A thought on power....

I can ride my bike with no handlebars

No handlebars

No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars

No handlebars

No handlebars

Look at me, look at me hands in the air like it's good to be ALIVE and

I'm a famous rapper even when the paths're all crookedy

I can show you how to do-si-do

I can show you how to scratch a record

I can take apart the remote control

And I can almost put it back together

I can tie a knot in a cherry stem

I can tell you about Leif Ericson

I know all the words to "De Colores"And

"I'm Proud to be an American"

Me and my friend saw a platypus

Me and my friend made a comic book

And guess how long it took

I can do anything that I want cuz, look:

I can keep rhythm with no metronome

No metronome

No metronome

I can see your face on the telephone

On the telephone

On the telephone

Look at meLook at me

Just called to say that it's good to be ALIVE

In such a small world

All curled up with a book to read

I can raise funds open up a thrift store

I can make a living off a magazine

I can design an engine sixty four Miles to a gallon of gasoline

I can make new antibiotics

I can make computers survive aquatic conditions

I know how to run a business

And I can make you wanna buy a product

Movers shakers and producers

Me and my friends understand the future

I see the strings that control the systems

I can do anything with no assistance

I can change the nation with a microphone

With a microphone

With a microphone

I can split the atoms of a molecule

Of a molecule

Of a molecule

Look at me Look at me Driving and I won't stop

And it feels so good to be Alive and on top

My reach is global

My tower secure

My cause is noble

My power is pure

I can hand out a million vaccinations

Or let'em all die in exasperation

Have'em all grilled leavin lacerations

Have'em all killed by assassination

I can make anybody go to prison

Just because I don't like'em and

I can do anything with no permission

I have it all under my command

I can guide a missile by satellite

By satellite

By satellite

and I can hit a target through a telescope

Through a telescope

Through a telescope

and I can end the planet in a holocaust

In a holocaust

In a holocaust

In a holocaust

In a holocaust

In a holocaust

In a holocaust

I can ride my bike with no handlebars

No handle bars

No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars

No handlebars

No handlebars

BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER....

One thought on considering risks...

I always wanted to slide down a laundry chute. My grandma had one and I probably thought about it a thousand times...probably would have broken a leg....heh heh. I think about it even now, when I couldn't fit in a laundry chute if my life depended on it and I am resigned to the fact that I will never have the experience I wondered about.

If you inventory the things in life that you have always longed for, longed to do, longed to say and for whatever reason were resigned to it not happening...I think there are a few ways to consider it. You can look at a situation like mine above and say, "while I never did it, I still think that was pretty smart." Or there can be situations where you wish you would have said something different or talked to that one person you couldn't talk to. Ultimately, I think that the best thing is to have some of each...it keeps you balanced and reminds you that you made those mistakes, avoided those mistakes and took risks when the rewards made it worth it.

And to that point, I can tell you affirmatively that the rewards of well considered risk can indeed be worth it.

Be excellent to each other!

Me...

My hands are covered in bug bites , my face is burnt from too much sun, my liver is inflamed, my blood pressure is too high, the diet I am on makes me hate eating food, I need to sort out my life, I need to work out, I need the Huskies to win a game, my throat is sore, my head is slightly pounding, my ankles crack, my hands hurt from playing with legos, my thoughts are with my friends and family when they should be on the task at hand, I'm in a slump, I'm still grinding my teeth, I had to trim my goatee even though I loved it fat and crazy, my shoes need a shine, my check engine light is on, I need to start taking the medication I stopped taking, I feel undervalued, I have regrets, I have disappointed others, I have disappointed myself, I'm angry, I want to scream, my parents drive me nuts, I need more money, I need to stop wasting the money I have, I need to plan for the future so I don't end up alone and without hope.

My bug bites are healing, I loved the sun on my face as I watched dolphins the entire afternoon yesterday, I'm taking a break from alcohol to try lots of water, my blood pressure is improving, the diet I am on was prescribed by a physician and is working fast, my life is dialed in, I'm heading out to work out when I finish this blog, the Huskies played tough and will win this year, my singing was really strong today, my headaches have been less lately, I'm getting new shoes for my joints, I built legos for my son and he loves them, my boss is trying to get me to relax and worry less about work and more about me, I'm an all star, I'm heading to the dentist next week for a good cleanin', my goatee is soft now that I trimmed it, I'm going to get new dress shoes next weekend, my car has over 150,000 miles on it and I just changed the oil, I'm back on the medication to help my anxiety, I'm well compensated and my employer takes care of me, I love looking forward and don't worry about the past, others around me are proud of me, I am proud of who I am as a person, I'm happy, I want to SING, I love my parents, I make enough money to be happy with my family, I'll have enough money when I need it, but most of all, I need to keep making memories and living in the moment...

