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The Life Thread

Started by BojackHorsefella, May 14, 2018, 07:04:48 PM

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Crewe

I see phenom on Twitter frequently

Crewe

I hope everyone is having a good holiday season under the circumstances.
Merry Christmas guys

BojackHorsefella

Quote from: Crewe on December 24, 2020, 01:28:49 PM
I hope everyone is having a good holiday season under the circumstances.
Merry Christmas guys

Was a pretty good Christmas, all things considered. I mentioned in another thread, we had her aunt, uncle and niece come over. They moved here in April mid-pandemic, so they don't have anyone to hang out with besides us, and us them for the most part, so that's actually been kinda nice and a safe normalcy-harbor, if you will.

We opened presents before they arrived, then my fiancee made a crazy big brunch spread, we opened more presents once they got here, put on Wonder Woman 84, played some board games, drank some alcohol. Was a good time.

After that, just hung out with the fiancee until this morning, when I dropped her off to the airport so she can fly to SC and see her mom and sister. I'm not THRILLED, but, what can I do?

BojackHorsefella

Soooooo....how's it going, Crewe?

Crewe

You know, I feel pretty guilty because it hasnt been bad for me. I was never without power for more than say, 15 hours. So when the power went out, I just wallowed out a warm spot in bed, read a book and hibernated.
A pipe burst at my sisters house so we are having to deal with that, but it wasnt near as bad as it could have been. Course its easy for me to say, wasnt my house.
Im usually reasonably stocked with food just because Im a glutton so that wasnt a problem, plus, its just me and my dog. A lot less stressful I imagine when you dont have a family to worry about.
This is one time where living in the burbs was a benefit because Houston was hit hard. All my friends were in pretty bad shape for most of the storm.
As soon as we get a plumber to my sisters and get an estimate, we will be pretty much recovered.

Appreciate the check in dude  :D

BojackHorsefella

Grateful for your safety, and glad your family's doing well, one burst pipe aside.

Crewe

A couple of months ago I was thinking about my dad who passed in 2004 and my thoughts rifted to his memorial service and I recalled how blown away I was that my old boss had shown up.
We were friends, as in friends you work with or in her case, for.
She knew what my dad meant to me and when I told her he died, she of course told me to take as much time as needed.
No way she knew his name, or where the funeral was, none of that, but she figured it out and showed up without fanfare, just sincerity.
That made me realize I hadnt talked to her in some time (we last worked together in 05, last spoke maybe in 14?) so I sent her a message and after the how are you's, we began discussing my industry. She had left our business in 05 to sell life insurance.
I told her how things were progressing slowly and how it's hurting financially. I mockingly said, hey, if you hear of anyone hiring...hahaha.
She responded with, well, ya know....
I've been looking to slow down and eventually retire, and how it works in this business is that I get another agent to take over my clients, but the problem is, once a renewal term comes up, they wont share the commissions with me and cut me out, so, Im sorta looking for someone I trust who can come in with me.
In a matter of weeks, I was enrolled in an online course, took the prep course and yesterday, passed my state licensing exam.
Im now able to sell insurance.
It's tough because these guys are just go go go all the time, but for me, I still have to work, especially since everything is at an even more reduced rate right now. But, Im going to try to intergrate as fast as I can and see what happens.
I'll be selling life, health and accident, so we dont delve in to the medical bs, and I know, there are negative connotations with insurance salesman, a lot like a car salesman, but what the hell.
Ill see what happens. Most importantly, I hope I like it. I hope I make more money than my current career so I can make it secondary. It would be nice if I could manage both but in the end, I just want more stability and happiness.
So, here's to what's next...

TheNorm

Cheers to you man, and good luck. Do what you gotta do to get that cheddar, no shame in that.
"But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity." - Martin Luther King, Jr

TheNorm

So two weeks to the day after I received my second COVID vaccination, I decided to finally hit the gym again. I typically go early in the morning when I get out of work and I don't have to be back that same night (because f that). Gym is much less crowded then (they limit the number of people anyway and typically that early there aren't many to begin with) and masks are required at all times (although you'll still find the occasional moron that doesn't realize the mask goes over your mouth too).

