so i’ve been working pretty hard on the abs for the last couple of weeks. diet and supplements have been important, and i’ve been at the gym doing cardio every single day. the main part though is actually working out the abs, so that i meet the weight loss half way. the cubes have gotten much bigger, the obliques are getting defined and slowly the fat is being burned. a long way to go before i’m satisfied, but here’s a current status pic:

scroll down for kinda nws

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i’ll prolly just cut and paste this onto fishin-impossible, but since there’s so little actual fishing involved, i thought i’d post it here.

on saturday morning, eric and i went out for an early/quick fishing trip, since we were supposed to meet ben and costin in la around noon. anytime we do anything under a time constraint, especially something that’s supposed to be slow like fishing, things always go wrong. we set up the boat and headed down to the marina in a quicker than normal fashion, but when we got to the gate (where you have to pay $10), i commented to eric, that we should’ve just followed the person that went through since the arm stayed up for so long. so he gunned it, and as soon as he did the arm came back down on the car. it was funny. we paid our money and got the boat out on the water.

we decided not to fish pv and instead just fish sardines off of cherry beach. the current was all messed up and it kept trying to push us to shore and we’d have to drive back out and follow the drift back in again. on one set, we realized we were way too close to the shore (about 10ft depth) and when we went to crank the motor, nothing, no power to anything. we quickly through out an anchor to prevent ourselves from beaching, and after about 5 minutes of checking out stuff, we realized that a main power connector had come lose. we tightened it and got out of there with no harm, but our nerves were rattled by this point.

with time running out before we had to head back in, we thought we’d try casting plastics and drifting sardines near the breakwater where we haven’t got skunked all year. i did catch a single very small calico to have at least something to show for the trip, but shortly after that as were we trying to set an anchor to fish a certain spot, i was reversing the boat slowly, when out of the corner of my eye i saw an orange flash. eric’s main setup (the nice real we bought for him as groomsman’s gift) had been hanging over the stern and the dangling hook had caught the prop, wound up around the prop and flung the rod and reel overboard. amazingly, as we looked over to where it flew, it was still connected to the prop and we were able to gaff it out very carefully and precariously. we got most of the line off the prop and at this point just headed the fuck home. there’s actually a bit of a knocking sound coming from the prop, which might be the weight somewhere in the outdrive, or a baitfish that i accidently dropped into the exhaust. i’ll try to figure it out this weekend =p

since the rosarito ride last weekend, i’ve gone on a hard leaning cycle. i’m keeping the weight lifting intensity the same, taking weight loss supplements, slightly increasing protein intake, and overall reducing calories. in less than a month, we’ll be out on the boat, and i need to get some cleaner definition, particularly around the waist.

so yesterday i stopped by the gym on my way home from work to do a quick cardio session. i was waiting for an elyptical machine and one opened up to this big, strong black dude who was already sweating pretty hard. i started my workout and glanced at his numbers and he’d already burned 100 calories and was working at a pretty intense level. i warmed up for about a minute, and proceeded to try to pass his calories burned before my 25 minutes were up. about 5 minutes into my stupid one sided competition, he realized what i was trying to do, and gave me a “oh no you won’t” kinda look and stepped up his pace. every time i would increase my intensity level, he would do the same making it more and more difficult to gain ground. the two of us were seriously working out twice as hard as anyone else on the machines. anyway, i finally caught him at 23 minutes, and we both turned our intensity all the way down as soon as i did. he gave me a hostile/approving look and after a couple minutes of cooldown we parted ways, having never said a word to each other, but communicating plenty through facial expressions in the mirror.

so in the 25 minutes that i worked out, i burned 419 calories, with my heart rate at 201 for about 15 minutes straight. crazy numbers for my weight/age.

that www.brightroom.com service is getting pretty quick. less than a week and they have our photos sorted and online!

this is the second mile of the infamous el tigre hill.

ha! i knew it. i remember calling it when i saw a commercial for it at shali’s house while we were watching the series finale of the o.c. it just seemed like a canon ball run rehash with even crappier acting and foxtastic action. anyway, when it started a couple of weeks ago, i really wanted to watch it, but i knew it’d be pointless since it was a serial show, and that i’d just be let down like i was with reunion :(

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/…Fox-Cancels/800013604

i could watch this all day long:

http://www.summermeter.com/eng_summer.html 

man, those american idol folks are tricky. they got me to watch a 2 hour telethon, expecting to see who gets voted off, and the payoff? nothing! bastards. but it was a pretty sweet show nonetheless with all the stars and stupid skits. i particularly liked when jack black sang kiss from a rose, and then seal was there, and the celine dion singing with elvis was pretty amazing too. man, and how much were paula abdul’s boobies hanging out? mmm… those are some good 45 year old boobies.

the rest of the show was actually pretty sad and heart-wrenching. as i was browsing the internet looking at which $1000 road bike frame i want to buy, i started feeling guilty and donated $20, so i could watch the rest of the show and continue my conspicuous consumption in peace.

anyway, next week, lakisha and phil are going home… i hope.

“i joined a pirates class today.”

The number of shooting-related crimes to occur this year stood at 25 as of April 24 — nearly double the figure for the same period last year, a National Police Agency (NPA) report has shown.

Five people died in the shootings. Last year just 13 shooting-related crimes were reported during the same period, with only one victim dying.

In response to the rise in such crimes, the government on Wednesday held a meeting of its gun countermeasure promotion headquarters, and agreed on steps for the 2007 fiscal year.

The committee’s proposals include strengthening a system to expose use of guns, and building closer cooperation with organizations to control the weapons; putting more effort in investigating gun crimes; promoting measures to stop gun smuggling; finding secretly possessed weapons; promoting international cooperation to fight crimes; and securing residents’ understanding of measures.

The government’s gun countermeasure promotion headquarters was established in 1995. Each year it decides on measures government ministries should take to control weapons.

NPA officials said that 16 of the 25 crimes involving shootings that have occurred this year were yakuza-related. In one incident, a high-ranking member of the Sumiyoshi-kai crime syndicate was gunned down on a road in Tokyo’s Minato-ku in February. This month, a gangster fatally shot Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito in front of his election campaign office, and in another incident an armed gangster holed himself up in his apartment in the Tokyo city of Machida.

On April 20, the NPA ordered police across the nation to crack down on gun use connected to gangs.

“The dangerousness of armed gangs is vividly behind the large number of incidents this year,” an NPA representative said. (Mainichi)

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070425p2a00m0na023000c.html

yesterday after our chest workout, dave and i joined a yoga class. i’d always kinda wanted to try it and it’s easier when you have an equally inexperienced friend. anyway, we looked like fools. we were dressed for lifting weights, so our long pants and 3 shirts were in the way and inhibited some of the funky strech movements. we also didn’t know that we had to take off our shoes and socks and get a thin mat, and store it on the side of the room, etc, etc… the people were really friendly and helpful.

aside from being unprepared though, i realized that 1. i’m not very flexible and 2. don’t try yoga after heavy lifting. a lot of the positions had us esentially doing pushups and almost every exercise was shoulder intensive. while the stretches were great, we could barely hold the weight of our own arms, let alone a warrior 2 position for as long as we were supposed to, and fuck that half-moon-locked-arch… the back of my shoulders still don’t feel right. anyway, cheers to new experiences. we might actually try to integrate it into our workout schedule.