[The Most Loathed] learns....slowly

[Rooks]

On 9/13/2018 at 9:04 PM, The Most Loathed said:

There's other stuff but the overall theme is, I'm doing awesome. I love my wife more than ever. I am content with myself more than ever. 

 

Great update and the fact it's ends this way makes it pretty damn awesome. Great to hear TML. 

[Shello]

I'm so glad to hear things turned a corner and you are in such a good place.  

[Sloth the Enduring]

What happened with the KB saga? It seems weird that they wouldn’t pay up. It can’t be even as much as a month worth of rent on one of their studios.

Are you having side effect issues with your meds or are you just generally opposed to being continually medicated?

Once you hit a certain age it seems like dating is much easier for men. Based on the women I know, I’d guess most would be very happy with a basic decent guy regardless of a lot of things that you might think were important.


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[The Most Loathed]

I swear, Ill get back to this habit, it's just taking some time.

 

Things continue to be really good with Laura. We're still figuring a lot of things out but both of us seem to be very happy with what we are figuring out. This wouldn't have been  possible had both of us not had some realizations about ourselves. We're both very optimistic about our future together. It will be a very different relationship, which is exactly what it needs to be.

 

 

The kettlebell saga finally wrapped today. After I reached out to a lawyer, but before I had gotten into any kind of a paying relationship with one the apartment management reached out  to say that they were working on how to balance things with me. So all of last week I just kind of held my breath on the whole thing. Yesterday I kept thinking, I need to call that lawyer but I didn't. Today my building finally got back to me with a $2,000 credit against rent. It was literally the lowest offer I would have accepted but they did offer and I did accept. 

At this point I don't plan on replacing the bells. Today I did a barbell workout and that's the plan going forward. I'm trying to work up more of a true plan but for now I'm just getting my body back in the groove. I was sore after my push workout this weekend and I think I can guarantee the  same after today's pull workout. More on all that later.

 

Work is good. It continues to be a supportive environment. I have minor complaints but nothing that can't be a work in progress. I'm good there.

 

Therapy is still doing me a lot of good . I don't have a lot to say in the moment. I can drill into this in anyone cares.

 

I am still totally digging playing guitar. I'm in the phase of just drilling stuff  so it's not sexy at all but I like having something I can just drill at random times. It's also been a fun for Laura and I bond over. She can't play guitar but she know a crazy amount about music theory so I try to make a point to ask her about it often. 

 

I dunno, I feel like I should have more, what am I not telling anyone that they are dying to know?

 

09/25/2018

Deadlift 335 5 x 3, 5 x 2 - my hands were the failure point

Power Snatch 115 3 x 5 - I was a little less solid in the end but nothing here that I couldn't handle

Pull Up 6 x 2

Good Morning 115 3 x 5 - I had 5 x5 programmed but my hammies wanted to cramp

Barbell Row  115 3 x 8 - the easiest set in the workout

Bicep Curls - skipped these because I still can't convince myself that they are important

[Sloth the Enduring]

I’m glad things are going well for you brother.


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[Rooks]

I second Sloth's opinion. Also, this by Christmas? 

 

 

[tcw295]

Barbells in 2018? Who could have seen it coming. Life, eh?

[The Most Loathed]

So long between updates

 

I don't have my notebook handy but I got a couple good workouts in this week as I try to build out my new program. Current workouts are very experimental. The most interesting workout was yesterday.

 

This weekend is CabinCon for me. Some friends have started doing these in the past few years and I've never made one until now. Some gamers I know rent a house in northern Minnesota, we all chip in on the cost and take turns cooking and play games for days. I've always wanted to make one but various things have always stopped me. This year I had no excuses. 

I came up on Thursday with some of the guys who are the primary organizers. We played a few games that night and ate too much pizza. The whole weekend is too much beer, too much food and too many games. 

It was something of a joke when we got her that there is a pretty well stocked home gym in the basement. One guy really wanted to bench so I helped him get set up and spotted him during his lift. That was the most work it has ever seen during one of these cons. Yesterday after a very long game that I hated, I took a walk and smoked a cigar. When I got back, rather than jumping back into gaming, I threw on my gym shorts that I had brought only for the purpose of sleeping, and my t-shirt form the day before and went down and hit the gym for an hour. It was the best. It's a home gym so they don't have everything but I did:

• Smith Machine squats
• Barbell Hang Clean
• Barbell row
• Seated Row
• Push up
• Lat pull down
• Dumbell  back raise
• Dumbell Curls
• Plate halos
• Plate shovels (I think I used to call these something else)

It was all lighter, higher volume work but the intent was to do a lot of upper body pulling and lower body pushing. I came up a little short on lower body pushing ideas and would take suggestions. I usually would use some leg extensions but didn't have a machine. Any other ideas of what else I should have brought in? I usually think of lunges for these but find they are more a pull-glute intensive exercise than a quad exercise.

