Batman 'stache

Why can't I stop sweating?

Obviously that's Kilmer from "Tombstone" and it's a well known fact that Batman would win in a shoot out against Johnny Ringo.  Now, Batman with tuberculosis versus Doc Holliday...anybody's guess.  "Batman Forever" got some mediocre reviews, but I'm willing to give it another try.

Walking to the bus stop tonight another captain with a week's growth of mustache told me I have a, "Solid 'stache."  This guy is only here for a few days to help another office and he said he loves the food because it is (allegedly) not mystery meat.  A navy captain saw a picture of me with my two sons from four months ago taped to my computer monitor and expressed surprise seeing my bare upper lip.  He asked if I am going to keep my mouth sweater and then opined that it is probably "up to my wife."  To complete the facial-hair-comment trifecta, Sam told me I should at least consider taking it home with me. 

I opened the drinking cocoa tonight and was thinking "This is really similar to the hot cocoa I made with coconut milk two years ago..." when I realized I had a can of coconut cream in my desk drawer.  As I was opening the can of island goodness with my leatherman tool, the ops officer on duty came by and asked if I was going camping.  After admitting that, unfortunately, no I wasn't camping, I described my coffee augmentation tools.  He told us how, years ago, his wife made hugh batches of chicken curry, which he would take to work for days on end.  Then she started Weight Watchers and stopped making curries due to the calories in the cream.  Hmmm...that isn't as funny as I thought it would be.

Speaking of which, let's go get a curry.

Don't know why he needs the scarf; the 'stache should keep him warm.

George Clooney was getting criticism from the Huffington Post three months ago, but he looks like he's channeling Clark Gable.  His performance in "Batman Forever" was better suited to his character in "Ocean's Eleven" and its sequels.  Keep that mustache and he could be a decent Forge from the pages of the X-Men.  Not sure if Clooney has any Native American blood, but he could be a matter-of-fact engineer type.

Finally, on the bus ride back from work, another captain expressed his mustache envy.  He guessed that I had been growing my mustache for a year and that mine is so burly and intimidating.  Then he made a gesture similar to the way that Batman's cape protects his shoulders, my mustache protects my chin.

Literary

A mustache only a mother, I mean wife, could love.

If I had two more months, I think I could have a Twainstache.  That being said, I don't have two months, but I did get another 'stacheliment tonight.  Basically, my mustache is better than a 22 year old Lt.  Easy win.

So far I've finished 10 books while here, about one a week.  I've also read the following graphic novels, which is a nice way of saying, "I'm an adult, still want to read comic books and you can't stop me."

• Hush - Batman faces pretty much all of his well known enemies and finds out that kids carry grudges.
• Arkham Asylum - Batman goes into Arkham Asylum and is saved by a quarter.
• No Man's Land - Gotham has been abandoned and can only be saved by (hard to guess) Batman!  Also, the Scarecrow vs. God.  God wins.
• The Eternals - The Earth has aliens living here who think they are humans, but are really our protectors against yucky monsters.  So, this one is basically true.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II -  A band of heroes stop Martians from destroying Victorian England.  This is not the movie.  If it was, I doubt audiences would have liked to see a thin, opium-addicted Sean Connery.
• Heart of Hush - Hush is attacking Batman again and we learn more about why Tommy Elliott hates his parents.  In the end, we think Hush is dead, but he's somewhere on crutches.  Darn.  

I am so confused.  I finished reading Yann Martel's Life of Pi three days ago and the ending threw me for a loop.  I hope watching the movie will help, but I feel like I "got" the book and then the last 30 pages it was like "Hi, I'm that boy you got to know over the last 360ish pages.  I am really a liar."

Stephenson's Zodiac is not at all like Cryptonomicon and I hope that Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Anathem are much geekier than Zodiac as well.  Actually, the Zode feels like Fletch meets "Good Will Hunting" with some LSD and nitrous oxide.

Batman and Philosophy contains 20 essays about, you guessed it, Batman.  They consist of 80% philosophical nonsense and one or 1.5 pages of each essay of getting to the point.

Last night I picked up The Code Breakers from the library which is a 1000 page tome about cryptography.  It might be a stretch to finish it before I leave, but I will at least use it to help me get to sleep.

Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things is a collection of his short stories and poems that have been printed elsewhere already.  It was a slow start, but now it is very hard to put down.  I've read 100 pages each of the last two days.  Many of the stories feel like they could be episodes from the TV show "The Twilight Zone" or movies directed by David Lynch.

Workout
Squat: 5x5-265,
Bench: 5x5-215,
Bent Over Rows: 5x5-115
...and 20 pushups

Meal is bare-bones so I can get to sleep earlier and not waste time going to and from the DFAC.

