Im still ALIVE!!!!

Well the tri is over now and I feel pretty good. Here is my post race wrap-up!!!!

Winning time for the whole event was 1:02:32 my time was 1:26:51 which gave me a finishing place of 99th overall and 11th in my age group out of roughly 300 participants. So its not too shabby a finish for my first tri in 7 years. Yes 7 years. SO here is the tour in pictures. Also I would suggest clicking on some of the pics for a better view. Enjoy!


Here I am at the start of the swim. If you look close you can see me in the lane on the far left all the way at the top crouching down getting ready to enter the water. Yup thats me with all kinds of ambition and oh guess what I just realized??? I forgot to use my inhaler at all. Yes its at this moment that I realize that breathing is going to be an issue for the next hour and a half. IF you look really closely you can see an expression on my face that basically means "oh crap im an idiot!"


Ok just keep looking for the purple swim cap b/c thats me. They totally botched the swim start and really didnt release people well. This can be seen by the fact that their are 6 swimmers in this shot including me. This is not the way it was supposed to be. And as a result I got pretty beat up in the water.



Here I am a few meters later coming to the wall and getting sandwiched by a couple of other swimmers. The one on the left im trying to pass and the one on my right is trying to pass me. This was just not working.



Here I am basically stuck because their are too many people around me and I cant get under the rope to get to the next lane. However it is a good pic of me treading water waiting for a path to clear. If I look annoyed its b/c I was.


This is a great shot of a guy I just passed trying to swim over me. WOW that was fun.



Ok so the swim is over and here I am coming off the bike. IT was soooo freaking cold that I could not feel my fingers at all. My second transition was awefull almost 4 min in the transition area b/c I couldnt do anything. I had to get sara to unbuckle my helmet b/c I couldnt do it and some random guy saw me struggling to get my shoes on and offered to tie them for me. IF he had not done that I would not have made it out of the transition. To look at the pic you wouldnt know that it was like 28 degrees outside but it was. I just wasnt prepared for the cold.


Ok here I am at roughly mile 3 of the run (a 5k is 3.1 miles) I felt surprisingly good during the run and really cranked it out despite being really tired and thanks sara those gloves totally helped me feel better. I loved the run course it snaked throughout the miami campus and was really fast. SO that was a great way to finish.


Speaking of finishing heres the line. WOOT! I did it!!!! SO thats the tri in pictures. All in all im happy with my finish. It was my first in a long time and a good learning experiance. Also it helped me identify my weak link which is the bike right now and I feel I can improve that quite a bit. like a lot. SO thats cool. Im already pumped for the next event which I have not found yet but am totally looking now. Again thanks to everyone who has supported me in this process through gear help or just a kind word or even those few who came and froze their booties off to watch me. Thanks everyone your great!

Cheers!!!

Last day before race

Well its friday and that means the race is tommorow!!! I am excited and scared all at the same time. SO what kind of pre race prep am I doing you might ask? Well their is tons to do actually.

First thing this morning I checked the weather forcast for oxford OH on race day. The outlook is not so good. Between 8-10am the high temp is supposed to be 35-37ish and factoring in winds of roughly 15 mph (yikes) gives me a feel good temperature of about 27-29. WOW do I wish that was in celsius and not farenheit. SO its going to be really really cold. This is really throwing a wrench in my works b/c right now my race clothing is all designed around hot weather and keeping me cool SO I might have to alter it some as my top right now is a ultra cool sleeveless singlet. I will either have to put a jacket on to keep my chest warm or swith to a long sleeved cold weather jersey which I will not like in the run at all. SO I have that to think about. Next up I started to work on my pre-race checklist which I will list for your viewing pleasure. After I printed out draft one my first thought was "dang thats a lot of crap to take." SO here it is.

Misc. Clothing
º Post Race Clothing
º Singlet
º Tri-Shorts

Swim Items
º Cap
º Goggles
º Spare Goggles
º swimmers Ear

Bike Items
º Cycling Shoes
º Floor Pump
º Helmet
º Socks
º Spare Tube
º Sunglasses
º Tire Levers
º Water Bottles
º Wrench Set/Tools

Run Items
º Running Shoes

Everything Else
º Camera
º Champion Chip
º Directions to Race
º Energy Bars
º Energy Drink
º Garbage Bag
º Race Number Belt
º Towel for Transition Area
º Transition Bag
º Walkman/CD Player/Ipod
º Water
º Wrist Watch

Its amazing how much gear you need just to do one event. I guess its not that bad though if you think about the fact that its really 3 events crammed into 1.

SO what do I have left to do today.

1. Stay hydrated. - Im only drinking water and gatorade today
2. light workout - im thinking a nice 30 minute easy spin on bike
3. Shave my head - my hair is soo long
3. Shave my legs - yeah i do that.
4. Mount my bike computer - yeah I still have not done this
5. get my gear together and packed
6. final tune-up on bike - get my gears working like butter!
7. good night of rest - i have a feeling this is not going to happen.

I will probably make a final weather check but I doubt its going to make that much of a difference and thats that. Well for everyone who has been following me on this wish me luck and I hope I have some good news when I post again.

Cheers!

3 days to go

Hi every-o-n-e todays blog topic is brought to you courtesy of my inhaler. When the going gets tough the tough shoot meds in aerosol form directly into their lungs so that they can breath easier! Albuterol ask for it by name!

SO seriously ive got 3 days left till the tri and things are picking up. I ran 2 miles hard yesterday at lunch and basically did a run to failure type of run. Why you might ask? B/C thats how I plan for the last two miles of this tri to go. Mile 1 of the run will be recovery and transition from the bike. Then mile 1.5 will be fast (I hope) and then the last .5 will be, if I can, an all out sprint from my old days of running 800's in track. Of course this is just a plan and subject to my bodies approval.

After I got back from work I made it out on the bike for the first time and yeah im sore today but not as bad as I thought I would be and the bike is running like a dream. Shifts really well and my aero tuck is surpsingly comfortable. I can totally hold it for 30-40 min.

Today I did another timed 400m swim. All I gotta say is I needed some good news and I got it today -- 7:32 for my 400m!!!! I tried swimming it two ways. One more power and flailing about and one more calm and slower strokes but better form. Well in true Knodel fashion flailing about won as my better form time was 8:50. SO I feel good knowing how it is that I am going to be swimming this sat. I also feel goood that if nothing else I have dropped my time by like 1.5 min since I started swimming a month ago -- not to shabby.

Now onto what I know about the race. Well a lot of info has been e-mailed in the last day or so and one peice is the current participant list. right now their are roughly 240 people signed up with registration closing friday night. Out of those 240 that I know of currently their are 13 guys in my age group which is 25-29! SO thats pretty cool and to my surprise I am right with most of them in the swim time and even on the lower end. Hopefully I will have the hootzpuh to keep up a solid pace throughout this whole thing and who knows maybe I will make the top 3 in my age group. That would be pretty cool.

Dont know if I will get out on the bike today although I really really need to. Their is always the indoor trainer which totally sucks but what else can I do. I still need to get some more actual bike miles in so that I can do my final tune up maybe tommorow night to have my bike in tip top shape for sat.

I hope this is not all that boring for most of you and I should have quite a few good pictures after the weekend so that you guys can see what all my hard work got me!

Cheers!!

Best Quest Ever!

Ok I almost wrote a post that was going to basically say I was hosed in my current game of oblivion Oh yeah and just in case anyone was confused --

The elder scrolls IV Oblivion is the 4th game in a series of Role Playing computer games made by Bethesda Softworks. I am currently playing this game on my xbox 360 and anyone who reads this post should know that I am not speaking about myself but my character in the game. SO no I have not personally been turned into a vampire and no I have not gone wandering around the country side killing other vampires and stealing gems from magicians. This is in the game people!

-- end disclaimer--

Ok so when I played morrowind (the game before this one) I basically made the decision that I would not go back on a save. Basically if I made a bad decision that was life and I should not use a previous save to get me out of a bind b/c thats not real life. SO that being said last week while playing I was turned into a vampire (in the game people in the game) This might sound cool at first as you get tons of status bonuses however the down side is that if you dont feed everynight you become a crispy critter in the day light -- ANNNNNDDDD since shops are only open during the day as well as most everything else in the world this makes life really hard. also makes it hard to travel as you can only travel a night. SO I set out to find a cure for vampirism. This quest ended up really being a lot of fun and a total struggle all at the same time. However last night I finished it and I had a real sense of actual accomplishment and like I had cured myself and that it actually mattered. This is a really rare feeling in a video game but it does matter b/c now I can go anywhere and do anything again without fear of burning up while outside. Also this quest has got one of the best glitches in the game attached to it and that is at the end of the quest you get a reward of 500 gold. which is a lot of gold in the game for one quest so far. Well the glitch is that as long as you keep asking about the reward you keep getting it. SOOOOO in about 45 min time I went from having roughly 640 gold to 1.5 million gold. In short. Im set for money for the rest of the game which is a really nice feeling and im no longer a vampire which means that people will once again talk to me and that the vampire hunter that was on my tail will have to find someone else to hunt now! Yes the game is that deep and that cool.

