The Grax Domain

30 May 2005 Been Keeping Busy

I haven't been adding new entries to this site for a while, but I have an excuse. I've been busy updating and tweaking my various sites and pages, as well as looking for new work. I haven't finished them all yet but I've make a fair old bit of progress.

• Update my CV, both online and offline. You know you want to hire me.
• Convert my 40K Gallery into DIV tags. So it'll be easer to make it look pretty in the future.
• Convert the Art or Grax gallery into DIV tags. So it'll be easer to make it look pretty in the future.
• Convert the Marvel Database into PHP and DIV tags and move it to friends server.
• Transfer my detox entries to their own pages, which can be found in the Stuff section.
• Create artwork for these detox pages.
• Sign my face up on Hot of Not website and put the link in my Bio page so that people can rate how pretty I am. I'm just asking for it, aren't I?
• Create new skins for the following site cos I'm a little bored of the old stuff:
  • Grax Domain
  • Art of Grax
  • 40k Gallery
  • CV
• Draw some more dammit!

Hopefully I'll strike off and add more things to do when they happen.

16 May 2005 A Rather Jolly Weekend

This weekend was a refreshing break from the norm. Partly because I ventured out my home county twice rather than stay at home and waste my weekend away, and partly because I was doing a couple of things which I have never done before. First off, on Saturday I went to the Comic Expo convention in Bristol with some of my comic-loving friends.

I've always wanted to go to a comic convention, like the big ones they do in America, so this was a step in the right direction. After the long drive to Bristol we entered the big room where we were exposed to a market. A market with thousands of comics. Old comics, new comics, great comic, crap comics, porn comics, they had it all! I spent hours in that one room, sifting through the molested items to get the comics I wanted. In fact we spent so much time that we forgot about the presentations/talks that were happening. We missed talks about Tranformers! Besides that I managed to do well, getting a big pile of comics for £25. I was worried I would spend more, especially as there was something for everyone, tempting you with materialistic object, trying to syphon off your cash from your wallets. I'm definitely doing this again next year, if not sooner.

On Sunday I took a trip to see The Avebury Stones with another group of friends. So not quite Stone Henge, but just as good. I feel my friends got a bigger kick out of it than I did, seeing as they practice the Pagan/Wiccan Religion. But it was still good. It was a nice sunny day and you can experience the green and calmness of the countryside. It kinda makes you depressed when you drive back into the city where you live and you notice the cold, grey, concrete surroundings. But I did win a small bundle of wax candles in a raffle, so it was all good.

Right, that's enough of that.

12 May 2005 Be Careful What You Wish For

You remember a few weeks ago I was talking about my job and how I wanted to move on and do something else? Well looks like I got my wish; I've been made redundant at my job and I have four weeks left.

Without going into too much detail my company had its major 'Make or Break' sales event over the weekend, the one that would decide how things would shape up for the future. And even though we did twice as well as we did last year, the best year we've had so far, it was not enough. So the company has had to reduce its cost and unfortunately that includes letting people go. Unfortunately they happen to pick me.

I'm not too upset about the decision. These things happen in the real world and I accept that. Granted it would have been better if this'd happened a couple of months later in the year but hey, shit happens. But I was ready for change anyway. Even during 'The Talk' I had with the boss, I was all calm and not visually upset about the situation.

So now I've got the fun task of dusting off my CV, updating it, and spamming as many companies as I can find screaming "Look at me, I'm brilliant! Give me a job!" I'd much rather take this time to have a break from work and just chill for a few weeks, but that ain't gonna happen.

Four weeks to find a new job? *pff* how hard can it be...?

9 May 2005 Grax's Detox Journey: Day 7 (Detox Challenge Failed)

I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!

After seven long days of purifying my body, my mind couldn't take the pressure. I had missed the tastes of all my favourite food, including bread. The situation was made worse when I was with my roleplay group earlier today and they were stuffing themselves with chocolate and crisps. It was driving me mad.

I had to finish it, I couldn't last another three weeks. So I thought I'd finish it in style. When I got home I ordered a meat feast pizza and slice of chocolate cake from Perfect Pizza. Hungrily I waited for the delivery; I threw the money at the delivery guy and sealed myself in my room with my food. I took the first bite of the first slice and... Oh my god it felt sooo good. It was the best pizza I have had in a long time. It was perfect. And the cake slice was nice too. It felt like I was committing a sin but the sheer rush I felt whilst tasting it all was intoxicating. My tummy was full and sore after the feast. But my taste buds are fulfilled once again.

Now would be a good time to reflect on the week I've had.

I feel like I've gained a slightly better appreciation for all vegetarians, vegans, and all the people who generally avoid certain food groups like meat. I know how hard it must be for them to resist all the food that is surrounding them. But I can imagine them being able to carry on because they have a strong purpose to do so, like not killing animals for example. I had no strong purpose to carry on my detox.

