Late Report

It's been two weeks since I posted.  That's a shame, but since I've finished two big goals I didn't think I had too much to report, but it turns out I do.

I started riding my bike to work.  Not too much to start, I rode one day two weeks ago, but that was a very rainy week (more rain than most entire months of April).  Last week I rode two days.  This week I'm hoping to ride three days.

I think I'll more fully report those rides in a later post.

I took a week off of exercise for the most part, then last week I worked out 4 days (down from 6), but back to pretty intense workouts.

I went looking for a second yogo DVD.  I have a Kathy Smith one from Beach Body, but that is only 20 minutes.  The P90X one is 93 minutes.  That's too much of a drop.  I guess I'll keep using the P90X DVDs but in my own mix, and only on days I don't ride my bike.

We went camping with the Girl Scouts last Friday.  We were in one of the leaders backyards but, it was pretty intense since we were out from about 18:30 until 09:00 the next morning and we squeezed in three meals and a snack.  Everybody got a chance to light a fire, learn some knots, erect a tent and cook. 
Next Friday we are going to the local Council's Camporee, but that's in cabins with dining hall meals.

I had been working on quite a bit of Greek too, spending my lunches with electronic flashcards.  I'm building my vocabulary at a glacial pace, but now I need to practice.

Finished P90X!!!!!!!!

I did it!  I finished!  I am indulging myself today and I feel kind of fat, so I think I'll save photos until I go back to doing cardio and feel thinner.

This is the chart I used to keep track of what day I was on.  I started after the first month because it got a bit confusing and this was much easier than most other formats.  I crossed off any day I did.  I circled days I missed.  The Xs are the week I doubled up so I  could make up days I missed.

I didn't get where I wanted to from this program.  After 70 days of P90 in 2008 I was down to 216.  That's the lowest I've weighed since I don't know when.  Admittedly I did a lot of other things in addition to the P90, but I expected to at least get below 220 and I only got down to 225 this year.

I'm not blaming the program.  I probably didn't do something the right way.  I suspect my bad knee and the days I had to miss were part of the problem.

Anyway, I'm done.  I did it.  I am a P90X graduate.

Now, what's next?

I should reward myself, but how?

I'll have to think about that, but for now, I have one more goal down.

P91X or Is It P87X?

Today was Day 91 of P90X or was it Day 80?  I repeated one of the hard weeks last week so now I'm on the last real week, the one with all the cardio.

I'm going to make up the most of the 10 days I missed by doing that extra week, so in the end I will have done 87 days out of the 90.  I don't think that's too bad.

I'm certainly stronger than I was and all my clothes are looser.  I am 226 still and I was about 232 when I started.  I was probably at about 24% body fat when I started.  I don't know where I am now, but I'm not going to take the final measurements and pictures until I'm all done with this week too.

I Won!

After a long hiatus, I've started participating in contests at Anotherealm.com again.  My previous story there had been in 2004.  I sent in a story for the June-July Flash contest and one for the February-March Flash contest.
Flash is a story of 1000 words or less.  Anotherealm is a website of Science Fiction (SF), Fantasy and Horror.

Anotherealm is the first place I ever posted a story on-line and the first place I ever wrote a flash piece for.  It was also the first place I ever actually SOLD a story to.  It was a Lovecraftian horror story called, "Alone."

The June-July contest was to write a flash story with Tourists as the prompt.  My story for the contest was called, "So Many Shades of Black" and it was a fantasy piece.

The February-March contest had the prompt of Microbial Small.  My story, "A Little Dominance" is a SF story set in Howlina, the island nation I created here on Illini6.  The story was very heavily influenced by Blue Oyster Cult's "Dominance and Submission."

AND IT WON FIRST PLACE!

Go read it and please comment, here, there and everywhere.

Pope Poll Gives Way to Return Resolutions

It seems like March came in like a Lion with no Roman Catholic Pope and went out like a tom cat and a new Pope.

It wasn't exactly spring-like around me for the closing of March.  There are still patches of snow and the nights are in the 20s.

With the closing of March comes the closing of the March poll, which is good because it concerned the steps the new Pope should take.  Since Francis has taken office already and the month has ended it is time to review and set up a new poll.

