Life of Gary

Okay, so we finally got a Wii. The games are cool. I especially like Tennis. Well, I just saw a trailer for the new Star Wars game coming out in July. Now I'm REALLY excited that I have a Wii. I pre-ordered it from Amazon. I can't wait until this game comes out. It's called Star Wars: The Forse Unleashed. Check out some videos.

Trailer:


Character Information:

There was a comedy show that I watched on Showtime when I was around 9 or 10 years old. It was a one man show of a guy named Steven Banks. The show was called Home Entertainment. This guy is a great comedian and an amazing musician. He managed to be funny without being dirty. For some reason, he basically fell off the face of the earth after this show, but at least we have this one. Until he decides to make a comeback, here are the videos of his show. You need to have about an hour available to watch all of these. Be sure to watch them in order.
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Labels: Comedy, Home Entertainment, One Man Show, Showtime, Steven Banks

So we decided to give our dog one of those toys that keeps them occupied and provides mental stimulation. We figured it would be perfect for our dog since she gets antsy and since she's really smart. Well, she might be a bit too smart. We have this blue thing that you can put treats into. We put some of her food into it. Then it takes a while for her to get the food out. She tried for a little while and got some of it out. Then, her answer was to cry, take this toy and throw it at me! She's pretty much saying, "you have opposable thumbs, YOU get it out!". Overall it's kind of funny. Whenever she finally gets all of the food out, she'll bring it over to me and place it in my lap, or on my leg. At that point she's pretty much saying, "fill er' up!". Long story short, I've decided that this is a good toy to keep her occupied, but it's not a good option to give to her if we want to keep her quiet. Speaking of interesting dog stories, my dad sent this today: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23291625/

Okay, so today is the time to vote for the primaries...oops, I missed it. I feel kind of bad for not voting today. It would have been a bit difficult for me to get to the voting location, but I thought about ways that I could make it there. Then I realized, I know absolutely nothing about the people running. I could go and put in my votes, but they would be meaningless. This is actually quite a dilemma for me. I don't like to watch political debates or read about the people running. When I actually do it just makes me mad that these are my choices for who will run the country, and I can't help but be reminded how flawed our whole political system is. Okay, I don't want to rant. Maybe I'll try to do something about it some day if it really bothers me. Either that or I'll come to terms with it.

Okay, so it's been a LOOONNNGG time since my last post. I was told recently that someone actually checks now and then to see if I put up new information. I was shocked that someone actually looks at my site. Well, mom, this is for you. I'll try to keep up with my postings again. Here's a great commercial against the tobacco industry. Not sure why, it just cracks me up:

So I was watching animal planet the other day. They had cameras set up all over the world watching different animals in their habitats. One of the cameras was the beaver cam. I know, sounds dirty. Anyway, there was a beaver pulling what looked like a stick over to a dam. I'm sitting there thinking, aww, how cute, the little beaver is dragging a tiny stick. Then the announcer comes in and says that the beaver can pull a log equivalent to its own weight, and the beaver on the camera is probably around 50 pounds! He also said that beavers can be up to 100 pounds! Holy crap!!! I always pictured something that was small and cat-sized. Now I have to come to terms with a fact that if I ever met a beaver, it may very well be able to kick my ass.

There are some things that I think I will never understand. There is a guy I know who eats and eats and eats with no end in sight. He gets really high calorie, high fat breakfasts every morning. He eats huge lunches with dessert. I don't know what he has for dinner, but I also see him snacking in between all of these meals. So the strange thing is not that he eats so much. God knows that I can understand that. The strange thing is that he is one of the thinnest people I know! I understand that there are metabolism differences between people, but this is just crazy.

Here's where I start thinking too much. I see people like that, and then I see other people with extremely slow metabolisms who just stack on the weight (myself for instance). Then I start thinking about these differences in an evolutionary sense. Back in the cave man days when food was scarce, it would have been way better to have a slow metabolism. That way you could eat a small amount and be fine for a while. People with fast metabolisms would have to keep going hunting for wooly mammoths and stuff. So you would think that those with really fast metabolisms would have died out a long time ago from hunger or wooly mammoth bites while the rest of us would be ruling the world. Now, the tables have turned. It is no longer good to have a slow metabolism. Whatever the case is now, I am just going to continue to tell myself that I am at a high evolutionary level because of my slow metabolism...and those with fast metabolisms must just be freaks of nature. It sounds good to me...but somehow it doesn't make me feel any better about it.

It amazes me how many games you have to play to succeed in corporate America. When it comes down to it, it's amazing how little people actually accomplish compared to what they are capable of. Instead of working towards a goal, everyone seems to have their own agenda. I'm not saying this is wrong since people do have to watch out for themselves. The unfortunate fact of the matter is, all it takes is one or two people having their own agendas. Once that begins, if you don't watch out for yourself, then it's pretty hard to go anywhere. This means that people have to play a role and put on an act with almost everything they do.

