R2 Day 83 - Rest

I did Cardio X and Ab Ripper X yesterday, and had a rest day today. I've been thinking about some New Year resolutions lately. Usually the two that have been on the top of my list for years and years was to quit smoking and get healthy. Well, I've done those two, and I didn't need no stinkin' arbitrary date to do 'em, neither. (Sorry, been watching a lot of Friday Night Lights.) I'll put them up on January 1st. The nice thing is that I know from experience that if you have a goal, and work towards that goal just a little bit every day, then you will reach that goal. Simple, really.

R2 Day 81 - Legs & Back

Let's run through the last few days for the record, because I got a little confused yesterday. Today, Legs & back. Yesterday Plyo, ARX. Day before Back & Biceps. I'm not actually sure what day this is. According to my schedule I'm on day 82, but I haven't been writing on my schedule, but using this blog to keep track of where I'm at. With all the chopping and changing, I'm a day or so out of whack. Oh well. I do know that I've got one more week of phase three, then a recovery week, then I've finished my second round of P90X. This round will have lasted about 98 days because of the extra week I added for being sick (sound like a punishment), so even though I've lost track, there's no doubt that I will do the 90 days.
My legs were a little unsteady today because of Plyo yesterday, but I broke the 100 pull up barrier again, which I'm happy about. Only one more Legs & Back to go! Having to do this workout another 12 times would be a huge hurdle to overcome if I was going to do another round of this. It is the tough one. The first round is harsh. The second is not so bad, but it's more psychological. Pressing play and hearing Tony talking about how he likes skiing, then hearing the music, and seeing Dreya and Sophia and the guy (forget his name) and I just think Ughh.
If I'm going to do something after this, I'll do a combination of Insanity and P90X, Insanity and One on One with Tony, or just Insanity.
Anyway, got to go.

R2 Day 77 - Yoga, ARX

Hey, Merry Christmas everyone. I'm at work, and there's not much to do because it's the end of the year and a lot of people are taking sickies to get an early start to the holidays. Working on Christmas sucks, but at least I'm not busy. I haven't done Plyo or Ab Ripper X yet today, but I will. Pretty sure I will.
EDIT: Nup. Too tired. I did Yoga instead.
We celebrated Christmas yesterday. It was a nice day. The kids played with their presents, we ate well, generally relaxing. Except for poor Jo Jo, who has a respiratory virus. He's coughing all the time and is very wheezy. I feel really sorry for him but there's not much we can do about it. Just make sure he gets enough fluid and let him rest if we can. Poor little Joey Jo Jo.
I did Chest, Shoulder & Triceps, which is one of my favourites. Those weighted circles are killers. Burn burn burn!
I've found a TV show to carry me through this festive season. Friday Night Lights. I don't know anything about American Football, but they must take it pretty seriously in small towns in Texas if this show is any guide. The high school teams even have full-time coaches! Assistant coaches! The money must be incredible. Good show.

R2 Day 75 - Cardio X

Today my company released its new corporate identity. This is a translation of the first paragraph of the new corporate mission staatement.
"We have a vision to fulfill the future dreams of the people of the world and to constantly strive for new value and contribute to a thriving society."
Smell that? There's six more paragraphs, including "Value today over yesterday and tomorrow over today" and "Bring wonder and passion to the world". Marketing. That's where the real work is done.
Will and I went down the shop to buy Santa a beer last night. We are going to leave out a couple of biscuits and a beer for Santa tomorrow night. Can you remember coming into the kitchen on Christmas morning and seeing crumbs on the plate and an empty beer can on the table and thinking that Santa (or Father Christmas, as he was back then) had actually sat there sometime during the night and had them? Wasn't that a great feeling? I have to work Christmas day and Boxing day (that's what you get for living in a country of heathens) so we are going to celebrate Christmas on the 24th, which is a day off for me. After Boxing day I get about nine days off. It's really cold and there's not a lot to do during the break. I have to relax and not be so restless this break. Just relax, get my mind right, and bring it! It's nearly over.
Speaking of which, I did Legs & Back last night. Pat myself on the back and give myself a handshake ('cause everything is not yet lost! FNM) because I broke the barrier. 102 pull ups. Yes, baby. And I kind of did Cardio X tonight. I was tired and intensity was low so it was a bit of a waste of time. Tuesdays always seem to be a struggle. I'll try to fit in a Yoga and Ab Ripper X tomorrow sometime.
So what is Christmas in Japan like? Basically, Christmas in Japan is for young unmarried couples. Just as in ancient times, they go to KFC for ye traditional Yuletide offerings, and then they will travel from hotel to hotel, just like Mary and Joseph did, except they'll be looking for a spare room for three hours to have sex. No-one knows how KFC came to be associated with Christmas in Japan, but when KFC got a sniff of it they really pushed it in its advertising, apparently. This is decades ago. KFC is really popular here despite the fact that they don't actually use real chickens but use the offspring of rats and pigeons (according to Ben Elton). The hotels are called love hotels, and they are everywhere, and you can rent a room for a few hours for $50 or so. It's all automated so you don't have to actually meet anyone on your way in or out. You can get themed rooms, from Hello Kitty rooms to mad S&M rooms. I have heard of a room in Tokyo that has no furniture and the entire floor of the room is covered with dirt. If this room doesn't actually exist, you have to ask, why not?
Tomorrow is the Emperor's birthday holiday, but I have to work. I don't know much about the royal family here. They all look the same. A month or so ago they had a concert to celebrate the 20th year of the reign of the current Emperor, Hirohito's son. They held it at night outdoors, and they had the Emperor and his wife (they must both be in their 70's) stand on a nearby bridge and watch the concert, featuring all the latest boy bands and cute singers. How they stood there for what must have been an hour and a half watching these shitty performers promoting their new singles astounded me. Respect for that. Poor guy's a prisoner of history.
Technically I haven't bought my wife or sons anything for Christmas. In terms of my wife, the policy we seemed to have developed is that in the months approaching a birthday or Christmas, we can each make a big ticket purchase, and the other will say "That's your (Christmas) present." For example, my wife's birthday is in late September, and in August she bought some Birkenstock sandals. Bang. There's your birthday present, I said. Happy birthday or whatever. I can do this because it's my money that she's using. When you think of it, her Christmas or birthday present to me is just letting me buy something without the grief. I'll take it. As for my kids, we only recently gave Jo Jo the gift of life. That's his Christmas right there. Will has gifts from his grandparents, his Auntie Leigh, and others, so there you go. Does he need any more? No. I think Junko bought them something, anyway.

R2 Day 73 - Shoulders & Arms, ARX

Yo, wassup? Shoulders & Arms today, and then Ab Ripper X. I watched a few youtube videos of people doing Ab Ripper X and failing miserably, which made me feel great. I powered through it. This was the first time I've done Shoulders & Arms for a couple of months, and it is a little disheartening to see that my numbers haven't changed from the last time I did it, considering that I have been working out nearly every day in between. The thing is though, I haven't been doing the exact same exercises, so that's why. They body is an amazing thing. Actually, I did improve on the biceps curls, because I have been doing them in other workouts, but that's all.
Junko took the kids to an outlet shop in the afternoon, so after my workout I went to Matsuya. How to describe Matsuya? Think of it as MacDonald's for middle aged men. No playground, no characters, no toys. No fancy burgers or chips. Just beef on rice. And cheap! For 420 yen (about $4 US) I got: A bowl of salad, a bowl of hot miso soup, a bowl of hot beef on rice (gyuudon), and a cup of hot tea. Then you've your condiments like ginger strips, soy sauce, and salad dressing. Not bad! You walk in, buy a ticket at the vending machine, then sit down and give the ticket to the waitress/cook (talking is optional) and wait. I had to wait five minutes today, which is outrageous. They messed up my order. Usually it's ready in one or two minutes. Often, in the city, competing gyuudon chains have price wars, and a bowl of gyuudon can fall to around $1. Crazy times. I love Matsuya. I'm not crazy about the bigger gyuudon chain Yoshinoya, which you may have heard of (they have a few stores overseas) because you don't get the free bowl of miso soup that you do with every order of gyuudon like at Matsuya, and they don't have the vending machine system. You actually have to order what you want to the waitress/cook, which can be difficult if you can't read the menu, and you have to settle the bill after the meal, which means if they are busy you might have to wait a minute or two to get their attention before you can pay. They nearly went down a few years ago after a Mad Cow scandal in America stopped imports, while Matsuya surged because they use only Aussie beef, or so they say. If you're going to either of these places though, product quality is obviously not your main concern.
Then for dinner we all went out to eat at an Okonomiyaki restaurant, Great Grandmother's shout. My wife and her sister are always inviting her out to dinner because she pays. I used to feel bad about it, she's 80-something years old and she can't really eat anything but noodles and rice, while my wife and her sister go to town on her coin. But her husband was a councilman and she still gets his pension even though he died like 5 years ago, so she's loaded. And she's cheap, too, my wife reminds me. If you can't beat 'em...
I have to say, Okonomiyaki is probably my favourite Japanese food. Spare me all the sushi and cold, raw stuff. The fried "izakaya" food is awesome, and I see it's catching on in other places. And the okonomiyaki at this place was so nice. We had to wait half an hour to get a seat, which sucked, and a kid chucked right next to where we were waiting. Too much free soft drink, probably. But we finally got seated and went berserk. Here's a picture of Will sipping on his melon soda waiting for his okonomiyaki while Great Grandmother looks on, probably wondering how much this is going to set her back and if it is worth it.

Here's a picture of me from yesterday. I wouldn't exactly call this "lean", but then I've been eating my fair share of rubbish food. I'm going to try and lean out a little this last month, which might be hard to do this time of year, the traditional eating season here in Japan. Plus, it is so damn cold! My body might be reluctant to give up even the slightest bit of fat. But for what it's worth, I have stocked up on tea bags and milo at work to help me stop drinking coffee at work, and I've got some popcorn at home to help me with the chips.

