118kg.

I got a tape measure!

Week 2 Pics

Moving forward

I was going to do an update with pictures and all that.. but the evening really got away from me :/ I’ll try do one tomorrow after my gym session – it’s earlier than usual – 6:30, which means I’ll have to fly to get to gym on time :/ -why did I say yes, dammit- also means I’ll need to eat around 4. I have a quiz on the Atkins audiobook I’ve been listening to, so mmm I’ll tell you all how that went afterwards In all honesty, I’m simply feeling confused by it all.. let’s hope second time round’s a charm…

Continued from part one…

Get out of debt

It seems that tattoo one ran away with me a bit there.. my apologies – but to be honest, there really isn’t much to say about my debt from last year. I ended the year more or less as much in debt as when I started it, barring the monthly installments to the car and personal loan that was taking by debit order. This is definitely a place that needs more work going forward.

Blog more

After raving about how I’m going to blog 4 times a month ending with 12 a month by December, I’m left with a bit of embarrassment-pie on my face as I think I lasted until February before fading exquisitely. To my defense, I managed to post 3 posts, I think to tilt near the end of last year, so that must count for something, no? What I’ve realized this year is that my time is precious, and as such, I’m not sure I want to commit to posting a certain amount of times. But as these things go – it seems that simply not setting a goal has kind of helped inspire me to write more – especially with the fitness thing – I’ll hopefully actually end up being a lot more prolific, if everything holds out – but if not – I honestly don’t mind. But let me know if you think I should be posting more often and I’ll give it a try if you guys love me enough… *grin*feed-my-ego-now*grin*

Build Apps

Again, like with blogging, I’ve realized that my time is probably better spent elsewhere at the moment. It’s not a goal I’m abandoning, but rather one I’m postponing until I can really pour love into these things. I’m toying with a few ideas, and maybe something comes to fruition this year still, but I can’t really see myself focusing strongly on any of my ideas for a while still, unfortunately.

Lose Weight

I’ve written quite a bit about this recently already, affectionately titled ‘Operation CamLite’, but suffice it to say, 2011 finished with me about 1kg heavier than when I started it, which makes this one of those goals that I failed miserably, which is even more compounded by me REALLY wanting to achieve something last year – but as I’ve said – I’m deciding to do things differently this year.

Read more books

Funny enough, in January I quipped that I wanted to get a Kindle – and I actually went ahead and got it. With my new job in town, I started riding the train, and this freed up a considerable amount of free time everyday that I get to read, sleep or read the paper, and sometimes watch some comedy or series on my way home. And to this end (and cycling and reading at gym), the Kindle has become an awesome piece of kit.

Ok, so this year, I managed to finish off:

1. The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
2. Pagan Christianity by Barna/Viola
3. The Presence of the Kingdom by Jacques Ellul (Started on it)
4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
5. 1984 by George Orwell – wow what an ending!
6. Loving Our Kids on Purpose by Danny Silk
7. Have a New Kid by Friday by Kevin Leman
8. Effective Parenting in a defective world by Chip Ingram
9. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

Then, I also finished off Smashing book 1, Free prize inside by Seth Godin, Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (what a book!), started Two views of Hell (it’s interesting but tedious), started an AWESOME eBook on app development (I forget the name – but hit me up if you’d like me to look it up), and I feel like I’m forgetting something, but that’s 7 complete with 3 in progress! Oh yes, I got the Steve Jobs biography for Christmas, but I’m counting that as a 2012 book..

And that’s that, it seems. 2011 was an interesting year, full of accomplishments and a few ‘failures’ – but all in all, I’ve come out keen to make 2012 ‘work’. This realization has been building in me the last few weeks – and that is that my life isn’t going to change unless I make a concerted effort. Also, I’m loving the impact my friends and family have on my life. I look forward to what 2012 brings with it!

It’s been just over a year since I wrote my first new year plans post (strange that.. *cough*) and although there is much I didn’t fulfill, there is actually a lot that came to pass – which has left me pretty stoked. So, in the hopes of this coming somewhat of a tradition (for as long as it proves useful) I plan to kick the asses of a few things this year. But, before I get into the nitty gritty, I thought a bit of a retrospective introspective would be cool and that’s what this post will be all about.

A quick recap.

