TL;DR

I proudly am a Certified Professional Coach, Professional Blogger, Podcaster, and Coder.  I’ve been podcasting and doing voice work since 2006.  I have been coaching since 2000, with formal training with the International Coach Academy from 2009 to 2011.  I started blogging in June 2003 with my first post, back when I had even less of an idea of what the hell I was doing.  And I’ve taught myself code since 1996.

Why all the Biographical Versions?
A valid question. A more appropriate question would, indeed, be why NOT all the biographical versions? (Check out evolutionary “versions” for more detail). People evolve and change. Interests from the past can grow, expand, change, or dissolve. Showing past and current biographies and the era of personal history in which they were written is inspiring to people in the process of change, adaptation, and learning from one’s successes and failures; additionally, the evolutionary emotional changes one undergoes is interesting and valuable.

This expounds and elaborates on my twitter mini-bio of:

I am a minimalist, certified professional coach, radical atheist, exquisite culinary and linguistic chef, former world traveler, and exceptional tech coder.

This is about the 5th version of my personal biography. I started to write a full (many-paged) autobiography in 2007 and would greatly like to produce that. However, paraphrasing John Nash, the problem with writing an autobiography (a biography, while one is still alive, before death), is that it must constantly be updated! Despite that conundrum, I would greatly like to release a polished autobiography of which I am proud, consider eloquent, well-written, accurate, and under a good pen-name. Finally, while I list quite a few eras, aspects, and accomplishments of my life, I consider the sub-sections of

• Tech Coding
• Lifescribe Journaling
• Voice work and Podcasting

as my primary focuses as of July 2011.

Minimalism

At roughly the same time as my time-consuming life-purpose focus at the age of 16, I defenstrated (practically) my bed and most all furniture in the top floor room of my parents’ chicago-based abode (where I had more or less lived for the previous 16 years of my life). Thus, began an 11-year journey of

• scientifically chiseling down
• discerning what possessed the most utility
• extracting utility from items
• living with far too much and far too little at times
• defining and acquiring productivity items
• and ultimately, living a more evolved, happier, and more successful life with hieghtened productivity and clarity through minimalism .

I have had many stumbles along the way and have historically accumulated unnecessary clutter that seriously negatively impacted my ability to focus, progress, and succeed. Conclusively, I have a set of principles and various systems that enable me to thrive with minimalism, achieving levels of focus, productivity, success, and happiness that would be otherwise impossible without minimalism. I have learned from gurus such as Merlin Mann and David Allen. I am the process of constantly adding to the “productivity and minimalism” category of my blog ad working on “Don’t Cope: Exonerate Yourself from Clutter with POPP”, working title popp book.

Certified Professional Coach

After 10 years of informal study with major coach gurus around the world and inclusively 2-years of formal credentialized study with the International Coach Academy, I recieved became a CPC on March 14, 2011. I have attended conferences with people such as Anthony Robbins and Ross Jeffries, and educated myself in NLP (from the books of) from Robert Dilts, Richard Bandler (a bit of a wanker), and the eloquent John Grinder. Although, I am one of the most advaned coaches in the world, coaching can be unpleasant (and I greatly prefer tech to coaching) and other coaches vexing, simly dumb, and misleading. I have assisted some humans in admittance to some of the top Ivy schools in america or institutions in the world or helped increase their income in busienss, or take career bearings (in the health field, for example), constantly improving the lives of others with little compensation for yourself is at first delightfully altruistic, but the long-term consequence of coaching (especially with little compensation) is enervation. Therefore, because of the enervating relatinship with coaching, coaching is something which I am highly skilled, but frequently dislike. I have successfully coached in the fields of

• health (for example, I helped someone shrink their waistline and drop considerable poundage)
• career (for example, I coached various people into getting into top schools or accelerating their career(s))
• life purpose
• relationships (for example, I have coached people and/or couples that needed to separate or mend a broken relationship. The relationsihp area of coaching is the most exhausting, overwhelming, abusive to the coach, and the least appreciated).
• productivity

Because of the aforementioned reasons, I refrain from excessive (or just any) coaching and honestly cannot identify much with the coaching field, but like productivity coaching the best because it’s the most technical and its results are very measurable.

