Lifting update

So the bungee worked out pretty well and I think I found the appropriate weight level to start out at for my squats. I started at 185 and knocked out 7 reps no problem. That translates into a one time max of 222 lbs so I'm not too far behind where I thought I might be. Next time I lift I'll need to have my wife or brother check to make sure that the spot I have the bungee at, currently the second hole from the bottom, is low enough to have me going parallel or just slightly below parallel. The next two sets were 5 lbs less each and I was only able to do 3 or 4 of each so that is good. Then my bench I did 160 7 times, which equates to a one time rep of 192. I struggled on the subsequent sets so I'll be at that weight for a few weeks I think. While I was watching the nba final's game last night, which was amazingly good by the way, I did some arm curls and tricep exercises and shoulder exercises and forearm exercises as well so hopefully my arm strength helps on bench and helps me look better/more defined.

Lifting update

Son of a biscuit. So I went and lifted last Friday after work and FINALLY got my bench up 5 lbs. I should say I finally finished my set on bench press of 155X7, 150X7, and 145X7. Now I'll bump it up to 160X7, 155X7, and 150X7. That'll probably take me a while to master. I'm thinking a few weeks or so. On the squat I hopped on there and promptly threw I think 230lbs on there. I did a semi squat and thought to myself, "This is stupid." With the bench press it is really simple. You lift it off of the rack, lower it till it touches your chest and then you fully extend and rinse and repeat. With the squat I was frustrated cause I was and always have felt frustrated that I couldn't really tell that I was going low enough so I said enough is enough. Bungie Cords! That is my solution. I'll either place them where the spot bars go and once I've hit them with the bar going down I'll then go back up or I'll span them across the back of the rack and feel for when my arse touches it and then go back up. As I'm writing this I'm thinking the back way will be best so that I'm not looking to the side and tweaking my neck/back alignment in anyway. I fully expect my ill gotten gains to be erased as reality to how pitifully weak my hammys are sets in and I can only do a fraction of the weight I was doing before. This weekend we went and bought a set of these adjustable barbells so I don't have literally FIVE sets of weights, but just one compact one and so I'll now start doing arm exercises. I also tested them out before I bought them and I bought them used and saved about 50% vs buying new. Don't buy used if you can cause weights are weights and don't really wear out. I haven't quite figured out what I want to do as far as a routine goes. So I'll need to figure that out. With arms/shoulders/neck/chest/lats there are a lot of exercises to do and so maybe I could do one a day or so. I should also make a bet to do them so they actually get done. Who wants to be my payee??? I'll even go all paypal on someone and pay up that way if they want for my peeps in Russia and what not.

App World

So I’ve been reading about apps and how to build them. Dis is some scary stuff! Not really, but it is really uncomfortable learning something you’re not familiar with. Like currently I have a little bit of a stress headache and my stomach was achy just a second ago when faced with the prospect of moving on from Andromo.com, which is a site you can use to help you build your apps. I’m going to hop back over to the google site that they have set up to teach you about app building. Hopefully I can keep learning some stuff there. This weekend I tried setting up a developer program on our laptop, but that seemed to be a dud. I think I tried that once before and had similar results. This next time up I think I’ll try downloading the program from treehouses’ site because it actually worked when I downloaded/installed the thing. One thing I want to do is a tutorial once I’ve got this ish figured out. I want to do a step by step EASY tutorial to build a simple app cause currently it just doesn’t seem like there is much of that out there.

When does the spirit enter the body?

