Six Nine Six

Body Hacking

2006-04-22T23:31:00.000-07:00

Well almost 2 months are up and ive been gymming almost everyday here(in saudi).. but somehow the results have not been very encouraging, of course i am getting in shape (all the effort wasnt for nothing). Anyways ive just stumbled on this really good article on the net "31 days to bigger arms" so im goin to test it out.
Heres the schedule im supposed to follow according to the article..

Monday & Friday
Squats 3 sets 8-12 reps
Bench press 3 sets 6-10 reps
Chins 3 sets 8-12 reps
Seated dumbbell press 2 sets 8-12 reps
Standing calf raises 2 sets 12-20 reps

Monday Arm Specialization

Standing Dumbbell Curls (supersetted with…) 5 sets 12-15 reps
Seated Dumbbell Tricep Extension 5 sets 12-15 reps

Wednesday Arm Specialization

Standing Barbell Curls 5 sets 5-8 reps
Lying EZ bar Tricep Extension 5 sets 5-8 reps

This is your “heavy day”. Try to use as heavy a weight as possible while maintaining good form. It’s OK to cheat just a little on the last rep.
Rest periods will be longer than your Monday workout. Rest as long as necessary to recoup your strength so you can go all out on the next set.
Each Wednesday try to use a little more weight than you did the previous Wednesday’s workout.

Friday Arm Specialization

Scott Dumbbell or Barbell Curls 3 sets 8-12 reps
Overhead Pulley Tricep Extension 3 sets 8-12 reps

As always nutrition is very important, so i'll be having loads of chicken, eggs and tuna, and i hope its worth it, cause after all this effort, the article says it's easy to add about an inch to my arms..
so wish me all the best
Ra

BOCTAOE

2006-04-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

Learnt a new word.....

BOCTAOE: "But of course there are obvious exceptions"

Found an amazing Blog

The Dilbert Blog: http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/

And a nice website: http://www.wikiquote.org

Ra

Chemical Love

2006-04-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Do u remember the first time u fell in love, or thought u were in love, i do.. very distinctly.. i was about 14 and it was as expected an upstairsneighbour.. her name was Reshma.. and somehow i always became a bumbling dump fool in her presence and my heart used to beat at twice its normal speed, Now that was 12 years ago.. women have come and gone, i am still single and i have( and like) that initial feeling.. whatever u guys may call it, infatuation or butterfly's in the stomach (hehe).
So neways i decided to do some research on what this exactly this feelin is, is it love? or basically what is love really?

Well so over the years, artists, novelists, movie directors have made the greatest progress on humanities understanding of love( or so they think) but now lets look at it from a different perspective... Chemistry... so what really happens chemically speakign to our body.. when we love? I've been reading a lot of articles about chemical and neurological reactions related to love, lust, and sex in humans. i thought that science could give me the answers i was looking for? well did it? Yes and No. As usual every answer just brings up more things to think about and ponder on..
ok lets get on with it shall we ( some excerpts from the articles i read)

First, a shorter one, "The Chemistry of Love" from the site How Stuff Works. According to this article:

During the initial romantic infatuation stage (let's call it the "lust" stage),the brain is primarily secreting dopamine, norepinephrine and phenylethylamine--chemicals that induce feelings of bliss, excitement, racing heart, sleeplessness, craving--all those things you feel when you're madly attracted to someone. At this time the parts of your brain with dopamine receptors are stimulated at an increased rate. (In most of the articles I read, these chemical responses are likened to cocaine.)
During the phase where romantic love kicks in and sex is occurring, different chemicals begin to kick in. These are bonding-influencing chemicals like oxytocin and vasopressin, and are released during orgasm and focus your instinct on being with one particular person (in the prairie vole example explained later, they say these chemicals create a "scent imprint" that makes them recognize and stay with their partners--it's implied we probably do something similar).
Interestingly, when oxytocin and vasopressin begin to be released, they actually INTERFERE with your dopamine and norepinephrine pathways--therefore building a stronger bond response (comfortable love) than a continual romantic love "rush" response.
At this stage, endorphins show up (both during sex and during physical contact), making you feel all nice and warm and safe. People can become dependent on this.
After about 2 to 3 years all of your "lust" chemicals fade out and all the "romantic bonding" chemicals continue to be released, assuming the couple is still having sex. But this is the stage where people "wake up" and realize their partner may not be as constantly enthralling as the "lust" chemicals made them think. The person him/herself hasn't changed, the chemicals that affect your drive toward them have changed.
There's a monogamous mammal called the prairie vole. It's believed these mammals mate for life because they have oxytocin and vasopressin receptors. Other types of voles don't have these receptors, and are polyamorous.