R2 Day 72 - Rest

I did Chest & Back on Thursday, Plyo and Ab Ripper X yesterday, and took a rest today. I was supposed to do Arms & Shoulders but I was really tired. Both the kids are a little sick and I think I have a bit of what they have (runny nose, raw chest) so I ditched it. I'll do it tomorrow, and maybe do Yoga and Ab Ripper X as well if I'm feeling better and if I have the time. Otherwise, I'll do Yoga on Wednesday, my rest day. My motivation is waning, and I'm struggling to get up for these workouts. I'm looking forward to the end of it.

R2 Day 69 - Cardio X, ARX

I took a rest yesterday because I really needed a good night's sleep. I had an awful dream where I woke up and found out that Tiger had committed suicide. For a few days now I've been dreading checking TMZ or Drudge because I don't want to know what's going to happen next. Steroids has entered the picture now. Boy, when a man is down... The only illegal performance enhancing drugs that could possibly help a golfer are Beta Blockers, which dull the nerves, and there is no way Tiger is on them. Everything else might help one thing, like driving distance, but hurt another, like touch around the greens. Steroids? Tiger is big, but he has been working out every day for ten years, and that will do it. And he's not baseball big, he's just put on a lot of muscle. One curious thing is that while he is drug tested regularly by the PGA, he also drug tests himself privately. I used to think this was in case of tampering, but now, who knows. It's not like you can trust the guy anymore, is it? He could just be making sure that the drugs he's taking don't show up in any tests. I have been shocked by some of his behaviour on the course this year, especially when he bounced a driver into the crowd in Melbourne last month, but I'm going to put that down to the pressures of lying to the whole world, not 'roid rage.
I am prepared to say that not even Tiger Woods would take steroids. This is golf, not baseball. I do think he will come out and say he is addicted to sex, and painkillers, like everyone who has had any type of operation seems to be, but that is it. Please, Tiger. Don't be taking steroids.
So I got up early this morning and did Cardio X, and I did Ab Ripper X after work, and then I went to the end of year work party.
The end of year party was okay. I was late because I thought the party started at 6:20 when it was really 6:00, so I got the last seat next to T-san, the boss of the division next to ours. The problem is that when these guys get a few drinks in them, they want to try their English, which is usually terrible. Where do you from? Can you sushi? I answer them in Japanese until they give up. It's all I can do to make them stop. Then the interrogation begins. How long have you been in Japan? Is your wife Japanese? Where did you meet your wife? Do you speak English or Japanese at home? Can your son speak English? and so on. It's not that the questions are so bad, only a little nosey, it's that they always ask them without fail. They are only interested in me in terms of them. How different am I to you, is basically what they want to find out. After ten years of this, it's hard to feign interest. But on the other hand, if someone comes along and is a little different, they really get my attention. So I ditched this table as quick as I could and went and sat with my own department. It was a little more fun because there were a couple of middle-aged ladies who are good value. We got onto the subject of cleaning ears, which is a big thing in Asia. (Guys, if you ever go on a date with a hot Asian chick, make sure your ears are clean. They check.) I asked one lady if this was the reason why a lot of Japanese men grow the nail of their little finger, so they can get inside and really shovel the wax out. Disgusting, I know, but I cannot think of another reason why they do it. So I asked her, and she was like, "What? I've never seen that before. No, they don't grow their nails, that stupid." Just then, my boss joined us, and we all just happen to look at his nails at the same time, and wouldn't you know it, he's got the long little fingernail! Everybody screamed, and I'm pointing at my boss' fingernail saying See! See! She couldn't believe it. Funny stuff. Turns out my boss grows his little fingernail long because his dad does too, and he thought it was cool. Not a very satisfying answer. I left early to go and teach Nori, which was okay except I was really tired, and then I went home. Busy day.

R2 Day 67 - Legs & Back

Legs & Back tonight. I did 98 pull ups, one less that last week. I was aiming at the ton, but I just couldn't get there. I was always trying to squeeze one more out at the end, but I just didn't feel as strong as I did last week.
I've seen two really good movies this week. The first one I watched was called Dear Zachary, which is a documentary made by a guy about his best friend who was murdered. I won't go into it, but I don't think I've ever been so upset watching a movie. The parents of this guy who was murdered, the nicest people in the world, and to have what happens to them happen, there is no explanation for it. The second movie I watched was 500 Days of Summer. I really enjoyed this movie. The female character could have sometimes came dangerously close to those kind of quirky, madcap Sandra Bullock type of characters, but instead both the male and female leads seemed genuine which made it enjoyable. Kind of at the other end of the scale of Along Came Polly, which is the epitome of the square-guy-meets-crazy-girl movies.
I was listening to a podcast called "Movies You Should See" and they were talking about how to spot a bad movie. Not that you might not want to avoid them (maybe you like bad movies), but how to know it's going to be bad before you see it. They all agreed, and I actually said the name out aloud a second before they did, the number one way to know that a movie will be bad is if it has this actress in it: Nicole Kidman. Why is she famous? Why is she in movies? I have no idea. Go to Wikipedia and run though the movies she's been in. It's like, shit, shit, heard it's shit, shit, boring, shit... It's incredible. I will not watch a movie if she is in it. You can put Renee Zelwegger in that category too. I won't bother watching another Adam Sandler movie either. Funny People? Not in that movie there weren't. Although Eric Bana did give us the greatest portrayal of an Australian in a Hollywood movie ever (even though the character was a douche). He wouldn't have been out of place in a Kath & Kim episode. It was really good. Anyone else? I am not going to give George Lucas any more of my money. I gave my Star Wars prequel DVDs away. They are all rubbish movies. I won't watch a movie with Harrison Ford in it anymore. That guy obviously doesn't give a shit.
In the spirit of my friend Stevie's blog, here's my top five movies of 2009 in no particular order.
Dear Zachary (though it was made last year)
500 Days of Summer
District 9
Zombieland
... can't think of any more that qualify. I enjoyed Valkyrie, Food Inc., and a couple others, but I'm not going to put them in a list. Moon was good. I haven't seen The Road, or The Box, which I want to see, and Avatar I want to see too. When mum found out she was sick, she ordered over $400 of books from Amazon in one hit. I think we got nine boxes. Some people go sky diving or buy a Ferrari when they find out they have terminal cancer, mum bought books. The Road was one of them, and I read it when I was down in Australia one time. I brought it back with me and I've read it a couple of times again since. I think the movie will be better because it is just so bleak and grey and hopeless, and you need that in your face the whole time or you forget what the man and the boy are up against, and how pointless staying alive is. Nick Cave does the music, which is unfortunate, but Viggo is one actor I will watch in anything. Maybe that will make the last spot on my list.
I have to say, living away from the hype in a country that has its own movies and music and TV, it's easy to lose touch with stuff, especially music. I first heard of Lady GaGa in September, and that's only because everyone was saying she had a dick. Wouldn't know a song of hers if I heard it. All those Idols and People Who's Got Talent or whatevers, pleased to remain ignorant. Anything less mainstream than that, I am no chance to hear of them. That's okay, I don't listen to music much anyway.
Anyway, I've got Cardio X and Ab Ripper X tomorrow, then a rest, maybe Yoga, and then I've finished phase 2. My diet has not changed in the slightest, though I am eating fewer chips. I definitely feel like I am forfeiting great results in exchange for chips and chocolate and coffee. For the moment that's okay, but maybe if I do Insanity after this second round of P90X I'll make the focus of this blog more about food and health that about exercise, and kind of experiment with recipes and stuff.

R2 Day 66 - Cardio X, ARX

Yesterday I did Back & Biceps, and today I did Cardio X and Ab Ripper X. I was meant to do Yoga today, but I owed a Cardio X from last week so I did that instead. Does that mean I owe a Yoga now? Perhaps. We'll see how I feel about it on Wednesday, my usual rest day.
Well, the end is in sight, and again I'm asking myself, what am I going to do when it's finished? Insanity is an option, but what about after that? I need a physical activity. My mate does Ju Jitsu, but he talks about how he sometimes spars with a Brazilian guy with long hair, and how he gets all caught up in this guy's sweaty hair. It almost make me puke thinking about that. I have a thing about wet other people's hair. Hiking, or mountain climbing is where I'm leaning. But what the hell do I know about mountain climbing? So I have a bit to think about in that respect.
So Tiger's quit golf. Indefinitely. To save his marriage. His marriage sounds like it is so corrupt, that it may be the corruption that is holding it together. If Tiger's not boning every single woman he can get his hands on, like he has been doing the whole time he has been married, can he stand being married and not doing that? Doubt it. God knows how bad it got. Orgies in Las Vegas, 10 to 15 women at a time is the latest rumour. I like the story of how some photograpers for the National Inquirer took photos of him screwing a waitress at the local coffee shop in his car in a church carpark, so to keep the photos from being released he did a cover shoot with their sister publication Men's Health, talking about his diet and workout regimen. Really I hate it.

R2 Day 64 - Chest, Shoulders & Triceps

Yesterday I did Plyo and Ab Ripper X, and today I did Chest, Shoulders & Triceps. My push up numbers were a little down, and I have no idea why. I did as many as I could, and when I went to write it down I saw that it was always one or two less than last week. Weird. Everything else was good. My neck is really tight, and I have a bruised rib from when Will kneed me while we wrestled last night.
Next week we are having our end of year party at work. I say party, but I don't want to give you the wrong impression. It costs about $80, and it's all you can drink/eat, but again, don't want to give you the wrong impression. We only have a couple of hours, and the food usually stops after an hour, so I can never eat enough to feel full. We can't have a drink until after the boss makes his speech, so everyone just sits there with their beer in front of them waiting for ages. It's ridiculous. Plus, this year, one of the more popular office ladies, (or "OLs" as they are called here) is leaving the company, so she is having a going away party the week after. So all of the 'cool' people (again, wrong impression) have cancelled going to the official end of year party and are going to this farewell party. No one is going to both because they each cost so much. So there's only about half the people in my department going.

R2 Day 62 - Rest

I actually got half way through Cardio X before I abandoned it. I was yawning all the time, and intensity was way down. So when the voice said, fuck this you're wasting your time, I agreed and went to bed. Jo is teething so he's crying a lot and I haven't had a good night's sleep for a while. So I'll do Plyo tomorrow, and then if I'm feeling okay I might do a monster workout of Cardio X and whatever is scheduled that day on the weekend or something.
I've been a little slack this week. I need to make sure I'm giving myself the best chance I can at finishing this round.

R2 Day 61 - Legs & Back

Legs & Back. I was one pull up short of cracking the ton, but I couldn't have done another pull up to save my life. Wow, 99 pull ups. Crazy times.
So I had my Japanese test yesterday. I had flashbacks to my year 12 exam where it also struck me half way through that test that I should have studied more. There were times when I would get three or four questions that I was sure I knew the answer to and I would think Hey! I'm going to pass! and then I would hit a bump and be guessing the next four. So it's going to be a close thing. But what if I do pass? I'll be like, wow, now I can relax and take my time and ease back on the study. Probably the best result is for me to just fail so it can spur me to get of my ass and study more. I had a beer with dinner last night to celebrate. A Sapporo Classic, only sold in Hokkaido. My Father-in-law picked up a can for me while he was there last week. First beer I've had since I got back from Australia, and the best beer I've ever had.
The test was in Toyohashi, my old stomping ground. In the room where I took the test there were 220 people, and only 3 of us were whities. A miserable looking young lady and a young dork. Most people were Chinese or Philippine. And all of them were young. I would have been close to the oldest person there. I don't know what they do here. I think all the Philippine chicks are going to be looking after the ancient Japanese living dead, which should be fun for them, but the others? Dunno. Working in factories? They're not taxi drivers or convenience store workers yet. It's still weird to walk into a convenience store or catch a taxi and know that I am the one who can't speak the language.
On the November the 8th I wrote the following. "You won't see Tiger taking steroids or involved in a nightclub shooting or smoking bongs." Now I'm not so sure. You might. You might see him go on a shooting rampage, or trying to dry hump your mother. God knows what he's capable of, how many women he's shagged, how many sex videos there are ready to surface. That's the next step, isn't it. The sex video. Him taking drugs and having a threesome or something. I told my friend this morning, I feel like a sixteen year old girl who has just found out George Michael is gay. I'm shattered.
I heard he is going to be on Oprah soon. He has to go on there and just lay it all bare, get it all out. Then he has to divorce his wife and start again, because his life is a sham.

R2 Day 60 - Yoga, ARX

I'm typing this while I'm watching Paranormal Activity. Holy shit. One of those movies where you just dread the nighttime. Hah!
So I did Back & Biceps yesterday and Yoga and Ab Ripper X today. I said I was going to do Plyo today, but then I thought about doing Plyo and then Legs & Back the day after and I thought no way. I'll do Plyo on Wednesday.
I had my Japanese test today. I'll write about it tomorrow at work.

R2 Day 58 - ARX

I didn't have the time or the inclination to do Plyo today. I'm buggered from work and a couple of late-ish nights, so I blew it off. I'll do it on Sunday, and do Yoga on Wednesday, my rest day. Ab Ripper X was good though. My form was excellent, and it really hurt.

R2 Day 57 - Chest, Shoulders & Triceps

Chest, Shoulders & Triceps today. I have to start counting the amount of push ups I do in this exercise. I think this workout is one of the best in P90X. I really enjoy it. I did it in the lounge room today because I had to look after Jo Jo while Junko took Will to puzzle school. Yes, a class where they do puzzles. Long story. So while Jo Jo pulled himself around trying to bite the dumbbells or push up bars, I did all the exercises around him. I used the proper DVDs this time and not my ipod, so I did it without the music. It's weird to think that they taped it without the music and put it in when they made the DVDs. It's so quiet, except for Tony's chatter. Makes a big difference.

R2 Day 56 - Cardio X, ARX

Got up early this morning and did Cardio X, and then did Ab Ripper X tonight after work. It was the first time the whole round I got up early to do a workout. And by early I mean 5:30. I was struggling to stay awake at 10 in the morning sitting at my desk, but i made it to lunch and felt okay the rest of the day. My lesson with Nori was great. He has some funny stories about his year and a half in America. What a place.
Open letter to Tiger:
Honestly, I am stunned by what is going on with you. I dunno. It's not the adultery, really. Like you said, no-one's perfect, and you're only human. It's the stupidity. So you want to get your end wet. You've got all the money in the world, just get a real expensive prostitute. I'm sure there's a ultra-discreet service that caters for you billionaire athletes. You do not give your phone number to cocktail waitresses and leave voice mails and send texts about how you are going to wear them out etc. Holy shit.
Get out of there. Get out of that world. Making computer games, going on Ellen, doing ads for Gillette, hanging out with A-Rod or Charles Barkley or whatever. Drop it. They are good at their sport, you are Mozart. Genius born to play golf. What the fuck are you doing messing around with skanks who save your mails and messages for the day they can hire a publicist and sell them to the highest bidder? Your wife sounds like a bitch. Give her what she wants and leave her. Move to Europe, study your craft. Buy a factory and make your own clubs, balls, clothes. Design courses like you say you want to. Fuck Nike. You think they wouldn't dump you like a wet bag of shit tomorrow if they could? Jesus Christ, the whole world is yours and you are doing this.
Soak it up, Tiger. In a couple of weeks everyone will be looking for the scars on your face while you apologize to the millions of deadbeats like me who feel betrayed. All you have now is golf. Don't fuck it up.

R2 Day 55 - Rest

I was really sore after Legs & Back yesterday so I took a rest. This is the only workout that still gets me. My glutes hurt, and it's difficult to sit down and walk. It's a good feeling though because it means I really brought it.

R2 Day 54 - Legs & Back

Did Legs & Back last night. 93 pull ups. Next week I'll be gunning for 100. It's weird because at the end of the workout Tony says "and some of you have done over 120 pull ups!" I used to think he was crazy. No-one could do that many. But I hope to do that many in the last Legs & Back in a month and a bit.
I've got my Japanese test on Sunday. I'm not very confident. I wasn't able to knuckle down and study hard because... well, I could give you a reason like it's boring or I'm too busy, but I won't. I just couldn't be bothered. I'm studying a little bit, but it's aimless study. I've got next July's test on my mind now, but then six months ago I had Sunday's test on my mind, and I did nothing, so... It's disappointing, but something I will have to deal with. It's just a matter of turning study into a habit.
Tiger's situation just gets worse. If, as it is suspected, his wife hit him or scratched him during a fight, then the police in Florida have to arrest her. It's law that they have to arrest anyone who they think physically abused their spouse, regardless of whether or not their spouse consents. So basically if the police look at Tiger's wounds and decide that they weren't caused by the car accident but by his wife, then she goes to jail until her case can be heard, no bail. So Tiger is refusing to meet the police because he knows the police will be looking for exactly that, and not meeting with the police just makes it more likely that she did hit him, which means she must have been really upset, which means he must be having an affair. What a mess.

R2 Day 53 - Yoga, ARX

I really enjoyed this Yoga. It was the first time I have felt strong doing Yoga for ages. Ab Ripper X was hard as usual. I don't think it gets any easier.
I can't believe what's going on with Tiger. If he is shagging this skank, I would be stunned. He doesn't seem like him to make a mistake like this. But these gossip magazines are rarely wrong, are they, and there is the question WTF was he doing? My theory: He is shagging this chick, he had a fight with his wife, she smashed the window of his car as he drove off, and he lost control and smashed into the tree. Maybe he banged his head then, maybe she smashed his face before hand. That would explain the erratic driving better than just being surprised that his wife smashed the back window. Tiger is so private that it's hard to believe that this is out there. People say "what's the big deal? Why is this news?" It's news because everyone in the biz knows the truth, and they are just keeping it out there for when the truth comes out. Waiting like sharks.
The most disappointing thing about this is that it calls Tiger's mental toughness into question. Here's a guy whose wife has just had his second child, and he's working hard to provide for them. Obviously, with two young children, there's no real sexual attention being paid to him. His wife is probably tired from looking after the kids and physically still getting over the birth. He goes to work, and then when he comes home, tries to pay as much attention to the children as he can. He helps his wife with the housework, cooking, and cleaning. Outside the home he is getting offers, but he keeps knocking them back, knocking them back, for fear of being exposed and losing everything he holds dear. Instead, he focuses his energies on other things, like golf, and his health. Wait, who are we talking about again? Oh yea. Say it ain't so, Tiger.

R2 Day 52 - Back & Biceps

My arms are like jelly after this one. It is hard work, but I like it. I had no confidence going into the pull ups, and they sucked. A little disappointed in that. But after a week and a half of not doing them, what can I expect? Gotta stay on top of those bastards.
Got a shock this morning when I checked the paper. There are a few headlines I dread and I hope I never see them. Maybe just two or three. "Tiger Woods: Car Crash" is one of them, and that's what I saw when I checked out Drudge Report this morning. No, I thought. Please, no. Turns out he backed his car into a fire hydrant outside his house at 2 in the morning and cut his lip. It seemed he was unconscious for a while, though, so he must have bumped his head. Where was he going at 2 in the morning? Maybe he's still on Australian time. Maybe he had a fight with his wife. Probably he was going for a workout or something. None of my business, I'm just glad he's okay.
Didn't play Mass Effect last night. I went to bed really early.

R2 Day 51 - Plyo, ARX

Yesterday I did Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, which was tough after a two week break from it, and today I did Plyo and ARX, which is a monster workout but I did really well and I enjoyed it. Just finished four small homemade pizzas, so I don't really want to move much for a while. I didn't do a blog last night because I was playing Mass Effect. Hmmmm. After a couple of hours I'm hesitant to continue playing it, but I did spend fifty dollars on it and everyone says it's good so... First, I hate third person games. Third-person combat is so awkward and fiddly, and they have to put so much attention into faces and everything. Half-Life is ten years old, and still no-one else can beat it. I have choices of what to say when I'm talking to someone. The choices are I can sound like an asshole, a pussy, or a normal person. Wow, thanks. The game looks okay, though not as good as I expected, and the music is really good. I'll give it another go, but another ho-hum experience like last night and I'm back to Counter-Strike and Valve games, and I'll probably never bother buying another non-Valve game again. Even during the first cut-scene, I was thinking, this is going to end, and then I have to run everywhere (my character can't walk - I hate that) and ask people stuff and fumble my way through a gun fight and - sigh, I wish it was just a movie so I wouldn't have to do all this stuff just to get me to the next cutscene. The beauty of Half-Life was that there were no cutscenes. No stepping outside the first-person perspective of Gordon Freeman ever. Ah Half Life, will they ever make the likes of you again?

R2 Day 49 - Rest

I was going to do X Stretch and ARX, but when I got home from my lesson with Nori it was 10 o'clock and I was tired. So I went to bed.
All set for the next month and a half of P90X. Feeling good again.

R2 Day 48 - Cardio X

I felt pretty good all day, and was ready for this one. I took it at about 80% and while it was challenging it didn't destroy me. I feel like if I do X Stretch and an ARX tomorrow I'll be right as rain to go hard for the next month and a half.
I picked up on a funny Tony moment in Cardio X that made me chuckle. When there's a couple of minutes to go he's just crapping on about stretching and then he says "What am I saying? I don't know what I'm saying" like an old man. Just a funny moment that I only noticed today after doing this workout a dozen times in the last year.
I feel like I'm ready to get involved with a computer game again after years of mindless slaughter and 15 minute thrill killings. I've ordered Mass Effect, and it's one of those games where you have to talk to people and find out things. I'm so used to shooting people in the head that I don't know how I'll cope. Speaking of shooting people in the head, the Left 4 Dead 2 Demo. Good. Unless you live in China, whoops, I mean Australia, because the Government has seen fit to censor the game. Society must be perilously close to collapse down there if they felt the need to tone down a game about shooting zombies. As mild-mannered Acting Regional Manager Keven Rudd would say, "Struth, fair shake of the ketchup bottle cobber, in due season." I should get the game tonight, so we will see how I go.

Wow! Must Be Easy.

Every now and then a bunch of brochures do the office rounds from companies that will give us a discount if we by their stuff. My friend John picked this up. It's for little LED stands to put in your garden. Just another hint that this place is not part of the real world.

R2 Day 47 - Recovery 4 Results

I'm feeling a little better, but not much. My eyes hurt when I move them around. I am lightheaded, and although the hayfever medicine I took last night has dried me up, I can't taste or smell anything. I don't want to take it again today or I will pass out. All in all, I'm probably not in the best shape to approach Legs & Back, the hardest workout of the week. Another couple of easy days then I have to man up and and show my body that it's had its time to heal, and now it has to start bringing it again.
Hey, another one of my stories is up on 365 tomorrows. Check it out. It's part of my 'novel'. It's weird when I read stuff I wrote ages ago and have kind of forgotten writing it. I can see where my ego has gotten in the way, or something is phrased confusingly that I should have picked up but couldn't because my eye wasn't fresh. The way I see it, if I can get rid of anything that does not explain the story clearly, or doesn't say something about the character, or that pulls the reader out of the story like a word like "breathless" to describe Alan's voice, then it might be readable. I'm surprised this one got published because it's from my novel that I have never finished writing with a little twist I put at the end to give it some structure, though I don't think it did really. It should get some criticism in the forum. I sent another one in the other week which is better, so I hope that gets published.

R2 Day 46 - Yoga, ARX

So back on schedule today.Still nowhere near one hundred percent, but getting better. I did Patience Hummingbird Yoga, which is from the One on One with Tony series. It's a little different to Fountain of Youth yoga, which is the one I usually do. It's easier. I still made a mess of it, though. My balance was awful and my stamina way down. I hope I can bounce back hard from this cold/hay fever and get the energy levels back up quickly. But I'm glad this weekend is over because it sucked.
What I'm going to do is add the three workouts that I missed to the end of the second last week (second last because the last week is a recovery week).

R2 Day 45 - Recovery 4 Results

A tough, tough day. Still feel like shit, but my wife and two kids feel worse apparently, so I did everything today. Laundry, cooking, cleaning. My wife is wearing a mask and is mumbling all the time so I can't understand what she's saying and she gets upset when I say "What?" I swear, I am one arguement away from packing my bags. It's been that kind of day.
Who knows when this sickness will end? And it's not even swine flu. Man, if one of us get that in the next week I hope I'm the one who gets it and I hope it takes me out. Till then, I'll keep doing Recovery 4 Results until this headache stops, the congestion in my lungs clears up, and I feel like living again. I bought some hayfever medicine today. Damn it is strong. Dries me up good, but it spaces me out big time.

R2 Day 44 - Recovery 4 Results

I bought a ice-cream maker yesterday to take back another of my staples from murderous corporations that will gladly sacrifice my health and the health of my children for more money. I watched Food Inc last week and it made me think of a thing I heard on the Counterpoint podcast about Black Swan theory a couple of weeks ago, which is about the impact of highly improbable events on systems. When you create an incredibly efficient system, such as the food industry in America and probably to a lesser extent everywhere else, it becomes more vulnerable to outside events because it is so dependent on everything working correctly. One thing messes up, then the whole system collapses because it depended on this one thing along with a million other one things. A virus worse than Swine flu or another crash and everything will hit the fan. By the way, it's common practice in rural China to store chicken cages above the pig stys because the pigs like the bird shit and it saves space. They reckon that if swine flu, which is highly contagious but not very lethal, ever joins up with bird flu, which is devastatingly lethal but really hard to transmit, this is where and how it is going to happen. It really makes you want to start filling up empty PET bottles with water and storing them in your garage. And when you watch shows like Food Inc, and you see governments doing the exact opposite of what is in the public's best interest because the people who give them money tell them to do it, holy shit. I really want to separate myself from Western systems as much as possible because they seem to be behaving so recklessly. It's like the space shuttle disaster when every time the shuttle didn't blow up on the launching pad that became the new norm. Of course I can't separate myself totally, but food is a good start.
So I have taken back bread, pizza, biscuits and cake, butter, and now ice-cream. Long way to go, but two out of three meals I had today, plus snacks and dessert, I made from scratch. Anyway, I bought it yesterday, and Will wanted to make grape ice-cream. He is obsessed with grape, which I have always disliked. You know that purple flavour shit. "Daddy, do you like grape?" "Will, I told you, I am not answering that question again. You've asked me a hundred times if I like grape." "So you like it?" "No, not really." "I like it." So he's all excited about making grape ice-cream, so we go to the supermarket and grab some grapes. I get the recipe out, peel the grapes, puree, egg yolks and sugar, add hot milk and cream, then the final step, pour it into the ice-cream maker bowl (which has been placed in the freezer for at least 18 hours). Fuck. I probably should have read through the instructions before I started. So to keep the whole experience of ice-cream making a positive one for Will and I, we drove down to Baskin Robbins and had a cup of grape ice-cream. He loved it.
So this afternoon when he got home from school we sat down and completed the job. The end result wasn't that sickly purple colour, but it had a purple tinge to it, and there were real actual bits of grape in it. Will was skeptical at first, but I tell you what, it was really nice! Much nicer than the shit we had yesterday. Victory!
I did Recovery 4 Results again today. I was flirting with the idea of doing Ab Ripper X after it, but nah. I don't feel any worse than I did yesterday, but i sure as hell don't feel any better. Cold plus hayfever. Yay. I think I'll go easy on the wekend too, and hopefully by Monday I'll be well enough to start bringing it again.

R2 Day 43 - Recovery 4 Results

I felt ordinary all day, like it could go either way. I have a phlegmy chest, and a small headache, but no fever or chills. I did Recovery 4 Results. I just saw Wikiki go down in 2012. Not a bad movie, I'm looking forward to seeing it on DVD or in the cinema. I felt awesome after doing the workout. Well, not awesome, but much, much better. I really hope I wake up tomorrow feeling like I'm on the mend.

