Training.

Legs & Back
Rutten MMA wkout - boxing - 2x2m/2x3m rounds

3/24 - Yoga

Awesome - Never in a Million Years Did I Think… | Mark's Daily Apple

"You're a fucking bag of skin and blood on a rock that's flying through the universe surrounding a giant nuclear explosion."

Great Joe Rogan podcast with guest Jim Norton here - http://blog.joerogan.net/archives/2896

Training.

Shoulders, Arms, Abs

3/22
Plyometrics

Inspirational - Bodybuilding.com - David Cullen Shed Nearly 40 Pounds To Prepare For Competing

Nippon Natsukashii - 10 days in Japan.

Having realized that there are only a few folks who might be reading this who don't have access to either 1) all my pics on Picasa Web Albums, or 2) is a Facebook friend - combined with the prospect of blogging the hundreds of pics I took while in Japan for 10 days while still fighting both a cold/sinus thing and my own tendency to procrastinate...  I've decided to post up a link to the Facebook photo album I made of my trip.  It's abbreviated, but hits the high points and gives you more than enough of the flavor of what I've actually been doing the past couple weeks.

So here's the link, which should be accessible to anybody, even if you don't have a Facebook account - Nippon Natsukashii - 10 days in Japan - Facebook Photo Album

Plus a couple other of my fave pics from the trip, not in the FB album [or collaged really small] or just because they're awesome...

Tonkatsu ramen = maybe my favorite Japanese dish.

Kids dig me, cause we share the same emotional maturity level.

Chocolate beer and Asahi Super Dry.  C'mon, you know that's cool.

Jr High Graduates.  Made of Awesome.  Filled with win.

Graduation Uber Bento.

Miyajidake Shrine.

Bachan rocking her Liberian country cloth.

Good people I'm lucky to know.

New family TV.  Watching kickboxing from Holland, with Japanese commentary, natch.

Genki Bachan still taking stairs like a champ.

When you start showing signs of sickness, it's easier to just go along with the strange Japanese customs rather than trying to fight it.

Obligatory winter uniform for women in Fukuoka - jacket, unreasonably short skirt, boots.  Other acceptable and frequently observed substitutions include - short shorts, short skirt with tights and jeans so tight as to not be believed.  It's only a small exaggeration to say you can see more skin on the streets of Fukuoka during the winter than on the beach in the summer.  Because they avoid the sun, and a tan, like it's the plague.  Crazysexycool.

Japan is just too delicious sometimes.

How could I not love this job?  Seriously?

I mean, seriously!?!?

"You like me.  You really like me!"

Kaitenzushi aftermath.  

THIS - "Procrastination is often used as an excuse not to get started."

TESTOSTERONE NATION | Get the Ball - Page 1: "Procrastination is often used as an excuse not to get started. 'Oh, I'll start dieting for summer soon. But first I really need to research some more and order this book and buy a food scale...'

Bullshit. That guy or gal is just putting things off and rationalizing it with the 'research and planning' excuse. It makes them feel better about their current eating atrocities. It's a comforting self-lie they choose to believe.

...getting started on the plan is the most important task. It may not be a 'perfect' plan executed at the 'perfect' time (and there's never a perfect time) but it can be course-corrected on the fly.

Momentum is created. Things get accomplished. Goals are reached.

...all while the other guy is 'planning.'

When it comes to training and diet, ditch the overly-complex plan."

"I never understood why someone would admit to a crime he or she didn't commit. Until I secured a false confession in a murder case."

Fascinating write up on the psychology of interrogation and false confession.

Videotaping Interrogations - Get it on tape - Los Angeles Times: "I've been a police officer for 25 years, and I never understood why someone would admit to a crime he or she didn't commit. Until I secured a false confession in a murder case."

"Douglas Warney, a person of limited mental capabilities... served 9 years in NY prisons for a murder he did not commit..."

And then denied compensation.  Unbelievable.

This Week in Innocence - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine:   "Douglas Warney, a person of limited mental capabilities who has been diagnosed with AIDS and AIDS dementia, served nine years in New York State prisons for a murder he did not commit...

