Friday, May 27, 2011

Ramblin' man

Wednesday, I finally managed to bring my chest to failure during a workout. It was pretty cool even though it took nearly an hour to get there. I really could not pick up another weight to use on my chest. I was pumped so damned hard.

So after that, I took Thursday off in order to rest and not work out six days this week. I've been back on that schedule though it was kind of by accident. There's a new sales guy at the gym and he needs to bulk it up a bit. He's short and very skinny and he wants about 40 pounds of mass put on him. Since I passed up the 40 pounds gained marked a long time ago, I feel like the best man for the job. Or at least the free man for the job. So after work on Sundays, he and I go through the exercises that will quickly put on size. He's very weak as well so he does his weight and I do my normal weight which doesn't help his self-esteem. I try to do a short round of exercises with him knowing that he's not going to last an hour and a half and still be able to finish his shift at work, but I still go pretty intense for myself. Anyway, why not take Friday and Saturday off instead? Fridays are the days I really are stoked on chest exercises and can't wait to hammer until I'm pumped up big.

So today, I went in for a workout after an interview that I feel went mostly well. Again, I will have to hear from them and I know how well that's gone lately so why would this go any different? And today I took my legs to failure for the first time. Again, I took a hell of a lot to get there and my thighs were rubbing together by the time I was done. I'm sure that's going to be permanent soon. After I could not move another weight with my legs I moved on to chest and obviously went a bit lighter than I did on Wednesday. I noticed my left shoulder was extremely tight near the end of my workout when I was doing flat bench presses. So after that, I donned my swim trunks and headed into the pool to relax my shoulder muscles. I spent a good deal of time on shoulder stretches underwater and attempts at swim strokes. After that I sat in the hot tub with a jet shooting right into my left shoulder. It loosened up quite a bit and I definitely need to give it a rest.

Obviously I am under a hell of a lot of stress which makes me work out a lot more. And every time I work out six days a week I gain a pound a week versus 1.5 - 2 pounds gained a month working out five days a week. Yes it will get me to my goal that much faster but there's only so long I can do that before I injure myself. I'm 216 pounds now and I definitely look different. Also working out six days a week increases my appetite tenfold. Where I will drink a cup of milk with whey protein after a workout under normal circumstances, I drink damn near half a gallon of chocolate milk, eat two no-bake cookies (my favorite cookies) and a handful of peanuts before going on to make dinner. It's impossible for me to regulate eating when I work out six days a week. And today I took in about 1200 calories for lunch. I was nervous before the interview so I stopped at McDonald's for sweet tea and ended up with a sweet tea, ten nuggets, fries, two apple pies, and a small caramel coffee that one of the ladies made for some reason. I got the coffee for free. The lady claimed she made it when she didn't need to and needed to get rid of it. I know that's code for "I want your body." So I drank her coffee.

Where was I going with all this? Yes, I'm still getting big and it's still very cool. Once again, I might have a new job. And yes, I have come to love sitting in the hot tub.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Gimmick shoes

Since I will eventually be buying shoes for running, I have been thinking about getting "performance" style shoes that will aid more in my quest for the last few pounds of muscle I want to put on. With that said, I went over to Dick's to check their selection. These shoes should offer at least at much support as running shoes. I found a pair of Reeboks that I liked but the tops were made of this cheap ass looking canvas I'm sure I will tear through in a week. So no I'm not buying. But what brings me to this blog are the sheer amount of shoes claiming to help you with support, toning your ass and all manner of things. I get a laugh at the ridiculousness as my cynical side can't seem to buy into it. The big one right now are the Reebok Zig Zags and they have this silly looking soles that claim to take the shock out of your legs during a workout, run, tennis, skydiving, whatever. The tops are also that cheap canvas, by the way. So I tried them on just to see how they felt and I must say it was a good feel walking around in them, which kind of surprised me. But they added about two inches of height on me and being a very tall man already this wouldn't seem to help matters in the gym. Would these shoes do what they claim? I'll never know.

