"If it's good enough for the Spetsnaz...

...it's good enough for me. I'm sure they appreciate that." Why my approval might be important to the Russian special forces is no doubt inexplicable beyond my own fevered vanity.

That hunk of iron is a kettlebell, an unusual old-school piece of weightlifting equipment. Trevor Haines (sensei at Dojo Chattanooga) offers kettlebell classes, so I decided to avail myself of it. The link I've provided is chock-full of all sorts of macho hyperbole designed to make you want to buy their stuff, but it is still true that kettlebell exercises are very good for core strengthening, which in turn is good for just about any martial art you want to do.

I just came home from class. I'm gonna be a suffering bastard in the morning.

Driven Like The Snow

OK, driven in the snow, more like. Hertz offered to upgrade me when I went to rent a car for my Chapel Hill trip, and they gave me a good enough deal that I agreed. It's a very comfortable car, it only had about 900 miles on it, and it came with satellite radio (the comedy channels of which I got a lot of use).

That said, it has some drawbacks. The gas mileage could be better, and the fancy chromed trim on the inside is precision-engineered to unerringly reflect sunlight into your eyes regardless of which direction you're going. Actually, it could be cloudy, and it would reflect sunlight into your eyes.

Let me be clear: it could be nighttime, and you would somehow end up with sunlight reflected into your eyes.

The Chapel Hill install was merely average, as far as that goes. All the work was finished, and the customer was made happy, which is really the whole point, but that was all I did (other than find a good comic-book shop and a good sushi restaurant). Nothing extracurricular for me. Didn't even see much of the area in daylight hours.

The trip back went smoothly, with the exception of the moderate snowfall between Asheville and Knoxville, on a twisty mountain road, in the dark, surrounded by 18-wheelers. Whee! Fortunately, I was familiar enough with the Mustang by then that I didn't have any real problems.

Unashamed Plug: you know the comic shop I mentioned? They carried the first three issues of Nextwave, by Warren Ellis. Good, mad, superhero fun with a bunch of C-listers you never thought you'd see again.

Why?

There are some days (most of them, actually), that I do not understand my own brain. Why do I find this so funny?

Random Facts About Chuck Norris

My favorite thus far: "Chuck Norris knows seven ways to kill a dog, four of which involve throwing missiles at it."

In lieu of a real post...

PC210091
Originally uploaded by Boomgawa.

...I'm experimenting with blogging photos from my Flickr account (another damn fine site that I really ought to upload more photos to).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackwyr/