“Seriously?  I hardly  know what I’m doing next week.”

“Over the last 2 weeks I’ve been thinking about that business idea you mentioned the other month… a lot… and you’re working Terra’s website anyways– why don’t I buy you a 1 way ticket, come stay with us, and if you want to get back, you have to finish the project, and get some sales!”

“Well, damn! For story-telling purposes alone, I have to say yes!”

And thus, I agreed to come visit Craig Allen and Terra Rose Ganem in Hawaii…. Hawaii is one of those places where “You’re supposed to go” — like “You’re supposed to go to college” — it’s the poster-child for vacations.  I’ve always wanted to go, but I never bothered planning.

It was always too overwhelming…. if I would go, what would I do there?  Which Island would I go to?  Where will I stay?  How long should I go for? It’s probably really expensive.  So I never bothered planning it out, or researching it.

Yet, one phone call from a friend, and all those things were cast aside.

I’ve been meaning to write to you about this for the last 3 weeks, ’cause that’s all the notice I had… but there’s been too much reality, and thousands of miles to cover.

“It’s hard to know with you… but are you by any chance going to drive through Dallas on Friday?”  Kathryn asked me.

“No!  I’m driving to Des Moines”

“Dallas is on the way to Des Moines”

“Then, yes, I’m going to drive through Dallas on Friday…. can we make it Thursday then?”

and thus I had a passenger.  My car is generally messy, but lately it’s been more so.  You see, on my drive from South Florida to Austin, to speak at SXSW this March, my trunk decided to stop working.

I have not fixed this issue yet.

Now, instead of everything being scattered across my whole car, it’s all scattered in my front and back seats… which doesn’t make my car very passenger friendly (in all honesty, this happens even when my trunk does work).  Space would have to be cleared out.

While couch surfing with David Gonzalez — I actually just popped in for the evening, because I had my shoes shipped to his house…. I had forgotten 2 pairs in Costa Rica, and Brendan (whom I stayed with in Costa Rica) had agreed to send them — I started emptying out my car, so I can reorganize it and make room for Kathryn.

I was listening to an audio book (Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality – I highly recommend it!), and doing my car-emptying thing, when all of a sudden two cop cars show up, and block me in. Step 1: Pause the audio book.

“Hi there.  How can I help you?”

“I don’t know…. we had one of the neighbors call in.  They think you may be living out of your car.”

“Well…. in their defense, I kind of am.  You see, for the last 5 years, I’ve been traveling around, completely based on ‘Who’s couch am I crashing on next?’  and it’s granted me many awesome adventures– staying with UFC cage fighters, staying at an all girls’ college, finding mentors, meeting heads of industries… and I have all my stuff in my car…. So, you could say that I’m living out of my car.  However… I’m staying right there (point to David’s house), and am about to go on this amazing road trip, but I promised someone I’d give them a ride to Dallas, and since my trunk stopped working, I have to empty stuff out in order to make room for this passenger!”

By the time David came out of his house, waving his arms and shouting “it’s ok! He’s staying with me!”, the cops were already engaged in my story, and were just asking questions about “What are you doing in Hawaii?”  ”What are you speaking on in Iowa?” “So then what happened?”

One lesson that I’ve learned is to be cool to cops… they’re just people. Most people attack them with fear and anger… humor, and dignity are really nice to receive sometime.  Story telling is a wonderful distraction, and I tell them the stories as I would tell them to my best friends.  I entertain, and engage… and you know what?  I’ve been pulled over speeding in construction zones, while speaking on the phone, and the car being a little hazy.

Before leaving Austin, I stopped by Craig’s storage unit, and got his BCD (Scuba diving equipment).  Then I got Kathryn, then dropped her off, then camped out in Fort Worth for 2 days working on projects, then I hauled ass to Kansas.

It was a long drive, and I did need to nap on the side of the road for 30 minutes. I arrived at 1:30am, but Deb, the event organizer, said I could couch surf with her, but not to wake her up if I get there as late as 12:30.

I slept in my car.  Woke up early, changed clothes in the parking lot, and befriended the guy the maintenance guy for the parking facility. I actually was in a hurry, ’cause I was speaking that day, and I still needed to write my presentation…. But I love story telling, and I love helping someone get excited about their passions, and open up new possibilities for them.  So… I spent an hour talking to this guy.

The event was the 140Conf.  I am a big fan of the 140Conf, because it attracts an amazing crowd, and Jeff Pulver is just amazing…. Google him, interact with him, whatever… the guy is amazing.  He’s the reason that you can make VOIP calls for free, and he has a heart the size of the United States. I’ve spoken at numerous 140Conf events. In fact, one of the ones I spoke at was the 140Conf Small Town, in Hutchinson Kansas.

At this point in this blog post, I would like to remind you that the title of the book I’m writing is “Creating Serendipity”… and now back to what happened-

When I spoke at the 140Conf small town, I met Joe Cheray. When Joe saw that I was speaking at the 140Conf in Iowa, she asked if I think she should pitch a submission to the 140Conf in Iowa.  She seemed a little nervous, which of course made me say “Absolutely!”

Why would I say absolutely if someone is nervous? Because it’s a chance to confront a fear, and grow! We should all do the things that make us grow (unless it’s things that create Thyroid issues… ’cause that kind of growth is bad, and I was referring to personal growth, not physical growth)

I offered to help out if she needs to bounce ideas, convert her story to a presentation, practice on someone….   She said she may take me up on that.  She had asked me to review a few notes.  But they were her notes.. I didn’t get the entire story until I saw Joe present.

Joe’s story, in a nutshell:  She was in an abusive relationship, her child has cerebral palsy, and is two years slow.  Her man was abusive to her and their son.  She left him.  She and her son were even homeless for a bit.  Her ex’s cat bit her one time, also, breaking her finger, causing nerve damage…. she had to learn how to type using her non-dominant hand.

Joe had asked me and the organizers if I could sit in the front row, center while she spoke.  I agreed, and made it happen, and was there with a smile, and helpful body language.

After Joe’s speech, during lunch, I told her that she needs to speak.  Professionally, and to more people.  That many more people can benefit from watching her present.

Joe started telling me about her schedule, and some other things.  I interrupted and said that there’s two things she should know.  The first one is that I’m always right, thus, I’m right that she should speak more.  The second thing is that I’ve studied a lot about people, and I can tell from her vocalization and body language that she is just making excuses as to why she can’t… she should focus on why she can.

That night, I couchsurfed with Deb, who organized the event.  In the morning, we were speaking about the event, and I asked about what kind of feedback it got.  Deb told me that it went great, but the most touching thing was that as soon as lunch time, 3 people had already said that Joe’s story made them cry.

I told her of my conversation with Joe the previous day.  We tried to figure out what we can do to make Joe want to be a speaker, and to help her be a better speaker.  Deb suggested we connect Joe with Gigi Belcmonico, who teaches The Bombshell Factor… She teaches women how to have more presence, and carry themselves better.

I thought it was a great idea.  I had seen Gigi present at the 140Conf smalltown, but my schedule was so jam packed, that I wanted to say “Great… good idea… good luck with that… but I gotta deal with my own stuff, so, let me know how it goes.”  I didn’t.

I had never actually had a full conversation with Gigi.  We are friends on Facebook and Twitter… but we’ve never had a conversation.

Now, my conversation with Deb was in person, mind you, not over the phone or skype, or social media.  When we finished that part of the talk, I looked at my laptop, and nothing exciting was new.  I looked up at the TV, which had an all day marathon on Nostradamus, which was quite fascinating.

I glimpsed back down at my laptop, and there was something new.  That small red circle with a white 1 in the center of it.  The notification of a new Facebook message.

“Uhhh… Deb?”

“Yeah?”

“I got a new Facebook message”

“Yeah, so?  You always get new Facebook messages.”

“Yeah…. but this one is from Gigi Belmonico”

Silence.  We just look at each other in shocked disbelief, and I continued.

“I don’t even know what it says.  Just thought it was very strange that we just mentioned her LESS than one minute ago, and I’ve never had a conversation with her, and I have a message from her.”

