This is a great deal guys, I just had to share it!  JetBlue is offering you 30 days to fly anywhere they fly for $500!  Yes, there are some restrictions, like dates and taxes when flying international.  But this means that I could fly from Austin to LA, hang out for a week, then fly to Puerto Rico for a week and a half, then up to New York, then over to Seattle to visit my bro for a bit (although I think he’s in Guam at that time) and then back home for only $500!  That’s crazy awesome!  You do have to travel between Tuesday, September 7, 2010 and Wednesday, October 6, 2010, but still if you can take the time off, I say go for it!

Sadness befalls me.  I got a very nice email from the MSI people, rejecting my application to live in the museum for a month.  In case you don’t know, I applied to be a roommate in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.  I was wondering what came of it just today and then wouldn’t you know it, I got my answer.  The email was very nice talking about how much I and others around the globe inspired them, but still no win for me.  Well, I’ll just let the email speak for itself.

“Zachary,

With more than 1,500 applications, coming from every state in the U.S. and distant points around the globe, your Month at the Museum entries have humbled, entertained, enlightened, intrigued and best of all, inspired us.  Each application, essay and video was reviewed by a team of Museum judges, which included staff from marketing, public relations, exhibit development, guest experiences and human resources.  We spent hundreds of hours narrowing down applicants from a very talented pool of candidates—a difficult task indeed!

So what were we looking for?  During the judging process, we searched for a variety of skills and traits such as being an engaging storyteller, having a good sense of humor, and demonstrating an ability to write clearly and creatively. We also paid close attention to why someone wanted to win.  The videos were very helpful in giving us a glimpse of who our future roommate might be—but many other factors influenced our decisions.

You captured us with your creativity, bowled us over with enthusiasm, and left us wondering how to add a few more glass boxes around here to make room in our experiment for more of you.  But alas, there’s only room for one winner. Though it was far tougher than we expected, we’ve narrowed the candidates down to a small group of semi-finalists and have notified each of them. (Who or how many made this group isn’t yet public, but it’s smaller than the atomic number of calcium.) We’re sorry that you are not moving forward to the next round, but hope you will help us decide who the winner should be when we launch the public vote in late September.

As a small token of our awe and appreciation, we’d like to give you a pass good for you and three of your family members/friends to visit the Museum in the next year. Perhaps you might like to visit between October 20 and November 18, 2010 to check out the winner of the contest during the in-residence period, but we’d love to have you here at any time.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to share some of your videos online with the world to let everybody know just how funny, inventive, innovative and cool you all are, making this decision so tough for us.  We’ll post the videos to our YouTube channel, announce them via Facebook and Twitter, and hand out a few special awards along the way.  In the meantime, check out monthatthemuseum.org to see a short video featuring some of you and your 1,500+ new friends.

Please accept our sincerest and most heartfelt thanks for your time, curiosity, creativity, zest for life, and love of science.  You made us laugh and you touched our hearts. It was truly a pleasure to meet you.

You rock!

Sincerely yours,

Your friends at MSIChicago “

So didn’t make it in. But I got some free passes and a whole month freed up. Now what shall I do with that time? I’m thinkin Puerto Rico. Plus I have three more months for which I do not yet have contests to enter. Keep em comin people!

The gentle fragrance of AJ Stephan’s Root Beer is a nice introduction to the slight creamy flavor of the dark brown brew.  Although packing 43 grams of pure cane sugar, it somehow maintains a not-too-sweet taste.  Alas, it’s only downfall is the soft fizz which is more bubbly then bite.  Still, I give this sudzy root beer a 6 out of 10.

Touted as New England’s Best Tonic since 1926, it will have to do better then that to compete against some of it’s predecessors in this competition.

It’s coming down to the last few root beers before the final review.  We taper off with Sioux City Root Beer emitting a subtle fragrance from it’s murky amber color.  It’s a very sweet root beer, too sweet for me; and although it comes with a sharp bite, I must give it a mere 5 out of 10.

Upon examination of the bottle, we find out where the sweetness comes from, that is the 43 grams of pure cane sugar included in the beverage.  Sioux City under-performing, let’s see how the rest stack up.

Last Sunday, August 15th, I was involved in an auto accident. This accident was especially tragic because my beautiful and wonderful Phantasmagoria was totaled.  I loved this car and it was only 6 years old and just paid off last year!  My magnificent mazda 6 shall rest in piece I hope and be turned into something nice for someone else.

