Training.

Weird/bad couple days diet and exercise-wise...  the Mrs is out of town/upcountry, which throws off my sleep, throws off my motivation, throws off my energy, throws off my food prep...  All just excuses, in the end.  But it was what it was.  So Wed-Fri missed wkouts and ate like crap.  Figured I'd make Wed my weekly free/cheat/rest day, but still leaves Thurs/Fri as screw ups/off the wagon.

So today back to it, and to "make up" for the missing wkouts, I did today's workout AND 2 more workouts that I missed earlier in the week.  So about 2.5-3 hours of PT.  Which ultimately, is probably counter-productive, overly catabolic, wrong-headed and unnecessary, but...

4/30 - P90X D20 - Kenpo X, Abs [x2], Shoulders & Arms, Legs & Back
4/29 - P90X D19 - Missed Wkout
4/28 - P90X D18 - Missed Wkout
4/27 - P90X D17 - Rest/Free/Off

Funny, where my early Catholic indoctrination rears its ugly head.  Despite leaving the craziest of the invisible sky-daddy mythology and his god warriors behind me - the urge to "punish" myself and do penance [of 3 hours of PT] for my "transgressions" [of missing workouts] was damn nigh overwhelming.  And if I hadn't done it today, it would have weighed heavily on my mind, I'm sure.

Hmmm...  I wonder what it's like to be psychologically healthy and not have been brainwashed by guilt, shame, fear and punishment from infancy?  Just like the question of how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop - the world may never know.

Awesome/Inspiring: Bodybuilding.com - Back From The Brink: Shaping Up Saved His Life

This.

The closest I've ever come to understanding economics - via hiphop music videos by rapping white guys.

Although, big picture, all economics is black magic fairytales, consensus delusions and circle jerks about what constitutes "value" and "worth" - I lean towards the more unpopular Hayek because Keynesian economics emphasizes a hubristic notion that we're somehow smart enough to know and account for all variables - and then control them to the intended outcomes desired by small groups of central planners.  One'd think that if we learned nothing from the fall of the USSR is that centrally planned economies are doomed.  [And yes, China is unsustainable as well.]

The only bit of wisdom I've managed to latch onto in my limited time on the planet is that no one ever knows as much as they think they do, and you can't control nearly as much as you think you can.

Regardless, these are really funny, well produced and entertaining...

The newly released "Round Two" sequel.

The original, from last year.

A very specific card. [I don't know that that's gonna be enough.]

Goodfellas dog is Goodfellas.

"Biology is the quantum mechanical magnification of uncertainty into macrophysical space..." - Terence Mckenna

"...so that essentially we're chemical systems that, by some means yet to be understood, amplify quantum mechanical uncertainty to dimensions such as we see, and that permits these emergent properties and systems and morphologies to show themselves. And that's the trick... Time will perfect matter."

The problem with listening to McKenna is that I invariably come out the other end convinced I'll never be bright enough to know exactly what the hell he's talking about. Want-To-Be-Smarter.

Excerpted from McKenna's last interview, at the Psychedelic Salon, here - Podcast 262 – “Terence McKenna’s Last Interview” Part 1

And part two here.

"You think you can just come into someones's neighborhood and they don't shoot at you?"

"What are we doing over there?...  You can't just take over...  Who's the fucking bad guy?  It gets a little fucking blurry.  I don't know...  The whole thing's a clusterfuck..." - Joe Rogan on Iraq & Afghanistan

"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot

Japan = Deadly, Artistic Violence + Super-Kawaii!

Yep, that about sums it up.

Via.

Training.

P90X D16 - Plyometrics
4/25 - P90X D15 Yoga [Tony Horton One-on-One 'Patience Hummingbird'], Abs
Shadowboxing - Bas Rutten MMA wkout/Boxing 5x3m rounds
4/24 - P90X D14 - Chest & Back

Afghanistan, from theocracy to inept kleptocracy.

Only taken 10 years to go from theocracy to inept kleptocracy. That's okay, I'm sure there's all sorts we'll accomplish in years 11+ that we didn't consider doing years 1-10. It'll make all the difference, and make all the lives lost and money spent totally worth it... What? Osama who?

Taliban break more than 450 out of Afghan prison - FoxNews.com:

"Taliban militants dug a lengthy tunnel underground and into the main jail in Kandahar city and whisked out more than 450 prisoners, most of whom were Taliban fighters, officials and insurgents said Monday.

The massive overnight jailbreak in Afghanistan's second-largest city underscores the Afghan government's continuing weakness..."

‘Three Cups of Tea’ and the inanity of the modern political & military thought process.

Typical "wishy thinking" + can-do/hoorah denial of reality + The Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics [i.e. if we want it bad enough and apply enough "will" we can do anything.]

How the U.S. military fell in love with ‘Three Cups of Tea’ - The Washington Post:

"Much of the military’s belief in tea culture can be traced back to Greg Mortenson and his memoir, “Three Cups of Tea,” a book touted by top commanders and devoured by younger officers.

