I first read about SuperFoodsRx on the Get Fit Slowly blog. I can't exactly put my finger on why, but this book stuck out to me. I did a little bit of research on it and what I found out convinced me to get the book. I hope I can convey what makes this a valuable book in this book.

The number one thing worth mentioning about SuperFoods is that pretty much everything in this book is based on scientific research. If it isn't, the author says so up front. This kind of factual information as well as up front honesty about the subject material is desperately needed in nutrition and fitness literature. Everywhere you go you hear claims of what is good and bad for you and rarely do you see where this information comes from, if anywhere. The author, Dr. Pratt, likes to make recommendations based on proven science. Fancy that! And the stronger the science, the stronger his recommendation. He comes right out and says that blueberries, spinach, and salmon are the most essential SuperFoods. They are incredibly nutritious and have plenty of research backing that claim.

So what exactly are the SuperFoods? They are a list of 14 foods (and their sidekicks) that are the healthiest for you. When combined, they form a foundation for not just a healthy diet, but the healthy diet. They provide good energy, prevent disease, and when consumed in moderation can help you lose weight. When I first read about this book, I mistakenly assumed that the author was going to suggest you stick with these 14 foods and have a rather odd diet consisting of meals combining soy, spinach, and pumpkin. Thankfully, that's not the case.

Each SuperFood has sidekicks which provide similar benefits but perhaps not as well. Pratt even provides you, in many cases, with just how close these sidekicks are to providing the nutrients you need from the SuperFood. Together with the 14 SuperFoods, you have dozens of food items to make up your SuperFood pantry and there isn't any particular restriction on other foods. Beef may not be a SuperFood or sidekick, but there's no reason why you can't have a serving of it along with SuperFood sides. Just don't eat a triple bacon cheeseburger.

SuperFoods has some basic rules to live by which are part of almost every diet these days. Lean towards whole foods. Fresh is good. Supplement your diet with exercise. SuperFoods also adds that you should de-stress however you see fit (meditation, yoga, etc.).

I'm using the SuperFoods suggestions to change my diet with the goals of feeling better and looking better (i.e. losing weight). So far, so good. And I'm excited that there are many intangible benefits of these foods. They help prevent cancer and heart disease. Macular degeneration and the onset of diseases like Alzeimers is slowed. The risk of getting diabetes is severely reduced. Hypertension should be a non-issue. I'm sure there are more that I'm missing. These aren't things you can feel. Whether I eat a whole pizza, two cheeseburgers, and a pint of Ben & Jerry's for dinner or a nutritious meal made of SuperFoods, I don't think I'll ever "feel" like I'm going to get cancer in 20 years. But having read this book, a consumer friendly collection of information based on many studies, I know that by eating SuperFoods, I'm less likely to get these diseases and am increasing my lifespan.

The first half of SuperFoods goes over each of the SuperFoods, why it's good for you, and some suggestions for how to use it. This section is followed by menu suggestions. Most of these recipes look rather delicious but I haven't made any yet. The next section is very valuable which is suggestions for actual brands to purchase. This is a great way to know which foods to buy in the store without even looking at the labels. The list will always be as old as the book, but it's a good starting point. The book ends with a bibliography that is dozens of pages long, solidifying the point that everything in this book is based on real scientific research.

I think my friends and family are probably sick of hearing me talk about SuperFoods at this point. But I'm excited about it. It's been going well for me. I'm notorious for not eating a lot of fruits and veggies. With this book, I don't need to worry about learning to like all of them. I can focus on the most beneficial ones first.

As I said in my resolutions, I'm completely incorporating one SuperFood a month. January is tea. Every day but one, I've had at least one cup of tea, the suggested amount from SuperFoods. I've also been incorporating turkey, salmon, tomatoes, yogurt, broccoli, and pumpkin. I'll continue to update this blog with my progress.

