Wiped out

I'm sore. Ever so sore. Strangely enough, though, I can still totally move. I wonder if that's the flexibility training kicking in. Anyway, today I ran an embarrassingly short distance (0.4 miles) in the burning, awful heat of the tropical sun. I wasn't lying when I said I'd need to learn how to wake up closer to dawn. It is RIDICULOUS how hot it gets here.

However, upon returning to the house, I drank a boatload of water--probably half a gallon over the course of the next 15 minutes or so--and continued my exercise within the hour as per my contract with my body. I was able to squeeze out 22 squats for the initial test of the 200 squat challenge, which is in the range of "poor" but still on the third column. I also did my ab work out then, but it wasn't as intense as yesterday because my body gave out.

After that, however, my body said "no more of ANYTHING!" and I had to listen to it because this has been such a big change. I ate my breakfast, watched some TV, ate a big lunch, and then took a nap until guests showed up for dinner. And now I am completely spent and should go to bed soon... because I have to do it all again tomorrow! Hopefully including my German and clarinet, too, this time.

Sleep: X

German: O

Clarinet: O

Exercise: ABL

Blogging: X

A Contract

So I just finished mowing the lawn. Nothing lets me think like a good bit of exercise. Now I'm all warmed up for the real exercise... the initial test of the 100 Push-Up Challenge. This is always the embarrassing part. I haven't done the test yet, of course, so I'm thinking I'll just make an addendum to this blog later today. I haven't even done any of my other goals yet, so I'll have to update those too. I just came up with this idea while mowing the lawn, so I of course had to act.

Exercise has been something I've done on and off for most of my adolescent life, and I always feel really, really good when I'm in the habit of doing it. It's something that you basically have to re-commit yourself to all the time, something you have to reinvigorate frequently, and most of all, something that you have to do anything it takes to keep up. It's really not easy for most of us to keep the habit up because we get tired, but like everything else, there will be ups and downs.

So, for now, I've decided to write myself a contract--a living document to be updated and changed as I see necessary.

CONTRACT BETWEEN STEPHEN JOHNSON AND HIS BODY FOR THE PURPOSE OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH, AND RELATED BENEFITS THEREIN

On this day, June the Twenty-First of the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Ten, I, Stephen Johnson, do hereby agree to the following:

1. Aerobic exercise
a. Henceforth defined as "physical exercise that intends to improve the oxygen system" (courtesy of wikipedia.org)
b. To be executed a majority of days a week, preferably 5-6 days a week, for at least 20 minutes.
c. In order to accommodate the incredible temperatures of your locality, aerobic exercise should most likely occur early in the morning, as close to dawn as possible (around 6:30 AM) for best likelihood of success. Thus, it will require a commitment to going to sleep at an early hour. As this is not yet a habit, begin with committing to waking up at 8:00 AM and set the alarm for five minutes earlier every subsequent morning.

2. Anaerobic exercise

a. Henceforth defined as "exercise intense enough to trigger anaerobic metabolism." (courtesy of wikipedia.org)

b. The frequency of execution shall be divided into two categories:

(1) Upper Body/Lower Body Strength: to be executed on alternating days, 2-3 days a week each

(2) Abdominal Strength: to be executed daily, a majority of days a week

c. For the purpose of minimizing personal hygiene needs such as showering and laundry, this shall be executed within 1 hour of aerobic exercise.

3. Flexibility training

a. Henceforth defined as exercise intended to "improve the range of motion in muscles and joints" (courtesy of wikipedia.org)

b. To be executed before and after any exercise session, especially focusing on the muscles which will be or have been exercised.

4. Other requirements

a. Extenuating circumstances

(1) I hereby agree that I will accept few excuses not to exercise and will make it my priority to vacate promptly my nocturnal furniture in the morning in order to do so.

(2) Excuses shall be addressed on a case-by-case basis, but should not include lack of desire or of motivation.

(3) I will make it my firm purpose to accomplish that which I can within my surroundings should I be somewhere other than my residence, including, but not limited to, hotels, conventions, or friends' residences.

b. Recording

(1) Blog

(i) Since recording results in blog form will be lengthy and frequently redundant, a shorthand will be used to record results: Aerobic exercise will be marked with an "A," abdominal with a "B," Upper body with a "U," and Lower body with an "L."

(ii) Examination results from programs such as the 100 push-up challenge which involve occasional tests to show progress will be recorded in a postscript format.

(2) A personal, handwritten notebook will be kept for the sole purpose of recording daily progress

(3) The 30-day calendar will be kept using the shorthand of the blog for the initial 30 days of the program.

c. Addenda and adjustments will be made as either contract holder sees fit. Health, personal abilities, and desires will all be taken into account therein.

