Meet My Son Calico Jack Fox :)

December30

Meet my son :), little Calico Jack was born on December 30th at 9.09am outside of Boulder Colorado. He weighed 8lb 8oz and was 21.5 inches long at birth. Calico’s name is inspired by the famous Calico Jack Rackham. We wanted to give him something fun and original :). It was my pirate name from an online pirate name generator I took a long ways back.

The labor was super intense so he needed a few days to recharge along with his mom. We didn’t get out of the hospital until January 3rd, and poor Lindsey got discharged a day later than her son. She is still recovering but slowly getting there. She was amazing :).

giphy-1

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JOA – 365 Days Of Morning Rehab!

December24

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I hit 365 consecutive days of morning rehab workout :)!!!!

And 295 days of consecutive meditation. It would be 365 for both but during a work conference where I went to sleep late and had to wake up at 5am I forgot to meditate. My morning rehab is 7 minutes of planks to help strengthen my back (annular disc tear). I very slowly built up to a daily meditation practice of 20 minutes.

Any tips?

I am not sure they will help, but here is what I wish I could have told myself.

Be patient with yourself :). For the first part of the year I was struggling to do my rehab and meditation as the first thing of my day. That took a good 6 months to get going. But, for the last ~5 months as soon as I am out of bed I do rehab and meditation. Now I am trying to add my big morning workouts and foundation training to the start of my day before work.

For meditation, the sooner you jump to 20 minutes the better IMO. After ~15 days of 20 minutes it feels normal and I feel a lot more comfortable doing it. Sometimes I have meditations that are easy and in the zone, and other times my mind is like an energetic wet puppy. Regardless I think it does some good.

PS, I heard about jar of awesome concept on a Tim Ferris podcast and loved the idea. So I am going to see how well it works out for me. .

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What do you have to protect?

December24

While reading I ran into this fascinating concept around Japanese super heros:

In the gestalt of Japanese fiction, one finds this oft-repeated motif: Power comes from having something to protect.

I’m not just talking about superheroes that power up when a friend is threatened, the way it works in Western fiction. In the Japanese version it runs deeper than that.

In the X saga it’s explicitly stated that each of the good guys draw their power from having someone—one person—who they want to protect. Who? That question is part of X’s plot—the “most precious person” isn’t always who we think. But if that person is killed, or hurt in the wrong way, the protector loses their power—not so much from magical backlash, as from simple despair. This isn’t something that happens once per week per good guy, the way it would work in a Western comic. It’s equivalent to being Killed Off For Real—taken off the game board.

The way it works in Western superhero comics is that the good guy gets bitten by a radioactive spider; and then he needs something to do with his powers, to keep him busy, so he decides to fight crime. And then Western superheroes are always whining about how much time their superhero duties take up, and how they’d rather be ordinary mortals so they could go fishing or something.

Similarly, in Western real life, unhappy people are told that they need a “purpose in life”, so they should pick out an altruistic cause that goes well with their personality, like picking out nice living-room drapes, and this will brighten up their days by adding some color, like nice living-room drapes. You should be careful not to pick something too expensive, though.

In Western comics, the magic comes first, then the purpose: Acquire amazing powers, decide to protect the innocent.

In Japanese fiction, often, it works the other way around.

I found this fascinating, what is the thing you are protecting that gives you power? First, you find the purpose, then you get your powers. Quite a bit different than superheroes out west. What do you have to protect? And, what powers does that give you?

PS. Here is another take on this difference and another breakdown.

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2 Year Anniversary!

December21

Lindsey and I have been married 2 years and we had a pretty low key celebration as Lindsey is super pregnant and in a mere 8 to 10 days will have a new edition to our family :). We are so excited and I think Lindsey is super excited to get this little soccer player out of her tummy so he stops kicking her bladder.

Busy and fun times :)

Update – Meet Calico Jack Fox here :).

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Chinese version of hot or not for society.

December18

This article is incredibly interesting on how China is building out a rating system for every citizen (and possibly sharing that data publicly and privately). I don’t know where this is going but it is a really fascinating idea. Imagine if you could pull up someone’s details just by scanning their face or looking at them through your digital glasses. Could you see who they voted for? What they donate money too? What they do for a living? We are getting really close to doing all this.

Plus it has so many interesting applications to promote good behavior, or report bad:

If you see corruption you mark it on the person’s record.
If you see discrimination you mark it on their record.
If you see someone do something nice you give them points.
Of course, you could also do false reports and limitless ability to abuse.

How will people hide the parts they want private? How will you opt out? A bit like the book The Circle which was super creepy. Is this technology going to take us back to old school small towns where everyone knows a lot about everyone else? Is that good or bad?

posted under Dangers To World | Comments Off on Chinese version of hot or not for society.

This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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