March 2006 Archives

so, i combined my determination with my kettlebells and my running shoes and did something i've never done before: a pre-run workout (or a post-workout run, depending).

ten minutes of kettlebells and 20 minutes of running. now, neither of those is too impressive, however, consider :
- i haven't been for a run in well over a month
- i did PR deadlifts and very heavy BPs yesterday
- i plan to do a mighty hike tomorrow in the rain
- i haven't been for a run in well over a month

i was hurting out there for sure and short-cutted it home (don't you hate it when your shortcut leads you uphill? yeah) but otherwise (!) it went well and i'll be doing it some more. now that i finally have comfy day-to-day shoes and comfy hiking shoes (well, these are the replacement model for mine), the only uncomfy shoes i have are my runners. as anyone who knows me knows, i'm obsessed with shoes. i've been running less than two years but have 3 pairs of runners. ugh. you try deadlifting/squatting 1.5x your bodyweight twice a week + running + hiking and see whether you become shoe obsessed.

did i just say i'm going to change my workout routine?

that doesn't make sense, since both my deadlift and bench press have been progressing quite rapidly. why would i go and screw that up?

i don't think i would, would i?

well, i'd see what i could squeeze in without disrupting gains. okay, that sounds reasonable.

whew.

i went hiking last weekend with two marines (not on active duty, but i'm not sure if that makes them "ex" marines. i'm pretty sure as long as one doesn't have a dishonorable discharge, one is always a marine). like any good experience, it changed my life in a number of ways. one of them recommended that i get and read the book generation kill which i promptly obtained and have nearly finished.

the hike and the book have both given me a pumped-up, energized, do-or-die perspective on life. it sounds cheezy. it is cheezy. but it's real. i felt it in both my workouts this week. i feel it in my plans for the weekend. i have a strong urge to bring more 'survival fitness' into my exercise regimen (tomorrow will be a good test of my seriousness).

i will never be a devil dog, and i may never be a hard-ass killer, and i will always be a pussy in the eyes of a real marine, and i'll never again have the physical advantages i squandered in my teens and early twenties, but i can let their level of fitness and their positive(ly insane) attitude inspire me.

it's already begun. i've got back the spring in my step when i wake up (maybe not related, might go away again, especially if i've caught my coworker's cold). where my adopted marine spirit has already shown itself is in my weight training. this morning i blasted through a PR set of deadlifts as if it were nothing, follwed that by a second set of PR-approaching bench press where I'd otherwise have done only one set, and followed all of that with a fist-pumping "get some" that would have gotten my ass kicked had there been any marines nearby.

i could go on but i've been pumped all day somehow and am in the midst of a nearly unprecedented productivity streak at work. booyah, as they'd say in my chosen profession.

well, i ran out of time to blog about last weekend's adventures. so here's the short version:

friday: long-ass drive (in distance and time)
saturday: 19.2 mile hike
sunday: 8 mile uphill hike
monday: long-ass drive (in distance)

followed by PR deadlifts on tuesday and thursday, thus proving that i can hike the hell out of my legs on the weekend and still kick ass in the gym.

okay, well, there's the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack.

But other than that, THERE IS NO BETTER SOUNDTRACK THAN THE AKIRA SOUNDTRACK.

Well, The Empire Strikes Back has a pretty strong soundtrack.

Okay, let's just settle for "The Akira soundtrack is pretty freakin sweet", all right?

my shave today wasn't particularly close or comfortable. lots of
"skipping" and the blade wasn't making a pleasant sound as it cut.

i thought this was because the blade had dulled (perhaps it had, my stropping is, of course, beginner level only) but after re-applying some lather, i realized: it was my lather consistency!

i used a different soap today than yesterday (when i had a better shave) and today's soap -- though presumably of equal quality to yesterday's -- requires a different lather consistency. once i had the consistency just right, the blade sang, as it should.

sigh. so much to learn. but that's the whole point, eh?

someone i know is doing something extraordinary.

i don't mean extraordinary in the lame, patronizing, watered-down sense, either. i mean it in the litereal beating-the-odds not-many-people-manage sense of the word. extra-ordinary. it follows, of course, that a person who does extraordinary things is an extraordinary person.

the extraordinary thing about this person is not necessarily what she's doing, but how she's doing it, and the results she's getting. the extraordinary "thing" she's doing is, actually, comprised of many sub-things. none of the sub-things is, by the numbers, particularly extraordinary or even difficult. lots of people manage to do them.

