March

I moved to new apartment. This was precipitated by both my previous lease being up, and that my daughters and ex moved into their new house. I thought it would be nice to be closer to them so they could ride or walk over when they wanted. I like the new place, and my favorite feature is the big ambiently heated garage.

April

My daughters and I went for our annual spring break trip. This year we went to Arizona to ride in a hot air balloon. It was a very cool experience going up to 7500 feet, floating with the wind, and they had fun watching their spit fall. Haha.

September

Although my work contract was initially only for a year and would be up at the end of October, my boss offered for an extension to work plus I could still take my travels as I wanted. I accepted… for now…

Went to Burning Man for the second time. The first year ‘Wow’ factor wasn’t there, but it is still an incredible event with plenty to learn about yourself and others.

October

I attended a Conscious Growth Workshop put on by Steve Pavlina in Las Vegas. Although my personal growth has progressed to a point where there were no ‘Aha’ moments, it was nice to get others perspectives and to meet people who are also on a similar path.
At the workshop I made a decision to fully give Life Coaching a run in my life. I promised myself (and publicly by being video taped and put on the spot by Lori Painter. Thanks Lori!) that within 6 months I would stop doing software development for a living and dedicate myself to Life Coaching. This has culminated in me ending my current employment in the middle of March, and when I get back from Japan at the end of July I will be full on into Life Coaching.

November

I traveled to Peru and Ecuador to visit Machu Pichhu and the Galapagos Islands. I was traveling for five weeks, and loved every minute of it… I met so many amazing people and saw plenty of incredible sites. Discovered that I don’t get seasick on small boats out in the open ocean, which I previously thought I might.

December

I continued down my path of awareness and personal growth. When at home I do a lot of reading and thinking, but also when I am traveling I am putting those ideas into practice and truly being me and present in the moment. It’s not instant, but it’s noticeable.

Overall Year

I only wrote 11 articles over the year. That is a poor output and I’ve been queuing up many things I want to write about.
I only drew 4 pictures over the year. Again a poor output for something I both enjoy and have talent at. There must be a reason for my lack of desire in these areas…
I feel that my daughters and I still continue to develop amazing connections. They roll their eyes quite a bit at some of my suggestions on ways to approach life, but I see it taking affect and they seem to be struggling and suffering less against the world. It’s their journey, but if I can help open their eyes just a little to make it a bit more peaceful and enjoyable…

Plans for 2010

Life: Spend more time deciding what I want to have in my life, so I can focus on those and attract them.
Travel: So far I only have two trips planned. London for a week, and Japan for three months. But I’ve made plenty of last minute trips, so who knows…
Work: Life Coaching – I would like to help others start to realize their dreams and potentials. I’ve begun to do this with people around me, and now want to expand this to make a living at it.

I was reading an article today online from The New Yorker about why Americans are so fat. I definitely agree that the general population is large and getting larger and many people can be considered obese, however, in the second paragraph they “roughly define” obesity as being measured by a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 27 or greater.

This is about as helpful as diagnosing personality disorders with the use of horoscopes! The BMI charts are worthless as they don’t take body composition (percentage of fat, muscle, bone, water-weight, etc) into account in any way, and instead just rely on a height vs weight divisor.

There are no shortage of useless algorithms out there, but my biggest problem with this particular one comes from it’s use in the media, the government, and insurance companies.

Did you know that you can be denied insurance coverage based solely on your BMI? My workout partner is in no way obese. He is a solid block of muscle at 5’10″ and 225 lbs. However, recently he was denied life insurance solely on his BMI.

Then there are the government agencies that still push this index around like it could have any sense of worth. But what do you expect from governmental bureaucracy?

The one that confuses me the most is that medical doctors would even consider using such an antiquated idea that a persons physical health could be even remotely determined by a simple division problem, let alone the health of your heart or as an indicator of your prevalence for heart disease.

So what can you do with this information? Like with anything, knowledge is power. Knowing that your doctor, or insurance company, or whomever might be using this algorithm to determine your health status, means that you should know your BMI and know if you fall within a range that may cause them concern. I personally am 26.3 which is considered just under obese, while in truth I am more like a sculpted Greek god… (kidding), but I am in very good shape and in no way obese. So knowing that, I have the knowledge to question that statistic and provide evidence of my fitness. I can ask an insurance company if they will accept another indicator such as a body fat measurement, etc.

