Awesomeness Deluxe

The Day I was Forked

landland — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:39:47 +0000

I was having a conversation with my old University roommate the other day and he brought up the story of the time I text messaged him repeatedly in a non sensical panic. I had long since buried the memory. It was the day I got forked.

He was in the lab with a couple of friends doing some group work on an assignment. I was at the condo getting ready to eat dinner. I had made a stir fry using brown rice, some veggies, and chicken. It was piping hot but I was so hungry I just didn’t give a damn. I sat down with fork in hand, took a huge forkful of the stir fry, and proceeded to bury the fork into my mouth. I felt the heat of the food instantly burn my mouth. As I got ready to spit the food back out, I felt a sharp pain on the lower part of my mouth, inside the bottom row of my teeth on both sides. It was the fork. And it was stuck. I yanked a couple of times but the fork wouldn’t budge. It was literally wedged between the bottom row of my teeth. The heat of the food had caused the metal fork to expand at the exact moment I put it into my mouth. The heat, timing and angle had to be perfect for the fork to enter my mouth, expand, and decide to make itself a permanent fixture in my mouth. Mind you, the food was still burning the inside of my mouth. Too hot to swallow, I rushed to bathroom, turned my head to one side, and proceeded to use my fingers to claw the food out. As I looked at myself in the mirror I couldn’t help but laugh. “What the hell are the odds of getting a fork stuck in my mouth?”, I thought. I carefully examined my situation in the mirror, wondering what my options were. I yanked and yanked a couple more times. Nothing. My mouth was bleeding. It wasn’t that funny anymore. I started to get a little nervous. I figured since the fork expanded that some cold water would cause it to contract. But it was too little, too late. That fucking fork wasn’t going anywhere. I started to think that I was in some serious trouble. I sat down on my computer and started Googling stupid shit like “How to remove a fork from your mouth?”. Unsurprisingly, nothing relevant came up. I started to panic, and that’s when I started to frantically text message my roommate. Can you imagine getting text messages like “HELP ME. A FORK IS STUCK IN MY MOUTH!” and “YES YOU MORON I’VE TRIED TO PULL THE FORK OUT! TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL!!” while you are in a lab with group members. What would you do? Well in the case of my roommate he thought I was retarded, showed his group members so they all thought I was an idiot, and laughed it off. I kept sending him these messages until finally one of his group members called me to see if I was just messing around. I didn’t answer and wrote back “HOW CAN I PICKUP WITH A FORK IN MY MOUTH. GOD YOU GUYS ARE SO STUPID”. My roommate, after about 10 exchanges, finally started to sense the urgency of the messages, and agreed to come home. By that time I was so freaked out, I just figured I’d yank as hard as I could and lose a couple of teeth in the process. At least that blasted fork would be out of my mouth. And so that’s what I did. I yanked so hard that when the fork finally came out of my mouth I shot backwards and landed right on my ass. My mouth was a bloody mess but thankfully I didn’t lose any teeth. I rose in victory, did a little dance, and texted my roommate telling him he didn’t have to come home now. To this day he still thinks I’m an idiot.

The Day I was Forked is a post from: Awesomeness Deluxe

Making Decisions

landland — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:47:30 +0000

The ability to make decisions is a quality often overlooked as a character trait or positive quality because we make them so often. It is one of the most important abilities of the human species, and yet all too easily taken for granted. Decisions determine your life and the life of others in very big ways. Every second of every day people are making decisions that determine their lives and the lives of many others. Decisions are influenced by everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. I’ve heard the process of decision making described through systems such as automatic and reflective, as well as rational and emotional. In other words, the situation, your mood, what you ate last, how you were raised, where you are, the colour of the pill you took and a seemingly infinite sea of other things determine how we decide. Perhaps we have less control over what we decide than we think we do.

What we decide as moral might depend on the weather or what we just read in the newspaper. It goes counter to how we think we decide, yet time and again this is what the science demonstrates. When was the last time you made a decision you felt you had full control over, without outside influence? Think wayyy back, because it probably has never happened. This is potentially depressing for some, but the reframe is equally powerful. Knowing this, can’t we make better decisions through self monitoring, being totally honest with ourselves, and getting frequent feedback? I think so.

Think about that the next time you are about to put that cookie into your mouth, buy that tablet you don’t need, and think that buying a house is a wise decision. What are you assuming? You might realize that you don’t even know what you don’t know. You are your own person, but the illusion of control, security, and knowledge isn’t something you should ignore. It’s the game being played around you that you don’t even know exists that is most dangerous.

Making Decisions is a post from: Awesomeness Deluxe

When it hits you…

landland — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:13:45 +0000

Have you ever felt that indescribable feeling you get when something jibes with you so much and to such an extent that you just can’t shake that feeling? Like a calling, of sorts, but not really. It’s bigger than that. It resonates with you, right to your core.

I’ve been watching this show called Departures and it does exactly that to me. I can’t stop watching the show. It was recommended to me a few years ago by a former co-worker and I was sure I wasn’t going to like it. I just brushed it off since I watch so little TV that it would just be some stupid travel show. Then over the holidays I turned it on, and watched….and watched….and watched. I have to physically force myself to stop watching and have limited myself to 1 episode a day. The good news, I guess, is that it is only 3 seasons long. But at the same time, I don’t ever want this show to end, and knowing that there’s an end makes me kind of sad. But then of course, everything ends and that’s ok.

