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!

9/11 - Exactly what is it that we'll never forget?

First I want to thank you all for the tremendous, overwhelming response to my last post. I had a great, great weekend, which I'll go into more detail about during the week, and I'm tired but it would probably be irresponsible of me not to address the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11.

I didn't watch a single second of the coverage on television; the images are ingrained in our memories as if etched in stone. I didn't need to see that again. There will be no pictures of any of that in my posts. This will not be about politics, or terrorism, or anger, or revenge. This will not be about conspiracies or what I believe to be the truth behind that day. Instead I'll talk about that day, that week, as I experienced it and the message that I always try to take from it.

I was born and raised in New York City, and with the exception of the three years I spent in Vegas and a year at Oklahoma State, I've lived here my whole life; thirty years I've lived here. But I wasn't in New York that day, my sister, her husband and I were in Orlando Florida.

We got an early call from one of my sisters to turn on the T.V. and watched it all unfold live. There's no need to tell you the rest of that, you know it well enough.

New York can be a hard place. It's a hard life. But you never realize how much you love a place, or the people, how much they're a part of you. Two grown men wandering around Orlando with tears in their eyes so thick that there was just no wiping them away brought all of those raw emotions to the forefront for everyone to see.

It wasn't long before cell phone service was done, and we were left in the dark. My oldest sister, a detective with the NYPD, was stationed down the block at the time, we feared she may be in there. My father ran a place off of Broadway just a block away. I had only left a job at the Patrolman's Benevolent Association just a few months earlier and still had many, many friends (many of you reading right now) who would have been getting off of the trains which ran beneath the trade center right at the time the planes hit.

What was happening, and to whom, we just didn't know. And there was no way to find out. That was the worst part of it for us down there, that we just didn't know. It would be days before we found anything out. The three of us took turns randomly breaking into tears, bawling like babies.

As it happened we were scheduled to go to Seaworld's Discovery Cove, a place that only allows limited crowds per day. You have to make an appointment. Most everyone we encountered had been sympathetic, and it's in times like this, when something bigger than all of us snaps us out of our usual self occupied focus that we really get to see how good most folks really are, how much we empathize, how much we care for one another. Or course, invariably, there always has to be some jackass too stupid to get it, acting like fools because they don't fear repercussions because no one holds them to task.

Two clowns at the park screamed "In Coming!", laughing about it as we waited to swim with dolphins. Stepping out to where they could see us, red lines staining out cheeks, and a low but firm "we're from NY you asshole" wiped the smile and jokes from their faces quickly. It's amazing how quickly it usually does with that sort of clown, isn't it?

But there's real magic in the world around us every time we walk outside our door, especially in the natural things, all one has to do to see it is know where to look. Discovery Cove is set up so that you experience some of that natural magic. We swam with sharks that day; we swam with dolphins.

That was an experience like no other with an absolutely amazing creature. Dolphins are graceful, yet powerful, intelligent and loving. No words of mine are sufficient to describe the feeling of exhilaration as one of these majestic animals pulls you through the water. And it's insane how you can just feel how happy they are that you're there with them.

There's a picture we have from that day that I don't need to see, I can picture it as I write this, of my sister riding that dolphin, and the pure joy on her face. Her and I have been through so much together over the years; that look on her face is one of my best memories. By the time we got back to the time share our emotions had worn us down; we were in no shape to go anywhere, do anything. But watching more of the horrible footage just wouldn't do, so we rented a movie.

There's not much in the world that I love more than a good story, and my love of movies stems from the need to escape life's pains; for two hours you're transported into another world, for two hours all of your problems disappear. We rented The Legend of Bagger Vance that night, a film about God and fate and finding our own path in life, our natural swing. It stars Matt Damon, Will Smith and Charlize Theron, directed by Robert Redford. The flik went down as one of the biggest flops in all of their careers, but there were parts that just made us laugh. My brother in law and I still scream "BALLS!" because of it all these years later, and it's one of my favorite movies to this day.

