Long Weekend Trip, Part II

Here is the second and final installment of our travelog from Cherry's first Spring Break!

As hinted in the first installment of this series, the third day of our trip was the one where we tackled all of St. Augustine's more reputable tourist traps - the Fountain of Youth, the St. Augustine Lighthouse, and Fort Matanzas! I decided to pass on the local Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. Shrunken heads aren't really my bag.

After doing some more shopping on St. George Street, we set off to visit the famed Fountain of Youth! This was supposedly the landing spot of Ponce de Leon, who is credited with having discovered the North American continent. It's also the location of a ground spring that he drank out of and credited his relatively long and healthy life (before his death by poison arrow). Cherry and I each drank a small cup of water from the Fountain of Youth - it's has a pretty pungent rotten-egg sulfur-like flavor.

Besides the actual fountain, there were two other major exhibits at the Fountain of Youth. There was a presentation of the first 100 years of Spanish exploration in the Americas, which featured the large, luminous, fully operational rotating globe to the left. The other was also an interesting presentation inside what they claim to be the only functional manual planetarium in the country. This presentation was of particular interest to me because it featured a discussion on how people in the old days used the stars for navigation. Basically, their charts indicate which star will be directly over the destination at a particular time, so they just have to point their ship in the direction of that star for a duration of time around that... uh... time. I've always known that they used the stars some way to navigate, but after the presentation, it was kind of like, "Why didn't I think of that?"

In addition to the exhibits, there was a little park on the excavation grounds which had life size statues of Ponce de Leon (who was around 4'11") as well as the chief of the friendly Indian tribe (i.e. the one that didn't shoot him in the leg with a poison arrow), the Timucuans (who was around 7' - a giant!). It also had a large number of normal and white peacocks!

After visiting the Fountain of Youth, we headed back downtown in hopes of having some chicken wings at the Milltop Tavern (the bar me and my friends visited every time we came to St. Augustine during my undergrad years). We had wings here the last time Cherry and I came to St. Augustine, as well, so our hopes were pretty high. However, after we had ordered our drinks, we noticed that the service was really slow and we were running short on time. I apologized to the waitress (who had an attitude about it - I wonder if she was the same waitress that demanded a higher tip from our group back in 2000?) and we left. Instead of the wings, we had lunch again on the grounds of Castillo de San Marcos (more bologna and steak sauce sandwiches!).

Next, we headed to the Lighthouse. Again, some more educational stuff - like the difference between a lighthouse and a light station (it turns out that this one was actually a light station because it was a full facility where the keepers could live with their families). We also learned that every lighthouse in the world has a Daymark (the actual physical pattern - in this case the spiraling black stripes and the red top) as well as a Nightmark (the beam pattern that flashes at night and in fog) that established it from every other lighthouse in the world.

The original post was merely a tower without a beacon. The current lighthouse itself was actually rebuilt about 150 years ago. It rises about 165 ft above sea level, and is quite a climb - not so much that it is tiring (we've hiked overnight mountains that were some 10 miles of pretty steep trails), but it was pretty scary at the top, with the swirling winds. The photo to the right doesn't really do the actual height of the lighthouse justice.

Our final stop would be Fort Matanzas, the protector of the "back door" of St. Augustine. It's a small fort with a few sentry towers and a gun deck, but the site also serves as a monument of the massacre of French forces by the Spanish here in 1565. The name "Matanzas" itself translates loosely to "massacre". We came to Fort Matanzas on a bad day though - the weather, again, was perfect, but the ferry was out of commission, so we couldn't actually go to the fort itself. You can barely see it in this picture (it's way in the back, on the other side of the inlet). We settled for the nature walk and the Junior Ranger badge (notice the two badges on Cherry's sweatshirt - one for Castillo de San Marcos and one for Fort Matanzas!).

So, that concluded our educational roadtrip to the Oldest City in America! Make sure you visit the entire photo album on my Facebook here!

Cung Le vs. Mike Altman MMA

Just in! Cung Le's MMA Debut, conveniently available here at Grant's Pad!



Would have liked to see some takedowns, but knockouts are fun too!

Here is another Cung Le exhibition on YouTube - also very one sided but it shows off the dominating takedown skills of Le. Enjoy!

