Justin Girard

Thailand #2 - Koh Tao

2012-02-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

Thailand South - Koh Tao!

If you ever thought of scuba diving, or just wanted to snorkel and see sea urchins and fish - Koh Tao is the place to go.

I dived there for 5 days, long enough to get my PADI open water and to do what I consider the most fun - a deep dive. Scuba diving was so fun that in another life I would probably consider it a possible career. Deep diving and the idea of Tec diving is extremely exciting... but alas. I only live once right?

Who knows. Maybe in 10 years, if I have enough of a mid life crisis, I might abandon everything, like so many of my instructors. It seems hard to regret anything after you don all your scuba gear. While under water - it's impossible to regret any path that brings you to such a wonderful world.

It's easy to understand why!

Get this:
1) you can fly with sheer will.
That's right, simply by breathing in certain ways you can ascend and descend anytime. Or be upside down.

2) You are always in danger.
Or so they say. Danger is fun!

3) You are surrounded by creatures that make no sense.
From the translucent gooey worms, to rays, to schools of fish, or tentacle things... all the creatures under the ocean have evolved on a different and way more 'crazy' path - in absence of strong gravity and with less light. Kinda cool!

4)You are not supposed to be there.
Just like space, people are not designed for the ocean. The deeper I went, the more I felt like a kickass invader or ninja.

I can't imagine not wanting to scuba dive. It's amazing. Having said that, Koh Tao as a destination is much more than just cheap diving. It's also beautiful. The weather changes between awesome, more awesome, or extremely awesome. The beach goes on for what feels like forever, and has no real rocks or gross icky things.

Whats more the food, accommodation and drinks are reasonable. You can relax on the beach nightly to watch a fire show, Or dance at a night club. During the day there are loads of tours and restaurants. It's a surprising place, and one of my favorites.

Unfortunately, I took almost no pictures as I was busy enjoying the experience. An amazing experience.

What there is not is ....
.... culture
.... hostels
.... dirt cheap anything

Everyone is there on holiday. Koh Tao, I would find out, would frame southern Thailand tourist locations pretty well. I guess beaches attract vacationers like a magnet. The local town has changed into a tourist haven, and everything there caters toward the tourism industry.

On the positive side, this means that some of the wild life is protected. In some areas practices like blast fishing (done by the locals) has diminished because income from tourism is better. In other areas wildlife has been overrun by boatloads of tourists. It is hard to say whether or not local families are better off or not with tourism, and it depends what you value about an island really.

Overall - Koh Tao is my favorite beach location in Thailand!

Phnom Penh

2012-02-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

Phnom Penh was may more than expected.

I knew Cambodia was poor, and knew that Laos was almost completely undeveloped. I expected the same from Phnom Penh. I found giant buildings, shopping malls, proper sewers, running water with flushing toilets.

And, well, a Revlon booth.

The Craziest thing I saw in the city was when I walked 10 minutes from the mall into a food market. There were all these bargers lining the streets offering me a haircut (butcher job?). Then I saw it.

A Baby - sweeping the street. You know babies, all pudgy, barely able to stand. Well one of those was sweeping ashes from around their parents food stand with a mini baby broom.

So I did the most sensible thing I could thing of - I went to my guesthouse and ordered a 50 Anckor beer and watched the coconut vendors roll by.

Phnom Penh also holds something I didn't anticipate: The Killing Fields and S-21. I would reccomend a google, but lets just say that the genocide that hit Cambodia, which ended recently, is beyond words. I can share a few pictures:

shackles used to weigh people down, or tie them to a bed for torture.

Child with a massive chain on his neck.

Many, many, victim portraits.

Closer portraits.

The portrait that made me cry instantly.

Crazy tree at the Phnom Penh killing fields. I imagine this tree lived through the genocide.

One of tens of mass graves at this site alone.

One of many, many, many, tortured pictures I saw. This was possibly the 'cleanest' one. Many post death pictures were of people with caved in faces, twisted limbs and massive gashes in their bodies.

This all happened in the 80s and 90s....

Thousands of prisoners were interrogated here. I think 2 survived. (maybe 4).

Anyway... on a lighter note! Cambodians seem almost uniformly happy, despite the evident poverty in the streets. I believe this is because so many citizens have strong memories of horrific times, that they are genuinely happy to freely enjoy family and friends. Phnom Penh had the largest wealth divide I have seen. In Bangkok I saw some poor people, but in Phnom Pehn I saw starving workers with visible ribs standing next to SUVs and business suits. I saw people with elephantiasis or birth defects crawling past night clubs that charge 7 dollars a drink. I saw children drugged my their parents, high on the street. Within an hour the parent would be carrying them around, passed out, looking for money.

I also saw suburbs where no poor people went. Every home had walls, gates, and security guards. I stayed in a few such places.

The people in Cambodia were more friendly than everywhere else. In my limited stay one of the workers at my guest house invited me to his brothers wedding! I didn't go because all I had to wear was shorts and a t-shirt.

There, of course, were the same problems with the sex trade as in Bangkok. It was even worse in ways. I ate at a place called the Blue Dolphin (best breakfast and coffee ever). There was this dodgy massive fat guy (so fat he couldn't rest his arms on his arm rests). He asked if I had been out yet. I said yes. They he said "crazy right?". I asked "what do you mean?"
"You know, just up there, 20 bucks and they will do anything you want"
Then I realized. "Really! no... I have not been out yet"
"Oh well if that's out of your budget you can go up the corner here and negotiate something cheaper with the freelancers"

The next day Alex and I went for a walk up 'the strip'. Its about what I expected - many shady looking bars full of miniskirts containing trapped Cambodians. The worst thing I saw on my walk was a little girl, maybe 11-12, in a hookers uniform, sitting beside a 60 year old fat man.

Then I went home.

In every way Phnom Penh was the most eclectic place I visited. It contained every high and low I have seen in my trip so far, and had more to give than could fit in the few days I spent there.

Alex looking out over Phnom Penh.

View of the street from the hostel.

Black Chicken?

Near the river - an over exposed account.

A (monetarily) poor fisherman living off the dirty water.

4000 Islands

2012-01-25T03:22:00.000-08:00

The 4000 Islands are just south of Vientiane, in Laos, near the border of Cambodia.

Wait... I didn't mention Vientiane! Oh right, that's because it's a shit hole and nobody should ever go there. Seriously, I would rather rub sand paper over my eyeballs, twice, than spend another moment thinking of my time in Vientiane - from lady boys to expensive bedbugs - the place is a hole.

On the other hand - Don Det (an island in the 4000 Islands) was amazing. It had the charm of Pai but none of the size. To walk anywhere meant a trip along dirt roads. Accommodation set me back 3 USD a day, food about 1-3 USD a meal. Huge stress relief!

See how happy I look - It's because it's awesome on Don Det. Go there. Do it.

There are many huts on Don Det. They all serve food, house locals, do laundry and function as bars (and money changers). They also all make good fruit shakes. Everything you need (minus maybe a job) is within meters.

The 'thing to do' on Don Det is to watch the sunset. One side of the island is called the 'sunset' side. It's expensive to stay on (4-5 CAD a day) whereas the sunrise side is cheaper. Thing is, the sun set side is so hot from 1-6 pm you can't even be on your porch. Alex and I stuck with the sunrise side, paid less, and did this all the time:

One time we went for a bit of a swim. The water was awesome on this beach so I had to get a pic!

Ok maybe 2 pics. One more epic one!

There was also waterfalls!

A 'town'!

But after all exploring I always needed time, at home, in my shack.

This is an epic picture of my 'shack mother' giving me a blessing (good luck) while I hold a kitten (and look stronger than I am. Best picture ever.

I watched a few flaming poi shows - but mostly I did this:

Nothing. For 8 days I did nothing. I woke up, got some food, went for a run, swam, and sat. In the evenings people had leisurely drinks - but everything closes at 11. A person couldn't get into trouble if they tried.

The only pool table in town was falling apart. It had planks of wood found from the area propped against certain spots. To kick one meant part of the table would fall off.

The food was all cooked on an open flame - this place is so rustic that it has power outages.

Wait, whats more, is that it has power outages that nobody notices. Really. One day we lost power all day and the only reason I found out was because I ordered a fruitshake and the power couldn't run the blender.

all in all, I can't imagine a better place to just relax. There is nothing to do but relax. The power cuts out, the internet is garbage, and I don't think there's a desk anywhere on the island.

All in all, amazing!

Prostitution and Fruitshakes - a reflection

2012-01-18T03:07:00.000-08:00

Prostitues and Fruitshakes

By far the greatest value I have found in travel so far, has been, the fruitshakes. They are usually a 0.75 cents to 2 dollars, and are freaking delicious. They are also a good hangover cure.

Of less value, and only slightly more expensive is prostitution. I think, like anything that seems cheap, you get what you pay for.

When I first started traveling I thought prostitution was the worst, exploitave, disgusting thing I have ever heard of. Well, I still, personally, think it's disgusting.

I remember when I was 19 years old my father insisted I go to the strippers with him. At that point I was still very much my mothers son in many ways, and had my guard up. I saw strippers as sad soulless women, who had been turned into sex slaves by male society. I imagined every one as a single mother, in a run down apartment, mold growing in the corners of a dank room, struggling to make ends meet. The only answer? to sell her body.

So when my father insisted I have a lap dance I resisted, but I did. And I'm glad I did - It was a defining moment in my life.

This stripper (the most regular looking one) pulled me into a back room. When she went to dance, I told her no, and said I just wanted to talk to her. I'll never forget her reaction:

"Aw another one of you guys. What a waste of time, alright what do you want to talk about?"

During our conversation, I realized a couple things:
1) Values are relative, and exploitation can go both ways
2) Strippers, can (believe it or not) like stripping. Guys throw money at them, stupidly, and this can be an enjoyable in itself. Kind of like the joy a skeezy sales person gets when they make a great sale.

Basically, strippers remind me of tuk tuk drivers.

In Bangkok I went out to 'the club' and saw probably the most drunk disgusting guy in my life gropeing a barely of age thai girl. I was disgusted. I rolled my eyes at the guy and the thai girl started giggling.

Later on, I was walking home alone, and I saw the same pair lurking near a food stand. The guy motioned for me to come over. He said "I saw you in the club" which seemed to be the most relevant and insightful conversation he could muster. I agreed, sarcasticly. The girl laughed again. He said to me "hang on, I got to pay for this food". As soon as he turned around the Thai girl grabbed me a pulled me toward her friends restaurant. She started talking to me about my family, asking me about what I like and don't like. She paid for my drinks and dinner, but it wasn't long after I mentioned my career that she started rubbing her foot against my leg.

I slid my chair back. I could see the used car salesmen persona slide though her lips. All my questions around prostitution were all avoided.

Eventually she commented to me "I don't need money from men. Men are all pigs. You are a pig. I have nice things, this watch is real, and worth 1000 dollars. My apartment is 300 dollars a month. I like my life" She proceeded to hit on me until I uncomfortable escaped to my hostel. In this exchange, I felt a victim - objectified.

And this feeling among men is common in SE asia.

Then, I realized, at 29, the same thing I realized when I was 19. The sex trade can feel empowering on both sides.

I do think prostitution is sad. I think stripping is sad. I find it sad that people have grown to see it, socially, as a normal thing - but it's not going anywhere anytime soon. It's not wrong and it can be done right.

Just as in canada there are women who are victimized because they have addictions, there are people in thailand (many times more) that are abused in the sex trade. This does not, as I have realiezed, mean that

a) the sex trade is going anywhere.
or
b) that every woman in the industry feels as though they are a victim.

This is one of the biggest lessons I have learned on my trip so far....

Vang Vieng!

2012-01-06T20:28:00.000-08:00

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is this little nowhere town, in Laos, part way between Luang Prabang and Vientiane.Vang Vieng is surrounded by a network of caves, cliffs and rivers. Very beautiful. And until recently, very quiet.

I arrived in the afternoon, and it was blazing hot. We loaded out of the cramped minibus. As always the ride was a proper ride - through the mountains. Along the way we hit a rest stop (some shacks along the one road that sold chicken sandwiches ... always with the chicken sandwiches). Someone purchased a pack of oreos, and it took us a minute to figure out why the package was bulging.

We were at altitude. The cookies were packaged closer to sea level, and now it was pressurized. Sure enough, as we slowly descended, the package slowly deflated.

Then Tourism took over, and that's why 5 tuk tuk drivers were waiting at the minibus, all demanding 1.50 each to drive for 5 minutes. 10 of us crammed in the tuk tuk on the vay to this inner city.

I found a great bungalow, called phonsavanh. It was only 60 000 kip a night, and amazingly beautiful:

Then next day I went for the famous tubing, and what I saw amazed me. It was as if every frat boy on the world and every diva all crammed themselves onto this one river. Everybody had a smile on their face and everyone was very accepting and relaxed.

Again, everybody was in a great mood and extremely accepting. A perfect example, Conrad! Conrad was practically a celebrity while I was in Vang Vieng, everybody loved that despite his age, and not really ever traveling, he had made it all the way out to Laos alone.

He was also a bit sassy...

The party continues all day, and as people get drunk and zipline / rope swing things get more energetic.

Afterward people head into town, to continue, and you find scenes like this. (people in an ice box).
Why are they in the ice box? I will never know.

(you can also tell the girl here is thinking 'why am i in this icebox')

The sad thing about the parties in Vang Vieng is how little it has to do with Laos. It might as well be in the middle of USA, Poland, Cambodia. There is absolutely nothing cultural about Vang Vieng, from Baguettes to buckets.

After weeks of enduring expensive places and treks, as well as days alone... finding a place like this is like a breath of fresh air.

After a day or 2 of this, you generally remember why you hate excessive drinking, and venture out around Vang Vieng to see the sights. And sights here are.

There are caves:

There are mountains:

And more relaxed places by the water:

And that's really it! You wont find home-stays or anything else cultural in Vang Vieng, unless you really search! All in all, it's a must visit for everyone :)

Luang Prabang

2012-01-01T05:44:00.000-08:00

Luang Prabang

After Pai I decided to head for Luang Prabbang. Luang Prabang is in Laos, so this meant crossing the border at Chang Kong.

