Two Great Statements

Toughness is the ability to perform at the upper limits of your talent and

skill regardless of the competitive circumstance.

- 6 Times Crossfit Games Competitor Chris Spealler

The Rule of Permission: Any player may attack any open space at any time, as long as he thinks it’s in the best interest of team. 

-Bob Krier, Coach of Johnny Bravo

Who I Want to Win the Republican Primary

Full disclosure, I plan to vote for Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential race. My interest in the Republicans is mostly one of a rubbernecking gawker. Never before have so many people gotten onto a stage, intended to be serious, and ended up making me laugh.

That said, I see some outcomes that would be better than others in the Republican Primary.


Ron Paul wins: 
-it would prove the power of young voters and organizers
-it would shake things up
-the presidential debate would be about fact and evidence, not faith
-California's electoral college votes would actually be up for grabs making our state politically relevant

Newt Gingrich wins:
-we'd see the Portly Master Strategist and Wordsmith get the credit for his work (as opposed to having that role be behind the scenes a la Carl Rove)
-we could have an honest debate about how "faith based conservative concepts" like marriage fidelity are not actually important to a politician - just rational decision making
-the vocab and sentence structure of political discourse might be lifted about a 6th grade level. (Obama has worked hard to raise it from the 4th grade level it was at during the Bush term).

Santorum wins:
-we can see what REAL faith and its consequent political positions entail.
-we can see what its like for a scared, timid little boy grow into a confident speaker in the course of one election
-Dude is crazy enough that Obama can disagree with his faith views and still win. This will be a good time for the left to finally openly come out against religious craziness


But of course none of these will happen and Romney is bound to win the nomination. The debates will be about who smiles the biggest and recites the right soundbite at the right time. The only good I hope to come from this inevitable outcome is for him to fully come out of the closet and admit that he is filthy rich. Stop hiding it, America loves the quirky Jack Donaghy. 

At least Jack Donaghy is entertaining and to be honest, living in a state that has no political say at all, that's all I want of my trained monkeys - I mean politicians. 
  

Classy/Snobby

There is a very thin line between classy and snobby. One of the biggest problems with connoisseuris that they are quick to give the wine or the scotch or the sound system or car WAY to much credit for the enjoyment of the experience that have with it. It’s not the scotch, it is the people you are sharing it with (or alternatively, the solitude you share it with). Much pleasure comes to these people from spending a lot of money on the thing, but they should not consider cost an essential character of a thing. See through the cost and then maybe so called connoisseur can judge an a thing's worth more objectively.

The Best Way To See Whether You Have a Good Argument

The Best Way To See Whether You Have a Good Argument is to search for the best possible counter arguments. Honestly and sinserley attempt to prove yourself wrong. Ask your friends to put up the most vigiorous devil's advocate arguement in opposition.

If, after all that, your logic seems air tight (be a little objective here) then you may progress with confidence. If you hold an opinion steadfast without subjecting it to all critisms you are probably doing so because you are affraid of what you will find when you do. Fine - know that your opinion may be flawed but if you are ok with that no skin off my back. But if you want me to consider what you have to say, know that I wont take your word on something if its obvious you have not given it the thought that thoughtful opinions deserves.

The most frustrating thing

Is that I want to BE the things inside my head, but to other people, I am exactly what I DO habitually.

Change is hard.

Judgment Day - A Story

On May 21^st 2011, the year of our Lord, Jesus, son of Yahweh, returned to Earth and Judgment Day began. First, he went to his old stomping grounds in West New York. None of the locals could understand his Aramaic or any of the Seneca that he remembered from last time he was there. Someone pointed him to Utah so he stopped in over there. And left quickly.  Same story in Canaan; mostly, it was just very loud there and he was never one for yelling.

All in all, he took 138 people back to heaven. Most of them were subsistence farmers who worked the land with their bare hands. There were going to be almost double that number until he learned they were raising pigs for food – no one who’d ever eaten pork gets to go to heaven - that was one of the really important parts of that book he helped write.

