Study Break

Enjoy:

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

A New Season

The Women's College Basketball season has officially begun and it couldn't have went better this weekend. Saturday, #7 Cal beat #3 Rutger's at home. Too bad I was in Sacramento studying and not at Haas Pavilion oogling Joanne Boyle. The game was deemed and upset, but in my opinion west coast teams are always underestimated, underrated, and in this case, under ranked. Its about time we show them what were made of. Here is to hoping Cal can make a run at Tennessee this year. I would even be happy if Stanford made another go at it.

All in all I am just excited a new season has started and I hope to catch a game or two when I am home during Winter break!

Stress relief...

So, I took my legal research exam yesterday and have thus started the mad race to the end of the semester. With all the stress some of my classmates sent these videos around to lighten the mood.



This next one has explicit lyrics and is NOT okay for work unless you have ear phones.


This is not really funny, but some guy at my school made it and its pretty much true...

At the heart of it...

There is nothing to say but thank you.

Gym Rant

YC3Q4567
Originally uploaded by Tinywater

There are some general rules about TV in loud public places. Actually, there is only one rule, and it is really quite simple. PUT THE TV ON ESPN!

It's not a hard concept people. You can't hear the TV and the text scroll is like 2 minutes behind real time. Thus, you watch sports, the only thing that can be universally understood without sound. I am tired of going to the gym and being forced to watch election coverage or the news when I could be watching the NBA or NHL game that is likely on.

Speaking of Hockey, the San Jose Sharks are 14-2 and 8-0 at home!

Also, when you are using the cardio equipment, please keep your sexual moans to yourself please, ahem.

The news/election coverage has been particularly annoying considering the election was a major disappointment on so many levels:

Other images from the Sacramento No on 8 Cadlelight Vigil here and here as well as others in Tinywater's stream.

Gym Rant

There are some general rules about TV in loud public places. Actually, there is only one rule, and it is really quite simple. PUT THE TV ON ESPN!

It's not a hard concept people. You can't hear the TV and the text scroll is like 2 minutes behind real time. Thus, you watch sports, the only thing that can be universally understood without sound. I am tired of going to the gym and being forced to watch election coverage or the news when I could be watching the NBA or NHL game that is likely on.

Especially considering the election was a major disappointment on so many levels.

Good Times in Property

It is Friday. I love Fridays because I refuse to do any homework and I only have two classes. I get out of school at 11:30. Most of the time I get to see my girlfriend. It's really a great day.

However, today in Property it was especially entertaining.

We had a birthday, so in traditional fashion we got to sing to our classmate. This must be more embarrassing than when it happens in a restaurant. Good thing my birthday is in the summer!

Regarding BYU's policy prohibiting coed housing, our professor states, "It is flatly afoul of Federal Law (Fair Housing Act)."

Also, we had a student play a Feudal English King, accent and all. Classic.

Politics of Fat & Corn

I have been meaning to write a blog post about the recent commercials about corn syrup put out by the Corn Refiners Association. It seems someone beat me to it. Check it out here.

That just means I can follow up with the hilarious spoofs :)



This one is not politically correct, AT ALL. But, the point is well taken.

A Green Tip...

Have an old swimsuit or two lying around? Want to recycle it instead of dumping it in the landfill? I have a solution for you that is easier than you think, but not really that obvious. As a swimmer I have a lot of old suits and as someone who is pretty green, I wanted to find a way to recycle them. I did some digging online so now you don't have to!

One interesting idea I found that can also be used with old nylons is sewing or wrapping bars of soap inside and using it to keep track of your soap and make it easier to use (or if you go camping use the nylon version and tie it to a tree so its easy to find and it wont fall into the dirt).

But, if you are like me and don't use bar soap and just want to get rid of them, email Jennifer at:
quilts4homeless@yahoo.com

She makes quilts for homeless people and uses the swimsuits as batting. They can be old/ripped/etc. as she will cut them up to stuff the quilts! Email her and she will send you her shipping address :)

As and aside, moving from Berkeley where you can practically recycle everything on the curb- to a less friendly recycling city, has led me to work harder to stay green. But, now I also appreciate the power of the people more. Berkeley's residents demand everything from recycling to predominantly organic farmers markets. I'm sure you have heard of this already, but in case you haven't, join your local freecycle. I would recommend doing the daily digest option in big cities unless you have a lot of time for email!

Hiding Out

I admit it, I've been going to coffee shops all week. The evidence of my adventures:





I tell myself I work better at a coffee shop, that I might as well enjoy air conditioning on some other persons dime. Truthfully, I'm a TV addict. When I'm at home, I constantly think about watching TV, or let me self watch one show, which inevitably turns into 2, or 3...

