A Wild Post Appears!

 Wow, I haven't done this is WAY too long. Sorry if this ends up more text heavy than my past entries.

It's been more than ten years since I've updated this blog in any way. I MAY have done some touching up on the guides, but definitely nothing that was significant. 

Last I left off, I had started work at Fed Ex, which was giving me a proper work out. That place paid me the best I ever had. But holy hell was it awful. 

Man, I can't believe blogger saved all these old ass images I used to use. But this is fitting.

I went through more than 12 managers in 6 months at one point. They treat you like a number, don't give a shit about you unless you are calling out or underperforming, and handed out write ups like candy. They also attempted to break a few labor laws I noticed, and I had to call them out on it. 

Some examples being told we have to fill out some survey or saftey meeting thing at the end of a shift. Manager starts going over it when a higher up asks what he was doing. Manager tells him, and the higher up says "Well have them punch out first!" As soon as he told us to punch out, I just left. If I'm not being paid, I don't have to do it. And guess what? Nothing came of it.

Another example ended up how they would do write ups. You could be doing fine, but if your section failed, you could be getting a write up despite doing all you could. I started just throwing them out, and guess what? Nothing came of it.

I actually hurt myself so many different times there. My first day during training, a box with hard plastic came zooming down the conveyer belt and caught the side of my arm. Immediately bleeding pretty bad. My trainer got me some alcohol wipes and a band aid at least, but still, what a first impression. Also thought I gave myself a hernia at one point despite doing proper lifting procedures. BTW, they tried blaming me on that in the safety report.

At one point I also hurt my wrist, and instead of being allowed to go to a doctor, they wanted me to consult with their 'Wellness Coach' who had a voice very reminiscent of the male Wii Fit Trainer. I swear, I thought he was going to ask me about doing some deep breathing. His solution was put ice on the wrist on and off, with a heat compress every now and then, and maybe a brace. And I was to come into work, talk to wellness coach (they tried to tell me don't punch in, but fuck that shit if you are requiring me to come in) and if I didn't feel like I could lift, then I could go home. They didn't SEND me home, because then they would have to pay. They 'offered' the option and hey, they won't write me up for it! And of course, all light duty areas are always taken up by the retirees that have connections with the company. 

I also wouldn't be surprised if that place gave me some sort of lung issues. There was SO MUCH DUST! I come home dirty as hell, and if I blew my nose, my mucus would be gray. The inside of those trailers are NOT cleaned (or if they are, not often) and they only had dusty fans to help keep us cool. 

They also loved to say things were mandatory despite being unenforceable. They said in our contract, we would have to work on Sundays or Saturdays (despite me being part time and already working monday to friday) during holiday seasons. I checked my contract and... nope, not there. Told the manager, nah, not doing that. They tried to write me up and I told them it wouldn't hold up. They showed the write up in my face and I refused to sign it. Eventually, they bargained with me, and I would come in for SOME of those days but not EVERY Weekend. They also tried to have me sign a new contract to which I refused. 

They also wanted to try and force mandatory meetings BEFORE work without punching in and I told them if you require me to do something it will be on the company time. I punched in anyway and told them if they edit it, I'm calling a labor board. They only tried editing things a few times, but I spoke to my managers each time, and they did change it back themselves (Was higher ups trying to pull crap, not the managers).

What cause me to leave there finally was when I had finally found a section that I vibed well with, they suddenly told me as I walked in "Hey, you're going to Section C, they need help. Permanently." So my reward for being a good worker is sudden relocation with no thought of giving me a heads up, asked input, or care what I felt. I gave it a day, then said, "Fuck this place," handed my new manager a 2 week notice cause I was DONE.

The money was excellent and all, even more than where I currently work, but they CAN afford to do that. Bribe you to ruin your body more. I don't know if it still is the same there, but any time I hear someone consider going there, I let them know how bad it was, and to check their options before doing it. 

Hmm, I think that's enough for now. I just felt the need to write things out and throw it our there. Let's see when I next update, haha!

Working Out: Week 6

Week 1  |  Week 2  |  Week 3  |  Week 4  | Week 5

Already on week 6 of my Wii Fit Plus and EA Active More Workouts exercises, using my Nintendo Wii Console. My weight loss hasn't been substantial so far. I weighed 177lbs starting, and now I'm a floating number between 173-177lbs. However, I absolutely gained some muscle during this, which may be contributing to my weight. I believe my arms got bigger with muscle, and stomach smaller with less fat. It isn't exactly going as fast as I'd like, nor even as fast as the last time I did this but... I am not eating as healthy as I was last time; a lot less vegetables. Also, my metabolism probably slowed down. I still am eating in reasonable portions and eating less fatty foods, plus multivitamins, but just not getting balanced meals. It also helped that some years back, I had access to an arcade not 5 minutes away from me which had In The Groove and Dance Dance Revolution to play whenever I wanted to for hardcore cardio work outs. Now, that only happens once every few weeks at best.

To help things out, this week I'm listing common exercises that I use. Anything that deviates from it, or isn't a set work out will be listed on days I do them. Hopefully this will become a habit for future entries. Also, except for the EA Active videos, none of the videos are mine, but found around on YouTube.

My Usual Warm Ups
The first 4 warm ups are done on my own in my room and not on Wii Fit Plus. The reason is because the Wii is in the cellar which has a low ceiling, and the first 4 Yoga poses require me to fully stretch upwards. Exercises in italics are yoga poses, and those in bold are strength exercises.

• Sun Salutation
• Tree
• Half Moon
• Palm Tree
• Standing Knee
• Chair
• Warrior
• Triangle
• 10 reps of JackKnives
• Downward-Facing Dog
• Grounded V
• Cobra
• Bridge
• Spinal Twist

EA Active More Workouts' "Crunch & Core Easy" strength work out
Exercises in Italics are "warm up" exercises. Those in bold are "cool down" exercises. Rest are normal strength exercises unless otherwise noted.

