Friday, December 30, 2016

We Are NOT Our Circumstance

I am who I am and that would be Me.  Me is who I know, it's what I know.  It also happens to be the only thing I know is true to and for me.  Anything else is hearsay and rumor.  Loud or small, quiet or a behemoth....it's still not pertinent to defining me.  Nor do the things around me contain me within their limits.  My emotions are transient, they do not control me.  The world that I stand, the road that I walk is still not me.  Your words, still do not define me.  My circumstance is not who I am.
Me, that's who I am...and my reaction to my circumstance defines the what in who I am.

In my short time here, I have endured many lessons.  Some have taught me well.  Some have gone disregarded or ignored...for better or for worse, those lessons seem to come back threefold.  Some lessons serve an obvious purpose, while other lessons tend to be more subtle and less palpable.  Some lessons have immediate impact, while others aren't appreciate nor understood.  But each lesson, is still a lesson...and we are our own student and teacher.  That's who and what we are.

Lessons come from obstacles, challenges and discomforts.  Life is what we live in, it's also where we are.  Life is not round or square.  There are no parallel lines or perfect triangles.  Life isn't a stream that we float through.  Like all problems, we do not control them...but, we control how we respond to them.
Life is a long lesson plan, and it's a lesson that will continue on with or without 'us'.
If you choose to root yourself, becoming apart of something external rather than evolve around or within the circumstance of life...you become apart of whatever it is that you're rooting within, and theirin lies your self worth.  Submitting your will to the happenings of whatever tangible it is that you are allowing yourself to become defined by.
This is a risky proposition because you are at the mercy of whatever happens to this relationship that you have allowed for...making your value vulnerable and susceptible.

Defining ourselves through our circumstance allows for limits, immeasurables and happenstance.  More importantly, it allows for excuses exonerating us from any growth...and it can keep us stuck in place too easy to stay complacent in.
B  L  A  M  E
It's easier to stay and complain than to react with intent.
Repeating the same, because it's easier.
It eventually becomes the 'what we know'.
Ultimately, defining us.
If we choose to become our circumstance....which could be mistakes or failures, Time (available or lack thereof), criticsm, authority/title/power and any other past baggage that we may be carrying with us because that is how we choose to define ourselves.

Or

We choose to react to our circumstance.
By learning and adapting by using tolerance, endurance, durability, resourcefulness, conviction and fortitude.
By understanding that there is existance beyond the circumstance.
By absolving the possibility of limits, boundaries, end points, prejudices and expectations.
Basically, nothing truly is an absolute...nothing is ever permanent.  As a matter of fact, change is the only constant in our reality....and our possibilities for tomorrow are still yet to be determined.
Determined being the word, and that word is directly correlated to how we choose to react to chance. Focus is our perception, and depending how we choose to focus...we decide our reality.
Our reality ultimately becomes the definition of who and what we choose to be.
Whether mad, happy, sad...it's still not defining us.
It's just what we are in that moment...and if I make it me focus, it becomes my excuse....and I can use my excuse to define me.
Because it's easier to lay still than swim upstream.
Either way, it's the choice (of sink or swim) that can define the direction we choose.


What Defines You?  I bet that it's not your circumstance...unless, of course that how how you choose to define the Who or What.

I choose Me, in the here and now.  Straight, forward, strong and viable.
With patience, compassion and willful understanding that this thickened round rock we all call home has many roads that I can choose to walk, free.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Mixing It Up With Miranda

Forgive me father for I have sinned,

I must confess, completely and utterly without doubt or hesitation absolutely confess...I do not recall you getting snippy or overreacting in any negative manner towards moi.
I am confused, positively consumed in a debilitating (ok, maybe I may be over exaggerating a tad) chaotic confusion....
But all in all, it's true like Rudolph and Frosty in the hearts of so many...I have no idea what you are referencing.
Is it a good or bad thing that I don't know what you mean?  Inquiring minds aren't waiting, they are pondering.
Maybe you intended to get snippy and you got sidetracked?  Maybe the messaged got lost in transit?  Perhaps Santa caught it just in time?  I suppose anything could have happened.
The last thing you sent me said how was it that I could I be handsome And wise.
Now, correct me if I am wrong
(I always welcome all forms of input, opinions, perspective, criticism, debates or discussions...I can't help it it's the whole Greek philosopher in me)
But handsome is good...as is wisdom.
I also recall you feeling stressed from your disgruntled watchdog neighbor...and I did what I could to assuage your feelings through reason, comfort, peace and understanding.
I don't know what else to say...other than that I am happy to learn of your resolution!
(That's really good too).
One other question my lovely dear...what words were you looking for?
Like I have already mentioned...I am elated to learn of your resolution.
Well, now that we have that covered like a present with a bow around it....!
How ar' thee finest of fine, sweeter than sweetest, adoringly precious....always so special lady that dominates my essence like none other?