2010 will be a big year for me. I'm determined to stop being overweight and having a crappy diet this year. Do I plan on going into 2011 being cured of my general disdain for most fruits and veggies? No. I'm realistic. But I'm doing my best. I'm also planning on deciding the future of my sites and sticking with it. Here are my 2010 resolutions in full:

1) Eat more super foods, as in SuperFoodsRx. I've begun implementing the super foods recommendations in my life and I already feel better, healthier, and have lost weight. Though I'm incorporating many super foods, my actual plan is to do one food a month 100%, continually building off the previous months. My guess is that this is more achievable than trying to do it all at once.

2) Do cardio exercise most days, strength training three days a week. I've only been doing cardio, mostly walking, so far.

3) My tentative weight goal is 170. I'll know when I get closer to it what weight I'd actually like to be at, but 170 is in the healthy weight range for my height. If I can lose a pound a week using resolutions 1 and 2 above, I should hit my goal in July.

4) Reduce debt.

5) Finish at least one book a month. I already did one so I'm ahead of schedule.

6) Try learning Japanese again. Right now I'm working on learning the kanji.

7) Clean and organize entire apartment. We have so much stuff that the apartment is a bit cluttered right now. I want to get all my stuff cleaned up, probably donate some of my old stuff.

8) The hardest resolution by far is the last. I want to figure out just what it is I want to do with my sites. This is a major life changer for me. I've had GamesAreFun.com for almost 8 years. Do I want to keep doing it? And if so, in what form? As you all know, I put GAF on hiatus and am currently deciding what to do.

How will I do this year? I'm still in the positive thinking zone so of course I envision myself doing fantastic. My top priorities are the health ones though. If I can be healthy, I'll have plenty of extra years to learn Japanese.

It's not a resolution, but I plan on updating my blog here more often than last year. I've got book reviews for Dune and SuperFoodsRx coming up. And I'll be doing a more thorough look at some of these resolutions. Now it's time for me to enjoy what little is left of my three day weekend.

News here. Also, I still need to post my 2010 resolutions. I'll do that next update.

I made a few resolutions for 2009 and I didn't do that well on all of them. Go me! Here they are and how I did:

- Lose weight. My resolution was to reach my goal weight which didn't happen. The bright side is that I ate better this year, added softball and the gym, and tried many techniques of working out. I now have a lot more experience losing weight and a lot more knowledge about nutrition and exercise. Plus, I may have only lost about 7 pounds, but that's still a loss!

- Be a runner. My plan at the beginning of the year was to do at least 50 runs. That plan quickly changed when walking became the way to warm up and cool down around many of my workouts.

- Cut debt in half. My debt is not cut in half, but I now have the best plan I've ever had and it won't be long before the debt goes away. Unfortunately, the recession meant that I didn't get the pay increases I was hoping for this year and my benefits now cost me more. I will have to plan my 2010 financials well.

- Increase the popularity of GamesAreFun.com and AnimeDistrict.com. This one definitely didn't happen. I did more writing personally, but as the months went on, I gradually lost all my staff. I knew this was happening and let it happen. I'm not sure about the future of these sites and am spending my vacation I'm on thinking about what I want to do.

So that's my 2009 resolutions. Even though years are defined by arbitrary dates that mean nothing, we can make them mean something. In that sense, I'm glad 2009 is over and I can make a fresh start on the new year. I haven't finished coming up with my resolutions for the new year yet, but I know that priority number one will be losing weight. I really can get to my goal in less than a year so I'm going to do that in 2010.

I did the couch to 5k program last summer. It went alright. I made it into week 6 which farther than some go. And it did feel good to be running. But for whatever reasons (that I'm sure are on my blogs from that time), I stopped.

After all the injuries of this year (neck, shoulder, back, etc.), I'm really taking it easy. I'm going to be really focusing on doing light exercises. That means cardio, including walking and jogging. I'm going to try doing couch to 5k and see how that goes. But if I feel any part of me resisting, I'm going to take it easy and go slow. And those light exercises also mean I'm going to be really taking it easy at the gym.

