Value

It's been awhile.
My plan was to use Tsuji No Uchi as my day to day journal.
As you can see I haven't been writing shit.

YODC is where I act out, Tsuji at his most vulgar, cynical, perverted & mean self. Tsuji's evil twin brother writes at YODC.

Reality Strikes is my safe haven. It's a cold world full of cold people. At Reality Strikes I feel safe surrounded by warm caring people who share the same interests as me.

1up is where I write about my video game obsession, pretty straight forward there.

I have neglected all the blogs I contribute too.

Feeling uninspired, weary, depressed, stressed lately. Not to be a whiny bitch..but it's true.
All of that has contributed to my lack of writing.

I hate for my latest post here to be on a down note but shit, it inspired me to write something & so I write, maybe this is therapy for me? I don't know...whatever.
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I got passed up for a promotion. In my career at the bank this promotion was the one where I honestly considered myself to be in serious contention for a spot on level 2.

I have a good relationship with my immediate supervisor.
My peers on level 2 & level 3 appreciate the quality of work I do.
I'm given extra duties & was chosen to be the back up person to open the help desk.

The level 2 supervisor has had casual conversations with me outside of work basically telling me that she would like to have me a part of her team & she even gave me tips as to what I should be doing in order to put myself in cont ention for a level 2 spot.

In all of my reviews I have never been told to change my work habits & was always told to "keep doing what you're doing" I don't know about anyone else but to me that means KEEP DOING WHAT I'M DOING, EVERYTHING IS OK, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG.

Now in this game of deciding futures in my bank micro universe there are 3 players that are gods.

The level 1 supervisor, the level 2 supervisor & their boss.

I can only conclude that I have done something to upset the boss. But if I have, then bring it to my attention, write me up, tell me what it is that I am doing so that I can be given the opportunity to correct the problem.

Instead I was passed up for a promotion.

The promotion was given to a much younger person, someone who some of my peers at level 2 & 3 think his work can use some improvement, someone who has been slacking off as of late.

Now when I heard through the grapevine of the plan to promote someone from level 1, I thought to myself "it would be a slap in the face if they passed me up this time".

Now keep in mind that they never officially posted the opening so nobody had the opportunity to apply for the position, I came in one day & there was a departmental email advsing this guy was now going to be a level 2 analyst.

My heart sunk, this has bothered me more than I ever thought something like this could ever bother me. I am no young buck & I seriously think about my future.

To me, it sends a message that at least 1 of the I.T. gods does not think I have what it takes to excel or succeed at level 2. This notion OFFENDS ME to no end.

I have not asked for any hand-outs. I am willing to pay my dues.
I have stepped up game.

Sometimes life is not fair.

I am determined to not take out my anger or frustration out on my friends or family or MYSELF for that matter.

I am down, I feel broken, but I can be rebuilt, that much I know.

Monday I will be born again HARDCORE.

If I don't like the game, I will find a new one to play. A game that I can excel at. A game that I can be a BEAST at.

If the gods do not favor me I will find a new religion. I will worship gods that reward hard work, & loyalty. Gods that favor a devotee that cuts out the bullshit & gets down to what is important.

My twisted weight loss adventure & Fightsticks...

So about a month ago I got on a scale at a friend's house & I weighed in at 227lbs.
I decided to "bring sexy back" & drop some pounds. My goal is to weigh 170lbs. We'll see how it goes...

I have dropped weight, last weigh in on Friday evening was 201lbs.
The only thing I have done is count calories, I always try to make sure I consume less calories than my body burns in a day & do cardio 6 days a week.

I wake up in the morning & drink approx. 8oz of orange juice = 110 calories

my morning break at work 8:30am I drink a slim fast shake = 190 calories
or I eat a serving of oatmeal = 110 calories (low sugar variety)

my lunch 11:00am is a serving of oatmeal = 110 calories

when I get home I immediately do 30 minutes on my stationary bike on the "hill" setting, the meter says I burned 320 calories BUT I know it's more because it's on the "hill" setting

afterwards I have dinner which can be anything as long as it sticks around 1000-1500 calories

in fact I might eat an entire frozen pizza which = 960 calories

I stopped drinking soda & only drink either water or diet soft drinks = 0 calories

based on my activity level my body burns approx 2200 calories per day plus the 320 calories burned during my cardio

oj = 110 cals
slim fast = 190 cals
oatmeal = 110 cals
frozen pizza = 960 cals

caloric intake = 1370 cals

minus 2200 calories for normal body functions = -830 cals
minus 320 calories ( I know it's probably more) for my cardio workout = -1150 calories

so on a typical day I am 1150 calories in the hole

I don't know if I'm doing this right or if it's even healthy but the shit works
I plan on modifying my diet to be much more healthy once I make it to my target weight...

