Motivation

So my weight is sitting pretty firmly around 192-193 lbs. I looked up my "ideal" body weight today and it should be somewhere between 165-173. 20lbs. Geez that seems like a lot of weight. I've been working out lately trying to lose that extra weight, but my tired, old body has been nothing but a mass of aches and pains all week. I did somehow manage to knock out 3 miles today, which strangely left me feeling pretty good. I can only assume the endorphins kicked in, but when I come down off my running "high," I will probably feel like ass. So why bother now? I've been pretty content to stay in my 190-200lb range for the last several years, so why am I suddenly so gung ho to drop the extra 20 lbs. Partly it's the competition. My friend Tiffany and I are duking it out to see who can lose the most weight every few weeks. She won the first contest, I won the second, and we have 2 weeks left in this one. I suspect that she'll take the crown this round, but it does help to have someone to help motivate you. Then there's the crazy/paranoid reason. I figure with the downturn in the economy, the remarkable unimpressiveness of our current candidates, and Nashville's recent gas shortage that society's age of reason is coming to a close and we're staring straight into the face of a Mad Max future. If this happens, I'm going to be stronger, leaner and meaner to survive the Thunderdome! 2 men go in, 1 man go out! Of course, there is the vanity factor. Years of law school and law practice have helped developed my arrogant persona, so I may as well have the bod to match, right? There may be a fourth reason, but I can't seem to properly pin it down. Societal norms, peer pressure to conform to a certain look, social desire. I'm not sure. Or at least, I'm not acknowledging it yet. Either way, I'm hoping that I can at least maintain my desire to reach my goal. I've started and stopped on this weight loss train many times, and getting back on is never easy. I get bored. I get hungry. I get tired. You know what I mean. Ah well time to hit the sack. Yeah I may even start trying to get more sleep. Now that's as big of shocker as giving up pie! Lord, give me strength!

Somewhere my father is shaking his head

After another usual night at the driving range, I have embraced another truth: My golf swing is an way-to-fast exercise in wristiness (very technical golf term) and over-active hands. If my father were not the cool, level-headed man that he is, I imagine that he would scream with fury that his many generous lessons to 'fix' my swing have fallen by the way side. I fully understand the concepts and exercises that he has been trying to incorporate into my swing, i.e. swing easy, quiet your arms, come from the inside-out. However understanding these concepts and executing them with my oh-so stubborn muscle memory seem to be impossible to acheive. While I can make my swing move from the inside-out to create (sometimes) a slight draw, this swing path is acheived by my quick hands and my brutal need to hammer the ball. I understand that I can generate more power and acheive more consistency by using my lower body, but gravity's pull on my generous posterior refuses to allow me to make the proper sequence of moves to acheive the perfect golf swing. As such, I throw my arms out like a clumsy olympic hammer-thrower, hoping that the club head will miraculously find its target on the golf ball and compress the ball against the ground and then into the air. Usually this results in my ball acheiving a ball flight like a drunk on I-40 before veering hard off to the right, but sometimes (more often than not now due to my dedication to this ungainly swing) the ball rockets from the face of the club rising into the air till it reaches its apex before diving slightly to the left in a nice draw. These are the shots that keep me coming back, seeking some clue to trigger a repeat of my previous swing and that beautiful shot. Despite this dedication to mediocrity (much like my beloved Vols from the looks of the first game), I still come home, arms tired and sore from the onslaught unleashed on all those little white balls, imagining my father shaking his head in disbelief and bewilderment that I just don't get it. Just that image, makes me giggle. I'm doing it now. LOL!

So I was wondering...

My family and I are in Union County visiting my wife's grandmother's
house. My wife, Julie, is driving and the kids are listening to Mylie
Cyrus, Fly on the Wall. This is not my favorite Mylie song, which is
sad that I even have a favorite Mylie song. My daughter knows the
song is coming, because she's asked me play it again (sigh). As the
song starts, she says "Look it's a fly!". Julie and I laugh as I look
over and notice the single-wide trailers dotting the landscape of
these very steep hills. They were perched precariously on cinder
block bases next to narrow dirt driveways. So I'm wondering what I'm
always wondering when I see these sights: How the heck did they get
those trailers up there? What feat of engineering did they use to
accomplish these amazing balancing act? Was it something similar to
the building of the pyramids? Did they use a tow truck? A gigantic
crane maybe? I remain perplexed.

