Change

So it's been a little while, long enough to actually have updates about life in general. Not too many will read this which is how I prefer it being that blogging is a nice occasional outlet, but not necessarily a great use of a public forum unless you're advertising, selling or find some inner need to broadcast something to the world.

I'll start by addressing weight loss (one of the main reasons that I ever chose to make this blog somewhat active). I started my journey at 233 pounds back near the end of March; beginning of April. What I didn't mention previously was that my weight in January of 2010 was at around 242 (heaviest I've ever been) and even though 233 was almost 10 pounds lighter, I still felt like a literal Manatee and was uncomfortable not only with myself but the world's perception of me in general. So I set out to change that and made myself "accountable" by announcing it on a blog... and believe me it helped.

At the time of the annual WestFest event, hosted by the Disney Podcast Network, I was already starting to lose but was fluctuating between 233 pounds and 228 pounds. During this event, I found a new job with the Walt Disney Company, Parks and Resorts. The job was at Disney Vacation Club and it moved me into a whole new style of weight loss: Constant Exercise. Being that the job had multiple locations, gave unlimited overtime, allowed for a lot of moving/walking/standing in the summer heat, the pounds started to drop. At Disney, Cast members (employees) that are not executive level or management are required to wear specific uniforms for their roles. My role required me to wear a very unforgiving, thick, double-sided vest every day in 90+ degree weather over the summer months. My uniform vest started at a size 2XL, my waste size in pants (which even though I was heavy was drastically undersized) were a size 44, my belt a 46 and I wore the XL shirts underneath. I felt like a stuffed cow in the uniform but didn't realize at the time that this attire was only going to contribute to my weight loss.

When I started training for my job, I weighed exactly 228 pounds. So, as I sweat the summer away, I started noticing my vest getting loose, shirt size feeling blousy and pants/belt needing tightening. At the end of summer, beginning of September, I had moved into a Large Vest, Medium Shirt, size 36 waste pants and 38 belt. My weight during the first week of September was 188 pounds. 40 POUNDS!! and almost 60 pounds from January. There were drastic changes to the diet - higher proteins, lower carbohydrates. My activity at the gym had increased in some cases to 4-5 days a week. Heavy cardio workouts and progression into weight training is when the real pounds started to shed.

At the end of October, my foundation started to weaken. The people that I was subletting my living space from decided that they wanted to rent their home for just them and gave me until the end of November to pack and leave causing me to cancel a much-needed trip to Orlando, Florida to see my friends. At the same time, my wonderful job was feeling less and less wonderful and overtime slowly started to disappear. With this change, my gym activity became nearly non-existent as I was living in alternate places due to my disgust with the previous place.

With luck, I've been able to find a place to live and move back into my residence from before my move to Tustin. I've only put back on about 5 pounds (currently weighing in at 193) but am planning on getting back to gym and hitting it hard this week. Hopefully, I can set the "machine" back in motion and get on track, but like before, placing the will and desire to do something in a blog that people can read lends itself to accountability and ultimately responsibility to follow through.

So, until the next one....

Classic Disney Tale - The Submerged Log

Due to a few requests, I've decided to post a blog on here about an experience that happened while working the Splash Mountain attraction at the Disneyland Resort back in 2006. On podcasts, I've referred to my time in Critter Country as "The Adventures at C-Lift" and "The Submerged Log". While there were MANY adventures at good ol' C-Lift, the submerged log was by far the best that ever came out of working this attraction.

Side Note: C-Lift is the final lift that takes you to the large drop at the end of the ride; A-Lift is the first which takes you from the loading dock into the attraction and B-Lift is the lift in the old Saw Mill.

The Submerged Log
Coming on to an afternoon shift at Splash Mountain, I had started the day mostly working stationary positions around the mountain - Greeter and FastPass Machines. The ride/attraction had been running smoothly all day apparently; no issues or 101's. My shift rotation finally placed me at the FastPass Merge point (basically where the normal line and FastPass lines meet). The merge point this day was actually located about halfway into the attraction queue once heading through the barn. At this point in the line, the "barn" setting leads you into a cave of the mountain that winds around to the attraction loading area.

This position was always great because I could have conversations with guests while they waited for the line to move forward. Always a lot of questions about the attraction, most commonly "What movie is this ride based on...?" To which I would basically tell them to check YouTube under "Song of the South" to avoid expanding on the reasons that so few people know about it.

