Saturday, March 13, 2010
Exertion headache
I got another headache last night ten minutes into Shoulders & Arms. I had to stop. The pain is intense, and pretty scary. They're called exertion headaches, and are pretty common apparently. So I'm going to ditch my workouts until I get back from Hawaii in three or so weeks. instead, I'm really going to concentrate on my food, eat as well as I possibly can. I'm going to walk a lot, and do lots of stretching and Yoga. ARX, too. No crazy cardio, no weights. Obviously my head is telling me to slow down, take it easy. I can only put it down to too much stress. I've been so busy at work for the last few weeks, and at home I haven't had much time to just chill, so that's what I'm going to do.
Friday, March 12, 2010
3Resurrection - Day 23. Insanity, ARX Crash
Last night I just crashed. I felt shit all day with hayfever. When I went home the family was grumpy. Will said he couldn't play with me because he hated me and I was stinky (which I wasn't), Joseph was sooky and crying, wife was tired and uncommunicative. The day was a right-off and I went to bed at a quarter to nine. No exercise, no Lost, nothing.
I'm watching Lost now at lunch, season 5 episode 1, and just then I was thinking, wow, look how quickly Ben changes his plans when the situation changes. He is very adaptable. That's something people like CNN keep telling us is that you have to be adaptable. Adapt to a constantly changing world, all that stuff. I thought, I wonder how adaptable I am? But then I thought, it's not about being adaptable. It's about sticking to what you know you need to do. From CNN's point of view, the world is a volatile, unpredictable, fluid place that is always challenging people to change with it. In my world, my job is dull, the work is the same, I wake up the same time, catch the same train with the same people, passed by the same cars on the way to work from the station, sit with the same people every day, and then after work catch the same train home. I'm sure it's probably the same for most people. My point is that the only thing I have to adapt to is everything being the same all the time. A lot of the changes in my life are brought about by myself, usually subconsciously. Like when I was let go by the Melbourne Institute of Chartered Accountants for "performance issues" (Oh? You're an accountant? No, I just answer the phones and get the mail out). Even though I could not afford to lose that job, it sucked ass and I hated it, and really I forced them to make the decision that I couldn't. Pretty passive/aggressive behaviour. I could easily do the same thing here with this job, but I'm not sure anyone would notice! I'm sure that if there was a big earthquake or aliens came or something then I would adapt pretty well. It's adapting to everything being the same all the time that is hard.
So, maybe a reaffirmation of my goals is in order.
Best shape of my life. I'm in good shape now, but I eat too much shit. 10 days till my birthday. "You can do anything for 10 days, right?" Stop eating shit!
N1 Japanese by July 2012. That seems like a long way away, but it isn't. And it's going to take that long to pass it. It's tough!
Australia before 40. Living where I want to live. I'm praying for a real estate crash.
If I don't keep working hard, none of these goals will happen. A couple of years ago I would have despaired looking at them, now I know I can do the work.
I'm watching Lost now at lunch, season 5 episode 1, and just then I was thinking, wow, look how quickly Ben changes his plans when the situation changes. He is very adaptable. That's something people like CNN keep telling us is that you have to be adaptable. Adapt to a constantly changing world, all that stuff. I thought, I wonder how adaptable I am? But then I thought, it's not about being adaptable. It's about sticking to what you know you need to do. From CNN's point of view, the world is a volatile, unpredictable, fluid place that is always challenging people to change with it. In my world, my job is dull, the work is the same, I wake up the same time, catch the same train with the same people, passed by the same cars on the way to work from the station, sit with the same people every day, and then after work catch the same train home. I'm sure it's probably the same for most people. My point is that the only thing I have to adapt to is everything being the same all the time. A lot of the changes in my life are brought about by myself, usually subconsciously. Like when I was let go by the Melbourne Institute of Chartered Accountants for "performance issues" (Oh? You're an accountant? No, I just answer the phones and get the mail out). Even though I could not afford to lose that job, it sucked ass and I hated it, and really I forced them to make the decision that I couldn't. Pretty passive/aggressive behaviour. I could easily do the same thing here with this job, but I'm not sure anyone would notice! I'm sure that if there was a big earthquake or aliens came or something then I would adapt pretty well. It's adapting to everything being the same all the time that is hard.
