LiveJournal Project - June 2004

And the heat rolls into Arizona; it's summertime!

Date: 2004-06-01 16:37
Subject: skule daze
so, summer classes started today, and it feels good to be back in school, but you know as well as i do that it won't take me long to start bitching. in fact, i've already started.

the phrase "where did philosophy began" should not be found in what is supposed to be a college-level textbook written by a guy with five degrees, a book which cites several people in the introduction as being helpful proofreaders, an english professor being among them. this same book with 330 relatively-large-print pages is being used in my REL 321 (religion in america) class, and was written by the dude that's teaching the class. oh, but the nepotism gets worse - the dude told us in class this morning that he's very involved in the hispanic community, and it looks like he's using all of us not only to line his pockets, but to put money in the pockets of a local hispanic-owned publisher. now, i wouldn't have a problem with that except for the fact that the book is a 68 FUCKING DOLLAR PAPERBACK!! i know the college-textbook market is bullshit, but this is recockulous. hey kids, can you say "assfucked"?!!?! i knew you could.
Mood: feelin' kinda ripped off

Date: 2004-06-02 06:43
Subject: week 6, day 1 -- chest/biceps
can i get an A-MEN!!! this is another one of those days where my desire not to lift a certain set of dumbbells off the bottom rack led me to try the heavier ones on the top rack, and said combination of effort and laziness led to major success. wooooo!! i think i'm going to be sore tomorrow, though, but it was worth it. also, the end of this cycle marks 6 consecutive cycles on the workout routine i've been using, so now my plan is to rest until monday and then start up with something a little different. i'm not sure if i'm going to do a 5 sets of 5 workout, or use the same 4-set routine i'm currently doing but change the reps to 8, 6, 4, 12 and increase the weight. i'll figure it out over the course of the week.

in other news, i determined which exercise has been bothering my elbows - it's not preacher curls, but hammer curls. so i'm going to be cutting those out of my routine for awhile.

liquid protein consumed so far today: 84g

Date: 2004-06-03 06:33
Subject: something to do this saturday ... or not.
DTS / 100% Natural Groove present...
RETURN TO EARTH

this event has been POSTPONED. i don't know the new date.

Date: 2004-06-05 10:53
Subject: phase 2, cycle 1, day 1 (back/triceps)
ok, first you'll notice that i've changed the numbering of the workouts a bit -- instead of going by week, i'm going by cycle (a cycle is complete when all body parts have been worked) and day, and i'm calling it phase 2 because i've changed the sets/reps around. i decided to go with a 5x5 workout since it's something i've never done before and i figured it'd be a good change of pace - what this means is that i'm doing the same weight for 5 sets of 5 reps. when i can complete all 25 reps, the weight goes up. i wasn't really sure how difficult this was going to be compared to my last workout, but it's proven so far to be a good challenge. definitely more tiring, that's for sure.

Date: 2004-06-06 13:38
Subject: phase 2, cycle 1, day 2 (legs)
ok, this 5x5 stuff SUCKS - especially when attempting to do deadlifts and squats on the same day. and in doing some further research, it appears that i'm doing it wrong. instead of doing all of my lifts at 5x5, which pretty much every source i've read says is going to lead to burnout, i should be picking one or two (depending on the number of bodyparts i'm doing that day) and just do that - and then pick 2-3 auxiliary exercises and do 2 sets each of 8-12. attempting to go heavy and hard on all of the exercises would explain why, after finishing my squats, leg curls, and deadlifts, the gas tank was completely empty. so, i'll be keeping all of this in mind as i write up future workouts. so we'll call today a clusterfuck and come back wiser tomorrow.

Date: 2004-06-07 16:03
Subject: phase 2, cycle 1, day 3 (chest/biceps)
pain, pain, pain... yeah. i think the biggest concern i'm having with the 5x5-style workout is that i don't feel like i'm getting enough warmup exercises. with my old routine, i'd have my 10-rep set as a warmup, and then increase the weight two more times before doing my 6-rep set, so i'd always be plenty warmed up and used to the weight and whatnot before going for the highest-weight set. with this workout, even though i do a warmup set before jumping in to the 5x5, it doesn't feel like enough- although i'm hesitant to do much more because i want to save my energy for the heavy stuff. i don't think the current split i'm using is going to work for this kind of routine - instead of trying to cram everything into 3 days, i'm going to need to space it out more. re_aug said that 3 days / week is the most you'd want to lift, but i think there's got to be a happy medium between that and what i'm currently doing. maybe spread it all out over 4 days, maybe 5, with weekends off. i dunno - i'm going to be thinking about that during the next two resting days. the problem is that when you start getting into a 5-day split like that, you're only working each bodypart once a week, and i don't think that's sufficient. we'll see what happens.

