Working Out

Just watching Mad Men. What a great show this is. In this episode, a guy gets his foot sliced up by a ride-on mower during a wild office party. At the hospital, the prognosis isn't good. "The doctors say he'll never golf again." That line must have been hard to say for the actor without laughing. Just a funny show.
On Sunday I felt really awful. I woke up with a headache, and it just hung around all day. If it was a cold, I thought, lets hurry up and get this done so I'm right by next weekend. But then in the evening I felt a lot better, and then I did Yoga and felt awesome, as usual. I don't know what it was for sure, but it was probably hay fever. I'm trying to keep the negative thoughts out, I'm washing my hands like I'm Howard Hughes, taking my multivitamins, and not eating crap. I haven't been sleeping well, however. A couple of late nights watching the football, mosquitoes, Will wetting the bed, Joseph getting a cold and crying all the time, all mean that my sleep has been inconsistent. I need a really good one before the flight Thursday night. I'm getting better at sleeping on planes (if I remember to bring ear plugs), but the best I've done is five hours or so. The plane should only be half full, so hopefully I can stretch out a bit.
The workouts this week have been a bit all over the place. Wednesday was my rest day, Thursday was Burn circuit 2 and CH200 (the sit up workout from P90), but on Friday I was really tired and missed the workout. Saturday was a big one with Burn circuit 3 and Ab Ripper X, but on Sunday i felt shit, like I mentioned earlier, so instead of the scheduled Cardio I did Yoga. Felt better. Then yesterday I did P90M Cardio Intervals and CH200, which was awesome. But then last night I was just gone. We went to the park and Will and I played for ages and I was buggered, and I hit the wall about 9. Straight to bed, but Jo was crying and I couldn't sleep. Gave up at about 12 and went on the Internet. Gary Ablett won the Brownlow. I was really happy about that. So I've got Burn circuit 1 tonight, and then on Wednesday I'm going do a cardio on what is usually my rest day, because I missed the one on Thursday. I kind of want to wear myself out a little bit before the trip too, but not too much.
Tim Lane said once, has there ever been a case of the genius of the father being passed down so completely to his son in the history of the world? or something like that. What was Shakespeare's son like? Dead at 11. Mozart's son? Didn't have one, but if he did, probably couldn't play shit. Einstein's son? One was a professor of hydraulic engineering, the other an institutionalized schizophrenic. Pffft. Losers. Ablett lacks the selfish gene that his father had, but I love watching him play just as much. He moves better than anyone, maybe with the exception of Cooney, and he played awesome on Saturday night. I hope the Cats win the flag. I guess the Saints are every one's sentimental favourites. There's something about them though. I can't want them to win. I was surprised to hear myself barracking for the Bulldogs on the weekend. I don't know why I was doing that. Maybe I think a St Kilda victory would be a victory for boring, cliched "Honestly, I haven't given it (winning the flag) any thought" football? As effective as it is, back half pressure can't be all you need to win a Grand Final. Geelong to destroy Reiwold in the first quarter, and it's all over by three quarter time. My tip, Geelong by eight goals. I'm sure I'm wrong, and it'll be an awesome match.
And I'll be there! Well, near there.

Poor Old Doggies

Has there ever been a team that is so consistently a goal not good enough? I found myself barracking for the Bulldogs, but in the end I wanted to see the Saints in the Granny.
I missed the workout yesterday. We had to work five days this week (!) so I was pretty buggered last night. I had a good sleep and a big breakfast and did burn circuit 3 and Ab Ripper X and I'll do a cardio tonight when Will has gone to bed. Hopefully the other game will be up tonight and I can watch that, but I doubt it. I'm not sure if it's a day game and a night game. Usually it's a day game, yea? Hope the Cats win.
I'm flying in to Melbourne Friday morning and staying at my sister's house Friday night and then Saturday lunch heading down to Mikkas for the Grand Final festivities. In a week it'll be half time and I'll have a beer buzz on and kicking the footy with my mates. How good is that? Bring it on!

Noriko Says Sorry

Just to finish up with the Noriko Sakai stuff. This is her apology. If you listen carefully, you can just make out the sound of camera shutters.

