Shift

As I approach 40, things are starting to get to me more than they did 5 or 10 or 20 years ago. Even though the poetic, dark self of my college years seemed to thrive on "introspection" and inner world stuff, the jar of my late 30's is wondering what happened to the last 38 years and what kind of stamp my life is going to leave on this world. I used to think my common sense would get me through and lead me to greatness, as it had when I was a kid. Problem is, I stayed a kid. And that kid's common sense, while fine and dandy at the time is of little use as an adult.

Where to begin? Where to go? Defining goals has always been futile for me. As if the simple act of stating a goal was enough and I could throw the effort in the toilet. Not so. No one respects someone who makes empty promises, who doesn't follow through, who just doesn't engage in life the way others seem to (and make it look so easy). It's not a problem anymore of trying to figure out what is wrong. That's obvious to me anyways. Enough looking in, with help, has pretty much firmly established how I arrived at the particular location I am on the map of this existence. No secret there. Time to get over that hump, however.

A few universal truths that have become known to me, though at some level, I've always known these things. No one really respects someone who doesn't take care of themselves. Yes, maybe there are fat people that can buy friends, respect or influence. But the energy they have to output to get where they are leaves them with impossible lives or even dead.
Another truth, nothing will happen without effort. Nothing will happen. Things used to just happen for me. Then they started happening TO me. I like this quote: "don't let life happen to you, happen to life" (Wayne Dyer?). It's obvious to me that I've let life happen to me for too long. At some point in my life, I let life whack me like a Jim Thome bat whacks the ball. I never fought back, never took a stand, went with the flow, and here I am years later contemplating the 2nd half of my life. I love my family. I wouldn't trade it for the world. But there's more to life, more I could bring to their lives by bringing more to my life. I want to be a role model of what to be, not an example of what to avoid.

Wet Shaving

Well folks, I got myself into an awful lot of trouble recently. Well, as much trouble as my income allows, which isn't really that much. I "re-discovered" the art of Wet Shaving. Now, MIND YOU.. I've been Wet Shaving ever since college, over 15 years to be exact. I tried an electric years ago, never really was impressed with the results. I've gone through most of the products you'd find at your local drugstore.. Barbasol shave cream, bic disposable razors, Gillette Foamy, even the Edge Gel ("goo in a can").. but my main "fall-back" was always a puck of Williams shaving soap, in a mug, using a shaving brush, and my Gillette Atra razor (the one on the right in the picture). I believe I've owned the Atra for about 15 years, it's served me well.. a VERY well built piece of shaving equipment. Over the years Gillette has also sent me "freebies" - both a Mach 3 (on the left) and a Fusion (which I only used until the one cartridge they include wore out, to buy 4 is like, $15 bucks.. ouch). Mach 3 blades are almost as bad.. $8 or so for a 4-pack. I can get 10 cartriges for my Atra at Wally Mart for under $3 usually. NICE. (and they're decent Personna blades too). So, Atra is what I normally use. Sometimes the Mach 3, but if I use that too much, my face gets bumpy and irritated. Maybe 3 blades is too much.. some people think 2 blades is too much.. for them, the more traditional wet shaver, is the world of the "DE" - or Double Edge razor.

Most guys who are REALLY into the whole traditional wet shaving hobby use one of these (or 4 or 10 as the case may be). Maybe someday for me.. but for various reasons, I'm sticking with the Atra.

However, I'm using a relatively cheap brush (probably the cheapest one on the market), the Burma Boar Hair brush. More expensive brushes are made from Badger Hair. Who the hell decided that they wanted to steal some hairs from a badger and use them to rub soap all over their face!??!

Also, with this hobby comes various "Aquisition Disorders" - Shaving Cream, Shaving Soap, Aftershave, Colognes, and Razors, from DE's to Injectors to Straights. Go here to find out more, or to advance your addiction even further..

http://www.badgerandblade.com/

So far, I've got a very mild addiction, the only things I've picked up in addition to my regular stock are as follows (left to right in the picture above):

Aqua Veva Musk

Trader Joe's Mango Shave Cream

Clubman Luxury Shave Cream

Nivea Sensitive Aftershave Lotion (awesome stuff)

Van Der Hagen Shave Soap (in the yellow mug)

(already part of my rotation were the American Crew and Neutrogina Aftershave lotions).

