By lunchtime aching abs had become whole core aching all around and deep, upper back and shoulders were chiming in as were my hams.
Air was cool clear with a bit of a breeze so the only thing to do was man up a bit, ignore the aches and get on with it. Not a bad run in the end.
5.38 miles in 41:58 average speed 7.7mph
24 October 2014
Deadlift 23-Oct-2014
Looks like a full weeks training on the right days, woohoo!
Really making the sessions core focused to repair my back and because of this my abs are killing me today. Really thought my core was better than this.
Deadlift with fat grips complete stop between reps
3 x 10 x 70kg
Bent over row with fat grips underhand grip
3 x 10 x 40kg increase to 50kg next time
Single arm upright row alternating with kettlebell
3 x 10 a side x 16kg
Really making the sessions core focused to repair my back and because of this my abs are killing me today. Really thought my core was better than this.
Deadlift with fat grips complete stop between reps
3 x 10 x 70kg
Bent over row with fat grips underhand grip
3 x 10 x 40kg increase to 50kg next time
Single arm upright row alternating with kettlebell
3 x 10 a side x 16kg
23 October 2014
Running 23-Oct-2014
I made a silly mistake of eating something, admittedly a small thing, around 10 to 15 minutes before my run so started gently. Considering this and the fact the app didn't respond to me telling it to stop for a few seconds this wasn't too bad, however I am still annoyed at my stupidity.
5.4 miles in 43:02 average speed 7.5mph
5.4 miles in 43:02 average speed 7.5mph
Bench 22-Oct-2014
Spot the missing exercise, and see if you can guess why. Winner will get a free t-shirt (collection only) with only one previous owner, I've grown out of it.
Kettlebell snatch, limited knee bend to put emphasis on shoulders, arms and core.
1 x 10 x 12kg, 2 x 10 x 16kg, definitely needs to go up to 20kg next time
Push ups on suspension trainer, short lengths making them easier.
3 x 10
Kettlebell side raises to overhead + overhead tricep extensions, alternating sides
4kg held wide, lost count just kept going until I could go any more single set. Try 8kg next time ot get proper sets.
The missing exercise is bench and there is a madness in my method. I am on remedial for may back so need to strengthen my core more than I feel bench press would.
Kettlebell snatch, limited knee bend to put emphasis on shoulders, arms and core.
1 x 10 x 12kg, 2 x 10 x 16kg, definitely needs to go up to 20kg next time
Push ups on suspension trainer, short lengths making them easier.
3 x 10
Kettlebell side raises to overhead + overhead tricep extensions, alternating sides
4kg held wide, lost count just kept going until I could go any more single set. Try 8kg next time ot get proper sets.
The missing exercise is bench and there is a madness in my method. I am on remedial for may back so need to strengthen my core more than I feel bench press would.
21 October 2014
Intervals 21-Oct-2014
Well with the tail end of hurricane Gonzalo, not gorgonzola or granola, making running quite interesting today I am pleased with the result. Rain had blown away, wind was trying to do the same to me during some of this lot.
Session was hard work which is always good. The warm up wasn't easy, persuading my legs to get moving was a definite effort on it's own. The final recovery before sprint made me uncertain I was going to get the final sprint done, which is just what I want to feel.
Stats
3.75 miles in 33:13 average speed 6.8mph
Session was hard work which is always good. The warm up wasn't easy, persuading my legs to get moving was a definite effort on it's own. The final recovery before sprint made me uncertain I was going to get the final sprint done, which is just what I want to feel.
Stats
3.75 miles in 33:13 average speed 6.8mph
Squats 20-Oct-2014
Not exactly inspirational stuff but was late by the time I got chance to train, beats nothing at all.
High bar squats
3 x 10 x 70kg
Low bar squats
3 x 10 x 70kg
High bar squats
3 x 10 x 70kg
Low bar squats
3 x 10 x 70kg
20 October 2014
Running 20-Oct-2014
this was a nice run. Drizzly rain first half and humid second but felt really comfortable at the end and pace was acceptable.
5.39 miles in 42:17 average speed 7.6mph
5.39 miles in 42:17 average speed 7.6mph
17 October 2014
Running 17-Oct-2014
This week hasn't exactly been return to glory. No weight training and missed a run yesterday.
