Training 242-243/P90X 10-11.

242/10 - Shoulders and arms/Ab Ripper X, 2L water, 3 meals.

243/11 - Yoga X, 2L water, 4 meals. Avoided the fast forward button today on the yoga wkout. Still ridiculously hard. Fell out and stopped early a lot. Just standing and breathing. [Which is yoga, right? Sigh.] Balance poses are horrendously hard for me.

"10 Ways To Be Absolutely F*@king Miserable!"by MuscleHack/Mark McManus.

Hilariously inspiring. Click over for further humorous elucidation.

10 Ways To Be Absolutely F*@king Miserable! | MuscleHack:

"...Sometimes we envy those who are so miserable, “Why can’t I be as sad as him” or “She’s so lucky, you never see her without a frown on her face”.

You too can be as depressed as them - I promise!

All it takes is the power of your mental focus. Your life is what you focus on, that’s all.

Luckily, I have created a list to help you stay in a negative state AT ALL TIMES. Try it for a few days; if you’re not lower in spirits than ever before, I’ll give you your money back!

(1) Live In The Past...
(2) Think About Missed Opportunities...
(3) The Grass IS Greener On The Other Side...
(4) Remember All The Times You’ve Been Mistreated. Replay these occasions over and over again in your mind...
(5) Worry About Possible Future Mistreatment. When done with step 4, move to worrying about more of the same in the future. The great thing about our minds is that they don’t know the difference between a real and an imagined event. If you want to feel like shit, create imagined scenarios in your mind that you don’t like, you don’t have to wait on it actually happening...
(6) Focus On What’s Missing In Your Life And Don’t Be Grateful For What You Already Have...
(7) Are You Beginning To Age Quickly!? Probably not but you should believe you are, after all, the worry will cause more lines and wrinkles - a self-fulfilling prophesy is just what you need...
(8) Think About Financial Ruin...
(9) Gossip & Bitch About Others Constantly...
(10) Believe That Your Situation Is Hopeless...

P.S. If you’d like to be happy, just do the opposite"

Foreign Policy [the magazine] questions the drug war.

Foreign Policy questions drug war @ www.dosenation.com:

"Even Foreign Policy, the most widely-respected foreign policy journal in the world, thinks the US is on crack when it comes to Plan Colombia:

But after almost a decade, U.S.-assisted efforts to reduce the crop’s production in Colombia haven’t just failed; they’ve been downright counterproductive.

...coca cultivation rose 15 percent between 2000 and 2006, an October 2008 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found. A separate U.N. study found that in 2007 alone, the area of land hosting coca crops rose 27 percent. To put it mildly, something is not working.

Meanwhile, the market value of coca rose by roughly $450 per kilogram in 2007 to more than $2,000.

The United States has spent $6 billion on Plan Colombia, but Colombia still supplies 90 percent of U.S. cocaine. Time for a rethink on the drug war?"

"It's because they're stupid. That's why everyone does everything." - Homer Simpson.

Religion, continuing to lead the charge into the 15th century.

Religion and nanotechnology - Boing Boing:

"Religious people seem to have a more negative view of nanotechnology than others, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin's Department of Life Sciences Communication rated 11 countries in Europe and the US on 'religiosity' and then looked at their attitudes on nanotechnology. Professor Dietram Scheufele and his colleagues presented their results in the scientific journal Nature Nanotechnology."

The best commentary on this, other than my obvious "Holy Jesus, are they retarded," is from the comments thread at the Boing:

"I am wary of anyone who uses fables told by nomadic bronze age peoples as the basis to make scientific judgments."

"HOWTO Carry a gun onto an airplane" via Boing Boing.

Click over for the full story.

HOWTO Carry a gun onto an airplane - Boing Boing:

"Wanna carry a gun onto an airplane? It's easy -- just get any government ID (the cards issued to part-time assistant harbor masters on Cape Cod will do) and then tell the TSA that you need a 'flying while armed' form. Not only will they let you bring your gun onto the plane, they'll helpfully bring you into the cockpit (with your gun) and tell who who the undercover Sky Marshals are. That's just what forty-eight-year-old Stephen Grant of Rockland did (he didn't carry a gun on in the end). Don't worry, they've fixed it all now.

Oh, and please pretend that whole time that they were taking away your toothpaste and X-raying your shoes (for X-ray-invisible explosives!) that they weren't willing to allow anyone with a part-time assistant harbor master's badge carry a gun into the cockpit."

