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.

Tyr's Day

One more step closer to home: today I had my outprocessing briefing and it only lasted 22 minutes.  The inprocessing briefting lasted 90.  The general basically told us to keep working hard till the day we leave and ease back into life once we get home.  I took this latter bit to mean three things: don't make any drastic changes to the family routine right when you get home; find your place with your coworkers before making waves; and everyone's just going to have to get used to my mustache.

Workout: Not technically Wednesday, I still did squats, bench and rows and didn't miss a rep.
Squats: 3x5x300
Bench: 5x5x200
Rows: 5x5x185

Meals: Today was beef ribs (smothered in BBQ sauce which sticks to your mustache), gyro and chicken salad and fried eggs on top of corned beef hash.  Oh and 36 ounces of milk, Earl Grey Tea and fennel tea.

That's tzatziki sauce.

If only they served SPAM here.

VHS: Took the opportunity to see "Star Trek: Into Darkness" tonight (hence the workout first).  (TysI really can't believe that the base theater is using VHS tapes to play the movies.)  It was good, but I knew Benedict Cumberbatch plays Khan, so that wasn't a surprise.  Somehow, it feels like it is missing something...like it's a good movie but not a great movie.  Honestly, and this will come as a shock to many people, I've never big a huge Trekkie.  I don't know archaic details about the multitude of TV spinoffs or Uhura's cup size.  The only episode that I found intriguing was the Next Generation episode where they were stuck in a time loop and each start of the loop began with the main characters playing poker.

Sleep: I think not drinking a quart of coffee tonight is helping.  Sleep makes my squats stronger.

Downtown

Long day today...which is always strange to say since each day is the same length.  Anyway, ventured downtown for the second (and possibly final) time.  I have 17 days remaining here and might just have my going away at the sports bar (they have Shiraz now!).

Driving around town I saw a billboard with a picture of a juice smoothie and the words, "Test our fresh juice."  I'm assuming that was supposed to be "taste." 

We found the BAM (Big Ass Mall) and walked around a little bit.  It really reminded me of the Fair Oaks Mall in Virginia, but with one more floor.  Sam and I split (which is much more masculine than saying we shared) a lamb grill and I ordered a Turkish coffee aka cup of sludgey bitterness.  There is a "French Walmart" in the mall called Carrefour and I wanted to see what kind of groceries were available.  I ended up purchasing a liter of acidophilus milk (as close as I could get to kefir) and a 100g box of drinking chocolate.  I chugged most of the milk drink by the time we got to the souq and will use the chocolate tomorrow at work to improve some of our mediocre coffee.  Two possibilities: add the powder to the grounds in the filter or add a half spoonful to my coffee cup and pour the coffee into the cup.  I am leaning towards the latter approach since the cocoa is meant to be made into effectively hot cocoa.

Next we found a souq whereupon (how often do you get to use that word, huh?) one of my companions bargained for pearls and another got pearls for free.  The remaining two of us marveled at a German male wearing capri pants.  Oh and I saw a guy wearing camo crocs at lunch today before I left.

Then we went back to the regular souq.  We traveled down the same backstreets that were filmed in the movie "Beerfest" on their way to the drinking competition and were told that "everything is 70% off today."  I asked the sellers if they had any knives, quaiches or rosaries but they didn't have any.  So we found a Moroccan restaurant and sat on the roof.

...without the whole French occupation.

I spent less here than the previous restaurant and I think the food was even better I feasted on a Niçoise Salad (which sticks in my mind because I think there is a recipe for this in my mom's Betty Crocker cookbook that I referenced in 8th grade) and roasted camel (tastes like beef, another yummy cloven toed ruminant.

I think the stack on the right is hearts of palm.

Hump costs extra.

Boring I know, so I added butter and chili paste.

Downstairs we went for the local hooka.  I had a vanilla milkshake (not paleo/primal/whatever).  Sam speaks Arabic and told the waiter we are "boat engineers."  I started to list the life aquatic terms I am familiar with: transom (thank you Alan Jackson), mark twain (thank you Mark Twain) and James Bond evil villian method of transport.   

Incredibly full, we got back on base and I got back to my normal routine: did laundry, squats, overhead press and deadlifts.

Squats: 3x5x295
Press: 4-160, 4-155, 5-135
Deadlift: 4-405

I think I'll take the next week off due to more work coming up and will lower my weights on everything except deadlift and rows.

