We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Mrs. BD and I caught the Balanchine/Stravinsky show at the NYCB on Saturday. As the premier ballet company in the world (not that I could tell the difference but Mrs. BD is a dance expert), it's definitely worthwhile to see what Balanchine did with Stravinsky. Once does it for me, but whatever...I don't get most of Stravinsky, regardless of how long I close my eyes and concentrate. All I end up doing is admiring the athleticism of the 1st violinist.
There was one piece that I got a good kick out of (Dances Concertantes), but for me the best part of the outing was brunch at Jean George's Nougatine on Columbus Circle. The downscale version of that Jean Georges. Haha, in the Trump International Hotel but nothing to do with the President. We both had the caramelized foie gras appetizer with a pineapple sauce. Food for the gods. She had the parmesan chicken with a lemon sauce, and I had the best, juiciest boneless piece of short rib I've ever had in my life, with a mystery sauce which I forgot to ask about. I had a Bloody, but shoulda had a Pinot.
A fancy brunch and ballet was my Christmas present to Mrs. BD. She wants nothing material. Makes her very happy that I will sit through 2 1/2 hours of ballet just to please her. She sees plenty of modern dance and ballet with her dance pals, but it's special for her when I go.
For me, fun is meeting people. We had great chats with people at adjacent tables at the restaurant (including couple who come for Restaurant Week every year, with a daily theater outing), and a late-80s lady at the ballet who chatted mostly with Mrs. BD during each intermission about the NYCB style. I said jokingly to the couple from South Carolina who love Restaurant Week "Isn't NYC such a cold and unfriendly place?" He said they feel it's the friendliest place in the world because they get into fun chats with smart people everywhere here, like with us. Yep. That's us! Semi-smart and kinda friendly.
I love New York. To visit, anyway. It's one of our magnets on this planet. Just wandering around is a blast.
Stage 4 lung cancer is a bad deal. He's been a breath of fresh air, and highly entertaining, for decades although I have not had time to hear him very often in recent years.
He is 69 years old. I hope he can keep going as long as possible. I feel certain that he will. A great American voice, always with humor, grace, and good cheer but I will not do an obituary yet.
He and his wife have an antique shop, aka junk store. He bought a hoarder house in Canada, hoping to discover treasure in it. A strangely interesting story and a good time-waster.
Canada has wooden dumpsters.
Below is Part 1. Part 2 here. Part 3 here. Part 4 here. Part 5 here. There are many more, including segments about restoring the hoarder house into something delightful. I think a total of 16 or 18 youtubes. I watched them all over the past month. Tell me I need to get a life.
1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1:19 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
1:20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.
1:22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,
1:23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
1:24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1:25 For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
1:26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
1:28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,
1:29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
1:30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
1:31 in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Modern corporate health clubs are designed exclusively for Exercising, Training being far less profitable. The standard industry model is 55 percent of the floor space devoted to "cardio" equipment, on which repetitive motions of various types can be performed while watching television. The remaining 45 percent of the floor space is dominated by exercise machines designed primarily for the convenience of the gym staff -- they are easy to use, easy to teach the use of, and easy to vacuum around.
Programs like P90X, CrossFit, or anything available on DVD that promises to keep your muscles "confused" are also Exercise. Any program that features random exposure to various types of physical stress cannot produce a specific physical adaptation, past a certain point that occurs relatively quickly. Their function is to burn calories, get your heart rate up, and make you sweaty and tired. They may do their job of providing Exercise quite well, and again, this may be all you need from a fitness program.
But certain people rapidly outgrow Exercise, and for them Training is the logical next step...
The entire USA will be at some football get-together on Sunday afternoon. Some people care about The Game, but for most, I think, it's just a good excuse to gather in the winter.
Nachos, guacamole, and other foods are classics. There are many websites dedicated to Superbowl party food, and some to "most disgusting Superbowl foods".
Beer is of course good. I like Coronavirus Extra with a slice of lime, if you have some. Nachos, guacamole? Disgusting.
What things are on your list for Superbowl disgusting food items?
To a point, it seems to. After that point, not much. Teacher quality matters of course, but I do not see how school buildings matter. Do high-tech blackboards improve education? I do not see how. Blackboards (now whiteboards mostly), pencils, and paper do the trick.
A reader noted yesterday that "exercise isn't training."
Photo is people exercising. You can tell, because they are smiling and having fun together.
The reader is correct. We use the term "exercise" to apply to many sorts of movement, from taking a walk to taking a calisthenics class to throwing weights around in the gym. Random efforts in the gym do not lead to much progress but do keep you moving.
Training refers to a program for measureable fitness improvement, whether in endurance, strength, power, or all of the above. (The Maggie's Program of weights, calis, and cardio is designed for "all of the above").
For example, if you swim a mile daily that's exercise, but it's training if you aim to reduce your time a bit each week or two by adding anaerobic sprints. Eventually, you will reach your limit and you can call that new level "exercise" again.
Another example: If you go for a 3-mile jog most mornings (many people do 3-5 mile runs most mornings, which I do not recommend doing on roads), that's exercise. It's great for the mind. If you mix it up with speedy segments to steadily reduce the time, it's endurance training.