If I’m going to be able to give a decent recap on 2011, I’m going to need to remind you (and myself somewhat) of all the things I planned to accomplish – so, here goes:

1. Get a divorce
2. Get a tattoo
3. Get out of debt
4. Blog more
5. Build out some of my ideas
6. Lose weight
7. Read more books (from:I want to read more)

Alright – so quickly – there were a few that I didn’t put on – one of them to get a raise in my income (to a specific amount) – which I got, amazingly – it was quite unplanned, and just happened, so that was pretty awesome. The beginning of 2011 was actually quite tough. My sis got married, and the ex took me to maintenance caught all over the same weekend in March (well Saturday/Monday) and it all seriously freaked me out, added to this was the possibility of losing my job, and working HARD right through Christmas to push out a new web-application for our work also by March (which we did in Snaply.com). – so by the third month, I was a bit (quite a lot) of a wreck.

But then it all started turning around. A little slowly at first, but I got a new job – as mentioned, the divorce proceedings moved along and we managed to come to agreement (should go through in the next month or 2), and well, I managed to achieve at least some of my goals.

Get a divorce

So, the divorce thing I think I’ve covered. It’s been 2 years – 2010 was TOUGH, 2011 I think I came to terms with it, and really was a year of recouping and regrouping. As I said, we’re not officially there -yet- but we’re both happy with our agreement, so it’s really just a matter of signing and submitting and we should be done. phew.

Get a tattoo

I’ve been wanting a new tat for a while now, and although I didn’t really know what, I spent most of last year with it in the back of my head. I had initially wanted Nick Smal to do it for me, but he got too busy – so maybe this year he’ll be able to do me one – but in September, I ended up – thanks to Katy’s recommendation – going to Tyler Murphy from Sins of Style. I didn’t get the Phoenix idea I mentioned – although I’m planing that one for this year as a full sleeve (pretty excited for it) – and will probably get Tyler to do it as well.

For the longest time I’ve wanted ‘Faith Hope and Love’ tattooed on me somewhere. I was actually aiming to get it done as my previous tattoo – but thankfully I didn’t, because the design was shit, and the tat I got (~beloved~ on my chest) didn’t come out that fantastically.

So, when I was trying to figure what to get last year and I’d decided to only get the Phoenix after the divorce is through, I remembered my FHL idea. So I took Tyler a pic of the very cool script on the cover of Maylene and the Sons of Disaster’s second album  – “ii”.

The drawing took close on 3 hours – starting with a free-hand maker drawing which he refined until I was happy with the general look and feel and placement.

After that he transferred it to paper, and started drawing out the words, reiterating until I was happy. Then he re-traced that onto my skin and the outline started. Having got there around 2, it was now close to 5pm, so we just had time for the lines, which took probably just over an hour.

The next step was letting it heal, and I went home very proud, but almost not being able to wait for the colouring process – my head spinning with ideas – should I leave it black and white, or super-coloured, with gradients flowing blues, greens, oranges, yellows and red. But I had almost 2 months to wait, the next booking available was only on 10 December. I think the wait was good, as it helped me get the cash together – and settle on a gray-scale gradient for the ‘colouring’.

After waiting around about the Saturday morning I went to finish it all off, I settled down for the long haul as I lay back on the psychologist/tattoo couch and Tyler started doing his thing. It took just over 2 1/2 hours to complete, with a few 2-3 minute breaks thrown in here and there, and quite a few times where I thought (but never said) “please can we rather carry on with this tomorrow, it hurts,” but overall it really wasn’t too bad, and it was so very much worth the pain!

I honestly can’t wait for my next one – and am already dreaming up something to get at this year’s Southern Ink Exposure.. ha! but the next big one will be the sleeve for sure! – And Tyler’s definitely the guy I’m getting to do it – he’s stuff is tight! and he’s damn good at what he does – I’m seriously impressed!

…that’s it so far. I’ll continue with the wins and misses soon! (continued here)

Image via Wikipedia (contrary to what you might think, this isn't me)

Last night I did my first weights day with Justin (my trainer, for those of you who might think this sounds a little more sexy than you were expecting…)

I’ve been listening to the Atkins audiobook the last few days, and probably a little ill-advised, I went to Spur for a pre-workout protein boost. Ordering a rib-n-wings special (it’s bottomless on Thursdays) – but no basting and no chips or rings (it was a little bland but salty).. I munched through a plate and a bit (probably like 1/8 of the 2nd plate) and finished up around 7, with enough time (i thought) for my food to settle before my 7:30 gym session.

On the floor on time, I met up with Justin and we walked to the weights section where he laid down one of those hard-but-spongy mat things that people always seem to do the most uncomfortable things on. Thankfully I just had to do pushups. Pushups. I suck at pushups. Funnily, he asked me if I had been to the army or done any military service – as he lets them get off without doing pushups. lol. me? in the Army?!?! Funny guy..  But, that just meant I had to do them… I should have lied. I think I made about 10 – or maybe 8 – I wasn’t really counting and Justin says it’s more important to ‘burn out’ than hit a certain number. For the sake of tracking, I kinda wish I had been though. Next time.

