Thanks and appreciation

Yesterday I was talking about how easy it is to get yourself stuck in a negative spin that you can't get out of and why its so important at those times to start thinking about the things that you appreciate in your life in order to change your energy and put you into a positive frame of mind.

Well, with tomorrow being Thanksgiving I thought it would be a perfect time for me to talk about many of the things that I'm thankful for and appreciate. Don't get offended if you get left out though, I'm very thankful for my family, my friends, and you good fans that read me everyday and make this worth while.

 

I appreciate the fact that my dog Jack (short for Jackass!) looks just like Animal from the muppets. He came from a litter of 7, and while his brother and sisters all played together, all he ever did since he opened his eyes was sit at my feet and bark to sit on my lap. So he chose me.

After the ex left, when he was about 6 months old, he caught meningitis and almost died. He was in the hospital for weeks, and after a few thousand dollars it was a last effort guess when the neurologist and I were brainstorming that came up with the cure. After I got him home he slept on my neck for weeks.

 

This is Jack's mom, Leia, my other dog. She's the toughest 15lb dog I've ever heard of, spent more than 6 months in the desert of Nevada on her own before the girlfriend found her. How she survived I have no idea. She had all 7 of her babies right in my hand, and would let me do whatever I wanted to with the pups, but wouldn't even let the ex go near them. That should have told me all I needed to know right there. 

I had spent some time in some really dark places and I think these 2 dogs were the only thing that kept me going, so I'm very thankful for that, don't know what I'd do without them. 

 I love the small of a woman's back. There's something just right when your hand rests in the spot just above the round of her backside and you pull her close to you. I'm thankful for women that are soft and sweet, which I need to balance the manimal within me.



I really appreciate a good story, in any form. Its one of my favorite things. I also love baseball, Kevin Costner baseball movies, and great nicknames that last forever.

 

This is my Rotty Circe. There's something manly about having a dog, and I don't know that you can have a home without one. A dog is a sign that a man is coming home, because he may leave you, but there's no way he leaves his dog. I have a hard time believing that she's been gone for 5 years now, half the time I still feel her walking next to me, but I have so many great memories of her and could never imagine a better dog, or a better friend.

I appreciate a brilliant smile that can just light up the room from a beautiful woman, especially when its aimed at me. Sometimes, when you least expect it, an angel comes and lifts you up, and some people do that for everyone that they touch because their heart is so big it radiates. I'm glad I knew her.

Don't tase me Bro!

My God I can't tell you have much I appreciate this photo, or all the dumbasses in the world that give me something to laugh at. Life is the BEST! You just can't make this stuff up.

Mentors are so important, and I never really had one, but I'm really thankful for the one's that had to serve as such for me. I appreciate the fact that I was shown the path, that I was taught early that more luminous beings are we, not this crude matter, and that the force is with me.... always.

I appreciate Nick Nolte and all that he does. WE LOVE YOU NICK NOLTE!

I really love women, pretty much everything about them, so I appreciate the beauty of the female form

And I'm thankful for women that are down for anything

Especially when they're down for anything in bed, like sexy Kelly Brook here.

But there's nothing sexier than a woman who reads. I need a woman of intelligence; nothing stirs me up quite like intelligent conversation, so as much as I show off scantily clad ladies, there's nothing I appreciate more than when they show off their great big brains. 

If you look at this picture closely you can see, just above the trees, Death blowing something up towards the light, plain as day.

How great is it when you get something you never expected that just completely blows your mind? I'm thankful that there's something more out there, and great gods show themselves to us once and a while, just to remind us that they're there, and that we're not alone.

And I really appreciate Elvis! I love the King, and Graceland is a place you really have to visit at least once.

What's not to love about great trips with the fam? I love when I get the opportunity to be the crazy, over the top, fun loving lunatic I am when I'm comfortable being myself, and the people who accept me and let me be that way.

After this shot she said to me "Thanks for nothing Hatter!" in a sexy English accent. To this day I'm still unsure if she meant it as something out of the story or if I didn't do something for her that she was wanting me to do. But then, she could have just been English, that's what my experience with their women has been

Operation Fishbone was one of the best weekends of my life. It's an inside joke I guess, so here's to inside jokes then, and to the stupid shit you did when you were much younger that you'd never even consider now, but MAN did you have a good time doing it! Those are the things you laugh about forever, and how can you not be happy about those?

Thank God for heroes that you can relate to, crossing the line, cold sterile bathrooms and the nudey bar! Lets Rock!

I'm really thankful for that last trip, and those last days and months, and that special friend who takes you from one stage of your life into the next, but never really leaves you even when you can't see them anymore. And even more so, I couldn't be thankful enough for that smile on her face, and knowing that despite being blind, barely able to move and taking 2 shots a day just to keep her food down, she was still very happy until the end, and that I gave her a good life.

