Howzit Zaadz friends - Happy New Year..... Nuts how quickly 06 went by huh?

Well I havent blogged in a long time so I thought Id show yall around town.

#8 the oak grove at potter park - 3 mins from my front door to here.

#7 South Creek - 5 mins. from my front door


#6 Fishing @ The North Jetty 15 Mins. if the bridge is down.


#5 Nokomis Beach - 15 Mins (Its right next to the jetty)

#4 Nuff Said - Everywhere

#3 Back Yard at THe Cracker Shack (AKA my house) - Right Outside

#2 Saturday Night Drum Circle

#1 everyday ends just like this

I could add one more - the fact that all of these pics were taken on December 30 - but I dont want it to look like Im bragging.....LOL

Happy New Year again - Hope its the best one eveer for all of you.

L8r
mike

Guess who's back.....(Did you ever notice every emenem song starts that way?).

Well not emenem just me but I noticed its been a long time since I blogged anything and thought I should send out a little joy....LOL.

So....I kinda quit blogging about my goals and stuff cuz I thought that people were probably getting pretty bored with thearing about it (even tho its the big thing in my life right now I bet you WERE getting a little tired of "Still walking .... only drank water this month...." LOL.) Well I AM still walking every day at lunch and have pretty much kept up with the working out 3 days a week - I had lost about 10 pounds a week ago but spent last weekend with my parents and put about 3 back on....My stepmom is an awesome cook ( specially if you like southern food) and when people come to visit she just dosent stop cooking ....cooks you a big breakfast, a big ol lunch and a huge dinner ( we had shrimp AND crab AND lobster for dinner Saturday .... I cant turn that down...sorry) .... Its funny tho cuz the whole time I was there I really tried to moderate and be careful of portions and stuff.

The weird thing is that I was really worried about putting the weight back on after working so hard to lose it and ....Here comes the weird part ... I think you guys knew it !!!! 5 different people this week have asked about or mentioned my Weight loss - some noticed that I havent been blogging and two of you were people I just met on here today who commented about that particular thing - trippy huh? Well I guess that somebody is trying to tell me something so I figgered I better get on here and blog about it today.

Other goals are going pretty well - had a tough week with my son about a week ago but I think that in a lot of ways it was a great learning experience for both of us and we have  moved forward from there.

My meditating is going great - still just once in the morning and once at night but i think that for where Im at right now thats probably just right as the quality of my meditations and the mind set that I am developing are really excellant.

Lets see ....finally got my new roof on the house...OK im ramblin for sure now.

Thanks for reading - and thanks to all of you who picked up on my need for encouragment as far as the weight thing goes - You guys rock.

L8r
mike

Well it seems my blogs and conversations around here of late have all revolved around the same general subject .... I am not so good with words and I never feel that I fully express what Im thinking when I get into these discussions.

HOWEVER.....I found the perfect words to express exactly what I think in a pod on here and I am going to post them and then drop the subject for a while - (Ill have to keep myself from buying Mother Jones for a few months I think).

So anyway - with all the credit going to Stuart in the forgive 911 pod....."here, in the nation sworn to oppose oppression, sworn to defend freedom, represented by a goddess of acceptance, and based on a foundation of dream making ,the fortifications which represent the very opposite are being not only constructed, but re-enforced...with military might no less, and...with the avid frothing support of those whom have forgotten that they are immigrants, or children of immigrants themselves" ........ Now that dude knows what Im saying.

L8r
mike

I have never been a patriotic kind of guy, ya know? I remember as far back as high school saying "Im a Floridian - if someone attacks Florida then Ill be ready to fight."

I  have always felt that the modern US government is a business machine that kinda uses the people as its slave labor .... I mean they tell you about all the freedoms you have here, yet there are more people in jail in this country, per capita, then any where else in the world - how is that?

Anyway Im getting off track - I was reading through some friends blogs and I came across a discussion about the flags that people here display on there profiles. It seems that some countries that arent really countries anymore ( like Scotland, and Tibet) dont have thier flags available to display - its a software thing or something like that.

