Star Wars Celebration - Day 2

I was up early and out the door around 8:30ish. The convention center didn't open until 10am but I wanted to get in line early so I could try and get to the Hasbro booth as I read yesterday that they had an exclusive Ahsoka Tano 6" action figure and it had to be mine.

When Mike, Jason and I got to con we noticed a crowd of people mobbing around someone... come to find out that it was Anthony Daniels (C3P0) he was out mingling with the fans.

We weren't sure if there was a staging area for those who wanted to get in early so we wandered around for about a half hour before realizing that we had to enter through E into Hall D and get in this massive line. Jason found some friends while my brother had his family showing up anytime so they both left me to enter the line solo.

I waited about 45 minutes or so before the line started to move at 10am. The way they had these lines set up is that there were these long rows and as rows were filled you'd start a new row and so on. I was well in back so it took another 25 minutes for my row to even start moving.. I didn't get into the con until around 10:30.

I quickly made my way to the Hasbro booth and noticed that Dave Filoni was there signing a poster that I had seen yesterday and just fell in love with it. I quickly tried to find the end of the line but it was already capped. I then walked around the booth looking for this exclusive Ahsoka Tano action figure and realized that it was just a proto type they were revealing here at Celebration as an exclusive first look.

I had misread the article and this new action figure won't be out until 2016. Talk about being double disappointed. Not only is there no action figure but I just missed getting Dave Filoni's autograph on a poster that I must have now. BTW.. the action figure looked AMAZING!!

I walked around the floor for another 10 minutes or so taking pictures of the cool cosplayers before heading up to the third floor to get in line for the Clone Wars panel. This was the one panel of the entire con that I had to do. They were showing 4 unaired and unfinished episodes from The Clone Wars. The storyline was called the "Bad Batch" it was about 4 misfit Clone Troopers who were genetically altered and they have their own way of doing things. They are enlisted to do a "non-sectioned" rescue mission of fellow clone trooper Echo, who was believed to be dead.

I got in line about an hour and a half early as I wanted to make sure I got in this panel. We were put into a side room with a bunch of rows roped off. Here we sat and waited for the panel start. I had a nice group of guys around me and we chatted, watched the new Battlefront trailer and just hung out waiting to enter the panel room. Since I was by myself it was easy to find a fairly decent seat. Once the panel started David Collins who is the host of the digital stage (where we were) came out and chatted with us for a few minutes before bringing out the man himself.. Dave Faloni (creator of The Clone Wars & Rebels). Dave talked about these episodes for a few minutes before starting the first one. 

It was another fantastic story arch from the doomed season six. As I said they were unfinished. The actors voices were all recorded and they did a music pass but the video was all pre-vis. Which means it's like watching moving story boards. Lips don't move, very little body moment, when the walk they look like they are skating. StarWars.com released another sixth season storyline arch that looked the same way so I knew what to expect. But honestly the amazing story and voice acting you really fill in the blanks and don't even notice it after a while... at least I didn't.

Episode after episode my smile got bigger and bigger, I loved every minute of it. I really miss The Clone Wars. I mean I enjoy Star Wars Rebels but it's hasn't connected with me like The Clone Wars did. Maybe season two will, especially now that they have one of my favorite characters from The Clone Wars appearing on Rebels.. guess will have to wait and see.

After the screening of the four episodes they did a Q&A with Dave, several writers and the voice actor for the clone troopers Dee Bradley Baker. It was a fun Q&A, we got a little behind the scenes info about this "Bad Batch" storyline. We found out that there was another story planned for this group of misfits in season seven. We also find out that Echo becomes part of this group as well. I was thrilled that I got in this panel. And it was great to see the Dave was really appreciative of the fans, he made a comment about how wonderful it was to see a few thousand fans sit and watched four unfinished episode as though they were completed.

During the panel I got a text from my brother informing me that his family had arrived so when I got out I headed to the floor to find them. I spent the next hour walking around with them watching my niece and nephew eyes light up every time a costumed person walked by. One of my favorites is when this little tiny Ewok came up to them. They were thrilled to take a picture with her.

And thanks to Kenobi for insisting that we go up to the third floor we came upon the Mandalorian preparing for their "Death March", that's when they line up and walk through the con in a single file. It was pretty awesome seeing so many different Mandalorians.

After that I was hungry so I parted from my family and headed to the food trucks and grabbed another of those amazing corn dogs from the Viking truck. While at lunch my friend Kim found me and joined me for lunch. Afterward we found my family who were about to leave so I said my goodbyes. Kim and I headed back into the Halls and to the Celebration store. It was pretty picked through and they didn't have any official shirts, but Kim did find this awesome Admiral Akbar sushi set. As she got in line to pay for that (again huge line, an hour at least). I wandered the floor solo.

I text my friend Greg to see where he was and he responded. I found him and my buddy Brian and hung out with them for the remainder of the day.

After the con ended we headed to Mortans for an extremely delicious dinner. It was great getting to hang with these guys. I see them both so rarely and it's always nice to catch up on each others lives. We ate and chatted for a few hours. After dinner we said our goodbyes and I headed back to the hotel where I found my brother and Jason already in for the night. 

Goodbye Thomas, Hello Star Wars Celebration - Day 1

After the workout Thomas and I headed back to my place and packed up. I was dropping off Thomas at LAX for his flight to Calgary to visit family and attend Comic Expo and I was heading to Anaheim for Star Wars Celebration VII.

Just when we entered LAX the news broke about the new Star Wars trailer and sitting in the middle of LAX traffic I just had to watch it with Thomas. I was blown away, I even got misty eyed towards the end. The entire thing made my heart smile and it really got me pumped for the upcoming four days.

After I dropped off Thomas I got out of LAX and pulled to the side of the road so I could properly watch the trailer... five or six more times. As soon as the music started my could feel the tears start to well. Star Wars has and always will be a HUGE part of my life. It's the reason I am the geek that I am today. I may not live and breath Star Wars on a daily bases like some fans but that doesn't make me any less of a fan. I can't wait for this new movie and for any and all things Star Wars to come.

So I got my fill of the new Star Wars trailer (though I do want to watch it on a screen bigger then my cell phone). I made my way to Anaheim, traffic was bad from time to time so it was a slow process. The con started at 11am today and I was hoping to get there around noon. I actually got there closer to 12:45pm.

I arrived at my hotel which is directly across the street from the convention center. Check in wasn't until 3pm but I went in to see if they had early check in and lucky for me our room was ready to I was able to check in then. I unloaded my car and headed over to the convention center. It was only Thursday but it was already crazy busy. I made my way onto the main con floor and figured I'd start on one end and make my way to the other end.

