4 posts tagged “30 days”

Real short post tonight.  I realize I really screwed the couch as they say in certain corners of my imagination with this month's 30 day trial.  Mostly, a few things piled up this month along with me really sort of dooming myself by trying to add too much at the same time and I eventually just let it all go to the wayside. 

Next month, I'm going to refocus again but this time, I'm going to put it towards 30 days of drawing.  While April was 30 days of no-gaming that resulted in me picking up my beloved pencils again, June will be devoted to that cause which is something much more appealing and exciting to me than a 30 day workout regimen.  Maybe once I have my comic flushed out I can worry about making my workout plan golden but for now, the random runs with Nicole as she prepares for a Half-Marathon and the tri-weekly workouts I've been able to commit too will suffice just fine.  If nothing else, my burning out on working out too much did get me addicted to the actual act of it.  Went and worked out tonight and made my upper-body feel like rubber which means its working.

So, more tomorrow when I've better collected my thoughts on what June has in store for me.

Aside from all that though, my Australian Connection has reserved his flights to the Americas and will be testing the local bars infrastructures here in Denver this summer.  I've decided I'll totally be getting him a leather cowboy hat, 2 or 3 stuffed alligators and 10' bowie knife so that he feels authentically Australian while he's here, as I'm sure everyone will ask him if he's seen the movie Crocodile Dundee and I'd love if we can try and convince people it was an actual documentary.

As well, my bud Lee qualified for Tae-Kwon-do Nationals it seems, so that's freaking sweet.  All those times he accidentally split wood beams with his forehead finally paid off it looks like. He can splinter trees with a single thought it's foretold.  A single thought.

So, figure that I should keep track of multiple numbers as I'm doing multiple things.  As to make things a bit more historic for myself, I'd keep the counter going for multiple things.  I have to make sure I remind myself I have two objectives still and not fall victim to dropping one in favor of the other which has already started to happen and something I want to deter.

As with any goal, once you hit it, you consider it hit and part of you feels like that's it.  While I hit my 30 days that I originally struck out to hit, it's harder to keep in mind that the goal of the 30 day gaming fast was to get me working on something meaningful to me and that process wouldn't stop when the 30 days were met.  In a way, I had two objectives in April.  One, my gaming fast, could end May 1st as long as I kept going with the second objective (my comic drawing) past that point until I had something started.   I found that with my new additional goal of a daily 30 minutes of exercise somehow made me forget to spend the last two days also drawing or at least progressing towards my comic.  Need to make sure I keep going with building good habits each month that compound and not just monthly activities that disappear with each new month.  That's going back to my old ways where I start a project and quit it in favor of another, the real problem behind my needed gaming fast.  That's the core problem I'm looking to solve and I need to not loose sight of that.  Discipline and follow-through.  

Keeping that in mind, the days in my subjects will stand for just that.  The first Day listing (Day 32 currently) will keep track of how many days until I start my comic.  I'll stop count once I have a three installments made for my comic and have it posted on it's own website for all to see. By then, i figure it'll be self-propelled and I won't need a daily tally anymore as I it'll be self-explanatory my progress by then.  I mean, right?

The second number will list my added focus (exercise).  As usual, I'll list my Activities and Quick Facts.  I'll just be adding in what I did for exercise that day on top of any other related information.  So, hopefully this is enough explanation for my own benefit so that I don't get confused at my own system.

Speaking of being confused, how hard is it to downgrade cable? I mean, someone like Comcast, a self-proclaimed cable company, should in theory be masters of such simple tasks.  I mean, if I was a chef and couldn't turn an oven off, well, that'd just be ridiculous right?  Seems that turning off cable after you've followed their explicit instructions still means you have to depend on them doing the same thing.  Today we finally had our cable downgraded as they were supposed to do nearly 3 weeks ago.  Yet, they even messed that up.  We came home to find that we've only got Comedy Central, TV Land, the Home Shopping Network and two Spanish-language channels.  I mean, is that even a package you can request?  No ABC that means, which means no LOST, which means the one night Nicole and I actually set aside time to watch TV was denied us.  I never knew I could hate a corporation so much until tonight.  Stupid Comcast.  Stupid, stupid Comcast.

