The Official Site for the Lackluster Goings-On of Michael Kaiser
Kaiser the Great
Posts by Kaiser the Great
Sleep Running
Mar 11th
Eleven days of working out straight. I alternate between running and strength training, which barely affords my crippled, old body the rest it needs after I thrash a section of it. So far so good, except today I half-assed my run because I couldn’t shake some lung wheeziness. It happens. I’m fairly confident I’ll be where I want to be by race day, and if not, live and learn. At least I’ll be in a better place than I was last week.
The Dude wakes up two or three times a night, but the the third time is usually around when my alarm would be going off anyway, so it’s really just the midnight and 2am bits that aren’t working for me. Lately I think I’ve been sleeping through it more though, which makes me feel somewhat bad, because then The Girl has to do everything. But when I was waking up for it, The Girl had to do everything anyway, because she’s the only one who can do what he’s crying about…aka feed him. I’m not sure why I feel compelled to be awake just because she is, but I do. I was raised Catholic, what can I say? Guilt it my imaginary friend. The sucker’s getting big though, up the 11+ lbs already. Can’t wait until he grows a neck or becomes a little more mobile. He’s like carrying around a jellyfish all the time right now.
The Kid seems to grow another inch with each passing weekend. I think she’s trying to be taller than me. She’s learning to read and do math too. I think she’s trying to be smarter than me. I don’t like this. I want her to stay short and dumb, but she apparently has other plans. Hopefully when the time inevitably comes I can still take her, or at least out run her!
Off to the in-laws next month. Looking forward to getting the hell out of Dodge and sleeping in. Hopefully it’s not too hot. Of course, for some reason we scheduled the trip to at the same time WonderCon is going on, so I guess I’ll miss that once again. I used to go religiously, but since I got out of the game I’ve missed the last three years. I’d like to go again some day, but there’s always next year!
I See Your Starship is as Big as Mine
Feb 24th
I haven’t talked about Star Trek lately. I probably don’t talk about it enough in general. Paramount should offer of a network of Star Trek blogs like StarWars.com does, then I could talk about it every day. Oh well. I could probably make my own network (I’m sure I could, actually) but the upkeep cost would be too insane for me to handle, probably. Anyone want to give me money? *chirp* *chirp* Alrighty!
I was watching the latest movie again recently aka the best movie ever produced based on the worst plot ever written, and I decided I like the design of the Enterprise more than I did initially. I dig that it’s essentially the NCC-1701-A with more interesting nacelles. I like all the doohickies and gizmos that move around when they are about to go to warp. Check it (sorta):
So curiosity got to me, and I went to the killer site Ex Astris Scientia to see if it had any information on the size of this sucker and how it compares to other Enterprises that have come before. Of course there was, but apparently there is some debate amongst geekdom as to exactly how big the new design actually is. The producers and digital designers seem to think it is 700 meters, while nerds ways cooler than me who can analyze these kinds of things seem to think it’s about the same size as the original.
So now I want to see them all lined up! So below is every Enterprise variation I could think of (not counting “possible future” stuff), and I’m sticking the new Enterprise in twice, one for each theorized size.
SCALE: 1 pixel = 0.5 meters
 |
NX-01 NX-Class 225 Meters |
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NCC-1701 (pilot) Constitution Class 289 Meters |
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NCC-1701 Constitution Class 289 Meters |
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NCC-1701-A Constitution Class (refit) 305 Meters |
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NCC-1701 (Abrams) Constitution Class (?) 366 Meters (?) |
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NCC-1701-B Excelsior Class 469 Meters |
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NCC-1701-C Ambassador Class 526 Meters |
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NCC-1701-D Galaxy Class 642 Meters |
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NCC-1701-E Sovereign Class 685 Meters |
|
NCC-1701 (Abrams) Constitution Class (?) 718 Meters (?) |
Yeah, I’m going to say I like it in the 300 meter range myself, if only so that it doesn’t dwarf all the supposed “more advanced” ships that came later…er…or will come later. However the movie works. Anyway, like the refit the best, I think. Still dislike the Sovereign the most. It’s just too flat. Looks like a hot rod, not a flag ship.
Pre-Race Warm-Up
Feb 17th
Can’t have a plan without a goal, so for my first half-marathon, here are my two goals, in order of priority: A) finish the entire thing without stopping or walking; and B) finish two hours or under.
The first goal is fairly obvious, I’m not running a half marathon if I don’t actually run it. I can definitely walk 13 miles now, and could probably walk/run 13 miles too. So the challenge is to run the whole thing. That’s top of my list.
