Archives September 2011

There is a guy at my gym that never shuts the f up.  I actually have known this guy for quite awhile, he used to also go to that old shit hole, Powerhouse.  Once Powerhouse closed their doors and snuck away like a thief in the night I didn’t see this guy for quite awhile until he showed up at Retro maybe 6 months ago.

This guy is short and probably somewhere in his late 50’s nowadays and like I said, he never, ever shuts up.  85% of the time he spends in the gym is spent talking.  A few times over the years I have got sucked into his gab vortex but I have become pretty adept at avoiding it now by never making eye contact and always looking tired, annoyed or rushed.  Even so, sometimes he will bash through my defenses and insist on cramming an unwelcome conversation in there.  I have a finite amount of time at the gym to get done what I need to get done.  I don’t want to waste 15 minutes of faking interest in what this guy has to say.

The guy really is something else.  Today while I was doing my 300 I saw him engage at least a dozen different people in the gym in conversations they would rather not have.  This guy is ALWAYS the one to start the conversation, you never see anyone walk up to him and start talking.

It’s almost like he is a crackhead that is jonesing for his next hit.  As soon as the guy is done with a set he is instantly surveying a 20 foot circle around him, desperately searching for his next victim of stupid small talk. If he doesn’t have someone to blab at he visually looks unsettled.  I wonder if they have a pill for that…

So I saw on my little Windows 7 weather widget a bunch of rain drops for the next 3 days so I figured I better get my ass out on the tractor to mow the grass last night.  I also saw on the widget that the forecast lows for this weekend were actually in the middle 60’s.  When the thermometer hits the 60’s here after a long hot summer that is always a big deal.

You see for close to 6 months we never drop out of the mid 70’s over night.  Once we see our first 60 something evening that means the more comfortable winter weather is at least on it’s way.   I have had quite enough of the wet and steamy weather for 2011, thanks very much.

So anyway the property was still damp from the rain earlier in the week but at least most of the standing water was evaporated.  It is getting a bit late in the year to do post-work mowing.  I finished up the job via tractor headlights.

Ali is out of town tonight and a good chunk of tomorrow at some meeting. My weekend plans are varied.  Besides the normal home maintenance I would like to take a shot at putting the new brake pads on the Camry, building on my successful Tacoma brake transplant the week before.

I’d like to head outside and work some more on my muscle up progress.  In addition to my stretched out forearms, I have a bruise on my chest under my nipples that has been healing up.  I’d also like to get back to our Sunday water park visits, something we haven’t been able to do consistently for several months for various reasons. With my still touchy knee, running is off the menu for awhile but I’d like to at least bike and swim.

Sunday evening I pick my mom up at the airport.  My uncle was nice enough to pay for her to fly up for a few days to visit.  Mom needs to do a lot more busting out of her self created box of limitations.  This is a good way to kick start it.

Boring entry, I know.

Yesterday at the gym I had another muscle up first, successfully completing 4 individual muscle ups on the bar between the cable machines.  It was the first time I had ever seen anyone do a muscle up in person at the gym in my 25 years of gym attendance.  I just happened to watch it from first person perspective.

Last night after work I was excited to try the next progression in muscle ups, doing more than one at a time.  When I did my single reps the night before it went well, I thought it was quite possible I could string a few together. My instinct was right, I managed to do two sets of three reps each but it was tough.

When I did my single reps I was very careful placing my hands into as much of a false grip as possible.  Well when you string the reps together, the false grip is out the window after the first rep.  When you swing back down you are back into regular pull up grip whether you like it or not.  Pulling back up from that position is more difficult since you are starting your pull lower.  I definitely noticed the difference but was still able to yank myself back over the bar which was great.

My forearms and elbows really started to get uncomfortable during the second set.  The torque put on the forearms during the downswing and on the elbows on the up transition is pretty severe.  After I was done it felt like my forearms were cramping u p.  I need to not go gangbusters with the muscle ups right off the bat.  The last thing I need is to tear something from doing too much too soon.  You can see the multiple reps here.

Last night I used my 360 and it’s slick, new ESPN app to watch the Phillies/Braves game.  Xbox Live is just fantastic.  The game comes through in clear HD and you can even split screen between two things at once if you care to.  Now if I could just get live normal ESPN programming full time on it I would be majorly stoked.  Right now it is mostly ESPN 2 and ESPN 3 content.

