The Faith of a Heretic

Body. Soul. Mind.

Sensations: the body.

Desires: the soul.

Reasoning: the mind.

To experience sensations: even grazing beasts do that. To let your desires control you: even wild animals do that – and rutting humans, and tyrants (from Phalaris to Nero…).

To make your mind your guide to what seems best: even people who deny the gods do that. Even people who betray their country. Even people who do [that] behind closed doors.

If all the rest is common coin, then what is unique to the good man?

To welcome with affection what is sent by fate. Not to stain or disturb the spirit within him with a mess of false beliefs. Instead, to preserve it faithfully, by calmly obeying God – saying nothing untrue, doing nothing unjust. And if others don’t acknowledge it – this life lived with simplicity, humility, cheerfulness – he doesn’t resent them for it, and isn’t deterred from following the road where it leads: to the end of life. An end to be approached in purity, in serenity, in acceptance, in peaceful unity with what must be.

- from Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. 3.16, Hays trans.

…Yet while technology has greatly enhanced group and collaborative work – the bare essential people skills, the art of oral communication should not be overlooked. Librarians are educators. We must be capable of painting a portrait of the complex systems we curate,  to prepare professional presentations, to bring new personnel onto a project, to assertively participate in a group environment and be  productive and faithful teammates. This is true now more than ever, as group collaboration has shifted from mere good practice to a professional necessity given the breadth of our services and allied professions. How to communicate well orally is another matter.

I fall back upon old forms while considering the new. Many undergraduate liberal arts degrees require a study in communications. This style of instruction, to which I have been a part of, is often business centered. Issues center on group theory, dynamics, group manipulation, and coherent/effective transfer of information, contrasting against the various factors of noise, distance, time and medium. All well and good, but such instruction is fixated on professional rather than holistic ends; the goal is to do one’s professional job in a uniform and often stifling manner which is as expected in western capitalist culture. Personally I find it important to consider such studies as to ground oneself, but to look further back for a normative foundation in communication. While the modern study of communications may often reveal insights into human communication (a particular thing I learned to become wary of from my communication classes is “groupthink”) it is prone to missing the heart of it. The greatest communicators were not businessmen but poets, warriors and philosophers. Aristotle immediately comes to mind as a model of a proper and well versed rhetorician or communicator. In his treatise On Rhetoric Aristotle argues that good rhetoric is based upon three persuasive appeals or “Pillars”:

Ethos: Credibility. You must prove to the audience that you are credible, can be trusted, are of good reputation, good character and authority. Credibility is the foundation for all further communication.

Pathos: Emotional connection. A good argument or communication connects emotionally with the listener. A good communicator does not abuse pathos by manipulating the emotions of the listener, but is able to express genuine empathy.

Logos: Logical argument. A good communication is coherent, contains factual or scientific support and follows a chain of reasoning.

So we see that a good communicator is of “good character,” a critical component missing from most business communication classes. Defining good character is far beyond the scope of this statement, but instead my definition of it can be deduced from my philosophy stated on this portfolio, as well as from my other philosophical writings. Nevertheless, I find it critical that in communication of any kind, the communicator be a genuinely respectable individual who can easily be respected. To this also includes the art of speaking and of being assertive, a mere sophistry if not attended to by ethos. Once good character is established, a communicator must connect to those he speaks to at both the emotional and logical level, using compelling anecdotes and figures to complete the whole of the picture. The “Three Pillars” are critical to being effective at oral and written communication, and they are elements which I study frequently.

