Rub some dirt on it.

Cap gets it.

Yeah, that seems about right. QFT.

Truth.

Preach, NdGT.

"The ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’ cast play a game of “How Well Do The Avengers Know Their Biceps”"

That's awesome.  Via whedonesque

Ward lacks the people skills.

Wilmore gets it.

"Reality is real. But what you see, that's all in your head."

Up To 90% Of Your Perception Could Be Made Up Purely By The Brain - braindecoder

Tell 'em, Joss.

Joss Whedon on Twitter: 

Reading, Apr '15.

Bad Luck and Trouble (Jack Reacher, Book 11) by Lee Child
Nothing to Lose (Jack Reacher, Book 12) Lee Child
Rough and Tumble - The History Of American Submission Wrestling by Erik Paulson, Matt Granahan,  & JD Dwyer
Slave Safari (The Destroyer Book 12) by Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir
Beyond 5/3/1: Simple Training for Extraordinary Results by Jim Wendler
Adventures of Amelia Bedelia (I Can Read Book) by Peggy Parish and Fritz Siebel

Lazarus Volume 3: Conclave by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark
Atomic Robo Volume 9: The Knights of the Golden Circle Paperback by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener
Captain Marvel Vol. 1: Pursuit of Flight by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Emma Rios and Dexter Soy

Beyond 5/3/1: Simple Training for Extraordinary Results
There is a downside: You will not set PR’s every time. Understand that PR’s aren’t given to you; they are earned through work, struggle and sacrifice. Often, those who become depressed and discouraged after a bad workout are beginners and young lifters who don’t yet realize that greatness doesn’t always show up. There will be bad days – really bad days. But that’s what makes the PR’s so special. So the next time you have a bad workout, embrace it, remember it and do whatever you have to do to make your next workout better than the last one. Let me give you a tip – moping around like a sad puppy dog isn’t going to help you. Change your attitude. Attitude is the one thing you have total control over and the minute you let doubt, depression or martyrdom creep in, you set yourself up for a long life of mediocrity.

...the factors that no one even considers are Will and Desire. These two things can force a square peg to fit into a round hole. The world is filled with millions of examples of people doing extraordinary things with Will and Desire. Why not you?

If you want something to happen, have the Will and Desire to do the necessary work and the attitude to go along with it. Excuses are nothing more than you showing the world you have given up. You get what you expect and you get what you deserve. Embrace that in your life and watch what happens.

People often try to fool themselves and use “overtraining” and the hilarious “CNS burnout” as excuses not to train hard. Don’t be that guy. Be Dan Gable not Adrenal Fatiguenstein.

One of the easiest ways to spot a novice lifter, in both training and attitude, is their complete breakdown after a bad workout or a bad month, or even a bad couple of months. The experienced lifter knows that the clouds will break and he keeps pushing.

It is not for the trend hoppers, curl-mongers or diet-obsessed eunuchs that plague the lifting world. This is not for people who are scared of squatting or pulling. This is not for the Butt Wink Police or Cardio Queens. If you are scared of pushing big weights, having a bad workout, having a bad month or measure your self-worth by your Facebook pictures/posts or responses, this is not for you. If you want to be strong without excuses, this is for you.

The Power Clean is an awesome exercise. Unfortunately, the Internet Form Squad think it vital that you only do these after spending $1000 at a seminar hosted by your “Local Box Jumpers”. Furthermore, apparently the Power Clean, the Snatch and anything you do that a hook grip COULD be used on requires the same skill as walking a tight rope across the Grand Canyon. One mistake means death. Yep, nothing is more difficult or insane than walking up to a barbell, picking it up and placing it on your shoulders.

The amount of weight you lift over several years, your consistency, your ability to remain on a program with solid principles, your heart/determination, and your willingness to do what others are unwilling to do (also known as Kaiser Soze Syndrome) are what will make you strong and unbeatable.

Like many of you, I did my research and every week a new expert pops up saying things such as: Stretching will kill you and give you dick cancer. Stretching is best thing ever. Don’t do hip circles. Do hip circles. In the end, I trusted myself and just did a lot of little stuff several times a day. Read that last part again. I had to swallow a lot of pride and suffer the humiliation of Going Full Mobility 3-4 times a day to get my body back on track. Like strength training, there are no magic programs or exercises just strong principles. And remember your mobility program doesn’t have to be perfect, just consistent.

...you are in the weight room to get stronger not to become a Kipping Nancy.

“Diets” have replaced common sense. I will not discuss diet when everyone knows a T-Bone and a glass of milk (look at the big picture!) are more conducive to lifting big weights than tuna stuffed in a low-carb pita. If you do not know how to eat a steak, then this workout is not for you.

