In the interest of time.

I woke up this morning to read an article in Rolling Stone on Scientology. It was as bizarre and unbelievable (for the most part) as you would expect. I decided to link it here on my blog, with doubts that anyone would actually take the time to read it all here. Which brings me to my main thought of the morning; How much, is too much, to read online? And at what point do you draw the line? How much do you suppose, you read online in a single day?
(Weigh in below).

The New Yorker has long articles, most of which can also be found online. Some of their articles take hours, if not days to read. Aside from the sheer incrediblity of such a feat (of putting up these hundreds of thousands of pages online) who actually takes the time to read them? I suppose they all have printable options, which is helpful, but back to my point, how much is too much to read from a screen? It would seem that The Gutenberg Project thinks that our propensity for such online reading is boundless; posting entire books online, such as Ulysses and War and Peace!

Oh and watch this to see what Scientology can do for you, once you achieve the high level status of an "OT" (Operating Thetan)!

gone.

lastnight i wrote some stuff. it was rather long. my links didnt work. it was really annoying. thus, the post is gone.
for now. i will repost if i can work things out.
dammit.

clicks.

The day, (today’s) start, (content) its getting late:
My brother wrote, what I thought to be an interesting blog today over at “the Space.” I like the style and the topic is of course, timely.
In other topical news of me, and my day to day life, I read the cover story of Time magazine this week and thought that it was immensely interesting. "Are kids too wired for their own good?" discussed the “M generation” (media generation) and how wired everyone is (particularly kids and adolescents); to the corruption of family values, the reformatting of our brains and overall detriment of attention spans. The ever-increasing prevalence of adolescents (and adults) to multi task, every day, in every thing is at an all time high and rising. It was not a surprise finding and quite understandable to see why this has been a developing problem in our overanxious, speedy, uber-efficient world. As many Time magazine articles do, it plugged some books, on topics I think are really interesting and “study-worthy”-- the kind of studies that I find myself asking, “Why didn’t I think to devote my life to studying something I find so interesting!?” Sherry Turkle recently reissued her book, "The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit" addressing her findings in studies on the growing importance of the relationship of Computers in our lives. Also noteworthy, the book, "CrazyBusy," by psychiatrist, Edward Hallowell, in which he talks about “screensucking” and the endless black hole that places like the Internet can be for us, if we let them.

It is getting entirely too late (and I've been on the computer entirely too long tonight).
Have fun getting lost in the worldWideweb of possibility, endless distractions, and almighty knowledge.
goodnight.

appl

Anyone who knows me, knows just how super-hella-wicked stoked I would be, if this would truly happen. I think it would be a tremendous addition to the already thriving (?) economy of Hampton Roads, I mean really, its a "no-brainer" as many people like to say. Furthermore, some of us need the onsite support of a "genius bar."

The white picket fence.

Is the dream still alive? I wonder if the dream will ever really die? How can such an idea be so subjective and hollow? How can it so often, go so wrong, with everything else seemingly so right? (i.e. wealth and success turned into tragedy and despair) What are the essential "bed posts" of the American Dream? Have they ever really changed? If so, how and why?

. . . .

I certainly do not know the answers for all the questions I pose above, but I do know some things, and I am interested in my own personal happiness. I know what works for me and I certainly have come to find eminent value in the time honoured characteristics and beliefs that are treasured by so many (trust, loyalty, virtue, morality). I do believe that the true path to happiness is found through "the virtues of plain living," to take it directly from Horace, a leading lyric poet in Latin (and of course, from the exhaustive book on Happiness I am slowly making my way through). The wisdom of the ages, never ceases to amaze me. For men from so long ago to be so wise and understanding of essential-life-truths and to see life with such clarity, is a highly admirable feat, in any time period, let alone Before Christ! The modern world suffers from so many social ills and personal ailments of the psyche, it truly makes me wonder what has gone wrong, and what could be done to restore a better and more psychologically sound world. In the simple words of Horace, a wise man of so long gone, who never took his life for granted and found simple pleasures in simple things, I leave you with the following...


