Lift Helps You Build Good Habits Through Behavioral Modification

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“I want to start flossing regularly, I just always forget.”

“Of course I want to take my multivitamin every day, it just slips my mind.”

“I want to start reading/writing more but I don’t have the motivation.”

“When I don’t go to the gym no one else knows but me, so it doesn’t matter really.”

If any of those sentences, or variations of them, have run through your head at any point in time you’re most likely human. Congratulations! You’re one of the countless masses that has a hard time developing healthy habits and consistently doing things you know will better your life and overall mood. Sure, most of these miniscule projects take between thirty seconds and thirty minutes but you’re so busy! I’m not here to bash you or say that you just need to make time. Hell, for the past five years I’ve been trying to find a way to consistently floss my teeth twice a day without fail. It’s not that we’re lazy or unwilling, we just forget sometimes. Other times we just don’t feel the pressure or the need to partake in a workout, a moment of meditation, or a bit of reading.  Now, what if I said…there’s an app for that? Of course there is. But in all seriousness, an app called Lift has the ability to make a serious dent in your life when it comes to your habits, be they good or bad.

Lift first rose to prominence when people heard it was being backed by The Obvious Corp, founded by Biz Stone (of Blogger.com) and Evan Williams (of Twitter). Those two are smart dudes and anything they enjoy must be worth checking out. So what is Lift, and why do I think it has the potential to change a person’s life? Well, I’m glad you asked. Lift is a simple iOS app that has a very simple A to B setup: first you identify good habits you wish to learn, such as “run at least 2 miles”, then you track that habit each day you complete it using the simple interface on Lift, and finally Lift compiles the data to show you how far you’ve come over time. “That sounds cool, but can’t I just set up an alarm for this stuff on my phone?” Sure, you can do that but how often do we listen to our alarms? Often times we hit the snooze button or just dismiss them altogether. Besides, Lift has a lot more going for it than just some simple tracking features.

The most important feature, and the reason I believe Lift works so well, is the social part of Lift. You can invite friends and follow them, similar to Facebook and Twitter, and they can do the same. That means at any given time you can see what your friends are completing while you’re sitting on your butt. It’s a motivational force like no other, having people out there that you know watch you complete or not complete these small tasks begins to bring on a psychological motivation that’ll have you running two miles every day in no time. The other day I tracked my “read for 30 minutes” habit for the third time in a row only to see the guy below me checking in for the 46th consecutive time! This made me want to keep going if only to one day have him miss a beat so that I can overtake him.

These competitive elements and tracking methods are parts of what is known as game theory. By rewarding people with small incentives, such as beating their friends or watching a graph go up and up, apps such as Lift are able to have a positive effect on habits and keep people interested. There are a bunch of different ways to improve your life via Lift and hopefully, with enough time, these habits can become permanent. People have gone from couch to 5K by using Lift’s habit forming tracking method, they’ve improved relationships with the “tell your girlfriend/wife you love her” habit, and they’ve kicked nasty habits with the many “don’t (fill in the blank)” habits you’ll find on Lift’s extensive list. Lift is simple, it’s design is elegant, and the results from using the app are pretty obvious right off the bat. Oh, I forgot to mention, Lift is free on the iOS so why don’t you give it a try and let me know what you think? I’m sure you’ll dig it too.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lift/id530911645?mt=8

Music FTW: “A Better Version of Me” Rainer Maria

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It seems fitting that this music project that I started in January, 2012 ends with the band it started with. Back in January I wanted to force myself to listen to new music from bands I rarely listened to but was interested in. I created “Music FTW” or “Music For the Week” as a way to listen to new albums. Each week I would listen to one album and one album only and give my thougts on it at the end of the week. It was like knowing you had a cheat day coming up during an intense diet, all I could think about was what I wanted to listen to next. There were so many bands to listen to and my time was limited due to the project’s restrictions I’d created. Bands, bands, bands, where to start and who to pick. Twin Shadow, Screaming Females, Fiona Apple, and Rainer Maria were chief among that very list. When deciding on the first album to kick off this project I kept coming back to Rainer Maria’s Past Worn Seraching. I bought the album and put it on my iPod and listened to it exclusively for one week straight, and that week changed a lot about my musical tastes.

