"...as if you're wearing nothing!"

Those were the words that sucked me into buying three (yes, all three in one order!) pairs of the Be Present Yoga pants!

You've probably seen people — men, women, pregnant women, kids, etc — wearing them on the streets, in yoga studios, in the great outdoors, rocking climbing, hiking, etc. Despite their yoga-inspired design and look, the Be Present pants supposedly are great for everyday use and in other sports as well. At the studio I go to, everyone seems to be in agreement that these are the best pants ever! I was still pretty skeptical when, one day, my yoga instructor announced, "When you're wearing them, it feels as if you're wearing nothing!" And immediately, I thought, "WOW!! I must try them!" I tend to sweat a lot during my yoga practice; and if I could wear nothing, I probably would! So these pants sound like the next best thing, and are just what I need!

As I start to read more about them on the internet (ahh, the wonders of Google!), I found out that everyone and their mothers, who has ever worn the Be Present pants, absolutely loves them! Comments range from "love my Mobility pants," to "these pants have super style," to "I love Be Present yoga pants. They're comfy and stylish," to some other reviews that goes into the technical details and benefits of the Breathe Weave fabric on these pants. Finally, after reading nothing but raving reviews about them, I was sold!

Be Present offers several styles of their pants, but I was only interested in three.

1. Agility (their signature pant, $63): Features back slits, 2 front patch pockets, drawstring waist, and darted knees. Sits comfortably on the high hip, providing maximum coverage during practice.
   
2. Mobility ($63): Features side slits that come up to the knees, 2 front patch pockets, and drawstring waist. Sits comfortably on the high hip, just below the naval; the rise allows for a wide range of movement during practice without needing to readjust your pants.
   
3. Kona ($59): Front rise is shorter than their other pant styles; the back rise is higher to provide added coverage. Features 2 front patch pockets, drawstring waist, darted knees, and small back slits.
   

For an extra $18, you could also get the lotus variety of their pants, where "a lotus is embroidered on the back, a symbol for purity, beauty and enlightenment."

As much as I'd like to have a tramp stamp on the back of my yoga pants, I couldn't justify paying $81 for pants. I needed an excuse, a reason (or maybe just a few laughes) so I consulted the boy:

me: should i splurge on yoga clothes?
cantseejack: Splurge?
So long as you're not paying $50 for a pair of cotton pants, you're probably okay.
me: what about $80 for Breathe Weave™ - a lightweight, woven fabric with stretch that dries quickly?
cantseejack: ...
show me.
me: http://www.bepresent.com/bpstore/product.php?productid=16179&cat=249&page=1
different color.
cantseejack: Is this to make people look at your ass?
I don't know, these don't look that awesome.
me: haha..
no it's supposedly the most comfortable yoga pants ever..
my instructor says that it feels like you're not wearing anything
cantseejack: ...
Your instructor is a closet exhibitionist.

After hours of online shopping, bargain-hunting, coupon-diving, froogle-ing, and bing-cashback-searching, I finally landed on a site that sold Be Present pants at a relatively discounted price — at more than $10 off MSRP. Although they didn't have the lotus line, they were selling the Agility and the Mobility pants at $51.20, instead of $63, and the Kona pants at $48, instead of $59. And they offered free shipping with a purchase of $100 or more! I was more than thrilled, and I wasn't about to pay the (now) $30 difference to buy the lotus pants elsewhere! So I happily ordered these three pairs from their site, and I can't wait to get my new yoga pants!

BTW, they also make clothing for men. ;)

Winter Road Trip

The girlfriend and I have been throwing around the idea of doing a snowboarding road trip at the end of the year, between Christmas and New Year. We both have the week off, so we can go a bit further than we usually do. Here are two possibilities.

Ski Areas: Mount Snow, VT; Stowe, VT; Smuggler's Notch, VT; Mont Tremblant, Québec, Canada; Whiteface, NY; Hunter Mountain, NY
Approximate Miles: 1,097 mi between destinations

Ski Areas: Mount Snow, VT; Stowe, VT; Smuggler's Notch, VT; Loon, NH; Bretton Woods, NH; Sunday River, ME
Approximate Miles: 929 mi between destinations

But before you start hearing about this, I'll probably have to prep the ol' Mini Cooper for the winter, since it seems unlikely that I will have it sold before the end of November, in favor of an '02 or '03 WRX. The car is probably going to get a wax, driving light guards, snow tires on steelies, Thule roof rack, and maybe a rubber mat for the boot. Oh, and lots of CDs to be burned.

Awaiting Winter Prep.

Of course, Greg had to show me THIS.