About 15 minutes into my position, I realize that my line isn't moving and my FastPass line is starting to stack rather heavily. After about 5 minutes, the guest at the front of the normal line says, "Did the ride break down?" I replied (in Disney-tailored fashion) with "Brer Rabbit will let us know if we have a log jam, but until then it looks like everything is..." and as I attempted to finish my sentence, Brer Rabbit's voice echos through the queue with "UH OH! It looks like we got ourselves a log jam!!" So I kindly escorted guests to the exit doors so that we could evacuate the mountain and restart everything. As I made my way back to the loading station, I noticed something odd as I came around the corner to head over the bridge. Looking to my left into the water, I noticed that the log waiting to be pulled back into the loading station was completely under water with the exception of the front and back end slightly breaking the surface. Speeding up my pace I turned towards the exit dock and notice four, completely soaked teenagers shivering as they wait for my lead to return from the office.

I ask the teen closest to me, "What happened?" "Well..." he said, chattering his jaw and looking slightly confused, "We were on the ride and the log started filling up with water really slowly... but everytime that we went up the water would drain out. So we didn't worry about it until we got close to the last drop. Before we went up the last hill, the water was almost up to our knees... but it drained again once we started going up." He then continued, "I think something happened though when we reached the bottom because the second we hit the water the log made a loud BANG and filled up fast." Essentially, when the log came off of the rails from the final drop and re-entered the water... it sunk. In fact, it didn't just sink, it dove like a submarine.

I think the part of this whole thing that blew me away was that these teenagers STAYED in the log and didn't try to climb out. Their family was practically in hysterics being in the log in front of them. One of the family members, I assumed was one of the boys' mothers, told me while laughing, "They looked like four little ducks floating down a stream because you couldn't see the log... just their head and shoulders!" One of our managers came out with "No Strings Attached" voucher to go get some dry clothes. Luckily the family wasn't enraged by the experience and found the humor in it.

While writing this, I tried searching for a schematic of the log ride vehicles to explain how the log filled with water; one of the maintenance cast members at the time showed me and described how water exits the log without coming back in. I couldn't find one but if I can find one, I'll do a follow up to explain it. Hope you guys enjoyed the story. I've got a few others from Fantasyland that are pretty decent too, when time allows I'll post some of them :).

Sometimes...

it would be nice to have someone to talk to. I used to have close friends that I could go to with issues, concerns, rants, complaints, etc.. but I don't anymore and it kind of sucks. So I'm just going to vent to my blog, this small little excerpt and hope that it helps, then off to my keyboard. I guess you could say that music is always there for me and interprets my thoughts better than words ever have. Anyhoo... turning the "emo" off and gonna write for a bit.

The Battle Continues...

Alright! Taxes taken care of, nice slow day to look forward to, so... here's a blog entry! The Battle of the Bulge is still ongoing and I'm pleased to announce that I have dropped a total of 10 pounds! 233 to start, today's weigh in was 223. The reason this is cool is mainly because, with the exception of a couple long days at Disneyland, I had very limited time at the gym this last week and was really concerned that I was going to gain some weight back. So this shows that my eating habits are also improving.

I've started getting some help from Dr. Ralph Umbriaco in Costa Mesa/Newport on some of the ailments I've been dealing with for the last six to eight months; mainly allergies that have hindered my body's ability to heal. I know that Holistic medicine and Kinesiology are somewhat controversial with people, but I've seen results and I've been able to overcome some major health difficulties in the past due to my experience with this kind of treatment. So my days as a skeptic are basically over. The unsightly psoriasis that I had developed on my scalp is now fading and no longer itches or flakes and believe it or not, I have more flexibility in my knee than I've had since October of last year.

On top of the improvements that I'm seeing, I'm also able to sleep all night long which I haven't been able to do since last summer. I had almost forgotten what it was like to feel fully rested. I've cleared 2 major allergies in the last week - Egg Yolk/Whites and Calcium both of which were contributing to weight gain, skin conditions and depression; I weeded out Sodium Chloride yesterday (never realized how hard it is to stay away from salt for half a day). I'm just so completely in awe of how good I've felt over this passed week.

So here's to yet another week and hopefully more improvements! Thanks for stopping by! ;)
 
Links -
Dr. Ralph Umbriaco - Natural Living and Wellness
Kinesiology

Fit vs. Fat

The journey to become less of a Manatee has begun!! I realize that getting "fit" is still a ways off, but luckily I'm on the right road. It's been a week since the first blog on this subject and I'm pleased to say that I've been to the gym 5 out of 7 days (gave myself a cooldown period over the weekend). It's been a struggle with my knee because of the limitation on cardio that I can actually do, but I'm finding ways to compensate with upper body exercises.

I've adopted the mentality of "not killing myself" but gradually working my way into a routine and from there, increasing it as I'm able to. For example, the bike machine that I've been using has a degree of settings for resistance, of which I began at 2-3. In the beginning, I was able to keep the RPM of my pedaling at a consistent 75-80. Today, I moved between level 4 and 5 at intervals of five minutes a piece and my RPM rested nicely at 90 RPM. It's encouraging to see the increase in stamina and know that my knee doesn't hinder me as bad as I thought it would.

