I’ve always been intimidated by drawing. I vividly recall times when being invited to do art projects with others has made my palms sweaty and my heart speed in my chest. As a fairly competent person, this fear has always … Continue reading 5 Lessons Learned Drawing Daily for a Year
Every once in a while someone hands me a phrase that changes my life. Sometimes it’s a new way of looking at things or a distilled concept wrapped up in a way that lets me carry it around and brandish it when needed. My dad recently gave me one of these which fits both of these categories and has changed my life. I was talking to him about my difficulties in opening conversations with women I find attractive but yet don’t know. (I’m guessing most of you guys out there have had this experience.) Suppose you’re at a party and … Continue reading Stop Misusing Your Imagination and Free Yourself
I’ve spent a lot of my life since graduating high school moving to different places. Here’s a quick rundown for reference: Graduate after spending the first 17 years of my life in Missoula Move to Thailand for a year Move back to Missoula for 4 months Move to Washington for school for 9 months Back to Missoula for 3 months Back to Washington for 6 months Germany for 5 months Back to Washington for 12 months Seattle for 3 months Back to Washington for last 9 months of school Off to Los Angeles for 2 1/2 years (one inter-city move … Continue reading Changing Things Up
Hola everyone. Tomorrow morning will mark one month in Buenos Aires, so I figured I should document what I’ve been up to, for my own sake and in the event some of you might be curious. Arriving I got here … Continue reading First Month in Buenos Aires
I’ve recently taken up learning tango dancing as a new hobby. I’ve been doing it for several months now and have to say that it’s quite enjoyable. I mentioned to someone in conversation how when I dance, I feel very elated afterwards, and they remarked that there’s probably quite the testosterone response from tangoing. Not being one to let a good opportunity for over-examination go to waste, I did a quite good search for articles on tango and hormone release. Turns out that one exists. Here’s a link to an abstract. The study tested levels of both salivary cortisol and … Continue reading It Takes Two to Benefit Cortisol and Testosterone levels
I was recently watching a video on YouTube about how to spot a liar and toward the end of the movie, the guy mentioned something interesting. He has physical cues for himself which he uses to trigger certain states. Touching his pointer finger to his thumb recalls the state of meditation for him which helps him suppress micro-expressions when he’s negotiating. He also will raise his right big toe when he needs to remind himself to be patient with people that he doesn’t care for. Hearing this set me to wondering: could I train myself to recall or trigger certain … Continue reading Life-Mod: Physical State-Anchoring
I posted a while ago (in February I think) about starting the 100 pushups program to try to get to 100 pushups in a row. I was a bit skeptical at the time of the 100 pushups program but figured it was as good a place as any to start. I quickly became impossible though. I tend to find that this is the case with most programs that claim to be able to do X number of something in X weeks. I’m pretty sure they just do the math to see how many you’d have to increase per week if … Continue reading Update and review: 100 Pushups Program
The last few months have been frustrating physically for me. I injured my back a long time ago (December 2009). After doing physical therapy at 3 different places, getting an epidural shot, and working with a few different trainers, I’m still pretty clueless as to what to do. I have an aggravated nerve in my lower back that flares up during a number of activities, most notably while sitting and after working out. Well, I sit all day at work (although I recently acquired a standing desk, which helps). Because of all this sitting, my back stays in pain for … Continue reading Rebooting and the 100 Push-up Program
Back in December, a co-worker sent me an article (this one I think), written by a guy who had decided to give up soap and shampoo for a month and seemed none the worse for it. At the time I was looking for some good things to experiment with and this one required no additional time from my schedule and cut some chemicals out of my daily routine, so I quit showering with soap and shampoo on December 6th, 2010 (note: I still showered. I’m not a hippy). The only real caveats I have to applying chemicals to my skin … Continue reading Life-Mod: No Soap
I spent 2-3 weeks in November making an attempt to wake up without an alarm clock. The hope behind this was that I’d be able to wake up more naturally and feel more refreshed. Turns out this was difficult. My initial plan was to set an alarm for later than usual, and get to sleep early enough that I’d wake up before it went off. Unfortunately, I just ended up waking up and then laying there or falling back to sleep a lot of days. On the days when I actually managed to wake up earlier and get up, I … Continue reading Life-Mod: Waking Up
Jeff Ammons 