Archive for April, 2009
One Day Challenge: Read a Book in a Day!!!
I have a goal and will try my best to make it happen with all of the things that are going on today for me. I’ll see if I can do it!
One Day Challenge: Read a book in a day!!! from Oaks Real on Vimeo.
Burger Brawl Competition, This Past Weekend
I have talked about my weekends quite a bit lately, actually I usually write about my weekends every Monday. I learn so much from the experience of being away from my job for a couple of days. For the most part, like everyone else, it is a time for relaxation, reflection, catching up with friends and family that weren’t seen throughout the work week, or to take a short, but much needed vacation.
A bet that turned into a friendly contest, increased in size, and spiraled out of control by both parties of friends and family knowing and committing to the battle, there was no turning back. I am sure people know of the show, Throw Down, with Bobby Flay, he is the one that started this and as time went by, the noise talking increased. My girlfriend is a fantastic cook, she can run circles around me, and I have learned so much from her over the past year in a half. I knew I was provoking the wrong person. I am a competitive person by nature, so I naturally urged her on into a battle that no one could turn there back on and take lightly.
She Had All the Pressure!
Tags: competition, fun times, weekend
Mini Post! A Goal of Reading 2 Books by…
This is a quick post, more like a twitter post, but wanted to mention it on the blog. I have a goal of finishing 2 books by the end of day Thursday. I will reveal the amount of books I’ve read for the month next month.
I will post the regular post later today!
Appreciation to Ash B!
I met this person via email a year or so ago. I, for the most part, thought I was writing for myself and simply documenting my life to the known world. I have told a couple of people of my website, but not much. However, when I checked my email one afternoon or day (I can’t remember now), I saw a message from someone who was from Canada, we’ll call her Ash.
She was letting me know that what I wrote really helped her get her life in order and gave her the confidence to do what she always wanted to do in her life. She said I was kind of an inspiration to her and wanted me to know. After I read that email I paused, I was actually feeling I was falling back in my commitment to myself to write in my blog, but I couldn’t believe what I wrote was helping somebody else. Little did I know I started to understand my purpose in life and went back and forth with a couple of emails with Ash. At the time I was 26 and still trying to figure out things (actually, still am) and wrote because I wanted to. I realized that people can take charge in their lives by a couple of paragraphs a couple of times a week and multiplied in months.
I haven’t emailed Ash for some time now, I know she seldomly reads at the blog, but happy she is living for her self, taking life by the horns (I got of think of another saying, lol)! I want you to know A, I appreciate the effort you had emailing to let me know how much you admired my writing.
As we grow up and feel we have to give back to others, there comes a time where others lift us back to continue our motivation of life. I know I will never fully understand how much I touched your life and you will not know how much you have touched mine, but a couple of words should let you know I do care for your kind gesture of letting me know.
Tags: appreciation, Purpose
Novel Writing Frustrations
How’s the Novel Going?
Novel writing is frustration. I have been at it since the beginning of the year and challenged myself this week to only write towards the novel during the morning time. The past two days are going no where. I can’t seem to get a paragraph down. All I’m able to do is write about the problem with my main character, how I know the second half of the book (in my head), but not the first part. How my character doesn’t interact with enough people to give the reader a glimpse of the main character’s personality. I am totally lost and can’t seem to write without a care in the world. The way I write blog post, inspirational writing, and thought writing is the opposite of novel writing (at least for now).
The Struggles in the Past
I have been saying I was going to write a story for now 2 years. I started a couple of pages from other novels and have thought endlessly of others. But, didn’t have the courage to actually start one, like I have this year. I’m thinking of the perfection of the process and the story I want to tell. I want it to be perfect right from the jump, without going through several edits I know that it is going to take to get it right. But, damn, nothing is working and I am getting to the point of rather reading a book than write towards this novel.
My New Direction
Tags: frustrations, novel writing, passion, realization, writing
This Weekend: A “Night and Day” Experience
Photo By: klearchos
During this time of the year there are constant changes of weather. From winter to spring and at times a glimpse of summer, also a period of perpetual transformation that brings 30 degree weather for a day or for a couple of hours, to sunshine and a cool wind breeze for the week, to a thunderstorm that will last the entire weekend. This past weekend, I heard the weather forecast from everyone: a rainy-wet-stay-at-home weekend. I didn’t know what to expect and thought it would be good times to relax for a change, read a book (which I have been doing quite a bit this month), watch a movie or two, have some good lovin, and to really be a bum.
