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.

Linux is cool

Another slow day at the office, so I watched some videos (thanks to Stanford's Open classroom!) on Practical Unix, aka catch up on what's been happening in computers since 1972.  I've been toying with Linux since college (the netbook dual boots into Kubuntu) and keep learning more in fits and starts.  One day I'll know how to host my own Apache server from the comfort of my mother's basement

I don't usually watch the Ellen Show, but Hulu sends me emails and this is hilarious:

Check Out The Ellen Show: What's Wrong With That Cat?

Did a modified Diane tonight:

warmup: 10 knees to elbows, 10 back extensions, 10 OHS, 10 pullups and 10 pushups

workout: 21-15-9 185 deadlift; 30lb dumbbell shoulder presses: ~12 minutes (didn't have my watch with me)

skill: 7 behind neck tricep extensions (25kg dumbbell)

Post workout meal: hamburger topped with two fried eggs, two beef sausages, covered in salsa and a salad

Started reading Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories finally.  I read his Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It a few months ago and so far GCBC feels like a longer version of the same.  Other books on my reading list, in the order they are piled on my shelf:

1. Storm Front, Jim Butcher
2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
3. Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson
4. The Kitchen God's Wife, Amy Tan
5. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
6. Life of Pi, Yann Martel
7. Zodiac, Neal Stephenson
8. Blood Rites, Jim Butcher
9. The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl
10. Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
11. The Intelligent Asset Investor, Ben Graham (with commentary by Jason Zweig...I wonder if there's a Jason Dreig?)
12. Security Analysis, Graham and Dodd

Any suggestions for other books?

On the floor

Tonight was a shorter shift, so I got some laundry done, got a haircut, did a modified Crossfit Total workout and studied a little Linux.  I'm going to try sleeping on my new rug tonight and see how my back feels tomorrow.  This will be especially interesting since I did one rep of 315 squat tonight so my lower right back is tight.

Workout today was

warmup: 15 dips, 8 pullups, 15 back extensions, 15 situps, 15 OHS

workout: shoulder press (1 rep each): 95, 135, 175; squat (1 rep each): 175, 225, 315

cooldown: squat: 5 x 185, 5 x 135 and 5 x 45

Primal dinner (4 eggs over hard with ham, green peppers, tomatoes, onions and mushrooms, beef sausage, meatballs and shrimp scampi):

I got a beef brisket MRE from the dining hall...that is expired.  Not sure if I'll eat it or put it in a museum.

The Air National Guard graffiti artists work