So last night, I had a whole conversation with my mother regarding health and fitness. She has been going to the YMCA since the beginning of the year, but from what she tells me, has gotten minimal results.

After finding out what her routine was (spinning and weights multiple times per week resulting in over 1 hour stays in the gym), I had a few thoughts:

• Ineffective cardio. Her body is probably used to the spinning classes.
• Ineffective targeted weight training. Spot training doesn’t work.
• Diet. Diet. Diet. – If you are working out a lot (albeit possibly the wrong way, but activity nonetheless) and not seeing any results at all, a close look at diet is warranted.

I then went on a tangent about how we all lie to ourselves about what we eat. I do this all the time, apparently, now that I think of it. The times when I say, "oh a little of this is ok" or "I worked out hard today"… those are mostly bad and I, like you probably, am lying to myself about just how bad something is for me. I say mostly bad because you cannot be a food nazi at all times. You have to allow yourself the things you really like, but you have to earn them.

Anyway, I recommended to her that she keep a food log to see just what she is eating. I didn’t suggest to actually change anything, just start logging which will enable her to see, from an empirical standpoint what exactly she is ingesting. Recognizing this deficiency in myself I too decided to start logging my food today. In the past, I have done this with just pen and paper, but that eventually failed because I got tired of carrying it around with me. In light of that I decided to re-purpose my mobile blog from well, mobile blog to food log.

Using my iPhone, I will upload an image of everything that goes into this fat mouth of mine for the world to see. Actually, I just like that it auto-tags the food with the date and time. Even if I am out  somewhere, all I have to do is take a picture of it so that I can remember it. Later, I can go back into the blog and edit the details of what I actually ate. I only have one thing on there right now, but if you want to check it out or RSS it, feel free. The address is http://bmgfoodlog.blogspot.com.

Hopefully, this will help me to better understand in total what I am ingesting.

I am pissed off that I didn’t go to conditioning class this morning. I hurt my shoulder last Friday in a very lame attempt to do a shoulder roll, which pretty much resulted in me crashing into the freakin’ ground shoulder first. It’s still giving me some trouble when I move it in different directions, so I decided to take the safe option and let it rest for a few more days.

I will be going to black belt class tomorrow morning to be sure I don’t fall behind in the material. After that, Victoria will be testing for her senior blue belt in TKD. She feels like she is not ready, but I think I have more confidence in her than she does =).

Up for this weekend, I think Madagascar 2 is being seen tonight. There’s a UFC tomorrow. Not sure where/if we are going to watch that. The Shaolin open house is tomorrow which we may or may not get to. It depends on when Victoria is finished with her testing. Sunday is the sparring festival at the Shaolin school as well. I don’t think I will be sparring due to my shoulder but I would definitely like to go, watch, and support.

Have a great weekend.

So, yeah… I don’t like Halloween. It’s only been recently that I couldn’t care any less of the "holiday" i.e. way for people to make a ton of money (see "prices of Halloween costumes"), fell completely off the face of the map.

I don’t like blood, gore, or generally disturbing things. I can’t watch gore movies. Here’s the odd part though, it’s not the violence by itself that makes it unbearable for me. For example, I have no problem watching war movies with large scale violence. I saw the new Rambo movie. I didn’t have to look away. People got blown up with land mines and got arrows through the head… no problem. Now, when you add in the sick and twisted "I’m gonna torture then dismember you slowly for no reason what-so-ever b/c I’m a fucknut and I can" and I can’t watch it.

We tried to go to a haunted house last night with some friends. I was a bit reluctant to go, but Victoria wanted to and I wasn’t going to let her do it alone. I haven’t been to a haunted house in a while, but with a name like "Mansions of Terror" you gotta know there’s gonna be some bad shit there. In short, haunted houses today are NOT the same haunted houses from when I was a kid. You know what I’m talking about. When I was a kid, a haunted house was like, some guys house that he put a bunch of scary crap all over, and MAYBE he jumped out at you ONCE. No so today. Today’s haunted houses are more disturbing than anything.  It amazed me how people can take so much pride in the murder/rape scene that they "create" on their front lawns or in buildings like "and here we have Frankenstein, who, after not being able to land the woman of his dreams decided to commit seppuku, Dracula is holding the katana ready to cut his head off and here we have the wolf man jerking off all over the scene b/c he a necrophiliac and hes about to get some. Oh, in the tree there, we have a guy snorted like a ton of blow then hung himself after coming home to find his wife fucking the mailman. He killed them both with a blunt rusty spoon, and ate them, that’s the "in the house portion", but anyway, look at the detail, you can really see the veins and neck bone protrusion. Awesome, huh?".

Uh… sorry… anyway… back to the haunted house… then…

Most of the people on the outside were dressed up in zombie like makeup. One had a chainsaw and would chase people around the parking lot. The other was like, a priest guy wearing long robes that would walk around next to you and throw up. Walking up to the front door, I could see what looked like a zombie bride essentially cutting herself or something. Retarded.

Needless to say, we never made it in the door. I was fine with this.

This leads me to my next point… movies…

Where is the psychological thrill in "either you give yourself a hysterectomy or you DIE! That’s right, you cut out your own ovaries, or this cast iron spiked suit will collapse on you but only stab you slowly so you slowly bleed to death but you won’t die right away, you will get tetanus and then you’ll die slowly of tetanus, so the question is HYSTERECTOMY OR TETANUS DEATH!"?

This, to me, is degradation of society at its best. I find it disturbing enough that people can even think this shit up. That’s fine… we are in a free country (hopefully for a little while longer) with freedom of speech and expression (hopefully for a little while longer). Still though, I cannot process in any way shape or form how people can see a trailer for a movie where it’s clearly about torture and butchery and say to themselves "hey! that sounds like a great time!". Fuck that. Not me.