 

I'm still loving guitar but still am no good. I'm just doing the grind of working on chords and strumming patterns. 

 

I have been eating, as @RisenPhoenix says, like and asshole for a while now. I need to pull that back in. I have a bit of a gut going right now and don't like it.

 

I haven't told @Sloth the Enduring yet, but am guessing he has deduced, I'm not going to make Hammer Race this fall. I'm using my topsy turvy summer as an excuse.

 

It looks like I get to see @Rooks again soon as I had a spare ticket for a concert and he seemed like the person most likely to enjoy it so I offered it to him. I'm looking forward to  the concert. In an effort to further embrace my rock-loving self I also spent a couple hundred buck across getting myself a ticket for the November Five Finger Death Punch concert and March Shinedown concert. The tickets were pricey so I didn't buy a spare ticket this time. 

 

Laura and I are doing really well We had a minorly dramatic moment last weekend but worked through it and came out well. The recovery is a good sign, these were the kinds of thing that would escalate and drag on for days in the past and we both bounced back just fine. 

 

Right now my primary projects are to align myself with my own wishes in the workout/nutrition space, encourage and nurture myself on guitar, and make sure that I'm leaving myself plenty of downtime to just chill out. It's been going well although I feel like I've been doing things in the opposite order and want to build them in that priority order. 

 

Thinking about training:

What I think I want in this space is a fault tolerant program that has about 5 days a week in it. I'd like to bring in some kind of light yoga that has some 20-30 minute routines that I can do in the morning to wake my body up and work on flexibility. For training itself I'm trying to come up with 3 hard days a week that have an hour of solid training. I'm currently thinking a pull day, push day, and total body day. I'd like to take the remaining days and have some metcon and cardio in them. 

For the volume and intensity of the training, I know that my body tolerates low volume, high intensity programs well so I started with mostly 5x5 work but am trying to push the volume up. So If I have a good 5 x 5 lift one time, I want to keep the weight in the same ballpark but add another set or longer sets the next time. Part of this has meant keeping a log of not just what I have done but what percent of failure I think that was.

So, if I do barbell row with 135 for 5 x 5 and I get done feeling like I could have probably done one more set without failure, I'll mark it down as 80%, that means next time I should make it harder, maybe 6 x 5. If I feel like I could start another set but not finish it, 90%, hold steady next time but maybe push the movement back in the workout so I'll start the set more fatigued. If I can't finish the set, I write down what I did but I'll indicate something like 110% to 125%, telling me to back down next time. If I try lifting a weight that I can't even do for a set happily, I will usually label it as 150%, which is arbitrary but it communicates to me ignore what I programmed and focus on what I was able to do going forward so subsequent workouts need to be easier on that lift. 

The bigger plan is to try and have more variety in my programming, rather than just hammer the big lifts. I want to be more well rounded and capable. I don't care as much about bigger numbers and I don't necessarily want to get physically bigger. Because of this, after breaking myself in for this quart or so, I see myself probably hammering metcon a bit more in the new year, to help with fat loss and to avoid to much growth. Then probably try and pull in more cardio and drop heavy lifting down to even less of a priority in Q2 of 2019. Generally though, I'm too flighty for my program to hold up that long so we'll see.

 

Thinking about grooming:

This isn't something I usually say much about but something I've been doing recently is shaving my head. I started when Laura and I separated, prior to that, she used clippers on my head for me. Initially I was using a Norelco 3-head shaver on my scalp, which worked well. I decided to try using a safety razor on my head. This has been a mixed result.

Using an actual blade on my head gives me a much closer shave than any electric shaver I have tried. It brings the obvious issue that I can now slice my head open. I'm still playing with different blades and do find that this makes a bigger difference than I would have thought possible. The really sharp blades can get my head really smooth, which I love but makes any challenging spots really obvious that they are always a little stubbly. They can also knich and infected hair off with me barely noticing. Those bleed, a lot. 