I feel like while I'm making this admission, I might as well get it all out. My fall schedule is as follows:

Thankfully some of my summer favorites are ending... TNT's The Closer, and Bravo's Project Runway are on their way out.

Ordinarily I would have it ordered by day of the week (yes, I'm that OCD) if I actually watched my shows when they air, but I have a DVR so they are organized by network for ease of adding to the DVR :)

Fox:
Fringe (New, this has already started although there’s an encore Sunday, 9/14. I dig it)

NBC:
Biggest Loser (Can’t get enough, I’ve seen all of these)
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (One word: Olivia)
Life (Love Sarah Shahi, the show is really good, I mean really)
Chuck (Hilarious, best new show of last year, and if you didn’t notice, my selections are drama heavy)
Knight Rider (New, will give it a shot)
Lipstick Jungle (Total eye candy, wish Cashmere Mafia would have stuck around though)
Crusoe (New, will give it a shot)


CBS:
Eleventh Hour (New)
Amazing Race (This is one of the best reality shows, ever.)
The Unit (Love the military thing, not sure why…O, and Audrey Marie Anderson is HOT!)

CW:
Gossip Girl (Love, love, love Blake Lively...and I don't usually go for blonds)



TNT:
Raising The Bar (New, and it’s another lawyer show buy the great Steven Bochco of NYPD Blue fame, so far I’m not that impressed.)
Leverage (Coming sometime in October)


FX:
Sons of Anarchy (New, 2 episodes have already accumulated on the DVR)
Damages (Not sure when the second season will air, but this was my favorite drama last season, rent it!)

Nip Tuck (Not sure when the second season will air, its jumped the shark many a time, but its like crack)

Plus I watch a ton of shows on the Food Network. Some of my favorites include: Dinner Impossible, Food Network Challenge, Iron Chef, and Ace of Cakes, plus recently Feasting on Waves.

Things I dropped this year or looked interesting but I couldn’t justify picking up:
America’s Next Top Model, Top design, Life on Mars, and some reality shows (I keep seeing previews for some show where people try to fit themselves into cut-out shapes in a moving wall, I'm intrigued, mainly as to how that became a show).

Yes. I. Know. I. Have. A. Problem.

Not All Work and No Play...

Last night, thanks to my girlfriend, I had the pleasure of enjoying a Sunday evening away from my studies. My girlfriend got me tickets to the Monarchs v. Lynx game because she knows I'm a Monarchs fan, but also that my girl Candice Wiggins plays for the Lynx. As I mentioned before, I went to the Monarchs v. Sparks game (also courtesy of my gf) to see the other Candace play. I was also debating which Monarchs Jersey to get, #21 Ticha Penicheiro or #14 Nicole Powell. After the Olympics though, I decided I better represent with #20 Kara Lawson diggs (See Kara in her #7 Olympic jersy above). In my very first post on this blog I spoke about my love of Ice & Ace, lesson learned, talk about it on the blog, and it might just happen! ...just kidding sweetie ;)

Anyway, while the Monarchs were victorious 78-71 and Wiggins didn't play particularly well, the true story of the evening was everything else on and mostly off the court.

First: My grilfriend tells me she's not quite sure where our seats are, but doesn't think they are that great. As it turns out we are in the fifth row, practically on the court, almost dead center but just left of the broadcast table. When we sit down (in a crowd of dykes) I start looking to the court as everyone is warming up. Someone sitting court side catches my eye. Its an older woman and I'm wondering why she looks familiar and then it dawns on me, its freaking Tara Vandaveer! Later in the game Jayne Appel showed up too. She is looking really fit, I know she got a lot of crap for her endurance last season and I am excited to see what she has in store this year. There were a lot of Stanford fans there in support of Wiggins, so I guess its only fitting her former coach and teammate would be there too.

Second: There were a lot of Kings in attendance. I think its nice that they are out in support of the women's team and seemed real friendly to all the fans.

Third: My girlfriend and I have been getting lucky this summer at sporting events, we always sit near really funny female hecklers. At the Giants v. Dodgers game we had an amazing heckler that had us and everyone close by laughing to the end. Thats a story for another day. The woman behind us last night was a season ticket holder, witty, smart, and had the perfect voice for yelling at the referees. She put the woman at the Dodgers game to shame.

Fourth: The referees were just really off last night, which was made all the more hysterical by the aformentioned woman. On duty was #8 Daryl Humphrey, #43 Brenda Pantoja (take that link with a grain of salt), #50 Shelly Nakasone. Of all of them, Daryl was making particularly bad calls.


