Training.

2/15 - P90X2 D5 Balance & Power -- burpees  2x10/3x6 -- pullups rg 2x10/ng 2x10/chins 2x10, superset bw rows/dips 2x10, band lateral/up row/press 3x8

2/14 - P90X2 D4 X2 Yoga -- burpees 12/10/2x8

True Story.  Just imagine how unpleasant I'd be if I didn't exercise.

Today's Internets.

Cute Alert! This Boy and His Dog Are Inseparable | Photo Gallery - Yahoo!: "Awww! Photos of an adorable little boy and his equally adorable French Bulldog are taking the Internet by storm. The boy, Tasuku, and his dog, Muu, seem to be inseparable. The boy’s mother, Aya Sakai of Japan, has been posting images of the pair, earning herself a huge following on Facebook and Instagram. Click through to see the tiny twosome watching TV, sleeping, snacking and just being adorable."

Girl Kicked Out of School for Red(ish) Hair - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "Sporting hair that looks completely natural to the untrained eye, a ninth grade student was nonetheless sent home from class by the vice principal of Hurricane Middle School in Utah for violating the school’s dress code, which bans “extreme hairstyles and colors.” She was later permitted to return, although she did nothing to change the deep auburn color of her hair. The report is another addition to these gems from the past few weeks:  The high school student in Arizona that was suspended for having a picture of a gun on his computer. The 2nd grader who was suspended for playing with an imaginary grenade and “trying to save the world.” The five-year-old girl suspended for ten days for making “terroristic threats” with a Hello Kitty gun that shoots bubbles. If school is supposed to prepare you for the real world, what lessons are we teaching children by acting like this? Clearly, that obeying the letter of the law is far more important than getting an education or (God forbid!) expressing yourself."

Hate Obama's Drone War? - By Rosa Brooks | Foreign Policy: "In a nutshell, the U.S. legal theory of sovereignty is this: "We have it; you don't.""

Still love this commercial.

Why It’s Time For Some People To Put Down The Race Card: "The chattering classes immediately began to try drumming up controversy based on the fact that the ad shows white people speaking with Jamaican accents. This silly critique shows what I consider to be a remarkable irony: in this effort to play the race card where it does not need to be played, these people show the same kind of ignorance that many of the racists they criticize are guilty of. My mother actually introduced me to this commercial on Facebook prior to the Super Bowl. She loved it, and so did I. Most every other Jamaican I’ve seen has no problem with it. Yet we have Americans claiming offense on our behalf. Aside from the fact that the Jamaicans themselves generally have no issues with this ad, there are a couple of other reasons why the “racist” calls are nothing short of pure fuckery...

Our national motto is “Out of many, one people”. We take that seriously, and I don’t appreciate watching idiots in the media subvert it in order to drum up needless controversy. In this episode we see the limits of the race card and how it can be played. So quick have certain progressives and supposed anti-racists come to play the card that they now begin to show the same level of ignorance and offensive generalization their more racialist opponents are said to be guilty of. They place artificial divisions among peoples based on their own incomplete understandings of them, and in doing so foster some of the very division they claim to be fighting. In working so hard not to offend, they end up being more offensive."

What if the world ended while you were at brunch? Watch It's a Disaster: "Check out the very first trailer for apocalypse comedy It's a Disaster, starring Julia Stiles and David Cross doing what he does best (being insanely awkward). The movie asks, what if you had to spend the last hours of your life stuck in an uncomfortable brunch date with a bunch of 30-year-olds?"

Dorner Manhunt Reveals Police Contempt for Public Safety - Reason.com: "“Simply put, the police culture in our country has changed,” argued former San Jose Police Chief Joe McNamara, a Hoover Institution scholar, in a Wall Street Journal article in 2006. “An emphasis on ‘officer safety’ and paramilitary training pervades today’s policing, in contrast to the older culture, which held that cops didn’t shoot until they were about to be shot or stabbed.” Murders are sadly routine in the Los Angeles area. The massive police presence was the result of the killer targeting their own, thus leading to the reasonable conclusion that police pulled out the stops not because the public was in danger but because they were in danger. I don’t blame police for their efforts, but I also understand why residents in, say, South Los Angeles, wondered why killings in their community don’t rate the same attention."

Could have used this the last few days...

Today's Internets.