I clicked on Gigi’s avatar to see “Hello Ori !Nice job!!
Ori are you coming through KC today?
It would be so fun to break bread with you! XOXOGigi”

I replied that it wasn’t on my original plans, but sounds fun.

It was a 4 hour drive, and it was not on my way.  I looked at the map, and decided that since I was heading to San Diego before Hawaii, LA would be a good target, and half way seemed to be Colorado.  I figured I would find a couch while driving to Colorado…. but I now had a detour, because how could I turn away such a unique coincidence?

Before leaving town, I had lunch with Deb and Ben. Ben had reached out after seeing my presentation – he was watching the live stream – and loved my message, and antics. So, we met up. Even more awesomeness was that he gave me a tour of his office, which was on the 15th or 20th floor of this building, so had a wonderful view of Des Moines. It was a real treat!

I couldn’t stay too long though, because as far as I was concerned, I was given a sign. I was supposed to go to Kansas City , to meet Gigi Belconico, and convince her to help Joe.

The drive was lovely, and I even got tons of Facebook comments from this lovely photo I shot with my phone:

Have I mentioned that my new phone that I got in March is an Android Phone (Samsung Epic — pretty good… I should probably root it to make it work better), has a camera, wifi, and Facebook?  This has been a blast, because I can share photos and videos from my life as they happen… unlike my old Palm Treo 700.

So, I’m driving South to Kansas City, and I decide this might be a good time to figure out where I’ll stay tonight.

The usual text to Ping.Fm (a site that pushes my text out to twitter, facebook, and linkedin) was sent, but I didn’t actually check to see if people were replying…. instead, I texted my little brother.

In March, he had texted me and said that he had a couch for me for when I made it out to Colorado. My 1st thoughts, when he told me, were “Whatever… I have a huge network all over the globe.  Plus when the heck do I go to Colorado?”

Now I was going to Colorado though… why not get some new blood?  Someone who doesn’t know me from the world of Internet Marketing, or from my antics.

Itay (my “little” (6’2 245 lbs of solid muscle) brother) texted me back a name and a number.  I asked for more details, and he just texted back that she’s a psychologist, and liked my story.

That’s good enough for me.  I called Michele, and left a voicemail. When we spoke, she agreed that I could crash there… even when I told her I probably won’t arrive until 6AM, since a serendipitous pit stop just came up.

I met Gigi for Gate’s BBQ — which is reputed as being some of the best BBQ in Kansas City. We feasted on Burnt Ends.

Pleasantries were exchanged, and I proceeded to tell Gigi about Joe.  Gigi had watched the live stream of the presentations – and thus saw mine – but had not seen Joe’s.  When I told her of the strange timing of her communication to me, and all that preceded that, she agreed to sponsor Joe with some coaching– should they be compatible.

We chatted about other things, and I gave her all sorts of resources that she could use for some of her own goals… we chatted for over 2 hours, and then I recalled that I had to get on the road.

It was a lengthy drive, another 13 hours on top of the 4 I had driven that morning.  That gave me time though to finally finish the audio book that I had started in Austin before getting on this road trip.

The news said that it was starting to snow.  It was certainly cold, and rainy.  I took a nap, as to not smash into anything, and arrived at 7AM… now one hour farther back in time (Time Zones do trip me out sometimes– for example, right now it’s 1:15AM here in Maui, and in California, where I just was this morning, it’s 4:15AM, and in Austin, where I was a week or 2 prior, it’s 6:15AM).

Michele was cool.  Her home was quaint, and filled from wall to wall with keepsakes and memories from her world travels.  She had been to so many places, that I feel like a homebody!

We chatted for a bit, then I had to pass out. When I woke, I agreed that I’d help her upgrade her router, and fix her internet.  I definitely love to deliver value to those I stay with, and Michele was not a technophile.

Instant Karma — as soon as I finished doing the upgrade, there was all of a sudden an extra Cat5 (network cable) available, and I was able to use that to get on the internet.

I don’t think I told you yet, but my computer has been having issues for a long time.  In February, the fans sounded like wood chippers, and my WiFi was not working too well.

Not too well evolved into hardly ever.  I came up with a workaround, which was getting my new phone on the network, and tethering in that way.  After a while, that stopped working. I was running out of ways to get on the internet, and my computer was running very hot.  It would actually hurt to use it sometimes, and it would crash often (don’t believe all those people that tell you that Apple computers don’t crash).

One workaround that I came up with for the crashing thing, was to put ice trays on my computer, and manually cool it that way. Michele offered me ice-packs (you know.. those silver baggies that are filled with some gel, that you freeze, and they keep stuff cold.) and they seemed to work wonderfully.

What luck, right?  I got ice packs to deal with the over heating, and I got wired internet and an extra cable to get on the web with.  On top of that, I was told by everyone that I’m basically snowed in, and that it would be foolish to try and make it through the mountains.

Michele and I spent the evening discussing her business, and exchanging stories of travel and adventure. The next morning I was off to Las Vegas.

I quickly got a couch offer by my friends Larry & Oksana, whom I met at Burning Man, though I knew of them previously through Craig Allen & Caleb Jennings.  What was even cooler was that Jim Kwik was also staying with them while he was in town to speak at TedX.

Vegas was fun, as it always is.  I told countless jokes to Jim and Alex, and Larry and Oksana. Other than jokes, I got to impress with my eating skills at the all you can eat Sushi place (I can eat a lot more than most people would think I could).

I was considering catching the TedX talks, but I had to get my computer fixed. The matter was no longer acceptable. Even tethering was no longer working, and the computer was running on ice packs.  I would have to go to The Apple Store.

The “Genius” at the Apple Store ran diagnostics on my machine, and basically decreed that I was spot on– dead airport (Mac Wifi card), and a dead left fan. This was the 2nd Apple Store that I hit that morning, because the 1st one was too busy for anyone to see me.  This store did not have the parts, though the guy did write down the part numbers for me.

I called Frys and Best Buys, they were useless. I needed these parts ASAP, so I got on the road and drove to LA.

China, whom I met in Costa Rica, said that I can crash with her at her new home at the ledge of a cliff.  I’ve been wanting to see it, so I coordinated with her, and she texted me the address, and the phone number for the nearest Apple Store.

The Apple store people would not tell me if they had the parts, “A computer has to come in, be checked in by a technician, and be diagnosed before we can tell you about parts.”

After yet another confirmation, I was told that they too don’t have the parts.  One Apple store near by did have the airport card, but no one’s got the fans.

When I went there, they said that they can not sell me the part. They have to install it for me… except that my case was a tiny bit dinged up, so they wouldn’t work on it.

Get this… Apple won’t work on my computer, and they won’t sell me the parts to do my own work on my computer!  It took 4 Apple Stores to figure this out!   Angry? Yes!

I was told that I might have some luck with a 3rd party repair company… and one of my clients actually sells many OEM (generic) parts.  I thought I’d call him.

Once again, no luck… though he did recommend a store.. a store that I won’t name, because the guy I spoke to was really helpful.

He told me that it would be $104 an hour to work on the computer, and that they can’t sell me a part, they have to install it… and unlike the Apple Store, here I would be billed for the diagnostics.  Frustrated, I pleaded my case, “… and then they wouldn’t even work on my computer, but they won’t sell me the parts!  What the heck am I supposed to do?  I mean, I don’t care how the case turns out!  I’ve been building computers from scratch since 6th grade… I just want the damn part!”

“Well… I’m not telling you this as a representative of ___________ (company name), and this is not the company’s answer, nor would I tell you this if you walked in… but if you were my buddy, and we were speaking after work hours, and outside of the office, and you told me that this is what you’re going to do anyways, and you just needed to know where to get the parts… and I was not in the office… then this is what I would tell you.”

He proceeded to tell me a great idea… take the Apple part numbers, put them into Google, and press the Shopping button. I not only bought the 2 parts that I needed, but since I was going to have the computer taken apart, I also got myself a larger harddrive that spins at a faster speed…. thus, my computer should un faster.

My time with China was amazing… she’s also an intuitive reader, and gave me a reading. Between what she read from my energy, and what the cards told her, I was basically very intuitive, empathic, and smart… I have a lot of skills and knowledge, but I need to get grounded, and get past all the noise in my head, and all the other peoples’ energies that I pick up… meditation would help with this.

