Be Different

Raise your hand if you want to be a completely normal person?

I bet no one even thought about taking a finger off of their mouse. This is maybe because you looked at ‘normal’ in a bad way and not a positive way. Or it could have been because we haven’t defined what ‘normal’ is yet.

Let’s create a quick definition to define the word normal. Normal is someone who follows and blends in with the crowd. They never really standout especially if they don’t have to. Their life is good, no financial problems, have a wife, maybe kids, but all-in-all it’s relatively bland. (or ‘safe’, for you normal people out there reading, haha)

Now with that definition in mind we can start to look at why people probably didn’t want to take their hand off of their mouse when asked if they were normal.

Why is that, is it because no one wants to be like someone else? No one wants be thought of as a follower. Especially because a leader receives a lot more praise and recognition. Who knows, could be the reason, but that’s not my point that I want to get at.

What I really want to say is being different is cool, and being unique (IMO) is the best. Don’t go out and try to put on the most crazy shjt ever, out of your closet, but be happy in your own right. Be yourself and no one else. Be different, because god knows we aren’t all the same. And if you want to get technical, we are not even close. I mean, I for example, look nothing like my dad. (But damn, the postman looks like my twin, lol) Nah just playing… sort of.

Anyways, just a random rant to all the people who, either are different and love it, or to the posers who try to be different. Big hint to the latter group, it ain’t gunna work. Us original people will be able to pick you out in a heartbeat, we know the fakes. So take off the 15 color shirt and the messed up jeans with the stolen cap, we know. You do it for the wrong reasons, and that’s to get attention. The real originals just are. We don’t mimic or copy, we just do.

Later-

Posted in: , , , , , on Thursday, June 11, 2009 at at 3:12 PM 7 comments  

Managing Expectations

“Managing Expectations”

Life can be completely characterized by this one concept, about this one piece of advice. But how can these 2 words above, possibly help you daily? How would you go about tackling this one phrase day after day after day? I will try and explain what I am getting at as you read further.

What I mean by this is that we need to manage many things in our lives; we are constantly juggling 10 or more tasks from day to day. On top of these daily tasks we are dealing with monthly goals and career or long term choices and decisions as well. These choices and decisions that we need to manage seem to never end and continually pile up. And this frustrates us at times, but we can’t turn face and let them be, we need to go at them head first and trudge through them. Or if you are good at managing expectations you seemingly glide over them. But, here comes the question, how do you do that?

How do you manage your expectations?

How do you get the tasks, work and goals in your life completed? And not just completed but in a relatively quick time period and done well and professionally?

Example: You are expected to get this big presentation done by the end of the week, and you know it will take a lot of time and effort to get it done, but you are not sure how much time you will be able to spend on it, as you are already spread pretty thin as it is with current projects. So what do you do?

Simple, you manage your expectations. You get done with your most important projects first and you go from there. You start with that presentation as it seems to be the hardest thing on your plate and the one project that has a specific deadline and has the biggest weight behind it. Then work your way down, and by doing so this will accomplish a few things for yourself in the process. First: You will get the most complex and mentally trying task out of the way first and ensure that it gets finished before the deadline. Secondly: you will guarantee that all the tasks that you do therein after will be easier and go by more quickly than the first as it was the biggest and hardest for you. And third: you will be happier as it always feels good to get the hardest things done first. It is always better to “eat your toads” first. (Toad = hardest task from every day on your to-do list) Think of the flip-side, if you start with the easy things then work to the hard ones, you will be dreading the end of your day everyday, which doesn't sound like much fun does it?

So don't do it that way.

Juas a couple of quick notes: Manage what is expected from you. Manage your projects and prioritize them accordingly from high to low. Always meet your expectations and when time and space permit it, exceed those expectations. Especially as you get more practice with this, because you will eventually get extremely good at it and be able to take on more and more with less and less stress. Trust me.

