It's a long way to the top

It takes decades for sea turtles to reach sexual maturity. Lesson - good things can take a long time to develop. Yesterday, I read this article about a woman who completed her college degree in 19 years by doing one class a semester. 19 years is a long time to continue doing something, and I'm sure she had some doubts along the way.

Most things in life seem to boil down to parts.A- the decision to actually go through with something. B- seeing it through. There are more variables, but a good deal of the time the obstacles between the start and finish can be overcome. The decision to actually do something is a big hurdle. It's easy to talk ourselves out of something that will be difficult and long. Seeing it through is just usually a matter of working through the problems faced along the way.

Admittedly, most of my problems start by never getting past point A. Careers, women, purchasing a dog are all big decisions that require getting over a hump. Most of the time I probably roll back down. Crawl back into my teeny shell, and stay in my comfort zone.

What I learned

This little journey has kind of come to a weird conclusion. I would just like to recap some of the things I learned along the way. These are not all of the lessons, but they are some of the ones that stick out in my head.

1. Patience- This may be the most difficult thing to really achieve. I am still not patient, but I have learned that like most things it requires practice and confidence. For me patience really means "SLOW DOWN". I am still young, and I have a lot of things going in the right direction. My problems are trivial, and I'll figure things out. While I may have rushed into this trip, I don't need to rush into anything.

2. Do things- You can sit on your ass and think about what you wanna do, and you can tell people what your are going to do, but if you never actually do it your just kind of jerking off. The only expectations you have to live up to are your own and maybe the 15-20 people who have really vested interest in what you do. Those people really just want you to find something that makes you happy, they don't care if your a badass Navy SEAL, or a kindergarten teacher. You can talk about what you would be good at, but you have to try it to really find out. In the words of Yoda, "Do or do not, there is no try"

3. Focus- If you really want to be good at something it requires a long time. Deliberate practice and years of it will add up. Rod Stewart, before he pooped his pants, sang a great song about "wishing he knew then what he knows now". Well at leas I know that things take a lot of hard work. I still haven't really figured out what I want to "master", but I know I love to train, and play sports. When I do figure out what I want I'll try to get as good as I can.

4.Things are what you make them- This trip was going to be me hitting a bunch of Crossfit Gyms. I love Crossfit- style training, but I realize now that it is not the end all. Have fun doing what your doing, and make quality a big part of that. I came to Catalyst for many reasons, Olympic Lifting was one, but the biggest was the fact they kind of fell of the Crossfit bandwagon. Long story short their emphasis was on quality training, and some amount of individualization in program. Good business takes the individual into account. You can't just throw up a random "one-size fits all" model for everyone to follow. Every athlete has different needs. This is analogous to business and life in many ways. Further, pursuing quality in just about any endeavor can lead to success if you are truly concerned with your practice.

5.Pay attention- You can learn a lot if you just Look, and pay attention. Get the fuck off your iphone, puter, or whatever and just take things in every once in a while. It's amazing what you can figure out.

6. Life requires agression- You have to go out and get things. This seems contradictory to the first thing I learned, but life is one big contradiction. One of my favorite cues from Greg Everett is "you can't fuck around". The Olympic lifts are precise and violent. You can't phone them in. Most encounters in life require some amount of civil aggresion. Be courteous and respectful, but don't let others walk all over you.

7. Humility- somewhere there is someone working in a grocery store who is 5 times smarter than you. Be thankful for the opportunities your family has given you.

8. Living space matters- My brother, who is an architect, said to me, "you did everything right, except you messed up your living arrangement". Where I lived served its purpose, but I probably should have found a more hospitable home. Comfortable living can make loneliness a bit less lonely, and your life as a whole a lot better. I feel awful for people who don't have a safe place to sleep at night.

9. Be good to your family, and friends- you never know when your going to develop a cyst in your butt. Be thankful for the people that give a damn about you, and give a damn about them, because people are the only thing that really matter, besides maybe in-n-out.

Things I like

Oprah has her "Favorite things", and I have my "shit" I like. This the first installment, and it is brought to you by breakfast food. Breakfast is the first meal of the deal. You are literally "breaking the fast" so the heartier the better. Your body has rejuvenated itself by getting a healthy amount of rest, and depleted your fuel reserves. Sleep does the body good, and deep sleep has the ability to elicit human growth hormones along with other hormones that help you recover and get stronger. If you are training and eating properly good sleep can increase performance a great deal.

Breakfast is awesome. Mostly, because of the fact that any meal can become "breakfast", but only some foods are deemed "breakfast foods". In particular these are things like bacon, eggs, and the possibilty of other meats like sausage, or steak.

That's a pretty delicous mustache. Aside from the standard delivery system of some type of plate or bowl a tortilla can be used to wrap said bacon and eggs for a whole new meat and egg delivery vehicle. Throw some salsa on that and you have a quality mexican breakfast.

Seriously, a rule in weightlifting is that you can't execute a lift properly by starting from a poor position. Breakfast is like starting your day in the right position. Eggs, bacon, and some other type of meat are the correct position. Not eating breakfast is like throwing in the towel for the whole day. Unless you are not eating breakfast because of the possibility of brunch. If so good form. Don't take from me though. Take it from my hero slash, slightly slimmer father, Ron Swanson.

Bites You in the Ass

Admittedly, I was thinking of returning to the midwest at the end of May. Driving home was going to be another fun little road trip. Unfortunately, I little pain in my arse is cutting my trip a little shorter than I expected. HAHA I really am crawling back to mommy and daddy. I was a little distrought having a weird pain on my tailbone, and not being able to sit and sleep is not a fun deal. Being 2000 miles away from anyone I would feel comfortable looking at my butt is also not a good feeling.

I will look on the positive side of this whole ordeal. I did something by the seat of my pants, and why you fly by the seat of your pants for tool long your ass is sure to take a hit. How exactly I got a cyst in my fannie I will never be able to know. I know that I was doing a lot of lifting and work. Further, my living arrangements probably were not the most convienient for someone of my activity level. You live and learn. STILL THE ORDEAL IS A BIT EMBAR-ASSING, but I will laugh about it later.

I have learned a lot in the past two months. A great deal of it about myself. Still, I needed a great deal of help from my family, thanks mom, the people at Catalyst Athletics have been really cool. I still don't know exactly where I want to go from here. That's not a big deal. I'll figure it out. The most important thing seems to be the fact that you just gotta experiment with stuff, see what works, what doesn't, and then go from there.

I am a confused, yet eager young man. I see this as a good thing. You have to be actively thinking and working on yourself to be confused. Further, the fact that I am eager shows that I care about the person I am going to become.  Hopefully I have made some connections that will benefit me in the future.

