20 weeks? Really? It's not that I haven't had the urge to put something on here. I just didn't want to bore you with the same old crap. With that, some of this is going to be the same old crap. Cut for easy skipping.


Work:( work )

Car:( car )

Social:( social )

Bowling:( bowling )

Election:( election )

Hawaii:( Hawaii )

Toys and necessities:( toys+ )


That's all, I think. I told you it was nothing terribly exciting.

also: why the hell are there ads on my LJ?

I learned...

- to be careful what you wish for. For a long time, my life consisted of work, sleep and the occasional-but-not-enough party. I felt I was wasting a lot of time. I was, really. Just sitting around watching TV is not very productive for anything except being not slim. For the last month, however, things have just been batshit crazy. Now things go: wake up, work, working out, work, work again, more working out if I can stand, making dinner in there somewhere, hanging out with friends A LOT and sometimes sleep. Now, I would never give up that time with my friends. Frankly, I think I still don't do enough of it. Some of the other stuff, though, has got to go. The 12 hour work days, for example. I'm still working two jobs to try and pay for the Hawaii trip. I haven't decided whether or not I'll finally leave Kenwood behind after the trip is over. I REALLY should, but there's something nice about that extra money. I'd only have to work about 6-8 hours/week, which some would argue isn't worth it, but it's not bad. Point, though, is that although I'm happy that I've found ways to fill my days, life could shift down to third for just a little while.

- that reading/watching the news makes me sad. We're a little slow at work, so I have time to peruse the Google news feeds. From oil being over $126/barrel to this democratic nomination battle that's becoming very tiring to all the other crazy shit going on in this world, I really just feel depressed sometimes. It's very sad.

- that apparently I have the upper body strength of a 12 year old girl. I started to throw a little weight training in during the lunch break. I know I'm not supposed to be using a terribly large amount of weight anyway. I'm not. The small amount I am using for some upper body exercises is still too much and it's sort of embarrassing. I can still leg press pretty much the entire stack of weights, but as far as the upper body goes, it's laughable.

- that I'm less than useless on a basketball court. I used to play basketball a little. I was never really any good, but I could shoot a little. It's kinda like the lines from BASEketball:

Coop: But we're pretty good at basketball.
Reemer: Yeah, as long as we don't have to run or jump or dribble, or anything.
Coop: That shit's overrated anyway.

I stepped on to the court at work the other day to shoot around. I've gone many years and grown many inches since I really shot around last. Watching me play basketball is just one more thing that's kind of embarassing.

- that eating healthier makes me really want to not eat healthy. The stuff I'm eating is fine, but I've been dying for something fried and covered in grease.

- that sleeping on my couch for two years was fucking dumb. My bed is awesome.

I'm sure I learned a lot more than that, but that's all I can remember for now.

Almost on cue, I hurt myself. Shortly after my previous post, I went to the fitness center for my PM walking/jogging (didn't use the river path, as nature can't decide whether there's going to be a thunderstorm or not and I didn't want to get stuck in a freak downpour a mile from my apartment). About 17 minutes in, my tibialis anterior (as far as I can tell, the muscle that runs along your shin between the bottom of your calf and your ankle) on both legs began cramping like hell. I'm not a doctor, but I believe it's also known as 'shin splints'. This actually started on Monday. It was OK today, but I think the elliptical aggravated it. I had done just a little over a mile on the treadmill and I wasn't even breaking a sweat, but it hurt so bad I had to stop. Made the walk home real fun, too. It's weird. It hurts on level surfaces and downward slopes, but not at all uphill. Must be a different muscle going up. It's the lower part of the muscle that's hurting, the real skinny part of my leg. (I do have a few relatively thin parts.) I'm going to stretch and ice it when I can (the next few days are fairly busy), and hopefully get back to some jogging by next week. If I can't, I'll need some replacement cardio exercises. Time is of the essence, after all.

