1. The $1.85 medium cup of coffee of the day from Peet's. It has been keeping my neurons firing in an awesome, get-things-done manner over the past few days! The best part is is that it lasts me all day since I tend to be a sipper.

2. Slowly, but surely improving my search engine optimization skills. Learning new things and succeeding at them always makes me super happy!

3. I have managed to lose about 5 pounds since I decided to consciously get myself back into shape about a month and a half ago. This loss has come at a relaxed pace, but I plan to kick it up a notch and shed some more weight using cardio exercises and my mad calisthenics skills!

4. In about two weeks, I will be heading down to Southern California to visit a handful of amazing friends I have not seen in months, and/or years! I've also taken a little extra time off to relax and enjoy life a little. ;)

5. Tomorrow I will be heading over to Marysville to catch the Heart, Cheap Trick and Journey show with one of my best friends, Coach Yavonne vonner4! It's going to be a rocking good time filled with yelling, jumping, singing and more yelling!

6. The Ender's Game book series by Orson Scott Card. Also, vampire novels!

For about a year now, I have been working toward becoming a more positive person. More specifically, my goal is to be a positive influence on the people around me. It's been a long, arduous task to accomplish since I had to battle against my natural cynical disposition, but I've come a long way. That's not to say I haven't make mistakes, and there have been several areas in dealing with people around me where I wish I had behaved differently, but it is what it is. Lessons were learned, and relationships shifted, albeit not necessarily for the worst.

Anyway, this wasn't initially intended to be a downer post, but a positive one! I ran across this video a few weeks ago when I was perusing my usual lineup of frequented blogs, and it struck a chord with me.

Will Smith - Running & Reading (The Key to Life)


The video itself is slightly tawdry, but I love Will Smith's simple message. Reading and running (or any other laborious exercise I've engaged in) happen to be important phenomena in my life.

Reading helps me to gain perspective, knowledge, and understanding of the world around me. There is hardly a day you won't catch me reading 2-5 books simultaneously while catching up on current events. I like being aware of the world around me, and continually learning has always been important to me.

Running serves to clarify my mind, and as Mr. Smith said, it gives me a sense of accomplishment and an ego boost when I surpass any personal endurance expectations. I get a high when I push myself to my physical limit, enduring those last painful sprints in order to to raise myself to the next level of physical fitness.

But hey, that's me. :) How about you? What are important things (or people) in your life that make you a better person?