The Improvement Thread- Next Meeting on Thursday, March 18th- 1st & 3rd Thur Meetings

Regional Matchmaking Northwest
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Right now I’ve got three things I am focusing on:

School - Doing pretty well at this so far, but I know I’m being lazy about it and should probably step it up a bit. My classes are easy now but htey won’t be in a quarter ot wo

Fitness - Joining the gym program here at work next week, 30 minute sessions M-F for 4 weeks (and hten free access to the gym after that). Should hopefully lose quite a bit of late. I’m already losing weight from following their eating plan (6 meals/day).

Street Fighter - Pretty much just trying to be more consistent and also more patient. I have a terrible habit of attacking when I have huge life leads. I am also working on learning other characters at more than a messing around level just to help give me different perspective on the game than just Fuerte’s shenanigans.

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Brent Cuisine was Awesome

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I know we already talked about this but I had the same issue playing Fuerte. He’s just so fun to attack with… defending, not so much. Just try to remember how fun it is to runaway with Fuerte. Definitely the most fun runaway character. Between runstop antics to make them uncomfortable and run back lk jump (without the walljump, at least not 'til you’ve done it like 5 times to make them anxious)… Shit is dope. My strat against Viper used to be life lead and just run like hell. She can’t catch you without doing something stupid like random super jump.

If they chill and build meter, you can build some meter too. You need it more, so if they’re smart it should provoke them more.

God, I can’t wait to start playing Fuerte again.

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It really is crazy fun, though I also like running in place to mess with people, I feel like Fuerte is a hot wheel or something and I keep winding it up and winding it up over and over until I finally let it go crazy and do loops and shit.

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Elias: next time you go out, take me! If you down.

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I’m for sure down. I’m too embarrassed to go out by myself. :blush:

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Goal list:

  • Get back into a few of my hobbies:
    • photography
    • games
    • pool
    • guitar/cajon/music
  • Make a name for myself in the SRK community
  • Take more financial responsibility
  • Start/find/verb a relationship
  • Become less of a pack rat

Date posted: 02/01/10

Photography:
I love photography. I love pictures. It’s been an interest of mine since maybe my sophomore year in high school and I liked the pictures that I took. I dabbled a bit with a digital camera my mom had where I had to teach her how to use it. Only in my senior year of high school did I realized that I might be a decent enough photographer that OTHER people my like the pictures that I took, which led to me entering 4 of my photos in an art contest. I took 1st in all 4 categories; I was psyched! This excitement led to me buying my first DSLR and switching my major from Fine Arts to Psychology my sophomore year of college to solidify photography as a hobby.

I was pretty into my photography up until junior year of college when my course load took over and I didn’t have much time to dedicate to it. There’s been some projects that have kept me tied over during my impromptu hiatus (i.e. photo scavenger hunts and, most recently, being the photographer at my best friend’s wedding). Other than that, my kit’s collected dust.

Steps steps forward in Photography:
I’ve already made plans to start a 365 Days project (I’m sure you’ve seen them on Flickr and elsewhere) where I am to have one photo during a day, that represents my that day, and post it up somewhere to document 1 day out of the year. I have my Flickr as a vessel for that.

Also, after those initial 4 prints of my photos, the next year I printed out 4 more photos taken from that year. I had half-assed planned to make that a yearly thing: 1 year = 4 photos. So perhaps I can tie the two ideas together to make it a full-assed project.

My 365 project starts on my birthday 2/28/10 and I’ll use SRK and Facebook to keep me motivated.

Games / Making a name for myself in the SRK community:
Back in the day, Wednesday, in fact, I was at a high level of skill* in multiple games at one time: TTT/T4, MvC2, SCII, CvS. I’d be: a force to be reckoned with, able to place 5th at Southcenter’s Silvercoin, & who-the-fuck-is-this-kid? It was a fun time, …that decade ago. But school got in the way and I more or less just played for fun-ish most of the time (practicing) and seeking out small, random local tournaments to wreck shop.