So, I figured out that going from not really doing anything that can even compare to physical activity to walking/jogging 5.5 miles per day in the span of 4 days HURTS. LIKE. HELL. My legs are shot. Hamstrings and lower calves are in so much pain. I can muster up the strength to do the walking/jogging every day, but doing anything else like getting out of a chair or going down stairs is not so fun.

For those who don't know, the goal is to lose ~40 lbs. 8 weeks. I'm eating pretty well, although I worry sometimes that I'm still eating too much. The exercise is going well. I don't even notice the pain when I'm on the treadmill/elliptical or out on the jogging path along the river. Tried the elliptical today. I haven't had much luck with them. They feel weird to me. The strides are really short and it seems like I'm bouncing a lot. I think I'm doing it wrong. Even so, I haven't sweat so much in a long time. I feel like I should be doing at least a little bit of weight training. Not a ton, but a little. The twelve hour work days make it hard enough to get even the walking/jogging in, though. I just started the whole thing on Monday, so it's a little too early to get a read on how I'm doing. Besides the pain, I'm feeling good, though. I'm a little more alert than usual. I really think I'll be able to do a lot better when I get all of this Kenwood work done and I have some time to relax. Maybe ice some muscles. I figure I've got about 3-4 weeks more of that unless they get so dead they need stuff for their full-time people to do (which actually should be happening any day. I'm glad I got out when I did.).

This weekend was awesome. Went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday on Friday night with Roxy, Linn and Chelsea. It was a lot better than the last time I went when they only had burgers. After that was my first Rough Riders game. The game was kinda lame, as the Rough Riders lost 6-4, but the atmosphere was pretty cool. I definitely need to hit up some of those games again. After the game there was a fireworks show, but we didn't really stick around for it. Headed to Coldstone for some ice cream. I'm glad they didn't sing.

Saturday was very productive. Borrowed Linn's truck to pick up a bed frame that I didn't really need a truck for. The craigslist ad said "i have a queen bed frame i do not need any longer .... i might even have the box that it came in if you need it". Turns out it was brand new still sealed in the box. Oh well. Got to hang out in Mt. Vernon for awhile. Later on Saturday, I cleaned out my car. Really cleaned it out. Used a whole tube of ArmorAll leather wipes. Then vacuumed and shampooed the carpets. It's nice again. ALSO fixed my passenger door problem. I can open it again. For now. I found the cause now I just need to find a more permanent solution. Put the frame together last night, but can't use it until I get some wood to support my mattresses. I don't have a box spring, just two mattresses.

Today was pretty quiet. Woke up after some really weird graduation dreams and watched a documentary on Hapshetsup, the lost queen pharaoh of Egypt. It was pretty cool. Then watched the bowling tournament. The PBA season is over, so today they showed the high school national all-american championship. Good stuff. After watching the tournament, I caught the end of the UFC fight night that I missed on Wednesday. Awesome lightweight main event. Went bowling afterwards at Lancer. Lanes were pretty dry, so I was free to really let loose on the ball.

Every weekend needs to be like this weekend.

I think my oven damn near blew up. I was preheating it to make some chicken and it damn near shorted out everything in the apartment. I have no idea what happened or why, I just know I need a new stove now. I think this may have had something to do with it:




I need to go find some food cause I'm starving.

I suppose an update is warranted. It's been awhile.

( Long time = long post )

Sometimes I laugh when I think something bad is going to happen to someone. And not like "HAHA you fell down the stairs". I mean real traumatic stuff. Just because they deserve it. It's sick and twisted and makes me a bad person, but oh well. Case in point:

