Archive for January, 2007

Paycheck to Paycheck

Monday, January 22nd, 2007

People who live paycheck to paycheck, I feel you.  People who can’t make ends meet, people who try and “make a dollar out of fifteen cents,” (thanks Tupac) and people who feel victimized by their poverty, I know where you’re coming from.  Living paycheck to paycheck is miserable.  Knowing that if you got hurt or could not work for one week, you’d be out on the streets to fend for yourself.  It’s how most of America lives.  I have been hearing something about how the middle class is disappearing in America and it’s very sad.  I just wish this was not an occurence in today’s world, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

People who have all the money are usually reluctant to give it away to people who need it more.  There are exceptions, but most rich people hoard every penny they have, while most poor people have to do the same because they have hardly anything.  “All men are created equal” is a big joke.  We all know it.  With very few exceptions, the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor.  It’s just the way it has always been.  Sure, there are some rags to riches stories, and even some riches to rags stories, but I believe poverty and wealth is just as much about the mindset as it is the amount in  your bank account.

The mindset of wealth is you have more than enough.  You have tenfold or more what you need in this life.  You have no real worries about any sort of financial situation, unless it involves putting your investments in the right company.  I mean, if you were to just let the money sit in a checking account, you could live out the rest of your years without any real concern about losing your house or your car, or even your sense of financial security.

The scarcity mindset is always, “I don’t have enough to scrape by.  I need more money.  I don’t have enough.  I’m going to lose the house/apartment.  Whenever I get ahead, I always fall back.  How come I can’t save any money?”  The thoughts you have about money bring to you the money you attract.

Then there’s the whole perception of money as good or bad.  Some people view rich people as dishonorable people, people who walked over at least ten other people just to amass the fortune they have today.  There are the people who say that money makes you more of who you already are.  If you’re a good and honorable person, wealth is a good thing.  If you’re a terrible, kniving, backstabbing greedmonger, then the more money you have, the more greedy you’ll get.

Another distortion some people have is that money will make them happy.  Like as soon as they get a certain amount of money, happiness will follow.  People who are hoping for a miracle, for a million dollars to just fall into their lap and they can finally relax and be happy.  Some of the people who play the lottery fall into this category.  Not all of them, but some.  It would be nice, but having that sum of money is not something I need to make me happy.  It may increase my happiness, but it will not make me happy.

Money is neither good or bad in itself.  And it’s quite useful if you need to solve certain problems.  It’s a great resource from where it works, and it’s immensely beneficial to getting you out of debt.  That should be obvious.  It’s a powerful tool that can be used for good or evil.  It has a great potential and can grow beyond your wildest dreams.  But how much do we actually need?

I’m not sure.  I am not a financial expert.  I do not write books about how making millions of dollars will improve your life significantly.  I’m not going to say that.  If you’re happy now, then hopefully money will only increase your happiness.  If you’re sad now and you inherit one million dollars, it may get you happy for a little while, but who knows if you can maintain that sort of happiness?

I am on my way to achieving financial abundance in my life.  All it is going to take is for me to align my beliefs with that of a millionaire who is honorable.  Someone who uses his/her money for good purposes, and doesn’t just buy a f*cking blimp for $12 million.  My first thought of me being wealthy is to go into small towns and randomly give away $10,000 or so dollars to random people, people who need the money, people who have to realize that kindness goes a long way.  One visualization I get is me sitting at a restaurant and leaving a $10,000 tip on the table and walking out of the restaurant.  Just imagine what that would do to the waiter/waitress who was at my table?  Just showing people that being wealthy is all about attitude and mindset.

There is nothing that would fulfill me more than doing something like that, along with motivational type speeches, with much humor injected of course.  Seeing the look on people’s faces when you hand them an unexpected sum of money.  I’m sure the press will catch wind of this so I may have to go undercover.  With all the money I’m planning to have, it should not be a big problem to concoct a sufficient disguise.  I’ll be the Master of Disguise (one of the worst movies ever).

Getting to a state of financial abundance is something I wouldn’t mind doing.  I’m working towards it every day and the process is so enriching, so motivating, because I know that with the money I have, I can change people’s lives for the better (hopefully).  I’m going to look to give the money or advice to good people so they can also do the same good to other people if they ever achieve a state of financial abundance.  Isn’t that what life is all about anyway?  Being the best person you can be and helping others do the same.  Well, wish me luck.  I hope the same happens for you.

