The Road to Fitness – One Hundred Push-Ups

Fitness is something that I have been slacking on due to various circumstances… I was reading this Lifehacker post on Friday and I stumbled on to a post about One Hundred Push-Ups. The challenge has inspired me, because push-ups are one of my weakest exercises. Of course, this correlates to me being pathetic on things like bench presses when I was weight training. I did the initial fitness test and sadly belted out a pathetic 8 push-ups before my body screamed in agony. I intend to take it on and watch my improvements come in the next 6 weeks. It’s gonna be a long road, but I am gonna be stoked at the improvements when they come in time.

Meanwhile… I invite my fellow editor The Orphan to take on the challenge with me! Expect me to be updating my blog with progress notes of brutal honesty. Tomorrow’s a big day for me…

Plea for Inquiry: PC versions of Blur and Split/Second NOT optimized

So I decided to send out the following as an e-mail to Kotaku’s tip line in hopes of someone taking a look into it… Continue reading Plea for Inquiry: PC versions of Blur and Split/Second NOT optimized

Eulogy of a Phoenix

I want to say that I don’t dislike my parents. I feel they are GREAT people when they are being reasonable. I do take part of the blame for being an impish kid in my past and probably burning them out. For that I own up to it and have no shame taking full responsibility. However, I wish they would understand that after age 18… I, as their offspring, can’t be molded and shaped to their exacting expectations. I also don’t take too well of being reminded of my past. There’s a reason I say “Don’t remind me of my past or you WILL make me relapse into it” because I whole-heartedly believe that our past is just a stepping stone. Sometimes these stepping stones are what give us bruises and scrapes all over us. But you all still have the misguided opinion that if we’re in a protected bubble and live off the hear-say of others that we can be “perfect”… That’s not living and learning. It’s called being lazy and vicarious. I would much rather live through the 5 years of life with my ex than to have been under some ignorant ideal called “perfection”. In those years, I learned about finance, laws, living, romance, and friendship. I also did one important thing… I learned to become my own man.

I am sorry if I am stubborn, but I feel it will be the best thing for me.

As for my sister, she has forever lost my trust. Until she loses everything and learns not to burn people who are her friends… I refuse to speak to her. If she wants to appeal to my heart, she can wait 5-10 years to speak to me. I am sure she’ll lead the perfect life she so desires without nuisances like me around. So to her, I will warn her to tread carefully as I still hold a “tactical nuke” of data that I could drop at any time to make my point clear.

From this point onward, I shall seal off topics regarding my family. They can consider it my form of forgiveness.

Dinner Experiment – Shiner Black Lager Braised Chicken

Today I had a fun dinner experiment… I decided to see if one of my favorite beers could take on another recipe. Chicken is one of the most misunderstood meats as some people forget that the hallmark of chicken is that it should be moist and tender. A good chicken breast shouldn’t be like a piece of dry beef jerky on your plate. I digress… Onwards to the recipe and review!

1 bottle of Shiner Black Lager
2 boneless chicken breasts (thawed and defrosted)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1/8th teaspoon of ground peppercorns
Shredded cheese (recommended choice: cheddar)

Tools needed: Slow cooker

Combine the chicken breasts, Shiner Black Lager, salt, minced garlic, and peppercorns together into the slow cooker. Set the slow cooker in low and let it cook for 7 hours. After 7 hours, remove the chicken breasts, discard the sauce from the slow cooker, and garnish the chicken with shredded cheese.

Notes: The end result is some seriously tender chicken that’s savory and moist. The chicken is imparted with the flavors of the Shiner Black Lager as well as the garlic and peppercorns. Pair the chicken with a rice or pasta dish. Pair the chicken with a red wine like a mixed red (ex: Stickleback) or a Cabernet Sauvignon for maximum effect.

Recipe – Simply Delicious Turkey Chili

1 lb Ground Turkey (preferably lean 93/7 meat to fat ratio)
2 cans (6oz) of tomato paste*
1 can of Rotel crushed tomatoes and chilis*
1 packet of McCormicks Chili Seasoning Mix (Low sodium formula)
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1/4 cup of beer (Use Shiner Black Lager for BEST results)

* – If you want a “cheater’s way” out of buying multiple cans… You can buy the Pace Taco Sauce in a bottle.

Tools needed: Slow cooker, skillet

Notes: This is a lightly spicy, savory, and sweet chili. It’s meant to just be very simple to make and easy to enjoy. The beer makes for the savory and hint of sweet in the chili while being giving a dynamic boost. The usages of the chili can be used in corn chip pies, burgers, hot dogs and fries.

1) In the slow cooker, put in the beer, chili powder, and garlic powder.
2) In the skillet, brown the ground turkey and drain off the fat.
3) Add the turkey into the slow cooker.
4) Add in the Rotel crushed tomatoes and chilis, 2 cans of tomato paste, and the packet of McCormicks Chili Seasoning.
5) Stir the contents of the slow cooker and put the cap on the slow cooker.
6) Set the slow cooker to either: low for 4-6 hours OR high for 2-3 hours.
7) Enjoy the chili! Top it with Frito’s corn chips, cheese, and sour cream. The chili can also be used with cheese burgers, hot dogs, and fries as well!

This makes about 4-5 servings.

If you want to use 2 lbs of turkey, double everything in the recipe. This includes the cooking time in the slow cooker. As far as the beer component in the recipe goes… it is optional. If Shiner Black Lager is not available in your area, pick a German dark lager to use.

Gaming Agnosticism Looms Nigh

Gaming these days can be a touchy topic with some folks… There are those on the camp of “You game on the right machine (PC) or you get the #%*$ out!” and “Consoles are made to game, so less potential for stress and headaches!” I admit that in my younger days, console was the way to go. Buy the machine, buy software and (if needed) extra peripherals… Bam, finisimo! Sadly, my family feared the very idea of me building my own computer. Fact is, I built my first one when I was 17! All because they feared I was inept as a kid and failed to let me explore the vector! I digress… When I did build my first computer… It was a beauty by 2000’s standards. AMD Athlon XP Thunderbird, 1GB of RAM, and a 32mb DDR RAM ATi Radeon VE. The fun part was I got to see the schism in quality of a game from a PC version versus a console. Continue reading Gaming Agnosticism Looms Nigh

Minor Upgrade to Byakko and Thoughts over Seiryuu

So my Geforce GTS 250 (512mb GDDR3) has had a bit of a history with overheating for the last week… So I decided to nip the issue in the bud and pick up a Radeon HD 5770 by Asus. Who’d have thought that a change to 1GB of GDDR5 would make a number of changes. To give some of you an idea of how bad the Geforce GTS 250 was overheating… Some days, the system would run about 50C – 60C (122F – 140F) on idle. While gaming, the temps would rocket to 85C – 100C  (185F – 212F) quickly. Sometimes the overheating was so bad it just plain locked up my computer and I’d just have to force it to power down and cool the card off before turning the machine back on. Continue reading Minor Upgrade to Byakko and Thoughts over Seiryuu