American Parkour

Here is a 10 minute video I shot on LA parkour Culture for a cultural anthro class.  I hope you like it!  Feedback is welcome (on youtube or here)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3JHZlxGIYQ

Watch in HQ!

So... I have decided I am definitely not healthy.  Furthermore, becoming healthy will make me a happier person, and help me achieve what I want to achieve in life.  So I am putting my foot down and am about to get serious about this.  I have tried before to make a journal but I had no pullup/dips bars and was busy.  I now have an excercise tower and plan on making a weight vest and buying rings eventually though I don't really have anything to hang them from.  The tower is too short/I am too tall. 

In my understanding there are four subsections of health

1) Sleep
2) Nutrition
3) Excercise
4) Mental

And I need to fix all of these things


1) SLEEP:

Where I am now:  I am almost literally nocturnal when life does not force me to be on a normal schedule.  And I have had afternoon college classes so yeah.  Bad.  I am just so ingrained into this schedule that it is almost impossible to break out of.  I am also very erratic lots of times.  Lots of all nighters.  Sometimes I pull an all nighter in an attempt to go to sleep the next night at a normal time but my internal clock lately is way off and is sticking there. I also sleep for a long time.  If no one wakes me I might sleep for 10-11 hours.  And after an all nighter I have been known to sleep 15-22 hours.  I also do weeks with like 3 hour nights the whole week during school.   

Where I want to be:  I am a night person.  I want to be a morning person.  Actually I want to be both but that is impossible.  I have noticed that morning people are typically healthy, disciplined and are often "go getters."  I would like to work towards that but don't want to completely give up staying up.  I'm not going to go to bed at 8:30.  Or 10.   

What I am going to do: I am going to set myself some rules and when I start I am absolutely going to try to stick to them.  I am not yet prepared to start but here are my rules:

- In bed by 12 (probably wake up around 7-9)
- Can break twice a week (will lower to one when I know I can do this)
- Can break for homework reasons but must do more excercises the next day or two (will come up with specifics later).


2) NUTRITION:

Where I am now:  I am super unhealthy in the way I eat.  I don't necessarily eat when I am hungry and lots of time, no tons of times I eat when I am not hungry.  I want food but I think I am not actually hungry.  Anyways I am not really fat because I still have a pretty fast metabolism from when I ran xc and track in cross country but it slowly is catching up. 
Where I want to be:  I want to eat healthily and not eat too much.  I also want to get rid of my excess fat and have a visible six pack.
What I am going to do:  I am going to have to go into this more gradually.  I have tried going cold turkey before but I don't think it will work.  I am going to do more research.  I have read a lot of the stuff here but I would like to try to log everything I eat.  How hard is this?  It seems extremely hard.  But it also seems like it would be a good way to make sure I am eating healthily at least until I get the habits down.   


2) Excercise:

Where I am now:  I used to run cross country and track (800m) and while I never felt I reached my full potential (time constraints) I was in pretty great shape cardiovascularly and my running muscles were strong and big.  Now I am much less in shape in all ways, though not in terrible shape.  I am around 6'1" and 190 lbs.  I am also very inflexible. 
Where I want to be:  I want to pass my level of fitness that I used to be at, but not focus on running obviously.  I have an idea of where I want to be but do not know what time and quantity would be realistic to set as goals.  I want to be strong, controlled and toned.  I want to be strong in relation to my body and be able to do L sits and muscle ups and work towards planches etc.  I also want to become very flexible-ish. 
What I am going to do:  I am going to keep reading but I do need help as far as what to start with and when I should aim to have certain quantities achieved by. 


2) Mental:
Not really going to get into this but I think that fixing the above three things will help me in this area a lot. 

Ok so I just put official so that I could get your attention      but I think you will enjoy my edit which I spent a looooong friggin time on.  Because I get perfectionistic.  Anyways this is day 1 of the huge California Jam that was oh so fun:

http://www.vimeo.com/7140003


I will be done with the UCLA jam in a while (When I have time) and it should be better and more insane.  Also, vimeo made it look really crappy for some reason so eventually I will upload a 1080p version to youtube or something.  If you want to download the file it will look a lot better but It's pretty big so I wouldn't if I were you lol.  DL link is on the bottom right hand corner.