So, I'm still working on this but am settling into really liking using a blade, even with the occasional knick.

 

Thinking about me:

A large part of this whole experience has been seeing myself as and adult, by myself for the first time in my life. It's been a really positive thing to work on. It means, though, that I spend a lot of time asking myself who I want to be. What value do I bring and to whom? This isn't a settled question for me. There are my selfish pursuits (lifting and guitar) that I love but are inherently just for me. It also means that sometimes I prioritize myself over others, including Laura, which is new for me. It's not necessarily a bad thing but I can't help but to keep asking "to what end?" 

I've put Boy Scouts on hold as I've been going through this but I haven't found that I want to go back to that troop. I don't feel like I'm getting anything from it and I don't really feel like I'm providing much value to anyone in this space. I haven't come up with something else to fill this gap and I'm not sure what I want there.

 

 

Anyone, that's a brain dump of what has been on my mind for the past little bit.

Mini-goal for the week, actually log my workouts and get at least three posts on NF this week. 

[Elastigirl]

Cabin Con sounds fun, but I'd have to take walk breaks, because that's way too much sitting for my attention span. What game didn't you like?

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

I must say I’m disappointed. It’s my own fault for ghosting you.

Cabin Con sounds awesome.


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[Rooks]

On 10/6/2018 at 7:15 PM, The Most Loathed said:

I came up a little short on lower body pushing ideas and would take suggestions. I usually would use some leg extensions but didn't have a machine. Any other ideas of what else I should have brought in? I usually think of lunges for these but find they are more a pull-glute intensive exercise than a quad exercise.

 

Perhaps belt squats assuming you can get a dip belt (or again, borrow mine which is collecting dust since I don't have a dip station anymore). Or even without that, just come up with a way to strap something to your waist / body. Maybe even weights in a backpack and just do a load of squats. 

 

On 10/6/2018 at 7:15 PM, The Most Loathed said:

It looks like I get to see @Rooks again soon as I had a spare ticket for a concert and he seemed like the person most likely to enjoy it so I offered it to him. I'm looking forward to  the concert. In an effort to further embrace my rock-loving self I also spent a couple hundred buck across getting myself a ticket for the November Five Finger Death Punch concert and March Shinedown concert. The tickets were pricey so I didn't buy a spare ticket this time. 

 

I was debating about buying tickets to FFDP myself, but realized I'll be out of state when they are here. And thank you again for the ticket. I'm looking forward to that. I go to so few concerts that it should be a good time for sure.

 

On 10/6/2018 at 7:15 PM, The Most Loathed said:

A large part of this whole experience has been seeing myself as and adult, by myself for the first time in my life. It's been a really positive thing to work on. It means, though, that I spend a lot of time asking myself who I want to be. What value do I bring and to whom? This isn't a settled question for me. There are my selfish pursuits (lifting and guitar) that I love but are inherently just for me. It also means that sometimes I prioritize myself over others, including Laura, which is new for me. It's not necessarily a bad thing but I can't help but to keep asking "to what end?" 

 

Resonating with this something fierce. My wife and I were chatting the other day about how lately, I've just had no idea what the hell I'm doing in anything and she told me about a podcast from the Minimalists. I haven't yet listened to it myself, but I did read the little blog post they had about it. I'll link to both in case you want to explore it. The principal seems sound in that you need to identify what's important to figure out if you are indeed living to those things of importance. Makes sense, but in reality, I imagine this quite a difficult practice as how do you figure out what the true value is? Anyway... I won't digress too much with my rambling head. 

 

http://minimalwellness.com/values/

https://www.theminimalists.com/p069/

[The Most Loathed]

On 10/6/2018 at 11:25 PM, Elastigirl said:

Cabin Con sounds fun, but I'd have to take walk breaks, because that's way too much sitting for my attention span. What game didn't you like?

It was a game called Champions of Midgard. I blends some Euro elements similar to Stone Age or Lords of Waterdeep with the dice building and chucking of Quarriors. I like all of those things but they don't mix together well and clocking in at 4 hours is way too much time to waste on a bad game. 

 

On 10/7/2018 at 10:51 AM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I must say I’m disappointed. It’s my own fault for ghosting you.

This year is a rebuilding year.

 

On 10/8/2018 at 2:56 PM, Rooks said:

I was debating about buying tickets to FFDP myself, but realized I'll be out of state when they are here. And thank you again for the ticket. I'm looking forward to that. I go to so few concerts that it should be a good time for sure.