Quick question

This is a famous song from the 80s by the band Dire Straits. And this is a reworked version of the song with the singer from Dire Straights and a woman. Listen closely and tell me which one is the lazier singer. It's a real horse race.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Sociology Major after all

Recently I learned that IU is doing away with their Continuing Studies program as of next year. This leaves me more than a little pissed. And why would that be? Read on...

So back when I was at IU, I had to take College Algebra as part of my pre-requisites to graduate. Fair enough, I thought. That level of algebra is very much a weak point of mine. I failed through it in high school and I managed to pass Basic Algebra back at VU after a few attempts and landing in a class that taught it entirely on a scientific calculator. My advisor at IU strongly recommended I take this class through the summer because it is shorter and quite easier, I was told. So I did that. And I failed it very early on. And I could not drop the class due to financial aid so I had to fail all the way through to the end. And of a class that started out with something like seventeen people, only five passed. And we had a teacher who could not ever explain correctly how these problems work, and would often get the wrong answer when doing it on the board and tell us he got the wrong answer and then say that it was fine since we know how to do it anyway. The teacher could not explain half the shit we had to learn in terms we could all understand, and the tutors at the math lab treated us like we were total morons for even asking how these problems work. I had never taken quite a beating before in my life.

So in the midst of all this, I went to the Continuing Studies program because it was my last ditch, I want the hell out of college with a goddamned degree, effort at finishing this thing that never seemed to end. Despite all the credit hours I already had, I had to take an additional 20 credit hours in order to get this degree. Were they pumping me for more money? Oh, you bet! With that, only six credit hours were necessary to complete a minor in Telecommunications. All the rest were blow-off classes, which was good as my GPA took quite the beating with an F due to that algebra class. I took a nutrition class which I got quite a bit of real world skills out of because it really helped me learn how to eat for size.

So I graduated with a degree that is useless in a concentration that is going away within a year. Isn't that special? So from here on, I am a Sociology major. That won't change anything with the usefulness of my degree but at least I feel that I can call it the degree I went there for to begin with. No one really checks that stuff so whatevs, I says.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Really now

Since I have yet to have found a new job, I decided it might be a decent idea to apply to a company I had worked at for three years prior and try my hand at getting a pharmacy tech position with them. My god that was too much to ask.

I get called for the interview last Friday and nothing was said as to what position I would be interviewing for, but they wanted to to come in on Sunday right after my shift at the gym for an interview. I agreed to do so and asked outright if this is for a pharmacy tech position and they lady on the phone only replied with "I have no idea, I was just told to call you." Knowing this was going to turn out to be something ridiculous instead of what I want, I decided what the hell I need a new job anyway.

So Sunday comes around and I finish my shift at the gym, squeeze my big ass shoulders and chest into a tiny shirt, and I went up for the interview. Once it started, I noticed that on my application was a post-it note that read "Cashier" and was underlined. Knowing immediately where this thing was going, I was trying to find the best possible place to say that I did not even apply for that position without destroying the interview entirely. The Human Resource moron was going over how I have to have open availability if I am to be a full-time cashier and working the gym on weekends was just not going to fly with this company. Knowing that this job would be a giant pay cut, I finally brought up the fact that I already worked for this company before.

At that point, I watched the interviewer unravel entirely. He went over my application and saw that yes indeed I already worked there, and was a meat clerk last time. He also finally found out that I have a couple college degrees, and that I applied to work in the pharmacy. In short, he never read the application. I very politely called him a total dumbass and he told me he would look into the pharmacy to see if they could take anybody. He also tried to veer back to the cashier interview but nothing doing. He lost all control and I was good and pissed for him wasting my time in a few ways.

