Magnificent Monday: Maturity?

Picture by Wonderlane via Flickr.com

And so it's Monday, yet again. Always. Monday. I kind of feel bad for Monday really. It gets the crap end of the stick when it comes to the work place. I feel like Mondays should be given some sort of compensation for starting off the work week. Like a siesta or something. That'd be cool.

After reviewing my previous post on Wednesday, I realized what an interesting thing. My post was actually more than just random, humorous gibberish. It actually held some amount of usefulness. I think... I think this may be a sign that my writing has begun to... to... mature ever so slightly...

Magnificent Monday: Magnificent Fail

It's Monday again, and that means that it's once again time for one of those posts. You know what I mean that post. The one that brings you coffee and the comic section of the paper in the morning. The one who will point out your new hair cut and compliment you on it. The one that will offer to be Tails during Sonic the Hedgehog 2. That post.

So.... It's December again, and that means I'm going to be picking up the mantle of posting again. "But Ken, you could have posted something on the first, it was a Wednesday after all." Yes, yes, I'm very aware of the fact that I could have posted then. But when I went to, the section of my brain that processes Ken's Take basically gave me the finger and told me to F off. And so... I decided to start with Monday. So let's begin with an update:

Magnificent Monday: Button Mashing

Once again Monday has arrived. This week though, it's different. It's personal. This week we will be discussing the ramifications of a technique referred to button mashing on the greater martial combat genre of video games. Alternatively we can talk about what happens when you forget about any given fresh produce in the back of your fridge for some months. (Hint: nothing good.)

Magnificent Monday: Unannounced Leave of Absence

It's Monday, and that means it's time for yet another exciting week of life. Some of you may be asking, "Ken, what happened? Where did you go?" Well my friends, to be perfectly honest, I just kind of fell apart. But I'm back up and running again and next time I take an extended hiatus I'll be sure to let you guys know about it.

Today I met a girl riding the bus on the way to class. I'll spare her name, however I eventually came to find out two things:
1. She was 14.
2. She had just gotten kicked out of her house.
I was surprised by this information to say the least. Luckily, from what I can say, things look like they'll work out just fine for her. She's got a network of support from friends and others that are willing to support her.

I just thought that it was an interesting way to start off the week, meeting this person. It was a bit of a reminder of where I've come from. Something that seems so far away. I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to remember. Recently, I've been rather unmotivated. I don't have a just cause to rally myself behind. I don't have a solid dream to chase after. And honestly, it's all a lot of hard work.

However, I suppose it builds character. Life isn't easy is it? It'd be nice if it were. But damn, wouldn't that be boring? I guess from here I suppose my goal will be to simply do my best. I don't think one could ask for anything more than that.

And so for you, my dear readers, I entice you to do just that this week.

Do your best. In everything. Whatever it is, if you decide to do it, give it all you've got. Give it your best damn effort and pray it's good enough. And if it's not, then get better. Become stronger. Stand up, and run. Run towards tomorrow and another week. I'll be right there with you.

-Ken
[EDIT]: Added tags.

Magnificent Monday: Error 404

Today is Monday. Tomorrow is Tuesday. Tuesday, the 14th of September. The release date of HALO:Reach. For those of you not in the know, this is my thing. I've spent the past 24 hours doing homework and preparing enough time to play this game. I'm currently at Best Buy on Broadway Blvd across from Park Place Mall waiting in line for the midnight release. So... I apologize to my readers for the lack of a Monday posts today, although this counts technically I suppose. Also, I apologize for the Wednesday post in advanced, just in case. See you on the far side.
[EDIT]: I gots it!!!! It comes wit Swordz!!!!!!!!
[EDIT 2]: Added tags.

Magnificent Monday Tuesday: Labored Movement

Today is Monday Tuesday, and that means that it's time to start the week off. Well, at least the rest of it since it's already kind of late. Yesterday was Labor Day, and thus, in accordance with the national holiday, I held off on posting. Yeah... that's exactly what happened... Um... Have some listening music!