Back to reality. 4 training days left till T-day. today I plan to swim and then get on my bike after work. I think I need to try to ride everyday this week even friday regardless of the weather b/c as luke pointed out yesterday the weather might not be ideal on sat. and I will not be able to use that excuse in the race. Tommorow I will probably set up my transition area in my garage and then do a brick with a transtion to start working on that. Time is running out and hopefully I will be better prepared then I feel right now.

Cheers!

1 week to go

Well its one week to go and I am not feeling as good about things with the Tri as I had hoped I would be at this point. SO I think my focus is shifting a little bit although im having problems getting my mind around the concept of "just doing it for fun and not caring about time" that just does not work for me. I mean I enjoy doing this type of thing but not really while its happening. Its like 5 min before the start or even the night before I feel like an idiot and resolve to not sign up for anything else again. Then as soon as I cross the line its like whens the next one. SO who knows. although I think I am going to still keep my original goal of 1 hour 20 min im becoming less confident that I can hit that. Here are my primary concerns

1. really bad swim workout today - just couldnt get breath cycle down - 400M felt really hard today.

2. I still have not ridden my bike more than just around the block. (this is really bad)

3. I never thought I was going to do anything sparktekular in the run to begin with and now its shaping up to be my strongest leg of the event. This does not make me happy since I anticipated it being my weakest section and I dont feel that I have made big improvements in the run.

4. transistions. WOW still have not practiced this but I need to.

I originally thought I would do a longer brick tommorow like a 10 mile bike and a 3 mile run. Now with the swim feeling worse im thinking I will bike to the Y (7miles) swim (8-1000M) then bike back (7 miles) That should be a pretty good workout if I can make it. Mostly dependant on the weather.

Wish me luck!

Cheers!

Brief Update

Well Chris, Kerry and Jenny are up for the week and we are having a blast with them. That pretty much sums up whats going on. I have not had much time to train at all which is not good but thats life ya know. Also my hopes of an Ironman I fear are waning. I was diagnosed with excersice induced asthma a number of years ago but I can honestly say it has never been a real factor to me. However with my increased cardio load that I have been putting on myself I am really struggling to breath comfortably not only while working out but just in day to day life. Also I had my first non-excercise related asthma attack on monday. I woke up with a great deal of pain in my lungs and a feeling that I just could not get any air into my lungs. SO I have been to the doc and got a new inhaler. Hopefully that will help some although I need to get into the habit of using it more often. Even now Im feeling short of breath. SO April 8th is still on the horizon but I dont know whats going to happen with a longer distance. Death is not my ultimate goal in all this so just be thinking of me. I just pray that I can get this back under control.

Cheers!

...and then I fell into Oblivion....

Well it happened this past sunday I got the automated call from gamestop that my pre-order of The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion would be in and ready for me to purchase on monday!!! I was soooo excited as this has been one of the biggest games I have been looking forward to for the xbox 360 and one of the big reasons I wanted to get a 360 in the first place. Unfortunately I have gotten this game during one of the worst weeks possible in that We are doing major "spring cleaning" and so most of my time is consumed by chores around the house. In fact I took a personal day off of work yesterday and spent most of the day cleaning and doing chores. This is how my week is pretty much going to look leading up to the weekend when Chris, Kerry, and Jenny!!! arrive. (side note. Chris you may want to extend your vacation b/c once you see oblivion well yeah your going to want to stick around longer! and kerry im sorry for whatever impulses chris leaves our house with ^_^ ) SO anyway I did get to play for a few hours tuesday morning and WOW thats all I can say. The intro is awesome. I started playing around 8 am and I did not finish the "intro" stuff till about 10. I then ran around a little bit and killed some wild dogs and started to make my way on my first quest. SO why did it take so long? whats so wow about it? If you care read on if you dont thanks for coming by and I will catch you next time.

Why the intro takes so long and the WOW factor.

First off let me say that I have NEVER played a game that gave you so much control over how your character physically looks. Im not talking armor, hairstyles or tatoos im talking full on control of how your character looks. Oblivion uses a series of slider bars to allow you to customize every feature of a persons face. I have to say that there are at least 30 aspects of the face you can change. That combined with the like 6-8 character classes and that each one can be either male or female and you can spend a TON of time creating your character. I spent probably a good I dunno 45 min on mine. I had a pretty specific idea of what I was going to pick and what she, yes she, would look like. I picked a female wood elf b/c I like elves and high elves are tooo pretentious and dark elves, well lets just face it dark elves just look mean all the time and are not very pretty so I chose a nice wood elf. My only complaint of a characteristic I could not change was the ears. I had a very specific Idea of how I wanted the ears to be and seeing as it was an elf ears play a big part in the appearance and that was not something that I could change. however im still not complaining b/c aside from all the physical facial changes that could be made you also can choose hair style and color. skin color, age, and complexion. SO there are a TON of ways to customize your character and I feel like oblivion has made good on the promises of fable in that I doubt you will find many people playing a character that looks like another one. Now if you dont want to spend the time you can take the defualt or you can hit the random button and it will randomly assign attributes and create a unique character. ITs soooo cool. I still think that I will probably grab a pic of myself and see if I can recreate myself into the game as a playable character. It seems very very possible to me. SO to anyone who says their are no next gen games on the 360 I say phooey! Oblivion is definitly where its at.

Now onto the WOW

Ok like I said I just got started but so far the intro sequence with the NPC's was fantastic and the first dungeon you crawl through it a ton of fun. In Morrowind you basically got dropped off in the middle of a town and pretty much everyone experianced the same feeling for the first 5 min or so which was. ummm like what am I supposed to like ummm do??? Oblivion is totally diff. You hit the ground running and within the first minutes you have a weapon and you are fighting your way through rats and goblins. Collecting items casting magic and in general having a great time. The environments are fantastic and the lighting is amazing. Im not sure yet but while I was underground I had to use a torch for light and since torches are consumable I think the light it provided slowly diminished as the torch was wearing out. However you dont really notice since its soooo gradual your eyes get used to the lesser level of light. SO cool! SO then I finally made it out of the intro dungeon and out into the real world and well it was the middle of the night and it was soo dark I could hardly see anything. It was really overcast so the moon and stars provided little light and I didnt really feel like using all my torches up so I decided to use the wait feature and basically rest till morning. Well I awoke at dusk and got to see a sun rise which was pretty awesome and then I saw something that was just plain cool. Deer. yup I know this should not be that big a deal but animals in games are almost always hostile or they dont care that you are there. Well these deer were not like killer demon deer. They were normal deer out in the morning grazing and when I crested the hill they became aware of me and instantly took off. I gave chase and for a minute or so just enjoyed running after the deer and no I had no intention of killing them. but like I said it was just cool to see passive life in the world that reacted to me being there. Now onto my new best friend -- Mr. Compass. Ahh one of my big complaints with morrowind was sometimes it was hard to know where you were going. However thanks to the addition of the compass as soon as I was out of the dungeon I knew where I was going thanks to a little pointer arrow that is helping me along my way. SO thats really cool. SO far all my major complaints against morrowind have been fixed and that is really cool. I totally cant wait to play this more and hope to get a little bit of time with it tonight maybe. Otherwise it could be saturday till I get a chance to play it and that would just suck. But hey once I get the house spotless I should have some more time. I will post more thoughts as I play through.

cheers!

WOOT!!!!

Ok most of you know that my ipod's little drive crashed about a month ago and I decided I would attempt the repair as the cost of the repair is around 200-250 with all the shipping. I got my drive today and thanks to the help of Josh Highlands blog I was able to succesfully yank the old drive and put the new one in. I ran apple updater and then reloaded all my tunes. took less than an hour and I am so jazzed! Its nice to have my little workout buddy back and its been a lonely time without it. SO for anyone out there with an ipod I am now qualified to do drive and battery replacements as I could have yanked the battery while I was in there but mine is running just fine.

In other news I did a swim workout today and I swear I felt like I was sinking the whole time. It amazing how much your attitude can effect a workout. I had so much against me today it was not funny. first up I was feeling really really tired. Second im feeling kinda stressed about a number of things so my mind was not in it. Third there is usually nobody but old slow people in the pool at the Y and that was not the case today. In lane 1 was a girl who has obviously done a lot of swimming. Her form was unreal. It was like she was hardly trying and yet she seemed like she was floating on top of the water and effortlessly gliding over it. then lane 2 was me. I felt like the only part of my body out of the water were my head and shoulders. And I felt slow next to her. Then in lane 3 was a guy I have seen around before. Im pretty sure he does Tri's as well and his form was not as good as lane 1 girl but he was still a lot faster than me. Had a much better stroke and a lot more power behind his stroke than I do. Sigh so on both sides of me I had people reminding me how slow I was which was yet another mental downer. SO I did my full workout. 200 - 400 - 200 but I felt like crap through the whole thing and couldnt wait to get out of the pool.

SO I had some bad and some good. I choose think about the good today.

Cheers!

Things that alter time? A little primer on Transitions

Ok so I think by now anyone who followes this blog knows that I am training for a Tri and yeah the amount that I am posting about it should be a pretty good indicator of how much time i am spending thinking and planning for it. Ya see I dont just want to finish. I want to race competitively. I feel that im in the shape right now that I could just do it today and finish in a somewhat respectible time. But like I said I dont want that. I want to win. Now im not dillusional and I dont think for a minute that I would actually win my age group although I would like a top 10 or even a top 5 finish. Just something I could be a little more proud of. SO that being said Im in talks with my sweetie about doing a half iron man in july. Yup their is one in Muncie Indiana which in case you were wondering is home to the national model aviation museum so I can tell from that its a happening town. SO the deal is to see how I fair in April before I commit to another race and thats fine with me. Its less than a month away now. SO to get back to the title of this post I have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out where I am at now in terms of how long it would take me to finish so that I can figure out what I need to do to make that time faster. Well so far I am only discovering things that are going to add time. The first one is the transitions. I totally forgot about these, probably b/c I dont like them! You see in a tri you have 5 total splits that factor into your time:

total swim time = time spent in pool
T1 = the first transition and the time it takes to get out of the pool and onto your bike
total bike time = time spent on the bike course
T2 = the second transition and is the time it takes to get off your bike and out to the run course
total run time = time spent on the run course.

Ya see most people dont realize that the clock never stops in a Tri. And you can lose a TON of time in the transitions. The first tri I did I was given the wrong start time and I showed up about 1/2 hour before the swim start! I had no time to prepare my transition area and b/c of that my T1 time was awefull as I was digging through my bag looking for shoes and sunglasses and things like that. Their is so much that goes into your transition plan and I really need to start practicing that as well. Im hoping for transition times under 2 min for both transitions. Ive been reading tips for how to make them go faster like dont plan on wearing socks b/c its hard to get socks on wet feet. Those are the type of things im evaluating to help make my transitions faster. but mostly I just need to practice. SO unfortunately what this means is optimistically I have just added another 4 minutes to my total time which may not seem like much but when you are thinking that you are around 1:18 min and want to go under 1:10 min and you realize you have to add 4 minutes to your total time it can be a bit of a downer.

SO other than that I have been playing pokemon fire red on the game boy thanks to steve. Its so nice to have the gameboy when lisa is doign something like beathing the final boss for xenosaga ep2 for like the 12th time and yeah im a little bored with that now so I can still snuggle up to her and play a game that I want to. SO thanks steve. Other than that last night I broke out morrowind and played it very briefly as I am anticipating oblivion. Cant wait! And we have started to play silent hill 2 again but we are starting with born from a wish which is a pretty good side story I think.

thats all for now
Cheers!

More adventures

Well their has come a point in my life where I have realized WOW when I have kids they are going to love me b/c I will try and in most cases succeed at fixing anything. I would say one of my strenghts as a person is spelling. HAH gotcha you thought I was serious oh man to see the look on your face! It was priceless. NE way seriously though I really am good at problem solving and figuring out solutions to problems as they present themselves. This is one thing that made me a fanstastic bicycle mechanic and which helps me as a net engineer. However I rarely get to use a hammer to solve a network issue and in the world of bicycle maintinence in salty florida a hammer is your best friend. SUBMIT SUBMIT!!!! sorry. again to get back on track I was just thinking about the work I am doing on my bike and how many people have no clue how to do that and then I was thinking about the fact that I am going to attempt my own Ipod repair. The drive has been ordered and I intend to crack the case on my ipod and replace the drive. Most sane people wouldnt even consider the thought of doing that yet I feel I have a roughly 95% chance of success in this repair. I guess im either really good or really stupid. I guess its just kind of weird as you get older to look at the skillsets you have and how broad they may or may not have become. SO that was my introspective moment for the day! woot.

Training update. I have litterally gone insane in that I now think its a good idea to wake up between 6-6:10am instead of 6:50 so that I have time to swim in the morning before work. Why would I want to do this??? B/c it will free up my afternoon workout to be better split between cardio and weights. I have seriously lost my grip on reality. In short training is going well. I need to get my bike done. I need to spend time in the saddle and not on a excersize bike but the real thing. I need to get my aero tuck down and efficiant. At least its not a long race so I can stand being uncomfortable for 30 min if it makes me go faster.

Now if you have been paying attention at all you will notice I have not mentioned anything about the run. I have been running a lot over the winter and I am really worried about the run. I feel its my weakest segment of this tri and I still have a really bad taste in my mouth about running and over training in running. SO I have to balance my fear of injury with the reality that I need to spend some time actually running not just on an elliptical machine but time on the track.

Game update:
Lisa and I are still working on finishing xenosaga. We beat the game a long time ago but now we are trying to finish the game. SO what we are working on right now is stealing a rare item from the final boss (when you beat the game you get to go back to the point right before you beat the boss and save). we need to do it about 14 more times in order to complete a certain quest. SO that kinda sucks and takes about a 1/2 hour each time. The good side is we are getting really good at it so hopefully as our characters level and what not it will go faster.

I cant wait for Elder scrolls Oblivion! That game is going to be so awesome!!!

Aside from that I have more games to play than time to play them so it should be a good summer even though thats a usual drought in games.

Well thats all for now.
Cheers!

BOOO to barnes and nobles and starbucks!

Ok so lisa needed to do some work tonight and as we still have no internet in the house we were forced to go out looking for a network to hop onto. First we headed to borders where we discovered they were closed b/c they were in the process of moving. Next we went to Barnes & Nobles where we discovered that you had to pay to hop onto their wlan. BOOOOO!!! I was also able to pick up the signal from the nearby starbucks where I discovered again you had to pay to use their net. BOOOOOOO! SO now we are at panera sipping coffee and using their free wlan. Its also doubly good b/c they have two great big comfy chairs by a gas fireplace so we are all nice and taosty warm. SO thats cool and this is a first for me as I have never gone somewhere and used a computer totally wireless. SO again I love my new little chiyo chan SHE ROCKS!!! Well thats all for now oh yeah wait I swam this morning and did a 8 min 20 sec for the 400 which means im getting faster after only 3 workouts! I really feel like im settling into a rythm faster and not struggling to breath as much. Well thats all for now.

Cheers!

Its not about the bike

Ok kudos to anyone who can figure out where my title came from!

Anyway as the title says this post is not the promised upgrading the bike post as I have yet to recieve any of the goodies I ordered earlier in the week but I am hopefull that when I get home tonight there will be a nice box from nashbar and then my new adventure will begin. SO since im not talking about that heres a quick rundown of what I have done training wise this week:

Mon.
1.Swam 100, 400, 100
2. workedout with lisa did some lifting to help repair those muscles and then did maybe 20 min of cardio

Tues.
30 min on the bike followed directly by 5 min cool down on the tread mill. This was my first mini-brick and im glad I am doing them

Wed.
35 min on the elliptical machine. It was a great workout

Thurs.
1. Swim 100, 400, 100 I timed my 400 and was shocked at my time 8 min 50 seconds!!!!!!! This kills my 16 min projected time and I know feel good about doing the swim in under 10 min since my second time out I beat it by over a minute! WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!!

2. Out with lisa again. Lifted and did around 25 min of cardio between the treadmill and the ellip.

Fri.
30 on the bike and another 5min on the tread mill makes brick #2 I think this is going to be awesome for my transisitons and I might even write into a tri mag offering it as a tip because its so easy to do.

SO thats how training is going. I really feel great and I feel like im really doing things smart for a change. Most of what I am doing is zero impact on my body so besides some sore muscles which really are not that bad im virtually in no discomfort at all which is a really nice change for me.

Game updates:
Elder scrolls 4 has gone gold and will be in my hands on march 21st!!!!!!!!!! Im sooo excited I cant wait.

Other than that things are going. I have had a crazy day and a crazy week at work and the only reason I am writting this now is becuase I really do need a break and a chance for my mind to recover from the "chicken with its head cut off" state that I have been in this morning. SO thats about it for me for now.

Cheers!

Training update - Swimming

Well I have a feeling that my blog is going to have a slight shift over the next month or so as I discuss the various things I am doing to train for my event in april. Just to refresh everyones memory its a 400m swim a 13 mile bike and 3 mile run. I feel pretty comfortable in both the bike and run seperatly but its when you put them together that things start to get hairy. Also the only thing I have done over the winter is lift and run so I am a little nervous about my muscles getting re-acclimated to the bike. And then their is the swim.

If you have ever watched pro-swimers you might for the briefest moment think. WOW maybe we are designed to spend some time in the water. Then again if you look at people like me and the rest of the world who dont fall into that 1% of the populace you would have this re-action. Oh my what is that hurt sick or dying thing doing thrashing around in the water. Well thats how I feel most of the time with the swim leg and I feel its my weakest area. However I am going to try and change that this time. How you might ask. Here are my primary workout goals

1. Spend a lot of time in the pool. At least 2 pool workouts a week till the tri.

2. Get back on the bike! I want to try and do some 20 milers before the race.

3. DO some brick workouts probably on my saturdays. (a brick workout is when you ride hard on the bike and then transition to a run just like in the race. Why is it called a brick workout??? b/c when you get off the bike and start running it feels like people are throwing bricks at you. ^_^ )

SO in the start of my training today with a good 5 weeks to go I decided to try and see just how much endurance I still have with swimming since I have not been in the water for like a year. Well I did a warm-up 100 and then I decided to just go for it and see if I could do a 400. Well I did it. I was not fast by any stretch but I did it and I still had energy left over which is how I wanted to feel. I then took a minute to catch my breath and did a cool down 100. this will probably be my workout this week then next week I will go to a 100 - 500 -100 then the following week I will do a 200 - 400 - 200 then the week after that 200 - 500 - 200 and after that I will have to see how I am doing. At that point I might stick with the distance and try to increase speed. or I might jump to a 200 - 600 - 200 b/c if I can swim that for like 2 weeks and feel pretty good then the 400 swim in the race should be like a cake walk which is what I want.

I think my end goal is going to be to come in under 1 hour 20 min. Heres how im breaking down my times

16 min in pool. ( i think this can come waaaay down)
40 min for the bike (this is going to depend on me and the course)
26 for the run. Now I know what you are thinking and yes I know if I add all those up its greater than 1 hours 20 min. Its actually 1:22:00 but I am hopefull that I can shave time off the swim and the bike. Their was a time I could do 10 miles in around 24 min on the bike and their was a time I could run a 5k in 18:00 pretty easily so I am hopefull that I can shave some time. I do not think I will be in any real "competitive" area in terms of finishing but you never know. Most people in my age group are healthy and dont have a bum leg but I have a lot of experiance and I know how to run properly and I know how to bike so who knows. Can we say cinderalla story????

Now I have to give a shout out to my sponsors!

My wife lisa for always believing in me and not telling me that I am too old for this type of thing or that it costs too much money. And also for not laughing at me when I get my race clothes!!!

Sterling Clay for letting me borrow of whole mess of goggles from him that are defecting in one way or the other and no longer good enough for him. However I have finnaly found goggles that dont leak for me which is like WAAAAHHHHHH so awesome. Now if I can just find a replacement strap

Bike nashbar for not being a very successfull mail order company and having lots of old stuff that was exactly what I wanted on closeout b/c most other people have moved on. I seriously ordered three things from them today and no other mail order or online companies had any of it at there prices so I LOVE YOU BIKE NASHBAR!!!!!!

My wife lisa for letting me pursue my dream of the ironman and again not telling me im too old or too fat or whatever and being supportive.

Stay tuned for my next update "The first transition -- making my bike work the way its supposed too."

Cheers!

The downside of Funk

I think I am starting to feel the effects of the winter weather as it seems to not be able to make up its mind over if it should be warm (oh please please please stay warm) or if it should be frigidly cold. At least this winter was not as bad as last year and I think I shoveled my driveway maybe 2xs so thats not that bad. Im just totally ready for things to be warm again. I need this badly. Top 10 Reasons I strive for warmth:

1.) Possible beach vacation with my sweetie this year! If I ever get enough vacation time that is.

2.) Races are much more fun when its warm then when you are cold. Man I hope april is not cold

3.) Riding a motorcycle is more fun when its warm than when its cold

4.) I just enjoy being outside in general but not when its cold.

5.) I have a great pair of sandals that are just cyring out to me from my closet

6.) My tan is really fading and needs to be re-charged!

7.) Winter coats are bulky and just get in the way whenever you go some where

8.) My dogs are really really shaggy and need a haircut but If we get them one now they will freeze

9.) I want to get blizzards from dairy queen and not freeze to death while eating them

10.) and lastly Warm weather is the bomb bizzle.

SO there ya have it I think I have made a pretty good argument as to why it should instantly turn warm and no longer be cold. Oh well guess Im going to be waiting at least a few more weeks till we get a consistant warmup and hey think of me on april 8th as I jump out of the pool at around 8:15 am and hop on a bike soaking wet in what will probably be 40 degree weather!!!

Cheers!

My new laptop!!!!

Well as promised I took a couple of pics of my new laptop and well I put a 360 controller with a couple of them for size reference. Just to clarify its an Averatec 1000 series laptop with a 10.6" widescreen and it weighs a scant 3.5 lbs with battery.

So there ya have it. And yes I did name it Chiyo chan and it rocks and I have to say I think it looks sweet next to the 360 controller. Well thats it for now. Oh yeah I signed up for a sprint triathlon in april. SO I now have some motivation to start training a little harder and to get some time in the pool. The distances are 400m swim -- 22 KM bike -- 5 KM run. Im really excited about it as im starting to not feel as weak as I have been in the past. Although my right leg is still much weaker than the left I am doing what I can to strengthen that and I can tell its making a difference.

Cheers!

I got it!!!!I

Well it took a bit of time and a little convincing but I got my new laptop and am actually blogging wirelessly on it right this second. So this is my first wireless entry and my first entry from my new laptop. Pictures are coming maybe by tommorow I hope. Other big news is that my ipod is at this point officially dead. I have run several of the diagnostics and it passes most everything however occasionally the hard drive test fails and I get basically a fatal read error. SO it looks like the drive in it is toast and I am thinking now that perhaps the flash based mini and nano's are a better way to go then the hard drive based units as hard drives dont really like to be moved while they are spinning. well dinner calls but hey if anyone wants to get me a black ipod nano i wouldnt turn it down ^_^

cheers!!

And Friday makes 15

yes not only was friday the 1st anniversary of my blog it was also the day that I was involved in my 15th yes thats a big one followed by a big fat five -- 15th car accident. And in the spirit of me and my life it had to be something unusual. SO as I was sitting at a red light In my (still brand new to me hyundai tucson) I was rear ended by a guy who just was not paying attention. He has totally jacked up my bumber and now I have to take my car to get repaired. Now you might be thinking hmm doesnt sound that bad. Well as I was pulling off the road to get things like insurance info and check damage the guy who hit me RAN. yes thats right he fled the scene. SO there I was all alone with a jacked up bumber waiting for the cops. SO that totally blew and I would write more but I need to restart my computer again b/c my ipod is totally not working. Do you hear that payton. this is at least the 3rd time that I have had to search through forums and look through stuff b/c my ipod just forgot what it was supposed to do as in it lost all my music and then no longer would sync with my pc. SO thats what I am doing now. Trying to resurect my ipod again.

Cheers!

1st Birthday Evuh!!!

Thats right peoples today my blog is officially 1 year old! I cant believe I started this over a year ago and that I still regularly post to it and that my posts are probably longer than most people care to read! WOOT for me! SO thanks to everyone who stops by and reads and thanks also to all those who leave comments as they are always appreciated and help justify my poor existance in this thing we call INTERNET.

Ok so heres my funny thought of the day and it really shows the difference between being support and being an end user.

If you are an end user calling support you pray you dont get voicemail

If you are support calling an end user you pray you get their voicemail

Seriously im not joking. Most of the times I do callbacks I just sit and hope that they dont pick up the phone. SO anyway just a little something to think about.

Cheers and thanks again for reading!!!!

My shout out to RP missions

Ok I got a question from Payton over what RP missions is and so I thought I would give a quick shout out to all my homies over in BEAVER FALLS!!!! yeah thats right theys be kickin it ollllll skool doing mission work the way its meant to be, overseas and out of yo comfort zone but with established churches so yo work aint in vain yo.

Ok more seriously RP missions is really awesome and proof that through God one person can make a dramatic difference and impact a large number of people. Matt Filbert is the head of RP missions and he does in a part time setting what most missionary organizations have a whole staff and buildings to accomplish. The amazing thing about this is that it totally keeps the cost of trips down since very little if any administrative costs are built into what you have to fundraise which is generally unheard of.

SO whats my connection to this whole thing?? Well lisa and I went on our first trip to scotland in 98. then we had a weee hiatus and came back with a vengeance to lead a team to Norhtern Ireland in 2002 and then we went to japan for matt in 2003. Also since 2001 we have been opening our house up as a geograpically neutral venue for the annual RP missions team leader training. Which is used as a way to help prepare people who might lead trips the following summer and answer any questions they might have.

SO in a nutshell thats RP missions.

Cheers!

Yeah im here so keep your nick knacks on!

Ok yeah so I know I have not posted in a little bit, but im still not as bad as some people (coughlukecoughdennycough) so there. Well what has been up with me. Well a lot actually this past weekend we opened our house to what is now becoming an annual event which is The RP missions team leader training weekend. This is the 5th year that Lisa and I have opened our house up for this event and this was by far the largest turnout that we have had yet. At one point in time we had I think 22 people in our house and 18-19 spent the night on friday and saturday night. SO needless to say their were sleeping bags everywhere!!! It was a really good time and again Lisa and I are always Glad when the Lord give us the opportunity to use our house for him. Aside from preparing for that and getting the house ready for that we have also been preparing for the newest resident in the Knodel house and she arrived yesterday evening. Thats right Lisa's sister sara moved in with us last night and will be living with us for an undetermined amount of time. Were really excited to have here at home and pray that its a great experiance for her. Ok so thats life stuff what else. Oh yeah I have a request in for a new laptop!!! I have talked to a couple of people about it and until it gets the final approval im going to hold off on posting that much about it but I think it will be uber kewl and I have already come up with what I will name it if I get it -- Chiyo Chan -- SO if that works out then I will finnaly name my pc and give it the name of -- Sakaki San -- If you dont know what the significance of either of those names are I will give two clues. One they are from the same thing. two use google. Ok so hopefully I will get the approval on that and get to order it soon as my laptop is essentially worthless at the moment. what else is up oh yeah Saw the official Silent Hill Trailer the other day and WOW it looks like its capturing the spirit of the game in a great way so I am even more excited about april!!!!!! Oh and I was searching around the net some and found out they are also in pre-production for a fatal frame movie!!! Someone is paying attention! But for some reason us movie makers dont want to use Japanese actors for japanese roles. Think memoirs of a geisha which as I am reading had a mostly chinese cast and little japanese representation. Which is really dumb and reminds me of the old westerns where the indians were often whiter then the cowboys. Anyway guess I will end on a game update since I have not done one in awhile

Xbox 360
Still working on kameo (2 hours) and Perfect dark(2 hours) when I get time. I think we have played more hexic than either one of those games. I just need more time!!!

