Workout Update: Power-90 Day 74

 Day 74 was cardio and abs. Abs went well, but I was a bit gassed during the cardio portion. I actually had to stop for a few seconds (not a full-blown rest) to catch my breath before I could continue. I am still getting used to doing a modified fast where I do not eat anything after about 4PM. It is a bit of a struggle and I do think it impacts my energy level when I workout in the evening, but I am dropping both scale weight and body fat, so that is good. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 73

 Day 73 was the sculpt 3-4 workout again. Pretty much everything was the same for this workout as it was on Monday. I did not hit the 15 reps on any of the exercises after having increased the amount of weight again. My plan is when I start P90x is to increase all the weights I am using for the various exercises that are repeats from Power-90 by five pounds and then shoot for the 8-10 reps range so I am building more muscle. The only weight that will go down is the calf raises because the legs and back workout in P90x has a total of 45 calf raises with your toes pointing in different directions for each block of 15 reps, and I know there is no way I would be able to do 45 total reps with 45 or 50-pound dumbells. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 72

 Day 72 was cardio and abs. I was a bit tired during cardio from lack of sleep the night before, but I made it through. I can do 17 reps on all of the ab exercises (so I am doing 170 reps). I hope to get to 200 by the time I get to day 90, but otherwise, I plan to continue doing the workout after the cardio workouts in the Master's Series set and will get all 200 reps in by the time I finish that 8 weeks. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 71

 Day 71 was the sculpt 3-4 workout. I felt like I was a bit stronger than during last Friday's workout, and I was able to hit 15 reps on the forearm curls in the fourth block. I have been dropping weight after a bit of a plateau. I am still carb cycling, but I backed off on my total calories a bit, and have stopped eating after 4pm, doing a modified fast overnight. I am still doing a free/cheat day (usually on Sunday) where I eat more calories so I am not worried about my body trying to go into starvation mode. I have not taken measurements since day 1, but I will do so two weeks from Sunday. I think I am losing more inches than I am losing scale weight given that my jeans are fitting a bit better. As I have said before, I really don't care what the scale weight is as long as I am losing inches. I am one of those that can put on both a decent amount of muscle and a lot of fat. The trick is always getting the fat off (which my body is very efficient at storing) to get the muscle to show. 

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

 

This is the sixth book in the Harry Potter series of novels. It really advances the story forward, not only revealing details of Voldemort's past but also finally revealing his weakness and, what Harry needs to do to defeat him. It also mixes in the "normal" school trials and tribulations like relationships, exams, and the like. The title of the book is based on an annotated potions book that Harry finds with notes by someone called "The Half-Blood Prince" that suddenly allows Harry to excel in potions, impressing the new potions professor, Horace Slughorn, a former Hogwarts professor who has a history with Voldemort when he was known as Tom Riddle.

As has been the case with most of the books, it contains a lot more material than was seen in the movie. There is a lot more to the Malfoy storyline, which in the book incorporates both Kreacher and Dobby, as well as having a lot more elements than was seen in the movie. It also develops the relationship between Ginny and Harry a lot more than the movie did. And, there is more to Harry and Dumbledore working together than we saw in the movie. It, like the prior two novels, was certainly long enough (at 650 or so pages) to be split into two movies, so if you have only seen the movie you will likely enjoy the book even more. 

As I said above, the book is long, but it flows well and makes for a fairly quick read. It continues to get darker in terms of the storylines and there are more characters in danger this year as the confrontation between Harry and Voldemort gets closer. It is definitely too dark for little kids but should be okay for most teenagers (as the books were written to become more adult as kids reading them aged). And, they are definitely good enough that adults can enjoy them too.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 70

 Day 70 was the T25 stretch video and a rest day from the Power-90 workouts. I again modified it with hurdler and straight leg stretches during the downward dog sequence so I could focus more on my hamstrings and lower back, which are always the tightest for me. If I decide to do a recovery week between the end of the 3-4 workouts and the master's series workouts, I will definitely incorporate this into the mix.

Workout Update: Power 90 Day 69

 This was cardio and abs again. It was probably my best workout of the week, but still not as good as prior workouts have been. I think I will do a recovery week before I get into the master's series workouts, in which I will do a few different stretching and yoga workouts but give myself a break from weights and higher-impact stuff. I will see how I feel at the end of the 90 days.

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 68

 Day 68 was the sculpt 3-4 workout. I was able to make very slight progress in this workout. I hit the 15 rep max on a couple of exercises. Interestingly, my rep count actually dropped for a few exercises (using the same amount of weight as the last workout), which was the first time that had happened so far. I think it was probably from being worn out during the week due to family medical issues and lack of quality sleep. But, I made it through and was able to finish. 