"MIX"
by
Miranda Lambert


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zTlaRu_Wsl4&list=RDzTlaRu_Wsl4

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Love On The Brain

"Love On The Brain"

And you got me like oh
What you want from me?
What you want from me?
And I tried to buy your pretty heart, but the price too high
Baby you got me like oh, mm
You love when I fall apart (fall apart)
So you can put me together
And throw me against the wall

Baby you got me like ah, woo, ah
Don't you stop loving me (loving me)
Don't quit loving me (loving me)
Just start loving me (loving me), babe

Oh, and babe I'm fist fighting with fire
Just to get close to you
Can we burn something babe?
And I run for miles just to get a taste
Must be love on the brain
That's got me feeling this way
It beats me black and blue but it fucks me so good
And I can't get enough
Must be love on the brain, yeah
And it keeps cursing my name (cursing my name)
No matter what I do
I'm no good without you
And I can't get enough
Must be love on the brain

Then you keep loving me
Just love me, yeah
Just love me
All you need to do is love me yeah
Got me like ah-ah-ah-ow
I'm tired of being played like a violin
What do I gotta do to get in your motherfuckin' heart?

Baby like ah, woo, ah
Don't you stop loving me (loving me)
Don't quit loving me (loving me)
Just start loving me (loving me), babe

Oh, and babe I'm fist fighting with fire
Just to get close to you
Can we burn something babe?
And I run for miles just to get a taste
Must be love on the brain

That's got me feeling this way
It beats me black and blue but it fucks me so good
And I can't get enough
Must be love on the brain
And it keeps cursing my name (cursing my name)
No matter what I do
I'm no good without you
And I can't get enough
Must be love on the brain


by Rihanna

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gZQc5WGjUJU


Monday, November 7, 2016

Four Words

Tee as in Tony
Dee as in Danza
not to be confused with Dynamite
For, not in the number
and
President, as in the President of the United States of America

Tony Danza for President

Done
Sealed and delivered!!!
You asked, you got
Now it's here
As in now
Your voice, let me hear it

On Election Day,
vote

Tee 4 Tony

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Friday, October 7, 2016

Lack of Enlightment, it's what's Impeding Humanity

It takes experiencing and enduring discomfort, 
before you grasp an appreciation for comfort

It's funny to me how people lay their focus and place their complaints and concerns on what they lack and seem to ignore what they are abundant in.  This makes me think that they lack appreciation in their richness...as human arrogance feeds their insatiable egos into wanting what is beyond their understanding....while laying blame and finding fault on all external resources within earshot along a very unsatisfying journey into an empty land of gluttony galore.

My everyday life has been a drag...I am so disenchanted with how things are going for me, you and everybody else.  But I do have my health...and if you don't have your health, you won't have much regardless of how someone fills in that void.  Other than health, the only other thing worth having in life is love...because love nurtures the inner self.  Love has to start from within...and that's what I have in order to allow myself the needed tolerance for my circumstance.  Outside love will strengthen that inner self...allowing for a happy existence.
I must admit though, no more so than ever, I am convinced that boys are stupid and girls are crazy...and there's nothing that can fix either (well possibly medicine can help to cope or hide some crazy).  I also know that I am who I am...and I can't be anyone or anything else.  And quite frankly, that seems to be my life's inner turmoil.  I am getting to the point where I am doubting if I want to be here in NY under my current arrangement.
A few weeks ago, I was jokingly asking people for some plutonium.  They would ask "why?" 
I responded by saying
"So I can build myself a rocket and strap all the crazy women in my life to it...and let's see how fast they can get to Mars."
Apparently, Mars is best suited for them.
And it's far from everyone else.
That makes it safer for the rest of us.
And safer sounds so much better that the alternative.
Don't get me wrong, there are degrees and types of crazy...and for some full disclosure, I am not feeling what I am seeing.
On top of it all, I dislike the fact that people's primal instinct when anger strikes them...is to lash out in violence.  It's terrible.
I suppose that since I lack anger, I can't understand why anyone would so simply resort to violence...
People lack the judgement, or foresight...to understand the repercussions once they cross that threshold of violence.
I am convinced, more than ever, that our collective enlightenment is so far away...I doubt that our species will last long enough to experience it.
Pity.

You can't teach a wall to be your floor, but you can certainly stand on your floor to build castle walls

I can't begin to appease such vanity with enlightenment, nor will I ever...as in forever...change my morals to be someone that I am not meant to be.  Or am I someone who can quench the thirst of a horse lost out to sea.  I also find that most blind people tend to see beyond what light can show the rest of us.  I also seem to find that blind people rarely complain of why their light went so dim.  Instead, they took their weakness and turned it into an unforeseeable strength.  See how boundaries tend to create self imposed limits.  Limits are like rules, intended to be challenged until an understanding can be created that tests and exceeds them.
Expectation is the direct road for disappointment
Entitlement is the driving force that sets expectations on the direct path for eternal unfulfillment. 

