The Gift of Music

Epiphone Les Paul 100 Ebony

An early Christmas present addressed to me, arrived yesterday from Saint Nick. This one is part of his blasts from the past campaign. As a youngster and someone who liked Rock-n-Roll, I wanted a guitar and had an ok starter thanks to him. You know, one of those classic Sunburst models with a basic Amp for sounds to be heard.

I did my best to learn how to play some songs... ok parts of songs more or less. I had a few cords down and I'd say I more and likely sounded like a bad record skipping over and over. But I had a blast and a Guitar to show for it in the end. Time flies by and you grow up and I later moved on to spinning records, "Everybody wants to be a DJ" or so the song goes.

Now its Christmas present, well it soon will be and my dreams of being that next great guitarist are only 60 days away, or so they claim it is. A new product that works with gaming consoles called Rocksmith 2014 has the claim of being the fastest way to learn how to play a real guitar.

Saint Nick dropped off a little bundle that included a very nice guitar case and inside one Epiphone Les Paul 100 Ebony guitar, and a copy of Rocksmith 2014 for the Xbox 360. I have to admit, the kid inside of me had me smiling like crazy at the sight of this. This is a real guitar that will hook up to any Amp Stack and allow the sounds to come forth (music for some who can really play).

The cool thing is my gaming console will be my instructor and it has extensive lessons and mini game modes inside that will allow me to perhaps really learn how to play a full song now. I just might get passed the "smoke on the banks" parts and learn to play all of Smoke on The Water when I'm done.

I think I'm going to give it a real go and see if what they claim really will work. I'll need to make sure to play at least 1 hour a day for 60 days straight. I can see it now, I'll pick up some extra money as a Sessions player soon. Ok, I'll just shoot for learning how to play Jingle Bell Rock next year for now.

Wish me luck and as for my family, I'm getting them all ear plugs for their stockings this year.

Heading back to work at last

It has been a very long and hard 11 months out of work. Pretty much one of the hardest years of my life in many ways. At the start of last years school year my wife landed her first teaching job and things were really starting to look up for us. The only real downside was she had to commute during the week about 2 hours away. Leaving on Sunday nights and returning on Friday evenings made for its challenges.

Loosing my job after a month into this, really set us back and changed things up. For starters, it just wasn't suppose to happen this way to us. Our hopes of finally making some headway and paying for things and trying to make a better life for the family, simply needed two good income sources.

Working for thirteen years at the same place is no accident for me. I truly loved my job and what I did over those years. I actually believed in the brand and that made things easier to get up and do the work. Having my position eliminated simply stops the process and the paychecks. Don't get me wrong, I still like the brand, just not how things ended is all.

That's all in the past now and after searching long and hard for opportunities, dealing with e-mails that read, "Sorry we have decided to move on with someone else." or going through a pretty good phone interview, only then falling short of that next stage in the process. It's finally come to an end or actually a new beginning really.

A great phone interview finally lead to a great face to face interview and that lead to great follow up interviews the next day and those also went really well. When the phone rang and I finally heard the words, "We would like to offer you the position here." its the best thing you can imagine.

After searching for 11 months, you start to reach the point of taking what ever comes up is my only hope. You start to think its time to change gears and perhaps do something else. You still think about the things that could be the perfect job of all times, but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards and landing a stable job is all that matters now.

Lucky for me, I'm still working pretty much in the same field of Web Design/Development and its in an industry that I can really get behind and support. I didn't want to take just any web design job and be bored with the brand at the end of the day.

What makes it a dream job for me is its a product that I believe in and in a lot of ways a favorite hobby or form of entertainment for me. Its no secret for most people that know me, to understand that I have a passion for playing video games. So when I found a position at GameStop that fit my skill set, I was happy to give it shot and apply. When I got the call and offer, I said, "YES!"

I'm so looking forward to heading back to work once again and I really think its a Dream Job for me and my love for playing video games will continue as well.