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Ok, I admit I'm lazy, but man now I feel old too

As I usually do on Friday afternoons, I sneak out of the office early to play a quick nine holes at the local muni course here in town. Now one of the guys with whom I play decid, es that real golfers walk, and we should walk. Now this buddy of mine is several years younger, and still full of energy and life. How do I know this? Well he still takes pride in his work and when he talks about work, his voice doesn't seem to carry that same cold, jaded timber that my voice does. I'll readily admit that I am not the healthiest man in the world. After all my saying used to be, "I may be fat, but I'm happy." Well at the urging of my family, I have tried working out more, watching what I eat, and generally trying to be healthier. I've probably lost around 13 pounds this summer. So I'm not a complete slob. But DAMN!! It sucked to walk. The course had terrible pull carts, so I carried my 'light-weight' bag. Lies. That damn bag got heavier the closer we got to the clubhouse, I swear. So now I'm sitting here typing away, my whole body is sore like I've been carrying a fat clown around on my shoulders for 9 holes. I feel so sore that I can barely turn my neck. Damn kid, making me walk when he knew my old, lazy butt should have been riding. And no, I refuse to take any blame for this. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm too dumb to actually act my age. Here I am whining and bellyaching about how old and bad I feel, but all I can still think about is how I want to go hit some golf balls before bed. I am such an idiot.

8/27/08 Comics Review-Only geeks need apply

For a week that had way too many books come out, there were very few, if any, stand out titles. For me, the stand out comics were Brit #8 and The New Avengers #44, but even these were not great, just pretty darn good.





Bruce Brown's dialogue and character interaction in Brit do proper homage to the characters created by Robert Kirkman. The book is full of action and comic beats that hit all the right notes at a good pace for the reader. Brit's sister, Britney, is a wonderful, caustic character that reminds us how much fun it is to be a bitch sometimes. She could easily steal this book away from the title character, and under Bruce Brown's direction, could probably handle her own book easily. The artwork by Nate Bellegarde, Andy Kuhn, and FCO Plascencia was strong and clean and set the pacing well within the story.





The New Avengers #44 is a crossover story in the Secret Invasion event over at Marvel. You can't really call it a continuing story, as Bendis has lately inundated us with so much backstory that the reader almost forgets that the actual invasion is only in like day 2 or 3 of the actual series. Billy Tan, Matt Banning and Justin Ponsor deliver good art with lots of dynamic action, but at times it appeared like Banning's inks were a bit too heavy in spots.







Finally, my latest discovery/purchase that has the inner geek in me cheering: collection drawers! Theses comic collection boxes are essentially drawers in the box so that it's easier to get access to your collection. Due to the nature of the drawer, the books at the very back of the box will be hard to reach without pulling the whole drawer out if you intend to pack the box full. I would suggest putting a small box in the back allowing the drawer to stay in the box without having to pull it all the way out. You lose some storage space, but thems the breaks. If you're interested, the website is: http://www.collectiondrawer.com/. All right I'm out.

The Clone Wars is definitely aimed at the kids

But is it really good for the kids? I dunno. However the newest animated Star Wars movie is clearly aimed at the 7 to 14 yr old crowd. With the introduction of a new female jedi padawan, Ahsoka, Lucas clearly hopes to capture the imaginations of both boys and girls, inspiring them, if not to dream of new adventures, then to at least pick up the latest merchandising hitting the shelves of Wal-marts and Targets. Don't get me wrong, I love to see creators introduce strong female characters who offer more to a story than eye candy or the requisite damsel-in-distress. I want my daughter to have strong female influences to inspire her, but it seems disingenuous coming from the studio that introduced ewoks. Otherwise the movie played out like a typical Star Wars movie with plenty of lightsaber battles, harrowing starship chases, cute robots, and angsty heroes. Samuel Jackson showed his love for this franchise by lending his voice to his character's all too short appearances. If I had to grade the movie, I guess I would give it a C+. It had all the right ingredients to keep my 7 year old interested, but I still feel something was missing.

After all, my generation was there at the birth of Star Wars. Where is my Star Wars? What happened to Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia? Of course, I know what happened to them. I'm a big enough geek to have followed their adventures into the novels, but I can't help but feel that I'm not getting my movie love. The problem with re-visiting the prequels is that the characters can't really grow. How can we as a movie audience care about the emotional battles these characters go through when we already know how they end up. If anything, I don't feel involved since I know Anakin's anger leads him to Darth Vader. I don't appreciate Obi-Wan's wisdom, because he is still the same arrogant cock who disfigures Anakin and pits his son against him. Ah well, I will probably never see a true sequel to the original Star Wars series, but a man-geek can still dream, can't he? Are you listening George?!? Bring me my Star Wars dammit!

Last word: If you have a 7 year old (like I do) who is dying to see this movie, they will probably love it. However save some bucks and make it a matinee unless you have a late tee time. In that case, I would be okay with a full price viewing of this flick.

Hey Everybody

I find that I have lost my will to fight, and now I'm becoming totally immersed in the world of the internet. I'm Facebooking now, and Lord help me...blogging. Nothing too serious here or newsworthy. This will be the typical guy-in-his-basement-ranting kinda blog. Mostly stuff I'm thinking about or interested in at the time. Feel free to come back. Who knows, I might even have something interesting to say.