Ready Player One Review

Ready Player One Review

I love VR stuff. I've gushed in previous posts about paracosms and simulated worlds. I've read neuromancer by william gibson, snowcrash, the nexus trilogy, and now ready player one. I was obsessed with the matrix as I grew up and it even inspired me to pursue philosophy. There is just something fascinating about worlds within worlds. The feeling we get when we have to shift our perspective to different levels of reality is unique and Important, I feel, for self development. It is also conducive to developing higher order thinking skills. More about this later, but onto my synopsis and review.

RPO is about a kid named Wade growing up in a decaying world where everyone has immersed themselves in a virtual reality simulation called the OASIS that plays out like an mmorpg. The creator of the game, Halliday, grew up in the 80s and loved all sorts of video games, comic books and other media of that time period. Halliday has died and left his massive fortune to anyone who can solve a series of riddles and challenges scattered throughout the OASIS. Our main character, Wade has basically been raised by the OASIS and is a super geek when it comes to 80s pop culture lore. He struggles to solve the riddles and find Halliday's treasure while also dealing with the struggles of the real world. He's also up against a massive corporation that wants to take over the OASIS and monetize everything, changing the fundamental democratization of information ethic Halliday began. There is a clear parallel here with the net neutrality issue we routinely face today.

I love all the 80s references though a lot of stuff went over my head, the things that stuck out delighted me. MUDS, the text based games that play out like D&D are feature in some of the riddles that Wade has to solve. There are too many other pop culture references to pick out individually from star trek to the iron giant, it's endless. And that's the unique thing about this book, it doesn't pretend that our media does not affect us. The real history of our cultural influences will always be deeper and more nuanced than a contrived history in any given fictional story because we are also located at a certain time and place in our culture where we are constantly affected. When a story has all of actual human history to draw upon, it is much easier to build a coherent and varied world. So what RPO lacks in it's storytelling is made up for with its constant reference to familiar 80s lore.

Something else that stood out to me was how Wade deals with the deteriorating health of his body as he devotes most of his waking hours to the OASIS. This is a real problem for the future of gaming that people are trying to solve. Omnidirectional treadmills and haptic gloves actually exist but they are all in the early stages of development. In RPO, Wade has a massive haptic rig connected to his limbs that provides a certain amount of resistance to simulate the the physics of the real world. This gives his body a degree of exercise but he also takes time to exercise in a gym simulation, doing weight and running. He also sets up his OASIS rig to not allow him in until he has exercised a certain amount. He gets all of his meals sent to him from the outside world and the weight loss program basically won't allow him to over eat so he gets super strong and fit despite spending all of his waking life in a videogame. Once this problem of bodily neglect is solved in the real world, I will probably become so addicted to playing mmos and other things that I will be fitter than I have ever been. It's a long way off though, I'll have to keep pretending at my heroic efforts during my parkour sessions.

I have more to say about simulated worlds but not here. Those are my basic impressions of the book. I'm all in for other vr related books now.

Training Log 11-14-17 New cycle

Though I've oscillated a bit on my more structured training, I've made progress with my handstands and can almost do my handstand press from a tuck planche consistently, I did it once the other day and almost cried with joy. I'm going to be strong again. Being as strong as I was before gave me a certain kind of power and control that I never truly appreciated. And the funny thing is, I wasn't even that strong! At least not compared to where I wanted to be. Here's what i've got going for right now. As far as reps and sets are concerned, I don't think I'll be going  past 6 reps. If I can make 3x6 consistently for 2 workouts, i will just up the weight and start back over from 3. The grease the groove stuff will make up for the lack of volume in the more structured routine. Also I'm trying not to overload myself since I've got a lot going on with my other skill training.

Structured: 3x per week

W pull ups +10lbs

Ring dips ->W dips

Deadlifts 185

Pistol progression

GTG: 5x per week

muscle up negatives

handstands

BABL presses (bent arm, bent leg presses)

Weekly training schedule

M: parkour jam

T: gym jam, tumbling, acro

W: nothing, cuz band practice rn

TH: Jiujutsu class

F: Parkour Jam

sat-sun: hopefully a climbing  gym trip, definitely at least one parkour session.

PK sessions have become more like "movement sessions" where I primarily work on parkour but I also start playing hacky sack and messing around with the hula hoop. The main reason for this is a lack of manipulatives in parkour. I'm trying to cover all my bases: walking, running, jumping, climbing, swimming balancing, lifting, carrying, throwing, striking, grappling. I've added inverting and acrobatics. I'm lacking in striking and only getting a small part of the grappling piece that I want

Barefootdom

Went to Seattle a bit ago and trained with my friend Emily who exclusively trains barefoot and is barefoot allll the time. I have my bouts of barefootism but i would often come back to shoe world because I wanted to do something that barefoot wouldn't allow, like a massive jump, or some sort of rock stride line. But since I have been back (and it has been about a month or longer now) i've trained exlusively barefoot. Okay so there was the time where I hit my foot on a rock while hiking in tahoe. I split a part of my foot off much like a callous rip on the hand and I had to wear shoes when training for about a week. It's okay now though!

I'm starting to collect some data on the advantages/disadvantages of barefoot training (BFT). There is a parallel with bft and bar brachiation. Basically I stop doing stuff on bars once my hand skin starts to wear out and become painful. The next time I train, I can go a little longer than usual. Not sure if there is a linear relationship here or just a variable cap of time that stops me from moving. Never thought to measure that until just now. It's hard to measure how long I can brachiate because there are so many different hand placements and conditions. Regardless it's clear that there is some sort of natural limit here and I think it is a good way to determine the length of a pk session or to know when to move on to something a little less leggy. The natural cap limits my training in a way that encourages me to move in more lateral ways.

