Greetings all. I've decided to pop in briefly as I've something of a day off.

First off, since some have expressed interest about the weightlifting routine I wrote about earlier, it's been working very nicely. I took this and last week off after completing four weeks of the program (I hope to start up again on Monday). I've put on quite a bit of muscle and made some rather dramatic strength increases. My working bench press has shot up over 50 pounds in that period to 200 (by "working bench press" I mean the weight I use during a typical workout, 3 sets of 6-8 repetitions). As you might imagine that translates into a lot of physical stress so I decided to take it easy for a little while. I'll complete the remaining four weeks (and perhaps go on a little longer if I can) and perhaps post another update.

Second, I came across a story I want to post. It's an account of some of the events that led to the rise of the modern Turkish state (built on genocide and ethnocide and the blood of well over a million innocents). This is a dramatic account of the destruction of Smyrna in 1922, something I've heard a lot about since I was young; though dramatized it accurately reflects what happened. (Here are some pictures from that bloody day showing the city in flames)

Apologies for ending the post on such a sour note, but stories like these need to be told.