The cops and the media have destroyed this woman's career and family, and she has to say sorry. Crazy.

Noriko Sakai

Just taking a break from work to post a short blog. Had a great workout last night. Lifted some weight! Dayum! It's a beautiful day today. About 25 degrees, blue skies, the slightest of breezes. Dare I say it, summer is over. It was probably the coolest summer I've ever experienced here. It was still tough, but surprisingly bearable. Looking forward to sleeping with blankets and wearing jeans again.
Recently all over the news there has been a drug scandal involving one of Japan's sweethearts, Noriko Sakai. She was a pop star in the early 90's, very cute, and hugely popular. Trying to think of an example. Olivia Newton John x 1000? Anyway, squeaky clean, like you have to be here to be famous. Then, in August, the shit hit the fan. Here's what went down.
Her husband, a "self-described pro-surfer" (he's rich and unemployed, and surfs), was apparently the object of a sting. He was seen inhaling a small amount of "stimulant," maybe speed, cocaine, meth, dunno, in a public toilet in Tokyo in July. Then the cops searched his car the next day and found a small amount. Then he was stopped on the street and was searched and they found a little bit on him. He was arrested and taken to the police station. While he was there he said, get this, that his wife Noriko does drugs too. What a guy. So they call her up and ask her to come to the station to be drug-tested and interviewed. She says she has to pick her kid up from school but she'll come in later that day. Instead, she disappeared with her son. Holy shit storm.
They search her place (she and her husband are married, but live separately) and they find 0.008 grams of stimulants. Basically dust. A warrant is issued for her arrest.
5 days of just blanket coverage ensues. I couldn't turn the TV on without seeing her face. I didn't mind, because she's cute. Nobody knows where she is. She's on the run! Can you imagine how big a story this is! There's a hotline you can call if you think you see her. A reporter went to the place where the family had spent the summer. Reporter: What did they do here? Shop owner: They ate ice-cream with their son. They were having fun. Reporter: What flavour ice-cream? Shop Owner: Chocolate. Reporter: I see.
5 days later she turned herself in. In that time footage had turned up of her dancing wildly in a night club, obviously off her face, and an interview she did a few months ago that the broadcasters decided not to show at the time because she was obviously off her face. The urine tests came up negative, but her hair tested positive. She's fucked.
All the contracts she has with various companies, including Toyota, have been cancelled. Her clothing line has been pulled from every store. Victor Entertainment, the distributor of her music, withdrew her CDs from stores, and suspended downloads of her songs. Her official website has been removed, her agency fired her, and the chairman of the agency resigned. She will lose tens of millions of dollars, and will probably never earn anything ever again.
I kind of feel sorry for her, but then she knew the golden rule here in Japan - don't get caught. She got caught. She'll probably go to jail, and when she gets out, she won't be able to live here anymore because it'll be impossible with all the media attention. I'm predicting suicide, but we'll see. There will be no Whitney Houston comeback or anything here. They are not as forgiving as the Americans.
Anyway, a lot of Japanese are wondering, can we trust our celebrities? Most of them are dipshits, and I'm guessing a lot of them are on drugs judging from their ability to get excited about going to a ramen restaurant and eating ramen for the millionth time. You'd have to be. Lately a few Sumo wrestlers and some other celebs have been caught with dope, so the public is up in arms. Institutionalized cruelty and rampant pedophilia? Just part of the unfathomable character of the Japanese. Drugs? Just baaaaaad.

