"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain." - Maya Angelou

Early birthday present given-ing! [Yes, that's totally a word. Shut up.]

As I won't return from abroad till the day after her b-day, early present given-ing was a must.

The Magic Sing Karaoke system will give hours of pleasure, indeed.  There was/will be also a couple Japan themed movies, one of which hasn't arrived yet, but I totally nailed the Japanophile theme for those of Japanese descent.  Because I am awesome.

The week in food.

 Nutrition & culinary log.

 Little cooking for the Mrs this week, as she was otherwise engaged with work and social affairs.  The bit above was simply the reheating of some pre-cooked Indian Fare she'd picked up in the States.  Other than that, a plate of toasted quesadillas was as creative as I got.

 As for me I kept on track with only one free/cheat/hi-carb/craving killing/post-workout meal of the week, the decadent batch of fried chicken, beer, brownie and ice cream below.

 The only thing I made out of the ordinary was a Bacon Cheese Roll - happened upon in my internet travels and morally compelled to try out.

 Delicious.  

If I only eat/order two things traveling back to the US this summer, I'm going to get a Bacon Explosion and a bottle of Adult Chocolate Milk.  One must have goals, you see.

Training.

GTG pullups, dips, grip work

Rutten MMA wkout - boxing - 10x2m rounds

Dislocates, chest pulls, hip thrusts, hyperx, neck nods/rotations

3/4

Simplefit L2W3 - 13 pullups/26 pushups/26 prisoner squats - for time - 3:33 [level up]

Neck nods & rotations, hyperx, dips

Single arm DB swings x 100

Two hand DB swings supersetted w/goblet squats

GTG pullups, dips, grip work

3/3

Rutten MMA wkout - boxing - 7x3m rounds

Hip thrusts, dislocates, facepulls, chestpulls, hyperx

Max set pushups/pullups

GTG pullups, dips, grip work

3/2

Simplefit L2W2 - for time - 5 rounds - 3 pullups/8 pushups/13 prisoner squats - 229s [level up]

3/1

Rutten MMA wkout - 10x2m rounds - boxing

20m spinal stretch

GTG

Inspiring progress in only five weeks - What 5 Weeks of Living Primal Looks Like | Mark's Daily Apple

Surely, this has happened many times, I think.

I'd play golf if it was like this.

Win - "Super" Trailer.

"Hello?" - this *is* who you're looking for.

Straight Genius.

Via Lost Sign of the Day - The Daily What

Japan Wins! - 9% Alcohol Chūhai.

For those unfamiliar with chuhai, think a wine cooler, with double the alcohol, and less manly.  [Grape is awesome.]  Sadly, I don't like either Lemon or Grapefruit flavored drinks, so I'll be sticking to the Asahi Super Dry, apparently.

Pic via 商品情報 | アサヒ スパークス | アサヒビール

We're all getting soft-headed and weak - "A Nation of Wimps | Psychology Today."

Full article's lengthy, but well worth a read, whether you've got kids or not.  Odd that in the two countries I've lived most in - the US and Japan - there are virtually identical issues with Helicopter Parents in the States and Monster Parents in Japan.  There seems to be something very crazy going on...  and it seems pretty damaging.

A Nation of Wimps | Psychology Today:

"Maybe it's the cyclist in the park, trim under his sleek metallic blue helmet, cruising along the dirt path... at three miles an hour. On his tricycle.

Or perhaps it's today's playground, all-rubber-cushioned surface where kids used to skin their knees. And... wait a minute... those aren't little kids playing. Their mommies—and especially their daddies—are in there with them, coplaying or play-by-play coaching. Few take it half-easy on the perimeter benches, as parents used to do, letting the kids figure things out for themselves.

Then there are the sanitizing gels, with which over a third of parents now send their kids to school, according to a recent survey. Presumably, parents now worry that school bathrooms are not good enough for their children.

Consider the teacher new to an upscale suburban town. Shuffling through the sheaf of reports certifying the educational "accommodations" he was required to make for many of his history students, he was struck by the exhaustive, well-written—and obviously costly—one on behalf of a girl who was already proving among the most competent of his ninth-graders. "She's somewhat neurotic," he confides, "but she is bright, organized and conscientious—the type who'd get to school to turn in a paper on time, even if she were dying of stomach flu." He finally found the disability he was to make allowances for: difficulty with Gestalt thinking. The 13-year-old "couldn't see the big picture." That cleverly devised defect (what 13-year-old can construct the big picture?) would allow her to take all her tests untimed, especially the big one at the end of the rainbow, the college-worthy SAT...

No one doubts that there are significant economic forces pushing parents to invest so heavily in their children's outcome from an early age. But taking all the discomfort, disappointment and even the play out of development, especially while increasing pressure for success, turns out to be misguided by just about 180 degrees. With few challenges all their own, kids are unable to forge their creative adaptations to the normal vicissitudes of life. That not only makes them risk-averse, it makes them psychologically fragile, riddled with anxiety. In the process they're robbed of identity, meaning and a sense of accomplishment, to say nothing of a shot at real happiness. Forget, too, about perseverance, not simply a moral virtue but a necessary life skill. These turn out to be the spreading psychic fault lines of 21st-century youth. Whether we want to or not, we're on our way to creating a nation of wimps..."

