Focus. Focus. Focus.

Even as I write this, I struggle with focus. There's a reason I haven't updated his damn blog in a really long time. What distracts me? Iphone. Facebook. Netflix. Xbox. Google Reader. Ichat. And on and on and on. They each feed me these little morsels of serotonin. Little notifications of proof that I am interesting, or wanted or loved. There are a million little things I do to take me out of being productive or being with the people in my life. It's kind of ridiculous. For me, it's automatic. I will be standing in line somewhere, or I'll be idle for just a second, or I'll be stopped at a light and I will find myself glancing at my phone for those little red balls over the apps that tell me something has happened. Ding. I'm interesting. Ding someone commented on my status update. Ding. my move in words with friends. The pretense is that somehow my iphone keeps me in touch with my community. the reality is that my iphone is my blankie. It's this little security totem that I can go to to take myself out of life. When I am staring at that little screen, I get to ignore everything else. For just 30 seconds at a time. Everyone else is doing it. The other smartphone junkies are doing the same thing, and commenting on each others' pictures and birthdays. It's this vast conspiracy. Nobody is out there calling us on our total lack of focus, lest they get called on theirs. Focus is a muscle. As a child, i was diagnosed with a lazy eye, which meant one eye was less strong than the other and would go out of focus easily. I am also far sighted, which is also problem of focus. In the last year or so, my eyeglass prescription has changed. My eyes have actually grown weaker. My focus has grown weaker. I am clear that I can straighten in this area, again. But, like a heavy person jsut going back to the gym after years of inactivity, it may have to start slowly. So, what I am going to start with, in my game of focus, is turning my phone into an actual communications tool, rather than a security blanket. It will live in my pocket, doing it's thing while I am out there in the world, doing mine. If you see me relapse and go all glassy, tell me. I'll do something about it.

#9 Drink Water

Have you noticed? It's hot.

Drinking water is key. You should be drinking 1/2 your weight in ounces per day (unless you weigh yourself in kilograms, divide by 30 and that's how many liters you should be drinking). So that whole 8 glasses of water a day thing... only if you are 120 lbs. Your body is made up of mostly water, keeping it running properly is going to require water, lots of water. These are interesting rules of thumb, but also note that snopes definitely has an opinion about how much water you should drink.

I for one feel better when I am drinking more water, so I am going to err on the side of feeling good. I'll do my 110 oz of water a day, and assume that I get 4 glasses of water through food. So that still leaves me with about 10 glasses a day. Here are some of the water related things I've been doing in the last week.

Venti Ice Water: When I order my morning coffee at Starfucks, I always ask for a venti ice water to go along with it. That's 24 ounces of water, on top of the iced americano I usually get. (don't worry, regular coffee drinkers like me lose very little water from the diuretic effects of coffee.).

Extra Water: We lose a lot of water to sweat. I'm consuming an extra 4 glasses of water with any workouts or jobs. Either 2 disposable water bottles or a refill on my venti ice water will do the trick. Just keep this in mind when you are out in the heat. You really need to figure out a way to get more water!

Ice Water at Dawn: I'm also doing two glasses of ice water within 30 minutes of first waking. This is another recommendation of Tim Ferris and the 4 Hour Body. But it was also told to me by my friend Neil, who kinda has like the best body ever. and I read on the internet that Berlin Scientists found that after drinking 17 oz of water your fat burning metabolism increased by 30% within drinking water.

Piss Clear: At Burning Man, drinking water is like a religion. 2 gallons per person per day they say. But there, in a highly dehydrating environment you can see the immediate effects of not drinking water. Irritability is an early sign, as are headaches. I've had one friend get an IV bag twice for dehydration. Granted, he was drinking heavily, but still. But whenever I notice myself getting a little grumpy or snappy, a bottle of water is my first panacea. Piss Clear, they say out there. A sure sign of dehydration is dark or smelly urine. Keep that in mind.

Moisturizer: Drinking water will make you look younger. It makes sense, right? The skin is your largest organ. It and you are mostly water. Every lotion and potion ever tells you it is hydrating. Drink water and moisturize from the inside. I often find that water, and drinking plenty of it is a better cure for chapped lips than chapstick. You'll look younger!

Unhungover: When you drink alcohol, consider drinking water alongside it. My grandmother's drink was bourbon and a glass of ice cold water. Also, to avoid a hangover, take 2 aspirin or ibuprofen and a tall glass of water. A lot of that hangover is dehydration.

Bottom line. Get the water on. Skip the soda, and quench your thirst with good old fashioned water.

#5 Get Fit

So, I know I said I wasn't going to go in order... but these two are going to be in order. So there. Take that.

The Tip gives three good reasons for getting fit: Better Health, Confidence, and More Success with Romantic Endeavors (read better sex life). It is pretty vague, I assume the writer is fairly fit himself, and getting fit has never been a problem, hence the "Just do it, you lazy jerk," tip.

