Creating Our Own Happiness.

I knew Wayne Coyne must be a great guy from the first time I listened to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Heed his words. He speaks the truth.

Live for the challenge.

This is a simple one. There is no point to a life devoid of challenge no matter what anyone says. I pity the fool who thinks the ideal situation is a constant state of carefree enjoyment and pleasure. That is why Shaw and other great thinkers have always painted Hell as a place of eternal indulgence:

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.
-George Bernard Shaw

The best way to truly live is to constantly challenge and outgrow yourself. Expect frustration, failure, discomfort, unhappiness, doubt and pain. True men are made of blood, sweat and tears. However, know that nothing can replace the fulfillment of reaping the rewards of your own hard work. Live for that fulfillment and don't look for easy fixes. Live for the challenge. Why go for the fool's gold when the real gold is in your grasp?

Saint John.

If there's anything holy in this world, it's John Coltrane.

"I would like to bring to people something like happiness. I would like to discover a method so that if I want it to rain, it will start right away to rain. If one of my friends is ill, I'd like to play a certain song and he will be cured; when he'd be broke, I'd bring out a different song and immediately he'd receive all the money he needed."

So it goes.

"I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did'."

- Kurt Vonnegut

Brigitte Bardot.

"Ο κινηματογράφος δεν κάνει πια τους ανθρώπους να ονειρεύονται. Αλλά ούτε και οι ηθοποιoί το κάνουν. Σήμερα απλώς καταγράφουν πρόχειρα την καθημερινότητα με ηθοποιούς που δεν έχουν καθόλου προσωπικότητα. Είναι εντελώς συνηθισμένοι, αδιάφοροι. Πού έχει πάει το όνειρο?"

Dare to dream.

Can a cynic be a dreamer? I believe it is possible. Cynicism should not be confused with pessimism or negativity. Cynicism is the power of accurate observation dressed in wit and delivered with humor, while pessimism is a mental filter according to which everything is interpreted negatively (and thus innacurately) dressed in self-righteousness and delivered with irritation. There is a fine line between the two, but it is a crucial one, one that many people fail to recognize.

The dreamers have always been the ones who shaped the world's destiny. The dreamer will encounter different opinions when he sets out to fulfill his vision:

The pessimist will say: "Forget about it. Impossible. Ludicrous. Too good to happen."

The optimist will say: "Yes! Magnificent idea! You will succeed, I'm sure of it!"

But the cynic will say: "Well... This sure sounds crazy and I'm not certain it's even possible. But if you're going to try, know that the road won't be an easy one. In fact, it will probably be the biggest challenge you'll face in your life, and you might fail. But don't let yourself get discouraged by that fact. As George Bernard Shaw said, "all progress depends on the unreasonable man" -the dreamer. Your vision will keep you going where others would fail if you believe in it with all your heart, and it will be worth every sweat and every sacrifice if you succeed. So assume the burden and prepare to join the ranks of those who have shaped destiny, or stay "reasonable", settle for a life of commodity and fade away into oblivion. The choice is yours, and it will be yours for as long as you are alive. Remember that dreamers are always ahead of their time, their minds are attuned to their utopia, so naturally, "reasonable" people will label them as lunatics. That is to be expected. 150 years ago ideas like the abolishment of slavery or equal rights for all humans would be laughed at and ridiculed by the "reasonable", the "rational" of the time. Yet today these are almost universally accepted ideals, thanks to the efforts of a handful of men who oiled the engines of progress and set fourth the chain of events that raised our consciousness and reshaped our society. So don't be afraid to be called irrational. Take solace in the fact that dreamers have succeeded, and dreamers will continue to succeed for they are the means by which Life eternally renews and sustains itself."

