Back to School

So getting caught up in all of my blogs and other online endeavors has been difficult.  This has been made even more so by a recent addition to my work load.  Now not only am I working technical support for a Family-Oriented Specialty Ham Company, writing a blog, running a table-top RPG, forging a relationship, stalking an MMO, learning a language, and practicing life sketches of nude midgets, but now I am also going to school.

It's been a good solid decade since I've tried this, and previous attempts have ended miserably.  I believe part of this has been because I lacked a clear end goal, which made the point of my effort vague and ineffable.  This time around things are clear.  I'm getting a Journalism degree with a minor in Creative Writing.  With this degree, I will be able to legitimately chase many jobs that I would enjoy.  I'm pretty excited.

However, getting back into school and starting classes has been a hugely complicated and exhausting endeavor.

So raise a glass to frat parties, all-nighters, ogling school girls, and all the other awesome things I'm too tired to do anymore.

Anybody out there get a late start in higher education?  Trying to get back?  What for?



P.S. - I'm convinced that since I'm only taking online classes, my teacher looks like this:

James and Adam: Climb a Mountain

Well, it's been one week since I've engaged in the Hot for Con challenge.  I've improved my diet, exercised daily, and gotten plenty of rest.  The results?

Down 3.5 lbs.

It's a good start.  I'm sure that my progress will slow as my body gets used to what's going on, but I'm encouraged nonetheless.

However, being a creature of momentum, I wanted an extra boost to keep me going.  To that end I met up with Stiver himself to create this masterpiece.  Enjoy.

A Difficult Day for a Friend

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been taking Japanese lessons from my favorite monster. That is, I was, up until a month ago.

She gave me a call to let me know that she was on her way home and that I should meet her there. There were police everywhere when I pulled up to her house about thirty minutes later. It looked like they were centered on her neighbor’s house, so I wasn’t too worried. As I walked to the door I saw a policeman go through first. I stopped at the open doorway. There were several police officers walking around inside and I didn’t want to burst in unannounced.

I looked down and saw a pool of blood on the ground.

My heart froze. I wasn’t sure what it was at first. I’ve done a lot of work at haunted houses. It almost seemed fake. It was too red and there was too much of it.

One of her roommates beckoned me in. I walked in and saw her other roommate passing by unscathed, leaving only Barrie unaccounted for. I saw her as I turned the corner, sitting at the counter, clutching an Ice pack to her face. My whole being let loose a sigh of relief. She was injured, but she was alive. Judging by the lack of frenzy, she was expected to stay that way for a while.

She had gotten home not long after she called me. As she was getting her keys to unlock her door, she heard a gun cock behind her. The guy hit her twice in the face with the butt of his gun and ran off with her purse.

It was the middle of a sunny day, in the middle of the neighborhood. Also, as a reminder, Barrie’s 6’3” tall. The stones on that man.

She knelt bleeding by the door for some time after the guy ran off. That’s where to pool came from.

We waited for the police to finish and took her to Grady, a nearby hospital with a reputation for an exemplary emergency room. It would have to with all of the violent crime in the area. Roaming the halls of the ICU was like being in a well-lit torture chamber. The moans of the grievously injured mixed with the smells of urine and bleach to create a sense of abject unease.

She waited in her waiting room for hours and she was never seen. Eventually her mother took her to a different hospital.

I should explain, though, that I don’t just call Barrie a monster because she is freakishly tall. She is also freakishly tough. Her skull was fractured, but not nearly as bad as it would have been if she was a normal human. She is also inordinately strong. Not only can she lift her blue ox above her head, she never let this ordeal slow her down too much, even left untreated in a hospital.

Thatta girl.

One month later and she’s almost completely healed… and we’re starting our lessons back this week.

Love you, Kaiju-senpai!

Hot for Con

During my time away from The Blogosphere, life went on.  The bloggers blogged, the trolls trolled, and the lurkers lurked.  Also, Stiver started tearing up his blog with new entries.  He had only been tending to his blog a couple of times a month, and then BAM!  He became a man on a mission.

He has decided that he wants to lose his extra weight, and he wants to do it by this year's Dragon*Con.  Now, with 90 days left on the clock, he has issued a challenge to his readers take up this crusade for themselves.  This need not be in the form of weight loss, but maybe getting tone, or even bulking up; whatever "getting hot" means to the participant.

I promptly ignored him.

Then my health class informed me that we are doing a project based on changing our behavior in a document-able, healthy way... such as a fitness routine... so I said "Fine, universe!  Have it your way!  I'll start working out."

It's not a totally new thing.  About a year ago I started myself on a gung-ho plan and lost 40lbs.  A few months ago I lost steam, momentum, and will power.  Since then I've gained 6lbs back.  I don't care for that, and I'm using this as an excuse to get back on track.

Name: Adam Jones
Goal: I aim to lose 2lbs a week for the next 13 weeks.
Current Weight: 266lbs.
Goal Weight: 240lbs.

Sure, that's still pretty big, but it'll be a hell of a lot smaller.  Every step counts, and yesterday was my first.

This is my before picture.

With the power of Two Moon Panther behind me,

I cannot fail.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go climb a mountain.

Time Crisis '11

Holy crap!  Where did May go?  Well, to read my blog you'd think that all that happened was that I went on a date.  The fact is that last month was one of the busiest, most stressful and confusing months that I've had in a long time.  I will be sure to tell you all about it in the coming days. 

Ideally I would have been blogging about all of these things when they happened.  That would have been responsible of me as a blogger.  I can only offer three excuses:

1. I was so busy that it didn't feel like I had any time, and was so stressed out that everything I tried to write came out wrong.  Not the funny kind of wrong on which I thrive, but the bad-wrong... or badong kind.

2. I got caught in one of them shame spirals in which the longer I waited to post made me more self-conscious about posting, which made me more afraid to post, which made me wait longer to post.  People are dumb, and apparently I'm no exception.

3. I am only human.  Although I've been blogging since November, and sometimes that feels like a long time, this is still a very new blog, and I am still a very new blogger.  I am going to make mistakes.  However, I tend to learn from them, and hopefully my future errors will not make us part for nearly an entire month.  I don't think I can deal with that again, and I suspect that you couldn't either.

In short, I've been experiencing my very own Time Crisis, which I feel like I have finally started getting a grips on... and even if I haven't, I'm going to keep blogging anyway.  We have much to discuss.

So, uh... what have you guys been up to?