1. wake up, thank Jesus or whomever for pre-Mr Roboto Styx.
2. prepare a pot of slow-cooked chicken chili
3. support the indiscriminate killing of old people whose bodies will “literally” litter the streets as a result of any attempt to cut the size of the federal government and control spending. Plus, screw the children. And the poor. And maybe have a Greek-style yogurt.
4. check out kennels for the dogs so they can eat while we’re in NYC later this month.
5. go to Super Target to get some food shopping done; re-seed the back lawn while cursing the prairie rabbits that ate the last one.
6. make dinner
7. read to son, put him to bed, make his lunch for tomorrow, then rest my evil deranged head on my evil deranged pillow.
8. dream of #3; pollute the air with loud carbon emissions. And methane, depending on what happens re #6.
9.
I’m also going to go for max lift on the v-bar one-handed deadlift and the traditional one-handed deadlift. Goal for today is 225 / 300
Will you be attempting those lifts before or after consuming that chili?
You know, I’m seeing #6 as a solution to your #5 …
what have you got against post-Roboto Styx?
Conveniently, track #3.
I just woke up a half-hour ago, after dreaming that I had solved the problem of how the ancient Scots folded their tartans. Turns out they tied them in neat little bows.
Also, “Lorelei.”
QED
Nailed 300# on the traditional. YEARRRRRGHHH!
Why are you kenneling the dogs if there are bodies in the street? They’ll eat.
310#. 320# is going to be a stretch today. But still, progress!
Fine, fine, I’ll work out today.
It’s hot though. Hot, I says.
It would probably help if I knew anything about deadlift form. My first attempt at 320# didn’t really care to budge. In fact, I felt like I had a better chance of leaving my arm behind than pulling the weights up. But I’m going to try one more time, then move on to the v-bar.
Incidentally, I saw a video of Adam Glass, a strongman who is about my weight (but at least a decade younger) do a one-hand deadlift of 527 lbs.
So, like, fuck me.
Got 320 off the ground. Didn’t lock it out entirely, but I’m ruling it good.
Felt that one in my lat.
Suck on the v-bar today. Maybe because of the earlier deadlifts.
Meh.
Crossfit baby, crossfit.
Styx was decent, but that era also featured Alan Parsons Project, devastatingly.
I always get Styx and REO Speedwagon mixed up. I remember that one was gay and the other was super gay, but can’t remember which was which. Def Leppard!!
Last time I saw Styx with most of the original members (John Panozzo had recently passed away) was 1997 at Universal Amphitheater
2nd row center
Say what you will … awesome show
Here’s how a professional takes care of a gopher problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5yCwN7wymc
I suspect the above method would work just as well with prairie rabbits.
Serr8d? You dissing APP?
Calling you out, I am. Even if you never heard the awesome instrumental deep-album cuts.
I hate it when dead old people litter the streets. You have to stop the car and move them out of the way to get anywhere. You could go over them, but that only works with the truck (and the milage sucks on that hog).
Acutally I am looking forward to The Monkeys tour this summer. Campy to be sure, but my kids are really into going, so what the heck.
Campee.
You’re dead to me. Along with River of Dreams and later Billy Joel. (Storm Front excepted)
Quite the contrary. One of my favorite all-time sound generators.
FEAR THE WALRUS!
Okay. Did swings, 10 reps, at 280#. Going for 300. Which is dangerous, because 280, when I tried to stop it by setting the stack and handle down, knocked me backwards onto my ass, quite literally.
Still, this is the equivalent of picking up a 150# kettlebell in each hand, holding them together between the legs, then swinging them up and back between the legs for reps.
If this doesn’t strengthen the back, hips, and grip, nothing will.
Nailed it, 2 sets, 10 reps, 300# swings. Like a BIG DADDY!
(Of course, I think I may have permanently injured my back. So there’s that… Holy hell, did that hurt…)
“Like a BIG DADDY!”
baracky’s methods area subtle in this economy. hope your back is ok.
