2017.07.21 – The World Is Moving Fast

Contemplating coffee thoughts.

Last night I attended yet another meetup related to work. Throughout the evening all I could think about was how fast the world is moving. In the last five years, the industry I work in has taken a completely new direction, and I am not sure if the fast pace of change is really a good thing. The reality of the world is that you have to embrace change. Change never stops and sometimes you just need to embrace it and dive in head first. When others are dragging their feet, all you can do is drag them along or let them sink on their own.

Embracing change means you also embrace failure. When things don’t work right, get up, figure out what the hell went wrong, and make things better. And looking back for too long just keeps you stuck in the past. You can step back for a minute, but the longer you wait to tackle the failure, the more the world will have changed around you.

This chain of thought was kicked off by InspiroBot. Yes – the joke AI that makes random quote images. It generated the image above last night, and it really got me thinking.

Every time I ride the motorcycle I do put myself at a very high risk of something bad happening to me. I have been viewing learning and buying a motorcycle as a birth of a new life – the life that I wish I had a few years ago, but kept on putting aside. I put aside nearly everything when my I am riding and in a way it is like I am stepping away from my former self. I now feel like a different person – there is this sense of confidence that I never had before when facing unknown situations. I feel like I can step into the unknown, not look back to the past, and embrace what is about to come at me be it good or bad.

Did InspiroBot really give me a self-revelation about my life? Talk about the rapid pace of change in the world.

It’s that time of the year – Gear Season.

At the same time, certain things stay the same. It is that time of the year – Up Your Alley is next weekend – so time to start figuring out all of my outfits for the various events I will be attending.

I think I am starting to ramble – time to take a quick shower and get my ass to the office.

2017.07.20 – Morning Thoughts

Time to make the coffee

Being comfortable in your own skin can sometimes be fragile. I am always amazed at what little things will set me back.

One of the things I have noticed is that I stop taking selfies when I am no longer comfortable in my own skin. Lately, I have noticed there is a direct correlation to this when I stop working out as much. Last week, I had to take a break for a bit since my left knee was bugging me a bit so I took a five or so days off from running. And what I noticed is that I felt awful at the end. It took dragging my ass out of bed a few days ago and going back out for a run to feel normal again.

Other than that, I have been having a busy week – I had a work related meetup last night and I have another one tonight. When you factor in these meetups, they make for 12-14 hour days. I am slowly getting my road trip thoughts up and published. My goal is for that to be all be done Saturday morning. Unfortunately, I am going to have to put on my corporate drag soon and head into the office.

 

2017.06.29 – Road Trip Day Two – To LA

Mine!

Picture Gallery Day 2 on my SFW Site

This might have been the forgetful day of my road trip. The ride from Morro Bay to LA more or less was typical coastal and nothing really mind blowing. Even the food for the most part was nothing really special to write about. I had a good omelette for breakfast, but compared to the other food I had this trip – it blends in the background.

While tasty – this meal has blended into the background of my memories.

It was nice walking around the Santa Monica pier, but once again, nothing really special about it. Didn’t feel any different than the Santa Cruz pier. Although, it was fun watching the seagulls fight over a fish they stole from a fisherman.

A big map!

Instead of going down 1 through Malibu, I decided that I was going to just stick to 101 and get to my hotel as soon as possible. Around Ventura, traffic picked up and I caught up to a a Gixxer who passed me earlier. I decided that to follow him as soon as we needed to split lanes, and what an introduction to LA Lane Splitting that was. Overall the drivers in LA are way better about dealing with motorcycles – and the bikers have a style that is way more aggressive. The whole time I never felt unsafe – not a single close call in the nearly 45 minutes of splitting we had to do.

Looking back at Santa Barbra

Eventually I lose him as he heads off for the 405. Eventually I get to my hotel, 1 hour earlier than the google maps prediction. I stayed at the Park Plaza Motel over in La Brae. It came out to around 135 for the night, which is pretty cheap for that part of LA. Honestly, it worked out perfectly for me. When I checked in, they noticed I had a motorcycle and told me to park it in one of the “reserved” spaces up front that they typically reserve for the large suites.