Both the optimist and the pessimist are blind to the truth. The cynic faces it head on with a balanced view, not too optimistic and risk getting disappointed quickly, not too pessimistic and risk betraying his soul. For their souls is what optimists and pessimists will continue to ignore so long as they refuse to remove the blindfolds from their eyes and demand that Life present them with everything it's got.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. All progress, therefore, depends upon the unreasonable man.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

[..]I dream things as they never were and ask, "Why not?

-George Bernard Shaw

Smoke; it's worth it.

IT'S AMAZING! No smoking on the train! What happened? Are we in Waukegan, Illinois? Europe is civilisation. You're not supposed to be gawked at or pointed at or mocked for smoking. I've always thought of starting my own airline, if I could get a bunch of investors together, called 'Air Smoke'. We'd make smoking mandatory. We'd issue the customers a little packet of cigarettes and tell them that we expect it to be done by the time we reach our destination.

- Johnny Depp

I'VE BEEN doing some sums following the recent medical assertion that every fag you smoke costs you eleven minutes of your life. Let's take somebody who is aged 100 and has smoked a modest ten a day since the age of 15. That's 310,250 cigarettes or a total of 3,412,750 minutes of lost time. In more understandable terms, that means this person would have lived an extra six and a half years if he-she hadn't ever smoked. My question is: would that be much of a bonus?

- James Whitaker

If I cannot smoke in heaven, then I shall not go.

- Mark Twain

David Lynch is a goddamn genius.

Inland Empire. One of the most profound cinematic experiences I've had in my life. Literally light years away from where films and cinema stand today.

A daily fuck you to religion will make you live longer.

What can I say? I love Hitchens.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a hero.

I love the way the audience gets up and applauds. A truly respectful woman with a very urgent and important message.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories.

Like all conspiracy theories (they are not based on actual evidence, they explain less than they demand to be explained, they invoke an all-powerful "world conspiracy" that controls everything thus implying that people are powerless and mere pawns in the grand scheme for world domination, they are mostly paranoid, delusional and superstitious to the boot) 9/11 conspiracy theories are BULLSHIT. Terrible and unexpected things happen, they can happen and will continue to happen and most of the time for reasons that are not so comfortable to accept. Such is life. Deal with it squarely, and not with a science fiction romanticism.

Quotes for the ages.

Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded.

- Antoine De-Saint Exupery

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

- George Bernard Shaw

The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation.

- George Bernard Shaw

Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.

- Nicolas de Chamfort

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

- Dale Carnegie

The real tragedy is the tragedy of the man who never in his life braces himself for his one supreme effort, who never stretches to his full capacity, never stands up to his full stature.

- Arnold Bennett

How low can you go?

Staying in the Jesus department..

FUCK David Socha

Straight from the devils mouth:

If you walk down a toy aisle, especially in America there's a lot of toys for boys and girls that glorify evil, glorify Satan and we've become so desensitized in our nation that we need to take a stand again and say, "you know what? let's do what's right" and this isn't a fundamentalist push -this is somebody just saying we want to bring good values back and morals.

Ahh, thank you so much my morally superior fellow human being! What would this putrid and degraded world ever do without you?
Seriously, these people know no limits. They probably know nothing at all. I have to believe that every thinking person reading this statement will be disgusted and appalled by the words of this man. Never mind that he looks like a deranged pedophile.

Let's dissect his statement:

"toys that glorify evil, glorify Satan"

This is just plain Christian propaganda. It implies that "evil" and "Satan" are two self-evident concepts that everyone, including kids of ages 1 to 6 have a concrete understanding of. This attempts to bully people by mentioning Satan which has an immediate emotional impact on most people who have had religious upbringing (which means a lot in the US) because Satan has been traditionally portrayed as the scariest and evilest thing imaginable.

"we've become so desensitized in our nation"

We have a major problem people, but we are a nation so we're all in this, we're all involved, we're all affected so..

