Ok, so, over the past year and a half or so, I've put on a lot of weight after LOSING a lot of weight. I weighed around 240 lbs about 3 years ago. I went on a diet [and by diet I mean I drank lots of water and kinda sorta starved myself while occasionally going to the gym] and lost a lot of weight relatively quickly. Unfortunately, I went about it all wrong and have, from hitting my low weight, gained A LOT of it back. Not all of it, thankfully, but a good chunk of it. Anyway, so, starting this summer, I decided "fuck that noise, I need to lose weight!" So, I have been. I've been eating healthier and working out several times per week. I joined a gym in the Durham/Chapel Hill area, CrossFit Durham. It has its own little philosophy when it comes to working out [high intensity, high repetition, and highly varied or something like that]. It's really a great program and I love that everyone goes and does the same WOD [Work Out of the Day]. I've been doing that and also cardio and feel a lot better and have a lot of energy. I feel 'healthier' and have more energy now than I did when I was much thinner. Anyway, I bring this up because I'll be updating my blog with my progress towards a fitter and healthier me [sounds so lame, I know]. The reason I'll be putting this on the blog is that I could use the encouragement or, if I slip up, the criticism!
Also, as far as food is concerned, I'm going to be doing this diet called 'the Zone' diet. I've been reading the book and it seems to be a good balanced and healthy way to eat. Some friends at the gym also adhere to it so I've got a support group there. Anyway, so I'll be updating [as soon as I find a cheap digital camera] with pictures of what I'm cooking and making everyday.
It should be a really fun, difficult, and improving adventure in its own right. So, anyway, I'll keep you kids updated!!!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Ice Cream
So, I'm taking a hip hop production class this summer. It's actually a lot of fun and I've been exposed to some really cool music that I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise. Anyway, for this past friday we had to take a song, make a loop from a break in it and, if we could, write a short rhyme. It was only supposed to be a minute or so. The whole project was just a ton of fun. Listening to what little music i had available [since all my music is at my computer at my dad's house in Miami] which included some awful old mix CDs, passion pit, fleet foxes, beirut, at the drive in, and some other stuff. I ended up using a short snippet from a Passion Pit song, 'Sleepyhead,' and a tune from one of those old mix CDs. I can't remember the name of the track but it's the little song you hear when you hear an ice cream truck drive by. It was a lot of fun and I hope you guys enjoy it! If for some reason you can't open the tunez, then just email me and I'll mail it to you, it is hella fun times.
Ok, so I can't upload the song to my blog. Once I figure it out [or just make a you tube video for it] I'll put it up here.
Ok, so I can't upload the song to my blog. Once I figure it out [or just make a you tube video for it] I'll put it up here.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Asimov and Terminator: Salvation
I recently reread one of my favorite short stories; Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question." [ http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html ]
Please read it before reading this post. It is seriously awesome. Plus, this post may contain SPOILERS!
It is amazingly simple, and simply amazing. The short story is broken up into 7 parts. The story takes place over billions of years. From very near in the future when Man has discovered how to harness the power of the sun to the, for lack of a better term, "end" of the universe. The most satisfying thing about this story is how well written it is, not in the sense of Nabokov having endless numbers of levels of meaning in "Lolita" but in a much simpler almost plain way, Asimov's "Last Question" begs, fundamentally, "Can Entropy be reversed?" Of course, all logic, science and reason would point to "No, dumbass, it can't be!" The characters, ranging from two drunken scientists in the mid-21st century to a collective conscience of 'Man' [an actual disembodied conscience that is eternal, as humanity has since discovered 'immortality'], are all simple, in their own way, and so human. They each have an uncertainty that can only be felt when questioning the unknowable. A sort of nervousness that you get right before a great discovery, an unnerving feeling mixed with a raucous inner joy. The first aforementioned drunken scientists debate after one of them claims that, after their awesome discovery, that energy will be infinite and humanity will be able to go on "forever." The other says that it CANNOT last forever since entropy will take its toll and the stars, planets, and humanity will run down into the unforeseeable, inevitable and dreadful horizon. They debate and ask of their grand computer [MultiVac, which is a supercomputer capable of building its own replacement, anyone who has read the Hitchhiker's Guide books might recognize this when the computer builds Earth] whether entropy can be reversed. The answer, it spouts out among beeps and boops and flashing lights is, chillingly, "Insufficient Data for Meaningful Answer." The scientists, drunk and bored now, just leave. The story continues in much the same way while different eras in humanity's evolution ask of the evolving MultiVac whether entropy can be reversed. Always the same answer is ominously given. Why doesn't it just say no? Well, because of the 7th and last part of the story. Honestly, the part that ultimately ties the story together and one of the more satisfying endings to a short story I've read. You should definitely read it. It's a great story that really makes you question what we call 'God' and I really like the way that humanity is able to overcome and conquer all possible frontiers.
