Yes - this is for real. And it's definitely worth watching - my brother-in-law, Glen, sent me this video since he has a bull dog, and I thought to myself, "Great... another dumb animal video." But it's not... I mean, it is, but it's not dumb at all - it's pretty amazing - and fun! I only have 2 questions: 1. How did Tillman learn how to do that?, and 2. How bad do the wheels on the skateboard look after he gets done chewing on them?

This is simply unbelievable. The ability of human beings to literally "do the impossible" should come as no surprise because as history teaches us, human beings have literally been doing the impossible over and over and over again since the dawn of time. It's a video like this that truly inspires me and gets my adrenaline pumping!

Not sure exactly why, but this video just cracked me up! It's about time video game makers made interactive games that get people up off their asses!

I've never seen anything this difficult and amazing made to look so damn effortless. Virtuosity can be basic, fundamental movements done with absolute perfection, as well as more difficult things. To these guys, the difficult movements are fundamental. (and no, I'm NOT a fan of their golden bodies, or their banana hammocks!)

If you're anything like me, you've scanned the dial over and over again looking for a decent station in Los Angeles... and there just isn't one to be found. In spite of all the other options for music in my car - my cd player, and my iPod - I'd much rather listen to the radio. A few years ago there was an exception - I think it was 103.1... but for the most part, LA has been void of decent music on the free airways - at least since I've been here since 1994.

A few weeks ago, I was driving home from the gym, and I looked up at a video billboard - you know, one of those that changes every 10 seconds... and there was an ad for a new station - 100.3. Funny, at the time, I couldn't even remember my tuner stopping at that frequency, but low and behold, there it was.

It's been about 3 weeks now, and the radio in my car hasn't changed stations once! The new station is 100.3 - The Sound, and it is FANTASTIC! Check it out!

Came across this video today... speed flying is a combination of skiing, para-gliding and base jumping... check out the video from the Eiger!

http://www.acro-base.com/fr/imgs/galerie/video/videos/eiger06/eiger06.mov

I've gone round and round with this question for years... which is better, and which should I drink? There are a few things about bottled water that I personally can't stand... in fact, its what had me go out and spend $1,500 on a drinking fountain at the gym - the trash and the price. Did you know that Americans throw out 2.5 MILLION bottles every HOUR? That's 60 million every day and 21,900,000,000 per year (that number seems unreasonably high to me, but even if it were 1/4 of that, it's still way too many). YIKES! I'm not a big environmentalist, but holy cow - imagine the size of that mountain of bottles (click here for some more disturbing statistics.) It's a joke - don't be wasteful, foolish or lazy... get one, two or even 3 bottles that are reusable (my personal favorite is my SIGG aluminum bottle), fill them up with water, drink it, and when you're finished, rinse them out and re-use! I've had the same 3 water bottles for the past 4 years... and none are even close to wearing out.

And what about the price? $2.00 for 16oz of bottled water? And the AVERAGE person should drink a minimum 64 oz per day... so $8+ per day on water? Even 5 gallon jugs delivered from Sparkletts or Arrowhead... those are at least $10 for 5 gallons, which is much better, but still, who's got the money to literally piss it away?

I'll be the first one to say that I'm not a big fan of "free" municipal drinking water. If the chlorine isn't bad enough, you get reports like this that talks about pharmaceuticals in water supplies - yuck! So if you don't want to pollute, spend your hard earned money on water, and don't want to drink foul tasting chlorinated water that contains trace amounts of pharmaceuticals, what are you supposed to do?

I've done a bunch of research on water filters over the years and I've got some good news and bad news. First the bad... there doesn't seem to be any agreed upon answer or standard for filtering. Most of the information I found was from people who are either selling filters or are connected to people selling them. Not exactly credible sources. But after reading many of the web sites that these modern day snake oil salesmen, there are two types that stand out.