DVD Review: Chicago Fire Season 7

 

Season seven of Chicago Fire pretty much follows the same format that the show has had from day one. Each episode is mainly self-contained. There are story arcs that weave through the episodes (both in the professional and personal lives of the various characters), and then the fire/rescue sequences that interrupt at pretty much any time. Then, of course, there are crossover episodes. This season there was a three-show crossover very early in the season with Chicago Med and Chicago PD, then a two-show crossover later in the season with Chicago PD. There is more cast turnover this year with Gabby off in Puerto Rico (Monica Raymund made a couple of appearances early in the season) and Annie Llonzoh joined the cast as the new paramedic, Emily Foster. The end of the season sees pretty much every member of the cast (again) in danger from an out-of-control fire, ending (again) on a cliffhanger.

For those who get the DVD set, the only bonus material/extras are the crossover episodes for Med and PD. There are no behind-the-scenes features as there were in the first few season releases. It is basically just a MOD DVD set with the episodes and that is it. 

Overall, the show is still good, and the writers have done a good job advancing the storylines to keep the show from getting stale. I think the cast turnover actually helps the show, even though it is sad to see characters leave. The acting continues to be very good, and the show does a good job balancing the large ensemble cast. I'd say if you have been a fan of the show's prior seasons you will probably like this one as well. On the other hand, if you have not liked the prior seasons of the show, this one will probably not convert you. If you only get the physical DVD sets when there are a lot of extras then you probably will just want to stick to streaming this (unless you are getting it to have a complete collection). 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 67

 Day 67 of Power 90 was cardio and abs. I really had to push myself to even do the workout. I was not feeling all that well by the time I had time to do it, but I was able to get through it doing the best I could. I did have to take a couple of breaks and modify the exercises more than usual, but I did not skip it, and was still able to get a good calorie burn. 

Workout Update: Power 90 Day 66

 Day 66 was sculpt 3-4 again. I was able to hit 15 reps on a couple of the resistance exercises and also increased the number of push-ups I could do increased on a couple of the push up moves. So, overall it was a good workout. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 65

 Day 65 was the abs and cardio workout again. Nothing big to report from it aside from that I still did not have a ton of energy during the workout (which I did early in the morning). I was able to get to 16 reps on each of the ab exercises during ab-ripper, so I am getting closer to the 200 overall reps.  I am looking forward to getting to the new workouts in the master's series, although most of the moves will be things I have done in P90x before, which is the point of the master's series workouts, to get you ready for P90x, and P90x was really building on the foundation that Power-90 laid. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 64

 Day 64 was the sculpt 3-4 workout. I had to do it a bit later in the evening than I wanted to because of work, but I got it done and was still able to make some progress. I was able to do at least 1-2 more reps on most of the push-up variations and was able to hit a 15 rep max on one of the resistance moves, which means the weight on that one will get bumped up for the next workout. I am definitely looking forward to starting the masters series workouts as this workout is definitely getting repetitive now. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 63

 Day 63 was a rest day (mostly), but I did do the T25 stretch workout. I modified it to replace a couple of their moves with hurdler stretches and straight-leg stretches so I could focus more on my hamstrings, which is the one area that I think that workout is lacking. Otherwise, I did not do any other workout yesterday, and enjoyed my "off day". 

Book Review: Secrets of the Galaxy Deluxe Box Set

 

This is a set of essentially four handbooks, one given to Jedi Padawans, one for the Imperial Academy troops, one for members of the Bounty Hunter's Guild, and one that is really a written Sith history. They do not read like novels, but more like instruction manuals, codes for the members of the intended audience to live by, etc. In the margins, there are notes by different characters making comments on the text, that range from Luke, Han, Boba Fett, Palpatine, Anakin (both the Jedi version of Anakin and later as Vader), Ashoka, etc. 

The books are relegated to "legends" status and not a part of the official canon material, but certainly, some of the material in them are tied to canon events, so they are kind of a hybrid between non-canon and canon material. They are all relatively short (about 160 pages each), and for the most part, are quick reads. The one drawback is that the "handwritten" notes in the margins can be very hard to read, both because the text size is small, and because it was made to look like handwriting, and sometimes very messy handwriting. They are not what I would call a must-read, even for die-hard Star Wars fans, but they are entertaining. 

Workout Update: Power-90 Day 62

 Day 62 was the cardio and abs workout again. I did not have a ton of energy for this workout, but a bit more than I had on Thursday. I had to slow down and modify more than I wanted to but made it through. I still cannot do all 200 reps of the ab workout, but I am getting stronger at it.

Workout Update: Power-90 day 61

 Day 61 was the sculpt workout. Things were pretty consistent from a couple of days ago. None of my rep counts of weights changed dramatically, but I was able to hit the 15 rep max on the calf raises. I may have to get a pair of 55 lb dumbells, because I am quickly getting to the point where I will max out on my current weights (I have free weights from 3-30 lbs, and then the Bowflex select techs that max out at 52.5 lbs. I will be doing calf raises with 45 lbs on Monday, so I am getting pretty close to running out of weight. Overall, things are going well though. 

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.