One week of P90X workout done. I’m sore in a few areas, and there’re no visual results yet, but I feel good.

I found the Plyometrics (jumping) the hardest to do. I think I injured my inner thighs with this workout. They were too sore for longer than I would expect for just working them hard. But they got better.

I found Yoga X the most aggravating to do. Not that it’s difficult to do, (though it’s as hard as most of the other workouts), but it’s impossible to keep my eyes on the TV while going through the various poses. There’s no one starting position where your head doesn’t get turned away from the TV screen at some point — sometimes for a long time, through several more motions.

The whole regimen is enjoyable, in a tiring, sweating, sore kind of way. I’ve felt much better after each workout than I felt before starting. Last night started my second week (of 13 total), and I was really looking forward to the Chest & Back and Ab Ripper X workouts, especially after the simple X Stretch workout ending the first week.

It’s funny, in a weird way, how after a hard workout, watching very fit and ripped/buff people on the screen, when I take off my shirt to get in the shower afterward, I’m surprised to not see a big difference in my body. I feel like I should already have the tone and muscular shape, and it’s disappointing to see the regular old me in the mirror. But I’ll get there.

I’ve finally gotten my new diet regimen mostly figured out — I’ve stocked up on appropriate food, and I’m making better choices. Between loving the workouts, and accepting the diet, I have strong hopes for the next 12 weeks.

Bullgrit

1957 Kia

I don’t have a problem with the concept of Hollywood updating an older film. Some movie stories are good enough to be timeless, but they just need an update for the current culture. The Karate Kid is one such movie story.

I saw The Karate Kid in the theaters in 1984, when I was a high school teenager, and I firmly liked the film. It became part of the American culture at the time. But looking back at it now, the presentation is a bit dated.

The story can still resonate with kids today; it just needs modern actors and modern scenery. The script could almost be reused as is, but some tweaking for modern culture would help it. This is why I think the idea of a new production of The Karate Kid is a good idea.

But then I saw the trailer:

A couple of things jump out at me:

First, why the big difference in the story? Why a completely different story? The original script and story didn’t need to be scrapped.

1984 move is to another American city. 2010 move is to China? 1984 Daniel was 16 years old. 2010 Dre is 12 years old? These drastically change the mood of the story.

If a story is good enough to be retold, isn’t it good enough to be retold without being completely rewritten? If they’re going to tell a totally different story, why reuse the old name?

The move to China introduces two oddities:

One: Will the movie be subtitled, (I doubt it), or will everyone conveniently speak English for us, (I expect so).

Two: Chinese martial arts is not Karate. It’s Kung Fu, (as said in the trailer). Calling this film “The Karate Kid” is like naming a movie “The Baseball Kid” and having it be about cricket.

So, they invoke the name of a classic film, but then rewrite the script in such a way that it is only very vaguely related. Why bother presenting it as a “remake”? How about just calling it, “The Kung Fu Kid”? (Upon deeper reading about this film, it seems it will be titled The Kung Fu Kid in other countries.)

By reusing the original name, the producers seem to expect to bring in people who liked the original (a demographic old enough to remember the original). But anyone familiar enough with the original to be drawn to a remake will immediately see (from the trailer) that this isn’t a remake at all. People will either like it or dislike it regardless of their feelings for the original, because this is essentially a whole new movie.

This is like the Starship Troopers movie. For some reason, the producers wanted to associate the film with the name of a great novel, but then they made the movie in such a way that the story had no relationship to its namesake. And anyone who would be interested in the movie because of the novel would see immediately that it wasn’t related to the novel at all, (and would probably be pissed, as I was). Anyone who didn’t know of the novel wouldn’t care that the film pretended to tie in to it.

Too often, Hollywood thinking and marketing just makes no sense whatsoever.

Bullgrit

This weekend, while Calfgrit5 was in his room taking his nap after lunch, I went into the office to fiddle around. While there, I saw out the front window, Calfgrit9 was sitting in the grass of the front yard.

His zip-up sweater was off and lying in a pile on the grass next to him, a plastic hoe (that he uses as a sword and a rifle) was in the grass on the other side of him, and he had some small toy in his hand. He was just sitting there, sort of staring off into space. He’d shift or move occasionally, but he seemed deep in thought more than playing with his toy.

I watched him for a minute or two, wondering what he was thinking. I got a little worried; I thought maybe there was something troubling on his mind. So I left the office and went downstairs to put on my shoes to go outside.

I walked up to him, “Hey buddy.”

“Hey Dad.”

I plopped down in the grass in front of him. “Whatcha thinking about?”

He didn’t hesitate, but stated, “About how some animals are pretty smart. They make their own homes, they form groups, they communicate. It’s like they’re as smart as we are.”

“Yeah,” I said. I totally didn’t expect that to be his thoughts. Here I was, worrying that he was bothered by something, and really he was just thinking intelligent concepts.

We chatted about animal reasoning and instincts for a few minutes, and then he wanted to show me an ant mound he had found over in the common area next to our lot. He had experimented with the ants by covering the exit holes with leaves and rocks, to see how they dealt with it, how they’d work around the obstacles.

After showing me his experiment, we walked around to the back yard, and our conversation wandered to what we’d do in the yard when the weather warmed up with spring.

I was relieved that he hadn’t been sitting in the yard fretting about something. I was rather impressed that he could just sit peacefully and think. That’s something I like to do sometimes. It’s something that I really don’t get a chance to do very often, anymore. Maybe next time I won’t disturb him.

Bullgrit