Oh boy. Hallelujah. Whoopee. Christmas is right around the corner again. Can you believe how quickly that happens? Now all of us have to run out and buy well thought out, considerate, fanciful, imaginative, originative presents for our loved ones. Presents that perfectly match their every desire and secret wishes. Presents that show we, out of everyone on the planet know them to the bottom of their souls and hearts because we love them so deeply.
Add to all that the clear assumption at least by the department stories and most people whether they know it or not is that the amount of money spent is in direct correlation with how much we love and care about this person. If the stores had their way, when you asked their advise for a present, the first and most important question they would ask is "Well, lets see here. Tell me this. How much do you love and care for this person"? Same thing is true for choosing a casket for your loved ones who pass away but that's a whole other story to tell...
So...............I see myself as a pretty typical male and I'm telling you right now that us typical males are the worst present pickers in the entire universe and beyond. We have no clue whatsoever how to choose something special, creative and special, especially for our waaaaaaaaay better half's, much less the rest of our "loved ones". We never go to the type of stores that carry anything close to things our loved ones would actually love to have from us in the first place. If it's not at the auto parts store or hardware store, how in the hell are we supposed to find anything?
What's happened also through the years is all the old standbys that men used to be able to give (lucky bastards of yesterday) are all completely unacceptable in this new world we find ourselves in nowadays. Men used to be just fine with kitchen items for instance. Well....no more huh? That is now just a hint that they should just be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen cooking your meals while you set in the front room watching sports on the TV and having your nightly relaxing drink that we so clearly deserve after a hard day at the salt mines.
Now in my personal case and lots of others I'm sure, what used to be normal choices become less and less acceptable. My waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better half does not like jewelry at all! Can you imagine what that does to my gift giving potential? That's right. You heard me correctly. Not even earrings, bracelet's, watches, rings or necklaces. Nothing at all! Lets try collectibles. NOPE! She doesn't collect anything at all. We basically have no shelves at our home whatsoever to put nicknack's or collectibles of any kind on. Now, I have to say I'm the same on that front so that's cool with me but it sure takes a whole world of present material out of the picture, now doesn't it?
Here's another weird, odd thing about this whole subject also. In general, this whole "problem" of gift giving is only a problem for the giver. The receiver in this scenario usually is quite calm and not stingy at all. The receiver would be quite happy with just a small thoughtful present, even just a hand made card that shows the giver cares and thought about the receiver. The saying "It's the thought that counts" is so true it's amazing. Especially as we get older, there really is not much we actually need someone to get us. All we really want and expect is some show that they care/love us.
I don't think I'm giving out any kind of family secret here when I tell you that for years, I would call our daughter and ask "OK honey. It's time again. Tell me what to get Mom for her birthday/Christmas or anniversary". She most times had great ideas just off the top of her head and I got to take credit for being super cool on the gift giving front. I shamelessly used her very ample creativity relentlessly for years. I'm pretty sure my waaaaaaaaaaaay better half knew this secret all along or she does now for sure........."^)
My waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better half and I have finally and thankfully reached that point in life where we just choose something we both want for the house or life in general. The next and I think final stage of life would be the way some friends of ours in their late seventy's handle it. They don't even give any of those holidays a second thought at all. No gifts, no cards. Nothing. As far as they are concerned, they don't need to bother with that crap anymore at all. Not sure what I think about that but it is what it is.
OK, that's all the bullshit I can think of right now to add to this subject. Now, here's your assignment folks. Read the instructions below and put in the "comments" page your suggestions for presents for me and other men reading this to give our waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa better half's. Come on now. There has to be several people out of all the hundreds who regularly read this who have cool ideas and suggestions for creative, loving, expressive, thoughtful presents. Tell us about them........Pretty please. Save our asses......
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/Url", or just leave your comment anonymously by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Hiding in plain sight.......
A guy I used to work with first introduced this interesting phenomena to me years ago. He called it an old Indian trick. Hiding things you don't want people to find right in plain sight. It's amazing how well this works for most anyone.
An example all men can relate to right off the bat would be...."Honey, where's the ketchup?". "It's in the fridge, where it belongs" Your much better half would respond. Now the man has been standing there with the fridge wide open for like 5 straight minutes now and can't find it. The trick of course is the damn bottle is right in the middle, on the top shelf right in the front of his eyes. He of course is looking around it completely missing it. He might even have moved it to one side to get a better view behind it.
