I mentioned before that I’ve unveiled new found knowledge and drive for my success, I’ve begun to take my workout and nutrition a lot more seriously and I’ve added structure to my workout in terms of targeting certain muscle on certain days of the week for my workouts as mentioned in my previous blog. Going to the gym I was able to curl about 14kgs for each arm and bench about 20kgs and ..those were the weights I stuck to with most of the workouts I done. Since implementing some creatine into the equation and maintaining a balanced diet, I’ve found that I can lift more at the gym and be more energetic outside the gym. I feel less lethargic, I’m more lively/ energetic (for those that already know me, you probably won’t notice the difference lol!) but most of all I feel better..healthier you might say!

Here is my workout from last Thursday (19/01/2012)

• Deep squats – 3 sets 20kgs – 8 reps – on last set I pushed 30kgs;
• Calf raises – 3 sets 30kgs – 8 reps;
• Hamstring curls – 3 sets 20kgs – 8 reps – last set I curled 25kgs;
• Lunges (with the barbell on shoulders) – 3 sets – 20kgs – 8 reps;
• Leg extensions 3 sets 25kgs – 8 reps.

Most of these workouts are completely new to me and so I’m slowly working to increase the weights (if need be).

I’m playing catch-up really with my fitness updates, now that I know how to keep track at the end of every week I’ll aim to post something about my progress and workouts!

All the best!

Ren

Once I arrived home I could now feel the effects of the muscle aches/ strain that I began to experience in the gym, although I could tell where the pain was coming from namely around my shoulder/deltoid.

For the past two days I’ve decided to do the right thing (don’t I always?! lol) and skip gym for the rest of the week, it’s always best to listen to our bodies and what it’s trying to communicate to us. Especially if I want to stand a reasonable chance of winning or at least making a good standing in the USN Body and Lifestyle Challenge, a little rest should allow my body to recuperate and get back into the gym fresh!

Well at least I know that my nutrition isn’t being affected!

Breakfast: Wheatabix

Lunch: Couscous and tuna

Dinner: Beef/ Chicken and rice

Snacks between these meals would usually be peanut butter & jelly sandwich or boiled eggs.

That’s how my nutrition is shaping up so far but it’s always changing!

Next time, I’ll have a different menu to show you all!

Keep fit, keep healthy and stay happy!

Ren

One of my New Year Resolutions was to improve my health and physique. I can’t remember how I came across it the USN Challenge but since the beginning of 2012 I’ve been going to the gym after work everyday to make sure I achieve the goals I want.

With thanks to the P90x Programme I was able to adopt the knowledge about muscle confusion and implement it’s workout timetable into my own schedule. Three weeks into the programme and things are going well! I’m eating well, cutting out bad food and soft drinks and going to the gym every evening after work Monday-Friday. I was watching a youtube video (sorry, I can’t find the link) on Chest workouts and learnt about pyramid workouts and using it to break out of a plateau or just using it in general to confuse your muscles.

Here is my weekly routine:

Monday: Kickboxing

Tuesday: Back & biceps/ Abs

Wednesday: Chest, Shoulder and Triceps

Thursday: Legs/ Abs

Friday: Catch up on any workouts that I may have missed out Wednesday if I wasn’t able to target all muscle. OR Swimming

Saturday/ Sunday: Rest

Supplements that I’m currently using are:

• Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Powder.
• USN Hyperbolic Mass
• USN Protein Desert
• USN Cytopower

Stay tuned for the next update!

Ren

What happened Ren?

Well, my domain and database went down and I was so busy with my internship that I didn’t have the time to sort out what was going on, eventually my host provider cleared my domain and databases that I had thus leaving me with no site and no blog! Thank goodness, before my last post back in Feb I decided to backup my database! Now that I’ve had some time to actually look into it, I’ve finally restored my blog! Hence the reason why you can see such a big time leap!

What’s New?

• Firstly, I’ve now graduated from Kingston University where I received a 2:1 in Media Technology BSc.
• I completed a 6 month internship as a Junior Graphic and Web Designer.
• With my experience in the role above I was able to secure a role as Junior Graphic and Web Designer at Skrill Moneybookers.
• I’ve played in two Dodgeball tournaments and won UK Dodgeball Championship 2010 and UK Dodgeball Playoff Champs 2010! I was very fortunate to make very awesome friends!

What can we expect?

Anything to everything! I lay it all out here! From design inspiration to my thoughts/ personal work . I’ve also created a new page about health and fitness. I’ve entered the USN Body and Lifestyle, part of my New Years resolution was to become for healthy, fit and sculpt a six-pack! Stay tuned for entries in that section, where I’ll be talking about my workouts, supplements, nutrition and motivation!

With all that said, it’s great to be back and I hope to have a better presence this time around!

*note to self – install smileys plugin*

First off just a small update or should I say realisation ?:-) I’ve had the idea to re-design my website for a long time now (which has been 2 weeks) and so far I’ve just narrowed down the pages I want to display and a creating a brief wireframe of how I want the site to look. Before I continued any further I thought to pause and invest in a little reflection. I came to the conclusion that this would be perfect opportunity for me to develop my skills and learning more about web design and development, and so I bought The Principles of Web Design by Jason Beaird

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

So far, the book is being very helpful..it’s pretty novice in the beginning but now it’s beginning to talk about wireframing. I think I’m going to finish reading the book before I continue with any practical re-design of my website. I’m pretty excited to complete reading the book so that I can then put the knowledge into practice. (NOTE TO SELF: Write review on book!)

