Fat People Eat People

December 14th, 2008

I still remember almost snarfing my coke when a college buddy said that. He and I and about five other friends were crowded around a four-top at Village Inn, our middle of the night Mecca. The topic of conversation: Hurt People Hurt People. My best friend at the time had said it, quoting someone else, I think, and it just flew high above all of our heads. Seems that when you’re drunk on bacon grease and soda it’s difficult to grasp even the simplest of concepts. Some of the attempts to reach for understanding: Hurt People Kill People? Hurt People, HURT People?, Dumb People Are People, Hot People…okay, won’t go there.

The idea is simple. If someone is hurt, that person is much more likely to hurt others. Hurt people hurt people.

It reminds me of something my old pastor used to talk about when illustrating the same point. He would tell a story about a time that he was driving down his street, almost home, and he accidentally hit a poor, innocent puppy dog. Recognizing that it was his neighbor’s dog, he remembered that it was actually quite sweet tempered, so he instantly jumped out of his car to help it.

Much to his surprise, though only stunned and suffering from a broken leg, the dog snapped at him and snarled. It didn’t want anything to do with him, even though he just wanted to help.

Long story short, the puppy was okay. I mean, at least that’s how I remember it…

Both of these lovely anecdotes came back to me last night suddenly as I was experiencing my very own hurt animal story. I had recently downloaded the Lightsaber app to my iPhone, and was, um, testing it’s functionality in my living room. By the way, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and haven’t downloaded this app, I highly recommend it.

When you fire it up and then swing your phone around, it makes the all too familiar sounds that we’ve come to love about lightsabers. The whiring, the clashing, the cool theme music of dread. It’s awesome. As it turns out, it also is the most terrifying sound in the world to my cat.

Without warning as I was dueling with some imaginary Darth whatever, I felt tiny teeth sink in to my thigh. Looking down, my cat was attacking me…and not just once, but over and over and over again. Biting and leaping at me and scratching me with her imaginary front claws. Oddly, my imaginary lightsaber was much less effective.

For the rest of the night she was freaked out with a capital F. I suppose I could have actually just spelled it with a capital F, but that wouldn’t have done the level of freaked outedness any justice at all. I couldn’t touch her; I could barely get near her. It was like she didn’t know me…like I was a different person and she was a different cat.

My first instinct was to punish her. Teach her not to treat me like that. I’m the owner, dammit, how dare she attack me? Now I’m hurt, and I want to hurt her back.

This is a vicious cycle. Parents get into it with their kids. Wives get into it with their husbands. Friends get into it with friends. One person is hurt, that person hurts someone else, and after an endless session of bad pay it forward, there are bodies everywhere, and relationships are destroyed. In fact, this is the oldest story in history. Why are Catholics and protestants still fighting in Ireland? Why are Palestinians and Israelis still at war? Think of someone you don’t talk to anymore and ask yourself why there’s still a wall between you. Someone hurt someone who hurt someone else or hurt that person back…ugh, when you think about it, it’s exhausting.

I can’t say that I’ve mastered the solution to this problem. In fact, I have to admit that I’m actually terrible at playing this game. By that, I mean that no matter how much I prepare myself, no matter how much I’m aware of this process, I still fall into the trap. I still play along. And I think if you all are honest with yourselves, you do it too.

However there are lessons to be learned here. For one, if someone is behaving not quite like themselves, they are probably just hurt. Maybe even by you, but not necessarily. So cut people some slack. Don’t let yourself get all butt hurt back just because someone is a little short with you or is downright mean to you. Maybe that person just needs you to be understanding and needs time to heal.

Also, if you’re already playing this game…stop. Just stop. Stop blaming, stop hurting back. Stop being so easily offended. At some point, somebody has to draw the line – or maybe erase the line. Get over yourself and whatever it is that you’re hurt over. Forgive people who don’t deserve to be forgiven, even if they don’t forgive you back.

Like I said, I personally haven’t mastered this skill, but I’m working on it.

