Mother Goose update

She's gone! This morning, I noticed some egg shells so that means her babies have hatched! However, I didn't notice the yellow caution tape that was missing along with the pylon and large wooden barrier. I realized that this evening when I got off the train. No egg shells even. Does that mean she chose a different spot? The missing human-made barriers can only mean, I assume, that perhaps someone (a nice, caring animal rescue type of person) trapped the birds and brought them to a safer area. I doubt Mother Goose decided to go build house in a different spot when she initially thought the high human traffic area was ideal :) Well, I'm just hoping my assumptions are correct and they're all safe in this wild, wild world. I really wanted to see the baby geese, though!

Great workout-- the day after... and a collaboration in art!

Following up to my post from yesterday, BOY DO I HAVE DOMS! I feel fantastically muscular (as long as I don't look at myself in the mirror) and I'm so excited about going back to the gym. Does this mean I'm getting my bodybuilding mojo back? Has all my motivation come back? I hope so! For those who may not know, "DOMS" means delayed onset of muscles soreness. It's that pain you feel the day after a workout. It's good pain because it means you're also getting muscular growth and that means an increase in your strength. And that means, in your next workout, you will do either higher weight or an extra rep. That's the basic bodybuilding fundamental. There's nothing like feeling great after a good workout. Especially after a good 2 months of being stuck in a rut and being discouraged.

Today, I drew a picture of a frog in my nieces' scrapbook. She coloured it in and asked me to help. Here's the resulting teeny tiny scan of it to give you an idea of how art can come from unexpected places. When we were done, I realized we ended up drawing a treefrog. Well, in a bullfrog sort of way. And in a crayon sort of way, too. My niece chose all the colours.

In the gym & cartoon trends

I had a great workout today! Hopefully it will be a continuous phenomenon. I'm currently stuck in a rut-- my body does not show that I lift weights in my spare time (well, with my clothes on it does) and I need to change things around. So, without having to resort to "bodybuilding nutrition", I decided to give my routine a change.

I consulted my book The New High Intensity Training by Ellington Darden (great book by the way) to see what they suggested. So here's the routine I did (with some changes to suit my needs):
13 minutes of stair climbing set to rolling hills. This was my warm up. A bit too much as I had it on level 9 (it can go as high as 20 I think) and I always hit the wall at the 6 minute mark. But I kept trying to beat it and reach my 13-minute goal. I had to decrease the level every so often until I reached down to 4 at the end because I was clearly overdoing it. My fitness level is pretty crap which is what I'm trying to improve.

Then onto the weights:
El Darden suggested I start with shoulders first (I was on the section devoted to shoulders). This brought back memories of when I first lifted weights in high school. I always started with shoulders.

Note: the weights listed are per side of a barbell if a barbell and the weight of the bar is not included. I write it like this because I can't do quick math in my head

Lateral Raises to failure (20lbs 12 reps)
Lateral Raises (15lbs 8 reps)
Barbell Military Press (15lbs 8 reps)
Barbell Military Press (12lbs 7 reps)
then I skipped the leg stuff as my legs were still hurting with DOMS from the previous week's workouts and soccer practice. And besides, I already did the stairclimber.

Pullovers (the machine) (120lbs 12 reps)
Lat Pulldowns (105lbs 12 reps)
Barbell Shoulder Shrugs (20lbs 10 reps)
Barbell Shoulder Shrugs (15lbs 15 reps)

By this time, I was amazed at the results I was feeling. I felt pumped all over my upper back, my chest, my abs and especially, of course, my shoulders and my traps and neck. This is something rare that I feel in the gym. Usually, the pumped feeling comes after or it's just a small amount. Clearly, I haven't been lifting to my potential.

I haven't worked on my chest aside from pushups yesterday morning so I did a bit of Darden's chest workout:
Bench Press Breakdown 60lbs 8 reps
Bench Press Breakdown 35lbs 8 reps
Bench Press Breakdown 45lbs 3 reps

I was completely wiped out by the time I started doing these bench presses. And as you can see, I didn't really do a breakdown. Clearly, my chest had already been worked by doing the exercises above (and possibly the pushups from yesterday). But that didn't stop me. It was probably the endorphins but I soldiered on and did:

Negative dips. These were hard to do after all that. I managed to do 8 without injuring myself and was going to do another but I figured it's best I keep things low. High Intensity Training uses the principle of not overworking your muscles. It's best to keep sets and reps low (and weights high)-- with perfect form.

Next on Darden's list was negative pushups. Forget it. My chest had been worked enough. Time for me to rest and get stronger to do an extra rep next time (Tuesday).

