I

For the first time I just felt like posting a blog without a real thought behind it...so I decided to get creative. I'm just going to quickly share some facts that most don't know about me, about 90% of which are true. Don't worry, I'll keep them interesting. (oh and in case you are confused by the title, I decided whenever I don't have a good/clever title for a post, I'm just going to use roman numerals. so this is "I")

1) I've eaten pig heart before. Not terrible in taste, but pretty chewy. Chicken hearts are much better.

2) I used to be quite the Star Wars geek. Elementary-Middle School I was all about it. Yes, I even was Anakin  for Halloween in 5th grade. Although I have for the most part grown out of it, I still secretly aspire to be Han Solo one day. Oh and in case you were wondering, I like the old ones better than the new ones.

3) This is, in fact, what I would look like if I were a ginger.

Credit to Daryn Frischknecht for the photo.

4) I follow blogs and twitter accounts with names like "How to talk to girls at parties" but unlike you would assume from the name, it's not about how to pick up on ladies. It's a casual men's wear blog, others include "Sartorially Inclined" "Selectism" and "Brandish". I don't profess to be any sort of fashion guru, but I like to try and look my best.

5) I believe cars should have names, female ones preferably, because they embody attributes of women so well.
 1-They make our lives so much more enjoyable
 2-If you treat them right, they will treat you right
 3-They take up so much of my money.
Ok, that last one was kind of in jest, I've never had a girlfriend that sucked my wallet dry. But in case you're curious, my Civic's name is ZuZu.

6) Most of my nicknames in life have come from basketball team-mates, included on the list were: Jamestown, Jamo, King James (LeBron reference), and Ogre...actually Ogre stuck with me for a few years, on and off the court. Ask me about it someday.

7) I love black and white movies, I grew up on them. If you love black and white movies, odds are I love you too.

8) I won my science fair with my Entomology project as a youth, including diagrams, displays, and examples of specimens.  I only won because my mom wouldn't let me stop at just my bug collection and one poster. Maybe I should give my medal to her...   Love you mom.

9) I pick up on things pretty quickly, not bragging, just stating facts. Specifically when it comes to girls.  So if you're an old crush of mine reading this, I was on to you...what you probably perceived as me being clueless or not taking a hint, was in all actuality just me deciding you didn't deserve to get off the hook so easily. I guarantee it.

10) I create the soundtrack to my life.  I have a vast musical library and I am familiar enough with it that whatever mood I'm in, I can find a song to enhance that mood, and I do it often.

11) I recently swore off Facebook Stalking. I don't care if it's socially acceptable now, it's weird. it's creepy. and what does that say about society that we have allowed it to become socially acceptable? No, not me, I already feel better about it because now when I ask a girl what are her favorite books, I don't secretly already know that it's the Hunger Games, or that she loves Mumford and Sons. I feel more genuine. Also I feel like I can trace Facebook Stalking to me having developed what I call "Premature Crushes" on a couple girls. This is where I go on one date, liked it, then I learn so much more about her from her profile that by our second date I'm already in love with her...nope, not happening any more. (To clarify, that doesn't mean that once I have gotten to know her fairly well that I won't look through her albums of her trip to Europe, or the one titled "Summer 2011", but that's only once I know her in real life. Massive difference.)

12) I am an early-bird in denial. I know that I am much more productive in the morning, but I love staying up late.

13) As you can tell from just this blog entry, my favorite punctuation mark is the ellipsis (...), just reviewing this post I was surprised how many times I've used it. I feel like I use it to create either dramatic or comedic pauses, but they're probably not always interpreted that way.

13) My time is about up, so that brings this little experiment to a close. I hope you enjoyed it.

Prosperitaphobia- Fear of Success

Alright, if I'm going to be straight up with you, I made that word up. I couldn't find an actual "phobia" related to success, so I just took the latin word for success and threw it on the front.

Anyway, I have had an interesting past week. I have been needing to get this all down somewhere, and this was more handy than my journal.  I have had a potentially life changing experience, which when I look back on it was the result of so many different factors that all happened to occur at the same time...you might say the stars had all aligned.  In essence, I found purpose in my life. Ok, that sounds dramatic, I've always had purpose in my life, but I have a direction.

It all started last Wednesday, I was in my tax class. I know what you're thinking, "How on earth could anyone receive inspiration in a tax class?!?" You would think that the only inspiration anyone could receive there would be to switch majors. Just hold on though, it was merely the beginning of a journey.  A journey which probably requires more background info than telling you which courses I'm taking this semester...

