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Friday, May 06, 2016

Training.

5/6 - squats, situps, stretch
5/5 - bench, db row, pushdowns, face pull, curls, stretch/foam roll, bw row/pushups


Wednesday, May 04, 2016

"...it fascinates me to see when ultra-liberals become ultra-conservatives... and start oppressing people who they disagree with."

"BC: There has been plenty of social media criticism of this. You’re painted as the worst choice for the series – embodying all that is sexist and skeevy about comic books. Is it possible your covers will put women off the comic, or simply send a wrong message about the book? 

 As a life-long liberal Democrat and advocate for free speech and equal rights, it fascinates me to see when ultra-liberals become ultra-conservatives where they see injustices everywhere and cease to see reason, and start oppressing people who they disagree with. Thanks to the social media, we have entered into a dangerous era of Salem witch trials where no one is safe. Everything is being attacked everywhere in this hypersensitive atmosphere: The movie Grease (Sexualizes teenagers), Road Runner cartoons (Violence against animals), Game of Thrones. (Promotes rape and injustices against women.) The list goes on. 

 I have a huge female fan base. They are absolutely wonderful and they don’t share the hateful political views of Mary Sue and Comic Alliance sites. If you look at the various message board postings, you’ll see multitudes of positive notes of support for me and my art, especially for my Wonder Woman cover project. Let’s face it, I was built to draw Wonder Woman. I’m a huge Lynda Carter fan. I fell in love with her when I first saw her Wonder Woman TV show as a kid. In many ways, Lynda Carter is still the main source of inspiration when I draw women. It’s very intimidating following Adam Hughes, Brian Bolland, Dave Finch and other great Wonder Woman artists before me. I’m just super excited right now that I’m drawing her. I have so much love and respect for this character and her potential. My aim is to make Wonder Woman look powerful and beautiful, let everyone see why she’s a true superhero icon. And I hope I don’t let my fans and Wonder Woman fans down."


"BC: You’ve been a centre of controversies in recent years, criticized by everyone from Robert Rodriguez to The Mary Sue site over your drawing of Spider-Gwen and last week Cammy: Street Fighter in that infamous Manara’s Spider-Woman pose. 

CHO: Yes. I’m still surprised and amused at the outrage over nothing. I’ve been a professional writer-artist for 19 years and I’ve never had any major problem until 2 years ago when some comic “journalist” decided to single me out and tried to scapegoat me into censorship over a drawing of a pretty woman requested by a fan. 

BC: Have these scandals hurt you in any way? 

CHO: Oh, god no. Quite the opposite. It blew me up into the stratosphere. The traffic on my webpages have tripled, interest and awareness of my art have gone way up beyond the normal comic community, and people treat me like a rock star at shows. I’m getting more job offers than I can physically handle, and getting constantly invited as a guest to various comic conventions, domestic and foreign."


"BC: So you’re not bothered by all the personal attacks online? 

CHO: Naw. I actually enjoyed them. It spotlights the hypocrisy, unrealistic views and the victim mentality of these people. In my case, these critics of mine like most extremists and religious types, advocate mind control and censorship. They simply want to control what other people can and can not see. It’s similar to what the Republican party does to the LGBT community. They bully and shame people into what they should like or don’t like. I’m simply fascinated by how these few critics came riding in on their high horse and tried to paint me into a monster. In their eyes, I went from an artist who writes and draws strong independent female characters to a morally bankrupt pervert overnight simply because I drew a comic book character for a fan that they found offensive. It’s scary if you think about how much power the social media have given to these fringe voices. The comic book market is a vast and bountiful table. There’s a place for everyone. One group, because they don’t like something, should not dictate what others can see and enjoy. That’s simply wrong. If they don’t like something, then don’t look at it or buy it. As matter of fact, they should take all that hateful energy and create comics they want to read and art they want to see. Again, there’s a room for everyone at the comic table."

"[Clinton's new] slogan... accomplishes the opposite of its intent, and you can’t fail harder than that."

Clinton Versus Trump - Persuasion Scores | Scott Adams Blog: "We’ll start with Clinton’s new campaign slogan:  LOVE TRUMPS HATE Based on the slogan, I can tell you with confidence that the Clinton campaign doesn’t have anyone with a persuasion background helping with the big decisions. 

Here’s why: 
1. Humans put greater cognitive weight on the first part of a sentence than the last part. This is a well-understood phenomenon. And the first part literally pairs LOVE and TRUMP.  
2. The slogan increases exposure to the name Trump. That’s never a good idea. 
3. Spoken aloud, the slogan sounds like asking people to agree with Trump’s hate, as in “Love Trump’s hate (because Trump hates war, terrorism, and bad trade deals, same as you?).  