At one point, after a few bad calls by Daryl, Shelly was doing an inbound on our side of the court, and Daryl was across under the hoop. It was pretty quite in the arena and the woman behind us yelled, "Hey Shelly, I think you need to give Daryl a little help tonight, I don't think he's seeing clearly." All three referee's heard the comment and started laughing. In the interview I linked you, Daryl said, "You hear the comments sometimes, but as long as they are not too unprofessional, you can deal with them. You appreciate good humor and clever remarks as well." I think this was one of those moments. Later that night she was yelling at another ref to make a call because "Daryl swallowed his whistle". These types on comments were going on all night, and really at one point the fans were encouraging Coach Jenny Boucek to get a technical foul and just go off on the refs for their poor officiating. One of the funniest comments of the night came when Nicole Powell made an amazing block and they called her for a shooting foul. The woman said, "Shelly, you better remember that, its going to show up on your training video!"

All in all it was another wonderful night to remember at Arco Arena. Now its Monday, and I'm back to the grind of law school. I hope to get my head out of the books and update more often!

What Powers Law Students?

My classes begins at 9am...

Purely from observation:


between 15-30 students on any given day (not everyone goes to Starbucks, some are home brew, some from the cafe)


between 5-10 students on any given day (at least most people are going for sugar free...)


between 5-10 students on any given day (Gives me cotton mouth thinking about it)

The caffeine + whatever else consumption really shocked me. I guess it shouldn't surprise me too much, but as a non soda drinker and someone who rarely drinks coffee (when I do, I drink the foofey kind that has a shot of espresso and the rest is sugar and milk) hearing someone crack open a red bull at 9am is going to take some getting used to.

This is what people start the day with, and I've often heard discussions of night caps. The questions becomes, can I get through law school maintaining my limited consumption of caffeine and alcohol while maintaining a healthy dose of the good ole H20? Damn it if I'm not going to try! When it gets cooler I will reintroduce tea into my day, but until then its water all the time.

Law School in Two Words: Time Consuming

No, those are not my books. That would mean I actually had time to build the bookshelf to set them up on, and that I somehow had about 10 less books to read than last week, which sadly isn't true. Pictures forthcoming, but not sure when.

Not being able to move in to my apt. until the first day of orientation has gotten me a bit behind in the whole moving in thing. My kitchen is full of boxes and for someone who likes to cook, that's not a great thing; but honestly I haven't had time. It's a priority for the weekend I assure you.

Orientation week was filled with events, AND classes (we even had homework), and lots of helpful people doling out advice. Lets just hope I can remember it all and then utilize what will work for me.

Law school is unlike anything I've done before, but I am very thankful that I was a Law and Society major because I am not unfamiliar with reading cases, as some of my colleagues are. Also I am most thankful that I was able to take legal writing as an undergrad, which was basically like a little mini legal process class. I consider these experiences invaluable to my success this year, and I know this by day 1.

The reading is daunting in a way I never knew it could be. Its a mind fuck. You get an assignment that is 9 pages long, and yes, we are supposed to read it 2-3 times, but, I never thought it would take me 3+ hours to do what looks like a short assignment...for 1 class!

The first day of classes was surprisingly enjoyable, although I have already discovered the one person in class that you don't want to have sitting next to you. I shall hence forth call him Captain Douche.

If I know anything for sure it is that I never want to get behind in reading/assignments because I can already tell it will be like an avalanche and I would be buried fast.

On a positive note, the campus is pretty diverse...for law school. I make that distinction because there a long history of old white men running things and their well off white male kids attending, and then eventually a bunch of white men and women. So, its getting better if not far to slowly. On a personally specific note, there are two queer 1st year students, a guy in another section who I probably wont see often, and myself. There seems to be a few more queer 2nd and 3rd year students, and one faculty member. As such I got invited to the LGBT alumni association reception and it was really nice. ALL of my professors and the Dean were there in support, and there were a lot of successful alums milling about as well. I cannot complain about that!

Quick Fitness Update:
I hurt myself in one of my last training sessions at the IC, and have been unable to work out for about 2 weeks. It kills my soul. Somehow I separated the abdominal column that runs in between my ribs near the sternum. No fun. I am going to try to go swimming this evening, but I'm sure it will be one of many tests to see if I can in fact get back to the iron.

Hassel the Hoff

No, not that one...this one:



Katie Hoff has been a big disappointment at the Olympic games. It's been talked about a lot, see here, here, and here.

While I do think she chose an overly ambitious program, I think she did it for attention, not because she actually thought she could medal in all of those events. That bothers me. She wasn't talked about a lot prior to the Olympics. Dara Torres and Michael Phelps stole the show, and continue to do so. But guess what? That's life. Get over it.