Talent Is Overrated

I just finished reading Geoff Colvin's Talent is Overrated. The book seeks to debunk the idea of innate ability, and god given talent. Instead, Colvin puts the emphasis on great amounts of practice. Specifically, what is known as deliberate practice. The book seeks to show that success and great achievement is more a product of extremely hard work and less about what we so often call talent.

The book touches on the idea of 10 years or 10,000 hours of practice to mastery of a skill. Colvin uses analogies to sports, business, the arts, and just about any field where we percieve someone's achievement as a gift. If nothing else the book gives hope to all who believe that they are cannot get better. Colvin lays out the idea of deliberate practice in order to help others get better in any particular field.

Deliberate practice is probably not a foreign idea. The idea of practice is the first thing that comes to our heads when we want to get better at something. That being said a lot of us, myself included, phone in our practice and just go through the motions. While we may make some gains the end product will not be great achievement. Think about how many people go play golf. Every round is practice, but if you are not actively focusing on how you are hitting each shot, and why the way you hit this shot will effect you in the future then your practice is not really deliberate.

Deliberate practice is Tiger Wood's burying a ball in the sand and hitting that shot over and over again, maybe a thousand times. Knowing that he may only see that shot in actual competition two times a year, but if he can get that shot right he can make other shots in similar situations. Deliberate practice is hard, focused, and exhausting. Good violinists, chess players, and business moguls practice their craft actively for hours on end- sacrificing a lot of things in order to achieve their goals.

Colvin shows that starting early is a definite benefit. Examples of Mozart, Woods, and other child phenoms show that success at an early age, with continued practice and drive, allows great performance at an early age. Still, others, particularly in business fields, may have started later, but they were still able to achieve a great deal.

Colvin has two main points. One is that success and great achievement is a matter of many factors. Hard work, a strong continued drive to succeed, and the nurturing circumstances needed to support the first two. Second, is the fact that we can all get better if we incorporate the ideas of great success into our everyday lives. The main point being that if we practice deliberately, and focus on improvement we can get better at our jobs, sports, and art.

Institutionalized

A couple of the "crew members" at TRADER JOE'S were discussing how long they had been working there yesterday. They both claimed to be "institutionalized" after their 8-10 years of working there. It made me think about the fact that I had been working there a month, and I was already looking forward to getting out.

I don't know how people do what they do. If nothing else this little bout of fringe living has left me completely humbled by other people. I must be a pretty big bitch to want to actually enjoy my job. You can learn a lot by just paying attention to the people or situations that you would have otherwise overlooked. More often than not there is somebody making a lot less than you, that didn't go to college, but they probably have the same skill set, if not more skills than you. The only thing that may seperate you two is the support you recieved from others, a single choice you made when you were 18-19, or some amount of luck.

To be honest I think luck is not that random. Good things usually come to those who have prepared well. Still, the notion of being "institutionalized" by Trader Joe's is probably more accurate than we realize. Life is a series of cycles. I think life is chaotic enough as it is that we try to control our situations as much as possible. While these guys are smart enough and hard working enough to find other work they have grown comfortable with their situation and see changing it as a risky task.

This is something that happens quite a bit in many parts of our lives. Government is one area that comes to my mind. Elected officials often "go along to get along", and nothing really gets done. Change is hard, really hard. Especially when the direction is unclear. I know that I am a lot more comfortable when I know I have a deadline, or a finishing point. Things are easy when you can see the finish line, but constantly working towards an end you aren't really sure of is a difficult endeavor.

Really there is no way of knowing how life will end up. You can only give it your best shot. Hopefully, without getting to institutionalized along the way.

Take Your Own Advice

I should probably go in to the incredible field of "life coaching". I have trouble taking my own advice, but I am happy to hand it out. Yesterday, I set a timeline, or probably better phrased as a plan, for the next few weeks. This spawned out of my need to do something different, and get the hell out of Muscavegas, Iowa, the best part of it has been the lifting and me just making things happen as the come. Learning to slow down is difficult.

I guess it spawns from my inability to run fast. For that reason I tried to beat everybody else in other things. Overcompensating for my inability to beat them in foot race. While moving out here permanently may not be in the picture for a bit, and maybe never- who the hell knows, I have still learned a lot about myself and a sport I really love doing. Eventually, I would like to teach that sport to others. Even as I type this I have sent an email to my former advisor asking "how long will it take me to get a teacher accreditation. I'll never learn.

I am a weird dude. A-social at times, but I love being the center of attention. Impatient as hell, but I'll wait for things if I really need to. Smart, yet constantly confused. I have made some cool connections out here, but I find myself thinking about some of the connections I have blown in the past, by fading away and not keeping in touch. Maybe that is life, maybe it's me. Overall I think that if I have learned anything at all on this trip it's to trust myself. Things usually have a way of working out.

It's Friday, another week down. I got a bunch more Friday's in my future, but Stephen Colbert makes this one a bit better.

Afraid Again

A lot can happen in a few days. Sunday I was extremely optimistic. Today, I've let the left side of my brain set in, and I am queasy and scared. I don't think I'm ready to live out here long term. Especially, in my current state. It is most likely the insecurity of my situation that is causing my anxieties. The disappointments of the last few days have made me realize that I am not as independent as I thought. 2000 miles away from my family is a long way for me. Especially when I look at my housing prospects while earning ten dollars an hour.

Am I just a huge pansy? I don't want to try to rationalize my fears. There are a lot of other people who have struggled a lot more than me, and they overcome a great deal to live everyday. My problems are trivial in the giant scope of things. If I decide to go home am I a failure? Maybe.

After saying I won't rationalize my fears I am going to rationalize my fears. What do I want? I believe now that I have been running away from a lot of things. The past few weeks I have seen that I can be happy doing many things, but that doesn't make up for the fact that I would like to be near my family. I am probably just lonely overall. It's my fault for not being more proactive, but I guess I don't know where to start. I usually made friends through some type of team, but while the weightlifting crew is a fun one, most of the people are older than me and have their own lives to deal with.

This trip started out rather crazily. It has only been two months, but it has been really memorable. For that I am thankful. At this point in time I am going to stay for a bit longer, compete in a lifting meet at the end of May and then road trip a little bit before I head back home.

Am I backing down from chaos. Probably, but at this point in time I feel that I can go after my future in a more productive manner a little closer to home. Failure? Yes. Total defeat? No.

Knowing What You Want

Disappointment has a funny way of making you want things. The feeling of not getting something seems to solidify the need for it. I was recently turned down for a Teach For America position. The email I was given was rather ambiguous and it simply said you don't fulfil our needs at this time. I applied in the fourth wave, the last one, and the areas I chose were probably pretty popular spots. That could have played a big part of the denial. Maybe, I will reapply the next go around. For the time being I will say what I say to all women who turn me down "it's your loss babe".