Through his whole trip he was very surprised at how humans acted about the whole thing. On one hand, so many people were happy THEY were RIGHT.  But that shouldn’t have been so hard, that instruction book couldn’t have been clearer – well, actually it could have been a little less vague in some parts, but deciphering was some of the fun, right?. It really baffled him to see that EVEN THOUGH he clearly remembered saying that you had to be RIGHT about EVERYTHING to get to heaven AND they got the date of return correct, most everyone didn’t spend more than a few years trying to pretend to be on the up and up before inspection time. He would have seen through those attempts anyway, but just 6 months of temple attendance? “Come on!” he thought, “you could have tried a little harder than that.”

He did feel a little bad that apparently his teachings were so hard to interpret – he laughed (privately) about all the different attempts that flubbed up so miserably. Maybe he should have spent a little more time with the editors to make sure the message got across clearly but at the time he really just wanted to get his father’s stupid assignment over with.

As he and the 138 were about to rise to heaven, many of those to be left behind were dumb struck. They had spent most (but not all) of their lives trying to figure out how to get into heaven. Some of them got really loud amplifiers to communicate with him as he was rising into the sky. (This whole levitation process took about 2 days. What? You thought the survivors would just shoot to heaven instantly?). He agreed to a question and answer period – the first 2000 feet were kinda awkward so this was the best way to break the tension. Mostly he just phoned in the answers. “What is God like?”, “I don’t know, what is your Dad like when the puppy he got ends up shitting on the rug all the time?”. The one question he gave some real thought to came from a 16 year old girl. He only called on her because she was kinda cute.

"So what are we supposed to do now? Some of us were closer than others, should we all try to live our lives like those that you took? The bible doesn’t say what we are supposed to do after the Rapture, will you come back to get more of us later if we do the right things?"

So he responded after a little thought:

“ First, RAPTURE is a mistranslation. It was talking about a RAPTOR, a bird of pray. That fucking sweet eagle I rode down here on. You think I would use this slow ass levitation bullshit if I didn’t have too? But nooOOOOooo, you had to kill all the mother fucking bald eagles. Now there are only 27 left? Fuckin’ A humans!  Secondly, there’s not a chance im coming back here. I said it’s gonna happen once and I keep my word. Yeah, and good luck ever getting my dad’s attention ever again – ever wonder why there haven’t been any miracles lately? It’s cause he is busy with all his other projects across the universe. Seriously, I want to speak in no uncertain terms: he doesn’t give a shit about you anymore.” He laughed at the clarity of it all and continued, “I guess you should all just be nice to each other and enjoy yourself. From here on out, you’ll just go to the ground when you die. Like, listen to me, I’m honestly not trying to test you like my father was: heaven and hell will not be an option for you any more. Really. Really, I’m not trying to be cute. We won’t be watching anymore. That golden rule thing those atheists came up with sounds good, go with that. Just, uh, have fun.”

There was a long silence and Jesus remembered he had left the coffee pot on at home and was frustrated the levitation was taking so long. And so he politely stopped answering questions and called his girlfriend to see if she turned it off and if she could pick him up from the airport. Wireless service while you’re flying, amazing what technology can do these days.

Remember

You only have so many high-school friends and they know you in ways others never can. Respect the special type of bond you have between them. Try to not let them slip away, all it takes is a facebook message.


Joke of the Day:
Helium walks into a bar and orders a beer, the bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve noble gases here." He doesn't react.

Whoa

Damn, just like that, ive gone from a kid with people to look after me and tell me what to do, to an adult. For all my pondering about what adulthood will feel like and when it will come, maybe its just starts when you realize how much of a bitch all this paperwork is. Responsibilities man, responsibilities.
Whoa.

2 Possible Views of Nature

There are two distinct views one may take in regard to the vast majesty, the amazing, consuming, unfathomable hugeness of nature in comparison to us. There are two distinct ways of dealing with gazing over the unending miles of ocean or the continues bloom of a forest's trees. There are two distinct conceptions of our place in the seemingly incalculable expanses we see everyday if we but look out the window.




