A Daily Practice

Hey there people! How's it going? I know, I've said this before... This time it's for real! What have I said before and why is it for real this time? Well, I said I'm back with a weekly post, and didn't actually post anything else after the initial one. This time's for real because I'm committing to it! I will set a day of the week where I'll post an article, and you'll love it, I'll love it. EVERYBODY WILL LOVE IT. Right? I mean, you're going to love it, right? RIGHT? Just kidding. Or am I? I guess you'll never know -- about the kidding. The posts are true! Every Thursday of the week, expect an article by yours truly -- MOI. Yes, I speak one word of french.

So, enough with the ramblings. I just needed to get that stuff out of the way! Now that that's out of the way, we're back in business. Let me tell you a little bit about me: I'm a guy who needs discipline in my life. When I'm disciplined, I can be free around my "rules." I don't know if that makes any sense, but at least it does for me -- yeah, all of this is about ME. MY BLOG. MY LIFE. Jeez Louise, cool it bro... Anyways, within these ground rules I can go anywhere I want. But for me to go anywhere, they need to be there! If I didn't, it would all be madness. No order in my life.

Maybe you thrive in chaos? Maybe you're scoffing at the idea of me posting about something thinking I'm better than you (I'm not, just very dedicated to my health. You can be, too!) Well, that's awesome for you! Maybe this post isn't for you then. I hope you can keep coming back though, because maybe some other one will help you out as it did me. Now you're probably thinking --or not-- why doesn't he get on with it already? What's with all the talking and going on forever? I hear ya! Hold on, skippy. I just want you to have an idea why I do this and then I'll share with you my daily practices. What works for me might not work for you. That's why I want you to have an idea what this is for. Everybody is different. Do what works for you!

Do what works for YOU!

I'm a morning person, so I function best when I rise and shine pretty early. Some people are night owls -- I'm usually dreaming right around then. So I wake up at 6:00 am. The moment I wake up, I grab the bottle of water I have next to my nightstand and drink the whole thing --Glass bottle, mind you! Stay away from plastic. If you're going to go with plastic, at least keep it BPA free, would ya? Thank you. I want to keep you safe from toxins and chemicals, dude/dudette. Look at me all tree-hugger-like and hippy-dippy. I promise you, I'm not -- yeah, because just saying I'm not makes it so, right?

Why water? Because our bodies are made out of at least 70% of water. This figure might be off, but the point is we're mostly water! You need to stay hydrated! So, keep that up throughout the day -- also, don't overdo it. Just make sure your pee is clear, but not as bad that you're going to the bathroom every 30 minutes to an hour. Do your research on this! I'm not a doctor, nor am I a scientist. Although I do play one on TV -- I don't, that is a lie.

Once I'm done with that (after all your bodily functions as well), I do this thing called priming for about 15 minutes and then meditate for another 20. If you're curious about them, look them up. It's great for your mental/emotional/physical well being and your focus becomes laser-like. After that, I workout. Hopefully every weekday. Whatever it is you do. Get in your body! It takes you out of your head, which is great! Too much thinking CAN be a bad thing. So be active. 

That's pretty much it for the morning. In the afternoon at around 2-ish, I do the priming and meditating again. I have a flexible schedule, so make it work for you! Then in the evening, I have a prayer I say (I made it up, so if you'd like, make one up for yourself) and do a little gratitude exercise, where I say/write three things I'm happy/excited/proud/grateful for. Now, this next one is going to sound a little crazy. I'm fine with that, because I am a crazy guy. So you ready for it? Every hour of the day, starting at 7am and ending at 10pm, I just celebrate for about a minute. Why? Because, why not? Why not celebrate for no reason? Life's too short not to. 

For those of you who didn't want to read and were hoping for a little recap? I've got you covered, too:

1. Drink water as soon as I wake up. Keep hydrated throughout the day.
2. Prime for about 15 minutes and then meditate for another 20.
3. Workout
4. Afternoon: Prime and meditate again (same times)
5. Evening: daily prayer and gratitude exercise.
6. Every hour: celebrate! Yes, celebrate for about a minute you crazy goofballs!