"We call for a presumption that mentally competent adults should be able to engage in cognitive enhancement using drugs."

Debunking the BS preventing the use of cognitive enhancement pharmacology. If the world were sane, it wouldn't be a problem.

Hit & Run > "We call for a presumption that mentally competent adults should be able to engage in cognitive enhancement using drugs." - Reason Magazine:

"...Three arguments against the use of cognitive enhancement by the healthy quickly bubble to the surface in most discussions: that it is cheating, that it is unnatural and that it amounts to drug abuse.

In the context of sports, pharmacological performance enhancement is indeed cheating. But, of course, it is cheating because it is against the rules. Any good set of rules would need to distinguish today's allowed cognitive enhancements, from private tutors to double espressos, from the newer methods, if they are to be banned.

As for an appeal to the 'natural', the lives of almost all living humans are deeply unnatural; our homes, our clothes and our food — to say nothing of the medical care we enjoy — bear little relation to our species' 'natural' state. Given the many cognitive-enhancing tools we accept already, from writing to laptop computers, why draw the line here and say, thus far but no further?

As for enhancers' status as drugs, drug abuse is a major social ill, and both medicinal and recreational drugs are regulated because of possible harms to the individual and society. But drugs are regulated on a scale that subjectively judges the potential for harm from the very dangerous (heroin) to the relatively harmless (caffeine). Given such regulation, the mere fact that cognitive enhancers are drugs is no reason to outlaw them..."

SWAT team raids food co-op over licensing confusion.

The world is just going god damn crazy, I swear.

Hit & Run > Pantry Raid - Reason Magazine:

"A crack SWAT team of sherrif's deputies, health inspectors, and Ohio Department of Agriculture officials busted into the Manna Storehouse food co-op in LaGrange, Ohio, in a raid last week. The co-op is also the home of the Stowers family, so Katie Stowers, her children, and her in-laws were held at gunpoint while the agents took tens of thousands of dollars worth of meat, plus computers and cell phone. Chad Stowers, Katie's husband, wasn't home because he is a U.S. Navy Seabee currently in Iraq.

Their crime? The warrant listed the reason for the raid as 'beef.'

Manna may, perhaps, have needed a license to run a retail food establishment. Mostly a coop, they did sell some leftover products in a small store on the property. The exact nature of the business is in dispute, which is why the Stowers' wrote letters to various agencies asking for advice on how to proceed. Obviously, the best way to reply to that request was with a SWAT team."

Judge Judith E. Retchin is an asshole.

That is all.

Hit & Run > Jonathan Magbie - Reason Magazine:

"The Washington Post columnist won't let the 2004 case of Jonathan Magbie go away. Magbie was a 27-year-old quadriplegic sentenced by Washington, D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith E. Retchin to 10 days in jail for marijuana possession. It was Magbie's first offense. Retchin was well aware of Magbie's condition, that he needed a ventilator to breathe, and that D.C.'s jails weren't equipped to handle him. Even prosecutors in the case asked her not to send him to jail. She did anyway. Once he was admitted, the jail's assistant medical director called Retchin, and begged her to allow Magbie to be sent to a hospital instead. She refused. Magbie soon fell into respiratory distress, and was sent to an emergency room. An incompetent doctor then sent him right back to the jail, where he died hours later.

...Judge Retchin is still serving on the D.C. Superior Court. This case should be her legacy."

I was not aware this worked that way.

Overheard in New York | The Voters Have Spoken:

"Guy: Want to come back to my place?
Girl: I thought you had a girlfriend.
Guy: I told you, I just haven't broken up with her yet!
Girl: Fine, but you still have a girlfriend.
Guy: Fuck that. I still have a girlfriend only in the same sense that Bush is still President.

--Blue & Gold

Overheard by: true..."

Training 241/P90X 9.

2.5L water, 4 meals, wkout - plyometrics. Still ridiculously hard.

Mike, is that you?

[Hi Mike!] ^-^

Overheard at the Beach | George Patton Learns Why Children Make Bad Soldiers:

"Four-year-old boy, crouched behind a sand wall, yelling at friends running from waves: Hold your positions! I said, 'Hold your positions!'

--Sandy Hook, New Jersey"

A police action I can get behind.

