friday afternoon update! 24: the “making this up as we go along” edition

idea generator

i got some feedback this week that got me to thinking about my influence, and to look back at some things i’ve shared freely in the past. huh. kinda shocking that the answer to a current quandary was staring me in the face as i looked back upon some of my previous pearls of wisdom. and then that got me to thinking about this new thing i want someone to make: the random email generator!

sick of all those ridiculous emails you get that you barely have the time to delete? why not install the random email generator and insure that you will receive mail that is exactly what you need precisely when you need it?

how does it work? don’t ask me! all i know is that whenever i am really stuck on something, when the hamsters in my head start spinning their wheels really really fast,  i hear my phone make that tell-tale email sound and when i open up my mailbox there it is! a paragraph or two written by someone who knows me inside out, someone i can’t argue with, someone who always knows exactly what to say and the perfect time to say it: me!

this is a free idea: just let me know when it’s ready to download!

castles made of sand

references to jimi hendrix are always winners in my book, and this week especially i have been coming to this realization that all of our castles are made of sand…and thank universe for that!

i remember checking out the wacko section of a local bookstore back in the day, college years, when a fellow who obviously considered himself a guru of some sort walked up to me and offered the profundity that it was the temporality of things that brought us the pain in our lives. even then, as shy, and as loathe to disagree with strangers as i was, i knew that as much as there might be some truth to that, there was also truth in the opposite statement: it is the temporality of things that relieves all the pain in our lives!

of course, one could just as easily say that it is the attempt to control the circumstances of our lives, what bill harris calls the “gigantic web of cause and effect over which we have minimal control,” that is the real culprit for our pain. then again, one could pretty easily say just about anything! and if twitter has its way eventually that too shall come to pass!

bored of the recession

so it’s settled: all things pass; and that is my answer for anyone having the temerity to utter the phrase “in these difficult times” within earshot of me over the coming weeks. seriously…it’s time for a new cliche people! and i’ve got just the phrase to shoot out into the meme-os-fear: i’m so bored with this recession!

• hey joe, wanna go out for sushi tonight?
• i don’t know foxy lady, it’s hard for me to justify the expense in these difficult times
• shut your mouth, joe! i’m so bored with this recession. let’s have some fun!

• hey little miss strange, wanna catch robyn hitchcock and the venus 3 at the paradise monday night?
• i don’t know little wing, these difficult times have really got me down. i’m so broke i can’t afford the tix, and i doubt i’d have a good time even if i could.
• the hell with that, miss strange. aren’t you bored with this recession yet? i know i am. come on! i’ll treat, and you just show up and have a good time!

 i’m gonna get my kicks

• the futures uncertain and the end is always near!

of course whenever i think of jim (the guy who got me out of underwear!) i think of his immortal phrase:

• i’m gonna get my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames!

not that i endorse that philosophy; at least not 24 hours a day! and still…there’s something about jim that makes me want to make a list right here and now!

• where’s your will to be weird? 
• this is the strangest life I’ve ever known.
• maybe you should kill your father. 
• i am the lizard king. i can do anything. 
• you’re all a bunch of fuckin’ slaves! 

making this up as we go along

speaking of james, my buddy james bartley, who rocks hard and sometimes even calls me dude (how very english of him!) wrote an excellent post this week about the fear of biggifying, which reminds me that i once referred to myself as jim morrison without the balls! and it occurs to me that all this talk about holding ourselves back, giving in to our fears, and yada yada yada…well i think it’s missing a certain point, which is that we are doing what we are doing!  and focusing on what we are not doing is just delusion, a focus on what is not real!

so at the risk of extreme recursiveness, perhaps what is needed today is a big fat celebration of all the things we do which seem to be stalling tactics related to something we aren’t doing, and which are really our glorrrrrrrrrrrrious selves doing what we do best: making this up as we go along!

and so i hereby request that the next time i get on a roll about what i’m not doing please zap me a link to this post so i can realize what a prat i am and then revel is how fucking awesome i am at revealing how glorrrrrrrrrrrrius it is to be such a ridiculously recursive prat making this all up as i go along! (and since I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together…)

1034 words later…

have a glorrrrrrrrrrrrious weekend! revel in your true existence, the things you actually do! enjoy the weather whatever it is! and don’t be a stranger! unless of course that is what you are doing!