I think this run should have been a lot faster, because it felt like I was working harder than the speed tells me I was. Not happy bunny.
5.38 miles in 42:50 average speed 7.5mph
I think this run should have been a lot faster, because it felt like I was working harder than the speed tells me I was. Not happy bunny.
5.38 miles in 42:50 average speed 7.5mph
14 October 2014
Intervals 14-Oct-2014
Struggled to keep intensity up on this. Sprints felt quite slow, but I didn't feel like I could go faster. Wasn't recovering particularly well either, ended up with stitch at one point which is unusual for me.
Stats
3.63 miles in 32:21 average speed 6.7mph
Stats
3.63 miles in 32:21 average speed 6.7mph
13 October 2014
Artificial Intelligence vs. Natural Stupidity
No contest natural stupidity wins hands down.
The internet is a great way to see this in action if you are fortunate enough not to witness weapons grade stupidity in your real life. But for those who haven't I would like to declare some things that quite clearly demonstrate that we truly aren't as smart as we think we are and why stupidity is not only going to continue but is actively encouraged.
Recent US history, where stupidity was genuinely at it's most terrifying. When the Bush Cheney election had taken place a colleague of mine from the time found an interesting combination of research that should keep the world awake at night. There was a map of the US with average IQ and who was voted for by state. Ever state with an average IQ below 90, consider this is below 90% of the average intelligence for a person of their age, voted Bush conclusively, those with 90 or above voted Cheney. I will confess I didn't check the validity of the data but considering the American education system is worked out on the basis IQ is fixed for life their data in this area isn't likely to be great anyway.
So this meant the most powerful political leader on the planet had gained power by appealing to the most stupid members of the population. The more intelligent americans had either not bothered to vote or made up such a small percentage their votes weren't enough to stop the dumbest leader the nation had ever known gaining power.
We know that elections are only for the middle management and that as The Who said 'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss' but if you are too lazy or ignorant to vote intelligently don't bitch about the leadership you get.
Legal claims against workplaces. There are a lot of these encouraged in the UK and I am not a fan, particularly when they are basically encouraging people not to take responsibility for their own safety. 'I was waking through a kitchen and there was a spill on the floor' an environment where spills can happen to someone who has to choose between leaving a potential fire risk or slip hazard for someone to stupid to bother to watch their footing walking through a commercial kitchen. 'I was out on a job and there was no-one available to foot my ladder.' someone who didn't read the part of the UK 1979 health and safety responsibility certificate that says they must be responsible for ensuring they don't take unnecessary risks and should notify the responsible person if looking like they have too.
The worst part about this is that these morons get pay outs, encouraging the stupidity rather than punishing it.
If you need to be told your coffee may be hot or bag of roasted peanuts may contain peanuts, please remove yourself from the gene pool by ensuring you never breed. I know natural selection is supposed to ensure organism that fit their environments prosper but hopefully in time the world will realise that it is not a good thing to have stupidity fitting into our world so well.
Dedicated follower of fashion. A bit of a lighter example of stupidity. I remember being at school when the fashions of the 70s were laughed at with justified aplomb. The same people who were laughing at the ridiculous platforms and flares were then a few years later wearing the same things, though of course the trousers were named boot cut to ensure people could be laughed at for not even recognising they were wearing flares.
There are some intelligent fashions, off the top of my head I can't think of one, but it is so easy to identify the many blatant errors in judgement. Sports clothing becoming so fashionable that the sizing had to allow for the fact that in reality it would be a 20 stone couch potato wearing the latest shell or track suit. It really doesn't matter how many genuine athletes or sports people wear this stuff well it doesn't stop someone who looks like they have 5 buttocks being a great bulimia aid in nike leggings.
I openly admit to having no dress sense whatsoever and that there is a strong chance that many of the clothes I have worn were likely in fashion once but rarely worn at the same time. So yes I can look ridiculous, but I am not stupid enough to think otherwise.