So I say, let me be totally gay and only want to see funny kids in costumes, eat candy, and maybe watch some movies on Halloween. Otherwise, I don’t want to hear about it. I’m perfectly happy in my old man fuddy duddy house, thank you.

A few years ago, John Adams said this:

There is nothing I dread so much as a division of the Republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader and converting measures in opposition to each other.

I think he might have known what he was talking about.

Up until this point, I have been pretty active in political discussions with people. I post articles that I find interesting for one reason or another and try to have debates with the people that seem to find political opposition with whatever it might be on that particular day.

I quite believe that my political switch has been turned off tonight. Something inside of me just doesn’t feel like it anymore. I think the reason for this is… in the big picture, it doesn’t fucking matter. My argument with you DOES NOT MATTER. I am not changing your mind and you, most likely, are not changing mine. I understaaaaaaand your opinion and your point of view, but in many cases, I don’t agree with you and you don’t agree with me.

It doesn’t matter whether we elect McCain or Obama. The choice is between crap or more crap. You decide which is which. I don’t feel like arguing with you. I don’t feel like reading your 17 page dissertation on why Obama is the 2nd coming of Christ or why McCain knows anything about anything. I know he was a P.O.W. I don’t think I can ever go through what he went through, however, when I see him in debates I find myself saying "huh?" a lot.

They go back and forth. They change their minds. They change their stands. They have epiphanies. They say one thing at 9am, something different at 11am, and then the polar opposite at 6pm.

I was talking with one of my friends who shall remain nameless lest he be dragged out into the streets and lynched for having strong opinions and he said something to me which I find to be very true. Democrats will not fix your problems. Republicans will not fix your problems. Only people will fix these problems. Politicians are mostly the same in that they are here to further their agendas and most likely do not give a rat’s ass about you.

Ooo… hockey fight. No, that was not a plug for Palin. Fuck you.

Sorry, back to business.

I officially withdraw my hat from public political discussions. I would like for the sham that we call election day to come and go as quickly as possible so that I can stop arguing with people who I want to be friends with.

If I have spoken to you about this and we tend to agree on things, I will still probably talk to you about this stuff. You know who you are.

I know what my morals are. I know what my beliefs are. I know where I stand on issues. I know where the people that I care about stand on issues. At this point, I no longer care where you stand. At this point, I am certain that I will not see a president that will reflect said morals and beliefs.

Best of luck to us all over the next few years we are going to need it.

If there is hope, wrote Winston, it lies in the proles.

If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated. The Party could not be overthrown from within. Its enemies, if it had any enemies, had no way of coming together or even of identifying one another. Even if the legendary Brotherhood existed, as just possibly it might, it was inconceivable that its members could ever assemble in larger numbers than twos and threes. Rebellion meant a look in the eyes, an inflexion of the voice, at the most, an occasional whispered word. But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it ? And yet – !

Michael Savage wants to start a new political party. I can’t say that I agree with every single point here but I do find it interesting. Here is the manifesto:

The Savage Manifesto

Domestic

A. Regulate Wall Street: End short selling. Try tycoons who profited from bailouts.
B. Cut Federal Income Taxes by 2 percent per year over four years, for a minimum total of 8 percent over four years.

C. Reduce Federal Government Departments in size by 4 percent each year, for a total reduction of size by 16 percent over four years.

D. Eliminate all public assistance for able-bodied recipients. Cut off all public assistance for immigrants for five years. Repatriate those who are not working, after two years.

E. Immediately impose tariffs on cars and trucks owned by foreign entities, even if they’re manufactured in America.

F. Cause illegal aliens to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, and then, repatriate them. Pay them a one-time worker fee.

G. Increase pay for active duty combat troops by 10 percent. Number Two. Fire any unmarried military person becoming pregnant while on active duty.”

H. Make abortions illegal, except when the physical survival of the mother is threatened, to be determined by three medical doctors. Require Norplant for all women on welfare of childbearing age.

I. Close all houses of sex and massage.

J. Expand the DEA, while decriminalizing most drugs.

K. Regarding the media; one, eliminate all foreign ownership of any American media entity. Two, break up overly large conglomerates, like News Corporation.

L. Encourage child bearing among tax paying citizens. Create a marriage incentive, through lower taxes for married heterosexual couples. And a government subsidy for each child conceived and carried to birth. Increase the subsidies for each year the couple remains married.

M. Repatriate all illegal immigrants now incarcerated. Encourage all other illegals to self-repatriate through double taxation on wages and fines on employers.”

International

A. Iraq. Send in Iraqi troops to mop up pockets of resistance. Make Iraq pay with their oil for the cost of the war. Cordon off Sadr City, force all residents to leave, then go in and mop up all resistance fighters. Divide Iraq into three to four sectors; Sunni, Shiite, Kurd, and International. Next, remove all U.S. troops after above achieved.

B. Iran. One, sanctions embargoes and mine their harbors. Nothing goes in, nothing comes out.

C. North Korea. Destroy their launching platforms, impose a Naval blockade on all goods coming in or out, except food.

D. Israel Arab Entities. Give Israel four years to become self-sufficient. Cut off all foreign aid to all nations.

E. China. 20 percent tariffs on all China made goods immediately; rising by 5 percent each year for each year China refuses to revalue their currency.

F. United Nations. Withdraw immediately. Remove all Diplomats and staff. Convert the United Nations building into housing for the working poor.

G. Mexico. Force Mexico to pay one barrel of oil for every illegal alien in the United States of America per month.