1. Knee Tucks
2. Split Squats with Reaches
3. Windmills
4. Good Mornings - I omit it because it requires me to reach straight up, which I cannot due to cellar's low ceiling.
5. Bent Arm Side Planks
6. Reverse Crunches
7. Stride Jumps
8. Push Ups
9. Mountain Climbers
10. Fitness Trail - Sprint (Medium)
11. Boxing - Combo Station 1
12. Straight Arm Plank
13. Crunches with Punches
14. Skipping
15. Bent Over Rows - Omitted because I don't like exercises that require a stretch band.
16. Mountain Climbers
17. Fitness Trail - Sprint (Medium)
18. Boxing - Combo Station 2
19. Reverse Crunches
20. Leg Raises
21. Stride Jumps
22. Push Ups
23. Mountain Climbers
24. Fitness Trail - Sprint (Medium)
25. Boxing - Combo Station 1
26. Straight Arm Plank
27. Bent Arm Side Plank
28. Pretzels
29. Heel Drops
30. Figure 4's
31. Sideway Ankle Pulls

Working Out: Week 5

Week 1  Week 2  Week 3  Week 4

I can't believe it is already week 5! Sadly, my weight continues to fluctuate, though a few days ago it said I lost 4lbs, but recently said I gained it back. Maybe it's water weight fluctuating, or the fact I have been doing this at different times of the day. I'll take it that my weight is flexible at the moment. Maybe in a week, I'l lsee more downs then ups!

I use a mix of Wii Fit Plus and EA Active More Workouts for the Nintendo Wii to lose this weight, along with one or two things done on my own. If I find other fitness games, I may try them too, but mainly ones my sister has already bought. I already tried a pilate-yoga one that was annoying and not possible to do in the room I'm in.

Please note that, unless it mentions it in the video description, many youtube videos I may link to exercises are not my own, but randomly found on youtube. If anyone has better quality videos that demonstrate the exercises from the game, they are welcome to post in the comments to suggest them.

August 7 - Tuesday (Strength)
I did my usual warm ups of Sun Salutation, Tree, Half Moon, and Palm Tree yoga poses upstairs (on my own, not on the wii), then went downstairs to do Standing Knee, Chair, Warrior, Triangle, Downward-Facing Dog, Grounded V, Cobra, Bridge, Spinal Twist, and Jackknives (10) on the wii. Sun Salutation has made it so I can nearly touch my toes without bending my knees; something I never could do!

Since it was strength day and last strength day I used Wii Fit's exercises, today I used EA Active More Workouts for my strength, using my usual workout set of "Crunch & Core Easy." There's a varied amount of exercises in it, but I will mainly go over ones worth commenting about.

Push Ups, I was able to do 10 of them cleanly, unlike the wii fit version. Heck, even Mountain Climbers wasn't so bad; I managed to do a little more than 40 while waiting for the rep counter to count correctly. I still did count my own reps, though, since the counter still doesn't keep up. Another good thing was being able to do all the Leg Raises without converting them into JackKnives.

Also felt more comfortable with the medium fitness trail; leaves me out of breath but the form doesn't ache my body as much. Running in place used to make me wonder what style of running I should do. I usually just lift my knees up and down while keeping back straight up to do the run in place, but wonder if I should try other styles. Running in place is not the same as how I would normally run.

Also did Sideways Hip Raises which I did well but the sensor sometimes couldn't pick up. And it can get rather grueling with it being the starting and ending exercise, you're extended, and that counter hasn't even started!

As usual, I ended the whole thing with 20 minutes of Wii Fit's Free Step mode. I am going to try to end most days with at least 10 minutes of it, more if I feel it is needed. Today I watched the South Korea vs Brazil game while Free Stepping, and I rather regret doing so; The match was overkill on South Korea, and mainly bored me.

August 8 - Wednesday (Aerobics)
Today felt pretty good. Did my usual warm ups before starting my Wii Fit Plus aerobics for the day. Started off as usual with 10 minute Super Hoola Hoops. When spinning right, I felt a good ache in my abs a little, as if I was really working it. I suppose I found the right muscles to work during that spin! Unfortunately, that wasn't the case when spinning left; just couldn't find the right rhythm and muscle movement.

After I finished the hoola-ing, my ankles were a bit sore, so I took a break with Bird's Eye Bullseye (10:22) on Expert. Expert mode is pretty good as you chase the balloon. Some bullseyes move so you have to move with it before landing on them, but part of the fun and good for the arms! Scored 148 on it for my first try.

Next was a 10 minute Free Run. This had me a little more winded than usual. Maybe it is because I didn't have pockets, so had to hold the WiiMote in my hand, swinging my arms for the my "steps" to be recognized, or because I was still a little winded from the hoola-ing. I managed to jog the whole time without stopping at least

I did Skateboard Arena on Advanced next, which surprisingly gave me a good lower-muscle work out! My calves and feet were so sore after making it to stage 8 before I ran out of time. Scored 138 points in the end. Apparently, you can unlock "Free Skate" if you complete it all, but I haven't been able to yet.

To finish up, I did 30 minutes of Free Step while I watched TV. Felt pretty good today and right now. Tomorrow, I need to figure out a way to wake up early AND work out early. Faith has a vet appointment AND USA's women's soccer team is in the Olympic finals tomorrow around the same time.

August 9 - Thursday (Wild Card)
Due to the excitement of taking Faith to vets and watching the USA game, I didn't work out today. I wonder if this is a sign of being lazy again soon, or that I really need that one day off after 2 days of working out... Or just bad circumstances.

August 10 - Friday (Strength ??? Day)
Today I ended up hanging out with my cousin Olivia, which threw me off track with my work out. I ended up not doing any warm ups or strength exercises, but not wanting to be a slob twice in a row, I did three sets of 30 minute Free Steps. Since I would be just watching TV while I do it, it was nice and low paced. I'll call that a cop-out workout. It's better than doing nothing, and I made sure to move my arms with each step to get my whole body into it. Tomorrow, I am GOING to do strength exercises. I really should find a way to do them so when I get a job, I can balance working out and going to said theoretical job.

August 11 - Saturday (Strength)
Managed to do a pretty normal strength workout. Got my arms more into this one!

After the usual warm-ups, I got to work using Wii Fit Plus strength exercises today.. I did some push ups on my own instead of using Wii Fit Plus; 2 sets of ten. First set did mostly okay, but exhausted myself, and second set I broke into two sets of 5, giving myself a 10 second breather before doing another 5 reps.