I was too tired to see the end of the game but I did see the Phils tie it up and go into the 10th inning.  When I woke up and saw the Phils pulled it off I was pretty stoked for a couple reasons.  The win gave the Phillis 102 victories this season, the highest total the team has EVER pulled off.  The win also eliminated the Braves from the playoffs.  If the Braves would have won, they would have had a 1 game playoff with the Cardinals to see who makes it as the wild card. How sweet it is, especially when I think back on the dozen or so straight years when the Braves ruled the NL East.

In the American League there was a similar scenario, the Rays and Red Sox were tied going into the last game of the season, again there would have been a 1 game playoff if both teams won or lost.  Well the Rays came back from a crazy 7-0 deficit late in the game and beat the Yankees on a solo home run in extra innings.  The Red Sox on the other hand wound up losing by a run to the shitty Orioles, eliminating them from the playoffs.

It is odd the way both leagues had identical situations going into the final day, I don’t think that has ever happened.  Another irony was the parallel paths down the toilet both the Braves and Red Sox followed.  Both teams had huge leads going into September and responded by shitting the bed in a major way.  It’s going to be a long off season for those two.

So the other day it was announced that the the winner of a GOP straw poll in Florida was Herman Cain. Herman who?  Cain is a rare black republican that has some strong credentials but who has also been a ghost in the media coverage of the Florida debates.  I have no idea how he would have won any sort of poll.  If anything his “win” demonstrates just how weak the republican field is in the big picture I suppose.

Personally, I would like Ron Paul to get more serious attention, unfortunately he is far too moderate for the Tea Party cronies that are calling the shots with their fat check books. He also is much too logical for the average Jersey Shore loving American that knows little more about a candidate than whatever one liner the media prints the prior day. Plus military contractors hate the fact that Ron Paul wants to get us the F out of Iraq/Afghanistan yesterday and most everywhere else since that is the butter to their corrupt, war mongering bread.

Yesterday Amazon announced their new Ipad competitor, the Kindle Fire.  I have to admit, I am impressed.  The Android based device takes the Kindle namesake to a new level with a beautiful color 7″ screen and the ability to do more than a Kindle including movies, tons of apps and the power of Amazon’s huge digital resources behind it.

The device is Wi-fi only, it would have been totally killer if they could offer the free 3G service some Kindle’s bundle in.  However I can understand the omission when you look at the price point, $199, wow.  When you compare this to the entry level Ipad 2 which is more than DOUBLE that you have to stand up and take notice.

Amazon also announced a slick new touch version of their original Kindles that utilize E-ink technology still.  They look pretty damn nice as well and you can slide into one for as little as $79.  Apple might actually have some competition in the touch pad market.

So when I managed to get my first muscle up last week it was certainly no thing of beauty.  As Jeremy accurately described, it almost looked like I was pulling myself out of the pool.  In a way I was doing that.  Once I got my chest up to bar height I would adjust my right arm under my body and use my forearm as a lever to allow me to get on top of the bar.  To me, if you get from hanging under the bar to on top of it, it’s a muscle up, even if it is an ugly muscle up.

Well the bruises on my forearm had healed a bit so I figured as part of my mini-workout last night I would head outside to try some more of my slow awkward muscle ups.  Up until that point I had always used my right arm as the lever to get me over the bar.  To mix things up a bit I also did a rep or two with my left arm leading just to see if I could.

Ali came out to see since she hadn’t seen me get over the bar in person.  She agreed it was weird the way I was able to pull myself up onto the bar but she was proud I finally managed to do it.  She went back inside with the dogs but I wanted to try a few more reps.

I decided I was going to try a “conventional” muscle up where you start with a small swing forward, and then as you swing pack you pull up and over the bar.  This is a move I have tried countless times in the past couple years but never got any further than banging my nipples off the bar.

I again utilized a close grip but this time I actually gripped the bar as opposed to just laying my wrists on top of it like I do for my slow variation. I still tried to rotate into as much of a false grip as I could.

I stepped off the supports forward to give me a little forward swing and then as I went back I raised my knees and pulled hard.  My body followed a nice arc around the bar and I found myself on top, able to easily press on top of it.  This was IT!  A 100% legit muscle up!  I was very excited and asked Ali to come out and see.  I handed her the Flip camera to record the event since we all know, without video, it didn’t happen.

So I followed the same routine and was able to again muscle up with no major problem.  Really it looks like I did it quite easily watching it back which makes it even more strange since I have struggled for so long putting the pieces together.  I was quite excited and Ali was excited for me since she knows how long I have wanted to accomplish this feat.