I went bowling this afternoon at Lancer (which I think is going to be my regular center from now on, but that's another story). Averaged 207. You have no freakin' idea how excited it made me that I'm averaging over 200 again. The bowling was awesome, but the group that was bowling next to me just killed me. There were three people, two guys and one VERY pregnant girl (from the size of her, I'd say at LEAST seven months). If I had to guess, I'd say the two guys were complete assholes based on the way they dressed, what they said, body language, etc. The girl didn't really move or say much, so I couldn't really get a read on her, but one of those guys was definitely her baby daddy. First off, if my girlfriend were that pregnant, the bowling alley would be one of the LAST places I suggest we go. Maybe Westdale because of how big and open it is. Definitely not Lancer. Second, if I were those two guys, I would sure as shit not chain smoke right next to this girl. Guess what, assholes? Blowing your smoke straight up doesn't do shit inside a bowling alley. Third, if I were as pregnant as this girl, I WOULDN'T BOWL!!! I thought she was just there to watch. No. She was there bowling. Using at least an 11 lb. ball (I know house ball weights based on colors. I'm a dork.). ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? I know when you're pregnant, you're not supposed to lift over 20 lbs, but I'd think when you're that fucking far along you're not supposed to lift anything heavier than a pint of ice cream. Seriously, people. Have some fucking sense. I'm gonna laugh when your baby chokes. See? Told you.

I wasn't going to do this one, but some of them are pretty funny.

Google the phrase "['your name'] is like" and find the best ones from the first few pages of results. Don't forget to put it in quotes, otherwise it won't work.

"Tom is like, the perfect man. So romantic and handsome."

"Tom is like a creepy version of Clark Kent nobody called."

"A day without Tom is like a day without sunshine or orange juice."

"Tom is like Ultraman and can change his height depending on the size of the monsters he has to combat."

"Tom is like the sexiest guy with his lip ring and everything! Wow! *orgasm*"

"Tom is like The Queen: he gets in his Range Rover and crushes everyone and everything in his path."

There's some sorcery going on at Lowe's. I noticed it after the last big snowfall. I'm pretty sure whoever does their parking lots is a wizard. Here is their lot as of half an hour ago:



No ice. WTF?

Since I missed bowling last week because of the weather, I was really looking forward to tonight. I was hoping the roads would be in at least decent driving condition. I knew they would still suck because of the ice, but I thought I'd try. Right off the bat, I knew there was going to be problems. Turning onto Edgewood, there were cars stuck on the hill. My car wasn't doing too bad. That is, until I had to stop because of some other cars stuck on the hill. Needless to say, trying to get going again was damn near next to impossible. I was working it as hard as I could without damaging my already piece of shit car. I didn't want to kill my transmission, although the red fluid beneath my car tells me it's already in some pain. Anyway, I was sliding in one spot on the hill. I about had it when this truck starts backing up. And backing up. And it's still backing up. I wasn't sure if it was going to hit me or not, so I was backing up just in case. I had plenty of room since the other stuck people were pretty far behind me. Eventually, the truck stopped and the guy got out. He asked me if I wanted a tow to the top of the hill. It was an old guy and his wife in a Silverado with a tow rope. I said sure, and he towed me up. He ended up towing four or five people up to the top of the hill. It was pretty awesome of him to do that.

Bowling SUCKED. I really wish people would change their damn shoes before they go into the pit area. Otherwise the pit area is full of water, sand and salt. Those really fuck up your shoes. It also makes you fall on your ass when you go to slide. I only bowled two games because I couldn't slide at all. Every time I tried I thought I was going to kill myself.

I still don't know about Aegon. I think it's too big of a company for me to be happy at. I also don't think I'm terribly good at my job. I know I've only been there a week, but I don't think I'm that good at it. I don't see myself being as fast as everyone else there. There's SO MUCH to learn and I don't know what kind of learning curve they're expecting. I actually said the same thing my first week at Kenwood, and that ended up working out. The people are really cool, so that's a plus. I'm supposed to be scanning this week. This doesn't particularly excite me. The main reason being because they all told me that the day after a holiday (our particular division is closed whenever the stock market is closed. I didn't know the markets were closed on President's Day) is crazy busy. That's a real good idea. Have my first day scanning be when there are mountains of work to do.