Long story short, I ended up majoring in accounting because I couldn't think of anything I was passionate about studying when college applications were becoming due, so I went through a process of elimination, first removing things I knew I couldn't or didn't want to do. Science was the first out the door. I have never regretted that decision. (no offense to my biology major friends. I respect you even more for that.) followed by education, engineering, arts, etc. (to be honest, Ag was never even a consideration) By this means I arrived at Business, which made sense. I began refining my search through the different business majors, and landed at Accounting. Which REALLY made sense because I have always been good with numbers, and I love problem solving, and that is essentially the core of accounting.  Now I still feel good about accounting as a major (plus I have added communication studies as a dual major) but I have never really known what career path I wanted to follow. I have had professors say it doesn't matter, that I just need to be open to opportunities as they present themselves, which I agree with, but it didn't set my mind at ease any. It has been on my brain for the last months almost constantly. It had been becoming more and more obnoxious too.

There, now you are caught up on the essentials, back to relevant times...The magic thing that happened in my tax class was simply that I heard the term "tax attorney" my mind wrapped around that idea pretty smoothly. I hadn't ever considered tax law, and business law had crossed my mind but it was years ago. That was all that happened in class, pretty simple right?  Now onto the real juicy part...I couldn't get my mind off of going to law school...which was weird and exciting. Me? law school?...Ok. Although I still don't know if I want to do Tax law or Business law in general, I started looking at top rated tax and business law programs in the country, and that's when it happened. I stumbled across NYU. New York University.  I felt a rush as soon as it crossed my mind because ever since I visited New York I've always said I wanted to go to grad school there. This all seemed to be the perfect plan. What made me fall in love with it though, was the location. In the heart of Greenwich Village, the NYU campus buildings surround Washington Square Park, which is most recognizable for the arch that looms over the entrance of the park, that coincidentally is at the birthplace of 5th avenue.

The entrance to WSP

This for most people would be enough, but then the clincher was when I stumbled upon pictures of the law building itself. When I found these I just felt like I belonged in that building. It was a sort of calm excitement that I don't recall the last time I felt. Although I don't expect anyone to have the same emotions as I have looking at these, here are a couple examples of what I saw.

Oh man, that screams knowledge to me. More importantly it screams "Challenge!" which is what I've been looking for the past little while. Some of you might be bored to tears already, so I will be brief in mentioning my other motivations, but you need to know a couple things.

I came to the conclusion last month that I needed to not waste my brain. I have been blessed with a reasonably good level of cognitive function, but I haven't been using it well. My study habits were minimal, and I wasted so much more time than I would like to admit, but luckily I have been developing habits that are changing that. I have been reading a lot more, which has in turn lowered my desire to watch t.v. shows and use social media...interesting correlation there.  I also am doing a better job of getting myself to focus even when I don't feel like paying attention. These are skills that anyone needs really, not just a potential law student, but me being able to master these basic skills is kind of the litmus test to see if I can pull it off.

I know it's lofty, some of you who have known me for a long time are reading this thinking "what the? do I know this kid?" but that really is the miracle of having a goal. A final destination really motivates in the dark and depressing times. It excites you to go further and do more.  I want to make something of myself, and that is going to take years of dedication and sacrifice. It's not easy, but it never has been for anyone who has made a name for themselves. That's what makes them different. Not some special skill that made them successful, but a relentless desire to make the most of themselves. Men like Abraham Lincoln who beat all odds as an awkward public lawyer from rural Illinois who beat out much more successful political candidates than himself to become president. (I would never want to get involved in politics, but the principle is the same.) He set his standard high, and he achieved it.  My basketball coach used to say "Don't be afraid of success" It never meant much to me back then, but now it takes on a whole new meaning. Success comes with a high price tag, don't be afraid to pay it.

In closing I share the final realization I had that set my vision so high. I recently learned about something called "Parkinson's Law" which states that a task will expand to fill the amount of time allotted to it. Think of any class project you've ever done. No matter how much or how little time you are given to complete the task, you always finish the night before it's due. (sometimes within minutes of the deadline even.)  I kind of changed that to say "One's personal achievement expands to fill the Goals/Convictions set by that person." Plain language: You will achieve so much more if you set specific goals, high ones at that. But only ones that you have a deep personal conviction to achieve.

Some of you may not believe in me, but I don't need you to believe in me, I'm doing this for myself. I realize the goal may shift. A year from now I may not want to go to NYU, I may not even want to become a lawyer, but the take away from this whole deal is that I need to set my sights higher. I am so glad I had this opportunity. Along with the challenges that lay ahead of me.

 I'm especially glad I took Tax this semester.

What brings me joy.

I am sitting here, knowing I should be studying for my finals, but for some reason I can't focus. I can't help but think of all my friends out there who are also studying feverishly for finals, and I felt bad for them, I decided to give you guys something to break the monotony of your worst saturday night this semester.

