Round 4.1 - Day 111 - Done

Yesterday I ran 5 km non-stop, and today I'll do X-Stretch, and we be done.
We are off to Australia today and I can't wait to get out of this place. My work has been a pain in the ass and it's cold. My company has given every employee a handbook called "Bonding: 7 Habits". Every morning we have to read one of the 7 habits. This morning's was "Challenge". チャレンジ：不可能を可能にする。高い目標を掲げ、勇気をもって挑戦する。"Challenge: Make the impossible possible. Aim high, and fight with courage". Everyone feels so stupid saying this because it is so irrelevant to our experiences working at this company. Then the boss talked about how you have to keep going, even if you fail, never give up. I like to look around when he talks like this, and see everyone in my department. How would you describe the atmosphere? Downcast. Despondent. Sick of hearing this bullshit every fucking morning.
Rant complete.
This last week, I have been doing everything in my workout schedule except yoga. Yoga is probably the one thing I should be doing but I don't have time. Regardless, I'm feeling strong, fit and healthy. I did Chest & Back last Monday night and busted it up, and I was really sore yesterday. To get sore now takes a lot of work. Watching the Biggest Loser, I would love to have someone yelling at me while I workout. Maybe that will be the next home fitness DVD trend. Instead of "You are worth it, you can do it, do your best" stuff, we can have an instructor that screams at you. "You make me sick!" "Look at you, you fat piece of shit!". Just a hardcore asshole. That would be awesome. Anyway, Bob and Jullian just destroy these fat people. It's great to watch. The results they get are phenomenal.
I've been thinking about some New Year's Resolutions.
Number 1 is to improve my Japanese. Get my Level 1 in December '11. This is going to be a huge task, requiring a daily commitment. I have to find some motivation. At the moment I just want to get as far away from this place and these people as I can. Probably not the best frame of mind to begin from. But I find that a trip home does wonders, so before I go I'm going to draw up a study program and get going as soon as i am back. Lot's of listening, reading, and talking. I will need to get a tutor. You might think it's strange that even though I live in Japan, I need to pay someone to talk Japanese with me. I have to pay to have someone correct me if I make a mistake. That's the difference. I would like it to be a man, too. The words and style of male and female Japanese are very different, and because most Japanese teachers are female, a lot of foreigners who learn Japanese sound, well, gay. I have been thinking about working something out with Nori, I think I've mentioned it before, which I might do. But I think I should get a professional teacher. Maybe this blog will become more of a motivation for my Japanese study than for my exercise.
Number 2 is Health. Stop the stuff that does me no good, like chips, coffee, chocolate, and fucking around on the computer, and start doing stuff that makes me feel good, like golf, meditation, and ideally a new sport (maybe free climbing). I want to get fitter, stronger, and take advantage of my health.
Number 3 is finance. I have money in the bank. I have no debt. I have a good job. I'm in a great position to take advantage of the clusterfuck that is going to be 2011, I just don't know how. I want to spend the first few months learning about how I can kind of sew things up, and then maybe see someone or talk to someone about it.
Number 4 is Australia. I want to put a few irons in the fire regarding employment in Australia. I'm seeing someone when I'm down in a couple of weeks, so that's a good start. I will have to be careful not to let that be an excuse to slacken off with my Japanese studies, and my job here (this fourth year here has definitely been my worst here in terms of performance. I'm just lucky that it doesn't really matter). Still, the last three years has seen some huge changes in my life, so all things considered I'm doing okay.
Anyway, Will and JoJo have been sick all weekend, and I feel like I'm coming down with something, but who cares? We are outta here.

Round 4.1 - Day 103

I'm watching the American Biggest Loser. It's emotional. There was one lady, pretty fat, and when they did the weigh in I was, you know, disgusted, like I was meant to be. Then they showed a clip of an interview with her and she was talking about how her three year old son died of cancer. Man, if one of my boys died of cancer, I hope the only thing I did was overeat a little. So I kind of teared up when she was talking and they showed pictures of her and her beautiful son and she talked about how at the end they were sitting on the rocking chair in his hospital room and she fell asleep and when she woke up he had died in her arms. That's so sad, but is there a better way for a child to go? Safe in the arms of their sleeping mother? I'm emotional thinking about it.
There's a girl in Will's kindergarten class, she's just had a leg amputated because of cancer, and there's a fair chance she will die from it before she reaches Elementary school. I don't know. Kids with cancer. If you believe in God, and you want to try and convince me to believe in God too, then you've got to account for that. Explain to me why your God gives children cancer and why you think that's okay.
This lady was one of three contestants chosen to represent their area, and they had to run one mile, and the loser didn't get to go to The Biggest Loser camp. So they start the race, and half way through, she's screaming "Oh my God! Oh my God! I'm going to die!" The woman trainer, Jillian, I think her name is, is trying to get her going, pulling her, motivating her, but she wouldn't run! It was pathetic. So again, I'm disgusted. It's an emotional roller coaster, and that's why I love it.
One guy, before the mile run, said "I'm going to run and run no matter what, until my body gives out." Sounds good, but then when he collapsed ten meters from the finish line and lost, I thought, hang on, that's exactly what you said you would do. Why didn't you say, "I'm going to run and run, and finish first"? I am convinced being fat, and I don't mean a bit chubby, I mean so obese that you can't get out of a chair, is totally mental. Genes, DNA, whatever, might make it a little more difficult to lose wieght, but come on. 200 kilos? That's years and years of negligence and indulgence. Stop eating so much. Do some exercise. It's not easy, but neither is eating three pizzas, and they do that all the time. I would rather go for a run that overeat now. The last time I overate was when we went to a yakiniku restaurant for Jo Jo's first birthday, and I ate too much meat. That was in March, and I haven't eaten yakiniku since. The smell turns my stomach. I hate that feeling of being full.
So less than two weeks and we'll all be in Melbourne! Holy shit, it's gone fast. I'm going to have to get off my ass and book a round of golf and organize a night out with my mates.
I'm looking forward to a lot of things. You know what's a shock after living here for so long? Seeing people who are obviously in a lot of trouble but not really aware of it. Every time I go home it amazes me seeing stuff like junkie couples arguing in the street, or people begging for money. Basically, people with no shame. Here, shame is huge. There's too much of it. And the thing about people without shame is that they are so confident! It's like they've got it all figured out, but they still need two dollars for a bus ticket. I love it.
One afternoon a couple of years ago, I was getting a bus home from Knox, and I caught the wrong one, so I went the long way around Ferntree Gully before getting to Bayswater. On the bus a guy was drinking, a real bogan, chipped teeth, beenie, shitty beard, tracksuit pants, Collingwood supporter. The driver told him to get off the bus. The driver was Middle Eastern, so the drink guy denies drinking (even though he's got a can of Jim Beam and Coke in his hand) and said that because we were fighting in Afganistan the bus driver should be grateful to us Aussies and the bus driver stopped the bus and told him to get out and then the drunk guy called him a terrorist and the bus driver started screaming "You are rasicm! You are rasicm!" and calling the bus depot and the drink guy's yelling "I'll call the Cops!" trying to dial on his mobile phone, and meanwhile me and another passenger, a young woman, are just sitting there. She looks scared, and I am fuming.
I'd never done anything like this before, but I yelled, "Hey!", and they both looked up. "You!" I pointed to the drunk guy. "You're drinking, man. I can smell it. You shouldn't be drinking on the bus. You!" I pointed to the driver. "We just want to get home. Can't you two sort this shit out later?!" I managed to make them agree to sort it out at Boronia Depot and we got moving again. Then the drunk guy's like my best friend, saying stuff like "I was going to Boronia anyway," or under his breath, "fucking ragheads". The bus driver is talking to me like I'm going to back him up at the depot, saying "He is drinking, yes?", "He said racism, yes?" Yea yea. I got off at Boronia and caught the train to Bayswater and walked home. The point is, when I go back to Australia I find that I have very little tolerance for scumbags, and I'm worried that it might get me into trouble one day. I think it's because you just don't see them here in Japan, but at home they impact on just about every facet of your life. In shops, on the road, at a restaurant or club, they are everywhere. Drug addicts, losers, dipshits, racists, assholes, you name it. Last time I was down, it was impossible to walk past a talking scumbag without hearing the c-word. Impossible. Here, I can't remember the last time I met an idiot. But when I go home I am liberated by being able to understand and be understood, which is huge. Here I can yell "Hey, what the fuck are you doing?!" but if they answer back, I might not understand what they say, so that kind of makes you think twice before confronting anyone. You can't say "Hey! What they fuck are you doing!?" and then ask them to repeat what they said back to you because you didn't quite catch it and could they speak a little slower this time please.
2010. Not an eventful year for me. A trip to Hawaii, that was nice. I rode my motorcycle a lot. No golf, which is a shame. I might be able to squeeze a round in right at the end, though.

Round 4.1 - Day 100

What I've done, to postpone my 5 km while I'm feeling a little vulnerable to the seasonal cold that's going around is to extend round 4.1 another 20 days to when I go to Australia. It comes to the pleasing number of 111 days. Triple 1, or, El Treus. Does that even mean anything? I was also a little worried because I had run out of Ventolin for my asthma, but I went to the doctors the other day and got the Japanese version of the same stuff. So I'm good to go.