You see, I would never call myself “emo” or “scene” or any of that. I’m a happy person who enjoys being happy and is typically calm under stress. Rainer Maria’s music is emotional, devastating, and sometimes downright heartbreaking. A lot of the music is about friendships starting and ending in saddening ways, friends being lost within themselves, and never quite being as good as you want to be. Listening to their first three albums is like watching a friend mature right before your eyes. At first the band was raw and lo-fi as most indie bands are at some point in their careers. The noise was just that, lots of noisy music and harsh vocals that were both empowering and filled with purpose. The best bands don’t lose that sense of purpose when their music matures and Rainer Maria never lost that purpose. With each album the music gets more and more refined and the vocals from Caithlin and Kyle become more and more synonymous with Rainer Maria. On the first album hearing the two vocal styles harmoniously clash was a treat, but in their third album it becomes something that is expected because it’s what makes Rainer Maria so special amongst all else.

Flow is something I’ve mentioned countless times in all of my Music FTW posts. Personally, I really enjoy when an album flows and feels like it was crafted with the listener in mind. I still hold the belief that as music becomes more digital we lose out on a lot of that flow because some artists are not mindful of making the album flow and only care about which songs will get downloaded most. Rainer Maria was never in this category of artists, every album from Past Worn Searching, to Look Now Look Again, to A Better Version of Me plays like a wonderfully crafted piece of art for the ears. I can’t speak to their fourth album only because I chose the first three to listen to. Regardless, each album is what I consider to be that unnecessary flow of a great album. This doesn’t mean that the music flows into each song from the previous one but instead it feels coherent as a whole rather than just a playlist of similar sounding songs. There is a difference if you listen for it.

A Better Version of Me is my end to 2012 and it makes me happy to go out of 2012 with this album as my last one. “Artificial Light” reignited my love of Rainer Maria since I hadn’t listened to them since the summer with its wonderful guitar rifts and that damn voice work that has matured so well over the three albums. “The Seven Sisters” is the epitome of what Rainer Maria can do when they let loose on a guitar and allow Caithlin De Marrais to just explode into the microphone with her longing. The beauty of her voice in “The Seven Sisters” is unparalleled in my mind and I doubt any song with come close to touching it. Songs like “The Contents of Lincoln’s Pockets” let the duet between Caithlin and Kyle shine as Kyle sings of objects Lincoln would have on him while Caithlin sings about making amends and fixing what is broken. That’s Rainer Maria in a nutshell to me, that quirky and awkward inability to comprehend and vocalize your truest emotions so instead of that you just make light of it all while yearning to be stronger about it all. There’s real beauty in each of Rainer Maria’s songs and it’s not beauty that can be created in a studio. This beauty is something that needs to be in the artist as much as it needs to be in the listener because being able to hear a band differently than anyone else is a thing of beauty. When you love a band and no one you know seems to get why, that’s fine. They’re yours then, let that resonate with you because you get it and that’s incredible. I hope that someone out there can appreciate Rainer Maria in a similar way, or perhaps even more, so that their music lives on and continues to inspire. Thanks for reading, it’s been a fun year.

Music FTW: “Centipede HZ” by Animal Collective

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Oh Animal Collective, your sounds are polarizing and your music is surreal. You make people wince, ponder, exclaim, whine, cheer, and more. Some people claim your music is experimental and different each and ever time you put out a record. Others say it’s “just noise” and that no thought goes into the music you create. I like to think it’s a little bit of both in the best possible way. To me, Animal Collective is the Jackson Pollock of music; many believe the art to be splattered around and slopped on when in reality it’s artfully and masterfully crafted so that each second has a rhyme and reason within its own existence. Not everyone can see that within the music, and the ones who can’t are missing out. For Centipede Hz is a wonderful, old-school, Animal Collective album that brings back the idea of “throwing shit at the wall because it’s fun”.