However I think a week doing a detox is better than not doing a detox at all. At least my body is partially cleansed of all the toxins (hopefully). Besides I've read somewhere that a person should aim to do about a weeks worth of detox anyway, and there are some articles that state that detoxs can be bad for your health:

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And to be fair I didn't see too many great benefits from the detox anyway. Only two things came of it; 1) I lost about 5lbs in a week, which is something I wasn't looking to do anyway, and 2) I didn't have bad morning breath. Big deal! It doesn't stop me from being nearly always hungry! However I will try and continue to eat the fruit and vegetables in roughly the same amounts from now on because that can only be a good thing to do.

All in all it was an 'interesting' experience, but I think I'll stick to my balance diet and gym exercise thank you. Here's a last screen grab of the Detox chart before I broke my detox:

7 May 2005 Grax's Detox Journey: Day 6

Right now I'm feeling pretty good and confident that I can complete my detox at the end of the month. But that wasn't the case yesterday.

First off I drove to the Badminton Horse Trials for work and I didn't eat much for the majority of the day. Mainly because all the food caravans were filled with foods of the devil; bacon sandwiches, cheesy baguettes, sweets, the works. And I was suck with my rice cakes and bottled water that I had smuggled along to the trip. But despite feeling a little ill still from the day before I was able to cope fine, especially when I found out that my work colleague spent £5 on a crappy cheese baguette and a 50ml bottle of water. No, the worse was to come later that night.

My friends were all going out to their local pub/nightclub called the Dungeon, so I thought I'd tag along. After all I'll happily drive them home seeing as I'm on water and water's free so it would be a cheap night. Little did I know that the smoky area would aggravate my sickly body. As the enclosed rooms filled up with people and smoke I found it harder to breath. Every time I coughed my lung pipes felt dry and sore. I wanted to stop coughing but the smoke kept irritating my throat. I progressively felt weaker and more like shit, I had to leave early. As soon as I stepped out into fresh air I immediately felt better.

I've been going to the Dungeon for years, with the same smoky atmosphere, and I've never felt that bad before. It's probably because I still had the lingering effects of Man-Flu (aka cold), but perhaps my body is becoming cleansed of the toxins and thusly made myself less resilient to passive smoking. Could it be that detoxing my body with make me less capable with the polluted real world? Is the detox turning me into a pussy?


Which leads me to the following question; when you're on a detox you have to give up various things to purify your body, including smoking. Now I don't smoke, but because I was exposed to passive smoking does that mean I've failed my detox challenge? It'd be a shame if it was the case, after the week I've sent being a good boy.

Has there been any benefit from my detox so far? After all it has been 6 days. Well so far I have lost 3lbs in weight.

5 May 2005 Grax's Detox Journey: Day 4

Man I'm feeling tired. For the whole day I've had barely enough energy to do anything today. I'm not concentrating at 100%. And I have suddenly got a mini cold, or 'Man-Flu', which rarely helps. I can't really think how this could have happened considering the fact that I'm eating raw fruit/vegetables, which last time I checked is full of vitamins and junk that prevents this sort of thing. The lack of energy doesn't help when I'm packing up boxes to be delivered. Or talking to a bunch of incompetent delivery people on the phone. Trying to make me do a run-around on the phones because they can't be bothered to do their jobs. Bastards.

My work collegue says that the reason I'm feeling weak is due to my diet and how little energy there is in it. She said this whilst munching on some Monster Munch and a chocolate cake bar. FOr a split second I wanted to pounce on her and devour the food from her hands. But I resisted.

Only a few more hours to go until the end of the work day.


... It would have felt so good to do it...

3 May 2005 Grax's Detox Journey: Day 2

It is the end of day 2 of my detox and I think I coped with it well enough. But there is one thing that shocked me. There were no headaches, weakness, mood swings, etc, but there was the hunger. Seriously from the moment I woke up to the moment I'm writing this I have been hungry! I've never been hungry for this long before. I knew that it was going to be hard and I'd proably get hungry but I wasn't expecting to be this hungry.

And it's not like I've been starving myself, I have been eating lots of food like salad, nuts, fruits, chinese chicken egg fried rice, etc, but they don't fill you up. They say that you get side effects while being on a detox like headaches, feeling less energetic, etc. Well here's one they don't mention; you get bloody hungry!

Oh and for all those people who have been taunting me with them being able to eat proper food like Mars Bars and Reese's Buttercups, cut it out you bastard! Don't make it harder than it already is. *shakes fist*

2 May 2005 Grax's Detox journey: Day 1

Ok, so far it's day one of my detox and nothing too major to report. I've got my food from my supermarket but I've only got enough for a few days, including a small array of fruits (I know my earlier list says that I shouldn't eat fruits but I've read in another detox book that I can have fruits, so to hell with the old list!), goats yoghurt, some nuts, and some Oat Cluster cereal. Now that list would seem fine, except for the cereal. For some reason when I was buying the cereal I thought that oats didn't contain gluten. But they do.... So.... I now have a box of oats cereal that I can't eat...

But apart from that, and that it cost me about £25 to buy food for about 3 day (no wonder there's so many fat people in the developed world. It's cheaper), I've been ok. Absolutely fine... I am a bit hungry though... I could do with a chocolate bar to finish off that dinner I had...

I'll continue to update the Detox Table to the right, as you would have no doubt noticed, and I'll think about chocolate updating the food list as well for anyone else wanting to go on a detox.