Coffee Shops

I love coffee shops. I love coffee shops alone, with a friend, and even with a group. Actually I hate groups in coffee shops, there are bars for that. If a group can coexist with the coffee shop atmosphere without messing up all of the wannabe artistic flow, then they are fine, otherwise I get annoyed, which I guess can only lead to good stories or a frightening pessimism about society in general.

Good coffee isn’t really that hard, at least for my taste. All you have to do is avoid making it watery garbage and it’s good. Americanos are another story. The good Americano seems to be the exception to the rule of bland hot beverages at many places. Again, all that it takes to move into a level of decency is strength, and apparently that is difficult. As much as I hate to say it, that ever popular retail coffee shop does make very good americanos, again only using my taste as a guide. Independent coffee shops are certainly preferable if you’re sticking it to the man, trying out hipster, or bored, but just because they aren’t named Starbucks or Caribbou doesn’t mean they have divine status. Well it shouldn’t, but to many just associating oneself with something so awesomely alternative is enough. Being all that is high and mighty, I cannot accept bland coffee no matter how many glasses and tight jeans a shop has to offer.

A good coffee shop has a certain unexplainable vibe that, just like Romanticism, can actually be explained in so many ways it becomes nauseating. The main players are the coffee, the layout, the furniture, the lighting, the music, the couch/chair/table ratio, the crowd, internet access, location, and the employees. The number of Macs present usually counts against the shop, and the number of beards seems to sometimes have a positive and other times a negative effect. People who don’t know each other sitting next to each other is definitely a plus. Anybody talking about base jumping and skydiving and how he just loves “gear” so much because he loves technology is grounds for immediate Armageddon. Of course it goes without saying that anyone who likes himself more than 80% potentially ruins it for everyone. Regulars are key, but they fall into anything I’ve listed above then there is no hope.

Stay tuned for individual reviews.

Sometimes there is a defining moment in one’s life. Just as someone being pinned up on a cross (or just born? how is that done anyways?) was enough to divide time immemorial into two sections, my discovery of Piero Scaruffi’s website may qualify. He somehow finds time to listen to more music, read more books, and write more than I ever thought possible. Of course he’s not a god, but it is an incredible amount of well-informed and smart information. So check his site out, but be warned that it is easy to spend hours checking out music. If nothing else check out his opinion of the Beatles and Elvis, which should give you a feel for how he is judging music.

New York Times Article

I’ve gotten into trying online poker, and I found this article in an internet search.

http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2005-04-05/clevenger-onlinepoker

Basically it’s about supposed really smart kids who were great at chess and have taken up poker to make money. There is a brother who has already started playing and making money, and a sister who has started after being encouraged by her mom that, “…it’s free money for smart people.”

I certainly hope this is the case, but I never can stand when people use this tone. It’s not terrible, but it’s obviously an elitist attitude no better than the type many top athletes have. Apparently her children are god’s gift to intelligence and the rest of the world are schmoes. Here’s to hoping they run into some competent poker players.

It has certainly been awhile since I wrote anything here, which makes no difference as no one reads it, but I think this illustrates an important point. If you go back and look at many of my posts I make commitments to do such and such every day or every morning or for a certain period of time. Some of these I have done, such as waking up at 7:30 every morning for a month, going only fruits, vegetables and nuts for a week, going without sugar, staying in ketosis, doing italian everyday, but many I have not even come close to completing. The reasons vary, but the lesson is to never stop trying new things. Many people will start a diet, blow it, start again, blow it, and think they just aren’t cut out for things like that. It’s not always going to work out, no matter how disciplined you are. Sure maybe if someone put a gun to my head and made me do it every day it would happen, but just because I haven’t done it thus far doesn’t mean I lack intrinsic will power. If you don’t believe you can do absolutely anything if you put in enough time, then you’re wrong. One can either try, fail, and give up, or try, fail, and go back to the drawing board. Ideally there is no failure, but it happens. Maybe it doesn’t happen to people with better skills than me, but I imagine for the majority of us failure happens all too often. Go watch Cool Hand Luke and pay attention to the scene where he gets rocked repeatedly boxing. That’s Paul Newman, leading man, getting beat to the ground, but getting back up. Sure, at the end of the day winning is imperative, but perhaps if you’re losing you’re keeping score the wrong way.