They are:


1. Nature is big and we are small. Humans can but only pitifully hope to churn up a few meters of dirt  in a few places on earth and otherwise have little impact on the Earth or Nature as a gigantic whole. Any conception that we are important in the grand scheme of things is a delusion: we are but tiny tiny boats in a sea larger and deeper than we can imagine. As such, we have little impact on the environment and thus little responsibility for its well being.


2. We have power over nature in ways cloaked a thousand fold by our relative size. The choices we make impact Earth more than seems apparent. As the dominate species on the planet, we have deep responsibility to ensure the continuance of the beauty that engulfs us. Not only for our children, but for the other species of the planet who make  up this so called Nature. While we sometimes cannot hold all of Nature in our minds, it is clear that we do hold all of Nature in our hands.









So step back and consider these two world views. Ask yourself what you believe: are we a spec floating in the wind or are we masters of our domain? If this exercise seems a little silly, that is because your mind is so made up about your view; remember that there are many many people out there with the opposite viewpoint.


More to come on this soon, but for now, take some time to figure out where you stand.

A Quick Word on Protests in the Middle East and Then a Joke

I'm not saying i understand the political situation there fully, but it is pretty cool to see people taking their lives and their freedom into there own hands. How interesting that a powerful semi-dictator is being taken down without 1 US troop involved. Revolutions and changes in power in the name of democracy are sometimes violent but don't necessarily have to come at the end of a American's gun. Maybe this would have been good to know 10 years ago.


I understand that I really have no way to effect the situation at all and there is a serene calm that comes with such a realization even though it is obvious that violence is part of the process. I don't particularly care if the new ways of life forged by these social uprisings are more friendly to the US, I only hope that the new system, after the riots are over, is more just than the current one. Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof. 

And now, for the unrelated Joke Of The Day: 

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. I immediately ran over and said "Stop! Don't do it!"

"Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"

"Like what?" "Well ... are you religious or atheist?" "Religious."

"Me too! Are you Christian or Jewish?"

"Christian." "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" "Protestant."

"Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" "Baptist."

"Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" "Baptist Church of God."

"Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God."

"Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!"

To which I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off. 

Creativity

I am of the disposition that the sphere of mental possibilities is endless.  Sometimes it seems that everything good has already been thought of, has already been created, has already said, has already been tried.

But that is so plainly false that I laugh at the notion even now that I write this.

Go ahead, spend 1 minute thinking about something that doesn't exist yet. Its hard at first but let your mind go a little bit and you'll see a whole new world of possibilities.

Advice to America's Youth

Read books.

Which books? Good ones?

How do you figure out which one's are good? Read enough books and you'll start to get a sense about the whole thing - or maybe you don't figure it out so much, but it doesn't really matter. Just read.

My Reason for Treason This Season and What I Would Like For the Holidays 2010

    I have always had a really hard time dealing with the gift giving and getting part of the December American holiday season. Every year I get these very strange feelings about the whole thing. The gifts we get each other aren’t really gifts more like responsibilities, obligations and debts; I don’t want some materialistic thing; I’m not worthy of this gift when there are so many more needy people in the world; I can’t possibly succeed in getting you the right gift; why do we need to weigh down a holiday’s beauty with needing to get a gift for everyone you know? Those are the kind of things running through my mind.

    The height of my disillusion was sharing a Christmas morning with my ex-girfriend’s family. I was raised in a Jewish home –certainly not the den of materialism you’d expect from a person writing this – my views on the ills of the season were formulated from the outside (a new watch and a puzzle wrapped in newspaper counted as overdoing it for any night of Chanukah.) So when I saw these 2 adult children blazing through box after box, bag after bag,  parents looking on with baited breath waiting for approval, it freaked me out. The 15 foot tree lined with presents turned into a 15 tree and a 4 foot pile of wrapping paper and packaging hour of steady-paced tarring, smiling, and thanking. And yes, it was fun, I do understand the joy of a new toy – studying it, marveling at it, figuring out how to use it. But happened at such an excelerated speed! Junkies getting their fix – shooting up again and again within the hour not so much for pleasure but for the sake of the routine. Oh God what a mountain of wrapping paper!

          (To be fair, that family was nothing but nice to me and I really appreciated being included in their celebration. They are not what I make them out to be – it’s just very easy to write negatively about one’s ex-girlfriend.)  

