Archive for March, 2009
Alone Time, We All Need it From Time to Time…
I got more than I wanted alone time this past weekend. I spent some time with my girlfriend, her friends and family, my family, and tons of time with myself. I was able to finish up a book that came along better than it started and cleaned up my apartment. I was also able to talk to my neighbor to address the noise I was hearing and at times feeling (damn sub-woofer). I talked to my older brother about what he has been up to and spent some good alone time with my dad at their house and later in the day at my place. I saw my uncle and my aunt to give him some money for my paintings he is going to do for me and to simply get his long-winded conversations in person. The weekend was a good one and I learned so much about myself: How I am still working on being patient with myself and other people. I also, got to understand the female way-of-thinking and where I stand in the whole dynamic of a relationship. But more than anything I spent some good time by myself.
I haven’t spent this much time by myself for a long time. I can’t really pinpoint when, but this weekend I was able to see old family friends I haven’t seen in some time. I was able to drive around. Yep, drive around. As crazy as that sounds, whenever I was in college and also my first couple of years out of college I used to drive around. Sometimes I needed to clear my head, other times I would just do it because I didn’t feel like watching television or play video games. I also used to race my car around a track (more like a parking lot) a couple of times per month. I had so much fun because I wasn’t in my head, I was concentrating on the next turn, when to brake, or accelerate. I couldn’t get enough of it and would also perform my craziness on the streets (I know it wasn’t the sanest thing to do, but still fun). I still have a heavy foot and at times get bitched at by my girlfriend and other friends and family members (although my nephew loves it). But, as I was driving and enjoying myself I was concentrated on the drive and the people around me. I was listening to some easy playing traffic or driving music, Californication, and really just enjoyed myself.
I thought to myself, after every time I got out of the car, why haven’t I done this in such a long time? Why did I let this passion, hobby, or excitement die? It has always been in my heart and I think about it constantly and whenever I get a chance to get on the gas and not worry about the gas mileage I’m wasting, it is a feeling that is up there with me playing basketball (especially when I’m on fire, which I haven’t done in some time also), and having some great sex with my girlfriend. One thing I have been doing lately is staying out of my mind and living in the moment and these 3 experience I have listed are me living 100 % in the moment and not worrying about yesterday and the coming week.
So what I learned this week was to, of course, live in the moment, but also rekindle an old hobby or visit an old friend that brought joy to me many times in the past. Take these lessons I learned and see how your week comes out.
Tags: alone time, chillin, out of my head
Crazy Cardio Challenge Realization Video!
Cardio Challenge Realization 1 from Oaks Real on Vimeo.
Everybody is Lost…
Everybody is lost. Everyone. No one is left out of this discussion. From the 6 year old who is developing his character, but is held down by his/her parents rules to the 60 or 70 year old who isn’t done living and wants to do something different in their lives. Everyone, every single person is lost. It is important to have goals, dreams, and deadlines for our lives, but why do we have to be so rigid with life? For the most part our lives are determined by other people, our decisions to do for ourselves, and the pure luck of going outside and doing with a non-determined mind (letting the wind blow us in the direction she wants us to go).
Every since I got out of school I have been trying to figure out what makes me move, who I wanted to be like, where I wanted to live and so on and so on. I bought business courses, read tons of books, tried skiing, traveled to Japan, and did things I thought I was interested in. I talked to friends, I looked at all the people I came across in my life to see if they knew the answers and way to live life. It seemed that this over-achiever in college had everything figured out, but they were busting their asses off at a job that they would soon lose a year or 2 later. Only to find out they didn’t want to do the job they put their heart and soul into.
When it comes to what we want out of life, it is the change. The change to continue to do what we feel and think is the right way to “our” happiness. Why do we worry about having everything figured out? That question is one that is in constant motion. We have to be willing to listen to our voice inside and no when the bullshit is creeping in. Because as our lives change, our thoughts and self worth change. Once that happens we are lost again.
Tags: excitement, journey, lost, scary
What The Hell is CCC and Why Am I Doing It?
