You said you didn't mind!

Ho Ho Ho... Ho. :o)

There's a Guggenheim Museum in LV?

And no one told me??? What's up with that?

Could someone sneak me a few pics? Please?

Johnny, I promise I won't show that Santa pic if...

>:)

5 Weird Things About Me

Thanks a lot Teri. (If it had been anyone else...)

1. I make up music videos in my head to entertain myself.
   
2. I’m addicted to Lysol.
   
3. I still like Procol Harum.
   
4. I’m a closet ‘control freak’. I know where all my things are and I’m lost if someone moves them... Which is how my family members entertain themselves.
   
5. My bedroom is completely devoid of any type of mental stimulus. No TV, no radio, no knick knacks, no windows, no pictures of loved ones (actually, I have no pictures of loved ones up anywhere because that whole concept creeps me out.) All I have are a couple pieces of artwork, and I only have those because someone made fun of me once for having nothing on the walls.

My turn! I tag everyone on my buddy list that hasn't done this yet! If I have to do it, so do you!

Merry... Ummmm...

You know what? Screw this political mumbo jumbo... You guys are my buds.

I hope you have a Merry Day, a Great Week, a Wonderful Season, a Peaceful, yet Tremendous Year...

A Happy Life!

And if something messes with your happiness, give me a holler. I’ll help out in any way I can.

The Road Less Traveled

I actually posted this elsewhere, but I want to add it here as well because it seems so appropriate at the time.

Life is difficult.

This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult -once we truly understand and accept it- then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief, noisily or subtly, that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been especially visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race or even their species, and not upon others. I know about this moaning because I have done my share.

Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them? Do we want to teach our children to solve them?

Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life's problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems. With total discipline we can solve all problems.

What makes life difficult is that the process of confronting and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending upon their nature, evoke in us frustration or grief or sadness or loneliness or guilt or regret or anger or fear or anxiety or anguish or despair. These are uncomfortable feelings, often very uncomfortable, often as painful as any kind of physical pain, sometimes equaling the very worst kind of physical pain. Indeed, it is because of the pain that events or conflict engender in us that we call them problems. And since life poses an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.

Yet it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit, we challenge and encourage the human capacity to solve problems, just as in school we deliberately set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Those things that hurt, instruct." It is for this reason that wise people learn not to dread but actually to welcome problems and actually to welcome the pain of problems.

This is the opening page of The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck. It's probably the first 'self-help' book that I read (after Jonathan Livingston Seagull) and it's played an important role in my life, although mostly on a subconscious level. This is especially true today as I see people withering in self-contempt. I often don't understand the destruction we bring on ourselves. Which, ironically, is my difficulty in life.

I'm curious, are there any books or passages that have changed the way you view life or yourself? And what are they? And why?

The Diabolical Diabolo!

I can’t believe I had never seen or even heard of a Diabolo until last week when Bob introduced me to this odd little toy. At first glance, it may appear to be simple to work, but it’s not.


And because I was able to learn one trick, I'm now obsessed with mastering it.

Working a Diabolo is an almost mindless act once you learn the basics, but it does require a great deal of both concentration and balance... Both of which I have very little of, so I’m drawn to the challenge. (Guess I should have mentioned earlier how easily obsessed I can be. Now Bob is stuck with an employee who wants to spend hours playing instead of working.)

The first trick I learned was tossing it into the air and catching it. It took me a couple of days, but after hitting the dog and scuffing up the ceiling a few times, I can do it with ease. The next trick, the one I'm working on now, is the Grind. Unfortunately, this one is causing a bit more damage than the toss. I can catch it on the stick, but I can’t keep it on the stick. It just flies off in to whatever direction I have the stick pointed in. Luckily, I always have "But you’re the one that got me started on it" to fall back on when Bob complains about the broken knick-knacks and TV.

I've become so hooked on the Diabolo that I’ve decided to share this obsession with my nephew. I ordered him one for Xmas :o) But, I would still like to return the favor and get Bob hooked on something interesting. Do you have any suggestions for weird or obscure toys or games? Something that might break a lamp is preferable!

Disassociated Thoughts

Feel free to add your own.

• I’m making the person who had the balls to choose Christmas day as the opening of their horror flick an honorary Brainiax member! Wolfe Creek, I can’t wait!
  
  
• We have increasingly been conditioned to judge people by their ability to learn the things we think they should know, instead of the things they choose to learn. If they don’t know what we consider ‘common sense’, we deem them stupid (a word I hate, and seldomly use.) It's funny, in high school I had a History / World Culture teacher that treated me like a retard because I didn’t catch on during her history class (wasn’t my bag at the time, but became so the next year when I had a better teacher,) but thought I was brilliant when I excelled in World Culture and didn’t miss an opportunity to tell me so. It was actually a pretty good lesson if you think about it.
  
  
• Whose reality is this? Mine, or yours?
  
  
• You know he wasn’t ‘saved’, why did you insist that he went on to a ‘better place’? Does that mean that I can go out and kill whoever I want, and as long as enough people say it, I'll go to heaven too??? (Ironically, his favorite statement was "there’s no such thing as an accident. There’s carelessness, or you meant to do it." Meaning that both are inexcusable and deserving of punishment. Yet, he used us to avoid punishment.)
  
  
• If anyone knows how to make those little dots and indentations, please share that knowledge with me! (Cool. Thanks Martin!)
  
  
• My favorite snack? Hard pretzels with mustard and hot peppers... Yummy!
  
  
• Wonder if I can re-create the artwork that I lost. The images are fixed firmly in my head, but are my hands still capable? I could really use that time machine right now!

• I'm wondering what I did to piss Jenn off... Why else would she take me off her blog buddy list? :o(

• You learn something new everyday! If you're willing.

This Sucks.

As you probably know by now, I'm a big fan of art. It damn near consumes my private life, whether it be drawing, painting, writing, photography... Whatever! If it’s a means of self expression, a small window into someone’s world, then it’s for me!

Unfortunately, I had that window slammed shut on my own work a few times over the last week or so and I feel the need to tell.

First, on Thanksgiving I went to my sister’s house as usual, only to find that one of my inks had worked it’s way off her wall. I mean, it was bad enough that it had already worked it’s way from the living room, to the bedroom, to the boy’s bathroom... But now it’s gone completely! That sucks, it always was and still is the perfect painting for her!

Then, (and this is by far the worst) I realized that I've lost all the artwork I did while I was younger. I had it all (except what I had given away) in a portfolio, and now it’s gone. Talk about pain! I don’t know what it’s like to be karate kicked in the gut, but it can’t be worse than this.

Actually, I don’t want to talk about that...

Then, I get another letter from Poetry.com. As you’ll recall, I sent a poem to them months ago that I think is one of my best. It’s one that means a lot to me. They made a big deal out of it, and made me feel like it was something good, like someone understood it. But then, I sent in a lame ass poem a few days later, and now I'm getting the same letters for it. They make it sound as good as the first! That bums me out! It’s like, these people could care less what you submit, they’re just trying to make a buck by kissing ass and putting a product out. It shakes my whole opinion of what ‘art’ has become. That sucks!

But, on a brighter note, a cable guy came over yesterday to fix my cable and commented on my most favorite piece of art ever (the sky painting that a friend did for me several years ago.) I love this painting so much, and the fact that someone else liked it too? Well, that just made my day! And he smelled good, too... Talk about the entire package! Wonder if he’ll ever be back :o)