Health & Fitness: The Road to 40 (Week 17)

Week: 17
Workouts this week: 1
Workouts/Total days: 54/118

Obviously I have not been involved in the whole fitness thing for the past three weeks. While the cat was at the emergency vet, I’d visit him in the evening. The late nights combined with the general stress of the whole thing pretty much sucked any energy I might have had. Needless to say, getting up in the morning to work out was not the first thing on my mind.

This week, I tried to start back but only made it one time. Tuesday I did cardio and worked the chest (with lowered weight). I am still pretty low on the energy level though.

Anyway, I hope to regain most of my energy in time to hit next week’s gym schedule with a vengeance; in other words, five days.

Reggie: In Memoriam (1993 - 2007)

On Tuesday, January 16 2007 at 3:50 am, my cat of 14 years passed away due to complications from Feline Chronic Renal Failure (kidney failure).

He was diagnosed on Saturday, January 6th and spent the next five days at an emergency animal hospital. I brought him home on Thursday, January 11 and was able to spend the following four days with him. Though weak from his ordeal at the hospital (he's always hated the vet) he was quite happy to be home and would purr even if you'd just glance at him. I am thankful that I got to spend that time with him.

In September of 1993, I adopted Reggie from the pound. He and his siblings had been picked up in a field as strays and were very young. What separated him from the rest of the kittens was that he was totally black (except for a small white patch on his chest) and quite rambunctious.

Except for one scare in 1999, he was a healthy cat, albeit an overweight cat (uh, I mean “big boned”).

As with all pets, he had quite the personality. The cutest thing he’d do was to crawl under the covers of the bed to sleep. I’d come home and find this ball curled up in my bed. Of course I’d wake him up by sliding my hand under the covers to pet him (which would make him purr like there was no tomorrow).

Tuesday, I was awakened to my worst fear; Reggie was in his final minutes. My god! That is the hardest thing to watch because there is nothing that can be done. Amid the fresh snow falling and my constant convulsions of emotion, I drove his body one last time to the emergency hospital for cremation. His ashes are being sent to Eastern Washington where they will be sprinkled in an orchard; such is the circle of life.

So it is with a heavy heart that I say a final goodbye to my friend and companion. Rest in peace Reggie, you are already missed.

Health & Fitness: The Road to 40 (Week 14)

Workouts this week: 4
Workouts/Total days: 53/97

Now we're getting somewhere! Since Monday was a holiday I was not downtown so no workout. However, the rest of the week showed great improvement.

I’ve started to add more weight to my leg workouts. Hopefully in a month or two I’ll be back up to pressing what I was while in college. As for my chest, I am currently at the weight from college. Yeah, for some reason I didn’t like chest workouts back then so I didn’t push myself too much. However, since I’ve seen some great pectoral development in the couple of months that I’ve been on “The Road to 40,” I’m much more psyched about chest workouts than before. I still have a ways to go before pressing 75 lb dumbbells though.

Overall, it’s been a good week. Let’s see if we can keep this momentum.

On to week 15!

Two Men Kissing: The Inconvenient Truth

While looking around the internet a couple of days ago, I came across a My Space page that stood out. Of course, the reason for the attention was that it was the site of a pro bodybuilder and he has pictures of himself posing. Not bad at all (in fact, I think he’ll be featured on the “...in the eye of the beholder” blog in the coming days).

Anyway, I read what he had to say (yes, I went there for the articles as well). One thing caught my eye though; he requested that people who wanted to be on his friends list should not have inappropriate stuff on their site. He lists pornographic images but also singles out “two men kissing.”

That got me thinking. Why is it that a man and a woman kissing is nothing of concern yet two men kissing is pornographic? Of course, most of the time the general population never sees two men kissing in mainstream movies and TV shows. To them, it’s something they’ve only heard about from gay pornography. Nonetheless, it’s a double standard.

I think for many, homosexuality is only about sex. That’s partially right and goes without question since it’s the definition.

ho•mo•sex•u•al (hō'mə-sěk'shōō-əl, -mō-)
adj. Of, relating to, or having a sexual orientation to persons of the same sex.

Dictionary.com

Interestingly enough though, listed as a side note is the following:

Usage Note: Many people now avoid using homosexual because of the emphasis this term places on sexuality. Indeed, the words gay and lesbian, which stress cultural and social matters over sex, are frequently better choices...

This gets right to my point. Since people generally think that it’s only about the sex, they cannot see it in any other way. As a result, they think that a picture of two men kissing is pornographic; they choose to see it as sex and not a show of love and romance.

For this guy (I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt), my guess is that he had the misfortune to attract some guys who indeed had pornographic pictures on their sites that included men kissing in the heat of sexual passion. Lord knows the internet is full of those images. Even when I searched for a picture showing men kissing to post with this text I mostly found only pornography.

Keep in mind that just as with straight guys, there is an equal percentage of gay guys who are only about their next sexual conquest (can anyone say “Spring Break Florida” for both gays and straights). However, there is also an equal percentage of gay guys who are monogamous and looking for a life partner to share more than just a bed with. In other words, the makeup of the gay population is similar to that of the straight population.

It is only a matter of time before people in the United States see men kissing for what it usually is; a show of love and romance. And then that perverse bubble will finally be popped.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year all!

May this year bring you success in all of your endeavors. For those who made that old New Year's resolution to workout and get fit, good luck! But remember, if you don't use that new gym membership you just bought, you're just throwing money away.