Most of you heard about the accident on facebook after seeing this picture of me on a stretcher, giving a thumbs up.  We were riding in the ambulance at that point and there was really nothing else to do but take a pic and send a text message, which got out to everyone and my mom called me within 15 minutes, having heard about it from my cousin!  Amazing how quickly the words gets out these days.  <— I sound old.

But what happened you ask?  As I’ve said countless times to people and insurance agents, I was going westbound on Cesar Chavez and the other guy was coming east, got into the left turn lane and decided it was a good idea to turn left out in front of me.  I slammed on my brakes and swerved, but i still hit him, sending him flyng back into the street.  Meanwhile, I kept moving, popped the curb and hit an electrical box pole.  The airbags deployed, but i don’t remember feeling them.  I had always been afraid of those cause I heard stories about people getting concussions and breaking their noses from airbags.  When I opened my eyes, all I wanted to do was sit there for a minute.  But I saw smoke coming from the A/C vents and figured I should get out of the car.

As soon as I did, a girl came up and said she was dialing 911.  I said okay, still stunned.  There were lots of people all around cause it is a popular jogging route.  My car’s horn was beeping.  I looked back at it and saw that the entire front end had been halfed.  I snapped a quick cell phone pic just so I could remember it and have for insurance later.  There’s something about stepping away from an accident like that relatively unscathed.  There’s a feeling of invincibility which can easily cloud your better judgment.  Adrenaline was coursing through my veins, warding off the pain I knew would be there later.  I told myself not to make any sudden movements; the fact that I could walk around was a good sign though.  I walked back to the car, the radio was still on, i tried to turn the key, but the dash had come so far out, that it held the key in place and it wouldn’t turn.  Another guy came up and said the police are on their way, if I needed to get anything out of the car, now is the time to do it.  I thought about it and said no, I don’t think so.  He said, you smoke?  I said no, and then realized I was in Austin and he was telling me to get any illegal substances out of my vehicle before the cops came.  I sort of laughed and said, no I don’t have anything like that in the car.  I did however have my suit, my cannon DSLR, a bottle of wine, and other items in the trunk I totally forgot about it.

Just then, another jogger came up and said he was an EMT and told me to sit down in the grass.  He did some typical tests to make sure there wasn’t nerve damage and then laid me down in the grass and held my neck till the on duty EMTs got there, which was pretty quick actually.  They showed up within 5 minutes after that and repeated the tests the other guy had done.  They asked me a bunch of questions and then strapped me to the stretcher.  When they were putting me in the ambulance and hooking things up, a police officer showed up and asked me questions about he accident.

We went to Brackenridge Hospital and they did xrays which came back fine.  Once I heard that, I was fine to move around.  The adrenaline was wearing off, so I could feel my knee swelling from when it hit the dash, the bruise from the seatbealt on my chest, and my neck was very stiff.  My cell phone had died, but I was able to use someone’s smart phone to fb message my roommate Tyler and he called the hospital.  He then came to get me.  Thanks Tyler!

Dealing with my injuries has been easier then dealing with Insurance.   Called my insurance, Geico, on Monday.  I didn’t know this, but apparently they work as a “team” rather than having agents.  This is a nice way of saying they’re a call center.  They don’t know any more about your accident or what has been done than what they can read on the screen while you’re on the phone with them.  With my old insurance in LA, State Farm, I always talked to the same lady and when I had a claim, she knew what was going on cause there was a history there.  Even in my few dealings with the other person’s insurance in this case, where there’s ONE agent, it has been a far more satisfying conversation.  The cop at the scene got the other person’s insurance info and that was delivered to me at the hospital.  I gave the info to Geico.  The insurance just said “General Insurance” but there was an agent number which I gave them.  They said, they’d call the other company and file a claim.  The next day, I hadn’t heard anything, so I called the other number which turned out to be SafeCo Insurance and found that Geico had opened no such claim on the person’s policy number.  This is what they had done: saw General Insurance and looked up the number for Permanent General Insurance and called them, even though I GAVE them the number to call.  That’s right, they did extra work, to get the WRONG number and even when they couldn’t find the policy, they filed a claim anyway, expecting that company to look for the policy and get back to them.  How retarded.  If I hadn’t called, nothing would’ve been done.  So I got the right claim filed, called Geico who of course said they’d already done it and filled them in on their error.  Later, General Insurance called me and did an interview after which I told them I didn’t think it was the right insurance, so the lady was very nice and had recorded the conversation and just sent it to the correct insurance company.

