Decide

Two years ago I decided I was a healthy person. Since I was a healthy person, I started eating like one and lost 30 pounds in 6 weeks.

Shortly after that, I decided I was an athlete. Since I was an athlete I started working out with professional MMA fighters and now I compete in Jiu Jitsu tournaments.

Back in college, I decided I was a good student. Since I was a good student, I got straight A’s and a full ride scholarship, rather than the B’s and C’s I got in high school. (Then I decided I was a rock star and dropped out of college to tour with my band for 7 years).

More recently, I decided I’m good at Math and now I’m a Computer Science major (after avoiding Math classes for 13 years).

I think a lot of people say things like "I want to be healthier," "I wish I were an athlete," or "I would like to be a good student." I say decide what you are and be it.

7 things that I think will change my life in 2013

HTML/CSS – I’m very excited about the skills I’ve acquired with HTML and CSS. It’s something that I’ve dabbled with for quite some time but never fully understood. I took a great class on it this semester and learned a lot. I feel like I’ve gained a new super power. Now instead of going to someone else to build me a website, I can jump on my computer and code the whole thing myself. Learning to code is a lot like learning to write music. The first couple songs you write will probably suck, but with practice, you get better. I plan on building several websites over the next year to develop my skills. I’m really looking forward to this.

Team Training – I’ve been pretty good at staying in shape over the last 2 years and my gym has played a big part in that. This year, I’ll be taking that to the next level. As I seem to have stumbled into being a Jiu Jitsu instructor, I really need to enhance my own skills and fitness. One of my original goals when I joined the gym was to be invited to the Team Doyle practices. Team Doyle is a competition Muay Thai team that holds more national championships than any other team in the US. You have to be invited to join and it’s intense. Practice occurs 3 days a week at 5:30 am (it moved to 5 days a week starting in April). If you miss or are late to too many practices, you’re out. Needless to say, I got invited and have been working out with the team for a couple months now. It's rough, but great, and my Jiu Jitsu game has taken a huge leap forward already. I think Team Training is finally going to get me where I want to be athletically.

DIY – Do it yourself goes beyond simple repairs to your house or car that you do on your own. DIY is a way to be creative and hopefully make something on your own for cheaper than you can buy it. I had my first real taste of DIY last year when I built a smoker. It cost about $30 and I got several great smoked pork roasts from it (and will again next summer). Since then, I’ve managed a few other DIY projects and it’s a really fulfilling experience. Rather than taking my laptop to the Apple store to upgrade the RAM, I did it myself (very easy, I know, but intimidating if you’ve never done it). Now I’ve replaced the RAM in 2 other computers, and rehabbed an old computer of my dad’s to run Ubuntu and learn Linux. I also just finished an upholstered headboard for our bed as a Christmas present for Mindy. The pictures show the process.

Obviously, I’ve got to keep my DIY projects to a minimum because I’ve got a lot on my plate as it is, but the occasional project here and there for enjoyment and enlightenment is a great way to unwind.

Office – Ever since we moved to our new house I’ve been using the bar top table in the basement as my office. I liked it because it was in my man cave and it was nice and quiet when I was trying to concentrate. On the other hand, I don’t like it because it’s about 50 degrees down there in the winter and I’ve constantly got a space heater going at my feet. The bar height chairs get uncomfortable after a while, I don’t have much room for my books, it's dark, and every time we have friends over, I have to clear all my study stuff off the table so it can be used for food. A while back I moved Mindy’s office to our main floor and she has a huge corner desk, most of which she doesn’t use. This weekend I moved all my study stuff to the upstairs office and so far it’s great. The office has 3 big windows that let in tons of light, it’s warmer upstairs, and the chair is far more comfortable. It makes the long hours I spend sitting on my butt in front of the computer a little more tolerable.

