My Workout, Part A

22 02 2012

As promised, my post today is a video of my workout (one of two), which comes from Stronglifts.com.  The entire thing from warm up to being done is only 37 minutes.  People complain working out takes too long, does 37 minutes sound long?  And, only 3x a week.  If you’re doing a workout that takes longer, you might want to reconsider.  In the future I’ll do a post on the kind of results I have gotten.

http://youtu.be/jzw8kP0CKWk

All that’s needed for this workout: Barbell, weights, squat rack, some plywood and rubber for barbell row and deadlifting.  And somehow modern gyms spend tens of thousands of dollars on useless equipment.

Oh yeah, and you can see my workouts for 2012 in my Gdoc here.





Self Experimentation: Smiling More

20 02 2012

Whoops, was supposed to post yesterday but got lazy.  But Sunday is here and it’s better late than never.

For the past month or so I’ve been trying to improve myself in a simple way: smiling more.  Last year I tried half-heartedly and didn’t get any results, but this past month I went at it full steam with a simple method:  ABS, always be smiling.  Anytime I catch myself not smiling, whether eating with a friend or sitting at my computer, I force myself to smile.

My current uneven smile

A note about my uneven smile: I have a funny fold in my skin on the left side, but ladies remember, symmetrical men tend to cheat more.

It was tough at first since I’m not really a smiler.  Most of the time I have what I intend to be a neutral look, but I’ve been told it can be somewhat offputting.  But despite being tough at first, over the past few weeks it’s become easier and easier to smile and I find myself having to force a smile less and less.  In the past, I would feel awkward smiling for no reason, but now it’s a bit more natural.  I hope to eventually be a master at it and come off as a warm person, but one step at a time.  For now I’m happy to say that when someone glances at me I can quickly throw them a smile, or at least a smirk, and not come off as some creepy guy staring at them (I hope).

My next blog post is going to just be a video of my workout.  Look forward to it!





Clonetroopers are a government’s wet dream

15 02 2012

Imagine if you will, a dictatorship that uses military power to suppress the people.  The army, police, and secret police that would be used to put down the common folk would have to be made up from them.  At what point do the weapons of the oppressors refuse to suppress their own families and turn against their masters?

Clone troopers would never turn on their masters.  This is why clone troopers are a government’s wet dream.  Unquestioning soldiers taking orders from a few people, able to put down rebellion without emotion.  No qualms about killing the innocent, no family to worry about.  All at the disposal of a few who hold the command.  After all, who else would man a space station whose only purpose is to destroy planets?  Side note: of course, I wonder how they found engineers to design such a weapon, but then again we have nuclear weapons in real life.

Clone troopers are obviously fake, so how does this apply to real life?  Let’s take a look at the power of modern weapons and gun rights.  The NRA is fighting for US civilian’s rights to carry things like assault rifles and pistols.  The military has tanks, explosive rounds, ships, bombs, etc.  In other words, with the power of the military, there is no way a civilian militia could oppose the government.  What good is a hunting rifle against tank armor?  And taking this a step further, for every new weapon technology that comes out, fewer men can wield more power.

This post had no real point, just some observations I had while thinking about Star Wars and wanted to share.





Placing faith in those more intelligent than you

8 02 2012

king of the hill

The other day I remembered an old “King of the Hill” episode focusing on  Bill Dauterieve.  Basically he stops listening to Hank and does lots of stupid stuff on his own/listening to Dale.  At the end Bill admits he’s mad at Hank because Hank makes all his decisions for him and that Hank is always right.  Hank points out that if he’s always right and Bill does what he says, that means Bill is always right also.

So anyway, this got me thinking, are there stupid people out there who admit that they are stupid and put their trust in someone smarter?  I really wonder, because sometimes what I see just makes me sad.  For example, overweight people giving tips on losing weight and talking about how X is healthy and Y is not.  “Oh but I just can’t manage to make myself keep eating healthy foods,” they will say, not realizing they are A wrong, B not using good techniques to implement, or C both.  If someone is failing at something, I think that they ought to be listening to new ideas, trying new things, or, like Bill, have someone who knows what they’re doing and follow their example.

Taking this train of thought a step further: because someone who is stupid probably cannot internally come to the conclusion that they are stupid, I should assume I’m stupid and thus seek people more intelligent than myself to learn from.

Things to do: keep an open mind, listen to those who have good results, don’t listen to those who don’t have good results, and find great mentors.

 





Post delayed

1 02 2012

My house is currently under construction and I’m weird because I love to work only at my computer.  Will have to delay this post 😛