Contact Combat

Imi Lichtenfeld, the creator of Krav Maga

I found my local Krav Maga gym via a groupon last fall.  I had started learning about KM in San Antonio 9 years ago, but only kept it up for a few months.  The instructor/owner is cool and let me put my membership on hold for the time I would be deployed.  In no way on track to a yellow belt, I mostly utilized the KravFit classes, which were Crossfit style sessions with some KM movements.  There are some lunchtime offerings, which were convenient since the gym is close to work and home.  That being said, I plan to cancel my membership due to the cost ($148 a month) and time (mostly evening courses).   I plan to spend more evening time with my family.  Today was my son's first day at preschool, so I imagine I'll be up late helping with homework...such as creating Rorschach tests with finger paint, creating a maximizing function for the number of train tracks to fit in the living room floor and studying the reproductive habits of red wiggler worms.

At work I finished another bottle of Sriracha that was in the drawer of assorted hot sauces and seasonings.

As of today, I've been a captain for five years.  Time flies.

December

Based on true events

Col Robin Olds

Robin Olds brought us both Mustache March and the Deployment 'Stache, so I'm actually surprised that it took me till two days away from flying out of here that he make an appearance on my blog.  Tonight at the gym I was talking to a guy wearing Vibram Fivefingers and he asked me if I was a pilot.  I chuckled and told him no.  He explained that I have a Robin Olds mustache.  That's probably the best mustache compliment I've received since June 30th.  Speaking of which, my flavor saver is 3 months old today!

Six of us made our way downtown tonight for my final foray into the local area.  My wife advised me to take lots of pictures...while in the mall.  It's surprising how westernized the local city is.  No camel for dinner this time, just your typical South African Boerewors sausage and roasted lamb.

This is not for bread.

British condiments, none of which I needed.

Sausage, sweet potato and lamb.

During dinner the guys presented me with a certificate of appreciation for my work the past 100 days.  It's very considerate of them since I wasn't truly part of the cell, but sat with them and was able to broaden their knowledge base about astronomy, basic physics and how to convert from grams to pounds.      

At that bottom there is a note that reads, "What did you do here again?"

Afterwards, some of the guys wanted smoothies and Sam and I wanted (shock) coffee.  We found a French restaurant on our way out of the mall.  Sam tried to get a cappuccino, but ended up with a chocolate milkshake look-a-like in a fancy glass.  I had a double espresso with some non-paleo treats, although creme brulee has eggs, therefore it is healthy.

La France est un pays merveilleux!

surprise café 

Knowing my days are limited on base, I hit the gym for a light workout.

Squat: 5x5x185
Deadlift: 5-245
Incline Bench: 5x5x115

...followed with eggs and sausage:

Earl Grey tea to finish the night.

Dragonfly in Amber went back to the library and From a Buick 8 is in my room now.  It's only 350 pages, so I should be able to finish that in two days.

The Fighter Pilot, the Hunter and the Earl.  There must be some deeper meaning there.  For more deeper meanings, check out this.  I think it is interesting as it forces you to look at your own mental baggage.

Strong Lifts

Eugen Sandow, the father of modern bodybuilding

Since I've been here my workouts have been in three phases: "I don't know what I'm doing", "I asked a big guy for help" and "something that approaches a plan."  It's pretty much how life is, except that the understanding only reveals itself in hindsight.  Most of the time we think we are in the third phase all the time, until we learn more.

Here are my notes on the phases.

1. Starting program 22 June - 22 July: warmup, random Xfit/single exercise, cooldown
   1RMbench: 225
   shoulder press: 175
   squat:  315
   deadlift: no idea, maybe 375
   row: no idea
2. Midway (22 July - 25 Aug) 5x5: one exercise 5x5; increase weight each set
   Started at 5RMbench: 185
   shoulder press: 135
   squat:  225
   deadlift: 280
   row: n/a
3. Aug 26 to Now; Stronglifts 5x5; increased weight each workout day or week
   Started at 5RMbench: 215
   shoulder press: 135
   squat: 265
   deadlift: 355
   row: 115 (too easy)
   