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Success??

Friday, January 19th, 2007

Success is something people always want, but so few ever get there.  I have read a lot of inspirational texts about success and what causes people to succeed, and what I’ve found is that it’s not being “lucky” that allows you to succeed, but being persistent and triumphing in the face of adversity that makes one successful.  A lot of people use the analogy of the best baseball players of all time.  Even the highest batting averages were less than .500, meaning they did not get a hit more than they did.  So what does that mean?  It means that if you are to be successful, you will not succeed every time, and failure will be more apparent than success.  All successful people had to start out as a novice.  Nobody wakes up one day and decides he/she is the best tennis player of all time.  It takes hard work and perseverence.  It takes losing, it takes failure.  Failure is not a bad thing, but an essential key to success.

So I guess failure is inevitable.  Failure is something we’re all going to have to get used to if we want to succeed.  Embracing failure has to be a part of our lives.  But so many people have a fear of failure, like it’s going to kill them or something.  I am guilty of this at times.  Not wanting to do something because I fear I will not be very good at it, but I have to understand that if success is worth having, failure is part of the equation.  It is my dream to become a famous stand-up comedian, but not too famous, just famous enough to have a solid fan base around the country.  But I have to let go of my fear of failure.  I have to accept I will fail at times and maybe people won’t laugh.  That is part of the equation.

I feel if I get stuck in this fear-based paralysis for too long, I will never become what I need to be.  I just have to start getting out there and doing it.  I give the same advice to you readers.  If you have a goal, go for it.  Don’t let anything hold you back.  Immerse yourself with your goals.  If you had no goals, what would there be to live for?  Even preparing your next meal is fulfilling a goal.  But you have to go for success in the field you want to be in.  You can’t spend all your time living other people’s goals.  Challenge yourself.  Don’t let up.

I obviously have a slightly different perspective on life because of my brain cancer.  I am happy just to be alive, and that kind of complacency is excactly what is holding me back, I think.  I feel fortunate to be here on earth, because I know if I was around in the nineteenth century or earlier, I would be dead right now.  I would be without life.  But I had a talk with my higher self a few months ago and I asked it, “What is the meaning of my life?”  And he said, “Well, we gave you a second chance to live your life the way you want to live it.  You were paralyzed by fear before and after you survived a life-threatening disease, I thought it would rid you of all fear.  I guess I was wrong.  You need to work out the rest of your fears.”  So that’s what I’ve been doing.

The whole problem with a fear of failure or a fear of success is that the things we fear haven’t even happened yet, so why are we so afraid of them.  I’ll give you an example:  I have eye movement problems from my brain tumor.  It is a condition known as Parinaud’s Syndrome.  I cannot look up and my eyes moving side to side is a challenge.  I did not think I would ever be able to drive an automobile because of this.  I’m not aware of my complete surroundings.  But I’ve been working at it.  I’ve been practicing.  It will take me much longer to be completely comfortable with driving, but I know that is is a possibility.  The fear I kept having was that I wouldn’t see a car, wouldn’t be able to change lanes, wouldn’t be able to parallel park because of the constant switching back and forth moving the eyes.  My biggest fear was I’d cause an accident because I couldn’t see everything.  And I’m still working through this fear, but I’ve gotten a lot better.

The most courageous thing you can do is face your fears.  Fear of failure, fear of success.  Know that your fears are nothing but exactly that, fears.  I’m not claiming to be perfect at this yet, but I realize that if I am to live in constant fear of everything, I might as well curl up and die.  I’m a survivor.  I don’t need to fear anything.  I can do anything I set my mind to.  And so can you.  Just realize that fears are holding you back.

Motivation is another key to success.  You have to want to do the thing you are striving for.  I am struggling with going back to college.  I am.  I’ll admit it.  I don’t know if I want to put up with all that heirarchical and beaurocratic crap.  I don’t want to have to keep paying money I earned working hard.  I’m not even sure which type of degree program I should pursue because I don’t like being limited to one aspect of myself.  That’s what I feel college does to you.  It limits you, it takes your frame of mind and stifles it to one position.  I have to let go of that fear as well.

