To the person that stole my car antenna

I hope you really needed that Mazda3 antenna. I guess you couldn't wait any longer to listen to the radio. The last time I listened to the radio was several years ago, so it's not like I needed it. But, that's not to say it wasn't MINE.

I can certainly see the appeal of the antenna because it's not like your regular old style. Still, you couldn't buy your own?

Regardless of its usefulness to me, you still stole something that was mine and I want it back. I hope someone steals it from you!

My Physical Results

The University of Alabama has some awesome benefits and one new program they started is something called WellBama. It is basically for helping employees learn about their current health level, as well as steps to improve their health through small changes.

After having some blood work done, I went in for a physical (all of this was free, by the way). I went over everything with the doctor and I'm in great shape. I finally have my results here. The WellBama program grades you certain points per category and puts you into either the Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Crimson Club.

Here are the results:
Height - 6"
Weight - 181
Waist - 35.50"

BMI (Body Mass Index) - 24.5
Systolic Blood Pressure - 116
Diastolic Blood Pressure - 67
LDL Cholesterol - 75
Total Cholesterol - 122
Total HDL Cholesterol - 36
Triglycerides - 59
Glucose (blood sugar) - 82
Cardio Exercise days per week - 5+
Tobacco Use(w/in 12 months) - Never used or have quit for 12 mos.

All of my results put me into the Crimson Club! I was told that I am one out of ten people on-campus in that group. I'm in the Top 10!

We also made goals for ourselves and they would follow-up with us in a few years (or months, depending on how healthy you were). My main goal is to get down to a body fat percentage of 12 - 15% as well as losing 5% of my weight (172 lbs) over the next year. I'm not really sure if I can get down to 172, but I feel confident of reaching 12 - 15% of my body fat, especially since I signed up for Turbulence Training where so many have had fantastic results.

Update: Here is the grading scale for those curious what it takes to be in the Crimson Club.
BMI (Body Mass Index) - <= 24.9
Systolic Blood Pressure - < 120
Diastolic Blood Pressure - < 80
LDL Cholesterol - combined w/ total
Total Cholesterol - <= 160 mg
Total HDL Cholesterol - combined w/ total
Triglycerides - <= 149
Glucose (blood sugar) - <= 100
Cardio Exercise days per week - 5+
Tobacco Use(w/in 12 months) - Never used or have quit for 12 mos.

AIM no more

Ok, I'm done with AIM forever. I only really talk to one person on AIM anymore and it's not worth trying to find a stable program to do that anymore. I have gone the extra mile and I can't do it anymore. It's not that I don't want to talk, but I just can't take these crappy programs anymore.

I have tried multiple solutions and none of them are really the best solutions. Trillian is nice but you can't combine your AIM and Google Talk accounts into the program unless you pay for the premium version. I refuse to pay for a chat program. I tried using Digsby but the program is so buggy and full of memory leaks, it ends up self destructing. It's a shame, really, because it is a nice program that did exactly what I wanted it to do.

I still have Gmail's AIM interoperability, but that's just for home use. The Google Talk client is much better, especially when you have a lot of people on your buddy list. Anyways, if you want to chat with me, I suggest downloading Google Talk.

The Spring is Broken

I've been on Spring Break this week and it's really hard to get motivated to workout. I do it because I have to, but since my day is spent relaxing it feels weird to get started. Coming home from work, where I've been active all day, and then working out is an easy transition. I usually get home, immediately change into gym clothes and either head to the treadmill or begin my bodyweight regime. It's a routine that works.

Speaking of routine, I'm going to be breaking from my weekly weigh-in schedule this week because of other spring break activities coming up. I won't have access to my scale on Friday morning because I'll be on a little camping trip. So, I'm going to use Thursday morning as my "official" weigh-in day for this week. Also, I'll be saving the report until Monday morning when I'm back in the office and have access to the spreadsheet.

UPDATE: So much for the camping trip. Something came up with Jason and Emily so it had to be pushed back to Friday. Jason forgot that I was going to B'ham that day, so I'm out. Friday is still the official weigh-in day.

I would have been arrested

Last night, I went through one of the coolest experiences I have ever been through. Jason and I went to the police academy to get drunk. That's right, the cops gave us alcohol.

It was all part of this sobriety test for the new recruits on how to identify intoxicated people. I played my part, for sure.

Here's how the night went. When we arrived, they tested our blood-alcohol percentage (which was 0.00%) and asked us what we wanted to drink. We had several options to choose from such as bourbon, rum, gin, and any kind of mixer we wanted. I ended up with rum and diet coke.