Driving, riding or walking. If you really need to see stupidity displayed en masse in everyday life you only need to be on the move. There are plenty of cases where I have witnessed people to engrossed in their phones, or food to realise they were walking onto the road with a car, truck or bus coming straight at them. I have heard cyclists and motorcyclists declaring they could tell someone was going to pull out on them and were unable to do anything about it, unless of course they had a voice or horn they could activate to make the unobservant driver aware of their presence. Yes, it would be the driver's fault, that doesn't make it hurt less so take action.
One classic I remember when my main transport was still pedal bike, most of my life in fairness, was someone declaring how much safer they were in a car. This was cleared up a bit when I pointed out he was basing this on crash tests done at a maximum of 40mph when he spent most of his time on motorways doing 80mph. So the crumple zones that would save him at half the speed would just reduce the damage meaning you would be trapped and possibly slowly fatally injured rather than instantly killed, personally I would rather die without suffering too much first. Don't talk safety with people who really can understand physics.
The number of ways in which people are stupid when commuting or travelling is immense. There is a good reason the motor car was hailed as the automated death machine in the early part of the 20th century, and it wasn't due to the limits of the machinery.
My job is in technology so I am very experienced in seeing how if you make something idiot proof they will upgrade the idiot, and of course occasionally being the idiot myself. I haven't gone as far as to wonder where the 'any key' is but I have asked how to create something only to have a really clear 'CREATE' button in a clear colour pointed out on screen.
Working in development means you get used to being given uninformed or flaky specifications, then these becoming less mobile and more motorised. This happens to such an extent that I tend to worry now if there is no scope creep, because the majority of the time stuff goes out according to first spec and no-one asks for changes it is because no-one ended up using it. This in itself is not always as stupid as it may first appear but there are definitely cases that have been beyond the realms of intelligence. one I remember was being asked to produce data for people who had found part time work and put this alongside how many women had been found work, not as a subset just an aside. The worst part to this was that I raised how pointless this would be before being told to just build it, then got asked to justify why I had built it afterward as they realised how irrelevant it was.
Those of us who have had to specialise in our jobs are often put to shame by those with more generic knowledge. So while I am lumped into IT by my job, I am left floundering at basic things like how to use the office printer or look blankly when people start talking about PC specs. The old question of 'How many software engineers does it take to change a light bulb?' definitely has the answer, never happen that's a hardware problem in my world. I know hardware exists and is essential for my work to be able to run, I just don't have a clue about it and don't care to learn about it either, voluntary ignorance that frequently makes me look stupid to others.
There are so many examples of how stupidity is rewarded too. People who have made a fortune selling themselves into some form of celebrity and getting a massive following of wannabes into the bargain. A terrifying example is Katie Price, the person who complains so vehemently about Frankie Boyle insulting her parenting but is willing to disappear into any environment she is told if there is a camera in the area, deserting her children while doing so. I remember wondering what exactly all the fuss was about the first and gladly only time I saw her on a TV show, Top Gear as it happens, such a sour face and the voice and personality certainly seemed to back up the look. I do remember thinking the reason for her multiple divorces was that her exes had figured out they could get a better looking twin pack of silicone at the local DIY store, with a better personality to boot.
I think she would be less scary if there weren't an army of young girls seeing her as the way to be. I know she isn't the worst role model people have chosen to follow, Charlie Bronson is one I have heard a couple of people declaring they wanted to emulate and I think he's worse, but the whole spectrum of embracing the most stupid and pointless in our society is a horrible thought.
I declare that I have survived despite the number of stupid things I have done and I stand by it. I cannot justify this fully, much of what I have done could very easily have killed me and as my son pointed out that would mean he wouldn't exist. What I do that is different to so many is accept responsibility for what I have done and the consequences.
Strangely enough when you are living a life where your life is at risk several times a day, you don't tend to consider later life. Something to do with not expecting to have one. The irony is I considered what I did OK because if anything went really wrong I'd die and that would be the end of it, chance of injury were, in my mind, lower than chance of death. I was wrong of course and the list of injuries I sustained was enough for me to have had 247 scars removed from my body, most successfully and those that failed are no worse than previous. The medical insurance covered this and I thought what the heck. The internal damage was pretty nasty too.
