Mental Beats

Logic Pro

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:12:00 +0000

Looks like old Mental Beats is moving into producing again. I will throw some beats your way later this month.

WTF Almost Two Years!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:32:00 +0000

Sad but true it has been a long time since my last post. I never achieved the fitness goals I set out but learned some valuable lessons. Goals are important, but become useless when writing is an end in and of itself. Action is a much better indicator of success because it shows immediate results. Sometimes doing something based on instinct is just as valid as a planned attempt.

So what is the latest Mental Beat?

Do something immediately to see how it will work for you. Build a plan out of the natural process of doing that action. The plan will be organic and thus better suited to your work flow, style, and preferences.

Planning something in advance is OK if the plan is short. Long estimates are best avoided or broken into short lists of tasks completed within a foreseeable time, like a week or two. Work days are best divided into production and administration.

Production is any work on principal projects or billable time.

Administration is everything else.

Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:07:00 +0000

It's been around two-weeks now and,yes, I've noticed minimal changes. Based on these observations I have set the following SMART goals to be achieved by the end of August:

Endurance & speed

Bent knee sit-ups 40 in one minute
Push-ups 30 in one minute
Running 1.5 miles in 12:30
Swimming 500 meters (20 laps)
100m in under 12min and tread water for 5-minutes

Physical

Loose 3 Kg of weight
Loose 3% body fat
Loose 3 cm off my waist
Increase arms, chest and thighs by 2 cm

Note the first set of goals are the minimal fitness requirements needed to graduate from the US Coast Guard's Cape May boot camp.

Benchmarks

Wed. night I moved from the bike and tried running. I did 2K in 20-minutes.
@ 12:30 I was at 1.33K

Sat. afternoon I ran 2.3K in 20-minutes.
@ 12:30 I was at 1.5K

Sunday 8/3 I did 30 sit-ups and 20 push-ups in one minute.

Sunday 8/20 I did 34 sit-ups and 30 push-ups in one minute.

Swimming 100m in around 9-minutes.

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:37:00 +0000

	7/27/2008	8/3/2008	8/10/2008
Height (cm)	167	167	167
Weight (kg)	91	88	87.4
Waist (cm)	104	104	102
Chest (cm)	115	116.5	115
Upper Arm (cm)	35	36.5	36
Thigh (cm)	61	63	63
Neck (cm)	42	42	42

Slow progress is good. It means less chance of rebound.

I've added swimming to the cardio part. One evening last week I did the interval training on the bike and then swam. 50-meters crawl, 50-meters walk, 100-meters breast stroke/crawl, 50-meters crawl.

Routine arms, shoulders and chest

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:05:00 +0000

Stretch 10 minutes

Upper body

Dumbbell curls 12, 8, 6
Inclined dumbbell chest press 12, 8, 6
Bench press 12, 8, 6
Arm rows 12, 8, 6 (added for next time)
Rowing machine 12, 8, 6 (one pin increments)
Lateral pull 12, 8, 6 (one pin increments)
Triceps push machine 12, 8, 6 (one pin up increments)

Cardio stationary bike (20 minutes)
The timer works backwards from 60:00

59:30 L2
59:00 L3
58:30 L4
58:00 L5
57:30 L6
57:00 L7
56:30 L8
56:00 L9
55:30 L10
55:00 L11
54:30 L10
54:00 L9
53:30 L8
53:00 L7
52:30 L6

51:58 Sprint
51:50 Steady
51:48 Sprint
51:40 Steady
51:38 Sprint
51:30 Steady
51:28 Sprint
51:20 Steady
51:18 Sprint
51:00 Steady

50:40 L7
50:20 L8
50:00 L9
49:40 L10
49:20 L11
49:00 L10
48:40 L9
48:20 L8
48:00 L7
47:40 L6
47:20 L5
47:00 L4

46:58 Sprint
46:50 Steady
46:48 Sprint
46:40 Steady
46:38 Sprint
46:30 Steady
46:28 Sprint
46:20 Steady
46:18 Sprint
45:00 Steady
44:00 L3
42:00 L2
41:00 L1
40:00 Done

Routine abs and legs

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:24:00 +0000

I tried this routine twice this past week to make sure I would do it or better could do it.