Time: 20:05
Subject: for wyldthyng and stormshadowsong
goooooooooo lightning!!!!! woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
you may have the olympics, but we got the cup!
(and now i can go back to not caring about hockey for another year)

Date: 2004-06-08 16:45
Subject: religion, anyone?
ok, so for an assignment i have due tomorrow in my religion in america class, i need to ask several people what their definitions of religion are. so if anyone would like to help me with this so that i don't have to dry-lab it, post a comment with your definition of religion. i don't need a long answer or an explanation - just a sentence or two will probably suffice.

thanks.

Date: 2004-06-11 15:23
Subject: woo, vegas!
a few hours from now, _purpleglitter_ and i are off to the land of neon lights, silicone breast implants, and little round plastic chips! that's right, folks, vegas! i'll be playing in a blackjack tournament at treasure island - so with luck i'll be coming home with a fat wad of cash. it probably won't happen, but you never know.... i'm sporting the blue hair dye for added psychological warfare. =)

Date: 2004-06-13 10:37
Subject: blackjack tournament success!
just got home from the vegas blackjack tournament, and while i'm still coherent enough to post an update, i'd just like to say that i finished in 4th place - which carried with it a $10,000 prize. go me! (not to mention the fact that i won enough just playing non-tournament blackjack to cover my entry fee). woooooo!

Time: 15:03
Subject: this is kinda fitting

Date: 2004-06-14 14:31
Subject: this makes no sense
from http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0614ScotusWarSuits14-ON.html

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ordered a lower court on Monday to reconsider if Holocaust survivors and heirs can sue the French national railroad for transporting more than 70,000 Jews and others to Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The case was one of four that justices sent back for more consideration in light of their ruling last week that a federal law allows American courts to hear old disputes over such things as wartime looted property, unless the suits are barred by treaties. The other cases involve claims that women were used by Japan during World War II as sex slaves, that Austria is responsible for stolen art and that Poland took Jewish families' land. An appeals court had said that the French railroad was not protected from litigation in the United States. In appealing that ruling, New York attorney Andreas Lowenfeld, representing the railroad, had told justices that a multitude of old claims could deluge courts, if the court did not stop them. The lawsuit alleges that Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais delivered 72,000 "passengers" to their deaths during World War II, billing per person per kilometer. Stephen Rodd of New York, one of the attorneys representing the survivors, said the railroad's conduct assisted in war crimes. He urged the court not to delay the case, because witnesses are growing older or dying. In the case against Japan, an appeals court had ruled that Japan was protected from a lawsuit by 15 women from China, Taiwan, North and South Korea and the Philippines, who claim that Japan should pay damages for trafficking in women and girls. They contend they were among about 20,000 who were used as "comfort women" for Japanese soldiers during the war. The lawyer for the women said one was 10 when she was kidnapped and enslaved, and the others ranged in age from 13 to 26. The Austrian art case is a class-action lawsuit filed by people seeking to recover property they claim was stolen by the Nazis, with Austria's help. Poland is accused of taking land after World War II from Jewish families who had fled the country. Those two cases, along with the French railroad case, return the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The lawsuit against Japan will be considered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The cases are Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais v. Abrams, 03-284; Joo v. Japan, 03-741; Austria v. Whiteman, 03-500; Poland v. Garb, 03-517.

ok, i don't see how this is possible. people in the united states who probably weren't even united states citizens at the time are suing an agency of the french government in an american court. i studied some constitutional law, so i know the basic mechanics of how the court works, but i don't understand how the plaintiffs in this case have standing to sue or how the supreme court has jurisdiction. moreover, let's suppose that one of these cases is decided in favor of the plaintiffs - how, exactly, are they going to enforce the rulings - take the french national railroad or the japanese government to jail if they don't comply? and how can the french national railroad appeal the verdict if it disagrees?

it seems to me that these sorts of cases are violations of national sovereignty - or maybe they're intended merely as symbolic gestures - but i think there are far more pressing issues with relevance today that the courts should be addressing, rather than dredging up wrongdoing from 60 years ago.