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9 + 1 Things I Think Everyone Should Do

December 3rd, 2008

Yes, this is simply my opinion. No, I don’t think you’re less of a person if you don’t do these things, nor do I believe that doing them will make all of your wildest dreams come true.

This list comes as a result of a mixture of reading personal development materials (including blogs), consulting with people whom I respect, and good old fashioned anecdotal experience. It should be said, however, that I most certainly haven’t made all of these habits in my own life, and others I’ve only recently added. So very sorry, but I can’t serve as the shining example of exactly how and why these things work.

Because I like to break things down into threes, that’s how I’ve organized the list. Enjoy!

Body

1. Run

I don’t believe everyone should run a marathon, and of course if you have some major physical condition barring you from the activity you may have to choose another. However, running is by far the most effective exercise known to man. How can I say this? It’s simple, really. Running can be done anywhere, any time. You can do it when you travel or you can do it at home. You can do it outside or on an inside track or on a trail or wherever your fancy takes you. You don’t need special equipment beyond a decent pair of athletic shoes. Running has countless health benefits, and quite literally also has enough mental and spiritual benefits that I could have just as easily put it on the other two lists. That’s why I’m listing it first.

If you’re going to make a new year’s resolution to do one thing, make that resolution to pick up running. You won’t regret it; and this is coming from a guy who used to despise running, so “I hate to run.” isn’t an excuse. Trust me, you’ll grow to love it.

2. Drink Water

For the first 30 years of my life, I resisted this. I hated water. It was something I did out of obligation or necessity. Even though, like running, drinking water is one of the best possible things you can do for your body. It will help abate hunger, clear your complexion, prevent disease, and slow aging. It lubricates your joints and detoxifies your system.

And the best part? In most places, clean water is free and in abundant supply. Of course not everyone in the world is so fortunate.

3. Take Naps

Here’s one that I still haven’t added as a habit in my own life; though I plan to in short order. More and more, there is mounting evidence that taking a midday nap improves your physical and mental performance for the remainder of the day.

Read more about taking naps here, then convince your boss to buy you one of these.

Mind

4. Read

Seems so simple, right? It is. Read anything. Read comic books. Read the newspaper. Read blogs. Read classic literature. Reading expands your worldview, teaches you critical thinking, improves your vocabulary, and stimulates your imagination. Ask the smartest person you know how she got so smart and I guarantee you that she will say reading. Unless the smartest person you know is this guy.

5. Write

Not everyone can be Francis Bacon, so you don’t have to be an awesome writer. You just need to write something down. Writing is the exhale to reading’s inhale. It stimulates very different parts of your brain in very much the same way that reading does. It sparks even more creativity and critical thinking than reading alone.

Some great ways to write are pick up a notebook and write by hand, start a blog, or something that I’ve taken to lately, send an email to a trusted friend or someone you respect. I’d recommend writing as briefly as you can…which reminds me that I’m making this article much too long.

6. Meditate

Aaand all of my conservative Christian friends just breathed a simultaneous gasp. No, I’m not necessarily talking about the new age form of meditation, but rather I’m talking about simply taking time by yourself to quietly think and do nothing else. There may be discipline involved, or maybe you’re better served just letting your mind go all crazy free form. What’s important is that you minimize external stimuli and just focus on relaxing your mind. If you can do that, the rest will come naturally to you.

Spirit

7. Have Faith

Again, simple right? Yet atheists and agnostics number in the millions and that number is growing in many parts of the world. Thanks to people like Richard Dawkins and Steve Pavlina, faith in some circles is viewed as ignorance or idiocy, plain and simple.

I don’t believe that. Personally, I believe in Jesus and the God of the Bible, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and state that belief in any “higher power” gives you a leg up on those who don’t, spiritually speaking. Faith gives you a healthy perspective of your place in the universe and reminds you that though God has a plan for you, you are still created and He is Creator. It’s empowering and humbling at the same time.

To paraphrase a quote from Grey’s Anatomy, and OMG I can’t believe I’m doing this, I feel that this is one of the best summaries of faith I’ve ever heard. A spiritually active native american man addressing a doctor who expressly did not believe in God said “You believe in what you can see and touch. I believe in more.”

