all i want is a good look at your underside

Exercise has been going pretty well. I know it's not what you're supposed to do, but I like weighing myself everyday. Because I tend to have a pretty regular routine (during the week, I eat the same cereal for breakfast, the same sandwich+applesauce+cereal bar lunch and only really deviate for dinner. The only other real possible unknown is whether I drink a Monster Lo-Carb at work. Because of this, I can treat my dinner as a science experiment. For instance, I ate at Fuddruckers and gained 2 lbs (expected, because that's about what I ate) but it stuck, despite exercise and took a couple days to get rid of. I ate at Souper Salad and ate a lot of food (again, nearly 2 lbs) but it was gone that night.

I've been running, in addition to Wii Fit. I'm going to try to keep to a 3-4 times a week schedule. I think that if I run less, I just fall out of the routine, but if I run more, my shins hurt. I'm not focusing so much on speed this time around, as opposed to just distance. Yesterday I did somewhere around 2.5 miles in about 20 minutes and walked approximately one more mile for cool down.

All told, I've lost about 10 lbs in the past two weeks. Given that I've increased my activity level pretty significantly while also cutting silly foods (sometimes I would eat breakfast tacos on Monday at work despite the fact that I had a bunch of cereal in the morning -- also, I'm not eating as much cheese) and making some cuts in portions (no more eating til I feel stuffed).

I've started some work on future guitar work. So far, I made a 7.25" radius sanding block (always wanted to try a true vintage Fender neck radius), I've made a neck template (a telecaster neck with a different headstock shape...kind of like this:


I'm going to work on a truss rod routing jig today, and then I might start on a pine prototype neck sometime later this week/this weekend. Maybe I'll try to take pictures of the process.

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Back when they were new (early Junior High) I read about half of the Animorphs book series, but they became kind of hard to locate, so I stopped reading them. I really liked the series back then and would think about them every once in a while...a month or two ago, I got really curious about them and decided to check if the series actually ever "ended" or if they just stopped coming out. After I found that there was a real end, I decided to try to read them all. I downloaded all the PDFs (omitted the "choose your own ending" stuff) and started reading them.

I really expected to start reading them, decide they were too cheesy and just quit reading them... They were really cheesy, but I really liked one of the side-series of books (There were 54 regular series books where typically one character tells the whole story, 4 "Megamorphs" books where they alternate by chapter and the "Chronicles" books where characters other than the main 6 tell the story). The Chronicles series was really good. The regular series and Megamorphs ranged from absurdly childish/cheesy to really good. All in all, I think if the story were condensed to about 10-15 longer but more detailed books, it might have been better.

I started reading the books because I wanted something kind of light hearted (and also, I suppose, to reminisce about things I did as a kid). In the beginning, they were almost too light hearted, but the final 10 books or so were pretty dark. I was actually genuinely shocked at some of the things that happened. I know lots of people considered some of the stuff in Harry Potter to be dark, but compared to this, Harry Potter was really childish. The plot is a fairly typical, "a group of # ordinary kids have to save the entire planet!" kind of story, but the way war is portrayed is very different. In the typical stories, bad things happen, but they're often balanced by this or that; in the Animorphs books, things don't always balance out so well.

Strange. I was looking for something light hearted, but wound up with something so dark...

Bleh

Erin and I got Wii Fit...so now my video games tell me I'm fat =\ I have been gaining some weight since winter started and I wasn't running. Too damn cold. I didn't realize I'd gotten to just over 200 lbs, though. Given that the game measures BMI based solely on weight and height (muscle/bone structure totally ignored) I'm not 100% confident in it. Especially given that I have all but mastered all of the strength exercises on my first try... I know I'm overweight, but not certain I should rely on the game to tell me how far to go. For me, though, I'd like to head down to something like 185...maybe 175-ish...

I just really don't want to totally stop eating or anything like that, like I did in high school. Body image has never been one of my strong points...I'm better about it now than I used to be, but we'll see if I go crazy or not. Really, I just want to lose some weight so my pants fit well again and I won't have to go buy new ones...although, I'm a little worried my thighs have gotten a bit too big for some of my pants (stupid running). I'm going to start running again (I went on Tuesday, was hoping to go tonight, but it's supposed to rain/be cold); I've also been skating with Kerstan about every other week.

Amazon had my bandsaw in stock (still free shipping, but $25 more than Woodcraft had it). The increase in price is worth it to get the thing more than 2 months earlier, though, in my opinion. Given the way Amazon's free shipping works, though, it won't ship out til Monday (and I ordered it this past Monday). Oh well.

For once in this life, I better do something right

I ordered my bandsaw this past weekend. It was on sale. However, I just got an email saying it's on backorder until the end of May. Stupid. I need to decide if I want to wait, or if I want to get a refund and try to find it somewhere else; I'm inclined to just wait...I got 10% off and free shipping.

I was really looking forward to it coming in sometime relatively soon so I could get started on making my jigs and things for more guitar stuff...I can probably do a lot of it with hand tools and my router, but I was holding out until I could cut things a bit more precisely.

I went to Katy this past Saturday, which was fine...but the drive back was a shit city bird bath. It usually takes 2-2.5 hours. This time, it took almost 4. First, they were doing road work near exit 695 on I-10. This is the exit to get onto 71. When I drove past, there wasn't anything indicating the way to go (they took the signs down, I guess), except for a break in those bright orange barrels with the road coming out. The shitty part is that, if you miss the exit, there are about 10 miles before the next one. So I back tracked and missed the exit on my way back East (same roadwork bullshit). I u-turned and was going West again. The construction crews were putting up one of those light-up temporary signs telling me where the exit was. Fuckers. That wasted about a half hour. THEN, on 71, the police had the highway blocked off...and I wound up having to drive North to 290. I called Omar to verify that the FM road I was on went to 290 and had him look up what was going on...apparently there was zero visibility due to smoke. Some sort of fire. The best part was that there were no signs specifying anything.

