The view of the quad...

They all stream by on ways to class or food or to get the hell out. Minds full from spending their time wasting away in seats listening to boring drones spit out information from a book or from what they've heard. Fine looking ones tend to sit and think about times when they were homecoming queens or the most sought after object of affection. The ones who didn't have such luck or skill or beauty sit and hate on the ones who have it. Some sit in silence, aside for the cans on their ears, blaring whatever music of choice, most often whatever is spewed from clear channel or some other popular music of the day. Some read, some read a magazine about who's the hottest of the hot at this moment. Some frantically finish homework before class, some surf the web and hit Facebook for the latest of whats happening in their friends' lives. All of the cacophony drowns out the silent screams of people who aspire to more but are held captive in the system around them.

A lil bit of fun!

Wedding Reception Bingo

Try this out the next time you're at a wedding, grab any of these items, lay them out in a 5x5 square and leave the middle for the free space, which can be one of the following only:

Chicken Dance, Bridesmaid cries during toast, Conga Line

Now, the rest of your squares can be any of the above four that you didn't use for your free space. Which will make things interesting, also, you can use any of the following in any layout on the rest of your board.

-Kids dance to inappropriate song (i.e: I Kissed A Girl) 5 Bonus points if your kid specifically sings it.
-Pregnant friends of bride
-Pregnant bridesmaid
-Someones water breaks
-Beans are on the menu
-Potato salad is served
-Open keg
-Groomsman tries to dance to heavy metal
-Someone tries the John Travolta a la Saturday Night Fever.
-A drunk relative gropes a young girl
-Someone in a short skirt tries to do a cartwheel
-Best man cries during toast
-Bride looks completely disinterested by 7pm.
-Groom gets cake in face
-Bride gets cake in face
-Someone falls on the dance floor. 3 bonus points if they have a beer in hand
-Baby crying
-Bride tears dress
-

bonus section: The following can be used in any space on the board, and get an instant 1-5 bonus points for the occurence. Point values are after the item in parentheses.

Songs section:
-Green Day - Time of your Life (who the fuck plays this at a wedding?) (5)
-Bless The Broken Road (2)
-My Last Name (4)
-I Knew The Bride (1)
-Hotel California (3)
-Chicken Fried (2)
-That Kanye West song where he steals from Daft Punk, that ear rape! (5)
-Old Time Rock n Roll (1)
-From This Moment (1)
-Amazed (1)
-Seether - Rise Above This (seriously?! Who the fuck plays suicide songs at a wedding?!) (4)
-State college Fight Song (5)
-Cha Cha Slide (1)
-Get This Party Started (3)
-Love Shack (2)
-Macarena (4)

Rules of play: Mark off squares as the events come up on your board. (Duh!) Can be played like normal bingo, or for higher stakes, X, squares, or blackout bingo. First person to complete their line bingo gets 5 bonus points, no other version gets this aside from normal bingo. Second person gets 3, third gets 1. The play continues until five players have bingo. Then each person who has bingo counts EVERY occurence of bonus points that are crossed out on their card. The person with the most bonus points on their card wins in every version played.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of whatever the fuck passes for happiness anymore...

So I think, and think, and think.

The more I think, the more I realize that this country has gone to hell, and the problems that are put on this country's youth (because we are the future! and we have to pay the debts of our fathers...) are astoundingly growing larger every damn day!

So what can we do? Make the suicide rate at an alarming high? All that will solve is the population rate. Not to say the population isn't high. Can we say fuck the adults who want to put all of their shit on us? Sure, but what the fuck is that going to solve? Can we get into the system and change it from the inside out? Sure, but we can't have any jaded motherfuckers in there. They'll fuck it up even worse!

We really need to
See this through
We never wanted
To be abused
We'll never give up
It's no use
If we're fucked up
You're to blame.

--Blink-182 "Anthem Part Two"

If we can't fix the world, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
If we can't save ourselves, we're just a mind on a shelf.
If we can't change the world, we should just give up.
If we give up, we solve nothing.
If we live like we never have before, nothing can go wrong.
If we live like we own ourselves, everything can be ours.
If we let chaos reign, we will only destroy our solvency.
If we rule with an iron hand, we will alienate those we try to change.
If we don't change ourselves, we will surely die under false pretenses.
If we die in vain, life was not worth the work.