I also am partial to the rhetoric of Cicero, whom I have quoted in the introduction to this portfolio. Cicero was perhaps the most skilled and virtuous communicator, and one whom we in the library field should attempt to emulate. Cicero expanded upon Aristotle’s pillars in Rhetorica ad Herennium, positing a six part standard format for argumentation and communication of ideas:

1. Exordium: The use of pathos (anecdotes, stories, examples) to engage the listener.
   
2. Narratio: Statement of the argument.
   
3. Divisio: An outline of the argument, including a review of previous concerns, debate and questions.
   
4. Confirmatio: Presentation of evidence to support the argument or communication.
   
5. Confutatio: A complete treatment of contesting claims and arguments.
   
6. Conclusio: A summary of what has been communicated, as well as a statement to importance of what has come before.

While Cicero’s rhetoric was designed for the transmission and consideration of arguments in oratory – they also represent an efficient and universal means to communicate effectively in general. Thinking before speaking, and speaking in a structured and reasoned manner is key to success, both professionally and in life. With a thorough training in the classical way of rhetoric, more contemporary research might be used as a buttress to mature and enrich one’s conceptual philosophy of communication. This synthesis of understanding can then be applied to professional work in library science or elsewhere, as I have mastered and done.

But what is a good rhetorician who does not master logical argumentation and grammar? For this I refer to the Trivium, the three disciplines of logic, rhetoric and grammar which I consider essential not only to good communication but also the rudiments of knowing and wisdom. Developed first in De nuptiis by Martianus Capella, Sister Miriam Joseph was the most staunch modern advocate for an education in these three essentials and defined them as such:

Logic is the art of thinking; grammar, the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express thought; and rhetoric, the art of communicating thought from one mind to another, the adaptation of language to circumstance.

Logic is concerned with knowledge, grammar with symbol, and rhetoric with communication. But the latter is pointless and groundless without awareness of knowing what is true, and of knowing the shape to which things come: logic and grammar respectively. A study of the Trivium is a study of what is fundamental to human expression and mind, without it one easily becomes confused with complex thought processes and defaults to rote memorization rather than truly excelling in the moment of oratory, to name one of limitless interactions. The Trivium is often neglected in our modern academic curricula: today students groan about philosophy and logic classes, while simultaneously becoming outraged when clever people take advantage of them. The study of etymology and grammar is all but gone, except for linguists and there often not in an educational or philosophical sense. Shame, as these jewels of the classics furnish a mode of communication which is rich, empowering and compelling.

As detailed in my previous posts (“The New Pugilist”) several months ago I began a regiment of good nutrition and exercise in order to better master my body. In defiance of this initiative my weight remained static. After poking around on some weight lifting and combat sport forums I started reading up on low-carb and ketogenic diets. In ketogenic diet the customary body energy, glycogen which is converted from carbs, is shifted to ketone bodies, which convert from fat. It is a nutritional plan which calls for adequate protein, high fat and typically less than 50 grams of carbs a day.

I read amazing success stories and weight lifters and athletes who advocated for very low carb nutritional plans. I found myself in a curious situation: while I was boxing and eating right ,I was still quite fat. With nothing to lose, and seemingly no progress being made with my “textbook” nutritional plan, I switched to a ketogenic diet. While ketogenic diet is used in medicine to alleviate the symptoms of epilepsy – it also is purported to be effective for weight loss in individuals which are particularly sensitive to carbohydrates, although there is apparently some controversy surrounding the benefits and potential side effects.

Regardless, after conducting some research, reading some medical journals and speaking with successful weight lifters and fighters I made the change. The first week in which I virtually eliminated carbohydrates from my diet was hell. I had a constant head ache, feeling of dizziness, nausea and malaise. This was expected: I had read that there is an initial adjustment period in which the body shifts from glycogen to ketone bodies (known as ketosis). It did not help matters that I completely eliminated intake of carbohydrates while simultaneously cutting my caloric intake markedly. After a week of unpleasantness it seemed the worst had past, although I still felt some minor malaise and dizziness for the next two weeks to come. This was complicated by a cellulitis infection in my leg, borne from a mosquito bite I sustained while boxing outside. During those weeks I experimented with ketogenic diet – quite insufficiently, and rapidly lost water weight (stored from the carbs).

