on sunday, mattquann and i went up to the strait of juan de fuca (who was greek, apparently) to do some surfing. it was really gorgeous. snow-capped mountains in the background, bald eagles circling overhead. the sea temperature was in the mid-40s and the air temperature was in the mid-30s, below freezing with wind chill.

matt and i both bought some overlayers with hoods to further insulate us. we were in the water for three hours. my core stayed warm, my feet froze. it took three hours after we got out of the water for my feet to feel normal again. i’m pretty sure that got me sick. there are germs everywhere, you just have to make sure that you protect your immune system. i did not. i paid the price. this cold is incredibly bad.

i have to lay low for the next week so that i’m recovered for the nine-day mexico surf trip. according to the surf forecast, the water temperature should be 86. yes, double. i know i haven’t gotten there yet, but i’m telling you now that i might not ever come back.

i meant taiwan. i didn’t look at the contract carefully. and while i’m pretty sure that china still has her eyes on taiwan, taiwan is still her own entity. so yeah, taiwanese publisher translating the future into chinese.

i got home from work today to find a really thick envelope waiting for me from my publisher. in it was a copy of the contract that they had signed with a chinese publisher to translate ‘dear future me’ into complex chinese. i always thought that chinese publishing employed liberal use of a xerox machine, since i’ve read that the copyright laws there aren’t always well-enforced. i guess i was uninformed. and i think they’re sending me a check in february, though the letter didn’t say for how much. thanks, china!

apparently the spam filters at work are asleep at the switch because this gem got through to a design list this morning.

and the thing is, for one second, i thought this was an email from a design consultancy with a pretty awesome and edgy sense of humor, alerting us to their presence at the Reno SCI Convention and Design Summit. turns out it was just dead cats in my inbox at 8:30am.

also, you are now looking at the proud owner of bigbiglions.com. because bigbigloins.com was taken. just kidding. i think.

not much to report today. drank about 900 calories of fruits/veggies. am ready for this to be done because drinking everything is getting super-boring. i’m also losing a bunch of weight. when it’s all said and done, i may have lost 4-5 pounds this week. it was fun while it lasted, but i kinda want a big giant salad.

break-the-fast plan:
- banana/cucumber smoothie for breakfast
- salad for lunch
- bunch of fruit/veggies during the day
- some kind of soup/salad for dinner

apparently you’re supposed to ease back into solid food. i’m sure it’ll be fine. and i won’t be writing these boring entries anymore after tonight. yay.

i drank around 900 calories today and still feel slightly euphoric. one day to go. i’m not so into drinking every meal and i think my mouth is somewhat bored from not chewing. if it wasn’t for the slight euphoria making me such a chatty motherfucker, i’d be afraid that my jaw muscles would atrophy.

i think the reason i’m feeling so good is because i’m back to 100% fruit and veggies. i strayed pretty far from my 95% low-fat raw diet of 2006 to about 70% moderate-fat raw diet of 2007, which i think is why i felt shitty a few weeks ago. so now that i’m back, i just have to make sure to stay off the nuts. heh. and lay off the big vegan brunches. i could probably stand to eat smarter and more simply.

so yeah, whoo. one more day. i think it would be pretty easy to do this for a month, except that i really want to get back to running and stuff. ok, that’s it.

i feel so much better today — full of energy (maybe slight euphoria), no headache, my mind feels pretty sharp, and i feel weirdly open. i don’t know how to describe this feeling of openness, but i feel it. maybe somewhat emotionally expansive.

notes:
- took in fewer than 1000 calories today
- am sure that i can make it to friday
- day 3 is about a 100x better than day 2

hunger, headache. these are the things that i read would happen on day 2. these are things that happened on day 2. day 3 is supposed to be easier. i drank ~1300 calories. i have no idea how many calories one is supposed to take in during a fast, but i think i went over today.