Oddly enough, I was already going slow at the gym. I could have progressed quicker but I'm in no rush to turn into a big muscle man. I just want to lose weight. While I was toning up, I wasn't improving certain aspects of my health. Because of my injuries, I've talked with several doctors including general physicians, an orthopedist, a chiropractor, and physical therapists. Yeah, it sounds like I'm a mess. But from that and my own knowledge of my body, these are my findings:

1) I had bad posture and I'm still working to improve it. Slouching all day and spending all waking hours at a computer with bad posture is not healthy. What I've learned is that spending a few hours a day doing physical activity does not suddenly fix the bad posture I had for the rest. I have to focus on this or my back will hurt again.

2) I have mild scoliosis. It's nothing too noticeable, but my first back injury this year occurred immediately adjacent to the bend in my spine. Back posture plus lifelong scoliosis plus gym/softball may have caused my back injury. Or maybe not. It's hard to say.

3) I have two vertebrae in my neck that don't look right on an x-ray. My doctor asked if I had been in a major car accident or had any significant neck trauma. But apparently I was likely born with this and it isn't causing me any problems. I actually wonder if this may contribute to my neck pain, but maybe not, which leads me to...

4) Don't crack your neck. I have for years and now I spend my days with a hurting neck. Thankfully I now have some exercises to eliminate my neck strain and some medication to help me through the next few days until I'm better. But it takes a lot of focus to not crack my neck. It became so second nature to me that it's like breathing. I just don't think about it.

5) Softball is dangerous. It won't stop me from playing, but almost all sports can lead to some sort of injury. But we don't have much time on this earth and it's not worth worrying about what could happen. If we all did that, we'd never walk out of our house. The most dangerous thing I do every day is drive to work. My brother went skydiving recently where a couple mistakes can lead to death. He was fine. I played one season of softball and hurt myself multiple times. I guess my luck is just worse.

I need to close off this rambling at some point and this seems as good as any. 2008 was interesting. I got another promotion at work and lost 30ish pounds. However, my friends and family went through deaths, illness, and hardship. I spent a lot of time last year worrying about other people. 2009 has been a lot more of me worrying about myself. I haven't lost the weight I hoped to lose and I've hurt myself a few times. But I regret nothing. I learned a lot this year and I still have a few more months to lose that weight.

Exile is the second book of the Dark Elf trilogy by R. A. Salvatore. It is more recently also referred to as the second book in the Legend of Drizzt series, which spans many novels. Homeland was the first book which I enjoyed quite a bit.

While Homeland was really about covering drow elf culture and about how one man, Drizzt, tries his best to escape it, Exile is about Drizzt's life post-escape. Except, if he had truly escaped, this novel would be rather boring. He spends 10 years in the wilderness of the Underdark, seeking only to survive. His only companion is his magical panther, Guenhwyvar.

Shortly into the story, we learn that Drizzt's family seeks to find and destroy him. There is no option to leave drow society for them and the safety of their house depends on killing Drizzt, which would please their goddess Lolth.

After 10 years though, Drizzt is tired of being "the hunter" as the book calls him. He wants to be normal again. And that's largely what this book is about. There are multiple characters in the book that struggle between one ugly or unfavorable identity and another.

Drizzt must come to terms with who he is and choose who he wants to be. As the hunter, he can trust nobody and lives only to survive, which is not much of a life at all. Can he put all that away and still survive against the terrors that are sent at him by his vengeful family?

Drizzt also comes across others in his travels who have challenges as well. A deep gnome that lost his hands in the last book becomes an unlikely ally for Drizzt. His hands have been replaced with gnomish tools, enchanted with powerful magic. For their society, his handicap has arguably made him even more valuable than before, but he chooses to distance himself from them in self-pity. And a third friend joins them even later in the story who has been turned into a monster by an insane wizard. He struggles not only against himself, but against the magic that is quickly replacing his identity with that of a beast.

There is a fourth struggle that I unfortunately can't mention without spoiling a magic twist, but it's arguably the most difficult internal battle of the book.

These inner conflicts and the focus on friendship make this book a great read. At this point in the first Dragonlance trilogy, it still felt very much like I was reading through a D&D campaign. The only theme of those books was that they were D&D and had lots of cool sword fights and spells and things. This isn't a very bad thing since they are D&D books. But it's nice that Salvatore's books combine the setting of D&D with timeless storytelling themes in an interesting way. And though I can't remember if I mentioned it in my Homeland review, I think keeping the cast relatively small helps this series. It's a more compelling read when there aren't four people with swords, two people with wands, eight horses, four clerics, and a partridge in a pear tree to remember.

