The Prudent Hedonist

I can’t really put my finger on what it so funny about Literal Music Videos. I think a good part of it is that they usually seem to parody 80s music, and the thing that makes 80s music so awesome is that it is, in and of itself, so hilariously bad.

Anyways, if you’ve been on these here internets for any time at all, then I’m sure that you’ve seen at least one of Dusto McNeato’s seminal works in this genre.  What I didn’t realize is that others have followed his example and continued to blaze the path.

I have to admit being initially conflicted about this video. Seperate Ways is, of course, the superior Journey single. And its video does leave a lot to be spoofed. But the spoofer in this case? Cannot sing. And definitely cannot sing like Steve Perry (no one can really) so it hurts a little — until you start singing along (I dare you to try not to) and get caught up in the funny… of which there is much.

So, consider yourself forewarned when you experience the following:

Well, the one good thing about being in a bloggy kinda mood this week is that I was relatively quick in noticing that Dreamhost suspended my account at midnight yesterday evening (so what if I hadn’t paid them since my CC expired last November)… Remember kids, abuse of email filters can by a dangerous thing.

In other news, those of you who follow me on the Twitter, or know me well enough to find me on facespace, already know that that 60lb mystery I was wondering about was one of these.  So it looks like I’ll be kegging before I start all-grain brewing after all.

Given that I’ve got everything I need to store, carbonate, and serve beer, the next step is to figure out how to serve it at a temperature that people will actually want to drink.  Beyond keeping a 25gal bucket full of ice at all times, my choices are a draft box, to chill the beer in real-time, or a fridge+taps (kegerator), to keep the beer at the appropriate temperature all the time.

The draft box is nice for the portability aspect (can you say “camping” boys and girls?), but the kegerator offers the advantage of being useable for lagering beers (which opens up the other half of the beer style world for me to play with). Also, the idea of a semi-permanent fixture like this in my basement is providing me with lots of other inspiration to do something awesome with the massive open space in my basement (can you say “Steampunk Bar + Home Theater” boys and girls?).  Add in the possibilities for a fun (and accessible for me) DIY project (take 1 fridge and/or chest freezer, drill appropriate holes, profit!), and a kegerator seems like the way to go.

Finding appropriate cooling units on craigslist is proving to be pretty fruitless.  Ads tend not to have pictures, or list useable internal dimentions (8 cu. ft. is not useful to me if it’s only 2 ft high inside).  Ideally, I’d like a standard chest freezer (not like the fridge-style one I’ve got in the garage), because then I can make/buy a tower to mount on top of it, and the surface of the unit can act as a general bar space (until a proper bar is built around it).  Something like this would be a great first attempt I think.  Something like this would be awesome for extra credit.

If I don’t find something used and not gross for a good price soon, I might just buy the bullet and buy new (though my kitchen might just get jealous if I don’t buy it a new fridge first).

Note to self: you don’t go 2+ weeks of skipping workouts without it hurting when you get back.  Even if you deload.  So don’t let it happen again.

I let vacation, weather, stress, sprained ankles and general ennui get in the way of working out for a while and missed about 6 workouts.  I remember now why it’s so easy to give up the gym habit… every workout missed just makes the next one seem like it will be so much harder.  I was tempted to let things slide yesterday too, but I realized that it I missed another day, I probably wouldn’t be back for a while.  My reward for getting out of rut? DOMS (not the sexy kind), and the smug sense that I do have some willpower after all.

I’ve decided that I need to add some other activity to my regular exercise program besides just lifting, I just need to decide what and when. The biggest obstacles I have right now are:

• I despise most cardio for cardio’s sake
• I love the off days that are imposed on you when you do full body strength-training workouts, and the thought of having to work out on these “rest” days makes me sad, but I’m usually too drained post-lifting to do 30 mins of running or swimming or whatnot.
• Outdoor activities which are fun enough to interest me (walking, rollerblading, biking), are easy for me to talk myself out of: the weather’s crappy, or if it is nice, maybe I should be doing something else (yardwork, riding the motorcycling, lying in the hammock drinking beer, etc).

I had some luck with swimming on off days, but got mega turned off 3 weeks ago or so when I noticed something unidentifiable floating in the pool — yes, I know the cholrine should have rendered it inert, yes, I know that once it got to the filter intakes it would be sucked away and never seen again.  But it got really close to my FACE. ew.

Anyways, I’ve started to look into the class schedules at the 3 branches of my gym that are within easy reach of work/home and maybe I’ll try Mat Pilates or BodyWorks or something cheesy like that some Thursday.  I’m also considering signing up for a class at the Cassandra school, since their summer session starts up soon-ish, and belly-dancing seems silly enough to keep my attention, and has some intriguingly rumoured benefits about which I have some curiousity.

Any of you guys doing structured, scheduled fitness activities that you find fun?

The thing about having a week off, is sometimes it takes you about 6 and a half days to realize that you need another week off.

Stupid “milestones” and “project delivery dates”, you’re getting in the way of the perfect summer, dontcha know?

