A Game of Global Conquest

(Less of a) Fatty, Fatty No-Friends

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:50:20 GMT

I started personal training at the end of October last year. Since that time I am down 3.4% body fat. Go team!

Still no friends though.

Old Dude

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:37:37 GMT

While I was looking at a running magazine in Borders the other day I happened to glance over to the old guy on my left who was looking at the Men's Interest section. He was flipping through a copy of Maxim, put that down, and picked up what appeared to be some sort of Playboy calendar and started flipping pages, looking at the pictures of naked girls right there in the store. It was very strange.

Paving Pathways for the Lost, the Bitter and Recluse

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:19:19 GMT

So, I've been attempting this online dating thing and, most recently, have been doing so through the site OkCupid. I chose this site because it had exactly what it was looking for in an online dating service: no cost. Up until now I haven't thought that the internet dating "scene" was a particularly fantastic place. The other day I ended up chatting with a woman on the site and the conversation really brought to light some of the reasons why this may be.

Women and men seem to have a real social disconnect that comes out online. Everyone knows there are some major differences to the way we think. If there weren't, we wouldn't have such books as "Men Are from Mars and Women are from..." some other planet. Probably Pluto since the book was written back in the day when Pluto still held that honor.

In order for some of this to make sense I need to provide a little back story. I was going through my potential matches and screening out the ones that I wasn't initially attracted to for either physical reasons or because they smoke or what have you. I do this pretty regularly so I notice when new people join the site. I had looked at a woman's profile and had decided I wasn't attracted. Soon after, I got an instant message from this person on the site. It turns out it wasn't actually the woman herself but was a friend of hers using her account to pre-screen people for the account owner (yeah, I don't know). I was now in the awkward place of edging around the fact that I really wasn't interested. She fortunately brought that question out very bluntly pretty early on.

The conversation might have ended right there (although she was pestering me a bit to give her exact specifics on why I was not attracted to her friend and where I would rate her on a 1 to 10 scale and what rating I would date) when I decided that, since I had nothing to lose, I'd ask her if she was hot and single. The response I got was, "You shouldn't say on your profile that religion is important to you if all you care about is sex."

Whoa. Back that wagon up.

And therein lies one of the major problems. As a guy, I can't actually come out and say that I want a potential mate to be physically attractive because that makes me shallow and, apparently, solely desirous of sex. It's important that I understand that whether or not I find a person physically attractive, that person is a beautiful snowflake and I should want to date them for that fact alone.

Since I can't come out and say such things, I have to be a bit more circumspect in my profile. As such it reads that I am looking for someone for whom health and fitness are important, and not just in a sense that Health and Fitness magazine is being used to even out the legs on their coffee table. Now, I'm not looking for America's Next Top Model or anything, but I don't think someone who exercises on a regular basis is a lot to ask.

Heap on top of this the fact that chatting online with someone is such a poor substitute for face to face interaction and the additional fact that it seems the average number of messages exchanged is three (I message, she messages back, I message back, I never hear from her again) and on top of that the fact that people in general often don't reply unless your message is staggeringly interesting, ends up leaving the online "scene" with a lot to be desired.

Interestingly, the only way I think things could be worse were if I were female. If so many women put "don't message me if you just want to hook up" in their profile it's probably because guys are doing just that. Which just goes to show that guys, in general, are pretty awful human beings.

In summary, please don't reply to this unless you're hot. Zing.

Children Are Drawn to Me

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:42:07 GMT

Today was kind of an odd day.

For those that don't know, I have a step-nephew and four step-nieces. Today I went with my father and stepmother down to her brother's house for a big family cookout. My youngest niece was born in 2000 and has literally never said a word to me because she was too shy.

That all changed today.

She started hanging out and chatting with me while we were killing time waiting for my father to be ready for the drive down. Pretty soon I became her new favorite person. She wanted to hang out with me all day. She was constantly trying to get me into the pool (where I learned I do not have the mass to beat my 6'2", 260lb nephew in wrestling), wanted me to teach her how to use my iPhone, and even politicked different riding accommodations so that she could ride with me on the way back home (it's a 2.5 hour trip). After getting home she wanted to watch me work out and helped me count push-ups. It sounds way less manly when an 8 year-old girl is counting them. Then, when it was time for her to go to bed she hugged me good night and started to walk out of the room, only returning to hug grandma and grandpa goodnight after they protested.

