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Hat tip: Cat Valente
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Monday, April 1, 2013
Announcing Spoilers, Beware!
I've launched a separate site for reviews of... stuff, and I've posted my Dollhouse rewatch as well as a few other things from the archives here over there. I'll be removing them from this blog for version control reasons. Head on over to Spoilers, Beware!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Occupy Austin
I just spent 40 minutes or so at the Occupy Austin General Assembly (the official "occupation" begins tomorrow but they've been holding meetings for a week or two now.) I took notes!
There were probably thirty people there when I got there, and probably closer to 70 when I left. They were at Austin City Hall, which was built with an outdoor assembly area - stadium seating and all. They did have a mic so I didn't get to witness the human microphone thing.
The organizer-types introduced themselves, explained that running a GA was voluntary, rotating position, and then asked for a female to co-moderate because all the moderators were male. Someone volunteered. That was neat.
They started off with "report-backs" where people who had been getting shit organized took the mike, and this was was I was particularly interested in, because I haven't been able to figure out what these folks actually wanted to do. It was actually a lot more like a festival planning meeting than any sort of protest - it was all about process, logistics, and events, not rhetoric. Some things that stood out:
So yeah, apparently all of those old hippies at the anti-war protests were wrong. This is what democracy looks like - it's tedious, nitpicky, self-conscious, and ultimately builds something a lot more complicated (if maybe not more politically effective) than easy-to-remember chants.
There were probably thirty people there when I got there, and probably closer to 70 when I left. They were at Austin City Hall, which was built with an outdoor assembly area - stadium seating and all. They did have a mic so I didn't get to witness the human microphone thing.
The organizer-types introduced themselves, explained that running a GA was voluntary, rotating position, and then asked for a female to co-moderate because all the moderators were male. Someone volunteered. That was neat.
They started off with "report-backs" where people who had been getting shit organized took the mike, and this was was I was particularly interested in, because I haven't been able to figure out what these folks actually wanted to do. It was actually a lot more like a festival planning meeting than any sort of protest - it was all about process, logistics, and events, not rhetoric. Some things that stood out:
- They are planning to hold classes, discussions, and workshops throughout the occupation. They're getting volunteers from the community to run them - for example, tomorrow evening there will be a class on nonviolent communication.The biggest irony was that because they had a small spotlight on the speaker, the speaker couldn't see any of the elaborate hand signals from the audience, so I saw no particular evidence of a consensus process. But then, I left when they got to the point where they were accepting proposals for agenda items, so they may have resolved that - the organizers were vocally disturbed by that as it got darker.
- They've gotten people to volunteer heath care, water, childcare (that sounds like it will be hairy) and legal services. They've got a help line set up in case people get arrested, and six lawyers so far. (They were careful to emphasize that they do not expect nor intend for anyone to get arrested.)
- The people there were, demographically, sort of what you'd expect in Austin - young, bearded white men, older first-gen hippie ladies, a smattering of minorities. There is a Diversity Committee working on reaching out to more people, and a need for some Spanish-language press materials, which are good signs I guess.
- The first external action seems to be organizing a mass account closure at major banks. They're collecting information on local banks and credit unions and will be encouraging people to make the switch.
So yeah, apparently all of those old hippies at the anti-war protests were wrong. This is what democracy looks like - it's tedious, nitpicky, self-conscious, and ultimately builds something a lot more complicated (if maybe not more politically effective) than easy-to-remember chants.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Kickathon!
It's that time again! Sun Dragon is holding its annual fundraiser to pay for our scholarship fund and all of the free self-defense workshops we hold. I'm not yet planning anything quite as ambitious as my month of karate-related posts from a couple of years ago, but here are some selections if you want to get more of an idea what we're up to:
Verbal Self-Defense, or, a tiny woman knocks me down by yelling at me.
The realities of running a strip-mall dojo as a non-profit: some days you teach kata, some days you teach drywall installation
Saying no: more self-defense class stories.
I would love it if you'd donate - here's the link! And I'll probably have a few more stories to tell over the next month or so.
Verbal Self-Defense, or, a tiny woman knocks me down by yelling at me.
The realities of running a strip-mall dojo as a non-profit: some days you teach kata, some days you teach drywall installation
Saying no: more self-defense class stories.