"Men: What the Fuck Happened?"

Indeed.

So much this - "Sheen is rebelling against the super-conformist modern narrative of weak individuals who need to be saved by psycho-priests."

Charlie Sheen: Bi-Polar D-Bag or Szaszian Hero? - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine:

"He’s my hero because he refuses to allow his behaviour to be psychologised. He refuses to genuflect before the Oprahite altar of psychobabble and blame his antics on his “inner demons”. Instead he’s fighting like a terrier against experts’ attempts to brand him as “disordered” and in the process has made himself into a one-man army of resistance to the tyranny of therapy that has the twenty-first-century in its grip.

...Sheen is rebelling against the super-conformist modern narrative of weak individuals who need to be saved by psycho-priests. They won’t forgive him for this.

I very much fall into the Szaszian camp (named after Thomas Szasz, Reason contributor and great critic of psychiatry) that psychological terms are often used to stigmatize annoying and non-conforming people rather than convey scientifically valid insights."

Sure, it was funny before.  Hypocrites.

Of course - "Synthetic marijuana widely used at Naval Academy, some midshipmen say."

In other news, many con lockers will have illegal, half-full bottles of Kahlua hidden at the bottom under a pile of clothes. Wait. That might have been just me.

Synthetic marijuana widely used at Naval Academy, some midshipmen say:

"A synthetic form of marijuana is widely used at the U.S. Naval Academy because it cannot be detected in routine drug tests, according to several former midshipmen who have been removed from campus for using or possessing the substance.

Since its introduction at the academy last year, synthetic marijuana has become popular among rank-and-file midshipmen and on the football and wrestling teams, the former midshipmen said. Some isolated corners of the historic Annapolis campus, they said, have become well-known gathering spots for smoking it.

Synthetic marijuana is an herbal potpourri sprayed with chemicals that, when smoked, produces mood-altering effects. It is illegal in at least 12 states, although not in Maryland, and is prohibited in the U.S. military, including at its service academies."

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." - Marcus Aurelius

The Last Word in Charlie Sheen... is a picture.

No idea of the source. Found on the Rogan Board.

Dilbert on Charlie Sheen - "...a total lack of fear would look like insanity to the casual observer."

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, actually. Nails it.

Scott Adams Blog: Charlie Sheen 03/01/2011:

"...the thing that interests me the most is the intersection between honesty and insanity. There is some theoretical amount of honesty that is indistinguishable from mental illness. Charlie is blurring the line, or maybe spending some time on both sides of it. It's clearly intentional. And it might be working, at least in terms of pressuring his show to restart, at which point it would be the most watched show on television.

It might look to you as if he is crazy because he speaks about himself as some sort of walking god with powers beyond what we humans possess. Crazy, right? Maybe. If we allow him some literary license when he says he has tiger blood and Adonis DNA, let's examine the claim.

I witnessed him do hours of dialog during the taping of his show and he never missed a line. His costars didn't do nearly as well. I was very impressed.

Charlie has also survived incredible amounts of drugs and still appears totally healthy. He looks better than any 45-year old I know. He has also spoken of his ability to go all night without getting tired. I'm usually done by about 9 PM. Maybe he does have an unusually strong constitution.

How about talent? He's had dramatic roles in films, and he's the highest paid actor on television. Is it totally crazy for him to think he's built different from the rest of us? Successful people often believe they are special. Charlie's problem is that he's saying it. He's also saying anything else that pops into his head...

Imagine if you stopped filtering everything you said and did. You'd have to be in Charlie Sheen's unique position to get away with it, but just try to imagine yourself living without self-censorship. Wouldn't you sound crazy?

Imagine you are so unafraid of consequences and the opinions of other people that you start sentences before you have a plan for how they will end. Sometimes a sentence turns out well, and sometimes you compare yourself to tigers and mythological gods.

I think Charlie is fascinating because he's living without fear. That translates into a disturbing degree of honesty. And at the moment it gives him an amazing amount of power over the media, which he is using to his advantage...

I also think that a total lack of fear would look like insanity to the casual observer. And perhaps it is. But it's a strangely great kind of crazy."

This - "No thought is ultimate because..."

HARDCORE ZEN: REASONABLE DOUBTS ABOUT EMPTINESS and THE LAW OF IDENTITY:

"Every concept the mind can create includes its opposite. No thought is ultimate because each idea depends on every other idea it might possibly contrast with for its apparent self existence. Our own existence as individuals is dependent upon all of creation. This does not negate our individual existence. It is an attempt to see our individual existence in a different light."

Training.

Simplefit L2W1 - max rounds 20m - 1 pullup/3 pushups/4 prisoner squats - 31 rounds
Neck nods/rotations

2/27&26
Took the wkend off/was lazy/under the weather/I suck/should've at least got one wkout in

2/25
SFL1W3 - for time - 10 pullups/21 pushups/21 prisoner squats - 2:27 [level up]
WC 56 - 46 chins/neutral grip pullups, 35 pushups, 56 lunges
Neck nods/rotations

2/24
Rutten MMA wkout - 10x2m rounds - boxing
Hip thrusts/face pulls/chest pulls/dislocates
Neck nods/rotations, hyperextensions
Dips

The week in food.

