I did one hundred push-ups this morning! Back in the summer I had reached the point where I was consistently doing a hundred push-ups per day, but then I put my shoulder out because of it. It took multiple chiropractic adjustments combined with stretching and other work in order to get my right arm back to normal, and I have slowly been working my way back up ever since. Today I finally hit that goal again, and it felt amazing! Well, that plus exhausting. I have no intention of going back to the daily thing, that's what knocked it out to begin with, but I will absolutely continue to alternate between the hundred pushups on one day followed by continuing to up my reps in sit-ups until I hit two hundred per day there. I've got a long way to go on that count. In other news, I was surprised to see future companion Graham show up on today's SJA episode, with actor Bradley Walsh showing up as the bad guy. This show continues to surprise and delight me.

The Day of the Clown - Parts 1 & 2

This was certainly a day for plusses and minuses. The story trod the same ground as Stephen King's seminal novel IT, with a seemingly-immortal creepy clown kidnapping children. There was even the recurring imagery of the clown holding a single red balloon.

One of these things is scarier than the other...

The evil entity turns out to be an alien (because everything in the Whoniverse turns out to be an alien) brought to Earth in the thirteenth century on a meteorite, who lives off of the energy from fear. Said evil entity was the truth behind the Peid Piper of Hamelin, and apparently spent a good chunk of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries stealing children in America before being returned to the U.K. when the meteorite was loaned to the Pharos Project for study.

Also, the story features the debut of NotMaria, a teenage girl who moves in across the street from Sarah Jane with her dad NotAlan had her mom NotChrissie. Because these are paper-thin replacements for Maria's family, NotMaria is also quickly drawn into an alien mystery with Sarah Jane. Also, NotMaria's mom NotChrissie immediately gets Sarah Jane's name wrong (although at least she doesn't say the wrong name, she just obliviously shortens it to only Sarah - much to Sarah Jane's annoyance). The primary difference between Maria and NotMaria is that where Maria was utterly charming and relatable, NotMaria is... not.  Maybe she'll grow on me, and maybe I will eventually think of her by her real name Rani instead of NotMaria, but so far it seems painfully clear that this story was originally written before Yasmin Paige decided to exit the show.

So anyway, creepy clown stuff happens, Luke is briefly kidnapped into limbo, and then of course ultimately Pennywise Spellman is defeated when NotMaria figures out the way to defeat a creature that lives on fear. I.E. - she convinces Clyde to tell a bunch of awful middle-school jokes, and the clown rightfully decides he would rather be imprisoned back in a hunk of rock than to listen to any more Earth "humor". Sample joke: "What's invisible and smells like carrots? Rabbit farts." I would climb back into a rock too.

The episode wasn't awful, and actress Anjli Mohindra is probably better than I am giving her credit for so far. Also, Clyde gets a potentially enduring nemesis in the form of NotMaria's father who also happens to be the new Headmaster at the school. So, you know, good foundations laid. And underneath all of that makeup, Bradley Walsh is always a pleasure to watch in any case. But still, it was not a particularly imaginative story, nor did it do anything new or interesting with its well-trod inspiration. I get it, clowns are scary. But I would rather go back and watch the awful rap opening of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy than see this one again.

Ah, well, Maybe tomorrow's story will be better.

STATS:

Featuring: Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith, Clyde Langer, Rani Chandra
Episode(s): The Day of the Clown
Steps Walked: 7,617 today, 4,082,564 total
Distance Walked: 4.08 miles today, 2,138.61 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 100 today, 8,649 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 1,421 total
Weight: 258.36 lbs (five day moving average), net change -48.94 lbs