I have witnessed some people who basically say, "I am not changing for anyone. If they don't like who I am, then I shouldn't be working with them". I can respect that opinion. It's the opinion of someone who highly values the reality of their outward image. The problem comes in when other values get intertwined. If someone has a strong need for success or money, then they may have to put on that act to move up in the business world. Then there are people like me. I want success and money, but I don't want to lose who I am in the process of getting there. That means that everything I do is a balancing act. I need to weigh how much of myself I can show with it still being okay in the eyes of others. This is the game. I think I'm getting good at it, but it is and will probably always be exhausting.

Will someone please tell me what the hell is wrong with Acura Roadside assistance? I've already had my beef with Onstar, so I don't feel like getting into details. Let's just say I WON'T be one of those people on the Onstar commercials.

Anyway, on Sept 30, my car died. It just wouldn't start. The battery was dead. So I called Onstar and they were no help. That's a long story, but like I said, I'm not going to get into that right now. So I called Acura Roadside assistance. I have an Acura, and my roadside assistance was expired, but I figured I could just pay for the tow. So I call them and they set up a tow for me. They say the tow truck will be there in an hour. So all is good, right? Wrong!

An hour and a half later, I get a call from this tow company asking where I am. Not a good sign. So I tell them and they're like, "we don't service vehicles that far out". Okay, the car was about a 15 minute ride from them, so what the hell? Anyway, I call back Acura and they are trying to find another tow company. They say they can set up an appointment with another one but it'll take 3 hours for them to get there! I ask where this place is and it's like an hour ride away. WHAT?! If a place right by us won't come, why will this other place??

So while I'm talking to Acura, my wife just calls the first tow company in the phone book, and they'll be out within an hour. And they were. Yay for Horcher's towing!! Since I was still on the phone with Acura, I had them cancel my roadside assistance. They confirmed the cancellation and said all charges to my credit card will be reversed.

So I thought this was all over. No weird charges on my credit card, everything balances out. Now, two months later, I'm looking at my credit card statement online. I have this weird charge on there with a very non-descriptive name. So I call the credit card company and get the phone number associated with it. Guess what, it's Acura Roadside Assistance!!!! So I call Acura on a Thursday, and I ask what is going on. I tell them that the roadside assistance was cancelled, and they see this in their records, so they say I should be getting the money put back onto my credit card, but I should call back on Monday to confirm.

So Monday rolls around...no refunds on my credit card. So I call back. Now they are telling me that I did cancel the tow truck on September 30, but it shows that I called for another tow truck on November 27. Say what?! I swear to this person that I didn't black out and randomly call Acura roadside assistance on November 27. But she has to give the information to her supervisor. Apparently they have to make this some sort of claim. So now I'm supposed to hear back from this supervisor tomorrow. It looks like I'm going to have to dispute this charge on my credit card because I no longer trust people.

My guess is that the tow company who refused to come out just sent a charge to Acura Roadside Assistance even though they didn't come out. Then Acura automatically forwarded the charge. The reality is, I don't care what happened, I just want my money back since I did not receive Roadside Assistance from them.

Sorry I haven't made any posts for a while (not that anyone's reading this). Things have been very crazy for me. I really haven't been accessing a personal computer for about the past week now. Anyway, here are some thoughts for today:

Jeopardy: My wife and I have started recording Jeopardy on our DVR. That show makes me feel really stupid sometimes. Lately, the teen tournament has been on. I like that because I can answer some of the questions or question the answers if you will. Then final Jeopardy came up. I don't remember what the answer was, but I was pretty much sitting there going, "uh, what?". I had no frickin' clue. It was something about a line from a book somewhere. Then they go to the teens...all three got it right. Man, did I feel dumb. I wonder if maybe I was smarter as a teenager. I think work is rotting my brain. My wife and I decided that there are two kinds of nerds. Nerd #1 is the one who studies a lot, gathers a lot of information, knows a lot of things. Nerd #2 is just kind of into video games, computers, etc. Well, I always though I liked learning new things, but after watching Jeopardy, I think I lean more towards nerd #2. At least I have my health, right? BTW, after doing a spell check, it found that I spelled "studies" incorrectly. Go figure.

Homes for sale: So a new mls listing came up that matched our criteria. We were shocked. It was this huge house in a city we know we can't afford. We looked it up on zillow, and it showed the house values in that area were about $150,000 to $200,000 MORE than the list price of this house. This has to be too good to be true. I asked our real estate agent to get some info on it. Well, there weren't any major declarations, but something has to be wrong with this place. Our agent asked the agent selling that house why it's selling for so much less than the others. The selling agent wouldn't tell him! He pretty much said something like, "every buyer interprets it differently", and he'd only tell if we went out to see it. That sounds really scary if you ask me. Turns out it went under contract, so none of this matters, but it was kind of interesting anyway. We're still trying to figure out what happened there. Was someone brutally murdered? Are they on top of an ancient Indian burial ground? Are they next to a toxic waste dump? We may never know.

