Day 5 PSMF: Hooray! 138.2 lbs (Temp:97.0). Now that's more like it! See what I mean by stairstep?

So basically I have lost 1.6 pounds since last Friday. If I can stick to this damn plan through the weekend, my Monday results should be

interesting.

I described this before but now I'm going to go into even more obsessive detail: the actual food.

This list is exactly why it isn't for the faint of heart. I have found it easy so far, becaue I'm viewing the food aspect as fuel, not a gastronomic event.

Breakfast: 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese OR 3 egg whites (hard boiled) with 1 slice fat free cheese. Veggie: 2.5 cups Romaine Lettuce

Lunch: 2 Cans (10 oz) Starkist Chunk Light Tuna w/ 3 tablespoons Pace Picante Sauce and 3 large stalks of Celery

Dinner: Grilled (George Foreman grills are indespensable) Chicken breast w/ 2 cups of broccoli.

That's IT. It's the same damn thing day in day out!

I'm also helped by the fact that I'm only doing this for 2 weeks at the start. And I think I can make it through these first 2 weeks. I have no hunger (so far). I think that's a combination of the Ephedrine and the food I'm eating. I passed an interesting test today. I went into a convenience store that also sells breakfast and lunch to buy some coffee. Despite all the good smells, I had no problem ignoring them. Yes, nose is working fine today.

I think I said this before too: My goal for this diet is to get where I'm going and stay there. I've become resigned to being vigilant for the rest of my life regarding every morsel I put in my mouth. This means constant, anal recording of food ( Fitday is a handy, free way to do it).

So what am I going to do after these 2 weeks, when I have to go to the World Freefall Convention for 5 days? It will be a test for maintaining. I have a feeling the best way to do that is to keep my breakfasts and lunches simple and light, and when I go buy dinner, make good decisions. I'm not talking grazing at the salad bar; I'm talking if I buy a hamburger leave off the fries and drink water instead of coke. The beer, I'm afraid, is inevitable. Once you register for the WFFC, the beer is free. Sheesh.

I plan to stay on ephedrine, because I'm just now adjusting to it and I don't want to have to start all over when I get back.

And my plan for after the WFFC? I'll cross that bridge when I get there. But I'm *thinking* about 2 more weeks of PSMF, another week off, then 2 weeks of PSMF, then comes Costa Rica. Which will be another round of temptation fighting.

Day 4 PSMF: Dang it! 139.8 again! (Temp:97.5) Oh, well. I did notice something wrong with my calorie count. I had the totals wrong for the tuna I eat (every frickin day). I was eating twice the amount I was recording. It doesn't translate to that many extra cals (175), but it could explain a little of the problem. Or maybe I should just quit worrying about it. Shoot, it's only been three days.

It does mean I can slack off a little and not eat as much during dinner. Which is good; I feel like I'm eating too much at dinner any way. Just for microobsession, I calculated that one gram of tuna protein is costing me $.014 ($.50 a can at Wal-Mart) and one gram of chicken breast protein is costing me $.026 ($15 for a bag of 14 at Sam's Club). Therefore, eat the same amount of tuna and cut down on the chicken.

In other news I did a level 1 AFF yesterday afternoon. Good student (military guy). He was left over from Sunday; he couldn't jump because some thunderstorms rolled in. It's nice to get a jump in in the middle of the week after sitting on my butt all day at work.

Day 3 PSMF: Still no weight change (139.8). Temp is still normal, 97.6 degrees. The big difference is I got some real sleep last night (yay!). The Ephedrine tends to keep my sleep light. I had forgotten that hypocaloric diets do that to me, too. But I was actually tired yesterday. Especially on the drive home from work, which wasn't a good thing.

I noticed that I perked up considerably after I ate later on - the sleepyness could have been caused by an insulin crash. Maybe I should hold back some of my lunch and eat it later on in the day.

Despite no movement on the scale, my clothes feel a bit looser. I'm still blaming my period on the lack of scale movement.

Hey! I may be getting a job (no pay) as a DVD reviewer for this smaller-scale web site (which I will link to if they decide to publish my stuff). The owner of said site is a pretty cool fellow (we got into this amusing argument on his message boards about Ewoks).

The main thing he is looking for, besides the ability to critique and write, is someone who will meet deadlines. So my first deadline is midnight Friday. I'm going to Wal-Mart this afternoon to find me a more recent movie to dissect.

Day 2: PSMF I stuck to the food aspect no problem yesterday. Matter of fact, with the removal of (most) fat, I had a boatload of food for dinner last night. I had zero urge to snack because it took me so long to eat. That ain't a bad thing. We shall see if it continues.

My grand total calorie consumption yesterday was 698 calories. I stepped on the scale and still weigh 139.8. I won't be losing any water from glycogen depletion because my glycogen stores were depleted last week. I got that great (ok, not so great) no glycogen burn in my muscles at the gym this morning. I did have plenty of energy, though. Temp was 97.3, which is about normal for me. It was higher last week because I was pre-menstrual (another reason the scale ain't moving yet).

Theoretically speaking, I should be losing a pound every 3-4 days. Therefore the scale should show a .2 loss every day, just about. I'm not worried about it because as all professional dieters know, weight loss isn't linear. It's stairstep, for some reason that hasn't been adequately explained yet.

What else did I do yesterday besides obsess over my diet? Not much; Jon bought stuff to upgrade his computer so he was pretty much absorbed in that. It gave me a chance to play Civilization III uninterrupted for a while. Pesky Indians! Ghandi's band, not Montezuma's.

So. My weekend was typical: some skydives (6). Some fun, some AFF. Whee!

