Monday, January 28, 2008
Beautiful Day
Amara and Sully woke up to snow today. So they did what any self respecting kid would do, they bundled up and got to work.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Thoughts From the Edge
- WARNING: Read at Your Own Risk, Raw Frankness
[frangk-nis]–noun plainness of speech; candor; openness.
- "I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center." Kurt Vonnegut
Every day I say things in my work. Many people don't like what I say and to that I say I don't care. I say those things anyway. After all, thoughts that stay in your head come to nothing. So, for better or worse I've grown fond of sharing my thoughts and even better, I don't fear it. I put them out there and then sit back to see what happens.
I've felt for a long time that I've had my back against an irresistible force pushing me toward the edge. All the while, I've been digging in my heels frantically pushing, trying to slow it down. But the closer I get, the more clearly I seem to think. It's like the quote above. When you are on the edge you see things you don't see from the center. When I get here, where I am today, that's when I want to write down the things I'm thinking. A purge, if you will. Problem is, I'm certain that some of you won't agree, or enjoy them. I'm going to say them anyway. Now that my introduction is over here is my first.
A Thought from the Edge
Do you ever get tired of trying to find the silver lining? I do. I get really tired of taking handfuls of crap and pushing it through a sieve to find the gold nugget. I get tired of pretending every obstacle, roadblock and handful of crap is a blessing in disguise. When you're waste deep in a bog it's hard to smell anything but the rot and decay let alone roses. Sometimes tragedy and hardship is surely the path to enlightenment, that can't be denied. But sometimes, crap is crap and there is value in admitting it.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
And then some...
When I started my effort to lose weight a little over a month ago my goal was to lose 10 or 15lbs and be able to wear a 38 waist pant. Well, I've lost 20lbs and I bought a couple pairs of pants today. One 38 that fits comfortably and one 36 fits good as well. Different styles, I suppose. I'm comfortable doing what I'm doing for a while longer so I am going to make a new goal. I'm going to keep going until 210lbs and see how that is. Why not?
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Meet Gut.
May 2003-Meet my twin brother, Gut.
I'm breaking it off with Gut. Through good times and bad, Gut and I have been together for a LONG time. We used to sit around on the couch together with 1, 2 or 6 cookies and glass of milk just stuffin' the pie hole. His soft cuddly warmness got me through a lot of cold cold nights. I love you Gut, just not that way anymore. I love you Gut, but I think we should see other people.
Grandma Jammies
Monday, January 14, 2008
Pictures at the Park
A few months ago we had a friend of ours come over and take some pictures of the kids to give away as Christmas presents. Enjoy!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
By the numbers...
4...weeks I've been dieting.
238...weight when I started at.
221...weight as of Friday evening.
17...weight I've lost.
4.25...average weight loss per week.
6...parking garages I skated Friday night.
4.5...hours it took to find and skate 6 garages.
1...security guards I passed on the way down.
2...times I've hit the ground this week.
1...number of nasty bruises on my hip.
56...length of my longboard
3...nights I longboarded this week.
1...70+ year old ladies this week who said my work was CRAP!
1...spectacular women I am married to.
4...seat warmers in Dave's car.
217..goal weight for next week.
238...weight when I started at.
221...weight as of Friday evening.
17...weight I've lost.
4.25...average weight loss per week.
6...parking garages I skated Friday night.
4.5...hours it took to find and skate 6 garages.
1...security guards I passed on the way down.
2...times I've hit the ground this week.
1...number of nasty bruises on my hip.
56...length of my longboard
3...nights I longboarded this week.
1...70+ year old ladies this week who said my work was CRAP!
1...spectacular women I am married to.
4...seat warmers in Dave's car.
217..goal weight for next week.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
I love me some YouTube
This is 7 minutes of the most amazing longboarding you are going to see. These two have a way of making this stuff look easy. It's not and I have bruises and open wounds to prove it. Ridiculously fun though.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Shout out to Detroit
Erik Tuft, a friend of mine that moved to Detroit just posted this comment on the last post.