Today I have settled in with this new nutritional plan. Since June 9th when I started eating as such, I have lost 46 lbs. This is the only time in my life in which I am able to lose weight, reliably calculate what effect food will have on me and in which I have eaten completely “clean” and homemade foods. My overall caloric intake is lower, and I also combine my diet with a period of “intermittent fasting” between dinner time and breakfast. A typical day looks like this:

Hydration: 100-150 ounces of water

Supplements: complete calcium, complete multivitamin, fish oil

10 am – 12 pm Breakfast: 4 egg omelet, 2 pieces cheese, 2 slices bacon, garlic/pepper/salt/cayenne

3 pm Snack: 2 TBSP flax seed, 2 TBSP peanut butter, stevia, cinnamon – also sometimes I’ll substitute this with pork rinds and hummus, or eat assorted nuts

6 pm Dinner: chicken/beef patties with cheese, some fiber vegetable (usually broccoli, although recently I have experimented with avocado and artichoke), garlic/pepper/salt/cayenne

Intermittent fast between 6 PM and 12 PM

I average between .4 and 1 lb of fat lost a day – which is obviously very rapid. When I started this nutrition plan I did not expect any results – so it obviously came as a huge surprise when I finally figured out “the key” to my weight loss. What this process has helped me discover is that I am extremely sensitive to carbohydrates. This is probably due to genetics and my own bio chemistry and is not something I can change. I find that when I consume carbohydrates my weight loss stalls or I gain weight. As soon as I take the carbs out, the weight loss resumes. So it is not enough simply to eat “good carbs” as I had begun to do – for endomorphic individuals like myself a marked reduction in carbohydrate consumption is necessary.

I cannot explain the amount of delight I feel when I hop on the scale in the morning and see the pounds flying off. Speaking of which, this is the first time in my life I have used a scale. While I used to fear it, I now am excited to see what effect my nutrition has had on my weight. I can now reliably calculate the exact effect a meal will have. I know if I’m having a “cheat meal” of tacos or burritos that the next day my weight will either remain the same or go up. If I really cut as many carbs as possible – for instance if I don’t eat the flax seed or peanut butter (the latter of which contains sugar) and only eat enough carbs necessary to get my fiber, I will lose the maximum amount of weight. My consumption of carbs is directly proportional to my weight gain. Paradoxically ,while I was at my fattest when I began to box, my cardio health was the best it ever has been; I had the strange circumstance in which I felt great but I was still fat and maintaining or gaining weight. In retrospect I understand that it was because I was eating up to 4 slices of wholegrain bread a day, plus the occasional wholegrain pasta, and milk, which is LOADED with carbohydrates and sugar.

One of the big challenges I have faced with this new nutritional plan has been intake of fiber. While the wholegrain bread I used to eat was loaded with fiber – it is more difficult to get fiber while remaining low carb. The result is constipation, which was really bad when I first started and is still an occasional, although more rare issue now. I have recently started consuming avocado, artichoke and more non-enriched (i.e. sugar filled) broccoli to address this issue. While flax seed is high in fiber, I have read that it may cause constipation or even intestinal blockages, so I will not exceed 2 TBSP a day. Still, the palatability and difficulty of preparing both avocado and artichoke have been a challenge, although not one that I am willing to shrink from. Getting enough fiber has been the last challenge of my nutritional life. I also recently ordered 3 lbs of raw almonds, which I am going to make into almond milk for both fiber and for consumption of protein shakes, to replace the amazingly unhealthy bovine milk that I once consumed.

If someone is seriously interested in weight loss my biggest piece of advice is to invest in a good scale. If you don’t know your weight on a daily basis, and the fluctuations your food consumption causes, its as if you are a aircraft descending into thick cloud cover without an altimeter; you are blind and headed to crash. But rest easy, a good scale does not mean unaffordable. I bought the Eatsmart Precision Plus off amazon and it cost me less than $40. It is also created by a small, family run company with amazing customer service that deserves our patronage. The most useful features of the scale is a high weight tolerance, large, readable, digital display, impressive precision and a wide area to stand upon. Check it out: here.