"we need to take a stand again and say, "you know what? let's do what's right"

Yes, let's do what's RIGHT people! Do the RIGHT, the MORAL thing, for your CHILDREN! Buy overpriced, God-endorsing Jesus toys for your children! God forbid they play with them! No. They must LISTEN to Jesus telling them what to do over and over until THEY TOO learn what's RIGHT and GOOD and MORAL and then they can raise the next generation with the same God-fearing, GOOD CHRISTIAN ideals! Yes, raise your children to be afraid and stay away from everything WE label evil, satanist and immoral! Raise your children to love and praise OUR God and treat people who don't like EVIL IMMORAL SATAN LOVERS! Raise your children to be afraid of free inquiry, of questioning, of individuality, lest they BURN in a lake of fire for the rest of eternity! Raise them to be the next generation of good-old American consumers who will run to purchase anything we label as "what's right"!

"and this isn't a fundamentalist push"

No, not at all. He obviously believes all the crap that's coming out of his mouth, which makes him the more dangerous because he can't see past his own nose.

"this is somebody just saying we want to bring good values back and morals"

Yes, what I deem as good morals! I'm still amazed that he managed to appeal to patriotism, family values, moral values, religiosity and fear all in one sentence. Again, when someone is throwing in the big words he's trying to fuck you over. Ultimately his disgracing and patronizing allusion that people's morals are corrupted is directly disrespectful to every US citizen. But good morals don't come for free people! So, buy my toys, make me a rich asshole, condemn your child to a deprived existence, take away his joy of playing and replace it with boredom, and redeem yourself in the eyes of the Almighty.

Can't put it better than Bill:

Pat Metheny speech at Berklee.

Well, first of all, I would like to sincerely thank everyone here at Berklee for bestowing this great honor on me. It is probably the most meaningful recognition I have ever received, and I am really proud and flattered to be standing in front of you here today.

When I think back at the time that I was here at Berklee, it is always with fond memories and good feelings that make it even more special for me. Well, I have never had to give a speech before. I guess like most of you, pretty much all of my waking hours, since I was twelve or thirteen years old, have been consumed with the nuts and bolts of trying to learn about music. That vast, endless and infinite task; a subject, that for me, that has proven to be absolutely, a full-time job.

Any speeches that I have ever had to make in the past, have generally been focused on whether or not it really is a good idea to try to work that B natural into that G minor seven chord. But, I am gonna try and do my best today.

[...]

Since I've been given the honor today, and the responsibility that comes with it, I should try and use this opportunity to relate to y'all, some of the things that I've noticed to be true since my days here at Berklee. So to keep my own little Berklee tradition going here, I am going to do it sort of like I used to do my lessons. It is going to be like, "O.K. you guys, this is what I figured out so far."

In the process of putting this speech together, it has forced me to really examine a few details about what has been particularly significant for me, as an individual, in this life that I have been having as a musician. And the results of this self-examination process getting ready for this speech, were interesting to me. Because for as much as I can stand here and claim to be a successful player, with Grammy awards and winning polls and now honorary degrees and all that stuff; one very fundamental thing has not changed, and I realized that it will never change, and that is this—that the main thing in my life, even as I stand here right now, right this second, is that I really need to go home and practice.

Saying this, of course, is obvious. We all need to practice and improve, and we will all need to practice and improve. But I do think that when I was younger, there would be a day when I would sort of "get it", and that everything would be cool, and I would have arrived at that promised land of being a great musician and I would just be. And I can see now, that that is never going to happen.

The thing for me, and the good news, is I realize that for whatever benefits I've gotten from being a musician in a material sense, or in the form of recognition, the fundamental reward that I still get the most satisfaction from, is the process of what being a musician is. It is that need and desire to want to go home and practice that's the coolest thing. The part where you start with nothing, have a musical idea or vision or aspiration, and through discipline and organization and preparation, and especially inspiration, you finally end up with the capacity to do something that you didn't know you could do.

