Mimetic Muscles: The Muscles of Expression

          Boy, not two minutes after the Laker’s win a legitimate championship does the NBA head in the same corny rout. The rout, of not sticking it out with your team and trying again and again until you win. And this might even be worse then what Boston did in 2008. Its not like the Cavs were a struggling team, they won 66 games for gods sake. All they had to do is make small adjustments to get over the fucking hump. But instead they enlist the greatest big man in NBA history. How honorable is that? Well of course the game is not about honor anymore, but more about $$$. Evident is this in the ESPN clip below, where the only thing that seems of importance is the future $$$ of the Cavs and not so much, how this will take away from Lebrons legend. I thought Lebron was better then this. Hasn’t everyone learned that winning a championship with shaq is like not winning one at all. Look at the respect Kobe DIDN’T(!) get years after he won. And what has Dwanye Wade done since he won it with Shaq on his side in 2006? If the Cavs do win it (most likely they will) this will do nothing good for Lebrons legend as a future champion. Well theres always the chance that Lebron doesn’t give a fuck. This is the same man that has made it a goal to be the first Athlete billionaire (Lebron wants to be rich ). And the same man who is willing to leave a good thing in Cleavland to go to New York because, “New York is a bigger market”. What the Fuck!? I miss the days when athletes wouldn’t talk about their financial situations. I have no problem with endorsements, but I’d rather the endorsements speak for themselves, instead of the athletes openly advertising that this is the reason they play, or that they need a certain market to continue playing somewhere. There are people that are going to tell me that this is just the way things are, but that doesn’t make it right and doesn’t mean that I have to accept it. I just know that Lebron winning a championship with Shaq wouldn’t be even close as satisfying, if he would have done it with the team he built. You’d think that with Lebron having so much $, he’d prioritize his life with accomplishing a principle goal instead of making more money. You know like those rich guys who have so much money, so they attempt to climb mount Everest. Thats very honorable, because these guys cant get satisfaction from the money, so they seek it in the principle goal of concuring nature.

          So many thoughts, feelings and emotions go through me when I watch this documentary. Its such inspiring work that it evokes my passion and motivation. Sometimes its hard to express to others what art is and means to you. I really respect when a piece of work is so abstract but the artist can articulate its meaning in the most eloquent way possible.
          To me its wasn’t just tire tracks of paint that Robin Rhode and the BMW team were recording, its was more like expression. Its just wouldn’t be art if Robin couldn’t express what he felt as he was doing it.
          I really appreciate how engaging the film is. An incredible job was done with the editing and sound track of the video. I want you guys to really pay attention to the detail in this film. Another thing I really appreciate is the fact that Robin never referred to the car even though this was an advertisement project for BMW. Instead he focused on the art project. The promotion of the car is a result of the piece of art work.
          To me it was just the 4 wheels of the car, the canvas, the driver and finally the painter.

Visit Expression of Joy

          Ive had this plan for a little while. I just thought it would be interesting to interview my son at an age when all he does is talk. I guess its the same concept as the Bill Cosby show; Kids say the darndest things. Instead the intentions are to simply get to know him rather then make fun of him.
          In case you were wondering where the title came from, my wife was playing with him and he wanted to fight, she told him that shes a lover and not a fighter. He then insisted that if that were the case, then he was a fighter. Since then he’s been introducing himself as “Fighter” as he did in the beginning of the video. I feel that he would like to legally change his name to Fighter since he hasn’t referred to himself as Claudio since. Claudio is 4 years old in this video.

Look forward to more videos from Little Claudio in the future.

          Me and my brother always brag that we were witnesses to the tale end of the NBA’s glory years. The days when players would drive to the basket and get knocked on their ass without a player being suspended. Or the days when a single team would play together for years and years before they won a championship, instead of buying allstars and winning it in their 1st year. These are some of the ills that have plagued the NBA since Michael Jordan retired from the Chicago bulls back in 1999. For the exception of the Detroit Pistons who won it back in 2004, I really didn’t feel the special feeling watching a basketball team win it all. The Spurs were good and did deserve it, but they lacked any excitement necessary to keep people talking about them. They had peppered wins in 1999, 2003, 2005 & 2007 The heat shipped Shaq over from L.A. to win it in 2006, and thats cheating, while the Celtics paid for theirs in 2008 buy adding 2 mega all stars, Keven Garnett and Ray Allen to an already established mega allstar in Paul Pierce. And how about that fake ass celebration Paul Pierce performed when they won it? You can tell that even he knew it wasn’t satisfying to win it the way he did. The 3 peat Laker’s had Shaq who by the way was shipped from Orlando to win it in 2000, 2001 & 2002. Its been an ugly decade for the NBA. Many rule changes have resulted in very pussy playing, lots of whining and fake hearts.
          I must admit that when Kobe Bryant entered the league, I was an automatic hater. This was all because I was very protective of Michael Jordan, and I didn’t appreciate some of these young players who hadn’t accomplished anything but were already being compared to MJ. Kobe was Number 1. I feel that a player must earn everything he gets. Early Kobe had already earned comparisons to MJ and hadn’t even won his 1st ball game. Kobe was a victim to a desperate mother who had lost their child and desperately tried to replace him. He was caught up in the propaganda of it all, and was brainwashed by it. Kobe needed to find himself and that meant winning without Shaq.
          The journey to bring the NBA back to the days of the 80′s and 90′s when top players like, Reggie Miller, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon etc. would stick around almost their whole career just for a chance to win it, began.
          Shaq left the Laker’s after the 2004 NBA finals lost to the Detroit Pistons. Surprisingly enough Phil Jackson did not abandon the laker’s. Without Shaq it would be a touch 3 years, where they didn’t make the playoffs 1 year and didn’t make it out the 1st round in 2 years.
          I learned to respect Kobe in his 4th year of separation. This is when he grew up. He took the Laker’s to the finals where they lost in 6 to the Boston Celtics. Understand how tough it is to be so close and have to wait another 355 days for that chance again. That is what defines a champion. Not a team who loses and immediately goes off to make trades and buy players. A team who sticks with it, who believes in each other. All this cliché shit is true for Kobe and his Laker’s. This man is a real champion and finally today, June 14th 2009, he deserves to be compared to Michael Jordan.
          Today the 2009 L.A. Lakers made The NBA great again. Thank you. 
                                   
