Well, this is my last post of the year, and my first post since I went on leave.

So I haven’t been up to much these holidays, generally just playing on my XBOX, sleeping, reading, beating people at poker, coughing up blood and a bit of cycling.

As for this past year, it wasn’t in the least bit memorable, so I won’t pretend that I’m going to miss 2006 or be excited to invite in 2007, it’s just another day, week, month, year really. Either way, to those who will be hugging toilet seats and getting cosy with the gutter, enjoy your evenings, general debauchery and entertaining festivities.

And to those who were wondering what happened to the post I was alluding to in my previous post, I haven’t forgotten about it, I just went on holiday, and when I’m holiday nothing much gets done.

The blog commands me to write. Actually, Mike is always bothering me, and since I’ve had this post planned for a while, I figured I’d finally put it down. Only problem is I’ve forgotten what I was going to write about, so this might turn out a bit haphazard

I’ve blogged about my eyes before, but unless you have an eye problem yourself it seems people don’t really understand how debilitating it can be. I often used to get asked if I can see where I’m going when I take my glasses off…

I have an astigmatism in both eyes (and as far as I know, a measure of myopia as well), so what this really means is I cannot focus properly. My left eye is really bad; with my glasses off, what I basically see with my left eye is shapes, shades and colours. I am completely unable to distinguish textures, intricate details, and defined edges. I cannot read with my left eye, and even with my glasses on, it’s an absolute chore.

Fortunately my right eye is much better and compensates for everything. Unfortunately my right eye is also not good enough. As a simple example of something I can’t do: I can’t read road signs. I always have to memorise where I’m going, and how to get there, otherwise I’ll completely miss the road.

Another point, a lot of people seem to believe glasses are 100% corrective. Even with my new prescription I’m not even close to 20/20 vision. I can’t distinguish faces at a certain distance, so if I ignore you, or don’t wave back (I don’t recognise you, therefore you’re not waving at me), don’t take it personally, this is especially pronounced at night.

Night driving is a pain, and I’m only comfortable driving roads that I know extremely well. In daylight I have very poor depth perception — thanks to my exceptionally poor left eye, depth perception requires two — at night, it’s almost non-existant. Since I can’t tell how far away a car is (they could be 10m or 100m for all I know) or how fast it is travelling, I have to use lots of visual markers. This involves figuring out what is and isn’t illuminated by oncoming vehicles’ headlights and then using distances I already know to judge speed and distance.

Another thing I struggle with: seeing red on green and vice versa. This is a common problem with many people, for me, with the correct shades and lighting, the less dominant colour will just dissapear.

That’s it for the rambling post. This was mostly as a precursor to the following post regarding my xbox. So what do you see?

My life is over. I bought an XBOX360.

It cost way too much, but it’s really cool. So I’m just waiting for Friday to finish so I can go home and play some games.

Who polished everything? I admire the desire to make everything look pretty and shiny. But please, please, please don’t polish the weights. That stuff ends up all over the grips and fighting to hold onto a 20kg dumbbell is not my idea of good, safe, (or even fun) gyming. Besides, it wears off in a matter of days and looks dull again, but having to use those weights during those days really sucks. Clean them by all means (please clean them actually) but don’t use super slick silicone based polish.

So in a follow up to things that annoy me, here’s one about stuff that goes on at my gym — and I’m sure it’s safe to assume this isn’t a special case.

• Why do you have to stand in front of me, mid-rep, obscuring my vision of the mirror? No, the mirror isn’t there to inflate my ego and cushion my vanity (though for some I’m sure it is), it’s there so that I can check my form and not injure myself. So please move, a single step sideways will suffice, it’s not like you’re doing anything important at the moment.
• The whole free-weights floor is open, so why did you take the bench directly in front of me? I like the mirror, it feels awkward doing exercises with no mirror to use as a point of reference. You could at least move it sideways slightly, but don’t worry if you don’t, I’ll move mine sideways.
• How old are you? Did your mommy never teach you to put stuff back when you’re done? I don’t like hunting around for that specific weight you selfishly left on the other side of the gym. Also, did no one ever teach you to count? It’s not hard to put the weights back in the right spot; it only takes about 30 seconds to learn the layout of the weight racks. You’ll be stunned to notice that the racks are ordered.
• Why are all the plates, unceremoniously dumped in piles on the floor, often enough right next to the weight tree? Sure, dump a plate or two on the floor, the next guy will probably use them, but every single one of them? That’s a good 30 plates or so… the weight tree looks rather lonely.
• If you’re the last one using the machine/press put the plates back. Sure, leave the weights on the leg press when you’re done, it’s easier for the next guy to take 2 plates off than put 10 on, but if you’re the last person using it (I go at night, and leave just as the gym closes), it’ll only take you 2 minutes to put all the plates back. Yes, the gym personnel get paid to do that for you, but in all likelihood one them had just put those plates away. It’s a courtesy thing.
• Why abuse the equipment? It’s not necessary. Sure if you think you’re going to fail badly and injure yourself, drop that weight! The only person you’re impressing by dropping a 50kg barbell from chest height every set is yourself. Same goes for machines, it’s not necessary to just let go of the bar/cable/lever and just let the plates slam down; besides, keep doing this and you’re going to injure yourself if you’re not careful.
• One bench please, don’t put your stuff on one bench and then do your sets on another bench. People don’t always know that that stuff belongs to you, so they can’t ask you to move it. If they’re different types of benches, by all means, use both benches, but don’t moan when someone grabs the one you’re not using at the time.
• Like the one above, please don’t use all the spare benches. It’s nice that it takes two of you to spot the one guy doing the exercise, and another two to take up some of the spare benches while providing moral support. But seriously, if the gym is full or you’re sitting on popular benches, all you’re doing is taking up space and annoying people.
• Who’s having a baby? It’s not necessary to moan and grunt that loud.
• Cellphones? Are you so important that you have to sit there for half an hour talking really loudly on your cellphone? Get off the bench, you’re not using it, and you’re only annoying the people around you by talking as loud as you are.

