Surface of the Sun

I do wish someone could have warned me that living in Texas in the Summer is like camping on the Surface of the Sun. Three words best describe it: HOT, HOT, and oh yeah, HOT!

But it's not just the heat (90 degrees, maybe 100), it's the humidity. I've endured plenty of 90-100 degree weather in my day -- but most of that was a very dry heat (picture the T-Shirt with a Skeleton: "Yeah, but it's a dry heat"). Humidity literally adds something to that mix that is hard to describe.

When the Sun shines down directly on you, the humidity adds another 40 pound anvil for your to carry around. In ten minutes time, you are soaking wet in sweat. There is very little escape other than to hide away in an air conditioned room.

Compare this to a place like Las Vegas, where the temperatures are around 95-110 degrees this time of year. But throw some mist in the air and because of the evaporation, the temperature drops by 10 degrees or more. In the mountains (ie. Salt Lake City), the evenings cool down dramatically -- there is nothing worse that temperatures at 75-80 degrees at 11PM. It means there is no hope for cool weather.

What does one due when faced with the idea of sitting on the surface of the Sun for the summer? I devised a plan to run away for a month (August is said to be the hottest month), get out of the heat/humidity for a bit.

So my road trip is soon to begin. I'm probably a week or so away from the start (the beauty of owning your own company and driving, no hard dates). The journey is set to take me across the West Coast of the United States with stops along the way to visit friends.

Let the countdown begin!

To ebb and flow

We cannot seem to define one set of attributes unless they are contrasted to another. Day is nothing without night. Happiness is nothing with sadness. Highs aren't visible without Lows.

So I guess it comes as no surprise the ebb and flow of work energy. There are days where I'll do everything to avoid working on projects. It's almost a depressed state of not wanting to do anything or sometimes just not accomplishing anything even if the hours are put in. Other days it's like I'm in a super-drive mode. Code flows from the fingers like water from a faucet.

Is this all part of the process of understanding ourselves or simply the realization of life (which we've ignored)? Hard to say.

I think the thing to take away from all this is to realize that during the ebbs, they're cyclical and will turn upwards again. During the flows, we should embrace them for we don't know how long they'll be here.

Perhaps over time, the ups and downs become less extreme, hopefully with a slant more towards an upward slope.

Black Sabbath and Kirtan

I had the wonderful opportunity to see Shantala tonight. Apparently, I'm becoming a bit of a groupie as this is my third show! :-)

Seriously though -- it was a great experience. It was both heartening and humorous as we heard Black Sabbath during the quiet times. Ahh, the mixing of Black Sabbath and Kirtan.

My voice is hoarse, as seems to be the case after each one of these -- but that's a good thing.

Namasté

Dear Mr. President

I'm just counted it and apparently I have written 25 letters to the President.

I don't think much is done with the letters, other than being added to my FBI file (you know they're filing them away -- they live for that kind of crap).

Obviously, the President doesn't care, I doubt they even get read in their entirety by his staff. A few keywords are searched for and then the email is deleted. They don't even send an automated response to give you the illusion that your voice counts anymore.

So, I may just go and publish the entire set on the web. As I scan through these and look at the contents and the dates, it's interesting to see that things haven't changed much in the past year.

Get your Haircut!! Get your Haircut!!

Finding someone to cut my hair in Austin has been an ordeal. I've been to several stylists and feel a bit like Goldie Locks.

"This haircut is too expensive", "This haircut is not short enough", etc..

Well -- I think I finally found someone who can cut my hair at a reasonable price, cut it short enough for me and has a nice personality so I can enjoy the experience of getting my haircut.

I feel five pounds lighter too. :-)

Click! Click! Is this thing on?

Well, time certainly flies.. It's been almost a month since the last post.

But I have good reason. I've been very busy this past month. Just put out a new release of the Mac product on Monday and that was taking a lot of my time.

Hopefully I'll get back to a regular schedule here soon.

Life is not so Random

In November, I wanted a pure RAM-based MP3 player (the iPod mini has a tiny-tiny hard drive) so that I could run with it. I had tried using my iPod, but it kept conking out on me about 10-15 minutes into my run (which is very annoying if you're out for 45-60 minutes).

So when Apple announced the iPod shuffle in January, I knew I wanted one. Luckily, I was able to pick one up that week at the San Francisco Apple Store. I was a bit reluctant about the whole "no screen" thing, but all the players were pretty bad and I was hoping Apple's user-interface skills would come through.

The short story is that basically they have made an incredible product. I don't miss the screen from my iPod, in fact, I don't really miss my iPod that much. You put on your favorite music and just play it. Best of all, throw it into shuffle mode and it will shuffle the songs around for you.

Apple's ad states is "Life is Random".

Well -- not quite so Random. I've got 267 songs on my iPod shuffle and keep it in shuffle mode when it is on. What I've noticed is that the same songs seem to be repeating themselves. Now, I'm no math expert, but I'm thinking hearing the same pattern after 40-50 songs is not "random".

Run Forest Run

After having taken a couple months off from regular running this winter, it was time to get back into the habit.

So today marked the first run of the season. All I can say is "Ouch!" Even though I've been doing various cardio, the act of trail running is completely different. I'm sore and a bit worn out after a simple little run. I guess it isn't really a surprise. Just an observation.