A demonstration of the principle of conservation of momentum :)
Make a physics film!
Bob, Jeff,
Urgent misrep enroute check the echo-mike net.
Oh and Jeff, put some ice on that back before bed Mr.!
Obama spreads the blame around.
A Presidential #6. Almost calls for a caption contest.
geoffb, there was another photo somewhat like that what surfaced in May ’09, with much more opportunity for hilarity.
I’m not going to bite on pre-Glee Styx… If only because I saw Tommy Shaw open for The Kinks when he had the soundtrack from Remo Williams out and he was surprisingly rockin’. (I’ll never figure out why Damn Yankee’ sucked so bad, was it Jack Blade’s fault?)
Don’t round your upper back doing deadlifts, it can be bad. Really bad. Like, I just felt something pop in the base of my neck holy cow everything looks blue is someone hurt I hear an ambulance mommy mommy are we there yet, bad. You’ll probably get over it though. I almost dd.
[…] UPDATE: Best Little Whorehouse in the Greater D.C. Area. My own recommendation for improving the political class is to bring back seasoned campaigners Burge and Goldstein. […]
Don’t hurt yourself, Jeff. At least, not in any traumatic way.
My plan for yesterday was to get up, thank $DEITY for pre-Connors Patty McGuire, go to Costco and Wal-Mart for various necessities, make some fettucine alfredo with smoked chicken for a late lunch, take a nap, get up, get me and the kids uniformed, and then go and get my black belt. And have daughter #1 pick up the first star on the way to 2nd degree (plus get her adult blackbelt upgrade), and have daughter #2 get her junior blackbelt.
Still sore and tired, although my foot seems to be recovering from the break. I’m going to have to work on technique, and possibly toughen up my forefoot by kicking concrete block (not breaking) repeatedly; ball of foot round is kind of a speed technique and it seems like we stumbled into some tougher lumber than usual yesterday, because a lot of people had to try several times to complete their break. Me? First try.
Probably a good self-guidance for future testing is loosen up, a lot. One of the visiting masters had us do horse-stance punches and blocks for what seemed like (and probably was) 10 minutes, and so my quads were pretty toasted. I barely finished my forms without falling down, and like a putz I had volunteered to fill in so that everyone could spar without realizing that I’d be sparring in two consecutive (with no rest between) rounds; about halfway through the second round I was spending most of what strength I had left trying to remain standing, while maintaining something resembling defense. Although I got in an early head kick. Or that’s how I remember it.
I saw a guy break 3 concrete slabs (looked like 8x2x16) with a spearfinger strike. Pretty fucking impressive. If you can do that, I think you can remove someone’s spleen without a knife. It made an otherwise impressive-looking palmstrike break of two of the same kind of blocks done by one of my young instructors look downright mundane.
I’ve forgotten, Slart. What’s your striking discipline?
Not sure what that means, bh. I do taekwondo, if that’s what you’re after.
Yeah, that’s what I was wondering.
By striking discipline, I just meant your predominant style when standing.
I’m not so sure that I’d, at this stage, call it “discipline”. Especially after seeing a 6th dan execute his 15th-level form that he was, he claimed, still trying to perfect.
It made all the hair on my arms stand up. I’ve sparred quite a bit with the guy, and it’s easy for me to forget that he holds himself back that much.
My predominant style is, sometimes, “try not to get killed”.
That’s both my striking and grappling style.
My submission style is “not good enough, seeing as how I suck everywhere else”.
Sorry for the time delay, btw. Clients hit town tomorrow. I’m somewhat under-prepared.
Meh. You’re welcome to your martial arts, but they’ll only get you so far. I’ve spent the last 40 years perfecting my abilities at kpistol. Still useful when you’re too F’in old to do all that kicky punchy stuff.
Heh. That’s basically the same thing as standard American collegiate wrestling, Swen.
Slart’s 6th dan master? Will be on his back if he doesn’t land a good shot on the takedown.
Me? Will be on my back regardless. But, suddenly, side control. Oops. Now he’s mounted.
