Currently taking up space in my living room are Street Fighter 2 The World Warrior and Mortal Kombat 1. Both are in perfect working order and well serviced. I bought them, played them as a reminder of my childhood now they're just taking up space. The last time they were used I believe it was for button mashing purposes.

I don't want them any more so I'm offering them to you guys first before I throw them to the Trade Me wolves. Ask around your friends and see if there is any interest. Buy them both and you'll get a 10% discount on the total price.

( Photos and prices )
This version of Street Fighter 2 is the one with Guile's exploits in it.  Both of the coin mechs are configured for the old style coins but both machines are set for Free Play.  I can provide the name and number of a tech who does house calls.

These two South Korean vessels have been in the harbour for the last two days. They're flying the NZ flag as protocol dictates so we're not being invaded by them.




The top ship is similar to the Endeavour. The bottom one I think is a Comms vessel given that it's lightly armed and dotted with comms gear.

The Korean sailors salute their superiors even if the other officer is in civvies. Tip for you budding assassins out there.

Phew that bronchitis thing took longer to get over than I would have liked. Still have a bit of a cough but no matter, the show must go on. Back at the gym now starting up my new program.

This is out of a Muscle & Fitness magazine which by and large is a bodybuilders bible. You may not think this true but bodybuilding and exercise is a constantly evolving art. It's gone far beyond "The things that work and the things that don't" and has turned into a science. I was sceptical as to how much information that a BB magazine can keep spitting out month after month before they start repeating themselves. They don't though and that's the perfect thing. Each time they review an exercise, they tweak it. They provide muscle stimulation graphs comparing different exercises that target the same muscle groups. They analyse champion bodybuilders' techniques to see how they build the bodies that win them titles. They discuss nutrition for strength, fat loss, endurance and general maintenance. They review and preview the up and coming supplements and try to provide as balanced an opnion as they can on what to use and what not to use.

One thing that impresses me the most, is that when they say "Take 5g of L-Cartinine preworkout", they say that exactly. They don't say "Take 5g of Horleys SUPERBULK mixture". They have sponsors which they advertise but they don't put it in their actual articles. They leave that decision up to you so you can decide what works and what doesn't.

So, this workout is from this mag which I grab every month. I hate cardio with a vengeance. It's boring and I just can't summon the motivation to spend an hour running/rowing/cycling. Even with the hard rock in my ears, I still get bored quickly. Enter this program. It's specifically designed for people who hate the treadmill! It's titled "Lift to get Lean" and is basically a cardio session but with weights. You lower your weight, increase your reps and hit all the multijoint exercises you can with a very small rest period between sets to maximise your fat burning. It's hell on your muscles and the effects are cumulative apparently but that remains to be seen.

That's all I got. Peace out.

Sunday is always a day where nothing really happens. It's a lazy day, a day for movies, aimless wanderings and updating journals.

One of the features of my Sunday is The Walk, where I grab whoever is at hand and wander from my place up to Queen St and back again. Many things can happen along the way. Being accosted by the scum who inhabit the street is one of these things. Since I don't deal with real money I'm usually proof against their insistances that I should part with some small amount of change for their benefit. I like not having to lie to them.

I'll usually end up in Whitcouls or Borders or both, scan DVD titles and check for the latest in Star Trek/Wars comics and novels. Today I found Seasons 1-3 of The Fresh Prince. I was *seriously* tempted to buy them... I loved that show but after recalling it I couldn't really find the justification. There were a lot of laugh out loud moments but I think that the humor is a little dated now for me to shell out for them. I'll probably change my mind at some point and get them anyway but that was the excuse I used today to not buy them. I instead searched for Scrubs and couldn't find anything aside from Season 4. I'd rather start from the beginning of course.

Queen St is such a different place now from when I was a kid. Granted I usually spent most of my time in a store playing magic but I *did* look out on the street sometimes. All these emo kids hanging around EVERYWHERE. It's an epidemic I tells you! A couple of months ago there were a few clumps around but now they're everywhere. I am very much glad I was a kid in the 90's and not now. Maybe I'm just too old to "get" it but I can't understand what these kids have got to be so worried about.

