aen's LiveJournal

New Development Blog

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:41:26 GMT

http://choosetheforce.blogspot.com/

Re: Awesome

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:53:32 GMT

Wow, I totally let all my various online accounts wither away! Having way too much fun working for IMVU.

The New Job

I've literally spent time every single day at the office during the four or five months since my employment. Most of them well past midnight and even 4am. Even when I was delirious with sickness I managed to take a 30min bus into work in the wee hours of the morning, though it wasn't long before it dawned on me that this was not a Good Idea, and I made a hasty retreat about an hour later. What's great is this job is so awesome that I am drawn to the office even when I feel like utter crap.

Of course that could be because my home machine is still here and because I still am living in a hotel. :-)

The New House

Not for long! This weekend I'll finally be moving into a new place, at a considerably lower rent. Win! One of my coworkers recently lost a roommate and was gracious enough to offer me the spot. Very nice. It just goes to show you that procrastinators ultimately win if they procrastinate long enough. Yes, that must be the moral...

P.S. Sorry for not doing the whole change-of-address thing yet Brian! Procrastination wins in some cases, loses in others. At least now I'll know what the heck to change my address to.

The New Blog

I've got a new blog in the works. I've been queuing up some topics/content in the fine tradition of Raymond Chen, one of my heroes. Even if he is under suspicion of being a bot! :-) I won't pretend to understand half his posts, but he speaks intelligently and at length about many topics on a consistent basis. Plus he always has an interesting story or two thrown into the mix. It's pretty damn impressive!

I have quite a lot of thing to blog about, but I'm realizing that you really have to schedule your time well if you want to blog consistently. I'm not sure I've got the hang of it yet, but I'm working on it!

The New Skills

You can expect most of my blogging to focus heavily on test-driven development for a while. I'd always had interest in writing tests after learning about Extreme Programming and reading various literature, but I could never quite get "all the way in." Coming to IMVU has been eye-opening and life-altering, and I have experienced the benefits of automated testing over and over again. I've also experienced the pain of not writing automated tests while spinning up as an engineer here.

To keep my testing skills sharp, I've started putting a certain old project under test coverage. I've been working on it fairly regularly, and I'm finding that it's far more enjoyable than I might have guessed. More on this in my new blog.

Don't fret, it won't be long now!

Destination: California

Sun, 06 May 2007 04:42:10 GMT

At the prompting of a friend, I recently interviewed in Palo Alto, California for a job as a software engineer. After many exhausting hours of interrogation by many people, I'm proud to say I was offered a position. I am also happy to report that I accepted!

OMGWTFBBQ!
I Can Has Employment++

There were a large number of unknowns for me, flying out to a place I'd never been before to interview with a company I'd never heard of (but which seemed very interesting) and to meet people I had known only digitally for the better part of the last 12 years. I wasn't sure what to expect.

Let me just say that I was consistently blown away by how intelligent, friendly, and interesting everyone was that I met during my visit. I am utterly dumbfounded by how well things went.

It may be that I'm a little more happy-go-lucky than your average person, but it feels like I attract quite a lot of wonderful people and opportunities in my life. I love it, and continue to be thankful for it!

Coming Soon
To A California Near You: Me

I'll be moving out to California toward the end of this month. But don't cry, my beloved hetero life mates (read: Paul), I will be visiting soon. In fact, I'll be in town again sooner than you might expect...

There And Back Again

My ex-girlfriend from New York, Alewen, will be in Minnesota during the month of June. She'll be working at the same place I first met her, a great sushi and hibachi restaurant called Wasabi. Or, as my coworkers have come to refer to it, the scene of the crime.

Wasabi is home to many fond memories for me. Three key F words come to mind: ...Food, Friends, and Fallin'-in-love! And all three had me grinning from ear to ear on a daily basis. Alewen had a huge impact on my life, and so I'll be making it a point to fly back out to see her.

Good Vibrations

That's the latest and greatest from Camp Chizzle. Life is treating me well. I am in good health (srsly, I've got platelets and everything) and [have drank] good [God knows how many] spirits. I'm excited for what lies ahead and ready to soak up some California sun.

As a wise man once said: Awww yeahhh.

<| |3

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:37:25 GMT

Part two!

I really wanted things to work out here with Alewen, and fully intended to move to New York, but it turns out in the end we were better off as friends. I won't bore everyone with the details, but ultimately we were too far apart, both in common interests and social maturity. My end of the stick being the shorter of the two!

I'm rather surprised by how well we've both taken it, after I caught up with the realization she had already come to. I'm sure it hasn't truly hit me yet. I'm betting I'll have a nice little cry at some point after my return trip on Saturday. But that's to be expected. And healthy, I think. Especially since I'm a mama's boy and easily attached. Particularly to fun and sexy little Chinese women! ;-)

So! I'll be hanging with three Chinese friends who happen to be girls, for the rest of the week! I've really learned a lot here and am so glad that I took the chance and gave it a whirl. My cooking skills have leveled up a little, as well as my fashion sense and personal hygiene. Who can argue with results? I've become quite fond of Mandarin as well, which I will continue to learn!

If you're dying to be bored with the details, drop by irc.lunarnet.org in #sancho some time, and I'll be happy to tell you a tale of two lovers whose destiny lay not in love, but in friendship. This is the part where you politely refrain from regurgitating your last meal in the face of so much unadulterated sappiness. ^_^

<3

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:40:41 GMT

For those of you who haven't heard, I've recently fallen in love with a cute little Chinese girl who was visiting family here and working as a waitress at their sushi bar (Wasabi) two blocks from my office.