Date: 2004-06-16 16:40
Subject: phase 2, cycle 2, day 1 - chest/biceps
yup, back in the gym - with a slightly modified schedule and plan. i'm still going to do the 5x5 stuff, but i'm going to spread it out over 5 days instead of 3 - 4 days of lifting with a cardio day in the middle. i'm also going on a diet - this is going to be a real challenge combined with lifting - because inevitably when i lift more, i get hungrier, and somehow the goal is to try to lose weight and not lose muscle at the same time. it's sorta like having your cake and eating it too, which more or less means that you have to make an extra cake. anyway, i'm going to use the diet scheme that i used the last time, which actually met with considerable success - the idea is that you have a low day and a high day, and you alternate the two - so on the low days, i'm going to be eating 1500-1800 calories. on the high days, 2800-3000 - the basic premise is that you keep your body from thinking that you're on a diet so you don't slow your metabolism down - so yeah, we'll see. yesterday was the first day, a high day, so that means today is a low day.

anyway, i'm doing a weigh-in every monday morning, and this week i started off at 255.6. if i can get to 230, i'll be stoked, and hopefully have the patience to continue with this shit long enough to get down to 200-210. we shall see...

calories consumed: 1720
breakfast: 290
pre-workout snack: 100
lunch / post-workout: 410
dinner: 720
snack: 100
snack: 100

Date: 2004-06-17 08:46
Subject: phase 2, cycle 2, day 2 -- legs/forearms/calves
eh, not much to say today - it was squat day, so i imagine i'll sleep well tonight. =/

calories consumed: 2890
breakfast: 750
snack: 300
post-workout: 410
lunch: 400
dinner: 800
snack: 230

Date: 2004-06-18 14:39
Subject: phase 2, cycle 2, day 3 - off / light cardio / whatever
going swimming... can't really quantify anything since it's the pool in the backyard. this low-day diet shit absolutely sucks ass - i find that i'm starving more or less all the time - and i'm doing my best to eat healthy stuff, but fuckin' christ, my belly says "feeeeeeeeeeeeeeed meeeeeee!"

calories consumed today: 1700
breakfast: 300
lunch: 350
dinner: 830
snack: 140
snack: 90
Mood: hungry

Date: 2004-06-19 13:12
Subject: phase 2, cycle 2, day 4 - shoulders/triceps
woo, a high-calorie day - i actually get to eat! oh yeah. and my quads hurt like hell.

calories consumed: 3000
breakfast: 410
lunch: 400
early dinner: 450
post-workout: 300
late dinner: 1440

Date: 2004-06-20 14:10
Subject: phase 2, cycle 2, day 5 (end) - back/hamstrings
quads are still sore... cycle completed today, so then we'll take tomorrow off and start again on tuesday - this 5-day plan seems to be working better than trying to fit it all into three days, and it won't be quad day again for another 3 days, so i should have the soreness taken care of by then. my diet got a little bit sidetracked because cory and i went to my mom's house for dinner - today was supposed to be a low day but it didn't work out too well, so i'm going to do a low day tomorrow instead. tomorrow's also a weigh-in, so we'll see if i've made any progress at all doing this diet shit. hopefully at least a pound or two. =/

calories consumed: 2525 (doh!!)
breakfast: 100
lunch: 450
dinner: 1400
snack: 185
post-workout: 300
snack: 90

Date: 2004-06-21 14:35
Subject: phase 2, cycle 2, day 6 (rest)
no gym time is scheduled for today, although i might consider doing some cardio if i get other shit finished. anyway, this morning was a weigh-in, and it was met with much fanfare and cheering.

last week: 255.6
this week: 252.8

so, we'll continue on... this week's going to be difficult because cory and i are going back to vegas on friday, and the words "diet" and "vegas" simply do not go in the same sentence, except perhaps to say "i decided to suspend my diet while i was in vegas."

calories consumed today: 1750
breakfast: 265
lunch: 500
snack: 235
dinner: 1100
post-workout (see below): 300
cardio: -650

so, yeah, i went to the gym with cory to do some cardio, and just for the fuck of it i decided to do some 1-rep maxing on the bench press -- and i was able to put up 285, a personal best by 40lbs. i think i could've gotten 290, but instead i went straight to 300 and wasn't able to do it. that's ok, though, i know i can break 300 by the end of summer, maybe even 315.