Long Weekend Trip, Part I

This week is Cherry's first Spring Break at BCC, so I took a few days off to go on a little vacation with her.

On Saturday, we basically just relaxed and eventually went to the beach. We tossed the football around, but more importantly, we splurged for some Cold Stone Creamery, right before we headed home. We needed to get home before 5:00 so that Cherry's classmate could pick her up for a little dinner party that they had planned, but it turns out that someone made a communication error along the way and the party was moved to Sunday without us knowing. Still, the weather was fabulous, and we had a good day.

The next day, we went to Sea World, to take advantage of our Silver Passports once again. There wasn't really anything new since we went last time - in fact, I think the Shamu Show was actually worse this time, since they are building for a new show to open in May. However, this time, Cherry and I seemed to be a little more awake, and I was able to appreciate some of the shows a little more. We made it on time to the acrobat show this time, and I realized that there was actually a little story involved in the show - the guy finds a suitcase with all sorts of little wonders inside - a little cliche, but nice. Plus, I didn't get enough of the Slinky man last time, so it was a good chance to see it again.

We took our time this time to look at the animals, such as the King Penguin who is very comfortably standing on the very edge of his heels to the left. We also saw a Harbor Seal (I know the name because Cherry and I play the North American Critters Memory Game regularly) that was particularly entertaining in the Seal and Sea Lion habitat. You can buy little fish to feed the animals, and it turns out that Sea Lions tend to shout a lot more, so they grab the guests attention more often than the seals. This seal, however, had his own way to get his chow. He would swim up to the edge of the habitat and pound on his chest, as if to say, "Hey Buddy, over here man, yeah that's right, right here!" Another visitor said that this seal had done this the last time they visited Sea World, so it wasn't just a coincidence.

As for rides, Cherry only went on the Atlantis ride, but I did go on the Kraken again. And again, I was still impressed. It's a really long coaster, and has no floor so you can see pretty much all around - up and down. You can kind of see me in this shot that Cherry took - I'm the one with my arms up in the air.

The next day, we headed to St. Augustine. For some reason, I thought that St. Augustine was three hours away, but it's really only slightly over two hours, which worked out pretty well, since we were able to spend a lot of time at the Castillo de San Marco, the major landmark of St. Augustine. I had gone to St. Augustine many many times during my college career, but I had never been inside the fort! There was a lot of cool stuff in the fort, and a lot of cool historical stuff. The fort is built mostly of soft coquina - not something you would think would be good for battle - but it turns out that the soft rock would "swallow" enemy cannonballs! Those Spanish were some pretty smart cats.

We were able to limit the amount of money we spent on food to a very minimal amount by having picnics on the fort grounds. I made some kick-ass bologna with cheese and steak sauce sandwiches. Everything is better with a little A-1! The weather was still a fabulous cloudless 65 degrees, so eating outside was a very nice affair.

At the end of the day, we took a Scenic Cruise in the St. Augustine Inlet. Now, that 65 degrees felt significantly colder, as you can see from Cherry's eskimo suit here in front of the St. Augustine Lighthouse - one of the other sites that we would visit later on. We also saw quite a few dolphins on the boat. The little splash in this picture really is a dolphin! Really!

That night, we couldn't decide what to have for dinner, so after searching for nearly forty minutes, we settled on McDonald's, where I got the new, heavily advertised Spicy Chicken Deluxe Sandwich. I was thoroughly disappointed with this sandwich. I should have believed those Wendy's commercials. You really can't beat those Spicy Chicken Sandwiches!

Well, I'll let you digest that for now. Tomorrow, I'll post Day Three of our vacation, where we hit all of St. Augustine's top tourist traps!

La Mancha, and Heather Mitts!

I was flipping through some of my old photos today, and I added a new album in my Facebook, which you can see here. The photos are pretty old - they are all from my first semester at the University of Florida, from way back in 1999, and taken with a real film camera!

I've mentioned before that I lived at an apartment complex called La Mancha during that semester. I probably also mentioned before that La Mancha was a very popular place to live for International Exchange students, since they were one of the only places in Gainesville that offered variable length leases, including a four-month lease which was perfect for single semester exchange students. It was also nice because it had a centralized courtyard which was really a great place for all of us to get together just to hang out or to have legendary 6-keg parties.

