Birthday Challenge (Overview)

This is the follow-up my Birthday Challenge (2010).

For whatever reason I lost my momentum and motivation to continue and basically did nothing the last 3 days. Which is a little bit disappointing, because I looked forward to doing alot leading up to those 3 day (for the most part) free days. I think I felt a little overwhelmed with other people's expectations as well as my own. I wanted to be in great spirits and with great energy.. so I relaxed and rested.. and then on the last day I was like "eh.. screw it". My final score ended up being 59.80% (or 56.06% if you counted the 2 bonus tasks I added)

For my Word test I got a 59% on spelling, 59% on word type (noun, verb, etc.), and 40% on defination (25% of the answers I had no idea on, 53% correct, 22% I answered wrong on). Not that great of a success...

Completetion of Tasks (including 2 bonus tasks):

• 9 tasks I completed.. completely
• 8 tasks I completed over 50%
• 9 tasks I completed under 50%, but made some trackable progress on
• 6 tasks I made no noticeable progress on (attempted or not)

So.. what did I not make any trackable progress on?

• Identify 30 local businesses. I don't think I really cared about this one to much. It seemed like something I could easily do in my free time.. maybe I just forgot about it. This was also something I thought about doing while doing the "Bicycle 30 miles within 1 day" task.
• Write 30,000 characters of text for my book. This something I wanted to do, but also was something I wanted to do after completing the "Read 30 chapters" tasks.. which I didn't finish until Day 27. This is something I'll definately do in the future, so I'm okay that this on is here
• Develop and Deploy 3 games. This was probably to ambitious for me, alongside with the other tasks. I would of liked to see myself complete 1 of them, but I didn't. This is another thing I should focus on doing in the future.
• Do a combination of meeting 30 girls and/or going on 30 dates. I'll just say that although I made alot of attempts (every week minimum), not much progress was made. This kind of killed my moral too.
• Ask 30 girls on a date. Never attempted this one by itself as I attended to. I sort of forgot about it.. and focused more on the previous mentioned task.
• Read 30 words worth of text in front of 30 people. Orginally, I had no idea how to go about doing this. On my last work week I had the idea of writing a nomination to read in front of my co-workers (~20 people) for an.. at least attempt, which I never got around to. Then I had the idea that I could read something off at my niece's Birthday party.. which transformed into singing a 30 word song at said birthday party, but I ran out of time on that as well.

What unexpected challenges occured?

• Limited free time on a work night. I sort of expected this, but I wanted to get more done on these nights then I was able to. I also didn't up working over 40 hours every week, which I didn't want to do during this personal challenge. For example.. I really wanted to finish the "Reading 30 chapters" challenge within the first week or two.
• Not staying focused for the full 30 days. By day 15 I was feeling a little tired of placing all of my free time in the tasks. I think after Day 15 I would allow myself to occasionally watch a show on a worknight or a movie on the weekend. On Day 22 I completed nothing at home. And then the last 3 days.
• Lack of BC Synergy. Hearing that my brother might do a Birthday Challenge of his own, when I was explaining it a month before I started I was expecting to get some positive energy from him he started. Whenever we were together, I would go over BC with him and help him gather his thoughts on it. I redesigned my spreadsheet and placed his list on the spreadsheet. I also constantly tried to push him to get his own preperation work finished. On Day 20 I wanted to get re-inspired by the start of his challenge and by family at that family gathering that occured. I was also expecting to work with him on Day 28 or 29 (when we were both off) to clean the house or something. I didn't really occur though
• Volunteer Rejection. My work does a great job at promoting outside volunteer oppertunities. After doing Habitat for Humantiy that 1st Saturday and not having things planned the next Saturday I was suprised to see the slot of the house I was working with was closed with less volunteers then when I worked it. I also looked for other oppertunities, but couldn't find anything that worked with my schedule.
• Lack of motivation on unplanned off days. If I had something planned on an off day then that planned activity definately got done. On unplanned days, not so much got done.

What could I have done to better prepare?

• Planning a day off in the middle might have been good. Having that to look forward to would have been nice, but also could've slowed any momentum I might have had.
• Scheduling more stuff ahead of time, would have been good. Especially if it was a commitment with another person or group.
• Doing more one time things would have been good. They gave me a little boost and gave me something to talk about on the blog. I only had 2 that I didn't complete.. "Speak 30 words in front of 30 people" and "30 miles within 1 day". The second one I was looking forward to do as well.
• If I was able to develop something to automatically upload things complete from the spreadsheet to the blog, that would of been nice. Occasionally I would leave forgot to add stuff on to the blog entry. It didn't happen much and was okay, because it was still on spreadsheet.
• Having a full list of new words (ahead of time) that I was interested in would have been good.
• Having a list of guitar exercises would have been good or (even better) a scheduled routine or guitar exercises.
• Better flexability with some of the stuff. As I was going I ended up changing the defination of "Going to sleep by 7am for 30 days" to not doing anything else by 7am (allowing me to finish what I was currently working on).. unless it was 7:30am in which case I needed to turn off the computer immediantly.
• Knowing exactly where I could get cheap new foods would have been good. Like a sampler sort of thing would have been great.
• Having 6 Daily type goals seemed to work okay

Misc. lessons learned (or re-learned)..

• Working out, allways would put me in a "Get stuff done" mood.
• The spreadsheet worked out really well for tracking stuff
• It's easier to do stuff if either.. A. No one is home OR B. The people at home are as focused as you are (but are not interferring with what you want to do).
• Planning stuff helps to insure stuff gets done.
• Posting videos is do-able, talking in front of them is still very awkward.
• Finding a pic for a blog entry everyday can be somewhat troubling at times
• I can support myself as far as traveling larger distances.
• I should take care of my motorcycle more.
• I might be more productive if I found my own place to live.
• In social situations, I probably think to much
• Though.. I have a reasonablly strong will.. it could be better.
• The distance from entrance to entrance and back (in my housing area) is 2.16 kilometers
• I shouldn't rely on other people completely
• Having it my mind that other people are reading my entries acts as a double edged sword.. helping me to put entries.. some with good quality and giving me more motivation, BUT ALSO also putting extra pressure towards what they might want to see and making me question what I should(n't) post
• Pickled pigs feet do not taste good

I'll be taking a little off time and then figure out what I want to do next.

BC - Day 27 of 30

Sunday morning, I wokeup feeling energized. I had a small breakfast and quickly got my gear on for the 5k I was scheduled to run in. It was a few minutes before my brother and I were scheduled to leave the house that I noticed he still wasn't awake. I knocked on his door and yelled at his name, but.. nothing.

I didn't have much of a clue how to get there. Even with a google map I wasn't sure exactly where the race was going to start at. I had a guess and jotted down some street names in case I got lost.

It was about 15 minutes later then scheduled, that I ended up leaving the house on my motorcycle. I also needed to stop off and get gas ...maybe an extra 10 minutes?

I arrived.. and my intial guess was way off. I did manage to find the entrance into the mountainous region (eh.. mor like hillish). I arrived at the guard station just in time to see all of my competation running by. This crushed any hope I had that I could start on time and made me very doubtful if I could start at all. Maybe I could still get a bannana or something though.. so I continued on to park.

I don't really like "squid"'ing it (running shoes, t-shirt, light workout pants, helment, and gloves), but whatever. I locked my helment to my bike and shoved my gloves under my bike seat

Luck was on my side. One of the racing corrdinators mentioned that the race was chip timed.. so I was able to start. Despite my beaten down will that I had when I first wokeup, I was determined and quickly started my run. This was a bit of a rash decision on my part as I neglected to do any stretching before hand.

