DAY ONE (Thursday 11/15/12)

1 - Wake Up @ 6:00am

     The start to Day One was unsuccessful.  I had every intention of waking up at 6:00am.  I set my alarm, but opted for the "This ain't gonna happen today" attitude.  Failure is a part of life, so I'm over it.  Since I'm holding true to the 30 Day Challenge, I will simply wake up at 6:00am on Day Thirty-One.  In fact, the idea behind this whole challenge business is to alter my lifestyle, so I will probably make this a solid behavior after the 30 day expiration anyway.

2 - Scottish Shower

     Having failed my first task, I was very eager to not let failure become the day's theme.  I set the shower knob to a setting labeled "Cold As Hell" and may as well have frollicked under a frozen garden hose.  The Polar Bear Plunge ain't got shit on my shower.  Naked, convulsing, hyperventilating, I noticed that my shower time was significantly shorter.  Post-frozen shower, I never knew how warm a room-temperature towel could be.  I was awake!  I felt cold-blooded...almost super-human.  I started my car and scraped my windshield in a t-shirt with nary a care about the 25°F breeze.  I was immune to the cold, having already defeated it mono-a-mono in screaming girl fashion.  What did I learn from my first of many cold showers?  Life is better with a cold splash to the face.

3 - No Television
     This damned Siren and her seducing song.  I knew subtracting television from my life would be near impossible, but much like Orpheus aboard the Argo, I simply whipped out my musical instrument and played a much sweeter song (A big reason I took up Challenge 5).  Thirty Days is a long time though, and TV's jagged shores are wide and wrecking.  It also doesn't help that my girlfriend is a walking TV Guide.  This is going to be a hard habit to break.

4 - Clean My Room

     Room is clean = Ethan is happy.

5 - Write A Song Every Day

     30 Songs - 30 Days.  To quote Rachel Grotte, "It's not about quality; it's quantity."  You're damned right.  I spent a couple of hours writing/producing this instrumental.  It's rough, unstructured and difficult to listen to.  But it's music and I made it, so it counts.  Here's the link:

http://www.4shared.com/mp3/LmRIXZjr/DAY_1_MIX.html

6 - 30 Minute Workout
     Mainly just free weights, push-ups, squats and sit-ups.  I'm not tearing phonebooks in half or bench-pressing my girlfriend, but I feel great.


**Off to bed at 10:00pm.  (>2hrs earlier than usual)
**Very excited for Day Two...