After I showered, I did a walk over through the Grove and then over to West Hollywood. Part of me has been wanting to check out the main gayborhood in LA for a while and I decided to just hit up Hamburger Mary’s for dinner, which was solid. Overall, there is something just missing form all of the gayborhoods lately. Things seem formulaic now.

Afterwords, I walked up and down Santa Monica Boulevard and stopped in a few bars. The one thing I noticed is that most people were a few ticks more friendly than SF. Maybe this is because I have the fresh meat factor, but it seemed easier to strike up a meaningful conversation. Then I grabbed a Lyft and headed over to the Eagle LA. Once again, the same trend was there. It was also nice to just sit out in the patio there with a beer and not have to worry if I needed a hoodie.

The one thing that really worked well was leaving Matte alone at the hotel and walking around. Even though the first two days didn’t have much riding, it was good for my body to stretch and move around.

I am pretty sure I could adjust to the LA weather. There was something just right about the temperature range for me. Not too hot, not too cold. I need to check out LA more. Each time I end up there, it goes up higher as a place I my want to move to in the future.

I swear, this is a what the ice cubes looked like at the Motel!

2017.07.19 – Documenting Changes

Workout done, time for coffee!

I know it takes a while for people to accept physical changes to their bodies. Somehow I still have not accepted it. I still feel like I am much larger than I am. While it doesn’t really seem like the changes over the last six months have been big to me, they really are when put in comparison with the past. Even when that past was still good for me. Most people would still not say anything negative about my body then!

Exactly 1 year ago I posted this on Instagram.

I am slowly starting to understand what changes caused these positive outcomes. And one of the things I am quickly learning is to not dwell on the past and look forward. Look at where you want to go, your body, mind, and spirit will follow. I really think this change in my personality came with the motorcycle.

When I look at myself from this angle, and compare to the past, it is clear that my body is following where I want to go. I told myself at the end of last year I need to make some physical changes and I have. It may be a little bit here and there, and I may get discouraged.

Enjoying two of my addictions

I think it has been a good thing that I have a narcissistic selfie addiction. It has been helping me document my life as I evolve. But now I need to get ready for work and deal with my long day today.

2017.07.18 – Reminders

Can’t start the day without a coffee selfie, right?

Over the last week, I took a break from running. Between my knee bugging me just a bit, and some allergy issues, it felt right. But this morning I was starting to feel lazy and had to force myself to do my daily 5k run. Good thing I did, I feel much much better now.

But this morning after I finished my run, Facebook showed me this picture since I posted it last year. At first glance I don’t look much different, but when I looked at the other selfies from that set, it is very apparent that I have transformed a lot. It is clear that I have dropped many inches all over my body. The process was just so gradual that it takes reminders like this to see.

Apparently I ran in the same outfit exactly one year ago.

Whenever I start getting lazy on my exercise, I need to remember about all of the transformation I have made and continue it. Looking at the pictures of my ass after I run really does help put why I do this in to perspective.

It is also amazing how the body and soul can transform in a short time. Part of my transformation has been diet, but the other has been getting a motorcycle. In so many ways, it has placed many aspects of my life in perspective. Honestly, it just feels right for me and who I am.

My gentle reminder to keep on running.

One of the things I need to figure out with my transformation is how to balance out all parts of my life. While I was able to get all of the photos from my road trip up, it is taking me longer than I thought it would to write down everything. Part of that has been I have been keeping my life way too busy. When I think about my normal day, I wake up, run, shower, get myself into leather, ride Matte to work, work, ride home, and then crash.

I feel like I have put my journaling on the back burner. I want to restart that. I have bought a smaller notebook that is easier to take with me and I think that is going to help. Now I just need to put the ink to the paper and start it back up again.

But now it is time for me to face the commute and get into the office.

2017.06.28 – Road Trip Day One

A few weeks ago, I realized I needed a vacation. So I decided to take some time off around the 4th of the July (since the 3rd was also a company holiday) and head down to the desert. Since I knew some of the people going to Drummer California, I decided that I should go ahead and spend three nights over in Palm Springs. So I booked a room at CCBC and off I went. And boy what an adventure it was.

What I am going to do is split this up into multiple posts and leave the gallery of photos up on my SFW site.

Picture Gallery on my SFW Site

Arriving in Morro Bay just in time for the sunset.

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