Update

December 2nd, 2011. I have lost 102 lbs since June – more or less following the above plan.

Duke Nukem Forever is great if you want to experience what it feels like to be a gerbil on a treadmill, or a rat running a maze. It treats the player as a complete incompetent and has the the weakest gun play I have encountered in an FPS; it reminds me of the sort of action you’d expect from a Russian bargain bin game. The much lauded interactivity consists of a series of “quick time events” which add nothing to gameplay and clearly occupied the developer’s attention away from actually important tasks. You will have to manually pull up dozens, if not hundreds, of jammed doors. This is done by walking up to said door, pressing your use use key and then rapidly tapping space bar. While you can do pointless things like piss in a urinal – you cannot control the motion of the golden stream. This I refer to as the allegory of the golden stream. Like all things in Duke Nukem Forever, it creates the illusion of worthiness, when in fact it is merely a gimmick intended to distract us from gaping failures elsewhere.

Polish is non-existent. Some characters have no animations and just inhabit the game world like statues. The game developers clearly attempted to mask the laughable graphics engine with some shaders and post-processing effects which make the entire world look like its covered in a thick layer of bubble wrap. A clearly defined path is made for the player, and zero possibility presents itself to actually play something. Rather, the game is a series of scripted events designed to deliver stale punchlines. Much like a Seltzer and Friedberg  flick (and to a lesser degree Family Guy), Duke’s mere invocation of pop culture memory is intended to make us laugh. All it does is depress.

The artificial intelligence is reminiscent of pre-Half-Life days. Enemies clunkily run or walk up to you then shoot their weapons in  specific, consistent groupings much like in Doom. And as to the Duke feel? Well this feels like a pastiche, and a vulgar one at that. While the obsessive Duke worship you experience in the game was perhaps amusing at first, it quickly loses its flare, and persists throughout most of the game. Indeed, as I was playing I did not really reminisce or feel nostalgia for the Duke of yore; instead the game reminded me of Doom 3. A dark corridor shooter where enemies jump out in a claustrophobic environment. Yet Duke Nukem Forever is arguably more unbearable than Doom 3 (and that isn’t a compliment to the underwhelming Doom 3) – with its incredibly simple and insulting “gameplay” in which required interactions are highlighted with a radiant yellow glow. Duke Nukem Forever is one part corridor shooter, one part jumping puzzle and three parts Hollywood studio style marketing hype.

Don’t buy this and don’t play it.

Well, my website was recently exploited and hacked. I fixed it, but as part of the changes I made to locate and eliminate the exploit I switched to a new WordPress theme called 2010. Well, I know it’s a default theme, but it’s starting to grow on me. I’m considering switching to this theme permanently.

This is mainly a notice to let my paltry group of visitors know that I have not died (yet) and that the site is functioning properly. Any thoughts on the new design would be appreciated.

I also owe this slab new words. Soon.

Do Work Son

With all the equipment in check, I attended to the task of doing work. Every day I followed a ritual which soon matured:

1. As the sun begins to set I slide on my shoes (no socks), wrap my hands and put on a hoodie
2. Drink 20 ounces of water, fill another 20 ounces and bring it outside
3. Lay the gloves/water on a wheelbarrow filled with wood next to the bag
4. Untie the tarp and throw it aside
5. 10 minutes of fucking around/stretching/light punches without gloves
6. Gloves on, headphones on, 1st track is for a warm-up of slow, basic cross jab combinations
7. As the 2nd track starts start going at full force, doing complex combinations with precise footwork
8. When i’m near to my “target heart rate” begin extremely rapid inside body shots to fully gas out, followed by immediate return to power punch combinations
9. Drink when necessary, take short breaks in between “sets” of powerful combinations
10. Work until I can no longer raise my arms (30-45 minutes) or until i’m out of water
11. Cool down involving hugging the bag/light punching/headphones off and drinking
12. Putting the tarp back on, wrapping it around and tying it tight

I found that after my first few sessions that I would become distracted while working out, and my motivation was wavering. So I decided to try to use music. In the past when I lifted weights I would always perform better when listening to good music, and figured it might also enhance boxing. I’m lucky to say it did, and I only work the bag with music now. I use music as a workout plan: when its a fill or a chorus I do combination work, and when there is a fast or riffing part I drop down and do rapid body shots or throw hooks off both legs as fast as I can.

