Hurt my left shoulder a little bit again, so I'm going to have to tweak things. Pisses me off. Can't swim, can't do this, can't do that. Aging - is there anything good about it? And don't give that "gaining of wisdom" BS. I'm as fucked in the head as I have ever been.
So upper body workouts are out for a month. Let's see. Mondays were Chest & Back. Now? Light exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff, and ARX. Tuesdays can stay Plyo. Wednesdays? "Just Arms" from One on One, and ARX. Thursdays? Yoga is a tough one. I don't think I should do any downward dogs for a while, maybe a couple of weeks at least. So, X Stretch. Fridays used to be Legs & Back, but I can't do the Back part anymore. So I will do "Bun Shaper" from the one on One series, and, of course, ARX. Saturdays, rest. Sundays, the jog. I just overdid it is all. It's not as bad as last time when I could hardly get dressed. It's a good chance to really work on technique, work on not eating crap, eating right, sleeping right, and making sure my shoulder heals up okay. I'll do this until the end of October and see how I feel, and if I feel okay, get back to my P90X schedule, starting at phase 2.
Loved the grand final the other weekend. The first three quarters was the most captivating footy of the year. It was a shootout, and the skills were incredible, even in the crappy weather. I was glad the Swans weren't playing, because we would have got thrashed. Then Geelong rolled them, like we rolled the Saints in the '05 Prelim. Must have been great for the supporters. Tom Hawkins looked Cary-ish. I don't know what it is about him. Maybe everyone thinks he's a natural because he's a big good-looking guy, when actually he's just a young, okay player. Had an awesome final series though. Bartell, amazing. I wish he played for the Swans.
I think the greatest achievement by Scott and the team was to ignore expectations. It would have been fine with everyone if Geelong finished fifth or six, maybe even won a final, and then dropped out. Something like the Swans did this year. Everyone would have excepted that. They are on the way out, lot's of good but oldish players, new coach learning the ropes, playing the kids, rebuilding phase, all that stuff. Can you imagine the enourmous task of turning those expectations around? Like turning around a battleship. But they did it. Great stuff.
Other teams need to look at that and not accept anything less than a premiership. I can imagine the Swans getting complacent with making the finals and then not doing much. There's no reason why we can't do what Geelong did. (Got to get rid of Jessy White and Jetta first, though.) But teams like Richmond, Melbourne, Port Adelaide. The complacency at those clubs must be suffocating. They all have (had) coaches that make excuses. Apologise for their players. A stuffy, privelidged air around the club. Fuck that. Get people in there that only accept success. That's why I feel okay about Voss at Brisbane. They guy will accept nothing but success. Same as Buckley at Collingwood. Hird at Essendon. I am surprised that so many first-time coaches have been picked for next year, especially no-name first time coaches. If I was in charge at a club looking for a coach, I would be asking Leigh Matthews, Paul Roos, Mick Malthouse, Mark Williams, how much would it take to get them at my club? Eade even, though I don't think players like Eade enough to want to win a flag for him. How can Gary Lyon not be coaching Melbourne? The guy would straighten Melbourne out in a week. The whole world knows he would be great at it. Instead they (he) hires some guy no-one's heard of. Again. They lost Scully because he wanted to get to a professional club where he could improve just as much as he wanted the millions. Embarrassing for Melbourne.
The other day I woke up after having a dream about a woman close to me (I don't know who it was, just that we were friends) was diagnosed with cancer. Then on Longreads.com first thing over breakfast I read an article written by a woman dying of liver cancer like mum did. What's up with that?
Also, I quit Facebook. Feels a little strange, but I think I'm going to be okay.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Saturday, October 1, 2011
P90X
Apparently the sequel to P90X, P90X:MC2, comes out on Christmas eve. That's about 90 days from now. That's wierd, isn't it. Yes, I'm doing it again. Everything I've done since my last round of P90X has been a compromise. I know that now, after four days of the new round of P90X. I am as sore as a bastard. It's been a long four days. 86 to go. A couple of things; I'm not doing Kempo X. I'm doing a 5 km jog instead. And I'm not doing Yoga X. Too long. I'm doing Hummingbird Yoga from the One on One series instead like last time. Also, my rest week is a little more "resty", with more yoga and stretching. Apart from that, it's the same as the normal schedule. Finding the time, getting into a routine is tough, but I'll get used to it. Legs & Back today...