Xbox
DOA3 and DOAU are taking up my time here but I have not touched either in a month

PS2
Xenosaga 2 owns me right now and Lisa and I are playing that to death. However its good but no where near the caliber of the first one. I really hope they go back to some of the earlier mechanics for the 3rd and final game in the series - clocked time 35 hours

PSx
still kinda fiddling with FFIX when I get the time however I just picked up Chrono Cross (brand new mind you) and so I think after xenosaga im going to try to get lisa interested in that one so that I can play through it in a shorter period of time then say a year.

GBA
made a huge breakthrough in Legend of Zelda and now I feel really dumb. Also somebody coughstevencoughdennycough has still never let me borrow one of a thousand pokemon games that he has. SO someday I might play one of them as well.

Ok so there ya go that was a pretty long post that summed up everything thats pretty much going on with me. SO hope everyone is doing well and I will post again this week I promise.

Cheers!

a;ldjfaetihidadg;l;k ^_^

Ok so yeah im back and wow i am wiped out. Totally annihilated is how I feel. SO much for vacation time. I joked with lisa that I think this whole thing is a consipiracy by my job to make me willingly forfeit vacation time b/c since I have worked for MDECA my vacation time has been either:

1. Impossible to use b/c of how we accrue it
2. used for something other than vacation
3. used on a vacation that blew goats.

That pretty much sums up my "productive" use of vacation time over the past 5.5 years. SO oh well I just continue to live at my desk and rot. Just kidding im not rotting im just tired and not in a the best of moods. Its funny though b/c I got a call today to do a job shadow for a kid in HS and im like ok Ill show him whats what. he he he. But seriously let me try to put together at least a couple of coherant thoughts. Ok Yes I am back from arizona. No gary it was not a retreat and their were no illegal or controlled substances also it was not Sara Baker. WOW guess what their is more than one girl named Sara in the world. Sorry not trying to be harsh its again the tired that is doing this. Anyway Oh and by the way the grass on my berm could still stand to be a little shorter so tell the horse to come back. Oh yeah and Steve let me just say that the prices your rec center charges are insane!!! can I say that one more time they are insane!!! like im looking at it and it would probably cost me more to come and climb at your joint then to go to a real gym. And sorry but most gyms are in the 10-15,000 sq ft range plus another 4-5k for bouldering. I seriously dont know what they are thinking. 30 bucks for a belay class then another 15 for a cert!!! who do they think they are????? Ive been climbing for 6 years now and you want me to take a written test! what so that you know I can write belay on and on belay. Sorry venting. Its just dumb thats all and I swear if I go and steve doesnt let me set a boulder problem im going to scream until he does. SO if you want to see Chris Sparky Knodel or Ruki or whatever you want to call me scream like a little girl till Im blue in the face and get my way just let me know and I will tell you when I am going to Steves wall. ^_^ but be forwarned you might have to skip paying a bill just to get in the door to see this oh so dramatic event.

Sorry I know I went off on a tangent but ya know. I guess I can always go outside for free and thats what I have been doing for the last year. Ok again trying to stray back to some type of coherant thought wave. The trip yesterday felt long. IT felt like we were traveling all day and I guess we really were. Left Sara around 9:45am and got to my house about 9pm so yeah that was a pretty freaking long time. However the flight was made nicer by two of my bestest friends. Mr Gameboy and Mix master Ipod. Ahh its so nice to be able to totally drown out everything around you and kinda forget that you are in a bullet shaped coffin traveling around 450 mph roughly 5 miles above anything safe to stand on. And when you think about the fact that the only thing keeping you in the air is the Bernoulli principle well my friends thats pretty scary. That and the fact that your pilot has a hmm 70% chance of being either: (woot 4 lists)

1. drunk
2. hungover
3. asleep
( i still dont know which is worse. Vote with your comment!)

Is also comforting. So needless to say physics held up and my arch nemisis gravity did not prevail therefore we landed safely in columbus last night and then made the drive back down to drizzly dayton. SO thats pretty much the update. This week is going to be INSANE IN THE MEMBRANE and so im really trying to catch up on rest at work before I go home b/c I think thats going to just as bad as work. Oh well I will try to post again this week something with a bit more perc to it.

Cheers!

More on whats up

Well this post is going to be a little more umm I guess superficial as talk a little about what AZ has been like for me. Well first off It does not feel like I am in the dessert. It feels like im in some controlled and created disney reproduction of the dessert thats in say canada. I say this because its been pretty darn cold here and Im not just talking about at night b/c yes I realize the dessert is cold at night. Im talking about during the day when its getting up to the mid 50's. Not really dessert to me. SO anyway I think the scenery here is really pretty. If you know me then you know I adore mountains and the mountains here I think are really pretty. Also their is lots and lots of good rock around here which is driving me crazy. Im just feeling the itch to get my monkey skills on! ^_^ SO anyway I have gotten to go for one run so far here and It was a good 3.5-4 miler I think. It was really nice and came at the end of a day when I really really needed a run so that was cool. SO now I have run in the dessert. However luke I still kept my shirt on b/c it was that cold and it was during the sunset which was on one hand really pretty but on the other not conducive to tanning. SO I dont think you have to worry about that. We have been to a couple of the local eateries like taco bell / pizza hut (the greatest juxtiposition of a restuarant for me and lisa) and a local mexican place which every one seemed to think was really good. then last night we went to Tastee Freeze and got Ice Cream and I still need to go back and get a pic outside of it so that I can feel apart of that great john mellon cougar camp song. Well I think we are getting ready to shove off so just be in prayer for us the days are long and hard but they are really great at the same time. SO thats me signing off.

Cheers!

yes I am alive

Ok I know it has been like forever since I last posted. What like 2 weeks or so??? But things have been pretty crazy for me. I had a project at work that was asked of me and well yeah its nothing that I have ever done before so I had to spend quite a bit of time in research and then learning that most of my research really didnt do anything for me and in the end I just had to figure my way through it. But my deadline was last friday and yeah at about 3:40pm I finished up what I was trying to do. And GASP it all worked so boo yah. Anyway Saturday was spent packing and cleaning and Sunday the whole gang flew out to Arizona. We got to see Sara quite a bit on Sunday afternoon early evening and then went back to our apartment which I must say is really really nice. Then yesterday we got started at the center. SO far I am really impressed by this place and really really happy that Sara came here. Everything is Christ Centered here and a large majority of their model for recovery is trusting in God at the core and relying on God for strength and not your eating disorder. I wondered a lot about what this week would be like if it would be a lot of screaming and crying a lot of blame shifting but its not. Its been so educational to me so far and I have to say I have learned a lot about myself and its helping me to realize some of the missing components that I have over looked in my own life. SO its really awesome. Its not about blame here and its not about pointing fingers. Its about taking ownership for what you have done and forgetting abougt the things you had no control over and I think thats really great. SO I have to go as we are getting ready to leave for day 2 but I just wanted y'all to know that things are going in my opinion really well and Oh yeah Sara is looking really good as well. Take care

Cheers!

Silent hill update

Ok I have mentioned this before but they are coming out with a silent hill movie and it looks like the release date is now april 21st!! I cant wait for this movie to come out and if its anything like the teaser trailer its going to be really good. If you have played any of the games than you will probably see a lot of familiar sights in the trailer and if you havent then you will probably think its pretty creepy! So watch the trailer and tell me what you think!


Cheers!

Happy B-day to me

Well yesterday was my birthday and well I cant say it was the best one I have ever had it started out kinda rough but ended better so it was not all that bad. Luke and Steve came over and we played some 360 and some regular xbox (burnout is lots of fun) We also played a number of regular games like zonk, apples 2 apples, and scattegories. I managed to lose at everythign we played in true B-day spirit. However I didnt just lose in most cases I was annihilated, yes true oh my gosh you just got spanked by the ownage fashion. SO yes that was fun ^_^ Seriously it was I like playing games and whatnot and am not hung up on winning which is good since I tend to lose a lot. SO quick rundown

Burnout (no one really wins since we were co-op'ng crashes)

DOA 3 -- got spanked by Luke playing Brad Wong of all people. It was so embarassing especially since he was all "I totally suck at this game and have not played it in a few weeks" right before our match started. I think we played 3 - 2 round matches and I won 1 round. Yes 1 round, thats all.

Apples 2 Apples -- Ok I was not in last place but pretty far back. the object is to get like 10 cards. steven and lisa both had 9 and I cant rember which one Won. I had like 5 and luke had either 5 or 6 I think. SO at least someone else was down there with me

Zonk -- OMG spanked. Thats all im going to say. their was point in time where I thought I would not get any points before luke won and it was pretty close to that.

Scattegories -- did ok in this but didnt win.

