Archive for September, 2007

Responsibility

Published by
the Hungry Dork Lord
at September 28, 2007 in Pursuit for Happyness and Self Actualization. 0 Comments

It has nothing to do with what you want to do and everything to do with what you need to do.

Taking responsibility is one of the biggest attributes of being mature. I’m not referring to responsibility in the sense that we need to avoid all risky behavior to be responsible adults. I’m saying as mature individuals we need to be responsible and hold ourselves accountable for our own actions. As we grow older we have to make more choices between what we want to do and what we need to do.

For instance, since I moved to Las Vegas I’ve been responsible for my younger sister and for the family business out here. So, what does that mean? It means that I have to keep tabs on my sister which includes forcing her to call me if she is going to be out late and sometimes I have to call her to find out where she is at. It means that even though I really… really dislike getting up early I have to in order to take care of business because most business gets completed from 6am to 9pm. If I get up too late than I’m wasting my day. This includes days that I’ve stayed up late taking care of the website and paperwork for the business. I don’t get up at 6am but I do have to get up early enough to get work done. I can’t wake up when I feel like it or when it’s more convenient for me. The world doesn’t wait for anyone.

Responsibility also means we must sacrifice. It means sacrificing guilty pleasures and some luxuries in order to get a job done. For me it means giving up television, movies, and video games. I still enjoy the occasional movie, tv show, and video game but it’s rare these days. I can deal with that though. It’s when I can’t find time to work out or call my girlfriend that makes things tough. Hell, I’m visiting my gf this weekend but there’s so much to get done that I wonder if I should even make the trip! Of course I’m going but I’m taking a list of tasks with me and I’ll probably still worry during the whole week that I’m gone.

So not only is responsibility one of the major signs of maturity but it also sucks very much. Heck, we gotta give up to go up right?

Live Fit and Prosperous Update 3

Published by
the Hungry Dork Lord
at September 25, 2007 in Fitness. 0 Comments

So this last week has been a bit sad for me in regards to living fit. Being so sad, I won’t talk about it much. Here’s the round up:

me:
07 Sep 16: ab workout

John:
07 Sep 16: squat, ab/adductor hip, dead lifts, 3 on 3 basketball
07 Sep 17: 100 crunches, 100 ins/outs, 100 bicycles, 100 obliques, 50 V-ups, 60 push ups, 50 mason twist, P90X Stretch X
07 Sep 19: shoulder press, incline & flat bench, P90X Yoga
07 Sep 20: 40 dive push ups, 100 V-ups, 60 mason twists, 100 push ups, 30 decline, 30 pull ups, 150 shoulder push ups, 100 side kicks, 50 squats
07 Sep 21: 2 minutes of iron man
07 Sep 22: 6.5 min running, 100 crunches, 100 in/outs, 100 bicycles, 100 obliques, 50 V-ups, 50 ball twists, basketball, rock climbing

I’ve determined that I need tools to allow me to do exercises that can be included in my daily routine. So I need to get myself a balance board. But until I get myself a balance board, I was able to get a pull up bar! It’s my least favorite pull up bar but it is a pull up bar. 20 pull ups before the end of the year?

People are Disgusting

Published by
the Hungry Dork Lord
at September 20, 2007 in Business, Pursuit for Happyness and Relationships. 0 Comments

Pure and simple fact: if we were not taught to clean up after ourselves, we would just end up sh*tting ourselves.