Centipede Hz is not Merriweather Post Pavilion. Animal Collective did not took what worked from their last album and refine it into something even more digestible and listenable for the pleasure of listeners far and wide. Instead, they went into the studio (or wherever the hell they record these sounds) and started crafting. Certain songs echo back to past albums but that’s only because Animal Collective has a bigger library so there is more music to compare the new stuff to. Some may hear screams in “Today’s Supernatural” and think back to Strawberry Jam but only for a second before the insane melody comes alive again. The sound is new and it’s damn awesome. The same can be said for “Applesauce” which reminded me of a Post Pavilion type song but the ambiance and nuance of the sounds within it was clearly something different.

If you’ve ever tried to describe music to someone you know it can be difficult. Now, try doing that with a band that makes each and every song as different from the previous one as possible. In “New Town Burnout” you have hip-hop-like beats with the signature Animal Collective vocals that are elongated and melodic. Then you’ve got “Monkey Riches” which is filled to the brim with electronic noises and outside voices that dig their way into your psyche, it’s a trip for sure. This album also marks the return of Deakin and his presence is well felt in his vocals and crazy samples. Animal Collective is noise, it’s music, it’s different. Give it a listen and see what you think, I’d love to know because no one has the same reaction to this unique band.

Music FTW: “No More Idols” by Chase and Status

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Electronic dance music and dubstep have terrified me for a long time. Ok, perhaps terrified is the wrong term as it’s a bit too extreme. Realistically I’ve just stayed away from those types of songs because it didn’t sound good. I know that’s a highly subjective term that offers little in the way of factual evidence when speaking to why I dislike a song buy I’m not sure how else to put it. The sounds and noises from Skrillex songs were annoying and harsh, and this is coming from someone who loves Animal Collective in all they do. I’m a fan of experimental music and weird sounds popping into my songs, but something about the bass drops, the screeches, and the industrial noises just didn’t sit right. Of course, as I am wont to do, I made some outbound arguments against the music and got some good feedback, particularly in the form of a community filled with intelligent and knowledgeable music listeners that introduced me to “true” EDM and dubstep styles.

You see, like with any genre of music, there are the popular acts and the talented acts. Not to say that the two never overlap, but a lot of the less popular stuff is what I’m interested in because it’s not boiled down and over played. That brought me to Chase and Status, a somewhat popular UK production duo whose album No More Idols brought me back to when I listened to Girl Talk for the first time, except it was original content. Needless to say I was excited and I was quickly enveloped in the whirlwind of an album that is No More Idols. Genres are smashed together, dubstep is intelligently and effectively injected into songs, and the album sounds good above all else. There are a ton of collaborations on the album that brought me back to the times when it was more about who was on the album and how they contributed rather than what tricks a single artist could pull out. Collaborations were a big part of hip-hop, and are still to a smaller degree, and this album sends a shout back to those days for sure.

There are seven hits on this album, seven, and that’s crazy. What’s crazier still is the fact that the majority of these songs are all unique and sound amazing. The rapping on “End Credits” and “Hitz” make for some really special moments with interjecting dubstep that never oversteps its boundaries. “Hypest Hype” and “Time” sound completely separate from one another which, to me, is the most impressive thing as EDM has a tendency to sound repetitive and similar too often. I will admit, up until now I was a person who thought of EDM and dubstep as styles of music that were shameless ways to easily throw together tunes in order to get famous. Chase and Status have shown me that care does indeed go into these songs and with the right amount of skill you can create something really special here, and not something that is overbearing and harsh. With any luck more acts like Chase and Status will arise and gain notoriety, I know I’ll be listening…though don’t expect to see me at a dance club anytime soon.