Additionally, the cards said I need to stop being so self-critical, and I need to trust my heart and intuition more.

When I left China’s place, I went to Hollywood, to SANG – the Speaker Author Networking Group.  I felt like such a mere mortal amongst the superstars that were there.  As Larry Benet, the event organizer, said “70 of the most influential people on the planet” – and invited me to stay for the day (they had more people than 70 during the event, but this was the last day, so some people had to travel back home).

I did not stay, because I had to get my ass to San Diego for the Internet Marketing Party San Diego inaugural event.  I had only dropped by to say hi, and to get Kate Buck Jr, who was in full attendance.

The party was well worth the drive. It was what I wish my 10 year high school reunion had been like.  Tons of talented people who are very business minded, positive, supportive, exciting, interesting, excited, motivated…… Frank Kern was the featured speaker, and I got to get on stage when David Gonzalez (the same one whose house I nearly got arrested in front of in Austin… He is the founder of Internet Marketing Party) gave acknowledgements for those that helped make the party a reality.

It was like a reunion… other than Craig, who was in Hawaii, so many of my friends, and former couches, were there.  I had a most wonderful evening. After a Peanut Butter Burger at 2AM, me and some friends went on the rooftop of a hotel… which was actually locked, but one of our group picked the lock, so we can have this incredible view.  Good times.

The next day, the fan arrived, and my computer no longer needed ice packs! Tethering was also working again.

2 days later, my airport came in, and I no longer needed to be wired in.

I was mostly in work mode, cranking out client projects.  I did not know what I would do with my car yet.  That’s a friggin story!

I thought I was going to lend the car to my buddy Russell… but my plates are expired, and the state of Georgia was being a bunch of pricks.  You see, you can’t get your tags renewed unless you get your emissions done.  If you’re not in town though, you can get an exemption…. or so I was told.

They only give you an exemption if you’re in the military, are a student, or… are on a very specific business trip.

Before heading to Costa Rica in late November, I mailed them everything they needed to give me my business exemption, and they still did not mail me my tags.

This time, I called to see what’s up…. it turns out that business exemption…. your business has to be located in Georgia.

My company is a Delaware company, and I run it from where ever I am.

They do not give exemptions for just traveling, and that since I’m not doing my business in Georgia, that they won’t help me. In fact, when I asked if perhaps I could take an emissions test in California, and mail them the results, I was specifically told that the only way they will renew my tags is if I drive my car to Atlanta, and get my emissions done there.

So.. where to store the car?

After asking, and having some people give replies, I decided that even if a friend wanted to give me their garage, it’s just not worth the hassle….

I looked up Car Storage, and found a place that will watch my car, disconnect the battery, turn on the engine every month….. all for $90 a month– way less than the cost of any inconvenience any friend would go through to watch the car.

Rob took me to drop off my car, and we then went to Lestat’s – my favorite coffee place.  We also brought with us Craig’s surfboard, which was being stored at Rob’s place.

I bought a surfboard case, and I filled it with the surfboard, and my clothes — for padding.  I will now have a surfboard to use in Hawaii– as will Craig and Terra.

The flight was uneventful, and I landed in Maui.  Craig and Terra found me quickly.  Craig lifted my hat off my head, and Terra put a Lei on me.  It was made of real flowers, and smelled incredible ( I am still sniffing it at the moment ).

So… got my bag, got the surfboard, got some lunch — the Mahi Mahi and Ahi here are fresh, so I had some blackened Ahi — yum!

We then went to the beach, since who the hell goes to Hawaii and doesn’t go to the beach, right?

Following that, was a small nap for me next to the saltwater pool, and then work.

Tomorrow morning I start training with Terra…. she says she can get me to a 7 minute mile!  Currently, I run 11.5 minute miles, and she’s been running since she was 12, so I believe her.

It’s just one more thing to be excited about.

So… here I am… in Hawaii, with no return ticket back to the mainland USA.  My plans are to get a lot of work done, get my run way faster, and learn to meditate.

An entire journey was started because a friend knew that I would go for it, because a 1 way ticket would make a great story.  By the way… a 1 way ticket to Hawaii on a Tuesday was only $240 + taxes (total $268).  So… don’t think that a Hawaiian vacation is out of your reach.  If you want to go somewhere, start by planning what you would do there if you could go… the rest will take care of itself.

Is there anywhere you’ve gone with a 1 way ticket?  Any place you’d want to go on a 1 way ticket?

One minute I’m being reminded that I said I’d run in an obstacle race, and have not taken any action on it (i.e. flaked out), and 2 hours later, I get a text out of the blue asking if I can run in an obstacle race to cover for my friend who already bought the ticket.

Yup.  I love serendipity.

What I don’t love however, is people not delivering on their promises. And Hell Run certainly did not do that!

You see, on their website, they have photos of people covered in mud… yet nobody got anything more than their ankles muddy… and even that was weak.

I’ll tell you the things they did, but when I get to the last one, you’ll see why I bothered to  write this post!

The “Raging River” — that was more of “The Stangnant Cesspool”!  It was a very smelly pond… nothing about it resembled a river, and the only thing about Rage was my nose’s reaction to the stench… or the thought that all these people paid $90 to run in this overhyped race.

Even the KISS tribute band sucked… and only played about 3 songs again and again.

The “Titan Tunnel” which looks on the website to be a concrete tube, was actually a few boxes made from cheap wood, that had a circular hole cut in the front and back.

There were fewer obstacles than they made it out to sound like.  The obstacles were quite lame.  I could have walked over the fire.

The "Real" photo- not nearly as cool as the photoshopped one

You get a drink ticket… they had 2 drinks: Michelob Ultra, and Budweiser.  Your drink ticket only gets you a Michelob Ultra… if you chose a Budweiser for your drink, then you get to pay $5.

Many people complained that there were not enough water stations along the way.

Now, I did have 2.5 weeks to train to get ready for this… and I was running on flat ground at about 11:40 per mile… which I was all right with.  It’s not an 8 minute mile, but that’s ok…. it as better than my 15 minute miles.

So I run this race, and it is not flat ground.  It is hot.  It is humid.  There are lots of rocks….

This is not at all like what I was training on, and to top it off, I launched fast out of the gate, to beat other people from the get-go.

The end result was that I ended up doing a bunch of walking.  Additional time was spent by going through the obstacles…

You can imagine my surprise when after this race which was in no way hellacious or scary or anything like what they promoted… that my run time was reported to me as 11 minute miles.

How the heck could I have walked, and climbed obstacles, and been running hills instead of flat ground, and still beat my best time by 40 seconds?

Something reeked of brimstone (get it? a hell joke)!

I mentioned this to my friends that ran, and they too mentioned that their time seemed way too generous.  Additionally, they informed me that they went onto the HellRun fanpage, and saw that many people were complaining about misrepresentation, and crappy obstacles.

What’s worse, is that the Hell Run people then deleted all the comments up until before (people got to experience the underwhelming obstacles) the race… and changed the page settings to disallow comments.

So… if you are looking for a good race, I hear good things about Tough Mudder, and Warrior Dash.  Hell Run is not one that I would recommend.  It’s weak, and I believe they should give people their money back.

One last gripe… I’ve been meaning to get a nice cape… with all the helping of people that I’m doing lately, there’s been a lot of superhero jokes.  So… when I saw that they give us a cape for participating, I was excited.

What they gave us may be good for a rag… I would not wear it to save anyone.  *sigh*

In summary (and the reason that this is marked in the business category) – Do not misrepresent.  If you promise the world, and not even deliver a block, people will be upset.  If I didn’t do well on the race, I would’ve been ok with that… but them lying on the race times is a lie…. it doesn’t make me feel better about my run times, it makes me upset that I do not know how long it really took me.  If you screw up, and underdeliver, let people vent, do not delete their posts…. give them a ticket to the next race for free.  Do right by people.  Do not lie, and try to cover it up…..  Doing that is what causes blog posts like this that let the whole world know that you are not to be trusted.