Then again, don’t get me started on organized religion and people who use faith as an excuse to hate and hurt others. Grr.

8. Give

This doesn’t need a long explanation. Find a cause you believe in, and donate to it. You might donate time, money, or something else, but giving of yourself is one of the most sublime feelings in the world. It’s selfish to be selfless, Baby, cause it feels so good.

9. Talk To People

Specifically, have a handful of close friends or one friend who you can talk to about anything; then talk to them about everything. Connecting intimately with another person is one of the most powerful things we can do for our spiritual health. I’ll even go one step further and suggest that you need at least three people: a mentor, a protégé, and an accountability partner. Pardon the cliché (did I just use that little thing on two words in rapid succession? I’m proud of myself!) terms, but there really aren’t words that describe those roles better. Point is you need to communicate with people, People.

This one is definitely the toughest one for me.

And finally, my bonus…

10. Break All The Rules

Skip college. Waste a whole paycheck in Vegas. Run a marathon with little to no training prior. Do none of the things on my little list of things everyone should do.

Rules don’t apply to everyone. Preachy lists don’t apply to everyone. What “works” doesn’t work for everyone. The important thing is that you’re healthy and happy, and often times the best way to do that is by blazing your own trail.

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Why Daniel Craig Is The Best Bond Ever or Life Lessons Learned While Watching One Of The Best Movies Of The Year

November 16th, 2008

Yeah, watched Quantum of Solace. Friggin awesome, just like Casino Royale (which I’m watching right now, BTW…I’d forgotten how awesome the opening song by Chris Cornell is). Quick review: badass, don’t take the kids unless they’re old enough to understand it’s not right to kill people or have meaningless sex with hundreds of women, lots of action, true to Bond franchise with everything you’d expect, Americanized enough to rock the house dope.

Dan’s Rating System: Full Price (that means go watch it now, not later)

Now to the good stuff. Dang, that sounded cocky. Um, now on to the mediocre stuff.

James Bond is, of course, an iconic cinematic character. I suppose he was an iconic literary character first, but how many of you have actually read anything by Ian Flemming? Until recently, he’s represented British swagger and heroism perfectly; but with the introduction of Daniel Craig, Bond now more closely resembles an american cowboy than ever before. He’s classy, smart, skilled, oh, and did I mention tough as friggin nails?

In the imaginary world of super spies, there are some qualities that our man Daniel, er, James exemplifies which I believe parallel the non-imaginary world we all live in. These Bondisms, if I may, can apply to relationships, hobbies, sports, jobs, etc. Oh, and though I believe they’re all effective, they aren’t all necessarily good. I’ll let you decide.

  • Master a Base of Skills: Daniel Craig’s Bond isn’t the tallest or prettiest Bond. In fact he almost looks out of place in some of the high class situations in which he finds himself. But holy crap does he give off the “if you eff with me, I’ll eff you up” vibe. And every Bond has one thing in common: they all know how to do everything it takes to be a great super spy, and they do it well. That must have taken years of training and practice.
  • Play to Your Strengths: Yes, Bond has a lot of strengths, but you don’t see him trying to do M’s job, do you? Or Q’s? Sorry, you can’t be great at everything. So find out what you’re naturally awesome at, and be awesomer.
  • But Don’t Play It Safe: You’ll get nowhere doing things the way they’ve always been done. Read this. It’ll change how you feel about doing what works. Bond’s never afraid to challenge the norm, be a rebel, and trust his instincts if it serves his mission. Even when doing so represents considerable risk. Besides, playing it safe is boring.
  • Keep It Simple: 007 does only what is necessary…one shot, one kill. One punch to knock the guy out. One weapon: PPK. Of course Bond has his own flair, but when it’s business time, he strips away all but the essential. He’s committed to the moment and thinks about nothing else but shooting this, blowing up that, winning at cards, or seducing the girl. He’s the master of wherever you are, be all there.
  • Be Ice Cold: Things like loyalty, friendship, and love just slow you down. People betray you. Friends abandon you. Lovers stop loving you. Leaders disappoint you. Bond doesn’t give a damn about anyone…not even himself, most of the time. His mission is all that matters, and he knows that if he doesn’t get it done, someone else will. Or noone else will. But why should he care? He’s Bond.
  • Take Time To Smell The Roses: James Bond would never be caught dead drinking anything other than his vesper martini. He stays in the finest hotels, drives the fastest sports cars, and playes high stakes poker with his government’s money. Bond loves to taste the finer things in life and makes sure that he enjoys every moment of his work.
  • Your Work IS Your Life: Does Bond ever take vacations? Weekends? Have any hobbies? What about family or friends? (we’ve already established he’s ice cold) Bond is a super spy. That’s what he does, what he eats, what he breaths. The few times he’s tried to have a “normal” life, it’s ended in disaster. Bond loves what he does and he loves who he is because he doesn’t try to be something he’s not or do anything that doesn’t come naturally to him. In a way, this principle rolls all the others into one.

