family actually notices when you grow

[ethernet_jock]

To resurrect an old thread...

I helped one of my wife's cousins move today - it was great - and I'm definitely riding high tonight.

So it was just me and this older cousin (34, 6' tall, 210-ish, a little chubby) and his wife, my wife, and their kids. Glenn (the cousin in question) used to work on a pig farm and now works for a large furniture store loading people's furniture into their cars on the docks. So Glenn is pretty famous for always bragging and talking about his days at the pig farm and pushing 1,100lb pigs into places they didn't want to go and his job now and loading various kinds of huge furniture onto trucks and mini-vans that have no business holding them.

ANYway - come forward to today. We moved a large full upright freezer, a washer, drier, large entertainment center, and a bunch of other stuff into their basement through a fairly narrow and steep staircase. Several items I took by myself (large boxes and a couple smaller bookcases) which always got a "aww Chris, c'mon... don't get that by yourself! You're going to hurt yourself!" from Glenn's wife. To which I would reply just "no, really, it really isn't that heavy." (Well, it wasn't). My wife just sits and smiles... I love her so much. About 1/2 way through doing all this and a bunch of boxes inbetween... we stop... and Glenn is soaked completely through with sweat and totally out of breath.... and I'm just standing there sweating slightly and talking to my son. From that point on - Glenn's wife couldn't quit remarking over and over again about how strong I was and Glenn forced to eat his words from many many bragging occasions at family get-togethers... agreeing.

So - it was cool.. and I'm walking tall tonight. I was incredibly modest about it and shy because I don't really know how to take compliments. But I couldn't help at the end of the night tonight throwing a little stick on the fire by mentioning off-hand that I was going to the gym tomorrow because this really hadn't been enough. hehehe.... *smiles brightly*.

Now I can't wait until the next family gathering. :P

This - for you Brent - was my exercise in "acting and feeling like you want to look". I talked myself into being strong before I went and imagined myself with 2x as much muscle as I normally do.... and... it sorta worked. I even wore a tight t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up (something I NEVER do) to add to the effect for my own psyche. It's funny/odd how much your mindset really does have to do with your performance.

Thanks guys - just thought I'd share something positive for a change!

[ottomun6]

Congrats, ya big show off!!

[brent]

Congratulations EJ! I'm glad I can have a positive effect on people!
I almost feel sorry for your in-law... almost. I think that your mental state is 90% of getting a job done.

For my own post, my mom & step-dad were in town for the weekend, from Las Vegas, and they couldn't stop remarking about how much bigger I'd become. It feels weird, but good.

[ottomun6]

Congrats to you too, ya big show off!!
I guess it might feel weird for a second, but I think they would HAVE to make a comment or two about seeing someone just growing bigger. It would be tough not to.
I Figure that they are excited for you. Like if you pulled up in a Rolls Royce.
Between you and EJ, you'll probably end up needing to wear 3XL shirts and EJ will need to live in a barn because he dosen't know his own strength and will end up breaking doors off the hinges!

[ethernet_jock]

erm... *looks guilty* you know... it was just this old hollow core door. ...

I mean... I swear the hinges were already broken... and all I did was open it, really... maybe I was a little bit upset at the time so I might've swung the door open a little bit quickly... but I swear that it just came off in my hand! Yah I mean, now that I think about it... the wood was DEFINITELY rotted before hand by moisture and stuff.

You know - barns are kinda cold.... don't send me to the barn!!!

:P

[optimusx]

No EJ,

You ARE the Barn, BE the Barn. There can be only one Barn and you are it How's that for programming your subconscious?

Scott

[ethernet_jock]

Brain programming?

funct (muscle logic)

var (EJ)
var (Barn)
var (optimusx)

If (EJ >= Barn, EJ = huge and optimusx = collosal, EJ = normal and optimusx = huge)

ugh.... I disgust myself with my own pathetic pseudo code. how's that for C++, Pascal, and Microsoft VB all rolled into a pile of shitty pseudo code? that's how long it's been since I've written anything...

Now if someone could just write me a program that:
1.) Removes all negative self-thought and doubt
2.) Makes me feel like a super-stud all the time
3.) Helps me grow muscle faster
4.) and teaches me how to fight like Neo

All would be good in the world.

[brent]

EJ, I thought you were using Javascript with all those VAR's...

I'll start writing you a couple of C++ classes that can be compiled using GCC.

[ethernet_jock]

:P

It's literally been about 13+ years since I've picked up a C or C++ book. :P That's about the same time I learned 486 ASM and Pascal (I know, laugh if you will). I swear to god I was a hell of a lot smarter when I was 13/14... or at least it sure seemed that way.

Something about marijuana every weekend and occasionally during the week for about 3 continuous years makes me feel stupid every time I think about it. It's no wonder that now when I think of code the only things that pop up are a tiny bit of java, asp, and MS VB. Sheeet... last time I try to make a programming joke. :P

rm -rf /bin/laden

Originally Posted by ethernet_jock

It's literally been about 13+ years since I've picked up a C or C++ book. .... It's no wonder that now when I think of code the only things that pop up are a tiny bit of java, asp, and MS VB. Sheeet... last time I try to make a programming joke. :P

I'm an old-timer programmer and if you ask me, it's java, asp and MS VB that are the programming joke.

