Under a Gibbous Moon

The Imperial March, a classic for the ages. Of course, upon reaching such legendary status, many others have taken a shot at rendering it.

On the steel drums (via Walyou):

Metallica has given it a shot:

Apparently the British Crown still has imperial ambition:

And for are grand finale, a more traditional orchestra, led by the Dark Lord of the Sith himself:

This weekend I competed in this years ADFPF National Championships. It was held in the university rec center in Columbia, Missouri. It was a nice facility with plenty of room for spectators. The meet was run fairly quickly and as smoothly as can be expected for a meet with about 70 lifters. Everybody put in a lot of work to pull this off and I thank them for their efforts.

The warm-up room was the rec center’s weight room, so it was very well supplied. I competed in the equipped division which is single-ply. I was in the 145 kg division and weighed in at 142 kg.

Squats

1st- 305 kg -good 673 lbs
2nd-325 kg -good 717 lbs
3rd- 340 kg -good 750 lbs

Squats went well and were pretty fast and relatively easy. For some reason, all three felt like 8 tons to unrack but once I did that it felt normal. I had more in me, but it was a 20 kg meet pr, so I can’t complain.

I want to extend a special thank-you to Tayler Epperson for his help with my squat suit.

Bench

1st- 220 kg -good 485 lbs
2nd-250 kg -bad 551 lbs
3rd- 250 kg -bad 551 lbs

I have been having a little trouble with my bench for a while and it is really been hard to pull that piece in on meet day. I lowered my anticipated opener 10 kg to secure my squat. I screwed up my technique twice for my 2nd and 3rd. First time I moved too high too fast and started to lose it towards my face. Next time I over compensated and didn’t move up at all initially and I started to lose it toward my belly but pulled it back, but by then I stalled half way up. Done this weight many times in the gym without a hitch, but that’s how things go.

I want to put out a special thank-you to Tim Piper for doing my hand-offs and helping me to switch shirts. You did a fantastic job.

Deadlift

1st- 300 kg -good 661 lbs
2nd-320 kg -good 705 lbs
3rd- 330 kg -good 727 lbs

The 3rd was a 5 kg meet pr. It went up surprisingly fast for the beating I took on squats already. I probably could have gotten 5 kg more, but a pr is a pr. Tore both hands too. I don’t deadlift in training, so it’s a little much for them.

Total 890 kg or 1,963 lbs. Also a meet pr. I was really gunning for 2,000+ lbs that day, but my bench failure cost me that. I ended up getting 1st in my weight class and was just edged out for the overall by formula. Bench cost me that too. Next time. Total is moving up, but I have not got a 500+ bench in at a meet in almost a year and a half and that really burns me.

In yet another case of a scientist with too much time on his hands, and engineering professor rolled them bones some 144,000 times. He found that will roll a one approximately thirty percent of the time (instead of sixteen percent for true randomness.)

I think anyone who’s playing a roleplaying game for any length of time has discovered this little quirk. That’s why thieves with short swords always die horrible deaths and Star Wars D6 system was able to roll up a wookie who couldn’t break a stormtroopers neck.

Is building this stroller.

There’s nothing like dominating the playground in your very own AT-AT.

Best. Graduation. Cake. Ever.

In honor of this cake, all further graduation parties are canceled.