10 minutes Stretching

Legs 12, 8, 6 reps

Dumbbell squats
Dumbbell dead-lifts
Dumbbell lunges (to be added next time)

Abs 2 sets of 20 reps

Bench lift
Parallel bar leg raises
Lying leg raises
Flutter kicks
Elbow to knee (replaced with oblique side crunches)
Penguins
Exercise ball
Crunches
Floor wipers
Lying leg lifts (removed due to space on the mat)

Cardio stationary bike (20 minutes)
The timer works backwards from 60:00

59:30 L2
59:00 L3
58:30 L4
58:00 L5
57:30 L6
57:00 L7
56:30 L8
56:00 L9
55:30 L10
55:00 L11
54:30 L10
54:00 L9
53:30 L8
53:00 L7
52:30 L6

51:58 Sprint
51:50 Steady
51:48 Sprint
51:40 Steady
51:38 Sprint
51:30 Steady
51:28 Sprint
51:20 Steady
51:18 Sprint
51:00 Steady

50:40 L7
50:20 L8
50:00 L9
49:40 L10
49:20 L11
49:00 L10
48:40 L9
48:20 L8
48:00 L7
47:40 L6
47:20 L5
47:00 L4

46:58 Sprint
46:50 Steady
46:48 Sprint
46:40 Steady
46:38 Sprint
46:30 Steady
46:28 Sprint
46:20 Steady
46:18 Sprint
45:00 Steady
44:00 L3
42:00 L2
41:00 L1
40:00 Done

Enjoy!

Matthew

Current Stats

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 11:47:00 +0000

Here are my current stats:
Height - 167cm
Weight - 91kg
Waist - 104cm
Chest - 115cm
Upper Arm - 35cm
Thigh - 61cm

There it is.

First is to get rid of excess adipose tissue, the fat around the abdomen. To find out what my body fat percentage is, I have found a hand little formula at Wapedia-Wiki:

Brozek formula: BF = (4.57/ρ − 4.142) × 100
Siri formula is: BF = (4.95/ρ − 4.50) × 100

In these formulas, ρ is the body density in kg/L.
But unfortunately, I don't know how to find my density.

However there is the caliper method using various skin folds and formulas. All I need now is a caliper.

Well, thank you US Navy. They happen to have a system based on circumferences. I just have to bust out Granpop's old measuring tape and bam.

Here are the measurements:
Height - 167cm
Neck - 43cm
Abdomen - 112cm

Body fat: 32.9%

From Wikipeadia:
"According to Health Check Systems,^[2] The American Council on Exercise^[3] has categorized ranges of body fat percentages as follows:

Description	Women	Men
Essential fat	12–15%	2–5%
Athletes	16–20%	6–13%
Fitness	21–24%	14–17%
Acceptable	25–31%	18–25%
Obese	32%+	25%+

"

Oops. Oh well, I guess I am obese.

Now let the games begin!

Enjoy!

Matthew

Put into Practice

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 11:25:00 +0000

During the past few weeks, my attention has turned to pop psychology discipline known as nlp, neuro linguistic programming. It is known for having quick and lasting results especially in cases of phobias. It is how Tony Robbins, whom I have much admiration for, got his start. The reason I am mentioning all this is to begin my personal experiment.

Mental Beats is about finding ways to think different about the world we live in. It is about finding rhythms and patterns that help boost our creativity. What better place to begin than with your own body. Mind, body and spirit operating as a single unit is an ideal place to be. I have been developing my mind for some time now as well as my spirit but the physical self is lacking. I am going to use the basic principals found in nlp to help me become physically fit.

To make this even more of a challenge, I am going to commit to the following goal:

Before the end of 2008, I will be in good enough shape to be an underwear model.

Yup, I said it and you read it. Raising the bar, as it were. I feel that the goal of just getting in shape is not motivating enough. I do not participate in sports so get fit for the sake of athleticism is also not motivating. I found the extreme narcissistic path more what I am after. It is a challenge, a huge challenge, but it is highly motivating.

