The Deuce Fo’

I’m glad that life doesn’t fall into ruts as often as it used to. 2-3 weeks ago, things were much different than they are right now–I feel like I’m in a completely different place. I like it.

Things are exciting, there is holiday spirit in the air. Not the Gregg Easterbrook Christmas Creep kind, but just that time of year where you start to catch wiffs of spiced drinks, see pumpkins and other assorted squashes everywhere, there’s snow but not much, the leaves are blowing in the wind, and the fall is officially in full swing. What’s that really all mean? It means a bunch of holiday get togethers, cider, pumpkin pie, turkey, ugly sweaters (of which I own none, of course all my sweaters are very fashionable), hot chocolate, fireplace fires, and all that good shit.

About a month ago or so, my buddy Sonny dropped some serious life knowledge on me. It amounted to a lot of things, but a very tangible one of them came in the form of this book:

Built For Show by Nate Green. It has some minor pick-up stuff in it, but above all else it gets rid of a lot of the bullshit that comes with fitness. It is a pretty simple system to get your (in this case my) lazy, desk sitting, computer eyed, sack of shit, lame ass up and into the gym getting a body that you can flaunt. Good humor and shit talking make it an easy read and I actually read the entire thing which for anyone that knows me or reads this, finishing a book is a MAJOR accomplishment. So I’ve been hitting up the gym regularly and am about halfway through the first section of the year round work out schedule. I’m eating better and more. I glance in the mirror and think to myself “DZAMN SON!” Get on it.

I’ve been working on the rest of the stuff that we talked about and it is getting there. I find myself going through these phases where I really get into an area of my life, and neglect others. Just wrote “but I’m done with that now,” but what I mean is that I’m through just letting it happen. It’s just like tilt, it’s not something that you can eliminate all at once (or maybe ever) but you can get better at limiting it’s effects. So here we go time to start firing on all cylinders… There’s only so much time that we get to do the things that are important to us.

That means that this bad boy is going to get more attention. I was again reminded today of the benefits of short and sweet write ups, but I owe something significant or at least to put a lot of pics and vids in here so that it looks like I put in some effort. But future efforts are allowed to be a digestible size.

Books:

Excited to read his work since wrapping up an impressive IV. BUT! I haven’t opened it yet as there are many other books that I need to get through. I did hear him on the B.S. Report with Bill Simmons talking about the book, the process of writing, more pop culture, the whole bit. I hope to get to this one before 2010, but… I have to get through this beast:

Written by the aforementioned Bill Simmons. Clocking in at over 700 pages, thick enough to stop a bullet from a 9mm, I have gotten through the first 50 pages and I love it. I’ve read his baseball book, I love it and most all his columns and listen to his podcasts, despite his undying boner for the Red Sox, the Pats, and everything Boston. He just knows how to be a fan, and it really comes through in his writing. He also throws in enough gambling to make it degen enough and exciting enough. He throws in enough “what are the odds that ___” or “God I wish I could parlay (event X) with (not completely unrelated, but close, event Y)!” I’m excited to devour this.

The Redux. Plan on nerding out fairly hardcore on this one as I love the economics that these guys elect to tackle. The first book was a bestselling eye-opener into “behavioral” economics. Quotes are used because that term gets tossed around a lot and people aren’t really sure what it actually covers or doesn’t. People make irrational choices, but why?  Something along those lines… Their blog at http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/ provides some good, bite-sized versions of what they delve into and is a good Reader addition, even if you only find 1 in 10 to be actually interesting.

I’ve started up a few other books in the meantime and have barely managed to get through any that I start. Fortunately, I don’t know of any other books coming out in the immediate future, so time to get some work done on these and the rest of my disgustingly large stack on the night stand.

The fall is tough though, as football season hits full stride, basketball picks up as well and my boys! are off to a roaring start.

Playing with a sense of urgency! RAWR! That’s what I like to see! A month or so in, we’ll see if they still have the same fire, but Melo looks like a man possessed out there. They got a taste last season and they are coming for it this year. Hard.

And fall also means… Formal. It’s trip time and this year I’m going to take a quick stop to see some friends in NYC next week beforehand. Not sure  what all is going to go on, but I’ve never spent any serious amount of time in the city despite it being “in my backyard” when I was in Troy. That like many other things these days, is changing. We are starting things off with an interesting event on Sunday, The Brooklyn Beefsteak. An all you can eat and drink bonanza, with a small catch. No utensils are allowed. Looks like we’re going to be going caveman on this…

So all week there, the back up to Troytown for a long weekend of debauchery and hopefully I escape without the swine flu.  Updates to follow.

With that said, I am certainly in an…

-J

P.S. Blueprint 3 is siiiiiiiiick!

P.P.S. If you read this in Reader, try to check it out at the actual site, I’m going to start changing the title picture (currently a sunset over the mountains that I took in the San Luis Valley) to incorporate more of my pics. I see a ton of gems as they cruise through my slideshow screensaver. Might as well share…