P90X Grad

My 90 days of P90X are officially up.  I followed the diet and workout plans as closely as I could (well, maybe I had a few illegal meals), and I must say that it lived up to the hype.  Extremely demanding if you push yourself, but very rewarding in the end.

So what do I look like now?  See for yourself…

Well, not quite.  I did gain about 15 pounds though.  And I can see definition that was certainly not there before.  I’m very happy with the results overall, but I see this as a beginning point.

The focus of P90X is not huge size gains as much as getting you ripped.  I think ripped is great, but I’m going to modify the workouts a little bit so as to be able to make bigger gains.  I’d be perfectly happy at 190.  That would be an ideal weight to maintain indefinitely.

I know lots of people are jumping on the P90X wagon now, and I don’t blame them.  If you do what they tell you and be as strict as you can with the diet, it will work wonders.  I hear they even have four more workouts now that they call P90X plus.  I’ll have to check those out.

Tags: P90X, P90X workout routine, exercise, Beachbody, Tony Horton

PC Laptops

Up until a few weeks ago, I was a raving fan of PC Laptops.  Not laptops in general – the store called PC Laptops that sells computers.  Then I became disenchanted.

I bought a laptop from them in 2004 before I started school at the University of Utah.  I told them I needed something basic.  Decent storage space for all those history papers, pictures, music, and whatever else I might add in the future.  Reasonably fast, but not gamer fast.  You know, a laptop for a student.  Their base model came in at about two grand, but who was I to doubt the credibility of a company that had entertained me so many times at the movie theaters with clever commercials?

I told myself it was a worthy investment, for the computer would probably last me AT LEAST ten years.  Who cares if it would be obsolete by that time – at least it would still function.

I was wrong.

What they didn’t tell me was that my two grand would buy, among other parts, a motherboard with a four year lifespan.  Four miserable years.  Maybe I wasn’t listening four years ago when the tech told me that motherboards can go out like light bulbs.  Or maybe they just didn’t tell me…

The good news was that PC Laptops would buy my defunct laptop back for – wait for it – two hundred dollars.  Yes, I know that’s probably generous, but the flames still burn.  I don’t fault them for that.  In fact, I don’ t fault them for the motherboard going out, or the ridiculous amount of money it would cost me to buy a new machine.  But just becasue I don’t fault them, doesn’t mean I will still endorse them.

My thinking has changed.  I will never again cut off my right arm and give it to the cashier for a computer.  I don’t care what it does.  Technology dates too fast to spend a small fortune on “today’s greatest machine”.  I just heard that we’re now dealing in petabytes, for crying out loud.  When did that happen??  Maybe tomorrow will see the introduction of wankabytes, trilobites, or even…OVERBITES!!

So consider this before you step into your friendly neighborhood PC Laptops – is the lifetime service guarantee worth the cost?  Could you get somebody to build a computer for you for cheaper?  Could you teach yourself how to build one on your own?  Could you even settle for a name brand?

My conclusion is that the service guarantee is not worth it.  Because when that motherboard blows out, you are out of luck.  Personally, I’m building my own machines from now on.  There are a million sites on the net to teach you how, and then I’ll know my machine in and out.  And it won’t cost me nearly as much.

So long PC Laptops.

Tags: PC Laptops, laptop computers, desktop computers, super computers

Geothermal

Amidst all the talk of clean energy solutions and renewable energy, I hear very little of geothermal energy. Some people seem to think solar, wind, and hydrogen are the only options we have. Maybe it’s that they don’t know much about geothermal energy, but it looks to be a very good energy resource if we’ll just tap into it.

Geothermal energy comes from heated underground water that comes to the surface as steam, which is then purified and used as power.  Sometimes there is water already there underground and other times you would have to re-inject water into the ground.

My father-in-law is big into geothermal.  He could write an extremely lenghy book about it with minimal effort.  Through discussions that I’ve had with him, I’ve learned that the western U.S. is full of geothermal hot spots just waiting to be explored.  His primary interest has been along the border of western Nevada and Eastern California, specifically in the Honeylake area.  He believes, and many others will back him up, that a geothermal plant could have huge success in that area, supplying a lot of energy every year.

I don’t how much energy, but I do know that there was a plant on his land that used to produce.  My father-in-law has been looking at either resurrecting that plant or getting investors to make new ones.  He has approached companies in California, Nevada, and Utah and is hopeful that soon they will see the value that he does in geothermal energy.

Geothermal is renewable, clean, and evidence of its success abounds.  The entire country of Iceland practically runs on geothermal energy.  If others can do it, and we have the resources, we should do it to.

Tags: geothermal energy, Honeylake geothermal, renewable energy, clean energy

A Call to Marvel

Marvel and DC fans have got to love the current superhero movie craze. We’ve been dumped on lately by so many of them that we don’t know what to do with ourselves. Most have been good – some have been outstanding.

Yet is it enough?  Of course not.  The more the better, for with every movie made, so increases the chances that one of the overlooked favorites will get a movie made about them.  Who do I have in mind specifically?  The one and only cajun, Gambit.  And why not, I ask?  He had his own comic book series.  He was and is well loved by any serious X-fan.  He’s got looks, attitude, a romantic story-line, etc.  I don’t think a mere five second appearance in an X-Men movie would do him any justice – he needs his own production.

I’d like to see some others in movies, though they may not appeal to enough fans to have thier own.  I’d like to see Omega Red, Apocalypse, Carnage, and Archangel, among others.  The Angel was good in X3, but Archangel would be so much cooler.  And they’ve got to follow the Phoenix story line so we can have an appearance there.

All I ask is that Gambit gets his movie.  And if not his own, then a very prominant role in another movie.  He is too good not to receive this kind of attention.

Tags: Gambit, X-Men, Marvel movies, Superhero movies