Life as I know it.

  I feel blessed.  I am in a great working environment that I help people in.  I have great working relationships with everyone in my workplace.  I feel responsible.  I feel like there is a good direction in my life.  My relationship with my mother is great.  I am dating for the first time in forever and I actually feel like I’m ready for someone. 

Flashback six months ago.  December 2014.  Every night, every day, six hours a day, throw at the bull, throw at the bull, triple 20 triple 20.  Roll up to a 12 rating, roll down to a 10 rating, roll to 11 rating, roll to a 12 rating.  Practice practice practice.   Wake up past 10 am, practice 1 hour, go to work for a few hours,  practice some more.  Play at night until 2 am.  Repeat.   Why?  Because a friend told me he could see me getting to the top of the darts world and I thought I should go at it.  Fine.  But what, you’re leeching off in your parent’s house at 31 years of age, working barely at a job that was giving me physiological stress that maybe a chiropractor might fix with no cash savings and a psych degree.   What the hell was I suppose to do?

Three options.  1.  Go become a skills trainer.  They pay well enough at this point in my life, I have the degree for it and I think I would enjoy doing it.  2.  Go do some kinda entry level job and work your way up to making money.  Heck no.  3.  Go back to school for masters.  Double heck no.  So I applied to an agency, got trained by one of my good friends who was a former skills trainer to answer questions in the interview.  I got hired on the spot, 2 days of orientation, 2 days of shadowing and came Friday.  Scared out of my mind, I hoped I didn’t receive a call and I’d think it through the weekend a try on Monday.  You see skills training can be a terrifying thought.  We work with humans ages 2 to early adulthood, anywhere from high functioning to low functioning, verbal/non verbal, aggressive to self or others, runners, trouble with social norms, and other behaviors like spitting.  

730 ok safe.  No call, probably no work till Monday.  Alrighty.  Lets go eat pho with mom, it’s her day off.  Phone rings at 1030, crap it’s my company.  Maybe I have to work today and have a runner that’s going to be able to run faster than me and get hit by a bus.  Agency: Hello.  Me: Hello.  Agency: we have a case for you.   Me: Oh really?   Okay let me know the details.

Long story short.  The agency put me in the best classroom with a wonderful teacher who has been a skills trainer and educational assistant before.   She handles problems right away.  She has it so the class isn’t too relaxed or too busy to the point where it stresses everyone out.  It’s a perfect balance of work and relaxation so the school year transitions easily.   The EA’s spend a lot of time praying and preparing the classroom for class to start.  A nurse with a heart of gold is there, taking care of a few students. Great warm hearted people.  Students are full of energy, and each has their unique personalities.  Skills trainers all work well with each other, all teach me the ropes of being a better skills trainer and if I’m reinforcing the wrong behaviors.  

Life has changed.  I’m more social.  I learned to be more social because I had to teach my client how to be more social.  I did a 180 flip from sleeping at 2 am everyday to getting to bed by 10 pm to wake up at 545 am.  My social life is busy.  Work life is busy.  My parents respect me more.  I have money to gain weight with.  I may go back to school.  I feel like I’m ready for a girlfriend.  I truly feel blessed.  Whoever is watching over me, thank you. 

Everything you will ever need in a pool case.

FYI - Links are for pictures and information only.  I do recommend these items but I am not a representative of any of these websites or companies.

Short Version.  Simple necessities to have when going to the pool hall.

1x2 pool case.  Recommendations are for moisture control and solidity of the case.  I like the vacuum sealed cases like It's George, Fellini, Sam Engles, Centennial, or Ron Thomas.  I also like the Dan Whitten style case which master cuemaker Ernie Gutierrez from Ginacue has endorsed in the past.  Essential protection is often overlooked through purchase of cheap cases.  A friend came back from a trip with a cheap case full of cues.  When he took out his cues, he had found they were soaked in water from humidity.  Invest in a great case;  I wouldn't want to have waterlogged cues.
A cue
A backup shaft
Sandman tip shaper - Basically a metal file.
Tip scuffer -  Something that scuffs the tip to hold chalk.  Best I know of are It's George Tip tool, Williard's tip tools, Kamui Gator Grip tip tool, and Brad Scuffer.  I like the Brad scuffer for the portability and key chain hole.  The It's George tip tool has a round circle for shaping and a tapper in the back.
Joint Protectors -  Another overlooked tool.  Several weeks ago, my friend dropped his cue by accident and bent his pin.  This would not happen with joint protectors.  Fancy cue caps are made by Alton Takata.  Simple delrin joint protectors protect well also.

