I forgot to take my meds last night so I have the energy and focus to actually write a blog post!
The universe also cleverly setup a phone call from my younger bro Elliott (check out the about page on his blog for more on him).
9 to 5 vs. Entrepreneurship
Something my bro, myself and I’m sure others struggle with is the entrepreneurship vs. 9 to 5 thing. I myself struggling as a “full on” entrepreneur (currently blogging LIVE from my new residence at grandma’s house lol). And my bro a full on 9to5er who wants to do more entrepreneuring but is held back by the tether of work, school and responsibilities.
The Plan
On the phone today I came up with the idea of each of us focusing one’s current heading (entrepreneurship for me, 9 to 5 for bro) and sharing the spoils as the years roll on (in the form of stories and regular visitation).
I’m certain that continued focus on entrepreneurship for 10-20 years and continued focus on 9 to 5 for 10-20 years will produce better results than partial focus in one and dabbling in the other (ask me 10-20 years out and I’ll let you know ).
Anyhow, it’s the beginnings of a plan that we both thought sounded pretty cool.
I actually first heard this song and saw the video when I was in the “Crazy Bin” (mental/behavioral health complex). There’s something magical about it to me. Enjoy!
Maybe you noticed and maybe you didn’t, but I started having GRAND thoughts and ideas and trying to make these thoughts and ideas happen too quickly. My “vacation” at the [Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Complex] helped a TON! I was surrounded by an awesome staff and even the patients were super cool and fun to hang out with!
I’m currently taking medications to stabilize my mood (1500mg’s of a generic Depakote, 30mgs of Zyprexa at night and something for high blood pressure).
I also wanted to share with the world something I formally called a “Bipolar Protocol Sheet.” I’m now changing the name to “Mental Illness Recovery System” (M.I.R.S. for short). I think more than just people suffering from bipolar could benefit from it.
Here’s the rough draft that I just emailed to some friends and family.
Mental Illness Recovery System
Outline
This document is meant to be a guide for people close to me in the event of me “wigging out.” This will probably go through multiple versions and rewrites before a “final” version is released. I’d also like it to be a template that could be used for other people with similar problems.
How to Use This Guide?
Read it in its entirety, then refer back to it when you notice a “warning sign”
Warning Signs
First I should explain what a warning sign is (in the context of this document.) A warning sign is basically anything that you may notice that could be a sign of me moving towards losing it/wigging out. Historically speaking there seems to be approximately a two-week window where I start acting out of my element before the eventual crash that leads me to a mental hospital. During this two week window there should be warning signs present. The tricky part about seeing them is that there is probably at least one present every day to one level or another so it’s sometimes hard to tell if it’s a noteworthy warning sign or not. After reading the list I ask you to use your best judgment. When in doubt, ask me, or ask someone listed as a contact within the document (if you feel uncomfortable asking me yourself.) There will be a section of the document titled “Protocol for Alerting Me of a Warning Sign”
The list:
5 or less hours of sleep for 4 or more days
Talking/thinking fast
Acting “Scatterbrained”
Too much talk about things of a “esoteric” nature
Getting too focused (or obsessive) about any one thing for “too long” (this could be too many hours in a day, too many days in a week, use your best judgment.) Examples of things from the past are (computers/technology, Taichi, Meditation, video games, etc.) This one is a little tricky to call though…
[If you have more things to add email me/leave a comment]
Protocol for Alerting Me of a Warning Sign
What do you do if you believe I am on a path to the mental institution? This can be tricky, but I hope the following text helps you figure out the best course of action to prevent what could be a potentially unpleasant experience for you and me both. You should be aware of the fact that because of my previous experiences I have become VERY conscious of the fact that I must function in society in a way that is different from the general public. This has led me to become very careful about exposing myself to situations that could possibly lead to a domino effect leading to hospitalization. I’m saying all of this to let you know that I pretty much ALWAYS think I’m on top of things. For anyone to come into my world and tell me I am off could be seen as… “negative” thinking or something and I may disregard it (depending on my mood at the time, although I try my best to be in a receptive mood about such things.) Also be warned that approaching me too often about “warning signs” in a manner that “bugs” me may result in me consciously and unconsciously covering up evidence for you to see as to reduce the frequency of being bothered.
I personally believe the best approach is to ask me questions as opposed to making statements. For example:
Instead of “Casey, I don’t think you’ve been getting enough sleep. I think you might be [some statement referring to me being on the road to hospitalization].”
