Gustav Holst was one of the rare English well-known composers. There were tons of Russian Nationalists, tons of composers from Austria, a plethora of German Romanticists, but very few well-known English composers, Gustav Holst was unquestionably one of those rarities. Brilliantly, because he disliked publicity, when asked for an autograph, the man handed out a pre-made card that said “I do not hand out my autograph”. That’s Brilliant (with a capital “B”). I love how cleverly, tactfully, and practically resolved his dislike for publicity; he actually made pre-made cards [...]
Vitamin D – All You Need to Understand for Optimal Health
TL;DR Vitamin D aids in calcium absorption and prevents nasty things like osteoporosis, rickets, hypertension, cancer, and more. You need D2 and D3; the latter you manufacture in your skin upon interaction with UV rays and D2, which is not manufactured by vertebrates, you must ingest D2. Make sure you get your recommended intake of 600 iu of “Vit D”! What Happens with Vitamin D Deficiency? There exist five forms of Vitamin D (D1-D5). Vitamin D2 (called ergocalciferol, made from ergosterol) and Vitamin D3 are the forms that are most [...]
Reasons to Avoid Processed Overly-Packaged Food
Another interest realization is that grocery stores outside of the produce, natural foods, and possibly “seafood” section are primarily just marketing. Even processed meats has tons of repulsive additives. Like high fructose corn syrup mashed up with colored die, throw in some carbs, and sprinkle with artificial flavoring and that’s the gist of 85% of all products solid in a grocery store. Most people buy the colorful label or the funny tv ad marketing those products. Produce section, the simple foods, seafood are really the only sure-fire “safe” areas in [...]
The World Chess Championship 2012
(update 2012/05/30) If you’re oblivious to chess, you may not know it but there Does exist It is going on right now (and today is the final day of it) a World Chess Championship. The current one started 2012/05/10 and is going until today, 2012/05/30. What is the World Chess Championship? Good question. Glad you asked. The World Chess Championship is held under FIDE, or the “Federation Internationale des Echecs (The World Chess Federation). FIDE is the main governing body for chess (up until 1993 when International Grandmaster Gary Gasparov [...]
Stop Infectious Gifts
Note: This is a very well-written post, but the Audio Blog Podcast of this is superb. Admittedly, some of my podcasts have fluctuated in quality, but the recording I did for this post is one of the best I have ever done. If you want to absorb the information of this post, I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast or at the very least download that episode. It’s superb. One of the top minimalist authors of this day and age, Francine Jay, has a trick for avoiding future clutter, [...]
Temporal Causality of “Go to Moon” Address and Landing…and Evolution of Relationsip to Heroes
Temporal Causality of “Go to Moon” Address and “Landing on the Moon” Exactly 51 years ago today, John F. Kennedy gave his “Decision to go the Moon” address to a special joint session of Congress. Unfortunately, a lot of the motivations of the address were merely to win a “space race” instead of genuinely awesome good ol’ fashioned “space exploration”. I touch on this concept on this earlier post. Kennedy gave that speech 43 days after Russian Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space in April 12, 1961. Note [...]
Eight Reasons Why Soy Milk Rocks…and Dairy Milk is Fail
These eight reasons are listed below, two are preferential, but six are strictly factual. If you’re bored you can listen to me whooping for joy about how tasty soy milk is on the journal audio version. If something is italicized and red, that means you want less or none of it (like cholesterol and saturated fat, for example). If something is underlined and green, that means you want more of it (like Omega-3 and good taste!) The following facts (and indicated preferences!) are for 1 cup of soy milk compared [...]
How to Have More Productive Structure with Your Minimalism
I have had a problem recently deciding on titles for more splendid wordsmithied-up craftmanships of the pen…or something like that. So I wrote that title that you see above and will stick to it. It will not change nor waver. This post is about installing more structure in your life. Not ‘obedience structure’, not the kind of structure one installs just to have the image of looking organized. No, structure to basically code into a day or a week (or heck even a month) some regular habits, accomplishments. Here’s a [...]
Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” (The Lone Ranger Song!): Classical Music Appreciation
I love classical music and if you tune back to validateyourlife.com on most every wednesdays you’ll be reminded of how much I love classical music and you, yourself, may find yourself enjoying the complexity, intelligence, sophistication, and joy that one discovers from appreciating classical music. I delightfully tear and chuckle when I hear some classical music. Brings back great memories and is just one of the most elegant and aligning things for which you can utilize your ears! To me, classical music makes things like ‘wine’ seem like silly retarded [...]
Over-The-Counter Anti-Pain Anti-Inflammation Information – Differences and Similarities – What You Need to Know (Knowledge Mind Map!)
I have written this post to have accessible quick-access information (hence the free mindmap! Download that. It’s useful as heck!). I could have written this in a quite windy and lengthy post, but I whittled it down to the core essentials (again check out the mind map for clutch-key information) so you can access the knowledge you need to make appropriate awesome decisions! Because of stress-related pain in my left trapezius and a corneal abrasion in May of 2012, I read-up and took the time to greatly research on OTC [...]
Combine Contrasts = Sick Awesome Success: Have a ‘Leisure Zone’ to Increase Productivity
Why it’s crucial to have a place/zone for relaxing and leisure. The human body needs to go ‘ying’, to relax and recuperate at times. Many times I have wanted to work non-stop, but that bodily urge leaks out. I end up eating at my workspace or feeling exhausted and wanting to sit at standing desk or having to walk my bicycle because too drained. The human body needs a place and zone that doesn’t feel like constant hell or work or perseverance or stress. Constant bombardment. I elaborate more about [...]
Anti-Marriage
Kafka knew much of his writing and literary prowess was a derivative of being alone. Thus, marriage was toxic and invasive to his ability to write. Kierkegaard feared marriage would obstruct his ability to write effectively. Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir expressed opposition to marriage, claiming that it proposed that two free selves should join into one heading, denying each free self, the complete foundation for each self. I guess a proponent of marriage would claim that marriage completes each self, but I subscribe to the Sartre and Beauvoir point [...]
Voice Journal – 2012, April 30 – Yes, Back in Time….Corneal Abrasion and More…Bollocks….Optomoetrists…MinimalistFTW
Welcome to another ‘Voice Journal’! Be it exciting, boring, drab, offensive, ranty, randomly odd, peculiarly personal, interesting, stimulating, or blend these are more or less pretty candid and while I strive for quality, they often lack direction and are very casual. They are decided a journal that is…well..vocal, thus the appopriately-named voice journals! These are exquisitely different from the weekly Audio Blog Tuesday Post, which is based off a written, often-rewritten, proofread post recording. In contrast, these voice journals are just the auditory equivalent of whatever is one someone’s [...]
Classic Music Appreciation: Franz Schubert
List to the audio version for full details of the : 600 Lieder’s written by the prolific composer, Schubert How could a man whom only lived to be 31 compose so much? How is Schubert and Mozart similar?! What nickname did Schubert’s friend’s call him? Was Schubert snooty or did he throw wild parties? Listen to the full recording to get all the important deets! Love this post? Intrigued by classical music? Want access to the most extensive mindmap on classical music including: all the eras all major composers color-coded [...]
Make Food Taste Better…Using Your Mind: “The Last Morsel” Effect
Great news! Each podcast on Validate Your Life and LinuxGeekoid now undergo much more intensive editing and comprehensive polishing. In short, what you download and listen to is worth your time and the quality of our podcasts have SUPERBLY improved. Whoo-whoo! In this delightful discussion, you will learn about the “Last Morsel, Improved Taste” effect and more tasty, well, morsels I cooked up. I have a miniscule problem. I only enjoy food when there’s barely any left. For example, I was overjoyed and it was tasty finding that one piece [...]
All That Matters is That You Get Paid
I had this realization after seeing a household repair man fix three doors in a place. He would charge the home-owners as he said, “$40 per door”. I knew I could’ve done his handywork in a few hours myself, but aside from the fact that knowing I could do the work that he did, I agreed with his price and felt it was reasonable (I wasn’t paying it and would rarely hire a repair man being a strictly-preferred DIY person…duct tape comes in handy xD). But then the thought struck [...]
