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Random Star Wars References – 1

/ Varza / 1 Comment

I have been wanting to do this for awhile and just haven’t. Its odd and random when you come across a Star Wars reference in some way in the popular media and I thought it would be fun to start tracking it. Why? To really see how many odd references you can find just in your daily life of watching movies, tv, reading books etc… Today is the first one (I will do another post later on back tracking some of the ones I have found in the past):

Movie
Title: The Holiday
What reference: Jack Black playing the piano for Kate Winslet and showing her a piece he had written, he plays the Star Wars theme. (At another point, he talks about the Jaws theme as well.) She doesn’t mention Star Wars just says its John Williams not him.

If you have any that you know of yourself – please post a comment and I will add them in another post as well. If this is good, I will make a page for it.

When I Meet You…

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I have this odd problem. When I meet people online and on message boards, I seem to be a pretty open, happy, talkative person and then when I get a chance to meet them in person – I am the complete opposite and seemingly stand-off-ish. And I am. Why? I have no clue. I used to not be. I was a very social person back in the day when I am crazy and weird. Not that I have stopped being crazy and weird… I just only show that to people I know I can trust myself around.

Seriously, I just don’t know how to open up to anyone in person. I feel constantly judged and critiqued by people I meet. So, if you ever meet me in person and I barely say hello – I am not brushing you off. I just don’t know how to act around you or put myself out there. If I am not smiling its because its a defense mechanism to keep people at a distance not because I am an ogre or a bitch. Well, I am a bitch but not to the point where I don’t want to be friends with people.

In truth, there are people I have reached out to at conventions I have gone to only to rebuffed because I am not “cool enough” or they look at me and I guess don’t deem me acceptable in their terms of who their friends should be. I guess. And sadly, these are people I have talked to previously online and gotten along with. People whose work and personality I find intriguing to say the least. Then afterwards, when I try to talk to them – they completely ignore me. I guess whatever… maybe they have the same problem I do but they don’t seem to be that way with others.

I mean, I may not dress the way my personality would want me to for several reasons. The main being that I am uncomfortable in my own skin. I used to not be. Ask anyone who used to know me back in the day when I wore short shorts and crop tops. I would drive around in cut offs and a bikini top. I don’t anymore because well… I am a ton heavier then I used to be. I want to get back there one day. But we will see, I’m working on it. But even buying clothes that supposibly are sexy on bigger women, I don’t want to wear them. I am more comfortable in my ripped jeans and t-shirts then something that pushes my fat rolls into each other and makes me uncomfortable. Comfort is key, I don’t think I could ever wear a corset for this reason – the other being they make me nuaseus when I wear them. Don’t know why but I have the same thing happen if my bra is too tight. I just want to puke and then pass out. I don’t know how women wore them for so many years.

So, basically I am saying – if I meet you and I seem stand-off-ish, please still try and talk to me. It may take awhile for me to open up but in truth, I will. I just can’t talk small very well. I like to talk about something other then the weather. I just hope its worth the effort.

Home Update

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This past Sunday my dad and I started back on the garage, I don’t have the pictures with me but we got a decent amount done. Not as much as we wanted to since we had to go to the store several times to pick up wall-board and some other items.

But I bought some OOPS paint from Home Depot in a lovely lime/light green that I will be using to paint the peg board and base boards we purchased – which are basic 1 x 3 x 16 Pine boards. Nothing fancy needed for the garage.

We ended up finishing one wall. We are due to finish the other side labor day weekend since I will have vacation time scheduled off and since I can not afford to go anywhere, I am staying home. So, instead of resting, I will be spending several days doing the following: putting up wallboard, painting and installing baseboards,painting and installing peg board along one wall, installing a attic fan in the front of my house to get rid of the hot air, installing instuallation on the ceiling, installing a new screen door I just purchased (more on that below), painting the garage and then MAYBE getting some rest. Yeah fun stuff!

As for organizing the garage – we will see how long it takes to do that. Once all the above is done we will be putting together some of the workbenches and cabinets I have stored away.