Knowing what we want hard to identify. So many things are just emotional responses that can shift from day to day. The experience has made me realize that I think I want to become a teacher. Still, I am an impulisive moron so I'll give that sentiment a bit of time before I dig into it.

Right now I am finding it hard to live California lifestyle at $10 dollars per hour. The problem is that "totally awesome dude" doesn't get you a lot of job offers. On the upside the weightlifting has been great and I am learning a lot. That is the one constant that has held. I know I want to do it, and I am attacking it to the best of my ability. If only a career was the same.

Maybe I am just bitching. How many people really get to do what they really want? I know my father would probably like to have farmed. My mother has done a great deal without even going to college, but a great deal of it was probably not what she "wanted". The one thing that seems to come through is that you do what you can to make some money, and then find happiness the best you can.

Like Pearl, I just want my money.

Confidence

Like many things in life that are perceived traits possessed by some who are "born with it" confidence, like talent, is an interesting concept. It is a fragile thing, but a factor that can make or break us. With it life can be just a bit easier. We know that we can overcome the problems ahead of us, and the variables in life seem a bit less daunting. Without it success is difficult. Little problems seem to compound, keeping us from reaching new heights. The thing about confidence is that it is a skill. One that can be practiced and constructed.

Confidence is analogous to many other things that we practice in life. It is ingrained in the many things we do for work and play. Continually practicing our skills with humility and deliberate focus on making corrections for improvement lead to a making ourselves a little bit better every day. In Weightlifting you don't come into the gym on the first day and expect to snatch 100 kilos. Your first round of golf isn't going to be 18 birdies. You come in expecting to find your starting point, realizing that your goal from that day forward is to get a little bit better in some form.

In some ways the concept of confidence can become paradoxical. One day you will hit a wall. A wall you "knew" you would get over, but when it came time to cross you failed. That ball that had been rolling steadily for some time began to turn back at you. At this time you may have to start over. This is one of the things that is so difficult in life. Starting over is perceived to be a total loss, a waste of time, you have failed. In reality you haven't as long as you learned along the way. Confidence is knowing that a reset will one day be required, but you will be able to push through your plateaus.

There are a lot things that an individual can do to build there confidence. The power of positive self talk can go a long way. Others around you may praise you or disdain you, but in most cases its one's own beliefs that make the difference. That being said don't stifle people. You never know what someone is capable of.

"Believe in yourself, because if you don't, who will?"

Success

It has occured to me that my titles are somewhat misleading. Further, my labels at the bottom of the page can lead intraweb viewers astray as well. This is a quick post regarding getting more hits on your blog. Include gratuitous amounts of quasi-pornographic language. My numbers of hits have doubled! Thank you to all those perverts out there. I hope reading about my awesome experiences has brightened your day.

REAL TALK

America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, bad-ass speed. - Eleanor Roosevelt

Above is a quote by the great Eleanor Roosevelt. That is "real talk". So much of our talk is not real at all. A bunch of bull is what it is. We have so many layers of fluff that it's hard to see what exactly is going on. Most of our news coverage is one big mess of "information" which is about as useful as a "poopy flavored lolly-pop".  All the while our government and military either think we are too smart to be told the truth or too dumb to really care.

I will use the recent military strikes in Libya as an example. What is this intervention, or in the words of Sarah Palin "squirmish", what exactly are we doing?  Some leaders are calling it a "kinetic military action". Great, I'm glad that we are moving around while blowing stuff up. Overall, the picture that seems to be repeated by the United States Government is that we have numerous double standards, and we will use the language we deem appropriate to uphold those standards.

This is a vicious cycle. If the truth was what we were really getting most American's wouldn't know how to react. Government is a strange contradiction. Most of the time those most fit to lead shy away realizing the problems associated with the job. Much like everyday life you seem to be "damned if you do, and damned if you don't". Someone will always be there to criticize, like me right meow,. Those willing to accept this and lead anyway have on some level sacrificed their desire for good government with a desire for control.

While real talk is so difficult to get at is exactly why it's so necessary. When confronted with actual truth we either correct it or we back away. Continually spoon feeding ourselves what one NBC anchorwoman refered to as "a poop-sandwich", my brother loves those, just keeps us in the dark. I am not proposing America's demise, but if we want to continue our tradition of Hot, Nasty, Bad-Ass speed we better get real.

Guns, Germs, and Steel

There are a lot of things in life that when finished one thinks to themselves "need to do that again". Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel is one of those things for me. I didn't space the whole thing off, but I found myself straying from the page quite a bit. Most of this was inspired by Diamond. The book is thought provoking, and a lot of my random wanderings were inspired by the books contents. It is an incredibly well constructed work on this history of human civilization. It starts with one question and breaks off into dozens more, all the while Diamond weaves you through human history. The question being "why do some societies develop so much "cargo" while others have so little?"

In the context of the question, which was presented to Diamond by a New Guinea man, "cargo" refers to goods or what boils down to technology. The answer, it's complicated. The title is indicative of what many people contribute to the conquering of one group of people over another. Guns, germs, and steel played large roles in the conquering of the America's. Still, that is a few steps down the road. How is that the European nations were able to acquire those good before the Incas or other civilizations of the Americas. It seems that where you end is very dependent on you start.

Geography has played a big part in human evolution. This is something we probably all take for granted. The environment around us is a contributor to the needs for innovation, and how we live our lives. Diamond shows that the development of food production drove many groups of people forward. Still, others stayed behind. This is greatly dependent on the environment people lived in. The animals that lived around them also contributed to the equation. Many of the domesticated animals that we have today originated in a few areas. These areas are places like the fertile crescent and China. Areas that have developed more quickly than places like Australia, or Southern Africa where many of the animals are not easily domesticated.

Aside from food production many places on earth are easier to travel than others. Travel by peoples results in the dissemination of information. Societies are built by information, and the control of it. Technology is developed communally by the tinkering of persons piggy-backing off of others. In areas of the world where it is hard to travel and interact with other people information did not spread the same way that it did where people could connect with other groups.

Diamond conveys the fact that every human society is smart. So racist beliefs about the development of peoples don't really hold through. People are as smart as they need to be. Much of the development of human societies is circumstance. "What is the best way to survive in my circumstance?" Based on that question people and societies evolved at different rates because of the world around them mixed with human instinct.


In summation-read again.

Or are we just jerking off?

Oh, Lord! Do We Have The Strength? Or Are We Just Jerking Off? Sound Clip and Quote

What you don't here in this quote is the "Amen" as if to assert the fact that humans never totally know whether the juice will be worth the squeeze. It is a question that fills our heads constantly. What's the point? Why even try? It ain't gonna happen.