R2 Day 42 - Cardio X, ARX

Every morning the train to work is packed. Not quite like what you may have seen of Japan where station staff are pushing and squeezing people in, but on a bad day it can approach that level. I used to get on a carriage that was in the middle of the train and it was like that every day. You literally could not move. On days when I couldn't deal with it, I used to stand outside the toilets in the reserved carriage just to avoid the crush until one morning a couple of years ago when I was approached by a conductor. "That's 340 yen please."
"I have already bought a ticket," I said.
"Yes, but it costs extra to be in this carriage. It's the reserved carriage."
"But I'm not sitting down. I haven't reserved a seat."
"Yes, but it still costs extra. 340 yen please."
"I'm not paying."
There were other guys around me who where obviously doing the same thing as me, and didn't want to go into the sardine carriages. Some had their money ready to pay the conductor, but I'm sure they were thinking, Awesome, this foreigner's going to lose it! A fine morning's entertainment.
"You have to pay. Or you have to go to the general carriage. 340 yen please."
"No way. It's too crowded. I bought a ticket for this train, but it's too crowded. So I came in here."
"But this is the reserved carriage. You have to pay extra. 340 yen please."
"No way. You should have more trains, so when I buy I ticket I can have a place to stand."
I could feel public opinion was on my side. I was calm, yet defiant. Two more minutes and I would be at my station.
"350 yen please."
"No. There is no way I'm going to pay."
The conductor took a different tact.
"Do you catch this train every morning?"
"Yes."
"Then you know it's like this every morning."
"Yes, it's terrible."
"You should catch an earlier train."
Bastard had me.
"340 yen, please."
"No."
Then one of the men standing around asked me what my station was.
"Chiryu," I said.
"That's the next station."
"Yes." In fact, the announcement that the train was approaching Chiryu had begun.
The guy looked at the conductor and shrugged, like, Too late, dude.
"Okay," said the conductor, "but if you are in here tomorrow you have to pay."
"Okay," I said.
I got off and Chiryu, and so did the guy who intervened. He gave me a nod, because I just saved him 340 yen.
So since then I have been catching the very front carriage, which is still crowded, but at least I can breath. And in that carriage there's a woman on the train that is always looking at me. I see her once or twice a week, and she is always looking at me, and she doesn't look away when I look at her. She's small and kind of cute, maybe mid-20s, but sometimes she would be right next to me, and I could tell she was looking right up at me. And when I looked at her, she would be looking right into my eyes until I looked away. If I smiled, she smiled, and if I gave a little nod, she gave a little nod, but after several months it was getting really creepy, and I kind of dreaded it. Riding in the train in Japan is like anywhere in the world, but more so. You don't look at anyone, or talk to anyone. Especially when you are pushed up against five people at once. If you and a friend are talking then everyone is listening. But this chick would just stare at me. So after about a year it got to the point where we were saying good morning to each other. She was cute, but her teeth were terrible. Brown, broken, all over the shop. Pretty typical Japanese teeth. Then one morning she was standing right in front of me looking right at me, and I turned the volume up on my ipod because I couldn't hear it over the train noise, and I saw her gasp and turn away quickly. I realized that she had seen my wedding ring.
Look, if I wasn't married I would have talked to her ages ago. But I'm married. Bad luck for both of us.
But she kept on staring that once or twice a week we would be on the same morning train. Then one morning she ran into me in the station convenience store. We said good morning. I asked her her name, Tomomi, and she asked me mine, and then we got on the train together and shared an awkward seven minutes. That was a few months ago, so now when I'm waiting for the train she will come up to me and tap me on the shoulder and say hello and we chat until I reach Chiryu. She still stares at me. She invited me for a coffee when we happened to be on the same train going home a couple of weeks ago so we had a coffee at a coffee shop in the station. She has no interest in learning or speaking English. I have no idea what she wants. I even asked her, "What kind of a relationship are you looking for?" and she seemed stunned that I'd ask such a thing. So I guess she's my train buddy. I'm not in the position to be turning down any kind of friendship, so I'm just relying on my natural charm and personality to repel this woman like it does all women, but it doesn't seem to be working. She seems pretty interesting though. She does Japanese paintings in her spare time, enjoys flowers and gospel music, and always has something interesting to say, like "My sister has swine flu!" or "I have decided to study to become a lawyer."
I told Nori about this and he said she sounds crazy. Nori's great. Even if I wasn't married, the teeth thing would be a big hurdle. I shudder inside each time she smiles, and it's hard not to look at them.
So there you go. Just part of my push not to become a fossil.
Today I did Cardio X and Ab Ripper X after my lesson with Nori. Last week for some reason or another Cardio X was really hard and I had to take breaks, but I powered through it today. ARX was rough, but I did it.
Will has a fever and it looks like he does have the flu. My chest is feeling a little raw, but hopefully I can get through it without it being too horrible. I've read a few things about how exercising when you are sick doesn't really make you sicker, though of course I won't be able to power through Plyo or anything that intense. I have Recovery 4 Results which Tony made just for this situation, so I might be using that this week sometime. See how we go.

R2 Day 41 - Legs & Back

I am so glad that I got to bed early, because at around two o'clock Will woke up crying and shivering and burning up. Immediately we thought swine flu, or new-style flu as it's called here, because heaps of kids from his kindergarten have it and the girl he was playing with on Sunday has it now. So I agreed to take the day off work so Junko could take him to the doctor's and I would look after Jo Jo. There's no work to do anyway. Will finally went back to sleep (in my bed, so I'm thinking, well, may as well get this over and done with - if I'm going to get it, get it now etc), but when he woke up in the morning the fever was gone, but he had a little cough and was obviously not a hundred percent. So Junko took him to the doctor's, and it turns out he's got a normal cold. It was good news, of course, but it meant that the flu was still in our future somewhere when we we both kind of ready to deal with it now. Nah, it's good news.
So I thought, well, the day off work, let's really smash Legs & Back, and I did. 88 pull ups this week, 5 better than last week and 29 more than I did in week 1. It's amazing how quickly you can gain and lose pull ups. It's encouraging, and also a lesson as to how important a good night's sleep is, something I don't do often enough.

R2 Day 40 - Rest

I didn't do a workout today. I have been feeling a little run down, so I thought an early night was in order. In bed by 9. Legs & Back tomorrow, and then Kenpo X or Cardio X on Wednesday, which is usually my rest day.

R2 Day 39 - Yoga, ARX

So the Pac-man wins the boxing and Tiger wins the golf. And just to spare you the fake outrage next year, Tiger will not be coming back to Melbourne to defend his title. Man, two hours after he wins it's all, are you coming back? Say you're coming back, please! Yes! He kind of said he was! Melbourne is high maintenance. Remember when Jack Nicklaus came to Melbourne years ago? You probably don't, but he came to Australia many times throughout his career, but had never happened to play the queen of Australian golf courses, Royal Melbourne. So finally he plays on it, and everyone's like, it's the best course in the world, right? Right? And then he goes and calls it "a good member's course." He meant it as a compliment, sort of, but the stink it caused, oh my god. He had to backtrack and apologize or he would have been chased out of town. So everyone loves Tiger now and the money was all worth it and what a fantastic week for golf and Nettles or whatever his name is is the future of Australian golf, and he said he was coming back! No, he said he would love to come back. Meaning he probably won't.
So yoga today and another Ab Ripper X. A good workout. Got the big one tomorrow after work, Legs & Back, but to be honest, and I know this is the long hard road stage of P90X and my frame of mind is just a reaction to it, at the moment I'm struggling to find any meaning in it all. The intensity I am managing to create for my workouts comes from an empty place, and I'm just hoping it can get me through the next month and a half because I don't have much else going for me except for my health, and if I lose that then I will be really down. I think that's why I'm dreading getting sick so much, and also why I am an asshole to be around.
Anyway, no big deal. Work tomorrow, dishes after dinner, workout, TV, and bed. Do that a few times, then see where I'm at.

R2 Day 38 - Back & Biceps, ARX

This workout was shot to peices by Jo Jo. Junko and Will went out to one of his kindergarten friend's house for dinner, and I tried to squeeze this in while Jo Jo slept. I got 20 minutes through it when he woke up crying, so I went upstairs and tried to get him back to sleep. When it didn't work I gave up and put him down and did Ab Ripper X in the lounge room as he screamed. Which wasn't long, as it turned out, because he loved the Ab Ripper X and watching daddy do the same thing as the TV. He laughed and laughed. So that calmed him down so I put a video on for him and gave him some toys and made myself some dinner, then made him some milk. I watched the end of FlashFoward from last week, and then Junko and Will came home and I finished the workout. So the numbers are kind of meaningless, but I did it nonetheless. I'm really looking forward to the Manny Pac-man (can't spell his last name) and Cotto fight tonight. I hope I can download it quickly.
Tiger by two shots. I'm really glad he won it. He didn't have to beat much but he still had to hole the putts.

R2 Day 37 - Plyo

I had a really frustrating day. Sometimes I feel like I have nowhere for the energy that being fit gives me to go, except for the workouts that give me more energy. I pushed play just wanting to destroy it. I would have to say that this was the most intense workout I have ever done, and I had absolutely nothing left for Ab Ripper X. It was great to have something beneficial to put all of these destructive urges, and by the end of it I felt much better.

Bored At Work

I have mentioned before that one hard thing about Japanese is the lack of a subject in a sentence. They say stuff like "Went shopping, met a friend, said, how's it going." But of course sometimes they have to include a subject to make it clearer who's doing stuff. It's really hard because there is no simple "I" and "you" in Japanese. For the "you", the best thing is to refer to the person by name. So I might ask Goto-san "What did Goto-san do today?" It sounds kind of weird, but you get used to it. If you don't know their name, call them their job. There's a guy at Junko's parent's supermarket that she has known since she was born, but she doesn't know his name, even though they talk every day. He is just "Fish shop man". If you don't know their name or job, you have to ask their name. Otherwise you have to call them "anata", which is mainly used by married couples talking to each other. "Anta! Where'd you put the keys!" etc. But of course, foreigners are taught that this means "you", which technically it does, and use it for everyone, which is stupid. But I want to focus on "I" today.
The first thing a beginner Japanese student learns to say is their name. "I am (Jim)." This would be "Watashi wa Jimu desu." Forget the grammar and the pronunciation and all that, you can pretty much assume that "watashi" means I. And it does. So for the first year of study, foreigners say "Watashi wa this" and "Watashi wa that". I also mentioned before that because the subject is usually omitted in Japanese, then it sounds strange to Japanese people when foreigners continuously refer to themselves. "I, myself, went shopping, and as for me, I bought a hat." So you gradually learn not to say it because you don't hear Japanese people saying it.
But then, like Japanese people, you sometimes have to refer to yourself to make things clearer. So you say watashi. But then Japanese people who are on good enough terms with you shake their head and say "If you are a woman, fine. If you are a man, no good. You shouldn't use watashi." WTF? You throw your hands up in frustration. "Why are they teaching me shit that no-one uses!"
This is a good point. The stuff you learn in Japanese school and books, you never here in the real world of Japan. If you use what they teach you in beginner text books, you come off sounding like an idiot. We don't teach beginner English students to say "how do you do?" or "you may call me Jim" the first lesson. People's first impression of you would be "who's this fucking idiot" wouldn't it? It comes down to the people who write the textbooks, and the people who teach Japanese. "It's important to be polite" seems to be the overriding rule when it should be "it's important to be friendly."
So after a few years of study you learn that men shouldn't use "watashi" when referring to themselves. It sounds gay. Great, I've been sounding gay for two years, you think. You should say "boku." Ok, boku. Never seen it in a textbook, but now that you mention it, that's what most of the men say. But then there's another one you keep hearing men say. "Ore." It seems like that also means "I". You ask your teacher if it does. She shakes her head. "Yes, it does. But never use it. It is not polite." WTF!
I don't want to be polite! I don't want to sound gay! I want to speak normal, everyday Japanese! If that means that normal Japanese is not polite, who cares?
I say "boku". It's the easiest and most common. But it took years to discover this and feel confident using it. I'm talking about this because I just read an article about the word and where it comes from. Literally it means "your servant". It's humble-speak.
Picture a guy having his his first Japanese lesson.
Teacher - "What is your name?"
Student - "Watashi wa Jimu desu."
T - "No."
S - "But it says 'watashi' in the book!"
T - "I know but it's wrong. 'Boku'. Not 'watashi'. What is your name?"
S - "Boku wa Jimu desu."
T - "No."
S - "But you said use 'boku'. And I said 'boku.'"
T - "I know but it's wrong. Don't say it at all. What's your name?
S - "Jimu desu."
T - "To be honest, you don't even really need the 'desu'. What's your name?
S - "Jimu?"
T - "Good."
S - "Holy shit."
That is so Japanese. Suspicious of anything easy.
Still, I appreciate anything that gets me thinking. Later.

