Closed and Relocated

As you may have guessed from the extended silence for the past three weeks, I've finally decided that it's time to close up the Hyperliving shop completely and complete the relocation back to SlangEditorial.net.

I've been writing again almost every day on Slang for the past four months, and I am really just too busy now to maintain two blogs, let alone keeping up with all the specified activity required by Hyperliving. Basically, I have achieved every one of the goals I set for myself with Hyperliving back in January 2008, and now it is time to move on.

This is not, of course, to suggest that I think I finally have all of my shit figured out, because I absolutely do not; however, the primary task set forth in Hyperliving was to learn ways to re-equip myself with a better understanding of what I need to do to figure myself and my future out, and on that front I am absolutely on my way. In some ways, I feel more confused and uncertain than ever before, but now this is largely due to the burdens of promise rather than the terrifying blackness of empty unknowing silence.

I leave Hyperliving with one closing note: given that May in NYC is all about bicycling, this month was intended to be one dedicated to biking and physical activity, and while I've written nothing on the subject here (including even an opener), I'm proud to report some highly successful results.

One goal I set a few months ago was that when it finally got warm again, I would cease buying monthly Metro cards and make a full commitment to cycle transportation. Sure enough I have followed through and biked for transport almost every day since the last week of April, taking the subway only for a handful of 7 am work meetings and the occasional night out, outside of Williamsburg, where the imbibing of alcohol would make biking home unsafe. Other than that though, it's been nothing but bike, bike, bike in May. On May 17 I did the full Montauk Century, 118 miles of riding including biking to the Penn Station start and home again, and I am now up to 989 miles of biking since my first real 2009 ride on March 14. I am feeling about as good as this as I could imagine feeling, I think.

Beyond biking though, this May I finally also fulfilled a longtime goal by joining a basketball league through Greenpoint's Word Bookstore and, after a bit of a rough start, we finally won our first game yesterday after some thorough defeats in our first two games. Truly, I could care less about winning or losing, but the winning is only nice in seeing how the team is slowly beginning to learn how to play together and becoming a nice little family of friends.

And lastly on the physical activity front is rockclimbing, which I did last Tuesday for the first time since summer 1997. I climbed for a few years as a kid with my dad, an avid climber, until he broke his back that Summer '96 day. He went back to climbing again the next year (only to break his back climbing a second time two years later), but I never climbed again until Tuesday. Just climbing for two hours was enough to make me feel pretty dead, but it was so amazing and so absolutely worth it, and I very much look forward to folding this activity into my life over the coming months.

So, Hyperliving, I bid you adieu. I am a curiosity-filled, energetic, and excitable human, but also a very messy one, and I am sure I will need a re-focusing project again in the days ahead to help me figure my life out; however, when I am ready to zone in again I will need to look elsewhere. Hyperliving, you've been good to so very good to me, but now it's time for something else. Thanks for all the memories, thanks for helping to bring me back to what matters in life, and thanks for reminding me why I'm alive.

Love always,

Ben

May Is Here

May is here and another month of activities must be established. I will be checking in with you soon about them, but I can tell you that I am feeling particularly inspired about the great possibilities of life right now (as also documented frequently here and here).

My biking plan is well underway and I have now done twenty-three rides totalling 595 miles twenty-five rides totalling 658 miles [Ed: did two rides at 63 miles today after posting this morning] since March 14, 2009, which I feel good about especially considering that I lost two weekends to rain (boo!) and Berlin (yay!). The Montauk Century is in just two weeks and this year I am ready and raring to do the full 100 miles. My training partner Mike and I have put in three 60+ rides but so far nothing longer than 71; however, I feel pretty good that on May 17 I'll have no trouble dialing it up for the full 100.

It's amazing how far I feel I've come in a year. It was almost exactly one year ago that I began biking at all for the first time in many years, and for the first time ever on the road, on a road bike. And in two weeks at Montauk will come the anniversary of my first "real" ride, the Montauk 65 miler. I feel so much stronger now, to an amazing degree, and it just makes me feel good about the great possibilities of will power and a strong mind--I feel these days like I can do anything if I really want to. Which, maybe, is how things should have always been, but truthfully, they haven't. So, you get what we have here today.