The inspiration for this post comes from a pretty trivial observation that I have made. I don't want to take it too far, but it can be analogous to life on a greater level. When customers bring in their "green" bags to Trader Joe's we hand out raffle tickets. If the customer wants the tickets they can write their name and number on the back, and drop it into a box for a chance to win a $25 dollar gift card which is drawn for every week. Many people take them, and I tend to hand out a bunch. Still, there are quite a few others who say "No, thanks. I never win."

I am not going to go as far as saying these people are pessimistic, downers, and have no hope for the future. It just occurs to me that they have nothing to lose, everything to gain, and they still don't go for it. There is no loss of time. You can fill it out and drop it off while I am scanning and bagging your nine things of hummus and 17 bags of seaweed snack, don't eat this, and you can win $25 towards your next purchase of soymilk and lowfat pretzels, again NO.

"I never win". You can't win if you don't give it a shot. I can understand qualms against the lottery, but this is not gambling. You brought in the bags so you have nothing to lose. Life is not about going around and seeing other people do, and win, thinking that it only happens to that guy. Grab that bull by its horns and wrestle it to the ground, grill it up, and throw some hummus on that I don't care. Just no seaweed snacks.

What I am getting at is the fact that there are many things in life we don't do for no good reason. I am a victim of not trying many things for stupid reasons. At the most you will embarass yourself, but that is a minor issue compared to never stepping out of your shell in the first place. I don't regret the stupid things I have done. I just try to learn from them.

Without the desire to give things a chance in life we are all "just jerking off".

The Pull

There are countless views on any single subject. Moments of clarity often come from hearing things in a new way, and seeing things done differently. I have learned a lot about the sport of Olympic Lifting in a pretty short time. Much of it from the keen eye of coaches. Still, nothing totally sinks in until something clicks in our own heads. I have always known that the lifts are considered pulling movements, but I have never really thought about how the bar is pulling against the lifter. That occurence has come to me in the past few weeks.

The Olympic lifts in their simplest terms are considered pulling exercises. The athlete is pulling a weight through a given range, and pulling their body around the path of the bar. There is no singular way to do it, but positioning is key to success. The weight the athlete is trying to move is trying to pull the lifter out of the proper position. In effect the lifts are a quick tug of war that is over in a matter of 1-2 seconds. If the weight is succesfully lifted you win, if not, you lose.

This pulling match has been how I have thought about the lifts for the past few sessions. Before I guess I was just trying to get the weights up. Now I try and visualize the whole movement before each lift, let it sink in, and then start the match. This visualization has helped me dial in the aggression necessary to win each tug of war, or at least continue to make progress.

Aggression is a key component of the Olympic lifts. Without it lifts will be slow at worst, and a great deal of the time unsuccesful. I have never been a ra-ra type of dude. I like to take care of business and make it look like I've been in a situation before, even if I haven't. Aggression has also never been my strong suit. I have never been in a fight, and even in sports it would take a punch in the mouth, or a kick to the groin, before I let out my aggression. Now, I try to approach the bar knowing that it is pulling against me. Trying to keep me from achieving my goals. Just like many things, trivial as my problems may be, outside of the gym try to pull me away from my goals. With that in hand I get in position and I go.

If

 If

By: Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Everytime I read this I get the prickly feeling down the back of my neck. It's a big if. and if it were easy it wouldn't be nearly as rewarding.

Music

I listen to music quite a bit. I am not musically talented, and I have never really tried to be. For that reason I admire people who put the time and effort into playing instruments. I have no real critique on music. I like classic rock, indie, metal, alternative, county, etc. etc. I respect musicians and artists who do what they love first and worry about the money second. Pop music is filled with songs that sound, and are in many ways just regurgitations of other songs.

To some extent my take on music is a lot like my take on life. Just make what feels right, what you can be proud of, and something you enjoyed doing. Things will work there way out from there. Too often entertainment is simply pushed on us by some outside influence. I try to listen and then think about it.

Today most of our music is lyrical. This is probably different than the way music has been for most of human history. Before lyrics music was just sound. Open to the interpretation of the listener. Let your imagination take over. It is amazing how sound - put together well- can create such emotional appeal.

Get Real

I am constantly questioning myself. This is not to say that I lack confidence. Still, there are so many events during the day that cause me to question myself. Whether it is trivial things like the fact that I forget my bananas at the register on Monday, (did you remember everything?) or major things like "where in the hell am I headed?". I am about a month and a half into this adventure, and I am finding myself questioning whether or not this is real. No, not some Matrix like phenomena, but more of a "are you, David Hagerty, really in California for the sole purpose of lifting weights?"

The interesting thing about this question in particular is the easy answer that follows. YES. There are few questions in my life that are so easily answered, and few that I am so happy to assert. Others include- Do you love your family, of course without them I wouldn't have made it very far. What is your favorite food? -Easy- GIVE ME ALL THE EGGS AND BACON YOU HAVE.

I guess I have always been someone who is somewhat all or nothing. If I am going to go to school, be on a team, or do just about anything my level of committment is indicated early on. If I am in, I'll be there Ass in Seat 100%. It is usually a matter of crossing that initial threshold.

I think a lot about transferability. I had a discussion with my brother over the summer about the topic. He told me how he tries to integrate his previous knowledge into every new endeavor that he commits too. Transfering our olds skills to new tasks is something that we all do. The fact that he thinks about what he is doing now and how it may help him in the future shows a great amount of foresight. One of my first blogs was about going out and DOING. Calming the voice in your head that "asks what's this for" can be overcome by, so beautifully put by Nike, "just doing it". You'll figure out why it was important down the road.

Say what you want about Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the man is a great example of transferability. Grit is one word that comes to mind, another may or may not be growth hormone, nonetheless the dude's story is stuff of legend. Life, liberty, and the pursuit.........

Dark Places

There is nothing like the DMV to suck out the life force of an individual. Iowa's were am unfortunate experience. California's are like a dank hole in which you are lucky to escape. Ok, they are not that bad. What they are is an amazing representation of bureacracy, and a nice little gouge from good  ol' government. Today was yet another experience that lead me to think about the cost of everything around us.

The RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH!

 

Yesterday I was asked a question during an interview. The question was essentially "how do you overcome adversity". My answer was pretty straightforward, and it is simple. I have learned from my parents, my brothers, and many other people around me that solving problems is a matter of work. I think I used to expect things to solve themselves. Now, I realize that it is important to be active, think, and go get what you need to get in order to keep things moving forward. 

It is easy to get frustrated at a place like the DMV. Nothing is too big of a set back to recover from. Keeping and calm and having some patience can take you a long way towards solving any issue. As crazy as Jimmy McMillan may be he does have one quality that is important. He recognizes that the RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH and he's gonna work to provide for his party.