Barefoot has just made things more interested. I often feel with parkour that I've "seen it all before"  (though I know this is not the case) and this almost existential dread starts to seep in when I start a session. I just feel caught in a timeloop doing the same thing again forever. So barefoot training brings a huge amount of novelty to what feels old now, refreshing my experience with pk as if I'm a total beginner.

The flip side to this is that I have a metabolically taxing experience when I do put shoes on again. Just the other day I did a few huge jumps (huge for me) and my legs were almost immediately exhausted. My whole body felt exhausted. So I can see that my legs will not be as strong as they could be when I'm wearing shoes, but hopefully I can edge toward my higher ability  as my feet get tougher. My familiarity with bft has already increased dramatically overall but I have to learn parkour all over again. I may switch off from time to time in the interest of novelty too if things get to stagnant.

Novelty and more generalist movement is a whole other topic I need to discuss as my ideas on that have shifted. Lately I've been hula hooping and playing hackysack as part of this push to open myself up to other movement attributes. More on that in a future post.

Log 7/05/17

Got a new job teaching gymnastics and it inspires me to see kids training so hard and at a much higher level than I'm used to seeing or being. It makes me just want to train hard and acquire a bunch of gymnastics strength skills.

I'm preparing myself for grad school stuff. It's a long way off but I'm set on my path right now and I know generally what I need to do to get where I want to be. For philosophy in particular I'm realizing that I need to understand complicated arguments for several different sides of any given topic. I think when I stopped studying philosophy officially after my undergraduate degree, I would read about different topics/arguments but with a mind to discard bad reasoning. So as soon as I would see a misstep in the logic of something, I wouldn't bother with it. Instead I need to have a more exploratory mindset with every view I come across so I can map out the philosophical landscape. Lately it has been all about political philosophy which is something I avoided altogether. I'm excited to explore things much more now. Switches are flipping in my brain and it is a good thing.

As far as training is concerned it has been mostly full of
Hangs
L sits
One arm lock off training
A bit of climbing
Some tumbling
Handstands/press training
And pk!

Log 6/26/17

Enjoyed a weekend of training again. Went to the sfij early to help set up bars with Davis crew and we jammed until about 8 or 9 I believe. I'm enjoying so much more strength lately, tumbling is getting stronger, handstand stuff feels easier. On Sunday we did some heavy squats and deadlifts and a shift in of stretching. Still pretty beat up right now so mostly taking it easy today.

Instead of training so much I'm hoping to mostly just stretch and focus on my philosophy studies. Trying to finish "buddhism as philosophy" by mark siderits. It's a short introductory to some of the philosophical ground that buddhism covers. It's nice to see buddhist thought laid out in a more organized argument form. Aaaand gotta study for that GRE.

Log 6/21/17

Trained my broad jump and some kips yesterday. I usually start out with jumps from my knees to emphasize hip drive. Then I jump with no arms to emphasize just my leg power. Then I do the full jump. Probably should just add some basic hops for my calves/ankles.

My kip is generally pretty disastrous right now but I do it well every once in a while. Need to be stronger with my horizontal pull and my compression.

Food:
Rice and broccoli
Apples
Bagel with hummus and chips
Some soy protein based chicken tenders
Some pectin fruit strip things

Log 6/20/17

Been coaching gymnastics again and it has been pretty inspiring. I am lucky enough to be shadowing the higher level boy's team. They train up to 4 or more hours 3 to 5 times a week. That dedication! It's cool to get a better understanding up close regarding specific techniques and training methodology. The secret seems to be just an insane amount of skill training.

The movements these kids are doing are all connected as far as form is concerned so they get so much repetition with, say, L holds for almost every event. I was under the impression with my own training that I would train some L holds but not much more than a minute or two accumulated. Now I am seeing it as a fundamental body position like standing or squatting. It should be easy.

Ate pretty well:

Salad with tomato, olives, and onions w/spring mix
Rice and broccoli with green onions
Some apples
Fig bars at work and some fruit snacks
A banana.
Was at 76.5 kg yesterday. Hoping to get back down to 70 kg first.

Slept on yoga mat on wooden floor with no blanket. My stoicism meter is increasing.

In general I seem to be just getting a lot more stuff done lately. I'm finally starting to push myself a little harder than I have been in life because I have reasons for moving forward. I'm living with more purpose and that gives me so much more resilience, openness, conscientiousness. I'm one lucky duck right now and I hope I can just maintain this momentum.

Daily log 6/18/17

The heat was hot and the ground was dry and the air was full of sounds.

It's been stupidly hot out. So hot that it's hard to train during the day. Early morning and evening training is where it is at. Was able to press up into a handstand from a crow position.

Got a lot of life stuff going on lately, trying to get myself out to Sweden as in August for trainings and other things. Need to take GRE's. Been inspired to actually start doing things for my potential future so that I won't be impoverished forever. This is not my usual mode of thought. My ideas about minimalism and capitalism are clashing with some other philosophical views from those old existentialist philosophers. Will see where this all goes but it is exciting to explore a new avenue because I think I was stuck at a dead end with my other ways of thinking.

06/12/17

Parkour run through Davis. Switched to my vapor gloves since my feiyues unceremoniously died the other day. I must have understood that they wouldn't last the year but I sorta tried.