   			Week 1			Week 2			Week 3			Week 4
   Exercise	Sets	Reps	26-Aug	28-Aug	30-Aug	2-Sep	4-Sep	6-Sep	9-Sep	11-Sep	13-Sep	16-Sep	18-Sep	20-Sep
   Squat	5	5	265	275	285	295	305	315	315	320	325	295	300	305
   Bench Press	5	5	215		220		225		225		225		200
   Overhead Press	5	5		150		150		155		160		160		135
   Barbell Row	5	5	115		135		155		175		180		185
   Deadlift	1	5		355		375		385		395		405		415

   summary of the past month
4. Plan for Oct 2013 - Jan 2014 (Reset after returning home)
   Started at 5RM5x5 bench: 115
   5x5 shoulder press: 80
   3x5 squat:  165
   1x5 deadlift: 205
   5x5 row: 100

Tonight my potpourri workout was as follows:

Squat: 1-225, 1-315, 1-335, 1-345, 0-355
Deadlift: 0-445, 0-445, 5-225
Bench: 5-135
Rows: 3x5x135

This week, I maxed out at the following, for a total of 1,020lbs:
Deadlift: 430
Bench: 245
Squat: 345

So I made it into the 1,000lb club, got my name on a peice of paper in the gym but no free T-shirt.  First video is me squatting 345lbs.  Second one I almost make 445lbs deadlifting.

Proof from the bulletin board.

Today I hit 2000 views.  I try not to get hung up on the number of pageviews, but it is still fun to know how many people are reading this.

Pirates

"I've been half dead all day."

There's a few pieces of advice that clicked with me today.  First, don't let anyone else define success for you.  If the group you went to school with are now billionaires and you are a father with a modest career, that's okay.  Forget the "fear of being left out" or keeping up with the Joneses.  I like the below paragraph, which I thought was from Emerson but apparently is not.  In any event,

"Success”Inaccurately attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

Secondly, if you leave warm, moist nuts in your warm, moist room during the day, they get fuzzy.  So eat your nuts at work so they don't get fuzzy.

Fuzzy petri dish.

Lastly, never get involved in a land war in Asia.

"If you don't have six fingers on your left hand, please go watch some 'Criminal Minds' on CBS."

See a Man about a Horse

"This is my happy face."

The BBC series "Sherlock Holmes" is finally on Hulu.  Last night I had the pleasure of watching the "Hound of the Baskervilles" episode and Hulu didn't freeze until there were about two minutes left.  So Benedict Cumberbatch, who recently played Kahn in "Star Trek: Into Darkness," is seen above in the movie "Atonement."  The movie was a WWII era drama, with no happy ending.  It was basically one big ball of rape, separation and sadness.  Apparently, both Roger Ebert and Wikipedia gave it rave reviews.  In any event, Keira Knightly is creepy skinny and here's a look at other creepy roles BC has had.

"Bloody hell, why does my mustache smell like horse dung?"

Tonight I finished my bench press; 1 rep at 245lbs.  That went up so easily I tried for 255 and then 250, but couldn't do it.  Friday I'll squat, probably at 345 or 350lbs.  If I am feeling sonsy, I'll give deadlift another shot.

I ate four pieces of steak, a pile of veggies and some eggs today.

I did some laundry and thought I'd get some clean sheets for my last week here.  After careful deliberation, the clerk at the laundry gave me this pillow case:

The pink really brings out the auburn in my 'stache.

Last night Sherlock told Watson, "I've got to see a man about a dog."  I initially assumed this was a singular quote from something way back, but found out it means "I need to leave now and want to politely say something before leaving, without telling you specifically where I am going.  I'm probably going to the toilet.  After that I'll probably meet a man in a back alley and commit a crime."  I'll give Hulu another try at Sherlock Holmes tonight and see if he uses any catchy phrases.

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.

Signs

Travis Bickle, a former Marine.

If you knew "Taxi Driver" was the movie DeNiro used his now famous, "You talkin' to me?" line, you get a gold star for today.  Obviously not a mustache, but let's call his urban mohawk a head 'stache.  The manner by which Travis trains himself resonates with me and fits with my interest in coming of age tales.  Plus, the sign goes with the discussion below and his role as taxi driver fits with my "Tale of Two Bus Drivers" tale.

Just got done work.  I was waiting on one bus to leave when another bus driver came up and let the two of us passengers know that he was leaving now.  It seemed I was on a bus that wasn't scheduled to leave for another fifteen minutes and the driver decided to play the smartphone game "Kill brain cells while people assume the bus is leaving soon" instead of turning around and saying, "Just so you know, this bus leaves at 0500, not now, when you want to go back to your room and go to sleep."

