baxus

Yeah, when I was in high school and started college I was very lean and cut. Six pack was there, almost every muscle line showed and all that. But that wasn't because I was insanely fit or anything, it was because I weighed 18kgs (that's 40lbs for you lot using barbaric units of measure ) less than I weigh now. I haven't grown taller since and I'm by no means fat now, though I do have some fat around my waistline (top of my six pack still shows, though ). Bottom line is - abs on skinny guys don't count.

I don't know what it is about the six pack that makes everyone (myself included) want them and think they're this ideal to reach for.

The fact that it was already 26ºC when I left home this morning around 6.45 combined with the fact I had business dinner rather late last night made my morning crossfit workout quite interesting. Also, I've lost what little strength for strict pull-ups I had before my three and a half months break. Will need to improve that soon.

I'm thinking about running a half-marathon in Ljubljana, Slovenia at the end of October. Would probably work great for my weight loss but it would be a struggle to add two more runs a week for the next two months to my workout schedule.

Facebook - haven't used it for years, then got tired of "you need to log in to see this link someone sent you" so I created an account and use it only to be able to open links people send me Twitter - quite liked it, the format is quite suited to quick exchange of information. I used it regularly for a couple of years then got tired of it Instagram - have been using it for 5 years or so, quite like it. Use it to keep track of friends and family abroad and to check memes I post rather infrequently, only when I do or see something I don't do or see every day LinkedIn - not active in it, but has been quite useful since I've changed several jobs through LinkedIn contacts I think that's it.

And Harden and the rest of the superstars say: "Meh, we don't want the Olympic gold that badly." What happens then? You think Team USA would risk playing their third or fourth stringers in the Olympics? That team might still be good enough to win the medal, but it would be nowhere near as good marketing-wise. Why would sponsors pay the same amounts for that team as they do for one packed with biggest stars? I'm a big opponent of making rules that can not be enforced. That just puts everyone in a bad position.

I hate how almost every wedding I attended followed the same pattern to the point that I've been to a wedding and said: "I've already been to this wedding. Sure, bride and groom are different but everything else is the same - the ceremony, the reception, the music etc.

Don't get this the wrong way, but only a Brit would say "it works in football, why not in basketball?" Biggest difference between football and basketball is that FIFA is much more powerful than FIBA. FIBA has zero influence with the NBA. Hell, FIBA has zero influence with Euroleague. FIBA set up qualifying rounds for the World Cup right in the middle of the season and no players playing for NBA or Euroleague teams played for their national teams in those matches. Guess what? If FIBA tried to punish anyone for that, they'd be laughed out of the room. They can't ban players from playing for clubs in competitions outside of their jurisdiction, and neither the best league in the world nor the best European competition are under its jurisdiction. Most of the biggest USA stars wouldn't play in the World Cup either way. They aren't going to spend 3 out of every 4 summers playing for their national team in AmeriCup, World Cup and Olympics because they are getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars to play for their clubs, not their national team. The thing you are proposing would end with top-level players either: getting banned for Olympics not getting called up for other tournaments so they can't get banned for the Olympics for refusing to play submitting a flood of faked injury reports. To be honest, I would like to see football clubs take the same approach. Those bastards at FIFA need to be taken down a peg.

Heatwave ongoing in Belgrade at the moment, 35ºC temperatures for days now. Working out is much more difficult for me in that weather. I manage it by going to crossfit before work, but when I'd like to throw in a run on the weekend I just can't. Waking up at 6 o'clock is fine by me on workdays but on weekends I try to sleep in for as long as the kid lets me. And even at 7.30 it's already 25-27ºC which is too hot for me. Hopefully, workout conditions will improve this weekend and I'll be able to go for a run, since the forecast is for heatwave ending on Thursday.

And that would only lead to none of the top 20-ish USA players not even getting called up for the World Cup. How would you handle that?

I don't think that FIBA World Cup is valued more than the Olympics, but it's not that far behind. I would say that the fact that USA sends the best team to the Olympics and not to the World Cup so beating USA in the Olympics is seen as a higher achievement, though beating USA is always valued rather highly. A lot of people here in Serbia had that attitude over the last couple of years when Jokic skipped the European Cup in order to improve and get the max contract. Not sure it's realistic to expect that from anyone. If given a choice to make 150 million dollars, I'm pretty sure every single one of us would jump to make the most of the opportunity. Yeah... dead easy... So, next year you get to choose from the 12 players who go to this years tournament. What if one of the guys from this years squad retires? Or is injured next season? You would have to bring in someone new. How do you decide who qualifies? Anyone who wasn't on the initial list? So, why would Team USA put their biggest stars on the list for the World Cup in the first place, knowing they are likely to not go? Or what if someone who wanted to go to this years tournament is injured and has to skip it? Even worse, what if someone who was initially on the longer list for the squad gets injured playing in prep matches for the national team (like Milos Teodosic did against Lithuania) and has to skip the tournament (as Milos Teodosic is likely to). There's so many ways to find loopholes in this rule that the rule itself is ridiculous. And plugging those holes would make this rule more trouble than it's worth. Yeah, they lost World Championships in '98 in Athens and in '02 in Indianapolis, both were won by Yugoslavia. It has to be said that the one in '98 was during the lock out in the NBA and the team was made of college players who still managed to win the bronze after losing in semifinals to Russia, if memory serves. In 2002 it was not the best team USA had but it was far from a bad team.

Out of curiosity, how would that rule be enforced? P.S. You get gold medal for winning the World Cup, too.

I think you guys are really forgetting the quality gap between USA and other teams in the Olympics when considering Carmelo's impact on the team. In the upcoming World Championship team USA is far from the best team USA could have. Was it 15 players that cancelled or bowed out because of injuries? And the first list was missing some of the best USA players already. Even so, USA are still counted as favourites to win the WC, though now other teams are not THAT far behind as they could've been.

Mignolet off to Club Brugges. I wish him all the best in the future but can't say I'd miss him. He really was a weak link in the Liverpool lineup.

Been really sleepy this weekend and this morning. Not tired, just sleepy. I had one night with over 9 hours of sleep and still felt sleepy in the afternoon. Woke up this morning to go to my workout and decided to sleep in instead. It's turning out to be a good decision so far since I'm having a pretty productive day so far. Still, I'll get back to my regular schedule, just needed this one day off. @s4mmy Keep at it, tone and definition will come. Six months is only the beginning.