Run was good,  was shown a bunch of cool new spots in Davis. Worked through some big acrobatic movements. Feeling pretty beat up now. First day of a new job starts. Teaching gymnastics again. I think I will enjoy it.

Daily Log 06/11/17

Blew through my feiyues yet again. Had this crazy idea I could make them last for an entire year. I think it was about two months. This is actually pretty good as far as feiyues go. I may have some backup vapor gloves I can use. I must have neglected them over winter since they bleed water straight through like sunken ships. Mostly acrobatic laden parkour stuff this weekend and some bar work. Jenny added a new platform in the backyard which has created a lot of interesting opportunities and saves energy because we no longer have to swing a bunch to get momentum. We can just start from the platform. Managed a handstand descent down two 2-3ft ledges. It's getting easier! Hardly stretched at all or did any calisthenics unfortunately. Was stressed out a bit regarding family stuff and my training mentality just fell apart. Perhaps things would have been worse without my meditation practice but it is in moments of high stress that my motivation to seek cessation blossoms. Slowly but surely.

Daily log 06/08/17

Failed almost immediately with eating the one meal a day. Going to take it a little easier and just slow it down to two since my activity level is pretty high and it messed me up almost instantly. I think it makes more sense to taper and oscillate meal frequency. Some days, nothing at all. Other days, up to two big meals. Will see if I can handle myself only going with two max.

I gained almost a foot on my broad jump. Up to 97 inches from 86 inches only the week before. Have been doing jumps from my knees to engage my hips more so it's probably just a significant technique change. I want 9 feet!

Worked on some handstand press up negatives, pulls, dips, and pistol negatives. Did 6 pull ups too. Just gotta build consistency. Been going to wonderland as often as possible and putting myself through a warm-up even if i don't feel like training. I ignore the lazy voice because I know I will be somewhere else mentally by the time I'm done warming up. It's important not to take one's thoughts so seriously sometimes.

Daily Log 06/07/17

Trained tumbling stuff at davis diamonds. My russian fronts are super high now and I can usually combo out of them. Tried to throw some cart fronts and fulls but was less successful I love the idea of switching from front tumbling to back tumbling which is why I wanted the cart-front flip but since I lack the power/technique I ended up trying some back half twists to roundoff and was pretty successful though I had a hard time keeping my arms up for the transition. Some light stretching before and after but not enough volume with that .

Spent a lot of time reading through "Buddhism as Philosophy" by Mark Siderits and it is a refreshing read to what I am used to with the usual buddhist texts. The in depth analysis of Buddhist doctrines helps deepen my understanding and refine my motivations mainly because the author is showing the more specific reasons behind certain claims, while discarding common misunderstandings. It's a good thing to have at least 5 rationalizations for why you're practicing something and the book doesn't disappoint. In particular I was just reading about the doctrine of non-self as it relates to the more conventional concept of self. Illuminating. Will write up a review and analysis after combing through it. It's a textbook but it's short and very clearly written for the most part.

Ate one big meal of spaghetti, bread, and soup for lunch. Then a mango later on. But I want to try just having one meal a day for a month. I'm inspired by re-reading this paper called "the metabolic winter hypothesis":

"In 400 BC, hippocrates wrote: “We must consider [whether] food is to be given once or twice a day, in greater or smaller quantities, and at intervals. Something must be conceded to habit, to season, to country and to age.”

I just love this. The concept of eating once a day feeds my inner ascetic. Not sure why I fetishize being an ascetic but it just makes me feel good to try to live simply in a world full of constant excess. It's part of why I sleep on the floor, why I eat plant-based, why I try not to give/receive material gifts. I suppose it makes the times that I do break these "rules" feel more valuable.

Back to the paper though, Cronise points out the the modern contrast to hippocrates' musings about food. Nowadays the meals do not stop, we are hardly ever in a fasted state so we rarely pull into our reserves which will just continue to accumulate left unchecked. Will see how I feel after a week of this and decide if I can continue.

Daily log 6/05/17

Parkour run! Only ended up going through a few spots on our run since we got distracted by the obstacles around us which is a good thing. It's nice to find a shady spot to train. I can do my handstand press up on a low wall now just barely. I can't wait to get stronger and stronger. Not sure if I'll be teaching gymnastics but I want to be ready if I do so I gotta a get all my gymnastics type strength up.

Had some major slip ups with diet again. I'm noticing that it only happens at moments where I am not quite all there and I just impulsively go for something, not allowing myself to think it through. If I can trigger myself to stop everything when I get an impulse, I can meditate and recreate the associations that strengthen my resolve. I'm finding my patterns and realizing the places where I need to be strongest:

When eating out somewhere, movies/restaurants
Riding by the store after not having eaten in a while and I realise I have money
Just before or after training (the rationalization starts there, "i need the calories")

Daily log 06/01/17

Trained some isolated jumping techniques along with some max broad jumps. Hands behind back. Jumping from the knees. One footed jumps. My max broad jump is 7' 4". So yeah I could use a bit of a power boost for sure. I would be pretty happy if I could get past 8-9 ft. And I can't imagine what it would be like to have enough jumping for a 10 footer.

Worked on some lache to pre up yo a highhh bar but technique is crap so I'm barely getting to the bar and just falling back off of it. Hands crapped out after a series of half hearted attempts.

Managed at least one good muscle up on rings. I can only do maybe 5 pull ups and 6 dips. I think my body just remembers how to do muscle ups on rings and I have not so bad shoulder flexibility.

Aaaand some handstand negatives on the edge of the box. Nice to get a taste of a semblance of an echo of a ghost of my previous handstand ability. Hopefully it will come fast with dedicated training.