On User Reviews

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Well this is slightly terrifying. A woman is being sued by a former contractor of hers for $750,000 due to a scathing review she posted on Yelp. Dietz claims the review is making them lose business and revenue. Jane Perez, the former customer, said in her review that the job done by Dietz Development LLC wasn’t up to par with what she expected, she also complained about damages and stolen jewelry as well, reports NPR. When I first heard about this story my jaw quadrupled the effect gravity has upon it and slammed onto the floor. Could you imagine being sued by, let’s say, Toysmith because you gave their rubber duck toy a bad review on Amazon? There’s an incredible amount of things that jump out as wrong with this case. I am not a lawyer and have no real experience with law; instead I just want to focus on the psychological, sociological, and just logical aspects of the whole story.

First and foremost Jane Perez paid Dietz for their services, plain and simple. I don’t know about you, but when I am of the belief that when someone spends their money on something they are allowed to review it and criticize it to whatever degree they see fit. Can Christopher Nolan sue over a bad Batman user review on Metacritic? Will JK Rowling attack Amazon review that don’t claim little Harry to be the greatest character in existence? No.

A company whose user reviews are famous.

That’s because most people realize that purchasing a good or service allows you the right to say what you want about it. Using myself as an example: I write review about anything I want to be it books, music, movies, games, and food too. Sometimes I write positive reviews that sing the praises of the product, other times I burry it into the ground. Hell, I spent an entire month writing, mostly, scathing reviews about Netflix’s worst horror movies just for fun. The minute you attack someone over a user review you’re doing two things: 1. you’re silencing their ability to speak their mind on something they’ve purchased whether their opinion is researched or not and 2. you’re proposing that there is a standard of enjoyment that a product/service has that everyone should be able to reach equally. Both of these thoughts are crazy talk, and both of these thoughts are stifling opinions.

User reviews can be useful, when used right.

Now, there is of course the idea that perhaps Perez went too far by claiming the company stole her jewelry. While she can produce photos to prove any damage that was done by Dietz it’s hard to prove theft without a witness or video evidence. This much is true and I am fully against lying in a review just to fit your own angry agenda. Perhaps she wasn’t happy with the job and decided bad mouthing the company to Yelp would show them. This clearly isn’t the right way to go about things, at least if lying is involved. I’ve read some of the smartest and well thought reviews on Yelp that have been negative, and they’ve been the most effective. I’ve also read good reviews that make my brain hurt; it goes both ways in terms of intelligence and idea management. A user review doesn’t need to be a historic piece that covers all the bases; in fact a user review is typically used to gauge how average users feel about a product versus how a professional reviewer rates it. That being said, most users can tell when a review is a little too crazy (be it good or bad) and when to ignore a review. User reviews are, in my mind, better to be used as an aggregate score that gives an overall census of a product. Never have I gone to a restaurant because of one Yelp review just as I would never buy an album because one person recommends it to me. I need a varied swath of opinions before I make a decision and one person complaining about damages when the rest of the reviews are positive will raise a red flag in my head. On the other hand, if all of the other reviews were negative than perhaps it’s time to look elsewhere for my needs.

$750,000 for a bad review is insane.

$750,000 is the price of an opinion in this case. I understand the concern from Dietz about losing customers and money but a single user review cannot a company break. If people are looking at a single review out of dozens to decide on a good or service than perhaps the problem isn’t within the service but instead within the user. Overwhelmingly positive reviews show a person the product is well received by most, negative reviews in droves do the opposite, and a mix of both give the impression that further research is in order before a purchase can be warranted. If Jane Perez’s review single handedly did financial damage to Dietz, whether it’s truthful or not, than customers have much more power than anyone has ever imagined…and I don’t think that’s the case.

Music FTW: “Blue Lines” by Massive Attack

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Bristol is a pretty amazing city when you look at its credentials over the years. Banksy, the graffiti artist, has a lot of his famous work plastered in Bristol. The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School is responsible for teaching great actors from Patrick Stewart to Daniel Day Lewis. Bristol is also the place where trip-hop was born, and for the purposes of this post that’s the biggest point of all. Trip-pop is down tempo electronic music that is typically experimental in nature and can have lyrical methods that range from reggae to rap to operatic singing. There aren’t many boundaries when it comes to the genre and Massive Attack is credited with the creation of the genre with their 1991 album Blue Lines. The debut album of Massive Attack spawned a new obsession in the music world that got incorporated into songs by artists like Madonna, Radiohead, and Gotye.  Trip-hop became something major artists wanted to try in their songs, but it was something Massive Attack invented, and perfected, in its first album.

