The window to my world

What does it mean to be haunted?

Closing my eyes I can see the first time I saw you. I open and close them again and I see the last time I saw her. I hear a love song on the radio, especially a Beatles one, and I hear her voice in the lyrics. I can see your smiles and your tears. I hear you laughter and you sarcastic remarks aimed at me. Not a day goes by that you don’t drift into my thoughts, even if just for a second. I care for you, worry about you, and want the best for you.

I know you don’t feel the same, and I’m a realist so I know the odds of things changing are pretty low. So all I can do is sit from afar and be haunted by you.

Crossfit Headquarters (CFHQ) announced changes to how people can qualify for the Crossfit Game. Main point was doing away with sectional qualifiers and going to on-line qualifications at that level. I’ll stay away from how silly this is if you want to be considered a “sport”, but think of how many sports out there on the professional level (baseball, football, basketball) that have teams or people qualify for their championships by having a video submission? What is this, “America’s Stupidest Home Videos?” There is a nice thread discussing these changes you can read through if you really care to do so.

If you have read the thread you probably came across Greg Glassman’s comment (founder of Crossfit) giving his thoughts on those that disagree with the changes:

“This entire fitness concept was launched amid near universal derision and consternation. I’m quite comfortable making unpopular decisions that irritate the masses and dim-witted. I’m proud of the decisions we’ve made, the deliberative processes we’ve engaged, and our track record generally.”

Kind of a nice thing to say to those that pay you money in some way or another isn’t it?  Many of us know that the whole “open-source” and all the other stuff that CFHQ says is mainly hot-air, CFHQ will listen and discuss things with you as long as you agree CFHQ is right and you are an idiot if you think otherwise. I’ve met Glassman before and heard him speak. He came across as a nice guy that had some information he wanted to share. But reading comments like this above makes him come across as an asshole in my opinion. This isn’t isolated either, many more comments, Glassman has many more comments like the above, not to mention kicking out any subject matter expert that doesn’t tow the CFHQ line 100%.

I don’t do Crossfit, I prefer doing a smarter training program focused on my goals. And I don’t knock people that want to do Crossfit. I would ask those people to stop and consider if they want to send money to someone that makes comments like the above about his customers? Even ig you go to an affiliate money is making its way back to CFHQ. You don’t need to pay anyone any money, especially the $100 a month or more so affiliates charge, you can do it in a home gym, at the local track, or youur local gym that charges you $10 a month. Just something to think about.

It is great that you are pushing your “4G” network. I use the quote marks as most people know your network doesn’t meet the definition of 4G, but it is fast. While you are rolling out this new network, what about those of us stuck on your older network?

I’m not referring to your 3G network but rather your 2G network. Some of us T-Mobile customers would love to move up to even to 3G network speeds. Now I could upgrade to a 3G network if I wanted to switch to AT&T,  Sprint, U.S. Cellular, or Verizon, all which offer 3G service in the area where I live.

I’ve placed calls, contacted your online support, and even wrote letters asking when I can expect an upgrade in my area. I would expect just a standard boilerplate answer of “we are continuously upgrading our network to bring you better service” but I just get silence.

Well T-Mobile, when can those of us that live in areas that could get 3G service from your competitors get it from you? Or is your silence a hint we should just switch carriers?

Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple has introduced a new product, Primal Fuel. Now before I give my thoughts on this product I want to make two things.

First I like Sisson’s book “The Primal Blueprint“. I’ve read it and have suggested it to others as I’ve found a lot of good information in the book. The second point is that I have not tried Primal Fuel but for the points I want to make that is irrelevant.

Primal Fuel is a whey protein supplement, often used either as a meal replacement or for a quick jolt of protein post workout. Primal fuel contains the following ingredients: Whey Protein Isolate, Coconut Milk, Inulin (from artichoke), Guar Gum, Sucrose, Cocoa Powder, Natural Flavors, Maltodextrin, Sodium Caseinate, Kelp Plant Extract, and Stevia Leaf Extract. The most unusual thing I see is the inclusion of coconut milk. I’m not aware of any other whey protein supplement that contains coconut milk. A 30 serving container of Primal Fuel will set you back $99.

For a comparison I looked at a couple of other whey protein supplements out there. First on the list is Jarrow Formula Whey Protein, Caribbean Chocolate. Looking at its list of ingredients: 100% Ultrafiltered Whey Protein from milk, fructose, natural cocoa powder, natural semi-sweet chocolate, lecithin (from soy), guar gum, Fibersol-2 (resistant maltodextrin), vanilla flavor and Lo Han Guo (Momordica grosvenorii) and sells for $18.17, offering 35 servings Very similar except for the lack of coconut milk. Another one is Natural Factors 100% Natural Whey Protein. It is composed of Whey Protein Natural French vanilla flavor and guar gum and sells for $29.37 and has 45 servings.

So here we see two products offering more servings at a lower cost, with the main difference being the lack of coconut milk. If you really want coconut milk you can buy a can pretty cheap, add a few ounces to one of the above products,, top off with milk or water, and still have a much cheaper product that offers the same benefits.

Sisson has some good information, but when I look at the supplements he is selling under the “Primal” brand I just find products that you can purchase at a much lower cost at many other places. Even that nice over-priced local GNC store has supplements of the same formulation at a cheaper price. Save your money and purchase your supplements elsewhere is my advice.

9 Years ago today, the world changed when planes slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the passengers flight United 93 fought back. I still get a swelling of emotions when watching the replays of the day, the towers coming down, listening to the names of those who died recited. Close to 3000 people died that day, innocent lives killed by those who didn’t lose sleep over this for in their eyes none of us are innocent.

