Author: Jonathan Mitchell

Not a fan of man boobs, by which I mean a muscular chest area. I don’t get the point in terms of functional strength. I’ve read it’s the least functional of the major lifts and I agree; how often do you find yourself standing still without leverage and using your arms to push? Even NFL linemen rely on leverage. I do sled pushes, pull, etc. Those involve locking my arms and driving forward with my body. That’s functional strength. When I punch, the punch movement, speed and power comes from my body, from the rotational torque generating free flowing speed across the free moving shoulders. I can’t see how man boobs help.

If the race was effectively a tie for the Senate, that means about 15% of the Alabama voters – assuming all turnout effects wash out – were not so wedded to anti-abortion versus sex offender. I don’t think you can take more out of the election. If I were the Alabama GOP, I’d immediately launch a recall – if they can do it in that state – because any other candidate would have won. By the same token, if a pro-life Democrat had won, I imagine he/she would have won by 10 points. (Note: I looked up recall and it isn’t likely to be allowed because the Constitution sets terms and elections for specific offices and that is taken to mean those are the only elections allowed. Not sure that’s true but it has never been tested.)

Last night, I pulled into the driveway and the air reeked of oil, like burning oil. Have a gas furnace but I checked to make sure some oil company hadn’t dumped oil somewhere around. Nothing. Walked around and the smell was terrible. Called the police. The fire department pulled up. First truck guys ask what I smell and I start to describe it. Second truck pulls up. Guy trots over and says someone in the area has a bad oil burner and they can’t find it. Told me they’d been going out on calls for over an hour all over the neighborhood – up to a quarter mile away! All this done at the level of shouting over the trucks. Thanked them for coming. Stunk for hours. I was worried some one’s house was smoldering.

Sort of functional. Been dizzy. Felt like I would fall down in Costco but I remembered that I can handle dizziness, so I did. Worked out today after 2 days off. Did the heavy bag but mostly concentrated on hitting to the edge of it, meaning full arm extension instead of punching into the bag. Lots of speed work, the half with 10lb ankle weights. Then I did the stomach-killing sled push where I stand vertical and pull in the core and step next to the sled so all the pushing force is isolated in the arms and across the stomach. Only did 155lbs and I can already feel the pain. Been able to work reasonably well.

I ran across yet another piece describing Israeli food as culturally offensive because it isn’t ‘authentic’. The potato was introduced to Ireland by Walter Raleigh. The tomato was introduced to Italy at the same time. Pasta appears to have shown up in the 12th Century. Can’t imagine either country without those foods but they’re culturally inauthentic. I can’t think of anything that is specific to a culture: dumplings and other renditions of filled dough are found across Europe and Asia, as is some form of either flat or sliced bread. In the ‘new world’, dumplings and filled things typically used corn instead of wheat but the ideas are similar.

One of my favorite places to work is the second stairwell at my gym. It’s warm. It’s quiet. Almost no one uses it; it connects only to the daycare center on the ground floor. I can play on the stairs as a break. BTW, I’ve improved my bunny hopping up stairs: I can now comfortably do 3, though I so far only do that at the top or bottom of a flight. Haven’t missed yet but I expect I will.

And was stunned to hear them saying that football has changed for the worse, that players can no longer hit and they began with quotes from Pittsburgh player … made after one of their players was perhaps permanently paralyzed in that game because he hit someone leading with his head. I was disgusted that people think it’s okay to injure another person because that other person is paid to play the game – which isn’t true except in the NFL.

I do a sled push in which I brace my core, stand vertical through the hips, pull in my stomach and push only with my arms. I did this a bunch yesterday. Not huge weight, just 250lbs. I went down to 205lbs for hand over hand pulls using a rope in the same braced position. Last night I had to shovel snow and oh my god did that hurt. It got to an 8 out of 10 on the pain scale. I was surprised I could sleep. Little leery of exercise today but it’s kind of ok now.

I stop reading any review of tech gear that uses the words ‘fired up’, as in ‘when I fired up my bluetooth headphones’. Stupid metaphor turns me off, which is not the same as firing down though it does douse my enthusiasm for reading.

I was talking to a friend about how boring his online class has been compared to his regular one. He has to watch the lectures more than once because it’s so much harder to pay attention. I immediately wondered if VR wouldn’t help make the lectures immersive just by making you feel you’re in the room, without any additional content.