My Morning Routine (December 29, 2025)
Over my winter break, I have dialed in a morning routine that has supercharged my wellness, energy, and focus. For a long time my morning routine was (1) hop out of bed, (2) splash my face and brush my teeth, and (3) eat. This was quick and easy, but with the extra time during winter break I wanted to try something new. Below is my new, one-hour morning routine.
First, let's talk about sleep. Sleep is the number one factor that affects your mood and energy. Additionally, sleep is the factor that enables other health and wellness practices to actually do their job. For example, if you're taking a turmeric supplement to reduce inflammation, the supplement will have zero effect if you are getting low-quality sleep and/or not sleeping enough.
The Routine:
1. When I start the day with a warm shower, I get my blood moving. It's also nice to incorporate a cold rinse - this really wakes you up! I brush my teeth right before the shower.
2. After a long sleep and a warm shower, my face is sometimes a bit puffy. So right after my shower, I have a bowl of ice water ready to dunk my face into. This reduces some of that puffiness and also wakes me up if I didn't do a cold-rise in the shower!
3. Stretch! In the morning, especially as an athlete, I often wake up feeling sore and stiff. Stretching in the morning was a lifesaver for me. After my shower, when my core temperature has already been raised, stretching makes me feel human again. I do a full-body stretch: Hamstrings, quads, calves, hips, core, shoulders, biceps, forearms, and some funky back stretches. Once I've done all of my stretches I also like to do some pushups or light calisthenics to get the blood flowing a bit more and get a small pump on.
4. After my stretching session I put on various face and body moisturizers that bring everything together. At this point, my body is warm, my circulation is active, and my skin absorbs products more effectively. This step is less about vanity and more about maintenance - keeping my skin healthy, comfortable, and ready for the day. It also serves as a psychological “closing loop” on the physical portion of my routine, signaling that I am transitioning from preparation to execution.
5. Finally, I make and eat breakfast. This is where I fuel everything I just set up. A solid breakfast stabilizes blood sugar, improves focus, and prevents energy crashes later in the morning. I prioritize whole foods and enough protein to stay full and sharp. This is also when I have my coffee. Many people believe that coffee dehydrates you, but this is a misconception. Coffee is mostly water, and while caffeine has a mild diuretic effect, it does not outweigh the fluid intake - especially for people who drink coffee regularly. In addition to hydration, coffee has well-documented benefits: increased alertness, improved cognitive performance, enhanced physical output, and even long-term associations with reduced risk of certain diseases when consumed in moderation.
This routine is not about perfection or optimization for its own sake - it is about starting the day with intention and momentum. By taking one focused hour each morning to invest in sleep, movement, and fuel, I set myself up to operate at a higher level for the rest of the day. My goal for this routine? To go into 2026 feeling sharp!
No Place at All (November 3, 2025)
No Place at All (a fictional parable)
One day many years ago as I stood outside the Metro Center station, I was approached by a stranger. He was a boy about my age, not more than fifteen.
“Excuse me,” he said, “I’m lost. Can you point me to the nearest Metro station?”
I was astonished since we were standing right in front of a Metro station – and not just any station, the central station of the city. “Dude, are you ok?” I responded. “This is the entrance to the metro. You’re standing right in front of it!”
“Bear with me,” he said. “I’m not from here. I come from a small town in rural, and the whole city just seems overwhelming. Everything looks the same – concrete and glass everywhere. It’s hectic, with people and cars and bikes and busses coming at me at every corner. Even at night it’s light, yet shadows lurk everywhere and I am afraid. We hear stories of gangs and criminals. Where I’m from there’s peace and quiet and we all know our neighbors. Unlike the city where everything looks the same, we know the beauty of every bend in the creek and every mountain pasture.”
“That’s funny,” I said, “because I feel just the opposite. I feel safer in the city surrounded by lights and people. In the countryside it’s so dark at night, and I can’t see my hand in front of my face. If something were to happen to me help would be miles away. The countryside is beautiful for sure, but the city is not all the same as you say. It has beautiful architecture and people from all walks of life.”
