First things first – Happy Birthday to my son, Elliott. He turns 12 at 5:55pm. That means – during the 4pm hour, when he’s getting shot, he’s still 11. Shhhhhh.
Someone noticed that I’m wearing my old work hat again. I washed it though . . . in the washer . . . not the dishwasher. Watch the video to see what I’m talking about.
166 runs / 166 babbles! 50 / 50 / 50 returns – all because of a Post-It! I need to keep doing more because I’m trying to ready myself for BJJ.
Did some writing last night. That was big. Organized stuff. Under 100 emails. Fixing up a short. Organizing the chapters of the book.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Better to trip with the feet than with the tongue” – by Zeno
Back at it on a Monday! I ran. It hurt a little. Yesterday’s run, #164 was out on the trails – late in the afternoon. Nearly 12 hours later, #165 was on the mill. Feeling it. Good hurt though. So, that’s a lot of 5k runs in a row. Goal is getting through January 1st – 2022.
Quick side note – talking about records a lot these past couple days because of Saturday’s record store day (next one is July 17th), new records that I bought, but one that I’ve suggested in the past and can’t push enough is Black Pumas – a beautiful album. White guy, Black guy – making beautiful musical magic together.
Change things up and I’m reading the quote of the day now. It’s from this book – the one that arrived yesterday during the recording of Sunday’s babble.
I go off-script a lot . . . you should go watch the video.
It was record store day, so the family and I headed out in the late afternoon. FYI – I did do my 163rd run. #164 is coming up outside after this 164th morning babble!
Anyway – family outing – and the question “to wear a mask or not” comes up before entering everywhere. Does every one get that feeling of “naked face”? It’s weird being out without a mask – are we allowed, aren’t we allowed . . . because my wife and I are vaccinated. And then, you see some individuals and you’re like – I don’t think they’ve ever had a mask on in the past year or so. That’s when I put mine back on again – vaccine or not. I’m playing it safe.
Back to Record Store Day – I didn’t get any specials but I did pick up 3 favorite artists of mine from Long Play Cafe in Newark. I did asked for some Elbow, but unfortunately, they didn’t have any. It currently resides in my Amazon cart, but I don’t want to go there. I like helping out the local businesses.
Speaking of which, Captain Blue Hen Comics is around the corner from Long Play Cafe and that sent me in the direction of catching up on some of my comic book reading when I got back home . . . while listening to my new vinyl!
Books . . . er . . . comics?
Finished the 5 issue series of American Ronin from Peter Milligan / Bring on the next volume because the first round was great!
I then grabbed my comic: Goldfish by Brian Michael Bendis and promptly dug into that one. He also wrote Jessica Jones: Alias as well as Scarlet.
I’m still reading my marking book from Seth Godin / Dave Chang’s memoir and / the leadership book which follows four former Presidents and how they led. Click here for those specific book and links.
I’m already peaking ahead to what’s next . . . maybe I’ll show those next week.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I tend to forget what I’m doing will ever be read while I’m writing it, and just get on with the task at hand.” – by Garth Ennis
Kicking off my Saturday with my turtle mug filled with my favorite black tea – it’s a smoky tea – Lapsang Souchong
Record Store Day (June 12th) Lady Gaga’s Chromatica on exclusive yellow vinyl; Rage Against the Machine with The Battle of Mexico City, which is a live album that was released last year for download; and AWOLNATION with Angel Miners & the Lighting Riders LIVE on vinyl. Aretha Franklin / Genesis / Def Leppard, and Prince. We get another Record Store Day on July 17th
I didn’t run yet – it will be 163, but this is the 163th babble
AMA Saturday:
Question #1 – Do you wear your watch backwards? Yes. In the video I explain.
Question #2 – Are those turtles? Uh-huh. Yup. I say dancing or playing tag. You can get yours on Ebay where it’s listed as RARE Mid Century Modern Brass Ashtray Turtle Lovers Circa 40s-50s for $50.70. Here’s the link. My grandfather collected turtles. Anything turtles. Oooo. I’ve got this spittoon of a turtle – HOLD ON
ANTIQUE TURTLE SPITTOON IN CAST IRON can be found on eBay – here’s that listing. Bidding begins at $239.99
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and X never, ever marks the spot.” – by Indiana Jones – you know, Han Solo with a hat and whip. Happy 40th to Raiders of the Lost Ark – today! We’re supposed to get a 5th Indy movie in 2022!