3 sets of 30 rep JackKnives as usual; no not at once, just over the course of my workout. With each set i experimented how high my legs should be up, with the last set them being nearly flat on the board. Did 1 6 rep set of Torso Twists, which I'm not sure how well I actually stretched my body but the game said I scored an 8 on it, so I'm okay with it. Then I did 15 Rep Lunges, which brought out some hunger pains in me. I finished all right, but took a 30-40 minute break to eat something and digest the food.

To warm myself back up i did Bird's Eye Bullseye on Expert. First time, I tried finishing the run early by going directly to the finish instead of exploring around the mountain on other bullseyes and only scored 37. The next time I played it, between other exercises, I went to as many bullseyes I could and scored 246, a personal best!

Did 20 reps of Single-Leg Twists. The game-trainer says I should feel it in my abs, but I felt the burn more in my legs. Did two bouts of 30 second Planks, 57 first time, 71 second time. Sideways Leg Lift (20 reps) I was rather clumsy. I felt the burn but only score 63, nearly stepping off the balance board a few times. Arm-and-Leg Lift I did rather well, doing a 20 rep instead of 10 and got a 91. Last strength exercise I did was 15 reps of Side Lunges. I think last time I did them, I was over-stretching. This time, I stretched out my leg at a more comfortable angle. I still felt the burn, so I'll work to stretch myself out a little more slowly.

Ended it with 20 minute Free Step. Feels good to have done some exercises after having two odd/off days in a row.

August 12 - Sunday (Aerobics)
Just a typical Aerobics day. Did my warm ups, then jumped right into 10 min Super Hoola Hoops. For some reason when I was supposed to spin left, the balance board wasn't picking up my movements too well. Got about 300 less spins compared to spinning right, which was fine and even gave me a little bit of ab work. Perhaps my footing was off, maybe I was tired, or I just can't spin left correctly for some reason?

Next up was a round of Bird's Eye Bullseye on Expert. Got a nice arm work out with my arms flapping around for about 6 minutes. Scored 321 by trying to go to every platform that wasn't too far away from me, AND hit the bullseye at the end this time! Seriously, it's why I'm doing this more often, it's a pretty decent exercise for a balance game.

Free Run was next for ten minutes. This was a little more of a pain, to be honest, but I held on. I keep trying to find a good type of running-in-place form, but they all end up hurting my ankles in some way. After a small water break, jumped into Skateboard Arena on Advanced again to work my legs. This is another balance board game with a good exercise to your legs. My legs were so sore during the last round of the game, I got all turned around. Scored 321.

This led me to play other balance board games since now my legs really were sore. Obstacle Course on Advanced was next, scored a 572 this time. I actually fell off on the last course cause I thought I could outrun the iron ball, haha.

Two rounds of Snowball Fight; first was on Advanced, the other on Expert. Advanced was decent, scored 39. Expert had me on my nerves. I forgot Expert mode was 1 hit and you're out! In one try, however, I managed to score 41 and only got hit with ten seconds left on the clock. There were quite a few near-deaths though! I think I prefer advanced, however, as I won't be gambling for a longer sitting.

I decided to go ahead and do Rhythm Boxing on Advanced. I haven't played it in forever,so ended up really rusty. Scored 542 hits, which is kind of bad really. I suppose I got as much of a work out as I would with Free Step, just including arm movements. I didn't care much for it, but I suppose I may give it another try once I get used to it again; it's not fair to judge it considering I was messing up constantly. My only real feeling of a work out was at the end where you go wild with your punches for about 10-20 seconds, though.

Last i finished up with 30 minutes of Free Step. Tomorrow is Wild Card day, which I will hopefully not skip like the last two wild card days.

August 13 - Monday (Wild Card Day)

I wasn't sure what to do today, but my friend had text me, inviting me to go to the arcade for In The Groove gameplaying. I did my usual warm-ups at home before he picked me up. I must have played... about 6-8 games on doubles. Feet are killing me but got a great cardio workout from it today!

Assuming I'm not too sore tomorrow, I'll resume my strength exercises with EA Active. I'm also going to be possibly taking off from working out over the weekend since a big tournament is happening then. I'm not sure what time I'll be going though, so I may just doing Yoga warmups those days.

Olympic 2012 Soccer Game Finals

 Saw some great soccer finals this week, with women's tournament having a Japan vs USA gold match, and men's tournament with Brazil vs Mexico.

In women's, the Japan vs USA match was not a bad game at all, but wasn't as exciting as the Canada vs USA game. There were some calls that should have been made against USA, but they didn't look too serious. Japan seemed to only have half of its team really motivated to win, though. There were also some great moves, such as Tobin Heath with amazing ball control to get it away from Japan.

I actually made this one, so sorry for bad quality.

 Japan did get a well deserved score against USA; defenders saved it once, tied to kick it out but Japan got us beat.

Although I'm glad USA won, if we were beaten by Japan, I wouldn't have minded so much. Japan's women's team is amazing! They did better than their men's team, getting a silver medal over not placing! I heard that while the men's team arrived in firstclass on a plane, the women's team had to fly coach when arriving for the Olympics. Ridiculous when you consider Japan's Men's team never won a world cup, but the women did! Hopefully the way home had a comfortable arrangement for the women this time. :)

As for Men's Brazil vs Mexico final, I think the match was pretty good between the two. I stopped liking Brazil for a long time now, and Princess Neymar with his little diving everywhere certainly didn't help it!

There is one guy on the Brazil team that is to be admired, and that would be Hulk. No, not the comic book hero, there is a man named Hulk (Givanildo Vieira de Souza) on the Brazil team who is a good soccer player and is not a diving pussy like Neymar (at least from what i could tell in Mexico Vs Brazil game). He is a huge dude that doesn't use his large body as a weapon, but more as a defensive mechanic. He could have easily knocked around 3 Mexico players at once with it looking like an accident, but he seemed to be the gentle giant. As it is, he was also the one who scored the only goal, despite him usually being a support player on the team!

Mexico still beat them, though there were quite a few near misses. Peralta of Mexico scored the first goal, before the first minute of game time! Poor Fabiano of Mexico had two near goals, including this impressive one!