He went on his way, and I went on mine. Years passed. I grew up and had a family. The city was too expensive, and so like many others I moved out to the suburbs where I imagined my children would have safer streets and better schools. One evening after a long day, and an even longer commute, I had to go out to the store to get milk. I drove to the store even though it was less than a mile away, because there were no sidewalks where I lived now. Waiting in line at the store, I recognized the man in front of me as the same boy from the country that I had met so many years ago. I introduced myself and said, “Look at us now. We were so different then but we have ended up neighbors. How do you like it here?”
“To be honest, I hate it,” he replied. “I have nothing really to complain about, but it’s as if everything has run together. The city swallowed up the country and became something that is neither the city nor the country. I moved here from the country because I thought my children would have more opportunities if we lived closer to the city, but I sometimes wonder if we would have been happier in the countryside.”
Analysis of No Place at All
Ágoston’s parable No Place at All engages with Italo Calvino’s Continuous Cities: Cecilia to extend the metaphor of Cecilia into a familiar setting and a familiar dilemma of our own time. In both parables, two strangers from different worlds encounter one another in a city. One feels at home in the city while the other finds it disorienting and even frightening, just as the city dweller feels about the idea of life in a rural place. Years later, the two meet again by chance. At this time both are living in the suburbs. Each has moved there for reasons that are common and understandable: safer streets, a lower cost of living, proximity to opportunity or better schools. Yet each feels they have lost something in the process: a sense of place and of belonging to a place. Like Calvino’s traveler and herdsman, they feel lost in a world where distinctions between places have been erased.
These two parables create a metaphorical system to explore what happens when the differences that people use to structure their identities and experiences of the world are blurred or erased in a continuum of sameness. At first the binary of “city” and “country” seem to divide and limit the identities of the protagonists. They each see the world very differently and feel lost and threatened when taken out of their familiar environment. The “suburb” seems at first to offer a metaphorical solution to this dilemma – the best of both worlds. However, paradoxically, each ends up even more disoriented in this new environment. The city dweller misses the city but reflects that, “I might have even liked the countryside better” (Ágoston). This is surprising given the discomfort with rural life that he expresses earlier in the parable.
The collapse of the city-country distinction in Ágoston’s parable serves as a central metaphor for disorientation and the breakdown of structures. When Agoston wrote, “the city swallowed up the country and became something that is neither the city nor the country” (Ágoston), the binary between rural and urban spaces is shown to have dissolved, leaving the protagonist in a confused state. This metaphor highlights how clearly defined categories that normally structure identity and experience can disappear, making it difficult to locate a sense of belonging. The “swallowed-up” city represents not just a physical space but the collapse of boundaries that once made the world legible (Ágoston).
Calvino’s city in Cecilia is similarly unstable, made of memories and impressions. The streets and buildings feel both real and imagined, showing that home is not just a place, but also how we experience it. Cecilia describes the city as “a patchwork of remembered streets, half-real houses, and fleeting objects” (Calvino 135), which emphasizes its impermanent nature. Ágoston reflects this idea by showing that moving to a “safe” or “practical” place does not guarantee belonging. Even when the suburbs offer convenience and comfort, the characters feel a sense of emptiness or loss, as when the city man reflects, “I might have even liked the countryside better” (Ágoston). This shows that home is not simply about practical advantages, it is about emotional connection and the ability to recognize oneself in a space. Both authors suggest that identity, belonging, and comfort depend on how a person relates to their surroundings, not just on where they are or what the place offers.
No Place at All deepens Calvino’s ideas by placing them in settings readers can easily recognize, showing how the tension between home and feeling lost exists in everyday life. Both parables remind us that the search for home is complicated. It is about feeling connected and finding spaces where we can truly belong, even if those spaces are unstable or constantly changing. By examining how the city and the suburbs reshape identity, Ágoston and Calvino reveal that belonging is as much an internal experience as an external one. Ultimately, these stories invite readers to reflect on their own sense of place, and to recognize that even in a world where distinctions blur, the effort to find or create “home” is a meaningful and ongoing journey.
