Climbing

I went rock climbing today for the first time. It's really hard and really fun. I think the part I like the most about it is failing. I think I was only able to make it to the top on a few of them, and they were the easiest ones. There were also ones where I couldn't even get halfway up. But failing made me want to come back at it harder. My body (especially my forearms) gave up on me, but my mind was always fighting for more. It felt good.

Something that came up after, I still hadn't done my 15 pull ups for the day. So when I got back home I tried to do it. But my forearm was done, I couldn't even grip the bar with my right hand. First I tried one handed pull ups with my left hand. No dice. I thought maybe I could just skip the day, since I was basically doing a whole bunch of pull ups while climbing. But I decided to do it, I tied my right hand on to the bar and did one pull up at a time until I got to the 15. Definitely the hardest day of my challenge, it took about 30 minutes to finish. But it made me think, at most, I only need to spend half an hour on this challenge. It made me realize:

- Every day, you should be able to do at least one thing that you want to do.
- You can most likely find at least one thing that you want to do every day that will take less than 30 minutes.
- If you're not a) in jail b) in a cage c) a slave d) something else really extreme, you should be able to find 30 minutes in your day to do that something you want to do.

Wouldn't it be really sad if you went through a day and realized that you didn't do one thing that you really wanted to do? Obvious answer, of course, but sometimes it does happen. We get sucked into routine, going through motions, pushing things for a later time because something else is 'more important'. But every day our soul needs refilling. I remember reading this article saying, think of your body as a car that operates 24/7. You would never expect your car to get you from one place to the next without systematic refueling, just as you know there's no point in putting more gas in the tank than it's designed to hold. But that's how we operate our bodies sometimes. We run on empty, super hungry, then overeat. It basically says that this style of eating is almost counterproductive in terms of working out.

I feel the same way about happiness. You can't stock up in one day and expect it to get you through the week. Working for the weekend isn't enough. You need to find something you can do every day that is just for you. Doesn't have to take much time, doesn't even necessarily have to be productive. Just something that you do because you decide you want to do it. And that's why I tied my hand up today, because it's something I wanted to do, because I wanted to climb up and get better.

'Today is the best day to get better.'

Music

Music is awesome. Some of the songs I've been listening to recently:

A Lack of Color - Death Cab for Cutie
Ain't No Fun - Kurupt, Nate Dogg, Snoop, Warren G
Midnight City - M83
Young Blood - The Naked and Famous
Cudderisback - Kid Cudi
aNYway - Duck Sauce
Pop Culture - Madeon
Freaks and Geeks - Childish Gambino
Good Morning, Good Morning - Easy All Stars
Walking on a Dream - Empire of the Sun
Hands Held High - Linkin Park
The Groove Line - Heatwave
James Franco - Hoodie Allen
Broken - Jack Johnson
Shake Your Body - The Jacksons
Little L - Jamiroquai
I Wanna Be Your Lover - Prince
I'm not a Star - Rick Ross
Love Lost - Temper Trap
Young, Wild and Free - Wiz Khalifa and Snoop
Can't C Me - 2pac
You Only Live Once - The Strokes

Music I can't stand: Dubstep, it's the new auto-tune
Music I can't decide on: OFWGKTA. A little too hard core, but have something interesting about them.
Music I'm a huge fan of: Certain styles of Kid Cudi. When he's good, he's awesome
Music I might become a huge fan of: Kendrick Lamar, crowned new King of the West Coast.

"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die " - Fort Minor in Hands Held High
"Because everything I've been working for was only worth nickels and dimes
But if I had a minute for every hour that I've wasted I'd be rich in time, I'd be doing fine
Without you I was broken, but I'd rather be broke down with you by my side "
-Jack Johnson in Broken

Solved

Solved the Rubik's Cube! I think I got a little lucky, but I'll take it. It was pretty difficult. I ended up solving it pretty differently than I did for the 3x3x3. Very exciting, now off to other things.

In other news, I'm so glad to realize how great some of my friends are. There may not be many, but they make all the difference.

'Friends are God's way of taking care of us.'

Rubik's Cube

I recently got a gift. It was a 3x3x4 Rubik's Cube. That's right, you read that correctly.

Very hard. I solved a 3x3x3 a while back. It took like 2 weeks. I remember it was a summer and I didn't have much to do, so I spent a lot of time working on it. I wrote notes about what kind of moves would change what blocks. Basically I started with what I learned from playing around with it for a while. With the 3x3x3, the middle block always stays in place for each side. The cube should be done layer by layer. Also, if you do the same move over and over again, eventually it will go back to its original orientation. So because I was always scared to ruin what I had already done, I would do the same move over and over until something small changed.

Trying to learn more things about the new 3x3x4. Some things I've learned:
- Middle blocks do not stay in place
- The blocks on the 3x3 sides (yellow and white) will never be found on the 3x4 sides, which has blue, orange, red, green vice versa
- It's easier (in my opinion) to work in layers, with one layer being a 3x4, so doing 3 layers, not 4.
- When twisting one way (along the 'long' way), there is only one possible way you can go. You can switch everything 180 degrees only. Twisting one more time will only get you to the same position you were just in.

Tomorrow will be a great day!

'You don't get many moments like this' - some movie I saw the other day
If you ask a girl to the dance, you'll get a yes or no. If you don't ask, it's always a no.

Monthly Challenge Update

My month full of pull-ups is half done. Supposed to do at least 15 a day. I've done 650 for an average of 46 a day. Things I've learned:
- Doing 15 pull ups probably takes about 1 minute to do
- It's easy to set aside 1 minute to do something every day.
- It's easy to set aside 10 minutes to do something every day.
- Wide grip is harder than close grip.
- Pull-ups >> push ups.

Art of Flight

Saw this snowboarding documentary today called Art of Flight. I really enjoyed it. Makes me want to do something extraordinary.

http://artofflightmovie.com/

You know it’s funny what’s happening to us. Our lives have become digital,our friends, now virtual. And everything you could ever want to know is just a click away. Experiencing the world through endless second hand information isn’t enough. If we want authenticity, we have to initiate it.

We will never know our full potential unless we push ourselves to find it. It’s this self-discovery that inevitably takes us to the wildest places on earth.

Update 10/9

Monthly Challenge is going well. I think I need to change it. Report is not happening for a while. Time to focus on my thesis. It's starting to feel really good to work hard again.

'If you can make it through the night there's a brighter day
Everything will be all right if ya hold on'
Tupac - Dear Mama

Monthly Challenges

Inspired by my friend Izzy & Super Size Me & Super High Me & Matt Cutts

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html

My October Challenge: Pull-ups every day. At least 15 a day.

Today I did:15

Also, I'm writing a report for fun about gambling. Stay tuned!