In my Homeland review, I said I thought it would be a good starting point for people who haven't read D&D and might want to start. If you read Homeland, there is simply no reason not to continue with the story and read Exile. It's just as good and continues the story. It's not over yet though. I'll have my review of the third Dark Elf trilogy book soon.

The first book I read by Richard Matheson was I Am Legend, largely because they made a movie out of it. Oddly enough, I have yet to see said movie. Other Matheson books have also been made into movies and What Dreams May Come is one of them.

I first saw the movie when it came out in 1998 and I've loved it ever since. The only thing that most movie fanatics can agree upon about it is that it's a visual masterpiece. It brings together the mental images that Matheson's novel provokes along with some of the imagery described in Dante's Inferno. That's a winning combination right there.

But personally, I enjoy all aspects of the film. I've always thought Robin Williams is fully capable of playing a serious role and Chris Nielson is one of my favorites of his. I also didn't find the story to be too sappy or too much of an attempt at grabbing Oscars as some have claimed. I found it's look at death to be an intriguing one. It presents images and concepts unlike what you see most of the time.

And that's as good a place as any to hop into the book. Matheson wrote an introduction for it, which is unusual. The reason is that he claims the story told in the book is based completely on years of research through dozens of sources and even provides a bibliography. He says the only fictional parts of What Dreams May Come are the individual characters.

A cursory glance at the bibliography shows he sourced lots of books about paranormal activity, near death experiences, reincarnation, and other paranormal topics. These aren't the type of books you'll read in college. But even so, I think it's a very creative approach to look through as many paranormal texts as you can to find common threads. If there is any truth to them at all, it seems a safe conclusion to assume you're likely to find it in what's repeated the most.

Matheson comes to his own conclusions about death and what comes after and uses that as a basis for the story. Without giving away too much, the basis for almost all of What Dreams May Come is that it is your own mind that determines your afterlife. If you are tied too closely to things on Earth, you're likely to stick around for a while as a ghost. If you're mind is troubled about certain things, you are likely to be troubled by the same things when you die. At the same time, the things that bring you pleasure will continue to do so. Except in both cases, the affect is amplified.

And that's where the book's story comes. The main character, Chris, dies in a car accident. His wife is incredibly distraught but goes on. During the entire first half of the book, Chris learns all about what it means to die. It's quite pleasing. But at the halfway point, Chris's wife kills herself.

In Matheson's views, it's not exactly God's actions that put you in hell. It's the rules God put in place, but it's your own mind that brings you there. So everything Chris's wife felt sad about and is unable to cope with is amplified by death and there is no escaping it. Thus, somebody who killed themselves can't enjoy heaven because they have no concept of it. Instead, they only continue their suffering alone.

But Chris of course can't let that happen. He refuses to follow the rules and ventures into the depths of hell to try to save her. It's a very touching story. I love it. And I've always been fascinated and terrified about death. It's inevitability is nothing short of horrifying. I'm not sure if I believe in everything Matheson put in What Dreams May Come, but it certainly is a very interesting viewpoint on life and what comes after. I highly recommend giving it a read no matter what your beliefs are. But I recommend it more to people who are or have been in love.

Where the Wild Things Are is such a good book. I remember it and so does almost everybody I've mentioned it to. Now Spike Jonze is directing the movie and it looks really good. The featurette on this page makes me very confidant in how the film will end up.

Though this year has had a few good movies come out, it feels relatively void of things I'm interested in. And I love movies! Where the Wild Things Are is probably my most anticipated movie for the rest of 2009.

I've done four days in a row of exercise so far: gym, softball, gym, gym (cardio). I didn't get the hiking in I hoped to over the weekend, but maybe next weekend. Tonight, I'm headed to the gym again. Five days in a row! I haven't done that in a while.

No weight update yet, as there's no progress to speak of. I lost a few pounds and then gained it back so I'm holding steady around 199 still.

Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho is the most demented novel I've ever read. The movie version starring Christian Bale came out back in 2000. I thought it was pretty good, also demented. It was good enough that I committed to getting and reading the novel. But anybody who knows me knows the levels of procrastination I'm willing to reach.

Years later and after finishing Homeland, I decide to finally read American Psycho. I've had this book for so long that the edges of the pages are slightly discolored. The book is everything I expected and more.

American Psycho is about Patrick Bateman, a yuppie Wall Street type who spends his days worrying about how his hair looks and his nights killing people. This dichotomy is the central aspect of the book. Bateman appears to all his fellow yuppies to be a perfectly normal (in their definition of the world) person. But in reality, he's a serial killer. The only problem is that nobody notices. Or nobody cares.

Though Bateman does talk about killing people occasionally, the first third of the book involves no murdering at all. You begin to see what an empty shell of a person Bateman is, but you don't see how brutal he can be. As the book continues, you see murders that start off relatively quick leading up to incredibly complex many day affairs that will leave even readers with the strongest stomachs feeling a little queasy.

Even though I'd like to get really deep into the many aspects of this book that I found interesting (the concepts of identity, perception, fantasy, etc.), I'd have to spoil parts of the book and it would be too long for anybody to bother reading. So let's get onto who this book is for.

I enjoyed American Psycho. The movie was great, though very violent and depraved. It was enjoyable and Christian Bale was great. But the book is definitely more brutal and more sexual. Certain chapters are basically porn. If they didn't end in death, I'd expect them to show up in Penthouse Letters. Other chapters describe torture and death so vividly that I didn't enjoy reading it in the traditional sense. It's not like reading about how Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas defeated hundreds of goblins in the battle at Helm's Deep. In that situation, the death is of inhumane beasts you aren't supposed to care about. In American Psycho, the deaths are brutal, demented, and awful. And even though you still don't really care about who dies, you feel bad simply because of how awful the situation is.

On top of the gore though, the prose itself will be difficult for some. It's told in the first person by a complete wacko who has a lot of idiosyncrasies. For instance, he has to describe the clothing of every single person he meets every time he sees them. As a result of this and other things, there are a lot of pages that drone on and on about seemingly random and inconsequential things. It's just par for the course when you are in the mind of a psychopath.

So in the end, I would not recommend this book to many of my friends. But those that don't mind a bit of gore and like seeing the very awful side of humanity, this book could be for you. If you loved the movie, it's certainly worth a read.

Homeland by R. A. Salvatore was recommended by me by several friends who also read fantasy novels. That's right, fearless readers. This is another D&D book review so if you don't care, you should probably move onto something more scientific or something with pictures.

Homeland's story is that of Drizzt Do'Urden, the poster child for the Forgotten Realms campaign. This particular book tells of his birth and the struggles he faces in his home city of Menzoberranzan.

I feel like for this review, I really don't need to be very thorough. All of my friends who read D&D books have read this book. In fact, almost anybody who reads Forgotten Realms books at all has read Homeland. There's probably only a handful of pictures who fit in both the haven't-read-Homeland camp and the might-actually-consider-Homeland camp. And for those, are they aware of Drizzt and simply haven't read his beginnings? Have they not read any D&D but want a place to start?

I'll choose the latter group. Drizzt Do'Urden is a drow elf. In D&D terms that means he should be evil. Truly awfully evil. But he's not. In fact, he's the polar opposite of his kin. That story in and of itself is nothing all too special, but Salvatore makes it worth reading. One of things that's hard to imagine in D&D are the "alignments" it has: good, neutral, evil. These alignments apply to individuals but also to entire races. It's difficult to imagine what an evil race would be. After all, there's a theory that all evil acts are committed by people who generally think what they are doing is right...or they're just mentally deranged.

But Salvatore does a great job of showing what an evil race can be. It's one that lives in near anarchy, where every member of that race is conniving, power-hungry, hateful, and violent. Drizzt somehow was born into this race with feelings much closer to what a typical Homeland reader would have. It's blissfully easy to cheer for him as he's the only character worth cheering for.