School – School is what helped me learn my HTML /CSS skills mentioned above and I’m just starting my second quarter back. That means I’ve got 2 more quarters to go in 2013. I’m taking a Java programming class this quarter as well as an Algebra class. College Math has always intimidated me. I was never “good” at math in high school, but that’s because I never tried to be good at math. Then, when I went to college, I never took any more math classes because I didn’t have to. It's been 12 years since I've done any Algebra. Not only that, but to continue on my current path I’ll need to take Trig and Calculus, both of which I have never studied. It’s going to feel good to finally take down one of those things that’s been intimidating me for years and years. I imagine it will feel like stepping into the ring with Mike Tyson and knocking him out.

Focus – Focus has always been an issue for me. There’s just so much out there that I want to explore that I’m terrible at sticking with anything, but I feel this has changed. I’m not sure what it is, maybe getting older, being unsatisfied with work, or something else, but my focus has really strengthened as of late. I’ve decided that there will be 2 primary things I focus on in 2013. School is one and Jiu Jitsu is the other. Beyond faith, family, and work, these 2 things will be what I spend my time and energy on. I’m excited because I can already taste how focusing on these things will change my life.

Scheduling – 13 years ago I heard the President of my college talk about time management. I still remember to this day that he scheduled his days in 15 minute increments. I thought to myself, that will NEVER be me. Well, now I am that guy. Fortunately or unfortunately, with as much as I’m trying to accomplish this year, I’m forced to make a schedule. Surprisingly, the schedule has reduced my stress by quite a bit. Knowing that I’m going to shut off my computer at 6:30 on Friday for a cheat meal and date night with Mindy gives me something to look forward to, and scheduling when I’m going to do laundry and make my lunch for the next day relieves the stress of trying to do it at the last minute. We’ll see if it sticks.

7 things that changed my life in 2012

Blue belt – This probably created the biggest change in my life. Basically I got married to Jiu Jitsu on July 1^st when Bob Bass gave me my blue belt. Now I have all these responsibilities I didn’t have when I was just a white belt. For starters, I’m instructing a kids class once a week. This is actually a lot of fun, but keeping track of 20+ kids and making sure they don’t choke each other out and/or break each others' limbs can have its moments. If kids weren’t enough, I’m often “in charge” of the adult class as well. Thankfully there are some other, more experienced guys that share these responsibilities with me. Lastly, I’m expected to stay in shape now that I’m a blue belt. Getting fat and out of shape when you’re a blue belt is a bit like not financially providing for my real life wife.

Using the Left Shift Key - This is still a work in progress. I’m a pretty quick typist, but for some reason, I have only ever used the right shift key when typing. That means when I need to capitalize a “P” or use “()” I hold the shift key with my right hand pinky and stretch to reach the buttons with my right hand index finger. It’s suited me well thus far, but when I started learning how to code, using the left shift key became a necessity. Now it’s pretty easy to use the left shift key when I’m coding, but when I’m straight up typing something like this blog, I have to work hard not to fall back into bad habits.

Speed Reading – I read an interview where they asked Warren Buffett what he would go back and do differently with his life. Buffett stated that since he reads so much for his job that he would have learned to read faster. I actually learned how to speed read several years ago but only used it occasionally. Now that I’m taking 4 college classes, this has become an amazing tool for me. Reading that would take a normal student 3 hours, takes me about an hour. Most people smirk when I tell them I can speed read, thinking it’s some type of party trick or that I’m just skimming, but this is not the case. I actually comprehend better when speed reading because I have to concentrate so much on what I’m reading. The downside is that it’s not a really a relaxing way to read, which is why I don’t use it when I’m reading for enjoyment.

Becoming a Landlord – We moved out of our old house on New Year’s Eve of 2011. It took several months, but in June, after all the construction was done, we got tenants into our rental property. So far it’s been awesome. They paid 6 months up front and now pay their rent on time. Most days I forget I even have a rental property, but when they drop off their rent, I remember, and it feels pretty good.

