Recovery time

Had a very minor surgery yesterday. Am recovering well.

Iron Edutainer

Still working on rebranding. Don't have any new information on how to change things yet. Finding bits and pieces to make progress. I'm currently helping out with the 5mo and a 2.5 year old. I've got my wife with some medical issues. I coach. I teach 11 hours a day. I'm working on a second masters degree. As I figure it out. I will let you know my mistakes and my successes. Join me won't you? See you soon IEt

I'm baaaaaccckkk.... and rebranding.

I'm back and rebranding.....


Like a comic book villain, I can't be kept locked up forever. So here I am. If you have been following me please update your bookmarks. I changed the blog address to ironedutainer.blogspot.com from Catchityourself.blogspot.com.

Why? Well here is the quote I used to name my blog:


Well, I'm sort of a silly person, and I didn't realize the quote I used was very likely made up out of whole cloth.

You see.... the Constitution of the United states doesn't talk about the pursuit of happiness. The Declaration of Independence does. I don't think good ol' Benny Frank (as I liked to call him) would have been so careless as to make that mistake, and I can't find any reliable sources for the quote. The quote was likely made up by someone confused about the documents and misattributed later on.

While I still believe that there is a strong need to challenge yourself to be the best person you can be, and you should rely on others to bring you to your goals, I also want to bring this blog more inline with some of my other projects.

I'n my next post I will talk about what the name Iron Edutainer means and why I chose it.

See you later. Keep building Cathedrals.

-P

Sometimes you just need rest.

Once I get on a role and into a routine, it's very hard for me to stop. There is a lot to be said about forward momentum. That's why replacing good routines with bad routines are necessary.

Also necessary sometimes: giving yourself a break. The key is, to give yourself one only when you really need one. You can't just take a break just because you need an excuse. Yesterday, I kept looking forward to just getting home. My brain was foggy. I craved sugar. My legs were heavy. I was irritated at everything. Each one of these is a symbol of overtraining and needing rest. I could have just sucked it up and gone into the gym, but you know what? Instead, I came home, turned off the devices, and climbed into bed. 

Nine hours later, I felt better than I have in a long time. I was much more effective at work today, and I got a great workout in. Sometimes you need to learn to listen to your body, and throw in the towel. Just make sure you aren't giving into excuses.

See ya soon.

P

Update.

I really should post more again. School year is winding down. It seems like only yesterday we started and I dropped off the face of the earth. I guess I have excuses, but that is all they are. We are now expecting child number two. I have enrolled to a second masters program. It will be time consuming, but it is going to pay off in spades. I hope to learn to be a better science communicator through it. Perhaps I will even relaunch my website and webcomic. 

I have been on a three week roll with my health. No more fast food or gas station stops on the way home. It's been saving 200-800 empty calories a day. I've also started strength training again. 3 days a week in addition to really improving my running base. I'm running four days a week. Two days are at a low mile 80% pace. One day is a low mile easy recovery run, and the last my long run. I'm up to around 18 miles a week. This was an up week. Next week I'll back off a little and allow a little recovery.

I was back up to my all time high, so that was not great, but I'm back down 8 lbs, so I'm one lb lighter than last update. 

I know I can do better. Here's to that! I need to organize my time a little better, and learn to say on a bit more.

Check you all soon,

P

34 by 34 update.

Here's my update. It's been a long time, but it have some ideas for new posts. I'm also working hard at generating content.

1. Get my blood work and improve my numbers (year over year) Why haven't I done this yet?

2. Run a spartan sprint. Ran Miller Park and will run it again

3. Lose 10 lbs (currently down 7 from high).

4. Lose 20 lbs.

5. Lose 30 lbs.

6. Build a pull up rack and/or training wall.

7. Run a 1/2 marathon or another marathon.

8. Take my family to see my daughters great-grandparent out of state.

9.  Go to six flags fright fest. Missed this one. 

Replaced with: run a super spartan.

10. Go to a Chicago hockey game

11. Pay off health bills. Done

12. Pay off credit card. 

13. Go ice skating.

14. Run a spartan beast. For the trifecta.

15. Not be late to appointments. Working on. 

16. Launch a crowd funding campaign. Done.

17. Finish science scenes season 1

18. Update webcomic with no more than 10 delays through the year. Blah. :-( need to find a new goal since I messed this one up big time.

19. Get 5000 blog views

20. Get 10000 blog views.

21. Get garage door fixed.

22. Finish house painting

23. Set budget so we can pay off debt within year and so we have travel money for summer.

24. Build a computer for animations and video/photo editing. Done.

25. Go on a weekend camping and hiking trip trip.

26. Build a muppet style puppet.

27. Rejoin my master's swimming team.

28. Go on a Chicago ghost tour.

29. Visit House on the Rock.

30. Go on a WI brewery tour with the wife.

31. increase my dress tie apparel.

