Still alive
This was a triumph... I'm making a note here: Huge success.
Just kidding, for the three of you on my flist who know what I'm talking about. I AM still alive, and totally willing to make posts. Just gotta work it into my routine somehow.
Somehow, through the miracle of science or otherwise, Michelle has decided to start going to the gym with me in the mornings. I started going back a day or two after New Year's, not necessarily because I have a "resolution" to go to the gym, but since I was going back into my normal schedule after the holidays, it seemed a natural thing to do. At any rate, this morning was the second (third?) time she's come with me, and I like having her around. Even though we do our own routines, it's nice to know someone's in that gym that I know.
However, as she pointed out today was a lot busier 'cause it's the first Monday of the New Year. How long DOES it take for people to lose interest in their weight loss resolutions, usually?
I was going to use the treadmill for a bit (the regiment being that I do 15 minutes at a good pace on the treadmill, followed by leg work, and another 10 minutes on the bike), but lo and behold, all the treadmills were in use. I ended up defaulting to my old workout, but in my spare time I came up with a few categories of gym-goers:
The Rookie
The Rookie NEEDS to be at the gym. In fact, they needed to start going a few years ago. The Rookie is usually significantly overweight, though not morbidly so. The Rookie is good at working up a great big greasy sweat. Hope to GOD that they don't use your next machine before you can get to it.
The Lifer
Gym is like a prison for The Lifer. He's there when you show up, there when you leave, and there EVERY TIME you go to the gym. He has the "I ain't gonna be no bitch!" muscles. More often than not, they can be found gazing at themselves in the mirror while doing that 1000th bicep curl. Lifers CAN be women, too, and that's quite the sight.
The Cardio Freak
The Cardio Freak will drive the mile and a half to the gym so that he/she can use the treadmill for an hour. Or the bike. Or the elliptical. The Freak will walk in, make a beeline for their real-world replacement machine of choice, and will NOT get off of it until it's time to go. 10 miles? 20 miles? It doesn't matter. They're in the ZONE, eyes fixated on a point in the distance that they'll never, ever reach.
The Camper
The Camper really likes that machine. REALLY likes it. They'll do a set on it, then sit, laying claim to that machine so that NO OTHERS will approach it. Mind if I work in a set? No, I've got 34 more sets to go! It may take The Camper 5 minutes or more to cool down after a particularly intense set. Thankfully, their machine of choice can also be used as a barca lounger.
The Ego Crusher
Not to be confused with a Lifer, the Ego Crusher is a little more well-balanced in their daily tasks, but is still capable of putting up WAY more weight than you are. You can do 10 pull ups? Fantastic! Watch as the Ego Crusher does 30. Mind if I work in a set on that leg press machine? Let me just DOUBLE the weight you were using. Thankfully, they don't have the same relationship with the gym that the Lifer does, and will frequently be absent.
=====================
I downloaded a 14-day trial version of Eve Online. Liam put it quite well when he said "I am too stupid to play this game". The game is basically exactly what I wanted, which is to say a 3d MMO version of Escape Velocity. You start out in a ship, although it's easy to assume that you ARE your ship, as aside from some moderately customized avatars you will never EVER see yourself or another person in the game. There's a pretty lengthy tutorial which walks you through basic getting around, attacking, gathering of minerals, docking with stations, etc. It even walks you through two "quests", telling you that once you accept a quest you have a certain amount of time to complete it before the agent who gave you said quest gets pissed at you. And that's it. Two quests and the tutorial is over. No easing in, no "let's explore this small planetary system for a bit". Here's your ship, here's the UNIVERSE, have fun. And let me tell you, it's a big freaking universe. That second quest I was telling you about requires that you jump three star systems away.
Let me walk you through the getting around process. First you set your destination, which you can do in your quest log (neat feature). Then you hit autopilot. The autopilot will warp you to the closest Stargate, then use the Stargate to jump you to another system, then repeat until you're at your target location. That entire process takes somewhere between a minute to a minute and a half per Stargate jump. You need to go to a system that's 3 jumps away? Prepare for a 5 minute wait. The only thing that makes it tolerable AT ALL is the fact that you can Alt-Tab out during the whole thing, and you'll continue to hear in-game audio, which will let you know when your destination has been reached.
I really REALLY want to like this game. But it's just way too technical, and impersonal. Yes, more often than not I ignore the flavor text of a quest in WoW and just skip right ahead to the killings. But at least it's a PERSON giving me the quest, and I'm a PERSON who's doing the killing. When you dock at a station in Eve, you're stuck looking at a 3d model of your ship while you do your shopping, pick up new quests, level up your skills, process ore, and the other thousands of things that you can do which the tutorial skipped. Walking around The Barrens is nothing compared to getting around in Eve. Were I to design a game like this, I'd make the first 2-3 hours worth of gameplay a breaking in period. Here, this is how you get around. There's plenty to do in this system, no need to jump until you hit level 10. Your quests are "go to the asteroid belt and mine me some ore", "go past that moon and kill some drones", "find the cargo container and retrieve what's inside". All of this in ONE place. And when you dock at a station you can actually get OUT of your ship. You can go have a drink, look at the weird looking aliens, get a table dance, buy a ship from a PERSON, kick a droid, play a game of cards. I want to like Eve, but I don't think it's gonna happen. I'll keep at it until my 14 days are up, though. If I haven't been TOTALLY turned around on it, though, it's goodbye for good.