"Always expect reversals, be hopeful in trouble/ Be worried when things go well. That man does best who chooses the middle way. That man alone is happy/ And wears his crown secure, who can gaze untempted/ at all the heaped up treasure of the world."

"Happy the man, and happy he alone,
Who can call today his own;
He who secure within can say:
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today."

slack posting

Today I read about the plight of the black man, and thought it interesting. And then, much later on, enjoyed a long overdue nice dinner with the Elliotts, over a half price bottle of good red wine. mmmmm, Sirenas.

goodnight to all and to all a good night.

SXSW? what's that?

The South X SouthWest Festival would be an overwhelming headache of a week for a neurotic like me. Aside from dealing with thousands of bands, there was a film festival earlier in the week and interactive "panels" being held to discuss topics such as technology, the future, digital rights, cyber communities, etc. (to give an idea, Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia were there). Interactive web communities are the future my friends (duh).

(Jimmy W. on left, Mr.Craigslist on Right). PhotoCredit:Laughing Squid.

I almost visited Austin this year (to stay with my brother) but had to back out in the planning phase due to other engagements. Initally, I was going to try to coincide my trip with this event. I think it would have been quite a whirlwind weekend, and I hope to make it next year. He told me about free beer and lots of free shows and parties around the clock. With so much going on and so much information being disseminated, I can't imagine the challenge of documenting all the happenings, but I did stumble on, what I thought, was an interesting discussion.

a bit, in bits... (for more, clicky around)

MPAA rep gets slammed at SXSW
"Derek Powazek reports from a panel at SXSW where a representative from the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) faced down an audience of geeks who called her to account for the MPAA's war on its customers and on technology; the session is also available as an MP3. It's typical that the MPAA only sends speakers to events where they're not likely to face an audience who knows how to call bullshit on their talking-points, so this is a rare and delicious debate, in which the MPAA rep is utterly defeated:
Think about this: I can go to the store and buy a five inch reflective disc that holds digital media. If that disc is a music CD, I can pop it in my computer, encode it, put it on my iPod, and listen to it whenever I like. But if that disc is a movie DVD, I cannot, even though the same iPod is perfectly capable of playing the same digital content that I own just the same. (Oh, and by the way, Apple created a billion dollar industry in legal song downloading because of this. Where's the Apple Movie Store? Ask the MPAA.)...
The audience was filled with other examples of an industry gone crazy. One guy moved to the UK and all his DVDs stopped working because they were region-encoded (as most are). Her answer? That was in the contract you agreed to when you bought the DVD. Another guy asked why he can't just download the Sopranos. After all, he's a HBO subscriber, so he paid for it, he just happened to miss the last episode. Her answer, again, was that the time is part of the contract. My answer: Give it a couple years and HBO will be doing this, or they'll be out of business." -as found on: BoingBoing...

Who's reading this blog anyway?

I dont think that updating this blog everyday is worth a damn thing! In fact, I am almost sure it isn't and I am practically counting the days when it is going to end (March 31, for the dailies, at least). This is more about discipline, something I'm trying to more finely develop. I am not expecting everyone I have ever told to read every word, and I think it's ridiculous to think that most would. I, myself, think I spend entirely too much time trolling the internet, and have been swearing off technology since myPod broke earlier this week. However in my trolling I found this article on NPR, and thought it pretty funny and timely for this little diatribe. Enjoy for those of you who will, at your will, of course.

This is getting to be quite a long salad bar and I am not even sure it's good for you at all!

Green...

"happy st. patty's day" errh.. "bring me a pint"

This is Norfolk; Norfolk can be nice.

Rylo

and then, and then, the nightcap

pirate of an unknown country.

To the unemployed and insecure; I tell you this...
Quiet contemplation beats making money every time.

And oh! what is to be said for the natural afternoon.
Away from the gloom and out of the rooms.
In it's colorful tunes of golden hues and daytime moon.

The outside wide open while the space entombs.