So, maybe a reaffirmation of my goals is in order.
Best shape of my life. I'm in good shape now, but I eat too much shit. 10 days till my birthday. "You can do anything for 10 days, right?" Stop eating shit!
N1 Japanese by July 2012. That seems like a long way away, but it isn't. And it's going to take that long to pass it. It's tough!
Australia before 40. Living where I want to live. I'm praying for a real estate crash.
If I don't keep working hard, none of these goals will happen. A couple of years ago I would have despaired looking at them, now I know I can do the work.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
3Resurrection - Day 24. Chest & Back
I have been smacked upside the head with hay fever today. I took a pill and now I'm all high and dry. I don't know which is worse. It's a beautiful day outside today, though. A nice change from all the grey skies and rain that we've been having lately.
Last night I did Chest & Back. I was ready to destroy it, but when I was doing my second pull up exercise I got that pain in the neck again, and it almost floored me. I hate it. It feel like I have cramp right deep inside my neck, and I get an instant headache. Maybe I had a stroke. My motor functions are fine, but if I was to lose 20% brain functionality, would I know? So I sat down for a few minutes and tried to recover. I thought about aborting the workout, but then I thought about how I'd been listening to that voice a bit too much lately, and I told it to shut up, and I would do this workout even if it was going to kill me. Pffft, the voice said, whatever. Dickhead. So I proceeded with caution and did ok in the end. But like I did the last time it happened, I'm going to have to avoid really straining to do that one more pull up, and when I feel like I'm trying too hard to eek out that last one, just drop off the bar, wait a moment, then do two more instead.
I see Corey Haim died. Hope you're not taking it too hard, Leigh.
Last night I did Chest & Back. I was ready to destroy it, but when I was doing my second pull up exercise I got that pain in the neck again, and it almost floored me. I hate it. It feel like I have cramp right deep inside my neck, and I get an instant headache. Maybe I had a stroke. My motor functions are fine, but if I was to lose 20% brain functionality, would I know? So I sat down for a few minutes and tried to recover. I thought about aborting the workout, but then I thought about how I'd been listening to that voice a bit too much lately, and I told it to shut up, and I would do this workout even if it was going to kill me. Pffft, the voice said, whatever. Dickhead. So I proceeded with caution and did ok in the end. But like I did the last time it happened, I'm going to have to avoid really straining to do that one more pull up, and when I feel like I'm trying too hard to eek out that last one, just drop off the bar, wait a moment, then do two more instead.
I see Corey Haim died. Hope you're not taking it too hard, Leigh.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Remembering the Kanji
Over the last few months I have been studying Kanji using the book "Remembering the Kanji". It's a great book. The traditional way people learn Kanji is as kids in school, when they are introduced to the Kanji, it's core meaning, how to write it (stroke order etc.), then it's Japanese pronunciation (there might be several) and it's Chinese pronunciation. For example, 月. It means moon, or month. There are four strokes that have to be learnt in a particular order. The Chinese pronunciation is "tsuki". The Japanese is "getsu" or "gatsu", depending on the other kanji around it. Now this is a pretty simple example, and is one of the first kanji Japanese kids learn in school. But still, there are quite a few things to remember. Now, consider that there are over 2,000 kanji that the Japanese government have deemed to be standard everyday use kanji, and you can see just how herculean a task it is to learn all of them. Next, think about all the time Japanese kids must spent drilling and memorising kanji instead of learning about other stuff, like the world and everything in it. But they love their kanji, that's for sure.
So a poor foreigner comes along with a life, and job, friends, hobbies, and a brain already configured for another language, and they start studying kanji like the Japanese kids do. One by one, meaning, stroke order, numerous pronunciations, then drill, drill, drill. Impossible. So what this book does is teach you the meaning and the stroke order first, and then move on to the pronunciation (that's in volume 2. I haven't done that one yet). The author, James Heisig, argues that adult foreigners don't have the time or the developing brain to be able to learn kanji like the Japanese do. So he uses "imaginative memory" to learn the meaning and stroke order, and later, the pronunciation. He argues that Japanese people use it too, only in Japan it would be considered cheating. Here's an example.