Long story, or perhaps short story, short, she is now my girlfriend and I have a one-way ticket to NYC departing early tomorrow morning, which is where she is currently attending college.

I've only known her for a couple weeks, but my decision to go to NYC was an easy one. I wish I could accurately describe to you the way she makes me feel. I gotta tell ya, I am absolutely and utterly in love. I have no doubts and no worries. I want to be where she is.

Needless to say, my boss is somewhat concerned on a personal level for me. And there will be some wrinkles with the work situation. But I have worked long distance for three years before, and I am in a very unique position to be able to make this decision. I have a lot of good friends here, and though my boss is concerned, he does trust that I will continue to do a good job.

Without trying to sound too full of myself, I am well-liked by everyone at my job, including my boss, and the feelings are mutual. So, because my boss would rather I continue to work than not at all, I will continue working for him full-time from NYC.

This initial trip to NYC will last two or three weeks. I want a chance to be around this girl and actually have a relationship for a while. Depending on how things go, at the end of the two or three weeks, I will either come back to resume what I've been doing OR, if things go as well as I hope them to, to pack up all my stuff and fully relocate to NYC.

And that's about the shape of things! This week has involved a lot of drinking with buddies who wish me well and want to say goodbye. I am fairly certain I will not escape this particular day sober -- my last day in the Twin Cities for a while.

Her name is Tong Chen, but she goes by Alawen (Al-Uh-When). She's the one in red below. Wish me luck!

Exercise!

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 04:22:17 GMT

It's the good goodness that goodifies your goods.

Beerstravaganza Deluxe

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 18:15:07 GMT

The New Year: Bring It
Two parties, one cup of coffee, one shot, eleven beers, three cups of champagne, and an unknown number of bong hits later, I arrive home at 6:30am. My two primary objectives were executed in grand form: staying up and standing up (without needing to hold onto something.) I'm impressed with the latter.

ORLY
YARLY. I had intended to pace myself, but not too long after I arrived at the first party I had already downed four beers in the time it took the hostess to drink one. How much time had elapsed... 15 minutes? 30 tops. It was a sign of things to come.

The last time I was out past midnight I was nearly asleep in a barstool by the time 1am rolled around. I hadn't had nearly as many beers, either. But! I had not eaten much that day. Or had any caffeine. I came pretty close to ralphing my guts out during the ferry home.

By contrast, last night was a championship run for me. At no point was I drunk enough to feel like dinner would make a cameo appearance, nor was I ever tired enough that my eyelids were ready to close without my permission.

The Scientific Method
My findings indicate that no coffee for a month, then a cup before a night of partying will keep you awake well into the morning of the following day. Also that a plate of sushi can absorb a lot of alcohol. I was out with a good friend to Nami for the sushi, as well as a shot of Jameson (mmm, wood polish) to start the night off.

Granted, it's only four and a half hours later, but all signs point to another anti-hangover triumph. I just don't get hungover. Good health has a lot of benefits, but being able to drink like a hella damn fool every once in a while with relative impunity is pretty nice.

Rooby Rooby Roo?
Re: bong hits, I can add the hitting of said bong to my list of life experiences. I needed some schooling on the instrumentation, but I got the hang of it pretty quick. There's no way I wasn't high after at least eight or more hits, but all the alcohol kept me from noticing much. Musta been supermellow. There are now three scratch marks in my mental pot-smoking bedpost.

Jennitruckafer: Straight Outta Iowa
Party numero uno was easily the most fun for me, since I got to hang with my all-time favorite person ever, as well as meet several of her close high school friends. We played drinking card games and what I can only describe as sexual pictionary.

If beer drinking isn't already incentive enough to utter profane things loudly, sexual pictionary is the catalyst you've dreamed of. I also remember Ace of Bass and the Saved By The Bell soundtrack. Which were played. A lot.

Dre: Straight Dope
Behind door number two was a party which was fun for other reasons. I got to hang with a cool coworker and meet a bunch of her roommates and friends. Dozens of people whose names I'm sure I was told numerous times, but which I will never ever remember.

I remember roommate Quang, whom I had met previously, and Mary, who is the only person whose face I can match up with a name, thinking back on the night. Stacey Q and Tool are the only bits of music I remember with any clarity. This is before my hearing truly broke down into a sea of random noise with the occassional bark and yip from whositz and whatstheirface.

The New Year: Brought
Now as long as my throat isn't effed for the next three weeks (see: first pot-smoking experience, a year or more ago), I'll have considered this night a success in all possible ways.

I won't be partying this hard again for a while, but with awesome nights like these, who needs to?

Year's End Cleaning

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 18:49:52 GMT

My room has become incredibly cluttered and dusty over the past year. I'm pretty sure I haven't given it a serious cleaning in about that long. Today I spent some time rooting through all the junk and disposing of as much of it as possible. I think I've thrown away about half my room so far. And there's plenty more where that came from!

I found a bunch of junk that I forgot I owned, such as an old webcam, a camera, a fancy watch, and other misc. items. At first I was overjoyed, but then I realized I didn't really want to own any of that crap, and so I trashed it all.

I have so many useless gizmos and doodads hanging around, most of which have varying levels of sentimental value. But I still trashed most of them. I think I'm going to embark upon a quest of minimalism this New Year. I will trash as much of this old junk as possible, keeping only a handful of truly unique items with which to decorate my small sliver of bedroom.

I own several large items which I will soon be ridding myself of, such as two large CRT monitors, a couple large bricks to help elevate my tiny space heater, and a pretty large desk.