Automatic flusher strikes again: I just thought I'd add that I was in a bathroom stall the other day that has an automatic flushing toilet. It managed to flush 6 times before I actually wanted it to flush! I finally took some toilet paper and hung it over the sensor. That is now part of my routine. Wipe off the toilet, cover the seat, hang some toilet paper over the sensor. At the end, remove toilet paper and flushing commences.

People do some strange things in public restrooms. You can really learn a lot about people in there. Unfortunately it's mostly things you don't want to know...
- Number one cause of disease. I'm shocked by how many people either don't wash their hands or don't use soap when washing their hands. Just take the 30 seconds to scrub off your hands for God's sake! And if you actually take the time, just squirt some soap on your hands! You aren't fooling anyone by doing the quick water sprinkle.
- Games in the stalls. A lot of times I hear the clicking of electronic devices from stalls. It's pretty obvious that the person is playing a game or something on their phone/PDA/Blackberry. I couldn't care less what people do in there. Today though, I heard some clicking followed by very loud Tetris music. At least remember to mute your device. It might not always be someone who doesn't care who is in there.
- You just aren't that important. There have been a number of people who I have seen and/or heard talking on their cell phones in the bathroom! You just aren't that important where you have to be on the phone there. Not only does it show the person that you are on the phone with that you're a dang weirdo, it shows a lack of respect for everyone else in the bathroom. Maybe I don't want that person hearing the noises I make in there. Didja think of that?
- They don't make em like they used to. So I was in our totally remodelled office bathroom today when the stall door just swung open. You'd think they could put some good locks on those doors. Luckily no one was there to see me waddle over to close and lock it again. And yes, the godforsaken automatic toilet flushed when I waddled over.

I wonder about strange things sometimes. I was in the bathroom at work, and there was a big sign on one of the toilets saying, "do not use until further notice". So I started thinking about how signs would normally say, "out of order". Again, I started thinking...I think too much sometimes...I was thinking...why do we say, "out of order"? Wouldn't it make more sense to say "not working" or "broken"? I don't think of things that are working as being "in order". Okay, enough rambling about this.

Okay, that's all I can really think of for today.

Today was a long day for me. I had a lot to do at work. I'm just glad I'm home right now.

So I've become hooked on an old game I used to play. It's Half Life: Counterstrike. I used to play it in college. Now I stared playing again, and I found a new version. The Gun Game. It's a lot of fun. You get to work your way up levels to use different guns. I won't go into details since I'll just prove how big of a loser I am. I just wish I was good at it. I used to be good in college, but now I'm horrible. Part of it is the computer I'm using. It's not horrible, but when I'm playing, have someone in my sites, and it freezes for a half second, it doesn't help. It'll also spontaneously reboot on me. I think I could use a new computer, a new mouse, and a headset to talk to the other gamers. Hopefully I'll be able to convince my wife that I can just get the headset.

Well, it's a new record for me anyway. I decided to hop on the treadmill again today. I wanted to beat the last mile time that I set, and I did it! I ran a mile in 9 minutes 16 seconds this time. Man, I was tired at the end. I kept on walking on the treadmill until the end of 20 minutes though. I think it's a good thing I did or I might have passed out!

So I didn't do any posts over the weekend, so I'll try to fill in the gaps here with this post...

Saturday: We went to a Jimmy Buffet concert. It was me, my wife, my in-laws, my brother-in-law, and his girlfriend. I have to say, I'm not a big Jimmy Buffet fan. I don't dislike him. I just never really listened to much of his music. I have to say though, that was a fun concert! You can tell that he loves putting on concerts. He does the same thing over and over, but he still loves it. I think he has a pretty ideal life. Sing, play music, travel around the country, and make loads of money? I could deal with that.

Sunday: I actually got to sleep in late on Sunday morning. The dog was sleeping over at my parent's house, so she wasn't there to wake me up. I slept until 10:50 which is really dang late for me now. Later in the day, my wife and I picked up the dog and went to a "Dog Days of Summer" event. It was something where there were dog rescue groups, dog contests, a dog parade, etc. It sounded like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it rained for a lot of the day. By the time we got there, there were almost no people or dogs there. For some reason, Abby (our dog) was not happy to be there. We got the entrance, and she just turned around and started pulling me away. I got her to go in, but she just walked around with her tail between her legs. She does get nervous around new dogs, but I think she just wasn't in a good mood. Overall, the trip was a bust. Oh well. Live and learn.

