Jorg's Brain Log

The big trend at the moment on the internet is ‘social’. Everything has to be social:  social networks, social applications, social games, etc. It seems like if something is not social then it’s not important at the moment. I must say I really like all these new tools and services that can connect me to all my friends, friends of friends, acquaintances and trusted sources like twitter, facebook, friendfeed, youtube, linkedin and many many more.

For some people it seems the most important thing to have as many friends as possible on these social websites. Thus showing everybody else that they are very much liked by people and also confirming this to themselves. It really seems like an ego booster to many people to have many friends.

 I don’t really care about this kind of behavior and I’m probably as much guilty to this trend as well. The thing is that I see a very big difference in the number of people that are social on the web and social in real life. Online everybody seems to be socially available and ready to say what needs to be said. But in real life…

Real life is so much different. For the last week I did an experiment where I would look everybody in the eyes when I walked by and if they gave me as little as a glimpse I would say ‘hi!’ and smile. A very simple gesture of social decency. I counted and kept track:

• I looked 76 people in the eye, smiled and said hi
• 17 people looked away immediately when they noticed I contacted them
• 38 people looked at me and just nodded and sometime mumbled something.
• Only 21 people really looked, noticed me and said hi

Just to take a way some critics: I wish to believe that I’m not a scary person and that I look very ‘open’ to start a conversation with. I also believe I don’t possess such ugly physical characteristics that people can’t bare to look at me.

All in all I was really amazed at the small number of people who are social enough to at least say hi back. I wonder if some of the people who looked away from me are the same people who have hundreds of online friends.

What is your experience?

So what’s the status of my 12 weeks schedule? 6 weeks have passed, and I have 6 weeks to go. In short: things are looking good! Below a more detailed overview on where I’m standing at the moment.

Things I’m proud of:

• did a 1500 crawl swim without stopping or resting
• ran for 1 hour, also without stopping or resting
• improved my strength big time
• lost 7,5 kilo’s
• learned to cook some food! (if you want to eat healthy you have to cook and not order)
• in control of my food rages!
• discipline to do some sport activity, even when I don’t feel like it! Afterwards it feels double as good.

Some numbers. In the 6 weeks, 42 days I:

• did some sport on 28 days. didn’t sport 14 days.
• went swimming 10 times, for a total of 9,3 kilometers
• went running 5 times, for a total time of 2:34 hours
• went to the gym 18 times for a total time of 9 hours
• did a total of 15 hours and 20 minutes of sport.

So I’m pretty happy what I’ve done. Only thing I’m missing at the moment is the stretching part I did not start yet. Maybe next week! Oh and I’m 0,5 kilo’s behind schedule at the moment. So I have to break through the 118 kilo barrier at the moment.

Only 6 more weeks to go and I’m motivated big time! Let’s continue to create a healthy lifestyle wich in turn creates a healthy body as well.

Some rules: 4 times a week cardio, 4 times a week fitness, good eating paleo style, start stretching!

You can follow my daily updates on training through friendfeed or twitter!

Everybody should follow his passions. So what are Jorg his passions? Let just start naming all the things I like. 60 seconds, go:

1. my kids
2. girlfriend
3. sport
4. family
5. friends
6. freediving
7. fitness
8. power lifting
9. nutrition
10. human powered individual sports (big list!)
11. books
12. movies
13. autobiographies
14. technology
15. innovation
16. future web apps
17. social web
18. people
19. body language
20. fun
21. parties
22. sushi
23. other good food
24. the sea
25. learning
26. presenting
27. coaching
28. teaching
29. vacations
30. snowboarding
31. cloud computing
32. mobility

Okay, it took me 1 minute 33 seconds to write it down. And if I take more time I can probably make the list even longer. Some stuff is in the same league, so when I categorize the whole list I come to the following passions:

1. People
2. Sport
3. ICT
4. Innovation

Funny, if I look at the list above and look at the slogan of the city I live in…

Eindhoven – Leading in Sports and Technology

That shouldn’t be a coincidence. Anyway, it’s good to know your passions! This way I can use them to make good judgement on future professional and personal projects.

Again too long of inactivity on my blog. Only 150 days until my birthday and I must say the future looks very different than only a week ago.

Questions I’ve been asking myself for years seem to have clearer answers at the moment. Even some of them transformed from bad to good answers so that’s positive.

The last 1,5 years really changed my life, as well in my personal life as in my professional life. And just when you think that this is it, this is what I was counting down for, something else happens that put everything else in perspective and make me look at the countdown at a whole different way.

As you can see in my friendfeed I still have been very busy with a lot of stuff. I’m especially glad that I’ve found the time again, thanks of the support from my girlfriend and friends, to do some serious sporting again. In a later update I’ll post my progress with that.

Oh and before I forget: Happy Birthday to my sister who turns 26 today! Cheers!