I was thinking about what gets me ticking, what makes me happy, what I like to see more than anything. I honestly have to say it all boils down to the fact that I love to see other people succeed. Plain and simple. Now before you go thinking I'm being self-righteous here, I love to see myself succeed as well, but I get more joy out of other people I think.

Take, for example, the best basketball game of the year so far. Today un-ranked Indiana upset #1 Kentucky for their first loss, with a buzzer-beating 3 by Christian Watford that put them 1 point on top. It really doesn't get better than that.

This is probably the best day of Watford's (center, #2) life.

Now I love that. Largely because I just love college basketball...seriously, I don't think you understand how much I love college basketball...but regardless, I thrive off of seeing success like this, seeing people being able to feel good about themselves.  Watford is on top of the world tonight. He is feeling that all these years of dedicated practice, blood, sweat, and possibly tears, are all worth it at this moment. That's a special feeling to have, none of us get it too often, some of us feel like we never get it. Which is a shame because everyone has something to offer.

I can list many other types of successes that I enjoy seeing in people around me, getting a new job, getting a part auditioned for, getting a grade that was higher than expected on a test.  Getting engaged, overcoming a trial, strengthening a testimony of Christ, losing weight, kicking a bad habit, getting a raise....This could go on for a while.

Whatever it may be, seeing the look on a loved ones face as they describe a success they have had makes my day.  It doesn't matter how ruddy my day may have been up to that point, but as soon as I see the spark in their eyes, and the energy they give off...sheesh, it's intoxicating. It's like they give me some of their energy...which I guess makes me kind of a leech, or a parasite. Not the most pleasant imagery...

You get what I mean thought? Everyone benefits. On the flip side I hate it when someone is elated to share news on a success they have experienced, and it isn't received with excitement, or worse, it's met with criticism.  That's dream crushing at it's finest. You know how it is to work hard one day, but the next day you come back and instead of praise for all the work you did, they just point out things you DIDN'T do? often times things you weren't even aware of?  That's the pits. I hate when that happens. So much so that I recently quit a job that treated me that way. but to tie it into my theme here, this type of behavior drains energy from both the critique and the criticized. No one comes off feeling good, no one wins.

You're like a monstrous leech.

An emotional mosquito

The one ring to rule them all

(insert name of co-worker that is like this)

Yeah. It think you get it.


Anyway, I think I've illustrated how everyone benefits when we are excited for each other, and everyone's life gets darker when you play negative nancy (or negative nicholas. I don't want to be sexist here)

Granted, there are times when not everyone can win. For example, in order for Indiana to have such a spectacular win, Kentucky had to lose their title of "un-defeated", Whenever someone gets a new job, dozens of people didn't get it, and whenever a pretty girl gets married, some creepy guy with a mustache has to find someone else to stalk on Facebook.

That's life, I think they key though is that just like we can be uplifted when a friend succeeds, we need to be the ones to give them energy when they are down. We need to reach out and help them have the will to try again.  Now as I read through this I seem to be talking a lot about energy...you would think I was into zen or something. I think you all know and have experienced what I'm talking about though. It's very real. If you think I'm making this stuff up chances are you're one of the emotional mosquitoes I'm talking about.

So there you have it.

Joy comes to me in seeing others become better. If you still aren't convinced that I'm not being self-righteous by saying this, try thinking of me as a giant energy leech, and maybe that will humanize me for you.

That's a pretty good estimation of what I would look like as a leech.

Xenoglossophobia: Fear of foreign languages

I'm amazed that there are actually legitimate phobias for all of these things. It makes my job easy.

I just wanted to share something I'm excited about. That being I have decided to teach myself Spanish by the end of 2012.  It's not as lofty of a goal as you might think because I already speak Portuguese which Spanish is very similar to, making it totally attainable. I just need to get in the habit of taking 15-20 minutes a day to learn a few words, or conjugations etc. so...me desean suerte! I am going to become a regular latin lover.

Me in 13 Months. (I'm the one on the left)

A little side note, I have already been practicing with my friends and roommates that speak spanish, and all I can say is it's a good thing I have a healthy amount of self-esteem, not because they are ruthless, but because I keep attempting to say things without asking them if it's right, and it's wrong about 90% of the time. But Hey! It's fine, I remember my MTC president telling me that you have to make 500,000 errors before you speak a language fluently. (Hopefully since I know Portuguese already I can cut that down to about 200,000)

This all plays into a grander scheme. The scheme that involves me wanting to travel the world, but not just see the places, I want to learn the way of life in these different cultures. I want to have a real experience while there, not just what the bus tour can offer me.  I was fascinated with Brazilian culture and fell in love with their way of life, their architecture, their food, their daily routines EVERYTHING! I think it gave me a bug too. (I don't mean a parasite) but now I want the same experience in countries all over the world. To be able to look back at more than just pictures, but to remember people I met, possibly stayed with, and came to love for their differences from me.

