Relaxed Focus
Saturday, August 05, 2023
the masculine urge...
Sunday, January 01, 2023
Reading 2022
Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual Mk1-MOD1 by Jocko Willink
Redemption (Ryan Drake Book One) by Will Jordan
Knee Ability Zero by Ben Patrick
Peaceful Heart, Warrior Spirit: The True Story of my Spiritual Quest by Dan Millman
Behind the Mask: My Autobiography by Tyson Fury
Demolition Man by Richard Osborne
The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith
Hell-Bent: Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga by Benjamin Lorr
The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance by Tom Brady
Dark Horse: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz
Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity by Carlo M. Cipolla
The Size of Your Dreams: A Novel that Transforms Lives by Dave Mason and Chana Mason
Baby Steps Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth-- and How You Can Too by Dave Ramsey
Colonel Sanders and the American Dream by Josh Ozersky
Monster Hunter Bloodlines (Monster Hunters International Book 8) Larry Correia
Stress Less, Accomplish More: Meditation for Extraordinary Performance by Emily Fletcher
Better Off Dead: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child
Killing Floor by Lee Child
Monster Hunter Nemesis by Larry Correia
The Lightning Rod: A Zig and Nola Novel by Brad Meltzer
The Cutting Season by M.W. Craven
Doctor Ice Pick by Claire Prentice
Chemical Pink by Katie Arnoldi
Radical Love: Learning to Accept Yourself and Others by Zachary Levi
Zero Negativity: The Power of Positive Thinking by Ant Middleton
You2: A High Velocity Formula for Multiplying Your Personal Effectiveness by Price Pritchett
The Last Moriarty (A Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James Mystery) by Charles Veley
The Complete Keys to Progress by John McCallum
The Toynbee Convector by Ray Bradbury
No Plan B by Lee Child and Andrew Child
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Prodigy Volume 1: The Evil Earth by Mark Millar and Rafael Albuquerque
Nemesis by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven
DC's Greatest Detective Stories Ever Told by Various
Batman vs. Deathstroke by Christopher Priest & Carlo Pagulayan
Black Summer by Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp
Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 1 by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette
One Bad Day by Steve Rolston
The Mystery Play: A Graphic Novel by Grant Morrison & Jon J. Muth
Wild Children by Ales Kot and Riley Rossmo
Secret by Jonathan Hickman, Ryan Bodenheim, et al.
Kill Your Boyfriend by Grant Morrison, Philip Bond
Planet of the Capes by Larry Young and Brandon McKinney
Yoga Joe by Dan Abramson and Chris Mead. Illustrated by PK Olson
The Order Vol. 1: The Next Right Thing by Matt Fraction and Barry Kitson
Nowhere Men Volume 1: Fates Worse Than Death by Eric Stephenson , Nate Bellegarde, et al.
The Tithe Vol. 2 by Matt Hawkins and Rahsan Ekedal
Leaving Megalopolis by Gail Simone, Jim Calafiore
Holmes by Omaha Perez
Captain Carrot and the Final Ark Paperback by Bill Morrison, Roy Thomas, Scott Shaw
Badlands by Steven Grant, Vince Giarrano
Absolute Authority Vol. 1 & 2 by Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch
Doc Savage: The Silver Pyramid by Dennis O'Neil, Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert
Challengers of the Unknown: Stolen Moments, Borrowed Time Paperback by Howard Chaykin
Checkmate (Event Leviathan) by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev
Event Leviathan Paperback by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev
U.S.Agent: The Good Fight by Various
Animal Man 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Book One & Two by Grant Morrison (Author), Chas Truog
Absolute Batman Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli
Friday, February 11, 2022
four months to undo a bad year
Fall '20 to '21 was just a broken train wreck of a dumpster fire of a year.
So I fixed it.
Starting the end of September/beginning of October, finishing up this block of training the second week of February. Closer to 4.5 months, to be accurate, but there were fits and starts. Undid most of the damage and lost 25lbs by the end of November. Another 9 the next month. And 3 more since. Starting to plateau, but that should get a kick in the ass as I finish up the current training template and change things up and tweak things a bit.