A minibus ride to the border head me head spinning again, and Alex, Steven, Mike and I all slept in a shady guesthouse in Chang Kong - the border town. After trying to get free breakfast (and failing) we caught a boat over the Mekong river.

Alex and I proceeded to be immediately ripped off by a minibus sales person, and we chilled in a cafe for a day. It was so hot in the border town (Huay Xiu i think). There was literally nothing to do, so we hung out in a cafe and intorduced ourselves to beerlao!

After that we took an overnight minibus to Luang Prabang - the 'cultural capital' of Laos. I missed the monks, but I did visit the night market, a killer bar called utopia, and got used to refusing all sorts of drugs when solicited by the tuk tuk drivers.

When In Luang Prabang, in terms of what to do, I would say skip the museum, climb the massive hill in the center of town, check out utopia and the night market. If you have time see the waterfalls too! Luang Prabang is a bit expensive for Laos, so there is no reason to stay for more than a few days. You will get bored.

There is plenty of food though, and I would reccomend enjoying the food market - you can get a killer meal for 10000 kip there, 20 000 for meat added. Not shabby at all!

Sorry about the chunks of pictures... the internet is being all south asian on me.

More updates soon, next up: Vang Vieng :)

Pai

2011-12-18T03:25:00.000-08:00

Pai

(Forgive the lack of pictures... the internet here is not so hot, and even updating my blog has been a hassle!)

So a week or so I went north to Pai. This is north of Chaing Mai in thailand. The road up was crazy, and looped through the mountains. It's hard to describe just how crazy it was, and the road was barely wide enough for 2 vehicles. In fact, on turns, only one vehicle could pass sometimes.

And all the turns were blind.

And it was night time.

And, it didn't stop the drivers from taking all the turns doing 60-80 km/h, squealing the wheels, flinging people off their seats.

All the buses in SE Asia seem to be like this - on winding roads at crazy speeds. The locals pass out, and wake up at rest stops to jump out and puke.

Anyway. Pai.

Pai is very relaxed, very small, full of (want-to-be) hippies. There are pictures of Bob Marley everywhere, and you can score all the grass you want if you are willing to take a short scooter ride. I didn't rent a scooter though, I saw too many people with broken limbs or sprained ankles.

Around Pai there are some waterfalls, hot springs, and good food. I would recommend the Pool - called Fluid. It is ...amazing. They play house music and dubstep all day, and the sun blares down on you until you sweat. Then you can jump in the pool, and spend a couple bucks for a BLT and a beer. Awesome.

If you are looking to party ... you cant. You can, however, sit down at a chill spot near the night market for some drinks. I recommend Jikkos.

Doesn't Jikko seem awesome? He built his own place, outside his front door.

Beautiful Spirits.

Tell him (Jikko) you want to be drunk, and you will end up with long island iced teas that is basically clear.

The best restaurant in town is, I think, Pai Country. They serve a killer Panang curry, and a good masaman curry. (both for 70 baht including rice).

I stayed at Spicy Pai the whole time. It was a party hostel.

One day I needed to make a call, and I did so at 9am est. That's 9pm Thailand... so I ran up the road (above) to escape the music. In the middle of my call fireworks started going off - repeatedly. There is no escaping fun at Spicy - when I got back to the hostel I got roped into multiple rounds of flip cup. Nuff said!

During the days everyone generally chills out, goes to see waterfalls or to get food, or do other chilled out things. In the evenings people see the night market, eat, or party. There are yoga retreats, and really cheap bungalows for rent. Up a side street outside down, about a 5-10 minute jog, there is a muay thai camp. If I ever go back to pai it's to:
1) train hard
2) eat cheap food
3) sit in a bungalow
4) take my scooter out for a waterfall visit
5) enjoy waterfalls and yoga, pool etc

...all for 10-20 bucks a day. Can't complain.

Pai is great!

A few random Pics! (but not enough. I neglected Pai)

Pai Country food!

Cheap Homestays!

Random candies! and... wait... Werther's original? What?

Chiang Mai

2011-11-30T18:12:00.001-08:00

Well I suppose It's been a week and ahalf. I've fallen off the blog wagon a bit. A lot has happened too.

I definitely went for surgery, that'sone thing. I had an ingrown hair when I came to Bangkok, prettystandard I think, but within 5 days it got infected with a staphinfection. I had to get part of my face cut open to drain theinfection, take antibiotics, and also wear a hilarious bandage.

Bandage aside, The hospital was so nice. Walking into the hospital gave me pause for one reason... People can live in an alley and work 16 hours a day for no money, or they can work in this immense hospital and probably make more in a day than I make in a few weeks. The blatent inequality was sobering. We have inequality in canada, yes, but overall it's not this blatent or variable. Check out this hospital.

I escaped Bangkok, and ran up to ChiangMai. It's quiet here, even for Ottawa. Apparently the population isabout 150 thousand people. That doesn't stop them from having atemple on each block though!

My Hostel is beautiful, and sets meback about 8 CAD a night.

I met some cool people and have beenhanging out for about 11 days in Chiang Mai. 6 of those days I workedon software, and three I trekked in the bush, leaving 2 days I reallyhad to wander the city – and it went fast. The night market isawesome! I forgot to take pics though... however - I did take lots of pictures of the trek! Here are a select few: (many)

I ate some squid (basically raw). The insides were likeuncooked egg, and my stomach of nails took it in stride. The foodhere is pretty amazing actually, for dinner I usually go to the samerestaurant and order 2 meals. Thai portions are for small people Ithink. Even with a beer, and the pricy items on the menu I end uppaying 220 baht – that's like 6 dollars! I leave stuffed and sleepin my amazing 8 dollar hostel!

I also took this awesome video of sitting in the hostel, and the local 'wildlife':

I can't get over the price in Chiangmai.

Of course I'm a tourist though, andeverything to do with being a tourist is expensive. A tour orattraction can easily cost 1000 baht (30 bucks). What's saved inliving expenses is taken back in fees. If I just wanted to sit in myhostel I would have a cheap trip, but lets be honest – we want todrink and eat well, and also see the countryside. For this, you pay!

Not everything costs though, if youlook into niche areas.

In fact, when I arrived I called up thelocal fencing club (there is one!).

It turns out to be a retired manwho married a local Thai woman. In his spare time he runs a fencingclub, and has 2 pistes and a good setup. (check out the Chiang Maifencing club). Well when I showed up to fence only him and his wifecould come, and I uncomfortably defeated them in a match of 15(each). One Epee and one Foil. They are quite good, but I get thefeeling they don't get enough high level competition in Chiang Mai.

Having said that, we all chatted forsome time, and he mentioned to me that his monthly cost, for hishouse up north, car, food, etc etc runs about 140 dollars a month.That's right – you can retire comfortably in paradise for 20k.Think about that when you sign your 400K mortgage or buy your 40K car– you can literally retire instead.

Since the end goal in North Americaseems to be retirement, the above should give you pause.

In fact, some quick math will tell youthat 40K in the bank can set you up to live off the dividends forfree in Thailand. Basically with a small amount of money you can say'screw you' to society and sit in paradise for as long as you want –always being able to come back later. Crazy right?

Anyway I also met these Olympic liftingthai kids in a small alley behind a school. It was amazing, we alltook turns doing power cleans for some time. The strongest ones namewas 'ohm' and he power cleaned 80 kgs. He must have weighted 150 lbsmax, so pretty impressive! I mean, my maximum is 94 kgs, and I weight200 lbs!

The next day I recorded the walk from the hostel to the Oly lifting 'club':

Of course I have hit the bars some. Andthey suck for the most part – I feel like I keep missing the barstrip, and the tuk tuks all want to take you to their friends'places. I have found one place, called 'spicy' that is open late andfull of cool people, but it's seems too crappy to qualify as apopular bar.

Mostly in chiang mai I have worked andrelaxed. Soon I will leave for Pai and really relax. Not much to sayabout Chiang mai, aside from the obvious beauty. Other than that it'sjust all less people and less expensive, an awesome change fromBangkok.

Again! Pics!

Week Something - Bangkok 2 (and final!)

2011-11-17T18:01:00.000-08:00

Bangkok is... crazy. It's full oncrazy. The Hostel I am staying at is called NapPark, and it'sabsolutely full of a gillion people. I have met people from NewZeland, England, Vancouver, India, Germany, Holland, France,California, New York ... and I think I'm missing more than a few.Every night has a party, and I'm quite tame. I need to get up andwork in the morning... but I have done some going out most nights.It's about balance for me.

But I have to say, that red bull isreal good. I'm told it's illegal in most countries, and has speed init.

If you thought frosh was something,then you have another whole world to experience. Nobody did'pharmacy runs' before any parties I went to in school, and I have tosay that there are groups of people I absolutely avoid. I heard thatsomeone from a neighbouring hostel went out and partied 29 days in arow before staying in.

I love my bro Owen here, but he is full on crazy. We had a good time playing Jenga, and drinking, but he trumps me most nights. I'm long asleep while he is still out on the town.

You can go out like that in Bangkok, and meetnew people, every-single-day.

Every morning I get up around 8am. Iopen my laptop and code some of a website. I usually get somebreakfast. Yesterday, at 10 am, I went to get breakfast. It's sohumid and hot here, sometimes I forget to eat. On the way down a sidestreet I came across a rough looking group of 5. There was a brit, ascot, a korean, and some caucasian guy with a black eye. The koreanguy was quite built, and seemed young and rowdy.

They all exclaimed “sit down mate anave a beer”. I declined, but they yelled “awwww come on” so Ijoined for a moment – without beer. The older guy, maybe 40's wassitting across from a Thai lady who he winked at, as he asked mewhere I was from.

Then he asked me to “arm wrestle our matehere”, the Korean ... bodybuilder? I won one of 2 and they said Iwas secretly strong (and I would agree). They demanded I needed abeer.... and they had clearly not gone to bed yet, so I insisted Ihad to go, and left the beer soaked table behind.

I grabbed eggs from a woman who was ...not a woman ... for 35 baht. There sat a sophisticated man acrossfrom me, 50s, who gave me a nod. I had wandered a bit from thetourist area looking for cheaper breakfast and we both knew it.

Then I found my way to the Starbucks,the only quiet spot on Khao San road. The internet costs 300 Baht amonth, too steep for most residents. Everyday I come in and talk tothe ladies before I work, and they call me “Mista Justin”. Ileave them a 100 baht tip everyday for tolerating me for hours at atime. I think the 'rich' Thais are funny. I see them acting as if they have tons of money, and they really are snobbish to their own people. From the outside it seems really silly to me. I'm sure a certain percentage of these rich Thais make much less than I do, and I'm sitting in a corner unshaven everyday.

Usually in the afternoons I wander thestreet. Yesterday I got some veggies and meat. The veggies were 40baht, and the meat 60. I grabbed enough for 2-3 meals. It set me back... 3 CAD?

I did some work in the hostel, butguys from New Zeland had come back from seeing the city, and thepressured me to start drinking. I was stuck without help anyway so Irelented, it took very little twisting to get me going. A cheap night here costs a redbull, a mickey of SangSom anda bigGulp. That's about 3 dollars Canadian, maybe 4. This is allavailable at the 7-11. Before heading there though I napped in mybunk, and had a couple drinks.

A dutch guy, with his masters infinance, was talking with me about his thesis: the benefits ofpotentially taxing profits on short term trades (held for under 10minutes). This conversation spiraled into a conversation aboutOccupy Wallst, the state of the Economy in England, the corrupt Italian president, and how to avoid the tuk tuk drivers in bangkok.

I have learned more from the world inthe last 4 days than I did from all the teachers and all the friendsI have ever had. I can't even describe how enlightening meetingpeople from around the world is.

“tuk tuk” “ping pong show” isall I heard as we wandered to get a couple of buckets on Khao San. Ihad to stop off first. The previous night a thai 'woman' “janey”insisted she wanted to buy me dinner. She was in the street the nightbefore with a local wasted american. He was grabbing her breasts andbutt in public, and as I walked by I made a clever comment (makingfun of him). Janey had run after me and thanked me, giving me hermobile.

We talked a bit about her culture, butthen, during dinner, Janey started getting frisky by touching mylegs, forcing me to move my chair back. She kept saying in poorenglish “what you don't like me?” to which I kept saying over andover “as a friend”. She paid dinner, and I promised to call her,and promptly escaped.

I got the feeling I was expected tofall into some sort of routine, it sounded dry, like the affectionsfrom a used car sales person. It reminded me of the time I tried toconvince a stripper she didn't have to be a stripper – only to haveher laugh at me and tell me she makes tons of money to make fun ofmen in her head.

It seems Thai woman are a bitconditioned to think all men are pigs. Pigs that dispense money if you seem attractive enough.

I wonder why they think this way.

The local watering hole for people hereis “the club”. It plays european / american dance music. I had acouple drinks at 100 baht a piece, and ended up carrying around gaythai men – tossing them in the air. Gay men are a lot of fun, andI can't even begin to convey how fun the culture is here. Everyone isfriendly and accepting of everybody – gay, straight, from anycountry, any background, any culture. It was a good time.

At 3 am I came home to an empty hostel.Everyone would be out until 6 am probably, and wake me up coming in.I was done for the night, as I get up usually before 10. TheReceptionist at the desk thanked me for being the best guest. It'strue I am the quietest, and I try to learn the language, a phrase aday.

Anyway, I'm stuck at this loud hosteluntil my visa card gets delivered. I'm done here, I just want a quietPlace to do some Yoga and list some weights. My new friend CeJay isup there in Chang Mai, as is Alex. I'm sure I'll find them, and Ihope to see some culture, past how whores behave in a scummy downtowncorridor.

There is so much to say, like about theguy who got left at a go go bar by his friends. Nobody could find himor remember where they left him. They searched everywhere and calledthe police. The Thais at the desk laughed and called it 'real life –hangover 3! hangover 3!'. Hangover 2 is not so far off... not when youconsider the potential 'pharmacy runs' and 'redbull' people get upto. Tatto parlours and seedy deals lurk along the road.