I realized that it’s my own goddamn fault that I failed. Because I was the only one to blame for my failure, I then realized that I am also responsible for my success. I control my success. When you accept personal responsibility for everything in your life, and I mean everything from appearance, finances, relationships, employment, you become a better person. No more self-pity or martyrdom. You will now have the power to change who you are and what you accomplish because you will always get what you deserve.

Now I realize that doing it “for your children” is bullshit. I thought that I had to lose weight to be healthy “for my kids.” I thought I had to strive to work hard for my kids, so they could have a great life. But now I realize that these pursuits need to be completely selfish desires. If they see how badly I want something, and how hard I am willing to work to get it, I’ve not only reached my goal, I’ve also set an example for my kids. I have had several friends go through Alcoholics Anonymous and addicts always fail when they get sober for anyone else but themselves. When the addict commits to getting sober for himself, the chance for recovery improves greatly. I’m not telling you to ignore your family or your job. Far from that. When you commit to a goal, do it for yourself. Whether it is a lifting goal, a goal of writing a book or painting a self-portrait, do it because the fire inside you MUST be quenched. The desire to succeed cannot be for any other reason but an all out selfish pursuit of insanity.

Make a pact to have no excuses. You miss a day? Suck it up and train two days in a row. You are sore? Get in line. No sleep? Try going through Hell Week as a Navy SEAL. Can’t eat? Force yourself. I’m sick of the laundry lists of “can’t” in the questions that I get. It’s like I’m a full-time therapist for the weak and pathetic.

I am 100% convinced that some people are just more competitive than others. Some are born more pitbull than poodle. But even the poodles and lap dogs can be groomed to fight. If you find yourself in the poodle category, I also believe that you can train yourself to be a harder individual. Tougher to kill. Tougher to beat. And this training, these challenges, should carry over to other things in your life. You won’t be a doormat anymore. Women won’t walk all over you and your boss won’t take you as a chump.

Remember that there is a huge difference between training and working out. Workout is “for the day.” These are the people that go into the gym, do a few of these, a few of those and measure their fitness and “progress” by how tired they are. Yes, they may remember their best bench press or the fastest mile time but they don’t train specifically to be better; only to be tired. Somehow this makes sense to them.

It’s just how training works; you pick one goal and with a single-minded focus, attack it. You don’t try to “lose weight and get stronger but still be able to run a marathon while becoming an amateur strongman and train for the police academy.” That’s a sure sign of a Fitness Hipster. Go be average on your own time, Fitness Hipster. We are training, not fitnessing.

Nothing to Lose (Jack Reacher, Book 12)
...clichés were clichés only because they were so often true.

Years later during advanced army training that lesson had been reinforced. At the grand strategic level it even had a title: Overwhelming Force. At the individual level in sweaty gyms the thugs doing the training had pointed out that gentlemen who behaved decently weren’t around to train anyone. They were already dead. Therefore: Hit early, hit hard. Overwhelming force. Hit early, hit hard. Reacher called it: Get your retaliation in first.

Thurman said, “You should think about getting your life in order, you know, before it’s too late. Something might happen. The Book of Revelation says, the time is at hand.” “As it has every day since it was written, nearly two thousand years ago. Why would it be true now, when it wasn’t before?”

Reacher didn’t like crowds. He enjoyed solitude and was a mild agoraphobic, which didn’t mean he was afraid of wide-open spaces. That was a common misconception. He liked wide-open spaces. Instead he was mildly unsettled by the agora, which was an ancient Greek word for a crowded public marketplace. Random crowds were bad enough. He had seen footage of stampedes and stadium disasters. Organized crowds were worse. He had seen footage of riots and revolutions. A crowd two hundred strong was the largest animal on the face of the earth. The heaviest, the hardest to control, the hardest to stop. The hardest to kill. Big targets, but after-action reports always showed that crowds took much less than one casualty per round fired. Crowds had nine lives.

...he had seen what angry crowds could do. He had seen the herd instinct at work, the anonymity, the removal of inhibition, the implied permissions of collective action. He had seen that an angry crowd was the most dangerous animal on the face of the earth.

“Why are the hospitals so bad?” “Because deep down to the army a wounded soldier that can’t fight anymore is garbage. So we depend on civilians, and civilians don’t care either.”

“He’s religious. He’s accustomed to believing things that comfort him.”

Thurman said, “God wants me to complete my task.” “What, he told you that in the last two minutes?” “I think you’re an atheist.” “We’re all atheists. You don’t believe in Zeus or Thor or Neptune or Augustus Caesar or Mars or Venus or Sun Ra. You reject a thousand gods. Why should it bother you if someone else rejects a thousand and one?”

