It’s easy to do in Firefox and Flock, but disappointingly more difficult than it should be.  You either just have to inconveniently let all your pages open every time you open the browser OR you can use a simple Javascript widget that I found and use.  Here you go:

javascript:(function()%7B%20window.open(‘http://type your site here’);%20%7D)(); javascript:(function()%7B%20window.open(‘http://type your second site here’);%20%7D)(); javascript:(function()%7B%20window.open(‘http://i think you’ve figured it out’);%20%7D)(); javascript:(function()%7B%20window.open(‘http://you know the drill’);%20%7D)();

Just type in the URLs where I told you to and copy it all into the one line in the options.  Now when you hit the li’l home button on the bar.  It’ll open a new tab for each site.  There ya go!

Here’s a quick recipe for an isotonic sports drink. Isotonic means it contains the same ratio of electrolytes as your blood and the optimum level to ingest.

1 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons sugar
1 liter (or quart) water

I realize that I just referred to two separate measurement systems there and I really apologize to all my metric bros. I really don’t understand how to convert the tea/tablespoon measurements over to metric. If you can, let me know.

PS, you can also add flavoring and it’ll still be all good. Remember that you also get electrolytes and water from the food you eat.

Just a quick tip I thought of today:

When trying to build a new daily habit, keep track of how many days you successfully do the action you’re trying to make a habit. Two quick ways:

-Count how many days in a row you can work on the habit, your goal being to reach a certain number (ex. 21 or 30)
-Each day is either +1 or -1, depending on whether you do the habit or not.

Give it a shot the next time you work on building a habit!

I was working on a cross country training plan and realized that somebody else may be interested in the single letter abbreviations I use for the names of weekdays. Here they are:

M – Monday
U – Tuesday
W – Wednesday
H – Thursday
F – Friday
R – Saturday
N – Sunday

The letter chosen for each day is the most unique letter letter from that name among all the letters used. M, W and F are perfectly unique because they only appear in those days, U appears four times, but is overshadowed in every name but Tuesday, H is also perfectly unique (my bad) and R and N are somehow the easiest of all of these to remember. Hope that helps, somehow.

Yeah, I was getting a li’l tired of the old one, so I simplified.

The new look runs on more robust code, so mess-ups are less likely to happen and I just think it looks better.  Let me know if you’re having any problems.  Thanks.

There’s a certain soberness to seeing a doctor snip away at your arm right before he sews you back together, putting your bones out of sight and touch once again. It’s the opposite of what most people do, cutting away at the steak on their plate and exposing the bones concealed within. Now, it’s pretty cool to be able to see and touch bones, as long as they’re yours. Other bones are kinda gross.

Let’s say, for a moment, that you are a healthy, reasonable person. You avoid alcohol and tobacco and other drugs because you know that they are bad for your health. You know that, while they bring some little level of pleasure and escape, the overall result is negative.

Instead you drink milk, feeling good about the calcium it contains until your sinuses are filled with at least a freakin’ gallon of mucus and you fall down the stairs and break your flippin’ arm! What the deal? Isn’t this stuff supposed to make your bones stronger? And what’s with this monstrous pressure in your head? Oh man, it feels you could stick a needle in there and it’d spurt out, like, thirty feet!

Son, you have discovered one of the sad truths about food: no animal, past babyhood, is meant to drink milk and no animal at all is meant to drink some other animal’s milk. I won’t go into too much detail on the first part of that, but if you’re old enough to be reading this, you should definitely not be guzzling your mother’s milk anymore. Grow up, man!

On the second part, you do realize that cow’s milk is designed to turn a sixty pound calf into a four hundred pound adult within a year, don’t you? That stuff’s got some crazy hormones in it and your body probably won’t know what to do with them; it freaks out and has to handle them as foreign substances (which they totally are). Any nutrients actually in that stuff are overshadowed by all the anti-nutrients and pus that it contains (pus?! sick!!).