This process is an essential part of all music making activities, that we as musicians probably take for granted. But it is a skill that throughout our lives as players, we have an opportunity to learn about and refine to a very high degree. Knowing about that process, can apply to everything in life. And it is for that reason, that many of the greatest people that I've known have been, essentially, musicians. Whether professional or not, they have lived their lives in a way that this musical process was a guiding part in how they went about solving their problems and living their lives.

I realize that of all the cool things that have happened to me, the best one is that I know I can play a whole lot better now, than I could twenty years ago. I wouldn't trade any of the outside benefits of what my career has offered me with that. That sense of personal, and especially musical growth.

This would bring me to what I guess would be my central message to y'all on this very significant day in your lives as musicians. And that is this very simply, that despite whatever kinds of traditional successes or failures that may or may not happen to you throughout your lives as musicians, the best rewards that you will receive are embedded in the actual music itself that you will make. That is, you may or may not have success by the standards that society in general uses to quantify things like that, but the real, genuine true success that transcends the day to day stuff is going to be that fact that you know about music. And that you are intimately familiar with not only music itself, but the process of making it.

Many times I run into young guys, who want to get a record contract, or a manager, or how to get their music on the radio, and my answer is always the same. And I think that regardless of how much things keep changing or mutating through the years, it will always be the same. And I say this—don't worry about those things too much. Just go home, try to understand as much as you can about why you wanted to be a musician in the first place, and exactly what it is about music that knocks you out, and practice like crazy on that. And if you can do it about fourteen hours a day, that will help too.

I'll try not to say this in a glib or off-hand way, it is just that I found that even as things change, as record companies come and go, as styles change, as trends and audiences change, the work of being a musician and being involved with the fabric of music itself is essentially the same and essentially real. While most of these external things, in addition to being largely out of one's control, are also largely an illusion. Especially compared to what you have to know in order to become a good musician in the first place. And especially compared to what you get out of the process of becoming a good musician.

For me personally, after everything, the only thing that remains really true is the feeling that the end of the day, I know that I really played good or I didn't. Or that I made some progress and I understand something that I didn't understand at the beginning of the day, or I don't. This to me, is the real currency of what it is to have a life a musician. This accumulated wisdom and insight into the reality of music, and as much of a stretch as it might be sometimes, therefore into life and living. And, in response to that guy who is looking for a manager or a record company, whether he knows it or not, it's that currency of musical wisdom and understanding that will eventually lead him or her to all the things that he or she needs to fulfill the journey that they started, the day they made that important decision to dedicate their lives to music in the first place. Not the quick fix kind of goal of making a record or two or getting a couple of nice gigs.

Of course, it is easy for me to stand here and say all this. I have been really lucky, I've gotten the gigs and the record contracts and all that stuff. But there is one other larger truth that I've seen in evidence over this time, and it goes like this and my best wish would be that I might even be an example. Really good, seriously good, musical work has a way of finding its way out to the people. I can that I've rarely, if ever after all these years, run across someone who has something that they've developed that's truly valuable to offer as a musician, who doesn't finally end up with opportunities to turn those ideas into some kind of career. It may take awhile, certainly some stylistic paths offer really different kinds of resistance than others. But usually, the chances show up, if what the musician has to offer is really strong, really sincere and is honestly representative of who they are as musicians and as people, regardless of the stylistic zone.

But finally, and ultimately, music remains an intensely personal issue. Maybe the most important commitment you can make is to the music fan that lives inside of you, to find out just what it is about music that knocks you out. In that discovery, you'll find most of what you need to know to take you wherever you need to go.

All of you here have roads ahead of you that will be filled with good musical days, the ones where you feel you can play or hear anything, and bad musical days, the ones where everything you do sounds like a bad Madonna tune. But that variety, that sense of unknowing, that feeling of having to make it up yourself, that sense of adventure, that is what music is. And that is a big part of why having a life as a musician is so much fun.

