Yoga Challenge

By now, a few of you know that I have a new site in the works; a real, actual dot com. So, the majority of my energy has been going towards producing content for that and the rest of life and thus, not writing as much on here but I have not forgotten you all. There's a lot of exciting things on the horizon..

One of which is a 5-Day Yoga Challenge I put to myself, the idea coming from a good hour long yoga session to twist out a hangover. Since I'm always bitching about scattering my energy by taking on too many athletic endeavors, I wanted to streamline and focus on maintaining a regular, consistent yoga practice that lives up to my ideals (or at least gets close). 

One hour a day, five days a week of damn good yoga. Simple enough, right? Well try it, and see how many obstacles and mental roadblocks jump out of seemingly no-where to try and stop you. But, you must breathe through it and persevere and to the victor will assuredly go the spoils. I'm currently on Day 3 and there will be a comprehensive personal report for each day. Should be interesting. 

I think this will be a thing I do from now on.. keep with short goals both to keep up with my desired level or physical fitness and to keep myself from getting bored with the same old routine always. One week I may combine Capoeira and dumbbells, another alternate different styles of yoga like I am now, or even running, since the weather is beginning to taper down to coolness once again. 

Who knows, but you can be sure to hear all about my exploits friends..fear not. 

As for the site, I have a name and a tagline but it will be a closely guarded secret until its launch, of which the exact date is still unknown. I'm shooting for either the end of this month (September) or the beginning of October. We shall see. So far so good, though!

As always, thanks so much for stopping by and keep checking back for more details!

-Shane

Out to pasture

  I've never been one to keep up with the times, because for one I think it's extremely depressing and watching the news almost always leaves me in a miserable fury; it seems futile to even get upset about things because it's so common to be told "there's nothing you can do" anyway. Yes and No. You see, that answer actually infuriates me more because all I hear is laziness and that they've given up. Sure, let's just let "them" continue to keep taking it all away from us; they know that we know (or think, anyhow) that there's not a damn thing we can do about it anyway.

  Well they're wrong. And we're wrong, you're wrong and I'm wrong, if we all buy into that hopeless existence. There is always something that can be done. Clearly the seeds of revolution are sown deep in me but as much as I'd love to see the townsfolk marching down the street with pitchforks and primitive torches, intent on overthrowing some corrupt shit at whatever cost, it's just not appealing to me, and frankly, it solves nothing save for some really extreme cases of second and third-world poverty, government corruption, etc.
  We don't need a bloodbath here in America, but we do have a need for people to start waking the fuck up. Rub the dirt from your eyes and look out there and see what's going on, and do something about it however small, instead of going home to your lazy boy and 700 channels of cable you don't even watch 15 of. And you can only watch one at a time, so give me a fucking break, people.

  We're spoiled brats is what it comes down to, and as long as we have our material comforts and the capitalist machine keeps bombarding our brainwaves with messages to BUY! SALE! FREE LAYAWAY! and everything else, we're kept like the pleasant little docile cattle we are. No one wants an unruly cash cow, now do they? They get turned into hamburger real quick. Same thing happens when you go against the popular flow but it's not so bad, and that's the only way there will ever be any change made in this country, if we all stick together and hit them where it hurts: their wallets.
  I'm sure you're familiar with the concept of a boycott, yes? Or an hour where everyone ideally turns out all lights and off with all electronics to save the Earth an immense amount of energy production and distribution by-products. They all sounds great but sadly, they seldom ever work. Why? No one cares. Sure, some do but generally we're all too busy playing on our phones or computers with every light on in the house (especially in rooms no one is even in), with five tv's on and three radios... ugh. Would it kill you to light a fuckin' candle and go without any sort of electronic for ONE HOUR OUT OF THE ENTIRE YEAR? Probably not.

  Yes, I'm cynical. No, I don't like the idea of humanity very much. I am however, still cursed with this deep love and respect and eternal hopefulness that we can live up to our ideals, despite everything. It's just going to take a lot of work on everyone's parts, and there needs to be a collective awakening to get the ball rolling successfully, otherwise it looks like we're gonna soon be taxed for our lung capacity and fined for sticking your tongue out and tasting the rain. Someone owns the rights to that already, you know.
  it's just sad, really sad. All over the world, people are starving and dying and generally going through personal hells every day that we can't even begin to fathom. Shame on al of us for turning on the news and saying "ooh" and "oh my god, that's horrible", because we don't have one iota of a clue as to what it's like to struggle through life, and we can always turn the news off; it ends there fore us but for others, it never stops. We get raped financially, yeah, but it's our own fault for letting it come to that in the first place. Somewhere, someone along the line just started getting lazy and settling for second best because they were comfortable, then everyone else followed suit. Well, comfort is a double-edged sword, my friends so choose the comfort you desire wisely.

  I have no answers, and I offer no solutions. I know what I believe in, and I know that my money buys power, ultimately. My money that I earn goes towards ideas and industries I believe in, that can ultimately help all human beings out. Decide what matters to you, and then come to understand how that may or may not affect others. Are you supporting a hardworking, local or small business who focuses on quality or are you just stuffing the fat pockets of some multi-billionaire who doesn't give two shits about you. You're a statistic. Worse yet, a demographic; you're not even a human being anymore.
 
  Wake up. Claim your humanity. Hit 'em where it hurts.

The intellect takes a vacay

  For someone who is possessive of something that some go as far as to call "brilliance", I certainly seem to have a lot of dumb days, those days when the wheels just grind to a halt and even the simplest concepts seem impossible to grasp. 

  It's a rather hopeless, somewhat depressing feeling but it fades, so that's the silver lining I guess. For me, it's as easy as getting a good night's rest after a busy day and shitty (sleep) night. 

Sleep is important to mental health but if it was so beneficial then the schizophrenics and depressives who sleep all day and night in the mental institutions should be cured by now. "All things in moderation", as the saying goes..

  It's not just about sleep though, for me; it's as much about boredom and the devastating effects on a creative mind of falling into a routine that leaves you numb, at a job that leaves you feeling mentally incapacitated. 

  I'm inclined to think that this is a pretty common occurrence among the peoples of the world; it's pretty standard for someone to hate their job and complain about it and the people they work with. More often than not, the people are two-faced un-trustable trolls and management runs their employees into the ground, on par with their process of daily dehumanization. Worst of all, it's all obligatory. 

  What is happening to us? Does no one else see this or are they just too tired and afraid or incapable of doing/saying anything about it? 

  A great once in a while you hear of someone finding and pursuing their true passion, and as happy and inspired as it makes me feel, it always leaves me feeling a bit lost, myself. There is not one single path that will work the same for everyone, not will it produce the same results, and I'm talking mainly about the cultural ritual of school/college/marriage/children.

  The market is high for useful, practical knowledge; things we can use every day to make smart decisions, conscientious choices that will benefit us and hopefully not hurt anyone else in the process. Now is the time to use your voice and your gift to make a positive change not only in your own life, but in the world.