There is something about it, though, that just has me hooked. My brother watched the first 2 episodes and hated it. Yet I can’t get my eyes away from the TV when it’s on. And not like, “Oh, this is a cool show, I’m going to watch this like Seinfeld” kind of way. It’s something much more than that, like I’m there in the show, feeling what they are feeling. It has hit me hard. I mean, sure it’s about 2 dudes who both remind me of myself in certain ways that go travel around the planet, but there’s tons of travel shows out there with hosts that go to wild and exotic places. I don’t even think travel is what draws me to it. The inner discovery, the trials and tribulations, the hardships, the rewarding victories, the way the story is told, it just grabs me by the balls. They are looking for something, but they don’t know what it is, yet they’ll know when they’ve found it. A ball grabber, for sure. What’s grabbed you by the balls, lately?

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” – Steve Jobs

When it hits you… is a post from: Awesomeness Deluxe

Happy 2012!

landland — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 03:08:59 +0000

Happy New Year! 2011 is over and I hope it was good to you. Let’s aim to make 2012 even better.

2011 was a good year. It was probably my best year in terms of learning. School gave me the opportunity to touch on subjects I wouldn’t have found on my own, as well as come across people whom I may not have been exposed to otherwise. These people were not only intelligent but helped bring new perspectives that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own. School also allowed me the time to do my own reading. And I did a lot of it. I read over 50 books the past year. Although many people say that a rigorous MBA program doesn’t allow you to have a life outside of it, my experience has been the opposite. I found myself having adequate time to do the things I enjoy doing such as reading, working out, rock climbing, and jiu jitsu. These activities all contributed to my learning, balance, and well-being and were vital to my overall happiness.

There were a few disappointments in 2011, which included a large number of injuries. I threw out my back, tore cartilage in my ribs, messed up my right foot, aggravated my neck, etc. etc. in what seemed like a never-ending ocean of injury after injury. This made me very, very frustrated. I am hoping the lessons I have learned in 2011 will allow me to take the necessary precautions this year to avoid injuries while still doing the activities I love. I was also annoyed with my lack of output, which has always been my Achilles heel. I tend to consume a lot of input, hence the amount of books I read, but lacked creating any output of my own. This blog being an obvious example of that. I don’t have any excuses for this. I managed to do most of the things I wanted to do, and yet if I’m honest with myself I know I did those things so I could avoid doing what matters, such as figuring out how I will feed myself in the coming years. This annoys me to no end. There are certain activities I know I should do, but just conveniently never get around to doing them. My guess is probably because I find most of them uncomfortable. This is something I will address in 2012.

It will be a big year, with big changes coming up. I’ll graduate, turn 30, and leave Toronto, to name a few things. I’ll continue doing the activities I love, but will definitely have an emphasis on output. Have a great 2012!

Happy 2012! is a post from: Awesomeness Deluxe

Insanity Asylum Review

landland — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:30:11 +0000

I finished Insanity Asylum a little while ago and haven’t gotten around to writing about it until now. Here are my thoughts:

Insanity Asylum is a 30 day home workout program from Beachbody and hosted by Shaun T, the same dude that brought you programs like Insanity, which I found to be a mofo. This program is no different in that regard. Shaun T really likes to kick your ass. The program is designed for people who have already completed Insanity and want to take their athleticism to another level. It is designed for athletic performance.

Equipment Needed: You need a little bit more equipment in this one compared to some other home programs, including an agility ladder, jumping rope, dumbbells, resistance bands, and an optional pull-up bar.

Workouts: There are 6 workouts and 2 bonuses. The workouts are Speed & Agility, Vertical Plyo, Strength, Back to Core, Gameday, and Relief. The bonuses are the assessment, which you do before and after the program to show your progress, and a 15 minute overtime program, which you’ll wish you didn’t have to do since its after Gameday. Asylum also comes with a nutrition guide, worksheet to track progress, and a calendar.

You combine the 6 core workouts for 30 days, which goes by very quickly. You can also use these programs in addition to Insanity or P90X, but I imagine you would be very, very tired. Workouts are usually about 45 minutes, except Gameday which is closer to an hour and Relief which is a 30 minute stretching program you have to do a few times in those 30 days. Of the 30 days, you only get 2 rest days so plan your time accordingly.

I found Insanity Asylum to be pretty challenging and tiring. I have never used an agility ladder before and discovered how embarrassingly uncoordinated I was at the beginning of the program, but gradually improved over time. The movements might feel unnatural and complex at the beginning, so you may need to practice a bit before getting them down correctly. Shaun T stresses the importance of proper technique for maximum benefit of the program. The assessment did show a significant improvement in performance numbers in a number of exercises compared with my pre Asylum numbers, so I guess that means Asylum helped.

I did find that this program really strained my lower back. Especially after the Strength program, I would find my lower back aching the entire next day. My feet and ankles were also sore until after the program ended (I did the workouts wearing Nike Free shoes). Also, be aware that you will sweat a lot in the program. A LOT. I would suggest a towel to dry off any chance you are able to because if you are working out on a smooth service such as hardwood, concrete, or tile, you WILL start slipping. It happened to me a bunch of times and I almost landed right on my ass once. In the videos, they do the workouts on astro turf so never run into the issue. You have been warned.

Overall, I give the program a thumbs up. I felt it really helped with my balance and coordination, especially. I cannot say for sure if that translated to improved climbing or grappling, it could be all in my head, but I did feel it. If you are looking for a challenge and improvement in athletic performance, then definitely give it a try. You can get Asylum here.

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If you liked this review, you may also like my GSP Rushfit, Rip:60, P90X+, Insanity, RevAbs, or RMAX BER reviews

Insanity Asylum Review is a post from: Awesomeness Deluxe