The desk, while large and awesome for multiple monitors, is ultimately just another place to cram a lot of junk. Like some 60 DVDs or so that I never watch. I think I'll ditch those too. I've replaced one CRT with an LCD, which is most excellent! I simply need a replacement for its partner in crime, and then both of the clunky bastards will sleep with the fishes.

Digging through these piles and piles of clutter, I've also realized I need to purchase a few things. A much larger receptacle for loose change would be a good start. I currently have two mugs which serve this purpose. One nondescript black glass mug for pennies, and another cool looking skull mug for all me silver.

The black mug is damn near full. Maybe I'll stop collecting pennies anyway. They should be abolished from our system of currency, I say! Let's stick to silver. Or switch to gold dubloons!

I have about six or seven keys that could use a key chain. Some sort of folder-like apparatus for my paycheck stubs and other misc. documents would be nice. Various items I own require batteries, but I think batteries should be abolished as well! I'll probably trash as many of those items as possible in favor of something without batteries or... not relying on said items in my life.

Also, good lord is this room dusty! A dusting device may be in order. I will favor some sort of air-blowing machinery over a handle and feathers. Because I am a man. I clean with high power tools and I cook with gas!

Photo Shoot

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 21:51:11 GMT

Almost forgot my LiveJournal existed! I just got back from a little holiday trip to my folks' place out in Hot Springs, Arkansas. While I was there, my sister did a photo shoot of me for her portfolio.

Some say I look like a tool, others say I could be in a boy band. But all agree I am 100% awesome.

New Pics

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 03:11:44 GMT

So I discovered the secret of webcams, and it is: light. So, if you wanna know what I look like, here's some mug shots! Many degrees of awesomeness are covered. And of course ma will love'em!

Yeah, Baby.	Blue Steele

Dr. Evil	Drunk

Grin	Smile

Hmm...	Mmhmm, girlfriend.

Yes!	Har!

Wolverine Jowels	Smash!

Who Da Man?	You Da Man.

Hey, I don't wanna sound like a queer or nothin', but I think unicorns are kick ass!

The New Era of Chuckness

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 13:03:36 GMT

I was up at abot 6:30am today, and when cheerfulchaotic commented on the earliness of my rising, I lustily blurted "It is the new era of Chuckness!" ...Which he thought sounded a bit creepy. Maybe it sounded too much like the new era of Chucky! Or something.

However, I an unperturbed in my determination to become one with awesomeness! I am going to be redoubling my efforts at the workplace! And dazzling all with my amazing coding prowess and mastery of the intarweb! I've decided I want to make more money, and I think my skillset could use a lot of improvements toward that end.

So! I'm gonna be putting the pedal to the medal, starting now! My focus will be great! My abilities will swell and increase exponentially! My physique will glisten with manly exertion! And then I'll do the super deluxe combo finishing move on your website!

The exclamation points are already flocking to my banner!

It is time to DOMINAAAAAATE!!!

Pestilence II

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 02:57:29 GMT

Like ludomancer, I seem to have contracted the plague as well.

Luckily, I have yet to experience any nausea, but the fever and vivid dreaming are there.

Instead of icing my forehead, I've been guzzling cool filtered water by the bottleful. It seems to help soothe my throat, which isn't particularly sore, but is most decidedly full of phlegm. Expelling it from my system is a tricky event, and failure to breathe just right while coaxing it out does indeed yield a sternum-shattering cough.

I don't suffer from dizziness while standing, but I have definitely had pressure and throbbing in my head. Not the painful sort, fortunately. I'm just one groggy fellow.

On the bright side my voice was about three octaves lower for most of the day, and I was able to take pride in manly communications with everyone at work, up until lunchtime when I realized that to work today was folly!

So, I headed home. I'm trying to take it easy, get some rest, drink plenty of water, and get better.

There is a lot of stuff I wish I could be working on right now, such as my development blog, or even some work-related tasks this has put me behind on, but it's difficult to think straight in this haze of throbbing warmth!

Here's to good health -- may my recovery be a swift one!

VERGECon-clusion

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 15:42:05 GMT

Well! She's over. And I have to say I had a lot of fun, even if I generally look subdued inbetween outbursts. In memory of this great event, I have updated my userpic with a snapshot taken from my webcam in Grue's house from my laptop, circa Feb 4th at about 4pm. Completely blank slate. Enjoy.

Here are the highlights!

Grue (Ben) - Much like I remember him. Still obsessed with your mom. But it's so infectious you become obsessed with your mom too. He wields a dark power, indeed. Benjamin McGraw! We guffawed, we haw-hawed, we said things like "Blah!", stuffed food in our craw, dissed your ma, saw puppies and went "Aww.", drank booze til we snoozed and watched The Wrath of Khan!

zeromus (Matt) - Also much like I remember him. His anger flows freely through the universe. But it can be stayed in moments of the purest zen, such as when drinking Diet Coke. And if the cosmos is in proper alignment, you might even be able to get him to eat at an Indian restaurant. Make sure you bring along Troupe though. He has done extensive research and field testing concerning the needs and desires of the zeromus. Your expedition may be doomed to failure without his vital expertise.

Zaratustra (Unspellable & Unpronounceable) - He comes from Brazil! He speaks with an accent! He gave me chocolate as a parting gesture. I'm nibbling on a piece of it right now, and it's nutty chocolatiness is superb! Perhaps the gift of chocolate is a Brazilian custom, where the level of deliciousness indicates to me whether or not future foreign relations are acceptable. Therefore, I am confident I have met with his approval, and that he will inform the Brazilian authorities to spare my life should I enter his country in the future.

