P90X Complete! - Pictures

Some of you may know that for the last three months I have been doing P90X. Today was my last day, and I have my 0-30-60-90 day pictures right here for you.

A couple quick stats from the last 90 days...
Weight: 192 pounds to 176 pounds
Body fat: 24% to 16%
Farmer's tan: Yep, still there

I'm definitely not "done" getting into shape. I'd like to drop another 12-14 pounds of body fat and gain some more muscle, but that'll come in time. Anyway... more updates to come soon. Here are my pictures in the meantime.

Another Salt Lake City Bicycle Mishap

Lately there have been so many news reports about car-to-bicycle accidents in the Salt Lake area. And then on top of that, some of them include hit-and-runs--three or four that I can think of right now--but even one is too many. At least some people take responsibility for their actions and stop. Well, I don't live right in Salt Lake (I live and work in Sandy, a suburb), but let's chalk up yet another stupid driver.

Usually I ride a scooter to work. It's a big ride that can easily keep up with traffic. But right now my back tire is out of commission, and while I'm working on getting that taken care of, I've been bicycling to work. Generally the road I take to work (9400 S on the west side of I-15) is rather calm. It has a middle turn lane, so it does make it easy for people to pass cyclists if they need to. In fact, this morning there were four cars that passed me in a row, and they all went almost all the way into the middle lane as they passed. Talk about courtesy... so thank you if you're the type that will kindly share the road. The fifth car that passed me wasn't so nice. A woman by the name of Katherine Strode barely sideswiped me, causing my left handle and my left pinky finger to knock off the right rear-view mirror of her green Chrysler sedan. I wasn't hurt and didn't even get knocked over, but what made me mad is that I saw her tap her brakes after that but then decide to keep going.

After I was waving my arms for a bit while pedaling as quickly as I could so I wouldn't lose her, she finally came to her senses and decided to stop. She would have had to stop anyway because there was a line at the stop sign coming up. Anyway, I caught up to her and gave her a piece of my mind and told her how many people have been just like her this year with all the bicycle accidents... and that she needs to pay attention to what she's doing and give cyclists some room. I told her it could have been much worse and that she's lucky I wasn't thrown off of my bike. Her responses throughout my rant were all along the lines of, "I know," and "I'm so sorry!" Of course since I wasn't hurt, I really didn't care what she had to say; I just wanted her to hear my frustration towards her. Obviously she didn't actually know like she said she did or else she would have been paying attention and being a good driver.

I did mention that my finger did get hit as part of this little mishap. I could move it perfectly, but I told the girl that I wanted her information so if it starts bothering me, I'd get in contact with her. I doubt that will happen, but at least it'll scare her a bit for a few days. I also ended up getting her license plate number just for fun... never know, right? One interesting thing with this whole situation is that she lost her right mirror. I told her, "You no longer have a mirror on the right side, but that's your problem." One would think, "Well, that's what she gets for doing what she did," and that I "won" in this particular car/bike battle. But unfortunately with no mirror, this lady can't pay as much attention as she could before... and who knows if she's going to replace it? Great... now she'll have yet another blind spot.

Well... my bike wasn't even scratched, and I wasn't hurt (my finger knows something happened to it this morning, but it's not bad at all), so the only real purpose of this blog entry is to tell people to WATCH OUT. Pay attention to the road and people on the road. You have a responsibility while driving, and if you can't handle something big like a car, ride a bike instead (ironic, I know)! Give cyclists three feet when passing, and although I was wearing a bright shirt this morning, some don't do that, and it's still your responsibility to watch for anything on and off the road. We shouldn't HAVE to feel unsafe while getting a little bit of exercise just because you care more about your phone and your music than others' safety while you drive. Thank you.

Almost Fooled by KFC

For the last little while, I've been saying/thinking, "I'm not going to eat at KFC anymore. The food is just too greasy, and I always feel like a fat pig when I'm done eating there." It's quite true. The chicken is way too greasy, and no one should be taking in that much fat in one meal. But of course this is the USA, so people do it. I must admit that KFC's macaroni and cheese is the best there is anywhere though.

So, we've established two things... KFC has great macaroni along with chicken that will lower your lifespan way too much.

Well, lately, more and more places have been giving healthier alternatives to the greasy foods... like McDonald's with apples, yogurt, etc. KFC caught on to this and hopped on the bandwagon by introducing Kentucky Grilled Chicken. My guess is it's a bit less greasy than the fried stuff (call me crazy). Along with that, they set aside two days for people to go online and get coupons for a free meal including two pieces of grilled chicken, two sides (MACARONI!... x2!), and a biscuit. The coupon could then be used for the next two weeks or so. Of course I printed off a coupon... it wasn't the greasy stuff I knew, so I thought I would give it a shot. And really... how hard is it to print a coupon?

So, last night my friends and I went to KFC to get free meals. It was about 6:00 in the evening, and as we arrived, we saw a note on the door saying they had given away too much free chicken for the day. It's not that they were out; we could SEE grilled chicken available. They just didn't want to give away any more for free. They offered the option to get a raincheck by mailing in our coupons with another form you gotta fill out, and then they'll send you ANOTHER coupon back in the mail... this time including a free drink too. Oh boy, what a bargain! But yeah... meanwhile, we were debating for a bit on whether or not we should just get something from KFC anyway since we were already there.

But we didn't. We went to Cafe Rio instead. But you know, I realized on the way to Cafe Rio that this was probably KFC's plan all along. After all, how many people are really going to take the time to send their raincheck form in the mail? That takes work, and that's not the American way. And of course their goal was to get people to the store and decide, "Oh well, we're here... let's buy something anyway." Well I'm smarter than that, and I refuse to give in to their little scheme. I didn't buy anything there (not even macaroni), and I will be sending my raincheck form to them because they don't expect nearly as many people to actually do it. Yeah, that's right... I'm going to stick it to them.

You can't fool me, KFC. I can see through you. I will not fall into your little trap. You're nothing but a big joke to me. And yeah... your fried chicken is still horrible.

The ASUS Eee keyboard sucks

Abot to or tree monts ago I bogt an ASUS Eee. I togt it as awwesome hen I got it, but it had a minor keyboard problem. Sometimes te keys wwwwoul register twice wwhen I knkeww I only hit thhem once. After a wwhhile, some of the kkeys wwol stop responing altogeter. It was ridiculous. So noww the kkeys eiter register multiple times hen I hit them, on't respon at all, or tey migt jst decie to orkk. It's orrible. Never buy an Eee. Tey juust aren't goodd... waaaaay too chap! I say you spen a little more an get a $600 Dell... even they're better than tis piece of crap. Ba purcase.

It's official

I'm going to start my blog again. That's right. You can look forward to more random posts about... well... about nothing in particular. But random stuff is what makes life interesting. So, stay tuned for the updates!