A final example, from weight training: Let's use deadlifts because they are foundational for general sturdiness. Barbell or kettlebell, but barbell is better because you can do more weight. If you do 5 progressive sets of what you can do, it's exercise. If your plan is to add 5 or 10 lbs to your final set of, say 5 reps every month or two, you are training.
So "training" is about progressive goals, steadily upping intensity and stress. That is why so many people take their phones in the gym. It's not for texting; it's to follow their program and to map progress.
Yesterday's cardio/calis post was an hour of exercise, not training. Quite intense endurance exercise with plenty of cardio stress, but mostly do-able (I can not jump rope for 3 minutes). It was a high-level "recovery day." A lower-level recovery day might be 50 minutes on a treadmill or elliptical (boring), or a 4-hour mountain hike (not boring, especially with company).
My final point is that exercise is great, especially for maintaining a level of physical functioning and for the mental benefits. However, many of us who catch the fitness virus want to see steady gains in various areas of fitness. That's where the training program begins. You keep your records, and have a plan to surpass them. Trainers are experts at that for any level of fitness.
In the first year or two of a daily or near-daily training program, people advance rapidly. That is partly neuro-muscular (getting used to it), and partly because beginners are often in poor condition. After a year or two, progress slows and can often be discouraging. That's just the way it is if you choose to play this game. When you attain a new speed or a new weight, though, the success feels good.
Whether your goal in life is intellectual, spiritual, or physical, it takes dedication, effort, time, and strain. Of course.
But it is only in fitness where you can easily graph it out over time. On your iphone.
Jerry Nadler was overheard on the metro bragging on the phone about how he should be the one leading the impeachment against Trump … the day after Trump took office
I disagree. Similar things done to excess days in a row can be overtraining. It is impossible to overtrain with a mixed fitness program like Maggie's, done 6-7 hours/week.
What might entail overtraining? Max deadlifts two or three days in a row.10- 20 mile speed runs two or three days in a row. In other words, intense efforts without recovery time.
This morning, a pal and I did a recovery day together to make it fun. We both did powerlifts yesterday. Her cardio fitness is amazing, so I wanted the challenge of trying to keep up with her for an hour. A workout partner can be a good thing.
Here's what we did (I barely kept up - no breaks unless indicated):
5 minutes elliptical warm-up, just to break a sweat 2 minutes jumping jacks 2 minutes jumping lunges 1 minute jump squats
30-sec water break
2 minute mixed jump rope 1 minute rower sprint 20 squat and throw up heavy ball 20 pushups
(Two rounds of the above, then 30-sec water break)
Set of 20 goblet squats (light kettlebells) 1-minute elbow plank Set of 20 bent-over flies (hand weights) Set of kettlebell backward lunges
(2 rounds of that, then 30-sec water/rest)
Set of 20 stepup and overhead press (hand weights) Set of 12 floor roller 30-sec rower sprint 1 minute combat rope slams
(2 rounds of that then it was getting about time for me to quit)
That's an example of a recovery day of cardio and calisthenics. After 24 hours with good sleep you will be ready for hard things a day or two later. In many ways, an hour of heavy is easier.
It's good to take one day off weekly for just fun recreation regardless of age.
Freedom. A speech of revolution, sort of like the colonists against Britain. Most amusing: The lady who says "You are breaking the rule. You are cut off." She's not even German.
No, but for people who try to move serious weight (meaning weights you can only move 3-8 times) two or three times/week (or do regular HIIT), creatine can be helpful to get you moving a bit more and thus stressing your muscles more than you might have the energy for otherwise. No stress, no effect. I use it, when I remember to take it. It might have a placebo effect on me too.
For real muscle magic, steroids and maybe GH. Do not touch that stuff though, friends. It is bad juju.
Amusingly, the only other supplement the Greysteel doctor recommends is coffee. Without a cup at 4:30 in the morning, there is no way I could get my head into effort.
Here's the Greysteel doc on Creatine. Good basic energy physiology. The stuff works like a little battery.
My book stack is high enough for another 6 months. I have enough outdoor clothing (I do like to do outdoor things) for a lifetime. I have enough gym clothes for daily workouts if I do the wash weekly. For hunting and fishing gear I am ok. Too many firearms too, really.
So the family got me some of the usual rare stinky cheeses I love along with exotic jams to go with them. Also, a cool spy boardgame: Codenames. It makes you think about words.
They also gave me a trip, but to where remains a secret surprise to me. I hope it's low on museums, medium on quaint or historic architecture, and high on hiking, cafes, and vino. Provence might hit the spot, and I think the Hadrian's Wall hike is in the pipeline. I never know.
They did identify one thing I didn't really need but is an excellent layer: that featherweight Patagonia quilted vest. I don't like sweaters - too constricting - but I do like to feel relatively comfortable outdoors. A bit chilly is fine with me. Yeah, fleece is great too but heavier than this thing.
Next year I think I will get one of them for my lad.
40 Privacy Groups Warn That Facial Recognition 
The entire USA will be at some football get-together on Sunday afternoon. Some people care about The Game, but for most, I think, it's just a good excuse to gather in the winter.
A reader noted yesterday that "exercise isn't training." 
It's Brexit Day. 
Colorado bill allowing 
My book stack is high enough for another 6 months. I have enough outdoor clothing (I do like to do outdoor things) for a lifetime. I have enough gym clothes for daily workouts if I do the wash weekly. For hunting and fishing gear I am ok. Too many firearms too, really.