I haven't done a workout for three days! The night before last I was really tired and went to bed at 9, and last night I taught Nori and went I came home I got stuck in front of YouTube watching nothing in particular. There were so many other things I wanted to do, like work out, play me some Portal, put the finishing touches to my fiction blog. Yes folks, it's ready. Control Damage. You can read the first part now.
It's the rainy season. It's a nice day today, blue skies, but it had rained pretty much non-stop for three days. I saw my first cockroach this morning too. I just picked it up with some tissues and put it in the bin. It wasn't dead, but it was strangely listless. Probably been hanging around the traps a little too long. As a side note, the company that makes the insecticides that we use to kill cockroaches is called the Earth corporation, which in Japanese is pronounced aasu, which in Australian sounds like ass. The spray I use to kill bugs is called, in Australian, ass jet. Chuckle.
So three days without working out, I'm questioning my motivation. Can I hang on for another month? I would like to think so. What I'm going to do is plan a big ride for the last weekend of July, maybe take a day off work and head out on the Saturday and come back Monday. I would love to go up to Takayama or something, up in the mountains. Use that as motivation somehow.
Wow, Kevin Rudd is gone. That's amazing. I thought he would be Prime Minister for as long as he wanted.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Round 3: Day 90 - P90X Chest & Back
In twenty years, only Graeme MacDowell and his wife will remember that he won the 2010 US Open. The course was playing really hard, and he was the only one able to keep his shit together. The rest of them, except for maybe that French guy I've also never heard of, hit some awful shots. Dustin Johnson, the three-shot leader before the last round started, I think he literally pissed his pants on the first tee. Hey, I can't imagine the pressure he must have been under, but I'd like to think I would do better that start par-triple-double-bogey. It was expected that he would come back to the field, just not in five minutes. What wasn't expected was that the three best players of the last 15 years (apologies to Vijay), Tiger, Mickelson, and Els, could not even mount a challenge. Ernie looked good early, but he fizzled and was not in it at the end. Tiger putted like a spaz again, and Mickelson as usual played without a brain. Still, the US Open is the US Open, the original grind, and this year was no exception. MacDowell is a good player, four wins in Europe, and a Ryder Cup appearance, so not exactly an unknown.
A couple of highlights though.
1. Ryo Ishikawa - It was great to see him up there for a while. I really wanted him to hang on and get into contention, just to see how he would do. He seems to be able to hit the shots that he needs to hit under pressure, a bit like Tiger, but it was really tough this week. He did okay, but an ordinary third round knocked him out, and then an 80 on Sunday didn't do his week justice. I would say that his goal this year has to be to get into final round contention in a PGA tournament. If he can do that, regardless of whether he wins or not, that is an awesome achievement for an 18 year old. The PGA is TOUGH.
2. Tom Watson tearing up on eighteen on Sunday. This guy has being playing quality golf for nearly forty years. So it was sad to see him holding back the tears as he walked up the eighteenth in probably his last US Open. And fittingly he missed a two footer for par, because if it wasn't for his putting he would have won everything since 1970.
3. Tiger on 18 on Saturday. It is seductive. a "fully engaged" Tiger Woods. Awesome shot, 280 out, cuts a 3-wood around a tree to about fifteen foot. I'm sure you all saw it on the news. One of those shots that we were so used to before... before we found out what an asshole scumbag he is. But he does hit the shots, and the only way to appreciate them is to separate the man from the golf. If he's not delving into the odd skank here and there again already I would be surprised. He seems just as aloof and controlling off the course as ever, and nothing appears to have changed. And the journalists have learnt their lesson - don't ever, ever talk about it, because you will be blacklisted. He still can't come from behind... on the golf course. He still can't get it in the hole... on the greens. He still likes it rough... in the rough, I mean. See? You just can't separate the man and the golf. He's not back, like everyone says. He will never be back.
So that's another major down. The British open is in July at St. Andrews, and Tiger is a huge chance to win that one. You don't have to drive the ball any good, just hit solid irons and putt well. Apparently last year's British Open his wife flew in unexpectedly and found out he was screwing someone and hit the roof, and he subsequently played one of the worst tournaments of his life, missed the cut, and was gone. It seems like this is when people in the biz realised what was going on, and Tiger's world began falling apart. He still won four tournaments between then and the car accident in November though.