"Ja, Das ist so cool": Updates From Deutschland on Slang Editorial

Father chasing after son in Julie Mehretu Studios

Berlin Photos and nonsense here: slangeditorial.net

And in a few days, much more here: flickr.com/jeffreybeaumont

Greetings from Deutschland!

Easter Yum

I celebrated my re-entry into meat world with a feast for the ages on Sunday, as Amy and I brought some of our friends together for a wonderful Easter dinner.

We at: bourbon-glazed ham, gruyere-asparagus tart, scalloped potatoes, candied carrots, string bean-bleu cheese-walnut-cranberry salad, and herbed potatoes, plus a dessert of carrot cake and cupcakes. It was absolutely wonderful. YUMMMMM.

Neither of us had ever baked a ham before, so we were surprised how well it came out. The ham was a fully-cooked butt end and t glaze Amy used was mixture of bourbon, dijon, orange juice, brown sugar, paprika, chili powder and honey. The ham took about two hours to cook and Amy had to take it and re-glaze every 30 min over the two hours. But, wow, was it worth it!

Here are some photographs (more available on Flick here):


Amy and Kathleen peel and slice potatos.


Amy readies the scallop scream as the carrots simmer.


I prepare the surprise hit gruyere-asparagus tart


Surveying the landscape


I attempt to carve a ham for the first time in my life (minor FAIL)


CARROT cake

Meatfree Week End... Meat On The Horizon

So I finished up my last two days of vegetarianism with relatively little fanfare.

I brought my lunch to work on Friday: peanut butter and jelly, cucumber with sesame dressing, leftover cous cous. Healthy/cheap/meatless. Yum. For dinner I had two slices of pizza and that was that.

Saturday was kind of a sad day, at least in the beginning. Eating-wise it was fine--I had a banana, some oatmeal and pizza. A not very dramatic way to end a week without meat, but that's fine. Human-wise, however, Saturday began in shit as I went on the most pathetic ill-fated bike ride with my bro Mike. As late as Friday night, the weather report kept telling us that it was going to rain late Friday night and early Saturday, but be wrapped up by 10am, so Mike and I thought we'd be good to go for a decent day of great riding--we were even getting all hopeful we could do a full 70 and ride to Nyack.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be: when I got up at 8 it was raining lightly and the weather report was now saying to expect rain until 4pm or so. We went out anyway, with the thought of maybe just doing a few Prospect Park loops to see how we were feeling, but it just began to rain harder as we left and get colder and windier. After one loop we both gave up in disgust and headed home, sopping wet and freezing cold. It was a sad let-down, and I felt so miserable that I opted to do nothing for the rest of the day. The sun did finally come out around 5 and warmed things up, but by then it was too late. I could have gone out for a ride this morning to make up for it, but we ended up hosting an after-party at Casa 604 following the Pants Yell/Knight School show at Dead Herring and I got incredibly wasted and didn't go to sleep until 6am or so. And since it was Easter today and we planned to have people over for dinner in the afternoon my window was closed. Oh well. But. Meat. On. The. Horizon....

Thursday: Eggplant & Artichoke Extraordinaire

Baked artichoke hearts and dill-mayo dip

Today I finally brought my lunch with me, happily both saving me dollars and bringing me food joy. I brought some leftover portobello-asparagus pasta and some arugula with a small amount of dressing stored in a tincture jar formerly containing stepdad's homemade Elderberry extract. A healthy and frugal 'yum'.

Far more exciting than that though was dinner tonight, which was prepared largely by Amy and shared with our colleague and joymaker Jayson Greene.



As you can see from the photo above, dinner consisted of: grilled eggplant, steamed chard with white beans and red pepper flakes, peppered cucumber slices, and grilled pitas (seasoned with olive oil and pepper).

