Monday, August 31, 2009

Questionable Picks

So - immediately after the draft I was left with such an uncomfortable feeling. Like a giant pit in my stomach. Like I just ate a meatball sub with extra peppers. Like a double filet-o-fish that only comes up in the month of April that I order two of sometimes.

I chose a bunch of WRs when everyone was gunning for RBs. Every article I read has told me that I should focus on RBs and yet my top pick was Brandon Jacobs. No offense to Jacobs, for he is a bonafide beast, I really just didn't want to pick any RBs. Foolish - perhaps. Ballsy - possibly. Let's hope my 'strategy' works in the 10th week.

Larry Fitzgerald, arguably the best WR pick in the draft was top on my list. I might be a bit Cardinals heavy with Warner and the Arizona Defense but maybe that just means a little fun in the sun never hurt anybody. Or maybe that means I might be checking the free agency list immediately.

xoxo,
Draftbums Extraordinnaire Turkey

Monday, August 24, 2009

Cold desert

There's an amazing song by Kings of Leon called Cold desert. As Ted would say - it's hauntingly beautiful. I cannot tell what the song is about though. Here are the lyrics - you decide. It's in the running to be our first wedding dance song. So beautiful. You should listen to it and fall in love with Caleb as I have...


I'm on the corner waiting for a light to come on
That's when I know that you're alone
It's cold in the desert, water never sees the ground
Special unspoken without sound

Told me you love me, that I'd never die alone
Hand over your heart, let's go home
Everyone noticed, everyone has seen the signs
I've always been known to cross lines

I never ever cried when I was feeling down
I've always been scared of the sound
Jesus don't love me, no one ever carried my load
I'm too young to feel this old

Here's to you, here's to me
On to us, nobody knows
Nobody sees, nobody but me

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Suck it Favre

Really Brett? Vikings? Really?

Favre should use his right to bear arms. Take the gun to his head and shoot.

I hope one of the animals on his farms eats his feet.

xoxo
Anti-Vikings Turkey

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Cross Fit vs. Gym Jones

For awhile I thought that CrossFit came up with the 300 workout. So I googled it and found out that it actually came from Gym Jones, which I vaguely remembered. Apparently, there’s a lot of hostility between the CrossFit and the Gym Jones community. CrossFit was started in the 1980s by Greg Glassman, a former gymnast. (Btw – he will actually be at the LIC location on Friday, October 9th but we can’t make it because he’ll be there during the day). The number of CrossFit-affiliated gyms has grown from 18 in 2005 to 1,000 on March 2, 2009. According to Canada’s Business News Network, CrossFit is “one of the fastest growing fitness movements on the planet.” Mark Twight, founder of GymJones, actually took several CrossFit classes with Glassman. Here is a comment on the message boards that Glassman wrote regarding Twight and his Gym Jones technique when someone asked what the difference between the two workout programs were:

“You are exactly correct in your summation and overly generous in your praise of me. For you and the rest of this fine community I offer my motivation and my deepest gratitude.

When Mark’s weakness was publicly revealed at our seminar I ordered cameras turned off to mitigate his obvious embarrassment.

When he couldn’t get a muscle-up I bought him rings and coached him over the phone to success.

When deployed soldiers told me that he’d hidden from them the origins of “his new program” I actually laughed – then worried.

When he gave me his two books and later called saying that he was embarrassed at their fitness content and wished he’d not presented them, I praised him as a pioneer.

When he asked that his affiliation be removed from the site because it was bringing him too much fan mail, I didn’t quite believe the rationale. When he asked that it be reposted on launch of his new site, I was pleased. When I found out that the down time coincided with his appearance at a military installation presenting Gym Jones as a substantial (though unsubstantiable) improvement on CrossFit, I had a moment of clarity. When he again asked that it be removed because of my issues with a mutual friend, I listened for the other shoe to drop. It dropped months later with the release of trailers from his Hollywood project.

When the Gym Jones manual, which Mr. Twight naively thought I’d never see, was revealed to be built entirely from CrossFit concepts for which he took ownership, even liberally, eerily, infused with my idiom and syntax, I was enraged but ultimately decided that the market judgment would be more fruitful than legal remedies. Markets are fooled but transiently by affronts like this. (Our law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rossati which represents Google, Intel, Sun, Palm, Apple, Hewlitt Packard, Knight Ridder and, of course, CrossFit offered that we’d surely exceed Mark’s net worth in pretrial motions, and that a judgment would likely never be recovered, offered nonetheless to subsidize our efforts.