Take ‘em or leave ‘em, those are the main things that make James Bond, well, James Bond. Some of them might make you more Bondish, and some may not. Any thoughts? Did I miss anything?

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get it while you can…maybe my one and only political post ever

November 4th, 2008

I just finished watching a very gracious and encouraging concession speech from Senator John McCain. For the first time, I’m overjoyed that he is one of the leaders guiding the future of our country.

I’m writing this not to gloat or complain. I’m not writing it to endorse or decry. I’m writing this to you, all of my conservative republican friends. Those of you expressing disgust and fear regarding our future as a country.

Without addressing my opinions of President Elect Obama’s leadership ability and how hopeful I am that his idealism and consistent principles will mean great things for our country, I want to address some very positive things that you may not be considering.

First, it’s been mentioned blithely up till now in the media, but of course tonight it is getting much more attention: the fact that we just elected a member of a racial minority group – a black man – to the presidency speaks volumes about how far we’ve come as a nation from the atrocities of slavery and from decades of bigotry and racism. Whether you dislike Obama because he is liberal, because he’s a democrat, because he’s relatively inexperienced or even because he’s black, you must acknowledge that electing a black president represents a major shift in America’s overall position regarding minorities. This is a very important day in our history. I’m certain that Mr. Obama would much rather we acknowlege him as the best man for the job, which we just did with our votes, but I can’t help but think about the significance of his race on this historical day. This doesn’t mean an end to racism or bigotry, but maybe it means the beginning of the end.

Second, I believe very much in the importance of a strong leader as the figurehead of our country. I believe that today we have elected a leader who will affect policy for generations to come and will indeed make changes that will be felt very soon. However, the beauty of this nation, the thing that makes us great, is that one man…not even a few men…cannot change the face of our nation without our permission. Hopefully seeing through the naysayers and conspiracy theorists of our time, you all will realize that our great nation is lead by us, the American people.

Because I love to quote television and movies, and because I think that Major Dick Winters (portrayed in HBO mini series Band of Brothers) is one of the coolest human beings to ever live, I’m going to quote something that I find completely illuminating. In response to a junior officer refusing to solute out of personal disdain for him, Major Winters stopped the officer and said, “Capt Sobel, we salute the rank, not the man.” This military principle is powerful in so many ways.

I would encourage each and every one of you, from this day forward, to rally around our new president. Not because he’s Barack Obama. Not because he’s a democrat or a liberal or black. Rally around him because he’s now the figurehead of our nation and that alone means he deserves our support for the next four years. To support the president is to support the American people.

Am I devaluing anarchy and questioning authority? Absolutely not. On the eve of Guy Fawkes Day, I wouldn’t dream of such a thing. We should continually hold our leadership accountable for their actions, including the president. But as much as I value anarchy and free thought, I also love my country and value patriotism. And I believe everyone could use a dose of that today. Those of us celebrating, and those of you not.

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My Current Nutrition & Fitness Plan

October 29th, 2008

Oh yes. From the title alone you can already tell this is going to be a “Why in the world did he post that?” situation. Yes, I am famous for posting completely pointless blog posts that probably turn many of you off from reading my blog altogether. I’m okay with that. Sometimes I gotta let my inner exhibitionist flag fly, you know?

