Semi-Charmed Life

The Problem With Cable News Thinking

This is exactly the reason why I don't trust mainstream media. I don't watch television anymore, because it is one of the WORST sources of information. I generally rely on my RSS feeds from various sites, from blogs to news aggregation sites. My feeds range from left wing to ultra-libertarian. I don't read any mainstream conservative sites because mainstream conservatism is a twisted version of libertarianism.

The Problem With Cable News Thinking

Not only the networks of all political persuasions that come to mind, but the mindset they represent...

When I was growing up, Eyewitness News always found a house on fire in South Buffalo. "Tonight's top story," Irv Weinstein would intone, "...a fire in South Buffalo." Every single night. If you watched the news from out of town, you were sure that the city must have completely burned to the ground. 

Cable news thinking has nothing to do with fires or with politics. Instead, it amplifies the worst elements of emotional reaction:

1. Focus on the urgent instead of the important.
2. Vivid emotions and the visuals that go with them as a selector for what's important.
3. Emphasis on noise over thoughtful analysis.
4. Unwillingness to reverse course and change one's mind.
5. Xenophobic and jingoistic reactions (fear of outsiders).
6. Defense of the status quo encouraged by an audience self-selected to be uniform.
7. Things become important merely because others have decided they are important.
8. Top down messaging encourages an echo chamber (agree with this edict or change the channel).
9. Ill-informed about history and this particular issue.
10. Confusing opinion with the truth.
11. Revising facts to fit a point of view.
12. Unwillingness to review past mistakes in light of history and use those to do better next time.

If I wanted to hobble an organization or even a country, I'd wish these twelve traits on them. I wonder if this sounds like the last board meeting you went to...

Advice

One of my training partners gave me some good advice last week, which I will actively try to keep in mind when I spar/roll in class. What it basically amounted to was:

GIVE THEM NOTHING.

Ups and Downs

I had such a demoralizing training day yesterday in my jiujitsu class. I was getting caught in bad positions all day, getting swept, submitted and overall I just got clowned with. On days like those I wonder to myself how much progress am I really making?

Training is a lot like life though. There are the good days and then there are the bad days. The bad days hurt because on the those days I ask myself, what am I doing? I've been doing this for so long, why does it feel like I'm going nowhere? The bad days hurt because they force me to question and doubt myself.

This is no different than when I have a bad day or if I'm going through a rough patch. It's the tough times that try to break you and make you doubt yourself. This is when it's most important to be resilient and remind myself that it's just a temporary setback. There will always be obstacles and sometimes things won't go my way, but I have to tell myself to stick with it.

That's the beauty of jiujitsu I guess. Training has really become a part of my life, such that I don't ever see myself quitting. I'll be training til the casket drops. Every time I'm on the mats, I learn something new. Although there is an air of camaraderie between all the guys that train at my gym, I have no illusions that in the end this is my own journey. Whether I improve or not is on me.

I can see why people say that guys with big egos usually end up quitting in jiujitsu. Some days when you get your ass kicked all day long, it's demoralizing. It's demoralizing because it is very hard to accept that all the training I've done amounted to nothing. You train for a certain amount of time, and you expect a certain level of performance commensurate with the time you trained. So when I perform poorly against guys who have trained for a relatively shorter amount of time compared to me, it's a blow to the ego.

And again, I have to remind myself that this is an individual journey. Every person learns and progresses at a different rate, and that it's never a race. I'm here to enjoy myself. Both in jiujitsu and in life.

No idea where I'm headed with this rant . . . but I'll be back on the mats come Monday.

My Parents Were Awesome

I stumbled upon this tumblr blog site, where random people submit pictures of how awesome their parents used to be. I love the pictures. From the website:

Before the fanny packs and Andrea Bocelli concerts, your parents (and grandparents) were once free-wheeling, fashion-forward, and super awesome.

My Parents Were Awesome

The 70's looked like an awesome time to be alive. I even recall a few pictures of my dad dressed in some trendy ass clothes when he was younger. Maybe I'll post that if I ever get around to looking for those pictures.

Tiesto ft. Emily Haines – Knock You Out

I'm feeling this song off his new album:

Knock You Out (Feat. Emily Haines) - Tiesto

Another song off the album, which I think is only OK.

Feel It In My Bones (Feat. Tegan & Sara) - Tiesto