After a few days I discovered great benefits: a great deal of energy, a more positive attitude and a general feeling of robustness. I have found a greater flexibility and surprising speed with my hands. I did eventually experience what some would refer to as “overtraining” though, I think my muscles grew in strength much quicker than my tendons and tissues in my hands were able to accommodate, and I did have some hand pain from time to time. I had to take a few days off to let the hands heal.

Nutrition

Nutrition is critical to mastering the body, without it, you will fail. I used to eat a lot of garbage before recently, mainly due to being poor and just eating whatever I could find. I made a promise to rather go hungry than to eat garbage. This is not to say that I intentionally starve myself, only that I refuse to eat cookies, salt and sodium filled snacks and other unnatural foods.  My primary food types consist of:

• Tuna
• Nuts
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Lettuce
• Wheat breads in small moderation
• Whey protein
• Milk
• Berries
• Steak in moderation
• Granola/Oats
• Eggs (without yolks)
• Salsa
• Beans
• Some peanut butter
• Flax

The only indulgences I make on a daily basis is some mayonnaise on the cold cuts and in tuna. I have eliminated all regular consumption of fast food, and only eat it when there is a special occasion (out with friends or a holiday for instance). I refuse to eat simple carbs and avoid sugar. I only drink water, never juice or soda. I also eat much less, never feeling bloated, instead eating throughout the day in various meals rather than a great deal at one time.

It’s also been fun to learn how to cook in a healthy way. I count something as simple as making your own protein bars from scratch (recipe courtesy of Scooby’s Workshop) as cooking, and it’s damn satisfying when you know you are eating something which is insanely healthy but also tastes good. It’s also nice to know EVERYTHING you are eating. I much prefer to make my own food, because I know exactly what I am putting in my mouth. It’s amazing how unhealthy 99% of pre-made food is. Ever looked seriously at a food label?

Lessons and Recommendations

Music:

I experimented with a lot of music. Some music made the workouts lag on or become tedious. However, good music will greatly enhance performance, at least for me.  My favorite albums for serious sessions are Hatebreeder by Children of Bodom and Ballsy EP and The Greatest Band of All Time by Arnocorps. These albums get me insanely pumped up and have a tempo which is essentially designed for boxing. It’s macho as fuck, especially Arnocorps, which is exactly what you need when you’re not working with someone and thus have no person to tell you to stop being a pussy and do another set. I haven’t tried them yet, but I have a feeling that Bane and Hatebreed (not to be confused with Hatebreeder) would be quite good. My friend Thom also swears by Fear Factory, a band I also imagine would be good.

Wraps:

Do NOT use the default 108” wraps which come with Everlast bags. They are complete crap. Buy yourself some nice 180” wraps for added wrist and hand support. The bones in the hand will really start to take a beating once your knuckles become resistant, which can cause some serious pain and form problems. I made the mistake of using the default wraps for about 2 weeks. Fuck that, get some Amber Mexican 180” off Amazon and really wrap the wrist good. While you’re supposed to wrap in between your fingers using 180” wraps, for some reason that was really tearing up my skin. I just use the extra inches for support elsewhere. The material itself is also many times higher quality.

Whey:

You should use whey. Not for all your meals, but nothing is better pound for pound for protein content. Most whey sucks and is a rip off. Look for Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard. It goes amazing with milk and berries for a shake. It also can be used to make your own protein bars and in oatmeal. That particular brand tastes delicious (I reccomend double chocolate), and has solid ingredients.