Coaching and Introspection

This is really simultaneously a subset and a fusion of coaching and lifescribe journaling, but I felt it appropriate to categorize it individually. I have journaled hundreds of thousands of words every year since 2003; I have hundreds of hours of personal audio journals and recordings all for the purpose of ensuring I am aligned in life. I consider this one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable project in my life and work because making and reviewing written, auditory, and visual journals is:

• aligning
• unique to me
• something few peopel have access to

I personally no of no one (and no one personally) who journals as effectively and comprehensively as me. While most people live their life in the span of two weeks (meaning their scope of their history and future outside of a two week range is often blurred, lost, and/or forgotten), I utilize mnemonics and extensive lifescribing to muse on my history, memories, and evolve more efficiently. I have shared a lot of these (through words or photo albums) with old friends with almost always engendering an appreciative and optimistically nostalgic response. People have little access to their memories; I have made them an abundance for me.

Former Hollywood-Trained Acting

While I have done standup comedy (very briefly) and done acting training in North Hollywood, and done moderate stage theatre in school (only in school), I consider most of my work with acting as an insidious infection that destroyed focus and hampered the achievement of my goals. While I am still discerning what caused my distraction into the world of acting, it is likely related to negative influences of people and a former misguided fame-driven agenda of which I fortunately discarded. Additionally, I had a lot of people laugh at me and tell me I should go into comedy during college. I attempted that and regardless of my success (which was very little), I realized I am not only an incredibly serious person, but prefer being serious because it makes my life and work more rewarding, usage of time more efficient, and I overall feel better being serious instead of failing as some singing-dancing lunatic monkey wasting his time and hindering his goals.

Radical Atheism

I had a moderate interest in “spirtuality/life-purpse” until August 2000 at the age of 16, upon which it became a time-consuming and overwhelming focus until I was about 25 (for nine years). Before 16, my “Life Purpose” interests were quenched with moderate Taoism. For the nine years after 16, mainly from 2001 to 2002 and from 2005-2006, I extensively read and researched various religious texts and scriptures. Almost every accomplishment in life and everything I have learned has been autodidactically; that is, on my own accord and without the assistance of others; that has led to the greatest sense of achievement, the most comprehensive learning, and the most reward; the same is true for “life purpose”.  I use “life purpose” to refer to religion/spirituality simple because, being a radical atheist, spirituality and religion have no connotation in my life. The closest thing I can relate to with “religion” is mythology.

What I mean be radical atheism is that, while some of the actual architectural structures are acceptable, I would like all churches or places used for worshipping to be abolished; they perpetuate the cult of religion and are toxic epicenters of emotionally harmful mind control. Additionally, I would like all religious texts to be properly labeled as fiction and shelved in the mythology and/or literature sections, or burned. I have written extensively on the importance of labeling what is genuinely fiction, as fiction. So conclusively, I satisfy, expand, and savor the large scale life-purpose meaning interest with scientific texts of verified scientific truth(namely, mathematics, atheism, and biochem-anatomical, astronomy, cosmology, and other texts) that reveal the genuine awesomeness of the universe.  Religion dumbs down and deludes the mind; religion also sponsors and promulgates evil, genocidal murder, and genital mutilation.  In contrast, learning the scientific functioning of aspects of the universe (physics, anatomy, math, astronomy, and tech, for example) sharpens and illuminates the glory, fascination, awe, and beauty of Nature in all the ways the dulls and dampens those joys.

Health and Marathons

In 2003, with the assistance of no one but my own focus and determination, trained for 6+ months, and completed in under four hours (3:42 and 3:56), two marathons. While I consider this a huge accomplishment and testamentary evidence to my mastery of personal physiological health, I consider the yoga, core strengthening, and cardiovascular exercise I do to be purely cognitive and physiological “maintenance”; it is not something I boast about nor consider an exceptionally interesting focus, but it is necessary for balance and clarity. I prefer a few select exercises from yoga (like backbends) and core strengthening exercises.

Past Relationship with Running

My eldest cousin ran at Boulder University in usa; his father, my uncle, ran in school, my brother runs at Williams College, another cousin ran track in college (all in the usa). The cardiovascular activity of running has been something relative kin have done. I saw the documentary Prefontaine in 1996 (or so) and later saw the better documentary “Without Limits”. I was (like most american runners) obsessed wtih Steve Prefontaine from about 2000 to 2003. However, I eventually realized that he was a loser. He earned no Olympic medal (placing 4th) and simply won a few races by running in front of people. Internationally, he was a failure and never succeeded. I have evolved in discarding him as a hero and gratefully no longer consider him successful. That said, running was an interest for some time (moderately still is) and I have personally met 1972 Olympic Marathon Gold Medalist, Frank Shorter. Who, in addition to being actually having the success that Prefontaine never had, is considerably more inspiring. I have run a sub-5-minute mile, a sub-18-minute 5k and the aforementioned sub-4-hour marathons. But other than those small victories, I am not fast nor skilled in running and do so, again, purely for physiological-cognitive maintenance.