Have you ever been held against your will? Your only choices being to keep suffering, or to walk away from what you’ve worked hard for? Sometimes, if we want another solution – the one that works for you – you have to do what it takes. My troubles began over a decade ago…

The year was 1996, many people did not know what this “Internet” thing is (we were still in Web 1.0 then) . A 19 year old Ori had just finished studying Softimage 3D in Burbank, and was about to buy his first ever “Domain”, i.e. web address. The possibilities were endless.

What to name this thing?  It seemed like fun to have the domain be an acronym of ORI… the final contestants were Obscure Reality Interactive, Omnivorous Rhinoceros Interactive.  Considering that Ori was doing photoshop, 3D Animation, and compositing… i.e. being able to create his own versions of reality, Obscure Reality won.

ObscureReality.com was a cool and appropriate name for young Ori.

When I think back to the days when I was 19, life was so different.  I was going to make movies, commercials, and special effects (A perfect example of a modern version is Freddie W ).  Even then I knew that I can make a website change to whatever it is that I’m doing.

In 1997 I got a job at this studio called Top Dog Studio, doing 3D Animation, and when their editor moved for love, I took over video editing.  I became very close friends with Tim, the head of IT.  The neighboring company, was an ISP, and TIm was in charge of that as well, thus I was given free hosting (which back then was a big deal).

While these days I can diagnose web problems in seconds, 15 years ago, I didn’t know shit! Proof: I was using Microsoft Front Page to create my first sites (yuck!).  Thus, I was thrilled at Tim’s offer to help do the admin stuff. So, I gave him my Network Solutions password, and he made himself admin.

Since prices were so expensive from Network Solutions (and still are), I took them up on an offer to save some funds by renewing my domain for 10 years at once.  In 2009 those years were expiring…. and Network Solutions still wanted $32 a year for a domain, even though standard pricing was already at $10 a year everywhere else.  I didn’t notice this until my domain was about to expire, of course.

Guess it’s time to sell internal body parts to raise the bribe money.  Or… maybe I should just transfer my domain to another registrar?  Well, that sounds like a great idea.. I’ll just log in here, and…

What the hell????

I can’t!  Network Solutions’ site said that I am not the Primary Contact for the domain, thus I can’t make any changes other than give them money, or change where the hosting is.

I was outraged!  After pressing every button, and going through every menu, I called them.  They said that Tim is the primary contact, and I have to  have him fix this.  I hadn’t spoken to Tim in a while, and I didn’t want to call him just to talk business… Since I did not want to lose my domain, I paid them.

A year later, the extortion letters came in again.  It was cutting it close again, but this time I was going to take action. I called people, and got Tim’s new number, and after catching up, I mentioned the whole Network Solutions thing, and “so… can you help?”

“Fuck Network Solutions!  They wouldn’t let me access my domain, my NIC password doesn’t work on there anymore, I lost the domain that my wife and I had for all these years, and they wouldn’t help me out on anything! I’ll try to get in, but… I”m not promising anything.”

This was followed 2 days later by a “They wouldn’t let me in.”

Great… I can’t get in,  ’cause I’m not the primary contact… but the primary contact can’t get in either.

I called them up, and told them my situation.  They basically said I’m screwed… but I can pay them… and they’ll even be so nice as to let me have my renewal at a discount rate of only $20 (Only double the rate of other companies).

My patience expired.. I snapped.  I got mean… that approach didn’t work either… so I hung up, and called back, and spoke to another person (this time trying to keep my cool)… this time I made some progress.

Network Solutions said that I can fax in a Primary Contact Change Form.  Sounds simple, hooray!

Well… when I got it, it said that I need to send them a current utility bill from the address they have on file.  Sounds simple, but Obscure Reality, Inc. doesn’t exist anymore, and I sure as hell am not doing business at the same address that I was 14 years prior.

The good thing is that I still had access to utility bills from that address, because the address I used 14 years prior was my parents’.  ”Mom, Dad, can you scan and send me your latest electric bill?”

They did, but I was getting twitchy about losing my domain, so I paid them “the discounted price” and figured I’d photoshop the document my folks say to look like it was from my company, at a later time.

Well, here we are, 2011…. and one day I just think of it as I jog… “Wonder when domain renewal is?”   Now I actually was doing something with the domain, this time as Obscure Reality, LLC., so the domain was very important to me.

Turns out that it was going to expire in a week. I tried everything on their website, and again, had no luck.  I called again, and here’s the frustrating thing:  Every time I call, and tell them that I want to move my domain to another registrar, they say “Sure.. I can help you with that” and then proceed to try to convince me to stay with them.

It always begins with “Sure.. I can help you with that… if you don’t mind me asking, why are you looking to move your domain?”  ”’cause you guys charge 3 to 4 times what everyone else charges, and I have no control over my site other than being able to pay you, or change name servers” , and this is where there is some variation.

The first person I spoke to for my 2011 attempt said “What if we let you renew for $9.50?”  ”Wow… that’s actually a decent rate… but, nah… I don’t want to have a site that I’m not primary contact of… I’ll think about it.  ”  and I got the form from them.

I went over it multiple times to make sure that I’m following directions properly.  I then took the previous years’ utility bill from my parents’ house, and photoshopped it to be from 2011, and be addressed to me, instead of my dad.  Yes, I had to resort to forgery to get  my domain back.  Ethically, I have issue with this, except that if I’m stealing from anyone, it’s from myself.

I am just enraged at thinking about “What if I didn’t have the skills to do this?”  This was the day before the domain expires.  And… to make things even more frustrating, I noticed that the setting had been to not notify me about expiration!  So.. if the thought to check my domain hadn’t popped into my head, I’d be screwed.

The next day I spoke to someone else, and the speech was the same until “What if we offered you a renewal at $15?”  – I’m supposed to be happy at this?  It’s nearly $6 more than the offer I got the day before!  I was actually calling to see that they got the fax form– which they hadn’t. I was already unhappy enough about having to print something.

They kept trying to sell me, despite me saying that I have 0 interest in staying with them… that they could pay me money for the next 10 years, and I still wouldn’t want to stay with them… they still kept trying (Yes, this is not an exaggeration, I literally said this)!

So, they gave me an additional email address to send my counterfeit documents to.  I sent there, and to the fax number and email again.  They said they will extend my domain by a week, so I don’t have to worry about it expiring.

I kept checking my inbox, and after 4 days I was primary contact again.  In case you’re not familiar with the process of transferring a domain:

1)Unlock domain
2)Request transfer authorization code (known as:  auth code, a transfer key, a transfer secret, an EPP code, EPP authentication code, or EPP authorization code).
3)Fill out transfer form at new registrar- which will then request that auth code.
4)The new registrar will send an email to the primary contact, which will have another code to be entered.
5)Once that admin puts the code in, the transfer should proceed.

Usually Auth Codes are generated instantly– at least whenever I’ve transferred domain names with other registrars.  With Network Solutions I had to wait a day before I got the email.

I only yesterday (5/1/2011) got confirmation that the transfer was successful… from a process that I started on 4/19/2011, and is usually fairly instantaneous.

Will I ever recommend Network Solutions to anyone?  No way.  However, I will take responsibility and boil this down to lessons learned:

1) If you buy a domain, don’t make someone else the primary contact… don’t give someone else your login for your registrar.  If someone else will be a primary contact, then you add them as tech contact… don’t let them do it.

2)If you are renewing something for 10 years at a time, make sure all your contact info is correct.  Heck, make sure even if you renew it for a year.  Make sure that your information is correct.

At the time I registered my domain, Network Solutions was the only registrar I knew of, and prices were high.  These days, their prices are still higher than most other registrars’  - They want $12.99 a year, and they have a floating “Questions? Talk to us live” window that does a great job of hiding the “Proceed without hosting, and get just registration” button.

If you want reliable hosting and registration, I recommend you go through http://WordpressBlogFactory.com – which charge $9.50 a year for domain, and have a free 30 days of hosting, and they preinstall WordPress for you, and even give you a $85 premium theme for free, as well as that they are the only place I know of that does WordPress support.   They are the company I recommend to my students.

As for me, I really do feel free after all these years of having my domain held captive.  It’s good to be able to move on with my life, and have one less thing to worry about.

