Tablesaw!

Since I had business on the second floor, I decided to climb my way back to the sixteenth, to see how my body was doing.

I have to admit, I've been slacking on my exercise routine. I haven't been using my stationary bike as hard, or remembering to do other exercises as often. I haven't been sleeping as well, so I haven't gotten up early enough to lengthen the walking part of my commute.

On the other hand, various lifestyle changes have kept this slacking from turning into giving up entirely. My main focus has been my exercise bike, which I keep parked in front of the TV, and I've gotten fairly good at watching TV or playing videogames while on the bike instead of the couch. So when I'm "slacking," I'm not finding the energy for a full high-speed, high-tension workout; but I do still sit on the bike and pedal more leisurely, sometimes for two or three hours. And I still find time for wall push-ups, though with less rigor than I used to have.

Walking up the stairs, it was harder than I'd like it to be, but even though I felt like I was going to give up after about four flights . . . I didn't ever actually have to. I didn't even need to stop for a breather. It helped wake me up a bit too. In fact, if I hadn't had to get back to work, I probably would've kept going up.

I've said before that I have a tendency to slide into slothfulness. I don't really gain much pleasure from exercise, and I don't know that it's ever going to be something I seek out. But I'm glad that I've put a stopper on how far back I can slide.

Exercise bike + TV (Bachelor Pad) + book (Bujold) + cellphone (this)

I've been thinking about it for weeks, but today I finally got off my butt and started hiking again. I spent a few hours getting all my geocaching information in order, then I headed up to Bronson Canyon for a four-mile, twelve-cache loop. (I missed one cache, though; a coyote was chilling in the area.)

It was overcast, which was great for temperature but made most of the pictures come out pre-drabbed. It was a pretty varied trip. It started with wide fire trails and continued with wide paved roads. There were lots of people out too. Hiker, runners, dog-walkers, and horse-riders. The final leg of the loop went through some smaller paths to bring me back down to the caves. I'd intended to take a path that was marked on Google Maps, but ended up taking a longer route that circled the ridge of the quarry before I could find the path down. At the end, I ran back and forth through the Batcave a few times before heading to the car.

I came home and showered to cool down. Now I feel good, ready for a brand new week of sitting.

So I went to bed early yesterday, collapsing from the tiredness, so you'd think I'd be back on schedule. And yet, here I am looking at two o'clock, wondering what happened. I'm still going to go exercise, though, which means I'll be awake for even longer!

Most of my day was dedicated to finishing up my next Beyond Tetris article, which should be up later today. Sneak preview: It's about Minesweeper. And for the first time in a long time, I know have a full two weeks to plan and prepare my next article, so I'm going to get on that tonight. I should also do an Ebay check to see if I can pick up a few out-of-print games for future topics.

Most of the rest of my day was taken up by Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney—Justice for All, which sucks up time like a TARDIS Hoover. I mean, I was just finishing the game, how did it take so many hours? Stupid nonadjustable text speeds.

Anyway!

The game is pretty fun, and the final chapter is fantastic. But, as many reviewers have noted, there are tons of spelling and grammar errors. Not Engrish, just errors, the kind of "slipped through the spellchecker" things that show up in the writings of English speakers who aren't paying close attention to what they're writing. The puzzles have the standard adventure-game problems, but the penalties are sometimes overly harsh, which can be frustrating. (I've already said more on the subject in the Gamer's Quarter Forum.)

And in between all that, I took a nap too. So, all in all, too much rest has put my schedule off. I must work vigorously to realign myself tomorrow.

On the bright side, I only have to work three days this week because I'm switching to my new schedule. I shall celebrate my first Friday of Freedom by going to satch's birthday party. I like "Friday of Freedom," I'm going to have to do something with that.

But tonight, while I'm sleeping late because I went to bed so late, I will be missing Jeopardy, with special contestant cramerica! Luckily I have a VCR. If you don't make sure you're by a TV, perhaps in the common room of a dorm you happen to live in.