+1 if this is your dinner, too.

Coconut

Coconut oil, coconut manna, coconut/cacao bliss, coconut hips, coconut cream, tea and almond butter.  Triceratops.

Mail day!  I got a package from Lauren that contained a Filipino's dream: roasted coconut chips, dark chocolate nutty bits, herbal teas, six maple almond butter packets, two cans coconut cream, coconut oil, cacao bliss and coconut manna.  And a stegosaurus figure.  I already ate two three of the almond butter packets, poured some coconut cream in my coffee tonight and ate half of the coconut chips.  The coffee and almond packets kept me full for five hours.  Did not open the cacao bliss or manna yet, but did tear into the Nutty Bits.  I did not bring these back to my room or they would be gone while I watched Taylor Swift videos.

The stegosaurus  triceratops will help keep me safe at night.  Ok so I thought that was a stegosaurus at first glance.  Whoops.  Or whoops.

She also sent my new credit card and I promptly used it to order some Steve's Beef jerky, beef sticks and a paleo MRE (1100 calories).  I've been meaning to try some of these for a while and I just hope they get here before I leave.  "Hey that guy Jordan was nice; I hope he ordered more stuff right before he left.  I could use a new pair of boots."  If you want to check them out, go here.

Bennifer Wayne: Ben Affleck will be playing Batman in the "Batman vs. Superman" movie coming out in two years, which will be directed by Zack Snyder (the same guy who directed "Man of Steel").  He already played Daredevil, so why not?  Let Matt Damon play Robin.  Jennifer Garner can play Catwoman.  And his brother Casey can play the Riddler.

Very sore from deadlifts last night, so no workout.

I know, I know: I forgot the butter.

Work

The mustache says, "I kill wild animals."  The mutton chops say, "I ain't got time to shave."

To continue the conversation from yesterday regarding inherent ability versus how hard work goes into success, take a look at a Teddy Roosevelt comic (note the manly sideburns).  TR was also the New York City police commissioner, just like our friend Jim Gordon.  If you didn't know, Gotham was modeled after NYC.  This isn't biography of our 26th president, so I won't recant the whole wikipedia article.  He was simply a man's man who did big things.  That being said, it's probably easier to do big things when you are born into a wealthy family in New York City.

Along with aptitude vs. work, "Do what you love and the money will come." is another work related motivational phrase that is counter intuitive and maybe overused.  But maybe the part of that phrase, "what you love" doesn't have to be narrowly defined.  I like eating chips and watching movies, but it might be tough to get paid to do that.  Maybe I can be passionate about or willing to work hard or lead in another, perhaps similar area.  Marcus Brotheron talks about this idea in this post.

Similarly, Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame and an Eagle Scout) talks on TED about doing what you love.  He meets with some sheepherders and helps castrate some of the sheep (there's no video).  What he really talks about is the idea of loving what you do and that this doesn't really make sense to most people.

Read some of the page stronglifts and an infographic that combines paleo with leangains and stronglifts.  Stronglifts recommends 5x5 workouts, like I have been doing, but combines three of the exercises on one day.  I used to feel that that is too much on one day, but if I remove my warmup and cooldowns, it would be reasonable.  Also, rather than trying to increase on each set (my ego getting in the way of proper muscle and ligament development), I can be okay with doing 5x5 of the same weight during a workout.  So, tonight I planned on doing 5 sets of shoulder press at 160 and 1 or more sets of 5 reps of 315 deadlift.

Ok, so I actually got more than 1 set of deadlifts and barely got through 5 sets of presses.

Shoulder press: 5-160, 4-160, 4-155, 4-155, 4-155
Deadlift: 5x5x335

I'll save those of you with squeamish stomachs the image of my bloody right shin from the last set of deadlifts.  My form has improved, but I still need time to heal.

Decided to add a few carbs into my post workout meal.  We'll see how long I keep that up.

We'll see how long I keep up the tater tots.

Saw this video at the coffee shop.  I don't speak Polish, but I think I want to shave my head and dance by an abandoned train station now.

Enthusiam

I have no mustache, but I was a smart, capable engineer.

"I rate enthusiam even above professional skill." - Edward Appleton

That quote is in my day planner for 22 August and it fits with the discussion we had at work last night.

My old squadron commander used to say that we were looking for the "best athlete for the competition" when recruiting.  He didn't say he/she needs to be an expert in X or have 15 years experience using some database.  We were looking for team players who were willing to learn new things and work hard towards an objective.