Till later, Caio-

Posted in: , , , , on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at at 10:13 AM 9 comments  

Summer Time

I know it's that time of year again where it warms up and you are starting to get your tan on and stay outside for extended periods of time. So I figured I would put together a quick compilation of tell tale signs that summer has truly arrived. Feel free to add to this list.


How to tell if Summer is here:
  1. The local swimming pool is full with old people. You know summer is here when you go to your local outdoor swimming park/pool or whatever and you find an abundance of 70+ year old people out there in their speedos tanning away. When you're 70 you make absolutely sure it's hot outside before going to the pool, I mean you don't want to freeze.

  2. Skirts are out and loving it. Summer is here when you go outside and half the women have skirts or some sort of other "less than pants" attire on. Shorts and skirts start to be seen all over the place, ohh so nice.

  3. Smells of a BBQ are out. You know when you leave work and you drive home and as you pull into your neighborhood you roll the windows down and catch a strong scent of a passing BBQ going on... mm... I almost want to stop by. I mean you know they have beer, right?

  4. Long nights. This time of year the sun seems to never want to go down. You find yourself outside at 9-10pm at night, but yet it still feels like 6. Why go in when you can stay out?

  5. Brighter clothing. Agree with me or not on this one, but I see a noticeable difference in colors in the summer as opposed to the winter. Bright greens, yellows, etc. are seen regularly.

  6. Tops down, music up. I see alot more people with their convertible tops down and alot more kids with their music blaring as loud as the speakers will let them.

Ok now your turn. What makes you think of summer?? Something new that you notice during this time of year?

Posted in: , , , , , , , on Friday, June 5, 2009 at at 11:22 AM 11 comments  

Furries

Question: Have you ever seen the television show Entourage?

Subsequently it’s my favorite show and a few of my friends have even assumed some of the character’s nicknames because we watch it so much. (In fact I can’t wait for the new season to come out, this summer if you’re wondering.)

So anyways, there is an episode in there about people better known as “furries.” If you have seen this show you know where I am going. Well these furry people are special people with fetishes to dress up and act like animals. Many common ones are rabbits, squirrels, and the like. They will dress up and reform sexual acts and do other random things while in “costume.” However the following story below tells you about one furry dude who took it too far.

In reference to this story and this guy who is a furry, I just wanted to ask you why people do things like this and how do realize this about yourself? When do you wake up one day and say, “damn I wish I could dress like a rabbit and act out foreplay with another person of the opposite gender (hopefully) who is also dressed up in an animal suit?” I laughed when writing that actually.

Anyways, sorry for the random thought and the even more random article, but I found this too bizarre to not write it on the blog.

Ciao~

http://www.startribune.com/nation/46720442.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiacyKUnciaec8O7EyUr

Posted in: , , , , , , on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at at 5:41 PM 9 comments  

Story Telling

I used to love to listen to stories as a kid, sitting there on the edge of the bed and waiting for dad to come in to tell me a story. It didn't matter if it was about castles and kings, or if it was about his day at work and what he had done. In fact sometimes he came in and read moby dick to me, and even though I couldn't much understand it, I was content.


I start to wonder why I was content and what it was that made me so happy at a young age, even when I didn't understand half of my dad's stories in their entirety. Even now when I think about the tales of moby dick and cap'n Ahab, I get a little smile because they bring me back to when I was a kid again. And this made me start to think about why I liked the stories so much? And that's when it occurred to me that I didn't necessarily like the stories at all, but rather the story teller.

The story teller in this case was my dad, and it didn't really matter what he was sayin' or what part of the story he was talking about, but it was important that he was taking the time out at all to tell me one. And not only that, but he would tell the stories with vivid emotion and noticeably high differences in voice tone. He cared, and he was going to try and make me get 'into' his story, regardless of all the big words in that book which stretched far beyond my years at that time.

This act of telling a story, by my dad, would serve a far better purpose than only to entertain me at a young age before bedtime. I now know that it served a purpose to show me how to story tell and how use your hands, facial expressions and voice to get across your meaning in an extremely interesting way. It showed me that you need to believe in what you are saying, and to believe in yourself to best get your information across to your listener. Even if your listener is a 6 year old boy.

