LegendaryLife Blog

It has been a LONG road from start to finish but I’m proud to say that you can now purchase a digital copy of 2847AD, the science fiction book I wrote and researched for extensively and physical form of 2847 A.D.: Solar Horizons from Amazon! YAHOO!!! This has been a major accomplishment for me, I never knew publishing a science fiction novel could be so much work but now that it’s done, it feels wonderful to have achieved this major goal of mine.

If you wish to follow the journey pretty much from start to finish, I have chronicled it on my blog. I mention this in several other postings but these are the major ones.

• 2847: Going Science Fiction
• 2847AD: Writing Science Fiction is Hard!
• Getting through the home stretch
• 2847AD is finally done!
• Transforming your life from Blah to Legendary now available on Amazon!

What made the book especially challenging is that I tried to integrate almost everything I knew about science and then some, at the time. There is so much information out there, it’s really astounding and trying to condense it into a readable form, not only for me but for the general public takes a lot of effort.

I wanted to write a book that was scientifically accurate while at the same time, within the realm of possibility AND readable by somebody who has little to no scientific knowledge.

I believe I have accomplished this goal. I already started on a second volume of this book but had to put it on the back burner for several reasons, including but not limited to the amount of work I’ve been putting into my WoodMarvels.com company. I love design so much… it’s a true passion, as is writing but I think a long break is necessary to get most of the ideas fleshed-out. The further you jump into the future, the more difficult it becomes to imagine the unimaginable and this is really taxing mentally as I discovered. Exhausting even!

My delight: Hydrogen Sulfide

In the book, I describe in detail why I used this very toxic gas, hydrogen sulfide, as a mechanism for suspended animation during long space travels. Today, I watched a TED video and much to my delight, what I described and envisioned is actually coming true! Yes, they have human trials of this and the results are astoundingly positive. Watch the video to learn more about this important toxic gas

TEDTalks : Mark Roth: Suspended animation is within our grasp – Mark Roth (2010)

The Bottom Line

Research, hard work and tremendous passion can even bend even the most impossible of challenges into reality.

I like goal setting, so here is what I hope to accomplish this year and what I did or didn’t for the last.

Goal setting for 2010

Here are some my goals for 2009, I’ve crossed-out the ones that were accomplished:

• publish my first inspirational/motivational book
• publish another WoodMarvels.com volume (current book one is already in pre-press)
• triple the total traffic from all my sites
• create lasting change in at least 100 people using LegendaryLife.com (thousands will join but not everybody will use it as intended)
• create two new sources of revenue for myself (online or otherwise)
• try to win some sort of award somewhere, somehow
• get WoodMarvels.com pre-cut kits into retail stores (online or otherwise)
• enjoy the gift of life even more!

Things I wasn’t able to predict

• I would write my first science fiction book around the same time as working on my WoodMarvels.com Volume II book, hoping to have it published sometime in February
• I got mentions in newpapers, blog and magazines around the world regarding my design work
• Due to WoodMarvels taking up so much of my time, I haven’t had as much time to dedicate towards this blog or LegendaryLife, though I did launch it already, it’s only a shadow of what it should be, something I hope to rectify sooner than later
• I would accomplish my dream of living in China for a year and learning Mandarin (something I’m doing now)

My 2010 Goals

• I really think this is the year that WoodMarvels.com blows-up on me, in a good way! All the things that I track regarding this site are on a steep upward trend with no letting-up. You can read what’s been happening right here: WoodMarvels 2009 Year in Review as well as the goals I’ve established for that property.
• I want to become fluent in Mandarin, it’s a tough language, but one that I enjoy and being in the country where that’s all they talk is my chance to turn this long time dream into reality
• I still want to win an award of some kind, somewhere, somehow but it seems that my focus for this year will be on WoodMarvels more than anything else, which is great fun

The Bottom Line

Focus still leads to opportunities hitting you from unknown origins.

I am happy to report that I have completed the first draft of 2847AD. I am now entering the world of heavy editing and cleaning-up the story lines and plots while leaving a huge gaping window that could easily lead to a sequel down the line should the book become successful. I started work on this on March 4th of this year, so it has been a rather tasking project through the months, but fun never the less.

LegendaryLife.com has now reach beta stage, testing out the features, doing some preliminary design work and getting everything to full working order. This project has taken far longer than I would have liked but I guess everything happens for a reason, as it now ties in wonderfully with my self-help book that I am reviewing the final draft of, after a heavy dose of editing and refining. I am very proud at how this book came along, it’s looking fantastic and I really think it can make some big changes in a person’s life if they so decide. I started working on this book back on the 8th of Feb, 2009.

I have decided to set myself a time line of September 1st as the publishing date for 2847AD, I now have things steam lined here enough so that enormous delays will be a thing of the past. I figure I should be editing the first paperback copy of my book sometime at the end of the month and a month later, it should be available for purchase.