Hold on just one minute, you say, if I’m not meant to get milk, where will I get my calcium? My friend, that’s simple. To begin with, you probably don’t need that much calcium, because you haven’t been getting that much. Milk, you see, is a very poor source of calcium and the calcium it does have is overshadowed by all the anti-nutrients; the majority of the calcium in milk never strengthens your bones.

We can see this in the American population. The meat and dairy industries have an enormous advertising and lobbying presence, and have been very successful in convincing the population that they need to be drinking milk (despite the obvious fact that early humans couldn’t drink cow’s milk and there’s no possible way for a mammal to evolve natural dependence on the mammary secretions of a different animal) and also that you need a extortionate level of protein in your diet. The worst part is that these industries have convinced the population that meat and dairy are the only sources of these nutrients and have even managed to lobby their way onto the food pyramid.

Now calm down. Despite implications to the contrary, I did not just make a radical statement; I just made a very logical statement. Thinking about our biology and physiology, we have absolutely no nutritional need nor necessity for any dairy products. Also eggs; that’s like eating some lady’s menstruation. There’s no way your body was designed to consume those substances. In fact, from what I’ve found and read: becoming vegetarian produces benefits in health and clarity of mind (and more, but that’s not my focus here), as does becoming vegan; in fact, becoming vegan (removal of dairy products) producing much greater results (four times as great) than becoming vegetarian (removal of meat).

Brian Johnson has said that the single best nutritional choice you can make is to stop milking the cow. It’ll heighten energy levels, clear your mind, clear up allergies and improve health. What are the losses? Ice cream and shakes; that’s it. If you’re willing to try new things, give non-dairy ice cream a shot and, in the mean time, get rid of cheese and milk and all the rest of that grossness.

When I started this, I’d intended to also mention the benefits of removing meat from your diet (hence the title), but I don’t think I can pull that off and stay under a thousand words and I like to keep these posts relatively short, so I’ll leave that for another day and just finish this off with a link to an article about milk: http://www.organicathlete.org/article/915 as well as the thought that if these guys weren’t on to something, their organization would fail. At this time, I’d like to encourage you to stop consuming dairy.
I understand that this may be difficult for you, and in fact, I’m still working on it myself, and if you are concerned about calcium, I’ll leave you with a list of good sources: kelp, almonds, sesame, beans, oranges, figs, broccoli, kale, spinach, cinnamon, peppermint, romaine lettuce, celery, cabbage, green beans, garlic, Brussel sprouts and basil. Enjoy!

Today at work, I was thinking about how my current social interactions (in a low energy state) differ from social interactions I’ve had over the past few months (a great deal of which I spent in a high energy state). I realized that the one differing factor was that level of energy.

And it’s so much more than just that. Besides effecting my behavior, I can also see changes in my levels of motivation, my ability to focus and even my eyesight! It’s truly amazing how much is effected by one simple thing.

This discovery actually boosted my motivation and got me excited, which is the only reason I’m writing this now. Seriously, I hit the brick wall four hours into a ten hour shift. I seriously don’t know how I managed to make it through those next two hours until I started thinking about my energy levels. The next four were pretty good, because I was talking to myself the entire time about energy levels and motivation and stuff.

I wanted to have a list of methods to raise energy levels to put in here, but I wasn’t able to come up with anything novel – just the basics: eat regularly, have something to look forward to, give yourself a reason to go on (having people around to watch/say, “I tolda so, ya failure” really does the trick for me).

There are some basic, easy ways to increase energy temporarily. One of my favorites is milk shakes, but I think I’m starting to lean towards icees and slushies, because there’s no dairy to cloud the mind. Apples are also amazing; I’ve had times when I didn’t want to do anything but lay around, but someone brought me an apple and as soon as it was in my mouth, I managed to move for the first time in half an hour. Generally, though, liquids work better because you can get more in your system faster, but I think fruits should be just about as good, because of the juice.

