blue belt life

Why Ashtanga Part 2: Purification

By bluebeltlife November 17, 2014 Health and Living, Yoga

I’ve allowed some months to pass since my last post on Ashtanga, as I have gone deeper into my practice and contemplated more on what drives me to continue. The first reason I keep this as a major part of my life and the first impact the new practitioner is likely to feel is physical purification. This is best understood through experience – and I encourage all to try this practice for a month with an experienced teacher – but I will try to explain in words in the hope that I pique someone’s interest in exploring further. 1 This can actually be a problem for people with a body…

Back to Peeling Almonds

By bluebeltlife November 10, 2014 Blue Belt Weekly, Investing

After a couple exciting weeks (see here and here) and an impromptu music video last week I got back to some basics this week and continued work on some ongoing projects. I also peeled about a kg of almonds – of course after soaking them overnight in salt water. For those who are wondering the almond’s skin is difficult to digest and contains most of the phytic acid which binds the nutrients in the almond. The Ayurvedic way is to soak the raw almonds and peel by hand before eating – this retains the most nutrient content. But so as to knock out a whole kg in one sitting (whilst…

Giant Monster Tokyo Rats

By bluebeltlife November 3, 2014 Blue Belt Weekly, Music, Videos

For the Halloween edition of the Weekly, I took a detour on the creative front to make another short Tokyo music video. I happened upon this frightening menace at the Nijubashimae subway station on the way to the farmers market on Saturday. Funny, as Nijubashimae is the wrong stop – I was day dreaming (ok I was looking at my cell phone like everyone else) and went one stop too far. But I’m glad fate expedited the process of getting this particular song out there, as it’s been hanging in the books since July 2012.

A Dream Emcee

By bluebeltlife October 27, 2014 Blue Belt Weekly, Videos

This week’s big event was the Dream Kids Undokai (Sports Day), for which my school has been preparing for months. I got called in for an impromptu emcee role for one of the events (ok I had a couple days notice). Since I’ve bragged about my speeching capabilities I figured I better record the event and share it for all to see. Oh here’s some more advice for giving speeches – I use these warmups every time I have to speak in front of people and they really get the adrenaline flowing and work out some of the nerves. Try it out next time you have to do anything nerve…

How to Become a YouTube Idol

By bluebeltlife October 20, 2014 Blue Belt Weekly

This weekend I was fortunate to go to the YouTube Fanfest Academy for creators and see the YouTube Fanfest show last night. It was an exciting and inspirational weekend and I’m grateful to everyone, especially my one and only, for getting me into these events. Not only was I able to grow my YouTube following by 25% in one day (from 8 to 10 – log into gmail and subscribe here if you haven’t!), but I also got to meet and listen to the stories and advice of some YouTube sensations. I even got to hang with Marquese Scott, of this viral video’s fame. Here are some highlights from his…

Perspectives from a Year in: a Matter of Will

By bluebeltlife October 18, 2014 Health and Living

“A warrior knows he is waiting for his will.” – Don Juan It’s been a little over a year since I embarked on this journey of doing a bit of everything. In the last “Perspectives” piece I noted some of the challenges I faced with a blank slate and open schedule. I won’t sugar coat and tell you it has gotten any easier. Though the time passed effortlessly, it was the hardest year of my life. This is measurable in tears. I cried more tears of sadness, frustration, and very occasionally, joy, than any other time in my memory. Sharath Jois put it simply at his Tokyo workshop this year:…

A Billion-dollar Idea

By bluebeltlife October 13, 2014 Blue Belt Weekly

Last week’s sample “week in the blue belt life” was slightly extraordinary in the amount of running around I was doing and lack of sleep I was accumulating. To balance things out the Universe planted a couple golf balls in my throat lymph nodes and bound me to the bed and antibiotics for three days this week. I then retaliated by drinking a cup of Bleddy’s cafe americano and turning insomniac for all of Friday night. Next move, Universe. Friday’s behavior aside, though as my one and only says I am stubborn and therefore end up repeating mistakes such as those that led me to get sick, I do believe…

Photos from the Foot of Mt. Fuji

By bluebeltlife October 10, 2014 Health and Living, Travel

So my friend and co-conspirator from behind the scenes on this website, Joe Smith, has just moved to the foot of Mt. Fuji. He’s living in a cabin, teaching, and making music – sounds like the picture of a blue belt life to me! He has volunteered occasionally snap a photograph of this majestic beauty for everyone to behold. Look for updates in the Mt. Fuji section at the top. And who knows, maybe we’ll hear more from him over year two of this blog – hello? Where you at Joe Smith? Or are you just going to remain the Scorsese to my DiCaprio? OK I’m going to plug him…

A Week in the Blue Belt Life

By bluebeltlife October 6, 2014 Cooking, Health and Living, Vegetarian Recipes

This week I answer the most common question about my current life: what exactly is it, I do here? Well, in all its glory, here’s the blue belt life play-by-play from last week:

Introducing the Blue Belt Weekly

By bluebeltlife September 29, 2014 Blue Belt Weekly

As the one-year anniversary of me embarking upon this new life nears, I have begun contemplating on things undone and resolutions for what I can do in year two of my blue belt life. One of these is upping my game on contributions to this site. And so I unveil version 2.0 of the Duss Weekly. The previous version of the Weekly lasted, well, a week. I simply wouldn’t devote that much of my week (even if it was only one day) to studying and writing about the market. So in 2.0 I am going to review something a little closer to my real interests, and the single area that…

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