The rowing machine is probably where I get the most cardio because it's an all-encompassing cardio workout. As difficult as it is, I still manage to put in about 10-15 minutes on it before my body screams "ENOUGH!" Hopefully, I'll build better stamina as the weeks progress.

As far as eating goes, I'm eating 5 times a day much smaller portions. usually Cereal and fruit in the morning, snacks between meals have either consisted of vegetables like carrots and celery, or trail mix. I've stayed away from fast food.... well not entirely, I have picked up a few Garden Salads at BK... but that's much better than a Whopper! ;)

Weighed myself today and I'm down to 227, last week's weigh-in was 233. 6 pounds! I didn't expect to see that much of a difference, but it shows me that being sedentary for so long has affected me more than I had ever imagined. So here's to another great week and hoping to see some more of the "poundage" disappear for good! ^_^

Crackin' the Kraken

SPOILERS!! - Don't read the below unless you've seen the movie or unless you're fine with finding out what it's all about ahead of time.

Clash of the Titans: The Remake released today to millions of fans of the original movie adaptation of Greek Mythology's 'Perseus and The Gorgon' from 1981 starring Harry Hamlin as Perseus. If you saw the trailers and teasers and thought, "Damn I need to see this!!" you'll get everything you expected and then some. It's amazing to see the difference in filmmaking when you drop 30 years in between the remake of a title, especially one that was enjoyed as much as the original was.

In some cases, there were classic elements of the original movie dropped into the new film's story. Most of the characters return along with Calibos, the twisted, horned, devil-like creature that plagues Perseus' quest throughout. It's the twists on the storyline and how these characters interact and move the story forward that really caught my attention though.. especially if you consider the events that happened in the actual myth of Perseus and the Gorgon.

Medusa - 1981 Original

The new movie introduces Hades for the first time as the evil centerpiece and mastermind of the people's hate towards the Gods; masterfully played by Ralph Fiennes. Rather than write a novel here about the complete change in plot, I'll just pick out some of the finer twists and hopefully not bore you to tears with complex details.

Calibos, for example, is not a character that really exists in Greek Mythology whatsoever. In the original movie, Calibos was the son of Thetis, originally a handsome man and betrothed to Andromeda, he's punished by Zeus for killing the sacred herd and turned into a monster as punishment. In the new movie, Acrisius the King of Argos is transformed into Calibos when he curses Zeus for sleeping with his wife, impregnating her with Perseus... strange twist but it worked. Even stranger was that they made Acrisius' daughter Danaë his wife and actually has her perish in the coffin that he condemns to the ocean rather than live to help raise Perseus. So in this case, Calibos hates Perseus because he's the bastard son of his ex-wife and Zeus, not because he shacked up with his ex-fiancee.

Medusa - 2010 Remake

The purpose of the entire adventure has changed as well. The first movie followed close to the original story of Perseus seeking a way to defeat the Kraken in order to save his love, Andromeda, from being sacrificed to it. In the new movie, even though Andromeda is set to be sacrificed, Perseus' interest is not in saving her, but rather killing the Kraken so as to weaken Hades and send him back to the underworld. Instead of choosing Andromeda as his queen after killing the Kraken, Perseus accepts the resurrected Io as his wife and they set off to be "human".

There were a lot more twists and turns that were interesting, but all-in-all it's a great movie in its own right and is definitely worth seeing (even if Sam Worthington is hard to buy as Perseus). There is even a cameo of Bubo, the annoying robot owl from the first movie. My favorite character in the movie is the Djinn, a wielder of dark magic that controls the massive sand scorpions. I'm planning to see this again in 3D IMAX when I get the chance. Let me know what you all think of the movie! ^_^
 

Breaking the Scale

So.... blogs are like journals (I've been told) except that everyone is allowed to read it. While this particular subject is not the kind that I like to discuss, I feel like it's necessary to help me take a step forward. So, here we go!


I'm fat... and I don't mean phat as in Pretty Hot And Tempting. I'm talking about the stage that you hit when you exceed "overweight" and add the letter X to your clothes size. The stage when tying your shoes requires you to hold your breath, dressing up causes you to break a sweat, pains mysteriously appear in your joints and you feel self-conscious even walking out to the mailbox. In my case, the increase in health problems has stacked on top of these things as well. I've had water on the knee for months, developed a severe case of sleep apnea, am borderline hypoglycemic and a have lovely case of seborrheic dermatitis.... google it.

What it all comes down to is change, and not the preachy fantasy that President Obama keeps talking about, but real change... in everything. Diet, activity, routine, etc... and it starts now - not tomorrow or on Monday of next week to give me a fresh start, NOW!