Works Cited:
“Hidden Meaning: Parables and Allegory.” Text Book, edited by Robert Scholes et al., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003, pp. 128-135.
Ágoston, Zoltán. No Place at All. 2025.
The Power of Journaling (October 29, 2025)
Lately, I have been journaling a lot, and I think you should too. To talk about journaling, I want to first offer a note on visualization that will add context to my thoughts. Visualization is the practice of forming clear and detailed mental images of your goals to help align your mindset with the outcomes you want to achieve.
Here’s another idea to build on: Warren Buffett famously promoted his 5/25 rule. It states that you should list your top 25 goals, select the 5 that matter the most, and then avoid the remaining 20 at all costs to stay focused and drive success.
If you journal daily, you are naturally doing both of these things at once – whether you realize it or not. Every day that you journal, every page that you fill out, every idea or success that you jot down, every frustration you lament in your writings, you are slowly creating a comprehensive worldview and constructing your dream life.
Journaling gives form to your thoughts on a large scale. If you journal for long enough, you can analyze the patterns and see the bigger picture – the parts of your dream that recur in each entry. It helps you identify what truly matters, echoing Buffett’s 5/25 rule. Focus on the few things that will bring you your dream, and let go of the rest.
Ben's Weblog (September 24, 2025)
Here I provide the link to a blog by a good friend of mine, Ben Smith: Exploring the Crooked Crag
The New River Gorge and The Rock Warrior’s Way (August 10, 2025)
This past week I went out to climb lead in the New River Gorge, West Virginia. I went with a local guide who has been trained in The Rock Warrior’s Way – a climbing philosophy, book, and course by Arno Ilgner. Though Arno’s method is most known for tackling and working with fear and commitment in climbing, the philosophy and approach arise from these more general points:
Climbing (and life) is a mental game first.
Stay in the present moment.
Accept risk consciously.
Commitment and execution matter more than perfection.
Focus on learning, not outcomes.
Falling and commitment are skills that can be learned.
Conserve mental energy.
These were the points that my guide emphasized while I was on the rock. Climbing outdoors is different from climbing in the gym, more “cryptic” as some climbers describe it. Holds, movements, and sequences are less immediately apparent, and the distance between protection points is farther – more “runout.” As I tackled climbing in less-than-ideal fall-zones and long runouts, The Warrior’s Way mentality, and these points in particular, allowed me to take control of the natural feelings of fear and uncertainty, work with them, and learn from them. I found myself less focused on “sending,” and more open to taking breaks on the wall to study the route or reset mentally. In this way I felt as much of a sense of accomplishment on routes I didn’t finish, that pushed me to my limits, as those I completed.
Thought for the Day (June 8, 2025)
“Virtue is destroyed through the same activities through which we acquire it, and the same is true for practical skills. People become both good and bad kitharists from playing the kithara, and similarly for house builders and all the rest. It is from building well that people become good house builders, and from building badly that they become bad ones…. The same goes for the virtues. From of transactions with others, for example, some of use become just, and others unjust. From the way we act in frightening situation, as we get used to feeling fear or confidence, some of us become braved while others become cowards. So too in matters of appetites and anger, some people develop self-discipline and an even temper, while others become self-indulgent and hot tempered – depending on how they conduct themselves in those situations.”
From Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Here, Aristotle is saying that just doing something a lot does not mean you will be good at it. You have to do it a lot and do it well. If you practice bad habits, they will get ingrained. The same goes for good habits and good practices. Aristotle extends this from skill-based practices, such as playing an instrument or engaging in a trade, to the realm of ethics and personal virtues, such as bravery and self-discipline. If you practice excellent bravery, you will become more courageous and confident. If you practice good self-discipline, you will not be ruled by greed and anger. If you allow yourself to be ruled by fear, greed, and anger, you will only become more entrenched in those habits.