Yesterday was the Damascus Road Volley Ball Tournament, which my team won (GO TEAM GOKU!), and let me just say that playing in sand is way harder than I remember it being! Truth be told my feet are still sore. But hey, it was a lot of fun and super worth it in my opinion. Although it got me thinking about what kind of physical shape I'm in. The honest answer: not good.

This got me thinking a little more about why that was. Why was it so difficult to work out from time to time? Do I not have enough time? This, it would seem, was the best answer, but then again my physical health should be a high enough priority on my list to warrant a time slot in my schedule. Perhaps it is a problem of motivation? For me this very much seems to be the case as I'm sure it is for many others. Where's the motivation? I mean, there are all sorts of reasons people throw in.

-Be healthier.
-Look better, slimmer, fitter.
-Sports.
-Etc.

For me though, the best motivation is probably combat. The idea that maybe one day I'll have a need to be physically fit. Up until this point though, logic has dictated that this simply is not the case. At least, that's what I use to justify my reasons. But alas, the time has come to do away with this type of reasoning. A friend of mine has recently moved into town and I know that if I am to survive any amount of sparring with him, I will need to be physically fit, else it might mean getting a whack to the face with a bokken.

So I suppose my question for the week is, do you work out and stay physically fit? If so, what's your motivation? If not, why don't you?

Have a healthy week!

-Ken
[EDIT]: Added tags.

Magnificent Monday: Bad Habits Rise Early

So... It's Monday again, which marks the beginning of the second week of school. I've already noticed a couple things, mainly that my procrastination has somehow resurfaced in full force. I should've followed rule #4 and double-tapped that sucker. Whatever though, have some listening music while you read. I think it'll be a nice way to start the day off, just imagine that the song's about you... or don't if you're a guy cause that's a bit weird.

So... That weird monstrosity that you see above is actually my google calendar. The green things at the top are my tasks, ie: homework and what not and the rest of it is... well stuff that I have planned. Okay, you caught me. I don't actually do any of this stuff. In reality I have a pet monkey named The Joe Joe that just kind of screws around on the computer all day. What you see is his current masterpiece.

Magnificent Monday: Server Restart

"The server will be restarting in 15...10...5...4...2...1..." When I see this message, the above reaction isn't entirely unheard of...

And it's Monday once again. I apologize for that reference, however I am sure there is a very select few of you (although it's not that difficult of a reference) that will find it humorous. Anyways, the whole server restart thing is because today, my dear readers, marks the first day of classes for the new semester. (At least here at the UofA)

What does this mean? Well, simply put, it's time for a bit of a change. It means that it's time to get up, get my boots on, and PWN. Summer's officially over, and Fall Semester is in high gear. Now today I would like to start off by evaluating my success from last week's final list.

1. I read all of this past week's XKCD comics plus today's.
2. I made a crockpot meal. However, its edibility is... questionable...
3. My Fall Semester 2010 To Do List is still in progress, I'm giving myself till the end of the week for this.
4. My short story so far is still in the drawing board stages. I started writing, however, I quickly realized that the characters will need significantly more depth to make the plot line work. So, I scrapped what I had and am making the characters just that, more in depth.
5. Well, school's starting and I'm just about as ready as can be, what with my pencil, notebooks, and other various items such as books and such.

Not too shabby in my opinion. I managed to at least touch base on just about everything. It seems that I nailed down the technique just as I stopped using it. Well I guess that's just how it goes. Maybe I'll make use of it later on. Let's talk a bit more about the outlook of the semester after the break.

Magnificent Monday: Bad Habits

And it's Monday again. And I'm running late in my posting again. I feel like this is starting to become a bad habit. Take note please that I tried to find a decent picture of a bad habit. Instead for literally every kind of search I did this lolcatz pic showed up. On every, freaking one. So... I figured I'd let him have his spotlight.

Alright, let's get some things out of the way. Last week I was supposed to:
1. Finish the Coffee Table.
2. Play 20 songs on DDR.
3. Shoot and make 5 free-throws.
4. Figure out the dinner party thing.
5. Make a crockpot meal.

