Adam-Jackson

Did you know there’s other stuff going on outside of tech? I don’t care about what’s hot right now in the world of shit hitting the fan because people get tired of news just as quickly as they get excited. If the news is trending on Twitter or covering the front page of CNN, rest assured that the same news will be just as annoying to the modern world within 2-4 weeks. Some news like Swine Flu, Tiger Woods and Sarah Palin’s wardrobe are distant past. Whatever happened to the people of Haiti? Are they doing okay? Who gives a shit, Apple has a screwed up antenna problem with their new iPhone. Let’s say “fuck it” to every other problem and focus on that. This isn’t just in the tech world, this is headline news on every major media site.

It’s not something I get worked up about anymore beyond a couple of sarcastic tweets about Osama Bin Laden and if we even want to catch him anymore. My sarcasm bleeds through when I tweet, “hell, it was just a few thousand people in New York City that died at the hands of the Taliban. Guess we don’t care about revenge or seeing justice served.” These kind of stories do affect us but it’s like sitting at a cafe and witnessing a couple who are so terribly in love that they’re basically making babies right there in front of you are the same couple that keep you awake at night in apartment 5B with their screaming arguments. Life is always seeking balance and our fanatical talk about Tiger Woods’ affairs becomes an utter disgust of the topic after only a few weeks because we were so excited about it before.

I don’t get wrapped up in such topics. It’s not that I don’t care it’s just that I fully understand that the hot story will be old news as soon as I get time to actually read into it and research it. My time spent becoming truly informed of that news bit is just enough time for it to be old news at the water cooler Instead, I try to find news that isn’t popular; news that no one thinks about but the news I read affects us all in such drastic ways that I think we’re ignorant for ignoring.

As always, I like to say that I’m only writing this to share a bit of perspective on how I learn, study and grow. I try to share these bits with a tone that doesn’t come off as condescending, elitist or entitled. I just try to share and it makes you feel that way, please comment below in why you think I’m wrong and maybe I’ll learn something. That’s what all of this is about. If we don’t learn anything, why are we here?

Two articles I read this morning completely threw me off as items I never knew about and one drastically shaped the way I’ll live from here on. I’ll start with that one.

Please read: “At a Slaughterhouse,
Some Things Never Die”

What I found most intriguing about this was how humans are being treated. I’ve done research into where my food comes from. You’ll rarely see me eating pork  or products that were chopped up 2,000 miles away and processed with stuff that I can’t even pronounce and this article does an okay job and bringing up what goes into our food.

A side note that touches on food preparation and sources that I wanted to share with you how I decide what to eat. It’s very similar in how I decide who to spend my time with. Food gives us energy. It’s a crucial part of our existence on this Earth and is the core of what makes up who we are at least in the physical sense. Every aspect of that food’s time here becomes a part of you upon eating it. If the chicken was injected with growth hormones, if the pig was fed the dead carcases of other pigs and if the cow was confined to a tight space with no room as flies and maggots ate away at its underbelly, you are eating that. If the chickens get kicked and the fish get gutted from underpaid workers who hate their job, that’s ingested as well. The disgruntled truck driver, the underpaid butcher and the Ki / Energy that’s embodied in every hand that touches your food is absorbed into your body along with proteins and carbohydrates to make up your energy levels. Your energy is affected by everything you eat. It’s part of the reason I have a problem eating in restaurants now.

If the chef had a bad day, my food is affected by that. I try to buy meats from butchers that only buy locally from farms that aren’t over-crowded and full of underpaid workers. I try to trace back where it came from and I thank my butcher for his time and then I go home and I personally prepare that food. At the market where I buy my veggies, I have made friends with the women who work there. They greet me and suggest tomatoes that are fresher and a new batch of beets that just arrived. I go home, pour some wine and invite friends over and cook for them. I make it a social experience and my heart is warmed as they take their first bite and smile. This is my food experience in 2010. It’s free of fast food, free of processed foods and free of that unknown that comes from store bought meats and mcdonalds fast food. This way of living isn’t for everyone but I can say that your life will be much richer and full of joy when you experience food like this. I believe that the emotional state and treatment of my food and the people handling it affects my life each day. If I could farm, I would but I have to buy it second hand and that’s okay for now. If you live in the country, find a CSA and join it. Your body will thank you.

Moving on. This story isn’t about food at all, at least not directly. It’s about the fact that humans, people like you and me are treated like crap. It hurts me to all ends to read this piece of the race relations of underpaid employees working hellacious hours at a dead end job where their lives are in danger each day and I remember sitting at the dinner table as a young boy on Thanksgiving as a baked ham sat on our table feeling the warmth and joy of all of us sitting together where the majority of our ham comes from this factory in the Carolinas where workers live and breathe such terrible conditions.

In a way, I’ll make a stretched comment to say this is modern slavery and shame on me for ever being ungrateful for what I have. The true crime is to ignore stories like this and continue purchasing meats that come from places like this.

• We need to tell Washington to push imigration reform, crack down on the treatment of people who enter America looking for opportunity and are treated inhumanely with low pay and make business practices like this completely illegal.
• We need to demand our grocers and restaurants not carry food from factories that treat people like this. Make sure the food we eat doesn’t come from someone who dreams of the American dream but has only 2 fingers and is treated like cattle more than the cattle coming in on trucks each day.
• We have to become more enlightened to what the hell is going on!

To my last point, it made me feel completely terrible and so out of touch to even talk about Apple’s iPhone 4 antenna problems. How insensitive, how idiotic and how closed minded of me to spend countless hours reading and talking about Apple’s antenna problems when shit like this is happening in the world. You should be ashamed too and if not, then you have your own problems.