And fun is a good word to end on. Because the last thing, and maybe the most important thing, that I've noticed over the years of playing with people from all kinds of stylistic zones and all different types of music, and in fact the only thing that they all seem to have in common, from Sonny Rollins to Steve Reich, from David Bowie to Milton Nascimento, from Herbie Hancock to Gary Burton, is just how much fun they all have doing what they do, when they are doing it at their best. For all the satisfaction and work and practice and dues that it takes to become a good musician, in the end, and I'm sure you all will agree with this, it's a blast to be a musician.

Congratulations you guys. Go out there, take all those two-five-ones out into the world, hopefully mess with them a little bit along the way and do that. Play good and have fun. Thank you.

It's so romantic.

This is just so much fun. I feel dirty for wasting my time on this shit but what the hell. I look forward to the time when plastic surgeries will be accepted as the norm in showbiz. Give it a few years and I can pretty much guarantee that people will be complimenting each other on their great boob jobs and liposuctions. Meanwhile, here's something to cheer you up:



Isn't this great?! Boy, this almost gave me an orgasm. A quick Google search reveals that a facelift costs about 6,000$ up to 15,000$. I'd love to pay somebody that much to rip me open and play with my facial tissue.

“I don’t think it’s right that ugly women should be allowed to get plastic surgery and get fixed up to look real nice. I think if you’re born ugly you should stay that way.”

-the master himself, George Carlin

More idiotic absurdities here and here.

Christopher Hitchens sayin' it like it is.

'Religion should be treated with ridicule, hatred and contempt.' Historical.

If you feel it's maybe too radical of a view, too bad for you. Maybe you should swap the world religion with fascism, or bigotry, or pedophilia. See if you're maybe too radical about those issues too.

Sean Connery on smackin' bitches.

My respect for Sean just skyrocketed. I just love the accusatory and patronizing tone the interviewer uses in an attempt to intimidate him. Of course, Sean knows better and his composure alone is worthy of an Oscar if you ask me. A comment rightly points out:

I agree with him, actually. Some people might misunderstand what he's saying, that you should beat the shit out of her if she disagrees, which is not what he's saying. Women slap men when they are over the line, why can't guys do the same?

Ah... off for some wine and a smoke. There are still men out there. There's still hope.

Feminism + Religion - Reason = Brain Damage.

Save for Whoopi, the pretentiousness and know-it-all-I'm-correct-even-if-I-know-shit attitude of these women is enough to make any decent and self-respecting person out there puke his brains out. What kind of a dead-brain person watches a show where scientifically illiterate women discuss their opinion about the world and, of all things evolution?! Also notice the overall feminist air which peaks when one of the guests/hosts remarks "again HE" regarding God. I bet these assholes would harbor secret resentment if God (if he existed) ever revealed his true bearded gender. So fucking self-centered. Wake up and realize that you happen to be conscious in a world that is totally indifferent to human beings and their ridiculous pretensions.

Recommended reading by the one and only Christopher Hitchens.
The Richard Dawkins foundation for Reason and Science.

EDIT(20-09-07): Watching this again today (I lead an empty and vapid existence) I find the fact that the guest defends her self-admitted ignorance by playing the virtuous provider card a truly disturbing indication of the kind of mentality that is hindering our progress. She dismisses and undermines the importance of knowledge by treating it as a matter of priorities (the wellbeing of my child is more important than my ability to raise him to be a conscious and educated human being). I'm not saying that she is to choose "science" over her child -that's the whole goddamn point! She doesn't have to choose! It is emphatically not a matter of priorities! Her argument is so irrelevant that it makes her look even worse. Remember, we're talking "is the world round?" here, not nuclear physics. But I'm sure most people in the audience bought it without a question because she appealed to their morality and made it look like you must choose something. Consequently, it would make anyone completely immoral and irresponsible to 'choose' curiosity, interest and intellect. Be wary when people pull the big emotional words like family, nation, freedom, happiness, equality and so on on you. They're most likely trying to fuck you in the asshole and manipulate you to the point that you're willing to accept anything they say just so you don't feel wrong by their standards.