SO games suck. J/K it was a lot of fun and I got burger king for lunch and Ci Ci's for dinner which was very very nice. Today my body is asking me why I abused it so much by shoving so many calories down my throat and I have no real good explanation cept it was my b-day and thats ok with me. SO what did I get for my b-day????

highlights:

A headset for my cell phone. Lisa got this for me and I have to say its probably one of the best gifts she's ever gotten me. It really choked me up. I know it sounds dumb but its something that I have wanted for a long time but never told her and its something gadgety which she usually shys away from unless I give a specific suggestion. I love the brand name of it (body glove) which means nothing to most of you but was HUGE in the late 80's early 90's and its still cool in my book. SO to me the gift rocks on so many levels b/c the thought put into it was HUGE and the gift scored HUGE as well. SO thanks so much sweetie you take good care of me. It was just really cool and it means a lot to me.

a new wallet. Ok my old wallet was basically a hand me down from a friend. It was new when he gave it to me but I rescued it from being trashed as he was packing for college. No it was not hideous my friend was just and idiot. It was a pretty nice black leather wallet that he got for like christmas or what not. Well after 10 years of service it was time to retire. SO my sweetie got me a sweet new one and I like it a lot. Again she just picked one out and scored big! you go girl!

Perfect dark Zero for x360. Thanks Sue now I have two 360 games and b/c of this steve is now fully on board to house sit for me in the next couple of weeks.

Sony earbuds. Ok I will put more of a write up of these later maybe after today when I get some good time with them. Anyone who has an ipod thinks those little buds are the bomb but if you read around it turns out they are pretty sucky and I have been very dissapointed in the lack of responsive bass that they output and since bass is a key and critical component of the music I listen to I consulted my personal audio engineer (my bro jason) for a suggestion of buds. He told me about a pair of sony's that he said rocked the free world and since I dont live in an oppresive communistic country I said SA WEET! SO thanks to Paul for scoring me the buds. I can not wait for my run today which I will leave for when I finish this post to try them out. Like I said a review will follow.

A big @$$ shot gun style reciprocating saw with blades that are like 8" long. Ok I have to tell you I have no idea what to use this thing for but it rocks. The only time I have ever seen one used was in the old 80's skateboard video "The search for animal chin" In it Tony Hawk and the rest of the Bones Brigade (yeah I have sk8ed forever) used a saw just like mine to cut the roof off a caddy and make it a convertible while they drove through the dessert. SO if anyone would like to have their car magically transformed into a convertible right before your eyes I can provide this service. If thats tooo extreme for ya I can also cut sun roof holes in cool designer shapes like a circle or a kidney bean. Or if you have a little sibling who is troubling you just threaten to have me come over and cut their bike in half and that should get them flying straight in no time.

SO thats the majority but I got other stuff too but this is getting long as it is. Biggest b-day surprise would have to be that headset for my phone but the second has got to be my b-day card from Grampa. It is probably the funniest b-day card I have ever gotten and its just awesome. I think I will have to hold on to it for a long time.

Best day of my life!

Ok im going to take a break from the gloom and doom of my usual posts (j/k) and spend a little time (warning long post imminent!) commemorating a pretty freaking awesome day. 6 years ago today Lisa Noel Branson become my wife, I became complete, and my life got dramatically better than I ever imagined it could be. The path that lead to that day was a long and rocky one that started when I was 13. I met lisa just a few weeks after I lost a couple of friends who were very very close to me and incidentally I should have died with them but the Lord in his wisdom saw fit for me to remain. SO when I met Lisa it was more of a "I noticed that she was there" but was not really in a mood to make new friends so that was our first encounter. A few months later she was my girlfriend and the funny thing about this is that later in life, like when we were married, we were going through some of her old notebooks and she actually admits to manipulating me (her words not mine) into becoming her boyfriend which was toooo funny! SO a few months later she broke up with me (a trend was starting) But what can I say I was hooked. Over the next couple of years we dated off and on (the off always initiated by my sweet sweet wife!) until my senior year her junior year when we dated exclusively for about a year. That was a tough year for me b/c thats when I found out I was color blind and not going to be a pilot like I had always dreamed. Lisa was really great and really helped me get through that. However things kinda went south on us and Lisa broke up with me yet again. I went off to college and she ended up taking my #2 Arch nemesis (#1 is gravity in case you were wondering) to her prom. At that point I was like WHATEVER home girl -- if thats the junk you want then I dont want to have anything to do wit ya. SO for a time there was another girl I was interested in but WOW did she really turn on me. Yes if you are noticing a theme its not just co-incidental. So for pretty much my entire freshman year at college lisa and I didnt talk hardly at all. We were barely even friends in my opinion and didnt really have anything to do with each other. SO yeah things were not so good between us. Well after my freshman year (summer 97) I was really torn about what to do with my life. I had no direction and I didnt like where I was and didnt know where I wanted to go. Well over the summer Lisa and I started hanging out again and she actually made the suggestion that we start dating again. I actually had the hootzpa to say no. I was like ok I have been burned like a billion times by you and now a month before you go off to covenant and I am who knows where you want to get together. It just seemed doomed to me so we stayed friends. Well I ended up flipping a coin and going to covenant in the fall. Really thats what happened. You would think after I described the summer were we had gotten close and the intrest lisa had in me that something might have started up again with us since we were at the same school but SUPRISE she was not interested anymore (woo hoo I dodged a bullet) My time at covenant was really really brief (2.5 months brief) and I was gone. In that time I decided I needed to find my own path and go someplace that had something to offer me school wise so I applied and was accepted at Embry Riddle Aero Univ In florida and I would start jan of 98. SO heres where things start to get more interesting. Lisa's family had decided to move to Ohio to take care of Lisa's Grandfather and they were moving in the beggining of january. My family was staying in Lynchburg. Lisa was going to college in GA. I was going to school in Florida. We basically decided that we wanted to go out one last time before we said good by to each other for what could have very well been forever. since we had no reason to be in the same geographic region as the other ever again. We went out for my birthday to a nice restaurant and saw the movie Titanic (in a first run theater mind you) And afterward we talked a bit and then we said good by. I left the next day for Florida to begin what I thought would be a new life. Well it was new but their was this little thing hanging on in the back of my mind and that was my lisa. I just couldnt get her out of my head so I decided to start pursuing her again. I knew that I loved her and that I wanted to be with only her for the rest of my life and I was determined to give it my best shot. Well She was not so receptive and was downright opposed to it for the most part but over the summer we got back together and then right before she went back to school we got engaged!!!!!!! Then on december 28th 1999 we were married. And like I said that day changed my life for the better in more ways than I ever could have imagined. SO here we are 6 years later and we are still uber happy. Like I said before the path leading up to that day was a very long and difficult one but it was totally worth it. And even though the last 6 years have had their ups and downs I really only remember the ups and I really truly feel that each year has been better than the last. Its been wonderfull to see both of us grow in maturity and love for one another and I am super duper jazzed about the next 10,25,50, 75+ years we have together. Yes I am optimistic about how long I am going to be alive. I have good reason to want to be alive!

SO happy Anniversary Baby. I love you so much and I cant wait to see what the rest of our lives have in store for us!

cheers!

WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Real quick post today. Why could I be so excited??? Perhaps its becuase at 8:45am this morning I got my xbox 360!!!!!!!!!! The irony of it is that I did not get it from my pre-order I got it from k-mart. They got 4 in the store last night and I got #4!!!!!!!

Cheers!

Todays entry brought to you in part by the number...

Yup thats right 25. I just called Gamestop and thats where I stand on the xbox 360 pre-order list. 25 its a long ways down and the sales guy said "sorry but I really doubt we will get to you before christmas." Which kinda sucks but hey those are the breaks right. SO ebay seems totally off and me getting one probably still wont happen for quite some time. As of now my store has gotten 12 total units since the 22. 10 for launch and a second shipment of a whopping 2. With the big 300,000 shipment this weekend I think my store might see 10 again but even if they got 20 which is a huge stretch it still wouldnt matter. After this shipment I think its back to 2-4 every other week or so. SO yeah it bites. I think I will still keep looking around at other places to get one since it could be mid to end of january before I would ever see my pre-order filled. Seeing as it has taken almost a month to knock the list down a whopping 12 spaces.

weekend wrap up

Well its monday morning so I thought I would give a wee update on whats been going on as of late.
1st up im still doing the bachelor thing as my wife is not yet back from chattanooga and it could be tuesday or wednesday of this week before she makes it back. SO just a side note if you could pray that she is able to come back sooner rather than later I would appreciate it. I miss my baby : (

2nd my weekend has been crazy busy. I swear I had a honey do list like you wouldnt believe and I am still not done with it. It included last minute x-mas shopping, grocery shopping, cleaning, watering plants, and a score of other things that were very time consuming. All in all I have been working pretty hard this weekend and still feel like I have TONS to do.

3 - I am even more inthe x-mas spirit now in that I spent 3 hours wrapping presents on saturday night (another item on the long list) and yes again I did it all without the aid of one single track of x-mas music. BWUAHAHAHAHA!!! Yes it was another technotrancified night of slammin tracks to get my wrap on.