Alas, we all must yield to some.
But ay! one by one, we mustn't give in;
To our long and old, but not forgotten, whims.


*(Un-American pirate comes ashore to observe).

"! Disk Insertion Error" ?

Today, my 4th generation 40GB, click wheel, iPod was erased. Needless to say I was shocked. It is perhaps the most depressing/confusing/stupefying moment in recent memory. I don't know what or how to think about it? Either I am completely crazy for caring so much about nothing more than a little music toy, or this is a completely justified reaction, considering that I lost almost 5,000 mp3's and the iPod has long been my main method of listening to music.
My iPod has been acting kind of strange lately, as of about two days ago (i.e. playing the last part of the previous track in the beginning of the next one.) This morning while shuffling Led Zeppelin songs for about a half an hour, it just stopped, returned to the start screen. I quickly just chose another artist to "song shuffle, all albums" (Oasis, if you must know). It began shuffling alright-- without any music playing, and skipping through each track for about a second (just long enough to read the names)! I pulled it off my sounddock and decided to connect it to my iBook (via dock) to erase some artists (the Fiery Furnaces latest album sucks). Low and behold, the computer came up with a "! Disk insertion Error" kinda like this...

Since I just moved forward by clicking "ignore," I might have lost my chance to eject the pod correctly, but I'm not so sure--it didn't show up at all in iTunes or on the desktop, as icon. So, not knowing exactly what to do, I hastily pulled the pod off dock and I saw the Apple icon, indicating the reset function, only this was not the usual reset, this was the kind of reset back to "factory settings" erasing everything I had in an instant! -where the first screen you see is the "Language" selection, as if it had never been used before. So my iPod is not "broken" by most meanings of the word, but it has been erased and is no longer recognizable by my computer. I guess that means it's broken, though, huh?

Maybe none of this would have happened if I hadn't called in sick to work today.(?) Thankfully I do have 6.7GB of music backed up on my harddrive (including all my Stones, Beatles, Dylan, and Zeppelin albums). In the end, music is replaceable, which I guess means this isn't the end of the world, just a shitty feeling.

RorySheridan got married.

One of my best friends got married yesterday after proposing the night before at the sold out Prince concert at the 9:30 club in DC. I’m still in shock but very excited and happy for him. Congratulations to Rory and Jessica Sheridan!
...



I still can’t believe it.

. . . . . .

Double Birthday weekend.

Huge backyard bonfire on Saturday!


Last night I saw Arctic Monkeys on Saturday Night Live, the latest over-hyped Brit band. They actually surprised me though with a pretty good performance and I think I might even like them a little now.



Mountain Biking in Seashore State Park today, I was desperately trying to actually find a "mountain" to bike down. This was the best I could find... (click the picture for a bigger version)

HappyBirthday Dave!

Last night whilst out for pints in celcbration of Dave's birthday, I was reminded of the video I shot last month of him riding the mechanical bull at the country bar. I was well advised to post it on the internet, and so I did. Now, it's available for everyone to see, via YouTube, the easiest self broadcasting website out there (not the best quality though).

Enjoy...

In the end, DaVe O gets tossed, just like everybody else..

the HoNeYmOoN.

I just got back from booking our honeymoon. An amazing place 18 miles south of Cancun where we won't have to lift a finger (if we dont want to). The all inclusive package booked for 7 nights in August @ the Secrets Excellence at Riviera Maya, Mexico includes:
-Round trip transfer between Airport & Hotel using VAN service.
-Welcome cocktail and cool towel.
-Full breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks each day.
-Unlimited natural fruit juices, and soft drinks.
-Unlimited alcoholic beverages!!!
-24 hour room service.
-Use of bathrobes and slippers.
-Pool and beach waiter service.
-A variety of beach, land and water activites throughout the day.
-Daily activites.
-Tennis clinics.
-All taxes and gratuities.

ah, life.

no time.

A thought...

The person who experienced the most “goosebump moments” by the end of the day, wins.

days like this.