Yeah, I know, they do powerful stuff real quick. That's the joke! There used to be some quality time spent building a program. Time spent considering quality. How many of us have bitched at our cell phones or MS WinWhatever or any number of cheap crappy programs that come out of the naive minds of the young and restless who think no further than the next weekend.

The new programing languages just pile on library after library of function that may or may not actually behave well together. Programs get bigger and bigger with no real improvement in function and definitely no improvement in efficiency. They don't care, "got my paycheck I'm out'a here" "Ain't my job man".

Somebody wise once told me that "high level languages never make the problem easier, they just take you further from the problem and make it look smaller."

[optimusx]

To a degree that is true. Often I find that it's poor documentation that leads to this issue. If you know all of the parameters going in and out of a library the likelyhood of incompatability is lessened. In fact I've found that using Dependable libraries make things more efficient. If you know that this library has been used forever to calculate a EMF or something more complicated why reinvent the wheel?

I remember all of the great languages like Q-Basic, GW-basic, turbo pascal, cobol, Apple Basic, clipper and blinker (database compilers) and of course the more modern stuff like C, C++, Java, Javascript, perl, php, vhdl, verilog and good ole asm.


Everyone has their favorite. I don't care what I use as long as it gets the job done. (And doesn't crash due to buffer overflows or swing going crazy)

Scott

[ethernet_jock]

To resurrect an old thread of mine and share some good feelings today:

Last night was the Annual Awards Dinner Gala and Silent Auction Benefit for the Denver Metro Convention and Visitor's Bureau (where I work). It was a pretty big deal in town because we were the very first event in the brand-new convention center expansion (doubled in size) so there was about 900 attendees including the Mayor, the Former Mayor, the entire city council, a couple US Ambasadors that happened to be in town, and a ton of other people. Anyhow - the point is not the event but my part in it. Attending this event meant that I had to put on my suit that I've only worn once before. NOTE: I only have one suit. I bought it last fall (03) for my wife's high school reunion and it was measured and custom tailored to me at that time..... and at that time... it fit very well and even slightly loosely.

Yesterday when I went to put it on, you can imagine my delight in discovering that while the waist of the pants was just fine, I had to really squeeze in the thigh and butt portions.... then I went to put the jacket on and discovered that my shoulders and back had widened so much that I couldn't do a whole lot with my arms without the risk of tearing them! They were quite tight, somewhat uncomfortably so. THis sucks.... but it was a great feeling all the same! I really didn't think I'd grown that much over the last year, but this was a major confirmation.

If that hadn't been enough - when I arrived at the front desk for the employee procession into the ballroom I received NUMEROUS compliments from all the women and wide-smiled compliments from the office's openly homosexual group. It was incredibly flattering. Nobody else got complimented in nearly the same way. Part I'm sure was just the notion that a computer geek could look good in something... Later in the evening while mingling I was told by more than one person (not even all employees) that I would make a fine secret service agent *snicker*. At another instance, one of the VPs made it a point to kiddingly and loudly announce "Look at this guy (indicating my size by grabbing my shoulders)! Why isn't he our bouncer?". I was all but ordered to help walk a group of the women back to the parking garage at the end of the night. hehehe

Anyhow - I was smiling all night. I knew you guys (Brent in particular) would appreciate hearing about that. Maybe I don't look so bad after all :P

[brent]

Originally Posted by ethernet_jock

To resurrect an old thread of mine
...
Anyhow - I was smiling all night. I knew you guys (Brent in particular) would appreciate hearing about that. Maybe I don't look so bad after all :P

Yes, Brent in particular enjoyed reading this, and having his name mentioned (it's an only-child thing...) We all know you are huge & buff, but it's hard to see yourself, until you have something like this show it too you. Next time an event like this comes up, take you suit to the tailor's at least a week ahead of time!

Also, some threads are really good, and need resurrecting from time to time. I've done it a few times...

[ottomun6]

EJ, that is awesome!
I seem to recall when you sounded bummed about not getting any bigger and everyone seemed to be making gains except you.
Well your suit isn't going to lie or even stretch the truth. It's just sreaming in pain that you're a big guy that's gotten considerably bigger.
Like Brent says, you should make a run to the taylor. But it might be a good idea to save up for a new (and bigger) suit.

P.S. I know I'm late with this but, your new avatar is awesome too. It's no wonder that suit is in distress.

[brent]

Otto's right. We never notice our own growth because:
1. We see ourselves everyday, so the difference isn't that noticeable (in my case, I have mirrors in every room, so I see my constantly, but that's just because I'm so damned beautiful?! )
2. We are more critical of ourselves than anyone else is (well, maybe not me?, but for most people). As the old saying goes, we are all our own harshest critics.

So listen to the fabric in your suit, it won't lie. BTW, for your next event, Burlington Coat Factory generally has nice, low priced suits, a good selection, and an on-premisses taylor.



?I used to have very low self-esteem, and I cured it by constantly telling myself how great of a person I am. I'm not really that egotistical.

[brent]

I got a nice compliment today. I was carrying this huge, round mirror out (since it was round, and out of the box I carried it as I was afraid of it rolling off the cart) to these guy's truck tonight. when I got it there, one of them said, "I was wondering how you got those huge arms, and now I know!" That felt good.

[ethernet_jock]

hahaha!! That DOES kick ass.

As for everything else... you guys are always WAY too nice. You're right, I can't argue with the suit...