The five o five : Friday, November 18, 2007

The Way You Do The Things You Do

<sub>[3]

Watching: Temptations "The way you do the things you do"</sub>

Birds build nests. Beavers build dams. Bees construct hives. Groundhogs dig holes. Mary sews quilts. Tammy paints portraits. Joe works on cars.

Why do we human beings fill our short days with lots and lots of often meaningless yet fulfilling activity? We wake up (some of us) as early as 5am to do some project or task that really has no bearing or effect on our livelihood. We are dedicated. We are committed. We are serious about what we do even if it is just some silly random early morning blog project [what s the five o five]. It is our world and our contribution to the world. We love, cherish and protect it as though in its absence we would wilt away. Why is it so important.

B U S Y
"
Salmon swim up stream. Bears hibernate in the winter. Caterpillars spin cocoons. Spiders weave webs. Why don't animals have our issues? Could you imagine the Paris Hilton of pigeons acting the way her human counterpart does? Can you see her lying around all day being chaffered on the hood of some limo while being feed gourmet worms and warm toasted Quiznos buns? Can you imagine her living this über plush (bird) life and then on one tragic evening she suddenly just get eaten by a cat? What if animals had television? Do you think that all of her pigeon compadrés would be watching the tragic event and mourning her passing?
"

Most would say that humans do scurry around doing a whole lot o' nothing. If you pay any attention to the celebrity scene that's exactly what seems to be going on with our society. The media enjoys showing us the way these privileged individuals live. Their daily activity includes shopping, skiing, golfing, diving, hang gliding, skating, sun bathing, tanning, adopting random African babies for poor African countries [Rueters Angelina Jolie] and sleeping. They get to lie around and do absolutely nothing at all and this is the life that a lot of people are aiming for. So essentially we (the ones at the bottom) work harder so we can be like them (the ones on top). It almost doesn't make any sense. Why would you do more work so you don't have to do any work?

I'm the type of person that does a lot myself. I may have told you this before but my day is full of just as much meaningless activity as the next guy. I wake up at 5am to do this blog (of course) for about an hour.At 6:30 am I pull out my dance mat and do an 30 minutes to an hour of DDR [slashdot ddr workout] each morning followed by 200 crunches and 50 push ups [revolutionhealth.com]. I take a shower, get dressed then check my daughter out to see if she is ready for school. I drop her off at school and then I go to my job [SETT Myspace] at 8am (which is an hour earlier than the time I'm supposed to be there. I check my email; look over my bank accounts; review my budget [mint.com]; and then I set my daily to do list carrying over unfinished items from the previous day [tadalist.com]. Some mornings, in the midst of doing all these other things, I write poetry while I'm driving (in my head). During the course of my day (while at work), I answer phones, type up memos and other various documents. I assist (or I do it myself) in the planing of the after school rehearsals. I build websites [www.asublimecreation.com]. I design tee shirts [cafepress store]. I write blogs [sublime space blog]. I do this, that and the other. All of the above happens before its even 12 noon. After that my day just becomes more random but by the day's end, after putting my daughter to bed and kissing my girlfriend goodnight, I lay my head on my pillow ready to do it all again. But why?

Why do we waste our time waking up everyday doing little menial things and performing the smallest task that most don't even notice. When I started this blog it was just myself writing it and my mother reading it. How lovely right? No offense to my mom [the five-o-5] whom I love to death and respect with all my heart but why aren't us lowly servants of and the world getting more attention. How come when Britney Spears cuts off her hair [You Tube Britney Spears] there is a news crew and several International News Papers there to capture the act LIVE? Was it really that serious? Was it that significant an act? On top of that why do a lot of us get so tied up in keeping up with all of that garbage that we schedule our own lives around the T.V. programming that will keep us up [E Online Kim Kardasian] to date on the latest celebrity garbage [VH1.com I Love New York 2] that spill out of the privileged filth pile [e online]? Is it because we like to see other people who have done so well do bad so we can eventually take their spot? Most of us claim that the fame won't change us but who knows what 10 million dollars might make you do?