Four more years

We've got four more years with President Obama and then all of the registered voters can get back out and vote once again for who they want as the 58th President of the United States. Until then, you'll hear loudly from all thoese who feel that the wrong man is in office now over these next four years.

What is really sad is the build up to all of this and the plain lack of true support to begin with. True support from those who have the legal right to vote to begin with is sad. Looking over the history of past elections as far back as the 60s at least, we've only really managed around a 50% voter turn out each election.

We have a two party system here in the United States and for the most part and the norm is either a Republican or Democrat will take the White House for those four years. Other parties have tried to gather support and in most cases those votes have done nothing morn than steal away from one of these two major parties.

What about that 50% who didn't turn out to vote though? What if those who didn't come out to vote during the election, because they didn't care about one or the other and who like to say instead that "I'm exercising my right to not vote, because I don't support either one of these nominated candidates", came out and voted for a change anyway?

What if a true third party could actually come about in the United States? The Change party perhaps and where people decided to vote for something different and not the lesser of the two supposed evils. The clip above comes from one of my favorite TV shows, The West Wing, and was aired on October 4th, 2000 and is titled In the Shadow of Two Gunnmen: Part I. It sums up what voters should really think and feel when they go out and cast their vote.

I'm not writing this in a protest or saying that I'm against President Obama being our next President, in fact I voted for him in the past two elections. Is he perfect for the job? Nobody is really perfect for the job or has no flaws, but it was my right to vote and it was my selection at those times. In the past elections I've even voted against the two party system and for Change and it more and likely just upset one party over the other in the end.

We now have four more years until we get to do this all again. Four years for someone in the Republican and someone in the Democratic party to gather enough support to become the next candidates. We also have four more years to find that good man or in fact a good woman for this job and they don't really have to be from one or the other parties for a change and just maybe in four more years we'll have more than just a 50-60% voter turnout as well for a change too.

Change 10-11-12

Well it more or less took me by surprise today and I'm still trying to grasp the reality of the situation. I've kept quiet since the start of this school year about a few things and I don't have to anymore really. I'm so looking forward to my wife coming home tonight, she plans to take care of a few things for the most part, it means an extra day the family gets to spend with her tomorrow and over the weekend too.

See, she's been teaching in Athens, Texas for the past few months now and in doing so, she commutes during the week and returns home on the weekends. Its been tough in a lot of ways, but I'm very proud of her and this is allowing her to focus on school and teaching. The first year for teachers is always the hardest they say.

So I've only told a few of the people that I work with about my situation. Pretty much my boss and I let him know from the start about all of this, "I don't plan on going anywhere and like working for APHA." It really doesn't concern them (Management) as to what my family does in the end I feel. I didn't want them to think, well he must be planning on quiting soon in the end.

What I didn't expect, was APHA being finished with me so soon. I was surprised after taking a couple of approved days off this week, to take care of my kids and I even did some work from home during this time; only to be lais off upon returning to work this morning. That was how things went for the past few years. No real vacations and still being called upon and asked to work on stuff from home when I'd take my days off.

So over the past few years I've seen a lot of my co-workers leave for various reasons, some on their own terms and some not ready to go, but being asked to leave like this? Looks, like today I join the ranks of those being asked to leave now. It's still a shock, having worked for APHA since January 2000 and I'll miss a lot of things over time I think in the end.

Well this marks only the 2nd time if my life that I've been let go from a job, actually being laid off is different than the first time. Perhaps I should have took a page from my past co-workers and left along time ago and on my own terms. I think I really enjoyed working for the Association in the end and for the members and that is why I held on as long as I did.

Change came early at the start of this year and now I'll be looking hopefully towards better things to come. I think in time I'll see some relief, I mean I'll get my summer months free again as well as the fall and not be tied down to those long hours of working at a horse show anymore. Then again, that was the part of my job I had really liked the most, seeing the members and being around the horses.

