the second phase

so while messing with the style of this theme to change a few things, I ran into an interesting thing about CSS - Overrides. More specifically, proximity vs. id/class. In essence, even though I was specifying a closer proximity to the element via it’s outer class, because there was an element with an id with the same style, even though it was higher up the chain, it was overriding my style.

If you understood that, congrats, because I just wrote it and I don’t understand it. So I’ll try and go a little more indepth here. If you don’t care about CSS and web design, please, feel free to disregard this post.

So the sidebar ( the vertical bar over there –> ) has an id of #sidebar and it has a style for all the links. Now, there is the calendar ( which is also over there –> ) which has a class defined of widget_calendar. I wanted to change the style of the links within the calendar. So, using proximity, I said something like this…

li.widget_calendar a {
   text-decoration: underline;
}

Now here’s the rub. Since the sidebar is specified with an id and there can only be one id of that name within the page, that’s considered closer proximity than the fact that I specified a style for a class, assigned to element within the sidebar element. So, in order to fix this, I had to change the style to something that had an id tag and was inside the sidebar element. Lucky for me, the calendar also generates a div with a specific id. I was able to use that to assign my link style.

Confusing, I know. CSS is a love/hate relationship with me. There are so many cool things you can do to style your pages but some of it is so baffling and irritating ( especially with cross browsers ) that it becomes a nightmare.

In any case, the problem has been solved and I now, joyously, have underlined links in my calendar. Yay!

So you may have noticed that the theme on this site kept changing. The basic reason being that I couldn’t find a damn theme that I was entirely happy with. Redoable was nice, but had bugs due to it no longer being developed. I fixed a few but more just seemed to keep popping up. Hemingway had it’s issues, as did Foilage. I went back to Emire, which has no bugs, but I had that theme for a lonnnnnnnnnnnng time. Finally, I found this one, called dreamplace. I think it looks cool, it doesn’t have any bugs, scales well and has the calendar that I wanted, although it doesn’t highlight the days, which is something I’ll have to fix.

As for other things, I finished my first week of P90X ( again ). Thanks to all who have left comments, I really appreciate them. I ended up missing Friday due to work issues ( I had to go in at 4 AM, left at 2 and fell asleep ), so I did Legs and Back on Saturday and Kenpo today and I’ve got Chest and Back tomorrow. I’m down to 190 lbs and 20% body fat at the moment, so from here I’ll start the blog pages back up again. Everyone is alot further ahead of me in the program, which sucks but at least it keeps the motivation going for me.

I totally flailed on my challenges with the Tiger, due to my sickness and recent work issues. I won’t be making my goals either, so I’ll have to reset them. At least I got the Tiger running though and hopefully we can start another BeerChan challenge back up.

Anyways, I have to head off to go bowling in a sec ( no more beer. ), but keep checking the site for more updates!

fifth graders can YOU fight at one time? Go figure it out!

Well, you may have noticed that there’s been a lack of updates the last week. On Sunday night, I started getting a bit stuffy. Monday morning wasn’t too bad. I really brought it on the Chest and Back workout. However, when I woke up Tuesday, it was a whole different story. I was clammy, sneezing, breaking out in sweats and in general agony. I tried to do Plyometrics, but after about 25 minutes, I was lightheaded and about to faint. I figured I’d take a break and try again, but I only got in about 10 minutes before I almost puked.

So yeah, I took off the next few days while I tried to recover and here I am, still recovering. Unfortunately, this has allowed the Tiger to gain a rather large lead on me in our challenge and I basically need to restart P90X. So I’m going to consider last week a prep-week and start the program again. So, starting Monday, I’ll be starting up the blog again on day 1, assuming I’m fully recovered.

And I’m still going to kick the Tiger’s ass.

