Jumprope 10 mins; 1/2 Pyramid: 28 Pullup

Posted on July 31, 2013 | Leave a comment

Jumprope 10 mins; 1/2 Pyramid: 28 Pullups w/ 10# vest, 56 Jump Squats, 56 Pushups, 28 Squats 40# @cabal_fang #WOD

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts

Productivity Boost – Get Moving

Posted on July 31, 2013 | Leave a comment

If a standing desk arrangement isn’t your cup of tea, check out this spiffy post about exercise breaks…

Lee Laughlin's avatarLive to Write - Write to Live

You’ve heard the mantras:

Writers, write.

Butt in chair, fingers on keyboard. Go!

Free weightsStill, humans weren’t really built to sit still for long periods of time and yet, that is what so many of us do every day. We sit, at a desk, for 8+ hours poking our keyboards and staring at our monitors. More and more we are hearing that the path to productivity, is NOT more hours, it is higher QUALITY hours. A fellow writer Nancy Mirtle, shared this article by Rachelle Gardener about interval training for writers. Based on the work of Tony Schwartz Gardener suggests setting a timer for 90 minutes and focusing on writing without interruption. On the days I can make this work with my schedule, it’s gold, pure productivity gold. There is however a catch for me and, I suspect, other writers.

If the diagnosis ADHD had been around 30 years…

View original post 342 more words

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts, Writing

Taking Up the Grip Strength Challenge (Again)

Posted on July 31, 2013 | 1 comment

I have been trying for years to get my grip strength up to the top 1% level (see previous posts).  So far I’ve only been able to get to what I would consider the “above average” level, followed immediately by hand pain, tennis elbow, tendonitis, etc.

I am healthy now and I’ve ordered some more grip tools, and a new booklet, from Ironmind.  Time to try it again.

Where am I right now?  Don’t know.  I could probably shut the #1 gripper, but I don’t want to try it right now.  I haven’t touched a grip tool since last October and I want to re-start slow.  Here’s a breakdown of the pull on Ironmind grippers:

  1. Guide (60 lbs).  Almost everyone who works out at all can shut this one.
  2. Sport (80 lbs).  Lots of people can shut this one.
  3. Trainer (100 lbs).  Starting to get into above average territory.  Some folks can shut this gripper on the first try.
  4. Number 1 (140 lbs).  Remarkable power.  Very few can shut this gripper.  I had one on my desk at the office for a year, and I give to people at martial arts demos and what-not.  Only a handful of people I’ve met can shut it.  I’m somewhere in this area right now.
  5. Number 2 (195 lbs).  Very exceptional grip.  Specialized training is required to close this gripper unless you are a freak of nature or you’ve developed grip strength unintentionally because you sling very heavy iron in the gym.  This is the gripper I want to close, or die trying.
  6. Number 3 (280 lbs).  Extreme grip strength.  Only a couple of hundred people in the world can shut this gripper.
  7. Number 4 (365 lbs).  Superhuman power.  Since 1998 only five men have closed this gripper.

Why do I want to have ridiculous grip strength?

  • Admiration.  My father had amazing grip strength despite a serious hand injury.  He could crush a soda can — unopened and full of drink! — and he did not practice, work out, or lift weights.  I admire that natural power.
  • Fantasy.  I started writing a story when I was a teenager (still unfinished) about a prehistoric character with amazing grip strength named Ul.  I want to be as strong as my fictional character.
  • Practicality.  I once trained self defense with Walt Lysak.  His brother Charlie can close an Ironmind #3 gripper, and Walt is no slouch either.  Walt can take you by the wrist or the back of the neck and the fight is over.  It feels like you’re in the grip of the jaws of life.
  • Aspiration.  I don’t like failure and I don’t believe in giving up.  I want to shut that @#%&*! Ironmind #2 gripper, and that’s all there is to it.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress…

1 Comment

Posted in Martial arts

Tagged ,

10 Min. Solo Ground-fighting Conditioner #2

Posted on July 30, 2013 | 1 comment

Awhile back I put up a 10 min. solo ground-fighting conditioning workout to help you stay in shape between sessions with a live partner.  That seemed pretty popular.  So here’s another.

  1. Mount your heavybag.  Strike it 10 times as hard as you can.
  2. Drop, lock, and roll so that bag is ontop of you.  Knee boost the bag as hard as you can.
  3. Mount the bag.  Strike it 10 times as hard as you can.
  4. Drop, lock, and roll so that bag is ontop.  Reverse/roll the bag to mount.
  5. Repeat.

Complete as many rounds as you can in 10 minutes.

1 Comment

Posted in Martial arts

Tagged , , ,

How to Roast Chicory Root (St. James Day Chicory Part 2)

Posted on July 29, 2013 | Leave a comment

wpid-IMG_20130728_091402.jpgLast week I gathered Chicory on St. James’ Day.  In order to use it to brew a coffee like drink, I had to roast it.  Instructions on how to do so vary greatly.  Some people advise drying the roots first, followed by chopping, roasting, and then grinding.

I’ve done it several ways, but here’s the method that works best for me.  This method is especially nice if you don’t have a coffee grinder.

wpid-IMG_20130728_090544.jpgDry the roots in a cool dry place.  Small roots the diameter of a pencil dry in just a few days.  Put dry roots on a cutting board and mince them the way you would garlic into coffee-ground size.  Put them in the oven at 350° (I used a toaster oven) until they’re the color of coffee (just a few minutes).  Be careful — they will smoke and burn!  Allow to cool and store until ready to brew.

wpid-IMG_20130728_093854.jpgTo brew, add about 1 tsp. of chicory to 1 cup very hot water and allow to steep for a couple of minutes.  Pour through a regular coffee filter and enjoy.  Or, if you gathered them on St. James’ Day at noon or midnight like I did, save them until you come up with a special ritual to surround their enjoyment.  More to come next week.