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Love That Grows Old

I want a love that doesn't compromise
I want a love that hits between the eyes
I want a love like a sunrise to my dark
I want to feel something deep inside
I want to heal, don't wanna have to hide
I want to read, no just fantasize with my heart

Everybody's always saying to look over your shoulder
The grass is always greener
That should do what I'm told

I'm gonna search
And when the night is young
Even if it hurts
Even when my fight's gone
I'm gonna wait for the right one
I'm gonna wait for the love to grow old

I got it wrong, one too many times
They play along and never seem to mind

I need a song but never learn the lines
Oh, no


Everybody's always saying to look over your shoulder
The grass is always greener

That Should do what I am told

I'm gonna search
And when the night is young
Even if it hurts
Even when my fight's gone
I'm gonna wait for the right one
I'm gonna wait for the love to grow old


Oh, it's not love, it's not love
If you don't have to struggle
Oh, not enough, not enough
If it don't cause you trouble


I'm gonna search
And when the night is young
Even if it hurts
Even when my fight's gone
I'm gonna wait for the right one
I'm gonna wait for the love to grow old





by Max Jury

Thursday, September 8, 2016

My Modesty List

- Speak as little as possible about yourself
Start listening more, you might learn something
- Keep busy with your Own affairs and Not those of others
Focus on what's important to you, because no one else will
- avoid curiosity
If it has no barring to you
- do not interfere with the affairs of others
After all, you wouldn't want anyone interjecting into yours
- Accept small irritations with good Humor
No need to deal in extremes when dealing with everyday pettiness
- Do Not Dwell on the faults of Others
For Our faults might even be worse
- Accept censures even if unmerited
Adaptation is the essential skill to survival
- learn to work with others
Otherwise this world will learn to work without you


- accept all obstacles and challenges as the learning process of life


- accept the possibility of being insulted, injured, slighted, forgotten or disliked
Trying to please everyone will drive you mad
- Be courteous and delicate even under provocation
Patience is the tool that prevails
- Do Not seek to be loved or admired
Trust and respect mean much more
- do not protect yourself behind your dignity
Our Ego often betrays us
- give in, In Discussions, even when you are right
Reason, in time, wins out
- choose, always the more difficult task
The Rewards far will exceed those from a simplier path







List by Mother Teresa and yours truly

Friday, August 26, 2016

It's Our Weekend

It's Friday afternoon
The week has been long
Come to think of it
The whole summer has flown by
and I have little to show for
A lot of new faces with different stories
but it's mostly Been the same
But hey, it's Friday
My Day
To be my dream
Without questions
Without consequence
With confidence
It's time to manufacture my reality
Because perception is reality
Maybe a little this, perhaps a bit of that
Don't we all have our wishes
They come from regrets
Funny...
How when my world stops spinning
The sun will still rise
and over the next millennium
Many will follow, but how many will take notice
Of the tracks in the sand
There is a rich history beneath our feet
And untold stories of has beens
Been there
Done that
I welcome the time that measures now
Not my yesterdays
Nor my tomorrows
I flee from your sight
I run to your mind
and
It's there that makes me unforgettable to the
Here and Now
Now is what matters most
Because tomorrow is never guaranteed
And Now
Is my weekend
Ciao
God I hate sprinkles
But I love dimples
That is what the now in life is
A continual love hate paradox
Of the same old new and recycled reruns of reality shows
God I hate TV shows
They brainwash you
And most people don't even realize to what extent
Unplug and unwind
The weekend is upon us
Peace, love and anything else that makes simple sense
Out of the indirect complexities of unequal haves and haves not
But, it's still your weekend
And best be enjoying it


The Weekend
by Brantley Gilbert

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=-rwFoSgTGcQ

Monday, August 8, 2016

Knockerball

It's like a cross between playing dodge ball and hitting a piñata...only more satisfying!  It's called knockerball:


Quite frankly, I foresee it as the ultimate solution for all worldly disputes...between anyone and everyone who may have a qualm to settle.  Win, lose or draw...everyone wins at knockerball.
Imagine solving all issues with your coworkers during a thirty minute stint of high end, low risk no nonsense hard nosed collisions.
Bang, slam...bam!
Like that with no hard feelings.
The simplicities of theory with the complexity of reality.
That's the paradoxical hypocrisy of life and it's unmentioned duplicitous arts of existence.
Darts and horseshoes are only useful in basements, backyards and holidays....
Here, you just need space and folks...purpose just finds it self.





P.S.

Not to be confused with an SOS
If only I were so lucky 
to don a plastic air insulated suit 
and 
run unimpededly towards all the horde of cowards 
that seem to overpopulate 
this overly saturated rock of H2O
that hurls itself 
seemingly,
endlessly into a vast space of nothingness....
Of Somethingness

Sunday, July 17, 2016

What Are The Healthiest Things To Eat?

