The Belly Button of the Universe

I think that you think that I think that he thinks that I think that she thinks that we think that it’s not gonna happen. But I know that if you knew that she had known what would happen that things would have been different.

And I feel that you feel that having felt all of these emotions, things could have turned out better. And being that here we are, and being that there she is, and being that we are what we are, well, I guess, it is what it is.

Seeing that we can’t see into the future, but that we have a clear view of yesterday, let’s put on our x-ray goggles and look into the belly button of the universe.

Therein we will catch a glimpse of all tomorrow’s elevator rides, hushed silences, and muffled sneezes. If we don’t cover our mouth with our hands we might infect the stars. Turning and turning, the big dipper scoops out dirt from the backyard for its own vegetable garden in the sky.

Why, big dipper? Why did you do that? We need our dirt, here on irth. There is only so much dirt on irth. The dirt is what makes the irth. The animals and the plants and the trees and the fish and the humans and the amoebas huff the oxygen molecules and cough the carbon dioxide. Big dipper, please stick to the moonrock, even though it is less accessible and harder to extract.

Rational people

Under tremendous pressure

photo information -- An Indian vendor arranges the arsenal for celebrants of Holi -- colored powder -- at his shop in Hyderabad, India, on March 18. (Mahesh Kumar A/Associated Press)

Progress (Part Two)

Folks – how you doin. Seems like I’m starting my blog posts off with the word ‘folks’ recently. Whatever I like it. Soooo, ladies and gentlemen…

Ellipses are funny. Online they’re funnier. Like, it’s hard to describe what an ellipsis conveys. It’s kind of like a fill in the blank isn’t it? Or is it subtlety? I dono. Just funny. We don’t use ellipses a lot, and that’s probably for a good reason.

So I had some hot sauce today. Like, the 100% pain, habanero infused, spicy madness hot sauce. The kind where you take a tiny drop and it hurts your throat and your lips. Then you get a stomache ache. Then you feel kinda drunk. Yeah, that happened to me today. Pretty sure I still feel messed up.

Intense hot sauce is a doozy. There are so many different kinds – how do people make money off this stuff? There’s like 8 million ways to combine peppers and salt. Sheesh. Well, I guess people love the stuff. I was totally addicted to Tabasco in high school, so I can understand.

Well, I was grumpy this morning. Probably because I hadn’t exercised in a week. Thursday through Sunday I just watched basketball and hung out with people. Got out of the house and such, but didn’t go to the gym. I was gonna go to the gym last night but I went grocery shopping instead. Not a bad play out of me, but today I feel like I’m atrophying. My legs hurt – not because they’re sore from working out, but because I haven’t been working out. It’s the worst feeling in the world for me, reminds me of the month after rowing season ended.

Thank goodness I have a men’s league basketball game tonight. That’ll help me out. We’ll see how winded I am. I wanna get in shape and have some fun rowing this spring/summer/fall.

I chatted with my friend Shane today who’s out in Kabul, Afghanistan until April 10th. Shane, please come back home soon safe and sound. Still thinking of you brother.

Seems like the nuclear reactors in japan are doing better. Sounds like there’s not gonna be a full scale meltdown, thank god. Still there are hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced. So many people living in temporary shelters. Repair costs in the hundreds of billions. Thousands dead and missing. Such insanity. I can’t even imagine.

And now there’s this stuff going on Libya. Boy. Ok I should probably move on from talking about international events, I’m not the expert, but they’re hard to ignore.

So I still have a dumbphone. No, not a smartphone. A dumbphone. I love it, and it does a great job at making phone calls and text messaging, but it’s not gonna be my long term solution for the next couple years. So, I need a smartphone. The time has come. The iPhone is not for me – it’s too small, I feel awkward and clumsy when I use it. I have massive hands, and I guess big thumbs too, because I struggle on that thing.

Thankfully, a solution is here. The HTC Thunderbolt. I’m going to hopefully get this phone in the next couple weeks (no rush), and I’ll let you know how it goes. I had the chance to play with one and it’s pretty awesome – big screen and super fast.

Ok yall, be well.

-Dave

Snow Row

This isn't a photo from this past weekend's Snow Row. It's just some DJ photo. But I was in the Snow Row on Saturday at the Hull Lifesaving Museum, and I won the event that I was entered in with my Dad.

It was pretty awesome. It was kind of funny – the start process involved five different 'waves', all groupings of different classes of boats, and the start was a cannon blast. The bigger whale boats had ‘le mans’ style starts where all the oarsmen and women carried the boats in the water and then hopped in as soon as the starting gun went off. very entertaining to watch.

It was very windy, challenging conditions. I did not have the right gear – I should have been wearing booties. Like, the surfing kind. Instead the boat swamped with water and my socks got soaked and I was frigid and shivering after the race.

