[Mikey_C]

Am I alone in getting the impression that Conan isn't particularly motivational? I was wondering recently why I hadn't scaled the dizzy heights in life, having noticed that the Leader of the Opposition and our probable next Prime Minister is a full two and a half years younger than me... From now on I shall blame it all on Mr. Robert E Howard!

This post has been edited by Mikey_C: 15 October 2006 - 12:35 PM

[PainBrush]

Mikey_C said:

Am I alone in getting the impression that Conan isn't particularly motivational? I was wondering recently why I hadn't scaled the dizzy heights in life, having noticed that the Leader of the Opposition and our probable next Prime Minister is a full two and a half years younger than me...

So what , Alexander conquered all the mapped lands of his world by the age of thirty & he had sugar in his shoes & was a man-kisser !! Attila did the same a 'few' years later - then gave all the land back to it's owners including when he could have been the man to take Rome from the Romans . - then instead of dying like he should have on a battlefield - he died drunk & naked in bed coughing blood after getting layed on his wedding night . Your dizzy-heights' & mine & everyone elses are just different ones than others , so
yep , I think you're alone on that one ! At least with the group of barbarians on this board .

Besides the humorous stuff & the general lack of one-line 'platitudes' in all the posters above - I think you should read them all again & check between the lines !! I personally can't think of anything else secular in my life that has been more inspirational over the years than Conan , ever since I was literally just a 8-9 year old kid in '76 visiting my paternal dad out west & sneaking out his Fantastic art of Frank Frazetta book & the first oversized marvel Conan treasury edition with Barry Smiths version of Conan & literally scaring my little self & staring for hours at those worlds . Over the years since not 'just' Conan but almost the whole of Howards writing inspired me to become a 'decent' enough person & artist & inspired a 'few' other things in my life . Not being a popular or really distinct in any way young kid - I wanted to be Conan & have every face in a room turn when I darkened a doorway , WITHOUT the burden of me needing to start talking & think of something smart to say to do so . So it inspired me to lift weights to the point of 'almost' being an actual competition-style bodybuilder while still a teen . greasing yourself up & strutting around like a peacock with a bunch of big sissies on stage in panties seemed a 'little' un-Conanny to me though . But I've broken or worn out my fair share of weight-machines , barbells & dumbells over the last couple decades & 'I'm' still not broken or worn-down myself in the least . I didn't lift weights to ' look-pretty ' I lifted weights because I had screws loose & 'had-to' ! A few people will know what that means . All the older kids that ever pushed me around as a kid at school - at 16 I sent the worst of them , a 21-or-so year old marine who also served in desert-storm later who was on leave , - to the hospital with 65 stitches to his noggin when he showed up ' in uniform ' all buffed-out at school to pick up his little sister ( who was also best-friends with my girlfriend of the time that ' mr. tough-guy ' tried to put the moves on the year before when I wasn't around ! ) - " What would Conan do ?? "

- Tough-guy went to Detroit recieving hospital to get put back together & I went back to school 20 minutes later after lunch to cheers . He fought well & thought at first he was going to give me a royal ass-whipping , I wore his blood on my jacket sleeves proudly when i went back to school after lunch . My girlfriend , her family , her friend , her friends family - man did I hear about that !! I was even threatened to have my head blown off with his M-16 . But even though he & his friends knew where I lived , worked , hung-out & went to the gym , I never saw him again till like 4-5 years later at a bar I worked the door at & we had a beer . No conversation though , it was all understood without a single word mentioned . I would wager any amount in the world that tough-guy learned a little lesson from Conan that day also - & I guarantee he never bird-dogged & jumped the fence on anyones girlfriend or wife ever again . Over the years from then until now - I estimate that not only have I lifted the equivalent of that entire school building & all the assholes who ever picked on me & any other kids over the years several times over , but i may have lifted the equivalent of that entire neighborhood where I grew up !! I still have a couple cannons under my sleeves & cannonballs on my shoulders over 20-some years later . That all led to me taking up boxing . In a few years I had 2 dozen fights where I wasn't beaten , don't mis-interpret that , I should say fights 'I didn't lose' . I was 'BEATEN' - to a pulp , beaten up & down , beaten unconscious , beaten senseless . I learned the correct answer to " How many fingers am I holding up ?" is NOT a multiple choice answer . I just would never stay down . Plus I was blessed with a head like a blacksmiths anvil . I accomplished a few other Cimmerian tasks I set myself also over the years , the heads still turn when I frame a doorway - I frighten young children occasionally no matter how smily & laughing I am . No kidding here - yesterday night I needed more beer , raisins & goats milk ( no , not to eat & drink at the same time - I'm not a Hun) - in line at the register a woman in front of me was holding a brat on her shoulder who turned & looked at me & just busted out crying like I pinched her or something ( the baby cried I mean - not the woman - but ' that ' would be a lot funnier !! ) I wasn't wearing my Iroquois nose-ring , didn't make any faces at the brat or anything ! - honest injun !

