Random Thoughts~(Part Two)

More Things I would have posted on facebook back in the day...

Actually some of these things I did post on facebook, but generally I don't bother. I don't like facebook half as much now as I used to. Each change makes it less interesting to me...In any case here are some random thoughts that I hope might inspire some thought, or a smile, or maybe, dare I hope it? a LOL?

Those who remember the past are also doomed to repeat it.

People are now traveling to exotic places so they can look at their phones there, as opposed to looking at their phones in their everyday normal lives. I can see a travel commercial now…beautiful white sand beach, gently lapping waves, crystal clear water, palm trees, softly swinging hammock…rich soft male voice-over comes on, “Imagine looking at your phone here…”.

“It’s like no one around here thinks I’m a nut…you know? It’s like they don’t even know me.”

Band Names:

The Lame Excuses

The Excuses

The Notes From The Doctor

The Wavers/The Waivers

The Ambi-guities

The Sacred Clowns

The Considerations

The Judgments

The Butane Regulators

The Buzzards

The See-Saws

The Saw-Sees

The Jungle Jims

The Willies

The Vapors

The Ghost Peppers

The California Rolls

The Dumb Founded

The Lambs To Slaughter

The Turkey Legs

I think New Agers always need some kind of fear factor to focus on. Nostradamus, Y2K, "Chem Trails", toxins, UFO’s, government mind control, whatever...there always has to be some external reason or justification for their anxiety. As soon as one is debunked, or another deadline passes, they just come up with another one.

A good sign that you are doing something for love is when there’s no money, fame, status or power in it, and you do it anyway.

You can build a castle or a fortress to keep your parents out, but it’s no use…they’re already inside. I find it easier to accept that basic fact of life and make the best of it.

The safest truest things I can say come from my own direct experience...like I'm a tree rooted in the ground. When I go past that, I feel like I'm going out on a limb...and the farther out I go, the shakier I feel.

I think great martial arts teachers produce students that are the same in that they all adhere to the core principles, but different in that they all express those principles according to their natures. Teachers who demand exact replicas are bullies, insecure, or greedy. This is one thing I don’t like about so much of the T'ai-Chi world right now. Lock-step, exact copy form competitions and such. The form teaches the principles, but once taken in, the form must then express how YOU live those principles...At least that's how I see it.

I wouldn't judge a book by its cover but I would get a general sense of it...that can be elaborated on or contradicted with further exposure. The key to me with everything is: Keep looking and consider every conclusion a work in progress.

I forget about 60% of my songs as I go...I'm so grateful for recording technology.

I know you're supposed to produce an album and then "get behind it". You’re supposed to go out and sell it. But I do the opposite. I put my albums behind me and move on to the next one. I know this is not the best way to make money or fans but this is what my art is and what I have to do. I am my muse's bitch.

Creatively and personally, several years back, I replaced a benign dictatorship with a more parliamentary form of self government. Currently a left-leaning libertarian coalition is in power, but every minister gets at least a song or two.

There is no substitute for intelligent, constructive criticism.

Self-doubt is inevitable. It’s only a problem if you stop working because of it. I doubt myself all the time…but while I’m working, not instead of working.

Good gigs, bad gigs, they both come and go. The main thing to me is being true to myself and doing my work. Everything else is incidental and pales in comparison. If I was obsessed with fame and fortune I would probably be rich and famous. But I'm obsessed with working, so I work. I also happen to love my work so I'm happy. Maybe the key to happiness is to be obsessed with things that make you happy. Too bad most of our obsessions are not under our control. I'm just lucky.

Yes, science overturns itself and its previous conclusions, but even if those previous conclusions contained errors or were flat out wrong, that doesn’t mean they weren’t useful and valuable in their time. Poor tools can still do necessary work.

Whenever I devise an experiment, I never really know all the inputs, so I never really know if my conclusions are accurate or how much so. I have to leave room for doubt and not close that door marked “Fact”. Once I turn any supposition into a fact, I cage it and it starts dying to me. After a while I can’t even see it. If I want to keep any idea truly alive, I have to leave a little room for the possibility that I am wrong. Doing this helps bring life back into my experience. Things stay alive and do not become dead objects.

My identity was stolen by my ego sometime around the time I was 2...It's been charging things in my name ever since.

Every mighty tree that you sit under enjoying its shade was once a fragile little sapling that could have been destroyed a million times but somehow wasn't. Same with all of us. We were fragile little babies that could have been destroyed a million times but somehow weren't. I know when your number's up, your number's up, but I do think our moms (both our literal moms and Mother Nature too) had a lot to do with our survival. So let's drink a toast to both and count our other blessings too.

In the near future everyone on Earth will be in a band.

I have now more or less set up my life so that I sleep during the hours of the day that I find the least interesting and when my energy is at its lowest: approximately 5-9am and 3-7pm, and work during the hours that I'm the most productive: approximately 10am-2pm and 11pm-5am and play the rest of the time. Subject to variation of course, but this has more or less become my daily routine. And it only took me 54 years to figure out!

There are always dangerous things around us, there always have been and always will be...And we all have to die of something. Not to ignore the dangers, many of them are real...But I'm more interested in living a good life than a long one. I want to focus on living a life I feel good about, one dedicated to core principles larger than myself that I sincerely believe in, one that, in spite of all the shit that goes down in this world leaves me feeling glad to be alive. That's where I put most of my attention. Whether it contributes to my health and longevity or not, it's much more productive than worrying, and it's just how I want to live. I never know which day might be my last, and time is ticking away. If I get hit by a bus I want it to be while walking with my wife, or to practice, or to a gig, or on some other such adventure.