Among the many things New Yorkers pride ourselves on is food: making it, selling it and consuming only the best, from single-slice pizza to four-star sushi. We have fish markets, Shake Shacks and, as of this year, 74 Michelin-starred restaurants.
Yet most everything we eat is fraudulent.
In his new book, "REAL FOOD FAKE FOOD" author Larry Olmsted exposes the breadth of counterfeit foods we’re unknowingly eating. After reading it, you’ll want to be fed intravenously for the rest of your life.
Think you’re getting Kobe steak when you order the $350 “Kobe steak” off the menu at Old Homestead? Nope — Japan sells its rare Kobe beef to just three restaurants in the United States, and 212 Steakhouse is the only one in New York. That Kobe is probably Wagyu, a cheaper, passable cut, Olmsted says. (Old Homestead declined request for comment.)
Fraudulence spans from haute cuisine to fast food: A February 2016 report by Inside Edition found that Red Lobster’s lobster bisque contained a non-lobster meat called langostino. In a statement to The Post, Red Lobster maintains that langostino is lobster meat and said that in the wake of the IE report, “We amended the menu description of the lobster bisque to note the multiple kinds of lobster that are contained within.”
Moving on: That extra-virgin olive oil you use on salads has probably been cut with soybean or sunflower oil, plus a bunch of chemicals. The 100 percent grass-fed beef you just bought is no such thing — it’s very possible that cow was still pumped full of drugs and raised in a cramped feedlot.
Unless your go-to sushi joint is Masa or Nobu, you’re not getting the sushi you ordered, ever, anywhere, and that includes your regular sushi restaurant where you can’t imagine them doing such a thing, Olmsted says. Your salmon is probably fake and so is your red snapper. Your white tuna is something else altogether, probably escolar — known to experts as “the Ex-Lax fish” for the gastrointestinal havoc it wreaks.
Escolar is so toxic that it’s been banned in Japan for 40 years, but not in the US, where the profit motive dominates public safety. In fact, escolar is secretly one of the top-selling fish in America.
“Sushi in particular is really bad,” Olmsted says, and as a native New Yorker, he knows how much this one hurts. He writes that multiple recent studies “put the chances of your getting the white tuna you ordered in the typical New York sushi restaurant at zero — as in never.”
Fake food, Olmsted says, is a massive national problem, and the more educated the consumer, the more vulnerable to bait-and-switch: In 2014, the specialty-foods sector — gourmet meats, cheeses, booze, oils — generated over $1 billion in revenue in the US alone.
“This category is rife with scams,” Olmsted writes, and even when it comes to basics, none of us is leaving the grocery store without some product — coffee, rice or honey — being faked.
The food industry isn’t just guilty of perpetrating a massive health and economic fraud: It’s cheating us out of pleasure. These fake foods produce shallow, flat, one-dimensional tastes, while the real things are akin to discovering other galaxies, other universes — taste levels most of us have never experienced.
“The good news,” Olmsted writes, “is that there is plenty of healthful and delicious Real Food. You just have to know where to look.”

‘Safety isn’t a niche’

One of the most popular, fastest-growing foods in America is olive oil, touted for its ability to prevent everything from wrinkles to heart disease to cancer. Italian olive oil is a multibillion-dollar global industry, with the US its third-largest market.
The bulk of these imports are, you guessed it, fake. Labels such as “extra-virgin” and “virgin” often mean nothing more than a $2 mark-up. Most of us, Olmsted writes, have never actually tasted real olive oil.
“Once someone tries a real extra-virgin — an adult or child, anybody with taste buds — they’ll never go back to the fake kind,” artisanal farmer Grazia DeCarlo has said.
“It’s distinctive, complex, the freshest thing you’ve ever eaten. It makes you realize how rotten the other stuff is — literally rotten.”
Fake olive oil, Olmsted claims, has killed people. He cites the most famous example: In 1981, more than 20,000 people suffered mass food poisoning in Spain. About 800 people died, and olive oil mixed with aniline, a toxic chemical used in making plastic, was blamed. 
In 1983, the World Health organization named the outbreak “toxic oil syndrome,” but subsequent investigations pointed to a different contaminant and a different food — pesticides used on tomatoes from Almeria. (Olmsted stands by his reporting.)
Some of the most common additives to olive oil are soybean and peanut oils, which can prove fatal to anyone allergic — and you’ll never see those ingredients on a label. Beware, too, of olive oil labeled “pure” — that can mean the oil is the lowest grade possible.
"No one is checking,” Olmsted writes.
How do we find the real thing? Olmsted recommends a few reliable retailers, including Oliviers & Co. in New York and New Jersey. Otherwise, look for labels reading “COOC Certified Extra Virgin” — the newly formed California Olive Oil Council’s stamp — or the international EVA and UNAPROL labels.
In terms of scope and scale, there’s an even greater level of fraud throughout the seafood industry. “Imagine if half the time you pulled into a gas station, you were filling your tank with dirty water instead of gasoline,” Olmsted writes. “That’s the story with seafood.”
He cites a 2012 study of New York City seafood done by scientists at Oceana, a nonprofit advocacy group. They discovered fakes at 58 percent of 81 stores sampled and at all of the 16 sushi restaurants studied, and this goes on throughout the United States. If you see the words “sushi grade” or “sashimi grade” on a menu, run. There are no official standards for use of the terms.
Red snapper, by the way, is almost always fake — it’s probably tilefish or tilapia. (Tilapia also doubles for catfish.)
“Consumers ask me all the time, ‘What can I do?’ and all I can say is, ‘Just don’t ever buy red snapper,’ ” Dr. Mark Stoeckle, a specialist in infectious diseases at Weill Medical College, told Olmsted. “Red snapper is the big one — when you buy it, you almost never get it.”
Farmed Cambodian ponga poses as grouper, catfish, sole, flounder and cod. Wild-caught salmon is often farmed and pumped up with pink coloring to look fresher. Sometimes it’s actually trout.
Ever wonder why it’s so hard to properly sear scallops? It’s because they’ve been soaked in water and chemicals to up their weight, so vendors can up the price. Even “dry” scallops contain 18 percent more water and chemicals.
Shrimp is so bad that Olmsted rarely eats it. “I won’t buy it, ever, if it is farmed or imported,” he writes. In 2007, the FDA banned five kinds of imported shrimp from China; China turned around and routed the banned shrimp through Indonesia, stamped it as originating from there, and suddenly it was back in the US food ­supply.
Seafood fraud puts pregnant women at risk; high levels of mercury in fish are known to cause birth defects. Allergic reactions to shellfish have been known to cause paralysis.
“All the gross details you have heard about industrial cattle farming — from the widespread use of antibiotics and chemicals to animals living in their own feces and being fed parts of other animals they don’t normally consume — occurs in the seafood arena as well,” Olmsted writes. “Only it is much better hidden.”
Corruption in the seafood industry is so rife that in 2014, President Obama formed the Presidential Task Force on Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Seafood Fraud. In the meantime, Olmsted has some suggestions.
Look for the reliable logos MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) for wild-caught fish and BAP (Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices) for farmed, he says.
Alaska Seafood: Wild, Natural, Sustainable.” Alaska’s system mandates complete supervision of chain of custody, from catching to your grocery store.
Perhaps most surprising of all: Discount big-box stores such as Costco, Trader Joe’s, BJ’s Wholesale Club and Walmart are as stringent with their standards as Whole Foods.
“When customers walk into a store, they don’t expect to have to pay a premium for safe food,” Walmart exec Brittni Furrow said in 2014. “Safety isn’t a niche.”