Looking back, I think I have had the strength to do a muscle up for quite a long time.  The key difference this time was changing my hand position so they were relatively close together.  That change forced my arms to follow the path necessary to provide clearance for my chest to ger over the bar.  In the past I had a wider grip and my motion was too much of a vertical up and down thing instead of the elliptical body path you need.

Regardless of how I got here, now that my body knows how perform a muscle up I certainly am going to progress from here.  Next up is trying to string multiple reps together and then experiment with the many variations out there.

I had the stitches pulled out of my head this morning.  Took all of 5 minutes.  I was told the wound is healing nicely.

Here is the muscle up video.  I am proud enough of it that I don’t want you to have to click a link to load it in another tab.  I prefer it live here front and center until my blog vanishes into the cyber graveyard.

 

I had my 6 month dentist appointment yesterday.  I had a couple small spots they put a sealant on and I also got a mold taken for a new top retainer.  Both Ali and I have switched over to using real Invisalign retainers instead of the type that are made locally.  The local flavor of these retainers have a very poor durability record.  At $125 a pop it gets annoying.  With the Inivisalign retainers they charge you $250 but you get 3 retainers for that price.  Since they are much more durable to start with our retainer issues should be handled for the foreseeable future.

My brakes have still been performing as expected since the rotor/pad change.  I have a set of brake pads for the Camry as well.  I’d like to get them put in there sometime this weekend hopefully.

The work I did on the fuel system thus far seems to have snuffed out the weird warm engine/bad idle problem.  As added insurance I dumped a bottle of fuel system cleaner in the gas tank this morning before I filled up.  If I would have taken the truck to a garage for the brake/idle issues I am quite confident I wouldn’t gave walked out of there spending less than 5 bills.  I dropped about $140 in parts to accomplish the same end result and that includes extra supplies I needed since this was my first time.

So Vick’s hand isn’t broken, just bruised.  I guess that is good news.  Mike also stepped back from his whining about the refs yesterday which is a good move.  Even if there is an issue there, his complaining about it post game does nothing positive.  It just makes him look like a sore loser scrambling for excuses.

Even with the Eagle’s problems, at least we aren’t the Vikings.  They have blown three large leads in their first three games.  I tuned in for the end of this weeks Viking / Lions game.  In a series at the end of the game the Vikings could have sealed a win by driving in for a TD.  Instead I saw poor old Donovan throwing worm burners and behind recievers just like the good old days, resulting instead in a game tying field goal. The Lions promptly marched down the field in OT and won the game. The Vikings are a mess just like the Redskins were a mess last year.  Hmmm I wonder what the connection is between those situations?

Right around now was the time I had targeted several months ago as the time I could finally initiate the Camaro purchase.  Sadly I still don’t see it happening anytime soon.  It seems that our spending is pretty much equating our earning recently, resulting in a lack of growing our savings.

Right now I am thinking that I may need to wait until the 2011 tax return hits to pull the trigger.  The goal is for us to be able to put down enough up front to make sure our monthly output is the same or less than what we budgeted for the Camry.   That way our monthly budgeting can remain the same more or less.  Boy it sure would be nice if my last raise wasn’t in the prior decade.

Friday night our friends Rick and Michael came over for a get together.  This was actually more of a send off. You see they are going to be moving to New Orleans in a week or so. We have known Rick for nearly a decade as he lived next door to us for a few years.  Although once he moved we didn’t stay in close contact we still kept in touch.

Well this opportunity came up pretty quickly.  Rick and Mike had moved into their beautiful new home not all that long ago.  Hell we were there a couple months ago and were just in awe of how perfect the place is. To hear they were leaving was pretty surprising.

They had some very good fortune when their house sold the very first day it was listed, who said there is a real estate slow down? The quick sale makes their moving plans much easier.  We just sat around, ate pizza and talked for awhile.

They brought Zoe with, Nicki’s first dog friend.  Zoe was funny, scurrying around the house.  She also had fun exploring the fenced in yard without a tether to slow her down.   When Rick took a look over at his weed surrounded, rundown looking old house next door he was sad.  He used to keep the house in pristine condition, seeing it with 4 foot tall weeds along the walls had to be depressing.

When it was time for them to go it was an emotional moment for Rick.  He and Ali hugged for a long time, both of them shedding tears in the process. It’s very sad to see them go but that is tempered with the knowledge that they are going to an area that they are thrilled about.  We are excited for them.  Our trips out west normally involve passing close to New Orleans so hopefully we swing by there the next time.

