future

People often fail to achieve their goals.

It's not because they don't understand what their goals are. People are dreamers, they spend a good chunk of their day closing thier eyes and letting their minds wander to a life where their dreams are all reality.  We can all do it.  We all know where we want to go.

The problem lies in another place. Well, really in two other places.

The first is the path needed to get from here to the goal. This is pretty clear to most people, they know deep down that they don't really know which turn to take or how it might affect their overall route. Still, people often think that if they just drive and drive, sometimes with vigour and effort, then they will eventually reach their goal. These people need to either sit down and draw a map, or buy a GPS.


The second problem is trickier to accept. But, the reality is that far too many people just don't know where the heck they are right now!

the one I love

much of my love drives from a simple question:

How would I react if the one I love was hurt?

It's the worst thing I can imagine. Being helpless to help her while others hurt her makes me simultaneously detest war and violence, and want to appreciate the time I have left to spend with her.

Goals

Goals should be positive.

Don't have goals like do this or don't do that.

Have goals which are more to the heart and will drive you.

For example:

"Help make people happy" is better than

"Be nice to people"  because this is not sepecific and there is no real outside way to measure it.

it is better than:

"Don't be an asshole"   because this is avoiding something.  There is no achievable result.

An even better goals might be:
"Go above and beyond to help make people happy"

This goal is great because it has a measurable result you can feel immediately - going above and beyond, and also the outside measureable one.

Now, this is all just stuff that I came up with on the spot. So don't take it seriously.

Living in Vancouver

The truth is that life in Vancouver is pretty easy.

The weather is tolerable in the fall and spring, not bad in the winter and amazing in the summer.

People here have easy access to all they need to live - shelter, food, clothing, and medical care.  It is safe here - crime, especially of the violent sort, is surprisingly rare.

Of course, there are those people, who through challenges in their lives, are unable to claim the resources available to them.  Many of these people live on the streets of the downtown eastside.

This is a reality that I have learned by living here. That no matter what you have in front of you, the challenge always lives within.

People here, and everywhere, create challenges appropriate to their level of needs. At the bottom of our city, people are challenged with solving the problem of how to get that next hit. In the middle, people worry about their RRSPs and house payments, and the top, they worry about their businesses and image.

The girl at the club who is having the worst night of her life because her girlfriend left the party early for her ex boyfriend feels every bit as much stress and anguish as the homeless man who just lost a $10 bill to the wind and the waters of Coal Harbour.

The point I am getting at is that we have all we need in this city to live, and so we get the opportunity to create our own challenges, desires, and interests. Unlike the hundreds of millions around the world who are truly only concerned with basic needs such as food, health care, fear of rape or war, and protecting their children, we get to indulge.

That is what Inventions and Dimensions is to me.  Inventing interests and passions through art.  Creating new dimensions of emotion and experience through art.  Giving more meaning to life through Art. Why?  Because art is one of the most powerful ways that we can create connections to each other through shared experience, interest, and intrigue.

Art gives others the opportunity to start a conversation with us. It gives us the chance to challenge our ideas of the world. It gives us the ability to meet the artist in a way by contemplating their thoughts and ideas. To me, art isn't about colour or style, it is about the emotional responses that it triggers and the experiences that it gives way to.

My biggest hope is that through the art that we help to put out into the world, more people can connect, think, and live their lives in the richest way possible - to help them take advantage of all they have here and live life without the need to invent problems and crises.

Childhood

When I was a kid, I spent my time playing hockey, listening to music, trying to write stories and rap songs, trying to play the keyboard, trying to do graphic design, trying to sketch, trying to make videos with my sisters camcorder.

When did I drop my creative side.  Een if I was never too great at any of those things , I wasn't terrible at all of them, and at least I enjoyed them.

Time to get back?

Lost Wallet

A forty five minute search this morning ended with a defeated shrug. I had lost my wallet sometime on the way home from the bar last night.

It was an emotional search. 

Casual at first - "now where did I put it last night?"

Slowly becoming more frantic - "if I don't find it soon I'm going to be late for work..."

Then anger - "where is the damn thing!"

Then defeat - "it's ... gone."

The walk to work this morning was filled with thoughts about my wallet - where exactly did I go, did I remember taking it out anywhere? I decided to call the bar we were at last night when it opened on the off chance that it was turned in. We were outside on the patio - pretty much on the street, so it would have been an easy grab for many of the passers by looking for a quick buck, but there was a chance nonetheless.

I thought about what may have happened to my wallet, someone may ave grabbed it, taken the cash, and then thrown it in the garbage. Someone else may have actually walked it down to the local police box, maybe someone else has the wallet right now and is trying to figure out how to contact me. I hoped that a good person who was willing to take the effort had found the wallet. Or, at least I hoped that someone who really needed the money found it.