Your grass-fed cow was drugged

One of the simplest things we can do, Olmsted writes, is to look for products named after their geographical location. Grated Parmesan cheese is almost always fake, and earlier this year, the FDA said its testing discovered that some dairy products labeled “100% Parmesan” contained polymers and wood pulp.
That’s all the FDA did: You can still buy your woody cheese at the supermarket.
Parmigiano-Reggiano, however, derives its name from Parma, the region in Italy that’s produced this cheese for over 400 years. If you buy it with that label, it’s real.
Same with Roquefort cheese and Champagne from France, and San Marzano tomato sauce, Bologna meat and Chianti from Italy, and Scotch whisky from Scotland. Still, Olmsted strongly advises looking for the label PDO — Protected Designation of Origin, the highest guarantee of authenticity there is.
As for our own lax labeling standards, Olmsted is outraged. Ninety-one percent of American seafood is imported, but the FDA is responsible for inspecting just 2 percent of those imports. And in 2013, the agency inspected less than half of that 2 percent.
“The bar is so low,” he says. “Congress could not have given them less to do, and they still fail. They’re not clueless. They know. They’re actually deciding not to do it. They say they don’t have the budget.”
When it comes to beef, Olmstead reports that the USDA is no better; the agency repealed its standards for the “grass-fed” designation in January after pressure from the agriculture industry.
All that stamp now means, he says, is that in addition to grass, the animals “can still be raised in an industrial feed lot and given drugs. It just means the actual diet was grass rather than corn.”
If you don’t have access to a farmer’s market, Olmsted says that Eli’s and Citarella in New York are reliable providers of true grass-fed beef.
“Go up to the counter and ask them where the grass-fed beef comes from,” he says. “They need to know. In New York in particular, you have access to a lot of specialized gourmet stores, and you can source stuff locally. You can’t do that in most of the country.”



"EVERYTHING THAT WE LOVE TO EAT IS A SCAM"
Article by Maureen Callahan

Saturday, July 9, 2016

You Might Be

If you think that you are the smartest person here, there or for that matter...anywhere
If you could care less of other people's input, opinions, feelings, comments, concerns or questions
(Because they could never be right)
If you constantly interrupt others
If you have no manners when around others
If you could care less of what might be happening to anyone other than you
If you firmly believe that God was made in your image
If you constantly need to swear and insult others or pick on them
(Especially if you do it through the Internet)
If you break up with someone via text
If you need constant attention
If you steal credit for other people's ideas
If you no idea of empathy
If you constantly seek out mirrors
If you cut lines
If you are a hypocrite
If you don't tip
If you don't listen
If you like starting arguments
If your constructive talks revolve around insults and put downs
If you believe that being "nice" and expecting nothing in return is a stupid idea
If you complain about everything and everyone
If you only pretend to do good when others are watching
If you ignore others because they are just not that important
If you believe that you are entitled to special treatment
If you believe that it's normal for everyone to tolerate your obnoxious behavior
If you make a mess knowingly and expect someone to clean it up for you
If you like being loud in quiet atmospheres
If you are a narcissist

You Just Might Be an Arsehole


Asshole Evaluation Chart
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=ahtest

Asshole Rating Self Exam
(ARSE)

http://electricpulp.com/guykawasaki/arse/

"Don't be an Asshole!  Just because you have one...you don't need to Act Like One."

