Remembering 9/11/2001

Twenty years. I will, at least as long as I have all of my mental faculties, remember September 11, 2001, for the rest of my life. With time, some of the finer details of the day have slipped from my memory, but I remember I had just started my third year of law school. The prior summer had been particularly shitty for me as my first love broke my heart, and I was glad to be getting back into a "normal" routine. I lived fairly close to my law school and walked to class daily. On Tuesday mornings, I had an 8 am class, so I usually got up at about 7AM central time, showered, watched TV, or listened to the radio for a bit, then walked to class. That day I was running late so I never did end up watching TV in the morning. This was long before smartphones gave instant news alerts, so I had no idea what was happening that morning until I got into class. Someone who had driven to school mentioned something about a bombing on the East Coast. Of course, everything had just started out east, so nobody knew what was happening. I distinctly remember that when I walked in the law school's front door, I noticed many people looking at the monitor that usually just displayed school announcements. There was rarely anything important on the monitor, especially early in the semester, and I did not even bother to look at the screen, but I made a mental note to check them out after class. Of course, looking back, what happened was that someone had switched the monitors to one of the TV stations, and people were looking at the north tower of the World Trade Center, which was on fire with smoke billowing out of it.

I remember that my professor ended class early. He ended it about 20 minutes into the usual hour and fifteen-minute class. I guess he was either looking at one of the news websites at the podium in the front of the room, or he got a message from the school administration saying classes were canceled. Since I did not have class again until the afternoon, I was going to walk back home, and this time, I looked at the monitor in the hallway and saw both of the Twin Towers on fire. I did not have to read the crawl on the screen to know it was terrorism. I quickly returned home, turned on the TV, and watched for hours until finally meeting my mom for dinner later that night. I started watching the coverage right about the time the Pentagon was hit and was still trying to figure out what was going on from the coverage. I remember one of the anchors on whatever network I was watching saying something like approximately 50,000 people could be in the World Trade Center buildings and hundreds of thousands of people could be in or around the World Trade Center complex on any given day. It was not long after that the first tower fell, and I remember thinking to myself, how many people did I just watch die on live TV? Since I was still trying to put together when this all started, I had no idea if people had been evacuated. Then, of course, everything went from bad to worse as the second tower fell, the side of the Pentagon collapsed, and we learned that another plane had crashed in rural Pennsylvania. 

I watch the 9/11 documentaries almost every year because I want to remember that day and the people who lost their lives, especially those who did so trying to save others. It saddens me to think that we are a more divided nation now than we were back then, and if a similar attack were to happen in 2021, the country would not come close to the unity that we had on September 12, 2001. While I was never in any danger that day watching everything play out from my living room and thankfully did not know anyone personally who died or had loved ones die that day, the stories of the people in the buildings and on the planes always get to me, even two decades later. I am always especially touched by the story of the passengers on Flight 93, who found out what was really happening with the hijacked planes and made a stand against the hijackers, knowing that it would likely cost them their lives. I hope never to be in a position to have to make a decision like that, but I also hope that if I am, I will be able to do the same kind of thing that they did. 

So, this day, like every anniversary of 9/11, my heart goes out to the people who lost their lives and to the loved ones they left behind. Never forget.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 60

 Day 60 was cardio and abs. Honestly, it was one of those workouts that I had very little energy to do it, and had to force myself to make it through. I also found myself slowing down a lot more than I had in the prior workouts. But, I got through the entire thing and managed to start off the day right. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 59

 Day 59 was the sculpt 3-4 workout again. This time I was only able to hit the 15 rep max on one of the exercises, so there will not be much of a weight increase for Friday's workout. I finally found a weight for the calf raises that I could not get to 15 reps with, 40 pounds. I still feel that the workout is challenging, but I am definitely looking forward to getting to the master's series workouts so it changes up a little bit. 

4k UHD/Movie Review: Wonder Woman

 

Wonder Woman was the follow-up movie to Batman v. Superman and is told mostly as a flashback telling Diana's origin story. There are a couple of scenes set in the present that ties both to Batman v. Superman, and the upcoming (at that point) Justice League movie, but most of the movie is set in the past.

