Monday, June 27, 2022

Workout Circuits

First thing in the morning:

Crunches - 27
Curls - 25
Tricep Dips - 26
Hammer Curl - 12
Lat Lifts - 22
Shoulders (Front) - 25
Push ups 24
Shoulders (Back) - 25
Calves - 27
Single Dumbell Shoulder Raise - 12  (large - both hands)
Squats - 25
Single large dumbell, both hands raises straight out in front to shoulder level 11
Farmers carry w/large dumbbells 10
Jumping Jacks - 47

Last Thing at Night: (Yoga For Countering Sitting/Work )

Locust Pose - 25
Hand and Knees Wrist Stretch - 10 (read instructions, do it carefully, stay at 10 till you can perfect it)
Modified Side Plank Pose - 20 (perfect, then increase)
Cobra Pose - 27 and Downward Dog - 27
Low Lunge with Locust Arms - 23
Warrior I Pose (forward) 22
High Lunge with Cactus Arms - 23
Warrior II Pose (side) - 37
Scissor legs 28
Locust Pose - 27
Reverse Prayer Pose 20 (perfect, then increase)
Shoulder and Neck Stretches
Camel Pose - 20 (still working to get there)
Squat - 26 (prayer hands version, no block)
S
Seated Forward Bend - 25
Diamond Pushup - 8
Hamstring stretch w/ strap 22 (one each straight toward head, one each angled to the opposite side, one each outward)
Wide Legged Forward Bend 21
Superman 21
Legs Up the Wall - 106
L Handstand 10 (perfect, then increase)
Sitting Lotus (switch legs, once each side) - 124
Butterfly Pose (forward stretch, then hands behind back - focus on inner thighs stretching) 10
Knee to Elbow Plank 20
Jumping Jacks 46


Weight Training:

1)
Lunges 16 (alternate - wear shoes)
Pushups 24
Barbell Squats 24
Standing overhead big dumbbell press 12
1/4 bent dumbbell rows (Large: 9)

2) 
Single leg deadlifts  4 
Burpees 4
Side Planks 23 (supporting arm bent for better support - when you can hold perfectly for a minute consider variations)
Straight leg lifts on back 13 (toward chest/head)
Glute bridge 23 (laying down pelvic thrusts, on the last one hold for the seconds equal to the reps)
Crab Pose 23

3)

Barbell Curls 19 
Hammer Curls 14 (alternating)
Sitting small dumbell 14
Wrist Curl 15 (big dumbell)
Hand Grips (Times, break, then hold for seconds) 19
Exercise ball walk 16


4)
Horse 29
Calf Raises 19
Deep Knee Bends 19
Warrior Three 17
S
Small Dumbell Lunges 8
Large Dumbell walk 10


5)
Counter Dips 7
Tricep Dips 18
Lat lifts 18
Dumbell Seated Tricep Press - 16
Shoulder Press - front 18
Shoulder Press - back 18

6)
Push ups 21
Descending Push Ups 17
Elevated Push Ups 19
Four Limbed Staff Pose (Modified Plank) 33
Bear Walk 2
Plank Row 8

7)
Sit up toe touch 21
Crunches 21
Leg Lifts 7
Side leg lifts 21
On back, legs toward chest 21



----------------------------------------------------

Work Routine:

