taladel

Here are a couple articles about why these shoes are awesome, as well as reasons for ditching traditional shoes for VFFs (or other barefoot-style shoes), or for no shoes at all.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/barefoot/

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/05/07/vibram-five-fingers-shoes/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/your-shoes-are/

http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/

Today I turned out a 'Professional Judgment' form in order to get my financial aid re-evaluated because of my mother's recent layoff from Cessna. Anyone familiar with Wichita at all will know that this is an aircraft town, and Cessna's one of the biggest employers in the area. It sucks, but the silver lining is that my school is most likely (based on info I got from a source on the inside) going to pay my way for this year and possibly next. I was also told by this same source that I'll likely have some leftover aid money after books and such. Yay for that, and I'll be paying my credit card off, and possibly getting a netbook.

Looking beyond junior college, I'm in pretty close contact with the Admissions advisers at Naropa University, a private, fully-accredited university in Boulder, CO that emphasizes contemplative education. From the site:
These include sitting meditation, T'ai Chi, and other contemplative disciplines. It's founded on essentially Buddhist principles, and I feel that I would fit very well in that environment. I'm currently talking to them about their application process, and how my WSU experience will affect my admission/aid.

So overall my journey is ongoing, and positive.

I fell asleep (as I some times do) listening to John Hodgman's audiobook version of 'The areas of my expertise' last night.

At the end of the book, he reads 700 hobo names while Jonathan Coulton plays a song in the background. This takes quite a long time, as you can surely imagine.

So in this dream last night, I was hanging out with these dudes (faceless, nameless) playing video games, and they spoke in normal sentences, except every sentence started with a number, and they went in sequence. I participated in the numbering of my sentences as well, and I woke up a bit later, listening to John Hodgman reading hobo names, with numbers in front of them.

I had a dream in the recent past when I fell asleep listening to Henry Rollins read a poem called 'Everything', and in my dream that night we were walking through a shitty neighborhood, Henry and I and a few other people, just listening to him talk about our surroundings, as he does in the book. It was easily the craziest-slash-best dream I've ever had ever.

http://www.wwoofusa.org/

WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, and it allows people to exchange their time and labor doing farm-related tasks for 25-30 hours/week in exchange for room and board. No real experience farming is required, and all you have to do is set up arrangements with farms seeking volunteers, and get yourself there.

This looks really cool, and I've read a ton of positive experiences. I also love seeing the country, so packing some shit in my car and driving to wyoming or northern california or some such place is an awesome prospect. I can see myself doing this for months at a time going from farm to farm, working for food.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com

I found out about these babies through Tim Ferriss, author of 'The Four Hour Workweek' and prolific blogger.

He really talked them up as an alternative to shoes in almost any context. I've been wearing them consistently for about 6 weeks now and I can definitely say that they are awesome. My posture has improved, my feet feel better, and they're just fun to wear.

Everything you used to do with your feet now has added fun. Driving and shifting in my car feels more natural, I can actually feel the ground underneath my feet, giving walking around outside (normally a pretty banal activity) another dimension of sensory experience. Lifting weights in these shoes has been interesting, and my form is better than when wearing shoes.

Excuse my hyperbole please, I just really dig these shoes. Pics of my feet after the cut.
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Trying ping.fm. Thanks @tferriss!

I've been spending a lot of my time at ted.com lately. It's a conference that stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and it's about bringing speakers from all over the world together in order to share ideas and collaborate, and give "the speech of their lives" in 18 minutes or less. Usually they're a little over, but it's all good.

There were two talks in particular I wanted to highlight, but there are /so/ many great talks by some people you will recognize, and a lot that you won't.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions.html

and

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow.html

The first talk is by someone all of you who read my infrequent ramblings know of. Adam Savage of Mythbusters tells a story of obsession and inspiration. The second is about happiness, and how losing oneself in challenging work. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi speaks about states of 'flow'.

One more, and programmers/web designers like bafadam will hopefully enjoy this one:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth.html

This short talk-slash-techdemo, is about how we can use internet social networking combined with photographs to create something truly amazing. It must be seen to be understood.

