Jake

I've been thinking about the things I learned from elementary school to high school and how some things have been extremely useful in my daily life even when I didn't expect them to be. This is somewhat inspired by Tex's thread where he brought his students on Soxtalk and some blogs -- I couldn't help but think what a surprisingly useful thing that would be to learn. Some things that come to mind for me: -Mandatory keyboarding class in high school -Several things that were required for PE in high school: sex ed (seriously, though this happened in junior high as well), nutrition class, weightlifting -Civic education throughout school, most kids hate it but it is immensely useful to actually know how your government works -Note taking: my 5th grade teacher drilled us with these lessons on note taking, but now I'm so glad to be able to have coherent notes in my college classes. I often look at my neighbors who have completely useless looking notes. Some kids literally just write their notes like they're writing prose in paragraph form. -Public speaking. This was taught to me by a professional actor who was very demanding. It stressed me the hell out with the performances, memorization, practice, etc. but I learned a ton about the mechanics of speaking, how to stand and look at an audience, and also just conquered some bashful demons. -Statistics. I took this at the AP Level and eventually had to take two classes in my college's Political Science department on the subject, but it is very useful in terms of evaluating the kind of stuff you see touted as fact on a regular basis. There are lot of things that you would know anyway, but you would never have otherwise thought to have inquired about. -I had to take computer courses that required me to know the ins and outs of Microsoft Office that still makes me the unofficial computer tech in my circle of friends -We had a mandatory consumer ed at my high school and I'm glad I knew how credit cards worked, how to write a check, needing to make a budget and plan ahead, how mortgage and car/home loans work, etc. That's just off the top of my head. What things occur to you as especially useful? Anything still stick out as a tremendous waste of time?

Lunges brah. Hold weights in your hand if you can/want, but either way its both functionally awesome and great for mass building as well. You can go for distance, do it in place, step up onto a platform or step, forwards, back, side ways, etc.

Who are these 8 teams in on Michael Bourn? Supposedly some "surprise" teams in there. You'd think that the Sox would have inquired, but I honestly don't like Bourn at all

People were talking about Jo's big play last night possibly giving him a push into the AS game... ...and of course SportsCenter decided the Bulls-Pistons game would be the one NBA game they didn't cover today. Nobody will even know that play happened.

I have to think that technological breakthroughs will allow us to do better than might seem possible today. It is somewhat troubling, though, that there is such a strong push against some of those technologies (like genetically modified crops, for instance)

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 23, 2013 -> 06:58 PM) Ventura thinking about moving Rios to the 3 hole and moving Dunn down a bit. He had to. Will have a significant effect on how many lefties ADA sees in late innings.

Speaking of hot sauce, a guy I know is making a fat-burning hot sauce. Has a couple fat burning ingredients, most notably raspberry ketones and capsaicin (which is normally too spicy to put in any other sort of supplement). Decent chance it doesn't help you burn any appreciable amount of fat, but it is still aptly named "Thermogenesauce" http://www.nutraplanet.com/product/thermog...ce-5-fl-oz.html

Starting Strength will tear you a new asshole. You'll be getting plenty of work if you have the equipment to follow that program -- I have a feeling you won't have adequate weights for it, though.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 23, 2013 -> 05:20 PM) UNDEFEATED is the best sports documentary since HOOP DREAMS. It's great. I don't live too far from there.

I like my oats drier than most folks so I don't think overnight would work out for me. Anything that is soggy turns me off so my oats are usually more like a paste than a soup, if that makes sense. Most people think I'm crazy when they see the way I eat my oats.

Thanks for the links guys!