When you think about it, tourists, for the most part, are in a bubble the entire time they travel. They are limited to what they have found on the internet, they maybe are even as limited as to having a tour guide that tells them where to go.  That's not how you see the world people! Granted, some of you may be thinking "but it's the people you go with that make it fun and memorable." I can see your point. Especially because I don't plan on going around the world by myself, but if it's about the people you spend it with, you can have just as good of a time staying here in the U.S. It's true! think about it.  Some may still disagree with me, which you're entitled to, but this is my blog so my point of view is the one that matters here.

I am fascinated with the world around me, and I can't wait to get to know it better.  I am also so glad that I am not one of those stuck-up, ignorant Americans that thinks that there is nothing valuable outside the U.S. They miss out on so many friendships and experiences because of it. Diversity is what makes  getting to know each other worth it.  Embrace it.


Here are some places I would love to go/learn to get by in their language.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Amalfi Coast, Italy

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

Tokyo, Japan

La Paz, Bolivia

The List could go on, really...

But I will spare you all there, just know that I really want to go abroad and learn as much as I can from as many people as I can. All while having a heck of a time with people I love.

Peace.

Movember is for lovers

Lovers of life that is...which would make you Haters of Cancer.  My friends, allow me to educate you on the history of Movember, so you're sure as not to confuse it with "No-shave-november" or "Novembeard" or any of the other ridiculous things you've been hearing. These are all fallacies. Pathetic excuses to not shave. Movember is different though.

Movember is the world's largest effort to raise money to cure prostate cancer. Last year alone they raised over 80 Million dollars. It's been going on for about 7 years now, and what started in Australia has now grown to a worldwide movement.  People can create a profile and form teams, and the teams compete (a friendly, gentleman's competition of course) to see who can raise the most money.  All of which goes to either the Prostate Cancer Foundation, or LiveStrong.  It's a noble cause, and it's one I can really get into. Heck, it's the only time in my life my mama has been tolerant of facial hair on this profile, but mainly I do it for my Grandpa Olsen. He was a very quite man. He didn't say a whole lot, but amidst his silence during his lifetime he battled cancer not once, not twice, but 3 times.  Prostate cancer made a part of that mix. I'm proud to say that he was a survivor of Prostate, but wasn't so lucky once colon cancer hit. I know many people lose loved ones to prostate, and seeing my grandpa struggle with cancer for most of his last part of life makes me want to do what I can, however simple or silly the premise may seem.

So this month, if you see a man with a mustache on his lip, and a smug look on his face. (see picture below) chances are it's not because he's being arrogant. It's probably because he is growing his Mo' for a good cause, and that alone is plenty of reason to feel good about yourself.

Prostate Cancer really is one of the most curable types of cancer, so with our support it's possible to eradicate it. Chances are, there is a man in your life that is either a survivor, a victim, or a current fighter of prostate cancer. Let's make a difference for them.

Check out my profile to donate at mobro.co/jamesonolsen, also check out the main website at movember.com, it's a pretty well designed website.

Cancer is Monstrous Beast. Let's slay it.

Kainophobia: Fear of Anything New

Welcome to my new blog everybody! I'm excited to start anew because I was having some serious mental blocks with the old one. I think I just had set myself up to feel a need to write all these serious things and try in my own pathetic way to be profound...We see how well that worked out. (In case you don't see how it worked out, well...it didn't. I often cry rugged man-tears over how lacking my attempt at wisdom was.)

I wanted to start with something fresh, something that I could post serious things with, but also post fun blips, short thoughts, or totally pointless babble.  Thus "Life Commentary by a Phalacrophobic" was born.  It was an interesting journey to arrive at that name. I wanted to do something that played off of the fact that I over think things, like all the time.  I originally wanted the name of a disorder for people who over think, but none really fit my need. Then I stumbled across the "fear of becoming bald" and it just seemed to click. I don't really have a fear of becoming bald. In all honesty I am just waiting for it to happen. They say that genetics skip a generation, and both of my grandpa's are shiny-headed.  So I don't live in fear of it (if anything I'm preparing myself to embrace it), but I feel like it's a clever way of getting my point across.

You may see several of my posts titled after different phobias, like this very one, but I'm not planning on making EVERYTHING titled after a phobia. It would make me think too hard again...and that's why I created this new blog in the first place. I may even make up a few phobias, if the situation permits.

So anyway, there you have it. Welcome to my new place to empty my brain. This one should be more worth your while so buckle up, and tell your friends!