Out of Shape!

Well, it appears that sitting around playing Wii, XBox and PS3 for 2 months does NOT improve your endurance or physical strength, even if you do lots of running in the game running from wolves, terrorists, giant bugs and aliens.

I managed to make it 750 feet today on my unicycle, and then stopped because I couldn't pedal any more. There is a fence that is right next to the path at about 300 feet I've been using to remount and ride back the other way. I am not having any difficulty getting back and forth between the bridge and that fence today. A few times I made it past 500 feet. At least two times I rode from the bridge, down the 3" drop to the path and kept going without touching the fence or the pole-to-keep-cars-off-the-bridge.

So since it seems to be an endurance thing, I decided to start running. My hernia operation was 9 weeks ago (I think). I ran around the block today, I had some sharp pain the first block and considered stopping, but it became less and less and was gone by the end of the block. I'll see how I feel tomorrow and consider getting in shape for the Bolder Boulder... that will hopefully be good enough shape to unicycle up much steeper hills than the path I'm practicing on!


On a yoyo related note: I got my DNA yesterday. It seems more stable than the 888, I can even put T stacks on and throw it hard without it going crazy! I'll try to post some pictures and my impressions of it later this week. I definitely think I like it more than my Pyro... but I'm wondering if I shouldn't have got a Superstar or Peak just to have something a bit more different than my 888. I really was starting to not like it, but then I took off the green highlight string it came with and put on a lemonade gString and I successfully did white budda for the first time on my first try. (Except the weird magic trapeze bind thing at the end, which I'm not convinced is possible with a DNA or 888 because of their wide gap.)

Unicycling

Dawn gave me a unicycle for Christmas, but I have not really commented on it here yet. Basically I spent the first week I had it learning to not fall on my head while getting on, then I found out I had a hernia (probably not from unicycling, but I did have one nasty fall before I learned to fall off). While waiting for my surgery, I learned to go along a wall or fence and not fall on my head. Then I took a couple months off and I did not ride again until a week ago.

I have been practicing on a small 60 foot bridge over the emergency drainage ditch about 2 blocks from my house. The fence is maybe 4 feet high, perfect for holding onto while learning to mount and pedal. A week ago I managed to go 3 full rotations of the wheel without touching the fence. Then 4 rotations. Then Monday I managed to make it a full 8 rotations, which is about 40 feet. Since then I've been busy and we had lots of snow.

Today I went out again and managed to go 8 rotations several times, then 12 a few times, then I started running out of room on the bridge. At one end of the bridge is a steep drop off, and the other end has a pole to keep cars off and I'm afraid I'll fall off and impale my head on it like in some B movie. Plus there is about a 3" drop on either end, which wasn't really noticeable on a bike or walking... Anyway I made it the full 60 feet of the bridge a few times and even had a few PDs (Planned Dismounts) once I gave up trying to go down the hill.

Then I started at the bridge just past the 3" drop and started riding down a path that runs about 1500 feet along an easement between two rows of houses. I've been doing that all along, I just usually only made it about 2 rotations before falling off. The tricky thing was I immediately had to turn right to not run out of path, and then left again... oh and it was down hill... oh and there is still melting snow all over. Anyway today I made it 240 feet down the path, a ways past where it starts going back up and past lots of little pockets of ice where the snow that melted was refreezing.

My next goal is the end of the path... then I need to learn to free mount. I'll try to post some newer pictures soon.

What makes a good video game?

I have had lots of time to play video games the last few days, and I've gotten to wondering why I like some games so much, and really disliked other similar games. Obviously what makes a good video game is rather subjective, but I will compare two games to maybe find out more about what I am looking for in video games.

I'll consider three games that I finished in the last day: Fallout 3, Gears of War, and Braid.

I loved Fallout 3. It was just the right mix of humor, gravity, role playing, first person shooter. It required no reflexes... maybe I'm getting old, but I thought VATS was amazing. Even when I had The Drifter's sniper Rifle, I was using VATS to target super mutants and Talon assassins alike. It felt a lot like Fallout 2, which I also loved. The game was a bit too easy, I had it turned up to the hardest setting at the end, and the only time I really came close to dying was when 4 or 5 Enclave solders would flank me when I was out in the open and I would fail to get a critical on one in VATS mode on the first couple. But then again, I focused on all good Perks, no silly ones like "Here and Now" or "Daddy's Girl". Maybe I would have been less overpowered if I didn't have like 75 points in VATS with Grim Reaper Sprint? It was fun playing as a good person in a wasteland of evil. It was awesome that I could do whatever I wanted and could ignore the storyline for a good 40 hours before I decided to go looking for my dad.