So figure out what your BMI is, so you can be forewarned, and learn why it really doesn’t mean a thing… then you’ll be in a place of knowledge when you hear about it again.

I will post this one, but don’t plan at the moment to continue the practice.

As a final update: I finished the 30 days, and for workouts did very well… Overall working out every day was a breeze and enjoyable. No problem there. Drawing didn’t keep coming quite as easily. I love doing it, but I often get stuck on a drawing and feel like I need to finish it, but don’t really want to. And meditation I ended up converting to tiny breath meditations throughout the day instead of blocks of time.

Day11

Drawing - 20 more minutes of drawing on the abstract design for Briana’s birthday.

Meditate - 20 minutes of Deep Meditation.

Workout - Both a good shoulder and back workout, and then I did about 30 minutes of racquetball with Stacey. Was wiped at the end.

Day 12

Drawing - 30 minutes on Briana’s drawing. I finished the coloring and shading on the main design and started to experiment with the 3d style checkerboard to draw behind it.

Meditate - 10 minutes of deep meditation… as I was getting pretty late for work.

Workout - Went in pretty late without much gusto… but I made it in and did some chest and triceps and shoulders.

Day 13

Drawing - Started work on the 3D checkerboard part of Briana’s Birthday drawing.

Meditate -

Workout - Worked out after getting home from work and did some legs, then a little upper body that wasn’t tired. Need to get more legs in!! Or skiing is going to HURT.

Day 14

Drawing - Continued work on the 3D checkerboard of Briana’s drawing.

Meditate - 20 minutes of deep meditation. Was feeling some energy at the third eye chakra… was interesting.

Workout - Chest and triceps and legs with Rickey… it seems looking back on the week that I’ve been overdoing chest and triceps Time to mix up my routine.

Day 15

Drawing -

Meditate - A lot of mind chatter today while meditating. I couldn’t seem to stay focused on the mantra.

Workout - Great workout.

Day 6

Drawing - 20 more minutes of drawing on the Moth… worked on shading and texture.

Meditate - 20 minutes of Deep Meditation. Was drifting deep (deep sleep or deep stillness I can’t tell ) but the alarm startled me. I know people say you don’t need an alarm, but when I do it before heading into work, I don’t want to come up out of it 2 hours later than I should.

Workout - Odds and ends of the body, some stomach, calves, etc. Also tanned and burnt my butt So a little sore on the muscles and a little sore on the skin.

Day 7

Drawing - I spent my drawing time with my daughters today. I love it when they want to draw with me. Finished up the Moth… next is to start drawing Briana’s birthday picture.

Meditate - I did 20 minutes of meditation while my girls were here. It’s the first time I’ve ever meditated with other people in the room. I filtered out their activity very nicely and went pretty deep.

Workout - This will be tricky… I need to workout today, but I have my daughters over…. They ended up staying home while I ran to the gym next door for a few minutes. I rushed through my workout and got back quickly

Day 8

Drawing - Missed

Meditate - Missed

Workout - Went with Rickey and did a quick workout of back, shoulders and biceps.

Day 9

Drawing - Started Briana’s birthday drawing. She picked an abstract design and wants it on a 3d checkerboard… This will be a fun and interestingly different drawing than I’ve done before.

Meditate - 20 minutes of deep meditation. Felt some good moments of stillness.

Workout - Evening workout of chest and triceps with Rickey. We both weren’t really into it, so we went through it pretty fast.

Day 10

Drawing - Worked on Briana’s drawing for 20 minutes in colors of blue.

Briana's Birthday Drawing Part 1

Meditate - 20 minutes of deep meditation.

Workout - Two workouts today!! Yay! One was at lunch time where I did some quick but strenuous cardio. The second was legs in the evening… again pushing light reps and going until they hurt bad to prepare for skiing.

Meditation

A friend of mine asked if I could post some meditation links for him, so I thought I’d explain a little more about what type of meditation I am trying.

I have tried meditation off and on, but never stuck with it for very long. This month I am doing it for 20 minutes every day and recording more about what happens or how it affects me, so I’ll learn a little more.

The first 2 weeks I’ll be doing “Deep Meditation”, the second two weeks will be “Connecting with the Inner Body” explained below. Both styles are about quieting the mind and finding the stillness within you.

