Everyone

Everyone is wrong. Everyone is right. At some time in our life, we are compelled to abandon the wisdom of our predecessors and create our own wisdom. Sometimes this wisdom fails us. When we create this wisdom, we never believe it will fail us. Sometimes this wisdom releases our bonds, frees us from a restriction that at one time, was designed to protect us. To ponder weakness, to know it, is to step away from our wisdom, and to see it with new eyes. Audacity is not audacity because it always yields success. Audacity is the possibility of failure, the likelihood of error, the edge of ignorance and disrespect. To be audacious is to dismantle, as well as to embrace; to challenge, as well as to ignore; to hurt, as well as to love.

The most overused phrase of 2011

I've heard it a thousand times this year. Everyone from pundits and politicians to neighbors and website-comment-section (aka hate gallery) posters: The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting different results. I hereby claim this phrase beaten-dead, trite, and just-plain-tired. The definition of insanity is not "doing something over and over again and expecting different results," no, that is the definition of lack of creativity - or, perhaps the definition of some levels of "Angry Birds." I submit that the definition of insanity is "the state of being seriously mentally ill" because that is the definition set forth by Oxford, an ancient and alien civilization that left us the inerrant "book of definition" they call a "dictionary" back at the dawn of creation. I guess the whole irony of the over-usage is that people who use this phrase are so often guilty of their own accusation - they keep using this phrase and expecting different results, i.e. that people will actually listen to them. But no, this phrase, that when I first heard it several years ago made me think, "oh, that's cute," now has me blowing acidic chunks of my last meal into the Thomas Crapper. I'm not listening.

Courage

The pencil of my life has drawn a line dissimilar,
For courage is no evasive fool,
Bound by history's doubts or trouble's cure.
Hesitation chases bravery into uncommon alleys,
Where paupers are quietly forgotten,
And questions answer themselves always.

Speak now, O invisible future!

Loose your tongue, O latent future!
Save not the present nor the past.
Their burdens, as a dream, linger for years,
As ghost-like children echo in the yard,
Not to be guessed or chosen or freed.
Or the bondsman's back, how heavily weighed,
His cane bending, cracking at each step.
Fear not truth, O unknowing future!
How confidence evades your every need.
No doubt, step surely into the fog,
And bring me soundly my humble dreams.

I SEE A RED DOOR AND I WANT IT PAINTED BLACK.

I once was a boy with hopeless determination. Blindly pursuing pain in its most appealing dress. I may never again know a sincerity with such shamelessness. Honesty is not a thing to forgive or forget, but ingrained in everyone is a desire to escape this truth. The pain. Oh, it was such an appealing dress.

5 Minute Distraction...

A friend told me that he thought Radiohead was OK. "All their songs sound the same," he explained. "But Radiohead is praised for reinventing their sound every album!" was my defense. I made him a mix of Radiohead to cure the ailment. Maybe there will be a cure, maybe not. It's his choice if he wants to let John Mayer satisfy his music listening needs.

Song list:

Creep
Karma Police
Black Star
House of Cards
High and Dry
I Might Be Wrong
Fake Plastic Trees
Everything In Its Right Place
Airbag
Talk Show Host
There There (The Boney King of Nowhere)
Lucky
Exit Music (For a Film)
Idioteque
15 Steps
How to Disappear Completely

To answer criticisms of the list: I put Creep on first (and other very well known Radiohead songs) because one of my theories was that he probably knew many Radiohead songs, but just did not realize they were Radiohead songs.

Engagement Photos