 

 

Resonating with this something fierce. My wife and I were chatting the other day about how lately, I've just had no idea what the hell I'm doing in anything and she told me about a podcast from the Minimalists. I haven't yet listened to it myself, but I did read the little blog post they had about it. I'll link to both in case you want to explore it. The principal seems sound in that you need to identify what's important to figure out if you are indeed living to those things of importance. Makes sense, but in reality, I imagine this quite a difficult practice as how do you figure out what the true value is? Anyway... I won't digress too much with my rambling head. 

 

http://minimalwellness.com/values/

https://www.theminimalists.com/p069/

Heads up that Nothing More tickets go on sale on Friday and they're cheap. I also bought a general admission ticket for Shinedown and Papa Roach but it was kind of pricey.

 

going to look at your links after I finish posting.

 

I came back from Cabincon with a cold. It later Monday and throughout Tuesday so no workouts so far this week and it looks like it will be sunday before I hit the gym again. It's mostly been R&R this week. Nothing crazy, I've been diligent about my guitar practice and loafing a bit more than usual and slowly trying to catch up on home maintenance tasks. 

[The Most Loathed]

Bought a pair of Nothing More tickets. I'm seeing if Laura wants to go first then I'll ask around if she's not interested. There were like $60 after fees and taxes so I figured I could afford to have a spare. 

 

Thursday was roleplaying We're doing a Call of Cthulhu campaign that is currently set in Peru. I'm having a lot of fun. I used to know a columbia woman named Pamela so I decided to embody her for this character. Pamela is a local smuggler which has been serving the group well as I've been taking advantage of her local contacts and knowledge to the benefit of everyone. 

 

Friday started a staycation that I had arranged for Laura and I. We dropped the dog off at the kennel so she can stay at my place for the weekend. We went out for a very nice but expensive supper at Hammer and Sickle then came back to my apartment to crash. The plan for today is probably to a take a drive north for lunch and to see the leaves changing. Tonight we're going to a comedy show that features depression as a topic. 

We don't have a whole lot more of a plan than that right now. That's kind of the point, to take it easy and enjoy the weekend and each others company. Once the week starts again, we aren't going to see each other a lot for the next two to three weeks. 

[Bearlee]

I would have been disappointed if the Hammer and Sickle was not a Communist Soviet Union themed restaurant and from what I saw on their website they did not disappoint.

Glad to hear things are working out for you. Cabin-Con sounds fun.

Any thoughts about your return trip to the Netherlands?

[Bearlee]

I’ve been reading a book called The Sublte Art of Not Giving a F*ck and to be honest I’m not getting much out of it. But there was a section talking about how goals suck and I thought about our discussion about goals. He takes the same stance as you that goals might be more bad for you than helpful due to the demotivation you get once you reach that goal and you find out you weren’t any happier than you were before. Instead like you he advocates a process mentality. While I still do find myself setting goals that it would be nice to be this weight or that, after our conversation I’m now more focused on the process of doing my yoga, drinking less calories, and making little changes in my life that will result in my goals being a by-product of the process. Didn’t know if I ever thanked you for that bit of mental banter, I always appreciate your insights.

[The Most Loathed]

Proof of Life!

 

Wow. It's been since October. Sorry all.

A few of you have reached out to me outside of the forums and I want you to know that I really appreciate it.

 

Workout wise I have failed to put anything cohesive together and stayed home drinking more often than going to the gym. I've gained the predictable pounds that would go with that. So, this week I started at Crossfit Minneapolis. I know all of the poo poos that can be layered on that system but right now I need the structure and community more than anything. 

 

Work is amazing and continues to get amazing-er. They love me. I love them.

 

Guitar is good. i'm still terrible but guitar is good. Work in progress.

 

My marriage is all over except the paperwork. We're planning to take care of that this month. 

 

I always end these posts with a promise to post more. I won't make that promise today. There is no plan right now except reestablishing my patterns. I don't know if or where NerdFitness fits within that. So if you want to get together or have an email or phone relationship, please feel free to keep in touch through whatever means you find helpful. 

[The Most Loathed]

This post is part of a very limited run of posts that I will explain in the next post. First, I want to log a workout. Then I'll make breakfast than I'll come back here and attend to some much overdue business.