R2 Day 36 - Chest, Shoulders & Triceps

Chest, Shoulders & Triceps today. I like this one. I am able to reach failure on so many of the exercises. Like the plyo push ups, where you have to push yourself up and do a clap in between push ups. I can do 15 or 16 until I do a clap and then I am unable to support my body weight and collapse onto my chest. That's the thing about this workout, you reach failure, and then a few minutes later you have to use the same muscles again. It's great.
I see Tiger shot a 66 the first round. Last night I was thinking, he probably hasn't played against a weaker field in his professional career. The only players that you would say are 'internationally' any good are Ogilvy, Appleby, Scott, and Baddelly, who have all had horror seasons (especially Scott, who should consider retirement), and you might throw in Pampling on a good day. By rights Tiger should win by ten shots. I'm looking at the leader board now - a smorgasbord of whose that? Dufner, Grace, Hall, Nitties? Villegas. You might have heard of him. Actually, you haven't. You've heard of his brother. Of course, if someone putts the lights out they might beat him, or if Tiger suddenly starts shanking it he might lose it, but looking at the top ten, who can come close? The way Tiger usually wins now is that he stays a shot or two ahead until the final few holes, when he makes a birdie and the others make bogeys. My prediction: Tiger by three shots.
I'm not feeling real flash at the moment. I've got a little bit of a headache and for some reason I'm making a lot of typing errors, in particular getting letters mixed up, like typing untli instead of until. I better not get the swine flu. I've been washing my hands religiously for weeks and staying away from the Chinese guys at work as much as possible because they are dirty fuckers (is it racist if it's true?) but those germs will find a way. Probably the place that will infect me is the train. Packed in a stuffy carriage for ten minutes a day will probably do it. My last recorded illness was exactly one year ago. I know I can't not be sick again ever, but damn I hate the thought of feeling shit now that I feel great.
Mad Men's over, Flash Forward is boring, and I've even lost the urge to watch Californication even though I enjoy it. Bill Maher's finished too. No footy either. I have been watching the HBO series 24-7 about the Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto fight this Saturday. It's really interesting. It's a great idea, and it will definately make the fight more interesting knowing all of the people involved.

R2 Day 35 - ARX

I did this when I got home from my lesson with Nori last night. Doing ARX cold means that I haven't done a one-hour workout just before it, so I feel much stronger and fresher. I'm not sure if that makes it any easier though.

R2 Day 34 - Cardio X

I did Cardio X today because I've done Kenpo X a lot recently, and I don't want to overdo it because it's very easy to get jaded about Kenpo X. Cardio X is no pushover and I really brought it. It did it without ventolin which was probably not a good idea because I was blowing up a little bit towards the end and it's not a pleasant feeling. I feels like I can't breathe deep or fast enough to get my breath back. I will have to have a puff before I do my more vigourous workouts, and restrict it to that. I left Ab Ripper X for tomorrow, which I will squeeze in sometime between work and my lesson with Nori, if he doesn't cancel again.
Yesterday I was reading an article giving advice to students of Japanese. This is tip 5.
"Tip #5: Don’t become a fossil.
Bad for dinos, bad for you. Fossilization basically means that despite continued contact with the language you experience a plateau, or in some cases, a decrease in your linguistic ability. Fossilization describes the phenomenon where a speaker after two years, doesn’t progress much from four.
What makes us fossils? I think it is probably either because of a lack of motivation at either a conscious or subconscious level because we somehow feel we have “learned enough” in the environments we find ourselves in. Prime candidates for early fossilization are people who use Japanese in a limited context: e.g. the one-partner speaker who learns their partner’s vocabulary and syntax (and their partner learns how to understand the speaker’s more-or-less comprehensible Japanese), or the bar meister who can exchange pleasantries and short anecdotes with their Japanese friends, but can’t function well in other situations (e.g. business contexts).
The key to not becoming a fossil is perhaps to lead a more dynamic life – push yourself at of your comfortable environment so you learn to speak, read, and write in varied contexts."
That's me. I am a fossil. I need to lead a more dynamic life, it says. Totally agree.

R2 Day 33 - Legs & Back

Wow, I just killed Legs & Back today. 83 pull ups! I should say, like I said before in another post, not all of them are consecutive. I do as many as I can before I think that the neck muscle that was giving me trouble in the early weeks might start hurting again. Then I lower myself down (not just let go and fall to the ground) and shake it out a little, then do it again. I am careful not to jump up to the bar either. I start at the bottom and lift myself up. So all of the pull ups I do are genuine pull ups. For example, in the second round of wide front pull ups I did eight pull ups. I did five and then stopped, shook it out, then did two more, stopped and shook it out, and then I squeezed out one more. I'm very pleased with 83. That's 13 more than in my last week of round 1. But then I would just do as many as I could consecutively and then that was it.
I'm going to stop using Ventolin for my asthma. I've been using it too much and I don't think it's any good for my rosacea. Some people on the net have associated the two. I probably should stop using it anyway. Only for full-on attacks, which I hardly ever get.

R2 Day 32 - ARX

For some reason today I just felt worn out and lazy all day. I got plenty of sleep and ate well, but I just had no energy. I played with Will and got through the day all the while knowing that I had Yoga X coming up and thinking that it was just what I needed, but then also thinking it was the last thing I wanted to do. About dinner time I decided just to do a normal yoga and ARX, but when I got down to the garage and started Yoga the intensity was non-existent and I was just counting down the minutes. I knew it would be a waste of time so I turned it off, did Ab Ripper X, had a shower, watched some TV and went to bed. Jo Jo woke up in the middle of the night a few times, so I'm pretty tired now (Monday morning).
I'm thinking of buying some kangaroo burger patties. There's a place here that sells them, and I miss eating hamburgers and don't want to eat the shit that passes for hamburger mince here - usually a mixture of beef and pork. God knows how many animals and what parts of them are in those things. They're about ten dollars for three patties, so they're pretty expensive, but no more expensive than a fast-food burger. But then again I'm hesitant because I like kangaroos. The ones I've met have been pretty friendly, and they are our national animal. Still, cows are pretty nice two, and I have been personally responsible for the slaughter of thousands of them, so a roo or two won't make much difference.
My story appeared on the 365tomorrows on Sunday. Something funny happened. My story is about a guy lost in the jungle who is saved by the local tribespeople who think he is Jesus. I intentionally made him look like Jesus by him having a beard and wearing underpants and being all scratched up and stuff. But in the story I had him cut out some kind of responder from his hand, his palm actually, so the enemy couldn't use it to detect his location. So it looks like stigmata. But when I was writing it that thought never occurred to me. I thought, well, he's a soldier from the future, so he must have some kind of chip in him, like a GPS chip, and if he wanted to escape he would have to get rid of it. I think I originally had it in his thigh, but I thought that would be too hard to cut out, so I made it in his palm. No reason. That was the only conscious thought I applied to it. But of course, if a tribesperson was to think someone was Jesus, he would look at the palms and expect to see a wound there where he had been crucified. The only time I realised I'd done this was when I read someone's comments in the web site's forum yesterday. Weird. The subconscious is an amazing thing.

