Mom’s key to happiness….

#1. Asking questions

I know the #1 implies I’m building a list, but I haven’t really thought out a list yet. This is just something I was thinking about this morning, during a morning workout (which was my first since my mom passed, and it felt better than I thought).

Cumberland sunset photo

Ok, so I’m not doing too well with the photo journal, but I’m working
on it. Things have been pretty busy as I’ve been trying to get things
back on track with the business. Anyway, I’ve been going through my
camera and unloading all the pictures on there since I last emptied it
(probably in July). Here is a picture from my August trip to Lake
Cumberland with Julie (my girlfriend) and her family. Enjoy:

Unique Ability

In preparation for the seminar this past weekend I was asked to send out a brief questionaire to a few friends and family.

The Unique-Edge

I apologize for the disappearance over the last week. I’m really just going with my gut these days, and not forcing myself to do anything I don’t want to. I didn’t feel like writing last week, so I didn’t.

Photo Journal

Inspired by my sister (it was her idea) I’m going to add a photo
journal to my blog. Basically the idea is to snap one picture a day of
something interesting (not very deep, I know) and then post it up
here. Today I’m going to start with 3 pics taken over the weekend on
my weekend trip to Julie’s parents house in Huron, OH on Lake Erie.
Tom, Julie, and I met up and stayed with Julie’s parents at their newly
built, cozy house. It was a relaxing, brain break, computer free
weekend.

A dream of mom….

I’m not sure what it is, but it seems that after my mom died a lot of her close friends (and family) started having dreams of her. They would talk about how healthy, happy, and alive she looked in these dreams. And everyone talked about seeing her with that big, big trademark smile on her face (I miss that smile a lot). But the strange thing was that those who were closest to her (my sister, Tom, and I) have not had any dreams of her yet (at least that I know of for the other two). I’m not typical a big dreamer anyway. I know that I have them, but I rarely wake up in the morning with a clear memory of the movies that played in my head while I slept. But last night was different, I saw my mom.

Who said the internet was antisocial?

Just a quick thought…I was looking at the traffic stats for my blog, and quite frankly I was amazed. I thought no one other than a few family members, a couple friends, and the occassional wanderer visited my website.

Life in perspective

I’m hooked. The PBS special Country Boys, a film following the lives of two teenage boys from Appalachia is fantastic and I’d recommend it to anyone. I can’t really put into words all the thoughts and feelings I had watching this program, but I will say that I did have an overall good feeling about people. We’re all trying to do the same things while we are here, no matter where or when you grew up. We all want to love, be loved, have fun, be fun, learn, teach, grow, and live. I know that things get complicated, and we sometimes think that the means are more important than the end.

Feeling it

This weekend was very intense for me emotionally. Touched off by a little argument between my girlfriend Julie and I, the floodgates were opened and my emotions came pouring out. I really had a lot of sadness, crying, and pain related to losing my mom. For the first time since she left, I really was overcome with these emotions and the finality of the event started to sink in. I’ve never felt anything like it. I guess I never really surrendered myself to emotions before, and I have to say I’d recommend it to anyone (but please be careful when you cry, I somehow managed to pull something in my back this weekend from an intense bout of crying). After all, the tears, the sadness, the joy, love, happiness, jealousy, anger, etc are what makes us human, and denying ourselves these wonderful things is denying ourselves the feeling of being alive. This is a wonderful message my mom constantly tried to teach me. I remember a wonderful moment with her where I was overcome with emotion surrounding the break up with a girlfriend. I cried to her, and went on and on about how unfair it was. She stopped me, “Step back a minute. Look at the intensity of those emotions you’re feeling right now. Aren’t they beautiful? Isn’t it wonderful that you can feel those throughout your body?” It stuck with me.

I wonder how long it will take….

for the RIAA or record companies to get it? First the Sony fiasco and now this, the new Coldplay cd will come chocked full of DRM (digital rights management) goodies. From the cd itself:

“The DRM restrictions prevent the CD from being played in “some” CD
players, CD-recordable or rewritable hard drives, DVD players, game
consoles such as a Playstation or Xbox, and prevents any attempt to
copy the CD or “rip” the tracks to MP3 format. The CD’s restrictions
also prevent it from being played or copied on Macintosh PCs.”

They also strongly discourage you from staring directly at the cd cover art, thinking about the cd, listening to it, or removing the plastic wrap it comes in. And record companies wonder why people download free music, let’s weigh the options: 1.) Buy the cd (pay $20), dig out my old cd player and completely change the way I listen to music. If I lose or break the cd, I lose it forever 2.) Download the cd for free on limewire or a million (I mean a MILLION) other sites or p2p programs, put it on my ipod or do whatever the heck I want with it, and if I lose it (which I won’t), I can download it again.

It’s not an issue of money, it’s a matter of control. If you give me MORE freedom with the music when I pay for it, MORE features (lyrics, access to exclusive tracks on the website, videos, photos, HIGHER SOUND QUALITY) and COMPLETE control, I’ll pay for it. Unfortunately, the RIAA and record companies are going the wrong way. The pirating will continue.