For the first mile I wasn't to in to it and had the horrible thought that maybe I should just quit. Ha ha.. I killed thought quickly though. The next mile was mainly up hill. At this point people were starting to come back (it was an "out and back" type of course) return and I was also passing people. I started about 10 minutes lates so the people I passed were mainly walkers at this point. I reached the turn point and knowing what I had left gave me a little boost. With my long stride I was able to make alot of passes on the downhill section. I threw some encouragement to 2 girls that I passed, I like to feel like this gives me a little karma boost for any race I run. Getting close to the end I hear a guy talking to hsi kid "All right this is the last bit. Let's go. You'll thank me later." . I toke that bit of advice I pushed my speed up a notch. I was able to see the finish line and pumped up closer to my max speed (it was a turn to cross the finish line.. no all out burst :( ) . Finished.

The printout said I got third in my age group, but during the medal ceramony I got a 2nd place medal. I'll gladly accept it :D . I assumed the printout was off, because you'll see them constantly change them during a race.

After eating my share of cookies and with medal in hand I return to my bike. In all the rushing I managed to leave my motorcycle key sitting on my seat. Ha ha.. good thing nothing happened to it.

Returning home I finished up the design for my game and read the last 5 chapters of Fight Club which made me sleepy. After waking up from a 3 hour nap, my brother and I were off to our sister's house. This was the time to finish the task "Jump kid(s) 30 times" (or throw in the air in case of about half of them).


After the kids went down my sister, brother, and I proceed to play my game. It consisted of 100 tiles repersenting 20 tiles for 20 different ingredients, 15 Recipe cards, and 3 player placemats. I two different versions in mind, the first one didn't really work as it required other player to unintentionally help you for you to win. The second idea worked out well overall IMO.

I liked the idea of a quick sort of game.. as my other game ideas become.. increasingly larger and more complicated over time. I also wanted to test out interaction between players by having 'shared spots' were each player could benifit from or a player might try to prevent a player from benifiting from. This didn't work for version 'A', but worked to a degree in version 'B'.
It didn't work well in the fact that players would grab at the same location at the same time. It did however let the players be constantly involved in the gameplay, to the point where players weren't grabbing from the main draw pile.. but instead cycling through their discard piles(each two discard pile and could also take from the player's adjacent discard piles) and then searching for recipies that had ingredients available.

Afterwards I help my sister prepare cupcakes for her to take to her daughter's school, for her birthday.

Came home, wrote this and will workout before going to sleep. Today was good, I raised my modified percentage back over 60%.

Competative in a 5k earning a 3rd place medal or better... Completed.

Ran 3.1 miles

2 Workouts complete (5 Miles + Stretching) and (Bicep, Shoulder, Tricep)

3,810lbs manipulated (No "bonus round" tonight)

Word #22 Chignon, "A roll or knot of hair worn at the back of the head or especially at the nape of the neck."

5 Chapters read, Fight Club finished.

Jump Kids 30 times

1 Meal using 4 different ingredients

Design and Prototype a Game

1 new taste (Black Raspberry icecream)

Practice Guitar once

Super awesome blog entry w/ mutliply pics

Bed before 7am

Percent w/ time adjustment 63.58% Complete
Avergae 53.58% Complete

BC - Day 26 of 30

The present I got for my Niece's birthday party today.

Quick recap of today and yesterday..

• Blog entry w/ pic
• Guitar 2 times
• 2 Workouts
• Bed before 7am both days
• Donate 1 hour of time helping someone else

Tomorrow is 5k and "Design and Prototype game (that lasts 30 minutes)". I have not finished designing the game though. I'm also not sure if I'll be able to medal (less training then I should of done).

Percent w/ time adjustment 58.49% Complete
Avergae 41.82% Complete

BC - Day 24 of 30

Probably the biggest influence a cartoon has had on my life (aside from the anti-drug PSAs),was Ducktales episode... "Once upon a dime". One of the side lessons was "work smarter not harder". When I ever I write a program to automate some tedious task that line comes to mind. Sometimes I have to remind myself to look for a better way.. as opposed to keep doing whatever it is I'm doing. Scrooge McDuck also taught me in school to put my money in the bank (which probably isn't the best investment strategy, but it sounded good to me as a seven year old).

The audit is coming up for my department. Apperantley one of the items they were going to request was something we don't use and hence.. never bothered saving the daily report or reviewing it. I browsed through large number of related database generated report, until I found appeared to have the same information. Wrote a program to parse the neccisary data from the Extra application into an Excel spreadsheet and save one for each month. Then I wrote another program to determine when the system closed the entries on the excel spreadsheet via our research system and format the information. Tonight, I'll set a second computer up to run program while I handle my 'real' daily job duties on my work computer. From there I can see what my manager says. Maybe.. print the files out so the auditor's can't see they were generated two weeks ago :D

This stuff would take someone a week do do manually. Good thing I'm such a badass coder and good thing I watched Ducktales as a kid.

• 270 lbs manipulated, only 2 routines with light weights / heavy reps
• Workout complete (Core Synergistics, I cut it down to 40 mins)
• Guitar x2
• Blog w/ pic
• Improvement x3
• Innovation x2

Percent w/ time adjustment 60.47% Complete
Avergae 40.47% Complete

I may not be able to get much done the next 2 days and that 4th day.

BC - Day 23 of 30

So yesterday was a fail. It's fine though.

I would hope to get alot done on my coming days off (I'm off next week), but I'm not sure... About a week left and tons left to do.

• Ran 2.2 miles (need a little over 10 miles still)
• Workout complete (Ab Ripper + Fartlek Run)
• Guitar practiced
• Blog post w/ pic
• Further improvements on "UCF Tool"

Percent w/ time adjustment 62.94% Complete
Avergae 39.61% Complete

BC - Day 21 of 30

Ether was mentioned in Fight Club as an anesthetic. As a chemical..

I only knew the word as a drink the restores MP.

• Ether, "1. element formerly belived to be the upper region of space. 2. a light volatile flammable liquid used chiefly as a solvent and especially formery as an anesthetic"
• Guitar practiced
• 4,190 lbs manipulated
• 4 chapters read
• Workout complete (Shoulder, Bicep, Tricep)
• Blog w/ pic
• Bed by 7

Percent w/ time adjustment 68.75% Complete
Avergae 38.75% Complete

BC - Day 20 of 30

The joy of leftovers...

I want to get back on track with the words, so I'm putting 5 on the list today. When ever I add new words to the spreadsheet.. I can look at the privious entries words, but then I have to hide previous entries that same day. I haven't been doing that great with really trying to memorize the spelling, use of the word, and defination. I'll be interested to see how I do.. being that I haven't really been studying these new words.

• 3 Math Lessons complete, which completes the math lesson task.
• Read 3 Chapters
• Guitar
• Workout complete (Ab Ripper X + Long Run)
• Ran 7k (4.35 miles)
• Cooked 5 meals (0 new ingredients)
• 1 Blog post w/ pic
• Word #16 Echt, "authentic, typical"
• Word #17 Weald, "woodland"
• Word #18 Piker, "A stingy person, cautious gambler, or one who does things in a small way"
• Word #19 Paivd, "Timid, fearful"
• Word #20 Tremulous, "Trembling. Timib, nervous"
• 4 Sprites Drawen (3 still objects, 1 background)

Percent w/ time adjustment 70.71% Complete
Avergae 37.38% Complete

BC - Day 19 of 30

My brother and I opted out of the Breast Cancer 5k (My brother had a bad knee and couldn't run, we didn't register ahead of time, and we had family get-together at 1am). This left me with some extra time. I toke on cleaning the stove top. 3 hours of scrubbing.. and it's still not complete(front section and metal tray things need to be scrubbed more). The funny thing about this picture is that top part was the worst part to clean, but you can't even notice the diffrence in this picture.