I could look backwards and tell you all about the royal mountain, and OHMYGODTHECROISSANTS, and the team boobylicious silent auction, and OHMYGODTHEWINDCHIMES, and game night, and jokur’s belated birthday, and just enough yardwork and green garlic & cheese quesidillas, etc. but where’s the fun in that?

Let’s look ahead, shall we?

Tomorrow’s knitting, followed by dessert & adult beverages at Zeno.  Can’t complain about that at all.

Apparently, I should be expecting a 60lb-ish mystery package sometime soon.  Supposedly, it’s not a kegerator, yet it belongs in the basement.  Nerd 2 wants to give me more hints, but I really just want to be surprised.

At some point in the next week or so, I need to dig my teeth into BESM, Third Edition.  Yes. It’s a table top RPG. Which is pan-genre anime-based. And Delobius is GMing. I feel like a scared 17 year-0ld school girl, all over again.

I started on my 2009 State Fair project.  I’m going to keep it relatively under wraps until I’m sure that I actually finish on time (the going is slow with this one).  Even if I don’t win another ribbon this year, I’m super excited about this project, and can’t wait to show off the finished object this winter.

I found the first modification that I’d like to make to Beauty. Cosmetic, yes, but also a safety feature when you consider how hard my current turn signals are to see.

And finally, I’ve decided that more of my monday evening’s in future need to involve New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk. Oak and Vanilla, chocolate and smoke. An ABV that would make it illegal in several states. I found it at Tournament Liquor, but I’m willing to betcha that Alvey has it too.

Sometimes, I don’t post for a while because there isn’t all that much going on.

Sometimes, I don’t post because there is too much going on an I don’t have time to digest it all.

The past week or so has been the latter — items of note:

• Hot on the heels of my concern over the emerald ash borer making a push into Minnesota, my ash tree decided to drop a large portion of itself on the neighbour’s garage.
• I took Beauty out on the freeway for the first time — note to self: consider wind speeds when looking at the weather forecast to decide if you want to ride or not.
• The Draft Party — I used a great many words in the lead up to this event. I don’t think I have any left that can suitably describe it.
• Camping! Sadly, I had to leave after only one night, but I called in a substitution in the form of Nerd 2’s somewhat over-caffeinated brother, so I’m sure the awesome is continuing in my absence.

Right now, I’m waiting out the last 20 minutes or so before I head to the airport to see my sister’s graduation.  Hopefully, Quebec won’t be too angry at me for all those franco jokes that I made in french class.

I could be having as bad of a week as this guy.

It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a music video that scared me.

Music video Mondays are likely to remain a rare breed going forward, as HedoCorp has seen fit to block the youtubes, and so my prime blog-researching time must now be spent… working.

Because suddenly, everyone in Minnesota wants to do, something.

Here’s a list of just some of the events that I know are happening tomorrow, May 2nd:

• St. Paul Craftstravaganza - State Fairgrounds Fine Arts Building- you know me and craft sales, I’m definitely going to try to hit this.
• Living Green Expo - State Fairgrounds Grandstand Building - admittedly, this runs through Sunday as well but if it makes sense to combine it and the craft sale into one trip, especially since this is all about being environmental and stuff.
• Free Comic Book Day - The Source, Big Brain, etc - Comic books, first one’s free… The Source usually has a lot of fun with this day (I seem to remember cake and costumes), and if you are going to the fairgrounds for Craftstravaganza and Living Green, you might as well go the extra half mile up Snelling and hang with the nerds.
• Art in Bloom - Minneapolis Institute of Art - On now through Sunday, and exhibition of floral arrangement inspired by pieces in the museum’s collection.  Sounds interesting, I’ll probably skip it this year.

The weather looks like it will be decent this weekend… so whatever you plan on doing… GO OUTSIDE!

Supposedly, writing about fitness goals makes things more motivating, right?  At least that seems to work for the 344Pounds.com guy (who, I’d like to mention, weighs less than me right now… not that I’m bitter)

In that vein, I shall brag: yesterday at the gym, I reached a milestone that (for me) seemed pretty major when I first started.  I’m doing the Strong Lifts 5×5 beginner strength training program, which basically has you do 5 exercises per workout, 5 set of 5 reps each (for most of them).  For the barbell exercises, you start with an empty bar (45lbs), and increase weight with each success.

So, yesterday was the first time that I squatted 135lb total (i.e. the bar + 2 45lb plates). Big girl weights!  And this was my first attempt at that weight too.

Now, I know that squatting less than 150lbs is nothing to be all that proud about, but let me present the following mitigating factors:

• This was 25 reps (5 sets of 5). Not my 1 rep or 1 set max — I’m curious as to what my 1 rep max would be, but without an experienced spotter, I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable experimenting, even in the power cage.
• I squat below parallel.  I see a lot of guys at the gym squatting intimidating amounts of weight, wearing those Hulkmania looking belts, and not letting their legs bend at anything less than a 120° angle.  They are cheating.
• 90 days ago, I could barely bend my left knee.  The physical therapy for that injury is what inspired me to start lifting again.
• I start my workouts with squats, which means that after this, I did my 4 other exercises (also successfully), and then went for a swim.