One of the things that brought this up at this time for me is I finally got one of those antique Barber Poles for the shop. You know, the kind inside of a glass tube with a spinning red, white and blue thing inside. Now this is a very brightly lit up contraption, spinning around and around all the time. One would think this would stick out like a fart in an aqualung for all to immediately notice when they come through the door. Well, as you can imagine, not one customer so far has commented on it at all. I've had this shop for something like 14 years now with no plain as day, brightly lit Barber Pole hanging in plain sight.........ever........
Because I'm excited about this new purchase I'm wanted my entire career, I ask them if they notice anything in the shop brand new. Everyone of them look all around and around and say "Nope, nothing new here I see". When I point it out, they often times think it was there all along and are amazed when I tell them it's brand new on the wall. They swear it's been right there for years.
Upon some reflection it kind of makes sense that a Barber Pole inside a Barber Shop is so normal and expected that they don't see it at all. It just blends in with all the other Barber related crap on my walls.
I think it's pretty clear that we all go through life taking most things for granted and don't see the trees for the forest. Why would we care about one tree in an entire forest, even it that particular tree was somehow amazingly different and wonderful. So that tells me most of us are truly missing out on a ton of small but wonderful nuances of life without even knowing it.
So, we all probably should pay attention to one of those other great, wise and useful sayings.
Stop and smell the roses.
The key thought here would be the "stop" part. If we never stop or at least slow the hell down once in a while, we won't even know the damn roses are right in front of our faces, much less that they offer one hell of a nice sampling of pleasure for our olfactory senses.
So the next time you want to play a trick on someone or simply hide something well, just stick it right out there in plain sight. No one will ever find it....
Old Indian Trick.
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/Url", or just leave your comment anonymously by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
COME ON..........DO IT!!!
An example all men can relate to right off the bat would be...."Honey, where's the ketchup?". "It's in the fridge, where it belongs" Your much better half would respond. Now the man has been standing there with the fridge wide open for like 5 straight minutes now and can't find it. The trick of course is the damn bottle is right in the middle, on the top shelf right in the front of his eyes. He of course is looking around it completely missing it. He might even have moved it to one side to get a better view behind it.
One of the things that brought this up at this time for me is I finally got one of those antique Barber Poles for the shop. You know, the kind inside of a glass tube with a spinning red, white and blue thing inside. Now this is a very brightly lit up contraption, spinning around and around all the time. One would think this would stick out like a fart in an aqualung for all to immediately notice when they come through the door. Well, as you can imagine, not one customer so far has commented on it at all. I've had this shop for something like 14 years now with no plain as day, brightly lit Barber Pole hanging in plain sight.........ever........
Because I'm excited about this new purchase I'm wanted my entire career, I ask them if they notice anything in the shop brand new. Everyone of them look all around and around and say "Nope, nothing new here I see". When I point it out, they often times think it was there all along and are amazed when I tell them it's brand new on the wall. They swear it's been right there for years.
Upon some reflection it kind of makes sense that a Barber Pole inside a Barber Shop is so normal and expected that they don't see it at all. It just blends in with all the other Barber related crap on my walls.
I think it's pretty clear that we all go through life taking most things for granted and don't see the trees for the forest. Why would we care about one tree in an entire forest, even it that particular tree was somehow amazingly different and wonderful. So that tells me most of us are truly missing out on a ton of small but wonderful nuances of life without even knowing it.
So, we all probably should pay attention to one of those other great, wise and useful sayings.
Stop and smell the roses.
The key thought here would be the "stop" part. If we never stop or at least slow the hell down once in a while, we won't even know the damn roses are right in front of our faces, much less that they offer one hell of a nice sampling of pleasure for our olfactory senses.
So the next time you want to play a trick on someone or simply hide something well, just stick it right out there in plain sight. No one will ever find it....
Old Indian Trick.
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/Url", or just leave your comment anonymously by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Oh yeah? Well, your Mom wears combat boots.....
Well, It's FINELY becoming apparent to all of us that our collective acceptance of negative ads on the political front is readily and rightfully coming to a screeching halt. I just saw on the news a perfect example of this fact. Seems during a get together somewhere in California, between our present Governor and the two idiots trying for the job an interesting and very telling thing happened.
Tom Brocaw, with NBC who was moderating the event asked a very, very good question of both of the idiots. He simply asked them if they might declare a cessation of all negative political ads until the end of this mid term election. Now the part that completely blew my mind was the immediate and loud applause just the question got from the visiting audience in attendance.