Food
Bowl of rice and broccoli
A bowl of grapes
Can of barley soup
Watermelon
Piece of baguette with mustard and avocado
Whole wheat spaghetti with homemade pasta sauce full of veggies, one bowl.
Didn't feel like I stuffed myself today and I managed to have only about one serving for whatever I was eating rather than a massive container of rice or multiple servings to infinity.

Daily log 5/31/17

Went to Davis diamonds but I was pretty tired so I threw a few good tricks but was mostly enjoying talking with some of the others.

Currently reading the second book in the Nexus trilogy and I'm realizing where I got that whole "mind programs" idea and it makes me want to develop the concept a little further. For whatever mental state I want to put myself in, I need to know the exact pathway to get there. So it is much like a program in the sense that I am in one state of mind, I execute a few lines of code, then I'm in the desired state. The lines of code are just the appropriate thoughts and associations that change my mental state. It's going to be important to create programs that are not too specialized, otherwise they won't work for the general category of things I need them for.

A program for food cravings has gotta be pretty easy. Essentially I want to bypass the part where I eat shitty food, and go straight to the mindset of craving healthy food, or perhaps for certain occasions, not craving food at all.

For parkour, I could certainly use a program for resolve and commitment to a jump I know I have the technical ability for. Most of the time I have to just keep drilling a technique until I happen to fall into the correct state of mind but again, why not bypass that?

It's the same with learning someone's pk route. I've specifically trained my eye to learn the movements right away instead of having to go into all of the over complicating explanations of "where this hand goes and where to out this foot."

Daily log 5/28/17

Went to nut tree boulders for bouldering and a little bit of rock hopping. I exhausted myself on one route but it helped me see where i was weak with my hand strength. Gotta get some climbing back in the rotation.

Went swimming, no breath holds this time, just fun.

Daily log 5/26-27/17

26th
Did judo and skateboarding. Need to work on my ukemi more. Went to a nonparkour party and actually had fun.

27th
Trained at the pit, handstand eccentrics and headstand pushups. Even muscle up on rings! Getting stronger and building momentum.

Motivated by this talk: https://youtu.be/Urd0IK0WEWU
Can't tell if this guy is just a nut or what sometimes but he says a few things in here about responsibility that stokes my inner fire a bit.

Video of some training: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUpBiCPF-xW/

Surpassing "I used to"

I am trying to not only get stronger, more endurant, skilled, etc. than I currently am but also more than I used to be. I have found that I may not have had the most accurate view of my previous strength while reading through some old blog posts. I have some benchmarks to surpass and am inspired by just the thought if being better than I was. I feel this bizarre insecurity being so weak at the moment, only being able to to a few pull ups at a time, not being able to jump nearly as far or high. It just bugs the shit out of me every time I go out to train and find I can't do something I know was easier than walking for me before. So here's the beast I'm trying to confront and surpass:

3s Straddle planche
30 second tuck planche
10s straddle front lever
17 max reps of pullups
30 pushups
15 bw dips
10 HSPU
7 consecutive L-sit to bent arm, bent legged handstand press
10 handstand pushups
60lb weighted dip
60 lb weighted pull up
1 min L-sit on floor
Handstand press from turtle position
4 consecutive kipping muscle ups
Level 3 climb ups
Popvault to handstand and walk
8' 6" broad jump (I want 9ft)
Cork on grass
Standing back pike
10+ consecutive back handsprings.
Nipple height box jump
3 minute breath hold
Some jump benchmarks at BV
Regularly running 5+ miles per day
Standing front flips
Fly away quarter turn catch
3 consecutive ring muscle ups
5+ circles on mushroom or pommel horse or just a round object
Kong front flip
Side flips over stuff
2 consecutive back tucks

My brachiation ability is much better than it has ever been and it's clear my confidence in my current movement is at an all time high. I feel fairly comfy in my body in that I know it well enough to take on certain challenges that I may have been afraid to do before. In other words, most of my progress has been mental

Daily log 5/26/17

Rest day for the most part but I still skateboarded for about 5 miles. Also didn't do my L-sits at all. Failed the second time trying to fix my bike for a completely different reason.

Turned in a job application at a gymnastics place. Might be teaching gymnastics again. I miss it, to be fair, though I despised it for awhile. A lot of my strength stuff came directly from gymnastics and I think coaching it again will give me the incentive to build up certain gymnastics/tumbling skills. I know how strong I could potentially be. I'm not there yet. Think I'll make a post about some of the benchmarks I used to have so I know what I'm going for again.

Started the second book in the Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam. It's a sci-fi about this nano drug that wirelessly connects up people's minds. I love it so far though it has some pretty stock tropes and lines in it. The overall idea plays out well. Need to do a full review of it when I finish.

Food
Rice and broccoli with pasta sauce
Bananas
2 Veggie burgers on sourdough
Something called a vegan coq monsieur which is essentially a ham and cheese mcmuffin. Still unhealthy but not as mad as the original
Some lentils w/ carrots and onion
Watermelon

Daily log 5/25/17

My bicycle tire popped again and I failed to fix it though I had all the back up tools because my pump is faulty. I'm reluctant to get it fixed if it forces me to run/walk or skate everywhere instead. But the money saved over time cycling and not taking the bus may win out for me. Worked on a big ol lache pre and failed on it a bunch of times by not sticking it. I actually did one that was pretty good but it felt like a fluke I could tell that my problem was mostly mental so I did a few forfeits. I made one slightly good pre at the end and avoided having to do a bunch of L sits. But I still ended up having to do 100 pullups, 100 pushups, and 50 pistols on each leg. Pretty much ended my pk session and turned it into struggle town. I noticed that though I had to suffer through these reps, the necessity of them put me in a much more open mindset, not nearly as reluctant to do some work. "I must do these things so I will do these things" versus "these things are optional so maybe I can stop this point or that point".