This brought me back to my first day on zaadz. I remember as I was filling out my profile coming to the flag part and it just didnt seem right to me.... Here we are a group of people from all over the world getting together to share ideas and ask questions about how we can change the world ( I assume we all want to change it for the better) and right from the start
we are putting up the same old stale boundry lines. I mean whats the purpose of these flags? If my profile says Im from Sarasota, Fl, USA, I can see that it explains the geographical location that Im at on this earth, and that may be useful for another person to understand where Im coming from with my questions or suggestions - but why do we need to fly colors - why is it neccesary? It seems to me to be more likely to divide then to unite.

It may be different if you are from a different country - I know that Im not to proud of the actions the government of this country has taken over the paast several years or of the fact that it seems that a small majority of the people who live here and take the time to vote seem to be in support of said actions - so even tho I was fortunate enough to be born in this beautiful geographical location at a time when the people in this location are extremely prosperous - it really is just a matter of luck of the draw.... It isnt something I accomplished or created or have any ownership of at all.... my Mom & Dad just ahppened to be here when they got together, so Im an american ......

All and all it didnt really bug me on that first day cuz I saw the little box I could check that says dont display my flag and checked it and moved on with my life, never thinking about what if I wanted to display my flag and it wasnt there ... jsut one more divisive issue.

So as a friend on here says....Anywho ..... I guess this is all about throwing in my vote for taking the flag option off - seems like I used alot of words to get to this small point but I felt like I should go into some detail as to why I felt this way ..... weird HUH?

L8r
mike

Howzit? friends,

I love walking around where I work - its amazing to me the things you learn just by going out and walking around - for instance there is a group of people from the place that makes fans across the street that always walk at the same time I do, & they must be doing the same kinda thing I am cuz when we both get out there together it turns into a race if they start a minute before me I always try to catch and pass them and I have noticed that they do the same... so now if Im in front I start walking faster its fun. I also found a turtles nest and a family of possums way down at the end of the road ... they are cool, but it looks like they are going to start building down there so I hope they get out of the way. Im glad I have stuck to the whole walking thing tho as my metabolisim has kicked in and I have now lost almost 6 pounds.....Killer huh?

This leads to a whole nother idea.... I have really started to like walking around zaadz too. there are a lot of very cool people here and I find out about things that I think I would never learn about other wise.

Some are really cool - I have always been a simple liver, My friend Dave who is in his 70's and worked as a circus performer for most of his life once told me "never own more then you can carry at a dead run" well, once my son was born that went out the window - but I still have a simple house w/ simple furniture...etc.  BUT finding the living simply pod has allowed me to meet some peolple that have really got simple living down to a science and I am so stoked to have learned all the cool things I have learned from there. Thanks everybody over there.

Some others are really....different - I found a pod about how Bush engineered 9-11 last night and that was pretty freaky

Mostly tho - its the people that I have become friends with that make the whole thing really awesome - So many smart and intelligent people on here who really share the same intrest and ideas ... and the really REAL people (you know who you are) that are such a rare find. I have never really interacted with people online before so every new situation is really a first for me - Who knew that you could become , like, a GOOD friend with someone who you probably couldnt pick out of a room with 2 people in it - trippy!

Oh well ranted on long enough - Thanks people of zaadz for making this such a cool place.

L8r
mike

Well, This comes a couple of days later then I said it would but  ... I never go back on my word .... Sooo for anyone who may be interested after one month Im going to update y'all on my goals and how - Ive been doing.

#1 - Be the best parent I can be - By far the most important of all my goals, this one is the hardest to judge progress on. - I can say that with great advice from some of the people on here I have added a lot of new parenting ideas and some little tricks that seem to have really opened up the lines of communication betwwen Zeke and I. We have always communicated well but I have over the last few weeks found that we have had more substantive and thought provoking conversations, which has I think brought us a little closer.

I have also been assured by my son of late that I make the best chocolate milk in the world - How can you beat that?

So I want to really thank Heidi, Darci, Lindsey, Temp and all the others in the parenting instruction manuel pod - for all the awesome ideas - If nobody else is getting anything out of there EVERYONE is sure helping me.

