Update on New Lifestyle, and Other Things

Well, even though it's Saturday, it's not any time for me to slack off. I rode the stationary bike for about 20 minutes, and walked around my property (the whole 2 acres) for another 10. Only reason I didn't ride the entire time was that it was getting too hot in my shop and I couldn't find my fan. I'll find it before I try to tackle my goal of 10 miles in one ride.

I'm still doing well on being borderline vegan, so I'm hoping that I'll be alright during the Easter Feasts to come tomorrow. I did cooked Eggs and Bacon for the family for breakfast, both of which I won't eat (meat and\or diary). I did sneak in almond milk in the eggs instead of regular milk. ;)

With all the exercising and stuff I've been doing, I've not bragged on my carpentry skills:

My side of the bed.

Lyndsay's side of the bed.

I've been doing well at designing and building floating shelves, and so far, nothing has fallen! I'm not sure about my next trial, but I think it will be a coffee table themed after some caped crusader… Before that though, I have about two or three leather projects to knock out. It's amazing what you can get accomplished if you just try.

Dieting and Exercise

Let me tell you first, dieting is a loose term, if you want to stay slim and healthy, apparently you have to change what you eat (at least most of the time) forever. As for exercise, well, we all should be exercising anyway, so no complaints there (I'm lying, I'll complain). To get back into the rhythm of exercising\working out, I've started out with the stationary bike (4-7 miles per session) and pushups, started with 15, trying to increase by 5 every night, until I get to around 50 and then I'll keep it there for a while, because I'll add some weight exercises to the mix. I know this doesn't sound like a familiar James, but I'm not unfamiliar with working out, the food change however is uncharted land and I might be a red shirt crewman. The worst that could happen is I fail, so no harm, no foul, and if I go through with it and I succeed, then hooray for me. In case you're wondering, I'm staying away from meats and dairy products. Definitely vegetarian, and borderline vegan. I never thought I'd be trying it, but with great power comes more vegetables. I said I would post pictures, but not today. I will say in the 3 days I have been doing this, I have lost 4 pounds, which is great. I also have a lot more energy and I sleep better. I also can fly now. Alright, caught me, I was joking - I'm not sleeping that much better. On a side note, I have been making sure to get my recommended amount of water in:

Not being used to so much liquid intake has made me appreciate the fact that the restroom is right next to my office. Really. Hopefully within a week I'll have a photo to show, I'll definitely keep you updated, but I may still be too self-conscious to show my pudgy tummy to you. Check out some of my progress: RunKeeper

Diet - This Time I Mean It

As with all previous tries, I'm heading into a diet with full force, but this time I'm not going to give up. It was the realization that I had to wear size 40 pants that depressed me enough into getting serious. I'm going to try my best to get results through hard work and will power. Sounds corny, but ultimately those are the only things that will provide results.

I'll keep the progress updated on here, and possibly have progress pictures, but those will come later, as I have progress to show, and not just my fat body.

Writing is easy, funding is hard

To say writing is easy is actually a lie, I should say that writing is easier that getting funding for publishing, at least for a new author. I understand that there is a doubt that the book will ever see the light of fluorescent in a book store, but I think that I'm worth the risk. However, this experience will surely lead to an essay called "I Wrote a Book and No One Read It".

I appreciate the current donations more than the donators probably realize, I think I'm starting to love them all, those with faith in me.

I have tried to spend as much time with my family, but there is a lot of time spent in my home office writing away or at our kitchen counter writing down notes. There is also the all too common waking up in the middle of the night because I had an idea that I needed to get in my notebook before it left my brain. Putting a price tag on my time is hard - but I think that over the course of writing this book (and all processes related) is worth well more than the $5,000 I'm seeking for publishing, which isn't for my time it's for me being able to publish my book so that the world (or at least the United States for now) can read and hopefully enjoy my story. It's a long 11 (probably 10 now) days, and my hope is low, so I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Please Help!

Busy Busy … Busy

Well, I've been busy. Busy writing, busy working, busy. I've been working on getting a copyright in place so that I can post the first chapter (or at least part of it) of my new book, so be sure to subscribe to my blog so that you'll get notified when it's ready.

I've been also working on the new Gaming Together site, and planning for a return of the podcast, but that might be farther off than anticipated. In addition to that, I've been designing some leather items that I'll be selling soon - some are gaming related, such as Nathan Drake's shoulder holster and Desmond Miles Backpack. The holster should be pretty close to the one in game, while the backpack will have a lot of modifications, including a slight color change. Let me know if you might be interested in that and I'll post sketches as well as tentative prices and shipping dates.

For those of you who don't know, I've gained some weight. I've learned that when someone says "You're looking healthy" that's a polite way to say "Hey, you're getting fat." I'm now on a diet, started at 215 and now I'm down to 212 (after 2 days), I think it's a fluke that so much loss has happened so fast, but I'm not questioning it.

While some of my other stories\books won't be leaving my computer for sometime, I've been working hard at securing a publisher for my current work, so I'm hoping to have it on shelves before the end of the year.

As I mentioned before, I plan on updating this more often, and I'm slowly living up to that, so please - stay tuned!

New Book

I just let Lyndsay read the first chapter of my new book, and after making her grammatical corrections (typical teacher) she said it almost made her cry. The book, which is complete fiction is a very emotional book and I didn't realize it was until she pointed it out. The first chapter is by far the least emotional, so if she does read the rest (and I expect her to) she may be an emotional wreck. For those of you who don't know, I am a writer, aspiring to be published, but for now, I am happy writing what I do, when I can. I have started my autobiography, but I figured I may still be too young to finish that one out, so I have it on the back burner, adding to it slowly. Now that I'm back in the swing of things on my blog, don't forget to subscribe! I will post the first chapter, but I need to secure the copyright first.

More Regular...

I haven't been faithful to updating my blog. I realized the other day that I enjoy writing the blog wether or not anyone likes reading it. Don't get me wrong I am extremely happy that some people do, but I shouldn't be writing for approval, so I won't.

2012 was a pretty bad year for me, on a lot of levels, and while I'm not ready to go into details, lets just say that the last few months have been much better than the whole of  the year. The exception to this is the last week, which has been my time to endure strep throat. 

Here are a few of the things I've learned from 2012:

• Never take anything for granted
• Easy solutions aren't always the right ones
• Take time for yourself, but not too much
• Reevaluate your priorities often, make sure things are where they need to be

Sounds silly, but it is very effective.