Malingering’s World

Because LA makes me laugh.

This girl was 11, 12 at most. She was riding this bike around in a bikini top and a belt which spelled out DIVA DIVA DIVA in rhinestones. Yes, I understand she’s at the beach, but these mini-versions of adults are becoming a bit disturbing.

I hope they aren’t expecting ME to make up these payments.

Mark,

Regards,
Michael

So I’m getting all sorts of great emails. Probably about 3 per day. I feel like this sounds important, so someone’s business isn’t getting taken care of:

I’m getting the usual runaround with Robert. “I’ll call you in 2 hours”. “Call me in 30 minutes, I’m on the road right now”. When I call, I get the voicemail, which is full. He does not call back.

Bob

Or something like this:

The check was cashed and they did receive it. I sent out another paymen on yesterday and they should get it Thursday or Friday I use my online bank of america account to send it. I am scheduled to meet with my Doctor on 10/7 and if all goes well which I hope it does I will be released to return to work. I will still have to do out patient therapy for 6-9 months but at least I can resume work again. The guy from New World never mentioned anything about Astra making payments. I am in rehab now on a public kiosk checking emails I am unable to get service in this building on my cell phone.

Mitchell

And then of course, stuff like this:

Rob just did a CBP for the July payments on 5265-001 & 5265-002. He said he is trying to get the funds together for the 5265-000 contract – it is a larger payment amount. He said he may be able to do it later today if not it should be tomorrow.

I saw the most amazingest thing in China. Jeans that pretend to sag and expose underwear asswriting. But they aren’t really sagging, it’s one garment! This is genius and I am sad I saw it in China before Los Angeles. Come on Americans, get with it!

This is just my opinion, but something about this made me feel really yucky inside.

(This was in China, but these are tourists, so it doesn’t really count.)

Sadly, something has happened at my gym (Petranek Fitness or Crossfit LA: Los Angeles – they changed their name to this redundancy a few months ago) recently and there’s been an epidemic of arrogance and egoism which continues to grow. I’m not exactly sure what’s happened, but I’m pretty certain they should change the motto from “Forging Elite Fitness” to “Forging Elitism” as it’s truly terrible. The other day someone got very irritated with me for sharing his/her equipment during the warm-up. Like I was interfering so dreadfully with his/her warm-up that I shouldn’t even exist. And then there was the person who finished the warm-up a good 3 minutes before everyone else in the class and started loudly complaining about how s/he has to wait sooo long before starting the workout and “why is it taking so long??!?!” People post diet logs online which are becoming reminiscent of those anorexia nervosa message boards where people encourage each other that being hungry and depriving yourself is a good thing. Jokes are made about getting “rhabdo” (rhabdomyolisis has happened in a number instances in CrossFit workouts, and is the leading cause of kidney failure in this country), creating a culture where pushing yourself too hard is glorified. There is no room for moderation, and safety often goes by the wayside. The whole place is so full of ego, there’s hardly any room to work out. A few days ago we were in class and two people from the previous class sat inside the gym and loudly chatted away, bragging about their scores for Fight Gone Bad and their times for this and that and their strategies for so-and-so workout and in a furious tornado of self-promotion, managed to distract everyone working out. I also heard someone say to another member “yeah, but you only did the intermediate class” with such scorn that one wondered why an intermediate level person even bothered working out at all. The other day someone called another person a pussy for lifting less weight than him/her, even though the person lifting less weight had a serious injury and was adjusting appropriately. And then (my favorite) was the person who pointed and laughed when I dumped the bar on a failed clean. S/he laughed so loudly that about 5 people silently turned and looked at him/her and this person then shouted “nice ass plant!” at me as I tried to get up (fortunately the other 5 people did not join in).

Sadly, this is not the gym I joined 18 months ago, which was a supportive and positive environment. People are becoming quite concerned with their weights and times and records, and much less cognizant of the community itself, which is deteriorating rapidly. People are so worried about “the board” (a whiteboard listing the top 5 students/instructors results in various exercises) that they’ll sacrifice form and dignity to get there. People even come into the gym when there’s no class going on to do special workouts to “get on the board.” Not to mention it’s a near impossibility for most people to “get on the board” because the top 3 spots are invariably the names of the gym employees so it becomes this elusive space for only the most, well, elite. The other day I saw a group of people spend at least 5 minutes gazing upward to the leaderboards in the sky, calculating how they could lift more weight than so-and-so and what it would take to “get on the board.” Ugh. Just focus on your workout and worry about yourself. It’s not worth it to compare yourself to everyone else, especially these people who live, (don’t) eat, and breathe CrossFit.

I’ve been faced with the dilemma about what to do about all of this, as I feel the once positive and nurturing community that I wrote about last year is a mere shell of itself today. I love being in shape, and I love working out, and I love the pressure of pseudo-personal training to keep me in check. I have made some amazing friends at the gym and I’ve learned a lot about fitness, diet, and exercise (a lot of which I’ve outlined here on the blog). On the other hand, I see the hegemony emerging and I don’t want to be a part of the elitsm, arrogance and self-promotion that is only getting worse. For a few months I thought it was just me, that maybe I, was the one who was becoming overly competitive or arrogant and this was how it was manifesting. But the more people I talk to, the more I realize it isn’t just me at all, in fact it is noticed by almost everyone I’ve talked to. I keep hoping things will turn around, that at some point it will come full circle and we’ll be back to where we started. Occasionally I catch a glimmer of that old environment and it keeps me going, because those days were pretty damn cool.

Please, if you speak Mandarin, tell me that this says “PINK.”