Now, onto another bit of sci-fi-ness. Terminator: Salvation. I went to see that movie this past weekend. It was... disappointing. Especially after watching the first and second Terminators after not having seen them for years. What was kind of funny about the movie was how they threw in little throwbacks to the old movies. Like Kyle Reese with his little string around the shotgun trick. Overall, I thought the movie was choppy, cheesy, and just not that great. The last 30 or so minutes, though, were pretty amazing. The fight between the terminators and John Connor are lots of fun.
That whole scene where Kyle Reese, that little kid, and the Terminator/Human hybrid thing are running away from LA is a little ridiculous. It just felt like the writers were saying "let's just make this a worse and worse situation." "oh, no, a giant, apparently super silent, three story robot trailed by a hovering fighter jet has just showed up outside this gas station." And proceeds to some more gratuitous explosions, to some motorcycle terminators, to more jets, to more three story terminators, etc. RETARDED.
After watching the first two, I remembered what I loved about them. Just how absolutely badass they were. Taking a killing robot from the future with little to no knowledge of human emotions and throwing him like 60 or 70 years in the past is just great. Arnold Schwarzeneggar MADE the first two movies. Even as a bad guy, his ten lines [including: "Fuck you, asshole" "12 gauge shotgun and a Plasma Rifle" and "WRONG"] were all amazing. Arnold talks a lot more in the second one but he has the same robotic dead response to everything. Arnold really was the perfect guy for that role.
What really bothered me about the last two movies, both of which had a few gems of cool in them, was the fact that you didn't have that. Sure, in Terminator 3 Arnold is still Arnold BUT he has lines like "talk to the hand", which is funny, in a gut wrenching way. Also, both Terminator 3 and 4 had absolutely way too much melodrama. Seriously, guys, what the hell?! The third one was that John Connor imposter basically whining the whole movie. The girl who plays his future wife, whatsherface, isn't too bad. At least she's pretty and relatively believable. Overall, though, you have this super terminator [terminatrix? just cause she looks like a chick who, for some reason, after her exo-skelewhatever is gone screams like a banshee], Arnold with awful lines, and a John Connor with mommy issues. How I can sit through that movie without destroying my fondest childhood movies, I cannot ever know. Part 4 was a lot like that, except worst. So.freaking.melo.dramatic. Goddamn, I thought while watching it, this is just bad. The writing was bad, the jumping from plot to plot to plot was choppy and contrived, and even the action, no matter how big the explosions, was just 'bleh.' The last half hour made me go from "this movie totally blows and I should write something on my blog" to "this movie MOSTLY blew and I should write about it on my blog."
I really think there things in there for a good ol' terminator fan but, overall, it's not worth the $10 ticket.
Please read it before reading this post. It is seriously awesome. Plus, this post may contain SPOILERS!