Round 4.1 - Day 90

Only a couple off days to go now. Can my body hold out? It is under attack from germs. The bastards got me. I think I'm getting a cold. But I've loaded up on the Vitamin C, and I'm drinking heaps of water, so I'm giving myself every chance. I've stopped drinking dairy too, which has left me mucus free. However, I am not willing to run 5 km non-stop if I'm not feeling well, so we might have to put that one on hold. X-Stretch tonight, and if I feel up to it I have a Chest, Shoulders & Triceps that I owe, and then if I feel up to it tomorrow, the 5 km run. I think that if I'm going to do more running, I'm going to have to buy a small nano ipod. I love my ipod, but it's a behemoth, an anachronism, a weight holding me down. It inhibits me. Maybe it's time to put the old boy to bed, and get me one of those tiny, light ones.
Will had English Play Group yesterday, and loved it as usual. Only a couple of other kids came, and the whole endeavor is kind of fizzing out, but I think it's worth another go at it, so next year we are all going to try again, this time with a little more structure.
Holy shit, only three weeks till we are off to Australia! I can't wait, though I'm a little apprehensive about the flight. Have you experienced the look you get when you walk onto a plane holding an infant? People hate you instantly. I just have to try and relax. Remind me that I have those painkillers from my mole extraction surgery that I never took.
I watched The Next Three Days or whatever it's called, a Russell Crowe film. It's pretty good. I like watching normal people in movies. Not just cops or gangsters or superheroes. I also bought Left 4 Dead 2 yesterday, five bucks from Steam. Man, I can't look at the Steam store without buying something. They always have some sale going on. $5 for one of the biggest and best games of the year? Yes, please. You can't buy the same game in Australia though, because our betters in the Australian Government think we aren't grown up enough to play it. Too gory for our delicate Antipodean sensibilities. If it wasn't for them, you guys in Oz might have played it, and god knows what would have happened. It's lots of fun. I like it when a zombie rushes at me, then I smash the butt of my shotgun into it's face, sending it sprawling back against the wall, and then when it recovers and goes for me again, I blow it's head off. Yea! Dayum!

Round 4.1 Day 84

On Friday night I went for a 5 km run, 5 x 1000 m with a 2 minute break in between. This is the distance I'm going to run on the last day of this round, but I'll be doing it non-stop. I'm not sure how I'll go, but, unusual for me, looking forward to the challenge. Sunday I did Just Arms at another local city gymnasium. A little disappointing, not as good as the one I went to last month. They only had dumbbells up to 10 kg. I don't think I'll go there again. It seems all people go there for is to lay about on the stretching mats watching TV. I felt a little embarrassed exerting myself. Saturday I did X-Stretch, and got my nose to my knee doing seated hamstring stretch. First time.
What else did I do? I watched "Buried". Meh. Picked the ending half way through the movie. I played with the boys a lot. Jo Jo is now walking sometimes! Miracle. He can say "ball" too. Not bad for 12 months, except that he's 20 months. William still likes dinosaurs. He's going to bore everyone stupid in Australia. I have visions of people saying "Really? Carnivore? Ok mate, I really have to go now. I - ah, Parasaurolophus? No, I didn't know that" as they slowly back away.

Parasorolophus

Anyway, round 4.1 is almost over, only a week to go. I've enjoyed this one, and I feel really strong. I've broken through the plateau this time, really lifting a lot. The last month especially. So I'm keen to step it up next round after Australia. I might do a little more cardio next time and try to lose a few kilos. Running is okay but it's hard on the ol' hips, so maybe some Insanity again. Now that the temperature has dropped, it's not so scary. I do feel a little heavy though. I've got Legs & Back tonight, then it's the home stretch. I think the key to this round has been the shortened resistance workouts. I've been able to do them in the evening without feeling like I've sacrificed the whole evening, and without getting worn down. An entire P90X workout goes for one hour, and that's without taking breaks, which I like to do, a few minutes here and there. It's too much. A couple of times this round I have done the whole thing, usually on a weekend when I have time, but most of the time it's half workouts. And I have been disciplined. I have only missed one workout, and I plan to catch up on it this week. So that means every workout I scheduled three months ago, I've done. I'm going to reward myself with a trip to the chiropractor to get my neck cracked, because it's feeling a little tight, and I'm getting small headaches occasionally. It's sitting down all day at this fucking desk all day that does it.

Had to happen

A hologram singer. Keep in mind that the crowd are all, ALL, men aged around 30.

Almost the same, but real, are AKB48, a 48(!) member girl band, average age about 18. Crowd are the same bunch of people, the famed "Otaku", which the media around the world insist are cool, until you actually meet one and you just want to slap the fuck out of them.

Somewhere in the world, men are fighting for their freedom. Here they masterbate over cartoon schoolgirls.

Round 4.1 Day 72

I got the mole cut out of my back yesterday. I went to the dermatologist about lunchtime, and then I was taken upstairs to the surgery, then told to strip and put a gown on. I wasn't sure if the nurse had asked me to completely undress, or just take my top off. It sounded like she had asked me to completely undress, but I thought, that can't be right. I had visions of me walking into the surgery completely naked but for the gown and the nurses screaming "No!" and me feeling like a complete dumb bastard. It's like when I went to the chiropractor, and went to take my T-shirt off before we began, and the nurse screamed "No!" You keep your T-shirt on, jumper on, when you go to the chiropractor in Japan. I didn't know that. They massage you through the cloth. So just as the nurse was leaving I asked her, my jeans too? and she said, no, leave your jeans on. Victory for Jim.
I thought this would be a little procedure, like a jab with a painkiller and then a few swipes with the knife then cauterize the wound and off we go. But the doctor is scrubbing down, and there are two nurses, and it's a full on surgery. I tried to imagine what it would feel like to be getting prepped for serious, life-or-death surgery, and I thought fuck that. They took my gown off (I wore it for about ten seconds, from the change rooms to the operating table) and they got me to lie on my left side. Then the doctor gave me an injection of painkiller and when to cutting and burning. It took about twenty minutes. I wish I could have seen it. They didn't even show me the stuff they cut out. After that I got dressed, and waited downstairs. They gave me shit-load of pills (anti-biotics, which I might take if it starts aching, some stomach medicine for god knows what reason which I won't take, and some strong pain killers which I might save for the flights to and from Australia). All up it cost about $150, and the results of the biopsy will be back next week. My karma lawyer advises me to state I have absolutely no comment to make while the investigation is being performed. The large strip of gauze I have on my back is a little uncomfortable, and to make matters worse, I did Legs & Back before going yesterday and I am sore like a bastard. Today is a rest day, and tomorrow we are back into it. The Doctor said I can't workout for a week, and I said, "Don't tell me what I can't do!" and he said "What do I know? I'm just a doctor." (The first line is from Lost. 10 points if you can tell me which movie the second line is from. Hint - I associate this movie with plastic Pepsi Max bottles filled with tissues.) No, he said no such thing.
Other than that, an uneventful week.
PS Any reporters in Oz golf pick up on the fact that Tiger isn't wearing his Buddhist bracelets anymore? He said he'd wear them forever.

