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.

I’m hoping someone representing Starbucks comments here as I’d like to use longhand to write this down beyond 140 characters which is what I’ve been using all morning.

Starbucks had Gold Card in 2008 as a $20-$25 (can’t remember exactly) yearly fee which enabled 10% off all Starbucks Purchases (not machines, coffee supplies or gift cards) but you could buy a coffee and a pound of coffee and get 10% off. For me, my $5 Starbucks expenditure each day really benefitted by this great deal.

Then in December of 2009, they killed that program and transitioned to a free Gold Card model where any Starbucks gift card holder would register their card at http://starbucks.com/card and would then they’d be a “registered” member. After five purchases with that card, they’d receive green level status and after 30 purchases, they’d be a gold member (w/o paying any yearly fees) and, from what I could tell, that gold card membership was good for life so you could not purchase coffee for 5 years and still have your gold card.

I wrote a review of this program on 12-22-2009. You can read the full review here. I’m including the Starbucks chart for rewards that was current at the time of that review.

Today, this changes. Here’s today’s June 14th press release but I’ve copied the relevant bits below.

As part of this commitment, Schultz recognized customers’ desire for a better in store Wi-Fi experience and announced that on July 1, Starbucks will turn on one-click, free Wi-Fi through AT&T in all U.S. company operated stores.

Great! This is fantastic news to get more customers into Starbucks and it’s a pain point that has bothered me since I started working out of coffee shops full time in early 2008. Starbucks was always out as a meeting place as no one could connect to Wifi. So, in many ways this is a huge step forward and for that, I’m applauding Starbucks in finally giving away something mom & pop coffee houses have been doing since 1998 in big cities like NYC and SF.

This also means that a perk that the small percentage of Green and Gold level Starbucks loyal customer is going away. Free Wi-Fi 2 hours a day was a perk. In fact, I’ve sat in a Starbucks for 8 hours authenticated with the same account on my Macbook, iPhone and iPad with no issues so they were being very relaxed about the 2 hour limit. Not a single person I met outside of Starbucks’ daily coffee drinkers knew what gold was. I had to tell them how to do it so, I believe Starbucks had a hard time selling the program and it could have been single digit conversions but don’t quote me on that. My point is, Starbucks green and gold wasn’t huge. No one knew about it and I rarely saw another person with a gold card.

Starbucks said, “fine, let’s make the non green and gold people happy by giving them free wifi anytime for free.”

My perks haven’t changed:

• Free soy & syrup in drinks
• Free refill on drip coffee
• Free coffee with whole bean purchase
• Free beverage every 15 transactions
• Free Wifi

but the “value” of those perks has. But hey, it’s not like I was paying $20 a year for these perks and now they’re taking something away and charging me the same because they’re not. This is a loyalty program from Starbucks to reward loyal customers and now loyal customers are simply rewarded less for their loyalty.

My point is that I’m just another bitching customer but I’m a loyal customer who felt that free wi-fi was a good thank you for dropping in twice a day and buying coffee. Now, everyone gets that privilege and has to do nothing for it. If Starbucks threw in an additional perk like a free extra shot of espresso or free upgrade to Clover Brewed coffee for the same price is a regular drip coffee, then I’d be super stoked but nope, they’re simply weakening the loyalty program for us.

Starbucks is doing nothing wrong but making us feel more dumb for being so loyal to a brand. That’s all I have to say. I love the coffee, the experience and the teams running these stores. I would like to be offered perks and not have them taken away piece by piece. This opinion piece does not reflect the views of my employer. (had to add that).

Thanks for reading.

skip down to the horizontal page break to read the story of what happened tonight that made me leave

This was my first time at BFD which, I believe stands for, “big fucking deal.” so I guess that was intentional and it takes place at the start of summer at Shoreline Amphitheatre which is over the hill from Google HQ but the festival was nothing like Google even though you could pick up and use Google’s city-wide wifi which was a nice perk. I’ve camped out at Google HQ. It’s a nice area with tons of friendly mosquitos but this is the first time at shoreline and it’s a great amphitheatre. The area I was in was a tent with 2,400 capacity at the entrance to the park. In comparison, Ultra Music Festival in Miami was close to 60,000 people in a huge park over the course of 2 days. It was also an all ages event but nothing like this.

