"Beat. People. Up." "Yeah, I got the pyjamas!"

I went to the gym today and decided to try something new. Usually, I start my routine with a five-minute hard aerobic kick-start, something to get the blood flowing and prepare my body for the exercise ahead. Given what you typically find in a gymnasium, my usual being about five minutes on a treadmill or elliptical trainer.

Today I tried something different. I used the punching bags. I bought myself a pair of gloves last week for bagwork. I haven't done this since college, and I wasn't serious about it then as a form of exercise. I am now. After five minutes (timed by picking a song about five minutes long on the iPod) my arms felt like lead and stone and there was an uncomfortable buzzing in my wrist. I stopped after the first minute to tighten the wrist wraps: they really do help. The sweat was already coming off of me, and it felt like I had gotten a much better upper-body start than usual.

I did my usual routine (which I managed to do twice last week, too) including some intense abdominal work, which only helps to show just how bad I am at calorie management: even though my abs are much stronger than ever, it still feels like I'm getting the middle-aged spread. Yech. I added more pushups to the routine to get my pectorals involved. I need to add some legwork, too. But all in all, my upper torso looks great. I'm enjoying this. I've been the proverbial ninety-pound geekling most of my life.

[Explanation of the subject line.]

The inappropriate juxtaposition

At the Bellevue Square mall, there are two "kid pits," big wooden statues of tugboats, padded in all the right places, surrounded by cushy couches and with only two easy egresses, into which parents may shove bored youngsters for a breather of time in the hopes that the kids will burn off energy. Wisely, neither of these pits is anywhere within sight of a cafe'. If they were, the parents might well be tempted to leave the kids there while going to fetch a drink.

However, one of them is dead center in front of Victoria's Secret, which dominates the entire western wall of the mall along that concourse. It's positively surreal to watch these tired parents watching their hyperactive toddlers play under the watchful eyes of leopard-lithe photoshopped-to-gloss nearly naked supermodels.

Musical Realization

Insight is realizing that all the time you were listening to Linkin Park, what you really wanted to hear was Fort Minor.