All of us have an awakening at some point, some of us never have it, and it's not always weight. Personal demons take all shapes and sizes... mine just happens to my large shape and size. I'm 5'8" (5'7½" if you want to get technical.. I'd rather just round up) and I weigh 233 pounds. According to my mother, the scale I used to record that is off... but it's roundabout which, even if it's a couple of pounds, is still ridiculously high. I was trying on clothes today and when the size 38's didn't button, I felt so horrible that I stood there for a moment, glanced at the gut and just thought.. Why?

At 5'8", 33 years of age my healthy weight range needs to be 124-163... this means that at the high end of that spectrum, I have 60 pounds to lose. Currently my average caloric intake is around 2369 which means that I have to start by dropping that by at least 500 calories per day; recommended is 1869. I've already picked up a knee brace to help with cardio that I plan on doing at the gym until I have the money to get it fixed. So I'm ready to do this, end the procrastination and restore myself to the old me come hell or high water!

Links -
Calorie Control
http://www.caloriecontrol.org/
MSN Health
http://health.msn.com/
Nutrition Data
http://www.nutritiondata.com/

Late Night Boredom

Decided to start playing with a free art program (Gimp 2.6) and now, 4 hours later, I've figured out the basics it seems. Here's a sample:

Creepy eh? *sigh* OK time to get some sleep......

Repairing Universal

I had the chance to head to Universal Studios Hollywood yesterday. Although I have a pass and can go whenever, I usually only make it there, at best, about 3 times a year (it's ok.. the pass pays for itself on one trip). Due to the number of years that I've been going to Universal, I'm familiar with what to expect on a normal weekend operating day: Huge lines for everything including the restrooms, water mist sprayers to keep people cool around every corner due to a severe lack of shading and mediocre attractions. Of course, the "draw" to Universal is the Backlot Tour. This 45 minute journey takes you through a maze of large beige and brown buildings, numbered in big white fonts so that the tour guide can let you know which productions were shot in each one. To say that this part of the tour is boring would be, at the very least, a major understatement. You then move from the front lot to the backlot.. which is where the movie "magic" is supposed to come alive.


Only recently has the tour actually started moving into the section that used to be the Metropolitan area again. This is due to the large fire that ripped through the backlot on June 1st, 2008. This fire consumed Brownstone Street, New York Street, New England Street, the King Kong attraction and destroyed close to 50,000 archived digital video and film copies chronicling Universal's movie and classic TV shows, dating all the way back to the 1920s. $50 million later, much of what used to be has been either rebuilt or updated, including an all-new King Kong attraction on its way(why King Kong? Let the monkey die I say).

Universal Studios Backlot June 2, 2008

I took this shot the day after the fire. Charred, steel frames of fecades and smoke was all that was left of the former Metropolitan area. Courtyard square was the only portion left standing including the Clock Tower from the Back to the Future films as well as some fecades that remained around the north side. The hollowed out building near the bottom right of the screen is where King Kong used to be located.





Universal Studios Backlot March 27, 2010

Almost 2 years later - All of Courtyard Square and a large portion of the Metropolitan area have been restored to how they previously looked. According to the tour guide, they've already begun filming smaller productions here including music videos and most recently episodes of CSI.








It's nice to see them working hard on restoring this area, especially because it provides not only material for their tour but location shooting for upcoming films. I really hope that NBC Universal's next step will be improving the overall quality of their shows and attractions in the theme park area. The park itself is literally becoming another Knott's Berry Farm sans rollercoasters. The low ticket price on annual passes and $19.99 all-you-can-eat special is obviously hurting the park financially because it draws larger crowds but is reducing profit and, as is evident, decreases the number of man hours that they can afford causing attractions, eateries, and janitorial to be under staffed and overall lacking in quality.

Then again.... they could always just pull money out of their ridiculous advertising budget. :P

Westfest!!

It's so close!!!!! I can't wait to see the DPN community again and have fun catching up with everyone that weekend. I feel slightly less "attached" this year as the Travelears has gone the way of the dodo recently, but that affords me more time to hang out and get to all the other meets this year.

Tron Legacy: Theme song revealed!

Daft Punk's new main theme song for the upcoming sequel to Tron has surfaced on YouTube. While there are several remixes of it already, this version is supposedly the original track. Sound quality is a bit fuzzy but it gives a nice sample of what Daft Punk has put together.

Weekend Mix Tape

As a tribute to one of my favorite blogs, Nothing for X (R.I.P.), here's a weekend mix tape of my own.. Enjoy!

Howdy Folks!

Welcome to RySpace! a.k.a. my personal blog. I'm way behind as apparently a lot of people that I know are now doing this, so I figured I'll just post random thoughts, videos, ideas, music, etc.. at least something interesting that friends will want to come check out on occasion. Make sure to follow so that I can follow you back as my "community" is one shy of a Ghost Town. :)