As an aside to this I remember being in hospital for the 2nd batch of scar removal, some crossed over others so it took two separate batches. I came out and was wrapped in bandages over a lot of my body to stop me scratching and opening up the delicate stitching. There was another patient in the hospital who looked at my bandages and evidently wanting horror stories asked what I had done. When I answered scar removal he walked away disappointed. Not bright when you consider I was largely covered with bandaging so if someone wanted horror stories I was the place to be.
Back to the point. Now I live with the results of living like there would be no tomorrow only to find there is. This means waking up in pain every day, a few stretches and movements tends to get rid of most of it, and by continuing to train I keep myself able and mobile so I am less lucky and more the result of switching from not caring to looking after myself.
The point here is this is no-one else's fault, it's mine. There was no-one with a gun to my head, in fact it would have likely have taken that to stop me doing the stupid things I made the core of my life for my younger adult years. Subsequently I accept the responsibility for the price I pay for those choices and live with it. We can all be stupid but we need to accept this as our own choice and not look to blame others.
I don't like the drugs. Musical reference aside I am a bit of a rarity in today's world, a total straight head, all the stranger for my interest in dangerous sports, where there are a lot of recreational substances used, part of not caring about later life I guess. The reason is less moral stance and very much fear based. I tried alcohol and it made me uncontrollably violent so I was scared to try anything else. This certainly wasn't lack of opportunity, in fact in some ways the easy availability made it less appealing, there was no urgency to try it because it would always be there. Most of the people I knew were casual or frequent users of class A narcotics and I got used to being around them and what this involved.
The parts I find stupid are the blame and blindness that goes with a lot of drug or substance users, this includes alcohol and other legal substances.
Blame first. 'It wasn't me, it was the drink.' or other substance. Now if this was put into your body by someone else against your will I agree, if not no dice. If you drink the alcohol or take the drugs, you know the risks and likely the effect it will have on you. If you don't want those effects don't take it. I know that with a pathetic amount of alcohol in my system I become out of control and a danger to anyone nearby, so I don't drink. If I did it wouldn't be the alcohol's fault it would be mine and that would be stupid. Most people have done things they regret under the influence of substances they have gone back to, the smarter of these moderate, others just become a joke.
Blindness, not literal but voluntarily ignoring the inescapable fact that there is always a price to pay, sooner or later. If what you take lifts you up, there will be a come down, and it could be a longer journey down than you were ready for. If you take things that are mood based, hallucinogens etc. then being nervous about taking them will definitely mean you will wish you hadn't, there are made up horror stories of course and most of these are stupidly obvious, but seeing someone on a bad trip is pretty bad, being in one must be infinitely worse. I have helped a number of people make decisions on drugs before, and surprisingly considering I never resort to the 'don't do drugs' mantra many have decided not to for a while because of things I have said.
Asking the dealer for guidance is not a good idea, most of them are long term users and don't remember the first time at all. Look up what things do to you positive and negative, short and long term first. There is no such thing as a totally harmless drug and it's worth finding out the cost and benefits before taking it. If you need to see the truth of this find someone who has frequently smoked cannabis, an often stated harmless narcotic, for a number of years and see how a conversation with them feels.
My adrenaline habit wasn't safer than any other addiction, the death would likely have been more dramatic but that's about it. There is no moral high ground here, I found another way to get high that's all there is to it.
Parenting is an area where I think a lot of stupidity starts. There are a lot of people so convinced that children can't do x, y or z and subsequently they never try to find out if they can. I came into parenting totally blind to what different ages were supposed to be able to do, so I talked to my son as an equal, which has meant a number of conversations where I have said a sentence then spent a few minutes explaining the meaning of half the words in it and had to start again because the thread had been totally lost after the explanation. Yes this does make you feel very stupid, but it also means I haven't limited my son by my ignorance, this is to such an extent now that he is teaching me things I genuinely didn't know based on research he does for fun. By the time he reaches adulthood he's going to be way ahead of me, and that's a good thing.
A lot of the time we were educating our son at home involved lessons where we would have a list of things to cover and keep going up the difficulty until he didn't know any more. Then he started learning. This may seem bizarre considering we were teaching him so should know but he has a lot of interest in science, history, geology and a few other things so assuming he wouldn't have been on youtube or google finding out things just for fun would have meant looking like a total idiot in class, something his new teachers are starting to realise is all too easy if he takes an interest.