So the Grand Final is on tomorrow. The most homesickiest day of the year. I did think about flying down to see it, but with the job hunting and money and allotted days off and the kids and everything, before I knew it it was only a week away. Ah well. Next year for sure. I'm actually going for Collingwood. I tipped them at the start of the year, with just about everyone else. I tipped a nightmare year for the Saints, which it was, but I tipped them to miss the finals, which they didn't. I tipped Goodes for the Brownlow, didn't get up though he had a chance. I tipped Freo in the Grand Final - way off. I think I tipped an assault charge for Fevola - still plenty of time for that. I don't know why, but I found myself barracking for Collingwood last week, even though Buddy's goal was awesome. I think it was because the Hawks knocked the Swans out the week before. I have had enough of the Hawks being in Grand Finals to last a lifetime having grown up in the 80's. The Cats? I don't like a lot of their players. I don't like Hawkins, Ottens, Jpod, Stevie J, those two little black-haired guys, the one who got busted dealing and his new clone, the list goes on. All this rags-to-riches stuff about Geelong makes me laugh, too. From a Premiership to *gasp* a Prelim, then back to maybe another Premiership. Spare me. So I hope Collingwood win because they are the best team. Anyway, I'll be watching it on Sunday morning. I hope it's a great game.
I'm quitting Facebook. It's a difficult decision, and perhaps it's going to come to some personal cost to me, but let me try to explain why.
1) In ten years, Mark Zuckerburg will be the richest, most powerful man in the world. Facebook will be the one of biggest economies in the world, with it's own currency (apparently going to be called "credits"), and with access to the personal information of billions. This is disturbing because Zuckerburg is a dead-eyed, Asperger's Syndrome suffering computer geek, with seemingly no concept of personal space or personal privacy, and mentally incapable of understanding human relationships (symptoms of Asperger's). He will be influenced, swayed, and fooled by psychopathic power-hungry men and women who want what he's got. Whether or not it's Zuckerberg or a bunch of shareholders, that's too much power in the hands of too few. Me quitting Facebook won't stop any of it, but at least I won't be a party to it. And when the Facebook death-squads start rounding up dissenters for work camps, hopefully I will be totally off the Facebook grid by then.
2) Facebook is becoming less about keeping in touch with friends and sharing photos, and more about performing for an audience. I have the suspicion that Facebook is ruining the lives of millions of people (maybe more women than men) around the world. The pressure to present their lives as idyllic and perfect to other women must be enormous. Agonizing over how to comment on a photo of an ugly child "Looks just like you!", or an overweight friend "You look so beautiful!". The only other option is to say nothing, and you can't say nothing. Facebook is engineered this way. There is no [Hate] button or [STFU] button. So we end up pressing [Like] to acknowledge that we have indeed reviewed the photo or comment, but have no response to it. "So sad today. My Grandmother passed away last night. RIP Nanny." "Jim likes this". WTF kind of communication is that? Facebook could have a million little buttons to choose from. Jim loves this. Jim thinks this awesome. Jim hates this. Jim thinks this is bullshit. How about a choice of even two or three? But no. One. [Like]. Such a flat, nothing word. And you know what the next button will be? [Like like]. This is keeping in touch? So let the performances continue, but I won't be watching.
3) I don't want everything I do on the Internet shared, recorded, and sold to corporations. "But you can select a checkbox somewhere and they can't monitor you" they say. Yea? Where is it? I think it's bullshit. And I don't really want to know what everyone else is doing all the time, and I don't want them to know what I'm doing. I don't want you to log in to Facebook one day and see "Jim is masturbating to [Midget fucks pregnant ebony slut] on Youjizz." I don't want that. When you know you are being watched, your behaviour changes. It's the same for atoms, lions in the desert, people on the streets in London. I didn't sign up to be modified.
4) And finally, when you strip away all the bullshit above, this is why I want to quit. I don't like how I am always looking at Facebook and slyly trying to check out what other people are doing or saying, or if they are fat or bald or still hot or whatever, kind of like spying on them. I want to stop doing that.
It's a shame because I liked looking at the photos my friends put up, and the message function is convenient (though a bitch to navigate), but the other stuff is just too much. Maybe there's something else. Maybe there's no way to do anything on the Internet that can't be monitored, recorded, and sold. But to be honest, I have never been in less contact with my friends and family, despite Facebook. Or maybe it's because of Facebook. I don't call or mail anyone because I know what they're doing because it's on Facebook, and vise versa. The two letters I've written to friends this year were to friends who aren't on Facebook, and it was great. I got nice long letters back about how they are, what they're doing, etc. I'm going to do more of that.
So that leaves me in a bind about this blog. I could write this crap and not post it, but I think that while I'm living here and not really able to express myself much, this blog is useful. Knowing it is being read is an integral part of it. I'm sure that when I finally find a job in Oz and I move back down, I'll forget all about this blog. But it serves a purpose, and helps me organize my thoughts and set goals. Anyway, catch ya later.