The decade hiatus has ended and I’m back in the scene, more or less, but with only one game I feel I’m proficient at: SFIV. I’m looking to get back to that level of play/skill in at least one other game (T6) if not more. And, with my being involved with this NW scene, I feel like I want to be known for something. Like… something memorable. Haha no idea what I mean, but the other week, Cole said that he was going to have to watch a couple of my matches to learn a few things for Dhalsim. … In the words of Chris Hu: I wasso mindfuck! Someone I look to for pointers/guidance for something is looking to me for some pointers? Shit, that felt awesome. Thanks, Cole!

But now that makes me want to have someone look to me for pointers/guidance in the same kind of way… I think. shrug Still not quite clear to me yet.

Steps forward in Games / Making a name for myself in the SRK community:
I realize that the infinite amount of time that I had as a 13 year old had the biggest role in my attention to a wide set of fighters, so it’s damn near impossible to get to the same level. This is why I’ve decided to get back into the Tekken series as well.

When T5 came out, it was my freshman year of college and I, literally, had no one to play against, save for one good friend who I took under my tutelage and graduated him from a Paul-scrub to a Super Random Battle fighter. So I was left to get the rank of Tekken Lord for each and every character, which forced me to learn everyone thoroughly.

I have the PSP version of T6 and I plan on doing the exact same thing: have all 42 characters up to the rank of Tekken God.

Baek Doo San - DONE.
Zafina, Xiaoyu - In progress.

As for making a name for myself: I plan on going to EVO 2010 to attempt to establish myself as the next Trace Motherfuckin’ Prewitt. Best believe that shit… maybe. Haha

Thanks for listening to my ramblings.

And… I suppose this should go under Start/find/verb a relationship
Elias & Frank, when are we gonna have a gay ol’ time on the town? :party:

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With your birthday at the end of the month and mine at the beginning of Mar. That’d be a perfect time to set something up, although I’d like to go to a bar more than a club…last club experience that wasn’t involving Above & Beyond or Utada wasn’t all that great…and almost lead to 2 fights lol.

An update for myself since I haven’t really posted about it. I’ve decided to put the quitting smoking into the working out/becoming healthier section. With that said:

GOALS:
Getting healthier
Since I’ve lost my job I’ve never felt better. Been cooking more at home (or the occasional teriyaki since it’s a stone’s throw away), I have eaten fast food a few times (I’d say once a week), but each time I would eat it I would just feel sick. That being said it’s been more or a realization of thinking what I was eating was doing to my body. I noticed that some clothes aren’t feeling as fitting as they were when I had my job. Which brings up my next step towards this goal which is working out.

The only thing that is holding me back from stepping out to the gym some odd feet away from my house is a bad knee, I believe the knee pain is actually from the weight (as my doctors have said countless times). Of course there are other things that I could do instead of jogging (like shadow boxing, or just doing some light lifting with the weights I have). For those that have becoming healthy/fit apart of their goals, I would strongly suggest getting some boxing gloves and just throw some punches and combonations for a few minutes…you’d be SHOCKED to find out how much of a workout that can be. It would be wise to go and look up some tutorials (i did on youtube), to “learn” how to properly throw some punches, once you get them down just spend 5-10 minutes focusing on some jabs, and combinations.

Finding a better job
Talked with Kyle about seeing if I could get on with his work, waiting for the boss to return my call. Jared had talked to Cole about this “Obama Plan” so I’m going to follow suit and see if I can get my ass back into school. Will be calling Kyle’s boss on Wednesday again to ask about the job.

that’s about all I have for my update.