 

#2 lose 30 pounds by 6-30-07 - Well Ive been doing great On picking up my level of activity - Walking a mile a day at lunch time every day ( ican do it in 17 minutes right now) and about two and a half weeks ago I joined the ymca here near our house and have kept a regular 3 day a week schedule there.

When I started the whole deal I went out and bought a scale to help keep track - On day one I weighed 287.7 pounds ( thats huge huh?) today I weighed myself again - 287.4...:-(

Less then I expected but I know it takes 6 to eight weeks to change your metabolisim so Im still hopefull for next month.

#3 increase my practice - By this I am refering to my meditiation practice as I am buddhist and when I started this thing I had slipped to only about 15 mins a day atr bedtime.

Being a single dad I found lots of reasons why I couldnt fit anymore in from day to day _ however I found just by hittnig the snooze button one less time in the morning,  I have been able to double that over the last 30 days and I believe that by doing that it has helped do a little better in goal #1.

So all in all with a lot of help and encouagement from my friends - both on here and in my everyday life - I think I am off to a pretty good start.

Thanks for reading and have agreat day.

L8r

mike

 Well ... where to start, I got so much great feedback on the last blog about the seeming lack of action on the pods that I guess Ill just touch on that one briefly. I see that most agree that the pods seem to be very weak on zaadz ... and the alternative suggestions that were offered by all of you are awesome and I plan an exploring each of them to see if I can find a good alternative - however none of them, in premise address what I really love about the pods idea and that is that they are subject specific. What I am refering to is that its a group of people who in theory should be available to offer insight or ideas on one specific subject.... If I go the email route I can get some great opinions but really from only one person at a time ... the blogs are very hit or miss and after a day or two the old blogs are forgotten.... the idea of a messsage board or forum probably is the best alternative, in my opinion, but even there in a place with this many people coming on daily it would be easy for a persons voice to not be heard.

Thats why I really want to figure out a way to save the pods - I believe they have the potential to be the most useful tool here - So I guess I (we ... if anyone else feels this way) gotta just keep on thinking about it  till some great idea pops up.

On the goal front .. things are coming along pretty good. I think ,after reading some of Di's recent blogs ,that  in my day 30 blog I will reveal some results as far as how I am moving more closely to my goals ... Im doing pretty well, so maybe they will be a source of ispiration to some others out there, as I have found that you never know who may be reading these things.

 Had a super weekend with my son - movies, mini golf and the water park as well as some great storytelling and yardwork - we got a lot accomplished and the main goal for the weekend was "No matter what we do - let's have fun doing it" It worked out pretty well - Im kinda bummed that schools going to start in a couple of weeks ( it starts the first week of August down here).

Ok have a great day to all who stumble across here.

L8r

mike

Its been an good day so far - actually a good couple of days - as I read through some of the blogs on here I really realize that I dont have much to complain about in my life, sure Ive had some bad breaks and all, here and there throughout my life, but not as bad as a lot of people appearantly. I guess no matter how your stuff is going things could always be better or worse - for me its just best to live in the moment (even though that sounds kinda cliche) and try tyo find the good in everything and everyone, that works. 

Enough about that.

Has anyone else noticed a huge slow down around the ol zaadz world? I mean I know some others have cuz I have been seeing (in the pods mainly) people calling out for someone to talk to or to please post a topic of disscussion or whatever. I wonder if people here are losing interest in changing the world? I know that in some of the pods I belong to the majority of the members havent even logged on in 2 or 3 weeks. (In the one little pod I have grown there are only 8 people but luckily most of them still come on every day or three)I guess that some peole are busy or dont have evereyday access to computers - but, wow 3 weeks?

Maybe Im just one of those people who is getting used to instant gratification (or stimulation), I dont know - maybe Im needy ... LOL .... or maybe Im just bored. Hopefully all those people are out really changing the world and are going to come back on here one day and tell the rest of us all about it. That would be cool.

L8r

mike

Whew...its hot today.

Just did my walk, sticking to it ... a mile a day ... I can do it in 17 mins. flat but cant seem to break that mark. I dont know that seems pretty good, I think its like almost 4 miles an hour, but my goal is to be able to do it in 13 mins. by next June.