The March poll was:

Assuming you are elected Pope and assuming you accept the job and assuming you can actually change some things, what would be the FIRST thing you change?

1. Homosexuality is no longer a sin
2. Priests can get married, and/or married people can become priests (all clergy really)
3. Women can be priests (bishops, Pope, etc.)
4. Birth control is not a sin
5. Fertilized human egg cells are NOT people
6. Zero tolerance policy on pedophilia and other sex crimes
7. Reunite with the Orthodox Church
8. Other

There were 2 votes for a Zero Tolerance Policy.  I think that is also what the Cardinals were thinking, and is most likely going to be very high on Francis' To Do list.

We also had a comment about Cafeteria Catholics from LTC John.  I'm glad we finally had some discussion about a poll.

For April I was thinking that we could keep things very simple.  Since Quarter 1 - 2013 is under our belts let's look at New Year's Resolutions.

Are you still following your New Year's Resolution?

You may not be doing very well, but I want to know if you have completely abandoned it or if you are struggling with it. 

It would also be nice to know if anyone is being completely successful with it.  By now, if you have stuck with one single resolution it has probably become habitual.  If it has then there is little possibility that you will fail at it for the rest of the year.  Let's hear from you too, but don't brag too much.

Belated - Weekly Report, Kαλό Mήνα, etc.

Happy April everybody.  I missed reporting last week and I missed wishing everyone a happy new month.  To top it all off I posted my "Papa Story" in the wrong blog (I've also posted it in Papa Stories so no worries).

Let me tell you a bit about P90X.  The system is designed with 12 different exercise routines.  5 of them are cardio based (Cardio, Plyo, Core, Kempo, Yoga) and 5 of them are circuit based weight training.  Each week you do a circuit day, followed by a cardio day, circuit day, cardio day, circuit day, and finally a cardio day.  There are two more DVDs: an intro disk and an Ab Ripper X disk.

Since you have 5 cardio and 5 circuit disks each they do 3 of each type in a week.  They then divide the whole program into 3 phases.  There are three really hard weeks in each phase followed by an easier week.

I'm in the last week, which is an easy week by design.  I'm on Day 85 today.  Since I had to miss 10 days throughout the program I've decided to do an extra hard week before I bring it in with an easy week to finish.

As if that weren't confusing enough, the hard weeks are divided into a more general routine and a more specific routine.  For instance, in the general week you get a disk called "Back and Arms," in the more specific week, one of the disks you use is, "Back and Biceps."  In Phase 3 you do one general week, one specific week, one general week, one specific week and a rest week.

I'm adding in a hard general week.  BTW, I'm still at 227lbs and my knee still bothers me.

I think my knee is going to bother me forever now.  I don't think it will ever stop being something of an irritation.  I will probably have good days and bad days, but I suspect that it will be generally down hill now until I need to get it replaced some years in my future.

On a much brighter note, I DID finish my Level 2/3 Girl Scout Outdoor training.  I'm now certified and our Girl Scout troop can officially go tent camping.  So we can check that goal off as completed.  Hooray!

That gives me an idea for this month's poll: 
Are you still following your New Year's Resolution? 
I say that I am.  Is anyone else?

In my monthly goal review, I'm on track for P90X, and my Girl Scout goals.

We did not go on a date in Quarter 1, so that is a fail so far.  However, there are 4 quarters of course, so I can still get 75% in this category.

I have met with my mentor and I think I have the new jobs board at work figured out.  I attended a class on setting up your career development in our new system.  So that is all positive for finding a new job, but there is nothing currently out there for me to apply to.

I'm working on the Gold level of Unit Service for our Boy Scout District's Journey to Excellence.  It will take all year to find out how we do, but it's looking good so far.

I have not really worked on the Fortnightly History Podcast, but now that two of my primary goals are coming to an end I should be able to work on that more.  I'm also getting ready to start riding my bike to work again.  When I do that I will have more time to think about things, and I will have a better view of the trees in the neighborhood.

The weakest spot in my work on learning Greek.  I havent' done much in that vein, but I have decided that I am going to get up from my desk and walk around a bit each half hour.  When I do that I will study my Greek flashcards.  This should help me a bit.