I would love it if you'd donate - here's the link! And I'll probably have a few more stories to tell over the next month or so.
Friday, August 12, 2011
So Close!
I know I haven't been keeping up with this blog very well this summer, but since I've recorded previous Crossfit Totals here it seemed the best place. I've been using the Wendler 5-3-1 strength training program since February, and I thought I'd try a Total and see where I ended up.
Deadlift: 205
This is not quite a personal record - I've hit 215 before, and attempted it today, but didn't get it all the way up. (That I was able to break it off the ground was heartening, though!) But it's pretty respectable, since it's thirty pounds more than I could pull at the beginning of the year, and twenty more than immediately before starting the program.
Squat: 195
Respectable, since my best recorded number is 205, and I strongly suspect that was at a wildly inadequate depth. Also forty pounds up since the beginning of the year. I suspect I can get a lot more mileage out of this movement in the next couple months.
Press: 95
AAAARGH. I got 100 pounds up to my FOREHEAD and couldn't get it all the way up. I am going to add some tricep assist work to try to get this in better shape. Not that 95 isn't fifteen pounds up from the beginning of the year (and that's a significant jump for a movement involving relatively small muscles, unlike the other two) but dammit I wanted to hit triple digits.
Overall, some very satisfying progress. I'm going to continue this program through the end of the year at least, since I haven't topped out on anything yet. I'll do another Total at the new year and see where I am.
Deadlift: 205
This is not quite a personal record - I've hit 215 before, and attempted it today, but didn't get it all the way up. (That I was able to break it off the ground was heartening, though!) But it's pretty respectable, since it's thirty pounds more than I could pull at the beginning of the year, and twenty more than immediately before starting the program.
Squat: 195
Respectable, since my best recorded number is 205, and I strongly suspect that was at a wildly inadequate depth. Also forty pounds up since the beginning of the year. I suspect I can get a lot more mileage out of this movement in the next couple months.
Press: 95
AAAARGH. I got 100 pounds up to my FOREHEAD and couldn't get it all the way up. I am going to add some tricep assist work to try to get this in better shape. Not that 95 isn't fifteen pounds up from the beginning of the year (and that's a significant jump for a movement involving relatively small muscles, unlike the other two) but dammit I wanted to hit triple digits.
Overall, some very satisfying progress. I'm going to continue this program through the end of the year at least, since I haven't topped out on anything yet. I'll do another Total at the new year and see where I am.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Round 2
After a lovely and totally successful birthday week-to-ten-days, I am feeling the need to tighten things up a bit again. I haven't been super bad, but I have had some cheese, and some tortilla chips, and some potato chips, and rather a lot of booze. Its also about time to do another caffeine detox. So back on the wagon I go, and we'll see where that puts me. I am going to do the Whole30 again, with pretty much the same terms as last time. I will endeavor to report in a bit more often this month.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Losing
Recently, I had the opportunity to spend time with a bunch of folks that I very rarely get to see. They were all at least marginally aware of my adventures in Paleo, and if they weren’t, my mom made sure they heard about it.
Of course, what everyone really wanted to hear about was not the RA remission but the weight loss. I’m totally a fan of that side effect, so I talked about my 25 pounds, and about finally discovering what being full felt like, and my mother invariably chimed in there with “It’s totally true! You should see it. She’s never eaten portions like these before!”
(A note, lest you get the wrong impression: My family is not neurotic about food. Rather the opposite - we LOVE food. We think about it, talk about it, and celebrate around it. None of us were more than average-American overweight before my little metabolic meltdown. Mom’s reaction was more surprise than approval. There was food left! Even after Dad finished! That never happens.)
And then, every time, something odd would happen. The people I was talking to would start to tell me why they couldn’t possibly do it. I’ve seen this almost every single time I’ve had this conversation. It’s not odd that people resist change. It’s not odd that people don’t want to give up beer and bread. But it’s odd that people think that this is a logical conversational gambit. I’m not a salesman. I’m not earning points for conversions. And in every case, I wasn’t the one to bring it up. (Although, to be fair, sometimes my mom was.)