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The second article I read this morning is written by a man who’s traveled the world looking at how oil is affecting us and our Earth in so many ways. Scenes from the Violent Twilight of Oil. This ride is slightly less emotional to me but is a huge global problem. I didn’t feel the emotion that I did with the previous post.

I won’t talk too much about it beyond simply saying that the US only cares when we have a spill that affects us. There are wars in Africa, sensitive economies in Venezuela and men who live like kings in Texas earning nearly a billion dollars at one job where they just decide where we drill next.

The same can be said for the diamond industry. Yet, after many people have written about blood diamonds, women still wear them without ever asking if it’s conflict free or not. We still drive oil hungry cars and use plastic everywhere we can.

Two more articles about oil’s effects I read this week.

BP Cleanup Workers Gone Wild

The Hunters

You have to go out there and discover content or be even more daring and discover it for yourself. I’m ashamed at how committed I am to tech. It’s time to broaden my horizons and serve the universe using the gifts I was given. Not just retaining knowledge but using it to make everything great for all of us. Let’s do this together and it starts with learning.

On August 26th, I’ll be 24 years old. I’m no longer “newly able to drink” just as when I turned 21, I was no longer, “finally able to vote.” Most of the modern milestones related to age are in the past and I’m now an adult. I’ve managed adulthood pretty well. I’ve failed quite a bit (publicly) and I’ve made mistakes but we all have. I’ve been happy with what my salary is since I was 18 and held a management job at Apple. I’ve been happy with my accomplishments since I was 16 and was able to secure media passes to popular tech conferences and at 18, I spoke at my first conference and at 22, I got a speaking agent and there are so many accomplishments that I’m very proud of. I’m happy with where I ended up and proud of where my path has taken me.

However, I risk becoming a still pond.

Growing up, my philosophy, as taught by my father (Happy Father’s Day, dad!) was that of Budo which is the ancient philosophy followed by the Samurai in Japan. The physical, mental and spiritual training dad gave me had roots traced back to the amatsu tatara in Egypt and he spoke often of the wheel of suffering and how we are in control of our destiny and we are our own enemy. Each year, I grow more aware of the lessons he taught me and things he said to me in our 2 hour daily talks in the car after hard workouts or long sessions at the dojo make more sense as I experience more. Lessons he taught me were first like a cloudy mirror but the decisions I make today are suddenly influenced by what he told me and these mirrors are becoming clearer.

I’ve lived in two radically different places. Well, three radical places. The first is Florida where I grew up on a farm celebrating life as a cowhand alongside my grandfather learning how to milk cows and operate big machinery. It was there that I lost my right little toe which was reattached hours later with sewing thread by my uncle.

Then, I spent years on the beach in Florida surfing with my dad, growing my hair down my back (at 9 years old) and bleaching it blond with lemon juice and sun rays. I wore board-shorts everywhere, was thin, happy and received many stitches participating in extreme sports like skateboarding and surfing and martial arts.

Then, we lived in the heart of Alabama for 5 years where I befriended people who had never left their home town, happy, fulfilled individuals who were commited to their religion, their families and worked one job for 40 years only to retire in the same home they were born in. It was relaxing, calming and slow.

Now, I live in San Francisco where technology influences my life 5 years before my family in Florida starts using it, where marching down the street because you feel passionate about the banning of plastic bags is common and where weed is no worse for your health than soda or trans-fat (which we’ve banned in restaurants). It’s a progressive culture wrapped in the rat race that is a big city and making best friends has been challenging and I’ve had to be reliant on my roots and my beliefs to remember who I am and not lose myself to much of what makes San Francisco great.

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After my breakup with Laura, I took some time off from my beliefs. I went on a “binge” of sorts where I tried hamburgers and tried making new friends and drinking a little more and diving head first into some of the technology that I’ve intentionally avoided for the longest time like giving my data to Google or Apple or relying solely on the control of cloud services or using an iPhone for everything instead of my memory. I tried the San Francisco way that everyone lives and I was awoken to a few things.

I won’t go into details but what I’ve realized is that we are killing ourselves. I’ve written about this before in recent blog posts about the wheel of suffering and how obvious it is to me in the bay area as technology is a huge part of everyone’s lives more than any other place in the world.

I started doing research beyond the philosophical lessons my father taught me as a boy by researching the affects of technology, lifestyle, diet, fitness, television, social and anti-social behaviors and simply how we walk and sit and how all of this affects how long we live and the quality of our time here on Earth. It turns out that I was doing everything wrong.

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August will be one year as a single guy. I’ve been on 4 dates and for the greater part of that time, I stopped attending tech parties and spent more time at home, reading, studying and listening to myself and what my body needs.

Through the research, I realized that the vast majority of what kills us today is self-inflicted. Stroke, heart disease and even cancer are looked at as “silent killers” and victims of these ailments are given sympathy as it’s just sad and how they are suffering from something they can’t do anything about. I’ve realized that all of the most common killers these days are all related to a story I was once told as a kid.

The boy is fishing in a calm lake and only small fish are biting. He sits there day after day, grows skinny, lack of nutrition and fails to catch a single fish. A traveler walks past and asks the boy if he’s having any luck and the boy responds no and that he’s very hungry. The traveler picks the boy up and takes him to a river, then with his walking cane, the traveler darts the pole into the water and pulls out a fish ready to eat. He explains to the boy that still water yields no food. Algae and death are attracted to stillness and the water is undrinkable. A fast moving river is alive with fish, clean water and rich plants on the banks that can nourish you and keep you healthy.