I love love loved Braid. That game was amazing. I don't want to say too much about it, but it was the best $15 I've ever spent on a game. I beat the game (no speed runs yet) in probably 4 hours with no hints or help from the web. I had to sleep on one of the puzzles, but came back in the morning and instantly saw how to do the puzzle. The last level was just twisted an was a better ending than 90% of games out there. (Bioshock, *cough* *cough*) Why did I like Braid? It was not stressful, you can rewind most things away. It was unique, it felt totally fresh and I don't think I've liked a puzzle game that much since The Adventures of Lola. (I bought that new.) The controls were spot on. At first it is weird not being able to run faster or jump higher, but once I got used to rewinding time, it was second nature.

I hated Gears of War. I'm not sure why, I really wanted to like Gears of War. It is not that I hate first person shooters... I thought CoD4 was the best game last year, and Halo 3 was lots of fun too (but maybe only multiplayer). Was Gears of War was maybe just too hard for me? The last game I hated this much was Code Veronica... I have never met a Resident Evil game I liked. I borrowed Gears of War from my cousin Adam, and his brother Brody has been trying to get me to buy Gears of War 2 to play multiplayer with them online... but the first game was just so frustrating and tedious that I can't see myself plunking down $60 for more frustration. I hear the sequel is better in multiplayer.

But what exactly do I dislike?

The controls are irritating. This can be said for Halo 3 and CoD4 too, but it is really annoying when a monster runs past me, and I just want to turn and shoot him with my Shotgun but I turn so slow that I can watch him take 4 bites out of my back before I die. Okay, so it is a console and you can't turn on a dime like you can with a mouse... well why can the monsters turn around and eat my head faster than I can turn and shoot them in the head?

I don't like cover systems? I actually like cover, that was a neat part of the game. But every so often you would get flanked and instead of diving for appropriate cover, you are stuck moving from cover to similar cover until the new enemy blows you up because you are not hiding from threats in his direction. This is probably the main reason I hated Metal Gear Solid 4... bad control. But GoW controls are easily 10 times better than MGS4, so I'm not sure that is it. And 95% of the time Fenix picked the correct cover.

The weapons are hard to manage. I really only liked a couple of the weapons in the game, but I had to keep putting them down to pick up a Hammer of Dawn or a Torque Bow for certain tasks... and I wouldn't get the weapon I like back afterward. I got stuck going through an entire chapter with no chain saw on my gun since I accidentally swapped out my main gun for a stupid Shot Gun just before a checkpoint. I would have loved a torque bow against the last boss, but I dropped it to pick up a hammer of Dawn and never thought to get another.

The bosses are random and not fun. I love good boss battles. Lately most games have wimpy bosses that fall over dead if you sneeze at them wrong (Zelda, I'm looking at you)... but the final boss in GoW was just silly. He had these bat things all over him so you can't hurt him, and he randomly sent them to attack you, and only then could you hurt him. But they could not hurt you if you were in the light. So you have to stay in the light. But the boss will walk towards you and eventually blow your head off with a Torque Bow or something point blank if you don't run away for cover... but if he releases the bat things while you are running for different corner you just die, they eat you. Oh, and there are other things randomly flying by that will occasionally kill you if you don't take cover from them too. It felt like when I finally won, I just got lucky and had him send his bats at me more than usual. No sense of accomplishment.

Why was CoD4 fun on Veteran while GoW was tedious on Casual (I beat half the game on Hardcore, then decided I didn't care)? I'm not sure. Maybe CoD4 just looked and felt happy while GoW feels ugly and sad? I seriously disliked my Black and Yellow Lynn Fury yoyo... but I love my Yellow and Green Lynn Fury Yoyo, and 50% of it is exactly the same yoyo!

Maybe I would have liked GoW if I could have saved like in Fallout 3 or had twice as many checkpoints like in CoD4? I think I'm just getting too old and slow to play newfangled first person shooters that require reflexes?

Oh well, at least I still have games like Fallout 3 expansions and the next drug induced game like Braid or Space Giraffe to look forward to.

Cholesterol 2009

Had my checkup Monday! My cholesterol levels are even better than last year (well, really almost 2 years ago, May 2007 was my last checkup).

Total Cholesterol = 123 (down 14)
Triglycerides = 67 (Down 24)
HDL = 32 (down 2... but I have not been running)
LDL = 78 (Down 8)


A couple years ago I was running to raise my HDL, but I have only run 3 or 4 times in the last 3 months, so I was expecting to have considerably worse cholesterol than I did. I was on a strict Candida Cleanse until Thanksgiving, and the Candida Diet except for some sugar from Jelly, Pamela's bread and Cheerios since Thanksgiving. So I guess having very little sugar is more helpful to my cholesterol than running like crazy!