Anyhow, I spent what seemed to be an endless first semester with my many foreign (mostly European) neighbors and my roommate Thiago, who I've mentioned before as my inspiration to work out regularly in this post. We spent most weekdays having dinner at each others houses (an activity that later inspired Wednesday Movie Nights in my sophomore year), and we spent most weekends on roadtrips. We hit St. Augustine regularly, as it was the closest beach to Gainesville. We went to Ybor City, Orlando, Atlanta, Miami, Key West, and Daytona Beach, all before the semester ended. To cap off the semester, a few of us (me, Jorge, and some of the Italians) went to the Bahamas for the first few days after the end of the semester!

I made some really good friends that semester. The friend I remember best would be Victor, a relatively short (for a Dutchman) student from Holland. He was about 6'2", and, like pretty much everyone else in Europe, loved to play soccer. He would visit just about every day, which was an easy thing to do at La Mancha because no one really ever locked their doors, and we would go play soccer or eat pizza at a small, artsy pizza joint called Rhapsody (which has since closed) with Jorge. The Italians were also a great bunch - the two Elenas, Francesco, Antonio, and Filippo. I kept in touch with those friends for a few years, but it has been a long while since we last talked.

One event that I thought of while creating my La Mancha photo gallery was the one time I have ever been to a sport event at UF besides a football game. One day, Jorge, Victor, Pablo, Didier, and I decided to check out a girls soccer game. UF's team was the defending National Champion team, and they obliterated the opposing team (I think it was Tennessee that night - I'm not sure though.)

What I am sure about, however, is that we met a celebrity that night. We met Heather Mitts, who was a senior that year, and would go on to play on the National US Womens team, as well as the Philadelphia Charge, and was also voted ESPN's sexiest Female Athlete at one time. I've seen her on TV as an analyst/announcer for soccer games, and I've seen her on magazine covers too! And now, thanks to Grant's Pad, you can see photos and action shots of my schoolmate Heather Mitts by going to her website here. Pablo, you can thank me later (you can join the fan club)!

I'm going on vacation for a few days, so there won't be much in terms of new posts for a short while. Stay tuned for my vacation blog, though! I'll be putting up more photo galleries soon! Maybe you'll be in one of them too (though you probably won't look as good as Heather Mitts)! Make sure you check out the photo gallery!

I Made Something!

So I've been working at Forbes' best managed Aerospace and Defense company for the second year in 3 years (w00T!) for... about nine months now (since last June), and I've seen quite a few different things and have compiled a small list of little projects. I've worked on several different programs and several different circuits, with tasks ranging from test coverage analysis to support engineering to verification, and some small redesign tasks as well. I'm pretty impressed that I've gotten as much done in this amount of time as I have - most everyone knows that I'm a bit on the lazy side, and the company kind of throws a lot of new hires right into the fire without much of a mentor program, so you really have to kind of be proactive.

But, all of my intense TPR/TCAS training seems to be paying off, because this week, as Jerry (the new program director for TPR) stated so frankly, we finally get to do something productive! A small group of engineers, including myself, is in charge of getting this next project rolled out, and so I've spent the past 2 days doing training and familiarizing myself with new tools. And today, I actually made something! It looks super cool too. It's a schematic for a new board that we came up with. And it has my name on it! I don't think I can show you though, there's probably all kinds of rules on proprietary information and stuff like that. I just thought I'd mention it since I was pretty excited about it!

Warm Weather - My Kryptonite

It probably seems very wrong to criticize the fabulous temperate weather we enjoy here in the Sunshine State. I mean, how many other states are seeing 85 degree weather this early in the Spring? Better yet, how many other states get shorts and T-shirt days in the middle of December, like we got this year? Yes, warm weather is a blessing, especially when you take into consideration the 40 below temperatures people in states less fortunate have to endure on an annual basis.

Warm weather is great. It saves me a lot of money on sweaters and coats and the like. And I love sunshine. I really do. Not many things cheer me up the way blue sunny skies do. Speaking of blue sunny skies, I have an interesting side story. Enter flashback mode...