As you can see from the picture the main area is broken into four halls (A, B, C, & D). We enter through Hall D, where registration is. It's also where you line up before the con starts. There isn't much there other then some very cool Star Wars cars. And when I say cars I mean cars that are painted and made up to look like an X-Wing, Boba Fett, etc..

The bulk of the stuff is in Hall B & C with some stuff in Hall A. As you enter Hall C from the right you come across two fan made sets. The first one is a bunker on Endor and there is a speeder bike in front. The second is a very large Rancor called Roxy. Both have photo ops and both had long lines to get said photo ops.

Across from Roxy is a mock up of the Mos Eisley Cantina, which you can enter if you are in costume. Next to those sets was a Landspeeder with the back drop of Tatooine. There is a Jawa and R2D2 statue next to it. There is also a set up with a Moisture Evaporator and a few odds and end droids standing around it.

And then in the corner is what looks like the inside of one of the Jawa's Sandcraweler. There are a handful of Jawas working on pieces of droids. And speaking of Sandcrawler there is a big backdrop with a picture of the outside of the Sandcrawler with several droids standing in front of it. This is also a photo opportunity.

Next to that was a fenced off section where they had remote control R2's that the kids could play with. Also it were the Astro Droid races happened. A large portion of Hall C is made up of the autographed area and there is also a few merchandise booths in this section.

Hall B is made of Merchandise booths, several "company' booths, ie Her Universe, Lego, Hasbro, etc.. as well as Fan based groups like the 501's and Rebel Alliance. There is also the Jedi Academy stage at the back of the hall. And there is also three photo op set ups.. the first one is Jabba the Hutt, you can actually sit right next to him. There is a medical room set up with a Bacta tank and then next to that is a section of the Millennium Falcon with a Dejarik table and corridor. There was a entire section where you could play BattleFront and also a section for you to build your own Cloud city.

The Last Hall.. Hall A had a large area set up for getting in line for the Arena stage. Rancho Obi-Wan had their mini set in the section. There was a very cool ATAT that you could get a photo with, Artiest alley was here as well as the tattoo section. And last but not least there was the Celebration store.

Of course the Halls weren't the only things to visit.. the second floor had a Droids room, Collectors room, VIP room and a SW VII Prop room. And both the second and third floors had conference rooms were panels were held.

As for what I did today.. I roamed the halls solo for a bit before running into my friend Kim who joined me pretty much for the rest of the day. My brother and his friend Jason made it down to con around 3 so Kim and I headed back to my hotel to get them settled in. Once they were done we all went back to con and did a few of the photo ops and walked around the halls until about 8pm when the halls closed.

Michael, Jason and I then walked to Downtown Disney to grab some dinner at the ESPN Zone before calling it a night around 11pm.

NerdStrong Gym - Barbells & Kettlebell Swings

Today is my last workout for the week since I'll be attending Star Wars Celebration Today thru Sunday.

This is also my buddy Thomas' last workout at NerdStrong Gym as he heads up to Calgary to continue his vacation with family.

We started with a good stretching warm up and then moved on to some barbell work.

First we did Strict Press'. Since we were doing 5 sets of 5 I didn't go crazy on the weight but still wanted to make it challenging.

After Strict Press' we moved on to Deadlifts. Again we did 5 sets of 5 and like with the strict press I didn't over do it with the weight but still had it heavy enough to get a good workout in.

The final thing we did was another one of Andrews famous short but intense workouts. We had to do 21x Kettlebell Swings, 10x Dumbbell Curls, 15x Kettlebell Swings, 10x Dumbbell Curls, 9 Kettlebell Swings and finally our final set of 10x Dumbbell Curls. By your final set of kettlebell swings and dumbbell curls your arms are like noodles but somehow you manage to finish. I also up'd my kettlebell weight to increase the challenge..woot!!

This was a nice workout to end my week on. I know I'll miss going to NerdStrong the next few days but I'll be getting plenty of walking done while going from one end of the Anaheim convention center to the other.

My Six Month Status

Today I put on a pair of my old pants and realized just how far I have come in the past six months to getting fit and healthier. I have gone down 2 pant sizes (from a 38 to a 36), I've gone down 1 shirt size (from a extra large to a large) and I've lost a total of 30 lbs (219 to 189). I'm still about 24 lbs from my goal but I'm well on my way.

The weight lose is only one part of this puzzle, with my 6 days a week workouts at NerdStrong Gym I'm seeing the changes in the shape of my body. My leg (which have always been muscular) look even better. My arms are getting bigger, my chest is getting smaller but firmer and I'm starting to see the outside of my abs. My face seems to be the last place where I lose weight and I'm even seeing it there. I don't noticed it as much as I see myself everyday but those who haven't seen me in a while are commenting.

Not only am I physically changing but my mental wellness has improved. The past few years have been tough for me, my fight with depression has reared it's ugly head again and I have been putting up a good fight. But I'm happy to say the past six months I have felt the burden of depression lessen and I know it's because of me getting healthier. I workout hard and fight to eat right and I'm seeing the results, which makes me want to workout harder and eat even better.

I now know that my physical wellness plays a huge part in my mental wellness and vice verse. This is a concept that I don't think I ever really understood until now. With both of those in balance.. life can be pretty good.

NerdStrong Gym - Doing the Impossible

It's always tough doing an evening workout and then coming back early in the morning for an AM workout.. luckily I don't do that to often.

Today is Wednesday which mean CON Class with Coach Blair's ie torture workout.. and he didn't disappoint.

We warmed up with running 2 laps and then doing various leg stretches, ie high knees, butt kickets, etc.

We then quickly moved on to the workout... Here's what he had us do. We ran 4 laps then came back into the gym to do 10 rounds of 5x Push Ups, 10x Sit Ups & 10x Air Squats.

Once we were done with all that we ran 4 more laps around the parking lot and then did the same workout over again for a second time.. so 10 rounds of 5x Push Ups, 10x Sit Ups and 10x Air Squats before doing one final lap just for fun around the parking lot.

Of course my buddy Thomas flew through this workout along with coach Andrew while the other three of us (Erin, Pooja and I) struggled to complete it.. but I'm happy to say that we all did it. I finished the full workout (in black) with no modifications in 44:09 minutes. It was tough but as always very satisfying when you actually complete it.

I know I like to complain about coach Blair's workouts being tough (and they are) but it amazes me what you can do if you really put your mind to it. I pushed myself to finish this one in the allotted time (45 minutes). And when it was all over I was exhausted physically but I felt great mentally. I did it.. I did what looked impossible on the board.