B U S Y
"
So why do we do the things we do? I say its for our own sanity. Most animals live very short lives. So short in fact that we even count their years differently. They don't often get a chance to rest and relax. We do. But we, still driven by animal urges, try to make our lives a bit more meaningful then a dogs life. We try to leave something of ourselves (other than our debt and our carcass) to the rest of humanity.
"

Salmon swim up stream. Bears hibernate in the winter. Caterpillars spin cocoons. Spiders weave webs. Why don't animals have our issues? Could you imagine the Paris Hilton of pigeons acting the way her human counterpart does? Can you see her lying around all day being chaffered on the hood of some limo while being feed gourmet worms and warm toasted Quiznos buns [quiznos.com]? Can you imagine her living this über plush (bird) life and then on one tragic evening she suddenly just get eaten by a cat? What if animals had television? Do you think that all of her pigeon compadrés would be watching the tragic event and mourning her passing? Do you think they would fly down to the scene and rally to bring the terrible cat bastard to justice? Can you see this cat being tried and convicted of the murder of Pigeon Hilton and then summarily sentenced to 90 years in the kennel with no chance of free time and no access to a scratching post? Can you imagine the news paper headline, "CAT GETS CANNED FOR KILLING PARIS THE PIGEON." Have I taken this too far? Well think about it.

A lot of what we do (or think we do) of any level of importance has little to no value at all (in the present anyway). I wrote about it before [Cruise Control] but this is a little different. This has nothing to do with our motivation because most of the time this is the stuff that we do while we are supposed to be doing the other stuff that we do. The sewing, the drawing, the building, the programming. Most of this takes us away from the real stuff we are supposed to be doing. The working, the planning, the cleaning, the responsibility. The only difference between us and animals is that animals have no choice. They are obligated to their nature. If an animal slacks off (such as miss Paris Pigeon) well those are the ones you see lying on the side of the road dead (I guess that is the same way it goes for humans too).

So why do we do the things we do [Yahoo! Music Temptations lyrics]? I say its for our own sanity. Most animals live very short lives. So short in fact that we even count their years differently. They don't often get a chance to rest and relax. We do. But we, still driven by animal urges, try to make our lives a bit more meaningful then a dogs life. We try to leave something of ourselves (other than our debt and our carcass) to the rest of humanity. We want people to remember us. We want people to love us even though we are no longer around. We still love Ghandi [WikipWdia Ghandi]. We still love Martin Luther King [Wikipedia MLK]. We still love Tupac and Elvis [Wikipedia Tupac] [Wikipedia Elvis]. We still love them and talk about them like they are still here. We still love Mother Theresa [Wikipedia Mother Theresa]. We still love Princess Diana [Wikipedia Princess Diana]. We still love JFK and his little brother RFK [Wikipedia Kennedy's ]. We love them because they meant something to us. Their little bits of nothings affect all us. What they did in their spare time was something of noteworthiness. No one remembers Paris Pigeon at all.

Are you doing something that will be remember beyond your mortal life? Will the world love you too? Can you handle it? Why do you do the things you do? You tell me.

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The five o five : Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Upgrade

_[1]

“You're so special.”

“You're the best student I ever had.”

“I've never loved anyone else like I love you.”

“This is the slickest blog I have ever read!”

Any of this sound familiar? Who doesn't like to be complimented? Who doesn't like to be poured over in sweet nothings and wet sticky afterthoughts. Who among us soaks every ounce of it in with a massive portion of raspberry blushes and big white toothy cheese? Exactly. Most of us are sincere pleasure whores, it's just human nature. It's the way that we are born. It takes no energy to receive satisfaction at all. As an infant if we are hungry, we cry. If we are wet and uncomfortable, we cry. If we are tired and cranky, we cry. If we have nothing else to do, we cry. If we are crying and tired of hearing our own annoying, shrill, infant shrieking then (you guessed it), we cry loud. From that very early time most of us learn the definition of instant gratification [dictionary.com gratification]. The moment we begin bawling over food, comfort, sleep deprivation and no reason at all, most us learn that our loving and caring parents (if they were within an earshot) would soon come to rescue us from our dilemmas. So if we are all raised poised and ready to receive satisfaction and service then how do we learn to return the favor. Well if you think about it, really we don't.

