Happy Shark Week

Today’s issue in the sometimes amusing and still further adventures of invisible don and in honor of shark week we bring you shark stories. Well only one of them involves a shark and the other two are not shark stories but related shark stories. The first is from a family vacation. We all had gone to Ocean City, Maryland for family fun time. The whole family piled into the family vehicle which I think at the time was a bronze colored Chevy van without any side windows. The parental units were both there and the brothers; the peacemaker and the other one also as well as yours truly. Upon arrival at the beach my brother the peacemaker took his fly fishing rod down to the ocean to catch some fish. I was not going fishing and told him he was wasting his time. My primary interest was sleep and not the ocean. So I fell on the bed and was fast asleep just like goldilocks without the bears or the porridge. To my horror I was awoken to the sight of a somewhat small but very near my face shark gasping for breath. Is it breathing if you pull water through gills to live? Not really breathing is it? What ever you call it, the shark was failing at it because it was not in the water but suspended in the air in the somewhat firm grasp of the peacemaker who was thrusting the unhappy shark toward my face. “Look what I caught, told you I would catch something see what you know”, or something little brothers say when their older brothers are wrong. I was less than thrilled about the shark being poised to literally eat my face off; the shark was less than happy about being waterless, and the peacemaker more than happy to torment us both. Somehow I was able to bounce from one bed to the other bed in the room in a single motion. Almost cat like but I had learned the previous Halloween that I did not possess cat like abilities when I attempted to sleep off a drunk in a tree and failed. So the peacemaker ran back to the ocean to release the traumatized shark and I wandered about on the beach and made a new friend of the female variety and we did nothing shark related. The second shark story was another beach vacation this time post military and in South Carolina. My brother, the other one, was living there at the time and he was trying to teach me to surf. I’m not naturally athletic but I’m not utterly helpless either. I have to practice but eventually I get to where I hold my own. I think I would have been better on a boogie board but the other one said that was for pansies and I wasn’t a pansy so I tried to surf. Paddle out. Watch for a wave. Paddle with the wave. Try to ride in and stand up. Fall. Repeat. Well that went on for a while and I figured I need to master some balance for this to work and get a feel for the board under me on water. So I thought I will just sit on the board and keep from falling off, which is harder to do than it is to say. I practiced this and could sit on the board, complete without falling off and look somewhat convincing that I knew what I was doing. Except that I did not know what I was doing. This must have been less then entertaining for the other one. Who decided that he should swim under me and yank me under the water by my leg, which is exactly what he did. I’m sitting on the board thinking you know I think I have this… now suddenly I’m under the water and being pulled down Holy SH*T I’m getting eaten by a shark. I’m kicking and pulling to get to the surface. I get to the top of the water frantically trying to regain my surfboard and there is the other one bobbing around in the water laughing hysterically. “Thought I was a shark”. Snicker, snicker, hee-hee and he spit water toward me Yes, I did. He swam off before I could drown him, pretty funny today though. Story three does not involve any water or an ocean or a vacation. I was at home one day a couple of years ago and stunt boy my son is playing “Little Big Planet” and I look over and watch for a bit. I see this blue shark looking thing flopping around the map much like a fish out of water. Like the shark in story one except this one is pixels and not a real thing. I ask my son, “Why are you dressed like a shark” His avatar not him. He knew what I meant. Stunt boy says, “I’m not dressed like a shark, I’m dressed like a penguin. I’m wearing a shark hat so it looks like I’m being eaten by a shark.” I say, “Ok” I don’t bother asking why this is so, because at some point previous stunt boy has laid out the logical argument as to why ninjas are better than pirates with a closing argument of pirates being full time drunks and ninja’s always being on task. A few months later though I’m looking in a catalog and I see a shark towel and I think this is perfect. It is a towel with a shark head as a cap to put on your head and the towel part drapes down your back, so it looks like you are being eaten by a shark. MUST HAVE. I order it complete with the story as to why I must have this product to the catalog lady. I gave it to Stunt boy as part of his birthday present and he still games with it on from time to time. Happy Shark Week. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

It houses circus freaks, temptations and bad trips.

