At long last, I finished a new page on iskip about the rad sport of Extreme Skipping. It started in 2005, when a New Yorker named Extreme Gene introduced Extreme SKipping to the world with the following video:



In the years since, hundreds of Extreme Skippers have followed suit...and iSkip is proud to be profiling a particularly passionate group of them called Silly Boys Extreme Skipping. Skip on over to the new extreme skipping page to meet them for yourself.

Sorry to not be posting much lately....I'm in major planning mode for the Burning Man festival in Nevada next week. I'm going with several coworkers and a bunch of other fun people! 8 out of the 11 people in our camp are first timers. We're calling ourselves Camp Bee Here Now...We all have bee suits and will be swarming the desert en masse! Fun!

If you haven't heard of Burning Man... Basically it's a place where 50K people gather in the Black Rock Desert (extreme weather...hot during the day, cold at night, and if you don't drink water u die!) and create a temporary city called Black Rock City. There is no commercial vending on site...The city operates on a gift economy. It's a fully operational town... Beauty parlors, massage places, dance clubs, small, intimate blues clubs, open mikes, live music, bars, adult sized playgrounds, etc. etc..... and the best part is the art. Huge installations that quite often are burned at the end of the event to signify the temporary nature of all things...and the joy of creating for the sake of creating. You can find all kinds of cool pictures on their website.

It's a pretty amazing experience...This will be my 11th year...I'm really looking forward to it!

Oh, my other exciting news is that I just got started on Twitter! You can find me there twitter.com/iskip.

I have a few things to share today... First, a quote that I found in one of the books I am publicizing right now by Kamal Sarma called Mental Resilience: How to Develop the Focus of a Warrior & the Peace of a Monk...

"I used to think that anyone doing anything weird was weird. I suddenly realized that anyone weird wasn't weird at all and that it was the people saying they were weird that were weird." --Paul McCartney

Reminds me of something I often say which is that I think it is crazier for someone else to judge someone for skipping/expressing their joy in today's world than it is to want to skip down the street! Lord knows we need all the positive energy we can get! So skip loud and skip proud!

Also, here are two recent media references to the joys of skipping. Many thanks to author Melanie Bowden for sending them in.
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In the August 2008 issue of Prevention magazine there is a workout on page 99 and one of the exercises is skipping. Here's what is says:

Lower Body Move: Skipping
Just like when you were a kid. Do it for 15 to 30 seconds. If you are indoors or have limited space, skip or jump in place.
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And this was in the July 2008 issue of Parenting in an article of tips on mental-health boosters for moms:

Skip with your child. The steady rhythm naturally calms you and gives you a sense of being in sync with your body and the other person, Scott Sheperd, a psychologist in St. Louis says. "It's like two violin strings getting in tune with each other. Plus you'll feel like a kid again--and that rejuvenates you."
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Two violin strings getting in tune with each other! I love that! Skip on! :-)