Category Archives: Kerfluffle
Ouch
I am sore. Hamstrings? Sore. Quads, calves? Yup. Pretty much everything on me is sore. I guess that’s what happens when you take three days off from exercise. Crazy.
Lady Aravan and I worked out Saturday (a double-shot of Jillian’s Biggest Winner Series – more on that later), then went to an event that ended with me drinking quite a bit (it’s fine, I logged my alcohol calories and took them into account, as did my fair Lady). So, when I awoke Sunday I was still a bit drunk and decided that exercise really wasn’t in the cards early, and then later we had friends visiting. Day off, no biggie. Then Monday came, and having a lazy day off was too nice, and exercise was pushed off until Tuesday, which of course was another lazy day off and I just said forget it. Wednesday, however, it was up at 4:30 and back at it. Read the rest of this entry
Man, He Works Fast
In one day, the cover art goes from black and white to this:
Daevan and Troius, in color
Am I pysched? Hell yeah.
Cover Art Coming Along Nicely
Christopher Stewart is doing an amazing job on my book’s updated cover, I have to say.
Coming along nicely, I'd say.
Draggin’ Ass
Still getting up at 4:30 am every morning to work out. Well, to be completely accurate, this week it’s been 4:40 am since Lady Aravan has been using the snooze button once every morning. She’s in charge of the alarm. At one time, it was my responsibility, but this last time that she said she wanted to get up in the mornings, I said, “Sure. But you have to deal with the alarm.”
I did that because Lady Aravan has two stages of waking up. The first is a half-conscious state, where she is aware that she is being awoken, but nothing else. Her vocabulary consists of, “Nooooo,” “I’m so comfy,” “but I’m warrrrrmm,” and little else. I found it very difficult to be in a groggy half-state of awareness myself and hear this without having to lay back down myself, because I too wanted to say no, be comfy, and remain warm. Her second state is the actual fully-aware state, in which she remembers nothing of her half-awake antics. Sometimes she would get mad at me for waking her up, but that was rare. Read the rest of this entry
Hi Again, Jillian!
When Lady Aravan and I started working out, we started with Jillian Michaels. She’d always been an inspiration to both of us, ever since we first saw the Biggest Loser, and we own all of her DVDs. We worked our way through the 30 Day Shred, then the Biggest Winner Series, and then Banish Fat & Boost Metabolism, No More Trouble Zones, and Yoga Meltdown (the only one of her DVDs that ever disappointed us, but maybe I’ll talk about that another time). We were alternating the last 3 as our workouts for a few weeks when we saw Bob Harper’s DVDs, which I’ve written about once or twice.
We loved Bob’s DVDs, and said that it was OK, we weren’t exactly “cheating” on Jillian since it was Bob, same show, you know. Then we did the workout plan, and loved it as well, and saw incredible gains across the board. Once we “completed” it, we wondered what to do. Keep going with Bob? Mix in other things? Go back to Jillian? Since Lady Aravan had tweaked her shoulder earlier and it was taking time to get better (especially since she never stopped pushing it, which is so like exactly what I do that I really couldn’t tell her not to, and it wouldn’t have mattered what I said anyway), we decided to do an all-cardio week. Yesterday we stuck with Bob. Today, we went back to Jillian after nearly three weeks.
New Cover Coming
In The Curse of Troius: A Zombie Fantasy Novel news, a new cover is in the works! I am very pleased to be working with Christopher Stewart (if “working with” means letting his talent do all the work) on the new and vastly more interesting and exciting cover. I can’t wait for it to be done, since the Black and Grey cover is a bit, uh, plain.
The Stranger and Troius battle as the horde looks on.
Some Quick Redskins Thoughts
Last year, September 28th to be precise, I predicted that JIm Zorn would be fired and replaced with Mike Shanahan. I was right, just like I was with Chris Samuels’ retirement. Neither pleased me overmuch, since it meant that the ‘Skins truly did have an awful year, and one of the offensive line stalwarts was gone for good. It kind’ve takes the wind out of the old sails.
