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June 16, 2011
by Tom
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Finding Inspiration – Welcoming your muse

Finding inspiration within routine of everyday life can be difficult to say the least. Sometimes finding the motivation to just get out of bed in the morning is tough enough, let alone the motivation to do something or create something great with one’s life. What sets apart history’s most notable inventors, artists, authors, poets and musicians from the average citizen of planet Earth who lives life in pursuit of the same goals as their neighbor or their predecessors?
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January 29, 2010
by Tom
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2010 New Years Resolutions

If you’re reading this, I think it’s safe to say you may have noticed that I haven’t kept up with blogging my adventures. There’s a few reasons for that, but I won’t get into them here. Needless to say, I think it’s unfortunate that I haven’t kept up because 2009 was probably my most exciting year to date! For this year I plan to do more frequent, but smaller updates. Less self help crap, more just about my life which will probably only be interesting to smaller audience of close friends and family.

That said, I’m excited to be starting off 2010. Why so excited you ask? Well, I’m glad you did! I can tell you it’s not for any particular reason other than that I’m simply looking forward to putting into practice the things I’ve learned from my experiences in 2009. Most importantly I’m excited that I’m going to fail.

Yes, fail. There’s some logic to my madness so allow me to elaborate: There are plenty of quotes about how you can learn from failing or for how there is a silver lining to every dark cloud. I’m not going to blow hot air up your ass by regurgitating them.

What I will say is that rarely do people endeavor to do things they expect to fail at. Failure is unpleasant, it’s something most people avoid at all costs, myself included. But it is that fear that prevents us from trying new things, from experiencing new things and learning from those experiences. And it’s that fear that I most want to overcome and that most affects my decisions.

Now that’s not to say that I plan to make reckless decisions, just that I’ll put myself out in situations that I’ve always wanted to succeed in just so that I can fail in order learn what that failure is like. Most importantly to learn from the experience and reframe failure in my mind as the attainment of good knowledge rather than taking it personally or feeling weakness.

Is there something you’re afraid to fail at that you think experience would help you get over?
For me it’s meeting people, particularly initiating conversation with someone I have never met and have no particular reason to talk to. I’m sure you can imagine plenty of ways to fail at that, and I’m planning to try a whole lot of them!

February 25, 2009
by Tom
8 Comments

Coffee, RedBull, or 5 Hour Energy?

Living the start-up life lifestyle has led me to explore almost every legal pick-me-up on the market from coffee and espresso to Redbull and 5 Hour Energy in a quest to find something sustainable that didn’t leave me feeling like I’d been punched in the stomach while trekking through the desert. Along the way I’ve learned some startling things and discovered some new research on the effects of caffeine and it’s alternatives. Now before you read any further, let’s be clear that the best alternative to caffeine is sleep, exercise and a healthy diet. This post is aimed at those for whom that’s not always possible or preferable and who still need a quick pick me up from time to time.

Brief overview of Caffeine and Coffee

First a little basic background on our favorite energy booster. Caffeine is the most widely consumed stimulant in the world with an estimated 80% of the worlds population consuming it daily. Caffeine works by blocking Adenosine receptors in the brain. Since Adenosine has a generally inhibitory effect on neural activity, Caffeine thus causes the opposite effect and increases neural activity – the desired effect at the root of most Caffeine consumption.

Adenosine also has a normal vasodilation effect on the cerebral blood vessels, causing them to expand to allow more oxygen to flow to your brain cells. Since Caffeine also inhibits this function it has been used to treat migraine headaches and when consumed on a regular basis is responsible for the nasty caffeine headaches most caffeine addicts feel when they haven’t had their morning brew. What most people don’t know is that vasoconstriction due to 250 milligrams of caffeine can decrease bloodflow to the brain by 20%-30% putting your brain into a slightly hypoxic state (aka suffocation). While your body can adequately handle this by increase your heart and respiratory rates it is good reason to make sure you’re consuming caffeine moderately.

There can be a significant individual variation in your tolerance to Caffeine so everyone experiences it’s effects slightly differently. Just some of the variations include anxiety levels, alertness levels, mood changes and mental performance. Interestingly extroverted personalities tend to show performance improvements with large doses while introverted personalities tend to show performance impairments. Day to day I personally end up with a variety of these effects and personally tend to feel the anxiety more than not which has led me to search elsewhere to keep my energy levels up while staying competitive at work.

So what’s the alternative to Coffee? More after the break…

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February 23, 2009
by Tom
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Cheap Thrills in Taipei

When you’re traveling abroad it’s sometimes hard to avoid spending a lot of money on entertainment. In most metropolitan cities there’s a plethora of ways to unload your hard-earned savings on all kinds of tourist traps. If you’re lucky enough to have some local friends who enjoy outdoor activities or if you’re a little creative there’s always some ways to enjoy the local culture without spending a great deal. Taipei fortunately has a great exchange rate at the moment, about $33 TWD per $1 USD. While that doesn’t directly translate into buying power, you can definitely find some great deals if you’re adventurous enough to head out of the more frequented downtown areas.

At $3 for the day, renting bikes and riding north through Guandu in Taipei county (home of Taiwan’s oldest temple) turned out to be one of the most action packed day-trips I’ve had. All other expenses for the day included another $10 for lunch and coffee on the way, and $5 for a delicious dinner, rounding out the whole day at only $18 USD. Not bad for a full day’s entertainment!

February 20, 2009
by Tom
2 Comments

Touchdown Taiwan

I made it! Landed in Taiwan yesterday and I’ve been getting situated ever since. Had some adventures already trying to buy some sheets for my bed. The language barrier is goign to make this a very interesting trip. I have to run but here are a couple quick videos to hold you until I get back to post some more. Enjoy!

February 3, 2009
by Tom
0 comments

Your life is now, don’t miss it

It’s so easy for us to go about our daily business without noticing the beauty of every day life that surround us. We become so focused on our life goals we forget about living during the in-between. After seeing the video below, I was inspired to take a look at what I had around me and make an effort to appreciate it just that little bit more. Who knew that I had such a great view just a 10 minute hike from my house?

The next post is taking me much longer than I expected as I’m diving deeper into the research for it. Stay tuned!

January 17, 2009
by Tom
4 Comments

Stuff I learned and loved in 2008

Life takes all kinds of twists and turns and you never quite know where you’re going to end up and how you’re really going to like it until you’re there. 2008 was one of the most exciting years of my life. I lived in the heart of a real metropolitan city, traveled to Europe for the first time and got to experience a taste of the real Silicon Valley start-up life. I learned a lot about myself and uncovered what motivates me through pushing my limits and and testing my preconceptions. Fair warning, this is probably the longest post I’ll write all year!

Here are some of the things that as we begin 2009 I can reflect back as lessons to take with me… Continue Reading →

January 1, 2009
by Tom
2 Comments

start the new year with a blog

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Hi I’m Tom, welcome to my new blog. That’s me up there, enjoying one of my favorite hobbies. This is a place for me to share my thoughts, ideas, experiments in lifestyle-design and other random fun things I find on the internet. If you like my posts, please feel free to subscribe by RSS or bookmark me for later. I have some exciting plans for 2009, and as the year unfolds I’ll be doing my best to keep this site updated and respond to as many of your comments as possible. Enjoy.