Returned two books to the library and donated four books to the free exchange.  I borrowed Dragonfly in Amber; who knows if I'll finish it in 17 days.

Oh and I think I could read War and Peace in the public bathrooms here, as they are much nicer than the bathrooms outside my trailer and more cozy than my wood-paneled room.

I'm going to ask Paul Hogan what a bidet is used for.

Steeler's Stache

I'm not really mean...I'm a deep thinker.

When I was growing up, my dad had an array of collectible soda and beer cans.  Several of the cans lining the shelf in his study (back before the days of laptops and internet bloggers...he had an electric typewriter) were commemorating the Steel Curtain of the 1970's.  Tonight I watched the Ravens and Broncos game and I had no idea going into it who the significant team players are.  Actually I only watched a little past kick-off, as it was 0415 and they barely had one play.  Never cared about professional football, probably never will and, regrettably, only played one season of Fantasy Football (I had no idea what I was doing).  So the best way I can connect to football is to think about the Steelers.

Actually, when I think about football I also think of this:

...or this.

"Al, I think people came here to see some FOOTBALL!"

In case you don't remember, Family Guy premiered after the Super Bowl on January 31, 1999.

Back to the squats, press and deadlift workout:

Squats: 5-315, 5-315, 3-315, 3-315 (third set I basically squatted myself into the floor)
Press: 5-155, 5-155, 5-155, 4-155, 5-155
Deadlift: 4-385

I have videos of me squatting 315 and my set of deadlift but they are still in the pre-processing phase.  More to come.

Slightly different than my typical meal...

Catch you on the flipside.

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.

Nutty

The last few days I've been getting a lot of calories from coconuts, almonds and macadamias.  It is delicious, creamy and tastes like a not too sweet dessert.  I found my replacement tonight, got him set up in his room and made sure the base knows he exists and decided due to the humidity and my own laziness that almond butter, macadamias and shredded coconut equals my dinner.

You don't have a triceratops guarding the lid to your macadamia nuts?  

Thanks again to my wife and those of you who contributed to my collection of nut butters and salty goodness.

In my reading, both online and in print, I've been looking up ways in which to improve my diet and workouts.  I'm also a fan of simplifying things so I can spend more time reading Batman comics and video chatting with my family.  All of the reading has probably reinforced any biases I already held to be true and more recently, confused me.  Here's what I've read:

• Carbohydrates spike insulin, which leads to weight gain and will kill you.  Eventually.  Probably.
• An all meat diet could be an acceptable approach, especially if it includes whale blubber.  Check local Whole Foods freezer sections for availability.
• Just eat real food.  Potato starch has shown to improve several health factors if eaten correctly.
• Sleep is required.
• Drink milk!  Maybe.
• Calories do count.  Too high a protein level can spike insulin or at least inhibit fat loss.
• Excess iron causes cancer.
• Squat.

This leads to "paralysis by analysis" or "angry at internet bloggersitis" which is an acute inflammation of the frontal lobe, preventing telekinesis.  

Anyway, the following are possible truths:

• Maybe eating 5 medium steaks in 6 hours isn't necessary (obviously delicious).  Same with 20 hot wings.
• Some carbohydrates post workout might be okay.  Here at the DFAC, the limited options are: hash browns, tater tots, corned beef hash or sweet potatoes covered in sugar syrup.  
• Maybe I should chug milk and squat heavy (google squats and milk at your own risk).  I'll look into this when I get home.
• I sit too much, at work and at home.
• I should focus on better, longer sleep.  

So yeah, my replacement is here and I'll spend the next month training him and baring all my faults to him so he can be a better ops dude than I was.  Hopefully he can answer the questions "Who would win in a battle royale: Superman or Batman?" and "Who is the greater superhero and why: Superman or Batman?" by the time I leave.

Lastly, Russell Brand is hilarious and probably smarter than you would guess.

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.

Over the hill

I have fewer days in front of me than I've been here.  The time has actually gone by quickly...and humidly.

Got to experience another haircut today.  Included in the $5.75 price is a head and neck massage.  This involves hearing the barber's knuckles pop and bounce against my skull, as if the mustachioed gentleman thinks my head is a bongo drum that requires a good beating every two weeks.  Reminds me of the scene in "I Heart Huckabees" where Mark Wahlberg ("Say hello to your mother for me.") and Jason Schwartzman smack themselves in the head with a bat to make their thoughts disappear.  For a short time, they experience "pure being."