厚. It means "thick". There are three "elements" in this kanji. The upside-down "L", which we have learnt means "cliff" because it looks like a cliff. 日, which is by itself a kanji and means "sun" or "day", and 子, which again is itself a kanji, and means "child". So you have to come up with a story, an image, that you can remember that incorporates these elements and the meaning of the kanji. For this one, I use "In Sparta, they threw unwanted babies off a cliff to die under the hot sun. Only the thick-skinned babies survived." You can see the story in the Kanji. Just to be clear of the positions, I put in "children under the hot sun". There you go. Some are easy, some are really hard to conceptualize. There is an awesome website where you can manage all the kanji you are studying, and is really the reason I got into studying kanji again. The stories people come up with are hilarious.
The argument is that when someone already knows the meaning of the kanji, it is easier to remember the pronunciation. That may be true, but in any case, it is easier than trying to remember everything at once. Sometimes it's great, sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my time because I'm not learning how to actually read them, but then again the alternative of just slogging through them trying to learn everything at once would drive me nuts. If you are interested in Chinese or Japanese characters, get this book. You don't need to be able to speak Japanese or anything, and you won't learn how to with this book, but you will know what all those tattoos mean.
So a poor foreigner comes along with a life, and job, friends, hobbies, and a brain already configured for another language, and they start studying kanji like the Japanese kids do. One by one, meaning, stroke order, numerous pronunciations, then drill, drill, drill. Impossible. So what this book does is teach you the meaning and the stroke order first, and then move on to the pronunciation (that's in volume 2. I haven't done that one yet). The author, James Heisig, argues that adult foreigners don't have the time or the developing brain to be able to learn kanji like the Japanese do. So he uses "imaginative memory" to learn the meaning and stroke order, and later, the pronunciation. He argues that Japanese people use it too, only in Japan it would be considered cheating. Here's an example.
厚. It means "thick". There are three "elements" in this kanji. The upside-down "L", which we have learnt means "cliff" because it looks like a cliff. 日, which is by itself a kanji and means "sun" or "day", and 子, which again is itself a kanji, and means "child". So you have to come up with a story, an image, that you can remember that incorporates these elements and the meaning of the kanji. For this one, I use "In Sparta, they threw unwanted babies off a cliff to die under the hot sun. Only the thick-skinned babies survived." You can see the story in the Kanji. Just to be clear of the positions, I put in "children under the hot sun". There you go. Some are easy, some are really hard to conceptualize. There is an awesome website where you can manage all the kanji you are studying, and is really the reason I got into studying kanji again. The stories people come up with are hilarious.
The argument is that when someone already knows the meaning of the kanji, it is easier to remember the pronunciation. That may be true, but in any case, it is easier than trying to remember everything at once. Sometimes it's great, sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my time because I'm not learning how to actually read them, but then again the alternative of just slogging through them trying to learn everything at once would drive me nuts. If you are interested in Chinese or Japanese characters, get this book. You don't need to be able to speak Japanese or anything, and you won't learn how to with this book, but you will know what all those tattoos mean.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
3Resurrection - Day 22. Mammoth UML, ARX
Man, these weekends aren't long enough. Went out for sushi for lunch again yesterday. Great Granma's shout. It's been raining a lot here, not as much as in Melbourne, though.