Talent with no will is just endorsment deals. But with it, its the stuff of legends.         -Claudio Abreu

I couldn’t believe it my self when I 1st stepped on the Wii Fit balance board back in mid 2008 and it categorized me as being obese. I was shocked. My impression of an obese person was always those people you see on T.V. laid out on their bed weighing up to 600 lbs. For me this has always been embarrassing and although I would freely share this fact, I was never happy about it. A great proudness washed over me on June 10th 2009 when I crossed over from being Obese to Over weight. I hope never to cross that border again.


My weight on May 13th 2009 was: 248.0 lbs
My weight on June 11th 2009 is: 225.5 lbs

          No, not the champion, that Kanye song would be too specific to one person. The glory is the single breath of air we all took in that room at exactly the same time. There we were all convinced that this was glorious. Without the alcohol and with out the drugs, that a group of young adults could feel the genuine high of Fun. The drug is Glory. A man who entered the tournament on April 4th 2009 and embarrassed the entire competition by not losing a single battle (not even in practice!), was responsible for the climatic response from everyone at once, when David finally beat him. Coffie. It is amazing that Coffie could have put up such an inspiring performance on April 4th 2009, but on June 6th 2009 he couldn’t pay to have a loyalist or lobbyist. I believe that Coffie had a hard time getting any company to endorse him (although I read that el mundo came close to signing with him) because of the opposition he had stacked in those 2 months. And all this leading up to the 4 low punches and single sweep that David delivered with Guile to finish the battle that took the air out of the room. Yes David was glorious, but we all shared in it with that single breath we took, and we didn’t even have to pass it around.
*Inspired by Yasser and my mom Senovia

That was my favorite part of the day and I continuously watch that end scene on my PSP. I love it.
Congratulations to Coffie and David
Thanks to Merline my wife for being an amazing host, Howard for helping with the delicious food, Manny for tracking the battle wins/loses, Omar for watching the grill when I couldn’t and Emily for the great camera work.
Shout out to Wilmer and Jehan who couldn’t be there, because the next day they welcomed into the world a beautiful baby girl, Farrah.
David and Emily, lets make it happen in your crib in August.

          Sometime during the last week of April 2009, I injured the lumbar section of my back (Lower Back), while fooling around. It turned out that 248 LBS (my weight at the time), was absorbed by my lower back. For 3 days I stayed home and even had to call out from work. For me this was very scary, me being such an active guy. Regardless that my stubbornness didn’t allow me to see a doctor, I still took the injury very seriously. It took me 2 weeks to fully recover, and that is when I made the decision to lose weight. I didn’t buy a book, I didn’t rent a DVD, I didn’t look it up online and I didn’t look for much advice. Instead I analyzed my life style and created a daily routine that could contribute to gradual weight lost for me. It was easy, if I ate zebra cakes, I no longer did. If I ate dinner early (lets say 4pm – 5pm) I didn’t visit the chicken spot later when I got hungry again. I replaced my Favorite breakfast and lunch foods with fruits. For dinner I ate what ever I wanted. At first it was hard, but like anything, I adjusted and so it became routine. Every week I would shrink my dinner portions. Instead of 5 chicken wings with fried rice, I ordered 4 chicken wings with French fries and then 3 chicken wings with French fries. Where I’d usually cook 4 chicken breast with rice and beans I now cook only 2 chicken breast. But what helped the most was when I went to office depot and purchased a pocket calender in order to track my weight daily. For me, being able to see my weight fluctuate was motivational. Another important action I added to my routine was the exclusion of any soda or juice (this was very hard for me), I only drank and still only drink water. And then of course there is Nintendo’s Wii Fit. Not only do I rely on Wii Fit as my scale but it also served as my daily activity provider. Every other day I jump on the Wii balance board and burn non stop calories for 30 minutes. All this along with the fact that I have a fast metabolism, I believe contributed to the fact that between May 13th 2009 and June 9th 2009 I have lost 21 lbs.

Basically I cut out all the bull shit I eat and exercised for 30 minutes every other day.

In short, maybe we shouldn’t be relying on outside influences when it comes to the simple things we can do to make ourselves healthier. We should do a better job reading the signals that our body gives us.
Nobody knows your body like you do.
What do you think?

My weight on May 13th 2009 was: 248.0 lbs
My weight on June 9th 2009 is: 227.1 lbs