This movie was one that people saw as saving the DCEU, as pretty much all of the other movies had been shit on by critics, unfairly for the most part. However, this movie had a lot better character development and setup, and honestly, it should have been a follow-up to Man of Steel. I think if the sequence had gone Man of Steel, Wonder Woman, a stand-alone Batman movie to introduce Ben Affleck's version of Batman/Bruce Wayne as well as Joker and Harley Quinn, then Batman v Superman, I think the Snyderverse would have fared much better than it did.

Most of the story in this movie is set during World War I. There are some scenes with a young Diana growing up on Themyscira, but the bulk of the story comes after Steve Trevor (played by Chris Pine) accidentally ends up in Themyscira while fleeing the Germans. He tells Diana about the war, and she is convinced that it is the doing of the god Aries, and sets out to find and kill Aries. From there it is mostly a period piece with Diana trying to integrate into early 1900s society, help fight in battles, and aid Trevor and his team to find a weapon being developed by an evil German doctor. There is a strong supporting cast including Robin Wright, Connie Nielson, David Thewlis, and other recognizable character actors.

For those who get the 4K disc, it is a two-disc set with just the movie on the UHD disc, and all the extras on a regular blu ray disc. The movie looks and sounds great in UHD, especially if you have a large screen and a soundbar. There are over two-hour's worth of extras including several behind-the-scenes features on making the movie, as well as several features on the overall character of Wonder Woman, and how the character has evolved over time.

Overall, the movie is great. It has a great blend of action and humor, and has a message without getting too preachy about the message it was trying to send. Gal Gadot does a great job with the character. There was, of course, a lot of consternation when she was cast, especially since she did not fit the mold of Lynda Carter, the only other woman to play the character in live-action. Carter was definitely bigger than Gadot (although Gadot is slightly taller) and in other areas (boob size) that even Gadot joked about. However, Gadot is much more athletic than Lynda Carter, so she brought a lot more to the fight scenes than was ever done in the TV show. The script was good, and all of the actors did a great job with their parts. It is still probably the best movie in the DCEU and is definitely worth the pick-up. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 58

 Day 48 was sweat 3-4 and ab-ripper 200. My stamina is increasing in the third round of each exercise block, and I was even able to do a handful of "regular" cross hops. I am still doing 15 reps of each ab-ripper move and hope to work my way up to 20 reps of each next week. But, I am not in a huge hurry as I will be doing the ab-ripper workout in the 8 weeks when I do the masters series workouts.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 57

 Day 57 was the sculpt 3-4 workout again. I was able to hit the max 15 reps on the tricep extensions (back scratchers) and on the heavy pants. Everything else was in the 11-14 reps range. So, I am definitely getting stronger during the workouts. So, I think I should be good when it is time to start P90x.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 56

 Day 56 was a rest day from the regular workouts. I again just did the T25 stretch workout, which is a good blend of basic to intermediate stretches, with a bit of Yoga mixed in too. My only real complaint is that it focuses more on hip flexibility and short changes hamstring flexibility. If they were to replace one or two of the hip-focused moves with something like hurdler stretches, it would be better. That said, it is a good, and short, flexibility workout, if you can endure Shaun T saying the word "focus" over and over again in a word-of-the-day type manner. It can get a bit annoying after a while.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 55

 Day 55 was sweat 3-4 and ab-ripper 200. I am progressing in the workouts, but definitely have to slow down and modify during the third round of the cardio blocks. And, I still cannot hit all 200 reps of the ab-ripper workout. But, I can still get through the workout without taking any unscheduled breaks. So, hopefully, I will keep getting better as I get closer to day 90.

Workout Update: Power-90 day 54

 Day 54 was the sculpt 3-4 workout again. The workout was pretty par for the course. I was able to hit the max 15 reps on one more exercise and was able to get an extra couple of push-ups in during each of the push-up moves in the four blocks. I can definitely feel that I am getting stronger and getting closer to being able to push myself when I get to P90x.