As I said earlier I will be installing a screendoor. Actually its a stormdoor with a lock on it so I can be a little more secure. I have been searching for the right one for several years now and just finalized a decision this past Sunday. I am getting a Full-View Stormdoor from Larson’s called Tradewinds in Earthtone Brown with the brushed nickel doorhandle. Its a bit off from my metal work outside which is a brown colour but I hate the gold plated colour and that was my only other choice. It wasn’t cheap since I had to pay about 40 bucks more for the colour I wanted, they only had white and almond in stock, but I think its worth it. Its glass is low enough that my cat can sit at the door and watch the world but unfortunatly, she can’t feel the air in her hair since the screen only is on the top of the door. But a great advantage to this is that the screen roles up into the top of the door, allowing me not to have to worry in the winter time of having to replace it to keep the cold out. Its pretty nice if I do say so myself. I am due to go pick it up within 14 days of purchase, so… September 1st? Or sometime that week. I can’t wait to be able to have some more freshair in my house and get a nice cross breeze.

I will post the pictures of the garage renovation later.

The Art of Dresden Calender

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Okay, so if you happen to like The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher you may enjoy this: The Art of Dresden Calender. You can preorder now and will receive it in about a month or so…
Yeah Dresden!

BTW, if you have time look around the shop and check out the shirts. They have some hilarious shirts there.

Don’t Get Cocky Kid!

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So, I have been watching the Olympics pretty much non-stop for the past several days and I can’t help but continue to notice a trend. Michael Phelps… thats pretty much it. Yeah, we won other metals but whatever Michael Phelps won another gold! Yeah!!! I have literally gotten to the point where I change the channel when the news team starts talking about him. Am I wrong for doing this? For being so damned bored of hearing Michael Phelps this, Michael Phelps that… And the sad thing, I think it may be a bit too much. I am happy he won so many golds in his Olympic career and I think he is an incredible swimmer but in truth, I feel horrible for his teammates – all the other Olympic atheletes out there.

Case in point – the 4 x 100 Freestyle Relay, did we hear how the first African American swimmer received a gold medal? No. Did we hear anymore about how amazing the guy who swam the last leg did? No, you hear how nice Phelps was to the French team. See, I can’t even remember anyone else’s name because every event in swimming has Phelps name attached to it. They will talk about any other swimmer for 30 seconds and then they start talking about Phelps.

He is a great, amazing athelete but he isn’t the only US Olympian out there. I want to hear about other atheletes some more, I want to hear more about the South Korean swimmer who won the first swimming medal ever for South Korea. Yeah, I know its not the US but frak! They had a little broadcast about Phelps winning gold earlier that evening and never even showed the medal ceremony for that event – and the US got the silver in it. Or bronze. I can’t remember. Or the US softball team or the 2nd women’s beach volleyball team… you know the ones who have lost some games in the past few years.

But here is the thing I am most worried about – this is going to put more stress on Phelps. The guy can’t even focus on his swimming. He wins a medal, gets out of the water, does the medal ceremony, does an interview and then gets about 10 – 20 minutes to warm up for the next event. Thankfully last night he they realized he may need more time to get ready and they didn’t bombard him with questions. Unfortunatly, you can see him tiring in the later events. Not being able to go as fast or swim as well as he normally does.

And now that he has beat the lifetime olympic gold medal record, he is focusing on breaking Mark Spints single Olympic gold medal record. As he does this, I have some words of wisdom for him from Han Solo, “Great Kid! Don’t Get Cocky!” Because cockiness is the Olympians kryptonite… just ask the French dudes you beat the other night.

Olympics Beijing 2008

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I am not sure if any of you got a chance to watch the opening ceremonies of hte 2008 Olympics in Beijing or if you are boycotting it like many others. But it was absolutly magnificent to watch. I have seen every opening ceremonies since I can remember for both the summer and winter games and I have to say, this is probably the best yet. From the dancers to the drummers to the creation of a large piece of artwork created by the artists in the artistic portion as well as every athelete that attended last night.