Looking Forward

I have found that the resistance of boxing is only toning, and not growing, my upper body anymore. While I had huge gains in the first few weeks and a noticable “pump,” it just doesn’t happen anymore. I have a plan to do the same boxing routine except with dumbbells.

I also want to start lifting weights for a full body workout once this new routine is sufficiently settled. I have found that I had tried to do too much at once in the past, and that caused me to quit. Slow additions are ideal.

Beginnings

I recently got back into boxing and wanted to share some thoughts for people who are considering getting into the game. My interest in boxing stems from my recreational study of martial arts, which started when I was still in elementary school and turned into quite a hobby by the time I was in high school. During my earliest years karate had an explosion in the United States and it seemed like karate studios were opening everywhere. I was not interested in such nonsense, the styles seemed ineffectual and memorizing some katas to be given a belt without qualifying one’s fighting ability seemed ostentatious at best. Regardless, I became a huge fan of Sanda, Muay Thai and eventually Sambo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo. I used to watch the K-1 tournaments all the time with my best friend, and from there eventually started watching PRIDE and Pancrase championships, which were the precursors of such giants such American inventions as UFC. I consider combat to be the greatest sport of all, and there is no greater test of an athlete’s character and ability. It was especially interesting to examine what was effective, and what was not. Karate and Tae Kwon Do were especially unsuitable for real combat, while it seemed the boxers (be they Thai or Western) dominated the field. Eventually I bought some gloves and Thai pads and from time to time would work them with my friend, but he soon had to move away to school or otherwise was physically distant and I fell out of practice for about three years.

Fast forward to now, and i’m pretty tired of being a fat ass. It’s not even being a fat ass that is the issue, but just not being a warrior, and not having complete mastery of the body. As the Stoics might remind us, we are not in control of our bodies, or anything else but our actions and thoughts for that matter, but that doesn’t mean that we should allow our body to degenerate out of neglect. While I have a disdain for appearances in general, it was time to get back into boxing and to make it a permanent fixture of my life in order to realize my ability. To understand what I did next, you must first understand an epic failing I had made a few years prior.

I had wanted to hang a banana bag, a special long punching bag designed for Thai kick boxing. So I bought a bag off the internet, but didn’t realize it didn’t come pre-filled. My solution was to go down to the water and fill it with sand. Not realizing how truly heavy it was, I dragged it into a friend’s car after much struggling and brought it home, sliding it into the house and down the stairs to my basement. Well, there were a number of problems here which I didn’t realize until we had hung the damn thing:

• The bag weighed about 300 lbs
• The bag was too tall to hang from my ceiling
• It was nearly impossible to bring a 300 lb bag up the stairs once it was down
• Sand was unsuitable for filling a bag

So, the thing remained unused, in a sad, slouched over position for years on end. I always said I would get it out of the basement and hang it elsewhere, but I kept procrastinating. The first step to getting into boxing properly would be to get rid of that annoying thorn. I eventually said “fuck it” and went downstairs. I tried to pull it up the stairs, and was able to get it about a quarter of the way when I realized if I kept pulling with such torsion, the stairs would break. My arms were also quite dead from dragging a 300 lb bag across the entire floor. So it stayed in the basement for another week while I thought about how I was going to get it out. I finally decided I was going to get it out by scooping the sand out, shovel by shovel. My plan was to put about 20-25 lbs of sand in a series of garbage bags (No buckets available of course). So back into the basement I went, with a half-broken spade shovel I had found laying around the yard. After a series of exhausting squats and 2 hours of shoveling I had about 10 garbage bags filled with sand. Though my legs trembled it was now time to drag those bags up the stairs. I found a cart nearby and loaded a few bags, which were much heavier than 25 lbs each onto a yellow cart used for holding tools. The first trip went well with a lot of screaming, essentially dead lifting 100 lbs of sand up an incline while walking. On the 2nd trip I tried to move a bag of sand and it split open. The sand was filled with rocks and small pieces of glass, and the bags were not tested to hold such weight. Joyous! OH and it wasn’t the first, another one did as well. Running back up to the stairs to grab a dust pan, and more shoveling. 2 trips later and the sands outside. My final trip to the street was with the gnarled bag itself, which still had about 50 lbs of sand in it. It was a religious experience to finally throw that thing to the curb. While I had originally planned to salvage it and hang it from a basketball hoop in the yard, I had seen enough of its mocking, black visage and now intended to buy a new bag.

