Star Trek and My Life

I found out that one of the female hammer throwers is a huge Star Trek fan. She attempted to tell me that she was a bigger fan than I, however after informing her that I watched most of the Voyager series in about 1 month and was raised on The Next Generation and worship (literally, I pray to them) a few of the Star Trek movies, she backed down. The fact that I saw Levar Burton speak was the kicker. By the way, he really was one of the best speakers I have ever seen. It was awesome. So, I came home and thought about how I missed my prize possessions of the entire series of Voyager and TNG on dvd and how I will probably watch a lot of Star Trek when I am home. Luckily, I have my WWPD? (What would Picard Do?) t-shirt to hold me over. If anyone wants to get me a Christmas gift, I am open to a WWJD? (What would Janeway do?) or a WWSD? (What would Sisko do?). WWKD? would be fine as well. Speaking of Kirk, I saw Incubus the movie in the dvd store for 9.95 CD. So I guess that would be like 5 USD's now, ain't? Haha.

Anyway, back to my story. I went home and thought about all of the lessons I have learned from Star Trek and I really could not sleep. I kept thinking about the most dramatic scene in all of film and how it still touches me to even think about. That scene of course is at the end of Wrath of Khan when Spock goes in and saves the ship and speaks to Kirk and tells him the greatest lines ever muttered in cinema..."The needs of the many..." (heavy breathing becuase of poisoning) "Out weigh the needs of the few...or the one..." I get chills thinking about. Well, I started to comprehend this lesson and really put it to work in my life. I have always (always being the last 2-3 years of my life) attempted to live by the Way and believe that following the Golden Rule is crucial to living a happy life. I have no modified this and believe that not only is it crucial to follow the Golden Rule, it is also extremely important to abide by the guidelines of the Vulcan culture muttered by Spock at the end of Wrath. Ancient Vulcan philosopher Surak (see image) laid down these standards and it completely changed the Vulcan civilization.

Here is a simple equation:

Golden Rule + Vulcan philosophy of living = the Way.

Well, I was happy because I applied this to my life the following morning. I was tired becuase I slept all of 4 hours due to my thinking about Star Trek the previous night. Well, I wanted to lay in bed but I still decided to get up and go deliver the paper. I got to the paper box and noticed the papers had not been delivered. They were 2 hours later than normal. I sat for 30 minutes and was about to head home when I really put things into perspective. I thought about how I was tired and could be getting my rest prior to my workout session and since the papers were already late, I would then be late getting home to nap before the morning session. I decided to wait it out. Everything sort of guided me to stay and wait for the papers to show up. I knew they eventually would arrive and indeed they came within 10 minutes. To me, it was more important for me to get people their much need paper in the morning than for me to sleep an extra 40 minutes before training. In reality, my thought process was for me to stay and treat others the way I would want to be treated and to put them before myself. What would Spock/Surak do? He would have delivered those papers...yes, yes I am comparing myself to Spock.

Quote of the Day: "So Dane, this time five years ago we were really starting to train and go to school and really get serious about our careers at Penn State. Imagine that, five years later I am still in school and you are a paper boy. Who would have imagined? By the way, my 12 year old buddy called...he wants his job back." - Scott "I am a fatass" Vernon

Scott is still in school but at least it is law school...I however am still a paper boy, haha.

Training Videos

OK, hopefully these work this time. They aren't anything special. I put them up more so anyone can see where I am training at, not what I am doing. When I feel ready I will put some throwing videos up.

American Nutrition and Welfare for the Rich

Here is a very, very informative article on the current situation in American Agriculture. Very little of this article can be debated, it is virtually right on target with everything it states. Heinsy, I don't know if Dana teaches a current events class but this may have something for a class in regards to current events in the government. I believe the best line in this article is the reference to twinkies. Anyway, I hope you read it. It does not take long.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04pollan.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=0a40e8efe1e96aef&ex=1194411600&oref=slogin

Pictures from Trip with Chris

Here are some images from my trip up here with Chris Stamm. Some of them are from Glacier National Park, some are just from driving in Alberta, two are from Vulcan and then the one is Chris before he left. The first one is from the very top of the Glacier at Many Glaciers in Montana. We hiked 6 miles to get there and behind me was where the other pictures were taken. I will put more up later this week. Don't forget to read my other two new blogs about Halloween and my Nutrition. Hang it out.

Nutrition

My eating habits have improved tremendously since moving to Kamloops. It has helped that I am not drinking and in turn going to Redners and eating a 12 inch sub at 2:30 in the morning with Kevin and Ner. Although, I do miss going to Redners. Anyway, since I have little to no money I cannot buy any junk food and funnel any extra money into buying very high quality, high calorie, high protein and high fat foods. This has in turn sparked solid recovery from training and so far a subtle change in my body composition.