For the next few posts I will be recording my fitness progress peppered among the nlp nuggets and exercise routines I am experimenting with. I hope you find this interesting and motivating for you to make a change for the better in your life.

Enjoy!

Matthew

What a workout

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:20:00 +0000

The "300" is an intense circuit training workout designed to really get you into shape fast.

Here's the breakdown:

Pull-ups 25 reps full body weight
Dead-lift 50 reps 135 lbs
Push-ups 50 reps full body weight
Box jumps 50 reps 24" platform
Floor wipers 50 reps 135 lbs
Clean press 25 reps 36 lb kettle bell (each arm)
Pull-ups 25 reps full body weight

Then vomit.

Enjoy!

Note on practice

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:07:00 +0000

Practice can be thought of as doing something repeatedly. By this definition we cannot assume improvements are occuring. We can only make the assumpsion that an action is being done.

Brushing one's teeth is an action that is repeated by many, usually. Although it is a repeated action, I think its safe to say many don't practice brushing their teeth.

At least, admittedly or at best, consciously.

Acquiring the expert's way to practice (see earlier entry) through awareness and focused improvements works only when you understand that which you want to improve.

You can't improve what you don't understand.

Using targeted practice based on knowledge, undestanding and awareness improvements can be greater and potentially more frequent.

Improve improvements by improvement practice.

Esther Dyson

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:11:00 +0000

“... distribute intellectual property free in order to sell services and relationships.” —Esther Dyson

Bits, Bands and Books
Op-Ed Columnist-Paul Krugman
New York Times

Mental Beats

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:21:00 +0000

History.

Mental Beats was a record label I started in North Carolina back in 1995.

Actually it was the second label. The first was called, Worm World Productions. It featured, RotBot, my alterego and sound creating mad scientist audio laboratory. Back then I was making sounds for installations I was building and designing.

Back then I was in a white tower that overlooked an intersection with a single flashing ochre light. Caddy corner was the parking lot for the Jarvis City Market, which was a strip mall consisting of a small supermarket, a coin laundry and two other stores that were rarely open for business. To this day it is the only supermarket I have found that sold chunks of fatback on folding tables. Fatback is an important ingredient in Southern cooking. I was vegetarian, so I never bought it.

The white tower was on a dirt plot flanked on one side by a small coffee shop and on the other by a small apartment complex. In the front was a big oak tree and the back was a dirt parking lot and a rickety wooden staircase leading up to the back porch and kitchen. My room was next to the kitchen and behind the bathroom. Russ's room was down the hall before the living room / painting studio. The front door door led to a shared stairwell that housed bikes and boxes for sitting on when drinking beer on the stoop. This was otherwise known as stooping. It was a common and beloved activity of the house. The other tenants also enjoyed stooping with us. At the time, Russ, was unable to consume anything alcoholic because of his agreement with AA. I was sympathetic and kept my drinking in front of him down to a minimum.

We did, however, go through coffee like most drink water. Up to four pots a day was normal, sometimes four each. One of us would put on a pot first thing and wait for Mark to show up. Mark was this cat who lived down the street. We met him one night at the Beanbag coffee shop next door. He was a troubled soul and found comfort in our morning pot of coffee and conversation. Mark had a habit of wetting a cotton swab before inserting it into his ear. He did this very carefully and meticulously without missing a beat in the conversation. He had a foot fetish and talked at lengths about it.

It was quite bizarre, but I enjoyed it very much. This was around the time I stopped watching TV.

We all played music, but never with each other. I may have jammed with Russ once or twice, but that was all. Russ and I were better studio-mates than band-mates. The paintings were expressions of the conversations we had, or in some cases extensions. The great conversation always had a way of picking up precisely where it left off. Those were prolific years. We both amassed a large body of work and quite often exhibited our work around town legitimately and otherwise.

The level of creativity was fueled by stimulating conversation, caffeine, nicotine, music and the desire to find out what was next in the great conversation.

Mental Beats was born out of this fire. It suffered badly being relocated to Wilmington, NC. The burning flame of the great conversation died down. There it morphed into a video production company named, Lefthand Path Productions. It also joined forces with other local promoters and began to feature live DJ sets of post RotBot soundscape artist as the newly incarnated DJ Worlock.