With my signature, I do hereby swear my commitment to the execution of this contract and will, to the best of my abilities, follow all requirements therein.

Stephen Johnson, 6/21/2010

Stephen Johnson's body, 6/21/2010

Sleep: O (gosh darn tinychat. I broke my 11:00 promise because of peer pressure. Not gonna happen again.)

German: X

Clarinet: X

Exercise: If mowing the lawn counts as A, ABU

Blogging: X

**UPDATE**

Push-ups completed: 17. I surprised myself with this one, especially because I'm a real stickler for doing them right. This puts me in category 3 of the push-up challenge. Yesss!

On Music Videos

Few people know this without experiencing it, but music videos are some of the most rewarding videos there can be to put out, at least as far as I'm concerned. Nothing gets me happier than putting out a good song and having people enjoy it. It's probably the most "real" I can get with my audience--it's the most honest way for me to express any feelings at all.

However, music videos are thus the most frustrating and time-consuming videos that have ever been known to man. Seriously. When I make a vlog, I probably take about 10 minutes planning, 10 minutes filming, and then an hour or so editing. Music videos have got to be ten times harder; not only do you have to film yourself playing every instrument (or arrange for whatever story you want to tell like Alex Day) and edit that all together, you also have to separately edit all the sound bits together. If you go the instrument route--which I generally choose to, because I care more that people hear the instruments than enjoy my pretty face--you generally have about 2 hours or so of footage because each take for each little phrase adds up, especially if you're not entirely skilled on the instruments you're playing.

Plus, with the added weight of the extreme vulnerability I feel in putting my art out there (the most exposed I've ever felt) I really try quite hard to get everything perfect.

This is my way of saying I'm working on a few videos, but they take TIME! Hopefully they'll pay off :D

Sleep: X
German: X
Clarinet: X
Blogging: X

Also, I realize that I have not added a new goal in a while. I think it's time I try to get an exercise regimen in. Specifically that dang 100 Push-Up Challenge I never finished last year! Anyone wanna do it with me?

Ohrwürmer (Earworms)

I figured I'd at least give a German title to this blog, seeing as I'm getting more and more people commenting in German, which I find AWESOME. Few things get me happier than understanding other languages.

Today, I was highly productive--I did my German before lunch, even, and got in a good hour or so of practicing before the house was raided by my brother's recently graduated high school friends. They just left, which is why I am clearly not done with the computer before 11 (as I try ever so hard to be).

But on to the topic of the night! One thing that people don't know about me is that I always have a song stuck in my head. Music is always, and I mean always, on my mind. This gets particularly annoying when I hear a song that is conducive to getting stuck in one's head--an earworm. Today's earworm is "99 Luftballons" by Nena. I listened to it originally because I thought to myself "This will help you improve your German!" and little did I know I'd be memorizing a lot of the text just because I had it stuck in my head and kept listening to it.

Some artists are very talented at writing earworms: Lady Gaga, Elton John, Simon and Garfunkel, heck, most of my YouTube friends--they're all earworm factories. I did a bit of thinking on the topic and came up with a few of the typical characteristics of a good earworm:

1. Diatonicism: This is just smart people talk for the general notion of it not sounding weird and being generally easy to sing. "Diatonic" literally refers to its being based on one of the six most common modes (ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian), the very most common of which are major (ionian) and minor (aeolian).

2. Repetition: This is one key aspect of earworms. You have to drive your point home with something repetitive in rhythm, pitch, and especially motive. Some good examples of this: "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga repeats the same rhythm and pitch for the "baa-baa-rap-baa-baa" that everybody remembers. Rick Astley's "Never gonna give you up" uses one rhythm and motive, moving it down the scale each time--"Never gonna give you up [down a step] never gonna let you down [down even further] never gonna run around [closing the idea] and hurt you" and then just repeats it again. This is the way to get something stuck in someone's head.

The key is not to make it annoyingly repetitive--you want them to enjoy its persistence. For example, Lenny Kravitz's "Fly Away" is IRRITATING to listen to because there's no variation at all. On the other hand, his "American Woman" (which, admittedly, is not originally his) has just the right balance of repetition and change.

3. Suggested participation: things that people are invited to join just stick with them better as experiences. Therefore, what you want to write as a song is one which makes your audience want to participate in the performance (i.e. sing along or dance). Therefore, it has to be easy to learn--not too complicated rhythmically, not too strenuous in vocal range, with lyrics they can easily pick up--and exciting to the audience, usually through exciting rhythm and loud singing.