I continually marvel at the creativity and general excellence of my sister as a cook. Mom, you did a pretty great job. A .500 average ain't the worst thing in the world, right?

It will be a curious way to wrap this week up by eating a secular Easter ham on Sunday.

Wednesday: Pesto Perfection

Last night we followed up the great meals of Monday and Tuesday with another delicious one, this time prepared by Lil Beaumont with help from our two dads:

Stepdad Rick's pesto on spaghetti, with grilled asparagus, and salad featuring Real Dad's balsamic vinaigrette/dijon mustard/agave nectar** simple dressing.



As you can see on the left, a handful of the asparagus are wrapped and skewered in something pink--yep, that's some nice hot cappicola! Which I'm sure tasted great, though I wouldn't know it since I consumed only the "naked" asparagus below. Really. 



And there we are. Sprinkle a little parmesan on top and add some fresh italian bread with butter and pepper and you've got a table of "yum".

Deep Thoughts With Jack Handey...
The constant satisfaction I've experienced in eating this week sans meat serves as a reminder of the great difference (to me) between being vegan and being vegetarian. 

During last year's Hyperliving week of veganism (almost exactly one year ago, actually), I felt like every meal I consumed was some kind of grand compromise: a tactile exercise is maximizing potential flavor quotients while working on more or less "stone soup" principles... As if each meal were a mile marker on a journey toward the freedom of eventually being able to eat animal products again. 

For me, vegetarianism is nothing like that--it's simply an absence of a group of products from an otherwise normal diet. Other than occasionally going, "Oh, guess I can't eat that cappy", I feel like life is only minimally impacted. I'm sure in any kind of long haul I would miss bacon and burgers, but no where nearthe sense of loss, sadness, and emptiness I would feel over eliminating pizza, cheese, yogurt/ice cream/shakes and so forth. Or at least, so I think.

Anyway, onward march.

NOTE:
** Normally you would use maple syrup rather than agave, which would make this dressing that much better, but I killed the last of the maple at the end of my fast. 

Tuesday: Portobello-Asparagus Penne Salad

Again, as I stated for Monday's entry, I forgot to make my lunch on Tuesday and so I ate greasy pizza for lunch. Oh well.

But for dinner it was another story--I invited Cabbie M over and made a lovely Portobello-Asparagus Penne Salad consisting only of the following items:




* 2 large portobello mushrooms, stems removed
* 1 bunch fresh asparagus, tough ends removed
* 2 tomatoes, quartered
* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
* 1 pound penne pasta, cooked
** Seasoning, recipe follows
** 1 teaspoon salt
** 2 teaspoons dried oregano
** 1 onion sliced
** 2 cloves garlic powder
** 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
** 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

It was a great meal and we were all satisfied. I followed it up with some Espresso Chip ice cream for dessert.

Monday: Falafel

I lead off by saying that unfortunately I have forgetten to make my lunch each day this week (like i said, really annoying week) so each day I have eaten two slices of pizza for lunch. Not all that healthy, but at least obeying the rules.

And as far as dinner goes, I've stayed relatively on track. After Sunday's uber-blah and unnecessarily eaten gluten-free pasta dinner, I knew I needed some real food satiation on Monday night, and thankfully Lil Beaumont was ready to bring it with some mediterranean food.




Homemade falafel and tzadziki, cous cous, salad, and pita... wow. Amy did a great job and it tasted so amazingly good. Her falafel was very impressive and the tzadziki reminded me of how much I love the cool mix of cucumbers and yogurt.

And how about cucumbers solo for that matter! For whatever reason I hated cucumbers as a kid--despite loving dill pickles--and it was only three or four years ago before I finally started enjoying them. But now, man, sliced cukes in a bowl with a little vinaigrette and some cracked black pepper--yum! I followed up dinner with a snack of this nature (to be repeated later in the week as well).