I've been disgusted for years with this whole lame brained method of trying to get our votes. Everyone I've talked to for the last couple of years have always agreed that it was idiotic and questioned our intelligence to say the least. We don't need to hear the opposition bring up every little negative thing about their competitor to make up our minds who might be the best idiot to run things into the ground, as they all seem to eventually do.
I'm sure everyone in California and probably most everyone everywhere see that the candidates all use negative and smear campaigns until right at the last minute. Then they all put out some smiley, syrupy, sappy, look at how nice and capable I really am ads. They believe of course that with our very short memories, we'll forget they acted like little kids on the kindergarten playground calling each other dirty names all along with these last minute niceties.
One of the worst negative ad offenders was the bitch Meg Whitman. Then just this last week, she put out what I thought was what I would have loved to hear from day one. An ad talking about only herself and what she might be able to bring to the political table to help California survive into the future.
We can't leave out our old as the hills, forever politician Jerry (moonbeam) Brown, though can we? With his very negative but concise ads comparing the bitch with our present failed Governor. I really don't know as I try to not watch any of that crap, but I'll bet even he has now put out a couple of last minute positive ads also.
By the way, their answer to Tommy was something like this. Moonbeam mumbled something like if the bitch stopped, he would. The bitch went into this whole explanation about not using personal attack ads but stating moonbeams political failings was different. By the way, the attending audience booed all attempts to their justification for continuing the negative ads.
I've asked myself this question for years now. Do you think we will ever again have a candidate we are actually excited about? One we believe cares about the common man/women and would do things on our behalf, instead of their own bullshit political agendas or just to further their personal careers?
Read the instructions below and let us know what you think.........
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/Url", or just leave your comment anonymously by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Tom Brocaw, with NBC who was moderating the event asked a very, very good question of both of the idiots. He simply asked them if they might declare a cessation of all negative political ads until the end of this mid term election. Now the part that completely blew my mind was the immediate and loud applause just the question got from the visiting audience in attendance.
I've been disgusted for years with this whole lame brained method of trying to get our votes. Everyone I've talked to for the last couple of years have always agreed that it was idiotic and questioned our intelligence to say the least. We don't need to hear the opposition bring up every little negative thing about their competitor to make up our minds who might be the best idiot to run things into the ground, as they all seem to eventually do.
I'm sure everyone in California and probably most everyone everywhere see that the candidates all use negative and smear campaigns until right at the last minute. Then they all put out some smiley, syrupy, sappy, look at how nice and capable I really am ads. They believe of course that with our very short memories, we'll forget they acted like little kids on the kindergarten playground calling each other dirty names all along with these last minute niceties.
One of the worst negative ad offenders was the bitch Meg Whitman. Then just this last week, she put out what I thought was what I would have loved to hear from day one. An ad talking about only herself and what she might be able to bring to the political table to help California survive into the future.
We can't leave out our old as the hills, forever politician Jerry (moonbeam) Brown, though can we? With his very negative but concise ads comparing the bitch with our present failed Governor. I really don't know as I try to not watch any of that crap, but I'll bet even he has now put out a couple of last minute positive ads also.
By the way, their answer to Tommy was something like this. Moonbeam mumbled something like if the bitch stopped, he would. The bitch went into this whole explanation about not using personal attack ads but stating moonbeams political failings was different. By the way, the attending audience booed all attempts to their justification for continuing the negative ads.
I've asked myself this question for years now. Do you think we will ever again have a candidate we are actually excited about? One we believe cares about the common man/women and would do things on our behalf, instead of their own bullshit political agendas or just to further their personal careers?
Read the instructions below and let us know what you think.........
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/Url", or just leave your comment anonymously by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS!
Words are mighty interesting sometimes, aren't they? I've been told several times the English language has the most infuriating, nonsensical, cockeyed, ludicrous, obtuse, opaque, meaningless words known to man/women/critter and of course Aliens from various other Galaxy's. Our language is about as convoluted, tangled, tortuous, labyrinthine and impenetrable as can be.
Who in the hell decided that we needed hundreds of different ways to say things that should be quite simplistic to convey, transmit, communicate or even proclaim?
The man/women who made these stupid decisions should have had their assess kicked for muddling, confusing, dumbfounding and bewildering us with their idiosyncrasies and insanities.
They should be bound and dragged to the town square, put in the stocks and have all the children in the town throw rotten garbage and other unmentionables, nightclothes, nightwear, underclothes, underclothing, underthings, underwear, and undies at them until they beg the forgiveness of the masses for screwing up the language.