Reverse Osmosis (also called RO) water filters operate by allowing water to move across a permeable membrane, filtering pretty much everything out of the water. The result is water that is devoid of everything that you would naturally find in it, namely, salts and minerals. The quality of the water is close to that of distilled water, a process that involves converting the water to steam (as steam, water can't hold any of the minerals or impurities it does in it's liquid state) and then re-condensing it. The problem with reverse osmosis is that an RO system is expensive to purchase and install, it is a fairly large system (it doesn't fit neatly on or under your sink). It also takes time to make the water - it's a slow process which means it needs a storage tank of purified water and when this is empty, you're SOL. Even with this drawback, RO systems are probably the best out there for completely eliminating impurities in your drinking water. Finally, it takes regular maintenance to ensure it is working properly.

But another type that I more recently stumbled upon and purchased thus far has been great for me. Whether it is actually doing what it's manufacturer says it will is a totally different story. I haven't sent my influent or effluent out for analysis, so I really don't know for sure, but from everything I've read on their web site and the quality of the product that I received, it seems good to me. What I'm talking about is a ceramic water filter made by Royal Doulton (http://doultonusa.com). Prior to this, I had been using an activated carbon filter - good for eliminating the chlorine smell, but that's about it. According to Doulton's literature on their site, their ceramic filters remove particles down to less than 0.01 microns. This is a much tighter filter than activated carbon (usually 1.0 micron filtering), they require little or no maintenance, they are small (sit right on your countertop or under the sink), and relatively inexpensive - mine cost $210 with tax and shipping. Granted, every 18 months or 1,000 gallons I have to spend another $69 to replace the ceramic filter, this is nothing compared to the cost of bottled water or reverse osmosis.

Do the research yourself if you want, but I'm sticking with my Doulton ceramic filter, refilling my plastic and aluminum bottles daily, and drinking between 96 and 128 oz of water every day.

Ugh - 102 fever yesterday, 103 today... no matter what I do I can't get comfortable... chills, hot, cold, headache... one thing I can do is watch videos on YouTube... here's a very cool one - don't try this at home, Wilkinson!

I was sitting on my favorite bathroom chair a few months ago and as I skimmed through the pages of a magazine, I realized that I had already read it. Grabbing another out of my magazine rack, saw that this one too, I had already read. After going through two or three others with the same result, I just gave up and dove in to re-reading one that looked a bit more compelling... and the strangest thing happened...

I found a whole bunch of stuff that sounded brand new to me. New information, new tips, new articles... yet it was all still strangely familiar. I took my time going through that issue over my next several trips to the john - and found a whole bunch of great "new" stuff. Over the next several weeks, I slowly went through the other "old" magazines in my rack... and I found the same thing - everything seemed "new" and fresh - as if it were a brand new issue I had just received that month!

Since then, I've been thinking about it - and have decided that discovering new material in old magazines could be for one of a few reasons... 1. I never really read the magazine in the first place, just looked at the pictures, and skimmed the headlines, 2. I read the magazine but didn't retain any of what I read, 3. I only looked at the cover - and thought I had read it. As I think more about it, I'm having the troubling feeling that it's most likely option #2... which probably means that I've lost so many brain cells doing crossfit, that I no longer have any short term or long term memory. But on the bright side (I tend to be a "glass is half full" guy anyway), I can save a bunch of money by canceling all my subscriptions... Reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading the ones I already have seems to be just as enjoyable and satisfying as getting new ones each month!

When I have this to come home to, how can I not be the luckiest guy alive?! Dash is 10 months old now, about to walk, and I hear this will change our life forever. Really? I'd say just about every month now for the past 10 he's done something that would "change our life forever." And my guess is that he'll keep on doing just that. I must say that I'm greatly anticipating the walking thing, because just after that, he'll learn to squat, and, well, you know how I feel about THAT!

This is one of the most unbelievable fireworks displays that I've EVER seen! I first started watching it and thought, "There's no way I'll watch all 11 minutes of this!" WRONG! Check it out!

One of the things that has been cluttering our living room it seems like forever are our multiple remote controls. It seems like they reproduce on their own... We used to have them in on small box - now we have 2 medium sized boxes that they barely fit in - they are taking over our living room.