Fun fact: It was discovered that if he ends all remarks with "Ya." he could pass for a German. Should we ever need to infiltrate Germany, Zaratustra will be our vangaurd's lead operative. "There is nice weather here. Ya." "Comrade!!!" "...BRAZILIAN-CHOP!!!" *AUUUUUGHHHHH*

Basil (Craig) - He comes from New Zealand! He speaks with an accent! He... didn't give me chocolate. I'll not hold it against him. He's 2 meters and at least 12 stones! Well, he's a tall man, certainly. And he was always game for our drunken adventures. Incredibly affable, and a lover of science. Such as the science of BBQ and our myriad Yankish ways. I look forwarded to dropping in on him when my world travels are at hand!

RageCage (Tristan) - Grue stepped on his head while negotiating the darkness of his apartment after one of our drunken adventures. I'm sorry, but that's what I remember most! Clean cut fellow. Unfortunately unable to join us in our drunken adventures due to the age difference. But that is sure to change in impending cons! And then his true form will be revealed. What energies lay dormant and waiting for amplification? The loudness of Grue? The hatred of tatsumi? The surliness of Toen? The awesomeness of me?

troupe (...Troupe. Seriously.) - The 6 foot rail, with a voice deep enough to rival lore's. Funny as hell in the watch-me-make-fun-of-you-without-trying-because-you're-pretty-much-a-dumbass kind of way. As previously stated, carries expertise in the field of zeromic nutrition. Laid back. Entertaining to hang out with.

Hahn (Brian) - I live with him, so no big surprises here. Though we all empathized with the misery he was made to endure Sunday night. His Gibson was haxxed by a virus of unknown origins. He had to wipe his hard drive and reinstall his operating system. So that his system would, you know. Operate. In case my nerdiness isn't getting through, this was all a metaphor for him being sick.

H.E.B. - A grocery store that wouldn't sell Grue my beer because his passport was unacceptable identification. As Grue was quick to point out, your passport gets you your gorram ID. Wankers. We drove to another H.E.B. for spite and got some other, if less delicious, beer.

Plucker's - Some college food joint that specializes in wings. I ordered a salad with whatever their version of Italian dressing was. It was spicy as hell! But good.

Beer! - I tried a few new things. I like Guinness, but it's kind of bitter. Grue recommended an oatmeal stout, which I found almost perfect! Not the ultimate perfection, but very close! If I can find something just a little bit sweeter I think I'll have found what I've been looking for. I tried some Bailey's. That was pretty good in milk. I definitely do not like the taste of alcohol in general, so I prefer the chocolatey-flavored stuff, or stuff that's sweet and fruity. I also had, I think, my first Long Island Iced Tea. Actually, it might've been my second. I can still taste the alcohol in it, though I find it imminently more drinkable than most of the other "tough stuff" I've had. I also tried some wine coolers when I got back home. Pretty tasty, but not enough drunk power. The quest continues!

I think that's most of it! I'll add anything else that I remember as it comes to me.

VERGE Connections

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 04:24:23 GMT

It is time yet again for the conning of VERGE people into one centralized location! That being Austin, Texas. Zara, Grue, Hahn, zero, lore, troupe, Rage Cage, and myself are attending at the least. I think that breaks the former record of 7 VERGE people at once!

For me, the main attraction for this particular gathering is meeting Zara, our Brazilian friend of frenzied game-making fame. I've met most of those other bozos already! Excepting troupe and Rage Cage. That will also be a highliight.

Unfortunately vec will not be attending, nor will Lina! But sometimes sacrifices have to be made. We'll probably have another gathering within 6 months or so anyway, and chances are good that both vec and Lina will be in attendance!

It's fun to get together with the VERGE crew, and I haven't regretted a single event yet, so I'm really looking forward to this one. Especially since I've decided to loosen up a little and do me some boozing!

The key appears to be not eating for most of the day. One beer does me up real pretty-like under those circumstances. It's a lot easier to get the feel-good flowing than it was when my body was even more out of whack than it is now and I was 60 pounds heavier.

It is a time of great rejoicing!

I Am Down With The Sickness!

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 02:49:22 GMT

So I came in for a checkup the other day because I had blood in my urine. It didn't happen out of the blue, but nonetheless it happened. When my tests came back, my platelets were at 0, basically.

It's not 10% certain whether or not my platelets had been down around 0 for quite some time leading up to now, or if the large amount of blood loss is to blame (been bleeding since the Wednesday before last.)

At any rate, when I was admitted my hemoglobin (?) count was down around 7, when normal as 14. I would get dizzy when standing, etc. I had a fevor of 102 when I was admitted, but that broke last night and I've been standing and everything without any troubles.

Actually, I am coming to you live from within the bowels of this hospital, near some emergency exit on the main floor. They said there was wireless down here somewhere, I just had to hunt all over for it! I'm sure I cut a fairly amusing figure, roaming the hallways in my hospital gown with laptop in tow. By the way, laptops rock! I'm glad my friends at work were cool with bringing it to me.

So! Long story short, I'm feeling good right now, and am fairly certain I'll be getting out of here within a few days. It would certainly suck if not, since I have a company trip planned to Chicago on Thursday! I'm pretty stoked to go. They've got me on sterroids right now though, and those have had reliably positive short-term effects every time I have taken them in the past. I guess I'll just see how things go!

I was intending on updating my development blog sooner than now, but I had a lot of pain during the initial bleeding which wore off after about 4 or 5 days. Still have bloody urine and all that, but it's not a kidney stone or anything crazy like that. I likely tore or ruptured my urethra, and since my platelets are so low, it's just not healing up too fast.

