Heh.

It's true.

Don't get offended, Know Your Meme.

Stop!

I am amused.

A not entirely untrue observation about marriage in the modern world.

Stephen King makes me want to read Harry Potter; also crushes Twilight FTW.

This/Reality Tunnels 101 - "The Facebook Friend in the Plastic Bubble - Reason Magazine"

The Facebook Friend in the Plastic Bubble - Reason Magazine:

"Every one of us has our perceptions filtered by the thousands of stories and assumptions and rituals that constitute our culture. Every one of us has held beliefs that seemed self-evidently accurate but were actually contingent elements of the time and place that produced us. This is true not just of the people reading this article, but of every person, in every era, who has been capable of perceiving anything at all. You can stretch those perceptions, expose yourself to new worldviews, learn new things, but you'll always be embedded in a cultural matrix. That's Anthropology 101.

So it's bizarre to hear pundits speaking as though these filters were invented with the Internet..."

Understanding Reality Tunnels.

This - "...every expression, inner and outer, is a reflection of the truth"

If something is wrong with your body, something is likely wrong with your psychology.  And vice-versa.

Steve Maxwell's Strength & Conditioning Blog:

"...Does your appearance delight or disgust you? Do you see virtue and valor... or something else?

But Steve! It's the inner truth of myself that's important!

This is correct--and every expression, inner and outer, is a reflection of the truth you hold dearest. This is why a beautiful youths end up broken down, middle-aged wrecks..."

Listen to this man!

Asian mothers, amiright?

I LOL'd.

Made of Awesome, Filled with Victory - "Let's Be Friends Again."

Hilarious, geek-centric webcomic - Let's Be Friends Again.  After scavenging the archives, the ones I dug in particular...

Easily my favorite, for the perfect use of the "Flash Fact!"

 

"Ancient Chinese secret, huh?" - 'If the U.S. could reduce its military spending a bit and spend more on improving the livelihood of the American people... wouldn’t that be a better scenario?'

America's creditor identifies its budget problem - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com:

"...Since America's political and media class steadfastly ignore this glaringly obvious point, it's nice (albeit self-interested) of the Chinese to point it out for us. As we endlessly hear about a massive debt crisis, the current President has started one optional war that has already exceeded its estimated costs, plans to continue (if not escalate) two more, is drone-attacking a new country on aseemingly weekly basis, expands sprawling covert military actions in still other countries, builds new overseas detention facilities, all while offering only the most modest, symbolic and illusory "cuts" in military spending. The alleged need to slash the financial security of American citizens -- and the notion that America faces a severe debt crisis -- would be more persuasive if the country didn't continue its posture of Endless War and feeding the insatiable, bloated National Security State (to say nothing of the equally insatible and wasteful Drug War and its evil spawn, the increasingly privatized American Prison State, which the Obama administration is expanding as aggressively as the War on Terror)."

The problem, effectively summarized.

Living Freedom » Blog Archive » Responsibilities of a resident of the police state, part I: "...despite the outcry, the abuses don’t stop. They don’t even slow down. Instead, we now see SWAT-style raids used to enforce housing code violations and catch student-loan scofflaws. We see polite objectors being charged with the catch-alls of disorderly conduct or resisting arrest — and less polite objectors killed on the spot. We see tasers — once billed as “non-lethal” alternatives to firearms — being used as “compliance tools” against old ladies, grade-school children, diabetics, epileptics, and handicapped teenagers. We see people who photograph cops being threatened with long prison sentences. We’re told the horrendous lie that “freedom” requires absolute, forelock-tugging, dirt-scuffing, unquestioning obedience to Authoritah — and we’d better believe it OR ELSE..."

Training.

Posted a day later than the typical Sunday wrap-up due to family stuff.  Today's summary includes today's PT session...

7/11 - P90X D85 - took my rest/off day today, the beginning of the week, which will put my end day&date for this round of P90X - the first full round I've finished, well done me - @D91/Sunday, July 17th.  But even though I took the day as a "P90X Rest" day, I did the following workout ---

Bas Rutten MMA Workout/Boxing 2M Rounds - Shadowboxing 5 rounds - Heavybag 8 rounds

7/10 - P90X D84 - X Stretch
Bas Rutten MMA Workout/Boxing 2M Rounds - Shadowboxing 10 rounds

7/9 - P90X D83 - Yoga X [abbreviated*] - Abs
7/8 - P90X D82 - Legs & Back
7/7 - P90X D81 - Kenpo X
7/6 - P90X D80 - Back & Biceps - Abs
7/5 - P90X D79 - Plyometrics
7/4 - P90X D78 - Chest/Shoulders/Triceps - Abs

*I've been doing the Tony Horton One on One yoga workouts - 'Patience Hummingbird' & 'Fountain of Youth' - instead of the P90X Yoga X workout on the designated yoga day of the P90X program for almost the entire 3 months of P90X.  Because while I enjoy the yoga in general, and the yoga I've been doing is almost always one of my favorite workouts of the week, I have a pretty passionate dislike right now for Yoga X.

Yoga X is just...  for somebody without a solid yoga background... too much.  Unless you're already fit, or maybe into your 2nd or 3rd round of P90X.  It's too long - at 90 minutes, by far the longest P90X wkout - too complicated, too complex and too advanced, really.  I usually hit the wall at about 40-45 minutes in and then just start jabbing the FF button while finding things to vehemently dislike about Tony Horton.

And the thing is I absolutely love the other yoga workouts he teaches on the One on One DVDs.  Putting my finger on why it bugs me so much I finally came up with this while thinking about it.  One of the great things about the way he teaches on the P90X DVDs is that his workouts are constantly scalable and he's always encouraging you to modify and adapt the workouts to your fitness level.  And there's none of that, imo, on Yoga X.  It starts out hard out of the gate and proceeds to ramp up the difficulty and complexity of the moves without ever slowing down or showing you how to build up to that level.  And it just smokes you with some pretty advanced stuff.  All I get from it about halfway through is a broken will and crushed spirit. And don't even get me started on "Yoga Belly Seven" - which seems out of place and shoehorned in out of nowhere from some kind of training mentality that demands an "ab section" every workout.  I mean, you don't drop down in the middle of Kenpo X to do crunches because it wouldn't make any damn sense - and the YB7 completely disrupts the flow of Yoga X.  As always, imho.

So if it's your 1st round of P90X and have the disdain I do for Yoga X, try one of Horton's One on One yoga routines, both of which I think are outstanding.  Or if you don't feel like spending the extra cash, I'd sub in the X Stretch routine.  And maybe on the next round of P90X, when I can actually, you know - finish it, just one fucking time - then I'll like Yoga X more.

This.  All day.

Last pic via.  Whether or not you dig on the Crossfit model, hard work always pays off.

Awesome Feel Good of the Day - "Korea's Got Talent Sung-Bong Choi."