On Saturday night I went to the bar I sometimes go to in Okazaki to kind of watch the soccer. A guy and his hot wife were there with some friends and buying drinks for all the foreigners, and trying to speak English. It's hard for me to get excited about speaking to Japanese people now. The same questions, same stereotypes about Australia (this guys theory was that swimming is the most popular sport in Australia because we all live on the coast, and we are not good at athletics because we are not on dry land often - I said it sounds like we are basically salamanders, but he didn't understand). I had a couple of beers and left. The bar is owned by a guy who has a son who is retarded/disabled, and is doing it tough. Here's an article about him.
I feel for the guy. A Japanese judge called him a role model father, and he is. But every time I go there he tries to get me to sign up to this multi-level marketing thing, kind of like Amway, but where a fraction of the profits go to children's charities. You know that feeling you get when you realise they have started their pitch, and you don't want to be rude, so you humour them, but you don't know how long it's going to take? I'm getting that from the owner/bartender while I drink a beer in his bar. Meanwhile his disabled kid in the corner is screaming for someone to vacuum the saliva from his throat because he is unable to swallow. Really desperate blood-curdling screams. Like I said, I really feel for the guy, but I just want to have a beer and relax and maybe make some friends in Okazaki where I live, but I'm beginning to suspect that one reason why the bar is always empty is because of him pitching this pyramid scheme to customers, and, to be honest, the intermittent screams of his disabled son that make your hair stand on end. I'll have to look for another place.
On Sunday Will and I went to playgroup organised by a guy I used to work with when I first came here and who found me on Facebook. It's for parents and their half Japanese kids to get together and have a couple of hours a week hanging out and speaking English. It was really good, and Willy did so well. He's probably got the best English of any of the kids, and he easily had the most fun. I was really proud of him, and I hope he keeps enjoying it. It's quite a trek to get there, a train and a bus, but we'll have MacDonald's for lunch when we go as a reward.
Hey! It's day 90! 30 to go. Extended due to the trip to Hawaii, and two sucky weeks at the factory. Workouts are going well. It's getting pretty warm here now, so I'm naturally eating less and losing a bit of wait. I'm at 83 kilos now, much heavier than what I was two years ago (I was about 75 kg), but I've been around this weight for six months or so. I expect to be down to maybe 81 by the end of Summer.
A couple of highlights though.
1. Ryo Ishikawa - It was great to see him up there for a while. I really wanted him to hang on and get into contention, just to see how he would do. He seems to be able to hit the shots that he needs to hit under pressure, a bit like Tiger, but it was really tough this week. He did okay, but an ordinary third round knocked him out, and then an 80 on Sunday didn't do his week justice. I would say that his goal this year has to be to get into final round contention in a PGA tournament. If he can do that, regardless of whether he wins or not, that is an awesome achievement for an 18 year old. The PGA is TOUGH.
2. Tom Watson tearing up on eighteen on Sunday. This guy has being playing quality golf for nearly forty years. So it was sad to see him holding back the tears as he walked up the eighteenth in probably his last US Open. And fittingly he missed a two footer for par, because if it wasn't for his putting he would have won everything since 1970.
3. Tiger on 18 on Saturday. It is seductive. a "fully engaged" Tiger Woods. Awesome shot, 280 out, cuts a 3-wood around a tree to about fifteen foot. I'm sure you all saw it on the news. One of those shots that we were so used to before... before we found out what an asshole scumbag he is. But he does hit the shots, and the only way to appreciate them is to separate the man from the golf. If he's not delving into the odd skank here and there again already I would be surprised. He seems just as aloof and controlling off the course as ever, and nothing appears to have changed. And the journalists have learnt their lesson - don't ever, ever talk about it, because you will be blacklisted. He still can't come from behind... on the golf course. He still can't get it in the hole... on the greens. He still likes it rough... in the rough, I mean. See? You just can't separate the man and the golf. He's not back, like everyone says. He will never be back.