So the Grand Final is on tomorrow. The most homesickiest day of the year. I did think about flying down to see it, but with the job hunting and money and allotted days off and the kids and everything, before I knew it it was only a week away. Ah well. Next year for sure. I'm actually going for Collingwood. I tipped them at the start of the year, with just about everyone else. I tipped a nightmare year for the Saints, which it was, but I tipped them to miss the finals, which they didn't. I tipped Goodes for the Brownlow, didn't get up though he had a chance. I tipped Freo in the Grand Final - way off. I think I tipped an assault charge for Fevola - still plenty of time for that. I don't know why, but I found myself barracking for Collingwood last week, even though Buddy's goal was awesome. I think it was because the Hawks knocked the Swans out the week before. I have had enough of the Hawks being in Grand Finals to last a lifetime having grown up in the 80's. The Cats? I don't like a lot of their players. I don't like Hawkins, Ottens, Jpod, Stevie J, those two little black-haired guys, the one who got busted dealing and his new clone, the list goes on. All this rags-to-riches stuff about Geelong makes me laugh, too. From a Premiership to *gasp* a Prelim, then back to maybe another Premiership. Spare me. So I hope Collingwood win because they are the best team. Anyway, I'll be watching it on Sunday morning. I hope it's a great game.
I'm quitting Facebook. It's a difficult decision, and perhaps it's going to come to some personal cost to me, but let me try to explain why.
1) In ten years, Mark Zuckerburg will be the richest, most powerful man in the world. Facebook will be the one of biggest economies in the world, with it's own currency (apparently going to be called "credits"), and with access to the personal information of billions. This is disturbing because Zuckerburg is a dead-eyed, Asperger's Syndrome suffering computer geek, with seemingly no concept of personal space or personal privacy, and mentally incapable of understanding human relationships (symptoms of Asperger's). He will be influenced, swayed, and fooled by psychopathic power-hungry men and women who want what he's got. Whether or not it's Zuckerberg or a bunch of shareholders, that's too much power in the hands of too few. Me quitting Facebook won't stop any of it, but at least I won't be a party to it. And when the Facebook death-squads start rounding up dissenters for work camps, hopefully I will be totally off the Facebook grid by then.
2) Facebook is becoming less about keeping in touch with friends and sharing photos, and more about performing for an audience. I have the suspicion that Facebook is ruining the lives of millions of people (maybe more women than men) around the world. The pressure to present their lives as idyllic and perfect to other women must be enormous. Agonizing over how to comment on a photo of an ugly child "Looks just like you!", or an overweight friend "You look so beautiful!". The only other option is to say nothing, and you can't say nothing. Facebook is engineered this way. There is no [Hate] button or [STFU] button. So we end up pressing [Like] to acknowledge that we have indeed reviewed the photo or comment, but have no response to it. "So sad today. My Grandmother passed away last night. RIP Nanny." "Jim likes this". WTF kind of communication is that? Facebook could have a million little buttons to choose from. Jim loves this. Jim thinks this awesome. Jim hates this. Jim thinks this is bullshit. How about a choice of even two or three? But no. One. [Like]. Such a flat, nothing word. And you know what the next button will be? [Like like]. This is keeping in touch? So let the performances continue, but I won't be watching.
3) I don't want everything I do on the Internet shared, recorded, and sold to corporations. "But you can select a checkbox somewhere and they can't monitor you" they say. Yea? Where is it? I think it's bullshit. And I don't really want to know what everyone else is doing all the time, and I don't want them to know what I'm doing. I don't want you to log in to Facebook one day and see "Jim is masturbating to [Midget fucks pregnant ebony slut] on Youjizz." I don't want that. When you know you are being watched, your behaviour changes. It's the same for atoms, lions in the desert, people on the streets in London. I didn't sign up to be modified.
4) And finally, when you strip away all the bullshit above, this is why I want to quit. I don't like how I am always looking at Facebook and slyly trying to check out what other people are doing or saying, or if they are fat or bald or still hot or whatever, kind of like spying on them. I want to stop doing that.
It's a shame because I liked looking at the photos my friends put up, and the message function is convenient (though a bitch to navigate), but the other stuff is just too much. Maybe there's something else. Maybe there's no way to do anything on the Internet that can't be monitored, recorded, and sold. But to be honest, I have never been in less contact with my friends and family, despite Facebook. Or maybe it's because of Facebook. I don't call or mail anyone because I know what they're doing because it's on Facebook, and vise versa. The two letters I've written to friends this year were to friends who aren't on Facebook, and it was great. I got nice long letters back about how they are, what they're doing, etc. I'm going to do more of that.
So that leaves me in a bind about this blog. I could write this crap and not post it, but I think that while I'm living here and not really able to express myself much, this blog is useful. Knowing it is being read is an integral part of it. I'm sure that when I finally find a job in Oz and I move back down, I'll forget all about this blog. But it serves a purpose, and helps me organize my thoughts and set goals. Anyway, catch ya later.
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