Brazil almost got an equalizer goal later too, but the header went too high or was to the right of the goal. That would have changed the whole game! There was also a time where two Brazil players got in an argument on the field cause one fouled a Mexican player near their goal. Couldn't find a clip of that, but shocked me a little! One of the two ended up getting subbed out, whether it was for the argument or maybe because the coach saw he was tired, I don't know.At the end of the game, the players traded shirts with each other, I think it's supposed to be a show of respect for one another. I envy whoever got Hulk's shirt, cause he's the only one's shirt I'd want on that team. Besides him, someone of course traded with Neymar. Even if he is a little priss and actor, he still is a famous and good player.

I was glad for Mexico's win though! Not only because I dislike Brazil (except Hulk) but also North American pride! I'd root for Canada just the same! It's amazing both Olympic soccer/football games were won in gold for North America! I'm exceptionally pleased that the Women's medal winners were to what I wanted as well; USA Gold, Japan Silver, Canada Bronze! Men's ended as Mexico Gold, Brazil Silver, and surprisingly South Korea Bronze! I wish South Korea had a better showing against Brazil, and that Japan had a better showing against South Korea, but the better teams have won.

Also, even thought it is wrong, I laughed when I saw Neymar pouting at his loss after Mexico/Brazil match ended. :P

Working Out: Week 4

Week 1     Week 2     Week 3

As we enter the 4th week, a few changes have occurred. I still am using Wii Fit Plus and EA Active More Workouts on the Nintendo Wii. My workouts are mostly the same, but now a change in the schedule is to be made.Originally, my weekly schedule alternated going Strength exercises, Aerobics, day off, then back to strength and repeating... Now I am going to attempt to not have a day off so often.

My weight starting this was around 177lbs, but since I started this work out regime, my weight fluctuated around it slightly being lower, but not much a huge difference. Since this is week 4, I think it's time to take a bit more action. Perhaps I just need a little more exercising with less days off to make this work. I'm sure some of this ties in with only being active part of the day instead of all day long, or my eating habits, but I'll try to change that.

The Olympics: Soccer 2 - USA vs Canada

Yesterday was the semi-final match between Canada and USA in women's soccer for the Olympics. It was a heart-wrenching match with the referee making questionable calls, failing to make calls, and generally making the game seem a little seedy. Also, Melissa Tancredi of Canada is a cunt.

Right now, Canada feels that the ref essentially gave the game to USA, that they were dominating USA the entire time until the ref made bad calls. As I watched the game, however, I saw two evenly matched teams blasting each other with everything they had. Canada wasn't "dominating" but they were leading the game. They were the ones that kept striking one point ahead before the USA caught up each time.

The ref did make some questionable calls, such as penalizing the Canadian goalkeeper for holding the ball too long. Apparently it was a legitimate call, but almost never one that is called. That call led to a also questionable call against Canada for a handball, which gave USA a penalty kick. It ended up being a goal that equalized the score, and causing the over time which would ultimately allow USA to score a winning goal.

Despite these calls that seemed to favor USA, there were many calls that could have been made against Canada, including red cards to eliminate some supporting players. Namely, Melissa Tancredi of Canada. She is such a bitch, hell she's a friggin' cunt on the soccer field. I saw her shove players with more force than needed, played off as an accident. I saw her stomp on the face of a USA player on the ground. There are not many people I will call a cunt, but she is one that fits the word so well!

Her first shove happened fast, I thought perhaps she couldn't slow down and the force just passed onto the USA player, but a slow down showed her arms reeling back and shoving the woman.

Not only that, there was a moment where a throw in was disputed between Tancredi and Rapinoe of the USA team. Tancredi seemed like she wanted to start something with her body language while Rapinoe cooly walking away not paying her any attention.

A random lesbian forum supplied me with all these awesome images.

I know Soccer is a physical heavy game, I played it for around 8 years when I was younger, and I have watched several World Cups and games on TV. This cunt, however, takes the cake on trying to be a bully on the field. Canada says USA players should be ashamed to win due to bad calls, but I say they should be ashamed to have such a cunt on their team.

The rest of the Canadian teams was AMAZING. Sinclair is an amazing soccer player with great precision and shook up the USA team. McLeod, Canada's goalie, read the ball well, and should be considered a strong point on their team. I'm not sure if I'd consider her as good as I see Hope Solo, but I also fancy Solo, so I will just say McLeod is not to be taken lightly.

In the end, the game's nature was created by the bad ref calls. USA deserved their win still, but Canada's team is to absolutely be commended for their amazing team, sans Tancredi. I think they deserved the silver medal, but sadly not in the cards with how the teams were positioned. I'll be rooting for USA against Japan on Thursday via my mother's phone since we have to take Faith to the vets during the game.

The Olympics: Soccer

I been watching the Olympics this year, mainly the soccer matches, and been loving the action going on.

In the Women's league, i been rooting for Japan, Canada, and USA, and so far they have all made it to the semifinals! Of course I want USA to win gold, but I am okay with Canada or Japan getting it as well. At the time of this post, Japan is facing France with Japan winning. I'd love to see Japan face off against USA for a rematch from the last World Cup they had with Japan winning it. Maybe this time, USA will beat them, but first they have to get past Canada. Canada's women's team seriously impressed me this year; knocking out Great Britain's Team despite the fact Great Britain had never lost a game in the qualifiers where Canada had and was 3rd in their seeding. Despite their amazing game, I really cannot see them winning the gold. USA has the potential, as does Japan. I suppose if France beats Japan and Canada beats USA, they have a chance then.

In the Men's league, our USA team didn't even qualify! Due to that, I been rooting for Mexico (North American pride), Uruguay (I'm a fan of Luis Suarez), and Japan. Unfortunately, Uruguay got eliminated in the qualifiers, so I changed my cheers to Great Britain. I'd be rooting for them in the beginning too, but I like to limit myself to three teams. Honestly, all the teams were rather impressive this years.