Saturday morning I was a streak of lightning around the house, getting pretty much all of the housework done before Ali left for Miami after lunch.  I wanted my Saturday afternoon free to dedicate to working on the truck.

It was an overcast day with off and on rain so I thought it best to do all of the work in the garage.  I backed the truck in and used my new 7000 pounds of lifting power floor jack to get the front end in the air. Prior to starting the brake work I reviewed the 9 minute YouTube video that went over the steps pretty thoroughly.

Taking the brakes and rotor off was not very difficult.  As advised, I hung the caliper with a bungee from the upper control arm to keep it from destroying the brake line.  I was ready to install the new rotor so I popped open the box and immediately knew I had a problem.  The old rotor had a much deeper area around the hub than the new rotors I bought.

I already knew why I had the wrong rotors, my truck is an oddball.  Despite being badged as a SR5 Tacoma, it actually appears to be equipped like a Prerunner. I have had this bite me in the ass before.  So it was off to Auto Zone to get the correct rotors which cost about $5 more each.  The dogs were happy to get a bonus ride in the van out of the deal.

So when I started to reassemble the passenger side brakes I noticed an odd issue once I put the caliper back on, the wheel didn’t want to spin freely.  I looked closely and saw the rotor was not spinning straight, it had a slight wobble. The problem was the rotor was not seated firmly on the hub.  The only way I could make it seat all the way was to temporarily use the lug nuts to press it on. I had to do the same thing on the driver side as well.

I noticed the old pads were not very worn at all, not even close to the metal tabs that make the warning squeal.  The old rotors were not deeply grooved or pitted either.  I can only assume they had a slight warp that I couldn’t really see.

The reassembly of the brakes went fine.  I was annoyed when I realized I forgot to apply brake grease to the passenger side, I had to take it back apart to grease up the pin and pads.  I applied the grease to the metallic plate on the back of the brake pads as I saw done in two of the example videos I watched.  Hoyt told me that the grease is actually supposed to go on the caliper itself.  Oh well, hopefully it is greasy enough.

Once I had the truck back together and on the ground I pumped the brakes a few times to reseat the pads.  Before I took it out for a road test I wanted to do the fuel system work to address the mysterious warm engine idle woes.  First thing I did was look for any hoses that were dry rotted, everything looked intact.  I then removed the MAF.  In the process of doing this I saw that the air filter was MUCH dirtier than expected.  I didn’t think it was changed all that long ago but it was as dirty as I had ever seen it.  That could be an issue right there.

I cleaned the MAF and then sprayed a ton of carb cleaner into the throttle body and down through an opening that leads to the IAC, another potential trouble spot.  I put everything back together with a mental note to grab a new air filter on Sunday.

I pulled out on to the road cautiously, unsure of the results of my first brake job.  I did a few slow stops at first and then progressed to stopping from greater speeds.  The brakes gripped well and I didn’t feel the pulsing in the pedal I have felt for the last 9-10 months.  I parked the truck in the driveway and felt proud for successfully completing my first brake job. If you want to see the pictures I took during the work you can see them all here.

Saturday night I watched my latest Netflix dvd, The Town.  I remember hearing good things about the movie when it was out.  It features Ben Afleck as a modern day bank robber extraordinaire and is set up in the Boston area.  The movie was fine, one of those see it and forget kind of flicks. It gets an average B in my book.

After it was over I flipped over to my Xbox dashboard.  Before I started the movie I saw that Xbox live was streaming a live concert from Las Vegas sponsored by iheartradio.com.  The concert had a ton of big names in it so I thought I would flip over to check it out.  I thought it was kind of cool to be treated to a concert for free.

Well I have no idea who the young black woman was that was singing when I flipped it on.  She had this outrageous blonde wig that almost looked Princess Leia like with two big buns on either side.  Watching her performance via Xbox Live was a joke.

Evidently Xbox Live is handled with kids gloves since lots of kids use the service.  As a result they were hitting the button whenever a suggestive/dirty word came out.  Well the end result was almost like watching a silent movie, it had more silence than singing.  I continued to watch just because it was just so ridiculous.  I tapped out when they brought Rascal Flats on.  Despite the excessive use of the dump button, using services like Xbox live to stream live events is the way of the future.

So the first thing I did Sunday morning was head out to get the new air filter for the truck in the party van.  Of course I had the girls with.  I stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way to get a large cup of coffee.  The woman at the drive up saw Sadie sitting in the passenger seat and asked if she would like a munchkin.  I told her as long as it wasn’t chocolate we could give it a try.  She actually gave me two, one for each dog.