Lazy DJing English twats, that’s how Massive Attack described themselves, in so many words, in relation to their attitudes before kicking it into high gear. Thankfully for the music world Massive Attack members Daddy G and Robert “3D” Del Naja decided to work hard and create Blue Lines. The album is hard to describe at first, I’d use the term “varied consistency” if that makes any sense. By that I mean that while each song sounds widely different, it goes from slow jams to reggae to rap in the first 3 songs, the album has a consistency throughout its entirety. There’s an overall feel of what the group was going for and they just get it. Sampling isn’t always done well as it can become more about the sample than the song but Massive Attack’s samples are subtle while still bringing a smile to your face when you remember where the sample came from. And their samples are smart, that’s the best part of all. One particular sample is Daddy G humming along to “If I Were a Rich Man” which many people will mistake for Gwen Stefani’s “Rich Girl” and the throwback is just awesome to hear.

Songs on Blue Lines go from fast paced hip hop raging with life to completely torpid in a heartbeat. The result is a shocking slowdown that brings the listener’s attention front a center, a technique called spif-tempos.  “Safe From Harm” does a fantastic job of setting the album’s town as its slow and longing beats follow the beautiful voice singing about her baby being safe. Its the second song that makes you realize the difference in each song as “One Love”, an obvious homage, brings the reggae on hard while keeping the trip-hop in effect.  These are only the first two songs and there is already so much variety and craftsmanship in there. The third song, “Blue Lines”, introduces listeners to the absolutely fantastic rapping abilities of Rob Del Naja, his hazy voice and smooth vocals are so damn listenable it’s unreal. Of course the highlight of this album is “Unfinished Sympathy” which is considered by many to be, to this day, a hallmark of the hip hop genre as a whole. All I can say is listen to it below and see if the album is worth a listen. (Hint: it is)

How Marketing Shouldn’t Work

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*The following diatribe is about “Hire Hitman“, a promotional tool used to promote Hitman: Absolution. While the tool has been taken down and Square Enix has apologized for its misread of its audience, I still feel it is necessary to discuss this event. The following is my opinion.

Most people hear the term marketing and cringe a little or at the very least feel negative towards the term. We’ve become a society that believes marketing holds one sole purpose, to destroy our souls into powdered smithereens…and then make us buy stuff. While marketing is definitely about gaining consumers and cash it is also a way that a company can keep loyal consumers involved and interested. When it comes to videogames marketing is a way to excited players about a games release, much like movies, as well as keep them interested after the game has come out. There are a lot of creative advertising methods out there in the world from secretive website hunts, to advergames, to hidden messages, to advertising via secretive product placements in tweets or blog posts. It’s all fun to watch and it can be very entertaining too, when done right. That’s what brings me to my topic that I felt the need to write about; the Hire Hitman app for Facebook that was used as a vehicle to promote Hitman: Absolution.

Hitman: Absolution is, for the non-gamers, a videogame in which players take the role of Agent 47 who is trying to right the wrongs of his former handler. Agent 47 is a stone-cold killer with a bald head and sour attitude. The game takes great strides to set the tone as moody and methodical while also having the series’ trademark sense of humor that helps the game from being too stiff. That being said, the Facebook app released by Square Enix to help promote the game strayed far from the mood set by Hitman: Absolution. In this app titled “Hire Hitman” Facebook users are allowed to hire a fake hitman to kill one of their friends (lovely idea) and have that posted on the person’s wall. With this post comes the layout of the hire. Any good hitman is going to need some parameters before mercilessly taking out another human being. Square Enix allows users to select the reason for the person being chose as well as a characteristic the hitman can go by to better find the target. The reasons include “farts too much” or “cheating on boyfriend” or even “terrible taste in music”. Because that’s why I’d kill someone…their taste in music. The post goes onto the person’s wall and says “I hope you get killed by a hitman!” and then proceeds to show a video depicting Agent 47 viewing the target on his laptop via a photo stream of the target’s Facebook before killing them.