    I’ve (half-heartedly) done the protest thing before. Don’t buy me anything. I don’t want anything besides world peace. Send a gift to a charity instead. And in the early stages: I don’t want stuff, I just want money. Some years I can’t tell if I honestly don’t want anything or I’ve just forced material desires out of my head… and then I slap myself for getting all self righteous. Boy, airs of superiority complex waft around me like during this season like…well… like… the way this season wafts around me in coffee shops selling eggnog, gingerbread-spice lattes.

     And the thing I keep noticing is that the biggest effect I have is causing a headache for the people determined to get me something. No, I am not changing the big System, just kinda being a pain to the people in my life. So I have decided to compile a list of stuff I would actually want and/or need. Out of my comfort zone, but I guess its normal for lots of people so here goes. If you would like to get me something this holiday season, here are some of my thoughts. I will be sure to be grateful for anything I receive 

 2010 Desire List

Things you probably have to buy:

Size 11 Converse-All Stars Low (color undecided)

Size 36 Black Calvin Kline briefs with white elastic band and black lettering (sold at Costco)

Light Resistence (Purple) Jump-Stretch Band (link)  

New Laptop

Windows 7

Laptop Tune up/ reformat

Sports watch

Skins tights

iPhone 4

External Hard drive

Black, high density foam roller

1.5 or 2 pood (25 or 30 lb) Kettle ball

Money

Weight vest

Things you could find, make or do without spending money:

Fix my car door, window

Fix my battery, remote key, lights, computer,

Milk crates

Lacross balls

Let me train you in the gym

Great books you’ve already read

2009 college nationals disc (Ohio)

Let me stay in your cabin in tahoe sometime this winter (or hook it up with a friend’s)

On the Uselessness of Bankers

This inspired me to think about and come up with a couple very different metaphors for banking:

• Bankers are parasites that latch on and suck to the 2 way flow of goods from producers to consumers. How much of the wealth do we let these parasites consume? Bankers dont produce wealth, they produce money, wealth comes from farmers, builders, artists, scientists
• Bankers trade time for wealth via the lending of money. "Sure we'll give you this money now because there will be plenty of it to go around in the future. We have plenty of money and time and will lend you some in exchange for the your promise to give us your wealth over the long run. We'll, wait. We have time, its you that doesn't have time." Banks have this idea that there will be more money out there in the future because economies have always grown because populations have always grown. I dont understand how no one is bring up the fact that actually yes, every habitat, even Earth, has SOME carrying capacity and the population will stop growing AT SOME POINT.
• Bankers are matchmakers, connecting opportunity with those who want to do something with it. Thing is, maybe this was necessary in the past, but now we have the best opportunity search tool available to us: the Internet. Why do we continue to pay banks to find something I could pull up with a Google search?

What do you think? Are any of these meaningful, thought provoking, or insightful?

The Most Important Excersises

If you call yourself an athlete and are not in the gym lifting heavy things on a consistent basis, you are really doing yourself a disservice. Its not about looks or proformance or speed  (although of coursethose things benifit), its about injury prevention, general health and athleticism.

1. The Squat. The most basic of all human movement. Sit down and then stand up. Congraduations you just did a squat. You just did the thing that will greatest help you get the body you want. A leg press is NOTHING in comparison to a real squat; if you think otherwise, you've been lied to.
2. The Deadlift. Something is on the ground, pick it up. Lift with the knees and then with the back. Wanna get powerful? Deadlift
3. The Overhead Press (really 3 related exercises). A weight is on your shoulders, lift it over head. Overhead push strength is everything in sports. The beauty of real weight lifting in comparison to machines is that you must stabilize your entire body under that weight. Bench press is great, but a standing press is a total body exercise.
4. The Pull Up. It uses every single muscle in the back (especially when you do then correctly. Read: Kipping PUs). If you could not, dangling in the air, pull your way back over the precipice, you should probably start working on that.  Can't do a full pullup yet? Start with jumping PUs instead of a row machine.

I guarantee that if you do circuit training with just these 4 exercises  you will show twice as much gain as you would doing all those stupid machines for three times as long. Don't believe me, come to the gym with me sometime and I'll show you what a real workout is.