Friday Movie Rant

Can I just say how awesome TV has been the last few years? Lost, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Friday Night Lights (which I've kind of gone off, but still a good show), Dexter, Battlestar Galactica, Californication, Bill Maher, The Office, Daily Show, Colbert Report, and many more. Every time I reach the point where I think I've watched everything, along comes another show. The Walking Dead, a zombie series! Why hasn't anyone done this before? And on top of that, Sherlock. There's only three episodes, but they're good. I haven't read the original books, but I think I will. Oh, and I haven't watched one episode of The Wire yet, which it seems is everybody's choice for Best Show Ever. Dunno, it can't be better than Babylon 5, can it? Anyway, I'll always have that to fall back on in lean times, but at the moment there's no need.
I watched Inception the other day, too. Blown away. Great Movie. Kind of like the Matrix where I was never confused enough to totally lose track of what was going on, but I still can't bring myself to sit down and think it through totally. I do think Dicaprio should cool it with the stressed-out guy with the crappy wife characters, though. Three in a row, by my counting.
I was web surfing the other day and I came across The Independant's list of Top Ten Sci-fi films. Before the list had a chance to load I closed the browser and wrote down my own top ten first. Here it is - mind you, I put in all 5 minutes of thought into this.
1. The Empire Strikes Back
I love this movie. It's so good. The characters are so defined, and so cool. I saw this in the cinema before I saw Star Wars, so I must have been 6 or 7, and I didn't get it. I thought Luke killed Darth in the tree on Dagoba, so then he meets up with him again in Bespin, and then beats him again, but then Darth shows up again, and Luke keeps beating him until Darth cuts off his hand. I thought there must be a whole army of Darths. Now I know that Darth was just messin' with Luke, hiding, taunting, testing him. And the tree was Luke's own fear made manifest. But I was confused after the first time I saw it. C3PO is hilarious in this movie. Such a bitch! When he interupt's Lea and Han's first kiss with "Sir! Sir! I've isolated the main power somthing!" When he gets all upset after Han calls him the professor. When he meets that other protocol droid in Bespin and the other droid tells him to fuck off ("Etchutta") and C3PO says "How rude!" (which Lucas has Ja Ja Binks say TWICE in the Phantom Menace. WTF is up with that?) What else? Walkers, Yoda! Asteroids, Luke and Darth battling, Han with the lightsaber slicing open the Tan-tan guts! Lea: "I love you" Han: "I know". You see Darth with his helmet off for a moment. I could watch this movie again and again.
2. Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
I must have watched this two or three times with my dad growing up. The last half an hour is incredible. You forget that this guy ditches his kids and flies off with the aliens because you get so wrapped up in it. The lights and the clouds that form whenever the big mother ship comes and the music. I love it.
3. Star Wars
Just a part of my childhood. I've always had Star Wars. I was 9 when the Star Wars movies finished, and it was guys like me and my friends, all over the world, who kept it going when it could have just faded away like the Matrix movies or Lord of the Rings. Stickers, figures, games, books, anything to do with the movies we ate it up. And when the videos came out, we watched it again and again.
4. ET
Lucas, Spielberg, Lucas, Spielberg. Grew up in the 80's much? This is the only movie that makes me cry. When ET's sick, and Michael finds him in the river all white and weezy, I tear up every time. The menacing adults with their fucked up lives, and you know that if they get their hands on ET, they will kill him. The BMX chase was huge for me. So much Spielberg in this. The missing father, the humour, the perfect ending. Real endings, nothing left untied for a possible sequel.
5. Couldn't think of one. Needed a gap to seperate the top four from the rest. because the next five movies are movies I saw as a adult, and are just movies.
6. Contact
When I saw this I was deep into my degree and thinking about stuff like how and where meaning is created, and this movie kind of tapped into that, so when the alien appeared as her father, I thought, exactly. Some people felt ripped off, but the point is, how can you conceive of something totally outside your realm of understanding? You can't. The alien had to appear to her as her father for her to be able to see it. All through the movie she is battling the religious characters in the movie, asking them how they can beleive in something they can't perceive, becasue she can't, and the alien honours that. A really, really, smart movie. Had me from the first scene when they start zoom in from the edge of the universe into the girl's eye. There are some technical shots in this movie involving mirrors that I can't work out how they did.
7. Alien
I could have put Aliens in here instead, but I don't think it's necessarily a sci-fi movie. It's just like Predator, but in space. Or maybe Predator is a sci-fi movie. Dunno. Seems more like action-horror to me. There's no real sci-fi motifs in Aliens, just hunter and prey. Alien was really creepy though. I have liked all the Alien movies, though I wish they'd keep control of the brand. The other day in the video shop I saw a DVD called "Alien vs Cube". Yep, the alien is in the cube. Here's a movie for you. "Alien: We Need To Talk". Alien, aging and alone, discovers she has a teenage daughter, and together they explore love, sadness, and finally, acceptance. Then she punches through her daughter's skull with her internal jaws.
8 to 10. Terminator, Galaxy Quest, Moon, District 9, The Fly, Total Recall, Robocop, Enemy Mine, Starship Troopers, 2010, Matrix 2, War Of the Worlds (the new one).
Any of those, and a lot more. Moon was good, Starship Troopers is just so clever, Disctrict 9 was the best movie of last year, all good.
So here's The Independant's list.
1. Blade Runner
2. 2001
3. Star Wars
4. Alien
5. Metropolis (the old one)
6. The Day The Earth Stood Still (the old one)
7. Terminator
8. Planet of the Apes (the old one)
9. ET
10. Solaris (the old one)
Couple of things. First, boring list. Why bother? Anyway, hands up if you've seen Metropolis. Solaris. The Day the Earth Stood Still? And can some one explain to me why Blade Runner is always up there? Which Blade Runner? The one that was released in the cinemas, or one of the many versions since? It looks great, and I like the premise, but god it's boring. I have never been able to sit through it. Metropolis. Another one no-one has seen. In the hundred years of cinema since, only 4 SF movies better than it. Really? I liked Planet of the Apes. Did you know the guy who wrote the book was a prisoner of the Japanese during WW2? Makes sense. 2001, okay, I liked the start.
The best sci-fi makes you think about the present or past from another perspective. Can you watch Planet of the Apes and not think about how we treat animals? When you watch Moon, are you just waiting for that robot to double-cross him, because everyone knows you can't trust a machine? Can we behave ethically towards beings that are not human? That's a tough one. If you don't think of someone or something as fully human, then you can own them as slaves or exterminate them in ovens and think nothing of it. Have you ever felt for a zombie? What is it about zombies that makes it okay to randomly slaughter them for laughs? Why are clones in movies always searching for their original? Why are originals so threatened or repulsed by their clones? And that's why, in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Lucas had a CLONE army fighting a ROBOT army, and that's why nobody in the world gave a shit who won. Clones with New Zealand accents no less! I still don't know who won the clone wars. Apparently it's still going on TV.
I think CG has done a lot to hurt sci-fi. I can still spot it. It's bland, flat, and rather than freeing up the director to do anything they imagine, it makes them lazy. The Star Wars prequels will always be exhibit A. Ridiculous how much crap Lucas squeezes into each scene in these movies. Can't just have a CG beast of burden walk across the shot, it's also got to do a shit, and then a robot has to step in the shit, and then it has to say "pu do" or some other rip-off from the original trilogy. Thirty years ago, the beast would have cost a million to make and operate, and if it walked at all, that was a stunning achievement. Normally they wouldn't have bothered, and they would have had to think of something else. But now it's a guy at a computer scared that if he doesn't have his beast do something eye-catching, Lucas won't notice, and he'll lose his job. If you watch the making of the prequels documentaries, it's computer artists competing against each other to catch Lucas' attention. And you can see that in the movies. Crap!
But also, all aliens look like bugs or lizards now, because bugs and lizards are easy to do CG. And they compensate for the inhumanity by putting in big, wet eyes, which can't be done properly yet. They look like transluscent glass balls.
Dinosaurs, sure. They look great. The gophers and monkeys in Indy 4, garbage. Garbage! Young Jeff Bridges in the new Tron trailer = absolutely shithouse. They still can't do a living creature with any soul, so they shouldn't even try. Gollum looked great, but they could have starved a midget who can act and it would have looked better, and his eyes were a problem. And we are talking about one of the greatest fictional characters in literature, so they had something to work with. There is an explosion in the new Rambo movie that is laughable. They still can't do smoke. Avatar looked okay, but the CG characters have no mass. They can't touch each other. It doesn't look real.
I think there will be a return to models and puppets and suits. Not robotics though. Too troublesome. Facial recognition, like Gollum and Avatar, obviously has great results, and work for humanoid faces, but never human faces. It's called the Uncanny effect. Our brains are so good at identifying and interpretuing human faces and movements, that anything remotely false ruins the whole thing.
In my ideal movie, I don't want to see CG explosions or smoke, bug or lizard aliens, or WIRE WORK! God I hate wirework! It looks shit. If a stuntman or woman can't do it, then it can't be done. Just because you have erased the wire doesn't mean we can't see it. No CG critters (fuck you Indy 4, with your gophers and monkeys), no fake blood spurts (Rambo). No camera wobble when something flies past the camera. Who thought of that? I never saw that before GC. Imagine that famous scene in Star Wars when we first see and hear tie fighties as they fly past the camera in a shot establishing the Death Star. No wobble. It would have one now though. And it would probably have seven Star Destroyers in the background, and a hundred other tie fighters, and an animal having a shit somewhere in there.
No unrealistic camera positions. Yea, CG frees up the camera, but that doesn't mean the camera is free. You can't be zooming and flying and moving around all over the place, because it would be impossible with a real camera. Again, Lucas in Attack of the Clones, and Jackson in LOTR. As soon as they start doing that, I look for little CG men running around like a PC strategy game, with their fake capes billowing out behind them. Another example, though a little more interesting, is Panic Room, where the camera moves through the handle of a kettle. Clever, but jarring.
I guess what I'm saying is this: If a film uses CG the way I want it to be used, then it would not be noticed, but from the filmaker's point of view, if it is not noticed, then what's the point of using it? That's the dilemma, isn't it. The filmmaker who says "Look! CG!" is a poor filmaker, not sure of his capabilites as a storyteller. There needs to be some restraint.
Probably the most diasspointing CG I have ever seen is the zombies in I Am Legend. Who let that happen? They looked ridiculous. Ruined a good movie.
I like what Zack Snyder is doing in his movies. He uses CG really well. 300 and Sin City look awesome. It's kind of an uber-reality. More real that reality. That's fine. Use CG for what it's good at. If they are trying something new, like Gollum in LOTR or the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, fine too. What I want is not to be able to tell. The first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan, awesome. If I can tell that it's fake, it pulls me out of the movie, and reminds me that I'm watching something manufactured. If you are going to use CG smoke instead of real smoke because it's easier and cheaper, then you damn well better do it right, or I will be insulted, and pissed off if I have paid to see the movie.
So the next big CG movie is Tron Legacy, and I have heard that executives are having fits about the Jeff Bridges face. So they should. Just get someone who looks like Jeff Bridges! Or put some makeup on the actual Jeff Bridges! Or do what they did with Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button, which I heard looked really good. Sucker Punch looks awesome as well, and I like the samurai in the trailer. But then I saw the trailer for Clint Eastwood's new movie with Matt Damon, about a psychic or something, and just in the trailer I saw the shitiest CG I have seen since watching the Discovery channel. Rubbish. If I had seen any hint of wirework in that amazing scene in Inception in the hallway, that would have been so dissapointing. But I didn't, and I was sold on the movie. That's quality. There is still a "Wow, how did they do that?" factor in movies. You can only get it by spending a shit load of money and building special stuff and doing it right.
A word about Indy 4. I loved the first three movies. I loved the third one, which for some reason it is cool to shit on. "And ziz is how ve say goodbye in Germany, Dr Jones." Brilliant. Well, bring me Indy 4 and I will lay a steaming turd on that one, becuase it is TIOLET!
Before seeing it, I followed it's progress. Lucas pushing and pushing until Speilberg threw up his hands and said "fuck! OK!" Then I read the reviews and heard about monkeys and aliens and shit like that. The trailers looked okay. But I wasn't looking forward to it. And then I saw it, and I hated it. Outside the cinema, a friend of mine, way into his Star Wars and like a brother to me (like all my friends back home) said that it was like I wanted it to be shit for some reason, and though he said it wasn't great, he enjoyed it. I didn't deny that there might be a grain of truth in that, though I was surpised that after the energy he spent sticking up for the SW prequels he was going to stick up for this too. But since then I have wondered, "Was it really as shit as I thought it was?", so last week I got it and tried to watch it again with an open mind.
It's hard. First shot is of a CG gopher. Reminds me of Caddyshack, except Caddyshack is good. Then there's the suicidal kids in the hotrod. Okay, not a good start. And it doesn't get much better. The Russians are okay, Kate Blanchet looks wierd when she should have looked a little bit alluring, and her mind trick falls flat as a brick. Then there's the CG gun powder. Anyway, it redeems itself with the nuclear test scene. Except that Indy survives being hurled five kilometers in a fridge. And then when he gets out of the fridge (unharmed) to watch a really cool nuclear mushroom cloud, hey guess what? The gopher is there! My god. It's just like watching the prequals again.
Then I started to enjoy it a little. But every time I started to enjoy it, something happened! Indy's boss walks into the middle of Indy's class while he's teaching, and basically fires him in front of his students! Holy shit! I enjoyed the motorcycle chase, the funny line in the library, and the searching for the skulls. Why did Mutt bring his motorcycle? No idea what happened to that. And then they found the skull, and the Russians came, and the crazy guy, and I had stuff to do so I turned it off, and I never had the urge to go back to it. So I'm sticking by my initial impression. It wasn't me. I was right. The movie is shit.
I've heard Lucas is pushing for another one. I don't understand. Sometimes I try to imagine that if I had a billion dollars, and someone said, you do this and you'll get fifty million dollars, and I feel like, meh, would I do it? Why would I waste my time doing anything I didn't passionately want to do? Whatever I did would not be for the money. So either he's doing it for the money, which is hard to belileve, or he really wants to do it and this is the best he can do. I watched the Making of Phantom Menace with this is mind. He makes terrible decisions, but seems so sure of what he's doing, and everyone around him so scared of him, and so scared of saying the wrong thing. It's horrible to watch. Like when he says to Speilberg, we've got these robots, and the Jedi just cut them down like butter, it's so cool. Cool if you're a Jedi, but really boring if you're in the cinema watching it. But wait, not only are they inneffectual, they also behave lilke buffoons! "Roger, Roger," all that shit. Is that an ode to Flying High? I remember watching it the first time and thinking, did that piece of shit robot just make a joke? My god.
I'm betting Indy 4 changed Speilberg's and Lucas' relationship. After all of the good and interesting movies Speilberg has been making for so long, I bet the whole Indy 4 experience sucked for him. The question I asked myself the most while watching Indy 4 is "Why?". Why did they make it, and why am I watching it? Why? Why!?

