Fitness & mental health, plus my first "Spinning" class

I know that regular exercise is good for my mental health, but I always forget what a huge difference it makes until I slack off for a while and then start up again. During the last couple weeks of August, I was walking and stretching, but not really getting good heart-pounding cardio exercise for very long. I was pretty freaking moody, too. Since going back to the gym starting last Saturday, my general energy and mood has bee much improved.

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Memo to self: If you make time for intense cardio workouts at least a couple times a week, you will feel SO MUCH BETTER!

What I've been Watching

They've been cracking down on personal use of the Internet here at work, so I'm trying to do multiple posts on my break...

TV on DVD
Smallville Season 3 – I’m really enjoying it. Tom Welling who plays Clarke Kent is so cute in a boyish way; I want to pinch his cheeks. I really like the development of Lex this season. I also like that they humanized his father Lionel, a bit, too, made him less of a cardboard cutout villain. It’s more tragic that he’s such a fucker when you know he wasn’t always that way 24/7.

Buffy Season 3 – Good stuff, still enjoying it.

Weeds Season 1 – Highly, highly enjoyable. I like the cliff-hangers at the end of most of the episodes. I’m looking forward to Season 2.

News Radio Season 4 – Good as always, but maybe not as good as Seasons 2 and 3. The Matthew’s been fired shtick got old. I remember feeling that way the first time around when I watched this on network TV.

Red Dwarf Season 5 – We’re still having fun with the series. There are huge logic holes when it comes to what holograms can and can’t do and their motivations, but this is a pretty ridiculous show to begin with…

Movies, etc.:
Frida – This was good but intense. I cried through last 30 minutes of it.. I read her biography in my early 20s, and the movie seemed faithful to the spirt of her story, if not accurate in a detail-by-detail sort of way. And Alfred Molina was a GREAT choice for Diego.

The Core – Silly, but watchable. It had a lot of actors I enjoy in it, so I wanted it to be better. I also wondered about the science. I can pick apart big boo-boos in physics and biology and space science in movies, but I’m less sure about the earth science in this movie. I did really feel the depiction of big crystals and geodes in earth’s mantle was pretty hokey.

Swingers – It was good, but not as good as I wanted it to be. It was fascinating as an examination of “men’s mysteries,” though. It was fun to see how YOUNG Vince Vaughn looked- it was made in 2006, so he’s changed a bit.

Renaissance – I liked it. J. wasn’t impressed, but I thought it was something at least a little fresh in terms of an animated futuristic dystopia. The animation was a bit like Sin City’s, but a little different. Watch it, and tell me what you think.

Office Space – This move is so good, better than I remember, even. I think years of office politics have made it seem that much more relevant than when I first watched it. And I love Stephen Root. I’d watch just about anything he’s in.

John Waters: This Filthy World – I loved it. It’s a bit of stand-up, a bit of reminiscences about his friendship with Divine and the making of his various movies. If you like Waters, you’ll like this. If he offends and disgusts you, you’re not going to like it.