I was greatly surprised with Senegal's team; they were fast and skilled. Mexico only recently eliminated them in the knock out rounds, which was a great match up between the two. Mexico seemed to be the superior in technical play with their passes and plans, while Senegal had the speed and ball stealing to really mess with Mexico. They made it into overtime even, but Mexico broke through with 2 more goals, sealing their win. The thing with their match is the ref was a bit of a dunce. He'd call some plays then ignore others. One huge thing was he gave a Senegal player only a yellow card for high jump kicking a Mexican player. I mean, it may not have been intentional as we was going for a high ball, but that was reckless playing!

Taken from a failblog-related site.

Also in the knock out rounds, Egypt faced Japan where the game was rather sad. I think the Egyptian players were observing Ramadan during the tournament, which means they were fasting during the day and eating only at night. The players were so exhausted in this match up, they were getting hurt left and right. They ran out of substitutes and had to play two men down; one due to a red card (double yellowed, it really wasn't much of a cardable offense) and another being injured. Japan proceeded to win 3-0. I found it rather annoying that a Japan player got upset he didn't get a foul call in his favor during stoppage time. It's like, dude, it wasn't that serious, you're winning the game 3-0, and there's a few minutes left. Get over it!

Brazil facing Honduras started off great, but thanks to ref being ridiculous, Honduras ended up with two men down due to red cards, despite being a strong team. Brazil even seemed to want to argue with the ref on the card, and even hugged or patted the back of the last Honduran to leave the field as if to say, "that blows, sorry bro."

One big surprise upset was South Korea beating Great Britain's team. It came down to shoot outs. As it was, I only caught the beginning of the game before I had to go work out. After a shower and everything, I went to check the scores and found out they were still playing. Turned on the TV just in time to see the last two kicks of the penalty kick shoot out where Britain player Daniel Sturridge missed his shot and Korea's player score, giving Korea the victory. I never would have expect South Korea to do so well, considering when I saw their games, they didn't seem to be anythign special. I say good for them. I also hear a lot of people ragging on Daniel Sturridge for missing his shot, but from the games I've seen, he is an incredible player. You really can't surmise one's skills from penalty shoot outs as that's more about luck and nerves. He just chose the wrong side/goal keeper chose the right side. I think I found another soccer player I'm a fan of, truth be told!

As it stands now, my ideal winners for the leagues are:
Women's league: USA Gold, Japan Silver, Canada Bronze.
Men's League: Mexico Gold, Japan Bronze, South Korea Silver.

I don't want Brazil to win in Men's league. I do liek that most of their players are much more humble than what I saw at the men's world cup, but Neymar on their team is a bit too cocky for my tastes, and over plays his fouls. I'd be fine if Japan got the gold as well, but rather North America get the honor for it. To be honest, if Brazil beats North Korea, I am not sure if Japan or Mexico would be better suited to beat them.

For Women's, I happen to like all the teams, even France's team! I just like the others a little better.

And now to leave you with a rather funny pose of Luis Suarez, which I so helpfully captioned.

Working Out: Week 3

Week 1   Week 2

Still working out. Weight lost has been rather small, but I am not expecting anything too big yet. I'm still using Wii Fit Plus and EA Sports Active: More Workouts on the Nintendo Wii. Sometimes, I do other exercises, such as walking the dog, or playing some Dance Dance Revolution/In The Groove at the arcade. A few years ago, using all this, I was able to lose 15 lbs. Now that my BMI is considered overweight, I need to lose about 20lbs, so I'm at it again!

Most of this takes place in my basement unless otherwise stated. However, because my basement has a very low ceiling, I can't do stand-up Yoga poses down there so I do those on my own in my room. The rest are done on Wii Fit Plus with its Yoga routines.

Video links are randomly found on youtube and not my own.

Working Out: Week 2

Week 1

Still trying to keep working out every day to some degree using Wii Fit Plus and EA Active More Workouts for the Nintendo Wii. I'll keep a log of my progress on this blog and update every Monday until I either meet my goal or... fail.

The way I organize my work out days is one day I do strength exercises with EA Active More Workouts, next day do aerobics with Wii Fit Plus, and third day as my day off. However, everyday, I do a minimal amount of Yoga.

Most of this takes palce in my basement unless otherwise stated. However, because my basement has a very low ceiling I can't do stand-up Yoga poses down there so I do on my own in my room. The rest are done on Wii Fit Plus with its Yoga routines.

Video links are randomly found on youtube and not my own.

Faith post once again

This entry will be very image heavy with a lot of Faith related images, and some of the dogs around the neighborhood.

Faith is now 9 months old, has been spayed, and gone through several problems sadly...

Working out post: Week 1

After realizing I was overweight (according to Wii Fit Plus's BMI count, I'm 7 lbs over an "okay" weight for my stature), I decided to start working out again. Using Wii Fit Plus as my scale & yoga exercises, and EA Active More Workouts for my strength training, my goal is to drop my weight back into the normal scale. Currently I am 5'10.5 with a weight of 177~lbs. According to Nintendo Wii Fit Plus, a more normal weight for someone my height is 153~ lbs. With some luck, I'll reach my goal of 150slbs, possible even get some abs!

I did this a some years ago when I felt chubby from being inactive. Back then I used a combination of Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution/In The Groove at my local arcade. Unfortunately, my local arcade has closed down, and the nearest arcade isn't TOO far, but just far enough that I don't want to travel there often. Also, most home pads suck so not going to do it at home. When I accomplished this goal last time, I hactually has some definition showing in my stomach compared to the boney ribs I used to have when younger, and no longer had a belly that pinched me when I leaned sideways or forwards. Sadly, it's back now!

If I can stay on task, I'll make an update once a week on my progress of working out. So far, my plan is strength work outs one day (with yoga stretching before it), aerobics day (still some yoga), and my off day where all I do is yoga stretches.

NOTE: Any links to videos I may give for exercises are NOT done by me, just found on Youtube.

Here is what I have done so far.

Birthday Post

I turned 26 today. I honestly expected to be doing more in my life than what I am right now.

In elementary school, I thought I'd be a veterinarian.
In middle school, I thought I would be working with computers.
In high school, I figured I would be a journalist.
In college, I thought I'd be a novelist.

But I'm none of those things. I'm unemployed with hardly any social life outside of family and two friends, and perhaps my neighbors.