3 IOTD for the Price of 1

1. Use white dinner plates so that you can see your food. If it looks pretty because you spent a little extra time to get it right, you will enjoy it that much more. If you don't want to see the details and so you eat on dark blue plates you have a problem. Food can be beautiful if you allow it.


2. It is great to go to a gym and be inside it, but that is only a small step. You actually have to know what you are doing to get results unless the results you want are hours logged in a gym. I just dont understand why people would not want to learn about how to use a gym. Its fun! Working on your body is fun if you do it the right ways! If you don't agree and dread the weight room, please, PLEASE let me show you how to actually utilize a gym - I promise I can change your mind.

3. Nervous? In 5 billion years the sun will burn out and nothing you did will matter. Feel better?

Philosophy and Hypocrisy

I am a philosopher, I have lots of ideas about lots of different things. Sometimes I feel so strongly that my idea is correct or at least largely valid that I will stand up and argue the idea's merits in front of a crowd.

But I realize that hypocrisy, not following my own advice, is not necessarily a horrible thing and my ideas are no less right because my actions don't fall perfectly in line. Vegetarianism is obviously (ridiculously obviously!) the right choice for the future for so many reasons but I eat meat and encourage my close friends and family to do so as well. Hypocrisy yes! But I feel strangely ok with this situation.

In this world with a million different ways to screw up, it is ok to have ideas that conflict. To be honest, I have a hard time trusting someone who harshly critisizes the hypocrite because it shows they either lack imagination or are out of touch with reality - they are hypocrites in some way too, I gaurentee it.



I can resist anything...except for temptation.

Please, Please No!

....Sarah Palin may be edging closer to a 2012 presidential run, telling Fox News "I would give it a shot" if the American people think she's "the one"....




Shes not.






I know that there was lots of insincere joking about this if Bush got elected, but let me make it clear that I am very very serious. I swear that if Sarah Palin becomes President of the United States of America, I will leave for some other place.

Be Nice

It really makes sense to be nice.

Yes, I admit that being crude or snobby or cruel or gossipy or snide or irreverent can earn you a cheap laugh and affirming sneer-smiles of your friends who are also in on the joke. But that doesn't mean its the right way to be.

Being nice is hard sometimes (especially in comparison to how easy it is to be mean) but there are two very good reasons for it. The first is that you have your own flaws. By harping on those of others you are inviting attacks on yourself. Perhaps one reason people feel it is OK to make fun of others is that they are not in tune with their own failings; imagine you and your secret inadequacies are the brunt of joke. Secondly, being nice even though crassness would seem to fit builds a culture of trust, openness and respect. You there, the 23 year old! You may not care about those values now, but I've been to the future and you are sorely mistaken.


So the next time a good zinger pops into your head, put down the fastball and throw a complement instead.

Realizing Greatness While It Is Happening

One of the most important perceptual skills is the ability to recognize greatness while it is happening.
Comprehending beauty during its appearance, not after. Appreciating the sublime in the moment.

I notice how this is so important because the lack of this skill is something I dont like about myself when I see it. The standard story of college was I would show up to the first day of class excited, let the quarter pass me by, and then spend finals week cramming but also morning the end of what I realized was a great class. I don't think I forgo talking with professors until the end is near because I am lazy so much as I only realize how much I actually do love learning from them when they are about to be done.

With the realization that you are in the presence of greatness comes responsibility. If you are on a mediocre team, there is no reason to put in extra work outside of practice but you see that you are a part of an amazing group, then it is obvious that you should try extra hard to earn your roster spot.


The qunticential phrasing of this idea is the often heard:

"Youth is wasted on the young."

...You had the uncharted world laid out before you. All you saw was infinite possibility, and yet you took it all for granted because that was all you knew...

Oh how we cherish the idea of our past youth, kicking ourselves for not appreciating it. But if this cliche is true, shouldn't it also be true that:

"Life is wasted on the living?"

 I don't think its necessarily true that we are destined to always fail in appreciating the wonder at hand but I know that it is a constant challenge.