Nutrition/culinary log.

First up, prepped for the Mrs, above.  Four day work week and a BBQ @the Ambassador's on Friday, so not a lot of cooking.  Nor particularly creative.  Standard salads and such, though I do like the broccoli and cheese soup.  And the egg&cheese pie thingamabob - if there's no crust, is it still a quiche?  Dunno, but there it is.

For me, on point for the most part, M-F at least.  I keep losing the plot thread on the weekends, this weekend in particular.  A BBQ at the Ambassador's on Friday combined with actual Ben & Jerry's at the grocery store conspired to flummox me.  Evil bastards.  So the weekend was pretty much a disaster as far as staying on point.

Ironically [?] combined with my inability to stick with my plan 7 days a week, a bunch of supplements I ordered came in.  Not starting in on them in full till I get back from Nippon in a couple weeks, as I'm surely not packing all these up in my luggage to take halfway across the world.

Best Twitter Oscar Commentary.

Via Twitter / @James Urbaniak and Twitter/@feitclub

Blasphemy's always more fulfilling on Sundays - more Advice God meme.

Other Advice God meme posts here and here.

July 18th, 2005 - A Sad Day in History.

Penn Jillette is a man of depth and thoughtfulness.

This is older, but here you find a smart, talented and funny dude, visually and viscerally trying to figure out what the right thing is.  Massive respect and kudos.

...and the follow up.

Now *this* show, I'd have watched.

Things used to be better, sometimes - "...for the Relief of Coughs"

At the very least.

That's actually spot on.

"Why is patience a virtue?"

Mos Def FTW.

Preach.

...and I support Charlie Sheen's message.

's funny, I've only seen Two and a Half Men maybe twice, and didn't dig on it. Struck me as a fairly standard, kind of banal sitcom, but you know, that's the common denominator often rewarded - so continued success to anybody who's using it to as a vehicle for anything. The only real thing I ever dug on hard that Sheen was in was Major League, which was constantly running in the wardroom back in the college heyday. Still a great flick. So I've come at the Sheen thing the opposite of most, via the Alex Jones & Joe Rogan connection. A tweet from Rogan pointed the way to Sheen's interview on Jones' show - that everybody's calling a meltdown and the final straw that broke the back of whatever patience the network had. And the pull quotes making the rounds in the media of "Vatican Assassins" and whatnot lead you to think he's gone off the rails.

So I expected massive ridiculosity. But there really wasn't. I mean, the dude's ranty, abrasive and probably more than a little narcissistic [but wouldn't you have to be, to achieve any degree of success in entertainment?] but he's not wrong.

He's fundamentally talking about living his life on his own terms, unapologetically and saying "screw you" to anybody who doesn't like it. Good on him. And the "craziest" bits making the rounds in the media are pulled out of context or are clearly in-jokes between him and Alex.


That's part 1/3, here's the subsequent two portions of the interview.

And here's another thing, on a lot of the stuff pointed to by the tsk-tsk'ing nannies as clear signs of his addictions and denial - again - the thing is - he's not wrong.  At all.  The efficiacy of AA is highly debatable.  The very best #'s by their own organization shows success rates only in the mid 20% ranges - and those are really not all that solid, as far as stats go.  As an organization it is, basically, very religious and cult like.  And its founder was a fan and proponent of LSD as well as ouija boards and smoking while needing an air tank.

And personally, genetic predispositions and/or learned behaviors be damned, the disease model of alcoholism strikes me as a farcical cop-out for chosen behaviors.

And my opinions on that are the results of a tangled web of personal experience.  I've had a family member who's achieved 25+ years of sobriety via - initially - rehab, AA & 12 step style programs.  At the same time, their divergence from the accepted modality of treatment and retreat from the culture, at an early stage of sobriety, hasn't affected their success one bit.  There are far too many who make that particular modality their new god and their new addiction.  And you know what?  If that works for them and gets them to lead a better life according to what they want and they need - good for them.  But don't mistake that for some kind of TRUTH that needs to be applied to others.

And, personally, I don't think Bill W.'s endorsement of LSD is wrong...  because I think LSD, like most other entheogens/hallucinogens, can be extremely valuable learning tools.   But find his inability to reconcile the obviously hypocritical viewpoint on one mind altering/clarifying substance with another as incredibly obtuse and frustrating.  And the current orgs blatant denial and attempted whitewashing of both the religious and drugs history of AA doubly frustrating.  Not to mention modern AA would never even consider the fact that, you know what, maybe LSD would be helpful in kicking other addictions or psychological problems.  [See here for the use of MDMA/ecstasy in treating PTSD and ibogaine in the use of opiate addiction.]

We're such a puritanical, fear based, pleasure averse, judgmental culture, sometimes...

But when you do take it out of context, and add cats, well... that does equal brilliance.  And what the internets does best, clearly -  Cats Quote Charlie Sheen « Medium Large [more at the link.]