My morning weight today was 187.4. That puts me just a smidge above my lowest weight in a bajillion years, 186.6, which I reached on March 23. I then gained 5-6 pounds back.

So I'd say I'm now back on track. I'm using the tools at SparkPeople as well as the healthy foods I know I already like. So far, this is the easiest weight loss I've ever had. I don't know if tracking every calorie is what's making it so easy, but that's my guess.

The important thing for me is to stick with it. Thankfully, I have some time before the next round of birthdays and weddings so I can hopefully build up some good habits by then. Thanks to everybody who is keeping me on track.

Things haven't been that great for me the past month or so in terms of wellness. I had an entire month without going ti the gym though I did still do walking. But more importantly, I picked up some of my old eating bad habits. To top it all off, I haven't been doing that well with superfoods.

It's annoying that I can't seem to stick with a plan. The good news is that even though I have eaten poorly, I have only gained a few pounds back.

I put myself back on track with nutrition a couple days ago and have already lost more than a pound. I'm hoping that I can burn off the next couple pounds I gained and be back on track in no time,

In the meantime, anybody who harasses me to eat well and exercise is a good friend even if I act like you are nagging me sometimes. Thanks to everybody who has encouraged me and commented on how I look.

I don't generally consider myself to be a lucky person. Fortune, yes, but not lucky. This week is different. After having a very nice weekend with the wife, I was given a gift of some symphonic crash cymbals. They are damn near perfect, perhaps the best set I've ever played. I later found out I'm getting a bonus from work. In this economy, whether you want to say it's recovering or not, that's something to be happy about. I'm proud to say my company is doing well even if my contribution is small in the grand scheme of things.

And most recently I found out I will be attending PAX East. I won't get into why this is lucky, but let's just say I'm a procrastinator sometimes when I shouldn't be. I'm very excited to go. Also in the video game realm, I'm playing through the recently released remake of one of my favorite games of all time, Lunar.

So what's your take on this? Am I in the middle of a good luck streak? Should I go out and buy a lottery ticket or is that pushing my luck? Would the universe perhaps strike back at me to even things out? Whatever the case, I'm having a very good week and I hope you are too.

One of my coworkers brought in donuts today. I am not lying when I say that ever time somebody brings in donuts to work I at least try to get one (sometimes people beat you to the punch).

Today there were several delicious varieties. The one that caught my eye was a chocolate frosted donut. The frosting had that special sheen on it that tells you it was probably frosted recently. It was quite likely a perfect specimen. There's a chance that God himself had a hand in making that particular donut.

At least, that's how glorious it seemed as I decided not to eat it. This was probably my first time passing on fresh donuts and I don't think it will ever get easier.

There's literally less than an hour left of February, so it's about time I write this post. As I said in my 2010 resolutions, I am incorporating one SuperFood into my diet each month. January was tea and I now have at least one cup of tea every day. I could probably drink more than I am to get maximum benefits, but I'm hitting my goal of at least one cup a day.

For February, I'm incorporating one of my favorite SuperFoods, Wild Salmon. It may sound like it's too easy to pick salmon and in a way it is. In reality, the easiest SuperFood to pick would be turkey since I already eat the recommended amounts. The problem with salmon is that even though I love it, I rarely eat it. This is partly because it can be expensive if you buy it in non-canned form, but it's also because I just don't think to get it. I get my turkey, chicken, and whatever else and never buy seafood.

So in February I forced myself to eat more salmon. I will admit to not always reaching the target 2-4 servings a week, but I'm getting there. Most important for my wallet, I found a cheap way of getting salmon. ALDI has wild salmon caught off the coast of Japan, frozen and cut into individual serving sizes, for very cheap. The day before I plan to have salmon, I take one of these out and put it into the fridge to thaw. They taste delicious and I could find no evidence that Japanese wild salmon is any worse for the environment than Alaskan wild salmon.

Besides salmon, I've been eating these other SuperFoods, though not all up to the recommended amounts: broccoli, oats, oranges, pumpkin, spinach, tea, tomatoes, turkey, yogurt, dark chocolate, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, cinnamon, honey, and onions. I promise my post for next month's SuperFood will not be at the very end of the month.

I received The Secret Societies Handbook by Michael Bradley on Christmas 2009. My family knows I'm interested in secret societies, not in joining but in the oh so secret things they may or may not be doing, so this book makes sense for me.

The first thing that needs to be said about The Secret Societies Handbook is that most of the organizations described within are not secret. Some, like the Council on Foreign Relations and Freemasons are very well documented. The criterion for getting into the book is only that the organization is accused of doing things secretly. So even though the Freemasons have meetings and gatherings in their countless lodges, people believe that they are also coordinating the lives of the rest of the world.

I won't go over each organization Bradley chose, but I will highlight a few of the more interesting ones. The first one he listed was the best one for me reading this book: the Assassins. I thought they were made up for the Ubisoft game, Assassin's Creed. Little did I know they were a real organization. The Council on Foreign Relations is an interesting one because it gets spoken of on the news frequently and usually not with the tone that they have a hidden agenda for world domination.