The two styles I am planning on trying are “Deep Meditation” which was recommended to me by a friend and taught by Yogani from Advanced Yoga Practices:

Find a quiet, comfortable place where you can sit, preferably with back support. We want to remove unnecessary distractions. Just sit and relax somewhere where you can close your eyes for twenty minutes without interruptions.

Once you have gotten comfortable, slowly close your eyes. You will notice thoughts, streams of thoughts. That is fine. Just observe them without minding them. After about a minute, gently introduce the thought …I AM… and begin to repeat it easily and effortlessly in your mind. If your mind wanders off into other thoughts, you will eventually realize this has happened. Don’t be concerned about it. It is natural. When you realize you are not repeating the mantra, gently go back to it. This is all you have to do. Easily repeat the mantra silently inside. When you realize you are not thinking it, then easily come back to it. The goal is not to stay on it. The goal is to follow the simple procedure of thinking the mantra, losing it, and coming back to it when you find you have lost it. Do not resist if the mantra tends to become less distinct. Thinking the mantra does not have to be with clear pronunciation. I AM can be experienced at many levels in your mind and nervous system. When you come back to it, come back to a level that is comfortable, not straining for either a clear or fuzzy pronunciation.

Do this procedure for twenty minutes, and, then, with your eyes closed, take a few minutes to rest before you get up.

And the other is from “The Power of Now”:

When you are unoccupied for a few minutes, and especially last thing at night before falling asleep and first thing in the morning before getting up, “flood” your body with consciousness. Close your eyes. Lie flat on your back. Choose different parts of your body to focus your attention on briefly at first. Feel the life energy in those parts as intensely as you can. Stay with each part for 15 seconds or so. Then let your attention run through your body like a wave a few times. This need only take a minute or so. After that, feel the inner body in its totality, as a single field of energy. Be intensely present during that time, present in every cell of your body. Don’t be concerned if the mind occasionally succeeds in drawing your attention out of the body, and you lose yourself in some thought. As soon as you notice this has happen. Just return your attention to the inner body.

Give yourself 20 minutes of your day in meditation and see what it can do for you!!

Drawing

Meditation

Workout

For the month of January I have chosen 3 places to focus my efforts on my 30 day trails. Usually I would want to focus on just one item, but I’ve done these 3 before. Namely: Drawing, Meditation, and working out.

I want to really establish these activities as part of my daily practice, along with testing out what kind of physical shape I can establish with a full 30 days of working out.

I’ll be consolidating the reports on each day into batches of 5 days or so.

Day 1

Drawing - Drew for 25 minutes the outlines of a Hayabusa. Not very original, but I wasn’t prepared so I grabbed a model off my desk and started drawing.

Meditate - Did 20 minutes of deep meditation. No strange occurrences or even drifting off to sleep. Just sat and focused on the mantra.

Workout - Worked out with Rickey for about an hour doing chest and triceps. Right shoulder hurt a little when we were doing heavy dumbbell presses. Otherwise felt very good.

Day 2

Drawing - Drew for 20 minutes. Continuing on the outline of the Hayabusa. Drawing the wheels are particularly hard for me as I can see the inaccuracy of the circles so well.

Meditate - Did 20 minutes of deep meditation. I went pretty deep by the end, and the watch alarm startled me out of it. Lots of thoughts were flowing and had a hard time focusing on the mantra in the beginning.

Workout - Worked out alone doing legs. Made them burn for the upcoming ski season.

Day 3

Drawing – Drew for 20 minutes. Started work on an African Luna Moth.

Meditate -Did 20 minutes of deep meditation. Interestingly I was feeling very sexual during the meditation. One of the strange side affects I have heard about.

Workout – New Years Eve, but I still made it into the gym for an hour between work and heading out to dinner and the night. Flew through back, shoulders, and biceps. Feeling a tiny bit of a sore throat, not sure why though.

Day 4

Drawing - I have previously been drawing in the morning after getting up, but today being a holiday I had no schedule and didn’t get around to it until the evening. I continued on the African Luna Moth drawing for 20 minutes.

Meditate - Did 20 minutes of meditation right after drawing. No effects to report.

Workout - Went alone and worked on chest and triceps. My body is feeling pretty tired after 4 days straight but it will get used to it.

Day 5

Drawing - 20 minutes of drawing in the morning, again on the Moth. Here is how it currently looks.

Current State of the Drawing

Meditate - 20 minutes of meditation. I felt some different energy pulses through my body today. One was in my left thumb as it was touching my leg… when I raised it up off my leg it went away and came back when I lowered it again. Then I felt a deeper core of energy for a minute or so which went away.