Long Version.  Everything you would need to maximize your pool experience.

Protection/Essentials
3x6 case with long pocket -- It's George 3x6
A cue
A backup shaft
A backup cue
A jump/break cue or break cue and a jump cue -- Recently, Steve Lomax has been the go to guy for jump and breaking needs.
Joint Protectors

Maintenance
Towel
Spare tip, Spare break tip (possibly a leather one thats tournament approved)
Sandman tip shaper

Tip Scuffer

Mushroom grazer

Extras
Cueball - Some pool halls have been using the same balls for 30 years.  The wear and tear changes the way the game can be played.  I like the Super Aramith Pro Cue Ball.
Coin to flip
Crisp new dollar bill - A great shaft burnisher.
Glove - Sometimes the pool hall has 90% humidity.  Sir Joseph gloves have good rep.
Earplugs
Mp3 player
Chalk - Some pool halls have terrible chalk
Magic rack - For practicing, inability to rack, or figuring out breaking secrets.
2 Pens, 1 notepad - Never know when you need to write something important down.
Ibuprofen
Candy/Protein Bar
Justa Bridge - A custom bridge that has cloth covering so it doesn't scrape your cue.
Cue extension - Sometimes it's just easier to to reach a shot than to use a bridge.  Popular cue extensions include Longoni, Tony Ryan, and Mezz.

Crazy for em Ottocakes.

About five years ago, my boss told me about a particular cheesecake that was offered by a worker named Otto at the restaurant of The Academy of Arts.  I didn't think too much of it until I tried my first piece of "Ottocake" during a lunch at a museum in Makiki.  It was very flavorful and clean.  Cheesecake was definitely worth the price of admission.  A year ago, I had my second slice of Ottocake at a joint co-worker's baby shower.  The cheesecake was phenomenal.  Simply "Amazing plain".  I was told there were many Ottocake flavors including red velvet.  Red Velvet cheesecake????  I was sold!  I had to get this red velvet flavored cheesecake.  I walked into Ottocake on Smith Street in Chinatown weeks later.  I thought what a cute little place.  There was one of those bakery type displays with various cheesecakes being sold by the slice.  The cash register was a vintage ring em up type register.  Prices of cheesecake, beverages, and other baked goods were written on a small chalkboard.  A friendly skinny Caucasian gentlemen, greeted me with an Aloha, welcome to Ottocake, How may I help you?  Looking through the glass.  No, RED VELVET!  I settled on raspberry cheesecake.  It was Ono.  SOOOO GOOD.  I was hooked.  After a year of regular weekly visits the list of cheesecake flavors tried includes: lemon, banana foster, peanut butter cup, raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, key lime, cookies and cream, kilamanjaro, amazing plain, chocolate, chocolate caramel, lehua honey, pumpkin, chocolate raspberry, chocolate chocolate chip, red velvet, blue velvet, mango, white chocolate strawberry. chocolate haupia, tiramisu, mocha, root beer float, german chocolate, lilikoi, blueberry, dark chocolate cherry, strawberry basil, orange chocolate chip, mojito, peanut butter nutella, and green tea,

It's only walking right?

48000 steps, 1 McDouble, 1 McChicken, 1 2 dollar KFC drumstick, 1 Costco hot dog, 4 liters of water, 1 liter of Powerade, 8.5 hours, and 18 miles later, my two willful friends and I sit at Good to Grill waiting for our final meal of the night.  We did it guys.  We did it.  To me, there was never any doubt we could do it.  It was a matter of completing the task.  Surely the walk around Diamond Head on the way to Koko Marina was a 2 mile detour.  Certainly, we all had thoughts of catching the 10th 22 bus that had passed us, back to the civilization of Kapahulu.  But why not; it's only walking right?  Without the comradery of my fellow walking friends I would have stopped after I got my half dollar sized blister on my left foot.   We had a goal in mind and with one step at a time we kept trotting along.  Because that's what it took.  One step at a time.  Just keep going.  It's only walking.  In the end, it was the lengthiest physical continuous goal I've ever tried.  We did it. We did it...  On to the next goal.

My take on Health and Weight Loss.