I handed the munchkin to Sadie.  She took it in her mouth but then jumped down on the floor and put it down to investigate.  After a few cautious licks and sniffs she chewed it up.  I handed the other one to Nicki but she had no interest.  I gave it to Sadie and it was gobbled down in a second.  I guess she officially likes munchkins.

So I grabbed a new air filter and a bottle of fuel system cleaner while I was at it, figuring it couldn’t hurt.  When I got home I popped the filter in and left the fuel system cleaner in the truck to be used before my next fill up.

Later in the morning I headed outside to film my first muscle up on my home bars.  I was a bit nervous going in since when I did it at the gym, none of the attempts were on real, stand alone bars.  I wasn’t sure if I would get the same results.  Well I was quite happy I was able to get over the bar in every attempt.  I did them on all three pieces of outdoor equipment, the pull up bar, parallel bars and the high bar.

I was quite happy to have pulled it off, this time on tape.  From here I can now work on improving my form.  Just being able to get over the bar under my own power gives me the confidence and motivation to keep progressing.

I sat through that miserable Eagles game.  The game was an absolute mess, besides the STELLAR performance by Lesean McCoy. The first two touchdowns the Eagles gave up were a sloppy mess.  On the first one Casey Matthews, who they moved from middle to weak side linebacker, blew a coverage assignment badly and let Brandon Jacobs run free to catch a TD pass.  The second TD was another long one where horrendous, shoulder pad high tackling was shrugged off.  I never heard of the guy that made the catch.  He schooled the Eagles later with another TD while being double covered.

So once again the shitty defense was on display, allowing big runs left and right and not having the ability to slow the Giants down when it really mattered.  The defense has been awful all three games so far.  The Juan Castillo experiment has not started well.

I am really sick of Desean Jackson.  He is so inconsistent.  For every two balls he catches he drops one that hits him in the hands. It is starting to look like our real number on receiver is Jeremy Maclin, too bad he pulled a hamstring.  Steve Smith was a great pick up, thus far he hasn’t shown to be good at much besides bump setting passes into defenders hands.

Vick was injured for the 2nd time in as many games, this time possibly breaking his right (non-throwing) hand.  After the game he was whining that the refs were not calling late hits on him.  It really came out poorly in my opinion, too many sour grapes. Let the coach cry about the refs.

The headlines today are about if the the Eagles made a mistake paying Vick HUGE money to stay.  Uh duh, yea.  Late last year I pointed out that Vick had clearly come back to earth and teams had figured out how to minimize his effectiveness. Just look at his passing numbers since late last year and the first three games this year, they are average at best, certainly not anywhere close to a 100 million dollar man standards.

Plus Vick’s play style is a recipe for injury.  Only once has he made it through an entire 16 game season without missing a game. He is into his 30’s now, that isn’t going to get any better.

It really is disappointing to see this team, with all of the off season moves, come out and still show such a weak personality.  To me, that all points back to the fat man who after the game uttered his typical “I have to do a better job…” bullshit that Eagles fans have heard for 10 years plus.

It was just a miserable game that removed what was left of the optimism going into the season.  Sure there is a long way to go and in the NFL things change quickly.  I can only hope the change for the Eagles is dramatically up instead of down.

So Ali completed her first Olympic distance triathlon yesterday as did Randall.  Randall struggled in the swim but Ali did too unexpectedly.  She said areas of the swim course were not marked well and she had a real hard time judging what direction to go at times.  She is sure the course was longer than the posted .9 miles.

Ali really struggled on the bike portion of the event.  This would be to expected since she puts so little emphasis on her bike training.  Unfortunately of the three parts of a tri, being solid on the bike is probably the most important since it is the longest distance you travel.  The steep overpasses that the bike course included just sucked the energy out of Ali’s legs. Ali chalked it up as a learning experience. It was the longest endurance race she has ever undertaken.  It will only hold that title for a couple weeks since Ali’s marathon is rapidly approaching in early October.

When Ali got home after 5pm she was back in bed within 15-20 minutes.  She stayed there until 8 or so when I encouraged her to get up.  She acted annoyed that I got her up.  She said she wanted to get up around 7, I let her back there till 8, I don’t see the problem.

Randall finished the event in 3:27 and change, under his high end 3:30 prediction.  Even with his long swim time, his biking background allowed him to make up a lot of time.

I still felt somewhat disappointed that I didn’t participate but my knee still has not been relieved of the soreness/stiffness that shelved me. Oh well.