Round 4.1 Day 64

You may have felt a little different yesterday morning when you woke up. Like something was not quite right. Maybe you thought you were coming down with something, or maybe you had one of those feelings that today was not going to be your lucky day. Well don't worry. It's not about you. It's just that Tiger Woods is no longer the world's best golfer. Lee Westwood is. He has won once this year, once more than Tiger. Welcome back to what golf felt like before Tiger. Boring.
Has a professional athlete ever had a worse year than Tiger has had this year?
My latest theory is this. I think Tiger was seduced by Michael Jordon. I think Michael Jordon enjoyed corrupting Tiger Woods. They have the same kind of personality, they are so competitive. I think Jordon would have taken some delight in watching Tiger be torn down doing stuff that Jordon has gotten away with for years. Early on, Tiger was warned to stay away from Jordon but didn't listen. John Merchant, Tiger's first lawyer, says “I told him, ‘Stay away from that son of a bitch, because he doesn’t have anything to offer to the fucking world in which he lives except playing basketball, which he did yesterday."
What do you do if you're young, and rich, and the best in the world, and hanging out with your hero, and your hero is teaching you how to pick up waitresses and how to gamble millions away in a night and how to keep the wife from knowing, and it's fun and easy and you can't stop? I think that's what happened. I wonder if they are still talking?
Workouts - no dramas. I did spend about $150 last month on crap - kitkats, coffee, chips, etc. Convenience store food, or vending machine food. That's a lot of money. And a lot of fat, sugar, and salt that I'm putting through my body. I'm going to cut that down to half this month, and then cut it out completely in 2011. Okay, maybe a can of coffee occaisionally, but not the three a day I have been having.

Round 4.1 Day 55

Wassup? Trip is all booked, and now I'm just trying to work out what days I'm going to do this and that, and how I can squeeze golf and beers in there somewhere. On Saturday I went to the doctor's. Last week I visited a dermatologist about a mole on my back that is getting bigger. I think I've mentioned it in the past. It doesn't hurt and it isn't itchy, but it's there, so I should do something about it. So the doctor refers me to another doctor, and Will and I went there. When we were called in Will asked the doctor if I was going to get a needle. The doctor said maybe not, but I did end up having to give some blood. Will told me not to cry. I didn't. They are going to cut the mole out in a couple of weeks. First time I've gone under the knife. I hope they sew it up properly so I can keep exercising without having it ripping open on me. Will was wearing a Tyrannosaurus Rex hat his auntie Tokie gave him, which looks like he's carrying a T-Rex on his shoulders, so all the nurses had a giggle.
I've had a big weekend workout-wise. Chest & Back Friday, more push-ups and pull-ups than ever, then a 4.8 km run on Saturday (6 x 800), and then Just Arms yesterday. The run was interesting because I resolved to do the entire run in POSE style, trying to stay off my heels and get that "4" shape going. After a while it felt really good, but my calves are killing me today. The workout is going to culminate in a non-stop 5 km run, something I don't think I have ever done before, and I expect to do it easy, and I'm actually looking forward to it. I think at some stage I'm going to spend some dosh on a good pair of shoes and a nano. Carrying around my big old classic ipod when I run is a pain in the ass.

Round 4.1 Day 52

So I'm at day 51 of round 4.1, more than half way through already. I feel great. I'm getting pretty ripped, too. The last couple of weeks my reps have gone up. I don't know what it is, maybe the cooler weather. Maybe the HGH. I just feel really fit. I'm not really taking any HGH.
I've booked a trip home for Christmas, too. With the family this time. When I bought the tickets I went through the process on the Japanese Jetstar site and reached the "確認" page ("Confirmation") which I really wish was in past tense but was just that one tense less word. I checked for a button or something to push to save or print or something, but there was none, so I guessed I bought them. I thought I would receive a confirmation email, you know, hey just letting you know you have in fact spend thousands of dollars on plane tickets thanks etc. But nothing. So I called them up today and spoke to an Indian guy I couldn't understand (I would have done better in Japanese) but I eventually confirmed that I had bought them and he said (I think) that he would send me an email saying as much. Anyway, arriving the morning of December 21, and leaving on the 10th of January. Still have to buy tickets from the Gold Coast to Melbourne, but we're trying to squeeze in a couple of nights at the Gold Coast at the end of the trip, but hotels are filling up, so still up in the air on when we will be leaving Melbourne. Definitely arriving in Melbourne on the afternoon of the 21st though. Everyone's coming, Junko and the boys, so it's the big one. Infant on a plane. This will be Will's third trip to Oz, and Joseph's first. Anyway, will let everyone know when plans are settled, and I hope I get to see everyone! BBQs, golf, Puffing Billy, Penguins, beach, it's all good. That's my thinking.
I'm looking at the schedule, and I'm already wondering what I'm going to do when I finish this round. I've got three weeks between the end of round 4.1 and the trip. When I first started P90 I thought, wow, when the 90 days is up I'm going to have a rest and relax and take it easy for a while. Which I did, going to Hawaii. But as I approached the end of it I didn't really want to have a long break. Two weeks, then a week, then a few days. I wanted to keep on going. Working out had become a habit, and I didn't want to break it. It's the same now. I don't want to get soft and lazy again. That's my thinking.
So round 5. What form will it take? I like the shorter resistance workouts, so I might stick to that, but I'm thinking I'll leave the P90X videos behind and make my own resistance workouts using some exercises from them. I might edit some of the videos, just cut out the stuff I don't need, and use them if I feel like I need some structure to the workout. That might be the best thing. That's my thinking.

Round 4.1 Day 30-something

Busy long weekend.
Saturday was pool, then some shopping. It was supposed to be Will's sports day at school, but it rained all day and was posponed until Monday, a public holiday. Sunday was English Playgroup, but Will and I were the only ones who turned up. Disapointing, but oh well. I guess everyone was pretty busy with their kid's sports day and stuff. Then on Monday we had Will's sports day. It was pretty fun, if long. Will did really well. Last year he suffered because he had no idea what was going on at the starting line, and missed the start by about 2 seconds. This time he was ready. He was poised to go, and Junko and I shouted something about listening to the teacher and being ready to go and he shouted "Wakatta!" (I know!") and everyone laughed. He did good, finishing second behind a really fast kid. He was pretty happy. So a big few days, then I took yesterday, Tuesday, off work and we went to Japan Monkey Park, which at the moment has a dinosaur display! Since Will found a brochure about six weeks ago he has been dying to go, and then yesterday we finally went. Three huge robot dinosaurs, growling and roaring etc, and some activites like digging up fossils and riding a small triceretops. Well, it took us an hour to get there by train and bus, and he balks at the entrance. Too scary. You could hear the roars from outside the pavilion. I tried dragging him in, but I feared I might do some mental damage. He was crying and shaking. All I thought is that if I don't get him in there now, all he will want to do as soon as he gets home is come back and see the dinosaurs. I'd put up with a month and half of it, and I was going to end it now. So we sat down, and I delivered a speech. "I know you're scared, but you're brave, and you're going to do it anyway." I drilled this into him and got him pumped up, and said "C'mon!" and high fives and then we went in, just hammered in until we were face to face with the T-Rex. He was scared, but I think that's okay. I think it was exhilarating for him. There's no point reading about and watching and drawing dinosaurs for weeks and weeks without being a little scared of them, because they would rip his guts out in a second if they were around now, and you should respect that. Anyway, he had a great day, and Japan Monkey Park isn't a bad place. You can get pretty close to the Monkeys. Here's a picture of Will and his friend Kai with a King Julian monkey.

Workouts good. Ran 4 km on Saturday, X-Stretch on Sunday, Shoulders & Arms on Monday, and Killer Abs yesterday. Got Legs & Back tonight after Nori's lesson (if I have a lesson with him, he's cancelled the last two weeks). Going to try for 40 pull ups tonight.
Did you see the article in The Age this morning about a study that says house prises will rise 20% in the next three years? The Sydney Morning Herald called the company that created this study, BIS Shrapnel, "a respected business forecaster ". It is a PR company and was commisioned (paid) by QBE to do this study. QBE owns and runs LMI mortgage insurance, which makes money when you take out a mortgage, and probably makes more money when you can't pay it. It's advertising. It's criminal. Do Australians know that Perth and Queensland are already crashing? Not if they read the papers they don't.
Anyway, I'm sure everything will be fine. Australia is different, you know.