What really bothers me is that in her quest for attention, she jeopardized her own chances and thus the U.S.'s chances at gold medals. So she earned medals in 3 out of 6 events, but none of them were gold. Maybe if she only raced 3 events, she would have 3 golds instead of a halo of disappointment following her around (for the record, I'm not a gold medal snob, I'll take them in any color really, its just the point of it. I think she could have done better, and I'm not alone).

Don't get me wrong, I think she's a great swimmer. I just wish she would have stuck to the events she wanted to swim and realized she would get more attention sweeping 3 events than having a poor showing at a 3 of 6 events.

I hope if she makes it to the London games she takes a cue from the lovely Natalie Coughlin:


Who's taken a much calmer/more relaxed approach to these games and has swam very well. And hey, I can't help but love the California girls. ;)

Olympic Love...

I have always loved sports so it's no surprise that I love the Olympics. Especially this year when it seems they are always on. Too bad I wont have TV all next week (damn starting law school the same time as the Olympics).

While poking around I came across this and thought it was pretty awesome so I'm sharing the love.

Please to enjoy a fun 4x100 sequence:

The End Is Just The Beginning

So, today was my last regular training session at the IC. I have committed to my trainer that I will come back for a PT session once a month. It's not that far and I think it will keep me honest when I am forced to get my act together with the open gym setup at the new place. Plus I have to get my haircut about that often and I refuse to find a new hair dresser again. Besides, Chrissy kicks ass.

Anyway, some big news...I got my first jumping pull-up! Only fitting I would get it at the end and on my own without "the pull-up club" to cheer me on and share my victory.

As far as stats are concerned:
In my time at the IC, from February - Present I lost 27 lbs and 6% body fat.

Not that I don't have a long way to go, but I can't help but be proud of what I've accomplished in 6 months. It will remind me when I have a bad week that I'm in it for the long haul. Thanks for everyone that has supported me in my fitness pursuits thus far, especially my trainer, girlfriend, ex-roommate, former boss, and fellow bloggers. O, and my mom :)

My Summer at The Greek

I had a great concert filled summer. All of which happened to be at the William Randolph Hearst Greek Theater in Berkeley. This was really nice because it is only a 1.5-mile walk from my apartment (old apartment now, le sad). The Greek is also a sweet venue because you can bring food and drinks as long as they are in plastic and non-alcoholic. Many a picnics were had during the openers…

My first trip to The Greek wasn’t for a concert but my ex-roommates (le sad again) graduation. It was general admission and we sat to the left of the stage on the stadium style concrete seats.

As it was my first trip to The Greek I was ill prepared. My ass hurt because we didn’t bring cushions and I got a pretty toast sunburn.

My next show was with my best friend and now ex-roommate (see above) and my cousin. We did have a blanket and food this time, but no cushion, what can I say I’m a slow learner (sometimes). We ate our food during the opener, Rogue Wave:

They were from Oakland and we hadn’t heard their stuff before (or at least we thought until we realized one of their songs was in one of our favorite shows: Chuck. It was random because my cousin knew who they were (she lives in Seattle) but didn’t know who Death Cab For Cutie was. Go figure.

I had seen Death Cab before at festival type show and that was when I got into their music, but this concert was amazing!

We had general admin seating and because I’m old and creaky we sat just behind the pit area and were able to see fine. I prefer to sit and enjoy the music instead of standing up for 4 hours thinking about how much my legs hurt.

Next up, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. This was an interesting show purely for the fact that this was the first time my mom was meeting my girlfriend. I think all involved were a little nervous, but I had a friend there for a buffer and all turned out well.

We sat in the grass here because tickets were a shitton of dollars. We had binoculars and the sound quality was amazing so no complaints. This time we had cushions and blankets but were still a little chilly. We also had treats from Bakesale Betty…yummy!

On Pride Sunday I took my girlfriend to the True Colors tour. I had gotten her tickets for her birthday and had to buy them before any of the artists were announced. We were mildly disappointed with the released list of performers but it turned out to be a great time.

The B52s are always a party!


For me this was the BEST part of the show. I have always wanted to see Wanda Sykes live, and she wasn’t on the bill so what a great surprise. If Tegan and Sara would have showed up I would have been in lesbian heaven.


Cyndi was great, she really knows how to put on a great show and she came out into the crowd multiple times throughout the night. She’s a true star and with our age difference, my girlfriend and I had a good time listening to her old and new hits.

Last but certainly not least my girlfriend, two of my best friends and I went to the Feist show to celebrate my birthday. We also had general admin tickets for this show and decided to sit in the first row of the stadium seats and had a great view and were very comfortable. Cushions and food, I finally got The Greek down!

I had been to a Fesit show last year and it was great. This was better and different in enjoyable ways.

If you like any of the above artists and have a chance to see them live, I didn’t have a disappointing show so take the opportunity if you get it!