Ali started her own blog.  I found it curious she would do so since I have set such a high standard for the past 8 years. It will be interesting to see what spills out in there.

A muscle up is a staple in higher level body weight training.  A muscle up is when you start hanging below the bar and wind up with your body fully extended above the bar.  It is basically a pull up into a dip.  Sounds simple? It isn’t.

I have been working towards getting a muscle up for at least two years.  For the first year or so my progress kept getting retarded by chronic tendonitis that I finally was able to tame with regular forearm stretching.

In recent months I have made some nice strength gains, repping out 20 + pull ups for the first time in my life.  I still however had not been able to get a muscle up, despite having the apparent prerequisite strength to do so.

My body dynamics are not ideal for a muscle up.  My long arms and even longer legs seem to have a mind of their own at times.  When you are first learning a muscle up they advise you to do a kipping variety where you use a combination of body swing and leg movement to help propel you up and over the bar.

Well my brain seems to short circuit when it comes to kipping.  If anything it seemed to hurt me, my long legs would wind up extended in front of me which pulled my upper body away from the bar instead of towards it.  Even with my bad kipping, I was getting real close to getting over the bar.

The past couple days I was doing some static high holds at the gym.  Because I have some pretty hellacious calluses and blister remains on my hands I was doing this with a false grip where your wrist is basically sitting on the bar.  I noticed that I was able to hold myself about nipple high for at least 10 seconds.  In order to do a muscle up you only need to get a few inches higher.  I thought it was good I could hold the position that high, it meant I was getting closer.

Well today at the gym I would normally be doing a 300 but I instead opted to just do body weight work to give my knee a break.  I wore my lifting gloves with integrated wrist wraps for hand protection.  The wrist wraps also made the false grip a little less uncomfortable.

I warmed up with some regular pulls ups and then did some bar dips as well.  The bar I normally use was taken when I went back so I headed over to one of the cable machines that has a small bar on top of it, about six and a half feet high.  The narrow bar required my hands to be very close together to do a false grip, no more than 8 or 9 inches apart.

So I hung down, pulled up and realized I was right at the muscle up make or break spot, I was very surprised I was able to slowly power through that upper section.  However with the base of the machine only a couple feet from the bar I didn’t have any room for my legs to move so I just held that high position.

Well I was really encouraged now, I was so close I could smell it.  I went back to the smith machine and grabbed the cross support I have used in the past to do jumping, assisted muscle ups.  I hung down, picked my feet up and pulled slowly.  With nothing blocking my feet I was able to get just a bit higher.  I was then able to use a one hand at a time technique to get up and finally over the bar! I was f’ing stoked!

I couldn’t believe that my first muscle up was a narrow grip, no kip, power muscle up.  That just isn’t how your first muscle up is supposed to be.  I never have been very conventional in most of my athletic endeavors so I guess my first muscle up should follow the same suit.

I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a fluke so I did the same thing on two other spots, including the “high” bar I prefer to use for pull ups.  I walked out of the gym pumped up, unfortunately there was nobody there that would really appreciate the acheivment so I resorted to just yelling YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! at the top of my lungs when I was in the truck.

I can hardly wait to do the move on my bars this weekend on video.

So I have been hitting the Breaking Bad episodes pretty heavy now that I discovered it is available via streaming.  I think last night I completed episode 3 of season two.  It is a great show, I really am enjoying it.  I wonder if Dexter would think he needs to kill Walt? I don’t think so.

Ali will be heading over to Miami sometime tomorrow for the Escape triathlon.  Part of me feels guilty for not participating but my knee issue and incision on my head would make it impossible anyway.  The 3 bike rack we got for the Camry will work out perfectly, allowing Ali, Michelle and Christy to carpool together with all of their bikes in tow.

Randall will also be competing in his first ever olympic distance triathlon at the Escape.  I wish both him and the girls the best of luck.

I will keep myself busy with house chores of course but the big project will be my attempted brake job on the Tacoma.  I am hoping I have all of the supplies I will need for the project but I won’t be surprised if there is an additional run to the auto parts store.  I may try to Justin.tv the project.

Tonight our old neighbor and his partner will coming over for a get together.  It actually will be a send off as they are moving to New Orleans in a week or so, a major relocation.  It will be great opportunity so we are happy for them but of course we are also sad to see friends leave, especially since we don’t exactly have a huge circle of them in Naples.  Life is all about rolling with the changes.

So last week Howard only put in a three day work week so I assumed this morning when I turned the show on he would be live since that has been his pattern with the new contract, back and forth between 4 day week and a 3 day week.  Imagine my joy when instead I heard the Monday show being repeated.