Round 4.1 Day 37

On Tuesday I took the day off because I was sick (of work). I wanted to go to the city gym and do Chest & Back, but when I got there I found out it was closed for the day, so I went to a newer city leasure centre-type place. They had a gym with plenty of weights and pull up bars and stuff, so I paid my 400 yen and off I went. Gyms are funny places. Lots and lots of machines, people watching TV on these machines. I'm starting to think cardio is a real waste of time. I'm sure there is some cardio-vascular benefits, but if you're doing it to lose weight, it just doesn't make sense. The calories lost in one hour on a treadmill can be wiped out by a donut. Rigourous excersise is the only way to go. Lifting till you can't lift anymore, running until you can't run anymore, doing somethign until you can't do it anymore, that's the only way to go. And then not rewarding yourself, not eating any crap for weeks and weeks. That's the hard part. Walking for an hour won't do much except grease the moving parts. Better than nothing, I guess. It just seems so boring, walking and watching TV. Especially here, with the TV as boring as it is. Then there are the machines. People lifting really light weights, 10 reps, hardly raising a sweat, filling out the form when they finish. Waste of time.
I wish there was a Crossfit gym here. I'm sure there are some in Melbourne, and if I were living there I would definately join up. If you are serious about getting stronger and having your ass kicked every single time you go to the gym, go to a Crossfit gym.
But anyway. I guess I'm lucky that they had weights and a pull up bar at all. One thing I've learnt living here: take nothing for granted. I took my time doing the workout, and I think doing it in a different environmnet made a difference, and I really did well. I didn't have my previous workout details on me, so I wasn't sure how I was doing comparitively, but when I went home and checked I killed it. Most pushup and pullups in a Chest & Back workout by far. I did the full workout too, not the half workouts I've been doing.
Tonight I've got a 4 km run, which will mess me up, I'm sure. I'm not a very good runner. And then when I get home I will read the chapter of "Where Men Win Glory" where Pat Tillman gets killed. I'm not looking forward to that at all. I wish I had paid more attention to it when it happened. I remember seeing his photo when it happened, the one of him in uniform with a beret, and he looks like a typical thick-necked jock, and if I thought anything about it other than "more lies" I don't remember. All I remember is that 2004 was a year when a lot of awful things happened, like the war in Iraq, the Tsunami, just death and destruction one after the other. Anyway, I'm ashamed that I didn't bother to find out more about it, and especially ashamed that I judged him so quickly and wrongly. I saw his brother on Bill Maher a couple of weeks ago, and that got my attention. There's a documentary out soon too. I tell you what, the US Army fucked with the wrong family when they messed with the Tillmans.
I watched "The Other Guys" the other night. Not a bad movie, got a few chuckles out of it. I've never been a huge Will Farrell fan. I get sick of him after a few minutes. But he was good in this, probably because he's playing a pretty normal guy. One thing I don't like about his films is how one character says something stupid, and then they talk about how stupid it was. Like the tuna/lion thing. Yea it was stupid, but somebody wrote it in a script, so that kind of just makes it lazy. But then his character liked the Little River Band! Hah! Genius!

Round 4.1 Day 32

I'm currently reading John Krakauer's book about Pat Tillman "Where Men Win Glory". Pat Tillman was a hero, the kind of guy I think every man wishes he was. But he's dead now. And the US Army lied and used his death to recruit more young men to go and die. What a waste. If you let your leaders lie to you they will, because it's all they know how to do, and their lies will kill your best and brightest. I think if a politician is elected and then knowingly lies, they should be hanged. It should be the only capital offense there is.
I once watched a documantary where a group of American solders are trying to talk to the elders of a small Afgan village.
"Where are the Taliban?" they asked. Nobody says anything. One American guy pleades "Why won't you help us? You have to help us!" Then one of the elders looses it. "Why do you need our help? You have tanks, planes, satelittes! We have nothing! How can we possiblly help you?" What a nightmare that place must be.
Reading about Pat Tillman has inspired me to do better than I have been doing. Better with my health, better with my Japanese, better with the people around me. I know I don't have the charisma or the self believe that Pat Tillman apparently had, but that shouldn't stop me from trying to do the stuff I want to do.
Ablett is going to the Gold Coast. I think it's great. He's done everything at Geelong. Premierships, Brownlows, Norm Smiths, B&F, what's left? When you think of the money, and where he will be living, and the fact that he won't be recognised most of the time, which I'm sure he hates, it's a no-brainer. I reckon we'll see a couple of years of Ablett winning games off his own boot, and that will be awesome. I can't wait. At the very least he might stop his whining and bitching on the field.
Hird at Essendon too. I hated watching Hird playing the Swans because he never did anything wrong. He was such a good player, I'm sure he'll be an awesome coach. But they do seem a strange bunch at Windy Hill. Spoilt. Also, why do most of the footy panel shows finish BEFORE the grand final. Every year after the grand final the only show that actually reviews it is the Sunday Footy Show, and that's a bit of a joke show. This year has been good because all the panel shows have had to come back for another week. It seems like normally the biggest and most important game of the year doesn't get the review it deserves.
Beware of an October suprise. It seems lke everything is going to shit itself at the same time. The EU will disintegrate, America will run out of money, and the housing bubble in Australia will pop. I'm predicting a big month. The banks are going to want their money back, and they are going to suck the country dry.

Round 4.1 Day 29

What a game it was on Saturday. I planned to sit down as soon as I could and watch the whole game, and the torrent came up late Saturday afternoon (Japan time) and I downloaded the 1st quarter first and couldn't help myself, so I watched the first quarter then waited for the second to finish downloading then watched that, and so on, juggling watching and downloading. I watched the first half on Saturday night, then the second half Sunday morning, the last quarter on the big TV using my ipod, but the batteries ran out with a minute to go so I had to race upstairs and watch the end on my computer. So a weird finish, and I'm glad I've got another chance to do it properly this week. I just hope I can have the patience to wait and watch it all at once.
I thought Collingwood were going to win, but those misses by Cloke in the second quarter, especially that last one with 6 seconds to go, that would have put them up by five goals at half time! Sport Karma is so real. You can't get away with anything in sport. It's amazing. Goddard was awesome, and I can't believe he didn't win the Norm Smith, but then I've watched most of it again since, and Hayes is awesome too. Can't split them, really. Did you see on Footy Classified, Stan Grant said that that goal Hayes kicked in the last quarter was the first goal he has ever kicked from outside 50 in his career! Wow. Impressive.
I had a horrible moment when Leon Davis kicked that goal in the last, I could see him kicking another one to seal it and becoming the hero. The wouldn't have been right. The guy has done nothing ever, but keeps getting a game, and then to become a Grand Final hero? No way.
I also have a theory about Milne. He thought scores were level when he let that ball go through for a point, and he thought that point put them in front. That's why he clapped when it went through. Surely you don't let a ball go through for a point to tie the game up with 30 seconds to go giving them possession, and then think, "Yes!" You would think, "Oh, shit! I should have tried to kick a goal!" But to admit that would be to admit you were a dipshit. I don't it's any great secret that he is a dipshit, but you know, why remove any doubt? Then again, it could have gone through for a goal. I kind of feel for him because there's all this "can't perform in a big game" pressure stuff with Milne, like he's a great player or something. He's an good player good at kicking celebration goals. Then again, he's probably a rapist, so I don't feel that sorry for him. It's kind of like expecting Shneider to rip a teams defenses apart, when he's good for a couple of goals, maybe one under pressure. He's not that kind of player, and to expect more is not being realistic. I still think St. Kilda have too many iffy players to win a flag, and Collingwood will win this Saturday. But I did like St. Kilda's immediate reaction to the draw, and I thought Collingwood were a little negative. That's important.
I see channel 7 have taken a page out of channel 10's book and tried to put every single person attending the game on TV at some stage. Watch any other coverage of any other sport around the world, and they never show the crowd. Why do we cut to the crowd all the time? Look everyone! People! Watching! There's a ball up. Director - "Quick! Cut to the guy talking to his mate. Shit! He saw us! Go back the footy! Go back! Shit, he pulled a face. Damn!" How many times did I say "What's going on?" watching the game because apparently Michael Kwim is enjoying himself and we have to see that instead of the footy. I remember in 2005, they kept cutting to the same guy in the crowd the whole last quarter. Some young guy in a Swans jumper. Why? An American watching that would probably think he's Prince Bruce of Australia or something. Weird. It's not some quirk of the game that makes it unique, it's just stupid. I watched some guy yell "You're a fucking cheat, Del Santo!" and I don't know how many times I saw someone yell "Fucking bullshit!". Leave it off the crowd, TV stations. Especially in Collingwood games, because most of them are scum and I don't want to see them. Having said that, let me say this; have they found the guy who took the mark from Milne's goal in the last? Nice one.
Of course the great fear is that this week will be a blowout, and will take something away from the first one, which was an awesome game. I reckon this will probably happen, because it would be such a struggle to get up for it mentally, I doubt both teams can do it. It's like a US Open playoff in golf, which I have heard some footy commentators use to SUPPORT a GF replay. Have you ever watched a US Open playoff? They suck! There's a reason why every other tournament has changed to sudden death playoffs (or a four hole playoff, which suck a little). They are great! They don't take anything away from the result. They ramp up the tension, the pressure, every thing becomes more intense. I would have liked two ten-minute halves. You've had 22 games and three finals to find the best team, that's enough. You don't need another game. There. That's my opinion, which I'm sure will spark discussion and probably force the AFL to make changes.
Having said that, let me say this. It's awesome that we get to watch another game, and I can't wait. I guess that's how most people feel. It sucked because we have to wait another week, but then again, it will be awesome! Conflicting emotions. Suck vs. Awesome. Hard to reconcile.
I will be supporting the Saints, but I think Collingwood will win by... 22 points. Norm Smith goes to Brown. Is that his name? Big guy, cut his eye last week.
Workouts going well. I'm in a rest phase this week, some yoga, some stretching. My legs and hips are tight, which I attribute to riding my motorbike to work instead of cycling/walking. They aren't popping like they used to. I've only got a couple of weeks of riding left before it gets too cold and I'm back on the train.