My pull ups took the longest and I switched between chinups. I never went over sets of 3. I can only do about 8 or 9 pushups before my arms start to give out. I did my pistols in sets of 10 using a vertical pole since I'm still lacking a surplus of ankle dorsiflexion. I also tried to finish by 10pm otherwise I'd have to do 30 minutes worth of L-sits today. I'm about 15 seconds in and will get it done throughout the day. I need the push to do these things sometimes. It's not a punishment in my opinion, it is just trading one kind of mental difficulty for another. Yes it's difficult for the body, but it will follow suit given even just a little bit of rest.

"The causes of suffering are internal". 

I finished this talk finally. I have such appreciation for this guy. I've done a review of his "Attention Revolution"  book and I always find his talks motivating/uplifting/clarifying. There is a lot of jargon thrown around but one gets used to it reading buddhist texts and all that. He mentions this video in the above talk and even though it is a joke skit, I think it points out the brilliance of meditative practices in that it is actually possible to "stop it" when it comes to rumination, negative ideation, etc. It's just that people don't know about this stuff so they don't think it is worth the effort when they hear a soundbite about it. They don't connect up meditation with anything that has to do with their mental issues. Obviously this line of thinking can go too far but I believe if a person can maintain their attention on the breath for even a few seconds, many of the benefits of meditation are possible with training. Quite a low bar, isn't it? (another caveat: probably doesn't work for everyone depending on certain conditions. But it's worth saying that it should work for most people) Anyway I'm in love with this idea of being both the originator and liberator of my mental suffering. I find it so empowering and it sets my priorities. 

Food log: 

Rice and veggies

Beans

3 bananas

5 pluots

Some pineapple

Strawberries

A late night veggie pizza. Too expensive Jesus. Veggies good, whole wheat bread not so bad, daiya cheese terrible.

daily log 5/23/17

Parkour run yesterday. Apparently the route we took through uc davis campus was about 1.6 miles and we ran most of it. It has become clear that my capacity for dealing with my fear and knowing my body outpaces my strength and power. I find I can often do scary jumps that the others have a hard time with but are well within their physical strength. I struggle to do jumps that they can power through. I'll catch up eventually. Ate pretty well too, all fruit and veggies and rice for the most part. I'm getting a little more accountability on that one luckily, which makes me make better choices. If I have to tell someone else that I ate something terrible, I become motivated to not disappoint them. You'd think I wouldn't want to disappoint myself first and foremost but that does not seem to be the case at the moment. This reminds me of the "internal audience" concept coming from Dr. Doug Lisle getting our internal audience to stand up and applaud us by doing the things we know are right but struggle to make ourselves do. I like this concept of internalizing esteem in a sense because one can see how it works in the external world and apply it to the internal. There are certain people that I would hate to disappoint constantly seek their approval. I will even do things that I find personally difficult in order to please them. Perhaps it is no different with the self.

Daily log 5/22/17

Finally got some parkour in. Spent about an hour or two stretching which was wonderful but I need more of it. This is my usual pattern with stretching. I max out all the positions I'm interested in, then do it again in like 3 or 4 days. So my progress is slow with flexibility because I lack the consistency required to make bigger gains.

Dragged myself out to jam on the uc Davis campus with the rest of the Davis crew in the ridiculous heat. Luckily there was plenty of shade in our spot and it only took a little bit of moving around to dissolve the discomfort from the heat.

Video:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUYUYuJFwXQ/

This short route had some tricky footwork and I know I lost some power in my cartwheel with my bent legs. Also didn't land the best but was getting pretty tired from doing everything. Made some massive (for me) dive kongs too.

Went to a salsa class and had such a fun time. It is pretty technical stuff but I am enjoying the challenge of trying something completely different and I've always wanted to get into dancing of any kind.

Daily log 5/21/17

Rest, relaxation, cold water, music, family, loved ones, HOME.

I needed the rest yesterday. Was still quite sore and had to take it easy. Traveled a lot on foot and by bus. Watched a movie. Drank some wine and ate some cantaloupe. Went for a late night swim too.

I've come to fully appreciate my rest more and more now because I know of the end result and I can drop my restless anxious feelings about needing to train so much. Would prefer to build that rest time into my everyday rather than go overboard one day and be messed up the next few as was the case with this run. I'd prefer to build up my muscular endurance a little more slowly so I can avoid being essentially disabled for a bit.

Daily log 5/20/17

Went home to visit parents and train at the lathrop parkour park. Still terribly sore but it is getting a little bit better. Was able to do a bit of tumbling even, and a standing back tuck which I usually find pretty difficult. Ate giant calzones with someone special. Sang and played guitar with my mother for a bit. I'm so happy to have learned how to play and sing a bit. I don't know what it is about singing/playing but I will often spend  2-3 hours a day just playing songs. I've noticed that I rely heavily on tablature and have few songs memorized though.