Losing weight is simply a matter of repeated self control but complete different from being healthy. Essentially any type of carbohydrates simple or complex will turn into fat if you don't spend the energy. Meats put a hamper on your system because it makes your body work to digest. Fruits and Vegetables are wonderful because they are full of water and vitamins. A lot of citris fruits help the immune system with vitamin C. A lot of berries help with B vitamins that help convert proteins into energy. Eating fruits and vegetables (lightly steamed or raw) is actually like digesting water at the same time. The more water you have in your cells the more efficient your body will be. So essentially its about eating water not drinking water. Complex carbohydrates which are basically whole grains, take the body a little longer to digest so they dont hamper the body and the energy can be used throughout the day as it takes it's long digestive process. To ensure the energies will be used, we need to eat fruits and vegetables to help us digest water and turn protein into energy, eat complex carbs for energy throughout the day and protein for relatively instantish energy. Exercise is important because if you don't lose your muscle it degrades like everything else. Strong people are generally healthier because their body can handle more bullshit because there is more water in muscle than in fat. The more water are in cells the more efficient your body will function.

Losing weight is basically portion control. Eat until you are a little less then full. When you are full your body struggles to process everything in you. The less you eat the more your stomach will shrink to normal size requiring less food. Eat 5-6 meals every 3 hours if you can. I'm talking about maybe one third of the portions you eat before you get full. Think of it as putting a little more fuel as you travel from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Keep feeding the engine. Don't eat three hours before you go to bed because your body will be trying to process food during your resting period. You won't get enough rest because your body is focused on digesting and you don't burn enough carbs/fat while you sleep so the current food you just ate will turn into fat. Eat vegetarian once in a while. The vegetarian nation is growing. There are a lot more options with chains like Whole Foods opening. There are some ethnic foods like Thai or Vietnamese that almost always have vegetarian options. Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian food in restaurants cost about the same.

Friendship

Lately my tolerance for bullshit has dropped.  I decided to make a good list of the people who consistently show a dedication to being nice to people.  This includes daily habit of trying their best not to step on anyone's toes, contributing to humankind, making the best effort to be centered and people that have not crossed me.  At the moment, there are 21 people on this list.  I've decided I'm a very judgemental person and even some of my closest friends may not be on this list.  In retrospect, these people are so awesome, I will make my best effort to hang out with them to learn something.  Don't get me wrong, just because you aren't on this list does not mean you are on the shit list.  You are most likely neutral.  Some of you might think wow what an arrogant thing to do ranking friends.  Well, I dont give a flying fuck.  Love me or hate me I think I am a decent human being that has decent friends.   Tolerance for bullshit is hard.  I'm tired of getting stepped on.  I'm tired of being nice to people who do not care about anyone but themselves.  I'm not the greatest human being but I do try to be nice.  People who think about themselves too much is why people cheat (instant gratification), is why some wars start ( I want their land for money), and its why our planet is dying (global warming).

Sad

Well, I've gone the other direction from Naturalistic Simplicity.  I'm disappointed yet hopeful to get my life back on track.  I have been under the weather in the month of December/January.  This has made me overindulge as a compensation to my sufferings,  I ate a lot more.  I bought a lot of unnecessary things.

At this time being in this uncomfortable state, my body in an attempt to maintain balance has gone to the flight or fight mode.  Apparently it has decided to fight.  It was either be more reactive/defensive(fight) or ignore everything (flight/isolation).  I was more judgemental, more reactive to stoopid people, and often times jump through conclusions because I was looking after the id.  I also made the conscious effort to spend more time with my parents which made me more reactive because my dad's logic is illogical and my mom just doesn't think before she speaks.  So over all it has been a volatile time for me.

I've also learned a few lessons along the way.  One is that I've been wasting time on some friendships that turned out to be very one-sided.  Although I have very little close friends that I care about with all of my heart.  It's time to lessen the efforts with some people who are my "friends".  The other thing I'm trying to do is to judge people for their contribution to society instead of my impression of them.  Some people are naturally aggressive but they do great things for the world.  It's important to overlook some personal dysfunction if it is for the greater good.  I need to to get back to simple eating with whole foods, organics, and fruits to help my cells retain water.  I also need to spend less time with family to regain a grasp of my "ego-less" state.   Slower eating and less indulgence in food and materialism is needed.

I'm sorry if I had offended anyone during this time.  I realize that this is hard for me to overcome because this reactive nature has been pounded in by my parents since I was a kid.  However, because I am aware of this it can only get better from here.  I know what I have to focus on.  On the plus side, this fight mode made me a work machine.  I've been maintaining better long term focus at work and playing longer at a high level in sports.