All Done Blogging...here

I first and foremost apologize to all those that have been reading whenever (as seldom as it was) posted a new blog. My first attempt at blogging was a complete and utter failure. I believe this is due to the fact that I had no purpose in my blog. I just thought, hey, this will be fun; and while it was very fun indeed I never really had anything too interesting to write about. So with that said I have actually started a new blog...with a purpose. I am going to start home brewing beer and I plan to keep an account of all my successes and follies here on the cloud for all to see. So please...follow me there :)

The Joys of Homebrewing

Working Out Made Fun...at least for nerds

First I would like to briefly apologize as this post is much longer than my typical blog post, however I hope you enjoy it just the same.

I used to be a three sport athlete in high school and was therefore naturally in shape from being active all year round. When I was sixteen my family moved to Colorado and I stopped playing competitive sports and took up the amazing hobby of snowboarding. The remaining two years of my high school career were spent working and snowboarding. No running. No lifting. Nothing other than an occasional hike for a sweet drop in on the mountain. Then off to college with more work and less snowboarding mixed in with very poor eating habits for a very unhealthy lifestyle. As I'm sure you can imagine I started to gain weight and lose muscle over that time period of about six years as I'm now twenty three.

Before I moved to Colorado I was a very healthy and lean 150 lbs at 5'10". I gain a bit of weight in high school, but never enough that made me feel the need to weigh myself. I lost most of that in my college unhealthy days, but I also lost almost all my muscle mass. Sure, I may have got back to my earlier high school weight, but I looked and felt awful. Shortly after being on my own and making my fair share of poor choices I met my wife.

We tried to be together as much as possible and she made a point of fattening me up...at least she made sure I was eating a decent amount of healthier food on a regular basis. I am, of course, eternally thankful for everything she did for me during that time and I don't think I'll ever be able to truly repay her for it.

Anyway, I gained weight and did nothing to combat it and keep myself in shape. The heaviest I ever weighed myself I was 190 lbs at 5'11". I didn't exactly start working out right away either. I would go every once in a while, but never enough to really make any difference. It was tough for me to get motivated even though my wife works out daily, I was much happier sitting on my butt playing video games.

I decided I was going to try and channel my nerdiness for good and I started browsing the Android Marketplace for work out specific apps. I would download different ones and play around in them, but still never really got into the gym on a regular basis. About a month or two ago I found a game changer.

The first app I found was Jefit. It's mainly an app for weight lifting and tracking, but it can do so much I still have not seen its full potential. You can customize your work out down to which exercises you do each day as well as record all your sets and reps. Plus, Jefit Technology has a webpage which the app will synchronize all of your stats, routines, and records. For me, this has made lifting extremely fun because everything is housed in technology, something I am extremely fond of. Along with Jefit I use the app Cardio Trainer to keep track of an estimated calorie burn and more. However, I quickly discovered that this app was also great at recording the tracks you run or ride and keeps track of distance and time. Cardio Trainer also has a website where you can view all of your progress online at home. Using both of these apps at the same time I am able to constantly keep track of my progress and constantly challenge myself while using technology all at once.

Now I feel much healthier and in shape. I now weight about 180 lbs and I'm losing weight all while gaining muscle. I have these apps to thank since they helped me start a routine and keep my routine going. Thank you Cardio Trainer by Worksmart Labs and Jefit Technologies, you are both awesome.

(I use an Android based phone and do not know if either are available on other operating systems)

Happy Birthday to Me (and then some)

My birthday was April seventh of this year, shortly after my last blog post. The weekend immediately after my birthday my wife took me snowboarding. We had only gone once this winter, which is not nearly enough...at all. We went up to Copper Mountain, which is and always has been our favorite place to go. I actually proposed to Brooke there going down our favorite run on the mountain.

Anyway, we went to Copper on Saturday the ninth and enjoyed a wonderful day of poor conditions. Sure, it was nice and sunny out, but it had not snowed in about a week so the snow was very hard packed and rough to ride. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed ourselves as much as we could and made the best out of it. We came home that night and went out to a nice dinner with my parents the next night.