I played Dark Wave and Industrial Dance mostly, that is until I got my hands on some Drum n Bass. Before living in the white tower, I was a regular attender of club and underground parties, back then called raves (until it wasn't cool to call them raves). Jungle and breaks were my favorite genres. I would go to as many parties like these as I could. It was normal for us to drive up to 4 hours for a party, stay all night and come back the next day. So when Drum N Bass hit the scene, I was an instant fan. My music collection was growing and so was my credit card debit.

So when the Wilmington boys sought me out for some promotion work, I obliged. It was a good run, but it was not profitable for me and thus I moved away from the beach community and onto the piedmont in the heart of the State. This is where Mental Beats as a label developed and RotBot as a musical brainchild got its chops. Working long hours at internet startup companies and coming home and working long hours on my Mac, I forged a relationship with Mental Beats that to this day has been unbroken. During the three years in Greensboro, I made six albums. All independently published and distributed. This music fueled the creative force that allowed me to paint again. Soon I was showing at galleries and at local events, selling work and feeding the great conversation. The fire was raging again.

Then I moved to San Francisco bringing the label and studio with me.

The golden years were over, but the djing days were coming back. My old love of Drum n Bass crept up on me and after attending Burning Man in 2000 I felt it was time to acquire some guns, some Technics 1200s.

I converted the Mental Beats label into a full studio. I still made music and as a matter of fact, I pressed my first vinyl in San Francisco, but my heart had moved into spinning. I spun mostly at parties, many big ones. I was fortunate enough to have the chance to spin at Maritime Hall the day before it closed. However, BT was upstairs and a lot of peeps went up there to check him out. I was also blessed to be able to spin twice at the Great American Music Hall. It would have been a yearly thing if I hadn't moved to Japan.

Mental Beats almost died in my Eastern excursion. I abandoned the bulk of my machines. I still dream of my Ensoniq ASR-X coming home to me one day. All my records are holed up in a friend's storage space, slowly aging. All I had was my laptop when I got to Japan. So I made tracks with Reason and Acid. Mostly glitch and noise stuff. But it didn't feel right using RotBot anymore, so I had to reinvent the concept and this time, KillHandEvil, was born. I wanted it to be more in the line of Digital Hardcore, Atari Teenage Riot kinda stuff, but it still had the Creep Flora Spread period of the RotBot sound story.

http://www.myspace.com/killhandevil

Well at long last, Mental Beats is slowly gaining vitality and glimmers of hope and new growth is showing. This journal blog thing is the first of many future steps.

I realize this entry is long and doesn't really jibe with the rest of posts, but I felt it was necessary to drop some old school knowledge and light up the other end of the tunnel. I guess give some perspective.

Perhaps this site will see some posts of my latest passions; cell phone photography and Japanese swordsmithing.

Until then, be good and beat your f'n mental hourly.

Enjoy!

The proud and the selfish

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:32:00 +0000

To be proud of yourself for works that are either ordinary or extraordinary is still the same: it is selfish.

Becoming selfless is taking the "me" out of the equation. By removing the self, one becomes a servant. To serve others unconditionally is a noble goal and a great achievement of the heart, mind and spirit.

Who do you serve and how?

How can you serve others daily?

Enjoy!

Joi de vie

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:17:00 +0000

Does joy of life come from mission and purpose or from simple pleasure seeking? Perhaps its from something else.

enjoy

New Rules

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:47:00 +0000

Walk the talk you talk: the same you love to flaunt. Right?
Don't balk. It's misleading and weak.
Aren't you a leader?Try a sample of lead by example.
Don't be lame and shift the locus of focus. It's bogus like the blame game. Change the direction
Reflection.
Only you can change you and when you do you change all around you.
You really do. Dig it.
New rules new season and school.

You are what you are and not were even if you were a star you're not anymore.

Get used to it
better get moving

Machiavelli Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:01:00 +0000

"Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are."

"Matters of great concern should be treated lightly.''

