My Program

What’s Yours?

You are what you eat.  Eat healthy and well.  Drink water.  I like cold water with lemon.  Vegetarian, no alcohol, minimal sugar.  I have a powerbar every day, and mushroom coffee, and oatmeal for breakfast.  Daily multivitamin and fish oil.  A 2 scoop serving of protein powder.  You can get free food from several places in Berkeley.  This frees up money for charity.   My favorite charities are MSF (doctors without borders), MFA (mercy for animals), and DFLA (democrats for life of america).   The UN deserves support, too (e.g. UNICEF, UNHCR).

Exercise every day.   You should sweat.  You can do a lot at home.  I have a jumprope, and I do push-ups (120, with feet elevated).  I stretch in my room, regularly.  I get paid to walk dogs.  Walking is healthy.  And the dogs and owners love you.  So, a pretty good deal.  I bring, in addition to poop bags, a water bowl and water, and treats, in a pouch.  My apple watch lets me know when I’m halfway through a walk.  And I can ask it questions that occur to me while I’m walking.  Be strong, fit, healthy, well, and sane.  Lift weights.  Be on an improvement trajectory - or daily maintenance, at a minimum.  Swimming is my favorite exercise.  And having a pool to go to on a hot day is the best!  A woman once told me yoga is the path to God.  I’ve also read that atheism is a path to God!  Follow your bliss.

Volunteer!  I like planting trees, and sending books to prisoners.  A hobby is also good.  Like origami.  Or trivia.  Or reading.  Some people like arts and crafts.  I have trivial pursuit cards, and like to stay current with the J! Archive online (jeopardy questions).  I have a stack of unread books in my room, waiting, beckoning, calling, always.

Stay informed, vote, and pay your taxes.  I like reading the daily NYT and the weekly Economist.  Also, I get the WaPo 202 email (news for leaders), and 1440 (a compact daily news summary).  The Onion and Wikipedia are also fun news sources.  I also like The Christian Science Monitor and Foreign Affairs.  My Echo (amazon smart speaker, “alexa”) also gives a daily flash briefing.

Write, every single day.  To get better at writing, keep at it.  Emulate your favorite authors.  I like Lev Grossman, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, David Foster Wallace, Bill Bryson, Karen Armstrong… I like reading Bill Gates’ recommendations, and I have several “books of books” : Harold Bloom’s canon, 1001 Books, 501 Books.   I also have another book from the “must do before you die” series, with 10,001 songs to listen to (which pairs well with my Alexa).   There’s a places to go before you die, and movies, (neither of which I have).  I have a blog.  Blogging is free, if that’s your thing.  I hope to publish, too.

They say Love makes life worth living.  So don’t exclude it from your life, keep it possible, on your bucket list, never give up, it could be a numbers game.  You should have people in your life, don’t be a loner.   Friends and family and a support network.  Warmth and kindness and touch, like massage or something.  There are professional cuddlers.  And book clubs.

Travel and restaurants and movies and music and zoos and museums and ballet and opera and plays are all fun.   You can go far, even inside your own home: escape literature, children’s books, encyclopedia, ted talks, joe frank, courses online, youtube videos, etc.  I like the award winning books (newbery, hugo, year’s best series, etc.).  Standup comedy (and joke books) are also fun.  There are 3 encyclopedias I consult: Wikipedia, Brittanica, and World Book.  Brittanica is online, now (by subscription).  I always support Wikipedia when they ask.  World Book is available for checkout at the public library.  I plan on reading it.  I have a Chamber’s Dictionary and a good Atlas, which are also indispensable reference books.  YouTube has a cirque du soleil channel, and I like magic, parkour, self-defense, bodybuilding motivation, the occasional catholic mass.  I like the OYC (open Yale courseware).  I took an interesting class on the Philosophy of Death.  I’ve taken Cal classes, too.  And I surf Instagram and Pinterest.  I find reading the dictionary pleasurable.  New words are a delight.

Life would be much less fun without music.  There are cds at the library, but I have a (4.99/mo) subscription to Amazon music (Alexa).  Sometimes I wake up to music.  There’s music on YouTube, too.  I listen to college radio (wprb Princeton is my favorite).  Others are: kzsu, kcpr, whrb, wmbr, kalx.   I also listen to the weekly hearts of space broadcast on kalw, san francisco (10p-midnight, sundays).  And I just bought a woojer to make the music even better!

Enough sleep, like 8 hours, and naps, and meditation are vital, imo.  I don’t like to oversleep.   I like to wake up to standup comedy.  It’s fun to wake to “Time” by Pink Floyd, with its alarm clock sequence.  Routine, itself, makes life easier.  But the muscle (and brain) likes “muscle-confusion”, to keep you on your toes, always engaged, always learning, improving, having fun.  Meditation is mind-maintenance.  Equanimity and bliss, if you do it right.

Finally, Nature.  Get out into the great outdoors!  It refreshes the spirit.  Like the beach, or forest, or mountains.  Go hiking and camping.   Take a dip in a lake.  Or maybe surfing, rock-climbing, white water rafting, are more your style.  Animals belong in nature, and humans are animals!