From this point on, we were free to drink as much or as little as we wanted to. I want to say that we started drinking around 6:30. They had the Alabama v. Florida game on a few TVs plus lots of cards to keep us busy. Other than the fact that we were in a police academy, it felt like just a normal night out with friends. After a few hours of eating snack mix and having the cops bartend for us, they cut us off. It was about 9:00 at this point. Everyone started to line up at the Breathalyzer to get our BAC tested. Jason and I were at the end of the line. After a couple of minutes, we were told that we were not drunk enough. I mean, how do you respond to that? If you're like us, then it's a challenge. Who better to take a dare from cops about getting more drunk.

Most of the volunteers decided to leave instead of continue further. If you drove yourself, you had to wait until you blew a 0.00% before they would let you leave. If you had a designated driver, then you had to wait until you blew a 0.08% before letting you leave. Otherwise, they could have arrested you for drunk and disorderly. Beforehand, we kept joking that if that happened we were going to show the cop our Breathalyzer print-out to prove it was for science!

So, we kept drinking for a couple more hours until we were good and ready. They tested our BAC but hid the results from us until after we had completed the sobriety tests. Waiting for us downstairs were about 30 recruits eager to test their knowledge on the freshly liquored up volunteers. Even though I was several drinks in, I took this part as seriously as I could have--like I was in trouble for real. Since a lot of people left earlier, we had to be tested four times by four different cops. They asked me to "follow the pen", "walk the line", and "balance on one foot."

I was so convinced that I had passed these tests with flying colors! In my mind, I performed perfectly. Unfortunately, most of the recruits didn't see the same perfection. We went back into the "bar" where they had each name on a white board with several columns of how much we had to drink, what our blood alcohol content was, each test they gave us, and whether or not they would have arrested us.

After drinking 13oz of rum and blowing a .09%, three out of the four cops would have arrested me. Jason had 14oz of bourbon and blew a .10% with all cops arresting him. It was really interesting to see the people who were under the legal limit and yet some of the cops would have arrested them. The recruits who marked the legal-limit drinkers as arrested were told to write down what they did and later they would go over how to correct their errors. Needless to say, we were ready to go home and finally made it out of there around midnight.

You can kinda see Jason and I in the video above. We are the ones walking in at the very end with me in the gray shirt, Jason in the green.

Blind Melon

Last night I went to see Blind Melon with my brother and his girlfriend. I was unsure of how it was going to be, considering that the original lead singer has been dead for a long time. Forget all of that. The new guy is like the spiritual successor to Shannon. He sounds just like Shannon.

I've had Blind Melon's self-titled album since it came out and I have watched them live on pay-per-view at the 25th Woodstock Anniversary where Shannon was wearing a dress for some reason. None of this mattered last night because it was like the old band was back together. They must have looked a long time for this guy...the similarities are just uncanny.

The only thing I was disappointed about was that they didn't play one song I was looking to hear: I Wonder. The show was still great and high with energy thanks to the new front man.

Blogger's Update

You can tell it has been a long time since logging into Blogger when they offer to upgrade from your "Classic" blog template. Is that officially old? Now, Blogger offers Labels, or in other words, categories. What this means for me is that I have to do away with the previous method I was using to separate posts and transfer my posts across sub-blogs. If it looks like there is an inundation with posts, don't worry. I had no choice and cannot edit the dates on said posts.

I will be updating the design back to what it was over the next few days(hopefully).

Quarter of a Century

On August 25th, I passed the quarter century mark. It was, to my surprise, my "Golden Birthday" as a co-worker pointed out. Having never heard of that, it must mean that this year will be showered with riches(i.e. Green for the Money, Gold for the honeys). My birthday lasted all weekend and it kicked ass. So, what is my reward for turning 25? Cheaper insurance and passing that threshold of asking out teenagers. Damn you, college town.

Forget something?

This past Saturday, my mom decided to come and visit me before heading off to stay with my grandparents. We were just out running a couple of errands when mom realized she needed to stop by the ATM to get some cash. As we were pulling up, this guy in front of us drives away done with his transaction (or so we thought). At the ATM we see the "Would you like another transaction?" screen and realize this guy completely ran off without his card. We tried to get his attention, but what can you do in a situation like that?

We decided to take his card so no one else would get it. I called directory assistance, but they were no help.

What would you do in that situation? Daddy needs a new TV!

Arriving soon

After finally arriving at a conclusive state on this site, I think I am finally ready to throw it out there. Blogger is not my first choice for this, but it is free and allows me at least some variations of control. When I feel that I have the time and energy to pursue a greater means and production value, I'll be expanding my horizons, so to speak.

At the moment, I have taken liberty to post most of my movie reviews on the site. I have more, but they aren't worth reading. Also, I'm trying to find the most viable option for posting my pictures, so that section is a hazard zone and you have been forewarned.