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:55:00 +0000

Among the maxims on Lord Naoshige's wall there was this one: ''Matters of great concern should be treated lightly.'' Master lttei commented, "Matters of small concern should be treated seriously." Among one's affairs there should not be more than two or three matters of what one could call great concern. If these are deliberated upon during ordinary times, they can be understood.

Thinking about things previously and then handling them lightly when the time comes is what this is all about. To face an event anew solve it lightly is difficult if you are not resolved beforehand, and there will always be uncertainty in hitting your mark. However, if the foundation is laid previously, you can think of the saying, "Matters of great concern should be treated lightly," as your own basis for action.

From Chapter One of The Hagakure
—Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659 - 1719)

Another One from Marcus

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:43:00 +0000

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

Fine words to live by.

Affordance Theory

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:31:00 +0000

Recently I stumbled upon the word affordance. The significance of this word is still becoming more apparent to me, but my initial findings are scantly noted below. Initially I found this related to interaction design and usability (Norman), but quickly realized there are many dimensions to this theory as it relates to many disciplines including but not limited to language acquisition.

J.J. Gibson, an American psychologist, coined the term "affordance" in 1977 in his book, The Theory of Affordances. Basically, an affordance is an interactive opportunity of an object or environment. For example a handle on a pan affords grasping or an obstruction free, flat surface affords a safe walk.

James J. Gibson (1977), The Theory of Affordances. In Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing, Eds. Robert Shaw and John Bransford

Not available on Amazon, but a preliminary description of afforance is available:
A Preliminary Description and Classification of Affordances

James J. Gibson (1979), The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception

Also Multiple Language Learning in the Light of the Theory of Affordances
Good research paper (please note that the link is to a pdf).

"Motivation is a dimension of language learning that is notoriously difficult
to study. Hence the wide variety of perspectives on the issue and on the
paradigm shifts that are claimed by some to have taken place in this domain
(for discussion see e.g. Crookes & Schmidt, 1991; Dörnyei, 2001; Gardiner,
2005; Ushioda, 2006). However, there is wide consensus on the notion that
motivation is enhanced by goal-setting (cf. Deci, 1995; Deci & Ryan, 1985)..."

Wow

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:54:00 +0000

I usually don't post products here. However, this one that I discovered on designbivouac definitely beat my mental.

Check it out!

Mental Beat Precept 007

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:22:00 +0000

Spend at least five minutes of preparation time per minute of planned communication.

Small change, big difference

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:26:00 +0000

Small changes:
Any random act of kindness
Any attempt to connect
Any little improvement
Any perfected single movement
Any smile
Any friendly gestureAny unconditional gift
Any birthday remembered
Any thank you given
Any tissue offered
Any door held open
Any "after you"
Any yes！
Any "good morning"
Any you're welcome
Any "have a great day"
Any thanks for all your help
Any eye to eye conversation

Anytime one does something like this; he/she will change the world.

Don't Forget the Good Stuff.

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:09:00 +0000

It is said that creative thinking is one part inspiration to ninety-nine parts perspiration. The bulk is the process. The rest are serendipity. However when applied to a group the perspiration per person decreases while the inspiration increases.

So in theory, a team of four might look like this:

i=4
p=24

This is an oversimplification, however it illustrates how a group working on a shared goal can increase the chance for serendipity to occur.
How to apply this to your team project?

Communicate often.
The more conversations on and about the goal positions the mind to make a map and thus connections.
Meet outside the workplace.
Meals, drinks, events, etc. are great "Roads Not Taken" and are tangental by nature.
Record communication.
All the conversations you have will hold value only when they are jotted down. Don't forget the good stuff.
Review
Talk about previous conversations and refer to your notes to ensure clarity.
Paraphrase
Its not enough to listen-active participation helps dissolve assumptions.

Enjoy!

Matthew, MB

Mental Beats Precept 006

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:35:00 +0000

Leave your comfort zone in order to prove your theories.

Mental Beats Precept 005

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Penna) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:25:00 +0000

It is important to keep in mind that people may know the same things as you but they arrived at those conclusions differently. Be mindful to mention the process when conversing with others.