Good Morning, Good Vibrations, and Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts:

- I love the morning. The earlier the better. In the early morning is when I'm most in touch with the massive potential of every day. Everyday is a whole new opportunity; I know that's a cliche, but do you know what has two thumbs and doesn't give a damn? *points thumbs at self* this guy. Seriously, I love the morning, even though I've not yet mastered being a "morning person".

- Good Vibrations is an amazing song, Wouldn't It Be Nice is a great song. Bottom line: the Beach Boy's Pet Sounds is one of the best albums of all time. Go get it and listen to it if you never have. Not to be too Kate Hudson in Almost Famous on you all, but truly it will make your life better - even if just for the 40 minutes you spend listening to it. See also: Abbey Road.

- Other music I'm enjoying a lot right now: Dr. John's Greatest Hits, a few old Johnny Rivers songs, "King of the Road" and "Little Green Apples" by Roger Miller, "Grapevine Fires" by Death Cab for Cutie, a "House of the Rising Sun" cover by Tom Rigney, Roy Buchanan's 20th Century Masters Album, a bunch of Sam Cooke stuff, Random Jenny Lewis/Rilo Kiley stuff, the few good songs off of Eminem's "Relapse", etc.

- So, I've read the term "lurking" in reference to the blog world a fair number of times now, and my thought is: what the hell? What a silly phrase. So, I am to understand that in the blog world there are only two ways to go: 1) comment on peoples blogs and become an active participant in following their blog, or 2) "Lurking" - in the shadows presumably. Sitting back and nefariously only reading and not commenting. I just think the negative connotation associated with the word "Lurk" does not at all jive with the experience of simply reading a blog for pleasure, whether that be motivation, inspiration, simple entertainment, knowledge, etc. I do have a suggestion for an alternative title for the blogging term of reading people's blogs without commenting...ready? "Reading"! So one would "Read" a blog or "Read" AND "Comment" on a blog. I know, it's pretty outlandish, but just a thought.

- And while thinking of blogging, let me say that I still can't get behind the term "Blog" or "Blogging", and while we're at it, I'm not down with Twittering or "Tweeting" either. I sometimes think that a thinktank got together in the late 90's and mapped out the stupidest, most inane things to engage pop-culture in over the next 10-20 years, and the results they managed were substantial. "Hey man, want to listen to my new Panic! at the Disco album? No, oh well, do you like my new kicks? No, oh, well, did you read my Blog last night, or peep the Vlog I posted? Ah, no again, hmmm, well, did you see the 30 Tweets I wrote on my Twitter page...you know the link, I put it on Facebook? Anyway, did you see my Tweets, I was talking about how I was getting ready for bed, then in bed, then reading a book, then got up to go to the bathroom, then went back to reading? It was awesome. No!? Oh. Okay."

I love playing the piano. The majority of my playing life I've largely just made up songs and played improv stuff, etc. This year though I've been working on learning a ton of mainstream songs and it's been pretty fun. Some of my favorites to play so far are "Come Sail Away" by Styx, "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, "Rockin Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu" by Johnny Rivers, "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix, "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, "Zac and Sara" by Ben Folds, "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Sknyrd.

- Ruby Red Grapefruit is freaking tremendous. One of the best fruits there is. I've been eating a lot of it lately and it's wonderful. Grapefruit juice too is a glorious thing. And V8...and carrot juice. All of these things are excellent. I need a juicer. If I had the money, time, etc, I would eat nothing the rest of my life but Sushi and drink nothing but fresh squeezed fruit/vegetable juice.

This whole "changing my life entirely in almost every significant way possible including the very serious way of losing 400 pounds" thing has turned out to be um, really, incredibly hard. Anyway, the good news is that I am trying, and that's the good thing, I gave up for a while, but now I'm back. I'm eating well, exercising, doing the emotional work, starting the addiction work, doing the spiritual work. It's all I can ask of myself; that, and to better remember the next time I start to get off course to just NOT GIVE UP. Good hell.

For now, I'll just keep on keeping on.