In the end I ran 2250 meters (1.7 Miles). Did 100 Push Ups, 200 Sit Ups and 200 Air Squats in 44 minutes with no rest... that's pretty awesome. Thanks coach Blair for making me push myself beyond what I thought was impossible.

NerdStrong Gym - HandStands

Since I had my fix fax in the AM I had to push my NerdStrong workout to the evening. So I left work about a half hour early so I could be on time for the workout at 7:30pm. Thomas was joining me but he had to take the bus to get to NerdStrong (which I'm happy to say is a fairly easy trip, if I ever had to do it).

Warm up alone was like a mini workout. We had to do 3 rounds of 150m row, then Plank Pulls x5 and finally 3 rounds of 60 seconds Plank Hold.

Today's skill was all about Handstands. Fortunately for me I've been able to do handstands since childhood and never really lost the ability to do them even though I've gained some weight. We went through the motions on how to stand, start and finish a handstand before moving to the wall and attempting them. We were doing 3 rounds of handstands for max hold. It's a different experience doing free standing handstand as oppose to handstands against the wall. I did a few wall handstands as well as a few free standing hand stands.. it's nice to know that I still have it in me.

For the actual workout it was a quick and intense workout. We were using Sandbags and doing 3 rounds of Alternate Should Swing, then Shoulder 2 Shoulder Press and finishing with a High Pull. Each round we did :20 seconds of work and then took a :10 second rest. We also rested for :30 seconds in-between rounds.

As I said it was a nice workout.. intense and quick workout at the beginning, then a fun skill workout with the handstands before doing another intense and quick workout at the end... Thanks coach Andrew for another awesome workout. Oh and I just want to congratulate my friend Lauren on her first handstand.. it was fantastic!!

Fix Fax Retest & Loot Crate Fantasy Mini Movie

This morning I didn't go to NerdStrong Gym because I had my follow up appointment with Fit Fax (my wellness coach). It's been five weeks since my initial test and now it's time to see if all this hard work has paid off.

My first visit I weighted 192.2 lbs, this visit I weighted 189.4 lbs. That's a lose of 2.8 lbs... yay!!!

My Muscle Mass was 71.7 lbs and this visit it's now 72.5 lbs, that's an increase of .8 lbs of pure muscle mass... woot!!

As for my Body Fat Mass, I started at 67.5 lbs and now it's 63.3 lbs, that's a loss of 4.2 lbs of actual body fat.

What is crazy.. is though I only lost 2.8 lbs of actual body weight, I actually lost 4.2 lbs of the bad stuff... How awesome is that.

Needless to say both Sarah (my wellness coach) and I were very happy with the results. The remaining of the meeting we talked about my fight against the carb monster and how to improve my diet. She's happy with what I'm doing for the most part.. just gotta give it an extra kick now and then.

I plan to go back in 6 to 8 weeks for another follow up.. so stay tuned.

In other geeky news.. Loot Crate released this amazing video to promote their Fantasy Crate that will be coming out this month. This video just made my day.. reminded me of when I was young and use to play D&D, though I didn't play for years and years like the characters in this video I did feel the commendatory that goes along with these adventures. It's like a mini movie that will warm the heart and may even bring on some tears. Check it out!!!

Ant-Man & Superhero Fight Club

Today they released two awesome videos.. the first one is the second trailer for Ant-Man. I have to say this looks pretty awesome. Lot's of special effects, looks to have a bit more off beat humor then other Marvel movies besides Guardians. I'm really looking forward to seeing this when it comes out.

The other video is titled Superhero Fight Club and is a promo video for the final few episodes of The Flash and Arrow. It stars the cast from both of those series as the battle each other for dominance in the ring.  What's awesome as well is several of those characters are going to be doing the new Flash/Arrow spin off coming soon. But this promo is just all kinds of awesome.

Dinner & More Xena

After D&D Thomas, Dallas and I headed over to Chipotle for some dinner. It was nice getting to hang out a bit and decompress after and crazy session of D&D.

We said our goodbyes and headed home. Back at my place Thomas and I continued our Xena watching. We only had time for one episode, it was S2 Ep 15 "A Day In The Life" A day in the life of Xena and Gabrielle, as Xena and Gabrielle battle a warlord and his army who plan to loot a village and save another village from being destroyed by a giant.

This was an interesting episode. I can't say I disliked it but I don't think I could watch this episode over and over again. The entire episode takes place over a few hours and tries to show you what Xena's daily life is like.  Lots of humor and slapstick in this episode. You get to see Xena and Gabrielle take a bath together and wash each other (again playing up to their lesbian & straight guy fan base). I enjoyed how the two storylines merged together and Xena was able to take care of both situations at once. Not a favorite but definitely an okay episode.

Oh and one last note.. while we were watching there was an Earthquake.. 3.5 center near Santa Monica.. this was Thomas' first Earthquake.

Podcasting and D&D

After the workout I had to come home and get ready to record several episodes of my MASH 4077 Podcast. This was a postpone session and we initial had planned to record four but I wasn't able to watch all of them so it was knocked down to only three. Also one of our co-hosts was out so it was just two of us. The record session went great. We had some really fun episodes to talk about. Don't forget the MASH 4077 Podcast is released twice a month on the 1st and the 15th. You can get more info at http://MASH4077Podcast.com

Once that was done Thomas and I were off to D&D. Thomas was going to play one of our NPC characters Percy.

The session started at 1pm but we were getting there about a half hour late (due to my podcast recording). When we got to the group they were still in battle with the two magical brothers that we started fighting during the last session.

My first action was to throw a lighten bolt at one of the brothers (which would have done a lot of damage) but because I had to move around other players I moved into a threaten square which gave the brother an opportunity to attack me, which he did and he hit poor Dash hard, knocked 33 hit points off of my little wizard. Not only that he caused my spell to go awry, so I wasted a very cool spell for nothing. My second round didn't go much better as I got hit for more points and was soon below 0 and unconscious. Luckily my fellow adventurous took care of the remaining brother and managed to heal me enough so I could move around.

I thought that was the end.. we won and saved the castle but Dallas (our DM) had more in store for us. In the courtyard there were several Giants, Goblins, Orcs and Orcs Dogs. Half of our party had very little hit points (bloodied) and several were on the verge of death. But before we could come up with a plan (Will) Ginnion pulled a "Leroy" and attacked the Giants causing us to go into combat unprepared. I was sure several of us were going to die but in the end only one of us did. Borin the dwarf died but come to find out that it wasn't Borin it was actually a Doppelganger. We're not sure if Borin is dead or not.. guess time tell.

So we saved the castle and the day once again.. but the adventure is far from over. 

NerdStrong Gym - Dungeon Workout

After team rowing for our warm up, we made our way to the Dungeons.