It was beautiful to watch China embrace its history as well as its future in the performance. And while I know many people have problems with China – I do to – I couldn’t help but be moved by it. This is one the oldest cultures in the world that is still a major player. They existed as China for over 5,000 years. And to see where it has come from and that they want to change from being closed off from the world… remember up into the 70s the modern era of China did not have any contact with the outside world really. But I am not one to say anything. I grew up with our country having relations with China.

But I am looking forward to watching the Olympics this year. There is something magical about it this time around. I do not know what it is. Maybe it was the magic that was envoked last night during the show. The realization that the one flag almost every country on the planet honors is the Olympic flag. Its a symbol of unity, change, diversity and peace. One can only hope that during these times of war, when there is no longer the call for peace of arms during the Olympics that idea can permentate the psyche of the citizens of the world. And realize, as so well said in the opening ceremonies – that it takes many to make a single person great.


From the Big Picture

But for me it was finished with one of the most moving stories of young, Lin Hao who at 9 years old survived the earthquakes a few months ago and dug himself out the rubble of his school. Then went in after he came out and saved two of his friends. Why? Because he said, it was his job. He was a class leader. I don’t know why but that story just moves me to tears.

But the games begin today and I am sitting at work with the TV on watching beach volleyball and just watched the medal ceremony for the Fencing which was won by the US… our first medal. Hopefully, one of many this summer.

Garage Renovation

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Slowly this summer I have been trying to get my garage finished. Meaning insulation, drywall, painting, organizing et al. As of this morning we (my friend Lor and I) had put up 2 rolls of insulation, the icky pink stuff, which is about 8 panels. I started around 10:30am this morning while I waited for my father to come and help me. I got about 2 or 3 panels after moving around a butt load of boxes I still have yet to finish unpacking. But I got them done and then my dad showed up.

Now, last night after talking it over with my father we decided to go with wallboard instead of dry wall. For one main reason – among many – is that is it a frak ton more durable then dry wall. From what was explained to me was that usually you spend a lot of time in the garage fixing holes and cracks in the dry wall from when something hits it and puts a hole in it. Your car door etc. The other plus is that with it being wood – you can nail things in, in more location. Made sense and it is the garage walls. It doesn’t have to be pretty. It needs to be functional more then anything else. It has to stand up to projects, doors, etc.

So, dad showed up and we unloaded his truck and finished two more panels. They were smaller then the regular 15″ wide panels so we ended up cutting up one section of drywall and finishing off two of the smaller ones. Then off to home depot after unpacking three pieces of wallboard out of the truck.

All and all it was a good day. We picked up four more rolls of insulation, paint for the walls, some small hand saws to get around some gas lines and the grounder in the wall. But, we have all but 6 panels done and the small portions above the garage door. We didn’t do those because it was getting hot and it would mean more a ton of furniture around. But we got one wall board up.

Tonight my plan is to drag my best friend to my house and move the furniture into the center of the garage against the other boxes so that there is an opening along the wall. Here are some photos:

Last of the open panels, you can see some of the furniture blocking it. The cabinets were something my best friend got from a job he worked on. They will be a portion of the work bench that will be in the garage after we are done.

Here is the rest of the same wall. All insulated. Curtesy of myself, Lor and my dad. Yes, I know how to put insulation in!

Blurry pic of the wallboard before putting it on the wall. We (meaning my dad) had to cut a small hole into the side to make it fit around the copper piping for the, I think the water or gas. Not 100% sure.

Wallboard is up! You can see how it fits around the pipe now. Its only held up with a few screws since we need something to make the heads of the screws lay flush to the board and not stick out. Next tot he wall board you can see the dry wall that the house builders did before I moved it. So pretty…

Pic of my dad taking off some items that were screwed into the 2″ x 4″‘s (quality home building here!) that don’t seem to have a purpose. This is one panel we can’t really insulated since its all the wiring and the grounder is in the concert at the bottom – its in a great location and no the outside of the edge. Pic of that later.