One thing to remember is the type of people that launched this attacked, the believers in Islam and the destruction of those that refuse to bow to them, are still out there and would do something like this again if given the chance. There are moderated Muslims, there is no moderation in Islam, remember that.

One thing that irks me today is the conspiracy theory idiots, yes idiots, seem to think this is a great time to remind us all that our government was behind this event. As I said one word describes them, idiots. Take this from Dan Thompson on his Facebook status update today:

“would like to remind everyone to remember 9/11/01. Remember Building 7, remember the black boxes that “disappeared”, remember the lack of Air Force response. Question the “Official Story”, for it is riddled with inconsistencies and outright falsehoods. Remember. We must ask, always: Cui bono? Who benefitted? Remember. And ACT.”

The main thing riddled with holes and inconsistencies is the “evidence” put forth by these people. I could go point by point and show how people like these are off in their statements, with actual evidence, but it would fall on their deaf ears. For those of you that want to take the time to read up on this then check out the article Popular Mechanics did a few years ago on the myths surrounding 9/11. If you are really interested, Popular Mechanics expanded their original article into a book. The Learning Channel also put out a DVD on the collapse of The World Trade Center that is worth watching.

The biggest error the conspiracy idiots, err theorists make is the cherry picking of information. They’ll take 10,000 pages of documentation, hours upon hours of video and audio transcripts, and pick out that one paragraph or 10 seconds of videos that “proof” their case while ignoring the other 99.99999% of the data that doesn’t.

Just got a new car a couple of weeks ago (2010 Hyundai Accent for those interested) and how to go through the whole insurance process. While doing this I took a look at my driving record the insurance company was using to rate me (provided by them). Two speeding tickets, and one at fault accident for under $1000. Something didn’t seem right there. The speeding tickets were legit, but the accident was one where I was stopped at a light and someone rear-ended me, and ended up having my car totaled. I was trying to figure out how that was me being at fault for under $1000 so I called my agent.

My agent went over things and said yes, that didn’t make sense and he would contact the issuing insurance company (Progressive). A couple of  hours later I hear back from him and the verdict was it is cheaper to have an “at-fault” accident on my record then a no-fault one. So somehow it makes more economic sense for the insurance company to list me as being fault instead of not being at fault? I’m still puzzling over that logic.

The following are some of my thoughts and observations from hanging around the gym. Nothing I write here should be considered professional advice but rather just my rambling opinion.

1. After many hours of watching people attempt it, you can’t do a proper squat in a Smith Machine.
2. Have a plan when going to the gym.
3. It’s a squat rack, not a rack for holding the barbell so you can do arm curls.
4. Ask yourself from time to time, “what is the exact purpose of the exercise I am doing”? If you don’t know the answer to the question, stop doing the exercise.
5. Spending 30 minutes on the treadmill, then 30 on a bike, then 20 on the elliptical machine, what the hell do you think you are doing? Working different muscles isn’t the answer.
6. If you aren’t getting your thighs to at least parallel when squatting, don’t fool yourself on how much you can squat .
7. Along those same lines, unless you have a specific for not doing so, full range of motion when doing resistance exercises. Doesn’t matter if it is a push-up or a dead lift, full range of motion.
8. If using a barbell, put the weights back where they belong after you are finished lifting. Your mom isn’t here to clean up after you and if you are trying to impress people with how much you are doing quarter-squats with, we aren’t impressed.
9. Don’t mock other people in the gym. If someone is doing an exercise that you know 100% is wrong, then offer advice. If they refuse then shrug your shoulders and go away.

Dennis Hopper passed away yesterday and on my Facebook page I mentioned drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) in his memory. Now a couple of people mentioned some unflattering things about PBR, not catching the reference to Hopper’s role as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet where he delivers a classic line.

I know PBR isn’t known as the greatest beer in the world, I prefer a good ale, especially an IPA. But if you been working out in the hot sun and want an ice cold beer to cool off with I’ll grab a PBR over my favorite IPA. There is the right brew for the right occasion and with the right occasion that could be a PBR. Besides trying to cool off, a tribute to Dennis Hopper is the right occasion for a PBR.

I spend some time hanging out on the Crossfit message boards, reading posts to learn more, asking and answering questions. The typical message board stuff.

This morning I posted a link to a blog post by Robb Wolf. Of course posting links to Robb Wolf’s site on the CF boards is a no-no, just like posting links to Starting Strength, so I used bit.ly to post the link. Now all of my posts have to undergo moderator approval before showing up.

Their boards, their rules, just find it amusing.

I wrote before about some of the things that make me shake my head over on the Crossfit boards, but I’m at the “you just got to laugh at the craziness” stage. I should add it’s Crossfit’s message board that they offer for free so they can make the rules and do what they want.

One of the way Crossfit promotes itself is as “open source”, meaning they say here is what you do if you think you have a better way lets hear and debate the issue. Sounds great, unless the Crossfit powers that be don’t like the message. Starting yesterday on the message boards if you posted a link to the Starting Strength website or Robb Wolf’s website the links get filtered, meaning they get changed to *******. In effect those sites are now banned on the Crossfit message board.

Why you may ask? Well those two along with others have stated they think they could do something better than the way Crossfit is currently doing something. In Robb Wolf’s case it is nutrition, for Mark Rippetoe (Starting Strength) it’s the importance of strength. In these cases Crossfit becomes closed-source. I’ would guess that it has to do with Crossfit’s tie-ins with Barry Sear’s of The Zone and Louie Simmons.

Crossfit even does some wacky things if you try to link to their message boards and they don’t like you. As an example if you post a link to the Crossfit boards in The couch thread (a thread making fun of Greg Glassman and Crossfit) on the Irongarm boards, you’ll just get bounced back to Irongarm if you click on the link.

As I said, their boards, their rules, but what are they afraid of facing? Someone that may have a better idea?