keep it simple stupid!

Stolen from another website

3.6.1: How can I become a nicer person?

The widely-known formula for general niceness is universal across all social strata:

• Be nice to other people.
• Don't play zero-sum or negative-sum games (avoid benefits that come at an equal or higher cost to someone else).
• Don't stomp on anyone who doesn't deserve it.
• If you see an opportunity to do something good, take it.

Anything more complex than that gets us into the subject of mental disciplines, fine-grained self-awareness, self-alteration rather than self-control, and so on, all subjects on which I could easily write a book, which I don't have the time to write, so don't get me started.

Coffee Time

Today I had my morning coffe at the coffee shop on the campus where I work (this is not unusual).

In the few brief minutes I was there there were two warm smiles and two pats on the back while talking to people (literal pats... friendly... you know what I mean). I felt a little surge of joy.... the sun was shining, the coffee was great, people were nice and my presence in the universe was being acknowledged and it's Friday. That should keep me going for a few hours at least.

Ideal Job #3 - Freelance photographer

You get to travel the world, ask strangers if you can take their photo... write off travel expenses, go to all the festivals and parties you want, meet interesting people and you can ask them to take their clothes off without getting slapped..... in the interests of art......

I'll get off the re-occuring nudity theme with the next job, I promise ;-)

Lucha Va Voom

Now this looks like the sort of Burlesque show I would want to see!
http://www.luchavavoom.com/

Ideal Job #2 - Run a house of Burlesque

Seems like an easy enough job.... aside form auditioning dancers you get to sit in the club, have cheap drinks and watch the dancers dance..... I could do that. It involves all my favourite activities. You could even organise the theme nights....the possibilities seem endless

Now with atom feed working..i hope

Ideal Job #1 - successful novelist

This ranks as my all time number one job. You can work in coffee shops (with beret), cocktail lounges or even the beach and you have an excuse to ask anyone ANY question. People expect you to be eccentric and you get invited to parties.... now unpublished novelist is a completely differnet kettle of fish

Bloody Blog

I started my blog to just dump ideas and suddenly I'm trying to think of what to put in it. So far I have an audience of one (... Hi Dru....) and already i'm trying to think of how to make it interesting. So I'm just gonna chill out and stop thinking about it...it's a blog I'm allowed to write crap.

The thing that has been occupying my mind is whether or not you need goals. Sounds simple doesn't it. I was finding my life..... well... a tad boring. Just to give you a bit of background, I spent most of my Uni life moving from share house to share house, new people all the time, new books and ideas constantly flowing through and around me. After Uni things still flowed and changed constantly.... different girls, houses, books and ideas. Fast forward over the last few years. I'm married, own a house and have had a good job. I've got the things that you are suppose to have in this modern society, but still I was finding myself a bit bored with it all. This is not to say that I want to change what I have... I've got a great wife, house and job but I need something to spark up the brain and get me a bit more interested in stuff again. The first step in my plan to enjoy life more involved getting my open water scuba license. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to get my dive license. I had a friend with the same goal so we both got our dive licenses. I had this feeling I'd missed for a while.... excitement and novelty. Actually achieving something was a great feeling. Work achievements just don't match the feeling of achievement you get from doing something you want to do.

So I set myself some more goals, give up smoking, meditate, pop in and visit my friends more regularly. So far (well the last few days) it's been fun having goals. I was talking to my boss about it and he was completely mystified as to why you would want to plan any goals. In his words “You go to work then go home and do the things that you do”. For me if i don't think about it...I'll turn to beer and xbox to keep me amused. Fun in the short term but no basis for life. Without joining the resistance, art collective or blogging community you have less to talk about, less to keep your brain going. Don't let the bastards win!

The other thing is this blog. Why do people blog anyway (or more interesting why would you read them... don't get me wrong, I read em too). For me I'm just interested in what people think about and what they talk about. In case you haven't realised i love finding out what is going on in peoples heads.

Just a quick post to show a new link... it's a strangely addictive musical instrument or possibly a game... who bloody knows!

Tuesday

It's now Tuesday morning. The whole not smoking thing was blown out of the water over the weekend. I would like to blame the beer or the friends that came to visit but really it was me. The clock has been reset and there was no smoking on Monday or this morning.

There was no blogging over the weekend. I'm torn between wanting to pour out my soul (read 'open sewer of a mind') but there are a few friends who would be able (if they wanted to) to find out about the blog. Why is it I don't want my friends to know some of my deeper thoughts? Is it the trivial bullshit that will come out or are there some really good reasons not to tell. There are three people that I could tell anything to. Everyone else gets the edited version of reality.

Speaking of reality.... It's always a little annoying when reality comes crashing into the pleasant fantasy that you construct in your mind. My fantasy involves the intense belief that I have a very real chance of becoming a writer, quitting my job and wearing berets in coffee shops. The unfortunate side to this tale is I write a few pages (although so far I have two projects that reached 10 000 words) before I started throwing in monsters and hot sex scenes - which then becomes intensely silly and indicates it's time to move to a new project.

Friday on my mind

Time for Friday beers. It's not a bad life really.... sit down with a beer and watch the pretty girls walk by... i can think of worse fates.

Nothing profound just an empty head.

just a quicky

If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend Post a secret

I find it brings my life into perspective a bit... It also makes me wonder what secrets are lurking inside the people around me.

There are some strange things inside everybody's heads. Noone is exactly as they seem.... it's a bit exciting really.

just keep putting one foot in front of the other...

Today I feel great. Day two of no (well.... little) smoking and already I'm feeling better. I've started to do my "43 things" things list. Meditation and gym are the first two cabs off the rank. The stuff you are suppose to do in a "healthy, normal" life seems really easy. It's the fun and excitement that seems harder to catch.

The trouble is I don't want to lose the good stuff that I've got going for a pipe dream..... Is it fear, sanity or cash flow that stops me from chucking it all in and following my wilder dreams?

There are many hooks into my brain that I intend to remove one by one until everything just flows (if that is possible).

Either way i'm starting with the small stuff and working my way up. As static as things seem now, change is always in the air. I just don't want to trap myslef into a life I don't want to lead, even if that life is comfortable, safe, secure. I know that I am the one doing the trapping... it's not anyone else that limits what I do.

Just making some plans and starting to carry them out has removed some of the cobwebs from my mind. Give me a few weeks and I'm gonna start to rebuild the big stuff in my life.

So why am I here?

Every time I try and sit down to write I find my self banging on about all the little details of my life. Thoughts have a way of echoing around in my head if they are not released. This blog is about release those thoughts in a harmless way without boring my friends. At the moment I'm at work and the day is streatching out before me. Really I should be getting down to some serious stuff and completing the tasks that have been assigned to me but today i just can't.

I'm looking for a change in my life. I realised I wan't alone in this when I came across the 43 things site. Everybody wants to do more stuff with their lives. The bit I have trouble with is selecting from the countless millions of things, the few things that I could focus on. Of couse as soon as I decide on something I change my mind a few minutes later......

The beginning

I wanted somewhere to rant where it would do no harm and this seems to be the place. If you are not a fan of self absorbed ramblings then this is not the place for you.