Round 4.1 Day 22

So it's been two years since I started working out. Man, a lot of hard work. But I sure am glad I did it. What price can you place on having energy all the time, not to mention the years doing this will add to my life (touch wood). But having said that, at this moment I feel like I'm dogging it. If there is one area that hasn't changed all that much, it's diet. I'm sure it's improved, but not much. Certainly less alcohol. I have a can of beer a month, if that. I was having a can or two a day for a while there two years ago. Hardly a drunk, but there you go. To be honest, I think a couple of drinks one night a week would help me loosen up a little, and is something I might try. A couple of strong bourbon and cokes or something. I still drink too much coffee. God, I feel like I've talked about this so many times. I have to get an alternative. Same with the Kitkats. Or at least cut down to one a day, and not four. The point is, I could do better, and I want to do better. But these last two years have been fantastic, and the great thing is I'm free of that fear that every smoker has, something I seriously wondered if I would ever be free of. My hips are still a little tight. I think I might need a little "Bam!" action.

A year ago I was just about to head to Australia to watch the Grand Final. A year already! That was quick. I'm looking forward to this match too, and I hope Collingwood wins, though if St. Kilda wins that's okay too. I just think Collingwood is the better team, and I want the best to win. I still think the Swans had a real opportunity to get to the granny, though I doubt we could have beaten Collingwood. We haven't beat them for years.
I've been watching Tosh.0, a really funny show, and playing a bit of Counter Strike, too. AK-47 is the tool (Don't make me act the mutha fucking fool! - that's for you, Whits). Apart from that, just keeping going. I went for a nice motorcycle ride on Monday, which was a public holiday. Respect for the Aged Day. Fine, as long as they stay out of my way. The roads out back in the mountains are great for riding. Here's a picture.

Anyway, got Killer Abs tonight, then I'm having a coffee with Nori, and then I'll sit down and watch the end of a documentary about Blur and their reunion. I don't know how they stayed together so long with that guitarist they have. He must have been unbearable to be in a band with. Good documentary though. Brought back a few memories.

Round 4.1 Day 14

A little bit shattered that the Bulldogs beat Sydney. Watching our lead evaporate was somehow worse that when Carlton came back the week before. I think is was because Carlton was playing so well, and Judd was basically going to win the game for them. This week, however, the bulldogs were still playing crap, and their goals were all stinky, but it just seemed like we couldn't counter that smelliness not matter how well we played. They are my new least favourite team, and I hope St Kilda smash them next week. They should. Swans finished fifth, which is about right, and they'll be better next year. Shaw played really well, too. I was actually feeling confident every time he got the ball. Did some good things. Jude Bolton knocked out again, and played great. Maybe it's time to draft O'Keefe though. Didn't do much this year. I like Kirk, toughest player ever, but that toughness has always compensated for his lack of pace and skill. I don't mind that he's going. He could have stayed another year and ended being a joke like twinkle toes Brad Johnson. Bulldogs supporters must hate it when he gets the ball. I think Kirk has overdone the Buddhist warrior thing, but maybe he's pushing for a spot on the Channel 7 boundary team next year and needs to have a brand for the Sydney market. Has his wife been on that Dancing or Celebrity Masterchef or whatever yet? Can see it happening.
So same top four again. Will the result be the same? The only improver is Collingwood.
Moving forward on the workouts. It's still bloody hot here, so they are still sweatfests. Yesterday I did a modified Crossfit workout called Barbara. It's supposed to be 5 rounds of 20 pullups, 30 pushups, 40 situps, and 50 squats with 3 minutes break in between. I did 4 rounds of 10, 20, 30, and 40, but still with 3:00 in between. I did it in 23:37. I was going to do it properly, but there's no way I could have. And I was going to do five rounds, but there's no way I could have, because I'm a pussy. I should have. But after 4 rounds I was a sweaty heap of pissweak lying on the ground, and I couldn't go on.
The food intake has been ordinary. Some doughnuts (Krispy Kreme - worst doughnuts ever - Mr Donuts shits on KK), Kitkats, coffee, usual stuff. The shame has not worked. I need to get dedicated with the food. Shopping tonight to get what I need.

Round 4.1 Days 4, 5, 6

Went for a run on Saturday. It was 38 degrees, so I waited until late afternoon to do it. 6 x 400 with 2 minute breaks in between. I was trying to run POSE style, keeping off my heels. It feels really good, but hard on the calves which are not used to it. If I revert back to the normal style I feel sluggish and short, which is sometimes how I feel when I'm running poorly. Anyway, I couldn't find a cheap wristwatch with a stop watch so I had to use my phone to keep time, and I messed it up. I was able to measure the last 400 metres, which I ran at 1:42, so I'll use that as a time to beat next time.
Yesterday was X Stretch, which I was looking forward to, but never managed. Too many things to do, too much football to watch. I'm glad Geelong lost. Kind of over them. If they're good enough, which they are, they'll be in the Grand Final, but it would be nice to see a couple of new teams in there. Bulldog are finished, and that's why it's so important for the Swans to beat Carlton. I have watched the first quarter, and we are playing well, but Cartlon are hanging in there. Wow, if we can win, then beat the Bulldogs, who knows... We did roll St Kilda in '05 to get in the Grand Final. We won't beat Collingwood though, regardless.
Then this morning I did Shoulders & Arms. No dramas.
Weekend shit file: 4 cans of coffee, 1 can of Coke, 2 Kitkats, 1 ice-cream.
EDIT: OMG what a match. The Swans have given me some great moments the last few years, and that was another one. GO SWANS!

Round 4.1 Day 3

Killer Abs today. Like Fitbomb said in one of his posts, I would be pissed off if I had paid money for this workout. It's just the ab routine from P90 and the ab routine from P90X clumped together. Did okay. I'm being a little careful not to reinjure my hip flexor, which I pulled a couple of weeks ago.
Shit file: 2 cans of coffee, 4 Kitkats, 1 bag of chips.

Round 4.1 Day 2

I saw a man running for his life, carrying his infant son, and a bullet rips through him and through his son and they fall to the ground. I saw soldiers tear a girl from her mother, and then incinerate the child and then chop the screaming mother's head off. How can I reconcile what I've seen? How can I just resume a normal life?
I think Rambo: First Blood Part 2 fucked me up when I was a kid, and now Rambo has fucked me up again. Holy shit! Violent much? Great stuff. I'm watching it now. Don't tell me he makes his own knife! Hah! He does. Killin's as easy as breathin'. Tell me about it.
So Yoga went well tonight. Yoga is awesome. If I had to choose one workout to do for the rest of my life, it would be Yoga. Love it. I did Patience Hummingbird from Tony's One on One series. I like this one because the poses are held for longer. Tony's entertaining in it, too.
Let's talk coffee. Specifically, Suntory Boss Cafe au Lait. 190 mls of creamy, sweet coffee. Hot or cold. Cold now, because it's Summer, but in a month or two the vending machines will start offering hot cans, and for a while it will depend entirely on my mood which one I chose. Then, when Winter comes, it'll be hot all the way. So hot I can't hold it a single hand for very long. They cost about AUD$1.20. Awesome value. Hard to give up.
I have my first one when I get to work. I have about 500 mls of water with breakfast, which recently is a piece of toast and a fried egg, so this is my morning pick me up. I'm afraid I'm turning into one of those "Don't talk to me before I've had my cup of coffee" people. ("Only if you don't talk to me after you've had it." - Bill Maher.) Then I have one at lunch, with a few Kitkats. I should probably skip this one, because I get jittery. Then occasionally I'll have another one in the afternoon, though I usually regret it afterwards. I'm having one now because I'm doing overtime.
3 is too many. 2 is probably too many too. I hate to think how much sugar and caffeine is in one of these things. I'll try and find out tonight (I've been warned about my Internet use at work). But then if I cut down to one, that one will become so precious to me that I will never be able to go without, which is the ultimate goal. I might bring in some alternative like milo. But then I just find that I drink the same amount of coffee, and less water. I drink a ton of water every day, 2-3 litres easy. So my shit list hasn't improved yet, but I've only started. My goal is for it to be 1 can and 1 Kitkat. All I have to do is do it, and it's done.
Great line from Mad Men last night. "Nobody knows what's wrong with themselves, but everyone else can see it right away." What a show. After watching shows like Lost and Dexter with their big secrets and cliffhanger finishes I was kind of reluctant to start the 4th season of Mad Men. I forgot how good it was. There are clunky moments, but they only stand out because the rest of the show is so good. It looks this season, all the drinking is starting to catch up with Don. He's a mess.
Shit list: 3! cans of coffee. 4 fun-size Kitkats. 4 Pino.

Round 4.1 Day 1

Chest & Back. I almost didn't get up. But I did. I had my protein shake while I did the workout, so there was no fatigue or nausea. 144 push ups, 32 pull ups. Can only improve. I felt sluggish after a week and a half off. I've also had a stiff neck for a couple of days now, which is uncomfortable. I've got Yoga tomorrow, which might help loosen things up a little.
Shit list: 2 cans of coffee, 4 fun size Kitkats. 1 ice-cream.

