Went and had a glass of (unsweetened) tea with Gordon, the writer I am editing.  Unbelievable how much alike we are, in so many ways. Talked for a couple of hours, about all kinds of things.  He doesn't drink anymore, and I'm trying to lose weight and get in shape, so tea it was.

After that, I went to Wasena Park and ran THREE POINT FOUR MILES!  I've discovered that my new MO in running is to tell myself I'm just going to go, say, 2 miles, yeh that'll be good, not feeling strong tonight, yeh, two miles, then I get to 2 miles and say, well, maybe a couple of more tenths, then next thing you know, I'm at my goal.  After the run, I went back and ran the steps near Betsy's house.  5 times, 47 steps each time.  Takes me a tad over 30 seconds up, then a little more back down, each time.  I'm just beat after that, but took a long, brisk walk with Betsy to the Fresh Market. Got some sushi.  Sushi is just a nice, cool place to lay your wasabi.  Mmmm.

Got home and crashed. Read my book for a bit.  I'm reading, rereading really, The Eclipse of Darwinism, by historian of science Peter Bowler.  Interesting story that is not well known.  After Darwin published the Origin in 1859, by 1870, not only was the idea of evolution completely accepted by the scientific community, but natural selection as the main mechanism was accepted.  Darwinism was ascendant. Then over the next two decades, an assault on Darwinism (meaning the natural selection mechanism) started, and knocked Darwinism from its perch.  By the turn of the century, Darwinism was no longer accepted by the scientific community.  For many reasons.  Julian Huxley called it "the eclipse of Darwinism."  Bowler explores the story, including the main arguments against Darwinism.  (Evolution, he notes, was still accepted, just not Darwin's mechanism.  And it was Darwin himself who converted the scientific community.  Chambers had published a book earlier that was pro-evolution, but from more of an 'internal mechanism' stance.)
The thing that interests me, or one of them, is that there was an argument from PHYSICS that Darwinism HAD to be false.  Lord Kelvin, one of the leading physicists at the time, did calculations and found that the age of the earth wasn't nearly enough to allow for the kind of time even Darwin specified he needed for evolution. This was an argument by the top physicist, using a science that at the time was vastly more secure than biology.  Turns out, we know now Kelvin didn't know about radiation from the sun, and that fact would have changed his calculations, and did, but it wasn't known for some time after that.  But at the time, it was THE BEST SCIENCE. And it said, DARWINISM IS FALSE.  That's just a cool historical situation.  To quote my favorite movie, Cool Hand Luke, "Sometimes nothin' (in this case, a 'false' theory) can be a pretty cool hand."

Got up this morning, Saturday morning, and went to work out at the House of Strength.  I had written Ryan the other day, the owner, and asked if there was anything I could do for him, any work I could perform, in exchange for a workout or two.  He asked me to give him a couple of days to think, and last night he let me know he had two projects, each worth two workouts.  I went to the gym at 9, had a great workout, and got the info for doing the first project.  The workout was cool.  Ryan designs a workout and everyone jsut does it, no questions.  Today we did 9 sets of 3 reps of benchpress, but with elastic bands attached from, basically, the floor to the weight bar.  So it is harder at the top of your rep, and wants to pull back in as you reach the top.  Makes it much tougher.  Mark and I did 45 lbs on each side, or 135 total.  Nice.  Then we did military presses, 95 lbs., ten times, 3 sets.  And same weight, sets, reps of bent over rows.  And 3 sets of 10 sit ups, from completely prone to sitting up, with a 25 lb weight over our heads.

Finally, we finished up with the following. Do ONE pushup, but not a complete pushup, but just  from the bottom of the movement to half way up.  Puts more emphasis on triceps.  Then do TEN burpees--a hard movement that involves going from a standing position, to quickly down in a pushup position, then standing up quickly by bringing one's feet toward one's hands, then leaping in the air, straight up, then back down, etc.  Next round, do TWO pushups and 9 burpees, then 3 and 9, etc., till you're done.  Unfortunately, the burpee movement was hurting my knee, so I just did the pushups (after ten, then 9, then 8 burpees).  Glad I did.  Protecting my knees is first priority.

Ate a couple of eggs, a piece of grilled chicken breast.  And tea, unsweetened.

If this doesn't get me in shape, nothing will.

Darn, just weighed in at 219. That's only 1 lb down from last time, nearly two weeks ago.  Not good enough. Still, it's the right direction.  Less beer, more water/tea.  Get some stevia instead of the sugar in morning coffee.