Crunches 16 (method B - #11)
Airplane 16
Tree Pose 23
Standing Bow Pose - 22
Dumbell Curl 12
Tennis Ball on the wall
Back Roller
Goblet Squat w/ dumbell - 22
Arm Stretches, door frame, up & down - 5
Straight arm stretches on door frames - 22
Jumping Jacks 47
Arnold Press - 11
Sitting, diamond leg, forward stretch - 22
Sitting, one leg extended - other brought in foot against crotch, side stretch - 22
Rotating shoulder shrugs (forward/backward) and neck stretches
Pointer stretch - ground 26
Dead bug stretch - ground 26
Interlaced hands shoulder stretch - top of head, behind and above. Then interlaced behind lower back.
Zottman Curl - 10 (little dumbell - look at example, keep arms against side on the down motion)
Opposite arms above and below (stretching upward downward) & gentle swing of arms/torso
(R/L)Calf/tendon and backward knee stretches
Jumping Jacks 47
Farmers Walk - 12
Dumbell Shoulder Press 24 (large, alternating)
S
Sitting in chair, cross leg, knee lift-stretch - 21
Sitting in chair, forward toward toe stretch - 21
Cross Body Hammer Curl - (large dumbells - 12 alternating arms)
Bodyweight Squats - arm upraised straight and along the head - 26
Plank - on weight ball (63)
Backward floor bridge plank - straightlegged 20
Backward floor bridge plank - bentlegged 20
Jumping Jacks 46
bathroom/chair dips 20
counter dips 5
Legs elevated push ups 13
Calve lifts 30
Squats: partial 20
Horse 25
Straight arm plank 104
Forearm plank 104
Side Plank - right/left 16
Twist stretch in chair or standing
Jumping Jacks 46
Push ups 26
Yoga side warrior pose 23
Yoga forward warrior pose 23
Yoga swan stretch - both legs 23
Yoga baby stretch 23
Face up cobra stretch & Down Face Dog 23
Push up stance/plank - alternating knee forward/back 30
Warrior II 34
Triangle Pose 24
Tree Pose 33 (work on v to the sky - both sides)
Jumping Jacks 46
Bridge Pose 63
Seated Forward Folds 29 (work on getting lower as you keep your back from bowing)
Camel Pose 11 
Boat Pose 24
Backward Walking - 4
Toe to Heel Walking 4
Forward Step Up and Down 11 (alternating each leg)
One foot up, hold position 34
Supine Transversus Abdominus Bracing with Leg Extensions (alternating, 12 each side)
High Lunge 23
Jumping Jacks 46
Supine Spinal Twist 23
Staff Pose 22
Upward Plank Pose 22
Extended Side Angle Pose 22
Half Splits 10 (need to perfect, then increase)
Pigeon Pose 23
Half Lord of the Fishes 10 (need to perfect, then increase)
Thunderbolt Pose 23
Breathing Exercise 5
Kneeling on the Floor 63
Jumping Jacks 46
Sit Cross-Legged (63 each way)
Garland Pose 23
Bridge Pose 32
Bear Plank 100
Bicycle Crunches 10
Hollow Body Hold 32
Pilates Swimming 5
Sphinx Reaches 4
Prone IYTs 5 each
Sumo Squat 21
Jumping Jacks 46
Plank, knee toward chest (alternating) 20
Palloff Press 10
Stir the Pot 2
Kneeling Ball Roll Out 5
Rotational Ball Slam
Back roller, on the ground, out and back & hand ball massage 2
Dolphin Pose 20
Jumping Jacks 46
Warrior 3 Pose 20
Warrior 4
Warrior 5













Thursday, June 16, 2022

Nick Estes - The Empire of All Maladies: Colonial Contagions and Indigenous Resistance

One of the most potent myths of mainstream U.S. historiography concerns what Indigenous archaeologist Michael V. Wilcox calls “terminal narratives”: an obsession with the death, disappearance, and absence of Indigenous people rather than their continued, visible presence and challenge to colonialism. The most obvious example of this tendency are historical models that assign blame for the mass killing of the Indigenous to invisible, chance forces—above all, the diseases colonizers unwittingly carried with them—rather than to calculated warfare and theft over centuries of relentless European invasion. - Estes, Nick. "The Empire of All Maladies: Colonial Contagions and Indigenous Resistance." The Baffler #52 (July 2020)

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Lizzie O'Shea - The Judgement of Paris: Facebook vs The Communards


“Solidarity grows through increasing liberty, not through constraint or obligation,” writes [Kristin] Ross. “Personal autonomy and social solidarity do not oppose each other, but instead reinforce each other.” In an age in which online spaces feel more divisive and polarized than ever, perhaps it is time to ponder how we can create conditions of personal autonomy that give rise to greater social solidarity. Perhaps it is the structure of these spaces that is at fault, rather than the individuals within them. Centrally determined “community standards” enforced by automated takedowns and de-platforming might generate tendencies that are more infantilizing than civilizing. A sense of freedom with responsibility in online spaces is unlikely to be cultivated when those who set the boundaries of good taste and political correctness are more interested in applying constraint than promoting solidarity.

...

Put differently, what constitutes acceptable content is always a political question, constantly being negotiated and renegotiated by those who hold power and those who do not. Public bodies, like courts and parliaments, are often the forums for such debates, which is why they are a common focus of struggle. In the digital age, however, enormous private entities like Facebook (or Twitter, or Google, etc.) are increasingly the hosts for these discussions. When citizens and policy makers ask Facebook to curate content or design algorithms to do so, the implicit assumption is that people cannot be trusted to have these conversations themselves. Of course, some people are awful online—and this can have real world consequences, for which we need remedies. We need to have cultural norms and practices that minimize this behavior, that cultivate shared understanding and mutual respect. But we ought to be careful about assuming that tech companies can achieve this by us appointing them as cops.

