Food Ordeal From Last Night

We set out yesterday with the goal of getting some take out sushi from a nice Japanese market in Columbus. After a short detour to Polaris mall we made our way to the market and ordered a party platter for 2. The platter came with a nice assortment of sushi pieces and rolls. Plenty of enough food to feed two people even when one of them has a giant sized appetite.

All was going according to plan that is until we went to pay for the food. The lady at the counter told me our card was denied. She then asked me if we had another card which we do not. Now I knew damn well that my card was not denied because I verify my accounts before I leave the house everyday to avoid ever having a situation like that arise. I tried calling the bank right then and there to prove to the cashier lady that all was well and good but of course my bank does not have customer service on the weekends. That's great and all right?

Well after suffering embarrassment in front of multiple people as if we have no money we finally say that we will seek out a local atm and return. As my good friend famously said, "Not that big a deal." There was an atm machine across the street from the market and even though it was from another bank and would charge me a 3 dollar fee we could get our money and ergo our sushi.

No dice. You see it turns out that the local banking network was down. So it wasn't that our card was being denied in so much as NO card would be able to be used. Apparently the lady at the market did not know this (and no she was not Asian or foreign so I am not targeting the person because of that) and also did not know of any way to process an order if the system is down. Oh well it was there ass out of 50 dollars.

Since we were already out and wanting some good eats we decided to hit up a nearby Italian market and bakery. Big fucking mistake there. This place should of called themselves a ghetto convenience store. Sorry but just because you have some homemade sausage and a couple types of salami does not make you an Italian market. The breads were horrible and the meat selection half ass. They had New York Strip steaks for 6.50 a piece and they looked okay (at best) so we asked for two. Actually Missy asked and not me and generally anytime she asks for something we get the biggest and best of the bunch every time. Missy thinks it is a coincidence that she always gets great service, She is in major denial that it would have anything to do with the fact that she is the most beautiful woman in the world (seriously). 

Well for the first time this fail and the fucker behind the counter picked out the two smallest and shittiest cuts of steak among the best. I am a big motherfucker and need to feed some big ass muscles so that was an insult of the highest order. I just handed them right back to the guy and said no thanks. He asked if we wanted another set of steaks and I told him hell no we were out of this ghetto ass store and would not be back.

Actually that didn't happen quite like that. Instead we just ditched the steaks in an aisle and left. Maybe not as personally satisfying but eventually they will find some rotting meat in their store. So now we had no sushi and no steaks and it was now getting late. Out of frustration we decided to just make a run for the border. Taco Bell may not be the most exciting thing in the world but it does the trick and is cheap. A fifty dollar meal down to a 6 dollar meal.

Now though I am in the mood for some sushi. There is a nice sushi place by the lane avenue half priced book store. Two things in this world that I love, used bookstores and sushi. What says you Missy????

Review- Life's Too Short

There is a show now being broadcast on HBO called Life's Too Short starring Warwick Davis. You may or may not know that name but he has starred in a lot of movies. Most of them were in costume though as he is a dwarf. Among his credits include Return of the Jedi, The Harry Potter films, Leprechaun series, and Willow. The latter is the only movie of note that his face was fully visible until this new show entitled Life's Too Short.

The show is made by Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant who have made a ton of funny shit lately. Seriously don't be lazy and just use wikipedia and IMDB and research them yourselves if you don't believe me. Hell Ricky has hosted every awards show in the past year.

Life's Too Short is done in a mockumentary style very similar to Curb Your Enthusiasm. Warwick Davis plays a caricature of himself and does it quite well. I love when a famous person has no problem taking the piss with them self. Nothing worse than when some arrogant prick takes themselves far too seriously.

The show has a lot of cameos by famous people and most of them are comedy gold. Liam Neeson in particular is in the first episode and his attempt at some improv comedy might just be the funniest thing I have ever seen. I would highly recommend people to check the series out.

By the way, while episode one is only just now being broadcast on HBO the series was actually broadcast last year on the BBC. That means if you are handy with with finding shows to download on the internet it can easily be found in its entirety and downloaded along with a very funny making of show.