To tell the truth, (novel idea huh?) I was just getting a tad bored and most times, that's all it takes to drive me to write. The next thing required is just a kernel, seed, crux, grain, morsel, nubbin and or grain of an idea.
Often just one word or phrase, byword, catch phrase, catchword, diction, expression, idiom, locution, maxim, motto, parlance, phraseology, phrasing, remark, saying, shibboleth, slogan, styling, tag, terminology, utterance, verbalism, verbiage, watchword, wordage, wording and off my little mind travels down the yellow brick road.
The word that came to mind this time was "SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS!"
God, what a cool word huh? Of course the first thing it brings to mind for those of us in the "long of tooth" era is the Mary Poppins movie, Sound of Music.
Often times song writers have super, creative, originative, fanciful, notional, fictive, imaginative, inventive and yeasty ways with words, don't they?
If you really want to see words stand up straight and come alive. If you have some valuable time to completely waste, goto:
http://paul3333.blogspot.com/2007/11/this-is-test.html
This was actually the first piece I ever wrote, written far far before I even knew I might have it in me to write. I probably should have known right then and there that telling worthless tales might just be my best attribute. One I should milk for all it's worth and go down in history someday as "A rumor in his own time".
Soooooooooooooooooooooo. After completely wasting some of your valuable time on this piece thinking this Paul Dude might have something wise or at least intelligent to say about something, finding out instead he was just bored and just set out to fill this space with nonsense to feel important and alive, what say you?
Do you have it in you to write a letter to Editor of this Newspaper and ball Paul out or whatever you need to do to feel self important also? I'm telling you right now that a damn kindergartener could do this. Most people are just too lazy or insecure to try and figure it out. Are you one of those or do you have what it takes?
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/Url", or just leave your comment anonymously by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Who in the hell decided that we needed hundreds of different ways to say things that should be quite simplistic to convey, transmit, communicate or even proclaim?
The man/women who made these stupid decisions should have had their assess kicked for muddling, confusing, dumbfounding and bewildering us with their idiosyncrasies and insanities.
They should be bound and dragged to the town square, put in the stocks and have all the children in the town throw rotten garbage and other unmentionables, nightclothes, nightwear, underclothes, underclothing, underthings, underwear, and undies at them until they beg the forgiveness of the masses for screwing up the language.
To tell the truth, (novel idea huh?) I was just getting a tad bored and most times, that's all it takes to drive me to write. The next thing required is just a kernel, seed, crux, grain, morsel, nubbin and or grain of an idea.
Often just one word or phrase, byword, catch phrase, catchword, diction, expression, idiom, locution, maxim, motto, parlance, phraseology, phrasing, remark, saying, shibboleth, slogan, styling, tag, terminology, utterance, verbalism, verbiage, watchword, wordage, wording and off my little mind travels down the yellow brick road.
The word that came to mind this time was "SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS!"
God, what a cool word huh? Of course the first thing it brings to mind for those of us in the "long of tooth" era is the Mary Poppins movie, Sound of Music.
Often times song writers have super, creative, originative, fanciful, notional, fictive, imaginative, inventive and yeasty ways with words, don't they?
If you really want to see words stand up straight and come alive. If you have some valuable time to completely waste, goto:
http://paul3333.blogspot.com/2007/11/this-is-test.html
This was actually the first piece I ever wrote, written far far before I even knew I might have it in me to write. I probably should have known right then and there that telling worthless tales might just be my best attribute. One I should milk for all it's worth and go down in history someday as "A rumor in his own time".
Soooooooooooooooooooooo. After completely wasting some of your valuable time on this piece thinking this Paul Dude might have something wise or at least intelligent to say about something, finding out instead he was just bored and just set out to fill this space with nonsense to feel important and alive, what say you?
Do you have it in you to write a letter to Editor of this Newspaper and ball Paul out or whatever you need to do to feel self important also? I'm telling you right now that a damn kindergartener could do this. Most people are just too lazy or insecure to try and figure it out. Are you one of those or do you have what it takes?
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/Url", or just leave your comment anonymously by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Saturday, October 9, 2010
I’m schizophrenic and so am I…………
Most people in the world seem to take life far, far too serious. Now there are plenty of times when seriousness is completely called for, that's for sure. The problems seems to be how much that attribute has taken over obsessively to the exclusion of all else. What about fun, enjoyment, laughter, merriment, lightness, craziness and just plain treating life as the dance it could and should be?
