The five o five : Thursgay, Novemeber 22, 2007

Thanks & Blessings

_{[1]<- What's This}


First of all I must say good morning, afternoon and good evening to all of you (depending on what time of the day you're reading this) and second I have to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Now, I'm not entirely geeked [urban dictionary geeked definition 3] about the fact that its actually Thanksgiving day (you know with the food, and the time off time off, and the food) but I more geeked that I really do have a lot to be thankful for this time.

H A P P Y H O L I D A Y
"
Why do people wait for certain holidays to to do certain things that they should be doing everyday?
"

I must warn you before I continue that I am typing this post from the soft pillowy comfort of my nice warm bed this morning because I wanted to soak in a few more hours of "snuggle time" [Alisha pic] before we head out holiday hoppin' [tigga definition Holiday Hoppin] and enjoying the day. SO yes, I'm laying here blogging, wearing nothing more than bed sheets and the warm glow of my computer screen and I'm enjoying myself. With that out of the way let's continue, shall we?

Thanksgiving is a special day designed to remind people that there are some things out there that they need to recognize. Things they should be thankful for. I had a conversation yesterday with someone who asked a profound yet simple question,
"Why do people wait for certain holidays to to do certain things that they should be doing everyday?"

I though about it and it really did make a bit of sense. We have Valentines day to think about the one we love yet many only use it to salvage a ruined relationship and not to strengthen a flourishing one. We have Christmas to remember the birth of Jesus however everyone in the world is not a Cristian so its now a day that we are supposed to be nice to one another and spend our hard earned cash on expensive gifts and items to prove it [Sears holiday sale ad]. Finally we have Thanksgiving [wikipedia Thanksgiving]. A day where it is said that the Indians and the Pilgrims bonded together and shared food and tools right before they stabbed them in the back [wikipedia Manifest Destiny] and marched them all [wikipedia Trail of Tears] off to their prospective and aptly named reservations (sorry for being so cynical). The point is, Thanksgiving is supposed to be the day of thanks but my friend and I were thinking why do people only take a day? Can't we be thankful everyday? I know I am. So, if you must know, I am going to tell the world what I'm thankful for, but not just because its Thanksgiving, but because I feel that you should know.

_{[The following appear in no particular order other than when I think of them.]}

1. First and foremost I'm thankful for my life. I have been through a lot and nearly been through a lot more and I now know that I come from a family of survivors. My mom had her serious car accident (that she survived) and then not too long ago her breast cancer [breast cancer awareness] (that she made it through) and if you saw her you would have no idea that she had any trauma anywhere during the entire course of her life. My brother [hi5 Boss Moe] (who I sometimes can't stand but only because I don't understand him) had a serious work accident (that he survived) and he would like to pretend that hes not thankful about but you can tell. And of course myself [myspace SublimeSpace] (Graphic Design extrodinaire) who has been through hurricanes, blizzards, bake outages, nervous breakdowns, unfair fights, racism, injustice, slavery (lineage counts for thanks), and just life itself. I'm thankful that I get to wake up each morning just to experience the ups and downs know as life. They drive me and give me purpose. Why else would I be up right now? Its 5am for god sakes. I'm thankful that I woke up on time.

2. I'm thankful for my beautiful daughter Destiney [Picasa Destiney]. Its kind of a long and complicated story but she is the reason I do so much (seriously). A lot of people claim that but I truly mean it. She is my driving force and she is gonna do great things some day, I just know it. She is an eight year old genius with the most humble, affectionate, kind spirit you will ever see. She is my angel and my "Partner in Crime". I know there will come a day where she may think that my jokes are corny and my hugs are icky but until that day I'm gonna soak in all the "daddyness" I can.

3. I'm thankful for my (wife to be) Alisha [picasa Alisha]. Sure, she's crazy. Sure, she makes me think I'm crazy. Sure, she makes me wanna jump out of the window of a moving car sometimes but that's the reason I love her. She challenges me. She makes me think of all the things that I refuse to process until the last possible moment. All the "stupid" important things that I wish I didn't have to deal with. She makes sure I at least have them on my mind. Without her I would probably be going crazy. I probably wouldn't have his blog (what reason would a single guy have to get up at 5am for other than to go to work?).

4. I'm thankful for all of the people that helped me get to where I am now. I know that line is super cliché but I truly believe that teachers, counselors, mentors, role models and others like them need a lot more credit than they receive (I'm one of them so I should know [myspace Settinstitute].

5. I'm thankful for my god given gifts and abilities and all of the tools that I have acquired in order to express my talents and skills and all of the people that surround me that appreciate my art and performance. Without them I wouldn't have the motivation or the drive to do the things I do and I know one day it will all pay off. I just know it [deviantArt tigga76].

