Off Day

Today, I will leave as an off day for my work-out. Tomorrow I plan to hit the gym to do leg based exercises as well as push related exercises. The body is sore but the muscle tissue is growing. I may try to hammer out some articles before bed time tonight so hopefully after work I can get that taken care of. I am very glad to be on whey protein as that’s been helping to expedite my healing. The Crea-Tech Extreme has definitely been helping me push through my sets and power through my days. I am finally seeing shadows of results and it’s a rather inspiring sight. I can only imagine how much that will show up come August.

Simplicity is Beauty

I have gotten a few folks saying that my old U3 K2 layout was a bit too much… so I have decided to just keep it simple with the default clean WordPress Default layout. For one… it doesn’t have all the wacky AJAX applets. Another thing… It loads a lot faster. The best part is that WordPress 2.5 integrates a lot of the things that I had bulky plug-ins for into a neat build-in package. I know it doesn’t look “super unique” but sometimes, simplicity is the best answer.

Feel free to drop in a comment or “complaint” as need be.

Workout Log 3/29 & 3/30/2008

Saturday
Dumbbell Rows – 40 lbs, 12 reps, 2 sets
Dumbbell Curls – 30 lbs, 12 reps, 3 sets
Dumbbell Upward Rows – 30 lbs, 12 reps, 2 sets
Back Extensions – 12 reps, 2 sets
Shoulder Shrugs – 30 lbs, 12 reps, 3 sets
Inclined Sit-ups – 12 reps, 3 sets
Ab-X bench – 6 reps, 3 sets

Sunday
Crunches – 12 reps, 2 sets
Cross Crunches – 12 reps, 2 sets
Bicycle Crunches – 12 reps, 2 sets

Panic at the Office of ZeroXR 13mg – Unrated Director’s Cut

The story starts at about 11pm when I was about to post a review in progress and I saw my WordPress dashboard say “Dude… 2.5 is out! Get in on this!” So naturally… I have the Dreamhost one-click daemon do it. It would warn me about needing to do a back-up for logistical purposes… (This is important later – Zero) It didn’t go as I hoped…

First snag… The install completed, but it thought I was doing a completely NEW installation. Naturally, I take the installer daemon’s advice in my e-mail saying “If your site got nuked… rename the your.site.old to your.site” Well… that failed too… So I gave up and sent my ticket to the Dreamhost support staff. I decided to give up and sleep on it.

Second big snag came from a proposed solution from the support tech. They had said one of my config files basically tried to make a separate WordPress database… but on renaming the file… It restored ZeroXR 13mg but I couldn’t access my panel… So essentially I was locked out. So I would then get another reply to try gutting everything out as if it was a base install… that still had me locked out of my panel. I just let the tech do his worst and try to muck about.

He would get everything up with the panel… just there would be no output from the site. So I would shoot the tech my next plea… “I just want my entries. I could care less about my layout…” That would lead to one of the more drastic measures… Completely ripping out the WordPress install and then reinstalling from scratch, but then using a back-up copy of my wp_config.php to read from the mySQL database. Sure enough… after the upset… it all returned. I can only say that I was in celebration.

I am glad the redundant back-up saved my bacon… Let this be a lesson. Count your blessings and do your back-ups!

“Welcome to your Doom!”

Well, after having a near fatal mishap and losing all of my work on ZeroXR 13mg… I was able to recover my entire site, but it cost me the K2 layout. I don’t mind the default… it works for my purposes. I would like to thank Mike M of Dreamhost for bearing with my chaos and helping me get everything back. I will post up stats for yesterday for working out and consumption. Expect more great things to come from ZeroXR 13mg with the next few days. For now… I will rejoice!

I survived almost being crippled… thank god for back-ups.

