Here are some quick updates on recent events.
The old friend I saw last week called me on Friday night to come over to his place to hang out. Went over, there were some other people there and his girlfriend who I'd never met before. Had a couple of drinks, talked, hung out, listened to music, went home.
AFL (Australian Football) Grand Final was today, my team was in it, went to my uncle's house, my uncles team is the other team that was in it, there were aunties, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. there, got drunk, screamed and yelled at the TV... it ended up being a draw, there will be another game next week to decide the winners, going to go back over and get drunk again next week.
Family are visiting from interstate, going to go hang out with them tomorrow, go to the shops or something.
It looks like the majority of comments on the last post were in favour of sticking with what I am doing now with the weights while watching shows thing. I might keep an eye out just in case a club does strike my fancy but I will just stick with the weights at home for now. The biking idea was good too, I used to bike a lot. Also thanks for all the great comments.
There is a poll over there somewhere =>
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Decide My Future - Fitness Edition
I have been recently working my way through the anime Baki The Grappler (great anime btw) and being the highly suggestible person that I am it made me want to get big and lift some weights. So I did one set of dumbbell curls and now feel like the most buff motherfucker on the planet.
I thought what I'd mention today is my history of fitness / unfitness. I have mentioned before that I used to do martial arts but I also did competitive swimming. Up until I was 17 I trained Monday to Saturday, sometimes multiple times a day. I would train swimming with my swim club in the morning before school and train Taekwondo in the afternoons. I even trained twice on Saturdays.
I could literally swim before I could walk and I started Karate not long after I started walking. I left Karate for Taekwondo because I wanted full contact competition. In Taekwondo I became state champion five times and national champion twice. In swimming the best I did was make it to the state championships for 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly. I made it to the finals for butterfly but did not place. I made the school cross country team every year and made the school swim team every year.
I was one fit motherfucker.
when I was 17 I first injured my ankle and weakened the ligaments in my ankle which put me out of any sport for a while, when I finally got better and was about to start training again I injured my knee badly. I was at the BMX track and stacked it, dislocating my knee and tearing my PCL (a ligament in the back of the knee). This took me out of action for a long time. I was on crutches for months and it took a lot longer to recover completely, although it is an injury which will never be completely fixed without surgery, which I do not plan on having.
After that I moved with my family interstate and started TAFE (similar to college for you Americans) and did not get back into training at all. After a while I put on a lot weight. When you train as much as I did your calorie intake is much higher than a normal person because you require immense amounts of energy to burn during training. When I suddenly stopped training it is nearly impossible to also suddenly cut your food intake at the same time. I was eating 4+ times the recommended calories for a normal person. So obviously I put on a lot of weight.
At my peak I hit about 125kg (metric system motherfuckers... it's about 275 pounds) The weird thing though is, when I was way overweight like that I had no problem getting girlfriends, and I'm not talking girls my size, I'm talking hot girls that even at my physical peak I would have considered out of my league. The other thing is at this point, although I was not 'fit' I was way stronger than I was when I was training. I could lift things that I could never lift before and can not lift now. I had big arms and a massive chest, even if they were covered with fat.
After a while I made a decision to loose the weight. I immediately cut my food intake by half, completely stopped eating all the junk food snacks, and at the same time try to speed up my metabolism by basically eating many times during the day but in small, low energy portions. After a few weeks of much stomach pain I think my stomach actually shrunk and I would become full with much less food. After a while this just became the way I lived without thinking about it and I started loosing a lot of weight without even realising it. Over time I began eating more and more but the weight kept coming off and I didn't realise because I never actually weighed myself during this time. (and it was also the time when I kind of stopped having any normal type of social interactions with people)
When I finally realised I had actually lost a lot of weight was when someone got me a new t-shirt for Christmas and it was a medium and I put it on and it actually fit me. I looked at myself in the mirror thinking 'WTF?' and then decided to weigh myself to see what I weighed now. Last time I had weighed myself I was about 120kg... when I got on the scale it said 85kg. I actually thought there was something wrong with the scale and tried again. I had lost 35kg without even realising it, mostly because by this time I was back to eating whatever I want and it no longer affected me.
So what is your opinion on this? Should I just keep doing what I'm doing and just lift some weights in my room while watching shows? or should I cave in, join a club, start training again, and have even less / almost no time to do the things I love like gaming and watching anime and movies?
I guess there is also the social interaction that comes with being in a club, and also the possibility that some day down the track I could become a better fighter than I ever was before and one day be a champion again...
... that post turned out way longer than I expected.
