Life Is What You Make Of It (or "Saddle-up, for tomorrow we ride into the darkess that is the unknown future!")

"Are you afraid you're missing out, that everything good is happening somewhere else? With nobody in your bed, the night's hard to get through..." - Brand New





The conscious experience we all share represents just one version of "actual reality," that is, reality as it truly exists before it is filtered, interpreted and otherwise modified and changed to become more acceptable to each and every one of us. We all do this at an unconscious level, true story. Of course, each of us has his/her own version of reality which, when compared/compiled with that of everyone else, falls into its appropriate place along the spectrum which can be viewed as a Bell Curve (see above).

Obviously, those of us who are considered "crazy," "weird," or otherwise posses a conscious, waking reality that is simply different of uncommon vs. that of the average person are represented by either end of the line forming the curve.

"Hey Nerd-Boy/Human Lawn Dart, what does all of this have to do with anything?"

I'm glad you asked, heckler from back in the reference section of the library!

We can change (ie. improve) our living, waking reality! Thinking about problems, both past, present and future, keeps us from living in the now or in the moment. By removing ourselves from the present with thinking that draws upon negative energy from other "problems" (there are no problems, only differing events that are up to us to interpret!), we are limiting the good that we can experience.

Worrying about possessions, money and things instead of each other is why this impersonal and hardly functional society we live in is the way it is. We constantly put ourselves above anything and everything that surrounds us... Perhaps it is something innate and common to us all, a survival mechanism designed to help us filter out unpleasant realities, perhaps not.

My point is that all we really have in life that can give back to us what we give/put in to it is each other, other people, fellow humans. I am as guilty as anyone of the aforementioned offenses-- I get just as caught up in focusing on myself as anyone else does (which explains why my roommate and the "wall squirrel" are still adjacent to each other most nights and weekends).

With that said, I want to change.

"Do or do not, there is no try!" -Yoda

Good point, Yoda, and I WILL change.

If you live a lie, you become a lie. Nothing in worse than betraying one's own heart. Hell, life lasts as long as a sprint if you're lucky and finding someone who runs it the same way and speed as yourself is a rarity, so you owe it to yourself to do everything possible (and even some things you might not initially believe are possible) to make that happen, to make that YOUR reality!

"Nirvana is to live the ordinary life so alert, so full of consciousness, so full of light, that everything becomes luminous." - Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Or, if that is a little too much to wrap your head around, how about one of my favorites?

"One love, one heart- let's get together and feel alright" - Bob Marley

The Neverending Story

As I sit in the school library typing this when I neither have class nor any real reason to be here apart from my lack of internet at home, I can't help but wonder if I come across as a loser or not. If anyone knew I was here by sheer force of my will rather than for some other reason, they'd probably throw old vegetables at me (chiropractic students always have those floating around, you know-- mostly onions, though rutebagas and other obscurities of the vegetable world have made appreances at times.)

Rutabagas aside (I didn't know what they really looked like, wow that thing would take a head off if we were huge Lego-people with those semi-weak click-on heads! Of course, rutabaga attacks would be the least of our problems if we were indeed Lego-people. The list would probably start with something like:

1. Undermedicated OR undiagnosed giant-kids with ADHD [assuming we were our normal size but in Lego form] with penchants for giant-kid sized microwaves [or would they be macrowaves if a human-sized object could fit inside of it?].

2. Birds, but only because they can be kind of scary. Relatives of mine have a parrot and suffice it to say that the thing almost took my thumb off at the 1st knuckle [ie. the proximal metacarpal joint of the thumb], and all I was doing was trying to give it a 3-D Dorito. True story. Another true story is "The Neverending Story," as told by three weird and cool-ish movies.

3. Super glue. Imagine being stuck in one position for eternity just because chemical bonds that are too strong to be broken happen to be affixing your feet to some random object like a contact case or piano key [wow, two horrible examples... golf ball! Now I have 3 horrible examples, yes!].