Footy And Stuff

I finished watching the Collingwood Adelaide game last night, and then I watched AFL Match Day (the channel 7 show) this morning. Am I wrong or is there a massive homosexual subtext in this show? Every time I watch it they joke around about enlightened man-love. Anyway, they're on about this being the match of the season. It wasn't. First, the amount of turnovers was enourmous. Silly kicks straight to the opposition. Second, free kicks in front of goals could have decided the game either way. They were both there, but hardly heroic stuff. Second, one team didn't kick a goal for nearly a half of football, and that team lost. 3 pretty good reasons why it was a good game, but not a great game. What about the Geelong Hawthorn match late in the season or what about the St Kilda Geelong match round 16? That was unbelievable. Kind of glad Collingwood got up, only because if Adelaide won they might have been a chance to beat St Kilda next week, and it would have sucked if Adelaide got to the grand final. So I reckon it'll be a St Kilda Geelong granny, and that would be awesome.
I had an okay weekend although for some reason I had a short fuse for most of the time. I just got sick of telling Will to do stuff over and over again. Wash your hands, eat your breakfast, brush your teeth, do this, don't do that, clean up your toys, etc. I just have to forget about it and let it go or it will destroy me. He always says no to whatever I ask him to do. He threw a plastic ball at Jo-kun on Saturday morning, and I grabbed him and said "Did you just throw a ball at Jo-kun?" and he said "Yes." So I screamed at him in my scariest voice "Don't you ever do that again!" and he just said "No!" with such disdain that I couldn't help laughing. I felt like just an asshole and a fake. In my defense, he was in the last stage of his 4 day pooz cycle, which is the most emotionally draining stage for all of us, and as soon as it came out, half in the shower and the other half in the toilet ("It was a long pooz, daddy, like a dinosaur pooz!"), things calmed down and everyone was nice to each other again. It's like he has PMS, except instead of a monthly cycle it's only four days! This weekend I've been going back to "The Idle Parent" by Tom Hodgkinson just to get some perspective and to understand that you lose when you try to compete with kids and the only way to gain control is give them control and all that "everything you think you know is wrong" stuff. It's a great book. I think he's the first person to call out Dr. Seuss as bullshit. So he rhymes shoe with wallamazoo. How is that good? And then you read a Dr. Seuss book, and you realize, he DOES just invent a word when he can't think of a real one that rhymes! It IS bullshit! I can't read Will a Dr Seuss book now. I read it hoping he doesn't remember half the words I'm reading because they are not real words, which is just stupid.
We had a nice Sunday evening and he fell asleep in my arms in bed as I read him a Frog and Toad story. Now they are real books, the Frog and Toad books. When I'm an old man and Will is grown up and off doing his own thing, I'm going to read Frog and Toad and just feel great, remembering how we laughed when Toad came out of the river with his silly bathing suit on.
Yesterday was September 13th, the one year anniversary of quitting smoking. I've done a year before, back in January 00 - 01, so it means nothing really, except that I could start smoking again at any time. It doesn't feel like that, but in the right (or wrong) circumstances it would be pretty easy. Still, it feels good. Four seasons. I can associate smoking with every kind of weather, every kind of feeling, every kind of activity. Hot days at the beach, on the golf course, rainy days outside under a doorway somewhere, in the shower (yep, if I was running late for something), in the snow, driving, in airport nicotine junky enclosures, eating, drinking, coffee in the morning, I could go on. It was such a part of my life.
I wonder if I'm going to get away with it. I still get asthma and have to use Ventolin. I must have some degree of emphysema, and still the chances of getting lung cancer are pretty high. And what did slowly depriving oxygen for 15 years do to my general circulation, especially to the small blood vessels in my heart, skin, eyes etc.? God knows. I might be lucky. Anyway, I don't want to brag because I hate it when people brag about not doing stuff they're not meant to do. No-one brags about not doing stuff they want to do, do they? That's what I don't get about ex addicts. Mind you, I've never actually met one, but seen them on TV. Or if I have met one, then they haven't bragged about being off heroin for three years or whatever, which is how it should be.
The workouts are going along as usual. Chalean is really working my back and shoulders, and the Cardio workouts are awesome. I'm enjoying running through the old workouts, kicking ass when ten, six months ago they were kicking mine. Insanity is still lurking though, ready to fuck me up again whenever I ask for it.
Japanese study is sputtering. What do they call it when the force needed to start something moving is greater than the force required to keep it moving? Initial inertia? I'm pushing, but there is a lot of drag.

Insanity Cherry

I did my first Insanity this morning. I thought I was in good shape! I could only do about 70% of each exercise before I had to stop. One thing I liked about this workout, as well as there being plenty of eye candy, is that most of the people in the workout (there must be about ten of them doing in behind Shaun T, the trainer) can't do all of the exercises either, so you can actually compete against them and win. Probably the only criticism I have of P90X is that the people doing it with Tony on the DVDs are obviously doing P90X for the third, fourth time and just destroy it. I would much rather see a person in reasonable shape being really challenged, just like I am. Shaun T is pretty good. There's not much chatting, just insanity from start to finish. Doing this workout and failing miserably kind of inspires me to do Insanity around the new year when things have cooled down. I'll definitely check out some of the other Insanity workouts on my cardio days. From what I can see they are all cardio.
Check out the madness.