Ski Areas: Meadows @ Mount Hood, OR; White Pass, WA; Crystal Mountain, WA; Summit @ Snoqualmie, WA; Steven's Pass, WA; Mount Báker, WA; Whistler-Blackcomb, British Columbia, Canada

Approximate Miles: 974 miles between destinations (and Seattle is in the middle of it all)

If there was ever a question about why I wanted to move to Seattle, the above should be fairly elucidating. Factoring in the plentitude of coffee and the liberal atmosphere, Seattle becomes an obvious choice.

Brakes

A few weeks ago, I helped my friend change his front rotors and pads in anticipation of the coming driving season (winter). His rotors were truly crusty and warped so the pads were sweeping maybe 20% of the rotor surface. It was ugly. So we got them changed after shearing an old caliper bolt and scouring auto shops frantically for two days. I was then tasked with bedding in the pads and rotors.

EBC Green pads & new rotors installed.


Blue temper color from bedding in the pads. This indicates a temperature from 550F to 600F.


Pads smoking, this smelled horrible.

After the pads were bedded in, we fooled around and did some acceleration runs. Somehow, we managed to break the midpipe of the exhaust from its flange. I had to get it welded up the day after. Ha. Don't let me work on your cars. Then, if you are foolish enough to, don't let me 'make sure everything is okay' afterwards.

Seattle and Weddings

Two weeks ago, girlfriend and I flew into Seattle for David & Ji-hye's wedding. Always excited to visit my favorite city west of the Hudson River, we planned to get there three days early to soak up the vibe of the city and inundate our livelihood in coffee. Our plan was to arrive in Seattle around noon on Wednesday, eat and drink non-stop with Greg until David's wedding, and then fly back out Saturday night so that we could make it in time for my cousin's wedding on Sunday. Things didn't quite work out that way. Let's just say, for now, that Delta sucks.

We visited a Japanese Tea Garden outside of Seattle, in the Arboretum because we found ourselves with nothing to do one rainy afternoon. The colors were incredible. My camera phone does no justice.

And we ate. Tonnes. Standout spots were: Shiro's Japanese for sushi (omakase ftw), Serious Pie for gourmet pizza (usually I abstain from highbrow pizza, but wtf bbq), Paseo for Cuban sandwiches, and Mike's Chili for... yes, chili.

Serious Pie. There can be a serious wait to get a table.


Paseo's Cuban sandwich. This was too good. I forgot to take a picture until it was gone.


Mike's Chili Parlor. I'd eat this any day.

We did a few other things, like some wedding ceremony and ten minutes of a reception (at which I spilled red wine onto a white shirt of my own). Just kidding. My man David got married to his lovely wife Jihye in this great city that Saturday. Sorry we couldn't stick around; my cousin's wedding was just half a day later.

Gas Works Park

We were able to visit the evo Gear store, which has a bit of an art gallery with art by Spacecraft. There are a bunch of snowboard manufacturers based in the area, not limited to: K2/Ride, Mervin (Gnu, Lib-Tech, Roxy), Nitro, and Signal.

Wow, I can't wait to go back to Seattle. Oh, and for the first time, it rained most of the time that I was there.

Death of Computers

In the last month or so, all of the computers that I/we have been using have given up the ghost. My Sharp MM20 from my 2004 had a hard drive failure; my 3 year-old AMD Athlon x2 desktop also had a hard drive failure; and the girlfriend's Lenovo Thinkpad T61, which is probably about 1.5 years old, had some sort of strange, hard-to-diagnose graphics failure. They're all jealous of the PS3 that I got a month or two ago.

In other news, I've been sleeping late and waking up early, which has resulted in four days of more-than-usual coffee consumption. For example, it is 12:38p and I have already had three cups of coffee and two 8.3oz Red Bull cans.

Here is an excerpt of a conversation the lady and I had earlier today:
me: I'm so tired.
plodder: mee too

me: Oh yeah? I've had two red bulls and three coffees. Hardest morning ever.

plodder: i have a headache.

me: Try some excedrin.
me: This conversation is shaping up like many I've had in college.

Craigslist Scammers

I've been trying to sell my car and so far, I have probably received one legit inquiry after a month of posting on craigslist.org. Here is an example:

Dear Sir/Ma,
My name is Freeman White. I am highly interested in the 2005 Mini Cooper, British Racing Green, Aero, Auto, Etc
Kindly let me know the selling price (negotiable) and more details about the 2005 Mini Cooper, British Racing Green, Aero, Auto, Etc as I'm waiting to read from you on the note of establishing a profound and long term business arrangement.
Sincerely Yours
Freeman White
Santex Equipments Industry
Tel: 011-44-70319-47790
Fax: 011-44-70928-94663

Excited about the prospect of a profound and long-term business arrangement, I responded with the following:

Mr. Freeman White,
For you, I offer the special price of 6.3 Million USD ($6,300,000). You may wire the amount via Moneygram or Western Union to an account I will provide upon your confirmation.
Thank you.