I've been saving this post for a time when I had fewer things to share beyond "The past twelve hours were spent at work.  I updated some work files and emailed my wife about selling my truck so we could buy me a horse to ride to work (oats cost less than gas per kilojoule)."

If I find any grass, I will be sure to stay off of it.

Your options are to run like hell or prance.

There is a sign above one of the sinks that says, "Do not use sink to shave head."  I haven't shaved my head since college, but if I do, I'll use my razor, not a porcelain sink.  I wasn't able to get a picture of this before they locked this particular Cadillac.  Too many witnesses to wonder, "Why does this guy keep taking pictures in the men's room?"

No pictures since my camera fails the "can I bring this to work?" test.  I did use up three cans of tuna and one can of smoked herring, so my stash is slowly dwindling.  Also had chocolate coconut ice cream for dessert by putting regular coconut milk in the freezer, letting it thaw and adding chocolate powder and cacao bliss (chocolate flavored coconut butter).

Best line from "Taxi Driver": "Suck on this."  Remember kids, don't smoke.  Or be a pimp, like James Lipton...used to be.

"Paris is lovely this time of year...for prostitutes."

Freyja's Day

Hello Vikings.

I'm on a Norse mythology kick and Friday was named after the goddess Freyja (consistent spelling of the name still TBD).  She was the goddess of fertility and sexuality.  I think any good religion, cult, myth series by rights has to have a fertility goddess (Ishtar, Inanna, Astarte and Aphrodite/Venus come to mind).  If the fact that she rides a chariot pulled by two cats isn't indicator enough of her femininity I don't know what it is.  Actually, it seems slightly masculine and torturous to do that to cats.  Anyway, Happy Friday to you...unless you happen to be a literate feline reading this on your iPad while pulling a chariot.

I had the fortune to wake up from a vivid dream this afternoon, assuming it was either midmorning or a hour before my alarm would go off.  In my dream, my brother-in-law was paddling a canoe in a pool with my wife and her sister in the canoe with us.  However, we were traveling as fast as if we had a motor propelling us.  My brother-in-law is athletic, but I am pretty sure his arms can't move as fast as a motor.  Eventually, my wife fell out of the canoe, the front edge of the canoe was sinking into the water and my brother-in-law was choking me.  I know what you are thinking: this is your standard Christmas gathering.  Then my 1 year old son tried to jump into the pool with no flotation device on.  After picking up my son, I realized the whole thing was a dream and I should probably get out of bed.  I looked at my phone and realized I was supposed to be awake now and my alarm didn't go off.  Yeesh.  I took the time to get a haircut and complimentary head massage or "listen to the barber's knuckles pop on your head" time.

At work I was happy to see both my coworker and I received packages from our wives.  His wife sends him cookies; I ask for and receive sardines.  If only he would listen to my advice and grow a mustache.  Anyway, my better half sent me coffee, macadamia nuts, six cans of sardines, smoked herring, smoked trout, almond butter, several variations of coconut and the toys below.

The red clips say "I love bacon."

My son gave away the surprise a few weeks ago when he told me, "We made you a sun catcher today!"  I put it on the computer monitor at work and now it resides on my refrigerator door.

After work I took the time to outprocess from the medical facility.  The doctor asked how I was and where I was from.  His eyes lit up when I said I'm from Pennsylvania and asked if I liked the Steelers and the Pirates, he being from the western part of the state.  Getting back to business, he was glad I had not been incapacitated and I told him I am also glad I didn't get thrown out a window.  He shook my hands and wished me safe travels.

Thinking I was done, the technician called me into another room and told me to look out the window and stand next to the table.  I thought she said, "Grip the table, take off your pants and look out the window while thinking of your happy place."  In my mind I heard the door lock and a rubber glove snap into place and was glad I double checked the sign on the front of the building to be sure I was at medical.  The tech stopped me before I embarrassed myself and told me I just needed a shot...in my arm.  Due to privacy concerns, I can't say what it was she gave me, but let's just say I think the shot explains the pink elephants I saw in the walk back to my room.

My eggs meal was regrettably relatively routine.

At least Texas Pete will make me smile.

