This morning’s calisthenics involved four sets of burpees. I noticed a funny thought as I started the third set. I had barely done a tenth of a burpee in that third set when I thought, “Only one set left.” That’s an odd thought. Since I had barely started the third set, I had closer to two sets left. Why did I think I had one set left when I actually[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been saying these words lately. Do the reps, you get the results. Don’t do the reps, you don’t get the results. I’ve said them to myself, my teammates, and my coaching clients. As regular readers know from my sidchas and standard procedures, I live them. When I search the web for them as a quote, I don’t find them, so maybe I created the quote. They ring true, particularly[…] Keep reading →

You may remember me posting about Two personal bests in a week: Freedom, in which I jumped 8.4 pounds (3.8 kilograms) in my Turkish get-up to 70 pounds, plus lifted more in my presses. I think I commented that part of why I tried it when I did was because it was the end of a month with 31 days. I do a six-day exercise cycle starting on the first[…] Keep reading →

We didn’t ask to be born into a culture that produces so much garbage, but we were. Now, nearly any place you live, if you walk in a public place, you pass litter. I don’t go out of my way to pick it up, but when I pass litter and it doesn’t take too much effort, I pick some up. I don’t pick up everything. I give myself constraints to[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday was the annual Pride March, which means a wrecked Washington Square Park. I make it an annual habit to take pictures of the state of the park after. As usual, to clarify, I’m selecting the event not to say anything about the march itself, its causes, or its people, but for the garbage. My mission is to change American and global culture and the pictures illustrate our culture. I[…] Keep reading →

A few people commented on my delivering food yesterday at the hottest part of the day. The temperature hit 101F (38.3C) while I was pulling around 80 pounds of food in a cart, according to my phone’s app . People often also flap their gums about not having time to volunteer. I never hear them say they don’t have time for social media or other screen time, yet Americans average[…] Keep reading →

Regular readers know what a sidcha is and that my second daily habit that both became a sidcha and helped me conceive of the concept began with doing ten burpees a day. I think I started my burpee habit in early 2012. In time, that habit evolved into a twice-daily set of calisthenics. I agree that discipline equals freedom, so more than the sizeable gains of saving money, saving time,[…] Keep reading →

That something in poppy can be extracted into something that addicts (opiates), that fruit and grains can be fermented into something that addicts (alcohol), or smoking tobacco can addict, or that gambling addicts are all chance results from nature. People may have found ways to capitalize on and profit from that addiction, but no one created the effect. Evolution did. By contrast, we now know how to addict people to[…] Keep reading →

I was talking to a friend about how addictive products work so well for people who sell them. The products sell themselves. From the perspective of the buyer and society they don’t work so well. Regular readers know I’ve concluded that since polluting and depleting destroy life, liberty, and property, a government mandated to protect life, liberty, and property must prevent polluting and depleting, as surely as it has to[…] Keep reading →