I suspect that it is an allergy to the Cedar Trees in Austin… Check it out, there’s an entire site dedicated to hating Cedars!  They have lots of facts… Austin, Texas voted the 2nd allergy capital in the USA by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

The upside is that I get to use one of my all-time favorite bad puns.. You think it’s funny, but it’s snot!  I say this every time I’m on the phone with someone, and I have to blow my nose. Hooray for silver linings, right?

But, I have been coughing up a storm, and my head felt as if someone shoved a balloon up my nose, into the brain cavity, and then inflated it…. my sinuses were so clogged, my eyes were blood shot.  I could not concentrate on anything, and I was constantly tired… it’s as if someone had just turned on the Tired Switch, and left it on.  I would sleep, wake up, and go right back to sleep.  Not cool!

My friend Isabella Jones had sent me her Betti Pot right before I went to Costa Rica, but I figured I wouldn’t have enough time to use it to properly check its benefits.  Well, as I was bitching and moaning on facebook, Isabella reminded me that I have this thing. I had actually remembered myself, and wanted to use it… but being so stuffed up and woozy, my memory was worse than Cheech & Chong’s.

With a reminder fresh in my head, I headed out to the car to get my Betti Pot.

A “sub-story” that happened when I went to get it is The Case of The Disappearing Beefy.

Allergy knocked me out… I took a nap, and a really great friend called, so I woke up for that… we haven’t spoken in months.

Then I went outside to get my Betti Pot that  Isabella Jones  sent me.. I left it in the car. It was freezing outside!

Nobody else was home, so I let Beefy inside. He played with me a little bit, then ran off somewhere. Then he barked for a while, and then there was silence.

I was concerned– where’s Beefy? I walked around the entire house, but he was nowhere to be found.

I called him, and jiggled my car keys. No luck.

I came back up stairs and worked for a few minutes, and I heard him whimper. So, I go and search the whole house again. I check, the garage is closed, the front door is closed, the back door is closed. There are no open windows… This was starting to feel like an episode of the Twilight Zone — a missing dog that has nowhere to go… a faint ghost whimper….

I went back upstairs, this time I checked Perry’s room too…. There, in the bathtub was Beefy. Staring up at me with his little Corgi eyes, tongue out panting, a big sponge, and a bunch of bubble bath soap.

Now he smells all nice

</end-of-substory>

I was so out of it though, that I decided to save the Betti Pot for the next day…. which was today. Actually.. that’s not entirely true.  I wanted to use it, but there were no instructions.  I told Isabella that I’d call her, but because of the Beefy incident, I didn’t text her until later… and she was asleep.  When I told Brandie this, she asked if I checked BettiPot.com which of course I hadn’t… so I look, and sure enough, there’s the “How-to” section.

Today, after hearing yet again that I sound like shit, and arguing with my brother that my voice is just fine, I finally went and followed the instructions on the website. Isabella had sent me the Wellness Kit, which includes the Betti Pot some super-milled sea salt, and the Betti Breath oils.

I’ve never used a netti pot before… I’ve seen it demonstrated, and I’ve had many of my health-conscious friends rave about them.  What Isabella had done was take all the complaints that people have about netti pots, and improved upon them, making for a better nasal-rinse experience.

I guess that saying “I was about to dive right in” is an appropriate term.  There was a moment when some liquids went down my throat, through my nasal passages… this was a tiny bit scary, and reminded me of some snorkeling mistakes that I’ve made.  But, it was not that bad at all… just reminded me of it.

It took a few minutes for me to get the hang of it, and to clear out my nasal passages enough to where water would flow from one nostril into the next.

I then switched nostrils, and did it again (as the instructions say to do).

I blew my nose (again, as the instructions say), and was instantly amazed!

I was not just impressed, I was amazed!  I could breath in and out of my nose.  There was no snot. The balloon feeling was also gone!  The urge to just crawl back into bed was gone.

Now, this thing did not heal me.  I’m still sick.  As I write this at 4AM, I’m still coughing up a storm… but… I had used this thing about 5 times today.  I’d say I’m practically addicted now.

You see, you don’t need to be sick to use this.  If you use a Betti Pot on a daily basis, you can eliminate many allergies, and many of the “gurus” at David Wolfe’s Longevity Conference said they use one daily.

So, yeah.. my cough went away temporarily.  I could smell.  I could breath.  My head didn’t feel like it was hyperinflated.  The “sleep switch” had turned off.  I was almost back to normal. Late at night, hours after my last Betti Pot use, my cough came back, and I got stuffy again.  So, I am off to use it one last time today, and go to sleep. Would I recommend this to you personally?  Hell yes!  I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who has any allergy, congestion, or sinus problems.  After one day, I am a believer.  Thanks Isabella!

I’ll close out by giving some of the benefits, as cut/paste from Isabella’s site:

1) You will feel better.

Being able to take a nourishing breath through the nose will help you feel more energized immediately. Isn’t it a terrible feeling to not be able to breath freely? Oxygen is essential for life and we need to breathe well for many health reasons, including better brain functionality and reduced stress!

“I used to have to think about breathing every morning, trying to breathe through my nose… now I can breathe freely because I use my Betti Pot… you shouldn’t have to think abut trying to breathe!“- Beth Jeffries, age 50

2) You will breathe more freely.

Reducing congestion in the nasal passages opens the breathing pathways, allowing effortless breathing…a regular habit of sinus cleaning may result in unobstructed nasal breathing and reduced snoring!

“Using the Betti Pot has changed my life – I breathe better all day long and my wife says my snoring has stopped at night! Happy wife…happy life!” – Steve Fitzgerald, age 56

3) You will experience reduced swelling around your eyes.

Yes, ladies, this might be your favorite beauty aid! Isabella says it is her’s! The best way to reduce the puffy and swollen “bags” around the eyes is to calm the inflammation under the skin in the sinus. How can a lotion or potion shrink a balloon under the skin? Get to the source of the problem by using a calming sea salt “Betti” sinus rinse to soothe the swelling, “open up” and brighten the eye area.

“The first thing I do every morning is rinse my sinus with my Betti Pot. I feel immediate relief in the tight feeling around my eyes-my eyes always look better and brighter after I use my Betti Pot and my eye ‘bags’ shrink.” – Kelly Gibbs, age 40

4) You will experience reduced symptoms associated with allergies, colds, asthma, and sinus infections.

Millions of people experiencing relief from symptoms of allergies, colds, asthma and chronic sinus infections from sinus cleaning use one phrase:”life altering”. Can a little porcelain pot and sea salt water provide such relief? Yes!

“I have been suffering from severe allergies for the past 6 years and getting progressively worse, despite all sorts of medicines and surgeries. I have had NO allergies for 6 months now, using the Betti Pot daily. THANK YOU. I tell everyone I can about the $23.00 investment that changed my life. I really appreciate you introducing me to the Betti Pot. Keep up your marvelous work Isabella.” -Mary B., age 57

5) You may reduce your likelihood of getting sick.

Read the following article on proactive health solutions to getting sick: Health Educator Isabella Jones Urges Americans to Practice Daily Sinus Cleansing To Help Prevent Colds & The Flu

6) You may be able to reduce or eliminate your need to use cold medications, allergy medications, and anitbiotics.
Today’s expensive antibiotics and over-the-counter medications are getting scrutiny from the medical community, and doctors are warning us to reduce our overuse of them because of the serious side effects. The Betti Pot sinus cleansing system is a natural and safe alternative to expensive meds and has been a money-saving and life-altering solution for many families.

“I had been suffering from severe sinus infections for years. I endured expensive and prolonged antibiotic treatments, allergy medications which made me feel lousy, along with the costly doctor visits. None of this medical treatment stopped or prevented my recurring infections and I resigned myself to living with this as a life-long problem. Then I found the Betti Pot. My infections stopped immediately and permanently. I have not had a sinus infection for 5 years now since using the Betti Pot. This has changed my life forever!” – Kurt Wenzel, age 45

Disclaimer: Statements made on this site are for informational purpose only, and are not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any disease. None of the statements made on this site have been approved or reviewed by the FDA. If you are suffering from any disease or illness you should consult your personal health care practitioner before changing any medication.