If the CEO of Hulu is reading this, every ad does not apply to me.  I do not want a Capital One credit card, a new car or Jack Daniels bourbon.

Shifted

With my alternating schedule, each day is either a long work day or a strange day figuring out what to do without changing my sleep schedule.  I got to talk to my family for over an hour after waking up, which was a rare treat.  Then went down to the gym and got to experience the crowdedness of late evening.  I still got my workout in a 25 minute span.

Warmup: 2x15x45lb kettlebell swings
Squats: 3x5x305
Press: 3x5x135
Deadlift: 2-415

My neck and lower back are very tight from the deadlifts, so hopefully sleep will help.

Then, I ate this for my breakfast:

The server laughed when I asked for ten wings.

Sam and I tried the Kasbah lounge rather than the Fox Sports Bar and found the selection of wines and scotches to be much more varied.  I had a Ruffinos Chianti, a Tawny port (with a word of warning from the bartender) and finished with a McClelland's scotch.  The bartender told me that most of the patron's he served the Tawny told him it did not taste like a quality beverage.  I assured him I knew what a port tasted like and enjoyed the reduced price tag ($2.25 a glass versus $4.25 for the chianti).  It tasted similar to a raisin wine I made last year.

We sipped our scotches outside and I thought about Scottish Highlanders while thinking it felt like we were in a sauna.

Cheers with McClelland Speyside 12 year

Before we left, I almost took a nap in a couch outside the Gentlemen's Water Closet.

I don't think you'll see this at Big Lots.

After all of that, I went back to my room and read stories to my sons before they went to sleep.  Then I took a nap, still feeling full from my breakfast.  I forced myself to eat some beef ribs and BBQ chicken at the DFAC and will shortly climb into bed.  Cheers.

Say hello to your mother for me.

Woden's Day

Too bad Huginn and Muginn couldn't make the pic.

Yeah, Odin has a beard not a mustache, but today is/was (depending on where you are right now) Wednesday which originally was Woden's Tag or Odin's Day, Woden being Odin in Old English (not this old English).  Gandalf was based off of Odin, me appears as the main character in Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods and he plays a role in The Dresden Files series of books.  In the The Wheel of Time novels, the character Mat Cauthon is based on Odin: both characters are associated with ravens, have a spear and lose an eye.  One of Odin's nicknames was Rauðgrani, translated as "Red Mustache."  It is interesting to think how the days of our week are named after Norse deities, whereas the structure of our calendar comes from the Roman Catholic Church.

Two weeks left here.  Made some progress on my out-processing items.  Guess I'll have to read a lot soon or take my borrowed books back to the library.

Had meals of steak tonight, one with veggies and one with a baked potato and three fried eggs.

Kelly Klein, the owner of Groennfell Meadery in Cochester, VT, posted today about the archaic legislation that affects professional mazers.  (If the "Beer Wars" documentary is true, then the same can definitely be said regarding the craft beer industry.)  Essentially, the definition of mead is pretty loose, which puts meadmakers into situations where they can't bottle their mead in certain bottles, must use or not use certain verbs on their bottles or can't call their products mead based on the volume of fruit used.  In the hopes that one day I might call myself a professional and not simply an obsessed, amateur meadmaker, take a look below at what I sent to The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama which says:
"Revise current TTB regulations with regard to beverages labelled as "Mead."  The current regulations do not lend themselves to a fair and objective standard for what can be termed "mead" and instead favors producers who use a higher % of fruit concentrate than honey."
Will you sign this petition? Click here.

Twelve hours ago another captain gave credit to my mustache by referencing it to belittle Sam's.  (I see a theme of other captain's giving me credit.)  Funny how something I can't even control is given praise.  It's as if people are saying, "Wow, you really tried to push those strands of dead protein through your pores.  I bet everyone else was just taking it easy while you were concentrating."  On the walk back to my room from breakfast, I could feel the sweat hanging out at the base of my 'stache trunks.  Guess it takes all kinds of mustaches to make the world go round. 

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.

Friday the 13th

I couldn't find a picture of Freddy Kreuger with a mustache.

Some benefits of a military life:

• Clothes: I don't have to ask myself, "Hmmm, today is after Labor Day, but before All Hallows Eve and it is rainy outside with a chance of sun.  What to wear?"