I wish I could meet some thai peopleand learn what Bangkok is really like outside the tourist funnel, butI wont find that kind of friendship near Kaho San road. I can't waitfor my credit card, and I can't wait to fly out to a more moderateplace.

As before, here are random pics!

Travel Blog week 6? Bangkok!

2011-11-11T00:14:00.001-08:00

Man it is crazy in Bangkok. So isflying 23 hours. So is wage inequality.

Bangkok is 'expensive'. Just to giveyou an idea, the best hostel around kan san road is 550 Baht a night,with a 400 baht deposit. Eating cheap is easily 150 – 200 baht aday. This is meat and fresh fruit, I have not found 'good' veggiesyet – but I know they are somewhere!

A bottle of beer is 50-200 baht. A daycan cost, in bangkok, 750 – 1250 a day. I'm seeing 1500 as average,when you factor in driving around, sight seeing and other expenses.This sets a person back .... 27-55 dollars Canadian.

apparently red bull came from thailand.It looks pretty sick, and costs a small 15 baht a bottle.

in fact, everything that isn't touristrelated is dirt cheap. Even an apartment, to rent, per month isonly 1000-3000 baht. That's only 37 – 100 bucks a month. I havefound it hard, in the few days I'm here, to stay away from the nightlife. Day Bangkok is full of people trying to make money off of you,and night Bangkok is full of the same.

Lucky for me i'm a 6ft tall black man (and polite). The locals like to say "canada vancouver" So far nobody has tried to steal fromme. People try to trick me, yes, by making ridiculous deals, but that's not stealing. It helpsjust to walk away, there are other vendors and cabs to take, always.A few times I have over paid, only to have the attendant return mymoney generously.

One time, I thought someone said '70baht' when charging for food. It was 20. She seemed scared I overpaid here and immediately apologized and gave me my money back. Itwas my mistake! This woman was near as well, on the phone, and shelaughed.

The second time I ordered a drink, itwas 100 baht. I needed 900 baht back. The waiter brought a tray ofbills back. I picked up one bill, thinking it was a '900' dollar bill.I almost paid 900 baht for one beer. (around 30 bucks,what a tragedy right?). The man came by and counted the bills out tome, giving me everything I deserved.

What I dislike about bangkok is.... thetourists. I dislike myself.

Yes I dislike myself. I loathe the idea ofa ping pong show, and will never go. (a ping pong show is where womenshoot ping bong balls from their vaginas and pop ballons). I hatehearing the guys in the hostel get all drunk at night, and leavesaying 'lets tear this town up'. But I do like to drink and have fun, and for every jerk there are 10 backpackers that are struggling to learn the language and show respect.

I love the look of bangkok in themorning. By 10 am the shops are in full force.

a thank you in thai gets a big smile, asit shows you are making the smallest effort. You can say it likethis... kinda... cop-cungggg-cao. I could be off there... I'm goingto start a pocket phrase book where I practice saying things tolocals. I thought I would need lessons, but it seems that everyone inbangkok is your teacher, if only you would allow it.

Anyway, I want to take some betterpictures before I leave. I have seen some crazy stuff I don't want toforget. Some stuff you can't photo, like the little kid who fakecries when you beat him in a thubwar game. If he wins you give him100 baht, if he loses, he cries, and you give him 100 baht. Theirparents make them come out to hussle. School is free here – theyshould be there.

I'd like to photo some of the shitliving conditions too... anyway I'm rambling. Best to get on with mywork. I've been afforded the ability to work while I travel, and Iintend on doing an awesome job! It's all I have between me and a veryshort trip.

I want to go up to Chain mai, but thereis a flood between me and there. The bus might get through, and it'scheap! But it will take a few days. The plane is around 100-180dollars canadian, and it gets you to chaing mai in one hour. Thismight be a better choice. (considering I might spend 2500 baht on thetrip up anyway, by bus).

Bangkok plays by it's own rules. Thereis no vegan food, or yuppie foods (not for poor people at least).There don't seem to be cheap fitness clubs, or other similar places.To live like a north american here (starbucks, gym, resturant, propertoilet) costs you north american money. If I lived like this I wouldbe Back home in a month...

.... SO I'm trying to adapt. Iapologize a lot, and say cop-cunngggg-cao a lot. This seems to work!

Anyway, Talk soon blogosphere!

Some random photos.....

Entrance to the hostel.

One street over from kan san road

Some half assed flood barrier.

Sitting in my room.

Crazy German guy. Forget his name. He basically only wears a sarong constantly.

Cheap bucket of beer. They are a total rip off.

Inside of an abandoned mall.

Inside 'the club'

Some thai dudes hanging in 'the cliff'

Some thai hipsters. There is nothing unique about a fixed gear bike.

Some dutch friends i made last night!

Travel Blog: Week 4

2011-11-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well This sunday is the big liftoff!
I made this quick sketch awhile ago titled "the fruits of our labor a our roles and responsibilities". I really like the sketch, and through the years every time I look at it ... it somehow evokes some feelings in me. I don't know if it works the same way for others but here it is!

So currently I have no home really. I'm also not having a going away party. I feel like I'm frantically getting ready, like everyday doesn't have enough hours.... there are some tasks that take a surprising amount of time....

- Ruining all of your debit and visa cards with scratches and begging the bank for new ones. Done.

- Calling a gillion companies asking them to change your address, 1/2 done

- Traveling from coffee shop to coffee shop, packing up and unpacking endlessly. done.

- Drinking an *assload* of coffee and then peeing in every washroom / outdoor dark place (like some kind of evil troll) done aaaaaand done.

- Dress up like an African (Zulu) slave for Halloween and, in addition to dealing with wearing only a loin cloth in a cold climate, debate about how making fun of stereotypes is actually good, not bad. donnne!

- Eat lots of veggies and nuts. Done. In fact, I'm already seeing that a little side bag for food and daily /cheap items is a good idea, so i bought this cowboy.

Even though I have been so busy, my nintendo DS disagrees, or more specifically my 13:00 hour save game disagrees.

I started playing on saturday! These games were for travelling, but at this rate I'll need new games as soon as I arrive in bangkok. Still, Dragon Quest IV is pretty fun.

Also, on a side note. Caribou's Andorra is amazing. If one is to play video games and in general do nothing, then it should be to the sound of 'Eli'. If you get bored of that, I'd recommend some Chad Vangaalen. Somthing about that + a good RPG makes time pass like velvet...

... ok video doesn't do it justice....

but still, i insist ... velvet!

Anyway, that's what I'm up to before leaving. That and deciding on the millions of ideas I have for a first game to make!

Travel Blog 3 - Some packing tips

2011-10-21T06:38:00.000-07:00

Anyone that knows me ... knows that I'm obsessive. People that don't know me, well they think I'm carefree and a hippie. That's because they don't realize one thing:

I'm probably obsessed with one thing, at any moment, and nothing else really matters to me.

Right now that obsession is applied to my list of things to pack.

My goal has been to travel using a 25 L backpack. That's smaller than most school packs. I want to be able to pick up and leave, and carry my bag with me everywhere. I also want it to be light.

Below is everything I think I need, that I managed to pack inside my pack. Since I'm pretty obsessive I think I got most of my basis covered! I'm sure this list will be useful to anyone who is planning a long trip!

1) Backpack

For this I bought the Pacsafe 25L backpack.

It has slashproof straps and a slashproof exterior. It's not as big as I wanted and my giant laptop doesn't quite fit in the laptop pouch. My sketchbook does though. Also, here is a trick - keep a piece of cardboard or metal in your bag like so, so you can 'make your own' laptop sleve:

In my backpack:
2) Locks
I packed three locks so I can always secure my zippers and lock up my bag. Only complete jerks will take my stuff now. The bag has concealed zippers so the locks don't even show!

3) Mini towel
... I might regret this, but I'm low on space.

4 ) Soap
(I made up this trick. Keep the bar in a ziplock with rice - it absorbs the moisture. Get new rice every once and awhile)

5) tooth brush
6) Toothpaste
7) Bugspray wipes (smaller than a bottle)
8) 4X underwear
9) 4X socks (8X if you are like me in considering socks singular)
10) Bandana (for style and hair)
11) Rain poncho.
Spend more than a dollar on it:

12) Sport shirt (like those worn during marathons)
13) thin travel pants.
14) Vibram (5 toed shoes). (wear them and you will understand)

16) Bag gloves and hand wraps (boxing)
17) 2x t-shirts and 1X shorts
18) sketchbook and pencils
19) nail clippers
20) rubbing alcohol (i tossed mine, the bottle is huge!)
21 ) bandaids
22) Nintendo ds and a gillion games the size of a findernail
21) a massive and heavy laptop. (extra cash and I would have got a small one)
22) a drawing tablet - a digital art must.

23) some inital cash!
24) Medications.
-Malerone - more travel in malaria zones. Its so expensive too, i got 50 tablets
-bismuth, or pepto. For pooping way to much
- antibiotics (in case you poop really too much).
25) sunglasses
26) this awesome ball bering thing

27) my awesome camera!

28) mini headphones
29) chargers for laptop, ds, and everything in one spot.
30) a swing kit (ok I don't need this, but I have it)
31) duct tape
I came up with this Idea. I'm putting tape strips on my camera, laptop, and backpack. I want it to look like my shit is almost falling apart and worthless. It's not far from being true...

32) weightlifting shoes
33) photocopies of ID and passport in bag.

In the travel wallet (on me)
33) travel wallet
34) passport
35) 16gb flash card
the kind used in cameras - tiny and pretty much invincible. I wrote a backup *.bat file that backs up all my files when run. So i toss it in and click the bat file - instantly i'm not worried if my bag gets lost... as much.
36) visa and ID (drivers license, health card, copy of medical insurance)

37) 4 books. Griffiths quantum mechanics. Quantum field theory. Drawing on the right side of the brain, and another book.... but wait a second. These don't fit. I was really annoyed, until I realized i could download copies of these books in PDF form online! (I only downloaded books I own.)

I think that's everything I packed. I might be missing a couple things! I know it seems like a lot to cram inside a bag ... and it is! I actually don't intend on buying anything at all, unless it's to eat or to mail home.

The one think I hate the most in my bag is my laptop, but I know full well it's the object I will appreciate the most when I'm homesick and alone in a tiny bed bug ridden hostel.

Anyway, hope this list helps someone! It's a mixture of many lists I saw on the internet... and I'll soon see how good it is.

Travel blog #2

2011-10-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

I Promised myself every friday I would make a weekly travel post.
I almost keep my promises.

Ramping up to travel is actually very annoying. There is a massive amount of things to do. In my case, since I'm not coming back, I'm also planning to 'move'.

Things also become more annoying. It\s hard to explain why, but I have this feeling that intensifies every day. This feeling that can only be described as "not giving a fuck". It reminds me of Jon la Joie...

(I replaced the video with a cat video. The original was boring and can be found here)

But really it's true. I think 2 things happen when you are about to leave.

Ok, so when is the last time an episode of your favorite show took 'forever' to finish? Probably never right? How about the last boring class, or bus trip, or drive? it took FOREVER right? Things take 'longer', and suck more, when you hate them.

So, in my life, I'm leaving. People are starting to realize "hey, justin is leaving, and he needs to do all these things". Then they want me to do the things, like my job, because soon I wont be able to work at all.
So I have to do more stuff.
And everything I do takes longer.
And every day my trip approaches I care less.

... imagine three graphs...

As you can see, the closer my trip the more intense these three are. But wait, my day is a product of how much I do, how long things take, and how little I care..

This means that every day takes FOREVER. and everyday is exponentially more boring, longer, and full of even more things I must do that I hate.

Now, woe is me, I'm about to go on a trip I know. Obviously I appreciate leaving, and don't think I've been given a raw deal in life. I'm just saying, it's hard to care about organizing boxes before a bonfire.

Also, three days ago I got a drawing tablet. It is awesome and looks like this:

So then I made this! It's my first try using the tablet ... super hard to control. I'm excited to learn to blend colors more and add details! It's actually exactly like painting on canvas, but 1000% more awesome.

Also I did my maximum power clean again (94kg), which looks like this:

anyway. I don't even know what I'm rambling about, but I'm supposed to write something, so this is what came out.

Travel Blog #1 - 4 weeks until liftoff

2011-10-06T15:39:00.000-07:00

People keep asking me why I'm leaving Canada. I don't have a good answer, and I think I might never have a good answer. Part of it, sure, is that my daily life feels like this:

But a bigger part is that I don't know why. I think, in part, I hate modern society. It's hard for me to put into words how I feel, but every once and a while I see something. Something that shocks me so deeply, and gives me such a sense of futility, I just stand in awe. Yesterday I had that moment:

If that doesn't emote feelings out of you, then you might never understand why I need to be away from here. I feel perpetually pressured, in Ottawa, not to live a good life, but to life 'the life'. Our whole life is built around the 'economy' and 'money', these hilarious abstract concepts. Don't get me wrong, I invest, and I use money, but I feel like the purpose of my efforts revolve around being happy and healthy.

I think along the way people have forgotten how to be this, and he have instead been turned into mindless cattle. This comic says it all...

It's funny, mostly because it's actually true. The life that has become the north american status quo, I loathe, and I want to escape.

When I was a 'kid', I preoccupied myself with making games, building stuff, exploring our 20-ish acres. Life seemed infinitely more complex then, and it was I think. I learned a lot in Ottawa. I created myself here. I came here when I was 17 with 50 bucks my aunt gave me, and I came out with a software engineering degree, an 'impressive resume' (a list of things I hate to do) , and a variety of skills, from motorcycle maintenance to my first novel, to art shows... I never sat still.

9-5 Is wrong for me. I'm not going to say that its wrong for every- ... wait. 9-5 is wrong for everyone, it really is. I actually don't see the point in existing without passion, in friendships without desire, in a future without thirst and hunger. You can't have that 40 hours a week for 20 years. It doesn't make sense.

So for now I dismantle.... and it looks crazy.