Vitamins in the Cupboard – This one I didn’t implement until late 2012, but it’s been pretty useful. With all the training I’ve been doing, I need to take certain supplements to help with my recovery and for general fitness. The problem is that it’s hard to remember to take your vitamins. On a whim I made one simple adjustment and now I hardly ever forget. I just moved my vitamins from the kitchen counter to the bathroom cupboard. I always start and end the day in the bathroom and so it’s real easy to remember to take them when they’re right there next to my toothbrush and deodorant.

Harnessing Time – Going back to school has helped me realize how much time I was wasting, and how my concept of time was a bit skewed. I remember sitting at a dinner with some friends several years back and talking about going back to school. I remember thinking in my head how much time it would take to finish school and mostly giving up on the idea. Now it’s several years later and I still haven’t finished. If I would have started then and stuck it out, I’d be done right now. Time keeps marching on and we have to fill it up with something. What else am I going to do with my time that’s more productive? Probably not much. Beyond this broad paradigm shift, I’ve also found the value of smaller blocks of time. In times past, if I had 15 minutes free, I’d surf the internet and watch silly videos. Now that I have to make use of my time, 15 minutes can get me several pages read, and several of these 15 minutes blocks can be the difference between getting an assignment done on time or not. I still think it’s important to take some time to do nothing, but utilizing my time more effectively has really made a difference in my life.

Growing a beard – I’ve wanted a beard for a long time but never thought mine was full enough to grow out. I tried growing it out once a couple years ago and it just itched and bothered me. This year I made a resolution to grow it for a month and see how it went. Now I’ve had it for quite some time and don’t really like the way I look without it. It’s still not as full and glorious as I would like it to be, but it gets the job done. Right now it seems like I’ll have a beard for the rest of my life, but we’ll see.

Stay tuned for my next post, 7 things I think will change my life in 2013.

Act or Idea

 Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a lot of interests. For me it can actually be a problem how many interests I have. I’m interested in so many things that I often have problems sticking with anything. Thankfully I noticed this about myself and took some steps to focus on the things that are most important to me. The primary hurdle I had to overcome to get to my new mindset was to differentiate between “act” and “idea.”

I have a really good imagination and I like to use it. In a lot of ways, this helps me in life. In other ways it hurts me. One of the ways that it hurts me is that when I get an idea; any idea, I tend to blow it up into unreal proportions and get myself so excited about it I just have to act on it. While this isn’t necessarily harmful in itself, it can be when you get a new idea every week. My usual pattern would be to get an idea, work it up in my mind and get so excited that I’d go spend money to try and make it happen. Then a week later, maybe a month or two if I was lucky, I’d be so burnt out on the idea, I’d drop it and never look back. After some self-examination, I realized that while I often fell in love with the idea, I never fell in love with the act of bringing that idea to fruition.

There have been a few examples in my life where I have strayed from this pattern. When I was a pre-teen I often fantasized about becoming a rock star. I pictured shiny guitars, big amplifiers, tour buses, crowded arenas, and world tours. Eventually I picked up a guitar. Surprisingly, I liked practicing. I practiced nearly every day for hours and hours. While the fantasy was still strong in my head, I enjoyed learning new songs and eventually writing my own. Then I started a band and I liked that too. Then I went to college and started a real band, and we started to get paid to play shows and we started traveling and recording cds, and I really liked that. The reality of the situation was nothing close to what I had fantasized about. We toured the midwest instead of the world, we traveled in a van instead of a bus, and we played at small venues instead of packed arenas. None the less, I loved it. Guitar was one of a few things that has had staying power in my life, and it was because I loved the act of being in a band, more than my idea of what being in a band was supposed to be.   

These days fitness and Jiu Jitsu are my new passions. I still play guitar, and will eventually be doing it more than I am right now, but I’ve chosen to focus on one thing at the moment. I love working on my technique, pushing myself harder and harder, strengthening my mind and body, and focusing on a healthy diet. I’ve found that for me to focus on something as intensely as I should, I really can’t have a lot of other stuff vying for my time. I’m busy enough as it is, I can’t keep up with 7 hobbies. This is tough for me because as I’ve mentioned before, I get interested in a lot of stuff, but I’ve found I’m most content when I focus on something that I enjoy doing and really work hard at getting good. 