Getting fit has always been a particular struggle of mine. I was a fat kid growing up, and it really informed my identity. As an adult I've found gyms boring and diets hard to keep to with my wildly varying schedule. Whatever. This is about improving my life! Let's go!

1. Jumping In: The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris. Great book on body hacking. I'm cherry picking from this, but particularly taking on the Slow Carb Diet, which he recommends for rapid body restructuring. Many of the other things I am doing are gleaned from and cherry picked from this book.

2. Accountability: I called up my buddy Jessie Wright, who's a personal trainer, and set up some time to start to train. We committed to three days a week, working out with Kettle Bells, among other things. We set up a commitment to each other. Jessie, fitness genius that he is needs a work out buddy as much as I need him to guide me out of doing it wrong. If you need a personal trainer, I cannot reccomend a better guy!

3. Technology: If you are an smartphone user, both Lose It (free) and Meal Snap are amazing. Lose It allows you to track calories eaten and burned and makes it into a sort of game. You should see how many calories sex nets you. It also allows for accountabilities like reminders, and setting you up in competition with your friends. Meal snap lets you take a photo of your meal and it logs it, estimating how much that food counts for in calories. An added bonus, if you are eating a triple order of fish and chips, you have to take a picture of it.

4. Measurement: I don't believe that calories are the ideal measure, nor do I believe that weight loss in pounds the way to figure out if you're fit, but they are points on a scale to measure, and they are measurable and let you track results.

So Jessie and I took some measurements. We measured BMI, body fat, weight, and took measurements from waist, chest, stomach, biceps, and both thighs. The plan is to track these numbers every few weeks to get an idea of what's changing. We also did some fitness benchmarks, like number of sit-ups and pushups in a minute, mountain climbers, 8 point jumping jacks and time running a mile. I'm not going to lie, my results were not fantastic, but these are starting points.

I also took a before photo. Me, in my underwear as unflattering as I can be. No, I will not post it.

5. Fun: Also, to keep it fresh, I have been taking Kali and Wing Chun classes with my buddy Free Carradine. It's a causal class in how to beat on, and avoid being beat on with sticks. Really fun, and it makes my brain hurt. I really love the martial arts, and I find that my body really reacts well to this sort of training. And learning to wield weapons, that's just fun. There was a moment when I was training with Art last saturday and he was spinning these two short staves and I was wailing away at him with a six foot staff... yeah, we became thirteen year old nerds again, seeing the awesome warriors we have become. It was kind of a moment.

For me, the making of this project into a game is key for me. It's all just numbers and exercises and food in. They are all just data points on a spreadsheet, until you start playing.

Who wants to play with me?

Secret #4: Remember Peoples' Names

Names have power. Each and every one of have a name that is a powerful distinguisher of us from the rest of humanity. Our own name is deeply tied to our identity, and is probably one of the most important aspects of self. There are no unimportant people. Everyone we meet is a real human being with a name, and a story and a deep, beautiful life.

I just worked a week and a half at a festival here in LA, called Lightning in a Bottle, where the staff went from about 50, some friends some strangers to about 12,000 festival goers. I had to learn my crews, I got to meet people's friends and loved ones, I met people in the middle of the night, or in the dark or while wearing elaborate feather headdresses.

I'm terrible at remembering names, and I often feel really bad about it. So, at LIB, I decided to take on really learning the name of everyone I came across. It was tough, and I did fail on some people, but I remembered names.

Some things that work for me:

1. Visualize the name written. I like to imagine it written over their head, like in a video game. So when you meet Penelope or Jeffrey, see the name written in bright glowing letters over their head. I will often ask a person to spell their name for just this reason, or I'll give it a try spelling it on my own. I find facebook is an interesting tool for this.
2. Get to know people on a whole name basis. I find it is easier to remember Jonathan Perterson than just Jon, and the trick here is to remember the name exactly as they say it. Listen to the inflection, the way they trail off when they say their "R's."
3. When you are getting their whole name, ask about them, and repeat back what you now know, Jonathan Peterson from Orange County, who's passionate about swimming and water polo, for example. Get to know their name and associate it with that name.
4. Look a person in the eye when you say their name. Let them know with your eyes that you know them, not just their name.
5. Re-introduce yourself. If you've forgotten, bite the bullet and meet them again. Say that you are committed to learning their name again and this time learn it. Hey, sometimes third time is a charm.

When you meet new people, you are always adding to the list of names you know. You will forget names. Maybe it's like RAM, and there is only a limited number of names you can hold in operating memory at a given time. We've developed external methods for us to remember names. Get their phone number, put it in your phone. Befriend them on Facebook. Take a photo. Use those things we have at our disposal to remember. How else are you supposed to manage hundreds or thousands of names?