Recently a milestone came and went for me and I didn’t realize it until yesterday but I had already made up my mind about what to write for the day. The thing is that this was a big part of my life and is no longer. No, not my ex wife, unfortunately that saga has not ended. 6 years ago, and it is odd in that it doesn’t seem that long ago but it also seems to be longer too. The big part of my life was cigarettes. They were my buddy, they were my friend. When I needed to think they were there, when I needed to mourn they were there, when I needed what ever they were there. Cigarettes were my, I’m mad as hell buddy. Pulling smoke and burning a cherry, red hot and half an inch long. Cigarettes were my, I’m bored I’ve got nothing to do time filler. They were my OCD, ashes in one ash tray butts in another. Keep me awake on the drive, celebrate this thing or that. Post coital bliss enhancer, lying in the bed blowing smoke up to the ceiling with that other person. Thousands of memories are tied to my paper wrapped tobacco pals. Cigarettes were my wing man, ice breaker, confidence and false bravado all in one. I smoked a lot of brands in my career as a smoker. Stealing my dad’s Winston’s or my grandmother’s Virginia Slims at 12 years old. They were both carton buyers so they didn’t miss the odd pack here or there and were both heavy smokers so they would just assume they smoked more than they thought they had. Yes I smoked Virginia Slims. Hey when you are getting them at the five finger discount store you don’t quibble about what is in stock. Eventually, I started buying my own and changed brands to Marlboro Reds because that was not anyone in my families brand. I’m sure my parents knew I smoked before I admitted it to them. If they didn’t they were outsmarted by the sister of a girlfriend I had who figured it out and would smoke with me. Not sure what ever happened to her, the sister, not the girlfriend. The girlfriend dumped me, which was, even then, a reoccurring theme in my life. Not today’s story. Cigarettes got me through every break up until the last one or next to last one. I’m pretty sure it was the last one because the one after that wasn’t so much a break up as it was oh we don’t do that anymore sort of a thing. And everything after that hasn’t really gotten much past the dating thing so those just sort of end and aren’t really break ups. Somewhere along the line though, those little cigarettes became more than just a fixer of problems but a real problem in my life. They controlled things like how I spent my money. I would buy cigarettes before food. I wouldn’t eat if it meant not buying cigarettes for the day. I had to have at least two packs in the house at all times. Toward the end I was smoking over a pack a day and probably close to a pack and half most days. They were the first thing I did in the morning lighting up on my way to piss and the last thing I did before going to sleep. Quitting smoking was something I had done a lot too. I chewed the gum which tastes like ass by the way or orange flavored ass if you buy the orange gum. The patch was fun, I always enjoyed the nicotine fueled nightly cinema that were my dreams on those smelly, sticky, itchy squares induced once you dropped in the REM sleep. I would quit for a few weeks, a few months but never more than 6 months at a time. Then old smoky would roll back into town and I’d be back on them and back to my levels of smoke stack, steam locomotive or other analogy for a heavy smoker within a day or two. However this last time I took the Chantix pills which did work for me. The success rate is only around 50 percent and in my own completely unscientific and totally casual observations seem to have a better success in helping men quit than they do with women. The warnings for these gems are interesting as in they may cause vivid dreams. I thought well they can’t be worse than the patch. If the patch is like watching a movie, Chantix is like IMAX in HD and 3D but not nightmarish but I have particularly strange dreams without the aide of chemicals so what I think is normal for REM theatre might leave others with a case of insomnia muttering can’t sleep they will kill me and rocking in a corner. Another side effect is the thoughts of suicide. Now this is interesting too because they’ve changed the wording on that a few times. From just plain may increase thoughts of suicide, to thoughts of suicide which are not normal for you, to something like may cause thoughts of suicide. Wow, really can’t escape the theme of the week. Anyway, I didn’t get any new ideas so I think I was in the second set of wording as in the thoughts I had were normal for me. No worry warts I don’t want to off myself and I don’t have a plan. Now there is perhaps one person without a y chromosome who would like to see me take a dirt nap but I’ve not had any threatening notes as of late. I think she still prays for buses to run me down or lightning to strike, or some other something that gives her an alibi and a reason to dance on my grave. Hey we all have wish lists. Mine are for more practical things like a gaming computer or graphics programs/computer but everyone has their favorite things. So the pills helped me quit interesting dreams aside, the only side effect I had was lava hot heartburn for 6 solid days. It never went away and felt like the earth’s core was in my stomach. Then that went away and I went from smoking a pack and more a day to one pack for the week you can smoke on the pills to no cigarettes. 6 years down, and now year 7 is already a few days started. Now I have to get on a program to unfat myself. I’ve gotten the UFO disorder these days which is Ugly, Fat, and Old. I don’t know that I can do much about the ugly and old at least not on my salary but I can do something about the fat guy stuff. I will not be Santa for your Christmas program so don’t ask. Now I have a project to work on and maybe for next year’s celebration of I’m a non smoker I will only have UO disorder which is better than UFO disorder. If you are trying to quit, keep trying you can do it. If you want to quit, do it you will love yourself because you did. No the cravings never go away but they don’t last long when they do surface. I still have them from time to time and even dream about smoking monthly but that doesn’t even come close to the oddity which is my REM sleep. If you haven’t quit I’m not going to say you should quit because I hated it when people told me I should quit when I was a smoker. However I’m willing to bet you sometimes wish you would quit or could quit them and if you do have those thoughts try to quit you may not quit on the first try or even the tenth or twentieth . There will be a time that works and then you’ll be done with them. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Today’s title: Lyrics from Cigarette by The Clarks. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

