acqua Di Gio is great for one guy friend doesn’t mean it will mesh well with your other male friend,  for example. Every guy has their preferences and every guy has scents that mesh well with their personalities.

A few years ago, while shopping at Sephora at Northpark Centre, I wanted a new scent. For years, I used Hugo Boss for a long while and it was time to add something new to my selection. The only thing was… with a selection of about 50+ colognes, I had no idea on where to even begin. One of the representatives saw my confusion and offered to help. I will share the tips I had learned with some of you who may be trying to choose a cologne for a male loved one. Credits for most of this go to Sephora, cause the staff at any location I have visited have been nothing but phenomenal!

Universal Rule: Understand that colognes can be divided up into 3 families and each family has its own nuances.

Fragrances can be broken down to 3 families: Fresh Scents, Woods, and Aromatics. The detail doesn’t stop there… each family then sub-divided into classes.

Fresh Scents
Fresh scents are for those open, down-to-earth individuals who area also witty to boot. Fresh water scents make a man personally feel cool and refreshing. Fresh greens are a bit on the clean herbal side but they do fit someone with athletic tendencies. Fresh citrus can be invigorating as well as carrying radiant sensual notes. In my personal experiences, I have found fresh water to be rather versatile for almost any person and any occasion. Fresh greens are great to express simple masculine tones as well as being spontaneous. The fresh citrus family give off the feeling of a fun and also being understated.

Here are my personal picks on the fresh family…
Fresh Water: Davidoff Cool Water and Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio
Fresh Green: Hugo Boss
Fresh Citrus: Kenneth Cole Reaction, Dior Fahrenheit 32

Aromatics
Aromatics are a unique family as they boast a strong and invoking experience that doesn’t fade like the sunlight or moon shadow. Some scents from this group do have a subtle sweetness that doesn’t overtly drown out the unique tones from the spices. The scents in this range are for the person who does want to show off a little but also display that they do have a little bit of innate finesse. This family is separated into 3 sub-groups… Pure aromatics, spicy aromatics, and fruit aromatics. Pure aromatics are a happy medium between sweet and spicy tones that are refreshing and sensual. Spicy aromatics have a inherent quality that makes them exciting yet warm. Fruit aromatics are very sweet and savory to the primal senses. Truth be told, this is not a realm where I am the most versed in, but I can provide some of my picks in the aromatics family. These picks are ones I have take a liking to from sampling them… The only exception would be Ralph Lauren Romance which I am personally fond of.

Pure Aromatics: Cartier Pasha, Prada Infusion D’Homme, Dolce & Gabbana Pour Homme
Spicy Aromatics: Issey Miyake L’Eau D’Issey Pour Homme Intense
Fruit Aromatics: Ralph Lauren Romance

Woods
Woods are a very complex family that’s subdivided into 4 groups. Due to its complexity… The user has a variety of colors, tones, and personalities to pick from. Wood family colognes overall can make a person interesting and unique to their peers. Most of these last pretty well through the day, yet they are subtle… Think of wood note fragrances being a happy medium between aromatic and fresh colognes. Pure woods are a mix of exotic and new woods for a very complex scent. Dry woods are ones that are very similar to a warm and comforting flame with a hit of subtle essences. Oriental woods are a very unique mixture of refined exotic scents that play with the senses and will turn heads with how inviting they are. Lastly, mossy woods are very earthy and natural, however they are also very crisp and clean from how natural they are.

Pure Woods: Mania by Giorgio Armani
Dry Woods: Bvlgari Black
Oriental Woods: Gucci Envy, Armani Code by Giorgio Armani
Moss Woods: DKNY Red Delicious, Juicy Couture Dirty English

Anyone know any good lawyers? [Personal Request]

Just like the topic states… I am thinking of going official with ZeroXR 13mg so I need to flesh details out with a good lawyer. This is more in a step to turn this site into a semi-serious journalism gig as I would like to be able to pay my lower minions (Miss Wyno at the moment) for her articles as well as go big enough to cover some of the gamer and technology venues at some point. So I need some legal help on that vector with what official forms and things I would have to abide by.

If you know a good lawyer, drop me a comment or send an e-mail to info (at) zeroxr.com

My "signature"

[in-som-nee-uh]

n. the inability to obtain sufficient sleep.

I had my first case in a long time last night/this morning, whatever you want to call it. To my friends this can come as quite a shock since I am notorious for my ability to instantaneously pass out the moment my head touches a pillow.

It was 3am and I had just come home from seeing The Dark Knight. Since normal people are awake during the day and not the middle of the night, I figured I’d hit the hay and try to be awake before noon for once this summer. I confess… I am a coward. It wasn’t even a horror film and yet the image of that scary ass clown haunted me through the night whether my eyes were open or not. I must say, props to Heath Ledger for his amazing performance. He sure convinced me.