Workout - Legs again at the Valley gym during lunch. Didn’t feel strong or much like being there, but I made it in.

Contemplation

Although I don’t do the standard “New Years Resolution” each year, I have been doing something similar but much more limited in scope and more often. It’s called the “30 day trial.” I’ve been doing this “30 day trial” for a couple of years now off and on.

This has included tons of various improvements in an attempt to either start a new good habit, or break an old bad one. Examples of ones I’ve already tried are vegetarianism for 2 months, writing daily in a journal, recording my dreams, morning exercise, getting up early, flossing, no alcohol, and more.

I’ve had some success and some were not so successful. Most of the unsuccessful ones were because I didn’t stick to the full thirty days and gave up. To help alleviate that, I am going to take the next step forward and publicly post my progress on my trials to hold myself accountable and keep a log of how well I did.

My list of published trials: (To be expanded as I do them)

• January 2008 – 20 minutes of deep meditation, 20 minutes of drawing, 40 minutes of workout
  • Days 1 to 5
  • Days 6 to 10
  • Days 11 to 15
  • Days 16 to 20
  • Days 21 to 25
  • Days 26 to 30
• February 2008

Possible future trials:

• Talk to a new person every day

Hard times are coming… the only question is: How hard will they be?

The financial meltdown was predicted a few years in advance along with the mortgage crisis that precipitated it, and even though the majority of people want to remain positive (or blind) and turn their head from the coming years of hardship, the fact remains that there is no good news on the short term horizon. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

I just don’t know how far “worse” goes down the ladder at this point. I mean, is this a worse as in gas costs $6/gal and people have to start tightening their belts, or is this a worse as in complete financial collapse and another great depression, or is this a worse as in zombies rule the world and you’re the only remaining human alive?

Let’s start with defining some levels of hardship, because you have to know what the possibilities are before you can plan for them.

What you will need to do and need to know will depend greatly upon at what level we sink to, but there will always be a few actions you can take that will not go to waste and leave you prepared in any event.

For instance, stocking up on non perishable food items, especially can foods that will last for a few years… you just can’t go wrong. If nothing happens, you can eat them, if it goes badly, then you have food stored and won’t go hungry and if you have an abundance that is secured then you have items for trade.

Other actions may or may not be beneficial depending on the level of the crash. Putting your money into gold or other currencies may be a good idea in a financial crash limited to the US, but what if it affects the world… the currencies aren’t going to help… and gold sounds good, but is the local farmer going to know how much a chip of gold is worth and going to trade you his produce? Probably not. So using the monetary system only works to your advantage at the top two levels.

Something as basic as whether you should buy or rent your living space can have huge consequences during volatile times. The drop in real estate property is forecast to go on through 2010.

Awareness of what can happen and what actions to take and prepare for at each level is the smartest thing you can do.

Learn about how you can convert your money to and from whatever currency you are in to make the best of large swings in valuation. Don’t try to capture the small swings as you’re just as likely to get bitten by an unexpected turn of events.

Stock up on items that will definitely be usable by you in any case, like canned foods. Buy items that don’t take much space but can save your life in a pinch, like water filtration devices, solar blankets, first aid, oil lamps, matches, etc.

Be on the lookout for deals at your local grocery stores for cheap sales on canned foods, etc.

Learn what it will take to survive at different levels and whether you are prepared, and if not then how you can get prepared.

Learn technologies that can really make your life easier when services like electricity, gas, oil, etc go away. You’re going to be limited to cooking food with fire and something as simple as a rocket stove can go a long way towards making your life livable over having to create a camp fire just to cook breakfast. Or how about learning how to build simple but effective generators that can be made from scrap parts and powered using water or wind.

Learn the basics of gathering or growing your own food and have a book on hand that you can reference as you need it.

Learn a trade that people will really need as other services go away like bicycle repair, tool creation, plot farming, clothing repair and creation, or teaching others the basics of survival, etc.

Really learn and research your area… is is a suitable area for subsistence farming? Without whole house heating will it be too cold? Is it a hard to travel area by foot or bicycle or carting a load on a trailer? And learn about your options for leaving it and where you would go to live a more comfortable life.