P O L I T I C A L L Y C O R R E C T
"
What if Jim Carey were walking through the mall and suddenly a bowling ball in the sports shop rolls off of the top shelf onto Mr. Carey soft (possibly graying) pink head? What if the impact opened a massive bleeding gash down to his pale gray skull and he was now on the floor convulsing and shaking similar to how he did in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective? Would you laugh? Would you help him? Would you step over Mr. Carey to get to the Tennis Rackets that he is blocking?
"

In our modern world the majority of the population is just utterly selfish and unquestionably rude. (If you disagree with that statement make sure you read the entire post before shooting me with flaming comments and unfounded slurs. Thank you.) Just look at what we think is entertainment. We revel in other's pain and misfortune. It could almost be called comparative comedy because we watch and secretly think to ourselves, “I'm glad that's not me”. Jim Carey [imdb Jim Carey] specialized in that particular brand of self-immolation [dictionary.com self-immolation]. He jumps around around in a buffoonish manner bonking himself on the head with bowling balls and ferrets and such and people just laugh and laugh as though it was the funniest thing in the world. That's how we really feel. Now what if the same thing were to occur in real life? What if Jim Carey were walking through the mall and suddenly a bowling ball in the sports shop rolls off of the top shelf onto Mr. Carey soft (possibly graying) pink head? What if the impact opened a massive bleeding gash down to his pale gray skull and he was now on the floor convulsing and shaking similar to how he did in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective [you tube Ace Ventura]? Would you laugh? Would you help him? Would you step over Mr. Carey to get to the Tennis Rackets that he is blocking? Most of us would think twice because, being who is we wouldn't want to be the victim of some television prank show. But we love it when its somebody else; We hate it when its us.

We are just simply selfish, but there is nothing wrong with that. If we didn't have a sense of self preservation then we would have been dead a long time ago. All of our food and energy would be spent to the point of death on others if we weren't a bit selfish. Selfish just means to serves one's self [dictionary.com selfish]. If we don't do this then, like I said, we would just die. So how do we combat that sense of instinctual self preservation in order to serve others? We don't, we just mask and label it. It's called: Being PC.

Those in the upper echelons [dictionary.com echelon] of service are masters of being PC. They know how to serve and when to serve. They know the secret to making you feel that you are the only one that matters. They know ways to avoid offending or defending even the smallest gnat in the room. They have tact, swagger, style, charisma, whatever you call it (Its all a lie!). PC is short for Politically Correct [wikipedia politically correct]. It is a term that describes how people interact with one another without offending anyone else regardless of affiliation, race, ethnicity, etcetera. It basically means smiling when you don't feel like it. Laughing when you don't want to. Being nice to someone that you honestly don't like. Holding in a whole bunch of garbage that may eventually spontaneously combust [dictionary.com spontaneous combustion]. We do it for our own selfish reason's though.

P O L I T I C A L L Y C O R R E C T
"
Back in the cave man days you would club the mess out of someone if they tried to steal your Tyrannosaurus steak. You would do it because its what you have to do in order to eat. These days (but only because the law prohibits violence against others) we would dialog with the accused steak thief and [kindly] ask them to apologize for their gross misbehavior.
"

Yeah, the people pleaser's are the Kings and Queens of communication. They are the Presidents and CEO's of major corporations. They are the Diplomats and Prime Minister's of various countries. They represent the whole of a people so we don't have to show who we really are. We appreciate them for their efforts. They put forward all of our good qualities and none of our bad. The world thinks we're spotless. But in reality being a people pleaser is honestly a selfish endeavor. Why do we waste our time? Back in the cave man days you would club the mess out of someone if they tried to steal your Tyrannosaurus steak [wikipedia tyrannosaurus]. You would do it because its what you have to do in order to eat. These days (but only because the law prohibits violence against others) we would dialog with the accused steak thief and ask them to apologize for their gross misbehavior.

So what are the people pleaser's out to prove? A lot. Being a people pleaser makes you more likable. It reminds people of the time when they were shrieking infants and their loving parents. People pleaser's know that almost every single human being has forgotten the "real reason" you parent's would burst into the room. They bank on the fact that you don't recall that your parents were themselves....selfish. How can this be? When is the last time your crying baby (or any crying baby) woke you up from your soft comfortable slumber? Did you feel a sudden rush of irritation or enlightenment? Did you delight in your 1am journey to diaper doo doo land or did you dread every step? Crying babies get swift service because they are just a nuisance [dictionary.com nuisance][simplythebest.net crying baby.mp3] to everyone (but crying adults are even worse). So PC people attack with preemptive precision. You make people happy so they don't even have a chance to whine, moan or even complain. You bring back that special infantile feeling of satisfaction and you make it appear as though you had to invest no effort at all. People love you for your sacrifice. Almost as much as they love laughing at Jim Carey getting hit by a bus [you tube Jim Carey]. They want to be happy and PC know how to make every on happy at the same time. They know in the end it all pays off. They receive the most plush fringe benefits of any profession I know of. Diplomats, actors, public speakers. You always see them in their fine hotel rooms at the most plush parties. To us its just right. They earned it. They are holding in the very thing that we just find impossible to contain. They are the masters of deception but the champions of communication. You love them but don't trust them and they don't care (or should I say "we"). I am to a degree one of them too. Do you love me? Will you be here tomorrow at 5am to see what other wonderful ideas I've come up with? I'll make sure I have cookies and milk ready or do you prefer coffee? Is everything ok? Good.

“You are the best reader ever.”

“You're wonderful.”

“Great job, you made it to the end.”

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The five o five : Tuesday, November 13, 2007

May The Force Be With You

_{[2]<- What's this?}

I'm slippin' ya'll. I sincerely apologize for my absence. A lot has been going on lately and its none of that cry baby, "Wha, wha, wha, life is too hard," crap, but its just me out here taking care of some business. Of course I'm still going through some crazy adventures but that kind of stuff gives me the inspiration I need to keep going. Life is my muse (as crazy as she is)and as long as I'm alive, life will provide my best material (did I tell you I was a poet [tigga76 blog]). So today let's talk about creativity.

[[Side Note]]
Now, I'm going to be totally honest with you and let you know that I did attempt to blog yesterday and I even got as far as a draft of the post done, but in the end it was my first misfire. My brain just shut down and went blank and I was more concerned with the cosmetics of the previous posts that by the time I attempted to complete yesterday's issue it was already an hour too late. I'm a man of my word. I thought about finishing it sometime during the day but then I didn't want to break my own rules (If I finish anything beyond 6am then it can no longer be called the five o five [explaining the five o five]) so it was a total creative abortion and for that I'm sorry. I will post the remnants of it soon but just not here. I'll maybe post it on DA [tigga76 on deviantArt] or something. Just be sure to check the News and Updates post [news and updates] for the time and place. Now we return to our regularly scheduled blog post already in progress.

C R E A T I V I T Y
"
Creativity. She is an elusive mystery. She wades within our day to day activity hiding beneath our stacks of paper and our piles of bills. She plays peekaboo behind our cup of coffee and snorkels beneath our bath water. She pokes her head out from between the words in our favorite book and taunts and teases us at every given opportunity she can. She is the child that never grows up. The part of us that reminds us of who we used to be. She is the daughter of inspiration and the sister of depression. Creativity is the soul of evolution.
"

Creativity. She is an elusive mystery. She wades within our day to day activity hiding beneath our stacks of paper and our piles of bills. She plays peekaboo behind our cup of coffee and snorkels beneath our bath water. She pokes her head out from between the words in our favorite book and taunts and teases us at every given opportunity she can. She is the child that never grows up. The part of us that reminds us of who we used to be. She is the daughter of inspiration and the sister of depression. Creativity is the soul of evolution.