Finally, the police report came out on Wed, saying it was the other driver’s fault, joy of joys!  Still took me till Saturday to get a rental car and I have no idea if my car has even been moved out of the lot yet.  In the meantime.  Matt was nice enough to let me borrow his truck for last week so I was able to get around.  Thanks Matt!  I owe you a lunch or dinner!  I also went by the impound lot to clean out all my stuff.  Miraculously, my nice camera, suit, and wine were not smashed, ripped or shattered.  The key was still wedged in the key hole, so I had to de-ring it to get my house keys back.  I guess the battery had been left on cause the car wouldn’t even turn on electrical, which meant my CDs would be stuck forever in the CD changer.  Ce la vie.  I got everything out and then took a moment, hugged Phantasm one last time, and drove away.

Rosario recommended that I go to a chiropractor.  I had never been to one before, but I figured it might be a good idea.  It was interesting, but more on that in another post.  By day two, my shoulder was really killing me, what really helped me out was I got Sam to push on my shoulder blade and pull back on my shoulder and that pushed the gas our of the muscle and it felt immensely better!  It’s been over a week now and my bruises have all turned yellow so they look horrible, but at least they’re healing.  My shoulder blade feels much better and I have most of the range of motion in my neck back.  Still can’t hold a phone with my shoulder but I can turn side to side 100%.  Even went wake surfing on Friday and successfully didn’t hurt myself… all that much anyway.  I had a short problem with my work not wanting me to come back until I got a doctor’s note, but that was quickly taken care of and I was able to work on Wed.

Now I’ve got to start the long and arduous process of finding a new car.  I’m not happy about it at all.  I loved that car and there was very little I would change about it.  I’m thinking I’m going to have to go used case I don’t want to start a monthly payment all over again after I JUST got this one finished.  But there are a few extras I’ve been wanting, so here’s to hopin I find a good deal.  Anyone know where I should start searching?

Thanks all for the support and well wishes.  No matter how an accident affects your life, it’s good to know there are people who will look out for you.  And the beat goes on…

Good Bye my love

I just had an interesting moment. I was recovering this morning from a drunken night last night (loads of fun btw), and after watching an episode of Dead Zone and finishing up my chipotle penne pasta, I was going through my Examiner.com stuff and seeing what other features it has. I looked at the clock and told myself, “Okay, write a couple articles and then start your day at one o’clock.” It was at that moment I realized that I enjoy writing on its own merits. To me “starting your day” means “get to work you lazy ass,” and I thought it was interesting that I naturally did not see writing articles as work. Almost as if I would have fun first writing articles, then begin the mundane things I must do to live in this world.

It’s the first time I’ve noticed something that I like to do for free but has actual possibilities of making money.  Which means I could eventually do something I love for a living!  This is huge, cause I could never fully comprehend what was meant by “do something you love.”  I love to draw, but I know were I forced to do it everyday, it would probably become more of a chore and I wouldn’t like it very much.  They say you should never make your hobby your job, cause then you have no hobbies, only work.  But writing!  I’ve been doing that forever and it’s really because, as many of you already know, I have a lot to say.  There are worlds of thoughts mulling about up in this head and currently I cannot conceive of writing as ever becoming something I’ll dread doing.  Yay for epiphanies!

Does anyone out there have any motivation tips?!  I keep coming up with ideas for programs that will tell me what to do but they all come down to the same problem: “I can always just say no, I don’t feel like it right now.”  I need some incentive or an accountability buddy.  I keep procrastinating (ie, this blog post).  And my focus is very short lived.  I start working on one thing and then think of something else and switch to that cause I’m afraid I’ll forget and then it happens again and again.  If anyone has some tips for keeping motivated, I would love to hear em!

Timothy A. Pychyl says that “Identity achievement is related to lower procrastination.  Knowing who you are and where you’re going helps keep you focused on your goals.”  I should definitely do this.  I think one thing that’s really throwing me off is my personal life.  Money is something I can attain if I put a formula to it and stick to that.  But figuring out what I want in a lasting relationship is still very much a mystery.  I know how to get in one, but there’s a level of fear and uncertainty that I’m not used to.  Being so logical about most everything, I can calculate most possibilities, but the rest of your life?!  There’s way to many variables, and I don’t know what to do about it.  It’s throwing off my groove, doesn’t help I’m turning 30 next year!

