Need

ryan mentioned this anti-ipod campaign the other night. i just found a picture of it.

brilliant.

Something Real

"From now on, I'm only concerned with things that are real"
--Russell Hammond, Almost Famous

Great movie if you haven't seen it. In it Russell Hammond is a rock star who is fed up with the "industry of cool" that is rock and roll and wants to get to what is real in life.

We discussed yet another chapter at the book club tonight. The book has got me thinking of how we could be doing things different, how we could be living different, thinking different, be doing any or everything different. Its led me to start thinking of what is reality and what is the perception of reality that we operate under. Another great movie, Sneakers, had a line in it about this. "Everything operates, not on reality, but on the perception of reality."

So this is the mental exercise... What is real? Question everything. Question the big things, question the small things, question the day to day things and the things the day to day things are based on. What's on the list? To me, the list is quite small.

Is where I live real? The physical structure of my house is, but the borders of the property I claim to own is not. California is not. America is not. We create these borders, these lines in the sand and adhere to them, protect them, fight for them.

Is money real? No its a perceived value that we adhere to and operate business and market rules by.

What about love? Fear? Being a good person? Being cool? Being smart? Paying taxes? Eating at McDonalds? Going to church? Going to work?

What are the things we live our lives by that we think are real, have always thought are real, and have been taught to never questioned otherwise?

Why don't we think of a better way to do things? Why can't we think of a better way to do things? How would we live if we didn't believe some of the things we belive? Why is our imagination held captive by the belief, "because that is the way it is"

How much better could we live with a new imagination? What things could we live without in this new imagination. What new things could we invent? Where would we live? How would we live? What would happen?

Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Imagine no possessions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.
--John Lennon

Think about those words, but don't think about living for today, but living for forever, one day at a time. What would that look like? What would that feel like?

I'm trying to imagine.

Ben...

it's party time..

our good friend heath is being deployed in 7 days.. and we are devastated..
he'll be gone for the next 6-8 months, missing all the good holidays.. so we decided to throw him a surprise halloween/thanksgiving/christmas/new years/valentines day/birthday party..
the party went great.. heath was totally surprised... which was amazing considering the fact that his wife, rhianon is not a great liar.. and for that matter neither is ben.. but we pulled it off..
we had a fantastic time.. and everyone dressed up.. and we ate very well.. and enjoyed spending one more night with the amazing heath.. goodbye heath.. we are going to miss you.. stay safe.. and we can't wait to throw you a welcome home party..

the scooby gang, and pals..

fred flinstone, cookie monster, and friends..

ben and heath deep frying the turkey

the gang

matt lost his doughnut.. while drew is winning the game

mental patient ben setting up to the doughnut game

rhianon and chara setting up for the party

What this country needs

Now I don't normally get very political on this blog (or at least havent yet), but you know what this country really needs?

More cowbell



http://walken2008.com/

thats right, Christopher Walken for President in 2008 people!

finally a candidate that everyone can get behind.

lets reunite those red and blue states people!

Ben...

Sharing photo's and video's

I still plan to get some videos up on this blog someday soon, but untill then

there is a new program out that i am helping work on. It allows you to share your photo's and videos and such with friends and family

its called Project Neon (temporary name) and its free

download it and check it out. (windows only)

search for my contact name on it and you can see some of my Thailand photo's and some of our scuba videos. My username is cote289.

let me know how you like it

Ben...

worse than being sick

so i found out whats worse than being sick

being sick and going to costco and not being able to taste all of the good samples they offer

so sad

Ben...

money for nothing...

what a very very long, unhappy day..
"what's that san diego state? you want 300 bucks for school supplies???? sure.. let me just write you a check.."
"what's that san diego state? you want 700 more dollars for books???? sure.. here's a credit card?? oh.. and if i spend more than 250 bucks i get a 25 dollar star bucks gift card.. well.. that makes the 700 dollars worth in books (books alone people) totally worth it... "
that's not even the tuition...
i could have spent more... they tried to sell me a 'fanny pack'.. all that peer pressure.. and i still said no..

being sick...

being sick is the worst...

Great visit wth Jeff and Amber

Just returned home from heading up north a bit to Thousand Oaks area to vistit Jeff and Amber. We did a bit of biking, saw thier new house and just had some good time and good food. Why don't we have a wood ranch down by us???

It was sad we had to leave, but we had a fun time. see the pictures of us biking below

Ben...

Chara helping Jeff mount the bikes

Jeff going to show us how its done...

Chara ready for a serious ride... armed with her horn

Amber and Chara