I am Yugoslavian Special Forces, 17 years

So, this weekend we jumped out of a plane. “Skydiving” the kids are calling it, it’s all the rage. My beautiful better half, my roommate, and three “i think it’s too windy maybe we should leave” Welsh fellows drove up to Santa Barbara on Saturday to huck ourselves out of an otherwise perfectly functional plane.

The guy I tandemed with has definitely killed people. With a super-thick accent he told me how he was Yugoslavian Special Forces for 17 years and has “9,869… well, i guess dis one make for 9,870″ jumps, his highest being from 35,000 feet with over 2 and half minutes of freefall and requiring oxygen… badass.

Anywho, everybody survived without cause for worry and we had a great time. It was definitely original, nothing quite as surreal as sticking your feet out the door of an aircraft and throwing yourself out of it. (except maybe sitting on a rock with three sleeping tigers)

Is it better than bungee jumping? Meh, I think bungee jumping is more frightening. With skydiving you can’t even really tell the ground is coming at you, it’s just really windy. And terminal velocity is only 120mph… and I DEFINITELY HAVE NEVER GONE ANY FASTER THEN THAT ESPECIALLY WHEN ME AND LUKE WOULD RIDE DOWN THE STRAIGHTAWAY ON BARTLETT STRIP ON OUR BIKES, NOPE NEVER BEEN ANYWHERE NEAR 140. But skydiving is absolutely gorgeous, so beautiful and so stunning. I will definitely go again sometime, it was a fantastic experience.

A++ thumbs up.

Don’t boycott the olympics.

There is so much talk right now about boycotting the Olympics because of China’s treatment of the situation with Tibet, and their human-rights behavior in general.

All I can say is, don’t punish the athletes for China’s mistakes.  Thousands of athletes, many of whom will be in the Olympics for the first time this year, train year round, day after day, week after week, to get to the level they are at.  These athletes don’t have holidays.  They don’t have “oh i’m a little tired today, maybe i won’t worry about training” days like the rest of us (yes i’m guilty).

I think it is ridiculous to only now jump on the “boycott China” bandwagon, when it will affect so many people that have worked so hard.  I think China should change their policies as much as the next person, but it’s not like they got this way overnight, and I can tell you, punishing the athletes is a temporary solution.  The IOC chose China for many reasons, and I’m sure one of them was to bring some light to the topic of their regional policies - but lets not cut off our nose despite our face.  All that boycotting the Olympics will do is crush the dreams and years of hard work for the thousands of athletes involved… and maybe sell some “boycott China” t-shirts… which, undoubtedly were made in China.

Power Move begets Power Move

I’ve experienced it many times in my life - the phenomenon of productivity snowballing on itself. There’s the day that you wake up (or for me, the night that you lay there for hours and hours) and think “wow, in my infinite quest to ‘do big things’, I’ve become static.”

So what comes next? Say it with me now, “Power Move!”. The only way out of complacency is a nice solid power move. An instant, sizable change that can be measured. So you make your power move (for me it was heading down to Miami for the conference) and guess what happens next?

Another power move.

And another one.

And another one.

Productivity and ascent are viral. I’m just wrapping up one big thing and last night I started on something I’ve been wanting to do for (well, years) and made some great progress, which I will be sharing soon.

So what are you waiting for?