The same rule applies to life. Sitting at a computer, separating ourselves from reality with headphones and surrounding ourselves with people who don’t make us better and bring us up will have long term affects on our lives. When you add stimulants like caffeine, processed foods and high sugar diets, other factors contribute and soon your body will be as dead as the lake the boy was fishing in.

With this stillness, it’s easy and you’re never short of breath, never sore from training, your mind is never numb from solving complex problems and your belly is always full but, inside, your body is shutting down your liver from too much sugar, intestines are having problems processing the red meat you just injected and blood clots are forming in your arteries. Diabetes, heart disease and even cancer can be “prevented” and sometimes cured with a radical shift in how you live your life.

In my research, I started by searching, “benefits of..” and I’d put a food in there like cayenne pepper or mushrooms or spinach and I’d jot down notes then I’d write down “dangers of…” and do the same foods. I’d find foods that benefited key parts of my body but avoid foods that contained more dangers than benefits. I read that people who consumer less than 1 alcoholic drink per day, did 30 minutes of rigorous exercise 3 times a week and avoided red meat and consumed lots of greens were vastly less likely to to test positive for cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Others who ate anything that they wanted to but exercised rigorously during their adult life also had similar results despite their diet. Simply reducing trans-fats, simple sugars, sodium and sodas increased the lifespan of those individuals and reduced doctor’s visits.

In January, I was in the later stages of developing Type II diabetes at 23 years old. I was only 40 pounds overweight and ate relatively healthy but not healthy enough and not enough exercise for a guy sitting behind a computer all day. I made a change and my recent blood work yielded 98% perfect results for blood sugars, blood pressure, cholesterol and iron and not to mention STD free but I don’t think that has anything to do with eating more spinach.

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It wasn’t enough though. I wanted to do something radical. I wanted to do something that takes me off my normal “plan” and really alter my life and experience the immediate benefits from it. My goals start with, “don’t do X for one week.” Then, if successful, I’ll up it to two weeks and beyond. Here are a few things I’ve done.

• Zero Alcohol beyond one glass of red wine once every 5 days (4 Weeks In)
• Visit the gym 2 days on and 1 day off and do cardio and weight training. Stretch on off days (4 weeks in)
• Cut out butter, salt, simple sugars, simple carbs and milk (6 weeks in)
• Stop wearing headphones to and from work (2 weeks in)
• Stop listening to music entirely (1 day in)
• Go out with friends and make new friends outside of tech (1 week in)
• Begin taking supplements again for a healthier body (3 days in)
• Spend 30 minutes each morning on my back deck, drinking tea w/ no distractions (2 weeks in)
• Spend 30 minutes before bed each night w/ no technology in silence (2 weeks in)
• Stop playing video games (1 week in)
• Drink 12 glasses of water a day (6 weeks in)
• Shave every other day (2 weeks in)
• Lay out in the sun once a week (2 weeks in)
• Cook every meal at home and bring food into work (10 weeks in)
• Drink 2 glasses a day of 100% non sugar added juice (2 weeks in)
• Consume more fruits and vegetables than meat. supplement protein w/ protein powder (3 weeks in)

These changes were all radical. I just started doing them. I spend time researching how and why I should do each thing then I just did it. My next task is to write more hand written letters since I’ve forgotten how to write due to typing all through high school and beyond so that’s a huge focus of mine.

The results after 2-3 weeks of doing most of these are just amazing. For the first time in 2 months, I ate a meal at a restaurant last night. It was tasty but I’d say I could have cooked it better at home. These changes aren’t temporary. I will stive to continue making more radical changes on top of these until the basic ones like exercise and good eating and vitamins become “easy” compared to some of the things I’m about to put myself through.

Through this I hope that one year from now, I’ll see what I’ve been missing. I’ll see what it feels like to be in perfect harmony with myself, my goals and my intentions. I’ll see what it feels like to be closer to myself, my friends and my family and I’ll have the courage and respect for myself to have no fear in anything I choose to do.

Above all, I truly hope that I’m still single a year from now. This is something that I haven’t spoken about here before and I feel that no one is gonna read this far so I can write it in confidence that only 2 people will read it but it was difficult after a 4 year relationship to suddenly come home to an empty home or to cook meals for 1 or to plan trips and attend concerts all alone. Being single after having someone from the age of 19 to 23 (which are very crucial years for a young adult) was challenging. Through those challenges I learned a great deal about myself. I learned what made me tick and was forced to love everything that was great about me and my interests. It was a change that I would never do differently.

In San Francisco, people saying, “single” is different than my definition. People I know applaud me and are sometimes envious of me being single. When someone tells you, “you’re single in San Francisco, that’s great you’re going to have so much fun!” This actually is directly translated to, “you’re gonna get laid so much.” because, in SF, most people are more committed to their work or hobbies than settling down especially at 23. The average age of marriage here is 35. The basic human needs of companionship, sex and socializing are still existent despite the fact that everyone I know isn’t ready to choose that one partner. The result is dating and sex is readily available but having a girlfriend is not.

This has been the most challenging aspect of living in San Francisco and one of the reasons I’d like to move to a quieter and simpler town. Those who know me know that I don’t “date casually” and I don’t succumb to my human needs over finding a life partner. Life partner comes first then those “needs”. This personal preference (not a religious one) has meant that after 3 weeks of dating after my breakup, I soon realized that everyone I was going out with was seeking out a different thrill than I was so at the start of January, I stopped going on dates entirely because I wasn’t interested in “that”.