 

This workout was the first in almost three weeks after having a cold and then just been slow at getting my ass back to the gym. It was also my first in at least 6 months, probably closer to a year that was self programmed and executed at the local YWCA. As a result, it's a little light.

 

Power Snatch 40 kg (95 lbs) 5 x 1

Overhead Squat 40 kg (95 lbs) 3 x 5

Front Squat 60 kg (135 lbs) 3 x 5

Push Press 3 x 5 60 kg (135 lbs) 3 x 5

Strict Pull up 5 x 2

Single Leg Deadlift 12 kg 3 5/5

 

Took a little over an hour, gave myself ample recovery between sets, around 2 minutes, without timing though so high variability. 

Felt great, I think my legs will bitch tomorrow but good for them. 

A little music while you wait (not that I actually believe people will read this between now and then but here you go)

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

The phrase “very limited run” tempers my enthusiasm somewhat, but I’m glad you popped in.

[The Most Loathed]

1 hour ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

The phrase “very limited run” tempers my enthusiasm somewhat, but I’m glad you popped in.

Mr. Quick-on-the-trigger.

 

I'll start with the limited run comment. I'm going on vacation in two weeks. I'll be in an entirely different hemisphere and I won't have access to wi-fi or even power for significant chunks of of it. So, I'm going to plan to post for two weeks but then there will be three weeks where I won't be posting or I will be posting very sporadically and with no workouts involved, although a million steps. I will be hiking the Inca Trail.

 

I debated not even starting back to posting knowing I have this lay off around the corner but I wanted to get back into practice and I wanted somewhere to log my workouts. My plan/hope is that after I return to post more often. My fall is pretty packed with moving into a new apartment in October, CabinCon in October, and two weeks at work conventions in November so I may blip on and off the radar at times but I'm (re)building a habit. 

 

This weekend I plan on ending my membership at my local Crossfit gym (I still refuse to call it a box). I have mixed feelings on this. I love the coaching that they provide but their programming sucks. I get what they are doing with their programming but it's amateurish. I don't blame the coaches at my gym specifically, they don't do the programming. However, it's what they execute so I need to move on. Plus, needing to be in "class" at a specific time bugs me. It's too much of an easy excuse for me to just bail. 

 

Other stuff

Reading

I have not been great about reading much in recent months but I have been, very slowly, working through Mythos by Stephen Fry. I really want an audio book of this with him narrating. For reasons I can't explain, in the Northern Hemisphere it is only available on CD but in Australia you can buy it on Audible. Regardless, a great survey of Greek and Roman Myths.

 

I've been reading more graphic novels. In the past they have felt too short for me to care but lately I've found them to be the right length for my attention span. I found that I really dig the Hawkeye books, Jeremy Renner in the movies. They have the right amount of silliness to action to engage my brain right now. I've also picked up a few random graphic novels at my local comic shop, mostly based on graphical style. Nothing really jumps out as amazing but I have a few more to work through.

 

Movies

Man, I have seen so many more movies this year. Some of them have been deliberate selections of B movies (The New Barbarians for example). Others have been nostalgia flicks (I want the OG Karate Kid at the Parkway Theater). Some have been events (Fifth Element Movie Party at Alamo Drafthouse). Some have just been straight boredom (every Marvel flick). I'm seriously intrigued by what I like vs the general public vs some of the reviewers I really respect. 

I recently decided that I'm going to rewatch Fury Road. I hated that movie. Shit CGI. The story is nothing more than a thinly veiled coming of age (destruction of the illusion of paradise, taking on the world as it is) as made by an 18 year old metal head with an infinite budget. But, I keep hearing how amazing it is so I'm going to try again. Similarly, I loved Venom, but keep hearing it's terrible with with very little argument as to why. So I'm going to rewatch it as well. I also have an itch to rewatch Desparado, which I haven't seen since it was brand new. 

I think this weekend I'm going to watch Godzilla, King of the Monsters. I get what it is and genuinely hope that I enjoy the ride. 

I haven't been keeping a list and, honestly, I kind of wish I had been. 

 

TV

The Boys - My favorite take on a super hero movie. Not for children but lots of fun and has important things to say

Dark - Season 2 is almost as strong as season 1. I think I would have liked it best without the cliff hanger ending on season one and no season 2 but I'm enjoying it and will watch season 3 if it happens

Stranger Things - I enjoyed season 1. Season 2 sucked. Season 3 is right in between the two in terms of quality. They left too many hooks for them to not to try a season 4 which makes me a little sad because they need to stop

Cobra Kai - I resisted the urge to watch this for a long time then I binged two seasons in one week I found is really enjoyable and I think the writing is really good. Strong recommend. 

