Masthead (39k image)
Wednesday, September 30th

Re: need help with a decision

Kevin
09.30.09 @ 10:25 AM CST
feeling: Anxious

I fet like I needed to expand upon just simply filling out the survey so here it goes.
from a promotional/business standpoint I can identify two that should probably go into the book. First is the O21 blog and the Croney team listing book. Why you say? It is supplimental advertising not only that you are in the book but also advertising for both O21 and the Croney team. 2 birds with one stone sort of thing. Beyond that, I figure atleast one more that you are particularly proud of. I don't know if you already submitted but I hope this helps.

Later_

Sunday, September 20th

Finding Myself

Nicole
09.20.09 @ 06:14 AM CST
feeling: ok

So it is rather early here (not yet 7am) and I have been thinking a lot lately about who I am and who I've been over the years.

I have been told that as a child I was typically happy, always seen with a smile. I let the other kids take toys from me and just continued on with a new toy and didn't through a fit. Apparently, I asked really naive or dumb questions that made people worry that I was just not going to be bright.

In middle school, I remember being smart but still unsure of myself. I remember always asking my mom if I was pretty. This always bothered her because she just wanted me to worry about being smart and I would respond that I know that I'm smart! I guess that's why I enjoyed being a cheerleader and a beauty contestant because they told me that I was pretty and smart!

In college, it took me a while to get into that world socially but as far as academically, I was very secure in myself. Eventually, I was confident prehaps even aggressive, I was self-aware and not afraid of anyone or anything. (The woman that Kevin fell in love with!)

I guess that at all these different points, I have known what was important to me: child - no drama, teen - attention, and college - competition (or rather crushing my competition). But now I'm feeling very lost because there are so many things that I want and I'm having trouble focusing on the highest of these priorities.

Thursday, September 10th

Diary of a Diet: Week 3

Jon
09.10.09 @ 12:22 PM CST

jonsMediMetrics_weekThree (33k image)
So, today was my third week weigh-in. It was kind of a short appointment, so there isn't a whole lot to tell. I'm down another 4 pounds, bringing the total thus far to 25 pounds down in three weeks...but there are no changes to the diet this week, so it's more of the same. "You're doing great, just keep doing what you're doing" is the general message from my appointment. Great. Glad I'm paying $$ for that nugget of wisdom. ;-)

So, instead of a lot of description of stuff, I've just decided to share my charts for this week...so you can see what's going on. Click on the picture of the page above to view the whole thing.

I will pause to say this: According to the standard 3500 kCals = 1 Pound arithmetic, and the fact that I am running about a 2000 kCal/Day deficit, I should lose about 4 pounds a week from now on, assuming that my metabolism doesn't slow to a crawl or anything like that. The fact that I lost 4 pounds this week tells me that the easy part is over, and that I should expect my progress to slow down from here.

In reality, I do expect my metabolism to slow down, at least a little, and I do expect that it'll eventually slow down to about 1-2 pounds per week, and take me about a year to lose all the weight.

Wednesday, September 9th

So...how's the diet going? Part 1

Jon
09.09.09 @ 03:31 PM CST

In a word: Fine.

I'm having a hard time getting all my calories in, mostly because I am totally disinterested in eating.

I miss sweet coffee beverages that I don't have to make myself, because there pretty much isn't anything at Starbucks (or RaceTrac or QuickTrip) that I can drink.

I have figured out that 1 Packet of Truvia + 1 Packet of Sweet & Low = 99% as tasty as two tablespoons of sugar. Both sweeteners have big hollow spots in their flavor, but these two complement each other pretty well. I suggest you try it.

Overall, I'm actually enjoying the diet thing. It's occasionally hard, like when Marissa (Jeremy's girlfriend) brings her "famous" pasta salad to the labor day shindig, or Nancy leaves a bag of Sour Cream & Onion potato chips (my favoritest) laying on the counter, open, smelling awesome; but mostly it's nice to have a concrete set of parameters to follow instead of a bunch of nebulous principles to consider.

Apart from the the fact that I can't even have ONE of those potato chips, it's easily something I could do for a long, long time.

Need Help w/a Decision

Jon
09.04.09 @ 05:18 PM CST

He all. I need your help.

As some of you already know, I was recently awarded 10 American Graphic Design Awards by GDUSA Magazine. I know, I know, that's great. Problem is, there is a fee associated with having them published in the big Graphic Design USA Annual, and it's kind of high. So, although the whole point of these things is to get the work published and listed in the directory and on their website, the fee has created a bit of a quandary. Fact is, I just can't swing publishing all ten, which means I need to pick a subset of the winning entries to have published.

Should I publish just one piece, just to get on the list?
Should I publish all the logos, because I want to get more logo work?
Should I publish one logo, one website and one printed piece?
Should I just eliminate the work I like the least and publish the others?
Should I publish only the work I absolutely love?

So, what I'd like you to do is help me with my decision by following this link and filling out the form:
http://blog.ohtwentyone.com/blog/GDUSA-publication-poll

Thank you all in advance for your participation!

Friday, September 4th

Diary of a Diet, Week 2

Jon
09.04.09 @ 04:58 PM CST

I had my weigh-in on thursday, and it's more good news. I'm down another 7 pounds...which brings us to 20 pounds lost in two weeks. Do I expect to be able to maintain this? Hell no. I did a little arithmetic and figured out that I should be losing about 3-4 lbs per week for the remainder of the diet, as long as I maintain the current daily caloric deficit.

That's going to get harder and harder as the diet goes on, because my Base Metabolic Rate will go down as I lose weight. It's already down a little, so I'll probably have to adjust again at some point to keep the weightloss going.

The food cravings seem to be leveling off a bit, but I have noticed that some carby stuff that you wouldn't think are super fragrant, have very distinctive odors now that I can't eat them. I almost got sick smelling freakin' Tostitos at this dinner party last night. Ugh. Tostitos!

On another note, I've been tracking a lot of different metrics, one of which is Fat in lbs, and this week my results came back that I've lost 8 lbs of fat out of the 20 lbs I've lost total. (9.5 of that 20 is water, and the remaining 2.5 lbs is, I assume, muscle.) These metrics are all extrapolated from the electrical resistance of my body, so it's not 100% accurate, but it is something to look at and track, and I'm just the kind of nerd that likes that sort of thing.

I did it!

Nicole
09.04.09 @ 06:25 AM CST
feeling: good

So I pulled it off and made it back to the training last night! I asked the women at work to help me out! It's funny what you can do when you decide nothing will stand in your way! Now if I could only work that "hard" all the time for myself! sleepy

Tuesday, September 1st

still working

Nicole
09.01.09 @ 12:02 PM CST
feeling: bad

So last night they announced that it was only the 1 monthly deadline not the traning class's deadline, so I have until Thursday to get 2 more faces done! I can so do this!