I really appreciate the guys on my softball team. For a long time I was the best player on a really bad team and it completely sucked, but I love playing ball too much to give it up. And as we got better it was with all the wrong kinds of people, grown men acting like babies, constant fighting and nonsense.

Now its hard to tell who the best player is, we're a championship caliber team and I expect to win every game. But the best part of it is that we all fit together really well. This is the best team and the best group of guys I've ever played with, and its an interesting collection of people if you take a look, but we make it work. They make playing ball a lot of fun again and I couldn't be happier about that.

Bacon, country fried steak, good coffee, sweet tea, biscuits and gravy, country cooking..... CRACKER BARREL!!! What's not to love?

I love pictures that say it all. That's the Man back there with his finger up, you know of him from our many adventures, and the girl in front is the Ex. This is the first time I showed a picture of her. I wasn't with her for looks, but because we got along really well and I trusted her more than anyone. We all know how that turned out.

But I'm thankful for my time with her, and more thankful for the things it taught me, which include never settle for anyone, and if your closest friends and your brother hate your girl, there's probably something wrong there that you can't or won't see.

I appreciate positive role models that always show you how its supposed to be done, and do it the right way. And I'm very thankful that my childhood hero never let me down.

I really appreciate the unique talents and fine acting skills of my favorite living on screen star Monique Alexander. She never disappoints me.

That's Patrick Wayne, son of one of my idols, John Wayne, with me on one side and my dear mother on the other. She was so nervous going to talk to him that she couldn't do it, so I had to go over for her and make sure she got a picture. That was a great day, and I'm very thankful that I was there for it.

I really love being able to sit around in my underwear doing nothing but watchin TV all day.

And I love the greatest love story of all time, my favorite movie with my favorite actor.

Here's lookin at you kid!

What can be more manly than a good fire? And what's better than some good friends, some good music and good beer around that fire? I appreciate the beauty of moments like that, and I'm thankful for the times I've been able to do it.

And thank God I'm a Yankee Fan!

Wow! All this to be thankful for and I'm just getting started. I can be at this all day if I really got deep into it, and I bet you can say the same thing if you really stop to think about all the things you love in your life.

But mostly, I want to thank you for being here, and spending part of your day with me every morning.

And now that Thanksgiving will soon be behind us... its time to get ready for Xmas!

Later People

Delirious....

Yup... that's about right. I usually am delirious, this morning because I got absolutely no sleep at all last night, so I have no idea where this thing is going. And of course, I was just having this conversation at my Alumni Networking event for Ashford University last night, how sleep and getting the proper rest is vital to everything that you do. I mentioned that also in my piece Coach LaSota's Formula for Success, but that didn't get much love, which is a damn shame, because there's some really good stuff in there.

Its crazy what comes up when I look for visuals to help me along with these blogs, and part of what makes them so fun, because often I don't even know what I'll get. This HAD to be used for the cover picture. Eddie Murphy's Delirious is probably the single funniest comedy routine ever to this very day, which is saying alot, but that was WAY back when he was the funniest person on the planet. God was he great! Then he went to the comedians graveyard.... he signed that Disney contract... and it was all gone. All the laughs.... gone. Now he's in that new flik with Ben Stiller. Ten years ago that match could have been sick, now there's just no way it can be good. Matthew Broderick is in it if that doesn't tell you something.

What's going on with Alison Lohman here? Either she's got the blowers cramp or someone's stuffing something into a very uncomfortable place, and I don't mean the back of a Volkswagon. She seems to be enjoying it though. This came up with the delirious search too, from a 2006 Delirious that must have completely sucked because I never heard of it, and I thought she may have been something after she looked so great in Big Fish and was so good in Matchstick Men.

Big Fish was probably the only Tim Burton movie I liked after Batman and Beetlejuice. What an over rated hack. And Matchstick Men, Nick Cage... UGH! Still, I like a whole lot more of his crap than Burton's. He must just do everything and hits a winner now and then. As for Lohman, she's pretty sexy here, huh? She'll probably have to do more of this with bombs like "Drag me to Hell" out there. What complete trash that was.

Maybe she'll follow Lindsay Lohan and bare it all for Playboy. That would probably actually disappoint me. I like this girl here. Now that Lohan is taking the plunge, how long before Britney Spears takes it all off? You think she'd go Hustler or Penthouse?

Now there's a classic! But tell me, what John Candy flik isn't? What a damn shame that was, but its what happens when you eat bad meat in Mexico. How do you not see that coming? The only thing more tragic to me was Michael J. Fox and his Parkinson's. Two guys who brought something great to everything they touched.

