  Here’s a health tip for all you gym rats that have limited time during the week: start going to the gym on your lunch break. I started going during lunch a few months ago and ever since have had more energy during the day than ever before. Of course, I had to join another gym near where I work for convenience, but it was totally worth the 20 extra bucks a month. One way to look at it is: what would you rather pay, 20 bucks a month or thousands in medical bills when something really serious happens because you let yourself go?
In addition to the workouts, I’ve stopped drinking coffee in the afternoon and, because I’m drinking lemon water as a substitute, haven’t had a craving for junk food before I leave work. I think lemon juice is an appetite suppressor along with aiding in digestion. I try to make the most of my workout, so I don’t half-ass in there and I break a real sweat; as real, or more real, than even after work. Working out at lunch forces you to shorten your routine or, at least, go through it really fast which makes it more intense. But Instead of feeling tired and worn out, you will feel energized for the rest of the day. When you first start going, you’ll probably feel hunger pains right around lunch. This is perfectly normal of course. But you can ignore those; because they will soon subside just as air is hitting your body on the way to the car. Workouts suffer in the evening because, whether you realize it or not, you have less energy. Conversely, between the hours of 12 and 2 is when you’re at peak energy levels; and will have plenty left in the tank for the second half of the work day and beyond. It may feel strange at first breaking your usual routine of sitting in the lunch room eating a cold turkey sandwich with no mayo but you’ll feel pretty fantastic if you can make this your new routine. So while familiarity is comfortable, and part of healthy living actually, it can also be stifling if too inflexible. Since I started exercising at lunch, I've had to modify my work out for brevity. I used to use heavy weights and it would take a while to go through everything because I needed to rest between sets. But now I do a more intense, CrossFit-style regimen without much rest in between. Including: singlehanded strap pulls from the floor with a kettle bell in one hand, pushups, burpees or platform jumps, shoulder presses and, lastly, lat pulldowns on the machine. I do this circuit 3 times and I’m done. It may not sound like much, but if you do it fast enough, you’ll feel the burn. Another benefit of this type of kinetic training over heavy weights is: the pain from the Bursitis in my elbow has subsided somewhat. There’s still swelling that probably won’t go away until I get it drained, but I can deal with an ugly, distended elbow for a while. Okay so maybe you don’t have Bursitis. But if you don’t want to get it, or other injuries, stay clear of really heavy weights. I’m not saying stay away from free weights altogether; just make sure you mix it up. Now when I get home from work, going to the gym is a pleasant option—yes I still go after work sometimes actually. But for those dreading the possibility of having to suck out an hour of your evening, this idea is for you.
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 A Ghost Story is, in a word, excellent. I liked this film. I liked it so much in fact, I'm not going to disrespect it by give away the plot. So they’ll be no spoilers here. There’s plenty of symbolism in this film that needs to be examined further. But without going into any detail, there were a couple scenes, in particular, that jumped out at me as being highly political. While difficult to say exactly what the director meant to imply without asking him, I have my opinion. But I won’t reveal that here because that would be giving away too much of the plot. So see the film and judge it for yourself. Apart from any hidden meaning I thought the film may or may not have had, it evolved rather nicely from a simple love story to something much grander without losing the simplicity of the original story. So even though the film jumps around a little, you still feel the presents, pardon the expression, of a basic story of loss. Ghost Story keeps you focused on the basics of what's important to the film--love, life, loss, the afterlife, and god perhaps without sounding preachy. I was lucky, in that, I had the entire theater to myself since, presumably, everyone else went to see Dunkirk, which I’ve heard is great by the way. So if there was ever a time to cry in a theater, that was the time. Luckily for me, I don't do such things in public even if there's no public to be found. Augh! I guess I was in the mood for something different than a war movie that night and made the last-minute decision at the ticket booth. One thing I’ve realized about love stories is, if done right, it doesn’t take many scenes to give the audience a sense of deep love between characters. The people that go to see these films definitely want to feel that connection. But it takes good direction and acting to give it to them. And I feel the director and actors definitely delivered on that here. It’s a slow moving movie but probably the perfect length at just about an hour and a half so it doesn't feel drawn out and boring. Basically, the film appropriately gives you your sadness fix and then you get to go home. I think anyone that enjoys a good non-traditional love story will like this film.  Since finishing my memoir The Other Side of town, the amount of writing I’ve been doing hasn’t decreased and in fact remains about the same. A word to aspiring authors: the writing doesn’t end after you’ve typed “the end” on the final page of your book. There are blog entries, media kits, countless tweets, Facebook posts just so you can get 10 people to visit your website or Amazon page. To date I’ve probably written 5 bios and maybe 4 book summaries to this end.
While writing one of my many book summaries, it occurred to me that, to the kids today, the 80’s were like the 50’s were to my generation. The Channel you watch when You Only have basic cable A couple days ago I turned on the television and an episode of The A-Team was on TV Land. Watching that show, I felt really old because the show now felt really old—the colors looked dull and the script felt canned in comparison with modern TV dramas. My grandmother used to watch The A-Team with me as a kid. But she didn’t seem to mind the repetitive nature of the show and, coming from black and white I suppose, any color at all was probably a vast improvement. The fact that my grandmother also accepted the fact that thousands of rounds of ammunition were being fired but no one was being killed shows her ability to suspend disbelief. The Show You Watch When you've lost the Remote After the A-Team was over, I started to watch Bonanza next just to see how a 1950's show stacked up. I’ll be honest, and except for it being a western, the two shows felt equally old. Bonanza did have better writing than the A-team, I’ll admit. But even with its superior plot and dialog, I doubt I would have been able to sit through a whole episode as kid—the pace of the old western would have been far too slow for my young self I reckon. No One Wants to Read a List of My Favorite Shows In the book, I edited out any and all mention of television shows I used to watch because, in reality, who the hell wants to read about that stuff anyway? But thinking about it now, I believe the 80’s ushered in a whole new wave of empowered women on television after noticing how men started looking particularly stupid just as women’s station seemed to be markedly improved. Back then Married with Children was the only show featuring a bumbling husband while today it’s every commercial and sitcom that’s broadcasted. Wow! Now I'm really dating myself. I still laugh at how, in his defeated state, Al Bundy gave money to the dog. I think some of my fondest memories of television were when Rascals Comedy Hour aired on cable. I was pretty young, but my father basically looked the other way and let me watch even while Dice and Kinison cursed up a storm. Comedy has definitely changed as well. And I doubt for the better either. Just ask Chris Rock how many college campuses he plays now verses how many he used to play. And Rock is considered a contemporary too! I remember watching Bob Nelson for the first time and thinking his act depicting a football team was hilarious. I doubt comedians can do anything like that act anymore. Or if they did, perhaps no one would laugh. |
AuthorWilliam R. Pope is a new, indie author. Coming from computer programming and now releasing his first novel Archives
March 2018
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