I have spent these last few days cleaning up one of the vacation homes my family owns. It was in the worst condition that I have ever seen it! This is the forth time I went in after check out to clean up. I’d hire a cleaning company to do it but right now funds are kind of scarce and it saves us some money to do the cleaning ourselves. The weekend before was pretty bad but the house was rented out for a wedding reception so it was a little justified. Personally, I thought the people at the wedding reception could have at least picked the bloody cake off the floor and made sure to clean up all the broken glass. However, that was very tame compared to this weekend. When I first got to the house after check out I didn’t think it was that bad. It looked like they attempted to wash some of our towels themselves and sweep up in the kitchen. However, they also left pieces of sausages on the stove, a very greasy counter, and a hot mess in the fridge. The bed rooms weren’t that much cleaner either. One bedroom had toothpaste on the bedsheets, the blanket and the wall! The WALL had toothpaste on it! There were half empty water bottles everywhere. One area had taco crumbs next to the bed, a half empty and OPEN water bottle, and a half empty soda can that was spilled. There were crumbs and soda spills everywhere! The very least a person could do is clean up the soda spills properly. That stuff gets sticky and attracts all sorts of insects! Now I must say that they at least tried to clean up some of the soda spills. They apparently wiped it with their own shirts… in some areas. Oh, and the toilets… the toilets looked like they blew up so bad that crap flew back up. The bowl, the seat and the cover were littered with diarrhea stains. I understand that people who rent the vacation homes do not expect to do the cleaning. That is completely fine with me. They are on vacation and they want to have a good time without worrying about cleaning. They pay a cleaning fee so that someone else can come in and clean up after them. However, they don’t pay a cleaning fee for someone to wipe their a$$es! That’s what it feels like to clean the frickin’ toilet bowls! I feel sorry for anyone in the cleaning, custodial, or janitorial business. I don’t feel sorry that that is the work they do. It’s a respectable living. I feel sorry because of some of the crap that people leave behind for them! It’s one thing to clean up after someone but to have to figuratively wipe someones butt. It is what it is. People are disgusting. Oh, and they broke our piano cover too. Disgusting.

This refers to more than just hygiene and cleanliness. People are disgusting in many ways. Specifically in how they deal with other people. Parents do their kids no service by being too lenient with them. I don’t think people are inherently bad or evil or ill willed but people are born pretty ignorant. And just because someone doesn’t think that they have screwed someone over doesn’t mean that they have not. If a guy treats his girlfriend poorly but doesn’t realize it does that mean he’s not such a bad fellow? HELL NO! Even if the guy is sometimes super sweet, he’s still a meat stick if he pisses on people. That’s what’s wrong with a lot of people today. They grow up disrespectful and ignorant of that fact and no one lets them know better. Too many people want to avoid confrontation. I’ll admit that even I choose not to say things to friends and acquaintances because I don’t want to have any conflicts but I also accept the extra trouble and burden that comes with not saying anything. There are some things I will have a word or two about though and damn, I speak up when the people around me are about to sh*t themselves.

It’s like this story I read. A girl is in a crappy relationship with a crappy guy but she stays with him because he has his good qualities. Next thing she knows she’s pregnant with his baby and he’s beating her. It’s similar to the stories of a lot of people I know too. The details are different but the story is the same. A girl is in a crappy relationship with a crappy guy but she stays with him because he can make her feel special. It’s like a broken record that I want to stop but I can’t. The only thing I can do is listen to the stories and pray for a better ending that never comes because the record is broken. I’d fix it but it’s not my record and the owner doesn’t even know it’s broken. She thinks that’s how the song goes. What she needs to do is love herself and stop listening to the record that some whack salesman sold her so that he could get paid. It’s like Neyo says: “I’m so sick of love songs.”

It’s because none of them are about loving oneself.

Live Fit and Prosperous Update 2

Published by
the Hungry Dork Lord
at September 16, 2007 in Fitness. 0 Comments

Update 2 and we’re well on our way! Now that I’m starting to work out more I need to be more consistent. I’d say the biggest setback to a person’s physical fitness goals is consistency. It’s easy to put things off for later but the next thing you know you never get to it. Then it gets pushed off until tomorrow then the day after and then we’re so far off we neglect working out and have to start over from rock bottom. I’m almost done with unpacking everything so the excuses are reducing and the reasons to work out are increasing. What’s the reason that’s increasing? That would be John’s progress. He continues to be active and work toward his goals of the elusive 6-pack abs.