Activities

Nicole and I went running today with Koda for a good 40 minutes.  I even ran .6 miles without stopping once.  Yeah, don't remind me that there's grandmother's that can do that without breaking a sweat.  I'm not exactly a marathon specimen here.   It's no mystery you don't see herds of six-foot-eight German/Scottish males lined up to run the Boston Marathon.  We're not exactly legendary for our graceful running prowess.  However, I'm all about believing that I can be.  For a boy that was diagnosed with Exercise Induced Asthma in high-school (poor-man's asthma), I'm pretty proud that I'm even trying to do something that makes my lungs burn like they're soaked in napalm.  I don't talk about it much but running makes me feel like I'm drowning in jalapeño juice.  I paint pictures with words.
 
Quick Facts

• Weight:251
• Yeah, hold on here.  I've GAINED weight from 2 days of working out and eating pizza.  How does..oh..pizza.  Dammit.
  
• Diet: 1.5 Bagels with VEGETABLE cream cheese (does that count?), 5 glasses of OJ, 3 glasses of water, 1 cafe mocha, 3 slices of pizza, 2 glasses of milk, 2 cinnamon sticks.
• Didn't eat near enough today.  Really felt it when I went running, not something I plan on doing tomorrow as it made it much harder.
  

There's an interesting realization that happens when you realize how the human mind can make things important simply so that there is something important.  The realization doesn't happen, of course, while you're proving that this something is important by indulging to the theory.  This realization happens when you isolate yourself from this something.   The realization occurs when you realize suddenly, the only thing that has changed is a noticeable improvement without it and that what is important may at times, not be at all related to what you can do but related to what you can not do.   

Was there a lesson learned after 30 days of restraining myself from something that had become a rust on my life?  A new-found respect for what I can do instead of what I want to do and that feeling accomplished is more important than feeling busy.  I've wanted to make a comic since I was a kid, I've had ideas since then as well and for almost three years, I had sat on a pile of drawings that I was convinced stood as proof I had tried.  In 30 days, I went from memories to ideas and now I've got a detailed story in my head, a list of characters and a plot for something I had only fragmented ideas regarding.  Does it matter if in 30 days I don't have a site, a finished 3-panel intro and a syndication deal?  Not at all.  Instant gratification is for lottery winners and gamblers.  My thought is, I could have rushed something or I could have refined something and when you're trying to enter into something with thousands of competitors, rushed doesn't cut it I'd like to think.  There's being done to be done and then there's being done when it's done. 

This 30 (31 if you count today) days became less about what I wasn't doing and much more about what I was doing.  Discipline is what I feel this month was about and it was a feeling I'd allowed to become uncomfortable.  That hidden immaturity we all have where indulgence is more enjoyable than restraint became too prevalent in my life and there's a high-amount of peace I feel knowing I've targeted that immaturity.  The time where I was the most active in playing games was when I was least active in being a good person I've realized to be true. Hours behind a computer merely spending time did just that, it spent time.  It's a necessary revelation because while I lack the responsibilities associated with having a child, I still neglected those I care for, including myself and that's always the sure sign something needs to change.

In 30 days I rediscovered something inside of me that I had replaced long ago with a soft glare and mouse-click.  I had for so long neutered my creative spirit by giving it an easy target.  I've replaced an easy target with a much harder one and with that, hitting that target will be much more satisfying.  It was less about me giving up games and more about me giving up excuses.  I've built a good habit and that's irreplaceable.  The nail in the rail or the coffin now, is if I keep going.  I want to keep going and keep improving now that I've seen it's not a fool hearty venture.  And that is exactly what my desire is. Success, as my girlfriend Nicole says, is to hit a goal and then ask what's next?   So, here's what's next.

I've proven that I don't need games and that they're not a priority. What isn't important is that I stop playing video games.  It's easy to stop something if you just replace it with something easier.  What is important is that I keep making progress towards my goals on a daily basis and doing something outside of my comfort level.  Work hard, play hard is what I need to do, in that order.  As long as I keep improving myself and never settling I'll be accomplishing something. With that in mind, April I've gained a new habit, a new discipline.  I'm making a comic now.  I've improved my confidence and I feel pride every time I draw something that makes me feel inspired. 

For my next 30 days, there's a new habit I need to build momentum behind and that is my health. My dad and mom both have diabetes, both have health problems because of that.  Already, I see the same bad habits that brought them to this point present in my life.  Lack of exercise and poor diet.  For me, and this is for me, diet has always been easier than exercise.  While that of course, isn't evident at all with April's track record of dining, it's still true.  If I had to choose between running and eating a bag of carrots, I'd eat two bags of carrots.