I joined a co-op here in Kamloops and it is fairly cheap and extremely helpful. All of the food is locally grown around the Kamloops area (as close as it can be) and is brought to the co-op center. I place my orders every week and then when I arrive at the center they provide me with all of my order and the transaction is made. It is extremely convenient and I enjoy knowing that I am supporting local and sustainable agriculture as most of the food is organically grown or on a chemical based pest management program...not a pest prevention program. The people are very friendly and know a decent amount about food.

Here is a list of what I eat. Keep in mind that chicken is fairly expensive up here and I am almost certain that salmon comes at a lower price than chicken.

Weekly consumption:
7 - 10 Pounds of beef/lamb. All of these products are grass fed. Grass fed livestock is extremely healthy and loaded with essential fatty acids. These fatty acids have definitely lowered my body fat and aided in my recovery from the intense workouts. I usually consume about a pound of beef or a pound of lamb a day.
Salmon: I have been averaging about half a salmon a week. I only get wild salmon because it is high in omega's and high in protein. Good for me but because of pollution I try and avoid eating a lot each week.
Free Run Eggs: generally about 21-25 eggs a week
Butter: I use about a 1/4 pound of butter a week. I enjoy eating my butter with rye bread and honey or throwing it on my toast.
Coconut Oil: I cook/fry most of my food with coconut oil. It is much healthier than EVOO and I do not use as much of it when I cook.
Beans: I eat about 12 servings of beans a week. I have locally grown black turtle beans and red beans from this Spanish guy that resemble the Asian Azuki bean. Beans provide me with extremely good nutrition.
Quinoa: This is one of the few grains that I eat during the week. Quinoa is known as a supergrain and is really the best grain that the human body can eat. Many nutritionists have suggested that if you are going to eat grains, you should eat quinoa. It is a high calorie, high protein grain and it is extremely cheap. It is almost always grown organically and native to Latin and South America. I usually cook about 6-8 servings at the beginning of the week and then eat it throughout the week. I will heat it up in my pan and put seasonings or butter on the quinoa. Goes well with beans and hamburgers. It is also great for recovery becuase it has all the essential amino acids.
Rye Bread: My rye bread comes from a local guy and it is made with very solid ingredients. It could be better made but it still tastes good. This is the other grain I eat during the week. I will eat my bread with honey and peanut butter or I will put butter and honey on top of it. I also like to toast my bread in butter in my pan and then put an egg in and connect the bread with the egg.
Honey: I bought tons of raw honey from this woman and it is extremely good. I love it and probably eat too much of it. Mr. B loves honey and he also suggested that we eat a fair amount of it. It is my only form of a sweet that I eat in a week, aside from apples.
Garlic: Stamm can vouch for me...I eat way too much garlic. I love it. I eat it with everything.
Olives: I buy olives stuffed with garlic and soaked in a sea salt brine. They are quite good.
Hot Peppers: I usually eat about 5-10 hot peppers a week. I add in with my eggs or meats.
Cheeses: My cheeses vary from week to week. Feta one week, sharp cheddar or cream the next. They are all good and good for me.
Apples: I buy my apples from a local guy. They are good and I eat them in the morning before my paper route. Occasionally I put peanut butter on them.
Peanut Butter: I buy this at Cosco. It is a large bin of organic peanut butter. It is real peanut butter. The only ingredient is peanuts. It is not like shitty Jiff where peanut butter has 10 ingredients and is awful for you.
Salsa: I have eaten all of Chiyo's Amazing Salsa. I cry now because I ate it all. Instead I put basil on everything.
Red and Blue Potatoes: I eat these potatoes. About one a day. Good source of Vitamin B. I have blue potatoes now from a local guy. They are awesome. I either make twice baked, I bake them or I just fry them up all cut up. They are a good addition to any meal.
Veggies: Depending on the week, I will eat a ton of carrots or some other root veggie or throw in some sweet peppers. I also buy an organic veggie mix that I drink a serving a day. Tastes good and is loaded with everything.

This is basically what I eat every week, throughout the week. I have only eaten out once since Chris left and that was at an Indian place. I have stuck by my solid nutrition and it has definitely helped. I have maintained my weight and my recovery from training is superb, I also get about 6-8 hours of sleep a night. I try to take a nap before my second practice and that also helps with recovery. My nutrition was ruined as of late because my mom (Chiyo) sent me a load of cookies and my landlord provided me with Halloween candy. Although I will not go out of my way to buy these things, of course I devoured them all, haha. One day I believe I had 18 cookies. Quite impressive, I must say. Oh well, the faster I ate them the faster I could get back on track. Haha.

