Moustache Mayhem Part 2

borrowed from
whereismymind8.wordpress.com (via google images)

Finally!  Its over......  This past month was an interesting one as we went through our moustache growing competition. Where as having a moustache was an interesting and slightly fun experience, I don't think I will miss it.  I am more of a beard guy myself.  We started this thing on Dec 26th so the cut off date was Jan 26th and the results are in.  We luckily had a variety of people in this with us.  You had the guy with a creeper-stache, the guy with a huge and out of regs one (I rocked it proudly), and you had a guy with a barely visible one (you know like the I'm still going through puberty stache).  I did not get very good pictures for various reasons, one being that 2 of our guys suck at trimming their facial hair and accidentally lobbed off half of their stache.  That would technically be a disqualification but hey who cares right?  So first...

Here is my horribly out of regs stache at the 2 week mark.  I was running around with this trying to see if anyone would catch me.  Surprisingly after about 20 days of looking like this I finally had someone stop me, and that was only because we were stuck in a line together and he saw it up close..... Shame on you Marines for not catching this sooner. 






I probably did have the "bushiest" stache, but we were looking for the ugliest.  Plus whats the point in setting up a competition and offering your wife's great cooking if you just rig the contest to where you win anyway.  So our number one ugliest and saddest stache has to go to this guy...

Yes.....even with the close up it was hard to see.haha  He swears its because he is blond.  Either way he definitely won.  So there you have it Airin!  He said he wants Chocolate Chunk AND Chocolate Chip cookies.....he wanted to make that VERY clear.  He likes his variety. 
     In case the family was wondering this is what I look like with a fully grown stach:

I really do look like a criminal.....  All I am missing is the tank top and the neck tat.

Workout Experiment Of The Month: Chain Pull Ups!

I saw these once before on one of those pre-UFC hype videos.  They were getting ready for a fight between Rashad Evans and some other guy.  On the video they showed Rashad doing pull ups from chains with a weight strapped to him.  Where as I don't much care for Rashad (because he loves himself almost as much as my dog loves eating dirty socks...and that's A LOT) I did however like the idea.  So now here I am in a remote location with to many resources and to much creativity to hold in.  So I teamed up with a welder and we created this sad looking junkyard style contraption.

old steel, tow chains, and a pipe a little bigger than a soda can.

At first we thought it would be somewhat easy....like everything else that I have underestimated in my life.  My average of 30+ pull ups turned into about 5 on the chains, then I tried the bar and didn't do much better.  it takes an insane amount of grip strength to pull yourself up on a chain.  The bar having a 7 inch diameter verses the normal pull up bars 2.5 inches, spins when you try to grab onto it.  So in order to do a pull up on this thing you basically have to keep your forearms flexed the entire time and readjust yourself after every 2 pull ups.  Making this the hardest way I have EVER done pull ups. 
      So we sat down and came up with a workout routine for this thing:

• 10 straight chains
• 10 looped chains
• 10 forward grip
• 10 reverse grip
• 10 alternating hands (left forward right back)
• 10 opposite
• 20 alternating sides (pull up on either side)
• 20 on a normal pull up bar

So far we are loving it, this routine absolutely wrecks your forearms and hits your back muscles in awkward angles.  As time goes on and it gets easier we add to it, eventually we want do it with a weight vest on.  The Pros and Cons for this thing are basic. 

Pros:

• Increased forearm strength
• Increased back strength
• Insane grip strength
• Develops/defines your back and forearms
• Makes a normal pull up seem like a joke!

Cons

• Sure, you could fall...
• It might make your fingers hurt.....but that's not manly.

  So if you are into funky new exercises or you are a bored Marine that wants to improve his pull ups give it a shot.  You will be surprised at how hard these things really are.

Ok Mr. Doyle... You Win.

After attempting only 3 of the 5 selected records I have failed miserably!haha  Paddy Doyle you are a tougher man than I will ever be......  That stings the pride a bit....

borrowed from Guinness Book World Records

Finally I tried the record for max sit ups in a hour with a 50lbs plate.  First off I will admit that I used a 45lbs plate because in America its not common to find a 50, either way I could have used a 25 and probably still have failed.  His record was a whopping 1,130 sit ups in an hour.  Meaning that he averaged about 19 sit ups a minute.  Being one sit up every 2 seconds.....meaning he probably NEVER stopped moving!  My grand total was 726 averaging at about 12.1 a minute, and I will include that .1 proudly.  So he did 404 more than me and averaged 6.9 sit ups faster.  Making him again one beast of a man!  Seriously how does someone do that??? 

borrowed from
http://www.ukgear.com/Pages/Inspiration/People/236-Paddy-Doyle,-Worlds-Fittest-Athlete.html

Due to my ankle still not being 100% (I keep re-injuring it because I am surrounded by gravel and sand) I am going to have to back out on the squats (4,708) and burpies (1,850) for now.  Not that I would have beaten them any way but I don't want to further my injury with a couple hundred burpies.  So for now, I am done with the Paddy Doyle Challenge.... until I feel like embarrassing myself again....  I would love to see someone else try this thing out though, this guy truly is unbeatable.

Guinness World Record Attempt: Fastest Time To Eat A Raw Onion

borrowed from a vegetarian blog....I don't think there will
be a copy right on this one...