Bench Press Training Last Night

Training went well last night. Utilizing our new power rack we worked up on a 2 board press. Missy nailed a three rep max and I hit a 2 rep max. Because of the bench we were using inside the power rack I had a problem unracking the weight which really affected my tight set up. All the same I did hit a fairly big 2 rep max so I was happy. We then followed that up with rack lockouts. I grinded out a tough one but Missy hit a really nice triple and I was very proud. Here is an outline of our training.

Max Effort Lift- 2 Board Press
3 Sets of 1-3 reps Rack Lockouts
The following four lifts were performed as 2 giant sets with very heavy weights used.
Incline Dumbbell Press
Dumbbell Rows
Overhead Dumbbell Tricep Extensions
Hammer Curls

The max effort lift and heavy rack lockouts had already taken us an hour so we decided to condense the accessory work into one big giant set performing each lift for about 10-12 reps. Used weights that we could only just barely finish each lift. You will notice that we started with a compound pushing lift (incline dumbbell press) and then followed that with a compound pulling lift (dumbbell rows) and then did an isolation pushing (tricep extensions) and then an isolation pulling (hammer curls). This was done on purpose to utilize opposing muscle groups and allow for a small amount of recovery.

All in all it was a great day. Broke another PR which seems to be happening on a regular basis for both of us. Couldn't be more proud of our progress.

Update on the Blog

I just wanted to announce that February has been the second best month ever for my blog in terms of traffic. The only month so far to beat out February was October of 2010 which was the month that I made 58 posts in a single month. So far this month I have made less than half that and have achieved about half as many page views.

During that time, much like now, I do most of my advertising for my blog on my facebook account. Back then though I had a far larger friend count. I believe at one time my friends list was at least four times the amount that I have now if not more. I slowly but surely deleted many people from my friends list since then and even deleted my own page for several months. Too many people use facebook as an outlet for drama or posturing and I will not have a part of that any longer.

So while I have significantly reduced the amount of people who know about updates to my blog I am still pulling in a lot of viewers. I am happy about this but I could always use help. Please feel free to pass the link to this page around. Far too few people make comments on this blog compared to the number who view it. Quite frankly I am almost to the point that I am going to start eliminating more people from my friends list unless I start getting some feedback. Obviously if you repeatedly look at my blog and enjoy what you read then help promote it by making comments and sharing links to the page. I put a lot of effort into this page so spending a few moments to share the link at the least is not asking too much.

McMissys!!!

One thing that has helped me drop weight and get back to my competitive weight class is what I dubbed McMissys. A McMissy is a breakfast sandwich that consists of a 100% whole wheat english muffin, a turkey sausage pattie (or slice of ham), slice of cheese, and one fried egg. I eat two of these every morning and they taste great. Lately I am even having them for lunch. I honestly cannot get enough of them and they do a great job of keeping the hunger at bay.

There are many foods that can be made quite a bit healthier just by adjusting the ingredients. We made MissyMacs the other day. We used lean ground turkey patties, whole grain buns, and a homemade big mac sauce with better ingredients.

Don't forget to enjoy the real deal at times too. Training hard and eating right doesn't mean denying yourself, it just means to keep things in moderation. This week alone I have lost 3 pounds but had taco bell twice, an italian sub, and papa john's pizza. The thing is I didn't have to gorge myself in the process but I did eat well. Hell I took down half a large pizza but still woke up a pound lighter than the day before. Besides the pizza all I ate was two sets of McMissys for breakfast and lunch and also a snickers bar. Not the best choices but still I dropped weight even while eating what others would tell you would be horrible for losing weight. I just don't do that every day. Plus I train my balls off and that makes a big difference.

Vulkare the Collector of Skulls

Vulkare the Collector of Skulls

Exactly when Vulkare lost his humanity and pledged his allegiance to the Dark Lord Azearth has been lost to time. Legends are a bound that he had once been known as Sir Greyth and had been a Knight of Pelador many hundreds of years ago. Stories were passed down that he had been the noblest of all knights and beheld the purest of all hearts. Legends state that the King of Pelador had established an order of knights to guard the eastern pass and keep the Dark Lords at bay.