CF Olympic Lifting Cert

This past weekend I attended a Crossfit Olympic lifting certification in Santa Cruz. This certification is conducted by Mike Burgener, and his staff. Coach Burgener has been coaching the Olympic lifts for decades, and he does a tremendous job of getting people interested and fired up about the sport. His methods break the lifts into simple exercises. The Olympic lifts are incredibly technical and they take a a great amount of time to master. A two day certification has a limited scope, and Coach Burgener is the first to tell you this, but the cert provides a good starting point for persons interested in Olympic lifting.

The Olympic lifts are position intensive. What I mean by this is the fact that you must move through a series of positions with consistency in order to progress in the sport. If you start in correctly you can't finish correctly. While everyone is anatomically different there are general guidelines that can be adapted to teach the Snatch and Clean and Jerk to anyone that can jump.

There are a thousand ways to skin the cat so to speak, but the effectiveness of a coach and their training program is measured by the quality of their athletes. Coach Burgener does a great job of getting people to feel the positions associated with the Olympic lifting. Flexibility is a key component of the Olympic lifts. In essence finding correct positions is stretching, or ingraining, the proper motor recruitment into your memory. Constantly working to move properly is essential for the Olympic lifts. This takes time. Two days of coaching will not get of athlete straightened out. Nonetheless, the simplistic nature of the course allows athletes to break it down to square one and develop with the due diligence the lifts deserve.

One important thing I have learned from this trip so far is the importance of good coaching. I have realized just how good of parents I have had. I have been lucky to find a gym with quality coaching. Mr. Everett is an excellent teacher, but even more than that he is an excellent student of the sport. Coach Burgener seems to be the same way. He learns from his athletes. While two days may be way to short of time frame to master the Olympic lifts, realistically you should multiple those days by about a thousand, two days of good coaching can get athletes even more passionate about the sport. Further, I find that when I learn a little it just makes me even more curious. So two days can lead into that 2000.

Arbitrary to Ingrained

It is interesting look out how things start out as arbitrary, or even counterproductive, measures can become ingrained parts of our everyday lives. There are many things that we do as individuals, and as a society that were at one point just an arbitrary decision. While we do look to improve upon many aspects of our everyday lives there are some ingrained components that just we have just decided work, because "that's how we always do it".

Jared Diamond touches on this issue in Guns, Germs, and Steel. Here is an article he wrote tha explains The Curse of the QWERTY keyboard a little bit more.

QWERTY


What I take away is the fact that even counterproductive measures can be implemented to reach productive capacities. So with a more efficient keyoard I could have typed this post in half the time. Still, to change the keyboard setup at this juncture would seem like a great inconvenience.

Owning It

I did a survey for the gym out here that will go on their blog. It was a "get to know so and so" type of deal.  One of the questions was do you have any nicknames. I put Tiny David, but I also included my more infamous nickname. The Candyman. Now this is a slightly embarrassing name, but it is a good example how making fun of oneself and owning up to things often makes light of an issue.

In first grade we sat in tables of four, two people facing two other people, I sat across from two girls that I would continue to know until graduation. At this age I kind of took the "parts is parts" mentality to human anatomy. So when asked to show my doodle for some candy I didn't think twice. I can't recall if I got in trouble at the time, but down the line the girls remembered. In the middle school years I vehemently denied the accusations. It was embarrassing. Warning video is not work friendly, or child friendly, it's probably not friendly at all.

As High School hit the story came back around once again. While it was still embarrassing I owned up to it, because more than anything it was pretty funny. Instead of becoming a big deal the story inspired a nickname, The Candyman.

In many situations, political, social, and personal honesty seems to often be the overlooked possibility. A lot of times owning up to something can take the power away from the individuals/party that wants to use it against you. While this is not an absolute rule in most cases honesty goes a long way towards solving the problem.

Exception- Charlie Sheen is owning his "Winning" lifestyle, and we are still broadcasting him 24/7. The reasons for this are because A-we think he is a moron and like publicly watching it, and B- media tends to focus a lot on trivial nonsense like this because they have to report on something to maintain a 24 hour news cycle.

Long story short the owning it is......duh winning.

Progress

I just googled "inciting beard growth" The results were not promising. "What to take for Femal Hair Loss", and "Laser Hair removal" were the top results. Some things that I want are out of my reach at the moment. A beard is amongst them, but there are always things to do to work towards a beautiful beard.

A common phrase heard during athletic practices is that you "you can get better, you can get worse, but you can't stay the same". The idea of the status quo grips a lot of people. Another phrase I heard while studying politics is that many politicians "go along to get along". In other words they just save face in order to hold onto their jobs. If I can achieve nothing else in life I hope to constantly work toward progress. Whether it be in career, sport, marriage, or whatever I will try not get to satisfied.

It is not to say that there should be no satisfaction in our achievement. The achievement is a good thing, but it is just a part of the journey. The idea of the status quo is another thing that I think is misconceptualized. The status quo is something that can be part of progression. At some point in life you will reach the top of the hill. In Olympic Weightlifting their will be a time when a lifter will no longer be able to progress. After that progress becomes fighting off degeneration for as long as you can. In this instance maintenance becomes a battle. Progress is made by a continued fight against time and gravity.

Getting better everyday is a matter of learning a bit more with every endeavor. You may not run a 5k as fast as you did last week, but if you are actively looking to improve you can find some way to critique yourself in order to improve. While today my facial hair may have only grown a bit, tomorrow I will look to massage some eucalyptsus oil onto my face in hopes of making progress.

Oh this song has been stuck in my head for about a week. Maybe I can get it stuck in the four people who read this head's.

Do you have any horny?

I spent a few minutes with a nice old foreign lady trying to decipher what she wanted.

"Do you have any hornet, hornaaay, horny?"

I didn't know if she had some peanut butter stuck to the roof of her mouth or what? Luckily she was not looking for horny, but after she described that it was sweet, and came from Biiiiz I was able to figure it out.
Unfortunately, and probably fortunately, we don't all speak the same language. Even when we do speak the same language we don't really speak the same language. Communicating effectively is important for so many reasons. Clarifying language is probably the first step in getting productivity. More often than not our problems are created from A- lack of communication, or B- not clarifying what someone needs.

There are six billion people on this planet. Each one has their own way of doing things and their own interpretations. Often, the root of our problems is simply not taking the time to clarify ourselves. One of my new co-workers is deaf. He has his own system of sign language that he uses with his co-workers. It takes time to learn his ways. I am sure the guy is constantly frustrated whenever he has to teach a new guy to understand him. Yet, he is incredibly patient. If someone doesn't get something then he repeats the process and tries to make himself more clear in one way or another.

Communication is two sided. I could have just told the old lady that we did not have any horny. I could have just ran and found somebody else to pass her off on, but I tried to give it a few minutes and work through it. Eventually, she got her honey.