• 1 Improvment
• Workout complete
• Blog post w/pic
• Bed before 7
• Guitar practiced

BC - Day 18 of 30

Typical post-workout dinner: Water, Egg, Protein Drink (Bannana, Cottage Cheese, and vitamins not pictured). It varies though.. protein drink is only for Strength training. Bannana is more improtant for carido workouts.

My last free Saturday... and nothing major planned. I do have a run (non-competative) planned with my brother that early Sunday morning though.. so.. thats something.

• Word #15 Rectitude, "rightness of principle or conduct. Morale Virtue"
• Guitar in morning and evening (1 day behind where I should be)
• 3 Math lessons
• Workout Complete
• 4,050lbs manipulated
• Blog entry w/pic
• Bed by 7am
• 1 Chapeter read

Percent w/ time adjustment 73.64% Complete
Avergae 33.64% Complete

BC - Day 17 of 30

It's been usefull going over the more basic math lessons. I'm up to high school math now. I don't think I ever learned long division.. I think I just failed it or and made up for that fact by doing good with the other math stuff. Maybe.. they just let us use a calculator.. and that's how I managed to skip past it.

As a student, school work was mainly just a distraction. Personally I wasn't interested in it and really didn't get any of sort of feedback or encouragement to improve my grades. As a result.. I allways forgot to do my homework, rarely studied, and probably ended up taking an educational guess on roughly half of the tests at school. I graduated High School with somewhere around B- . I definately had the potential to do much better if I had some desire.

Realistically, all students should pass every test with 100%. If thats not the case, then something is wrong. School allways seemed more about teaching social situations then education. I wasn't to interested in things like.. learning how to put up a front and how to not be called on in the classroom. Throughout most of my school life my interest was in game development. Luckily, programming unintentionally forced me to be a slightly better student.

Blah.. blah.. blah.. Running out of time..

• Worout complete
• Guitar (morning.. I keep running out of time to do it before bed as well)
• 1 Improvement, further support on work program
• 2 Math videos
• Bed 7ish

Percent w/ time adjustment 75.51% Complete
Avergae 32.18% Complete

BC - Day 16 of 30

I tried to do first person perspective, but it didn't turn out to good. The lighting was really bad.. and you couldn't really tell if I was doing a pullup correctly or not. Whenever I was down in a pushup or up on a pullup... nothing but black could be seen. I accomplished the 30 pullups within 30 minute objective (easily), but I'll do it again with some better footage. I might try this first person perspective thing again some other time.

• 3 Math lessons and time spent revising the progress on the http://www.blogger.com/www.khanacademy.org website
• Workout complete
• A few improvements on the main prog and got the printer setup for my co-worker. My manager gave her approval and offered to even order another printer to support my program.
• Lifted 1,870 weights
• Do 30 pullups within 30 min task complete
• Completely missed the bed time goal today, was working on my dating profile. Which is all sorts of awkwards. Also trying to edit this first person perspective workout video.. which I'll probably just trash.

Percent w/ time adjustment 78.11% Complete
Avergae 31.45% Complete

BC - Day 15 of 30

Half way point. Taking a personal day. Need to get motivaed again.

• 4 Math lessons
• Guitar (in morning)
• Sleep at 7am-ish
• Blog w/ random pic

BC - Day 14 of 30

Today I (occasionally) tried to land on the ball of my feet instead of the middle area or heel of my foot. It felt kind strange. It sort of felt like I was exerting force against my momentum, even though I wasn't loosing speed.

Physcially it's better to take shorter strides and land on the all of your foot. It feels very un-natural, but is something I should continue working on.

• Rotund, "Round in figure OR Having a full rich sound"
• Crapehanger, "A morose, gloomy, or pessimistic person"
• Morose, "Gloomy or sullenly ill-humored, as person or mood"
• Workout complete, (Ab Ripper X + Long Run)
• Ran 6k (3.7 miles) at a light-ish pace (heart rate under 160) in around 30 mins.
• Practiced Guitar in morning
• Read 2 chapters of Fight Club
• Bed before 7am
• Blog post w/ pic

Percent w/ time adjustment 80.00% Complete
Avergae 26.67% Complete

BC - Day 13 of 30

Today I did my.. "ride a distance of 30+ miles on my motorcycle". About 13 miles in, I wasn't able to hear my engine anymore which made me think that maybe my engine died out. However, It was just because of the constant wind noise though (and potential hearing damage.. o.o ). It was kind of neat to pass through an area that is kind barren. It reminded me of entering into the next town in SNES game Earthbound, seeing stores and houses start to appear.

Song is "Save my soul" by Remi Sinato (http://www.hiddenninja.net/)

As I said before, the Ninja 250 is not good bike for traveling long distance. I do have more confidence in my bike's capabilities though. If an apocalyptic senerio were to occur.. I belive the ninja would be an excellent tool for local travel with a distance going to at least 30 miles.

As I was following my brother home, he toke fairly sharp turn on a two-lane elevated interchange(NB 101 to WB 60), going 20 miles over the speed limit. Being on the motorcycle, I knew I couldn't really slow down in the turn (If I slowed down in the turn.. I probably would of crashed, possiably going over the side of the ramp). I had to trust my abilities and really lean far to my left (I've never leaned that close to the ground). So that was definately an experience.

I also made two dishes. My brother-in-law photographed them, but I forgot to get those pictures before I left.

• Read 4 Chapters of Fight Club
• 1 New Taste, Dried Beef
• Rode over 30 miles from home (~38 miles) complete
• Cooked 4 meals using new 15 ingredients (2 dishes)
• Cooked 5 work lunches
• Blog entry w/ video (a numer of issues encountered on this)
• Bed before 7am-ish
• (Missed a workout today)

Percent w/ time adjustment 82.01% Complete
Avergae 25.34% Complete

BC - Day 12 of 30

So... not that productive today. I did bought a voice recorder and some ingredients... but thats about it. Tomorrow should be better.

• Guitar twice (morning, evening)
• Workout (Bicycling), was going to do the 30 miles.. but wasn't sure about the weather
• Bed before 7am-ish
• Blog entry w/ pic

BC - Day 11 of 30

I managed to implement 2 major features for my "UCF Tool". It now automates the card closing procedure, which save around 20 minutes and removes that annoyance of being handed other peole's work since the tool will now do it for them on the spot. The other function is it automatically enters entries that are created with the "UCF Tool". This will save about 30 minutes end of night, every night. So, come Christmas Eve.. I'll be leaving a 'little' bit earlier then normal. It also ensures that all information is correct and legable for encoding (as long as the User entered the intial 3 variables correctly).

It's main functionality for the Day 1 process is finished, but I could allways add more functionality. I should also add funcionalty to cover uncommon, unique conditions. After I test it a bit more. I'll show it off to management next Monday or Tuesday. From there, I could work to get my peers using it. Confirm everything is going good. And finally, submit it on the company website... where other similar departments can use it.. even though it's very specific to our department and our tools.

If work is going good, I'll probably start on a new project related to improving the Day 2 process.

Short little clip, showing a little bicep curling action.