I really like the hot ( I always say Id rather be sweating then shivering) & this is my favorite time of year I seem so much more alive in the summer than in the winter - BUT its hot today! It brings up a funny subject... last year in november or so here at my work we finished an expansion of the office spaces, I had only been working here about nine or ten months at that time but the space I was in had no windows .... In my previous job (same job different co.) I had worked for 7 years in a space with no windows as well, So I asked if I could move into this one peculiar little space that was almost an after thought to the expansion. The doorway to my workspace is only 4' tall as it runs under a major loadbearing beam and also, because of this beam, the air conditioning doesnt reach in here. Now I understand that to many this would be a problem but to me for the oppertunity to work with open windows and natural light the tradeoff is small potatoes. ( I have lived here my whole life and as stated earlier the heat dont bother me that much). I stick a fan by the window crank it up and enjoy my little weird space. (Zeke thinks my little door looks like the entrance to Willy Wonksa factory in the old version).

Anyhow the funny thing is that everyone who comes in here says the same thing...."Its hot in here, They have got you a window unit yet?". No matter how many I times I explain that a window unit would take away a window and not be desirable to me nobody seems to hear me, the next time that same person comes in it "No air in here yet?" all ove again.... It really makes me notice how very little people hear of what we say in our everyday lives.

This makes me think of somethings that I have noticed in the blogs of a few of my friends lately - They are lamenting that someone may ahve misinterpreted this or thunk (my second favorite word) someone meant this when they really meant that & I think that at least based on my experiance, unless it was a really good friend & a really deep conversation they propably have never thought about what was said again after it was said.... So dont sweat the small stuff guys (heck dont sweat at all...Unless you just booked thruogh a mile walk in the hot Fl. sun...LOL) cuz like in that song by the Gorillaz its probably "All in your head"

Had a great day with Zeke yesterday - the first day I got to hang with him in like ten days (see previous blogs) and in reference to my often over looked third goal had a great sit last night one of the best ever & Ive been on the cusion for a long time...Things are progressing and I think it has a lot to do with this place and the people that I have met here - so thanks.

L8r

mike

 

Really - Only 18 days since I started blogging? Wow it seems like I started a couple of months ago - I hope that Im not getting bored with it (that happens with me often) sometimes I get to into something and burn myself out quickly. Im pretty sure Im still pretty interested in this whole Zaadz experiment so....

Whats new with me - I has a decent but quiet weekend, Zeke came home on Saturday Morning instead of Friday night cuz my parents didnt want to drive on the Interstate for 2 hours in Friday rush hour traffic. I can understand that ,but I was a little bummed because this weekend was his weekend to go to his moms house & if they had brought him home on Fri. I would have had a bonus night to spend with him and hang out as I had already made arrangements to bring him over there Sat. @ noon. ( Some people reading this may not know but my son lives primarily with me and then we alternate weekends). So I missed out on the bonus time but I got a great experience none the less that I wanted to share on here, this might get a little long sorry.

I have a little stone Buddah that I wear on a string around my neck and have had as long as Zeke has been alive - when he was a baby he used to entertain himself while I changed his diapers by sticking it in my mouth and watching me blow it out over & over again. I also have a black shoestring tied around my ankle thats been there since I got out of the navy (joined the navy to surf the world - bad idea dont try it) when I was 21 (that was a long time ago). So anyway when zeke came home he came in the door and the first thing I noticed was he was wearing a sring necklace that he got out of a gum machine somewhere and I commented on it right away - "I see you got yourself a cool new necklace" - right away he say "yeah and look (pointing to his ankle where there was a black, kinda like livestrong type braclet)" he said  "I wanted to be just like you Dad."

Well screw the bonus time & missing him for a week while he was on vacation it was all worth it just for that moment - what an awesome way to come back home....I love that kid.(plus he brought me cupcakes that he made). Hes awesome.

Sometimes a guess you just give a little to get a lot - and to me that was worth all the tea in china..and this was def one of those situations.

Well I guess Ive rambled on enough for one day - Thanks for reading anyone who may have.\

Cya

mike