But I think I'm not 'too' scary , I still get hit on & flirted with by even teenage girls on occasion . But my 'rough-code-of-chivalry' ( hahahaha , I always wanted to say that ! ) - has prevented me from 'EVER' cheating on any girl I've gone out with & many of whom entertained me beyond my wildest dreams fighting each other ( sometime quite 'literally' !! ) - to convince each other to leave me alone & that's been a decent enough number over the years .
All of that stuff - not 'too' bad for a gawky mal-adjusted kid afraid to talk to people , all thanks to Conan ! I'm not going to babble-on anymore , but I can say I've caught bits & pieces of things Conan fans on these boards & elsewhere have said before that are pretty much right in line with the kind of stuff I've been yapping - so I KNOW Conan's one hell of an inspiration/motivator to a LOT of people . A clever big bad man , bad enough to knock heads against the big-bad-guys & monsters that trouble him & his . he's bad enough to be the one always walking away grinning no matter how bad he gets beat in the process -all the while not needing to spout any religious crap or 'moralizations' (?) hahaha .

The most inspirational thing that occurs to me at this second is the title of a Frazetta Conan painting - " INDOMITABLE " , not 'invincible' - just 'unconquerable' - wish I felt like sitting down here longer & scanning that Frazetta picture & making a poster out of that - but I bought a $1000 squat-rack/smith machine this week so I'm going out in the garage with this case of Guiness to work out & try to see if I can break it !!! with the door open , the wind in my hair & my neighbors across the street shaking their heads at the 'Killing Joke' blasting on my radio . RAAAAGGGHHHH !!!!!!!!



edited again - for stupidity.......

This post has been edited by PAINBRUSH: 18 October 2006 - 02:33 PM

[Kylel Ironclaw]

Exceptional post, Painbrush. Makes me wish I wasn't cursed this is ectomorphic physique (three year's worth of working out and I haven't been able to break 175 lbs ) The main notion behind Conan is not that he had to break somebody in two to prove his might; he just made it very clear that he would.

With that said, these Conan posters are at times more true than their serious, mass-marketed versions: "Perseverance: What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." What a load of wishy-washy bull****.

Remember my post on Page 1 of this thread with the "What is best in life..." comment? Ladies, that is the center of most men I've known, whether they'd freely admit it or not. Conan stands alone, victorious, over the bodies of his foes, a woman curled at his feet. You'd say "Oh, no, my boyfriend/husband/etc. can't possibly be wired that way." The truth is, we are, and it's one hell of a rush.

So, to augment what Painbrush said, these posters are motivational; like the stories, they bring out the baser layers of what it is to be a guy. We can all use a little "mental cleaning" each day, where we toss out the miscellaneous crap life throws at us.

[PainBrush]

Kylel Ironclaw said:

Exceptional post, Painbrush. Makes me wish I wasn't cursed this is ectomorphic physique (three year's worth of working out and I haven't been able to break 175 lbs )

F$%#@ the ectomorph !!! I used to be a tall skinny kid with a pot-belly - a retard-omorph ! Ask yourself is your brain an 'endomorph' a 'mesomorph' or an 'ectomorph' ?? - In your brain you are a brick-wall smashing giant with an attitude problem , am I right ? 3 years means you're finally READY TO START LIFTING WEIGHTS !!! hahaha - When you go to the gym leave your brain at home nicely comfortably packed in a silken box til you get back , you DON'T NEED IT ! - If you don't know what it's like to run to the garbage can & puke up water at the gym you aren't quite there yet . Piss & vinegar & instinct & the tolerance of pain that accomplishes something , will move universes . If you never see yourself as a bull-necked master of destiny who would yell in a crowded room " shut the #%@& up , the womans with me !! " - you'll never dare to be that guy . If you never dare it , well then.............

Quote

With that said, these Conan posters are at times more true than their serious, mass-marketed versions: "Perseverance: What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." What a load of wishy-washy bull****.

Whatever fills YOUR sails is what counts - for a lot of people that quote's the epitomy of philosophy .

