The Gripping Hand

[tersh]

Tersh! How are you doing? How is grip training going? How is Utah?

The Dude Abides.

I'm doing alright. I've been through a quite busy winter, work-wise (I now have roughly two weeks of accumulated overtime to take as vacation), and had a trip to Hanoi simultaneously with the Preznit. Work is pretty good. Training is not so much. But there's a decentish gym in the building my office has transferred to, which is super cheap, and hardly used. So sort of kind of planning to get to the bar perhaps this week.

Grip training has made no progress. I do still retain the ability to close the GD-80 at the second setting, at least.
So I haven't regressed too far, at least.

Utah is okay. Salt Lake has absolutely terrible air quality in the winter a lot of time. It's pretty garbage. Ended up having to get an inhaler.
Quite probably I've had exercised-induced asthma since I was a kid, though, so that's not the worst thing.

In other news, I am spending too much money building a modular synth.

[Allentown]

Quite probably I've had exercised-induced asthma since I was a kid, though, so that's not the worst thing.

Undiagnosed, but my lungs make comical sounds for a few hours after doing any conditioning. Though I did some airdyne sprints this morning followed by some Xfitty BS, and they seem to be fine right now. I guess I just decided to get over it?

[cwd]

tersh, I have had more success with process goals than outcome goals.

Whether I ever deadlift X pounds is largely out of my control. Greg Nuckols pulled more the day he first tried than I ever have.

But I can set goals like "get 100 lifting sessions done in this calendar year" and hit them. Even if some of those sessions are the shitty ones where I have to stop after the first work set -- those count! Setting goals that you can *definitely* hit, and hitting them, is very good for the psyche.

Since making consistent effort my #1 priority a couple years back, I've made better progress. And it's easier to be patient with myself.

[hector]

If someone told me "There's this guy. He's over extending his finances building a modular synth and he does grip training" it would be the coolest description of a human being I had ever heard.

How do you like living amongst Mormons in their Mecca?

I visited SLC and thought it was much nicer than the shithole I lived in, but at the same time it made me miss the diversity I took for granted in my day to day life.
That was awhile ago though, so maybe SLC has changed since.

[tersh]

Quite probably I've had exercised-induced asthma since I was a kid, though, so that's not the worst thing.

Undiagnosed, but my lungs make comical sounds for a few hours after doing any conditioning. Though I did some airdyne sprints this morning followed by some Xfitty BS, and they seem to be fine right now. I guess I just decided to get over it?

It's important, as an adult man, not to allow oneself to have an asthma attack.

tersh, I have had more success with process goals than outcome goals.

Whether I ever deadlift X pounds is largely out of my control. Greg Nuckols pulled more the day he first tried than I ever have.

But I can set goals like "get 100 lifting sessions done in this calendar year" and hit them. Even if some of those sessions are the shitty ones where I have to stop after the first work set -- those count! Setting goals that you can *definitely* hit, and hitting them, is very good for the psyche.

Since making consistent effort my #1 priority a couple years back, I've made better progress. And it's easier to be patient with myself.

I'm not good with process goals, but I'm working at it. Feels a bit like goalpost moving to me, but I'm overly judgemental.

If someone told me "There's this guy. He's over extending his finances building a modular synth and he does grip training" it would be the coolest description of a human being I had ever heard.

How do you like living amongst Mormons in their Mecca?

I visited SLC and thought it was much nicer than the shithole I lived in, but at the same time it made me miss the diversity I took for granted in my day to day life.
That was awhile ago though, so maybe SLC has changed since.

I don't spend as much time with the synth as dollars I've spent would suggest, perhaps foolishly. I do quite like building the modules, though. I might enjoy that as much as playing it. Unfortunately one of commercial modules has some weird stuff going that I couldn't fix, and I shipped it off today for repair. I'll be glad to get it back, as it's a core piece of my not very large setup. I need to not spend another $350 on a better/smaller sequencer.

A small sample of the weirdness I've been getting up to from time to time.

SLC is alright. I live fairly well downtown, and my apartment faces the street, so I get quite a taste of the residents of the city. So far there's been several fist fights (one involving the female members of a wedding party that day after, I think), a lot of mentally ill homeless people, including a schizophrenic guy I hear screaming as he passes by pretty much nightly, one incident of a violent dispute that I felt might result in someone getting killed and needed to cops, many couples yelling at each other drunk and sober, and one couple drunkenly fucking against a real estate sign across the street.

The view of the mountains is certainly very pretty though, and I've enjoyed having a real winter. Fuck the garbage air quality, though. And the dryness. The city isn't terrible, diversity-wise, plenty of brown folks, they're just kind of sequestered. They city is very strongly influenced by the Mormons, but they don't quite dominate it, at this point. There's great Mexican food to be had, that's for sure. Music scene ain't half bad, though I haven't gotten out much recently.

[tersh]

I did a small lifting. And later this week I should get my repaired module back.

[hector]

Any liftings since? Module repaired? Grip update? Details on excellent Mexican food?

I was in SLC a couple years back and had some awesome Mexican food. But I don't remember the name.