you look like you need a new workout

No, I'm not here to suggest P90X. Instead, let me introduce two better ones...

Third Coast Renegades, full picture set

Justin hosted my full picture set (with all the crappy shots included) on his Flickr account here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52682281@N04/sets/72157625900841882/

Thanks!

action-packed weekend

Well, most of the action-packing was done on Saturday.

My days at work have been busy, which is good because it makes the days go by quickly. Still no word on that job, but I've mostly moved on by this point.

Taylor had the weekend off, so we had planned on going to play disc golf Saturday around noon. The group consisted of me, her, Justin, Andy, Kelcey, and Mark. We decided on going to the park way down south (the same one that I went to a few weeks ago), but we stopped at Disc Nation right before we went, since it was just a few blocks away. Disc Nation had hundreds of discs. It was pretty crazy. They also had a pretty solid used collection which ranged from $1-4. I bought a couple new ones, though, to start my "collection."

After grabbing some extra discs, we headed to the park, practiced for a half hour at their practice basket, and then started our 18 hole journey into the woods. We all did roughly the same, except for Justin who spanked us all. I have a bad tendency to throw the disc as hard as I can, which causes the discs to go far, but too high. Once they get fairly high up, they have a strong tendency to float off into the woods. I almost lost my disc a couple times, but luckily because it's a neon yellow color, I was able to find it both times. Mark wasn't as lucky, and lost one of his white discs. Overall we had a fun time, and I hope to play again sometime soon.

That night, Justin had a show at Quinn's in Round Rock. He has asked me previously if I would take some pictures at their show with my DSLR, but he was hinting at future shows. I decided to take my camera to this show to get a feel for the exposures, and ended up taking roughly 150 pictures. I was unusually proud of some of the shots, but also overly critical, too. The lighting at Quinn's was unusual, and fairly dim for a camera, so it was difficult getting a focused, well-exposed shot without the flash. I didn't want to use the flash because it didn't give you as "intimate" of a picture, and completely removed you from the atmosphere that they were playing in (dim lighting). You can see some of the pictures at their band's album here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=321909&id=309576633012

In other news, today I start my recovery week for P90X, Phase 2. After this week, I'll be entering my final month of P90X. It's about time, too. I was hoping that once I got into the rhythm of things that P90X would be less of a chore. Unfortunately, that was never the case. Everyday, I begrudgingly started that day's routine, and I never got to the point where I was looking forward to the next one. There were more than a few instances where I felt like I had a good workout and was happy to have done it, but that feeling never carried through to the next day.

bummer dude

Doesn't look promising on that job prospect. Word has it that they've started interviewing some people already, but I haven't heard anything.

I'm not going to lie, that's disappointing. Oh well! Like I said earlier, at least I tried.

fruit for the masses

Lately, I've been eating way more fruit than I normally do. It's only been the past week or so, but still, it's something of note. I partially blame Andy for forcing clementines in my face all the time, but I suppose I should be grateful. In fact, today I've had two clementines, one banana, and one apple (granny apple sliced up and dipped into peanut butter — yum!) and I haven't even left work, yet! I rule. Food pyramid domination.

In other news, I have made the executive decision to repeat week 7 of P90X. Yes, that means when I'm finished I'll have technically done P97X. I had taken about 10-12 days off earlier this month because of a cold I had caught. This week I've been having to play catchup and I have strangely noticed some slight performance decreases in some areas. I decided that I wasn't happy with this week's results so I'm going to repeat the week before I move on to my recovery week.

Feeling down about it only being Tuesday? Sad that your weekend has not just begun like some other people (cough, Taylor)? Learn to like everything! Problem solved.

1/13/2011

Not a whole lot going on these days, aside from the usual work. The good news is that work is picking up for me right now. I'm doing stuff that I enjoy doing, and it's making my days go by really fast. Also, speaking of work, I found out that there are 19 openings in the new line of business for which I applied. Unfortunately, only a few (my estimation) are the position that I applied for, and only one or two of those will be in Austin. My chances of scoring that job are diminishing. However, they're interviewing in mid-February so if anything I'll know by then. No big deal if I don't get that job, I was probably over-idealizing it anyways.