Like any other scaredy cat would do, I threw the covers over my head feeling slightly more secure until I began to fear the unknown area outside of my fortress of a blanket. I tossed and turned for who knows how long. Even through my short session of being half-asleep I continued to feel the agonizing torture of turning left, then right, then kicking, then left and right again while still trying to stay within my imaginary safety boundaries.

Once I awoke from my short half-slumber, my creative imagination took a turn for the worst and I began to fear more than ever what I could not see. I knew that my fears were foolish and child-like and yet I could not help but wonder if while my guard was down if something or someone had mysteriously crept into my room. For hours I stayed this way through the darkest dark before the dawn. Then I began to wonder, “What if no one is there?” Looking back it was the most sensible thing to think, but at the time it was absurd and was almost swept off my mind completely. However, I asked myself, “What if I’m alone?” Quite suddenly my fears heightened dramatically and threatened to swallow me whole. What if I was alone? I wasn’t even supposed to be asking myself that question. Being raised into the Catholic faith I believe in one presence that is always there for you to comfort you in your pain, help you up when you’ve fallen down, and be the light for you in the darkness. I immediately felt terribly alone-my worst fear. Where was that presence? It was no where to be found and my ‘significant other’ had fallen asleep on the phone many hours before. The only solace I had left was in my phone and as I reached under my pillow to slide it up, I realized the battery had died. Frustrated and fed up, I threw the covers off and saw exactly what I should’ve expected. A new, sunny day was the only thing that had snuck up on me.

A Very Tight Noose…

It’s funny when you factor in the latest paycheck and then take in to respect that the last 2 paychecks have almost been suffocating you when you put into perspective that you may have spent a little too much on going out to eat rather than bucking up to just packing lunch. I know that I have had personal problems basically bother me to death, so I need to keep watch on my spending this round or waiting for my next check will be like a halo choking me. I may hold off on some nice bluetooth stereo headphones for the gym until next check… Hopefully then I can nab it and resume banging out to tunes and being able to catch calls while lifting weights.

Punishment Game II – Crunches until I could crunch no more.

I let the Avenged Sevenfold single “Warmness of the Soul” play on Suzaku while I did my second punishment game on working out to failure. The full sit-ups were great but the crunches throughly wore me out. The last one I could muster before I just plain couldn’t trudge along anymore were the jack-knife sit-ups. I think the exhaustion from the crunches setting in killed me. I finally was wore the hell out. Tomorrow, I have plans for Punishment Game III and the target will be my arms and chest. My body will hate me, but when the muscle grows even larger, I don’t think they’ll mind me amping up the challenge.

70 full sit-ups, 200 crunches, 40 jack-knife sit-ups

A new day, a new stimuli! If you’re a Family Guy fan… you’ll recognize this dialog from the 6th season

Joe: “C’mon dudes let’s go exercise!”
Quentin: “EXERCISE!!!”
Joe: “YEAH!!!!!”
Parker: “I’m gonna do sit-ups until I poop myself!”

Quick Gut-Buster Session

This was more to make-up as an off day for not hitting up the gym… It’s a relatively short set, but I plan to build up more on it tonight after work. After this I will be making my 16oz dose of my protein and L-Glutamine shake to take now and during work. I may dose up on my Clif Builder Bar as a snack. If the pang of serious hunger hits, I may see about hitting the cafe close to the office for a sandwich or something. I will be data logging my eating today and hopefully I should be fine until I get home.

Blitz Set – 4 sets, no break
20 Crunches
20 Bicycle crunches
20 Cross crunches
20 Double-cross crunches

Personal Blog is Slowly Going LIVE!

I bit the bullet last night to buy a domain and also get myself some private hosting for the time being. I am with Dreamhost, so I can spiff anyone who wants a domain and site package with discount codes.

It's been a bit rocky so far with Dreamhost, but their staff is rather helpful.

I plan on uprooting and transferring my entries from here to the new domain possibly tonight.

The new blog will have a fresh face and be powered by WordPress… it will mainly be personal with maybe some affiliate links to generate a little bit of revenue to "self-maintain" the site.

The purpose of this endeavor is the following

  1. Establish a professional presence on the web
  2. Allow for my friends who do not wish to become members of blog communities to comment on my work
  3. Possibly expand the blog into a fusion of personal and professional entries
  4. Keep myself "conscious" and writing, especially with things like a fitness blog or rants

I would be surprised if this leads to something different, but I won't hold my breath. I would love to do freelance writing for a journal or paper at some point, so we shall see.

Thanks for those who have me on RSS and have pointed and prodded me with plenty of ideas and suggestions.

Read and post comments |
Send to a friend