I'm going to go and yell at some kids and advise them to get off my lawn.

1.

Man, I'm getting sick again. Blegh. I wish people who were sick wouldn't come to work. I walk around all day from office to office picking up every lurgy and pox these fools have. Fortunately my immune system is the shiznit for the most part. Sometimes it just gets overloaded. Makes me miss the gym which pisses me off even more than being ill.

I went this evening though despite it all and it made me feel better.

Chest and Triceps this evening, 30 mins of cardio to round the session off. Came home, ate my sandwich and watched Nightmare on Elm Street 2. Not a bad movie all things considered.

I'm working on a new Star Trek game for Wednesday. We're running with an idea I had after playing Star Trek Elite Force back in the late 90s. Let me explain.

Star Trek has been a great show but it falls down in a few places. The major one being that it's always the command crew who end up on a planet in some catastrophe. Let's look at the standard away team composition for a TNG episode.

Riker, Data, Worf and (Beverly or Geordi) depending on what they're going down to do. So, they have their first officer, operations officer and chief security officer with either the CMO or the cheif engineer on a planet with some problem. How many episodes have revolved around something terrible happening to one of these core characters? Plenty and it's stupid. Starfleet Policy should NOT be so daft. You don't send PRIMARY members of the command crew into unknown situations. Who knows what could happen to them down there? Then what happens if the ship is attacked while they're on the planet? Ummm, sorry guys, but you're not only stuck down there but the ship is also screwed because all of our experienced starship operations guys are on a planet... The shows did this because they needed the actors to have screen time. I don't.

So, the game Elite Force introduced a group of specialists called the Hazard Team. These guys were trained commandos basically who would go into dangerous situations and sort things out before primary members of the command crew were exposed to the planet. The command crew then did what they do best, sit in space and direct them using the resources of the ship. Once the place is sorted out, then important staff can come down and investigate further with the Hazard Team standing by to extract them if things go pear shaped. I think this is a great idea and so I've added this to the Starfleet General Charter.

The game therefore has each of the PCs playing two characters. One Hazard Team member and one of their Starship Officers. Their ship is the USS Zealous, an Intrepid class starship (Voyager). The game is set a year after the conclusion of the Dominion War as the Federation and Klingon Alliance begin colonising the Gamma Quadrant. Since they're in the Gamma Quadrant it's not the kind of boring game where they run around enforcing Federation policy. They're rooting out smuggling rings, terrorists, pirates, rouge Dominion forces, overzealous Klingons looking for vengeance AND exploring a strange new territory. The best kind of Trek.

*glee* Star Trekkin across the universe...

Hey hey,

It's 1am and I've got no reason to go to sleep. Partially because I've got a headache and I can't and partially because I can sleepwalk through work tomorrow and still get everything done. I'm just *that* good.

I hit up the gym this evening with a vengeance. The passion for beating the living shit out of my body flared up in the weekend but could not be satiated because the gyms all close at 1. Sucks doesn't it? An arguement could be made for me getting up earlier but refer to my earlier post about "Weekends being mine" and you'll see why that isn't on the cards.

Legs and Shoulders this evening. Tried out a pre-exhausting methodology with my legs tonight to see how they reacted and it worked out well. The theory is that you do isolation exercises first before hitting the compound exercises. This way the major muscle groups are tired before you get to the compound exercise and the supporting muscles are fresh. Usually the supporting muscles are weaker than the major muscle you're trying to target and so by pre-exhausting the larger muscle they give out around the same time rather than the weaker muscle holding you back from being able to take your sets to failure.

That's gym speak for "until you can't lift anymore weight in a set".

I'm lining up for the Unholy Leg Thrash which is how Arnold built his legs of solid oak. I still don't know if I want to be throwing up after a leg workout though. I'm sure some people get a kick out of it...

The In Nomine games at the moment are awesome McAwesome. Michael goes back to his normal shifts next week which will cut him out of the Wednesday game. Hopefully he can swing the job of the person he's covering for at the moment. She's apparently not happy and may be leaving. Fingers crossed for him!

Andrea and I are back together again like we've never been apart. Two peas in a pod we are :) Going kayaking with her this weekend I think. Be nice to get out in the Daystar and drift down a river.