4 - Now on to me in general. Im in a surprisingly good mood. Its kinda funny how when you are the type of person who does not normally feel pulled to one side or the other on the mood scale to feel particularly drawn to one side. But I am. In a good mood that is. I have been so for a number of days so if you wanna see what im like in a good mood heres your chance! On a related note its very interesting to me to see how much weather affects your body and especially your mental state and its delicate (im)balance. It is truly amazing how God has engineered us to adapt and overcome our environment without us even noticing. However if for whatever reason you have say an imperfection that needs to be supplemented its more easy to see these things. Ok I know im not making sense so here goes. I take a hormone supplement for my thyroid as it is "Hypo" which means underactive. Well in general it works pretty well but unlike the human body it doesnt change and react the way it should since it is a fixed amount. Case in point my mind was a huge washboard of infinity on friday. I swear I could not focus at all on like a single thought. Its kinda frustrating but like I said it just shows me more and more how amazing a design we as humans are and how Amazing God is for what he has done. What really got me thinking about this was a trip to wal mart. OMG I swear I had like 3 things I needed to find at walmart and I walked into the store and I was like. ummm. Why I am here again??? SO I just started wandering around the store in hopes that I would see something that would jog the mind back into sync. Well I noticed a department and was like right I need to go there for x y and z. SO I walked the 20 feet to get there and then was like. CRAP! why did I need to come here again. This happened for each of the three items of which I was searching for and was at times very very frustrating. But like I said im in a good mood! SO go figure

5 - wee game update - Ok I have totally given up on getting a 360 anytime before xmas and it wouldnt really matter at this point if I got one say next week b/c its not like I have any games for it and I hear that block buster isnt renting them yet. SO no biggy in my mind.

xbox - lisa and I started to play fatal frame 2 again and we are digging on it Also DOA rules. I love that game which is weird b/c I have never ever liked fighters. But I really look forward to my 10-15 min fix each day

ps2 - need to get back to god of war and finish that one up.

psone - playing FFIX and loving it. I had gotten a good start on it but then put it down for a number of months during the mistake that was ".hack" but now I am back playing it and really digging on it. More on that later.

Well thats about it for my weekend. Sunday was sad in that it was the last sunday for our pastor to be our full time pastor. He is going to be a missionary in the Ukraine and though I am so jazzed and excited for him he will be greatly missed. It also kinda sucks b/c im on the pulpit committee and we are charged with finding someone as good as Dan. I think the congregation is going to have some pretty lofty expectations.

Well thats it for now.

cheers!

Im getting into the Christmas Spirit!

Well the other day lisa dropped the bomb on me that she wanted to put up our tree this year which we had before agreed to bypass. I know I know were awefull people. WHATEVER! SO in any event she decided she would really like it up and felt that it would be nice. SO I was like oke doke. WELLLLL I decided I would surprise her yesterday and while she was gone I put the tree up myself so it would be done when she got home. IT was a lot of work but it was worth it and it also did manage to help get me in the christmas mood. However my tree trimming was and is probably different from a lot of other peoples in that their was NO christmas music playing at all. None nadda zilch zero. Thats right instead I kicked it up a notch and got my tree rocking to some choice tunes like:

first up was a cd of stuff Jason did a loooong time ago (like 2-3 years) and I have not listened to it in a long time. Or on a system that could thump some decent bass I might add. It was sweet and I still have to say that Jason your version of radio babylon is my absolute favorite. This means a lot since radio babylon is one of my favorite MBM songs and your mix is like I said my fav. Their was also a track on their that was not done by jason but a friend of his and its based around transformers. Now I grew up hooked on those things and I had forgotten a little line from the begining of the show that goes something like this "In the year 2005 the treacherous decepticons have conquered the autobot home world of cybertron." Dang I feel old b/c all the stuff happening in the show was supposed to be happening this year!!! SO watch out people b/c this is the month the Autobots are going to land!

Next up was a cd of JPOP that I have again not listened to in forever. Lots of great songs and was really what got me tuned into Jpop and the likes of Ayumi Hamasaki (ayu) and Boa. Since then I have acquired many Ayu cds and am a big fan.

After that was a really good cd I made of trance tracks that I really like. And thats how I finished out the evening.

SO a tree was assembled and trimmed and not a lick of christmas music was played. I consider that to be a good evening.

On another note the japan trip is now cancelled which means that the prospects for a wild and rowdy dead or alive tournament are now more up in the air as lisa will now be home when I was thinking of doing it. However I will still see what I can do to at least have some people over to kick it.

thats it for now. Oh I ate twice yesterday!!!!! I think im over this thing!!!!!!

Cheers!

Dang that hurt!

Ok so wow as some of you already no I got hit with the insanely cruel stomach virus that has been going around these parts last week. What was really weird was I felt great on monday and had a really good run but nothing could prepare me for how I would feel tuesday when I woke up. I wont go into all the wonderfull details but I felt as if I was being constantly punched in the stomach for about 3 days. Tuesday I didnt eat anything at all and I drank about half a glass of 7-up. Wed I was feeling a little bit better and ate a hot dog and some other stuff. Thursday again felt like crap. Ate next to nothing if anything and tried to drink a lot of fluids b/c I was getting dehydrated. Friday was feeling better didnt eat anything till the evening which was a mistake. I was feeling good and steak and shake really appealed to me. Well it tasted good but It was too soon. Saturday I literally ate 3 wendys chicken nuggets. I couldnt finish a $.99 5 piece on my own! Sunday I ate my other 2 nuggets and another hot dog. sO now we are at monday and im feeling better but I am still really really weak from lack of food so I really need to try and eat something today. SO thanks to everyone who prayed for me to feel better.

Well I still have no xbox 360 so that is something that I dont have to worry about and other than that on the gaming front my recent sickness provided me with gobs and gobs of time to start and almost finish Jade Empire which so far has been pretty cool. will write more later but I have some stuff I need to do for now.

Cheers!

quick updatage (if that is even a word and if it aint then tough)

Ok so like heres the big news of the weekend --



TA DA!!! we got a new car / truck / whatever! Its pretty cool and so far has been a lot of fun to drive. You might be asking yourself what is it??? well let me tell you what it is. A 2005 Hyundai Tucson LX in blue with a light grey / beigy leather interior. It has a moonroof and a v6 engine and most importantly BUTT WARMERS!!!! yeah its pretty posh. It also has an in dash 6 disc cd changer that is supposed to be able to do mp3's but I have not gotten that to work yet. Oh and it it also supposed to have a subwoofer to kick out the freaky bass which I have also not tried yet due mostly to the fact that I have not gotten a chance to drive it alone yet and will not be able to really kick the funky tunage until then. SO thats pretty cool ya. I was able to trade the VW in on it and got a whopping $1000 dollar trade on that. I feal so violated by that car it isnt even funny. However I feel that I have at least "pulled one over" or "gottten even" with the car dealer as there are a TON of things wrong with that car and for them to be able to sell it for what I know they are going to they are going to have to fix a lot of stuff to make the car sellable. SO They may have thought they screwed me but I got them just as good!!!! (insert evil laughter) SO anyway I am happy to be rid of the piece o crap Vdub that I had and its nice to have a brand spanking new car in the garage that is at the moment problemless. SO thats that

Other than that had a pretty good T-giving hanging out with my folks and just chilling out. Lisa and I did do something that we have here to for not done. That being we went shopping friday morning. Ya see we looked through all the pamphlets and flyers and stuff from thursday and discovered that their were quite a lot of things that we were looking for at staples that were either free or dramatically reduced in price. SO we decided to get up early and get their when they opened their doors at -- sigh-- 6am. OITS that was early and freaking cold but it was worth it and we got all the stuff we were shooting for. The funny thing is that we got like I dont know 7 diff items and only two of them were meant as gifts for other people. The others were things we had needed but just put off getting like a paper shredder which we got and will be free after its rebate so it was a worthy trip. I think were getting something like 100 bucks back in rebates so we did save quite a bit or we will I should say. After that we met up with Sue and went to the mall b/c lisa saw a flyer for parisian with some boots she wanted and I gotta say they are pretty hot boots. I like lisa in heels and shes wearing them more and more now and I have to say I think Jeans look really good with heels. I guess im getting older I dont know. SO whatever we then went and grabbed some lunch. went home and then went to go get the car which took 3 hours longer than it should have. I swear it was like hello we are trying to give you money perhaps you could do something slightly faster than you are. Oh well we have it and its done now. Then on Sat. we had Sue and Scott Damerow over to watch Napolean Dynamite which my parents had not seen and I hate to admit it but that movie gets funnier the more times you watch it. That was my second time and I found myself in giddy anticipation over such scenes like napolean $%@^$ slaps kip, or kip runs over the tupperware. Many many classicly good scenes and then other I had totally forgotten about like when the old guy shoots the cow which is PRICELESS. SO it was a good time. Then on Sunday I got to hear my Dad preach which is a very very rare treat for me so that was nice as well. Alas though its monday and Im back to the grind and life is back to normal. At least for the next three weeks until the 16th of december when lisa - sue - and sara (aka max) go to the land of the rising FUN! to get their tourist thing on for a week. At which time their will be a lot of pizza and even more gaming. SO stop by! Maybe I will finaly get to have a real 4 person death match in metal arms!!!!! Or a DOA tournament. Could be cool. Thats all for now

Cheers!

A new dillema

Ok I know I said that I didnt think I would update again till after thanksgiving but hey X-mas comes early this year what can I say! Ok so if you have been following my site you know a couple of things.