Here’s what I define success as.  It’s not getting to some static destination where all your problems are solved.  It’s enjoying the path you are on.  It’s loving all aspects of the path, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  It’s facing your fears.  It’s doing things even when other people tell you you’re crazy.  It’s loving every moment on this Earth.  It’s doing what you’ve always wanted to do, and making a living at it.  Now go out and live it, breathe it, be it.  Success.

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Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Thursday, January 18th, 2007

Here’s some food for thought.  These are called lateral thinking puzzles.  I hope you enjoy them.  Just use them as a springboard for your creativity.

A man lives on the twelfth floor of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. In the evening, he gets into the elevator, and, if there is someone else in the elevator — or if it was raining that day — he goes back to his floor directly. Otherwise, he goes to the tenth floor and walks up two flights of stairs to his apartment.

Solution:  The man is a dwarf.  He can only reach the tenth floor button, except when someone is in the elevator with him or he has an umbrella to reach number 12.

A man is lying dead in a room. There is a large pile of gold and jewels on the floor, a chandelier attached to the ceiling, and a large open window.

Solution:  The room is the ballroom of an ocean liner which sank some time ago. The man ran out of air while diving in the wreck

3.  A man and his wife raced through the streets. They stopped, and the husband got out of the car. When he came back, his wife was dead, and there was a stranger in the car.

Solution:  The wife was about to have a baby. They drove to the hospital. The husband left to get a wheelchair, but the baby was born in the meantime, and the wife didn’t survive the birth.

A body is discovered in a park in Chicago in the middle of summer. It has a fractured skull and many other broken bones, but the cause of death was hypothermia.

Solution: A poor peasant from somewhere in Europe desperately wants to come to the United States. Lacking money for airfare, he stows away in the landing gear compartment of a jet. He dies of hypothermia in mid-flight and falls out when the compartment opens as the plane makes its final approach.

A man walks into a bar and asks for a drink. The bartender pulls out a gun and points it at him. The man says, “Thank you,” and walks out.

Solution: The man has hiccups; the bartender scares them away by pulling a gun.

A man is returning from Switzerland by train. If he had been in a non-smoking car he would have died.

Solution: The man used to be blind — he’s returning from an eye operation which restored his sight. He spent all his money on the operation, so when the train (which had no internal lighting) goes through a tunnel, he thinks he’s gone blind again and decides to kill himself. But before he could do it, he saw the light of the cigarettes people were smoking and realized he could still see.

A man is dead in a puddle of blood and water on the floor of an otherwise empty locked room.

Solution: The man stabbed himself with an icicle.

These are just a few of the ones I found at a great website called Brain Food.  Some of them are so outlandish, you have to laugh, but most of them make quite a bit of sense.  I’ve decided to take a little break from writing, and to take some time exploring possibilities.  I’ll still post regularly, so keep coming to my site, but the posts will be more rich in nature.  I’m working on improving my craft of writing.  It’s a daunting task, using modes and modalities, metaphors and similes, and the whole host of literary tools at my disposal.  So enjoy these lateral thinking puzzles and I’ll be back with a new article.

If you found this post funny, insightful, helpful, or throught-provoking, feel free to donate to my site.

Breaking Up Monotony

Tuesday, January 16th, 2007

How about it?  I’m in the mood for some lack of structure, some lack of uncertainty, some complete and utter chaos.  Where you don’t know what will happen next.  Just a complete upheaval where anything is possible.  Take everything you know today and throw it away, start anew.  Just become complete with yourself.  Forget what you have learned and embrace your inner chaos.  Spread it outward, taking it to the streets, doing unorthodox things, donning clown makeup, cross-dressing, I don’t care.  Do something unorthodox just to shove it in everyone’s petrified faces.  Show them you’re not afraid to go against normality, show them all how mundane their little lives are.  I take great joy in doing things like this.  Say things that will invoke a response, invoke some sort of questioning of their way of life.

For example, at my job, I work as a cashier/bagger in a supermarket.  It’s not much, but sometimes I’ll just start asking the customers things like, “What do you know about astral travel?” or, when they ask me how I’m doing, I say, “Just waiting for the pirate ships to take me away into the ocean.”  I do this to see the shattered look on their face.  “Have you had any lucid dreams recently you’d like to share with me?”  One time, a coworker said to me, “I didn’t know you were here today.”  And I responded, “I didn’t even know I was here yet.”  Just be erratic.  Pretend you don’t even exist in reality.  Pretend you’re just a tourist in this world, kind of like Kevin Spacey in K-Pax.  You could even eat a banana with the skin on like he did, oblivious to the fact you can peel it.  Do things that force people to react.  Don’t succumb to your weaknesses, allow your strengths to get out.

Some days, when I’m at work, if a supervisor asks me to do something, I don’t even respond, I just go do it, or sometimes I even ponder saying, “I’m not here yet, mentally.  Give me a few hours,” but if I say this to the wrong person, the person who is in charge of my employment, it could cause some serious problems.  Not really, he’s a big joke anyway, and he’s going to start since more and more.  It’s only when you have lost everything that you are able to do anything.  Fight Club.  God, I loved that book.  Just mix it up a little.  It seems like repetition has been the spice of life for so long for so many people, and the monotony has become intolerable, I’m sure, so why don’t people do something to get the ball rolling towards a new paradigm?  I hate the fact that some people never do these things because they’re afraid.  The only thing I haven’t really done is told my boss what I think of him.  But if I were to go up to him and say, “I think you’re a fat slob with a false sense of entitlement and a massive ego that is only surpassed by the size of your ass,” he may get angry and fire me, as well as file a verbal assault charge.  But I’m sure he already knows all of the things I said.  He knows them down deep, but he’ll deny them until the day he dies, because facing the truth is scary.  Especially if you’re like the man I just described.

When you let it all hang out, are no longer afraid of what “other people” think of you, then you can begin to really let it rip.  After I quit that fucking job and become self-employed selling “hopes and dreams and used goals” on eBay, I’ll be able to go back into that store and tell him somewhat along those lines.  It’s not for him, it’s for me.  Why should I pretend I like him when inside, I want him to leave for good, and never come back?  I’m not saying I want him dead, just far away from me.  But I’ll continue to break the monotony at work, with tales of astral travel and lucid dreams, with philosophical conversations to customers I’ve never met.  The funny thing is that most of them are scared when I bring up the nature of reality or think of dreams as another plane of reality.  They almost try to get out  of there as quick as possible.  It’s like they’re being interrogated by the police and are hiding something.  When I tell them, “I’ll see you in the future,” I’m just further sending their collapsing feeling of security into oblivion.  And it’s so much fun.

I find of feel like Socrates, questioning people and questioning everything really.  I’ll never forget a conversation I had with this character who used to work with me.  He says, “I hate to shave, but I gotta do it.”  And I said, “Why do you feel you have to shave?  There’s no law.  You could not shave the rest of your life and no one would come in and get you.  Do you really have to do it, or are you just looking for an outlet to complain?”  But sometimes people get great comfort in complaining about things they get themselves into and they’re always looking for some sympathetic character to say, “Oh, I agree with you.”  If you’re having a hard time, you put yourself there, so if you’re going to talk about it, instead of complaining, look for a way out, don’t perpetuate the suffering.  But nobody wants to change.  It’s so hard.  If you don’t want to change, don’t come complaining to me.  Tell me your plan for trying to change and I’ll help you.

I like to let people in on what they’re missing.  I tell people of an astral experience I had, in a land of curiosity and wonder, a new dimension, just to let them know they are capable of these experiences also, if they just open themselves up to it.  My last lucid dream was amazing, but I’m not an expert at it yet.  The further I delve into that realm, the more I’ll be inclined to get others to do the same.  Just to mix things up a bit.  And no, I don’t do drugs.  Never have.  But looking at me, and the conversations I have, you would think I’m high all the time.  I am.  High on life.  That cereal is amazing.