BTN2Go FTW

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 05:31 PM) We're comparing him to Kirk Hinrich, and Nate's hit some big shots. Kirk does the same thing to a much higher degree with regards to holding the ball. PER Nate Robinson - 16.7 Rip Hamilton - 13.4 Kirk Hinrich - 10.5 Marquis Teague - 5.8 Oh, and for s***'s and giggles, Deron Williams has a PER of 18 and Ty Lawson has a PER of 14.6. Nate's been pretty valuable this year to a team that greatly lacks scoring. Nate has filled his role extremely well and I think Thibs has utilized him perfectly. This team occasionally needs a primary scorer to be out there and Nate does that. He can score and create his own shot.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 12:06 PM) i think you're confusing TDEE with BMR Yes I am LOL QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 12:11 PM) Chipotle is the healthiest fast food there is. Free range chicken, grass fed beef, organic local veggies. Good stuff. only problem is that sodium content so... ya know... going ALL chipotle may not be the best idea. I wouldn't stress too much about sodium without an existing condition unless you don't like the bloat or something. QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 03:17 PM) coconut oil is high in saturated fat but it's GOOD saturated fat. I use it every day. WebMD isn't really the greatest source of information. (see the thread in the buster about the gov't and major medical not understanding nutrition) Yeah, I doubt anyone would have too much coconut oil. I advocate it big time. It's not perfect, but it's also nothing like other sat fats -- that said, you need sat fats anyway.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 11:26 AM) What exactly makes him more of a hard worker than say Nate Robinson? You just made fun of the "he's white" idea, but then completely 100% backed it up by saying he's a "hard worker" when it's damn-well guaranteed he doesn't work harder than some of our other bench players. But, he's Kirk Hinrich, so he's a hard-working, white guard? Come on. I look at hard work in terms of what goes on on the court. Obviously NBA players work hard. On the other hand, Kirk is a physically limited guard who has earned a reputation for playing good defense and likewise being a hustle player. Nate doesn't play defense -- not because he's black, a little bit because he's short, but also because he slacks on defense. A lion's share of NBA players use defense as time to rest for offense. Kirk doesn't and never has done this and it is part of him that I like. It is largely the reason he was signed. When I say he's a hard worker, it is because he works harder than most other players, even on a Tom Thibodeau-coached team. I also consider Luol Deng and Joakim Noah as notoriously hard workers. Derrick has a reputation for tireless practice and intensity in game, but we've also seen him look lazy on defense before (this has gotten much better recently). I can't see everything the players do and we're obviously working with a high baseline as far as effort goes. Certain players repeatedly shine because their effort is at a higher level than that baseline and I believe that is perhaps the main reason that Kirk is still an NBA player. And I really don't give a s*** that he's white. If we want to bring up another white guy, Kyle Korver never stood out as a hustle guy to me nor does Marco Belinelli. Marco admitted that he's not used to trying on defense and basically said it was the reason for his early season struggles. With Omer, I can't decide if he was slow in brain, slow in feet, or a bit lackadaisical.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 11:13 AM) Seneca, Selma and Stonewall It wasn't until the mid-90's that interracial marriage became accepted by a majority of people in this country. Wow. I wonder how different it would be if the question was, "do you approve of your child marrying someone of different racial background?" Even my dad, while not being a liberal hero he still is a rather non-bigoted man, once expressed concern that he wasn't sure if he'd be okay with a hypothetical daughter dating a black guy. He said that his childhood best friend was a black guy, he'd never personally known a bad black guy, but nonetheless it is true that in our hometown it would probably a ruin a girl's reputation. This is in Illinois of all places. In the 5-10 years since I brought up that hypothetical, I have a feeling that he feels completely different and wouldn't care so much about what everyone else thinks. I think this type of longitudinal polling shows that same sort of trend. While the raw number of people that approve has shot up, I have to assume the strength of the conviction in those other approvers has gone up as well. Some might have approved in theory but were still uneasy, but I bet now many more are actually fully comfortable with the notion.

QUOTE (Cali @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 11:44 AM) I stay away from Meat and Dairy (sans the occasional Pizza and Fish -- I'm not a hardcore Vegan by any stretch haha) No refined sugars (or HFCS obviously) No GMO's I try to stay away from Oil's and only cook with Coconut Oil if It's needed for a recipe Cut out bread and pasta... bread is the worst one for me haha Try and make all my meals at home and on rare occasions dine out -- It saves $$$ and you know exactly what is going into your food. I do eat lots of greens, and fruits. Fresh nut butters (Almond and Cashew in particular). Make lots of hearty vegetable based soups/chili. Whole grains and brown rice. And most importantly LOTS of Water... Make sure you get enough fats -- I know you are into nut butters, which is a good thing. I'd hate to see you have too low a fat take due to your low intake of oils. You do need fats of all kinds (minus trans fat, more or less) for a fully functioning body. Saturated fat in particular plays a crucial role in testosterone production. Some steak here and there will help you with that, though there are other ways. The MCTs in coconut oil, while AWESOME, do not serve this role btw despite being classified as saturated fats.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 10:16 AM) I dont like him as a person so I am on board with you. He's a tremendous douche. but......he's white!!! I'm okay with Kirk. Don't know anything about him as a person, he's a hard worker, he can defend some and plays smart. He plays okay sometimes, other times he plays so badly that we tolerate Nate Robinson's defense just to get a PG that might score.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 09:07 AM) This isn't exactly accurate, but it's a good start. Also, the above doesn't even take into account any working out. In early 2011 I went from 212 lbs to 185 in like a month and a half by working out and eating like 1800 calories/day. That combined with activating a dormant metabolism works wonders! Now I'm flirting with 175 with a lot of added muscle - and I drink plenty and eat what I want within reason - but I've also tuned my brain to not want complete garbage unless said garbage is of the dessert variety! At 212, especially if you were doing a lot of work in the gym, you may have been burning over 4000 calories a day. That would make your big weight loss make sense. A lot of 200 pounders will have a BMR of 3000+. When I was at my best physique, before injuries etc etc I was a lean 190 and had to eat 3500 cals to maintain weight. I was doing zero cardio at this point as well. Also, the best way to "awake" a metabolism is resistance training! Steady state cardio is great and something I will always do, but doesn't touch the body composition and metabolic effects of resistance training or interval training. Some mixture of course will probably work best.