Just another Tuesday I guess, I wish I had a good story to tell or could at least come up with something better than this...

Hyper./Text./Markup./Language

For the longest time, no one told me about this in any useful way... and then one day Dave O came through, with a mighty site steeped in geekTalk, an avalanche of codeSpeak; so, for that I am grateful and ready to share with all you worthy, ambitious netizens still searching and scratching...
Click Here For HTML learning and stuff. (AKA basic HTML, and creating links to other pages, etc.)

Kickturns and pumping.

I dont have much on my mind this evening (white lie). There is this... (Secrets Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Aventura Spa Palace or Secrets Excellence in Riviera Maya, Mexico? St. Lucia= lots o money, rainforests, mountains, biking, photography. Honeymoon= all inclusive resorts, romance, travel, love, white sands, great blue ocean, plunge pools, and all you can drink and eat). But really, who cares to hear all about what's going on in my mind this evening?

Yesterday I skated a vert ramp in Virginia Beach, something I haven't done in many moons. I got this picture of me doing a wicked awesome kickturn; deal with it.

Ode to Happiness

So today, I woke myself up at 8:05 to a gorgeous American morning and a favorite pastime of mine, reading. I put on a pot of coffee and sat down in a reclining chair to read my favorite book of the moment (of which I thoroughly recommend for anyone interested in their life and the formation of what constitutes human happiness). I find out about books all the time in all kinds of places, most often, perhaps from other books but, I found out about this particular book from the Times Book Review, which is a great resource, I stumbled on one recent day, resulting in me actuallly purchasing a new book (something I rarely do). Click here for the most authoritative and convincing review I have found on it. Just try reading it until your get bored (most should be able to find some reward in it, then you can go back to perusing Myspace).

At most times, for lack of a better word, I could probably be best described as a dilettante (a person who cultivates an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge; a dabbler; non professional; amateur). I think it’s a very descriptive word for so many people, though some may find it offensive, I find myself all too interested in all too many things to deny it. The direct result of such an overactive mind can result in overall frustration and disappointment, not to mention poor planning and decision-making. I don’t think I have ADHD, but perhaps something closely resembling it. The Internet could be the most guilty culprit of my time wasting, with its billions of pages, of good information, senseless chatter, opinions, and self-indulgent paradises (such as blogger, flickr and myspace). There is just far too much out there for one to digest and sift through, and someday’s I feel like I try and then I get overwhelmed and irritated. This severely effects my time management, but I am working on all this and making progress, but it has been, as I see it, a problem.
I don’t know why I just wrote about all that, but anyway, it’s nearly noon and I’m off to find something to ride.

Bin257

Driving home from work yesterday behind a precarious assortment of mess in a pickup truck, a catastrophe waiting to happen.
(secret/b/w/pictures).


And this...
It would be nice to be everywhere, all the time, with everyone I like (buddeh's).

03+03=06

Driving to work, I saw a kid (no older than sixteen) light a cigarette, and it made me think about rebellion. I saw a Pizzeria torn down and a Chinese restaurant being constructed, and I thought about change. I saw a woman on her porch smoking a cigarette with a towel in her hair, and I thought about contemplation. I saw another woman in the blue Walmart vest getting into her car, and I thought about the struggle. I saw all these things this morning and it made me think about life. How we all take so much for granted in this life and so many people think each, theirs, the heavier burden; and so on and so on...

