Plague of Strength

On today’s episode of “Tara Talks About” :

• The Four Day and Counting Cheat Day: The VERY BEST Vietnamese food in Philly
• Jesus fucking Christ, Why isn’t Jamie Posting All The Time Anymore? This Broad is Fucking Boring
• What ACTUALLY goes on during the weekend in the Chaos Household?

Jesus tap-dancing Christ, Why isn’t Jamie Posting All The Time Anymore? This Broad is Fucking Boring!

I have never striven to be everyone’s cup of tea… or bottle of booze… or perfect drug. I am the quietest, loudest, most obnoxious introvert you have ever met. And I am WELL fucking aware I am not Jamie (thank god because I LOVE being able to bend over to tie my shoes), and that we write about two COMPLETELY different types of things. When it comes to writing I am, without a doubt, the Five Finger Death Punch to Jamie’s
Infant Annihilator .

For the past 10 years, Jamie has written the Chaos and Pain/Plague of Strength blog for FREE, and has offered it to his fans… again, for free.

Well, much like working for “great exposure” free and hugely popular doesn’t pay the bills. The long and the short of it is that in order to bring you this web page, and the corresponding merchandise Jamie has taken a second, pretty much full time job, on top of the HOURS of research and development that goes into the blogs. We would like to thank those of you who have asked how to donate money to help him run the blog, and those who have purchased Plague of Strength merch/training!

Which is where I come in… My “gay ass” updates serve a purpose, other than annoying the Bill-bro Baggins’ who hate everyone’s writing BUT Jamie’s.

I answer the questions Jamie constantly gets, but never really answers because 1) minutiae doesn’t interest him… at all, 2) he gets asked the same shit over, and over and over, and over ad nauseum and 3) even if he wanted to answer the same questions repeatedly, he has joined the rest of us and is working about 75 hours a week (I currently have him beat on hours worked in a week but I am a classic workaholic). Things like: How do you train? What do you eat? Why product do you recommend for XYZ?

So, yeah, if you think the posts are boring, and already know everything about everything, my suggestion is: Don’t read them. Its fucking simple to tell the difference between our posts, just by title. I tend to use a TON of wordplay or cheesy dad joke titles, Jamie does not. Not to fucking mention, you have to be an idiot to miss the “By Tara Chaos” above the title.

The Four Day and Counting Cheat Day: The VERY BEST Vietnamese food in Philly

Anyhow, now that I have rolled my eyes so hard I saw brain, on to the MOST important shit…

There is actually a food blog preceding this, that I haven’t gotten to post yet because I am still working on the recipes in it, and I am hacking the SHIT out of the post. Some days stream of consciousness is amazing; others it is utter CRAP. It depends how much sleep I have been getting verses hours of work I have been doing. So you will be seeing the Cheat Day swing back to like 3 whenever i get around to finishing the recipes and posting it.

Between hustling to get 4 years of freelance bookkeeping (with 10 separate bank accounts) done before tax season ends, an uptick in construction bidding, the never ending list of stuff that needs to be done around the Chaos household, running the Plague website, training, and Jamie working overtime we have been on a “cheat day” that is now on Day 4-ish (edit: its now well over a week later). It is to the point where the only food left in the house is chunky peanut butter, Fat Snax cookies and some assorted protein bars.

So, when Jamie and I got a rare day off together, we headed to Philadelphia for the Tattoo Convention. About 3/4 of the way into Philadelphia, we both realized that we didn’t want to deal with the crowds and expense of the convention. I texted a co-worker, and he gave me the name of the Vietnamese restaurant he had previously recommended. See… LT is from Vietnam, so I trust his opinion when he says it is legit Vietnamese food.

Nam Phoung is on Washington Street in South Philly, and once we found parking then were seated, we tucked ourselves in for Pho and summer rolls. We weren’t expecting a probably ten page menu, though.

We are HUGE Phở fans, and let me tell you, this Phở was amazing. I got my staple
Phở Bò Viên (beef meatball). Jamie went adventurous and got Phở Đặc Biệt (beef meatball, shaved beef, beef tendon, and tripe). But Jamie and I will totally be nosy and look at other’s peoples food. THAT was when we heard angels sing, and life got interesting…

Jamie and I are generally very good at sharing food. We will actually take food from one another’s plates without incident (if there will be an issue we say something before hand). Yeah… I very nearly stabbed Jamie with a chop stick over this stuff, while he was threatening to drown me in my Pho. It was THAT good.

The final thing we ate at the restaurant was Broken Rice and pork chops. Broken rice is exactly what it sounds like. Pieces of rice that was broken sometime between rice paddy and bag. They screen all the broken pieces out during the bagging process, and that is what’s on your plate. Honestly the star of the show is the pork chops. If you have never had Vietnamese pork chops, they are freaking amazing.

Honestly, Jamie and I are lucky because we are located halfway between two major cities and we have the local restaurant selection to prove it. We have a TO DIE FOR Vietnamese restaurant 3 miles from our gym, plus my office is so close to Philly that we could easily go to Nam Phoung for dinner any time we want. I have the added bonus of working with someone from Vietnam, so I have had a crash course in everyday Vietnamese cooking.

If you aren’t so lucky, here is a recipe I found that is SUPER close to the every day marinade L told me about (which is pretty much the recipe I am still working on). I am not stealing credit for shit on this one… Serious Eats is honestly one of my go to recipe sites.

Vietnamese Grilled Lemongrass Pork Chops (Thit Heo Nuong Xa) Recipe

What ACTUALLY goes on in the Chaos Household on weekends!?!

Typical weekend to do list:

• Snort Pre-Workout off Lithe Yoga Mom’s ass
• Break 4 lifting records before breakfast with Mom
• Sacrifice Leg Day Virgin to the Lifting Gods
• Fix Kitchen Sink
• Hunt Grizzly with bare hands
• Complete Sacrifice to the Blood Gods
• Our turn to host MASSIVE ORGY! – Don’t forget ice!
• Order Steam Cleaner for all types of carpet stains
• Grocery Shopping

All sarcasm aside, I really don’t know if you are ACTUALLY ready to witness the insanity that goes on in the Chaos Household on weekends…

Plumbing…

Yeah, that’s right, your resident psychotic redhead installed a new sink while Jamie was working. It was a blast, I swear. Our old faucet dripped, which in turn lead to our sink overflowing, flooding our kitchen. since the sink was a builders grade special, I figured an upgrade was in order. it is deeper and wider than our old sink, and I am a HUGE fan of the faucet.

Deep thoughts:

• I am going to apologize ahead of time if there is a slowdown not only on the Freyja’d Knot posts but also the Plague side. Jamie will be taking the time to help me with my freelance bookkeeping, so we will both be working insane amounts. Recently I have been up at 4 am working, until I have to leave for work at 8 am, and then I am back at it at night and on weekends trying to play catch up.

• We will have new shirts being posted soon for sale. I am just waiting for the artist bio’s and about 98 more hours in a week. If there are any artist you would love to see designs by, or product types, I am always open to suggestions. My email is tara.plagueofstrength@gmail.com.

Now… if you excuse me, I have a hot date with a nap under my desk.

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