Field Notes

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.

[nathanielstuart]

Love is a word that’s been hijacked by greeting card companies, cult leaders, sentimentalists, pop singers, false prophets, romcoms, McDonald’s and a million other unsavory types, who transform the most beautiful thing a human can experience into an inflatable gaudy imitation of itself that they use for their selfish desires and nefarious marketing campaigns. These bastards have made the highest and most intense experience accessible to humans almost impossible to talk about without feeling embarrassed.

Duncan Trussell (via nathanielstuart)

[thetruthovercomfort-blog-blog]

Character happens when no one else is around

Joey Diaz (via thetruthovercomfort-blog)

[bellygangstaboo]

apparently science only works on white ppl

[giangalang]

“Wonderboy”/”Woodley” Acrylic, Pastel, Digital, 9″x11″, 2017. Check out The Tactical Guide to Woodley vs. Thompson II on Vice Fightland

[sporadic-brainstorms-blog]

We’re just monkeys

Over these past few weeks, I made the commitment to optimize life. To optimize everyday existence and become more consistent and harmonious with the events that are happening throughout. One of the first resources we think about when we want to always be in control, always doing something is the cell phone, or technology to be more broad. 

Technology does not optimize life. Optimization is about effectiveness. Technology is constantly optimized and upgraded, but there is no technical or matter-of-fact way to optimize a human. Human optimization actually comes from the most carnal and chimp-like instincts of humans. Human optimization comes through trial and error rather than ease of existence. Although technology makes us become more efficient, I think the technology is unnatural to the human psyche, but that’s not an argument saying that technology is bad. On the contrary. Nothing is natural when thinking about modern technology, so I’ve been thinking about technology the same way I think about people: as apes. I like to go back to the most basic of feelings, raw emotions and basic tenets in which our world was built. 

We’re all users of technology, and I have nothing against that, I love it as a matter of fact! However, nowadays we are defining ourselves through technology. We are characterizing ourselves through dehumanization. We have new generations that are born into the Age of Information, and so their foundation becomes cluttered with technology as a natural element, sometimes even more so than nature itself. Having been born in 1996, I was always curious about what my parents saw, felt, lived through and though about during prior years. It’s fascinating to try to travel to those times and understand the psychology of its society. But the psychology derived from human ingenuity and (positive) mistakes! Kids today don’t know about hunting. Chimps like us, hundreds of thousands of years ago, people killed animals to eat them, and no one on Facebook called them murderers, or reported them for uploading a picture with the prey. Man’s gotta eat! We forget that killing elk, for example, is much more human and makes much more sense than Tinder or Google or whatever. But somehow our collective consciousness shifted to saying that it’s wrong. It’s human nature, it’s what we would still be doing if we wouldn’t have evolved. Sure technology was developed and optimized, but I believe that at a young age we have to emphasize personal development through thought and curiosity, rather than taking information for granted. Understand human nature in its most stripped form, and differentiate between the tech realm and your being. 

Be in touch with yourself. Turn the phone off for 2 hours, go to town on a punching bag, eat some meat, think! There’s time and space for our beautiful inventions. Give yourself some time and space too. We’re just monkeys! Follow your instincts, do your pushups, get some sleep. Be human. 

[staff]

Today is International Women’s Day.

Today also marks the show of solidarity for women’s rights by way of a strike: A Day Without A Woman. Women around the world are refusing to take part in both paid and unpaid labor in the name of justice for all gender-oppressed people of all ethnicities, religions, and sexualities. In doing so, they join the ranks of women who have led protests, strikes, and movements throughout history.

Let’s celebrate a few of those women:

Dorothy Height (March 24, 1912—April 20, 2010)

Dorothy Height, former President of the National Council of Negro Women, was one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington. She stood near Martin Luther King Jr. during his “I Have a Dream” speech, but did not publicly speak that day. In fact, no woman publicly spoke. “Even on the morning of the march there had been appeals to include a woman speaker,” wrote Height in her memoir. “They were happy to include women in the human family, but there was no question as to who headed the household!“ In 1971, she helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus with other notable feminists like Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, and Shirley Chisholm.

Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945—July 6, 1992)

Marsha P. Johnson spent her entire adult life fighting for the rights of LGBTQ people. She’s credited for being one of the first to fight back in the Stonewall Riots. She started the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries with her friend Sylvia Rivera. Together they provided food, shelter, and care to young drag queens, trans women, and homeless children in need in the Lower East Side of NYC. She fought for what was right, and knew how to live life with exuberance and humor. When asked by a judge what what the “P” stood for, she replied “Pay It No Mind.”