Besides, someone asked me today exactly what I’m doing, so I thought, “why not share?” I’m not entirely sure why they asked. I’m far from Mr. Fitness right now, and a flabby shadow of the guy I was in my youth, like most men my age.

However, I am on a quest to not only reclaim my old level of fitness, but also get in the best shape of my life in my 30’s. I’ve got some lofty athletic goals and I plan to achieve them;  along the way, I hope to pick up a physique that makes Melissa proud to walk into a room with me. A secondary goal, but a goal just the same.

And I have been making a lot of progress, even if it’s not all showing up on my body yet. For one, I ran 10 miles at a 9 minute pace (6.67mph) and actually felt pretty good afterward. I’ve been making other physical strides as well and have been noticing improvements. For example, I don’t see those abs yet, but I’ve lost about 8 pounds this last  month. That’s decent, right? Not that “weight loss” is necessarily my goal, but fat loss is…and one indicator of that on me is my weight.

So, to share exactly what I’m doing physically right now:

Marathon Training
My goal is to run in 4:22:00, which isn’t fast, but it’s respectable. To accomplish this, I’m following this schedule:

  • Tuesdays - Tempo Run for 20 minutes.
  • Wednesdays - Interval Training for 60 minutes.
  • Thursdays - Hills for 30 minutes.
  • Saturdays - Long Run for alternating distances. (10, 12, 10, 14, etc.)
  • Sundays - Bike or Swim for 60 minutes.

I didn’t completely design this schedule, but rather pieced it together from various tips from friends and things I’ve read. It’s working out well for me and I could see it being my running program for a long time. It’s not boring, and I can just up the intensity if I ever plateau. I think if I’m not training for a race, I’ll drop Sundays and trade the Long Run for sprints.

Anyway, this weekend I’m running 16. I’ll get to 20 two weeks prior to my race on 12/14.

Resistance Training
I’m having a lot of fun with this. I’m trying to get to 100 consecutive pushups, 25 consecutive pullups, and 100 crunches in 2 minutes before I start adding serious weight training. I’m on schedule to accomplish these goals around the same time as my race in December, which hopefully will kick off the new year the right way.

So my workouts are very simple for the time being. I do this three times a week:

  • Pushups - Following the 100 Pushups program from this website.
  • Pullups - Following a pullup program I found in Men’s Health. Basically, you do the max number of pullups you can do, then divide that in half, rounding up if necessary. Then, do three sets of that number with 60 seconds of rest in between. Next time, do 30 seconds of rest. Then 15. Then, test your max again and start over. Wash, rinse, repeat.
  • Crunches - Actually doing ab workouts from The Abs Diet twice a week, then once a week testing my crunch max for a minute.
  • Dumbell Curl to Shoulder Press - I wish I could find an illustration, but it’s so simple maybe it doesn’t need one. You hold a dumbell in each hand while standing, palms to your side. Curl one up like a hammer curl, twisting your palm to facing your chest, then press it above your head, again twisting your palm to facing outward. Return to your starting position using the same movement reversed, then repeat with the other arm. That’s one. I like to do sets of 12, but only because I only have 20 pound dumbells.
  • Pushup to Dumbell Row - This one’s a doozy. Basically, you lay two dumbells on the floor, about shoulder width apart. Assume a pushup position with your hands on the dumbells and your legs spread pretty far apart. Do a pushup, then at the top, pull one of the dumbells up in a row, bracing your core. Return it to the floor, do another pushup, and repeat with the other dumbell. That’s one. I think even 3 of those is hard.

And that’s it. For now, I’m keeping it very short; all of that takes me around 30 minutes. I’d like to expand my upper body/resistance workouts to include cable and heavier weights, but that’ll wait until I’ve met those goals I mentioned above.

Nutrition
My nutrition plan is simple…I’m slowly building better habits over time. Right now, i’m trying to reduce my sugar intake as much as possible while consuming around 1500 calories a day. And no, this isn’t really a diet as much as it’s a lifestyle change. I’m a firm believer in reduced calorie diets, and I hope to slowly step up to a slightly higher calorie diet full time of about 1800 to 2000 calories a day. Once this habit has been formed, I’ll be attepting to add other tangible habits.