1.) I am getting an X360
2.) Their is a high probability I will have it before x-mas

This has now presented me with a new dillema. Do I keep it or do I sell it on e-bay and then buy one perhaps in march when the market is more normalized??? Heres my quandry if you will. Right now I have the big bundle on reserve and that costs 400+ tax = 426 which will be my cost. Right now your going uh huh get to the point ok spunk monkey keep ya knick knacks on. If you go to ebay and check the current prices of x360's the average price they are going for today is $1050.00+ 40 for shipping. Thats close to a $600 dollar profit for not doing anything at all and would more than cover the cost of a new 360 + an extra controller and a few games from my new pal darren (thanks buddy!) Now my mind is moving on to even more enterprising ideas. right now the hype on e-bay is initial launch hype which I would expect to go down. But my friends we live in a land of stupid adults. Adults who are at the mercy of their children and who feel they have one shot each year to appease the little devils just a little bit and that day is x-mas. SO my point is if a x360 will sell for 1050-1200 today what will it sell for the week before x-mas when they are no where to be found???? Most major game stores are already saying if you dont have a pre-order dont even ask until feb. In fact gamestop is now taking pre-orders again for x360 with a ship date of feb 28th!!! The quantities are that limited. I cant even imagine how much they will be going for the week before x-mas but I have to think it will be in the range of $1500-2000 and that people will be fighting for them like moms were fighting for cabbage patch dolls back in the 80's. SO like I said my dillema. Should I get it and hold out on e-bay to see what the prices are like and then sell it if I can clear $600-1000+ or do I embrace the next gen technology and bask in the fact that I have something cool before so many other peopl do. Its a tough call for sure but I gotta tell you I think I might reserve a ps3 right now just thinking about whats happening now.

Cheers!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well I doubt that I will get a chance to post up again before wed. SO I thought I would throw a little plug in for thanksgiving and wish everyone well. Its tuesday and I have been very very busy at work which I have to say my perception of time is very skewed b/c I felt like it had only been like this for few months and I just spent some time looking back over old blog entries and this really has been a crapy year for me work wise in terms of volume and stress so hooray for blogs as they help to keep me well seated in the realms of time and space! SO anyway I am very excited about this week as my parents are coming in for a visit which will be nice to have them here. And their is a possiblity that they might be coming to stay with us for a few months which would also be pretty kewl as well. Who knows maybe I can even get my dad into video games! Trying to think about anything else that is happening. Oh I have officially had it with my car. Yes last friday getting up for work I started driving and didnt get out of my sub before I realized I had a flat. GARRRRRR so I changed that and was late for work. double GARRRRR. Now I realize that flat tires happen. Perhaps thats my new t-shirt idea "flats happen" ne way thats now copyrighted so dont even think about taking the idea ^_^ neway I realize these things happen however it was not a simple nail or something like that. No my car had worn off the ENTIRE INSIDE EDGE of the tire down to the steel threads which kept sticking me in my fingers and hurting quite badly. SO I have never seen this before and if you look back to May you can see that I posted about buying new tires and they have less than 15000 miles on them! GARRRRR. SO yes I have officially had it with this car. IT is Wic by definition. Well I have tons to do but again happy t-day and everyone try to get some much needed rest and relaxation over the next few days.

Cheers!

Xbox 360????Where are you?????

Ok so I have some news regarding the whole xbox 360 thing for anyone who cares. Sorry hannah but hey if your reading this you never e-mailed me so there. neway SO back a few weeks when Jason and Momo were here Jason dropped the bomb on me that he was going to cancel his 360 pre-order for what will remain undisclosed reasons. SO of course my first reaction was AH CRAP! there goes my chance to kick around on one for a week. But then my sweet lovely wife said well maybe you can get it. This came as what has to be stated as a total shock and so I said ok we can think about it. Well after a few weeks we talked about it last night and Lisa said it could be my X-mas / B-day present from her! SO WOOT im getting a 360! SO I was all excited and jazzed about that and then I got a phone call last night from Game Stop (which is where my pre-order is) which basically said. YO we aint getting nearly the # of 360's we thought we was gittin so dont expect to see one this x-mas and you might be waiting till the beggining of next year 'click' (ya see I added the click b/c it was a recording). SO I was like DOH! so I called my game stop today and asked for a more realistic status and heres what I got. I am #32 on the list of pre-orders. They originally thought they were going to be getting roughly 25 units a week up until x-mas. SO before they thought I was a 2nd week candidate. However they have been informed its going to be more like 10 units for my store at launch (DUDE!) and they have not been given any promises in terms of shipments after that. SO he said yeah I think we should be able to get yours in by x-mas but Its still hard to say. I basically got the feeling that this guy knew his store was getting 10 units and that anything outside of that, that shows up each week will be a super duper suprise. SO as it stands right now I will be getting one however who knows when that will be. Also some other circumstances are possibly popping up that might make the wifesky say uh no to the whole thing. SO I guess in the end I really didnt have anythign new to say but yet I said a lot. But I take that back. SO neway thats my "big" news. SO this brings up another question what to do with the ol xbox??? I still have a lot of games that I like to play on it and assuming that half will work on the 360 is that enough to keep the old one around? Also say all my games work thats cool but all my level saves and what not are still on my xbox and I dont think the memory cards are cross platform compatible. SO that brings up another problem in that like for example Kung Fu Chaos I worked my butt off to unlock everything in that game. Do I keep it and do that all over again or just say whatever and trade in all my xbox games and xbox. SO let me know what you guys think.

Cheers!

New Phone!!!!

Yes I have finaly entered into a more modern Era of Cell Phone. No it does not have a camera or an MP3 player or a video camera but it does have a color screen and it can do MP3 ringtones and that aint bad. This phone also knows about a little thing called java so I can load some cool apps on it as well. SO how did this come about??? Well my old phone an i60c (which sucked) starting having an issue about 6 months ago that I finally got tired of living with and it got tired of living with me so it just stopped working. SO this morning I went and picked up my new phone!!!! I am still running the stock settings but over the next day or so I think I should have it pretty customized to my liking which will be nice. SO the two new feature that I love about this phone are these.

1.) it has a display on the front that tells the time but more importantly does caller ID. My old phone did not have that and it sucked to have to answer the phone and find out you didnt want the call.

2.) I can add a custom ringtone which might seem trite but hey if you have ever had a generic nextel phone (like an i60c) then you know that LOTS of people have nextel phones and a lot of people have the same ring and that gets really annoying to be in a crowded area think your phone keeps going off. SO that will be a nice change.

quick game update
PS2 Lisa and I finished xenosaga which I dont even think I mentioned we had started but I have to say it was pretty awesome. Really deep story and really good gameplay. Total time start to finish for us was a fantastic 65 hours!!! which for the investment of 14.99 comes out to a rough .23 cents an hour cost for entertainment. Imagine if you could see a second run movie for 50 cents. Other than that I am playing god of war for PS2 as well which should make Jason happy. SO far im almost all the way through athens and the game is pretty amazing. the graphics and speed are really good and really fast. SO far im having fun with it and since its borrowed the cost per hour of enjoyment is $0.00 / hour which is even a better deal then Xenosaga!

Oh did I mention a little thing called Xbox 360 launches next week! I wonder how many my store will get and what wave of pre order I will be. Right now I think I am solidly in 2nd round which would be the following week but I think their is always a chance I could get first round as well. my number is I think 31. SO we shall see.

Ok well their ya go ankle biters I updated. Excuse me for being busy at work and Sick all in the same week!!! J/K

cheers!

Atmosphere is everything

Ok if you have read my blog at all then you know Lisa and I are BIG fans of the silent hill series. In fact after lisa's recent birthday we now have every game in the series which is pretty cool since it spans 3 different consoles. SO far we have played through 1 (on psone) 2 (xbox) 4 (xbox) and just recently got 3 for PS2. SO what does this have to do with anything??? Well they are making a movie out of the game and that has me pretty excited. Now for the most part I think Movies based on video games are pretty weak. Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Doom are all pretty much just action flicks that get a lot of negative press and to that I say "what did you expect?" The games are not very story centric and are mostly action and that is why the silent hill movie has me excited. The silent hill games are very deep in story and try to scare you by messing with your senses. For example in most of the games they really promote a feeling that you are alone in what could be considered your own worst nightmare so their is very little interaction with other people. However at times everything will be very quiet and out of no where you will hear screams of horror and pain that arent coming from you or are they? Its very psychological and I think thats what has made these games so good in the first place. SO that being said I feel their is a lot to build off of to make a good movie out of one of them and the edition of the game they chose is ranking up there as my favorite so im even more jazzed. Silent Hill 1 is what started the series and so far imo had the best and most conclusive storyline. And just had a well planned out plot to begin with. SO look for it next april as Im sure it should be pretty good. Providing they stick with the story and the atmosphere that the games try to create and from the looks of the pic above they have it dead on.

cheers

PEOPLE WHO LIE SUCK!

ok thats the gist of my post. Yup that about sums it up they suck big time. I dont know why its so hard to give a truthfull factual answer in some cases but hey if it nets you a sale then its ok right? SO in short I made a very specific request to a vendor. They said yeah we can do that. They sold me something. And when it came it does not do what I need it to do. Not to go on and on so I will be brief but I still need part X and it appears it does not come in the flavor of which I was requesting (so they say, however they already lied to me onces about it) What really sucks is this puts me in a terribly bad place between my customer and my vendor who has now basically shot me in the foot. SO in general work life is all about the suckage for me!