thoughts (of self-doubt) from today:
- i’m really good at getting in over my head and then figuring out what i’m doing later.
- i’m shit with theory but am really good at getting the gist and then getting the details wrong. i am 91%.
- i already have tomorrow’s liquids ready to go. i think i’m doing this wrong. i should be juicing not blending.
- i hope tomorrow goes better.

turns out that when you’re planning a fast, you should check your work calendar first. i have two work lunches this week. first work lunch was today and i only drank a cup of tea, much to the chagrin of the surly waitress. i don’t think you’re ’supposed’ to drink tea on a fast but i was cold.

today’s menu:
- breakfast: 2 bananas, 4 dates = 320cal
- lunch: 1 head lettuce, 1 head broccoli, 2 tomatoes = 150cal
- snack: 2 apples, 1 pear, 1 navel orange = 330cal
- dinner: 2 bananas, 3 dates = 250cal
total: 1050cal (probably not enough)

notes from day 1:
- i feel a little hungry, but overall i’m fine.
- i really need to try to fit in another ~400 calories tomorrow. so i guess one more calorie-dense blended drink.
- the veggie dimsum at lunch and the the eggplant that mia baked herself for dinner both smelled awesome.
- i had a pretty intense massage tonight. my massage therapist is also doing a fast for the next two weeks. his is less restrictive. this week is no red meat/dairy. next week is vegan. dude has it easy.

this year i’ve decided to put my post-holiday fasting plan into action. i know that most fasts are undertaken in late winter/early spring (maybe to coincide with nature’s stingy season?), but that’s when i start putting on lots of running miles and fasting and high miles probably can’t coexist.

i was already looking forward to this fast before the deeply troubling amount of food i put away in december. over the past six weeks, i’ve felt sort of gross, logy, and apathetic. really not myself. i’m hoping that this fast is a magic bullet for feeling better. i usually feel a mild euphoria from prolonged caloric restriction.

the plan is to blend and drink only raw fruits and vegetables for 5 days, probably in smaller quantities than i usually eat. if i only go 3 days, that’ll be ok but i’d prefer to go 5. i’ll be posting during the week to keep a log of how it’s going. wish me luck.

the year was 1982 and e.t. had just hit the theaters (my brother and i used to call him, ‘e.t. — the extra testicle’. which used to make us crack up. hey, fuck you, i was 8.). universal studios california did a whole big e.t. thing. my grandmother (gram, to us) went to visit a friend in l.a. and got her picture taken as elliott.

i had forgotten all about this picture until a few years ago when i went back to my parents house and was rummaging around in some boxes. finding it was like striking gold, only without the monetary reward.

i’ll spare you the sentimentality and simply say that she was rad. and funny. peep that grin.

hey hi. happy new year. i was gone for a while. a few action/family-packed days on the east coast and then back to seattle for a day before a fun-filled backcountry trip to the eastern side of the cascades for new years. both christmas and new years were great, however the coming-down after is, as always, hard. i feel a little lost. and isolated. and out of shape. i think that only the last of those three things are bothering me.

we went up to scottish lakes high camp for three nights to do some xc skiing. we drove about two hours from seattle, which is more remote than you think it could be. we got picked up at the base of the mountain in a suburban with chains on its wheels for a four-mile drive up to mid-mountain, where we transferred our gear to snowmobiles and rode the next four miles up to high camp.

matt and i got to dogsled attached to the backs of snowmobiles. it was super-fun.

our cabins didn’t have electricity or running water and the only way to heat them was by wood-burning stove. in all of my escape fantasies (i have many), this is how i picture myself living.

the terrain up there was incredible. scenic, empty, and tons of powder. we would go break trail in the morning through 18″ to 24″ of snow, work up an appetite, and then go back out in the afternoon to reap the fruits of our trail-breaking labor, only to find that a bunch of snow had completely filled in our tracks.

it was one of the most beautiful places i’ve ever been and it was hard to leave but the lure of a hot shower and fresh produce proved too much for me to resist.