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t try new ideas. You have too in order to find what it is you love. But once you find that, try to avoid the temptation or even the outside pressure, to get involved in a bunch of other stuff. I think you’ll be happier in the end.  

I’ll leave you with an excerpt from a blog I like called “The Art of Manliness.” If you want to read the whole thing (and I would suggest it), you can find it at here.

What is Sacrifice?

When we hear the word sacrifice, we often think of completely selfless acts in which someone does something for another entirely for the other person’s benefit. The image of a soldier sacrificing his life for his comrades frequently comes to mind.

But sacrifice isn’t purely altruistic. The best definition of sacrifice is this: “To forfeit something for something else considered to have a greater value.” (American Heritage Dictionary, emphasis mine). Sacrifice does not mean giving up something for nothing; it means giving up one thing for something else we believe is worth more.

This does not at all take away from the virtue of sacrificial acts. Instead of locating the merit of sacrifice in unselfishness, we can find it in a man’s chosen value system. The man who lays down his life for his family or for his comrades has chosen to place more value on their lives than on his own. What is more praiseworthy than that?

The Law of Sacrifice

So if that is the definition of sacrifice, what is the law of sacrifice? The law of sacrifice says that you cannot get something you want, without giving up something in return. In order to attain something you believe is of greater value, you must give up something you believe is of lesser value.

Number 4

I started making a bucket list a few months back. I was feeling in a rut, so it felt good to think about a bunch of things I wanted to accomplish, get them written down, and then start scheming ways to make them happen. In what came as a surprise to me, I was able to cross number 4 off my list yesterday which was to get a Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. 

I've been training Jiu Jitsu for a little over a year now and it's become one of my favorite hobbies. At 30 years old, I still have a lot of testosterone pumping through my veins, and sitting at a desk all day staring at a computer screen doesn't do much for my soul. 

As I've mentioned before, I got into Jiu Jitsu by accident. I was really just looking for a good workout when I happened into Mick Doyle's Gym. The Jiu Jitsu classes came free with what I paid for my training sessions so I started going for the extra exercise. Personally, I'm surprised it stuck. For the first 6 months I felt like a giant bruise. My throat was constantly sore from getting choked out, I often came home covered in bruises, and I just couldn't sleep enough with all the recovery my body needed. But eventually I adapted. The skin on my knuckles grew tough from having the gi ripped from my grip, I started bruising less, my throat stopped hurting, and my neck muscles got a lot stronger. Finally I was tapping people instead of constantly getting tapped. I tried not to concern myself with the quest for a belt, but I knew I wanted one, so I made it my goal to get one by the end of 2012. 

While the instructors and Mick Doyle's are awesome, they were all blue belts themselves, and the gym was in need of a higher level instructor. Mick's previous instructor, Louis Togno, a black belt out of North Carolina, had been tragically killed in a car wreck. Cleverson Silva, took over as the gym's black belt for a while, but ended up going back to Brazil. Greg Nelson was likely going to fill the void, but was a bit too busy training his UFC fighters. Then the UFC came to Omaha and brought Bob Bass and one of his fighters, Sean Loeffler, who was going to be featured on the card. Mick was kind enough to open up his gym for them to train the week of the fight, and like he does so well, struck up a friendship with Bob. 

Bob Bass started learning Jiu Jitsu under the Machado Brothers. For those unfamiliar with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, this is like saying he studied politics under George Washington. The Gracies and the Machados are the reason we even know what Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is in the United States and Bob was there on the ground level. Bob went on to win world championships, train Chuck Norris, and eventually become the first American to ever earn a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and he's now the black belt for our team. He was in town this weekend (he's got his own gym in California) so I was able to have a private session with him on Saturday, and on Sunday he taught a 4 hour seminar. By the end of the seminar, I was exhausted, bruised, and completely soaked through my gi in sweat, but Bob was watching, and at the end of the seminar, he felt that I, and 2 others, deserved to be promoted.

