carry along the black flag

sitting on the couch, listening to henry rollin's 'get in the van'. non communicative but inspired.

today i was at a demonstration that was meant to block a white power march. the nazis never showed, but good vibes nonetheless. i was talking to a distressed hippy who didn't like the aggressive tone to some of the signs, etc. i repeat what i said to him.

i don't like violence, but i do support anger.

i'm such a nerd. and i love it.

Yesterday I went to the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. It was an incredible amount of fun. It was just a bunch of people who were stoked on comics, so the vibe was incredibly positive. Almost everyone I met who was extremely friendly and just enjoying themselves--except for a grumpy 8 year old dressed as Iron Man.

There isn't much else to say beyond how much I love comic culture. Most people don't read if they don't have too. But here's an entire subculture devoted to their passion. I saw people of all ages and walks of life united by their enthusiasm. I got to meet a few of my favourite writers and artists, who all put up with my fanboyism. There were ton of people in great costumes. Also, Leonard Nimoy! I don't even like Star Trek and I was excited.

Have some photos:




So Obi-Wan and Magneto walk into a bar...


This was me for most of the day.


Meet my new girlfriends.


Meet my other girlfriend.


This is Lou Ferrigno, who played the Hulk on the tv show from the 70s. He was kind of a jerk.


They'll never take me alive. This was taken with the 501st Legion, a large group of Star Wars fans with high quality costumes. They go to conventions and other events, doing photo ops by donation. All proceeds go to various charities. They were some of the most fun people at the convention--the costumes were mind blowing in quality and detail. Helmet was a weird shape so sorry for the crooked fist.


Good day.

have fun with the theme stuck in your head

I was reading a few articles today on how a video game can be addicting (I'm using that word pretty loosely here) and the choices designers make to encourage that. One especially insightful piece, written by leading game designer Erin Hoffman, puts the issue in perspective by saying

"Addiction is not about what you DO, but what you DON'T DO because of the replacement of the addictive behavior"

hmmm.

It's true to an extent. I've happily spent an hour or two playing Tetris because what I was supposed to be doing was boring enough that I sought a diversion. Plus, as others have pointed out, the sense of accomplishment we so crave is immediate and often in video games. It's an extension of the Skinner Box--mice pushing levers to get pellets. I play video games not only because they're fun, but they are also stimulated a very important but very stupid part of my brain, which I'm not receiving (or at least not often enough) from the activity I'm avoiding.

Instead of working against our addictive tendencies when it comes to the martial arts (or whatever), it's a lot easier if we harness them. While the two criteria I mentioned above--engagement and fulfillment--aren't the whole story, they are really important for holding interest. So the strategy for staying motivated is to realize that you're stupid. Now settle down, don't get all offended. I'm stupid too.

We like clear problems that when solved lead to direct, tangible results, and we like those results to happen fast. In Tetris I'm presented with a easy to understand situation. I need to flip the shapes around to make rows. Bam. There you go. The task is hard enough to be interesting, but not so difficult or complicated that I get discouraged. Most importantly, I am constantly taking action and seeing fast results. Rows are disappearing quite often, which is a nice, tangible result for my actions. I can point to the result and say "I did that".

You're probably rolling your eyes and saying "if only my life was so easy". Well it can be! All you need to do (broken record alert) is break it down. Set small, clear goals that you can accomplish in days or weeks, not months or years. The 200,000 pushups I'm doing is a great example. Thats a massive number. If I thought of that in those terms I would go back to Tetris. But I see it as 500 a day. Which is still a lot. So I see it as a few sets. When I complete one set, I tick it off mentally. When I complete a day, I get to tick it off on my spreadsheet. That makes it real. I can point to my spreadsheet of daily tics or my mounting numbers on physout and get a real sense of satisfaction from it.

So I've realized to make it simple, straightforward and rewarding. It may never be as fun as Tetris, but it'll be just as easy to start and just as impossible to stop.