And now you have it folks. The complete system I’m using right now. Hopefully if you’ve read this far, you’ve found it helpful. Again, I’m no Mr. Olympia right now, but I am seeing improvement using this workout and nutrition plan. Maybe you will too.

For now, I’m off to bed. Finally getting sleepy after being wide awake for way too long. ;)

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An Idear

October 19th, 2008

Okay, so I had an idea yesterday for a website, and I wanted to run it by my own little tiny corner of the blogosphere. FYI, this post’s a request for commentary, so if you read, please also offer up your opinion.

Yesterday, Melissa and I were driving back from my long run and discussing going out to the local country bar. We realized very quickly that though we do have a lot of great friends, we couldn’t think of even one “set” of friends who like to do that sort of thing. We’ve had them in the previous places we’ve lived, but here we just haven’t connected with anyone to, well, go out with.

So that led to a discussion about how the “couple friend” is so similar in many ways to individual friendships and even dating relationships. One couple through one process or another becomes friends with another couple. Often there is a first “date”, follow up dates, etc. You reach a level of comfortability with that couple…pretty soon you’re wanting to meet each other’s parents. It’s remarkable the similarities when you start thinking about it.

In conjunction with this conversation, Melissa brought up that a certain work friend of hers who is married was complaining that she and her husband just haven’t quite found any couple friends, despite having access to other couples in town through various social stuff.

A light bulb lit up in my head, and I’m not sure if it was a bright white, environmentally friendly florescent, or if it was one of those orange halogen bulbs people insist on putting out at Halloween.

What if there was a “dating” site for couples?

WHOA…stop right there. I see where your naughty little brains went with this. I’m not talking about a swinger site. Geez, what kind of a guy do you think I am? PG people, PG.

What I’m talking about is a website that combines the best of popular online dating sites with aspects of social networking sites designed to help couples find other couples interested in similar things for PLATONIC friendship.

Sound weird? Maybe. Or maybe it just might be something that people would be interested in. People thought online dating was weird at first, and now that’s one of the main ways individuals start relationships. Sure, most of the time, this process happens naturally for couples: one significant other is friends with someone else’s significant other, the four get together for lunch and pretty soon they’re watching each other’s kids and taking vacations together. Most of the time, this works.

But sometimes, you find yourself as a couple in a new city or maybe you have interests as a couple that your other close friends aren’t really interested in. Either way, wouldn’t it be convenient if there were a site designed to hook you up with other couples? I think it might be useful to us. We already have a core group of couple friends who we love spending time with, but they all either live too far away or wouldn’t have been interested in going to that country bar. These are some of our best friends in the world, but we couldn’t hang with them last night or any other night we get the gumption to do that particular kind of activity.

Maybe you and your bf/husband/gf/wife love to ski…but none of the other couples you hang with do. Or maybe you would love to go on a cruise with another couple, but none of your current friends like boats. Or maybe you just haven’t connected with that special someone…okay, getting weird again. I think you guys get the point.

So what do you think? Good idea? Dumb idea?

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Online Personas: Against Everything I Stand For?

October 4th, 2008

Or maybe they’re exactly what I need. Or already have. I don’t know.

Okay, in brief, online personas are an off and on buzzword in the blogosphere, and the basic idea is that you may want to consider projecting different elements of your personality online to project a “persona” of sorts. You know, professional, personal, etc…

At first, this idea disgusted me. I’ve written blog posts about this very concept of being genuine online and how sites like MySpace have helped me get there: easy to be brave and project the “real” you when you’re doing it to a computer screen.

Now here I am reconsidering that postion. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea, you know? I’ll use myself as an example.

I’m a writer, and I write under a couple of different psuedonyms. I do this because my parents are pastors in a small Ohio town and believe it or not, if I were percieved to be “out of the fold”, it would cause some problems for them.

Also, I’m the head of new media of a major Christian non-profit. For this organization, I may have to project a different online/public persona. To protect them. And, um, my job.