32. One date a month with the wife.

33. Complete 100 push up challenge.

34. Go to a comic convention.

Check one thing off my 34 by 34 list.

I know I have not been as frequent an author as I should. I am working hard at trying to change this. I have way too many balls in the air, but I think I like it that way. I have much less time to be scared. I just need to gain momentum on one or two of these things and the rest will fall into place.

Anyway, I can now check one thing off of my 34x34 list: I just launched a kickstarter campaign to print and ship my party game: Naughty? or Nice? This game is an informed minority game similar to Mafia or Werewolf but with a Christmas special theme.

For every $10 pledge I will send you a copy of the game. However, this being kickstarter. Should I not receive my full amount, I will not take any of your money, and you will not get the game.

Check it out here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/751806070/naughty-or-nice-a-christmas-take-on-werewolf-mafia



All payments will be processed through Amazon.com and if I do not make my minimum amount, you will not be charged.

Thanks for checking it out. Keep building cathedrals. See you soon.

-P

Coming Soon.

34 things I will do before I turn 34.

I look at my daughter. She is so full of life. So curious. So free. She has a million things to experience. We just celebrated her first birthday. It was great day. I can't believe how much she is picking up, and how many new things she will observe over the next year. 

Me? I'm not getting any younger. The clock is ticking. There is so much I want to accomplish. However, there are also so many responsibilities I have. My career, my wife, my child, my dog, and my house just to name a few. I need to balance both. 

So on the way up to a friends wedding, my wife and I each compiled a list of 34 things we wish to accomplish before we turn 34. Here is mine. Hopefully by posting this, I will be held accountable to my goals. I know that my previous bucket list has sort of fallen by the wayside, although I did achieve some of those goals. I think this time is different. Every day I am getting stronger, smarter, and more organized.

1. Get my blood work and improve my numbers (year over year)

2. Run a spartan sprint. (Already signed up).

3. Lose 10 lbs

4. Lose 20 lbs.

5. Lose 30 lbs.

6. Build a pull up rack and/or training wall.

7. Run a 1/2 marathon or another marathon.

8. Take my family to see my daughters great-grandparent out of state.

9.  Go to six flags fright fest.

10. Go to a Chicago hockey game

11. Pay off health bills (scheduled 2/14)

12. Pay off credit card. 

13. Go ice skating.

14. Run a spartan beast. For the trifecta.

15. Not be late to appointments.

16. Launch a crowd funding campaign.

17. Finish science scenes season 1

18. Update webcomic with no more than 10 delays through the year.

19. Get 5000 blog views

20. Get 10000 blog views.

21. Get garage door fixed.

22. Finish house painting

23. Set budget so we can pay off debt within year and so we have travel money for summer.

24. Build a computer for animations and video/photo editing.

25. Go on a weekend camping and hiking trip trip.

26. Build a muppet style puppet.

27. Rejoin my master's swimming team.

28. Go on a Chicago ghost tour.

29. Visit House on the Rock.

30. Go on a WI brewery tour with the wife.

31. increase my dress tie apparel.

32. One date a month with the wife.

33. Complete 100 push up challenge.

34. Go to a comic convention.

Excuses,excuses.

Alright. I admit I haven't posted on here in too long. I mean its been over a month. Where have I been? Well here are my lame attempts at excuses.

First, remember how I talked about the Super Spartan back in my previous post? Well, it turns out that some where in the order of 5%-10% of the participants developed a pretty severe system allergic reaction type rash. I was one of the lucky ones that won said rash in addition to medal. I don't hold it against the company that puts on these events. Rashes are one of the risks we take running through the woods and swimming through dirty water. Oh well. In fact, rash and all, I enjoyed it so much that I signed up for the Spartan Sprint in Wi. 

Speaking of Wi... After said race my family took a seven hour trip to my family's lake house to spend some time with the fam. I spent a week up there sleeping (lots of antihistamines), itching, and trying to pack as much family time in as possible. I didn't have the time or energy to post.

After I returned from the cabin, I spent another week on meds rid myself of the rash. The steroids keep me jittery during the day, and the antihistamines made me drowsy at night. Neither mental state was conducive to blogging. 

After that we decided we put off some home improvements to the house; trying to complete lots of painting and minor repairs in before we celebrated my daughters birthday. Oh, and we managed to fit in another weekend trip to Wi to celebrate the wedding of a close friend of mine. 

That brings us to this week... I started my full time job as a science teacher for the school year on Tuesday. My nerves were shot and my energy levels completely drained. 

So finally, it's Thursday night after my first week of school, and I am back to blogging. I can't guarentee the frequency of posts I was providing at the beginning of summer, but my goal is to put up at least three posts a week.

So those were my excuses for my absence. And you know what? They were excuses. I could have posted more frequently, meds or no meds, vacations or not. I should have. I just need to work harder and/or smarter. Plenty of people keep blogs on the side. I know I can too. I just need to find the right balance. I know I will. I am building a cathedral.