The Walking Dead from page to screen

I started a little early this year with my Halloween entertainment options; knowing full well that AMC The Walking Dead would soon be returning and that hopefully season 2 would soon show up on Netflix too.

My first introduction to the whole series was with season 1 on AMC and I soon learned that it all had started out as a comic book. I figured I'd give the comics a read while I waited on season 2, and picked up a copy of the Compendium One from my local library and I was hooked from the start.

Now I've read way ahead of the current show in many aspects and at the same time I've found that the show and comics are on very different paths all together. I can only think that writers for the show have decided to change up a few things and introduce some newer characters for TV show.

Some characters didn't make the cut in the comics and some have lasted longer in the show. The comics are very adult in nature and full of pages that have tons of shock value. Some of the stuff I've read, I don't even know how AMC will even pull it off on the screen. Then again they might not even bring some things from the comic to the screen.

I'm glad that I've read the comics and have become a huge fan of the work. I also like the show and it makes me wonder what they have in store for future episodes and which path these characters will take in the end.

My next couple posts I'll go into more detail on the comics and then later a review of the show. I'll more and likely have a few spoilers, in case you haven't seen the show or read the comic books.

Happy Monstober

It's that time of year for the family and I once again. We love the Fall months and kicking things off with Halloween coming is the best. October normally brings colder weather as well, something people in Texas look forward to as well. But it's also the start of all things spooky and fun as well.

 

The kids of course love Trick or Treat time and we enjoy helping them celebrate as well. Its something I've always loved I'd say and something I've shared with my kids over the years. As an adult we've enjoyed Halloween parties and its the one time of the year I watch scary shows for a change.

 

Now I'm adding some video games like Left 4 Dead 2 and reading some Horror books and even a few graphic novels of The Walking Dead to the mix even. From now until Halloween arrives, its all kinds of things that go bump in the night for my entertainment pleasure.



The magic Eight hours of the day

I've been thinking about time lately, how its spent, how its used, and how its wasted for example. So we have a total of One Hundred and Sixty Eight hours in a full week that is a given. Most of the world has to work and gets some days off, normally two days a week. This leaves us with One Hundred and Twenty hours for the work week.

Most people work a five day work week and that brings us back down the normal Twenty Four hours in a day. OK, I can do simple math and perhaps I could have just stated plainly, there is Twenty Four hours in a whole day. Everyone knows this and it makes for a boring post to just kick things off like that and I'm not looking to stop here at just Twenty Four hours in a day.

So its been said that people should get at least Eight hours of sleep a day. What is said and what really happens is two different things of course. So our day is knocked down to just Sixteen hours that we are, say awake and engaged in the world and others all around us. The time we are asleep is our time to rest, recharge, dream, and reload for the next day.

OK, your awake and what is next, well we are talking about a work week, so lets get some things done and earn some money. The goal and most of the world works... oh, we work Eight hours a day and Five days a week for a total of Forty hours and get paid for doing all of this.

There goes another Eight hours in the day. So we've used Eight for rest and Eight for work and know we have a magic Eight hours left for other stuff. What is so magic about it? For starters, I'd say most of us don't have a full magic Eight hours to ourselves, family, and/or friends.

Lets get back to work for example, we are paid for the Eight hours, but we are there longer than that and for most people at least an extra half hour each day. This is so we can take a lunch break and we don't get paid during our lunch break. So this half hour has to come from someplace, guess it comes from the left over Eight hours.

Are we done? Of course not and I'd say we have more of a time leak to the magic Eight hour day. Fact is most of us don't work at home and have to commute to work and that is going there and back. I'm willing to bet a good average is at least a half hour to drive to and a half hour to drive back home.

What's left over, take our magic Eight hours and subtract One and half hours and we are left with just Six and half hours out of each work day to take care of other things that don't require work or sleep. This means our work day is truly a Nine and a half hour work day and this is provided we all work only a standard Eight hour day, what if we stay an extra hour or two each day.

