Shaide goes to the Museum

As some of you know, I have been on a diet, and have been making some progress with my weight loss. However, Dieting alone just doesn’t cut it! Which is why I also have an exercise plan that works in conjunction with my diet. The exercises vary, from push ups, to sit ups, and also walking — and occasionally jogging!

While out for a 2 mile walk today, I found myself at our towns local oil museum, and so I decided to stop in and have a look, since the last time I was there, I was a wee tiny little tyke. In fact, it was so long ago, that I don’t even remember the event. The only reason I know I went there, was because my grandma took pictures!

Since I was at the Oil Museum, I decided I would make a video, and take you all on an educational tour of the Oil Museum. This only explores the outside, since I am not sure how well me jibber jabbing inside the museum would go over.

Before you watch, there are some things I want to point out. First, this video was taken using my cell phone, so the quality isn’t that great. I clearly need a phone with a better camera. The video is also very shaky, as my cell phone doesn’t have any type of stabilizer.

Now, you may have noticed that at some points the scene just cuts away and shifts into the next. This is because, like every classic movie, sometimes bits get left on the cutting room floor. Parts that were removed were just extra rambling, and long stretches of walking. Also a scene where a squirrel chilled on a fence. Then there was the “Chinese Herbs” exhibit which made no sense. So, I just cut it out. Nothing important.

The Diet!

 

For the past few months I have been on a diet. Not any particular type of diet, in fact it’s more of a diet I created myself. Other established diets of the past never seem to work for me, and this one actually does seem to be working, and it’s not difficult to follow.

The reason for my diet is my own personal decision. I didn’t start it for health reasons, and I didn’t start it to impress other people. In fact, I am quite healthy and when it comes to what others think, I could care less.

No, the main reason was because I woke up one day and thought to myself. “Self, I am bored. Let’s do something cool, and invent a diet and see how much weight we can lose!” After that, the diet was on, and has been for a few months now, and it seems to be going along quite swimmingly. In fact, in the 2 months I have been on it, I have lost almost 50 pounds, which is nothing to sneeze at!

Now, I don’t have any plans on becoming skinny. I was born big-boned, so will always be large to an extent. No complaints here! I prefer being large. I don’t want to be skinny. No offence to skinny people, but sometimes super think folk weird me out. No, I enjoy being large. I like that it makes me seem somewhat intimidating. There’s also the fact, that I would look freakishly weird skinny and being 6″7′.

So, then if I don’t want to become skinny, what’s my goal you ask? Glad you asked! I don’t have one! I plan on just dieting until I get bored with the diet. However, I don’t see the boredom ending anytime soon. I mean, when I do start to get bored, I just weigh myself, see how much I have lost, and seeing weight loss, is always an incentive to keep you going. It’s impossible not to get excited when you see you are a pound less than the last time you weighed.

There’s good and bad about weight loss.

Good being:
Smaller pants sizes boosts enthusiasm.
Lower body weight means summer feels cooler than it is.

Bad Being:
Smaller pants sizes means lots of extra cash having to get spent on new clothes.
Lower body weight means Winter is going to feel much colder than it is.

However, when all is said and done, the diets fun, and a good time killer, and I am going to continue for quite a while. Hell, maybe after I am done, I can write a diet book and sell it, and get on an episode of Dr. Drew!

Related articles

• The Diet (babymamasblog.wordpress.com)
• Cracking the Weight Loss Code (acam.typepad.com)
• The Avocado Go-Ahead (deepercravings.com)

6 things Ruining Video Games for me

Image via Wikipedia

Video Games have been around for a long time. Since I have been old enough to retain memories, I have been playing video games. It’s something that I love doing, and has helped me and many others on so many different levels. However, recently the video game industry has been slowly pushing me away, with new trends. Ideas to make more and more money, and to slap the consumer/gamer in the face. Trends such as —

DLC Rip-Offs
This is probably the thing the video game industry has been doing that pisses me off the most! They take a newly finished and fully completed game. Look at it, decide it kicks so much ass, that they will just chop out parts of the game, sell the now partial game for full retail price, and then announce the rest of the game, that you already paid for, can be purchased as DLC!

 basically, they charge you an extra 5 bucks or so, in order to play an “Extra” level. Usually these “DLCs” clearly were ripped from the game, because they are mentioned in the game. Take for instance LA Noir, it mentions in your journal at one point, that you are investigating your third case in your current dept, despite the fact, that it’s only your second case. Why? because the DLC with the case before it, wasn’t released yet.

