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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Blog tease, yelling to no one & the secret to long life

For those of you who subscribe, you may notice my blog cuts off after a short paragraph or two. Basically we changed the settings so subscribers and readers have to click through to my blog site. The reason: My blog gets more credit, notice, monetary gain and raises in the Google search queue if people actually go to my blog. I've been hearing and noticing that my subscribers get the emails and if they like the blog, they reply to me or forward the email to friends. Well, that's fantastic, but it'd be better for the blog's notice-ability online if people actually go to the blog, click "digg" or "share" at the top, and leave comments. I'm not trying to be a blog tease. I'm just trying to share with more people, and create a blog that's more interactive

Now it's worth noting that my primary reason for writing this blog is because I love to write and express myself. I love and appreciate that you all read. It brings me tremendous joy. But I also hope to reach more people, to garner more comments, to be out there more in the world (or blogosphere as it were), and someday even compile my favorite or themed blogs into a book. Lofty? Maybe. But mostly, I'm moving more towards sharing my creative gifts instead of just... working hard for the money. I'd rather choose a job I love - see yesterday's blog, My Addendum to "Choose a Job You Love..., than do jobs I sort of like because they make me money. Well, I love writing, mostly. (Sometimes I need to just make myself sit down, but once I get going, I love it. So, that's the mostly part.)

Capiche?

Last night between 11pm-1am, a woman was yelling outside my apartment window. By outside and yelling I mean she must've been within 150 yards or so (either outside herself or in another apartment) and when she was yelling coherently, I could understand what she was saying. As it turned out, she was not really being all that coherent, so Marcus and I only got bits and pieces. Now, I don't live in downtown LA, Venice, or even West Hollywood, where this type of behavior wouldn't really surprise me. I live in Santa Monica. Where we all pretend to be civilized. Heck, we even have 4 vegan restaurants within a 3-mile radius, two of them raw vegan. Hmm. Maybe that's what's doing it. All the raw vegan food is making people crazy!

Anyway, last night she was yelling things that sounded something like, "How dare they do dat, talkin' bad 'bout Obama like that. No way!" and something like, "Who do you think you are, anyway." She also might've said, "I'll come out there this is just...aw hell no!" There were others but they escape my memory (I really should've taken notes), and she appeared to be yelling at/to no one because no one answered and her timing was very sporadic. It was amusing and confounding to say the least. I figured she was probably drunk. But today, around 10am and again at 11:45, she came out with a few more (unless things pick up later in the day today). They were something like, "What's with this twitter man...I'll twitter this." and a quieter and harder to understand, "You can't feast on the feces...and be on this program...like you think you should." Maybe she's chatting online with someone and has to yell some of her responses. Who knows.

From what I could ascertain, this large-lunged-lady has severe issues with anyone talking bad about Obama, anyone who thinks they're somethin', twitter generally, and objects to feasting on feces. This woman is clearly a sh!t talker through and through. Marcus (a sh!t-talker in his own right) was tempted to yell back at her just to keep her going, but he resisted and we only got the few incoherent gems written above. Though socially uncouth, I wonder if something in her feels better for letting her crazy out. I mean, letting go of frustrations in a way that doesn't truly hurt others... That's a good thing, right? Or maybe she has crazy nightmares that are fed by her crazy yelling. Maybe she's a parasomniac who yells in her sleep. It seems drugs (prescription or street) and alcohol can exacerbate parasomatic tendencies which naturally tend to be talking and walking into more extreme sleep-behaviors like yelling. But all of it left me to wonder, is our neighborhood-yeller more contented or disturbed as a result of her outbursts? Either way, this lady could probably benefit from meditation.

Years ago I heard a brief interview on National Public Radio (NPR) with a man who was reportedly the oldest person in the United States. This 110 year old gentleman owned and lived-on a farm in Iowa. He apparently didn't do any of the heavy-lifting-farm-work of his youth, but he still enjoyed walking his land and spending time with his family. When the NPR interviewer asked him what his secret to longevity was, he replied, "Well, I don't know for sure. I eat oatmeal every day for breakfast and when I'm sad, I cry." 

I remember thinking how simple and poignant that was, and also thinking how repressing our emotions, especially sadness, probably takes innumerable years off of our lives. Now I believe this man probably also ate fresh farm food most of his life, and probably had a knack for letting go of stress and seeing the beauty in life. But for him, eating oatmeal for breakfast and crying whenever he was sad were the two things that really stood out.

So... click on my emails to link to my blog to read more, yell if you must (and meditate to release the craziness), eat oatmeal for breakfast, and cry when you're sad.

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