It is amazingly simple, and simply amazing. The short story is broken up into 7 parts. The story takes place over billions of years. From very near in the future when Man has discovered how to harness the power of the sun to the, for lack of a better term, "end" of the universe. The most satisfying thing about this story is how well written it is, not in the sense of Nabokov having endless numbers of levels of meaning in "Lolita" but in a much simpler almost plain way, Asimov's "Last Question" begs, fundamentally, "Can Entropy be reversed?" Of course, all logic, science and reason would point to "No, dumbass, it can't be!" The characters, ranging from two drunken scientists in the mid-21st century to a collective conscience of 'Man' [an actual disembodied conscience that is eternal, as humanity has since discovered 'immortality'], are all simple, in their own way, and so human. They each have an uncertainty that can only be felt when questioning the unknowable. A sort of nervousness that you get right before a great discovery, an unnerving feeling mixed with a raucous inner joy. The first aforementioned drunken scientists debate after one of them claims that, after their awesome discovery, that energy will be infinite and humanity will be able to go on "forever." The other says that it CANNOT last forever since entropy will take its toll and the stars, planets, and humanity will run down into the unforeseeable, inevitable and dreadful horizon. They debate and ask of their grand computer [MultiVac, which is a supercomputer capable of building its own replacement, anyone who has read the Hitchhiker's Guide books might recognize this when the computer builds Earth] whether entropy can be reversed. The answer, it spouts out among beeps and boops and flashing lights is, chillingly, "Insufficient Data for Meaningful Answer." The scientists, drunk and bored now, just leave. The story continues in much the same way while different eras in humanity's evolution ask of the evolving MultiVac whether entropy can be reversed. Always the same answer is ominously given. Why doesn't it just say no? Well, because of the 7th and last part of the story. Honestly, the part that ultimately ties the story together and one of the more satisfying endings to a short story I've read. You should definitely read it. It's a great story that really makes you question what we call 'God' and I really like the way that humanity is able to overcome and conquer all possible frontiers.
Now, onto another bit of sci-fi-ness. Terminator: Salvation. I went to see that movie this past weekend. It was... disappointing. Especially after watching the first and second Terminators after not having seen them for years. What was kind of funny about the movie was how they threw in little throwbacks to the old movies. Like Kyle Reese with his little string around the shotgun trick. Overall, I thought the movie was choppy, cheesy, and just not that great. The last 30 or so minutes, though, were pretty amazing. The fight between the terminators and John Connor are lots of fun.
That whole scene where Kyle Reese, that little kid, and the Terminator/Human hybrid thing are running away from LA is a little ridiculous. It just felt like the writers were saying "let's just make this a worse and worse situation." "oh, no, a giant, apparently super silent, three story robot trailed by a hovering fighter jet has just showed up outside this gas station." And proceeds to some more gratuitous explosions, to some motorcycle terminators, to more jets, to more three story terminators, etc. RETARDED.
After watching the first two, I remembered what I loved about them. Just how absolutely badass they were. Taking a killing robot from the future with little to no knowledge of human emotions and throwing him like 60 or 70 years in the past is just great. Arnold Schwarzeneggar MADE the first two movies. Even as a bad guy, his ten lines [including: "Fuck you, asshole" "12 gauge shotgun and a Plasma Rifle" and "WRONG"] were all amazing. Arnold talks a lot more in the second one but he has the same robotic dead response to everything. Arnold really was the perfect guy for that role.
What really bothered me about the last two movies, both of which had a few gems of cool in them, was the fact that you didn't have that. Sure, in Terminator 3 Arnold is still Arnold BUT he has lines like "talk to the hand", which is funny, in a gut wrenching way. Also, both Terminator 3 and 4 had absolutely way too much melodrama. Seriously, guys, what the hell?! The third one was that John Connor imposter basically whining the whole movie. The girl who plays his future wife, whatsherface, isn't too bad. At least she's pretty and relatively believable. Overall, though, you have this super terminator [terminatrix? just cause she looks like a chick who, for some reason, after her exo-skelewhatever is gone screams like a banshee], Arnold with awful lines, and a John Connor with mommy issues. How I can sit through that movie without destroying my fondest childhood movies, I cannot ever know. Part 4 was a lot like that, except worst. So.freaking.melo.dramatic. Goddamn, I thought while watching it, this is just bad. The writing was bad, the jumping from plot to plot to plot was choppy and contrived, and even the action, no matter how big the explosions, was just 'bleh.' The last half hour made me go from "this movie totally blows and I should write something on my blog" to "this movie MOSTLY blew and I should write about it on my blog."