(It’s an odd thing. I should do a pub post on this. Wrestling is a motherfucking gun, y’all. Look out!)
You people must live in some unexpectedly rough areas to think all this energy expended on martial arts type stuff will ever come in handy. I feel perfectly safe just knowing how to hit someone in the balls.
It’s hard to say, Abe. As an “at risk youth” I never took up heroin.
As an adult I’ve always been a giant. So, maybe it was useful in that I never felt the need to show that I could beat up the tiny super-violent South Siders when they angered me or when we ran out of beer.
Both of those probably kept me out of overnight lock-up once or twice. Who knows how my shit might have then gone sideways?
That’s gotta be worth something.
(I’m actually half serious here.)
That sorta sounds like a pitch for midnight basketball.
Ehhh, who knows?
I was commenting on martial arts for middle agers more so than partaking of such things in the years when trouble easily finds you.
I mean, I took judo in elementary school and it definitely came in handy later on. It’s good to be able to put someone on their ass quickly when you puch them in the face and while they’re all wobbly you realize that you broke a finger and your only hope is a savage headlock until they give up.
Oh.
As a middle-ager, it’s probably just keeping me from the bottle or really shitty television. Something to do. Like caring about my landscaping or the random charity work that people want me to get involved in.
In a fight? In a fight with a random dude? I’d buy them a drink. Apologize and all of that. I’m a bit of a fag that way. I’m not sure that it’s particularly useful unless you have a real mean streak, you’re protecting someone else or if you’re sparring.
When you put it that way I suppose it makes as much sense as (other people, fuck no, not me) doing triathlons.
Same, same.
Something to do and impossible to bullshit yourself over.
Jeff either lifts the weight or not. I either get taken down by the wrestler or not. You or JD either make your time or not.
It’s a real thing. You do it and win or don’t and lose. It’s simple. And, through that same mechanism, feels worth pursuing.
Same, same.
(Just guessing, really. I think the rest of you have terrible fucking hobbies.)
It is less about a hobby and more about competing, if only with yourself. Given the destroyed ankle, I am turning my focus to lifting, and shedding useless poundage. My new goal is to complete a Sprint Tri by OCT, but Doc tells me this is not a realistic goal. Screw him.
Mike wouldn’t necessarily go for a takedown, but he’s got a regardable ground-game to go with the crisp standup. Him being on his back or on top wouldn’t make much difference. I’m not really all that sure, because in real life if you went to the ground all of that vying for position would be accompanied by flurries of elbows and knees, which complicates the hell out of things.
Mike teaches grappling and Thai boxing in addition to taekwondo.
This is one reason why I’m looking into other styles, as well as other striking techniques. All in all, open-hand and elbows and knees and feet are better than fists, in terms of inflicting more damage on the other guy than you did on yourself. Plus, my index fingers don’t fold up quite so tidily as they should, which makes it absolutely imperative that I wrap up before sparring. A real fight would land me severely jammed or broken fingers if I tried to punch someone, so I’d go for palmstrikes, ridgehands and kicks and elbows. Fist to the solar plexus or ribs would still work, though.
In general, it’s a mistake to assume that just because someone has reached an advanced level in some martial art or other, that they haven’t familiarized themselves with other disciplines. That can be true, but isn’t necessarily true. The guy who taught Mike is still teaching, and is a credentialed instructor at (American) boxing, and also practices hapkido and jujitsu. I’ve got a friend who does (is proficient at; in other words: is at least a first degree black belt in) Tang Soo Do but also does iaido (sword) and some Filipino art like escrima or somesuch. Also judo. Mike himself is credentialed in some Thai boxing association as an instructor. I don’t know all of what Mike has gotten into, but he’s a pretty complete package of speed, fitness, control and knowledge. Which isn’t to say he’s unbeatable, just that he has a great many tools at his disposal.
This can be said about a LOT of people, which makes me regard being a black belt as sort of a jumping-off point, rather than an end.