That time has to come from somewhere and that means we sleep less or give up more of the, lets call it free time. Is it really free? I suppose it is. Our magic Eight hours a day might really be closer to only half of that depending how hard we work or we sleep a lot less and that makes it harder to work or stay awake during our free time.

It was Robert Owen (not related to me, as far as I know and I don't want to spend my free time to find out if he is really) who coined the phrase "Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest" in 1817. Funny thing is back in 1810 he really wanted a Ten hour day.

I'm sure glad its not a standard Ten hour day over the Eight hour plan in place, we'd only have about Two or Four hours to ourselves. I guess there's not much magic to an Eight hour day the more I think of it. I can tell you this, if I'm not working or sleeping, then I want to make the most of the hours I have to myself, my family, and/or my friends.

Resturcture creates new opportunities

I've seen a lot of change over the past year or more where I work and I've had a number of things I would have liked to write about in regards to change. But some changes have come so fast, its hard to even grasp what might be happening to react or respond even.

Today I've found myself in the middle of restructure where I work and no longer a part of the team I've enjoyed working with for the past 10+ years. In someways I've come full circle even, having started in Marketing back in 2000, moving to Information Technology, and now finding myself joining the Graphic Arts & Service team.

My job & duties are still the same, I've just been asked to report to a new manager and be apart of a new team now. My skill set appears to fit closer in line with this Department and I look forward to learning from my new team members and hopefully sharing some of what I know a do with them.

In addition to joining my new team, I've also been asked to take an active part with the rest of the Marketing Team and their efforts as well. I'll still help out in a few areas with the Information Technology team and look forward to future development of our web sites and working close with them still.

It's been said that change is good and can create new opportunities and I can honestly say that I can not think of more change than what I've seen over the past couple months. New things have to come out of all this for sure. I have to think we can only go up from here and reach new heights now.

Pinterest for men?

What's the point here or Pinterest behind this latest form of social networking and is it for men? I'm a social network geek and find it's just a part of life these days, people want or feel they need to stay connected with others. That being said, I had wondered what all of those little boxes I saw scrolling across my wife's monitor really meant.

Her Pinterest had peeked my interest enough and I decided I would give it a closer look. There was something very familiar at the start, but I wasn't quite sure.

My first look into Pinterest came from the Pinspiration App I downloaded on my Windows Phone 7 device. I quickly found out I could see all kinds of stuff, but I would need to actually get invited in, if I wanted to contribute with the masses.

Surprisingly, it didn't take as long as it does to get into some of Google programs and if you happen to know someone that uses Pinterest, then I'm sure you can get invited by them even faster if you like.

Once you've been invited, its pretty simple to select from a few things you find interesting to follow and they'll even give you some suggestions of people using Pinterest to follow and help hook you up with those in your existing social networks like Facebook and Twitter even.

Now its time for you to start pining up some things on your social cork board, so your followers may see what interests you. These interest boards allow you to group things into categories of interest from your real life and place them into a virtual space to share with others.

How you might ask? From web sites to start with and the handy Pin It button they suggest you add to your Favorites Bar. When you visit something on the web that speaks to you enough and want to keep track of it, simply Pin It and place it in one of your Pinterest Boards. It will launch the small window and hopefully find the image on the page you would like to share. You might even find a number of sites have integrated a Pinterest button within their site for you as well.

Smart phone apps is another way and this allows you to create from your very own images taken while your out and about. Its always nice to use your own photos, while out and about for sharing your interests with others.

Is it for men? Well, I can clearly say the demographics appear to be heavily slanted towards a female user base. It does seem to really speak to a person that wants to organize certain aspects of their life on a visual basis. It is very popular with Brides for example and allows them to carry an extreme amount of visual aids, right at their finger tips or add to these wedding planning Pinterests for example.

If you scroll through the Everything section on Pinterest to start with, you'll find an enormous amount of fashion pinned, along with food & drink or home decor stuff for example. Pretty much things that interest women for the most part... nice things to look at for sure, but most of it will not speak to a guy really. I would say you would be hard pressed to find around 5 percent of the pins on the front page appeal to a man.