the unusual thing is that she's making them work.

anyone can get a better job. she took a better job while going to college.

anyone can go to college. she's going to college and getting good grades.

anyone can "watch what they eat". she's taking control and losing weight. if you think that is easy or ordinary, have a look at your friends and neighbors.

anyone can whinge about their lack of resources. everyone is limited in some way. she's taking what she's got and making the best of things.

in fact, she's doing better than that. she's paying off her debts. very soon she won't owe nothin to nobody. think that's common? easy?

there's more, of course, much more. she's learning piano and the flute. she's reading intellectual books. she's hiking on her own. none of these things, taken alone, is extraordinary.

what's extraordinary is that she's doing them all at once and succeeding.

i'm involved a little in advice-giving and some motivation, but i'm not involved in the hard part, the actual doing. that's all her. i don't know what the name is of me emotional response to all this. it's a big one. it's kind of like pride, but pride should be reserved for the fruits of owns own labors. pride-by-proxy, perhaps.
perhaps it is awe or amazement.

in any case, i'm amazed by the incredibly positive changes she's making in her life, the success she's having, and the results she's getting.

and i get to see her tonight :D

well, the sharpening certainly worked, and most likely my stropping technique has improved slightly. got a nice shave with little irritation and decent closeness in the trouble areas. getting better at under the nose. still cut the mole a little. it might be gone altogether after a couple of weeks.

the old man is holding on to a straight razor or two that used to belong to his dad. i'm going to attempt to acquire it/them and put it/them to use as a living heirloom rather than a dusty/forgotten/bottom-of-drawer heirloom. though my blade is of the highest quality, the handle is kinda cheap. perhaps the familial blade is housed in a nicer handle.

perhaps not.

immediately after posting this steaming pile, amazon pooped out an ad at me for the latest and greatest how-many-blades-can-we-fit-in-a-cartridge monstrosity from gillette.

five blades!!!

and it probably vibrates or shoots out lotion or some nonsense. i just upgraded from a double-sided, single-bladed safety razor to a single-sided single-bladed straight razor, and amazon thinks i'm interested in a 5 blade disposable.

cute ;)

i knew that when i ordered my safety razor, it wouldn't be the end of it.

even when i got the "upgradeitis-proof" safety razor, the top of the line ridiculously overpriced dealy, i knew it wasn't the end of things.

there was still one more step to take, and now i've taken it. i got me a cutthroat.

it arrived on saturday, and i got to try it out that evening. the first stroke was, to be honest: terrifying. but it needn't have been. the skills i'd learned while using the safety razor were the foundation of the skills needed to avoid accidental decapitation with the straight razor. i've used it four days in a row and haven't cut myself yet (well, not really). on the other hand, i also haven't had a really good shave in four days.

shaving with a cutthroat is a skill, and while there's decent info to be found on the internets, a skill takes practice. this particular skill takes lots of skin irritation and bad-shave-days. there's a good amount of work that must go into keeping the blade sharp enough to be a razor and not a butterknife. my shave time has more than quadrupled into at least 25 minutes. but that's not so bad: on saturday it took me 45 minutes. i'm getting better.

this morning i decided that part of the problem was that the blade was not quite shaveworthy as shipped. i had been warned by the retailer of this possibility. so tonight i used my sharpening tools and can now split a hair with just a little pressure. that's pretty sharp. couldn't do that this morning. we'll see tomorrow if it makes a difference. i'm betting it will.

of course, no shaving upgrade would be complete without tons of accessories. and accessories there were. two strops, a ton of pastes, pumice, soap, all kinds of junk. to hang the strop i had to drill holes in my wall and install a hook. to house the soap i had to buy a jar. and my towel rack needed re-arranging. a cup of isopropyl alcohol now adorns my shaving area, for sterilizing the blade and removing the oil which, applied daily, keeps the blade from rusting. accessorization, oh yes.

anyhow, long story short: if you don't hear from me for a couple of days, i've probably just accidentally removed a little too much from the neck while shaving. cheers!

the camping trip this past weekend got canceled. by park rangers. they called me up and told me it was snowing so much they couldn't get rescue vehicles to the campsite, and that i should therefore strongly consider canceling my camping trip. i didn't have to strongly consider it, i canceled the reservation right then and there. i dont have a snow-worthy tent, much less snow-resistant clothing.