TLDR; gaming, anime, and doing weights in my room? or join a martial arts club and have no time for shit?
I could literally swim before I could walk and I started Karate not long after I started walking. I left Karate for Taekwondo because I wanted full contact competition. In Taekwondo I became state champion five times and national champion twice. In swimming the best I did was make it to the state championships for 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly. I made it to the finals for butterfly but did not place. I made the school cross country team every year and made the school swim team every year.when I was 17 I first injured my ankle and weakened the ligaments in my ankle which put me out of any sport for a while, when I finally got better and was about to start training again I injured my knee badly. I was at the BMX track and stacked it, dislocating my knee and tearing my PCL (a ligament in the back of the knee). This took me out of action for a long time. I was on crutches for months and it took a lot longer to recover completely, although it is an injury which will never be completely fixed without surgery, which I do not plan on having.
After that I moved with my family interstate and started TAFE (similar to college for you Americans) and did not get back into training at all. After a while I put on a lot weight. When you train as much as I did your calorie intake is much higher than a normal person because you require immense amounts of energy to burn during training. When I suddenly stopped training it is nearly impossible to also suddenly cut your food intake at the same time. I was eating 4+ times the recommended calories for a normal person. So obviously I put on a lot of weight.
After a while I made a decision to loose the weight. I immediately cut my food intake by half, completely stopped eating all the junk food snacks, and at the same time try to speed up my metabolism by basically eating many times during the day but in small, low energy portions. After a few weeks of much stomach pain I think my stomach actually shrunk and I would become full with much less food. After a while this just became the way I lived without thinking about it and I started loosing a lot of weight without even realising it. Over time I began eating more and more but the weight kept coming off and I didn't realise because I never actually weighed myself during this time. (and it was also the time when I kind of stopped having any normal type of social interactions with people)
When I finally realised I had actually lost a lot of weight was when someone got me a new t-shirt for Christmas and it was a medium and I put it on and it actually fit me. I looked at myself in the mirror thinking 'WTF?' and then decided to weigh myself to see what I weighed now. Last time I had weighed myself I was about 120kg... when I got on the scale it said 85kg. I actually thought there was something wrong with the scale and tried again. I had lost 35kg without even realising it, mostly because by this time I was back to eating whatever I want and it no longer affected me.
So now I am... actually I have not weighed myself recently... but somewhere around the 77kg-82kg area. The thing is now I feel so weak. First I was super fit, then I was pretty damn strong when I was fat, now I am neither. I want to start trying to do something again but I don't know what. There are a lot of weights at my house that I can use at any time to bulk up and get stronger, but at the same time my real passion is doing martial arts and getting fitter. But to train martial arts I would need to join a club, which means paying them money and taking up a lot of my time which even now I feel I do not have enough time to give. I don't even have enough time to choose between playing a game and watching a movie or some anime. I literally had to completely stop gaming for the last few weeks to find the time to watch Baki The Grappler (which I still have not finished).
To overcome the time restraints at the moment I have taken a pair of dumbbells and some extra weight up to my room and I just do some sets while watching shows at the same time.
So what is your opinion on this? Should I just keep doing what I'm doing and just lift some weights in my room while watching shows? or should I cave in, join a club, start training again, and have even less / almost no time to do the things I love like gaming and watching anime and movies?I guess there is also the social interaction that comes with being in a club, and also the possibility that some day down the track I could become a better fighter than I ever was before and one day be a champion again...
... that post turned out way longer than I expected.
TLDR; gaming, anime, and doing weights in my room? or join a martial arts club and have no time for shit?
Monday, September 20, 2010
Games - X3: Terran Conflict
Today I am going to talk about my favourite game / series of games of all time. The latest in the X Universe series of games is X3: Terran Conflict
. I could go on about these games forever so I am going to try and keep this a brief as I can.
When ever I try and classify the genre of the X Universe games I usually describe them as 'first person roll playing, action, empire building space sim' or a space trading combat sim. X3: TC is a single player only game that bases its game play over 4 distinct areas of Trade, Fight, Build, and Think. The game is set in a Universe that consists of hundreds of sectors that are connected by Jump Gates in the far future.
Trade - Trading does not just mean 'buy X here and sell Y here' like other games. Sure trading will start out that way but once your account grows with credits you will find yourself creating and managing entire trading empires and actually affecting the economy of the entire universe.