Quote

It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer. - Albert Einstien

I have a handful of buddies who used to make the typical no-neck , & neanderthal jokes . I practically had to drag them kicking & screaming to the gym . Every-mans macho male attitudes made them try to keep up until it got to the point where it wasn't 'keeping-up' - it became actual 'competition' . Some years & completely new wardrobes later because the old shirts don't fit anymore & they actually thank me , just a minor feather I like to look at once in a while . time lasts only half as long today as it did as a kid . I'm half as old as I will ever live to be now - that makes me an insane man when I lift heavy things - I absolutely don't fear death in any way shape or form , I only fear being a lesser man tomorrow than I am today ! I find 'motivation' & 'inspiration' wherever , & under whatever rocks it hides - I take it home & frame it !

[Mike_The_Barbarian]

Conan has inspired me to do lots of different things. Perhaps because we seem to refer to the film in this thread, rather than the vast amounts of stories told is why we seem to lack so much 'motivation'.

One of the things he inspired me to do was to learn different languages. Haha, I'll be the first to admit that I can't actually string a full sentance together though (haha, I can only just about do that in English. ), but I've become alot more curious about languages and try and learn anything from any language whenever the opertunity arises.

I'm trying to learn more Japanese at the moment, I've even got a Japanese friend who was/is helping me, but she moved back to Japan a few months ago.



I did start to work out in the gym too. I really dislike talking about this, as it really upsets me, but I'm going to bare my soul anyway. I was from the great motivation from Conan that drove me to work out. I'd wanted to do it all my life, and had took up martial arts and things, but never got around to hitting the gym until I was 18 years old.
My first ever time in a gym on weights was amazing! I didn't really have a clue what I was doing (hahaha, I thought the bench press was for your biceps. ). I loved it though. It was the first ever time I'd felt my muscles individually, meaning, I could actually feel where my deltoids were, where my pecs were and so on.
In fact, I worked my ass off for about three hours in there. I couldn't go back for almost two weeks because of how much it ached. But after those two weeks and when I could move normally again I ran around saying to my friends how muscley I was just from that one training session. Hahaha, looking back, I can't actually believe I told all my friends that. They must have looked at me thinking 'What's he on about? He looks exactly the same!' but it's how I felt! I felt like I could move mountains with out breaking a sweat, I could pull the sky down with one hand if the whim assailed me.

After about a year of learning and working out, I injured myself, and tore a ligament in my arm and had to have 3 months off. I hated it. It really upset me. I went back with gusto, and carried on lifting the weights.
In total I spent two years working out. I managed to get my arms from 12 inches up to 16 inches. To me, that was amazing, especially when you take into acount the times I had of due to injury. I managed to lose loads of fat, and I put on over 3 stone in weight from muscle, it was awsome!

Eventually (this is the bit that upsets me), I went to briuse a tendon in my wrist. It pretty much put a stop to all my weight training. The doctor told me to wait 3 months. I waited 6 and it was still as bad as the day I first injured it. I've had x-rays and loads of different cream that does *#%" all to it, and now, a year and a half later, it's still not healed. It almost brings me to tears when I think I had to watch my body go from such a powerful vessil (ok maybe not compaired to other people, but to me it was a War Machine incarnate!). I had to watch my body wither and rot as my body shrunk from no weights and exercise. It was truely heart breaking for me. For me, like others have mentioned, I wanted to be the man that got stuck in the door way because my shoulders were to wide and having to get new cloths just so I had something that wouldn't rip whenever I moved.

I'm still injured, and I can't stand it. I've found other things to use the spair time I now have, and in a way, as it's been so long, I've sort of forgotten about the gym. But it's always there in the back of my mind, and I'll try and do things that'll make me better for it, and the gym will always come back to my mind, making me more upset because my bastard wrist is still messed up.

This post has been edited by Mike_The_Barbarian: 16 October 2006 - 06:13 PM

[budgie]

Mike_The_Barbarian, on Oct 16 2006, 01:55 PM, said:

I'm trying to learn more Japanese at the moment, I've even got a Japanese friend who was/is helping me, but she moved back to Japan a few months ago.

I must say im intregued by the origin of words so in a way its the same thing..

Since getting my 1st Dan my Instructor at Karate has me now teaching some of the class..

Being a traditional style all commands/stances etc are done in Japanese, especially when dealing with higher grade students (the junior grades get both English and Japanese commands so they can build a familiarity)..

Most of the time I know what i'm trying to say but its my pronounciation that has me worried. Unlike yourself I have no access to anyone whose fluent in the language so i just need to muster on.

