Let’s build a school this weekend
Believe it or not, there are things in life that are bigger than the relentless pursuit of looking good naked. Not many, but they’re out there.
This>Shirt is a cause that is bigger. I’m just going to completely repost what they’ve written, but they are pushing to build a school this weekend and need to sell only 500 shirts to do it. If you have a little space in your heart, let these guys in. It’s $29 with shipping for a SWEET t-shirt and you are helping those less fortunate souls who more than likely will not get the chance to happen upon this website.
Here it is, and you can find the website here. Go get one (or three!) of these shirts.
So, what did your shirt do this weekend? This shirt helped build a school…
What a great weekend! We hit FaceBook and Twitter hard on Friday and didn’t stop till Sunday night.
We had an advertising budget of exactly zero dollars and zero cents. We keep costs low in order to donate more. Limitation is an ideal breading ground for creativity and inspiration. In a few short hours FaceBook was buzzing with This Shirt. See the screen shot below says it all:
So, the latest tally is 171 shirts sold from the start of the project up to the time of this post. Not reflected in this number is the enthusiasm and support of the countless people on FaceBook, Twitter and everywhere else. I spoke to so many people over email and FaceBook who I’d never met but were instantly united by this simple and powerful goal.
I’ve also been speaking to many more potential partners who will be helping promote this project for african schools and for future projects. FabFind has also been amazing and will continue to offer the shirt to it’s large client base.
So, what does this mean for our goal of 500 shirts and building one school in Africa? It means continue to talk and share in person and online. The least you can do is actually the most. This project was created for many reasons. There is the obvious one: building a school for kids who have no opportunity to attend one. But the even larger goal is to prove little ideas can make big changes with the help of good friends.
I’d like to take the chance to thank many of those good friends. Many I have met. Many I have not. They came from everywhere and did everything from blogging, to talking to buying. And they did it relentlessly:
Shawn Mozen from Agatsu, Robb Wolf author of the Paleo Solution, Jennifer Branco and all the people at the Micheal Pinball Clemons Foundation, Free The Children, Craig Smith Of FabFind, Coach Mike Burgener, Trinity-Spadina MPP Rosario Marchese, Ken Chong of The BaitShop, Steve Cotter, Sincere Hogan, Nicki Voletti of NorCal S&C, Erwan Le corre of MovNat, Brian MacKenzie from CrossFit Endurance, Team Gorilla, Whole9,Summer Wesson of CrossFit Team Academy, Boris Terzic, Sio, Leah, Tyler and Peter the awesome team at CrossFit Quantum, Greg Carver of Strength Box, Jonah Brotman ofOperation Groundswell, Nogah Kornberg of Young Social Entrepreneurs of Canada, Amy Kubal of Fuel as Rx, Martin Rubio of Vroom Media, Daniela Andrews of Rule Of Three,Mike Mahler, CrossFit Harlem, Mark Gleason of CrossFit Niagara, Ang Armstrong of Iron Angel KettleBells, Cindy Sexton of PaleoDish and Summer Innanen of Cosmopolitan Primal Girl. And Finally, the amazing crew at Academy Of Lions that made this happen:Sohail Bastani, Mashid Shahfar, Ashley Holland, Erin McCutcheon, Freya Ravensbergen, Sara-Clare Lajeunesse, Mikey Pamaputera, Myles McCutchon, John Viljeon, Mike Tamblyn, Caitlin Steenberg, Soha Bastani and an ever growing cast.
There are many many more to thank and I will later. It’s a little too early in the morning and a little too little coffee to do it all.
I’ll be updating the numbers as we edge closer to 500. I’ll also post videos of the process: from shirt to school.
Endless thanks,
dhani.
Friday Fun, Now With Office Space References
First, the not-so-fun:
LDL Cholesterol Calculator – I had a “health screening” to decide how much of a premium I have to pay for health insurance next year. This is a brilliant idea, and I should be pumped about it, right? I mean, I am fucking healthy. I put in the blood, sweat and tears. I take my vitamins, hit the gym 4-5 times a week and generally stay active. I eat well, I sleep well, I live (generally) stress-free and I work out. I AM FUCKING HEALTHY DAMMIT. Makes me feel like the guy from Office Space…
“I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don’t have to. I HAVE PEOPLE SKILLS.”
I get so worked up because (and if this is you as well, I feel you) it’s frustrating as hell to work out and eat right, become fairly muscular (5’10” – 190 – ~9-10% BF, just sayin’) and learn that your BMI is 27 and now Obama thinks you’re fat. Well I ain’t down with that.