My \"signature\"

A Well of Souls – Parkland Hospital, Zombies, and the Decline of my Sanity

Last night was interesting… My friend Amanda from the Ubuntu Dallas group called up and basically said “Zero… I think I have a true medical emergency, but I cannot pay for the services.” So my gut basically says “Parkland, stat!” and I would have her come down to shuttle her off to Parkland. I would call Brandon to see if he still wanted to meet up with us as he said he wanted to make sure Amanda was ok. Traffic wasn’t bad for once and getting there was easy once the adrenaline wore off of me.

We were checked in by about 8pm but well… as you’ll see from the enclosed “log” from my phone, I quickly lost my sanity after Brandon left. Behold my sanity passing through me like running water!

So tonight has been interesting. I am writing this post from my P990i at about 1:45am at Parkland. Why am I at one of D-town’s welfare hospitals? She had a potentially life threatening emergency that I wanted to see them through, but they have no insurance. I had heard stories of Parkland but today I got to enter the lion’s den and see for myself. Brandon wished to join and wish her well. I would get in at about 7:30pm, she would get the initial prognosis to evaluate the severity of her predicament. Then we would be transferred to the emergency clinic and the first sets of paper work and blood tests were done around 10pm. We have been waiting since for check-in.

Brandon’s threshold gave way to his need for sleep so he has left. My quads are murdering me. My only sustenance have been a stick of Os Trim, a Little Debbie nutty bar, and 2 bottles of Dasani water. Sad part, I’ll probably have to submit another cheat meal today. Damn Parkland for having a McDonald’s within their facilities. The sounds of exhausted patients waiting almost as long as we have snoring in their sleep almost sounds like ZOMBIES!!! (Zero – Damn you, Brandon) It is a travesty to wait this long just for health care?

It’s a shame when it takes forever to be rendered care. Medicine is one thing that I love dearly, but to see it down and out is almost vulgar. It’s like looking at a painting that has been vandalized in vain.

Well, it’s now 5am and I am still waiting with Amanda. What the hell is this?! This is abso-fucking-lutely atrocious! I am about to FUCKING crash! This is borderline unacceptable! I understand that Parkland is horrible, but this is beyond my expectations! This is motherfucking BULLSHIT!

As you can witness… My sanity was just quickly hitting the garbage can from my short temper due to the utter frustration.

By about 7:45am, she would finally be seen. The visit only took literally 10-15 minutes. They were able to completely assess and evaluate everything without an issue. This angered me highly… It took 12 hours for her to get checked and it turned out that it wasn’t even that extensive that they had pushed her that far to the back burner? Absolutely ridiculous! There were other patients in the clinic waiting room thinking the same thing… “Why are they so busy with bullshit when they could at least have one nurse or doctor treating quick cases?!” was one of the more common things I heard.

After she had the Rx in her hand… we’d find that the clinic pharmacy didn’t want to dispense the drug because it was a $4 generic at a local Target or Wal-Mart. After running to a Target and getting the drugs, I would be more glad that she could finally begin the road to recovery. Luckily, she had nipped her ills in the bud before they would have seriously had her on an antibiotic drip and possibly a stay over.

The experience at Parkland Hospital did have some humor in it. The McDonald’s inside the hospital. Yes… that’s right… INSIDE!!! They serve up the goods 24 hours or so I am lead to believe. The funny part is that any cardiac patients must have consent by their physician to eat the greasy painful goodness. Gotta love the irony of a fast food idol rooted in a hospital!

I’ll have images of my adventures and a damn near 12 hour comparison of me at the beginning versus the end… but that won’t be until tomorrow or whenever I am more awake than I am now.

Workout Log 3/26/2007 – Food Logging Discrepencies

Did a few quick sets due to my personal emergency…

Squats – 3 sets, 12 reps, 30 lbs
Front Lunges – 3 sets, 12 reps, 30 lbs
Side Lunges – 1 set, 10 reps, 30 lbs

Due to being at Parkland from damn near 7:30pm – 10am, I have found that I don’t even remember what all I had to eat save for today. I am really more trying to concentrate on eating well for dinner and then hitting the hay super early… I have a long day ahead with tons of territory to cover at the office. I will feed myself more nutritious food and ease up on junk and garbage my body can do with out ’cause my body should be respected like a machine and I need to turn a new page on getting it into seriously fit shape. Expect me back to 100% by tomorrow and doing pull sets.

