Xtreme Fitness and Bodybuilding Competition

Saturday I went to a fitness and bodybuilding competition for the first time and was disgusted, intrigued, confused, and inspired all at the same time.  I'm thinking it can't possibly be healthy to get so dehydrated and to kill off so much subcutaneous fat that you can literally see tiny muscle striations through the skin.  And the bottle tan stuff made some of the white competitors look more like big oompa loompas.  That stuff must be toxic.  Which is worse, a mega dose of D&C Orange #10 or some natural sun rays?  Ironically, the event was a World *Natural* Bodybuilding Federation "pro qualifier" regional event in Liberty, Missouri.  By "natural," they mean that the competitors achieved their physiques without the use of drugs and certain supplements which the natural bodybuilding leagues prohibit (i.e. ephedra, prohormones, prescription diuretics).  And they do a lot of drug testing.  But bottle tans are natural?  <shrug>  The most confusing part was the judging.  They would announce the winners and I would be surprised every time.  Afterwards, I had to read the judging criteria to even begin to understand the placements.  The Fitness model competition was the biggest surprise.  Swimsuits and heels.  Hair and makeup.  And the fitness routines. . . Full splits.  Straddle holds.  Wow.  What an excellent use of electronic music!  Now that I've seen the spectacle of self-made freaks lining up and showing off their muscles, part of me wants to lift heavy and see if I could get that chiseled.  The part about shaving off all my body hair, painting myself orange, applying body oil, and flexing in lycra skivvies in front of a crowd?  Not so much.

April First Friday

First Friday was fun. A large, messy Philly with Cheez Whiz and several napkins later, I was fed. The wind picked up out of the north and it got a little chilly. Walking through a few of the galleries on the east end of the Crossroads District, I saw some interesting art, but nothing really stood out as excellent. I only saw a couple of things I might tolerate looking at every day if they were inexpensive. . . and they weren't. Again, for a couple of hours KC felt like a real city. "Y'know if you're ever in Kansas City and you wanna hear some good music. . ." We saw Spinal Tap at Screenland. It's still funny, but not as funny as the 10th time I saw it. And not as funny as it might have been 20 years ago when it was newish. Like Fear of a Black Hat was 10 years ago. Maybe a mockumentary of the trendy music of the day is due. An emo slam is overdue.  Backwards hair and skinny distressed denim with a sport coat. . . fake band with make-up spoof. . . could be funny.

Jetta plan and colonization

I have recieved a quote for a replacement OEM 1.8T engine with a 27000 mile or 6 month warranty shipped for $2000. That, plus some cool, yet inexpensive, upgrades which I have learned about in my reading, and my Jetta is capable of 400+ horsepower and 13 second quarter miles. I'm getting excited.

 

And. . . on the immigration topic:

C Hill (4:00:44 PM): Oh no they didn't. . . http://www.renewamerica.us/news/images/060407immigration2.jpg
Kj (4:01:22 PM): christ
Kj (4:01:32 PM): and that is Nixon's home town
C Hill (4:01:37 PM): And I *love* this quote. . . "I argue that when people come from abroad to make a new home for themselves, and they are committed to the goal of becoming part of our nation -- that's immigration. When they come to exploit economic opportunities while proudly flaunting their determination to continue in their allegiance to a foreign flag -- that's colonization."
Kj (4:02:01 PM): that's an excellent quote
C Hill (4:02:06 PM): Alan Keyes

Dead legs, scallion mulch, and speed shop.

Yeah. Today, my trapezius muscles were hating. 80 pound dumbells shrugs will be easier next time, though. Today was my quadriceps workout. I nearly puked. Pushing up 12 plates on the leg press sled device of self torture took all the wind out of my sails. Plus, I supersetted those with 20 rep leg extensions at half my max to keep the muscles warm, and lots of stretching. THAT is why I split my quadricep and hamstring workout onto separate days. If I had done my hamstring workout subsequently, I surely would have hurled.  Since I've been benched on Tuesday night hockey, I didn't play this week and my legs were really ready for some tough work.  I'm an alternate in the invite-only game, but I could still play in the Tuesday night "D-League" game at Line Creek and work on my passing.  That game is slow enough that I can recover in less than a day.