They gave me some platelets, some red blood cells, and sterroids again. I've already had one of all of the above. My platelets are up to 6,000 now. They're gonna give me some more tonight I guess.

Anywho, this is sort of old hat to me now. And while I realize this isn't a trivial condition, I'm not depressed, or stressed out or anything. I've been dealing with this for a while, and it seems I just have to watch my physical exertion a lot more closely. During the past 6 months and the losing of 60 lbs, I've been feeling great with very little symptoms, so I'm onto something. I just need to more proactively seek out potential cures.

That's all news that is news with me right now! My development blog may get the cold shoulder until after this upcoming VERGE Con, during Feb 3rd through the 6th, but I haven't neglected it purposefully! A lot of different things have been getting in the way, like Christmas vacation and this whole recent situation.

I'll be back again soon I'm sure. I've got awesome support from my family and friends. If nothing else, maybe I'll laugh myself to wellness. I do more than my fair share every day!

My Life

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 02:39:04 GMT

I think I need a woman!

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.8
Mind:	7.6
Body:	8.6
Spirit:	6.7
Friends/Family:	5.9
Love:	2.9
Finance:	8.4
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Development Blog

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 05:28:51 GMT

I've got a new development blog up at www.choosetheforce.com. This will probably receive a lot more frequent updates than my LiveJournal, and will be focused entirely on my programming projects.

Update

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 17:21:29 GMT

So I'm down to 180lbs now. 175lbs was my original goal, which I touched briefly a couple weeks ago after a 2 day fast of water only (I had no hunger pangs, surprisingly.) I realized that I've still got a nice bit of padding around my waist, so I'm gonna shoot for 160lbs.

According to most ideal weight calculations, given my height (5'11",) anywhere in the range of 135-172lbs is ideal, with the average being about 155-160lbs. Whichever end of the spectrum, for the first time in a good 5 years I'm fast approaching a healthy weight!

In other news, you'll notice all of my image and file links are currently broken. This is due to verge-rpg.com's relocation to a new server. I've backed up my webspace locally, so I'll get around to upping all my various code knick-knacks and images once I decide where to set up a new account.

Once I've got a new account set up, I'll probably be saying goodbye to this LiveJournal account in favor of my own website, which is in the works. When I have frequent updates, they're usually code-related, so I think sourceforge.net or a similar forum will be better suited to that.

I'm working on a few programming projects which, if you've not yet caught wind of, are GCS-related. I am getting fairly close to an initial alpha release within the next couple weeks for one of them, so I don't mind announcing that this project is a map editor for VERGE 3, written in Java.

More to follow...

Nooo, Gawwwd! Make The Bad Man Stawwwp!!!

Sat, 11 Jun 2005 02:03:41 GMT

No, I haven't decided to start using my LJ as a personals ad.

However! After just getting home from a bike ride and pacing around my apartment half-naked (you know, to cool off... what), I took a look in the mirror and for the first time I really noticed how much weight I've lost since not too long ago. And what's this! Cheekbones! And oh my god are those abs beginning to surface? I'm no Schwarzeneggar, but hot damn! I like it.

In the above pictures I'm weighing in around 190lbs. Compare against my all-time-high of 230lbs, which I maintained for a couple years prior:

Granted, I wear it kinda evenly, but my round noggin' is a fairly good measuring stick... melon. The weight's been dropping ever since a few months or so back when I started eating much healthier and exercising regularly.

My routine:

I'm always up around 7-8am and in bed no later than midnight, often by 10pm.

I eat a large breakfast of whole grain cereal and soy milk or organic oatmeal with whole grain toast, as well as an apple, orange, or banana. For lunches I generally have an organic non-dairy burrito covered in salsa and baby spinach. For dinner I tend to only snack or bypass it altogether and seldom eat past the 6pm mark.

I make sure and chew my food well, which may sound obvious, but try eating an entire meal while forcing yourself to chew each bite 10 or more times before swallowing... it really irritated me at first. I was used to taking really huge bites and chewing maybe 5 times before gulping it down. But I've come to really enjoy my meals when I have them. And the chewing thing makes a huge difference when, ah... said meals are negotating the Southern Passage.

I was snacking after lunch and dinner for a while, usually a small amount of soy ice cream or soy/tofu frozen treats or an organic oatmeal raisin cookie, but I'm getting to the point where I don't feel compelled to always have it. My snacking is becoming more often the dried-fruit and nuts variety. It complements my sometimes dry, fruity, and nutty sense of humor.

I never exercise more than 20 or 30 minutes a day either, half of which is a brisk ride around Lake Calhoun on Ye Olde Mountaine Bikee. The rest of it's comprised of quick (no more than a couple minutes) aerobic ab-twisty and face-stretchy exercises that I trained myself to do every time I go into the bathroom (don't ask.) Just something to get the blood pumping throughout the day. Your body needs all the help it can get when your job involves so much time cooling your heels in front of a monitor.

Anyway, it's pretty awesome!

As far as personal accomplishments have gone the last few years, this by far my most measurable and rewarding one. I am captain aboard the great and mighty H.M.S. Beefcake Muttonchops, sailing out upon the vast and untamed oceans of Goodness!

Smooth Sailin'

Mon, 30 May 2005 15:49:06 GMT

Haven't been back to the doc for about 2 months now, but I haven't felt the need to get another check up. My platelets plummeted again a while after my last post, but I continued to eat much more healthier than I had in the past and to take a mysterious herbal "potion" or two fairly regularly. I'm happy to report that I've had no significant recurrence of symptoms and am still feeling great! I've also dropped down to around 190lbs, from my former max of 230lbs, woo.

