Lesson #5 – Appreciate things the way they are

We are all set in our ways.  We know how we like things and when they are different we complain.  Life is not about getting things your way.  It’s about experiencing things in new ways.

Here’s a good example:  One of my co-workers who I go to lunch with each day is a Mexican Food snob.  He won’t try new mexican food places if they don’t meet his requirements for authenticity.  (Nevermind the fact that no mexican food in Texas is authentic.  It’s all Tex-Mex.)  He is set in his ways about how his food should be and won’t even consider trying restaurants that might be, in his opinion, lesser.

I find myself in similar situations quite often.  I have to remind myself that it’s good to try new things or even old things in new ways.  I might enjoy it just as much or even more.  You have to appreciate things as they are and not try to make them your way.  I think I’m doing a pretty good job of it.  While other people order things specially prepared I almost always go with the as-is plate.  I want to taste it like the chef intended.  I don’t even add salt.

Restaurants are good examples but this lesson can also be applied to other life situations.  Remember it next time you are being picky about something.  There’s a really good chance that somebody put a lot of time and research into making it the way it is.  It might just be perfect already.

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Help! I’m trapped!

Help!  I’m trapped in my office and can’t get out.

I have nothing to do but sit here and watch my life pass away.

Tick.  Tick. Tick.

Please help me!

Is the Internet censored?

I’m often searching the internet for niche things.  Interests that perhaps few people have but might be passionate about.  I would expect to find pages and information about these things and become frustrated not to turn up satisfactory results.

It leaves me asking, “Where is the rest of the internet and how do I get to it?”

I know you’re out there!  Why am I not finding you?  I think the internet is censored.  I can’t even find an underground search engine.  I see terms like “Dark Internet” and “Deep Web” referring to pages that are not indexed by the search engines.  I need to find the back entrance to the web.  Any ideas?

Quick Movie Review – Disney’s The Kid

I totally LOVE this movie.  It has been one of my favorites for many years.  Disney’s The Kid is a great Time Travel / Alternate Timeline / Fix Your Life kind of movie.

Bruce Willis plays a self-centered business guy who is about to turn 40.  A basic “Loser” with no wife and no dog.  He is visited by himself as an eight year old boy.  They have to figure out why he is there.  Bruce Willis is great in this movie and the kid is totally adorable.  This story is so much like my own.

I wish my eight-year-old self would come visit me.  I could really use his help.  I wonder what he would think of me.  I’m sure he would be disappointed but not surprised.  I’m now in my 40s, wifeless and dogless and not a pilot.  Your basic loser.  He wouldn’t be surprised because I knew at a very young age that I was not destined to live a common life.  There was a time in elementary school when I thought it was possible that I might get married but it wasn’t long afterwards that I knew it was never going to happen. Whether my life is better than or less than a common life is yet to be determined.

(Spoiler) In the end of the movie Middle-aged and young Rusties meet their older-aged future Rusty who has a family, a dog and is a pilot.  Everything turns out just fine.

I do have an interest in learning to fly.  I’ve always wanted to fly a helicopter.  I don’t know how realistic this dream is but you have to do what you have to do if you are going to succeed on this planet.  I don’t really see myself doing it though but I’m not going to say it’s impossible.  No matter how hard I try, I can’t imagine myself with a family.  I guess anything can happen.

Non-manly confessions – Football

I don’t know how to throw a football.

My father died in 1977 when I was 9.  He never got around to teaching me. My friends occasionally played football but I was afraid I would get hurt so I never joined them.  I think this was the very beginning of my separation from human kind.  The rift only grew deeper from that point on.

We did play a lot of soccer.  I wasn’t afraid of soccer because nobody got tackled. Still, to this day I don’t know how to throw a football.  I don’t even like to watch games on TV.  It’s very painful for me.

 

 

Dreamblog – Basket Case

We were sitting in a large room at work when an older female co-worker came in and started singing Basket Case by Greenday.

Do you have the time
To listen to me whine….

She got the first two lines right but wasn’t doing well on the rest.  She kept mentioning children and I kept saying, No.. No.  It’s like this.

Feeling Restless

For the last few days I’ve been feeling rather restless.  I feel the need to go do something but I don’t know what it is.  It’s not that I can’t get outside.  Winter in San Antonio is actually the BEST time to be outside.  As usual, though, I’m all worked up with nowhere to go.  The weekend goes by so fast.  I’m almost afraid to go somewhere because that will only make time go by faster.

I also have another dilemma about going places.  I don’t want to go alone but I even more don’t want to go with someone else.  That’s quite the rock and hard place issue.  What’s a guy to do?

I don’t want to just sit here and watch TV.  I feel I’m wasting precious time and life.   I don’t have a major project to work on right now.  I guess I need to come up with something.  I sure wish I had a clone of myself to do stuff with.  Are there any clones out there?  This is very frustrating.