Frustration

Fair warning - a little venting incoming! 

Trying to lose weight sucks...plain and simple.  Granted, I've got all the good reason to do it, and have been hitting the gym now every workday morning since the beginning of the year.  With that, it's definately become habit and not something I even really have to think about.  But what is getting on my nerves some is that I haven't been dropping any significant weight since I started off.  By this time early last year - after going through the same fresh start on Jan 2 - I had shed a good 15 pounds.  Then I broke the 'ol leg mid-year, and fell off the bandwagon.  As easy as it was to get into the habit of going, after several weeks laid up and out of the ritual, it was just as easy to stop.  But this year...no substantial loss yet.

Fortunately, I know there is good coming from it.  I work out with a heart rate monitor on during my cardio, and look to peg my rate at the recommend 80% of 200-age - or 149.  I've actually been averaging in the high 150s or low 160s for the 30 minutes I spend on the Elliptical of Death™ each morning.  The good thing is I've managed to steadily increase the resistance on the machine over the past 10 weeks by a few bars, so I know I'm in better cardiovascular health than when I started.  Add in a steadily increasing ability to push more weight around on the various Cybex machines we have in our gym, and I'm building some muscle mass it would seem.  So that's a good thing too.  But damnit - I want the scale to start showing some love!   

Ah well, all is still good.  I know going is the right thing to do, and I know it'll start coming off eventually.  I'll be starting a running training schedule in the very near future to get into shape enough to accompany my wife on a 5k run in May.  That should help.  When my wife started running more and more, she started losing the weight in droves (she's currently down 65 or so pounds since she started - talk about inspiration!).  So, as much as I HATE running...I guess I should start getting used to it.

B.

Expectations

Some things...

...just should not be questioned.

Holy Anticipation Batman

It's been quite some time since I've really looked forward to seeing a movie in the theaters. Actually, ever since finally putting the last part of the home theater into place (the 65" HDTV), going to the theaters is usually more as an opportunity to get out with the family and enjoy the time with them than it is about the movie itself.

That changes this weekend. That changes with 300!!!

I'll admit it - I'm a huge sucker for visuals in a movie. I could care less if 99.9987% of a movie is made on a computer - if it looks good, it's good in my book. Take that and mix it with a unique visual style and I'm even more turned on. Take for example (and not by coincendence) Sin City. The use of black and white, with seemingly random additions of color was just awesome! By all accounts, it seems that 300 will deliver everything there in spades.

Then...who the hell doesn't love carnage! Well, my wife for one, but I'll thank my lucky stars she rocks and lets me have these little guilty pleasures from time to time. Anyways, the trailers makes 300 look like all the fight scenes of Gladiator strung back-to-back-to-back and then amped up on the strongest steroids known to man. The clips that are out also show some Bullet Time™-esque camera work, which I also love seeing as I'm a huge fan of The Matrix and that style of filming. It almost makes you feel like you're heartrate is slowing down a tad during the scene...

Sooo yes...I'm totally amped to see the flick, and am going in with HUGE expectations. I just hope I'm not setting myself up for a nasty fall (but somehow I think I'm safe ). I'll close with a clip of exactly what I'm talking about. Enjoy!

B.

Truth of business travel - one man's perspective

I’m sure there are plenty out in our community that travel on business from time to time. My business travel is far from extensive, with about 3-5 trips per year ranging from a few days to a week at most. I’m currently down in Dallas taking in an annual conference put on my a professional association I’m a member of. You know…the kind of conference that looks good on that performance appraisal at the end of the year.

Well, got in yesterday afternoon after a routine flight down from Newark. Unremarkable shuttle ride from the airport, and a quick check-in to the hotel. Then, was time to hunt down something for dinner. Fortunately, I have a boss who I’m convinced never even opens the expense report and just approves it, so racking up a dinner bill isn’t an issue. I hit the restaurant at the top of the hotel, up on the 38th floor in downtown Dallas. The sight is incredible as I get there just around sunset. A pair of cocktails while I wait for them to start sitting for dinner, and then a meal of filet minion, sautéed mushrooms, and a nice glass of merlot. Finish the whole thing off with a chocolate masterpiece with fresh berries.

Sounds pretty sweet eh? I’d think so too, so then why can I only think of last night in light of the words of ‘ol Captain Barbossa:

“For too long I've been parched of thirst and unable to quench it. Too long I've been starving to death and haven't died. I feel nothing.”

Not even the most lavish dinner I was able to procure was able to back off the feeling that comes with every one of these trips – loneliness. With a family 1300 miles away, stuck sitting at a dinner table that I’d give anything to share with my wife, and only a book to keep me company, it’s almost overwhelming.

So, for you who travel routinely and with greater frequency than I – how do you do it? How do you shake the feeling of being dislocated from your friends and family and be able to enjoy the sights, sounds, and tastes of the locale you find yourself in? All I do know is that I’m looking forward to nothing more than the flight home tomorrow and getting back to what I know – screaming kids, cats that hate me, a wife breaking my stones from time to time, you know…normal life. 

B.