Month: June 2020

I was on top of the world today.

Driving into the gym, I was just amped up, screaming “what’s up, yeah”, and howling like a wolf.

Half the ride in was to old country, a quarter the Christian music station, and a quarter to rap.

After the gym the rest of my day’s driving was to the Christian music.

I believe in God, so I almost don’t want to put in this addendum as I dislike when Christians soften their message :

(Though there is reason to still state this.)

“Even if you’re not Christian, you should be listening to the Christian music station.”

Why?

For the same reason I listen to it ; downloading positivity directly into your brain.

You can’t listen to the Christian music station without feeling joy, hope, wonder, and coming away having a strong positive mood/outlook.

Now I’ve barely been sleeping the last few days and my calories are moderate at most. I’ve been choosing to just love life, and not take heed of what could be complained about.

I have food and shelter, so that makes me richer than what 95% of humanity?

Everyday that the gym has been open so far, I’ve went.

I’ve been having a blast, enjoying the heck out of equipment I hadn’t used in 90 days.

All caffeined up, I have little wind, and sweat buckets, but that just makes you get more from a little.

At one point I was doing one arm dumbbell presses mixed with burpees to a one song playlist of J Vengeance’s “rise and grind” for probably 20 minutes.

The song, which I heard cause of the Iron Wolf/Burpees King/Moses Cuevas collaboration video popping up in my youtube feed, is the ultimate burpees song, especially for navy seals. Whether it’s the beat, the lyrics, or both, it’s the best burpees track.

I’ve been working out for similar hours to what I’ve been sleeping, and with so little sleep the past three days have felt more like five days.

A few hour nap puts the arise to another day, even though it’s still the same day.

I love that, it’s getting more out of life. I’m making more of each day.
It’s running the day closer and closer to it’s maximum potential.

I’ve put myself into a positive feedback loop.

Now at the gym a short bodybuilder in his early 50s with ridiculous biceps asked me if planet fitness was my primary gym, and then if it was my only gym membership as we were talking about our lockdown training.

He was surprised by my answer of yes.

Back in February, this fitness chick and I mutually joked that the other doesn’t belong at pf, or at least the stereotype of what planet fitness is.

I figure I’m doing stuff right if all sorts of developed individuals think I shouldn’t just be at pf.

The implication is that I’m better developed than I should be off of pf alone.

There’s a chinese kid there that’s the same age as me, and has the same name as me. We’re friendly with each other, and it absolutely cracks me when we greet each other.

“What’s up J”
“How’s it going J”

This amuses me so much.

He’s one of two who I know on the gym floor that I’ve seen so far. There isn’t a crowd. A lot of the regulars I figured would be at the gym the minute it opened I haven’t seen so far.

At the grocery store in line in front of me was an old timer. He was fumbling with his wallet to get out his debit card, fumbling to put it back, just discombobulated in general.

After paying he took a couple steps away, and continued to fumble with his wallet.

The cashier, a quiet asian girl of 18 or 19, is almost whispering “sir, uh sir, you forgot a bag”. He’s maybe 8ft away and fumbling with his mini purse looking wallet, is still super discombobulated, and doesn’t hear her.

She looks worried.
I go “mister, you left a bag”.
Crickets. He’s just fumbling with that mini purse looking thing.

Surprised he doesn’t hear me at probably 8x the decibels of the cashier, I look at her, she still looks worried and not sure what to do.

I go “I got you”, and take the bag she’s just holding up while looking lost with my right hand, take the two steps, and with slight showiness set it right into the middle of his cart.

He’s just fumbling with the wallet. Didn’t hear a word, or notice any of the goings on around him. I wasn’t stealthy, and he still didn’t know what the cashier and I had just done.

He fumbles for maybe another 45 seconds, didn’t notice a thing,
and I look at her and say “we probably just broke like 5 regulations there”.

It took her just slower than instantaneously to get it, a giggle, followed by a good laugh, and smile from behind the mask “yeah, we probably did”.

Now the grocery store prints the cashier’s name with last initial on the receipt.

Later in the day I ran back to the store to pick up bread. There was none on hand at home.

As I’m checking out I notice the cashier’s name tag says “ariana”, now I’ve gotten a receipt with ariana g on it many a time, but never put a face to that name.

It cracks me up that it’s ariana g as cashier, but I’ve never noticed the name tag as I’m paying.

“I’m going to crack up when I get the receipt aren’t I?”.

“What! Why!”, she thinks she messed up somehow.

“Your name tag, on the receipt it prints first name and last initial. I’ve gotten ariana g on the receipt many a time, which cracks me up, but I’ve never put a face to the name. Is my receipt going to say ariana g? Do I finally put a face to that name on the receipt?”

