Warning: Pure Fluff Post

This post offers no intellectual insight, no deep thoughts, nothing. Not that I ever promised any of that in my blog in the first place. This post returns my blog to its roots of fluff and shit talk.

Sigh. There's a comic book waiting for me at home. I started reading it at the CVS while waiting for a prescription, but they were quicker than I had expected and I had to leave. When I got home, life took over and I never got to finish it. I've been waiting two months for the second issue of Samurai: Heaven and Earth to come out. I finally get it, and now I have to wait some more. I did get to see that Shiro has a big koi tattoo on his back, and he and Yoshiko got it on in a big wooden tub. Good for them.

This is one of the best drawn comics I've read. Set in the early 18th century, it's about a samurai Shiro and his lady love Yoshiko. Shiro's army is defeated and he is the only survivor. Yoshiko is taken as a spoil of war, Shiro travels all over the world to find her. There's swords, swashbuckling, pirates, Samurai, blood, gore, romance, people in cool garb, handsome samurai with big tattoos: pure fantasy fun. It's a little predictable, damsel in distress type stuff (Yoshiko gets sold to one brutish bastard after another. I'm hoping she'll kill one of them eventually and go find Shiro for a change). But that's okay, because the artwork is just so awesome. This story begs for a happy ending, and we could all use a happy ending from time to time. And the hero is very well drawn.

I'm hot for a comic book character. Sigh.

My first post about S: H&E.
IGN review.
My sentiments exactly, although I don't think the author emphasized the hotness of Shiro quite enough.
Another Reviewer liked the story more than I did. Still it's all abou the art.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good : My mom had the cardiac catheterization done, and everything went well.
The Bad (but not so bad): She does have some blockage in her arteries, but she won't need really bypass surgery, or an angioplasty, just drugs. She said she's also going to work harder at keeping her blood pressure down, and will try to lose some weight. Good for mom.
I just noticed I look just like my mom in the picture to the left. Same facial expression and everything... Not a bad thing, just an observation.
The Ugly: Speaking of weight loss and exercise (okay, I didn't talk about exercise yet, but I saw a theme and I ran with it), I noticed some very interesting dynamics in the Nautilus Room at the Y yesterday. There appears to be a self segregation between the men and the women. If there are more men in the weight room, the women all go do the cardio machines, and vice versa. I never really noticed this until yesterday when I was doing the Nautilus machines and there were two men (among many men, mostly regulars) there who were grunting really loudly. Loud enough for me to crank up the iPod (Grateful Dead, "Tennessee Jed" to start). It was distracting. I just wanted to yell "get a freakin' room!" So you can imagine what it sounded like, if you're not one to hang out in fitness centers. The husband tells me this is a fairly common thing, and on the list of rules in the free weight room it says something like "No Loud Grunting". I also looked around to see if there was anyone else with a visible WTF or amused look on his face. Nope, just me, and I was the only woman there. Then I looked into the cardio room, and there was not a single man in there. I wasn't about to change my workout and join the herd, so I just tried to ignore the grunters, and then did a quickie cardio. (Later that night I had a funny dream about self segregation, which would only really be funny to someone else in the dream, so I won't share. Sorry.)
I am now fascinated with this phenomenon. I've never really heard women grunt like that while working out. I don't grunt loudly while working out, even when I up my weight level. I made crazy primal grunty sounds when I was giving birth to my kids, but can we really equate birthing a baby to lifting weights? I'm not convinced that the workout grunting is necessary. Amusing and somewhat disturbing, perhaps, but not necessary. There's a time and place for grunting, and working out in a public place may not be it. I don't think my being the only woman in the weight room had any impact on the volume or frequency of the grunting, as no other men joined in. Now that would have been really odd and distrubing. I would have gone to the cardio room, and joined the ladies if I suddenly found myself in a room full of loudly grunting, sweaty, middle aged (and a few adolescent) men. I shudder to think.

Anyone out there, please share. What's the workout grunt all about?
Here's more information about No Grunting Policies in gyms. I really feel bad for the guy who was kicked out of the gym for grunting. OTOH, the sign said "No Grunting".