"Eric - that's it. I'm moving back to seattle! (posted by Erik Tuft, not Jona)"
Well Erik, then you will be even more envious when I tell you that I have been skating about 3 times a week AND that boards number 2 and 3 are in the pipe. I expect to have them in about a month.
"Eric - that's it. I'm moving back to seattle! (posted by Erik Tuft, not Jona)"
Well Erik, then you will be even more envious when I tell you that I have been skating about 3 times a week AND that boards number 2 and 3 are in the pipe. I expect to have them in about a month.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Garage Session
Just one run from last night. Dave is behind the camera. We went on a two day garage binge three and half hours on Friday and three hours on Saturday. Fantastic.
Let's see some comments...
Let's see some comments...
Ridin' Dirty
Longboards, parking garages and 35 skateboarders from 9pm to 1am...life it good.
Dave and I joined a longboarding garage session Friday and had more fun than a human being should be allowed to have. Then we hit it again tonight for another session with a couple of other friends. The 4 of us hit three different garages in Redmond, Seattle and Kirkland. I'll have more pictures and videos later.
Dave and I joined a longboarding garage session Friday and had more fun than a human being should be allowed to have. Then we hit it again tonight for another session with a couple of other friends. The 4 of us hit three different garages in Redmond, Seattle and Kirkland. I'll have more pictures and videos later.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
A Visit to the Crab Pot
My sister Tara and her husband Byron brought their two sons and came for Christmas this year. In all of Byron's travels he has never been to Seattle. So we thought it would be fun to take them to the Crab Pot. It's a fun seafood restaraunt here that they prepare your food in one big pot and dump it right in front of you on the table covered in butcher paper. You eat with your hands and feast upon a bounty of crab, mussells, clams, sausage, red potatoes and corn on the cob. It's always fun to do with a big group of people. We had a blast with them, thanks for coming to Seattle guys!
Keeping Resolutions
This is a fantastic article. Most of this has been true for me.
Why we can't stick to our resolutions
By CHRIS BYNUM
The New Orleans Times-Picayune
First the bad news: While two-thirds of Americans make New Year's resolutions, nine in 10 confess they break them before January is over. More than half of those resolutions are health-related (lose weight, stop smoking, reduce stress).
Now the good news. There's a reason you break your resolutions, and there is a way to keep them.
You break them because the emotional side of your brain battles it out with the thinking side of your brain. You can keep your resolutions if you commit to do something both sides of your brain can agree on, says executive coach M.J. Ryan, author of the book "This Year I Will ... How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True."
"We resolve with our thinking brain. We say we will jog first thing every morning to lose 20 pounds. But what happens when you wake up, and it's too dark and too cold?" says Ryan. We have an emotional brain that prefers to sleep in, she says.
The emotional brain, she says, sees pain or pleasure, safety or danger. So when we tell ourselves we are going to stop eating sugar with our thinking brain, our emotional brain sees chocolate and thinks pleasure.
So here's her advice for making the two brains work together for successful resolutions:
• Make the resolution something you really want. Have an emotional connection to your resolution.
• Keep the emotional reason behind the resolution alive. Ryan had a client who wanted to stop smoking. She asked him for the emotional reason he wanted to stop. The client thought it was because his father had died of lung cancer at 55. That was the health reason. The emotional reason was that the client wanted to live long enough to retire to a beach in Hawaii. Ryan suggested that the client keep a picture of a beach in clear view for the times he felt like smoking.
So while you may say you are resolving to exercise, are you really resolving to fit into that little black dress?
"Take the little black dress out of the closet and put it in the bathroom, and say every day, 'I'm going to wear you.' When those four o'clock cravings at the office hit, you will visualize that little black dress," says Ryan.
• Keep your resolutions specific. Saying you want to be fit, she says, is not a resolution. "Say I'm going to exercise 30 minutes five times a week. That's something you can figure out if you are accomplishing it or not."