This lesson would be something that I have found is far more valuable now then I ever realized when I was 6 years old. I need to tell multiple stories to multiple people everyday, and because I had a great teacher, I can now myself tell great stories. Being a good story teller can help you in so many ways. Getting your point across has never been easier, and to be honest, telling stories is a lot of fun. I think I actually get more joy out of telling a story than the person listening to me that is laughing away.

You will come across many people in your life and you will find yourself in many situations where you will be listening to stories or telling them. These people will have interesting and unique stories to tell and you will learn and gain a lot from. And in this same time you will have many stories to tell as well and you will want to give your listeners the most information in the best possible way. So why not become a good story teller? Do your audience and friends along the way a favor and practice your story telling. You will be able to have that much more of an effect on your listeners and they will be greatly appreciative as well.

*raises glass of juice*

Here's to the story teller in you...

Posted in: , , , , , , , , , on Friday, May 29, 2009 at at 12:54 PM 9 comments  

A little chuckle...

So I was just chillin around and pretending to be Superman and fly around the city, like I normally do, when I decided it would be cool to stop for a second and catch my breath. When I was sitting there thinking of something to do I started to get hungry so I figured I would fly my happy a$$ to a local restaurant. Seeing as I had already saved a couple of chics in a shopping mall earlier, and I felt like I owed myself one. The place I ended up stopping at was a McDonald's, of course, and I decided to get a big mac and fries at the drive through window. The lady first decided to argue with me and told me I couldn't order without a car through the window, but then she quickly realized I was Superman and promptly handed me 4 big macs and strawberry shake. I was stoked. She told me the apple pie I wanted was in the bag...


..So I left and headed home. By the time I got there I had already eaten 3 of the sandwiches and scarfed down the shake. I was looking to eat the last sandwich and get to my much anticipated apple pie when I realized that the lady who had taken my order screwed it up. There was no apple pie in the bag. wtf?!? Now I'm mad and wondering what to do? Should I go back? Should I just forget about it, because it's only a $0.99 apple pie? Or maybe I should call 911 and complain to them? Surely they could fix it right?

Well you might laugh a bit at my last option of calling 911 to get my apple pie back, but you would be surprised at how real of a option that sounds like to some people.

I read an article on CNN today about a guy who called 911 to complain about not getting an O.J. put into his bag when he went through the drive through at a local McDonald's. I got a bit of a chuckle out of this and I figured I would share it.

But before I do, I wanted to know what could possibly go through your head to make you want to call the police over a screwed up McDonald's order? And these are the few possibilities I could come up with:
  1. He was stoned out of his mind and had the munchies

  2. It was a mild attempt at a prank, which didn't turn out well

  3. He was that stupid and thought that the EMERGENCY people would help him the fastest

  4. He dialed the wrong number?

Can you think of anymore reasons?

Here is the link below. Check it out yourself. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2009/05/27/carter.or.911.juice.box.kptv

Posted in: , , , , , on Thursday, May 28, 2009 at at 4:06 PM 4 comments  

Chill-lax

A deep breath.. the relaxing sound of nothing but a cool breeze in the background, as it bounces along, on a beautiful afternoon.

Laughter.. the feeling of being happy, if only for the pure reason that you can be.

Chilling.. when you can sit there and clear your mind of all thoughts, even if the moment is ever so brief.

Relax.. the part of the day that comes after everything else is completed, and you feel so good about your accomplishments, that you would rather sit there in your chair then to move and ruin the moment.

The words above are just reminders that we need to take time out once in awhile and breath, laugh, chill and relax. Regardless of how much time you currently contribute to your personal well being, be assured that the more time you do give back to yourself, the better your life will be.

So go ahead and throw yourself a bit more relaxation and breathing time. Believe me that your ‘future self’ will thank you for it.

Posted in: , , , , , on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at at 2:29 PM 7 comments  

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