the camping trip was planned for the east bay, btw. the snow was down well below 2500 feet last weekend. that's unusual, as far as i know. but i don't know very far, so take that with a grain of road salt.

instead of camping, i and my hiking companion and hetero life partner took a hike in the same park where we'd have been camping were it not for the snow (sunol). armed with my long underwear (first time i've worn it), legged with my long-sleeved base layer, footed with my beanie and headed with thick socks and waterproof boots, i set out on the trail expecting the worst.

instead, we were greeted with fantastic weather. cold, yes. windy, even. at times we were chilled by snow-cooled gusts off adjacent hills, and at times we were stuck in the shade to shiver and grumble. but for the most part it was sunny-ish and clear. the scenery was amazing and even more beautiful than my sunny visit three weeks ago. also, the route we took involved much less poison oak than my previous visit. that's always appreciated.

the gear performed better than expected. beneath my base layer, sun-shirt, fleece, and rain jacket, i was warm and not clammy. compared to the much colder conditions at sequoia, i was comfy. in fact, not donning my rainjacket in sequoia may have been one of the biggest mistakes of that trip. i would have been much warmer and much less miserable.

in all, it was a fantastic hike, even though it barely pushed seven miles. there was lots of elevation gain, lots of scenic vistas, a good amount of reconnaisance and overland illegal bushwhacking avoidance, and some fun games with cops and rangers. it was over early enough for me to get home for... well, that's another post.

my french press broke this morning. i just verified that it's broken. don't worry, though: i have a backup. it's a little too big, but i'll manage.

and if that doesn't work, i have my new aeropress.

this weekend is sure to be a test of various things :
- my equipment
- my mettle
- my interest
- my dedication
- my leadership
- my planning
- my tolerance

we'll see if i make it.

a couple of roasts ago i did an Inventory Reduction Roast, whereby I took several small parcels of beans and mixed them pre-roast until I had about a pound: my normal roast quantity.

The blend was roughly half sulawesi, half sumatra, and half south american. it came out quite good, better than past IRRs.

So I ordered 2lbs each of sulawesi and sumatra and made another blend, this time on purpose, half-and-half. It has some of the chocolate tones of the IRR, but muted and overshadowed by earthy notes. if i had it to do over again (and I do, i bought beans for two batches :), I'd minimize the earthyness and try to bring back the chocolate. Of course, that will only work if the chocolate was not from the sudamerican beans. we shall see, eh?

it's Frobuary 1, YOMHC 0xe (almost 0x10!!).

got it at the chinese place down by the chinese restaurant. the guy asked "how short you want it?"

"short," i answered.

"how short?"

argh! You want desired length in millimeters? yards? what?? just cut it!

i explained today my theory of chick flicks to some coworkers, having previously explained it to W and possibly to my brother. for your enjoyment, dear reader, and for posterity, i now commit this theory to my tiny personal blogosphere, thus condemning said theory to instant obscurity.

right.

so, here goes.

why do guys see chick flicks? there's the obvious reason: to make their woman happy. but a more useful phrasing of the question would be: "by what mechanism do guys tolerate chick flicks?" after all, the average chick flick (unless you're lucky like me) contains no gunfire, explosions, kung-fu, swordfights, dick/fart jokes, or beheadings-by-broadsword. so how does your average non-castrated male sit through such a movie, even, quite often, managing to remain conscious throughout the entire ordeal?

here are a few hints from the annals of chick flicks, 3 outta 4 of which i've seen, half of which i own :

hint
hint
hint
hint

give up?

it's all about the female lead (okay, okay, "groundhog day" is actually funny). want to drool over natalie portman but don't want to gouge out your own eyeballs or be a pervert?. then "garden state" is for you. plus, your girlfriend will be in a happy mood if you can manage to squeeze out some tears at the end (not generally a problem for me).

want to see sandra buttock's eponymous parts and actually get "paid" for it instead of resorting to the alternative? where there's a chick flick there's a way.

that's right, folks. the chick flick is all about making your girlfriend happy while sitting through a movie that would be unendurable were it not for the presence of some cheeseburger-enhanced T&A.

so when a guy's ladyfriend asks him to take her to "brokeback mountain", which has dudes as BOTH love interests, a guy's gotta ask himself: "what's in it for me?" a twenty dollar nap? no thanks.

me? i'm holding out for the next tony jaa chick flick. booooonnngggggg!

i like my boyfriend because he drives me home and makes me eat vegetables.