We’re getting out of the Marines because we wanted to be part of an elite force | The Best Defense: The reason we're getting out is because the Marine Corps imposes a high degree of stress, yet accepts Mission Failure so long as all the boxes on the list are checked.

I'm talking about the Field Grade Intelligence Officer in Afghanistan who didn't know who Mullah Omar was. I'm talking about a senior Staff NCO in the intelligence community who could not produce a legible paragraph. I'm talking about a Battalion Commander who took pride in the fact that he had done zero research on Afghanistan, because it allowed him to approach his deployment with "an open mind." I'm talking about contractors, some of whom were literally paid ten-fold the salary of my junior Marines, who were incapable of performing basic tasks and functionally illiterate. The problem is not so much that these individuals pop up every now and then, as every organization has its bad eggs, but rather that we see them passed on through the system, promoted and rewarded. If we are truly the elite organization we claim to be, how do we justify the fact that we allow these individuals to retain positions of immense influence, much less promote through the ranks? How do we justify this endemic tolerance for mediocrity or outright incompetence?

If you really want to know what an institution values, don't look at its mottos or mission statements. Look at how it spends its resources, especially its human capital. Economists call this "Revealed Preference." When I was in the midst of a time-critical project aimed at mapping insurgent networks in Helmand, I was told to put the project on hiatus so I could organize a visit from General Allen. The implicit message was that a smooth itinerary and content General were more important than catching an insurgent cell before they left for Pakistan. How else was I supposed to interpret this? In my opinion, it's not so much that the Marine Corps doesn't value ideas, but that -- when the chips are down and careers are at stake -- it values appearance and conformity more than winning..."

The Company You Keep Official Trailer - Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf Movie HD

Today's Internets.

Swedes Consuming Low-Fat Dairy Products Gain More Weight! | DietDoctor.com: "A newly published Swedish study has examined what Swedes eat and what happens to their weight. In the 90′s a few thousand middle aged men in rural Sweden participated in a baseline survey on their eating habits, and were followed up 12 years later in a study on how their weight had changed. The results? People with a fear of fat (avoiding butter and drinking low-fat milk etc.) had a clearly increased risk of being obese twelve years later."

Baseball teams get in on ‘Harlem Shake’ craze | Big League Stew - Yahoo! Sports

DC Comics hires anti-gay author Orson Scott Card to write Superman - Boing Boing: "NPR: "DC Comics has tapped Orson Scott Card, the Ender's Game author who has said homosexuality is "deviant behavior," to write for its new, digital-first Superman. That has sparked outrage among fans. Card also suggested in a 2004 essay that if same-sex marriage is legalized, "our civilization will collapse or fade away." The equality organization All Out has a petition to drop Card."

IOC plays down wrestling's exit after global uproar | Reuters: "The surprise recommendation to drop wrestling from the Olympics has angered athletes, officials and fans around the world and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) played down the finality of its decision on Wednesday. The IOC's 15-member executive board voted on Tuesday to recommend that the sport be dropped from the 2020 Olympic program, with a final decision resting with the IOC session in September in Buenos Aires. The vote prompted an instant wave of protest and anger from the sport's global community with the international federation (FILA) calling it an aberration, petitions launched with the United States White House and on-line wrestling support groups signing up thousands of supporters."

The Girls Cried When They Got Dillinger « delicioustacos: "Monica Quan was a human being who didn’t deserve to die.  Keith Lawrence was a human being who didn’t deserve to die.  Michael Crain  was a human being who didn’t deserve to die.  The San Bernardino deputy who died today didn’t deserve to die, although at least he saw it coming.  In any case, these people were murdered in cold blood.  Their mothers and fathers, their kids, their friends, are mourning. Still, when I heard they got Dorner, I thought: fuck...

Cops: learn this lesson.  The way you felt about Chris Dorner is the way we feel about you.  A heavily armed human nightmare who could pop out of nowhere at any time with a gun in your face and fuck you on some technicality. Sure, Teresa Evans kicked some crazy guy in the head while he was cuffed.  So fucking what. It’s against the Code of Conduct, but everything you do every day is technically against the Code of Conduct. Yeah, my brake light is out.  So it’s against the law, what isn’t.  Yeah, I have a gram of coke on me, so fucking what.  It makes me feel happy for once. But suddenly someone can come grab you by the scruff of the neck over some shit we all do and stomp your face into the sidewalk and take away your money and your dreams and your freedom and maybe your life.  Quis custodiet ipses custodies.