Round 4.1

I had a cold all last week, nothing too serious, but I didn't do any workouts. I haven't done anything for a week. It's been a nice rest, but I'm keen to get going again. So Round 4 is a write-off, and round 4.1 starts tomorrow, the first of September. One thing I've learned from working out and from stopping smoking, if you don't have the right attitude from the start, you won't keep it up. If you do have your mind right though, it can last for as long as you want it to. The main thing is not to quit when you fail. For each round of P90, P90 Master, or P90X I have completed, I have started two or three that I didn't finish for one reason or another, usually a cold or an injury. That's okay. I don't have to get down on myself, think stuff like "I never finish anything" or "it's too hard, I can't do it". I know that I can do it because I've done it, but it takes a few goes to get the mind right.
This round I want to concentrate on a few things specifically, and it's going to be a little different that the previous rounds. I'm doing abbreviated P90X rounds, same as before. I do about half the workouts. P90X workouts are long, so it's still challenging. I will be able to lift heavier weights because I won't be so buggered. When it cools down I might go back to a full-length workout, but I doubt it. I think the next step will be making up my own workouts from the P90X exercises that I think work for me. But that's round 5 stuff.
I want to do more running, increasing the length from about 2.5 kilometres with breaks at the start to a full 5 kilometre run at the end of the round. This is a really modest goal, but I have never really liked running, though I appreciate the benefits of it. I was impressed with the muscle aches I got after doing it last time, which means it's working my legs like the other exercises I do don't. I might even get to liking it at the end.
Also, I want to incorporate a bit of Crossfit. I tried last time, but to be honest, I whimped out and chose the running because those WODs scare me. But I'm going to do it this time. They are timed workouts, so I'll be able to see the improvements I'm making as I go.
A typical week looks like this:
1. Chest & Back (or another P90X workout)
2. Yoga
3. Rest
4. Shoulders & Arms (or another P90X workout)
5. Killer Abs
6. Running or Crossfit WOD
7. X Stretch
So that's the workout aspect. Nothing too strenuous, but certainly not nothing.
The next is to cut down on the shit I eat. I'm going to work on the principle that with shame comes change, so I'm going to keep track of the shit I eat. Let's use yesterday as an example. I had 2 cans of coffee, 1 can of 7Up, 4 fun-size Kitkats, 1 ice-cream, a couple of biscuits, and a piece of cake. That's a heavy shit-eating day. I'm not fussed about calories or carbs and all that (not yet, anyway), but it's just common sense. Shit food is shit food, and I want to put less of it in my body.
So by December I hope to be in really good shape. And by December it will be cold! Oh, to be cold. Wearing jeans and jumpers. Sleeping under the covers. Enjoying a nice warm coffee or milo. Seems so long ago now.
Anyways, pumped up for a big AFL finals season. Go Swans! I hope we can give them all a big fright. Like in all sport, the winner is the one who wants it the most. How bad do the big boys want it? We've won it from fifth before, we can do it again.

Week 4 Already

I really enjoyed watching the Swans Freo game last night. They've had the wood on us for years, and this year they've been playing great, though recently they've suffered some injuries. We played really well, much better than Freo, but it seemed every time I looked at the scores they were three points in front! We got up in the end, and the young guys did really well, and there were some inspirational attacks on the ball that were awesome except that they took themselves out of the game. Jack was sensational. He plays a lot like Gary Ablett Jr., except that he doesn't whine constantly like Ablett does.
One thing about whining. I really hate that "Why didn't you kick it to me?" thing that a lot of players do. Typically it goes like this. A midfielder evades a tackle or two and has a shot from forty and misses, and there's a team mate in the goal square with his arms up like "I'm right here!", whether he's covered by an opposition player or not. Fevola does this when he is playing like shit. Most teams have players that do it. If I was the coach, I would absolutely ban it. Any player that does it is off. There is one player at Sydney who does it all the time. Rhyce Shaw. The Human Turnover himself. He's always yelling at teammates when he thinks they did something wrong. The arrogance of this is astounding, especially considering the amount of errors (mostly unforced) that he makes every match. Ted Richards has been doing well lately, but Rhyce, I hope this is your last year at Sydney.
The Chinese guy sitting next to me at work is back from a week in Shanghai, and is as sick as a dog. That's what happens when you don't wash your hands after going to the toilet. And I'm guessing Shanghai toilets are pretty bad. Maybe it's some mad new virus, pig-chicken-human strain that hasn't made the news yet. Maybe it has already killed tens of thousands, and the Chinese government is desperately trying to keep this lethal new virus under wraps for fear of it ending the economic bubble, and this man has somehow slipped though the net. Maybe this man saw some things in Shanghai that made his blood curdle, societies being torn apart, parents dumping the bodies of their dead children, dogs tearing at the corpses on the side of the roads, and he thought he got out. But then he woke up this morning with a runny nose and bleeding rectum, the first symptoms. It's just a cold, he thought. I'll be okay. And now he's sweating up at his desk next to mine, wondering if he's going to make it until lunchtime.
I'd better go check my rectum.
Workouts are going well. I did Just Arms yesterday. Tony is in good form in this one. Funny.
I'm at work today, but tonight I'm joining the family at a hotel in Shizuoka, and spending tomorrow at a pool park. I'll take some photos. The last few days have been Obon, which is traditionally when Japanese people go home and see their parents, or go to the cemeteries and clean up grave sites and all that. I was visited by the dead in my sleep last night. I had a dream about mum that had me waking up like they do on TV, gasping and covered in sweat (actually, I'm always covered in sweat because it's so fucking humid here, but anyway, even more sweat). Mum was sitting in a chair in the blue (or green?) dressing gown she always wore the last few months, and I saw her and came at her, arms out, blubbering, mum, mum, mum, and she kind of started backing away like she was scared of me and she wouldn't let me hug her. Nice, thanks dream-mum. I liked the one I had last year better, when I was walking through the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne talking to her on the phone, saying mum! Where are you! Where are you! and she said "I'm right here" and I could hear her real voice as well as the voice on the phone and I looked up and she was picnicking with all her friends on the lawn right in front of me and we hugged and cried.
Dunno. Messed up. I've been a good boy, and I don't know why mummy is upset at me.

Round 4: No Retreat, No Surrender - Week 3

I've incorporated a little bit of running into my workout, on Saturdays. This is my Crossfit WOD day, but without the equipment there's not much to choose from, so I chose a running WOD. 6 x 400 m, with 2 minute rests in between. The first Saturday I went to the city athletics track. It opens at 9, and costs 100 yen to use. I wanted to get my run done early, so I thought I'd get there early and jump the small gate and just hop on. So I rode my bike there at about 7:30 am, but someone was already in the office. Damn. I got my 100 yen out, totally certain of what was about to happen. I walked into the office.
"Excuse me, it costs 100 yen to use the running track, right?" I held the 100 yen out for the lady to take.
"Yes, but it doesn't open until 9 o'clock."
"I just want to use it for half an hour. 100 yen, right?" Take the money.
"I'm sorry, it's closed. It will be open at 9 o'clock, you can use it then."
"There is no way I can use it now?"
"I'm sorry, it's closed."
"You fucking people and your rules." I said that last part in English. I'm sorry, was that racist? Oh my.
So I got back on my bike, and rode to the river beside the freeway, where there's a bike track. Not a bad place to run, really. I found some measurements the other day, so at least I now how far I'm running. I guessed the first week.
The first week I pulled up really sore. I was surprised, because I've been do lots of cardio and squats and plyo and all that, but my thighs were really sore the next couple of days. On Saturday I tried POSE running. I'm sure there's lots of technique and practice involved to get it down perfect, but basically I ran pretending I was running barefoot, concentrating on bringing my heels up off the ground using my hamstring. I felt like a prancing horse, but it was definitely easier on the body than smashing the heels into the ground and rolling onto the toes.
Until yesterday, when my calves hurt real bad. It's hard to walk downstairs. Just my body getting used to it. But I will continue to run, if only because it hurts so much later on, which means I'm doing something new involving new muscle groups. I'll have to buy a decent watch with a stopwatch though.
Busy weekend. On Saturday I ran, then we took the great grandmother out for sushi (some nice expensive stuff), then Will and I went to the pool (he can go underwater now!) and then we went to the fireworks festival after dinner. Then on Sunday we went to English play group, then out to lunch, then I did Back & Biceps (half of it anyway) and then dinner, and then sat down to watch the footy.
I'm glad we beat Hawthorn, because I don't like them, but then I watched Collingwood and Geelong, and the game was totally different. Geelong do what the do well, but it's getting old. Play-on, kick over the top. Kind of a waste of a good forward like Mooney, who really has nothing to do at Geelong. First time I've really watched Collingwood this year, and they look pretty good. Didak is a gun. Leon Davis - how does he get games? Anyway, if those two make it to the grand final, it'll be a beauty.

Round 4: No Retreat, No Surrender - Update

I've had the Nirvana song "Dive" in my head for weeks. It's an awesome song, way better than anything around now. What is around now? No idea. Here's an interesting fact. It's sixteen years since Kurt Cobain killed himself. Holy shit. He'd be, without checking Wikipedia, forty-two now? Probably doing a Tribute to Motown album or something. Duets with Elton John. I remember in music class at high school the teacher telling us that that day was the 20th anniversary of Sargeant Peppers being released. It felt like ancient history.
So I downloaded Incesticide, which I remember buying at (the much underrated) Boronia Mall the day it came out, and put it on. Come to think of it, Boronia Shopping Center was always more interesting that Knox. It had Kmart, the Mall with the record shop, Toy World (is that what it was called?), that diner with the milkshakes, and then it had the Snoopy cinema, Max Cycles, and some cool shops in those dark alleys off Dorset Road.
Anyway, Will loved Nirvana and started jumping around. Why am I not surprised he loves Nirvana? Hah.
Speaking of Silly Willy, today is his birthday! Happy Birthday, my boy. 5 years old. Wow. I've enjoyed his fifth year, though at times he has been trying. He was diagnosed by lazy doctors as having PDD-NOS this year. This means he exhibits some symptoms of stuff like Asbergers or Autism, but not others, or that something's NQR about him but they are not sure what. Of course I read up on these things, and I read blogs of parents with kids with PDD-NOS, and I always think, he doesn't do that, he's not like that. He doesn't eat his clothes. He doesn't freak out if we don't use his cup. He doesn't stim, or spin around, or endlessly blather on about stuff. He's not troubled by noise, lights, any of that stuff. He doesn't wet his bed, attack the cat, break stuff (on purpose). He doesn't really like eye contact, he can get a little obsessed with the TV shows he likes, like Thomas or the Penguins From Madagascar and likes to act out the scenes as he watches them. He often doesn't respond to questions. He gets upset often if he doesn't get his way and sulks. He not sure what to do around other kids, and will often copy them, which pisses them off. Very mild stuff, and I'm sure every parent of every child can relate. One thing I have noticed is that in English group, he's the most outgoing, fun-loving kid there. He would be the last kid you would say has a developmental disorder. But in the Japanese world you can see his uncertainty. It may be because he has an English-speaking father. Dunno. I do worry about him, like everyone worries about their kid, I guess. But he's funny, and friendly, and very handsome, so I think he'll be okay. Two things I want him to be able to do when he's older; speak English, and fight. The other stuff will take care of itself.