But that didn't prevent me from following the H.I.T. rules. I need to seriously work on building my forearms. I look like a reverse Popeye: big arms and no forearms. I forgot my notes at home but I did:
EZ Barbell Curls (10lbs 12 reps) Ok, every boy likes to have big biceps.

EZ Barbell Curls (12lbs 8 reps)
EZ Barbell Curls (15lbs 8 reps)
I was going to break rules even more by doing 2 more sets with light weight but my arms have had it.

Hammer Curls (20lbs 6 reps)
Hammer Curls (20lbs 6 reps)
Reverse Barbell Curls (just the 35lbs bar to failure).
Barbell Wrist Curls (just the 35lbs bar to failure)
Reverse Barbell Curls (just the 35lbs bar to failure).
Barbell Wrist Curls (just the 35lbs bar to failure)

Then I wanted to do some chinups. If you want to really build muscle, you do bodyweight exercises such as this. Difficult but well worth the time. However, someone was using the gravitron so I decided to give my triceps one more blast until it was free.

I used a lighter weight because my arms were clearly spent. I forgot to write down how much weight I used but it was lighter than usual. Maybe 25lbs or 30lbs. I did 2 sets of slow reps to really give my triceps a pounding. The gravitron was free but I decided to call it a day. Even i was working to failure, I was also borderline overdoing it. And that actually breaks muscle down.

This also happens because I'm impatient to build the body that I want. So even though I know better, I start to act like Superman and think I shed all that fat in one day.

The good thing is, I had fun and feel great. If only my stomach didn't get in the way :/

Now onto design: Have you noticed that most design forums, blogs, etc. usually list 1950's and 1960's type cartoons? Made today. It bothers me a bit because it's not really being original. It's being able to copy a style and make art out of it. There's nothing wrong with that of course and if that's where the work is, then why not? :) I also have a bit of a problem with te other trand: really, really, really w-e-i-r-d character design. These are the monsters from your nightmares. I guess it's just not my taste but I can't help myself in thinking "If that can get published and PR'd about, then certainly I can too!" :) Nothing like following an example!

Anyway, I do appreciate the different styles out there by so many different types of people. It's just some things make you go hmmmm...... (I really hate to use that cliche from the 90s but I can't help it).

Mother Goose Update: All is good and well. Though I did notice one of the yellow caution tapes had drifted over to the nest as the goose was sitting right on top of it! It's was pretty funny to see. I'll try to take a photo of this goose this week.

En Français

Toronto's got a new radio station and it's all in French. It's CHOQ (chocolat perhaps?) at 105.1FM. According to their website, web.choq.fm, the official launch is on May 16th (Census Day in Canada, too) but they're currently broadcasting-- they seem to be just playing music. I suppose these are test broadcasts. I know other stations did this for a few weeks before their official launch.

According to their programming schedule, they have a lot of shows playing different sub-genres of electronic music; trance, electro, drum and bass, etc. I'm really excited about that.

From what I gather, the station is serving the Francophone community of various ethnic groups. I really like the rotation of music they're playing now-- a real mixture of music types. Unfortunatley, their website is emphasizing their hip hop shows. Ok, unfortunately for since I don't like that music but mefortunately for CHOQ since that's what the kiddies seem to like these days (why? why? why?). It's a great way to capture the audience. Play a little bit of everything to appeal to all the different Francophone communities.

I wonder if I'd be able to hear different forms of French on that station?

It's good to have a new French station-- all we have is Radio-Canada (CBC Radio in French). It's interesting how French is one of our official languages but it's not as prevalent (is that a word?) in Toronto. Or is it? I work in the financial district downtown and I hear people speaking French as I walk around. There is a Francophone population but it's not as obvious as other ethnic groups in Toronto. There isn't a French area.

We used to have a Francophonie or something like that-- it was a social mixer for Francophones in Toronto and anyone who is interested in French. Since I'm a sucker for a French girl, I naturally went-- but didn't score any French girls :(

Maybe that will change this summer if I visit Montreal once again (for the opening of the Apple store) and go to Paris for vacation.

Mother Goose update
The goose of which I talked about in my previous post is still there sitting on her nest avec yellow caution tape surrounding her nest. Well, it was pretty breezy over the weekend and the yellow tape is closer to the ground and the pylons fellover. But still enough to caution others about the bird.

I can't help but feel sad that no one notices the bird. Everyone is too preoccupied with going to and from work that they truly don't stop to smell the roses. But it's fun to see the few who do notice the bird and see their faces light up like kids at a petting zoo. They point and marvel at how nature mixes with humans in such a strange way!

Every time I pass by the bird, I check to make sure she's still there and pray a little prayer to St. Francis and God to protect her and her babies. God probably has the kind of sense of humour that sometime in the future, one of those baby geese will grow up and poo on my car! :)