DVD Review: Chicago PD Season 5

 

Season 5 of Chicago PD saw probably the biggest cast shakeup to date. The big one being, of course, that Sophia Bush left the show, storyline-wise having Erin take the FBI job in New York, real-life wise after she made mostly vague allegations of on-set abuse. The only concrete thing that I have seen about what pissed her off was that it was cold in the winter in Chicago and they were forced to film even when sick. Which, if you take that job, is pretty lame. But, given that she was allowed to leave 4 years into a 7-year contract, there must have been enough to her claims to let her go without a fight. Honestly, the show did not miss much of a beat without her. The other big cast move was bringing Jon Seda back after Chicago Justice's cancelation. In the storyline, Antonio was not happy being an investigator for the State's Attorney's office and decides to rejoin the team. While there was no real send-off for Chicago Justice, Monica Barbaro made a couple of appearances as Anna Valdez, but the show just pretended like life went on for the characters of the other show.

The big storyline of the season was whether Hank was going to be found out for murdering his son's killer. I am sure a large part of that would have involved cross-overs with Chicago Justice had the show not been canceled, however, Myeklti Williamson's character Denny Woods, was brought back to be a thorn in Hank's side and causing a lot of collateral damage in his wake trying to bring Hank down. Tracy Spirdakos was kept on as a series regular, and she got a couple of good story arcs, one trying to help Jay, and one that fleshed out some of Hailey's backstory. It was the kind of thing that Chicago Justice never did for its characters, which is probably why it ended up getting such a quick hook. The season ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger and sets up a potentially interesting sixth season.

For those who get the DVD, the only extra is the Chicago Fire episode that made up the two-part crossover between the shows. Chicago Med was not involved in the crossover that year, although some characters from Med did appear on PD, per the usual quick cameos. But, there are no other extras, so really the only reason to get the DVDs (if you don't already just prefer physical media to streaming) is to keep a current collection complete. 

Overall, the show pretty much sticks to the formula that has worked for it. The writing and acting continue to be good, and the storylines (both the case-of-the-week stuff and the larger arc) are compelling. It is definitely worth the pick-up (or watching on your streaming service of choice).

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 53

 Day 53 was cardio and abs again. I felt stronger and had more stamina during all parts of the workout, but I still cannot do all 200 reps in ab-ripper 200. Aside from that, however, I managed to keep up pretty well during the cardio portion, and while I still had to modify a couple of moves, did not take any unscheduled breaks.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 52

 Day 51 of Power-90 was sculpt 3-4 once again. I was able to max out at 15 reps on a couple more exercises and was able to get in a few more reps on the various body-weight exercises. Overall, I felt the pace of the workout was good and was not too wiped out by the end of it. It was definitely a good workout.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 51

 Day 50 was the third time doing the sweat 3-4 workout. It is still a challenge, but I am definitely finding it easier to keep up with them during the cardio portion. I still just did 15 reps of each move in the ab-ripper workout, but even that is getting better. I will continue to do ab-ripper 200 during the masters series workouts so I can handle the ab-ripperx during p90x. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 50

 Day 50 was the second attempt at sculpt 3-4. Overall, it pretty much went the same as the first go around. I hit 15 reps on a couple of exercises and the rest was within the 11-13 range. The number of push-ups I could do stayed consistent and I got in 13 chair dips with my legs extended. Overall, a good workout. 

Workout Update: Power-90 day 49

 Day 49 was mostly a rest day, but I did do the T25 stretch video. It is a fairly good, and quick, video that works at stretching most of the major muscle groups. My only complaint is that it could work the hamstrings more (by getting rid of a couple of the moves that work the same areas as other moves). But, it is a good stretch video for beginners or those who are stiff and wanting to work on their flexibility,

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 48

 Day 48 was cardio 3-4 and ab ripper 200. It went a little better than Thursday's workout, but it is definitely a step up in challenge from the 1-2 workouts. I had to modify more moves than I would have liked, but I managed not to take unscheduled breaks. And, for ab-ripper 200 I decided to do 15 reps of each moves instead of trying 20 reps of the first four moves and then getting an uneven number of reps in for the last 5 moves. Hopefully, within a week or two I can hit 20 reps on all 10 of the exercises.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 47

 Day 47 was the first sculpt 3-4 workout. As is the case with the cardio workout, it has pretty much the same exercises but adds on. In fact, the first three "blocks" are almost exactly the same. The only difference being you do more lunges and squats on the leg moves and the wide-tri-standard push-ups change from being seven of each type to 7 wide, 7, tri, and as many standard push-ups as you can do.