Then, my thoughts turned to self-flagellation at having being suitably inept as to have left the thing somewhere in the first place. How stupid was I anyhow?  Maybe I should just quit my job today, as I certainly didn't deserve to get paid for anything that I was capable of - they could surely do better.

Anyhow, at this point I realized that thinking and worrying about my wallet was wasting valuable time.  How could I take this experience and turn it into a positive one?

Well, the answer eluded me.

But! I forced myself to realize that life is what it is and you are where you are. No point in dwelling on the wallet.  Just buy a new one, get new cards and get on with the day.

How to be a great person

Everyday, a new tip on how to be a great person.
Sometimes a sentence, sometimes more.
Sometimes a quote, sometimes not.

direction

He was looking for meaning, but happened upon beauty instead...

reflection

Remember where you've been, but never look back.

I heard this today

Dance like no one is watching.
Sing like no one is listening.
Love
like you've never been hurt.
Live like it's heaven on Earth.

I am often sullen, irritable, and difficult to get along with.

Often depressed and frustrated, I try to push those around me away. Searching for some type of freedom, I suppose. With no one around to let down or hurt, life would be less stressful is the thinking.  Of course, that doesn't make any sense at all. Life would still be the same, only now I would be bored on top of it.

At 30, I am already done.

I have exceeded my childhood dreams and become successful in every thing that I have tried. Up until recently, I felt good about myself when I knew more than the person nest to me, or when they were impressed by something that I'd said or done. Not anymore - at this point enough self-esteem has built up inside me that other peoples words just aren't needed. I have no more to prove to anyone.

The idea of throwing myself into some work or career focused pursuit seems very unlikely. Truth is, I just don't care anymore. Same reasoning produces the answer to the question of why don't I study anymore. Reading and learning has been a constant in my life from the beginning. However, I just don't see the point in learning anymore - is there any reason to know any more than I already do? Why read when I could just be lying on the grass in the sun listening to Jazz on my ipod or hiking through the amazing forests of BC - feeling life instead of imagining it through words.

Ideas that do appeal to me are being interesting and helpful to the people around me. While I no longer desire to impress people and build myself up, I still desire being wanted, needed, and accepted. If I can be a person who is liked and appreciated my heart will become a little bit lighter.

Right now, I am in a quiet, dark, and unusually cold office. Dark blue cubicles surround me with human machines plugging away manufacturing software. Although I am surrounded by people, the only sounds I can hear are the blow of the air con and the clitter clatter of typing. No voices, no life. Well, there is life, but it is being lived only in our minds here. I believe that most people in IT enjoy their jobs. With fancy equipment and the latest trends to learn and play with, they are like kids working in a a toy store. It is clear that many people in this industry are completely satisfied to live their lives toiling at computers, moving one step a day learning and building.

My problem is that for me it is a completely boring waste of time. Nobody is being truly helped to live a better life by anything that I do from 9-5 everyday. It is for the completely selfish materialistic desires that pollute my veins that I come in everyday. Since I'm not doing anything useful anyhow - I could be lying at the beach listening to Jazz.

Today I heard a man speak whose wife had been run down by a car driving recklessly. She survived, in pain and suffering for 10 hours before peace finally came. Then, she was gone. My thoughts went to Nori. What would I be saying, thinking, and feeling if she were killed so savegely? It would crush and tear my heart to see her in pain.  Such a pure angelic should should never be made to suffer that way. Later in the day I was reminder of a young Korean woman who was brutally beaten on a random whim while jogging in Vancouver's Stanley Park. She was subjected to enough damage that she requires support and care 24 hours a day. Perhaps more painful is her inability to control her body the way she would like to. How frustrating it must be to be unable to move and communicate.

Again, my thoughts floated to Nori. What if she were beaten like that? I immediately wished that there were something that I could do to directly help and support this young woman. She was an innocent young angel who was forever condemned to overcome mountainous challenges. Meanwhile, here I was bored and unchallenged at my computer terminal with no goals or problems in my life.  Wasn't being here wasteful and selfish.  And if it was selfish then why the hell was I doing it even if I didn't want to be?

I live in canada and I likely have about 2 or 3 more years of complete physical fitness. After that, I will still have another 25 or 30 years of mental fitness. It is unlikely that I will ever find trouble getting my hands on food or shelter and there is a world of possibilities open to me. I know that this one life is all that I get and that I am as capable as anyone of doing pretty much anything that I want to do. So, why not drop out. Start volunteering and supporting those that face challenges. Give them some of the freedom which makes my life so dull. Take some of their hope and energy and give them some of your luxury.

Sounds like a fair trade. And, It just so happens that I know the first place to start.

Words which capture it

Have something to strive for.  What is it?

Today is different and so are you.

No limits.

You don't have ALS.

Is there really anything you can't do?  With so little time left stop making excuses and just get on with it.

