Life Plan
I was reading Spencer Fry's blog the other day, and he was talking about his new 50 year life plan. He created one because he believes thinking about the big picture because gives him a horizon to drive towards, regardless of whether he'll achieve everything or not. I thought that was a pretty good idea, and decided that I'd try to write one, too.
You can't achieve your goals until you define your goals, so here I am, putting them down "on paper", ready to be put into action on the first day of 2010. If ever I feel that I've lost perspective, I'll refer back to this.
My list is different from Spencer Fry's in a few key ways, though.
His plan is serial. He plans our year by year what he wants to get done.
It's a great theory if you know exactly what you want to do, and if you love doing 1 thing at a time.
That's not me, though. I love to be doing lots of things regularly, so my plan will be more parallel.
I will have 3 streams of focus, and each stream will have its own set of projects or goals. I'll be free to adjust my projects & goals along the way, as life happens and things change. What I don't see changing are my main areas of focus -- the streams themselves.
My 3 Streams are:
- Body (health, fitness, fun)
- Mind (learning, problem solving, working)
- Spirit (love, family, giving, oneness)
Body Goals
- Eat well (whole foods, mostly plants, not too much)
- Exercise regularly
- Reduce or eliminate caffeine intake (if I need to stay awake, go for pure sugar instead)
Mind Goals
- Continue to advance in my trade (web development & entrepreneurism)
- Create my own revenue generating websites and become self-sustaining
- Become competent in electronics & magnetism
Spirit Goals
- Develop my ability to concentrate, imagine, & visualize (necessary for lucid dreaming, gnosis, etc)
- Raise a family in our home & yet-to-be-acquired cottage. Build as much as possible with my own 2 hands. Travel with family as much a possible.
- Develop my community, both in my neighbourhood, and with like-minded people in the city, by seeking out existing groups and creating new ones. Examples: Habitat for Humanity, St John's Ambulance, Community Choir, CSETI Contact Teams, Paranormal Researchers
How will I work on all of this?
Well, I'm sure the process will evolve quite a bit over time (especially when a kid/kids are added to the mix), but here's my initial stab at it:
Weekday Routine (work & personal project focus)
6:30-07am - spirit - meditation to plan the day
07am-08am - spirit (reading for fun) OR body (workout)
08am-12pm - mind - work
12pm-01pm - body - healthy lunch sitting at the dining table
01pm-04pm - mind - work
04pm-05pm - body (workout) OR spirit (reading for fun)
05pm-06pm - body - healthy dinner sitting at the dining table
06pm-07pm - mind/spirit - electronics/magnetism
07pm-08pm - mind/spirit - electronics/magnetism
08pm-09pm - mind/spirit - personal web dev project
09pm-10pm - mind/spirit - personal web dev project
10pm-11pm - body/mind - watch TV or play video game to wind down
11-11:30pm - spirit - meditation to end the day (plan dreams/probs to solve, express gratitude)
Saturday Routine (family focus)
6:30-07am - spirit - meditation to plan the day
07am-08am - spirit (reading for fun) OR body (workout)
08am-12pm - spirit - chores/renovations
12pm-01pm - body - healthy lunch sitting at the dining table
01pm-04pm - spirit - chores/renovations
04pm-05pm - body (workout) OR spirit (reading for fun)
05pm-06pm - body - healthy dinner sitting at the dining table
06pm-11pm - spirit - family time
11-11:30pm - spirit - meditation to end the day (plan dreams/probs to solve, express gratitude)
Sunday Routine (community focus)
6:30-07am - spirit - meditation to plan the day
07am-08am - spirit (spiritual reading for fun) OR body (workout)
08am-11am - spirit - volunteer/community involvement
11am-12pm - spirit - church/zen/temple/community event
12pm-01pm - body - healthy lunch sitting at the dining table
01pm-04pm - spirit - volunteer/community involvement
04pm-05pm - body (workout) OR spirit (spiritual reading for fun)
05pm-06pm - body - healthy dinner sitting at the dining table
06pm-11pm - spirit - family time
11-11:30pm - spirit - meditation to end the day (plan dreams/probs to solve, express gratitude)
Because I'm not specifying years, I am free to adjust plans accordingly. I don't think it's important that I plan specific goals so much as it is important that I set aside the time for everything I want to be able to do. If I can stick to the plan most of the time, I should be able to accomplish a great deal.