• Make your resolution time-bound. "Think in short time periods," says Ryan. "On Monday say you will exercise for 30 minutes every day. On Sunday, you can say it again. If you say you are going to exercise for the rest of the year, you will make your emotional brain miserable."
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• Don't turn goof-ups into give-ups. Resolutions are not perfection, says Ryan. Old habits are deeply grooved into our brains. Making new habits is about making a new pathway.
"Under stress, we default to the old pathway because the groove is deeper. We are simply working to make new grooves as we make new habits," says Ryan.
• Be kind to yourself when you mess up. "Don't say, 'Forget it!' You blew it only for that moment. Be kind to yourself and start again," says Ryan. The best insurance for keeping resolutions, says Ryan, is tracking yourself. Use a chart, or report to a buddy.
"Tracking creates awareness," says Ryan, who advises many of her clients to keep a chart to record progress. Most who are successful keep workout diaries, food diaries or personal journals.
Why we can't stick to our resolutions
By CHRIS BYNUM
The New Orleans Times-Picayune
First the bad news: While two-thirds of Americans make New Year's resolutions, nine in 10 confess they break them before January is over. More than half of those resolutions are health-related (lose weight, stop smoking, reduce stress).
Now the good news. There's a reason you break your resolutions, and there is a way to keep them.
You break them because the emotional side of your brain battles it out with the thinking side of your brain. You can keep your resolutions if you commit to do something both sides of your brain can agree on, says executive coach M.J. Ryan, author of the book "This Year I Will ... How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True."
"We resolve with our thinking brain. We say we will jog first thing every morning to lose 20 pounds. But what happens when you wake up, and it's too dark and too cold?" says Ryan. We have an emotional brain that prefers to sleep in, she says.
The emotional brain, she says, sees pain or pleasure, safety or danger. So when we tell ourselves we are going to stop eating sugar with our thinking brain, our emotional brain sees chocolate and thinks pleasure.
So here's her advice for making the two brains work together for successful resolutions:
• Make the resolution something you really want. Have an emotional connection to your resolution.
• Keep the emotional reason behind the resolution alive. Ryan had a client who wanted to stop smoking. She asked him for the emotional reason he wanted to stop. The client thought it was because his father had died of lung cancer at 55. That was the health reason. The emotional reason was that the client wanted to live long enough to retire to a beach in Hawaii. Ryan suggested that the client keep a picture of a beach in clear view for the times he felt like smoking.
So while you may say you are resolving to exercise, are you really resolving to fit into that little black dress?
"Take the little black dress out of the closet and put it in the bathroom, and say every day, 'I'm going to wear you.' When those four o'clock cravings at the office hit, you will visualize that little black dress," says Ryan.
• Keep your resolutions specific. Saying you want to be fit, she says, is not a resolution. "Say I'm going to exercise 30 minutes five times a week. That's something you can figure out if you are accomplishing it or not."
• Make your resolution time-bound. "Think in short time periods," says Ryan. "On Monday say you will exercise for 30 minutes every day. On Sunday, you can say it again. If you say you are going to exercise for the rest of the year, you will make your emotional brain miserable."
advertising
• Don't turn goof-ups into give-ups. Resolutions are not perfection, says Ryan. Old habits are deeply grooved into our brains. Making new habits is about making a new pathway.
"Under stress, we default to the old pathway because the groove is deeper. We are simply working to make new grooves as we make new habits," says Ryan.
• Be kind to yourself when you mess up. "Don't say, 'Forget it!' You blew it only for that moment. Be kind to yourself and start again," says Ryan. The best insurance for keeping resolutions, says Ryan, is tracking yourself. Use a chart, or report to a buddy.
"Tracking creates awareness," says Ryan, who advises many of her clients to keep a chart to record progress. Most who are successful keep workout diaries, food diaries or personal journals.
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