One afternoon on a ride on the Rainbow Rocket in Long Beach I saw this shot as we were coming back into port. If you haven’t guessed by now I really liked taking photos of the Queen Mary. It’s such a cool ship and I spent so much time around it when I lived in Long Beach I grew quite fond of the old girl. If you look at the high res version you can see a couple getting married!

Once upon a time I was terrified to fly and would take the Amtrak from Chicago to Pittsburgh to see my Mom on a pretty regular basis. It was hell on earth but every now and again I got to see some beautiful sunrises after the most uncomfortable nights I’ve ever spent. I shot this on Ektachrome on my trusty N90 one early morning while cooking through Indiana. I love trains but seriously, get a sleeper cab if you ever find yourself on an overnight Amtrak trip.

Old shot from the Clown Ramp in Dallas. The little guy on the deck is Mike Crum.

Caught this shot of The Queen Mary on the ferry from the other side of Long Beach at sunset. One of my favorite photos I ever got of the grand old ship.

As seen on the streets of Bangkok. I’ve said it before but damn, I so want to go back.

I’m thinking this may actually be old since Shane doesn’t seem to have his shiny new chompers.

Picture Unrelated

At the beginning of February I set myself several challenges. First was to lose at least 28 pounds. Second was to post more to this blog. Third was to cut out my use of the emoticon and fourth was to write at least 21,000 words. It was an interesting month and some goals I nailed, some I missed and some I sorta grazed so I’ll hit these points one by one.

First up was to lose 28 pounds. This was a total failure on the numbers level but a win for general fitness. I started out at 230lbs and tried for a few days to get in a bunch of cardio because that’s how I really lose weight fast. Well I have one of those old infomercial gadgets called a Gazelle that I thought would be great for the task since it’s fun to use and it’s in front of a big TV. Turns out it sucks. I can be on it for an hour and barely break a sweat and really burn out 2 specific muscles in my legs. It’s a horrible all around machine and just ended up not cutting it for what I needed. It’s way too cold here to go for my usual daily walks which clock in at around 4-10 miles. So right there my main vehicle for weight loss was trashed so I changed gears. I’m still using the Gazelle every day to just get my ass up from the computer and keep the blood flowing but my main workout is weight training. I figured if I can’t drop the fat I might as well do a straight fat for muscle exchange. I have a weight bench and some free weights in my basement so I hit those hard and I’m now in better muscular shape than I’ve been in in 7 years or so. When I started the month I could do 2 pushups before I thought I was going to rip a tendon in my shoulder. Now I can comfortably do multiple sets of 25 and a slew of other exercises that have improved remarkably in the past 28 days. So while I’m not getting much skinnier I’m getting all the parts in place for when the weather clears up and spring arrives. My ending weight for the month is 228 so I lost 2 pounds and gained a bunch of muscle that weighs a lot more than fat. I’m going to call this challenge even. It’s not a win because I didn’t accomplish the goal I set out to but I did move the ball forward with getting back into shape.

Second was to post more to this blog. I wrote a few wacky articles and posted a bunch of photos so that one is an easy win and I’m happy with the progress there.

Third was the emoticon thing. I haven’t been able to cut it out 100% but I did cut back about 95%. Took me a few days to get in the groove and try and write my snarky comments a little more eloquently but sometimes I just gave in because I was in a rush or tired and just threw a winky so I could get back to work. Semi-win and I’m going to keep on with it because really, they are pretty obnoxious and I’m not a teenager.

Lastly was the 750 Word Challenge from 750words.com. NAILED IT! I wrote every day no matter what and a few days got my stuff in just under the wire. It was hard as hell and I experimented with writing at different times of day and found some very interesting results. The mornings are without a doubt the best time to write. If I wait until the evenings my mind is tired from work and the day and the stuff I wrote was generally really negative and down. If I wrote first thing with my morning coffee the results were much more fun, funnier and all around more upbeat and the words just flowed. I am already signed up for the March challenge because now it’s part of my daily routine and it helps me get stuff out of my head and clears the way for a good days work. So yeah, EPIC WIN on that challenge.