Nothing says you're cool like having one of these on your laptop

They have arrived! After four years of traveling and turning strangers into friends, my logo can now be had by you!  That’s right! Couch Surfing Ori stickers are here! 

Apple thinks you are a tool

Apple is the king of marketing and creating hype.  Their technology has changed the world.  Their style has made technology simple, and pretty.  And now, they think that we are all fools. Me personally, I am waiting for the youtube itunes video of the person who came up with this latest scheme getting executed by firing squad.

Yesterday had all the tech sites wondering what Apple will announce today, as their home page announced with poor grammar that “Tomorrow is just another day.  That you’ll never forget.”  I gotta admit, with all that they’ve done, I too was curious what their announcement will  be.  What will they have people lining up around the block for this time?

Apparently, all the hype was to announce that the Beatles are now on iTunes.  Seriously?  That’s it?  That is worth shutting down the Apple home page for?

For those who were not aware of it, all the Beatles albums have been available for sale at your local record shop for decades.

The entire discography (the whole collection) AND a bunch of rare stuff that you can’t even buy have been floating around the web for ages, and for free, on Torrent Sites, so it’s not like you couldn’t get mp3s of your favorite Beatles song.  In fact, those sites have their content in higher quality than iTunes does.

There was this one site called Oink.Me.Uk – which got shut down (and in January of this year, the owner of the site was declared not guilty), because all the record companies attacked it.  Why were they so afraid of that site? Because the quality was way better than their offerings.  The selection was way better than theirs as well.  Oink had really high standards.  It got the collectors to encode and share their private stash at high quality.

If you’re a huge Beatles fan, and you want the collection, then buy the CD and encode it to FLAC – a lossless compression.  Get Vinyl, now that has a rich sound!  Even play it on CDs… fine.  Whatever.  But, don’t spend your hard earned money on iTunes!  At least if you buy the CDs you have a pretty box!  You have something to show!  With iTunes you have a medium quality mp3…. that’s locked to your computer!  So… you can’t even buy this as a gift!

Yeah… here’s a story for you! This girl took me on a date to this concert, and the next day bought a song on iTunes (Stolen, by Dashboard Confessional) just to send to me (awwwww)…. except that I couldn’t play the damn thing ’cause she bought it on her computer.  Can you imagine how that feels?  To buy someone a present, and they aren’t allowed to open it?  Well…. that’s called DRM – Digital Rights Management- I wrote about DRM and what you can do about it.

I respect an artist’s right to make money.  But guess what?  Most of them don’t!  The reason is not because of people downloading… it’s because the record labels hardly pay them anything.  They make their money on touring, tshirt sales, that kind of stuff… not off of record sales.

This (NOT safe for work / kids — language) hilarious animation came out when Metalica was bashing people for downloading their stuff at the time when Napster came out.  Napster is now another tool for buying music… but back in the day, it was like Limewire– a tool for finding and sharing files.  P2P (Peer to peer) sharing — which is what Torrent Sites are these days.  These tools have many legitimate uses by the way.

So… Yes, I think it is pathetic that Apple fans will wait in line for 12 hours to buy a $600 phone that’s going to be replaced next year… or break the 1st time they drop it.  Actually…. what I have to say about it can’t explain it any better than this incredible video:

Yeah!  That’s right!

So…. Apple, thanks for making the iPod.  It’s really rad!  I appreciate having a stylish player to carry my content with me where ever I go.  I think it’s great that you buy up every 5th billboard in every major city to show people holding ipads.  But damn dudes, why blow your wad on announcing that you have a few more tunes on your music store?  I hope this is a giant flop.  I think it’s insulting, showing how the whole world talks about anything that Apple does, even if it’s something so trivial.

And for the record… my iPod Touch was acting up this morning, completely ruining my jog!  Thankfully the people from Brooks set up small pavilions on the trail, and had people do 1 minute challenges for prizes.  I just wanted to see what it was about, so I tried to eat a spoonful of cinnamon in 1 minute.  That’s harder than it sounds!  That cheered me up

So… yes, I was pre-bitter about Apple before I even saw their misuse of brand power.

Check out my Pretzel Crisps Gift Bag

Many people see a marketing technique, and use it in a spammy way. I bash my clients when they use spammy methods, and I help them come up with more engaging methods. Here is some wonderful use of Social Media by Pretzel Crisps.  Just watch the video, it explains it all:

I’m  warning you in advance, this is not your mother’s book review (takes me a tiny bit to get warmed up)! It has a lot of really personal stuff from my life as I reflect on the book, and is discussed in my fun (and language filled) manner.

Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse is a book that does not fit in my normal reading list. As with all things in my life, this too has a fascinating story and reflection.

It all started with Jaime.

Have you ever known someone… you knew who they were… you’ve spoken before… you’ve got many friends in common?  Sure you have.  In my case, this is Jaime Mintun. I met her in March of 2009.  She was one of the keynote speakers at Stompernet 7.  I was invited, and had a blast learning and partying.  Jaime had caught my attention… not because of her good looks, but because she was speaking about consulting- something I do, and am always fascinated with.  The way she presented things made sense.

Since then I’ve met many of her friends, and  seen her a few times in various cities… most recently, hanging out with my fellow adventurer, Caleb Jennings at David Wolfe’s Longevity Conference.  Why is this worth mentioning?  Keep reading, you’ll see.

Now that I’m in La Jolla, we decided to hang.  I guess we see each other on Facebook so often, with so many friends in common, that we felt we knew each other. *WRONG* – This blog post is about Siddartha, but I could easily write a much longer post about Jaime…. for starters, there’s this story called Acres of Diamonds.  In that story, this guy sells his property to fund a diamond funding expedition.  He spends his whole life looking for diamonds, and does not succeed… yet, the property he sold ended up being one of the largest diamond mines ever.

That’s a reminder for you to really get to know the people who are already in your life.  Some of them may be the most awesome diamond mine ever!  Upon hanging with Jaime at a coffee shop, neither one of us got any of our work done. We did have an absolute blast… a day of non-stop laughter, and getting to know each other.  Turns out that she is extremely smart, extremely learned, well travelled, and a heck of an achiever.  When we spoke about creativity though, she told me about Siddhartha, and how fascinating she found it.  Here’s a link to Jaime’s blog post about Siddhartha.

What she had told me was that she didn’t feel that she felt in…. she liked to travel, but her hippie friends gave her crap about having nice things, while her successful friends gave her crap about staying at hostels and low-cost residences while traveling. And she read this book, and felt fine with being herself…. (and now, finally, onto the book)

This book reminds me of something I would have read in high school or college English/Literature class. It started off sort of boring me..(What? I’m being honest!  Anyways… if that’s all you read, then you’re a fool!  Keep going!) The languaging is slow, and of an earlier era.  It was published in 1922, and in the USA in 1951, before Fight Club, so it is forgiveable.  This was not intended to be an action novel, but an allegorical tale (it tells a story other than the literal interpretation of what you read, by using figures and symbols to convey the intended message).

Jaime’s summary:  This guy goes around the land meeting all these different leaders… Buddah, merchants, etc… each one trying to tell him what’s so special about their thing… but in the end, the only person who is just is the Ferryman… ’cause he would just bring people to their destination, and did not judge them, or tell them what to expect…. he let them find their own path.   I said that it was during our talk of creativity that Jaime told me about this book, because like the Ferryman, Jaime can connect people of different worlds, so they understand each other, without judging them… win-win-win.

I’m not going to tell you the entire story– you can get it on audio book, or even read it for free on Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2500 – If you’re not familiar with Gutenberg.Org, you should check it out!  It’s a site that posts an insane amount of public domain literature/sheet music/etc… Apparently, I am going to tell you the whole story… Since there is so much that relates from the story to my life (this sentence was inserted after writing this post), but I tell it in a lot fewer pages than Hesse did.

I mention Jaime, her blog, and her summary, because I’m fascinated by how different people read the same thing, and get such a different message out of it.

I was able to connect with Siddhartha as a literal character, not just in the allegorical sense.

The novel begins by talking about what a hotshot Siddhartha is…. everyone likes him, he’s good looking, he’s smart, he’s helpful, he’s successful at what he does, he is passionate, he makes other people smile….. and yet, he does not have his own happiness.

