avenue q

i've been hearing so much about this play that i just had to to see it. i expected to cry from laughter; i braced myself for the expected adult humor. what i did not expect was to be hit with just the advice i needed.

for now. everything's for now. it's okay to not sweat things, to not take yourself so seriously, to not know what you'll be in the future, or why you exist in the first place. sometimes we just get to wrapped up in 'what's next?' that we actually forget to actually live the now. in the end, after all, the past and present have no say in the now.

hey ya world (finally)

As I'm still reeling from a Chocnut-&-Flat-Tops induced sugar rush, I'm going to take advantage of this sudden urge to type to (finally!) post these imaginary entries that have been piled up in my head for the past few weeks. (whee!)

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you can't help but love youtube. it has done for videos what google has done for, well, everything. want videos of the tv episodes you missed? it's here. want a break-down of killer dance moves? it's here. want another run of that SNL skit? guess what? it's still here. even bored-out-of-my-head videos finally found their place here.

i was scouring for some old 80s & 90s tunes when i came upon this. weird, though, it was the only video for UMD's Always that i was able to find, perhaps the only video that immortalized what will forever haunt the minds of 90s babies everywhere.

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another great site i found was imeem.com, a network for sharing playlists and music. i find the coolest tracks here, and there's no need to download them and clog the network for i can play them online. check out this link to listen snow patrol's cover of Crazy In Love (originally by Beyonce) and an acoustic cover of Hey Ya (I swear, I used to hate this song til now).

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk

Mind-blowing story, but not nearly as mind-blowing as the storytelling. But what do you expect from the writer of Fight Club? Bravo. Not only did it keep me hooked, it was an unexpected source of subtle Ayn Rand-ish insight. Two points etched:

(1) The What Now? Phenomenon
From high school to college to post-graduate studies, we try hard to ingrain as much technique and technical mastery as possible. Come graduation, here we are, erudites in our own respective fields, and we still find ourselves lacking in the one thing schools can't assure you -- inspiration. It's kind of sad, us adept and driven, but without direction. After beating ourselves to a pulp, we're still missing our why-isque what (or that what-tic why, if you prefer). Then we curse the unschooled genius who comes along and whips up the excellent from nothing. Dang.

(2) Everything's our diary. All that we touch, all that we make are telltales of who we are. The colors we choose. The words we pick. The stains on your clothes. What's in your bag. What's not in your bag. Everything's a tattler.

Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World

A long-overdue wake-up call for me. I think this piece of fiction holds more promise than any self-help book out there (not that I've ever been a fan of self-help books). I'm barely past halfway, and already its words have already seeped through how I think, process, accept, and reject things. A good guide for the lost, for those putting up with a streak of defeat, or for those settling for just leaning on life's inertia. I love how its lines overwhelm me, that I just have to stop and let the words just linger for a while.

Of course, like any other insight, it should not be mistaken for wisdom. For knowledge without action remains simply as that -- knowledge. Or worse, folly.