It’s been challenging but through it, I’ve become stronger, happier and have lost that desire to date and other stuff. I’m now happy completely and whole as “adam” and not Adam w/ whomever I’m dating right now. At this point, I can say that it gets…maybe a little bit lonely but those feelings are weakening and it’s been 2 weeks since I’ve longed for a companion or life partner. These days, I’m hoping that I can go another year without dating, living as a single guy (not by San Francisco standards but like I’m living in an all-boys school and no women are around for 500 miles kind of single) and my goal is to become more and more happy with that choice and meet people who feel the same way and are on a similar path.

I’m not writing this to inspire you to follow me or to tout how awesome I am and you’re not. Everyone that reads this has what I have. We’re all the same and come from the same place and we all have our own path. It’s time for you to find yours and explore it and be madly in love with your place in life. I’m in love with mine and inspired each day to explore my space and grow. I just hope this explains my recent “crazy tweets about health” and lends some insight into my goals.

Thank you.

May 12th, 2008. I flew to San Francisco for a 2 day trip. It was the first time I had been to SF shorter than 5 days and not to attend something work related. I was in SF to hunt for houses and talk to some companies about working here. Eighteen days later, 3 garage sales and with some very upset parents, Laura and I boarded a plane which was a one way to San Francisco with a layover in Chicago. Everyone in my family was upset that I had given such notice on the move but it was on May 1st that Laura and I were sitting in a Starbucks as she told me, “let’s do it. let’s just go!” One month later and we signed the lease on a new apartment.

That apartment was where I started AdamsBlock and, in San Francisco, I met some amazing people like Dom Sagolla, Daniel Brusilovsky and Justin Leung. I’ve gotten great advice from friends like Abbi Vakil and, through the tech scene, I’ve dined with celebrities, traveled the US and have directly influenced some products that are changing the world. I’m pretty effing happy about that.

It’s why I was so surprised last night when I realized my 2nd anniversary in the city had come and gone with little fanfare. I was relieved though.

I was standing on my back deck, over looking the city surrounded by 5 very great friends and flipping burgers sipping a beer when I realized it was June 5th and I had been a San Francisco resident for 2 years and 5 days. Although, I have to laugh because I still have my Florida Drivers License. Yeah, damn I really need to get that changed. Haha.

What’s great is that last week, my friend took me on a car tour around some hidden city parks that no one knows about and I realized that there’s so much of this city that’s so unknown to me and so much worth photographing and so much excitement about discovering something new every day.

San Francisco is not my final stop and I won’t live here forever.

I’ve expressed interest in 3 cities but there’s one I haven’t listed. My next stop will either be Portland, Seattle, Austin or New York City. NYC is the least possible candidate because I’m not a fan of city life but I’d love the experience of spending 6 months there.

Portland is a little SF w/ no sales tax and lower cost of living but with the same kind of jobs you’d have in SF. Seattle is remarkably gorgeous with tons of parks and an awesome climate and Austin….well it’s perfect for a single guy. University of Texas is the largest college in the US, there’s a vibrant and year-round music scene and a hundred tech startups that are always hiring not to mention, phenomenal BBQ.

Wherever I end up next, San Francisco was my jumping off point and was the city that got me out of my shell inspired me to do some great things but it got me traveling enough where I know where I’d like to live next.

I’d like to move next year around the spring and before my 3rd year in SF. I think after 3 years, you begin to slow down a bit which is already apparent with me and there’s still a lot I’d like to experience. Furthermore, lower cost of living means my salary will enable more travel to places I’ve never gone before.

I’m happy to call SF my home. Flying into SFO is no longer just that – it’s flying home. I said that to my friend Ryan Hupfer last week who just celebrated his 2nd san franniversary a few weeks before me and when I said that, his eyes lit up and he said, “yeah you’re right. it’s home.”

To all of my wonderful friends and especially to Laura who enabled more than I realized for my move out west and made a lot possible just through her love and support. I’m happy to have her as my best friend. Who knew some girl I’d talk to in a coffee shop on February 18th, 2006 (right after valentines day) would be someone who became my best friend.

Thanks for reading and thanks for your support.

PS: last year, I wrote a series of blog posts titled, “One Year in SF.” that I recommend to anyone considering a move to the bay area. It was written for kids like me (16-22 yr olds) who love tech and think the startup life is for them. It will give you all you need to know for making the move. Enjoy.

I received an email very early this morning from a young guy around the age of 16 who lives in Birmingham, AL. It was touching as I actually lived there for 5 years between 3-6th grade and my family bought a home outside of Birmingham to spend more time with my dad’s parents and grandparents. We moved back to Florida shortly after the death of his grandparents but I’ll never forget how incredible it was growing up and living on a desserted mountain top with a spring, a lake and wildlife. There was even a wild blackberry field and we could fish in the lake.

Anyway, this guy messaged me and said the following:

“I follow you on Twitter and your blog. Watch your photos and videos and kind of cyber stalk you among other tech experts. One day I want to move to San Francisco and start a company like you did and mak a lot of money but it would be fun to live in San Francisco surrounded by tech companies and traveling to conferences and meeting millionaires. I remember when you tweeted that you met Kevin Rose and when you had dinner with Al Gore and that time you even met Arnold “the terminator”.

It’s really cool and when I turn 18, I’m going to apply to go to school in San Francisco and live there. I save every day and really want to do what you and other people like you are doing.”

I laughed when I read this. Compared to so many people (my peers) in the bay area and in tech, I’m a nobody. Well, maybe not a nobody but I don’t have the status that other people do and it’s mostly by choice as, for me, success doesn’t come easily and others make it look SOOOO easy.