So yeah, I’m pretty stoked.  My next big goals (in the order they are likely to be achieved) are:

• Bench press with the big plates.  If I don’t stall out, I should be there in 14 workouts (I only bench ever other workout, so really 7 more presses).
• Overhead press without feeling like I’m going to die.  It’s funny how much fun this exercise was when it was just an empty bar (try it… you feel like superman!) But going up 5lbs every time seems to be progressing faster than my body is.  I’ve stalled multiple times on this exercise, which apparently, is pretty normal according to Mehdi.
• One measly little pullup.  Is that too much to ask? (stupid weak upper body)
• Squat 1xbody weight for 5×5.  This will be like playing leapfrog with another copy of me on my back

(fun fact: writing the word squat so many times in one blog post has made me giggle.  a lot.)

I’ve previously mentioned my disdain for employees at my gym. I probably wasn’t being totally fair, because I was basing my opinion entirely on the sales monkey and the extremely sparkly personal trainer that he tried to hook me up with. I’m not kidding, the girl wears glitter blush, eyeshadow, and 2″ hoop earrings while she “trains” people. No thanks.

Truth be told however, the quality of human beings employed at my local LA Fitness can be expressed as various points on a spectrum. Salesnozzle and GlitterGirl make up the low end, the assortment of salesdrones-that-I-don’t-have-to-interact-with, teenagers whose only job seems to be to take my key fob to check me in, and the actual competent looking personal trainers crowd up the middle area in standard normal distribution style, and on the high end of the scale is Nice Dude.

I first noticed Nice Dude around the beginning of March. He’s older than the average employee by at least 15 years, seems to spend most of his time doing check-ins, but on occasion can be seen out on the floor actually fixing something, or at least seeming to be useful. I’ve always just figured he was the evening manager or somesuch. He usually has something nice to say on my way in, and asks how my workout was on my way out. He’s not hitting on me or being creepy like Salesdouche is every time I see him. He just seems to be a genuinely nice dude, which is an accomplishment, considering how much I generally hate the gym and anyone involved with it.

So where this is headed is that last Friday, I head into the gym a little flustered and already running behind my very tight schedule (those cookies weren’t gonna bake themselves, dammit), and Nice Dude decides to try to have a conversation with me. Which is fine, except that he starts it with: “So, what do you do in Building [insert the label of the building where my cubicle resides at HedoCorp]?”

“Um…” <-- this is me trying to remember if I had told them where I worked when I filled out the initial membership forms, and then realizing that I wouldn't have put the specific building on there anyways, and then extra realizing that the name that he used was from before the buildings were named in the aftermath of HedoCorp merging with EvenBiggerCorp a few years back, and then wondering how he has managed this feat of stalking and then realizing that I've been quiet for quite some time and maybe I should say something before finally managing to blurt out “I’m a software engineer”.

At which point there was another long pause before I ask “So, do you work at HedoCorp too?” Which he does, in the building across the street, though evidently he spends some time in my building and has seen me, and probably even said “Hi” and wondered why I never acknowledged the fact that we are acquainted with each other in our shadow lives.

What can I say? Middle-aged white guys must all look the same to me.

Weekends are supposed to be restful, right?

Recipe Report
I tried out the Smitten Kitchen’s Icebox Cupcake recipe (though, I made it an Icebox Cake in an 8×8 pan). This is one of those recipes that should be stupid easy — storebought chocolate wafers, layered with whipped cream. Except that it’s impossible to find the wafers that you need in any normal store, so you have to make them from scratch. Which takes this recipe from being a quick assemble/chill overnight type deal, to being a 48 hour mix, chill, slice, bake, cool, whip, assemble, chill, eat ordeal. And the results were somewhat disappointing for all that effort (though, the leftovers seem to get better every day).

In conclusion, I probably won’t make this cake again, but, the wafer cookies _are_ really yummy, and I can see all kinds of applications for them, so I’ll keep this one around.

Beer Bulletin
I brewed up a batch of Scottish 80 a few weeks back, which I really should have bottled yesterday, but my own stupidity meant that I needed to drive to St. Paul and pick up my cell phone, which meant that a.) I felt I had an excuse to not undertake a messy and annoying procedure, and b.) I was near Northern Brewer, so I might as well pick up ingredients for my next batch.

I purchased the XX Ale “kit” (they were out of kits, but one of the NB boys was nice enough to run around the store and put together the ingredients for me). It’s an Old Ale, which according to the BJCP style guidelines should be “An ale of significant alcoholic strength, bigger than strong bitters and brown porters, though usually not as strong or rich as barleywine. Usually tilted toward a sweeter, maltier balance.” Sounds yummy. And the ingredient bill includes a pound of honest to goodness treacle, which is very exciting! And yes, I do realize that I’m brewing a winter beer to be ready in July.

Continuing in my tradition of buying one beer gadget with every batch I brew, I also picked up a bottle tree…which should make the bottling that I do have to do this week that much less annoying (though probably still messy).