The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead was given to me by my older brother a few years ago. I finished reading it this past week. After making it about three hundred pages into it I fell off. It wasn't lack of an interesting story. Some other things got in the way and I have read a few other titles in between. The amazing thing is that I picked up were I left off with the vivid imagery of the characters still prevalent in my mind. The Fountainhead is engrossing and incredibly well constructed. A review of the book does not do it justice, so I will just give a brief note on what I got out of reading it.

The book centers around the profession of architecture. In particular the protagonist is an architect by the name of Howard Roark. Rand goes into great detail with all her character descriptions. Reading each paints a vivid picture in the reader's mind. Simply, put Roark is talented, and uncompromising. He is egotistical, not in the arrogant way we commonly associate to ego, but instead in the fact that he believes in his own process, his work, and his creation. His fight is to work in a world where everything has become the work of the collective. Buildings are graded on their incorporation of historical aspects of architecture, and not on the creativity and efficiency of the work.

This creates a world where anything deemed "good" is just a recreation of the past. No new forms of creativity can truly break through because they don't adhere to what the collective has deemed appropriate. It is the dilemma of the creative process, and why true art can be so hard to create. Truly unique works of art look to cater to no one except the creator. Too often we judge something to be good because someone else has said so. In Roark's eyes this is just being a "second-hander" or a follower of the masses.

The Fountainhead is set in the early Twentieth Century. Rand's anti-socialist sentiments comes through in many parts of the book. I honestly don't know where to stand in terms of collective action versus individual liberty. One thing that I think stands out in my mind is the fact that Roark was the most happy character in the book. His internal confidence came from the fact that he knew what drove him, his creative process, and he did not care about the opinion of others. This is part of Rand's belief in her own philosophy of "objectivism" which prescribes what is known as ethical egoism.

Ethical egoism is essentially the belief that we can act in our own self interest without being amoral. What we often perceive as selfishness can be desirable traits. It is a laissez-faire mentality. Today we can see laissez-faire in harsh tones. Greed, manipulation, and exploitation are things that come to mind. In it's truest form free trade was meant to be transactions between two parties where the rights of both were held in high regard. Roark is a testament to liberty. His works are built at the will of his employer in the manner most befitting. Without his total control of the process the work ceases to be his, and his own integrity is lost.


In summation I would simply see to read this book at some point. If nothing else for the fact that it makes you think a lot about the world around you. How much do we really know? How much of the world around us is spoon fed? What do I like and why do I like it? I'm not saying to be a selfish bastard like the people of Portlandia, just find a balance between your collective and individual selves.

OH YEA!

I have been going through the application process for "Teach for America" the last few weeks. Yesterday, I submitted my transcripts from Iowa State. With my transcript I had to fill out a "transcript key". This was a semester by semester description of my official transcript. It is intended to give some insight into what classes you took during your college career. As I filled in each semester class by class I realized how fast time flies.

I can remember some of my first experiences in classes at Iowa State. My introductory English class with Ghinwa Alameen, and a guy that sat next to me known as Chuck Sample. At the time I had deemed that his name fit well because he was in fact a pretty solid sample of a tool. Now I realize that he was probably not so bad. At the time I was probably the bigger d-bag. Young, insecure and rooted in my high school ways. I have sense become a lot more personable and confident.

As I entered in the data I realized just how little I stopped to smell the coffee. I don't think graduating early was a bad thing, and too often it takes people too long to sift through the BS of their Bachelor's, but I probably could have let myself enjoy school a bit more. I always liked class, but I didn't really start having fun until I began playing rugby. I met a lot of good guys, was competitive, and actually got out and socialized with new people. If I would have started playing as a freshman I probably wouldn't have graduated early. This is a good example of how things often work themselves out in a pretty good way.

The biggest thing I take away from looking back is the fact that most of the time you never really know where you can head. Four years I ago, maybe even four months ago, I would have never said that I would be in Mountain View, California working at a grocery store. That being said, here I am enjoying the weird twist life has taken. Many people can get caught up in the uncertainty of life. I have this problem as well. I deal with it by being optimistic. Uncertainty is opportunity. While bad things can and will happen there is always something to be gained. Something to learn. Opportunity to turn hardship into success.

I look at myself four years ago and see the gains I have made in that amount of time. I think about myself four years from now and I am excited to see where I will be.

Perspective

Yesterday I began a modest new job. My first day at an area Trader Joe's introduced me to the super market world. I "secured" the "perimeter" for a good deal of my eight hour shift. The perimeter is essentially the produce, meats, and dried goods around the outside of the store. It was interesting to learn that Trader Joe's has most of the perimeter foods delivered on a daily basis. So there is a lot of work to be done to check dates, and "work" the perimeter.

My new coworkers were friendly and pretty laid back, yet constantly doing something. I began to pick up on some of the lingo. I was informed to "always take my ten", one of two ten minute paid breaks you get during a shift, "I see some people not taking their ten when they start here. Take it, it's Yours !"

Honestly, it's not a bad gig. I don't think any ladies will be loving up on me for my four digit income any time soon, but thats the least of my concerns. Many of the workers seem to realy like their jobs, and are really glad to have a job at all. I think it will be an interesting and different experience. I have never had a job like this so I will take it as a good learning experience. If nothing else it will give me perspective. Sometimes the best way to figure out what you don't want to do is to just do many diferent things.

My problem has always been, to some extent, wanting to try so many things while not actually trying them. At least this job will give me some perspective and help guide me to something I really want to do. Finally, TJ's does a good job of helping customers. Everyone can stand to bone up on their people skills.

Sometimes You Just Gotta Look

All too often the answers are right in front of our noses. WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT.

 

Finishing

When I think about finishing things I first go back and think about starting them. When does something really begin? At the first thought that pops into your head, or when it begins to substantiate in some material form? It is easy to say that starting something is "easy", and at other times it is easy to say that it is "hard". What is finishing then?

I just finished a book I started two years ago. I was stuck at page 284 until last Sunday. Today as I came to the end at page 700 I felt the joy of finishing. I have done this many times. The next book lined up is Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. I think I started it about six years ago. I have read the first twenty-five pages somewhere between eight and nine times, and I will probably do it again today.

Finishing is achievement. It is the reward for the effort. The end. In reality, it is just another start. To talk of finishing is the recognition that something else must now be started. We don't finish things to just finish things. Instead, we finish things to move on. This often occurs without realizing it, but it should be realized. Finality, is not really final at all, because it is essential to continue to build. If something is really final it is an oppressing reality in which we deny ourselves the lessons learned by the pursuit.

With that bit of enlightening rambling out of the way I will continue on to a more important matter. The finishing of a quart of Mississippi Mud.

I realized last night that I had not had a beer in a while. I went and purchased this little brown jug in hopes of being able to play on the street later if the job front doesn't pick up. The combination of dark and light beer pleased my palate. Upon finishing it I was sad to see there was no more, but I am confident that finishing this was not the end.