So, I'm not really sure what I did but we seem to be best friends now. The end.

The Story of a Shirt

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:01:43 GMT

I have this shirt. It's a pretty nice shirt. It's white and button-down. It's a very light shirt and somewhat opaque. I really like it.

A while ago, I wore this shirt to the Warped Tour. It's never really been the same since. While I was at the Tour, I tore the elbow on this shirt. It's still wearable, but I have to roll the sleeves up enough that the tear isn't really noticeable. It was a sad day for me and my shirt.

Since that day, I have looked into replacing the shirt. Everywhere I went had button down white shirts. Yet no place had one that could rival my shirt. The shirts were either too thick or too frilly. Many of them had weird flowers embroidered on them. Seriously, how emasculating is that?

Today I went into the Gap. The Gap is where I originally purchased my shirt. As I was browsing their selection I came across something that caught my eye. Could it be? Yes! It was my shirt. Only this one didn't have the hole in the elbow. I decided that no price was too great to pay for this shirt.

I eagerly headed to the register, shirt in hand. When the sales lady scanned the tag, the shirt rang up on sale 75% off. Oh, happy day! I once again have my shirt!

Goals and Pushing Myself

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:54:53 GMT

I had set for myself a goal of being at or below 200 lbs by August. I am happy to say that I achieved that goal a few days ago. This was pretty much the first measurable weight loss goal I've ever set for myself (all others have been along the lines of "get in shape"). I think I'm going to be aiming for 190 by October.

In other news, I ran a half-marathon last Wednesday. Not an actual race, but 13.1 miles around the lake. The last 5k was killer as my body pretty much didn't want to go any farther. I think my feet are still recovering. I'm happy to have made it though.

10 Miles

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:31:45 GMT

I got up early this morning and pushed through ten miles before work in 1:34'03". The last two miles were pretty killer and my legs currently feel like they don't want to support me but, you know, progress. I wish I had cut times for 5k, 10k, etc but my Nike+ doesn't seem to store that, just the pace I was running at each mile.

Also, Nike+. It's awesome.

Not a Fish

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:22:01 GMT

I had an in between day today. That's one of those days where I lifted arms the day before and I don't want to lift legs because I'm running the next day. Iver suggested that it would be a perfect day for swimming. So I went to the gym and proceeded to do laps in the pool. I'd thought to myself, "I'm in decent shape. I can run eight miles. Swimming should be a breeze."

Wrong.

In other news, I need to go to Panera more because it seems to be the hang out place for hot chicks.

Whoof

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:20:37 GMT

I did some interval training on the treadmill yesterday. No great length but was running for 45 seconds to a minute at 10-11 mph and then walking for 1.5-2 minutes. Rinse and repeat. When I went for a run this morning my hamstrings wanted nothing to do with me and my calves quickly joined in that song. Additionally, I really need to be starting morning runs at six or seven to really avoid the heat. All of this combined made for not my best run ever.

In other news, I think I may be pushing myself too hard. Interestingly I have no desire to stop or even slow down...

Running

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:13:58 GMT

I ran my second 5k this morning. I shaved about 30 seconds off of my time from my first 5k. It's still not fast, by any means, but I'm happy that it's getting faster.

Life Lessons

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:45:49 GMT

If you're thinking to yourself, "I'm too busy to work out tonight, I'll just go running outside at 11 AM," curb that desire. Trust me.

Another Tattoo Idea Everyone Will Hate

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:09:22 GMT

I'm not saying I would actually get this but I thought it was cool. Starting on the left side of my left pectoral, get a lightning bolt that branches down my side and toward, but not far into, my stomach. A real lightning bolt, mind you. Not the Gatorade symbol.

Two Cool Things Happened Today

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:19:17 GMT

1) I ran six miles which is a personal best for me. There was some walking in between miles two and three and miles four and five but still.
2) When my boss asked if I had any idea for a team outing this week while I am in Indy, I off-handedly commented that we should go to Iowa and help with flood relief. I then remarked that it would be really cool if we did something for some sort of charity. She looked around and found a place that we can donate our time to help with stocking and organizing donations for flood victims in Indiana (we shouldn't be running chainsaws or forklifts since we're all software developers).