What do you think of my little routine? You like it? Think it's too crazy? Have one of your own? Sound off in the comments and let me know what you think. Add or subtract from it, make it your own! Now, go celebrate!

Let's Talk About Nature, Baby!

Well, hello there! Welcome back to our weekly post --Oh, you're saying it's been almost two years since the last time I posted? Yeah... I was just trying to do an "Irish Hello." You know, the Irish "Goodbye" is when you just leave without telling anybody (big fan!), the "Hello" is kind of like pretending we were never away? Oh forget it, you know what I mean! You're saying you don't and want explanations? I mean... I don't know if they're needed. Let's just forgive and forget, how about that? I was gone, but now I'm back... You were always here. I see... Well, how about we hug it out? I'm taking too long trying to come back, you say? Oooookay!

I want to talk a little bit about Mother Nature. I feel it's going down the drain, lately. Not specifically Mother Nature herself, but the human aspect of it, in the sense that we're destroying her. Here's the thing: we live on Mother Earth. I know a lot of you already care about Mother Earth and Mother Nature a whole lot, but you're feeling like you could do something about it --What's that you say? Mother Earth and Mother Nature are the same thing? I just like to emphasize them both, to give it more importance, if that were the case. Anyhow, as I was saying... I feel like this would be a great place to start in order to do something.

Now, let's not go to extremes here. We can do that a little later. For now, I just want to take some baby steps to get us started. You know, progress always comes from millions of baby steps, so if you're new to caring about the environment (I know I was at one point), I just want you to dip your toes in the water. Get a nice taste of it. Then once you do that, the BIG BEAST will come out of the pool and pull you in. You don't like beasts? Don't worry, this is a nice beast. Look at how pretty and wonderful. It's a good kind of beast. Maybe I made a poor choice of words. Look at the picture, I say!

Look at it! You can't not be enamored by it. -- Yosemite National Park.

I was looking for pictures of Yosemite to insert here, and went down the rabbit hole of pretty pictures leading you to finding places to stay there and... So, I made it out alive, without spending a dime. It just took a little longer to get here. If you feel like doing so, you can thank three people for the wondrous Yosemite National Park: Mother Nature, John Muir and Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt. Anyways, you might have read these somewhere else, already do them or heard about it from a buddy of yours. It doesn't matter. Reading it again isn't going to hurt you, it'll just reinforce what you already do/know. So without further ado, a few tips on taking care of the environment.

Close the water tap when not using it:

I know this seems like it doesn't do much, but it's a simple thing. Make no mistake, you can save gallons of water just by doing this sorcery! For example, say you're brushing your teeth: Some people open the tap, and then leave it that way until they're done! That's like a whole shower! I live in California. There's a huge drought here! You know what I could've done with that amount of water? I don't have any specifics right now... I'll have a detailed proposal for you later! But let me just say that any time I go to Florida (what does Florida have to do with this?), they just throw the fact that they have water all over your face. There's more water there than land! Look at all this water. Would you like some water? How about taking a little plunge in this puddle?! We have water to throw away and still won't run out, because it rains here! HO HO HO, we rule the w--I'm sorry... I got a little carried away there. I'm just a fan of water. Getting back to help saving the environment... So, what you can do is this:

1. Open the tap to rinse your toothbrush and close it immediately.
2. Brush your teeth.
3. Open it again so you can rinse your toothbrush and mouth. Remember to close it every time you're not using the water!
4. Boom. Ka-ching. The $$$ you'll be saving on your water bill! You can do this with everything: showers, doing the dishes, anything else that involves water!

Unplug any unused devices:

Any plugged device that's not being used emits Carbon Dioxide. An excess of Carbon Dioxide (CO2, for you chemistry fans out there) is one of the major influences that causes climate change --actually, it's the only one. So, if you want to pitch in even a little bit, we could start by unplugging them! Again, this will save you a few dollars on your energy bill. Unless you have solar, which in that case... Still unplug them, because you know, CO2 and all. I will congratulate you on the Solar, though. Well played, good sir/madam. 

