Thirty

In less than 30 minutes from now I will be 30 years old. Sounds kinda crazy, right? I mean, its 30 - that sounds so...old. I vividly remember being 19 and getting depressed about turning 20. I felt that shedding those teens was a big step that I wasn't prepared for at the time. Now I think about what I've done in the past 10 years, and I really have nothing to be ashamed of. I was so productive in just 10 years, it makes me think of how much more productive I will be in the next 10.

10 years ago, I was still playing in the band, I had dropped out of college in favor of touring. I was working at Peter Andrews in Williston Park - I'm pretty sure that I was still a shipping clerk making $7 an hour then. I believe I was in my first apartment at that time in New Hyde Park - I hated living alone. It was awfully depressing to come home to nobody. It's weird how much I cherish my "alone time", yet I can't stand not having the option to go talk to someone at the drop of a hat. This was right around the time that we put out our first CD, and subsequently broke up the band as Hobbs the drummer and Paul the singer went to college, while Tom & I wanted to go to Europe. We brought Hugo in to play guitar and then drums. The band really did start to take off after that change, and we did more in 2 years than we had ever done before.

More importantly, in the past 10 years, I got married, went back to school, had 2 children, worked really good jobs and eventually moved to South Carolina and started my own business. Those are the things that have really defined me and made the biggest impact on my life, although the band was so much a part of it that I probably would have never wanted to start a family if it weren't for the experiences I gained from touring the world.

The best part about the past 10 years has been the steady incline in my life. My life in general has been on the way up and it shows no sign of slowing down. I have learned that its not about getting to the top. In fact, I don't want to ever get to the top because that means you will have to head down. I want to keep climbing up - that to me is what life is about. The finish is the same no matter what you do with your life - you'll be pushing up flowers. It's the journey that defines your life and as long as that journey is on an upward slope, then I will feel that life is good.

So here I go, starting off the next decade of my life at a pretty good place. 10 years does not sound like a long time anymore, so I need to keep the fire burning under my ass to make sure that when I'm 40 and looking back I can be amazed again at how far I came in such a short period of time.

Happy birthday to me!

Danny Way 2006 X Games Skateboard Big Air Backflip Gold

Here is another gem from this year's X Games: Danny Way pulling out a gold medal winning big-air back flip. Simply amazing stuff.

Motivational Speech

This weekend I gave a motivational speech to an Arbonne meeting (my wife is an Arbonne Executive Area Manager). I haven't given a public speech since I was in college, and that was for a public speaking class. I even made a Keynote presentation on my Mac, which was the first time I ever had to use that program. While I was a bit rushed (in practice, the speech was 25 minutes, but I only had 15 minutes to give the actual speech), it was well received. Now the Arbonne team wants me to speak at all of their future meetings. Oh boy - what have I gotten myself into?

In recent years I have been curious about the field of public speaking. I'm taking this opportunity to possibly hone the skill. It would be nice to actually get paid to doe these kind of speeches - hell, you can make a good living doing that. When I first moved here I was very tempted to apply for a job doing just this, but I didn't have a demo video to apply with. That reminds me - I should really get my wife to tape the next one so that I can not only have a demo, but so I can criticize myself on my performance. Nobody is ever honest about whether or not you suck, so its good to be your own critic sometimes.

I also have wanted to publish a book, so it might be a topic that I could explore and integrate the two mediums around the motivational theme. The real challenge would be to find an aspect to write/speak about that hasn't already been pounded into the ground. My true desire for a book would be a fictional book though, just because that would be more fun.

I guess I should add it to my checklist of life. So far that list is looking good:

-Get Married & Have a Family: Check
-Put out a CD & Tour the World: Check (more than one in fact)
-Own Your Own Business: Check
-Own Your Own House: Check (on my 2nd)

So now, I need to add the following:

-Get a Paying Public Speaking Job
-Publish a Book
-Host a Radio Show

I did try to do a podcast radio show with my buddy Hugo, but that didn't go so well as he walked out of it after 1 minute. Yikes!

Poop-Free Day!

