Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it,
follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.
Our rules have been updated and given
their own forum. Go and look at them! They are nice, and there may be new ones that you didn't know about! Hooray for rules! Hooray for The System! Hooray for Conforming!
Sedentary Lifestyles suck. Now how do you really fix one?
Posts
Public Transportation is pretty awful in Canada outside of Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver.
Like, dick-gratingly awful.
I used to walk to class/work, which meant i was walking over 3 miles a day. I stopped that once I was almost hit by multiple cars in one night. Now I drive or take the bus. But even then, its a 1/2 mile walk to the bus stop, all of it up a steep hill.
Canada is basically America role-playing as France.
Awful as in doesn't exist, or isn't good quality? Because it's the former here. We just don't have it.
And in Vancouver, it's only good in certain places.
Seriously. I'm currently living in Macon, GA and am from Pelham, GA. I'm not even sure there was a public transportation system within an hour's drive from my home.
I'll have public transit and sidewalks when I move to Athens in however many years. Winder is kind of moving in the direction of getting a bus or two and maybe building sidewalks to the suburbs, but I'm hoping to be out before then.
I am terribly concerned about the pace, scale, and environmental impact of developing Dane County's grassland, forests, and farmland into what is essentially suburban sprawl. Before I get into the heart of my concerns, I would like to share some of my background so that you can perhaps better understand why I feel this way. I was born in Mt. Horeb, am a UW-Madison graduate (May 2009), and travel between Mt. Horeb and Madison nearly every week to visit with friends and relatives. During those travels (generally along 18/151 or Mineral Point Road), I have seen more suburban sprawl encroaching upon farmland and forest every year. The previous decade saw a tremendous amount of this shortsighted, automobile-reliant, aesthetically unpleasant development. The latest batch of buildings, and the one that prompted this email, is the ongoing construction on the outskirts of Middleton adjacent to Mineral Point Road. To put it bluntly, this county is becoming a miniature Inland Empire.
The following are a few questions that have often popped into my brain while traveling around Dane County; I realize land use and development are complex issues, so please excuse my naivete:
1. A main tenet of your political identity involves preserving farmland and those 'open spaces' that make our region so special. Why is such rampant sprawl continuing to occur? Is it the sole province of municipalities, and is that patchwork zoning/approval responsible for the sprawl?
2. How can commuter rail, which relies in large degree on having stops within walking distance, possibly work in a region where such sprawl exists and is proliferating?
3. This is admittedly less important, but I think it's worth addressing: what, if anything, can be done about the aesthetic vapidity in the sprawl regions (no trees, hideous architecture, and entire neighborhoods of identical houses)? Buildings last a long time, and the ugly ones are going to persist long after the developer has shuffled loose their mortal coil.
4. What, if anything, can I do to stop this reckless misuse of Dane County's land?
I know you have a pretty thankless job much of the time, and I'm sure you get an avalanche of grievances from your constituents. Thank you for taking the time to read my email.
Sincerely,
Will post her response if she sends one.
This. If video games are what you like, you don't have to put them down to exercise.
Heck, you don't even need expensive gym equipment, just find some stairs somewhere and go up and down them while playing DS. Or jump around while playing.
I'm going to also endorse the major change in your life for all matters concerning work ethic and just generally being a slob. I was really bad before I joined the millitary (this isnt for everyone but it is a large change of environment) but I have lost weight, and spent less wasted time since I made the change with the conscious decision to improve myself. Even right before boot camp I couldn't motivate myself to go out and exercise but now I do it on my own and I eat better because too much fast food or what not just disgusts me. I think having goals to how you want your life to go (longterm) and how you can improve yourself now to meet those goals (short term) also play a key role in making those lifestyle changes.
When I used to play CoH, there was a guy the forums, I think inspired by a WoW player who did a similar thing, who hooked up some gear so his laptop was attached to his exercise bike, and basically made a rule that he could only play MMO's while peddling.
I know a lot of people who, when they play a racing game, physically lean into every turn like they're in a car. My brother used to run around doing Street Fighter moves. Just extend that principle. Every time Master Chief jumps, you jump.
Speaking of guilt, I also used it to my advantage when I started going to the gym. A few years ago, when I stopped playing soccer and realized I needed something to fill the gap, I asked my parents to get me a yearlong membership at the YMCA for Christmas. For a year after that, I couldn't stop going to the gym in good conscience, though to be fair I didn't go so frequently once I began paying for it myself. Still, that year was enough to cement the habit in me, and I haven't stopped since.