... The year is 2002. Kir-wei, Eric, Colin, Jelani, Pimchand, Tom, and myself are in Xian, China, "studying" abroad. In reality, there wasn't that much studying going on. We actually took nearly a month off to travel around China on that trip. However, this day, we were actually at school. A typical school day for Kir-wei, Eric, Colin, and myself (the "advanced" class) included two hours of either Listening or Conversation in the early afternoon with a fifteen minute break in the middle, then half hour break, and then either History or Reading in the late afternoon. Tom, Jelani, and Pimchand (the "intermediate" class) had the opposite schedule, with more fundamental material. During the break, the two classes would hang out together in the break room, which had a bunch of couches and a number of nice big windows where we could look outside. I often looked outside to enjoy the view, and during school, the outside world always looked so nice, sunny, and blue. I often commented on how blue the sky looked, therefore implying what a nice day it must be.

One day, after classes, we headed out of the building, and I looked back towards the windows and made a shocking discovery - the big windows in our break room, unlike the small windows in the classroom, were tinted blue! This came as a huge surprise. However, in retrospect, it should not have been so surprising. Anyone who has been to Xian, one of the four "ovens" of China, knows that there is enough dust in the air on most days to make both brand new black or white leather shoes the same brown by the end of the day. Not that it's not beautiful - Xian is a very beautiful city and I love it - just usually kind of dusty. Still, it was a huge disappointment when I found out that I was deceived this whole time by tinted windows...

Back to 2006, I really do like sunny blue skies, and I really do appreciate warm weather. However, in the past few years, ever since I began training outside, I noticed that in the cool winter months, my training sessions last longer and are far more effective than in the summer. I don't even think it's about the sweat. I can handle sweat, which is a good thing because I have a lot of it. Heat is my kryptonite. I really think it just eats away at my inner energy. These past few days, my body has felt weak. I was training yesterday, and I literally could not complete a set at full strength, nearly falling down several times. Warm weather is really horrible conditions for training. I don't know how those football players do it.

Living in China is like an RPG | Archive | Sinosplice: Life in China

Living in China is like an RPG Archive Sinosplice: Life in China

An amusing piece I found while looking for reviews of Chinese RPGs. Read the comments too, they're pretty entertaining.

Sorry for the lack of a post... I'm actually kind of working hard today and I am having trouble putting together my inspirations in a condensed enough form to post in a short amount of time.

Bow Down Before the SheiKra!

Yet another good weekend! Ed and Shawn came over on Friday night, and we played a little Goldeneye, Mario Kart 64, Starfox 64, and Mario Party, all courtesy of Project 64, my new N64 emulator. Project 64 is pretty similar to 1964, but it supports Goldeneye, Starfox, and Madden 2002 better. 1964 appears to support Mario Kart better, except for the lack of luster in the trophies that you get for the GP races. Still, I think will stick with Project 64 as my emulator of choice. You can simply rename the save files to make them work for the other emulator anyway, so they're pretty interchangeable.

The next day, Ed, Cherry and I went to Busch Gardens, this time, without grandparents to slow us down! First, we took a ride on the Montu, which was one of the first inverted roller coasters. It's a quality coaster, but it was nothing compared to what we would go on later.

We walked around and discovered that there were a lot of animals that we never saw there on the previous trip. They have a new section that takes you right up close to the lions, which was something that I'd never seen before at Busch Gardens, or anywhere else really.

The next ride we got on was also very animal oriented - the Rhino Rally. It's a jeep safari ride, similar to the one in Animal Kingdom. We only had to wait like 15 minutes for it, compared to the over 90 minute wait we would have had to wait when we went to Busch Gardens in the winter. This short wait might have been related to the shortened ride, however. Apparently, half of the ride (the water portion) was shut down, so it was all on land. Still it was a pretty nice ride. Sometimes, a mechanical ride just doesn't beat good ol' gasoline engines. We saw a number of animals quite closely, and in particular we saw this rhino, who apparently thought Ed was very sexy. Open up the photo to see what I'm talking about, but don't say I didn't warn you!

Fortunately, besides that horrible sighting, there were quite a few sexy figures walking around in bikinis at Busch Gardens that day. Probably they were just preparing for wet rides like the Congo River Rapids, or maybe they were just trying to get guys like me in trouble with their wives/girlfriends. We got on the Congo River Rapids ride without our bikinis, and Ed and I got soaked, but Cherry managed to get off the ride completely dry!