Seriousness:
Important: important or grave enough to require thought and attention. Thoughtful or thought-provoking way. Earnestness, serious-minded, sincerity, sedateness, staidness, solemnity, solemness, graveness, gravity, sobriety, soberness, somberness, connectedness, commitment.....
Looking at all those definitions of the word seriousness gives one pause, now doesn't it? They all sound stiff as hell and damn boring. Not a plan or philosophy one would choose to live all the time by huh? Now there are plenty of times in ones life where being serious is the only way to go. Driving a car, any kind of flying, school in all it's applications, at work when one is trying to accomplish an important task etc.
To my admittedly (and with great pride) twisted mind, the devil in the details here is the entire concept of "political correctness". This stupid, insane, asinine present day invention was invented by muddle headed do gooder idiots who think they can tell everyone else what's "proper thinking". Well, they can all take a flying leap off a tall building as far as I'm concerned.
Ask anyone who works in a small to large company and they'll tell you as this insidious garbage philosophy entered the work place, all the fun went out the window and their jobs slowly became a drag instead of a place they wanted to be at. Instead of having a vested interest in doing the best they could for the company because they flat out enjoyed being there and being a positive contributor to the success of the company, now they just "put in their time, doing just what's necessary to get by and not be fired and get the hell out of there as soon as the clock lets them go each day.
Women became something you better not even look at for fear of "offending" them is some way, instead of Men's friends and equals. People of any color other than white became someone you deferred to and stepped lightly around for fear of "offending" them in some crazy way. So everyone you used to consider friends and co-workers now became potential enemies, who could cause you to lose your job. Now everyone there was now required to go to "political Correctness" education classes. Now doesn't that sound like some god damn communist countries attempt at mind control or something?
Well.....................I'm super proud to say that at my business, people have the right to say anything they damn well please about any subject whatsoever. It's a place for sexist, racist, dumb, crude, bad, stupid, nonsensical jokes of any kind. The only rule there is "if it's funny, it's funny". Even it it's not, it only deserves a loud, rude groan at the most. I pride myself on sending people out the door with not just a great haircut, but in a completely different mood if they were kind of grumpy when they entered.
Examples of my line of bullshit would be as I'm letting them out of the chair, I might say "Well, that'll have to do until the good Barber gets back", Or "I promise, the bleeding will stop soon". Or "I re-carved the dirty word in the back". I especially enjoy messing with stiff, uptight people in expensive suits. One time, I asked this judge dude why he kept coming back for my abuse and he surprised me with "You know what? You're one of the only people in my life who treats me as a normal everyday person, instead of with phony respect as most everyone else does at my job. You give me a healthy dose of reality and I like it".
So come on folks, life doesn't have to be so damn serious all the time. It should and can have a healthy dose of fun, creativity, laughter, spontaneity (a huge, loud, obnoxious, snot flying belly laugh is good for you) and a little bit of craziness can go a long way to enriching and improving your lives and those around you.
Whatchathink?
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/Url", or just leave your comment anonymously by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Seriousness:
Important: important or grave enough to require thought and attention. Thoughtful or thought-provoking way. Earnestness, serious-minded, sincerity, sedateness, staidness, solemnity, solemness, graveness, gravity, sobriety, soberness, somberness, connectedness, commitment.....
Looking at all those definitions of the word seriousness gives one pause, now doesn't it? They all sound stiff as hell and damn boring. Not a plan or philosophy one would choose to live all the time by huh? Now there are plenty of times in ones life where being serious is the only way to go. Driving a car, any kind of flying, school in all it's applications, at work when one is trying to accomplish an important task etc.
To my admittedly (and with great pride) twisted mind, the devil in the details here is the entire concept of "political correctness". This stupid, insane, asinine present day invention was invented by muddle headed do gooder idiots who think they can tell everyone else what's "proper thinking". Well, they can all take a flying leap off a tall building as far as I'm concerned.
Ask anyone who works in a small to large company and they'll tell you as this insidious garbage philosophy entered the work place, all the fun went out the window and their jobs slowly became a drag instead of a place they wanted to be at. Instead of having a vested interest in doing the best they could for the company because they flat out enjoyed being there and being a positive contributor to the success of the company, now they just "put in their time, doing just what's necessary to get by and not be fired and get the hell out of there as soon as the clock lets them go each day.
Women became something you better not even look at for fear of "offending" them is some way, instead of Men's friends and equals. People of any color other than white became someone you deferred to and stepped lightly around for fear of "offending" them in some crazy way. So everyone you used to consider friends and co-workers now became potential enemies, who could cause you to lose your job. Now everyone there was now required to go to "political Correctness" education classes. Now doesn't that sound like some god damn communist countries attempt at mind control or something?