There’s more, and I can’t remember them right now, I wrote this post in two parts so I forgot a bunch. Oh well, I’m sure there are plenty of others.

Pedestrians are stupid. Everyone has their horror stories about close shaves with cars and especially taxis, but I just seem to have more stories about close shaves with retarded pedestrians — not to say that I don’t have plenty of stories about retarded cars and taxis… I drive Wynberg main road every day, which should be explanation enough.

So I get to work today and there’s this dumb bitch just standing there in my parking spot… and she wouldn’t move. I was very tempted to mow her down, but I didn’t feel like scratching the paintwork or denting the bodywork as her grossly over sized derrière was sure to inflict a sizable amount of damage.

Now for some “retardedness” observation:

Don’t…

• …cross the road and suddenly step out into my lane, from behind a bus or taxi or something equally big enough to entirely obscure you from my vision! Some roads are narrow and there might not be enough space for both you and me to occupy the same space. I have a big metal cage, you don’t.
• …start crossing the road while looking left. You just stepped into my lane. Look right first! We drive on the left side of the road in South Africa.
• …walk in the road, at night, wearing black clothes, when there is a perfectly good 2m wide pavement. I can’t see you, and I take great delight in scaring the crap out of you when I suddenly swerve around you.
• …walk 3 or 4 abreast, in my lane. See above, most roads in South Africa have decent sized pavements, try use them for a change.
• …stare at me, stuck to the spot, like a deer in headlights. Get your arse off the road so I can make that turn and get rid of the tailgating taxis behind me.
• …look at me, decide you have enough space to cross the road and then casually stroll across the road like you own the damn thing; a granny with a Zimmer frame could beat you in a 100m dash, surely you can at least manage 5?.
• …stand in the middle of the road waiting for a gap in traffic, directly opposite a parked car. By all means stand in the middle of the road, it doesn’t bother me, but when you make a tiny little tunnel for me to go through, I get annoyed. On most of the roads I drive, there isn’t enough space for both my car and you.
• …walk in front of my car and stick your hand out in a stop gesture, and then continue to stand there, blocking me and the 40 other cars behind me. I don’t see a badge of authority on your shirt; was it really necessary to block traffic and inconvenience everyone for your own amusement and pathetic display of power?
• …stand at the side of the road, with a stroller buggy half the size of a bus, sticking into my lane. A couple of things, firstly: why is that thing so damn big? Are you smuggling exotic animals in there? Secondly: do you really want your little runt to join the countless number of stains already on the roads?

These are just a few things I deal with on an almost daily basis on my commute to and from work, especially along Wynberg main road. No, I don’t get road rage, only mildly pissed off with the idiocy that goes on around me. A little bit of thought and consideration for others could drastically reduce road rage and accidents; unfortunately it is this consideration for others that is seriously lacking in the over-selfish society we live in.

Either way, you pedestrians suck, and the next time you scratch my car crossing the road I’m going to slip the clutch and break your leg.

Because it’s World Toilet Day.

I switched up my gym schedule this week, and now I’m very sore. I was hobbling around the last two days doing a fairly impressive imitation of an octogenarian with osteoporosis. This of course is a direct result of my mixed up routine and the hard leg workout on Tuesday; I guess my body just got used to the old one, even though I haven’t changed that many exercises.

In case anyone is interested, I’ve listed my workout below. Not particularly exciting and it still needs a lot of work. At the moment I’m just testing it for the first couple of weeks to see if my body can handle this routine without too many problems.