I knew what this meant, now the threatened full time, three day work week has been initiated.  Now of course I realize  Howard has been in the business for more than three decades so he has the right to work as little as he damn well pleases. However, that does not mean I can’t have a boat load of reasons why I think this is complete and utter horseshit.  Let me begin.

When Stern came to Sirius radio he was asking a lot of his listeners.  Not only would they be asked to pay $13 a month to HEAR him, they also would be asked to pay $14 a month to SEE the show like they could on E!  So after taxes, if a Stern listener wanted to follow Howard once he left regular radio to the same degree they could before, it was going to cost them $30 a month.

Now on top of that you have the costs of the satellite radio and if you are like quite a few people, multiple satellite radios and multiple subscriptions.  I know personally I have spent well in excess of $1000 since Howard went to Sirius JUST so I could listen to him and I don’t even have Howard TV. Yea, that is pretty ridiculous but that is what it adds up to for the 6+ years of service and equipment.

Now in addition to paying all of this money for the service we also got shorted one day a week.  Originally when he started on Sirius, Howard said they would still work the occasional Friday.  Well within a month or so that went out the window and he never worked a 5 day week since.  In addition to this, when Howard came to Sirius they gave him something like 8 weeks of vacation as well.

Even with the added expense and less amount of shows, the show still seemed worth it, at least a first.  Being able to say anything and do almost anything in the much more open domain of satellite radio was very refreshing.  The days that Howard was working he was at least still running the show consistently till 11 am or later.

In addition to his show he brought in Bubba to fill in the afternoons who I learned to like (for the most part).  It was a real nice one two punch that gave Sirius Stern subscribers what most of us would deem was good value for the money.

Ok fast forward to the new contract, which began at the beginning of this year.

Prior to signing the deal Howard performed his typical on air negotiations where he threatened to leave or flat out retire.  The audience was forced to listen to him whine about Sirius for almost the entire last year of his first deal.

Well when he announced he was staying with Sirius the initial relief was soon discolored by the details of his new deal,  even less live shows, dramatically less.

Initially Howard revealed he would be doing the alternating 3/4 day work week rotation.  He indicated that “eventually” it would be just 3 days full time but he gave the impression that would be well down the road in the contract, not 9 months into a 5 year deal.  In addition he cut the daily show length down an hour as well, he is normally off the air shortly after 10 am.  I believe he also sucked another couple weeks of vacation out of Sirius.

When you do the math, the reduction in live shows is ridiculously less.

Howard in my opinion definitely seems to be phoning it in and I think there are several reasons for it.  First of all he is an old dude, hell I think he is 58.  Not many people have the drive at 58 to do what they did when they were 28, I don’t think he is immune to that.

Second he is pissed off at Sirius.  He actually has a court case going against them because he feels they owe him money based on subscriber numbers.  In addition Sirius has not appeased Howard in other ways such as his desire to keep Bubba on the channels, instead they let him walk because they literally didn’t want to pay him anything .

This anger towards Sirius surely contributes to him not feeling bad about putting in the bare minimum amount of time in the studio.  Unfortunately whether he realizes it or not this is also a big F U to the fans that have enabled him to become a very wealthy person over the last decade.

The strategy Sirius has taken to fill the dead air is as lame as it gets.  On Thursday and Friday they replay the stuff you just heard Monday through Wednesday, talk about phoning it in.  On Howard 101 they filled the Bubba void with more endless replays of old content. It’s pretty pathetic.

Howard could do something about the lack of live shows if he wasn’t such an ego maniac.  He has a number of people on his staff that could step in and do their own shows which the fans would find more interesting than replays of replays of replays.  I’d love to hear a number of the show staff live on air without Howard constantly interrupting.

It’s really ironic that Howard’s massive ego is what makes him not want to have other staff on air when he is not on himself yet he has established he really doesn’t want to be on the air anymore.

Keep in mind that in addition to the steadily decreasing amount of entertainment the Stern channels have been providing, Sirius has been f@cking subscribers with a wheelbarrow full of additional bullshit charges that has raised the subscription price by more than 40%.  We also have the joy of dealing with one of the worst customer service companies in the country.  Every call I have made to Sirius has had at least some element of frustrating stupidity.

Howard stopped using his Twitter account because it has been stuffed with people that are dissatisfied as I am with what we now get for our money. Howard has said several times on the air to fans, tough shit, take it or leave it basically.

