This used to be the thing where I wrote about becoming a better person, one day at a time. Then I realized that's a lost cause.
Now I just write about stuff I like to write about. Updated sometimes-ly.
I know some readers of this relish the idea of watching me in pain. For example, I got several in-person commendations about my mushroom-eating video. This week, instead of reviewing Super Mario Galaxy 2 like everyone and their grandmother have done in the last week, I will up the 'pain' ante at our Saturday night improv show at Anime North.
As part of The 404s Improv Comedy, this weekend we're performing 4 shows at Anime North, Canada's largest fan-run anime convention. When I say large I mean, over 12,000 people's worth of traffic over the 3 days of the weekend (Friday night to Sunday afternoon).
But what does this have to do with pain? Well, for the first time for our group in Toronto, we will be playing a game called Mouse Trap. The idea is: two improvisers perform a usual scene, but barefoot and blindfolded. And on a stage filled with MOUSETRAPS, ARMED and READY TO SNAP. So of course I saw this as the perfect opportunity for me to do something fun, get hurt, and blog about it in the process.
Will there be video? You had better believe it!
And if I just gave away confidential information, to the 2 or 3 of you who read this blog AND are going to Anime North AND aren't part of The 404s...shhhhhhhhhh, keep this info on the down low.
Oh, I'm also hosting an anime-themed game of Family Feud, which should be fun seeing as I've never watched the show and have no idea how the structure goes. Also I don't know much about anime anymore.
Edit: Apparently, turns out we have no mousetraps anymore and won't be doing the game. So, host a gameshow will have to do. Not quite as death-defying, but I'm sure it will be painful (for the viewers at least), and I definitely won't have time to figure something else out as I'll be busy all weekend. But I'll try.
Well that was fun - almost 90 minutes on the soccer field. The ball went between my legs more often than I would like to admit. As a goalie this is not good. But I also did a couple of dives, scored a legit goal, and ran around alternating with others in the goalie role. Lots of fun was had, but sadly no pictures were taken (cameras and soccer balls do NOT make a good combination, surprisingly). I'm going to try to make this a weekly thing - I had really low stamina so my cardio could use a lot of work and this is a great way to do that.
I started my week going "uh-oh, I have no idea what to do for this week". It is now Sunday afternoon, and until 5 minutes ago that was still the case. Now I have two ideas: the first I'm doing for sure, and it's going out to play soccer this evening with some new(ish) friends. Last summer I tried to start a weekly weekend soccer thing, but it was too hard to coordinate mine and my friends' schedules and it only lasted for 3 weeks or so. I love playing soccer, even though I'm pretty out of shape lately (unless round counts as a shape hur hur hur).
So I just received a call from Shane, a guy I've known for a while from way back when: we went to the same UWA hardcore wrestling shows some 4-5 years ago, he works at Image Collections (the comic book store I shop at), and we hang out at karaok enights. Safe to say we're friends by this point. So anyways, he texted me to see if I liked soccer at all, and I was like 'Heck Yeah!'. So I'll be reporting on my experience tomorrow, maybe with some photos.
I also just started playing Super Mario Galaxy 2, which reminded me I could write a review on it. But I haven't played enough to write a review (only about an hour in), so maybe I'll try hard for next week.
Also, this was my first week of working, and already I've stayed late on a Friday night (yes, Friday night!) completing a proposal to the Alberta government. Now, I know that this is the modus operandi for consultants, BUT I'm an internal consultant, so I'm not exactly doing the same stuff that consultants like the ones who work at McKinsey do. I also don't get paid nearly as much as those interning at consulting firms. Anyways, this is too much whining for the extent that I stayed late for (which wasn't very long). Any other day I wouldn't have minded. But it being on a Friday night ground my gears. I guess that's part of what comes with the territory of being a summer MBA intern.
For this week I decided I needed to get back into exercising regularly. I've made several attempts to do so over the past few years, none of them all that serious. I decided to try to stick to doing some simple exercises every morning that strengthen my core. Something I could spend 10-20 minutes on in the morning and be done with. I wanted there to be no need to go to the gym or even leave my room necessarily.
I remembered Aaron, a friend of mine from the 404s, had at one point been going through the One Hundred Push-ups program. I'm not sure how well that worked out for him, but I checked out the website and it seemed like something I could follow. Exercise three times a week, only about 10 minutes each time, and within 6 weeks, you're supposed to be able to do 100 consecutive push-ups.
"That's not too bad" I thought to myself. "I'm pretty sure I can do at least 10 in a row now".
So I took the initial test, and collapsed onto the ground after the 16th push-up. That made me feel pretty good about myself, beating my own expectations.
"Awesome!" I thought. "This puts me into the advanced bracket!"
