For ANYONE to be able to complete 100 consecutive pushups in 6 weeks sounds impossible. But I’ve done quite a few things that I once thought impossible (polyphasic sleep, live in South Korea, Bikram yoga) so this will be yet another adventure.

I learned about this while I was working with old friend and Detroit’s most talented rapper Stryfe Da Fantam (facebook page | official webpage). Somewhere in between the working, laughing, joking, Black Dynamite watching, and helicopter flying, he told me about how he was able to do work up to doing 100 pushups and showed me the website.

I did my initial test today and I was able to do 30 consecutive pushups. According to their guide, I get to skip to week 3. So 4 weeks from now, I’ll be able to smash my chest to the ground and push myself back up until I hit the ceiling 100 times in a row. And I’ll post a video to prove it. And even if I can’t, I’ll post a video of my failure and we can laugh at me together!

http://www.jermilsadler.com/blog/2010/04/one-hundred-pushups/

I’m leaving Virginia for the time being and I’m taking everything I can with me in a PT Cruiser with no back seats. My car is FULL and I can’t see out the rearview mirror. I think I could be dead by the time you read this since I’ll be driving in rain out of Virginia/Maryland and approaching heavy snow in Michigan.

But maybe like in the Fight Club movie, in death, I’ll have a name. I was going to do a farewell from DC post but now I’ll be creepy and make people look at it as a farewell from life post even though I’m betting against death by fiery car crash.

I know there are quite a few people whom I have met or have become better friends with in DC that I’d like to personally dedicate this post to. But I know that since I’m typing this after midnight, I’m going to leave out one or two people that I really should say a few words to. Instead, I’ll send you all something personal as soon as I get settled in my new destination in the new year.

I feel like I’ve learned way more about life simply by living in DC for 3 years than I would have if I had stayed in Michigan. I believe I’d most likely be doing the same things I had done all my life and hung out with mostly the same people I grew up with. I’d almost definitely still be under the tyrannical dictatorship of my parents (a bit of an exaggeration). I wouldn’t have met my past two girlfriends. I wouldn’t have made a ridiculous amount of money doing absolutely no work. I wouldn’t have made a ton of friends from all over the world that I’ll undoubtedly be in touch with for the rest of my life. I have someone who calls me their very best friend (VBF!) who I probably wouldn’t even talk to today if I wasn’t in DC. I have a great friend with whom I started going to a really amazing church with every Sunday. I’d probably still be going to my parents’ boring church if I’d stayed in Michigan.

I can say without a doubt that I would be a COMPLETELY different person in EVERY WAY right now if I had stayed in Michigan. I think the only thing that would be the same is that I would’ve had a job punching keys on a keyboard all day (for WAY less money) and that I’d probably be driving the same car (or the car that I smashed up before).

The most important thing that I learned while in DC was that taking a ton of money doing a job I HATE is the worst thing I could ever do to myself. I had way more money than I should’ve had and all I did was spend it on CRAP that I didn’t need and barely used. It was almost shameful when I saw all the GARBAGE that I accumulated over the years in an effort to find happiness. I realized in the end that the only way to find happiness is to spend my short time in this life doing something I truly enjoy. Once I did that, I actually looked forward to waking up at 8am and getting ready for my day of what I enjoy. I actually enjoyed my nights of photography instead of wasting away in front of a computer or television. I did those things to avoid sleep because I knew that once sleep was over, I’d have to go back to wasting my youth at work doing nothing at a place I really didn’t want to be.

The one thing that BLEW MY MIND was that as soon as I stopped going to work, I completely lost my urge to drink alcohol EVER. I realized a few weeks ago that the two DIRECTLY coincided with each other. I stopped drinking entirely within a week of no longer going to work. Drinking was my escape from the disgustingly harsh reality that the rest of my life would be filled with me getting bossed around by losers if I didn’t do something about it. And instead of doing something about it, I would escape with alcohol. Unfortunately and very fortunately, I realized that fact only after I took action. Sadly, I still see people my age doing the same thing and I don’t know what to do about it. But now, my life is controlled by me alone and now I feel like a real human. I don’t believe we exist to work for some company all day that will fire you for not coming in by 9am every single day among other silly reasons.

On a more positive note, DC, to me, feels like everywhere else in this country combined. Anything that anywhere else is known for can be found in DC. Name anything and what city that represents in the comments and I’ll tell you where you can find it in the DC area. Whether it be for 6 months or 60 years, I feel that everyone should live in the DC area for some time in their life. I wouldn’t trade my time here for anything!