Seth Godin, in his book The Dip, talks about putting your energy in whatever it is that you can be "the best in the world at."  The world could mean your neighborhood, your office, your city, your county or whatever domain you define as your "world."  It's easy to spend your energy on multiple projects that won't gain you success.  I enjoy languages (after I saw the movie Stargate I wanted to learn Egyptian...or is it Arabic?), computers (I took two years of C++ in high school and keep dabbling in learning about new languages), crafts (I've made four knives in the last year and have equipment to make a few more) and homebrewing (been doing it four years and I keep acquiring equipment and taking brews to holidays).  I could continue on
with this and be mediocre in all four areas or I could pick one (probably the latter), get rid of the other ideas in my head and the equipment on my work bench in the garage and be the best in my "world" at homebrewing.  I might not be Ken Schramm...or maybe I could be like him, but it will take 15 years and much hard work and study.

Malcolm Gladwell states that "experts" need about 10,000 hours of practice to be an expert in something and that this is what truly separates the experts from the amateurs tinkering in their garage (or maybe he was wrong).  We could argue ad infinitum that the boy down the street shooting hoops with his dad won't be the next Larry Bird, Michael Jordan or LeBron James, but we'll never know until he shoots till he hits that threshold or thereabouts.  Yes, I'm sure we all have a limited amount of ability, talent, attribute, whatever you want to call it, but hard work will take you there.

Tangent to this (but maybe not that unrelated), studies have shown the kids who are praised for their ability (intelligence, athletic ability, musical talent), test (or compete or sing) worse than those who are praised for their hard work.

It's amazing how heavy squats can improve your mood.

Warmup: 10 dips
Workout:
Front Squats 5-135, 5-135, 5-185, 5-205, 5-225
Back Squats 5-225, 5-250, 5-265, 5-275, 5-290
Cooldown:
10 45# plate lifts
7 95# high pulls
5 95# curls

Some fruit made its way onto my plate, along with some Earl Grey tea, hot.

My eggs swim in butter.

If you were coming here hoping for more Batman complaints, sorry.

Tao of the Bat

"Bruce, I know your parents are dead, but here's a wool coat."

Last night (hah!) I saw "The Dark Knight Rises" again.  Of course it's a fun ride and also sad to know that Christopher Nolan's conception of Batman won't be back, but some things bothered Sam and I:

• How did Bane take Batman to the prison?  Business class?  "Yes that's one checked mask and one carry-on.  Yes, I know Christian Bale is more than $50 and I'll pay the fee."  
• Are you telling me that the best way to recover from a broken back is getting punched in the broken spot a few times?  What do they administer for a urinary tract infection?
• It is very misleading and disheartening that all Bruce Wayne does to recover while in prison is eat a few crackers, do wide pushups, some situps and pullups.  If regular guys did this in prison, we would not be able to fight Bane a few months later, we would be very, very tired and weak.
• What was up with the rope?  First, why have a means of escape and secondly what was it tied to?  Why not just climb out?
• How did Batman get from the prison to Gotham?  The prison appears to be in the desert and he left with a rolled up wad of nothing.  No credit cards, no wallet, no passport.
• Didn't anyone hear Bane's crew underneath the Wayne Enterprises building?
• Ra's Al Ghul was killed about ten years prior to the movie.  How did his daughter (who looks to be in her thirties) find out from her dad that Bruce Wayne = Batman and, oh by the way, please kill him.
• What is the problem with the Wayne background check system?  Both Selina Kyle and Miranda Tate, aka Talia al Ghul were let into Wayne Mansion and the board of directors of Wayne Enterprises, respectively.
• Why didn't Batman just punch Bane in the face during the first fight?
• Maybe CIA agents should do a better inspection of prisoners before believing thugs on their identity.
• During his second fight with Bane, Batman was recovering from a broken back and somehow had energy enough after traveling (presumably) across an ocean.  Yet he didn't need the leg brace that he did need during the first fight.  
• Why didn't Batman shoot Bane with the Batwing during his escape from the rooftop with Catwoman or while strafing his own tumbler prototype outside City Hall?

Yesterday I finally got some negative mustache points.  The major I effectively report to noticed my sauce saver crawling out to my ears and told me to trim it.  So last night I snipped and razored it down, closer to the edges of my mouth.  Tonight he thanked me for trimming it.  I was told I went from looking like a 1970's actor to looking like a master sergeant.

Also found out that my replacement will be here in 10 days rather than three weeks.  So I am working towards getting him ready for things here.  With our overlap being about a month versus ten days, I think that means I should continue to have my own room rather than share for a while.  This is actually good news or the new guy, since the guy I replaced couldn't sleep very well with my snoring.  My caterpillar could be a decent snore-muffler, but I guess I'll never know.