So what's the point then? Well in a lot of ways its just a visual book marking or collection of favorites of sites and things you like and a means to share these things with others. Twitter is for posting small bits of things your interested in text or sharing perhaps a quick photo, but not a means to organize them. Facebook is similar but it does a lot more than Twitter does. So Pinterest is like a virtual scrapbook & clippings of things you like, but on more of a social level.

Some guys use it, but it's a small number of us I'd say and I'm almost willing to bet, a large number of men sign up and simply lurk and never pin things really. This brings me back to my thought at the start, I'd seen this somewhere before and it was from a site called ImgSpark that lets you create Mood Boards, only two of them and it limits you to only a gig of space.

Sometime back in 2009 is when ImgSpark.Com was created and I had joined their site back around May of 2010. This was only a couple months after the launch of Pinterest. It's only recently now that I've discovered Pinterest.

I think Pinterest clearly does things that ImgSpark is not capable of and it has a much larger user base. Is it for men though? Well, its not like they keep us from using it. It's just really up to the man in the end and if he has any real Pinterest in sharing I suppose.

Family Dinner time

Our family dinner time is headed for real change here in 2012, as we look to try something different for a change. For starters, we are going to try and not eat out and instead prepare our meals at home together as a family more.

In doing this we are going to prepare only one meal that the whole family will eat and enjoy together. We will also plan these meals out in advance for the next two weeks and stick with it. That means no more sitting around and asking, "What do we want to have for dinner tonight?" and it also means we will not make something different for just the kids and us to eat.

When I was younger and it came time for dinner, I was called to the table and we ate what ever was made for the night. There was no pre-planning as far as I knew it and I found out what we were eating as soon as I sat down with the family. Surprise, you get what you get and you don't throw any fits in the end.

Truth is I never had any problems with this really and I wasn't too picky of an eater growing up. So getting my kids to understand that they have to try new things and eat better will be an experience perhaps, but I think we'll do fine and they seem to be receptive so far to this new idea.

To start things off we've themed our dinners and set something different for each day of the week. We've went ahead and decided to keep the same day themes for both of the weeks to help make it simple too.

The girls seem to like the idea of themed meals and are planning to locate music that ties in with each nights dinner theme. I think it should be a lot of fun for all of us. Good food, cool music, and great family time for the evening.

The creation of Sunday Specials should be very interesting and we've decided to select places from around the World. We dropped Six countries into a hat to start with and South African & Brazilian have been selected as our first two Sunday Specials themed dinners. I think these might be the hardest ones to come up with out of the six, but we'll rise up to the challenge.

Hopefully this will also help us get organized a bit where meals come in to play and help us save some money with the buying of our food in advance by eating at home. This should also bring us together more and I think we'll enjoy our meals as a family and perhaps learn about some new places and foods as well.

Lobbyist for the day down in Austin

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a rather busy day for me, as I'll be spending it down in Austin as a Lobbyist and helping to represent other fellow Horse enthusiasts from all over the state of Texas. The American Paint Horse Association is sending a little over 25 of its Staff members down to join other Horse groups from across the state for Horsemen Day at the Capitol, its purpose is to show support in numbers for HB 2111/HJR 111 & SB 1118/SRJ 33 on the steps of the Capitol.


Hopefully together we can help push things along tomorrow and get these items added to a future vote here in Texas. The amendments purpose would then allow slot machines at 13 existing licensed racetracks and three federally-recognized Indian reservations and its efforts would keep gambling money that many Texans spend in neighboring states here in Texas instead.

While visiting with my State Representative and Senator tomorrow, I also hope to express my concerns about the proposed Education cuts being made and that they reconsider looking into other options, including the Rainy Day Fund that was setup for times such as this.

I know the efforts of Win For Texas and Save Texas Schools are good causes and something Texas really needs at this time. Let the people have a say and vote on these topics and I encourage all Texans to looking to this efforts and contact your Representative and Senator to let your voice be heard.

