Orpheus Emerges

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song." - Maya Angelou

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Progress

“I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.” – Marie Curie I want to start this post with a trigger warning. This is one of the most personal posts I’ve ever written. This post is about weight, weight loss, body image issues and some mental health discussion, including how I perceive myself, and I know those are things that can trigger strong feelings for some people. If…

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Motivation

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – Les Brown While I was on the treadmill this morning, I was thinking about motivation. Why do I get up early in the morning to go to the gym? Why have I been lifting weights? Why am I trying to get as strong as possible?  Of course, I could give the lofty answers: “I want to be healthy, and have a good quality of life.”  “I…

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Opening Next Week

“Life is not a dress rehearsal – every day is opening night.” – Peter J. Daniels While Peter J. Daniels’ above statement is true, for actors there are actual opening nights that are different from every other day of rehearsal or performance, and they only come around occasionally. And, right now, I’m staring down the barrel of one. For the last month, I have been in rehearsals for Jersey Boys,…

Opening Next Week

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Halfway There?

I had to stop going to auditions thinking, ‘Oh, I hope they like me.’ I had to go in thinking I was the answer to their problem. – George Clooney Last weekend, I had an audition for a local production of the musical Jersey Boys. For those who aren’t aware, Jersey Boys is the story of The Four Seasons, an American pop group from the 1960s. I wish the show had come around earlier, as a younger…

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Small Victories

“Happiness is all about celebrating small wins.” – Abdul Jawad Khattak As previously mentioned, on Sunday, I had a unified audition. That basically means that there were a bunch of theatre companies from around the state all coming together to offer actors an opportunity to be seen by producers and other theatre professionals that they may not normally get in front of. Well, it has already paid…

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A Learning Experience

I wasn’t sure I was going to write about this, especially in the immediate aftermath of it happening, but I had a bad audition last week. It was a fairly important audition, in that it was for the resident theatre company for the largest theatre production company in the Denver metro area. Going into the audition, I thought I was completely prepared. I was wrong. A little background for those…

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Accountability Post - 4/17/2024

When I tried to revive this blog in September of 2023, I had been in an active attempt to lose weight for about a month. I am still in that mode. When I had my annual exam in August of 2023, I weighed in at 278 pounds. Between then and now, I have gotten as low as 235 pounds, and currently sit in the low 240s. As the weather has started to get warmer, I’ve redoubled my efforts. So far this week,…

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Disappointment?

“Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return.” Chetan Bhagat I learned a few minutes ago that I have not been called back for the production of Othello that I auditioned for over the weekend. When auditioning for a show, you have to be prepared for the possibility of not booking it. There are a lot of variables that go into casting a show, and most of them are…

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So Much For That

Well, I said I wasn’t promising anything. Tonight, I just needed to write, and this is probably going to be too long for a Bluesky post. I had an audition today for a production of Othello here in Denver. I was really nervous about it, because I haven’t done Shakespeare since high school. Also, I haven’t auditioned for a straight play since 2004. (I have auditioned for a few films, which is…

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Three Years...How Time Flies

Time Flies never to be recalled. Virgil It’s been over three years since I wrote something here. In that time, I’ve seen my weight get up to 268 pounds (late 2020), go down to 185 pounds (late summer 2021), and get back up in the 270 range. I’ve been on blood pressure medication for the last few years, and have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic. I’ve been back on the weight loss train for about a…

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Accountability Post - 7/1/2020

Accountability Post – 7/1/2020

“You will never be able to hit a target that you cannot see.” – Robin Sharma

It’s a bizarre but wonderful feeling, to arrive dead center of a target you didn’t even know you were aiming for. – Lois McMaster Bujold

The dichotomy of the above quotes is something that I’ve wrestled with for a long time. I’ve never been great about setting goals, and not much better at reaching the ones I have…

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Weekly Accountability - 6/22-6/28

Weekly Accountability – 6/22-6/28

Weekly Calorie Diary

It struck me a few minutes ago that in the old days of this journal, I would do weekly wrap ups, and I figured I should go back to that. I like it because it gives more of a macro view than a daily view.

Weekly Calorie Diary 6/22-6/28 Budget: 11,860

Total consumed: 9,433

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6/30/2020 - Quick Accountability post

6/30/2020 – Quick Accountability post

I don’t have any specific topic to write about today, so nothing to find a quote for. I’ll just drop the calorie diary for yesterday.

Calorie Diary – 6/29/2020 Budget: 18681

Total Consumed: 1385

Footnotes

This is adjusted by MyFitnessPal for the exercise that was entered.

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Accountability Post - 6/29/2020

Accountability Post – 6/29/2020

“Honesty is telling the truth to ourselves and others. Integrity is living that truth.” – Kenneth H. Blanchard

When I started this site almost six years ago, one of the things that I did was make sure not to call it a blog. I called it an accountability journal. However, as my history shows, the accountability only goes so far when I’m tasked with doing it myself. In that regard, I’ve added an…

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Getting back to it

Getting back to it

My weight has been a struggle for me all my adult life. As a teenager, I had a really hard time gaining weight, even though I ate like a madman. There was a time in my life when a normal meal for me was two triple cheeseburgers, a large order of fries, and a large soda. But my metabolism was ridiculous, so even though I was eating like that, I was a twig. When I started college in the fall of…

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Accountability post - 6/2/17

Accountability post – 6/2/17

“I’m not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain.” – Carol Leifer I have been known, throughout my life, to go to far with things. I can become obsessed, and sometimes that has negative consequences. Take, for example, working out. Sometimes I push myself to do things that I’m not ready for, especially since I had so much success the last time, and was able to do things that I hadn’t…

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Accountability Post - 6/1/17

Accountability Post – 6/1/17

“Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.” – Petrarch One of the things that I struggle with when losing weight is trying to find enough different things that I can eat while staying within my daily nutritional goals. I don’t want to eat the same things over and over, and I find myself doing that more than when I’m not paying attention to calories, etc. I also have this struggle with…

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