Results/Metrics: Weight from 9/27/21 to 2/11/22, 215 to 178. Puts me back at the weight I was in my five years in the military, age 21-25 (holy moly, over 20 years ago,) 175-185lbs. Weight, in general, not a great marker to track, honestly. The scale is a deceitful bitch. Within the course of a day, depending on the amount I ate or drank, sodium intake, etc weight could fluctuate 5lbs. Inside of a week I've seen 8lb swings, in both directions. But tracking the general trend line, taking the measure the same time every day - I do it first thing in AM after waking up - gives a good sense of the direction you're moving. If the previous day was on point or a clusterfuck. Waist measurement 36 to 32. And regular progress pics are really useful. Seeing objectively that you don't look still look like the overstuffed trash bag of garbage you've been picturing yourself as in your head is a good thing. The before/after bit in the above photo is 10/5 to 2/11. Plus the Robb Wolf metric, to paraphrase - "Do the thing, and see how you look, feel and perform."
The easy excuse for everybody the last couple years is COVID. But really, I did well during the first year or so of that whole debacle. Nutrition wasn't on point, but I was training fairly consistently, working on hypertrophy but getting a little fluffy ('dirty bulking' is such an easy, and bullshit, idea/excuse) walking around at about 200lbs or so.
What really got me off the rails was... well, life. Moving overseas again, quarantine, medevac back to the USA for what was ultimately a big nothing (get your salt and electrolytes, kids - idiopathic syncope, indeed) living out of a hotel for about a month, back overseas again, quarantine again, figuring out a new country, waiting for and then unpacking all our household goods, the holidays, then the flood on Easter, cleanup, temp housing for 3 months, moving back into our old place... those are actually much better excuses than the nuttiness that is and was Covid. But that's all they are. Excuses.
The only real truth is I got lazy, undisciplined and made bad choices.
So around September, looking ahead to my birthday the next month, it was time to change direction and stop being an asshole. (When the occasional person asked me what my diet was, I told them it was the "'Stop Eating Like A Childish Asshole' Diet.'" Truth in comedy.)
I'd run some of the Beachbody, bunch of the P90X and Body Beast programs in the past when I needed to kickstart - and those all work great, particularly for home workouts (if access to a gym/barbells, some version of Wendler's 5/3/1 is my go-to move. Sadly, haven't done barbell work in over 2 yrs. I miss real deadlifts.) - but I wasn't feeling it at the time. I needed something with a bit more flexibility and allowed more choice and autonomy. So when roaming the vast expanses of the internet one day I came across the 75 Hard challenge. That clicked. A template, a set of guidelines, but there was a bunch of choice within it. Bingo.
So in that template you do this, every day.
“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” - Socrates
Friday, December 31, 2021
Reading 2021
So on Easter we had a flood in East Timor. Hit our place, took out a bunch of my books, including my collection of the Spenser series by Robert B. Parker. Probably about 2/3 of them. So I decided to buy them back on Kindle and re-read them all. All 39 of them. And they're as good, if not better, than I remember. The first three in the series are good, but maybe not great. Though with the fourth -"Promised Land" - which won the Edgar Award, he really starts firing on all cylinders and is excellent. Probably doesn't hurt that's the one that introduces Hawk. The comparison and contrast between the two is a great appeal to the series. It doesn't hurt that my mind's eye always sees Avery Brooks. (Whereas, oddly, I don't see Robert Urich as Spenser. Though he was good in the series. I always pictured Spenser looking like the author, to be honest.)
That being said, there are also 39 of Parker's novels, 40 if you count the Young Spenser book. Which took about 5 months to get through, putting on hold a bunch else I'd planned on reading this year. Alack and alas and all that kind of thing. But worth it.
There's something in those books. Good pulp-y detective fiction, to be sure, but a lot more. Ruminations on life, philosophy, relationships, friendships, autonomy, purpose, even the care and feeding of pets. Things I didn't recall from the first reads, years ago, things I'm likely more attuned to now as I get older. The follow up novels after Parker's death, over a decade ago at this point, are well crafted by Ace Atkins. But still, there's something in the original works that defy capture. And it always strikes me as, if not appropriate, but nevertheless meaningful that Parker was found dead at his desk, ready to set forth more stories.
So I re-read the Spenser Novels 1-39, his one Young Spenser book plus the Xmas novel finished by his literary agent. And then I re-read the nine works by Atkins. The tenth is due in January, so I'm well prepared.