Hey guys, this isn't a political debate or anything.  In fact I don't really even care about your personal opinions.  The thing is, I need to do a paper and presentation for my "ethics in economics" course, and my subject is the death penalty.  I was hoping maybe some of you might know something about this.  I know this is super unrelated, but then again, we have some amazing scholars on this board, so hopefully they can help me pull this together.  I just need some stats about the economic and large scale effects of abandoning or adopting/keeping capital punishment.  How much does it cost vs how much it costs to keep a prisoner in prison for life.  Thanks.  As I said, I know that it is a weird thing for this forum.  If you have nothing to add, just stay out.  No personal opinion arguments.  Thanks

Jackson Miller

As of now, I am eating the strictest and healthiest that I ever have and I think It might be getting easier.  I eat very very little sugar (used to be a sugar holic).  I also eat almost no bread.  I loved bread and muffins and lots of things like that but I have nearly eliminated those products completely from my diet.  I just eat maybe a couple of tortillas and a granola bar sometimes.  Occasionally I eat 1-2 pieces of pizza, but the point is, I am probably eating less than 1/10 the amount of breads I used to eat.  I get pretty hungry though and sometimes there is not a whole lot to eat.  I try to eat fruit and veggies and lunch meat and yogurt and things like that, though I do not get enough veggies probably.  I am losing the fat I wanted to lose and it is working well bit.  But I am hungry sometimes, and I may also be losing some muscle mass though I haven't been working out a lot lately either except for planche progressions. 

So, I went of topic, but what is the best way to eat in order to continue to lose fat and not gain any more once I get it where I want, but to also gain muscle?  I don't want bulk, just some lean muscle.  Is this possible to do?  Or do I need to be stuffing myself to gain muscle and therefore get fat too? 

Thanks.

This is not exactly a year sampler or anything, since we filmed it in only 2 days.  So I named it January 2009 Sampler.  Anyways, Here it is.  Please look at it and tell me what you think.  There are specific things I already know I need to work on, like climb-ups, but go ahead and critique.  Pure parkour, no freerunning.  Watch in HD.

http://www.vimeo.com/3007509

Thanks for watching 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnJLGPdyt6k&NR=1

Pretty sure that hasn't been posted, and even if it has, well it is very amazing.  Just watch.   

Is breakfast good or not?  I read the IF stuff and Chris and others seem to say it is unnecessary, but look at these articles:

http://weightloss.about.com/library/blbreakfast.htm

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/lose-weight-eat-breakfast

Just trying to understand.  Also, on a slightly different note, I don't understand carbs either.  A couple of years ago when the atkins diet was all the craze, educated people seemed to say it was BS and very unhealthy to cut carbs.  But people here seem to say you really don't need carbs.  How much should I really be eating and what kinds?  I normally eat tons. 

Thanks guys.

So, I am about to get a fisheye lens for one of my video cameras but I can't decide what kind of magnification I want.  I am considering everything from .3x (extreme fisheye) to .45.  There is a .3x one I like but The wider the lens, the more extreme the distortion and the Closer you must get to film.  I have seen some fisheye shots in several videos here and I was just hoping for some advice from people who have used them before I make the plunge.

Thanks a bunch.

**I realize this is long but if you take the time to read it I would really appreciate it.**

About 7 hours ago I possibly had the most infuriating and humiliating experience that I have ever had.

Some background info.  I am 18 years old.  I have stayed out of trouble my whole life.  I have never been drunk or done any drugs.  I've never been in a serious fight and yeah, my friends from high school considered me pretty innocent.  I was going to go to cal state long beach but at the last minute decided to go to a community college for 2 years so that I could do what I really wanted - study film at UCLA.  SO now I got to a CC.  I am an exemplary student with a huge course load (not to brag but compared to most of the people here its true).  In addition I work there as a student ambassador and represent the school at college fairs and high schools.  So, you get the basic idea.

Anyways, today my class had just gotten out and my friend and I were practicing some tacs.  It was about 5:00 pm.  We were being safe, respectful and keeping it ground level.  Since it is/was a friday there were not many people around.  My friend decided to try a wallrun on an 11 foot wall.  He couldn't do it but I did it and then walked down the side of it which slanted diagonally down so that I was only about 6 feet up when I dropped down.  My friend then successfully got up the wall just as a teacher drove past us.  It was not a road but teachers are allowed to park there apparently.  He drove by slow and my friend was already down by his point.  We began doing pushups to emphasize we were exercising and not doing anything wrong.  He parked down farther and disappeared around the corner. 

Three minutes later a huge police SUV appears.  Our school has its own police station with full time officers and like 5 of these huge SUVs with ramming bumpers and spotlights.  Totally overboard.  So anyways this thing appears out of nowhere and is traveling at around 30-40 mph.  It bounces up onto the walkway we are on and literally got like 5 feet of air.  It was driving in an area with halls running perpendicular to its path and if anyone had walked out they would have been killed.  So this thing screeches to a hault.  And an officer jumps out.  Now keep in mind that we had not been doing parkour for the past couple of minutes and were preparing to leave.  I had just pulled on my messenger bag.  The officer is about 30 feet away and immediately goes into Jack Bauer mode.  This guy yells "Drop the bag!  Drop the bag sir"  by now my hands were already in the air and my bag was on the ground.  "Slowly step away from the bag.  Now step away from each other.  STOP!  Stay still!"  Now Mr. Bauer cautiously advances towards us.  He gets behind my friend Colin, and grabs his hands and cuffs him.  I am thinking WTF?  He tells my friend to go sit in the grass. 