In regards to supplements. The only supplement I take is NO-Xplode. It is basically a legal stimulant to take prior to training. It gets you amped up big time to train but has no recovery agents so a good nutrition is very helpful. I only take NO about two times a week. One of the other shot putters works for a nutrition company and I had used some of his stuff a few times but my body could not keep it down. I would basically piss it right out my butt everytime I tried it. Also, Dr. B despised protein powders of any sort and claims Alexeev hated them as well. Why eat fake protein when you can buy real protein and your body uses it much more efficiently? Here is a link to Alexeev, the beast Russian Superheavyweight. http://www.chidlovski.net/liftup/l_athleteResult.asp?a_id=5

I definitely feel that a solid nutrition is key to living a healthy and happy life and it is also key to supporting a healthy environment. Most of the locally grown food is grown with the environment in mind as well as the consumer. You may spend a bit more in price but it is well worth it because your body is healthier and so is the surrounding area. Sustainable agriculture is going to be a key part of saving the environment in the future and providing people with healthy alternatives. Eat grass fed beef or grass fed anything. It is the best way for your body. Look it up.

Here is an interesting nutrition link below based on obesity and the link to cancer (and shitty refined, processed foods). http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20071031/tuk-new-report-links-obesity-to-cancer-6323e80_1.html

Halloween

Halloween was a ridiculous night at the bar. I got to work around 9 and simply got things ready for the evening of drunken debauchery. I figured that the place would be ridiculous and would remind me of bars in State College on Halloween. And so the place was insane. People started really coming in around 9:30 and by 11 we had a massive line that had to wait becuase the inside was packed to the brim. Of course the costumes were hilarious and some of them were very original. One kid even dressed up as a Borg from Star Trek so that was my favorite outfit by far. Anyway, it started to get out of control.

They put me outside and I was standing there when I heard some loud yells and a thump against the door. I turned around and there were the bouncers with a kids foot posted against the door. I grabbed the kids foot and both his legs and drug him outside. When we laid him down he decided to try and kick me in the face. At that point I remembered what happened the last time I was kicked in the face and became furious. I put his legs in a leg lock while one of the bouncers dealt with his face. He kept trying to squirm and the cops were called. Here the kid had actually punched a female in the face. He seemed to be on some type of drug because he was whacked out and just acting and saying really weird shit. I have seen a lot of people on drugs but I was not sure what he was doing. Anyway, the cops came and arrested him.

I went inside and about an hour later I noticed two kids pushing each other. So, I went down and told them to stop and all was calm. About 10 minutes went by and this kid dressed like Rod Carew was getting mauled by another kid. I hit my button about 5 times to get other bouncers help and went in and started pulling kids off. I grabbed Rod Carew and was guiding him to the door and he was screaming, "I am sorry, I am sorry. I won't do anything." At that moment I turned my head and saw a kid come and lay a giant haymaker on this kids face. So another brawl broke out and I found Carew and drug him out. His face actually ate the punch pretty well, I was impressed. I got him outside and he ended up leaving and the other kid got arrested as well. After that fight, the place cleared out and things calmed down fairly quickly.

It was a fairly intense night and the next time I get swung at I will most likely start screaming that I kill rats with a pitchfork (if only you could see me yelling and killing the rats at my brother's farm) and just hauling off on people to protect my face. It is fun working down there and it is even more amusing to hear ridiculously drunk girls hit on you and try to say things to you.

Canadian Speak and Russian Training

Mr. B drastically changed my training this week. On Monday he felt that I was very flat and had adapted to the first 5 weeks of training. He decided to move me onto a more intense system. I am still throwing the 8k and the day break up is as follows. Morning session: I throw seven throws, do my full lift, throw seven throws, full lift and then seven throws and do one set of each lift. I take a break and recover and sleep and eat and come back and do the exact same thing in the afternoon. It is really really fun. So each week I do 50 sets of cleans, 50 sets of jump squats (the PSU strength guys would cringe) and then I take 220 throws a week. This number of throws is rather high and it really helps me get a solid feel in the circle. The thing that blows is that last week I tore up my left ab goofing around with another shot putter while we were trying to see who could throw an 4k shot the highest...I in fact won but hurt myself...so, all week I have been going full speed but at the front I am taking it very easy and not hitting it too hard. Hopefully on Monday I will be recovered from the injury. As Vernon and I always discussed...everyone gets hurt so you need to keep pushing it...when you are injured is when you need to take time off. I felt I am not seriously injured and can still train with the hurt ab.

Canadians speak very funny and they find my accent to be a bit amusing. Here is a simple example of what I am talking about....I say, "When I was in 8th grade, I went to KFC even if it was negative 5 outside." Canadians say, "When I was in grade 8, I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken (they did not have to change the name up here apparently) even when it was 5 under." The one other thrower laughed in my face when I kept referring to negative temperatures. It took him about 5 minutes to figure out what I was saying and then he told me about how no one ever speaks this way in Canada.