And now the new thing I'm trying out. I'm going to put out a big warning: don't try this at home; I'm a professional dieter!

No, really. This is not a good thing to do. It's called a Protein Sparing Modified Fast. I would highly recommend people not to try it especially if they don't weightlift.

A quick definition - PSMFs were developed for obese people. Instead of putting someone on a complete fast, he would be given protein, in an attempt to prevent the body from cannibalizing its own stores of protein (muscles). Bodybuilders and other weight trainers have adopted this diet for cutting phases because (like me) spending months on a diet was slowly driving them crazy.

Here's the deal: a PSMF diet consists of 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass a day. This ratio means I need about 130 -160 grams of protein a day. This amount translates to about 520 - 640 calories a day. I won't be just eating pure protein. With each meal I'll be eating about 1 -2 cups of vegetables - the leafy or green ones; the ones big on fiber and low on calories like Romaine, Broccoli, cabbage, bell peppers, etc. Not only will they supply some badly needed vitamins and minerals, they will help keep things moving along quite nicely.

Wait, but that's not all! 6 grams of fish oil a day are necessary - fat is kept to a minimum on this diet so essential fatty acids will come from fish oil caplets. Sam's club has a big bottle of 300 caplets for 7 bucks.

That's still not all! I'm taking a multivitamin, and calcium and magnesium supplements. I'm also substituting half of the salt I use with potassium (Morton's No-Salt).

And that's still not all! Ephedrine-Caffeine stacks for energy, metabolism boosts, and appetite suppression. And for me, a little boost in the lung capacity (Ephedrine is used in the treatment of athsma). I'm taking 12 mg of Ephedrine 3 times a day and drinking all the coffee I want. I bet you thought they banned Ephedrine. Nope! Just Ephedra, the naturally occuring form of Ephedrine. Ephedrine is available OTC. For the most parts. It's also used in the manufacturing of illegal substances to it is dissapearing off of drug store shelves. Bastards. The drug stores. I don't care about the idiots blowing themselves up with meth labs.

The proper dosage is 25mg three times a day, but I get quite a boost with what I take as it is. The nice thing about Ephedrine is even as the nervous and sleepless side effects wear off, the metabolism boost doesn't.

So, with about 600 calories a day from protein, plus about 100 other calories from fish oil, veggies, and the occasional random carb or fat gram from the foods I eat, I will be eating about 700 calories a day, giving me roughly 1000 calories a day defecit. (Maintenence calories for me are about 1700 a day).

Drawbacks? Two major ones. The first one is the huge restriction on the types of foods you can eat. Let's just say I'm looking at a lot of egg whites, tuna, and chicken breasts in my near future. This problem is reason 1 why I won't do this diet for more than two weeks in a row.

Second drawback - It's still a pretty damn low amount of calories. I will be monitoring my metabolism and overall physiological feeling for any drops or nasty mood swings. The metabolism problem is why I don't recommend anybody but weight trainers use this diet, and for these reasons:

Weightlifting will tell your body you need your muscle so don't cannibalize it.

It will let you know (pretty darn fast) if you are losing muscle.

It is more effective in boosting your metabolism than other forms of exercise, like aerobics.

So: today is day one. I started the day with 4 hardboiled egg whites (w/ a lot of spices) for breakfast. I'm having 2 cans (5 ounces) of Tuna. I mixed in 2 tablespoons of Pace Picante sauce to cut the fish taste and give it some flavor. For both breakfast and lunch I had romaine lettuce as my veggie of choice. No dressing.

Dinner will be 2 chicken breasts - Sam's Club sells these bag of 14 breasts, with the fat completely trimmed off so each one has 1 gram of fat and 41 grams of protein. Veggie of choice will most likely be broccoli.

If all goes well, my food totals for the day will be: 697 calories overall. 11 grams of fat (7 from the fish oil), 18 grams of carbs (10g fiber), and 138 grams of protein.

I weigh: 139.8 lbs and my morning temp was 97.7. (which is about normal for me).

One last post script. That amount of protein will not give me kidney problems. It's only bad if you have kidney problems in the first place. Plus I'm drinking water like mad anyway so I can tell you my kidneys are working just fine, thankyouverymuch.

I was dog-tired yesterday. I've always wondered about that saying. Most dogs I know never get tired. Cats, however... So anyways I was cat-tired yesterday and didn't feel like writing. It was a combination of things - I'm back on a ketogenic diet and it can take a few days of tiredness before your brain adjusts to the ketones. I'm also hitting the gym pretty hard, plus I'm using ephedrine, which can cause sleeplessness.

I will bore everyone to tears by logging my diet; I'll try to refrain from manic-obsessive detail but don't count on it. First off I'm keeping my calories around or below 1,000 a day. Second, I'm taking an E/C stack (Ephedrine and Caffeine). Third - weightlifting. Jon and I have slacked a bit at the gym lately and this week was the first week we went all 3 days.

I'm also running again and I found a bizarre side-effect: I can smell again! And boy do I smell. The liquid soap I bought for the shower is just plain disgusting. Wheeew! The tropical coconut moisturizing body lotion I use at work still smells great, so I'm not smelling things wrong (which happened to me once). My car smells like stale ass. I need to attack it with some Febreeze.

Anyways, I have just gotten started; I have stuck with it a whole 3 days. Well, only 2 if you count the lasagna I had tuesday night. No matter what I do, the real key to this round of self-punishment will be to avoid beer. Which will be impossible when Jon and I go to the World Freefall Convention the first week in August. I'll try to refrain until then.

So: here are my beginning stats (beginning today, not Tuesday): Weight: 141.2 Temp: 98.0

Why temp? It's about the only affordable way to gauge whether or not your metabolism is slowing down. I'll post tape measurements (if I dare to) later on in the proceedings.