What does she feel if she doesn't have the feeling that I have in my fingers

What does she feel if she doesn't have the feeling that I have in my fingers. Many people have been debating suicide lately because of the recent death of Robin Williams. My issue yesterday concerning this was specific to that one death and not suicide as a whole. The debate ranges from it is a sin, a cowardly act to it is our right as a person to stop living if we want and everything in between. It is a hard thing to understand from the outside. Seeing a person you know, gone by their own hand has no answers and leaves us wanting to understand what we did not know and can never know. It can haunt those close to it for years. I’m not sure this was always the case and is a problem unique into how your culture looks at self death. I’m not sure when the shift happened in history from choosing to die being acceptable to when it became a bad thing. People have willingly gone to their deaths as long as there have been communities and social groups. The distinction between what is an honorable death and what is not has not always been as clear as it might seem. Every culture that I’ve studied has some form of chosen death be it Seppuku, a return to the earth, soldiers volunteering for dangerous missions, ritual deaths, or another form of euthanasia. Most chosen deaths were a part of the moralistic code of the culture and the people dying welcomed death willing. That is not to say that these were melancholy people, the exact opposite appears to be true these people were proud, happy and loved life. However death is part of living and there is no escape from it eventually everyone one alive today will be dead. Sacrificial deaths seem to be bizarre but many people went to these deaths gladly and willingly and believed that what they were doing would benefit their family or community. When these sacrifices were captured people who wanted no part of their dying in this manner that is a different thing entirely because it isn’t the person’s choice. Somehow quantity of life regardless of quality of life became more important. Many of us can empathize with the idea of escaping unending physical pain from an illness which has no cure. However even then allowing a person to medicate themselves to death is bad but it is okay to sign a piece of paper that says if I die from this illness it is okay not to attempt to revive me. How is one any different than the other? Why should a person have to suffer for months knowing they will never get any better and only get worse? What makes one illness worthy of death over another? What about mental illnesses? There are some illnesses where there is no escape from being ill but only being managed to a point of stability. Most of us would not want that to be our own fate but others must continue on because of our own morality versus their desire not to go on. Why is it honorable to fall on a grenade but not to end the pain of cancer or to end the loss of self through dementia and Alzheimer’s? In the case of illnesses why would a person want to drain all their assets and leave their family nothing for the same end result but only prolonged their life artificially. Why is it okay to refuse any medical treatment but not to ask for right to die by one’s own choice or on one’s own terms? We can not know what one person is experiencing, no more than we can really know what they are truly thinking. What is bearable for you may not be for another. Certainly living is wonderful and most of us do not want that to end our lives because we see it from where we are and from a place of comfort. Our view might be different under different circumstances and perhaps it is more compassionate to allow those who want to leave to go on their own terms and not to worry about what we don’t understand about why they left. You don’t ever find those answers no matter how hard you look. Today’s title: Lyrics from Hefner’s Hymn for the Cigarettes Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

I might be out on a limb here Jack but you don't seem like a happy camper

Robin Williams is dead. Because he was well known this means something to everyone who knew the actor and comic. We didn’t really know him, we knew his work but what drove him is a mystery to most of us. It is a tragic end of a man’s life for his family however for the rest of the world is only a loss of what would have been or could have been not of who this person was but of his work. For most of us we still have the Robin Williams we love and it is really the same whether it be; the Fisher King, Professor Keating, Mork, Ms. Doubtfire, the stand up comic, the Centennial Man, Leslie Zevo or the many other characters brought to life by a vibrant actor. We have the Robin Williams we knew and can have him back on Prime, or the Flix or any station that is showing something of his body of work. He is gone for those closest to him never to come back. We the many mourn his death but we have not lost anything. The muses, Thalia and Melpomene, Comedy and Tragedy, The two faces for Theatre or acting you can’t have one without the other. It seems too that with great comedic actors there is a darkness that envelopes their lives, that the Yin and Yang life is that suffering is necessary to understand joy and to truly know loss you must first know joy. The work I do many people develop what is referred to as gallows humor. What we see isn’t enjoyable but is rather very tragic. To help others you can not allow yourself to carry the weight and be mired down by emotion so you find the humor in what is tragic. Eventually it becomes too much for many and they leave the work. What a weight Mr. Williams must have carried. Suicides impact our lives in a way that many other deaths do not. The “what” that killed the person is the person we mourn. There is no murderer unless you call the person a murderer which is what a suicide is, a self murder. We don’t want to think about the lost person in that light but we do on some level so we get angry at the person because we don’t understand why they did this to themselves and we say it is selfish. It isn’t like cancer or an accident where the illness is to blame or just happenstance is the culprit. In those times we assuage our feelings of loss in consoling words like, “it was their time” or “it was meant to be”. However our theologies tell us that suicide is an unforgivable sin, a hell worthy trespass so the solace of faith doesn’t always help us understand why this person has left us. I don’t know what demons Mr. Williams wrestled with, nor do I know the tragedy he saw in the world to allow him such a gift in bringing joy to others but not enough for himself. Whatever his reasons to leave this life behind are his and his alone. The loss is not ours or even the worlds but his family and his friends. That does not mean it isn’t sad for the rest of us who appreciated his work and were given moments of joy. To me his best works were his dramatic roles and not the comedic ones I always found them to be somewhat manic at times. And I wondered then as now was Robin leaking through all this time and we were all too busy laughing to see the burden on his shoulders. I don’t know. My prayers are for his family, for them he is gone and that they may find peace and understanding in his departure from their lives. The title today is a line from the film The Fisher King. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Am I me? Are you, you?

Who are you? How is it that you define you? When people ask who are you, what do you say? What made you decide that is who is you? Maybe you don’t know. Perhaps you define you by what you do. I do a lot of things but I wouldn’t necessarily say I am that thing. I walk but I’m not a walker, I sit but I’m not a sitter, I eat but I’m not an eater and so on and on and on. Which of the things we do becomes the thing that we see as ourselves. Is that me I see the same thing others see when they see me? Do they see a different me, not a better or worse me but just not what I see when I see me. Do they see that you do what you define as you or not. Have you ever asked someone who you are? Say you are an actor and your friends have never seen you act. Are you an actor or are you just their friend or a sister or brother or some other role in their life that you don’t necessarily have from them in your life. Well the sibling thing is different but is that all you are to them and not the “you”, you see as you. It doesn’t mean you aren’t an actor but to them you aren’t because it isn’t real for them in how they see you. I see myself a lot of ways but I’ve always been able to separate out that what I do for money as this isn’t really who I am as me, not entirely at least. I like what I do mostly but that isn’t me in total. I don’t know if I really know me. Part of me is a writer but do I write enough to be a writer. What is enough is there a limit or a sign you much write this much to be a writer. Do people have to acknowledge what you do for it to be what you are? Do they have to approve. Did Warhol call himself an artist or it that what other people have called him and the fact that I don’t think what he did is art make him not an artist. I don’t do enough doing of stuff that isn’t work or just not doing something. I work and I am a worker but that isn’t the “me” I see. I watch but I don’t see myself as a watcher. I game and I do think of myself as a gamer but I don’t know that I’m good at that and by some standards I’m not very good at being a gamer. However I like that I am a gamer. There are things I want to be but I’m not or at least not anymore. I’m alone but I’m not really a loner and I entertain myself well enough that I’m not lonely in my aloneness. Still I am alone. There are things I am but I no longer have to do. I am a parent but I don’t really have to parent my children anymore or at least not in the way that most of us think of parenting. Our roles change and we change or we don’t change. Either can be problematic but because you don’t have to perform tasks related to the you, you are doesn’t mean that isn’t who you are. Doing not doing, being not being? What does it all mean? I felt for sure I would have it all figured out by now. I still look at other people and think surely they have the answers they know who they are and what they are. Perhaps or are they like ducks on a pond above the surface it always looks calm but under the water there can be churning feet to move against a current. Maybe no one really has it all nailed down and they just fake it. I need to do more doing of stuff that defines me as me, the “me” I want to be, not necessarily the “me” you see. Do you need to do more stuff that makes you, you? Perhaps you are happy being the “you” others see as you or perhaps you are not. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Old Boy 2003 versus Old Boy 2013

