P90X Day 1

I'm starting P90X today, instead of waiting till next Monday to start it correctly. Following the Calendar, I just started with Wednesday's scheduled exercises, which were Shoulder & Arms with Ab Ripper X. t tired

I bought some exercise bands yesterday at Walmart, since buying Dumbells at this point seemed extreme. Started today and I wasn't that tired at the end of the Shoulders & Arms. Probably while I understand the use of the bands, since I bought a set of 3, the hardest one wasn't very difficult at all, and at some exercises I ended up putting 2 bands together. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon and start testing my muscles more.

Now, the Ab Ripper X, that's another story ... I couldn't even finish the whole thing, only did about 10-12 minutes of abs, instead of the 16 mins ... but boy even my legs hurt and I ended up being nauseous ... which is why I stopped ... I can't wait until I can finish that whole thing! In a couple of weeks probably hehe.

I did forget to take the before pics and measurements ... which kinda suck. But I did weigh myself before ;) so I'll have something to track.

I had been doing my own workouts and diet for the last 3 weeks, and managed to lose 9 pounds. We'll see how the P90X helps out in this.

Gods and Titans Cont.

The main idea of the Gods and Titans post was to discuss the experience with reading these books and playing God Of War games. Instead it kinda turned into a Percy Jackson book review hehe. I'm not one to shy away from the thoughts in my mind, so I just typed them up. But I'll cover that experience in this post.

For starters, You could say I'm very new to the PlayStation 3. How is that good? Well the greatest games that have some to the console, are at a lower price now. So I bought Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Batman Arkham Asylum and the GoW Collection, for less than $30 each. I love buying online, not paying taxes or shipping. Other games I played in the ps3 were Star Wars Force Unleashed and Demon's Souls.

But back to the task at hand. So I've been reading the Percy Jackson series, and playing GoW 1 at the same time. I'm getting more than my daily value for Gods and Titans each day. I'm not gonna review the game itself, since anyway who knows the game knows it's one of the bests. I'm really just playing it to see the story of the first two games so I can play the third, which I already have. Same reason I bought Uncharted: Drake's Fortune first, but plan to buy the second soon enough.

I won't spoil the book, but I will talk about the game, since it's pretty old, it would be like talking of the first Harry Potter book, if you haven't played it you're pretty far behind, as am I. Keep in mind, that while I'm reading the Percy books, I'm playing in a world that has the same Gods and Titans. In the game, you're playing Kratos, a Spartan Captain who sold his soul to Ares in order to win battles. Now the Gods are helping him kill Ares ... but why ... I still haven't finished it, so maybe 2 games later I'll find out. The Gods are the same on both stories, of course. Hearing different stories for each is sort of confusing and interesting. For example Kronos is a Titan that's condemned by the Gods to walk the desert with Pandora's Temple in his back. In the books, he's a Titan that's plotting to take over Olympus, or destroy it rather. So different time line maybe? Will he end up condemned by the Gods(again) and carrying Pandora's Temple on his back? I highly doubt it, but it gets my mind running, and I love that!

Can't wait to see what else I can find to enjoy while reading and playing these stories.

Gods and Titans

A couple of months ago I went to see Percy Jackson and The Olimpians, just because I wanted to take my sister-in-law and my girlfriend to the movies, and that was the one I figured that my sister-in-law would enjoy most. I personally wasn't very interested, but I figured 'Hey, it has Greek Mythology, how bad can it be.' Turns out I loved the movie, with loads of action, breath-taking effects for the demi-gods powers and the enticing story. I won't go into detail here, but if you like Greek Mythology, this movie is very enjoyable. I loved it so much I went into Amazon and bought the Boxed Set of the 5 books.

I started reading the second book a week ago, one day I went to get a haircut and I needed something to do while I waited. I started with the 2nd book, since I had seen the first movie, and while I know the book is probably better, I didn't want to get a boring first impression of the series by reading things I already knew. That happened one time I tried reading The Vampire Chronicles
by Anne Rice. Since I knew by heart Interview With the Vampire, I got bored reading it, and never could read the rest.

On a side note, I really hate just waiting around doing nothing. Some part of me gets really pissed off if I'm just doing nothing. Don't misunderstand, I can spend the whole day playing video games, watching TV Series or reading a very good book. I don't have to be doing something important, just something to keep my mind occupied. I can't even wait around while my work laptop is loading, I just start it up and chat around or go get me a coffee. So either a book or my DS is a must when I go get a haircut.