Software has been good to me, and I put in some time saving money and learning the shit financial system we depend on. In the years since I was 17 I have never had enough time for myself. I barely squeezed out my novel, Becoming Od. I barely had time to fence, and train. Game development and my art has all but died. I barely talk to my family, friends, because my spare time is spent trying to work on my personal projects. It's a crap chute.

Bye Reg!

I'm sure my good friends think I hate them. Well I'm saying this now: I don't talk to anyone. I'm so busy working on art, writing, freelance, and training I just forget to 'connect' with people. I've never been good at that. I'm sorry.

Things have also changed, Reg and Bruce, my best friends, have their own lives now. All that seems left for me is making money, something I'm good at, but bore of. I feel it's similar to collecting marbles in the school yard. You spend forever trying to stop other kids from taking them, when you only need a few and you can run around playing with everyone.

Bye Bruce!

Anyway, so that's why I'm leaving. I'm leaving to work on things on my own terms. I want to work with love, and make awesome freelance apps. I'm good at this (I better be with 13 years of experience).

Mostly I want to persue the thing my life should have been about. Exploring, learning, and creating. I've always been an artist. I saw art in software that others didn't see. Really. I code for FUN, draw diagrams for FUN. I'm going to try my hand at indie games (keep an eye on the site).

I'm also going to ramp up the art, and complete my next 2 books, finish my physics textbooks. I'm lastly going to just relax, eat good food, lift weights, do some muay thai, fence, scubadive ... I might even resume skydiving again.

Good food every day!

The one thing the trip isn't about is this: Finding myself. I'm leaving because I found myself. I'm a creative exploitative engineer. I want to live a life of curiosity, and I want to make people happy. I want to express the human condition, and I want to teach as I learn.

And I can't do any of it sitting at a desk making soul sucking business applications!

Concentration Exercises

2011-09-12T06:09:00.001-07:00

I have trouble concentrating. I found these sweet concentration exercises that seem interesting and I want to try them out. I know as a kid I could sit and draw for hours, or work for hours. These days when something bores me I shut off more easily.

I have become a tad more adolescent, maybe spoiled, because I *can* choose to do more exciting things. Sweet exercises, divided into levels. When you master one, you move up.

The original context is here. They well books and seem pretty knowledgeable... although the site is pretty ugly.

Concentration exercises:

Exercise 1
Take a book and count the words in any one paragraph. Count them again to be sure that you have counted them correctly. Start with one paragraph and when it becomes easier, count the words in a whole page. Perform the counting mentally and only with your eyes, without pointing you finger at each word.

Exercise 2
Count backwards in your mind, from one hundred to one.

Exercise 3
Count in your mind from one hundred to one, skipping each three numbers, that is 100, 97, 94, etc.

Exercise 4
Choose an inspiring word, or just a simple sound, and repeat it silently in your mind for five minutes. When your mind can concentrate more easily, try to reach ten minutes of uninterrupted concentration.

Exercise 5
Take a fruit, an apple, orange, banana or any other fruit, and hold it in your hands. Examine the fruit from all its sides, while keeping your whole attention focused on it. Do not let yourself be carried away by irrelevant thoughts or associated thoughts that might arise, such as about the shop were you bought it, about how and where it was grown, its nutritive value, etc. Stay calm, while trying to ignore these thoughts and not be interested in them. Just look at the fruit, focus your attention on it without thinking about anything else, and examine its shape, smell, taste and the sensation it gives when touching and holding it.

Exercise 6
This is the same as exercise number 5, only that this time you visualize the fruit instead of looking at it. Start by looking at the fruit and examining it for about 2 minutes, just as in exercise number 5, and then do this one. Close your eyes, and try to see, smell, taste and touch the fruit in your imagination. Try to see a clear and well defined image. If the image becomes blurred, open your eyes, look at the fruit for a short while, and then close your eyes and continue the exercise. It might help if you imagine the fruit held in your hands, as in the previous exercise, or imagine it standing on a table.

Exercise 7
Take a small simple object such as a spoon, a fork, or a glass. Concentrate on one of these objects. Watch the object from all sides without any verbalization, that is, with no words in your mind. Just watch the object without thinking with words about it.

Exercise 8
After becoming proficient in the above exercises, you can come to this exercise. Draw a small geometrical figure, about three inches in size, such as a triangle, a rectangular or a circle, paint it with any color you wish, and concentrate on it. You should see only the figure, nothing else. Only the figure exists for you now, with no unrelated thoughts or any distractions. Try not to think with words during the exercise. Watch the figure in front of you and that's it. Try not to strain your eyes.

Exercise 9
The same as number 8, only this time visualize the figure with the eyes closed. As before, if you forget how the figure looks like, open your eyes for a few seconds and watch the figure and then close your eyes and continue with the exercise.

Exercise 10
The same as above in number 9 but the eyes open.

Exercise 11
Try for at least five minutes, to stay without thoughts. This exercise is to be attempted only after all the previous ones have been performed successfully. The previous exercises, if practiced correctly, will endow you with the ability to impose silence on your thoughts. In time it will become easier and easier.

How to Get Ripped

2011-08-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

I get asked "what to do" about getting in shape ALL THE TIME. In the process of writing my millionth email, I have decided to basically dump it in a blog.

Getting in shape and eating better is more about you than me. It's about your ability to keep track of your habits, and control your habits. This is a skill.

If you had this skill, you wouldn't be fat or unhealthy. I would not have been fat or unhealthy. Unfortunately you don't have / don't use this ability in reference to maintaining your precious body.

Below I outline how I did change, and how I manage change. It's based on a few things:
1) what has worked from me
2) Advice from dr John Bereardi
3) Advice from Charles Polquin
4) advice from an olympic lifting coach, Pierre, of capital strength and conditioning

Basically, everything below is a-ok according to those dudes. Here is the process, in email form:

Hey man,

I have personally tried to 'get in shape' several times in my life, and only in the last year did I really figure it out. There is one thing I did differently this time, compared with every other time... and this I think is the same thing every 'in shape' person does. I followed a plan every day. So that's the first thing you need to do. Follow a plan.

sounds simple right?

The First Task - Follow a plan:

The first task, or exercise, is to have a log book. Mine looks like this:

week 1
Exercise, Mon, Tues,Wed,Thurs
Pushupsx10 Yes, oops, yes, yes
run N/A. N/A, yes, oops
eat 40 g protein yes, yes, yes, oops

week 1
Exercise, Mon, Tues,Wed,Thurs
Pushupsx10 Yes, oops, yes, yes
run N/A. N/A, yes, oops
eat 40 g protein yes, yes, yes, oops

.....

Basically I put a check mark whenever I do something. This is the most important thing you can do, and if you don't do it you will not progress for very long. You need to look at this book every day.

When you track your progress and actually do everything 2 weeks in a row, you "gain" the ability to attack Task 2. You have no business intensifying anything until you can do your currently level for 2 weeks straight. This might even mean simplifying sometimes, and if it does, so be it.

The Second Task - Push Harder:

This is more of a principle, than a exercise per-se. You should set a harder goal that you know you can do consistently, 90-100% of the time. Be honest. Maybe Thing 1 should just be "10 pushups" monday, "10 situps" tuesday etc etc. Next week make it 11, then 12, then 2 sets of 5, then 2 sets of six. You get it. Improve.

Only improve until you are doing 5 sets of ten. Any more of that and it's a waste. If you are doing something with weight, you can also increase weight. Stay in your rep range!

The goal is to fill the entire sheet every week. (task 1) This is the number one goal. Then the second goal is to improve on your last weeks performance. That's the second task. After you fill the sheet every week for 2 weeks, push a little more. If you can't fill the sheet 2 weeks in a row, then you have no business pushing harder. You instead need to do less on the sheet for now, or make sure to take yourself seriously and push harder.

When you get this down, and this alone WILL take months to get down, you can move onto task 3. You should not even really worry about task 3 until you get Task 1 and 2 down.

If you are stuck on a plateau for 2 weeks, and are doing well on task 1, skip to task 4. Task 4 breaks plateaus and leads to transformation. Task 1,2,3 turn you on, and task 4 improves your body.

If you are doing 5 sets of something for 8 reps, time to make it harder. Can't make it harder? Want more challenge? goto task 3. Select some exercises.

Task Three exercises:

At first you will probably do a set of ten pushups, 5 days a week. This is easy: perfect. After you do it for 2 weeks then improve. After you are increasing pushups every week it will get dull. This is when exercise selection gets fun - look around the house. Is there a way to do chinups? how about dips? probably yes. You can probably do quite a bit at home, all you need to do is add a new exercise to your sheet and start at task one again.

Below are some killer exercises. The ones on the left are the best, but most can only be done in the gym. Inferior replacements are on the right. It's ok to do the ones on the right, because you probably can't do half the ones on the left properly yet anyway. Your tendons and joints need time to strengthen. Your wrists need work, as do knees and hips. By the time you get to the left hand exercises you will probably be ready for them.

Strength:
You should select from the following exercises always (no matter your goal).
Weighted squats 4-5/ Unweighted squats
Weighted Chinups 4-5/ Chinups / assisted chin ups
weighted dips / hanging dips / dips (with legs out)
Clean Grip Front Squats 3-4
Standing Overhead press 6-8/ Weighted Pushups or Bench 7-10 / Pushups 7-10
Power Cleans
Deadlifts
Overhead squats
Drop snatches

A mobility item should be added as needed. The older you are, (past 15) the more mobility you should do. If you work in an office you need more. If you are "dense" or "fat" you need more. Mobility work is the secret to longevity of the joints.

Mobility:
Happy baby yoga position.
Hip flexor stretches
"asian squat" practice
deep lunges
Light Overhead squats.
Dragon pose (yoga)
upward and downward dog.
sleeping swan
shoelace or half shoelace

My personal daily maintenance routine takes 6-12 minutes: Dragon pose x 2, sleeping swan, half shoelace - It hits all my tight muscles.

Cardio:
You can do cardio once a week, if you want. Do a 15 minute run with 3-4 HARD sprints that make you light headed. Cardio is option in the beginning. You can care about cardio if you want, and you can care about it mostly when you hit around 11-13% bodyfat (get some bodyfat calipers). You are likely way over that now.

I don't currently do cardio, it's boring. once every couple weeks I do sprints, and i ride my bike to work.

Cardio is not needed to get strong and ripped.

Task Four - DIET:

So you have done a routine consistently and even added a new exercise. Now what? well since you are consistently working out you need to start thinking more about how the body works. Namely food. Your body is literally made out of food, so it only makes sense that you should consider what kind of food you need to eat to change your composition.

You will never seriously change your body or how you feel in the long term without attention to food. Period.

As with exercise, your foods will be entered on your workout sheet.
You should have columns like "ate 30 grams of protein" that you can check off.

Diet Improvement 1:
Your inital goal should be to eat 40 grams of protein a day. Then after you succeed in Task 1-3 again, you up the 'dose' to 50 ... and so on. You stop this at 1 grams of protein for every pound you weigh.

Diet Improvement 2:
After protein, you should eat fish oil with your non post workout meals. Check this off on the sheet daily as any other exercise.

Diet Improvement 3:
Next you will make sure to have 30 grams of protein right after a workout (or before or during). It should be a sweet shake or, if you are me, skim milk powder and

Diet Improvement 4:
Next you should eat green veggies every meal. This is the next improvement. Check this off every day - it means you did it every meal.

Diet Improvement 5-8:
Next you should eat less carbs. Add an item like "no muffins today" if you, for example, eat muffins. Check it off daily.

Diet Improvenent 8 +:
Remove refined carbs item, add to exercise book. Add 10 grams of protein until you hit 1.5 grams of protein.

If you make it to diet improvement # 8, you probably don't need my help anymore. That means you have been exercising for probably like 20-30 weeks ... more likely 50. It means you have as much experience as I did when I wrote my article.
(although I will admit that I am a bit obsessive and scientific!).

Feel free to drop me a line.

Another Month Paleo - Final Written Conclusions!

2011-05-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

Well it has been another month doing this paleo thing.

I would have to say that I have been cheating a bit more, but that 80% of my meals are Paleo. I do find compromises at times when I'm busy - for example today.

I purchased a hamburger, the bun and condiments are not Paleo. I approach the fast food problem by doing my best: I get a double hamburger with bacon, I take it easy on the condiments, and I enjoy a salad. This means the only absolute crap I'm eating are the condiments and bun - the rest of it slightly passes. (no drink!).

Anyway, despite my failures, and the fact that I'm fervently trying to gain weight, I have lost 7 pounds in the last month. You should not take the latter statement lightly! I'm trying to GAIN weight. I do this thing as much as I can afford: I am crazy gluttonous.

I sit down and eat until I physically feel like I can't eat more or I'll be sick. Seriously. I do this about once every other day. It's how I went from 165 pounds of lean body mass to 183 pounds in 7 months. (I'm subtracting bodyfat there).

Until I switched to paleo I was always gaining weight, and even getting kind chubby. My pants were getting tighter for sure!

Well now all my pants are loose again, and new ones need a belt. Despite gorging myself for the last 2 months I have lost weight, and it all seems gone from my midsection to be honest.

It's also worth noting that I have have been doing almost no cardio this month (my motorcycle is fixed and bike is broken). I have not run more than twice for 15 minutes, and I actually only trained 7 times (I fell badly and injured myself). I'm talking low volume high weight training here, the kind that barely burns calories.

The Paleo diet is for sure the most weight efficient diet I have ever been one. In fact, i no longer view it as I diet, I see it as the way humans are supposed to eat. It makes me more wakeful, I naturally lose weight, my body composition is changing before my eyes (top 2 abs becoming visible!). I'm excited to live like this from now on.

All I have to do is eat meat , veggies and nuts. It's cheap and easy to prepare meals, and easier to pack lunches. I actually, don't understand why all people don't eat this way. I mean, I would have lost weight doing no exercise at all! It's just insane!

So that's my anecdotal evaluation of the paleo diet. It's amazing and how I believe humans should live. It is hard on your body during the first few weeks of transition and I would recommend taking it slow.