The second goal is fairly arbitrary, I guess. I Googled, “What’s a descent half marathon time?” and two-ish hours seemed to be the consensus for first timers. So two hours seems like a nice even number. I don’t care as much about this goal as I do the first one, however.
Can’t meet a goal without a plan, so I went to RunnersWorld.com and used their handy dandy training tool to calculate out a gradual 16 week plan that ends a week before the race and gets me up to being able to run 13 miles in 2 hours and 3 minutes. (I’ll try and shave off the 3 minutes on my own.) I was supposed to start this plan on Tuesday, but I didn’t factor in that there would be nobody working at the gym I wanted to sign up for on President’s Day, so I am a day behind. However, since I only have to run three times this week, I still have plenty of week left. I started this morning. So far so ACK!, but more on that later.
Here’s a fun before-and-after comparison. My cholesterol has always been crap. Even when I was working out religiously, it was borderline crap, so now that I’ve been a sloth for a good year or more, I was curious as to how horrific it had become and decided to have it checked right before starting this little working out endeavor. Here’s the results:
| Component | Value | Standard Range |
|---|---|---|
| GLUCOSE, FASTING | 93 | 60-99 mg/dL |
| LDL, GOAL <160 | DESIRED | |
| CHOLESTEROL | 297 | <239- mg/dL |
| TRIGLYCERIDE | 355 | <199- mg/dL |
| HDL | 48 | >40- mg/dL |
| LDL CALCULATED | 178 | <129- mg/dL |
Hmm…should I be dead?
It’s a Race!
Feb 11th
So I went to the San Francisco Giant’s 2010 Fan Fest last weekend. Yes, I’m into baseball now, and no it’s not because I have a son, and yes I’ve never been into sports before and it doesn’t make any sense to suddenly like it and blah blah blah. I’ve heard it all already, thanks. At least I keep it separate so as not to annoy everybody. More on that soon.
ANYWAY, the point is, while I was there I came across a booth for a Giants related running event thing, and since I’ve been feeling like Fat Elvis again, I took a flyer and decided to make a goal out of it. So officially, I am running a half marathon for the Giant Race on Saturday, June 12 at AT&T Park. There was a 5K option as well, but I did that last year and I wanted to do something with a bit more difficultly, as I barely trained for the 5K and still managed to get through it. I don’t think one can half ass training for a half marathon. I can’t anyway. I’ve put in many miles in the past, but I’ve never run 13 in one stretch before, so it should be a challenge. My goal is to hopefully keep it under two hours, but finishing in general would be good!
I “get to” run one way or the other, but if you’ve always wanted to donate to Project Open Hand, you can do it via me though this handy little page they set up for me. I’m not really sure what happens if I get donations made in my name though.
Labor & Delivery
Feb 2nd
While I have never been a part of another labor, and while I wasn’t the one actually laboring, I gotta say The Dude seemed to arrive here relatively easily. Here’s how it went, from what I can recall of the whirlwind:
The Girl jinxes us by commented around bedtime how it would be so great if we could get a full nights sleep and go into labor after 9am the next day. She then starts having contractions about 20 minutes later. They are about 10 minutes apart and by 10:30 they are about 2-3 minutes apart and we are calling the advice nurse, who tells us to come in.
We get to the hospital about 11:30 and she’s still contracting about 2 minutes part and she’s dilated 2cm. The nurses hum and haw about whether we should be officially admitted and suggest we go for a walk around the hallways for 30 minutes or so.
We walk for 30 minutes and come back and The Girl is now 6cm dilated. The nurses now seem to get slightly panicky about how fast she’s progressing and proceed to get us a room real quick.
By 2am The Girl is 10cm dilated and her mother arrives just in time to witness the initially pushing. But The Dude is still too far up so the NP tells us to chill with the plan of trying again in 30 minutes.
About six “30 minutes” later, they start humming and hawing about possibly giving The Girl some pitocin to make The Dude spit out faster, which he apparently hears, because he decides it’s time and three pushes later and he’s out.
The Girl and mom get gushy, I take pictures and make phone calls. The Dude doesn’t cry as loud as staff would like so they run a few checks on him, but in the end, he’s fine and just doesn’t like to cry that loud because he’s too cool for school.
And that was the birth experience. Again, I didn’t go through any of the pain, but all in all it still seemed pretty easy to me. After all the possible complications you learn about when pregnant, I was fairly surprised (and happy) that nothing bad happened.