Before reading this book I had never heard of the Bilderbergers, an organization made up of the world's elite, wealthy and powerful. They meet every year for three or four days and then go back to their lives. Why? It's a secret. My reaction to this is the same as everybody I tell it to: "That doesn't make sense. How could the world's media not know that this gathering takes place?" But they do know about it. There just isn't anything to say as no information is public. This fact can be confirmed with basic research.

At the end of every chapter, I tended to go to at least Wikipedia to see how well it matched up with the book. Sometimes the book had more information. Sometimes Wikipedia had more, as the book dedicates only a few chapters to each topic. But in almost no cases was the book presenting information that appeared to be untrue.

The only chapter that almost seemed not worth printing is the chapter that covers three United States secret government UFO organizations. If true, these groups would be some of the only truly secret groups in the book. But they aren't real. The documents that exist are false. Only crackpot UFO nerds believe them to be real. The author does say this (in nicer words) but I feel like there's enough counterarguments to these groups' existences that they need not be mentioned.

In the end, almost all of the information in this book is available online. But you probably won't find it as nicely presented as it is in this book, nor all collected into one spot. Unfortunately, when dealing with topics like secret societies and conspiracy theories on the internet, the signal to noise ratio is pretty bad. If you are looking to get some basic information on everything from the Illuminati to Opus Dei, this book is for you.

Last night I finished reading Sojourn by R.A. Salvatore. It's the third book in the Legend of Drizzt series, which is a series of Dungeons & Dragons novels. You can read more about that in my reviews of the first and second books.

The first two books were fantastic. They had a good amount of mystique, D&D appeal, and carried strong themes that I hadn't necessarily found in other D&D novels. Sojourn continues that transition, though I didn't identify the theme of the book as soon as I did with the first two.

Sojourn picks up with Drizzt living on the surface world, a place where no drow elf truly belongs and certainly no drow is welcome. Drizzt encounters many people and many challenges in this book, but it starts off rather simply with him watching some human farmers go about their daily lives. When he attempts to make contact, things of course don't go well and they become deathly afraid of him, even sending out a hunting party from the village. But unlike previous books where Drizzt's family was hunting him, it's merely coincidence that makes this situation not work out for Drizzt.

The family he chose to look after is the target of some creatures called Barghests. They are sent to this world to devour people's life forces so that they can be strong enough to live on their original plane of existence. Drizzt merely showed up at the wrong place in the wrong time as the Barghests are crafty and make it look like Drizzt is to blame for the carnage that ensues. This misunderstanding kicks off the rest of the novel as the mistakes made during his time near the farmers haunt him through to the end of the book.

As I said, Sojourn carries a theme like the previous books. I didn't initially catch it even though it's right there in the title of the book: Sojourn. The theme of this book is that by leaving his home, Drizzt does not have one. He can be quite comfortable in a place for a time. But it will only ever be a sojourn for him. He will inevitably need to pack up and leave and it might not even be because of something he did.

Because of this truth, Sojourn has a depressing overtone to it. It's as if Drizzt can do nothing right and will never belong. Additionally, it doesn't carry as epic a feel as the earlier books. This isn't a bad thing, but it is noticeable. The first two books took place in the underdark with drow and horrific creatures posing major threats to Drizzt. On the surface, he mostly faces goblins and orcs. In D&D terms, this is like going from very high level threats to very low level threats. There's still challenge and excitement in the book, but it's not the same. I think the reason for this change of pace is that this book has to not only close off the story in this trilogy, but blend smoothly into the Icewind Dale series. I can't comment on the success in that regard because I haven't read those books yet.

A blind ranger that Drizzt befriends is a definitely highlight of the book. Despite having lost his sight, the ranger can "see" just fine due to his close bonds with the animals around him. He has an owl that serves him quite well, using sound to mark his enemies and spying on enemy orcs. More importantly though, the ranger serves as a great teacher for Drizzt. In each of the three books, Drizzt has somebody to look up to and to teach him to better himself.

There are dozens of other books that take place in Forgotten Realms and many of them feature Drizzt. I've been told there aren't many more that are "worth reading." I haven't decided yet how far I will go, but I already have seven more books in my possession including the Icewind Dale trilogy and the four books making up Legacy of the Drow. I will get to these one by one over time and I hope that they can live up to the high expectations I have after finishing these first three Drizzt books.

After reading a post on Patrick Rothfuss's blog, I decided to try out Goodreads.com. Because of my general dislike for making new accounts and my great ability at joining sites and then forgetting about them, it's been a while since I signed up for any site. But I've been trying to read more and connect with other readers to discuss books and such.

So I signed up for Goodreads.com. You can see things about me on my profile. It's pretty empty right now, but supposing my trial run with the site goes well, it'll fill up with juicy goodness soon. If any of you reading this are on Goodreads or decide to join with me, please friend me on there.

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.