I have friends that will complete a book every 2 months, have just sold their 3rd company and boasting about getting invited to TED again and having the $5,000 to put down on a ticket to TED. I have friends who eat at fine restaurants, go hang gliding in Argentina and decide that they’re going to take 3 months off and live in their friend’s villa in France drinking fine wine and partying.

I’m not envious, but I understand that what I need to do to have those things, would require I give up some of the fun in my life now to get those things, which I choose not to do.

Maybe I’m off on a tangent now but my point is that this letter puts things in perspective. I compare myself to my peers and I see what they get out of their work (return on investment) but I don’t know exactly how to invest to get those things. I’ve worked my ass off (not lately) but haven’t had the luck. It takes a semi-anonymous letter from someone to show me that what I have is luck in order to live here, have people that will pay me to do what I love and to experience life that some people haven’t had the luck or resources to do themselves. Looking from the outside in reveals how lucky I am and I should keep doing what I’m doing and stop beating myself up about my failures and the mountains I’ve had to overcome.

Thanks everyone for following along on this adventure and to Jacob for reminding me that I have over 5,000 people that are mostly anonymous following along as I embark on mini-adventures every day. Oh and Jacob, I’m not a tech expert. Take care.

In late January, I announced that I’d be climbing a mountain. Well, I may not be able to do that now. The full, $4,500 is due to Climbing for Kids on Tuesday to be able to qualify for the climb. I’ll be about $2,000 short after I give what’s left of my paycheck after paying rent.

I cancelled my iPad 3G order to make this deadline but I’m still short. I didn’t go on any business trips since December other than my pre-payed and pre-panned trip to Florida in March. I trained, lost 30 pounds and even moved to a part of San Francisco with steep hills and a convenient gym so I could prepare for this climb.

I stopped drinking lattes and other high fat drinks. Haven’t had a soda in months. I was and am fully committed to the mid-June climb of Mount Shasta.

No one else believed in me. Well, maybe that’s a bit harsh. About 8 people did including a woman who I’ve known for 8 years now via the web, for which I’ve never met. Her $500 donation meant a lot to me.

I asked my martial arts family who I’ve been training with for nearly 20 years. Nothing. I asked my family who loves me and has supported me for years. Mom and Dad gave which did help.

My emails and phone calls to my 75+ person family yielded one $15 donation from a family member outside of Mom and Dad.

That’s it.

So, it’s 5 days before deadline and I’ve raised $1,150 of the $4,500 needed leaving a remainder of $3350 needed to meet my goal which I pledged in January that I’d raise. That $1,150 that I did raise, actually includes $500 that I had to donate in order to join the program and be recognized as a climber.

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I have until July to pay off my balance. It’s a situation where I sign a contract committing to paying this. By July, I can pay this. I make enough that if I don’t leave my house for 3 months, the $3,000 can be done. This means I’ll be going from work to home w/o ever going out until July and I’ll be able to pay this off.

However, paying in July means I didn’t make the climb. I wouldn’t be able to climb the mountain which is why I did this, why I did this training and why I signed up.

This is a bit saddening. It’s for the kids so they get the money I promised to raise. There’s no backing out on raising money. I’m fully contractually obligated to “give” $4,500 so that’s that. But, I’ll be unable to make the Mt. Shasta climb unless I raise the $4,500 by Tuesday which is completely impossible.

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All I can say, is that it was a good ride. I made a good effort but, at 23 I just don’t have the network of wealthy friends who can donate money. I wish I could return the money you all gave but remember that money is going to a good cause and now I just have to skip meals and skip buying a car so I can pay off the money that I promised. If I don’t, it goes to collections and you know that’s never good.

Thanks everyone for your support. Here’s the donate link if anyone has $5 to spare. https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=323924&supId=277262371

You can read more about the program here. http://www.climbingforkids.org/

No I’m not writing this for Google page rank despite the fact that tons of people are searching for info about this sandwich. Well, according to Wikipedia:

A sandwich is a food item consisting of two or more slices of bread with one or more fillings between them,^[1] or one slice of bread with a topping or toppings, commonly called an open sandwich

So KFC’s choice to call it a Sandwich is highly inaccurate but I’ll let that one slide. The chicken thing that KFC is promoting is actually one of the most healthy meals that they sell. Seriously.

I found this blog post that contained the following statement:

The Double Down, really, is a nutritional powerhouse.  Chicken, bacon and cheese provide an astounding 53 grams of protein, which mean that every bite you take brings you that much closer to accruing lean muscle mass.  The breading on the patties offer a great source of complex carbohydrates, and there’s also plenty of fat in this to keep you full.  The Double Down drops in 10 grams of saturated fat, which may raise your cholesterol, but can also boost testosterone.  The Double Down also comes with a heaping serving of guilt (no extra charge!), so you’ll probably skip the rest of your day’s meals.  Upon closer inspection, the Double Down seems like the ultimate fitness food; low in carbohydrates (Atkins all the way!), high in protein, and obscenely high in fat to keep your stomach full and your cardiologist in business.  After wolfing down the Double Down, it’s unlikely you’ll be craving any more food – likely because you’ll be too nauseated with yourself to even think about eating again.  It seems, then, that praise is in order for KFC – the Double Down is too good to pass up.  I’ll take two.

I can sense the sarcasm in this post but let’s look into this a bit further. Most food that we consume as Americans is bad for us. This is true but to some degree, exercise will cure or filter out most of the crap we do eat. Here’s the test. Eat something, wait 25 minutes then go run 2 miles. If you puke, the food was probably not meant to be in your body. If you eat a skinless piece of boiled chicken with plain brocoli and a glass of water, you’ll be able to run those 2 miles no problem. A bratwurst w/ mac & cheese and a glass of beer is another story. You will throw up.

