I woke up this morning at 4:46am. I went to sleep at 11:30pm, so that’s approaching reasonable. As soon as I woke up I began thinking of how great some things are, so I got my laptop and now I’m in the dark writing about them. That’s inspirado.

1. Blankets. How cool is it that blankets don’t use any electricity? If I was a supreme deity of the earth and one of my minions said, “Look at those humans. They’re making big cotton pancakes and sleeping underneath them because they think that will keep them warm,” I would seriously question why I built humans in the first place.

It’s just so cool that we generate enough body heat to keep ourselves warm like that. I would expect that it would help maybe, but that we’d still need external heat.

2. Soup. I’m not talking about thin miso soups (although I do like those as well), but rather nice thick hearty soups. Soup is awesome because you can eat it with a spoon or fork (if it’s really thick), but if you’re in a rush you can also drink it. I like that about smoothies too - a nice healthy meal you can drink.

3. Waterproof gear. Last night Todd and I walked a mile and a half to go to our dinner restaurant and back. It wasn’t pouring, but it wasn’t drizzling either. Just a solid light rain. I had my waterproof shoes, pants, and jacket on and I got to walk around in a little bubble of dry and warm comfort. When we got back to the house I was totally dry. Amazing. If I was a jungle animal I would be very jealous about this, probably even more than soup.

4. Couches. Think back on cave man days. There was pretty much nothing that was very comfortable to sit on except possibly the pelt of a woolly mammoth. Yesterday we sat around in the park to look at the Cherry Blossoms. This was totally awesome in every way, but I have to admit that my butt was not super comfortable after a while. Couches are amazing because not only are they very comfortable, but you can also sit on them in a lot of different ways. Chairs are good too, but aren’t nearly as flexible.

5. Dreams. If some tech company invented dreams we would all be so excited about them. Especially white people. But since they’re built in, we don’t really care that much.

“Did you buy a dream last night? I love that I can go to the movies while I sleep!”

Think about it - it’s like a brand new movie, custom tailored to you, that’s SUPER engaging and feels real. Best of all, you get to watch it while you’re SLEEPING, which is something you have to do anyway. I had a weird dream last night about going to my friend Terry’s house to help him find a receipt because he bought my old car in the dream and needed to get it fixed.

6. Soap. Who would have ever thought that we could make a nice smelling goo that, when rubbed on something filthy, will magically make it clean. I have only a very loose grasp of how soap works, so it’s pretty amazing too me. I hate cleaning so much that I can’t imagine how bad it would be without soap.

One of the more helpful habits I’ve developed is taking responsibility for everything in my life. This is a strong contrast to the average victim / “things happen to me” mentality that a lot of people have.

Basically I assume that anything “bad” that happens in my life is a direct result of actions I took. If I lose money in the stock market I don’t think, “Oh man… I’m so unlucky… the stocks went down.”

Instead I think, “I bought those stocks and I lost money because of a decision I made.”

I even take responsibility for other people’s actions as they affect me. If a girl I’m dating goes nuts and does something stupid I tend to assume that it was actions I took that caused her to do that.

That doesn’t mean that she couldn’t have taken responsibility for my bad actions and reacted better, but it does mean that I recognize my part in everything and assume that even if I’m only 10% responsible, there was probably something I could have done to get the outcome I wanted.

If I approach a girl and it goes badly, it’s because my approach wasn’t good enough, not because of some problem with her.

I do this because I want to constantly critically think about decisions I’ve made and actions I’ve taken and learn from them. It also promotes taking an active role in one’s life. My failures are my responsibility as are my successes. My future is in my hands alone.

I’m a strong believer that everyone gets what they deserve, at least in the first world where we have mechanisms for upwards mobility. You reap what you sow.

It doesn’t work in EVERY single case because of variance, but the people that take more responsibility and action tend to get what they’re going for. The people that think everything HAPPENS to them tend to never get what they want.

Not always, of course, but 90+% of the time.