9/11 forced the closing of Disney World, the happiest place on earth, so we went to Seaworld instead. Devil and I sat as close as possible to Shamu the whale and came out out of the show completely drenched. Being owned by Anheuser Busch, Seaworld had 'beer school', which we had to attend. Each person gets 1 free sample; drunks as we are, we each had 6. I have a picture hanging on my wall; it's my brother in law and I thoroughly soaked, smiling from ear to ear.

The next day we went to Epcot Center and grabbed a beer at every bar in every country in the place. That adds up to a lot of beer; we were loaded. I had to fulfil one of my great pleasures of the time, taking picture with people I don't know. On the monorail on the way back a three year old girl pointed up at my brother in law and scolded him, clear as day, "You're a bad piece!" I can't tell you how hard that made me us laugh.

We had to drive back home from Florida, going through a tropical storm that literally blinded us on the way. My sister has brass balls even attempting that and a few days later we were making our approach to the city, Even a week later you could see the smoke hanging in the air for miles. There was a sickening hole in the skyline.

I happened to be one of the lucky ones from that day, none of my people had been lost. Many people who are very dear to me couldn't say the same, having lost people very dear to them. Often I feel guilty that I wasn't here, not that I could have done anything, just to have been there with, and for, my people, my city. I probably always will, but it is what it is.

Since then, 9/11 has often been used for cheap propaganda and to push political agenda. It's been used as an excuse to lash out in anger, to pigeon hole us into the "if you're not with us, you're against us" mentality. And for every "never forget" plastered all over facebook, I fear in twenty years it'll just be another excuse for a barbecue, and to utter lines of crap just for attention, but making it seem like we care. I know in twenty years facts will come out that make the whole thing very different in our minds.

But when I think of that time I want no part of images of desperate people hurling themselves 100 stories to their death. I prefer to think about natures amazing creatures, one of the happiest smiles I've ever seen on my sisters face, Bagger Vance and trying to find my natural swing, the beautiful innocence and perfect intuition of little children and the worlds only confirmed bad piece. I prefer to think about how the great little details in life can take away the greatest pains, even if just for a while.

Of course, it's so much easier for me; I didn't lose anyone; I didn't have to walk home that day, terrified, through dust and debris, through living hell. But I prefer to think of my people, my nation, coming together and showing our pride in who we are, in each other, our once great country and the hope that we can be great again. Americans used to live for America, for that ideal of something bigger, better than all of us; we rarely do that anymore. And I prefer to remember seeing how much we really care about each other, and how we collectively pick each other up when we're so down.

But I cry too. Why does it have to take the worst of the world to show us the best of it, the best of us? If we could see that, be that, everyday, travesties like 9/11 would never occur.

Later people.

The Truth About Marijuana, Trampoline Dodgeball and things just done well....

As I get older I appreciate things that are just done well more and more, especially if its something that I'm into like photography, sports, video, random ridiculous fun.... but all too often as people we get caught up in talking about and tearing down the things we don't like. Well, I've been looking at some things, and every once in a while I have to take a step back and point out to you good people some of those cool things that I've found and give credit to the people who brought it to you.

For instance, if you're a fan of David Bowie then you might get a kick out of the fact that illustrator Andrew Kolb has turned "Space Oddity" into a picture book for kids. Personally I'm not much of a Bowie fan outside of Labrynth, but I really dig the creativity it required to even make the attempt, and the author is giving it away for free. That in itself is cool enough to check out.

How cool is this shot?

Taken from thatcutesite.com

Now, I can really see the potential for people mangling themselves in so many ways with this, but at the same time it looks like it could be the most ridiculously fun thing to do that I've heard of in a long time. I'm talking about Trampoline Dodgeball. I've never been one to subscribe to the notion that Dodgeball ruins self esteem in the little ones... I was a little one and I LOVED dodgeball, mostly because I wasn't a spaz, but this takes the buffoonery to a whole new level. I'm PSYCHED that they're opening a place about an hour away from me in Valley Cottage, NY in October at a place called Bounce and can't wait to get in there! Some of you are coming with me.