As mentioned above, my car still blows. It used to be so awesome, too. :( Trying to get it decent while trying to afford Hawaii is going to be fun. And by fun, I mean it's going to suck my will to live. But I'm going to Hawaii if it kills me. And it just may.

So, I started at Aegon today. Mostly orientation stuff. Didn't learn too terribly much about how to do my job. Not sure how I like it so far. It seems like Aegon has a lot of good benefits and things for it's employees and everyone seems to like it well enough. To me, it seems a little stuffy and not as relaxed as they portray themselves. While the job is basically the same kind of things that I did at Kenwood/Sourcecorp, Aegon does it in COMPLETELY different ways. Scanning has the unfortunate property of having to stand up all day when doing it. It's not like I can't. It's just like copying at Kenwood, but even copying you got to sit down for a little bit. You also have to prep everything at the scanners, which I never really thought was a good idea. You also have to de-prep it after you scan it, which I think is weird. A lot of the stuff auto-indexes, which is nice. A lot of the stuff doesn't, though, and that's the majority of what gets done. There are a TON of freakin' documents to learn. And it's not like before, when I just needed to know what they looked like. I really need to familiarize myself with a lot of the 401(k) correspondence.

The people seem really cool. Not just on my team/department, but everyone I ended up talking to today. And to answer one of the questions some of my Kenwood coworkers asked me before I left, 'No. I am STILL the only guy on the team'. Well, the team lead is a guy, but he has plenty of other stuff to do. That's going on almost three years being the only guy on the team. At Kenwood, I was the only guy in the production room (prepping AND scanning), and at Sourcecorp, I was the only guy on my shift.

There are some good parts to the company, too. Benefits are nice. Each building has a 24 hour fitness center that's free for employees to use. There's a pretty good cafeteria, too. Also a bank inside. A lot of good company events, too. There's the 25th annual Aegon bowling tournament coming up. Sucks, though, cause there aren't many spots open and you have to have a full team to enter (they won't just take individuals and team them up). I'm not sure if I can get a team together on time.

It's weird. I'm not feeling terribly excited about this job. I know it's a good company. I know my foot is in the door so I can go into IT, or something, eventually (you have to wait a year before applying for another position within the company). I'm just not feeling it yet. Maybe it's because I'm not terribly interested in the insurance/finance industry. I don't know. It seems like I'm not feeling as I should.

~ Didn't go to work today cause I couldn't get out of my parking spot. Eventually managed to escape at about 1:00 after I stole a shovel from the maintenance people (don't worry. I brought it back).

~ The roads are moderately better. Edgewood is pretty good. Up here, anyway. Don't know about down in the SW side. Blair's Ferry sucks kinda hard. They're doing an OK job. They're doing 12-16 hour shifts (so the news says), so you can't really get on them too bad.

~ Whoever plows Lowe's should plow everywhere. There's a large chunk of the Lowe's parking lot that is completely void of snow. COMPLETELY clear. wtf?

~ Since it usually takes about a week for the apartment people to plow anything here, I went to Hy-vee to buy a cheap, overpriced shovel since they were the only place that had any left. I went out to shovel my parking lot because I'd like to actually be able to get into it. About half an hour of shoveling, the fucking Bobcat shows up to start clearing the snow. I really believe the only reason that they started plowing this lot is because I was out doing it. They started on the lot across the street and were going away from here earlier. While I am glad I can park in my lot now, that was a fucking hard half hour of shoveling. And I really don't see myself needing that shovel anymore.

~ I want to go skiing. Even though I don't know how. I think I'd do well with snowblades (or skiboards. you know, the short skis). Somehow they look exponentially easier than regular skis to use. You know, since they're shorter.

Remember just a few posts ago when I said that even though I constantly complain about my car, I couldn't imagine getting rid of it? That fucker is really making it hard for me to not want to get rid of it...

edit: I've decided to ax my old people post, at least for now. It was full of contradictory claims and I don't think I could communicate it clearly.