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I had a bonus challenge that came in not long after I started. My friend Sean Bonner posted a fascinating piece on his blog about how he stopped using soap and shampoo. I thought it was intriguing for sure so I added it to my roster of things to try in February. I went 21 days without soap or shampoo and the results were VERY interesting. My skin hated me for a week and I ended up using a facial scrub about 45% of the time. Shampoo I completely cut out and my hair was a mess. It was the worst part of the experience but after a while it kind of normalized and I got used to it. The soap thing was incredible. Much to my surprise my skin adjusted in a matter of 2 or 3 days. It’s the dead of winter here and I’m always itchy and dry but since I wasn’t washing off all my natural oils I felt great. Didn’t smell bad at all (I still used deodorant because I’m not some damn dirty hippie and I don’t want to get kicked out of yet another home) and all around found myself just more comfortable. I gave up on day 21 because I just really kind of forgot. I got in the shower and just instinctively grabbed the soap and before I realized what I was doing I was all lathered up so that was the end of the run. I need to process the results and figure out what really worked and what didn’t but the no soap thing was amazing. My skin felt great and I had a completely neutral odor. I highly recommend trying it. My 2 tips are shower in very hot water and use a fresh washcloth every day.

That’s it for the 28 day challenges. All in all I had fun and am thinking of new ones to try all the time. If you have any suggestions toss ‘em in the comments.

In early 2006 I had the idea of creating a website that would store my important information and if something happened to me it would send it off to the people who needed it. I was the root admin for several companies at the time and if something happened to me the companies were SCREWED so I thought this was a good idea. In July of ‘06 I came up with the name DeathVault and started a 3 and a half yeah procrastination fest. Every now and again I’d work on some code and even paid to have the logo made but there was a problem. People didn’t get it when I explained it to them or they hated the name or something that would turn me off it. I was in a mode where I was listening to other people’s feedback instead of listening to my own gut. So I sat on it. Now this could be a coincidence but probably not, but a company about a block away from my office launched a site that had a similar name and identical goal 2 years later. This is after I’d been talking to people about the idea and it had gotten around. The site got a ton of press as being a revolutionary idea and my heart sunk even more and I sat on it yet again.

After all this time I was finally ready to get it built last year. I had the time blocked off and was ready to go but there was another thing that was in the back of my mind that was bothering me even more than all the feedback I had gotten and that was a deep superstition that if I finished this site I’d actually DIE. I mean it’s ridiculous but I had this dread of a universal irony god smiting me because I made a service that only works when you’re dead. I was also worried that I might live my life just slightly differenly enough to put me in a situation where I might get killed and not have the will to fight because I knew all my affairs were in order. Totally irrational superstitous bullshit but it weighed on me. And the fact that the whole concept is just flat out depressing. So it’s with a song in my heart and a spring in my step that I’m officially dumping the idea to make some more psychic space in my brain for new and exciting things and not worrying about eventually getting it done because after 3.5 years it’s pretty damn obvious it’s never going to happen. I’m also going to use this as a GIANT lesson to myself to never listen to negative feedback and to strike while the iron is hot. An expensive lesson since I put in about $750 into the site but we live and we learn… And sometimes letting go can be the best thing to do.

The amazing Destroy Everything at the 30 years of Punk show in Lisle, IL June 03, ‘06.

The Liberty Ship S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien as seen from a boat on the San Francisco Bay. I was heading up north to attend a Pirate Festival when I saw this ship from an angle I haven’t seen her from before and snapped this pic. And yes, that’s right, a Pirate Festival. Haaaargh!

I’ve been on the ship many times. One great night in particular I spent a few hours talking with Lala from TikiBarTV at a party my friend Tim Ferriss had thrown. If you’ve got an event you need to throw in SF I can’t recommend that place more as a venue.