“I went where they told me. I followed orders. I did everything they asked, and I watched ten thousand guys do the same. And we were happy to, deep down. I mean, we bitched and pissed and moaned, like soldiers always do. But we bought the deal. Because duty is a transaction, Vaughan. It’s a two-way street. We owe them, they owe us. And what they owe us is a solemn promise to risk our lives and limbs if and only if there’s a damn good reason. Most of the time they’re wrong anyway, but we like to feel some kind of good faith somewhere. At least a little bit. And that’s all gone now. Now it’s all about political vanity and electioneering. That’s all. And guys know that. You can try, but you can’t bullshit a soldier. They blew it, not us. They pulled out the big card at the bottom of the house and the whole thing fell down. And guys like Anderson and Rogers are over there watching their friends getting killed and maimed and they’re thinking, Why? Why should we do this shit?”

“People don’t want to hear that their loved ones died for no good reason.” “I know. But that doesn’t change the truth.” “I hate you.” “No, you don’t,” Reacher said. “You hate the politicians, and the commanders, and the voters, and the Pentagon.”

Training.

5/1 - squats, knee raise, walk

Maria Loses 70 Pounds - DietDoctor.com: "I want to share my journey as I’m now at my goal weight, but moving forward towards other goals. My husband and I had our two boys fairly close together; when our first baby was 10 months old I got pregnant again. I’ve always been overweight and had “big bones”as it used to be called. With each pregnancy my weight increased more than 66 lbs (30 kg), but I did manage to lose the weight between them. But after baby number two nothing happened… I was then at 207 lbs (94 kg). Two years ago I came in contact with LCHF and began my journey. Today I’ve reach my weight goal, -70 lbs (-32 kg) and my weight is 137 lbs (62 kg), but it hasn’t been a cakewalk. I’ve hit several plateaus and even gained some weight when we went on vacations. But overall I’ve eaten delicious food and learned a lot about myself. Today I live healthy with my family, exercise 4–5 times a week and my lifestyle is LCHF. I have no sugar cravings, but I do remember how things from my previous life tasted, but they don’t interest me anymore. I love to inspire and motivate others and dream of becoming a nutritional counselor and a PT. Thank you for an impressive website and blog! I’ve also attended your lectures and you are great! "

"Western culture as a whole has become an increasingly reactionary mob of self-centered narcissists who all have their own personal lines drawn in the sand." - Jim Norton

Jim Norton: Trevor Noah Isn’t the Problem. You Are. | TIME: 

"We're addicted to the rush of being offended.

People say that Americans trends are transient, but the one activity we never seem to tire of is being outraged. Boy, do we love it! We simply can’t seem to get enough of that rush we feel when something offends us. It’s like the dopamine drip we get from that first drink or the first drag of a cigarette after getting off a cross-country flight. And what is our favorite thing to be outraged over? Well, it’s certainly nothing petty, like homelessness, or the fact that every single person we elect to public office is a manipulative, groveling, poll-obsessed liar. Nope. We’re not stupid enough to waste our energy on such nonsense. We save our collective outrage for the really important stuff, like things comedians say...

Which brings us, of course, to Trevor Noah, our guest star on this week’s edition of Manufactured Outrage. When Comedy Central named Trevor as Jon Stewart’s successor, our trusty, tireless brigade of social-justice warriors immediately went to work digging through his tweets and stand-up to find something, anything to be upset about. Much to their relief, Trevor didn’t disappoint. Being a working comedian, he’d made plenty of jokes over the years that a susceptible person could pick up, blow the dust off and aim at themselves to achieve martyrdom. 

Trevor, while tweeting things with the intention of being funny, had gone … yes, you guessed it – over the line! (Click here for dramatic organ music.) In his rush to be funny, he had broken what has become the new golden rule in American public life, which is to never say anything (or, God forbid, joke about anything) that may be deemed even remotely offensive or upsetting by any segment of the population for any reason. Trevor forgot that in the new millennium, there is a seemingly endless checklist of subject matter that has been deemed inappropriate to address with humor. And by no means is that checklist final; it’s constantly changing and morphing and contradicting itself without warning. He also neglected to take into account that Western culture as a whole has become an increasingly reactionary mob of self-centered narcissists who all have their own personal lines drawn in the sand. A comedian is fine unless he crosses their particular line, which, of course, in the mind of a self-centered narcissist, is the only line that matters...