All in all I don’t think there is a bad seat in the house at The Greek. It is definitely one of my favorite venues and I have been to a lot of places, indoor and out, small and large.

Thanks to all of the lovely people that posted pictures of the shows on flickr!

Goodbye Berkeley...

At least for now.

As I close one chapter in my life and look forward to the next I can't help but be a little sentimental. I turned in my apartment keys yesterday morning and no longer have a residence in Berkeley.

"Green City" Mural in the parking lot on Berkeley Way in between Shattuck Ave. and Milvia:

(photo taken with my iPhone (the old model, still trying to get a 3G but thats a story for another post)

I will remember it most as the greenest city I have lived. One filled with great people, great food, and infinite possibilities. Thanks to everyone who made my time in Berkeley unforgettable.

Time Off

Last week was my final week of work before I took some time off to move and relax a bit before law school. It was a crazy week filled with parties and presents and send offs. My co-workers showed me how much they care over a double shot of Jamison, a few beers, and a bowl of frozen yogurt. I still managed to get up at 6 and go to the gym, so that tells me a lot about how I’ll manage in the next 6 months.

Anyhow, with all the excitement, I neglected the blogosphere. I am back to report that even since I’ve been off work and free to lounge around, sleep-in, and get off track, I haven’t. I have been very busy moving and packing, but also still making it to bed on time and hitting the gym early.

Yesterday was especially fun as I got my 5+ miles in as well. My mom and I decided to go explore the Muir Woods/Stinson Beach area because it really is in my “backyard” and it’s a shame not to see the things that are so easily accessible.

Here are some photos and a short video from the fun, outdoor-filled day.

Muir Woods:


It's a little shaky, but I love the sound of the stream so I had to take a little video!


The lighting was really good when we first arrived


A picture of me standing by a redwood


My mom next to a large fallen tree, for reference she’s 5’6

Highway 1 in between Stinson Beach and Olema/Point Reyes Station:


It was getting pretty foggy on our way home

In random fun news, when we were at Point Reyes Station I spotted Lili Taylor, who played Lisa on Six Feet Under. She was with her boyfriend, Author Nick Flynn, and their daughter. My sighting went a little like this:

As I was leaving a new and used book store I spot this woman that looks oddly familiar. When I make my way out the door past her, she says something to the guy she’s with, instantly I think, “She’s an actress, she was in something, I know that voice!”

Then I go outside and proceed to stare at her through the window, but it was just her back. When my mom makes it outside I say, “Hey I think that woman is an actress, go look and see who she is”

So my mom goes in there and tries to be inconspicuous but in the mean time they leave before she gets a good look. I’m still outside and I get another really good look and KNOW she must have been in something. My mom followed them out but says she didn’t really get a good look at them. I tell her, “I know she was in something, let me just think about it”

But then when I turn there are these two chicks eating their treats from the bakery next door with that same “I just saw someone famous” grin on their face. Then the one with the piercing turns and says to her friend, “that was the chick from Six Feet Under” and instantly I knew it was true.

In other celebrity sightings, when I went for my second visit to the much loved newish Oakland establishment Camino on Monday night, Alice Waters was there. How perfect.

Athlete Redefined

Inspired by this and this, as well as Olympic fever; I have been pondering my recent quest to become fit again. I try not to think too hard about it, because really the bottom line is that it's good for me.

As a high school athlete plagued with tendonitis I had this feeling of being washed up. I'm only 21! Yet, getting back into fitness and sports I often ask myself, where are you going with this? I didn't play any sports in college and I often feel like I missed some grand opportunity. If I'm being honest with myself, I know I wasn't that good, and my parents weren't the type to push me, nor were they in a financial position to stick me on a club team or the like, which in the tennis world is basically traveling a lot to USTA tournaments.

The recent media flurry over Dara Torres got me thinking.

Photo by Marc Serota for The New York Times

For her, at 41, being an athlete means making her 5^th trip to the Olympics. She still has plenty of good races in her.

One of my other favorite athletes is tennis star Martina Navratilova

www.martinanavratilova.com

Martina finished her professional career with a final Grand Slam title at the 2006 US Open winning the Mixed Doubles with Bob Bryan. She didn't retire until she was just shy of her 60^th birthday! Now, she is a commentator for the Tennis channel.

Sure, I missed the boat on the NCAA, WNBA, WTA, but is that what being an athlete means to me? I guess at one point it was. I can't see myself ever competing in any kind of running event, which seems to be pretty accessible. However, I do see myself continuing to play all kinds of sports, getting better, faster, stronger than I was 5 years ago. Maybe I'll start competing again, join a community or masters team, but hey, maybe I won't. Being an athlete doesn't mean it has to be a career. Accepting that has allowed me to enjoy my fitness pursuits so much more.