We don't need Derrick Seriously though, I'm interested in how our rotation will look when Derrick is back at full strength. Derrick would be getting 35+ at this point, leaving not much time for a backup PG -- and would this person be the scoreless Kirk or Nate, who has been a very valuable part of the bench at this point? Teague? At the 2 we've had satisfactory play from both Rip and Belinelli, so I don't see much PT for Kirk there. On particular nights, I can see Jimmy getting play there as well. Speaking of Jimmy, he's got to get more minutes. This should benefit Lu who was at an upper limit for minutes anyway. Taj is finally starting to look like a good basketball player as well, so I don't see any drastic changes in the front court despite how good Carlos has been playing. Now that we're about halfway through the season, the team once again looks pretty damn deep. We're deeper than we've ever been at 2 and 3, I think our PG backups are at least as good as CJ+JL3/whomever. The main loss was Asik, though I'm dubious that his exit has hurt us much. Nazr is nothing special, but last night he showed us that he can come in and foul somebody 4 times and leave...which was the bulk of Omer's role anyway.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 08:15 PM) if it's in a box, a can, a wrapper, a bag, etc - then you need to carefully look at ingredients and avoid: 1) High fructose corn syrup 2) High amounts of sugar period 3) Avoid most saturated fats (except for avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, nut oils, nut butters, etc) 5) Avoid partially hydrogenated vegetable oil basically a good simple method is this: 80-90% foods with ONE ingredient and 10-20% whatever else you enjoy, like, whatever. I go for 90/10, but most people aren't as health-nazi-ish like me. If you want to count calories, I can give you more detailed info Comes down to the last point you make IMO. Counting calories can allow you to work in some small amounts of those bugaboo foods, but for a lot of folks that's just way too much effort, stress, whatever. If you don't want to count, and I can understand not wanting to, I'd suggest like Reddy to completely abstain from the types of foods he mentioned. I would advise you to not worry about an occasional cheat, though. This can easily be overdone, but don't miss out on a fun time now and then. Likewise, I don' t want you to feel bad just because you have a bad day with eating -- in the long run, a single day/meal here and there just isn't a big deal.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 03:25 PM) We can win the World Series and Marty can find something negative to say. 11-1? Why did we lose 1? 1 championship? Why not 6 like the Bulls?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 08:08 PM) Apparently lawyers don't like boobs. Must have something to do with the absurd rate of unhappiness among lawyers. When my politics advisor first met me, he spent 20 minutes lecturing me about how I shouldn't go to law school before I told him that was never my plan. I don't know much about it, but if there are no boobs, then I've made the right decision.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 08:04 PM) I was debating with someone at work who didnt particularly care for the movie because he doesn't think they should have been cured of their mental illness, and I replied with "How do you know they were cured?" It was never implied and I like that. Yeah I didn't get that at all. They returned to the whole running thing at the end, which at one point signified their respective peaks of delusion. By no means is it indicated that her illness was cured, she just ran out of the building for no reason (well a reason that doesn't merit that reaction). He was acting more lucid for sure, but I didn't get the feeling that it was supposed to be neat and tidy like your friend suggests.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jan 21, 2013 -> 07:50 PM) On the note of protein bars, I'll have to pimp my overall favorite brand: Quest. They started up a couple years ago IIRC and they put out a high quality product. The great novelty is they use a special modified sugar that happens to be a prebiotic fiber as part of the sweetening system. There is what looks to be a large amount of fiber in the bars due to this, but it isn't harsh on your system like something like oat fiber would be. There is good research behind this stuff for positive pooping outcomes (seriously, someone measured old people's poop size in these studies). Each bar is 170-210 calories with 5 or fewer net carbs, all with 20g protein from whey protein isolate and milk protein isolate. A lot of bars use the useless hydrolyzed gelatin to boost protein content, but not these ones. They also have an all natural line that swaps out sucralose as sweetener for the benign, natural sugar alcohol erythritol (no stomach upset, almost no caloric value) as well as stevia and lo guan ho for sweetener. They don't have as ideal of a texture as things like clif do, the texture is much more like a more tolerable powerbar. They taste very good though and have lots of flavors. I like cinnamon roll (natural), apple pie, and several others. A lot of my friends are obsessed with coconut cashew, but I've never had it. They've also recently released a line of peanut butter cups (!) and crunch bars. They aren't exactly authentic candy, but they knock it out of the park for what they are. These have a bit more fat than their protein bar counterparts, but still 20g protein at about 240 cals for one crunch bar/two peanut butter cups. The PB cups are really good. questproteinbar.com for more info, I'm sure they make the case better than me. Also, these are now sold at GNC so you can pick one up without too much markup before picking up the entire box. Don't think GNC is carrying the candy line yet, though.