So, thats about it. This was my Saturday. We hope to finish this off on the 17th.

Drink a little Chocolate Milk?

/ Varza / 1 Comment

This post is about my thoughts on the subject. I am not a doctor, nutrionist or any authority on the matter of food or fitness. So, please if you are reading this for expert advice I am not the person to get it from. I will have links to places to get better information on the subject I am posting on. Please make sure to do your research before trying anything new or check with your doctor before hand.

I was reading another fitness magazine last night: Oxygen when I came across this little tidbit about how to keep up your energy and one of the things in there mentioned drinking chocolate milk after a workout. Thats right chocolate milk. I did a double, triple, quadrulpe take on that. Now, it may not be new for many but as a milk fanactic I am always worried about whether or not I should keep drinking milk and ways of getting it into my diet without my midnight cereal cravings. And low and behold – here is a new way. So, this morning I did a little digging since I don’t always take things at face value and wanted to know why – out of all the drinks why chocolate milk is recommended over other sports drinks and over regular milk.

Here are some reasons: calcium, carbs and protein. All things you would get in say a smoothie from Robeks or Keva Juice or any other smoothie place but chocolate milk is about 10 times cheaper since you can make it at home or pick up a personal size drink at the grocery store for like $1.29. But back to the health benefits of chocolate milk. From fitnessmagazine.com article:

For a high-endurance athlete, Stager’s team sees it as a catch-all workout recovery drink. Compared to plain milk, water, or most sports drinks, it has double the carbohydrate and protein content, perfect for replenishing tired muscles. Its high water content replaces fluids lost as sweat, preventing dehydration. Plus it packs a nutritional bonus of calcium, and includes just a little sodium and sugar — additives that help recovering athletes retain water and regain energy. 

Sounds good to me. But I was curious on the calories and sugar content. So, I did a comparison of a single serving of three different drinks: Robeks Cardio Cooler, Dairyland 1% Chocolate Partially Skimmed Milk and Propel Sports Water.

Robek’s Cardio Cooler – 2 Servings/24 Ounces, single serving is 12 ounces but you can only buy this in a 24 ounce drink but I will post the 24 ounce then 12 ounce. This drink also includes several additonal items to increase protein and nutrients.
Calories: 430/215
Fat: 4g/2g
Cholestral: 6g/3g
Sodium: 48g/24g
Carbs: 88g/44g (Fiber: 6g/3g, Sugars: 76g/38g)
Protein: 18g/9g
Vitamn A: 104%/52% of DSV
Vitman C: 438%/219% DSV
Calcium: 12%/6% DSV
Iron: 6%/3% DSV

Dairyland 1% Chocolate Partially Skimmed Milk – 1 Serving/250g:
Calories: 168
Fat: 2.8grams
Cholestral: 10grams
Sodium: 183mg
Carbs: 29.0g (mostly sugar but there is dietary fiber in milk)
Protein: 8.4g
Calcium: 30% of DSV

Propel Sports Water – 2 Servings/16 oz once again because this is sold normally as a 16 ounce bottle and not a 8 ounce bottle, I will but the bottle amount then the true serving amount since that is normally what people drink.
Calories: 20/10
Sodium: 70mg/35mg
Carbs: 6g/3g (Sugars 4g/2g)

So what does this tell us? Well, each drink has its plus and minuses.

You get an after workout smoothie from a store and you get a ton of sugar and calories. This is more of a meal then a cool down drink. I am aware that most of the sugars are coming from fresh fruits and juice. So the sugar carbs aren’t completely empty. The calcuim is lower then the milk drink but that is to be expected. While the smoothie does have frozen yogurt in it – its benefits seem to be lowered due to the fruit sugar content. But this is definatly not something you drink after a long run or swim to just cool down and get a quick replensihment of proteins and carbs. And be aware of what you are getting. Check out their nutrional info on their drinks before ordering. There are lower carbs/calorie smoothies then this. Just watch yourself.