Happy Friday! Got my coffee today. Ran out of the MUD/WTR – send some asap! No more 3 Day Fast – well, for June. Yesterday morning, I was driving on 95 South in D-ware near Frawley and passed a billboard for Dover Downs stating “Dinner is Served” with a big old burger on it. It was like food porn. I so wanted to turn around and see it again. I was good though and broke the fast at the proper time. It was a dinner with red wine and pasta last night. My wife and I also had dark chocolate for dessert because we had to finish up the bottle that we were sharing – not just me, that would be bad.
I ran – 162 runs / 162 babbles
Someone noticed my dancing turtles or maybe they’re playing tag. I’ll talk about them tomorrow.
New Music Friday:
New Marshmello Album has fully dropped – Shockwave. That’s the song that they are pushing off of it too, “Shockwave.” I remember my son talking about Marshmello is going to be on my Fortnite this Saturday. I was like – Oh, that’s cute. At the time, I didn’t realize that it was the artist Marshmello until I heard it that Saturday. He made history with first ever Fortnite in-game concert – millions watched. This took place on Saturday, February 2nd, 2019 – day before the Superbowl. The day before Maroon 5 performed their halftime show. The day before Adam Levine pretty much took it all off on stage.
Speaking of Maroon 5 – Today, they released their new album ‘Jordi,’ which is dedicated to their late Manager, Jordan Feldstein who passed in 2017. The song that is being played on the airwaves is “Lost.” Maroon 5 reminds me of my time in Philly, when I was the Assistant Program Director which allowed me to play Music Director. Back then, radio stations got their music “ripped” into their computer via CDs that record companies would mail in or come visit with a special delivery. Back then it was 2002 and Maroon 5 was a nobody. We got their album – Songs About Jane – “Harder to Breathe” / “This Love” / “She Will Be Loved” / “Sunday Morning”. Go get that CD. I took it home. You said I could have it.
Got an EP of 5 songs from K. Flay today. Inside Voices – we’ve already heard Four Letter Words. Today, I heard the song that had Blink’s Travis Barker – Dating My Dad. Another song on the album has Rage’s Tom Morello on TGIF. I really enjoy anything that has K.Flay on it – totally dig her sound. That album from 2017 – Everywhere is Some Where. Do yourself and go listen to that – very real sound. Hit song was “Blood in the Cut”.
Migos! Do you remember “Migos in therapy” on SNL / only see it on the Peacock app – something like that. Anyway. This is another band I was listening to early. First featured on the show – Atlanta with Danny Glover. By the way Season 3 of Atlanta on FX will come out this January. Bad and Boujee. Why you singing “drop drop, dot dot dot, scared”? I don’t know. Anyway – full new album from them called Culture III. Song that’s being pushed is featuring Drake “Having Our Way”.
Something for me – Our Lady Peace with an Acousti Live set of Spiritual Machines – that’s originally their 4th studio album back in 2000.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” – by Jimi Hendrix
Might be some tweaks needed but this is the scribble that led to the babble . . .
Yet again – I already had today planned but podcasts and readings have made me tangent.
First – it’s Day 3 of the Fast. Today’s run is typically the toughest runs – and for the final 10 minutes, it wasn’t easy – let’s just say that. I keep remembering the 3rd day of my April fast and that was a bad run. Speaking of runs – yes, I ran 161st!
Got my water with a pinch of salt and lemon slice for the kick-off. Both big water bottles have a couple slices of cucumber in them. I’m telling you, I really enjoy that. I’m saving that for every fast. Tempting to do all the time, but I’m saving it.
One other thing – my last couple nights of sleep have been awesome. I took my MagMind – it’s Magnesium supplement. Normally, I don’t take any vitamins and such during the fast, but this is the one exception because of how well it helps me sleep. Maybe I should test that for sleep over 30 days?
So, this morning I went to Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard for my podcast and he recently had Russell Brand. Oh – FYI – Dax is moving to Spotify exclusively on 7/1. Anyway, I was only in my warm-up part of my run and the interview started. Right away, Russell Brand delivered a quote that I wanted. I really need something to write these things down, but instead, I bailed on that podcast and went to the Seth Rogan interview by Dax. No offense to Seth, I think. I believe he would have laughed. So, that quote from Russell is coming up.