May 1st, today, I've began my next 30-day assignment.  Today I worked out for 30 minutes, went running and lifted some weights.  Tomorrow I will work out, meaning I'll break a good sweat and do something considered strenuous for at least 30 minutes, every single day in May.

To some of you, perhaps those that already do this and more, this might sound like nothing but to me, 30 minutes a day, 930 minutes of working out (31 days in May) would be most likely 800 minutes more than I've worked out in the last five years.  Yeah, begs the question of how am I so incredibly sexy without working out at all? Who knows.  I'm no doctor.

If I can work out 30 minutes a day on top of the 30-45 minutes a day I spend walking to work, I'd have at least an hour a day during the work-week that I was exercising.  That's a huge change in my lifestyle and one I desperately need.  Yesterday, as I was walking, I nearly felt something slightly-jiggle when I jumped over a curb and as a guy, that's not desirable. Be it known, I don't feel I'm overweight but there's definitely some extra padding there, padding that makes me not want to be shirtless on a beach.

Starting tomorrow I'll start the same regimen as I had for April.  I'll still draw and keep working on my comic.  I'll still track progress on what I accomplish each day. If I decide to play a video game, it'll be only after I work out, draw and spend time with Nicole, no exceptions.  It'll be to enjoy playing a game and not to spend time.  I want nothing to do with working at playing something anymore.  As well, I'll work out in some fashion 30 minutes every day of the month of May. Am I trying too much at once?  No.  This is me committing to do something I want to do as well as another thing I should do every day for a month so that I build another good habit.  As I do this, I'll still watch and record what I eat, what I weigh, what I draw and what I do for a workout and by the end of May, my goal is to be in better shape and more importantly, not terrified of exercise. Seriously, I hate working out.  Now, if included in that I can look all Brad Pitt in the abs department, well hey, even better.

Quick Facts

Weight: 249
Diet: Breakfast Burrito, Coffee with sugar and cream, Yogurt with fruit and granola, Fruit Punch Vitamin Water, Lemon pound cake, 2 Slices of Stuffed Crust Pizza, 3 wings, 2 cinnamon sticks and 2 glasses of Mountain Dew.

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Decided today that while working on my wireframe skills has been extremely helpful, I'm not exactly in line to believe that making a comic purely based on wireframe's will be all that exhilarating, well, that is, unless I give them witty dialog.  Hmm...

Figure that with nearly 4 days left in my experiment, I've mostly got this weekend to really bring everything together.   It also begs the question of what now.  What about when these 30 days are up?  To be honest, I feel like I've broke a chain around my ankle and that this nightly confession to the deacons of the interweb has been more than simply a practice in discipline, it's been almost systematic.  Why stop at 30?  What about the next month?  Am I truly accomplished if I just make progress for 30 months and then give myself an excuse to go back to my old ways?  There's the question right there. What have I accomplished if I simply stop come May 1st?  Progress without dedication is merely a demonstration of what is possible and I believe, for someone that's lived a nomadic life as I have, I have had my fill with demonstrations.

It also begs the question, how the hell do I make something like this?

R2FU

I mean, let it be known, my father and I once were masters of the radio controlled device.  Most don't know my old love of the Radio Controlled Vehicle.  To those that share this love, I still own an aluminum chassis RC-10.  Yeah, feast on that R/C enthusiasts.  It drowns in old-school authenticity.

Mini-Vroom

I figure if I know how to make something like that from a pile of loose parts, I could do the same with a Trash can and some stickers like Captain Radio did up there.  Might be a fun project some day to make myself a personal beer and laundry droid.  Might even be more fun to give him a Scottish-accent and a hankering for Grey Goose Vodka.  Hmmm.....

Oh, hey, my partner in literary crime Lee made his own blog.  He said I inspired him.  How thoughtful.  He must want something as he's diabolical like that.  Seriously, he's military.  If I learned anything from my years in hippie-occupied Colorado, it's that the military wants to interrogate Puppies and that just yells diabolical.

Activities

Worked pretty late today and didn't get home until almost 7:30, so I barely ate the delicious burrito that my lovely Nicole made, let alone remembered that without our precious DVR, I actually had to watch LOST.  Wow, how lazy is America that having to watch a TV show when it airs is considered annoying. Good thing tonights episode was insanely boring or the commercials I was forced to ignore would have made me even more agitated.

I did manage to scan in the images I drew over the weekend, which made me think that it's time to really dig deep on detailing out some characters and going back to some of the dozens of wireframes I've made and fleshing them out.