...Cops got fucked harder by the Youtube era than anyone, because cops on TV used to be heroes.  Just out of  narrative convenience; it’s one of those jobs where you can solve a case every week.  You can run shows out of order in syndication without confusing old people.  But in the digital age, every fucking day we see cops tazing old ladies, cops kicking the shit out of retarded people, cops beating a mentally ill hobo to death while he screams for his dad.  Nowadays we see this shit and we are no longer surprised. I have no idea what percentage of cops does shit like this.  I want to believe it’s a tiny minority.  That the vast bulk of them are honorable guardians protecting pussies like me from the bloodthirsty hordes of scum out there.  But you see enough of cops kicking the shit out of people, you see enough of them unloading into the back of innocent people’s cars in a panic to save their own ass, you start to think: maybe that’s bullshit."

Dystopian British series Black Mirror returns to twist the knife: "Last year, writer and satirist Charlie Brooker awed us and basically ripped our guts out with the first season of Black Mirror, a three-episode series of short stories set in troubling, media-saturated futures. Now he's back with season two, whose first episode, "Be Right Back," aired last night on Channel 4. It was a strong, moody start, though not quite as devastatingly misanthropic as anything in season one. Spoilers ahead. Perhaps the best element of "Be Right Back," set five minutes into the future, is its extremely well-observed commentary on the difference between our social media online personas and who we really are..."

Killing Isn't Cool - By Micah Zenko | Foreign Policy: "General Stanley McChrystal is speaking out against the Obama administration's use of drone strikes, echoing previous warnings and clashing with the White House's carefully cultivated narrative.."

Helicopter Moms & Dads: Watch this and then go dunk your heads in cold water | Free The Animal: "Besides, we know what you helicopter parent assholes are all about: sacrificing your childrens' childhood joy and independent discovery and adventure, for the sake of your irrational fears—because you watch too much sensational garbage "news" on television like a drug addict, losing all perspective. You've allowed yourselves to become so fucking stupid when it comes to raising kids—when it ought to be the most natural thing in the world because we were all kids once! We have experience."

Top 11 Biggest Lies of Mainstream Nutrition | DietDoctor.com: Authority Nutrition: Top 11 Biggest Lies of Mainstream Nutrition

I would add two more silly mistakes:

• A calorie is a calorie (false, different foods have different effects on the body)
• Small changes in lifestyle, like eating a smaller cookie, has big long-term effects (a common myth)

References and details at the link - Top 11 Biggest Lies of Mainstream Nutrition: 

"1. Eggs Are Unhealthy 

2. Saturated Fat is Bad For You 

3. Everybody Should be Eating Grains 

4. Eating a Lot of Protein is Bad For Your Bones and Kidneys 

5. Low-Fat Foods Are Good For You 

6. You Should Eat Many Small Meals Throughout The Day 

7. Carbs Should Be Your Biggest Source of Calories 

8. High Omega-6 Seed and Vegetable Oils Are Good For You 

9. Low Carb Diets Are Dangerous 

10. Sugar is Unhealthy Because it Contains “Empty” Calories 

11. High Fat Foods Will Make You Fat"

More on Police Lies | PoliceMisconduct.net: "Last fall, the criminal defense clinic at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law represented a young black man charged with possession of a knife (recovered from his pants pocket) after he was searched by a police officer who swore — under penalty of perjury — that the client was blocking the entrance to a building in violation of a disorderly conduct statute. A video obtained from an adjacent store revealed a very different reality — just a young kid talking with friends, never blocking anyone’s way. Too often, though, without a video, our clients’ accounts of the lies told by police fall on deaf ears. Prosecutors and judges engage in cognitive dissonance — on the one hand understanding that police lie; on the other, failing to address the issue in any meaningful way. Perhaps this is because our criminal justice system relies so heavily on the assumption of police as truth tellers. Acknowledging the problem threatens the very foundation of an already dysfunctional system."