At the same time, I never feel bad about decisions I’ve made. There’s no point. The best thing that can be done is to analyze the mistake and use that info for future decision making.

Life is actually easier when you take responsibility because it helps make the right course of action clear.

“My site isn’t popular enough. What can I do to make it more popular?”

is a lot more empowering than:

“WTF? My site is awesome. Why aren’t people visiting?”

Right?

I don’t actually think I’m doing this topic justice. It’s hard to articulate.

I was going through some old files the other day and I came across a bunch from Project Hollywood. Ahh, the nostalgia. Here they are:

Me and some girl at the Standard. We switched jackets.

Mystery’s winnings in a game of quarters. We put a glass ice bucket on one side of the room and took turns throwing our own quarters at it. The first person to get a quarter in got to keep all of the quarters that had missed. Some pots were $40+. Then Style’s girlfriends would come, get cajoled into playing, and beat us every time.

The LA PUA summit in 2004. I initially organized it so that I’d get to meet all of the PUAs. Little did I know that I’d be living with them by then.

Me and a couple more girls at the standard. Check out my majestic boa that I used to wear all the time.

Jay (Formhandle from Fastseduction) sleeping with Katya’s dog on top of him.

My room before I got furniture.

Mystery at our eating contest in Taco Bell. I won!

Playboy LA (Stephen Nash) and Mystery at Home Depot. We found a hilarious little pine tree/branch and labeled it as Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree.

Mystery and I in set at Chateau Marmont.

Mystery playing the Didgeridoo. Style later gave this away in some promotion.

Tyler and his girlfriend from Seattle.

Twentysix’s suite that we made him as a joke.

Style unpacking his stuff. I think this was the first night I got there.

Mystery’s bed. You can see a Justin Timberlake poster that we put on his ceiling while he was out on a date, hoping to cause some awkwardness when they got back.

Tyler and that dude from Black Eyed Peas. He somehow knew who EVERY celebrity was. “Oh, that’s the bassist for X band. Let’s get pictures.”

TheOne making out with a girl at The Standard.

Papa in his hot tub in his bathroom. We went to IKEA and got a billion candles and spa pillows and stuff for it.

Papa and his parents, setting up his bedroom.

Mystery eating a napkin.

Dreamweaver eating a pickle at The Standard.

Twentysix romancing his hand.

Twentysix making his crazy hair spikes.

Ok, so I changed my theme again. I kept that last one for a LONG time, but I got a little restless. I’m sad to say goodbye to the awesome cartoon that Kristen drew me, but I had to get this gangsta picture of me up here. I couldn’t resist.

I know that there are a few minor issues with the theme (like the fact that I haven’t tagged / assigned a category to any of my posts for the past year or so). I’ll probably go back and fix that and make it look pretty for you.

The REAL exciting news is that I’m going to be writing features for Gadling.com. Gadling is a travel blog, and I think it’s the most popular one on the net. I’ll be writing a story every week for them. It’s a cool site, so definitely check it out… my favorite posts are the ones by the pilot guy. Very interesting to see behind the scenes there.

It’s interesting that I’ve become a writer of sorts. I used to hate writing papers and usually just failed to do it when they were assigned to me. I don’t really consider myself a writer, though. I consider writing to be the necessary side effect of living a pretty cool life and wanting to keep other people in the loop.

Ok, time to get some sleep over here in the land of the rising sun. Thanks for reading!

I love my American Express card. I have the platinum one thanks to Todd, which has a lot of cool benefits like being able to go into airport lounges and such.

However, they always seem to freeze my account when I travel. Last year, when I went to Tokyo, Todd and I ate at a baller Kobe beef restaurant in Kobe. We went to pay and both of our Amexes got declined. Ouch.

We called from a payphone across from the restaurant and they finally fixed it.

Last month the same thing happened in Panama. I tried to call and fix it, explaining that this always happens, and they finally squared it away. In between my international calls dropping, I shot off a quick e-mail to their support.

