Well, been in “Diet Mode” for a while now… Seems like it is working quite well this
time. My wife and I switched over to the
“WW” (“Formerly ‘Weight Watchers’”) a few months ago now. The system has been working amazingly well
for me as I went from having plateaued at ~250 pounds to now hovering in the
220 range. Previously I was working out
very regularly and through the Fitbit app tracking my steps and caloric
consumption. Turns out that was not what
I really needed. For instance on days
when I say, forgot to pack a lunch I’d just wander over to grab a few slices of
pizza and think nothing of it really.
Tracking the calories of that led me to believe I was well within my set
goals and running a caloric deficit.
Probably was, but not as much of one as I had thought. Now, on the WW system I have 33 points for my
day. And a single slice of NY style
pizza is 17. And now, not having that
for a “quick and easy lunch” I seem to be losing weight quickly. Since I weighted 238 on entry to the Army, I
have long since passed that mark. Mind,
not really a good goal, I was FAR from in shape when I joined. For my first deployment I probably started at
~180 or so. I went from 238 to 168 when
I was in Basic. NOT a recommended way to
lose weight as that was during an abbreviated OSUT (One Station Unit Training)
that got cut to just the vital things as Iraq invaded Kuwait just before I
reported. Was supposed to be 16 weeks
with a break in the middle, weekends off, etc…
But got cut to just 9 weeks of fairly intense training. In any case, I was in the best shape of my
life when I reported to Ranger School weighing 205. Not sure if it is realistic to shoot for that
as a goal, but it is certainly within reach now. Some of the side effects of the weight loss
being that I am now back to wearing jeans the size I wore in high school… Have shelved the much larger ones for now as
they are just ludicrously baggy on me.
Odd things like the “normal” boxers I wore being far too large and so
those have rotated out as well. Wearing
things that looked like sausage casings on me a few months ago and they are
loose to the point of being baggy. Neat
I guess and a lot of the clothing I wore while working in Chicago not long
after my time in the Army/Guard is fitting well enough. Amusing I suppose that the stuff I carted
around for decades on the off chance that “maybe I’ll wear it again” is now on
the hanger in my closet.
Running is a big part of my workout routine. I am NOT a particularly good runner, which
would be my brother the marathon runner (he actually competes in the real ones
like Chicago, Boston, London, etc…). I
run because it is a good way to build my endurance and actually lose the
weight. Not because I am fast or enjoy
it, it just works. Not exactly going
blazingly fast, I’m in the 12 minute mile range, so a slow jog… But of course I was never all that fast, I
ran 8 minute miles at my best. Of course
I could run 20 of them without ill effect, and nowhere near that now am I J… Still using body weight exercises and
resistance bands to keep the “prison workout” going for the other 2-3 days/week
so I stick to the 5-6 days/week getting in an actual workout. Going fairly well, but seems to be approaching
a plateau and I will have to adjust fairly soon I suspect. But in the meantime, I am moving better than
I have in decades, my endurance is quite high as is my strength and most of the
health related issues I was starting to have are cleared up.
X-Wing dropped their points adjustment and a few rules
changes/clarifications. Overall I am
quite thrilled with this all. The
biggest change they have made at this time is that Hyperspace (HS) is now a
heavily curated format with every Faction going down to a handful of Ship types
being legal. 4 for newer ones and 5 for
the older ones. And even if the Ship is
HS legal there is NO guarantee that any individual Pilot or Upgrade will
be. For instance Wedge Antiles in his X-Wing
was dropped from HS while most of the rest are legal. Neat I suppose and it should have the effect of
preventing stagnation where the obvious best lists become the norm and pretty
much all one would see on the table. Now
I am building weird new lists with things like the M-3 Interceptor since it has
dropped in points enough to actually be useful.
I am hoping I suppose as I have yet to actually fly one in a game of 2nd
edition X-Wing at this point. My dual
Firespray lists have all gone down in points fairly drastically. The lists overall, Boba Fett is almost unchanged… His titles all dropped a bit so the way I fly
him he HAS decreased in point cost overall…
So, interesting times overall. My
old standard Republic lists are as I said previously no longer HS legal, and
having watched the YouTube record of my game that Gold Squadron streamed from
Gen Con (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezh61SB5aEw&feature=youtu.be). The game changed a bit since then and I
suspect the list I flew would not do so well.
But in any case these are things I can fly fairly well. Trying to get more events scheduled at Titan
in Champaign “soon” but of course with the Semester beginning next week it is a
difficult time to get away from work for many of us working at the University
at least…
Legion I am actually getting back to painting, experimenting
with some of the GW “contrast” paints.
The Martian Camo patter I am doing the bulk of my Rebels in looks pretty
good with GW’s Fleshtearer Red as a base, and with the bonus of that being one
of the ancient 40K armies I still have in the Basement of Doom™… The Clones are where I am focusing mostly at
this point, and they are base coated at least and starting to get some details
on at this point. Playing at a fairly
severe disadvantage I think with the Republic army for now with the Imperials I
suspect being the major powerhouse force and the CIS Droids looking pretty good
overall, at least from a power ranking perspective. Neither army interests me particularly,
though I suspect I could do well with either.
Same for the Rebels at this point for me, they have the “feel” of 40K
Imperial Guard or whatever they are called these days… I have not touched that system since the
change to 6th edition and they are on 8th going on 9th
I hear…
Spending time in the basement, I have dug up some of my
ancient Flames of War minis while searching for other stuff… I remember how insanely OP my US Airborne force
seemed on the table back in first edition with that system… I was pretty much only building things for
Units I actually served with, so 82nd it was. The Artillery rules were just silly good for
Americans IIRC… I remember being able to
take down the (at the time) king of the hill armies that were almost exclusively
German Tiger based forces with my tine group of 82nd troops and Artillery… Probably why I stopped playing as much, the
winning strategies were just not overly interesting to me. Set up, know that your troopers via their
rules were not going to break and run from the mere presence of a Tiger and let
the Artillery just pound them out of existence. I think I have the more recent rule books and
will have to look into that game again at some point… “Tanks” got me back buying a few actual 15mm
armored vehicles and so I have US, Brit and even a small German force… I REALLY like the German Puma, that fits my
play style fairly well and it is actually fairly good… Dies when caught, but…
For 28mm I have my British Airborne that I have started
assembling finally. And with the new
paints making camouflage patterns like their WWII smocks fairly easy, I might
even get them painted up sooner rather than later… Will see how things go I suppose… Dug up my ancient Battletech things as there is a group here looking to revive that and I snagged some on the Kickstarter...
As far as “going”, still kind of in job hunt mode, got a few
more interviews but with so many of them recently at least obviously being “Team
Lead” positions rather than actual “Management” positions I am less
interested. I have seen and been the “Team
Lead” several times in the past and as it always deteriorates to doing multiple
people’s jobs for the one person’s salary not something I am overly interested
in doing again. On the other hand the
transition from IT worker to IT manager seems to be a fairly rare one, at least
rarely successful one. I see a lot of
organizations here who have promoted the good IT person to put them in charge
and usually it does not work out so well as the skill sets are very different
and that one is good at one does not necessarily follow that one would be good
at the other. In any case, busy, have a
steady job and so not desperate. Makes
the interview process a LOT more relaxed for me at least. That and the sheer number of interviews I
have had over the last year or two, by now it is all a known thing and I am
perhaps a bit too relaxed about it.
Maybe, I think that the level of confidence I have is a good thing, I
HAVE seen just about everything at this point in my own little world, and
overall I think have been fairly successful dealing with it. No rush, as it is said “The Dude Abides”… When it is time to go, I’ll go…
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