Sunday morning was another weigh in day for me. I lost some more weight. Now I'm down 190 pounds.

Well, I went in to the dentist again today to get my teeth molded. They molded the bottom, the top, and my bite. I guess I can now be identified by my dental records if I'm ever burned beyond recognition.

Dreams: So I had a dream last night that I stepped on the scale and it said I weighed 213 pounds. It freaked me out. I'm in my 180's right now, and I have a great desire to not get above 200 again. I had some other dreams too, but right now I can't remember. If I do, maybe I'll post them later.

TV: I watched an episode of Nightmares and Dreamscapes that I DVR'd today. Interesting show. I saw the one about a guy who was paralyzed by a snake bite. They thought he was dead, so they started an autopsy on him. He was fully aware the whole time. Freaky. I actually expected it to be freakier than it was since it's based on Stephen King stories. I thought the show was good though, and I'll probably continue to watch it.

Books: Speaking of Stephen King...In reality, I don't read that much. I do listen to audio books though. My wife got me a full membership to audible.com. From that, I can download 25 audio books during a year. I've been listening to Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I'm on book 4. It's a strange, but extremely interesting series. I'm definitely hooked. I can't wait to get to the end, but I know I'll be depressed when it's over.

So I went to the dentist today. I hadn't been there for about a year and a half. The good news is that my teeth looked really good. No cavities, and they said the cleaning was fairly easy. I think i can thank not really eating since September for my teeth being clean. :-)

On the negative side, the reason why I went in is because not only did I need a cleaning, but my teeth have been hurting. The reason my teeth are hurting...I'm clenching them at night. Now I have to go in to the dentist again tomorrow to get fitted for a night guard. That way, if I clench, it'll just be on the night guard, and I won't crack my teeth. Ech, what a horrible thought. Thinking about cracking teeth gives me the willies! The dentist basically said, I'll probably want to get a night guard asap unless I plan to start yoga or something. Maybe yoga would do me some good. Any ideas on how to get rid of stress are welcome! Just give me ideas that aren't stressful!!

My stress level is way too high today. Between trying to sell our house, trying to find a house within our price range that is acceptable, dealing with not eating everything I want to, and several other things in my life, I feel stressed. It's making it tough to sleep. When I do sleep, I have bad dreams.

Dreams affect me a lot. I tend to have very vivid dreams. Sometimes my dreams are full stories that go full circle. If I have one, I'll try to remember what I can and post it. I won't guarantee it'll be interesting, but it will most likely be strange and have a somewhat developed story. When I'm stressed, I tend to have dreams that stress me out more. So I wake up stressed, and my day just doesn't stand a chance.

My dog, Abby, is lying next to me right now. She had a long day at daycare and is doing what we call some "hard sleeping". It's like she's sleeping and trying to get in more rest. I don't know how to describe it, but she sleeps, dreams quickly, breathes more heavily. It's kind of funny to watch. She's a good dog.

Yes, I did say that my dog goes to daycare. She goes to Doggie Daycare to be exact. Basically, several dogs are in a room together and get to play with each other during the day. She LOVES it. The people there are great. Abby loves the dogs and the people there. She practically pulls you over when she sees the door.

Exciting news: Yesterday, I decided to try out a treadmill at the gym. I usually use an elliptical machine, but I kind of wanted to just do some plain running. I've never been good at running. I was the kid in high school who would be running a 12 minute mile. I use the term "running" loosely since I usually had to walk about half of it. Well, I got on the treadmill and started running. I ended up finishing a mile in 9 minutes and 43 seconds. I know that's a pretty bad mile time, but for me, I'm pretty sure it's the fastest I've ever run a mile. Even more, I didn't have to stop to walk at all! I'm excited about it. :-)

First Post:

Well, I had to start with something, so here's my first post to my blog. I plan to use this blog to talk about just about anything...weight loss, politics, random thoughts, etc. And coming from me, it can be anything.

Current weight loss info: Since I have this linked to my website that has a main topic of weight loss, the first thing I'll throw in is that I am currently below my goal weight. My goal weight was 200 pounds. As of my last official weigh-in (official meaning Sunday morning on my scale at home) I was 182.8. So I'm not only below, I'm well below my goal.

Random thought: Whoever decided that it was a good idea to put the automatic flushing toilets into bathroom stalls is a moron. I don't need a toilet flushing while I'm still sitting on it. If I wanted a bidet, I'd get one. Until then, keep the water away from my ass. Sorry, but it bugs me!

Politics: I hate our government right now, but I don't feel like getting started.

Life: My wife and I are currently trying to sell our house. It isn't going very well. It's been on the market for 7 or 8 weeks, and I think we've had about 4 people come to look at it. This is very discouraging. It makes it seem like my hour and a half ride to work is going to be around for quite some time.

Another Random Thought: Dogs are cool.