• 3855 lbs manipulated. 300 more then my weight day last week.. but still way behind the 30,000 goal..
• 2 major Improvements on "UCF Tool".
• Guitar practiced once when I woke up
• Blog w/ short little video
• workout complete
• Bed before 7... eh.. close enough. I'm counting it.
• Word of Day Probity, "integrity and uprightness; honesty"

Percent w/ time adjustment 81.91% Complete
Avergae 18.58% Complete

BC - Day 10 of 30

I ending wasting lack an hour of time, once I got home. I ended up way behind today. Since it was light out.. I thought I would try filming me running. Yeah... it turned out really bad. I'm still posting it, just so I can make the blog /w video or pic goal. I seriously tried to keep my arm level. I guess I need to wear some harness thing or something.. I don't know.

EDIT: Apperantly, the blogger video quality is awful as well.

Saturday I was going to volunteer for something, but they need me and the Habitat for Humanity thing was full by the time I checked last Monday. I might have to wing it and do some at home stuff.

• Word 1 Diffident, "Hesitant in acting or speaking due to lack of self-confidence"
• Word 2 Fiduciary, "A person to whom property or power is entrusted for the benifit of another"
• Only ran 2k
• Workout complete (Ab Ripper X & Fartlek Run)
• Guitar when I woke up (Was going to do it again before bed, but ran out of time.)
• Made some noticeable improvements to my program, it can now replace my old productivity tracker program.. just to add an auto-save feature.
• Bed before 7
• One math lesson complete

Percent w/ time adjustment 84.12% Complete
Average 17.45% Complete
Third of the way in.. at this rate.. I'll be lucky to reach 50% of my Goal.

BC - Day 9 of 30

I might re-do this. I could do better

So, I've been doing these math lessons off of http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy.. and for the first time today, decided to look at their website http://www.khanacademy.org/. It's nice. You can log on with your google or facebook ID and basically get an assesment off what you know. So, I spent a fair amount of time doing that today.. and learned a few things...

I guess during my life I devised a non-direct way to subtract long numbers. For example... for the problem 322 - 69 . I'll instead subtract 22 from 69 (because it's easier), invert that number(47 becomes 53), and add it to the whatever place (hundreth in this case) minus 1 (So... 3 -1 = 2, 200 + 53 = 253). Of course if the problem is something like 569 - 32.. you can figure it out immediantly.

I also never really memorized the times table past 2 (for the most part). For 6 x 7, I would add 7 x 2(14) with 7 x 2 x 2(28).

• 1,600 lbs manipulated
• Goal of 30 (consecutive) pushups completed. I recorded it, but I'm going to try it again next week.. with better form.
• 4 Math lessons completed.
• Workout for the day completed (Chest and Back workout)
• Blog entry w/ video
• In bed slightly after 7am due to technical delays, still counts.

BC - Day 8 of 30

My instrument of destruction. Yes... it is a squire. o.o;

I decided that today was going to be my "Long Run" day. My objective was to run for 6k, but half way through I was getting bored and decided instead I would do 5k, but up the pace slightly. I left the house sometime around 5am, and arrived back at 5:30am. So.. basically a 30min 5k. It's okay, but not really by my standards. I'll also have extra conditions during a real race.. the sun, having to drink water while running, visual distractions, extra weight of wearing a t-shirt and racing bib, and the pressure to not try to beat everyone else right at the start of it.

I should really try to get my time at 23 mins under home conditions at the minimum, to improve my chances of medaling. I would be happy to get 21 minutes in a race or under. Tomorrow I'll do back and chest strength training, and then I'll do another Fartlek run... with a 3k distance.

• Workout for the day complete (Ab Ripper X, Stretching, and Run)
• Guitar practiced
• Blog entry w/ picture (not related to main blog post) complete
• Word of the day is Insipid which mean "lacking flavor or zest. Dull"
• 1 Math lesson complete. I would like to do a test on this stuff too for the end of the challenge.
• Run 3.125 miles
• 1 Improvment done, my program to print tickets for work is functioning well.. I still have more improvements to add on top of it though.
• Read 1 chapter of Fight Club

I really need to do my workout immediantly after work, or else I just loose alot of time. Working out gets my mind right.

Percent w/ time adjustment 85.80% Complete
Avergae 12.46% Complete

BC - Day 7 of 30

• 1 new taste food: Tehina. Smells like cat food, tastes like dip... and apparently is dip. I didn't relize this when I bought it.
• Workout complete
• Bed before 7am
• Guitar practiced
• Picked up mail
• Word of day is efface which means "to cause to disappear by rubbing out"

Not to productive today, but being a Monday.. it was expected.

Percent w/ time adjustment 87.97% Complete
Avergae 11.30% Complete

BC - Day 6 of 30

My brother and I headed out to my Sister/Brother-in-law's house. The task I undertoke was "Give 30 piggyback rides (consecutively)". See below video.

I got my inspiration up. I also posted on facebook, so the fact that other people might be tracking my progress.. should give me a little more inspiration to get stuff done. Various Things...

• 3 Math Videos, Alegbra.. reviewing basic stuff
• Blog entry w/ video
• Toke out the trash (had to make 2 trips)
• I spent 5 minutes working on my motorcycle.. I'll make up the time later in this week or next weekend.
• Ran 1.5 miles (Fartlek style), heart rate got up to 170
• In bed before 7:00am, barely
• Word of Day Babylon which means "any rich and magnificent city believed to be a place of excessive luxury and wickedness. "
• Word of Day (because the bullet point wasn't in the day before.. so I missed it) shanghai means "To recruit someone forcibly or by fraud into doing something. "

Percent w/ time adjustment 90.57% Complete (Yeah, above 90 again)
Avergae 10.57% Complete

BC - Day 5 of 30

I went to sleep early Friday night, so I could wake up early Saturday morning.

I ended up leaving my motorcycle jacket at home.. my helmet and backpack I could use bicycle lock to secure it to motorcycles frame.. and the gloves I was able to cram under the seat.., but the jacket just couldn't fit.

This is my third time donning the red company volunteer shirt. The shirt is important, it gives me an identity.. makes me a repersentative. Maybe, it's easier to repersent something simple. As opposed to repersenting yourself. With my red shirt, I'm friendly and co-operative. I make corny jokes, relate to people, and throw alot of positive feedback.

This is a random picture found on the internet.

I didn't take a camera or video recorder

It was a good overall experience. At the start I was hammering nails in to build 2 of the walls with another guy. It's allways good to work with another person with a similar experience level and work ethic. Then ended up using a sledgehammer to hammer in this bolt into the foundation, which seemed kind of crazy. Using my height I marked some wood. Last part of the day was spent hammering the outside boards to the walls pieces. I woren out at the end of the day and my hair was soaked in sweat.

I rode off from the site. Hit stop and go traffic for a mile. Probably could of turned off the bike and just pushed with how little progress was made on the "go" part. It was good practice shifting from 1st to N to 1st to N to 1st to 2nd to 1st to N to 1st to N.. etc..

I decided to swing by the library. At which point I could hear my bike whining. Only the second time I've heared it whine.. the other time being riding home from the Chandler worksite. I scouted the library, but didn't find anything.

I went to whole foods to get some brown rice and scour for new foods. Man.. everything is so expensive there. I ate one sample and was then given another sample. Then I went home.

Went to sleep.

Wokeup.. kind of sore still. Watch the GI Joe movie, witch was kind of fun. The "knowing is half the battle" line was funny. Made some pasta. Discovered my sauce was bad. Then basically did nothing for the rest of the day.

• Workout complete
• 8 hours Volunter work with Habitat for Humanity
• Made 1 meal of pasta with 2 ingredients, Whole Pasta and Parmesan. Nothing to special. I should probably be planning some things to make ahead of time.
• Read 5 chapters of Fight Club
• Bed before 7am
• Guitar practiced (mainly just picking strings and fret positions without looking)

I traveled about 30 miles on my motorcycle in one day, but only 13 miles in distace.