Back to boxing, but new to boxing

With that mess cleaned up I bought a stand and 100 lb heavy bag bundle from Walmart. I made sure that the bag came pre-filled, and that I would be able to assemble the stand. I didn’t want a repeat of yesteryear’s fiasco. Within a week both items, the bag and stand, had arrived. With some help from my friend James I got it assembled and good to go. I deployed it outside, in a driveway which connects to our back yard which is not in use.

Equipment wise I used my old 20 ounce Everlast gloves and the 108” hand wraps which came with the bag as a bundle. No ankle support, although I probably should invest in that seeing as I injured my right ankle doing calf raises some years ago and it constantly hurts. I had no idea how to wrap my hands, so I looked on youtube. A lot of people had videos showing how to wrap hands using 180” “Mexican” wraps, but not the 108” ones which came with the bag. I found one video, but it was pretty crappy, and I couldn’t follow it, so I just sort of half-ass wrapped, focusing on the knuckles and wrist. And of course I brought out a 20 ounce water bottle, it’s essential to keep hydrated when you box, otherwise you will gas artificially quick and feel sick afterward.

The first time I boxed my entire body hurt and I gassed in about 10 minutes, although I forced myself through 20 minutes. Significant pain was in my lower back, which of course was unaccustomed to the sort of slipping a boxer must do when throwing powerful punches. I did basic jab cross combos, with a few hooks thrown in for good measure. Recouping in the house, I took my wraps off and found my hands visibly shaking. A good sign, this means that all the tendons and muscles in your hand are exhausted and got worked. I also found that I had a significant “pump” in the triceps and deltoids, good stuff.

The next session was pretty much the same thing, but I found it difficult to concentrate, although the workout was amazing as the first. Huffing and puffing, I barely made it into the house. At that point I had no weather protection for the bag, and the forecast said it would rain the next day.  So I took a ride to Home Depot with trusted homeboy James and purchased a heavy duty tarp. I also needed to buy some bags of sand. Why do you ask would I concern myself with such devilry once again? Well, the stand needs to be weighed down otherwise it rocks back and forth, and I was unable to punch as hard as I wanted to. While there are spokes on the stand for plates to weigh it down, there was no way i was going to spend $100+ on plates I would not use except as dead weight. One review on Walmart said he bought construction sand to weigh his stand down, so I would do the same. Back to my house with the loot, the sand bags worked EXACTLY as intended and eliminated all rocking, and at the measly cost of $15.

One problem: the tarp kept blowing off. I’d find the bag in the morning bare and exposed to the elements. My brother had the bright idea of using some webbing in the garage that was intended for a patio set we had since got rid of years ago. This worked great, and although the webbing disintegrates quickly and was not designed for the friction of securing it tightly, I have an entire bag of the stuff.  Now my material needs to work the heavy bag were complete and I could fully devote my attention to the task of boxing. Total price to get everything set up was approximately $210.

To be continued…

It was much to my pleasant surprise that I learned of Fallen from an acquaintance. I had followed the rebirth of Burzum closely and listened to and studied Belus but had fallen out of current developments in recent months. While I thought Belus was a good album, it just didn’t compare to the majesty and spiritual power of an album like Filosofem. That being said, Fallen is a return to more introspective, emotionally charged and philosophical works of yore, but still remains married to a deep concept of Indo-European mythological themes.  I think this is the perfect area for Burzum, as was shown in Filosofem, and where Varg Vikernes really excels creatively. While Belus was essentially a story telling album, a celebration in Nordic mythological concepts, it in some ways was lacking in pure emotional immediacy and technical experimentation, instead sounding like an imitation of the earliest Burzum forms. And who can blame Varg? Being restricted from his music for so long, I’m sure the psychic chorus of sound in his jailed mind naturally was an outgrowth of musics from fifteen years ago, and much like a debater finding a clear hole in an opponent’s argument, he could not wait to spit out the thing burning at his chest.