In actuality I:
1. Forgot.
2. Am too out of shape to do all 20.
3. Don't want to talk about this one. It was FAIL.
4. Thought about it a bit harder, failed to find a notecard, and then gave up.
5. Gathered the appropriate materials.

I did manage to:
1. Play Rockband for the first time in a while.
2. Finish 2 arcs of Starcraft II (The final protoss level is unreasonably depressing.)
3. See an amazing movie, namely Scott Pilgram vs The World. (I also have a new favorite celeb crush, it's the goggles.
4. Give a friggin' awesome presentation in my lab. Hurray Data!
5. Work on my story. (More on this after the link.)

Magnificent Monday: Decision

It's Monday, and that means it's time for my weekly update to kick the week off right. Let's try and be a little inspirational here so that the week sucks a little bit less because, let's be honest here, that's why you're reading this now. Isn't it? Freaked out are you? Don't worry too much about it, it's a little something I've got called mind control.

Now then, here's the thing. There are some weeks that I just completely fail at what I planned on doing. However, instead of following through with these plans often I find that I spend my time doing something else that is usually pretty awesome. Now I am determined to prove that I do not simply choose not to do things and that in fact my life is very busy! How will I do this? I don't know. A little help there would be nice. Maybe a collage or something...

So I've decided to be positive about how I go about this whole update by the number thing, so here we go:
1. I finished Matthew.
2. The Super Complex Dinner Party Mystery is in fact done. However, I am yet to find a medium to properly translate my amazing thoughts into reality.
3. I did a set of push-ups the other day.
4. UofA is just plain silly sometimes. Also, so is the Spanish department sometimes.
5. Sleep is over rated. Starcraft, WoW, HALO, and writing outlines for short stories is not.

That wasn't so bad. I kind of like this whole "be positive" thing. Now then, for this next week, here are a few things that I'd like to get done:

1. The Coffee Table.
3. Play 20 songs on DDR.
5. Shoot and make 5 free-throw shots.
7. Find a medium for my awesome, amazing dinner party mystery.
11. Prepare a meal in my crockpot.

There we go, those are my goals for the week. Are they too simple? Maybe. But they're easy to do. I like them. And actually, I think it's time I gave you more of a reason to be reading this thing besides my extreme awesomeness. I am giving you all a task.
If you're reading this, I'll assume you want to participate, so let's get started.

Choose one of the following to do over the course of the next week:
1. Give 1 compliment to someone different each day. (7 days, 7 compliments, 7 people.)
2. Perform a random act of kindness for a stranger.
3. Do something that is better for your health.

Let me know how it goes in the comments section, I'd love to hear about it.

Have a Smashing Week!

-Ken
[EDIT]: Added tags.

Magnificent Monday: Lost and Found?

And... it's that time of the week again. The time where we all pummel our alarms in the hope that their death will mean that the new week hasn't quite started yet and that you'll get to sleep in.

So... right now the cat is locked in the bathroom because the carpet guys are here giving the floor a deep scrubbin'. Between all of the furniture being moved, her hiding spot under the bed disappearing, and random people coming in and bring strange, loud devices with them, she is none too happy. I can just hear her crying out, "What is this?!? There's something wrong with the house! I don't like change!"

If you didn't click the link, you should. Like right now. Do it. Just do it. I won't evaluate this next week until you do. I mean it! Don't you dare click that "read more" link until you're seen my very funny clip!

Magnificent Monday: Catch-up

And it's Monday, once again, and once again I am super late in getting this thing out onto my blog... maybe I ought to set a deadline for myself? O-Kay! New rule! Ken will have his posts up and posted on his blog by noon on his blog days. What? Not good enough? WTF?!? I'm not a robot! Fie, fie, I'll have things posted by 10a at the latest. Good enough? Sheesh...

So last week I skipped out on all of my blog posts, and I did so intentionally. I wanted to keep that post up as a sort of reminder for the week for the loss that Invisible Children suffered. Today though, we start our new schedule! First things first though, here's the deal:

I have taken care of both my FAFSA AND my taxes.
My dear wife actually took the time to clean out the car! I s'ppose the next step is to vacuum it out?
I did in fact finish my RE digest.
I never finished Matthew. >< And that's my update. Check out more after the break.