My credit card was declined for $30 at a supermarket here in Panama City. I specifically called a week ago to note on my account that I’m traveling internationally and do not want my card to be “frozen” for any reason at all.

I have spent hours trying to resolve this issue, and it has been extremely frustrating since it is difficult to make calls from here.

Tynan

Here’s their reply:

Dear Tynan:

Thank you for contacting us via e-mail.

Please accept my sincere apology for the service that you recently received. I understand that in this matter, we did not provide a level of service that was acceptable to you. We strive to provide the best customer service, and I have forwarded your concerns about this matter to the appropriate managers.

As a more tangible expression of our concern over this issue, we have issued credit in the amount of $150.00 to your account. I hope this assures you that we value you as a customer and appreciate your business.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

We appreciate your Membership since 2002 and look forward to serving you in the future.

Sincerely,

/K. Campbell
Email Servicing Team
American Express Interactive Services

Wow! Talk about above and beyond. I didn’t request any sort of credit, but they gave me one anyway. A couple years ago I bought a $2000 laptop with my Amex, and then left it out in the rain a week later. They refunded the money with minimal hassle.

In other words - I love American Express and will do everything in my power to promote them.

Meanwhile…

Six months ago I decided to move from shared hosting to a dedicated server. I don’t get loads of traffic, but on the rare occasions I get dugg or something like that, I need the capability. Plus I’m a geek so I was basically just looking for an excuse to get a dedicated server.

I’m embarassed to admit it, but I didn’t do enough research and I went with Hostgator.com. They had great reviews and I didn’t realize that cheap dedicated servers existed, so I paid $219 a month for a server. I was happy with that.

For six months everything was great. No problems with service, very good customer support on technical issues, etc. Todd and I split the server, and after six months we decided it was too expensive to justify. Still, I had no qualms with Hostgator’s service and would have recommended it to others, especially their shared service which was a decent deal.

I worked out an awesome deal with the people at Server a Day and got a good (but not as fast as Hostgator) server for $25/mo with no setup fee.t’s been fantastic since I got it and I’d highly recommend those guys to anyone looking for some good hosting.

Every month Hostgator bills me on the 15th. On February 13th I sent a support ticket telling them to not renew my account. They had an automated cancellation form, but it immediately wipes your server and I still planned on moving stuff the next day.

On the 21st they sent me an e-mail telling me to use the cancellation form and to e-mail for a refund of that month. I then noticed they charged me on the 15th.

I used the form and e-mailed asking for a refund.

They replied and said that they would not issue a refund.

Our e-mail vollies went back and forth, with them refusing to escalate my issue and refusing to issue a refund. Here are the final two e-mails, mine sent after a particularly dismissive e-mail:

Hello Pauline,

First of all, understand that I will NOT be paying for that month. This
isn’t an argument, it is a fact.

There are only two possible ways to proceed.

1. Hostgator will refund the money since I requested the cancellation
BEFORE the date. I will continue to recommend Hostgator to my friends
who need hosting.

2. I will have American Express issue a chargeback. I will then report
Hostgator to various consumer watchdog organizations including the BBB.

I have made my situation perfectly clear. It is obvious that a refund is
due to me. If you do not issue this refund after getting this e-mail, I
will make sure that Brent Oxley gets copies of our correspondence and
understands how this issue was handled.

No matter what you do, escalate this to your supervisor as I have
previously requested and you have failed to do.

Tynan

As per our terms of service we do not offer refunds on dedicated servers. We also do not take credit card disputes lightly as these are extremely detrimental to the companies involved. Should you attempt to issue a chargeback we will contact American Express with proof of our terms of service as well as your order. We can also insure that this will affect your credit going forward. We would like to work with you regarding this, however we are unable to issue a refund at this time.

Thank you,

William G.
HostGator.com

Keep in mind that I’d paid $1300+ to Hostgator over the previous months and had told them BEFORE my billing date that I didn’t want to be charged again. They never acknowledged any of this and mostly sent me stock replies to my e-mails. Also, disputing charges does NOT affect your credit - they lied presumably to scare me.