There's also some Clubman Hair Gel and Talc.. great stuff if you ask me. Also, I recently received a couple pucks of Col. Conks Shave soap, and a generous "sampler" of products from the English company Floris (amazing shaving cream if you ask me.. but it's about $30 a tube..wow).

But really, if you want to see what some serious shaving hobbyists are up to, check out the Badger and Blade site. Really, it will open your eyes, and maybe your wallet..

Frames (not the HTML kind)

So lately I've become obsessed with a certain type of eyeglass frames. If you watch HEROES or CRIMINAL MINDS, you have seen them. They have a plastic browline across the top, usually black or brown, and wire over the bottom of the lenses. This style has had various names over the years.. Browline, Clubman, G-Man, "Malcolm X" (he wore them, look up his pictures), and Ronsir (which is a model currently made by the Shuron company). The character Mr. Bennett wears them on HEROES (his character has the nickname "HRG" for "Horn-rimmed Glasses - actually, Horn-rims are plastic all-around, but that's a different discussion). As far as I can tell, the style he wears most resemble a model called "Clubman" made by Ray-ban and Art-craft. The plastic across the top of each lens is a little thinner than on other models. Now, the character Agent Reid on CRIMINAL MINDS apprently wears the Shuron Ronsir model. From what I've read, those are his actual glasses. Here's an interesting article that talks about these characters and their glasses:

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2006/11/specs_appeal_he.html

There are various other models that are very similar, mostly vintage as there aren't too many frames of this type in production right now. Though this could change. A few years ago, the all-black Emo frame was all the rage, now it's trickled down to the mainstream, hell my uncle has a pair of thick black frames (a modern version) and he's about as Emo as Motley Crue. I suspect, that the Clubman/Ronsir style will make its way to mainstream in about another year or so, especially if Heroes takes off. I've been jonesing for a pair for a few years now, ever since I saw James Hetfield of Metallica sporting a semi-rimless pair of frames in the movie SOME KIND OF MONSTER. I can't get semi-rimless because my lenses are too think, but I think the Clubman/Ronsir style will work. But I'm afraid they won't work on my face because they're round, and well, my face is kind of round. The last time I had round fames, well, they didn't look all that great. I've discovered that designer Paul Smith has a pair of combination frames (PS-508) with a more squared look, but I haven't had a chance to try them on either:

http://www.oliverpeoples.com/collections/ps_ss2007_optical/collection.html

I think they may be the perfect pair for me, but damn, there's a part of me that really wants those classic HRG glasses! I also liked their look on Michael Douglas in the movie FALLING DOWN, and I believe John Ritter sported a pair in SLING BLADE. Oh, and Matt Damon wore a pair in THE GOOD SHEPHERD.

My prediction and suggestion, if you want to be ahead of the trend, grab a pair now while people will still think they're nerdy and weird.. you'll certainly get attention.

and stand up for your rights.. as a consumer!

diet-type-thing

This year I'm working on losing weight, among other things. So far this year I've lost 30 lbs. using the Weight Watchers plan, some exercize and swimming. I have a goal of 190 by January 1st, 2008. That means I have to lose 45 more pounds.

I've started to think about my eating and I've come to the conclusing that I'm a raging food addict. I've known this for years. Gee you think that all those times back in my 20's that I bought half-gallons of ice-cream and ate it right out of the container would be a clue? Or ordering pizzas for myself and finishing the whole thing in an evening? Yea, food addict.

So, what dose a food addict need to do to go into "rehab" ?