A good rule of thumb to meet these three characteristics is to ask yourself when writing a song: "Can I imagine a teenage girl at a stop light unabashedly singing along and doing a stupid car dance?" If the answer is yes, you have a smash hit on your hands.

Sleep: X
Clarinet: X
German: X
Blogging: X

Planning Ahead

It's something I'm good at. I basically can't do anything without thinking about it first. It's almost a fault.

I was just reminded of this because I have had a few conversations with my brother recently about things that I like doing that he wishes he were good at--namely doing well in Sim City and Risk. I've noticed that the fatal errors he tends to make are those of impulsive decisions--when you think "Man, it would be AWESOME to have this sports stadium in my city!" you have to remember that the traffic will back up around it and that you'll have to pay money to control it, that the rich snobs whose houses are right across from it will want to move out, and that it also costs a good deal of money to maintain. In the same way, if you just got a cannon on Indonesia and it's the only thing protecting your continent of Australia, you shouldn't go straight into Siam or India.

In the same way, I plan out other aspects of my life; I know where I want to look for jobs next year, what videos I want to do coming up, what I should be practicing to get my auditions going, and some goals I have that I want to work on. However, I am acutely aware that things can and will go their own directions against the plan, and I think this is what separates me from many people. When something breaks the pattern of events I have planned, I get excited. I love working new things into my life. I get my variety, I accept the change, and most of all, I get to make newer plans.

I think this is what people mean when they say to take life by the horns. To a certain extent, you know exactly what you need to do to stay on the bull, but at the end of the day, you need to enjoy the ride.

Sleep: X
Clarinet: X
German: O
Blogging: X

The magical productivity elixir

Seriously, kids. I have been preaching this gospel ever since it was preached to me way back in November. Sleep is the key to happiness in life. And I'm not talking the lazy college student can't-get-himself-to-sleep-at-night-so-he-sleeps-in-until-the-afternoon sleep. I'm talking a healthy, consistent sleep.

That's right, I went straight to sleep last night after posting my blog, and it worked wonders. I woke up and only spent an hour or so in my morning routine. I then got straight into recording music on my computer (none of which was worth keeping, but it's the thought that counts!), ate lunch while talking on skype, and was able to remove myself from skype because I was so excited to record more. I successfully recorded a polka rendition of my friend Justin's theme song and then practiced my clarinet.

And this wasn't just any practice. No, friends. I practiced for 45 or so minutes before taking a break. This break was mostly comprised of listening to the ridiculous orchestra excerpts I have to play (seriously, these are hard excerpts) while discussing music nerdy things with my certified English friend Fraser. Then I went back to practice for another half hour or so before dinner. After dinner, I practiced for over an hour. I was on fire. And then I realized I still had to do my German lesson for the day, which I have just spent an hour and a half completing. Hopefully I'll be able to keep all the cases and adjective endings correct -__-

So, what I'm saying is, the key to a productive day is a healthy sleep that suits your circadian rhythms. Seriously. Try it. As for me, I have to post the Pun of the Day before going to sleep myself. Speaking of which, if anyone reading this wants to film a week of puns they can e-mail to punoftheday365@gmail.com (don't forget the "365" in punoftheday365@gmail.com) it would be GREATLY appreciated! Individual days are fine, too, but weeks are not only fashionable--they make my life easier!

Sleep: X
Clarinet: X
German: X
Blogging: X

Lethargy.

I'm decidedly uninspired today. I'll admit it. I did nothing of my goals except waking up on time. And even that, that was only because we were supposed to be painting the house and so I knew my mother would wake me up. I simply knew it would be more pleasant for me to wake myself up on time rather than to listen to her wake me up. Not that she's unpleasant; it's just that nothing is pleasant when I want to be asleep.

I have a feeling that that is the biggest struggle right now. I have still been getting to sleep too late, even though I've been getting the right *amount* of sleep. So from now on, I have to swear off using my computer after 11:00. It's going to be difficult, as people meaning well will want to keep me on tinychat until I fall asleep at the keyboard, but I have to keep my health, sanity, and well-being in mind. I'm just not a night person.

So, in order to keep myself to that, I guess I just need to sign of and sleep. However, comments of encouragement are always appreciated!

I know I don't say this enough, but I do mean it--I thank you all for taking the time to make a difference in my life, and I also care about every single one of you. I hope you know what a profound difference the internet-folk have made on me. Thank you all.

Sleep: X
Clarinet: O
German: O
Blogging: X