Year: 2010

Antonina Whaples — future fitness celebrity?

Showing dedication to health (and chain saws!)

Wake Forest University has an interesting program at our fitness center where students can be trained by certified personal trainers at an extremely discounted rate.  I have been doing this program for several months with a trainer named Antonina Whaples.  Aside from being a full time student at the university, “Nina,” as her friends call her, has just launched her career as a a figure competitor.  The whole process has exposed to me a side of the fitness world that I was not even really aware existed, but have found to be quite interesting.

Fitness world

Antonina recently competed in the National Physique Committee North Carolina State Championships, where she placed fifth — a very impressive feat for a first time competitor.  However, the real story is not just the competition itself, but also the work that went in to prepare for such an event.  Antonina’s diet, workouts, and lifestyle were all completely centered around this competition; it was dedication like I have rarely seen.  Antonina talked about this in an April 12 interview with the blog Promoting Real Women:

My trainers Jill Coleman (diet), and Kimberley Coronel (weight training) were essential to my process. The quality of my diet came out on stage and I trust Jill 100%. I never cheated on her plan and I was super pleased with my results. I know that this next show I will come in even leaner and fuller. I wouldn’t be where I am at all without the creative genius of Kim. She has built my body rep by rep and is my rock. I am proud to say that she is both my trainer and friend, and one of my greatest inspirations. One of the biggest things that mattered to me show day was making her proud!

Antonina (Don't try this at home! Ed.)

Before the show, Nina also did a photoshoot.  The pictures are really creative, and the fact that one of her majors is studio art really comes out.  My personal favorite is the photo featuring black leather boots and a chainsaw as the accessories of choice.

There’s a saying among Antonina’s friends that she is “intense.”  And if anyone has ever embodied the word “intense,” it certainly is Antonina Whaples.

Her blog, fitNasti, will be moving to a dot com domain name in the coming weeks, and I would not be surprised if after that her site continued to grow in popularity.

Keep an eye on Antonina Whaples — this girl is going places.

By Elliot Engstrom

Freedom starts at home

Freedom as something one must endeavor to gain and maintain!

The power of a cup of tea!

There is a quiet self-contradiction developing in the Tea Party movement that needs addressing, for it is a contradiction that, if left uncorrected, could turn a force with truly revolutionary potential into one more element of an oligarchic political stasis.

This movement, which as a culture attempts in many ways to be an imitation of the founders, is steering away from its origins and failing to take hold of perhaps the single most important insight of the entire American Revolution – that national change is the result of local change, not its cause.

It was not homesickness that led Thomas Jefferson to return to his home state of Virginia and decline a re-election to

Thomas Jeffersen

Congress after penning the Declaration of Independence. At the forefront in Jefferson’s mind on July 5, 1776, was not the welfare of the new nation as a whole, but rather the welfare of his home state of Virginia.

For Jefferson, Virginia was not simply one part of the ultimate goal of the United States, but in fact an ultimate goal in itself. It was at the local level that Jefferson knew provisions for the future freedom of his fellow Virginians had to be made.

Voltairine de Cleyre, an anarchist who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, greatly admired the founding generation and Jefferson in particular.

In her essay “Anarchism and American Traditions,” she wrote that one of the greatest traits of the American revolutionaries was their recognition “that the little must precede the great; that the local must be the basis of the general; that there can be a free federation only when there are free communities to federate; that the spirit of the latter is carried into the councils of the former.”

“Anarchism” today is often employed as a pejorative term rather than as a description of the political and economic philosophy taken seriously by such great minds as J.R.R. Tolkien, Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Jefferson and William Lloyd Garrison. In fact, de Cleyre’s political philosophy had many similarities with modern libertarianism and traditional conservatism.

Continue reading “Freedom starts at home” →

Today’s Funny

The art of saying something and meaning something totally different.

I must confess to being a bit fed up with Greece.

In Anglo-Saxon language their attitude used to be called “taking the piss“.  Today’s “funny” (or if preferred take your pick from: tragic, surreal, ludicrous, ridiculous,bizarre, insane or indeed all of these at once) is something the Greek Prime Minister said. Admittedly he said it in February and I’ve only just picked up on it.

Here’s an extract from what was said:

‘We are a country which cannot alone deal with the speculation. So this has become a European problem, because if we do have a major problem, this could create a contagion for other countries too who are not to blame.’

Brilliant and I especially love the use of the word “speculation”.

This makes it seem as if it isn’t Greece’s fault at all; it’s all down to those nasty fat people in suits and sunglasses, the evil international financial mafia seeking to destabilize his country.

Then there is the “if” word. Now normally this is associated with a condition, but anyone who even in February thought that there was any conditionality involved in Greece’s meltdown must have been looney, or perhaps the Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who said this on March 8th:

Greece will be able to deal with its own financial problems without needing a bailout, the head of the International Monetary Fund said today.

IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that Greece’s debt mountain is unlikely to spread to other eurozone countries with high levels of public debt.

And Mr Strauss-Kahn dismissed market speculation of potential default by other heavily indebted eurozone countries such as Portugal, Spain or Ireland as scare-mongering.

IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn answers questions on a panel with Bob Geldof in Nairobi yesterday. Mr Strauss-Kahn has said he believes Greece will not need an IMF bailout .

Yes, this is the same DSK who is paid a vast salary and expenses and could be the next President of the EU.Of course he could have been lying to try to restore “confidence”. However, lying is lying, for whatever reason. Or he could have just been humungously wrong.

That’s the trouble with our leaders and financial experts these days; you never know whether they’re lying or just stupid; it’s usually one or the other and sometimes of course both.

And Papandreou’s quote continues: ” a contagion for other countries“. Indeed, Mr P. And what do we do with a “contagion” in the body? We destroy it and get rid of it …. and finally we have “other countries too who are not to blame“.

AHA! At last! Proof that my old Mum in the UK on her measly pension is not to blame. Thanks Mr P. At last some recognition fo the truth. Let’s have a bit more of that ….

As for the merits of Greece’s plea for funds, you only have to read this devastating article to feel your flabber gasting to breaking point.

No wonder the Germans are increasingly threatening to dump Greece, and so they should. Not the German government (all governments seem currently to lack the guts to do anything really necessary or serious).

No, this time it’s an economics professor threatening to take the EU to court if they allow this blatantly EU-illegal bailout, and public opinion is increasingly on his side.

It is a horrendous mess, but the only solution is for Greece to leave the euro. Bailing them out is a black hole. Does anyone in their right mind think the Greeks can really change their traditional practices and suddenly become honest, thrifty and hard-working?

Well, the answer is probably  “Yes”, but then cloud-cuckoo land is becoming seriously over-populated.

Which reminds me, I must get back to the British General Election Campaign ……

By Chris Snuggs