I haven't felt like writing much since getting back from the NPL convention, and I'm not wholly sure why. I have been in a big reading mood, though. Over the past few days, I've been slowly working through The Canary Trainer, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, and Swords Against Death, depending on which I decide to pick up at a given time. I've also been recovering a bit. And out a bit. My cousin just returned from military training, a kind of post-boot-camp graduate school for those training to be officers. He regaled us with stories of the Fear-Factor-esque program (designed to eradicate potential sources of panic in those who would have to issue orders), and in return, we filled him in on what had happened regarding my aunt's death. Shortly before he entered this program, my cousin had told him that if something happened to her mother, they were not going to call him, because they wanted him to be able to complete the program without feeling obliged to help. He didn't hear the news until a few weeks after. Now he's back and we're putting the pieces back together for him.

( Also, I've started running again. )

SunNYTX: 31:27. The last step was a little confusing, but all in all it was a lot of fun.

I bought pants today, fancy pants, for a wedding. Looking at myself in the mirror, putting on pants, I really understood what it means to be Big.

Not big meaning "grown-up," big as in, well, Big.

In high school, I was 6'3" tall. I weighed about 130 lbs. That was about the same weight I was three years earlier and five inches shorter. I was skinny in high school. Beanpole skinny. Skin-and-bones skinny. Ichabod Crane skinny. By the time I'd graduated I managed to gain about five pounds. I always wore a coat. My coats usually enhanced my tallness, while cloaking my skinniness. My four years at college gained me another fifteen pounds. Each little bit made me that much more excited, but I was still very, very skinny. So I always thought of myself as tall, not big. Guys shorter than I could be big, they filled their frames and looked like they were rooted in the ground. I always felt like a strong wind could pick me up and blow me away.

Today, two years out of college, I still stand 6'3", but I weigh 215 lbs. Most of it isn't muscle, but there are changes all over my body. My chest and gut are convex, not concave. I can feel myself connect with the ground when I jump. It may not be the perfect body, but having weight, having mass, is something I've wanted for a long, long time. And I like it.

It's weird to look at myself in the mirror and see that I'm Big. If I had more practice, I could probably Intimidate people with my mere presence. It makes me feel a bit more normal, more able to relate to certain things. Feeling clothes around one's body, rather than having them hanging off and tightly belted. Noticing one's belling expand after a large meal. And my face looks nice and round, like it doesn't need a goatee to fill it out.

On the other hand, I am worried. I enjoy being big, but common opinion seems to be against it. I worry that I may let myself get too Big. But more importantly, I worry about what has brought me to my Bigness. In high school and college, I was constantly walking to and fro burning off more energy than I could deal with. I also had a depression building up nervous energy that I would walk off all of the time. But now, not only does my job have me sitting all day, but my long commute and odd hours tend to keep me indoors or using limited motion. So while I used to rely on my general business I try to exercise daily, but it often gets pushed to the wayside by scheduling mishaps, and if I break a rhythm for two days or more, I find it hard to remind myself to start up again.

But I don't want to lose weight, I don't want to be thin again. I've done that, and I like being Big better. But I do want to be healthy, something I'm not all that used to doing.

Till then, I'm going to go to my uncle's wedding with my Big body in my Big clothes and just be Big. Yeah.

Nice short walk, during which I thought about some bases for the Enigma. I haven't submitted puzzles in a while, and some NPL members just complimented me on the ones I did, so I should work some out.

TueNYTX: 6. Some odd entries. I probably should have taken more time on it, but I prefer to put away Tuesday puzzles quickly. TueLATX: 4:30.

Nice walk today. Sixty minutes on the dot; up a large hill then back down. Now heading to bed. I'd like to try to catch Gosford Park tonight, but I also need to pop into the NPL chat room tonight to get some confirmations on this month's Enigma. There's a shortened solving time, and I'm close to a complete (i.e. solving every puzzle in the issue) so i don't want to take any chances.

Sent out a Match contact. Debating on whether or not to answer a particular ad. Brilliant profile, but the woman in question is in a wheelchair. She's very cute, but tiny (5'0" to my 5'15"). I'm not certain if I'm being overly cautious or prejudicial or if I'm just finding an excuse not to contact someone who seems really interesting and attractive.

So last week I took a walk and journaled that I wanted to do this more often. As expected, the ado of Easter Weekend prevented me from getting back out until today. I did an extra loop, that ended up keeping me out for an extra hour. The shoes I was wearing were not the best for walking and are getting kind of old. They may be heading for retirement.

On my path I encountered a rabbit's foot, with the rest of the rabbit nowhere to be seen. It did not feel very lucky.