today is the greatest

6:22am: I wake up to classical music, or the beginnings of it, as I usually turn it off before it even starts. I get out of bed. I brush my teeth, make a sandwich, approximately 15 oz. of coffee, and sit down and look at something. I notice that the pink sky of this morning would make a good picture, but I do nothing. I listen to my new favorite song off Let it Bleed (You got the Silver). It’s supposed to be 70 degrees today so I leave home without my winter coat.
At work I multi task, prepare for the month’s progress notes, say, “good morning” a lot and sit down at a computer, stand up, walk around, interact, sit down at a computer (repeat). 12:30pm: sit down for lunch. 4:00pm get off.
At 5:00pm Rachel and I show up at the Canterbury Center at ODU, to meet with an old friend of hers. The priest, from her old church who later worked at the ODU campus. We had planned to meet with him today to talk about our wedding, as he will be conducting(?) it. He was a very nice, very kind man; and older man with a white beard and a great sense of humor and a sincere affect. I have to say, for a man not always keen to the church, I was impressed and inspired by this man of God. He was a great conversationalist, jovial and bright. We sat out back at a picnic table in the unseasonably warm air and talked about everything from the wedding to single malt scotch! He even invited me to join his Gentleman's Club, meeting one Thursday a month in a warehouse on Granby St from 7-11pm to drink, listen to music(Grateful Dead, and other music from the 70's, 80's!?) and talk about life! This was unaffiliated with the church or ODU, a very odd, but indeed, humbling invitation. He said they taste different kinds of alcohol each week, and that it was new and there were only 6 members so far, with a limit of 10. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, he was leaving too, he ruched over to our care to offer us a piece of amazing chocolate cake! What a swell guy.
6:30pm Came home, ate dinner (New England Clam Chowder with a sun dried tomato bagel, side of water) and then watched the rest of Me, You and Everyone You Know, a really cool movie by this artsy gal named Miranda July (which reminds me of this).
By about now I am settling down to read a little in my book and then sneak into a room with the lights off.
goodnight.

Rabbit.Rabbit.

In the afterglow of a jumbo mid week margarita, I sit still. As I think about it, I will write about it; presumably. So for March, I think about daily updates. I might not always have something special to say but you always check back just to see.

[1234567890]
pictures, perhaps.
HyperText Mark-up Language, perhaps.
sarcasm, doubtful, but then again.. .?
i don't know.

Satyr

In Greek mythology, Satyrs are deities of the woods and mountains. They are the companions of Dionysus (the god of wine and excess). They are half human and half beast; most commonly described as having the upper half of a man and the lower half of a goat; while the upper part of the body is that of a human, they also have the horns of a goat.
Satyrs are described as roguish but faint-hearted folk — subversive and dangerous, yet shy and cowardly. As Dionysiac creatures they are lovers of wine, women, and men, and are ready for every physical pleasure. They roam through the forests and mountains to the music of pipes, cymbals, castanets, and bagpipes, chasing the nymphs (with whom they are obsessed, and whom they often pursue). Nymphs are spirits of nature. They are minor female deities and the protectors of springs, mountains, and rivers. Nymphs are represented as young, pretty girls.
Because of their love of wine, Satyrs are often represented holding winecups, and appear often in the decorations on winecups.

turn your speakers on.

Ryan Adams sings Cold Roses on Austin City Limits. Quality may be low, but this is what I'm talking about...

pictures (louder than wiereds)

Rachel, doing her best "Jack Twist" before weathering the storm at the Country bar.


Desperados aint no joke, "a little country and a little rock n roll."

happy


This was the DJ. He was very proud of himself. He let me take this picture of his shirt (just look at that grin) and played alot of country music, but also Outcast's Hey Ya! and Salt N Pepa's Push it. When he played the modern country favorites, every mouth in the room was moving, singing along, it was pretty funny. He said he didn't have any Gram Parsons, and someone requested Ring of Fire, but it was never heard.


Richie rides the bull.

At the end of the night, every night, the Bull stands alone; still and proud.

Simply Thoreau

"If I should sell both my forenoons and my afternoons to society as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for," Thoreau wrote. "Let us consider the way in which we spend our lives. The world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle...There is no sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work. I cannot easily buy a blank book to write thoughts in; they are commonly ruled for dollars and cents...I think there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosphy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business...
If a man should walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer, but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen."
-from Life Without Principle, 1863

"Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind."