Percent w/ time adjustment 89.27% Complete (Below 90% x_x )
Avergae 5.94% Complete

BC - Day 4 of 30

I felt like I had to go somewhere on my motorcycle to see how well my worn brown hiking shoes/boots worked when shifting gear up. My work shoes are awefull at shifting.. you can really feel it. My brown shoes work fine. I noticed if I bring my feet tighter in, it's even less noticable.

So, I decided to go the library. As I was waiting in line to check to see if my card was still good, I started to talking with a girl. She didn't seem very into talking with me. Anyways, re-newed the card (which didn't cost anything) and started wandering around. One of the library people gave me a friendly smile as I continued my pursuit for something. Completely randomly I ended up seeing "Ian Fleming books", who writes the 007 books. I remember my brother-in-law liked those so I checked out the one with the least female nudity on the cover. I don't want to give the wrong impression to anyone. I approached library person that smiled at me earlier and asked her how to work the self checkout area. She was very friendly. Sort of her job is to be friendly though, right? I'm not sure if they are employed or volunteers. I guess I should of asked, but.. I was socially worn out and sweating heavily from wearing my motorcycle jacket.

I then went to the groccery store and came back home. Overall not to productive, especially for a day off work.

• 1 new taste: Cactus pear, tasted sort of like a kiwi. Had tons of uneatable seeds and had little hair like thorns that my brother discovered when handling it.
  Word of the Day is cote which is "a shelter for mammals or birds"
• Workout complete
• Going sleep before midnight
• Blog w/ pic or video complete
• Guitar complete

My progress equation was off.. it's fixed now...

Percent w/ time adjustment 93.91% Complete
Avergae 3.91% Complete (I should work to get it close to 9%...)

BC - Day 3 of 30

Today was my big weight lifting day. I manipulated over 1/10th of my goal for 30 days. The other 2 strength training days.. have little weight manipulation involved. For the weight mainpulated.. if the exercise counts 1 rep as 1 curl(or whatever) for each arm.. then I'll just count that as 1 instead of 2.


At work I started to tackle a huge beast of a program.. that once complete will make the day 1 production process just that much more efficent. It will also make 1 end of night duty as easy as pushing a button. It basicially links our database which is on a webpage, with our main research tool which is a seperate program, with a program I created used to print stuff. Instead of people manually writing tickets; And copying and pasting data back and forth.. they could use my program to automate those functions.. and the program will record it.. So.. for my end of night duty it could just load all of the generated tickets into a seperate program.. instead of me manually typing the stuff in.

Of course I didn't finish it today.. but I was able to use some of the code I wrote to complete a quick little copy/paste type program which should save me at least 5 minutes every night.

• Word of the day is brachiate which means "to swing by moving from hold to another by using arms". I really like verbs I guess. This seems appriopate for bouldering. Instead of saying "try to use your momentum to grab that hold" you could say "try brachiating to that hold". This word is kind of tricky cause the pronuciation is like [bray-key-ate]. Are there any common words that use "ch", but make a "k" sound?


• Weight Manipulated: 3,520 lbs


• Guitar practiced


• Blog posted w/pic or video


• 30+ workout complete


• Going to sleep ~5:50am


• Watched 2 more physics videos.. need to take some algebra and trig before continuing

I signed up to work 8 hours for Habitat for Humanity doing some framing. As a consequence of that I toke Friday off.. so I could get some sleep before then. No major plans for Friday.. I'll probably do some programming, maybe post a video.

Percent w/ time adjustment 99.83% Complete
Avergae 3.40% Complete

BC - Day 2 of 30

First.. two things from yesterday.. after I made my blog post.

When I was in shower I was thinking.. back on the physics lesson that "a" stood for acceleration. Since pace is basically the speed of something.. a*pace might be seen as going faster or quickly. Which makes apace an easier word to memorize in both spelling and defination. Though remebering that apace means "quickly" and not "quick".. is kind of strange. I guess the "a" can also stand for abverb.. in this single situation.

I was also able to mess around my guitar. I basically played the pentatonic scale in that 3rd to 5th fret region, doing diffrent patterns(ie. 1,2,1 or 2,1 etc.). I kind of suprised some of memory and skill weren't lost as much, as I thought they would be.

(My Running Gear: Track Pants, Running Shoes, socks(not pictured), Heart Monitor, and No shirt

cause I'm hardcore like that... but really I just don't want to get another shirt all sweaty)

I figure my workouts will look something like this every week...

1. Ab Ripper X & Fartlek Run (High Intesity Interval Running)
2. Chest and Back (Strength Training)
3. Ab Ripper X & Long Run (ideally around 10k)
4. Shoulder, Bicep, and Tricep (Strength Training)
5. Ab Ripper X & Some sort of run (I heard hill training is good.. I don't know)
6. Legs and Back (Strength Training)
7. Yoga X (I might also see what Netlflix has to offer on insant watch)

Today, was Ab Ripper X and my Long Run. I ran 5k today, at a light run/jog. I was hardly lolling though, I was focused and moving.

I re-learned 1 improtant thing. Don't eat (espically dairy food) before a run. Wait at least an hour. I was afraid I might have to pull off to the side at one point.

• Word of the day is loll, which means "to move, lay, sit, or stand in a relaxed way". It's kind of a funny word because on internet people will sometimes interchange lol with lawl.. which sounds the same as loll's pronunciation.
• Watched 2 physics videos, this time when he proposed something.. I stopped the video and trying figuring it out myself, before continuing.
• I cooked 5 meals containing 3 ingredients (brown rice, salmon, spinach).. my standard work lunch. (Need to adjust worksheet for the 2 number goal with 1 task)
• I ran 3.1 miles
• 30 minute workout complete
• Blog w/ pic complete
• Read 1st 2 chapters of Fight Club
• Going to sleep now ~6:40am (reading made me sleepy)

Maybe a little guitar practice tomorrow before work.

Percent w/ time adjustment 98.79% Complete
Avergae 2.24% Complete

BC - Day 1 of 30

Not off to the best start...

Monday.. my co-worker called in sick. Since I'm the only one that knows her job.. I end up getting off around 6 in morning, 4 hours later then I was hoping to get off. That sort of got in my head... How am I suppose to accomplish all of my daily tasks and be in bed by 7am if I'm here getting off at 6 am. But I thought to myself "Tuesday is the start of it.. so maybe this sort of thing won't happen within the following 30 days."

Tuesday.. my co-worker in sick. X_X Again? Luckily I got alot of her stuff caught up the previous day.. At about 3:50am I was able to leave. I thought to myself "Maybe I could ride home apace. Maybe even getting home around 4:10am". Nope.. mother nature wasn't having it. I came outside to discover weather.com's prediction of cloudy.. meant rainy. It wasn't so bad to start, but at one point I had to pull off, because the visability was to poor.

I got home at 4:30am. Started my workout and discovered a sharp tension from my legs to my back when ever I started hopping around.. So, I ended up doing yoga instead.

• Word of the day is apace it means "quickly, swiftly"
• Watched 3 Physics video, should probably re-review them.. I kind wish I had some sort of worksheet to do. Like you would get from school.
• 30 minutes workout complete
• Blog w/pic or video complete
• I should meet the 7:00 bed time

I'll need to make up the guitar tomorrow. It's not required to be daily.

Percent w/ time adjustment 97.27% Complete
Avergae 0.61% Complete

Birthday Chellenge (Detailed List)

My biggest post ever. It toke me a week to write all of this. This is my detailed list. Explaining each item; some rules for some of them, why I'm doing, and my prediction of how well I'll do to accomplish it. All feedback is appreciated.