Then, my Daily Stoic today was about two kinds of people in the world (taken from page 176 of Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic)
The first looks at others who have accomplished things and thinks: Why them? Why not me?
The other looks at those same people and thinks. If they can do it, why can’t I?
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Envy – it’s your own unfulfilled potential projected onto another.” – by Russell Brand
Hardest day of the fast is today – Day 2 of the 3 Day Fast. It’s the day that you wake up and your stomach is like “I think you forgot about something yesterday. Let’s go to the kitchen and I’ll show you.” Everything begins sounding so good.
So, I had today all planned, but then I was listening to the Dave Chang Show podcast (click here for the specific episode). They were talking about going to the dentist. They too were questioning about closing your eyes or not when the dentist is working over your teeth.
Rinsing after brushing?“In actual fact, if you do rinse out your mouth with water after brushing, you are getting rid of the fluoride from your mouth, which protects your teeth.”
They then started talking about dried fruit and my mouth began watering. I bailed for today (I’ll go back after the fast) and went to my running playlist – click here for that.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We’re hoping to succeed; we’re okay with failure. We just don’t want to land in between.” – by David Chang
My Morning Babble Wake-up playlist begins with The Fratellis – “Six Days in June”
Spotify recently did a “Find out how you listen” Which artists, songs, and podcasts set you apart? They poked fun at me listening to Taylor Swift and then the Raconteurs. I don’t think that’s too far off. I mean, if it was Run the Jewels to Taylor Swift – that would be a train wreck. Run the Jewels to Jack White – not bad at all. Witnessed that show at the Garden in NYC in 2015.
I ran – 159 days of 5k runs and morning babbles.
Also, June’s 3 day fast is underway – the 6th 3 day fast of the year. Unfortunately, it started later than I wanted – I finished downing a Gatorade at 6:38pm. Fast was on. As I always state, today is the easy day.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Don’t sell past the close.” – by Dorothy Hughes, Radio One
It’s Monday – go eat that frog! Get the tough “to do” out of the way for the day – maybe even for the week! Eat that frog!
Speaking of eating . . . I weighed myself this morning. Whew – I ate this weekend. In particular, I had one of those brick burritos from El Diablo. Delicious, but whew. It’s still there. BUT – it didn’t stop me from lathering up a bunch of peanut butter on top of my chocolate chip muffin.
Speaking of peanut butter, remember when Butterfinger teased us about them coming out with their very own Peanut Butter? Okay – so maybe, I do. I googled to see if it’s true yet. It’s not. But – I did learn that “Technically, Butterfinger does not contain peanut butter but ground roasted peanuts. They are almost the same thing except peanut butter requires a bit more grinding to form a paste.” So basically, Butterfinger was grinding & grinding, got a little lazy, and said – “Close enough! Put it in the bar.” And hence, the crispety crunchetyButterfinger bar was born.
All this food talk – why? Because my 3 day fast begins tonight after dinner. Who’s with me? If you know me, send along a text. OR – send an email and let me know that you’re in and I’ll cheer you along: morningbabble@brentevans.net. Let’s do this!
Today’s quote I took from Mark Manson. I haven’t read one of his books yet, but I’m working on it – sort of. Go watch the video to find out how I’m trying to read it.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The most meaningful moments in life do not show up on your calendar or to-do list” – by Mark Manson via his Instagram post
3 day fast begins tomorrow after dinner – who’s with me? We can drink water, tea, and coffee. No additives. Except, with my morning water, I add a little squeeze of lemon to help steady the belly for the day. Also, I will have a designated water bottle with a couple slices of cucumber floating within it. I really enjoyed that last month.
Austin Kleon – Steal Like an Artist – 10 year anniversary. Been showing the postcards from his publisher about reprints being made in the very beginning. Pages or pictures that didn’t make the book. I found fascinating – everyone asks what font he uses. That’s him – it’s the Austin font.
Books! – My top 5 most tabbed or highlighted books
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Telling yourself you have all the time in the world, all the money in the world, all the colors in the palette, anything you want – that just kills creativity.” – by Jack White via Austin Kleon book – Steal Like An Artist