I really think there things in there for a good ol' terminator fan but, overall, it's not worth the $10 ticket.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Championship Monday
So, the Tar Heels are playing the Michigan State Spartans tonight in Detroit's Ford Field. I can't imagine the excitement [and general disdain] against Carolina in Detroit tonight BUT I can comment on the general feeling here at UNC. Right now it's raining and the weather is miserable. That isn't really putting a damper on my fellow tar heels and I, though, given that everyone is excited and in a frenzy over the game tonight. After fumbling and losing in last year's Final Four we are coming back to win this game in A BIG WAY! So, hopefully, as all of Chapel Hill is nice and sauced on whiskey, screwdrivers, beer, and Jagermeister we'll be able to victoriously shout "N.C.U."!
So, I didn't post this when I first wrote it and am now coming back to it the day after our awesome victory over Michigan State. Last night was incredible. After an exciting game in which we just mopped the floor with Michigan State, any Heel able to rushed Franklin Street like it was nobody's business. The general feeling was euphoric and, even compared to beating DooK, it was INSANE! I was able to help start a fire along with another few guys; threw in my undershirt and socks. Thought about just throwing everything in and running around naked but that'd probably have gotten me arrested. I was walking around [or, really, shoving my way along against the enormous crowd] with Mr. Kyle Brown. We saw a lot of fun, fucked up, and just downright great things. Some girls confused Franklin Street with Bourbon St in New Orleans and thought flashing everyone would be a good idea. It was... charming? Some kids were able to climb onto the street signs for Franklin St and Columbia, and just about ruined them and the Walk/Do Not Walk sign. It was great. Someone was trying to bring down a leafless tree on the sidewalk to throw it into the conflagration that was the mass of t-shirts and sweaters on fire. It was quite the sight to see. Overall, it was a great night. Hell, a fucking FANTASTIC one.
I didn't post this after originally writing it for some stupid reason. Honestly, though, re-reading it, I didn't express the excitement I was feeling then and, reliving it, now. Hopefully for those of you non-Tar Heels reading this, you can be confident that it was a major highlight of my collegiate experience. So, fuck yea!
So, I didn't post this when I first wrote it and am now coming back to it the day after our awesome victory over Michigan State. Last night was incredible. After an exciting game in which we just mopped the floor with Michigan State, any Heel able to rushed Franklin Street like it was nobody's business. The general feeling was euphoric and, even compared to beating DooK, it was INSANE! I was able to help start a fire along with another few guys; threw in my undershirt and socks. Thought about just throwing everything in and running around naked but that'd probably have gotten me arrested. I was walking around [or, really, shoving my way along against the enormous crowd] with Mr. Kyle Brown. We saw a lot of fun, fucked up, and just downright great things. Some girls confused Franklin Street with Bourbon St in New Orleans and thought flashing everyone would be a good idea. It was... charming? Some kids were able to climb onto the street signs for Franklin St and Columbia, and just about ruined them and the Walk/Do Not Walk sign. It was great. Someone was trying to bring down a leafless tree on the sidewalk to throw it into the conflagration that was the mass of t-shirts and sweaters on fire. It was quite the sight to see. Overall, it was a great night. Hell, a fucking FANTASTIC one.
I didn't post this after originally writing it for some stupid reason. Honestly, though, re-reading it, I didn't express the excitement I was feeling then and, reliving it, now. Hopefully for those of you non-Tar Heels reading this, you can be confident that it was a major highlight of my collegiate experience. So, fuck yea!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
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