Starting Monday, I'm going to try something different diet-wise. I don't want to go into detail yet; I haven't completely made up my mind on it.

In other non-news: Jon and I watched Starsky & Hutch. It was okay. Some funny moments, but mainly it was lame. I like Stiller and Wilson, even if they continually play the same characters, but they didn't match the level of wierdness they reached with Zoolander. Will Ferrell's bit was the funniest. Did not like Snoop Doggy Dogg as Huggy Bear. Excuse me, that last sentence is making me laugh. Mr. Dogg is just not as cool as Antonio Vargas was. Or so my memory insists. It's always nice to see Fred Williamson get some work.

Plot: what plot? Mismatched buddy cop film. Okay?

The most lame part of this movie was the freaking soundtrack. I had listed here a long time ago my 10 most hated songs. I had mercifully forgotten one evil song that this movie insisted on resurrecting: Afternoon Delight. Monstrous bastards. It almost makes me long for Safety Dance.

Went over to a friend's house yesterday for dinner: a young jumper (young in jumps, not years) and his wife and very young daughter. I didn't want to go at first. I'm such a loner. I didn't fight though; we went and had a good time (and fantastic lasagna).

Hey, that was the extent of my day yesterday! Oooo exciting, isn't it?

I'm so looking forward to vacation.

Not much to post today. I am happy to note that I still giggle like an idiot while watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Silly Kaniggits.

Quick political note - I tend to agree with Helly: pure libertarianism won't work. That's why I pretty much would like to see the Federal Government pay attention to the constitution and return a lot of their powers back to the states. That makes me more of a paleo liberal (or was that a paleo conservative?) than a libertarian. It's much easier for people to migrate from state to state and one person's voice in a state means more than on a Federal level. It's even more powerful at a county or community level.

Speaking of political labels, I was perusing an amusing flame war somewhere and someone accused someone else of being an anarcho-fascist. I laughed so hard it brought tears to my eyes.

Whoa!
Check out this big bad word:
synecdoche
SYLLABICATION: syn·ec·do·che
NOUN: A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword). 
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English synodoches, from Medieval Latin synodoche, alteration of Latin synecdoch, from Greek sunekdokh, from sunekdekhesthai, to take on a share of : sun-, syn- + ekdekhesthai, to understand.
OTHER FORMS: synec·dochic (snk-dkk) , synec·dochi·cal (--kl) —ADJECTIVE
I'm going to be busy for hours trying to figure out a way I can slip this into a casual conversation. 
 

So anyways, not a big deal weekend-wise. Did one jump had a bad landing. More embarrassing than painful. We had a pool party at our house Saturday night and I slept in on Sunday.

The only thing I watched was Ghosts of the Abyss, James Camernon's documentary about the Titanic. It was originally released in 3D in IMAX theaters. I wish I had seen it in the theater.

James Cameron led an expedition to the Titanic in 2001 and filmed a great deal of the wreckage using technology specifically created for the endeavor; namely two Remotely Operated Vehicles he nicknamed "Jake" and "Elwood". These little robots on fiber optic leashes were used to squeeze through windows and tight spaces to film deep into the interior of the shiprwerck. Cameron invited his friend Bill Paxton along. Paxton has acted in 4 of Cameron's movies, including Titanic. The reason he was asked along seems to be as a stand-in for the audience. He's not a technician, diver, marine biologist, etc. so many scenes with him in it involve the professionals explaining to him about what is going on.

In his first experience aboard the tiny submersibles they take down to the Titanic wreck he is understandably quite nervous. By the later dives he participated in he is helping out like an old hand. He narrates most of the movie, too.

I really liked this documentary. It is a nice complementary piece to his movie and you really get a feel for the layout of the ill-fated ship. I enjoyed the movie Titanic, but like a lot of people older than 14, I thought the love triangle was pointless. I give Mr. Cameron some points back with this movie.

Left work early yesterday to beat the fierce thunderstorms headed our way. Fortunately it never got too bad at home. I always seem to miss the really nasty stuff. Not that I'm complaining.

I did some channel-surfing yesterday. I got to watch part of World's most dumbass crooks caught on video and the sanctimonious cops who nabbed them. Depressing. I wanted to watch I Love the 90's but for some reason VH1 isn't transmitting any sound. I saw one of the more amusing South Park episodes; Chinpokoman. When the Japanese characters speak Japanese, they speak real Japanese, instead of John Belushi Japanese which is the norm.

I stopped when I saw Dazed and Confused on the Oxygen channel, a channel aimed at women. I wonder why they showed this - it's not exactly a woman's movie. Not that it's a man's movie. It's a movie for anyone who spent time as a kid/teenager in the 70's. I remember the first time I saw this I was living at home with my mom so she got to watch it too. She didn't find it nearly as funny as I, but then I suppose she appreciated American Grafitti far more than I did.

I'm amused that a movie could make me nostalgic about high school in the 70's: I had a rough time back then, especially the first few years after our family moved back from Puerto Rico. But still: the laxness of purchasing alcohol (18 was the legal drinking age back then), the casual attitude towards pot, the ugly clothes and hairstyles, and the beautiful muscle cars. *Sigh*. Then there's the music. Not a big fan of that era of music, but it does evoke memories.

The best part of the movie to me is Big Hair Ben Affleck. He plays a monumental jerk. It's also the first movie I saw Matthew McConaughey in. It also has Milla Jovovich as a Senior harpy, and she does a good job! I usually thinks she overacts but she's dead-on as a royal high school bitch. Maybe she just needs to stay away from Luc Besson.

