October 29, 2013

Decided finally on the name of my band.... it's a nickname I was given by a woman in San Diego around 1996 when I was playing guitar under a tree, so the name is "Shade Tree Picker"

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The last year has been one of the most satisfying years of my life. Creatively, I released my album with family and friends contributing to the artwork it's been a real joy. Career wise, I've been able to do so much due to the flexibility and support of my boss. I adopted Luna kitty just before the holidays last year so she could start her season off in a loving home, and she never ceases to give back 100-fold. Life is truly lived beyond ones comfort zone, and it just keeps getting better. So much gratitude and love, I wish nothing but the same for everyone.

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The ghosts of cats ride sockships through wormholes to the other side.

October 22, 2013

The Carrie remake captures perhaps more so than the original what it means to be bullied in today's world... the original is an amazing movie, but I never felt the bullying in that movie, probably due to the times. Today's technology has really made bullying tougher on kids. Even in my day, if I was bullied I could escape it by going home. Today with the internet, it follows you everywhere, 24/7, it's much more stressful I imagine, which means in some ways kids have to be more resilient today... 

Every generation has it's strengths and weaknesses, but just because one generation doesn't share yours' strengths, doesn't make them weak, it means we have something to teach each other, and thus it goes ever onward into the future... 

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Your eyelashes are so long I'd swear you're trying to use your face as a wifi hotspot. Maybe someday eyelashes will double as network antenna, and the side effect will be blindness and we'll see everything through internal chip cameras completely regulated and controlled by the government, and what then... what then?

October 21, 2013

IMDB's page for Paranormal Activity 5 (2014) says "The plot is unknown at this time." Ya, and hookers flip a coin between arts and crafts and getting it on.

October 20, 2013

Fact and truth are both relative, but truth is how one addresses one's own path, fact is how one addresses a nation's path. It's all about using the right tool for the job.

October 16, 2013

Sometimes Neptune wakes up in the middle of a sleep with a disconcerted look on his face, sees me there looking at him with love, and he feels assured and goes back to sleep... sometimes Luna cries out in her sleep, she has since she was little... and I give her a touch and she relaxes... Jupi reaches out to me and holds onto my arm... a little kid asks his father, his mom to stay with him until he falls asleep... so ya, I don't have kids of my own, but I do have kids of my own. Adopted children are children, whether they're animals or humans... we all look for assurance, for security, for love... the language we all speak, and a parent is fluent, because we listen with our heartbeats.

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Looked around my room tonight, and the walls were covered in an infestation of baby flying things... like tiny skeeters, like 5 on every wall, kinda freaky at first, but then I calmed down, captured them in a tall glass candle holder and released them out the window. It's amazing how fear sneaks in especially where mortality is concerned and our fight or flight kicks in, but if we truly practice compassion for all creatures, we can take a deep breath, and override the reaction with a compassionate, intelligent response that serves us all.

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Anything can be judged soley on its faults since perfection is impossible... but happiness comes from working together to find a way forward, not in dismantling everything for its imperfections.

October 15, 2013

I think people would get along so much better if we stopped declaring our perception as facts and others as opinions.

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I often dream of a world where realizing the potential of two people working together, we learn how to work together in the thousands, millions, the billions... what storehouse of hidden human potential would we uncover then?

October 14, 2013

Truth is not the mastery of conformity, but the naked path of the self. Wisdom is understanding that truth is inherently empty, and that there is nothing to defend, because there are no fixed truths that can be offended. Listen, not for anything in particular, but whatever you hear, it is the door that closes behind the senses, but there is always the keyhole, through which is seen the unseen, unseeable, perhaps it is death, perhaps it is pre-birth, perhaps it is eternity, perhaps it is something terrible, perhaps it is salvation... with each thought comes the vibration of emotion, the attachment, the fear, the desire, the suffering, the endless cycle... Sometimes I like to sit in silence and just apprehend the sense data, silence does not require absence of sound. Stillness does not require absence of movement...

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The only thing we can control are our responses to others. Reactions are the lower road, responses reveal possibility. Seek to improve yourself not others, through kindness and acceptance this takes care of itself.

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This morning I felt a little depressed, like I was on a listless road, then I looked into my empty coffee mug and there at the bottom, stuck with tiny feet on the sticky surface was a very small insect. I could sense no fear, but sort of an inquisitive pondering of the circumstance in which it found itself, it's quandary... I dropped a little rope ladder in the form of my pointer finger and it climbed on. I let him off at the first outdoor stop and as it got its bearings, I realized I was no longer depressed, I was too full of love to feel empty.

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They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it is subjective, but if one can see it, so can another, and another, and another... finding someone who shares your eye, while granting new perspective, this is what humanity is about... imagine if all beings fit into the same eye, sharing a unique perspective with the same shared clarity and beauty... what could we see then? What would a perfect circle of shared reality be then? Would it be God? Would there be a 100th Monkey Effect in which all consciousness is raised to some new vibration? When you share a moment with one and feel that blessing, imagine it multiplied by 7 billion... then you may understand some small aspect of human potential.

October 13, 2013

Some people never understand how precious life is, they avoid feeling loss, but they also avoid feeling what depths of love are possible, in the journey of a single breath, to a single lifetime, each step is unique, beautiful, and marked with the signature of the creator...

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I think Lady Gaga needs to stop taking fashion advice from Hellraiser cenobites.

October 11, 2013

Things that should not have human names: ANYONE OR ANYTHING THAT IS NOT A HUMAN BEING.

1. Drugs: Molly, what's up with that? No thanks, that's just creepy.
2. Pets: We indoctrinate them enough don't you think?
3. Hurricanes: If the religious right want to give credit to God for all good, and blame the Devil for all bad, then hurricanes should not have human names, it's undeserved credit.

