Category: General

I can’t put into words how bad this day is and how much worse its going to get. I feel like I’m staring a train heading straight for me.

That has been my weekend. I’m not using the Magnetic Force Microscope mind you, i just share an office with it.

Back to work.

Since my last post, I’ve dropped about 6 pounds and have made some noticable improvements in my stamina. This was to be expected. I’ve been keeping busy enough that I haven’t real had any urge to eat much. I’m eating about one meal a day, maybe with a snack if I feel hungry.

Reducing food intake is actually pretty easy for me. My eating habits are so erratic that I’ll sometimes go an entire day without eating, and other days I’ll eat a ton. The biggest factor is how busy I am and how much free time I have on my hands. I also try to have something like Diet Coke or water to drink at all times along with gum. That can usually take care of any desire I have to eat when I really don’t need to.

I’m focusing mostly on aerobic exercise at this point. In the past I found it easier to do strenght exercises, and I will do that, but only after I lose another 15 pounds. I think the bigger priority is maximizing caloric expendatures and building endurance rather than muscle mass right now.

I’ll be spending most of the weekend holed up at the IRM finishing up the last test on this phase of my project, and trying to get all the class work I have done. I’ve been just reserving my weekends for catching up on work from the previous week. It seems to work.

Oscar nominations are out and I’ll try to see all the remainin films nominated for big awards that I haven’t seen. As in most years, I’ve seen all the big contenders. I haven’t seen: Brokeback Mountain, Crash, A History of Violence, and Transamerica.

Based on who was nominated and what I’ve seen, here is who I’d vote for:

Best Picture: Munich
Best Director: Steven Speilberg, Munich
Best Actor: Philip Seymore Hoffman, Capote
Best Actress: Kiera Knightly, Pride & Prejudice (yes, that’s right)
Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney, Syriana
Best Supporting Actress: Catherine Keener, Capote
Cinematography: The New World
Adapted Screenplay: Munich
Original Screenplay: Good Night and Good Luck

Of these, I’d guess that 1 or 2 will actually win. Of course, I might change my mind after I see more films too.

Who got robbed?

Best Actress: Q’Orianka Kilcher, The New World
Best Score: The New World
Best Actor: Eric Bana, Munich
Best Actor: Steve Catrell, The 40 Year Old Virgin
Best Supporting Actor: Ciarán Hinds, Munich
Best Supporting Actor: Geoffrey Rush, Munich
Special Effects: Sin City
Costume Design and Art Decoration: Kingdom of Heaven

As always, let the power of markets work for you and base your Oscar party picks on the Hollywood Stock Exchange. They’re almost always right. (wait until the day before to make your picks however) For categories they don’t track, just pick whatever the respective guild picked for their awards. Pick the Holocaust film for best documentary or whatever is closest to the Holocaust.

I’m set a tenative start date for my trip of September 1. Its still far enough away that it could move forward or back, but it at least gives me a planning point to work with. That is seven full months to take care of my affairs, finish school, and assemble the gear I need and get practice in with it.

I also need to make some personal changes in that time. While I wouldn’t consider myself morbidly obese, I do need to lose weight. My goal is to start the trip 50 pounds lighter than I am now and significantly more fit. I will also need to get some dental work done before hand and maybe even Lasik surgery. If I can do all of that, I’m sure no one will recgonize me 🙂

In the pursuit of this goal, I’ve been taking the PE class I’m in pretty seriously. I’m trying to hit the gym at least once per day and am gradually building up my cardio endurance. My immediate goal in this department is to be able to run at a good pace for 40 minutes straight. (I’ve never been one for stamina, even when I ran track. I was a sprinter)

Last Tuesday was the first time I’ve run or exerted myself since I was laid up in November. During that time, I put back on most of the 10 pounds I had lost.

I’m also trying to make some active changes to my diet. I have a pretty poor diet. I’ll have days where I eat a lot and days where I don’t eat much at all. If I don’t eat much, what I do eat will usually be pretty bad. I seldom if ever get green vegtables, and most of the protein I intake is in the form of hamburgers (often of the White Castle variety). I’ve been pretty good about avoiding fast food for about two weeks. Now I just need to increase the intake of vegtables and non-burger protein.

The trick to making changes like these is sticking with it. It’s easy to do, but hard to continue. The real test will be to see if I’m still doing this in 1 week, 2 weeks, a month etc. If I can just make the behavioral changes permanent, I should have no problems meeting my goals in time.

In addition to my research and classes, I’m also the TA for two sections of Geology 1001 on Monday.

The vast majority of people in Geo 1001 will never take another science course again. Ever. They’re taking it to fulfill their science distribution requirment and that’s it. As such, the course isn’t too hard to teach. I like to think that at the end of the term, they should have a Discovery Channel level of knowledge of how the world works.

I’ll probably have more updates on this as the semester progresses.

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They are remaking The Omen. The original movie was really god damn scarry. There was little in the way of blood and gore, but it had the awesome score by Jerry Goldsmith (who also did the score to Patton) and a story that you could let a part of you believe just enough to be scared.

There are some movies which should never be remade, and some which absolutly must. I think the Omen falls in to the first category. They got it right the first time, so it will be difficult for them to top it. Some of the casting also has me worried. Liev Schreiber as Robert Thorn is fine (he was in the Manchurian Canidate, another movie that didn’t have to be remade), but Julia Stiles as his wife has be scratching my head. Mia Farrow as Mrs. Baylock should be OK. Pete Postlethwaite as a priest will be great. (remember the Pakistani guy from The Usual Suspects??)

The one really interesting thing about the remake, if you look at the IMDB listing for it, you will notice under “original music” the name Jerry Goldsmith….who died last year. I’m not sure if thats good or bad. His music made the original. If they rehash the music, then the movie is just a retread of the original. If they do something too different, it could ruin everything.

I’ll have to wait until 6/6/06 to find out I guess..