Editing and Brain Rules

Charging madly forward. Reached page 267 tonight, removed another 1500 words or so, and am almost pleased with the progress.

So is Gabrielle, who has been giving me gems from the Dragon Moon Press December slushpile. Impressive stuff. Not in a good way.

At work we are putting together some videos and part of my research on it took me to the Brain Rules website. It's a fascinating website, built around the book by the same title, written by John Medina. I haven't had time to dig too deeply into it, but it looks like the man has done his research, and the website itself is a great example of marketing design. There's a lot of neat stuff that I intend to explore sometime when it isn't midnight.

Correction. After midnight. I'm going to get myself four hours sleep and see if I can manage a workout in the morning (or should I say, later this morning?). It's unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

Monday Lunchtime Blogging

Here I sit, contemplating the snow I spent hours shoveling (all right one hour, plus several 10 minute stints to keep up) and the first thing that leaps to mind?

"Now where do I work out?"

Up until now, I've been working out in a local park, using a bench for abdominals, a wall for handstand push-ups, a set of monkey bars for pull-ups/chin-ups, parallel bars for horizontal pull-ups and a lot of open space for the rest of the workout.

It is now underneath a foot or more of snow.

I've been trying to get a workout space set up in my office (large office; it also doubles as our library). Unfortunately, it also doubles as storage space as we move things around in the house. Right now, I have two empty wardrobe boxes (going to a friend who is moving), two dressers (we just put in wardrobes) and six milk crates (left over from our move and need to be returned to our friends) cluttering up the 6x10 space that is going to be my exercise station.

Also on the agenda, buying floor mats (so the whole house doesn't rattle when I do burpees), getting a chinning bar and finding something to use for horizontal pull-ups other than the bottom of my desk, which is nice and give a good grip work out, but doesn't allow for the wide grip that I need to work my shoulder properly.

I'm looking forward to getting this all as done as soon as possible so I can design a new workout program. Of course, I'll need to spend some money, so if anyone wants to help out, here's where you can buy my book.

(Yeah, I know, cheesy advertising, but it's been a while since I did a sales pitch)

Speaking of books, Cold Magics is moving along again, which is nice. Good to be getting back in the groove.

Body Weight Exercise

Just a quick note tonight (I'm supposed to be working on Cold Magics and my website) to talk about a website I've been visiting fairly regularly these days: Body Weight Culture.com.

I prefer working out with body weight (push-ups, burpees, sit-ups, etc.) instead of weights, and this website is completely dedicated to the concept. Very cool people there, and some great information. I'm enjoying myself there, picking up some good tips for my workout, and learning some excellent things from the folks in the forums. I am also fairly stunned at how strong some of these guys (and gals) are. There's some great wokout advice there, and some good folks to talk to and answer questions.


And now, got to work that website. And write.

And Now, Get in Shape Month is Over

And you know, it went pretty well.

I declared May, for any who might be new to the blog, to be Get in Shape Month because I was feeling all sorts of out of shape. I had four goals:

• To get back to working out 6 mornings a week (3 days strength and martial arts, 3 days running)
• To do more swordfighting
• To make it through my core program without resting
• To be able to push myself hard through my entire calisthenic circuit training

And how did they go? Not bad, but not great:

• Worked out 5 days instead of 6 most weeks but that's more than I was doing
• Didn't get to swordfight once (dammit). Rapier Wit is in teaching mode right now, so open nights were taken up with rehearsals
• I can now make it through my core program, which is essentially three minutes of variations on the plank, without rest and with only a little crying
• I can almost push myself hard through my entire calisthenic training program (its a twenty minute, no rest program).

So I didn't quite achieve those goals, but I did get some other things out of it:

• I can do 50 pushups again
• I can do 12 chinups again
• I can chest press 200 lbs again
• And I lost 5 pounds

Not bad at all. For the next three months I 'm actually going to be concentrating a bit more on the weight loss. I am not fat (according to the charts) but I'm not where I'd like to be, so that's the next step.

Back to work.

Well, I'm All Annoyed Now

And on several fronts. First, because of the Conservatives newly introduced rules for campaign financing, which were written, as near as I can tell, to ensure that only the rich or those supported by the banks can afford to run for office.

Thanks, Stevie, for taking another chunk out of our democracy. And why haven't you disclosed who gave you money for your 2002 leadership campaign?

Second, because I missed posting the ultimate geek post this Friday past. That's right, last Friday was Darth Vader Day and I missed it (two points to the first one to figure out why it was Darth Vader Day).

To be fair, I was exhausted and fell into bed early. And can you believe it? The kid slept until 8 AM. I got 10 hours sleep. It was glorious.

Third, I also on Friday came across a ton of Geek Links to put in, but can I remember any of them now? Sigh. no.

Now, onto happy things. The last reading of the galley proofs proceeds apace. I'm on page 215 and at this rate will be done well before May 15, which is the deadline I set myself. Then they go back to Dragon Moon, off to the printer and soon we'll all be holding books in our grubby little hands.

After that (more happy thoughts) I can start writing again! Cold Magics is pining for me like a Norwegian Blue pining for the fjords, and vice-versa. I am looking forward to getting back to it and getting it done. Not to mention the other two projects I've got on my mind.

Get in shape month proceeds apace. Got five of the six workouts in that I wanted, will shoot to get all six in this week. No swordfighting, but hopefully next week. And I don't know what it is about my workout, but my hamstrings are burnt. Running up that last hill this morning nearly killed me.

And that's all for the moment. More editing to do before bed.

Meanwhile, did you see that they think they've discovered Herod's tomb?

Back to work.

It's Get in Shape Month!

May is Get in Shape Month!

And what evil person declared this, you ask? Me. I'm chunking up and feeling lumpy and need to get back on the bandwagon. Too much deskwork and not enough swordfighting.

So welcome to Get in Shape month! The goal is to get your body moving and yourself feeling good. For those of us with chronic injuries, it's also about making those things that hurt stop hurting.

Remember: No Pain, Good!

The rules:

1. NO STUPID, UNREACHABLE GOALS: Losing 40 pounds in a month isn't healthy. Neither is trying to run a marathon in 30 days when all you've done is walk to the store. Impossible goals set you up for failure and make you feel bad. Make any goals you set this month SMART: Specific, Measureable, Action Oriented, Realistic and Time-specific.
2. NO CRASH DIETS: For exactly the same reason. They set you up for failure. Eat healthily, indulge occasionally, and don't sweat the small stuff.
3. NO FOCUSING ON YOUR WEIGHT: This month is about getting in shape, not losing weight. That is a side benefit of the getting in shape process.
4. HAVE FUN: Find things you like to do and do them. No point in picking activities that you dislike, eventually, you will just stop doing them anyway.
5. HAVE A REWARD AT THE END OF IT: My wife and I are going to Stratford (Ontario, that is) at the end of the month. I'm going to run my 10 km along the banks of the Avon. Also, I could use some new clothes.

My goals:

• To get back to working out 6 mornings a week (3 days strength and martial arts, 3 days running)
• To do more swordfighting
• To make it through my core program without resting
• To be able to push myself hard through my entire calestenic circuit training

All my goals are achieveable in this time period given my current condition and free time. The side benefit will be to make my pants a bit more comfortable, and make me feel a lot better about myself.

So, who is with me? Who wants to jump on the bandwagon? Let me know and I'll start posting some exercise and diet tips here for those interested.