Best Proposal Ever – Isaac’s Live Lip-Dub Proposal

This is a bit late but….have you guys seen this?! I cried like a baby. It’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.

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Bob to the FACE

How was your Memorial Day? Let me tell you about mine…while ALL of my friends were either at a pool party or on a boat with their flippy floppies, I was with Marissa doing 6 hours of defensive driving. We picked the “comedy” one, which, turns out, isn’t all that funny.

Around hour 1:30 we were on the BAC part. All that talk about alcohol in the bloodstream made us thirsty, so we cracked open a bottle of wine and had polished off two bottles by the time our sessions were wrapping up. We then had to take brief naps after such a strenuous day of drinking learning.

We had plans to see Bob Schneider at Saxon Pub (his regular night there, btw) and so gulped down some coffee and hopped on over to the pub. I’ve been a big fan of Bobby for years, but have never seen him live. Since 2012 is my year of music, I was more than happy to make my Monday night about him. I hear he’s an asshole, but damn, everything inside me goes still when he sings. His lyrics, his musical diversity, his scruffy good looks and hair I want to gently tug…well, it was a good show.

I’m in Austin all week and we have debauchery planned almost every single minute – as is our usual style. May has been “Me Month”, and I’m going out with a bang for my last week by doing everything and anything that I want. Which I guess has been my attitude all month, but now I get to do it in a different city 🙂

This has been a little meditation experiment I decided to conduct and the timing seemed  right too considering I started May 1 (May Day), traditionally a celebration of new beginnings. So, in a nutshell, I’ve done exactly what I want, every single day, all month. May is rapidly coming to a close (sad), and some pretty interesting things have developed because of this. The most important thing that I’ve confirmed is how important it is to make myself happy first, before anyone else. To find MY joy, MY peace, MY freedom. Only then am I whole and complete and able to give to others. It’s amazing the amount of clarity, creativity and happiness that has been packed into these 30 days. More than in the last 6 months.

The energy’s a movin’ folks – I’m expecting amazing adventures this year. Maybe I’ll write more about this later. I’ll see if I feel like it.  🙂

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Mermaids!

Lucy’s serves mermaids in their cocktails. That is the only reason I went.

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Ozomatli at Stubbs – Memorial Day Weekend

I first heard Ozomatli when I saw Never Been Kissed back in the 90’s. In one movie scene, Drew Barrymore gets on stage with the band and dances around in drunken revelry. I looked them up, and an obsession was born for this L.A. based Chicano band.

They played at Stubbs last night, and I dragged Marissa along for what is always a spectacular show.

These guys are phenomenal performers – go see them!!!

A few videos if you want to check ’em out:

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Sundays at Freddie’s

Sunday mornings are best with patios, coffee, and the paper…

From there, we moved on to Freddie’s for bloodies and food. Hold the food.

Now to wait for Ozomatli at Stubbs tonight. Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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The Fire Starter Sessions

Started The Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle La Porte today and SUPER pumped. This came as a rec by the amazing Mercedes Maidana, and you can check out her blog on abundance here.

And here’s a wee poem that was in the opening pages that I’m rather fond of:

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you

-David Whyte

Expecting good things…

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Austin or Bust

Leaving for Austin today to spend the next two weeks with these honey badgers…

Don’t worry, Charlie is coming too

he looks slightly evil

Days of concerts, pool parties, float trips, drinking and just general living life in excess await me. I guess I’m excited.  Austin can be SO dull…

Happy Weekend!

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Jerry Seinfeld is Going to Make Me a Better Writer

The creative process is a curious thing. I used to think that creativity was a gift from the gods. A thing bestowed upon us at most inopportune moments, and if we didn’t take advantage of it as the moment struck, the genius would be lost forever.