The story I’d like to tell is that of fighting, bloodshed, a broken camera and the biggest waste of money ever. I think it’s important to note, that while writing this, I don’t care anymore. I’m over it. Maybe I’m just tired but this is a part of life and I encourage you to read / skim through all 10 blog posts about Ultra in Miami that I did before and after the show. I had a phenomenal time and it surpassed all expectations for the trip and worth every penny that I spent so I feel that this not so good experience is just nature balancing things out because Ultra was too good and too amazing.

First of all, Brian Transeau’s performance this evening was terrific. I’ve never seen BT play a day show but it was just as the sun was about to go down so as the set finished, it was completely dark. This was special after seeing him perform in clubs and night-time festivals for so many years. The set was absolutely perfect. He opened with Deadmau5’s “Strobe” and finished with Flaming June and Suddenly. In the middle, there was a bit of Tiesto and tracks from his new album. If I were to review his set, I would simply say, “perfect” and then hit the publish button on this post. However, the best BT set I’ve ever seen was at a club in Miami when Jes sang live on stage with him and I was standing next to the stage. That was the best but let’s move on to what happened.

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I feel like I’ve already written too much but let’s FINALLY go over the events of this evening. See that pic above? That’s the best shot I got of BT while he was playing his set. I shot off about 50 shots tonight but only a few came out before he started because the following things were happening.

• Three mosh pits started right behind me and I was being elbowed and punched repeatedly causing me to get into a few fights
• Elbowed in the head as people jumping up and down were flailing their arms in this sardine can of a crowd
• Pushed aside multiple times as men larger than me pushed their way to the front
• Being swayed side to side as a group of guys decided to lean against the crowd with all of their weight forcing people in front row to be suffocated on the bars
• Kicked, punched and sat on as people crowd surfed over me and each time they’d kick me in the head on the way up
• Feeding a girl water as she overdosed on too much ecstasy (something I did over a dozen times in Miami)

I had to get a good shot of BT for a few projects I’m working on so I always arrive 30 minutes early and go to the front of the stage but far right so I’m not really in the tent but I’m first row, just 30 feet away and as people leave, I fill their spot slowly making my way to front and center. It took until BT was 10 minutes in to get center but 4 rows of people back. I was happy with this spot. In the process, I was being bum rushed by groups of guys. A rule for you young’n’s. If you’re 200 pounds, you can’t push your way to the front. The 5′2″ girls with pacifiers can do that because they’re tiny but you are a big guy and you piss people off (thus my strategy above). I’m a tall guy so I always look behind me to see if a short girl is behind me and I let her in front or I crouch down so she can see the stage. I hunch my shoulders forward and make myself small to everyone enjoys the show. It took 15 minutes for me to realize that I have to expand my chest and keep my arms out to be able to breathe. As guy after guy hit me to get by, I finally faced that direction and confronted each of them head on saying they can’t get by and I won’t allow it. Most of them gave up.

I continued to be big and tall the whole time just so people wouldn’t abuse the fact that I was being considerate. Then a mosh pit erupted. Yes, BT’s song about love lost and the world spinning around and how we’re all connected…yeah people were moshing to that. In a crowd already crammed like sardines, this was a bad idea. This is where I busted my lip (the 1st time). As more layers of people behind me entered the moshing, I finally was the only thing between a group of teenage girls and a bunch of big bullies and after the 4th leg kick and 2nd elbow to the head I had to put a stop to it.