The End Result - All 10 Fingers and Toes
People keep smiling at me and nodding knowingly like I just joined some club they’ve been a member of for decades, asking me questions like “so what’s it like having a new baby at home?” or “wasn’t the birth the greatest day of your life?” and I nod and say vaguely what’s expected, but really I have no clue. I’m assuming these people are all speaking in hindsight or something, because for me it all seems very surreal still. He’s cute as hell, but I have no idea who this little guy is, even though I’ve been waiting for him for what seems like a decade.
It blows my mind when I think on it and remind myself that he is 50% me. I’m curious to see what form he will grow into, as right now his features still consist of buttons and squishiness. Who’s eyes will he have, how tall will be? People are already saying he has my feet, which is hopefully not true. Otherwise, sucks to be you, little guy!
TV Watching Meme
Jan 8th
Hey, I’m good at watching TV, let’s do this. Lifted from BlogNoir.
RULES
1. Bold the shows you watch/used to watch on a regular basis and tried to see the completion of most seasons.
2. Italicize the shows you’ve seen at least one episode of/watched but only on occasion.
3. Underline the shows you own on DVD (at least one season).
4. Post your answers.
50. Quantum Leap (I would own the DVDs but I hear they changed songs for copyright reasons and I don’t dig on that.)
49. Prison Break
48. Veronica Mars
47. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
46. Sex & The City
45. Farscape
44. Cracker
43. Star Trek
42. Only Fools and Horses
41. Band of Brothers
40. Life on Mars
39. Monty Python
38. Curb Your Enthusiasm
37. Star Trek: The Next Generation
36. Father Ted
35. Alias (I initially watched this religiously but gave up after season three tanked it for me.)
34. Frasier
33. CSI: Las Vegas
32. Babylon 5
31. Deadwood
30. Dexter (Got through the first two seasons because they were available in “Instant” form on Netflix. I just can’t get past the premise.)
29. ER
28. Fawlty Towers
27. Six Feet Under (One of my favorite shows but not the kind I see myself rewatching, hence no DVD ownage.)
26. Red Dwarf
25. Futurama (I should watch more of these. I love the ones I’ve seen.)
24. Twin Peaks (Liked the first season, then it went too weird for me.)
23. The Office (Don’t care for the BBC version, followed American for a while but have slacked lately.)
22. The Shield
21. Angel
20. Blackadder
19. Scrubs
18. Arrested Development
17. South Park
16. Doctor Who (Only the new stuff I’m afraid. I’ll get around the Classic Who someday, I swear!)
15. Heroes
14. Firefly
13. Battlestar Galactica (Seen some of the original, much of the remake, but it went to “predestined” on me so I quit.)
12. Family Guy
11. Seinfeld
10. Spaced
09. The X-Files (I only own season 2 for some reason. I think I got it as a gift. Have never rewatched it though. Anyone want season 2?)
08. The Wire (I watched the first two seasons but then slacked off.)
07. Friends
06. 24
05. Lost (Only watch it via DVD though, so never in “real time.”)
04. The West Wing (Been catching it in reruns, good stuff. Should watch it in order some day.)
03. The Sopranos (Made it through five seasons. Got bored of it.)
02. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
01. The Simpsons (Thanks to reruns, I’m sure I’ve seen mucho episodes, but I can’t say I’ve “followed it” or try and tune in specifically for it.)
New Year’s Wishy Washes
Jan 7th
Another Wordpress update! Let’s start keeping track.
Christmas came and went. I think we celebrated it four times, between The Kid, my parents, The Girl’s parents and then various in-laws. It’s all a whirlwind now in my head. The Girl and I hosted dinner aka I sat around and drank while she cooked all day. As far as loot, the best thing I got was a rocking chair and high chair from my parents, which isn’t necessarily for me specifically, but it means I don’t have to buy either of those things, which pleases me immensely. Favorite loot given? A custom CD of The Kid singing over some tracks, given to the grandparents and created courtesy of Audacity, which just rocks, BTW. Here’s the cover:
New Year’s resolutions? Well I feel like I’m channeling Fat Elvis again, which makes sense as I’m eating and drinking whatever I want and not exercising in the slightest. Seems like I do this every year; get vigilant in the summer and fat in the winter. Perhaps I was a bear in a previous life. I’m liking the idea of P90X, but that would require me cleaning out the garage and buying accessories, so maybe I’ll just try across the street again. Of course, another resolution is to actually clean out the garage, so perhaps I should do that at some point! Otherwise I can’t think of much I want to do or change. I got a baby coming, I figure that will take up most of this year’s time. I don’t need to add more hobbies or missions to my agenda.
