The Weight

Been stuck in my head for days.

Fundracing to Save Lives

I'm training to participate in the Lavaman triathlon in Kona, Hawaii as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's ("LLS") Team In Training.

As many of you know, my mother passed away when I was 10 years old, after a prolongued battle with cancer. Her fight to stay alive inspires me to this day--she never gave up, and never admited defeat. I'm doing this race in her honor, and for all of those who have suffered from, or been affected by cancer.

LLS is an amazing organization--it is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research. In addition to research, LLS engages in improving the quality of life of patients, and educating the public and health professionals. Since 1954, it has awarded over $680 million in research funding.

Please make a donation to support my participatation in Team in Training and help advance LLS's mission. If you'd like to make a donation in honor of someone, I'll be writing the names of any individuals my donors select on my jersey for the day of the race--just let me know. We need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure.

Please check out my personal Team in Training page to stay up to date!

Clear Light of Morning

"Look not too long in the face of the fire, O man! Never dream with thy hand on the helm! Turn not thy back to the compass; accept the first hint of the hitching tiller; believe not the artificial fire, when its redness makes all things look ghastly. To-morrow, in the natural sun, the skies will be bright; those who glared like devils in the forking flames, the morn will show in far other, at least gentler, relief; the glorious, golden, glad sun, the only true lamp--all others but liars!"

--Herman Melville, in Moby Dick

West Coast Road Trip

Been an awesome trip so far. In brief: Kicked it in PDX with Seth for a day; went snowboarding at Mt. Hood; met up with Sarah in Corvallis and we camped at Newport on Oregon coast with Sarah; got wasted in Bend with Josiah; next to SLC & Mt. Pleasant, UT for Wasatch Academy reunion (shout-out to my high school homies!); set up a campsite in the dark and woke up surprised to find I was next to a lake; checked out Bryce Canyon, then camped at Cottonwood Canyon (best campsite ever: drove Sarah's SUV up an insane service road and found a spot a million miles from anywhere atop a huge mesa); passed through Zion on the way to Vegas and spent a day w/ my grandma; visited Death Valley (got caught in a sandstorm and saw some very rare rain); snowboarded an awesome half day at Mammoth Mountain in CA (when they started closing lifts due to the wind and low visibility we left); today we drove up through Nor Cal and OR and now I'm spending the night in Corvallis. Have covered about 3500 miles in total. Heading up to Portland tomorrow, snowboarding Hood again on Saturday, and fly back to NYC on Sunday. Pictures up soon.

Death Valley, 4/20/10

Be the change you wish to see

Reduce material possessions--emphasize quality over quantity. Instead of 10 shirts, have 5, instead of 3 pairs of jeans, just one that you really like. Get rid of clutter. Simplify. Less is more.

Try to use less energy. Use more energy conserving devices. Use renewably generated energy. Make sure to turn everything off once in a while!

Eat less, eat healthier.

Grow a Garden.

Build communities of like-minded people.

Be more empathic.

Be more assertive.

Sometimes . . . . just be.

It's not crazy to talk to yourself--it's only crazy when there are multiple voices.

No other person is worth sacrificing your self-confidence.

Live in another country for a year.

Really LIVE in your own country for year.

Live in a cabin in the woods for a few weeks every year.

Rock out sometimes, just by yourself.

know when to stop.