So that's another major down. The British open is in July at St. Andrews, and Tiger is a huge chance to win that one. You don't have to drive the ball any good, just hit solid irons and putt well. Apparently last year's British Open his wife flew in unexpectedly and found out he was screwing someone and hit the roof, and he subsequently played one of the worst tournaments of his life, missed the cut, and was gone. It seems like this is when people in the biz realised what was going on, and Tiger's world began falling apart. He still won four tournaments between then and the car accident in November though.
On Saturday night I went to the bar I sometimes go to in Okazaki to kind of watch the soccer. A guy and his hot wife were there with some friends and buying drinks for all the foreigners, and trying to speak English. It's hard for me to get excited about speaking to Japanese people now. The same questions, same stereotypes about Australia (this guys theory was that swimming is the most popular sport in Australia because we all live on the coast, and we are not good at athletics because we are not on dry land often - I said it sounds like we are basically salamanders, but he didn't understand). I had a couple of beers and left. The bar is owned by a guy who has a son who is retarded/disabled, and is doing it tough. Here's an article about him.
I feel for the guy. A Japanese judge called him a role model father, and he is. But every time I go there he tries to get me to sign up to this multi-level marketing thing, kind of like Amway, but where a fraction of the profits go to children's charities. You know that feeling you get when you realise they have started their pitch, and you don't want to be rude, so you humour them, but you don't know how long it's going to take? I'm getting that from the owner/bartender while I drink a beer in his bar. Meanwhile his disabled kid in the corner is screaming for someone to vacuum the saliva from his throat because he is unable to swallow. Really desperate blood-curdling screams. Like I said, I really feel for the guy, but I just want to have a beer and relax and maybe make some friends in Okazaki where I live, but I'm beginning to suspect that one reason why the bar is always empty is because of him pitching this pyramid scheme to customers, and, to be honest, the intermittent screams of his disabled son that make your hair stand on end. I'll have to look for another place.
On Sunday Will and I went to playgroup organised by a guy I used to work with when I first came here and who found me on Facebook. It's for parents and their half Japanese kids to get together and have a couple of hours a week hanging out and speaking English. It was really good, and Willy did so well. He's probably got the best English of any of the kids, and he easily had the most fun. I was really proud of him, and I hope he keeps enjoying it. It's quite a trek to get there, a train and a bus, but we'll have MacDonald's for lunch when we go as a reward.
Hey! It's day 90! 30 to go. Extended due to the trip to Hawaii, and two sucky weeks at the factory. Workouts are going well. It's getting pretty warm here now, so I'm naturally eating less and losing a bit of wait. I'm at 83 kilos now, much heavier than what I was two years ago (I was about 75 kg), but I've been around this weight for six months or so. I expect to be down to maybe 81 by the end of Summer.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Round 3: Day 85 - Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance
I woke up this morning at 5 and lay there for a while, and then decided to get up and do the workout that I missed yesterday. P90X+ Upper Body. The X+ workouts are shorter, and not really harder. Just faster. They are more time based instead of rep based. I had a good workout, nothing real intense, but it got me moving and sweating, and the shake afterwards was awesome.
I'm having problems with the Insanity workouts though. I can't get through them. I had a bit of asthma on Saturday, and I just couldn't get the thought out of my head as I wheezed through the warm up, "Why am I doing this?" The last two Insanity workouts I have thought this, and they have both sucked. I got halfway through the last round in both of them and then I turned it off. I'll keep going though, and maybe one day I can get my head right and complete one of them without stopping. That would be an achievement.
So the world cup is on. I see Australia got spanked. Perhaps it's because I'm a golfer, and golf karma is real, but I hate how soccer players celebrate when they get a goal. Hey buddy. You haven't won it yet. Celebrate when it's over. Or maybe they're just celebrating the new contract Nike will surely offer their manager in the next few days. I especially hate when they celebrate kicking a goal from a penalty. Dude, you were supposed to kick it. Anyway, it'll be over soon. I just can't get into soccer.