For once, there isn't an end game. There is no medal or trophy to push me further. All I have is my own desire to be the best.

With that-I leave you with my interpretation of something Lisa said on her quest to become The Next Food Network Star.

"I strive to be a less dominating perfectionist"

More Quinoa

So two weeks ago I guest posted about one of my simple and standard Quinoa recipes. Recently I have been trying numerous variations and I had a lot of fun with one on Tuesday night.

I had pre-made some quinoa on Monday night based on a really handy tip from 101 Cookbooks, which I found from Fitarella’s blog roll, so thanks! Speaking of blog rolls they should call them rabbit holes as once you start clicking through blog rolls it never ends and all the sudden you lost four hours.

I made 6 cup and froze a bag full and kept one in the fridge since I knew I was going to use it the following day.


I decided to steam the veggies instead of roast them and thus needed a sauce.


I love avocados so I decided to basically make guacamole but with tons o’ lime so it would be more liquidy.

Sauce:

1 avocado
3-4 limes
2 cloves garlic



O, and I crumbled some herb goat cheese on top, yummy.


When I was eating my leftovers at lunch:


I couldn’t help but think how delightful it would be thrown in the oven with a layer of shredded cheese on top so it could get all crispy...

Ask and You Shall Receive

A while ago I blogged about the gym as one of my distractions at law school. To be more exact, it was really the lack of a gym I liked as a reason to come back to the Bay Area to train. As much as I love my trainer and do still plan to come back to train when I can, it is not feesable to do often, and I need to have a place I can go everyday.

In doing some digging online, I only came up with two places I thought I would be reasonably happy: here or here.

Lucky for me I don't have to settle because I really don't like settling. Anyway, I mentioned to my current gym owners that I hadn't really found a decent replacement for them, and they were kind enough to save me from CrossFit. Don't get me wrong, people love it, I just don't think it fits me and my fitness goals. Besides I seem incapable of doing a proper squat (either a hip problem or a lower back one, not quite sure), so CrossFit might kill me.

Introducing Chip Conrad's Physical Subculture aka Bodytribe:



Hallelujah.

Wanted + Other Inspiring Movies

So I went to see the Midnight showing of Wanted last night. Check out my other blog (linked on the right hand side) to read my Angie love fest as it is much more appropriate there. Although I will say she's fucking hot.

That is really partly the point of my post, but I'll get there in a minute. One of my favorite quotes from the movie, like, tattooable quotes was, "What the fuck have you done lately?" It was great to be able to think, a whole hell of a lot, thanks! All the months of training and I finally realized I have been doing some amazing shit and I should be damn proud of that. It goes with the Bernarr MacFadden quote I recently added over there ---->
I still wont flex for my girlfriend though.

Back to the hotness. I love action movies, and I'm not phased by violence, so much so that I have to make a conscious effort during the movie to ask myself, "is this violent?" because inevitably someone will ask me, and I'll say no, then they will go and be pissed at me and really it just never registered. In case your wondering, it is violent, and its awesome.

I think one of the reasons I really love action movies is that the actors get so bulked up and strong...their badassery just inspires me to lift more, go harder, be stronger. Sort of like my favorite Nike commercial:

Anyone know what song that is? Can you spot Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury?

Here is a short list of some movies that really got me fired up/motivated:
1. Tomb Raider (+ the sequels)
2. X-Men (+ the sequels)
3. Batman Begins
4. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
5. Underworld (+ the sequel)
6. GI Jane

Post your most inspiring movies to the comments!

In Case Anyone Thought She Got Lucky

Parker dunked again last night against Seattle, I have a feeling she's only warming up.

New Record

WNBA News:
Parker Dunks

Photo by: Gus Ruelas, AP

I wish she would have done it when I was there, but I'll take it. That makes her the second woman to dunk in the WNBA. Her teammate, Lisa Leslie, was the first.

In other news:

When I first started getting back into fitness and all things healthy, I decided to buy a pedometer. On days where I don't work out in the morning (read weekends) I try to get my 10,000 steps. On the rest of the days I wear it more out of curiosity than an attempt to log steps.

A month or so ago I racked up over 14,000 steps when I went to the city shopping and wondering around one day.

Saturday I walked an unbelievable 20,727 steps! I would say about 2-3,000 of the steps came from "dancing" around at the concert I attended, but the rest were from walking. Craziness!

Drive By

Just dropping in to say I'm guest blogging over at the wonderful Mizfit's site today.

Also, I finally got my 20 pounds!

I think I will celebrate by buying myself a much needed racing suit for swimming as mine is pretty worn out.