Reading

Lieutenant Commander La Forge loves to read

Reading is an instrumental part of conveying information. It is easy to take for granted the amount one can learn from a book. I have grown to enjoy reading more and more. It is a skill just like any other. It takes time, patience, and the understanding that you get a little bit better with every page you read.

Every book is another opportunity. If you walk into a bookstore it easy to see just how much is out there. Like life there are an almost infinite amount of directions to go in. Learn to cook, learn about economics, journey into a fantasy. It is interesting to see that when people have told me to read I have shyed away from it. As I have matured I have become better about finishing the readings assigned to myself. Further, there is so much to do in a normal life, where you actually have a job, family, or things to do, that reading can take a back seat. It may be unrealistic to dedicate a great deal of one's time to reading.

That being said the one thing I think is unique to reading as opposed to other forms of information conveyence is the uniqueness of the imagery created in our own heads. The pictures that develop in our own thoughts are unique to every individual. I know movies have made it possible to see characters therefore making them less unique. Fortunately, not all books have been warped into movies. I like thinking of characters of fiction in my own ways. In a way I am contributing to the story, albeit on a miniscule level, by adding in my own details. Too many other forms of information just try to tell you want to see, feel, or think. A book may try to do this, but in the end it is really left to our own interpretations.

Further, the process of finishing a book is analogous to many obstacles in our lives. Each new endeavor starts out in a different way. Some things may push us away, and we may be afraid to really get through those first stages. At some point it begins to fall into place and we become hooked. Each page, and chapter becomes the reward. Then before you know it the end arrives.

Book Review : Outliers

Outlier- "a statistical anomaly that deviates from the other members of the sample in which it occurs."

Many books have attempted to convey success as attributable to a certain trait or characteristic that an individual possess. In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell seeks to dig deeper into what makes someone successful. It is another work that seeks to challenge conventional wisdom in order to understand the world around us. We often think that professional athletes, technological moguls, and financial gurus are products of one innate trait that allows them to achieve great things. Society often views the successful as those with "talent" or "god granted ability". While this may be part of it Gladwell seeks to convince readers that Outliers lay outside the average for multiple reasons.

When you start is important to where you finish. One of the themes that runs throughout Outliers is the incorporation of the "10,000 hours to mastery" idea. Gladwell incorporates it early by looking at what makes successful Canadian youth hockey players. The best players, in a study conducted by Gladwell, were those who were born closest to the cut off date to play in a respective league. Essentially, the boys who were the oldest in their given league were the most developed physically when they began to play hockey. Those born on January 1, played with those born on December 31. The older boys start with the advantage of physical maturity which is combined with more practice, and selection on better teams that practice and play more. The effect snowballs and seems to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. A boy selected for his potential, really his slightly greater physical development, over time becomes a better hockey player than the boy who was born later in the year.

What this shows is that aside from talent, circumstance plays a big role in the development of the successful. Bill Gates was born in the time frame that allowed him to be ahead of the technological curve. His location allowed him to sneak to the University of Washington and program on one of the few computers in the United States for hours on end. Without the unique opportunities his hard work would not have mattered. Acknowledging circumstance, in particular the time period people were born in, is a major part of Outliers.

The book draws on examples like Gates, The Beatles, and  Robert Oppenheimer to show success. At the same time the book shows how one trait often associated with success, for instance IQ, is not always a guarantee. Gladwell attempts to convey that while having a high IQ is most definitely beneficial. All that really matters is being smart enough. All the brains in the world won't get you very far if you don't have the ability to relate and work with others. In this way Outliers makes the case that success is not based upon one variable alone, but instead the sum of all parts. Not a revolutionary idea, but the book is interesting nonetheless.

What makes it interesting is the tendency for the general public to oversimplify success to one particular thing. Money, IQ, or innate ability are easy variables to point at. Outliers makes the case that, like many things, there is often more than meets the eye.

My own thoughts are that success is complicated. It is a ball of many inputs. To isolate one is to overlook the fact that a great deal of the time the WHOLE is greater than the sum of its part. It is not an exact science, but instead an art. There is no guarantee of success, but failure can be guaranteed if you don't take the necessary steps to work towards success.

Item of the Week

Throughout my childhood my family would categorize my latest wanted item as the "item of the week". One week I would be really into something like yo-yos, skateboarding, or the harmonica and the next I would move onto something else. Many of the items I would actually find a way to acquire either through my parents giving in to my constant nagging, or by using my own money. I have wanted a lot of things over the years, and it's funny to think that the things that made the most difference were the ones that I did not get. Going without makes you value the important things in your life. You can't, and shouldn't, always get what you want.

Focusing on one objective is a difficult task. Too much focus and you can burn yourself out, but too little and you will only get so far. I have changed my mind so many times in my short life that I have never really been able to focus on something for the necessary time to really see results. An undergraduate degree in a major I just kinda of picked out of a hat is the only substantive accomplishment that spans a time frame longer than a few months.

It often seems like I have let indecision guide me more than actual decision. I honestly don't know why I chose to go to Iowa State. I really didn't even explore other schools. I have figured out, to some extent, that researching multiple options is not a bad thing. My reasons for doing things have all too often been from the advice of others. This could spawn from a desire to please people, the lack of knowing what I want, or the fact that I want it all. Often, it was probably just the easy way out.

While formal education is important I can honestly say that what I learned wasn't from the subjects of the courses I took. Instead, it was about the theme of education. Learn, work through problems, and figure out what you want from your education. Learning is part of our everyday lives. I went into school thinking I could be a lawyer, or a politican and that someday I would do big things. All that was on my mind was the fact that I could someday accomplish something that would impress other people. In my early years that was what getting good grades was about. In the last few I figured out that what I really got from school was what I needed. A swift kick to the groin. Life is not about impressing people, or doing what others tell you. Life is figuring out what you want and going after it. Be confident in your abilities and live up to your own standards.

Growing up I was easily persuaded by what others thought was cool, and to some extent I am still that way. I am trying to figure out who I am as an individual while being confident that people will still respect me for that person. The "item of the week" often guided me by laying out what I wanted. I still have my wants, but I recognize that if  I decide for myself I can get what I need.

Note - This weeks item is a mustache.

Free Time

It has been a month since I took off from my parents garage. The four pounds of cashews have been eaten. I have done laundry, finally. The hat that was upon my head when I left was blown away in an unfortunate "windshield covered in dirt with no wiper fluid incident."

I think I am pretty proficient at time management. I never had a late assignment or missed class during my undergrad. I was always early for practice throughout high school and college. I always got all the lawns mowed in a timely manner during the summer, sometimes, admittedly, to fast. I was fortunate to not have to work while going to school. Sometimes this was a problem, because I had too much free time, but on the whole it was pretty sweet. Just don't get too into the mystical worlds of wisps and demons.