But if you manage to hold the food down, other than the long term affects that foods that are high in saturated fat and low in necessary nutrients will cause to your body, you won’t gain any weight. I can eat 4,000 calories and as long as I do enough activity to burn those calories, I won’t gain weight but the primary issue is bad foods cause us to lack any inspiration to go run a few miles because foods drain us and decrease the amount of energy we have.

Let’s compare the Double Down to what I would order at a fast food restaurant. Granted I’m 240 pounds and can consume one of those 2 pound San Francisco Mission burritos no problem.

• McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder (no fries or soda just the sandwich): 740 calories 42 grams of fat 1380 milligrams of sodium.
• Burger King Double Whopper (no fries or soda) 920 calories, 58 grams of fat and 1090 milligrams of sodium
• Wendys Double w/ Cheese (no fries or soda) 750 calories, 42 grams of fat,1 560 milligrams of sodium

I could go on and on. All of these double patty burgers are BAD for you. Not to mention the long time proof that people who skip out on red meat and only eat chicken & fish lead a longer and healthier life. Let’s just ignore that

The KFC Double Down sandwich:

1/3 less calories than every sandwich I linked to, 1/3 less fat and about the same amount of sodium. If you don’t get the fried double down, you cut out 100 calories and 10 grams of fat.

Let’s also remember, that most of the weight gain people experience is from simple carbs which is what’s in bread and is converted into sucrose (aka sugar) by your body and if not utilized, is almost immediately turned into fat. It’s a lack of protein and a raised level of carbohydrates in your diet w/ innactivity that leads to fat going up, muscle mass going down which leads to heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

So. IF you lead a healthy lifestyle, (30 minutes of an elevated heart rate 4-6 days a week), the Grilled Double Down sandwich from KFC is a perfect fast food item. I wouldn’t recommend consuming it daily because the absence of vegetables and fruits will lead to nutrient deficiencies in your body which can lead to sickness or long term affects (loss of vision, digestive issues) and the saturated fat in the double down can increase your likelihood of heart disease as you get older.

BUT if you’re on the go and you plan on running a mile later that day, the double down is the best way to get your necessary protein for the day (it has more protein than any other fast food sandwich), skip out on the bread (that leads to fat) and is far healthier than any other fast food meal (chicken instead of beef w/ less fat and calories).

Let’s also not forget that KFC serves vegetables as a side. Green beans, baked beans and even mashed potatoes where the other popular fast food chains give you the option of fries, a one week old pre-packaged salad or 3 apple slices.

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So I’ll be getting one of these (minus the bacon and w/ light mayo instead of regular) and pairing it with a glass of water and a side of green beans as a perfect way to get the protein I need without the bread and a great meal on the go.

The price, $5.65 which is high for fast food but the health benefits are simply incredible

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One final note, I was eating 6″ subway subs every day for 6 months. I gained 50 pounds of fat that year. Why? Because I’d eat a huge subway sandwich w/ sauce and then do zero physical activity. I stopped eating subway and basically cut out all simple carbohydrates from my diet but still didn’t do any physical activity other than biking to work and I lost 15 pounds in 45 days. Cutting out bread is very important.

Then I started doing cross fit and biking longer distances and doing mountain climbing. I lost another 20 pounds. Carbs are evil if you live a sedentary lifestyle.

Thanks for reading!

In January, I posted a blog entry that showed a few of my favorite photos from 2009. I was and continue to be so proud of my photography. It’s great to have photos that I can use in blog posts and I love getting comments / compliments from complete strangers mentioning how much they love my photos.

I know it’s only been 4 months but I bought a Canon G11 in December after owning the G10 for all of 2009 and I I’ve taken thousands and thousands of photos on the new camera in the past few months and I have so many great photos that I wanted to share here.

Please let me know what you think of these and thanks for reading and for your support! You can see all of these photos in their larger version. Just click on them. Read more…

I have many more posts to post about my trip. I just wanted to throw this one up quickly. I wrote 5 blog posts on the plane ride back to SF and this is the first. All photos taken by me, last week in Miami.
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I feel so old in my young age. I’ll be 24 in five months. Seems like I was going to be 23 forever. What’s interesting is that I’m in this time warp where I spend so much heart and emotion into these blog posts that really only take me half an hour to write but the heart involved in these posts means that I remember where I was and how I was feeling each time I wrote one. I can read the first line of any post and it’s clear where I was when writing it. This is why the post I wrote just 2 weeks before my 23rd birthday makes me feel that I’ve only been this age for a few short months but really it’s been 8 months since I sat at Sugar Café and angrily typed out my fears of being one year older and the events following that blog post have shaped so much of my life. I really used that post to make some pretty drastic changes in life, many of those changes that I regret but it was a lesson that I’ll never forget. I can’t promise myself that I won’t make those mistakes again when I turn 24 in August. We’ll see.

I write this from the plane on a flight from JAX to IAD on my way to SFO. Airport Call signs seem so native to me now. I speak in call sign. I took my first vacation last week. My boss at Brightkite encouraged me to do very little work on this trip and I took advantage of that. I don’t need to fill in the details of what I was doing on this vacation because my adventure was already pre-blogged 2 weeks prior to leaving. It was 8 days and I had the time of my life.