Voice Journal: 2012, May 01 – Preferences, Obesity-Challenged People, MMOs as Pure Awesomeness, and What happened today…
Welcome to another ‘Voice Journal’! Be it exciting, boring, drab, offensive, ranty, randomly odd, peculiarly personal, interesting, stimulating, or blend these are more or less pretty candid and while I strive for quality, they often lack direction and are very casual. They are decided a journal that is…well..vocal, thus the appopriately-named voice journals! These are exquisitely different from the weekly Audio Blog Tuesday Post, which is based off a written, often-rewritten, proofread post recording. In contrast, these voice journals are just the auditory equivalent of whatever is one someone’s [...]
The Seafarer Poem
I love this poem. I want it on (one of) my site(s). I gave credit where appropriate. It’s a sick awesome poem. Translated by Burton Raffel from this site This tale is true, and mine. It tells How the sea took me, swept me back And forth in sorrow and fear and pain, Showed me suffering in a hundred ships, 5 In a thousand ports, and in me. It tells Of smashing surf when I sweated in the cold Of an anxious watch, perched in the bow As it dashed [...]
Voice Journal: 2012, May 02 – Rage About Not Publishing Book and Random People-Loathing Ramblings
Welcome to another ‘Voice Journal’! Be it exciting, boring, drab, offensive, ranty, randomly odd, peculiarly personal, interesting, stimulating, or blend these are more or less pretty candid and while I strive for quality, they often lack direction and are very casual. They are decided a journal that is…well..vocal, thus the appopriately-named voice journals! These are exquisitely different from the weekly Audio Blog Tuesday Post, which is based off a written, often-rewritten, proofread post recording. In contrast, these voice journals are just the auditory equivalent of whatever is one someone’s [...]
One has the tendency to eat, what one purchases!
This is an article I wrote based on an experience of perusing a grocery store for two+ hours and deciding beforehand (for integrity of financial distribution; in other words, I made certain I stuck to a budget and I did, and thus couldn’t spend anything at that time) not to spend anything, and observing people seeing grocery store items as ‘inventory’ and other different changes in the lens of how I typically viewed that environment. Doing so was insightful, a bit perplexing, but freakishly, well, different. I may add more [...]
The Victory Trajectory: Use Logic and Transcend Competition like a Chess Grandmaster
This was originally entitled simply ‘Logic and Paranoia’, but that tit evolved into something a bit more interesting with the title “Have a Victory Trajectory of a Chess Grandmaster”, but realizing that behemoth of title might scare people off I changed it to its current heading, but it accomplishes the gestalt of all of those iterations. I pen this not simply because of having just watched the quite good documentary “Bobby Fischer Vs the World” (there also now exists an interesting looking written version of the Fischer-Spassky coverage Bobby Fischer [...]
AtheismFTW: The Study of What’s True
The bulk of the post is in the podcast recording (voice journal). Download it and pop it on your mp3 player if you so choose. Highlights include: The fact that everyone who practices religion is a cult member. People ‘refer to’ religion as “spirituality” or “connecting with a higher power” or some other rubbish, but religion is (whatever you call it) a noxious, toxic cult and anyone who is religious is a cult member Atheism is the antithesis of religion of ‘cults’. Atheism is choosing not to be inculcated. Atheism doesn’t [...]
My Magic Bag – Camelback + Technology
I love my Blowfish CamelBack. Its my magic back for everything. In it I alwyas carry my Garmin GPS watch Forerunner 305, GPS Garmin handheld 60csx, binoculars, and headlamp in the front pocket. In the middle pocket I carry my kindle (with it is a case that holds the kindle charger and cable). It can optionally hold my small netbook in the kindle, middle pocket. It also holds 3 liters of water! Its my ultimate, high-utility, high-mobility, high-minimalism, compact learning, traveling, navigating, health bag! I love it! I love how [...]
The Rule Book for How NOT to Trust
This is important. this is not about creating trust. This isn’t reprimanding people who are distrustful. No, this is the complete opposite. This post is about engaging protocols that deliberately sever contact, rapport, and trust. Knowing how to do this properly (without any leaks) is much more useful and important than you think! Additionally, this should be obvious by now, but this article assumes the perspective that trust with the wrong people not merely “can”, but certainly “will” create doubt (because you then end up in rapport with toxic people [...]