I threatened this last blog, and it is very close to happening now. I'm going to start a writing blog. The story is about a young Lebanese rapper trying to make it on the mean streets of Sydney, battling racism and the pressure to join a violent street gang, all the while trying to win the heart of his blond private school girl sweat heart by winning a rap-off. No, not really. It's about the first manned mission to Mars and a problem they encounter. I'm trying to get the blog template set up, which is a bitch. HTML stuff, of which I know nothing about. I'll do a couple of pages a week, and see how long I can keep it going. Some of the names are going to be familiar. I just use names that I know and like, and I don't put much thought into them, and now that I've written some stuff I couldn't be bothered changing it. So don't worry too much if a character called Jim is stabbing to death someone with your name. Means nothing.
I see everyone hates Kevin Rudd now. Strange what's going on. From my understanding, it seems that he wants to increase taxes on mining companies, who have made billions and billions of dollars taking natural resources from Australia and selling them to China and America. But the long held belief in Australia is that we avoided the global recession because of this mining boom, and what Kevin is doing threatens everything. EVERYTHING! Probably not a good sign if the mining companies, beholden to China, have more support than our own Prime Minister. Anyway, Abbott for PM! Why not? Who gives a fuck. He's mad too.
Speaking of Prime Ministers, Japan has a new one! Kan-san. The eighth one since I've been here. Let's run through the list.
Obuchi - Stroke made him a vegetable.
Mori - Continued to play golf after being told that a US sub had accidentally risen up into a Japanese ship, killing a few Japanese on board. Finished.
Koizumi - Probably the guy most people know as the Japanese PM. He had the hair. Was PM for 4 years or something.
Abe - Quit because he had a bowel problem.
Fukuda - Famous for his quote to a journalist "I am different to you."
Aso - I don't know why he quit. Maybe he's just an aso.
Hatoyama - Reneged on a promise to shut down an American base in Okinawa, I think. His wife claims to have met aliens.
So now we have Kan, who recently said that he wanted to created "a society with a minimum level of unhappiness." Stirring stuff. But from all accounts he seems a pretty sensible and capable guy. He also threatened everything by saying that Japan faced a Greece-style collapse if they didn't do something soon. Whoa. A little too real, Kan. Calm down, you're gonna get yourself voted out pretty quickly if you keep that up.
I'm having problems with the Insanity workouts though. I can't get through them. I had a bit of asthma on Saturday, and I just couldn't get the thought out of my head as I wheezed through the warm up, "Why am I doing this?" The last two Insanity workouts I have thought this, and they have both sucked. I got halfway through the last round in both of them and then I turned it off. I'll keep going though, and maybe one day I can get my head right and complete one of them without stopping. That would be an achievement.
So the world cup is on. I see Australia got spanked. Perhaps it's because I'm a golfer, and golf karma is real, but I hate how soccer players celebrate when they get a goal. Hey buddy. You haven't won it yet. Celebrate when it's over. Or maybe they're just celebrating the new contract Nike will surely offer their manager in the next few days. I especially hate when they celebrate kicking a goal from a penalty. Dude, you were supposed to kick it. Anyway, it'll be over soon. I just can't get into soccer.
I threatened this last blog, and it is very close to happening now. I'm going to start a writing blog. The story is about a young Lebanese rapper trying to make it on the mean streets of Sydney, battling racism and the pressure to join a violent street gang, all the while trying to win the heart of his blond private school girl sweat heart by winning a rap-off. No, not really. It's about the first manned mission to Mars and a problem they encounter. I'm trying to get the blog template set up, which is a bitch. HTML stuff, of which I know nothing about. I'll do a couple of pages a week, and see how long I can keep it going. Some of the names are going to be familiar. I just use names that I know and like, and I don't put much thought into them, and now that I've written some stuff I couldn't be bothered changing it. So don't worry too much if a character called Jim is stabbing to death someone with your name. Means nothing.
I see everyone hates Kevin Rudd now. Strange what's going on. From my understanding, it seems that he wants to increase taxes on mining companies, who have made billions and billions of dollars taking natural resources from Australia and selling them to China and America. But the long held belief in Australia is that we avoided the global recession because of this mining boom, and what Kevin is doing threatens everything. EVERYTHING! Probably not a good sign if the mining companies, beholden to China, have more support than our own Prime Minister. Anyway, Abbott for PM! Why not? Who gives a fuck. He's mad too.
Speaking of Prime Ministers, Japan has a new one! Kan-san. The eighth one since I've been here. Let's run through the list.
Obuchi - Stroke made him a vegetable.