The work behind closed doors

Looks like I might be getting an actual office of my own at last. Granted, its a bit of a small office of sorts, but an office just the same. Over the many years of working in IT, I've been in a Cube environment all of this time, but this might change really soon.

The past 11 years have been the same as always, but lately a progression towards real walls of sorts has been in the making. The current IT department has pretty much been a big open room, from the time I first joined them. So open at first, it was like an island of connected desks with only a few very minor walls to divide us up.

This changed though with a few higher walls and that created some Cubes for a few of us. I found myself facing one of those huge cube walls, but with a bit of an open environment to my back. So half of our department needed walls it seemed, to help us cut down on some of these distractions it seems.

Well, the distractions haven't gone away and in a lot of cases, we now have many more distractions and so the answer to cut down on these distractions is to build real walls and install doors. We are looking at creating six offices; measuring 10 x 7 or 7 x 10, depending on how you look at things.

I'm trying to picture how this is going to be when its done, we'll have a walkway down the middle of a decent size room, that is pretty much cube areas now, and so later on it will look like a long hallway, that has six private offices for us.

I'm looking forward to this really, the thought of a private office to work in is awesome sounding. I think a cozy little 10 x 7 room with my own door that I can shut is just what I really need. I just hope its cost effective and the right decision to make in the end.

Some of the past cube areas I've had were not to bad, some were quite roomy really and fairly private. I'm not sure if we have larger cube walls or even normal walls, to help make our areas more private cube areas, I think that could even cut down on some of the current distractions.

So looking towards full walls and a real door is what might be coming my way instead. I do feel I can get a bit more done, when I tend to be more on my own at times though. Don't get me wrong here, I love team work and I work well with others I think. I just feel at times it can be much better and I can be more creative with less distractions in our area.

The past couple of weeks I found myself snowed in and thanks to our VPN, I was able to find a quite place at home and get a bunch of work stuff done from home. Back at work, you have people coming and going all the time, add in the water cooler talk, plus hearing every ones daily phone conversations, and much more with seven of us in semi open work environment. Its no wonder that I find myself spending most of my time with headphones on and trying to tune as much out as I can.

Well not for much longer, if the plans for walls and doors go through. I'll find myself strolling into work and making my way into my own private IT Cell, I mean small private office and I'll simply shut my door to get things done. I can continue to Skype the others in IT like always and hopefully find some inner peace at last, from suddenly working in a distraction free zone at last.

Or... I can pray for many more Snow days here in Texas or other reasons to keep me working from home instead at times.

Do You Wanna Touch?

I started watching the film The Runaways (2010), starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, who was one of the founding members of the all-girl rock group, The Runnaways, and this suddenly brought back memories of the first Live concert I had attended as a teenager.

My wife had started up the movie via Netflix tonight and I wasn't sure what I was about to watch here at the start and was really surprised to see how much Kristen Stewart looked like Joan Jett and then I realized what this movie was really going to be about.

So a little later on into the film you see Joan Jett at rock club and can hear a version of "Do You Wanna Touch" by Gary Glitter being played, which happens to be one of my favorite songs that was covered later by Joan Jett during her solo career. I decided to search and see if I could find the original video here on the web, you have to just love the Internet for stuff like this.



I really like the Joan Jett & The Black Hearts version and I can remember very well when this version of the video actually hit Mtv... yes, way back in the day when they actually played music videos and when it was a cool station to watch. But I also remember attending her concert at Six Flags Over Texas and I believe the Live footage of the concert fans was in fact filmed out in that parking lot concert area. Some where in that crowd of fans just might be me waving my arms in the air.



I've seen her live only one other time since then and I'm much older now, but I think she still Rocks! I enjoyed the movie and learning more about the Runaways as well.

I did it! I'm a Super Model Now

Well I broke into my weight goal range of 206 to 212 lbs and right on schedule I might add at that. It's been really hard to diet this time of year, but I hung in there and stuck to it the best I could. I think I was about 96% strict and followed the rules of the diet program.

