For our main meal of the day, I cooked Kerala Roadside Chicken with shallots and red chilies. And red cabbage (cooked by @jackieLbrewer and not a traditional Kerala dish, she admits).
2022-03-11 13:53
While we wait for my Kerala Roadside Chicken to finish marinating, @jackieLbrewer and I have proceeded to the beer drinking phase of cooking. She has a Tasmanian IPA, while I’m having a Fear Movie Lions.
Figuring out plyo-lunges
When I first attempted plyo-lunges two or three years ago, I gave up after a single attempt. It was clear that I was endangering my ankles, knees and hips, because I had no control whatsoever over that move. Over the next couple of years, as I worked on the basic lunge and then the walking lunge, I tried a plyo-lunge a couple more times, without feeling like I had good control—until a few days ago when I figured out what I was doing wrong.
If you’re not familiar with the move, in a plyo-lunge you lower yourself into a lunge, and then from the bottom jump, switching feet in the air so that you land with the opposite feet forward and back, and lower yourself into a lunge position on that side. They’re also called jumping lunges or scissor lunges.
The error I was making—which seems kind of obvious, now that I’ve figure it out—is that I was somehow imagining that I should jump from the bottom of a lunge on one side to the bottom of a lunge on the other side. Of course, that’s crazy. What I need to do is jump from the bottom of the lunge on one side to the top of a lunge on the other side, and then sink to the bottom of the lunge on that side, before repeating.
Once I made that my intention, all of a sudden I felt like I was moving with adequate control. I still need some practice to do the move smoothly, and some increased explosiveness to do it well, but it no longer feels like I’m endangering all the joints of my lower body (and possibly my life) on each attempt.
(I’m making the effort because plyo-lunges seem worthwhile for working on adding some sorely needed explosiveness to my lower body, but also because they’re a component of the Superhero Bodyweight Workout that I’m hoping to do this year, after last year ended up being a bust.)
2022-03-09 19:34
Trinkante bieron “U of IPA,” mi atendas la aliaj membroj de la loka grupo.
Gear Patrol sweepstakes winner!
You know those consumer surveys that companies do, where they say they’ll enroll you in a sweepstakes if you complete the questionnaire? Well, it turns out that people actually do win those. To wit: I just won the Gear Patrol sweepstakes where the grand prize included the Topo Designs x Gear Patrol technical pack, which arrived today!
It’s a sturdy pack with three carrying systems: backpack straps, a pair of totebag-style handles, and a shoulder strap for cross-body carry.
I also won a gift card and a year’s subscription to Gear Patrol magazine, which I’m rather looking forward to reading.
Since taking the picture above I’ve tucked away the backpack straps and rigged up the shoulder strap to carry it like a messenger bag. I think I’ll carry it to today’s meeting of our local Esperanto group!
I’m actually a big ol’ geek about all sorts of devices for carrying things—check out my long list of lunch carriers.
2022-03-08 12:10
“Individuals Living In Rural Areas More Likely To Have Lower Incomes & Assets Than Urban Residents”
Breaking news from the demographics journal “Duh!”
2022-03-04 11:35
Jackie and I went to Barnes & Noble for the first time since the start of the pandemic. I bought a copy of each of the science fiction and fantasy magazines they carry, with an eye toward re-subscribing to any that seem good.
2022-02-28 15:18
It was very nearly warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt. (That is, I did wear shorts and a t-shirt, and I was nearly warm enough. Nearly.) And in roughly the same sense, it is nearly spring! 🏃🏻♂️
2022-02-28 14:10
Today’s sourdough rose especially well, and now I’m really looking forward to quality control. (Update: Delicious!)
2022-02-27 11:24
Many worthwhile things are hard to do. But the reason to do them is not because they are hard, but because they are worthwhile. (True despite the satisfaction of setting yourself a hard task and then seeing it through.)