 

YouTube

I have watch so much YouTube in the past months. So many channels and videos I would have shared but here are a few curated selections:

• Red Letter Media - I love their Wheel of the Worst episodes most but everthing they do is good and I have watched a lot of it twice. 
• I love all of Tom Scott's educational content but I'll point you to his humor stuff because I think I have also watched all of this twice
  • Games Garage - Tom Scott tries out really random ideas to create a new game show. I love the wacky ideas and I really enjoy the low budget experimentation
  • Citation Needed - a game show based on Tom bringing up a pseudo random wikipedia article then getting his friends to guess their way through it. That's a bad explanation. I'll work on it.
• Rick Beato - he's a cranky old producer but his What Makes This Song Great series is absolute gold for learning about iconic music
• First We Feast - Hot Ones - celebrity interview while eating increasingly spicy wings. 

I could go on but I'm going to call it there. Those are all new discoveries for me so check them out

 

Video Games

I've been playing video games a bit too. I played through most of the DLC for Legend of Zelda : Breath of the Wild, it's a beautiful and fun game. Lately I have been playing Rogue Legacy. It's fun but mindless. I just started Dicey Dungeons but have to play on my laptop which isn't my favorite tool for gaming. I've also been playing Marvel Puzzle Quest on my phone. I enjoy a match three with characters but that thing is kind of a like a job if you want to do it well. Not sure of the longevity there.

 

Guitar

Still working on it. I don't feel like I'm progressing as fast as I'd like but trying to take the long view and keep plugging away. It's hard to be excited to practice some days but I keep working.

 

Music in General

I have been to so many concerts this year. At least to me. More than one a month on average. So far, my favorite was Nothing More with Rooks. My least favorite was Hellyeah. I have at least two more booked for this year.

 

Tattoos

I got my first tattoos back in March. I like them. I want more. I did a consult with a different artist a few weeks ago to cover my left shoulder with an angel. The longer term plan is the have and angel on my left shoulder and a demon on the right.

Despite the large number of shops in the Twin Cities, getting in to see anyone worth a damn is tough. So my should will be done in January. I don't mind the idea of having my tattoos spread out over years because they interrupt my lifting. 

 

Work

Still amazing. We're busy right now with some system changes. I'm going to back to back weeks of conventions in the fall. I take it as a compliment that they will spend money to ship me off to conventions. I'd like to start presenting at some. My leadership is supportive. It's on me to get my shit together and create my presentation.

 

Drama Llama

So, a year ago I was dealing with some drama in my life. I haven't kept is secret but I try to not dwell on it here so here's the super short update.

Laura and I got a divorce in December of 2018. I dated several women, one of them fairly seriously, for almost three months. I ended that for its own reasons and decided I'd be alone for a bit. Not long after that Laura and I went to a concert as friends. There was a moment where the chemistry was just there and I went with it. Jump cut to us dating very serious a month or so later. 

Things have been going well there. I required that if we were going to date that we had to do more couples counseling. We found a counselor that really fit us well and worked with him for a few months. He felt he had nothing more to offer at the time and told us to book more time if we felt we needed it. He pointed us to some workbooks to work through together and off we went. We're still working through the workbooks but we're meshing in a way that we haven't ever. In October, we're moving in together. 

 

Leaving on a downer video but @Rooks  and I saw these guys perform this year and I'm going to see the again in October. Also, this song has been where I was during a chunk of my away time. It still makes me tear up to listen to because I've spent too much time in this head space. 

 

OK, just to not go out on that note, same band, song makes me feel the exact opposite., it makes me want to "dance" (flail about like an idiot) everytime I hear it.  One of my favorites

 

[The Most Loathed]

Another Youtuber who I think people can enjoy 

 

[RisenPhoenix]

Holy crap I'm happy to see you here.  I've been thinking about messaging you on the book of faces when things got slightly more settled in my life.

 

But important information for you to know is I moved and have a guest room.  So at some point I expect you to visit the Boston area and run Harvard Stadium with me.

[The Most Loathed]

1 hour ago, RisenPhoenix said:

Holy crap I'm happy to see you here.  I've been thinking about messaging you on the book of faces when things got slightly more settled in my life.