Some good sources of further reading:

• What if US Collapses?
• Possum living
• Homemade survival kit
• Rocket Stoves
  • How to build a simple Rocket Stove
  • Capturing heat

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Resources List

The following list is what I have been thinking through and coming up with as some items to think about and start to plan for. Please feel free to help with this effort and spur discussion about what else should be on people’s minds.

• Eating and Stocking your larder
  • Water – the most basic necessity
    • Live near good water with a manual pump
    • Have high quality food grade water containers available. These can be filled as needed before hard times and stored for future use.
    • Water filters/purifiers + repair kit (this should be efficient, easy to clean, repair, and use)
    • Hand pumps and siphons
  • Cooking
    • Coleman fuel with an efficient burner for cooking without the need of a large heat source. Plus a simple wrapping to keep heat close to pot.
    • Learn the basics of creating a rocket stove which is a very efficient way of heating using small amounts of fuel (wood twigs, etc)
    • Cast iron cookware – Heavy but lasts, keeps heat for a long time.
    • Matches – strike anywhere and plenty of them!
    • Have the basic utensils available such as a whisk, a hand can opener, a knife, and eating utensils. Paper plates and cups? Paper towels, napkins.
  • Food to grow
    • Live where you can grow or find your own food
    • Rabbits and Chickens – Both are small and easy to keep. Quick growing. Chickens are smellier, but give eggs. Chicken wire and wood for pens. Easy and cheap to feed.
    • Stockpile seeds (non-hybrid) that will grow in your area.
  • Food to store
    • Basics: Rice, beans
    • Canned foods: Veggies, Fruits, Soups, Tuna, gravy (best ones are tasty and edible without heating)
    • Cooking: Olive oil, Honey, Powdered/condensed milk, vinegar, flour, yeast
    • Water enhancers: Instant coffee, tea, tang, cocoa
    • Seasonings: Soy sauce, bullion cubes, garlic, salt/pepper, small amount of other spices
    • Treats: Graham crackers, trail mix, gum, candies, popcorn, peanut butter, nuts, jerky
  • Storage
    • Insulated ice chests – Great for keeping things cool in summer and from freezing in winter.
    • Canning supplies (jars, lids, wax) for future storage.
• Shelter and Warmth and lighting
  • Seasoned firewood (wood takes 6-12 months to cure for home use)
  • Weatherization items – Window/door insulation, wall/roof insulation
  • Sleeping – Sleeping bags (high performance materials), mats, pillows. Cots and inflatable mattresses.
  • Lighting – Long buring candles, Oil lamps (oil – clear, wicks)
• Clothing
  • Washing – Clothes pins, lines, hangars, multi-use soap (Dr. Bronners)
  • Heavy work clothes – Jeans, shirts, boots, belts
  • Repair – Sewing supplies (scissors, fabrics, thread, needles, etc)
  • Wool clothing – High performance in all weather. Scarves, mittens, hats, socks, shirts, etc
  • Gloves – Work, warming, gardening, etc.
  • Rain gear
  • Cold weather gear
• Personal Supplies
  • Learning, education, recording
    • Writing pads/paper/pencils/pens
    • Solar calculator
    • Reading glasses
    • Books (learning and pleasure, survival book)
  • Health and Hygiene
    • First Aid kits
    • insect repel, vermin killing.
    • Toilet paper, kleenex.
    • Baby wipes, baby oil, alcohol wipes/lotion.
    • Atomizers – cooling and bathing
• Tools
  • Tin snips (for creating rocket stoves, and other things out of flat metal)
  • Gardening tools
  • Wood tools – Bow saw, axe, hatchet, sharpening tools
  • Animal capture tools – Fishing supplies, snares, hunting, etc.
  • Transportation
    • Personal – Bikes + repair (tires, tubes, pumps, chains, oil)
    • Hauling – Carrying large items (wagons, trailers)
  • General use tools – Aluminum foil, plastic Garbage bags, bleach, Paraffin wax (food, candles, etc)
  • Patching – Screen, rubber, wood, bolts/nuts, etc.
  • Solar charging system – Useful long term? Hard to repair? Useful charging of items?
• Safety and Security
  • Protection – Guns, ammo, Pepper Spray, Knives, Slingshots
  • Safety – Baking soda as fire extinguishers, Carbon monoxide alarm, fire alarm
  • “Survival in a Can” – Good for having on hikes, traveling, trading, etc.
• Trading
  • Liquor, food, tp, cigarettes, bikes, books, humanity (toothpaste, rouge, soap, cologne)