how to get stuff you want

This one I dig. You know the easiest way to get something you want? Take it. I'm not talking stealing really, though I'm not not saying it either. But just take it. Fine line between theft and oops?! Just take it.

A great line in a great play/film - I'm paraphrasing here:
Lee: Now all I wanna do is borrow your car.
Austin: No!
Lee: Then I'll just take the damn thing.

See, it's not really stealing, it's taking. I admit, I can't tell the difference, but I know there is one.

Another way is the more common, more civil approach, which is simply asking. Mama always said you don't get what you don't ask for. She also made me often fear the sky might fall though. But it's partially true. "Can I have a little more butter in my popcorn", "Can I have fresh fries, not those sitting under the heat lamp the past two hours since it's 3:00 in the afternoon", "can't you swallow just this once", etc. It's going to work at a reasonable rate - just ask.

Another way is manipulation. Tricking people into giving you what you want. You can use a bunch of ten dollar words and talk quickly and sound like you know what you're talking about, make it sound like you're smarter than them and are just giving them a break. That works if you play it right.

So, there's a few of the many ways to get what you want. More to come.

how to fail

This is a simple one. How to fail? Do nothing. Seriously. It is simple but not as simple as it sounds. You have that little lingering voice in your head - the one in white, telling you to feed and feel and comfort and be good - and to generally do something.

Ignore that voice.

That voice is the voice trying to snuff out failure. So ignore it, and do nothing. Do nothing. How to fail at cleaning a room? Don't do it. How to fail at losing weight? Do not do it.

We'll go in depth later of different types and genres of failure, but this is a simple one. It's really pretty simple to fail. Only not really.

potential new format - how to...

Today I'm going to switch gears a bit. And this is my space so I'll do it without hesitation, so to speak. I'm going to begin a series of "how to's". A series of quick and dirty manuals for better living. Exploratory titles might include: how to get fired, how to get laid, how to cheat on a test, how to make a banana and cheese sandwich. All worthless bits of information sure, but I'd like to do my part. It is the little things that get us by. This is what happens, Larry.

the wheel

Found this great singer/songwriter.

Here's a video tracked down - seems the song was in a trailer to a recent indie film.

and the same song, performed live here.

the little things

The little things in life matter. They really do. I have to do little things constantly like chopping up onions very fine with my best knife - I think I inherited it from a roommate ten years ago. Or take a long hot bath with a gallon of milk added and half a bottle of mr. bubble - things like that just to feel slightly more human every once in a while. Or staying up all night once in a while for no good reason. Filling the time with digging through boxes of old magazines, writings and papers, watching dumb or bad or even good movies - the ones you wouldn't watch at 9:30 Tuesday night, or Sunday afternoon. The little things matter.

this mediocrity

Sounds rather harsh, when asked to explain yourself in a single word - mediocre. Sounds harsh, although is neither untrue nor harsh at all. In any given twenty four hours, how much is free time? How much is work, sleep, eating and leisure? Is leisure even a category? Then, how much is wasted? How much is waste? Watching a Seinfeld episode you've seen seventeen times. Staring at a keyboard or notebook rather than writing. Clicking the ad links on the right side of a browser. Add it up in a day. If the sum total of waste is more than three minutes, that's unfortunate. If it's thirty minutes, that's disdainful. If it's three hours, that is mediocre. And I'm not quite certain - nor unwilling to do spell check - if that is the correct spelling or not. Mediocre.

7-4 1230

Distant hesitation
Again, the stories blur
The lines of comprehension
Fragile as ever, the spectacle uncertain
Between these nights of starry mumbles
Delicate in word and silent in deed
All those lost and empty intentions
Like a torn and ragged, but loved, old rope
Black was the softest back then
Comfortable and contrived
Unspoken were the words
Such the beauty of ignorance declined