I'll be fine, just give me a minute, a man's got a limit, I can't get a life if my heart's not in it.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
While Athens does have a bus system, it's not that great. For example, while I can ride it to school, I couldn't hope to make it to work on time without my car.
BTW, Athens is funny because it's pretty much the only sizable Liberal community in Georgia. I wonder how that came about?
Too old, 27. I wasted a lot of time not going to (and being in) China. I aim to make up for it.
Oh Jesus can this be difficult sometimes. I worked at a liquor store for a while last year before my boss threatened to cut my nuts off. We had a great beer selection and I couldn't help but make a mental 'to drink' list that was a couple pages long. Delicious, delicious beer (though I don't like Spaten Optimator anymore, to be honest).
On the other hand, I lost about 20 pounds over two months by restricting beer consumption to weekends.
Join the Army? Worked for me. Now my job is more intellectually interesting, more physically active, and better paying.
That said, cut liquid with calories (non-diet soda, more than a single cup of juice or milk a day, etc), cut fast food, start eating lower calorie substitutes (home made English muffin pizzas are as good as a frozen / delivery pizza at about 1/2 the calories for the same amount of fulfillment), and start walking 1+ miles every day, working up to say, 2-3, then start jogging and walking combined. This will take under an hour.
Being able to get from point A to a distant point B is still preferable to being bound to point A or being tired from driving and despise being at point B.
Find someone to play squash with. Seriously, I've been playing for years and I love it so fucking much. If you've never played before you've got to give it a go. I guess it's not for everyone but it's a hell of a game, it really is.
45 mins / an hour on the squash court will give you a fucking great workout, work your core muscles with all the stopping and starting, you legs, arms, everything. Beautiful game.
Of course you're bang out of luck if there are no courts around you, but it's worth a look to see if there is. Head over there and join one of their beginner courses, they'll give you a run down of the game and give you a chance to meet some people to play with - sometimes they're free too.
It's cliche, but still true: set goals and strive toward them. You might not achieve them, but you need to try. Set some realistic goals too, that way you'll be able to build off your success and keep moving forward. A lot of people never reach their goal, or they do but stop once it's complete. Use the goal and create a new goal that surpasses the first one. That way you're doing something meaningful, making progress, and setting future landmarks at the same time.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
Not drinking calories is a big one. I tallied it up once and I was basically getting an entire extra meal in. Water is good, sugar free drinks, etc. Soda, fruit drinks, excessive consumption of milk, etc is bad. People aren't wired to drink calories and the body doesn't get full from them. You could nutritionally subsist off a liquid diet but you'd feel hungry all the time because your body just doesn't count that when deciding whether it's hungry or not. One thing about milk though, is that if you're actually doing strenous excercise (and by this I don't mean walking around the block for 15 minutes a day) it's a pretty good recovery drink.
On a similar note, if you have to eat fast food, ditch the fries. Even if it means getting a slightly larger burger to fill you up (like a double rather than single patty) you're still much much better off avoiding the fries. Generally a large order of fries has more calories than the entire rest of the meal.
Restaurant portions in the US are also huge, so don't be afraid to leave some behind. I'd always find myself feeling stuffed after going to a restaurant, so I started eating half of what they gave me and then just evaluating whether I needed more. Don't feel bad about sharing entrees if the restaurant allows it, either.
Whenever I want to just stay home, sleep in, or skip the gym, I remind myself of two simple things:
1) There's no better feeling than the feeling of getting out of a gym, tired, exhausted, muscles aching, but knowing you did something good for yourself.
2) I never regret actually going to the gym, but regret not having gone to it.
You don't even have to go every day or anything. 2-3 days a week is pretty doable. 20-30 min cardio, 30 minute weight machines. That's it.
Also, eating more slowly helps. It gives your body a chance to feel full. I used to eat like someone was going to take it away from me (bad habit from the Corps).
... now I've got to read all this stuff at once and automatically prune out the things I think are incompatible or silly, and since theres so much at once the same percentage is going to be gone regardless.
That'll teach me to underestimate the speed of the PA forums. O.o
I am pretty great.
Singing is a surprisingly good workout, having played in bands for a long time. Play rock band and sing and do your rocker moves and you will be in Jagger shape in no time.
PS2
FF X replay
PS3
God of War 1&2 HD
Rachet and Clank Future
MGS 4
Prince of Persia
360
Bayonetta
Fable 3
DS
FF: 4 heroes of light