Right after BMI is the DREADED cholesterol “risk” test. I get the results and my non-fasted trigycerides were at 40. 40. Right? They were so low that that actually 40 is an estimate, the test couldn’t measure them that low. HDL: 58, Total Cholesterol: 196 (AHHHHHHH…. “BORDERLINE” HIGH CHOLESTEROL! RUN FOR THE FUCKING HILLS). This put my LDL at 130 or so (an apparently highly risky level)… I got interested and found that most doctors are using a formula to calculate LDL based off of trigylceride and HDL count called the Friedewald formula. Turns out there is a much newer test developed by Iranian Scientists in 2008 to account for those people who do not have high cholesterol/tryglyceride numbers (the Friedewald formula was developed in 1972). This formula puts my LDL at 95. To them, this is a much less risky number, so I’m hoping they are using this calculation. Put your latest results into the LDL Cholesterol Calculator to find your (maybe?) more realistic LDL number. This tells nothing of particle size or oxidation levels however, so this test is basically useless either way, but what the fuck ever.
Anyhow – without further ado:
How bout some Paleo(ish) Chocolate Chip Cookies this weekend? I mean it’s worth a try… if anyone tries these, let me know how they are! I’ll get the wife to make them and post it.
And a couple of videos and pictures to ice this post…
Just let your mind relax and soak this guy up…
A Picture is worth a thousand words:
This one is actually sad, I think. But he got his six-pack abs!
Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo
SORRY!!! JUST MARRIED!
So sorry to anyone who regularly follows PBB… In the last two weeks I have been crazy busy… I know we all say this, but on October 8, I GOT MARRIED!
Then we immediately left for our Honeymoon to GORGEOUS St. John, USVI:
Where, despite all the beauty and majesty of a tropical island, there was no working internet.
So – I apologize for for not just putting this post in the week of the 4th, but I was bananas busy! It totally just slipped through the cracks.
I will update this post when we get our pictures uploaded – if you are interested you can see some of the sights from my trip, live vicariously through me and get an idea of what I look like (don’t know if that’s going to help or hurt traffic…).
DRUM ROLL…
Here’s a couple articles. Good reads – check ’em out:
LDL Cholesterol Calculator – I will touch more on this on Friday, but I have a “health screening” tomorrow to decide how much of a premium I have to pay for health insurance next year. Among the tests is the DREADED cholesterol “risk” test. I got mine done recently, and my non-fasted triglycerides were at 40. Pretty low – but my LDL was “high” at 130. I did a little digging and found that while LDL is calculated based on HDL and TRIGS, etc, there is a much newer (and less often used) test developed by Iranian Scientists to account for those people who do not have high cholesterol numbers (the Friedewald formula was developed in 1972). This formula puts my LDL at 95. To them, this is a much less risky number, so I’m hoping they are using this calculation. Put your latest results into the calculator to find your (probably) more realistic LDL number. This tells nothing of particle size or oxidation levels however, so this test is basically useless either way, but what the fuck ever.
The China Study vs the China study | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. – a great run through of what the China Study says from Dr. Eades. Very smart man.
CHEZ GROK’S PRIMAL RECIPES! Cookbook – Food.com – Chez Grok has some solid Primal/Paleoish recipes here, from desserts to breakfast and soup to nuts. Good place to dig up tonight’s chow!
Rock and Roll – see you on Friday!
T
FOF, Black Sheep Edition
Happy FRIDAY Gang!!!
When someone asks if you want extra Mayonnaise, you have to say yes. Cause that’s part of it. If the easy way is to walk, ya know around something, you walk through it. – Jared Allen
You may remember the footage of Jared SPEARING A WILD ANIMAL FROM A TREE…
Next up, we have a clip from the New Zealand version of the comedy classic Black Sheep. Here is the description, from Youtube (I am not making this up):
“Early footage from the movie. Oliver Driver gets attacked by escaped fetus.”
And finally… then there is the REAL Black Sheep, summed up nicely in the following clip.
Party on dudes!
GR 9.29.10
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. – Aristotle
The above is really for me – I am slipping into the habit of mediocrity… Just three articles today. I am slacking, and I apologize. Excuse, excuse, blah, blah, excuse.
These are all worth your time – so at least what I’ve got, I came through on.
- First, an excellent diagram on the proper use of hips:
- A Couple from 70’s Big:
- A note to the average woman – Muscles are sexy, bones are not…. this is a great read that is reassuring to woman who’d like to get in shape and should act as a pamphlet for men to give to the lady(ies?) in their life.
- Average weightloss advice is MORONIC and assumes you are a helpless idiot. That’s actually the summary right there.
- A cool bench press variation, from elitefts.com. Similar to floor press, this variation will develop “starting strength” (force development from a dead stop). This is important if, ya know, you want to be STRONG AS HELL.
Enjoy, Learn and GROW.
T