One of the most stressful and time-consuming part of my trip was WMC / UMF. It wasn’t a problem once I was in Miami but the lead up of getting travel arrangements, party tickets and RSVPing for events was seriously very hard as I’ve never done WMC & UMF before. Basically, WMC is like the SXSW of electronic music. Where SXSW is mostly a conference for live rock music, WMC is in Miami and focuses on techno. UMF is 2-day festival right in the middle of WMC that hosts over 100 of the best DJs from all over the world doing their thing on 9 stages in one park for 12 hours each day. It was insane. Those of you that saw my photos would agree that I had an incredible time.

I always stay in hostels because I’ll pay 1/10th the price of a hotel and it’s the chance to meet some incredible people. It took two days to make over 5 friends who accompanied me to UMF for both days. I met a new friends hailing from Detroit who I could consider a festival nut and attends music festivals all over the country. Kimberly, my new friend from Denmark came to the US for the first time just for UMF and the other three friends were from Germany and Italy. I met youth from all over the world who came here just for this festival. Seriously, it’s a huge deal. For $30 a night, the Miami Youth International Hostel right in the dead center of South Beach had beer and club outings every night, three meals a day served and fast Wi-Fi. They’d randomly order pizzas for people at 2AM who were just getting in from the clubs and kept the place super clean. It was the best hostel I’d ever stayed in. On Friday, I just sat in the front lobby chatting with random strangers all morning as the hostel blasted techno over the speakers.

My only complaint about the Europeans that I’ve met is that they all smoke. Every single time I meet someone from western Europe, they smoke heavily and complain about cigarette prices in the US. Other than that, the guys were totally laid back and the girls were as well. It was fun to meet new people and have outings every day with my new friends.

I laid out on the beach and attended pool parties during the day. The day pool parties that I paid to get into were awesome. Imagine being in a pool, sipping a beer and right next to you is a DJ playing Tribal or Trance music and a few hundred partiers are dancing along in and out of the water. This is what WMC does to South Beach. Not a single roof, pool ,beach or venue is without a DJ playing music that makes your ears bleed. In fact, my friend Victor said last year both Starbucks on South Beach had a live DJ inside right by the area where you put sugar in your coffee! Yes. Starbucks had a DJ.

If you love Techno, WMC is the place to go and I didn’t attend the conference because there were so many events from noon to 5AM every day to keep me busy.

I don’t think non-techno lovers understand when you say to someone, “I walked to the pool party and danced for 6 hours. I walked to the club and danced for 4 hours right by the woofer and then after dinner, I went to an afterparty and danced for 4 hours and then at 5AM, I went to a club that plays techno and serves you breakfast in bed as strobe lights and disco balls spin from the ceiling.”

Lovers of techno would call that a perfect day but everyone else looks at you like you’re insane. Yes, you read that correct. Me and 2 friends, walked into a club, laid down on a bed and were served breakfast as DJs and acrobats spun over our heads w/ strobe lights. It was awesome!

I started partying Wednesday morning after taking the red-eye out of SFO to FTL. I didn’t sleep. Why? Cause the Virgin America flight was full of WMC attendees. Nearly 25 people were in the Virgin America in-seat chat room talking about WMC and the events we’d be attending. I spent 5 hours chatting with people from my seat, making friends and sharing phone numbers. After checking into my hotel, I grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos then went to a pool party at noon. This trend continued until Sunday when Victor and I drove back to St Augustine so I could spend the next 4 days with family.

There’s not as much to say about my time with family. I’ll try to summarize.

Dad and I talked, a lot. This is not unusual. We explored so much and he gave me excellent advice as always. My sisters are awesome. I’ve stayed true to my goal of coming home to visit every 4 months. It’s nice to see my sisters growing up so fast. They’re two exceptionally talented and beautiful little girls and I’m making plans to fly my sister out to LA in August to spend a week with me. She’ll be 14 in July. Marley will still be 10 in December but I want to fly her up to Denver and take her Skiing as a Christmas gift. I’m saving up now so I can do that. She has to keep her grades up though. Mom was awesome. She’s doing very well. I worry about her sometimes and I have every reason to be worried about her but after talking to her today, I am assured she’s going to be fine. She just needs that helping hand and encouragement sometimes.

My once a quarter Aikido class was on Monday. It was very emotional. Each time I go home, I attend as many martial arts classes as I can as my Dad is the instructor and I trained for 21 years before moving to SF and was his lead instructor. It’s emotional to come back because everyone’s skills are improving but mine are staying the same. Matt, my best friend and training partner has replaced me. He’s doing so good and I’m very proud of his progress. The core group of 10 people who go to 5 classes a week and train 2-3 hours a day are still there. I love those guys and they mean so much to me.

My 2 year anniversary of moving to San Francisco is on May 31st. I won’t see those guys until after that so I made a speech. I’ve never done this before but I wanted to express some thoughts. I wrote it down.

Guys, thank you for the great class tonight. I wanted to share a few things about me and how things are going. First of all, I miss you all so much. It’s been nearly 2 years since I moved to San Francisco and I think about you all each day. Every time I come home and attend a class or two, I feel more and more a rift like we’ve all grown a part or another feeling like I simply don’t belong anymore. I think I know why. I left you all and moved far away. I abandoned the class and moved on. The truth is, this isn’t the case. I didn’t move to the big city and neglect you all for a bunch of hicks in Florida. In fact, I’m the hick in San Francisco where I still love BBQ and driving a truck. I’m still one of you and I’ve never left.

Everyone said thank you, we took a group photo and I left. It’s hard to see all of my family every 4-6 months for one night but it’s the way I chose to live my life for a brief time. My adventures may take me to another city, another country or maybe I end up back in Saint Augustine next year. I have no idea where it will all end up but I’m thoroughly enjoying my time in San Francisco. This trip home only solidified my decision to be in California and I never feel that I abandoned anyone. I’ve only moved but remain close as ever to my friends and family.