This is a question that has been asked recently by myself and others. So I pondered on it. I think it happens on the first breath of the child. Here are some of my thoughts. For starters I think that things can be created first as a shell and then have them go “live”. This would be like a computer being built, but not operable until you have an operating system actually using the physical tools of the computer. Or a car that finally gets gasoline and a driver to make things go. I think our bodies are probably the same and there are two reasons why. My first clue is in the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi Chapter One verses 12-14. 12…and behold, the bvoice of the Lord came unto him, saying: 13 Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the asign be given, and on thebmorrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be cspoken by the mouth of my holy prophets. 14 Behold, I acome unto my own, to bfulfill all things which I have made known unto the children of men from the cfoundationof the world, and to do the dwill, eboth fof the Father and of the Son—of the Father because of me, and of the Son because of my flesh. And behold, the time is at hand, and this night shall the sign be given. Now this might not be too compelling since it really is possible that Heavenly Father could be the one saying these things, but from the overall readings of the verses I have to think it is the Savior talking. If it was the Savior then I don’t know as if He is cooking in there for 9 months. My other clue is that often we hear of Adam getting the “breath of life” and “We will put into him his spirit”. A child gets its first breath once the semi-seal covering its mouth is dissolved when it first comes into contact with air for the first time. Hence why people can safely have their babies in water since they don’t breath until that seal is broken. So I think that the baby’s spirit is received into its body at around that moment. Like the hymn “O My Father” says, “truth is reason”. I’ve heard several first hand accounts of people saying something very different as far as feeling goes when a child is born. Almost like a still quiet and that they can just feel something different. If you’re LDS this would more specifically be referred to as the veil being parted or very thin. So there it is. My theory is that the spirit enters the body right at the very end. Now some may question about abortions and my thoughts is that our bodies are temples and that they are sacred vessels and certainly destroying those would carry grave consequences. Also I think an additional punishment might be affixed if that temple was destroyed and thus prohibiting/blocking the mortal journey of someone who is supposed to come here, though their spirit might not actually inhabit the body when it is destroyed. Another thought I have, and may very well be possible, is that the Savior spoke to Nephi the night before He was born cause He has that type of power and can put His spirit in and take it out to communicate with Nephi if He wants. If I have anymore thoughts/ponderings on this I’ll try to remember to do an update. It is also possible Heavenly Father knows that a baby will make it full term and not aborted and would then have its spirit deposited into its body from close to the beginning. Let me know in the comment section below what you think!

countdown to babyness

NSA, IRS, FBI...they all suck! and so do republicans and democrats

They're watching us....duh.

I'm pretty sure I've already written about this, I tried looking for it and this related article I thought I shared previously but couldn't find it

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/

, and so I'm probably already flagged, which sucks, but what do you do except trust in the Lord?

I hope that all these leaks are "waking up" some of our asleep neighbors, friends, family members to what is coming and prepare accordingly.

I hope they see that the NDAA signed by Obama (at midnight on new years eve?) was a big deal.  I hope they see that the BILLIONS of rounds purchased by the department of homeland security was a big deal.  I hope they see that these "leaks" of them gathering information and storing it at the above mentioned article's location was a big deal.  And these are just the "big" things that are not fringe "conspiracy theory" possibilities.  These are all well documented and public.

Gosh I hope a lot of people get jolted awake by these things.

After glancing over my biggest paragraph I thought it'd probably be good to do a logic map thingy and try and tie it all together for you.

So these leaks of them requesting info from Google, verizon, facebook etc is important cause through this they can easily identify who disagrees with and is causing problems for the goverment leaders.  Then when people disagree with them they'll use the BILLIONS of rounds to use a show of force or to coerce/force people to obey.  Then when they don't, the NDAA allows them to detain, indefinitely and without trial, any dissident "law" breaker.  You see this picture I just painted?

"Well it can't happen here."  Really?  The Lord says that when we turn from serving Him, especially on this land, that we'll be destroyed.  Who knows what'll cause the mass chaos or when, but I see things just getting tidy-ed up and then it'll be go time for the powers to be to control people and reach for more power.  Who knows if it'll be some black swan financial event or perhaps chaos by the supreme court ruling that seems like it'll approve gay marriage nationwide or taking away guns, but it seems to be coming.

I hope that these developments with all these leaks wake people up that neither polictical party is doing them any REAL favors and they ought to move on and they ought to make real change in their own personal lives, which is the only thing they actually have control over.

Fake it till you get slapped in the face by someone who just put on body odor lotion and then keep going

That is how I feel right now with coding!!!!!!!!!!!

Gah sometimes new concepts are like the perfectly crispy french fry or moist brownie or warm decadent sweet roll (heaven knows I love a good sweet roll).