Fastest time to eat a raw onion.....eat a raw onion should have been the indicator for us that this was a bad idea.  But oh no, not us.  We saw a record and like a poor bunch of young dumb guys we thought we could beat it.  I mean come on how hard could this possibly be?  The world record holder was a man from Canada by the name of Peter Czerwinski.  He ate this thing in 42 seconds!  His record can be found here.  But even after reading this I was some how able to sucker a few people into trying this with me.  So I grabbed 2 of my junior Marines and we huddled around a trash can and gave it a shot.  The rules are simple:

Challenge Rules

• You must use a standard yellow/brown onion - red or salad onions are not allowed.
• The onion must weigh at least 210g after peeling, topping and tailing. Show yourself weighing it on a standard kitchen scale before your timed attempt.
• You must sit at a table with the onion in front of you for this challenge.
• Only when one mouthful has been swallowed may you take the next bite.
• You may drink cold water at any time during your attempt.
• The time starts when you pick up the onion, and stops when you show your empty mouth after swallowing the last mouthful of onion.
• As with all consumption record challenges, we strongly recommend you do not attempt this multiple times in one day

210g is so small though!  That basically means that we would have to eat a .4lbs piece of onion in less that 42 sec.  Got it!.....not.  First off we didn't read the instructions on the size of the onion, so ours were a little bigger, at least that's my excuse...  Second we didn't follow the rules on sitting down and drinking water either.....fail. 

Andrews and Colvin sneaking a taste test...

       So we start out strong Colvin taking the lead (he took his fake tooth out that's cheating) at first the onion isn't so bad.  The outer layers are almost sweet and watery, its when you get deeper in that the onion starts to spice things up.  But that's not the worst part, oh no.  After a few chews the juices start to get your sinuses going.  Pretty soon you are drooling and snotting all over (we looked sooooo cool when this happened).  Then if you are a genius like me you don't eat lunch before hand so the acids start to get your stomach, and soon after you just want to throw up with every bite.  They held strong but I was the wimp who was shooting pieces of onion across the room.  But you cant quit, no sir!  So I picked up my onion pieces swallowed them and we all finished strong.....don't judge me.  Finishing times were with Colvin in the lead at 2:20 Andrews with a 2:32 and myself with an impressive 3:34 (yes last place).  Obviously a video would be way better than pictures.  So in a few days hopefully my awesome wife Airin will have that cut and loaded for all of you to see.  It tells the story way better than I can.haha

as you can see he clearly had an advantage!

     Once the challenge was over we thought we were done with this whole ordeal.  But what we didn't know is that the best was yet to come.  For the rest of the day no matter what you drank or ate you smelt and tasted ONION!  My breath made me want to gag every time I took one.  I felt so sick and miserable all day.  The next day wasn't much better, because when I worked out my sweat absolutely wreaked like onion.  My sweat was so potent the fumes from it actually made my eyes burn!  Moral of the story is..... don't try this at home!  That record might look easy but trust me its not the record you have to worry about. haha

Hero's Hall Of Fame #3

#3 David & Shirley Callahan (Faithful Heart Foundation)

For the life of me I couldn't find their
picture  so we will just use their logo...

Here is a couple that knows what it means to let everything of this world go for Gods glory.  David and Shirley were retired in South Carolina and set up to live the "American dream".  They had a check coming to them, house, car, and no reason to have to work again or really worry about anything.  But they knew that wasn't what God wanted them to do.  So what did they do?  Get a bigger house on the beach?  Get a dog?  Or maybe join a country club and relax the rest of their lives?.......no, no, and NO!  Instead they sold and gave away EVERYTHING they had and moved to Thailand to open an orphanage.  They are now independent missionaries funded by their local church and a few people who just want to help.  Talk about a HUGE leap of faith!  I can't imagine what that took, thinking about it kinda freaks me out......  But they knew that was where God wanted them and because of that they trusted Him to take care of all of the unknowns.  Now they have grown to multiple houses or branches if you will for these kids.  This is inspiring for me in a big way.  I feel so lame when I think about what I wonder and sometimes wimp out on.  "Well God, times are tight right now so can I just cover the tithes on the next pay check?"  or "Hey God I know this kinda doesn't feel like what you want me to be doing right now, and I should probably drive myself and my wife on over to the Harbor for church.  But I am REALLY tired so maybe I can just go twice next week?"  or when I go "Yea God I know this guy at work just brought up some stuff and I could probably help him, and witness to him or at least take him to church.  But what If he says no, and thinks I am a weird Christian???" 

Here is our missions group visiting one of the hill tribes.  (I am the guy in the
 bottom with the dog and a kid playing with my beard.lol)

     I had the awesome opportunity to go with my church back in 2009 to visit this orphanage along with the Im Jai House, and go to the hill tribe as well which is another focus of their ministry at Faithful Heart Foundation.  It was crazy seeing how much they were doing for these kids!  They were teaching them more than the average American kid would learn.  Not only being educated but they were being taught a lot of great agricultural skills as well.  Like how to grow rice, and mushrooms, also how to raise chickens and other animals.  It was an amazing experience and to be honest if I wasn't with this amazing woman who is now my wife I might have just thrown away my passport and stayed there.  My pastor who was there might have advised against me going UA from the Marines though.haha  Attached below is the link to the blog they wrote about our awesome visit, check it out.
http://faithfulheartministry.com/callahan-corner/2009/03/village-visit-mar-30-2009

      These people would never claim the title hero and obviously that just shows where their hearts are.  But I will call them hero's and I know to every single one of those kids they are hero's.  So check them out on my organizations page if you get the chance, they are pretty awesome.  If you feel led to, donate.  What is $20 a month to us anyway?  But in Thailand that is quite a bit of money. Thanks for reading and God Bless.
   
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.