Early Christmas Toys!

Our family had early Christmas this year since we won't be able to be together for Christmas. It was lots of fun. My parents got me a set of 7 Tossaball Hybrids, and my sister got me 7 of Nord's Juggling Thingies.

I'm not sure what I think about the Tossaballs... (the 7 bright balls in the lower left) I definitely seem to be doing better on 4 ball tennis with them than any of my other balls, but I am having trouble even getting to 40 of a 5 ball cascade with them. Maybe just because they are slightly larger than my other balls? Maybe because they weight slightly more so I get tired faster? They make a nice muted "fphoomph" sound when you catch them.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the Ultraleather Thingies! (Middle Right) They are amazing to juggle. I set a new record (68) of 5 ball cascade Tuesday. They are easy to hold, throw and catch. They seem a little slick sometimes, but as soon as my palms get even the slightest bit sweaty, they grip just fine. I would have to say these are my favorites. Not too surprising as the Ultrasuede Thingies were my favorites before I had them (the fluorescent yellow balls).


I like the new Dirt Bag Hybrid footbag (the yellow/blue/purple one) more than my old Mr. Sandbags... but not as much as my Abshire footbag. I'm not afraid to let people toe-up with a $8 bag though... and it is MUCH easier to stall.


Anyway, I would say I have enough juggling balls. For now.

Junior High: Id Ra Ha Je 2008!

We spent the last weekend up at Camp Id Ra Ha Je in Bailey Colorado. It was a lot of fun! We played lots of games, sang crazy songs, did High/Low Ropes, and learned a lot about trusting Jesus!




(Above image links to ALL images on my Flickr.)





After supper, the guys set up Heroscape... I've seen people play Heroscape before, but Aaron has a seriously large collection of Heroscape sets. I think Andrew knew every hero by name. Matthew, Rocket, Cristo, Sam and I just picked whatever looked powerful or fun. This strategy worked for Sam and Rocket and they managed to wipe out most of Cristo, Matthew and Andrew's forces with few problems!




After setting up Heroscape, Zach and Esther led us did some worship where we learned some cool Czech songs like "Anchor for My Soul" and "He's Alive". Then Allison led us in our first lesson on Trusting God.




Aaron and Zach led us all in interesting prayers for breakfast, dinner and supper. I've never prayed quite like this before, but it was fun and interesting!





We played a lot of really fun games! We ate Pretzels, tossed balls, ate Alka-Seltzer, tossed rings, played Egg/Chicken/Eagle/Bear/Mongoose (Rock/Paper/Scissors), Mafia, Super Munchkin, Heroscape, Truth or Dare, and lots more! Here are a couple videos:







I think the most fun part was the High Ropes course! Unfortunately I did not think to make a video of everyone on my team like Aaron did (I actually didn't get any pictures of Matthew, Andrew or Kassie at all as they went before I had my camera out) But here is a video of Sam going down the Zip Line at the end!




If you were with us at Id Ra Ha Je and you want to see all the pictures of yourself, do a search on Flickr for 'SmilingCowboy "Id Ra Ha Je" '! All of the pictures are here.

Juggling Record!

Yey! I'm 2/3rds of the way to my goal of 100 catches of a 5 ball cascade this year! I just spent 40 minutes focused on 5 balls (the longest I've spent probably this year) and my arms sure are tired! I had several runs up around 50, but my arms kept getting tired and my left arm would randomly throw a ball 5 feet in front of me. Finally I managed to slow myself down enough and made it to about 67 catches!

People ask me this all the time... how do I count so fast? I always count by 4s, starting with 1 on the first ball I catch, it is subconcious really, when I'm out joggling I find myself counting by 2s or 4s. When juggling 4 I count the same ball as hit hits each time. With 5 I just kind of count every other right without thinking about it much. Anyway, lets say my total count is C (18 today). Then if I finish with 5 balls in my hand, I caught C*4+1. If I have less than 5, I just assume (C-1)*4-1. If I had caught the last two it would have been 73, so I just subtract 5 off since I'm not sure which of the 5 balls I dropped. Note: In reality it should be (C-1)*4+1, but I figure I'm less likely to overstate my count with (C-1)*4-1.

Anyway, if I make it to 100 throws this year, I guess my goal for next year will be a full minute of 5 and a full minute of 53444 (4 ball tennis)...