Thoreau's words seem all the more relevant today.

shade underground

I am on the outskirts of a sleepy cow town, perhaps, in the dirt, in an underground passageway, in a dream. I am alone but following something (orders, maybe). My sights are drawn to the thousands of tiny brown roots, (that I want to call “tree dendrites”) and the rocky mud of under Earth, as I crawl onward. I smell gourmet cheeses and mixed fruit (I don’t know quite why and this never crosses my mind). I hear nothing. I have no idea how I got down here. It’s enough to make anyone mad. Unassumedly, I trod along without much directed thought. I respond accordingly when faced with adversity or a perceived threat. For example: I feel a presence looming strongly, so I look behind myself to make sure I am traveling safely toward somewhere alone; no one, nowhere, nothing; my acute perception of conscience again, tricking me surreptitiously (laughing, even).
I hear shots ring out up above, noise and confusion. I am slightly startled, though, realizing I am underground immediately comforted again. I hesitate to think too hard about anything at all going on above me. Reality became a distant vision long ago. To keep myself occupied, I refer to the memories of my hopeful youth in obscure parts of the hilly countryside, playing with daffodils and dandelions in the summer setting sun.
I remember reading once that when you’re isolated for long periods of time, with no human contact, you start to lose your mind. I have no idea how long I have been down here alone, underground, but I certainly don’t want to lose my mind. Just to make sure I start to talk to myself quietly. I say things like, “Here I am, there I go” over and over just because repetition produces a sort of comfort from within.
After awhile I stumble on a bright room. A small space, revolving slowly in a glass enclosure; whirring. I hear people talking on the inside, familiar voices. As I get closer I recognize the people from my past only they are all only 1/500th the size as I remember them, and I can hear them less up close than I could far away. They pay me no mind as I press my ear to the glass to try and make out what it is they’re saying. The sound goes out completely and I can’t hear anything now but I can see them drinking, talking and laughing, having a jolly good time. I presume they are all talking about me and I close my eyes and scream. Suddenly, I awake from this distant, too far out dream.

Back in reality again, for better or worse, I put on a pot of coffee and pick up the news to read about life again. I think it’s raining outside as I light a candle and put my feet up.

Self Actualization

Be a philosopher, love poetry, movies, books, stories
Enjoy metaphor, deeper meanings, what's behind the surface
Dream of possibilities, have an active fantasy life
Develop an aesthetic sense; appreciate beauty, nature, animals
Enjoy creativity, problem-solving in novel ways, contemplation
Cultivate a friendly spirituality, unseen helpers, wonder and awe
Increase self-awareness, build an inner core underneath outer personality
Have a single-minded, guilt-free focus on one's own interests and pursuits
Be independent of crowd-thinking, emotional contagion, group negativity
Motivated by Being-needs, not just Deficiency-needs (Maslow)
Know one's feelings, then suppress as needed

the part of luck

Woody Allen is an amazing director and he only seems to get better. I mean, love him or hate him as a person, actor, or man, he is truly an amazing director. Rarely have I seen such a film, render perfectly the complexities that a truly great novel can offer. It seems a difficult task to portray the deep emotions, feelings and inner torture of characters onto the big screen. Match Point mirrored Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" in so many ways it was glaring, but still managed to be monumental in strength as a screenplay on it's own.

"The man who said 'I'd rather be lucky than good' saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net and for a split second it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck it goes forward and you win. Or maybe it doesn't and you lose...

Match Point is a drama about ambition and obsession, the seduction of wealth, and the often discordant relationship between love and sexual passion. Perhaps most importantly, however, the story reveals the huge part luck plays in the events of our lives, refuting the comforting misconception that more of life is under our control than really is. (Dream Works Pictures)

Watch it soon, then complain to me about my poor review and differ in opinion from me, perhaps.

Delight in occupation

"A man is occupied by that which he expects to gain happiness, but his greatest happiness is the fact that he is occupied."