Happy 5th Birthday William!

First week of Round 4: "No Retreat, No Surrender" went very well. I'm enjoying the shorter workouts, and even enjoying getting up at 5:30 to get them done and out of the way. The first workout last Monday, I did Chest & Back, and ran out of energy early. A little yogurt isn't enough to power a workout, even a short one. I felt sick, and my numbers were really low. I had to drink my protein shake while I took a shower just to stop the shakes. Lesson learnt. Since then it's been good, though I missed last Friday's workout. I forgot to set my alarm. Doesn't matter. I think it's important this round not to overdo it, especially in this heat.
Here is a comparison to where I was two years ago and where I am now. I must admit, this has motivated me to keep going, and especially to eat cleaner.

I look really sick in the first photo. Mum was really ill at this stage, on the way out. I was flying to and from Australia all the time, smoking, drinking (not a lot, 2 cans of beer a night, maybe 3 or 4 on the weekends). Eating lots of chips. I wasn't taking care of myself. When I'm stressed or busy, I don't eat. Look at my neck! And my collar bones are sticking out, too. I was having dizzy spells, and every now and then chest pains. I remember that summer two years ago I was always falling asleep in my clothes at 8 o'clock because I was just exhausted. My shoulder ached! Man that used to give me the shits. A restless, uncomfortable feeling that I couldn't get rid of.
I weigh about 8 kilos more now, and you can see it. No more aches and pains, no more exhaustion, no more dizzy spells or chest pains. The headaches continue, but that's a stress thing, something I'm working on. Feel okay today, actually.
Anyway, laters.

レゴ

最近、ウィル君がレゴというおもちゃを気に入った。僕も小学生のときにレゴが好きだったからウィル君と一緒にレゴを遊ぶことは楽しいです。レゴの組立説明書を見ると、言葉がなくて、イラストがしかありません。イラストだけで組み立て説明書を作ることは難しいと思います。もし自分の会社のマニュアルをイラストだけで作って見ればどうかな。できれば翻訳者が要らなくなりますので、それは困ります。

Round 3: Day 119 - That'll Do, Pig.

I'm bringing Round 3: With A Vengeance to a close, a couple of days before scheduled. This round has been tough. It was a little aimless, undisciplined, and mentally draining. If I don't do the workouts in the morning, which I don't, I really struggle to do a workout in the evenings. The last two weeks have been especially tough for some reason. I am feeling aimless myself, not able to find enjoyment in anything. Interest in my job is way down. I'm at a loss with what to do about William, who is getting more and more caught up in his own world and losing touch with people. Joseph is endlessly sick, coughing and crying. My wife has become a person I have lived with for a really long time, and not much more. I dread weekends, and on weekdays my day is repeated over and over again, to the smallest detail. I am in the best shape of my life, but my enthusiasm for life has gone.
So this slump on the endless roller coaster of culture shock, sleep deprivation, a boring job, no sex ever, living in the stalest society in the world, the relentlessly brutal weather, whatever the cause of this particular bleh period is, something has to change. If I can change it before my subconscious butts in and does something silly that would be great. And if I can change it without losing my wife or my children, that would be fantastic.
Having said that, the next round starts on Moday. Round 4: No Retreat, No Surrender. I have split the P90X workouts in half. No routine is over 40 minutes long. I'm going to bring it, just not as long. And I'm throwing in a Crossfit Workout Of The Day once a week, just to mix shit up, 'cause I is crazy like dat. The Crossfit WODs that I can do are limited because I don't have a barbell or rings, but I think that this is the way I want to go next year. Crossfit looks wicked, and is definitely the future. Oh yea, and there's a P90X sequel in the works, called P90X: MC2. MC stands for "muscle confusion", though the title is a play on Einstein's formula for energy. That'll come out next year. No shortage of stuff to do, but at the moment, with Summer here, and my motivation in critical condition, just getting in the room and doing the thing is the main objective. Knowing that I'll be done in less time that a normal episode of TV is a huge bonus.
So, just to do something positive, as round 3 draws to a close, I thought I would run through my own personal highlights of P90X, little moments that make me chuckle or give me a little motivation every time I see them.
1. Chest & Back
"Too many people, when they exercise, stop way before they should," says Tony. Every time I hear that I know he's talking about me. This workout isn't the same anymore since I saw the girl Marin in this video in a hard-core porn clip.
2. Plyometrics
"Jesus. I mean Jeepers."
3. Shoulder & Arms
Nothing about this workout is memorable. It's a solid workout though.
4. Yoga X
I don't do this workout, I do Fountain of Youth Yoga from the One on One series. Whenever Tony says "I love it here in Santa Monica California", I wish that I lived in Santa Monica California.
5. Legs & Back.
A lot of memorable moments in this one.
The controversial "off the charts, like chicklets" moment, when it is clear that the video has been edited to fit that comment in, solely because someone thought it was worth putting in. I don't even know what chicklets are.
Dreya doing chair pose and groucho walk. Is there something wrong with her ass?
Sophia letting go of the bands to fist bump Tony, letting the handles hit him in the face.
6. Kenpo X
I haven't done this for ages, but just watching whatshisname the Kenpo guy dogging it the whole workout is awesome.
7. X Stretch
Just Phil trying to do neck rolls. His neck isn't very flexible.
8. Core Synergistics
Adam saying he did 18 Prison Cell Pushups. Giving him the benefit of the doubt because he's not on the screen the whole time, the absolute most he did was 14. Why lie about that?
9. Chest, Shoulders and Triceps
"La Machina! That's Spanish."
10. Back & Biceps
The Arnold scream at the 38:10 mark.
11. Cardio X
Haven't done this one much recently. Can't remember much about it.
12. Ab Ripper X
Nothing funny about this.
This year's British Open was the most. Boring. Tournament. Ever. I didn't bother staying up to watch the last round because it was clear that nothing was going to happen. And nothing did. Some guy from South Africa won it. I've never heard of him, and now he's the British Open champion. It was just like the US Open when whatshisface won it. Golf is in all sorts of trouble. That's what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket, and those eggs turn out to be the rottenest eggs ever laid.
Speaking of Tiger, another embarrassing performance. Playing well, putting bad, ho hum, swearing, throwing clubs around. Don't take it out on golf, Tiger. It's the only thing you've got left.
My highlight of the week? This question Tiger was asked before the tournament. "Tom Watson has said you need to clean up your image on the golf course. Many of us have heard you use the 'F' word, we've seen you spit, we've seen you throw tantrums like chucking your clubs. Are you willing to cut out all those tantrums and respect the home of golf?" Brilliant. Didn't matter what the answer was. It was "I'm trying to become a better player and a better person" BTW. His fall back line this week. And he couldn't cut it out, apparently.
The best golfer when I started playing golf was Seve Ballesteros. What a story. Grew up hitting stones with sticks on the beach near his house in Spain, a physical genius. He dominated golf for ten years, 79 - 89, culminating in one of the best British Opens ever in '88, which my mum wouldn't let me stay up and watch, and which I wouldn't see until three years later when I finally got my hands on the video that was going around the golf club. I remember rushing home to watch it. He has been struggling with brain tumours for a few years now, and has had many operations. He's really frail, and a bit different now, very emotional. They wanted him to come to St. Andrews this year to celebrate 150 years of the Open, but he couldn't. They did a really nice interview at his house though, and he kind of chokes up about his life and his destiny. He was an awesome golfer, scarily talented, famous for his touch around the greens and his freakish shots out of trouble. Man I wish there was someone like him playing now.
Apparently rainy season ended on Saturday. Something about saying a season finishes on a particular day rubs me the wrong way, but it does seem to be true. A couple of weeks of nice warm weather, then BANG! Heat like you wouldn't believe. I hope to get my bike back from the shop soon so I can go for a ride or two.
I've started watching Dexter. The great shows keep on coming. Definately the golden age of American TV. Even though he's a textbook psychopath, I totally get this character, though I wonder how it'll go after a few more episodes. It's hard to feel for a character that doesn't feel, don't you think? If the writers are good enough they'll be able to do it, I think. I do love the way his foster father raised him, not trying to change him but more teaching him how to function. It's an interesting approach.
Anyway, I feel like this blog has served it's purpose. It has helped me stop smoking and kept me motivated to do exercise, and I'll probably post every know and then. I'll keep in touch with the friends I've made through it. I'll keep working out. But I need to work on other stuff now, which is probably obvious.

Round 3: Day 110 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

Once, weekends meant golf, friends, good times.
Something to look forward to. A promise.
I took Friday off to go to William's school because they had a party for all the kids whose birthday is in July/August. It was fine, but there was a girl there who yelped like a dog the whole time, and it gave me a headache that lasted until last night (Sunday night). It rained all three days too, so no going outside. Will was mental, and Jo Jo was either yelling for food all the time or banging his head against the floor to make himself cry.
Anyway, back at work now...

Will and a party crasher at kinder