Well.....................I'm super proud to say that at my business, people have the right to say anything they damn well please about any subject whatsoever. It's a place for sexist, racist, dumb, crude, bad, stupid, nonsensical jokes of any kind. The only rule there is "if it's funny, it's funny". Even it it's not, it only deserves a loud, rude groan at the most. I pride myself on sending people out the door with not just a great haircut, but in a completely different mood if they were kind of grumpy when they entered.
Examples of my line of bullshit would be as I'm letting them out of the chair, I might say "Well, that'll have to do until the good Barber gets back", Or "I promise, the bleeding will stop soon". Or "I re-carved the dirty word in the back". I especially enjoy messing with stiff, uptight people in expensive suits. One time, I asked this judge dude why he kept coming back for my abuse and he surprised me with "You know what? You're one of the only people in my life who treats me as a normal everyday person, instead of with phony respect as most everyone else does at my job. You give me a healthy dose of reality and I like it".
So come on folks, life doesn't have to be so damn serious all the time. It should and can have a healthy dose of fun, creativity, laughter, spontaneity (a huge, loud, obnoxious, snot flying belly laugh is good for you) and a little bit of craziness can go a long way to enriching and improving your lives and those around you.
Whatchathink?
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/Url", or just leave your comment anonymously by CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
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COME ON..........DO IT!!!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Use it or lose it...
The older I get the more this fact becomes apparent, vital and real.
USE IT OR LOSE IT!
That just might be the definitive reason and clear objective of life as we know it. What brought this fact to the forefront for me at this time is the latest little hobby I've taken up. Learning to fly Remote Control Helicopters. I've taken up some rather difficult things in my life but this one takes the cake for sure. Everyone in the Remote Control world made it extremely clear every time I brought it up that this was a complete waste of time and money. They all told horror stories about people wasting hundreds, if not thousands of dollars trying to perfect this and failing miserably in the end.
Even my Daughter who is a Helicopter Pilot told me she knows several Helicopter Pilots with thousands of hours of experience who bought into the hobby with extreme gusto and gave up in disgust in a surprisingly small amount of time and now have them sitting on a shelf in a closet somewhere in their homes collecting cobwebs, with nothing but cuss-words and shame for memories. Other than learning to actually fly them is the extreme learning curve on the transmitters. That's the control mechanism you hold in your hand to send the signals to the "Servos" which move the control surfaces on the Helicopter itself. That damn thing nowadays is a very sophisticated computer, would you believe. You can now program it to do just about anything except maybe butter your bread or give you a massage.
So along with trying to learn to fly this damn thing for more than three minutes without crashing and adding another $100 for repairs to my wonderful new hobby (say thank you, Terry at HobbyTown USA in Rocklin), I now have to learn another entire new computer language. Now as complainy as I sound, I actually am having a ball learning and adding all these new skill sets to my life.
That brings me to the gist of this new revelation. It's wonderful, challenging and exciting to have new hard as hell I should add, things to do to my life. It's so easy for everyone to just fall into normal routines of life. Hell, it's hard enough to just get by nowadays without purposely adding more complications to everything as it is, now isn't it? But ya know what? That's what keeps life new, interesting and anti-boring.
This "Use it or lose it" philosophy is true in every aspect of our lives. Ask any health professional and they'll tell you to use that body. Push it to it's limits at all times. Get off your lazy ass, get off the couch, turn off the boob tube and get moving. You see all the time quite old people at various stages of activity or lack of. The ones on the move are staying in pretty good shape and seem happy, vibrant and alive. Now discounting the very unfortunate facts of disease in it's every form, the plain lazy, weak ones are unfortunately sliding down the slippery slope of declining health right before our eyes. A generation or so ago, the thing to do was to retire as soon as you could, buy a great recliner for the front room and finally get to relax after working all ones life. Well, that lasted maybe a few months or years and then they achieved the ultimate relaxation staring up at the grass at the cemetery.
This whole thing also applies to all the parts of life also. Sex......Use it or lose it. Happy attitudes......Use it or lose it. Friendships......Use it or lose it. Skills, like cooking, playing an instrument, reading, writing, playing golf or any game. They all require one to keep on going full blast at all times. Just like exercise or using the hot tub (silly example but true). Each time I think of it, the first thing that comes to mind is "Dammit, that's just too much trouble, I'm kind of tired right now and don't feel like putting the effort out to do it". Then I force myself and ALWAYS, it's great and I'm super glad I did it.