Community
1. Donate 30 hours of my time, to help someone else or group. This could be organized or un-organzied. Someone I know or someone I don't know. This will be hard, it's definately do-able.. I could volunteer for 4 days, but it also eats away the majority of those 4 days. I am working the night shift. If I do one of these morning-afternoon organized events.. I'll be useless that night since I'll be awake from like 6am to 6am (need to maintain my night shift hours). I'm doing this because I think it's important to give back. We (as humans in a developed society) use huge amounts of resources. If your not doing something usefull to give back in some way.. it just seems like a waste. I do feel like I give a positive influence in my normal life, this task is just to give a little extra back.


2. Do 30 acts of random(-ish) kindness. I'm not going to get all technical with what a random of kindness is. If someone refuses a rational proposition.. I'm just going to count it anyways. Cause really, the effort is the most important part. I may also plan ahead of time. This is questionable if it will be completed or not. I've seen people attempt to do this, just to rejected by the people they try to help. A sub goal here will be to try to be versatile. See how many different types of acts of kindness I can do. I'm doing this again, because I think its important to give back, but also to see how well I can do.


3. Identify 30 Local Businesses. Kind of a strange one. Orginally I was thinking surveying local busineses, but that sounded a bit to ambitious. It could happen though.. I might have to see how awkward and time consuming that would be. This shouldn't be to hard, unless I actually attempt the survey thing. I'm doing this... First, because I'm loosing my job sometime next year and I want options, even though I'll likely just transfer with the company I work for. I also want to know what kind of an impact I could make in other jobs. Lastly, I want to see what these business bring and potentially, how they survive amoung larger operations (Are they a more specialized service that is cheaper?). This is one of my lower priority tasks.
   




Creative


4. Blog Entry everyday including a pic or video. If I miss a day due to the internet being down, it won't count against me. The majority of the blog entries will be posted the morning of the next day. I'm doing this to keep people interested, to hold me accountable, and so the "event" is recorded.. you know.. something I could back on. Including pics and videos is important to help me make better blog entries in the future and maybe to also get me used to the idea of having a video of myself out there. This should definately be accomplished.


5. Write 30,000 Character of Text for my book(s). Currently I have 4,000 characters. So by the end I should have 34,000 characters worth of text. I'm doing this, because I want to get my ideas out there. I enjoy thinking about plots and characters and such. I would also love to have a complete book, written by me that I could hold in my hands.. even it no one liked it (except me) and made absolutely no money. This is do-able, I think. I just have to be in the right state of mind, and know how to get my story into words so other people could understand the ideas in my head.


6. Develop and Deploy 3 Games. These being computer games, written in C++. I've been programming a long time, and alot of who I'am is influenced from my programming experience. It's probably had one of the largest impacts on my life. I'm not a great a programmer, but it's a great medium to get my ideas (games mainly) into a format that very directly connects my ideas with the user. I'm doing this because I rarely finish a game.. and aside from making dirty applications for my work, I haven't done much programming especially in C++. Knowing how to efficently program 3 different games in the OOP style would be great to have for the future. This is probably going to be a hard. I rarely finish games, I have never distributed a C++ games, and I'm not sure how much time I will have to do this.


7. Create 30 good quality sprites. Sprites being a background tile from an RPG, or a single frame of a guy in a Street Fighter type game, etc. . A little history... I grew-up playing (or watching other people play) games. I imagined myself in games and how I would make a game. Eventually, I learned programming and saw the possiability that I could make a game. Sadly.. my art wasn't that great. After completing high school I tried to put alot of effort into studing how to make really good sprites. So the images in my game could reflect the details that I felt was neccissary to express in my games. Present time.. my sprites can be.. pretty good.. not great, but up to par with some of the lesser SNES graphics games. It's time consuming though... and really eh.. I don't enjoy it that much. I hate making animations.. so tedious. I want good sprites though, and the best way to reflect my ideas is to draw them myself. It's also alot cheaper then paying someone to do it or bothersome to try get an "pixel artist" to commit to your project. How hard or really time consuming it's going to be is going to depend on what I make. Hopefully, something I could use in a future project.


8. Design and Prototype a Game that lasts for 30 minutes. This refers "most likely" to a board or card game. Really.. a Social type game played actively between players, that could be played again.. creating a new playing experience. I've design and created games like these before and it's something I never regreted doing. I'm doing this because I enjoy thinking about the game mechanics, theme, and creating a quality or unique game. This shouldn't be to bad to finish.. sometimes creating all the stuff for it, can.. take some time.


9. Develop 30 improvements. I've made alot of improvements at my work. Mainly with my programming, but also with aesthetics and design. The defination here is to provide an improvement that has sustainability. I imagine this would mainly apply to work, but it could translate to home as well (or elsewhere). I'm doing this, because I've received massive reconigtion on my ideas to improve job process. I get a great feeling when I could just push button and let my program do the work for me. I also feel I'm very capable of my abilities, which feels good. Sometimes I'll have a really bold idea, explain it to the manager.. get them all involved.. and then half hour later be like "What was I thinking.. Can I really do this.. Isn't this beyond my expertise", but you know what? I'll usually push through and make things work 90% of the time. This will be a challenge. If my job is going good (not alot of work).. I might be able to use some of my work hours towards accomplishing this.




Development




10. Learn a new word every day for 30 Days and at the end of the 30 Days take a test to confirm my knowledge. I'm not quite sure how I'll go about this... Maybe I could browse an online dictionary for a word I don't know. I should know the spelling of the word and defination. Maybe I could record the pronuciation of the word, so then on test day I could manually spell and list the defination of the word. I'm doing this because I'm think it would be good to increase my vocabulary. Why? One word... Bannagrams. No.. not really. A better vocabulary would make better writing for both the book and my blog. I don't want to get stuck using the same word over and over again. For example in this entry I use "Maybe" to a start sentence twice. Also my spelling isn't that great, even though this doesn't improve my spelling or words I know.. it will increase the percentage of my totals words that I can spell correctly. This should be do-able.


11. Play 30 notes on the guitar for 30 Days. Really it should be consecutive days, but I don't want to limit myself. I know it's important to practice everyday to good at it. If I'm behind though.. maybe I could do two different sessions. The 30 notes thing is more abstract.. I'll likely be playing for about 10-15 minutes everyday. I'm doing this to improve at using the guitar. Music being yet another tool to get my ideas/thoughts out of my head and into a more tangible form. I should be able to do this.


12. Workout for at least 30 minutes everyday for 30 Days. I'm more likely to just do the P90X workouts which go over the 30 minute time, but I wanted to make sure this was here. I'm doing this to improve (or at the very minimum maintain) my fitness level. I want to be prepared to handle any situation, to know and accept my physcial capabilities, and repersent physically to others what I am capable of (via punch to the face.. just kidding). There are also alot of benifits to working out.. that I won't go into details over. This should be done daily, unless it's after 7am. I'm going to commit myself to doing this when I first get home. If it is very late, I'll just do the minimum 30 minutes to check this off.


13. Learn online 30 seperate Math Lessons. This being... watching a 10-20 minutes long video lesson and making whatever notes I feel I need to take. If I ever were to go back to school I would want a firm understanding of all prerequisites for whatever I was really after. Math in particular applies to programming. This should be fine. I'm allowing myself to complete multiply lessons per day.
    