For those that read D&D books and haven't read this one, stop what you are reading now and read Homeland. For those that are wondering what a good starting D&D book might be, Homeland is the strongest candidate I've read. For everybody else, I'm really surprised you read this far. Congratulations, you are my biggest fan!

When Science Goes Wrong by Simon LeVay is an entertaining look at 12 cases of mistakes by scientists and engineers throughout the past 80 years or so. These range from meteorological to gene therapy to nuclear physics.

LeVay does a good job at telling each of the stories in a journalistic fashion. Though he does tend to lean towards a particular viewpoint (as most journalists do whether they like it or not), I don't feel like that viewpoint is being forced upon me. In some cases, I feel like the scientist at fault should lose his job or even go to jail. In other cases, it's just unfortunate what happened.

The stories span a range of sciences. As such, it has great potential to be confusing. But aside from one chapter that even the author seemed to have trouble with, the book does a great job explaining each of the cases. I'm no scientist and I think I could explain most of the stories after reading the book. If anything, LeVay may have gotten too long-winded in explaining the stories behind each mistake rather than cutting to the chase.

I found When Science Goes Wrong to be a nice break from novels. It felt like 12 tales of disasters that you might hear about on a Discovery or Science Channel show. So for all you science nerds out there, this is a cheap ($6 on Amazon) and easy read.

Sorry blog and blog readers. I do not ignore you on purpose.

The new Fullmetal Alchemist anime series is currently coming out in Japan. Usually at this point, there would be only one way to watch the show: wait until a somebody puts it online with English subtitles and download it illegally. But not so with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (and some other series). Thanks to FUNimation, we can watch the show streaming from their site whenever we want to as the episodes come out on Japanese television.

I just caught up with the seven episodes available so far and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Aside from catching some episodes out of order on TV, I didn't watch the original. But now that I'm watching this one, I like it a lot. It's a surprisingly mature show considering how much silly antics and immaturity the show also contains.

And not to brag, but I love my viewing experience. I have my old Mac Mini hooked up to my main TV and though it usually collects dust, it's serving quite well as a video streaming machine. The newest Flash player (10 I believe) added full screen video. So to watch anything on FUNimation, Hulu, or other video streaming sites with full screen options, I simply load up the video to watch on a web browser and click to full screen it. Voila. I'm now watching streaming video on my TV. The quality is never as good as a DVD and usually not as good as cable, but it's still not bad, especially for watching things like unreleased anime that simply isn't available otherwise.

As I mentioned in my last post, I injured my back. I've been going to a chiropractor and my treatment is nearly complete. With every visit, I felt a little better and my exercises at the gym are almost back where they were when I first injured myself.

Part of my treatment is correcting my bad behavior. I've identified with my chiropractor several places where I'm positioning myself poorly. Number one is my posture. I'm a bad sloucher. For instance, those ergo chairs people rave about with the lower lumbar support. Means nothing to people like me with horrible posture unless I force myself against the back of it. So I'm correcting my posture as best I can and even have some exercises to help with that. I also sleep in bizarre positions, play drums with poor posture, type and drive with poor posture, etc. These are all places that can be improved and if I do so, my overall back health should improve.

As I've talked to people about my issues, I've seen a lot of different opinions on chiropractic. I wasn't aware there was so much controversy because I've known multiple people who have had their lives improved by chiropractic treatment. I don't really want to get fully into it here, but for me the treatment has definitely helped. It seems that chiropractors weren't always as safe as they are today. But I checked out mine, found no reported problems with him, and he is a certified doctor.

The only other controversy besides safety and effectiveness is whether or not you "have to" go back for appointments "forever." My research there indicates that chiropractors tend to view their services like the dentist. Even if your tooth doesn't hurt, you go back to the dentist for a checkup once or twice a year and if your tooth does hurt, you go in.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do once my treatment is complete, which should be next week. On the one hand, I don't really want to have another doctor to visit once or twice a year. But on the other hand, if I do, I'll be spending $15 and a half hour of my time to do it. But either way, I'm just glad to be better and able to do my full workouts and softball without worry of injuring myself more.