We just got a flat screen LCD TV as a Christmas present to ourselves , and the guy we had over to install it recommended a new universal remote control called a Harmony. He also said I could get it for under $100! I was skeptical that anything under one hundred dollars, especially a universal remote, could really be that good. After all, I've had a universal remote for years - and it just gathers dust in my remote bucket - it's more difficult to use that than the three or four individual ones it is supposed to replace. Against my better judgement, I decided to give it a go... I could always return it.

Well since it arrived on Friday, this thing has changed my life! The only thing you have to know is the make and model of all your components... You connect it to your computer via USB cable and presto chango, it's completely programmed. It is so totally easy to use... you push a button for an activity like watching TV, and it turns on all the correct components. You can control anything in your system easily - from the volume to pause and rewind on your DVR. It really is very simple to use (and I got one of the most inexpensive ones... they make others that are much more expensive and supposedly even easier to use.

One note about price - I would do a google search for the one you want - you can find a pretty good price that's definitely well below the suggested retail price listed on the Logitech site.

Have you ever gone to use someone else's computer and something about their keyboard is different than yours? Well, I have, an it drives me crazy! I'm so used to mine... especially how hard or not so hard I have to press down the keys to get them to register. As I'm writing this, about every 10 words, I'm having to backspace to correct a mistake from an omitted character. It seems as my Mom has gotten used to typing on her keyboard as if she is HAMMERING every letter. Holy crap - this has got to be the most annoying experience I've EVER had while trying to enter a blog post! So annyoing, in fact, that I told her I'd go out and buy her a new one if she'd let me. Maybe the problem is that it's a wireless keyboard.

Wait a second. While typing that last line, I realized that it may be just in the reception of the wireless keyboard... so I moved the thing that receives the signal... hmmm... maybe it's a little better... not sure. Nope. Still SUCKS! Oh my hell! I don't know how in the world she lives with it this way... If she only had a Mac...

I read this today while visiting my mom in Arizona. I don't exactly know why, but it totally resonated with me. Maybe with all the hustle and bustle this time of year, it reminds me of how simple life really is... enlightenment can be found everywhere - in every minute of every day. When it comes right down to it, how much stuff do we really need? How full do we need to cram our lives? How much money do we really need to make? Sometimes simpler is better.

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"While Zen was still in its infancy in Japan, a gifted monk named Dogen (1200-1253) made the hazardous voyage to China to seek the Way. Although he would meet many Masters and receive a cerificate of enlightenment, it was perhaps the old Chinese monastery cook, visiting the newly landed ship to buy Japanese mushroms, who gave Dogen his purest taste of Zen. Dogen asked the cook to stay and talk, but he begged off, saying he must get back to his duties. When the surprised Dogen asked him why he didn't pracice zazen and leave the food to others, the old cook scoffed. Did the ignorant Japanse monk know nothing of the spirit of Buddhism?

Dogen, who woud go on to become not only the most important Soto Zen master in Japan but one of humankind's great religious spirits, never forgot the lesons of the cook-- that work is fundamentally imprortant to Zen and that enlightenment can be found in even the most ordinary places and acts. "Each and every exraordinary activity," he wrote, "is simply having rice."" - from The Little Zen Companion by David Schiller.

YOUCH! HELP! I can't straighten my arms! I did the "Angie" on Friday, and when I woke up Sunday morning, I couldn't get my arms straightened out. I guess that's what I get for doing 100 pull ups fast. It actually feels good to extend them - by carying a grocery bag or hanging from a bar. I've also tried Icy Hot on them for the first time ever - that seems like it helps some too. It's Monday morning now and they're still hurtin' pretty bad but slightly better than yesterday. I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes, "Pain is just weakness leaving your body." Guess I have a lot of weakness!