Paleo Diet comments.

2011-04-15T12:57:00.001-07:00

So it's been about 3 weeks now, and I wanted to comment on my Paleo diet experiment. You may not know that I was doing one... but I was. And it was not easy.

If you are not familiar with the idea of the paleo diet, it's the following. The basic idea is to replace the simple carbs/sugars in your diet with fats and proteins. All the carbs you eat should be veggies and fruits. The general rule of thumb is that you should avoid foods that spike insulin. The positive of the diet, right away, is that there is tons of positive research, unlike the lipid hypothesis... but I digress.

Here is what I found, completely anecdotal of course.

The first 3-4 days were HARD.

I felt light headed and couldn't concentrate. I was constantly hungry. Like REALLY hungry. I remember my lunch: a piece of steak, veggies, including avacado and nuts. I had eaten 4 times already before lunch, and after lunch i was STILL StArViNg. It drove me crazy.

Eventually I caved and had a grapefruit and some other sweet foods. I felt better within a 1/2 hour, and satiated. I clearly 'needed' sugars, I still think that in the first 3-4 days I kept going hypoglycemic or something. Protein drives your insulin up (by slowing it's absorbtion), and eating high fat / protein does not provide the instant sugar that, well, sugar does. I'm not an expert, but it seems to me that this would drive blood sugar down if your body is not expecting it.

What I did notice in these days, right away, is that I could completely fill up and not be tired. In fact I didn't ever feel tired at work, or need a nap getting home, despite feeling out of it sometimes.

it was hard, but easy in other respects. For example...

Eating got easier.

That's right. Food got easier! now keep in mind, that i'm simple. I'm relatively low matenance. I have noticed in the last 3 weeks that I have slowly changed, I enjoy the tases of basic foods more. A typical meal became some meat, whole veggies (like literally eating a pepper like an apple) with some nuts. I just keep a bag of containers, full of meat, nuts, veggies and fruits. Throughout the day, when I feel hungry, I eat. Actually since I'm trying to gain weight I eat before I'm hungry.

It's even faster than eating out. This is cool becauswe I used to eat raw, but when I started working out more I had trouble getting enough calories and protein. Paleo solves that problem completely.

Here are some tips!
- Bring a big container of mixed nuts to work, and (this is cheating) throw in some raisins for taste.
- Eat protein powder! it makes packing enough protein easier, but you should always have it with a meal unless you just worked out.
- Just buy veggies, cut them up at work or eat them whole. Veggies taste good man.
- Some olive oil and balsamic vinegar makes a salad out of any combo of veggies, and it's super healthy.
- Buy some sauces and just fry meat and veggies in some sauce.
- (cheating) make baked sweet potato fries.

On top of this, it didn't seem hard to make dinners. They were fast, and well I feel like I got more time out of the day, which leads me to my next point...

Energy levels up.

I have noticed my alertness is really up. Like TOO UP. For example, last night at 3 am i just ... woke up, fully alert. I got up and checked some email, read for about an hour, and ate some food. Today I got up at 6am like normal, and have no sign of being tired. I don't anticipate going for a nap and I'm definitely going for a run when I get home.

I donno why I have this much energy.

This is abnormal for me.

One thing I HAVE noticed though - muscle fatigue. For some reason my muscles fatigue easier, and I don't know why. I'm very in tune with my body so I know it's not me. If I had to venture a guess, I would guess there is less glycogen floating around, and it may be harder for my muscles to store enough sugar.... which leads me to my last point.

Compromise:
Well I'm not completely paleo after all. I eat dried fruits, I drink milk, I eat potatoes (pure starch). I even have oatmeal in the morning. I have, however, cut out almost ALL refined carbs. (well today I ate a sub... oops!)

Athletes do need a bit more carbs, because we deplete our glycogen stores pretty fast. I bike 3 hours a week, so I eat carbs right after and notice my muscles feel tired if I don't. I have decided it's OK to have some carbs once a day. I'll see how it goes. In a month or so I'm going to weigh myself and adjust my diet accordingly :).

If you do want to try this diet out I would reccomend it. Groceries are easier (meat on sale and veggies that are in season are cheap). It is difficult to eat out though, if you forget a lunch. I think every take out option is wrapped in carbs with carbs on the side with a high sugar drink.

Why are we sedating ourselves again?

Some references
http://freetheanimal.com/
http://robbwolf.com/
http://www.fathead-movie.com/ ,
and the free youtube 'big fat fiasco' presentation (part 1 on) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exi7O1li_wA&feature=fvwrel

Of course if you have not check out
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/
and
http://www.bodybuilding.com/

Although not about fad diets, the latter 2 resources have TOO MUCH INFORMATION with amazing articles from PhDs to gym rats.

Personal Olympic lifting insights.

2011-04-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

Why Olympic Lifting?

Just as much as the next guy, I read a lot of workout articles. T-Nation, Precision Nutrition, Bodybuilding.com. I consider John Berardi and Charles Poliquin more than just knowledgeable guys. I listen to them.

And I was making steady strength progress.

But there is something that I never ran in to, in all these articles ... and that's what it's like to train like an olympic lifter and lift heavy weights! I mean, these tiny guys lift as much weight, pound for pound, as power lifters. And they like ... THROW weight over their heads.

Sure I read a ton about "intensity", "focus" and "power" a lot, but I still chugged away at a mediocre deadlift. Within one month of training at capital weightlifting my deadlift went from 290 to 430. My back squat from 230 to 305. Bam!

crazy right?

What did I learn?

1) Attitude "You could lift way more than you can now, you just don't know how"
You can lift more just by learning to use your body better. No extra muscle, no creatine, no extra anything. You can lift more, period, and are not nearly as strong as you could be. You just need to learn how to lift the heaver thing.

Yes there is a correlation between amount of muscle and strength, but there is also a huge correlation between training and strength.

And how do you increase strength sharply?
Lift heavy, heavy singles!

2) Relax
If you are doing heavy weight, take it easy between sets. It's not a fitness club, sit down, and mentally prepare. Take a few minutes.

3) Hold your breath.
This is the most important thing I learned. Inter-abdominal pressure is important. Fill your chest with air. MORE. so much that if you bend down air wants to escape - don't let it. This is where power and stability at the bottom of a squat / deadlift comes from. Squeeze your abs and (if suatting) look up/ forward. This takes some getting used to, and at first when you push air will ooze out of your throat.... eventually you will get stronger. The tighter you stay the more you can support.

4) One exercise per session
Yeah oly lifters don't come in and do 4 different exercises. They spend the session working one exercise... usually front squats, back squats, deadlifts. I have not even gotten to cleans or snatches yet, it's still in the future for me. A second exercise can sometimes be used, like back extensions after dead-lifts for example. This is just to finish off the day and work on sticking points.

5) Clean grip front squats are important!
They not only allow you to squat deeper but they use upper back muscles too. You can develop good upper back muscles front squatting, not to mention how good they are for maintaining good wrist mobility.

6) Eat less.
Since you are not tearing yourself up doing higher volume you just don't need as many calories. (and by high volume I mean 10 sets with 4-6 reps each, that's only three exercises in a fitness club) .
You still need protein, don't eat less of that.

Some things I have not learned much about, because I'm not there yet....

6) Using the elasticity of your muscles to generate power. (this is how a tiny guy can squat 600 lbs ATG).
7) Any power exercises, cleans, jerks or push presses.
8) What I need to do to deadlift 500 lbs, or squat 400 lbs... but I'm sure I'll find out as I add weight!

Fitness Confirmation Bias:

2011-03-10T10:04:00.001-08:00

http://io9.com/#!5780003/the-real-reason-why-you-are-fat-or-thin

I am so sick and tired of articles like this telling people it's ok to be obese. It's not! This article, and feeling good about it afterward, is called confirmation bias. Success, you found a random PhD who says that weight is hard to lose. Wait... do you see research here? any articles? any results?

no!

there are no real reasons in this article!
This reminds me of an image that makes me laugh:

Why not look at a real presentation about how people get fat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exi7O1li_wA

After this... I bet you will have a list of reasons (its in parts - 40 mins long)

The Psychology behind making excuses:

The anecdotal 'evidence' (opinion) above is just crap. Let me set the story straight: being obese IS YOUR DOING. being skinny may or may not be your doing. The only difference between fat and skinny... is that in skinny people its hard to tell if they are skinny and health or skinny and unhealthy. Unhealthy is still bad.

What I love about the article above is this, a comment below"
Here's how I know there's a genetic component to being fat:

I spent three months one summer working on an oil rig in the middle of the New Mexico desert. It was 120 F outside, I stood eight hours a shift on a sheet of black iron doing strenuous physical labor/aerobic exercise to the point I had to drink three gallons of water every day just to not have to go pee.

I spent five hours of every day commuting in the bed of a truck, under a blistering hot sun, and every day the one meal I was going to eat was picked through by the other deckhands. I'd eat maybe half a sandwich.

Anyway, after three months of this (during which I once collapsed from heat exhaustion), I lost about fifteen.

That's it. "

So what you are saying to me is that you worked your ass off for months and had a restricted calorie diet. But what does that mean? the dude doesn't know. He hasno idea what is body was up to. The skinny fat people on the treadmills don't know either.

If you want to be fit the journey begins with KNOWLEDGE. Check out a real Phd with publications:
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/
www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/7habits.htm

The Real Solution

Being lean and healthy is about eating lean and healthy. Refined carbs and foods that spike your blood sugar are BAD. Starvation mode is BAD. when you create the right situation (stimulus) for your body, the fat will melt off. You can't out work a bad diet. (and I mean caloric restriction or abundance!)

So yes, if you are uncontroably fat, and you are wondering why people wont hand you a million dollar project the reason is this:

If you can't sort out basic nutrition and research to selfishly lengthen your own life and feel better everyday, then why the heck should you be trusted to solve business problems that will no doubt be more variable and more difficult than this. Employers would love to have bias against drug addicts, or skinny people with heart disease... but unfortunately these people can hide their problems well. Don't be sad your horrible health is visible, embrace the awesome physical compass you have and lean up.

Think about it, some of those Managers and HR people used to be fat... and know full well how little you have learned.

Seriously!

And before you say anything, I'm 200 pounds of muscle (well ok probably like 180 lbs of muscle). Diabetes runs in my family, my family is typically overweight and I was on that path for some time. I work out 45 minutes a day and can almost see my abs. My diet is just 'ok'. It's really not that hard.

I'm just so sick of this "boo hoo im so fat but I'm too lazy to find out why" attitude.

I'm also sad that Phd's crap out silly interviews with no references to look into. Questionable? Considering that there is TONS OF RESEARCH on weight loss and an effing prime time show about it I think some people may have figured it out! Ya think?

Update - Pushing past hobby / goal failures.

2011-02-17T13:35:00.001-08:00

Well as you may have heard on my previous blog post, I'm looking to power through my quantum physics Textbook.

Well it's not going so hot. Why? Because I'm not even trying!

Well here are the 'rules' I have for personal Improvement:
1) You can Improve A LOT doing something once a week.
2) You can also Improve a lot doing something a tiny bit every day.
3) Maximal Improvement: Do something every day a bit, and once a week a lot.

So the first way I have been failing is with tracking. I do a math problem here and there, but I have no list or consistent way to 'track' my adherence.

The other annoying little issue is this: The textbook + notebook + solutions manual is huge! I tried carrying it around but it's completely impractical. It wasn't long until I left the giant things at home everyday.

FAIL!

So I have definitely NOT been doing #3, and I have no way to see how bad I'm failing.

So the solution? easy!
1) I already track exercise on a workout logbook - so I can add a field for 15 minutes of math. Once a week I can do an hour. This way I can evaluate my compliance and remind myself when I'm at the gym. This works well because I'm in the gym in the morning, so it will remind me for the rest of the day.

2) I can write out the problems I want to solve, and their solutions, on a piece of paper. Then I can tuck these into my math book (I had a good sense to get a small math notebook). This I can carry with my workout log book.

So, I guess the lesson here is this:

You will fail. People ALWAYS fail. This is almost to be expected... Success, in my mind, is directly proportional to two things:

How to Handle failure:

A) your acknowledgment of failure (and tracking of that failure)
B) your effort into working WITH yourself.

Notice I didn't just get mad at myself and say "damn I'm failing. I need to work harder and just do it". That attitude only gets you so far. No I looking at why I skip out on math, and I'm really attempting to make it easy for myself to plug into my life. I'm also trying to make it present, with tracking.

Anyway, best of luck with your hobbies and goals!

Things I've leard about imporvement

2011-02-02T12:39:00.000-08:00

When it comes to getting better at things, there are three things I have learned.

1) You can Improve A LOT doing something once a week.
I have found the difference between less than once a week, and once a week is HUGE. If you have a hobby, such as writing, making time to sit down once a week is really important. It is the difference between stagnation and progress. Think about it, many university classes happen once a week!

When you practice once a week, you should practice for more than 1/2 hour or hour. This has seemed to work for me.

2) You can also Improve a lot doing something a tiny bit every day.
It's amazing really. A bit of time, like 10 minutes, everyday, will cause huge improvements. When I want to do something everyday I make a bunch of squares on the calendar (one for everyday). I attempt to fill them all in fr a month. Some days I sit down twice, some days I miss, but by the end of the month it doesn't matter.

I have done this for mathematics courses and for sports, they both respond well to something being 'fresh' from the previous day.

#3) Do something every day a bit, and once a week a lot.
I have done this only with programming.
It's really subjective to say this, but I feel extremely capable and I manage some amazing projects. Some of this could be due to social skills and luck. I can, however, honestly say that I have not been mentally challenged by a software project in the last 3-4 years. Software development for business plateaus pretty quickly if you are not in research. There is a right way to do it, and well, it gets done!

A personal Investigation:
This post, however, makes me want to challenge the power of #3). Does it work that much better than #1 or #2? There is something I have been struggling with. I have always wanted to learn quantum mechanics, but I always fail to execute. I think I could spare 1 hour once a week and 10 minutes every day. So there we have it, something I have failed at that I can attempt using #3). I'll update the blog in a month with how it went.