The “Hire Hitman” app in action

Now, if that wasn’t enough of a terrible idea Square Enix also allows users to decide a defining characteristic to find the target by. Perhaps it’s “small tits” or “small penis” or maybe “awful makeup”. All the wonderful things that somehow a hitman would need to know? Besides the stupidity of the app and the questions it raises about why a hitman would need to know a man’s penis size before murdering him there’s also a largely offensive tool here. Facebook friends are not always “friends” in real life, as most can admit. This is then leaving a great avenue for people to virtually attack others via a promotional tool. Imagine being in middle school and getting 10 hits on you using your “small penis” as a targeting factor and your “terrible music choices” as the reason to be killed by your “friends”. Any middle school student has enough crap to worry about without cyber-bullying being amplified by a game that is meant to be entertaining and fun. The game suffers no consequences from this material, it’s a fun game and one I highly recommend. Instead, what amazes me, is the chain this product most have gone through.

Hitman has a sense of humor, one the marketers didn’t follow.

Any marketing material that is going to be used for a multi-million dollar game like Hitman: Absolution has to get put through a chain of higher-ups before being okayed to market. That means that someone at Square Enix had the idea that this would somehow be funny and “tounge-in-cheek” enough to be seen as humorous (a disturbing thought on its own). At that  point the pitch was made and accepted, from there the actual product was designed and programmed, and finally it was okayed as acceptable marketing for the game. There is a twofold problem here; for one the game does not fit the mood of this app and secondly, the app is an offensive piece of software that shouldn’t have come out at all. As stated earlier Hitman: Absolution is a game that is silly at times but not in the bad taste way. The game’s humor comes from quirky situations and occasional moments of shock rather than poorly written genital jokes. Also, the app was obviously offensive and for Square Enix not to see that before releasing it, especially after being attacked over one of their trailers for the game, is incredible. Clearly this is an example of a terrible disconnect between the marketing department and the crowd they are trying to appeal to. In short: when you don’t know your crowd the advertising becomes less of an annoying nuisance to sit through, and more of an offensive tool that will only bite you in the ass.  

*If that wasn’t enough for you here’s the trailer they got in trouble for earlier in the year.

(Photos credited to Giant Bomb and IGN, video credit from Gamespot)

Music FTW: “Koi No Yokan” by Deftones

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/42/Deftones_%E2%80%93_Koi_No_Yokan.jpgI’m not a big fan of the death metal or “metal” genre in many ways. I listen to Slayer quite a bit and there will be random spurts of me playing Mastodon over and over again because their music encapsulates me in its genius but other than that I don’t listen to much metal. I think a lot of that goes back to when I was in middle school and listened to a lot of angry music because it was the cool thing to do. Avenged Sevenfold, Breaking Benjamin, Dropkick Murphys and a host of other bands with similar styles were commonplace in my music library. That isn’t to say I was an angry child or liked that music more than most, it was just the majority of my library and at the time I found it really cool. As I got older my tastes changed and I started to drift away from that style of music because it reminded me of my immature years, as do many people I believe. The thing with aggressive music is that it has to be smart in order to be enjoyable, at least for me.

When I listen to Deftones, arguably a more aggressive band than most of my library, it’s a different feeling than when I put on an old Breaking Benjamin song. Deftones evoke the feelings I get when I listen to fresh and intriguing music while not evoking the weird sense of semi-nostalgia that other bands do. As someone who enjoys writing I spend a lot of time analyzing and listening to lyrics more so than the music in most songs. For me, the music needs to be compelling and deeply layered but not overwhelming and confusing. There are some basic and instinctual feelings that music can evoke when used properly, and that’s the music I look for most. However, when it comes to the lyrics there is never something I really look for in particular. Take Deftones, for example, the lyrics in Koi No Yokan are ambiguous and ethereal, just like the music.  The songs never jump out and scream the meaning directly at you nor do they hide what the song is about in a shroud of ridiculous nonsense.  This delicate balance is an interesting quality to find in a band and is much more impressive when discussing a band like Deftones.