Once there we paired up and entered level one. In level one we encountered our first group of tasks.

They were 10x Sit Ups, 10x Air Squats, 10x Push Ups and 10x Ring Rows. Once done your partner would do their set giving you a few seconds to rest and then we started all over again and did this until the seven minutes ran out.

We then had a 5 minute rest before moving on to level two of the dungeon. Here we did less reps for a shorter amount of time but the tasks increased by 10. So for the second level of tasks we had to do 7x Plate Sit Ups, 7x Goblet Squats, 7x Tempo Push Ups & 7x Pull Ups (Jump Ups). Again once you were done your partner did theirs and you started all over again until the six minutes were up. 

We got another five minute rest and then moved on to level three (Boss level). Like before the reps and time went down but the tasks increased by another 10. For the third level tasks we did 5x Toes 2 Bar, 5x Dumbbell Thrusters, 5x Clap Push Ups and then 5x Ring Pull Ups. We did those for five minutes. Once done you and your partner had successfully killed the Boss and made it out of the dungeons safely.

This was a good workout..

We went from Sit Ups, to Plate Sit Ups (which meant you had to hold a weighted plate and do your sit up with it over head) and then to Toes 2 Bar (which meant you were doing a sit up while hanging from a bar, as in bringing your knees up to the elbows.

We did Air Squats then Goblet Squats (which meant you held a kettlebell while doing squats) to Thrusters (which meant you held on to two dumbbells while doing a squat and then pushing the dumbbells overhead).

We did Push Ups, to Tempo Push Ups (which meant you had to lower yourself slowly and then push up quickly) to Clap Push Ups (and that's exactly what it sounds like at the bottom of your push up you have to clap).

We did Ring Rows to Pull Ups (and those who couldn't do Pull Ups we did Jumps Ups) to Ring Pull Ups

Of course if any of the level two or three tasks were to difficult you could always go down a level but I'm happy to say I did everything that was required. My partner was of course my visiting Irish buddy Thomas. He joined me for his very first Nerdstrong Workout. Thomas is an athlete so I think he impressed a few people there.

Overall it was a great team workout.

Watching Xena - My Reviews

Thomas and I continue our watch of Xena. This is my first time viewing.  Tonight we watch three episodes - S2 Ep12 "Destiny", S2 Ep 13 "The Quest" & S2 Ep 14 "A Necessary Evil".

First was part one of a 2 parter S2 Ep 12 "Destiny" Xena is seriously hurt in Cirra's ruins by a huge log and she enters into a coma. While Gabrielle carries her to a doctor in order to try to save her life, she remembers how ten winters ago she met Julius Caesar and became the Destroyer of Nations.

I enjoyed this episode, I'm a big fan of Karl Urban so it was cool seeing him play Julius Caesar. This story showed the birth of "evil Xena" it was interesting to see where she learned her now famous death poke. The direction and cinematography were a bit weird in this episode. I'm sure it was a certain look and style they were going for but I didn't like it. That's really my only critique about this episode.. the story was pretty good.

Next was part two of the 2 parter S2 Ep 13 "The Quest" Gabrielle's attempt to take Xena's body to be buried with her brother are complicated by would-be thieves, Amazon dynasty squabbles, and Xena's attempts to communicate through Autolycus.

I actually enjoyed this episode more then part one. It was great to see Autolyus again and the Amazonians, I did find it odd that the Amazonians loyalty flip flopped so easily. Team Gabrielle vs Team Velasca. I'm not sure I understand why when Xena ate the Ambrosia she didn't become a god, I guess it could only do one thing and bringing to back to life was it. I know Xena has a big lesbian following but this is the first episode that I felt they really played to the following with the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle by having them kiss (though technically it was Autolycus Gabrielle was kissing). Overall an enjoyable storyline.

We then watched S2 Ep 14 "A Necessary Evil" Gabrielle, Ephiny, The Amazons and a revived Xena discover that Velasca survived her presumed death and has eaten Ambrosia, making her a Goddess. Fuelled by vengeance and anger, she attempts to kill Gabrielle, forcing Xena to team up with her sworn enemy.

I guess you can say this is part three as it continue the storyline from the previous two-parter. We see the return of Velasca who had a bit of Ambrosia and is now a god. And of course my favorite part of this episode was the return of Callisto. Though I was a bit confused at how she ended up with that scar and trapped in the pit.. also she's now immortal. Thomas explained that she appeared in an episode of Hercules and that progressed her story to where she is now. But other then that it was great seeing her again. She is crazier then every.. but there is a bit of sadness in her. Of course at the end she also becomes a god and falls into the lava with Velasca so I'm sure will be seeing them again in the near future.

Overall I think I enjoyed A Necessary Evil the most out of the three tonight and that was due to Callisto

Visiting Irishman

Back from working out, Chris and I hung out for a few before he headed out to hang with a few other friends and I headed to LAX to pick up my buddy Thomas who was visiting me from Ireland for a few days. His flight was landing around 12:45pm and I left my place at noon expecting to get there around the time his flight would land. Well traffic was horrible and I really should have known better. I stressed a bit as 12:45 came and went and I was still a half hour away.

When I finally made it to LAX I did a loop and the flight tracker that I was using told me his flight landed at Terminal 5 so I did a slow pass on the inside ring at Terminal 5 & 6 but I couldn't find the sign that said British Airways. I did another loop and re-entered the airport when it dawned on me that he's coming in on a international flight, which meant he'd fly in to the Tom Bradly terminal. So I did slow pass and there were a ton of people but no Thomas. It then again dawned on me that he had to go through customs, so he may not be out yet.. I decided that this was stupid driving in circles so I parked and went in to see if I could find him. It was close to 1:30 and I was sure he was waiting for me with in that big crowd of visitors. As I entered the Tom Bradly terminal there is only one exit from customs and as I was entering the building he was exiting customs.. talk about timing... it was perfect.

It was great seeing Thomas as I hadn't seen him since last SDCC and he is not going this year so I figured I wasn't going to see him this year.. but he decided to do Calgary Expo next week up in Canada and he figured he'd do a pit stop in Cali and visit his friends... so yay!!

We jumped in the car and headed back into traffic. I had been in contact with Chris who was with our friend Dallas and we planned to meet up in Burbank at the Islands and grab a late lunch. Again timing was perfect as I pulled into the parking structure to park.. who was directly in the car in front of us.. Chris and Dallas. We went up the structure as the place was packed.. and for a third time fate had plans for us. Chris pulled into a spot and directly across from his spot a car pulled out and I pulled into that spot... so many crazy happenstance.