The image people have of comedians staring defiantly over a stationary line of good taste is simply inaccurate. We don’t approach this line, put our toes over it arrogantly and then scamper back to safety. The line doesn’t exist. The correct image for people to have is one of a circle, with a comedian standing in the middle of it, surrounded by a myriad of races, religions, social beliefs, sacred cows and political ideologies. And in these groups are endless numbers of sub groups and personal boundaries. There is simply no way to consistently do the type of comedy that addresses these things without upsetting somebody. No matter which direction you turn to aim the joke, someone is getting hit. And while the person who has been hit jumps up and down and exaggerates their injuries, everyone else in the circle is telling them to shut up and learn to take a joke. Until they themselves get hit."

"I regard Organized Ideology with the same horror that Voltaire had for Organized Religion." - RAW

Discordian Libertarians: "There is one principle (or prejudice) which makes anarchist and libertarian alternatives attractive to me where State Socialism is totally repugnant to my genes-or-imprints. I am committed to the maximization of the freedom of the individual and the minimization of coercion. I do not claim this goal is demanded by some ghostly or metaphysical “Natural Law,” but merely that it is the goal that I, personally, have chosen — in the Existentialist sense of choice. (In more occult language, such a goal is my True Will.) Everything I write, in one way or another, is intended to undermine the metaphysical and linguistic systems which seem to justify some Authorities in limiting the freedom of the human mind or in initiating coercion against the non-coercive.""

Left and Right: A Non-Euclidean Perspective - disinformation: "I was anti-war by “temperament” (whatever that means — early imprints or conditioning? Genes? I don’t know the exact cause of such a deep-seated and life-long bias). Marxist dogma seemed as stupid to me as Catholic dogma and as murderous as Hitlerism. I now thought of myself as an agnostic on principle. I was not going to join any more “churches” or submit to anybody’s damned Party Line. 

My agnosticism was also intensified by such influences as further reading of Nietzsche; existentialism; phenomenology; General Semantics; and operational logic. There have remained major influences on me and I want to say a few words about each. Nietzsche’s philosophy of the Superman did not turn me on in youth; coming from the proletarian, I could not see myself as one of his aristocratic Übermenschen. On the other hand, his criticism of language, and of the metaphysical implications within languages, made a powerful impression on me; I still re-read one or two of his books every year, and get new semantic insights of them. He is, as he bragged, a hard nut to digest all at once. 

Existentialism did not convert me back to Marxism (as it did to Sartre); it merely magnified my Nietzschean distrust of capitalized nouns and other abstractions, and strengthened my preferences for sensory-sensual (“existential”) — modes of perception-conception. The phenomenologists — especially Husserl and the wild man of the bunch, Charles Fort — encouraged my tendency to suspect all general theories (religious, philosophical, even scientific) and to regard human sense experience as the primary datum. My polemics against Materialist Fundamentalism in The New Inquisition and the Aristotelian mystique of “natural law” (shared by Thomists and some Libertarians) in my Natural Law; or, Don’t Put a Rubber On Your Willy are both based on this existentialist-phenomenologist choice that I will “believe” in human experience, with all its muddle and uncertainty, more than I will ever “believe” in capitalized Abstractions and “general principles.” 

General Semantics, as formulated by Korzybski, increased this anti-metaphysical bias in me. Korzybski also stressed that the best sensory data (as revealed by instruments that refine the senses) indicates that we live in a non-Aristotelian, non-Euclidean and non-Newtonian continuum. I have practiced for 30 years the exercises Korzybski recommends to break down Aristotelian-Euclidean-Newtonian ideas buried in our daily speech and retrain myself to perceive in ways compatible with what our instruments indicate about actuality. 

Due to Korzybski’s neurolinguistic training devices, it is now “natural” for me to think beyond either/or logic, to perceive the unity of observer/observed, to regard “objects” as human inventions abstracted from a holistic continuum. Many physicists think I have studied more physics than I actually have; I merely neurologically internalized the physics that I do know. 

Operational logic (as formulated by the American physicist Percy Bridgman and recreated by the Danish physicist Neils Bohr as the Copenhagen Interpretation of science) was the approach to modern science that appealed to me in the context of the above working principles. The Bridgman-Bohr approach rejects as “meaningless” any statements that do not refer to concrete experiences of human beings. (Bridgman was influenced by Pragmatism, Bohr by Existentialism.) Operationalism also regards all proposed “laws” only as maps or models that are useful for a certain time. Thus, Operationalism is the one “philosophy of science” that warns us, like Nietzsche and Husserl, only to use models where they’re useful and never to elevate them into Idols or dogmas...