Talk about great ways to be touched. Hugh Hefner is the man. I caught the Showtime special on him last night and you really should see it. That man has done so much more than put naked 20 year old girls in magazines. He's touched your life in so many ways that you don't even know about, civil liberty sort of ways, that its just insane.

That there is Route 66 in New Mexico in the winter. Most people don't realize how cold it gets. This morning, for whatever reason, I was caught with the feeling I had one morning while moving back to NY from Vegas while pumping gas out there. I had my two little dogs, my ferret and my snake all piled into the car hauling a trailor behind me for three thousand miles. I looked out over a site very much like this one, only a lot more snow. This morning I had the same feeling that I did that day.

The next morning in Amarillo Texas is was so cold that the handle for the shower broke off in my hand and the faucet couldn't be turned off. The water just kept pouring out. I put the broken handle down on the counter when I checked out and kept it moving.

I was listening to Steve G. Jones again yesterday, and this guy is great, really knows his stuff, and it hit me that.... I really know my stuff too. And that's no joke. There are a few things that I really know well. All the important material to be a good Life Coach, I know it really well. Writing... I know that really well too. But one of the things that Jones said, and this is very true, is that the more relaxed you are the better you're going to be in everything you do. The good stuff just flows naturally. Yet I noticed it the other night playing darts... I get nervous for no good reason and it destroys my chances at being good. And somehow I'm that way in everything, playing ball, meeting chicks, telling people about my books, trying to get interviews for this blog, whatever.

Everything except.... Life Coaching.

And I know this is all still residual effects from the ex girlfriend taking off and pulling the rug out from under me. It often feels like there's no steady ground to stand on, even in the things that you know you do well. Its not that I haven't moved passed that event, I long since have. Its that I have yet to have, in all this time since, positive successful results to replace that negative association. So even with all I've done it feels as if nothing will ever work out.... because it hasn't yet, no matter what I do.

The right woman (or man for a chick), lets just say the right partner, is SO damn important to that. Its the single most important factor in your life. Of course the wrong one.... well, the wrong one will have you still getting nervous in almost everything you do even years later...

I dated a stripper in Vegas for a while after the event. This was the exact pose she was in when we introduced ourselves to one another. Yeah... that was a strange time in my life. And that didn't go the way I wanted either. But with strippers... does it ever really?

And here's the funny thing about those positive successful results and why its imperative to have passion for what you're doing in order to reach them.... they come slowly. This blog is perfect example of that. Right now I don't make money or gain much recognition from it, not even from the people closest to me. The numbers are trickle in.... yet yesterday alone I had articles read in Poland, Croatia, Russia, Moldova, Ghana, Italy, Great Britain, Egypt and Australia. And that's not counting all the many, many other nations across the globe where my voice has been heard. From the number too, I can also tell that these readers are passing them along to their friends. How many people out there actually have global influence like that? Not many.

No matter what your measure, how is that not great success?

Eh, but whatever. There were some things I had wanted to talk about, but I'm really just babbling right now. I don't even know what I'm saying anymore....

I'm feeling like this chick right here, but I warned you about that, so the rest will have to wait for tomorrow, unless I come up with something better to talk about. Hell, I've been waiting for something better to talk about since I started this, and that hasn't happened yet either, so don't hold your breath.

But then, there I go again, not giving myself enough credit. How many of you do that to yourselves too?

Enough of this.

Later People!

2011 NYC Comic - what NOT to do... being remembered the wrong way!

Last night I wrote over five pages on all the wrong things to do when you're trying to make a name or keep your name, build a fan base or hold the love and adoration of people everywhere.... it was biting, it was funny... the sort of thing you pass on to your friends saying "YO, you HAVE to read this..." which is something I very much need. Its that 2nd and 3rd level that really brings success, when you tell your friends and then they tell their friends, which hasn't been happening for me here... and this article had what it took to get there.... you would have been telling everyone about it....

And then I tore it up. Biting, nasty and hurtful funny may be a way to get myself noticed, but its not what I want to be remembered for. Its not how I want people to think of me.

These girls right here knew that I was taking this picture; I had asked them politely before doing so, and this was the reception that I got. Either they were bored with the gig and didn't want to be there or I just wasn't important enough for them to waste their time with.

And when they finally did acknowledge me what I got was a blank stare and a half assed smile. Originally I had ripped them apart. Part of the allure of going to any sort of show like this is getting pictures with the ladies, and when you take a job getting paid for nothing more than how good you look pictures with the oogling customers is part of the gig.

Then I saw that part of the brunettes nipple is showing when you look closely at the picture. She's practically bare breasted here, and maybe she's feeling uncomfortable; the blond there's no excuse for, she has that same indifferent blank stare in every shot.