Digressing, I’ve always been fascinated by typography and the messages they portray. Take these images for example:

I am just amazed how creative this is, I’ve taken the liberty to Google this and provide some tutorials and further examples:

• 45 Amazing Type Faces – Typographic Portraits: http://abduzeedo.com/45-amazing-type-faces-typographic-portraits
• 50+ Exceptional Collection of Typography Tutorials: http://www.smashingbuzz.com/2009/10/50-exceptional-collections-of-typography-tutorials/
• 33 Best Typography Effect Photoshop Tutorials: http://graphicalerts.com/33-best-typography-effect-photoshop-tutorials-3d-text/
• 29 Excellent Typography Tutorials for Designers : http://thedesignmag.com/29-excellent-typography-tutorials-for-designers.html

Yes, I know some of them are repeated on other pages but nonetheless they all have different examples that you might find useful. I really want to give this a go, so when I do, I’ll be sure to post up my result(s).

Hope you enjoyed this post.

Ren

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uw_Tqv5UZQ

It definitely has been awhile since I last made an entry. With this year being the year of the Rabbit/ Hare in the Chinese calendar, I’m an exhausting all efforts towards finding my starting foothold in a career. I started last year, but let’s just say that since the beginning of this year, I’ve become much more focused and envisioned on what I want to accomplish.

Moving on, I really do believe that I need redesign my website (www.jusren.com). So I’ll be sketching new wireframes and thinking of what kind of colors and themes I want to go through. Speaking if redesign..I’ve also been thinking about renaming my domain from ‘jusren.com’ to ‘renquirona.com’. Reason for this is just for the thought of my work and name just being easier to remember. Although, I’ve seen quite a few designers do this (which is not a problem) I was just thinking also that maybe this is too much of a trending effect? Knowing me, I’d like to stick to my guns..having said this all..I’m still stick with the initial question of deciding whether I want to change my domain or not?.. I suppose there’s no rush.

Time for me to start allocating time for some redesign work

It really has been a long time since my last entry which was last November (almost three months!) Where does the time go? Just thought I’d let you all know how I’m getting along, especially with my career job hunt! I tell you now, it’s so difficult trying to land that perfect first job! Some people are fortunate enough to get it as soon as they leave uni. If only I was that lucky! But you know the saying, “what doesn’t kill you, can only make you stronger”. I’ve applied for so many jobs and I understand the difficulty graduates now face! I’m applying for junior web design/developer roles, and just started applying for intern positions as well. Reason for applying for junior roles, is so that I can get some experience under the belt whilst also building up a portfolio. Have I mentioned to you yet that my portfolio so far only consists of my final year projects I made in my final year at university.

This is the year of the hare on the Chinese Calendar, which just so happens to be my Chinese zodiac. Let’s hope that I can kick this year off to a fortunate start!

Wish me luck!

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/junior%20web%20designer.do

If you didn’t know already, I am an aspiring web designer..currently seeking the role as a junior web designer. I came across an advert for a job and it requested my CV, Portfolio and salary expectations. Seeing as this is the first time I’ve come across such a request I thought I’d do some digging into salaries for junior web designers. Which you will find answered in the link provided above, along with more “goodies” such as the popularity of skills requested such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript. Knowledge of applications Dreamweaver, Drupal, WordPress and so much more!

Please visit the link to find out more: http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/junior%20web%20designer.do

Today I went to the Graduate Recruitment Exhibition,  it’s a chance for graduates from all fields to meet employers from various companies offering graduate schemes that will provide you with experience, personal development and skills to apply to your job and use for future employment. If I’m not making enough sense, then perhaps this link will help: http://www.gradjobs.co.uk/about_exhibition.php?exhi_id=125.

My overall experience was very pleasant, I done research on the companies I was interested in and the programmes they offered. This prepping gave me a good sense of direction for how I wanted todays visit to go, instead of wondering aimlessly stall to stall like a strange person! I got to ask questions about the programmes and get a good feel for what it would be like to be an employee for that company, and let me tell you..it was a good feeling.

For more tips on prepping for the Graduate Fair, please visit their link on how to prepare for the fair: http://www.gradjobs.co.uk/top_tips.php?exhi_id=125

Today has made me even more determined to be the best I can be, and in the meantime, whilst my applications are pending. I’m going to apply for more jobs.

No harm in testing the waters now is there??? :-D

On a different note, besides job searching I have also been looking to at developing my current web programming i.e. JavaScript. I touched it lightly last year at uni but a semester of JavaScript isn’t going to be much useful and definately requires some self-time-investment. I don’t know which book to buy to work with. I was thinking about this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0596527748/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE. What do you think?

Also, I’ve been looking at utilizing the use of Open Source CMS softwares which are Drupal and Joomla.

What is Joomla: http://www.joomla.org/about-joomla.html

What is Drupal: http://drupal.org/about

I want to investigate their impact on a typical web project and find out how it differs in terms of customization and site maintenance in comparison to hand-coding a whole site from the ground up. From my previous experience drawn from my gap year work placement, CMS’s definately make site content easy to maintain and update. As for customizations, it eventually became easy once I knew what I was doing!

On looking for website inspiration I just came across the Chanel website and take a look: http://www.chanel.com/en_US/fragrance-beauty/Fragrance-Bleu-de-CHANEL-89742.

Ok the fragrance is beautiful (I have it) but the site is so clean and crisp. It gives off a very elegant and sharp look and feel! Something I’d definately want to achieve for my next site update, which is soon to come.

Thats all for now readers.

Thank you,

Ren