The worst offender is Alan Wake, which is a game, without a fucking ending! Apparently, they were going to sell extra “chapters” which presumably would finish the story, however not all the planned chapters came out, because nobody was willing to give them the ransom money they demanded to see the rest of the story. So, people who bought the game and played through it, pretty much are fucked since it’s a game without a fucking ending.

Not all DLC is bad though! Take GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption and — Well, im sure there’s another one that I just can’t think of off-hand. These games actually make DLC that I am more than happy to buy. They sell you a complete game! It’s long, and complete without missing missions and plot holes that leave you scratching your head. Then they release DLC that tells ANOTHER story. Almost like expansion packs! In fact, I would go so far as to call them expansion packs! These are good DLC items! I applaud Rockstar for this behavior. Not so much for the LA Noir DLC though. You guys are slacking there in my opinion.

Console Exclusive DLC
When a game is released on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360, many times one of the consoles will end up getting a console exclusive DLC; usually in the form of a mission, level, case or something along those lines.

Now, this doesn’t really have any particular effect on me personally, since if one system has an exclusive mission or whatever, I will just buy it for that console. However, not everyone has that option. Which is what pisses me off. The people who buy the game on the PS3 or X360 pay almost the exact same amount as each other. So, why the hell don’t they get the same fucking content as the other console players?

I am sure it is due to the console company paying extra for the right to those exclusive bonus items, but in the end it fucks the games fans over who didn’t get it on the console with the exclusive. It may not be favoritism, but it sure as hell seems like it sometimes.

Game Passes
When a game comes out, they sometimes also sell in the console DLC store, Passes. There’s two kinds of passes as far as I can tell. One is a good kind, the other pisses me off to no end. The good kind? It gives you access to all the DLC released for that game at a discounted price. So, if you know you want to get all the DLC for a particular game(IE; L.A. Noir), then buying that pass is a good idea.

The bad kind of pass is when a game with Online competitive play is released. They will cap your online level advancements to some ridiculously low-level, and then sell a “Pass” that will allow you to advance beyond that level. If you chose not to buy the pass, you can of course continue playing online, but you will be a really low-level, and not end up with access to all the advanced perks that everyone else is using to kick your ass, because yes, even if you can’t advance in levels, you will still play against people who bought the pass and can gain more levels.

Granted, occasionally, this pass is available for free, if you buy the game new, and before the code in the box expires. otherwise, you are pretty much fucked!

Lack of Originality
Come on people! Enough with the sequels. I know you want to play it safe, but release some new fucking titles already! It works sometimes you know! If it didn’t we would all be playing Mario Brothers 26 right now. Sure, sometimes you get a stinker like Alan Wake, but other times you get a masterpiece like Heavy Rain.

Don’t get me wrong! I fucking love sequels, I am hoping and pleading for a Red Dead Redemption sequel, or a new Splinter Cell game. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to experience the thrill of a new adventure with a new character! After all, there’s only so many sequels a man can take!

Cookie Cutter Games
Sure, I could have fit this into the Lack of Originality category. I simply decided not to. The reason? That’s simple! See, to me, it’s a big enough annoyance, to warrant its own category.

So, what do I mean by Cookie Cutter exactly? Games that are way too similar. Games like rhythm Games(See below), Matching block puzzle games, shooting bubble puzzle games and so on! However, the worst offender I believe is todays current First Person Shooters. The majority of them take place in modern settings, and located in the middle east. So, the backgrounds pretty much all look-alike, sure some might have varying stages of realism, but at a glance they are all pretty much identical. There’s also the first person view, but that totally doesn’t count, because it’s a first person shooter. What does count however is the lack of healthbar that they all seem to have adopted. Instead of health, most FPS games just get redder and redder around the edges of the screen to show how much damage you have, and then you hide for a bit, and you are good to go.

Yes, the red edges health meter was cool when I first saw it. After a few million dozen times, it started getting old. Just because something worked for one company, doesn’t mean every single FPS from that point forward needs to adopt the same health meter. Come up with your own shit! Make the game your own, instead of a Modern Warfare carbon copy! Sure, it might not sell as well, but at least you will be your own game and not a “Modern Warfare Clone”.