Before I go on, I don’t talk about this much but I fought daily with my dad and 20 other guys from 5 years old to 22 when I moved here. Not karate or judo but, “adam here’s a real knife. I want you to attack Matt.” kind of fighting. Equally as important and this is evident to anyone that’s met me, 50% of our training was compassion and using the knowledge for good so you all know my personality but I have that other stuff tucked away and I just turned around and found the guy with the most aggression and asked him politely to stop. I may have added an eff bomb in there. Naturally, he told me kindly to screw myself and tried to “mosh” me in the face with his fist. I took him down and picked him up over the crowd and “crowdsurfed” him out of the concert. The mosh pit stopped (for about 20 minutes).

As the crowd grew larger, girls and these freaking big 200 pound guys started crowd surfing. Guys. I’m sorry that you were born with a large frame and a penis. I really am but it’s impossible for you to crowdsurf. You just can’t do it. Maybe if you were 13 or maybe if you were a girl but big guys can’t crowd surf cause a size 13 shoe hurts when it kicks you in the head. Over 25 times, a guy or girl hit me in the head as they crowdsurfed over to the front. On the 12th one, I stopped helping. as I got hit in the head, I moved out of the way and let them fall. Yeah, compassion I get it but this was too much. This was to the point where I was going to have a concussion if this continued and enough was enough. I’m sorry your tail bone is bruised but this is a concert, not the X-games.

The guys pushing everyone back and forth. That was annoying. After half an hour of that and once again, seeing the girls being squished by this group of people pushing, I finally took all of my weight and pushed back. Granted I had just moved with it for so long but my ankles were in such pain that I couldn’t take the pressure anymore. I pushed back and when I saw the guy pushing the hardest, I had the girl hold my camera and pushed through to him. I grabbed him by the shirt, kneed him in the balls and threatened his family with terrible things. Was that too much? Maybe. Maybe it was but one of the girls was about to pass out from being unable to breathe and he was the only cause of it and needed to know he was causing harm.

When I returned, I saw the girl had turned on my camera. It was an innocent thing I get that but as she reviewed my photos, someone pushed her and it fell to the ground and with the lens fully extended. The lens broke in half. I have no way of measuring the amount of anger I had at that moment but right after I grabbed my camera hearing her apologize profusely, an elbow hit me right on the glasses and my glasses flew off onto someone’s shoulder and now they are permanently bent.

At this point in the show (half way through BT’s set) I wasn’t smiling. I wasn’t happy. I actually had missed the last 4 songs he was playing and it became an all out battle to just stay alive in this crowd. Giving up would have meant destroyed property, bruises, broken bones and suffocation. Moshing was still happening a few levels back and in an attempt to save my gear, I stuck the camera in its bag down my pants, put my iPhone and wallet in my front pocket and spent the next 5 minutes trying to decide if I should just leave but realizing I have nowhere to go!

I couldn’t dance. I couldn’t sing. I couldn’t put my hands in the air and I couldn’t even watch BT. I had to look over my shoulder constantly and usually I’m thankful I did as I was just about to get hit with another crowd surfer or 200 pound rushing guy trying to get to the front.

Finally. I jumped the fence at the stage and ran out. I waited around the side to hear the last song of BT’s set and I left giving my water to a girl who had overdosed and her 15 year old friends had no idea what to do. I knew what to do because I’ve seen it a hundred times but they were too young to be popping pills.
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Where things went wrong and how to fix them.

• Hire real bouncers. The stage-hands, security, bouncers or whoever they are at BFD were dancing, chanting, hitting balloons and throwing water all over the crowd. Kids were being trampled and guys were starting fights and one of the guys who pushed past me was congratulated by a bouncer who said, “you got skillz man.” The bouncers are supposed to be babysitters and these guys were partying just as hard and sometimes not even facing the crowd.
• All Ages events are a mistake. Everyone goes. parents drop off their kids and drive off. Bad idea. Adults go to drink beer, smoke pot and do some X. The kids go and do the same thing but they don’t know what they’re doing and someone gets hurt.
• Larger tents with ventilation. Ultra had these. They had liquid nitrogen type stuff that was sprayed on the crowd and huge commercial fans at every corner of the tent (seen above)
• More security, police and people checking for drugs and people using drugs. Stop being reactive. Be proactive
• More time between sets. 15 minutes between sets. People will clear out, more will come in. Back to back is a way to only make things more congestive
• Kick people out. Don’t point your finger. Kick them out. If 10 punks want to hang out at the house, play Metallica and drink PBR and mosh, they can do that. I don’t care. Or go to a Metallica concert but don’t mosh in a crowd full of teenage girls in a tent where everyone is packed like sardines.
• Better speakers. Half of the vocals on BT’s songs I couldn’t make out what they were saying. The speakers were atrocious. yeah I’m spoiled but it was bad. That’s the only feedback about the show at all that’s negative.