The music in Koi No Yokan is the Deftones mix of spacey and weird sounds combining with the metal that the band plays so very well. It’s a sound I’ve come to expect but one that still surprises me with different effects that need to be listened to in order to hear. Deftones isn’t something everyone will like, no band is, but it’s a band that can be appreciated because it taps into a raw feeling within. The trick with Deftones, and any music really, is to let yourself get into the music without having preconceived notions. I don’t think I like dubstep, but you can bet your ass that by the end of this project (that ends in 4 weeks) I’ll listen to a full dubstep album and immerse myself in it to see what I really think. That’s the fun of music, to let it make you feel. Maybe a genre you like or a band you listen to is your dirty little secret because you know your social circle doesn’t approve of it, and to that I say…good. Keep it to yourself and let it be yours, rock out whenever you want to. That drumbeat is yours and yours alone.

The Best Guide to Buddhism (I’ve found)

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I’m a Buddhist, I guess. When people ask me about my beliefs I don’t always know how to phrase it or what to say exactly. Most of the time they ask in an indirect way because they see the tattoo on my wrist, a Dharma Wheel, and think it’s a ship’s wheel. “You a sailor?” they typically say. After saying no and explaining it’s a Buddhist symbol I get one of two answers; the person either says “oh that’s nice” or they question further about the marking. Most of the time I feel uncomfortable saying that I’m a Buddhist because in the society I live in people automatically assume that means I go to a temple, shave my head, wear orange robes, and meditate regularly. While the latter is true, the three former attributes are not. When I was 18 years old I decided that there was some exploring I wanted to do, mainly spiritually. The current faith I had held for the past 18 years conflicted with some of my beliefs so I went searching for something that fit me, something I could relate to.

Dharma Wheel (located on my left wrist)

Instead of dropping my faith altogether, the way far too many people do nowadays, I did some good old-fashioned research. I didn’t want to be lazy or miss any details so I spent a long, long time researching religions and their belief structures. Honestly, many religions big and small follow the same ideas of “behave well and help your fellow man” but it was the details I wanted. I came across Buddhism and spent about four months studying the teachings before I was comfortable adopting it as my own. This was mainly due to the fact that I couldn’t find a guide of any sort, be it books or internet based. I had found one book, The Beginner’s Guide to Buddhism, that was very cut and dry but felt outdated and missing things I wanted to know about. Just last month, while visiting my girlfriend in DC, I came across Rebel Buddha in a book store. While the back of the book sang songs of new-age hippy Buddhism stuff, the author’s biography gripped me.

                                Dzogchen Ponlop

The author was a true student of Buddha, a Buddhist, and his methods were modern and upfront. When I got home I rented the book from my library and immediately after finishing it I sat down to write this piece. The question I get asked most often from friends and strangers alike is, what is Buddhism? When I get asked that my brain explodes, how can I possibly encapsulate a religion that started in the 6th Century BCE within a few  minutes of light conversation? The websites and books I’ve read don’t even come close to doing that monumental task, and that is because so much of Buddhism is what you put into it. That’s why I wanted to discuss Rebel Buddha as a guide for the curious. Rebel Buddha is a modern take on the Western World’s mind when it comes to Buddhism. The author, Dzogchen Ponlop, takes apart Buddhism without harping on religious aspects or questioning faith. Instead, he approaches Buddhism as what I have always believed it to be; a pragmatic approach to spirituality and faith that allows one to supplement their own beliefs with structure and values in order to find peace.