While FPS titles maybe the worst offenders, they are far from the only offender. Take a look at MMORPGs. a good majority of them are identical to World Of Warcraft. Why? Probably because WoW is so insanely popular, that it would be a safe bet, that if yer playing their game, that you also are playing World of Warcraft, and maybe this is their way of making you feel at home. I don’t know, but it’s annoying. If I wanted to play WoW, I would be playing WoW, not some copycat that charges the same amount. Basically, if I am looking for an MMORPG and NOT going to Wow, Which most likely I have heard of, since it is clearly the most popular MMORPG out at the time of this writing, then there is a good chance that I want something different from what WoW provides!

Rhythm Games and their add-ons.
The rhythm game genre, is the only game genre I detest. I am not a huge fan of sport games, but will occasionally play them. I will never play a rhythm game. Does this make the genre horrible? Well, it kind of does, at least for me. I am fully aware that many people love this particular genre. For me, it just makes no sense. I don’t see where the enjoyment of pushing buttons to the beat of a song becomes interesting. I used to tap my pencil to the rhythm of songs in school, and I never thought to myself that this is so fucking exciting, it should be a video game.

My hatred for the genre is beside the point. What bugs me is the massive amounts of this genre that’s out there. Seriously, how many fucking rhythm games do you need? It get’s worse too! Everyone of those fucking rhythm games, releases an busload of DLC that consists of new songs to tap to the beat of. Since this shit is easy as fuck to produce, they go ape-shit and just start cranking out DLC like it was going out of style.

It eventually gets to the point, that I don’t even bother checking the “What’s new?” in the online console store, because I know it will be jammed with millions of rhythm DLC titles.

Most likely there’s more that is making the video game industry seem less interesting to me, but off-hand I can’t think of any. I’ll get back to ya!

UPDATE: I thought of some more, and have updated this list from 4, to 6 things ruining video games for me!

Death can strike anywhere….

A friend of the family recently passed away. She wasn’t that old, in fact she was even younger than my mother. On top of that, as far as we knew, she was healthy! At least she seemed to be. Sure, she would get sick, but who doesn’t?

This has got me worried, for a few reasons. The first being that it has got me thinking about death, and as I have said multiple times, Death scares the shit out of me! Not the pain of dying, but just the end. Mainly, because I don’t believe in god or heaven. So, when I die, I know that everything ends. I cease to exist. Everything that was me, becomes wiped from the world. In time, people will even forget I existed. That scares me.

However, even scarier than the thought of me dying, is the thought of my mother dying. My mother and I are close. Sure we don’t always get along, and yeah, we have our fights. However, at the end of the day, she’s my mother and I love her with every ounce of my being. She’s always been there for me, and sacrificed to ensure that I had everything I needed or even wanted.

If she dies, I don’t know what I will do, or how I will react. Now that I am older, I want the chance to repay her for all she has done and sacrificed. I want the chance, to show her I love her. Sure, I tell her that I love her, but words can be spoken by anyone. I want to show her, and I don’t think I’ll ever have enough time to show her how much I love her, and how much she means to me.

So, that’s got me down, and on top of that. There’s no way to predict death. It could come knocking on anyones door, at any time. If you think, that because you eat healthy and exercise on daily basis, that you are safe, and guaranteed a long fulfilling life, then you are wrong! I have known people MUCH healthier, and younger than me who passed away. People who I thought would outlive me by YEARS.

Fact of the matter is, Death can strike anywhere at anytime. The unhealthy, The Healthy, The Young, The Old, The smart, The Dumb, The rich and The Poor. Death just doesn’t give a shit, and honestly that’s some scary shit, and I am not ashamed to admit that it frightens me to my core.

Being kept awake by fear

It’s nearly 2 A.M., and though I went to bed hours ago, I find myself awake, and unable to sleep. The reason? I got to thinking about things that bother me. In fact, it bothered me so much that it prevented me from sleeping.

I got to thinking about my greatest fear, and if you ask anyone who knows me what my greatest fear is, you will receive on out of two answers. The first being “Dogs” and the second being “Death”, both of them rank high on my fear list, though they are not my strongest fear. In fact, unless someone who knows me reads this blog, they won’t know my biggest fear, since it’s not something I talk about very often.