Start a dialog with a question first. Example:
“Casey, have you been feeling rested lately?”
or even more directly
“How many hours of sleep did you get last night?”
I respond with a low figure like 3 or 4.
“How many hours did you get the night before?”
I respond with another low figure like 4.
“Do you think you have been getting enough sleep lately?”
I should respond with a no. And you will have probably brought the issue to light if it had somehow been clouded from me because of a recent stressful situation.
Also, you can be very direct about a concern, ie.
“Casey, I think you’re starting to [lose it, or however you wish to phrase it]“
The only problem with statements like this is that they need to be used very sparingly, as I have a low tolerance for them and if used too frequently means I will consciously and unconsciously shut you out from status updates that you would use to formulate an opinion like this.
One option available will be to contact one of the contacts not listed in this first version of the document. My Mom will probably always be the best choice as she will always have the most up-to-date information on who to contact and how.
In Closing
This is just the first draft of this document. The final version will be a hard copy and will include my medical history and doctor contact information for those of you close enough where information like that could be potentially useful. In the event of me needing to go to a hospital or see a doctor, a doctor and hospital (with proper contact information) will be listed. These locations should already have copies of my medical history (as I will provide them with it) but it is always good to have back up (in the event that they can’t find it, or I need to go to another location.)
Questions/Comments/Feedback can be emailed to me or left below as comments.
I started to google social media… Something! But google helped me out and added the phrase “capital of the world.” I was curious what the response was going to bee.
A lot of people were asking!
Now you know the answer (it’s in the title of this post in case you missed it ).
If you’re asking yourself “How can this bee?” Here’s your answer:
My only question to Google is… When are you opening an office?
Monitoring from Chicago is not an option. <- It's bold!
This is a MilTownKlan update. If you’re wondering what happened with #1-#4 it’s because you’ve never seen the [MilTownKlan blog].
Lineage
There isn’t a lot of information floating around the (English) internet about lineage (in Martial Arts, Daoism, Zen, etc.) In Asian culture lineage is SUPREMELY important. There is a strict kind of lineage (which I somewhat touch on in the video below) and there is an actual/natural lineage (to how and what one learns in life). In the chart and video below, the only thing that’s close to the “strict” martial art type lineage is the one I share with Shelton, Eddie and [Master Wang]. I failed to mention it in the video or chart, but I feel the same way about the connection I made with my Brazilian Jujitsu teacher I met in Taiwan (Pedro Schmall – [a profile of him][an interview] ). I’d like to get my purple belt from him.
In the article about martial arts lineage it talks about being able to only have one “true” teacher. I agree and disagree with this. I agree with this in respect to an art. With Taichi/Daosim, I only regard one lineage as my Teacher/teaching (Master Wang’s). BUT if I want to learn Brazilian Jujitsu, a different art, I’m going to need a different teacher. I think this concept confuses people in the martial arts world (especially traditional martial arts). It would be inappropriate to have two teachers you claim to be your “true” taichi teachers. In that respect. You can only have one. Similarly, in Brazilian Jujitsu they call it “waving two flags” when a person tries to claim to be from 2 different groups. This doesn’t mean you can’t train with more than one group. It means you can only claim allegiance to one.
My Lineage
I believe I started to understand the concept of lineage at a rather young age. I think I must have ran into the idea in high school (when I started learning at the [Chinese Kung-Fu Center]). Lineage is about the teacher/student (or disciple) relationship and it’s a relationship that is taken VERY seriously in Asia. As I began to understand the concept, I framed all of my learning into ones of teacher/student (in the lineage sense of the word).
I’ll get into the details of my various lineages at some time in the future, but I wanted to briefly express a thought. Every skill you (and I) have is from some lineage. My soccer skills, swimming skills, dancing skills (I forgot to mention JOE! My dance master! ), rapping skills, video making skills, etc. If you think about it, it all comes from some lineage. Even when you learn from someone you never met (through a book, a video or a quote), you must still respect the lineage.
My core lineages stem from the relationships I’ve developed with Martial Arts instructors (My karate teacher->Shelton->Eddie->Master Wang->Pedro). On the surface, martial arts appear to be about kicking, punching and beating people up (and many “martial artists” never break through the surface.) True learning and mastery of martial arts go much deeper than that. My other arts tend to not have such of a focus on lineage (other than what I’ve placed on them myself). Although I do believe every real art has a system to recognize lineage (whether formally or informally). One art that comes to mind is the musical arts. People REALLY into music seem to have a serious understanding of the lineages of the various artists they follow.