Currently I'm 'struggling' with chapter one of Griffith's Introduction of Quantum dynamics. It's hard give me a break! I don't remember all those trig identities!

How Software Engineering fixed my whole life

2011-02-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

Despite it's reputation, Software engineering is actually the most complex field of engineering. Before you pat yourself on the back, you should also realize it's the most poorly practiced as well.

Every other field of Engineering deals with specific components and a finite set of axioms that don't really change that much from generation to generation. Hell in Civil engineering a million dollar project can be easily estimated to within 100K or so. A variance of 10%.

Good luck getting that in SEG.

But some firms are successful. Why is that?

And this same successful trait is what makes me an awesome software architecht (praise where praise is due), and also a pretty good fencer, artist and lifter in the gym. (I'm still a shit writer.. but I'm working on it.)

First A personal account:
I remember when I was 12 (yes i programmed when I was 12 ... i know). I used to make these weird games in VB that consisted of command boxes and flipping bitmaps. They were basically dynamic boardgames where characters had health and 'items' they found.

I always got lost. The applications I made always got so complex and I could never keep track of all the details. I would move code around and keep adding to these games, and I would always get confused.

Then something happened around the age of 15 or so...

I discovered that I always programmed in the same way. I would come up with a picture of what I wanted then start hacking away at the edges hoping it would come together. People draw like this too, and that's why their creations look like weird quasimoto creations with disproportionate hands and noses etc.

I changed things up. I realized in application development they key was generalization and centralization of features. I don't mean just features as in objects. I mean data, ideals, plans, ideas.

For example In a total conversion I made for quake in, I think ... 1999, I put all my art Ideas in a folder. In another place I kept a list of how far along each material was in the game (model and skin). In another place I kept the code (quake-c). I get a little OC about projects, but that is OK I think.

In the code I tackled one generalized feature at a time, but I'll gloss over all of that.

Fast forward to 21 years old in Engineering:
I didn't learn anything new in school, but I did repeat constantly what I already knew previously, plus I got to attach sweet buzzwords to everything!

And then, I discovered, that my process for SEG could apply to every aspect of my life. Because I was already OC about thinking in an 'engineering way' all the time... shit just went down hill.

A current example - fitness:

Step 1) Domain Understanding:
What am I doing here? If I'm starting a fitness program... what kind of fitness programs are there out there? what is being fit?
I noticed there was a cardio kind of fit, a strength kind, a flexible kind and a power kind. I also noticed that the strength and power kind looked the coolest.

The crappy end of the spectrum was fatness, tiredness, and death etc. So that was no fun.

Step2) Requirements:
Now that I understood the world of fitness (a bit) I decided to think about my goals. Well I wanted to be stronger and look about the same, maybe slightly stronger. I also wanted a higher percentage of muscle-mass to fat.
After some time in the gym my goals (still un-met) are the following:

-Bench 1-1.25x bodyweight. (good enough for me)
-Deadlift 400 lbs.
-Overhead press bodyweight (a difficult goal)
-do a squat past parallel. (hip mobility)

See what I did there? I broke down an abstract goal (above) into smaller specific requirements. Every domain has a name for this step. I think in fitness this step is call SMART. For me time was not important, as this is a life long thing.

S - specific

M - measurable

A - attainable

R - realistic

T - time

Step 3) Design
After generating some requirements it comes time to design a program.
I settled on a MAX-OT bodybuilder split at first, but since then I have switched to only compound exercises.
I also, over time, have paid more and more attention to the nutrition portion of my program design. At first learning the exercises is the hard part, but after some time you realize that eating better will magnify progress.

Step 4) Implementation - EXECUTE
With any program this is the (second) hardest part. I say second hardest because requirements elicitation and tracking (even on solo projects) is the hardest part. Do the program and KEEP TRACK of what is happening, even missed days.
For my weight training I track the poundage and quality of every set. I watch how I'm doing and periodically raise (and lower!) weight. I lower to focus on quality and range of motion (squats and deadlifts mostly). I push to raise weight week to week - the hard work.

I also track my nutrition. All this tracking is done on a shitty piece of graph paper I bought about 8 months ago from a dollar store.

Step 5) Verify / PPA
After a phase (say a month) I look at my progress. Then I get ramped up for another iteration. I look at the the domain again, thinking about everything I have experienced. I then revisit my goals / requirements to see if they are realistic. Sometimes in some periods I can run this process week to week. Other times it's after several weeks.

That was a fitness example. Now that I have spoken to the process done textbook correct I want to talk about the real world.

To succeed in the real world people want results. That includes yourself. Very few people go "right, I want to get into shape, so I'm going to sit down and draw some pictures"

Screw that. This is how you can jump into the process:

Step 4) - Execute a fitness program - Start lifting up weights
Step 5) - Verify / PPA - Is this correct / the best / efficient?
Step 1) -Domain Analysis - Ok it was fun, but what is fitness
Step 2) -Requirements - Oh I want to be STRONG. that's the coolest.
Step 3) - Implementation - Alter step 4 to a strength program.

See it doesn't matter where you start the process - pick the portion that excites you. The important thing is that you iterate through every piece.

If you don't - you might fail:

Case 1 - over execution:
Step 4) - Execute a fitness program - Start lifting up weights
Step 5) - Verify / PPA - Is this correct / the best / efficient? I'm not losing weight!
Step 4) - Execute a fitness program - Start lifting up weights
Step 5) - Verify / PPA - Is this correct / the best / efficient? I'm not losing weight!
Step 4) - Execute a fitness program - Start lifting up weights
Step 5) - Verify / PPA - Is this correct / the best / efficient? I'm not losing weight!

If this person never does any planning they will keep spinning their wheels!

Case 2 - over planning, no tracking.
Step 1) I want to lose weight - Jenny says to do cardio and weights
Step 2) My goals are to lose 10 pounds,
Step 3) working out 7 days a week, on the treadmill. Then weights.
Step 4) ??? (execution) some days missed some days not
...
Step 1) I want to lose weight - Jenny says to do cardio and weights
Step 2) My goals are to lose 10 pounds,
Step 3) working out 7 days a week, on the treadmill. Then weights.
Step 4) ??? (execution) some days missed some days not

The problem here is that there is no reflection on the plan. The likely hood is that the plan is too intense for this busy person. Any plan, consistently applied, will produce measurable changes. This includes the consistent application of Doritos to your midsection.

If you are not tracking and reflecting on your progress you are probably not going to achieve the exact goals you want in the long run.

Anyway. This is how we are taught to think in engineering. This is really high level, but this high level loop is what I go through whenever I think of ANY problem.

Currently I'm writing a book, and I do this same process with myself when I edit every revision. When I write the sequel I'm going to lay out on my blog exactly how I do this.

J

Tips for Deadlifts

2011-01-28T07:10:00.000-08:00

So I have been dead lifting for a few months now, and I lift pretty light still. Right now I do sets of 6, 275 lbs.

I have just injured myself for the first time, and, well, as far as I can see it comes with deadlift territory. The good news is that because of precautions I took and how slowly I progressed I think I'll be fine in a few days (instead of a few weeks).

So it's really easy to get a guide to a basic deadlift online. What isn't so easy to find is a list of little details that may help you perfect your form and pull more weight. This is why I'm writing this here post!

Tip 1: Flex those abs! Hold your breath.
Everyone is always saying to keep a straight back. Well one way to enforce a straight back is to help brace it with your abs. Focus on pulling your belly button in hard, and flex those abs. It can also help to hold your breath a bit.

You will find that it becomes really hard to bend for ward if you flex your abs and hold your breath. This is a little tip I noticed on T-Nation. It can also help your bench press.

I know people say holding your breath is bad for some reason, but for deadlifts it helps keep your core stable. Important!

Tip 2: Take breaks between reps. Let the weight rest on the floor.

After finishing a rep let the weight hit the floor. Don't reverse its velocity. Why? the act of slowing the weight as it hits the ground is just as hard on your back as lifting it, but your form is at it's weakest. Hovering it over the floor and maintaining good form when trying to push max weight is asking for trouble. Deadlifts make you tired and at maximal weight your form will break down. Take a few seconds between each rep - it's not a race. Each Rep must be perfect, and if you are too tired you are done. On deadlifts your set is done when you can't keep good form, not when you can't lift the weight.

Tip 3: Lower the weight properly.

This is how I hurt my back twice. The lowering isn't a useless portion of the lift. Lifting the weight is only half the rep. If you work out at the YMCA like me, then you can't just drop the weight like you are at crossfit. You need to learn to set it down without arching your back.
How:
1) Bend at your hips (like you are about to do a stiff legged deadlift! picturing this helps). (flex those abs !)
2) When the bar gets close to your knees... bend them - voila!

If you do 2 before 1, then you will slightly arch your back. This is something you can get away with at first, but eventually you can injure yourself. (oops!)

Tip 5: Stand tall at the top of the rep.
Don't arch / lean forward, don't arch / lean backward. Both extreme positions put pressure on your lower back.

Tip 6: When you start, focus on high rep sets.
Less chance for injury. Take it slow - your body can lift way more - but not well. Say you start lifting around 200 lbs. If you add 5 pounds a week (a tiny tiny amount) you will be lifting 460 lbs for 6 reps in a year. This is totally doable. Just follow the plan and deadlift every week.

That's my advice for people starting deadlifts!

Why you will never keep that weight off.

2011-01-09T10:42:00.000-08:00

Just a quick blog about Protein.

I'm really damn frustrated with everyone, around new years, busting their asses in the gym trying to lose weight on those treadmills. They also typically diet and avoid fat (and therefore typically lower their protein consumption). STUPID!

Let me make something clear here, your resting metabolic rate, and the amount of energy you burn during exercise is proportionate to your current muscle mass! If you consume too little to sustain your muscle mass you will burn muscle for energy!

For example, say you are a 130 pound woman and you want to lose 15 pounds. You decide to cut calories and do some circuit routine and some cardio. You lose 15 pounds. depending on how you did things and your current shape you could lose 5 pounds of muscle too. Your body needs to repair damaged muscle, it will cannibalize good muscle to do this!

well 5 pounds of muscle burns around 250 calories a day AT REST. more if you exercise. You just decreased your capability to lose fat by over 250 calories a day. That's a salad. You now have to decrease your portions ... forever. Do the restaurants know this? Does a subway sub know that you are more susceptible to weight gain now?

do you know?

No! you eat the same way and weight adds to your hips more easily. You eventually reach a steady state of fat loss, where you can't lose fat because you have too little muscle eating calories. Your progress halts, and the only way to make progress here is to starve yourself ... which burns a retarded amount of muscle.

Keeping on this road looks like this (extreme starvation). (you will also be tired all the time and gain fat super easily. People with little muscle mass have a tendency to 'yo-yo' waist sizes.)

Where as preserving muscle and losing weight might look like this (at the extreme, after years).

So if you minimize your protein, going forward you will gain fat more easily and lose fat with MORE DIFFICULTY. You will have less muscle to BURN fat. Gains will become slower and harder. People get super frustrated at this point and usually gain back their previous weight.

Or they starve themselves for results. This is hard and will lead to an untimely death. (not kidding).

Look at me. I weigh over 200 pounds now. I used to weigh 180 pounds with a larger waist size and chubby face! I still fit into all the same clothes now. (I do have a bigger butt though - girls would probably want my routine.) I'm more skinny than I was and 20 pounds heavier. The cool thing is, though, that My daily calorie need went up by 1000 calores. Basically If I eat an extra foot long sub a day I'll just burn it off. pretty cool huh?

If I exercise, the extra muscle I have burns even more calories then when I was 180 pounds. in fact when I run I burn probably around 25% more fat than I did before. I have to work 25% less hard to lose weight! because I eat extra protein! crazy no?

When I do extra cardio I eat tons of protein and the fat easily melts off. I preserve the muscle so it can BURN my fat.

The sort of everything muscle burns the fat! so don't let yourself lose muscle!

So how much protein do you eat?
If you are very active you should consume at least one gram of protein for every pound you are (you can go a bit under if you have over 20% body fat). If you weighed 130 pounds you would consume 130 grams of protein a day. You can probably get away with much less realistically, like 90 grams or so (if your goal is to preserve muscle).
Thats a few eggs in the morning, (21) a chicken breast (25), a sub (15) and maybe a scoop of whey protein (25)
21+25+15+25 > 90

When do you eat it?
Ok. Glucose is stored in the body, protein is not. Protein is stored in muscle, (and other tissues) that's it. When you eat chicken that protein is out of you system like 4-5 hours later. A scoop of whey is gone within 1-2 hours typically. When you are recovering from exercise (IE sore) your body is constantly looking for protein to repair itself. If you have no food in your protein in your tummy your body will use other muscle to repair. You will also stay sore way longer! (in fact in my own personal testing I can decrease the duration of my soreness by 50% by consuming adequate protein).

If you are trying to lose weight, and you are not eating adequate protein EVERY DAY, you will never reach your long term goals. You will always revert to your previous body type, and heavier too! fight the cycle! do some reading!

Don't work hard, work smart!

If you want to know more check out this awesome list article.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/toning-myths-truths-to-lose-fat.htm

Understanding Muscle Training

2010-12-10T11:09:00.000-08:00

So your hitting the gym, you have a routine, you eat well. All the pieces are in place - but you are still confused.

Working out is confusing!

Some people say to do high repetitions with lots of weight to make gains. Others say to use medium reps. Others say to do several very heavy sets.

Even within that there are isolation exercises, compound exercises, plyometrics. We have people saying to do yoga, intervals, gentle cardio.

How the heck do you every choose a routine? What is good for what?

Well here is my research!

Firstly you should have a goal. There is a huge difference in the routines for looking stronger, losing fat, or having explosive power. I'm going to break it down for you and summarize what I know.

First of all - Repetitions:

When you do a set, what impact does the amount of repetitions have? People say alot of voodoo crap about the rep ranges, and I feel I've cut most of the BS here.