Well for me the value/cost equation just isn’t there anymore.  I am pretty sure once this years annual subscription is up I will be pulling the plug, not that Howard gives a shit.

So first thing yesterday morning I was in the dermatologist office for my basal cell skin cancer surgery.  The procedure is pretty much old hat at this point with as many times as I have had it done.  It doesn’t mean I enjoy it.

After injecting the area with numbing solution, which burns going in, the doc goes to town after letting the stuff set up for a few minutes.  With the cancer spot being right in front of the ear I had a front row seat to the sounds of skin being cut away, stitched and cauterized.  It’s a pretty bizarre sensation.

After cutting away the section of skin I had a temporary bandage applied while they checked to see if they got all of the bad stuff out.  Luckily they did so I didn’t need a second cutting session.  I was stitched up and out of there by 9:30 am, a very quick turnaround for a mohs procedure.

I walked out of there with a copious amount of bandaging over the incision, I looked like I was shot in the head.  I am not sure how many times throughout the day I had to explain the bandaging to various people, explaining it wasn’t quite as dramatic as it looked.

Once the numbing wore off the area did not feel very good at all.  I had pounding and burning that radiated outward up towards the top of my head and downward into my jaw.  You weren’t supposed to take my pain relievers of choice aspirin or Advil since they have blood thinning characteristics that aren’t helpful when a fresh wound is stitched up.  Instead I was told to take Tylenol which didn’t seem to make a dent in the discomfort.  I also had to skip the gym, no elevated blood pressure allowed the first day.

Since I couldn’t go to the gym, on my lunch yesterday I grabbed the supplies I should need to do the brake job on the Tacoma.  I was able to get new lifetime pads and two new rotors with 2 year warranty for less than $90.  Any brake job at a garage that involves new rotors will typically set you back at LEAST three bills.

Now my expenses for this will be slightly higher because I need to get some additional supplies for the work that I don’t have like a torque wrench, brake fluid, high temp brake grease and a few other things.  But if this experiment enables me to handle most simple brake work in the future it will pay for itself immediately.

I also have a fresh Tacoma problem that I am going to try to fix simply at first. When I went back to my truck after my Tuesday gym session the truck didn’t want to stay running.  If I worked the gas to keep it alive the truck protested with even more stuttering and backfiring.  Then after a few minutes it returned to running normally.

Well the problem has continued and I narrowed down when it occurs, when trying to restart the truck within an hour or so of turning it off.  If the engine is totally cold it starts normally, but if it is warm it will sputter like a jalopy for a few minutes and then will eventually correct itself.

Doing some research revealed many possible causes of course so I am going to start with the simple/free stuff first.  I am going to clean the MAF, the throttle body and look for vacuum leaks in the various rubber hoses.  The truck is getting to the age where dry rot of such items will happen.

Another possible cause is the IAC valve. (idle air control)  Evidently this valve can get gummed up with carbon.  I can try to clean it indirectly by dumping a ton of carb cleaner through the throttle body. However to properly clean the IAC it should really be removed which from what I read can be a pain in the ass, especially since it involves some brass screws that are very prone to stripping. I am crossing my fingers that I can kill the problem without having to try to rip down to the IAC.  Looks like my weekend is going to be chock full of Tacoma maintenance.

I gave Randall my RROD repaired 360 a few weeks ago.  Evidently it is still going strong for him.  However I noticed some weird shit going on with my Hulu account recently where stuff was disappearing from my queue and items were showing up in viewing history that I didn’t watch.

Well it seems that Randall’s Xbox 360 was still writing his Hulu activity to my Xbox Live profile.  After he removed my profile for the hard drive the weirdness stopped.  When I was reviewing the viewing history I saw a documentary that Randall had watched called The Future of Food.  I am always interested in information about how f’d up our food chain is so I watched it.

The film focuses on how “patenting life” has become a huge financial windfall for corporations.  One of the biggest and most evil examples of this is a company named Monsanto.  The depth of their treachery is far too vast and involved to outline here.  Instead I recommend you watch this Cliff Note’s video here or better yet search Hulu or Netflix for the film yourself and watch it. Get educated on where your food chain is now and where it is headed.  You will not be pleased to see that the food industry is just another example of what happens when corporations are allowed to run wild.

Oh FYI, one of Michelle Bachman’s stances is she thinks the food industry needs much LESS regulation.  After watching this documentary I guarantee you will see just how misguided that viewpoint is.

How ironic that I just received an email from Credo about those Monsanto bastards. Click here to sign the petition.