“That is funny, ariana g on the receipt, there’s another ariana then,
I’m ariana _. It is kinda difficult to recognize people cause of these” and motions to the mask on her face. She was giggly, acting super girly, and I definitely got her smiling behind the mask. The cashier the next lane over seemed jealous that I wasn’t in her lane.

I try to get people to laugh, smile, to brighten people’s days. I crack jokes, and when in public do my best to be jovial, I figure that’s best as so many are extremely fearful right now, so I control what I can, myself, and therefore choose to be joyous and to consciously spread goodwill.

You may be unable to control the world, but you sure as hell can control yourself, how you react, and what energy you put out there.

You tend to get your energy back from others.

I had multiple good conversations, worked out a few times, and ate.
Today was a good, fun day.

I’ve been putting conscious energy into being positive, and being very thankful for every blessing.

It’s a better way to live.

I’d been slacking on riding my bike since the gym reopened, but went for a ride today around noon.

You may disagree with this, and that’s perfectly alright :

A bicycle is the poor man’s tanning booth and sauna.

I ride shirtless and try to take the ride when it’s very sunny.

Very few are out on bicycles, I’m the only non homeless to ride shirtless.

Even when I coast I’m getting a lot of sun (tanning booth since it’s not laying down), and the amount I sweat from this is ridiculous regardless of how hard I go (sauna).

The quads obviously are getting strengthened, there is a cardio effect, there’s the tanning and sweating, but the best feeling from the bike is…feeling alive, the sun and wind hitting you as you bomb downhill.

I get why people love motorcycles. That feeling on a bicycle alone is on top of the world. It’s likely only heightened on an iron horse.

Speaking of that, I wonder if the same feeling can be had on a horse at full gallop. The knowledge is outside of my frame of reference as I’ve only ridden once at a walking pace when I was about 8 years old on a Californian mountain trail during a church camp.

I was so happy, so hyped to get to do that.

I went to the camp for free, the church had filled all but two of their space quota, they were trying to fill the spaces regardless of paying at that point, and someone pointed out my dad as having a kid the right age to go.

I went to a church camp and rode a horse, all it took was my dad saying yes to the offer of the spots for me and a friend, though my parents paid the small fee for the horseback riding. I didn’t think they’d pay for it, and I hadn’t had the money to pay for it myself at the time. I was most so happy to get to ride a horse.

(My buddy though offered the other free spot ended up staying home.)

I didn’t even care that a lot of the boys made fun of the two or three boys myself included who went on the horseback riding.

I don’t remember if I imagined I was a soldier while riding or a Texas Ranger, but either way I loved it, and definitely had the wild west in mind while doing so despite knowing nothing but california suburbia at the time.

That mood, being just ecstatic to experience things, to experience life, is how you should always be.

Choose to have it in adulthood.

Motorcycle and horseback riding are definitely on the list of stuff I need to get into.

What is my ideal skill set?

A rough idea, and it’s going to take plenty of work :

Multilingual, kickboxing, wrestling, gym owning bodybuilder, mechanic, welder, hunter, horseback riding, motorcycle driving, dog training…father.

I’m on top of the world.

Demonstrations :

Full Video :

I’ve only watched the full video, so I’m assuming the demonstration only clip is just that. You could watch it to save time.

However the whole video is quite amusing, and despite the corniness is a good instructional video from possibly the most skilled grappler to live.

Unlike Freddy Blassie’s song “pencil neck geek” that I’m so fond of linking I’ve had no luck finding the personalized old country ballad style “he was the greatest fighter that the world has ever seen” Gene LeBell song from the end credits.

If I could find it, I’d lift to it.
I’d probably do the same with “shakiest gun in the west”, though that’s most likely out there.

And if you’re ever at a loss as to “how should I workout today”, take a page from from LeBell’s playbook and throw the hell out of an old tire… repeatedly.

If the tire is tapping, but the ref doesn’t see, just snap the arm.

Persistence & Tenacity

Between both hand resisted and dynamic tension (antagonist/opposite muscle) resisted, you can do four way neck work, anytime, anywhere.

It only takes a minute or so to get a noticable neck pump.

I’ve never had access to a good four way neck machine. My high school weight room had a cheapo one that was broken half the time.

Fortunately you can get the effects without equipment, either hand resisted or without even that by the use of dynamic tension.

I suggest regular neck training.
It can save your life.

Besides it’s unbecoming to be a weak little pencil neck geek.

The lowest energy people are that way because they’re choosing to live a garbage day, day after day.