It was a great race tho. We were in a brand new 30 foot alden double. Beautiful boat. We were heavy, which helped, because the wind and chop was really bad. However, this time we actually put the oars in right, so it went well. We passed a lot of boats, but had to make a bunch of steering changes. We stopped to bail once (don’t even bother). My port oar fell out of the oarlock at one point, but I was able to get it back in after a short break.

This time I was more scared than my dad – a role reversal after our first ocean race.

So I’m very happy to have won a race. I think it’s been since 2005 since I actually won a race. I mean, it was just our event, and I don’t have a medal to prove it, and there wasn’t an official starting line, but I’m still gonna count it. It wasn’t too cold and the sun was out, so it was a beautiful day. I was super tired and sore and cold after it, but it was totally worth it. Now I’m looking forward to essex river race in may.

I freaking love racing and rowing. Kayaking and canoeing and rowing and sailing. I don’t do it enough. I’m going to try to do more this year, maybe it involves getting up early on a Saturday or Sunday every week and just getting out there and doing something every wknd.

Being on the water is a little scary though. There were a lot of boats that flipped on Saturday. In my event, seven boats started, and only four officially finished. There were a bunch of ambulances and fire trucks at the race course afterwards, just probably there to support the soaking wet people coming in.

So, good times. I’m finally amped about competing again. However, I’m not gonna do what I did last year and erg and train for these things. I’m just going to keep in shape by playing basketball and getting on the bike at the gym. I’m going to do core strength so that I don’t get injured. It’s more fun this way, and look at the results!

Ok peace

This just in

Folks – what’s up. I blew it on the self compassion post. There was a post on nytimes about how self compassion leads to happiness, then a link to this woman’s site who’s the expert on it. There was a quiz, which I took, and, not surprisingly, I did not score well. I’m working to change that though! Definitely going to be more self compassionate going forward

We had a men’s league bball game last night, didn’t win, oh well. Hopefully we’ll win another game. Just glad that I’m getting some exercise and getting a sweat up. Went over to B’s, but he was passing out. 5HTP and valerian root will do that.

There was a three day span several years ago where I thought that valerian root would relax me during the day. So, I would take it in the morning, and then be falling asleep by 10am. By the third day I realized “wait, this is for when you want to sleep, not just to relax.” So yeah, that didn’t last long. Haha, ridiculous story tho.

So I went to the new balance factory store on Saturday and I got this pair of true balances. Huge mistake on my part. They were awful. Made me feel awful, emotionally and physically. Just no support. There’s a lawsuit out now too. Yikes. So I’m gonna return em tmrw. Looking forward to that. Just glad that I have the receipt.

Oh man I started reading the human rights watch world report yesterday. God it was awful stuff. Really makes me glad that I live where I live and that I don’t have to see those things every day. Made me want to join an NGO. Made me want to get involved. The thing is – there are human rights violations in dozens of countries. Hard to know where to start. Stuff is so awful. It’s really hard to read about women being oppressed, gays and lesbians being oppressed, and political dissidents being jailed. It’s just awful story after awful story.

On a more cheerful note, the snow has melted. Parking ban has been lifted in my town. Thank gosh. Easier to deal with now. There was so much snow it was covering the roadways. Just glad that I don’t live in Camberville and hafta deal with all that nonsense.

Aright, talk to yall soon.

PS -- spring starts March 20

Truffles

Folks – what’s happenin. I’m mad tired. Can’t get myself to go to sleep on time. I’m working on it, gimme a chance.

I think it has to do with caffeine. Even if I have a diet coke at 10am it still affects me late at night. Lame. Especially lame after I read an article about how a third of Americans get less than seven hours of sleep a night. I’ve been right around 7 a night this week I think. I could learn something from my brother – he goes to sleep on time.

Well let’s see. It’s march. Thank goodness. February is my least favorite month, therefore march is better.

Had a couple basketball games this week. We didn’t win but they were fun. I weighed in this morning at 193.4 lbs – lean and mean. Just hangin out right now, doin my thing.

Ummmmmm what else. There’s plenty going on. Went to w hotel bar briefly last night to see D and her friend. Hmmmmm. Oh yeah I got that video game dragon age. It’s like a nutty role playing game. I haven’t gotten a video game in a year or so. This one’s pretty fun, even though I just started. It’s hard, and I’m not that good at it. I need the dragon age wiki walkthrough to help me out.

I’ve got some cool photos here from the Koch center at mit. They’re photos of like cells and neurons and stuff.

I’ve been following what’s going on in Libya. Ugh it’s so awful. Seems like a civil war is brewing. So sad. I hope it passes soon. Crazy that all this stuff is going on in the middle east and africa at the same time.

Recent music digs – magnetic man (skream, benga, artwork), lil b (controversial hyphied up wack job out of Berkeley, part of The Pack), ceo (I was introduced by D), Robyn (also introduced by D), and Poppin Bottles by Drake. Good jam.

Ok yall ttys.

-Dave


New post to come soon regarding self compassion…