Daily Log 5/19/17

Still recovering from my run and it's clear that the calves got the brunt of the abuse. I was able to train and jump around yesterday regardless of the muscle pain and it actually felt pretty good when I was moving, testing the range and getting blood flow going through my legs. Did some more brachiation until my hands hurt too much to continue. I've gotten much better at knowing when to stop. For example, the skin on my left palm started lifting off one time and I chose to stop right then and there. Over the next few days the separated skin completely healed and the outer layer came off yesterday, a week or so later. The skin under is perfectly preserved and ready to go, as if I'm shedding my skin like a snake. Probably should have stopped earlier now that I think about it.

We watched some fireworks from a rooftop last night and it was pretty amazing, though those words fail to capture it. I find myself waking up out of whatever mental state I am in and being overwhelmed with appreciation for life, friends, and family. I feel I have really lucked out

I'm considering doing a video series based on my writing so I can kind of revitalize it all in a new form that is a little more digestible than giant blocks of text that I'm sure no one has time for. It would be cool to go all the way back to my older writings, and rehash/reevaluate. I know I've written things that I no longer agree with so it will be fun to see how my thoughts have evolved on those topics, (at least for me).

Daily Log 5/18/17

I spent a large portion of my day yesterday running. I ran from midtown sac to davis, it's about 17 miles there. All I can say is that I felt the impulse to just run hellla far. It's something I do every once in awhile. It's funny though because it took a lot for me to warm up to the idea that I could even bike that distance after my strength and stamina drop starting hormone therapy. But I'm obviously making a comeback and felt good enough to run it. I almost stepped on a rattlesnake at some point and I regret not taking a picture, but I was in "constantly move forward mode". The whole thing took me a little over 4 hours but I think that's because I stopped for a 20 min break on the last quarter of the run and I walked at least a mile or two when I started cramping up a bit. Hard to believe people get through 100 milers or more. Of course they don't do that unscathed. My feet held up much better than I expected and I only got minimal chafing elsewhere, though I did get myself sunburned a bit. It's a trip I want to do again but that needs to be backed up by a lot of actual running. It is kinda cool to think that I could run so far without really training a lot of running but just doing hours of random parkour. Granted I have trained running in the past a lot before.

I got a cold shower when I reached my destination and even ended up doing some brachiation and muscle up negatives in the backyard for a bit. My legs are beat up and I could hardly take a drop without a whole lot of pain. The wonderland crew always pushes me to do better, or do more than I might otherwise have done alone. So grateful for them.

Daily log 5/17/17

Went to Davis diamonds gymnastics yesterday and trained a bunch of acro stuff. My power level has been growing so much with it. Outside on hard surfaces, the difference between an extra inch or two of jump height, either from weighing less or having gained strength, is nearly imperceptible. But the spring floor amplifies everything by some factor over 1 and it makes such a huge difference. I can do Russian front step out to round off backhandspring back tuck without breaking too much of a sweat in the gym but there is no way I'm hitting that on grass.

Also I worked on an interesting cork progression. Last time I attempted a cork, I faceplanted pretty badly, so I'm working more on getting btwists from different angles and with less and less momentum coming into them so that I can just throw a b-twist comfortably from the j step. Feels good so far, and very wushu-like.

I can tell though that the consistency I've had with working my carts and roundoffs and handstands has paid off in the gym. I think training in a different environment every once and a while serves as a good measure of improvement since it isolates certain variables. Went back to wonderland and had the best vegan chili ever made. Watched Louis CKs latest comedy act and stretched out a bit.

Need to make some stall bars at some point at wonderland hopefully. Those things are useful.

daily log 05/16/17

Captain's log. -flushes- Captain's log gone.

Played a lot of guitar yesterday but am realizing that I only know a few songs all the way through. I enjoy singing the main parts of a song so much that I don't bother to learn the less fun parts. Not sure if that's really a bad thing. I'm not really performing for anyone after all, just something I'm noticing. Learned some more french as usual. Watched an interesting and controversial documentary on men's rights activism called "the Red Pill" which I will have to spend a bit of time thinking about since it asks for a bit of a paradigm shifting. Some of it is just common sense but the adverse reaction to their ideas is what interests me the most. I have also been getting into some of the Jordan Peterson lectures and podcasts in circulation. I find his perspective fascinating especially with regard to the archetypes though have found his interpretation of women to be pretty irrelevant and strangely outdated. But I can pull out what I find useful and am looking forward to getting into his book "maps of meaning". I want to see how he relates personality types from the big 5 list to the archetypes. Mostly kept it pretty low energy and did a bit of tree climbing yesterday. Lots of L-sits and compression today though!

Also I'm trying to figure out how I can save as much money as possible for travels this summer. Will post a list of strategies soon.

daily log 05/15/2017

Starting a daily log just to build writing consistency and capture a little bit of my lucky epic life. So much fun and effort this weekend. Spent it all training with friends, climbing trees, breaking through some fear barriers, eating lots of watermelon and dried mango, and dolmas!. Getting back on the strength training regime again but with a twist. I had about 3 separate training sessions yesterday, each punctuated with a bit of food, rest, stretching, watching parkour videos or some household chore (at least in one instance). I swear Wonderland is a parkour monastery. At some point a few months ago I decided to allow myself to train based entirely off of what I was interested in rather than working off of any set routine or set of techniques. I also decided to focus on my weight loss and abandon any type of calisthenics stuff. It's nice to isolate variables sometimes and I have managed to get a bit stronger despite the lack of structured strength training. But I want some more strength back.