Good night all.

My post doesn't have anything to do with the subject line, I just happen to like that saying.  I can't really respect Marilyn Manson as a musician but whoever writes his lyrics is certainly on the ball sometimes.

I've been a little lax in updating because basically this journal has only one purpose.  To tell my dad how my exercise and fitness regime is progressing.  I've spoken to him recently about it all so there wasn't much point in updating the journal.  I don't usually exercise over the weekend beyond walking to and from places.  I'll need to change that habit if I'm to get really serious about shedding fat and becoming competition worthy but that's a long way off yet.  I like my sleeping habits in the weekend, it reminds me that I still have some control over my life.

That was a reasonably depressing thing to say but it shouldn't be interpreted as such.  I have to wake up in the morning on the weekdays, I have to go to bed before midnight on the weekdays, I have to leave my house and go to my job on the weekdays.  All these elements restrict the level of control I have over my life.  Were I to choose unemployment I could then regain the control over my weekday sleeping habits.  I don't and therefore I accept the sanctions that my job place upon me gladly.  I like to remind myself though that the weekend is *mine* and therefore I can choose to get up and bust my ass at the gym or I can choose to stay in bed until 1pm.  At the moment, I am enjoying the latter.

Catch up time:

Friday:  A normal day at work.  My "normal" days are what other people call "hellish and dehumanising".  My "good" days are what others call "Utterly fantastic, mindblowingly brilliant days".  I work in the IT industry - our standards are different to the rest of the world, as are the scales by which we measure these standards.  We're like small gods.

Friday night however was awesome and so help me I'm going to go out of my way to repeat it every Friday.  Usually I have a movie night at my place.  It's been a mainstay of my life since mid-2004.  We go out, get 5 DVDs from the video store, grab whatever rapidly prepared food we feel like and come back to melt our brains.  It's a good precursor to the weekend.  Last week, Michael (my flatmate) mentioned that he wanted to get back into contact with his old Chemistry friends.  So I suggested that rather than them going out to a bar and suffering the problems that one suffers at bars, that they have it at our place.  He liked the idea and began inviting.  It occurred to me though that I would be the odd one out.  They'd talk their Chemistry talk and I'd end up being thoroughly out of my league and unable to do much but dribble into my Jagermeister.  Not being one to alienate myself I quickly began inviting friends of my own along.  I invited a bunch and only one could make it.  Which was fine, at least it would allow me to divert the conversation from time to time.  To my surprise however, two other friends of mine, who had already said they couldn't come before I'd begun inviting my other friends, showed up anyway!

We had a rocking time.  We talked, we laughed, we drank, we told dirty jokes, we mocked things.  We generally were a bunch of mid-20s friends hanging out enjoying life.  The general "nerd" level of the party was about a 5.5 until two people started talking card/wargames then it skyrocketed to an unhealthy 8.75.

So basically, I've decided that every Friday is now going to be that unless there is another party on somewhere that we should go to.

Saturday:  Had brunch with my old schoolfriend which is always a fabulously rewarding experience.  She amazes me constantly and I have enormous respect for her.  Were I not obligated to go to the In Nomine game at 2.00 we'd have stayed in that cafe probably all day just interfacing.  The In Nomine game was rewarding as well in a different way.  I made a rather unanticipated move and changed the continuity somewhat.  It was a spur of the moment decision which ultimately paid off well.  We've now put that game on hold while Michael runs his Sydney game (in the same continuity as my NYC game).  I've been looking forward to swapping my GM hat for my PC hat.

Sunday:  Was a write off as far as anything substantial is concerned.  Got up at 2ish and wandered up Queen St with Michael to grab some chow.  Ended up buying Season One of Boston Legal and House and watching that until about 2.00am this morning.  I think I'm in love with James Spader (said in a totally heterosexual way).  He's an actor who has been sorely underutilised by Holywood in my opinion.

Monday:  Is today.  I'm at work and it's a "good" day.  Mostly because I've not had to go out and train people in our Hospitality system.

I'll update things tonight when I'm back from the gym.  Stay strong everyone.

Would you even know what one looked like if you found it?