For such a dangerous task that would test the purity of a man the King needed a knight he could trust above all others to not be corrupted. It came to no one’s surprise that the King would choose Sir Greyth above all others. According to the same legends Sir Greyth held his post honorably for many years and even to his credit personally slain many Dread Knights who attempted to raid Pelador.

Even the rumors and legends do not speak of what brought about Sir Greyth’s downfall. The Royal Archive of Pelador only acknowledges that an Order of Knights was created to guard the eastern pass but does not mention any members of the order or what became of them. All that is known for sure is that a knight of Pelador knelt before the Dark Lord Azearth and what rose back up was Vulkare the Collector of Skulls.

Imbued with strength beyond that of any mortal man, Vulkare became the very thing of nightmares. To prove his loyalty to his new master he led a raid on Pelador and personally claimed the heads of two Dukes, 1 Earl, and two dozen Barons. Azearth was so pleased with his new servant that he rewarded him with Astraer, a sword imbued with the spirit of a demon. With his new sword Vulkare would claim thousands of heads for his master. He was said to be unmatched in combat and no one was safe from his blade.

The great Drugan Warchief  Wargurk decimated the realms of six Dark Lords slaying each one before meeting Vulkare in single combat outside of Azearth’s castle. The Collector of Skulls collected one more easily slaying the Drugan Chief with his Demonblade. To humiliate his fallen opponent he cut his tusks off and had them attached to his helm.

One time a group of 8 pious and devout Great Knights swore before the King of Pelador that they would personally deliver Vulkare’s corpse to the King. Vulkare made sure that all eight of their skulls were returned to the King of Pelador to show the futility of such acts. In the end it took no less than King Airodak, said to be the greatest of all Peladorian Kings and the finest swordsman of all time, to finally end the terrible butchery of Vulkare the Collector of Skulls. At the Battle of Broken Tree the two warriors fought an epic fight that lasted for nearly an hour before Airodak used Vulkare’s own demonblade to behead him.

Some rumors state that Azearth captured a necromancer that brought Vulkare back from the dead. Such things are just rumors though and should not be taken seriously…

Dread Knights

In the book excerpts I posted I made mention of Dread Knights on a few occasions. This term was not originated by me and has actually been used several times in many different fantasy works. I have to admit though my knowledge is limited as to what role they serve in different works of literature or games. I just know that I liked the name and it kind of stuck with me.

Awhile back I was formulating ideas in my head for the Shadowlands. That is a region of the world of Kurth that lies along the Northeastern coast of the Western Continent. In the back history of the world a great evil was slain there in the distant past and ever since then anyone or thing that remained in that region for too long became corrupted. One of the ancient Kings Of Pelador launched a crusade in the region and many Peladorian Knights joined his banner and cleansed the region. While the King and most of the Knights returned to Pelador some of them remained to carve out their own fiefdoms.

Over time even these once proud and noble knights became corrupted and polluted. Evil crept into their minds and bodies and soon they would transform into fell creatures of abyss and chaos. Some know them as Shadowlords and others refer to them as the Dark Lords.  Over two dozen small princedoms exist in the Shadowlands each ruled over by a Dark Lord. They send their minions out into the Savagelands and take back barbarian slaves to serve them.

Most of these barbarian slaves simply become disease ridden parodies of their former selves. Not unlike the walking dead, pathetic wretches that are used like cattle by the Dark Lords. Those who are the strongest and fittest though get elevated by the Dark Lords to become Dread Knights.

The Dread Knights are rewarded by the Dark Lords with strength and power and longevity. They do not wither or die of natural causes. Instead for centuries they served the Dark Lords as knights of their realms. Their fighting prowess is matched only by their cruelty. They dress in blackened armor adorned with spikes and horns to drive even more fear into the hearts of men.

While at one time over a thousand of these foul knights polluted Kurth now they are but a memory of its past. During the last great crusade by King Novan III a grand battle was fought towards the end of the campaign and the Great Knights slain the last of their kind. It was an epic last stand though and they claimed many Peladorian Knights before the last of them was snuffed out.