Sooooooooooooooooooooo, get off your ass, start a new hobby, get outside and go for a walk, take up Kayaking, get in the car and go shopping in a new place you've never been before, learn something new. Something completely beyond your normal skill sets and desires.
By the way, come hell or high water, I WILL get this down. I WILL amaze and impress my daughter, her Helicopter Pilot husband and my friends one day soon. Well......... maybe next year but by God, I WILL DO THIS!
Whatchathink?
USE IT OR LOSE IT!
That just might be the definitive reason and clear objective of life as we know it. What brought this fact to the forefront for me at this time is the latest little hobby I've taken up. Learning to fly Remote Control Helicopters. I've taken up some rather difficult things in my life but this one takes the cake for sure. Everyone in the Remote Control world made it extremely clear every time I brought it up that this was a complete waste of time and money. They all told horror stories about people wasting hundreds, if not thousands of dollars trying to perfect this and failing miserably in the end.
Even my Daughter who is a Helicopter Pilot told me she knows several Helicopter Pilots with thousands of hours of experience who bought into the hobby with extreme gusto and gave up in disgust in a surprisingly small amount of time and now have them sitting on a shelf in a closet somewhere in their homes collecting cobwebs, with nothing but cuss-words and shame for memories. Other than learning to actually fly them is the extreme learning curve on the transmitters. That's the control mechanism you hold in your hand to send the signals to the "Servos" which move the control surfaces on the Helicopter itself. That damn thing nowadays is a very sophisticated computer, would you believe. You can now program it to do just about anything except maybe butter your bread or give you a massage.
So along with trying to learn to fly this damn thing for more than three minutes without crashing and adding another $100 for repairs to my wonderful new hobby (say thank you, Terry at HobbyTown USA in Rocklin), I now have to learn another entire new computer language. Now as complainy as I sound, I actually am having a ball learning and adding all these new skill sets to my life.
That brings me to the gist of this new revelation. It's wonderful, challenging and exciting to have new hard as hell I should add, things to do to my life. It's so easy for everyone to just fall into normal routines of life. Hell, it's hard enough to just get by nowadays without purposely adding more complications to everything as it is, now isn't it? But ya know what? That's what keeps life new, interesting and anti-boring.
This "Use it or lose it" philosophy is true in every aspect of our lives. Ask any health professional and they'll tell you to use that body. Push it to it's limits at all times. Get off your lazy ass, get off the couch, turn off the boob tube and get moving. You see all the time quite old people at various stages of activity or lack of. The ones on the move are staying in pretty good shape and seem happy, vibrant and alive. Now discounting the very unfortunate facts of disease in it's every form, the plain lazy, weak ones are unfortunately sliding down the slippery slope of declining health right before our eyes. A generation or so ago, the thing to do was to retire as soon as you could, buy a great recliner for the front room and finally get to relax after working all ones life. Well, that lasted maybe a few months or years and then they achieved the ultimate relaxation staring up at the grass at the cemetery.
This whole thing also applies to all the parts of life also. Sex......Use it or lose it. Happy attitudes......Use it or lose it. Friendships......Use it or lose it. Skills, like cooking, playing an instrument, reading, writing, playing golf or any game. They all require one to keep on going full blast at all times. Just like exercise or using the hot tub (silly example but true). Each time I think of it, the first thing that comes to mind is "Dammit, that's just too much trouble, I'm kind of tired right now and don't feel like putting the effort out to do it". Then I force myself and ALWAYS, it's great and I'm super glad I did it.
Sooooooooooooooooooooo, get off your ass, start a new hobby, get outside and go for a walk, take up Kayaking, get in the car and go shopping in a new place you've never been before, learn something new. Something completely beyond your normal skill sets and desires.
By the way, come hell or high water, I WILL get this down. I WILL amaze and impress my daughter, her Helicopter Pilot husband and my friends one day soon. Well......... maybe next year but by God, I WILL DO THIS!
Whatchathink?
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Interesting, creative, dysfunctional people in my life
All my life including now the most interesting, creative, intelligent people I've known have always been the oddest also. I've came to the conclusion that the few people I would call close friends are noticeably weird, different and just this side of crazy. These are people most others would shy away from, if for no other reason than these types don't seem to fit the "normal" package that most people try to fit into. The saying about trying to fit a square peg into a round whole comes to mind with most people who have became close to me.