First, I need to really look at what I'm eating and why. Many, if not most, of the times I eat do not involve "hunger" - how do we define hunger? Well, that's interesting. Many of us don't really know what it's like to be hungry because we have instant access to food 24 hours a day. And those of us with food addictions certainly take advantage of those times, don't we? Well, for the past week I've been eating a hearty breakfast of oatmeal and 2 eggs. I've then not eaten anything all morning (rare for me, I'm usually snacking by 10am) and paid real attention to how I'm feeling. Am I hungry or bored? Am I using food as an excuse to "take a break" from work? Does this food give me nutrition or is it am I using it as a drug? As someone with a little bit of a past in using certain substances, you'd think I'd know a little bit more about being a food "user" - however, food is in a class all its own. You can't "give up" food now can you?

So, I've found that on my best day this week I made it just past 11am without starting to feel hungry, and even then it was just that annoying hungry, not something that was all that bad. I think as a food addict one of the things I did was worry about being hungry. Can you imagine? How freaking irrational is that. Someone who's 100 lbs overweight worrying about being hungry. If I was eating at a restaurant or picking up fast food, I'd actually worry about NOT getting enough to eat! Did I say "raging" food addict?

Anyway, I'm on the first steps of trying to kick this. In a way, it's like quitting smoking (which I did after 11 years), and in many ways it's different. As I just said, food isn't something you can just give up. But, I can give up food when I'm not hungry. That's the thing I'm working on. Hunger isn't so bad really. When I'm hungry I know exactly where my last meal has gone and I know exactly what is going in next. Kind of a nice feeling after just constantly feeding my face all day (and night, sometimes).

(note, a lot of inspiration taken from the book CONQUER YOUR FOOD ADDICTION by Caryl Ehrlich ====> http://www.conquerfood.com/ )

Been a while

Damn, I almost forgot I made this thing. I thought I would make a post so I could have a spot to put a picture of our new vehicle, a 2006 Scion xB. That way I can link it to other posts and stuff. Many of the BBS systems don't like you insert a picture into your post unless it's a link. So now I have to figure out how to put a picture of "The Box" here.

Second Edition

Getting rid of the Albatross.. back when I read Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Marriner in high school, I thought it was pretty tripped out. Then my favorite band Iron Maiden did a song based on it, so I thought that was pretty darn cool. Later I heard Public Image Ltd.'s song "Albatross" from their METAL BOX (or SECOND EDITION) album. It was interesting that both songs were quite long, but at the same time about as different as two songs could be. The Maiden is just about the maximum example of an epic British New Wave of Heavy Metal song. Iron Maiden had "Hallowed be thy Name" and "To Tame a Land" before it, Priest had "Victim of Changes" and "Beyond the Realms of Death," but "Rime" was the ulimate metal epic, at least in 1985. It had multiple sections, time changes, slow spot in the middle, a huge climax and even a coda-like reprise/conclusion. It was completely over-the-top as far as the literary metal epic is concerned (kind of how ..AND JUSTICE FOR ALL was a completely over the top trash album with about 5000 more notes than it needed). Not to say it wasn't good, we all loved it. PiL took a difference approach to their Rime reference in the song "Albatross" - take one deep dub bass groove and play it over and over, with jagged guitar lashes and Johnny "Rotten" Lydon's spooky voice singing "Getting rid of the albatross.. sowing seeds of discontent.." over and over for 10 minutes. Slightly morphing but staying pretty much the same. Perhaps it grew out of the jams of krautrockers Can and Faust. Along bass player Jah Wobble's healthy respect for the dub grooves of King Tubby and Lee Perry. It definately had little to do with Lydon's prior band the Sex Pistols. Quite the opposite of the complex multi-faced Iron Maiden epic. Yet both refer back to that Coleridge poem. It's just pretty wild that two things, one completely maxed out and the other minimalist to the extreme, both stem, at least in part, from something that came from almost 200 years prior.

First Draft

This is a blog about music comps politiks rage love poetry pomes pottery joy love life lawn house work mind body health peace cars money thoughtforms city drink food fear running away coming back movies art philosphie psychologie minimalism maximalism ismskisms ladders stairs and being lost in the deep end.