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I left BFD with a mashed nose, broken camera, broken lip and bruised arms. My legs are sore and my head is pounding. My glasses are bent and I discovered on the bus home that my pants are covered with blood (on the back of my pants). How that blood got there, I have no idea.

I got to say hi to BT before and after the show which made it worth it. It’s good catching up with him and chatting. He’s not responsible for the crowds. BFD and the people it attracted was unlike any other concert I’ve been to. I was there for 1.5 hours and I left. It was extremely disappointing.

A final note: a lot of people that don’t know me personally do read this and they’ll have criticisms like this was not my crowd and I shouldn’t be punching people for being themselves and that I was too harsh and too judgmental and a party pooper. To be absolutely clear, this was an all ages events with music from electronic, trance, metal, alternative and even ska (sublime was there) and a few acoustic indie bands. There was something for everyone. BT’s music may be interpreted differently by different people but when it’s just him performing, the people that show up all have a common style and lifestyle. BT fans just fit together. We all come to shows ready to feel and be loved by the music. It’s positive and uplifting. I’ve never ever had this happen to me at the 10 times I’ve seen BT starting in 2004 at Ultra in Miami. Hell, when This Binary Universe came out, he toured the country doing performances in movie theaters so everyone could feel the 5.1 surround sound. We all sat in seats, watched the films he helped create to go along with the music and smiled because it was so beautiful. This is BT’s fan base. The fact that I was punched and kicked and got into fights was in defense of what the music means to me, not because I’m right but because every show he performs doesn’t have that stuff and I won’t be punched or elbowed and NOT defend myself. it was clear that I was defending myself and I did nothing to cause trouble. I’m very low-tempered and I was there to have a good time.
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Finally, BT really caught me off guard tonight. I was in the VIP area parked right by his car. He totally twitpiced me drinking beer before the show. This kind of made my evening.

That’s the full story. Sorry to spend 2,500 words writing it but a lot happened tonight. I had a great weekend and took a lot of photos. You should check them out.

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.

Honestly, no one cares what I think about this. Well, I’ll retract that by saying that my relevance or “voice” in this web 2.0 industry as diminished ever since I canned my “twitter book” and stopped going to every tech conference possible. In actuality, I came to terms with the fact that I’m  not ready to be an author yet and realized that “networking” was getting in the way of personal growth but let’s talk about this whole Facebook thing.

So Facebook made some changes recently. These changes affect the privacy of users in a way that most users think is going too far. If you’re reading this blog, I assume you are up on this whole Facebook thing. If not, just google for “facebook privacy changes” and that’ll be good enough. I’m too tired to link it up right now.

That’s another thing. Why haven’t I been blogging? Dude. I’m tired! Brightkite rocks but I’ve been very busy there and haven’t had time to blog. Really! So get off me about it!

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Anyway, I’m not going to delete my Facebook account. If there’s one lesson I learned when deleting my FourSquare account in January is that, you might come back to the service or need to login to the service to do some research and realize you don’t have an account anymore and have to create one. I had to create a new FourSquare account for work purposes. So, that sucked because I had deleted mine that was a year old and had thousands of check-ins.