Towards the end of the day, we had ridden the little Cheetah Chase roller coaster, the Bumper Cars, and the Flume Ride in addition to the rides mentioned above, and we were finally ready to get on the scariest coaster I have ever been on. Well, Ed and I, anyway. Cherry sat out on this one, just as she sat out on the Montu. I think she wouldn't have been really scared on the Montu, but hell, I was scared on the SheiKra. I was actually scared before I even got on it in earnest. The pulley thing that pulls the three row, 10 seats-per-row coaster car to the top of the park is at a much steeper angle than any other roller coaster I've ridden. It makes you really, really nervouse. The coaster then hangs you right before the first 90-degree drop, where the track below you seems to actually disappear, making it seem like more than 90-degrees. Then it drops you. Really, really fast. So fast, that, in the slow-motion DVD that you can buy at the end of the ride, it seems like your hair is flapping in the wind at normal speed while your body and everything else is moving in bullet-time. I think I saw splattered bugs on the front of our car (we were sitting in the first row.) So yeah. Really scary.

Finally, to get back to the entrance of the park, we decided to take the Skyway. We took two photos and tried to get the SheiKra in the background, but I blinked the first time, and Cherry blinked the second time. Only Ed didn't blink, so that's the pic I am posting here. You can see all of the other pics I took of this trip by clicking the link in the title, or you can just go to my photo gallery link in the Links section in the sidebar.

Bricklayer's Accident Report

Yesterday was another big day for Grant's Pad, as we logged in a near record 28 visits and 53 page views. This time, however, most of the visits were legitimately unique! So, yesterday was probably the record for distinct visits to Grant's Pad. Keep those visits coming! Make sure you take advantage of the music player (remember to get RealPlayer if you don't have it!)

Another amusing forwarded message from the office...

BRICKLAYER'S ACCIDENT REPORT

Possibly the funniest story in a while. This is a bricklayer's accident report, which was printed in the newsletter of the Australian equivalent of the Workers' Compensation board. This is a true story. Had this guy died, he'd have received a Darwin Award for sure....

Dear Sir:

I am writing in response to your request for additional information in Block 3 of the accident report form. I put "poor planning" as the cause of my accident. You asked for a fuller explanation and I trust the following details will be sufficient.

I am a bricklayer by trade. On the day of the accident, I was working alone on the roof of a new six-story building. When I completed my work, I found that I had some bricks left over which, when weighed later were found to be slightly in excess of 500 lbs.

Rather than carry the bricks down by hand, I decided to lower them in a barrel by using a pulley, which was attached to the side of the building on the sixth floor.

Securing the rope at ground level, I went up to the roof, swung the barrel out and loaded the bricks into it. Then I went down and untied the rope, holding it tightly to ensure a slow descent of the bricks.

You will note in Block 11 of the accident report form that I weigh 175 lbs.

Due to my surprise at being jerked off the ground so suddenly, I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope. Needless to say, I proceeded at a rapid rate up the side of the building.

In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel, which was now proceeding downward at an equal, impressive speed. This explained the fractured skull, minor abrasions and the broken collar bone, as listed in section 3 of the accident report form.

Slowed only slightly, I continued my rapid ascent, not stopping until the fingers of my right hand were two knuckles deep into the pulley. Fortunately by this time I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold tightly to the rope, in spite of beginning to experience a great
deal of pain.

At approximately the same time, however, the barrel of bricks hit the ground and the bottom fell out of the barrel. Now devoid of the weight of the bricks, that barrel weighed approximately 50 lbs. I refer you again to my weight.

As you can imagine, I began a rapid descent, down the side of the building. In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel coming up. This accounts for the two fractured ankles, broken tooth and several lacerations of my legs and lower body.

Here my luck began to change slightly. The encounter with the barrel seemed to slow me enough to lessen my injuries when I fell into the pile of bricks and fortunately only three vertebrae were cracked.

I am sorry to report, however, as I lay there on the pile of bricks, in pain, unable to move, I again lost my composure and presence of mind and let go of the rope and I lay there watching the empty barrel begin its journey back down onto me. This explains the two broken legs.