I'm continuing to take it easy and enjoy myself, and trying to finish some of the billion projects I have on the burners. If you are not already aware, I sing and play guitar in my spare spare time. Recently I flew down to AR to visit my parents and completed a scratch track of another song. You can get it here. A few other songs I've done in the past are also lying around in the same folder. I've got about 12 of the suckers in the works, if only I could just finish them up and get'em out the door! Then I've got the hookups to get them recorded on high quality equipment.

In other news, I'm still coding away on various programming projects. Mostly game-related stuff, as usual. Work keeps me pretty busy still, but I am getting a little recreational coding in here and there. Just like my music, I have a lot of various and fragmented projects in the works. It can drive you nuts, but on the other hand it can be really fun. I'm still trying to organize all my junk into some sort of a website, which I hope to get up this year. Wouldn't that be swell!

My Rockin' Day of Super Awesomeness

Sat, 19 Mar 2005 00:32:40 GMT

I feel so awesome right now. So here's the deal!

After my last post, my next appointment revealed a platelet count of 5,000 again! Sucky. Then I was supposed to have another checkup on Monday, and in the meanwhile pick up some more sterroids. Well, I'd just paid some bills and didn't have money for the prescription, so I put that off.

Then on Monday I spaced my appointment up until the last second, called in, and since I would've been over 15 minutes late, I was told by the appointment center that I had to reschedule. I could go the next day at 1 something pm, or on Friday at like 3 pm. I decided Friday because Fridays at our work are less hectic and I was in the middle of a lot of work in the first place, and also I wasn't feeling that bad anyway.

Well, later that day I get a call back from my doctor's sidekick and she told me it was inappropriate to reschedule like that because he would've seen me anyway because my platelets were so low. Well, sorry! I don't know all of your rules. So I'm like screw that, I have other plans now and Friday is fine so I just want to keep that appointment. Then she tells me I was also scheduled for some more transfusion crap.

Well I wasn't even TOLD about that, so I'm like uhhh NO, I don't want that. This is the first I've heard of it and I certainly did not and do not agree to do that. So fine, I tell her I'll pick up the prescription now (last Friday) and see the doc on Monday.

Saturday comes around and I am just messed up. I caught the cold everybody's been getting in our office, and elsewhere for that matter. That wasn't too cool. My tonsils were all dark red and swollen up and swallowing was VERY uncomfortable. The amount of mucus expelled from my body over the weekend was legendary, I'm sure.

10:30pm on Sunday and I'm still feeling kinda poopy. However I wake up at 6am the next morning and I'm feeling okay! Curses. And I was going to call in sick. I still felt kinda goofy, but oddly I still had very high energy levels and had no headaches or otherwise any kind of ailment, so I go into work anyway.

So, all during this time and for the subsequent week up to now, I stick to my diet. No caffeine, no dairy. Those are the big ones. I'm finally getting more used to going places and telling them to leave out the cheese or whatever.

I cheat slightly with chocolate soy milk, chocolate having a little caffeine in it, maybe once a day when I do a "cayenne shot" with some of my coworkers. And sometimes I will have a little bit of the lighter meats, such as chicken, or maybe other darker meats if it's very little (like I had some prosciutto on this one salad I had at a pizza-ish place).

I eat organic oatmeal in the mornings with fruit, and supplement all my other meals with salads and as much leafy green-ness as possible.

Well, today, the Friday of awesomeness, rolls around! A day which is awesome for a number of reasons, which are related to all sorts of things: awesome kickbutting at work, awesome feeling of the goodness and taming of the cold, awesome coworker taking me to a hospital almost 30min away, awesome platelet count, and awesome procuring of a cab a full hour before it was expected due to lots of snow and stuff.

So the platelet count! Up from 5,000 it is now 37,000! Which doesn't sound so spectacular seeing as a normal count is 150,000 or more. But! This is the first time it has EVER happened WITHOUT the use of a prescription or some other sort of treatment. After talking with my parents and listening to my gut feeling, I had decided not to fill the prescription for sterroids all during the last two weeks. And of course I did not have the transfusion of WinRho again, or whatever it was they wanted to pump into me.

Anyway, there are a few of herbal type medicines I am taking in addition to eating healthily. I don't know if it's directly related to one or the other or a combination of both, but my bet is on the diet. The more I keep with this diet the better I feel.

I seriously have not felt this good in a long time, it's just silly. And it makes total sense. You are what you eat. If you don't have the raw materials of awesomeness, you cannot build the uber fortress of manly fortitude which will function properly and... awesomely!

Could this be a fluke? I'll not discount the possibility. However, I really doubt it. I did have sterroids just prior to these two or three weeks, but of course my platelets plummeted shortly thereafter. And the effects of these sterroids, which are considered "long lasting" are no mare than a few days. So those are definitely out of my system at this point. Obviously my doctor wanted to get a lot more in me prior to now.

Given my personal experience with this over the last 8 months or so, I can tell you that my platelets were always on a downward trend and only ever spiked after some sort of sterroids or transfusion was involved. As you will have somewhat noted through my various LiveJournal postings.

That all said, I am definitely feeling very positive and very good right now. This gives me hope that I can get my platelets at least to a manageable level on my own, without any hospital intervention. Truthfully, I'd be fine with 37,000 platelets, or even 30,000 for the rest of my life. I have no symptoms of ITP whatsoever, and my energy levels are high.

