picture every up-day-te

Lately I have been forced to use my laptop to take the pictures for my picture every day challenge.

This is because I lost the charger for my camera, and it's now out of batteries.

There will be a noticeable sudden sucking of the photos, towards the end of the challenge. Because now I usually just end up taking a picture of the room that I happen to be in, because I'm not carrying my laptop around to take pictures with. That's weird.

I'm gonna have to do something about this.

Boston

My last time in Boston was exactly 2 years ago, right before I left for Korea.

Oh, how things don't really change!

I went into the Shaw's where I used to shop, and bought some groceries just like how I used to.

It is more fun to buy groceries in America than in Korea. The main reason for this is that in America, people are not shouting at you to buy the meat. I never bought any meat from the store in Korea. If I'm going to buy meat, I'd like to do it in my own time, and not with someone yelling into a megaphone about how great and cheap the meat is every 10 seconds.

long car ride thoughts

people in the back seats of convertibles look like they're having a much better time than everyone else on the road.

it would be easy to steal people's money near a toll booth if you dressed like an official and walked around the queued cars and asked them to pay in advance.

rode from saranac lake to boston today, in the car with a couple of good old pals. and if you're reading this kyle, i will never apologize for choosing "telephone pole" in twenty questions. it's a legitimate choice.

tree with an eye

push upsdate

doing 100 push ups a day is not that hard, especially when broken up into smaller sets.

I've been mixing it up between 5x20 and 4x25, depending on how I feel.

I've also been mixing them into my daily runs. Run about a mile, then do 20 push ups. That can be pretty hard.

Is it effective exercise? I don't know. I probably should be giving myself a break every other day so that my body, which almost never has to do push ups, has a chance to recover.

But "do a 100 push ups every OTHER day" is a pretty lame sounding 30 day challenge.

a tennis ball and some trees

The Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a free education site. You can watch videos of all those things you learned about in school, especially if it's about math. And it has fun, addictive quizzes with an "achievement" based reward system.

If this was around when I was trying to learn math, then I'd probably be able to figure out my taxes.

optimism

Maybe it's my extra strong pot of coffee, or my new secret million dollar business plan, but I may be actually developing an optimistic view about the future.

Not my future specifically, but The Future.

I don't think I've felt this since... I can't even remember.

I think TED talks are a very big factor here. Let me explain.

News preaches Doom and Gloom every day. News, for me and many others, is the primary window to the Rest of the World. Without it, you only see your tiny, 0.00000001% corner of the world.

But with news you can see so much more! Maybe, if you read lots of News, you can see up to 1% of the world!

But the stuff you read about in the News is usually Bad and Depressing. So maybe you read other News, which is also Bad and Depressing. Eventually you start to feel Bad and Depressed. You forget that you're only seeing 1% of the picture.

TED Talks are sort of like the News. You still see only a small part of the whole picture. But the people who talk aren't Depressing at all. They're actually Smart and Hopeful. They are trying to solve some of the big problems out there. And many are succeeding at it!

If you watch enough of them, you might even start to feel Hopeful too.

Challenge Update

100 push ups: started it yesterday. I broke it down into 4 sets of 25. No problem! I haven't done the push-ups yet today, but I imagine it will be much harder as I woke up sore from the day before, and I just completed a nearly 6-hour canoe trip to buy food so I won't starve this week.

Korean diary: actually I had nearly done a straight month of this already before I made it a challenge. I send the diaries to my girlfriend 민정 who checks them and sends me her diary in English. It's a nice way to keep in touch across the seas, and also study Korean and English. Pretty easy and routine for me by now, but that probably means I'm not trying hard enough to challenge myself when I'm writing them. I should probably strive for harder grammar structures, and new vocab.

Message old friends: This one is a good challenge, and I recommend it to anyone who would consider it. I've been using primarily Facebook (email in the case of one friend I know who doesn't use Facebook very often). So far I've probably gotten replies from more than half of the old friends I contacted. Some people respond immediately and others straggle in the next day, or a couple weeks later. Either way, I can almost always expect a new message every time I log into Facebook, and I expect I'll probably still be getting messages from some straggles well after this challenge is over.

I've caught up with friends, and been surprised by what they've told me they are doing with their lives (I think most people leave the most important things off of Facebook status updates). It has also prompted some meetings. On average, this is one of my quickest daily challenges, and has a great payout for that effort.

Picture every day: In the beginning, I really enjoyed this one. I took some good pictures, I thought. And I learned more about my camera in the first couple of days than I had since the entire time I've owned it (nearly 2 years). But this last week's photos felt a bit hurried to me, like something I was doing just so I could check it off the list. We'll see how the rest goes.

TED Talks: This has become one of my favorite things to look forward to every day. The funny thing is, my opinion of TED has not really changed -  I still think they are among the best things to watch on the internet. But now I am actually watching them, instead of just thinking that I should. I highly recommend this as well. If you're stuck wondering where to begin with 900+ videos on that site, this list is a good place to start. I've watched most of them by now, and have yet to be disappointed.

Update this blog: This is one, like the picture challenge, can vary. I like today's post idea, but I am often struggling to squeeze something worthy of posting out of my often barren brain. However it is a very nice way to organize the challenges I'm doing, and I usually refer to the blog to see what it is I actually have to do today.

Overall I am very pleased with the 30 day challenge idea, especially during periods of time when structure in my life is otherwise lacking. I plan to keep doing them a long while, even after I start a new job. I would recommend this to everyone.

As my spotty memory recalls Matt Cutts once saying in his TED talk: "The next 30 days are going to pass whether you like it or not, so why don't you do something you've always wanted to do, golf ball sandwich."

100 push ups

New challenge: 100 push-ups a day for 30 days.

The push-ups can be done at any time of the day, and they don't need to be consecutive.

boathouse

The boathouse at Spring Pond Camp.

paradox of choice

This TED talk by Barry Schwartz reminded a lot of the other TED talk on choices I heard this week. He's funny, and although he comes across like an old grandfather who is afraid of the world changing, I do believe he's right about most of it.


The basic message is: the western world dogma of "Choice = happiness" is wrong, and in many cases "choice = increased expectation, wasted opportunity cost, and unhappiness."

It's good to have some choices, but being happy isn't linked to having lots of choices, or even making the right choices. It's a state of mind and you can have it (or not have it) whenever or wherever.

Here's something: Whenever I get a nice long break, I'm always excited about it. But unless I have something planned (in other words, limit my own choices), I end up not doing much, despite having unlimited options (paralysis).

snake

This little guy spooked my little cousins. They chased it under the main cabin. Then it came back. Saw him take a little poop and then slither into the tall grass.

a long time

30 days is a lot longer than I expected it to be. I'm about halfway through my first challenge - updating the blog everyday - but it feels a lot longer than that. Not that this is hard, or that I don't like doing it. I'm pretty neutral about the blogging, which is probably why I don't do it on my own very much.

I can see how eating nothing  but McDonalds for a month would be really gross. And it probably feels like seven years and three days.

almost late post

This will probably be posted on the next day, unless internet returns to the cabins in the midst of this awesome thunderstorm.

I knew a day like this would eventually come. I think as long as I write this on the correct day, it'll still count for the 30 day challenge.

Yeah. Totally.

how to get a job

alright, I don't actually know how to do that. I've had jobs before, but I couldn't tell you how I got them.

I did think up a pretty ethically sketchy way to give yourself an edge in getting a job, inspired by a TED video I watched today about irrational decisions.

Step 1: Create a dummy resume that is similar to your own resume, but slightly (but obviously) worse than yours. The qualifications are similar, but maybe a slightly lower GPA.  And maybe your "dummy" didn't do that community service thing you did last summer.

Step 2: Send in your resume to a place you want to work.

Step 3: A day or two later, send in the dummy resume.

Step 4: Get hired.

I haven't tested this. I don't recommend doing it. But it would probably work.

Nobody will ever choose a dominated option on purpose. But what's cool/messed up with human rationality is - when given THREE options (say for example: you, a "dummy" who is slightly worse than you, and some other guy who's also trying to get hired), people tend to favor the option that dominates one other option EVEN IF that option has nothing to do with the third!

This baffles me, but it also makes so much sense it's scary.

the Breakfast Dilemma

A very good TED talk about how the freedom to make choices can often hurt our potential to be happy.