A Good Challenge

So today in bootcamp, we had to do a circuit. It was a pretty garden variety 6 station circuit. Well, that is until the rowing station became the challenge station rather than the rest and recuperate stations. Usually when we have rowing as part of a circuit, we are given a target for the number of meters we should row before time expires and we move to the next station, but most of us (ahem, read I) usually take it easy. This morning was a whole new ball of wax.

At the end of the instructions our trainer tells us that after we complete the circuit three times, we have 100 burpees to do. There is a catch, and isn't there always? If we row our 200 meters in 45 seconds, we can knock off 5 burpees for team 0700. I, of course, wasn't planning on rowing 200m in 45 seconds, but throw a good challenge at me and the threat of burpees and I was there.

And just in case you don't know what a burpee is, check this video out. It’s the best I've seen… the music is classic. I like it because it shows a full burpee (burpee's w/o pushups at the bottom are ½ burpees), just sayin'.

The ones at the end are burpees w/ a pull-up, just in case you're that badass.

I guess I need a good throwdown to get me motivated, but it sure as hell worked. I got my 200m under time on all three of my attempts. Actually, I was coming in closer to the 40 second mark than 45, so that makes me really stoked. This is huge progress for me as back in January I couldn't row without pain in my knees from my tendonitis. Just another example of why it's not always about the weigh-in at the end of the week.

O, and I am this close to getting my jumping pull up…


p.s. not only did team 0700 not do any burpees, we wiped away all the burpees we "owed" for left behind cups, and we racked up 35 for our trainer to do. She is such a good sport…

Hard Knocks

Even when I was playing sports year round, I wasn’t injured this much! I have played multiple sports throughout my life but in middle school and high school I played tennis, basketball, and softball. The only injury I had/have was tendonitis. In both knees, ugh, oh well.

I have been plagued by a bunch of minor injuries since I really started getting back into training and working out. I wonder if it is because we do such a variety of training moves that come from multiple disciplines and before I was always doing really sport specific exercises.

Either way, it’s always something. Aside from general soreness, I’ve had multiple tweaked body parts in the last 5 months. In late February early March, I had some soreness is my lower back, which I think was from doing kettlebell swings with poor form and possibly too heavy of a bell. My left shoulder has been acting up lately and it also bothered me for a week in April. Almost all of May, I was feeling some sort of pull in the back of my knee which was the longest and most limiting injury. I really couldn’t do much cardio (running, jumping rope, even walking was irksome) and my progress suffered. Recently, I scraped three of my toes on the bottom of a pool. It doesn’t really hurt much when I work out because of how my shoes are cut, but when I play tennis it is all bad because of previously mentioned shoe troubles. The more annoying thing about scraping my foot was that it also chipped some of the polish off my pedicure. Lame.

In WNBA news, I went to see the Monarchs v. Sparks game this weekend. My girlfriend got me tickets as an early birthday present and she also gave me a wicked Parker jersey so I could show up to the game representin’. Sadly, Parker didn’t show up to represent in the first half. She only scored 5 points and the Sparks were down 31-44. Aside from the horrid refereeing, the Sparks just played poorly. The Monarchs also were playing fast + good defense, but they shot 18 free throws in the first half and the Sparks shot 3, a testament to the referees for sure. The reason I think the Sparks will take it all the way this year is that they came back to win the game 74-66. They have the skill and the game knowledge to turn it on and make great comebacks. Leslie played great in the second half and she finally got her points in the paint. This excursion reaffirmed my feelings that I will be spending a lot of time at ARCO. My girlfriend and I also decided that the Sparks waited to get going until they were shooting at our end of the court, so yay for me getting to see Parker up close, and her and Leslie delivering a few blocks. O, and a mad shout out to little Bobbitt, every time she came in she tore it up, made plays and buckets and got her team fired up.


Oh, and since I will be living in Sac we decided I need to have a jersey for a Monarch player since they only play the Sparks 3 times a year. I think since I already have the best player’s jersey, I could pick a Monarch player based on pure hotness. If it was based on skill, I would take Lawson for sure, plus we are built the same.

What do you think?


#21 Ticha Penicheiro


or

#14 Nicole Powell


cast your vote in the comments :)

When the Sum Equals its Parts

This week was disastrous in the way of food.

The Parts:
4 pieces of a variety of cookies (they were delightful, see below)

3 pieces of cake (1 piece would have been acceptable as it was my roommate's graduation, only problem was that half the cake came home with us.) I also ate tri tip three different days, once at the party and twice for lunch. It was damn good, but just a lot more meat, and fatty meat at that, than I usually eat.

2 nights out drinking (Granted I only had one drink each night, but still, those are calories I don't usually consume in a given week.)

1 piece of strawberry shortcake shared three ways (that one was fucking worth it!)


