Spiders

Anansi

Anansi is an African trickster god who was typically personified as a clever spider.  Neil Gaiman wrote about Anansi first in American Gods and then in the almost-sequel Anansi Boys.  Anansi is personified as gregarious, flirtatious, clever and the life of the party.  His character in American Gods is almost forgettable...and then he dies very early on in Anansi Boys (don't worry; it pretty much says that on the back of the book if you are interested in reading it).  What sticks out in my mind from the latter book is a crooked business man who combines 'absolutely' and 'positively' into 'absatively.'  It drives his employees mad.  

Mordred is on the left.

The above tattoo reminds me of the Red King's son, Mordred Deschain, in Steven King's The Dark Tower books.  Mordred is a were-spider and things don't end well for him.  You almost feel bad for the guy.  He's got two sets of parents, he eats one of the mothers and the remaining three are trying to kill each other.  

Which leads to me Spider Soltaire, which I've been playing on my computer the last week.  Apparently, what we in the US call Solitaire, in the UK they call Patience or Solitaire with Cards.  Spider Solitaire is one of the many variations to Patience and is slightly harder than the Klondike version Americans are used to playing in prison or while bored, because it can involve two, three or four suits.  It's relatively quick to figure out the strategy if you decide to give it a whirl.  If you are cheap geek and like Linux, most distros probably include several variations already.  The picture below is much more glamorous than I think I'll ever be while playing a computer game in a dorm room in the desert.

Unfortunately, the necklace doesn't go with my mustache.

With slightly over a week left here, I decided it was time to put my deadlift where my mouth is and make my lifts official.  I got a judge from the gym office and successfully demonstrated I can deadlift 430lbs.  No pictures this time, but I plan on pictures of my squat and bench lifts.  Unfortunately, my right grip is weaker than my left and I dropped the bar.  The guy said my lift was valid, though, probably because I dropped it while I was already full erect, rather than on my way up.  I thanked him for his time and did two cool down sets: 1-405 and 5-315.

Almost done reading Diana Gabaldon's second Outlander novel, Dragonfly in Amber.  Yes, it is a romance novel, but there is time travel, duels, drunk Scotsmen and political plotting.  Which means it will be on TV in a year.  Move over Borgias and Game of Thrones, here come the Gaelic.

I did not gorge myself after a new personal record in deadlift.

Somehow I don't think they would eat this in Mexico.

Olives look like eyes.

I always pray that the heat of the tea is not melting the styrofoam at a microscopic level, resulting in my digesting styrofoam with my tea.  Well, good night then.

Labor Day Ramblins

No exposition on the history of the Monday in September when we have off work (feel free to Google it yourself).  I'll be at work earlier than normal to get some abbynormal work done.  Plus, it is Mexican Monday so no reason to complain.

One of Neil Gaiman's short stories dealt with Shadow from American Gods meeting up with a hulder (huldra?).  So I had to look up what the Scandinavian faerie was all about.  Seems a huldra is a faerie that looks like a woman, but a hollow backside (not sure what this really means) and a tail.  They can bend horseshoes and typically marry farmers.  According to Gaiman, if you are a gangster pederast, don't mess with a huldra.

Update on the DFAC workers names: tonight I saw one bronze skinned gentleman with the name Roshan.  Apparently, this is also the type of work phone I have been using for an alarm clock the past two months.  It looks like an old flip phone everyone had in the late 90's.  So, thanks for the beef sausages Mr. GSM Phone.

Only $1,9995.95 at your local Radio Shack.

Old Crow Medicine Show's Wagon Wheel video...wow (official and BBC).  I would say not safe for work, but I don't know how much décolletage you normally have at work.  I heard of the band from a site dedicated to paracord weaving that recommended listening to OCMS while crafting some knickknacks.  I figure any band with a mutton-chopped banjo player, go-go boots, fishnet stockings and carnies, probably do not lead boring lives.

Tried my hand at more breath taking, dizzying squats.

Warmup (on because two guys were still on the squat rock): 10-90lbs & 5-180lbs leg press
Squats: 5x5x295
Overhead press: 5x5x150 (finally got all sets of 5!)
Deadlift: 3-375 (only got 3, but I still feel pretty good about that weight)

Borrowed some hand chalk from another guy who was doing tricep pushdowns because it gets very sweaty and humid in the gym.  I only got 3 reps, but still feel good about that for that weight.  It was over two weeks ago on 17 August that I got 2 reps of 365, so I'm slowly moving up in the (deadlift) world.  Then when I was walking to the cafeteria, I saw the same guy from whom I borrowed the chalk and just said, "Thanks."  He stared at me blankly, which made me assume that he 1) was scared off my mustache, thus allowing me to borrow his chalk and 2) didn't recognize me in the darkness of night.

I allowed myself some more tater tots and a banana tonight.  Smothered the banana in almond butter and shredded coconut.

This was before the hot sauce hit.

If you are tired of seeing eggs at the end of these blog posts, console yourself with the fact that I head across the pond in 4 weeks.  But then I'll probably create a new blog, something like platesofeggs.blogspot.com or upperlipbarbells.blogspot.com or fairtalesandfrenchfries.blogspot.com.  Please don't register these names with a DNS server before consulting with me.