One thing I did notice is I have become totally irritated by commercials. I'm not against commercials; they pay the bills for the broadcasters after all. Buy anyway I wandered off for 30 minutes after the first commercial break, rewound TiVo, and managed to fast forward through any commercials after that. Far more satisfying.

This meta-moment brought to you by: Chik Fil-A, Pikachu, and Anhauser-Busch, inc. 

After all that heavy writing about Bosnia, I guess I should go ahead and talk about the movie for the reasons I bought it. First, here's my word o' the day:

prurient
SYLLABICATION: pru·ri·ent
ADJECTIVE: 1. Inordinately interested in matters of sex; lascivious.
2a. Characterized by an inordinate interest in sex: prurient thoughts.
b. Arousing or appealing to an inordinate interest in sex: prurient literature.
ETYMOLOGY: Latin prrins, prrient-, present participle of prrre, to yearn for, itch.

This word has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm about to write.

So: how does the man I'm mentally stalking fare in this movie? Lewis has improved, acting-wise since Warriors. His character here is a flawed, but for the most part sympathetic. He does a good thousand-yard stare and he gets to cry a few times. However, he's never allowed to cut loose like he did in The Forsyte Saga, which is ironic because his character, Soames, is the apotheosis of repressed. I swear sometimes in TFS his face was a darker shade of red than his hair and he looked like he was going to explode literally. Even in Band of Brothers I thought he had more chances to show emotion even though Lt. Winters is a distant person. His character's deep care and worry for his men is strongly shown (without being hammy) in BoB and I think those scenes are what got him his Golden Globe nomination.

Physically, he looked great. Especially in the scene where he walked down some stairs butt nekkid to answer the phone. Woo-hoo, male ass! Thank you, BBC, for knowing who your viewers are! He also got to keep the natural color of his hair. In BoB, he had to put a dark rinse in (though he fought hard to be allowed to keep it red) because of the filming methods they used. The colors were muted (see Saving Private Ryan for an example of this filming method) and his hair would have stood out garishly, especially in sunlight. He had his natural color in TFS, but he had dentist hair (I wish I could remember the name of the woman who pointed that out).

Of secondary notice was Welsh hottie Ioan Gruffudd. I first noticed him in Titanic. Really! I remember seeing it and thinking "Whoa. Who's the babe?" even though he has about 5 minutes total screen time (if that). He is best known in the states for the Arts & Entertainment Horatio Hornblower series. I've seen most of them. Other than wanting him to get a haircut, he is a lot of fun to look at in that series. No nekkid butt shots for him in Warriors, however. Gruffudd played Bossinney the architect in The Forsyte Saga and can currently be seen as Lancelot in King Arthur, a movie I'm going to wait for on DVD.

Oh. His acting? I thought he underplayed his role until the very last scene. He had me sobbing into my red wine. I wanted to hug him, too.

I finally finished Warriors. I'm not going to avoid spoilers because chances are you will never see this movie. It isn't even available in England any more. I bought a VHS copy on EBay.

Gasp! Is Sandy advocating piracy? No, not for movies that are widely available. Many movies, however, are impossible to come by unless you buy from an unauthorized source. Sorry, I have no problems with the latter form of piracy. Lesson to companies: your smaller products may have a shot in odd markets. Find a way to market them if you want to stop that sort of piracy. I will have no problem with buying this movie again if I could get it on DVD.

To reiterate, Warriors is about British troops who are sent to Bosnia in the fall of 1992 as part of a United Nations Peacekeeping force. They are only there to ensure that humanitarian aid gets to the people who need it. We see what happens in Bosnia through the eyes of four soldiers - Private James (Mathew MacFadyen), Sargeant Sochanik (Cal Macaninch), Leftenant Loughrey (Damian Lewis), and Leftenant Feeley (Ioan Gruffudd) (YOO-an Griffith. I love Welsh names).

James is an easygoing bloke (the British version of an ordinary Joe) who loves Soccer (sorry, football) and has a good nature. Sochanik is an older man whose parents were refugees who fled to Scotland. He is best described as stoic (for the most part). Loughrey is about to be married and Feeley is a career soldier who doesn't seem to have any ties to the civilian world.

The movie begins with these four men in England (Liverpool, mostly), each reacting differently to the news of their callup to go to Bosnia. Sochanik is hit hardest, having had to deal recently with his brother's death in a farming accident. Loughrey has a tough time explaining things to his fiance, who is planning their wedding.

Once they get to Bosnia, each of them get subjected to apalling sights and has to watch as bad things happen to people they have come to care about. James sees a refugee wearing a soccer (sorry, FOOTBALL) shirt and tries to get the young man out of a killing zone but only ends up getting the man arrested and himself in trouble. Sochanik is harrassed and verbally abused by some Serbian thugs because of his ancestry.
Loughrey and Feeley continually want to evacuate people but their superiors shoot them down for a grotesquely stupid reason:

They can't evacuate anyone unless they are injured because it is feared that this will look like they are participating in 'ethnic cleansing'. In other words, they would be perceived as helping the Serbs drive the Croats and Muslims out of their homes (or vice versa). Feeley intervenes by himself once when he sees a family getting mistreated. He comes by later only to discover that the bad guys came back and killed them all. Both he and Loughrey finally disobey orders and get a group of people away from certain death; their enlisted men support them, and so surprisingly does their commanding officer. Apparently they aren't too happy with their orders, either.

But that action was a spit in the ocean; Loughrey, despite his fiance (who turns out to get pregnant), gets involved with one of their interpreters. This affair upsets Feeley, but he has his own problems when he gets too close to a Muslim woman whose husband has gone off to fight (hey, it's a TV movie). Bad things happen here too, of course. Also, poor good-hearted James gets subjected to a horrific task; he has to search a truckfull of dead bodies because one of them is alive.