I’m glad to say that Fallen is more experimental and is one of the best metal albums I have heard in a long time. Indeed the album is quickly becoming a favorite, and I’ll often find myself leaving it on repeat for hours on end. The sound of Fallen is a synthesis of the most primitive Burzum forms, with a good dose of Filosofem thrown in for good measure in the form of emotionalism, and a new element of folksy, almost punk-like vocals and riffing. Essentially this album combines everything I like about the spectrum of black metal; if Falkenbach and Filosofem-era Burzum had a bastard child, this would be the result. The most significant technical innovation is the introduction of clean vocals. While in the past Burzum had some rare clean vocal moments they are more common in Fallen. Varg’s clean vocal style is in the form of a musical spoken word which reminds me in some ways of a blackened army ballad. Surely this new feature of Burzum is going to turn off some black metal purists, especially those who subscribe to a school of thought which demands brutality and violence. Personally I love the introduction of such vocals, and the memorizing guitar riffing which accompany them. I honestly think this is arguably the best Burzum album.

One way in which Fallen is lacking is in it’s instrumental tracks: an introduction and conclusion. The introduction is not an essential instrumental track but instead a series of chants through the ether that last about a minute. That’s fine to establish the album ambiance, although it may be a bit gratuitous. However the concluding track is a full fledged instrumental, and just doesn’t captivate me. It sounds like a Neurosis track, complete with slow Beat poet style drumming, whispering and random string plucking noises – which I think is fine for Neurosis but sounds very out of place on a Burzum album. It is especially out of place on Fallen and does not have any semblance to the tracks which precede it. While I was able to loop Rundgang Um Die Transzendentale Säule Der Singularität for hours on end and find myself in a deep, metaphysical trance (that’s when you know it’s good black metal), Til Hel og tilbake igjen is interesting but ultimately fails to have any psychic effect.

Another gripe with the album, although understandable, is the lack of English vocals. I understand Varg’s reasons for wanting to use his native tongue, and I can’t fault him for it, but it doesn’t change the fact that this would probably be my favorite album of all time if it was in English. I’m big on lyrics and often enjoy them as much as I do the rest of the music. Unfortunately with Fallen and the preceding Belus an effort must be made to read the translated lyrics and also learn or at least toy with some Norwegian.

Chris: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3K-mrlYG7Y&feature=related
god i love this video lol
i wish i could play D&D with bas

tgarbarini: lol
yeah
my dream-team for D&D
would be
kevin sorbo, bas ruten, keaneu reaves, and me as players
with gandalf (the actor) as DM
how fucking badass would that be
kevin sorbo would be the paladin
bas ruten would be the barbarian/comedic relief
keannu reaves would be the rogue/badass
and i’d fill in whatever needed

Chris: LMAo
i wish i could make that my signature for real life

tgarbarini: i’s so true lol

Chris: gandalf (the actor) as DM LOL
lol

tgarbarini: lol forgot his name
ian something
ian mckaye as dm lol
that would suck

Chris: “yeah so like theres a chest, you want to open it or something?”
“ok.. theres 10 gold inside”

tgarbarini: yeah that’s what i imagine lol
and then like getting phone calls all the time

Sent at 2:32 AM on Tuesday
tgarbarini: OH
also moulder
fuckin..
whatever his name is
guess he would be the mage
michael doudekoff

Chris: LOL
fail
david duchovny

Sent at 2:36 AM on Tuesday
Chris: the best DM would be the bad guy from space mutiny
who tries to pop his skull out