Christian Simamora
Marry Now, Sorry Later

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Life, Liberty and what ever else that we may want

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The Declaration of Independence
American Forefathers

Unalienable.
Isn't it such a peculiar sounding word?  Almost sounds like a double negative with the centerpiece of alien.  As far as I'm concerned, alien means foreign or unknown.  The current definition of unalienable according to thefreedictionary.com states:
Not to be separated,  given away or taken away; inalienable
So, anything that is unalienable can not be taken away from you...nor could you give it away if you wanted to...as a matter of fact...you can never be separated from it...and IT being your right of Life, Liberty and your pursuit of Happiness.
A right that belongs to you...a right that No One can take away from you...a right that you should not ever, under any circumstance, relinquish or "transfer" to anything or anyone.
Got it?
Good, now keep it because there are plenty of folks on this globe that lack the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Which brings me to my next point, and it's been a theme of mine before.
The Pursuit of Happiness.
Let's not confuse that with the right to be happy, because being happy isn't so clean and easy.
I find too many people, mostly younger who expect to be entitled to the be made happy by others (or things).
Yes, that's what some (being most) people expect...
To be made happy.
Whether it's through their personal relationships, or their jobs and co-workers...perhaps their neighbors, friends and family...
Some way, some how...it's everyone else's obligation to make you happy.
Because it's your entitled right.
Right?
Wrong.
It's no one's responsibility to make you happy.
No it's not.
It's up to you to pursue your happiness and make yourself happy.
It's not up to your spouse or loved one.  It's not up to the wealth to make you feel complete and happy.  It's not up to anyone or anything to hand you happiness.
It's all up to you, and nothing else really factors beyond that.
Nothing external will ever fill that void within us, unless we fill it from within first.
First fact to understand:
Focusing too much of trying to feel good all the time will counteract you actually feeling good....because expectations aren't always attainable to the levels they are set...especially if you make them contingent on others to fill.
Second Fact to understand:
Things are just that, things.  Maybe initially they make us excited...but with time, they become just like anything else...
Things vary from money, jewelry, vehicles, clothes and so on....
Again, expectations set our standards and if we get more...there is rarely a fill point where we say we have too much...and we are always looking for more to satisfy our expanding expectations.
Third fact to understand:
It's not a destination.  There is no road that ultimately leads you someplace where you will eternally happy.  That only happens in soap operas and Disney movies....and life is neither.
Instead, being happy is something that we need to continually work on.
As in an everyday effort.  In other words creating habits that implement that connection.
One way you can understand why you should be happy, is understand and appreciate all the good things already in your life.
Happiness isn't a one an done event, but rather a continual progress towards experience every day life.
So, you have be satisfied and content with what you have.
You need to feel healthy and strong, in turn, feel good about your self.
Keep good habits as far as diet and sleep go.
Surround yourself with people that mirror this influence.
Stay optimistic, stay positive....expect good effort out of yourself, after all...that should be your primary expectation of yourself.
And most importantly, cherish what already is good and understand that this is a path that everyone has to walk...and everyone has their falls.
Contrary to how you may think and feel, Life is NOT here to conspire against you in order to make you miserable....rather we are all fortunate enough to be allowed to have these experiences, aka the miracle of life....and that, in itself entitles you to make yourself as happy as you want.
Anyhow, without experiencing the low, HOW will you be able to appreciate the high!
And let's be real people, how can anyone short of being medicated or just born funny...how can anyone be able to sustain the "high" of happiness all the time?
Is that even possible under normal everyday conditions?





Nothing makes me as happy as listening to Vikings chanting!
Viking War Chant

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mav2kkvakGY

Ps congratulations to Iceland's National Soccer Team in the Euro Cup

Friday, July 1, 2016

love Supercedes fear

I can't hold fear as my dominating form of inspiration
No! No! No!
I just will not do it...
Instead, I focus on how a solution needs to find its home....irrelevent of consequence
or
reaction
Resolution WILL always happen
with or without our consent
Time always moves forward
Combine the two and stop worrying of WHAT happens in the "in between"
When I have a problem
I calmly step back and think
In time, it will come to pass
Let me do the best that I can and hope for the best to come
(Although LUCK does favor the prepared)
Before I know it
A half century will pass
My hair will grey
And half of the people that I know will leave
The other half will be on borrowed time
But I won't stress about that
Time isn't a problem, if I Don't make it one


ps
to those that want to be in the "know"