So I’ll continue to make wild tries at things I want to accomplish, and if I fall short I’ll try and come up with a different, better plan, and I hope you do the same. As I mentioned earlier, anything can be accomplished with enough time. So try and think how much time a task will take to accomplish. I have two papers due next week, one research that needs to be 10-12 pages, and one shorter comparative essay that needs to be 4-6 pages. To read the book for my research paper will probably take a total of 10 hours. Finding other resources will probably take 2, and writing the paper may take 4-6. So that’s 16-18 hours to finish that paper doing a good job. The essay will take about 2 hours to watch another movie, and that paper may take 2 hours, a total of 4. I have to be sure to put in that time. Other things are the same way, it’s just about making the time.

It’s now time to revisit my 2008 goals I so ambitiously set last December. We’re now more than halfway through the year with only 5 months left, and as I peruse the list I see some goals that certainly will be difficult to complete in the rest of the time allotted. Fortunately I am in a very good position to still follow through on these goals with school starting and a perfect scenario to ingrain a few new habits. I am also going to adjust some of the goals, but the ideas will essentially remain the same. Here are the original goals…
2008 Goals
1. Weigh 235
2. Bench Press 300, Squat 400, Deadlift 400
3. Complete Pimsleur Italian I and II
4. Complete all guitar books
5. Control Pause to 60 seconds
6. 50 free under 28 seconds
7. 40 yd dash under 4.7
8. Write 1 song a week, one hour per day
9. Diet of mostly fruits and vegetables and lean meat
10. Singing exercises daily

To accomplish these goals I’m going to try and get into daily habits. I’ve done very well on the food. I’m going to change the Italian to Spanish, and the athletic goals will hopefully fall into place with a varied workout routine. Here is what I’m going to do daily.

1. Play guitar and learn something
2. Do 200 pushups
3. Immerse in Spanish

With those 3 simple, easy to follow daily goals I can accomplish almost everything I want. For now, I’ll leave it at that and start tomorrow.

If you are a peanut butter lover like myself you should already know about Skippy Natural or else I’d say you’re not much of a peanut butter connoisseur. That is my personal favorite peanut butter at the moment. I actually like the creamy better than the crunchy, which is a change, because of the superior taste and texture. If you’ve never tried it run to your local grocer, buy a jar, then come back and read the rest of this article while enjoying with a spoon.

My peanut butter journey began back in elementary school. Eventually the school lunches got tiring, and I asked my mom to prepare me a lunch. She prepared perhaps the most popular lunch item of all time, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After perhaps a grade or two of pb&j galore I got sick of it and could not stomach it anymore. After a few years out of the game I once again began pb&js for lunch in my early high school years. Take note that I still had not attempted to enjoy peanut by itself. In my mind at the time peanut butter was just a compliment to add some creaminess and crunchiness, not a fine food to be savored alone.

The epiphany came in my first year of college. As a result of trying to find a snack that was delectable, affordable, and low-in-carb-and-sugarable. Peanut butter was one of the only foods that fit the bill. It’s ridiculously cheap for the amount of nutrition it offers, and it is easier than shelling a bunch of peanuts and making a mess. I still enjoy settling down to a bag of peanuts, but peanut butter is easier. When I bought peanut butter I didn’t want anything with hydrogenated oils, like the Jiff of my childhood, or anything with unnecessary sugar, like the popular kinds with honey or jelly already added (I will admit Nutella is delicious and was put on this earth to be enjoyed with a warm croissant.) I started out with the normal natural peanut butters with only peanuts and salt. These are the kind you have to stir because the oil separates to the top. One day in Whole Foods I found a 365 brand (theirs) that had added palm oil and pure cane sugar to make a better texture. It also had peanuts crunched up. Needless to say it left quite an impression on me, but it was $3-$4 for a jar!

This brings us to the point I found Skippy Natural. It has the same ingredients as the Whole Foods brand but runs at about $2 a jar. Now I carry a jar around with me, along with a handy pocket-knife complete with spoon, fork and knife, and enjoy whenever. Peanut butter does have a high amount of Omega 6 fats, and some say may have certain pesticides, I consider those minimal concerns compared to the relative cheapness and nutrition offered. Normally I would not eat peanut butter that often, but I am in a situation where it is about the only decent thing I have to eat and it has pretty much kept me alive. I will forever be in debt to the immortal Skippy.