Back to procrastination.  43things did a study of the most popular goals in the world and procrastination is number TWO on the list!  And we can see why it’s so difficult to define where we’re going in life, cause are goals are so general.  For instance, here’s the top ten along with some notes on why they are or aren’t good goals:

1. lose weight 38846 people
   Too general, need to specify number of pounds
2. stop procrastinating 28359 people
   A big problem for sure, but no clear path to take, again too general of a goal
3. write a book 28130 people
   What’s the timeline for the book? When should it be done?  Is this an idea you already have or is it write just any book?
4. Fall in love 25991 people
   What does this mean? Get in a serious relationship? Be committed to someone? Get married? You must write goals that an outside observer could test and say yes you’ve achieved that, otherwise you’re setting yourself up for a cop out.
5. be happy 23389 people
   Once again an overarching idea, list things that will make you happy.
6. Get a tattoo 21604 people
   Tthis is a relatively good goal because of the nature of tattoos, they are often determined by the tattoo artist’s ability; the action is clearly get an idea and go to a tattoo shop
7. drink more water 20086 people
   How much water should you drink per day? If it’s not specific, you’ll just assume you’re sticking to it or you’ll worry that you haven’t achieved it.  This invites more stress instead of relieving it which is what goals are meant to do.
8. get married 20070 people
   This is a good goal, it’s as specific as the subject matter will allow it, a deadline would be nice but not necessary
9. travel the world 19809 people
   Needs to be far more specific, where? For how long?  Backpack or resort?
10. go on a road trip with no predetermined destination 19744 people
    It’s a general goal, but it’s specified in the goal the intent is to not know your destination so this is a good goal

It seems we could all use a little help in this department.  For me, this blog has largely been my accountability buddy.  If I put it on here, there are people who now expect that result from me.  And that’s a good thing.  Perhaps I’ll just need to start sharing even more with you people.  That could be a bad thing. 

I’ve just been hired by Examiner.com to write articles on Dating Rules in Austin.  I have a lot to say on the subject, but any input from fellow Austin daters, or daters anywhere in the world, would be greatly appreciated.  You can never have too much inspiration.  Along the way, I hope I’ll inspire those of you seeking relationships out there to understand the rules of dating in the modern age. I know I’ve got a lot to learn.  This should be fun!

I encourage you to comment here and on my Examiner page your reactions to the articles and how your dating life is going.

Recently, I’ve been turned onto Meetup.com.  If I was looking for more things to do in Austin and people to do them with (and I was), I have found it!  Meetup is amazing.  I went to three meetup groups this last week alone and have met so many cool people.  Let’s see, this week, I went to Cardio Kickboxing again which is free and meets every Tue and Thurs at 10am, Barton Springs Float which was very chill and it was great to meet people who can goof off in the middle of the day like I can sometimes, and Millionaire Mind Meetup.  That last one is about staying in the millionaire mind frame and getting to that place you want to be financially.  I was wary of that one cause it could’ve been very hokie and self lovey and not so informational.  It really depended on the people that were involved in the group, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group.  They’re so down to earth and practical while at the same time focusing on the fact that you HAVE to make your goal a reality in your own mind before it can manifest itself in the world.

Very cool.  I highly recommend Meetup.com.  You should all get on there and start meeting new people and doing new things!

At long last, the second contest suggested has been submitted! This contest was suggested by Janet Brasfield on the Suggest a Contest and I’ll Enter It post.  Janet suggested I enter a contest to live at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.  You actually live IN the museum for 30 days plus you win ten grand and get some gadgets and do some public speaking, sounds like fun.

Applying for this contest really took some doing.  I had to create a 60 second video to submit and put it on DVD, write an essay on why I’m the best choice, fill out an ELEVEN page application form and sign a release and waiver.  Oh and submit a 5×7 headshot.  The amazing part is that you can’t submit anything online, you have to snail mail it in!  How 90s of them.  All in all, it took me about 8 hours to get it all done.  I also included an 18 picture slideshow of some of my travels just for fun.  It’s really easy to make a DVD menu using Windows DVD Maker.  I was very surprised!  I’m very happy this was a suggested contest cause it sounds fun but I definitely wouldn’t have brought this amount of effort on myself.  The blog often times acts as accountability for me to get my shit done.  That’s what the list is all about too.

Now all I can do is wait and see what happens.  I’ll keep you posted.  In the meantime, enjoy the 60 video along with the bloopers I had while filming it. 

And now for the bloopers!