Other Health Achievements

Some other health achievements included having done a triathalon and martial arts and surfing.

Martial Arts

I earned a 3rd kyu from the Japan-Karate Association in 1997 in Illinois, and I earned a 5th kyu from the International Martial Arts Association (IMAA) in Colorado in 2003. While I do not consider myself “martial” nor a “martial artist”, I have achieved those belt levels and trained under a 7th den sensei. However, because I consider the belt system of most Shotokhan dojos to toxically operate more like a pathetically dismal and unobjective mafia cult, I stopped doing martial arts in 2003 after training from 1992 to 1997 and then again from 2003 to 2004. The emphasis on injuring others and obedience in class was repluslive and useless to me.

Surfing

I attended and then was an assistant surf instructor at the Davee Smith Surf Academy from 1997 to 2000. I have surfed in Hawaii, Costa Rica, and the west and east coasts of the united states. While historically I was passionate about the “raw amazing ability of riding a wave”, and after biking and surfing practically 3-5 days a week in the summer of 2004, my surfing interest waned in 2005 and has since been almost completely nonexistent. Reasons for this are likely my original interest was fueled by films such as Point Break, Riding Giants, and Endless Summer. Indeed, while those films are decent, without their influence I had negligible core interest in surfing.

Climbing

Other than a few rock walls and climbing the Wyoming Tetons, I have little experience in climbing. However, because of its technical nature, usage of own body, strengthing focus, overlap with parkour, and simplicity, climbing interests me.

Exquisite Culinary Chef

I like inexpensive, but good, cooking; the two are not mutually exclusive. I am an occasional pescatarian (usually only eating tillapia, trout, and/or shrimp), but am usually a vegan (no dairy, no chicken eggs) for purely physiological and gustatory reasons (i.e. eating vegan food feels better and tastes much better). In general, because of having a below-the-poverty line income and prefering the less expensive ingredients, I use simple ingredients, lots of spices, and a fusion cuisine menu; I also enjoy structured eating and have after much trial-and-error defined the foods I eat and do not eat.

Exquisite Linguistic Chef

I’ve written over 2.4 million words in ebooks, blogs, articles, papers, and other forms of written media. At 200,000 words per book (an above-average metric), I’ve written the equivalent of over 31 books. While I do not actively seek out authors from the United Kingdom, in the past, my favourite authors tended to be british. Presenty, most reading and writing revolves around science, atheism, classic literature, personal journals, and tech regardless of the nationality of the author.

Education

I originally did not included this section, but upon considering the large number of people who look for academic history, I decided to include it. Although I have attended and been acredentialized by many, I have little reverence for most educational institutions. I wrote extensively about this in “Expressing the Observation”, a 96-paged ebook. Basically I think most institutions decrease comprehensive learning, increase sycophantic behaviour to impress teachers (to get good grades), are toxic social systems, and often a discombobulation to learning. Granted, taking a lot of classes in fields that do not interest me (non-scientific, subjective fields), greatly blemished my evaluation of most educational institutions, but nevertheless I consider most educational training to be indicative of a person’s ability to progress in an institution and merely that; educational experience often has little bearing on how much a person actually knows and/or understands. That said, I have attended the following institutions:

1. The Park West School. 1987 – 1988.
2. The Chicago City Day School. 1988 – 1998.
3. The Latin School of Chicago. 1998 – 2000.
4. The Lincoln Park High School. 2000 – 2001.
5. The Latin School of Chicago. 2001 – 2002.
6. The Colorado College. 2002 – 2003.
7. The London School of Economics. 2003 – 2003.
8. The Sea Education Association. 2003 – 2004.
9. The University of California, Santa Barbara, 2004 – 2004.
10. The Colorado College. 2004 – 2005.
11. The Anthony Robbins Company Seminar. 2006 – 2006.
12. The Acting Corps. 2008 – 2008.
13. The International Coach Academy 2009 – 2011.

I received diplomas or forms of accredentialized graduation from the following places at the following times:

• The Chicago City Day School. Elementary School Diploma (General Studies). 1998.
• The Latin School of Chicago. High School Diploma (General Studies, Integrated Chem and Bio and Drama). 2002.
• The Sea Education Association (Nautical Science Focus). 2004.
• The Colorado College (A complex Bachelor’s degree. Inital focus was English and Computers and Intelligence, on paper it was the deplorable Political Science, after a “Communications Media” Liberal Arts and Science major proposal that convolutedly combined Psychology, English, Politics, Drama, and Computers was successfully passed by a committee, but not a board. In hindsight I had way too much involvement with that school which was admittedly overall, not to my liking.). 2006.
• The Acting Corps. Certification of Completion. 2008.
• The International Coach Academy. Certified Professional Coach Credential. 2011.