Will fell on his face while climbing up a slide and loosened his front tooth as well as cutting the inside of his top lip. He's on his way, reluctantly, to the dentist to get it checked out right now.
I'll be in Melbourne in two weeks. :)

The Secret

I missed the workout last night. I think it was the safety drill we did yesterday. Standing in the sun for almost an hour just wore me out.
I got home last night and played with the boys, Joey Jo Jo and Chilly Willy. There's a kid in Will's kindergarten that I've got my eye on. He's an older boy called Junsei. The other week Will came home with a scratch on each cheek. Apparently Junsei likes to pinch Will's cheeks, and like all the little fuckers here he has long nails. I'm not sure if it really bothers Will, but I told him he should punch Junsei in the nose as hard as he could the next time Junsei does this. So I get home yesterday and Will's drawing with crayons, like he always does now, and I asked him what he was drawing. "William punched Junsei-kun in the nose" he said, and I could see in the picture two boys, one with a long arm punching the other in the nose. "Did he cry?" I asked. "No," said Will. "Well, next time make him cry, okay?" I'm not really sure if he punched Junsei or not, it's hard to tell. But I want Will to know that I am on his side. Has anyone read "Ender's Game"? I would recommend that book to any young boy, because the main character is bullied, but his reaction is calculated, smart, and effective. It's a great story about being a leader. I want Will to be able to fight, so that if anyone crosses the line with him, he can break their nose.
So I missed my workout. The last week I have felt really tired sometimes. Kind of a flash back to this time last year when I would just get exhausted. It might be the weather, or the reduction in meal size, or maybe all this resistance work in Chalean is taking more of a toll that I think. Dunno. But I fell asleep with Will about 9 last night, and I don't think I could have done the workout if I was awake. I certainly have been getting enough sleep lately, so that's not the issue. Anyway, whatever it is, I don't feel sick. I'm putting it down to the workouts and the weather. It's still very warm, but not so humid. Great summer weather, actually.
I've seen a few more foreigners around town than usual lately. Schools in. These guys are assistant language teachers (ALTs). They are paid by city education departments or dispatch companies to go to Primary Schools or Junior high schools and basically be a performing monkey. I did this for a couple of months before I got this job and man did I fucking hate it. A typical day would be go the school in the morning (heads turning, people pointing, kids screaming "Hello!" as you enter), rush into the staff room for some peace and quiet, except when teachers would escort a couple of nervous kids in for an audience with the foreigner and poke the kids saying "Come on, speak English!" and the kids would ask "How are you?" and I would say "Good, how are you?" and they would say "Huh?" Then morning assembly, more heads turning, pointing, "Hello!", and then I would have a class. The young kids would go crazy, and I would have to do some stupid singing and dancing or play some game while dodging blows to the nuts and "Kanchou!" which is Japanese for "enema." They don't have dead legs or shoulder corkys here, but they do try to jam their fingers up each other's assholes for some reason. And English teachers are fair game too, apparently. I've heard of a case where a teacher had to go to hospital because his rectum was bleeding. I was aware of it and wouldn't let any kid get behind me, and if they tried, I grabbed their hand and squeezed it and told them to fuck off under my breath. After the lesson I would be mobbed so I had to run to the classroom like I'm a Beatle in A Hard Day's Night or something, and then I would scrub my hands up to my elbows to get all the germs and dead eczema cells off me. Four or five times a day this would happen. The older kids would just mess around. A lot of them slept. The poor kids have so much shit to do, like sports, cleaning up, preparing lunches, that they just get worn out. These were a little easier, and I would just speak Japanese to them and try to be cool. Then after school, I would often go and do baseball training with them. The first time I did batting practice, I let the first pitch go, then smashed the next one out of the park. That was a fantastic moment. That was pretty good, actually. The only part I miss.
You do get a lot of holidays, and you can learn Japanese very quickly, but generally, teaching in public schools is only a slight step up from teaching in the language school chains, and both are pretty much shit. I'm ashamed I did it for so long. I should have been in Australia doing something worthwhile. Oh well.
Have you guys heard about a thing called "The Secret"? I'm joking! I have a mate into that, and he made me watch the DVD. Huge laod of bullshit. But I do think saying something out loud helps makes it come true, good or bad. So here goes. I will be living back in Australia by the time I turn 40. That's in four and a half years. Doesn't mean I have to wait that long to go back, but on my 40th birthday, I will wake up in my own place in Australia, have a nice job, Junko and the kids with me, and I checked, it's a Saturday, so I will be getting ready for a round of golf. I'll have my Japanese level 1, be in the best shape of my life, and fuck it, be playing off a handicap of 5.
I can't go back without a job, though. I tried that last time, and it didn't work, so I'm going to have to apply myself so I'm a chance. Where do I want to be, and what do I have to do to get there? Simple as that. Remove the ego, the voice that says I'm wasting my time or that I can't do it (at the moment it's saying, dude, you're 35. You couldn't study when you were 16! Give it up!), make plans, schedules, buy what I have to buy, do what I have to do, like a machine. Just like I have done with my exercise. I want to get to the stage that I'm at with my exercise where if I don't study, or go to Japanese class, or whatever, then I feel like shit and am compelled to double-up the next day. Like this morning, I got up at 5 and did Yoga, because I didn't do it last night. So I've done the first step and applied for the test, and I've got exactly 3 months to get my shit together and get Level 2. Like what Paul Roos said to the Swans before the 2005 Grand Final - "If you do what I tell you to do, I guarantee you will win." All I have to do is decide what I have to do, do it, and I am guaranteed success. Easy.
Just did some research into the canned coffee that I drink. One can has about 75 mg of caffeine in it, and I'm drinking 3 or 4 of them a day. That's about the same amount of caffeine as in a Red Bull. Holy shit. I was a little shaky after my after-lunch can, so that explains it. And I've had another can since then! Armed with this knowledge, I'm sure I'll think twice next time I've put the money in the vending machine and the little buttons are flashing and I'm wondering what I feel like to drink. But they are so so sweeeet!