It seems that there were 8 people affected by Telecom's little screw up at the exchange.  8 in the whole of the Auckland CBD who connect their ADSL through the Mayoral Drive exchange.  Wow, I feel special.

Anyway, it's back up and running now so I can breathe easily again.

I'm missing the gym tonight because I'm at home after having to do a remote training session from here.  I'm bloody tired as well for some reason which I can't think of.  I've been sleeping well and I'm eating well.  I guess the day has just taken it out of me.  I know I'm going to have a pretty frustrating morning tomorrow and it's probably impinging on my mind.

Man, I'm falling alseep just typing this.  I'm going to have a nap.


ZzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZzz.

Not being one to ignore a trend, away we go!

*6 Random things you didn't know about me*

1. I have a rather large scar on my right side just below my stomach. This was casued by the operation to repair pyloric stenosis.  This scar grew with me, so it once was about an inch now it's about 5 inches.

2.  I was born in Rotorua and lived in Taupo before moving to Auckland when I was 6.  So technically, I'm not an Aucklander.

3.  I only sat 2 school certificate exams in the 5th form because I was violently ill during the examination period.  Ironically enough, the two subjects I did sit were my worst ones.  Physics and Maths.  I passed Maths with 63% and failed Physics with 49%.

4.  I should have been a laywer.  With the marks I got in 6th form cert I could have gone straight to law school and I should have.  It's a decision that I've regretted my entire life.

5.  My oldest friend is gay and I was about the last person to find out.  I think there are a few people in outer Mongolia who haven't heard yet.  Yes, he's still my oldest friend.

6.  I was allergic to the following when I was a child:  Peanuts, Soy, Milk, Legumes, Dogs, Cats, Horses, House Dust Mites, Pollen, certain grasses and eggs.  The only things that remain now are Peanuts (fatal), Cats (irritating), House Dust Mites (exacerbates asthma) and Soy (Minor).

Internet is out at home. Phoned Orcon and apparently Telecom have messed something up at their exchange. It could be 3 to 5 days before service is restored. So for the time being, I'm online only at work...

Fortunately I have a friend who works at Orcon and she seems to be confident that Telecom are just giving a stock standard response to a commonly asked question. She's like a little wolverine when it comes to tracking down problems so I'm in good hands :)

Last night I hit Back and Biceps. I missed that workout last week because of work so I had to take it pretty easy. I do Deadlifts for lower back and they can be pretty painful if not done perfectly. Busted out the cardio at the end. I've changed my before bed meal to a Protein Shake without Carbs. Trialing it for now to see if anything changes.

Bush cracks out some Bono

Not I. Certainly, not I.

Woah, been absent a little from LJ which I apologise for everyone. I know you must miss me terribly and the lack of my pearls of wisdom are like splinters in your mind.

Kinda like an icecream headache.

Seriously, Wednesday I was in Napier for that funeral. Chris was fine until they started singing "Danny Boy". Then he felt to pieces so it was good Roger and I were there for him. I got to see Roger's mother again, who I've not seen for 10 years. She was over the moon to see me which was odd I thought because I'd always harboured the belief she didn't like me all that much. It was great to be proven wrong. I'll have to make a point to visit her at least once a year from now on or at least send her a letter. She had a photo from my 25th on her coffee table... I was speechless which is a rarity for me. Rog and I flew down and back which, while not very unusual for us, was still taxing. We landed at 5.00pm right in time for rush hour so by the time I got home it was 6.30. I decided that heading over to the shore for the gym was not on the cards. Went to the In Nomine game which was pretty good aside from seeing one of my friends get fatter almost by the second. He's a vegetarian too which unnethe and I had a good laugh at.  

Thursday was another write off.  I was out ALLLLLL day catching up on work from Wednesday.  Running around like a blue assed fly and getting very tired.  I was in Mt Wellington at 4.30 which resulted in me getting home at 6.  Another day I didn't go to the gym.  Ah well.