My puppy/mutt Jackson is an 8 month old Shepherd-Mix that came to us from John Ancrum Animal Shelter. He is an adorable and affectionate pup who is very playful and great with the kids (my 2 year old son was just smacking him in the head with a toy and he didn't even flinch). He has had a major problem though, we have not been able to successfully house break him yet. He developed a fear of pooping in front of people so he would only poop outside if he got out alone (thanks to a certain 2 year old boy). If you took him out on the leash he was too scared to go while you were standing there. He pooped so much in the house that it really became frustrating to deal with. How many times can you steam-clean a rug before it falls apart?

Yesterday I was in Mt. Pleasant dropping off a package and there was a mom-and-pop pet store called "Pet Emporium" next door to the UPS store. I was interested in finding a solution to the brown spots on my backyard lawn from the dogs peeing back there, when I was introduced to the owner - a complete dog expert. I started to tell him my woes and he had some great advice for me:

1) Never let the dog lead you out of the house - you need to go out of the door first and then give them the OK to follow you. The reasoning for this is that when the dog goes out first, it thinks that it is in charge. Because of a dog's pack mentality, they must always have a pack leader. Unless you impose your leadership on them, they will try and take the lead. Basically, little gestures such as going out the door first and then granting them permission to follow you go a long way in establishing the respect you demand from them.

2) If a dog has an accident inside the house, do not react at all. Just clean it up and keep note of when he did it. Because dogs have an average attention span of 18 seconds, yelling at the dog will just confuse it (he most likely wont even remember that he made the poop in the first place). The only exception to this is if you catch them in the middle of the act, and even then you should not yell, just distract the dog with a change of tone in your voice so you can get him to stop and go outside and also let him know that inside the house is not the place for pooping. Yelling and hitting a dog has no positive effect, only negative. On the flip side, immediately after the dog poops outside give him over-the-top praise so he understands that that is what you want him to do.

3) Shepherds and Retrievers are working dogs, and need to fulfill their instinct to work for you. They need a lot of working exercise everyday to be happy. Just running around and playing will not suffice. A long brisk walk a couple of times a day will go a long way in training the dog and make him feel like he is working for you. Its also not bad for the human involved either. This activity will also address some common mental issues with retrievers such as over-anxiety. Keep the dog working and it will be much happier.

4) When walking the dog, always lead them and keep them on a short leash. 20 foot retractable leashes are a bad idea as the dog can easily take the lead and end up walking you. It gives them a lot of leverage and makes the situation dangerous to anyone in its path. I know this because my neighbor and my kids have all gotten rope burns from the dog taking off after a bug or leaf while on a retractable 20 foot leach. Moral of the story; if you lead the dogs as you walk them, their pack mentality will kick in and they will be much more inclined to listen to your commands and behave properly.

I have implemented these tips and I have to say I am impressed with this guy's knowledge. All of my research had led to crate-training as the only way to house break a dog effectively. I tried that with my Golden Retriever and he hated it. He broke the damn cage! Fortunately, he picked up the idea that pooping was an outdoor thing very quickly even without the crate-training. Jackson is very different in that he had such a fear of pooping in front of me that I was at my wit's end. I had a hunch that crate-training was not the answer for him because he is so used to having free access to the house that throwing him in a cage half the day would not be a good thing. The Pet Emporium proprietor backed up my theory saying that the best way to house break the dog was to follow the tips I listed above as well as keep him on a consistent schedule.

Like I said above, I learned all of this yesterday and I started applying it the minute I got home. Since then, the dogs have not had any accidents in the house at all. Today was the first day that Jackson went the whole day without a single in-home poop. This is really impressive to me because we spent a good portion of the day at the beach and the doggies were left home alone. I'm so happy I talked to that guy, and I'm so happy to know that my dogs are going to be even happier than they already are.

Pastrana's Double Backflip

There is nothing better than this - I almost shat myself during the build-up. The guy knows that if he fucks it up, he's going to the hospital and may loose his life - and still goes for it. What a sick, twisted, and talented psychopath.