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Frank, I got a bad knee too from running. Shadow boxing sounds great. I recommend either cylcing or walking. Walking is severely underrated. Low impact and low intentsity but you still burn an awesome amount of calories. Maybe start with 30 min and move up to an hour if not more. As for my bad knee, it happens to be on my weaker leg which is my right (i’m left footed). I use this one:http://www.amazon.com/Knee-Pro-Tec-Patellar-Tendon-Strap/dp/B0010VUMB0/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1265131196&sr=8-4

EDIT

I would hella be down for gay bars with you guys. Just want to check that off the list. However, it seems kind of scary if they flip the script on me like that. It’s all good though. Maybe I can bring Ms. Hardbody to shield me from HardGays.

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Anjunadeep is excellent

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finding another anjunadeep/anjunabeats fan is always nice =]

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I have a bad right knee also Frank and Pablo aka PAVELOW but I recently purchased some running shoes that have made running alot easier on my joints. If you cannot run then I would surely get on the eliptical, do some spinning (stationary bike class which is a fantastic cardio activity), and get on the stair master which is a beast. But yea my mom got some of this joint pain cream and I’ll see if it works. If it’s turns out to help my knee then I’ll update.

My goals for fitness wise are just to stay in good, healthy shape. My body has felt both sides of the spectrum since I was really really skinny to being a heckkaaa fat to becoming a cardio beast to just in alright shape. From what I’ve gained through working out I see that if you work out how your suppose to then you can eat whatever you want. But if your not in good shape I recommend slowly taking away bad habits you have like don’t drink soda and limit how much fast food you eat. Eating 5-6x a day is soooo underrated so I recommend doing that and stay away from eating big ass meals 3hrs b4 you sleep.

My progress
Before march 2006 I was a damn twig. 6’1 130
March-September 2006. I gained hellaaaa fat and was 6’1 at 205. BMI @ 25% lol
September 2006-Jan 2006. I went down to 155 with a BMI @ 8%. I did this by doing cardio 5x a week and drinking atleast 140oz of water a day. Also using hydrocxy cut which was straight-up the craziest shit I’ve ever taken. With my sudden changes tho within a year I felt weird at times and my body functioned differently. Like straight up one day running on the treadmill for an hr my eye started to bleed a bit which was somewhat different
Now I’m 190 trying to get to 205 being lean and fit.

Tip
-Drink water, forget soda unless your really fiending for it. Only times I drink soda to be honest is when I drink alcohol
-Drop fast food and if you do eat it try and find something suitable to eat. None of that triple whopper shit
-Take supplements with caution. I recommend Hydrocy cut if you want some massive results
-eat 5x a day, 3 of them being small. I would consider a banana + yogurt a small meal

Current goals in general
I’m slacking in school lately so I need to get up on that ASAP
Smash this Persian chick I met
Go to sleep before 12pm on most days. Sooooo hard for me
Only drink in moderation 2-3x a week for good reason so none of that "o I’m bored (call the homies up) ya’ll trying to kick it?"
Go to the gym at least 4x a week, try and implement cardio into my system
Be a somewhat better brother to my brother
Abuse the US government system by finding an under the table job so I can collect unemployment+ Food stamps+ FINAID. YES I know I’m a hustler

Glad to read other peoples posts

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Looks like pablo is on the right track but ey pablo we gotta save some the guys hahaha HardGays all the way son I’ll money match you dog more guys would come up to me then you haha

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So as of recently I think that I’ve officially achieved my “consistency on meds” goal. My next goal in health is to start gaining weight to 140. I’m incredibly out of shape due to my health issues, and I have VERY weak endurance. Deanna bought an exercise bike a couple months ago, so I DO have access to start building stamina up, however more or less I don’t quite know how to tackle this situation. My body burns calories ridiculously fast and I’m also a very picky eater.

All in all, in the next few hours I’m going to come up with a plan to start gaining weight while exercising regularly in order to get my body in gear.

Quick question, how beneficial would doing push ups on a daily basis be? How many should I be doing? I’m not looking to bulk up per se, however more or less gain a bit of stamina and muscle while I gain weight.

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I would say 100 on any given day is a pretty good place to start. Keep in mind you can do this however you want, like in sets of 20 at random intervals in the day or anything really. You should also keep in mind that I have a very different body type than you, so it may be different.