Listen here Ms Joanne Webb, every problem that I have ever had in life...(and I have had many moments of chaos and/or crisis)...I have stepped back and told myself in due imminent time, things will come to a pass and everyone will move on regardless of my action/decision...Finding myself released of any stress or tension that this chaotic crisis might have created.
This thought process calms me, grounds me and it re-energizes me.  I feel focused to the tenth degree when I realiz(s)e that time solves my issue of deadline...and my world will not somehow implode at the endpoint of whatever is my chaos or crisis.
It's like riding a wave to shore
I catch it with my focus and ride it with my skill
At all points
I am fully calm and focused
Ohm to those that get it



Pss
Don't sweat the little things
It's the big ones that often get us

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

All the Right Angles In All the Wrong Turns

Life so shamelessly angers me...because everyone around does not seem to comprehend it

It's Tuesday morning on my calander and my clock reads roughly a quarter to eleven.  Nothing to do, nothing to say...no place to go and no person to see. Like a blind bat I play fiddle with words, knitting them together to bring a thought before your eyes....and it is your eyes that I am coming to see...for it's the bridge to your mind...an endless mind of eternal hope and doubt.  Where would we be if it weren't for our dreams? For...there is where...you will find the purest of aspirations brimming with a naive confidence and an undivided ambition for the ultimate degree of successful expectation....all for this life's transient yet luxurious desires...Vibrant with fight, angrier than any rooster and more violent than a violin...
We
as in you and I
As Well As
Everyone We have come to know
Fall victim to this "paradox" of taking everything you can and destroying whatever you can't have
All in the name of a better, safer tomorrow...

How self centered of us

Humans are the epitome of a virus
Spreading an uncontrollable greed to all reaches of humanity
Creating Gods only to disbelief in their existance...
This arrogant greed will swallow this world whole in a deluge of distinguished entitlement....
After All
man is the center of this world
At least according to him, her and everyone else...

The Human Condition
Our flesh is our prison
Our knowledge creates our principles, morals and ideals
and
Our prejudice sets our limits
...
Our arrogance blinds us
yet our hunger drives us
and our thirst WILL drown us
If there's a God...we can all use the help
But you can't help those that don't want to be helped...


I wish, with all my heart that I can live long enough to see the change that I am hoping for

Monday, June 13, 2016

Monday Monday

It's only Monday...and I feel as if I can barely recall this past weekend...
As Well As, a long ways away from this upcoming event filled weekend.
But hey, at least I have The Mermaid Parade on Saturday in Coney Island and the Pirate Festival in West Sayville...plus the Strawberry Festival out in Mattituck this entire weekend.
If I make it out of here, I will make it to there.
See Ya


by
The Mamas and Papas


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h81Ojd3d2rY

roots grow to where there is water

In general terms, Samskara is the ancient Indian philosophy of how our (past and current) experiences root themselves deeply within us and subsequently create the basis of the subconscious mind to lay the ground work for our expectations, behaviors, emotions and memories.
This "imprint", in essence, manifastates itself anywhere from our instincts, impulses, impressions, disposition...all the way to our own self worth.
Hence, how this value system impacts our created memories...and in turn define our sense of happiness or suffering...and in my case, my lack of contentness with how Things Are.
Some people might even call that Karma...
and Karma is what Karma was...and What Karma will be...
(quick aside, Karma is the belief that our past actions affect our fate)

Interesting study that I came across.
The behavior/mood of approximately 250 senoirs living in an assisted facility.
Prior to the start of the study, a baseline test determined depression levels of the seniors living at the facility.
A high volume of them were moderately depressed, and understandably so.
Then a campaign was introduced to them...a Hugging Campaign.
That's right, Hugs...
The Theory was that if they had more physical contact, it would enhance their mood.
So...to kick off the festivities there was a flash mob to the song Macarena

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XiBYM6g8Tck

With the Entire staff of the assisted living facility.
Hug Me buttons were given out.
There were contest prizes award to high volume huggers.
Before you knew it, the grumpy old guys in their walkers were asking for hugs....
The seniors went as far as to create their own flash mob.
Net result: seemingly all borderline depressed seniors tested the second time around in the happy to be here range.
The Human Touch
The Human Experience
Samskara

You can decide for yourself.


Jefferson Ferry is the assisted living facility that conducted this study.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

born more of light than heat

It was A most pleasant surprise to be Resolute in my own true way
With no confusion and without any outside interference
I am in the midst of converging thought with action
On this beautiful road where desire meets heartbreak
against the headwinds of accepted wisdom and logic
come truths riddled with limitations and disappointments

My Wealth
is rooted somewhere between
My Heart
and
My Mind

in the wake of this difficult birth
unfolds a wonderous life
Without question
Yours and Yours to decide
Amongst a savage society that masquerades with class, order and sophistication
The only thing sophisticated I can witness is the machinery constructed to facilitate our own demise
Our own cruelity comes with great creativity
A creativity that instinctually alienates anything foreign to our reflection
Principles fostered by greed, sloth, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and Pride
Hate is our mental byproduct
Anger is our escalulated motivator
Destruction is our net result
Burning our forest when we can't see the blue in our sky....only to char the fruits that nourish our being
and sheer our flesh with the naked sun
Destruction, unfortunately is our main primal reflex that has buried our past beneath acres of ash

How can humanity lift from this arrogance and ignorance?
And evolve in a positive direction
Where meaning has substance
and
We can all value each other
Love needs to be our highest value
understanding and accepting are the tools in achieving the goal
of Global Unity

Otherwise in a thousand years, no one will know that we ever existed....


