Buster Benson

Created a little site to help me do this every day:
http://750words.com

Anyone else who likes this idea is also welcome to use it. It uses Facebook Connect and is a private journal. Let me know what you think!

My fingers are going to need to be toughened up a bit again. But, this being the first time I’ve played the guitar since the iPhone came out, I just realized that one of my least favorite parts of playing the guitar (tuning the damn thing) is now a lot easier with these guitar tuning apps. Awesome.

And, also, I’ve decided to just learn a bunch of songs that I like rather than writing my own songs (for now) and found a great site with a bunch of current artists: indieguitartabs.com.

Fun!

And everything’s sprouting!

Just need to do a bit more testing. Wouldn’t want to accidentally break the site again!

Doesn’t help that Facebook changes their API every other day.

This last weekend I dug out a big fennel plant that had taken root in our rock wall:

Then, we planted our first batch of seeds: arugula, swiss chard, beets, and snap peas.

Then, the sun came out hardcore for a few days and I’m hoping they’ve all been inspired to germinate.

Took a day to get rid of all the weeds. We also bought a bunch of vegetables to plant, which we’ll do right after I dig up one last giant fennel plant in the wall.

Ran 5 miles this weekend, on a randomly sunny day. I think I’ll be able to run 13.1 by June no problem, although I’ve started trash-talking my teammates so who knows what level of training this will spurn on. Maybe I’ll want to run the whole 26.2!

They sent me an email a few weeks later saying my blood type is O+. Universal donor, y’all.

Russell and Lia have a 10’ x 10’ plot at the Belltown pea patch and they’ve generously volunteered to share it with us as we learn how to grow fruits and vegetables for ourselves. I’m super excited.

I’m a Self-Knowing Healthy Tree Hugger, according to this test.

http://43things.com/book

It’s not linked from anywhere else on the website yet.

I did 100 pushups, but not consecutively. 20+25+15+15+20+10=105. That last 10 was not part of the hundredpushups.com challenge though, so it’s sort of cheating. If I could’ve done 25 on that 5th set that would be better.

Well, after doing 100 pushups in 5 sets, it’ll be a long road to doing 100 pushups in 1 set. How do people do it?

I’ve managed to get myself in a bit of a health pickle recently. My original goal of gaining 10 lbs of muscle sort of failed due to my slow weights routine not really ever making much of a difference. I did get stronger, but I didn’t gain weight. And, considering my fluctuating diet (ie. Health Month), a few stressful months that led to not eating/sleeping enough, and a break when I got married and honeymooned, I’m now weighing more than I did at the beginning but suspect it’s fat rather than muscle.

In the meantime, I’ve found myself spoiled by slow weights and unable to go to the gym (it seems so futile to mess with those weights without a personal trainer), uninterested in running, and weighed down by honeymoon and holiday eating.

So, I’m gonna try to start a yoga habit. I’ve been reading meditation books and getting into the mindfulness stuff again, and trying to be more aware of the constant buzz in my head and body and how it influences my behavior, thoughts, posture, and mood.

It helps that there’s a yoga studio (and a good one) literally right under where I work. The only problem is that I rarely feel motivated to go in the morning, and have plans after work. But now that life is calming down, I think I’m going to try to start going to the 6pm classes. And maybe one on the weekend. They also have meditation classes, which I’m very interested in as well.

Just to be clear, I’m not much into the Eastern religion aspect of it all, and I’m not going to become a vegetarian or stop killing bugs that annoy me. But I have begun to think of health as something that is as connected to mental state as it is to physical state. And given my extra-stress levels recently, a little calming meditation and mindfulness is about the only thing that seems to work for me. Acupuncture helps too. And so does cutting back on the drinking. It all works together.

I guess that’s what health is, in the end: everything working together. Or something deep like that.

Okay, the 10 minutes an hour thing worked for a week, but didn’t really feel worthwhile enough to continue this week.

I think the real issue with media consumption is the tendency for it to turn us into compulsive multi-taskers. Speeding through tasks, switching tasks during lulls, intolerant of a thought that lasts longer than a moment, etc.

So, this week, I’m trying a new thing. One thing at a time. If I’m working on something, work on it without multi-tasking. If I’m surfing the web, surf it until the wave ends, then stop. No need to hop waves and live in a crazy chaotic whirlwind of snippets of information.

One thing at a time. I’ll try that this week and see if it’s any better.

I’m only going to surf my favorite update-heavy websites in the first 10 minutes of every hour. These sites include, but aren’t limited to: Twitter, Live Journal, Flickr, Facebook, Google Reader, and Tumblr.

I’m also turning off all email notifications, and any Twitter desktop notification apps I have.

The point of the media diet is to reclaim my brain. Especially my daytime working brain. The overload of update-heavy input has me switching sites every 5 minutes in order to see if anything new is posted. It’s like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, and will never end.

Much better to reclaim my brain and miss a few updates or links here and there.

I’ll try this out this week and see how well it works.

The 6-week program is at hundredpushups.com. I’m currently on week 3, and have been here for a while. I took time to get married and honeymoon in between, and now I’m hoping to get back on the pushup wagon.

I like pushups. They’re simple, over quick, free, and can be done almost anywhere. No equipment required, and the workout is as much arms as it is back and stomach.

100 is a lofty goal though. But it’s concrete, and I’ll definitely know if I’m going towards it or away from it if I continue the program.

Here’s what I did on election night:

http://bustermcleod.livejournal.com/219388.html

I tried on the suit for the final time yesterday, with the shoes, and I’m totally in love with it, so much as someone can be in love with an inanimate object.

The bespokeness continues, though, because Scott Kuhlman is also making my shirt and bowtie, and they too are going to be totally awesome.

The whole process has been truly delightful, and I recommend Kuhlman for anyone in Seattle who needs a perfectly tailored suit.

It took a bit over 2 weeks from submission to the iTunes Store before it actually showed up. But it’s there now!

Here’s a direct link to its page in the iTunes Store, in case you have an iPhone and want to try it out.