    
14. Read 30 Chapters of published fiction. Ideally, I should be reading chapters from diffrent books. If I had alot of free time it would probably be read 30 books, but I don't.. so it isn't. I'm doing this to obtain a better understanding of how to write in a way that other people can easily understand.. the way I want them to understand.. what is happening within the story. I enjoy making my own ideas.. fiction allows anything to happen. I could write about how something is or could be, but I would rather have the reader experience it for themselves.. by following the character(s) through the book. This seems do-able, I might end up reading alot of books focused on a younger audience.




Experience


15. Travel a distance of at least 30 miles on my motorcycle. This would be a distance of 30 miles from my home. I'm doing this for a few reasons... 1. Even though I'm comfortable riding my motorcycle, I would like to have that re-insurance that my motorcycle is capable of taking my further. Thirty miles isn't much, but it's first step towards something greater. 2. I'm, maybe.. to local. The fact that I would be fine never traveling anywhere.. is great, but also kind of restrictive. I should be more open-minded towards traveling some larger distance. 3. I could also use more experience riding. If I go somewhere else, I feel I might be so likely to expect what I know.. that I might not be prepared for other conditions which could cause an accident. This shouldn't be hard, my sister lives about 30 miles away. Going there would be an easy way to hit this objective. I never toke my motorcycle into the shop like I planned.. it's running fine. If I end up encountering some issues.. that could end up being a hassle.


16. Cook 30 meals using at least 30 different ingredients. Meals require some cooking time and using more then 1 thing.. cooking ramen wouldn't count. I'm doing this because I eat the same foods everyday. When I go to the store I buy the same foods. From a health point this might be good, but.. when I see my olddest brother who hasn't worked for nearly 10 years. Yet, still manages to buy and cook some nice meals... it really makes me wonder. Also making your own meals is cheaper and usually healther(no preservatives) . Being that I currently make my lunches for work.. this shouldn't be to difficult. Though, I don't have much of plan going into it.


17. Experience 30 new tastes. This is a secondary goal. It draws from the same as the previous task. This will be a little bit harder I'm not sure what really counts. Does a new meal count.. or does it have to be an entirely different food? I don't know.
    
    



Physical


18. Give 30 Piggyback rides(consecutively). This kind of a fun one. It potentially gets my nephew and neices involved. This is quick ride from one end of the house to other, running. I'm doing this because it seems like something fun and challenging to do. This also serves as a reminder of one of the reasons to work out. At most I've probably done maybe 10 back to back piggyback rides.. I think I can do it though. Hopefully, I don't crash at any point during this task.


19. Jump kid(s) 30 times. Sort of a lifting exercise, except alot more force on the upward motion. Having the kid leave my hands and catch them is optional. I must lift them about 3 feet off the ground, minimum. I don't think I'll have a tape measure and judge hold me to it though. I'm doing this for the same reason as above, except this is more personal and requires my arm strength. This should be do-able.


20. Do 30 consecutive Pushups. Suprisingly, I haven't done this yet in P90X. I'll get around 24 and stop, even though in that one workout I might be doing over 100 pushups. I'm doing this because it's something I know I can do and is a way to test my physical strength. This should definately be do-able. If I think I could do better.. I'll try a harder pushup style. Don't expect me to be doing planche push ups though


21. Within 30 minutes do 30 Pullups. I'll have a timer going on my computer and attempt 30 pullups from a dead hang position. I can take as many breaks as I want, but I must start at a dead hang. I'm doing this because I used to be really good at pullups and I enjoy pullups. It's one of the key tests to measure a person's overall fitness. If you can do 1 pullup your an okay shape, but if you can do 30 pullups your in great shape. Heck, it's even on the Presidential Fitness test. I think I can do this.


22. Within 1 day travel 30 miles on my bicycle. Distant doesn't matter, this is about ground covered (ie. Riding around the block 8 times works.. I won't be doing that though). Another little Frod History lesson.. for the majority of my adult life (and a lot of my pre-adult life) I've relied on one from of transportation.. my bicycle (cue Queens "Bicycle Race"). Every workday I would ride 5 to 10 miles to work, work, and then ride 5 to 10 miles back home. Physcially and mentally, it felt great. If it was 120 degrees outside, it meant my throat would be dry.. but I did it. If it was raining, it meant I come into work soaked and freezing near the end of the night. If it was cold, it meant my fingers would be numb when I rode home. If it was windy, it meant I had to push myself more (the wind allways blew against me). If it was humid, it meant I would hit little swarms of bugs that would fly towards my eyes (their like magnets for them).
    
    If it were not for the bad drivers that would cut in front of me, high school/college kids throwing stuff or yelling at me from their cars, and the fact that I would end up smelling of sweat.. I probably would still be riding my bicycle to and from work. I still ride my bicycle almost every week when I go to recycle the recyclables I accumulate throughout the week and/or when I go to the store. This will be tribute to my bicycle riding and a test to see how well I can go the distance within a day. I'll have to do it on an off day, but I can do it.
    
    
23. Run 30 miles within the 30 days. I've been slacking. I haven't been doing any running training. Running is a great way to expand the lungs and get your heart rate up. It is also a practical skill to have for many activities (ie. "Ninja Warrior") and unexpected conditions (ie. Zombie Apocalypse "28 Days Later" version). This is do-able, but requires me to stick on it.. and get my mileage up quick. I'm not likely to be running every day or that much at the start. Potentially near the end I could have a nice 10k long run every week.
    
    
24. Complete a competative 5k earning a 3rd (or better) place medal. This being a public race, pay to enter race, usually for some cause. I'm doing this because I enjoy completing a race and knowing I did well. And that my training beforehand helped me get the results.. that I achieved. To do this.. I REALLY need to start training immediately.. I'm already behind. It's questionable.. I need feel that I can do well, find a 5k to run, and then be able to get there in my gear without worrying about anything outside of the race. I can drive my motorcycle to a race, but have no clue were I can safely store my stuff. I can use a bicycle lock to secure the helmet and potentially the jacket.. but what about the boots? I'm not sure I can ride my motorcycle in running shoes. It requires a lot of force to shift up. My brother supplies some support here, as he enjoys running and has ran every race that I've ran with me.
    
    
25. Manipulate 30,000 lbs of weight. At least it sounds ambitious. This is strictly free weights, my body weight doesn't count towards this goal. For example.. If I did 5 reps curling 15lbs with each arm.. that's 150lbs manipulated. I'm doing this because it does sound ambitious to me and can really test my strength over a period of time. If I follow P90X (which is the default plan) then I'll only be lifting weights 7 times.. and really only lifting weights fully 4 of those days. Hmm.. I guess I could do 75lbs 100 times.. right.. scratch P90X.. I'll think of something.. this is something were I might spend the last days strain myself to lift more weights. I'll need to keep my eye on my progress. It could also be easier then I think. Though I want to check the numbers from my past.. I'm going to hold off and check them after that first week is finished.
    




Real


26. Be in bed by 7:00am. This means.. on the ground(in my case) ready to sleep. Actually falling asleep isn't as controllable. I've been staying up later then I should. Working out I should really be giving my body more opportunity to rest up and fix it's self. This is going to put a little strain on all of the other goals, but is needed. I'm leaving the time I wake-up open though.. So I can do stuff during day.. if I have something planned. So, though I may not be getting 8 hours of sleep everyday.. I should be getting it most days.
    
    
27. Make 30 improvement to my living environment. This could be something very simple like taking out the trash, something with more effort like cleaning the Stove top, or something big like fixing something. I'm doing this because I want to continue to OR improve on the habit of uphold good living conditions. If I get my own house I want to make sure I maintain it. If I live with someone else I want to make sure this sort of stuff is never an issue. I think I do pretty good.. so eh.. shouldn't be hard.
    