It was a pretty awesome lunch... I got to spend time with three very important guys in my life... we got to eat some tasty Islands Burgers and Cheddar Fries... it was a blast. Afterwards Chris and Dallas went to go look for some make up for Chris' cosplay for Star Wars Celebration while I took Thomas back to my place so he could unload his luggage.

Back at my place Thomas and I just hung out for a bit before Chris returned. We started to watch some Xena. If you remember Thomas is a HUGE Xena fan and whenever we get together we try and watch a few episodes. I promised him that I would only watch them with him so it may take us years to watch them all but it's a fun thing we get to do together. Chris watched Xena with us for a bit before heading south to his lady before heading north to Vandenberg base where he will be staying for the next few months.

Thomas and I watched a few more episodes of Xena (which I will review in the post after this one, if your interested) before calling it a night. Tomorrow, Thomas will be joining me for his first NerdStrong Gym class.

NerdStrong Gym - Lots of Work with Lots of Rest

I got up early and my buddy Chris was already out of the house, he had to deal with a tire issue before he continuing his journey later today.

Before I left for my Saturday NerdStrong Chris got back and I tried to convince him to join me but he didn't go for it.

Today's warm up started with 2 Laps around the parking lot (roughly 500 meters). We then started to stretch and did 2 sets of each of these. 5x Bootstrappers, 6x Perfect Stretch & 7x Sit Ups.

Today's workout was broken down into three sections. Workout A, Workout B and Cooldown.

We started with Workout A which was 3 rounds of 5x Wall Squats. This is when you literally go up to the wall and squat in front of it. What it does is prevent you from leaning forward and shows you how to do a proper squat. Next was 10x Air Squats, then 10x Jump Squats and finally we headed outside to do 20x Walk Lunge. Then we did it all again and again. It doesn't look like much on the board but when you do it constantly with no rest it's alot of work. Which is why we took a 3 minute rest before starting Workout B.

Workout B consisted of :30 second work / :30 second rest. We did 4 rounds of each. First was Frog Hops, these are like double Mountain Climbers.. you take both feet and hop back and then bring both feet at the same time forward and touch your knees to your elbows. They look easy but after :15 seconds you start to feel it. We did those 4 times for a total of 2 minutes, the goal was to try and do the same amount each time. We took a much needed 2 minute break before starting Split Jump, again like with the Frog Hops, they aren't that difficult but after :15 seconds you start to feel the burn. Another 2 minute rest before doing our final task in Workout B and they were the dreaded Burpees. I managed to do 6 burpees each time for a total of 24 burpees in 2 minutes.

Everyone was exhausted so we got to take a 5 minute rest before doing our "cool down" and I have that in quotes as it was a 10 minute Jog that was considered our "cool down". And to be honest it wasn't that horrible.. yes we were tired but you didn't have to run around the parking lot, it was a nice jog and it was perfect weather for it. Coach Seely parted some words of wisdom to us (Lauren, Naomi and I) on how to jog this.. he said we jog the long stretches and then walk the short turns... this helped tremendously. I think we all jogged/walked just under a mile.

Overall it looked like a good workout and boy was it. We had just the right amount of rest between sets.. this Coach Andrew really knows what he is talking about :)

Sibling Day & An Unexpected Guest

I was 10, Michael was 5

Today is National Sibling Day and I'm happy to say that I do have one sibling.. my younger brother Michael. We are five years apart and when we were younger we fought quite a bit as he was the annoying little brother and was always able to get away with everything because I was the older one and knew better.

As we both have become adults are relationship has changed for the better (not that it was ever horrible.. just annoying) and now we are two big geeks that enjoyed each others company, when we find time to hangout. So Happy National Sibling Day Michael.. couldn't imagine my life without you in it.

Today my buddy Chris drove all the way from Montana (18+ hours) and surprised me by crashing at my place. It was great seeing him as I haven't seen him in nine months (since last year SDCC). He arrived late in the evening but we did hangout for an hour or so before saying good night.
 

NerdStrong Open Gym - Battleropes

Today is Friday which means open gym at NerdStrong. I'm going to continue working on my chest and back. But I also wanted to get in some Battleropes. I know when I say the word Battleropes to fellow NerdStronger they cringe or grimace. I actually enjoy the battleropes. I really feel like you get an amazing upper body workout with them.

I teamed up with friend Ben to work on Chest and Back.. Coach Blair created a workout for the two of us.

For warm up we ran a few laps around the parking lot and did a bit of stretching.

We had to do 5 sets of 5 reps each and started the workout with Bottom Hold Bench Press'. These are like your usual bench press' but you actually hold the weight just above you chest for 3 seconds before pushing it back up. We started with a light weight and got progressively heavier. This wasn't about weight but more about form and breathing. By the fifth rep my arms were like jelly and I struggled to get that bar up and down five times.

Next up was Bar Ups Holds, I had done bar ups before, they are like pulls ups but the bar is lower to the ground but again like with bench press we hold at the top. These are horrible, bar ups alone are hard enough but holding for 3 seconds each time was extremely difficult.

We then did Dumbbell Flys which I have done the past few Fridays and these I can do fairly easy with my upper body strength.

By the time we were done with those the majority of the people were done with their workouts so Coach Blair made the entire class do TABATA Planks. This meant 8 sets of :20 second Planking, :10 resting. About half way thru these you really start to feel it.. but I'm happy to say I did not faultier once and did all eight sets... but I was happy when it was over.

We had about 10 minutes left in the class and everyone was pretty much done and just hanging out and chatting when I reminded Coach Andrew that I wanted to try some Battleropes.. so he gave me the task of doing a TABATA Battlerope, So :20 seconds of workout and then :10 seconds of rest. Coach Andrew also made me half Squat and hold it while I did said Battleropes. I only manged to do 4 sets before I got dizzy and had to stop. I think I could have done more if I hadn't done the workout beforehand and I'm sure I'll give them ago again in a future workout.

Thanks to Coach Andrew and Coach Blair for another amazing workout. And I want to thank my cheering section when I was doing the battle ropes.. Anne & Liz.. with their encouragement I was able to take it a bit farther.

9 to 5 Reunion, GISHWHES & More Clone Wars

Saw a trailer for a new Netflix series called Grace and Frankie. If you haven't heard of this series it stars some AMAZING actors. Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin in the leading roles and Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston playing their gay husbands. Here's a brief description of the premise of the series:  The series follows long-time rivals Grace and Frankie, who are brought together after their husbands announce they are in love with each other and plan to get married.

I'm a HUGE fan of 9 to 5 so I'm super excited to see these ladies back together and I'm hoping we get to see a cameo by Dolly Parton because that would be just perfect.

While at NerdStrong today friends mentioned the word GISHWHES. I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. They explained that GISHWHES, which stands for, The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen! Is part art, part silliness, part kindness, part adventure and 100% fun. You’ll do things you never thought possible and if you win, you and your team will be taken on a trip of a lifetime with Misha Collins to the jungles of Costa Rica.

They are currently building a team and I said I would check it out and possibly sign up and join them. It's pretty crazy as it's a week long scavenger hunt from August 1st to the 8th. I'm still considering it and it seems like it would be a blast. If you want to check it out for yourself.. click HERE.

There was news back in 2014 that we might be seeing an Incredibles 2 but now word has come that writer Brad Bird that he is currently writing The Incredibles 2. Which means if he's done in a few months it will take at least several years for the film to be made so we won't be seeing it released until 2017 or 2018. I guess that's something to look forward to.

Star Wars Celebration announced today that they will be screening a 4 part "missing" Clone Wars episodes from the ill fated sixth season. The story is called "Bad Batch", telling the story of how Captain Rex and company rescued Echo, it will screen exclusively at Star Wars Celebration. The unfinished episodes (similar to the Utapau arc that appeared on StarWars.com) feature complete, final voice performances, specifically by Dee Bradley Baker, who voices the elite clones of “Bad Batch” group. The screening will take place at the Digital Stage on Friday, April 17, at noon. A Q&A with Filoni, Baker, and writers Brent Friedman and Matt Michnovetz will follow. I'm super excited to see this as I still miss The Clone Wars cartoon.

NerdStrong Gym - Form and Control

Up bright and early once again and heading to NerdStrong Gym. After a warm up we got started on the workout. Since there were very few of us we didn't have partner up.

We were doing 3 rounds with 7 reps each. We started with Sandbag In Hinge Position. This wasn't difficult but it was taxing. We were really watching our form on this one. We only had to lift the sandbag a few inches off the ground for :10 seconds but getting the from right was tough.

Afterwards we moved on to Strict Ring Rows. I usually enjoy Ring Rows but these were :10 seconds down, which meant we had to count and slowly move down until we hit 10 and then quickly back up. Going slow makes everything more difficult.

We then moved back to Sandbags and did 1x Sandbag Clean and then right into 8x Sandbag Front Squats. Again we focused on form and not the actual weight or reps. We worked on this for about 10 minutes.

Our final task was doing 3 rounds of the following 20x Strict Russian Twists, 12x Lo 2 Hi Planks and finally 50x Bicycles. I started off great with the Russian Twists and then moved quickly into the Lo 2 Hi Planks but the Bicycles almost killed me. These you could feel in your core and they were extremely tough. I couldn't complete the 50 and went down to the modified but still horrible number of x30.  We had planned to do 3 rounds but we ran out of time and I got about 2 1/2 rounds done. 

This workout started off fairly light but ended with a bang. Thanks Coach Andrew for another amazing workout at NerdStrong.

My Hobbit Life

If you know me you know I love all things related to Hobbits. I've cosplayed one for over five years now and I've taken on certain aspects of the Hobbit's lifestyle. Besides being naturally short and stocky, I love nature, the Earth and the simple way of life. If I had a choice I'd live out in the country rather then big city or beach area. I'm not super adventurous but if I need be I definitely shine. I'm extremely loyal to those that I love and I'm all about family and friends. Really the only things that I don't really identify with when it comes to Hobbits is the love of drink and pipeweed...

But it dawned on me how much my new eating habits have become very Hobbit like. If you don't know, Hobbits like to eat many times a day. Which consists of Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevensies, Lunch, Afternoon Tea, Supper and Dinner.

Now that I'm working out and on this new high protein diet my daily eating habits are as follows:

- Breakfast at 6am (oatmeal).. then workout
- Second Breakfast at 8:30 (bacon & egg whites)
- Elevensies around 11am (egg whites/popcorn)
- Lunch at 12:30pm (chicken breast, egg whites)
- Afternoon Tea at 2pm (sliced turkey/popcorn),
- Supper at 6pm (which is normally just a snack of popcorn or egg whites)
- Dinner at 8pm (Varies from night to night)

So not only are my ideals and lifestyle more Hobbit like but now my eating habit are as well. #HobbitLife

Getting a Ticket Sucks!

So I was feeling great after my workout, took a shower, ate my second breakfast and watched a bit of TV. I jumped on the freeway and was almost at work when it hit me.. did I turn off my space heater. Well I couldn't continue to work so I got off the freeway and headed home. When I got back to my apartment I parked out front since there was empty street parking. I went up to my apartment and to the space heater and it was off.

I headed back down to my car, got in and made a u-turn to head back to the freeway entrance but as soon as I made the u-turn I saw flashing lights behind me.. yep I got pulled over. The cop was very nice and explained that it was illegal to make a u-turn and that he was going to issue me a citation.

Yeah so much for me feeling great... It sucks that in the end I went back for nothing as the space heater wasn't on, but I know if I didn't go back I'd be panicking all day at work. So I can't beat myself up for that. I also never park out front but because I was in a hurry I figured this would be a quick in and out. I honestly didn't know making a u-turn from the curb was illegal (and I'm currently investigating to see if it is actually illegal). But you know what.. such is life. You can't change the past and there is no point in beating myself over it or dwelling on it. All I can do is move forward, see how much this ticket will cost me and will it be worth fighting in court.. stay tuned.

NerdStrong Gym - Climbing the Ladder

"CON" class today with coach Blair. He's really into running for warm ups and not only running but crazy running. The first run was your normal 250 meter run around the parking lot. The second run he made us run backwards 250 meters. For the third run it wasn't an actual run but a skip.. yes we skipped 250 meter around the parking lot. And the fourth and final run was a partnership. One person did another 250 meter run while your partner did planks until you got back and then you'd change places.

The first half of the class coach Blair went over stretching pre-workout. We did some crazy thing with a partner and rubber band. Got a good stretch for the hips done.

For the workout it's wasn't so much a cardio workout but more of an endurance workout. It was created by coach Seely and consisted of Sit Ups, Kettlebell Swings and Step Ups. And structured as a Ladder workout.

So you do 1 sit up, then 1 kettlebell swing and 1 step up before starting over and this time you did 2 sit ups, 2 kettlebell swings and 2 step ups and then 3 and so on up to 11 and then back down to 1. We had 25 minutes to complete it and though I didn't finish in the allotted time I took an extra few minutes to finish it off.

If's funny when you do these ladder workouts you don't realize how many of these things you are actually doing. When you add up everything we did today it comes out to 121 Sit Ups, 121 Kettlebell Swings and 121 Step Ups.. that's just crazy.

Thanks Blair for another amazing class.

SDCC Hotel Fiasco Continues & NerdStrong Gym Article

So my continued struggle with the San Diego Comic Con Hotel Reservation system continues. This is now my fifth call into their customer service department over the past two weeks. All I'm trying to do is put a credit card down in order to hold my room reservation. As usual I'm on hold but this time it was for only 15 minutes (my shortest yet). I got a very nice lady on the other end and I went into my story of what I have been through the past two weeks. She looks at my account and says she'll need to put me on hold while she discusses it with her supervisor (deja vu). She comes back on the phone several time and apologizes for the long hold time. I told her I have no problem with waiting as long as this can finally be resolved.

A few minutes later she gets back on the phone and said "Okay give me your credit card number". I almost fainted, it actually looks like they fixed the IT issue. I give her my credit card number and she puts me on hold while it's processing. About five minutes later she gets back on and says I'm sorry but your credit card has been declined. Now I know there was room on this card for this charge and it's probably my stupid credit card company being dicks.. so I just said can I give you my debt card instead. I was put on hold as a supervisor needs to approve the removal of a credit card. She gets back on a few minutes later and informs me that they can't take a second card because their computer will try processing the charge on this current credit card for the next 48 hours and she doesn't want me to be doubled charged.

So after two weeks of all these IT issues with their website it's now an issue with my credit card. I swear the fates are working against me on getting this hotel room. So I now have to wait 48 hours to see if the charge will go through. If it's declined then they will email me and let me put down another credit card. So the room is 95% mine but I can't seem to get to that last 5% to complete the deal. Hopefully in two days this whole hotel fiasco will be behind me... fingers crossed.

And just a side note as I'm sure you guys aren't tired of me talking about my awesome geeky gym NerdStrong.. they were featured as the "Spotlight Gym" on the Bodybuilding.com website.. you can read the article HERE. 

NerdStrong Gym - Rings, Knee Ups & Squats.. Oh My!!

It's nice having a day off but I'm happy to be back at NerdStrong Gym today. Only three of us for today's 7am class... plus coach Andrew.

We started the day with a good warm up, Bootstrappers, Dislocators, Bridge-Ups and a 2 minute Bridge Hold.

The next section of the workout was about Ankle Mobility. Andrew talked for a few minutes about the importance of mobility before showing us several stretches to help with ankle mobility. We worked on this for about 15 minutes before moving on to the main workout.

Today main workout consisted of 3 sections (we never made it to the "finisher"). The first section was a 10 minute workout and we had to do 3x Dumbbell Plank Thru, which didn't sound to tough but when doing them was alot harder then expected. The second part of this first section were 6x Ring Dips. I don't think any of us were able to complete a single one so instead we did a modified version of this with the help of a large rubber band. Even with the help of the band it was a very difficult task. We went back and fourth five or six times, doing each task for a total of 10 minutes.

The next section was also timed.. we had 7 minutes to do 5 rounds of 30x Jump Rope and 12x Knee Ups. These tasks were much easier for me as I don't have an issue jumping rope and as for the Knee Ups, I was able to hang from the bar and pull my knees up just fine. For this one I did manage to do all 5 rounds within the allotted time.

The last round was suppose to be 7 minutes as well but time had run short so we got 5 minutes to try and get 5 rounds of these tasks done. We had to do 10x Hand Release Push Ups and then 15x Air Squats. Again not difficult tasks for me but I was only able to complete 4 rounds before the five minutes was up.

Having a small class is great because you get more one on one time with the coach, but it's also a curse because the coach is watching you all the time. :)

Thanks coach Andrew for another fantastic workout!!

Pixar's X-Wings & The Flash Remaining S1 Preview

I came across two videos that I want to share with you guys.. first one is a spoof (Aprils Fools Joke) on the Pixar movies Cars and Planes.. it's called X-Wings

The second video was premiered at Wondercon this past weekend and give the viewers a glimpse into the remaining first season of The Flash. I've been loving The Flash but the last few episodes have really advanced the story and it looks like it's not going to end any time soon. Be warned there are spoilers in this video.

Kidney Health - Update

Health Update.. today I got an Ultrasound done on my kidneys and bladder. For the past few months there has been concerns that my kidneys might not be functioning properly as my serum creatatine levels are to high on my blood tests. serum creataine is a protein that your muscle produce and your kidneys are suppose to remove from your system. Other then the high levels of the creataine I have no other symptoms of kidney failure but they wanted to take a closer look at the kidneys and bladder just to make sure.

This was my first ever ultrasound. The technician was extremely friendly and explained what we were about to do. I had to drink 3 large glasses of water a half hour before, which I did (I think I drank about 8) so when I go there I had to pee pretty bad. She was happy with this news and said she would ultrasound my bladder first and then I could go empty it before we did the kidneys.

When she squirted that gel onto my lower stomach area I was surprised that it was warm. From all the pregnant women tv shows that I watch they also say how cold the gel is. I made a comment about this and she informed me that they now use warmers for the gel. Anyways she started to do the ultrasound and was pushing pretty deep into my stomach and I just kept thinking to myself.. she knows I have to pee, why is she continuously pushing on my bladder. She snapped a few pictures and then handed me a towel to clean up and directed me to the bathroom.

Once back in the room, she had me lay on my side and the warm gel was once again applied to my skin. This time she had me take deep breaths and hold them.. we did one side and then the other. She asked why my doctor requested this ultrasound and I explained about the extra creataine and she understood. She said my bladder and kidneys look great. So now I go back and see my doctor in a few weeks and go over the results. It was a quick process, took a total of about 20 minutes.

Twin Peaks Woes & Wondercon Moving

Got some bad news today about the revival of the awesome series Twin Peaks. If you haven't heard Showtime was bringing this show back in 2016 with a nine episode story arch that was to be written and directed by the creator David Lynch. Well all that changed today when Lynch tweeted and Facebooked this message; "Dear Facebook Friends: Showtime did not pull the plug on Twin Peaks. After 1 year and 4 months of negotiations, I left because not enough money was offered to do the script the way I felt it needed to be done. This weekend I started to call actors to let them know I would not be directing. Twin Peaks may still be very much alive at Showtime. I love the world of Twin Peaks and wish things could have worked out differently."

Of course Showtime responded in shock thinking that they were still in negotiations with Lynch and hope they can still come to an agreement. This may be a stunt by Lynch in order to get Showtime to pony up some more money as fans will not be happy if Lynch is not part of this new Twin Peaks.

No word on what co-writer Mark Frost is going to do. Will he also pull out of the series or take the reigns that Lynch left dangling. I guess only time will tell. As a HUGE fan of Twin Peaks I am extremely disappointed in this news. I hope Lynch and Showtime can work out their difference and bring us an amazing conclusion to this very unique and awesome TV series.