R-E-C-Y-C-L-E

Remember that song from "Rocko's Modern Life"? No? Well, now I have the song stuck in my head and you don't know what I'm talking about... So, please click here. There. That's better. Wasn't that wonderful? Recycle anything that's plastic, paper or glass. Rubber? I don't know if you can recycle rubber, but I put it in the recycle bin anyway. Are they mad that I do that? Maybe. This is one of those cases where I'd rather be safe than sorry --Or, say sorry than ask for permission. I used both of those sayings for the same example! I'm a genius! Remember plastic is made from carbon/oil/other stuff, paper from trees and glass from I don't even know... Yeah, yeah. Sand. I remembered once I wrote that down. I just left it there for documentation purposes. What am I documenting, you ask? My stupidity? The more we recycle, the less we have to cut down trees (huge fans of CO2, just not in excess), make more unnecessary plastic and leave beaches without sand --I think butt-cracks take most of the blame for that one.

Pick Trash You See on the Ground Up/Don't Litter

Now, you might say: "But I didn't leave that there! Why should I pick it up?" That's a good question to have. Am I going to answer it? Nope. Let's just all do our part. We're all in this together! If you don't litter, nobody else has to pick it up! If you pick up someone else's trash, then we don't have to pay someone to do it! Especially if you see it somewhere around Mother Nature's grounds. That's just wrong. Little animals can choke or get whatever from the trash. Haven't we done enough? I know. Guilt works wonders, doesn't it? It's not my style, though. So, let's all do it out of the bottom of our hearts. I promise you'll feel great when you do it. Mother Nature will thank us later with a beautiful melody from a bird, or you'll see some rare wildcat/bear/other dangerous but magnificent animal. Wouldn't that be awesomely dangerous, but awesome all at the same time? You know, from afar so they don't eat us.

Switch Lights Off When Not In Use

If you're not in a room but leave the lights on, you can switch it off! This is putting cash back in your pocket, baby! You've probably noticed by now, a lot of these tips save some cash while you help preserve the environment. Win-win. Isn't that nice? We're doing some good by putting some money in our pockets all at the same time. I bet you didn't think it'd be this fun, huh? If you have solar, you're not saving anything, but hey, you've got solar and don't pay for energy! Woot, woot!

Spend Time In Nature

This has nothing to do with preserving anything. Just spend time with Mother Nature. Appreciate the vast greatness. Go to a National Park, or the beach, or anywhere that has nature nearby. Do it once a week. It's God's anti-depressant/anti-stress/anti-everything. Look at the trees, water or whatever it is that's in your line of sight, and enjoy it. Relax and take it in. I wasn't too big into Mother Nature growing up. I wanted to preserve and help, but I never really went out and spent much time in her embrace. My dog taught me how to love it. I felt this deep connection to Mother Nature that I didn't have before, and now we're best buds. This will help raise your awareness and mindfulness of her. Then you'll get more ideas on how to help to protect, preserve and enrich her. She is our Mother after all, let's take care of her.

So that's it for now! If you have any more things you'd like to do, donate to a charity that supports the Environment and Mother Nature. Do some research and donate to the one that you feel aligns the best with your views/ideals. Do I sound like a hippie? Maybe. I promise you I'm not --not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm just really grateful to Mother Nature because she's provided so much for us throughout history, I think it's about time we did something for her. Every day should be Earth Day! Any ideas? Leave a comment below, my fellow tree huggers! Until next time. Preserve, Protect, Enrich. 

My, Myself, and I

Hey there! It's been awhile, I know. Sometimes, when the going gets tough, the tough get a little bit of mayonnaise on the side of their mouth --hey, I hate mayo, so don't even start on how gross that was, I had to do it for the greater good of mankind. You're probably wondering why I haven't been posting anything lately --a month, to be exact.

So that's my story, you might not like it, you might --What? You're saying I didn't write anything about what happened? DAMMIT. I must've not saved the word document. You're asking me to write it again? But it took me so long to do so the first time! All right. Here we go again.