Then there are my film endeavors…what kind of persona do I need to project for that?

So I’m not saying that I need to be multiple people - or that you do - but maybe I’m starting to see the value in being able to have multiple online personas. LinkedIn already kind of does this with personal and professional profiles. What if more social networking services offered something like this? They could even call them personas. You would have one profile, with the ability to add multiple personas and you could elect which friends see what. You might list different favorite movies for your boss than you would list for your dad than you would list for anyone reading your personal blog. You could also tell the social networking application “Please make this persona indexible by search engines, but this one I’d much rather keep private.”

So I pose two questions in concert…is it healthy to project multiple personas in our lives? Should we, perhaps even out of respect, be slightly different people to, um, different people?

And second, if this is a good idea, do you think this type of feature would be good on social networking sites?

So, 3 friends who read this, what do you think?

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Apple TV…am I the only one who thinks this is a sleeper product?

August 10th, 2008

This is part commentary and part theorizaticalation. Not only do I think that the next great thing to come out of Apple is the Apple TV, but I think it could – and should – become something somewhat different than what it is right now.

(quick note…I’m throwing this random tidbit into this here post both because I don’t believe it deserves its own post and because a commercial aired just now reminding me of it: I’m heartbroken that the next star wars movie is the animated piece of crap that’s being released in 4 days. and here I thought George Lucas couldn’t make star wars suck even more than the last three movies did. or technically the first three. whatever.)

Okay, back on point. Apple’s strategy for a while has been to embrace how the market has borne their products for the last decade or so, and that’s basically if the enterprise world won’t love Apple’s stuff, Apple will make things that rock the world of their existing fan base: consumers. That being said, I also believe Apple’s about to/in the process of making a huge power play for significance in the enterprise market as well, but that’s another post for another time. Currently, my point is that Apple is going after being our homes’ digital service provider. They want our digital universe to revolve around their products. They’ve done it with music, and I think they’re going to do it with video as well.

The Apple TV is dangerously close to being a digital media server, which is dangerously close to, well, a server. I believe that if Apple does it right, they could turn the Apple TV into THE digital hub of our homes: serving up all of our media, email, shared calendars, documents…you name it. It could become like a giant iPod for your home. Or rather, a giant iPhone for your home.

But I don’t want to discuss what the Apple TV could be in terms of the service it could provide or the merits of an Apple-made home server. I’m sure a quick Google will reveal many many articles about these two topics written by analysts and theorists much more qualified than I who make compelling arguments and probably much brighter ideas about what could be. No, what I want to talk about specifically is what form I believe the Apple TV is bound to take, and how surprised I am that nobody else seems to have thought of this. If you’re a blogger who has, or know of someone else who has, please do let me know. However after searching high and low, I’ve been completely unable to find anyone else who thinks this should or will happen.

Rather than get straight to it, I’m going to follow my normal operating procedure and loligag around the point before finally making it. You know you love it.

So…think about the awesome HD monitors that Apple already sells. Pretty sweet, right? And there’s a huge one that could probably be an awesome HDTV were it mounted on a wall…dang, I think you probably know where I’m going with this. That won’t stop me.

Next, let’s consider the lowly iMac. The savior of Apple. The original all in one pc. Responsible for singlehandedly making the home computer cool. And pretty much one of those neato HD monitors which a computer inside. Now you REALLY know where I’m going with this.

Why can’t the Apple TV be…a TV? Make an entertainment center/digital media server/HDTV that hangs neatly on your wall or sits in your awesome blue entertainment armoire? Call it the iTV. Call it the Apple TV Pro. Call it whatever you want, but the idea is take the current Apple TV and iMacize it.

They’ve done it before, and they have all the pieces to do exactly what I’m describing. Has nobody else thought this is a good idea? I’d love to hear anyone’s theories as to why it’s not. Or is. I’m fairly confident that it should happen and probably will. I just don’t know why nobody else seems to be.