Probably the best thing to do would be to find out the most you can do in one go, I think the last time i checked for myself it was in the 40’s, and then work out in a way that best suits your needs so that the next time you try a max out, say like a week later, you will have a higher cap.

Down the line you should work on doing different types of pushups or core exercises because eventually doing the same routine over and over will provide diminishing returns.

One last thing to take note of, core exercises (pushups included) are not the best way to deal with any back pain you may suffer, despite what you have been told in the past. I don’t think youll run into this issue or have it right now, but I’ve had chronic backpain since adolescence.

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Thanks for the insight Dan. Due to health issues, I’m also INCREDIBLY weak. I think that I can do about 12 push ups in one go and thats it. My muscles are increredibly weak because well…I don’t put them to use plus I don’t get a lot of chances to due to low energy what with fighting infection all the time.

More or less I’m unsure if I could do 100 pushups in one day…I’m really weak :sad:. My current exercise goal for the first week was to do something like…

  • 30 minutes on exercise bike (5x a week)
  • 45 push ups in 3 to 4 sets throughout the day. (interval every other day)

Like I said, I’m not trying to bulk up per se, however I would like to add a bit of muscle while I gain weight. Gaining weight has always been a severe health issue, and I’ve never been able to hold 140 consistently in my life :sad:. At any rate, I’m still trying to figure out how I can best gain weight with my current goals in mind.

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Yeah, I figured that you wouldn’t be able to do what I can immediately, especially since I’m definitely in the upper minority for strength and body size to begin with. That’s no problem though. and your goals for the first week seem good. I think you should look around for some videos or tutorials on gaining healthy weight, and I’m pretty sure that you should be able to find some that also take chronic illness into account.

Here’s a pretty good source that I’ve been following for a few weeks now, mostly for ab stuff. He has some great advice for eating well and gaining weight properly, so I think it would be a decent place to start if you’re having trouble finding something.

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I can’t do “normal” pushups to save my life. doing them on your knees won’t produce the same effect as doing them traditionally but what would work for me is I would do them A LOT slower and still was able to get something going. Another option (which I think is a better option):

Invest in an excersise ball, lay on top of it and slowly move your body forward until you get into the push up position (reccomend slowly because you could lose your balance off the ball), and then do push ups like that, it’ll also work on your core since you have to focus on maintaining balance on the ball. I’d also invest in some light weights and you can do dumbell bench presses on the ball, even come up with a routine of something like:

10 situps
10 bench press reps
10 bicep curls
10 push ups then repeat.

If you do 3 sets, and try not to give yourself a break longer than 30 seconds between each set it’ll build up cardio too.

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In response to the core exercise comments, keep in mind that your back (Upper, but mostly Lower back) is working ALL day everyday. It keeps you upright, you hold things in front of you, in your hands, over your head, wearing heavy clothes. Your stomach (abdominal) and chest get barely as much attention as your back. You need to do sit-ups and push-ups so your body’s muscles start creating a balance between the two.

Think of it as a Yin-Yang symbol, where Yin is your front, and Yang is your back. Most of the time, the Yin is smaller than the Yang in humans, so try to balance it as to prevent problems.

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I would highly recommend picking up a set of small dumbbells. Something like 10-12 pounds is a good starter weight. They are the most versatile exercise equipment you can get, and you can build an entire routine around them.

Also, if you want to gain weight you need to EAT, EAT, EAT. A lot of people fail to meet their exercise goals because they simply aren’t eating with those goals in mind. If you are able to, talk to a doctor or a nutritionist so you can figure out the best diet to reach those goals.

Finally, when starting a new exercise plan, consistency is the most important thing. If you start skipping days early on, you’re less likely to stick with it in the long run. For everyone who’s plan is to exercise more, find something that motivates you to work out on a consistent basis. The thing that has worked for me in the past is finding someone to exercise with. Having someone to bug you about it will ensure that you both stick to your commitments.