Sitting around indoors, up at night, sleeping during the day, eating garbage, not exercising, watching lots of trash ranging from sitcoms to news to porn – it’s no wonder they feel like shit.

You have to take the necessary actions to not fall into a bogus routine.

Only eat good foods, and don’t overeat.

Do some form of cardio – it makes deep sleep come naturally.

Don’t watch television. Not cable, not netflix, not movies, not video games, not porn. Stay away from the television in every form.

A whole lot of good comes from dodging it’s influence.

You start living in the real world.
It’s amazing how few do just this.

Use your muscles everyday. Only the inactive feel uncomfortable in their bodies.

I’ve learned that while working labor. In contrast to the aches and pains of office workers, when I’m high activity I feel none.

Too much sitting around is where you get the aches and pains.

Get outside, get vitamin d. A whole slew of good thinga happen to you when you get enough sunlight. It’s amazing that people bought into the concept of sunscreen.

Coincidentally, outside the house, that’s where you can socialize.

Even the most introverted need to socialize.

Shit for energy is not living naturally.

Happy and healthy – wellness is attained through living a natural intuitive lifestyle.

Persistence & Tenacity

Back in early to mid 2017 at the gym there were two guys who with half of their gym time played around (mind you they went hard) with the strongman implements.

At the time I’m 22/23, the two training partners are the young one who looks very familiar at maybe 30, and the elder is roughly 50.

One day I ended up talking with them, I asked the young one if his last name was “S”.

He went “yeah, I’m RS, oh man I knew I recognized you, but still can’t figure out how, who are you”.

I told him I played baseball with two of his younger brothers in 4th grade. (The younger of whom shared my birthday.)

I thought it was crazy that we recognized each other from ages 10/17 fast forwarded to 22/29. Apparently I looked familiar enough between 10 and 22 despite growing a beard.

Despite the twenty year age gap, the two weren’t father son.

The older, who seemed to have been a junkie hopefully in a former life, was his boss.

They worked together, coming in on lunch break or the end of the day depending on how long their shift was going. I can’t remember the trade. Though they almost always were car pooled in the work truck, a pickup with all the tool boxes built into the sides.

(It may have had a cherry picker box, but I’m not certain on that detail.)

The younger guy, first name “R”, would tell me how this guy changed his life. It implied he got him working, disciplined, away from a bad path.

I thought it pretty cool that boss and employee were doing yoke walks together during lunch.

Now, I’m not strong at powerlifting. My numbers are terrible if I was to compete without training and likely getting rid of mental blocks to make them nonembarrassing.

(A lot of weak people get official meet numbers for reasons I’ll never understand.)

That’s not to say I’m weak. I’ve always been stronger outside the gym doing stuff than in the weight room.

Over the years a lot of guys older than me verbalize their observations along the lines of my squat/bench/deadlift not representing the strength I have.

Around this time was when I first successfully hit my first ugly starfished officially as strong as a college football player 275lb power clean.

The two guys would see me going absolutely bonkers set after set on cleans every single time they saw me.

I’d actually trade cameramanning with them. I found out the younger one’s youtube. Hilariously I didn’t share the name of mine when the older guy asked, at the time and still just saying “I label videos accurately, if you find it you find it”.

The older guy decided that my name wouldn’t work.

He christened me “beastly” due to my being a beast.

It still cracks me up to recollect.
They left that gym by mid 2017, so I haven’t heard the name “beastly” in years. Heck, that gym is now out of business.

I can still hear his voice saying it, with a very slight almost imperceptible lisp, he’d always greet me.

Sometimes theatrically, he had no inhibition against yelling “what’s up beastly” across the gym floor, but usually it would be a normal greeting with a handshake.

The younger guy and I just greeted each other by first name. I just greeted the guy by first name.

While humorous, “beastly” struck me as a great gym floor nickname.

-Beastly

At current corona raised prices :

•80/20 Ground Beef $3.50/lb
•Ramen Noodles 6 packs $1.35
•Whole Milk gallon $2.70

3lbs of beef, 6 packs of ramen, and a gallon of milk comes out to $14.55.

You’re looking at 8000 calories total there.

It’s an illustration of when you cook for yourself, buying food from the grocery store, just how much you truly have.

This isn’t trying to eat as cheaply as possible either.

Not by a longshot.

Continue reading “6/12/20 Flow : On Eating”

As I drifted off to sleep the recollection struck me :

It was the summer between sophomore and junior year of highschool.

In a moment of boredom (a mistake born of inaction to allow on my part being that I was on a SoCal visit to friends and family), I sent a “friend request” to a kid I’d recently enough met at camp.

Continue reading “Existing Within Electronics”