While this is a great honor for me, and the culmination of a lot of hard work, it's really just the beginning. With my blue belt, I'm still a baby in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but at this point I've been mostly potty trained. As a white belt, you're really just "dating" the martial art. There's no commitment. You can leave when you want without much after thought. A blue belt is a wedding ring and with it comes a lot of commitment, hard work, and extra responsibility.  

I look forward to the challenge, and to working my way towards number 8 on my list, which is to earn a purple belt.

I built a smoker

I've had a rabid craving for BBQ lately and was reading on the internets how to make a smoker out of a couple clay planting pots. Since I didn't want to spend 30 bucks on those on top of all the other supplies, and I had a brick planter in the back that wasn't being used, I decided to use that instead.

This is the planter box that I converted.

The bottom wasn't level so I filled it in with some Quickcrete.

I stacked some bricks to make a stand for the grill. The hotplate in the bottom heats the chamber and burns the wood. This setup didn't work, though. The hot plate has a thermostat and turns itself off before the chamber could get warm enough.

I knocked out half a brick to get ventilation and to get the power plug out.

I bought a concrete paving stone to use as a cover and drilled a hole for the thermometer. The thermometer setup didn't wrk though, as not enough of the rod from the thermometer was exposed and I wasn't getting accurate heat readings.

I ended up rigging the hot plate with jump wires so that the heating element was inside the chamber but the unit with the thermostat was outside the chamber. This also made changing the temperature easier.

I bought a small cast iron skillet at Walmart to hold the wood chips and a pork roast at Hy-vee for a first try.

I added a drip pan to help keep the inside of the chamber clean, and put the skillet on the hot plate.

Then I covered it up and let it smoke. 

Almost up to temperature.

Molly giving me advice on how to cook the meat.

All in all, this is about what I spent on the whole project.

$16 Hot plate (but it has a $3 mail in rebate.)

$2  Concrete paving stone

$3 Quickcrete

$10 Cast Iron Skillet

$4 Jumper wire and spade connectors

The primary problem we ran into was that it took a lot longer to cook than anticipated. I read online to cook it at 220 for 1.5 hours per pound. This didn't even come close to being done. After 5 hours the 2-pound roast still wasn't finished and since we had started it at 5:00 pm (later than I wanted too, but the soonest we could get to it) we eventually had to pull it out and finish it in the crockpot. Next time I'm going to start it earlier, and cook it a little hotter. In the end though, it was actually pretty delicious.

 Done. Finally.

Also, next time around I'm going to use wood chunks instead of wood chips. I have to turn the hot plate up so high to heat the chamber that the chips get burnt up after about 45 minutes. I had to add chips 5 times and had to soak the last 4 batches of chips to make them last longer. Of course every time I opened the top I'd lose a bunch of heat which probably accounted for the extra long cook time. This is design flaw that a professional smoker wouldn't have, but have you priced those things? I'll just be patient.

Story

As I sat in the theater yesterday watching The Hunger Games, I was reminded how much I love a good story. As I was walking out of the theater after the movie was finished, I had an strong sense of longing. I wanted to re-live the time, before I read the books, so that I could experience reading the story again for the first time. If you’ve seen the movie and haven’t read the books, you should. The story only gets better in "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay."

Another reason I felt longing though was that I want my life to be a good story. I would say I had a great story going several years ago, but if you were reading my story over the last 2 years, you’d probably be skipping pages out of boredom. It’s time this changed, and I’m making it my mission.

On the bright side, someday I'll long for these days back so I can re-live reading my own story again for the first time. Book one is drawing to a close. Books two and three will blow you away.

“You will not be measured by the easy decisions you make, but instead by the most challenging ones.” – Martin Rooney