~/mike

After 7 long years of saying I’m going to upgrade my old machine (P4 1.8a), I have finally been able to take the plunge. Unfortunately, since I waited so long to upgrade I’m not able to reuse any of my old parts, but this has the added benefit of having all brand-new stuff! Woo!

Below is a list of all the new components purchased from NCIX during their Easter Week Sale:

I caught a tip to check out RedFlagDeals.com from my buddy Ryan, and found that if you add a $10 Gift Certificate to your order, you will get free ground shipping for the entire order! Hell yeah.

The total order came to around $950 with tax and insurance. Not bad for a budget gaming machine!

I’ve been thinking a lot about life recently; I guess everyone does this from time to time, at varying degrees of introspection. I’ve come to realize that life is both much more than I once thought it was, but also a lot less. Life is a gift, and nothing is a guarantee. You have to make your own path, and no one owes you anything.

Does any of that really mean anything? I think it does, but take it however you want.

I bet everything above is stuff you’ve heard before, but I wonder if you have really thought about it? Has it clicked? I hope so.

Until recently I would always glaze over with advice like this was dispensed to me; I guess I’ll blame being a head-strong youth, but I am glad I can now appreciate this advice for what it is and for what it is truly worth while still relatively young.

“Be careful with whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.”

For some better, well-thought-out pieces of advice I would like to refer you, dearest reader, to the following articles:

• Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted On The Young, a Chicago Tribune article originally written by Mary Schmich, but you probably know it better as “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” by Baz Luhrmann
• Desiderata written by Max Ehrmann in 1927.

I hope some of the above helps you in your journey through life. Please enjoy it.

“The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.”

Recently my girlfriend Melissa has gone though a major medical battle which all started from a simple sports injury. Unfortunately, a series of unfortunate events caused by that simple injury caused Melissa to develop a “massive” (doctor’s words) blood clot which runs the full length of her left thigh. It’s scary stuff, but we’ve been told that she’s out of the “danger zone” and she’s well on her way to recovery with proper medication and physiotherapy.

I mention all this because, while this has been a completely horrible thing to have happened, it has taught me a few hard lessons about life. I don’t know if I could put into words the lessons I have been taught, but I imagine anyone reading this can figure most of them out themselves. Suffice it to say, the lessons have been difficult to process, but also have been equally important to learn.

I seek to be an inspiration to myself, and those around me if possible. I want to be a decent role-model for Kashius, Melissa’s son. I want to be active. I want to be healthy. I want to live life how it was intended.

Even though I’ve tried to run a blog countless times, each time with the best of intentions, I always stop updating it at some point.

I hope to change that.

I have tried dieting, and been moderately at it; last February my girlfriend Melissa and I started a bastardized version of the “Simply for Life” diet (which itself is a version of the GI Diet). It worked well for us because we were ridiculously strict on ourselves. I ended up losing an approximate total of 25lbs, which is still nowhere near my goal of 220lbs, but I did lose a good chunk of weight! Unfortunately, I was stuck around the 258lb mark and could not go lower.

I managed to keep myself around 260lbs until about 3 months ago, but since then I have gradually put on an additional 10lbs.

Today I sit at 269.6 pounds.