Oddly, when I finished writing this, I went into a directory of images to find one for this post, and I stumbled upon a photo that was taken 10 years ago tonight! We had just finished making a "couch cushion fort" at Amy's house, to hide in, because it was about to switch from 1999 to 2000, and everyone was mildly worried about the Y2K bug. Shortly after this photo was taken, we decided it would be better to be outside at midnight, so we went out into the corn field to hunt for sharks. Long story.
To infinity, and beyond.
What’s New?
Well, I did go on that retreat, and as usual it was great.
It was a vegetable juice fast from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon.
No problem though, they were totally filling and tasty. Lots of ginger, which is good for my kapha 
Anyway, we basically did a lot of stretching, breathing, meditation, and thinking.
Plus the Sweat Lodge on Saturday night.
Picture sitting in a dark tent that's 120 degrees and 100% humidity for 4 hours and you'll have an idea of what it's like. Oh, wait -- add in some people crying, and other people making animal sounds, and a prayer or two to the elements -- now you have an idea of what it's like. No, wait again -- picture enjoying all that! -- now you know what it's like 
Anyway, it *was* great.
Sunday was Jen's birthday. She came and did the sweat lodge, too, and we were in there past midnight, so we all got to sing Happy Birthday to her in the dark heat of the tent-womb. Pretty cool / fun. I used to think she was kinda crazy for going to TheLivingCentre(.com), but now I find myself wanting to go more and more. This was the first time that we were both there at the same time, of our own volition. She took me there a few years ago, but I wasn't so into it then. It was "her thing". Now it's mine, too, and we got to share that, which was nice.
I also spent the night at Jen's place on Sunday, and the day with her on Monday. We hadn't really hung out and caught up on one another's lives since we broke up in mid-2003. Neither of us could belieeeeve it was that long ago, but it was. So Sunday/Monday we ate together, and really hung out, and got to re-connect as friends, and it was really nice. On Monday we were at the community garden in London, and some guy named Bob had the plot next to Jen's. Turns out he's Bob Krieg, who used to live in Petrolia! and I know his daughter, Anna. Craziness. Small world.
One thing that is both good and not good about a retreat weekend is that it makes you think about what you really want in life... and for me it's probably not programming. I don't know what it is. I'll keep learning computers until I figure out a way to do something I like more, but finding employment in paranormal research is hard at the best of times -- especially when you don't have a degree in physics or something. Maybe that'll just be a hobby. Maybe I'll finally get rich off a website. If I did, I'd certainly continue to work, but I would travel a lot more. Work remotely. Visit friends all the time.
Back in 2000 my friends at TakingITGlobal asked me what I thought the future of computing looked like, and I said "It looks like me sitting on top of a mountain, connected, but with no visible technology or civilization anywhere." I still hope to live that future.
When I got back from the retreat there was an email in my inbox from a girl who liked my profile on a single's site. She has no internet, and no phone, so arranging a date was tricky, but we eventually met up. She was very nice. We walked her dogs (2) and I met her cats (7) and her ex-boyfriend (1). I asked if she'd like to go for breakfast on Sunday and she said Yes, but when I tossed pebbles at her window to indicate that I was there (no phone/email), she didn't answer. No more email replies either. Oh well. Easy come, easy go.
I'm excited about the upcoming Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference on June 11th. Can't wait to find out when I can get an iPhone (yes, my gadget addiction is alive and well). I'm pretty sick of my old phone. It barely holds a charge these days, and doesn't do any internetting. Also, Fido is annoying. I'll gladly switch to Rogers and an iPhone.
Lastly, I am selling my desktop computer.
I'll take $550 or an even trade for an intel Mac Mini, or trade for a 24 inch intel iMac plus I'll give you some cash, too. Anyway, it's an AMD 3000+ 64bit CPU, three 250 gig SATA 7200rpm Maxtor harddrives (each with 16meg cache) for total of 750 gig of storage, 1.5 gig DDR500 RAM, MSI k8n Neo Platinum Nforce3 motherboard, Pioneer 16x Dual Layer CD/DVD+-RW, Thermaltake Xaser Tsunami VA3000BNA Aluminum Home Theater Tower (Black-Mirror Coating), 128meg video card, SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum with LiveDrive sound card, deluxe logitech wireless keyboard & mouse. I will toss in the following extras as well, but without any guarantee that they're great because I haven't used them in 2 years: 19 inch black CRT monitor, acer flatbed scanner, epson stylus photo professional printer. I'll toss in a big box of computer cables & parts, too, if you want.