I’ve listed my max rep ranges to failure. Usually I do 6-8 reps per exercise; if I manage to do all my sets at max rep range I’ll generally increase the weight the following week. This works fairly well if you can remember the weights and number of sets you managed to do the previous week.

Tuesday — Legs (quad dominant & calves)

• 3×8 full squats
• 3×8 45° leg press
• 3×8 45° calf press
• 2×8 seated calf raise
• 1×8 donkey calf raise

Wednesday — Shoulders & Forearms

• 3×8 seated military barbell press
• 2×8 standing side lateral dumbell raise
• 1×8 seated dumbell press
• 3×8 seated bent over rear lateral raise
• 2×8 dumbell shrug
• 1×8 barbell shrug
• 2×8 reverse barbell curl
• 2×8 EZ barbell wrist curl
• 2×8 EZ barbell reverse wrist curl

Thursday — Legs (ham dominant) & Back

• 3×8 Romanian deadlift
• 2×8 walking lunges (long)
• 1×8 lying leg curl
• 2×8 wide bar lat pulldown
• 3×8 wide grip overhand pullup (full range)
• 2×8 bent over barbell row
• 2×8 low row
• 1×8 weight horizontal hyperextension

Friday — Arms (biceps & triceps)

(alternating)
• 3×8 seated alternating dumbell curl
• 3×8 seated dumbbell overhead extension

(alternating)

• 3×8 EZ bar skullcrusher
• 3×8 hammer curl

(alternating)

• 3×8 flat cable curl
• 3×8 tricep cable pulldown (alternating between bar and rope)

Saturday — Chest & Abs

• 3×8 flat barbell bench press
• 3×8 incline dumbbell bench press
• 2×8 wide grip chest dip
• 2×8 pec dec
• 2×8 weighted leg raise
• 2×12 incline crunch
• 2×8 incline crunch (different bench from above)
• 3×10 swiss ball crunch (single leg)

This is a 5-day split that I made. Most of the exercises are taken from my old routine, and were just moved around a bit so everything is on a different day. I’ll start substituting exercises after I’ve trialed it for a few weeks to see how the split works out. Next time I think I’ll put together a 4-day full body workout.

The order isn’t ideal and will probably require a bit of rearranging. For instance having my back and biceps on consecutive days could be a bit difficult. Previously I had my leg workout all on one day, but it was taking me too long to properly work out such a huge muscle group, so I decided to split it as above. The only problem is that the DOMS from the Tuesday workout is hampering my Thursday workout, so I’ll have to see if that improves a bit over the next few weeks. I could put hams and quads on Tuesday and then split calves with something else, but I quite like the ham/back split I have because the two muscle groups complement each other very well.

And… yes, my bicep workout is a bit funny because I’ve been having problems with my forearm and wrist on certain exercises.

As for my cardio, I do 45 minutes fasted LISS on my bicycle (with indoor trainer) on Tuesday and Thursday as soon as I wake up. Add to this whatever I do on the weekends for cycling; currently I’m doing about 4 hours a weekend.

I’ll probably continue to post my routines in the future; now it’s time to go and get my routine evaluated and switch everthing up. Currently my routines are taking a bit long — about an hour including warmups, so I’ll probably axe a few sets here and there, and move some around so I can get all my workouts down to about 50 minutes.

Suzuki GSX-R750

Honda CBR600RR

KTM 990 Super Duke R

Buell Firebolt XB12R

Had I the money, I’d buy all of the above bikes. However, being a Honda fan means I’d probably choose the 600RR if I could only pick one. Such are my dreams. Short of winning the lotto, I doubt I’ll be able to get one of these for a fairly long time yet.

Of course, just like every other Honda fan, I really want to see a competitor to the GSXR750; I’d buy that in a heart beat.

A few days back I got one of those package delivery slips in the mail. Now I love getting these, but it’s such a luss going to the post office to collect the package. This time I couldn’t figure out what it was I had to collect since I hadn’t ordered anything lately. Well the mystery was solved when I finally went to collect the package this morning — Ubuntu.

So now I have 10 Ubuntu cd’s. It’s a pity since this comes not even a week or 2 after Ubuntu 6.10 gets released, and the cd’s I have in my possession are 6.06. I guess I’ll just have to order another 10 since it appears that Efty Edge is a fair improvement over Dapper. They’re free, so why not?

But anyways, if anyone wants some Dapper cd’s, I’ve got a few I don’t need :).

Happy birthday to Nick! I totally forgot, but now I’m writing a blog post to make up for it. At least everyone who reads this won’t forget :).

Enjoy the rest of your day and keep the good work up pioneering the way into old age.