MilTownKlan Lineage
Although I am the main instigator in the creation of the MilTownKlan and the “head of the school” so to speak, it is my goal to make the MilTownKlan as a group the teacher and not myself. The MilTownKlan will be comprised of various individuals with varying degrees of skill in a number of arts. There is opportunity to learn from everyone. Clan/Tribe formation is actually my largest goal with the formation of the MilTownKlan so that art can be passed on to others to be used to create clans/groups of their own (using what I’ve learned in the process). That being said, as time goes on, the lineage of the MilTownKlan will not be limited only to what I have brought to the table. It will be comprised of the lineages of all the members of the “core group.”
The Founding Members of the MilTownKlan
At the writing of this blog post, I’m officially up to three. I’m certain that there will be other “official” members that join the ranks soon after (like [Frostfox] for example), but those have yet to be formally established. I’m also still in the process of organizing my thoughts on how everything will be structured, but I’m now comfortable releasing a “beta” version of what I have going on.
I’ve come to the realization that the “core group” will be comprised of more than just formal students. The core group will also be open to people that have ranks other than student (which I have yet to come up with an adequate name for). That being said, the three people are as follows:
root – A friend/teacher from Milwaukee who I recognize as my “Digital Budo” instructor. Previous to meeting him I was mainly “self taught.” It was he who introduced me to Linux, Emulation and how TCP/IP really worked.
[Magdalicious] – Although not a student of the MilTownKlan at the time of writing, Magda was the first person to graciously allow me to practice my style of teaching on. Everyone can thank her for being the “crash dummy” while I was getting my “license to teach.”
[TheNewLoud] – There’s this quote in martial that goes “When the student is ready, the teacher will present himself.” I’ve recently learned that it goes the other way around as well “When the teacher is ready, the student will present himself.” I’ve long ago had the idea of being “a taichi master.” I was in no rush to get students or even start teaching, but it’s what I wanted to be (based on a lot of reading and eventually meeting Master Wang, that cemented it). What led me to the path of actually becoming a teacher was coming back to Milwaukee and not having anyone to learn from (the art which was my focus). The next logical step was to create a group of people for me to practice with so I could continue learning. Actually creating this group was a WHOLE learning process, but eventually a student walked through the door who was authentically interested in what I had to share. I’ve already learned a TON from Shane (and I hope he’s learned a little bit from me. )
The MilTownKlan And Scholar/Warrior-ship
My reading and experience with the martial arts has led me to believe that the original spirit of martial arts has largely faded away. People have focused on and have gotten caught up in the acrobatics and skills present in the martial arts, but have forgotten about why they existed in the first place. In ancient times it was NECESSARY for the preservation of life, family and friends to be a skilled fighter. Martial Arts isn’t about fighting. It’s about protecting yourself and the ones you love. It’s about refinement of self. These kinds of things.
That being said, the usefulness of being a skilled fighter has come and gone, but it remains to be the focus of martial arts. The arts necessary to protect life, family and friends have shifted greatly but martial arts have (in many respects) failed to evolve. In our current times VASTLY more useful “martial arts” are technological skills, political skills, marketing/business skills, interpersonal skills, etc. Skills that were important in ancient times, but the “weighting” has changed. The time current “martial artists” spend in the gym could be perhaps better spent learning a new business trick, or networking…
Anyhow, I see the MilTownKlan as an evolution of the martial arts and bringing the focus back to being Warriors AND Scholars.
The Chart And The Video
Here’s the chart and video I made to help me brainstorm for this blog post.
Don’t let them take my internets Molly! Don’t let them do it!
Here’s my story. I’ll keep it short and sweet. I got the AT&T internets turned on about 3 months ago. For the last 2 of those three months I’ve been driving around the country in [a car I won with free gas] (since I don’t work, why not? ). All my mail goes to a PO Box and I don’t like checking it (I HATE paper mail). Since I was on the road I didn’t get any of the paper stuff.
My problem with AT&T: It’s frustrating dealing with customer service when you don’t have a phone # to go with your account (I wasn’t able to reset my password while on the road). Customer service never offered to email me statements instead of sending me paper ones (Note: I already know it’s possible to get e-statements, but I never got it setup because of how frustrating it was getting my internet installed in the first place).
The reason I didn’t take care of all of this sooner is because of how frustrating my initial experience was (the phone # thing) and then being on the road/scatterbrained for 2 months (I’ve been professionally diagnosed as scatterbrained).