A film review of two films, I will attempt to keep the spoilers to a minimum but be warned there will be a few. 2003 Old Boy Korean made cult hit 2013 Old Boy US Spike Lee film Both are based on source material which I am not familiar so when I read that 2013 is closer to the source material I don’t know if it is true or not. Let me start by saying, I am not opposed to remakes of films because they can retell a story in a way which will reach an audience who would not have bothered with the story at all. For example the films Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Let Me In are both Swedish Films which are very good however their remakes by the US are equally as good and retell the story in a way that is unique and still familiar to the original and in the case of Let Me In to the source material as well. I’m not familiar with The Girl with … source material. It is sometimes hard to see a film you like be remade and while I’m not a huge Spike Lee fan I don’t dislike all of his films and thought his version could be okay. He cast well known actors Josh Brolin and Samuel L. Jackson and amazing new comer Elizabeth Olson. So I had hope that this would be a good film despite the fact that a lot of the talk before the film was released was negative and condemned Lee for even attempting to remake such a good film. I will say that Brolin, Jackson and Olson all played their parts well but there was something lacking which I have to say is in the writing and the directing because all of the actors have the ability to really draw the audience into a story and believe they are the characters come to life. When that doesn’t happen with good actors it is the writing and the directing which have failed. The pace of the 2013 movies felt off and just did not have a believable flow that in part is due to my seeing the 2003 version but also in part in how Lee moves the story. Both films takes place over a 20 year period, which the 2003 version does a better job of conveying than the 2013 version. In 2003 it starts with little character introduction and then fills in that the protagonist isn’t a very nice guy. In the 2013 there is some build up that the protagonist is not a good guy and then pulls you in to the story. I prefer the 2003 version because it puts the audience in the same shoes as the protagonist. The character doesn’t understand what is happening to him or why and neither does the audience. The captivity portion of the film, the 2003 version really brings home how being isolated for 20 years from any meaningful human contact can extract a heavy toll on a person’s mental well being. I think Brolin is certainly able to deliver that kind of performance but he isn’t given the material or directed in a meaningful way to give that performance. So in the 2013 version after the 20 years there isn’t any sense that the character is really damaged by his imprisonment like there in the 2003 version. The release in 2013 is lack luster even when not compared to the 2003 version. This however it the one spot 2013 outshines 2003, which are dramatic fight scenes. The point of the first fight in the film shows the depth of what isolation can do to person and their restraint and interactions with others. However 2013 backs away from aspect of the film after the fight and in the 2003 version this is explored widely and in different settings and not always in fights. The introduction of the other characters is good in both films with the exception of the main antagonist in the 2013 film. In the 2013 version I wasn’t drawn in enough by the story to really form an opinion on the antagonist character but in the 2003 version I didn’t like the character before he is even on the screen. The 2003 version has a main fight scene which 2013 attempts to recreate. As before the 2013 version goes big the way US movies do in fight scenes which are okay if you haven’t seen 2003, but falls far short in comparison. It fails not in way of action but in the 2003 version there is the feel of the closeness of the combatants and the rage of the protagonist against his jailers and his lack of self preservation and he is an older guy now too. In 2013 the space used in the film was too big and didn’t give the same feel of tightness and close quarters combat and Brolin doesn’t seem to be as lost as his 2003 counterpart. Is it fair to compare the two scenes like this? I have to say yes because the 2013 could have done the fight a much different way but because Lee decides to try to recreate almost the same fight scene punch for punch I can say he failed to do justice to the scene as a part of the whole story but it is more action packed than 2003 version. As the story goes on 2013 drops the ball in the plot in a big way in that the protagonist isn’t even aware of why the antagonist hates him and doesn’t have that ah ha moment of oh that’s why this is happening that is there in 2003. Lee tells the same follow the clues type of story but there isn’t a personal connection between antagonist and protagonist like there is in the 2003 version. In 2003 the antagonist plan is revealed that he has made the protagonist unknowingly commit a greater social wrong and in the 2013 it is the same social wrong doing. Because of the lack of the personal connection and the reveal in the 2013 movie is telegraphed so far in advance of the reveal it is not a shock for the audience and again that may be that because I was familiar with the story line that I picked up on the foreshadowing. At the end I wasn’t sorry I had watched the 2013 version but it did not have the same gritty feel as the 2003 version. There was an emersion into the story in the 2003 version that the 2013 version never really captured. 2013 had better action sequences in that they are bigger, faster, and with bolder effects but that comes with a bigger budget and better effects departments but even that does not make up for the lack of grit and emotion through out the rest of film. If you haven’t seen the 2003 version the 2013 version may seem to be a better film overall and if you aren’t a fan of foreign films with smaller budgets you probably won’t like the 2003 version much at all. I prefer the 2003 version but that is just my opinion and maybe someday I’ll read the source material and have a completely different opinion. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