Overheard in New York | Domo Arigato, Mr. Hoboto:

"Bum doing the robot: Zzzzzzz robot, zzzzzzz whirrr whirr, doing the robot.
Cop passing by, over car loudspeaker: That is the worst robot I've ever seen.
(crowd cheers)

--Times Square

Overheard by: omegatron"

What I've Read - more Grisham.

Another light-read-JET-midyear-conference pickup. Not bad, but the second Grisham book in row I've read without anybody to really root for or care about.

Interesting premise, but a lot of it doesn't really hold up [post what really happened politically since 9/11] but can't really explain why without giving away a few key plot points.

Diverting airplane read, maybe.

Amazon.com: The Brethren: John Grisham: Books:

" The Brethren is in many respects his most daring book yet. The novel grows from two separate subplots. In the first, three imprisoned ex-judges (the "brethren" in the title), frustrated by their loss of power and influence, concoct an elaborate blackmail scheme that preys on wealthy, closeted gay men. The second story traces the rise of presidential candidate Aaron Lake, a puppet essentially created by CIA director Teddy Maynard to fulfill Maynard's plans for restoring the power of his beleaguered agency.

Grisham's tight control of the two meandering threads leaves the reader guessing through most of the opening chapters how and when these two worlds will collide. Also impressive is Grisham's careful portraiture. Justice Hatlee Beech in particular is a fascinating, tragic anti-hero: a millionaire judge with an appointment for life who was rendered divorced, bankrupt, and friendless after his conviction for a drunk-driving homicide.

The book's cynical view of presidential politics and criminal justice casts a somewhat gloomy shadow over the tale. CIA director Teddy Maynard is an all-powerful demon with absolute knowledge and control of the public will and public funds. Even his candidate, Congressman Lake, is a pawn in Maynard's egomaniacal game of ad campaigns, illicit contributions, and international intrigue. In the end, The Brethren marks a transition in Grisham's career toward a more thoughtful narrative style with less interest in the big-payoff blockbuster ending. But that's not to say that the last 50 pages won't keep your reading light turned on late. --Patrick O'Kelley"

Training 240/P90X 8.

2.5L water, 4 meals, diet sodas, coffees + Chest & Back wkout.

Inspiration: Bodybuilding.com - Male Transformation Of The Week - Male Transformation Of The Week - Christopher Olivo!:

"Name: Christopher Olivo
Before:
Age: 29
Height: 5'11'
Weight: 265 lbs
Body Fat: 30%


After:
Age: 31
Height: 5'11'
Weight: 190 lbs
Body Fat: 8%"

Way Inappropriate.

But too funny.

YouTube - Jizz In My Pants

The first single from The Lonely Island's debut album "INCREDIBAD". In stores 02/10/2009.

Video features guest appearances by Molly Sims, Jamie Lynn Sigler, and Justin Timberlake.

The Lonely Island is Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone.

Card Throwing 101.

This is how the internet works - you download an old Ricky Jay TV special and then remember watching his awesome 52 Assistants show on HBO years ago, featuring his deft and deadly card throwing skills. From there you Google "card throwing" and read up on Jay's influence, the current Guinness record holder [Rick Smith Jr] and proceed to fall into a YouTube spiral. And here you go. Welcome to the awesome.

Rick Smith Jr on the Wayne Brady show. [I don't care what you say, Wayne Brady is funny.]


Ricky Jay chopping a pencil in half with a playing card.


Ricky Jay wins a bet. Way cool.


An excerpt from the exceptional Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants. His skills are awesome, but his patter is superbly sublime.

Man, that's cold.

Overheard Everywhere | Dear Gays and Lesbians-- Sure You Want This?:

"Sexy businesswoman on cell: No, I'll be here at the office for at least four or five more hours, honey. Love you. Bye. (sits down at bar next to young man and rubs his crotch) Husband's taken care of.

Circle Centre Mall
Indianapolis, Indiana

Overheard by: Shatmandu"

"The 5th Presentation of Chikuzen Area's English Speeches."

This year, like last year, we had a regional English speech presentation. Not a contest, as there was no competition, just an exchange of culture and whatnot. Whereas we had three slots for students last year, this year we only had one. But I spent the last two weeks or so coaching her after school and during lunch time when she was free.

So, on Saturday AM, I and a couple other English teachers headed out to Dazaifu to check out all the speeches.

The view from the cheap seats.