My opening paragraph reveals that these experiences are often unimportant, but I felt it significant to list them in this abridged autobiography, nevertheless.

Former World Traveler and Suvivalist

I’ve lived in France, Australia, Mexico, London, United Kingdom, Colorado, California, Chicago, IL, and Michigan. I’ve traveled to 4 continents and over two dozen countries. I have survived and lived in tents in the jungle, on sailboats in the middle of the atlantic, in hostels, hotels, mansions, shacks, apartments, motels, garages, and houses around the world; I’ve been homeless and have “made do” at bus stations and merely walking around. In addition to having survived and connected with Nature in the bush of Australia and Mexico’s Yucatan and the forests of america’s midwest (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana), I have an decent interest/hobby and knowledge-base in survivalism, bushcraft, botanical identification, and tracking. Conclusively, I consider living in and/or close to Nature to be safer and preferable to cities.

Here are some pictures of me in various survival situations:

Homeless.
In the Bush.
In a hotel (partially homeless).
In a dorm room.
In the basement of a soho.

Tech Coding

I have always loved, been passionate about, and progressive towards tech. Out of all my personal and professional accomplishments regardless of their level of achievement and/or prestige, my tech and coding work is the most rewarding and I would like it to be be the the focus of my life and work in a structured and productive way. I, by far, feel most aligned emotionally (and mentally, and physically) working with tech, writing on my linuxgeekoid blog (started in 2007), and tech has been an enormous aligning force, form of enjoyment, progress, and success in my life and work.

Life Scribe Journaling

I have written about 80,000 words per journal the past 10 years. They’re unedited, unfiltered, candid memories, emoitons, and insights of a young man aged 17 to 26. I want to publish them and feel this could be (a major part of or all of) my life’s work. The journals are my life, like most anything I wsa doing, eating, thinking, feeling, including quite a bit of sexual thoughts, concerns, and emotions. Although this part is opinion, one friend said they’re deeply personal journals written by a man who (at least most of the time, there are some very obvious and embossed exceptions) isn’t full of himself, obnoxious, nor pigheaded. While that is debatable, what is certainly genuinely true is they were written with no audience in mind and without trying to impress anyone. They weren’t even written for myself; they are just a cathartic, raw, autobiographical present moments in one man’s life.

This is so invaluable! Most peoples’ thoughts and emotions get washed over and numbed and dulled down by media. This is just me writing about sexual emotions, sexual thoughts, exercise, food, anything I that is going on emotionally, physically, psychologically. It’s extremely personal. It’s extremely uneditted (zero edits).

Voice Work and Podcasting

I have done a lot of voice work. While I have generated comparable amounts or more of casual personal voice journals, I have (as of July 22, 2011) 6 days, 11 hours, and 6 minutes(over 155 hours) of edited voice work, or 2.86gb of edited polished recordings. While the creation of a recording entity called OneandthesameRecordings and that fusion with Validate Your Life, Linuxgeekoid recordings, and my account on librivox are, ironically, “one and the same”, these recordings encompass the following projects:

1. Validate Your Life Book Unabridged (2006)
2. Validate Your Life Career (2009)
1. Coaching techniques to get in the right mental frame for optimal success.
3. Validate Your Life Health (2009)
1. Superb health techniques, tips, and tricks.
4. Validate Your Life Productivity POPP (2009)
5. Validate Your Life Relationships (2009)
6. Mnemonics Methods of Memory(2009)
7. NLP Practitioner Series (2009)
1. A Thirteen volume installment. This NLP Practitioner audio course covers Milton Erickson, Meta-Model, Milton Model, hypnosis, transderivational searches, and some great NLP Practitioners and hypnotists like Derren Brown.
8. OneandthesameRecordings (2009-2010)
1. An audio recording studio I started that emphasizes theatrical recordings of fiction, employing diverse dialects and accents.
9. Librivox Account (2010)
10. The A Christmas Carol Recordings (2006,2008, and 2010)
11. Linuxgeekoid (2011)
12. Validate Your Life Audio Blog (2011)

Synopsis

I have included a supplementary bio that includes a few other random aspects (that I consider related to one’s bio-blurb) of me like my past and present heroes and tech preferences. I can’t think of anything more significant to share without going into extensive detail. I am pretty awesome and have had a lot of experiences.