It’s Sunday now, so sorry I didn’t post yesterday. Basically I did the Kenpo routine and with 1 or 2 extra minute long breaks, I got through the whole thing. I was covered in sweat by the end, but all in all, a very good time. I also did the stretching today and while it doesn’t count as an actual day of the P90, I felt I should do it to increase my limberness. Only problem is while doing the shoulder stand, I tweaked my neck a little bit and now it hurts to turn to the left. Hopefully it’s gone by the time I have yoga on Thursday.

Found this guy outside my local Ralphs. I’m going to have him pack my suitcases for my next vacation.

Or so I thought. Yoga? Psh. Only women do that crap.

Yeah, I was wrong.

I was surprised at how difficult it was. After 20 minutes of Plank, down to Chataranga, up to Upward dog, back to Plank, to Downward Dog. Holy crap-o-li. The thing I was surprised at the most though, is that I actually really enjoyed it. Well, when I wasn’t falling onto my head or screaming in agony from trying to wrap my leg around my head.

I’m definitely looking forward to my next session of it!

My buddie Jeremy has started his own site over at mardagan.wordpress.com. It is his own P90X blog, even though he’s well ahead of me in the program. So please, take a moment to visit there and leave some encouraging words for him!

So, the third day in. Woopdee-doo ( I know that’s what you’re saying.. 3 days, wowee ). Today was the shoulders and the arms workout, basically meaning alot of curls in different positions and different forms. I took this one a little easy I think, mostly because I had no idea what weight to use and I didn’t want to wear myself out way too early and not be able to finish the routine. I think I went a little TOO light, because while I was starting to work up a bit of a sweat, I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough and that’s what this program is about. That’s why, before every session, 2 bright red words show up.

BRING IT!

And that’s what I need to do. I’ve been good about writing down what weight I used and how many reps I completed, so next time, I’ll know what weights to use in order to really be burning at the 12th through 15th reps.

I watched James and Jeremy during their Core Synergistics training last night and wtf? I thought they were on a recovery week. That session looked like Plyo’s twisted twin brother. Tony lures you in with the ‘Recovery Week’ and then BLAM! ( No, not Pam the Blam ), kicks your ass with this session. I wish I had started when they did so we could do the workouts together but there really is no room in our work gym for 3 people to do P90X and I’d be fighting James for the 5lb weights. I use them as my motivation to keep going though, so it still helps to know other people are experiencing the pain that I am.

Oh yeah, how could I forget? I then had to do Plyo’s little snotty brother, Ab Ripper X. Yes, he might be smaller in that he’s only 15 minutes long, but WHO THE HELL INVENTED THIS THING? By the end, I can’t even sit and bring my legs up off the ground, which, unfortunately, the last exercise requires that you do for a full %^()@# minute. I took alot of breaks in order to get through all the routines and all the reps, but holy mother of.. ( I won’t say it Mom.. ).

The diet continues and I will say that it’s really hard to cut big starchy carbs entirely out of your diet ( I’m not doing Atkins here, no worries ), even if it’s only for the next 3 weeks. Mostly because I love sandwiches and oatmeal and bagels and kashi cereal and all that good stuff. Only a little while to go, however, before I can have at least 1 carb per meal, which will make things alot easier.

Tomorrow is yoga. For some inexplicable reason, I’m scared.

Hell, meet Plyometrics. Dodgeball! Hell ain’t got nothing on Plyo. Seriously. Oh, Em. Gee. While I was able to get through the video, I took extra breaks and was not able to keep up with alot of the reps. Some of the times this was due to me watching for a moment to see what the level of Satan’s realm I was about to descend into, other times it was due to the fact that these people actually aren’t human and really are T1000’s from the future.

It also didn’t help that I ran my fastest 2 mile in awhile last night ( clocking in at 10 minutes and change for an average for the run ). I had been intending to only run 1 mile, but then a damn good song came on and I couldn’t resist. I paid for that this morning, waking up with sore legs and then going into the plyo routine. So, lesson learned: Do not run hard the night before plyometrics.

Tomorrow is shoulders and arms. Hopefully that will give my legs a bit of a rest before I suffer through Yoga.