While all this does bother me, I'm all right since I am loved dearly by my family and two of my friends.
I have some pretty awesome online friends too, even when we don't talk too much.
Hell, I even have some decent online gaming friends that I hardly ever talk to outside the games.

I do need to work harder at what I want to do. I have all this time, but haven't really written much, applied for as many jobs as I'd like to, or even made plans to do anything with anyone much. But I have to say, it is comforting to know that even when I fail, I'm not going to be kicked out of my house, or ostracized from my friends. Probably the worst punishment for failure I get is a knock to the ego.

And now, for something less serious, here is a HomeStuck comic. :P

Another Faith update

This will be another dump of pictures of Faith. Most of them I took on the 3DS so the quality probably will be lesser.

Faith carrying her toy tire

So I haven't really done much of a formal update of the goings-on in my life... Figured now's a good time.

Unemployed still. This is becoming really old.

I still sell books on Amazon and participate in testing facility studies to make money, but they are far and few between. However, I am helping my younger cousin with selling her books, so a little bit of money has come my way.

Faith Alert

Faith had the puppy flu some time back. Threw up 5 times, and not very active. We took her to the vets right away, and they gave her a shot that will stop her from throwing up anymore, told us to just let her rest and eat lightly. She recovered completely in about two days.
Funny thing that happened at the vets though... She was on that metal table you put your pet on, surrounded by Mom, Sis, and I. Dad had gotten out of work early just for her and just showed up inside the room. Faith got so excited she peed a little on the table, tail wagging her whining in excitement. She moved a little forward to dad, tail still wagging, and... her tail hit the little pee puddle, splashing it at my mom and sister. I somehow came out of the unscathed, but dad and I were just laughing at how she did that.

There's more Faith related news but I'll save that for when I do another photo montage of her (Coming soon).

I completed everything in Super Mario Sports Mix. At first, the game was mostly an average party game, but after completing all the tournaments, I found out there was a boss battle in the game! That just made the game absolutely great in my eyes! I even made an epic team of Mario, White Mage from Final Fantasy, and Slime from Dragon Quest. There's just something awesome to have three characters from different worlds teaming up to save the world.

Also beaten was Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Not a bad game, just hated the mini games that would get you ultimate armor. Normally, I'm a perfectionist about these things, but I just don't have the patience to deal with slips of the finger = start over from the beginning. I do wish the teaming up with Bowser idea was more announced, sort of like how Bowser joins Mario in Super Mario RPG.

Revisiting NEStalgia. Out of no where, the game got addicting again. I'm finding new builds so I can update the skill tree builds guide. Got three new classes almost at 32 I can make some builds for. Ranger is definitely going to have the most different builds, I believe; such a diverse class!

Another game I been playing that tends to piss me off if Fortune Street. It's a game that is like Monopoly with more options. The problem is, the computer seriously cheats. It gets the luckiest rolls when they are at a higher difficulty, gets JUST the right chance cards when they need it most, and at times, they will even team up against you! I might have a whole entry to dedicate to the cheating in that game. Yet, I still play it... :P

Super Mario 3D Land has been absolutely completed. Got 5 shining stars on my file, which means:
-I Beat every level with both Mario and Luigi
-Got all the Star Coins in all the levels
-Died fewer than 5 times per level (I cheated by resetting heh)
-Got all golld flags in every level (jumped on very top of flag pole)
-Beat the special crown level

The crown level is revealed after beating every other level with both mario and Luigi I believe. That stage is mostly just very flashy, showing you various characters and such. Though, I kept dying because at one point you need to jump off a toad NPC, and you gotta get the timing just right. Stupid Toad. Also, I maxed out my lives at 1110 by using a "jump on a shell over and over to get infinite lives" trick.

Star Fox 64 3DS also has got all the medals. I'm just having trouble with the score attack areas.

Sadly, that's all that has been interesting going on in my life. I may have a Fortune Street rant coming up, and a Faith update sometime in the future.

Fighting SOPA/PIPA/ACTA

So we all are hearing about the horrible laws that threaten the internet's freedom of speech, SOPA/PIPA. (And if you haven't, take some time to read this article)

However, there is a newer problem bill that has been quietly ushered in: ACTA. What is ACTA? click here for more info.

A lot of this just shows that money-making assholes can control the government. One may ask how can we fight this? Sure there are online petitions you can sign, you can write your congressman, hell, you can tweet the crud about it or join a facebook group, but how much will it matter? There are many that still don't know about this, or just don't care to read despite the answer in front of them. Thus, I plan to do something else.

This plan is far from foolproof. In fact, it isn't even that particularly useful, but it will make me feel like I'm actually doing something. First is to get a list of the supporters of SOPA. Next, get a BUNCH of sticky-notes, preferably larger kinds and gotten from somewhere that doesn't support SOPA. From there, I plan to go to places of business that support SOPA and put a sticky-note on entrances of their buildings, stating "This company supports SOPA." Maybe include something that they don't like freedom of speech, but generally the message is to make these proud supporters of the bill more apparent to the general public.

Sure, such an idea is hardly effective; one could simply take the note down, many ignore such listings. My plan is more to get people's attention. One idea I've thought of is go to a mega store, let's say Target, and go product aisles that support SOPA. One example would be REVLON, the make-up company. So just head to their aisle, grab a stickynote, and post it on their section. Maybe spread it around anywhere I see REVLON.

But not all the businesses that support SOPA are ones selling products (not so directly as make-up anyway). Look at the Motion Picture Association of America.  In this case, I will probably no longer watch movies in the theater (unless I have one of those free passes, old giftcards, or otherwise get in at no cost for myself. And only do so two weeks after a movie's opening) nor purchase them on DVD. Instead, I'd take routes that lower their income, such as renting, or perhaps pooling money with friends so we jointly (AND LEGALLY) all own a copy of the movie that we can share, should I desire to see a movie so badly. Buying used DVDs on Amazon isn't a bad idea either. Have some movie parties with friends can be fun and recreate the theater experience, but with people you know and hopefully like!

A message needs to be sent to such companies. They can lose a lot more money than what they claim pirates are taking away from their business.


