Loose Ends

A few lessons I’ve learnt in life that might make sense to others…

Tie the loose ends

There are a bunch of things on your mind; little things that constantly nag you, small hiccups that come up just when you’re starting to have a good time… FIX EM’. I’m not talking about big life changing steps, if you’re gay and your name is Mike Huckabee, you may want to think a little before opening the closet door, but I am taking about waking up an hour early on Sunday morning and making calls to those 5 friends you haven’t touched base with for the last 2 years. And in the meantime, they’ve popped out a couple of kids… or about going to the doc to fix that muscle pull from the snowboarding trip you took…. 4 months ago.

Figure out what it is, schedule time for it, and go do it. Most of us cannot multitask and the more little loose ends you tie up, you’ll free yourself to make better decisions on the big stuff and have a higher quality of life.

Be Optimistic

So you’ve been in the dumps for a while, and you’ve accepted that as a fact of life. You speak in a lower voice, you are risk averse, you’re easily brushed aside… what gives?? Let me give you a hint, it’s not bad fortune. It’s up-to you to stand up and make a difference in your life. So step out of your shell, smile, don’t care too much about other people’s opinion and be optimistic. Really there is no way to tell the cause and effect here, you’re probably in second gear because you don’t wanna make the effort to switch (or get an automatic), not because you wound up with a wilty 2 stroke auto-rickshaw made in India.

If there is one thing that keeps the world going, it is optimism. Inherently we know that at any point there are 2 options: make things better or worse… i’ll choose better any day.

Be Kind to Others… and Yourself 

You cant get 2 people together for a party or a movie, well neither can those 2 people, but that’s not the point. People have personalities that are just as complex (read warped) as yours. Be sensitive to them just as you might expect them to be to yours and give them a break.

Unwittingly or not, people end up giving off prepackaged vibes about themselves (cool guy, smart guy, corporate girl climbing the ladder… whatever). Call it peer pressure or just conditioning based on their experiences. However, I’ve often found people to be very different from the first impression they give off. And usually better in most cases. The way I look at it is that people have different priorities, different goals, different taboos and different upbringing, and that shapes their day to day behavior and the impressions they leave. Just leave it at that… cause you are no different in that sense.

Be Enthusiastic

You always wonder how these huge organizations, sports clubs, dance clubs, hobby clubs etc come about. Comes down to one word… enthusiasm. Some little (or large) prick got enough people excited enough to participate in something and it just took off. There were  a lot of cool people hanging around who are still doing just that… hanging around while that prick went on to enrich their life and the lives of others. And probably made a lot of money doing so. And maaaaaybe got laid too (it’s a stretch though).

The fact of life is that people are busy and they’re all caught up in their own versions of the same problems that you’re facing. So shed you inhibitions, expose your enthusiasm and go out there participate. You never know what you’re going to find and create. Have fun.

CNN – No Ron Paul

Dec 16 was the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Ron Paul supporters organized a massive fund raiser and raised over $6 million dollars which happens to be a record for a single day for any candidate in the history of the US.

Huge news you would think.

Ron Paul is anti-Bush, anti-war, has no special interests to please, a clean and consistent record and is corruption free… not the typical politician such as Giuliani, Romney or Clinton. Without the help of mainstream media and infact without even his own participation, over $6 million dollars have been raised for him. You would think this news is all over the media and he would be given coverage for many hours atleast today, the day he made the record.

But hell no, CNN is busy covering Pam Anderson’s boobies (or was it her 2 month marriage… they’re fabulous babe but you know what I mean? .  At one point during the afternoon, there was a little link up there but disappeared within the hour.

MSNBC was slightly better. They had an inconspicuous little link for a long time on the website… but Sanjay was the main attraction of the day… WTF???

How can I believe that a single honest journalist works in these organizations when there has been no effort to bring forward the most important news of the day or even this entire election so far. The fools in Fox get a memo that tells them what to do but you guys in CNN are self motivated… fucking over-achievers.

 Anyway, maybe it’s all for the better… piss more people off and you might just create the tipping point that lazy Americans need to kick Bush and his cronies along with his followup acts Guiliani and Romney out…

 Here’s Ron Paul’s website: http://www.ronpaul2008.com 

And here’s a word of wisdom from Kent Snyder, Ron Paul’s campaign chairman

“Mainstream media is behind the times… maybe 2 or 3 years behind”

Think about that… it’s before You Tube or Digg were around… damn they’re fuckin’ dinosaurs

Check him out, donate and spread the word… Peace

No Woman No Cry

I love this song… and am currently trying to learn the lyrics and play it on the guitar. I first heard it when I was little, many years ago and it always stayed me.  To me it was symbolic of Bob Marley.

There’s a bunch of people who have performed this song and I was wondering if this really was a Bob Marley original. Turns out that it is though Wikipedia says that it might be a friend of his who actually wrote it. This friend ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown.  

“Though Bob Marley likely wrote the song himself, songwriter credits were given to “V. Ford”. Vincent Ford was a friend of Marley’s who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown, the ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica where Marley grew up. The royalty cheques received by Ford ensured the survival and continual running of his soup kitchen”

 - From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Woman_No_Cry

In any case, for some reason, this song transports me to my childhood where growing up on sea ports in India (Bombay and Vishakapatnam (Vizag)) my friends and I would find ourselves sitting on deserted naval jetties, watching boats and ship and also sailing little boats in the sea. Really no connection but I think it’s the line “I remember when we used to sit in a government yard in Trenchtown”.

With all respect to Bob Marley, there’s something about songs like these which makes them bigger than their creators. Another song in this category is “Imagine” by John Lennon.

One of my favorite renditions of this songs is by Boney M… they just dont make bands like that any more… I love the way Liz Mitchell (I think) swings to the groove of this song… it’s simple and beautiful. Here it is

 and here is the one and only Bob Marley (respect) doin’ it.