feels good to be firm...

I have started back at the gym this week after a very long nine months out. I was really starting to feel the effects of not keeping myself healthy so, as you can imagine I am really pleased to be back in training.

Although, my body would not agree with me. I had almost forgotten what tearing your muscles up felt like the next morning. To say I ache is an understatement. Putting that aside, it does feel great, the pain I mean (how many people can say that, pain, feeling good). It makes me feel like I have actually achieved something.

I have a huge challenge ahead of me. After all this time away from training my strength levels are at around 65%, which is disastrous. Although I am confident that with spartan resolve, I will be back to my old self in no time.

the top 10...

...brain damaging habits.

1. No breakfast
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

2. Overeating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered, increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.

How do you stack up??

From here

getting around...

We are slowly discovering each day that there is a greater need than we thought for me to get myself a car.

Although we are doing alright at the moment car sharing, me being here on my extended break without a car means I am totally having to rely on Deanna and her Lexus, which is cool of course but when it comes to me taking her to work, getting the boy from school then going out again to pick her up, we are using more fuel than is really necessary. However, it is unavoidable.

Which leads me to the following: The other day whilst taking her to work we passed a car on the side of the road for sale. It was awesome, typical American car, and I was all..." WOW, that car is AWESOME!!"

Today, I went back to take a picture, find out what it was and get the price.

The car is a 1972 Pontiac Le Mans and you guessed it, it's out of the budget range, and at $5,200 it's about $4,200 above budget.

Looks like I will just have to keep on looking.....sigh

(i would look totally rad in this)

formspring...

More like form-rubbish.

I have given formspring a fairly decent trial run and in the end I have decided that it really is rubbish. Either that or I am so completely uninteresting that no one wants to know anything.....hmph!! Which, thinking about it, kind of makes sense considering I have had only four people respond to my request of the previous post of ' who actually reads my blog '

Thank you: Marc Hebron, Marc Warren, Richard Wisbey and Dale Spooner.

Anyway...no more formspring.

You want to ask me something....send me a fucking email!!

On a more positive note, my friend Cammeron introduced me to a site called Get Totally Rad. They sell and provide really cool actions for photoshop. For those that don't know what I am talking about, an action is a kind of short cut to special effects and photograph editing techniques without all the hassle. From there I discovered CoffeeShop. Now this site is much better as all the actions, textures and tutorials are FREE! that's right people. So any of you four readers that use photoshop, go check it out and download yourself some cool actions.

Here is a before and after shot of a photograph I "actioned" as an example. It's very subtle but it can make a big difference to your photography.

is there anybody out there...

I have wondered on many occasions just how far and wide this blog gets and whether people actually take the time to read about my life. I often wonder if people are actually that interested to know what is going on in the world of Ian Norris.

I know my friends are always checking in, but only when prompted on Facebook I'm sure.

So here is the test. The 'let us see if anyone actually reads this blog' challenge.

If you visit my page and read my words, don't be shy and leave a comment. Or at the very least leave me a note on my formspring that I can respond to.

Why am I questioning it? Well, I also run a Tumblr and as does my girl and she has been using hers more often for blogging rather than just posting nice pictures. I am thinking " is it really worth having two blogs "

So lets find out shall we....

On another note, here is a photo of the wonderful woman I am lucky enough to call LOVE...

(canon 500n - 35mm black and white film) by me

opening up...

I have been interested in a concept that is used very often on Tumblr called Formspring. It is basically an online Q&A where people can log into your formspring page, leave a question for you, on any subject and you can reply to those people that have taken the time to ask you something.

It is an interesting concept which I have taken on board and I am very interested to see where it will lead and what kind of questions people will ask.

You see, it is open to literally anything so, my lovely readers, go ahead, click here and ask me something...but please, do not be shy and try not to ask anything anonymously.

I will give you answers to your burning questions....(what have I let myself in for)

stir crazy...

So I have been going a little stir crazy these last few days, which, caused me to have a bad day on Tuesday.

Truth is, I am missing my daughter, family and friends. I knew the transition would be difficult and I knew what I was giving up to be here with my girl. I just thought it would be.....easier.
Deanna and I had a great chat last night about all kinds of stuff and we have cleared up a few minor but major things in the process.

She spoke to her friend Erin for some advice yesterday, before we sat down, and her friend told her " that man needs a hobby, he has way too much time to think " and she is SO right. I am just not used to sitting around not doing much.

However there is light at the end of the tunnel! On Monday we are heading out to the local gym, which is only a few blocks away, to get me signed up, hopefully. Then I will be able to get out of the house for a few hours a day, meet and talk to new people, which to be honest, is probably all I need. Oh, and some good old hard training, which I am very much missing at the moment.

I did however do a little photography yesterday, I am not sure what my thought process was behind the image but I have come to realise that it was somewhat a reflection of my mood.

Any of you that are my facebook friends will have seen this already, those that are not...hope you like it.