It’s a popular Mormon tale that an apple will wake you up more than caffeine, which I believe to be true. An apple will add energy to your system, while caffeine will simply trick your body into thinking it has the energy (leading to a crash when your body figures out you’ve been lying to it).

When I was doing plays, we were always told to have ENERGY (and to enunciate)! On the high energy nights, you could truly feel how much better we performed. That actually extends to everything. Energy effects your ability to do anything, even to see!

Today is my li’l sister’s birthday! Yay!

Secondly: As I’m a week into my project, I am taking this opportunity to look back on what has worked, what hasn’t and what I’m going to do about it.

Getting up early – it’s all worked out rather well – I’ve only had one problem with it, but overall everything’s been nice. This morning I consciously decided that my best decision was to sleep in for a while longer (to avoid schedule conflicts), but my habits told me to get up offa that thing (but not to dance; I didn’t feel well).

Record stats – Everything’s been relatively consistent and for the past three days, my body fat has seemed to stabilize at 9.3, which could mean the scale is more accurate (they usually have up to a + or – 3% error range) than I thought or it’s just a coincidence.

Snack and water right away – not working out so well. More days than not, I haven’t had anything to snack on and I usually don’t even drink the water. This may be because Day 2 was a Fast Sunday and I wasn’t able to build momentum along with the rest of the habits. What I’ve also found is surprising lack of snack foods in my house – we’re really more or a put-together-ingredients-and-cook-something family than a MRE family. I’m not entirely sure what I can do about this, but it isn’t harming anything else, so I may just let it be.

Exercise weekday mornings – This has been going rather well, especially since I added a partial minute rest between sets this morning (changing it from a circuit to a routine, which works better). I’d been having trouble with the overhead squats (best upper body lift I’ve found), but this should stabilize my results, allowing me to progress.

Saturday morning running – It was amazing last week and I expect it’ll be just as amazing tomorrow.

Brushing – it seems like a pain sometimes, but really doesn’t take that much time out.

Pushups – Forty seems to be a good number here. I know precisely the level of fatigue I want to achieve and I’ve been reaching that just after thirty, so forty works rather well.

Scripture reading – I’d actually forgotten that was a part of this project, because I do it anyway.

Isaiah on Sundays – This works really well! Last Sunday, I read some and felt good until I got to chapter five and all the vines and stuff. That’ll probably exhaust me this Sunday, but it’s still doing the trick!

Food log – It’s a lot more basic than my past food logs, so it’s almost too easy to forget about. It’s really made me wonder about how much (or how little) I eat each day.

No spending – On Wednesday, I spent two hundred dollars at the eye doctor and Monday I intend to spend three hundred dollars at the dentist. On Fridays, I find the simplest way to get my tithing money is to get a bottle of water and take cash back. The appointments are mission prep, but I might be able to get my tithing money simply by visiting the bank.

Running home – my legs are so sore and so tired – almost all the time, from all the running and lifting and standing. It’s not overwhelming, so I think it’s something that I’ll just get used to.

Book of Mormon reading – it’s been going rather well, but I often forget to pray beforehand. I’m working on it, though and it’s going to pick up.

Journaling – I often don’t seem to have anything to write, so it’s often a rambling jumble of rubbish.

Fiction reading – I love it! I’ve been reading the Redwall series again, by Brian Jacques. I haven’t read them since I was a kid and it’s so amazing to rediscover how truly wonderful these books are. Yesterday, I finished Martin the Warrior, which is probably the saddest book I’ve ever read. Online, I read that it’s not uncommon for readers to cry along with the characters at the end.

Recording – it hasn’t been having the same effect it once did, so I’m going to look over my past daily records and find out what I was doing then that I’m not doing now and re-apply it to achieve better results.

Thanksgiving prayer – has been going terrible. I haven’t been reverent enough and, as a result, haven’t received the guidance the whole thing was about. Last night was a distinct improvement, however, and I imagine that will become a trend.