Photos like this literally scare the crap out of me. I can actually feel my stomach rolling, goose bumps forming on my arms, adrenaline starting to pump through my body. I can go to a restaurant like Islands or Wahoos and watch surf videos for hours without getting bored or tired. Maybe because I'm a kayaker and surfer and I've felt first hand the power of water. I've been held under a few times a little too long. I've been manhandled by an explosive wave - driving me face first into the sand below. I've been spun upside down in a hole in my kayak, "washing-machining" uncontrollably, unable to get myself out of either the hole or the kayak. Yes, moving, powerful water, and the idea of me in it scares me to death - AND I LOVE IT!

I read the following entry in Geoff Thompson's blog this morning about fear. I've always been one to say that when it's starting to get hot - turn UP the heat! Bring it on. Turn toward what fears you most. His article is long, but it's worth the read. In fact, it could potentially change your life.

"The iron ore feels its self needlessly tortured as it goes through the furnace. The tempered blade looks back and knows better."

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I am writing this article for a very selfish reason. In fact I write all my articles and books and films and plays and journalism for a very selfish reason. Everything I am writing I need to read. So when I write it, it helps me, and I know that if I send it out into the ether, not only will it help everyone that reads it, eventually it will come back to me, I will read it again, and it will help me again, because by then I may have forgotten the message.I am prone to forget the message.

The message it about fear!

We all feel it, and every day that sees us spinning and toiling with fear is a long day.

It is Ok to feel scared. In fact there is a hidden benefit from feeling fear, so if I have caught you mid terror, congratulations, you are probably on the cusp of a great discovery,
At the end of this article I am going to ask you all for a huge favour. I hope you will oblige.

_________________________________

There is a lovely old Japanese metaphor about pain and fear and growth. I always recite it to myself when I am up against a wall of fear and easier options suddenly seem like the only escape. It goes something like - The iron ore feels its self needlessly tortured as it goes through the furnace. The tempered blade looks back and knows better.

When my torture starts to feel needless, I remind myself of how many times I have been through this fire and how true this is, that you do always look back afterwards, and you do always know better.

Iron ore and tempered blades! Inspiring. Great words. But without action they remain just that. Words, with no power.

It took me many years of experience (in the forge) before I truly understood this. Words do not transform us. In the world of metamorphosis action is all.

But words can inspire us to action. And words can weaken fear and better enable us to break free from its bonds. Especially when those words have been tempered by experience. One of the greatest things I learned was from a man of experience who taught me my most valuable lesson; every one feels fear! It’s not just me. This one tutorial above all others inspired me to act. Realising that I was not a coward, that everyone was scared, changed my life.

One of the most debilitating aspects of fear is the false belief that we are its only victim. That for some reason the spiteful universe has decided to give us more than our fair share. I always felt this way as a younger man. But I was wrong, I was not alone, and if I was getting more than my fair share it was not because some Higher Power had it in for me, quite the opposite in fact. The reason I enjoy such a prolific life now is not despite fear, rather it is because I have become an alchemist, transforming the molten ore of fear into the tempered blade of gold.

There are many ways to beat fear, there are a plethora of methods that can hold it at bay, even help you to understand it. The better player actually befriends fear. The aspirant uses it as fuel; the master rises to a level of consciousness where it does not exist because its fire can find no oxygen.

Those that do not develop coping strategies are often cremated by it.

The first lesson in fear is to understand it better. That’s why I write about it, to help others, to help myself (I need to be reminded).

Fear is pandemic. It converses in a universal tongue. There is not a shore where this invader has not landed – I know, I get letters all the time from across the globe. The biggest question I am asked is ‘how do you manage fear?’ Everyone is different of course and each feels they harbour a terror so unique that others might not (or could not) understand. So I try not to be too prescriptive when this question is proffered, I just offer (as honestly as I can) what worked (what continues to work) for me.

I have discovered on my own journey that contrary to popular belief, there are not many fears, there is only one, though it is a master of disguise. When you understand this and you stop being tricked it really helps. Suddenly you are not dealing with an army; you are dealing with just one feeling and if you can become desensitized to this feeling, you can master your fear.