Leave a comment

Posted in Green

Tagged , , ,

Double-end bag 10 mins; Pyramid to 5: Pu

Posted on July 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

Double-end bag 10 mins; Pyramid to 5: Pullups, Jump Squats (x10), Pushups (x2), 50 Squats w/ 20# Dumbbells (x2) @cabal_fang #WOD

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts

Gathering Chicory on Saint James’ Day

Posted on July 25, 2013 | 1 comment

Frazier mentions in The Golden Bough (3rd edition, Vol. XI, p. 71) that, according to his source at least, White Chicory harvested at noon or midnight on St. James’ Day (July 25th), has the power to open all locks and doors.  It should be cut using a gold implement and one must not utter a sound while cutting.†

Although I have no golden knife (who does?), I went forward today in silence.  I assume when Frazier says “White Chicory” he means that one should select plants with the faded blossoms that are virtually white.  That’s what I did.

What locks do I need to pick?   What doors to open?  I intend to work up a ritual around the plant and its root to aid me in the opening of non-material doors — doors of perception, spiritual doors, Doors of the Will.

image

Root and base of Chicory plant

†The entire passage from Frazier:

“The superstition which associates the springwort with the woodpecker is very ancient, for it is recorded by Pliny. It was a vulgar belief, he tells us, that if a shepherd plugged up a woodpecker’s nest in the hollow of a tree with a wedge, the bird would bring a herb which caused the wedge to slip out of the hole; Trebius indeed affirmed that the wedge leaped out with a bang, however hard and fast you might have driven it into the tree. Another flower which The white possesses the same remarkable power of bursting open all doors and locks is chicory, provided always that you cut the flower with a piece of gold at noon or midnight on St. James’s Day, the twenty-fifth of July. But in cutting it you must be perfectly silent ; if you utter a sound, it is all up with you. There was a man who was just about to cut the flower of the chicory, when he looked up and saw a millstone hovering over his head. He fled for his life and fortunately escaped ; but had he so much as opened his lips, the millstone would have dropped on him and crushed him as flat as a pancake. However, it is only a rare white variety of the chicory flower which can act as a picklock; the common bright blue flower is perfectly useless for the purpose.”

1 Comment

Posted in Mysticism

Tagged , , , ,

The Ray Bradbury Challange

Posted on July 25, 2013 | 6 comments
415px-Planet_Stories_November_1953_cover

Planet Stories feat. Ray Bradbury (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Author Ray Bradbury , most famous for his novel Fahrenheit 451, was known to hand out advice to struggling writers.  There’s a fair amount of it available on the net, including a talk he gave back in 2001 (see link below).

He issued two famous challenges.  The first, which seems to me to me the lesser of the two in terms of payoff, is to read a short story, an essay, and a poem per night for 1,000 nights.  The second, and I think by far the harder challenge, is to write a short story per week for 52 weeks.  Lots of people, like Lin and some weird guy living in Japan, have accepted one or the other challenge.  It’s fun to watch how these exercises are changing writers.

With that in mind, last week I accepted the second challenge albeit in a modified form.  I will write a short story a week, not for 52 weeks, but until I get to 80,000 words.  When I hit 80,000 words I’ll self-publish the collection at Smashwords.

Last week’s story is called Shiflett Courier Service and it’s about a cop who, after getting shot in the face during a robbery in progress, retires and starts his own courier service.  Years later, when he least expects it, he once again finds himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

This week’s story is called The Assassination of Jhoon Hebren.  Speaker of the House Hebren and his protoge Nico Carter find themselves embroiled in a Justice Department investigation concerning a secret group called Kensho Hat.  Hebren denies everything because he isn’t involved.  Or is he?

This is going to be fun ride.  Shouldn’t be too hard to keep my pencil sharp while the editors are reading my novel The 14th Mansion.  But it’s going to get really challenging when the proofs come back and I start the novel re-write.

Will I be able to write a short-story a week and finish the final draft of the novel at the same time?

I guess you’ll have to stay tuned to find out…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W-r7ABrMYU

6 Comments

Posted in Writing

Tagged ,

Split J/Squats 50,Steam Engines 100,P/up

Posted on July 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

Split J/Squats 50,Steam Engines 100,P/ups dbl-wide 25,Getups 25,50 Yard Dash 4,Crunches 100,P/ups barrel roll 25 @cabal_fang #WOD

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts

My Tree of Life and Death

Posted on July 23, 2013 | 1 comment

imageI’ve been studying Qabalah and the Qliphoth for the few years, and since my novels are set inside a fictionalized version of The Tree, I made this giant folding poster as a visual reference.

My poster contains fictional and non-fictional references, my personal notes, etc.  Notice  each path contains a miniature picture of the Tarot trump associated with it by the Golden Dawn (here is a great article that contains a wealth of information about pathworking with the Golden Dawn attributions).

I have, in a sense, combined the Qliphoth with the Sephiroth so that each orb contains the name of both.  This superimposition makes certain correspondences abundantly clear.  Since this photo was taken I have also pasted in Thomas Karlsson‘s 22 pathworking sigils.

The descriptions of the Emanations and their Husks, both in my novels and on the poster, are based on my own pathworking experiences, my artistic intuitions, and the various color indicators gleaned from many different color tables and scales.

I intend to continue adding notes as I work and write, so it will never be ‘finished.’  But at some point, when it’s reasonably concise, I may consider creating a poster of it if anyone is interested…

1 Comment

Posted in Mysticism

Tagged , , , , , , ,