Say what you want about lawyers; ours, and their generosity, are vital to this program's existence.) That the Gym Jones manual claimed my contributions to the concepts therein were taken from other coaches, and that my sole contribution was clever Internet marketing, whereas his were the fruits of 20 years of research caused me worry for our affiliates and my anticipation of more and worse to come, but I remained committed to, as one of my best friends puts it, “the high road”. Against my instincts and nature, I must add.

But this week, Mr. Twight presented himself to an elite military audience and offered that he’d been ripped off by CrossFit and that CrossFit was injuring people. For the record, he was very careful not to mention CrossFit by name but made it abundantly clear to whom he has referring.

The injury part is hard to take, especially from a renegade affiliate whose most salient feature among all affiliates was a general, even reckless, disregard for mechanics with a concomitant and hypocritical lip-service to standards. (Check out what my crew calls the “Blair Witch CrossFit Videos” on Gym Jones site).
But, here’s what has forced my hand. We currently have scores if not hundred of soldiers who have staked careers and reputations, even their lives, on implementation of CrossFit within their ranks. They come from all branches of U.S. military and Special Operation Forces, and several foreign countries. These brave men and women have committed themselves professionally to CrossFit because of their firm belief in CrossFit’s potential for keeping them alive, enabling the successful completion of their objective, and extending the length of their operational careers. They see the specter of injury that Mr. Twight raises as a dishonest and dangerous ploy for market share. They know, as does Mr. Twight, that CrossFit has, in repeated tests, exceeded the requirements for safety, efficacy, and efficiency offered by current mil/LEO PT.

The Gym Jones method is sound though not up to CrossFit standards for safety, efficiency, or efficacy. Gym Jones represents a substantial improvement over traditional mil/LEO PT. Mark Twight’s attacks on CrossFit risk the lives of soldiers and police. This is more than the theft of my intellectual property about which I’ve long remained silent.”

And here is a link that shows an extensive review of Gym Jones. Apparently, the CrossFit journal offered to pay a loyal CrossFit member to do the Gym Jones workout and give his comments. Clearly, it has a bias that CrossFit trumps Gym Jones. There are big differences: timed trials aren’t valued at Gym Jones, randomness in workout routines, like CrossFit, will lead to a plateau effect, and diet/nutrition should be taken seriously but weighing foods is like an eating disorder.

library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_Berger_InsideGymJones.pdf

I personally think there are pro’s and con’s to each program. But what do I know. I didn’t know the difference between certain proteins and fats yesterday.

xoxo,
Broken Neck Turkey

Monday, August 10, 2009

Blocks Schmocks

I just read the crossfit diet guide and printed out the block suggestions. Portion size is redonk. They have recommended meals and one of them for breakfast was steak and eggs. Then I look at the portions and a 2 block meal consists of 1oz steak, one egg and one piece of toast. Period. PERIOD. As Arun would say: Hallo!? HALLO!? I mean - this 'diet' is going to take so long to get used to. The idea of eating 40/30/30 of carbs/prot/fat is going to be tough. I didn't even know some things were fat vs carbs. Eeeeediot.

I clearly have no idea what 1oz looks liked so I googled it. It's like 2 bites!! Turkey bites even. It reminds me of the Saturday Night Live skit with Will Ferrell working in a retail store wearing a very Mugatu outfit and he takes out a teeny tiny cell phone to answer. We're eating portions for midgets.

I will just say, trust you me, I will eat like a cow in Greece.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Runners Are Masochists

I don't get it. Ideally, one works out to feel good about themselves and their body. Well I don't. After working out 'regularly' for several weeks, my bones hurt, my feet are blistered and my body is just overall achy (without any flu-like symptons to even go along with it). And this is supposed to be sustainable? Yeah right.

Pavlov was on to something. This classical conditioning is making me hate working out. I mean - I work out, feel sore and repeat. This is not what I call fun. In fact, I cringe and hunch my shoulders at the idea of working out (in particular running) as you do with rhetorical-question-answerer-girl on Monday evenings.

I wish it was socially acceptable to be lazy and fat. What's wrong with that? Nothing. I am infinitely more happy sitting on the couch, reading a magazine or watching some good ol' T.O. show and enjoying a strawberry fruit bar then lacing up my blister-inducing running shoes, shorts that don't support and a tankini that isn't very breathable to go running outside and avoiding broken window glass and crackpipes along the streets of Queens.

I wish that people were comfortable in their own skin and motivations instead of being society-pressured to work out. They only do it to get shagged but once you're with someone who promises to shag you for the rest of your life, I think a deal should be struck with them that vows should be upheld: through THICK and thin...or thicker.

I'm done ranting for now.

xoxo
Sore Turkey