The Sum:
Instead of losing that last pound to get my 20, I have instead gained a pound and am again at 18, with 2 pounds to get to my mini milestone.


One the bright side, I exercised a shiton this week, which is probably the reason I only gained 1 pound and not 5. I had personal training on Saturday and it was awesome despite not being able to lift a gallon of milk the next day. I attended bootcamp everyday this week. On top of that, I went and did some lap swimming (ugh, I scraped my foot on the bottom, but that’s a post for tomorrow) and I played tennis. I also walked to and from work everyday except for Monday evening when we went to get Pho, and Tuesday evening when I took the bus to get to the pool before they closed.

Another plus, I am really pissed off that I followed two really good weeks with this shit. This just motivates me to super plan my week and go back to eating like a rabbit. By that I mean a lot of veggies and lean protein, I do not mean eating less.

Back to the strawberry shortcake, it was amazing, and in the old days (read 6 months ago) I would probably go get some every week. We finally tried Oakland's Bakesale Betty, a bakery delight.

Sidebar: I learned a few years ago to never stop exploring. Two of my favorite Santa Barbara establishments, Red's and South Coast Deli, I only discovered in the last 3 months that I was there. I still crave them all the time. I can appreciate having "go-to" restaurants, bars, etc. but I never stop trying new places, especially if they come highly recommended by multiple people.

Bakesale Betty's is one of those places. Everyone raves about it. When we got there it was about a half an hour to closing and there were tons of workers assembling/making treats in the back. There must have been 10 people standing shoulder to shoulder working away. Betty and another worker were in the front where all the goods are. We were mulling about trying to decide on what to buy when the woman behind the counter handed me a cookie to try. It was pecan shortbread. There were three of us and I immediately started breaking it up to share. While I was doing this my two companions were also handed cookies of their own, a ginger snap (my favorite of the three) and an oatmeal cookie. Cookies are all well in good, but the first thing that caught my attention was the strawberry shortcake in the refrigerated case. Strawberry shortcake should only be eaten with biscuits; sponge cake/pound cake needs to find a new home. This was the most delightful sweet biscuit with tons of strawberries and home made whip cream (see image above). Needless to say, the three of us made short work of it.

Sometimes You Just Need Pho

Pho (pronounced fuh, not like fa which makes me think falalalala) is one of those things I will miss a lot. It’s not only the Pho, because you can get Pho, granted at varying qualities, in Sac. It is the whole experience surrounding my favorite Pho place and the neighborhood it’s in.

A typical Friday looks like this:

6:00am – get up and go to bootcamp
9:00am – leave for work
6:00pm – get picked up from work and drive to our favorite Pho place
6:30pm – pass by Lake Marrit in Oakland, comment on the beauty and suggest taking a walk after Pho*
7:00pm – eat delicious pho and bullshit
7:45pm – walk to the bar three shops down to continue bullshitting
8:30pm – walk across the street and get some cake to soak up the booze
9:00pm – go home and watch TV until we decide to call it a night

*We never walk around the lake, we just like to talk about it, which makes us feel better about the booze and the cake. Plus, it is really pretty and we do walk around it at other times, just not as part of this adventure.

Yesterday was Monday, and that makes our Pho adventure sort of untypical:

Two things that make a Pho place great

Good mix-ins: bean sprouts, basil, jalapeños, and lots of lime wedges


Also, they must have at least one gigantic fish tank, this place has two.

Our Pho always comes out in less than 5 minutes. Gently placed in front of us were 3 large shrimp Pho’s in beef broth. This is mine:


Usually I finish it all, but it was just too hot outside, so sadly I ended up leaving most of my broth.


Oh well, no use crying over left Pho when there are beers to be had.

(mine is in the middle, I’ve found my tolerance has significantly lowered since I started working out and watching what I eat/drink, also beers tend to make me all cotton mouthy at 6am and that’s no fun when you have to work out)

The best thing about Baggy’s is the neon green jukebox. We got 9 songs for $2, you can get 25 for $5, I know craziness. Usually one of us has some drama, that’s why we have our weekly therapy sessions. Tonight our jukebox selections were mostly my friend and I being jerks to our other musketeer. She picked the ones that don’t follow the theme. See if you can figure it out.

1. “Another One Bites The Dust” - Queen
2. “Call Me” - Blonde
3. “Take Me Home Tonight” – Eddie Money
4. “Wrong Way” - Sublime
5. “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” – The Police
6. “Moon Dance” – Van Morrison
7. “The Hardest Button To Button” – The White Stripes
8. “It Wasn’t Me” – Shaggy
9. “Lady Marmalade” – Patti LaBelle


Just for fun and to continue the sentiment: