VexVox

The title of this entry is a bastardized pronunciation of 三十六歳 (san-juu-roku-sai), my age (36) in Japanese. So what did I do to commemorate the event? Many things, most of which you wouldn't really associate with a birthday celebration, per se:

• Watched Battlestar Galactica with Double-A, eating a pizza dinner with alcohol. I've been pretty good about watching what I eat in the last eight months, and pizza is something in which I indulge maybe once a month, every other month if I'm really zealous. But for the birthday, I wanted meat and cheese and sauce and crust. I wanted a diet killer. And Friday is Battlestar Galactica night anyway, so why not bring the two together? Of course, throw in some beer and ready-made margaritas into the mix. The episode itself wasn't particularly engaging. I'm so not into Baltar Christ Superstar, and Tigh's hallucinations with Caprica Six were just skeeeeeeevyyyy. Oh, but the pizza was good.
• Applied for membership to ASCAP. I signed up as both a songwriter and a publisher. I don't picture myself handling the rights of other people's music, so signing up as a publisher is probably not necessary. But for the time being, I'd like the entity handling the rights of my works to be owned by, well, me.
• Registered DBAs for Eponymous 4 and Observant Records with the Travis Country Clerk's Office. I don't think I really needed to register Eponymous 4 as a DBA, but it doesn't hurt. And Observant Records? Well, I guess I made my first step to being a sleazy record company executive.
• Opened business accounts with my credit union for Eponymous 4 and Observant Records. Rather than pay for everything out of my personal accounts, I can pay music-related expenses from these accounts. When ASCAP gets back to me about my choice for publishing company name, I'm most likely going to set up a DBA and account for that entity as well.
• Signed up for CD Baby. And all the other steps pretty much lead to this one. I'm going to try my hand at releasing something on CD Baby — just to see how it all works. If I'm encouraged by the results, I may go further.

In other words, yesterday was not just my birthday — it was the birthdate of Eponymous 4 as an actual business endeavor. I don't know whether all this effort is for naught, but I won't really find out till I give it the proverbial shot.

I bought a bunch of new jeans back in August 2007, thinking the ones I currently own were, ahem, "shrinking". Of course, that was the month I learned my scale was broken, and I was much heavier than I knew. So I went on the Hacker's Diet and started exercising. By the end of October, I already needed to downsize. A few weeks ago, I started using the fifth notch in my belt.

I vowed not to buy a new pair of jeans until the next tax-free holiday in August, when I bought those other new pairs. But my pants had gotten comically loose. I won't go into detail about what happens when I use the restroom at work.

So today I bought three new pairs in a smaller size. Yes, it is gratifying to try on a pair of smaller pants in the store dressing room and find they fit. It's so intoxicating, I'd forgotten some of the inconveniences of wearing that particular size.

I put on one of the new pairs to run some errands in the evening, and I discovered the pockets were smaller. Suck. I already carry a lot of crap in my right pocket — phone, keys, pen, change, lighter, earplugs (hold over from the days I used to go to shows regularly) and mint breath strips. Less real estate means a tighter fit, and my hands are not of the gingerly sort.

And the one thing I forgot to do while I was in the dressing room — sit down. When I sat in my car seat with the new jeans, I was immediately reminded how much more I have to go with the weight loss. Although my waist demands a snug fit, I forgot that my gut doth spilleth over, and the squeeze around my hips wasn't entirely comfortable.

As satisfying as the purchase was, the actual use inspired me to keep working.

How much weight have I lost so far? According to my Physics Diet profile, 29 some odd pounds. But I had already lost 10 some odd pounds by the time I signed up for the site, so that number ought to be 39. And if we went by the number on my scale this morning, 41.

I'm about 10 pounds away from an ideal weight, according to my body mass index, and I'm 15 pounds from my goal.

That's not bad, is it?
 

I went in for more blood work about two weeks ago, and I finally got the results today. It's a follow-up from the previous visit and the one before that. Note to myself: the next blood test will be in August with a liver panel (whatever that means.)

• Total cholesterol: 150 (normal range 140-200, down -35 from 185)
• Triglycerides: 87 (normal range 35-160, down -21 from 108)
• HDL (good cholesterol): 36 (min. 40, down -1 from 37)
• LDL (bad cholesterol): 97 (normal range, 80-130, down -30 from 127, hypertension range 80-100)

Everything but the HDL (the good cholesterol) is looking good. In fact, it went down one after a jump of two. I can't say I like taking medicine that requires me to eat before bed, especially since I work out in the evenings. But given the drastic drops in the LDL and triglycerides, I can't dispute the results.

I think I need to schedule an appointment with the doctor to talk about the HDL.

I just booked a trip to Honolulu for May 7-12. No, it's not a vacation. My dad's birthday is May 2, and he's not in the best of health. Some recent developments have made it more urgent for my sister and me to be there, if even a week late, for the occasion.

But just because this trip isn't exactly going to be for recreation, that doesn't mean I'm not going to hit up all the usual spots for CDs and DVDs. I'm holding over a few things I didn't find last year in the slim chance I may find them this year:

• ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, World World World
• BUGY CRAXONE, Good morning, Punk Lovers (slim chance since this album was released on an indie label)
• Fuji Fabric, TEENAGER
• Cocco, Kira Kira Live Tour 2007/2008: Final Night at Budokan 2 Days
• Tokyo Jihen, PV DVDs
• Tomosaka Rie, Murasaki (very slim chance since the album is out of print)
  

I'm also going to keep my eyes out for …

• THE BACK HORN, BEST THE BACK HORN
• METALCHICKS, METALCHICKS and St. Wonder
• Port of Notes, Blue Arpeggio (very, very slim chance)
• Hatakeyama Miyuki with ASA-CHANG and the Blue Hats, Watashi no Uta (even if I find it, I'm not sure I'd get it)
• Supercar, P.V.D. 10th Anniversary

Huh. I thought one of the benefits from exercising and eating sensibly was a stronger immune system? Perhaps it was that hubris that caught me unaware Saturday night, the penultimate night of the SXSW music festival. It was warm during the day, so I decided to brave the night without a jacket. By the time I left my last show at 2 a.m., it was a windy 62 degrees and falling.

On Sunday, I had a nasty cough, which I attributed to smoking far more than I usually do over the four nights of the festival. When I failed to get any sleep that night, my achy joints hinted at something more serious. I finally busted out the thermometer and took a reading on Monday morning. 101.5.

Hello, flu!

I've pretty much missed this entire past week of work, and after I take some Tylenol, I have a few hours of a low-grade fever before I start to heat up again.

I haven't had a flu this bad since 2003. I've almost forgotten how to treat them. Heck, I had to throw out the NyQuil from that last flu because it expired. Oh, sweet NyQuil … the only bright spot in this whole ordeal.

Still, how did I get sick? I'm working to be the healthiest I've been, and then I get sidelined by the freakin' flu. Does not compute.

When I first started on my exercise regimen back in late August, I pined for the day I would actually notice the results of all that work. It's half a year later, and I'm not the only one noticing the results of all that work.

I've gotten past the plateau that plagued me in December, but ever since then, my rate of loss has slowed dramatically. I got too accustomed to losing two pounds a week that now one pound a week feels glacial. I could probably afford to cut a few more calories, but … I want to live a little, you know?

Still, a 30-pound drop is not an achievement to dismiss. I'm almost at the point where I need to tighten the belt one more notch. The loss is noticeable to people who don't see me day-to-day.

Back in December, I changed my daily 40-minute treadmill walk to a full-hour session with weightlifting and cardio, four times a week. My first goal when I started was to shed a few pounds, although I did want to build some muskell (ne: muscle). But I didn't want to muddy my focus, so I decided to wait till I reached a plateau to add the weightlifting. I'm starting to see more results there, but I'm going to wait a few more weeks before I declare a change has really happened.

Unfortunately, I had a bit of a setback two weeks ago. I ate something one night that didn't agree with my gall bladder-less body, and the next morning, I had to use the bathroom really badly. I ended up fainting and managed to strain some muscles in my back and neck. A few days after, I did my usual weightlifting routine, and that didn't really improve matters. So I'm taking some muscle relaxants and staying away from the weights till I feel no more tension in my back.

I used to joke that I need to eat out because my own cooking makes me sick. But like any joke, it's based on the truth — I knew very little about cooking that I would usually undercook something, while managing to burn it at the same time.

Then I started watching Good Eats, mainly because guys with glasses are so my type, and Alton Brown? Definitely my type. But it also helped that Good Eats uses humor to demonstrate the ins and outs of the cooking process. Brown doesn't just tell you to put stuff in a bowl and stir — he tells you why you need to put them in and what happens when they mingle together.

I've been watching the show since 2002, and it's because of Good Eats that I finally invested in more equipment, the most important being a thermometer. Since acquiring the thermometer, the incidences of sickness from my own cooking have essentially been eliminated. 160 degrees is such a magical figure.

I broil regularly. I make sure my oil is at least 375 degrees before pan frying anything. I'm not afraid to use butter. And on the few occasions I bake, wet ingredients go on top of dry.

These days, I find myself getting even bolder.

I usually pan-fry my steaks, seasoned with nothing but garlic salt, which I picked up not from AB but from mom. But one night, I experimented with broiling, and while I didn't follow Alton's instructions thoroughly, the resulting steak was still tasty. Another night, I supplemented the garlic salt with other herbs in my pantry, specifically Italian seasoning. I surprised even myself.

I bought the Italian seasoning for a recipe my mom used to cook. I could only find a big bottle of the stuff, so I've been putting it on everything. Tonight, I supercharged a chicken recipe. It's really simple.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Coat chicken in mayonnaise. Roll coated chicken in bread crumbs. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

That recipe alone is quite tasty. I altered it thusly …

Season chicken with salt, pepper and Italian season. Coat chicken in mayonnaise. Roll coated chicken in a mixture of bread crumbs and panko. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

I don't know how much difference the panko made with the bread crumbs, but the Italian seasoning certainly played well with the other ingredients.

But as I was experimenting, I remembered a number of things from Good Eats. Spices burn, so I didn't mix the spices with the breading. Instead, the spices went on the chicken pieces themselves, with the mayonnaise coating to seal them in. I also remembered to let the chicken rest for a few minutes before serving, letting carry-over heat take over.

I wouldn't have been able to articulate that before.

The title of this entry is the phonetic way of saying, "二千七年", or 2007 in Japanese. I read a number of year-in-review entries by friends, and I figure I may as well jump on the bandwagon.

The big events of 2007:

• March 2007, Laptop purchase: With the release of Windows Vista, I had a sense that if I wanted a laptop with XP, I would need to get it now. By the time I hit the stores, Vista laptops were pretty much the only ones available. My office, however, has an employee discount with Dell, and a laptop with XP was one of the offerings. Thing was, I didn't have much cash on hand, and I wasn't about to put it on my credit card. So I went to my credit union to see if I could take out a loan, which I could. The credit union put the cash for the loan in my savings account, which I could then use to pay for the laptop. So I paid with my credit card, then transferred funds to my credit card to cover the purchase. One hitch: I drew from the wrong account, and I managed to put my checking account into a $900 deficit. On the weekend of SXSW. Yeah, suck. Everything got straightened out on Monday, but it was kind of harrowing to go through an entire weekend without cash. Totally not related, but I also finally took the iPod plunge and got a 2GB Nano.
• April 2007, Trip to Maui: I had lived in Hawai`i for a quarter of my life, and never once did I visit Maui. For my 35th birthday, I wanted to take a trip, and I hadn't been back to Hawai`i since 2003. So I booked a two-day trip to Maui as a birthday gift to myself. Man was I missing out. I think I actually like Maui a lot more than Honolulu. It's urbanized, but only just so. And the attractions are a lot more impressive. What on Oahu can match the drive up Haleakala? I should've gone for three days to squeeze in the drive to Hana. Maybe next time.
• May 2007, Move to a two-bedroom apartment: After getting back from my trip, I was greeted with somewhat unpleasant news: my rent would be raised about $70. For the amount of space I lived in, that felt like a rip-off to me. But a quick survey of Craigslist offerings revealed that the raise in rent would still be cheaper than moving to an entirely new complex. So I went down to the leasing office to see if what's available with larger square footage. For $13 more, I was able to increase my square footage from 590 sq. ft to 813 sq. ft. Oh, luxurious! Of course, the accompanying raise in utilities insured I was broke from May till my raise in October.
• June 2007, Writing of 「健忘症」: With the vacation over and the move completed, I decided to take my laptop for a spin. Lyrics have always been where I drag my heels in the songwriting process, so I decided for my next project to begin with writing lyrics, then writing the music later. I spent the first half of June 2007 going to various coffeeshops to jot down lyrics. When I had about 15, I started to write music. For a gimmick, I titled all my songs in Japanese, just like how some Japanese artists use English for their song titles. After I started writing music for these lyrics, they ended up sounding like … country. Sure, I'll go with that.
• July 2007, Recording of 「学生」 and In C: While recording 「健忘症」, I started using solo violin and cello samples in Reason. I liked it so much, I unearthed some old student works from college and recorded them as well. I also bought Ableton Live for a class I was taking back in the spring, and I wanted to experiment with the Studio View to see if a solo performance of Terry Riley's In C was possible. I thought writing and recording new material would be enough, but I ended up with a lot more.
• August 2007, Recording of Original Confidence: In late July, my friend OmarG asked whether he could use my home studio to record a song to use in his comedy troupe's next show. I told him I didn't have much experience recording vocals, but I'd give it a shot. That one night of work opened my eyes to how I should approach my own stuff, and in early August, I started recording some select songs from each of my "albums". That compilation would eventually be my 2007 Christmas card, Original Confidence.
• Sept. 2007-now, Weight loss: I forget exactly what spurred me to step on the scale, but a miscalibration of the zero mark indicated my 10-year-old scale may not have been telling me the truth for a number of years. So I bought a new one and discovered I was actually 10 pounds heavier than I was led to believe. Sufficiently inspired, I vowed to hit the workout room of my apartment every night for at least half an hour. Three months later, I managed to lose 25 pounds. Unfortuantely, I've hit the dreaded weight loss plateau, and I haven't been able to budge lower than 189. My personal goal is 150 or 160. I was 215.

Yeah, I guess 2007 was a pretty eventful year. At first, I was inclined to think nothing much happened, till I actually started listing everything out. I've been busy.