Check out the Trade trailer:
Fight - There are many starting options for the game where you can begin as any chosen race in multiple situations. Most game starts will plant you in a little scout ship or a medium fighter class ship to begin with. Each race has multiple ships of all classes making hundreds of ships available from little scouts, transporters, trading ships, frigates, bombers, and many more up to destroyers and carriers which are over a thousand times the size of some of the smaller ships. You can grow from owning one little scout ship to one day controlling entire fleets of destroyers. You can align yourself or make enemies of any of the races, even become a notorious pirate and make the lawless pirate sectors your home.
Check out the Fight trailer:
Build - It may be a little while before you start building your first space station, but when you do the feeling of achievement is amazing. Then before long you will raise the funds to build another and another until you are not only building stations but entire interconnected complexes containing many joined stations. Before long entire sectors, maybe even entire areas of the universe will be under the control of your trading empire.
Check out the Build trailer:
Think - There are many story line missions that you can play through if you choose, but you are at no time forced to do so. You can leave the missions at any time and then come back to them later. Another great thing about X3:TC is, although it is based after the events of the previous X games, you do not have to play them first because you are no longer the main character (Julian Brennan) from the previous games. There are also unlimited small missions and jobs to complete to make extra credits from transporting passengers to defending stations from attacks to even building stations for other corporations.
Check out the Think trailer:
The one major criticism that is given to this game is that the learning curve is immense. Most people give up on the game early on because it really throws you in the deep end with no tutorial or training. If you can get past the first few hours of game play you will really start to get into it.
The one major acclaim I have for this game is the games community. It has one of the biggest modding communities, right up there with the Elder Scrolls modding community. The best fan made content and mods are often included into later updates of the game. The forums are massive and I have literally never had to post there because I have always been able to find the answers to any question I have had about the game. Egosoft even has released an update for the game the removes the Tages DRM security so you don't have to have the disk in the drive to play. I don't know of any other company that gives the option to turn off their game security for its community.
TLDR: X3: Terran Conflict is an awesome game and you should play it.
Here is another trailer for no other reason than the fact that it is one cool fucking trailer:
. I could go on about these games forever so I am going to try and keep this a brief as I can.
Trade - Trading does not just mean 'buy X here and sell Y here' like other games. Sure trading will start out that way but once your account grows with credits you will find yourself creating and managing entire trading empires and actually affecting the economy of the entire universe.
Check out the Trade trailer:
Fight - There are many starting options for the game where you can begin as any chosen race in multiple situations. Most game starts will plant you in a little scout ship or a medium fighter class ship to begin with. Each race has multiple ships of all classes making hundreds of ships available from little scouts, transporters, trading ships, frigates, bombers, and many more up to destroyers and carriers which are over a thousand times the size of some of the smaller ships. You can grow from owning one little scout ship to one day controlling entire fleets of destroyers. You can align yourself or make enemies of any of the races, even become a notorious pirate and make the lawless pirate sectors your home.
Check out the Fight trailer:
Build - It may be a little while before you start building your first space station, but when you do the feeling of achievement is amazing. Then before long you will raise the funds to build another and another until you are not only building stations but entire interconnected complexes containing many joined stations. Before long entire sectors, maybe even entire areas of the universe will be under the control of your trading empire.
Check out the Build trailer:
Think - There are many story line missions that you can play through if you choose, but you are at no time forced to do so. You can leave the missions at any time and then come back to them later. Another great thing about X3:TC is, although it is based after the events of the previous X games, you do not have to play them first because you are no longer the main character (Julian Brennan) from the previous games. There are also unlimited small missions and jobs to complete to make extra credits from transporting passengers to defending stations from attacks to even building stations for other corporations.
Check out the Think trailer:
The one major criticism that is given to this game is that the learning curve is immense. Most people give up on the game early on because it really throws you in the deep end with no tutorial or training. If you can get past the first few hours of game play you will really start to get into it.
The one major acclaim I have for this game is the games community. It has one of the biggest modding communities, right up there with the Elder Scrolls modding community. The best fan made content and mods are often included into later updates of the game. The forums are massive and I have literally never had to post there because I have always been able to find the answers to any question I have had about the game. Egosoft even has released an update for the game the removes the Tages DRM security so you don't have to have the disk in the drive to play. I don't know of any other company that gives the option to turn off their game security for its community.
TLDR: X3: Terran Conflict is an awesome game and you should play it.
Here is another trailer for no other reason than the fact that it is one cool fucking trailer:
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Going Out - Results!
So as promised, I went out Friday night. I also went to a LAN on Saturday. I had a good time and here are the results.
I got to the place at about 10pm and it turns out that they have actually started charging even to get in the downstairs pub area. It was only $5 but I was surprised they did that. The place was not exactly pumping, actually it seemed kind of dead when I got there. There was a band doing covers and they were actually pretty good, I listened to them until they had a break and then decided I'd go for a walk around the area and grab a Ice Break Loaded from 7 11. I probably walked around for over 1/2 an hour before heading back to the pub.
On the way back I walked past a few guys that were sitting on a street corner and one of the guys started yelling at me about fighting him or some shit. I should probably mention about now that up until I was 17 I did martial arts all my life, first Karate and then Taekwondo. I was a state champion 5 times in a row and national champion twice. Even though I have not been training for years I am pretty confident in my ability.
Anyway that guy was talking shit but I did not give a fuck and just walked past him and he was all talk and did not do anything, but a group of 4 guys and a girl were near by and he started yelling at them. They were heading in the same direction as me and one of the guys (who looked a little drunk) said to me 'would you back me up' in relation to getting into a fight with the loud mouth guy. I said 'Fuck yeah, he was giving me shit too.' We ended up talking all the way back to the pub. I didn't see them again after I got back in though.
When I got back in the place was a lot more full of people. The band was back on and people were dancing, an ambulance came to save some chick who looked like she was dying or something, cops came and searched some guy on suspicion he was a drug dealer or something. I also discovered that they had added a small room off to the side that had a DJ spinning dubstep tunes. I sometimes like to listen to some dubstep but I had never thought it would be music to dance to... and I was right. The few people that were dancing looked they were spastic and must have been on lots of drugs.
I didn't really have any plans to go upstairs at any point but, I did... and this is why. For some reason a guy that was with a girl who looked like his girlfriend walked up to me, pinched my nipples, and said 'you should come up stars with us' ... and so I did. Thinking about it now, I don't know if they wanted to get freaky with a threesome or something, but the thought did not occur to me at the time. At the time my mindset was more just 'wtf? ok whatevers dude' ... also his girlfriend was hot and I was hoping they might have some similarly hot friend for me or something. But I lost them upstairs.
After a little but upstairs I decided to hit the dance floor. It was very crowded so I figured I could just blend in. Most of the time I was dancing by myself. At one point some girl started hitting me with her bag repeatedly... I have no idea why though.
I did dance with a girl, actually danced with the same girl a couple of times, and there is a little bit of a story to go with it.
I noticed this girl really early on in the night, actually while I was walking around outside I noticed her arriving to the pub. She stood out to me for a couple of reasons. She was pretty good looking but she was wearing what looked like guys jeans and a guys shirt. I actually thought she was a lesbian. Also, for some reason, she just seemed like a tough chick, just by the way she moved. I later found out I was right about that.
When I saw her upstairs on the dance floor, she was actually yelling at a guy (We will call him guy 1) that was hitting on her and pushing him away, roughly. After the guy was not leaving, one of her friends (we will call him guy 2), a massive guy, walked up to the guy and started yelling at him. Then he pushed him hard and the guy went flying and landed hard on his back. Then the guy disappeared into the crowd.
A little after this the same girl was dancing near me and looked at me, I gave her a smile and suprisingly she smiled back. She started moving towards me on the dance floor and we ended up doing the dance I can only explain as the 'girl dances with back to guy while there is a lot grinding of crotch to ass action happening.' This surprised me after seeing what happened to the last guy to try anything with her. After a bit of this, she grabbed one of her girl friends and started dancing with her.
A moment later I noticed guy 1 and the guy 2 standing in front of each other on the dance floor. Then guy 1 dived onto guy 2 and started beating the shit out of him. I put an arm around guy 2 to try and pull him off guy 1 but the bouncers jumped in and grabbed them. It took 3 bouncers to hold back guy 2. They got taken away and the dance floor cleared out a lot but I stayed there and suprisingly after they got taken away the girl started dancing with me again.
Later, just before closing time, I got a fucking surprise. A guy I used to hang out with a few years ago appeared in front of me looking just as surprised as I was. We started talking and after a while I was updated on the old group and was surprised to find out that 2 of them now have kids, one owns his own restaurant, another is working as the bar manager at that restaurant. He was also there alone so at closing time I offered him a ride home. On the way he told me he is working in the mines, 6 weeks on site and then 2 weeks back home. He said he is heading back on Monday and will call me next time he is back home to hang out and catch up more.
After I dropped him off I drove home and fapped.
TLDR; went out, watched fight, grinded on a bitch, met an old friend, did not get sexy times, fapped.