It'll take a few weeks to get back in the groove, but I've got to start sometime.

No-No-Notorious!!

I went to the Duran Duran concert and let me just say, if I took one more step, I'd have been playing with the band. I managed to get front row center seats (I bought the VIP package which had a lottery of seats for the first 5 rows).

The various band members were not 2 feet from me at times. It was pretty damn cool!!

It was like Duran Duran was playing in my living room. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

Note to self: I need to start wearing earplugs at these things.

Six Hours until Showtime

The Duran Duran concert is tonight. VIP tickets get me into an early reception that starts a bit after 6pm. This will be the smallest venue that DD is performing at during their North American tour. Can you feel the excitement? I can!

The Trip Home

I flew back to Austin Tuesday. United Airlines managed to lose both my luggage and my dad's luggage (and about 4 others) on a simple domestic connection. So much for the sophisticated baggage system Denver is supposed to have. They had an hour and twenty minutes (1:20) to move the bags from one plane to the next and the weather was great -- so there really wasn't any excuse.

Probably the most annoying aspect was the automated tracking system you get when you call in. It is voice activated but misinterprets your responses probably 50% of the time. So you start your call annoyed that you've lost your luggage and end it angry that they have such a retarded system in place that doesn't allow you to talk to a human (offering instead to have you call back to its "wonderful" voice-activated system). Man, I was ready to kill someone.

After I finally managed to find a real human being and complained they offered a $50 certificate as compensation for my troubles. Here's a couple tips that'll save airlines $50 per passenger:

1) stop losing luggage. you need to investigate why the luggage was lost and take action to avoid it in the future.

2) if you're going to use an automated voice-activated system, test it so that it is at least 90% accurate. The thing couldn't even figure out when I said "YES" and "NO".

Mind you -- I'm no technophobe, far from it. But I am really frustrated by these cheap knock-offs that are intended to save a buck at the expense of customer service.

Another example was the lame safety video they are now using. It is computer generated (to save from having to pay actors residuals), but the animation was so bad that you couldn't tell what these "characters" were supposedly doing.

Penny-wise, pound foolish. You'd think that companies would learn, but they don't. That's why Dilbert is always on the money. Everyone thinks he works at their company because they all behave basically the same way.

Wedding Bells and Girls on Film

My niece is getting married this Sunday. I'm heading to Washington for a few days with my dad for the wedding. As soon as we get back, it'll be off to the Duran Duran concert, which is next Thursday (Feb 17th).

What do my VIP tickets get me? A seat in the first 5 rows, a VIP gift, pre-show reception and a VIP laminate.
Oh, and I'm part of a random drawing for a meet and greet with Duran Duran.

Are there any quiet months? Seems like there is ALWAYS something going on.

Be the Ball

I used to joke with Tony Palmieri (my personal trainer at the 24-Hour Fitness) - "Be the Ball" whenever we did any core exercises on the ball. Obviously, we were really talking about focusing (but "Be the Ball" is more entertaining than "Focus").

One interesting thing that I've realized lately is that I'm finding myself willing and able to focus more. I'm not sure if it is just the fact that I'm now dependent on myself with my business -- no focus equals no money. Or it could be that I'm working on things that I want to work on, so the desire to work is stronger. Whatever the reason, I find myself often spending 10-12 hours a day actually doing work again. But it is more than that.

I'm getting more organized: writing down the tasks that need to be accomplished and sticking with it. Mind you, this is something that I've strived for -- but most of the time, the task list would be one or two BIG items that were very encompassing. Now the tasks are smaller, more discrete.

Is there cause and effect here? Does running your own business make you more organized? Does it give you the ability to focus better? I don't know.. and it's not always there -- but it's there more often.

Just an interesting thought in my head.

Vacation is Over

After a brief hiatus, I'm back. The blog is somewhat repurposed. I've decided it is foolish to think I should only pass on wisdom -- partly because I don't necessarily have wisdom most of the time.

So this blog will be more about documenting all aspects of my journey. I still consider it my yoga path, but on a grander scale. We all walk on our yoga path, seeking enlightenment, joy, etc. So off we go.

Exceptional Experience

Continuing my path of Carpe diem for 2005, I got myself VIP tickets to see Duran Duran here in Austin. My sister said it best, "you can afford to do it. I would do it if I had the chance like that to see and possibly meet Bon Jovi." (she's a big Bon Jovi fan).

Macworld Expo (Jan 10-14)

As part of my desire to be more spontaneous, I've decided to send myself off to San Francisco for Macworld. The trip is in three days. When I asked myself why I wasn't going, I didn't have a good reason. So the answer was simple -- then go.

2005

As I begin this new year, I wonder to myself "Just what is in store for me?"

I've purposefully put myself outside of my comfort zone. The intention is plain and simple -- to learn, to grow. Only by venturing out into the uncomfortable zone can I ever hope to grow. Will the experiment work? I guess we'll see.

I do see 2005 as a year of learning:

Learning more about who I am, what makes me tick.
Learning what my passions are, both personal and socially.
Learning the art of self discipline.
Learning how to become comfortable in the uncomfortable.

This is nothing new. I'm not trying to claim that I'm breaking some new ground. Rather I think it's just my own point of discovery. I feel like I'm in school again, the school of self discovery.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnggg! School's in session.