Fourteen Thoughts About Fourteen Comics - :

The End Game:"For example:

• Girl has no willpower and is 50 pounds overweight? Not her fault. She’s beautiful. Social constructs need to be changed.
• Girl gets drunk in a guy’s house and has sex with him? He took advantage of her. She was raped.
• Girl sleeps with her college professor in exchange for a better grade? She was a victim. The professor took advantage of her.
• Girl likes dating guys much younger than her? You go girl! Rob that cradle!
• Girl experiences an uncomfortable moment of any kind? She’s being harassed. Men are creeps.
• Girl travels to Italy or Spain to bang hot European men? She’s romantic.
• Wife cheated on her faithful husband? He wasn’t attending to her needs. She wasn’t happy. Give her the kids and half his money.

On the flip side, almost anything a man does is wrong:

• Guy is nice to girl in hopes of getting sex one day? He’s dishonest. He’s the polar opposite of nice.
• Guy approaches girls in the bar in hopes of getting sex? He’s a rando creep loser.
• Guy on OK Cupid says he wants a girl who doesn’t play games? Let’s publicly mock him on Tumblr.
• Guy makes a joke about fat girls? Hate speech.
• Guy likes working out to have strong muscles? Narcissist.
• Guy spends his money on a fast sports car? He’s overcompensating for a small penis.
• Guy doesn’t want to date girls because he’s tired of flakes? He needs to stop being a boy and man up.
• Guy says he wants his wife to stay at home and raise the kids? Slaver.
• Guy believes hard work is eventually rewarded? Wants poor people in Africa to suffer and starve.
• Guy hits on a girl on the street? Street harassment. Disturbing the peace.
• Guy likes dating girls much younger than him? Sexual predator.
• Guy likes dating girls just a little bit younger than him? Immature and irresponsible.

Training.

2/13 - P90X2 D3 X2 Total Body & X2 Ab Ripper - burpees 4x7/1x10

Training.

2/12 - P90X2 D2 Plyocide -- burpees/COCT grip superset 3x10/8 -- pullups,  rg 3x8/wg 2x5/cg 2x5/ng 2x5/chins x10

Today's Internets.

How to Lose 112 Pounds with LCHF Instead of Gastric Bypass Surgery! | DietDoctor.com: "Johanna Engström has had a fantastic journey. She was inches from having gastric bypass surgery, but decided at the last minute to try LCHF instead. Fast forward around one year and she’s lost 112 pounds! And her internal organs are still intact."

Oxford ethicist promotes MDMA to combat divorce: "In an interview in the Atlantic, Oxford ethicist Brian Earp proposes the idea that MDMA - and in fact, a battery of other substances as well - might have a role to play in keeping marriages together."

Fat Head » Why The American Heart Association Can’t Admit They’re Wrong: "I’m not a big fan of observational studies, but since the American Heart Association likes to cite them as evidence, here’s a conclusion several observational studies have reached:  when people replace saturated fats with refined carbohydrates, their rate of heart disease goes up, not down.  Clinical studies show that refined carbohydrates raise triglycerides, and high triglycerides at at least associated with heart disease, if not an actual cause.

...here are three of the most important points: Once we’ve taken a public position, it’s very difficult to admit we were wrong. Psychologically, most of us need to believe we’re both good people and good decision-makers. We are quite capable of fooling ourselves into believing things that simply aren’t true, even if that means ignoring clear evidence. The book provides interesting (and unfortunately common) examples of those points in action.  What happens when, say, a woman marries a guy who turns out to be an abusive creep?  She runs out and gets a divorce, right? Nope.  Odds are she’ll spend years with the guy before dumping him, if she dumps him at all.  Think about the three points above.  When you get married, you’ve made a dramatic public statement:  this is the one. It would be embarrassing to admit to your family and friends a year later that your marriage was a huge mistake – telling them, in effect, that in making perhaps the most important decision of your life, you chose badly.

...Another example the book gives is police and prosecutors who arrest an innocent man and send him to prison, only to see him exonerated years later by DNA evidence.  You’d expect the prosecutors to say to themselves, “Wow, that’s horrible.  We put an innocent guy away.”  You’d also be wrong.  Despite the large number of people who have been exonerated by new evidence, it’s exceedingly rare for a prosecutor to admit he or she put the wrong man in prison.  As the authors recount, most prosecutors are still convinced – despite the evidence – that the guy they put away was guilty. Once again, we’re talking about people who took a very public position (ladies and gentlemen, this is guy who committed the crime) and who need to think of themselves as good people (I’m the good guy because I put away bad guys.)  To protect themselves psychologically, they can explain away the evidence that they were wrong.  The alternative is to look in the mirror and admit they ruined an innocent person’s life, not to mention his family’s life."