Regarding my fourth book (third for this year), I have decided to make another WoodMarvels.com blueprint guide but make it geared more towards laser cutters than pure wood crafters. The same principals apply, it’s just exceptionally hard for a person to cut some of my designs using only a jig saw but idea wise, I think it would make a fantastic addition and a major update to my first book on the subject. Here is one of the models that is, for sure, making it into this book.

So, over the next 3 months, I should have 3 new books published and available for purchase, LegendaryLife.com launched and a host of other achievements coming to fruition… cool!

I hope to start writing daily blog articles again sometime in August, just got to get all this editing and publishing business done first. Exciting times, as always!!!

Peter is now coming into his own, gaining confidence and starting to have a positive self-image… all great improvements but these didn’t happen because of his steroid use.

Episode 10 – Super Roid Brothers

• week 10 and Peter is now at 162.2 pounds
• Peter has replaced little pink pills with little yellow ones, Mr. Fantastic needs to knock some sense into him and get him to drop the orals for the injectables
• measurement woman is back, Peter now has 13 inch arms, 15 inch calves, 45 inch shoulders
• Peter is now consuming 3700 calories a day (no wonder he is gaining weight) as it’s double what he ate before!
• week 11: 166.2 pounds with 13.9% bodyfat
• Mr. Fantastic started-off seeming not to know anything about steroids but now, he seems to know more far more then he is letting on

Episode 11 – The Final Countdown

• week 12, Peter does look better than at the beginning
• day 84, Peter seems to have lost some weight or just looks “normal”, light can both giveth and taketh away
• at week 12, his bench press is now 125 pounds (from 65), neck is 15 inches (compared to 13 inches), shoulder 44.5 inches (before 42), 12.75 inch arms, 36 inch chest (from 33 week 1)
• Peter is impressed at how powerful of a life changer a small little tic-tac sized pill has had on his life (he still doesn’t realize he is responsible for the change, not the pill)
• day 84, three months later, he is now 169.2 pounds, up 31.2 pounds at 14% body fat (more than double what he had before)!
• Peter is still running around town without a t-shirt!
• Peter goes on PCT at the end of his cycle, after 3 weeks he now has gynecomastia (bitch tits) and is now at 165 pounds
• doctor says he is perfectly healthy now
• Mr. Fantastic says “steroids don’t kill people, stupid people on steroids kill themselves”.  I agree 100%!
• the first time I see him in a t-shirt at the gym lasts only a few seconds before he takes his shirt off again!
• Peter is now talking about another cycle already

Real information about steroids, fitness and diet

• Muscle memory is great… too bad it doesn’t last
• Why I decided not to take Anabolic Steroids
• Gaining Weight 101: Tips from a fellow Hard gainer
• LL Question: Even with bad genetics, can I become the world’s strongest man?
• Better Living Through Chemistry
• Taking Time Off and Muscle Memory

Buzvia: Steroids Saved My Life (Television Series)

I am crossing my fingers that Peter begins to acquire some common sense from people outside of his “Three Stooges” team. Once again, I am not a doctor and have no formal education other than my university biology degree and decades of studying health, fitness and nutrition.

Episode 7 – Peter Balboa

• day 47, dosage of steroids has been increased (from what to what I would like to know, even a % would be nice)
• Mr. Fantastic’s advice of not stacking on your first cycle is dead-on! He does know a thing or two about steroids… finally a real FACT in this entire series! The reason stacks (taking more than one steroid) during a cycle is a waste of time and money is because your receptors are clean so you are fine gaining on just testosterone, only people who have a few cycles under their belt stack
• more steroids = more food = more workouts = more stupidity = more chances of ending-up in the hospital with something being seriously torn = going back to the weight he started off with
• yet again, Peter is showing off his little bag of pills… let the liver and endocrine damage continue!
• Mr. Fantastic says people stacking on their first cycle are “fucking morons”, good advice! Now we know that Peter is NOT taking advice from Mr. Fantastic and in this instance, he really should have. Not only did Peter not know this vital piece of information but now he is switching around his cycle mid-stream… this train wrek is only getting worse!
• day 50, Peter says he is starting to have anger issues (???), this is nonesense
• his friend Davin slapped him in the face to which Peter said he was going to kill him, this isn’t ‘roid rage
• Peter is feeling bigger and stronger and is flowing with energy now, I am sure he could have achieved this without steroids at all, what happened is his body went from a state of stagnation into one of rejuvenation, this has more to do with exercise and eating well than steroids.
• Mr. Fantastic is really starting to sound like he knows his stuff! He states Sylvester Stalone was (is) on juice (HGH is what he has admitted so far) probably once he hit Rocky 2.
• Drinking raw eggs is a wonderful way to get sick, I did this a lot too but have since stopped, I cook my eggs now (maybe the stomach flew he had a few weeks ago was from the raw eggs)
• Peter needs to spend less money on supplements and more on buying a shirt
• Davin says steroids may cause pimples, which is true but from the people I have talked to, they seem to get it more on their back than on their face when on a cycle
• the more I hear Davin talk, the more I agree with Peter!
• Mr. Fantastic says there isn’t anything really wrong with taking orals other than it having to pass through your liver while injectables go directly into the bloodsteam… not entirely true, your liver processes the drug afterwards so orals get processed twice while injectables once
• video of Mr. Fantastic taking a shot of juice (DECA 300) in the shoulder, he used alcohol which is very smart on the injection site
• week 7, about two months, he is up 20 pounds now
• Peter and Mr. Fantastic are positive Micheal Phelps is on the juice, I can’t agree on this, IOC standards are incredibly strict with a huge anti-doping and random testing mechanism since the whole Ben Johnson affair
• a woman states that people take protein, vitamins and other supplements so steroids can’t be anymore dangerous. This is WRONG because steroids is a hormone, protein is not nor do other supplements, just look at female bodybuilders to see the effect of hormone injections
• Mr. Fantastic thinks that Peter will lose only 10% of his gains at the end of the cycle, I got to agree only if he keeps eating like he is and slacks off on the exercise routine along with proper post cycle clomid therapy only due to the fact that his gains were due to a former life of malnutrition and lack of physical activity, his age also helps big time too
• Mr. Fantastic is giving some very good advice now, if Peter continues to improve his training, diet and motivation he will keep most of what he got
• “Yah for steroids… they’re so great!”, I wonder if Peter will think the same when he gets off
• more pictures of him without a shirt… arg!

