golfing

The good thing about not having blogged in, like, forever is that you can talk about things that are actually interesting instead of trying to think of new comments on everyday stuff. A few weeks ago I played golf for the first time ever, thanks to the generosity of my boss. He made a big donation to a Catholic church in Culver City for their golf tournament and gave everybody that Friday off so we could go play or just take the day off.

The tournament was played in teams of four, and basically everybody hits their own ball, and then wherever the best shot was we continued playing from there. I had about half an hour of coaching from one of my co-workers before the tournament started, and I did pretty ok considering it was my first time with a club in my hand. Of course, the guys on my team were not great at it either so we mostly joked around and had a lot of fun with it.

The best part about golfing though, is driving around the golf cart. That is as close as you get to pure fun. I loved having the wind in my face while winding around on the narrow paved roads (or on grass). It's like Autopia without the tracks.

long time no blog

Blah. Sometimes when I haven't blogged for a while I can't imagine the random things going on in my life to be worth blogging. But I'll do it anyway. So I guess in December I had an excuse to stop blogging because, well, December is a time for eating lots and goofing off. Then at the start of January I got hooked on World of Warcraft and played for a month while I was job searching. My main is a nightelf hunter named Starbreeze on the Lightbringer server, for those who care. And now that I've started a new job, play time has dwindled, but haven't got time for much else either. So there you go. I'll probably blog again this weekend if I've done something exciting like flying in a cessna.

kinsey

I saw the movie Kinsey this weekend after reading the Roger Ebert review (see link). I was originally going to see Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason, but Kinsey is not playing in as many places, so I went to see it first. It's about the life and work of Dr. Alfred Kinsey, who pioneered research in human sexuality and made sex "normal." Great film, but don't see it if you're squeamish about sex.

what is your song?

I went to a Humanity's Team concert named "Be the Change" yesterday. It was simply amazing. There was a great variety of music and poetry, and all the performers ROCKED. The music just touched me so much and made me so happy to be part of this group of people. I can't wait to get the compilation CD they put together, which is still being made.

Something one of the singers said really got me thinking; that is, every one of us has a song of our own, and what is your song? I've never heard anyone describe self-expression in those terms, but it got me engaged in thinking about what my song is. And, to tell myself the truth, I'm not singing it. In fact, I don't really know what it is. What I do know is that I know what it feels like, because I get this feeling in my chest whenever I think about it, and I know that when I see it I will immediately recognize it.

frustration is good

As some of you may or may not know, I am as of right now pretty frustrated in my work as a self-employed person. Mostly because I still have little confidence in my people skills, and I get scared and talk myself into procrastinating or just not doing anything. However, listening to Conversations with God book 1 these past couple of days in the car has really helped the commute and my mindset. Just today I listened to a passage about monitoring your thoughts. That is, my thoughts, words, and actions create my reality, and what I need to do is have an image of the highest version of the highest vision of myself, and monitor my thoughts to make sure they are always in alignment with that image. Now, I know this already, I just haven't been doing it on a regular basis and instead letting fear take over whenever I'm too scared to talk to someone.

The other thing I am reminded of is that my experience of something is what I say it is, and that "what you resist persists, what you look at disappears." Sure, I am frustrated and wish this being your own boss thing could be easier sometimes, but this frustration and difficulty allows me to really appreciate my success in the future, just as I am proud of myself for having learned how to drive stick even though it was painfully frustrating in the learning stage. If Primerica were easy, I wouldn't value my success as much as I would've otherwise, just as I never really valued my A's in school because they were never that diffcult to get, and even in college they were challenging intellectually but never emotionally.

I also remembered that every new beginning only happens once in a lifetime. Once I pass through this, it will never come again (in this life anyway)! Therefore I give thanks for this time in my life, and for all other moments of frustration, which I love, love, love because they make my successes sweet and ecstatic.

And so it is.

team america: world police

I first thought this movie was kind of cheesy when I first saw a commercial for it, but after I realized it was produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, I just had see it. And I have to say, they didn't disappoint. The plot was suitably sarcastic and provoking, and the songs (all played in the background except one) are just rolling-on-the-floor hilarious. Here's a transcript of the lyrics.

What I really like about Parker and Stone is that they make fun of everybody equally, so no one feels left out and no one can really say which side they're on.

do not vote on november 2, 2004!

Not Voting and Proud

I'm voting, but I wanted to post this just to be contrary.

ahnold

This evening I received a call from Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yep. I picked up the phone, and after a second his voice on the other side said, "hello, this is governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, urging you to vote no on proposition 72--" And I hung up after that, because it was freaky. I've received recorded calls before, but this was freakier than most.

indigo

Indigo will be released nationally on January 25, 2005!! Woohoo! I can't wait.

cruisin' the pacific

In case you were wondering where I disappeared off to last week, I went on a 7-day cruise with my mom, my grandma, and my mom's friends from choir. We sailed on a relatively new ship (inaugurated this past spring) with Princess Cruises, and mostly I enjoyed eating and veging out with a book (I gained an extra 5 pounds to show for it). We stopped at three ports in Mexico: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. To be honest, these places are tourist traps for the most part. The shopping is kind of crap, unless you wanted to buy jewelry, so I didn't get much in the way of souvenirs. Cabo San Lucas had pretty good water activities, and we went snorkeling there. Four of the seven days were spent on the ship itself, and I did a lot of reading (finished three books), a lot of eating, watched 4 movies (The Terminal, Stepford Wives, Something's Gotta Give, and Spiderman 2 -- only Spiderman 2 was really any good) and various shows. The food was really good, and that's good and bad at the same time. I knew I had to exercise self-control in that regard, but it's hard when you get to order four or five courses every night and everything on the menu looks good. I really appreciate being hungry these days.