Turns out, I really loved the books too. I'm already halfway through the third book! Mind you I only read the first when going to the Throne or when trying to fall asleep. They are short books mind you, maybe half the length of a Harry Potter book. Around 300 pages, and not small letters, which I enjoy so I don't end up blind by reading. hehe Here's an example of a page in the third book:

Page 93

Again, I won't go into details. I don't want to ruin your future experiences with the series. But if you like mythology, action packed quests, and powerful weapons and magics, united by a story that's both exciting and addicting, then these books are for you! You won't find many words you need to go into a dictionary to find out what they mean, and that helps to stay inside the story all through your reading session. Except of course with all the monster names! haha These books are hard to put down, I might just finish the third today.

Platelets Donation

I've been donating whole blood for a few years now. I recently, around August or September of 2009, started donating platelets too.

I actually went to donate platelets this past Valentine's Day, which is also my birthday. Don't get me wrong though, I didn't do it for the great feeling you get knowing you saved someone's life by donating, but in this particular case I did it because the guy that called me to set up a donation actually said these words: "I was told to harass you until you agreed to donate on Valentine's, because it's your birthday and the nurses like to do something special." To this, my reaction was "Umm .... Ok ..." But knowing that my girlfriend recently started working there, what I was thinking was that she wanted to do something special for me that day, since I knew she had to work that Sunday.

And yes, when you donate Platelets, you have to set up a schedule, since it takes about 2 hours from the time you get there to the time you leave, you can't just walk in and do it. They have 2-3 scheduled times to donate platelets. I usually like mine at noon. This time it was setup at 9:00am.

Well, it all started well and good. The pinch in your finger to check the hemoglobin, which is the thing I hate the most in the whole process. It always makes me feel sad that diabetics have to do this more than once daily! The CBC test to check your platelets count. The questionnaire, which I know by heart now lol. Selecting the movie you want to watch during the donation, since I had forgotten to Red Box a movie the day before. I selected The Fountain, which is one of the few I hadn't watched in their collection. What a weird movie!! But that's for another blog.

At this time, when I was waiting for a chair to start the process, since ironically they were all full, I chose to drank a juice, and the nurses came to sing Happy Birthday with a cupcake, which was really nice by the way. At this moment I wasn't surprised, but actually felt 'let down' since I was expecting more, not from the nurses of course, but from my girlfriend. But I shrugged it off and remembered we had decided to celebrate Valentine's on the 13th and my Birthday on the 15th.

Now comes the Apheresis Machine ... This is where they insert the data from your CBC, and the machine calculates how many platelets they can remove from your body without you dying hehe. It also calculates the time the process will take. In this instance, it took 110 minutes!! By that time my movie was over, and so was the movie on the chair next to mine. Then comes the injection of the needle that has three adjoining tubes, one for taking you blood, one for giving you back the leftover blood after removing your platelets, and one for anticoagulant. Not terribly painful, again I hate the-finger-hemoglobin-pinch more. What was painful was that when there were around 36 minutes left over in the process, my hand fell asleep, and you cannot move it during the whole time, therefore the reason why it fell asleep lol. Those were painful 36 minutes.

Anyway, at some time during this process, I see my girlfriend running around, which isn't normal since she is usually in the lab. At this time I start thinking: "Mmm, maybe there IS something going on ...". Lo and behold, the supervisor and nurses AND my girlfriend come to sing me Happy Birthday with a nice chocolate cake in the form of a heart! This cake even had Nutella somewhere between the cake and frosting! I have to say, It was more than I expected :D

Thank You Bebe for making that day very special for me! And actually the whole weekend!

Gaming Addiction! FF6

The earliest memory I have is playing Final Fantasy I, and Mario Bros. Although is not much of a memory to be honest ... glimpse and pieces really ... My real concrete memory of gaming came more from Super Mario Bros (the one with the flying cape) and Final Fantasy III(the actual VI).

I have to say that FF6 it's still one of my favorite games! I don't remember how many times I played that game ... and I wasn't even good at English back then so I probably didn't even understand everything ...

I've been waiting for that release on the DS, like many FF games are now coming to the DS remade. But to no avail ...

So I got the gba version and played it a few months ago ... God the graphics suck, but this is a game that came for the Super Nintendo!! Back then it was awesome!

I have to say, I still enjoyed the game fully, the story is compelling and rich, and I was reminded of when I was a small boy playing the game for hours on end ...

Valentine's Gifts

So many years now ... It's getting harder and harder to think about things to surprise your 'significant other' with a valentine day's gift ...

Of course chocolates and candy are out of the question ... too chiche ... and much too used ... they may be a complement tho ...

Roses are always good, but again not by themselves ... bed of roses might be useful too ...


Anyone have any new ideas they might share with a fellow in trouble?

-Vlad