L'etat, c'est moi

I am me. What does that mean, really? That I or you in the case of you reading me, who am I? or you? Looking back from far enough are there truly any individuals out in the sea of humanity. Certainly a very vast majority of us are singular in our entity with the exception of the conjoined and those in mid coitus. The latter only a temporary condition and in some cases very temporary. Are we truly as individual as we proclaim when we say, I’ve gotta be me. In the vast soup that is the social worlds we are influenced by so much and we see all the groups we have identified in the world. Some of them are labeled offensively and others not so much offensively but as descriptive of how they act or interact with others. Let’s take hipsters for instance as they seem to be a group who loudly proclaims it is important to be me and to shun the main stream. I can get on board with that idea, going with the flock isn’t always the best way to do things, progress stagnates, we become comfortable and comply more easily to those who would lead us not because we agree but because it is easier. So I get the whole be the tenth man argument; if 9 people say go right, why not go left. Well because sometimes it can really be a mistake, like a lethal mistake but largely there is no reason not to go left when everyone else goes right. The larger group isn’t always the most correct just because they have tradition or history on their side. It does take effort to stand on the outside of it all though and it is easy to get sucked back in. My observation is if all these people just want to be this individual not corrupted by the main stream why are most of the hipsters, remember we’re picking on hipsters for the moment, so readily identifiable. It is almost if they aren’t individuals at all but in fairness with nearly 7 billion people on the planet you are not a unique snowflake, blah, blah, blah what ever that guy said in his fight book. Which really isn’t all that insightful or shocking but I digress Harder than it may seem to say I am me, a oneness in the vastness of the world. It is possible though and as we mark up our flesh with ink and metal or gouge holes in to it for a way to be apart from the whole. Adopt a clothing style or lack of one, what ever it is that we do to be something different from everyone else. We still cling to others because we are social. Very few people have the ability to live apart. I think it is less common today because it is harder to break away from others or the influence of others. How long can you go without any interaction with another person? No talking, no games, no text messages, nothing that lets another person know you exist. They can’t see you and you can’t see them. Depending on your currently living situation that may be very nearly impossible. To cut ties, uproot and be you apart from others. What is the longest period of time that you have been out of contact with any other people and been truly alone. I don’t mean metaphysical aloneness though that is a whole different thing which you can me in a stadium full of people and be alone. For most of us including me the most I’ve been apart from others is measured in hours not days or weeks or even months. How can anyone truly be completely individual with that much influence in your life the number of variables to consider is staggering as to what means more or less or nothing. How can you be different, completely and uniquely different, not ironically different or just to be different that is fake difference and nobody has time for phonies. Before you stare down your nose at the bearded dude in jeans drinking a nonfat latte made with all lava grown Peruvian beans sitting on his bike reading a tattered paperback just remember he may not be a hipster. He may just be a guy who has a bike and likes a beard because it is easier than shaving and ordered a coffee from the first place he came across and the book may be anything. We may be anything and in all the sameness that is this world aren’t we all just a little bit different or in some cases a lot a bit different. You know the cliché don’t judge a book by the cover or even the one if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck. Before you dismiss someone because of the category you have put them and defined them as being a certain type of person ask how different are you and how many times a day are you dismissed as being just another one of those people, and not even known it. We miss so much of the world because we see but close our eyes and we hear but don’t listen. (Also I know that title has nothing to do with anything I've said, it usually doesn't I just like the way it fits but doesn't fit) Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015