There are no gurus.  This will come as no shock to my father, but sometimes there's a sale behind the scenes.
Mark Sisson - supplements and books.
Rich Nikoley - ebooks.
Dave Asprey - selling coffee, MCT oil and earthing mats (I know, it sounds crazy and I don't have one).

This list is not all inclusive nor am I saying everything the above gentlemen say is false.  Just that maybe it worked for them, but it might not work for you or your situation.  Actually, to be more precise, I think Mark Sisson is great and much more open with his past than others.  It seems like many have gotten on the Paleo "hey I found the paleo/primal/low carb diet improved my health-write a blog-leads to book-leads to endorsements" bandwagon.  I'm still reading Good Calories, Bad Calories and feel confident it is worthwhile reading based on the 65 and half pages of reference materials.  The science is behind the diet: high carbohydrate intake leads to elevated insulin, leads to your body storing fat rather than burning it.  Eat mostly meat and vegetables.  After that, it's up to what works for you.

Warmup: chinups: 7, 6, 4
Workout: Squats: 5-250, 5-250, 5-250, 5-260, 3-270
Cooldown: Barbell: 10 push jerks, 10 tricep extensions and 10 reverse curls

At work we did pushups based on the flip of a playing card.  Only did three rounds for a total of 50 pushups.

I'm more interested in the protein and carbs, but oh well.

Meatloaf, sausages, collard greens and butter.

Henry Chinaski

Charles Bukowski.  Wow.  If you've seen Barfly or that other one with Matt Dillon, you probably thought to yourself, "My life isn't so bad."  Check this one out.  I don't think it's depressing, but rather that it gives you a healthier perspective on those you might be competing with in your life.

Here are two of my bad poems I wrote last night.  Someone smart once said, "If you are afraid to write badly, you'll never write well."

Smiling Foreigners
dying, buzzing insects
grinding, happy gears
eight foamy coffees
thousands of dollars
multihued national flags
sarcastic symbolic stickers
scoop, scoop, scoop
green exit dances on the stones

Held together with glue
wimpy burgers on edge
happy energy sodas exclaim
cloudy Canadian border beasts
rabbit bikini contests
let's get weird

It interesting to see and hear the rules of thumb that people in the gym and dining facility go by.  Supersets...don't eat the egg yolks...don't eat too much...eat enough carbs...I worked out today so I'll eat a gallon of ice cream.  I kind ran out of steam there, but you get the point.  How much of what we "know as truth" is truly true and how much has been parroted around the world for decades without anyone questioning it?

Feel pretty good about increasing my squat weight by 15lbs since the 23rd.

Warmup: 4 chinups and 6 dips with 27.5lb dumbbell
Workout: Squats: 5-230, 5-235, 5-245, 5-250, 5-260
Cooldown: 3 chinups with 33lb dumbbell

Basically made a postworkout meal of mostly fat and fiber.

The end.

Men with beards

So I am finally getting into David Sedaris.  The past two nights I've been going to sleep crying as he talks about his sister Amy's nonconformist makeup ("make me look like someone beat the shit out of me") and describing learning French.  It was interesting seeing him interviewed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart...I wouldn't be opposed to reading about Owls.

Tonight I got to play the game "How to understand what Blogger is telling me."  For whatever reason, Google's Blogger, or blogs hosted by such, show up with some of the menu options in Arabic.  I knew there was a way to fix this, but tonight I switched to French, then Spanish, then German then finally American English.

Again, keeping it short and simple, with 5:00 rests in between sets of squats:

Warmup: 6 15lb weight chinups, 6 bar overhead squats
Workout: Squats 5-225, 5-225, 5-230, 5-235, and 5-240
Cooldown: 6 20lb weighed chinups

I switched up my meals today as well, based on the intermittent fasting technique espoused by Martin Berkhan of leangains.com and others.  Basically I skip breakfast (my 4pm walk in the oven to the cafeteria) and eat around 8pm and 3am.  My fasting is while I sleep and for 4ish hours from when I get up till breakfast (at dinner time).  Working so far.

When I was younger, at dinner my dad used to say, "You should thank that cow (or chicken, or turkey or whatever); it gave its life for you."  So tonight, I thank you, dear dead cow, for the 2 inches of stacked roast beef on my plate.

After I ate this I went back and got two more slices.

Here's more alongside the road artwork.

I think this was after Loki took Thor's GI Joe action figures.

This has got to be the Saint of Killers.  After looking at that picture, if it's not the Saint, then I'm Sam Elliott.