Then, the workout adds on a fourth block of moves that includes upright rows, maximum push-ups, maximum squats, and forearm curls (both standard and reverse), and calf raises. So, it adds just under 10 additional minutes to the 1-2 workouts. I am still shooting for the 10-15 rep range for each of the moves that use weights. So, the weights I am using range from 5lbs for the forearm curls to 30lbs on the heavy pants and calf raises. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 46

 Day 46 was the start of the 3-4 workouts, and it was almost like starting day one again. Yesterday's workout was 3-4 cardio, and although you are doing all the same moves, they go faster, and aside from the kicking sequence, you are doing another set of three for each move. So, you basically double the amount of moves you do, but because you are doing everything (aside from the yoga) faster, it only adds a few more minutes to the workout. And, adding 10 reps to ab-ripper makes it much tougher. I could do 20 reps for the first 4 moves, but then after that, I was getting between 12 and 16 reps. So, I definitely did not do all 200 the first time around. I am sure I will continue to progress and will not move on to the masters series workouts until I can do everything in the 3-4 workout. 

Workout Update: Power 90-Day 45

 Today was day 45, which marked the last of the 1-2 workouts, which was the sculpt 1-2 workout. I was able to max out my rep count on a couple of exercises, so those will get weight increases on Friday. The sculpt 3-4 workout has all of the same exercises as the 1-2 workout, but then adds a fourth "block" that contains new moves, like max rep push-ups, upright rows, max squats, etc. So, it adds a few minutes more onto the workout, but all the new moves mostly target the same muscle groups.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 44

 Day 44 was my last cardio 1-2 workout, and it was the best I have done so far. I was even able to do a handful of "regular" cross-hops, which by this point was my weakest of all the moves in the cardio sequence. Today will be my last sculpt 1-2 workout, and I start the 3-4 workouts tomorrow. I am definitely looking forward to what the next 45 days brings.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Suicide Squad

 

This is a movie that quite unfairly gets shit on (mostly by critics), as most of the DCEU movies have. That said, it is not a perfect movie and would have been better (I think) if they would have stuck to director David Ayer's vision and not tried to make it a clone of Guardians of the Galaxy, and just had a bunch of misfits that quip at each other.

The story is that ARGUS, headed by Amanda Waller (played wonderfully by Viola Davis) forces a bunch of inmates, some with metahuman abilities to covertly battle threats that the government cannot handle, knowing that the government can disavow them and throw them under the bus if things go sideways. And, to force their cooperation, nanite bombs are implanted in their necks, in order to kill anyone who wants to try and escape. The movie is set after Batman v. Superman and references Superman's death, and Ben Affleck does have a couple of cameo appearances as Batman. And, the movie does do a bit of setup for the Justice League movie. 

The movie is mostly an origin story for the character of Harley Quinn (played by Margo Robbie) and to some extent Deadshot (played by Will Smith), and partly a mission story of the team trying to take down a 1000-year-old witch (played by Carla Delevingne). The team is headed by Special Forces officer Rick Flag (played by Joel Kinnaman, best known for the series The Killing), who tries to keep the bad guys in line. The movie also reintroduces the live-action Joker, played by Jared Leto, whose take on the character was totally different from any prior version of the character. Almost a punk rocker version of him. Leto was apparently pretty crazy devoted to the role in real life and did a very good job being psychotic. 

The big controversy over the movie is the extensive reshoots that WB forced Ayers to do to make the movie more like an MCU movie. His version would have had much less comedy, no pop songs, and would have been much more of a dark drama/action combination. After the Snyder Cut of Justice League was actually released fans are now clamoring for an Ayers cut of this movie. Whether it will actually come to pass, remains to be seen.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great in HD. There are over an hour's worth of extras including several making of and behind the scenes features and a gag reel. Definitely, a lot if you like going through the bonus material. There are also two cuts of the movie, the theatrical version, which clocks in at just over two hours including the credits, and an extended version that really just has some extended scenes in it, that adds about 12 minutes of footage. 