FML: it's my boyfriend's birthday: "Today, it's my boyfriend's birthday. He really likes Legend of Zelda, so I put on a Link hat, took my clothes off, and waited for him at his place. He came home with a hooker. FML"

Texts From Last Night: "(802): just saw a guy snowshoeing to the liqour store 

(203): was it you? 

(802):  ...yes"

Fascinating - Freedom Index : Find Freedom!

There Is Another Level Above “I’m Doing Fine” - GNOLLS.ORG: "If I had to communicate one concept to the world at large—one reason to eat like a predator—it would be this: 

There is an entire level of daily existence above “I’m doing fine.” 

This is not to say that everyone in the world can suddenly stop taking all their medication and flaunt their new six-pack at the beach! What I mean is: there are many, many annoyances we take for granted as part of aging, or part of life, that are actually consequences of an evolutionarily inappropriate diet of birdseed (known as “grains”) and birdseed extracts (known as “vegetable oils“). 

Are You Sure You’re Healthy? Half Of America Takes Prescription Medication First, are you sure you’re healthy? Half the people in America (47.9%) took at least one prescription drug in the last month, one in five (21.4%) took three or more, and the numbers increase each year...

Even if you’re not on prescription medication right now, are you really “fine”? 

Do you need caffeine in order to wake up in the morning, or not fall asleep after lunch? 

Do you still suffer from acne? 

Headaches? 

Acid reflux? 

Do you sleep through the night? 

How quickly do you go through that bottle of Tylenol or Aleve? 

How about the cortisone, to deal with that random itchy, flaky skin? 

Are you convinced that you must continually restrict your eating to maintain a healthy bodyweight—let alone the body composition you want? 

What’s that stuff hanging over the top of your belt? 

Even if you don’t care about your appearance, imagine how much lighter on your feet you’d feel if you didn’t have to carry around that extra twenty pounds. Can you go more than five hours without food, without becoming weak and shaky?"

LOL - "Get that sick water fountain flex."

Training.

2/11 - max rep test, dead hang pullups x17, dips x20, pushups x41 -- burpees 13/13/12 -- P90X2 D1 X2 Core 

Today's Internets.

Umbra Wynterdarque

Headline of the day: The Arrest of Japan's Most Wanted Troll Leads to Cute Cat Pic

Pope Benedict XVI to Resign - WSJ.com: "Pope Benedict XVI, 85, said on Monday that he plans to step down at the end of this month because of his deteriorating physical strength, a move that hasn't happened in the Roman Catholic Church in centuries and that is likely to pave the way for a new pontiff by Easter."

Read that news this AM, and knew there was a joke to be made there, but all I could think is that this meant the end of the Pope/Emperor Palpatine jokes...

Of course, I should have known the internets would not fail me...

Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship - Charlie's Diary: "...we've somehow slid into a developed-world global-scale quasi-police state, with drone strikes and extraordinary rendition and unquestioned but insane austerity policies being rammed down our throats, government services being outsourced, peaceful protesters being pepper-sprayed, tased, or even killed, police spying on political dissidents becoming normal, and so on. What's happening? Here's a hypothesis: Representative democracy is what's happening. Unfortunately, democracy is broken. There's a hidden failure mode, we've landed in it, and we probably won't be able to vote ourselves out of it...

So the future isn't a boot stamping on a human face, forever. It's a person in a beige business outfit advocating beige policies that nobody wants (but nobody can quite articulate a coherent alternative to) with a false mandate obtained by performing rituals of representative democracy that offer as much actual choice as a Stalinist one-party state. And resistance is futile, because if you succeed in overthrowing the beige dictatorship, you will become that which you opposed."

Refuse to Lose.  No Sleep Till Brooklyn.

Watch Chuck D, LL Cool J, Tom Morello, DJ Z-Trip & Travis Barker's Beastie Boys Tribute at the Grammys - XXL: "Last night, LL Cool J ended the 2013 Grammy Awards the only way he knew possible. Gathering Chuck D, Tom Morello, DJ Z-Trip and Travis Barker, the group performed “Welcome to the Terrordome,” which originally appeared on 1990’s Fear of a Black Planet. The crew then went into “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” right after. LL Cool J, who hosted the ceremony, is preparing to drop his upcoming album, Authentic."