Here's another article: "I Get a Kick Out of You," in The Economist online. Highlights:

More info on the prairie vole studies, with further explanation of a distinctive feature of both vasopressin and oxytocin--"they are involved in parts of the brain that help to pick out the salient features used to identify individuals." In other words, if you don't have any of these chemicals, you can't differentiate between people. And again, how do prairie voles use these chemicals to identify other voles, and particularly their mates? Smell.
It's also environmental: "...animalspeople includedlearn from their sexual and social experiences...Researchers think humans develop a love map as they grow upa blueprint that contains the many things that they have learnt are attractive. This inner scorecard is something that people use to rate the suitability of mates. Yet the idea that humans are actually born with a particular type of soul mate wired into their desires is wrong. Research on the choices of partner made by identical twins suggests that the development of love maps takes time, and has a strong random component."

A final article, and the one which I found most interesting, "Cupid's Comeuppance" in Psychology Today. Quick summary:

They define love as having three distinct stages, lust, romantic love, and attachment: "Lust gets us on the hunt for potential mates, and romantic love narrows our focus and energy to just one person, while attachment encourages us to stick with this partner long enough to raise children."
Dopamine and norepinephrine, the "lust" chemicals do begin to fade over the course of a romantic love and attachment phases, as the "cuddle chemicals" vasopressin and oxytocin take hold.
But wait! Dopamine and norepinephrine levels can be resurrected! According to the article, the level of these chemicals surges every time we're confronted with the unknown. So that means...inject new adventures into the relationship, and lust can rises again.
They imply things as simple to attain as humor and sex can raise your dopamine levels. Even more dopamine inducing: separation (you want it but you can't have it), and fights. And overall, the key is to seek out "novel and stimulating experiences" to share together.
A glitch: a couple's sense of "novel and stimulating" has to match, or this doesn't work. "People normally differ in the degree to which they seek stimulation. But the most enduring couples, it turns out, are those whose natural levels of sensation seeking, whether high, low or in between, are very closely aligned."
The best combination for lasting bliss is apparently two low sensation seekers. Two high sensation seekers are okay but may be too interested in variety to ensure a lasting union. "Still, the worst combination is high-low, because they just don't understand each other's interests." (See the article for a definition of what high and low sensation seekers are like.)
Another glitch: A lower sensation seeker might seem higher than he/she is when he/she is experiencing the adrenaline rush of the lust stage. "It's when the sex becomes routine that problems occur. Initially there can be a great attraction between a high [-level] and a low [-level]. And only later may they realize how fundamentally different they are."
New topic: SMELL. You've got one. No one else has got yours. Everyone's got their own smell, based on their immune system makeup. So no matter how good someone might look on paper, if they don't smell good to you, you're not gonna be able to bond romantically to them, and vice versa.
REALLY interesting: According to this, the birth control pill can make women choose the wrong scented person. Because the pill simulates pregancy, the woman's olfactory system looks for a protective scent, and often goes for a man who has a "father" or "brother" scent. "A few years into marriage, a woman may stop using birth control only to find herself less interested in her mate without knowing why."

Neways im still a sceptic , lots of questions still unanswered, but ill leave that for another day!.

Whew im tired.. someone give me a dopamine injection

Setting up our own Group Website

2006-04-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

We are a group of very close friends and have a pretty active group on yahoogroups called maladgroup (by invitation only of course).
So neways i had this brainwave .. why not a website.. so Earl Misquitta (kind of him) has donated the webspace and set up and account for me..
hmm this is going to be a cool project... my life has new meaning.

So neways first steps, we have the webspace, a cool free content management system called
joomla (u gotta check this one out if ure planning on hosting ure own website). Now im doing some research on this component called Gallery2 that will allow us to set up our own photo galleries... hmm this is soo much fun...

oh and i forgot the url... its http://malad.earlmisquitta.com

Ra

Infected!

2006-04-03T01:48:00.000-07:00

Stupid me!
got myself infected with the im-names trojan on MSN and after some frantic searching
got a really good im-trojan remover.
Btw if ure msn is automatically sending messages to people about installing im-names for cool
msn nicks, u are infected...

download the remover here
http://www.jayloden.com/aimfix.htm

Ra

Awesome Pics of St. Xaviers

2006-04-03T01:19:00.000-07:00

Found this awesome link online

http://xaviersb.blogspot.com/2006/02/some-images-of-xaviers.html

Bought back some good memories... sniff

The prom, the socials , Malhar.

Enjoy, and all xavierites u can also join the blog( its a group blog)

Ra

Mumbai Hotspots on Google Earth

2006-04-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to view all your favourite south mumbai hotspots?
Just fire up Google Earth and download these 650 placemarks of all of them.

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php?Number=128303

Total hotspots is ~675 for South Bombay. It includes THE most complete street names availble on the Internet for the city for Ward B & A. Work-in-progress for wards D and C.
Btw the search has a lot of user submitted hotspots, this is a treasure trove of information.

Ra