When the doc told me what my platelets were up to I was a little teary-eyed. It's a very huge load off knowing that I do not have to be so highly dependent on a hospital for my well-being and that if I really am thoughtful and diligent about taking care of myself, that I can, to at least some degree, influence my health for the better.

I was getting along with vegetables and hopfeul they would help me out before, but now, let me tell you. We're best buds. I'm takin' this diet to the bank! No way no how am I going back to the crap I used to eat. I've found plenty of tasty healthy things and... it's awesome!

And also it rocks.

Visions of Vegetables

Tue, 08 Mar 2005 20:54:16 GMT

After experiencing some more symptoms related to my ITP, I went in for another checkup some six days ago. My platelets were down pretty low again, about 5,000. Of course this is bad, so they started me up on another short 4-day stint of sterroids to give them a little boost. And with a current count of 66,000 it seems to have done the trick.

When I found out my platelets were back down to 5,000 again, I decided to drastically change my diet. I have been reading further on ITP, and have found there are specific types of ITP related directly to alcohol and diuretics. So, the two main things I'll be avoiding in my new diet are dairy (milk is a diuretic) and caffeine. The whole slew of food items with ingredients containing "enriched whatever" are out of the picture as well, such as enriched flour and enriched sugar. I've been reading various Bad Things about them. My main staple will be fruit and vegetables. I'll be avoiding red meats, stuff that feels "heavy" to me. Meaning I eat it, and the next day it feels like it's still with me (which it is!) Chicken or fish every once in a while if I get the urge to gnaw on something meaty.

I started this up the day I found out my platelets were so low, and so far I've been feeling tremendously well. It may simply be the sterroids helping me out, but I've had them three times before and I don't remember ever feeling this good. I'm getting plenty of sleep too, which probably has something to do with it. All I can say is I am hopeful that this new diet proves beneficial.

I'm pretty new to all of this, but it's basically my last ditch effort before I seriously begin to consider a splenectomy. I would like to avoid invasive surgery as much as possible, but if my body turns out to be too goofed up, well. It's too goofed up. My doctor told me if I were his son he'd strap me to a chair and rip the thing out immediately. Jokingly of course, but it is still very apparent he feels that is the only proper solution.

He was not dismissive about my proposed dietary changes either, which was refreshing. This time around, instead of cancelling all appointments and effectively severing all ties with him as I had done previously, I'll be getting my platelets counted weekly for about a month and we'll see where I end up at.

I'm hopeful that my platelets will rise, but if they don't, I think this vegetarian-ish stuff might stick regardless. If it can't fix my platelet problem, it at least seems to make me feel pretty good! Which is an interesting turn of events, seeing as the consumption of vegetables in even miniscule amounts would have had me vomiting at the taste some few years ago. I can't seem to get enough of the stuff now!

Remembered Streams of Consciousness

Sat, 05 Feb 2005 04:49:28 GMT

Friday!!!
Work sucks.
I want to go home!
I will take a bus.
metrotransit.org bee-otch!
Aha, I see. The 4 at ABC street in 10 minutes.
Indubitably! *hu-fub-fub*
Pensive beardstroking for 4 minutes.
Yeeees. The 4. At ABC. Street, I should think.
4 more minutes of beardstroking.
Walking to the bus stop, wheeheehee.
Buses are cool.
Waiting for the bus.
Where is the bus?
There it is!
...that bus turned away.
No, there it is!
...I don't want that one.
Where is the bus? ;_;
THERE! GEEZE.
Stupid busriding latemakers.
Buses suck.
Putting the moneystuffs in the busholes...
Crumpled dollar bills suck.
Coins are cool.
Agh, too many coins stuck in the bushole!
Busdriver scowling at me now.
What? Fucker. You try putting the precious coins in the precious bushole.
Coins suck.
Riding home...
Not driving is cool.
...this bus smells.
Those people are loud.
This seat is broken.
The person by the window has to get up.
Now I have to get up.
Not driving sucks.
Yay! XYZ Street!
Home is where the coolness is.
Walking home...
Walking home is cool.
...it's cold.
It's really cold.
Who invented supercoldness, they suck...
I didn't know my fingers could be this color.
Nose hairs crystallizing...
Spikiness spiking innermost noseparts!
Eyes... watering...
Almost ho-ooo-SHEE-EYE-AWT... phew.
Stupid sidewalks and their stupid ice.
Ice, ice, go away, come again... well, never. If you don't mind.
Domesticated ice is friendly ice.
You never know when wild ice will turn on you.
Best to raise it yourself.
In a strictly regulated environment.
It will have no spirit to break, less hassle for you.
It knows only The Matrix.
It is no longer bred.
BUT GROWN.
To service my coldening needs.
I can suck as much as I want.
Yet be cool.
It's so true on so many levels.
Well, two.
That's a lot though.
If you consider the fact...
...that whole numbers are made up of the sum of an infinite number of fractions.
I don't know what that means.
Where am I?
Oh yeah, wallking home.
Walking home sucks.
Yayyyhome!
Home is cool.
Almost... TOO cool...
SPACEHEATER ACTIVATE!
Mmmtoasty.
Shh!
I hear!
Skittering...
Scattering...
Scritching...
Scratching...
Wabbits!
<:-O
I wants to pets the wabbits...
Come to me, wabbits!
Wabbits fleeing...
Curses. ;_;
Wabbits are cute.
Shucks.
...to the puterboxen!
Eating the food.
Playing the games.
Singing the songs.
Talking the talk.
Walking the... no, walking sucks.
This stream of consciousness sucks.
Need morebetter stream of consciousness...
Yay, unwatched scifi!
Watching the radness.
This stream of consciousness is cool.
Fridays are cool.
Must playing with the auxiliary puterboxen.
Blah, work mouse!
Shaking of the mouse.
Repluggificaton.
Rebootification.
Engage!
...
Make it so?
...
Please? ;_;
...Agh!
Beeping...
Throes of death...
Go-Go-Gadget Scrutiny!
...nibblebits onna cord!
:-O
OMG wabbits ate the mousetail!
Grr, wabbits.
Stick to carrots and vegetablry, thou nibblerous fiends!
A pox on thee!
:%s/pox/fox/g
Heehee. You fucking nerd.
Also, wabbits suck.
But...
...wabbit STEW would taste cool. >:-D
Oh, Hi Brian!
Wabbits are cool, wabbits are cool...
  .oO{TASTING!!!} 
What?
What's that you say?
You have a mouse I can use, Steve?
And its tail isn't nibbleridden?
That's, like... cool.
OMG Steve is cool.
And you have mail?
For me?
Mail!
For meeeeee!
...
...bills suck.