One of the supporters of SOPA that hurts me some is Nintendo of America. I love Nintendo; they give back to their consumers with free games and items on Club Nintendo, excellent customer service, and fun products I enjoy. What I think I'll do is simply buy games used only should I desire them. I really hate to do that, since I want to support some games, but some sacrifices need to be made (Granted that really isn't much of a sacrifice).

Essentially, if you hate SOPA/PIPA and the new ACTA, but don't know what you can do, try writing your congressman, tweet awareness, or even sign an online petition or two. The biggest thing you can do is boycott supporters of SOPA, AND let them know you are. Yes, SOPA and PIPA were shelved, but that doesn't mean they are gone for good. It just means they will reintroduce the idea when it's not a hot button (or, god forbid, ACTA passes so they don't need it). Less companies supporting it can help make it go away, and show said companies their clients have voices they need to listen to!

Holiday update.

I never got to my Christmas present this year. Unlike last year's post, this one contains quite less clothing related presents. Unlike last year though, here's two pictures of my Christmas Tree this year!

The biggest thing I got this year is a mountable flatscreen tv with built in USB and DVD player. I didn't exactly ask for this, but mom and dad claim they managed to get a deal. They were getting my sister one sis her room at her place is kind of small, so they figured to get me one. The USB one excites me some though; I can put videos from like youtube (and porn I guess lol) on a flash drive and watch on my TV! There's also a hook up so if I have a certain wire, I believe I can make the TV my monitor. That could be fun for some games I suppose. also notable is an SD card slot too, so I could take a video and instantly view it on TV!

As it turned out, they also got another TV for the living room (HUGE!) and a TV for my sister's old room to make it into a den! I cleaned up the place a little to make it a great video game/movie hang out place. I even brought down my old TV so we can play two different systems at the same time should we need to. Not like we have guests over so often we would need it, but I might try and change that.

The Den set up. Old TV on left, main tv center, my old IPod dock above old tv with a vcr/dvd player next to it. Wii game behind New TV, charging station for wii mores on upper right shelf (along with some gamecube controllers). The plastic bag is the garbage, wii accessories inside the shelves, and the blue yoga mat to the right is for when I get back into excercising. As my main seat source for the moment, it is the cut off cooler top there. Not seen is some floor chairs meant for when sitting outside... We'll be getting some old furniture soon to make this a little more comfortable.

I also got some games: Fortune Street (Wii), Kirby's Return to Dreamland (Wii), Starfox 64 (3DS), Mario Kart 7 (3DS), Super Mario 3D Land (3DS), Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS), and Bowser's Inside Story (DS). I haven't had a chance to buy games regularly considering my financial situation, but these games should last me awhile. I have been playign some of the free games given to be for being an early buyer of the 3DS, but I was getting rather annoyed/bored of them fast. Actually, I already got all the medals in Star Fox for the N64 mode!

My number one thing I wanted this year and got was a 1.5 Terabyte external hard drive! My old 250 GB one was getting really full, mainly because I like to back up so many things, not to mention all the online and offline games I download (Ragnarok Battle Offline and its English patches and expansions took a lot of space for instance). I also like to back up my computer's data and save webpages and posts in case they go down or something... Basically, I really need this! I doubt I will fill this up for at least 5 years unless I get more online games or something, haha.

I also got jumbo Reese's. I ate them already but they were pretty impressively sized. It was pretty fun and made me miss the old Jumbo kit kar bars that used to be in vending machines. Those hurt my teeth though...

 And last but not least, I also got a book. The fourth book in the Eragon series. I still have other reading to catch up on at the moment, but I've been waiting to read this one. :)

The holidays went pretty well, too. With Faith around, things felt much better. Some annoyances are my aunt on dad's side wanting to take pictures of me when she knows I hate that without asking first...  (she tried taking a picture of me eating... and left the lens cap on heh).  Also on my mom's side, my grandmother had just gotten some new furniture and wanted to get rid of her old pieces. My cousin Olivia's mother was insisting to give it to Olivia, who wanted no part of it. When I said I could probably use it for our little den, everyone thought it was a good idea except this aunt. I got also annoyed with them saying, "Well, if Olivia doesn't want it, THEN you can have it." Way not to play favoritism here or trying to call dibs before everyone knows of it... Bleh. But I've learned to expect that from my extended family really, so it wasn't THAT bad.

New Years irritated me some too because Sierra told me this year that unlike previous years where she gets frightened to stay at people's houses at night, she didn't want to hang out this time because if she stayed up too late, she'd feel groggy in the morning and she didn't want to feel groggy. I mean, what's feeling groggy for a few hours compared to hanging out with someone who is supposed to be your best friend? I mentioned in a post last year about her fears at night that bothered me, but this was even worse since she admitted basically, "...because I don't feel like it, even though I kind of want to!"

All things said, the holidays were fairly decent to me.

Faith pictures!

As I promised in the past, I planned to have a post full of pictures dedicated to our new American Eskimo dog, Faith! She's been with us for more than a month (close to two), and has been growing fairly well!

Image heavy post! Click below the stick to  continue on. Unless you were directly linked to this entry... then you get to suffer the image loading!

Freedom was fun while it lasted... AKA FUCK YOU, OBAMA!

 I was planning to show a bunch of pictures of Faith, but goddamn this just pissed me off. If I had money I think I'd move to Canada.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/02/ndaa-historic-assault-american-liberty?newsfeed=true

"President Barack Obama rang in the New Year by signing the NDAA law with its provision allowing him to indefinitely detain citizens. It was a symbolic moment, to say the least. With Americans distracted with drinking and celebrating, Obama signed one of the greatest rollbacks of civil liberties in the history of our country … and citizens partied in unwitting bliss into the New Year.
Ironically, in addition to breaking his promise not to sign the law, Obama broke his promise on signing statements and attached a statement that he really does not want to detain citizens indefinitely (see the text of the statement here).
Obama insisted that he signed the bill simply to keep funding for the troops. It was a continuation of the dishonest treatment of the issue by the White House since the law first came to light. As discussed earlier, the White House told citizens that the president would not sign the NDAA because of the provision. That spin ended after sponsor Senator Carl Levin (Democrat, Michigan) went to the floor and disclosed that it was the White House and insisted that there be no exception for citizens in the indefinite detention provision."