Why my weekend was better than yours

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:15:16 GMT

First of all, I took Friday off. So to start off with it was a three day weekend. Add to that that I was traveling on Monday to get to Indiana and it's almost like a four day weekend (we'll choose to ignore that I was flying both Friday and Monday).

Friday evening I arrived in Jacksonville, Florida. Immediately I noticed that the weather was better than the crap we had been having up in Minnesota for the past two weeks or so (which had been depressing me). Krista picked me up at the airport and we crammed my luggage into her Smart car. If you've never been in one of these: it's a trip. We spent the evening just relaxing. It was great to finally see her again since it had been two years. Also, her parents are pretty cool and I got to chat with them Friday night and off and on throughout the weekend.

Saturday morning was lazy until we finally got around to heading to the beach where it was...lazy again. There was a little physical activity involved in some brief swims and me teaching Krista how to throw a Frisbee (and she said she couldn't be taught). I learned, once again, that I'm fairly bad with sunscreen. I burned the front of both of my legs from the knee down and got an interesting burn on my stomach. I say interesting because it's interwoven with places of non-burn where I actually managed to apply the appropriate amount of sunscreen.

After we cleaned ourselves off from the salt and the sand, we headed out to meet up with Krista's friends for the "Run For the Pies". Her friends, it turns out, are pretty cool. We all car pooled up to the actual race and hung out waiting for it to start.

This was my first time running in any kind of race and, when it's a 5k with about 1400 people, it turns out there's a kind of madness involved. Especially right at the start before the pack has really established itself to people's speeds. I pushed myself harder than I ever have running (not that this is saying too much for me). I didn't win a pie but I did finish in 26:15 which is a personal best for me (as I run about the same distance when working out). The combination of Florida heat and my sunburn made me feel like I was going to pass out after the race was over, but I don't count this against the weekend.

After the race, what was quite possibly the coolest thing happened at dinner. The five of us were sitting around the table. When the food came, one of Krista's friends said grace out loud. This blew my mind. I had forgotten what it was like to be with a group of people my own age, that I could relate and be friends with, who were also believers. It made me realize how much I miss it. This was further affirmed the next day when we went to a Bible Study with all of these same people.

Sunday, of course, was Father's Day. After the Bible Study we came back to Krista's parents house and helped prepare Father's Day dinner. I say helped prepare but really all they needed me to do was get down a bowl that was up high and stay out of the way for the rest. As the meal was being prepared there was an awesome Florida storm. It kept up for much longer than expected (as these things are usually short) and cooled things down enough that we were able to enjoy our meal outside. After dinner we got ice cream because, you know, mmmm...ice cream.

Krista and I followed this up with a trip to Starbuck's to just hang out and talk which was really nice. We then came back for a movie. I agreed to a chick flick since she is, in fact, a chick and we watched "The Holiday." It was pretty good. Some of the lines were just right on the nose about relationships and people feeling mangled by the process.

Krista had to work a half day on Monday so we didn't stay up to late. I packed while she went to sleep and then went to sleep myself. Monday I got to see her place of work and hang out at Barnes and Noble for a while until she got off. Then we did lunch and hung out at the mall, killing time before my flight.

All in all, the weekend was fantastic. I got to do an official run for the first, and I'm fairly certain not the last time. I got to meet some cool people who have the same beliefs I do. And I got to spend time with a person whose company I truly enjoy. How does your weekend stack up? That's what I thought.

Finally...

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:05:00 GMT

So I've been hitting the gym a lot lately. While I feel like I've been passing the mirror test (I think I look better in the mirror) it's been bothering me that I couldn't break my body out of my normal weight range. I've been converting fat to muscle but I was still staying within the 4-5 pound range I've been in for the past 2-3 years.

Today, I finally dropped under on the scale. Hopefully it wasn't just from dehydration.

A-hem

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:37:10 GMT

Now, I never claimed to know a lot about networking computers. Today I was trying to transfer files from my desktop to my laptop and I decided to just do it over our local network rather than transfer them to my flash drive. I noticed that my computers wouldn't see each other over the network and I figured it might be because the laptop was set up to be in the Baker Hill domain. So I decided to temporarily change the laptop to be part of the MSHOME work group figuring that I could switch it back after the files had transferred. I had to reboot my machine for the changes to take effect. Now I can't log into the laptop at all.