If my boss ever fired me, he’d probably be like, “If you’re going to act like this, I’m going to have to show you the door.”  And I’ll be like, “What door?  It’s probably pretty awesome, huh?”  And he’ll be like, “Get out.”  I’ll say, “Hold on, you still haven’t showed me that door.  I can’t leave until I see this thing.  I bet it’s revolving.”  There’s nothing more rewarding than bashing someone’s massive ego.  I’ve always said there are three things that never stop growing:  your ears, your nose, and your ego. And I’ll never stop t his way of thinking.  It’s not so much bringing people down as it is opening up people to new ways of thinking.  I’m even open to this if someone were to do the same thing to me.  Hell, leave me a comment about this, and I’ll respond willingly to your inquiries.  I’m going to post-schedule this post for later, if I can figure out how to, for tomorrow, as I’ve already posted today.  Again, defying conventional norms, look at me.

Repetition should not be the spice of life.  Get over that, and you’ll live a life of interest and curiosity.  I love it.  Maybe you will, too.

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Another Excerpt From my Book

Tuesday, January 16th, 2007

I woke up today and started working on my novel, and then realized I still hadn’t written a blog entry today, so I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and combine the two.  This excerpt is what I worked on today and it was something like what my blog entry was going to be like anyway.  It may be a little dark, but the book I’m writing is extremely dark, so bear with me.  Here it is:

They say we’re put on this earth to learn a lesson, but after you learn it, what do you do? Just stagnate until the day you die? After you’ve learned what you were put here to learn, how come you still have to keep going? There is nothing else left to do, except pay bills. Eat, sleep, go to the market, hang out with nature. That’s it. Maybe go on a trip or two. Life is so repetitious, but I think it’s because we’ve made it that way. There is no more real excitement. There is no more real anything. It’s all a mundane overture, a façade we tell ourselves is normal. There is no more harmony, but a bunch of cells going in all opposite directions. It’s the lies we tell ourselves to be happy. Every animal we eat, we have to rationalize that it lives on a comfortable farm and not stuffed in a crate with one hundred other animals, fed antibiotics so it doesn’t die from the stressful and diseased conditions, and then burned alive. How the chickens are dangled upside down, still alive, and scalded to death as their feathers get burned off. But we’d rather not think of that. We’d rather think that the farm with the animals spaced out, free-range, living their lives in a peaceful manner until the farmer decides to end their lives peacefully, quickly, painlessly. It’s just like reality.

It’s always more convenient to deny the terrible truths than it is to accept them. To pretend you don’t know it’s going on. To brush it off like it doesn’t exist. That we’re all heading towards utter destruction, that the world doesn’t have much time left, at least human existence. That we can’t really sustain life like this. It is not possible. We have to stop consuming and start fixing. We need to stop. It’s only a matter of time before we’re all gone. And who will be left to pick up the pieces. Our children. I hate how we come into this world inheriting someone else’s problems. The people who made all these problems are long gone, but we have to correct them. We have to salvage what’s left. We can’t just pretend they don’t exist. They are here. They will consume us all if we don’t make moves towards correcting them. But it’s not even our fault that we have these problems in the first place. We aren’t the ones responsible, but we are the ones who are designated to fix them. It just doesn’t seem fair to me, the lack of accountability the previous generations have, so what’s to motivate this generation to repair, when they can pass off the subsequent problems to the next generation?

The reason we do not make these changes is it’s always easier to maintain the status quo than it is to change. Change is a hard and difficult process while remaining the same is just a habit. It’s easily perpetuated. It’s a simple process. It’s always easier to exercise every day once you’ve done it for years than it is to start a new exercise program from scratch. It’s the fact that being comfortable rules all. %f you’re comfortable, it’s always easier to accept inconvenient truths. I’m not saying these ideas are new and I’m not even taking ownership of these ideas. I’m like the Greeks, who said their ideas came from the gods. It would be foolish to say these ideas are original, because they’re not. I just feel that in all existence of man, at least one person has thought of these ideas before, so therefore it is futile to claim ownership of anything anymore. Getting this copyrighted would be a useless task, like running on a treadmill to get to the store. It’s not even purposeful. But I’m still here, living, in the flesh, but for what? Another meal? Another story to tell? To tell people that everything is okay because life really has no meaning. The only way to get by is to live as joyful as you can, to avoid big change, to isolate yourself from judgment, to live your life naturally? Is that what I’m here to tell people? Is that why I’m still here?

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