• Medicine: Free 800mg motrin every time you sneeze!

old timey stache

• Flexibility: today I almost had the day off...got to see the sunrise!  Goodbye circadian rhythms.  That is a hard word to spell.

Have fun at this guy's yoga class.

Randomness: I am almost finished with one of the Sriracha sauce bottles at work (there were three when I got here).  I heard they are weakening the heat in the sauce.  

Meat sauce + greens + hot sauce = yummy.

I am in room 13.

So Say we All

Stand and Deliver

Adama's mustache basically equaled weirdness and despair.  The Admiral was a warrior and there was no one to fight for that year.  His son was gone on another ship, the Cylons were gone and he was an old man building ships in bottles on a bigger ship.  When he shaved his 'stache, it meant things were back to normal in the Battlestar universe: fighting Cylons, the main cast back on the ship and men and women showering in the same cramped toilet compartments.  Routine is important, mustache or bare lip.

Out here, I get up, shower, call home and catch the bus to work.  I have four computer monitors I watch everyday, sometimes till my eyes are tired and blurry.  (One night in early July, I experienced double vision for a few hours from the unnatural light blasting at my retinas.)  The first screen is like watching a game of Pac-Man: Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde run around and I see if they turn into fruit.  The second screen is like a BBS game I played in high school: lines like "buy armor for troll army; attack elven horde at dawn" scroll across the screen.  The third screen is Fox News; I think Rupert Murdoch is the Hugh Hefner of network television.  Finally, the fourth screen is where I see emails from my better half with pictures of my kids playing on the beach, tackling large animals and hugging their babysitters (they like older women, too).  Eventually I get the phone call that let's me go home for the night...until I realize the next bus is coming in an hour.  Sometimes old men with dour faces in white vans give me rides back to my room.  They never tell me their names or what they do, but the candy is delicious.

Despite my stiff upper back and neck muscles, I proceeded to optimistically squat, bench and row tonight.  I was disappointed to find out that the lowest weight they have for bench press shirts are for 350lbs (no T-shirt for me).  Pressing my luck, I asked if members of the prestigious Thousand Pound Club get T-shirts. Huckleberry Hound with red hair and freckles did not smile when he told me "No."

So...
Squat: 5-325, 4-325, 2-325
Bench: 5-225, 4-225, 4-225, 4-225, 2-225
Rows: 5x5x180

Breakfast for dinner routine.

Another breakfast hour meal in which I read chapters of When You are Engulfed in Flames while my food digested.  Several non-mustachioed diners gaped as I laughed out loud to David Sedaris sitting in his underwear in a French doctor's office and assisting pathologists inspect a dead body.  If you can't laugh at dead people, well, what kind of a society in which do we live?  It's not easy to write funny sentences while obeying grammatical rules.

Patriot Day

Underneath that mask, well, there might be a mustache.  Probably not, though.

Happy Patriot Day!  That is the Iron Patriot, which, depending on how comic otaku you are, you may realize that IP could be different people, but not necessarily a patriot.  Anyway, red white and blue.  The following are Marvel characters with mustaches who one might consider patriots: Dum Dum Dugan (WWII vet), Corsair (NASA pilot) and Sgt Slaughter.

More geeking out: walking back from the DFAC tonight I overheard the words "Windows 7" and "solid state harddrive."  I turned around and then had a five minute conversation with the kid in question, using such suggestions as disk image, Norton Ghost, IDE cable, SATA connection, BIOS, Linux iso, Windows 8, terabyte, Western Digital gigabyte and Jefferson Airplane.  That was the most fun I've had since the great motherboard burnout of 2005.

Shift tonight was a little bit longer, but we get to do some new things (create new email templates!) so we stay busy.  I might get a night off before my apprentice goes TDY (to the Dagobah system for training).  Which reminds me:

That's right; I went there.

 
No pics of my tray of food tonight.  Suffice it to say I had four steaks, five eggs, mushrooms, onions, mustard greens, lots of butter, sausage, coffee, tea and some dried fruit...and some acetaminophen due to my twisted neck muscles.  Either twisted it sleeping or deadlifting last night.  Ah, painkillers: thank you for blocking my eicosanoid receptors.

One Third of September

Pretty much Chewbacca if he shaved.