Chalean Week 3

This morning we had a safety drill. The bell went off at 11, and we shuffled outside onto the tennis courts where they did a demonstration of how to use fire extinguishers, and someone kind of absailed out of a fifth-floor window, and of course, the speeches. We had to stand there for 50 minutes in the sun while they did this. It sucked.
I'm pumped the Lions won. I know Brendon Fevola kicks a lot of goals, but I don't think Carlton can win a flag with him in the team. I think he likes to be the victim too much, plus he's a dipshit. The Lions probably can't win it either, but they have so much more heart than Carlton. Can they beat the Bulldogs? Hell yea. Bulldogs straight sets again. If they don't pick up Barry Hall next year they are not serious.
Workouts going well. I'm enjoying doing the cardio workouts in between the heavy lifting Charlean workouts. I've done a couple from the P90 Master series and I did Cardio X from P90X yesterday, and I feel so much stronger than I remember doing when I was doing them for the first time. However I'm finding that with all the attention to the shoulders in Chalean Extreme that I'm getting extremely tight in the neck and shoulder region. Just have to get used to it. I'm eating well, and basically cut the crap to the odd ice cream and pack of chips, and I'm eating smaller serves at lunch and dinner. I have been eating a lot of healthy snacks like nuts and fruit, so I'm not feeling so hungry all the time.
I saw this on a T-shirt this morning and it fucked me up for a while. "If you teach a man anything, he will never learn." I'm pretty sure that doesn't make any sense. The English people use here, especially marketers, gives me the shits. The slogan of an electronics store where I bought some stuff the other day is "For Your Just." My company has asked everyone to think of a slogan for it. As an example of what they are looking for they chose Hitachi's slogan "Inspire the Next." The next what? Genocide? I'm sure my company will choose something boring and generic like "Let's Challenge!" Not the most adventurous company in the world, this one. I'll keep you posted.