-Alain (French philosopher; 1868-1951)

no rain, no snow- no show.

crisp wintering winds hint at heavy accumulation (north)
weary-eyed waiting, we watch close
nothing happens in the chalky still skies
oh lucky sunday, give us a sign

the calm afternoon passes endlessly slow
as the dry hard ground lies still
leafless trees stand by, bracing
another weekend evening descends upon us
we never really woke up today

rules of the game

As many people know... skateboarding has long been a passion of mine. I have been skateboarding continuously since the 7th grade (and I had even put in a few years before that, in elementary school). I have been through a lot with skateboarding and it has been a large part of my life for as long as I can remember. This is about a theory regarding skateboarding that I have yet to ever really put in writing…
I believe it truly started in when I was in high school and I took an Introduction to Psychology class. I found it an interesting study and soon was exposed to a recurring style of categorization within it. More explicitly, I was exposed to the tendency in the study of Psychology to categorize ideas, concepts and theories through stages, components and behaviors. Naturally, I suppose, I found myself trying to “psychologize” my sport of all consuming interest, in an effort to develop my own theories about optimal skateboarding. I came up with what I called “The Four C’s of Skateboarding” in trying to identify what it takes to succeed in landing tricks and perfecting “moves.” It is something I have told several of my friends about through the years and I even imagined myself making money off the idea (but I never saw quite how). It didn’t take long, as I remember, for me to realize the important role (1) Confidence plays in skateboarding (as well as anything else in life, I imagine). I understood that you could not bail and expect to land the trick. This was an important concept that had to be intact if anything was to be accomplished on a skateboard. Next, and perhaps most closely aligned with Confidence, was (2) Commitment, the tangible manifestation of a confident mind. Committing to a trick in skateboarding means, figuratively and literally, “putting your foot down.” It is the logical follow through on confident thought. (3) Concentration could go without saying I assume, but I thought it essential enough to note in maintaining good measure and logic in the theory. Many people have written about the idea of “flow” and of being “in the zone” in sports of all kind, and it is to this notion that I am referring to when I include the most obvious category of Concentration. Lastly, and arguably most importantly, comes (4) Coordination. Who can skateboard without coordination? More directly I am referring to the notion of kinesthesia, the perception or sensing of the motion, weight, or position of the body as muscles, tendons and joints move. This is how I came to understand optimal performance in skateboarding. The ideas expressed here are mine and not taken from anywhere else. They could obviously be applied to all sorts of different activities and sports, but in my pursuit I found them through skateboarding and therefore they are aligned within this construct. There are certainly more attributes worth looking at (consistency, courage, determination, etc.) but it has been my experience that most of them remain covered upon further inspection within my original Four C’s –
Confidence,
Commitment,
Concentration,
Coordination.

The War and the Consequences

The war in Iraq costs the United States $1 billion per week, $251 billion so far. Bush originally said it would cost $70 billion. Before the war, he fired his top economic adviser, Larry Lindsay who said it would cost $200 billion.

The number of terrorist attacks per day in Iraq grew from 55 in December 2004 to 77 in December 2006.

Over 2,200 Americans have been killed in action in Iraq and 16,000 seriously wounded. Because we are doing a better job saving the lives of the wounded, those who survive often have devastating injuries from which there is no recovery.

Despite chipper denials from the Pentagon, the Army has serious problems with recruiting, especially getting quality recruitments, and with regular Army re-enlistment. The reason the numbers are not worse is because of the bonuses they are offering.

The officer corps is also being hollowed out, as younger officers quit in such number that 100 percent of those remaining are automatically moved up the ladder. For example, last year the Army promoted 97 percent of all eligible captains, up from as historical average of 70-80 percent. This information is from the Pentagon; data in a report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. It is quite possible this administration is destroying the professional Army.

-from Norfolk's Portfolio Weekly, 2/07/06

Whatever the outcome, the war in Iraq has been a complete disaster.

highlights (of a day)

I went skating on a really windy, Superbowl Sunday (while The Bus was probably stretching his loins). I really liked how the shots that Richie took a little early turned out... (early) Frontside Boardslide shot.

(early) Backside 50-50

Keith and Ron

Rachel, catching a touchdown pass...

state of the union

"evil doers" (to so many)