I found Shangri-La

Today is a very philosophical day at the Industry. The ticker went up a bit as I decided to pump a little capital in the business ventures. I enjoyed a wonderful turkey sandwich for dinner, complete with the Grey Poopon (It's Poupon*, but I like Poopon better!), some tasty Herr's potato chips and potato salad. I enjoyed both an oatmeal-raisin and a chocolate chip cookie for desert. For the record, the two go together just fine..

But getting back to the philosophical thing...after my wonderful sandwich I decided to look at a calendar of mine. It is not important why I looked at the calendar, but as I was looking at it, I thought of something.

Every person in this world, every human, feels time differently.

I used to view time as a particularly goal-oriented phenomenon. For example, Wednesday was always the the day before Thursday, which was the day where 'tommorow' would be Friday, which marked the last day before the weekend. I know that may sound confusing, but not to me, whom always looked forward to the weekend as a break from school. The weekend was always the 'goal' . Any day other than the weekend was simply a step to be accomplished to get to the weekend.

Then, I matured. I used my brain. It wasn't a gradual thing. One day, I realized that time wasn't just a series of markers to get to a goal...it was a precise measure of specific moments. Each moment deserved to be cherished and treated individually. Rather than think of time in cumulative terms, I began to think of time as a series of infinite opportunities. Each second, each day I did something different. New experiences at every turn.

And the most amazing thing happened. Time slowed down. I began to live longer. By experiencing different types of things, my brain was not able to process my life as fast as it once could.

Sadly, now I find myself losing that ability. I am stuck doing the same thing again. I am stuck looking at the calendar.

I can't relate how important my discovery is. It takes stockbrokers and businessmen 65 years (66 w/ benefits in some areas) before they realize that if they spent their years seeing more things besides the inside of a Starbucks and the side of a Wall St cubicle, they could have lived a life twice as long...

My motto is to try new things, and be your own entrepreneur. That will do more for you than Shangri-La ever could.

Downfall ABC game show makes me hurt!

Hey, you didn't believe me? Well, believe it! Two posts in a row..

I was unlucky tonight to have the misfortune of investing 11 minutes in something new called Downfall ABC game show. Well, that's how I refer to it , because if someone told me they were watching "Downfall" last night, I wouldn't know what the hell they were talking about.

The game consists of a player answering multiple choice questions a la 'Who Wants to be A Millionaire' while watching a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt has all kinds of useless crap on it, like an above-ground basketball hoop (with 10 basketballs included), and a knock-off electric guitar (amp included). There was also a year's supply worth of spring water (water jug thingy included). At the end of the conveyor belt there is a glass case with fake money in it...that's supposed to represent the money the contestant is supposed to win. As time passes, each item falls off a fake building and is destroyed on the ground below. The object of the show is for the the contestant to answer as many questions correctly in as least time (we've seen that one before folks) before everything falls..

It's not the cliche trivia game deal that I don't like. 1 vs 100 was enjoyable on Xbox (the Industry has had to button-mash off some steam lately). I love Jeopardy and was even able to tolerate Regis' game show extravaganzas.

What I can't stand is the absurdity of what makes Downfall 'unique'. Items that are in their own circumstances the most perfect innovations, the go-to-guys of everyday life, are put in a game show. And we're supposed to love them like we love a million dollars. Spring water for a year! Cmon now! I have spring water for a year already! So does everyone else! (And if they don't, I don't see them crying over it.) What I don't have is a million dollars..even with liabilities!

And naturally, no one respects the stuff. The spring water fell off the conveyor belt there is no reaction. The basketball hoop breaks into a million pieces and all the contestant does is scratch his ass. But oh no, when the money is going to fall off, everyone gets pissy....

I used to be rich. Then all my investors flew the coop and I'm stuck reading Ayn Rand and wishing for the good ol' days. And now, the only things I have left, my friendly Xbox and spring water, are being thrown off a conveyor belt off a fake building onto a fake blacktop.



The company responsible for the show I watched. I was forced me to take a laxative to relieve myself.

Bad Habits

Good evening, readers. Or should I say, good morning? Well, its 8 minutes to midnight, so technically I still have a few moments of the day left...

You're probably wondering why I have so mercifully chosen to return to my blog. Yes, the recession took its toll on the Industry, and I was forced to lay up a couple months in a restaurant washing dishes. But we've since recovered. And when I use "we've", I mean the collective "we've". As in my business is a one-man show. But, I'm going all tangential on everybody here...

The real reason why I have returned is because I have a bad habit, and I want to get rid of it. No, its not a drug habit, or anything sexy like that. Rather than doing some wives' tale ritual (hey, I know the phrase wives' tale ritual has yet to be invented, but I'm writing on the fly here so give me a break) to kick the habit, I thought I'd post here more often as a reminder to myself that I have other, better, more creative things to do than this particular habit.

I am going to post here once a day for however long I feel like it. For however long it takes to satisfy me that I am clean of this habit..

If you haven't tried to kick a habit before, it's a hard thing to do. I know, because I've tried many times, and failed miserably...

But hey, everybody hates a rambling blog post. And the damn ticker I installed on the bottom of my tv froze again. (S&P 5,000,000:DAN) So I guess it's time to go now.

Oh yeah. I'm writing/doing this for myself.