Low reps gives you huge strength gains. Period. You will eventually gain size, but this is secondary. If you want to be stronger in a particular way - consistently training under 5-6 reps will get you there. 3-4 sets on a muscle a week is all you need to see gains.

Also, low repetitions do not demand as much glycogen from your muscles - these lifts are about your raw power. Your energy system will not be taxed as much and with large wait times between sets your body will have tons of time to 'recharge' between sets.

Dont push until failure. Don't worry about 'the burn'. The burn you are feeling is your energy system not being able to keep up with the muscle exertion. It has nothing to do with ripping your muscle at all (but it does correlate). Feeling the burn doesn't make you stronger.

Medium-high reps, with low rest builds size and strength. You can puff up your shoulders or pump your abs by training in a heavy 10x10 routine. Try to do ten sets of ten with one minute of rest between sets. You will get a bit stronger, and gain more size as an aside. Some people strike a balance by doing 5 sets of 5 reps. I personally like to simultaniously do all out strength and on a later day do high rep exercises for shaping - if I care. (I have mostly strength goals).

You can be a skinny out of shape man, and dead-lift 400 lbs beside a guy who looks like a tank struggling with less weight. This is true. But try to lighten the load and do ten reps of ten - the musclebound guy will destroy you.

But why is this the case?
It's kinda interesting actually. When you push through the burn on an exercise you generate a lot of blood flow and shuttle a lot of nutrients to the muscle. In order to get through the many reps and sets your body has to get efficient, it needs to store more energy. But it can't keep up due to a combination of the heavy weight and high reps (until failure).
The key point here is that the body can't wait for energy to trickle through your blood system. It all has to come from your muscles.

Next time your body will be more prepared. It's going to pack away more water and glycogen in the muscle. When it repairs it will make sure it's storage capacity increases, as well as your strength. This is where size comes in. The size is all that extra energy packed away.

These big guys can actually lose a lot of size when quitting the gym. The cool thing is that they can get it back pretty easily as well.

Super high reps - super low weight - gets you rock hard muscles.
Want some rock hard pumped muscles? I have crazy rock hard legs - why? I fence (probably amounts 30-100 lunges a week). I ride my bike (so many leg pumps). I also run - with intervals.
My legs get a lot of punishment, and they always need to have energy to go. If I trained my upper body like this I would have rock hard shoulders and a rock hard chest. Yes my muscles are hard when I flex - but my legs are always jacked.

Don't expect much in the way of strength gains here. Do expect more energy though - this is what you are training. You are making a kick ass muscular energy system!

The thing here to watch out for is cortisol. It's a stress hormone that gets spit out when you train for more than 1/2 hour or so. It tells your body to break down protein to feed your body. It also tells you, when you do eat, to store fat. That's why even long distance runners have some belly fat! ever wonder why sprinters are ripped while long distance runners are paradoxically skinny yet with droopy mid sections? They run way more - so should they not have more muscle?

cortisol.

I wouldn't worry about the cortisol effect unless you have perfected every part of your routine and are still not making progress. It's really only a big deal if you are doing over 1/2 hour of intense cardio training all the time.

What about slow vs fast reps?

Oh my god - this debate goes on and on. It is very polarized. The thing to ask yourself is this:
Do you want to have that muscle able to be explosive? or powerful?

If you can explode that overhead press, you might not be able to lift the same weight slowly. If you lift it slowly all the time, you probably wont have explosive power. It's the way it is!

Being Explosive:
This has huge applications to sport. For example pushing 100% at the bottom of a squat will prime you for jumping high more than stable slow reps will. It forces your central nervous system to use your muscles more efficiently - this spills over into everyday life very well.

Being Slow:
You will tear more muscle this way - it's true. This can be argued to be a huge advantage, when gains in size and strength are a goal. This helps when you want to lift a couch for a buddy or push a car.

Being Isometric:
Holding weight is the ultimate. When you press through a movement you hold specific fibers under tension sometimes for just a moment. When you pause, or do an entire isometric repetition, you focus on a small set of muscle fibers. This can be used to focus on a weak point in a range of motion.

In reality - all three are good. I'm a fan of setting goals for a week! For example one week I'll focus on being explosive in my sets. The next slow. The next I'll pause. Then sometimes I'll pause, then explode. etc etc. This guessing game is great for the body and will help prevent plateaus.

Compound exercises or isolation?

This is a whole other subject - and I think I'll save it for another post! In short, I'll say compound exercises stimulate the body so much more than isolation exercises. Whatever your method (above) applying it to a compound exercise will yield faster gains and spill over gains into other areas. Isolation exercises are for fixing little problems or working around injuries. They are also for sculpting your body (if you're into that). You can, over time, look unnatural if you do to many isolation lifts. (IE too many flies and curls.)

So how do we boil all that down to a routine?

Well I can speak to mine!

I want to be much stronger, but don't care so much about size. I follow a MAX-OT routine and I always train in the 4-6 rep range. I focus on compound exercises. Its a little for size - but mostly for raw strength. (70%strength 30%size)

Since I fence I get lots of high rep stuff going on for my legs, so In my spare time I do extra pull ups, push ups and crunches. These are high reps to failure. (Energy system / Hard muscles)

I don't do high rep isolation exercises really - but in the new year I'm going to begin doing a 10x10 routine for my upper chest and shoulders. It's a lagging area for me. (Size / Energy)

When I train my legs and back, since I'm a fencer, I explode in my reps - in control. This has translated into to more power on the piste for me. I can jump in, attack, and get away. (Explosive power)

I weighed over 180 lbs. Throwing my weight around FAST was not always easy. Over the last 2 years I gained 15 pounds, and I have a smaller waist size. Now it's less hard.

Just sayin.

Raw Food Health Effects

2010-08-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

I've been eating significantly more raw food for the past month. I had difficulty understanding the hype and benefits / side effects. So I'm writing this is a format I wished I found when I was looking. This is everything of note that happened to me when I started to eat almost all raw food.

If it helps, here is a rundown of all the experiences I had when I started eating raw.

Energy:
First of all, and most importantly, more energy. I started to notice how much extra energy I had getting my calories from raw foods. While I do like to run regularly I can find it difficult to motivate myself after a long day. Typically I want to take a nap and have to fight the urge.

The first thing I noticed was that my desire for naps disappeared, and that I could stay up later. In fact, I bother my girlfriend because I'm up chatting to late when she is trying to sleep.

Too much Energy:
In fact, I felt like a kid again, which wasn't always good. More than a few nights I would wake up after 3-4 hours COMPLETELY AWAKE. I ended up getting up, fully alert. I would do some writing, some work, or go for a walk. This is very annoying because it messes up the next day. I even on a few occasions got up and made myself grilled cheese or whatever (something heavy) that would knock me out.

Physical performance:
I personally was able to run farther, do more intense intervals, and had a bit more muscular capability.

Bloating:
You are eating raw food. Some foods are not easy to digest raw, such as beans and several green vegetables. What helped me was reducing the variety in my meals somewhat. I also decided not to make bean salad with broccoli and onions anymore.

despite this you will bloat more. You are eating a lot of volume to get the same calories as a cooked meal. my tummy got bigger, and still is somewhat. I don't know if everyone will have these issues. My advice would be to simplify your diet and still eat cooked food! Don't live life in extremes.

Adjustment Period:
You body has a specific bacterical culture in your gut. It can take weeks, months, years to change it's composition. Don't expect you body to be able to break down 4 heads of lettuce randomly. You (and your bum) may be disappointed!

Digestion:
My digestion actually improved dramatically, and it was already very good thanks to chlorella. I have heard that some people had issues with this but in my experience I had an awesome time. listen to your body and adjust!

Alertness:
I don't know about you, but I hate feeling foggy headed. I don't know when I became consious of this... but if I don't eat well after a day or so I feel foggy. I desire coffee tea and sugar a lot more. Eating raw food more often (and if done at breakfast) gives me a lot of alterness. I can concentrate very easily and just feel better.

Protein:
If you are very active, make sure you take care of protein requirements. I didn't do this at first and would feel very sore for days. I started having protein powder and noticed even more gains in my performance. For example, When I started my new job two months ag I could bike to work in 29-31 minutes. (my previous job was a 45 minute bike ride away, so I can handle this ride easily). After my dietary changes my best time now is .... wait for it... 22 minutes. THATS CRAZY FAST. in fact I have to be careful because I go faster than cars think I can so I run the risk of getting cut off.

Ease:
I hate dishes. When I'm lazy all I need to do is grab some veggies and fruits, give them a rinse, and eat.

Cheating:
Since my habits are healthy, and I fill up on 'good food' I have no problem cheating whenever I want. I'll have fast food or tacos whenever. Now that I feel sharp, I find my desire for some foods has dropped. I don't like to eat a massive meal that makes me want to fall asleep after. It's kinda a day killer.

Overall:
Overall I think that I will keep eating 60-75% raw for the rest of my life. I like the increased energy, alertness, and performance. I would be wary of nutrition as you might end up neglecting under represented nutrients. Currently I supplement with spirulina, chlorella, protein and creatine. Greens is good to keep around too.

Enjoy!

Eating Healthy - Food is a drug!

2010-06-15T04:54:00.000-07:00

If you are like I was, then eating healthy consists of getting some vegetables every once and a while, and checking in at the doctors. I was pretty good, I felt pretty good, and I think I lived pretty well.

In fact, I was so close to good, that the little problems I did have, I considered normal. Things like muscle cramps, foggy headedness and a bunch of other things.... things I had had my whole life until recent years.

Well if you know me, you might know that sometimes I get obsessed with things. For the last two years it has been, in part, my food.

For me it started with a little bump i got on my wrist (I'll kill the suspense, it's actually cartilage, mashed up from boxing and breakdancing). Well this scared this shit out of me, and I started googling health. The doctor prescribed me some insane anti-inflamitories. They made me feel light headed. I didn't take all of them, and they didn't help much, unless I wanted to be messed up.

I found this article "http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=78"
It was about Turmeric.

it turns out turmeric is AS POWERFUL as prescription anti-inflammatory medication. . it also, unlike prescriptions, has a positive (not negative) side affects. It is also dirt cheap at the bulk barn. I could probably go by a lifetime supply right now.

So why isn't everyone taking turmeric? Because turmeric doesn't have commercials, and doctors don't get kickback for recommending turmeric. I'm not kidding! Since turmeric is a serious blood thinner, it interacts with drugs.

Turmeric was not the only food I found with high potency that nobody seemed to understand. I was intrigued. So I tired having turmeric in my food. Well it worked. I was doing pushups, handstands and all kinds of stuff again. No pain. I also had some other of my little 'kinks' disappear as well.

Around this time I was also starting to get a seasonal lung infection and sinus infections. Every year like clockwork. It just never went away, even after anti-biotics.

Well I started to care more about my cooking.. and I have had no problems since. I took care to eat more blueberries and dark fruits. I actually studied a lot, and have come up with a list of crazy healthy foods. (I'll save you time. Just read them off http://www.whfoods.com/ or http://www.nutritiondata.com/.)

Over time, week after week, I experimented with a new food (I should have started a food blog). Some were just disgusting (natto) and some were amazing (matcha). It became a proper hobby, as every time I found something good, I realized I felt better, more energetic.

What I learned:
It's taken 2-4 years to get to this point. I can now say that I feel pretty healthy, and have more evergy than I have EVER had before in my life (than I can remember). I have gotten this way understanding one thing, spawned from a ton of research articles:

View everything as a drug. Period.

"A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage."
See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug

Food is a drug. Epically sugar! Food is used to maintain your body, so take care with it. It's the single most important thing, just before exercise.

That was my journey. I would like to, however, share the a few of the MOST HEALTHY FOODS with you. Unbiased. These are things I attempt to eat every day! I will order these from cheap to expensive. This is also based on my diet, where there are certain things I have no trouble remembering to eat (like hamburgers).

(also, yes, you can eat very well for very cheap!)

Cheap and easy
Turmeric - 6 month supply under 10 dollars bulk barn
Bluberries - 1-2 month supply - frozen - 12 dollars
Matcha (5x stronger than green tea) - 6 month supply - 20 dollars - shop online
Olive Oil + red vine vinegar (for salads)

(eating these things every day, if your diet is all fast food, will make you feel AMAZING!!!! I know, i did it!! it's dirt cheap.)

Cheap - not as easy
Garlic - So cheap, and goes bad rarely.
Ginger - Also very cheap

A little less cheap, the next steps
Chrollea - 40-80 bucks for a 6 month supply
Avocado - 5 bucks a week
Spinach - 2 bucks a week (50-60 bucks every 6 months)
Almonds - can be pricey.
Kale - Can be pricey

Enjoy! And remember, only you live in your body... so make it a good stay!
(check out the open letter to Obama)

Top Five Awesome Movies

2010-05-14T04:49:00.000-07:00

5. It's all gone Pete Tong

What would you do if you were a DJ who lost his(or her) hearing? Probably be awesome and drink a lot and do a lot of drugs. This is what Pete does and it is a pretty fun trip. This is made better by the fact that it's based on a true story and has awesome performances.

4. Heavy Metal

That's right, simply Iconic in many ways. I don't think I'm stretching the truth at all when I say that Harry has to be Corbin Dallas from the fifth element. In fact, the fifth element is basically a loose repeat of Harry's adventure. (right down to the artwork and cab)

3. The adventrues of Baron Munchousin.

If ever a movie seems completely driven by random Ideas at random times. It's this guy right here. The Baron, almost geriatric, decides to string together his old band of adventurers.

2. The Professional

Best action movie ever, period.

1. In The Bedroom

If you like realism (Like me) then you do doubt enjoy this intense, real, movie. I don't that before this I had ever been put into another persons shoes quite as well. Just Immense.

And That is that!

Dear webmaster

2010-05-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

When I see this, I cringe. I know what it means, and everyone who knows CSS knows too. Instead of using Relative positioning (or even worse, absolute) you decided to use the WIDTH of this button to stick it in the same spot.

Shame on you! Shame! How are you ever going to reuse that frame/ page / css?

you just can't, dear sir.

Why I hate Windows. Today.