I hope this answers your inquiry.

The Blonde Driver and the Blonde Cop

Forwarded from a co-worker ^_____^...

FINALLY, THE BLONDE JOKE TO END ALL BLONDE JOKES!

A blonde woman was speeding down the road in her little red sports car and was pulled over by a woman police officer who was also a blonde.

The blonde cop asked to see the blonde driver's license. She dug through her purse and was getting progressively more agitated. "What does it look like? She finally asked.

The policewoman replied "It's square and it has your picture on it."

The driver finally found a square mirror in her purse, looked at it and handed it to the policewoman. "Here it is," she said.

The blonde officer looked at the mirror, then handed it back saying, "Okay, you can go. I didn't realize you were a cop."

I Met the COO Today!

I was part of a so-called "skip-level" meeting today at work. Good thing too, because my investigation in the problem I am currently working on was going nowhere fast (hopefully that will change before the end of the week, or I'm gonna have some serious explaining to do). A skip-level meeting is basically one in which low level employees, like myself, can directly interact with a higher level of management, effectively "skipping" your direct supervisor and/or directors. In this case, we skipped a heck of a lot more than that. Most of the people who attended the meeting (there were like ten of us) were first- or second-year engineers, many of us fresh out of school, though it is very likely that I was the youngest of the bunch. Basically that meant most of us were only T1 or T2 (the first two levels of engineers), who typically report to a project manager, who reports to the engineering manager, who reports to a director of operations, who reports to a site director, and so on and so forth. We got to go even higher than that!

Actually, he came to us. The guy's name is Bob Chiusano.. He's a little Italian guy who has worked at the company since 1978, first as an industrial engineer working for 13K or so a year, clawed his way up the corporate ladder, and is now the Executive Vice President of Commercial Systems and the company's Chief Operations Officer. Basically he is at the top of the food chain. Anyway, he had a ton of energy and wanted to hear about things we had to say, though I'm not sure anything we say will have a particularly profound effect. Even so, sometimes hearing speakers give these motivational talks really does make me want to work harder and actually make a difference. I know it sounds cheesy, but really, give it a shot! Meet with your COO, and if he's anywhere as charged up and animated as Bob was, there's a good chance you will feel like coming in tomorrow and working your butt off. At least for a few hours.

Before leaving, he said he wasn't finished talking with us yet and wanted to come and talk with the same group of people in a few weeks. I think I'm going to try and put together some things to say so this time I won't have to be so quiet.

FreeThought by a FreeThinker: Happy Pi Day!

FreeThought by a FreeThinker: Happy Pi Day!: "If you want to memorize more digits of pi, try this handy mnemonic: How I need a drink, alcoholic in nature, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics. The first word has 3 letters, the second word has 1, the third has 4, the fourth has 1, the fifth has 5, and so on. Get it? This is a fun way to liven up the conversation at engineers' cocktail parties."

So we have... 3.14159265358979... That's more than my TI-89 will put out!

That is pretty cool. Thanks FreeThinker!

Gonna Party Like It's My Birthday

Because it is my birthday! Pi Day, March 14, 3/14. Albert Einstein has the same birthday as me... you know what that means =D. Pi Day seems to be a pretty common birthday though, especially here at work. The Senior Technician for the Transponder Program here, Bob, also celebrates his birthday on Pi Day. And, the senior technician for the other program that I work on, Burt, has a daughter who's birthday is on Pi Day as well!

This year happens to be my year too! Year of the Dog baby. Only comes once every twelve years. Last time it was my birthday on my year was Pi Day twelve years ago...

Thanks to everyone who bid me happy birthday! To the rest of you, Dishonor! Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow, dishonor on your whole family! Just kidding.

So, it seems like SquareSound didn't work out for most people, so we're gonna party with MandarinRadio and my newly updated music list for now until I find another station that works well on Grant's Pad. For those of you who don't know what's going on, basically when you tried to listen to SquareSound from Grant's Pad, Live365 would ask you to register, which is easy, but more trouble than most people would care to get into. For those of you who really wanted to listen to SquareSound, you can follow the link here. I highly recommend it for any Square game fans out there!