I have my own language for this that I call the Breakfast Dilemma:

I love breakfast more than any other meal. But when I go to a good breakfast place that has an extensive menu, I come across the Breakfast Dilemma. I want to eat everything, but I can only physically consume one or maybe two things (nowhere was this dilemma more pronounced than at Bouchon's in Las Vegas, the greatest breakfast place I have ever eaten at).

Do I go for Eggs Benedict? French Toast with powdered sugar and fruit compote? The Hungry Lumberjack? I will spend more time on breakfast menus than any other kind of menu. And I never feel confident when I make my order that I'm choosing the best one for me.

This mental anguish continues long after the choosing itself, especially if someone I am with orders one of my alternatives. The scrumptious Eggs Benedict of Now turns to sand in my mouth, as I dream of the Huevos Rancheros that might have been.

If there were fewer options - if this restaurant was only good at making one thing - I would actually be happier with my breakfast experience. Although my brain is programmed to believe otherwise. We believe having more choices is never a bad thing, because how could it be? And yet it does, because those roads untaken will torment you.

The Breakfast Dilemma; it'll get you every time.

luna moth

Sometimes you don't even need to think about what picture to take.

한국어 일기

Today my post is going to also be my Korean diary challenge for the day. Is that a cop-out? And more importantly, where does the expression "cop-out" come from?? 

오늘 우리사촌은 왔어요. 나는 그녀를 12년동안 안만났어요. 그래서 오늘은 정말 특별한하루예요. 오늘 사촌의 딸을 처음에 만났어요! 그녀의 이름은 머리예요. 12새예요.

지금 머리랑 머리의 친구랑 우리동생이랑 "튜빙" 하고 있어요 (한국말로 튜빙 단어 있어요?) 그들은 튜브위에서 앉고 배뒤에 타고 있어요. 너무 재미있어요!

오늘의 날씨가 아주 좋아요. 하늘이 너무 맑지만 별로 안 더워요. 이날씨가 수영을 위헤서 원벽해요. 안타깝게도 나는 수영을 하기 싫어요.

What I think I wrote:

Today my cousin arrived. I haven't seen her in 12 years. So it's a special day. I met my cousin's daughter for the first time today! Her name is Molly. She's 12.

Right now Molly, Molly's friend, and my sister are out "tubing." (Is there a Korean word for tubing?) They are sitting on a tube and riding behind the boat. It's really fun!

Today the weather is really good. The sky is clear but it's not too hot. It's the perfect weather for swimming. Too bad I hate swimming.

picture every day

This challenge is just copying the 30 day challenge guy from TED, who probably copied it from someone else. But as cliche as "a picture a day" challenge might be, taking this picture was surprisingly fun.

This was near the visitor interpretive center near Saranac Lake, NY.

Up to five challenges per day now. Each one can be done in a few minutes, but it's hard to keep track of them all the time. I think the best strategy is to take care of them as early in the day as possible.

And they've been fun!

turn your life into a game

Another good TED talk, this one by Jane McGonigal.

She talks about turning life into a game. Why? In short, games are fun and challenging, and the benefits from these challenges are real (and she backs it up with science, so you know it's true).

I have spent an immense amount of time playing games. I've wasted a lot of time with bad games, but also had great experiences with others. It's a category as diverse as people themselves, so it's hard to say much about all the games that's always true.

But good games should always challenge you, and stretch your imagination. If they can be social as well, so much the better.

I've been using games in my ESL lessons for over a year, and the kids are far more responsive and eager to use their English during the game than in the "regular lesson." Games do something to our brains that make us want to challenge ourselves, and that power can be channeled in any direction we want.

For example, the 30 day challenges are about things I'd like to do but never do, but when put into a game context, somehow I become excited to do them.

Am I really that dumb? I can't motivate myself to do something unless it's part of a game? Well, if that's the case, I'm going to be doing a lot more games.

learning a second language

I woke up at 7:30 to do a half hour English lesson with Alyssa, my 3rd grade-ish student from Korea. It's great seeing her English level improve. I've been teaching her pretty consistently for over a year now.

In the spirit of improving foreign language skills, I added Korean diary to the 30 day challenges.