The vision of Bill Hicks.

The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: Is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, 'Hey – don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride ...'And we ... kill those people. Ha ha, 'Shut him up. We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real.' It's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn't matter, because – it's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead, spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace. Thank you very much, you've been great." [several gunshots ring out, Bill mimes being hit and falls to floor, motionless.]

R.I.P. Bill Hicks, 1961 - 1964

Visit Bill Hicks' official website
Watch Bill perform on YouTube

A wake up call by RS Connett.

I've been conditioned to feel bad on Monday for so many years that now it's almost impossible NOT to feel like shit on Monday.

I drew this on a particularly bad Monday morning. Monday 10/11/2004 to be exact.

Monday is the day that attacks me like a stinking black rat under my covers. It awakens me to its poisonous gnawing on my scrotum and as I scream in agony it rushes to bite out my eyes! My Sundays are often ruined because after the morning breakfast, (which I usually enjoy), I realize that tomorrow is MONDAY!

For decades I wasted my life working at jobs I hated, and always Monday was the worst day! It's like everyone is in a bad mood on Monday. (The same way that most people are in a good mood on Friday) We are such victims of our habits! We are so easily conditioned.

Now that I have finally found blessed escape from the 9 to 5 rat race, I am instead prone to sullen bouts of dark paralyzing depression. I have the hangover of this conditioning to plague me when I should be enjoying the "golden years" of my life.

Hey guess what kids, there ain't no "golden years" ahead! - so you better get smart fast and figure out a way not to get caught up in the mediocrity of the "J-O-B" bullshit that our great society offers you. It's this simple; If you don't figure out a way to do something in your life that you enjoy doing, you are fucked... PERIOD. You don't get the time back. You don't get no gold watch or reward for a "Job Well Done". Nothing I can tell you will prepare you for the grim reality that your life will become when you lose the thing that you can not possibly understand when you have it ... your youth.

So, find the courage to rise above the shallowness that is 99.9% of our society NOW, or forever you shall be cursed by the horror that is ... "MONDAY".

----

BAGGED is symbolic of being forced to conform.

The feeling of being BAGGED is the feeling of aggravation caused when you realize the hypocrisy of YOUR obedience to rules of a system that serves the many, but NOT NECESSARILY YOU!

Systemized BAGGING suppresses the growth of the individual, YOU. Being BAGGED is having NO CHOICE. More accurately, you are tricked into BELIEVING that you have no FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. The BAG represents societies manacles. You’re insidiously and systematically painted into a corner, you are BAGGED!

YOU HAVE BEEN BAGGED the first time you compromise your honor. You "copped out." You went against your convictions. You betrayed your idealism. You chose "THE BAG" over the consequences of standing up for what you believe. Mainstream Culture CONDITIONS US TO DO THIS, to COMPLY.

It is the HIVE MENTALITY which teaches us that any means which will benefit the many, EVEN at the cost of the individual, is justifiable. WHEN YOU BUY INTO THAT, YOU BEGIN TO LOOSE YOUR INDIVIDUALISM. YOU BEGIN TO LOOSE YOUR IDENTITY … YOU ARE BEING BAGGED!

We are BAGGED BY OUR OBLIGATIONS TO CONFORM TO THE DEMANDS OF OUR CULTURE. We are unable to control everyday situations which ought to be simple IF we were to base our decisions on a simple code of honesty, ethics and honor. BUT INSTEAD we are tricked into weaving a tangled web of deceits. We give in to the pressure of the BAGGERS, and we end up getting BAGGED! If we refuse to YIELD to the demands of society, we will get BAGGED BY THE AUTHORITIES!

Do YOU ever feel BAGGED? If you are conscious, and have a conscience, you know what it is to be herded into "THE BAG."