I did almost all of the workouts I wanted to this weekend, including an extra X Stretch, which was awesome. Friday night I did On One Leg, a One on One with Tony workout series. It wasn't very strenuous, but interesting. All it is is just some simple weights work on one leg. It's interesting because when you do these exercises you soon forget about the exercise you're doing and start concentrating on the foot and the calf of the foot on the ground, because it's just going crazy trying to keep you balanced. The core is working hard too. So on Saturday my calves had a bit of an ache, which is a good sign. Saturday I did Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit and Ab Ripper X. Damn this workout is hard. I nearly finished it yet again, about 95%. I feel much stronger than I did a month or so ago when I started doing Insanity workouts for real, but I just can't get over them. It's mental now, I think. It's when I get to the second to last round, and I'm sweating and breathing hard, and then the next exercise starts and I think, nah, need a rest. That's when I stop for ten, twenty seconds before getting into it again. The next time I do it I'll have to commit to not doing that, no matter what. I did X Stretch too, which I needed, and then last night I did Massive UML, also from the One on One with Tony workout series.I was halfway through Mammoth UML when the video on my iPod started messing around and I had to abandon it. It's the first time I've done this workout, so I didn't know the video was crap. Ah well. I'll do it again in the next couple of days. It looks pretty good. I was doing it with Willy, too. He tried to do a push up and hit his chin in the floor and cut his lip. Not too badly, though. Anyway, a big weekend, and I'm stiff and sore today. Good times. Really good times.
This week I'm going to try a news blackout. I have downloaded a shitload of audio books to listen to to and from work, and I'm not going to look at the news websites while I'm at work. I'm sure that if the world ends someone will tell me about it. It's just too depressing. Kids being murdered, politicians refusing to face reality, pages and pages of whining and bitching. I don't need it. I don't really care about the Oscars. I watched The Hurt Locker ages ago and I thought it was just an action movie trying too hard to be loved, but no real action or message. It's hard to feel sympathetic towards a main character that won't live very much longer, and who continuously endangers the men under his command who really do want to live. I didn't like him. But I guess it doesn't have much competition this year. I haven't watched a movie since Avatar, and that was what, two months ago?
I'm getting exited about next month, though. Hawaii for a week, then The Masters. If Tiger's not back for the Masters, I don't know what's going on. And if he's back for the Masters, he has to play in a tournament before that to get a rhythm going. So that gives him a month to come back. He's practicing every day all day, I hear. Probably better than being at home with his wife. The last few Masters have been really boring. They've been toughening up the course so Tiger doesn't win it every year, which is what the golf authorities have always done when a dominant player comes along, and they've turned the Masters, usually the most exciting tournament of the year, into the US Open, the most gruelling. I kind of hope Tiger comes back and wins it, but then I would rather Ogilvy win it or someone else good, like Mickelson or Els. I would love to see Ryo Ishikawa in contention. He's massive here, but it's hard to tell how good Japanese sports stars are internationally because they are so hyped here, but he looks the goods. He played awesome in the Accenture matchplay, beating Aussie Michael Sim (the best young Australian playing) in a great first round match. Won the last three to win 2 up. He seems to have that talent Tiger has of hitting the shot when he has to. He swings it like Greg Norman, with an amazing rhythm, and spanks it. He's only 18, too. I can't wait to see how he reacts to pressure. He might be the rival Tiger needs to get his mind off the skanks and back on the game.
Also, the Japanese lesson I went to at the library on Saturday morning was great. Perfect level. The old guy who teaches is a bit of a sleazy guy. I really enjoyed it. I just wish it didn't take a whole morning, which is a quarter of my weekend now!
I did almost all of the workouts I wanted to this weekend, including an extra X Stretch, which was awesome. Friday night I did On One Leg, a One on One with Tony workout series. It wasn't very strenuous, but interesting. All it is is just some simple weights work on one leg. It's interesting because when you do these exercises you soon forget about the exercise you're doing and start concentrating on the foot and the calf of the foot on the ground, because it's just going crazy trying to keep you balanced. The core is working hard too. So on Saturday my calves had a bit of an ache, which is a good sign. Saturday I did Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit and Ab Ripper X. Damn this workout is hard. I nearly finished it yet again, about 95%. I feel much stronger than I did a month or so ago when I started doing Insanity workouts for real, but I just can't get over them. It's mental now, I think. It's when I get to the second to last round, and I'm sweating and breathing hard, and then the next exercise starts and I think, nah, need a rest. That's when I stop for ten, twenty seconds before getting into it again. The next time I do it I'll have to commit to not doing that, no matter what. I did X Stretch too, which I needed, and then last night I did Massive UML, also from the One on One with Tony workout series.I was halfway through Mammoth UML when the video on my iPod started messing around and I had to abandon it. It's the first time I've done this workout, so I didn't know the video was crap. Ah well. I'll do it again in the next couple of days. It looks pretty good. I was doing it with Willy, too. He tried to do a push up and hit his chin in the floor and cut his lip. Not too badly, though. Anyway, a big weekend, and I'm stiff and sore today. Good times. Really good times.