Today is Mexican Monday, hence Pancho Villa.  The bandoliers make me think of Chewbacca, although Pancho Villa was only 5' 10" whereas Peter Mayhew is 7' 3".  Other famous bandolier users are Rambo, Animal Mother in "Full Metal Jacket" and the pirate Blackbeard.  Back to the menu...I typically make a taco salad, aka two cups of taco ground meat on top of lettuce, onions, tomatoes, salsa and jalapenos (pain endorphins are fun).  Other options include tamales, enchiladas and make your own tacos.  This is every Monday for the last eleven Mondays.

The other night Sam and I mooched some coffee from another office who broadcast out their desire to share their coffee.  While displaying our skills at verbal banter and witty repartee, I heard the distinct whirr I hadn't heard in many moons: a coffee grinder.  I leaned around the table and lo and behold, coffee grinder.  The past two months I had been taking beans to the coffee shop and being made fun of in Arabic while I could have walked 100 feet away and used this grinder.  So tonight we enjoyed some strong San Francisco Organic Rainforest blend.  The bitterness was high, so maybe I don't need to fill the coffee filter to the top tomorrow night.

Finally met up with the guy I've been paired to tutor (tutee?  tutoree?) and reviewed basic speech giving structure and some math word problems.  The speech part was a fast thirty minutes and we spent a good hour and a half on math.  Most of the word problems were ratios, percentages or a unit conversion problem.  In the end, I provided systems to solve the various types of problems and some formulas and principles for my student to review on his own.  The fun part about being a teach is saying, "Go do your homework and we'll talk later."  Actually, maybe the best part would be seeing the light bulb come on in your student's eyes and then seeing their hands write you a check.

Tonight I learned that it is important to dispose of papers properly or you can get to help sort the trash.  You probably already know about Kevin Mitnick diving into dumpsters for technical manuals that phone companies would throw away and Cary Elwes creepy villain in "Kiss the Girls."  Well, the same can be done today except they look the number of your Facebook friends, the number of times you charge Starbucks on your credit card bill and how many jars of Vaseline you empty per month.  If you throw out the wrong things here (i.e. paperwork with your name on it), you get to help sort the trash.  This all is not to be confused with urban picking or freeganism, where folks will look for recently expired food in dumpsters.

Now that you have yesterday's steak in your head, here's what I ate two hours ago:

I am powered by animals.

My plate is 5 parts beef, 3 parts chicken eggs and 100% delicious.

Vito Andolini

"Do you need any olive oil?"

It's been over ten years since I've seen "Godfather Part II", but after reading the recap on Wikipedia I remember enjoying it much more than the 3rd installment and just a normal bit more than the original.  I also see parallels to "The Empire Strikes Back."  Both movies are darker than the original, Han in carbonite/Fredo dead in the lake...actually, the comparison fits better if Michael Corleone is compared to the Emperor.  Michael's career at the top of the Corleone family is encountering many snags (Congressional inquiries, Jewish mobsters in Cuba, traitorous brothers) and the Emperor of the Galactic republic is wondering if he can build a space station (that's not moon...) without a simple weakness, turn the son of his right hand (hand, hah!) to the dark side and work with gangsters to capture the key figures of the rebellion.  The flashbacks to post-WWI New York City are more reminiscent of  "A New Hope" or maybe even "A Phantom Menace" with the build-up of Vito Corleone's career similar to Obi Wan Kenobi's Jedi training.

Slight segue via the import-export business...tonight I feasted on Cento sardines, made in Morocco but imported from New Jersey.  I've probably eaten a dozen cans of sardines since I've been here, which isn't really that many for me.  The flavors ranged from soaked in water (ick) to jalapenos crammed in the can. If you haven't eaten sardines or are simply apprehensive about eating fish (or things out of a can), Cento in olive oil are for you.  They are not fishy and taste like meat with oil.

John Kerry is Sam the Eagle and I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Basically tonight's repast was the same as last night's.

2 eggs, 2 burgers and 2 sausages.

Today was my mom's birthday.  I didn't get her anything yet, but will have the opportunity to find her something uniquely Middle Eastern in two weeks when the souq comes to the base gym.  She's never used a hookah, but she probably doesn't even realize how fashionable they are in Pennsylvania.

Here's me squatting 315 five times the other night.

And here I am deadlifting 385 four times.

That's all for now.