This, I think, has been a replacement for the kinds of intellectual stimulation normally exchanged in a university lecture or with good friends and a few beers.

God damn, I can't wait to go back to school.

• 23:28 Haven't been twittering much lately. I can't breathe through my nose. This is awful. #
• 23:29 Plus side though I haven't had a cigarette in 4 days. Woo not getting lung cancer! #
• 11:40 @Talulla Shit's about to get real. #
• 14:35 throwing up is no fun. Allergy meds + cold/flu meds + french toast for lunch = bluuuh #
• 16:55 Tony Reali's got movie quotes today on ESPN. Pulp Fiction, Matrix, Indy, etc. #

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• 03:24 @cory_ Heya #

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• 18:46 shitty day + nothing to do = stewing. :( #

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• 23:25 @jephjacques Your comic is great, but you're a bastard. #
• 23:39 #lastfm #love Atlas by The Wood Brothers bit.ly/3ROmn #
• 00:40 @Drdrew Basic health coverage should be an entitlement as a US citizen. No question #
• 11:21 in line for quake live. Position in queue: 29390 #
• 11:21 I'm going to go to work and see if I'm in when I get home. #
• 18:22 RT @neilhimself: A very nice memorial to Philip Jose Farmer by his great-nephew. bit.ly/zsTNQ #

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• 01:24 Trying to Be Here Now. #

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• 11:09 @bafadam Are you kidding? Mickey Rourke was the favorite by a lot, and I felt his performance was far more powerful than Penn's. #
• 11:11 @bafadam No offense to Frank Langella but it wasn't in the cards for him this year, methinks. #
• 11:12 @bafadam Dude, it's great. As soon as it comes out on DVD, get that shit. #
• 11:22 Playing with TweetDeck now that I've got AIR installed. It's pretty neat. #
• 12:43 @bafadam I'm still getting database errors all over the place on the SOP forums. ;_; #
• 12:54 @bafadam Firefox 3.0.6, Windows 7 build 7000. #
• 14:13 @AFineFrenzy And a beautiful day to you, Alison. #
• 15:32 Cleaning my room for the first time in ages #
• 15:51 Any tweets have tips on what to do with spare rubber bands? #

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• 19:51 #oscars Penelope Cruz - Best Supporting Actress. @highmoon Did you catch what she said? My spanish isn't good. #
• 19:51 Glad they're not showing clips from the films. Last year spoiled Michael Clayton for me. #oscars #

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• 17:53 Slumdog Millionaire was a great movie. Story was told very well. I don't know if the academy will pick it though. We'll see on Sunday. #

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I've been thinking these past few days about music and how I interact with it, and how I might find a career with it.

In middle school (grades 6-9) I played the saxophone, and enjoyed it. I left, as I do most things, for a stupid reason. But, no accidents.

So I've been watching a lot of TED talks in the past week or so and several of them reference classical music, or the piano. I've also been reading Oliver Sacks' book Musicophilia.

The idea of playing the piano appeals not only because it's part of the requirements for the University of Kansas's musicology/music history, but also because it expresses such a wide variety of emotions and it's an excellent medium for powerful, powerful stuff.

It's been a little more than 2 years since I graduated high school in the winter of 2006.

In the fall of 2007 I attended a nearby state university and commuted from home. This, frankly, sucked. I didn't get much out of the experience except a waste of $3500, and a semester of failed classes. Between Thanksgiving Break and Christmas I didn't go to class at all. (I know, a stupid decision.) I haven't been back to school since. I've been working full time for a while now in retail, but my hours are slipping.

I want to go back to school, and I'm considering going to a university 3 hours away, in-state, and living there completely on student loans/scholarships and whatever part time job I come up with. I feel this intense desire to learn and experience things with my peers, and I think the best way to do that is to go to a place where you have very few real responsibilities and a large group of people in your age bracket.

I work at a bookstore, and I see that there's not a career in brick-and-mortar bookstores, because I think that the way we interact with media will change irreversibly in the next 5 years (but that's another post entirely), and I want to be doing something that's still viable in 20 years. I'm thinking Computer Science, with a minor in Communications (for audio production, web design, etc.)

Is living the college life for 4 years and getting a degree worth the $80-$100K student loans?

