How's it going blogger?

I've sort of missed this platform, but not really been in the mood to post here for a variety of personal reasons.

The summer has been hot, and I've been in the gym non-stop. I competed in 2 super-sprint distance Triathlons, went camping and generally went with the summer flow. I've started in a fairly committed fashion to follow the paleo diet, and even doing some HIIT in addition to my weight lifting.

Not terribly interesting in a lot of ways, but I'm feeling great and working on getting strong. Pulling 385lbs on the deadlift and working on strength and flexibility to do full depth front and back squats. I can do it with 135lbs on both, but I'm nervous about going up in weight on that particular lift.

What about you guys, been up to much?

Flying man short film

This is scary good. It's crazy how often superhero stories are told with superhero as the central character not focusing on the havoc that falls all around them. To pull a name out of the air take The Avengers. New York was fucked up, the majority of what we saw was the superheros with a small nod to that there were people in the city. The superhero in this story doesn't exist as a super or hyper moral person, just a dispenser of a certain brand of justice.




Via GAS

Meritocracy again, but with the rich and poor

Listen I know I ride on this meritocracy thing a lot, but once you read the book your whole world gets shaped by it. Michael Young was a damn visionary and I cannot understand why his work doesn't get more coverage. Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World offered similar warnings about propaganda, group think and genetic screening for your place in life, but Youngs warning about how they will come for us and swallow us under with education and testing is the warning that has actually manifested to a real threat to our freedom to live our lives.

This video is about experiments that observe the attitudes and behaviors of rich and poor people. These same behaviors are described and manifest in The Rise of the Meritocracy, towards the end where the meritorious assign more and more of the rewards to themselves and less and less to the dullards until they rise up violently. If you haven't read the book do yourself a favor and do, it's short possible a day or two worth of reading and it's amazingly informative.

True Blood and junk

So many things I don't even know where to begin.

I've started on a rhubarb wine, that will take something like 2 months to finish up and is the reason that I'm going to buy another couple of carboys. It takes 20 lbs of rhubarb to make 5 gallons of the stuff, but I think it's going to be above average awesome.

The specific recipe and directions can be found in this PDF. I added about 6oz of thistle honey to it, and found that 10lbs of corn sugar only had me at 17 or 18 balling which is ~1.080OG so get 12 or even 13 lbs of corn sugar if you follow this recipe.

Next up, True Blood started and I still haven't finished watching last season. I think I have 3 episodes left and cannot find time for that, not to mention I'd like to watch the Game of Thrones season if I could get the time.

Oh sleep you cruel mistress.

Usb powered water bottle humidifier

Try to ignore the obvious/gratuitous mac in the background and see the beauty and awesome that is this tiny usb powered humidifier.


Via Lifehacker

anime suggestions?

A while ago The verge posted about anime suggestions, and I've been meaning to see what people thought of the suggestions and get feedback on which I should start with. I'll highlight the one's I've already watched some or all of in Green. In general, I'm not in love with shows that are gundam based. I've watched most of Big O! and forgave it's gundam-ness because it managed to on about the time of night I was watching tv every night. Oh Adult swim, I almost miss staying up watching you.

• Code Geass
• High School of the Dead
• Lucky Star
• Black Lagoon
• Cowboy Bebop
• Yu Yu Hakusho
• Gundam Wing
• G Gundam
• Death Note
• The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi
• Big O!
• School Days
• Afro Samurai
• Evangelion
• Full Metal Alchemist (Original and Brotherhood)
• Detective Conan/Case Closed
• Hellsing (Original and Ultimate)
• Samurai Champloo
• Onegai Sensei/Twins
• Witch Hunter Robin
• Speed Grapher
• Love Hina
• Devil May Cry
• Welcome to the NHK
• Goshuushou Sama Ninomiya Kun

High-Intensity Interval Training Infographic

This is mostly for my own reference, but maybe it's interesting to you too.

I've been working with weights in the gym and seen some success in weight loss, but I'm needing to add cardio if I ever have a prayer of meeting anything but strength goals. Being somewhat short on time I think HIIT is the way to go for my needs. I need to rest a bit this week because I've got a sprint triathlon this weekend, but this is a good reference for next week. I'll try the Tabata method for 4 weeks and see if it's worth anything, and then try the Little method.  Keep in mind I'm just trying to add days of cardio on my off days of weight lifting, the turbulence method would make it even harder to get through my lift sets. As it is, I sometimes feel like I need a banana just to get through my lifts. Adding cardio into that and I'd probably pass out.


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