Next Mr. Bauer cuffs me.  I try to ask him what is going on and he tells me to shut up and go sit next to Colin.  Wow.  I can not believe this.  Then he calls colin over and pats him down.  He takes everything out of his pockets etc.  Then It was my turn.  "Spread your legs.  I SAID SPREAD YOUR LEGS!"  What the F@CK?  Apparently this guy wanted me to do the splits.  I go sit down and he tells us that a witness called (the teacher) because they saw us climbing over a wall of a gated area (on the other side were electrical boxes and pipes.  We never crossed over onto this side however).  He said that we were trespassing.  I asked him how we were trespassing if I just had a class 30 minutes ago.  He said we could not hang around and that we had no business at the school after our classes get out.  I try to explain to him that we were practicing a physical discipline and just exercising etc.  He cut me off and said he didn't care... that we needed to find somewhere else.  Now That would have been fine with me.  He could have just said that without the theatrics and we would have left.  Heck if the teacher had asked we would have left.  This was completely without warning though. 

Every time he asked a question or any time we talked at all for that matter, he assumed we were lying.  He treated me like scum.  He asked me like 7 times if I was sure I didn't have a weapon.  He went back and forth from us to his tactical ramming tank to converse with the station, check our ID's etc.  I don't have a drivers license and all I had was a school ID.  He came over to me with a pad and made me tell him all of my info (address etc.).  He spent a whole minute telling me what would happen to me if I lied in any way because he would find out.  Wow this was crazy.  It pissed me off that he just assumed I was a lying piece of shit and treated me like one.  How did I get into this situation again?  Oh yeah, I was on a wall for 5 seconds.  And then I was handcuffed and on the ground by this moron.  The whole process took almost an hour.  The whole time we were handcuffed.  My friend says the cop put them on wrong and he knows a lot about that stuff so it is certainly a possibility. 

This guy was like a master at not communicating.  It had been like 30 minutes and he had probably only said about 15 sentences to us.  He had still not explained what was going on.  I asked him if I could please explain to him what we were doing.  He said "Ok I will give you a chance."  Well I was pretty stunned and kinda choked up so this was probably my worst explanation of parkour ever.  Especially because he just kept cutting me off.  He said he didn't care about our intentions and that we were trespassing.  He said it was about liabilities etc.  Yeah I've heard that one before.  But never while in handcuffs.  I'll teach this cop a thing or two about liabilities by he time this is through.  Oh and he also went over to my book bag and threw everything out of it.  I watched with glee as he looked through all my honors books and ruined my notes.  Obviously he was not finding what he was looking for.  He also almost broke my cell phone and sunglasses. 

Then he went into what could be done to us.  He used his mean Jack Bauer voice and told us that for trespassing he could issue us a suspension form which would mean we could not be seen on campus grounds for 2 weeks.  If we were seen on campus during that period then we would be arrested and sent to jail.  He went back to his tank for a while probably to let us wallow in our fear and then returned.  He told us that he was not going to fill out the form yet but that if he caught us on campus for any reason in the next couple of weeks and we didn't have business to do there, he would suspend/ban us.  I could not believe it.  I was just appalled.  I could not seem to speak my mind.  I wanted to say something like "Why are you treating us like this?  We were on a wall for 5 seconds this is way out of proportion.  We aren't criminals, we didn't break anything!  Who do you think I am?  You can't make those assumptions!  I am probably the most straight edge, ambitious kid at this pathetic school and you treat me like this?  Of course that would have been stupid and disrespectful.  Keep in mind we were completely respectful the whole time.  I still wanted to ask him why he was making such a huge deal though but I couldn't put my thoughts into words and he immediately interrupted me saying that if I was going to argue (and I had not even said anything) that he could fill out the forms right then.  So I kept my mouth shut.  I literally could not speak though.  My throat was all swollen.  I am not normally a sensitive guy at all.  This was just so foreign to me though.  So anyways, he went through a complex uncuffing procedure and had us slowly move this hand this way and blah blah blah.  Even after he uncuffed us he made us keep our hands on our heads until he was about 20 feet from us.  He then got into his tank and escorted us off of school grounds.  Is it just me or was this guy way out of line?  I mean jeez, this guy could have ruined my whole future!  I need to get into a good college and that could have been jeopardized over a wallrun.

Points to keep in mind:

Cop didn't have a warrant or anything to search my bag.

He pulled up at 35 mph

He thinks he is Jack Bauer

He was RUDE and treated us as though we were going to break out of the handcuffs, pull a gun out of nowhere, and try to shoot him.  He acted this way the entire time despite the fact that we were compliant and respectful the entire time.  We did everything he asked.  In addition, I have no criminal record. 

****************************
Thanks a ton for reading.  Is it just me or was this guy way out of line?  I am used to cops who are much more mellow and receptive to the idea of parkour.