...

We could start with the assumption that these digital spaces are open and belong to the public. Why not require that the design of the newsfeed algorithm be made transparent? Why not allow people to redesign their content feeds and become active participants in creating their own sense of self rather than having it curated for them by a tech bro? Why not ban the microtargeting that underpins and animates this business model? A data extraction approach to monetization operates by exploiting our emotions to keep us hooked as audiences to be sold to advertisers. As essential pieces of digital infrastructure, why do we accept that these platforms remain in private hands, beholden to the bottom line?

We could pay moderators to manage groups of a particular size, and allow those roles to be elected and accountable, much in the same way as we might pay district council members or representatives. Imagine a social space on the internet that wasn’t filled with ads! Imagine a web where content moderation decisions were governed by a public charter with an accountable board of elected representatives. Perhaps it is even possible to conjure a platform that doesn’t leave complaints about harm buried in some cyber slush pile, but that actively found a strategy to take those complainants seriously and to design rules around resolving their concerns. Platforms, services, and tools could be designed not just for the average user but with the most vulnerable user in mind. Maybe you don’t like these ideas (maybe you do), but maybe there are lots of other ones out there, waiting to be articulated, discussed, adopted, tested, or discarded.

By breaking down the divide between action and consequence in online social life, we might start to “set capacities in motion” that aim to rebuild a sense of freedom with responsibility. It is an argument against outsourcing politics to machines and the few who build them, and in favor of greater public participation by the many in rulemaking in the digital age. It’s not to say it would be a seamless experience of delight; it would certainly feature conflict. But it could be a place where people could collectively explore ideas in conditions of freedom, without being organized in a clandestine way by billionaire tech overlords.

O'Shea, Lizzie. "The Judgement of Paris: Facebook vs The Communards." The Baffler #56 (March/April 2021): 9, 11-13. 

Thursday, June 2, 2022

The Innocents (Norway/Sweden/Denmark: Eskil Vogt, 2021)




 The Innocents (Norway/Sweden/Denmark: Eskil Vogt, 2021: 117 mins)

"Four children become friends during the summer holidays, and out of sight of the adults they discover they have hidden powers. While exploring their newfound abilities in the nearby forests and playgrounds, their innocent play takes a dark turn and strange things begin to happen."
Nicholas, Alexandra-Heller. "The Innocents." Alliance of Women Film Journalists (April 22, 2022)

Saito, Stephen. "Eskil Vogt on What Leads to Bad Behavior in The Innocents." Moveable Feast (May 13, 2022)

Tallerico, Brian. "The Innocents." Roger Ebert (May 13, 2022)

Vogt, Eskil. "The Innocents." Film at Lincoln Center Podcast #397 (May 13, 2022)





Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Zadie Smith: "In my capacity as a writing teacher, I've noticed, in the classroom, the emergence of a belief that fiction can or should be the product of an absolute form of 'correctness.'"

 "In my capacity as a writing teacher, I've noticed, in the classroom, the emergence of a belief that fiction can or should be the product of an absolute form of 'correctness.' The student explains that I should believe in her character because this is exactly how X type of person would behave. How does she know? Because, as it happens, she herself is X type of person. Or she knows because she has spent a great deal of time researching X type of person, and this novel is the consequence of her careful research. (Similar arguments can be found in the interviews of professional writers.) 

... Writing is a far larger act of presumption. Sensing this, we seek to shore up the act of writing with false defenses, like the dubious idea that one could ever be absolutely "correct" when it comes to representing fictional human behavior. I understand the desire - I have it myself - but what I don't get is how anyone can possibly hope to achieve it. What does it mean, after all, to say "A Bengali woman would never say that!" or "A gay man would never feel that!"? How can such things be possibly claimed absolutely, unless we already have some form of fixed caricature in our minds? (It is to be noted that the argument "A white man would never say that!" is rarely heard and structurally unimaginable. Why? Because to such a self is to be afforded all possible human potentialities, not only a circumscribed few.) --  Zadie Smith. "Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction." The New York Review of Books (October 24, 2019): 6, 8.