Well, Obama... Hope you enjoyed your stay at the white house, cause fuck you for taking away our freedom. I suppose this means SOPA is a shoo-in. Maybe the Mayans were right; 2012 IS the end of the world.

We got a dog: Faith the American Eskimo.

This is our new puppy, Faith! Mom and dad brought her home last Sunday, a bit of a shock to me. I had thought our landlord had told us no more pets after our last dog died some years back. Mom and dad don't seem to care, and dad even has a smart ass response to give the landlord if questioned (Landlord apparently only told the upstairs people no pets, not exactly us... I remember differently though). Even if the landlord threatens us, Dad said we would move before we get rid of Faith.

About that name? Mom named her it. "...because everyone needs a little Faith!" I'm not crazy about the name, but it seems to fit. She's been very smart, too; Climbed out of the box we had for her the first night onto the love seat in the living room. She wouldn't get down from the love seat on her own, so it contained her for a bit. However, she did learn to get down when she needs to, usually by tumbling down. Also in one incident where during the night, she pooped the love-seat and got so upset by it, she jumped down off it and somehow climbed up the couch just to get away from it.

Faith loves to be up high so she can see everyone, and gets upset when someone leaves the room or she doesn't sense them anymore. As such, getting her to sleep is quite the pain! Mom usually is the last one up, so she's the one who ends up suffering. The pup will fall asleep in your arms, but if Mom tries to put Faith in her playpen we got her for the nights, she'll wake up later, barking and crying. Mom spent a lot of nights sleeping on the couch with Faith in her arms. :P

She seems to do okay with other dogs. Our neighbor's dog, Freckles, has been whining for her. Even got into our yard a few times through the fence to come and play with her. She just seems to feel a bit self important around him though. Probably likes the attention or something. On Thanksgiving, we brought over to my aunt's. They have a huge dog named Ernie, and I THINK he's some sort of shepherd dog... The big lug just played protective of her while she was snapping at his maw. Was funny to see Ernie jump back at Faith's little yips though. He shared his toys with her, and when she got in trouble for trying to bite a stone, Ernie tried to run interference by going up to the scolder and licking their face a bunch so she could get away. :P

When we first got her, I didn't really feel all that excited though. All I could think of was bad things that could happen; her getting taken away, mom unable to keep up with her once and she gets hit by a car, eating something poisonous... Everything seemed dangerous or sad, like all those pet related movies I saw as a kid where these heart-wrenching moments would happen. Makes me wonder if I got so pessimistic, it's all I see...


It also made me miss my old dog, Buddy. I don't have a picture of him in a digital format, sadly, and the scanner is too annoying to use, so it's doubtful I'll be posting images of him. But he was my first dog who died 7 years ago mainly due to old age. He was having so many problems, was I think 15-17 years old (hard to remember), so we had him euthanized. But we didn't want him to go out alone, so all of us were in the room when the doctor injected him. I looked him in the eyes as he died... Definitely was one of the most painful moments of my life. I still consider us murderers for doing that, to be honest, even though I know many feel it's the right thing to do. I still don't think it was, but don't know what else we could have done. Even if we got him surgery there was only a slim chance for him to live.

Blah blah blah, sad sad sad, I just get a little sad when I see Faith. She's nothing like him or anything; different gender, eyes and general appearance. I just hate how it feels like I'm replacing my old bro.

I got a one-time job: running the election polls.

Thanks to my aunt and grandmother, I was able to get a small one-time job for extra cash. You know on election day when you go to vote, you have people running the polls? That was me. Normally my grandmother does this sort of thing, but due to her falling down and hurting herself (something I neglected to talk of in my last entry), she was unable to this year. My aunt got a call asking if she knew someone interested in replacing her, so she thought of me!

I first had to take a "training class" to learn how to run the polls and what to do in various unlikely scenarios. The speaker asked us to turn to a certain page in our manuals we were given, but due to a copying error, some pages were wrong. A bunch of old people started shouting at him, "THAT'S THE WRONG PAGE! IT'S PAGE x!!" And then others were yelling that previous people were wrong while the speaker got all pissed off saying it didn't matter. Meanwhile, me and this Indian lady were laughing out asses off at the ridiculousness of people. After things settled down, we learned how to set up a polling machine and watched a boring power point, the end.

Actual election day was a bit tiresome. Had to be at the election place by 5:15 in the morning and stay until roughly 8:30pm at night. Still, I was going to be paid 200 bucks for 15 hours of work (plus one hour lunchbreak) and during down time, I was allowed to play on my 3DS or walk around bullshitting. My responsibilities were also rather simple: Help with set up, get people's names and have them sign a book and a slip of paper, and occasionally work the machine by taking slips of paper from voters and pressing one button. When an error occurred or one of the few unlikely scenarios the training place warned about actually happened, I would refer to a guy on my team who knew everything.

Yeah, I worked with a team. I had a sleepy old guy who suffered a stroke once, so wasn't always doing his job correctly despite knowing it. He did the least amount of work, but I really can't complain other than he ate like a beast and farted nasty farts. Then there was a 42 year old woman who was really fun. It was her first time doing the polls as well. I talked to her a lot. Finally there was kind old guy who knew everything and pretty much said we could take breaks whenever we want.

At the start of the shift, I mainly was the guy that filled in for everyone whenever they needed a break. Smart guy was running the polls, while the other two held the books. Eventually, sleepy guy hardly did anything other than eat, so I would take over the poll book AND play substitute. At one point, the woman took both books while I ran the machine because smart guy needed breaks sometimes. All this though? Hardly any work really. At worst, I might have forgotten to number or initial something in the book so had to go through a bunch of slips of paper to find where it was.

Also provided was fresh and tasty bagels in the morning, with pizza at lunch time. I ate like a pig between that, granola bars I brought, and buying chik n fil-a on my lunch break. Despite the long hours, this job was incredibly easy. When things got boring, I'd play on my 3DS or chat with the team. Most the voters were pretty polite too, sans like 1-3 people that were either impatient or felt they were holier than thou. Also one guy who was running for mayor got all pissy when he visited and saw something that hardly mattered out of place. (Crooked sign, OH NOES!)

Easiest tax-free 200 bucks I ever made. Only problem is it won't get to me until a month later. Ah well.