I then topped it all off with some freshly squeezed red grapefruit juice. When Amy moved in last year, she brought along her depression-style juicer. Lately I have been buying grapefruits and just squeezing them with the juicer and then drinking the freshness. One grapefruit usually yields one 8-10 oz. glass or so of some very thick and rich juice--you could surely cut it with some water too to stretch it out a bit. It's kind of an expensive way to drink juice, but it tastes GREAT, is natural and is also just kinda fun to put a little elbowgrease into working for food.

Not missing meat yet at all actually.

No Meat / Life Wedgie

So, yes, I have continued upholding the "rules" and have gone meatless this week... and perhaps just coincidentally I'm also having a grumble-grumble week for the ages.

Right now it feels like just about everything sucks, and I feel like I'm sucking at just about everything. Beyond feeling out of sorts, there are a great many things on my plate that I need to accomplish and I feel like I'm unable to concentrate enough to make headway on any of them. If you happen to someone I'm leading down right now, sorry bro/dude/darling--I'm working on it.

In a strange way, I realize that what it all really amounts to is a silly kind of "life wedgie"--I'm struggling to focus on the tasks at hand because I feel uncomfortable and discontented with some aspect of my life and brain is choosing to focus on the distraction rather than step back, take a deep breath, and just keep on doing what needs to be done. My brain is unfortunately frustratingly well-trained in these arts, and this is a problematic state of mind that I've encountered before (though I do not believe I've considered the wedgie analogy before now). But I know that it is ultimately up to me to re-map a new course for better success, and I'm trying.

"Seek a recipe antidote poke g, ebony"

Yes, Food month.

This week I am vegetarian. I will write more in reporting over the next few days when I have time, but I am looking forward to this week a lot and hope to cook a few nice new things. Yum.

Note: avoid rice spaghetti unless you have a gluten allergy.

Spring Is Here: First Real Sunburn of 2009

The years may change, but one thing always stays the same: I am a fair-ass motherfucker with constant farmer's tan.

Oh yes. Just woke up from a three hour, exhaustion-and-excessive-sun induced nap. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL today, mid 60s and sunny, and my bikebro Mike and I went out for a 62 mile ride to Piermont, NY; arriving there via 59 St bridge to Geo. Washington Bridge, plus one loop around the Edgewater state park, and then back home via the same route minus Edgewater loop.

It was great, the first "real" ride of the year. I'm happiest to report that, despite waking up this morning with sore thighs and feeling like I could hardly imagine riding more than 10 miles today, by forcing myself to get out there on the open road and let go, I ended up getting loose and feeling truly great. I felt like I could have gone another 10 miles before calling it quits even.

But of course, it was a lot of work and coupled with five hours of sun, I was pretty exhausted by the time I got home. And Oh, the sun! As you can see from the photo above, five hours of riding in the sun without sunblock lead to one gnarly-ass sunburn on my arms. In the vanity department, I at least tried to roll up the sleeves of my shirt but clearly that mostly did not accomplish much other than to make my soon-to-be-farmer's tan somewhat odd and patchy. But whatever! It was a great great day and I am feeling holla-tastic.

Also, on the "Goal to 1500" front: I have now ridden 340 miles in the threee weeks since March 14 (120/week), and at close to this pace I should hit 1500 before July I think. Looking forward to revising that goal to something more as the months approach.

SPRING!

LOVE
Jeffrey

Note: below you can see "HOME" and "Piermont, NY" as part of today's ride.




View Larger Map

Month Three: Food

I will elaborate more on this in a few days, but next month my Hyperliving focus will be on FOOD. The Master Cleanse I did earlier this month really got me thinking a lot more about the importance of eating healthily (and economically sensibly), and I have tried hard since then to consider more carefully what I choose to eat, but in April I will go deeper into examining what I choose to eat and how to make better decisions that include eating healthier food, cooking more, and spending less money on it all.

