Day 3: My First Success Oh man, the cravings started to ping in my stomach and whisper in my ears yesterday. I got myself through the day by eating trail mix - which I will admit is probably something a little too fat-rich for my "good eatin", but it was better than grabbing some Taco Bell.

So, what is my success? Current weight: 184 pounds. That's a pound less than my starting weight just one day ago. I'm not going to hold my breath, remember that my weight usually fluctuates this much every week. I don't really understand it, but Tuesday night is usually my lightest day of the week, and Friday is my heaviest. If I can keep the upswing in weight from happening then maybe I can actually keep this earned pound off this time.

The workout last night was probably the heaviest one I will have for the entire two weeks. Shoulders, back, stomach, and 33 minutes of cycling. Total workout time: 1:47. That's a really long time. I was very pleased with my pull-ups. They were so easy for me that two guys (okay, they were some nice gay guys) actually admitted that they were jealous because they couldn't do pull-ups as good as I could.  ¶ 6:42 AM 5 Comments

  Day 2: The Starting Line I jumped on one of the scales at Ballys to get my starting weight. The verdict: 185 pounds. I wish I knew whether this was my average, low, or high. Why does this matter? I am not exaggerating or kidding you when I say that my weight fluctuates 5 full pounds every week. It is not even scale error...I actually fluctuate that many pounds. My record is equal in both directions...a four pound swing in a day. On different weeks I've managed to gain and lose 4 pounds pretty much overnight.

I hope this is my average because if it is a low then I might actually LOSE 5 pounds over the next two weeks and it'll still say 185 on the scale. If it's a high then I will falsely inflate my own success. However, if it is an average then all will be right with the world.

Thus far Day 1 was a success as I ate right (5 meals, lots of fruits and veggies and protein) and I lifted chest and ran for 23 grueling minutes. Total workout time: 1:38.

Don't pat me on the back yet, I chose Monday as my starting day because I consistently eat like that and workout that hard on Mondays...it gets a good start to the week. Today is the REAL first day. Wish me luck.  ¶ 5:44 AM 24 Comments

  Day 1: The Introduction Today is Day 1 out of 14 in which I will fulfill the promise I made to myself last month. The promise goes like this: "I will eat healthy and workout for at least an hour a day for 14 continuous days". I have added to it with the following guidelines:

• No pop, coffee, ice cream, chips, candy, or fat-filled hostess-style snacks.
• No fast food (oh man, you mean no Chipotle? That's right, no Chipotle)
• Portion control (Eat slowly, realize that I don't need to eat my own weight in food every day)
• Conscious effort to eat GOOD things. (Salads, veggies, lean meats, protein heavy foods, etc.)
• Breakfast every day
• Attempt to eat 5+ smaller meals instead of 3 meals every day
• Work out EVERY DAY. That means no breaks on the weekends or on a long work day.
• I don't have to lift weights every day, but I *DO* have to do something for cardio every day. If I ever *DO* lift, I must also do cardio on that same work out day.
• Lastly, 60 minutes is the shortest amount of time I can spend working out in one of the next 14 days. Minutes DO NOT carry over.

I loaded up on ice cream, coffee, and pop over the weekend, wish me luck as I go cold turkey for two solid weeks.  ¶ 10:31 AM 21 Comments

  Dan Knows Everything This post is for the nerds out there that understand software development.

A coworker of mine named Dan makes a bunch of web services, which are basically just methods with an xml interface to and from a subscribing program...and I'll stop there. He takes a guess as to what I'll need to do from my application and he makes the methods to interact with the database and other objects disconnected from the application I'm working in.

So, I'm looking at a method Dan wrote and after nit-picking it apart I decide that out of the 6 things I need it to do, it only does one, plus it does three things that I don't want it to. I go over to Dan to lay down the law and tell him how it is. I took a good 45 minutes structuring my complaints, going over charts and tables, and whining like a little girl. In the end it turns out that his method did everything I was asking for already, and it was way easier to use than I had envisioned with my elaborate schematics.

Too bad Dan's last day is on Wednesday, because once he leaves I'll be writing my own web service logic. I'll end up turning 20 lines of basic code into six methods with insanely complex and very unreasonable approaches to doing basic things.  ¶ 2:15 PM 12 Comments

  !PokerStar I am, as the 1337 (elite) generation would say, "teh suck", or I "sux0rz" at poker!!!!!11oneone1!

Yet, for whatever reason, I keep on playing. It's so easy to justify playing again. The thing with poker amongst friends is that you don't have a rake (casino) taking a percentage of the betting from the pot. Therefore, whatever money was brought into the room is what leaves the room - just in different pockets. Sometimes you win and you think, "Wow, I just had a fun night with my buddies and I'm walking out of here with more money than I cam in with!" Other times you lose and you think, "Wow, I just had a fun night with my buddies." See, that's the problem. No matter what case you end up having a pretty good time. I mean, you have a pretty good time going to a movie, and that ends up costing about what I might lose to a night of poker. Either way, I'm paying for a pretty decent event. The bonus is that sometimes I actually make money.