So last month, a buddy of mine came over to visit me --what up Gussy-- and I thought I would be able to write the blog, do the podcast, Youtube stuff and my improv shenanigans whilst he was here. Thing is, I was wrong--which as you all know, never happens. Hey, cut me some slack. I do my best.

I had to sacrifice some stuff, because as it turns out, when you're trying to show people around the city you live in, it takes some time. So I cut out the things that I had the least fun with --don't get me wrong, I love doing this, I just didn't enjoy it as much as improv and making Youtube videos. So I was basically out for about 9 days, then I went on a weeklong trip to Florida and came back from that with some questions on what I should be doing. I had to go back to the drawing board --literally.

So it took me about a week to get to the bottom of that --which I'll get into in just a few moments, so hold on, you mangy scallywags. Last week I just didn't set the time aside to doing it. So here I am, this week. The week of the comeback. Coming back to the blog. Blogs 'r us. Blogging with the --Okay, okay, I'll stop.

Here's what I've come to: I want to focus a lot more on Youtube, so I'm ramping up on the amount of Ramblin' On episodes I'll have each week to two --I'm not sure when I'll actually start doing it, but I want to have a lot of episodes to fall back on before I do. So I've been making a lot of those episodes, which I write now. Before I just literally rambled on, sometimes for a long time. 

My goal with that was I wanted to become really good at just talking off the cuff. Here's my problem with that: for the sake of filling time and distraction, I would end up talking too much about different subjects --and out of my ass, essentially. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed myself while making them, but I also want to create amazing content. Which comes in time. Here's the other thing: I'm a writer, right? So I figured I would also start writing them and use a teleprompter. Because let's be honest, it's virtually impossible to memorize all of that content in the time that I shoot them --hey, it's possible to do, it's just a major time consumption that I could sink on something else. 

Although, I have been debating whether or not to memorize them, because my delivery would be so much better. But, I could also just get better with practice using the teleprompter. This as everything else in life, is all about getting better if you didn't realize. I've been officially doing it for about three months if I'm not mistaken --and I'm enjoying it a lot. It's a marathon, baby. The only competitors are me and myself. So, I'm competing against myself and hoping I end up being the winner of it all.

Oh Hi there | Well hello there

As to live performing, I've been debating whether or not to go back into stand up because I know I can get up on stage much more than I'm doing with improv. But, here's the thing: I enjoy improv so much more and it's with other people. For now, the Youtube show is my creative outlet in which I can channel my stand up cravings for the time being and hopefully get to enjoy improvising much more --in quantity, that is-- than I am at the moment.

I've been at the Groundlings for three months --one class a week-- and I don't know if I can move on to intermediate or not because I had to skip the last class of the Basic course. So I have to call to see whether or not I passed, and after that I'll figure out when to enroll because I don't want to sign up for a class right now since I'll be leaving for the holidays and won't come back until after New Years. When I do get back however, I know that I'll want to have the twice-a-week course instead of the once-a-week because that'll give me an opportunity to do it much more each week--And I want to have an earlier time for class, because starting at 7pm is just too late for me. Yeah, so I like to go to bed at a decent time! What's wrong with that? 

So class twice a week plus my Troupe's rehearsals and shows, now that's a lot of improv I'm really looking forward to! Where does that leave the podcast and this very blog you ask? Well, the podcast I'll leave for when I've got at least one other person to podcast with because I'm doing a lot of stuff on my own --which I love-- but I also want to do things with other people. So I do the Youtube stuff on my own and improv with other people. I'll keep updating this blog as I see fit, hopefully that's once a week and the podcast stays hibernating for the time being until there's a decent idea and team to work with.

Whew. That was a long one. Let me just pat myself on the back for this one. For all other nerdy news that involves me, you know the place where you can visit: Youtube.com/khalilsadi or this very website. Until next time, you scallywags: I'm out.

Leave Your Worries Behind

If there's something I've learned throughout my journey in life is that you always, Always, ALWAYS eat pizza at least once a week. You just have to. If you don't like it: GET OUT. Another thing is to leave your worries behind.