here's a little vid of me totally stoked from my Street Fighter IV Tournament edition fightsticks, sorry about all the um...um...ums

Random

The city was beautiful last week

The streets of San Francisco were sunny & chill

quiet Tuesday afternoon in the city

I raided my mom's fridge for some left over ham & a couple of eggs
fried it all up last Saturday asa gohan desu
wheat toast with butter & obachan's home made strawberry preserves
fried ham & a cheese omellette

My homie Ollie in front of the spot Manila Garden Cuisine

Sisig was the kill

Filipino fiesta food man, learn about it new kid -the shit was bomb

a clean plate means Tsuji likey

0 motivation

I must be depressed because I literally have no desire to do anything that normally makes me happy. I've just been laying around. I have been doing some surfing on the web. Beyond that I haven't been doing anything this week.

Kreva at it again

Kreva "Success"
goddamn this is a banger, I could roll around Nihon Machi in the xterra with the bass bumping scoping the fly honeys all day playing this song

Daaaaaayam! BJ!

So last weekend I watched the GSP/BJ Penn rematch. I really don't have anything against GSP, he's impressed me pretty much every time I've watched him. He seems to be a class act as well & he always conducts himself in a sportsman like manner. I picked BJ Penn to win the fight though. BJ impressed the HELL out of me in previous fights & I felt he had extra motiviation to win this fight because he wanted so much to avenge his loss.

I'm a casual fan of MMA so I didn't catch alot of the pre fight shit talking. Apparently BJ was talking mad shit before the fight & even went so far as to say that GSP was a bitch.
I guess that shit talk lit a fire under GSP because he came into the octagon & handled BJ.

GSP looked to be in better shape than BJ overall, & from what I could see he was just stronger physically. If GSP wanted to switch positions, he did, he simply moved BJ's body around almost at will which is a testament to his strength. Before the vaseline controversy came to light I did take notice at how ineffective BJs ground game seemed to be. I knew BJ had stand up skills but being a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu expert I know he has sick ground game. It just seemed really wierd that he couldn't get his ground game going & put handles on GSP.

Then the whole controversy about GSP being greased up with vaseline on his neck, shoulders, & back was brought up. I will say this, if GSP was greased up BJ's ability to lay the ground game down would have been jeopardized, plain & simple. I will also say that GSP appeared to be stronger in the fight. I'm not an MMA expert but does GSP's strength cancel out BJ's Jiu Jitsu? If not then the grease would have made a difference, if GSP's strength cancels out BJ's Jiu Jitsu then the outcome of the fight would have been the same.

The greasing subject has come up many times & you can even catch Dana White talking about it IMMEDIATELY after the fight while he is ringside, do a search for Dana White's video blog on youtube, I'm too lazy to post a link.

You be the judge. I'd love to hear opinions & serious MMA fan observations & insights.

The Clone Wars HD X My Japanese Coach

I happened upon a copy of The Clone Wars in HD. I heard alot of people bashing this film. Alot of people whose opinions I respect...
Since it did not cost me a dime I decided to pop it in my PS3 & give it a whirl.
I heard this was meant to introduce the new animated series. Let the record show I have not watched any of the animated series.

One of the first things that hit me was the art style of the character designs. I did not like it.
I remember thinking how cool it would have been to have a more realistic edge to the characters as opposed to a cartoony look.

I remember when Count Dooku was introduced & I was like yo this is the best they can come up with? An old guy for a villian? When Darth Maul was introduced I was like "DAAAAAMN!"

The story I guess at it's core was not all bad but I was really irritated at Asohka Tano, Anakin's new padawan. I cringed every time she referred to Anakin as "Sky Guy" or r2d2 as "R tooey" or as the baby hutt as "stinky". I was equally irritated when Anakin referred to Asohka as "snips".
Also some of the the dialogue that the battle droids had was just plain dumb.

I guess this stuff was all added to appeal to kids, the new animated tv series was meant for the kiddies right? Hardcore fanboys can bite it, it's all about squeezing as much money out of this franchise as possible. I'm not naive & it is what it is. I wont be spending any money on buying a copy of this film, I'm sure Warner Bros. & Lucasfilm can give a rat's ass about my dollars anyways. I wish them the best & hope this all works out for them...I guess.

What I would spend my hard earned money on would have been a more serious story within the Star Wars universe, with edgier more realistic characters. Using CG would have allowed the story tellers to create a truly awesome experience. But uh, yeah.

My opinion is that this flick is not worth a rental or a purchase. If you can view it for free go for it.
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I picked up a copy of My Japanese Coach over at Game Stop, I ran through the placement test & the game has me starting with lesson 6. I was killing it until it got to the Kana portion. I have no skills in Kana or Kanji. I do have a decent vocabulary going for me though.
I look forward to having this study tool around, maybe this is just what I needed to give me the edge on my written shit.