His happiness is missing, because while he’s learned all that they teach the Brahmin (the Indian caste / religion he was born into), he didn’t think that their answers actually provided truth. So, he and his buddy Govinda skip town to join the Shramanas, which are ascetics (people who give up all posessions, and basically all worldly pleasures in order to find enlightenment).

Before they go, he wants permission from his dad… who’s not willing to give it… until he realizes that Siddhartha is stubborn, and is going to do this anyways, so he finally gives him his blessing.  While not a lot of time is spent on this portion of the story, this is a major theme (uggh!  See!  Told you this sounds like a Literature class.  Even my writing sounds like homework for one of those.  It’s all right– classes are good.) which sort of boils down to “If you love something, set it free.  If it comes back, it was meant to be.  If it doesn’t, hunt it down and kill it…. er… if it doesn’t, it wasn’t meant to be!” (the original cliche, probably didn’t have that hunting part :p )

So, my parents “let me” go on this trip… they didn’t understand it (thought this would be just another phase), but they love me, so they let me go (not that I’m that easy to stop).  They let me get a motorcycle (though, that took a little bit of reverse psychology) despite being so worried about what will happen to me if I get a bike.  I loved my Honda CBR 600 F2, but sure enough… I got shot in the leg with a paintball gun while doing 110mph! Parents know everything!

So, Sid (yeah… I’m gonna call him that   It’s way faster to type… and for you to read!) and Go (well.. if Sid gets abbreviated, this is only fair.  Anyways… Sid & Go has a way more stylish feel to it…. maybe I’ll do a rewrite of the original novel, turning it into a modern action story… that has deep meaning, of course) hang with the Shramanas, and Sid says, “Nah… they don’t know shit either!” (he worded it differently) “What else is there?”

Now Go is sort of a bitch… when Hesse starts the book by saying what a badass Sid is, he talks about how Go is kind of his bitch… he wants to be him, and follow him to the end of the world.

Go is an important character for me, because he reminds me of one of the chapters in my book that talks about the people who care about you, but weigh you down.  Go always tells Sid how cool he is, but whenever Sid says “Hey! These peeps don’t know jack, let’s find some better answers!” Go tries to talk him out of it!  That little bitch, how dare he?  Despite all that, he still goes where Sid goes.

So, they left the Brahmin, they left the Shramanas, and they heard about this Buddah dude.  He’s supposed to be hot shit, and his opt-in list is growing like mad!  Oh wait… marketer-speak again…. his following is growing quickly, thus he probably has the truth.

Hesse did not spend much time talking about the journey here… It went quickly from “I heard Buddah has some good stuff” to “Yay! We’re here!”

So, Sid & Go couchsurf (yeah!  There’s a lot of couchsurfing in this novel, no wonder I like it!) with some people, and watch Buddah and his yellow-robed buddies all go beg for food, then they catch his lecture, and decide it’s pretty decent.  So, they crash another couch, and Go, who’s kind of a follower anyways decides that Buddah is in fact awesome, and that this must be the truth.

Sid wishes him well, but decides that Buddah is kind of high and mighty too, so he’s gonna go find the real truth.  He wasn’t a dick about it though.  He flat out told Buddah that his program’s pretty damn great, but has one major problem….  you can’t teach what Buddah experienced, because he experienced it… it’s an experience, not knowledge! He also told him that his stuff’s a bit too polarized.  There’s more to life than suffering and Nirvana (though, people in Seattle may argue that!).

More reflection– I was told that I’m supposed to go to college. That must be the truth, right?  Well, I went to UF, and left, ’cause I knew more than they did from my own learnings (about 3d animation– which in ’94 was not nearly as popular as it is now).  It was hard to break the news to my own Go (friends and family), but I knew that this was the path for me.

Actually, it’s an awesome story, so here’s the quickie version (color coded & italicized, so you can fast forward to Sid’s story if mine’s not fascinating enough f0r you): I started with CIS (computer and information sciences) since I wanted to learn 3d animation. After a bunch of prerequisites, it turns out that 3d animation is in the Fine Arts program, and you have to take this 13 credit class called WARP (hell if I remember what it stands for, but you had 6 hours of class on Monday / Wednesday / Friday, and lectures on Tuesdays, and tons of projects to keep you busy in between).

We had this project to mix our style with that of an artist whose name we chose out of a hat. I got Jennifer Bartlett. Some fancy NY artist whose work focuses on nature, and the passing of time (yes, I actually did research to find this out).  I took the 486 computer that I had built (I had actually driven 4 hours to get parts at wholesale to upgrade it for animation….16MB of RAM, and a 2x CD ROM drive were expensive as hell!  I had put it on Mom & Dad’s credit card – which they discovered quite quickly — and spent 6 months paying them back. ) and installed a pirated copy of Autodesk Animator on it.

In AA (Autodesk Animator… although I sure did drink a lot more back then than I do these days), I animated a robot juggling.  The background was a photo of dunes in the desert.  A dust storm came, and blew the desert away to reveal a modern city.  The juggling robot didn’t care, he just kept doing his thing, while the city turned to desert, and desert turned to city.

I had mixed my style and Mrs. Bartlett’s style by showing landscapes, and time passing– the things that she likes — in a medium that I use (computers and animation) with the art and themes that I like — sci-fi, robots, high-tech, modern.

I actually had to schlep (yiddish for carry…. often used when speaking of cumbersome cargo) my computer and my monitor in my Ford Taurus Station Wagon — my 2nd hand me down from the folks…. I trashed this one as well, though it was a wonderful car to carry kegs in– and set it up in front of the class.

I played my animation, and explained about Jen’s work and mine. People were impressed, and I was pleased with myself, but then the teacher says “ok, but what’s your message?”

“Huh?” “Message?”

People started guessing, “Are you trying to say that all things fade away?” “History repeats itself?”

I pointed at the one who said the thing about fading away “Ummm… Yeah!  You got it!” awkward pause “What he said!” (In hind sight, Battlestar Galactica – the modern series- was a complete rip-off of my art project: people evolve, create technology — robots, of course – which helps to bring them into more modern times, and then turns against them, and then the people get back to Earth, and blow up all their technlogy… back to dirt.  Now, I hadn’t actually seen the show, but Craig Allen was kind enoguh to give me the run down)

“Ah huh!”  the teacher was not convinced.

What the hell?!?!  The project sheet said nothing about having a message! It said to mix our style with the hat-artist’s style!  I decided to be stubborn, and bring up this point.

The teacher tried to explain – as if this were common knowledge – that everything we create has a meaning.  I disagreed. I believe that sometimes we just create to create…. ’cause it’s fun, or it’s theraputic… and that if they wanted a message, they should have explicityly said so in the assignment.

In case you’re wondering, I did get a shitty grade on that project because I didn’t have a message!

Part of the way through WARP, they have a lecture where all the department chairs show you the different things that each department produces, so you can choose your path for next semester.  When I saw what their idea of computer animation was (making still frames in Photoshop (back then in version 2.x ) and making an animation out of them by using Macromedia Director (Adobe Flash’s great grand daddy… I used to program interactive CD’s in Director back in the late 90′s), I was pissed off!

What the hell?  I’m already more advanced than this entire department… my juggling robot was light years ahead of their crappy animation!

The day I walked out of class, and UF all together, was the day we had  discussion. The same high-and-mighty teacher that thought that you have to have a message behind everything you do said “All right, so let’s say you have a gallery exhibit, and someone wants to not only buy one of your pieces, but also to license it, and make stamps, posters, and prints from it.  What do you think?”

The whole class looked uncomfortably at their toes… avoiding all eye contact with the teacher…  The whole class except me of course (no wonder I love the Little Johnny jokes so much!  So many of them start just like this!), I had my hand raised way up high.

“Ori?”

“Well, that’s great!”

The whole class turned and looked at me as if I wore a KKK outfit to a MLK march!

“What?”

“How can you say that?!” “If you make prints, then it loses all value as art!”  “What is it you want to do with your life?”