So on the plane I started wondering about this. Why is “Oh I can’t do that, here’s why:” the response to “Hey I feel really good and have lost a bunch of weight with these guidelines.” And here’s my theory:
We get so many messages about eating being bad that we start to believe we can’t possibly be good
Think about it. Junk food is bad. Processed food is bad. GMO food is bad. Monoculture food is bad. Meat is bad. Carbs are bad. Fat is bad. Eggs are bad. Alcohol is bad. (And then we get to “bacon is bad” and the entire culture yells “Fuck it!” and orders more bacon.)
It’s this impossible weight to carry every time you put a bite of food in your mouth. Everything is wrong, bad, unhealthy, possibly immoral. Everyone who pays the least attention to these sorts of things (i.e. most American women) knows she’s doing the wrong thing every single time she eats. It’s almost impossible to avoid concluding that you’re just a bad person who does bad things and that’s the way it is.
And so when someone says, in effect, “Hey look, I’ve been a good person and you can see my reward!” (and yes, my jawline is totally a reward,) it would seem both unrealistic and arrogant to say “Oh wow, I’ll go be a good person too!” So they mutter and stammer and come up with excuses, because that huge weight of negativity makes it impossible to actually weigh a new diet on the merits.
I’ve spent years - most of my life, really - being interested in nutrition, educating myself, comparing claims and, recently, testing them. I don’t think about food in terms of “good” and “bad” - I just wonder what effect it will have on my body. But this is very much not a mainstream position, and I lost sight of that. So if I sound arrogant or sanctimonious about this stuff, I apologize. But I really do worry that moralizing about nutrition is making it emotionally impossible for people to try new things and find stuff that works for them.
Of course, what everyone really wanted to hear about was not the RA remission but the weight loss. I’m totally a fan of that side effect, so I talked about my 25 pounds, and about finally discovering what being full felt like, and my mother invariably chimed in there with “It’s totally true! You should see it. She’s never eaten portions like these before!”
(A note, lest you get the wrong impression: My family is not neurotic about food. Rather the opposite - we LOVE food. We think about it, talk about it, and celebrate around it. None of us were more than average-American overweight before my little metabolic meltdown. Mom’s reaction was more surprise than approval. There was food left! Even after Dad finished! That never happens.)
And then, every time, something odd would happen. The people I was talking to would start to tell me why they couldn’t possibly do it. I’ve seen this almost every single time I’ve had this conversation. It’s not odd that people resist change. It’s not odd that people don’t want to give up beer and bread. But it’s odd that people think that this is a logical conversational gambit. I’m not a salesman. I’m not earning points for conversions. And in every case, I wasn’t the one to bring it up. (Although, to be fair, sometimes my mom was.)
So on the plane I started wondering about this. Why is “Oh I can’t do that, here’s why:” the response to “Hey I feel really good and have lost a bunch of weight with these guidelines.” And here’s my theory:
We get so many messages about eating being bad that we start to believe we can’t possibly be good
Think about it. Junk food is bad. Processed food is bad. GMO food is bad. Monoculture food is bad. Meat is bad. Carbs are bad. Fat is bad. Eggs are bad. Alcohol is bad. (And then we get to “bacon is bad” and the entire culture yells “Fuck it!” and orders more bacon.)
It’s this impossible weight to carry every time you put a bite of food in your mouth. Everything is wrong, bad, unhealthy, possibly immoral. Everyone who pays the least attention to these sorts of things (i.e. most American women) knows she’s doing the wrong thing every single time she eats. It’s almost impossible to avoid concluding that you’re just a bad person who does bad things and that’s the way it is.
And so when someone says, in effect, “Hey look, I’ve been a good person and you can see my reward!” (and yes, my jawline is totally a reward,) it would seem both unrealistic and arrogant to say “Oh wow, I’ll go be a good person too!” So they mutter and stammer and come up with excuses, because that huge weight of negativity makes it impossible to actually weigh a new diet on the merits.
I’ve spent years - most of my life, really - being interested in nutrition, educating myself, comparing claims and, recently, testing them. I don’t think about food in terms of “good” and “bad” - I just wonder what effect it will have on my body. But this is very much not a mainstream position, and I lost sight of that. So if I sound arrogant or sanctimonious about this stuff, I apologize. But I really do worry that moralizing about nutrition is making it emotionally impossible for people to try new things and find stuff that works for them.
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