At least two structured weeks for the month will include a week of being vegetarian, to consider the art of gourmet cuisine sans meat, and a week of only raw foods for a tough challenge (and since I already did the vegan thing). I am also going to keep a log all month of all the foods I consume and will evaluate them in a yet-to-be-determined fashion. I'm concerned about going too deeply as far as calorie counts go since my goal is NOT to lose weight or even start thinking about that kind of decision-making; however, I will do some research into plainly unhealthy food parts that I just want to work on cutting down or avoiding (high fructose corn syrup###), MSG and bad cholesterols. Also on the radar if I can possibly fit it in will be a week of trying new foods, possibly in new locations across New York, but it will be a bit of a challenge since I will be spending six days in Berlin for work in the middle of the month. But these days, I like challenges.

So yes yes, Here's to Food!


NOTES:
### - Please watch the video for the high fructose corn syrup link if you haven't seen it already. This is one of a series of commercials the corn industry is pumping now to attempt to re-dupe consumers who finally are beginning to figure out the dangers and general unhealthiness of HFCS. Some have drawn parallels to ads shown years ago made by the Tobacco Industry to downplay the harmful effects of cigarettes and nicotine, and truly, though HFCS doesn't approach that level of badness, there is more or less no difference in the greed-driven amorality of it.

An Overview of a Month of "Restoration"

As I reach the end of a month of supposed "restoration", I can say that right now I am feeling pretty good. I have come out of this month feeling like I did a nice job taking a look again at various aspects of my life and ways to strengthen and improve the choices I make. I am glad that I quit smoking this year, but the rest of my health needs to come too, and over the course of this month I re-established an exercise routine (including not only biking but also joining a basketball league), re-evaluated my eating habits, and reconfiguring my spending decisions--all to not just strong but manageable degrees of success.

I also tried once again to work on my sleep schedule but that one is a work in progress that will take some time to fix. I am beginning to speculate though that regular, semi-heavy exercise will help make this happen. I know that eventually something will have to give, but I am generally impressed with the resolve to live crazyily that has allowed me to continue surviving (thriving? dunno) without semi-human sleep patterns.

Everything that happened to me and which I did in the past month is all a part of the larger plan to turn Ben Scheim into a more sensible and productive human being, and I have confidence that I am both moving in the right direction and strong enough to see it all through.

Biking / Health Continued

Despite weather talk making me think I would spend most of the weekend indoors, the rain largely stayed away on Saturday and I'm happy to report that I again biked about 80 miles this weekend, on two nearly-identical 38 mile rides.

Also, I meant to have mentioned it earlier this week, but on Monday I decided to set the somewhat arbitrary goal that I would bike 1500 miles by the end of September. This number seems pretty big, but it's actually pretty modest, and after this weekend, I'm already up to 230 miles for the year since my first big ride on March 14. Considering that I plan to do at least two "centuries" (the Montauk in May and NYC in September) and that I theoretically plan to bike to work 4-5 days a week this summer, I should have no trouble hitting this goal and may even be able to strive for as many as 2500 or so.

Hilariously--given my general obsessive craziness with numbers and quantification--I still don't have a computer for my bike, but this has turned into good fortune as not having one spurred me to decide that it would be a good idea to start a log to track all of the rides I take this summer. That way I will know exactly how many I've taken and how far I've gone, the routes I've taken and who I may have ridden with. I'll be interested in check out my monthly/weekendly ride totals, as well as the percentages I ride to certain places and with certain people, so I'm very curious to see how things will turn out.

Sleepin and Whatnot

This is not my home.

So last night I again went to bed **relatively** early, around 12:40. Small victories, people.

And then tonight I had another run-in with some beer and the booze won. Doorknobs, Jayson and I went to Mugs to have bar food and bro time and some wings, a burger and one higher proof stout later, we came home to get ready to go out at see Ladyhawke at Studio B. Except that within 30 minutes of being home I first passed out in an armchair and then on the nearby couch.