Video LL Cool J and Chuck D performance Refuse... by dm_5118ca9ddce82

Losing My Internet Connection Is Like Going Deaf | VICE: "...an actual Maniac Cop is running around California with drones chasing him and I’m telling you now, that if those drones are armed then Afghanistan just came to America and the United States just broke through into a scary, new future, and also we all now know what the inevitable Rambo remakes will look like..."

DOJ kill list memo forces many Dems out of the closet as overtly unprincipled hacks | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "This past week has been a strangely clarifying political moment. It was caused by two related events: the leak of the Justice Department's "white paper" justifying Obama's claimed power to execute Americans without charges, followed by John Brennan's alarming confirmation hearing (as Charles Pierce wrote: "the man whom the administration has put up to head the CIA would not say whether or not the president of the United States has the power to order the extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen within the borders of the United States"). I describe last week's process as "strange" because, for some reason, those events caused large numbers of people for the first time to recognize, accept and begin to confront truths that have long been readily apparent.

Illustrating this odd phenomenon was a much-discussed New York Times article on Sunday by Peter Baker which explained that these events "underscored the degree to which Mr. Obama has embraced some of Mr. Bush's approach to counterterrorism, right down to a secret legal memo authorizing presidential action unfettered by outside forces." 

...Baker also noticed this: "Some liberals acknowledged in recent days that they were willing to accept policies they once would have deplored as long as they were in Mr. Obama's hands, not Mr. Bush's." As but one example, the article quoted Jennifer Granholm, the former Michigan governor and fervent Obama supporter, as admitting without any apparent shame that "if this was Bush, I think that we would all be more up in arms" because, she said "we trust the president". Thus did we have - while some media liberals objected - scores of progressives and conservatives uniting to overtly embrace the once-controversial Bush/Cheney premises of the War on Terror (it's a global war! the whole world is a battlefield! the president has authority to do whatever he wants to The Terrorists without interference from courts!) in order to defend the war's most radical power yet (the president's power to assassinate even his own citizens in secret, without charges, and without checks)..."

Food Log.

2/4 - coffee, half & half, Monster Pump, Monster Amino, Monster Multi, Monster Milk, water, beef, mayo
2/5 - coffee, half & half, Monster Pump, Monster Amino, Monster Multi, Monster Milk, water, eggs, bacon
2/6 - coffee, half & half, BLOX aminos, Monster Multi, MetRx protein & oats, C4 preworkout, water, beef, wasabi mayo
2/7 - coffee, half & half, beef, water, milk, avocado, shrimp, bacon, butter, coconut oil
2/8 - coffee, milk, NO XPlode, Monster Amino, Monster Multi, Monster Milk, water, peanut butter, Diet Dr Pepper, steak, bacon
2/9 - coffee, milk, half & half, Monster Multi, Monster Milk, peanut butter, chicken, burgers, mayo, shredded cheddar
2/10 - coffee, milk, half & half, water, Monster Pump, donuts, pizza, ice cream, Diet Coke

Training.

2/10 - chinups x20, pullups 4x5, burpees 10/9/8/7/6, dips 2x10

P90X+ D84 rest/off - finished this 12 week cycle of P90X+.  Decent enough results.  The goal was to make it through the gluttony months - Thanksgiving/Xmas/New Year's - without turning into an obese sloth and maybe making some slight improvements.

The diet was... loose... and I didn't deny myself much over the holidays, as evidenced by scrolling through the food log posts.  Over twelve weeks my weight stayed the same [well, technically, over the period/the holidays I gained and lost the same 6lbs] and I took an inch off my waistline, so that's a decent sign I might've lost at least a little chub.

My chinup max rep test only got me to 20 [dead hang] which is 6 lower than my all time best last July when I was a chinup machine [Hi Justin!  Hi Katey!]  Not going to get wrapped around the axle around that because 1) I'm about 10lbs heavier than I was seven months ago and 2)the pullup bar I'm using now is configured in such a why that my grip width is slightly wider/narrower than optimal for knocking out max reps chins & tweaks my wrist a bit.  I think from now on I'll switch to a PR pullup test every 12 weeks to track consistency and progress, since the hand spacing for pulls is more amenable than for chins on my uber-awesome pullup station.  [Thanks Spence!]