6. Finally, I'm thankful for you. You are the reason I get up this dang on early in the morning because I checked the stats and I know people come on at 6am to see if I decided to call it quits or not yet but I'm still here. I'm definitely thankful for your support though. I really appreciate you.

H A P P Y H O L I D A Y
"
I guess the benefit to this whole "Thanksgiving" thing is that it does give you a second to reflect outside of the flurry of the "working world." Even though I have my obvious issues with it I am still thankful for the general concept and of course the fact that it is a day off.
"

Now, in real life this would be the point where we would sit down together at that log, table cloth covered, mahogany table covered in various holiday dishes (Turkey, cornbread, macaroni and cheese, greens, potato salad, corn, gravy, spaghetti, etc... [thanksgiving pic]) with our forks and plates in hand ready to smash [urban dictionary smash] but since this is only a digital diner engagement then allow me to leave you with this food for thought (clever huh?). Be thankful everyday for you never know which one will be your last.

That's all from me. I'm getting ready to do a little more "snuggling" before I have to head out in the cold to enjoy the warmth of the many family gathering I have planned for today. I guess the benefit to this whole "Thanksgiving" thing is that it does give you a second to reflect outside of the flurry of the "working world." Even though I have my obvious issues with it I am still thankful for the general concept and of course the fact that it is a day off.

Thank you all for reading this and I promise I'll see you later. In the mean time ask yourself this question, "What are you thankful for?" Comment Back.

SET UP FOR THE LET DOWN

<sub>[2]<- What's This

Watching to: Dragenet Intro</sub>

T H E L E T D O W N
"
Isn't disappointment nothing more than the unknown variable that was not even considered. Why not expect the unexpected and get it over with? People do it all the time, right? Why else would people spend valuable money and time on things like Life Insurance, Living Wills, Retirement Funds, IRAs, Playing the Lottery, CD's and so on and so forth. Why else would we even plan for something to go wrong if were not expecting something to go wrong?
"

What do you do when everything is going all right. The world is at total peace. Birds sing your introduction into the day and the wind whistles your theme song. Its just a beautiful, wonderful, delightful, exciting, vivid, colorful, cheerful, great, remarkable CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OWEHJF{ IWH#Q*RYU #Q_(*RY #Q_( Q(P

What do you do when the unexpected guest known as disappointment visits?

My fiancé and I go into this conversation a lot. She is very easily disappointed. She likes for things to go the way they are planned with no alterations of any kind (not even small one's). She likes for things to be perfect or else she goes 100% Incredible Hulk [You Tube Incredible Hulk] and just loses it. Me, I'm more laid back, relaxed and calm about that sort of thing. I'm used to let downs. They don't phase me and actually I plan them into my day. Why not? Isn't disappointment nothing more than the unknown variable that was not even considered. Why not expect the unexpected and get it over with? People do it all the time, right? Why else would people spend valuable money and time on things like Life Insurance, Living Wills, Retirement Funds, IRAs, Playing the Lottery, CD's [BoA Money Management] and so on and so forth. Why else would we even plan for something to go wrong if were not expecting something to go wrong?

Sometime I think I was just born without the "OH MY GOD WHAT AM I GONNA DO!" [OMG mp3] gene. Seriously, if I look back at the OMG moments in my life they never really phase me that much. Come on let's take a trip down memory lane. (It's ok I have Geico [Gieco.com]).

In 1992 I lived in Homestead Florida. Life was good and things were great (to a 12 year old anyway). My brother and I felt like the most privileged kids in the world. We didn't have all of the material things any kid could want but we had each other and a caring mother and a devoted step father to top it all off with. Life was great.

Now! For $200 dollars who remembers what significant event altered the peaceful suburb of Homestead Florida in June of 1992 ranking the town #4 on the list of most expensive damage to a residential area?

A. Flood
B. Tornado
C. Hurricane
D. Fire

Time's up. It was C, Hurricane.

[wikipedia Hurricane Andrew]
Nothing like a hurricane to shake things up a bit. Now as you would expect most of the adults and even the other children were running around, scrambling to pick up and secure their precious memories in safe and secure places so that the "Mean ol' Hurricane" couldn't get to them and rip them to shreds and smash them to bits. Me, I was intrigued by how low the birds flew and how animals could sense the coming of danger before even the news reports. I was a stone standing in the rapids of a raging river, anchored by serenity and secured by ignorance and faith. I wasn't stupid. I was aware of the damage that a hurricane, with its might wind speed and invisible sharp claws, could do. I knew that a hurricane was as serious as life and death but the way I was even before 12 (the way my though process worked) always questioned, "What's life and death without the former?"

T H E L E T D O W N
"
When it was all over depressed slumps of middle class citizens flocked to the street to collect the remains of their once manicured lives. Boats, Corvettes, Jet Skis and other expensive possessions were dissorientedly laying about like the room of a three year old after playtime. Andrew had thrown a temper tantrum alright, a 26 million dollar one.
"

Later on that evening, after most of the scrambling had settled, my family, including my moms friends and their niece and nephew, all huddled together within a small boarded up house awaiting the arrival of the monster named Andrew. We weren't at our 2 story Town House (Sea Grapes Village) but at my mother's friend house because it was only one story and it was further away from the city (Miami) where they thought it was gonna hit to begin with. We all sat curled into tiny little balls of shivering human flesh (all except for me that is). I was sleepy. I was up all day watching birds fly and dogs run with their tails tucked between their legs towards high ground. I had spent all of my energies on the fascinations of nature and I was ready to turn in hurricane or not.

My mom told me to go into one of the bed rooms and lay on the bed (which was nothing more than an old un-sheeted mattress but it was gonna have to do. I layed my head on the soft (spring filled) mattress for what seemed to be only a single second when my mother bursts into the room screaming,

"JERMAINE GET UP! THE ROOM IS FLOODING!"

I wobbled to my feet and sleepily shuffle (half way being dragged by my arm) towards the crowded hallway of human shivering when I slowly begin to realize that Andrew had arrived. He was finally here. The monster. The Maniac. The fire breathing beast sent from the east. The news spoke of him as though he were some ferocious monster with shards of glass for teeth and semi trucks for fists. The news talked about him like he could reach into each home and consciously feel around, with his wind made fingers, for the most ripe, delectable human treats that any monster would enjoy.

I stared him directly in the eye (literally). He was nothing. He was just wind. He had no claws, teeth, fangs, scales and he barely even howled. He was a big softy on the inside, Nothing more than nature's temper tantrum.

When it was all over depressed slumps of middle class citizens flocked to the street to collect the remains of their once manicured lives. Boats, Corvettes, Jet Skis and other expensive possessions were dissorientedly laying about like the room of a three year old after playtime. Andrew had thrown a temper tantrum alright, a 26 million dollar one.

Most people would have let something like that derail the rest of their life. Most people would have looked at surviving a hurricane as a traumatic life experience that forever alters the course of their actions. Most people would allow a simple natural event to alter their perception on reality and afterwards develop some complex to cope with the fact that (excuse the expression) Shit Happens.

We all know that things can go wrong. We had a great life down in Florida. I was attending one of the best Elementary schools in the city and I was on my way to middle school. Life was good. After the hurricane we (my brother and I) had to move up to North Dakota to live with my aunt on an air force base which is another story for another time.

Crap! I've run out of time. Here's what I'm gonna do. I would like to complete this post and get to the point (trust me I'm close) but in order to do so I have to bend my own rules just a bit. So tomorrow won't be as random but I'll try my best not to mentally plot out its course either during the day.

Leave me comments and let me know how you think I'm doing so far with the five o five. Give me suggestions how I can improve and if you think it all totally sucks then let me know that too. Whatever.

I appreciate the feedback, the support, and the interest. Until tomorrow.

Are you disappointed?

The five o five: Monday, November 19, 2007

I Am Whatever You Say I Am

<sub>[3]<- What's This

Waiting For: I AM LEGEND</sub>

I don't believe in limits. I don't believe in these invisible barriers that the hard edged warden known as reality tries to enforce down unto us. I don't believe in "I can't" because there is nothing that exists in this universe that I am unable to learn. I don't believe in anything that limits my god given limitless potential. I still hold fast to the shiny silver wordage on the stickers my kindergarten teacher stuck to the top of my worksheets. "You are super!" "You can do anything!" "You are special!"

YES I AM. YES I CAN [Nutty Professor "Yes I can"]

How did I get this way. Most of the world holds selfishly to their shortcomings even going as far as often times using them as interpersonal identification. Most of the time we even describe people by what we perceive as their limitation as though we are verbally sizing them up.

*Phone conversation

"Look at Becky the fat girl.

You know the crazy chick that sits next to the guy with glasses, James.

Yeah, James. You know James, the sleepy guy with the crazy hair and the slight limp.

Yeah, Becky is mad because he's marrying my sister next weekend.

You know my sister!

Stacy, the one with the lob sided breast.

Yeah! That one."

We define ourselves and each other with the limits that have defined the world around us but can we break free of this prison known as reality and go beyond our limits?

Maybe I just watched a bit too much television as a child but I don't recall ever believing in limits. Seriously. Even hard defined and nature reinforced laws didn't hold me back. In my eyes everything I saw on television was fair game. Time travel, unassisted flight, super human speed, inhuman strength, telekinesis, teleportation, levitation, [term for shooting electricity from my hands] I tried them all. Observing adults thought that I was playing but I was for real.