Waiting a minute or so, I got on with my second set, a few ‘normal’ – leg straight – ones, then I did about 10 more (maybe 6 or 7) with knees-down, acting as a pivot point. Looks like a mix of these too (full marine position – and half-base ‘probie’ style) is the way forward.

After that, we did some chest pull down things – I did 20 at 40kgs. Justin put it up to 50 for the second set. I struggled to get to 5.. (fail!) sigh

Then we headed to do inverted pushups. – I lay on the ground, feet on a bench with a bar above me, and set myself up so that my body was straight (and off the ground), then pulled myself (well my chin) up to the bar. So, probably managed about 6 or 7 of these too – They’re TOUGH! second set was about 5. Actually, come to think of it, I think I did these before the lateral pulldown thingies.. damn my memories’ foggy..

Next was some free weights, starting with a set of 12ish – then 8-ish  shoulder raises (I call them standing angels) at 5kg per arm before we hit the bicep curls. 8kgs per hand and I *think* I got to about 15 or 20 before caving.

Then as we waited for set 2, I started getting dizzy.

Maybe it was the meat and weights, as my tummy and arms played tug-o-war with my veins. Maybe it was a bit of performance anxiety.. who knows. But it was uncomfortable and possibly disastrous, so we called it a day before I puked and fainted on somebody.

I headed for the showers, but wasn’t feeling particularly fantastic so sat on the bench instead. It took me a few take-towel-out-put-it-back times before I realised I wasn’t getting any better and showering would be crap, so I put on my ‘outdoor clothes’, grabbed some OJ from the Kauai (more like ‘tentatively took’) and crawled home – rather groggily and half-eyed.. I really wasn’t feeling stellar.

I parked, stumbled upstairs and lay down for an hour or so then passed out and woke up a little late this morning for work. And that was Weights Day #1. Here’s hoping it gets better from here.

As an aside, I’m a little weirded out about what diet to use.. I think a semi-Atkins is in order. I’m really missing a chocolate or sweet or anything. Even a sugar in my tea would be nice.. but oh well – six pack tummy or bar one? I know who’ll win.

…and that’s all folks, I’m off to watch Underworld!

Second aside- today is a rest day – Lord Justin says I need the break – I’m too fat to run too often without splinting my shinnies, so that’s that.

It’s a strange time to be alive. I blame the time. Now. I have been experiencing a strange phenomenon. I seem to fluctuate daily between being amped and excited for what I can achieve this year and being totally lethargic, not really keen or believing that any battle will be won.

It’s a strange feeling, one I’m not sure I’m entirely comfortable with. It’s not so much that I’m not used to either state of being, as I have a tendency to fluctuate through them, but usually over the course of a month at least. It’s been weird that it’s happening almost a few times daily.

I blame the time. The reason, I’m telling myself, is because we’re at the crux of a new year while still not fully over the last. 2011, it seems, still has a hold on me (illustrated simply by my urge to empower it every time I write the date) , but the effect is proving to be downright frustrating. One of my biggest goals this year is to lose weight. and lots of it. But, this oscillating is effecting that instead, I go from eating well and exercising when I feel enthused, to throwing it all out and eating pizza pushing midnight after already having dinner. And it’s flipping irritating.

I think the frustration goes further-  I have a few half-finished posts, all waiting for attention, but none that I’m really getting to. As I get amped, I seem to at least get a bunch of stuff done, but never really complete it-  then I hit the not-so-amped stage, and anything topical that I wanted to post loses it’s relevancy.

Anyone have any ideas on how to kick this stupidness in it’s head and bounce into a decent start for the year, please let me know.

How are you guys experiencing they year? Hopefully it’s a little easier than this…

As I said, I have a few quasi-posts lying around – so hopefully I get my stoke up soon enough.. I am super amped for this year, and what it could bring, I just need to exit this 2011 funk.

While reading through my RSS feeds recently, I stumbled upon this awesome little script. It gets Internet Explorer 6 through 8 to do all the cool little CSS3 I only thought I’d get to do in the cool boy’s browsers.. and all it takes is a simple call to an attached behaviour (which is unobtrusive, sits right in your css and the best part – it works. without javascript.  – enjoy!)

CSS3PIE is the script. PIE stands for Progressive Internet Explorer . It’s seems amazing – currently it handles (full or partially) border-radius, box-shadow, border-image, multiple background images and linear gradient as a background image which is an awesome start. It’s still a young project with active development so there’s lots more coming up!

You can get it here guys!

And let me know what you think – this is an awesome addition to your web design arsenal!