If you’re pissed off enough to delete your Facebook account, you’re just stupid. Facebook is one of the top 5 sites on the web. You’ve been logging into it and shaping your social graph every day since 2005 and now you’re going to delete it? That’s like being pissed off that your neighborhood street was re-paved with white cement and you decide to just burn your house down. No, you look at your options and simply rent it out or sell it because burning it down gets you NOTHING! Don’t delete your Facebook account. I was very close to deleting my Twitter account in Mid-2007 when everyone was moving over to Pownce / Jaiku. Thank god I didn’t because I’d be sharing my posts with 500 people still using Jaiku and Pownce shut down last year.

You took the time to create an account so unless the service has completely destroyed your livelihood, just lock it down and never come back. Mark all of your privacy settings as “only me”, delete your information, disable all of the connected applications, 3rd party sites and remove Facebook connect from your blog and then walk away! It’s that simple, really. You commit Facebook suicide by never coming back.

My MySpace profile still lives on right here. I log in once a year to update my profile and location then log out. One day, Myspace MIGHT come back. It might be on top again. I doubt it but it’s still a fucking huge site with tons of visitors and is still larger than Twitter. Hell, I still have a Jaiku account because it’s just stupid to delete these things. It doesn’t hurt me to have that account open so why remove it?

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So here’s the deal. If you’re so pissed off about Facebook’s new privacy debacle and takeover of the social graph, then stop logging in. When people ask where you’ve been, just say why and they’ll respond, “okay.” It’s that simple.

Honestly, if you were really concerned with privacy, really concerned with decentralization of data and really passionate as an in touch social media guru, then you would have deleted your Google Account back in 2008. If you still have a Google account, Facebook is the least of your worries.

Sorry for the short post. I’m a little busy.

As you all know, I went to Miami this year for my first vacation and it was decided early last year that I’d be going to Ultra Music Festival in Miami. It was an incredible trip. Here are a few recaps of that trip (w/ photos)

• New Beginnings Part 3 – My First Vacation
• An Update on My Photography
• Canon G11 – A Step Back from Canon G10’s Video Capabilities
• Capturing The Moment – Making It Count
• WMC and UMF 2010 – A Summary of my Trip

Well, I waited a month before scouring YouTube for the professional video clips. I have embedded a few of my personal favorite moments at Ultra. These are my favorite songs, sets or DJs but I left a few out due to quality issues. Some of these are in HD and some aren’t. Some sets had 4-5 tracks but instead of focusing on HD or non-HD for those, I chose the clips with the best angles or the angles that I was standing when I saw it myself. Anyway, I’m really really happy with these videos and, next year, when I’m sitting on my couch debating whether it’s worth the $800 price tag of spending 5 days in Miami, I’ll look back at this blog post and say, “HELL YEAH!” and book my trip. UMF was incredible and I can’t wait to go back.

Benny Benassi – Satisfaction (Afrojack Remix)

Benny Benassi – Jimi Hendrix Remix

DeadMau5 Intro

DeadMau5 Part 2

Deadmau5 – Ghosts n’ stuff

Deadmau5 – The reward is cheese

David Guetta’s New Single

David Guetta’s (well produced) UMF Recap

Armin van Buuren

Armin van Buuren Part 2

Armin van Buuren (Different angle)

Tiesto

Tiesto – Adagio for Strings

Tiesto | Ultra 2010 Tiesto’s Best @ Ultra ( 1 of 2 )

Tiesto | Ultra 2010 Tiesto’s Best @ Ultra ( 2 of 2 )

Fedde Le Grand

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This video made by an independent filmmaker pretty much recapped what Ultra Music Festival is all about. The song playing is Tim Berg’s track called “Bromance”

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Finally, this song is Deadmau5’s Strobe. Honestly, the video quality is bad but I love the angle this video was shot. The song is powerful and worth a download. Here’s an HD version of the song but with a bad angle. Below is the lower quality but better angle version.

Deadmau5 Strobe – closing @ Ultra

Like I said. this is a post so I can remember next year how amazing UMF is so I won’t talk myself out of going. It was worth every penny I spent to go and I’ve spent the last 4 hours going through hundreds of videos to find the best ones. I hope you enjoyed it.

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/