That’s not how you treat a customer.

So, as promised I sent an e-mail to Amex. Within 12 hours they wrote me back saying that they’d credited my account, returned the charge to Hostgator, and that their investigations department considered the matter closed.

That’s how you treat a customer.

My productivity has been abysmal for the past three days. I haven’t stuck to my crossfit schedule. A couple meals weren’t vegan and Ty-approved. I fell off the wagon.

Sure I was on a plane for most of one of those days and jetlagged for the others, but those are excuses and I don’t want to excuse myself. Excuses don’t put food on the table.

At the same time, I’m not going to dwell on on the past. I had stuff to do, I didn’t get it done, and now I’m where I am. It is what it is, and all that matters now is the present.

The reason I bring this up at all is because I see people get in this situation ALL the time. Nine out of ten times (or more?) they use it as an excuse to give up.

Think of the smoker who “quits” and then has one cigarette and then says, “Well, I guess THAT didn’t work” and is totally back to normal. Or the dieter who falls off the wagon and then isn’t on the diet anymore.

“I couldn’t stick with it.”

Here’s the thing - it doesn’t really matter how you deal with success. Success is relatively easy to deal with so it’s no test of character. Failure, on the other hand, requires that you take the best part of you and put it to work.

So today we did our crossfit. We did a tough one (deck of cards). We went to the supermarket and bought our vegan food and tried to go to a vegan place (but had to settle for vegetarian when our place was closed). I’m sleepy now but I’m banging out the blog entries that will get me caught up for the week.

Tomorrow it will be like we never fell off. More crossfit, more work, 100% vegan, etc. No big deal.

The only thing that matters to me are habits. My habit is to eat 100% vegan. If I find myself in a tough situation (like being stuck on a plane with nothing but a gross ham sandwich), I might not eat vegan. Those occasional lapses won’t make me unhealthy, just like eating a salad once a month won’t make someone healthy.

My other habit is to bounce back as fast as possible. When I make a mistake I acknowledge it, try to decide what I should have done, and then I move on and continue to do what’s best.

My week in Hollywood has just finished and I’m now on a plane to Tokyo. Just hearing the Japanese announcements on the airplane’s PA brings back fond memories of my trip here last year and makes me more excited to get there.

(Quick aside. The girl next to Todd is sleeping in the most hilarious position I’ve ever seen. She’s kneeling facing the seat with her legs under the seat in front of her. Her head is face down on the seat of the chair, buried in the cushion. I cannot imagine that that’s comfortable in any way. I wish I had my camera out to take a picture.)

I waited too long to call people so I didn’t get to see all of my old friends, but I did get to see a bunch of them. I stayed at Style’s place, spending most of my time working on CD on one couch while he worked on a new book on the other couch. His new girlfriend, an exotic half Indian, quarter Japanese, quarter something else, hung out with us a lot. She’s adorable and a lot of fun, and they’re in love.

Style is under deadline and stressed as usual, but I secretly think that’s how he likes working. He works extremely hard and always puts out top quality stuff, as you probably know. He’s totally obsessed with his SONOS, which he shows to every single person who walks in the door. I have to admit that it’s totally awesome and that I’d have one if I still had a house or apartment. Style has a knack for finding cool stuff like that - he has a full arcade game called “Panic Park”, which is incredibly cool.

When I go to Boston I usually see Formhandle and Tokyopua, but this last time I had a shorter visit and didn’t have the chance. I was surprised to find out that they’d both moved to LA, so I got to see them while I was there. They’re both fantastic guys - very smart and interesting. I stopped by Formhandle’s place and saw the new Fastseduction.com headquarters, which is very cool.

I also met a bunch of the Stylelife guys, and went to karaoke with them last night. Todd and I knocked the bottom out of it, and had people getting out of their seats to dance. I also made some sweet R Kelly glasses for the occasion. The Stylelife guys were all really cool and “normal”, but not naturals. They told me their stories and it sounded like a lot of them had made some huge transformations.