Victory at Last! Two More To Go...

Last night I decided to try and play the Original Super Mario Brothers again. Sort of. I actually played the Super Mario All Stars version (the re-releases made for Super Nintendo) on my ZSNES emulator. It took me about an hour or so, and I had to break down and use the Save State feature a bit, but I finally did it! I beat Super Mario Brothers! It's amazing! It would have taken me like 50 lives to do it without the Save State, but what matters is, I finally won! Woohoo! Now if I could just beat Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3...

Also, earlier today, I was informed that the music player wasn't working right, so I changed the coding around a bit, and hopefully it works now. Let me know if it doesn't!

Milestones! And Check Out the New Radio Station!

Running off at the keyboard again...

A number of milestones will be reported in today's post.

First, a great representation of successful Chinese Martial Arts occurred on Friday Night in California, as Sanshou icon Cung Le defeated Mike Altman in his MMA (Mixed Martial Arts, e.g. Ultimate Fighting) debut in the first round by knockout! Unfortunately, this event wasn't on TV, or pay-per-view, or anything, but the news said he did it mostly with spinning kicks and finished him with a right hand. More details in this article.

Also on Friday, Grant's Pad welcomed its 1000th visitor! A first time visitor whose IP address hails from Sugarland, Texas, visited Grant's Pad at 4:22 PM on Friday, March 10th was the lucky recipient of today's recognition. Keep those visits coming! To celebrate, I've updated the music player on Grant's Pad to play music from Square-Enix games (e.g. Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, etc.), courtesy of SquareSound, keeping in spirit with my late video game craze. These games all have great instrumental soundtracks, so press Play to listen now! Remember to make sure that you have Realplayer installed for the player to work.

Next up, today, March 12th, marks the second Consecutive SEC Championship for the Florida Gators, as the Gators defeated the USC Gamecocks (U-S-C... U Suck C---! Get it?) in what could have been the Rose Bowl all over again, as the final score was a scrawny 49-47. Still, it's a great accomplishment, beating one of the teams that swept them in the regular season for the Conference title!

Last, but not least, Saturday, March 11, was me and Cherry's first Official Anniversary! Hooray for us!

Photo Album Link

Quick post today!

I've added a link under the "Links" section of the sidebar to the only place on the web you can get a collection of photos of me and/or taken by me, or simply photos that I've endorsed with my Seal of Quality. It's my photo album, courtesy of Facebook.com. You can get to the photo albums here as well, if you don't feel like scrolling down to the "Links" section.

In other news, it appears that my visit peak might be slowing down, as we have seen a dip in visitation today here at Grant's Pad... hopefully it's only temporary. I'll be working on new cool things to read/listen/look at soon, so get your visit on!

Record Breaking Day!

According to Sitemeter.com (there is a link to my statistics at the bottom of the blog), yesterday, Tuesday, March 7, 2006 experienced a record-high 29 visits and 66 page views, thanks largely in part to my good friend IP# 71.192.77.# (see the post about this mystery number here), who logged 41 page views on 8 visits to Grant's Pad...

Despite the stat padding from that IP address (which I still don't know who owns), it was really a remarkable day for Grant's Pad. The 29 visits blows away the average daily visit of 10/day, and was seven more than the previous record of 22 visits on a single day. So, even without Mr. 71.192.77.#, I would have still had 21 visits (substantially less page views, though). The 21 visits would still be a record though, if all of 71.192.77.#'s visits were removed from all statistics, so there was still a legitimate large influx of traffic to Grant's Pad yesterday.

This week has seen a strong increase in day to day traffic, completely in contrast with the monthly low visit-per-day ratio of 4 that Grant's Pad saw over this past weekend. Curiously, this bull market for Grant's Pad occurred shortly after Grant's Pad's Music Player was added. Coincidence?

Baby Kung Fu

This little girl kicks serious butt. Literally.



Great power, great stances, great flexibility, great techniques. I wish I were that good!

