Find what works and do it

Psychiatrists vs. Bartenders

Ever since I was a child, I’ve always had a fear of someone under my bed at night. So I went to a shrink and told him 'I’ve got problems. Every time I go to bed I think there's somebody under it. I'm scared. I think I’m going crazy.'

'Just put yourself in my hands for one year,' said the shrink. 'Come talk to me three times a week and we should be able to get rid of those fears.'

'How much do you charge?'

'Eighty dollars per visit,' replied the doctor.

'I'll sleep on it,' I said.

Six months later the doctor met me on the street. 'Why didn't you come to see me about those fears you were having?' he asked.

'Well, Eighty bucks a visit three times a week for a year is an awful lot of money! A bartender cured me for $10. I was so happy to have saved all that money that I went and bought me a new pickup!'

'Is that so!' With a bit of an attitude he said, 'and how, may I ask, did a bartender cure you?'

'He told me to cut the legs off the bed! - Ain't nobody under there now!!!'


I think I fall under the umbrella of doing things the long, hard way. I'd like to start finding the small thing that works and do just it!

Quotes

"In the end we are all sacked and it's always awful. It is an inevitable as death following life. If you are elevated there comes a day when you are demoted. Even Prime Ministers." -Alan Clark


"Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better." -Samuel Beckett


"I don't have it in me anymore. I can't even kill the bugs in my house." -Mike Tyson

Thought for the day

"A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering." -Georges Gurdjieff


Why is it that at times we will sacrifice the good things we like in life, but have such difficulty giving up our pain?

What makes us hold onto negative things?

Wouldn't it be wiser to give up all of our suffering? Or as humans do we need a certain amount of it?

Is it possible? Can we just conciously give up our suffering?

Day 2

Well... it's day 2 and I'm still all excited about directing and scriptwriting. I even went on to NYU/Tish’s website to see what they offer. Although I don’t think I’ll get in nor have the time to take classes during the day. I’ll have to find a place where I can take a night class on the specific subjects I want. It makes me wish I had known what I wanted when my parents were paying the bill and all I had to worry about was school.

I've been working on the outline for a script for the past week or so while I'm going to and from work on the subway. I’m way too picky. I had this idea now for a couple of years… but it really wasn’t at all fleshed out. And now looking at it, it doesn’t have any drama in it the way it is… it’s just an idea… not a full story. So, I’m on the 11th? 12th? version of the outline. I’d rather have it right then just putting out crap.

Scriptwriting & Directing

So at my new job we get tons of magazines... tons! I bring home about 10 a night.

One that I found was on animation. I didn't realize that Comedy Central uses Flash. Yes, the program that most people use to make animations on the web is also the program that they make cartoons with.

Anyway, since I haven't had time to pick up a guitar... I've been working a bit on my second love... movies.

There was a time, sometime about 17 years old, that I made a decision to persue music over acting. Based on the facts that I had a guitar, I knew how to play a bit and it seemed easier at the time.

But since I can't play guitar on the subway... and I can write movie scripts on the subway... I have been delving into my suprisingly ample list of script ideas and writing.

When I was 17, I didn't really think about directing or music production. They were in the background and all I saw was the surface... the musician, the actor. As time has gone by I have found an equally passionate drive for directing and music production.

This animation magazine brought back memories of my love of comic books and Saturday morning cartoons. And coupled with my new web project with my cousin, this is a perfect fit.

Who knows... maybe I'll have a movie out before I ever finish an album.

5:00 a.m.

That’s the time our daughter got up this morning. I’m beat. I’m struggling to stay awake and get some work done. It’s been endless paperwork since after the wedding. Not from the wedding… leftovers from Genny being born last year. Hospital bills that haven’t been resolved. And other medical bills from the past year. Insurance paperwork to go through now that I’m not at my previous job. Dealing with COBRA and how my former company still doesn’t know what they’re doing and messed up my paperwork. Still trying to get the freelance work off my desk. I’m appreciative that today, my client doesn’t have any changes. We’re still waiting on other people involve in the project, so I get a day off. But the end is in sight. I’ve been working dilligently on getting these things off my plate and I’m seeing a major dent in the pile of urgent need paperwork. But now I’m off to an early bed.

Habits

How easy it is to fall out of good habits. I've been blogging every day, except Sunday because I worked and then came home and worked, and by the time it was late I was exhausted. Yesterday’s blog doesn’t count ‘cause I wrote it during the day and just copied and pasted at night. And it’s a chore now to get myself going again. (And here we go, back again…) kind of like getting back to writing music… still hasn’t happened. But I don’t expect it to for another week or so while I clean my plate of insurance paperwork, medical bills and freelance graphics. They seem endless. I try to work on them at every break I get… but who am I fooling… I take too many other breaks during the day to surf. :p

At what point...

do we go from babies that will cry until we get what we want... to confused adults that backdown, withdraw and surpress ourselves at the vague guess of a hint of disagreement, challenge or resistance?