For anyone who likes to gamble on sports like I do but doesn’t have the funds needed to use real money, I introduce you to CentSports, a completely free gambling web site that starts you out with 10 cents and lets you bet on whatever games you want. Any time you lose all your money or drop below 10 cents, they will spot you another 10 cents. If you get lucky or good and up your bank account over $20, you can actually cash out for real money, the minimum cash out being $10. Be warned it can be somewhat of an addiction, but I say better addicted to gambling you can’t lose money on than the alternative.

Sign up Here!
Click To Sign Up

Last summer I slaved away at Lowe’s from march through august, making a pretty good sum of money along the way, but also despising the job and more than anything the managers and the retail atmosphere. Helping customers isn’t bad at all, but when the higher-ups start barking out random directions the job goes south quickly. That is why this summer I have applied to a variety of different outdoor jobs. The job that started me on this search was whitewater rafting guide. I remembered a coworker who had done that on the weekends and I also read this article, and so I applied to a few different places for that. I also thought I would like any sort of outdoor adventure jobs such as leading people to live in the wilderness for short periods of time, but I soon realized I don’t have enough experience to do that yet. So I ended up applying for a few raft guide jobs, an assistant guide job,a laborer job, and a camp counselor job.

So for I have interviewed for the counselor job, but I am starting to think I won’t do that. The assistant adventure guide job was already taken, so now I’ve decided if I get a raft guide job or the laborer job I will take those, otherwise I will have no choice but to work at Lowe’s or a similar place for the summer.

If you would like to embark upon a similar journey here are some links.
Adventure Jobs
Cool Works
Wildwater Rafting
Rolling Thunder

After being sick a couple weeks ago I lost some weight, but I’m still somewhere in the 190 range. I’d like to get up over 200 before starting a cutting phase. I know some people don’t like the idea of cutting and bulking, but to me it makes the most sense. Gaining muscle while keeping the same amount or losing fat sounds great, but it’s slower and more difficult. I’m not going on a “see food” diet to gain weight, I’m still eating mostly paleo/primal like I have been, I’m just trying to work out and eat more to get my body to add muscle.

One problem I’ve run into is that the stronger I have gotten the more I’ve noticed how screwed up my body is from sports and who knows what. My right side muscles work completely differently than my left side and you can visibly see the imbalance. I tried physical therapy, and while I liked the guy, it was not something he had ever dealt with before and I could tell we were taking stabs in the dark and if I ever started to heal it would be luck. It’s gotten to the point where it annoys me constantly and I think I’m going to see the people at Egoscue. Although expensive, they sound like they know what the heck they’re talking about and if they can guide me down the right path then it’s worth it.

I’ve been reading a lot of T-Nation articles recently, and plan on trying something like this out as an off week to heavy weights and big eating.

I haven’t updated in awhile, but I plan on soon compiling a list and posting on how to eat what I consider a healthy diet (meat, veggies, fruits, nuts) cheaply. Being at college certainly makes one think about cost more often and I’ve been trying to figure out what to get to maximize my health and my bank account, so I need to compile a list of foods I might eat and see which ones give me the most benefit per dollar, which I will hopefully get to soon.

As a side note I am now back up to about 190 lbs and feel much better than I did at 180. My experiment with intermittent fasting was too much, my body fat dropped too low and I think it shot all of my hormones down way too far. Now I just try not to eat too late and have that as my intermittent fast, during the day I eat at leas 3 solid meals with whatever snacks I have on hand or feel like eating. I eat almost exclusively no bread and only have sweets sparingly, so the majority of my carbs are vegetables, which translates to a fairly low carb diet.

I just tested my strength yesterday as I am about to start a more concentrated effort at getting stronger and more athletic. My squat max was 315, down from 330, my deadlift was 305, a lifetime high, and my bench was only 200, down from 230. I might have gotten 210 on bench, but I think I was helped a little. My goals are to get my squat up to 350, my deadlift to 330, and my bench to 250 before summer. I was able to do 17 chin-ups, and I’d like to get that to about 25. I’d also like to put a few inches on my vertical leap, which I need to measure.