The movie ends with everyone back home and how they deal with it (badly). James goes off on a mother and her whining child in a supermarket, coming across as a lunatic. Despite some wonderful support from family and friends, what he was subjected to has damaged him. Sochanik is obviously affected, but coming from a long line of refugees seems to handle it best. Loughrey's implosion is manifested when he lashes out at his girlfriend physically. It is a split-second action which he can't even explain to the police. Feeley, who has been very reserved and acts like nothing has happened, eventually tries to kill himself. Some of his men stop him.

The movie is low-budget, but the producers do the best with what they have. Violence is kept offscreen; some blood is shown but for the most part the atrocities are reflected in the reactions of the soldiers. There's some cussing but only in extreme emotional sequences. I found the acting to be pretty low-key but I suppose that's that British stoicism. I think the understated manner of this film helped get across what these men went through. The quality of acting is what I expect of a BBC production. If I have one complaint I had a hard time with some of the accents. This complaint is why I would buy it on DVD only so I could get the closed captions. I have to watch a lot of British and Australian movies with the closed captioning on.

So much for the technical aspects. This movie had one fascinating theme that you don't often get from war movies: that was the theme of emasculation. These men are soldiers and they are incapable of doing anything useful. I don't mean whipping out an automatic weapon and mowing down the bad guys; I mean using their skills and weaponry as a threat to stop the looting, raping, and murder. Can you imagine being a member of the British army, the descendants of the great Empire builders, and having some pea-brained thug do whatever he wants in front of you because he know he can get away with it? The worst threat they can muster is telling the thugs they will be 'arrested and tried as war criminals'. Ooh, scary. They are so restrained from doing anything that when Sochanik gets in a thug's face and can only hurl insults and threats, he is regarded as a hero by the other men (and is of course put up on charges).

This movie did nothing to change my views of getting involved in other people's problems.

Here's my imaginary boyfriend: Damian Lewis. Note he's so tall he has to hunch down to fit in the frame. I'm sticking this here so I have something to stare at when I get bored at work.

I haven't finished Warriors yet, but I did do some research on that period. Apparently, after Tito (one of the Jackson 5) died and after the breakup of the Soviet Union (good riddance), Yugoslavia as a nation broke apart. Part of that breakup was the state of Bosnia-Herzocantspellit which has three distinct ethnic groups - the Serbs (Bosnia is right next to Serbia) who are Eastern Orthodox Christian, The Croats (Bosnia is right next to Croatia, as well) who are Catholic, and the Muslims (Slavs whose ancestors converted during the Ottoman Empire).

Slobodan Miloshevich, Serbia's ruler, didn't give much truck to the idea of Bosnian independence, instead preferring they stay attached to Serbia, despite the fact that the Serbs are a minority there. He whipped up a lot of nationalistic attitudes in Bosnia. That, plus a better army and plenty of warped press, incited the bloodbath that was Bosnia in the early 1990s. The United Nations stepped in in 1992 only to keep the populace fed.

What is really sad is these three groups, plus the requisite put-upon Jews and Gypsies, had lived in peaceful coexistence for 500 years (barring the happy time everyone had during WWII). These people aren't tribal types; Yugoslavia was an advanced European nation (despite the commie rule). What brought them to such awful destruction was ignorance, a controlled flow of news, and a petty tyrant.

Deciding to interfere or not when Hell breaks out is tough. When shite hits the fan its always the ordinary men, women, and children who suffer. Those who have any type of power thrive in appalling circumstances. My knee-jerk reaction is hell yes, go in there and make them stop hurting each other! But then what? If you get involved in a fight you will be beaten up as well. I'm not a student of history (the fact that I was predominantly ignorant of the problems in the Balkans until I saw a movie with a pretty face or two in it proves that), but it always seems to boil down to if you get involved you have to stomp pretty hard. Ordinary men, women, and children suffer. How can you insure that things won't get back to the normal business of killing if you leave? Hate is a mighty powerful emotion and you can't make people stop hating each other by getting in their way.

Ouch. Busy weekend. I had a ground school Saturday morning with 4 people. 3 of them reinforced my opinion that people who only want to do one skydive need to do tandems.

One was an 18 year old kid. He did fine, but all he wanted to do was one. That fact was merely annoying. His mother, however, was terrified but didn't back down and jumped. She panicked at pull time so I pulled for her. Despite the fact that she had an open and functioning main parachute, she cut it away and went to her reserve. When she landed (and her canopy flying was giving Frank and I heart attacks every time she did a turn), she told me that she cut away because she didn't find the main handle. Apparently she never looked *up*.

I was angry, but I didn't show it to her. I went and calmed down and ended up feeling real sorry for her. She knows she screwed up. She had a terrible time. If she had done a tandem instead, I think she would have had a much nicer time.

The last guy was pretty hard core. He came back Sunday and did 6 more jumps. He is exactly the type of person who should go through AFF - he wants to be a skydiver and the dives I did with him were a lot of fun.

All total I did 10 jumps; 9 AFF. The 10th was a jump with Jeff, a jumper who I've been friends with a long time (since I had about 100 jumps). We met at West Tennessee during a boogie (a skydiver party). He has his tandem rating; he is working on getting his AFF rating so I'm jumping with him to help him with his air skills.

I managed to procure a video tape of a BBC movie: Warriors, about British troops on a United Nations mission in Bosnia in 1992. Why the Hell would you send troops somewhere then tie their hands like that? You might as well not send troops at all. Look. Either be imerialist pigs, or stay away completely. Argh!