Or at least until they ask me to make some changes for them. :)
Just kidding, for the three of you on my flist who know what I'm talking about. I AM still alive, and totally willing to make posts. Just gotta work it into my routine somehow.
Somehow, through the miracle of science or otherwise, Michelle has decided to start going to the gym with me in the mornings. I started going back a day or two after New Year's, not necessarily because I have a "resolution" to go to the gym, but since I was going back into my normal schedule after the holidays, it seemed a natural thing to do. At any rate, this morning was the second (third?) time she's come with me, and I like having her around. Even though we do our own routines, it's nice to know someone's in that gym that I know.
However, as she pointed out today was a lot busier 'cause it's the first Monday of the New Year. How long DOES it take for people to lose interest in their weight loss resolutions, usually?
I was going to use the treadmill for a bit (the regiment being that I do 15 minutes at a good pace on the treadmill, followed by leg work, and another 10 minutes on the bike), but lo and behold, all the treadmills were in use. I ended up defaulting to my old workout, but in my spare time I came up with a few categories of gym-goers:
The Rookie
The Rookie NEEDS to be at the gym. In fact, they needed to start going a few years ago. The Rookie is usually significantly overweight, though not morbidly so. The Rookie is good at working up a great big greasy sweat. Hope to GOD that they don't use your next machine before you can get to it.
The Lifer
Gym is like a prison for The Lifer. He's there when you show up, there when you leave, and there EVERY TIME you go to the gym. He has the "I ain't gonna be no bitch!" muscles. More often than not, they can be found gazing at themselves in the mirror while doing that 1000th bicep curl. Lifers CAN be women, too, and that's quite the sight.
The Cardio Freak
The Cardio Freak will drive the mile and a half to the gym so that he/she can use the treadmill for an hour. Or the bike. Or the elliptical. The Freak will walk in, make a beeline for their real-world replacement machine of choice, and will NOT get off of it until it's time to go. 10 miles? 20 miles? It doesn't matter. They're in the ZONE, eyes fixated on a point in the distance that they'll never, ever reach.
The Camper
The Camper really likes that machine. REALLY likes it. They'll do a set on it, then sit, laying claim to that machine so that NO OTHERS will approach it. Mind if I work in a set? No, I've got 34 more sets to go! It may take The Camper 5 minutes or more to cool down after a particularly intense set. Thankfully, their machine of choice can also be used as a barca lounger.
The Ego Crusher
Not to be confused with a Lifer, the Ego Crusher is a little more well-balanced in their daily tasks, but is still capable of putting up WAY more weight than you are. You can do 10 pull ups? Fantastic! Watch as the Ego Crusher does 30. Mind if I work in a set on that leg press machine? Let me just DOUBLE the weight you were using. Thankfully, they don't have the same relationship with the gym that the Lifer does, and will frequently be absent.
=====================
I downloaded a 14-day trial version of Eve Online. Liam put it quite well when he said "I am too stupid to play this game". The game is basically exactly what I wanted, which is to say a 3d MMO version of Escape Velocity. You start out in a ship, although it's easy to assume that you ARE your ship, as aside from some moderately customized avatars you will never EVER see yourself or another person in the game. There's a pretty lengthy tutorial which walks you through basic getting around, attacking, gathering of minerals, docking with stations, etc. It even walks you through two "quests", telling you that once you accept a quest you have a certain amount of time to complete it before the agent who gave you said quest gets pissed at you. And that's it. Two quests and the tutorial is over. No easing in, no "let's explore this small planetary system for a bit". Here's your ship, here's the UNIVERSE, have fun. And let me tell you, it's a big freaking universe. That second quest I was telling you about requires that you jump three star systems away.
Let me walk you through the getting around process. First you set your destination, which you can do in your quest log (neat feature). Then you hit autopilot. The autopilot will warp you to the closest Stargate, then use the Stargate to jump you to another system, then repeat until you're at your target location. That entire process takes somewhere between a minute to a minute and a half per Stargate jump. You need to go to a system that's 3 jumps away? Prepare for a 5 minute wait. The only thing that makes it tolerable AT ALL is the fact that you can Alt-Tab out during the whole thing, and you'll continue to hear in-game audio, which will let you know when your destination has been reached.
I really REALLY want to like this game. But it's just way too technical, and impersonal. Yes, more often than not I ignore the flavor text of a quest in WoW and just skip right ahead to the killings. But at least it's a PERSON giving me the quest, and I'm a PERSON who's doing the killing. When you dock at a station in Eve, you're stuck looking at a 3d model of your ship while you do your shopping, pick up new quests, level up your skills, process ore, and the other thousands of things that you can do which the tutorial skipped. Walking around The Barrens is nothing compared to getting around in Eve. Were I to design a game like this, I'd make the first 2-3 hours worth of gameplay a breaking in period. Here, this is how you get around. There's plenty to do in this system, no need to jump until you hit level 10. Your quests are "go to the asteroid belt and mine me some ore", "go past that moon and kill some drones", "find the cargo container and retrieve what's inside". All of this in ONE place. And when you dock at a station you can actually get OUT of your ship. You can go have a drink, look at the weird looking aliens, get a table dance, buy a ship from a PERSON, kick a droid, play a game of cards. I want to like Eve, but I don't think it's gonna happen. I'll keep at it until my 14 days are up, though. If I haven't been TOTALLY turned around on it, though, it's goodbye for good.
Or at least until they ask me to make some changes for them. :)