If the police are not merely entitled to lie, cheat and steal to get their guy, but encouraged to do so, then there's a perverse logic in the state's argument against Warney's claim. Why blame the cops for manipulating a mentally challenged person into confessing when truth and honesty play no role in their job? They got a man to confess. That's what we pay them to do. That's what the courts tell them to do. Nobody made Warney confess, as the state now argues, provided there's nothing wrong with manipulating the innocent into falsely confessing.

The courts can't have it both ways. It's time to jump off that slippery slope of encouraging law enforcement deceit if they can't embrace the natural outcome."

Wil Wheaton writes a great piece about 25th anniversary of "Stand By Me."

Thoughtful; moving.  More at the link...

Though I hadn't seen him in over twenty years, I knew I'd miss him forever - WWdN: In Exile:   "We made Stand By Me twenty-five years ago. To commemorate the anniversary, a special blu-ray disc has been produced. Among the obligatory special features is a feature-length commentary that Rob Reiner, Corey, and I did together while watching the movie a couple months ago. On that day, I was apprehensive: what would they think of me? Would our memories match up? Would the commentary be entertaining and informative? …who would be the first to talk about River, and how would we all react..."

Evil - Soldiers kill civilians, take trophy photos in Afghanistan.

More at the link, including a sample photo.  Unbelievable.  Soldiers currently on trial.

Photos show US soldiers in Afghanistan posing with dead civilians | World news | The Guardian:

"...a young US soldier, grins at the camera, his hand holding up the head of the dead and bloodied youth he and his colleagues have just killed in an act military prosecutors say was premeditated murder.

Moments before the picture was taken in January last year, the unsuspecting victim had been waved over by a group of US soldiers who had driven to his village in Kandahar province in one of their armoured Stryker tanks.

According to testimony collected by Der Spiegel magazine the boy had, as a matter of routine, lifted up his shirt to reveal that he was not hiding a suicide bomb vest.

That was the moment Morlock, according to a pre-arranged plan, threw a grenade at the boy that exploded while other members of the rogue group who called themselves the 'kill team' opened fire.

They would later tell military investigators that the boy, a farmer's son, had threatened them with the grenade..."

Training.

Still fighting off some kind of head cold sinus thing I seem to have picked up during vacation... but told myself I'd get right back at it after vacation, so there it is.  So I just sucked it up and ground it out, as half-assed as it may have ended up.  Felt less than stellar before, and absolutely nauseous after, but the "during" - thanks be to endorphins - was pretty nice.

Rutten MMA wkout - 10x2m rounds - boxing
P90X Chest & Back; Abs

During vacation, at least for the first 4-5 days or so I managed to do at least a little something everyday, but by week two all that was all over.  So in the interest of completeness, here 'tis -
3/6 - Rutten MMA wkout - boxing - 10x2m rounds, dislocates/hip thrusts/chest pulls/hyperex/chins
3/7 - Dislocates/chest pulls/pull aparts/pushups/wall squat
3/9 - Rutten MMA wkout - boxing - 10x2m rounds, dislocates/chest pulls/calf raises
3/10 - Rutten MMA wkout - thai boxing - 10x2m rounds, pushups, dislocates, chest pulls
3/11 - Rutten MMA wkout - boxing - 3x3m rounds, pushups/hindu squats

Inspiring over 40 Transformation - Bodybuilding.com - Juanita Lost 38 Pounds And Went On To Compete

That's right, an official card carrying geek.

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a United States non-profit organization created in 1986 to protect the First Amendment rights of comics creators, publishers, and retailers covering legal expenses."

Official Website here - http://www.cbldf.org/

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking" - Airplane.

Hand-me-down omiyage is still awesome.

Finally, a worthwhile use for religion - Belgian Trappist beer from Brussels Duty-Free.  Damned tasty. 

Airplane! (1980) - Memorable quotes:

"Steve McCroskey: Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking."

"You don't need Prozac, you need a new fucking life." - Joe Rogan

Preach.

"You need to figure out what the fuck you really wanna do and realize that you're only here for "X" amount of years.  So the more time you spend not moving in the direction of your actual interests, the more you're gonna fucking hate yourself.  You're gonna be depressed.  It's just natural.  But they don't say that.  They just give you some fucking pills." - Joe Rogan

They just really want you to believe it's not butter.

Another day, another meme.

Bonus