This meant that I would do more push-ups per rep when training. So I did my exercises on Monday, and then again on Wednesday. At this point my brother passes by and tells me I'm not doing it right. So I get curious and look for how to do a proper push-up on Youtube. This guy ends up giving a pretty decent explanation.
Instead of the above, I was doing more of a half push-up, not going all the way down so my shoulders meet my elbow level. So I started trying to do them the correct way and collapsed at 4. Uh-oh. not nearly as impressive as I thought I was. So I'll be restarting the routine this week with a lighter, but proper workout.
I also joined the related Two Hundred Sit-ups program (which actually should be called the two hundred crunches program as that is what they advise you to do) and that is going really well. I have no trouble doing 80 consecutive proper form crunches at this point, so 200 in 60 weeks seems very achievable.
In case you're interested in doing crunches yourself, there are a couple of important things to remember while doing crunches that I learned from a gym trainer when I last went to a gym:
1. Rest your hands behind your head, but don't use your arms to pull yourself up. In fact, your neck shouldn't be moving. A good way to prevent this from happening even by mistake is to make sure to be staring at the ceiling at all times.
2. Make sure to tense your ab muscles while rising, the same way you would if you knew that someone was about to punch you in the gut. This ensures that the right muscles are getting the workout.
3. As long as you're following the above tip, you only really need to go up a bit to do a proper sit-up. Say, about 35 degrees.
4. Breathe out as you rise, breathe in as you descend.
This dude will show you:
Anyways, I'm determined to stick with these two programs. Exercising like this has felt pretty good so far, actually.
Oh how I love puns. If you were paying attention to my last post, I was working on a karaoke song. Not singing one (I do that several times a week), but creating the file.
Why? My friends and I are big fans of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog by Joss Whedon & Co. It was a musical released to the internet during the 2007 writer's strike, and stars Neil Patrick Harris (of Doogie Howser/How I Met Your Mother/sheer awesomeness fame), Nathan Fillion (Firefly), and Felicia Day (The Guild). Watch it somewhere online, it's really good if you're at all geeky and/or like musicals, plus all 3 episodes put together are about 45 minutes long. Here's a trailer:
Anyways, as you might know we are also big fans of singing karaoke at bars...so one day we got to talking about how it's too bad that none of the great songs from Dr. Horrible have ever been officially released for karaoke. Which got me thinking...as long as I could find a version of the track that lacked vocals, as well as an application that allowed me to create karaoke format files, I'd be able to figure out how to make Dr. Horrible karaoke a reality.
As luck would have it, after a bit of Googling I came across a website by a Moses Lei that featured synthesized, vocal-less versions of all of the tracks from the musical. I also found a karaoke authoring application called DART Karaoke Author, which seemed fairly simple to use. (Sidenote: I haven't exactly gotten permission from Moses Lei to use his track. But I did send him an e-mail and have yet to receive a reply either way. And I assume that in the spirit of creativity and non-profitness, that by default he would be okay with this. Also I assume Moses Lei is a he).
So after about 5 hours' worth of aligning words to music (and typing all the lyrics out, because apparently copy/pasting doesn't work in modern applications anymore), I have a slightly buggy karaoke file for the song Brand New Day. When I say buggy, I mean some of the lines don't get highlighted on the right cue, even though I've set it up properly within the program. I have no idea how to fix this, I've tried everything obvious in the program and even a few unobvious things. After working with it for a sizeable amount of time, I think the program itself is pretty bare-bones and just plain bad, and I really wish I could have found a more professional karaoke authoring tool for as cheap as I got this one (that is, free). Maybe I'll do this project over someday with a better tool. But the file works fine for the most part, and if you are a fan and know the song well, you won't need the right cues.
So I present to you first, the original song in its full glory:
Now onto the karaoke version. First, if you want to play karaoke format files on your PC, you need a karaoke player application. If you don't already have one, a free and easy one can be found here: Link to Free Karaoke Builder CD+G Player.
Once you have that installed (it's a small, compact application) you will want my (and Moses Lei's) creation, the actual karaoke file: Sendspace Link. You'll need to unzip the file using Winzip or WinRAR (if you don't know what these are...seriously?! go away) and make sure both the CDG and MP3 files are in the same directory, otherwise you will not hear the music. Then you have to play the CDG file. If you have a karaoke player installed (such as the above linked Karaoke Builder CD+G player), it should automatically open in that program.
And that's week 8. Despite the imperfections, I consider this project a success. It took me a really long time to sync all the words up with the music and I know there's room for improvement even, which has definitely given me a new appreciation for the jobs of those that do this for a living.
Also, I know this post is late and it's week 9 already! There will be a week 9 update soon...rest assured I HAVE been busy working on this week's project: it involves one of my FAVORITE activities: exercise.