Children are as dumb as we make them. I know it's fashionable to be stupid but it really is time the fashion changed.
The internet is a great way to see this in action if you are fortunate enough not to witness weapons grade stupidity in your real life. But for those who haven't I would like to declare some things that quite clearly demonstrate that we truly aren't as smart as we think we are and why stupidity is not only going to continue but is actively encouraged.
Recent US history, where stupidity was genuinely at it's most terrifying. When the Bush Cheney election had taken place a colleague of mine from the time found an interesting combination of research that should keep the world awake at night. There was a map of the US with average IQ and who was voted for by state. Ever state with an average IQ below 90, consider this is below 90% of the average intelligence for a person of their age, voted Bush conclusively, those with 90 or above voted Cheney. I will confess I didn't check the validity of the data but considering the American education system is worked out on the basis IQ is fixed for life their data in this area isn't likely to be great anyway.
So this meant the most powerful political leader on the planet had gained power by appealing to the most stupid members of the population. The more intelligent americans had either not bothered to vote or made up such a small percentage their votes weren't enough to stop the dumbest leader the nation had ever known gaining power.
We know that elections are only for the middle management and that as The Who said 'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss' but if you are too lazy or ignorant to vote intelligently don't bitch about the leadership you get.
Legal claims against workplaces. There are a lot of these encouraged in the UK and I am not a fan, particularly when they are basically encouraging people not to take responsibility for their own safety. 'I was waking through a kitchen and there was a spill on the floor' an environment where spills can happen to someone who has to choose between leaving a potential fire risk or slip hazard for someone to stupid to bother to watch their footing walking through a commercial kitchen. 'I was out on a job and there was no-one available to foot my ladder.' someone who didn't read the part of the UK 1979 health and safety responsibility certificate that says they must be responsible for ensuring they don't take unnecessary risks and should notify the responsible person if looking like they have too.
The worst part about this is that these morons get pay outs, encouraging the stupidity rather than punishing it.
If you need to be told your coffee may be hot or bag of roasted peanuts may contain peanuts, please remove yourself from the gene pool by ensuring you never breed. I know natural selection is supposed to ensure organism that fit their environments prosper but hopefully in time the world will realise that it is not a good thing to have stupidity fitting into our world so well.
Dedicated follower of fashion. A bit of a lighter example of stupidity. I remember being at school when the fashions of the 70s were laughed at with justified aplomb. The same people who were laughing at the ridiculous platforms and flares were then a few years later wearing the same things, though of course the trousers were named boot cut to ensure people could be laughed at for not even recognising they were wearing flares.
There are some intelligent fashions, off the top of my head I can't think of one, but it is so easy to identify the many blatant errors in judgement. Sports clothing becoming so fashionable that the sizing had to allow for the fact that in reality it would be a 20 stone couch potato wearing the latest shell or track suit. It really doesn't matter how many genuine athletes or sports people wear this stuff well it doesn't stop someone who looks like they have 5 buttocks being a great bulimia aid in nike leggings.
I openly admit to having no dress sense whatsoever and that there is a strong chance that many of the clothes I have worn were likely in fashion once but rarely worn at the same time. So yes I can look ridiculous, but I am not stupid enough to think otherwise.
Driving, riding or walking. If you really need to see stupidity displayed en masse in everyday life you only need to be on the move. There are plenty of cases where I have witnessed people to engrossed in their phones, or food to realise they were walking onto the road with a car, truck or bus coming straight at them. I have heard cyclists and motorcyclists declaring they could tell someone was going to pull out on them and were unable to do anything about it, unless of course they had a voice or horn they could activate to make the unobservant driver aware of their presence. Yes, it would be the driver's fault, that doesn't make it hurt less so take action.
One classic I remember when my main transport was still pedal bike, most of my life in fairness, was someone declaring how much safer they were in a car. This was cleared up a bit when I pointed out he was basing this on crash tests done at a maximum of 40mph when he spent most of his time on motorways doing 80mph. So the crumple zones that would save him at half the speed would just reduce the damage meaning you would be trapped and possibly slowly fatally injured rather than instantly killed, personally I would rather die without suffering too much first. Don't talk safety with people who really can understand physics.