Which didn't leave me a great deal of time elsewhere, but here's the remainder:
The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale
Zen in the Martial Arts by Joe Hyams
Extreme Fitness: How to Train Like an Action Hero by Dolph Lundgren
75 Hard: A Tactical Guide to Winning the War with Yourself by Andy Frisella
The Furious Method: Transform Your Mind, Body & Goals by Tyson Fury
Sly Moves: My Proven Program to Lose Weight, Build Strength, Gain Will Power and Live Your Dream by Sylvester Stallone
The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) by Hal Elrod
Prodigal Son: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz
The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols: Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer
The Simple Path to Wealth by J L Collins
The Eye of Revelation: The Ancient Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation by Peter Kelder and J. W. Watt
Jesse Stone Novels 1-9 (Night Passage, Trouble in Paradise, Death in Paradise, Stone Cold, Sea Change, High Profile, Stranger in Paradise, Night and Day, Split Image) by Robert B. Parker
Earl Nightingale's Greatest Discovery: Six Words that Changed the Author's Life Can Ensure Success to Anyone Who Uses Them by Earl Nightingale
The Money Answer Book by Dave Ramsey
King Bullet by Richard Kadrey
The Chaos Kind by Barry Eisler
Hail Mary by Andy Weir
A Dud at 70... a Stud at 80! and how to do it by Noel Johnson
Staying Supple: The Bountiful Pleasures of Stretching by John Jerome
Ancient Secrets of the Fountain of Youth by Peter Kelder
The Eye of Revelation 1939 & 1946 Editions Combined: The True Five Tibetan Rites by Peter Kelder and Carolinda Witt
The Five Tibetan Rites: Ancient Anti-Aging Secrets of the Five Tibetan Rites by Carolinda Witt, Peter Kelder
Training With Weights by Robert B. Parker and John R. Marsh
COMICS
The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons
Wolverine: Not Dead Yet by Warren Ellis & Leinil Yu
Shazam and The Seven Magic Lands by Geoff Johns, Dale Eaglesham, Marco Santucci
Absolute Planetary V2 by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday
The Middleman - The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Armando M Zanker, Les McClaine
Department of Truth, Vol 1: The End Of The World Book by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds
Superman: American Alien by Max Landis, Francis Manapul, Jock, Jae Lee, Joelle Jones, Tommy Lee Edwards, Matthew Clark, Nick Dragotta, Jonathan Case
Luthor by Bryan Azzarello and Lee Bermejo
Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo
Batman, Vol. 4: Zero Year - Secret City by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo
Batman Vol. 5: Zero Year - Dark City by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo
Batman: Earth One - Volumes 1, 2 & 3 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank
The Boys: Dear Becky by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun
Superman & Batman Generations Omnibus by John Byrne
The Art of War: A Graphic Novel by Kelly Roman and Michael DeWeese
The Batman's Grave by Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch and Kevin Nowlan
BRZRKR Vol. 1 by Matt Kindt, Keanu Reeves, Ron Garney
Hagakure: The Code of the Samurai (The Manga Edition) by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Sean Michael Wilson and Chie Kutsuwada
Fantastic Four 1234 by Grant Morrison & Jae Lee
Thursday, May 06, 2021
"Age 14 at midnight I hear voices from the kitchen..."
Saturday, April 24, 2021
Friday, January 01, 2021
Monday, December 28, 2020
Reading - MAR > DEC 2020
Saturday, November 07, 2020
245 chin-ups for the 245th USMC Birthday.
Split into two wkouts, because I had to do a grocery run/watch an episode of The Mandalorian. (Priorities.)
Low reps, high sets, supinated/neutral grip because elbow tendonitis is real and not a myth, apparently.
Semper Fi and all that kind of stuff.
Thursday, July 09, 2020
"Have you a plan?"
Wednesday, April 01, 2020
Sunday, March 01, 2020
Reading, Winter 19/20.
God's Debris: A Thought Experiment by Scott Adams
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
The Religion War by Scott Adams
House on Fire: A Novel (A Nick Heller Novel Book 4) by Joseph Finder
The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life by JL Collins
Into the Fire: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz
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The Boys Omnibus Volumes 4-6 by by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson, Russ Braun, John McCrea