Strangely Conan never motivated me to gain bulk.. I had a mate into that, he tried to get me involved.. pushing weights.. supplimeent drinks etc but I wasnt interested in obtaining a huge mass.. while huge muscles look good they can also slow a body down, that I didnt want.. then my fighting weight was 9 1/2 stone and 5'7".. I was pretty quick and nible and could usually deal with a lot of the bigger guys in the club by getting to them and then getting out before they had a chance to strike me back..
20 years have passed now and my weights around 13 stone now.. Im not as quick and a lot bulkier so now I have to rely on skill and experience (the young 'uns burn out too quick, you just have to help them along with that )

Conan motivated me in other ways instead.. probably more by ethics..

Budgie

[Mikey_C]

Hey folks, great posts, but I'm sure you know I was joking! The honest truth is that I have no desire at all to be PM, Mr C can have it, and good luck to him. And I hate real motivational posters with a vengeance - they're generally all to do with someone else trying to get you to do what they want you to do for their benefit, whilst convincing you it's what you really want after all!

So, its the anarchist in me, the guy who sees through all the "civilised" bull and hypocrisy and holds his own against the world, who is motivated by Conan. The fact that such a person might just be the best choice for leader is an intriguing possibility - but I honestly think that Howard is right in thinking that he might not be altogether happy in that role. "They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom, for trying to change the system from within" is one of my favourite quotes (from Leonard Cohen), and I guess that's just my position, but thank Crom that my imagination can still run free in Hyboria - like King Conan creeping over the palace wall for a surreptitious adventure or two!

[AMRA_thelion]

Well, Mikey you don't like motivational posters I've got something for you. Anti Motivational posters

I know a few of ya'll have seen these....

[Mikey_C]

Great stuff! Here's mine:

[Sturmrabe]

You guys are taking this thread WAY to seriously!

[PainBrush]

yeah , of course it's all in fun with the motivational poster idea , but when M.C. said ( even joking ) about Conan not being too motivational - it occurred to me to give it a seconds thought about just how motivational Conan has been in my life ( & all the rest of Howards writing too - but not quite to the extent of the Conan stuff ) . Nobodies more surprised than me at just what a Conan-fan-boy-geek I am after I mulled it over . Since this is a topic about motivational 'posters' - maybe it ain't the exact place to ramble on about it all - but I think it's one hell of a good topic for all us fan-boys to tell our tales of our 'Conanny' adventures in life . Maybe I'm just goofy ( okay no maybe , I 'am' goofy) - but I'd like to hear more of the kind of stuff above from everybody here on the board . As much as it's evident that you know all about Conan - I know his stories had more than just a 'passing' influence on you Sturm am I right ? At least more than just some entertaining stories , tell us all what reasons you had for that kind of adventure to strike a chord with you . I hate starting new topic threads , though one or two I started did end up getting a decent amount of conversation started & a couple are still posted in at least once or twice a week - so I'll be the fan-boy-geek to start the " How did 'Conan' motivate or inspire you " topic . I'll start it here in the same " CONAN ; General Discussions " board .

[Mike_The_Barbarian]

Quote

You guys are taking this thread WAY to seriously!

Haha, I blame everyone but myself.

If I recall, there was a similar thread like that already Painbrush, but it's quite old and very long. It would be nice to start a new one so people could up-date their motivations and the new comers can join in without having to feel like they have to read 8 or so pages before posting.

[Mikey_C]

Here's one of those threads - just a short one. How about reviving it?

http://www.conan.com...h...ic=1719&hl=

[jak]

Mikey_C, on Oct 16 2006, 05:35 PM, said:

Great stuff! Here's mine:

Now those are two fine, robust, motivating goals! Glad to see you didn't settle for just one. Interesting how goals such as these emerge in boyhood and really carry one through an entire lifetime. Sure, they may take a temporary backseat for a day or three, but then they return in full, motivating us to keep our jobs, to work out, to wash the furry underwear and groom now and then.

[Mikey_C]

jak, on Oct 25 2006, 07:55 PM, said:

Now those are two fine, robust, motivating goals! Glad to see you didn't settle for just one.

Well, I wouldn't want anyone to think I've got a one-track mind!

[Spartan198]

[Almuric]

I love the quote, even though it's associated with Milius and That Austrian Guy.

But my favorite motive for Conan comes from REH himself:

"He's the damndest b*stard that ever there was!"

[Angel]

*rolling on the floor laughing* I love it!!

[jusko911]

Now THAT'S funny (and EXACTLY what I was going for)! LOL :-) BTW, the UNCENSORED (tease) version of this painting will be in "The Art of Joe Jusko" book later this year.

Thamilon, on Sep 15 2006, 01:06 PM, said:

Can't let this thread die just yet...

This post has been edited by jusko911: 26 September 2008 - 10:20 PM

[matsellah]