IntenseDebate - Rillquiet

4 years ago @ Clever Manka - Friday Open Thread · 0 replies · +3 points

Honestly, at some level I had decided I probably wouldn't ever get there--long limbs are the enemy of bodyweight stuff. I was doing assisted work--straight pull-ups, negatives, and 10-second hangs at the bottom, halfway, and top positions--plus lat pull-downs, but always around 50 pounds less than I weigh. But the other night I tried it from the bar, and suddenly, like a magic trick, getting off the ground wasn't that difficult. Keep trying!

4 years ago @ Clever Manka - Friday Open Thread · 0 replies · +2 points

Planning for big travel is like giving them rock sugar; they go bonkers.

4 years ago @ Clever Manka - Friday Open Thread · 0 replies · +2 points

It's been in my mind for about five years, but in the last year I've been working on it with more focused intent. And lo! Apparently the secrets are lifting heavy regularly and not getting sidelined by injury for too long.

4 years ago @ Clever Manka - Friday Open Thread · 0 replies · +5 points

WE SMRT.

4 years ago @ Clever Manka - Friday Open Thread · 2 replies · +4 points

Bodyweight stuff should not be so difficult!

4 years ago @ Clever Manka - Friday Open Thread · 11 replies · +12 points

If it hadn't been a week of subduing the Anxiety Raccoons with a figurative broom (::scrabble scrabble:: what if you lose your meds in Argentina, what if you have a shitty time, what if you guys miss the flights and it's all your faaault ::scritter scrabble::), I would be over the moon with having found that I can do at least 90% of a strict pull-up. So far I've tried it only after full lifting workouts, so tomorrow I'm going to test it after just a warmup and see whether I can fully get my chin over the bar. I know I can get going from a dead hang, which always seemed like the hard part, so even if I can't quite make it, the progress toward a goal I've had for actual years feels unreal.

4 years ago @ Clever Manka - Thursday Link Dump · 1 reply · +4 points

The pressure to perform romantic gratitude was what drove me away from V-Day; you're not alone on that front. Galentine's Day, now, that I actually do like, in part because it hasn't yet ossified into a set of roses/chocolate/restaurant/lingerie rituals and offers more scope for individuality. (NB: Hitting a dive bar on Valentine's is its own delight. A beer, a burger, a bartender facing a quiet crowd? Pretty great.)

4 years ago @ Clever Manka - Thursday Link Dump · 2 replies · +3 points

Because we're heading fast (ha) into Lent, here's a very, very good recipe for blini, traditionally made and eaten during Carnival week. It looks complicated but isn't; the main thing is to budget time for the different rises and to remember that the first one will always be a failure.

Blini are wonderfully unhealthy, lush with butter and soft in the mouth, and they should be served with dishes of chopped hard-boiled eggs, finely minced green onion, smoked herring, smoked salmon, caviar, tart fruit preserves, sour cream, and melted butter, for the diner to combine on each blin as desired. Icy vodka is a traditional pairing, but black tea or mineral water can also help cushion the shock to a body not expecting all of that cholesterol at once.

4 years ago @ Clever Manka - Mid-week check-in · 0 replies · +2 points

You're right, Texas covers a multitude of sins! Murderdancing barely counts as a misdemeanor there unless it's depraved and/or indifferent (which are things you might hear about tango in some circles, uh oh).

4 years ago @ Clever Manka - Mid-week check-in · 1 reply · +5 points

There's a real "s/he who hesitates is lost" aspect to partner dance! In regular life I have no problem communicating that I expect to be given the space I'm moving toward, but so much of the first few weeks/months/years of dancing involved bumping into people and second-guessing myself that I am still struggling to remember to use the Charlize Theron murderwalk on the floor. Add precarious (adorable!) heels, and it's been a journey.

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