I can pay one month of service now. Then I’ll tun on the e-statement thing and stay current from now on.
Lets both admit fault and stay friends… FOREVER!
Here’s the video version:
Last thing. Whatever happens, I think it’s really cool that you guys are doing something with social media. What prompted me to try reaching you this way was reading this blog post [AT&T Fails, Engages on Twitter]. I’m not trying to be controversial, say you guys suck or anything like that. I just want to keep my internets on without needing to ask someone for money! I’m good for it! Trust me! lol
[Here's that AT&T social media page]
This is the beginning of me merging all of my different content into one coherent stream on this here blog. I’ve pretty much been hanging out almost “exclusively” in the YouTube community. The reason for this is it’s so much less work for a greater reward. I throw together a video quick and I get to connect with some of the 11,000+ people who have subscribed to that channel. I get feedback instantly (and lots of it). On this blog my [mom] or [Magdalicious] might leave me a comment… But that’s because I’ve never really put any real WORK into this place! Time to go to work!
I’ve been going to [Spreenkler] meetings for almost 2 years now. I went for like 15 months straight without missing a meeting when I started!
According to the website Spreenkler is:
a community of Milwaukee’s creative, marketing and technical professionals and entrepreneurs. We gather each month to share experiences, best-practices and new ideas to utilize the collective knowledge of the group to move those ideas forward.
They’re also a:
a creative services agency that hires talented college students to give them real client and project experience, expose them to dynamic organizations and help them launch their careers.
I’ve basically been hooked on Spreenkler ever since I sent Steve Glynn (the organizer) a LONG email rant about all the crazy things I was going to do (from my one bedroom apartment… lol) and he responded with “Awesome! Want to be a presenter next month!” The basic format of a Spreenkler meeting is: mingle (eat pizza and drink beer), updates from group members, presentation from presenter, mingle (drink beer, pizza is gone now).
The Presenter
Last night’s event was pretty cool. I didn’t take very good notes, but here’s what stuck out. I’ll start with [Jaimee Newberry (LinkedIn Profile)] from [Zappos.com]. I have to start out with saying I’m a TOTAL Zappos.com fanboy! Actually, I guess I’m more of a Tony Hsieh fanboy than a Zappos.com fanboy… It was cool listing to Jaimee describe the “Zappos Experience” from an insider’s perspective. If you’re unfamiliar with the Zappos.com culture they have this hardcore interview/training process that ends with them saying “We think you’re a match, but we’ll give you $2,000 to walk away now if you’re not 100%.” They’re SERIOUS about their culture!
Anyhow some of the things mentioned were really interesting to hear. Like the fact that a company doing over a billion dollars in sales online JUST implemented Google Analytics! WAH! lol Although it was pointed out how their OUTSTANDING customer service is at the front lines in understanding what the customers like and don’t like about the website (although Google Analytics never hurt anybody ).
There were other stories shared and good questions asked. I liked it.
Social Media As A Social Business
My video already finished uploading and I feel like wrapping this post up. I think one of the reasons I don’t blog much is I have TOO much to say… I’m not sure if that makes any sense… lol Anyhow…
I have two other things I jotted down. The school that hosted the event, [St. Marcus], is looking for social media experts/gurus/dudes (<- I like that title best!) to coach some kids in vlogging, blogging, websiteing, Tweeting etc. I forgot to sign their list thing, but I think I'm going to get down there and get involved. It's awesome that they're embracing this "social media stuff."
The other thing is [Erica Conway] (my most FAVORITEST hype(wo)man) brought up an organization called [OnRampMKE.org]. Their group wants to help… “people of color” (like myself ) get exposed to all this creative marketing stuff as to make a more diverse creative industry.
Anyhow (I’m running out of steam to write… I’ll have to get my “workflow” sorted for making a video AND posting to the blog)…
Anyhow… lol I’m SUPER stoked about the potential “social media” has to positively effect the City of Milwaukee (and the world really). I’ll just mention it here quickly, but I’m going to design my consultancy as a “social business” whose primary focus will be helping organizations and nonprofits leverage the web to have a greater positive effect. As much as I love all of this social media stuff, I fucking HATE the corporate machine which is soullessly driven by profit maximization… So my solution to that is going to be positioning myself as THEE expert when it comes to social media strategy using this strategy on organizations who have a net positive effect on a social ill. And charging the corporate machine which I hate a lot of money if/when they want to talk to me. I can then use said monies to positively effect more “charitable orgs.”
I’ll have to extend on that rant in another post. I have to wrap this up!
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