This one is on-going. Let's see what happens when everyone is named in our lives.

Just Start.

So, when you haven't been blogging for a long time, what do you do?

You beat yourself up, naturally. You haven't been writing. You're a bad person. You never finish anything, and all your other writing projects have gone to shit as well. So take it. You may as well just give up on this whole writing business anyway.

No, no, no.

You just start again.

Hi. This is my blog. It's been a minute. I'm back.

I was inspired recently by a very cool blog post. I'm starting to write again, based on this.

One Secret of Life per week. For one year. With two weeks off for fucking off. I'm also going to redesign the view from space website. It's been so long, I'm not even sure if this thing works. I'm going to have to get back into the ping/fm stuff as well. Ohh-whee!

So yeah. Back.

Waiting for the Next Golden Age

Today I was meeting with some friends about the next party we want to throw. We are looking for the next big thing, asking ourselves what the future of the LA party scene will look like. Nobody knows what it will be. We keep thinking about it and coming up with no sure answers. Then Zak hit it. 

"Everyone is ready for the next thing to happen. The world has been so fucked up lately, and it is clearly going to end. But until it does, they are all holding their breath until it changes."

That's it.  We're exhausted and want the next age to start now. 

I can only speak for myself here, but I have seen the world getting darker and more horrible at every turn for the entirety of my adult life.  This is happening every day, wars on drugs, terror and nations, political corruption, people around the world hating Americans, out of control police power, a fear mongering shill media, environmental catastrophe just on the horizon, and on, and on. 

This is simultaneous with my immediate community growing at this exponential rate.  Every day, the amazing people in my world expand in number and quality.  We grow in leaps and bounds. Every time I leave my home, the people I interact with are brighter and brighter.  People have hope, they dream ready for a new world and a quantum leap forward. They are causing these leaps forward in their own lives.  It's inspiring really. I see this emerging culture that I get to be a part of, and on a personal level we are winning!

I had this thought the other day, it was a fleeting one, but I chose to hold onto it.  Why can't we enter a New Golden Age (or a Second Renaissance)?  Obama getting the nomination has me all psyched about what is possible. Imagine a world where we work things out in world with some integrity! I can see this whole possible reality full of scientific breakthrough, political honor, artistic exploration, ruthless acts of love and peace, freedom for everyone, environmental healing and a new economic system that could generate abundance for all. What will be our generation's moon landing?  Is it possible that we will move out of what history will call the second dark ages? Can our age transform the failures of the past into a beautiful  future of light?  

I say it's so crazy, it just might work. 

After I started picturing this new world, I found this in my RSS feed. Man, that Cory Doctorow is reading my parallel universe generator. 

http://www.fugue.com/pics/goodnews.html

via boingboing at http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/08/google-news-from-a-b.html

So here is my request: Read this front page, and imagine it coming to pass. Visualize a possible reality where these stories could become true and real. Share your audacious ideas of what amazing things can alter the world to your benign will. See it. It's coming. 

We are the ones we have been waiting for. 

The Grip Workout

 I picked up this month's copy of Men's Health the other day. It had this article in it, The Sandbag Workout. Basicly they suggest getting this 50 lbs. sandbag from Home Depot, put it up on your shoulders, at your chest, walk around, lift it while bending over, etc.  Okay, they just described what I do at work, exactly about 100 times a day with 35 pound sandbags (we call em ball busters). 

I shared this with Scotty yesterday, while working in the fake gym for Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling. We decided to add a few excercises. 

The Push It: Take some stuff, mostly metal, and put it in a wheeled cart. Load it with as much stuff as the wheels can carry. Now Push it around, up hills, through narrow doorways, onto narrow lift gates. This works both your legs and lower back. It's great for the butt! (you should see the heavy carts we push around!)

The Sail. First we build some dexterity. Tie shoelaces to a pole that is suspended at full arm extension and casue full tension in the laces. Do this about 50 times. Speed is a factor.  (we tie big 8x8, 12x12 and 20x20 pieces of cloth and diffusion to large metal frames quite a bit.)

The Flag Move: Take a rigid 4'x4' foot flat piece of anything. Metal frames, foamcore, are preferable. and stretch your arms while carrying them. The key is to carry as many as you possibly can.  (we have these stacks of 4x frames, big metal empty pieces of aluminum most times with some form of gel on them, and floppies, 4 foot metal frames with black duvetine tight against it, with a extra 4 foot section that "flops" down to make a 8'x 4' black light stopper.)

The Ladder Dance: Take a fiberglass ladder, starting at 6' and moving up to 12' and move the ladder on your shoulder through crowded areas, calling out for people to be careful and watch the ends. You will build balance and strength as you use every muscle group in the body to keep the ladder safe. 

I love my job. 

Okay, now totally wreck the workout by eating the catering. Yesterday, they had Roscoes Chicken and Waffles