Today however was great.  Aside from not wanting to get up - but that happens every morning it seems.  I did obviously and went to work.  My PT session this morning was fucking awesome as it always is.  We blasted Legs and Shoulders.  I decided to get a photo of me and my trainer after the workout.  The Architect of my new body stands to the right, I'm on the left.  In case you didn't know. As you can see from the photo, I was pretty shagged.  White as a sheet and sweating like hell.  I think my heart rate was about 180 at this point.  Anyway.  Muscular definition is not very apparent here because of the lighting.  I can't thank him enough for what he's helped me accomplish.

I'm back home now and about to settle down for our typical Friday Movie Night.

Hey all.

Ok. Sorry about the lack of an update from Monday. I was a little burnt out from computers and needed some time out from the whole affair. So, Michael and I watched Super Troopers and all was good.

Tonight I hit the Chest and Triceps. I've upped the ante on a lot of the exercises to allow for growth in the muscles. I'm not eating for bulk at the moment so I'm not exactly expecting them to grow in leaps and bounds, I just don't want them shrinking.

On the note of food, I'm week 2 of my eating plan and it's going very very well. EXCEPT when I skip a meal. Circumstances conspired against me today and I couldn't leave my desk to grab my sandwich - so instead of eating that at 2 and my shake at 4, I just had the sandwich at 4. I calculated that it cost me about 350 calories to skip that meal and OH MY FUCKING GOD did I pay for it at the gym. My energy levels were low, I could feel that after a couple of exercises but I figured that was just my muscles warming up. It wasn't. I get to the cardio and I just bottomed out after 20 minutes. So I left it at that.

My body is now used to eating every 2 hours or so, my RMR is probably very high hence why I was out of energy so soon into my workout. I'd burnt it up during the day just existing. I have learnt my lesson now oh gods of nutrition and exercise. Thou shalt eat regularly and not skip a meal.

I'm out of the office all day tomorrow in Napier. Not for work though, my stepbrother's grandmother died and Mum wants Roger (my stepfather) and me down there to support him. Apparently he went down there on Sunday when he found out she was sick. So we're flying down in the morning, doing the deed and flying back around 4. We land right in rush hour traffic... Booya! Anyway it turns out that I don't have any actual dress pants that fit me anymore. I've got jeans but they are just not funeral wear. Hmmmm, TO THE MALL! I go and run into someone I knew from school in the Barker's store. I had intended to go to Mark Richard but they've closed their doors in Shore City. This girl (woman actually) recognised me immediately despite me being a year below her. I struggled for her name and it popped into my head *just* as she said it. We chatted which was pretty cool. She told me about some old friends of mine who had totally gone off the rails. God... I digress.. PANTS!

She asks me what my waist size is and since I've shrunk I have no idea. I remember buying my last pair of jeans and I was a 36". So I told her 36 and she grabs a 34 and a 36 and I head off to try them on. 36" feels like I'm wearing MC Hammer pants now. That's right sports fans... I'm a 34! WOOOOOOOO! I bounded from the stall and proudly displayed myself to the mirror without love-handles spilling from the sides of the pants. I was almost brought to tears in the moment :P

Hit the legs and the shoulders tonight. Had tons of energy so I stayed on to push out another 30 mins of solid cardio. According to the heart monitor I wear I burnt just over 1300 calories, most of which should have been from fat. Got home and had my post workout meal which nicely filled me up before heading off to Kung Foo.

Had to take the class tonight as the instructor was going over some basics with the newbies. I decided that our combat skills needed refining so we did the parry drill and Attack & Evade all night. Loads of fun.

Just got home and apparently someone is going to be calling me to hook up for some coffee. This person has yet to txt... knowing her however, I'll either not get one or it'll come at around 10:30 when I'm about to go to bed. I'm not holding my breath. I will be slightly disappointed though.

Woah. I just woke up.

We started our In Nomine game yesterday at 2 and we finished up this morning at around 4.30. Allowing about half and hour for dinner that puts us at around 14 hours of roleplaying. Let no one doubt that we are hardcore. For the last 5 or so hours we didn't even touch our dice - pure roleplaying. Fuck I love this damn game.

I'd go into it but I don't think I'd be able to really explain it in a way that could be understood by mere mortals. 14 hours to recap... it makes my head hurt thinking about it.

Anyway, time for "lunch".