Other times I feel like I just got slapped in the face by someone who just rubbed on body odor lotion and I can't clean it off of my face or get rid of the smell cause now its in my face pores.

I do know though one thing that I've learned.  People don't know jack squat about things when they go to a job interview and somehow they still con the interviewer/decision maker that going with them is indeed the right decision and that the person is actually qualified.  Well that is just what I'll have to do when I go for an interview for a junior developer job somewhere cause right now, SOMETIMES, I feel like a fake.

On a more positive note my issue currently seems to be that I'm learning a new concept, get the general gist of it, like associative arrays and splicing, and then go to do the exercise to see that I have it wrong in my head so I use the "tip" and then if that doesn't work I go to the forums for help and usually see the answer and often it is similar to what I've already got going on, but with a slight variation and if I'm lucky the person who put that on the forum will describe what they did and why they did it and what the code is doing and that'll help me tons get more of the nitty gritty that perhaps the course writer didn't have space to put in there.

This whole learning new stuff just reminds me of school.  You get it...kinda.  You're wrong...kinda.  Now to just get someone to make the leap of faith and hire my ace!

Official weightlifting goal/update…with a Chart!

So yesterday I mentioned I was going to try going deeper into my squats with more weight.  Well…I did it!  I went up only 5 lbs though instead of my usual 10lbs cause I was worried I wouldn’t be able to finish my sets if I went deeper.  So currently I am very close to my squat goal.  Using this calculator, http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/OneRepMax.html , my one rep max is showing as 240lbs, i.e. 200lbs X 7 reps.  I’ll try next time I lift to try and match my goal for the year of 250lbs.  Using the calculator that would be 210 lifted 7 times.  I think I could do that actually without too much trouble.  It would be the later reps/weights that might be the issue. 

So my next workout, hopefully, will consist of lifting 210 X 7, then 200 X 7, then 190 or 195 X 7.  It would vary on the weights sometimes that I go down to cause sometimes I just get lazy with not wanting to have to find the exact number of plates to put on the bar and what not.  Year to date I am 22% stronger or lifting 44 more pounds.  I’ve lifted 240lbs, which is 96% of my goal of 250lbs.

Squat

Body Weight	Untrained	Novice	Intermediate	Advanced	Elite
165	110	205	250	340	445

Bench

Body Weight	Untrained	Novice	Intermediate	Advanced	Elite
165	120	150	185	255	320

My bench goal…is a different story lol.  My year goal is to reach 225lbs on bench.  I’ve pretty well flat lined for the past week as you can see from the chart.  Although it’s been a little weird cause I didn’t lift due to Memorial day and soreness from playing volleyball with the family.  Who gets sore playing volleyball by the way?  That just makes me kinda chuckle cause when I think volleyball I think relaxing sunny day with playing in the sand AND I was less sore after running a 5k a month or so ago then when I finished playing volleyball for an hour or so this past week.  Anywayssss…enough of my woosbaginess.  Then Wednesday I was able to help my brother and sister-in-law move into their new place so I only lifted on Friday.  There caught up on my lifting for this past week.

So currently my next time doing bench will be lifting 155 X 7 reps, then 150 X 7 reps, then 145 X 7 reps. Yesterday I couldn’t quite get that done.  I think I was a rep or two short on the last two sets.  What is crazy to me is looking back to my excel spreadsheet and just January of this year I could only bench 135 X 3.  That is it!  I remember doing it too and about passing out.  Anywho just crazy to me.  Glad to be stronger that is for sure.  Year to date I am 27% stronger on bench, or am lifting 39 more pounds.  I’ve lifted 186lbs, which is 83% of my goal of 225 lbs.

Just for the uninitiated/curious/people who think I might be obsessed/total dooshbag as to why I’m tracking everything so meticulously.  At the first of the year I would go in and work out and just throw weight on the bars and not remember exactly what I had done the last time I lifted and that was just annoying/frustrating cause I realized I was wasting my time and didn’t really have a good baseline to go off of.  So there is that and plus tracking just makes you more disciplined.  Just try tracking your TV watching hours and you might just “ship your pants” with how much time you (I) waste watching TV.