First and foremost to master fear we need exposure, and loads of it, the more the better. With this in mind it might be a good idea to become (what the poet Rumi called) a night traveller.
This is what I did. (See my book Watch My back). I went out into the darkness. I hunted down my fears. It is easier, more profitable and less exhausting to attack than it is to defend.
The pre-emptive strike is consistently effective in physical, psychological, physiological and spiritual self defence.

I discovered that when I hunted my fears, three dimensional monsters quickly became two dimensional cartoons that turned to sand under my gaze.
This continues to be the case.

But, and this is important, I never overcame fear! Another big lesson for me. I was trying to find cure for fear, like it was an illness, not realising at the time the key was not to get rid of it, rather it was to stop myself from being afraid of fear and to teach myself to start using it. As the game got bigger, so did my opponent. Whilst I did overcome individual fears (violence, abandonment etc) and many of them, I found that the moment I peaked one mountain, I was automatically at the bottom of another. You might think this depressing. The opposite is true. I find it exhilarating. Every time the weight starts to feel a little light, my Invisible Supporter slides another disc along my bar.

The universe is talking to us. It wants us to grow, and it knows that there is no growth in comfort. So when the language feels like terror, and my knees are doing an involuntary bossanova I remind myself of this, and I marinate in the fear, I bathe in it until I don’t know where the fear starts and I end. And when I centre myself, when I listen, when I tune into the fear my enemy becomes my engine, my fear becomes my fuel.

The more fear I feel, the better I perform. So when it rears it’s ugly head I go eye-ball to eye-ball, I open the door, I let it in, I sit it down, make it a drink, offer it some food, I sit with it until it dissipates.

Fear feeds on terror. I don’t give it terror, so it starves.

The second thing I did was I wrote about my life, my fears, my journey, and I spun my words across the World Wide Web. Firstly because I know that as a species we all suffer from ‘the forgetting’ so we all need continually reminding. My words go out, they help other people (other night travellers find my notes, it serves them) they come back, they help me. They help me when I write them, they help me when I read them, and they help me when I send them out into the world. The writing is also my catharsis. As you know, fear likes to prey on vulnerable minds, it likes to blackmail; I find that placing my fear in print and putting it out for the world to read stops this from happening.

We all have days when we think ‘what is this all about?’ Days when that voice (or voices) in our head tells us to ‘give up, it’s not worth it.’ This is the voice of ego. It needs to die. It feeds on attention. You kill it when you take attention away.

Here are a few other tips that I have found helpful in relation to fear.

Do the things you most fear to do. DO them. Stop talking, put your bollocks on the table (or a female equivalent) and start experiencing. Now is the time. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next year or new year. Now! Life is short my friends and it is later than you think.

Meditate every day, yoga is very good because it triggers the parasympathetic nervous system and quietens the adrenals. This will make your fear more manageable.

Train till you sweat. This is also a good trick to take the top off excessive adrenalin.

Physical training is your salvation.

Read widely, read challenging books. Knowledge helps to dispel fear. But it is not the knowledge that you will pick up in a tabloid, or watching a soap on the TV, these will probably only exasperate your fear, because they are laced with negativity, and negativity triggers the adrenals.

Some ideas on reading; if you think you are mobile read Timothy Leary, if you think you are free read Gurdjieff, if you think you’re brave check out the great Mahatma Ghandi, if you think you have integrity read Ayne Rand.

These are just a few of the books that have helped great men and women achieve impossible things.

Spend your money and Invest in yourself. Stop being so tight. Good information is priceless, so what if it costs you silver to buy it, it cost the seller blood and sinew and that one non refundable commodity; time!. What else are you going to use your money for? If you don’t invest in you, who will? People throw hundreds, even thousands of pounds at beer and take-always, tens of thousands on fast cars, but they will not invest in things that might transform their existence, like books and taking instruction from men of experience. Knowledge will reap you a harvest that is worth more than Solomon’s fortune.

