I have to confess, the better my content gets, the less I like these personally-oriented updates. But it does bear noting that this remains, my damn blog, and these little things are going to keep happening, although hopefully sandwiched between increasing amounts of more-interesting stuff. Remember, these rants used to be the only thing I published (ugh, there's Livejournal for that! except I don't post enough goth lyrics to have a Livejournal) ...
Anyhow, the first thing I want to talk about is personal fitness. Some time ago (as of this writing it was many weeks ago, how time passes), I stopped drinking soda (again! some of you may know that I did not drink soda from about 2000 to 2003), began eating salad almost exclusively, and started daily workouts as well as herbal energy supplements (the dietary fallacy of which I am aware, but for now I think they're okay). The results, as one would expect with so sudden and radical a change, were immediate. I'm already 10 pounds lighter, and feeling a lot more energetic, and pulling off some of my life's greatest work during the week.
But it isn't like me to find a point and get comfortable with it ("Complacency is Failure!"), so I looked for ways to press forward. Luckily, there are some. The loft is busy being transformed into a home gym, complete with crowning glory, Precor EFX 544 elliptical cross-training machine being shipped all the way from a remanufacturer in Oklahoma. Also planned are punching bags and mats. Meanwhile yesterday, I took Grace to Target, and we grabbed two gloves and a ball, and played a spirited game of catch that the staff did not seem to take any notice of. We bought the gloves and ball, and since then, we've been absolutely unable to stop playing catch. Yesterday I even stopped working several times, to go out and play more catch. What is it about that simple damn game that's so much fun?
Anyway, my personal fitness regime is in full swing and will only intensify in the coming weeks. Its focus remains primarily cardio fitness, although I'm not going to rule out weight training just yet, but it's really too early to consider that. I have to be honest, I'm excited at the prospect of turning 30 in June of next year with straight teeth and a healthy body. Frankly it isn't going to take until June though. The most dramatic results will happen by Christmas. This is such a quick and easy thing if you just keep working at it.
I'm still doing other things you might expect from me, collecting Gamecube and DS games, learning to double-clutch and heel-toe-downshift the S2000, greatly broadening my musical horizons thanks to Usenet and Unison, seeing all the new movies on Netflix and In-Demand, and trying to figure out where I'm going to parasail next. This website, you may have noticed, benefitted greatly from a recent redesign and strategic re-assessment, the sort of re-assessment I'm struggling to apply to nearly everything these days.
I just don't know what to think of 2006. Is it the inbetween-year that I spent repaying debt from massive dentistry, the IRS, 3 cars, a new air conditioner, and other pitfalls? Not really, that part's almost finished. Is it the year my career made its greatest strides ever? I guess, it's easy to see it that way too. I want to see it as the year I tried harder, not out of greed or machismo, but simply out of curiosity.
-Chris