My biggest fear? Well, it sounds corny, and is embarrassing to admit, but my biggest fear is the fear of being alone. Like I said, Stupid and Corny.

It’s just that I have very few people here in my life, and while I value my privacy, I don’t want to spend my life alone. It’s just that I have lost most everyone in my life. I have lost my father, my Uncle, My wife, and many more. In fact, I have lost so many people, that the only ones who are physically here in my life, are my mother and my grandmother, and when they are gone, I will have nobody.

I know, it’s stupid. Other people have found themselves alone, and people manage just fine. Still, it’s not something I want to do. I don’t want to lose everyone that I love, and I know that it’s inevitable.

It scares me, more than anything. Stupid fears.

Damn Kidney Stones!

I haven’t blogged much in the last couple of days. The reason is because I have been blessed with Kidney stones. Yes, I am being sarcastic, in regards to the blessed aspect of the kidney stones. Apparently I drink way too much cola, and that’s resulted in my newly acquired kidney stone(s). Maybe this will be a lesson for me? Maybe now, I will stop drinking so much cola? I seriously doubt it. I love soda too much, to just quit drinking it.

Anyway, I just thought I would let you know why I haven’t posted. Once I am feeling better, I will have plenty to say, in fact I have several things I want to blog about, so am anxiously awaiting this pain to just go away.

Lindsay Lohan, in trouble again!

Lindsay Lohan is in trouble yet again apparently! This time around, she has allegedly failed, not one, but two a drug tests. For shame Lindsay! For shame!

What happens to Lindsay now? Well, she apparently was sentenced to remain in custody until october 22nd, with no bail. Only, that’s not exactly what happened! Another Judge stepped in, and granted her bail, so now LiLo is all set.

The moral of this story? It’s good to be famous! I have also learned that Lindsay looks good in mug shots. Hell, she looks hotter in mug shots than she does in most movies. Perhaps she should consider doing some female prison movies.

I would also like to say, that Lindsay isn’t the only celebrity who looks good in mug shots. Paris Hilton does a good mug shot too, although nowhere near as good as LiLo’s!

Dennis Hopper: Dead at 72

Wow, First Gary Coleman, and now Dennis Hopper. It’s a sad week for the entertainment world. Dennis Hopper was 72 when he passed away. Dennis Hopper had been suffering from Prostate Cancer, so his passing was to be expected, however his passing isn’t made any easier by this knowledge.

Dennis Hopper has been in MANY well-known classics including, but definitely not limited to, Easy Rider and Apocalypse Now. You’ll be missed Mister Hopper.

RIP Gary Coleman

As many people are aware of by now, Actor Gary Coleman passed away May 28th, 2010. at 12:05 PM MTD. He was only 42 when he passed away from this world, which is VERY young!

Gary Coleman has had spots in many television and film, however he is probably most remembered for his role as Arnold Jackson in the late 70’s/early 80’s Television hit series Diff’rent Strokes, and his memorable catch phrase “What’chu talkin’ ’bout Willis?!”.

Now, I remember watching Diff’rent Strokes, in fact it was one of my favorite shows back in the day. However, I must confess that I was never a big Gary Coleman fan. That being said, I always admired the guy. He went through a whole lot of crap throughout his life. Much of that crap he dealt with at a VERY young age. However, despite it all, he still managed to carry on.

Rest in Peace Gary.

Deaths door

Ever had a feeling of impending doom? The thought that you are living your final days on earth? Im going through that right now. It’s not just for no reason though. I didn’t wake up this morning, grab a cup of coffee and turn on the morning cartoons and say to myself: “Self, you are dying in a few days!”

You see, I have been having these pains in my stomach and sides, at first I thought it might have been trapped gas, then once it was still there for a few hours, and I remembered some pains in my back the previous night, I began thinking it might be a kidney stone, but I am kind of worried about what if its not? What if it’s something serious? Something that is going to lead to my untimely demise? I don’t want that, I don’t want to die…I do have some things to live for you know? Plus death scares me, mainly because the unknown scares me. On top of all that, I have over the years grown quite fond of breathing.

So, now I sit here, afraid to go to sleep, because I genuinely am afraid that I might not wake up….and that would REALLY suck!