But I digress. In closing, just know that if you get a call from me in the days between now and January 3rd-ish, understand that, even if I don’t say it during the call, you had a major impact on my life. My life is only going to be amazing because you all were in it and I don’t think there’s any way to repay that but I will make the effort. Even if you’re one of the many people I haven’t spoken with since I left my first job, you all are still in my heart. Even if we had a relationship-ending disagreement, I hope you can look at it as a a learning experience and we can get past it and continue to grow together. I’m going to do everything I can to stay in touch with everyone that I can.

But first, I have to make it to Michigan.

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I never really had a real conversation with myself until I came out here. I thought everything was so simple. I’d just get my degree, get my job, get my wife, make some little people, grow old, retire, die. Just like everyone else. But I see that plan sucks and I’m not going to do that anymore.

I don’t want a job where my goal is to retire. I don’t want a life where my goal is to have kids. I want to change the world in some way. I’m really into photography now and I want to express myself through that medium. I think this country is going in a bad direction and I want to leave so I’m leaving. I wish there wasn’t fluoride in our toothpaste and drinking water which makes people dumber. I wish people didn’t eat so much processed food and get cancer and other diseases. I wish people read more and watched less TV. I want to let everyone know how I feel. But I can’t just yet. I have to reach one person at a time.

Lately people have been coming to me telling me their job sucks. I’ve been pointing them in a direction to get them to do what they want to do. But I can’t make anyone do anything.

I hated my job so I saved money for a while then I stopped going. I don’t like the direction the country is heading so I’m leaving. I want to do photography so I go out in the freezing night and take beautiful night photos of the Washington Monument from different angles. I try to live the example that I want to express to others. But I guess it doesn’t help if no one knows. And even if they know, they have to care and to believe they can do it too.

From what I recall, you were just a wee bit smarter than everyone else I knew. I’m sure you will do amazing things as long as you focus. I was in that boat you were in too with friends shaping my views on things. It’s good that you realized it before it was too late and had a little Dr. Evil crawling around.

Also, I let my job sidetrack me and keep me from doing what I knew I should be doing. It was really hard for me to wake up way too early, go to work and be bored and feel worthless, come home tired, eat something, then attempt to be productive with the things I was interested in. That’s the trap we all get caught up in. Next thing you know, you’ll be 35 and angry at life because you never got to do what you knew you should have done. By then, you’ll think it’s too late and give up on life.
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I stopped there because I was getting too into it and wanted to see her response before I went on.

What do you think about what I said???
Has your life ever sucked and you did something to change it?

I was lucky be born right as the personal computer became popular. I remember being a lil kid and my parents had a Commodore 64 that we hooked into the TV with the rabbit ears and I could play Space Invaders. Then they upgraded from that and got an Intel 386. This was back when I was too young to realize that the computer was a big deal.

But fast-forward to today. Anytime I want to know anything about anything, I hop on the computer and Google it. I get the answer in far less than a minute. But that’s only if I have to get up and go to the computer. I can do that exact thing on my CELL PHONE now. I have the internet in the same thing that I use to call my parents! How UNBELIEVABLE is that???

But we take these things for granted. Imagine growing up in the 70s and you want some pizza. You have to get up and flip through a fat yellow book while getting ink on your fingertips and dropping the book on your big toe. Now you do a google search.

Remember when we had to do book reports??? I know I had to actually go to the Detroit Public Library and get the book. Then read it and write about it. That’s over Johnny!

You can go to Amazon or eBay and get them to mail you the book overnight! Or you can download the e-book and read it on your computer while you click back and forth to check your email and facebook. But then you’d still have to read it. Hmmmm…

You can search in Google for “book report” and “Atlas Shrugged” and get a book report there I’d bet. Or you can read someone else’s summary and make a report out of that. You could probably find every edition of Cliff’s Notes for every book that was made and read that online.

I don’t know. I think we’re extremely lucky to be the first generation to be born with internet. Right now, the internet is flying around in the same air that you breathe. All you need is something to interact with it and you have all the questions, answers, and porn you could ever need EVER!

It’s just amazing. 2 thumbs up for the internet.

YOU DON’T HAVE 2 MINUTES TO CHECK THIS OUT???
CLICK THE LINK!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4

I did a google search and saw that it was very true. I also found it on PETA’s website.

My initial reaction was pure astonishment. Then I thought about all the other things going on in the world right now and figured that it’s not too far outside the realm of possibility these days.

With the stock market PLUNGING 777 points yesterday (which is more points than the day planes flew into buildings and left everyone frozen across the country), a bumbling hockey mom from Alaska running for Vice President of this country, and NASA finding snow on Mars, I figured anything is possible.

But then I looked at it from a more objective point of view.

After watching a video on how humans depend so much and completely abuse animals in the name of entertainment, food, clothes, and so on, I took a different stance on the issue.