Man Note: An option that hadn't occurred to me in my state of excitement may be more effective. Community college. Pros are cost, lack of pressure to succeed (because it's relatively inexpensive and there's not a lot of risk), and it might also wipe away the shitty semester at WSU. Just transfer out after 2 years to finish the degree. Thoughts?

Before all the major music mags and blogs release their picks, I'm going to put mine on the table. I would put these into order, but I don't have that kind of time. Also, I'm no pitchfork writer so my comments will be pretty sparse. This is just stuff I really enjoyed and recommend you listen to.

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 I twittered about this earlier this morning. While I'm on the subject, Happy Turkey Day to fellow Americans, and Happy  Thursday to everyone else.

There's an exercise that someone I trust recommended that I do. As it was described to me, I was totally turned off. It sounded like some bullshit from "The Secret" or whatever. But, because I value this individual's opinion, I'm willing to give it a shot. So, here goes. For a while I'll be quoting from my paraphrasing of Sonorous's writing.

"
I'm talking about writing out an Ideal Woman Script, listing every qualification that you want in a woman, completely letting go of all attachments and aversions to it, and then allowing her to come into your life. 

So, how do you do this? Simple, really. Do not overcomplicate the simple. 

1. Put three categories of qualifications down: Be (Is), Do (Can And Loves To), Have (Has). 

Be specific about what you want. I’m talking extremely specific. List character traits, backgrounds, interests, passions, sexual desires, everything that you want. Hold nothing back. This is, after all, your list. 

2. After you finish it, look at it until you stop caring about it. You can do this with releasing, EFT, meditation, or just do what I did when I was younger and didn’t know anything about any of these: Just forget about it to the point where you genuinely have no attachments and no aversions to it. Make it something that you play with, something that you look at and say “Wow. That would be awesome to have a woman with all of these traits, but if it doesn’t happen, that’s cool, too.” 

This non-attachment, a true not caring, is vitally important. I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say that if you have attachments (or aversions) to your list at all, like I did when I finally discovered what I was doing and tried to replicate it with said attachments, and you draw in a woman who meets some of your qualifications, you’ll be attached to her (and thus averse to losing her), too. Bad news for all involved. 

That’s it. Two steps. Write it out, then let it go completely. 

Have it in a place where you can review it every once in a while. This can be an online profile, a word document, printed out on your wall. You don’t need to see it everyday. You just need to have it in the back burner while continually letting go of any attachment to any outcome of “getting” her. "

Okay. I just finished my list a bit ago, and I'm ready to post it. People may be offended by this, but eff you. You can handle it. Keep in mind that over time, as I meet more and more women, my list will most certainly change. Anyway, here's the list as it stands right now:

The title of my Ideal Woman Script:

"My Ideal Woman, who feels able to surrender herself into my Love and feel completely at home with whatever surrounds us."

Be (What She IS): Confident, Passionate, Sexy, Intelligent, Well-Read, Compassionate, Sexual, Independent, Ticklish, Shorter than Me, Kinky, Physically Fit, Laid back, Full of Love, Open to New Experiences, Dark-haired, Dark-eyed, energetic, playful, competetive, Yin.

Do (What She CAN and LOVES to DO): Read, Yoga, play video games with me, be willing to teach and learn, experiment in bed, cook for me (and vice versa), explore other spiritual realms, experience Tantra, have multiple orgasms (or develop the capability to), give great head, travel with me, watch terrible movies, make out (a lot), find a third for occasional playdates, Open with me in Love.

Have (What She HAS): A great ass, a steady job, fiery passion, high sex drive, bisexual tendencies, Love for life, Love for Me, Clean and Smooth skin, cool social circles that mesh with my own, a sharp wit, healthy cynicism, a broad musical palate, a broad cuisinary palate, the ability to Open to new experiences easily.

So that's the list. I figured the best way to figure out what I want is to write it down exactly. People asked me to post it, and if you've got thoughts, questions, whatever, I'll respond as quickly and as kindly as possible.

Expect that Vipassana post soon. It's coming, I swear. Maybe I'll release it in one hour chunks, like bafadam 's Dark Tower podcasts. :P