 

But important information for you to know is I moved and have a guest room.  So at some point I expect you to visit the Boston area and run Harvard Stadium with me.

The November Project in Minneapolis has moved over by me recently. They run the stairs by the sculpture garden. It seems like a pale comparison to the stadium. 

 

I had thought I was going to be in Boston this fall but some things fell through. After my international travel this year, next year is my domestic year. The American SouthEast is on my short list but I'll definitely have to consider Boston. It's been, I think, 20 years since I've been there.

[RisenPhoenix]

34 minutes ago, The Most Loathed said:

The November Project in Minneapolis has moved over by me recently. They run the stairs by the sculpture garden. It seems like a pale comparison to the stadium. 

  

I had thought I was going to be in Boston this fall but some things fell through. After my international travel this year, next year is my domestic year. The American SouthEast is on my short list but I'll definitely have to consider Boston. It's been, I think, 20 years since I've been there.

 

You are most certainly always welcome, short notice trip or long term plan.

[The Most Loathed]

As I type this, I'm sitting in the brewery on the ground floor of my building. I have ordered nachos from the restaurant next door and I have a tab open at the bar. It's a rough life.

 

08/31/2019

I decided to walk today. Specifically a training hike. The walk can be best summed up in this picture, I think:

 

That's what my phone had recorded for my steps for the day as I returned home, twenty thousand steps over the course of three hours. To make it a valid training hike I wore the boots I intend to were for my trip. I took my daypack and loaded it with about 18 lbs of sandbags and I walked. The air here is much richer than it will be in the Andes and the ground so much flatter but I did what I could. I hadn't done any previous training hikes so this was me biting off a lot. There was a moment when I thought it was too much.

I knew I need new hiking socks and I still do. The skin over my right achilles is beat up from a seam in my boots and socks that are down to nothing there. I'll probably work on ordering those right after I'm done typing this. I didn't take any spare socks or footwear, which was kind of stupid. As I go to about the 2/3 - 3/4 mark on what ended up being my full hike I could feel a blister starting on my left little toe. I ended up taking the straightest possible route home and kind of alternating between a clenched foot and splaying it as wide as I could to keep my pinkie toe from getting further beat up. All seems fine today. Some dry socks or changing to my trail shoes could have also helped. 

 

I had and amazing dinner as well and thought I'd talk a bit about it. Don't care, skip on down. 

On New Years Eve I was dating a woman and she learned I had never been to Surdyk's, a local place for fancy cheese, meat, olives, wine and so on. This shocked her because I like food, a lot. To her credit, she took me for my first trip. Further she said "I'm buying. I want you to build us a meat and cheese tray to have for dinner tonight". "Kid in a candy is the perfect way to describe me in that moment. I loved the experience and, frankly, she loved watching me do it. She paid a pretty penny for that meat and cheese tray but it was an amazing New Year's Eve that we both enjoyed.

Fast forward to last weekend when I asked Laura if she had ever been to Surdyk's. She had not. I took her, kind of hoping to see some of that same enthusiasm. She enjoyed it but we had had a big lunch and she didn't go crazy getting anything she wanted. I think that I bought her a bottle of wine and me a bottle of local whiskey. I proposed it as dinner for last night. She loved the idea. We had been talking about watching Godzilla: King of the Monsters and were both really feeling it. 

She didn't feel like totally taking the reins on the meat and cheese selection so we split the duties. We ended up with 4 cheeses, 2 meats, 2 kinds of olives, and sme crackers. I tried to encourage her to explore and took the positions and trying to balance the plate based on what she picked. We got some amazing options. I'll slap a picture of the label for my new favorite cheese right below. The tray ended up amazing and while it cost me $50, it would have been 2-3x to have it somewhere else and I have 0 regrets.

 

On the topic of last night, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, I give it a B-. The monster stuff is great. I will suspend my disbelief for all of the monster stuff for days. This movie is what I wish either Pacific Rim would have been (but with robots). I didn't mind the occasionally clumsy environmental message because that's what Godzilla is about. I loved Ken Watanabe delivering many of the lines about Nuclear concerns. The thing sthat keeps it out of B+ and especially A territory are 1) a clumsy human story line that just fails on all level to make me give a shit and 2) the Super Plan that the good guys use. It has the same physics that I said I would forgive in the monster. That forgiveness doesn't extend to their super plane because they never gave me an excuse why it isn't just a plane. 