2010-04-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

The following are reasons I freaking hate windows, and computers.

Number 1: Window placement.

When I press "cntrl+f" I want a window I can type in. This window is useless, and I can't make it useful. I also can't close it. All I can do is be angry.

Number 2: Window Contents.

Similar Issue. Thank you for the useless window.

Number 3: useless feedback.

I can both see the file and execute the contents. This is a poor way to tell me that the file is larger than 2GB and can't be zipped! I hate you! God!

That's it.

Why to not buy a house and how to fight with strangers

2010-04-15T10:03:00.002-07:00

Do you like random arguments?

Probably the best way to have one is to assert that buying a house is worse than renting.
That's right, renting makes more sense than a mortgage.
That's right, I'm actually saying that if you take out a mortgage then you are doing something wrong.

This is the point where you get upset, or frustrated. This is because our entire society is geared towards everyone owining a house, or some land. Have you ever sat down and evaluated the alternative? or have you just accepted that this has to be the correct attitude because everyone has it?

This is why I'm going to prove it to you!

Lets consider the cost of a mortgage. For the sake of realism I'm going to assume that you (like most people) put only around 10% down. Lets look at your costs. Don't worry, I'll be conservative. Lets also say across the board that the inflation rate for the next 25 years is 3%.

Presenting - The Cost of house ownership:
What you get:
250 000 dollar house that increases in value by 5% per year (if you maintain it)

What you lose:
Mortgage payments (1599.52 / month) (a 6% mortgage)
Hidden costs (2500 year)
Tax (1830 year)
Bills (250 month)

Monthly cost:2210.35

Please do check on these values. I have tried to take the lowest possible reasonable values.
Check out msn money to look into hidden costs. check out property tax here.

I'm going to present everything in future dollars below. For costs that means I have applied inflation. (It doesn't make sense to compare the worth of a house in 25 years and a bill payment from 25 years prior!)

SO, here are the grand totals, after 25 years:
House worth: 846,588
Lending cost: -634,580
(at this point, it looks good!)
Hidden costs: -62,500
Tax: -66,720
Bills: -109,377

Total: - 26588.26

So, after paying down your home for 25 years, assuming you have an average home, you will have over spent around 26 thousand dollars. ouch!

This might be OK with you, because you have a 846 thousand dollar home! (keep in mind, you paid the bank almost 700K for it, which hurts)

But, lets now turn to renting. (money down th drain) Lets assume you treat your rental property like your home, and live in it for many many years.

Presenting - The Cost of renting:
Rent: -1000 month
Bills: -200 month
Invest: 1010.35 month (@7% for 25 years)

Monthly cost:2210.35

After much time...
Your rent has cost you 413,117 in total. Your bills, 82,000. Your investments total around 902,263.

#1) That's a balance of 270 K in your favor.
#2) You have 902,263 at the end of the term, more than the worth of the house.

This is as black and white as it gets. Renting costs less!

Rates: I understand that people can argue about rates all day. I have chosen 5% for housing and 7% for investing. I think this is more than fair for many reasons. Clearly there are examples on both sides of people doing much better, and much worse. The bottom line is that real estate, on average, is a market that under performs stock growth in general.

Of course, if you take out a loan for 250 000 dollars and invest it well, you will make a lot. Everyone hears stories about people who get a house, only to sell it in a few years because the market goes up. Well there are also stories about people borrowing money to invest in a house that is a bad investment.

The thing to understand is that taking on debt to invest is risky. This is true for a house or the stock market. Our culture revolves around owning something now at a cost (mortgage in this case). What I'm presenting is a way to outperform the common risky mortgage attitude in the general case. It is safer to save your money without taking on debt, and yes, you might miss out on amazing gains in real estate.

I'm persoanlly not eager to take out a 225 thousand dollar loan to buy a house or stocks in the market. I'm ok with saving my money over time in a way that makes sense, more safely. Since I have discovered that you can can be about the same financially renting as you can be owning a home, I feel even better.

Besides, renting is power:
- I can move when I want, and take my liquid assets all over the world
- I can demand repairs and other work to be done
- I can move to a cheaper place if I lose my job
- I can move into a more expensive place if I get a raise

These are powers that I'm hesitant to give up for the mere feeling of ownership. Ownership can't buy me dinner, comes with a huge price tag, doesn't respect my feelings, and makes me fill out more papers.

Yuck!

Self Directed Investing - Benifits and Drawbacks

2010-04-12T11:07:00.001-07:00

I self direct my investing, and have been doing so for only this year. There are other investment strategies that are viewed as safer and easier. I'm going to contrast self directing with holistic vehicles. I'm refereeing to mutual funds and really any single balance investment vehicle.

I will not reflect on RRSPs or TFSAs, as these are special cases that have their own benefits and drawbacks.

So to the metrics!

Lets talk about Maintainability / Maintenance:
Mutual Fund / Other fund:
This investment is virtually maintenance free. In fact, part of what you pay is a management fee, so you never have to worry. It is someone's job to turn your regular contribution into an investment, per month. You relax and your capital grows.

Usually the investor picks his archetype. Are you "aggressive" or "safe". That's about the amount of thought you have to put into retirement. Not to be negative, but I feel it's the McDonalds of investing.

Self directed Investment (with or without guidance):
Well, you have to transfer your own money around. You have to decide what stock is best to invest in this month, year, and when is a good time to move your money. These decisions are up to you, and nobody has the right answer, for you. It is a job in itself to follow up on your portfolio.

The good news is that you may invest according to your own style. If you like a certain company, you can invest in them. If you like dividends you can invest in dividends. If you don't like to fret, you can pick safer funds and ETFs. the power, and the weight of responsibility, is yours.

Costs / Fees:
Mutual Fund / Other fund:
In the best case singular funds charge only a management fee. This usually kicks around be 2% a year. The bad news is you pay this if the fund does well or badly. Here is some news - almost all funds don't beat the index! This means not only is the fund missing the index, but you are paying for it to suck.

Just saying.

Self Directed Investment:
This is where self directed investing can shine. Again, it is up to you. You pay a more or less a flat
fee per trade. This will come to be around 10-30 dollars depending on who you trade with. You can easily trade paying less than one percent moving your money around. You can pay a high percent if you want to spread your money around, or select some ETFs to balance things.

The point is, you pay lower fees the more money you have. This is the opposite of almost all managed funds!

Risk:
Mutual Fund / Other fund:
This is my FAVORITE topic. risk. This is because there is a huge bias against the market (especially right now) related to risk, funds, and stocks. Bottom line, equities are worth what people are paying for them. Period. When you own some of a fund, you are invested in equities (most likely). You are exposed to the same risk levels that picking individual stocks and GICs can yield.

Self Directed Investment:
In the words of captain planet, the power is yours. (seeing a pattern?) You can invest only in slow growing dividend stocks. You can randomly buy GICs. You can change your mind tomorrow, and adapt to conditions. You can develop your own strategy and use it on the market. There are many out there. (check out dogs of the dow, for example). This method invests in low risk companies that pay dividends. Alternatively you can invest in high risk tech stocks, hoping for large overall gains. (this would have paid off huge a few months back). Hell you can just invest all your money in a variety of index's, and enjoy beating almost all mutual fund returns every quarter.

The bottom line is that you can have a safer vehicle than most mutual funds while enjoying more gains. And the only catch is that you have to use you noggin for about half an hour a month.

So far things sound pretty good! But wait... there are more attributes we don't really talk about in a mutual fund meeting! They involve something people don't talk about: real life.

Random Liquidity:
Let's walk through an example: Hey I want to go on a trip! I'm going to pull some money out of the bank! Well lets take a look at my investments.

Mutual Fund / Other fund:
Well now. I suppose I can cash out some of my fund. Its +/- a certain amount right now. That's fine. I hope it's up a bit!

Self Directed Investment:
Well I have stock in 15 companies. 4 of them are earning quite a bit, and my capital is up almost 25%. 4 of them are tanking, and one of them is - 45%. The others are in the middle. Heeeey. Wait a minute. I can cash out one of the good performers at 25% (especially if it looks over-values) and take my trip!

That's right, the spread of your stock can empower you! being exposed to one homogonized rate remoes your ability to work magic like this. See below:

Capital Losses:
Mutual Fund / Other fund:
At the end of the day you will lose money some years. If you have an investment outside your RRSP / TFSA umbrella you may claim a loss some years. To do this you have to "sell" units of your fund, at a loss, and show the government that you lost money. This almost never makes sense when you own a single fund.

Self Directed Investment:
Like in the trip example above, we have a spread of stocks. Some are doing well and some not so much. We can (for a fee, 20-60 dollars) sell our stock, and claim capital losses for stocks that are doing very badly.

For example: Say I have a stock, Air canada, that has lost 70%. Since I invested 2500 in the stock, I lost 1750 dollars. So the trip I cashed out above, can be erased by my capital losses. In this way you can make money on the market, and selectively sell stock at the correct time to reduce your tax burden.
(http://www.taxtips.ca/filing/capitallosses.htm)

Overall:
some things are just not possible with a singular fund. I can simultaneously cash some of my investments out at huge profit margins to use, and later on cash out capital losses to avoid taxes. I can have a safe and flexible portfolio without paying a management fee that grows with my capital. I can invest in companies I care about, that I believe in.

On a personal note:
Since I have started self directing, I have been beating both my previous fund performance and index. This doesn't mean all my picks have been good, it means that, like a fund, my aggregate performance has been good! Having lived in both camps, I would recommend the self direction route.

(also, now that you know this, look at stocks around December 25th, because some of the ones that are not doing so hot will drop, and then raise shortly after Jan 1st)

Why to NOT pay your debt

2010-03-18T05:57:00.000-07:00

I like to Invest now. I pay small loan payments. I know I'm crazy, picking stocks, taking risks, dragging a huge debt. I also know I have thousands (28 of them) owing because of school. I pay a huge amount around 500 a month to the man, for the ability to pay this bad boy off in 6-8 years. Instead of large loan payments, I make large RRSP contributions.

With this environment, and my situation, people keep asking me. "Why don't you get a car", "why not get a house", "Invest in a mutual fund", "Increase your loan payments, get out of debt".

I make an ok salary, not fancy... After my loan payments I'm just like you most likely. Maybe a bit better off, who knows. The bottom line is that I'm not silly, powerless, or crazy. I would like to share with you the WHY and HOW of my loan decision, so that you can think and make educated decisions for yourself. Everyone can do what I'm doing.

If you can afford your loan payments, you can do what I'm doing in this blog. period.

GOALS:
So. What are my goals? any recent grad has the same ultimate goals. Pay loans fast and be stable. The second goal is to have stuff, utility, in life. For me stuff comes second. For some people it's the primary goal. Either way, when it comes to loans and loan payments there are three basic stances:

1 - Pay that loan down fast, save a bit
2 - Pay that loan slow, and save more
3 - Pay that loan slow, and save more (In an RRSP)

We are talking about the same dollar amount here, split between three camps. Almost everyone I speak to thinks that #1 is the way to go. Pay it fast, because you save on interest. I'm here to actually look at all three:

1 - Pay that loan down fast, save a bit
Here is what can happen. Say I have 1000 dollars a month to use for my loan. I hate my loan. If I allocate 865/month to my loan This is how the future may look:

After 6 years:
Loan balance @7%: 0 (paid in 3 years! yay! a total of 31140)
Savings @ 8%: 49,440.08

That is pretty good! 1000 dollars a month, is hard, but after 6 years we have 50 000 saved up. It's a huge sacrifice that can be great for a young man to make.

2 - Pay that loan slow, and save more
Say I have the same 1000 dollars a month to use, for my loan and personal items. If I allocate 477/month to my loan This is how the future may look:

After 6 years:
Loan balance @7%: 0(paid in 6 years.... ouch. a total of 34200 :S)
Savings balance @8%: 49,882.2

Right away we may be frustrated, forking out 3000 dollars extra in interest over 6 years. Hell. That's an average of 40 bucks a month! 40 dollars a month for the convenience of paying in 6 years instead of three. BUT lets look at the savings.

Well gosh. Look at that. It's about the same isn't it. So what is the point?

Well this is where it gets important to think about your life over the next 6 years:
In option #1, we have almost no liquid savings in the next 3 years. Want to buy a house? go to school? pay for a wedding? start a business?

you can't.

Also, this is assuming you can't move into a lower interest loan. It is very likely that when you save up a few thousand dollars, that the bank will like you more. It's funny how things work. You may be able to get a lower interest rate on your loan because you invest with them. Threaten moving the money somewhere else. it really works.

No matter how good your ideas are in the next three years, in option #1 you are broke.
You lack the ability to cover emergency situations, and the power to generate additional income . (a smart decision, for example, is buying blizzard stock before the release of starcraft II, and selling it shortly after). (A smart decision is putting a down payment on a condo, and living in it for a couple years, and then selling it for a profit). (s smart idea is doing your masters increasing your income by 25% or more).

This should be incentive enough. If its not... lets look at #3

3 - Pay that loan slow, and save more (In an RRSP)

Loan balance @7%: 0
Savings balance @8%: 49,882.2

if the account is an RRSP, we are getting at least 22% of it back as tax credits. (A little paper work lets you have this in your hand per check). That means your 1000 dollar payment, per month, costs you around 885.

Random Extra cash: 8280 (this would have gone to the government!)

Its also worth noting that all the 'smart' ideas above can still be done within an RRSP. You can even fund your small business, in part, through your RRSP! cool huh!

Can you justify not having an extra 8K in your pocket because you want to pay down your debt faster? I doubt it. It doesn't make sense!

Overall, it just makes sense to pay your debt more slowly. As long as the interest rate on your investments beats or matches your loans, on average, you will be a huge winner! Trust me, if you invest in yourself (education) or direct your own RRSP (Investing) it becomes really easy to hit those targets.

At the end of the 6 years, you can celebrate by taking a year off in costa rica (on that 8000 dollars of savings). You earned it, you did the right thing 6 years before.

I'll have to save the investing talk for another post. In the mean time, I hope that I made you think!

Justin