Episode 8 – Mission Roid

• Peter Brown is Canadian, filming out of Vancouver
• day 54, more “Peter talk” about why he is so cool and smart to do what he is doing
• Peter says one of the major side-effects of steroids is that you get a tan (???), and I thought it was due to him running around in the sun without sunscreen or t-shirt
• Peter going to a tanning salon, yet another extremely stupid move, he must figure that screwing-up your endocrine system isn’t enough, time for some skin cancer too by using a tanning bed and running around town without a t-shirt!
• Tanning girl says people should be tanning 3-4x a week, this is the stupidest and most dangerous thing I have heard in this show so far!
• interview with Peter’s dealer, if I remember correctly, a few episodes ago, he was talking about how smart he was by getting steroids from a doctor because then you know where the stuff is coming from, yet he doesn’t follow his own advice and goes with a steroid dealer (???). My only guess is that his doctor refused to give him steroids because that would only have made his problems worse, not better.
• day 58, he is at 158 pounds and is hoping to gain another 10 pounds by the time the cycle is over… far below his original goal of gaining a total of 42 pounds.
• Peter says he took steroids to “overcome lifelong challenges” that have affected him, I thought he took them to gain 42 pounds and become a ladies man?
• Peter can’t figure-out why people are yelling at him while he does bicep curls… maybe it’s his lack of proper form along with far too little weight?
• a shot of him lifting weight at the gym around the end with a barbell shows his form has not improved even with the use of a personal trainer, those weekend online personal training certificates are really paying-off!

Episode 9 – Roid Karate

• arg… more topless shirt video of him, now in a Karate outfit (with a white belt no less… impressive!) I have a black belt in Karate and took it for 10 years when I was younger
• day 61, his friends notice he went from extremely introverted to extremely extroverted, not sure if this is an improvement
• Davin admits he can’t stand Peter anymore and I can’t stand neither of them
• day 59, Peter says now that he has taken steroids and is a big man, he wants to be respected… he should have read this blog, respect is something you EARN, which, so far, I don’t see much of, hence none was given
• Big Bear is looking worse as Peter is getting better… what’s up with that?
• day 61, he hit the 160 pound plateau so he has lost some motivation at the gym, diet etc… now he has a girlfriend too!
• Peter has replaced his red shorts for a topless Karate uniform! Arg!!!
• week 1: 95 pound squats, week 9: 195 pounds, his thighs are now 24 inches
• Big Bear says all the changes that Peter has gone through have more to do with his new lifestyle than steroids, I completely agree!
• Peter now observes that he no longer has any problems, it’s everybody else who has problems now
• his goal now is getting a girl, gaining 20 pounds and becoming an internet icon

Some thoughts so far

Just about everything Peter has done to change his life could have been done without the use of any steroids what-so-ever. During his transformation, he has acquired some very bad habits including not being able to wear a shirt and putting all his self-esteem into his little pink pills. I really hopes he comes to realize that he only used steroids as an excuse to do what he should have done long ago. He didn’t need them at 138 pounds and he surely doesn’t need them at 160 pounds either.

Real information about steroids, fitness and diet

• Muscle memory is great… too bad it doesn’t last
• Why I decided not to take Anabolic Steroids
• Gaining Weight 101: Tips from a fellow Hard gainer
• LL Question: Even with bad genetics, can I become the world’s strongest man?
• Better Living Through Chemistry
• Taking Time Off and Muscle Memory

Buzvia: Steroids Saved My Life (Television Series)