I agree passionately with Maurice Nicoll (a physician who mastered both Jungian and Gurdjieffian systems) who wrote that the major purpose of “work on consciousness” is to “decrease the amount of violence in the world.” The main difference between our world and Swift’s is that while we have stopped killing each other over religious differences (outside the Near East and Northern Ireland), we have developed an insane passion for killing each other over ideological differences. I regard Organized Ideology with the same horror that Voltaire had for Organized Religion. 

Concretely, I am indeed a Male Feminist, as L.A. Rollins claimed (although seeing myself often on TV, I deny that I simper; I don’t even swish); like all libertarians, I oppose victimless crime laws, all drug control laws, and all forms of censorship (whether by outright reactionaries or Revolutionary Committees or Radical Feminists). I passionately hate violence, but am not a Dogmatic Pacifist, since I don’t have Joan Baez’s Correct Answer Machine in my head. I know I would kill an armed aggressor, in a concrete crisis situation where that was the only defense of the specific lives of specific individuals I love, although I would never kill a person or employ even minor violence, or physical coercion, on behalf of capitalized Abstractions or Governments (who are all damned liars.) All these are matters of Existential Choice on my part, and not dogmas revealed to me by some god or some philosopher-priest of Natural Law."

Cap gets it.

"Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time."

Also, Avengers: Age of ULTRON was fantastic.

Training.

4/30 - bench, pulldowns, pushups, seated rows, inc db press, db curls, ovh trixt, walk

Brian Shaw Wins 2015 World's Strongest Man Title | Muscle & Fitness: "Once again, MHP stalwart Brian Shaw has proven that the world's strongest man lives in the United States. Shaw won the World’s Strongest Man title, taking place in Malaysia, for the third time in his career last weekend. His win has him tied with Bill Kazmaier for the most titles won by an American since the competition's start in 1977."

Wish I had it together at 16 as much as this kid does.  Or, you know, at any age from 16 to now.

"And don't even get me started on fasted cardio. Running while starved? What are you running from? A genocide?"

This is excellent.

Training.

4/29 - shadowbox, stretch, foam roll

"We have never seen a totally sane human being." - RAW

Get 'em, Fitz.

Makes sense, actually.

It's like the word "fair."

Coulson is Coulsoning pretty hard these days.

"Wow. You make history come alive."

"Thunder buddies for life."

Get Ready.

"In a recent study, 10 out of 12 patients no longer registered PTSD on their CAPS score after undergoing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy."

Marines Are Being Given MDMA To Help Recover From Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Results Positive: "Marines suffering from PTSD are now being given ‘love drug’ MDMA to cope with the hardships of returning home after battle. The soldiers are being treated by an organization called Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), whose mission is to discover the use of the dance floor drug in medical contexts. They are offered doses of up to 125 mg, which is more than typically consumed by someone for recreational use....

In a recent study, 10 out of 12 patients no longer registered PTSD on their CAPS score after undergoing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy."

Scientists are testing MDMA as a PTSD treatment for veterans | The Verge: "About six months after leaving Iraq — but while still in the military — Blackston discovered he didn’t feel like himself. He went to a military clinic in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where a computerized test flagged him for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Blackston received the same treatment the majority of veterans with PTSD receive. The military doctors put him on Seroquel, an antipsychotic, and Zoloft, an antidepressant. The talk therapy he received was minimal; he says he had to wait six weeks between hour-long therapy sessions. "There was just so much time in between that the therapy sessions were pointless, and the medication just makes you feel like a zombie," he says...

Imaging studies of PTSD have shown increased activity in the amygdala, the fear center of the brain, and decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex and in the hippocampus. Essentially, three parts of the brain are operating irregularly, which prevents people with PTSD from processing everyday experiences normally. However, once people take MDMA, there’s increased activity in the prefrontal cortex, and decreased activity in the amygdala — it basically evens out the scale so proper therapy can be done, Mithoefer says. PTSD patients are often "too aroused or mostly numb" during therapy without MDMA; the drug helps therapy happen for them "meaningfully, without being overwhelmed by the fear," Mithoefer says."

"What's a 'dop ted'?"

Parenting 101.

"It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights..."

"...It's actually nothing more than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what?" - Stephen Fry

Training.

4/28 - deadlifts, situps, back xt, walk, sauna

ChAoS & PAIN: Powerbuilding #2: It's Not JUST About The Mustaches: "...powerbuilding worked for all of the best lifters of the 70s and 80s as well.  One of those guys, the aforementioned (in the previous installment) Bill Ennis, used powerbuilding to dominate the 198 lb weight class and post a 1906 total at 5.5% bodyfat in 1980."