This week I'm going to try a news blackout. I have downloaded a shitload of audio books to listen to to and from work, and I'm not going to look at the news websites while I'm at work. I'm sure that if the world ends someone will tell me about it. It's just too depressing. Kids being murdered, politicians refusing to face reality, pages and pages of whining and bitching. I don't need it. I don't really care about the Oscars. I watched The Hurt Locker ages ago and I thought it was just an action movie trying too hard to be loved, but no real action or message. It's hard to feel sympathetic towards a main character that won't live very much longer, and who continuously endangers the men under his command who really do want to live. I didn't like him. But I guess it doesn't have much competition this year. I haven't watched a movie since Avatar, and that was what, two months ago?
I'm getting exited about next month, though. Hawaii for a week, then The Masters. If Tiger's not back for the Masters, I don't know what's going on. And if he's back for the Masters, he has to play in a tournament before that to get a rhythm going. So that gives him a month to come back. He's practicing every day all day, I hear. Probably better than being at home with his wife. The last few Masters have been really boring. They've been toughening up the course so Tiger doesn't win it every year, which is what the golf authorities have always done when a dominant player comes along, and they've turned the Masters, usually the most exciting tournament of the year, into the US Open, the most gruelling. I kind of hope Tiger comes back and wins it, but then I would rather Ogilvy win it or someone else good, like Mickelson or Els. I would love to see Ryo Ishikawa in contention. He's massive here, but it's hard to tell how good Japanese sports stars are internationally because they are so hyped here, but he looks the goods. He played awesome in the Accenture matchplay, beating Aussie Michael Sim (the best young Australian playing) in a great first round match. Won the last three to win 2 up. He seems to have that talent Tiger has of hitting the shot when he has to. He swings it like Greg Norman, with an amazing rhythm, and spanks it. He's only 18, too. I can't wait to see how he reacts to pressure. He might be the rival Tiger needs to get his mind off the skanks and back on the game.
Also, the Japanese lesson I went to at the library on Saturday morning was great. Perfect level. The old guy who teaches is a bit of a sleazy guy. I really enjoyed it. I just wish it didn't take a whole morning, which is a quarter of my weekend now!
The kids are calling it "hazing"
Thursday, March 4, 2010
3Resurrection - Day 18. Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit, ARX
I really enjoyed the 30-15 workout. It’s push ups, then pull ups, 12 times each. For the first half of the workout I did 15-8 – 15 push ups then 8 pull ups. For the second half I did 15 – 5. So that means in total I did 180 push ups and 78 pull ups. The pull ups were all I could do, but I could have done more push ups. Next time I’ll try doing 20 a set. I only did about half of what Tony does in this workout, which is just unbelievable. He’s fifty years old for god’s sake. He’s in good form in this workout, too. Funny.
I saw Nori last night. He’s excited because he picks up his new car tomorrow, a Subaru Outback, and then on Saturday he’s got an Omiai, which is like a formal meeting for a potential marriage. It’s kind of like arranged marriage, but only if the two people who are going to get married actually want to get married. An uncle of his who lives in Tokyo lives next to a woman with a daughter, and they are all coming down to Okazaki to have lunch with Nori and his mother. The pressure on people to get married here is pretty strong, especially when that person is not a weirdo pedophile cartoon loving freak. Nori has a great job at Toyota, nice guy, 35 years old, so of course he must get married. She’s 27. That’s all he knows about her. He asked his uncle to send him a picture of her, but his uncle said, looks aren’t important. It’s how you get along that’s the main thing. Not a good sign. We talked about what he should do if they don’t really get along. He said he would alright if that happens, but his uncle has to live next door to them forever, so he doesn’t want to make it tough for him. I gather that if they get along, then the odds are they would get married. Not a bad way to do things, I guess. So they are going to a nice Chinese restaurant for lunch, the five of them, and then Nori is going to take her for a drive in the mountains and have a coffee at a coffee shop up there somewhere, and get to know her. Then I think they go back to Tokyo that night, and then the phone calls begin. What did she think? What did he think? What do you think?