CONFORMITY IS IN THE BAG

If you lose who you are through conformity, you may never find yourself again. The further and deeper you allow yourself to sink into the reality that is prepared for you by THEM* ... Prepared and dished out on Television, Radio, Movies, the 6 O’clock World Wide Propaganda, the less there is left of YOU.

It’s easy to give in, EVERYBODY wants you to conform, to be a TEAM PLAYER. ONE OF THE GUYS, OR ONE OF THE GIRLS, OR ONE OF THE GANG. BUT WHO ARE YOU WHEN THEY ALL GO HOME AND YOU ARE ALONE? Are you YOU, or are you? Are you sure that you have not become what they invented for you to be? Have you been … BAGGED?! ARE YOU IN THE BAG? THEIR BAG?! A BAG OF CRAP FED TO YOU WITH A SILVER SPOON WHILE YOU WATCH STAR SEARCH AND WISH YOU WERE A STAR TOO!

BEING BAGGED and BAGGING IS SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS EVERY DAY in a civilization of conditioned conformity.
We are TIED, BRANDED AND BAGGED AT BIRTH … Assembly line products, BORN AND BAGGED PRODUCTS of the AMERICAN BAG COMPANY! THE ONLY TIME WE ARE ALLOWED TO TAKE OUR BAGS OFF, IS TO TRADE THEM IN FOR A BOX!

Visit the Vomitus Maximus Museum, the art of Robert Steven Connett

The Universal Mind of Bill Evans.

They actually made some good television back in the 60's. But this is beyond good -it's phenomenal. I'm humbled beyond words by Bill Evans. Every word he utters is unspoiled brilliance. Musicians out there, take fucking notes.

Note- this is part 1 of 5, more here.

Roll The Dice.

By Charles Bukowski

if you're going to try, go all the
way.
otherwise, don't even start.

if you're going to try, go all the
way. this could mean losing girlfriends,
wives, relatives, jobs and
maybe your mind.

go all the way.
it could mean not eating for 3 or
4 days.
it could mean freezing on a
park bench.
it could mean jail,
it could mean derision,
mockery,
isolation.
isolation is the gift,
all the others are a test of your
endurance, of
how much you really want to
do it.
and you'll do it
despite rejection and the
worst odds
and it will be better than
anything else
you can imagine.

if you're going to try,
go all the way.
there is no other feeling like
that.
you will be alone with the
gods
and the nights will flame with
fire.

do it, do it, do it.
do it.

all the way
all the way.
you will ride life straight to
perfect laughter,
it's the only good fight
there is.

Reason is your friend.

How Thinking Goes Wrong
and also,
List of Cognitive Biases

How many of these do you score?

“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it.”

-George Bernard Shaw

The Anaesthetic of Familiarity.

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here."

This is an excerpt from the first chapter of Richard Dawkins' "Unweaving the Rainbow". You can find the rest of it here.

On Beliefs and Effort.

One thing we can surely say about life is that our choices have a good probability of determining our life's course, at least to some extent. Specifically, we can with certainty assume that our choice of actions, past and future, can be held responsible for some of the conditions of our current and future existence respectively. What conditions those may be, we cannot foretell with the least bit of certainty, because even if we indulge in believing that our actions are solely responsible for any condition we experience or may experience, that would certainly be wrong on the grounds that we are not the only chess piece that moves on the chessboard. Other pieces move simultaneously as well, and to some extent affect our own movement and thus, its outcome.

It is of this fact that many times in our lives we are pleasantly or most of the time, unpleasantly reminded of. In the latter case we most often ask "Why?" and resort to our beliefs about life's way to fill out the answer. Then, in order to protect our already wounded ego, we enjoy in telling ourselves that "It was meant to happen" or that "Everything happens for a reason" or that "It will surely get better". Unfortunately this stance is not only limited to the examination of past events but most of the time it is adopted for future events, too. We like to sometimes think a priori that the dots will connect in our life in a way we don't yet know of or can't bother to figure out. We like to believe that "after the rain comes the sun" -always. In fact, we are comforted by this belief because even if we are struck by unpleasant events such as suffering or "failure", we keep believing that life will once again smile upon us, and reward us for our faith in it.