Anyways, I'm about halfway through. The British troops have strict rules of engagement. They can't take sides, so they get to sit there and watch people slaughter other people.

I bought it because my imaginary boyfriend, Damian Lewis is in it. I'm glad there's more to this movie than the pretty scenery.

That plane in the backgound - doesn't it look like something out of a 50's movie? It's a Piper Aztec. Gorgeous plane. Shirtless guy is Glenn. Don't know the other fella. 

I finally received my Girl Scout badge here for 1,000 jumps. Left to right - Glenn, Jeff, Joe, Chris, Jon, Steve, me, Jason, Frank. 

We watched Peter Pan last night. The live action version that came out last Christmas. Enjoyable. Wendy Darling is a preteen who tells her brothers stories. She tells stories like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, but she manages to stick pirates into the tales (my kind of girl). Anyway, Pan shows up, etc.etc. etc. Listee Jason Isaacs plays both Mr. Darling, Wendy's mild-mannered dad, and Captain Hook (nice Freudianisms can be gleaned from that arrangement - indeed when Wendy first sees Captain Hook she is fascinated more than afraid). Olivia Williams plays Mrs. Darling. She is a beautiful woman - if you are going to have her in a movie with Jason Isaacs as her husband, couldn't you have one scene where he gives her a kiss? A peck on the cheek? Something? Damn.

Once again JI is the best thing about a movie because he's the Evil Bad Guy. See Dragonheart, The Patriot, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for further proof.

Speaking of listees, I am in the process of assembling the best photos of my top 10 favorite actors. I'll stick them up here eventually.

Jon finished his commercial pilot's testing (and passed) finally, after a few unhumerous delays.

Costa Rica abolished it's standing army a while back (1949). So far, everything I have read about the country is pretty interesting. I take that back; it's actually a little boring culturally and politically. Cue Harry Lime's Switzerland speech from The Third Man. As a libertarian I think that's great. I haven't found any info yet on taxation. The vast majority of government spending is on health and education so I'm assuming both are socialized.

-Hey, prostitution is legal! Not that I'm going to hire a ho. Just glad to see some places are realistic about it. It doesn't look like any kind of drug use beyond the typical tabacco and alcohol are permitted.

It must suck being sandwiched between 2 Banana republics, but then again Panama and Nicaragua have enough problems to where they aren't a problem for Costa Rica. I read a little of one of their on-line english newspapers; like any capitalist country they have illegal immigration problems. Their major industry is tourism. They have 2 coasts (the Pacific ocean on 1 side and the Carribean sea on the other). A huge amount of Costa Rica is protected. Much of their tourism is eco-tourism. That's fine with me. I don't go to different places to see the same old shopping/hotel/tourist traps.

Because of a few recent hurricanes and an earthquake their road system sucks. They have active volcanoes, too; one which we hope to see (Arenal). No, I'm not worried. The chances are slim that I'll get stuck in a natural disaster, and if I do and I survive, I bet I'll get some good stories out of it.

We will be staying at a resort near Tamarindo, which is on the Pacific side. Here's a link. It looks kind of brand new. It would normally be a little too touristy for my tastes, but we're staying there for free. I also notice we're travelling on September 11th. Hah. Maybe it won't be crowded.

180 million in 6 days. Good for you, Sam and company.

Independence Day Weekend, 2004: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Actually, this bit will be the bad, the ugly, and the good, because I prefer the high notes last.

The Bad: I woke up Saturday with a muscle spasm in my back. I haven't had one in nearly 7 months; I had almost forgotten about them. At that point in time it was so bad I saw my doctor. The best we could come up with is it's the consequence of an injury I suffered when I was 15 - I broke my 5th thoracic vertabrae in a car accident.

The muscle spasm occurs in the same place every time - slightly to the left of this break but before my shoulder blade. What is essentially happening is a nerve there sends out a signal -"hey, I'm hurt!" causing the muscles to clench up around it, causing it to send out a signal "hey, I'm hurt!" etc. in a wonderful positive feedback loop that translates into a lot of pain and the inability for me to turn my head. Doc prescribed 2 things: Flexaril, which makes me sleepy, and another med that I can't pronounce but it's in the same class of painkillers as Ibuprofen.

The end result was I was a zombie for most of Saturday and Sunday - but my back loosened up finally. I still have some residual stiffness but it's nothing that good old Vitamin I can't take care of.

Also bad were 2 AFF level 1's. It's getting to the point that I wish people would do Tandems for their first skydive no matter what. We can't make it mandatory; not without losing business to other drop zones. And I do feel uncomfortable with that blanket statement because I never did a tandem and I had a great AFF level 1. BUT - we have a severely low student retention rate - everybody does. Less than %10 of the people who do AFF go on to complete the training. Most of the time it is because they only want to do one jump. They do AFF because they think it's more macho. This attitude is stupid, mea culpa's notwithstanding. You are leaving a freaking airplane! Take someone with you who knows what they are doing for the whole ride. You might learn something, like whether you want to do it again.

I have developed certain prejudices: I like AFF 1's with: young men, especially military men, and women. Young men think they're invincible, so while they are scared, they aren't as scared as older men. Military men listen to instruction better, as do women. Women also tend to be more flexible and can arch better than men. Plus women tend to be smaller, so I don't have to worry as much about handling them if things go bad.

Anyways, both the level 1s were older gentlemen. They couldn't arch, and they had their feet on their ass the whole skydive. They both failed to respond to hand signals and had to have their parachutes pulled for them. One of them was real nice but had no short term memory. The other one seemed to remember better but was a real jackass. I hope neither of them ever show up at our drop zone again.