Entering the Nightmare

I did have a huge post I was going to throw up before work about my heroism for a friend, but well… that may be delayed for a good while. Apparently, being a hero to a friend doesn’t matter. Especially when the medical emergency call happened randomly and you’re more pumped on adrenaline rather than reasonable thought. I understand that I should have called, but my friend was in the hospital scared to death about a potentially threatening problem to their health. Maybe it was “wrong” for me to play an angel of mercy for my panicked and fearful friend… but if it must become a petty argument on how my heroism is invalid because I am still covered in debt… then I will say that is a ludicrous argument.

Maybe I am a little too compassionate for a friend in fear. I had my buddy, Brandon, with me to help comfort her. Sometimes we all start small and for my friend… She had no one to assist because of a terrible circumstance. I did my part and if I get the blame for it, then I just have to take it in stride. Well, time for me to walk into work and try to purge myself of losing a fight with family to justify my heroic actions.

If anyone wants to say thanks or offer their words of encouragement, you’re more than welcome to do so.  It would help with the pain of my “shame” right now.

Workout and Food Log – 3/25/2008

Today went by pretty interesting, save for being tired through part 2 of today. I think I have found my niche as far as the Crea-Tech Extreme and whey protein usage goes. I will probably do my doses of the Crea-Tech as a pre-workout booster, as the taurine seems to keep my mood elevated and my energy pumping. Today, it just felt like being hooked up with an IV line and getting a nice steady pulse of energy into my workout. It was refreshing to walk out and be exhausted from the routine. The whey protein seems like a great supportive supplement post workout to feed the exhausted muscles, so I know I will have to stick with that.

My sets today were fun, but tiring. Doing more with dumbbells rather than machines now cause I need to regain my balance mechanisms.  Today was all “pull” mechanism exercises, so my arms have been sore all day… but I can’t even fathom how they will feel tomorrow. Tomorrow is “push” exercises… Squats and pain be damned!

I had a friend who wanted some files from me before work and would offer to pay for lunch… Ended up going to Chipotle, but it ended up mellowing my appetite for most of the day due to the protein content. Through out the day, I ended up holding out alright, just there were moments I was caught a little low on energy from my body just incinerating food at an amazing pace. Ended up using my whey protein shake as my “lunch” at the office and later had a tuna and cheese sandwich.

Pre-Workout
Crea-Tech Extreme – 300 calories, workout dose

Workout Routine
Dumbbell Bent-over Row

  • 25 lbs
  • 12 reps
  • 2 sets

Dumbbell Upright Row

  • 25 lbs
  • 12 reps
  • 2 sets

Dumbbell Lateral Rises

  • 30 lbs
  • 12 reps
  • 2 sets

Dumbell Curls

  • 30 lbs
  • 12 reps
  • 2 sets

Cardio – Step Machine

  • Duration: 5 minutes and 5 minute cool down
  • Resistance: 55 steps per minute/40 steps per minute
  • 60 calories
  • 467 step or 32 floors of stairs
  • Equivalence: 1 step is 8 inches, 1 floor is 10 feet.

Lunch
Chipotle fajita burrito (rice, barbacoa, corn salsa, sour cream, cheese) – 1,056 calories
Water instead of soda or sweet tea

Office “lunch” period
Whey protein and L-Glutamine shake, double dose – 400 calories, 36 grams of protein

“Dinner”
Whole wheat, tuna and swiss cheese sandwich – 340 calories

Late night snack
Monterey jack cheese stick – 110 calories

Grand Total:  2,206 calories

The lunch probably offset things, but I will be making up for that tomorrow… Squats will make my quadriceps their bitch.