Can you think of other things that undeservedly have been given human names?

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Best friends is knowing there's one joke so bad you can only tell it to one person.

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It's not what you look at, but how you look at it.

October 9, 2013

People know their opinion before they know the facts, and when the facts run contrary to our opinions, we must humble ourselves to the evidence, the facts, and the science, or we are fools sheltered by our insecurities, in the cave of our fears, entertained by shadows on the wall, but unable to understand even what they're telling us, or what lighted path illuminated by the fire they are hinting at...

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Perhaps God is merely the attachment to higher forms, and the Devil is attachment to lower forms...

October 8, 2013

I love the Facebook "Poke" Suggestions page. When you "poke" someone it actually says "Poke Successful" as if you actually accomplished something. It makes me laugh how stupid that is.

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A friend of mine owns a coffee shop in the middle of a park in Boston called Sip Coffee, and the gimmick is it's made of glass. A glass hut in the middle of a park... ya, that's gonna end well. Frisbees, out of control roller blader, skateboard, baseball, football... I see glass explosions everywhere, like a homicidal fourth of july...

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Short run today, 2.67miles.

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All things are aspects of the psyche, in dreams and in waking, all we see or seem are mere reflections of our unconscious fears, desires and intentions.

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Lets discuss Bible verse today, because this 6-8 section in Genesis is a trip and a half and open to much interpretation... I'm curious what you think it means.

“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”

So I'm picturing like a dam to separate the physical waters from the spiritual waters, subconscious vs conscious mind, the seen and the unseen, interesting stuff to ponder...

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It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia explains Old vs New Testament rather well.

"This isn't about fun. It's about fearing God, okay, I'm trying to convert you guys. You should (believe in God), because if you don't, God will make a flood, or a famine, okay, he will destroy you with tornadoes and earthquakes, and AIDS. Where do you think AIDS came from? Uh, hello? Gods gift to the gay."

"Mac, I think you're a little confused there. I mean, yea, sure, bad things do happen, but what about sunsets? French kisses? The smell of rain? That's why I believe in God. Not because of the things he takes away from us, but because of the things he gives to us."

October 7, 2013

Blutooth headsets should be approached the same as picking your nose. It's fine to in the privacy of your home, but in public you just look like you're not really paying attention to what's around you.

October 6, 2013

Religions all scrambling to make sense of things, creating little doodle paths through eternity, what a fucking joke. It's all a hoax, no one knows shit, just find your own way my friend, live, love, laugh, it ain't very long so be kind to one another, and anything that gets in the way needs a good bulldozing, anything that separates, be gone with it, anything that constricts the way, blast it open... I say the way is expanding, not defining, be yourself, let it all slide of your back, light a candle what do you see in the heat? Everything's a reflection of what's in your mind... no one knows shit, don't let anyone tell you there's this way meant for you, there's these rules and things to do, you ain't confused, you're just you... show 'em, they can't see it, living in blindness they can't even conceive it. Seeds, and stems and flowers of truth, What gets you through, what gets you through, doesn't matter who, it's up to you.

The problem with many orthodox religions isn't just that they think suppressing women is a viable method of controlling men's desires, I prefer self mastery... no, the main problem in my opinion is that they judge everyone else who lives outside their increasingly narrow view of the cosmos, and then get offended when you call them on it.

All ways are narrow. The way is no way. There is nothing wrong with tradition and culture, but don't let it narrow your vision of the other viable paths up God's infinite mountain.

October 5, 2013

Those who don't want to do something will always find an excuse, and those who do want to do something will do the same.

October 4, 2013

Reading literature makes people more sensitive to other human beings...

Perhaps even more sensitive to all forms of life.

I know a lot of people who watch a movie, then they watch another movie, etc... ad nauseum. They never really give themselves time to digest and consider deeply what they've watched,to process it, and incorporate their experiences into their life or worldview, and I think every experience, whether outside, or inside watching a movie or reading a book gives us a unique opportunity to delve into oneself a little bit... but it takes cultivating a desire to know oneself.
That ancient Greek aphorism... know thyself. To thine own self be true, the wasted life is the unexamined one, etc...

I find reading creates a far more relaxed brain activity response than movies or TV though, TV is too much distraction and movies are too much escapism, reading is a bit more honest isn't it? We are tuning into ourselves more deeply. more honestly when we read than perhaps any other medium of entertainment that is not physical, hands on, like dancing, or music, or even a sport, or hiking, etc... which puts you directly in front of the mirror. Destroys it if you will.

Some more official thoughts on the subject:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/i-know-how-youre-feeling-i-read-chekhov/?hp&_r=0

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I must be the only person that thought the finale of Dexter was perfect, because Dexter ending up in a self-enforced exile, to protect those who love him, to me was perfect, and poetic. Deb dying was what finally made him accept this truth.

And Dexter there in the end, alone, puts him there in our mind, so that we are there with him, it makes us look at ourselves, and that part of ourselves that must take responsibility for whatever is going on in our own lives... and to hopefully make better choices.

I think the ending was quite beautiful and important because it makes the character live on in our minds.

I think the only thing I might have a problem with is Debra dying. That was done for Dexter's benefit, but I don't think it was right to do to the character. She should have survived the gunshot, come back to the force and lived a happy life without Dexter. That could have worked, and she deserved it, especially after not just how much she's been through, but that scene in the car with Dexter when she truly sees through him and tries to end it all.

It's hard to consider buying the series knowing what ending they give her, it's just too depressing.

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October 3, 2013

Some books have great covers, some movies have great posters... it means very little. A cat has two names, CS Lewis once wrote. The name we give them, and the name only they know.

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October 1, 2013

Grails are never obtained, only pursued.