Easter Sunday was the last day Copper was open; Brooke and I needed to get at least one more day in, hopefully with better conditions. We went up to Copper on Friday the twenty second and stayed with my cousin so that we could be right on the mountain Saturday morning. We woke up around eight on Saturday morning and became overjoyed when we looked out the window and saw that it was snowing. We we so pumped to be able to finish the season out riding some powder and having snow to push around. It was most definitely the most fun I had riding in the spring.

Unfortunately, many things right here in the United States are in disarray. Over the past couple weeks tornadoes have torn through much of our country and hundreds have lost their lives. I am thankful that all my loved ones are safe and sound, but my prayers go out to all those that have been effected by this tragedy. I hope you are one day able to find peace and know that those you love are in a better place without natural disasters, war, pain, and death.

Fell off the Blogger Wagon

Source

First I would like to thank those of you that are back reading my blog after an entire month without any posts. I am most definitely sorry for the long silence, but there is, of course, an explanation for this. Plus, a TON has happened in a month, but I will do my absolute to keep things short and not bore you.

The main reason I stopped writing regular blog posts was because I got a new job at the end of February. I still have my other job where I work with kids before and after elementary school, but now in the middle of the day I work at a center for autistic children...by children I mean anyone age two to eighteen. It is an incredibly rewarding job where you get to truly make a difference in the lives of children and their families. Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that I typically work twelve hours a day now from six to six. Once I get home, I'm not exactly thinking about blogging. Mostly I'm thinking about spending time with my wife, eating dinner, and getting some sleep.

I've been working my twelve hour schedule long enough now that I am used to and comfortable with it. This would be the main reason I am back on my blog...that...and the fact that I really do want to continue blogging because I really did enjoy it before.

The new job is absolutely amazing. As I already said it is incredibly rewarding and honestly tons of fun. I want to give you a feel for what I do, but of course there are certain things I cannot tell you due to confidentiality. I'm sure you understand. In the job's simplest form I work with kids and teenagers with autism. I help them learn anything from academics to life skills to skills needed to get a job. Autism for those of you that do not know effects approximately one in one hundred children in the United States. Of all those autistic kids four out of five of them are boys. The basics of it are fairly simple. Autism essentially effects ones receptive and expressive abilities. For example, if there is a computer in the room an autistic person knows it's a computer, they know how to turn it on, and they may even know how to use it on their own. However, they do not know how to ask you to use the computer or they may not even understand you telling them to go to the computer. Of course that is autism in its simplest form as many, but definitely not all, kids understand basic commands. I hope that gives you a brief insight into my new job. People with autism really are remarkable, they are a complete joy to work with and you can see their true innocence.

I hope I kept this brief enough for your viewing pleasure. I promise I will keep with my blogging and maybe even write a few over the next few days about some different "goings-ons" that happened during the month of March. Happy April to you all and I hope you are enjoying spring wherever you live.

Superbowl XLV: A Time for Commercials

The Superbowl. A time to watch the two best teams in the NFL fight for the championship of the league, or if your team is not playing, a time watch some, hopefully, awesome commercials. Personally, I could have cared less which team won the Superbowl as I am a San Francisco 49ers fan. I tuned in with a pile of snacks and barbecue food at my in-laws house with the wife and her family.

Hoping to not miss a single thing I stayed glued to the screen the entire game and made sure I was watching at every commercial break. There were definitely some commercials that were a huge disappointment and received a "meh" reaction from those watching with me and myself as well. However, there was some amazing commercials that engaged me and made me want to watch them again on YouTube the next day. I enjoyed the "Old World Luxury" Audi commercial and the "Darth Vader Kid" VW commercial the most by far. After those there were some others like the "Doritos Bring Stuff Back to Life" commercial and the Bud Light "Hack Job" commercial were also enjoyable. I'm sure there were others, but these ones have stuck in my memory since this past Sunday. These four commercials seemed to do a great job appealing to a majority of the audience across different demographics. I will leave them linked down below.