The number of ways in which people are stupid when commuting or travelling is immense. There is a good reason the motor car was hailed as the automated death machine in the early part of the 20th century, and it wasn't due to the limits of the machinery.
My job is in technology so I am very experienced in seeing how if you make something idiot proof they will upgrade the idiot, and of course occasionally being the idiot myself. I haven't gone as far as to wonder where the 'any key' is but I have asked how to create something only to have a really clear 'CREATE' button in a clear colour pointed out on screen.
Working in development means you get used to being given uninformed or flaky specifications, then these becoming less mobile and more motorised. This happens to such an extent that I tend to worry now if there is no scope creep, because the majority of the time stuff goes out according to first spec and no-one asks for changes it is because no-one ended up using it. This in itself is not always as stupid as it may first appear but there are definitely cases that have been beyond the realms of intelligence. one I remember was being asked to produce data for people who had found part time work and put this alongside how many women had been found work, not as a subset just an aside. The worst part to this was that I raised how pointless this would be before being told to just build it, then got asked to justify why I had built it afterward as they realised how irrelevant it was.
Those of us who have had to specialise in our jobs are often put to shame by those with more generic knowledge. So while I am lumped into IT by my job, I am left floundering at basic things like how to use the office printer or look blankly when people start talking about PC specs. The old question of 'How many software engineers does it take to change a light bulb?' definitely has the answer, never happen that's a hardware problem in my world. I know hardware exists and is essential for my work to be able to run, I just don't have a clue about it and don't care to learn about it either, voluntary ignorance that frequently makes me look stupid to others.
There are so many examples of how stupidity is rewarded too. People who have made a fortune selling themselves into some form of celebrity and getting a massive following of wannabes into the bargain. A terrifying example is Katie Price, the person who complains so vehemently about Frankie Boyle insulting her parenting but is willing to disappear into any environment she is told if there is a camera in the area, deserting her children while doing so. I remember wondering what exactly all the fuss was about the first and gladly only time I saw her on a TV show, Top Gear as it happens, such a sour face and the voice and personality certainly seemed to back up the look. I do remember thinking the reason for her multiple divorces was that her exes had figured out they could get a better looking twin pack of silicone at the local DIY store, with a better personality to boot.
I think she would be less scary if there weren't an army of young girls seeing her as the way to be. I know she isn't the worst role model people have chosen to follow, Charlie Bronson is one I have heard a couple of people declaring they wanted to emulate and I think he's worse, but the whole spectrum of embracing the most stupid and pointless in our society is a horrible thought.
I declare that I have survived despite the number of stupid things I have done and I stand by it. I cannot justify this fully, much of what I have done could very easily have killed me and as my son pointed out that would mean he wouldn't exist. What I do that is different to so many is accept responsibility for what I have done and the consequences.
Strangely enough when you are living a life where your life is at risk several times a day, you don't tend to consider later life. Something to do with not expecting to have one. The irony is I considered what I did OK because if anything went really wrong I'd die and that would be the end of it, chance of injury were, in my mind, lower than chance of death. I was wrong of course and the list of injuries I sustained was enough for me to have had 247 scars removed from my body, most successfully and those that failed are no worse than previous. The medical insurance covered this and I thought what the heck. The internal damage was pretty nasty too.
As an aside to this I remember being in hospital for the 2nd batch of scar removal, some crossed over others so it took two separate batches. I came out and was wrapped in bandages over a lot of my body to stop me scratching and opening up the delicate stitching. There was another patient in the hospital who looked at my bandages and evidently wanting horror stories asked what I had done. When I answered scar removal he walked away disappointed. Not bright when you consider I was largely covered with bandaging so if someone wanted horror stories I was the place to be.
Back to the point. Now I live with the results of living like there would be no tomorrow only to find there is. This means waking up in pain every day, a few stretches and movements tends to get rid of most of it, and by continuing to train I keep myself able and mobile so I am less lucky and more the result of switching from not caring to looking after myself.
