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.