Mr. Freeman White then responded favorably to my offer:

Hello Jack,

Thanks for your mail and i really appreciate that.

Well i want you to give me the sweetable price and the final price so that i can make arrangement for the payment.

Note: I will be wanted to pay atlease 20% as an upfront and i would like to make the payment through a bank to bank transfer and please do not hesitate to notify me as soon as you get the fund into your account so that i can instruct my engineer to come down for inspection and also to make the rest balance of the payment.

Sincerely Yours
Freeman White
Santex Equipments Industry
Tel: 011-44-70319-47790
Fax: 011-44-70928-94663

I'm so glad that I've found such an enthusiastic and agreeable buyer!

Mr. White,
6.3 Million USD for a rare, collectible vehicle with low miles is as sweetable a deal as you will find, I can assure you. As 6.3 million USD is a fairly small amount, I will require a larger deposit of 50%. My account is ready to receive your funds, so please put me in contact with your engineer.
Thank you.

I'll spare the details, but I will note that I have not become 3.15 million USD richer since this happened. For some reason, he did not want to send me the money via Western Union (I thought that was how these things worked) and his 'engineer' never showed up, either.

A Journey Begins in Midtown

Ever since I've starting practicing yoga three years ago, I've dreamed of becoming a yoga instructor. It's amazing to see how each class can truly transform your practice, your body and your mind. From every class I've taken, no matter how many times I've repeated a teacher's class, I've always walked away with surprising new knowledge of the practice and of myself — e.g. the knowledge of "yes, I can do a headstand!" after that first successful attempt; the awareness that I have for every part of my body in Virabhadrasana I (Warrior I); or the discovery that my breath does indeed make every posture so much easier to hold! It's amazing to see these realizations manifest themselves in every class, and it's a feeling that I'd like to give to other yogis as an instructor.

Three weekends ago, I started my 200 hour Vinyasa yoga teacher's training program at a Midtown studio in NYC. This program is structured such that we'd meet for 10 alternate weekends in the Fall — every other weekend from September through December. I was especially attracted to this particular program because of the quality of the instructors who work in the studio, because of its schedule (it ends just as the snowboarding season begins), and also because it emphasizes "a hands-on, non-judgmental approach in a warm and encouraging setting and is appropriate for those seeking to teach or simply looking to deepen their own personal practice." Since most of the amazing instructors who teach at the studio were also trained by the same program that I'm undergoing, I hope that this program can make me as good of an instructor as they are when I graduate from it!

Having just completed my second weekend of the program, I am utterly exhausted! Even though the hours I've spent in the studio were filled with laughter and fun, I definitely was not prepared for all the information that we (the trainees) needed to absorb each weekend, nor was I ready for all the work that was expected of us during and between the sessions. Our studies consist of an array of topics, ranging from asanas (postures), to teaching methodologies, to meditations, to the history of yoga, to anatomy, to Sanskrit, and so on. (Although I've been practicing yoga for the past three years, most, if not all, of these subjects were still new to me!) In between the readings, discussions and lectures, we also practiced doing yoga and teaching it to our fellow trainees. And, on top of all that, we're given homework to complete for the next session, and we're required to take three other yoga lessons in the studio during the week in between. The studio director definitely knows how to keep us busy — hence my exhaustion!

The director, Liz, wastes no time in getting us comfortable, standing and instructing, in front of a class! Upon our arrival at the studio on that first Saturday morning, she made each of us stand in front of the room and lead the other trainees through a series of Surya Namaskars (Sun Salutations). I've performed the sequence hundreds of time and I know the flow by heart, but to talk a class through each posture was such a challenge! Standing in front of the room, I suddenly lost my sense of direction — e.g. "extend your left foot...oh wait, I meant right foot...to the back of your mat" — and I've forgotten the names of the poses I've become so familiar with — e.g. instead of "forward bend," I'd said "bend forward." (Liz later instructed us that we should never say "bend forward" in class because of its sexual connotation! LOL!) Leading the class was the most exciting, nerve-wrecking, yet humbling experience of that first weekend. But I'm glad that Liz gave us the chance to jump right into teaching on that first day, and made us realize just how much work and practice goes into each yoga class!

Despite my physical and mental fatigue, I've truly enjoyed these past two training weekends. I can't wait to see what the following weekends have in-stored for me!

Attention Idiotic Car Drivers

The next time you switch lanes without looking while I am there, I'm going to fucking smash your car window and face with carbon-fiber knuckles while you're trying to run away from me on the highway doing 80mph. So, if you're going to pull that type of bullshit, make sure you kill me next time. Or take the extra 0.7s to take a look at your blind spot.

Is it too much to ask drivers to drive in a predictable manner? For me, it's enough for a driver to be predictably unsafe, even if you're a jackass.