Over the long term I always lose more than I win, making me either consistently unlucky or, more likely, a bad poker player. I guess I just really don't care. The only time I've ever won, won, and won some more over a length of time was the one and only time I've ever played in Vegas. At least I have that going for me. Next time you get pocket bullets, cowboys, ladies, or hooks just remember that I probably got dealt 2-7 offsuited, so take it easy on me.  ¶ 11:57 AM 29 Comments

  A Worried Wife Kelly is scared about the next few months. She works at an orthodontists office during the week, although it falls into the part-time range of total hours worked. As almost everybody else is, she is disgruntled with work. As she has done during a number of other school semesters, she will be taking a college course with Tri-C. English. I will concisely express her sentiments with "English? Uggh :(" Now the last piece of the puzzle is that Kelly is starting up Mary Kay. She is already starting to book some parties and she used my credit card to buy a crapload of starting "product". She even has her own website for selling Mary Kay at http://www.marykay.com/kelly.coyne.moran

I know that Kelly will be fantastic at Mary Kay if she puts her heart into it. I mean, Kelly can be fantastic at anything if she puts her heart into it. That is where Kelly gets worried... How much heart can she put behind these commitments if she is getting stressed and stretched thin? I told her that she will be able to do all of it for many reasons. One, I really think she can. Two, I need to stand behind my wife when she tries something and give her the encouragement that I would want if I were in her situation. Three, I look at it through my own eyes. I know that I could handle all of this. If Mary Kay were a manly thing to do and I cared the least bit about beauty products then I would probably try it myself. Therein lies the problem. I'm looking at things through my own eyes, instead of through hers. So that leaves me wondering...am I putting too much pressure on her and being a bad husband or am I being her strength and support to make me a good husband? It's a fine line and I don't know which side I'm on. Typically with these fine line issues I'm actually on the wrong side and don't even know it!  ¶ 1:36 PM 24 Comments

  Chicago
Kelly and I celebrated our first anniversary in Chicago. We've never been there before, but it was a cool city that we only got to see a small slice of in the short time we were there. We managed to see many of the biggest tourist attractions, but we still have days and days worth the the "main" stuff to see, plus a lot more time for the rest of chicago. We didn't even make it into Lincoln Park or really almost anywhere outside of the loop during this trip. We stayed at the swissotel for a few days and The W (City Center) for the next couple of days. If we go back I'd like to check out The W that is a little bit more north (closer to Navy Pier).

Here are a few more pictures of us:





These are a few pictures of Chicago from the Hancock Tower:



  ¶ 10:40 AM 40 Comments

  Guys vs. Girls The male and female specimens of the homo-sapien species of mammal are very different animals. Don't let these equal opportunity squawkers persuade you otherwise. This is not an all-inclusive essay on the differences between men and women, it's just a few things that make me laugh because they are so true in most cases.

Take conversations, for example. The very fundamental approach to conversations are different. Girls will have entire conversations in which everything that has been talked about is about each other / a mutual acquaintance. They throw around lots of "you"s and "we"s. It's a very communal exchange. By talking almost entirely about the person that you are talking to, girls somehow feel closer to one another, or something. Not being a girl I don't understand exactly why they do it that way.

On the other hand, go listen to a conversation between guys. Everything that is talked about is directly related to the speaker. Lots of "I"s and "my"s. I remember when I... or maybe My friend just tried that. Girls look at this from the outside and think, sheez, how conceited and inward-concentrated! Look harder. Guys relate to one another by opening up their own experiences to one another. I'm not saying that all guys and girls talk that way, but it's so common that it should be a stereotype if it's not already. I also don't think that either way is necessarily better than the other.

I was going to make about 30 other points, but maybe I can save those for some future post about guys vs. girls. Instead I'll put up a short list of "Guy Rules" that I found on another blog a few minutes ago:

• Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.


• Crying is blackmail.


• If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.


• If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.


• A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.

  ¶ 8:12 AM 70 Comments

  Jason Moran Link Buttons I have created many new buttons for people to use if they would like to link to me. I have three types (click on them to follow the links to where they should go, or right-click on them and "save as" to get the images on your local computer, or finally, use the following format to make an image a link:
<a href="http://www.jason-moran.com"><img src="http://www.jason-moran.com/buttons/J-JASON-MORAN.png"></a>

jason-moran.com buttons:




jasonmoran.blogspot.com buttons:



www.myspace.com/jasonmoran buttons:

  ¶ 7:51 AM 17 Comments

  Craptacular House II Our electricity was not working for almost the entire weekend. Finally an electric company guy tested the breaker box and noticed something that I will tell you later. Logical thinkers out there...see if you can figure this out by the time I give you the answer.

Information:
- Two lines of 110 (equaling 220) come in to the house
- Roughly half of our power has been off and on for the last week
- None of our heavy duty appliances have been working

Got it yet? I'll give you more info if not
- None of our appliances using "220" are working
- 1/2 of our non-220 devices are working, the other 1/2 is not

Still no?
- The electric company guy tested the breaker box and found power on every other breaker switch.

Yep, you have it by now. One of the two 110 lines coming into the house was faulty. Bad connection at the pole (yay, no cost to us!). Anyway, on Saturday Kelly left me at home with no power, and took my keys and wallet. I was stranded and I thought I might be dying. Man it sucked. I mowed the lawn and rode my bike and whatnot, but knowing that I was STUCK doing that stuff made it completely not enjoyable.

Anyway, besides that I napped for about 7 extra hours over the weekend, yet somehow I'm still tired.  ¶ 10:58 AM 16 Comments