So yes, this is the distillation of everything I've been dealing with in this job search.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Small block

I finally got my A/C/I CPR + AED certification this weekend. Having been certified a couple times through the American Red Cross, I must admit that the American Heart Association session was different. Not enough to really throw a person off, obviously, but different enough. But obviously it was very easy for me to get. And with that said, a small block in my way has finally been removed. I can now go for a few more gym jobs that I need to have this certification for.

I had been wanting to get this done for quite some time, but would always balk at paying for it myself since I used to get it for free through work. But since I work at a gym now, I am once again able to get it for free. With this done, and with some other news coming down the pike, I may finally get my trainer license finished after all and start training people part time to live healthier or more muscular lives. It's their choice.

Time to redouble on the job search effort now, but I never know. I may just have one soon...

Friday, May 6, 2011

25 Things

This is from a posting from an old blog. It all still stands today so I figured I would post it here as well. One could argue I am trying to fill out a blog, and you would be correct. I am not particularly in the mood to write new material tonight.

1. Dragon Quest is my favorite video game series and I base entire console purchases on where it's going to be. No other video games have that kind of hold on me.
2. I never played sports until the day I graduated high school and that's when I took up skateboarding.
3. I skateboard a lot less these days because of age and I've moved more into weightlifting and climbing, but I still consider my skate my best friend.
4. I am one angular badass.
5. I have partial sleeve tattoos. One arm is black and the other is a negative of shattered glass with a heart in it. Also there are negative Xs inside my arms because I am straight edge. Why tattoos that bold? You won't find that out in a list like this...
6. I have my third straight edge X on my chest over my heart and it is literally an X I scribbled out while in class. It's rudimentary but it's my favorite.
7. I have gained at least fifty pounds since I started lifting weights in 2006.
8. I have a book on straight edge that I am working on and two comic books series that are loosely based on my life in high school and I seriously want to get one of these published.
9. I am a published writer. A short story that I wrote over a week at about three in the morning for a class at Vincennes University got published in their annual Tecumseh Review, though I really don't think it to be my best work...
10. I tried to get published at IU through the Canvas Arts Magazine with a narrative titled "Eating Asphalt" in which I told in great detail of the first time I ate shit skateboarding. It didn't get published, I accidentally lost the file, and then was pissed to see a narrative about a college student having his first boner while watching "Saved By The Bell."
11. I lift weights five days a week and enjoy a good long meditation session afterwards every time.
12. I have no idea what I want to do with my life, where I ultimately want to be, and all the attendant things that go with it, and are stressed about it just about every day.
13. I loves the punk rock, emo, and hardcore in small doses, but I feel that all music these days just totally sucks. I still can't figure out if it's just me or if it really is this bad.
14. Believe it or not, The B52s were my first favorite band and they had an album come out last year and I fell in love all over again. Those guys really know what entertains me.
15. I've saved lives.
16. I'm smart as hell and love to be a smart ass.
17. I really don't consider myself to be a good looking person.
18. I know American Sign Language, took it at IU, and really want to do something with it career-wise, though I have no idea where to start. I keep thinking that being a personal trainer for deaf people would be quite an awesome job though.
19. I'm not planning on a long term girlfriend until I start to get it all sorted out and I don't want kids. And yes, I'm fine with being a genetic dead-end.
20. I tend to think. A lot.
21. I love bad movies, and picking out a bad movie to watch is an artform. And talking about said bad movies on my myspace blog is a whole other artform that usually involves laziness, apathy, or pure rage.
22. I've worked pretty much the widest range of jobs imaginable and I kicked ass at all of them.
23. I had a friend from high school live with me for a couple weeks when I lived in Greenwood while she found her own place and events one night led me to piss in a milk jug in the laundry room in my building, then take the milk jug to the dumpster across the parking lot to throw it out.
24. Overall, I regret moving to Bloomington and going to IU. Hoosier Heights, the SRSC, and friends made along the way are the exception.
25. I love long drives and they really help me clear my head.

X Songs part 3

Rarity these days



For new music that I like, it just seems like songs I like are getting fewer and further between. But this one is pretty damned awesome. Way to go!