Alice Paul (January 11, 1885—July 9, 1977)

Alice Paul was one of the leading forces behind the Nineteenth Amendment, which affirmed and enshrined a woman’s right to vote. She rallied 8,000 people to march in the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington—no small task in a world before the internet—with an estimated half million people watching the historic moment from the sidelines.

And some good activist blogs to follow:

Emily’s List (@emilys-list) slogan is “ignite change.” They aim to do so by backing pro-choice candidates for US office in key races across the country.

Women of Color in Solidarity (@wocinsolidarity) focuses on being a hub for the the WOC experience in the US. Original posts, incredibly informative reblogs…this place is wonderful.

[srsfunny]

He Definitely Did Not See That Coming

[comedycentralstandup]

Your Joke of the Day from Sean O'Connor. http://on.cc.com/2mfocSc

[viralthings]

Reddit in a nutshell

[sporadic-brainstorms-blog]

Always civilized, always seeking the truth.

[giangalang]

“Wonderboy”/”Woodley” Acrylic, Pastel, Digital, 9″x11″, 2017. Check out The Tactical Guide to Woodley vs. Thompson II on Vice Fightland

[shonk]

Step Out

(source code)

[sporadic-brainstorms-blog]

NOLA, 2017

[sporadic-brainstorms-blog]

Week 1

Week 1 has been a success. Midterms have consumed virtually all my time, and I’m now writing from New Orleans. I couldn’t have picked a better week to try this new thing, living life positively and just looking for new experiences and ideas. Walking around the warm cobblestone of Bourbon St. with a beer in your hand really makes you appreciate the little things.

The other amazing aspect of this week was the heavy bag. Late nights, after I was done studying I’d go and have a cathartic experience with the damn thing. The more you punch and interact with that bag, the more you’ll feel everything right in terms of the mechanics of the body. So many times things just ‘feel right’, but I hated the vagueness. It has to be done right. Once it’s done right, the feeling will come. There is no feeling without doing. Only when we subject ourselves to certain situations are we going to be able to learn from them. This week has certainly been an awesome experience. Even though I couldn’t document and be meticulous about the progress, it’s will be normal from now on.

For now stay positive and write your goals.

Love.

[sporadic-brainstorms-blog]

I’m about to embark, on the #JRE.

[sporadic-brainstorms-blog]

Times for Expansion

I have no idea how people get reached through Tumblr. I was hoping for more contact, but I’m still hopeful and looking around. Hit me up for any questions!

Anyways, it’s pretty late Sunday night (Monday morning if you want to be exact) and I’m just finishing up the plan for the week and finished watching the UFC fight, Browne vs. Lewis. Throughout I was listening to a fight companion by Joe Rogan, an incredibly interesting comedian I’ve recently discovered. He’s been doing his craft for decades, but as of recently his online presence is astounding. His hit podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience has already racked up 915+ sessions, with each session from 2 to 4 hours. Every single conversation is thought provoking, ranging from fight talk, jiu jitsu, to the most powerful hallucinogenic drugs like DMT. He articulates thoughts about modern ideas that are tackled from a complete different angle, one that even allowed me to step back from the bias and look more objectively at the reality, and in the process become a more “advanced primate” (a reference for listeners). 

His intensity and drive has been motivating me for some months now, but I’ve never delved and attempted to achieve this “total human optimization” that he advocates. Healthy body and healthy mind. The idea quickly becomes a lifestyle, and I want to attempt doing this for 4 weeks. I want to live life like Joe Rogan, a jiu jitsu blackbelt, UFC commentator, Sasquatch and Bigfoot enthusiast, swears by sensory deprivation tanks, consumer of edible cannabis, and trains just like a fighter. I’ll cover as many of these activities as I can (if you’ve ever been in a sensory deprivation tank, let me know). 

Of course, my goal in the long term goes back to the idea of “total human optimization”. I want to focus on my mental well being as well as my physical, document everything and find it a practical use. It’s going to be an interesting journey, and I’ll be posting frequently to give updates and talk shit.

#JOEROGANCHALLENGE

Day 1 on Monday, Feb. 20

[comedycentral]

Tosh.0 is really cornering the celebrity news market.

[viralthings]

The sunset under the clouds.