R2 Day 31 - Back & Biceps

New workout today. I like this workout a lot. It's quick and intense, and it really works your arms. My numbers were the same as the last time I did it in week 12 of the first round, except for the pull ups, which fell away a little at the end. I've never felt like I am on top of the pull ups, they are so damn hard. I tried to fix my bar, but I couldn't. No great drama though.
I just went down the shop with Will and bought a can of coffee - my only indulgence for the day. It's weird because as soon as I decided to cut down on the crap (really not to eat any at all, but I've decided I would like one treat a day, whether it be a can of coffee or a Kitkat, the kitchen seems to be piled high with doughnuts and mini croissants and ice-cream etc. Last week I would have gone nuts and ate a heap of them, but this week, nup.
Tiger will be in Melbourne in a couple of days. There's an interview with 60 minutes tonight, which I will definitely download. I should have scheduled my trip to coincide with him playing at Kingston Heath. I would have loved to have seen him play. I saw him at Royal Melbourne when he came down for the President's Cup ages ago.
I still can't believe what he has done. When I was learning golf, the best two players were Greg Norman, who you knew deep down was an asshole, and Faldo, who was my favourite. Golf exposes people. Flaws in their character, work they haven't done, presumptions they've made. Norman was exposed again and again. Those 'unlucky' things that happened to him, he brought about. Larry Mize's chip in in 87 was amazing, but like he said years later, it was Norman's shitty second shot that took the pressure off him and let him chip the ball thinking that he might be able to make a bogey and still be in the play off. If Norman put his second to fifteen feet, then Mize would have approached the chip knowing that he had to get up and down to stay in it - a completely different mindset. In 86 when Tway holed a bunker shot to beat Norman, Norman had shot a 40 on that back nine. He was already beaten. The other times Norman's technique let him down, and even though it cost him dozens of tournaments and millions of dollars, he refused to tackle the problem. Faldo, on the other hand, did the work, hit the shots, and for a few years was the most dominant player in golf since Nicklaus. He won 6 majors. Norman won 2. I thought Faldo was the best golfer I would ever see.
Tiger has won 14. The thing I love about Tiger is that all he wants to do is win. He's not Ali, or Shaq, he's not about changing the world or being in Disney movies, he's about winning golf tournaments, and he does what he has to do to win them. When he first came on the scene the media tried to paint him as some kind of saviour, a barrier-breaking racial hero, all that. They tried to portray his dad as some kind of crazy Korean tennis dad. Turns out that Tiger isn't really interested in race, and that his dad was a great guy who taught Tiger what he needed to know but was just as in awe of his son's talent as anybody. From a purely golf point of view, he's the greatest ever. I think only Nicklaus has a problem with that, and he's a proud old bugger. The shots he has hit over the years are just amazing. The pressure he is under week after week is intense, but the consistency of his form is untouchable in any sport.
Sometimes I wish he would be more... charismatic, so people who don't play golf take an interest in him like I might take an interest in Michael Jordan or Ichiro, even though I have no interest in their sports. It's probably why even though we have the greatest golfer in his prime playing, golf is in all sorts of trouble. Clubs are struggling, TV audiences are down. It's a shame. But fuck it. I'm a golfer, and Tiger is mine, and part of me is glad that he doesn't appeal to the shitkickers out there who don't know what it takes to do what he does. They've got their Koby Bryants and Lance Armstrongs and all those tennis faggots. You won't see Tiger taking steroids or involved in a nightclub shooting or smoking bongs. Sorry.
So good luck in Melbourne, Tiger. Hope you like Kingston Heath, it is a beautiful place. Hope you kick their ass and win.

R2 Day 30 - Plyo, ARX

Phew, big day. Day 30, actually. Nearly half way through already. Plyo then Ab Ripper X. This was easily my best Plyo so far in this second round. The intensity was very high, and I'm feeling it now like I haven't for a long time. Nice. ARX was ARX. I had a quick coffee before my workout, and that's it. No headaches, which is nice, and weird considering my caffeine intake is way down. I feel really good, really even-tempered.
I did a lot of looking after the baby today, and we went out for dinner. Ramen. Probably not the healthiest of foods, but damn I love ramen.

R2 Day 29 - Chest, Shoulders & Triceps

Phase 2 starts today. Chest, Shoulders & Triceps. This workout just hums along. It seems really quick, and it's hard to type now because my arms are kin of like jelly after all those pushups. Great stuff.
I have to say that straight up I had a can of coffee while walking to work. I think I'm going to restrict myself to one a day, and only when I'm working. So that's three or four cans a week, instead of three or four cans a day. A considerable drop. I didn't have any KitKats after lunch today, a radical departure from the norm, but I did have a cup of Ecco, an "instant cereal beverage naturally free of caffiene". It was okay.
Last night Nori cancelled again because he was still in a meeting in Nagoya, so I thought I'd do the same thing as last week and go to the same bar and see if the people I met there last week were there again this week. But when I got there, it was closed! How can a place be open one Wednesday night and not the next? Where's the consistency? So I had to go to a net cafe and kill an hour rather than go home and have my deception exposed. A bit of a bummer.
Today a co-worker gave me a Japanese rhinoceros beetle larva for Will. His daughter's beetle had babies, so they're giving them away. These things are huge in Japan, every young boy owns one and fights them with his friend's beetles, and they look pretty cool. I don't know how Will will go with it, because it looks like a big witchety grub at the moment and will for a while yet, until next summer. We'll see how we go.
Here's my Pre-stage 2 photo. I look pretty lean, and tired (I just woke up), and I don't know where all the weight is. I hope that even in only one month, the results will be clear.

R2 Day 28 - Rest

There's no way I'll be able to fit a workout in today. Too busy. What I'll do, seeing as though I owe a Yoga and an ARX, is do Yoga X on Sunday instead of the Fountain Of Youth Yoga I usually do, and forget about the ARX. There's plenty of ab exercises in Yoga X anyway. It begins again tomorrow, and I am ready to go. BTW I was apparently a little premature with the 365 Tomorrows story. Still not up yet. Also, I saw Zombieland last night. Really funny movie, maybe my pick of '09 with District 9.

R2 Day 27 - Yoga, ARX

Yoga and Ab Ripper X. No dramas. I'm starting phase 2 on Thursday, and I've decided to really commit to getting fit and strong, and that means raising the intensity of my workouts and not eating any more chips and chocolate, and not drinking any more coffee. Looking at myself in the mirror, I guess I look like an off-season AFL footballer at the moment. The muscle is there, but so is the fat. As I've said before, I'm not worried about my weight, but last night when I was doing Core Synergistcs I remembered how hard it was the first time I did it back in May, and how far I have come since then. Then I thought, wouldn't it be a shame if I was ever went back to that level of fitness after all this hard work, and if I did, I wondered if would I ever be able to do it all again. I don't know. The amount of work I did in the Summer was ridiculous. It was great, too, but every day I would be drenched in sweat and just wasted. But then I looked at it the other way. I've come this far, but I have never really committed to it except for the hour or so I do the workouts every day. I know I've said this heaps of times, but I've used working out as a justification to eat and drink (well, not drink, I rarely drink alcohol now, not here anyway, but certainly eat) pretty much the way I always have. I don't have the big heavy meals I used to, but I still have the chips, the chocolate, the cake, the ice-cream, the coffees, all that shit. Wouldn't it be a shame to come this far and not fully commit (for at least two months, anyway) and see where it takes me? I would love to have a photo of me aged 35 and just ripped and in the best shape of my life that I can look at in the years to come, and my boys can look at when they get older, and just think "Fucking hell, 35?" Know what I mean? When I hear people say that you can work out all you want, but diet is the most important thing, I think, nah, that can't be true. But it must be, because I'm not losing any weight. I think I've done the work to put on muscle, now I'd like to work on losing a couple of kilos just to see how I would look and feel. I think I'll go to the sports room here at work now and weigh myself. There's no work to do and it's really boring... Holy shit! 83.3 kgs! That means since I finished the first round of P90X I've put on almost 2 kgs! Probably the trip to Australia that did it. Ok. I won't weight myself again until after the last workout of the Recovery week after Phase 2 which will be on the 2nd of December, and my goal weight will be 80 kgs. That's pretty realistic, and I would fully expect to be in the 70's somewhere. Even if I do get down to 80, that's still five kgs heavier than when I started P90 back in September last year. I'll take a photo on Thursday before the workout, and a photo after the workout on the 2nd of December.
You know, I've been thinking about this for a couple of days now, like "On Thursday I'll really put my head down and work hard for two months and go after the results... which means I'd better buy a pack of chips tonight because I won't have the chance to do so in a couple of days." That's how I thought when I was a smoker, only now I'm applying it to chips. *sigh* Have your precious chips on the night of the 2nd of December, asshole. An early Christmas present.
So that's the challenge. Question is; do I have the minerals? Do I have the sack to do this? The little voice that is getting me to eat the chips and chocolate and that is sabotaging my efforts would say, gee, I dunno, mate. Sounds pretty tough. But the last year has been all about proving that little voice wrong when it says I can't do something because it's hard, or because it takes too long. I've been giving that little voice too much room to move lately. Too much space. I know I can never fully destroy the little voice. But I can tame it, and I can ignore it.
Only one thing left to say: BRING IT!

R2 Day 26 - Core Synergistics

I think Core Synergistics is the hardest workout in the P90X system. The middle 20 minutes is just torture. I don't like how Tony messes around with the Superman/Banana boat exercise either, changing them around so quickly. I ignore him during this exercise. That one minute iso run just kills me. I'm looking forward to getting back into the weights on Thursday. I've got two Yogas and two Ab Ripper Xs before then, one scheduled and one that I owe from last Thursday, so I should be raring to go. I want to make Phase 2 the most intense phase I have ever done. I want to increase the numbers, lose some weight, and get really lean.
So my first two weeks of scheduled Japanese study have gone reasonably well. I passed my bi-weekly test with flying colours. I might be a chance, you know. Regardless, December '10 will be my goal for reaching Level 1. Or actually, N1, which it will be called from next year. They are changing the system. In fact, I have been invited to sit a practice test two weeks before the real test which they are holding to establish the new levels and just generally see how the new system goes. Should be good practice.

R2 Day 25 - X Stretch

I had X Stretch today, which was awesome. The quickest hour of my life maybe. I really needed it, because I've been feeling really tight around the neck and shoulders.
It has been raining all day. I took Will to the pool this morning, which he loves. He gets his floaties on and just floats around. He can't swim yet, but it looks like his dog paddle is coming along okay. He started talking to a couple of little girls, and their father chatted with us too, and talking to Will he said "Where are your goggles? Get daddy to buy you some goggles." I had to laugh, because this is the second time someone's mentioned that we don't wear goggles.
The way these people get others to conform, it's kind of frightening. I hate wearing goggles. I'm not swimming, I'm just messing around in the water. Besides, they never fit right, and they leave rings around your eyes and you look like a freak for the rest of the day. You and your goggle buddies can kiss my ass. I'm not part of your system.