In other geeky and much happier news.. Just as Wondercon 2015 comes to an end, it was announced today that Wondercon 2016 will be moving from the Anaheim Convention Center to The Los Angeles Convention Center. This is fantastic news for me and my friends in the Los Angeles area as this convention center doesn't require us to get a hotel room or parking as it's easily accessible via subway.  Now I'm not sure how I feel about being in cosplay and on the subway but I guess I'll deal with that issue when I get to it. For now start planning for Wondercon 2016 on March 25-27, 2016 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Wondercon Day 3 - The Final Day

After the workout I came home, showered and once again Hobbit myself up for Wondercon. This time my ears were not cooperating and I just couldn't get them to stick properly. I finally gave up and did the best I could and then tried to hide the imperfection with my curly hair.. I think it worked well.

Once I was ready I headed out and picked up Mike as well as Jes and Dallas and we headed down the Wondercon for the third and final day. We got there around 11am and it was busy but luckily the Disneyland Toy Story parking lot was open and after waiting in line for what seemed like forever we parked.

As I was putting on my Hobbit feet with my, now broken shoe horn, it decided to snap in half again.. twice. It was now no longer usable and I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to put on my Hobbit feet. And as I feared when I put my feet on the back of the shoe would bend and go under my foot which makes it very uncomfortable. It took several attempts but I was finally able to get my left foot on with no issues but the right I couldn't get it to work so I said screw it and I would go with it the way it was.

We quickly lost Mike to a group of his friends that we ran into at the stop light so Dallas, Jes and I went to the Marriott Starbucks to met up with some of Jes' friends. While Dallas and Jes were in line to get coffee I attempted once again to get the heal of my shoe out from under my foot and I'm happy to say that I succeeded. So both Hobbit feet were on properly and all was well. Oh and I have to mention that I made sure I brought my cape today. I literally put it in front of my apartment door so I couldn't get out of the apartment without running over it.

Dallas soon left us to go to a panel so Jes and I headed inside to walk to floor. Soon as we get inside Jes finds some friends and chats for a bit and I started to get requests for pictures, 5 in just a few minutes. We were joined by our friend Steven who walked the floor with us for a bit before heading off to a panel. We ran into a few friends, Denise, T.J., Red 5, and Keri. We also hung out with America and Dove. While we were walking with America and Dove we ran into the owners of NerdStrong & friends of mine Coach Andrew and Coach Marla. We stopped and chatted for about 10 minutes. Soon everyone departed and it was just Jes and I again walking the floor. We grabbed a bite to eat at the food trucks where we met back up with Dallas.

I got alot more picture requests today then yesterday ( I think this proves that the cape definitely completes the outfit). And I actually took more pictures as well but far below my norm. The con closed at 5 today, Mike was getting a ride home with his friends so that left Dallas, Jes and I heading back to the car and then home.

I got in around 7pm and was exhausted.. I didn't do much but crash on the couch and watch some TV before calling it an early night.

Overall Wondercon 2015 was alot of fun. Since I wasn't sure if I was coming until the last minute I didn't get a chance to go over the programing to see if there were any panels I wanted to see, which I normally do weeks in advance. Not many of my friends came but it was nice getting to hang out with the few that did. I was very happy to be able to support my new NerdStrong family. I love cosplaying so it was good to be able to do that for a few days and it's always nice to hang out in a world filled with geeks and nerds.

This little dip into the con world is just the beginning. Next up is Star Wars Celebration in two weeks, San Diego Comic Con in July and Comickaze Con in late October, early November... lots of fun cons in 2015

2 Months At NerdStrong Gym

Today is my 2 month anniversary at NerdStrong Gym. It's so funny to me that it's only been two months as I feel like it's been part of my life for quite a while. I guess that's what happens when you go six days week. I see these people more then my co-workers, friends and family. I feel like I have accomplished quite a bit in those two months. I'm seeing noticeable changes in my appearance as well was an overall feeling of awesome in my day to day living. I think this gym combined with a steady (though temporary) job has really lifted my spirits and pulled me out of my depression. For the first time in my life I love going to the gym. No one is holding a gun to my head or forcing me to do anything. I go because I enjoy the community and hard work. I'm bettering my health so I can be around another 40+ years.

 still have one more month of NerdStrong (prepaid by my wonderful friends) and then I will be getting a few more months (prepaid by my wonderful brother & sister-in-law). I then have to start making some hard choices on how to continue to pay for this amazing experience as it's something I want to continue with well into the future.

NerdStrong Gym - Fun with 7's

I'm so tired... workout, con, workout, con takes a toll but guess what, I'm doing it again. I couldn't pass up a "themed" workout as they are my favorite. I joined the 8am class today as my usual class is at 10am but like with yesterday I wanted to get done so I could get to Wondercon sooner.

Today's workout is based on the movies The Fast and the Furious which I have never seen but of course I'm well aware of them. This one was based on the latest movie Furious 7.

Like with yesterdays workout instead of 2's everything was 7's.

We started with a nice warm up and run. We then partnered up and like in elementary school I was left partner-less :( as we had an odd number of members today. Coach Andrew took pity on me (not really) and became my partner. We named our little duo "Da Shire"

Today's workout dealt mostly with the barbell.  Here is what we had to do. In teams of two we had to do 7x Deadlifts, then go right into 7x Hang Cleans, then directly into 7x Front Squats, then 7x Push Press, then 7x Back Squats, then 7x Barbell Push Ups and finally we ditched the barbell and did 7x Sit Ups. These were done in one continuous motion with no rest in between as it was timed. One partner would do everything and then the second person did everything. We had to do this 7 times in a row with no down time inbetween sets.

Both partners had to do it within 5 minutes, roughly 2 1/2 minutes each. If we did not complete it with in those five minutes we got penalized and had to do 7 burpees (at the end of the workout), but if we did do it under 5 minutes we got a pardon which you could save yourself from burpees if you missed the five minute mark during the other 6 rounds.

Needless to say this is where having a coach as a partner was fantastic as coach Andrew is quick and would finish his round in about a minute and a half leaving me plenty of time to get my set done. But I am happy to say that I did my first few rounds in about 2 minutes. Round five is when I started to feel it and I was getting dizzy so I opted to only finish half of that round but luckily we had four previous pardons so we were saved from Burpees. Rounds 6 & 7 were a struggle but I did manage to finish both of those with the encouragement of my team mate.. thanks Andrew. In the end nobody had to do burpees as even if a group failed a round they had plenty of pardons to take care of the failures.

This was an extremely tough workout, one that I almost couldn't finish but I'm happy I stuck with it and accomplished something awesome.