Shaolin monks and world class circus acrobats swirl around in my head when I'm training lately so my pendulum wants to swing the other way towards more structure again. I can't help but notice that I have swung back and forth like this naturally over the last several years. There is no either or in this situation, just seasons changing methinks. So the twist is that I have a bag of bodyweight strength and endurance exercises that I do randomly throughout however many sessions it takes during the day. At minimum I was trying to do three sets of whatever exercise and all based on the availability heuristic, whatever comes to mind. There are a set amount of exercises I want to do but I refuse to put an order on them or isolate them from the rest of what I'm doing. So I might brachiate a bunch, then do some pistols randomly, then maybe some jumps, then some pull-ups all the while simply feeling out the rest times instead of counting everything out. The strength to hypertrophy to endurance repetition continuum is buried into my head already. So combining that with the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) I'm probably getting some approximation of conventional BW training. Mixing in the rest of what I do and spreading it throughout the day makes it feel so much less regimented. At some point I want the strength training to feel natural and un-contrived in the same way that the rest of parkour training feels, not as some isolated, separated sphere of physicality. I feel the same way about dance, swimming, martial arts, climbing, all of it.

What else? I've been watching the new season of Sense8 and I'm loving it. A little preachy at times, a little bit dragged out but still loving it. Also slept without a blanket on a thin yoga mat over a hardwood floor until I woke up too cold and retired to a warm couch. Sleep training? Idk, I just like the idea of being super resilient, even in sleep.

Magic spells, Mind palaces, and Meta-worlds

Taking NZT    

Be prepared for this to sound a little nutty. As I continue to play with a variety of states of mind and  meditation, I'm finding hacks that allow for faster changes and self development. In particular I've gotten into the habit of using the mind palace technique to remember sequences of cards. The basic technique requires that one imagine a familiar place, like a childhood home, and take a tour through that home placing the objects to be remembered. One can get better recall with the elaborative encoding technique where one creates unforgettable imagery around the placed objects that tie into deeper associations. These images might create disgust or induce laughter but this is exactly how the elaborated upon objects can be recalled so well. Seems useless to be using this memory technique for random sets of cards or numbers but I feel like it can be used for remembering complex information and also "thought structures" (which I will elaborate upon). But who cares about remembering complex information? It is all at our fingertips now. We are in an age when everything can be recorded and almost instantly referenced. Let's just assume I found something worth remembering and calling upon. But first:

Carl Jung and Paracosms

I want to flesh out the architecture of the mind to such a point that I can easily call upon whatever info I want without relying on random associations that I just so happen to make as a peculiarity of my history. Instead I want to live mindfully, deliberately. Carl Jung and his process of individuation requires an exercise in free association as a way to connect the conscious with the subconscious. Through active imagination you discover parts of your psyche.You learn more about yourself but you also get in touch with the weaker, underdeveloped parts of yourself. It's as if you've spent all your points on strength and stamina for your rpg character but failed to put anything towards charisma. The process of individuation is akin to rounding out your rpg character. 

The active imagination technique is also a strange but cool way to write a story, perhaps beginning one's paracosm. Imagining worlds calls for a ton of detail which is why I think it is important to use our experiences irl to fully elaborate/decorate our paracosms. Exploring other languages and cultures can aid this process. Every extra piece of culture one imbibes allows for a more rich experience.  I'm basically taking a somewhat blanket approach just as I  do with parkour. I basically do whatever comes to mind with the training environment at hand and after a time I consider "what are some of the physical attributes or movement phrases I'm missing? Perhaps I have not inverted in a while, or engaged my lateral chain?". So with mind/skill training I'm doing the same thing, finding out what parts of my psyche or overall ability levels are lacking and need attention while also largely participating in a foundation set of skills, staples if you will.

Informative/Performative

One needs to adjust input and output levels. It's definitely the case that people take in too much and miss out on the performative aspects of life. Yes, get the informative, but then tie it to the performative. So I'm constantly implementing these concepts with my behavior. For example I spend a little time watching this video of monkeys climbing and jumping. I imagine actually BEING these monkeys, emulating the five senses to take on the mind of the animal. Then I call on it when I'm out training which results in moving more organically without as much human forethought or hesitation, just pure animal instinct. This is actually very similar to some of the tibetan rituals involved in "deity yoga" in which the practitioner takes on the attributes of a certain deity or role model. Mine just so happens to be a monkey 🐒

Spells, Patches, and Programs

Watched The Matrix recently. You know the part where Trinity downloads the helicopter program? This is what I'm creating! It's an architecture for specific states of mind or behaviors. It's pretty obvious we do things like this in daily life all the time. Using one of these programs is like casting a spell in the sense that you may say a few words or phrases that trigger a preset thought node. And using the memory palace technique, one could potentially store an unlimited amount of these programs. In the spirit of Carl Jung, it feels appropriate to participate in each archetype for a bit in order to let them develop. So as an active practice, individuation would entail searching for archetypes through media, books, etc and taking on the thoughts/feelings for a little bit. From there we create patches (in the programming sense) using phrases or imagery that call up these archetypes.

As an aside, this is all very useful for creating and calling upon characters in improv. As I was saying before, I think humans all do this but we don't necessarily describe it this way. Instead we kind of just go with the flow of things and we have participated in certain archetypes enough to function smoothly, for the most part. We can also get pigeonholed into being a certain way for a long time, which I think goes against the process of individuation and makes us over developed in one area. 

A Final Analogy, The Meta-World

I've been reading a book called The Magicians lately. It shares many similarities to CS Lewis's Narnia series because it has a meta world (or linking room) which serves as a waystation before entering countless other worlds. So one part of our mind is like this meta-world, a place where we can observe our thoughts, behaviors, and memories in a detached way. We are then forced into other "worlds": states of mind and actions in our daily life. So the practices I have described thus far are ways to prepare for out departure into these other worlds. We can spend time in our meta-worlds getting out the right clothes and gear and putting on the appropriate lenses. I think all this mumbo jumbo cashes out as higher adaptability and a more varied experience than is likely to occur if one were to just Forrest Gump their way through life. More on some of my thought structures and archetypes as I develop them.