    
28. Spend 30 minutes per week working on my motorcycle/bicycle. This is something I should be doing anyways.. but sort of fell out of regarding the motorcycle.. and something never paid to much attention to regarding the bicycle (it's just so reliable and so cheap to replace verse time/money to maintain). Not hard at all. This is an easy secondary goal to complete.
    




Social


29. Read 30 words of text in front of 30 people. Yikes. Not something I'm looking forward to. That's like a speech load of stuff to read. I'm doing this because I don't want to do it ha ha. It's a real world thing that I should be okay at. If I'm ever going to be playing a gig and potentially doing background vocals with Goat Seman.. I should be ready for that. I'm not sure about this one. Maybe I can find a support group to help me with this. Do I even know 30 people? Doubtfully.. I'll have to do in front of strangers, but thats the point now isn't is Mr. Frod?
    
    
30. Do a combination of meeting 30 girls and going on 30 dates. This is the big one. So, for example I could meet 20 girls and go on 10 dates or whatever. A date being spending time at some specific location. So, dinner and a movie... would be 2 dates (I wouldn't go to a movie on 1st date though). Also.. meeting 30 girls.. is 30 girls I'm interested in, were there is one on one time. Going to a meetup and hanging out with a bunch of people.. probably won't work. I'm doing this because I don't have much experience going out with people out of my circle and stuff. This is also going to be the last 30 days where I can say "I'm in my 20's". On those dating sites.. a lot of profiles have Age 30 cutoff point. Probably my hardest objective to complete. This will be a very awkward time in life. Maybe I could get what I need and get out within the 30 days. XP
    
    
31. Ask 30 different girls out (on a date). I just added this one. I thought it could be kind of fun/funny. I'm doing this to sort of lighten the mood. If I'm going in with this objective maybe I'll be less nervous and more relaxed. I might get lucky... by getting a phone number. This could be accomplished. I'm sure guys might do this every weekend.. I'm definately not one of those guys though. Of course if I find someone.. where things look really good, this will be abandoned. For that reason, this a secondary task.
    
    
32. Make 30 phone calls to 30 different people. I could know them, or not. Work calls do not count. It should some sort of conversation, but I'm not putting a time limit on it. No prank calls either. If you could help with this contact me, but DO NOT leave your phone number in the comments. I'm doing this because I'm no good on the phone. It feels very strange relying just on your voice, especially when your just suppose to talk. I could easily call handle a work call were there is a purpose.. but to just talk x.x . I think, I'm much more physical with conversing.. I rely a lot on my expressions and for people to read my physical motions. I also am no good at getting like appointments in over the phone. I don't know, I don't have prediction. I could probably call 15 people I know. The other 15 might have to be business or something. The above two goals might help with this one. This is a secondary task.

So that's the list. Unless I add something else before then. I still got a few days to prepare a little bit more before it starts.

Return / Birthday Challenge (Overall Details)

RETURN

Three weeks ago I started my vacation (which was really only 3 days), during that time I fell out of habit. I wasn't doing P90X consistently. The next two weeks I was covering for someone and just felt really tired coming home. I was basically doing all of her job and then alot of my own stuff. This last week I had additonal work issues that gave me a huge amount of work hours. I'm hoping from now until the end of my Birthday Challenge (from Sept 21 to Oct 21) will leave me leaving work at a decent time.

I regret not working out and updating my blog. In a way they are both related. One of the reasons I started the blog was as a way to hold myself accountable for working out 6 days a week. Physically, I feel like the muscles in my arms are weaker. I'll definatly start working out tomorrow. I'll also be adding 3 more weeks to make up for the lost time; more so, if I feel my body is still behind from where it was three weeks ago.

BIRTHDAY CHALLENGE (Detailed Listing)


I went over my list today. I removed three things "Donate $300 to 30 diffrent charities", "Create a game containing 30 diffrent maps/levels/stages", and "((Do some sort of test of will on the last day))".

• Donating is great, but the reality is I don't make alot of money; I do contribute the money I make to things that are improtant; and I could be spending alot of money during this process, though I think it's unlikely.
• Programming and Game Development is improtant to me, but this goal is kind of repetative since I have "Create and Distirbute 3 different games" on the same list. Creating 3 different little games would be better practice for me.. someone who rarely finishes a game project.
• I would love to do something fun that would test my endurance over 24 or 30 hours, but I couldn't think of anything. This would of been the only thing in "Fun" catagory, which isn't to important.

My Tasks are spread out over 7 catagories:

1. Community [ 3 Tasks ] - Supporting or helping the local community
2. Creative [ 6 Tasks ] - A Creative pursuit.. design, development, story
3. Development [ 5 Tasks ] - Something to help work towards a larger objective
4. Experience [ 3 Tasks ] - Something to expand my experiences or future experiences
5. Physical [ 8 Tasks ] - Doing some sort of Test against my physical capabilites
6. Real [ 2 Tasks ] - Relating to my personal habits / lifestyle
7. Social [ 3 Tasks ] - Interaction with groups and in a one on one relationship

So that's actually 31 Tasks. 27 Tasks have top priority and must be at least attempted. To be completely successfull on this I need to complete all 27 top priority tasks and 3 of the 4 lesser priority tasks. For me, this list is going to be challenging. I've never done any of these by themselves with these time constraints. I'll try though and keep daily updates on my progress (it's on the list). At the end I'll review how I did and reward myself with a score.

1. Daily Goals [ 6 ] - Completed every day
2. One Time Goals [ 8 ] - Once complete sucessfully one time, they can be checked off.
3. Spreadout Goals [ 17 ] - Completed throughout.. this one's I'll need to keep my eye on.

As an undeclared task I'll try to give support to anyone else I know with their own Birthday Challenge.

Next update all show the list in more detail.

Day 62 (Saturday, posting late)

I don't know what happened Friday. I got off work at a decent time, for a Friday. I guess I got really engrossed with a tv series I was waching on netflixs. Eventually, I noticed it was "6:30 am" . I thought to myself, "If I start Yoga X now, I won't be going to sleep until at least 8 am" (this being bad because I needed to be waking up at 12:30 am the next day). So, I decided I would go to sleep now. Immediantly at 6:30 am. It did not happen.. I still went to sleep at 8 am.. but with no workout. I let myself geta nice 8 hours of sleep. I got a haircut, got grocceries, and then promptly started Yoga X.

Yoga X- Yoga X went well. I think I performed even better in the start since I had my camera on me. Eventualy the batteries ran out. Since 50% of my subscribers (1 of 2) mentioned the main thing they like at my blog is the pictures.. I'll try to incorporate more pictures in the mix. The picture to side is me doing "Crane". I held it for about 55 seconds. This is also the first time I've seen what I look like doing crane. I guess I really need to get my knees in to my armpits more.. and from there focus on getting my feet up to my butt. From now on.. it's form over time.
This lady explains it well, and also explains the "Crow".. witch really yoga people (not us P90X'ers) typically work with before they do Crane.

So, before I started my next workout in the evening I waited for my brother to go to sleep. It was planned that we would all leave at 12:30 am. I mentioned to him the time at 2:50 am, but he insisted on staying up later (he was even going to sleep around midnight the previous nights). He would end up getting somewhere around 6 hours of sleep that night.

Legs and Back- I really put alot of effort in and was sweating not to long into it. I could feel the effort I put in my legs. My reps on pullups increased.. that suprised me considering how tired I was. I felt really good finishing it.

I started Ab Ripper X (first 5 minutes), but decided it would be better to just get some sleep. I ended up getting a little under 6 hours of sleep. No to terrible. I'll do Kenpo X tomorrow and be caught up for the next week (or so I thought..) .