I got to the place at about 10pm and it turns out that they have actually started charging even to get in the downstairs pub area. It was only $5 but I was surprised they did that. The place was not exactly pumping, actually it seemed kind of dead when I got there. There was a band doing covers and they were actually pretty good, I listened to them until they had a break and then decided I'd go for a walk around the area and grab a Ice Break Loaded from 7 11. I probably walked around for over 1/2 an hour before heading back to the pub.On the way back I walked past a few guys that were sitting on a street corner and one of the guys started yelling at me about fighting him or some shit. I should probably mention about now that up until I was 17 I did martial arts all my life, first Karate and then Taekwondo. I was a state champion 5 times in a row and national champion twice. Even though I have not been training for years I am pretty confident in my ability.
Anyway that guy was talking shit but I did not give a fuck and just walked past him and he was all talk and did not do anything, but a group of 4 guys and a girl were near by and he started yelling at them. They were heading in the same direction as me and one of the guys (who looked a little drunk) said to me 'would you back me up' in relation to getting into a fight with the loud mouth guy. I said 'Fuck yeah, he was giving me shit too.' We ended up talking all the way back to the pub. I didn't see them again after I got back in though.When I got back in the place was a lot more full of people. The band was back on and people were dancing, an ambulance came to save some chick who looked like she was dying or something, cops came and searched some guy on suspicion he was a drug dealer or something. I also discovered that they had added a small room off to the side that had a DJ spinning dubstep tunes. I sometimes like to listen to some dubstep but I had never thought it would be music to dance to... and I was right. The few people that were dancing looked they were spastic and must have been on lots of drugs.
I didn't really have any plans to go upstairs at any point but, I did... and this is why. For some reason a guy that was with a girl who looked like his girlfriend walked up to me, pinched my nipples, and said 'you should come up stars with us' ... and so I did. Thinking about it now, I don't know if they wanted to get freaky with a threesome or something, but the thought did not occur to me at the time. At the time my mindset was more just 'wtf? ok whatevers dude' ... also his girlfriend was hot and I was hoping they might have some similarly hot friend for me or something. But I lost them upstairs.
After a little but upstairs I decided to hit the dance floor. It was very crowded so I figured I could just blend in. Most of the time I was dancing by myself. At one point some girl started hitting me with her bag repeatedly... I have no idea why though.
I did dance with a girl, actually danced with the same girl a couple of times, and there is a little bit of a story to go with it.
I noticed this girl really early on in the night, actually while I was walking around outside I noticed her arriving to the pub. She stood out to me for a couple of reasons. She was pretty good looking but she was wearing what looked like guys jeans and a guys shirt. I actually thought she was a lesbian. Also, for some reason, she just seemed like a tough chick, just by the way she moved. I later found out I was right about that.
When I saw her upstairs on the dance floor, she was actually yelling at a guy (We will call him guy 1) that was hitting on her and pushing him away, roughly. After the guy was not leaving, one of her friends (we will call him guy 2), a massive guy, walked up to the guy and started yelling at him. Then he pushed him hard and the guy went flying and landed hard on his back. Then the guy disappeared into the crowd.
A little after this the same girl was dancing near me and looked at me, I gave her a smile and suprisingly she smiled back. She started moving towards me on the dance floor and we ended up doing the dance I can only explain as the 'girl dances with back to guy while there is a lot grinding of crotch to ass action happening.' This surprised me after seeing what happened to the last guy to try anything with her. After a bit of this, she grabbed one of her girl friends and started dancing with her.A moment later I noticed guy 1 and the guy 2 standing in front of each other on the dance floor. Then guy 1 dived onto guy 2 and started beating the shit out of him. I put an arm around guy 2 to try and pull him off guy 1 but the bouncers jumped in and grabbed them. It took 3 bouncers to hold back guy 2. They got taken away and the dance floor cleared out a lot but I stayed there and suprisingly after they got taken away the girl started dancing with me again.
Later, just before closing time, I got a fucking surprise. A guy I used to hang out with a few years ago appeared in front of me looking just as surprised as I was. We started talking and after a while I was updated on the old group and was surprised to find out that 2 of them now have kids, one owns his own restaurant, another is working as the bar manager at that restaurant. He was also there alone so at closing time I offered him a ride home. On the way he told me he is working in the mines, 6 weeks on site and then 2 weeks back home. He said he is heading back on Monday and will call me next time he is back home to hang out and catch up more.
After I dropped him off I drove home and fapped.
TLDR; went out, watched fight, grinded on a bitch, met an old friend, did not get sexy times, fapped.
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