Date: 2004-06-22 21:01
Subject: x marx the spot?
it's been awhile since i've posted something other than a non-gym-related entry once again (at least for those of you who read my training logs), but i've been thinking these last few days a lot about karl marx. for my political ideologies class, we've spent the last three days (which equates to two weeks of standard semester time) on marxism and post-marxist socialism and communism, most notably in the ideologies of bernstein and then later lenin and mao. marx spends a lot of time discussing the ideological superstructure which is created by a society's economic base, and then talks about how the workers in that society end up with a sort of false consciousness, in which they believe that the societal structure is not only normal but beneficial to them, never really understanding just how bad their situation is or from where their oppression arises. bernstein comes along and basically says that marx is wrong on three counts - moral (marx pays too little attention to the goal and divorces it from the means to achieve that goal), political (workers in the late 19th century were becoming increasinly enfranchised, anti-socialist laws were repealed in germany contributing to the view that the state could be seen more as ally than as oppressor), and economic (the middle class was growing, workers were doing better, etc) - and what's interesting about this is the issue of false consciousness.

marx would have probably countered bernstein's political and economic attacks by appealing to the false consciousness attempt, saying that the workers only thought themselves to be better off, but that they were still oppressed, still exploited, and still without any say in their future. and indeed, bernstein attempted to answer this criticism by claiming that it was utopian (as in based in utopian socialism, a term coined by marx himself to pejoratively describe earlier work from fourier, saint-simon, and owen) and relied on a string of assumptions about contemporary workers that was simply untenable.

so here's question #1 - what, i wonder, would marx and/or bernstein have to say about modern society? undoubtedly he'd probably take a look at television and the pervasiveness of media and say that religion had lost its place as the opium of the masses - instead of looking to god and the afterlife to avoid facing reality, we simply turn on the tv and find pacification that way. bernstein, at least by comparison with late 19th century conditions, would say that workers today have it better than they ever have - but, i wonder, what if either of these men were based in modern conditions - if, for instance, marx wrote das kapital or the communist manifesto in the 1970s, and bernstein emerged in the 1990s, what would they say about the evolution of political and economic events over the last 10 years?

and that brings me to question / thought #2 - i think we'd all agree that as technology advances, the pace at which technology advances continues to speed up. new innovations open the door for even more innovations, and it seems to be coming at a faster and faster pace. so, what place, then, do theories from 100,200, even 300 years ago (locke, hobbes, early traditional liberals) even have relevance today? in the debate over outsourcing, some people claim that david ricardo's theory of competitive advantage (200+ years old) simply does not apply in a world where capital is highly liquid and mobile, communication and information are instantaneous and ubiquitous - so how much relevance do theories such as marxism, classical conservatism (think edmund burke) or even traditional liberalism have in the modern world? it's been my contention for awhile now that part of the problem with the world today - indeed, most of the problem - is that the pace of our technological advances far outstrips the pace of our social and philosophical advances -- so where do we go from here?

if you talk to idealist political philosophers like francis fukuyama or democratic-peace advocates, you'd get the impression that somehow we've reached the culmination of political and philosophical thought - that it's all about liberal democracy and capitalism - that these ideals have basically proven themselves to be more successful and more viable than anything else which has come along. and maybe that's true - but it seems readily apparent to me that liberal democracy and capitalism, at least in practice, are sorely lacking - yet it's very rare that anyone (at least anyone who attempts to be taken seriously) attempts to look beyond the box we're in and hope for something else. although this isn't a rant about christianity, the same argument could be made there -- christianity has dominated the western world for the last 2000 years (well, 1700 or so) - where's the next big thing? what is it about christianity which maintains such a hold on people and prevents them from tossing it off in droves?

so are there any new ideas? sometimes (all the time?) it doesn't seem like it --- as if no matter what we do, no matter what we think of, we're connected to the past and unable to break away and come up with something completely different. but it wasn't always this way. fascism emerged in opposition to liberalism, socialism, and democracy and was neither reactionary nor conservative - it was a completely different ideology. but what do we see coming out today? we see bullshit like animal liberation which has absolutely no practical value nor is it even worth the paper it's printed on to wipe my ass with.

yeah, anyway, i don't know where i'm going with all of this - i'm just sorta airing some thoughts. some people say that we (the world, the nation) are in a transitionary period - but in order for that to be true, we have to be coming from something and going towards something else? so what is it that we're coming from? and where are we going? i suppose it depends on who you ask, but right now the crystal ball is rather cloudy.
Mood: sleepy