From 2008-12-07

My student, who gave the best recitation of her speech in 3 weeks during crunch-time and under pressure. Fantastic. Here she endures my demand for a picture.

From 2008-12-07

Her speech.

From 2008-12-07

Programs, getcher' programs!

From 2008-12-07

At the end of it all I was filled with undeserved pride, and imagined that this must be what real teachers feel like. Awesomeness.

Winter, my mortal enemy.

No, the snow didn't stick, but the fact it was even cold enough to snow means that something's gone horribly wrong in my world.

You can only barely see the snow here, outside the door, at about 8AM.

From 2008-12-07

930, at the train in Dazaifu, with appropriately random Japanese bystanders.

From 2008-12-07

I will admit it can make for nice scenery. As long as you stay in the heated car.

From 2008-12-07

Training 236-239/P90X 4-7.

So that's the end of week one on P90X, and holy Jesus is that a tough set of workouts. I'll never mock infomercials again, cause you never know. It doesn't help, of course, that I'm still pretty woefully out of shape, despite having dropped 15-20lbs since starting back working out...

And Tony Horton, the uber-enthusiastic trainer who leads the workouts is just a goddamned machine. [At 45, as he notes.]

It's a trite and cliched truism that's repeated throughout the wkouts - "Do your best, and forget the rest." - nevertheless it's what's getting me through. Going head to head with just how uncoordinated and unathletic I've become isn't pleasant, but there's nothing to do but consistently press onwards.

If by the end of 90 days I can just keep up w/the workouts, we'll consider that an impressive achievement and go from there.

236/4 - 2.5L water, 5 meals, a few coffees and Yoga X. A word on the yoga routine. It's not a relaxing, soothing, calming your body and mind type of thing. Not for me, leastways. It was a grueling, dripping sweat at the 20m mark [of a 75m workout] and falling on my ass often for a lack of balance and coordination. Brutal. Also, I forgot to hit the Ab RipperX from yesterday, so I made up for that today. Hit a few more reps per set than the last time, so, hey, progress.

237/5 - 2.5L water, 5 meals, coffees and Legs & Back.

238/6 - Free/Rest day. Just like before on BFL, I'll probably almost always be switching out my Saturdays and Sundays, making Saturday my free/rest day and Sunday my wkout day. I was going to try and knock out the X Stretch/active rest program, but I had an English Speech recitation/work thing for most of the day, and I couldn't conquer my laziness once I got home from that but to do anything but veg out.

239/7 - 2L water, 2 meals and Kempo X. Thank god. Finally, a workout I can kind of hang with. Years of playing at Bruce Lee and MMA training/dabbling ensures that muscle memory is kind. Though my kicks are still slow and weak - but that's how it is when your actual MMA base is collegiate boxing - the combos flow fairly well. And while some of the traditional karate/Kempo techniques they use in the cardio wkout are kind of... well, bad... to put it bluntly... I'm able to tweak them into actually useful techniques.

Inspiration - RossTraining.com Blog » More Proof That Age Is Just A Number:

"A week doesn’t pass without an email from a new reader to the site who feels over the hill in his 30’s or 40’s. They honestly believe that they are too old to turn back the hands of time.

...I continue to tell others that the body will keep performing if it is treated properly, but there are still many who don’t listen. Fortunately, the video below offers visual proof. Actions speak louder than words, and this man is full of action.

At age 67, Dominic is able to perform movements and routines that would crush many 27 year olds. I don’t know the man, but I was certainly impressed after seeing his video posted on my forum. Everyone who saw the video had nothing but positive things to say, and most couldn’t believe that a 67 year old was in such tremendous condition. It isn’t every day that you bump into someone in their 60’s or 70’s who regularly cranks out pull-ups, pushups and burpees.

There are two things that I particularly like about this video. First (obviously), it’s great to see a man in his 60’s who continues to bust his ass and stay in top condition. What I also enjoy however is the relative simplicity of his routines. I don’t see any fancy equipment in his workout room. He is a perfect example of low-tech/high-effect.

...Perhaps they can learn from his example. Hard work and consistency often prove more valuable than any so called “state of the art” program or facility. Some get lost in paralysis by analysis while others just get up and go. Falling back on the basics doesn’t mean that you don’t understand more complex approaches. It simply means that you already know what works and won’t become lost in the endless search."

And here's another one - 402.5 Lb raw deadlift at age 78