One easy hack for transcending death...

Death has been on my mind. I had a terrible nightmare last night. I dreamt that a man had gotten stuck in a shaft that was filling up with boiling water. He didn't know it was going to be hot water or that he would get stuck. As the water overtook him he screamed. The haunting part was that after he died, there was still air trapped in him and he gave a post death scream, that was just a meaningless sigh. I awoke with terror still gripping me strongly. I've noticed that dreams can amplify emotions to levels I've never experienced in waking life. It's what I imagine a bad LSD trip must feel like. One loses the sense of control and awareness of the real environment/social situation.

I experienced a different kind of sense of my own mortality at an ace hardware store only a few days ago. Walking through the isles, searching for supplies for a DIY teepee project, I realized that what I was doing was so basic in nature, akin to an ape using stone tools. I imagined the future world of Nebogifel and the other Morlocks from The Time Ships where everything that they need is extruded from the floor because of their advanced mastery over physical matter. I can imagine another future where humans conquer aging and death as well, living thousands of years, perhaps forever. I realized that I am so close to our hairy ape ancestors and so far away from a future of immortals. I had an overwhelming sense of being temporally locked into this time period. I was seeing myself from the outside  locked in time, locked into the beginning of the story of humanity, a footnote, a prelude.

In the future world of immortals, more possibilities will be actualized than have ever been. A person can experience, discover, and develop so much more. I want a piece of that in some form or another since I am temporally locked in. Take one positive attribute, say, patience. Imagine the patience of someone who has a lived a thousand years! This is a kind of patience molded by experiences. Perhaps I could gain the experience of an immortal by absorbing lifetimes of experiences through imagination. One can actively imagine myriad numbers of situations that life can take, immersing oneself so thoroughly into these stories, that we come out on the other side much stronger, wizened by them. Barring being able to simulate worlds through lucid dreaming or powerful visualization (though this is a possible avenue) one can read and write stories. All these methods of imagineering can have a psychophysical effect just like my terrible nightmare can stimulate the chemical machinery that makes me feel utter terror. We need not be limited by one line of life experience. Most importantly, we can develop/learn much faster through our imagineering. We can develop recursively, constantly changing our source code every time we experience another life story. Maybe this is a pretty obvious concept but I'm just coming at this from the other end.

Welp there's my quick hack for transcending the limitations of death.

Training in Trances

Getting into some trance-like states while training pk. I notice as soon as I put myself into a place where I am going to be training for a bit, I can drop my ordinary ways of thinking and just get caught up in the flow of one movement into the next one. I find myself "waking up" out of this state after several hours have passed and my body has taken a toll. Funny thing is I would never bother to go to such physical lengths in any other circumstance.

When I have a set regimen ahead of me, it takes tremendous willpower to push myself through it. When I get into this sort of trance state, training becomes effortless. I can push beyond my natural inclinations to stop and conserve energy, or get more comfortable. What's more, the feeling is so enjoyable that it causes a positive feedback loop so I just want to do it more and more. I think I started doing this kind of thing on accident several years ago but it has accumulated now to a noticeable point.

Some of the factors, or "trance catalysts" that put me in a flow state:

Music, especially flowing music can put you right into the state almost immediately

Having an uninterrupted bit of time, no obvious distractions

Resolving to stave off planning about particular routes or movements beyond the next two or three movements, not having any set goals

Not thinking too deliberately about my movements, it starts feeling too robotic and it can break me out of flow state.

I am importing this train of thought from my yoga, meditation, and running practices. The sense is not to strive with energetic effort, brows furrowed, but relaxed rather with an equanimous attitude toward whatever may result. I'm trying to also cultivate this flow state more and more as I become aware of the feeling and discover more factors that trigger it. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to produce this state at will any time?

Book Review: Consider Phlebas

Keeping this one short and sweet.

I was looking for a story about an advanced civilization that doesn't go wrong as is the case with almost every sci-fi story that isn't star trek. Most of the sci fi stories I have come across usually show in gruesome detail how bad everything will be in the future, a dystopian future. So when I heard of The Culture Series of which Consider Phlebas is the first book, I jumped at the chance for some inspiration. The first book dedicates only a few chapters to the Culture, the advanced civilization I was looking for. The rest of the story, however, revolves around the plight of shapsehifting spy who works for the other side in a war against the culture.

I was going to elucidate all the plot points but decided it was far too convoluted to get through. Let's just say that the book explores the different types of societies possible. the anarchist socialist Culture vs the religious totalitarian Idirans is the main conflict. Extremely thoughtless devotional religiosity plays a part for a short while but there is so much gore and grossness, even thinking about it right now makes me want to throw up so I won't bother. A lot of unnecessary violent and gory scenes make their way into the text and as a highly visual person, this made the book hard to get through. Splattered around all the bizarre plot points is a fully realized chunk of the galaxy with tons of detail. I don't see how this series is about the culture as there are only about 2 or 3 culture characters and they hardly get any time in.

Also huge spoiler, literally every character introduced dies by the the end of the book which just baffles me. I felt like I got invested into some characters, then the rug is pulled out from under me. But thinking about it a little more, I suppose Banks leaves a world behind despite all the the broken and bloody characters. so I may try the second book to see if things change.