I'll almost certainly watch this again and just avert my eyes at times, not because of gore. Because of stupidity. I was also a little annoyed that no one called what was clearly Atlantis, Atlantis. I would wager $20 that there is a script that includes that and it got cut. It doesn't need to be a subplot or anything. Just say the word when it's appropriate. 

 

oh, Speaking of movies. I rewatched Venom, like I said I would. My initial thoughts were, "ok, I get the complaints. The movie starts real fast and keeps running from there and it's just a dumb action movie." But the longer I reflected, the more I disagreed. That movie does a lot things that people always say they want to see and don't get to. There isn't a huge back story that is told for no contextual reason. We discover Venom's powers along with Eddie Brock. The human part of him seems just as surprised as we are to learn the powers he has gained and I think that the action and director convey that really well. The fight scenes aren't just there to pointlessly break monotony. They contain everything that carries the story forward. 

While I get that the words "Superhero fatigue" were common at the time that this movie came out, I think this movie getting panned is a mistake. Further, I think it's hypocritical. Venom, while it is a super hero movie, gets a solid B+, almost A- from me. this is like 89.5% on the grading scale. I'm just going to round up and call it an A-. It's not important, it won't change the world, cure cancer, or even feed a staring child but on the scale of dumb-action-movies, it's well above par.

 

So that's 2 movie obligations for 2020, Gozilla vs Kong and Venom 2. I'm in.

 

09/01/2019 - that doesn't seem like it can be right. It's September already?

This morning saw Laura and I hitting the farmer's market, walking to my favorite butcher, and the local coop. We got rained on a bunch which was a great test for me new rain jacket. It had one small area of leakage. I'm going to buy some seam sealer and hit the whole jacket with that. I bought ingredients for tomorrow's Eggs Benedict and BLTs on Wednesday or Thursday.  speaking of peasant sandwiches that I love, I recently saw a Binging with Babish episode on grilled cheese that may have changed my life. I can't wait to try it. 

 

I got to the gym. I could feel some tightness in my hammies. This alway means I need to take some caution to not throw my back out. I kept things very manageable. 

• Deadlift 315 5 x 3
• Low Bar Back Squat 225 5 x 5
• Standing Press 95 3 x 5 - felt easy despite noticing sore deltoids when I got to the gym
• Barbell Row 95 x 3 5 - felt too easy, even though the lats were sore on every rep
• Kipping Pull Up 5 x 2 - planned 5 x 3 but just didn't have the coordination today

I took things really slow and this tol about 75 minutes.

 

This week:

My social life is pretty calm right now. That's new for me, it has been cah-razy for a while. A friend is coming back from a meditation retreat sometime this week. I'm sure we will go out for drink and, probably, wings this week, probably Wednesday. Beyond that, not much to speak of specifically

• Monday - Eggs Benedict, second attempt ever. Mobility work. Guitar. Other projects. No work.
• Tuesday - Work day. No plans. Go to the gym. Guitar
• Wednesday - Probably dinner out. Do some mobility work. Probably no time for guitar
• Thursday - Gym. BLTs. Night in
• Friday - tempted to check out the Minneapolis Strings Project in a local Brew Pub but don't want to take anyone because I want to bail whenever I feel like it. Do mobility. Guitar
• Saturday - Guitar. Gym.
• Sunday - Sourdough class. Another training hike maybe. Guitar. Maybe mobility

 

Going out on a music video of a band I discovered around New Years and got to see sometime around February. They are amazing and one of my favorite groups to listen to while I work. This type of music is known as Djent. I've never really been able to nail down a definition on what that means but it tends to be metal-ish with the guitars providing both rhythm and melody. The name is said to derive from that percussive guitar sound which some people believe sounds like "Djent". So the name is an onomatopoeia (google had to help me get that one right). I see it mostly as very jazz inspired, light metal but that's not a definitive definition. An interesting quirk of the sub-genre is that they feature a lot of guitars and basses with extra strings. Count the strings that the black guy, Tosin, is playing. The guy who is playing a six stringed instrument, Javier, is playing a bass, not a guitar. 

 

I would imagine that the biggest surprise to some people as the listen to this is that there is never a vocalist. This particular band doesn't have a vocalist. Tosin is effectively the band leader. He leads the interviews, he talks on stage but they don't have a vocal line in their songs. 

 

[Elastigirl]

Welcome back! That Inca trail hike looks like a very cool adventure.