The hardest thing for me on this diet had to be giving up all the sweets and I mean all of them. Not a single piece of Candy, Cookie, Cake, or whatever treat you could imagine this time of year. I'm talking zero tolerance here now. But its all worth it in the end and this diet program really worked. Amazing to eat just what they said I should and not even work out at all. The pounds just fell off during the 12 weeks I was on this and my clothes are falling off as well.

So I dodged all of the Halloween Candies and I managed to avoid all the Thanksgiving Pies. Last week was really hard to resist the Chocolate Cake. I could smell the sugar as I sat close by, but I kept myself from pouncing and taking a bite of that forbidden desert. But I remained strong and reached my 12 week goal.

That brings us to Christmas Eve and that means a tradition is coming for me that I will not break. I always watch "It's a Wonderful Life" and pour myself a nice glass of Egg Nog to enjoy. So to celebrate my reaching my goal of a new lesser me in the weight area. I'll have a tiny glass of Egg Nog tonight and I'll still enjoy my movie. I've got a lot to be thankful for this year in the end and I think I can allow myself this little bit in the cheating area now.


My New Years resolution for 2011 is to remain skinny, stay healthy and be the best super model I can be. Thanks family for all the support and praise you've given me.

I'm melting away

I'm closing in now on the last couple weeks of my diet and I only have around 8 to 10lbs left to drop. To think that this diet would actually work as well as it has and with out working out at all was a big surprise to me.

I'm now looking forward to the next phase that they call re-feeding and seeing how I'm able to reintroduce the foods that I like back into my diet. I'm also looking forward to starting somewhat of a workout program to help maintain my weight.

I feel so much better now and I'm lighter than I would have ever imagined too, all of this thanks to Dr. Cohen's 1st Personal Diet. But its far from over, I can't let things go back to the way it was before and I need to make sure that I maintain and build up my strength once I reach my ending weight goal.

Odd thing is I really didn't think that I looked that big to begin with, but I'm sure enjoying the way I look now and hearing everyone make comments as well about me. It's funny how people treat you differently after loosing some weight. I mean, I'm still the same person pretty much, just a bit less space being used now.

NaNoWriMo 2010

I'm at it again, one of those crazy writers during the month of November that promise to crank out 50,000 words in a months time. I'm a few words off my goal and doing my best to catch back up.

I actually feel pretty good about my chances and I think this will make my 3rd time to complete this quest. Last year was a bit of a tough year for me and I fell short of my goal. I'm having to much fun this year to miss my goal.

I think my resoultion for 2011 will be to work on the edits (rewrites) of my first two stories and look at finishing up last years attempted novel. I'd like to see about getting this into a small printed form to look at down the road, perhaps a self publish on deman type of thing.

I still have to decide if between now and the end if I want to wrap up this series in book four or attempt to keep these characters going for another book. I'm thinking this might actually go to one more book.

THE RANGERS WIN THE PENNANT!!!

Last night I watched a bit of history take place, as my local favorite team finally made it. They won the ALCS and are now headed to the World Series to represent the American League. THE RANGERS WIN THE PENNANT!

"Win the Pennant," is a phrase you hear from time to time from Radio and TV Announcers this time a year and is a phrase I thought I'd never hear tied to the Texas Rangers. Until last last night happened that is and its so great that it is true.

This ball club showed something very early on this season and it was destined to make it to Playoffs I think. Something told me around the first few games of the Playoffs, they were destined to do much more as well. Now I'm getting the feeling that they are destined to Win the World Series as well.

Next week they'll start their quest to make History once again and they only need 4 more wins to reach that mark. History is about to happen once again for the Rangers and I love it!

Dual Fandom
OK, its not a secret that I've been a Yankee Fan over the years and its something of a nostalgia for me and this very historical team. Just the same I've always supported and pulled for my local team to do well. Over the years I've liked a few teams from the locals to outside my area in professional sports. Drives my friends and families crazy at times.