Actually, the biggest problem I’ve come across is my supporters. Too many of them put so much focus on the word “perfection” and seem to think that I’m trying to live a flawless, unattainable ideal – I’m not. I’m simply trying to live, for a month, the life that I would be living if my life were perfect. In fact, it’s not even that – really, I’m trying to live at my highest potential and, until this report, the only place the word “perfect” or any form thereof has appeared has been in the project title. Ergo, I could reasonably assume that my supporters care enough only to read the title and not to read the actual content, but I’m not going to. Instead, I’m going to pull a Sun Tzu and decide the problem is first with me and not with the officers or soldiers.

Also a small personal report: yesterday, two small fragments of food lodged themselves on my left tonsil and were uncomfortable throughout the rest of the day. Over the night, my immune system began freaking out, bringing me to wake swimming in sweat (thank you Tim Ferriss for teaching me how to swim, or I’d have drowned), with a throat somebody’d sandpapered and a freaking gallon of mucus pumping out of my nose. Thankfully, while brushing, I noticed the li’l beastie and managed to get off one with a spoon. The second one was behind the back of my mouth (like having a contact up behind your eyelid) and the chocolate I was using to celebrate the first one’s removal loosened it up and moved it out to the same position as the first. A simple repeat maneuver removed the second fragment and my immune system began to chill. That’s probably the weirdest false alarm I’ve ever had – I seriously thought I was actually sick there for a moment.

So I’m about halfway through day one of November and it’s going pretty well. First of all, though, I have two confessions to make:

1. On my test day (yesterday), I peed outside to avoid the restroom commitments. The extra effort and hassle of doing that means I’m going to let that stay within the rules.

2. I turned off my alarm (before it went off) and relaxed in about an hour and a half of pseudosleep before getting up. A worthwhile idea, considering today is the day after Halloween, except that pseudosleep doesn’t restore one at all. So today, I fell behind on the first of my commitments.

Also, although it’s not a problem, I delayed my run today until the sun was above the horizon. Despite getting up late, the sky outside was very dark and I did not feel particularly confident to be running around in low visibility conditions. That much aside, on to the general report:

I suspect that the body fat scale I use is inaccurate, because it reported me nine pounds heavier than the bathroom scale which I stood on after my morning snack.

I was expecting my run to be the hardest part of this project, but it was rather easy. On the other hand, because I haven’t been doing any intense running, I took a relatively easy pace, with predesignated walking zones (mostly downhills to save my knees). Overall, the entire run took about an hour and a half and was somewhere between seven and eight miles, putting my pace about between eleven and twelve minutes. That’s absolutely terrible, even with the walking zones and the hills.

On the other hand, the reason for the easy pace I’d decided to pursue was because I imagined it’d be like running with a fat guy on my back. It turned out to be just about the opposite, so next week I’ll plan with that in mind and account for that.

One thing I found interesting was that my sunglasses fogged up unless I wore them on my face. When I put them on my head for the nature expansion, they had little warmth and no wipers, so they were completely opaque when I put them back on. I was about to cross a street, too, so that wasn’t very safe. After a few experiments (running blind is rather fun), I discovered that if I squeeze my face around the glasses and project heat from my eyes, they cleared up within a minute.

I’m looking forward to the coming week and the rest of the month. I’ll try to get updates on here as often as I can. Thank you so much for all your great support!

Two days.

I’ve got two days before I undertake one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. You know, I keep saying that it’s going to be difficult, but you know, it probably won’t be.

I think each individual task will be difficult up to the point when I actually start and then it will get easier. Hopefully, by the end of the month, getting started on each one will become easier and easier. I certainly hope so.

It makes me wonder about the people who normally live like this. The people who are always doing new things and learning and growing. How do they manage?

I’m reminded of an old motto of mine, “Nothing I ever do is ever as dangerous as it looks,” which at times I’ve changed to, “Nothing I ever do is ever as hard as it looks.”

Actually, the more I think about it, the more excited I am for it to begin. Heh, this is going to be fun!