Overall, the movie is much better than it was made out to be. I do think WB would have been better served to follow the MCU format of introducing the main characters in stand-alone movies before they got to the team-up movies. I think this movie would have worked a lot better if there was a stand-alone Batman movie that introduced this version of Joker and Harley Quinn in order to set up her capture, and then had the Suicide Squad movie be a follow up to that, instead of just throwing a bunch of new characters into a movie that only fans of the comics or Batman the Animated series would be familiar with. That said, it is still a good movie that could have been great if the studio would have left it alone and let Ayer make the movie he wanted to.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 42

 Day 42 was my second to last sculpt 1-2 workout. I was again able to max out on the 15 reps on a couple of exercises, and I hit another personal best (27) on chair dips (using bent knees still). So, overall, I am liking where I am at getting toward the halfway point of the Power-90 base program. I have found I am near the same weights for the exercises where I was maxing out at 8-10 reps before, so I am definitely getting stronger. And, I have managed to avoid tennis elbow so far (knock on wood) so I have not had to scale back any of the weights. My weight has been the same, but I can definitely tell that my jeans are getting looser in the waist, which is a very good thing.

Workout Update: Power-90 day 41

 Day 41 was just a rest day. I had planned on incorporating T25's stretch workout on Sundays as an alternate to rest days, but so far I have not done that. So, my plan is to start with that next week and do it for the last 45 days of Power-90, and then when I do the masters series workouts, use P90x's stretch workout during that 8-week phase. Which, hopefully, will get me set to do the P90x yoga workout (yes all hour and a half) once I start that. Because, honestly, the 4 minutes of yoga at the beginning of the Power-90 sweat workouts does not prepare you for P90x yoga by itself.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 40

 Day 40 was cardio and abs again. This workout went very well, and I was able to make it through the entire workout without having to slow down or pause. And, I was able to do cross hops closer to the non-modified version in the video. I still did have to modify but, was able to do more of a skip jump than just a fast cross step. So, I think I am ready to get to the 3-4 workouts, which I will start on Wednesday.

Book Review: The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and How to Fix It

 

The Reckoning is a book by Mary Trump, the niece of the former "president", whom she only refers to by his first name. It is, in part, a follow up to her book "Too Much and Never Enough" that gave an inside look at life in her family, at least as she experienced it, and explained a lot about why the members of the family, including her uncle, are the way they are. And, it is, in part, a history lesson that rarely, if ever gets taught in America. 

This book looks at the history of the United States as a whole, especially the period after the Civil War, to explain why the country got to a point where a person like t***p ever got anywhere near the White House. She specifically points to the failure of the United States to hold the traitorous confederates like Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis accountable for their crimes as a through-line to not holding Nixon accountable for his, and allowing t***p to skate by (at least so far) for his. She does a very good job breaking down actual American history (what the RWNJs call critical race theory) and how the slaves were freed with no assistance afterward, and then held down by what became a fascist state in the south and ignored by Northerners who did not care what came of them after being freed. She kind of bounces back and forth between a history lesson and the trump administration policies that ultimately flowed from the ashes of that history.

While she does discuss specific aspects of the t***p administration (with a heavy emphasis on the final year or so) and t***p himself (again exposing just how big a fraud he actually is) the focus is more on the system that allowed him to come to power and the hold he has over the republican party and his drooling fans (most of whom he does not give two shits about). She, of course heavily criticizes her uncle, but also criticizes past leaders, democrat and republican, for fostering a system that allowed the country to get to the ultra-polarized and dangerous state that it is in. And, she is very blunt in her criticism and does not sugarcoat or sanitize it.

It is a very short book (about 178 pages) and is a fairly quick read. If you read fairly quickly it can easily be read in a day. Readability-wise, the only comment I have is that the font they used is pretty small, so if you are at the reading glasses stage of your life, it may not be easy on your eyes. But, it is definitely worth reading.