The mowing season has begun. My yard looks good. It smells like scallions instead of cut grass, though. A lot of wild onions sprang up during the mild winter.  Mowing shouldn't make one salivate, but when the bermuda grass starts really getting green it'll crowd them out.  Yes, I've tasted them.  They're very strong.  You could season two pounds of hamburger with just one stalk, I think.

I helped Rich clean out his garage, which I'll be using to change the engine and turbo on my Jetta.  And I've been shopping for the right engine.  The learning curve is significant.

USB port in the dash.

The new radio in the Jeep not only has Sirius satellite radio, but it has a USB port.  Today, while roaming around the north end of town installing routers, I plugged in a flash drive containing a podcast of the Jim Rome Show.  The cool part is, when I start the Jeep, the mp3 picks up about 10 seconds before the place where it left off.  Nifty.  I'm in love with this feature.  If I could snag podcasts periodically and keep my flash disks up to date, I wouldn't need the satellite radio.  With this I can pause and come back and not miss one sarcastic punchline.

I did shrugs with 80 pound dumbells in each hand.  My shoulders might just kill me out of spite tomorrow.

Save our Stadiums/River

Of the spam I got today, I got a couple of items which I found interesting. The KC Star sent me a very nice piece of "Save Our Stadiums" propaganda, with a nice link to the rolling stadium roof animation. Here --> http://www.saveourstadiums.com/

And I got a solicitation from Missouri River Relief, in whose events I have been a volunteer. You get to ride around on the river in speed boats and put bottles, cans, and tennis balls into big plastic bags and drag discarded car parts and refrigerators to the pickup points. It's huge fun, good exercise, and you get to see the city from the water.  Here --> http://www.riverrelief.org/

Where'd the weekend go?

Jason's birthday party was a fun break from the norm.  Now that I know where Lake's house is, I might go back for the Thursday night poker game.  And then it rained.

The weather has settled into that familiar springtime pattern of storms almost every night and gorgeous sunny days.  I hope it keeps up.  It was a fantastic weekend.  I didn't get everything done, but I played some poker at Harrah's for a while.  I bought groceries.  I rested a lot.  I ate a lot.  And I played hockey. . . twice.

The Jerusalem Bakery buffet (Roanoke & Westport) is good grub.  For the money, it's hard to eat so healthy for so little cash.  And I love the format.  Two steps in the door, you grab a fork and a plate and start piling food onto it.  Then you pay $9; the drink is included.  Find a seat and chow down.  Free refills.  No frills.  And when you're really hungry following a leg workout, it's just the best.

I'm addicted to Beatbox 34 on Sirius satellite radio.  They play too much Fatboy Slim, but otherwise it suits my taste for driving around town music.  DJ Icey is good.  DJ Red Alert is way better.  I don't miss the local radio much.  I must admit I'm not very knowledgeable about next Tuesday's vote to support improvements to the stadiums.  When I need some news, I switch between Fox Talk 145, CBC News, and Howard 101.  They sort of balance each other out, so when one annoys me, I flip to the other.  If I could get the local KMBC traffic, weather, and local talk shows via the satellite where it's crystal clear, it would be perfect.

About the stadium issue, I never agreed with the policy of taxing everyone to build a stadium which will be used primarily by a sports league with pockets deep enough to pony up the higher rent.  But in this town, football is the unifying theme, and baseball is. . . well, not so much.  A stadium in this culture is really a piece of infrastructure.  Since the city can't negotiate a sweeter rent deal from the Chiefs, I suppose a little more sales tax is worthwhile to upgrade the stadiums, which haven't seen any significant improvements in years.  I'm glad the NFL agreed to pay for any budget overruns.  The construction projects are good for me, because my rental properties are in the vicinity of the stadiums.  In principle, I hate the additional tax and thespirit of the "keep the teams" ads, but the stadium improvements will benefit me personally, so I'm going to vote 'yes', I'm afraid.  What happens to that $20 a car they get from all those football fans who park on any given Sunday, though?  Can't they just go $30 a car to make the stadium roof payment?

On the hockey front, half our team was gone again this week doing battle readiness drills and it was, again, a blowout.  If we lose one more, we could find ourselves in next to last place. . . which, from a playoff seed perspective, is kind of a sweet spot.