When I talk to people about god and stuff I always tell them (based on my observations) that human beings, so far, are the only creatures on the planet that possess, or utilize, the force known as creativity. As much as we would like to give animals the credit for emulating human behavior I honestly doubt that even a monkey could blog every morning at 5am. So we humans, the sole possessors of this creative force, have some responsibility on our hands. Creativity can not be stolen from us. No matter what has happened to any group of people on the planet, by any other group or natural event, creativity still carved its shiny emblem into the ruins of our lost civilizations.

Look at Egypt for an example [wikipedia Egyptian Mythology]. Every inch of their society was washed over in a shiny burst of human creativity and wonderment. The Egyptian people told stories about everything from where the sun [wikipedia Amun-RA] came from to where you go when you die [wikipedia Egyptian Afterlife]. To top all of that off they believed it. "Why not, I say" Perception is reality. Everything from their embalmed pharaohs all the way down to their mummified cats, Egyptians knew that they were going somewhere in the afterlife because a creative vessel such as the human form can not just die. They even were speculated to have built giant ships that would carry them across the rivers of the underworld. Crazy huh? Well, their "craziness" inspired almost all forms of modern religion [wikipedia religion] if you really think about it. They had the underworld and we have hell. See any similarities. The bottom line is those people were creative.

Some might call the Egyptians crazy as they do for almost every individual that walks the fine line between the "Real world" and the "Creative World" (and it is a fine line indeed). Creativity is nearly a state of mania if you think about it. In order to design something that has not yet materialized into solid form before us so that we may touch, taste, smell, hear or see evidence of its existence we must bend the rules of what we know to exist and use the building blocks of reality to construct the vessels of our imagination. We are the only beings on the planet that can make something that we can mentally perceive become something that we can physically interact with. I do believe however that this ability comes with great consequence.

Creativity Quotes by ~harrycantdraw on deviantART

C R E A T I V I T Y
"
Creative people don't fully accept this prison for which we live known as the real world. Creative people don't abide by the rules of the real world. If they did a few of your most prized luxury's would never have been invented.
"

Like I said before, being creative is one step away from being crazy. Creative people don't fully accept this prison for which we live known as the real world. Creative people don't abide by the rules of the real world. If they did a few of your most prized luxury's would never have been invented. Who would imagine that human beings, as awkward and heavy as we are, would be soaring through the skies faster than the birds them self? Good thing the Wright Brothers did [wikipedia Wright brothers]. Who would imagine being able to speak to someone more than a billion miles away almost instantaneously without the ruse of telekinesis or psychic phenomenon? Good thing Alexander Bell did [wikipedia Alexander Bell]. Who would have thought that we would be able to stare into a shiny black box and see live images of an entire world right outside our window from the comfort of our own home? Good thing the inventor of the television did [wikipedia Television]? All of things we take for granted born of some other person (or people's) imagination.

In most cases the inventors of our modern conveniences were labeled with the standard disclaimers for those for whom we wish not to understand (crazy, lunatic, insane, strange, out of their mind, head in the clouds, etc, etc). If it weren't for them (and all of the other's like them) however we would not be able to advance or go beyond the perceived limitations of the world around us.

Who would have thought a man would be able to walk on the moon. Throughout our human existence we have imagined it. We even named the moon "moon" from a character that exists within our fiction [wikipedia moon]. Today where're talking about going to Mars [BBC Mars]. Imaginations affords us boundless opportunities. We are no longer confined behind the bars of gravity, light nor perception. We can go above, beyond, within and without in almost a fraction of a second. I still sometimes wonder if this is the real world. Are we somehow (being as creative as we are) projecting our desires onto the dark gray carcass of reality? Have we simply grown so manically creative that we have reshaped the perception(s) of an entire planet? Are we all "crazies" running around free while the normal ones are being locked away? There would probably be no one to tell.

Creativity is the ship on which I sail the turbulent seas of reality. I'm headed off to discover new territory, are you coming with me? I hope there is enough wind in my sail? I hope that we don't run aground nor encounter any fierce hurricanes. I can only imagine that this is going to be an adventure of a lifetime. I can only imagine.

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