Thursday, May 26, 2016

Black Widow Baby


"Black Widow"

(feat. Rita Ora)


[Hook — Rita Ora:]
I'm gonna love ya
Until you hate me
And I'm gonna show ya
What's really crazy
You should've known better
Than to mess with me, honey
I'm gonna love ya, I'm gonna love ya
Gonna love ya, gonna love ya
Like a black widow, baby


[Iggy Azalea:]

This twisted cat and mouse game always starts the same
First we're both down to play then somehow you go astray
We went from nothing to something, liking to loving
It was us against the world and now we just fucking
It's like I loved you so much and now I just hate you
Feeling stupid for all the time that I gave you
I wanted all or nothing for us ain't no place in between
Might, might be me believing what you say that you never mean
Like it'll last forever but now forever ain't as long
If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be stuck singing this song
You were different from my last but now you got it mirrored
And as it all plays out I see it couldn't be clearer
Now sing


[Pre-Hook — Rita Ora:]

You used to be thirsty for me
But now you wanna be set free
This is the web, web that you weave
So baby now rest in peace (It's all over with now)


[Hook — Rita Ora:]

I'm gonna love ya
Until you hate me (Right)
And I'm gonna show ya (Show 'em what show 'em what)
What's really crazy
You should've known better
Than to mess with me, honey (it's all over with now)
I'm gonna love ya, I'm gonna love ya
Gonna love ya, gonna love ya
Like a black widow, baby

Black, black widow, baby


[Iggy Azalea:]

I'm gonna l-l-l-love you until it hurts
Just to get you I'm doing whatever works
You've never met nobody
That'll do you how I do ya
That will bring you to your knees
Praise Jesus hallelujah
I'm-a make you beg for it, plead for it
Till you feel like you breathe for it
Till you do any and everything for it
I want you to fiend for it
Wake up and dream for it
Till it's got you gasping for air
And you lean for it
'Till they have a CAT scan and check on your mind
And it's nothing but me, on it (on it, on it, on it)
Now it's me-time believe that
If it's yours when you want it
I wouldn't promise I need that
Till I'm everywhere that you be at
I can't fall back go quick

Cause this here a fatal attraction so I take it all or I don't want shit


[Pre-Hook — Rita Ora:]

You used to be thirsty for me (Right)
But now you wanna be set free
This is the web, web that you weave
So baby now rest in peace (It's all over with now)


[Hook — Rita Ora:]

I'm gonna love ya
Until you hate me (Right)
And I'm gonna show ya (Show 'em what show 'em what)
What's really crazy
You should've known better
Than to mess with me, honey
I'm gonna love ya, I'm gonna love ya
Gonna love ya, gonna love ya
Like a black widow, baby

Bl-bl-bla-black widow, baby


by
Iggy Azalea


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u3u22OYqFGo

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Humble and Kind

Look at you looking forward to snacking and schmoozing with plates and painters...no tables, completely openly delicious indeed!
Yum has two ems...one for you and the other for me.
Yummy Yumm Yumm 
Ho Humm
Let's have some
Dim Sum

I saw a psychic medium (actually there were two, as in sisters) this past Sunday...
And Gosh darn it
I still think that they are hokey pokey
(Especially when they turn themselves around)
That's what it's all about

The things that Psychics start with remind me of inkblots
And it's within our human nature to structure, organize and place in order things that we see and hear.
Once that starts, they hone in with specifics that apply to the situation
Before you know it, there is a rehash of an old story
My favorite disclaimer that they had was
"No stealing other people's dead relatives"
Cause if you do, you'll start a lot of trouble with other people...whether you can see them or not.
Most times I see things that others can't hear
and I often can't hear what other people say anyways
So...either way, something is out of sync but intact and out of whack!
Wha Ba Boom
Bada Bing
Ta Ta!!
It's supernatural magic at its most Glorious showing
But hey
Is for farmers and horses
We can't all have our beer and nuts at the ball game
i really enjoy our morning talks on Thursday mornings
Well, considering that it's almost Friday
and Who doesn't like Friday's?
The love for Friday's inspired a restaurant chain
and that's where you can have your beer and nuts while watching the game
Any Game
But that doesn't include game on the menu
Or does it?
Geez, I really don't like eating out in restaurants that use microwaves 
Ocean is the only place with waves that I like
And radios are the only things with waves that I use
Kinda Sorta somewhat almost
But hey...farmers and horses aside
I am still allowed the privilege of ignorance
It's the only defense mechanism that I have for this world's gutless viscousness and abundant stupidity
Ex Why Z marks my spot
Thanks god for giving me the peace of mind
To play my tic tac toe in solitude