This blog post probably has too many photos. I like taking photos and they help illustrate the story a bit. Thanks for reading.

Today marks the start of my third week at Brightkite and my third week in the new apartment. It’s the best decision I have ever made both the job and place I moved. Today, I’m stuck in my place working at home because I have a pretty bad cold but I’m more productive than ever. Being sick in my old apartment was never fun with the noise, sirens and the place was the size of a very small motel room. It was a pretty bad apartment but I remain thankful that I was able to move.

Yesterday, I woke up to birds chirping and the sun rising over the trees just beyond my deck. I left the sliding glass door open last night because it was pretty warm and left the radio on streaming Pandora. My bed is comfortable, my neighborhood is quiet and relaxing and my overall mood is relaxed and focused. After getting out of bed, I walked into the kitchen that I customized decorated, surrounded by photos that I took of my family in frames and hanging on the wall. I broke some eggs and made an egg sandwich and used my espresso machine to make a soy latte. Then I caught up on email while overlooking the city of San Francisco. Finally, I strapped on my shoes and went for a run and I didn’t se another human being until a car finally passed by me on the hill I was running up. This is my routine every morning. This is how I should have been living all along.

I never wanted to live the life wondering what could have been. No regrets, only experiences. I still want to, one day live in New York City for one year and see what it’s like. The same goes for Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Denver and Seattle. Also London, Tokyo and Amsterdam are on my list of places I want to live for at least a month. I’m not a free spirit that spends all of his money traveling but it’s something I love because of the experience and because of how it opens my eyes to new things.

Living downtown was awesome. I walked a block to everywhere. Work, Barber, Grocery Store, Mall, Theater and all of my favorite bars were right across the street. I haven’t stepped foot anywhere on San Francisco’s Market Street or anywhere downtown since I left my old apartment 2 weeks ago. In fact, this is the 3rd day that I haven’t left the house. Why would I? I have food, my computers, my nature and the hills I need to climb and work on my fitness.

On Saturday and Sunday, I had friends come by to my new place for dinner. Saturday’s menu consisted of Swordfish, Bay Scallops and Roasted Red Peppers w/ a 2003 Pinot Noir wine and I cheated by just doing ice cream for dessert. Sunday, I cooked Tri-Tip Steak marinated in a carne asada sauce for 8 hours and served with asparagus, roasted garlic and a bottle of bold Cabernet Sauvignon. I cooked for 4 friends and they loved it! They loved my cooking. I spent hours preparing these meals, cleaning house and on Saturday, I spent all afternoon gardening my back yard, pulling weeds and cleaning up. It was a dream and just awesome!

I get home every night and lay down on my couch and look out over the city. It’s the best place I’ve ever lived. There’s a catch though.

Only one bus line runs through my neighborhood. Getting to more buses is a .9 mile walk / run. The only bus that’s closer comes ever 30 minutes. Taking public transit means my commute to work is 1.5 hours each way and there is no bus running through my neighborhood past 11PM. Yes, it’s pretty crappy but I don’t feel stranted. For the reasons I mentioned above, I don’t have to leave my place. Friends come to me and I love it. I’d take the ability to not be able to go bar hopping every Friday night (something I wasn’t doing anyway) in exchange for waking up to crisp mountain air and the ability to sleep with my door wide open nearly every night. You can’t put a value on that.

Although, I will be getting a vehicle. A car is important now. Nothing too expensive, but I’ll be getting a car that can get me around to and from work and those rare occurrences when I have to hit Walgreens or Safeway after 10-11pm or when a friend does invite me out drinking and I have to say, “sorry it’s past 10 I can’t go.” A car is my next big purchase.

Work? It’s going great! It’s hard to tell how things are really going to go or be once I’m settled in because the first few weeks are really an effort to catch up on a lot of backlogged “pain tasks” (support, emails, organization) and there’s the added pain of learning every internal system. This is true with every new job. What matters is the people I’m working with are phenomenal. I feel right at home and so comfortable working with this team. I know Brightkite will succeed because the team is so well-rounded and things just get done. It’s an absolute joy.

You may see me bitching sometimes about the commute but it’s not so bad. On the muni subway, I read books on my iPhone (soon iPad) and listen to music. Once I’m above ground then on Caltrain, it’s 40 minutes of work. I get emails and support completely caught up by the time I get in the office. This makes it easier to concentrate on the more challenging tasks before 10AM rolls around. Being up at 7AM and asleep by 11:30 has been a hard shift from my 10AM-3AM schedule before. Honestly, my new place is so fresh that i love being up that early to hear the birds chirping and get ready my espresso and mountain air.

What’s more….I’m only 7 days away from my week trip in Florida. One week in Florida and I’m so freaking stoked about that! It’s going to be an amazing trip and my first vacation in a very long time. You can read more about that here. http://blog.adam-jackson.net/2010/03/02/new-beginnings-part-3-my-first-vacation/

I started taking photographs a few years ago but it wasn’t until around May that I started going out weekly to snap photos. Now, I venture out every other day and sometimes there are photos that I deem good enough to post.

Last week, I bought Apple’s Aperture 3 software and started experimenting with processing of my images. The results are okay. I am pasting a few of my favorites below.

My photos are still just okay. The processing is something new and I’ll try to get better at it over time. All of these had some processing of some kind. As you can see some of it was minimal and other times it was pretty drastic. If you know of any online resources for improving my photo editing let me know.