I hate being an ageist. It's wrong. I have known some fantastic skydivers who are in their sixties. The biggest difference: they are in shape. Astounding shape. Their dedication to keeping themselves physically fit seems to keep their minds fit, as well. So that's a nice word of advice to all of us rapidly aging couch potatoes: get up and move!

The Ugly: The AFF's were on Saturday. I slept most of Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday. I woke up and my back felt good enough that I wanted to do a skydive. A thunderstorm was headed our way, but by all reports we had time for one more load. We were wrong. By the time our full (13 people) load got up to altitude, the storm had swept over the drop zone and the pilot was informed that the winds on the ground were 14 knots gusting to 22.

We all decided to land with the plane. Once the pilot got us under the thunderhead, the wind gusts shook us pretty good. We were dropped in a wind shear near the ground; the pilot fought hard but got us on the runway safely. As I told someone as we left the plane, I was really surprised that there weren't 13 holes pinched into the carpet on the plane's floor. Rick earned his money (and a lot of gratitude from us) that day. He won't have to buy any beer for a while.

Also ugly: Drunk guys with fireworks. Also certain husbands who know how to construct acetelyne (sp?) bombs. I won't go into more details; suffice to say no one got hurt.

The Good: The T-storm on Sunday passed pretty fast so the 4th of July demonstration jump into a football stadium in Huntsville went off as planned. It is an annual event; after the jump there's a honking fireworks display. Our tradition is to load up the Skydive Alabama van with people and beer and get into the show for free as 'ground crew'. We didn't stay for the fireworks because we were all too hungry. After the successful demo, we all took off in the van, drank like crazy, and hunted down a Japanese restaraunt. Some of us had a hankering for sushi.

I was amused - wasn't this what I was doing when I was 17? Except we were looking for a Taco Bell or a Krystal's then.

Also good: a 17 point 4-way and a 4-point 10 way. I'm especially happy with the last jump (these were on Monday) because I normally don't get to do "big" ways (jumps with more than 4 people) that are that successful. I'm also proud of the homegrown jumpers who were on that skydive; I feel like I've accomplished something when I see them go out there and do good. *Sniff!*

Also good: and this just made the whole weekend for me: one of the older jumpers, Mark, invited Jon and I to Costa Rica for a week. He and his wife have a free week in a condo there (his wife's parents own the place) and there's a second bedroom. He thought of us because he knows we like travel. I checked Travelocity and the ticket prices were entirely reasonable. We weren't going to do any kind of travel this year (except maybe to the Gulf Coast or Tennessee) but since the place to stay was free, we both jumped at the opportunity. Hooray!

I will post details of the trip as I know more.

Ah, Friday. Today is the first day in a long time where I haven't started the day drugged up. I feel washed out; kind of tired.

I couldn't force Jon away from his computer last night; I'm not going to watch Evil Dead II unless I have someone to inflict it on. So I watched Spider-Man. I think my initial reaction to Spider-man II is correct; the sequel is a superior movie. How often do I get to say that? Aliens, The Empire Strikes Back, Godfather II...

I still love and enjoy the first movie. Raimi, however, didn't seem to be speaking with his own unique voice. I point out the entire "World Unity Festival" sequence. Too much seems to be borrowed from Tim Burton's Batman. I liked Batman but it didn't capture my imagination the way the Spider-Man franchise does (I could say the same thing for the comic books themselves). Like I said previously, I think the studio suits had decided that Raimi has the ability to create a movie that would make them bucks so they backed off.

Afred Molina comes off better than Willem Dafoe, but I don't neccessarily think that's entirely fair. Doc Ock's costume didn't have his face covered which allowed more emoting. I also noticed that Maguire (yes, I finally figured out how to spell his name) got to keep his mask off for a good deal of the second movie which allowed us to appreciate his acting that much more. Yes, I think nerd-boy is a fine actor. After the first movie I sought out a few of his other movies: The Cider House Rules, Pleasantville, Wonder Boys, and some of the things he's done with Ang Lee (Ride with the Devil and The Ice Storm). He's a good actor. He's unfortunately saddled with that 'boyish' look but that works well in his favor for the web slinger. Take for instance, Orlando Bloom. Imagine him as Spider-Man. Can't, can you? He hasn't yet shown any ability to display strong emotions.

Also better were the CGI action sequences. Spidey's still a bit cartooney, but it's not as egregious as it was in the first movie. I feel stupid complaining about cartooney action in a comic book movie.

How about themes? The first movie's theme was spelled out to us: with great power comes great responsibility. Parker's guilt-driven motivation to do good struck me as realistic, but the theme didn't resonate with me the way the theme of the second movie did. Spider-Man II's theme seemed to be that in order to do the right thing, to stay on the right path, sacrifices must be made, even if it means giving up your dreams.

For this selfish little Libertarian that's mighty heavy, and sacrifice is a word that sticks in my craw. No one should have to feel like they have to stay miserable. When Peter walked away from Spider-Man, I was on his side. It's his life! But I can understand why he went back; having to deal with his concience ended up making him more miserable than before.

But There has to be a way to do the right thing and to find the things that make you happy. That's why the subway scene made me feel verklempt, and Mary Jane's decision at the end had me BVD'ing for joy.

Well, I hope you had your hip boots on for that last segment! Did I mention that I liked this movie?

Top 10 Reasons Spider-Man II is a great movie:

WARNING! I did not leave out the spoilers! Go back now! I'm warning you!! Go AWAY! Go here and see what Lileks is blathering about. His blather is usually far more entertaining than mine anyway.




Are you still here? Look. Here's someplace else to visit: simply the best review of the original Spider-Man.




I warned you:

10: Wierd violin woman. "Spider-man, spider-man. Does whatever a spider can.."