This man rests on my left inner-arm

Ponlop moves through the motions of Buddhism without the book ever feeling like a preacher’s tale. Not once does it feel as though he is pressing the faith upon you, instead it reads as though he is explaining to someone what Buddhism is and what it can be. The part that got me hooked was when Ponlop begins describing people as “frustrating” or “stupid” as it really connects with the modern world. Too often has a religious text, Buddhist or otherwise, made me feel like I wasn’t living up to a certain standard because the text itself believes the world to be at a different level altogether. Ponlop negates that idea by bringing everything back down to Earth; he realizes the issues we face on a day to day basis along with the struggles we tackle each day. Not once does he criticize a person’s argument over clothing as “useless” nor does he make fun of a struggle over diet because there are “better things to do”. Instead, Ponlop takes those all into account as real struggles and he gives real advice on working through these problems with practical reasoning.

“Rise from the mud to bathe in the sun”

Practical reasoning, that’s Buddhism in a nutshell. I can’t possibly describe what Buddhism is to me because that’s my interpretation and belief structure. In the same vein I wouldn’t expect any Catholic to better explain what Catholicism is to me as I’d probably get 10 different answers from 10 different people. However, what I can say with certainty is that Rebel Buddha is a book that offers a great insight into one of the world’s most misunderstood religions. Not misunderstood because people think it’s one thing when it’s another, like Islam, but rather misunderstood because people don’t look to seek its definition. Buddhism does not need to replace your faith or even makes its way into your life. Buddhism can supplement your values and act as a buffer for your pressures. Buddhism can be what you want it to be, whether that is something you want or not is a discussion I believe Rebel Buddha can help you with.

*Quick side note: if you ever want to discuss religion or faith because you’re questioning it or are just curious about other faiths, feel free to email me at jonfisco at gmail dot com and I’ll be glad to chat.*

Music FTW: Christmas Music!

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The other day, as I was driving, my iPod died and the radio came on. It was unintentional but the result was quite awesome. Turns out that I left 98.3 on as my default radio station and at that exact moment…they were playing Christmas music! There’s something about Christmas music that makes people happy, whether they want to admit it or not, and makes the whole time of year cheery and fun. This isn’t going to be a gushy and love filled post about how much I enjoy Christmas time and Christmas music, instead it’s going to be a brief dive into why Christmas music is so damn awesome.

Not everyone celebrates Christmas as a religious holiday, myself included, and yet nearly everyone knows a Christmas song or two. If you lived in America for most of your life you’ve probably been exposed to Christmas tunes from a very young age. When we are young the slightest things make us happy, sad, angered, or otherwise enthused. To sharpen that point even more, when we become happy it’s due to a release of dopamine in our brain. This chemical, dopamine, gives us that light and joyous feeling we oh so love to experience. Now, the fact that we are young makes this whole point more interesting. Since we are young when we first hear “Deck the Halls” or “Jingle Bells” that means the songs make us happier due to their upbeat tempos and cheerful nature. These songs already make people older than 10 happy due to those factors, add in the age and the increase in dopamine due to a young person’s brain working overtime on dopamine and you have a cocktail for a strong memory.

Think about the things you remember the most vividly. That graduation, when he or she said yes, your first kiss, that heartbreaking funeral, your first breakup, the loss of a loved one who you were close with. It’s the things that make the greatest impact on our lives that we remember most vividly and that’s because the chemicals working in our brains are such that they make a lasting impression we remember forever. This idea goes double for a young child who feels happy due to the slightest thing and doubly happy due to Christmas tunes. The happiness we experience at a young age creates a lasting impression and memory within us that we keep forever. While we may not be able to remember why we get happy and warm every time we hear “White Christmas” exactly, we know that it’s embedded within us. The happiness from our childhood, and the fond memories of opening gifts and being with family, start to bubble up whether we can perfectly recall them or not. It’s our memories that make Christmas music so powerful, it’s the only music we’ve been hearing for such a long time so it comes with the memories pre-loaded in our minds. It’s powerful stuff, and it’s also amazingly cheesy/wonderful/perfect music.