Language acquisition is a tough thing to stay motivated about. My problem is that my goals are hazy at best and improvements are hard to measure.

And you can't learn much of any language in 30 days, despite what those annoying Pimsleur ads proclaim. And if you get discouraged and take some time off, you go backwards!

I was a mid/high achieving high school student, but Spanish was my worst subject. And that was by a HUGE margin. It was only by the mercy of the teacher that I didn't get straight Ds or Fs.

I used to think that I was just "bad at other languages," but I am now convinced that it was because I just never figured out how to learn a second language.

I'd like to go on for a really long time about my various theories on language acquisition (and by "my theories" I mostly mean ideas that other people have had that I read at some time), and I will. But I want to keep this post relatively short so that I can actually have something to say every day this month.

What I was trying to say before I got on a tangent is this: there are ways to break down the gargantuan goal of learning a language into bite-sized pieces.

Some ideas I have for future goals: watch a Korean drama or movie every day for 30 days, read X pages of a Korean novel every day for 30 days (so that I finish the novel by the end of the period), or "No English" for 30 days (I'm kind of terrified and excited about that one). 

what happens next?

I've been thinking about what the goal of these challenges should be.

At the end of thirty days, do I want to continue with the goals, or will it have been enough? Are these changes that I want to incorporate in my life indefinitely?

I think the answer is: somewhat. For example, contacting an old friend every day for the rest of my life is just not feasible. I simply don't have enough friends to that. In fact, towards the end of these thirty days, I will probably be struggling to think of a friend to send a message to.

And without facebook, it would probably be near impossible.

But perhaps I will be better about staying in touch with people after this month. That would mean success to me.

Even if I don't, I will still have contacted thirty people that I otherwise probably would not have contacted. It feels good to do that, knowing how good it feels to be contacted myself. And who knows what effects these messages might have over time?

Something like posting in my blog everyday, however, would be possible to continue forever if I wanted to. But is that the ultimate goal here? I don't want to commit to that. But hopefully I will be better with updates.

And it's nice to know that it's not only possible, but actually pretty easy, to do something like this over thirty days as long as I simply define it as a goal.

TED talks

Whenever I watch a TED talk, I always tell myself I should watch more TED talks. This whole 30 days challenge thing was inspired by one of those talks.

That's why I added watching TED every day for a month to the challenges. It's not a difficult thing to do, but it's something I wasn't doing before.

Today's TED talk was Dave Eggers talking about his 826 Valencia project, a tutoring center/buccaneer supply shop. I felt pretty special having almost volunteered for it this one time (went to Korea at that time instead).

write it down

I'm on vacation right now. Not that my entire life isn't like a vacation. But right now it's more vacation-y than usual. 

I'm on Saranac Lake, and keeping up with blog postings and messaging old friends is not on the top of my list. It's easy to do though, so I've been doing it. It takes me about 30 minutes altogether to do them both. I can have breakfast and drink coffee while doing them.

But I definitely wouldn't be doing these things if I didn't write them down somewhere.

I heard a long time ago that you should write your goals down. I sort of passively agreed with that idea without ever doing it until now. It makes sense though. It's too easy to "forget" about a goal unless it's made real somewhere - by telling someone or writing it down.

Day 2

The challenge is pretty easy so far. Don't see what is so difficult about updating a blog every day. But probably it's the lack of a job, and also posting things with little content.

I'm in Albany, New York now, staying at my godfather's house. I'm in that uncomfortable zone where I'm awake before everyone else, and I'm really hungry for breakfast but I have to wait for everyone first. Good chance to post.

I've always thought I should stay in better contact with people that I care about. So I'm going to send a message to someone I haven't talked to in a while, every day for 30 days (a different person every day).

30 Day Challenges

Inspired by this TED video I found on my friend Leo's facebook wall, which was inspired by Morgan Spurlock's 30 day challenges, I have decided to begin a few challenges of my own.

I'm going to write about them here. In fact, my first challenge will be: update this blog every day for 30 days. I like this because all of you will know when I'm not doing it. (By "all of you" I, of course, mean my mother, and that one person who thought this was going to be a blog about fishing, and the millions of fans I imagined).

See you tomorrow!