But Mortenson has recently had to fend off allegations that big chunks of his memoir, which chronicles his work to build schools in some of the most remote and violent areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, are lies. Both “60 Minutes” and writer Jon Krakauer have alleged that Mortenson has misused money donated to the charity he formed...

In the near term, Mortenson’s stumble will almost certainly lead to greater soul-searching among officers who have been questioning not only Mortenson but also the broader hearts-and-minds approach of this war. And the controversy is likely to spur more discussion about the limits of American goodwill and influence in a place such as Afghanistan.

“No amount of tea with Afghans will persuade them that we are like them, that our war is their war or that our interests are their interests,” said Michael Miklaucic, a longtime official with the U.S. Agency for International Development who is currently serving at the Pentagon’s National Defense University. “The war in Afghanistan isn’t about persuasion or tea. It is about power.”"

"The Power of Words."

Touching/well crafted little movie & message [even if it is part of an ad campaign.]

Kid's Easter Party at the Embassy.

We went over Friday afternoon to dye Easter Eggs and fill up Kid's Easter Baskets for the Saturday party for the employees of the Embassy...  and Saturday we headed over to help set up and man our game station for the day...

Sandy has 360 Degrees of Easter cheer.

Me field testing/performance checking game materials.  Clearly NOT goofing off.

Our game station for the day.  I was hoping for real darts, but oh no, "too dangerous," they said.

Wifely Awesomeness.

Cheering & Wifely Awesomess.

Cuteness overload.

Little dude had a heckuva arm.

Egg Races are serious business.

Bunny hop racing was adorable raised the the tenth power.

Three legged racing.

Tent o' food deliciousness.

How exactly does a rabbit get all those eggs, for that matter?

Post party.  Clearly worse for wear, though the Mrs holds up better than I.  However, afternoon naps were soon had by both.

[Two] week[s] in food.

Prepped for the Mrs

Food log

Free/Cheat/Splurge

Been bad about posting things up online the past few weeks, so here's two weeks worth of "wife food prep" and nutrition training log.  Somewhat incomplete, as I haven't been tracking that hard what I eat for my free/binge/cheat/rest days/meals...  and the Mrs has had a number of work function dinners/days off where she made her own stuff.  Plus I've tended to make big batches of food - tuna salads/egg muffins/frittatas - and eat them piecemeal throughout the weak, so not a lot of variety.

Prepped for the Mrs/2 wks ago

Nutrition log/2 wks ago

Free day splurge/2 wks ago

Miscellany/Random/Recent Photos.

When presented with a day off, the Mrs turns to crafts.

Testing out new electric razor/realizing if I ever decide to stop shaving my dome, the mohawk remains an option.

"Monrovia Day"/Earth Day Memorial T-Shirt.

"Ideology is only going to get in your way..." - Terence Mckenna

"...so forget ideologies. They betray. They limit. They lead astray. Just deal with the raw data and trust yourself... Go for direct experience."

"You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers." - Terence Mckenna

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park..." - Bill Hicks

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "Hey -- don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride..."

And we... kill those people.
"Shut him up."
"We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real."



Just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn't matter because: It's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one.

Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defences each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace."

And I support these Easter messages.

Some reposts, I know... but don't care.

And my favorite Easter message...

"I was over in Australia during Easter, which was really interesting. You know, they celebrate Easter the exact same way we do, commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus by telling our children that a giant bunny rabbit left chocolate eggs in the night. Now, I wonder why we're fucked up as a race. I've read the Bible. I can't find the word "bunny" or "chocolate" anywhere in the fucking book." - Bill Hicks

Hereditary monarchy/the "Royal Wedding" both = fucking ridiculous.

As is the fascination with either.  Chris Hitchens and Jerry Seinfeld FTW. That is all.

Royal wedding: Does Kate Middleton really want to marry into a family like this? - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine:

"A hereditary monarch, observed Thomas Paine, is as absurd a proposition as a hereditary doctor or mathematician. But try pointing this out when everybody is seemingly moist with excitement about the cake plans and gown schemes of the constitutional absurdity's designated mother-to-be. You don't seem to be uttering common sense. You sound like a Scrooge. I suppose this must be the monarchical "magic" of which we hear so much: By some mystic alchemy, the breeding imperatives for a dynasty become the stuff of romance, even "fairy tale." The usually contemptuous words fairy tale were certainly coldly accurate about the romance quotient of the last two major royal couplings, which brought the vapid disco-princesses Diana and Sarah (I decline to call her "Fergie") within range of demolishing the entire mystique. And, even if the current match looks a lot more wholesome and genuine, its principal function is still to restore a patina of glamour that has been all but irretrievably lost..."

"...the British have the greatest theatre in the world. They love to dress up and they love to play pretend. And that's what the royal family is - it's a huge game of pretend. These aren't special people - it's fake outfits, fake phony hats and gowns."
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/seinfeld-ridicules-royal-wedding-pomp-20110418-1dko4.html#ixzz1KQT2xLvt