The Propel Fitness Water tells you basically what it is: sugar water. While the carbs/sugars are low as well as the sodium and there is no fat. There is nothing else to it. It would be better to just drink water. I am no doctor but there aren’t enough carbs I think to make a difference. And the carbs aren’t coming from fruits but a refined sugar. It would be good if you are just wanting to drink water but have flavor.

The chocolate milk – its got fat of course but it seems the portion of protein seems like a good amount. It may be worth a try but not something for everyone to do every day. It may be a better treat. And I know there may be better ways of making it healthier. I know that GNC sells a protein mix called Dessert that may make a good alternative and give you a higher precentage of proteins. But its up to you.

It seems from what I have been reading that its better for high endurance athletes such as runners, swimmers and bikers then someone who is just doing Sweatin’ to the Oldies. But maybe for those days when you push beyond your limits and go the extra distance where you feel like your body is going to drop this would be a nice treat for yourself. Especially since there is the added bonus of the chocolate being good for you in controlled portions.

Why? Antioxidents and its good for women to keep the seritonin balance going during your diet, stress and hard workouts. Which have a habit of dropping dangerously low in women due to the mass reduction of healthy carbs. Men can normally go without carbs better then women. If you are craving lots of chocolate at night or during your diet there is a reason and not just because you want chocolate. Chocolate is a good quick boost to your serotonin levels which are vital to what make us women, women. It helps balance our emotions. A little bit of chocolate isn’t bad for you. In fact it can be beneficial to loosing weight and staying healthy. As well as the other benefits including help stave off binge eating while dieting. But eat the dark chocolate since it actual is healthier for you then milk chocolate (and white chocolate isn’t really chocolate at all).

But, in conclusion – I can definatly see the benefits of drink chocolate milk after a workout even if it has fat in it. Now, if only they made a dark chocolate drink instead of always the milk chocolate milk.

Dang it! I want this shirt!!!

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I was wasting time today and buying a cute little Jawa shirt at 80stees.com when I came across this shirt: Jaws Chalk Shirt – I seriously should NOT have been drinking water when I saw it because I sprayed the computer. I desperately want one but can only hope that by next month it will still be there. I have to have that for when I go on the cruise in February. 😀

Goals and whatnot…

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So, things have gotten a bit better since I last posted. I did not walk away, in truth, I have too much going on in my life that is 100x’s more important then people bitching about stupid crap. Now back to my real life, where I pretty much happy. I say pretty much because we all have bad days… right?

Things are going well on my diet/lifestyle change. I think I am still loosing weight and I know I am shrinking. How, you ask? Well, my workout pants that I have been using were a XXL but the other day I went and picked up another pair. But, accidently I picked up an XL instead of an XXL, they fit really well. As well as my XXL did when I picked them up over a month ago. I am very happy with that. How can I not be? I went to the movies last night and noticed that my hips didn’t hit the sides of the seat. I realized they hadn’t in the past few weeks but I didn’t think about it then. Last night, having gotten up several times for the bathroom and snacks, before the movie started, I did. Even after I treated myself to a scoop of Double Fudge Chocolate Ice Cream, hey we have to treat ourselves from time to time. Right? Or we go crazy!!!

But, I have been thinking of my end goals, when I hit my final weight goal – which is 150lbs, if my body will do it. What will I give myself. Well, after thinking about it I think I will do what I have been wanting to do for the last 5 – 8 years but haven’t because of my weight. A beautiful tattoo on my right back shoulder. I have the design in mind but it will be a bit more original then walking into the store and saying – hey, I want that. And it is possible I will cover up a really bad tat I have on my inner hip. With what? I haven’t a clue. Maybe a spartan sheild from 300 since it has a special place in my heart for my weight loss.

My other goal – to make a costume I have been wanting to do for the past few years but there was no way in hell I would ever be able to pull it off unless I was in shape. More on that when it gets time to start on it.

Today has been a good day so far… about 3 hours left in work and then I can go home and workout then work on some projects I have been pushing off for the past few weeks while I go to the gym.