The point here is this is no-one else's fault, it's mine. There was no-one with a gun to my head, in fact it would have likely have taken that to stop me doing the stupid things I made the core of my life for my younger adult years. Subsequently I accept the responsibility for the price I pay for those choices and live with it. We can all be stupid but we need to accept this as our own choice and not look to blame others.
I don't like the drugs. Musical reference aside I am a bit of a rarity in today's world, a total straight head, all the stranger for my interest in dangerous sports, where there are a lot of recreational substances used, part of not caring about later life I guess. The reason is less moral stance and very much fear based. I tried alcohol and it made me uncontrollably violent so I was scared to try anything else. This certainly wasn't lack of opportunity, in fact in some ways the easy availability made it less appealing, there was no urgency to try it because it would always be there. Most of the people I knew were casual or frequent users of class A narcotics and I got used to being around them and what this involved.
The parts I find stupid are the blame and blindness that goes with a lot of drug or substance users, this includes alcohol and other legal substances.
Blame first. 'It wasn't me, it was the drink.' or other substance. Now if this was put into your body by someone else against your will I agree, if not no dice. If you drink the alcohol or take the drugs, you know the risks and likely the effect it will have on you. If you don't want those effects don't take it. I know that with a pathetic amount of alcohol in my system I become out of control and a danger to anyone nearby, so I don't drink. If I did it wouldn't be the alcohol's fault it would be mine and that would be stupid. Most people have done things they regret under the influence of substances they have gone back to, the smarter of these moderate, others just become a joke.
Blindness, not literal but voluntarily ignoring the inescapable fact that there is always a price to pay, sooner or later. If what you take lifts you up, there will be a come down, and it could be a longer journey down than you were ready for. If you take things that are mood based, hallucinogens etc. then being nervous about taking them will definitely mean you will wish you hadn't, there are made up horror stories of course and most of these are stupidly obvious, but seeing someone on a bad trip is pretty bad, being in one must be infinitely worse. I have helped a number of people make decisions on drugs before, and surprisingly considering I never resort to the 'don't do drugs' mantra many have decided not to for a while because of things I have said.
Asking the dealer for guidance is not a good idea, most of them are long term users and don't remember the first time at all. Look up what things do to you positive and negative, short and long term first. There is no such thing as a totally harmless drug and it's worth finding out the cost and benefits before taking it. If you need to see the truth of this find someone who has frequently smoked cannabis, an often stated harmless narcotic, for a number of years and see how a conversation with them feels.
My adrenaline habit wasn't safer than any other addiction, the death would likely have been more dramatic but that's about it. There is no moral high ground here, I found another way to get high that's all there is to it.
Parenting is an area where I think a lot of stupidity starts. There are a lot of people so convinced that children can't do x, y or z and subsequently they never try to find out if they can. I came into parenting totally blind to what different ages were supposed to be able to do, so I talked to my son as an equal, which has meant a number of conversations where I have said a sentence then spent a few minutes explaining the meaning of half the words in it and had to start again because the thread had been totally lost after the explanation. Yes this does make you feel very stupid, but it also means I haven't limited my son by my ignorance, this is to such an extent now that he is teaching me things I genuinely didn't know based on research he does for fun. By the time he reaches adulthood he's going to be way ahead of me, and that's a good thing.
A lot of the time we were educating our son at home involved lessons where we would have a list of things to cover and keep going up the difficulty until he didn't know any more. Then he started learning. This may seem bizarre considering we were teaching him so should know but he has a lot of interest in science, history, geology and a few other things so assuming he wouldn't have been on youtube or google finding out things just for fun would have meant looking like a total idiot in class, something his new teachers are starting to realise is all too easy if he takes an interest.
Children are as dumb as we make them. I know it's fashionable to be stupid but it really is time the fashion changed.
Running 13-Oct-2014
Due to what was in truth not a major cold but enough combined with immune system being lowered by my epilepsy meds to make training counterproductive, this is my first training in 2 weeks.
I could be sensible and break myself in gently but I am already on remedial so I won't.
Run wasn't too bad, will see if this keeps up over the week.
5.37 miles in 42:23 average speed 7.6mph
I could be sensible and break myself in gently but I am already on remedial so I won't.
Run wasn't too bad, will see if this keeps up over the week.
5.37 miles in 42:23 average speed 7.6mph
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