Music for the reluctant studyer

via 8tracks.com

Sweet 2+ hours of ambient music - turn on in another tab while you surf or write - lovely.

Graceful feats of strength

While some of us sit on the couch and watch TV or surf the web, others are developing their physicality to its fullest extent. Everyone featured here appears to have a natural and elegant physique, unlike freakish-looking bodybuilders and others that use performance-enhancing drugs.

The human body at its finest...

Ivan Zubkevych performs a strap routine




Yulia Mikhaylova




Felix Cane has won several international pole dancing titles and performs in the Cirque du Soleil show Zumanity in Vegas. Most of the videos of her online are grainy cellphone vids that don't do her justice (as is this one), but this is the first I saw of her and it made me a fan




Dima Shine aka Dmitry Bulkin, combines a shorter pole with extreme handstanding, to wondrous effect




Mallakhamb is a traditional Indian gymnastic sport performed on a pole simulating a mast on a ship, as well as other apparatus. The training is believed to have developed to enable quick scaling of a ship's mast in times of distress. While there is music in the video, mallakhamb is not normally performed to music and is considered more of a spiritual exercise



Let's finish up with a little parkour, shall we? This is Damien Walters




I'm gonna go put my lazy self on my bike now...

Guess where the Orlando Magic are playing their preseason opener tonight?

In (well, close to) a cotton field in the Rio Grande Valley



(photo by Josh Robbins, for and via Orlando Sentinel)

Per the Sentinel's Magic Basketblog, it was the Houston Rockets, as the home team, who elected to play the preseason opener in the Valley at the State Farm Arena, capacity 6200 for basketball.

I wish I had known - I would've made it a point to go and cheer on Dwight Howard and the rest. I'd probably have had a closer and less expensive seat there than I ever will at the new Amway Center, which is now open after ten years or so of political bickering.

This proud EHS grad and former Pan Am (now known as UT Pan Am) attendee is getting a giggle from the fact that, after all the rigmarole and fanfare of the Magic getting their new spectacular arena and having it finally open, they are tipping off their season next to a cotton field in the Valley :)

That being said...GO MAGIC!

UPDATE: Magic won 97-88