LINES (April 4, 2025)
Biographie, Lucid Dreaming
Double Vision, Esperanza
Rhapsody, Illusion Dweller
Dreamcatcher, Perfecto Mundo
Sleeping Lion, Epinephrine
High Exposure, Psycho Wrangler
Action Directe, Dura Dura
Raging Waters, Fear of Flying
Father Figure, Excalibur
Midnight Lighting, Dominator
Bird of Fire, Divine Fury
Gun Smoke, Bloodline, Drive-by Shooting
Jedi Mind Tricks, New Religion
The Eye of Sauron, Xanadu
Burden of Dreams, Angel’s Arete
Night Train, Mind Funk, Vision, Silence
“LINES” is made up of the names of rock-climbing routes. The meaning of “LINES” will be different for different readers. For me, the poem will call to mind images of these famous places and experiences as well. When climbers hear the name “Perfecto Mundo,” they imagine a stunning valley in Catalunya. When they hear “Silence,” they imagine the world’s hardest climb in an enormous cave in Flatanger, Norway, and when they hear “Lucid Dreaming,” they imagine the towering boulders of Bishop, California. However, every single word in this poem has a double meaning because to non-climbers the poem offers a collection words and images juxtaposed to create a sensory experience.
Go With the Flow (March 24, 2025)
When it comes to my training, I love "staying on schedule." Who doesn’t? However, similar to a fixation on picturesque climbing (previously reflected on), a fixation on perfectly organized and scheduled sessions can be limiting. I find this fixation to be a problem mainly in competition settings. For example, in the warm-up period of a competition before climbing begins, I am often trying to complete my regular warmup in a timely manner. But in most competition settings this is simply impossible; the equipment is different than what I am used to and the warm-up area is packed with people who are all trying to do the same thing.
This made me realize that is something to be said for "going with the flow" and adapting to the environment you have to work with. When going with the flow, there is no "off schedule" and there is no checklist. Thus, I have reason to believe that "going with the flow" is the optimal approach climbing, especially in situations with time restrictions. Schedules and checklists are useful, but being too rigid about them can take away from quality climbing and exploration on the wall.
Balance Technique with Fight (February 20, 2025)
I am a climber who loves technique and beautiful climbing. My warmups are fully focused on footwork, flow, breathing, and the art of climbing. This is all good stuff, but I have found that sometimes my desire for beautiful climbing becomes less of a desire and more of a fixation.
The reality of a hard climb is that it will be a struggle. It will be a fight. And struggle is not always pretty. When I am half way up a difficult climb trying to focus on flow and pretty movement, I am simply limiting myself. Thus, I am making a conscious effort to focus less on the beauty of my climbing and more on the efficacy and efficiency of my movement. (Flow and pretty movement can certainly boost efficiency on the wall, however, centering all attention on flow and pretty movement can distract the climber and waste energy.) By switching my focus in this way, I maintain my high standards for climbing well, but do not become fixated on minor errors or aesthetic considerations.
2025 Begins with Reflection (January 23, 2025)
For me, 2025 began with reflection. And I have found that I care too much about competitive climbing. Allow me to explain. Recently, whilst competing, I have found myself getting overly stressed about performance. My focus has been on getting to the top of the wall and obtaining the maximum number of points. This is obviously a very two-dimensional approach to climbing, but it goes to show how easy it is to get "lost in the sauce" of competitive climbing.
I had to have a conversation with my coach in which he reminded me that climbing is so much more than that. Climbing a rock is a process of exploration and execution - an undertaking that combines intellect and physicality. And as I continue to reflect on this conversation, I am remembering the beauty of me being awake and aware on a rock. So, now, my center of attention now goes to being fully focused on the rock and the movement whilst climbing!
Focusing on the climbing (instead of the points) in completion should also result in better overall competition performance. (How counterproductive the rat race is!) If I look at a climb in competition and see the undertaking mentioned above rather than a set number of points to be obtained, then I will simply climb the rock (what I love doing and what I do best) rather than obtain the points (what is stressful and counterproductive). All things considered, to be at ease with competition and to become an "artist (climber) of substance" I must focus more on the substance and less on the reward.