The Midnight Hour

I haven’t posted to my personal blog lately, and for good reason. I’ve been armpits deep in several other projects.

I’ve written two more articles for the Homefires blog on the New York Times. In the first article I talk about the difficulties in adapting communication styles from the Marine Corps to civilian life. As usual, this one pissed off a lot of people, and some commenters deduced that I am brainwashed and/or autistic. In the next article I relay a quick war story and use it to examine the popular tendency to worry about things that really don’t matter. I then examine how this perspective has changed my outlook on life. This was a little less controversial, but probably the more entertaining of the two.

Next, I wrote an article for Primer Magazine on test-taking strategies. I had the opportunity to practice them just last week as I completed this semester’s final exams in my ongoing pursuit of an MBA at UAHuntsville.

Finally, most of my time after work has been sunk into starting a business, CrossFit Impulse. In addition to my primary activity, getting the business started, I’ve also written several articles for our website. The first is a how-to on building a custom pullup station, complete with detailed plans and sketches. Next, I wrote two nutrition-related articles on Fish Oil and the first steps you should take to improve your nutrition. My wife also wrote an excellent article on how to get started with the Zone Diet. Starting a business has been a real adventure. In addition to learning about a myriad of legal and tax issues related to opening a business, I pretty much lived at our business location for the two weeks prior to our opening. Having a partner in the business and a supporting wife has been crucial. I absolutely could not have done it alone. Below you can see some pictures of the transformation of our business space from an empty (and extremely dirty) warehouse, to the completed product. We’re pretty happy with it.

However, we’re most excited about helping all of our clients achieve their fitness goals. That is rewarding in a way that is difficult to describe. I’m not truly unselfish in very many ways, but this is one of them. Even if I’m not getting paid, I enjoy spending time with people to help them advance their goals, for no other reason than I enjoy seeing them achieve what they once couldn’t. They walk away better and I walk away the same, but I really enjoy it, and I can’t explain it. Now that things are off the ground life has become much easier, although definitely not easy per se. I expect I’ll start writing a little more frequently now, even if it’s just some random thoughts that are as therapeutic to me as they are angering to others. Cheers.