Writing this made me feel a lot better, maybe you should try it sometime!

Be excellent to each other....

Olympics!!!!

Why does everyone think Dara Torres is doping?

She is 41, mother, and will submit to any drug testing requested...I believe her, but I also believed Marion Jones, who passed more than 150 drug tests in her career. Its too bad, when I was a kid, the only guys on roids were Russian weightlifters and the German women's crew team. Now....business men take Prozac to get an edge, its everywhere.

I have been watching the Olympics almost every night. I wasn't going to watch...but got sucked in. There are lots of stories to follow, but my favorites are the people who cheat and get caught.

Here are a few doping problems I don't get:

Gold medalist air pistol

Speedwalking (really, you need to juice?)

Do they test the NBA players? Carmello??

Here is a summer Olympics haiku:

Michael Phelps wins gold

The smog in Beijing hangs low

Bob Costas is white

Be Excellent to each other!

Exotic foods and dinner

What's on your menu for the day?

I have a client based out of Taiwan. As I sat at home last night after an authentic Chinese dinner, I pondered the evening. the restaurant was in a part of town I'm not sure I could find again, but I couldn't read any signs in the neighborhood (all Chinese)...very cool. I wasn't sure if I liked the food, if I was full, or if I was going to be sick. Don't get me wrong, I love PF Changs, etc. But according to my Asian friends, this isn't even close to authentic.

It was the cooked pigeon head that was staring at me during dinner that I recall most clearly. It looked exactly like the picture included here...note the head and beak of the roasted pigeon chicks....yeah.

We also had frog, which was pretty good except for the bones...which were messy. Crab, which was normal crab, a soup made of crab and monk fish belly, sea cucumber, Thai clams and a mango dessert that was refreshingly normal. Oh...and four beers (Sapporo, imported from Canada...heh).

So add pigeon to the list of stuff I have eaten that I consider to be out of the ordinary for an all american white-guy like myself.

My list:

Roasted pigeon chick
Frog
Sea Cucumber
Monk fish belly soup
Birds nest soup (a Chinese dessert of strange origins - saliva from a swallow)
Escargot
Multiple sashimi dishes including shrimp, eel, octopus, etc.
and pizza left on my TV for a few days (college...what a time!).

Next on my list, snake in Thailand and a choice selection of what my Asian friends refer to as "drunken shrimp". Apparently they bring out live shrimp in a bowl of alcohol, the shrimp swim around for a bit, get wasted and basically go almost comatose. You then grab them and eat them live...yummy!!!!!

not on my list: Dog (sorry, pets only) or "fried internal" (need a little more detail on that). Gotta draw a line somewhere.

Be excellent to each other!

Prisoner #4,910

Today I asked myself, how many Chris Browns are there in the world?

As I was logging in to create my blog, I got stuck at the always difficult, "create your user name". Well, there are 1,892,375 people with the last name Brown in the world. An army of Browns that could crush almost anyone on my block...of course, meeting the Lee clan may not be so hot. There are 1,581,550 people in the world with the first name Christopher. This isn't including variations such as Chris, or Kris, Christoph, or Toph, or any other jacked up way of saying Christopher you can think of. That leaves me to try and remember something else as a log in name. So I thought, "how many other Chris Browns are there, and how quickly could I fined a website to tell me?" hmmmmm...

There are 9,821 people named Chris Brown in the world.

6 seconds via google.

So based on my calculations, I am Chris Brown #4,910. I figure I am half way between the old fart named Christopher Brown in Tampa FL, and the 2 month old in Pasadena named after the R&B star.

As you will soon see, I have ADD, diagnosed-on paper-battery of tests-the whole deal. I don't take medication for it, at least not for now. Knowing what I suck at is almost as important as trying to treat it.

As one Chris Brown in an army of Chris Browns, rather than tell you about me (when it really doesn't matter given all the Chris Browns I have to try to compete with), I'll just talk about what I see, here where I live, and everywhere else in the world.

Be excellent to each other....