It really doesn’t make much sense for humans to continue to drink milk after we are grown. No other mammal continues to drink milk their entire life. The mother stops producing milk after a certain time. That’s about the time humans should stop drinking milk.

Why are cows the animal to torture when it comes to getting milk? In the video, it was stated that the normal life expectancy for a cow is 20 years. However, the cows that are used for milking are kept on their feet and milked constantly for their entire life. These unfortunate cows live about 4 years until they die from exhaustion. That meat is then used in fast food restaurants. YUM!!!

I decided last night that I agree with PETA. If humans want their ice cream and their disgusting milk that most people’s stomachs can’t digest, the milk should come from humans!

The letter to Ben and Jerry’s stated that the Swiss company gets 75% of their milk from human breast milk. That would be an AMAZING start for companies in the US to make an effort to get anywhere near that point.

But what about the possible diseases that can be spread from breast milk?
Those cows aren’t the healthiest during their 4 years but no one gets deadly ill from their milk.

Well, HIV can be passed through breast milk. We don’t want to get HIV from milk do we???
It can also be passed in BLOOD and humans transfuse that into other humans all the time. I’m sure a way already exists to test milk for viruses and diseases.

I’m sure no one can imagine getting all milk from human breasts. But if you asked someone back in the 1930s and 1940s if they thought smoking would ever be banned from the workplace or a restaurant, they would deny that would ever be a possibility. And look where we are today.

One small step today of having Ben and Jerry’s get 5% of their milk from human breasts could one day save millions of cows from torture and premature death!

Seems innocent enough.

But for a split second, I was able to see myself as someone walking into my apartment would have. The sight freaked me out.

At first, it seemed all well and good to sit around and watch television after a long day of “working” and finishing a decent meal. But when I had my out-of-body experience, it was a completely different story.

I saw myself as some lazy lump that had nothing else going on with his life that sitting on a broken couch to watch television was a viable option for the rest of my night.

How many of you do this?

Does that seem like a complete waste of time to anyone else? To watch weird people on television play a role that you in some way covet. You want to be the guy that is a superhero and wears a mask. You want to be the lady who has a ton of money and a ton of shoes and nothing to do with her day. But instead of using your powerful, breathtakingly bulky brain to even attempt to figure out a way to liberate yourself from a boring desk job that you hate, you come home and watch TV until you’re too tired to think for yourself.

Everyone is good at something. Everyone has something in their life that they need to accomplish but for some reason never get around to finishing. I hope that the supersmart readers of my blog will change that.

Try this insane idea. Take 30 minutes each day this weekend (Friday after work, Saturday, and Sunday) and use this time to do that thing that you’ve really wanted to get around to doing but haven’t done.

If you think about it, 30 minutes is a drop in the bucket when you relate it to how much time there is in a day. Then consider how small 90 minutes is when you compare it with how many minutes you have in an entire weekend!

If you don’t read this on Friday, that’s not an excuse not to take 30 minutes sometime during the rest of this weekend and get something accomplished.

Here is what I will be doing. I will go through the thousands of pictures that I have taken and put on my computer. Once I do that, I will put all of my best shots into a couple of folders. Then I will finally put together some type of portfolio of my best pictures. For accountability, I will post a few of them to this blog Sunday night or Monday morning.

Post what you are going to accomplish with your weekend in the comments.

My latest idea for a life-altering experiment will be to start fasting one day per week.

I thought of this a few weeks ago when I read about the benefits that fasting has on your body. I read about them here (number 3) and here on wikipedia.

I want to do it because I want to see if fasting creates any positive effects on my body. I’ve read that your body uses more of it’s energy for healing and restoration when it doesn’t have to focus on digesting horrible food.

I’ve had to fast for a day before. In my experience, the first day is the WORST. My stomach growls continuously and all you can think of is food. But the second day is way easier. My stomach didn’t growl anymore and I wasn’t worried about food too much.

When???

I’ve been struggling with figuring out a good day to fast every week. I thought Sunday would be best since I’m usually putzing around the house doing nothing and if I didn’t eat that day, it shouldn’t really affect my productivity level. And I usually pig out on Saturdays with massive carbs, massive ice cream, and a splash or two of alcohol. I figured Sunday could be my detoxification day. But I usually spend Sundays with the girlfriend and she isn’t crazy and wants to eat when she’s hungry. It takes a lot of discipline to not eat when someone else is eating in front of you but I know I can do it.

So I’ve been thinking about doing it on Fridays instead. I’ll do it this Friday (today) and see how it works out.

The part that hit me the most was the very end.

It wasn’t the same old, “I’m (insert name here) and I approve this message.” It was something that was actually relevant to the ad and reached out to people who can think for themselves.