I also have a PVR computer I'd like to sell.
It's got an awesome Silverstone Lascala LC10M case with irMon remote & VFD (digital display, like on stereo receivers), a Hauppauge PVR-250 video capture card and remote, an Nvidia GeForce4MX video card, a DVD ROM, SB Live soundcard, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and a couple of harddrives (at least 160gig, but I forget). AMD 1800+ CPU, and a bunch of RAM (I think 768 meg). Gigabyte motherboard. Licensed copies of SageTV, SageTV Client, and BeyondTV. No reasonable offer refused.
Why am I selling my PCs?
I'm just not "into" computers anymore.
This has been coming for a long time.
Don't get me wrong -- I still like using computers, I just don't like fixing/debugging them. When I worked at InstaClick I had a Mac, and I never had to tweak or fix it. I used it every day for 2 years, and it never gave me a problem. I never had to see a Recovery Screen, or boot disk, or registry, or anything like that. I loved it, and I'm going back forever.
The PCs above work fine -- I'm just not in love with them anymore.
iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, iWork, Firefox, Toast, BitTorrent, and Omni applications are all I need.
I think that's all for now.
So Much
Sorry for the delay in posting.
So much to say now.
I saw Talladega Nights: Dumb but hilarious.
I saw Snakes on a Plane: Dumb but entertaining and full of campy goodness.
I saw Pirates of the Carribean 2, and it was awesome.
I saw The Fastest Indian, and it was inspirational.
I saw True Romance for the first time -- FANTASTIC!
I watched The Life of The Buddha, which was quite informative.
Apparently I was the ONLY Canadian registered to be in the first cohort on TribeWanted Island (Vorovoro) on September 1st (which I couldn't go to because I'm not yet eligible for vacation at the new job). I wouldn't mind so much, but the CBC called me, as did SHINE Television, and several other reporters who wanted to follow me around with camera crews to get a Canadian perspective on "Tribal Life". Blast. Oh well. Now that I'm going in March (using next year's vacation) my buddy Jeff can come with me
I just found out that the reason my credit rating has not yet recovered from a student loan payment I missed in 2000 is because they didn't mark it as PAID when I paid it in full. It's still screwing my credit history (and my co-signor's). Fuck. This was the year that was supposed to disappear from my record, and now I find that *actually* it'll be 6 more years 
Gotta call someone and sort this out. I've been very good with my money ever since. Drat.
I've spent most of my weekends recently just reading books. Books about The Self. Books about Buddhism. Books about Spirit. Books about Healing. Etc etc. That really is what I like. I grew up in a very solitary atmosphere... small farm house outside a small town. No one to play with. Just my mind. I'm trying to get back to that now, in the city. Spend some time alone. Calm. Thoughtful. So far it's great.
With that in mind, I've decided to spend this year's vacation living in a Buddhist Community/Monastery in France, studying under Thich Nhat Hahn, a master whose reputation is second only to the Dalai Lama's. I've always toyed with the idea of becoming a minister or monk. This will let me try it on for size fulltime for 2 weeks straight. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!
Now, to give you something completely juxtaposed to that sentiment, last Friday night my boss hosted a White Party for us all last week, hence the attached photo. I had to buy everything I wore, because I owned NOTHING white. Not even undies. So I bought the works down in Kensington Market. The party was awesome. Lots of great people. Lots of free booze & food. Oh, all the food & drink was white or clear, too. Powdered donuts, cheese, vodka, sambucca, etc Awesome.
I felt a bit too white though... off balance... so the next night I dressed completely in black (again, attached photo) and went downtown to see the movie The Illusionist, which was a deliciously dark film. You really should see it. I found it a bit predictable, but it was still good. Ed Norton did an amazing job of looking Austrian
What else.... Oh yes.... this weekend I'm going on a Purification & Rejuvenation Retreat & Sweat Lodge at TheLivingCentre in London. Their website was one of the first that I ever built as a freelancer. For whatever reason building the site made me completely ignore the fantastic services they offer... until now. So, I thought I'd go check it out. Dedicate some good time to my Self. Get a little NewAge on my ass, so to speak. Can't wait.
Is that enough of an update to tide you over the weekend?
I sure hope so!