 This is the sort of mistake you never see out of the Trump campaign. The slogan is pure amateur hour. It accomplishes the opposite of its intent, and you can’t fail harder than that."


"In times when it becomes socially and professionally dangerous to talk about facts..."

"...because the media consensus and the academic consensus is so completely all in on these fictions... that simply aren't true...  if I'm occasionally mean it's normally because they deserve it.  Because you are being lied to...  knowingly every day by journalists in the press, in newspapers and on television.  They know they're doing it and they do it anyway...

We live in quite crazy times.  We live in times where it's open season, you can say whatever you want about the Straight White Male of folklore.  You can abuse them, you can call them terrible names, you can do awful things and you won't get censure for this outright sexism, you will get applause.  In those circumstances I think "being mean" is the least I could be doing."



Assault Weapon Bans give you cooler looking weaponry.

After all, "Assault Weapon" is a political invention, not a class of firearms.


And why did "assault weapon" come about?


The difference?  Scarier looking, to the poorly informed and uneducated.




Training.

5/3 - deadlifts, situps, stretch, bridge
5/2 - press, chins, pushdowns, face pulls, curls, stretch, shadowbox, neck nods/rotations/iso, handstand hold

#SeemsLegit



Civil War Week: Stick To Your Guns Like Cap | Nerd Fitness: "When Captain America is on the “wrong side” of the majority (as we saw in Captain America: Winter Soldier and again in this movie), he refuses to conform, is branded an outlaw, and thus gets hunted down by the government. Despite the overwhelming consequences of his decision, Steve Rogers sticks to his guns and stands by his creed. He stands up for what he believes in...
He’s removed emotion from the decision: there’s right, and there’s wrong. “If this, then I will do that. No matter what.” Yes, this is a VERY simplistic and idealistic way of looking at life; but whether we’re talking about making decisions about getting healthy, or moral problems that superheores wrangle with, sometimes standing your ground is the best way to do the most good. Even if those consequences mean coming down on the other side of a conflict from a great friend of yours...  you’re going to have to make tough decisions too. 

At every step in your journey you will have choices that aren’t black and white. You could have just one cookie or piece of candy. You could skip this workout just today. You could sleep in and not practice that skill you’re learning. You can not stand up for something you believe strongly in at work due to office politics or not wanting to offend your boss. 

Captain America would say enough is enough. Draw a line and take a stand. Otherwise you might as well quit now. In more practical terms for getting healthy, it helps to have a series of rules that you’ve established for yourself that remove emotion, guilt, and second-guessing from the equation. Nutrition: “I eat this. I don’t eat that.” Almost robotic in nature. No emotion involved. You either eat it or you don’t. Exercise: “I work out at 10AM on these days. I don’t skip them for ANY reason, no matter the consequences.” You put fitness first. Family: “I spend my evenings with my kids. I don’t bring work home with me after 5pm, no matter how ‘important’.” Commitments: “I don’t flake. If I say I’m going to do something, I do it. I don’t say yes and then back out.” “It’s either a HELL YEAH, or a NO, regardless of whether it offends people. In each of the examples above, we all have thousands of things vying for our attention and focus. We need to have things we believe in, rules that we stick to, and live by. It might mean pissed off co-workers, an angry boss, or missed gatherings. It also means you get to do the things you need to do and spend time with the people you need to spend time with. These decisions do not come without consequences, but you have to stay strong.""


Steve Kamb (@stevekamb) • Instagram photos and videos: "Relying on motivation or waiting for inspiration to get in shape/travel/etc is a losing battle and it's why you're still where you are instead of where you say you want to be every year. Succeeding in those activities isn't a problem of motivation or willpower or inspiration. It's a problem of discipline. # Manufacture discipline and build systems in your life so you don't need to rely on those fleeting things. Want to "exercise more?" Sleep in your exercise clothes. Put your alarm clock across the room. Schedule your workouts in your calendar. No junk food in house. Give $50 to a political cause you hate every time you miss a workout. "


Sunday, May 01, 2016

"We all have dark places in us, and things that have happened to us, but those things don't have to run our lives."

Talk Nice...To Yourself — Tony Horton Life: "Speaking negatively to yourself on a regular basis can have a profoundly bad effect on many aspects of your life. If you openly trash yourself, you give people around you license to do the same.   People who have positive internal conversation have less run-in's with depression, stress and drama, if-you-will...

A positive attitude is much more than just "staying positive." It's about acknowledging and taking a hard look at all your positive attributes (and you have many) and bringing those to light instead of the negative ones...

We all have dark places in us, and things that have happened to us, but those things don't have to run our lives. We have a choice in the matter. We get to choose the way we feel about ourselves, and what we say to ourselves."