Curious

Thu, 20 Jan 2005 21:17:03 GMT

So at the urging of a friend, I finally scheduled a hospital appointment to check up on my platelets. According to the lady I received the callback from, my platelets are down around 6 right now (6,000). She sounded rather concerned, as did the doctor who saw me initially at Riverside.

I have still not experienced any symptoms since my most recent hospital stay, as I had prior to the aforementioned stay while getting a checkup. And according to the doctor then, my platelets were down around 8. I had a bad bloody nose, red spots all over my arms, blood blisters on the inside of my mouth, the works. Of course, when I got to Regions, they said my platelets were 16, not 8. And this lady has no record of either, saying my lowest recorded was down around 23 or so. Someone, or perhaps many people, aren't very good at book keeping. You'd think that'd be something a hospital would be paying close attention to, but apparently not in my case.

So this woman, concerned as she is, wants to make sure I have some more information about my condition, ITP, before I decide what to do next. I told her I had cancelled all my appointments some two months ago, but evidently that is another bit of info the nurse I initially relayed this request to left unrecorded. She asked me if I knew what having platelets this low meant. I told her it means your blood doesn't clot very well, and if you get cut you can just bleed and bleed. No, she says, it can mean more than that. You can suddenly start bleeding and it won't stop.

Well. Duh.

Could you elaborate on that a little more, Ms.? Does blood spontaneously begin gushing from my eyes or what? I think the insane nosebleeds I initially had taught me that much about my condition. So yes, you can bleed and you can bleed easily and freely and blah blah blah. Tell me something I don't know.

Here's something she doesn't know, and most likely wouldn't believe: the cayenne I have been taking has been doing an amazing job of negating that occurrence, seeing as I'm exhibiting exactly zero of the symptoms I had when my platelets were higher even than they are now. What information she thinks she can provide to me that will be of any use, with as little as they seem to know aobut the condition in the first place, I don't know.

What I do know, is I've been feeling just fine. I haven't even had any headaches to speak of. Unless this woman can come up with some really compelling arguments, I think I'm just gonna continue to take it easy and get a checkup every so often.

In summation! I'll be having no more extended hospital stays for what from all outward signs (and inward, as far as I can tell) is a phantom disease that costs a lot of money to treat (poorly) and one in which the patient feels perfectly fine. Hell, even above average many days. I'm sorry Ma'am, but from here on out, if I'm going to be hospitalized there had better be something more tangible provided as reasoning for my stay above and beyond a numeric deviation, however large, that component X in my makeup is experiencing in contrast to the norm.

...time passes...

So I just checked my messages after work and there were two! Both from the same gal. She spoke to a nurse, who "strongly urged" me to consider taking sterroids for a couple weeks, with blood tests 2 times a week. Hmm! Sounds familiar. Could it be that it's for the exact same prescription I've had 3 times so far with mixed results? Why, yes it could! And also is. No further information given. Lame, lame, lame. I'll return her call, as concerned as she sounded, but as to the prescription I will politely but firmly refuse.

Happy Days

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:50:23 GMT

I'm at work eating chinese takeout! Things are going well right Now. Sans my platelet shenanigans, or perhaps even in part due to them, my outlook on life is pretty bright right now. I have about a billion things to be thankful for, but here is a small sampling:

Job security with decent pay & excellent benefits (even Christmas bonuses!)

Awesome work environment, 90% due to an uber boss

Headphones for my work machine, which lore got me for Christmas! Now I don't have to do my own rocking, of the imaginary sort

Good friends I am comfortable around at home, at work, and online

Living quarters in an awesome area where almost everything I need is within walking distance; everything else is a simple bus ride and/or light rail away

My own little room to chill in, and clutter as I see fit!

A guitar to tinker around with

Not one, nor two, but three home computers with which to play on; one retro, one Good Old Reliable, and a newer 64-bit system. I'm thinking of naming them Past, Present, and Future.

A recently acquired Business Class fiber line (3mbit downstream, 768kbit upstream)

Pretty low ($400~) rent; low because I'd expected to be paying twice that

Cool roommates with similar interests. They even come with a pair of bunnies, at no extra cost to me!

Good health all during this past month, which I credit to herbal remedies suggested to me by my mother (she knows a few herbal remedy gurus)

Money leftover every paycheck with which to perform various philanthropic and selfish acts upon myself and others

An awesome family; especially my parents who are supportive of and interested in my goings on

All are valuable and appreciated components in my life, and I find myself continually conscious of and thankful for each.