So, the next few months, taking advantage of my other half's generous combined Valentine's/early Anniversary/early birthday present I'm going to do a 12 to 13 week cycle/round of P90X2.  Like P90X, it's a three phase program [Foundation/Strength/Performance, with a Recovery/Mobility week thrown in as needed] but unlike P90X it let's you play with the length of the phases as you see fit [3-6 weeks.]

Depending on when we depart the States and when our gear is packed out should determine how long the round will go for.  Ideally, I'm looking at 3 weeks Foundation, 1 week of Strength, 1 week of Recovery/Mobility [when I'm anticipating being on the road], 4 more weeks of Strength and then either 3 or 4 weeks of Performance.

My adjustable weights remain in storage somewhere abroad, so still using bands and bodyweight work for the round.  Not going to get ridiculously huge or strong that way, obviously, so continued emphasis on improving strength-to-bodyweight ratio and muscular endurance.  Also try to see how much I can lean out by the end of Spring/May.  Keep watching the diet, ideally one splurge a week,  and on any given day control for either carbs or calories, depending on the circumstances.

Goals for the next round --  dead hang pull-ups 25-30 [anything over 22 would be a new PR, my previous best from, again, last spring/summer], drop 10-20lbs and 1-3 inches off the waistline.  

...not going to win any awards, but not too shabby.  Especially compared to about two years ago when I was 30lbs heavier.  As always, a work in progress.  Onwards...  [Also, I got to play with my camera.]

Motivating/Inspiring

There's nothing so awesome/cool/impressive/attractive/strong as a well developed back, imho.  Makes me wish I had my stuff out of storage so I could do more deadlift and spinal extension work.  But I don't, so more pullups and chinups and bw rows it is...

Today's Internets.

DHS watchdog: DHS can search all your devices within 100 mi of US border - Boing Boing: "The DHS office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties -- a watchdog that's supposed to keep the DHS in check -- has concluded that it's fine for the DHS to stop anyone within 100 miles of the US border, without any suspicion or warrant, and search all the data on all their devices. But they won't say why...

“There should be a reasonable, articulate reason why the search of our electronic devices could lead to evidence of a crime,” Catherine Crump, an ACLU staff attorney, said in a telephone interview. “That’s a low threshold.” The DHS watchdog’s conclusion isn’t surprising, as the DHS is taking that position in litigation in which the ACLU is challenging the suspicionless, electronic-device searches and seizures along the nation’s borders. But that conclusion nevertheless is alarming considering it came from the DHS civil rights watchdog, which maintains its mission is “promoting respect for civil rights and civil liberties.” “This is a civil liberties watchdog office. If it is doing its job property, it is supposed to objectively evaluate. It has the power to recommend safeguards to safeguard Americans’ rights,” Crump said. “The office has not done that and the public has the right to know why.”"

The only two you need, really...

FBI employees love the BitTorrent - Boing Boing: "The most likely explanation is that employees were downloading these videos for personal entertainment. This wouldn’t be much of a surprise really, as we’ve seen this before at congressional offices the Department of Justice, national parliaments, record labels and movie studios."

Get your sunlight and your Vitamin D, people...  Vitamin D Protects Against MS | DietDoctor.com: "Last fall two Swedish scientists warned that people with vitamin D deficiency were more frequently affected by MS. A previous study has also shown that people with MS who were randomized to receive vitamin D supplements became healthier than the control group [1  2]. This isn’t too surprising as vitamin D affects the function of the immune system, and vitamin D deficiency is common. One more study now shows that vitamin D supplementation may slow or prevent disease progression in cases of suspected MS, that were detected early. In this study vitamin D doses of 50 000 IU weekly were used, i.e. approximately 7 000 IU daily."

The 70's were different.

Texts From Last Night: "(704): I was just asked if I wanted to struggle snuggle. She's a keeper"

Texts From Last Night: "(608): Just visited the liquor store.... for the 4th time today. shits gonna get weird"

Apparently there's a whole meme/niche/fetish about IDF women and their rifles.  You learn something new every day.

FML: my fiancé told me that it would be okay with him if I got plastic surgery to make my boobs larger.…: "Today, my fiancé told me that it would be okay with him if I got plastic surgery to make my boobs larger. It would also be okay with him if I didn't get the surgery, but he would call off our engagement and never talk to me again. FML"