Went bowling last night. Stupid snow prevented everyone I invited from coming, so it was just me. Bowled six games. I haven't bowled six games in one day in a LONG time. I'm not as sore as I thought I would be, though, which is good. I've bowled the past two weeks, which probably helped. Back was a little sore after the third game, but I stayed. Sadly, though, my scores don't seem to be improving. I made a few more spares this time, but still missed a ton of them. Couldn't string two strikes together until the fourth game (more on why this happened later). Started every game out with a strike then a spare, but then it all went to hell after that. I was set to leave after the third game, but I didn't. Some random people started bowling next to me, including one girl that was wearing a VERY familiar perfume. I wanted to leave, but I couldn't. She smelled so fucking pretty, I just kept right on bowling. I ended up averaging about 40 pins higher in the last three games than I did in the first three, though. I'm hopeless...

Oh, on another bowling note. When I bowl and I throw a certain way (a smooth arc [which is different from the sharp angle I used to throw. my new ball doesn't do the sharp angle, which I'm still trying to get used to. I could actually go on for a long time about the changes I need to make to my form to get this right, but I won't.]) and there are a lot of people around, certain things happen. One of which is that people think they can hook the ball like me. They try. They fail. Hard. Another thing about my form that people who've seen me bowl may have noticed is that I swing my right leg way up to keep my balance on the release (and to move it out of the way of the ball). This makes some people laugh. The girl with the perfume was mimicking/mocking this the whole time, which I thought was amusing.


About that job interview I had today:
If I don't get this job...I swear. When after the first question, they basically say 'you win', I think I've got a pretty good shot. I've never been more relaxed in an interview, which is kind of weird considering there were three people interviewing me, alternating questions as we went. They said they'd let me know by the end of this week and that they wouldn't leave me hanging. ACT said that three months ago, and I still haven't heard from them. I believe these guys, though. I've never felt better about an interview. Scratch that. I've had an interview where the person interviewing me said, "I think you're one of the best interview I've done." Strangely enough, I did not get that job.


A note to the city:
Dear Cedar Rapids,

It stopped snowing hours ago. You can plow now.

Me

I know I don't update enough. Deal.

( It's a little longer than normal... )

I've quickly discovered something about my new cell phone plan that I didn't think of before. There's the whole .99 daily access fee on days I use my phone. I just got a small air card for now ($15), good for 150 minutes on my particular plan. The part I didn't think of is that when I get charged that .99 fee, I lose 10 of those minutes automatically. Small snag. I think the $30 air card will be quite sufficient for a month (probably more).

I really like the phone. I feel like a complete n00b, but whatever.

I don't like working the week of New Year's. It's just weird. You have so much time off with Christmas and New Year's day and sometimes Christmas and New Year's Eve, it's always weird to be going back to work. Especially if those holidays fall during the week. And then there's not another holiday (not one that we observe at Kenwood with a day off) until Memorial Day (I think). Stupid holidays falling in the middle of the week...

WHOO 2008!!! I hope it's a good year. Here are some things I hope to accomplish. They are not resolutions, as resolutions are 97% destined to fail. Kind of like how I'm 'eating healthier' not 'dieting'.

- Be more social. I've found that waiting for other people to have plans to hang out with them is not the best idea, as I usually miss a lot. I'm going to try to be more proactive in getting people together to do stuff. I already have three things I'm trying to plan this month. I'd say I'm kicking this one in the ass.

- Continue to eat healthier. Even though it's more expensive. I believe I've found out how to cook for one. Maybe two. Just not five anymore. For the most part, I've been doing this for the past two weeks, or so. I've faltered a few times, eating waaaaaay too much pizza on two occasions.

- Work out. Working out is easy. Getting to the gym is not.

- At least pretend I know something about Computer Science. I feel dumb compared to some of my Comp. Sci. friends. Hopefully a QA/testing job will remedy this.

- Do a little dance.

- Make a little love (*crosses fingers*)

- Get down tonight. ^^