Of course, now it's 1:40 and I'm wide awake (after having just finished watching a wonderful albeit a little dated Sutherland-Fonda curio called Klute***), so obviously I'm not "in-need-of-rest, on-the-verge-of-collapse", but nonetheless I'm a little concerned over how quickly and absolutely sleep seemed to overtake me both tonight and on Tuesday. It's probably a testament to the general insanity in my life for this to be a concern, but I seem to be able rely on a certain type of regularity of my physical and mental functioning and any "disturbances in the force" tend to trouble me until I'm able to suss out what's going on. Still, i'm not ridiculous enough to suggest that feeling tired and a need to sleep at night time should be deemed strange enough to cause me alarm... but let's just say i'm "monitoring the situation". Or whatever.

NOTES:
***- I would strongly suggest checking out Klute if you haven't already (it's available through Netflix's Watch Instantly service, hint hint). It is yes, a little "dated", but there's also something fresh and almost anachronistic about the frankness of Jane Fonda's character and some of the feelings and attitudes she displays. Sutherland is also strange and good as he often is, and possibly of most significance is the score, which is both frightening and forward-looking. Check out for yourself.

Sleep

Last night I fell asleep on the couch watching basketball at around 10pm. Probably the three beers I'd had helped pilot me toward dreamland but it was sleep nonetheless. It is nice to be up and showered at 7:40 am with time to lounge around write blog posts about how nice it is to be awake.

Cause Co-Motion! On the Road

On a somewhat more successful non-sleep related front, I got my bike tires replaced on Monday*** and this weekend I rode 78 miles--42 on Saturday with a friend and 36 on Sunday by myself. I felt pretty good for just my second weekend out (after last weekend's 60 miler on Saturday). On Saturday I could have kept going for much longer, but on Sunday I definitely felt the burn. For sure though, I feel well on my way to doing the full 100 miles at the Montauk Century in May.

I basically took the same route each day: beginning at home, heading to Central Park via Greenpoint>Queens>59 St bridge, then cutting across town over 60 St into the park. I did two and half Central Park road loops before exiting during the third at 100 St & Central Park West and heading west across town to the Greenway to make my way downtown (Sunday's route varied by exiting the park at the end of my second loop at 59 St and heading across town there to the Greenway). From the Greenway, I traveled south to Warren St and cut across town to head over the Brooklyn Bridge for Prospect Park, where I did one loop before heading home through Fort Greene.

It was a very nice ride that was relatively stop free, minus crossing town in lower Manhattan and again in Brooklyn on the other side of the bridge. I've noticed recently that as I've begun traveling faster and faster during my exercise rides--work commutes and leisurely rides aside--I've become more and more aware of the general annoyance of stopping and sitting at lights, and particularly my disinterest in doing so. I take this as a relatively good sign about my commitment to pushing myself, but it's also frustrating as I become more aware of the fact that it is difficult to ride in New York, generally speaking, without spending a good amount of time sitting at lights. But then, I guess questing after "the best" routes is part of the fun of biking here anyway, so on with it then.


Here's the map of my trip on Sunday:


View Larger Map


NOTE:
***= To my amusement, the local bike shop dude broke one of his own tire levers getting my old tires off, making me feel like less of an asshole for my struggles last weekend.

Let's Try This Career Again

Went to bed a little earlier last night, around 1:15 am. Admittedly this is not early for most people, but starting small is probably the only way I'm going to achieve any success on these fronts when my typical bed time is between 3 and 4 am.

It's hilarious to me how going to sleep earlier seems like the hardest thing I could try doing (harder, for example, than not smoking or even not eating), but it's just a testament to how much desire plays into will power. That is, I really really do NOT want to go to bed, generally. I am willing to spend my waking hours under a variety of compromised states so long as they are waking; but give me consciousness or give me death, I guess.

My theory is that the only way I am going to get around this mentality is by simply adjusting myself to wake up earlier and begin using the early morning as more of a tool for living than I do currently. However, I think that my goal is supposed to include generally sleeping "more" rather than just sleeping at different hours, so we'll have to see how I can make this work. But I think getting up on Saturdays at 8am to go biking is a good start.