Bibliophilic References

I finally reached page 300 of the Diamond Jim Brady book, which took a lot longer than I had anticipated. I should be done with it tonight, if not, then early tomorrow. My shift today was incredibly slack, so thankfully I had some time to do some serious reading. I am also working on Umberto Eco's new book History of Beauty. I haven't gotten anywhere with it yet, though. Hopefully after these two I can finally get to Gravity's Rainbow, but that is tentative at best for the time being.

Best Lifts?

Full Squat (Parallel or below, done with a belt only) - 387 lbs x 1 repetition, 370 x 3, 354 x 5, 310 x 10, 230 x 20 (no belt), and 193 x 30
Push Press (from the rack) - 251 x 1, 240 x 2
Standing Press - 210 x 1, 201 x 3
Deadlift (standard grip) - 354 x 1, 324 x 3
Deadlift (overhand grip) - 340 x 1, 294 x 5
Bent-Over Row - 184 x 6
Dumbbell One-Arm Press - 90 x 3, 81 x 5

Pynchon Quotation

Reality is in this head. Mine. I'm the projector at the planetarium, all the closed little universe visible in the circle of that stage is coming out of my mouth, eyes, and sometimes other orifices also.
- The Crying of Lot 49, Chapter 3, Thomas Pynchon

Belated Congratulations

Belated congratulations go out to Big Gene Rychlak who is the first man ever to bench press over 1,000 lbs. The actual bench was 1,005 lbs at the IPA Nationals, Shomokin Dam, PA on November 21, 2004. Way to go Big Gene!