9: A free nerdboy is a happy nerdboy. "Raindrops keep fallin on my head..."

8: Willem Dafoe and Cliff Robertson show up again. Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi show up again. Is it just me or is Bruce looking more and more like Fess Parker?

7: Spidey taking the elevator. "It kind of rides up in the crotch a little.."

6: J.K. Simmons still manages to steal every scene he's in.

5: Doc Ock not wanting to die a monster. For that matter, keeping the final battle short. The subway battle was the centerpiece; no WAY were they going to try to top that.

4: Harry finds out who Spider-Man is. Yikes! Mary Jane finds out who Spider-Man is. Whoopsie!

3: Harry finding his dad's secret pumpkin stash, as well as an extra exo-skeleton, glider, and evil-bad guy transmogrifying liquid. Uh, oh!

2: The hands coming offscreen to keep Spider-man from falling into the river. The people on the subway promising not to give away Peter's secret when they see his face. He finally gets to see some of the good he's managed to accomplish (never mind Aunt May's sanctimonious speeches. The looks on their faces explain far more in far less time).

1: Peter accepting his fate but Mary Jane doesn't. Mary Jane saves Peter Parker's life. Yay! The girl got the spider! Hooray!

Okay, now that you're thoroughly spoiled, I just want to say how much I loved Mary Jane when she ditches what's-his-name at the altar to go after the man she loves (and who loves her). I love the fact that Mary Jane loves the whole package; both Peter and Spider-man and totally accepts who he is and what he feels compelled to do. Yes, I realize that Peter is right in not wanting to endanger anybody and yes I know something awful might (might? will!) happen to her in the 3rd movie, but face facts: Harry all ready knows what Mary Jane and Peter feel for each other, and Harry is going to be the principal villain in Spider-Man III. So I wish them as much love and happiness as possible in the meantime.

I told you it was a chick movie!

No update yesterday; I felt sickly due to allergies so I went home and slept for 5 hours. Damn that felt good. Only got up because I had a doctor's appointment. He strongly urged me to go back to using Nasonex; plus he gave me a prescription for Allegra. I am happy to report it doesn't make me sleepy like Claritin does.

I couldn't help myself; I then talked Jon into going to see Spider-Man II. I am happy to report that I loved it.

Well, I loved the first movie. This one is better. Really! All that critical hyperbole may be warranted in this case.

I will do my best to remain spoiler-free:

2 years after the funeral of Norman Osborne Peter Parker is still where we left him: he fights crime but he can't have a normal life. His dual identity is wearing way thin; he can't hold a job, his college grades are suffering, and he's alienating the few friends and family he has. To top it all off in his frustration he starts losing his superpowers. He does all of these remarkable things and he gets nothing in return; just a lot of bad press and loneliness.

I wrote before (borrowing heavily from someone else) that chick movies and actions movies are bastard children of the Romantic movement. Well, here you go: a movie that perfectly blends both genres. This is an action movie, but much of the screen time deals with eternally put-upon Pete and his disentigrating relationships. This is a chick movie, but Spidey gets to whoop ass and have his whooped in return.

Spider-Man had a good villain; a scientist whose experiments go haywire and they turn him into an evil villain. He still manages to maintain some of our sympathy. Spider-Man II doesn't tinker with the formula; Dr. Octopus is a worthy bad guy that we feel kinda sorry for. Alfred Molina does a great job; he even gets to Muahahahaha several times.

Sam Raimi is a personal god; I saw Evil Dead way back when it was originally released in the theaters, I'm bragging to say; and Evil Dead II remains to this day one of my favorite movies to whip out on an unsuspecting friend (as Nancy can attest to. She got me back by showing me Pink Flamingos). I liked The Gift and A Simple Plan, and Darkman gave us geeks early hints as to what Raimi could do with a comic book movie.

This movie is Sam Raimi's baby; after the resounding success of the first one the suits at Columbia let him loose and it shows. His love of slapstick is apparent with plenty of (painful) visual gags, his unabashed corniness, odd camera angles, and a WTF montage featuring a song I won't mention for fear that it will get stuck in my head. Many things have all ready been written about the operating room sequence and its similarity to some of the insanity of Evil Dead II (Chainsaws! whoops, that was a spoiler). Did I say corny? Yeah, but the cornball scenes are also effective. The entire sequence on the subway train and the passengers' reaction to Spiderman was heartbreaking. In a good way.

Raimi also loves and respects the characters. This is one action movie where the hero is far more interesting than the bad guys. McGuire's innate nerdiness comes to the fore here; he also has an intensity that's hard not to respond to. No wonder Mary Jane loves him.

And speaking of Mary Jane; some critics have said Kirsten Dunst is the weak link in the picture. They are smoking some bad stuff (it's James Franco, but he did a good job too). Her frustration over Peter's hot/cold attitude is understandable, and when she moves on, I can't blame her. But in the end, her choices made me want to stand up and cheer. Or at least do the Boykin Victory Dance as inobtrusively as possible in my theater chair (Jon looked at me kind of funny).

The best thing about this movie is that the story moves forward. It isn't merely a rehash of the first movie, the characters grow and their relationships change. Shit happens! It's still way too early to put it on my top 10 but this movie definitely earned an "I loved it!". Way to go, Raimi, can't wait for Spidey III.

Oh wait, yes I can. This is Peter Parker we're talking about. Considering that McGuire, Dunst, and Raimi all have no desire to do a part 4, one wonders what kind of hell Parker is going to be put through for 3. Yikes.

I'm going to go see it again. Best praise I can give any movie. In the meantime, I think I'll inflict some Evil Dead II on my husband tonight...