Starting in high school, I went off into the wacky world of being a musician, which put me right in the middle of some of the strangest people on earth. Musicians in general are a pretty odd group to say the least. For musicians, nothing exists except creating music. Most serious musicians are the types who set in their bedroom practicing all hours of the day and night not paying much attention to what other people would consider normal life. The only real relationships they have is with other musicians.
Another attribute of these people would be their unusual and flaming dis functionalities. They are usually great at one or two things, like art or music and completely out of it with normal functions like bills, obligations, jobs, responsibilities etc. They're the people you see walking around with mismatched cloths, holes in their pants, white socks or wild, crazy colors on. The reasons they do that has nothing to do with having a "style". It's more they could care less about what they consider to be unimportant and irrelevant aspects of life. Again, the only thing that matters to them is their music or whatever Art form they are involved in.
Moodiness, maybe even various levels of depression comes with these folk's weirdness also. I honestly think people like this have a completely different wiring system in their brains than "normal" people. I'm sure at times they regret and lament having these problems but I also think it's part and parcel of being one of the "chosen ones" with incredible creativity, genius and special intelligence it takes to put out great works of art, music, poetry, movies, plays or dance pieces.
When I was playing guitar in a rock band back in the cave man days, the first thing I was taught was to never get anywhere near the amplifier because it would start "feeding back", which meant it would start making this loud screeching noise. Well Jimmie Hendrix practically set on top of his to force as much screeching as possible. I think that pretty much sums up how those kinds of people think. They not only think outside the box but purposely tear the walls down and do whatever they want to.
Another unfortunate but true fact about these people is the fact that throughout history, they usually peak quite early with their genius talents and end up dying from drug overdoses, diseases or freak accidents in their wild ride through life. Clear examples of this would of course include Elvis Presley, Jimmie Hendrix, Marilyn Monroe and a host of others I can't think of right at this moment. I often wonder what these people would be doing at this time if they were still alive and still creating in their art forms.
Now, I'm not saying there is anything at all wrong with "normal" people. Without them nothing regular or normal would ever get done and life would probably be some kind of anarchist system by now. I do think that our incredible and persistent emphasis on "normalcy" goes too far though. If we loosened up on that goal, we probably would have quite a bit more creative, inventive people doing their magic for all to enjoy.
Starting in high school, I went off into the wacky world of being a musician, which put me right in the middle of some of the strangest people on earth. Musicians in general are a pretty odd group to say the least. For musicians, nothing exists except creating music. Most serious musicians are the types who set in their bedroom practicing all hours of the day and night not paying much attention to what other people would consider normal life. The only real relationships they have is with other musicians.
Another attribute of these people would be their unusual and flaming dis functionalities. They are usually great at one or two things, like art or music and completely out of it with normal functions like bills, obligations, jobs, responsibilities etc. They're the people you see walking around with mismatched cloths, holes in their pants, white socks or wild, crazy colors on. The reasons they do that has nothing to do with having a "style". It's more they could care less about what they consider to be unimportant and irrelevant aspects of life. Again, the only thing that matters to them is their music or whatever Art form they are involved in.
Moodiness, maybe even various levels of depression comes with these folk's weirdness also. I honestly think people like this have a completely different wiring system in their brains than "normal" people. I'm sure at times they regret and lament having these problems but I also think it's part and parcel of being one of the "chosen ones" with incredible creativity, genius and special intelligence it takes to put out great works of art, music, poetry, movies, plays or dance pieces.
When I was playing guitar in a rock band back in the cave man days, the first thing I was taught was to never get anywhere near the amplifier because it would start "feeding back", which meant it would start making this loud screeching noise. Well Jimmie Hendrix practically set on top of his to force as much screeching as possible. I think that pretty much sums up how those kinds of people think. They not only think outside the box but purposely tear the walls down and do whatever they want to.
Another unfortunate but true fact about these people is the fact that throughout history, they usually peak quite early with their genius talents and end up dying from drug overdoses, diseases or freak accidents in their wild ride through life. Clear examples of this would of course include Elvis Presley, Jimmie Hendrix, Marilyn Monroe and a host of others I can't think of right at this moment. I often wonder what these people would be doing at this time if they were still alive and still creating in their art forms.
Now, I'm not saying there is anything at all wrong with "normal" people. Without them nothing regular or normal would ever get done and life would probably be some kind of anarchist system by now. I do think that our incredible and persistent emphasis on "normalcy" goes too far though. If we loosened up on that goal, we probably would have quite a bit more creative, inventive people doing their magic for all to enjoy.
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
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