My parents made a huge deal about me telling them what to buy me for my birthday this year...so I struggled with it and gave them a list of stuff...then I was too busy with work to go back until this past weekend (almost 2 months after my birthday) and they STILL hadn't picked the things up...and just gave me cash (my ORIGINAL request). Frustrating.

I almost got a Facebook the other day, but Erin showed it to me and it just doesn't interest me. I don't know...posting pictures and looking at pictures seems to be a major emphasis...I don't care about that kind of thing at all. Plus, I'd kind of want to have my name be Deuce McGravy...Amber, I know you want me to have a facebook...can you try to persuade me? The only reason I can really think of is to know when and if people I know have died...which is kind of depressing.

I was getting my muskets cleaned when came this rumbling from the deep

What have I been up to lately?

- Working a lot (typically 10-12 hours on weekdays, 2-6 on weekends)
- Playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl (I'm trying to finish it up 100%. I have almost everything except one sticker (and as a result, one trophy) just stupid little things that randomly appear and I have to find because I'm such a completion whore)
- Skating (I've skated twice for 2.5 and 4 hours...VERY sore afterward)
- Considering buying a bandsaw (will make cutting things much easier. Considering a 10inch benchtop Jet)
- Spending time with Erin where I can (most weekends, we just lounge around. It's nice to just relax)
- Thinking a lot about building a guitar neck. I'm trying to plan everything out as far as I can, so there won't be many surprises. The first attempt will be just a one piece neck from a 2x4. If I can make something that looks decent out of that, I'll move onto something functional. I'll route it for a truss rod, but probably won't spend the $10 on that, unless the neck just looks really good.

I've been listening to lots of different music right now. Going back to late high-school and listening to some punk. Flogging Molly, Gogol Bordello, The Dropkick Murphys and Rancid (and whatever Pandora decides sounds like them). I've been listening to some rap that Pandora Radio defines as having "boastful lyrics" and "dancable beats" Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, and a bunch of stuff like that. Then I've also been listening to the Pandora Radio stations I've seeded with Neutral Milk Hotel, Daniel Johnston, The Mountain Goats, Two Gallants and a few others.

Two posts in one day...

Also, that woman who had 8 kids recently. She's a total idiot. Not just because I don't personally want kids -- she already had 6, no job or reasonable way to pay for the kids she already had. Selfish bitch.

The most appalling thing I've seen, though, is when she was asked how she planned to provide for the kids and she said, "I'm providing myself to my children. I'm loving them unconditionally, accepting them unconditionally, everything I do. I'll stop my life for them and be present with them and hold them and be with them. And how many parents do that?"

Maybe money can't buy you love, but love can't replace money when it comes to putting food in your stomach.

If she had them through IVF as she claims, the doctor who implanted them is a douchebag too. Absolutely NO reason for more than one or two to be implanted.

Why are people so fucking stupid?

Holy shit!

A rat just came up through the upstairs toilet.

I went upstairs to eat my breakfast (my usual morning routine) and it smelled like rat piss. I was worried that there was a rat hiding somewhere pissing up the place, so I followed my nose, so to speak. I found my way to the little half bathroom we have up here...lifted the toilet lid to find that it was empty. This toilet slowly drains and we don't really use it (sometimes I do if I don't feel like going downstairs to piss, but it's just a small toilet and it's awkward to sit on, so deuce is out of the question. There was no water in it and the smell seemed to be coming from there so I thought maybe it was just the post-toilet pipes stinking up the place...so I flushed the toilet. As it was filling up, a rat came right up through the drain.

I closed the lid and tried to find something to pick it up with and at least get it out of the house (I didn't want to smash it in the toilet or anything dramatic like that). I got a box and some packing material my monitor came in to wrap around my hand to try to usher it into the box...however, when I opened the lid, it fucking dove down the hole. I waited for a bit and just decided to flush it. I flushed twice...closed the lid. It's been about 15 minutes...I don't think they can hold their breath for that long.

What the fuck.

I hope it didn't die. I feel bad killing stuff like that. I feel more like, "You don't have to die, you just can't live here." However, I didn't have the time to sit around waiting for it to come back up (if it would....) Not only that, but I don't wan to potentially get sick if it bit me.

Has your hair always been that pointy?

We bought a hedgehog over the weekend. He's still just a baby, so his spines are really sharp, especially when he's grumpy (always). We named the little guy Walter...figured it is fitting for such a grumpy thing. We've been holding him and trying to socialize him, but it takes time. He still gets pretty freaked out when he sees things move. He lives in a big 105qt. Sterilite storage box on our dresser. Oh, he also uses a litter box (most of the time).

I haven't started on my next guitar projects -- mostly because I need access to a bandsaw to rough cut some stuff for my templates. I could also use my dad's edge sander while I'm there, which would help a lot. It's too cold to work outside and too messy to work inside...so I'm going to have to figure that out. I may just cordon off a section of the upstairs and try to contain all the dust in there. We'll see how well that works out. Hopefully I'll be able to build templates to make a couple fretboard radiusing blocks, along with a neck fretboard radiusing jig for my router.. With that, I should be fine to build necks.

Erin's started school again, work is kind of crazy, so I didn't update. Sue me.