Speaking of baby, The Dude has yet to arrive still. Not that he’s late, but I think The Girl assumed she would not go to term because The Kid escaped early. But nope, it looks like he’s going to wait until the last minute, probably because he’s lazy like his old man.
Speaking of old man, lookit:
Yep! Can’t see no more. The doctor said I have an astigmatism, which isn’t necessarily an old age thing and probably something I should have addressed a long time ago, but maybe she was just being nice.
Read and That’s It 2009
Jan 4th
| Title | Author | Series | Series Part | Reading Date | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace | Terry Brooks | 3/8/2009 | 6 | ||
| Treason | Peter Davis | Star Trek: New Frontier | 17 | 4/30/2009 | 8 |
| The Road | Cormac McCarthy | 6/14/2009 | 10 | ||
| Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Philip K. Dick | 9/9/2009 | 8 | ||
| The Gunslinger | Stephen King | Dark Tower | 1 | 10/31/2009 | 8 |
Sad sad sad. But hey, it was my first year of marriage, and I have a new step-daughter at home, and another kid on the way, and more stuff to do at work and… okay okay, I think I was just lazy. Nothing was really grabbing me last year, or calling to me either. Hopefully I’ll do better this year, but so far it doesn’t feel any different.
Up To Date
Dec 21st
Once again, logged into Wordpress and there is another update. Just like last month. Six plugin updates too. Guess I should log into Wordpress more often, eh? Damn that Facebook. Seriously, it’s so much easier to write, “Man this month went by fast!” as a Facebook status update over writing five paragraphs about it on this journal. But then it’s a lot easier to look up my past adventures here than on Facebook, which doesn’t have an archive feature other than “Click Here for Older Posts.” But do I look at my past adventures? Not really. So maybe I’ll turn this journal into something else, but until I figure out what “else” is…
Here is the 2009 Year End Catchup, brought to you by iGoogle – helping me remember what I’ve done lately since 2006:
We celebrated Halloween much like we did last year, only with a few more kids and adults. I still find it funny that the adults outnumber the kids on this holiday. I don’t remember it being like that when I was a kid. Maybe my family needs to produce more children. (Working on it!) Anyway, here are the kids:
And here are the bored adults:
Good times. Next up, we had a faux-Thanksgiving at my parents house because my long-lost aunts were in town. That was the original plan anyway, but instead we just got some deli trays because visiting is more interesting than cooking. Here’s a picture of the original Kaiser clan where almost everyone is looking in the same direction:
Then my mother-in-law celebrated her 20th anniversary of her 21st birthday. I have pictures but I will not post them because she doesn’t like when I do that without her signing off on the picture first, and she’s not here right now.
Then at some point last month The Girl got The Dude’s side of the room complete. Isn’t she talented?
Wait, didn’t I already post that? Maybe it was on Facebook. Oh well, next! Still in November. My brother and his long time gal decided to get married. Shocker, I know. I thought they were going to do the whole “engaged forever” thing too. Most of us didn’t see the ceremony because they don’t like public displays of affection, I guess? But the dinner afterward was nice and everyone had a good time. Here’s a picture where they both look about as happy as they get.
Congrats little brother! Now we’re in December and The Girl gets the tree up ASAP because that’s how she rolls.
That’s right fellas, I did that too her! (High Five!) The Kid helped with the tree too, and I took pictures per usual. Then my Best Good Friend and I went to Star Trek: The Exhibit. It was fun, if not a bit small, and renewed my love of Trek for about three days. And of course, I bought a bunch of overly priced photos. Here’s one of them:
Season 3 Captain Kirk gut totally on purpose. (cough) Then The Kid had part one of her December spoilifercation process by celebrating turning six with a blow out at Chuck’s:
And that about covers October through December, not counting Christmas of course, which hasn’t happened yet. We’re having Christmas at our house this year, assuming The Girl doesn’t go into labor first. Should be fun. It feels like the last arc of this year has really flown by, and I guess I can see why now that I’ve lay it all out for myself. I’m a lot busier than I used to be, but it’s fun. The Girl and I have been ready for Christmas, gift-wise and decoration-wise, since November 30th. Not sure I’m feeling it yet though. Maybe because I’m more interested in this:
He’s not due until next year, and let’s hope that’s how it plays out but…stand by!