Tags: getting things done, night and day, relaxing
Outliers Reviewed, What Did I Learn?
I have done plenty of math and realize it is going to take me a total of 10 years to be an expert at my writing, 8 more years left! I have been writing for the past couple of years, but haven’t put in the amount of time to warrant even 1000 hours per year. In a year it is 8,760 hours. We spend 20% sleeping, another 25% working in order to pay bills, 20% bullshitting around, 10-15% with family and friends, and leaves about 20% of doing whatever else one wants to do. 20% of time in a year is equivalent to 34 hours per week. That is like adding another full-time job without necessarily getting paid from it, so what are our priorities?
Thoughts After Reading Outliers
I didn’t want to think about what I thought of the book until this morning. I was thinking all of it was the 10k hours and finding opportunity wherever and whenever it came around. But it is more than that, it has to deal with my past, where I was raised, and the lucky breaks I got throughout my life. As I kept reading I started to understand the shape of the world and how the majority of us are fucked, just by coming out the womb of a mother whose background warranted failure. The mother and probably the father were going to do what they were taught and through their life experience help their children with living a life of the past.
Tags: Book Review, Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers, Success
Videos of Crazy Cardio Challenge!
Here are the videos I promised for my crazy cardio challenge I did a couple of weeks ago. They total around 20 minutes long, but feel they will give you a good understanding of what I actually did during the week of the challenge. Let me know what you think, and enjoy!
CCC: Walking 30 Flights of Stairs
CCC: Walking 30 flights of Stairs from Oaks Real on Vimeo.
Tags: craziness, dedication, exercise
1st Quarter of 2009 Review
We have already gone through 3 months of 2009. I have done tons of things that have helped me have a great start to the year and also others that I still need to work on.
The Good
Waking up early: I started to wake up early, especially during the work-week at 4:30 a.m. I was trying to get up at 4 a.m., but changed my workout schedule and didn’t feel like going to sleep even earlier. So, far now, 4:30 is the time I rise or snooze till 4:50, and I wake up to at least do my 45 minutes of writing. What I need to do for the next quarter is work myself down to 4:20 and spring up out of bed, so I will be able to workout if need be and then write after wards. This will free up more time in the afternoon for anything, unplanned or planned.
Tags: changes, lessons, year so far
The Weekends Are Special!!!
Saturday is a day of rest and to do other things other than think about work. I spent 5 days doing that very thing and usually spend my weekends recharging and resting. But, getting up this past weekend was very similar to getting up during the past work-week. However, this time I did get up a couple of hours later, but still felt the resistance to rise. But I eventually did, took a shower, made some coffee (a great treat, because I don’t drink it during the week), and sat and pondered about the day to come. My girlfriend was finally ready and was quite grumpy too (she is not a morning person): she complained about my inconsiderate language, the way my feet pointed out, and my jerkiness and constant increase and decrease of speed. But once we stopped, stopped at the reason we got up early, signed in, put on our aprons, placed our borrowed hammers on the side, we were ready for the day.
I wish I could have seen the family who was going to be living in this house we were helping. But, for the most part it didn’t matter, no one had a bitter face as they would probably have had anytime during cube week. Everyone were helping each other and at times got to know each other when activities were at a stop. Also, we helped put up all corners of a place someone would call home to in a couple of weeks, that was only a slab of concrete at the beginning of the day was really remarkable. It was really worth it to get up early, for a change.
Went to sleep around around 12, no alarm clock, got up around 10:30, had some coffee, watched a little tv, and finally took a shower. Before that I was able to eat breakfast and pet the dog who hates me! Looked through the window, said out loud, “It’s a beautiful day”. Got dress, went to see a friend, drove around some, then to a park to look up at the sky and went back home. I wouldn’t have changed the day for nothing. As simple as it sounds, it was also something I needed. Not so much to prepare me for the week coming, but to enjoy the simple things in life and to take each day slowly.
- @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
