Category Archives: The Basics

One thing:
Aside from being totally sweet and utterly fantastic, my friend Jess Hartley is a novelist, writer, and freelance writer/editor in the gaming industry–and she reads my blog which is simultaneously exhilarating and intimidating.  Recently, Jess helped write, Changeling: The Lost  and it is now up for some pretty prestigious awards in this year’s ENnies (gaming’s equivalent of the Grammies or Oscars).  It has been nominated for Best Interior Art, Best Production Values, Best Writing and Best Product of the Year, which is an amazing honor in and of itself.  The nominations are put up by a panel of industry judges, but the final decision is based on fan voting.

That’s where you (hopefully) come in.

Not everyone has information about the ENnies, so to help Jess out, I’m asking for support for her writing and for this product, which she’s very proud of having helped create.  The votes are open to the public (one per IP address), so please help Jess by visiting http://www.ennieawards.com/voting/index.phtml  and casting your votes for Changeling: The Lost .  Jess (and all of us who know her) would be most grateful for your support.

Another thing:
My sister Betty–who recently graduated from law school–is taking the bar as I type this.  Please take a second to close your eyes and send her positive bar-passing energy.  It’ll just take a moment and doesn’t cost a thing. 

My sister deserves to get through this.  I never could have succeeded at such an accomplishment of raising three children and then going through law school while working full-time.  She has been studying for the bar since she graduated last May.  I am beaming with pride for my sis and would really appreciate some good vibes being sent her way. 

There’s power in collective positive thought.  There really is. 

Good luck Jess and Betty!

It was one year ago today that I uploaded my first blog post.  OK, actually, it’s one year ago today that I uploaded my first consistent blog post,  I had a few false starts. 

So here’s the funny part: I repeated the third grade, was permanently expelled from high school in the ninth grade for getting high and ditching classes and barely passed the GED–made it by two points.  I was never, ever a good student and had major self esteem issues most of my life.  Writing wasn’t exactly my forté if you know what I mean. 

I was determined to work on my writing skills and stick to blogging because I tend to start things and never finish them–a leftover trait from a major deficit of self esteem.

So here it is one year later and I have actually posted things on a monthly basis for twelve consecutive months.  I hope to continue writing and improve upon expressing myself with the written word. 

 It seems my best writing (in my humble opinion) occurs at times of sadness and/or frustration.  Who wants to be creative when they’re happy?  Happy is boring. 

Here are my three favorite posts in their raw amateur glory:

Are you there God? It’s me Cobban.
Arrangements
Auntie Ohnie

Thanks for tuning in to the Lopaka Lounge.  I’m assuming if I keep doing it, I’ll get better…

*Credit to Ray for the title of this post.  Also, come to think of it, I have to give Ray the most credit for helping my with my writing.  He has been a great teacher over the years.  He was the one who talked me into going to college at the tender age of thirty and sat with me at the dining room table while I cried trying to figure out algebra, statistics, quantitative literacy, physics and all that other general ed stuff that I had to take in school.

Wow, did we have a killer storm roll by last night.  It was like the sky opened up.  Ray and I took turns going from front to back porches.  It was like being on the dance floor with all the flashing.  I love monsoon.

My mom and a handful of family members are on their way from LA right now.  Brother rented a motor home to get everyone here.  Hope the weather holds out for some pool time.  I’m going to show them all around Bisbee, Tombstone and the outer areas. 

I upgraded my WordPress blogging software and some of my site got jacked up.  The little “About Me” module with the dorky B&W photo just disappeared.  I’ll get it all back up to speed soon.  Right now, I have to focus on the rellies weekend visit.

A little movie of the storm:

We had quite a storm last night.  My point-and-shoot has a shutter speed setting.  This was a four-second exposure.  I had to take about twenty just to get one lightning strike. 

Pretty cool huh?

I tried to make a movie too but it was too dark.

The banner photo now changes from time to time.  I’m going to dig through all my photos to find images that best capture the theme of the Lopaka Lounge. 

Or is it better to have the static pool pic?

This critter was crawling along by the pool the other day.  Most of the tarantulas we see around us are black.  This one is brown.  Hope it’s not poisonous. 

So I was just about to hit the shut down on my computer last night when I noticed that my blog archive has July on it twice.  I’ve almost been blogging for a year!

Am I a prolific blogger?  Hardly.  Quantity doesn’t matter to me.  I set a goal to blog (with some regularity) in order to hone my writing skills–and I’ve been doing it for about 50 weeks.  Give or take a week. 

There’s kind of an itch to redesign the overall look and feel of my blog.  I’m trying to stop myself.  If I had the talent that Brian has to create cool banners every other day for my blog, I might do just that…but I don’t.  Speaking of my blog’s look and feel, does anyone know what the banner pic is and what it represents?  Just curious.

Last night it was official; I saw it.  I really saw it.  I think I know that I saw some pectoral action going on with the upper bod.  It’s finally happening!

I started working out with a trainer last December.  I bought two 12 session packages at our local gym.  Those sessions were helpful but I didn’t go with regularity and they had me on more of a toning plan.  After wrapping up with the trainer in late April, I decided to workout at home Every Single Day and push myself as hard a I could.  Last night after a killer upper body workout, I totally saw some shape.  Some form.  It’s working. 

OK, here it is.  The truth about fitness (as told by some know-it-all asshole who’s only been working out for a few months).

1. Visualize, visualize, visualize.  Don’t think about the person you are going to become–be that person in your head and realize it through the exercise.
2. Burn baby burn.  lift the weight until your muscle is on fire (if you want to get bigger). 
3. Mix it up.  Don’t develop a routine and do the same old exercises every time.  Do different exercises for the same muscle group as much as possible.  You’ll be glad you did.
4. Eat, sleep and drink water–’nuff said.
5. Do it every day.  That’s right.  It’s so much eaiser if it becomes a part of your daily routine, part of your life.  It was much harder for me to do it two to three times a week. 

Change your head.  If your brain is saying “Oh man…I have to work out…sigh…OK, let’s get going…” you may as well give up now.  Motivation happens from the inside out.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not always doing the happy dance when it’s time to break a sweat and grit my teeth but I do force my brain to be positive about it.  Ray told me this many times and it finally sank in:

If you force yourself to workout, you’ll never finish and regret it.  You’ll never say “I wish I didn’t do that.”

Ray and I come home every night and go in to our home office to check emails and see who’s online.  For about an hour every evening, we sit in the same room with all the weight equipment.  When we start our computers, it takes a few minutes to boot up so we do a set.  Open our web browsers, log into emails, chat sites and messenger, do another set.  Reply to an email, do another set.  This works for us (it really works for me ’cause I like to watch my man flex).  I actually look forward to my evening workout.  As things start to firm up and get bigger, I really, really look forward to my workouts. 

I’m not going to sugar coat it; working out and making physical change to your body is the hardest thing in the world to do.  There were many times where I looked in the mirror and wondered why I was doing this because I didn’t see anything.  This time around, instead of getting discouraged, I pushed the old flabby image of myself out and replaced it with the new and improved image and held on to it as tight as I could.  I’m not giving up this time. 

There are three major immediate benefits that come with a good exercise program.   

1. I’m focused.
2. I’m happy.
3. I sleep like a rock.  Haven’t been able to do that for years.