Time: 21:27
Subject: phase 2, cycle 2, day 7
this should be cycle 3, day 1, but somehow i'm lacking in energy and motivation and i've just had too much other shit to do. i can't figure out where all the time is going, yet i've been constantly busy since monday. anyway, i'll just put a calorie log here and say that well, sometimes a guy just has to have some pizza. i could try to summon up the energy to go do some cardio, but i don't know how likely that's going to be.

breakfast: 200
snack: 400
lunch: 400
protein shake: 500 (damn bananas)
dinner: 1800 (estimate) -- it was 3/4" of a pizza (a 16" pizza, i think) from nicantoni's with sausage, pepperoni, and mushroom -- by comparison, a super-supreme 16" pizza from pizza hut has (assuming 10 slices per pizza) 2280 calories. nicantoni's pizza is nowhere near as greasy as pizza hut, nor is their crust as filling, and pizza hell puts a lot more toppings on their monstrosity than what was on my pizza. so i'm going to estimate - probably a high estimate, at least that's what i'm hoping - and say 1800.

total calories on the day: 3300 (or so?)

hm, 30 minutes of cardio wouldn't be a bad idea. we'll see if my ass makes it.

Date: 2004-06-23 16:25
Subject: phase 2, cycle 3, day 1 - chest/biceps
this diet thing is killing me. on the low days, i don't think i'm getting nearly enough protein (not that i'm getting enough on the normal days) and i'm starting to think that it's going to impact my workouts sooner than i'd imagined. i'm also thinking that it may be affecting my tiredness / energy level -- i've had a bitch of a time getting to my early class (9:30am) this week. i know it's hard to diet and train hard / lift heavy at the same time - but there has to be a way to do it. i may need to do some adjusting to my calories and/or just make sure to get more protein. blah, that's what it's always about - more protein. =/

calories consumed: 1900 (a little high for a low day, but oh well)
breakfast: 300 (42g protein)
post-workout: 300 (42g protein)
early dinner: 600
snack: 90 (22g protein)
late dinner: 610

Date: 2004-06-24 13:35
Subject: phase 2, cycle 2, day 2 - quads/calves/forearms
yup, everybody loves leg day. i know i've said this before, but i can't help but find it really amusing sometimes when i go to the gym on various days and never see people training legs. there's one guy in particular i see in the evenings that i really wonder about - his upper-body strength is probably close to mine, but i swear i think his legs are the size of my arms. weird. what's even funnier is the way people look at you when you're doing squats, as if you're some kind of weirdo. oh well. =/

calories consumed: 2650
breakfast: 220
lunch: 600 (37g protein)
dinner: 1440
pre-workout: 90 (44g protein)
post-workout: 300 (42g protein)

Date: 2004-06-29 02:12
Subject: phase 2, cycle 2, days 3-6 (off, shoulders/triceps, off, off)
ok, so i was out of town for the weekend, and that sorta messed up my gym routine, but while in vegas i did manage to get my shoulders / triceps workout in, although with some modifications due to the limited equipment available in the mirage's weight room. and, of course, with traveling and all that, back/hamstrings day still has yet to happen, even though it was supposed to be on sunday and it didn't happen yesterday (monday) either. anyway, my diet went out the window for the last few days as well (how can one diet when presented with sushi and kobe beef and all that good stuff?) and somehow in 4 days i gained 4 pounds. i don't believe it. anyway, diet resumes probably on wednesday. and here are the numbers for shoulders/triceps day...

(*) the astute reader will notice that the poundage used for the tricep pressdown is a little more than half of what i usually use, but this is due to a difference in the machine - at the mirage, i used the lat-pulldown machine, as opposed to a cable cross machine at lifetime fitness. apparently, 140lbs on the lifetime fitness machine isn't really 140lbs, because when i tried to do that on the machine at the mirage, i could barely move the weight.

Time: 02:14
Subject: sushi! woo!
the best sushi in las vegas: http://www.lasvegas-sushi.com this place even blows away sekai. that is all.

Time: 05:01
Subject: attention re_aug
i was able to purchase tickets online for the 4:10 showing of fahrenheit 9/11 - so we don't need to get to the theatre an hour early. the original plan to arrive 30 minutes before the show should be fine.