I saw Nori last night. He’s excited because he picks up his new car tomorrow, a Subaru Outback, and then on Saturday he’s got an Omiai, which is like a formal meeting for a potential marriage. It’s kind of like arranged marriage, but only if the two people who are going to get married actually want to get married. An uncle of his who lives in Tokyo lives next to a woman with a daughter, and they are all coming down to Okazaki to have lunch with Nori and his mother. The pressure on people to get married here is pretty strong, especially when that person is not a weirdo pedophile cartoon loving freak. Nori has a great job at Toyota, nice guy, 35 years old, so of course he must get married. She’s 27. That’s all he knows about her. He asked his uncle to send him a picture of her, but his uncle said, looks aren’t important. It’s how you get along that’s the main thing. Not a good sign. We talked about what he should do if they don’t really get along. He said he would alright if that happens, but his uncle has to live next door to them forever, so he doesn’t want to make it tough for him. I gather that if they get along, then the odds are they would get married. Not a bad way to do things, I guess. So they are going to a nice Chinese restaurant for lunch, the five of them, and then Nori is going to take her for a drive in the mountains and have a coffee at a coffee shop up there somewhere, and get to know her. Then I think they go back to Tokyo that night, and then the phone calls begin. What did she think? What did he think? What do you think?
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
3Resurrection - Day 17. 30-15
Tonight I'm going to do a workout I haven't done before. It's from Tony's One on One series, and it's called 30-15. It's a pretty simple workout. 30 pushups, 15 pullups. 20 times, I think. I don't think I'll be able to do 30-15, more like 20-8 or something. I'll do 20-8, and see how I go. I didn't do X Stretch last night, but I did do Ab Ripper X.
I was listening to a news podcast, and they were interviewing some guy about money in judicial elections in America. I wasn't really listening to it, until the guy said, "the optics aren't good". I thought he was talking about his eyesight or something at first, but then I realised he was talking about appearances, as in "it doesn't look good when judges are taking campaign contributions from large law firms". I predict that this will become the new "buzz" expression of this year. Who will be the first player, coach, or commentator in the AFL to use this expression? Got to be Craig Hutchison. My prediction is that it will take it's place amongst the greats, like "going forward", "don't have the cattle", "trust the process", and last year's champion, "tick all the boxes". The Brisbane Lions do not reprimand their troubled new recruit Brendon Fevola for making public a nude photo of star-fucker Laura Bingle. The optics aren't good. Gary Ablett stays at Geelong and also signs a million dollar endorsement with Cotton On, run by a Geelong businessman. The optics aren't good. Anyway, I'll trust the process going forward, and expect to hear this again soon.
I was listening to a news podcast, and they were interviewing some guy about money in judicial elections in America. I wasn't really listening to it, until the guy said, "the optics aren't good". I thought he was talking about his eyesight or something at first, but then I realised he was talking about appearances, as in "it doesn't look good when judges are taking campaign contributions from large law firms". I predict that this will become the new "buzz" expression of this year. Who will be the first player, coach, or commentator in the AFL to use this expression? Got to be Craig Hutchison. My prediction is that it will take it's place amongst the greats, like "going forward", "don't have the cattle", "trust the process", and last year's champion, "tick all the boxes". The Brisbane Lions do not reprimand their troubled new recruit Brendon Fevola for making public a nude photo of star-fucker Laura Bingle. The optics aren't good. Gary Ablett stays at Geelong and also signs a million dollar endorsement with Cotton On, run by a Geelong businessman. The optics aren't good. Anyway, I'll trust the process going forward, and expect to hear this again soon.
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