So yes, rutabagas are probably on Bush's list of "ememies of the state that need to be dealth with" right after ducks (sea, land, air omnivores-- come on!) and the creators of LOST [that show is fuuuuuuuuucked up, but awesome. 4-toed statues just made my list of things to do today]. Alright, time to enclose what is perhaps the longest body of text ever enclosed by parentheses).

"Give me money for my thoughts or thoughts for my money, I could go either way at this point," said Matt aloud, though to no one in particular.

Marketing is the easiest thing in the world. Much like Tommy Boy's dad (R.I.P.), I could probably sell a ketch-up popsicle to a woman wearing white gloves in July. Except, I wouldn't even try selling a ketch-up popsicle because there is absolutely no market for such a thing! Idiots, I swear.

For example, I think most people in America if not Somalia and the rest of the first-world countries out there would be driving around in a Ford "Nintendo" if those ether-soaked hooligans up/over/down (depending on where you are while reading this) in Detroit had named the Ford Tempo the Ford Nintendo. Seriously, it could have a dashboard like an old school Nintendo controller, maybe a zapper gun that somehow applies ketch-up to things (ketch-up is pretty cool-- in Ireland they call it red sauce and unless you're a gorgeous blonde or a fairly aggressive guy with face tattoos they won't give it away for free or even make it readily availible, as per my experience in Corcaigh back in the mid-2000's).

Another miss-that-could-have-been-a-hit would have to be Jolly Joes. Those bastards (I wrote them a letter about it, they know I'm not a life-long enemy of the organization) down at the Just Born Co. took a delicious candy and gave it the worst name EVER... plus it is most likely responsible for the onset of my Type I diabetes. I mean, did any company out there who makes grape soda try selling it under the guise of a name that conjures up either

a.) Fat white dudes or

b.) Paedophilic fat white dudes?

No! I don't see Welch's scrambling to create a brand called "The Grapist" complete with a large, scantily-clad grape google-ing and myspace-ing men, women and even children on the label.

Another marketing idea I have is for a commercial. Basically, I am sick of all the crap they put on trying to sell one of life's basic necessities (along with sex, food and shelter as described by Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs," look it up), that being BEER. Truer story than my last one. Anyway, find a random guy with non-symmetrical ears and a beard built for finals and maybe a clever, witty look about him who dresses like a trend-setter but who doesn't actually care about trends, setters or even socks that much, pay him $1 million upfront (hint not taken? I am available for this role) and have him say the following:

"Hey, what's up? This beer is pretty damn good, doesn't cost very much and is pretty easy to find. Plus, it'll get you buzzed, drunk, crunked, or any combination of the prior three words. Also, buying it will probably stimulate the economy, so really it pays for itself."

And to end the entry, here are the lyrics to the theme song from "The Neverending Story" (and on a side note I dunked one time during warm-ups to the New Found Glory cover of this song):

"Turn around, look at what you see

In her face, the mirror of your dreams

Make believe I'm everywhere, living in your eyes

Written on the pages is the answer to our neverending story

Reach the stars, fly a fantasy

Dream a dream, and what you see will be

Lives that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds

And there upon the rainbow is the answer to our neverending story

Show no fear, for she may fade away

In your hand, the birth of a new day

Lives that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds

And there upon the rainbow is the answer to our neverending story"

Good night, good luck and don't forget to support your local ska band, kids! For those of you who motivate me to write, thanks. For those of you who owe me money... make it happen, or it'll dislocate your sternum with a rutabaga (it could happen, except that I'm a pacifist and don't have any rutabagas because they are out of season).

Hmm, nothing like a rutabaga pie on a hot Christmas morning, am I right? Chase it with a beer and you've basically got every nutrient needed to live, even ethanol.

Prost, slainte, sloan, and my favorite-- "So long and thanks for all of the memories! Love, Julie Newmar"