I played disc golf for the first time this past weekend. I played at Mary Moore Searight park with a couple of my coworkers and their friend. It was fun and I definitely want to play again. Next time Taylor has the weekend off I'm going to get a group together to hit one of the disc golf courses. It's a fun and free way to waste a couple hours of time outside.

----USELESS DRIBBLE THAT YOU CAN SKIP----

Doesn't look like I have much else to talk about. Luckily, I have the power of never shutting up. As I'm sure you've heard (if you haven't you need to get out from under your rock), there was a shooting in Arizona, critically injuring a congresswoman and several others, and sadly killing innocent lives. That's not exactly what my topic is about, however.

My topic is about how reactionary everything is in our society. No matter what incident might have happened, our society feels the need to take a course of action to "correct" or "prevent" future occurrences. For example, in this shooting in Arizona, we are likely going to spawn off endless gun control debates. Also, speaking of the shooter, have you noticed that not one media member has deemed him a "terrorist"? Change his skin color to a particularly shade of dark, and change nothing else, and all you'll be hearing about is terrorism, what connections he might have had to Al Qaeda, etc. Sad state of affairs.

Sorry, I went off on a tangent in my tangent. Let's take another example: shoe bomber. In fact, the whole construct of the TSA is a perfect example of reactionary actions designed to help, but don't actually do anything. Now we have to take off our shoes. Great, because that was really necessary.

I feel like I'm not making a strong enough point, but think about it. Everything that happens, usually bad, requires some sort of reaction in order to satiate people. One person can ruin the way things are for everyone else. We have one mad man going around shooting people and now there will be debates on gun control, enacted laws, more security for congress members when none of that is probably necessary. When we have bad things like this happen, sometimes the best action is just to move on. If we continuously have these knee-jerk reactions we're going to be building up this huge fort with no foundation (I just made up a nonsensical analogy).

Sorry for this barely coherent ramble, but I needed to make this blog longer. Besides, I told you to skip it earlier, didn't I?

hello lovely people

I have turned on anonymous commenting. In other words, you don't need to sign in to anything or have any special account to leave a comment. Now you can leave one no matter what.

Isn't that just great news?

I'll have an update for you guys in the next day or two.

welcome to 2011

Thank You!

Application Submitted

Thank you for submitting your resume/application to █████████. If there is a match between your information and an opportunity at our company, we will contact you. We appreciate your interest in our company.

Well, I've officially applied for that new position as of today. In asking around about the position and working on my résumé, I've managed to get myself excited about this position. I've put in some effort in my application, and at this point I do hope I get the job. I will be disappointed if I don't, but I will get over it rather quickly. There are some key concerns that I have yet to get addressed, however, which would make-or-break the deal for me. For instance, it's not 100% guaranteed that this position will be based in Austin. I'm willing to travel but I am not willing to move. Austin is my forever-home.

Moving on...

My last post was before my Christmas break. Let's do a little recap, shall we? My time off was mostly uneventful, consisting of many hours of Left 4 Dead 2. I thoroughly enjoyed those hours, too. In between Left 4 Dead 2 games, I managed to spend some time with the family on Christmas Day and the following night. We did gift exchanges and ate some good food. Mundi's girls have really taken a liking to me, which is both good and bad. Nah, I'm kidding it's not really bad, but they like to play rough. They climb and jump all over me. Good thing I'm all buff now because of P90X, right?

Speaking of P90X, I've been officially "on break" from P90X for about a week now. No, I haven't given up. I got sick about a week ago with some sort of cold/sore throat, and I haven't felt great. I did a little browsing on the P90X message boards and confirmed that it's not worth it to continue working out while sick. Exercise helps boost your immune system, but while you're sick exercise can actually hinder your immune system. I'd much rather get well sooner. I'm just about over my cold now, so I'll probably be back on my game here in the next day or two.

Some other good came out of the last week, too. It's a bit too personal to talk about openly on my blog, but let's just say someone told someone something, and everything went better than expected. All you need to know is that it's great news.

That's really about all I have to add for the last 10 or so days. I wasn't lying when I said I played a lot of Left 4 Dead 2. Wish me luck for that new position, and I hope to have some good news for you guys here in the next month.