Magnificent Monday: 1 in 64, and Counting...

Monday, which means it's time to start the week of right, although it would appear that this week has already begun...

So, it's that time again. Where we take a moment to reflect upon how this past week went and continue on planning the coming week. However, today is a bit different. Today, there are 64 people at least that no longer have a tomorrow. That no longer have a chance to make plans for the coming week. Today is a particularly sad day.

I apologize to anyone who maybe looks forward to my posts for being so late. I will be making a special post tomorrow detailing the events of the past day or so. For now though I would very much like some rest. I apologize if this is bothersome, however I promise to make a more in depth and informative post early in the morning before some, if not most, of you are up, so the wait shouldn't be too bad. Until then, goodnight, and may God bless your night.

-Ken
[EDIT]: Added tags.

Magnificent Monday Tuesday: Second!

It's Monday Tuesday which marks the beginning of this week. Considering that yesterday was a holiday, I figure that the week really starts off today, so here we are! Let's get the week started off right.

Alrighty then, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Independence Day. I know that I had a chance to enjoy some tasty brats and see some fireworks with the wife and my friends. I wonder where abouts I'll be next year... No matter, let's get down to business.

First, an evaluation of how last week's goals went. I'm proud to say that I had a solid 60% success rate! That actually sounded better in my head... Anyhow, I did a fair job of exercising this past week, however it could've been a wee bit better. No matter! It's a new week! I'll be sure to pick up the pace in that area. Moving on, I have officially finished #18 on my Summer To Do List ! I am excited! I'll post some pictures when I get to a computer and snag them from my friends. The Wildcat beach party also went very well, I was rather lucky having walked in and received my free burger within about five minutes because someone else walked out. Oh well, their loss.

Now then, there's always a flip side to things. Last week I found out that Heidi's computer isn't under the extended warranty, so it'll cost about $300 to get it fixed even though it's a hardware malfunction on their part. >< Regardless, Heidi no longer has a computer, however we'll need to salvage her hard drive later, so that'll be fun. We also will be needing to save up for a new computer, although we're leaning towards a netbook for her. I also never got around to finishing my taxes, and thus my FASTA. Yeah, I know, I know. I've already set aside time to take care of it with Heidi though so it'll be done this week. And that about sums up this past week! This coming week I'm looking forward to a few things. 1. Finish my bloody taxes. 2. Finish a sequencing plate. 3. Do my RE digest. 4. Finish Matthew. 5. (This is a big one.) Clean out my car. So there you have it, my five goals of the week. It's game time. -Ken [EDIT]: Sorry about the late post, I tried posting from my phone and it didn't really go through or something.
[EDIT 2]: Also, posting from my phone seriously messes stuff up, I think I'll try to find another method of mobile posting other than through e-mail unless it's just an update or something.
[EDIT 3]: So... I guess this is my 100th post? Yay?
[EDIT]: Added tags.

Magnificent Monday: Start!

Monday... Oh, Monday. What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet. And likewise, were it any other day that started the week, we would hate it just as much.

The fingertips of dawn steadily creeped through my window as the smooth voice of Adam Lazzara chimed from my phone singing Cute without the e. As each sense began taking it's focus, the smell of my wife's perfume, the dry taste of morning, the singing voice, the soft bed, and of course lastly, the sight of my wonderful wife sleeping.

At least, that's what I'd like to say, unfortunately the first thing I saw this morning was my cat's face upside down as she rubbed against my face in an effort to be pet.

And thus the morning began, and with it a brand new week. What's in store for this week? Time will tell, however here's my general understanding of things.

1. I will be exercising hopefully every morning this week save Saturday.
2. A very good friend of mine will be coming down this weekend to visit, I am sure that it will be quite fun considering we'll be knocking number 18 out on my Summer To Do List.
3. The last Wildcat Beach Party I appear to be participating in this week is this evening.
4. I'm going to finish up my taxes.
5. I need to get Heidi's computer sent in for maintenance.

And I'm looking forward to another exciting week!

-Ken
[EDIT]: Added tags.