On a complete side note my wife and her mother enjoy the Black Eyed Peas a fair amount and were excited for the half time show where they were to perform. As soon as it started I cringed, but did my best to think through the reasons it may have sounded poor to us sitting in their living room. I thought, "maybe it sounds good in the stadium and it's just not coming through nice for us." As it went on and Slash came on stage and his guitar sounded great I started to lose those thoughts. He did his best to save and recover the show, but it really continued to go downhill. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't there and I don't know anyone that was so I have no one to ask how it sounded in person, but I will still give them the benefit of the doubt for that. I look forward to the next Superbowl where we can see more amazing commercials and hopefully a better half time show.

Winning by Too Much: The Blowout Controversy

Source

Is it possible to win a sporting event by "too much?" Some believe it really has to do with the level you are playing in. For example, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 112-57 a couple weeks back which is most definitely a blowout in professional basketball. I do not believe a difference of that magnitude in professional sports is a display of poor sportsmanship. I would even go as far as saying a similar difference in a collegiate match would not be poor sportsmanship. Professionals of course get paid to play, it's their job to do their best at all times. College players may be on scholarships and always need to play their best if they plan on becoming a professional player someday. High school play is where winning by "too much" seems to cause some debate.

I read a news story about a girls varsity basketball game where the final outcome was 108-3. The article goes on debating whether or not the winning school should apologize to the losing school while toying with the idea that the winning school should have slowed up play to give a better chance to the losing school. It does note, however, that the winning team never used excessive defense throughout the game. Personally, I think that doesn't make any sense at all. I played high school sports, the highest level I ever competed at. I had played Basketball on a traveling team since the sixth grade. My teams throughout the years had definitely encountered blowouts, although none quite this bad. Sure, it was disappointing to feel like no matter what you did you couldn't make any progress against the other team. I've been beat by a team that played consistent tough basketball the whole game and another team that let up and passed the ball around the outside to give us a better chance. Without any doubt in my mind I enjoyed playing against the team that did not give us any special treatment than the team that "went easy" on us.

No person should ever be taught to let up, or not try their best. I read a comment on the article's page from a gentleman that claimed to be a coach. He said that the winning coach could have tried a new offense or played with only four players to challenge themselves. I immediately thought that would be incredibly embarrassing for the losing team. Still being beat even though the other team only had four players on the court while you had the full five. To me, that is even more disrespectful. Another comment on the same article stated something along the lines of: I guess Bill Gates should apologize to me and many others for making so much more money than I do. That statement hits the nail on the head. There is no reason to apologize. Yea, I know it's just high school, but you can't teach someone to not do their best just because they might hurt someone's feelings. Great high school players are, possibly, trying to get college scholarships and should therefore always play their best.

When I was on the receiving end of a blowout I would always pick, if that were possible, to have the opposing team play me their best, not play as if we should not be in the same league as them. To me, that showed the most respect to us as a team and motivated me to practice even harder for the next time we met. Sure, basketball is a game, but it is also a competition. No point in not giving it your all.

Reflection: First Week of Blogging

Source

I have been posting to this blog since last Sunday, January 9, 2011. If you have been reading since that first blog post I thank you and hope you have enjoyed most, if not all, of my posts thus far. I was attempting to write a new post each and every day which caused me to have a post I, personally, am not very happy with. You may be able to guess which one, but I will tell you just in case. It was the post entitled Boring and Lazy Day. I feel that post was very forced to allow me to post every day. After that I waited until I had something more interesting to talk about than what I did throughout my mildly ordinary day. I will definitely continue to post, as it is a fun way for me to pass the time and share my thoughts with the world...or at least whoever is reading my blog. As I am sure you have discerned from this post so far I will not be posting daily; I will post when I have something of particular interest, whenever that happens.

Again, I thank those of you that have been reading my blog since the beginning and I welcome those of you that are just joining me as well as those that will read in the future.