R2 Day 24 - Kenpo X, ARX

No dramas today. Feels like I just did this one yesterday, but it was two days ago. Those back kicks are hard. I never feel like I'm doing them right.
Hey, check it out. I got a mail from 365 Tomorrows, a website that publishes short science-fiction stories (very short, 600 words or less) and they said they were going to publish one of my stories soon. Maybe tomorrow. It's called "The Survivor". I submitted it about ten months ago, so they must be scraping the bottom of the barrel. I've forgotten how it goes myself, so I look forward to reading it.
www.365tomorrows.com

R2 Day 23 - Cardio Intervals

I think that in the P90X schedule, Core Synergistics is scheduled today, but I don't like the idea of doing it twice in one week because it is a monster, so I substituted this one with Cardio Intervals from the P90 Master series. I love this workout. Tony is in good form with his Eastern European accents, and it absolutely messes me up. Sweated heaps.
I have done very little of anything so far today. Watched Flash Forward this morning, looked after Jo Jo while Junko and Will go and get their flu shots. I'd like to get out of the house and do something, but I can't think of anything to do.

R2 Day 22 - Kenpo X, ARX

It was good to get back into it this morning. Ripped through Kenpo, but Ab Ripper X was a struggle as usual, in particular the oblique V-ups. I can usually get through them okay, but not today. It's a great day today and I'm feeling refreshed after a nice social drink last night and a big workout this morning. I just went and bought some new shoes because I'm sick of wearing sneakers all the time, and we had Mos Burger for lunch, the nicest fast-food hamburgers in the world (though not the biggest). I still owe P90X a Yoga and an ARX, which I have decided I will pay back on Wednesday, my usual rest day.

R2 Day 21 - Another Rest

Nori cancelled on me, but I really felt like just getting out of the house and going somewhere. I rode into town and went to a pub where I thought there might be a few foreigners, and there were, some interesting people. It's weird to think that I've lived here for 6 years and never gone out here. I've always worked out of town and gone out in other cities, so it was nice to meet some expat locals.
Of course, I'm a little disappointed that I missed the workout, but I'll get stuck into it tomorrow, but after three beers I didn't think it would be a good idea to do a full-on 80 minute workout. I'll squeeze it in this week some time.
As the ledger stands, I owe P90X one Kenpo X and one Ab Ripper X.

R2 Day 20 - Rest

Today was meant to be Kenpo X and Ab Ripper X, but I'm resting today and I'll do them tomorrow. I'm not really that tired, but I know I needed a good eight hours sleep. I've got my Recovery week coming up too, so I really want to concentrate on getting my body right, doing a lot of stretching, and maybe I'll go get a massage somewhere and see if it can loosen up my neck.
It was only a matter of time. Japanese men are wearing skirts.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20091024p2a00m0na019000c.html

R2 Day 19 - Legs & Back

It rained all day today. When I got off my train at the station near my work I got my phone out to check the time (my phone is basically a pocket watch - no calls, three mails this month) and I dropped it. There were people everywhere and we all watched it tumble and clatter across the platform and down between the edge of the platform and the train that was stopped there and onto the tracks. I did say fuck and I didn't smile, but I didn't make a fool out of myself. So I waited around for the train to go and then I jumped down onto the tracks, grabbed my phone and jumped up again. Only a foreigner would do that. I should have called a station attendant and had him use an extension pole or something to pick it up but it would have been a big scene and it would have taken ages. No station attendant saw me so I was spared a lecture about being safe.
Today was Legs & Back. That pain in my neck came back again, big time. The first round of reverse grip pull ups, I strained to do 11, and bang! It's really painful and I can't find a stretch to get at it so it's really hard to warm up and prepare for it. For the rest of the workout I was careful not to overdo it. I would do five pull ups, get down, stretch a little, then do as many as I could without straining too much, then stretch a little, then do one or two more. When I do this, I'm careful to start at the bottom for my first pull up and not jump up to the bars, and conversely not let go from the top on my last one but lower myself down all the way. Otherwise I'm not doing it properly and the numbers won't mean much. I can do more than when I try to do as many as I can in one go, plus I don't get the pain in my neck (as often).
It's so nice knowing that Ab Ripper X doesn't come after Legs & Back. I'm doing it on the cardio days, not the resistance days. I'm also going to do it during the Recovery weeks, too. I didn't like not doing it last time. Felt like I was taking a step back. My first phase ends tomorrow. 3 weeks already. My results are comparable with the last week of round 1, so I'm going to really get strong the next two months and expect big things. A couple of things I can work on are ARX form, and diet. I bought a new yoga mat yesterday, but the skin on the sole of my big toe is still giving me trouble. I had to finish yoga in my sneakers, and I hate doing yoga in sneakers. Need to pay more attention to that. Also my right ankle is still aching a bit.
I finished the workout a little later than I wanted, and sat down to watch Mad Men at around 10:30. I thought I'd watch half of it and watch the rest at work tomorrow, but in this episode Don Draper was confronted with his secret past and spilt the beans, so I couldn't turn it off and I ended up watching the whole thing.

R2 Day 18 - Yoga, ARX

I reckon if you asked any parent of grown children for one piece of advice about raising a child, they would probably say "Let them do what they want." One of my mum's friends said this once, and I asked her if she meant moment by moment, or more long term, like school or job-wise. She said both. I was reminded of this tonight when Will wanted to brush his teeth before dinner. I said "Wait until after dinner, Will. Will, after dinner, mate. Wait until after dinner. Don't brush your teeth now, wait until after dinner. Will. Will! Brush your teeth after dinner! Wait until after dinner!" like a fucking moron. So what does he do? He pays no attention to me and puts toothpaste on his brush and brushes his teeth. Just let him do what he wants to do. Who cares if he brushes his teeth before dinner? He can brush them after dinner,too.
I thought about this during yoga, which I loved. Gotta learn to go with the flow, let him do what he wants to do, let him be a child, let him be free. Stay relaxed in an uncomfortable position! That's what's so great about yoga. It literally forces you do this, and then helps you apply it to your life outside exercise.
Will and I went for a walk to Iga Hachimangu this morning, an old temple near my house which they have done up recently. It's more than five-hundred years old. If you didn't know, the city I live in, Okazaki, is the birthplace of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the greatest Shogun in Japanese history, whose family ruled Japan until Tom Cruise killed the last one. Rumour has it that on the night before a great battle, he had the team stay over at this temple, and paid some ninja to come and and move the big stone tori a few feet, which is the ornamental gate you see in most Japanese shrines and temples, so when the soldiers woke up in the morning they saw the tori had been moved and believed it was a sign that the gods were on their side. Will and I used to go there all the time, so the monks remembered us. Monks, priests, I dunno what they are. One monk said he remembered when they were re-thatching the roof of the main temple they invited Will and I to join a group of them climbing the scaffolding to have a close-up look. It was pretty cool. I think they do it every hundred years or so. I remember they took photos of everyone posing beside the roof, and I asked the guy to mail me the photos and gave him my e-mail address, and I remember it was like he couldn't believe I'd asked such a thing. He said he would, but we both knew he wouldn't. It was really confusing. I wanted to say, "You're Japanese, and you're a priest! That means you're supposed to do what you're told, plus be forgiving of other people"s improprieties!" This guy did neither.

R2 Day 17 - Shoulders & Arms

Felt really good today. Numbers great, pump awesome. I was a little worried that I would get the headache/muscle pain in my neck again, and I did feel it a little, but it went away quickly. I was looking at my notes from when I was doing P90, about a year ago, and I complained about the same pain once when I pushed a little too hard during maximum push ups. I said I thought I was having a stroke or something. Might even have been early in the blog when I was doing P90 Master. Dunno. It does feel like I'm having a stroke. It's horrible.
Had a nice, relaxing day. Did some study, ate okay, played with the boys. I just finished watching "Moon" with Sam Rockwell. Good movie. It probably would have made a really good computer game. Dunno why I think that. *SPOILER ALERT* The science fiction novel I've been half-finished (or half-started, depending on how you look at it) for about two years now also involves clones and a friendly, helpful on-board computer (mine has the face of a lego-man, this one had a simple smiley face). It's called "Control Damage". Fuck it, I might post the first chapter of it one day and you can tell me what you think. Tell me what you think is wrong with it, because if you tell me it's good I'll just think you're lying. Hah! I'll tidy it up and post it in a week or two. Give me something to do during the quieter moments at work instead of whatever else it is I do.

R2 Day 16 - Plyo, ARX

I spent most of the day translating a manual which, in Japanese, is titled the "Operation Preparation Confirmation Function Operation Manual". No shit. Basically it is a function that, if enabled, will force the operator to click "Yes" one more time before being able to start the machine. No one will enable it. This is my job. It has contributed to the feeling I've had all week that professionally I am a coward/loser. The only way out is hard work, and I feel like I'm banging against a wall I've built that prevents me from doing what I need to do to improve my situation. Working out and getting fit, that daily victory over being lazy and putting things off and taking the easy way out has almost got me over the wall. It's not really about looking good or feeling good for me anymore. It's about being in control. When I feel the motivation slipping or I feel like I'm not on top of things, things get to me, and it only makes what I need to do harder.
So when I got home from work today I used all this frustration and tension to power me through Plyo, and I bust shit up. After round 3 I turned it off and did ARX, and when I did that, I turned Plyo back on and finished it. It felt awesome. I'm really getting back into the swing of it again, and I'm looking forward to some great results in a month or two. I saw a punching bag in the shop on the way home. I'd like to get one and just pound on the fucker, and I think Will would enjoy it too, because he's always punching me.

R2 Day 15 - Chest & Back

This one messes me up. The numbers were better than last week. I'm still getting a little pain in my neck when I'm really straining. It's not so bad now, though. I made a nice chicken and vegetable soup for lunch, and ate really well all day. Will and I went to the bathhouse before dinner. I'm working tomorrow, so I'm going to have to squeeze in Plyo and ARX sometime. Probably after work. I'm a day behind my Japanese study, so I'll catch up tomorrow.
Till then, see ya.