Whoopsy!

Hi, everybody

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:49:07 GMT

So, I know I don't post ever. First of all, sorry about that. I'd say I'll try to be better but we all know that probably won't happen. So I'll say I'll post whenever I damn please and if you don't like it, lump it.

Also, for those of you that don't read or have Facebook and are interested in personal details of my life: Jessa and I broke up.

You know what sucks?

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:23:37 GMT

When you're supposed to see your girlfriend and she gets stuck in an airport.

Hilarious

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:32:54 GMT

KatanaBoy27: hey dude, i just wanted to drop you an IM to talk about Amanda. Im not attacking you or anything, but its becomming very apparent to everyone that you're spending a ton of time with her and "into her." She's awesome and that's really cool, but you're kinda ignoring some other catapulters and its kinda awkward. I've had not only other catamonkies, but also counselors ask me what was going on and wanted me to talk to you.
I couldnt bring it up when you were in teh room with her, but i have to agree with the people who i've talked to. I just think you need to balance out more, and remember that she is really young and even though its fun that she might have a crush on you - you need to keep your professionalism with being a counselor. I know you wouldn't do anything, but i think most people are getting uncomfortable with it.
KatanaBoy27: I'm totally open to talking to you about this and i'd like to... so that you dont get the wrong impression that im attacking U.... i just ahvent' been able to catch you away from her :-)
KatanaBoy27: and yes, that was what Zach was referencing in the AIM message... he chimed in on it too.
KatanaBoy27: Really, its no big deal - i would just suggest backing off from spending so much time with only her at your side (and i know she's kinda shy without a lot of close friends), and on a personal level - watch yourself so that you're not getting attatched to her. It can happen quickly bro.
KatanaBoy27: Well i hope you're not pissed or anythign, and if you wanna talk tomorrow thats' cool, but im off to bed, and in all honestly, its not that big of a deal yet, its just kinda getting to the awkward phase ... and some people have voiced their oppinions to me that its inappropriate
KatanaBoy27: stupid and ugly monkeys mostly :-)
KatanaBoy27: anyhoo - im not trying to take the easy way out with only AOLing, but your doing 15minute stomach torture. So im going to sleep. Night bro

More snippets

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:24:45 GMT

maninthemusicbox (7:51:22 PM): Discussion from the room: "Her name is Jessa. That pretty much implies to me that she has to be hot. Ugly people don't have names like Jessa" - Zach

Snippet from the show Iver is watching right now: "You cut off my arm and chopped off my leg but now I have new ones!"

Snippets

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:33:41 GMT

I found some cool things while cleaning out my hard drive. OI'll likely be posting several of these.

8/17/2003:

JessaBucci (11:05:10 PM): you really know someone when you know their middle name
maninthemusicbox (11:05:39 PM): I'll tell you it eventually
JessaBucci (11:05:45 PM): like you know your good friends middle names, but not just everyones
maninthemusicbox (11:05:52 PM): I just like to keep it a relative secret
JessaBucci (11:06:03 PM): ok, fine
JessaBucci (11:06:15 PM): i won't push
maninthemusicbox (11:06:20 PM): This way you can't be one of those people that I meet over the summer and then never talk to again
maninthemusicbox (11:06:35 PM): If you want to know my middle name, you'll have to stay in touch
JessaBucci (11:06:40 PM): ok, fair enough

PSBTW

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:06:43 GMT

I'll be in Indiana starting tomorrow.

Building a better gym

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:26:00 GMT

Things not to do:

Only allow in people with local IDs.
Charge $15 a day for guests (or $40 a week).
Try to convince someone that having their license number will help in the event of a seizure.

All of these reasons make my gym in Minnesota better than L.A. Fitness here in Arizona.

Across the Universe

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:25:05 GMT

I saw this movie yesterday for the second time. The first time was on Saturday. It was even better this time. I'll likely end up seeing it a few more times while it's in theaters. Anyone who likes musicals should get off their butts and go see it.

Suggestions welcome

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 18:38:09 GMT

It looks more and more likely that I'm going to be selling my car. I've decided that I hate living in constant fear of a $300 flat tire and the associated frustration of only having a few repair centers available (as well as having to deal with the kind of people that work at BMW dealerships).

Anyone have any suggestions?