This sounds hard, and it actually is sometimes. But when you find yourself without a care in the world, it's the most freeing feeling you can have in your lifetime! We worry about our bills, what other people think, or about how much cheese we'll put on our pizza -- hey, Cowabunga dude. But when we don't have a care in the world, everything just clicks. Remember, I'm not telling you to drop everything and just not pay your bills or do your work. I'm telling you to be carefree, not careless. There's a difference.

What we need to do is relax and know that everything will be alright. If we can have that mentality, you can bet your butt it'll work. It's all about faith. Now, I'm not talking about religious stuff here. You can make of it what you will, I can't stop you -- I also believe in God, not in a religious way though, but you don't have to in order not to care. Not giving a crap is a skill and you can either hone it or just not work on it.

I choose to hone it every day. Work on it. Slap it. Whatever you need to do to get it out of your system -- maybe a little shot of air over there! By air, I mean a little meditation. You know, decompression. Oh yeah baby. That's the right stuff. That'll get ya worry free.

Repeat after me maaann, Hakuna Matata. That's the way to live life: you take responsibility without worry. BOOM. I just blew your mind, didn't I? What? This isn't original stuff you say? Well of course! You thought I was just talking out of my ass? I mean, that's very possible, but not in this case though! This is proven stuff, bro or brodette. You gotta remember when I say bro or man, I could still be referring to a LADYYY.

See... Simba lived worry free and still took responsibility. If he can do it, so can you! Yes, I'm aware I did a little rhyme back there. How you like me now?!

Let's live like Simba, take responsibility and not care so we can beat this B called life and let her know that she ain't gonna get the best of us. It's time to take a stand, who's with me?!

Everybody Has An Opinion, Deal With It

If you keep wondering why somebody has anything to say about something you say the moment it was said --see what I did there? wink wink-- it's because everybody has an opinion. No matter what it is, no matter what you do, there's always some big mouth yammering something at you whenever you open your mouth --be it good or bad. Now, when I say open your mouth, what I mean is you say something that is polarizing. Something that's not just diplomatic, but has some substance to it. A lot of the times you could just open your mouth and the only thing that happens is a fly goes into it --which let me tell you, isn't all that pleasant-- because all you said was some bland statement.

People could be giving you great ideas and constructive criticism or they could even be complimenting you for your work, but people could also be trying to shut you down just because they disagree with you. To those I recommend you flip them a nice little old figurative bird --hey, it's only fitting, nobody asked for their opinion, but they still give it to you. Don't actually engage with them, just don't take it to heart. Don't be discouraged, because when you've got split opinions being hurled at you, it usually means you're on the right path. It means you're not just being neutral, there's an actual stance to what you do or say.

In the midst of this politically correct climate that's grown in the past few years --which I hope starts to whittle down sooner rather than later-- there are a lot of people that just can't take a joke or tend to find everything offensive. They feel the need to complain and get angry about something that doesn't even have to do with them --that's right you haters, if the people involved are okay with what's going on, why are you whining you big baby? If the issue is an actual tragedy or anything like that, it's a different story --see, now I'm covering my ass just in case someone takes offense to my previous comment. What a wuss. This has got to stop! Let my people go, God dammit. --I just felt the need to throw that last one in there just because.  

But the fact of the matter is that there has always been a climate where people will either stand with or against you if you're actually taking a stance. As previously stated, that's something great. You don't want to be trying to tip-toe around everything just to make everybody like you. That's stupid and will only make you hate yourself. Hating yourself only leads to bad things and we don't want that. Bad things are bad. Love yourself, maaaan. It's better when you're polarizing and have haters, because the people that actually do love you do it because you're being true to yourself. So let your true colors shine and be free with the wind, maaaan. It's time for us to remove the façade and show ourselves. Whoa. That was a little too much. Yeah, cover that up.

Haters gonna hate, maaaan.

So let the people have an opinion. Let them hurl it at you no matter what it is, because you can bask in the glory that is being yourself. If you let their opinion stop you, then you lose and they win. We don't want you to lose, we want you to win, because no matter what the end result is, the fact of the matter is that if you're being you, you've already won.

P.S. You gotta let it all out, maaaaaan. Oh. I didn't mean literally. Oh well... I can't un-see that, though.