This latest Championship series happened to pit my local Texas Rangers against the New York Yankees. This was the one time I wanted the Yankees to lose now. In regular matches I had more of a its OK with WHO ever wins, but not this time around. I actually think I might have hated the Yankees more if they'd beaten the Rangers. I'm really glad it worked out this way amd the Rangers beat the Yankees last night.

I'm sure this is not the last time the Yankees will make it to the ALCS and I'm sure they'll go on to play in other World Series games and even win it. But this is the one year I'm happy to say and respectfully that I don't support the Yankees. There is always next year for them right? Then again the Texas Rangers look very strong and might need to make history just repeat itself.

Not a bad start at all

So after a full week of sticking to the diet I've managed to drop 11 pounds so far. I'd have to think that is pretty impressive to say the least. I even feel a bit better than before and being lighter must add to that.

Now I'm not suppose to be weighing myself every day and I'm stopping now and sticking to the original plan. That means I'll weigh at the 4, 8, and 12 week marks. I'm expecting to notice things over the next few weeks in my looks at least.

I found it funny that my 8th week weigh in lands right on Thanksgiving Day, what a way to really keep me on the path I'd have to say. This will be one of the hardest days of the whole program I think. I so love Turkey and Dressing and eating at my in-laws, but hopefully I'll be tons lighter and will feel tons better, giving myself something to truly be thankful for.

The Last Temptation and then another...

Well I managed to make it through the Seafood Boil celebration today at my in-laws. In fact I made it through the whole day of temptations. What was really hard was walking in and seeing the Cake Balls that my sister in-law made to start with.

Then I spied the Cupcakes over in another location of the kitchen. Finally my mother in-law asked about an ingredient for a recipe that was up on her laptop. No, it just had to be Neiman Marcus Cake that she was making.

Now, its not like I sit down with every meal and have a desert. I'm not always eating stuff like this and its not like they always have this type of stuff, but during this time of year is when it ramps up a bit and I know this will not be the last temptation.

Oh well, in a year from now I'll have my shot at trying something small and sweet once again. I've just got to keep at this diet, stick to the program and burn this fat away. The grape fruit I had with some splenda made up just a tad, but it was not the same.

This week we have an employee luncheon at work and all kinds of Sporting Event type foods will be prepared. In fact I get to help with the cooking of some of the stuff. But I will not be eating any of the food and stick to my meal plan alone. I think I might be safe until Halloween time at least.

Welcome to Hell week

Ok, its not that bad really. It is a challenge though and like most stuff can be looked at as an addiction. Eating all kinds of crap can put you in the same boat as an addict. So to suddenly jump ship and swim towards a more healthy life style can be a real challenge.

Once you break the habits and start new habits its really easy. I've been here and done some stuff like this before to tell you the truth. Cutting sodas out all together can be done and after you make it through the first week, it gets easier for the following weeks.

For me its most of the other stuff I'm cutting out that seems to be harder right now. For example a simple glass of milk. Ok I love to chase it with a cookie at times or the other way around. But a simple bowl of cereal and milk is not allowed right now. Same goes for a warm bowl of Oatmeal in the morning. After a week though I'll be fine and not even miss it.

See right now my body is telling me it wants more food, but I'm training it to eat healthier and less. So its starting to burn off some of the fat and that is when you feel that little sign from below that it wants more.

Trouble is that sign then says, I'd like to have a cookie or something sweet. You just have to break that chain of thinking and after a week of eating the other stuff and building the habit of health eating, it will start to get better and you'll not even miss the other stuff.

I only hope at the end of the program I can reintroduce a few things and in a smart way of course and don't find that I don't care for a glass of milk. But we are not anywhere near that stage here and have a lot more to go. I mean its only day two and we still need to reach at least day seven I'd say.

I'm confident that I can make it happen though and I'll make it through this week and keep heading towards the twelfth week.