mike the mountain

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Challenge

Mike Lawton March 15 at 2:36pm

Hey dude, got a proposition for you.

Of all the people for me to challenge with this, you’re pretty much the worst choice I could make, but fuck it. It’s good motivation.

I’ve been looking at this “One Hundred Push Ups” program for a while, even started it once (but wimped out quickly). Now that I’ve got a fairly regular workout routine going, I’m thinking of taking another crack at it.

http://www.hundredpushups.com/

Only thing I need is someone to keep me honest. Now I know you could probably drop and do 100 right now (screw you), but the program does tailor to each person’s fitness level. I was thinking we could make a bet out of it, pick a start date and say 6 weeks from then we have to meet and do 100 push ups; whoever can’t finish has to…. whatever. Buy lunch, post failure on facebook, etc.

Up for it? We could bring in anyone else that felt like playing along too. Maybe plan for the big showdown at Griesbach?

Dave Bargen March 15 at 4:00pm

Cool. Sounds like fun. I’m not at the 100 range yet, but I’d love to get back to it. I’m in.

Mike Lawton March 15 at 4:09pm

I’m going to regret this…

Dave Bargen March 22 at 10:17am

Alright, bro. I am starting this thing today. I’ll make Mon, Wed, Fri my days to do it. I’ll send you a message when I’m finished and I expect to hear from you too saying you’re done yours at some point. Remember, no matter what other exercise we do, we do this first. Bring on the pain.

Mike Lawton March 22 at 10:36am

OK you miserably fit son of a bitch… let’s do this.

I was originally thinking of starting it April 1, as sort of a cruel april fool’s joke on ourselves. But that’s just another excuse to procrastinate.

I did 3 sets of pushups this morning, 10-15-20, just to see how my shoulder was feeling, and I’m happy to say much better than expected! I’m going to do the proper fit test tonight so I have my starting number, then I’ll start the program Wednesday (skipping day 1 so I’m on the same track as you).

We’ve got to find some way of tracking this publicly, so our potential humiliation is all the greater. I’m thinking of starting a Facebook page that we can update with our progress, trash-talk each other, and allow others to enjoy our suffering. I’ll send you the link once it’s ready.

Dave Bargen March 22 at 11:30am

OK, here’s the deal. I need you to go away for a while.

From here. From the BLOG.

I need you to stop reading. Stop following. Unsubscribe. Delete feed. Forget.

It’s not you. It’s me.

I’ve hit a wall. I just can’t seem to complete an idea. Barely a sentence. I share links and comments and thoughts and updates on Facebook and Twitter, but the immediacy and brevity of those mediums discourages deeper discussion-inspection-reflection.

That last sentence is 176 characters. I couldn’t even fit it in a tweet.

I like using big words and run-on sentences. I like to ramble, pontificate, blather, spew, and let my consciousness flow.

But lately I’m not. Not enough. With the words.

I’ve got lots of ideas. Dozens of “drafts” waving their dicks at me whenever I log into my WordPress dashboard. But I just can’t seem to pull the trigger. Can’t finish them. I read these half-formed blobs of fetal composition and can recognize the tiny ember of inspiration that made me want to expand or explore or just throw into the sky to see what happened… but that’s it. I can’t wind my brain up to continue.

And that’s where you come in.

I need this to be a blank slate again. I need to clear the expectations I’ve built up in my own head about what I should be posting. Who I’m posting for.

Like I said: It’s not you. It’s me. This is in my own head.

I don’t know if this will help, but I think it will.

I’m going to try and pretend that no body reads this thing. Not a big stretch, I know, but stay with me (or don’t… you know what I mean). This site isn’t for marketing my business, or showing off my photography, or giving soapbox speeches about the latest political travesty. I’ve used it for all these things in the past, but it never felt right. I don’t know what I have this thing for. But I do know that I enjoyed writing on here the most when I was writing purely for myself. Not worried about who was reading it or what anyone else thought, just using it as a bucket to catch the mental overflow; an open field for me to bury my kill.

So that’s it. No apologies for not posting. No explanations. No whining. No promises of future content. Just whatever the heck comes out of my head. Intentionally indecipherable. This isn’t a school project. This is MY ISLAND. My piece of Internet. To do with as I will.

/M

PS – I’m still out there. If you want to know what I’m up to: Twitter. Or, if we’ve actually met at some point: Facebook. If you want to know to what I’m listening: Last.fm. What I’m reading online: Delicious. If you want to see pictures from my adventures: Flickr. Work: The Financial Benefits Group. I’ve got a LinkedIn page too, but haven’t really got around to using it much. Aren’t I just the little social-media butterfly?

I’m messing with the site design over the weekend, so if you somehow stumble across here and things look odd or incomplete… well, they probably always have and shall continue to be, so get used to it schweetheart.

/M