Compare that to this girl here. Look how nice and sweet she looks. I'm not sure if she was even a model working the booth where I caught her because I didn't see her again for the rest of the weekend, but she hung around until everyone who wanted a picture of her got one, and she did so with a real genuine smile on her face. She made you feel like she was happy to see you.

And here's that other girl again the next day telling me to get out of there with a look. I don't have to be where I'm not wanted, and I certainly don't have to spend my money there. Maybe she was still uncomfortable prancing around in her draws, I don't know.

The fangs here are awesome, they really make the costume, and you can tell from the way that the corners of her mouth and the corners of her eyes curl upwards (micro expressions) that she's not faking the smile at all.

Now check out the sneer on her mug. The look of disdain is downright sickening, I can feel my stomach turning just thinking about it. Do you see a major difference here? I don't know what she was selling or for who, but I never attempted, nor would I even try, to find out. If I did know I'd tell you all to get as far away from them as possible. I wrote two articles this week, "Doing it right" and "Personality..." about people that made me WANT to know what they were about by drawing me in in different ways, and here all I can talk about is how turned off I am by these people.

Maybe the people she was working for are horrible, making them do things that make them completely uncomfortable in a large crowd. And maybe its just the girls, maybe they don't really want to be there and think they're above some of the people in that crowd, above taking pictures for people yearning to be part of a new club. Either way, its a disaster, as you can see clearly.

Do you remember this guy? Brian C. O'Halloran, played Dante Hicks in Clerks and a whole lot of nothing afterwards? He was charging $25 a pop for his autograph when he should have been happy people even remember him. Clerks was one of my favorite movies in college, even for $10 I would have done it and come away thinking how great an experience it was. Instead I don't even want to hear his name now. Meanwhile, for $10 I got my picture sitting inside the actually Delorean used in "Back to the Future" AND the Batmobile's from the 1989 Batman movie and the 1960's TV series. 

At least Dante is a pseudo-celebrity though. One guy gave me his sales pitch about his Comic line that no one ever heard of that he was trying to promote. He had a good line going, I was about to buy when I gave him my card for this blog. "I don't want you to waste your card" he told me. Thanks. Thanks for nothing. I don't want to waste my money either. So I walked away.

Pseudo-Celebrities, like pseudo intellectuals, really crack me up with what they think they're worth and why. Up top is a picture of smoking hot Jessica Buriaga, a Playboy Playmate of the month like 2 years ago. She's famous for nothing more than taking her clothes off.

And this stunner is Kayla Collins, another Playmate from like 2008 when she was 18 or so. Both of these lovely ladies were at Comicon this past weekend...

Did I say lovely? Not at all. Do you see the looks on their faces? The one on the left is Jessica Buriaga and the one on the right is some other random chick who took it all off for the cameras. I didn't even bother trying to get one of Kayla Collins, and for good reason. They were charging people $15 just to take a picture of them WITH YOUR OWN CAMERA! Seriously, for them to stand up and pose for you they were charging $15. Where do people get off? The only people who even know who these girls are are the ones who beat the meat to their pictures. And am I really getting a better shot than the mostly nude airbrushed to hell versions up top? Hell no.

Because of this I wouldn't pay any mind to anything these women are promoting ever again. Meanwhile, all it would have taken was a nice smile and a pretty pose (all they know how to do) and I'd have been hooked for life.

By contrast, that's Zulay Henao who starred opposite Channing Tatum in the movie Fighting. At 32 years old she's still every bit as hot as either of the girls from Playboy (hell, she probably has a much better body) and she's actually got some kind of talent other than the promise of what she does on her back. Zulay was promoting her movie Boy Wonder, and because of this picture alone I looked it up and may even wind up checking it out.

At one point she walked through the hall with her body guard and we locked eyes from only about three feet away. There was no uncomfortable feeling, no air of superiority, no I'm hot and in movies so give me money just because I showed up, none of that. She might actually think that, but I would never know it because she made me feel welcome, like a person. And now I think she's great!

I'm not sure if this piece flows as smoothly as many of my others, or that it gets my point across the way that I want to, but sometimes we do so much reaching up for that higher level on the ladder that we step on the people on the rungs below, and it causes the exact opposite effect that we're going for. We want to get noticed, but its imperative to be noticed for the RIGHT reasons or you may lose them forever. Which means don't just bring in models, bring in the RIGHT models that fit what you're doing. Don't just bring in celebrities, but the RIGHT celebrities that live the message you're trying to send. Don't just have people working for you, but who really love what you're about and WANT to make it better.

And if you're lucky enough to get that elevated status, remember the people that got you there. It wasn't the ones up on the top of the mountain already, its the average everyday people that get behind you, pushing you up there. I've had friends who's careers blew up only to change to that Playboy Playmate "I don't have time for you" mentality. At one time I would have done anything for them, and now I can't be bothered. Its all in how you do things....

Later People!



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