Have you ever done something that you have no idea why you are doing it, but kept on doing so anyway?What did you learn from the experience, was it worth it? I have come to realize I am the extreme person who will try anything. I don’t care how hard it is, I just want to try it.
I have been on this workout craze for 2 weeks now and this is going to be the last week before I insert my full-body workout back into my regimen and cut down on the cardio. I don’t have a real reason why I have been working out like crazy for the past couple of weeks. It could be because just for the hell of it or to be ripped all over, which I am very close to being already. There really isn’t a real reason why I do crazy things for no reason at all, but I feel it challenges my body, mind, and whatever the else I learn from the whole experience.
CCC?
While I was listening to some up-tempo music writing in my journal the other day I decided I was going to go all out in my workout this week. I was going to do more than the 2 weeks combine to get myself looking the way I want. So I thought of the Crazy Cardio Challenge. Yep, I am going to do yet another crazy exreme experiment just for the hell of it. I don’t like weighing myself, so I will take a picture after I am done. I will also do some video footage of this experiment and probably some audio. I am going to be accountable for everything I do, so I will also use twitter to document my progress.
Tags: challenge, commitment, extreme exercise
Why Should You Read My Blog?
Why should you read my….
blog? Why should you spend your important time reading what I write for fun? Why should you listen to a 27 year old municipal worker, who doesn’t have all of it figured out himself? Why should you listen to a dreamer and a person who goes on rants about following your passions so much? Why should you listen to somebody who is pretty much in the same position in life tell you life lessons?
What’s My Story
Those are very good questions and this very question can be ask for anyone who is online trying to give valid advice to people. I started this blog almost 4 years ago on a thought of just to write a paragraph. I didn’t know what I wanted to do at the time and went to work like any other person to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. I have a very interesting look on life and thought it would be a chance for me to tell my story and also figure out what I want to do for me. Each day is precious, we hear that statement so many times, and don’t realize what it means until we are pushed beyond our comfort level. I was telling a reader of my blog a year or so ago that we are all lost, we sit in our cube or where ever thinking about the future and not living in the moment. We really don’t know what we want to do and we know what we are presently doing isn’t it.
Experience is King
So lets go back to the questions up top. Through my writings and defiant actions I have accomplished going on a magical trip I dreamed about ever since I was in high school. I managed to bullshit my way to jobs mainly by leaning on my past life experience, than the actual job description. I manage to stop being timid and short-coming through my writing and eventually to real-world situations. I have been able to document the ups and downs of the business venture I started a couple of years ago and the continuous pursuit to start another successful business. I have tried different activities and suppose hobbies to figure out what I liked. Through my words and actions I have found my passion and am taking steps to make it a reality.
Tags: blog content, new direction, passion
How Many Floors Can You Walk? I walked…
“Hey, you want to take the stairs? It won’t take long and we will beat all of these people trying to take the elevator”, a short guy with glasses said.
I looked at him and he was dead serious in a joking way. I looked around and thought it couldn’t hurt. I told him, “sure, why not”.
I ran up 5 flights of stairs and was out of energy, I was already sweating and walked the rest of the remaining 4 flights of stairs. The older gentleman was still running up the flight of stairs, he got off 2 floors up and at a quicker time. I was like, wtf, how did he do that?
I sat down in my chair and took a couple of puffs of doctor-approve air and drank tons of water. I didn’t think much of it until I arrived to work this past monday. I have already been doing some cardio for a week and a half already, but it seemed like nothing compared to the brief time struggling up the 9 flights of stairs. So yesterday I decided I would put in some extra cardio and walk up the stairs. I was going to just stop at the 15th floor, which is the same one I work on. But I kept going and going and going and going all the way to the 25th floor of the building. I felt I accomplished so much in that short, but felt long time, and wanted to do more exercises. I continued to walk done the stairs back to my cubicle on the 15th floor.