Dave Faustino, better known as Bud Bundy from Married With Children, who’s part of Style’s Stylelife videos, came over one night to play Rock Band. When I introduced myself he said, “Oh, I’ve read about you!”. It was pretty crazy to have a celebrity recognize me as if I was some sort of celebrity. I’ve met a handful of celebrities in my day, and Dave is probably the most normal one I’ve ever met… very down to earth and friendly.

Apparently he used to live right across from Project Hollywood. He said he saw us all the time and thought that we were drug dealers or something. Pretty funny…

One night we went to this awesome vegan Thai place (whole coconuts to drink! yes!) and I also had the pleasure of meeting Bernard Chang, the top comic book illustrator who has also illustrated Style’s books. He was very cool too… Style picks good friends.

The last night I was there Style had a little party at his house. I met Kosmo from The Pickup Artist, as well as a bunch of Mystery’s friends.

And of course it was fantastic to see Mystery. Every time we see each other, which is unfortunately infrequent, we both spend a significant amount of time apologizing for the past. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the moment I guess, but now it’s hard to understand why either of us let Katya break up our friendship. I’m just glad that unlike every other PUA fued we were able to put it behind us.

Things are going great for Mystery. He has an absolutely stunning new girlfriend who he’s in love with (as he always is within a few days), his business is going well, and he’s become part of the celebrity scene, “which is great,” as he says. One of the most exciting things, actually, is that he got signed up to be frozen when he dies! How awesome! I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, but he actually pulled the trigger. It’s not very expensive either, so I’m going to sign up as soon as I can.

Mystery is probably the biggest rap fan I have. I made a song for him a few years ago and he plays it for everyone. His marketing guy, Jorg, told me that he plays it during conference calls. Mystery estimates that 500k people have heard it due to him, but I’m not sure how that could be possible. It’s even the song on his myspace now. Back in Project Hollywood he used to sit around with me trying to come up with better lyrics for my songs.

For a moment Style, Mystery, and I were in the kitchen together bantering with some girls at the party and it felt like old times.

I didn’t get a chance to see Craig or Ross Jeffries, unfortunately. I’m kicking myself for that - they’re both amazing people as well.

I’ll tell you guys… I am one lucky person. Whether I’m in Austin, LA, Boston, Panama, or even online, I seem to manage to make friends with really great people. Hopefully I’ll be equally lucky in Tokyo.

I just got into LAX last night. It’s amazing how so much time can pass, but I still remember the nuances of the city. Take La Cienega down past the big plaster donut, over the traintracks, and into Hollywood.

I drove past the old Project Hollywood house. It looks just as it ever did, except now there’s a family’s SUV in the driveway. I wonder if they know who used to live there.

Within minutes I’m transported back three years. I feel as though nothing’s changed. I’m home. Driving down sunset takes me past all of the familiar landmarks - places I used to eat at and visit every day. I make it to Style’s house without a GPS.

I have a whole circle of friends here. I don’t talk with them often when I’m not here, but once I get here it’s like nothing’s changed. To a lesser extent it’s like that in Boston as well. I abandon my Texas friends once in a while to go on these long trips, but they’re still there when I get back. Now that I’ve spent two months in Panama, it will always be familiar to me in the same way.

Todd’s here right now. It’s always strange to me when my different worlds cross. I like it.

With my projects I have a habit, that I’m currently winning battling with, of starting multiple projects and never fully investing myself in one of them.

Maybe I’m like that with my life, too.

There’s a famous experiment where they found that the optimal amount of Jellies to sell at once is eight. Any more and the choices paralyze people - they can’t make the decision.

I wonder if that will happen to me. As I visit new places and fall in love with them I want to live in them all. Todd and I drove around Santa Monica today and marveled and what a nice place it is to live. Great restaurants, the beach, and a Whole Foods that sells quart sized smoothies (which we each got, of course).

Creating this year’s itinerary was easy for Life Nomadic. Next year will be tougher because we’ll have too many good choices.