I think I tried flying more than once. I keep having this recurring dream that I am actually soaring on a cushion of air and nothing more. Everything is so real. I can feel the wind resistance. I can feel the vibration of the turbulent sky and gravity both trying to reclaim their escaped prisoner. In those moments I am free from it all. Limits, liabilities, fault. There are nothing but endless possibilities and then.... I wake up.

I've never grown out of thinking that there is nothing that I can't do. I honestly believe that if I focus hard enough the rules of reality will be become momentarily unchained and I will be able to escape to a haven outside of the depressed race of humanity. I will be able to soar amongst the birds and run along the cheetahs. I will be able to swim with the dolphins and lurk with the slithering snakes. I will be more than the limits I was born within. The container known as human, further defined by race, age, gender, height, weight, income bracket, intelligence level, vehicle I drive, color I wear most often, woman I'm dating and/or married to, women I've slept with, house I live in, occupation, shoe size, running speed, criminal history, offspring, siblings, mother, father, cousins, penis! WHY WHY WHY!

Why does any of it matter? Beyond being descriptive introductions to define those we don't know we have taken it a step further to actually design the limits for which we hold ourselves back. We are plagued with a limited mind. A mind that, if allowed to, creates our prison for us. Throughout history men have proven theory's and ideas wrong but even modern science continues to tell us what things are possible and what things aren't.

A perfect example of the contradiction that is the modern world is religion. I honestly believe that religion has its place within our daily lives and modern world but not in its outdated 10th century representation. No matter what religion you practice it was probably founded way back before television, internet, toasters, telephones and even polyester fiber. (I'm gong to be careful with the following statements as not to offend any one persons' religion but please feel free to defend and/or ask any follow up questions you like before making multiple clicks on the inappropriate flag above, Thank you :) With a practice being formed that long ago you would expect a few major revisions along the way just to keep up with the times. Think about medicine. What if the practice of medicine was still in the form it was today as when it was first created. Would you really support and stand for blood letting and routine lobotomy's for mental patients [wikipedia Medicine history]? What about science? How far would we now be if those in Christopher Columbus's day won the debate over whether the world was round or flat? Would our airplanes exist? How about our satellites and space ships? So what about religion?

I'm not saying that there needs to be a reform on the general morals and principals that modern religion contains (which are actually beneficial to society) but I'm hard pressed on the limits that religion sets on humanity itself. Those who read The Bible (also known as The Good Book, The Gospel, MY Right Arm, etc...) talk about Jesus as though he was there favorite cousin. Jesus could do it all. Jesus was the living legend of the biblical times. He could exceed the gravitational pull of the earth's rotation (he could fly). He could adjust his metabolic buoyancy so that he could stroll across the turbulent surface of an unsteady substance (he could walk on water). He could change the material properties of hydrogen dioxide to those of an alcoholic beverage created from the fermentation of grapes (he could turn water into wine). Jesus was the first super hero [Who will save us?] and to top it all off, he was only a man.

Now bible folk talk about Jesus this and Jesus that and they even hold on to the belief that he is one day gonna return but do they really believe the things they say or is saying those things so habitual that it just drips off of the edges of the regular conversational, defensive sentence structure. What I mean is in watching the news or reading the newspaper you see stories almost everyday of miraculous proportion. A man in New York jumped onto the tracks of an oncoming subway train to save someone [news story]. Or in California a group of firemen survived the intolerable blaze to extinguish an out of control flame [news story]. Or on the Simpson's Maggie saved Homer from drowning [You Tube Maggie Saves Homer]. Now, as much as Jesus believers believe in Jesus they are not willing o believe that any of these instances were Jesus manifested in human form. They will argue with you to the death that the Jesus they know has long black hair and fair skin and that he will come without fault or flaw and float on a cloud. The Jesus they talk about kind of resembles Fabio in description anyway.

But a man like Jesus, given exclusive lenience from the laws of reality by god, is one to be admired. We should all try to exceed our limits. Jesus should be an example not solely because of his sacrifice (which is mostly what religion wants to make of him, a glorified martyr) but his conviction to exceed the limits of not just reality but infinity. He believed that mortal death was not the end. He knew that your actions, ideas and emotions transcend your humanness into eternity. His name is spoken more than even our living relatives and we know they are just a phone call away. We should use his example or whomever example that can teach us a lesson in going beyond. People like Lance Armstrong [Lance Armstrong] surviving cancer and winning the Tour De France. People like Martin Luther King [Martin Luther King] who stood against what everyone else accepted as a reality and sought to change it. People like my own mother who doctors told her she would never walk again and she did [the five-o-5]. People who push the limits. Those are the ones I look up too.

So next time crazy eyed Tommy comes up to you with his yellow, gapped teeth tell him that you don't believe in limits and then ask him, "What would Jesus do," and fly out of the room contained within a bubble of confidence and content. At least that's what I would do.