Month: November 2007

CTA At Work… Not

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On Saturday morning I was out meeting some friends for lunch and we walked by Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a housewarming gift. Out front of the building at State and Grand was a CTA truck parked halfway up on the sidewalk, with its usual lack of respect for the city or pedestrians.

And why barge up on the curb and park your truck? To take a nap, of course. This hard at work CTA employee was sleeping on the bench in the Bed Bath and Beyond lobby… it wasn’t just a quick nap, either – he was down there when we went upstairs, selected our gift, paid for it, and came back down. In this picture you can see the reflection of his truck on the corner – usually the glare from store glass hurts the photo but in this rare case it worked in my favor.

Cross Posted at LITGM

Reading the 2nd Amendment

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The meaning of words evolves over the centuries. This evolution causes confusion when contemporary readers try to understand the original meaning of old writing.

The verb “resent” for example, once meant to express emotion, good or bad, in response to the actions of others. In the 17th Century, a person might write honestly to a friend, “I deeply resent the wonderful box of chocolates you sent me.” A modern reader could easily misunderstand the meaning of “resent” in that sentence and believe that the writer felt angry at his friend.[1]

I think this same problem bedevils contemporary discussions of the 2nd Amendment. The meaning of key words and phrases in the passage evolved over the last two centuries. Applying modern definitions of these words obscures the original clear meaning of the amendment.

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ChicagoBoyz Physical Fitness Series, Continued…

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I have mentioned before that my primary method of staying in shape (and hobby) is Muay Thai kickboxing. I picked it up originally to compliment my biking, but it has pretty much taken over my life and everything I do now compliments my Muay Thai.

After our Muay Thai lessons at the gym, we have always done conditioning, whether it be running outside, ab work, cardio kicks, pushups, or a combination of all of the above. As of late, we have been doing circuits. They look something like this.




Of course the guy in the video is a professional, training for a professional fight. Our circuits are not as long and not as many (in the video, you are supposed to do each exercise for one minute, then go on to the next exercise for a total of a five minute circuit and then to 2-5 circuits), but the idea is the same. Different exercises to the point of exhaustion, short rest, then do it all over again. It almost sounds something like what Zenpundit posted the other day. Maybe this is a fad. I like it though. And after 45 minutes of Muay Thai training, and then doing several circuits, I guarantee you that you will get in shape. I don’t know much about Crossfit, but from the way Zen was describing what was going on in his gym, it seems like perhaps it is an extreme form of circuit training.