I've shot hoops for at least a half hour each time (and they don't allow pick-up games for social distancing measures), and even after all the at-home workouts I did to stay somewhat in shape during the last year my legs are just done after two days. Shooting form is also gone to hell but that's to be expected when you haven't handled a basketball in over a year and fixable with time lol. Spent some time on the elliptical trainer too, also probably contributing to my legs being sore almost 48 hours after my last workout...no one said it'd be easy to get back into the swing of things; that being said it's nice to be ever so slightly closer to a bit of normal.

Purchased some boxing gloves too since the gym also has a couple of their heavy bags up. Can't wait to hit something again.
"But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity." - Martin Luther King, Jr

Crewe

I need to get back to the gym so bad. This at home stuff aint cuttin it for me.
Although I dont look forward to the shortcomings you mentioned, getting my legs under me, literally lol

BojackHorsefella

I have been pretty potato-y during the whole pandemic. It's strange though, we went snowshoeing back in January during a small vacation (AirBnB, out in the mountains), and I felt pretty good.

This weekend, we went to a tulip festival and did some grilling outside on Sunday, and my legs and, strangely, my arms were SO SORE yesterday. Just a shit ton of tension in my shoulders, and this weird pain around my left bicep. Naturally I feel fine today because I guess it was just more activity than my body's used to lately, but YIKES.

So anyways I'm finally starting the most minimal workout routine since I'm WFH anyway (a few exercises with a set of just 5 reps for each hour of work) which, I'll increase week to week to, not to GET JACKED or LOSE ALL THE WEIGHT, but apparently to put my body back into just a state of "can handle the slightest uptick in physical activity," because damn.

BojackHorsefella

Thought we had a thread about books but it appears we only have book reviews, which is fine, but I'm not done with this book so I can't really review it, so I guess I'll double up on replies here -



I bought a few books that I haven't read yet during this pandemic, mostly focused on historical pop culture and/or generally the 70s. I'm building some sort of curriculum for myself, to what end I don't really know.

Right now I've got The Great Movies III by Roger Ebert on my shelf, and I've started digging into Hoberman's An Army of Phantoms, which is part of a 3-book series (although I missed out on the first book so may need to go back) covering movies from the 50s through the Reagan years. Hoberman's books contain bibliographies, so I'm basically keeping track of other books he references in his notations (as well as movies he spends extended time on), and am building out a Goodreads list of books based on those books, and a Letterboxd list of movies based on those references, which I'll do with each book as I go.

I've got a few lists on Goodreads started of books I've read up on that I either want to buy about the 70s:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/16962625-michael-grella?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=70s-reads

or about movies and their history around that time period:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/16962625-michael-grella?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=movies-tv-want-to-read

Or general past culture (more music than movies, but there's a few bits I'd like to read more about certain people. As you can tell from the list, The Andrews Sisters are one of those I'm curious on):
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/16962625-michael-grella?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=movies-tv-want-to-read



Assuming I ever read all of these, and/or more, what will I do with this knowledge? i don't know. Maybe I'll win more bar trivia. But it interests me, so, here I go.





Crewe

There is a book thread here somewhere because I updated my Star Wars reading salvo there not long ago.
Nice to see Lebowski and the Office crack any list lol

On the health front, I seriously need to lose weight, like a metric fuck ton as Im in the worst shape of my life.
I have completed a beginner 30 day course of yoga, twice, and am now just bouncing around through other beginner courses on line.
It was amazing to me how much strength I lost during the pandemic, and If Im being honest, it began before that but Covid just exacerbated everything for the worse.
So I picked up some cables not long ago just to get something going at the hosue, but man, as much as I hated going to the gym, I miss the results. My 1 rep max is probably equivalent to that of a junior high girl.
Once I hit my 14 day post second shot threshold, I may hit the gym again, although that means paying for it, and well, that's a whole other story...

BojackHorsefella

Honestly, way back in my Navy days (so...................literally over a decade ago), I used that "Beachbody Insanity" with Shaun T at home, and lost a ton of weight. I pirated it back then, not sure how easy or tough that is these days but it was a great at home workout for shedding weight. Sure there was some muscle building too there but it wasn't the main focus (whereas I think P90x, at the time, was considered the muscle builder). Plus Insanity didn't require any additional items (no weights or cables or anything), just a full body workout.

Crewe

I remember that and on best days I could complete that shit lol.
Remember the Tae Bo fad?