Life is a battle between the short game and the long game. I guess my opinion is that it is better to play the short game as hard as possible, but without actually forgetting the longgame.

Goals

Goals should be positive.

Don't have goals like do this or don't do that.

Have goals which are more to the heart and will drive you.

For example:

"Help make people happy" is better than

"Be nice to people"  because this is not sepecific and there is no real outside way to measure it.

it is better than:

"Don't be an asshole"   because this is avoiding something.  There is no achievable result.

An even better goals might be:
"Go above and beyond to help make people happy"

This goal is great because it has a measurable result you can feel immediately - going above and beyond, and also the outside measureable one.

Now, this is all just stuff that I came up with on the spot. So don't take it seriously.

the one I love

much of my love drives from a simple question:

How would I react if the one I love was hurt?

It's the worst thing I can imagine. Being helpless to help her while others hurt her makes me simultaneously detest war and violence, and want to appreciate the time I have left to spend with her.

I heard this today

Dance like no one is watching.
Sing like no one is listening.
Love
like you've never been hurt.
Live like it's heaven on Earth.

future

People often fail to achieve their goals.

It's not because they don't understand what their goals are. People are dreamers, they spend a good chunk of their day closing thier eyes and letting their minds wander to a life where their dreams are all reality.  We can all do it.  We all know where we want to go.

The problem lies in another place. Well, really in two other places.

The first is the path needed to get from here to the goal. This is pretty clear to most people, they know deep down that they don't really know which turn to take or how it might affect their overall route. Still, people often think that if they just drive and drive, sometimes with vigour and effort, then they will eventually reach their goal. These people need to either sit down and draw a map, or buy a GPS.


The second problem is trickier to accept. But, the reality is that far too many people just don't know where the heck they are right now!

Focus

If you want to go big, then don't try to make small improvements to you rcurrent situation.

If your current life is a rectangle, but you really want to be a smiley face, then you need to bite the bullet and erase the rectangle.

It'll hurt at first, as you'll be left with a blank page, but it's the only way to get to where you want to be. No matter how pretty and strong you make that rectangle, it ain't going to grow a smile.

It's the same in life.  If you are in middle management, but you really deserve to be a wealthy business owner, then no matter how many stock options you get, or commissions, or pay raises, you are never going to get where you want to be.

To make matters worse, most career drones suffer from massive amounts of anchoring and green grass syndromes. They want a 5% raise instead of their neighbours 3%, or they want to corner office, or the new promotion. In 99% of cases these periodic rewards will only move you up at a mostly linear pace. Dare I say that you should really be looking for square, cubic, or even logarithmic growth?

past

What do you do when you realize you walked right by a past that was a beautiful flower which offered beuty at every turn?

Adn what do you do when that flower has since withered, but still stares at you every morning from the garden?

Remember the flower as beautiful, or take it out and put something fresh in it's place?

Who needs shoeboxes anyhow

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/04/14/con-puma-bag.html?ref=rss#socialcomments-submit

Puma has come up with the idea of using "reusable" plastic bags instead of cardboard shoeboxes.

Just because the bags use less paper and cause less carbon to be spewed doesn't mean that they are better. They still will be around for 100's of 1000's of years, as they are plastic.

And even if you recycle them, you are still using energy to do so, causing environmental waste.

To me, the idea of reduce, reuse, recycle is good.  But, we need to remember that 99% of our effort needs to be "reduce." The reuse and recycle are of very, very limited benefit.

Just sell the damned shoes without a box.

Take what's yours

I just go off of the phone with my sister. As is often the case, it was a mildly frustrating conversation. Out of luck and fortune, I was able to come across extra tickets to the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic games. I invited my sister and her son (my nephew) to come along. My nephew was all over it. Yes right away.

My sister however -- "I can't come, I just think it will be too hard with the baby (my 1 year old niece)"

"How about a babysitter"

"I can't afford one"

"What about a friend?"

"I don't know anyone that would take a one year old"

I wanted to ask the obvious - "What about her dad, your boyfriend, who lives in the same city as you." But thought better of it, because it would induce an ear numbing 45 minute explanation.

What is wrong with my sister? why doesn't she put her brain and mouth to work for her and come up with a solution? She is a nice person. there absolutely must be someone out there in the world who would help her to have a great time and make some lasting memories.

I think that her problem is this:

She is hiding from life.

She makes excuses and lives a fairly pitiful life - constantly poor despite an income of around 60K - consantly pulled down by her responsibilities when a little proactiveness on her part would free her greatly.

What the heck is she afraid of

I was thinking this when it occurred to me that I am exactly the same way. Always a little too cautious to get what I really want. Alwasy fearful of appearing needy and wanting. Well, no more! I've got it figured out now, so it is time for this to stop.

What I want, look out, cause I'm coming to get you!