me:
07 Sep 10: 39 triceps extensions, 80 balance ball sit ups, 30 balance ball push ups, 30 dolphin push ups, 30 decline push ups, 33 single leg squats
07 Sep 13: 15 dolphin push ups, 44 squats, 30 decline push ups, 70 triceps dips, 11 single leg squats
07 Sep 14: 38 curls, 12 balance ball push ups, 22 pull ups, 24 flat curls, 30 lateral raises, 24 schwarzenegger dumbbell press, 30 lat pull downs
07 Sep 15: 80 balance ball sit ups, 55 single leg squats
John:
07 Sep 10: 40 push ups, P90X ab ripper
07 Sep 11: basketball, rock climbing, 40 push ups
07 Sep 12: 4 miles running, 10 laps swimming, 50 push ups, workout (shoulder & biceps)
07 Sep 13: basketball (layups), rock climbing, 60 push ups, P90X ab ripper
07 Sep 14: 4 miles running, 60 push ups, workout (cleans, upper back, lats, & curls)
07 Sep 15: workout: chest

Things I want to do this week: swim, run, basketball and P90X ab ripper (I can’t let John just walk away with the steak dinner prize!)
Until next week! Peace.

the Daily Struggle

Published by
the Hungry Dork Lord
at September 13, 2007 in Pursuit for Happyness and Self Actualization. 0 Comments

Sleeping use to be a happy time for me. Sleeping was one of my most favorite activities second only to eating. It’s like the George Byron quote: “I slept and dreamt that life was beauty, I woke and found that life was duty.”

Sleeping was the escape from the trials of being awake. I could forget about my worries and dream happy dreams. However, these days it seems like not even my dreams will give me solace. I can’t just sleep and leave my worries behind anymore. These days my dreams play out my demons instead of giving me an escape from them. Imagine your demons, all the things that you don’t like about yourself, taking physical form and screwing with you. Sometimes they make you face them one at a time, sometimes a few at a time, or even all at once. Yeah. That’s what my dreams are like.

It’s not terrible that my dreams won’t allow me to hide from my demons. It’s just troublesome. It means I can’t continue to avoid my demons. I suppose now is a good time to face them anyway. I’ve come to the point in my life where I have to decide whether I want to live to accomplish my dreams or live to avoid losing everything.

Regardless of the path I choose to take, I will lose something. It’s inevitable. It’s life. Sacrifices must be made. We sacrifice our dreams in order to at least accomplish some of or goals and live happy and secure lives. We sacrifice our security in order to strive for a dream that would grant us happiness and our most sought after desire. Both paths leads to happiness yet one is slightly easier to achieve and the other would grant the most satisfaction. Thus, decisions must be made.

Every decision has it’s price, every action has it’s consequence. Yet, some choices don’t give us the luxury of moving on after they’re made! Some decisions need to be made every time the choice comes up. It’s like deciding whether or not to do the dishes right away or to put off on the dishes for later. You make the decision every time you have dishes to wash! Likewise, every day I have to make the decision on whether or not I will work on the things that will allow me to accomplish my dreams or settle on the tasks that will allow me to get by.

The picture above is from Jask Clothing Company. It comes from the I-Ching, or the Book of Changes, and that particular symbol means ‘difficulty in the beginning.’ I like what it represent. It basically represents the struggle. No matter the path we take in life we must all face the daily struggle. And for us mid-20’s folk, the decision is the daily struggle. Some of us will survive and surpass the daily struggle and some of us will be consumed by it. Either way, we’re all connected in the adversity of it.

So at the end of all my babbling have I made a choice? Who knows, I’m still young and optimistic about my dreams but I’m also still young and have much to learn. The only choice I’ll make is to continue to face the daily struggle. It’s like what Khalil Gibran wrote on pain: “Much of your pain is self-chosen.” Thus my sleep forces me to realize my life of duty as much as my waking.