The following is what that one rep calculator site defines for the different weight abilities.

Untrained - An individual who has not trained on the exercises before but can perform them correctly.

Novice - An individual who has trained regularly for up to several months.

Intermediate - An individual who has trained regularly for up to a couple years.

Advanced - An individual who has trained multiple years.

Elite - An athlete competing in strength sports. Keep in mind, the standards shown in the tables do not represent the highest level of strength performance possible.

UPDATE #2

I lifted yesterday and...got my squat goal done for the year!  Using the above calculator I'm squatting 252lbs.  I'm not exactly sure what my next weight will jump me too, but that is pretty cool.

My bench however actually went down.  By down I mean my second set remained the same I think with 6 reps and my third set went down from 6 reps to 5 reps.  What the freak?  I said to myself that perhaps I needed another day of recovery to get really good and rested or perhaps I need to switch around my exercises???

Currently I'll squat first and then I'll bench.  Switching would probably help as I'm sure there is some wear on the shoulders doing squat stabilizing the weights whereas if I did bench first and had even more tired shoulders/chest muscles then that doesn't really matter cause I don't really need those to stabilize the bar when I'm squatting anyways if that makes any kind of sense.

I also wonder if I've already rapidly approached the point that my brother mentioned happened to his more experienced weight lifting buddy/friend who hit a plateau on his bench.  He then worked on his shoulders to strengthen them and once done his bench started shooting up again.  I'll have to see what next week's workout looks like cause when I did my first set yesterday it seemed easier than the previous exercise in the week.

Weird workout results, but whatev.

Lifting update

I can't exactly remember what numbers I put up on Friday for bench and squat, but they're up slightly since I last posted on weight lifting.  I want to really try and dig in on squat today.  Go really low down as by so doing I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the weight I have been, which is ok cause I want the gains to be legit.  It'll suck and seem like I'm digressing, but I want to do it.  I'll let you know how it goes.  I want to start working my arms too.  I need to find some barbells me thinks.  I looked at a couple of the self adjusting numbers where it is just one bar, but with a click of a button it can do many different weights...well...for the 50 lb ones was like $300 bones so I'm gonna look online to see what else I can find.  I'll also need a program.

Scrabble...

I hate that game.  It sucks.  I did a test at the Johnson O'Conner research center and scored above average on my word vocab/understanding and I still get my ace kicked anytime I play that friggin' game.  Well my wife wanted to play last night and so we did.  I won.  What?  Hold the phone.  I never have won that game.  Truth is my wife helped me out by pointing out that I could the s tile and play off of that so I didn't really win as she pointed out ways to help me win.  We'll have to rematch w/o her help to see if it was indeed a fluke.  To be continued...

Coding update

So I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’m learning coding in my free time.  One idea I had was to start a website called webpagewehab.com (available as I checked godaddy) and have people visit it and I would get a business going that would basically rehab their sites for them for a small fee or even free to start out and get some reviews/clientele/portfolio going.  This weekend I was learning about html and it seems fairly straightforward and not quite as intensive, yet, as Javascript, which is what I’ve mostly been learning about in code year.

            The idea came from my wife’s mother’s day present actually.  I bought her a mani-pedi and when I went on the business’ website it was awful.  I thought I could do it better for them fairly easily and I don’t really know much about webpage rehabbing.  When I thought of a name to give my site and thought of rehabbing I thought of several variations with that one seeming to be the best even others might make more sense/sound better.  I’m going to do a survey on this.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2M2ZSNP 

As you're aware I've also made a bet to get coding knowledge.  So far I haven't missed a week of doing 5+ hours of coding else I'm out $20 to some chump I know :)  One cool thing that happened is that he called, my accountability guy, and said he talked to a buddy who works at American Express and mentioned that perhaps I could land something there.  While that is cool and a little bit exciting, I probably need more experience and the guts to actually pull a website off like the above to show people I'm serious/know some stuff and can contribute with higher pay!