And if you think you haven’t got the money you think too small. Work harder, earn more, or stop wasting money on the ephemeral and redirect your coffers into something infinite.
There is a lot of contradictory advice out there. Read it all. Cross reference it with your own experience, this should tell you if it has merit. If you do not have a lot of experience, either go out there and try the information out for your self (and be the proof) or cross reference it with your intuition. A rule of thumb; if it scares the shit out of you it is probably worthy. In my world all red lights are green, large crowds lead away from the light and beaten paths lead to empty lots - and all great gifts come in fuck-ugly packaging. Other than that be inspired only by people that walk their talk (never take advice on diet from a fat life coach! Never ask advise on diamonds from a brick builder), only follow your own maps, and only then for a while, they will keep changing.

And the biggest lesson I have learned thus far (other than to walk always towards your fears, and lean into the sharp edges) is to get off your arse and experience. And if it is a fat arse why is it a fat arse? Do something about it, (there is only so long you can keep kidding yourself that you are big boned). Get out there and get uncomfortable. Growth is not meant to be easy. It is deliberately hard because knowledge demands big shoulders to carry it.

Be a man of experience (do not be an ant pretending to lead a bull) because at the end of the day experience is the only currency. And you will know when you are a man of experience because people will beat a path to your door, when you are a man of experience people will search you out from across the globe, to seek out your advice, to heed your council, to bath in your light, to be inspired by your life.

Let me tell you, people are desperate to be inspired, they are desperate for wisdom that has been born through bollock-breaking hardship, and of course if dollar is your incentive people are happy to pay top dollar for a truth if it has blood and snot as an accompaniment.

So if you are out there now, struggling with fear, maybe it’s time to change direction. Instead of moving away from the heat, why not turn into it, go through the forge, so rather than feeling needlessly tortured for another long day of spinning and toiling you can become the tempered blade that looks back and know better.

Oh, and if you want to do me that huge personal favour, please send this article out to as many people as you can, because then it will come back to me (and back to you).

Just because I am the man that wrote the words it doesn’t mean that I am a man that doesn’t need to reads the words again.

Be well.

Geoff Thompson

Did you ever get the feeling as you read an article or watched a video or documentary about a problem in the world that we live in that "uh oh... this is a bad problem, and I'm part of it?" That's what happened to me as I watched The Story of Stuff. I thought about my mindset about my stuff, especially electronics and gadgets - and how I can't wait to get the latest and greatest - even if it means getting rid of something that is perfectly good. "Planned obsolescense" - just one of the many elements of the story that is disturbing, yet brilliant at the same time! Capitalism isn't without its problems - and as the video would lead me to believe, unless action is taken to shift thinking this way, our future generations will suffer.

To watch the entire video, go to www.storyofstuff.com. This clip is just the introduction...

OK - WTF?! I have NO socks in my sock drawer, and none in my stack of clean clothes. And I know for a fact that I only have 3 pairs (out of 12 total) in my dirty clothes hamper - trust me, I looked! So what I want to know is - WHO THE HECK IS STEALING MY SOCKS!! And if no one is stealing them, then WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY ALL? I mean really - where could they be disappearing to? I wonder if one day, I'll see a sock sticking out from under my house (like the leg of the Wicked Witch of the East in the Wizard of Oz) and find a whole pile of them sitting down there covered with lint and dirt arranged in a pattern that resembles a snickering face - as if to say "Ha Ha. Fooled you. We were down here all the time!" I've heard that everyone has a problem with disappearing socks - maybe they are contributing to the overcrowding of our landfills? I don't know, but I just solved my problem, at least temporarily... I bought a package of 6 more!

Know a child (or maybe your non-tech savvy parents) that could use a new laptop? Better yet, want to do something really awesome for a child in a developing country? If you go to Laptopgiving.org, you can do both. Give one, and get one. Make a $399 donation ($200 of which is deductible), and one XO laptop will be sent to a child in a developing nation, the other will go to the child (or parent) you specify when you make your donation. These laptops have been especially designed to withstand heat, sun, sand and water - perfect for the rigors in countries where the most common flooring material is very often dirt.