Vin Diesel as a father

[drscott]

Mike was at has massage class all day, so I hung out with excessor. First we went to my gym (Golds Shoreline) to work out -- he did quite well considering he hasn't done much lifting since Palm Springs. He discovered the scale there shows him at 4 lbs. less than he's used to, so I think we'll be seeing more of him there. Which suggested to me a great product idea: a scale which only allows weight readings that go down. We'll make a fortune. Oh, and maybe there'll be a special model for the minority (gawky teenagers, bodybuilders and some bears) who work hard to get their weight up.

Then we ate dinner at Togos and headed over to the adjoining cinema for a viewing of The Chronicles of Riddick. Despite my misgivings (and a particularly clunky "Making of" feature on HBO I had seen) it wasn't terrible; B-movie serial from the 40s dressed up in expensive CGI and plenty of fight scenes (which I don't particularly get into.) I'd give it a 'B' though I wouldn't send anybody to see it for redeeming artistic value. The campy asides and anachronistic jokes let us sophisticates know the movie wasn't taking itself too seriously. At one point the adorable daughter of an old friend of his who's just been killed asks Vin Diesel's character if he will fight the monsters, and of course our super tough guy goes all gooey on us. To fulfill his paternal obligation he goes on to kill hundreds of fascist goons (think cross between Borg and fighting Jesuits.) There was a better movie in there struggling to get out -- several intriguing characters were hardly developed and the societal background was wholly unexplained. I was left wondering how the bad guys survived economically when they used their expensive fleet only to raze planets and kill all inhabitants who won't convert (shades of the Reconquista or Muslim expansion.) Who financed them? Even Medieval pillagers left their host communities in good enough shape to allow recovery to generate new plunder by the time the bad guys would return. Parasites that quickly destroy their hosts tend to die out...

We had considered going to the Foggy City dance, but I was pooped by then and we instead went to my place for a bit of chitchat and TV. Frans, our regular guest from Holland, had arrived from Schiphol by the time we got there, but he was too tired to stay up with us.

So it's Father's Day. My father is dead and I barely knew him. Mike will get a visit from his closest son Dan today, but other than that this is a non-event.

Comments

[excessor.livejournal.com]

As always, I learn something new when I work out with you. In addition to trying to learn how to do a straight-legged deadlift (which I did not master), I now know a new rule: don't lift more than you're comfortable with. Today I can barely move my arms and shoulders.

Oh, and that scale was seven pounds off, not four, from the scale at my gym. I may have to visit yours from time to time because it did my heart some good.

The new flooring is unbelievably gorgeous. I know you both went through a lot to get it installed, and the result is outstanding.

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you could do fine at deadlifts, but it didn't seem like a good idea to expose your lower back to possible injury until you've done some other strengthening exercises. I'm pretty sore today and I do them regularly!

So we'll see you back at the gym in 3 days for another hard workout? You should be able to move by then... :-)

[excessor.livejournal.com]

You did what, 5 or 6 sets of SLDLs? I did half of one and had to quit. You get the glory, my friend and you deserve to be sore. I'm just whining. Oh wait—let me whine a little more: <whine>my arms, shoulders, and sides are killing me!</whine> I'm off for a little more aspirin.

I'll have to figure out how to work out at Gold's (timing + traffic) and still make my social obligations. It would be so much easier (if perhaps a little much olfactorily) if we did square dancing there.