I told a couple of people what I done and they were shocked. Everyone was saying why did I do that, you are is such good shape already? I had no answer, I had no real reason why I traveled up to the top of the building via the stairs, it was something I just wanted to do. There are so many scenarios where I do things just for the hell of it and can’t put a finger on the why (taking the Nike saying literally, every time). So today I walked up the 25 floors of stairs (actually more, started in the basement) again and I timed myself. Less than 8 minutes up and a total of 10 minutes to get back down to my floor. I thought it would take longer, I thought the task would be a little harder with me being all sore and not stretching from the day before. Nope, it wasn’t, I didn’t use my puffer this time. I wanted to do it again, but my work clothes were getting wet because of the sweating and went ahead and ate my lunch (a hand full and a half of almonds and raisins and a cup of water). I think I am going to try to do this 2-3 times per week, just for the hell of it, and see what else I learn about myself.
Tags: accomplishment, challenge, working out
Lessons Learned from Drinking a Glass of Orange Juice
Whenever it is time for dinner I usually have a couple of glasses of whatever beverage besides water to drink with my meal. I drink water throughout the day and want to taste something different for a change. When I was sitting down one day at my old apartment eating my dinner and drinking my orange juice, there was this annoying loud voice that said, “Man, you are not even tasting what you are drinking, you chug it down and get another glass.” My former roommate began to laugh and said afterwards he was just playin. Bullshit! That fool was trying to prove a point and I didn’t care what he said. I kept on drinking more glasses in retaleation of his ‘wanna-be-moral-of-the-story’ comment.
I continued to watch some tv and went to bed angry. I don’t know why I let the statement get to me, I thought about it for a couple of days and then coudn’t take it any more and asked him what he meant by it. I had an idea what he was talking about, but I wanted to hear it from his ‘doctor-Phil’ ass reasoning. He said I didn’t appreciate or taste what I was drinking. I didn’t care so much for what the beverage tasted like. I started to think of other incidents where I did something similar. As I thought I kept on saying to myself, “damn, yep, that’s right, hmm, oh well…”.
This realization happened about 5 months ago and am still thinking about it right now. I think the reason is because I learned so much from what I was doing from another person’s eyes. Sometimes we cannot see what we are either doing wrong or just doing when we are always looking at ourselves. We need outside help from time to time to tell us how it really is. We have to be willing to take critisim and see what it is really all about. I am still learning this trait and will continue until the day I stop existing.
Today I don’t talk to that roommate much. Only when we see each other around town. He is friend’s with a lot of people I associate with. But it is now more of a ‘hi and bye’ relationship. He is one of the reasons I moved out of my apartment in the first place, but that is besides the point. We can learn anything about ourselves through others, as long as we are willing to listen.
Tags: criticism from others, lessons
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
A couple of years back when one of my younger brother’s and I used to go out hitting on chicks at the bars/clubs we came up with conversation starters so we could get to know the girls a little better for the short period of time. I never used this question, but heard my brother use it a couple of times. The girls would laugh and they would talk about their problems at work and what their real dreams were. My brother had his already memorized, so he had no problem trying to impress the girl and also letting the woman know that he was doing something with his life. I still think of that very question now. I know what I want to do and am taking steps to make it a full time reality, but now I think about it for other people.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
When we were kids we were asked this question multiple times. From our parents, relatives, teachers, and whoever else who was atleast 15 years older than us. As I sit in my cube I see and hear people who are not doing what they want to do. People complaining about the best time of the work day is lunch and when they go home, when it is monday wanting it to already be friday, thinking of ideas so they can do those full-time, and simply not wanting to be there in the office because it is the ‘same ol’ same ol’‘. So now it is the beginning of another not-much-different-work-week; a week that starts off shitty (monday), gets better through ‘hump day’ (wednesday), and the best day of the week (friday). But during the week is what drains the life out of our souls and all we want to do is get home to sleep, drink some beer, watch some crappy tv, and think about what we really want to do.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
- @YEAdamMcFarland The full screen editor are badass, I get plenty done, but there shouldn't be a reason for so many choices. 12:37:20 PM November 13, 2009