That attitude is how I always approached my writing. If I wasn’t “feeling it”, I wouldn’t write. But what if I didn’t feel it for a month? Sometimes that happens – and I don’t write for a month. Then I discovered that when I needed to, it was like the well had run dry. Bizarre, if that gift already lies inside of me…

Over the months I’ve done a lot of reading and research about the creative process. James Altucher is one author who has hooked me on more than one occasion with his acerbic wit and unconventional wisdom. He, along with several others, stress the importance of exercising the creative muscle. It’s not a treasure chest meant to collect dust in my brain, opening at will when I need a nugget of gold every now and then. It’s a muscle that needs to be nurtured, coaxed and pushed to maintain its strength. You gotta feed the monster if you want it to grow.

What do all the successful writers suggest? That I write every day. Even if it’s bad. Hands down, one after another says this is the most crucial bit to the creative writing process. It’s much better to write 500 words of rubbish and then go back and delete it the following day, than to just sit around and wait for a moment of inspiration to strike. Because I’ve tried that method and frankly it hasn’t worked too well for me.

So, in taking some productivity advice from Jerry Seinfeld (I have a hard and fast rule of only taking advice from successful people), I’ve put a huge desk calendar on my wall. And every day that I write, I put a big X through that date at the end of the day. The goal is to have one long chain of X’s that never break. Little actions every day are more significant than one giant effort every few months. Every day I look at that calendar and it pushes me to continue the chain. So far, it’s been 9 days. 🙂

Since I plan on writing a book, I want to grab on tightly to my creative process so I can run alongside it when it decides to break free and run like a wild little unicorn.

Elizabeth Gilbert also has some pretty savvy thoughts about creativity that you can watch on this TED clip:

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Imagination – Dr. Wayne Dyer

I love Wayne Dyer, and I wish he would post more to his blog because his insights are like a light to the dark places in my soul. In his post below, he describes our imagination as hallowed ground, to be guarded severely against those who want to destroy our dreams. So good!

Happy Monday and let your imagination run wild this week!!! 🙂
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Your imagination is your own fertile field for growing any seedlings that you choose to plant for a future harvest.

You may have been told that you have always been a dreamer, as if this were a fault. I can speak here from experience. Family, friends, teachers, and even advisors frequently disparaged ideas that burned brightly in my imagination. I often heard comments such as, “Wayne, you’re such a dreamer. Get real. You are never going to make it as a writer, or a television performer, or a movie personality. Be realistic—we know what’s best for you.”

When I was being discharged from the Navy at the age of 22, my superiors warned me that starting college at my “advanced age” was loaded with uncertainty, particularly since I had no higher education experience, and I would be competing with younger recent high school graduates. Since I already had a skill as a cryptographer in the Navy, they advised me to pursue what they felt was best for me. But I had a dream—an imagination filled with the idea of teaching, writing, and speaking to large audiences. I saw myself onstage. I saw myself as a prominent author. And this vision could not and would not be sabotaged by someone else’s vision of what I should or could become.

As a young boy in a foster home, I almost always ignored other people’s ideas about what I should be thinking or doing—I simply was indifferent to their opinions regarding what I could imagine for myself. I have carried this kind of inner discipline regarding my own imagination with clarity, refusing to allow external opinions to cancel or diminish what for me was hallowed ground.

Not long ago, others advised me that acting in a movie was not sensible for me as a 68-year-old man with no acting experience. I once again remembered to hang the DO NOT DISTURB sign at the entrance to my imagination, and proceeded to take acting lessons and adopt the self-enforced regimen that allowed me to create a movie. It is a product that fills me with pride today—all because I have diligently practiced the following rule:

Never, and I mean never, allow anyone else’s ideas of who you can or can’t become sully your dream or pollute your imagination. This is your territory, and a KEEP OUT sign is a great thing to erect at all entrances to your imagination.

Stay in a state of grace and gratitude for this resplendent gift that is always yours to do with as you choose.

via The Dr. Wayne Dyer Blog – Dr. Wayne Dyer.

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What Wouldn’t Rick Astley Do?…

happy friday y’all

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