This is our world, you just live in it.
This is our time, you just relive it.
This is our mind, you can't understand it.
This is our life, fuck you for trying to change it.

If you can't stand, get a ladder.
If you can't be, be something else.
If you can't run, walk with a friend who cares.

If this world is what you make it, we're fucked from the start. But we can change that.

"Be the change you want to see in the world." --Mahatma Ghandi.

Drugs in this country.

Here's a thought, why do we always have to have a war on drugs?

Drugs used to be legal, marijuana could be smoked openly, and some cops used to smoke it with you. Just to be on the level with you. And now, all the things that used to be ok, are fuckin illegal.

Another thought, why would you buy a tax stamp for the drugs you sell. It's admitting something illegal.

A thought on my friends...

This one comes in two parts, the part italicized comes from the myspace page I have. The rest is normal.

The more I sit around, and explore life, explore the countryside that surrounds me, explore who I am. The more I wish my friends could hang so I could tell them things that I'm thinking. Instead of via text, blog or email.

I miss interpersonal connections. It seems that as of late all I get for discourse is between my wife or my daughter and myself. Or whoever is in earshot at work. Not like I want to be close all the time to my friends. Smother them if you will. I just want to talk, someone to show whats on my mind. Or someone to at least sound something to, get an idea, bounce a thought across the mists and see what happens with it.

Is it wrong, to want that connection with someone other than those I'm connected to via blood? Is it wrong to desire to be with someone who can bounce feelings back and forth to you? Is it wrong to have feelings and not be able to get an unbiased look at them?

It gives one pause to look at their life, look at all the good things that have happened over the time, and realize that the majority of your friends were not there to see it. I enjoy things with my wife and child, but that, like working all the time, makes one dull. I crave new experiences, new things to try, see, and do. When the good things happen in my life, it seems as if no one is around to see it. When bad things happen, everyone gets to know.

Often times I wonder why I have the friends I do. Why they came to me, why they chose to be friends. And why, when shit got thick, did they either stay or go? Things like this baffle me, and keep me up some nights. But not this one. For now, I'm off to bed.

The Eternal Struggle

Life is always about two sides. Good and bad, Heaven and hell, Page and Plant...

The struggle for me is light and dark. I've always been embroiled in conflict, in anger, in sorrow. But I've also had joy, love, and blessings man can't comprehend. I feel so weird sometimes that I fight amongst myself even on the greatest day.

Example for ya. Thursday this last week (5/15) I was at the park with my wife, enjoying subs from the local place that we love. In the cemetery, on what was the most beautiful day of the year so far. Looking over the pond. When across the street on the outside of the cemetery, their was a guy getting taken down by the cops. It was a wild time! But I still enjoyed it.

Even in a good time in my life, there is conflict. But I try to walk the line between the light and the dark. Even though at times its difficult, when something goes bad in my life, I tend to focus more on the dark than the light, but when things are going good, I tend not to think about the dark, and focus on the light. The light is great, many good things have happened when I focus on the light in my life. And thats all that life is about, finding balance, or balancing in favor of the positive, the things that move life forward.

Between the Worlds

I sit in a world of madness looking for sanity.

I long for it, in a world of wars, inflation, recession, foreclosures, disease, disaster, death.

I go through the day looking for a way to deal with the madness. I try to become myself, but the more I do, the more people around me seem to think I need to be like them to fit in. I look for the sanity, in my work, my play, my "me" time. But I'm lacking it, I don't know where to find it...

So, on the weekends when I get myself alone. I sit down, I strap in, I turn on, and just let the world fall aside for a few hours. And get lost in the feeling of the stream of sanity into my head. I wait the entire week, just for a small taste of a life where I'm not judged on what, who, why or if I am. Where nothing matters but beat, rhyme, prose and rhythm. All I care about when I'm in the world between the left and the right, is just being.

Just enjoying what comes into my ears.

Just loving myself, and being me. And in that moment, I feel it. I am god in that moment.