A common theme among humans of some education and sufficient self-esteem is that they believe that in the future, they will be inhabiting a better version of themselves and as a consequence, their lives will be better as well. People have a variety of reasons to think in such a way, the most common being that in observing their past selves and comparing them to their present selves, they see improvement. Then they make the common error of induction and assume that improvement must be a constant in one's life, something that will keep manifesting itself until the day they die. In fact there is no proof that something like that is actually taking place, and plenty of proof to the contrary. When visible improvements in ourselves and our lives begin to diminish, we justify it with yet another handful of beliefs designed for use in such cases of emergency, beliefs like "Oh, I'm just going through a bad period" , or "There is a reason for this, too" or "I've been too busy" or whatever other form of belief/excuse may apply. This is when we must realize that placing our life's outcome in any other hands than our own has clearly lead us to an unwanted path. We can of course, keep trusting that the path we are currently on must have a positive twist on it somewhere along the way, but on what exactly would we be placing our trust on? Life? The day has yet to come that scientific research justifies and supports these kind of beliefs. Nobody really knows for certain that their future will turn out the way they envision it, or that anything happens for a reason, or that the "sun always comes after the rain". These beliefs are at best described as hypotheses derived from empirical data. This does not make them facts however.

Why then should we keep blindly trusting life to fulfil our vision? There is nothing to support this belief except for our own desire to believe in it. Note that I am not implying that we sit in a chair and wait for life to miraculously manifest improvement into ourselves and our lives. This virtually guarantees a zero percent of change. What can then guarantee us that we can get what we want out of our lives, shape them into what we dream and desire and achieve our personal goals? The answer is effort. Effort is the only thing that has a scientifically provable probability of affecting one's life. Indeed, you can argue that a person who places effort in improving as an individual is bound to do so sooner or later. Of course, you cannot say how much he will improve, or in which way, or what effects his hypothetical improvement may or may not have in his life, but you can say so much with certainty: He WILL improve. Improving oneself doesn't automatically mean it will also improve one's life, precisely because the conditions that I've chosen to call "life" do not depend entirely on the person experiencing them. It is safe to assume though that effort can influence one's existence on some level, whereas not the same can be said with any set of beliefs one might hold in his head.

Suppose that two men are on their deathbed, both suddenly stricken with cancer at a much earlier age than that of their expected lifespan, contemplating their lives and the choices they made. The first man placed his faith in life and believed all through his existence that at some point it would offer him the opportunities he sought , that change and improvement are a constant, that there is a purpose for all this and so on. The second man didn't bother much with beliefs and philosophies, but was more focused on his effort to live up to his aspirations and rarely permitted chance to take a hold of his life. The first man now wonders how could he had been so foolish as to believe in something that might have made sense when he assumed that he would live until old age, but really offered no guarantees. But the second man has no regrets, for even though he might have failed to accomplish his dream due to a tragic outcome of events he had no control of, knows he at least tried his best and that gives him a sense of serenity that the first man will never experience.

Thus, if you really think about it, all that matters is effort really, not a goal, not a dream, but the effort of getting there. Effort is not merely a device to be used until a specific goal has been accomplished. Effort is a way of life. Effort is an end in itself, and a great and honorable one indeed. Effort guarantees improvement much more than any current belief or theory about life can. Effort is measurable in its effectiveness; beliefs are ambiguous and vague and often deceiving and misleading. One should believe in life, for life is beautiful and more abundant than we usually think. But one should also understand that effort is the only foolproof way of knowing for sure that we've had some input into our world, and that it is not all a matter of luck, destiny, talent or chance.