Thiago's Famous Home Work Out

When I was a freshman in college, I was pretty small. I stood 5'6" (still do, actually...) and weighed less than 130 pounds. I know, I know, it's hard to believe since most of you have only seen the magnificently sculpted body that I have now (see my profile =D)... Let's see, was the restroom this way or that way? ::flexes biceps as he points in opposite directions::

Seriously though, I attribute my interest in getting in shape and gaining the ridiculous strength I have today (over 225 pounds on flat and incline bench, over 200 pounds on military shoulder press, etc. etc.) to my roommate from that freshman year, Thiago. Thiago was a very, very laid back dude from Miami. He was really good at soccer, proudly emphasizing his Brazilian heritage, and he was also a little guy - about 5'8", 135 pounds. But he could do 275 pounds on the flat bench! The most I have ever gotten was about 265, and that was when I weighed about 155 pounds about a year ago. I was shocked and awed by this sheer demonstration of power, so I started to work out with him at home, and occasionally in the gym too. A few short years later, and I was pumping over 200 pounds myself (from the 115 that I could barely get in 1999).

Here is a workout that I developed a few years ago based on my work-out-at-home experiences with Thiago that you can try (or should try).

It should take about 45 minutes to 1 hour if you're quick, but I usually do this while watching TV so I take a lot longer hehe.

3 parts: Pushups, Dips, and Crunches

This workout is divided into three separate parts, so you get a great full-body workout!

First, Chair Pushups.

I do three kinds of pushups (actually I do variations of each type, so there are actually a lot more than this, but three basic kinds).

A) Set up three chairs, two in front, facing each other, and one in back, facing the chairs in front. The two in front should be about shoulder width, and set up the one in back so you have solid footing without wobbling. Prop your body up on the three chairs, hands on the front two and feet on the back one. Now, you do 3 sets of pushups, at a comfortable, steady pace, focusing on getting a full extension and getting an equal number of reps in each set. Start with 5-6 repetitions, and as that gets easy, gradually increase your repetition load to 15, 20, 30 reps. In between sets, rest 2-3 minutes, or until you are ready.

B) Now, remove the front two chairs, but still prop your legs up on the back chair. Your body is now declined, putting more weight on the upper part of your chest. Again, do three sets of pushups, at a reasonable repetition load.

C) Now, bring the two front chairs back, and remove the back chair. Now, more pressure is on the lower part of your chest. Do another 3 sets of pushups, at a reasonable repetition load.

Remember, start with a repetition load for which you can finish all 9 sets. Gradually increase your load as you get stronger. If you can do 30 repetitions for all 9 sets, that is really good. You can do variations of these types by bringing the front chairs closer together or farther apart to work your arms more, or work your chest more.

Next, move on to the Dips.

Dips are a great exercise for developing the lower part of your chest and your triceps. I only have one type. Place two chairs, facing each other, far apart enough so you can't sit in one and put your feet upon the other. Prop your feet up on one chair, and support your body with your hands on the other chair, so that your body is in an L-shape. Lower your body until your upper arms are parallel to the ground (or until they are uncomfortable), and push yourself back up. Again, when you first start to work out, do 5-6 reps. Week by week, increase your repetition load until you reach about 30 reps.

Lastly, the crunches.

I do 3 supersets, which consist each of 6 subsets.

A) Feet firmly on the ground, hands behind your head, elbows flat. Bring your upper body up to the natural stop, maybe a little further, but you don't need to do a full situp. Do about 7-8 repetitions.

B) Bring your feet midway up, such that your lower legs (the calf part) are parallel to the ground. Do another 7-8 crunches this way.

C) Legs straight up, perpendicular to the ground. Do another subset of 7-8 reps.

D) Back to the midway point, another subset.

E) Lay both legs down on your right side, and work the side muscles (obliques, I think they're called), another 7-8 reps.

F) Lay both legs down to the left side, and finish with the last subset.

Gradually increase the load. At first it will seem pretty easy, but when you repeat a lot it gets tiring very fast. Aim to get 15 repetitions per subset.

And that's it! If you work with this 3 days a week, you will notice an increase in strength in just a few months, and also your physique will improve. It will hurt a lot at first, but you get over it in just 2 or 3 weeks. I use this workout when I can't get to a gym, and you can use it too whether you're an experienced weight trainer or just beginning to work out to get in shape! So, good luck with it, have fun, work hard, and, as Thiago would say, "Take it easy, bro!"


Let me know if you have any questions about this workout or anything else!