Mori - Continued to play golf after being told that a US sub had accidentally risen up into a Japanese ship, killing a few Japanese on board. Finished.
Koizumi - Probably the guy most people know as the Japanese PM. He had the hair. Was PM for 4 years or something.
Abe - Quit because he had a bowel problem.
Fukuda - Famous for his quote to a journalist "I am different to you."
Aso - I don't know why he quit. Maybe he's just an aso.
Hatoyama - Reneged on a promise to shut down an American base in Okinawa, I think. His wife claims to have met aliens.
So now we have Kan, who recently said that he wanted to created "a society with a minimum level of unhappiness." Stirring stuff. But from all accounts he seems a pretty sensible and capable guy. He also threatened everything by saying that Japan faced a Greece-style collapse if they didn't do something soon. Whoa. A little too real, Kan. Calm down, you're gonna get yourself voted out pretty quickly if you keep that up.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Round 3: Day 76 - 30-15
I hadn't done Plyo for ages, maybe six months, and it was hard. But I don't think my legs were quite over the punishment inflicted during the last couple of weeks at the factory, because they were finished by round three. But I kept going and finished in fine form. Had a shake, watched the Swans beat Essendon, and went to bed. A fine day.
I'm going to start another blog, a serialized fiction blog. I will release a chapter a week, I think, and see where it gets me. I've got the first few weeks ready to go, and the ending, but I don't know how I'm going to get from one to the other. Do me a favour, though, and rave about it to your friends so I get heaps, or a bunch (have to get used to writing to an American audience) of readers. There is F all work to do at the moment, so I need something to do that makes me look busy.
One on One 30-15 tonight. 12 sets of 30 push ups and 15 pull ups, though for me, it's 25-8 for the first half, then 20-5.
Also, I've added another two weeks to this round, to make up for the two week recovery of sorts that I took while I was working at the factory.
I'm going to start another blog, a serialized fiction blog. I will release a chapter a week, I think, and see where it gets me. I've got the first few weeks ready to go, and the ending, but I don't know how I'm going to get from one to the other. Do me a favour, though, and rave about it to your friends so I get heaps, or a bunch (have to get used to writing to an American audience) of readers. There is F all work to do at the moment, so I need something to do that makes me look busy.
One on One 30-15 tonight. 12 sets of 30 push ups and 15 pull ups, though for me, it's 25-8 for the first half, then 20-5.
Also, I've added another two weeks to this round, to make up for the two week recovery of sorts that I took while I was working at the factory.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Round 3: Day 75: P90X Plyometrics
Kind of losing the motivation to rant and rave on this blog. I haven't written for ages, and I have just spend a couple of weeks helping out at the factory where I couldn't get to a computer, so now that I'm back at my desk and ready to type something, I just don't have much to say.
Standing up all day in the factory made my legs ache so much, so I did a lot of stretching and Yoga, with a couple of upper body resistance workouts thrown in. I feel in good shape after two weeks of tough work.
The job in Melbourne didn't eventuate. I got a mail saying I didn't get an interview. The first week in the factory I was waiting for the phone call that could change everything, ready to immediately book a flight to Melbourne to get to the interview and wow them, but it never came. By the second week I knew it wasn't coming, and when I got the mail I was oddly calm. I thought, well, I'll be back at my desk next week, and to be honest, I need to concentrate more on my reality than would could be.
What else. Nothing much. Maybe I'll be in the mood another day this week. Maybe I'll just write about working out for a while and leave it at that.
Standing up all day in the factory made my legs ache so much, so I did a lot of stretching and Yoga, with a couple of upper body resistance workouts thrown in. I feel in good shape after two weeks of tough work.
The job in Melbourne didn't eventuate. I got a mail saying I didn't get an interview. The first week in the factory I was waiting for the phone call that could change everything, ready to immediately book a flight to Melbourne to get to the interview and wow them, but it never came. By the second week I knew it wasn't coming, and when I got the mail I was oddly calm. I thought, well, I'll be back at my desk next week, and to be honest, I need to concentrate more on my reality than would could be.
What else. Nothing much. Maybe I'll be in the mood another day this week. Maybe I'll just write about working out for a while and leave it at that.
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