By now you know how much I can't stand the no talent hacks coming out of Hollywood, and I've said that as visually stunning as James Cameron's Avatar was, it seemed like a bunch of other movies pieced together. SO when I saw this I cried; it's brilliant and you should take a look. Disney's Pocahontas, er, Jame's Cameron's Avatar.... I think you nailed this Matt Bateman!

This is just an absolutely stunning picture of Hadrian's Wall

Taken from hadrians-wall.org

I've never been the type to worry about dropping good money on a good meal, and checking out new restaurants is something that I really enjoy, especially if there's something about it that you just can't get anywhere else. So when I saw this about Ithaa Restaurant, an underwater eatery so deep that the last Tsunami had no effect on it, I just had to check it out. For all I know the food could taste like rubbish, but then you're not really going down there for the food, are you? My friend Joanne is going to have to take me one day in her many travels, because that's what she does. It'd be cool to have a place like this around here, but the idea of watching that last turd I flushed float by above my head isn't exactly condusive to fine dining.

And here's something I just thought could come in handy, its a battery with a USB port, check it...

Pretty sick, huh? You tell me how primitive people

were able to pull this off without the help of aliens.

Taken from tourexpi.com

I have some strange obsession with yards completely enclosed by the house surrounding it all under a greenhouse roof, sort of like the way they have things set up at Sam's Town in good ole Las Vegas. I have some strange obsession with Real Estate in general really, the design of the building, the landscaping, the space, all of it. If there's some mix of sick architecture surrounded by mother nature I'm all in. So I think my next vacation has to be to this place in Ecuador, the Mashpi Lodge in the Mashpi Rainforest. Heating, cooling and power are some of the things I always have rolling around in my head when I think of these things, as in how to get them, and seeing they use hydroelectric in the jungle knocked my socks off. Beyond that, the place just looks incredible, and as long as I don't have to worry about Guerilla's (the ones with guns) it seems like an amazing experience. Hell... the Guerilla's would be an experience....

I didn't add a caption here for this because it's just one of many unbelievable shots that they have up at The Cool Hunter. If you're a fan of photography, or just beauty in general, then you absolutely owe it to yourself to check this out. I am completely in awe of the talent that it takes to even see these shots, much less find a way to present it to the world, and seeing them has me inspired. This is the kind of thing I could dedicate my life to. This is the beauty that's out there that most people never get to see and would be better just knowing it's out there.

This could be photoshopped, Bonsai trees growing out

of cracks in the side walk seems a bit far fetched, but

I still love shots like this. You find these things everyday

if you just take the time to look.

Taken from themetapicture.com

NFL Football is about to kick off this weekend, which has everyone on the planet pumped, so it's as good a time as any for me to reach back and throw this out there. I'm a HUGE sports fan, and an admitted stat geek, so when the new Total Quarterback Rating came out it just about gave me a hard on. They finally have an all encompassing statistic that tells you exactly how important every player on the field is. This really does cover every scenario that pops us, as seen in this Guide to Total QB Rating and I for one CAN'T WAIT till pulls the card on all of those over hyped over rated "stars" of the game out there.

Uh... just because...

Her name is Heather Doss... but I won't post a link because

she gets.... neked!

Here's what you all came for, I know. The Truth About Marijuana. I haven't done my fact checks on this, but from what I know about human nature, conspiracy theory, and how the machine is rigged to run, everything that's said in here makes total sense. I hadn't heard this angle before in anything that I've read, so look into it on your own before you take it as fact, as you should with everything, but if nothing else it's an interesting take on the subject. The article is more than 15 years old now, so I'm surprised that it's even still up, but read it and let me know what you think.

Finally, speaking of things done well, my very good friend Thaddeus over at TMCtheShow sent me this video up above. You have to be a fan of Star Wars and remember the old TV show Dallas and how it was done to truly appreciate it, but man did they nail this clip. It was done perfectly. And if you haven't done so already then be sure to check out TMCtheShow, they're doing some really great things and I know you'll enjoy it.

Later People! 

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