So, we’ve had two meaningless preseason games so far, and thus it is time to reflect on what I see. I am glad we have Donovan McNabb. I think he does a lot of McNabb Things, like the grounder to the tight end, that I don’t like, but the clutch play on third down that has murdered the Redskins for years will be in our favor this time. He has a much better record in the Skins stadium than any QB we’ve actually employed, so I’d rather have him.
My Trainer Bob Workout, Day 2
The ongoing chronicle of my wife and I and our attempts to do Bob Harper’s Workout Plan from mytrainerbob.com.
It’s Day 2, and you know what that means, and it ain’t French Toast. Day 2 is strength day. Even at 4 stinkin’ 30 I’m apprehensive. My neck and upper back are sore, because I am stupid. Yesterday at lunch, I did my strength workout (back and biceps) and, straining to increase my reps, I tweaked a muscle in my upper back/neck, making it hard to turn my head. Lady Aravan makes me promise to be smart with it, so I need to keep a rein on my own stupidity. At 4 freaking 30 in the morning. Protein shake, feed dogs, water filled, skip heart rate monitor because I don’t want to be distracted, DVD in.
Bob ties his shoe. He looks at me, and I can see that he is determined. “Let’s do this,” he says, firmly but quietly. He walks onto the set, where Helen, Stephanie, and Francisco await him. He slaps their hand one by one. My wife and I aren’t terrorists, but we fist-bump anyway. Let’s do this.
Me, My Shovel, and My Trainer Bob: Attempting Bob’s Workout Plan
After reviewing Bob Harper’s new DVD collection, I found on his website (free to join) his 4-week exercise plan. Well, technically, my wife found it, and she talked me into trying it in that roundabout way she has (“I was thinking about trying this” – when Lady Aravan is thinking about something, that generally means it’s what she wants, but she doesn’t like asserting herself all the time). I agreed. After looking at it, we decided to start on Week 3, since we currently work out 6 days a week, and that mirrors the Week 3 plan. Full on vinegar and bravado, we decided that we’d start Tuesday – which is today.
This is the background paragraph: If you don’t care, click the Read More button and skip it, but I think it’s helpful info. My wife and I are not young 20-somethings, marathon runners, or fitness nuts (or, at least, we weren’t, but we seem to be becoming that). I’m 38, she’s 39. I smoked over a pack a day for 10 years or so, from 18 to 28, and still occasionally do when I’mma gettin’ ma drink on. I only run when my life is in peril, and since I live in the suburbs, my life hasn’t ever really been on the line. I started lifting weights regularly a couple of years ago, but hated cardio so much that I avoided it like brussels sprouts. In April of this year, Lady Aravan and I were at our heaviest weights ever and not happy. We decided to do something about it, since I came to the painful realization that the government is not currently working on a top-secret cyborg that my brain will be implanted into, thereby gaining me eternal life, so I’d have to increase my lifespan the hard way. We started with Jillian Michael’s 30-Day Shred, built some endurance, mixed in some of her The Biggest Winner exercise DVDs, and moved to her latest (Banish Fat and Boost Metabolism, No More Trouble Zones, and Yoga Something Or Other) DVD collection. Over the last 4 months, we’ve dropped weight, gained strength and endurance, and were ready for a new challenge. Bob Harper’s DVD set looked interesting, so we decided to give it a whirl. Enough background: this is the story of Day 1 of Bob’s workout plan.
Everquest Nostalgia
I got an email today from Sony about a new expansion for Everquest, the first MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game, which goes to show that the video game industry seriously need to work on their acronyms. Can’t they come up with something cool, like VIPRE or STELTH or something?) I had ever heard of. Way back in (I think) 1999, I read a magazine article about this game that was coming out, that allowed you to make your own character, choosing their race and their class and customizing your appearance, just old-school tabletop gaming allowed, but now in a world populated with other players all over the world. My mind was blown. I had to get this game.
Winter in Derenemyn 