Let's Kill This Dragon

I feel guilty when I am not working and others are. Not to say that I don't enjoy working, I do. But I should forgive my self for the free time I create for myself. There is such a thing as being lazy. Procrastination is another problem for the free time agenda. The more you put things off the less freedom you will have. So free time in it's truest sense is not spent doing nothing, it is play, relaxation, or fulfillment. These things are not mutually exclusive, and free time endeavors can run the gambit for an individual. 

Work is a necessary condition of life. Some are able to find a job that they truly love and enjoy doing everyday. Other people find work that meets their need for money, but don't get much gratification from their job. Most people fall somewhere in between this dichotomy. Free time endeavours are humanities outlet. Sanity for an insane world. 

Honestly, I do know exactly where I was going with this post. I'll tack that up to too much free time. I am coming to the realization I will have work here in the near future, and I will not have as much time for relaying these quasi-incoherent messages to my six followers. Cherish your free time, make the most of it. Because, like the promise that this post may have contained at its outset , it will quickly slip away never to be recovered.

"Do it now, while you are young and on your own", is a phrase you hear about travel, adventure, and free time from older individuals all the time. It is a true statement. It is EASIER to do while poor, family-less, and limber. It is not impossible to seek adventure at any stage of life. Free time is about creating that adventure. Try new things, go new places, and figure things out. Squeeze the hell out of every penny of your "free time". This is not to say that I don't watch the tube, obviously this blog is 94% YouTube content, but make sure to shut off some of the tech and get out into the world and DO.

Modes of Transportation

Getting from point A to point B is an interesting endeavor for every individual. There are so many ways to do it. Legs, bike, car, and plane are some of the forms that come to mind. All have their positives and negatives. All seem to fit into a specific scenario that makes one form more appropriate than another.


The first things that comes to mind when someone says "Rollerblades" is probably a eight year old girl with a pink helmet and wrist guards blazing a path down a sidewalk. For this girl Rollerblades are an acceptable form of transportation. Take that image and warp a sixty-five year old man into the picture and you have something different all together.

The man in question was a gangly ol' coot, probably due to the immense amount of rollerblading done on a daily basis, who was jiving down the sidewalk. With his dog out in front, and his wristguards secured as he sped along quite pleased with himself. I can just hear his inner monologue, "I am saving the world one rollerblade trip at a time." It was not quite as good as this display, but he was just as graceful.

Whether or not rollerblades are a socially acceptable form of transportation aside, Ron Swanson would say they aren't, the man IS saving the environment. For that he should be commended.  Wrong, nothing good has ever come from rollerblading. More often than not you skin your knees while you zoom around with your butt wagging about behind you.

Albert Einstein is quoted as having thought of the theory of relativity while riding his bicycle. For that reason

I'll go as far as saying that the bicycle is the vehicle of the intellectual. So what about rollerblades? To that I defer to the most interesting man in the world.

Book Review: Siddhartha

Herman Hesse's Siddhartha is a story of exploration into what it means to be alive.  The book articulates the complexities of life while, at the same time, showcasing the beauty of life's simplicity. Quite the paradox indeed. This book is about the journey. How one man comes to find his way in the world.

Siddhartha was written during the end of the World War One era and published in 1922. It seems to encapsulate the spiritual notions of the time. A move away from the dichotomous nature of religion of the 19th Century and an embrace of the spirituality associated with Buddhism. Hesse's work chronicles the journey of a boy named Siddhartha who is a seeker of the truths of life.

Siddhartha does not, or maybe more amply put , cannot, accept the teachings of others. He is clever, kind, and patient. A man who is liked by all that come into contact with him. In many ways he is a prodigy, and things come quite easy to him. This in turn leads to his curiousity. His way must be different from others, because it is "his" way. Even in the presence of enlighted ones, like Buddha himself, Siddhartha is not swayed from his desire to experience the world on his own path.

His life takes him down many paths. He learns to "Think, Fast, and Wait". While these do not seem like amazing traits they give him the ability to let the world happen around him. He does not force the world to do his will, but he makes it possible for the world around him to present what he wants in front of him. Siddhartha has the unique ability to put himself in the right circumstance.

The book is a great depiction of a life. We often arrive at some point in our own lives and wonder how exactly we got to this point for good or for bad. Siddhartha shows that the chain of events in our lives is logical but inherently crazy. Flux is the only constant.

"What is a treasure and wisdom for one man always sounds like foolishness to another."

The message of Siddhartha is that every individual must choose their own path. It is experience that makes wisdom. Failure is another good way to put it, but through failure comes wisdom.

"When someone seeks then it happens all too easily that his eyes will see only the thing he is seeking, that he cannot find anything, cannot let anything in, because he is always thinking only of that thing he seeks, becausehe has a goal, because he is possessed by the goal. Seeking means having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal. One may indeed be a seeker, for, striving toward your goal, there is much you do not see which is right before your eyes."

Olympic Lifting

I am a weakling. Let's just get that out into the open. I have never been a strong boy. I say boy, because that is what I am. Men are strong,  powerful, and burly. They have beards and do things like lift large televisions by themselves, or alert you that it's "10 o'clock" while they are strolling around the house in their tighty whities. (For those 6 readers who are wondering what the hell I'm talking about, these are references to the things "men" in my family have done at some point in time.

That's a man.

Since I can remember I have always cared to much about my weight. Thinking I was chubby, or overweight. In reality I was just skinny fat. A boy without the discipline to stick to lifting weights and getting strong. I could always just go run to get a great "workout" and stay trim. Running is all well and good. A great way to drop some pounds and stay in shape, but it never really aligned with my goals. You are not going to get strong, like dad strong, or one pound of brisket followed by 6 pints of Guinness strong by running.

This last season of rugby I played flanker. I was undersized, and the only reason I could even compete was because I have always been scrappy to some extent. I would have been a more productive player if I would have put on about 20 pounds or better yet learned to squat.

Coming to California was about shaking things up and doing things I have never done before. My biggest goal on that level is to get strong. I chose to come and learn the Olympic lifts because they are a sport that can make you pretty damn strong and even more athletic. I have never really been an individual athlete. I have always been a "team player". There is a lot of satisfaction in team sports, but I believe that I needed to get out of my comfort zone, and do something where everything rides on me. Further, the athleticism that develops from Olympic lifting transfers to many other athletic endeavors. Someday if I go back to playing rugby, soccer, or whatever else I may want to do, I will be that much better for it. I am just starting out on this adventure and I am excited to see where it takes me.

The Olympic lifts are composed of the Snatch and Clean and Jerk. Here is a quick video that displays just how powerful an Olympic caliber lifter can be.

 In Russian for your viewing pleasure.