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Be That Guy

August 5th, 2008

In a the recent Olympic Preview issue of Sports Illustrated, and interviewer asked Michael Phelps if he could recommend any exercises that would help build a swimmer’s body. Phelps replied – I’d imaging with just a hit of irony in his voice – “Um, swimming.” (paraphrased)

The simplicity of this statement brought me back to some advice I received many years ago. I was trying to improve my martial arts skills and aiming directly for my black belt, but I’d hit a wall. My instructor at the time simply said “You know that guy you see at all the competitions? The one who can’t seem to lose and is constantly ranked? Be that guy.”

This was pretty profound. He didn’t mean flip a switch and magically become this other person. What he meant was that if I wanted to be a better martial artist, I needed to behave like a better martial artist. I needed to fall in love with the sport more, read more literature, practice more, and in pretty much eat and breath it. That’s how that guy did it. If I wanted to be like him, I had to become him.

Though you could apply this principle to just about any type of goal (becoming a civil war buff, getting skills in the kitchen, having a George Hamilton tan…), I like to think of it in regards to my own physical, spiritual, and mental character. If I want to be more fit, I need to start behaving like a fit person. If I want to improve my spiritual life, I need to start behaving like a spiritually healthy person. If I want to improve my mental capacity, I need to start behaving like smarter people behave.

I’m in no way suggestion that we should pretend we’re healthier, smarter, or more spiritual than we actually are. I’m a big fan of authenticity, even though I struggle to be more authentic each day and have never quite perfected it. This isn’t about some hokey self-affirmation practice of tricking myself into being smarter or healthier just by speaking the words or thinking positive thoughts. Instead, think of it like Michael Phelps. How do you think he became the best swimmer in the world? He swam. All the time. He still swims. The Olympics start in a couple of days and he may have just landed in China, but I bet he’s thinking about swimming right now this very moment. Michael Phelps had a life goal to be the best swimmer in the world, so he simply set out to be that guy.

How do healthy people behave? Maybe they eat better things. Maybe they run. If I want to be a healthy person, I need to emulate that behavior. In this case, being goal oriented may not help me. In other words, I shouldn’t think of being a healthier person as an end, but rather who I am. In this way, I don’t “diet” and my exercise program doesn’t really have a time frame. It’s just a part of who I am.

Simply put, I’d encourage any of you who would like to change something about yourself, even just a little, or if you have a goal that you’d like to accomplish, analyze the average person who already is how you want to be or has already accomplished that goal…and then be that person.

To add onto this, I’d also like to state another quote that I find inspiring. “If you want to be what you’ve never been, you have to be willing to do what you’ve never done.” (if anyone can help me attribute that, I’d be very appreciative) You are capable of doing/being much more than you think. You just gotta be willing to be that guy.

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There’s Nothing Wrong With Ambiguous Goals

July 10th, 2008

As long as you can boil them down to specifics.

Ha! I tricked you!

Hold on, hold on. There is a valid point here.

First of all, what are ambiguous goals? Well, Friends, they are goals that can’t really be measured quantitatively or qualitatively. “Lose some weight.” “Read more.” “Go out with a Pussy Cat Doll.” None of these goals are measurable. How much weight? What is “more”? Which Pussy Cat Doll?

Okay, I guess if your goal was to go out with any Pussy Cat Doll…

It’s true that if these goals are all you have, they don’t serve much of a purpose, but they do still pack a punch. What an ambiguous goal does is gives you a starting place. It helps you identify what’s important to you. “Lose some weight.” for example, tells me that I might be interested in reducing my body’s fat content, being healthier, looking better, etc. I can identify that losing weight, no matter how ambiguous that may sound, is important to me. I can now move forward to identifying something more specific and measurable.

My next step would then be to break that ambiguous goal down into a specific, measurable goal. “Lose 50 pounds.” or “Achieve 10% body fat or less.” are goals that I can measure. I can (and probably should) even set a deadline to meet this goal. “Lose 50 pounds by News Years Day.” This is measurable, and it was born out of an ambiguous goal to “Lose some weight.”

So go ahead and set those ambiguous goals. Write them down. They may help you identify what’s important to you; then you can go about setting more specific goals after that.

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