“Seriously? Ok…. let’s cover all grounds.  Yes, I think it’s great… because now not only did you sell your image, but now you have a steady stream of royalties coming in with every sale this person makes, so now you have money to pay for your shelter/studio where you can make the rest of the pieces that won’t be worth a thing until after you die!  Additionally, every sale this guy makes gets your work seen by more people, and thus is marketing for you!”

“As far as what I want to do? I want to be a commercial artist. That means I want to make my money before I’m dead! So clearly I’m in the wrong place!” I walked out of class, and immediately called my older brother and asked what the best way to tell Mom & Dad that I’m dropping out, I’m clearly wasting my time here.

To end this story, my folks came with a pick-up truck, and towed my station wagon (which I had sort of destroyed, and we had now used as a trailer to carry all my belongings in) back to South Florida.

When I later went to the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale (another place I don’t recommend.  That’s an even longer story.), and had my own labs on Saturdays (10am- midnight. Anything computer related: photoshop, illustrator, animator, coreldraw, 3d studio (3ds max wasn’t out yet), lightwave (which the school wasn’t teaching… but if you used it, I’d teach it), and whatever other cheeseball 3d apps they had), and taught many classes for the school, and led DART (Digital Arts Research Team), the students that had the most problems with using computers were UF Fine Arts graduates.  They were all brain washed into believing  that if it’s done on a computer, it can’t be art, and thus they had serious internatl struggle!

The reason I put that last giant paragraph in normal text color (black), even though it’s part of my flashback, is because it is definitely part of my Sid & Go dissertation!  Think about it!  These people were giving their trust and money to a famous school.

The school’s internationally renowned faculty had taught them what they knew… and they believed it all. These were truths that belonged to someone else, not them, as they did not come upon them by their own experiences, but rather were taught them (That’s basically the entire point of Siddhartha by the way).  These beliefs later would become counter productive for their goals in life.

So, like Sid, I told my folks that I wasn’t down with my expected path, but would pursue my own path…. and like Sid, I told the well known institution that I call bullshit on their truth.  I left my Art Institute Friends behind and went on to California to discover a better teacher.

The Ferryman that Jaime was talking about was the next major character that Sid came across, and couchsurfed with. He was chill, wise, and accepted friendship as payment. Sounds like many of my couches– I’ll say more on that later, as compared to now, because like my couches, Sid comes back later.

Sid got to the other side of the river, and the first person he comes across Kamala, a babe who knows how to play the game.  I’ll just say it… Kamala is a courtesan- a woman who had a nice house with servants, nice belongings, all for sex.  So, it’s not exactly a high-fee prostitute – although that’s what she was – because the courting rituals were important. You know, she had regulars, and the gifting process was important.

Another piece of reflection: Shortly after leaving UF, I dated this chick Jeannie for a little bit.  She was from Texas, soft spoken with a southern drawl. I met her online (although, I later found out that it was her mother’s doing… The mom pretended to be Jeannie, in order to set us up.), back before meeting people online was considered safe, cool, or normal.  Guess I was a trend setter, eh?

So Jeannie told me she’s a cocktail waitress at Thunder Alley.  I never heard of this place, but she never wanted me to visit her at this place (my fake ID would’ve worked just fine!), which I later found out that she had started there as a cocktail waitress, but was pressured/promoted to a topless dancer.  **I’ve never told this story before.  Amazing the shit that comes out when you write freestyle, honestly, and find a good book to write about.

Her mom(Jeannie, not Kamala… who’s mother was never mentioned in the novel) was on disability, complete with wearing depends (bad joke I tell: What does 90 year old vagina smell like?  *shrug* “Depends!”).  The mom would smoke a carton every day or two!  I shit you not.  Their small place reeked of cigarettes, and was in a ghetto part of town, near the freeway off of  I95 and State Road 84.

Jeannie didn’t like being a waitress (I still thought she was a waitress), and couldn’t stand that her mom used all her disability funds on cigarettes…. she wanted a better life for them, and missed Texas.  She took a job as an escort.  There was no talking her out of it, although when she had a breakdown, threw stuff at her mom, and got on a grayhound to Texas, she told me that any decent guy would have talked her out of it.

I had tried very hard, but despite being a very persuasive individual, I had not succeeded…. mostly because I didn’t have a better solution on how to raise money (That was clearly another era of my life– another theme from Siddhartha). I was 18 at the time, and having a beautiful, polite, and sweet girl to spend time with seemed very important.  My list of qualifications has since evolved, but at the time, despite not being able to talk her out of becoming an escort, I did not break up because of it.

It was strange, hearing about her days – or more appropriately, nights – at work. She made a lot of money.  She’d often come home with $600 or more a night.  She told me how it works, and I was even considering joining… but decided against it when the first thing she told me her boss said was “The most common request we get for guys is to join couples. Not just for the woman either.”

Jeannie told me about how many of these guys didn’t want to touch her… they just wanted someone to talk to.  They wanted someone that they felt was listening, as apparently, their wives didn’t do much listening.  In return, she not only got paid, but they bought her lots of gifts: lingerie, electronics, fancy clothes…. I remember we went to The Swapshop – this ginormous flea market in South Florida, complete with circus, drive-in movie theatre, and of course, tons of vendors. She was definitely happy when she could buy whatever she wanted…. but then again, she wasn’t all that happy when she couldn’t live with herself because of where the money came from.  See my earlier note about having a breakdown, ditching her mom (who was the pressure for having more money I suspect), and hopping the bus to Texas.

Back to Sid! He ran across Kamala (oh yeah… freaky shit– after dreaming that Buddha had morphed into a woman, and let him drink all sorts of goodness from his breast), remembered his dream, and decided that despite being ascetic (giving up all pleasures), maybe their truth of giving up stuff is another one of those things they got wrong.  He almost made out with her, but as is the ascetic way, he went away.

Being a Shramana, he had no belongings, was dirty, greasy, had a beard, and wore a loin cloth.  He decided that like my UF experience (well… Hesse didn’t mention my UF experience, but you know what I mean), those peoples’ truth was not his, and it’s time to evolve.  He ditched his loin cloth and beard, combed his hair…. you know.. complete makeover.

He came back to her, and told Kamala that he wants to learn the ways of passion from her.

This discussion was a bit boring, as they sure do say Shramana a lot!  You could turn it into a drinking game!  One shot every time they say Shramana, One shot every time they say Brahmin, and two shots every time they mention Gotama (Buddah)!

Basically, they agree that he doesn’t own anything, and if you wanna get some courtesan action, you need nice shoes… and gifts.

More reflection: (which I’m not going into, as it’s too recent, and not as insightful as many of the others) I recently was reminded that some people care more about money than others.  You need nice shoes, and gifts or it won’t last.  Like Sid’s journey, we all must learn who we are, and what our values are. Something for you and your someone special to consider: even with similar values, different people communicate love differently.  For some it’s gifts, for others it’s verbal, for others it’s physical. You can learn more about that, and figure out which one you are, and which one your significant other is… it really helps you communicate affection so they understand it… at 5 love languages.

Yup, they spoke of shoes a lot, and said Shramana a lot. Sid told Kammie that he can easily make money…. you know, the ol’ “How hard can it be?” She mocked him about not being a merchant, and what could he possibly offer.  He mentioned patience, and being able to fast, and being able to do sacrifices (a very handy resume piece!).  She was impressed that he knew how to read and write.  Apparently, not everyone knew how to do that, so she hooked him up with a merchant.

The merchant’s name is Kamaswami, and he was able to use Sid’s skills in reading and writing for his business, as he was older, and his eyesight fading.

Tiny reflection: The people I’ve couchsurfed with have often connected me with other people…. sometimes other people I can couchsurf with, sometimes people I can do business with, or projects for. My random skill set from all my past journeys (running a print shop, being a 3d animator/video editor/graphic designer/web designer/ programmer/photographer/compositor/motion graphics designer/artist/etc) have all come in useful… despite the many times I’ve thought that I had left those things behind.

Kamaswami agreed to let Sid crash his couch, and he hooked him up with nice shoes so that he could get some action.  Actually, he gave him nice clothes so he could become a merchant and work with him.

Sid’s skills from all the different social circles he’s partied with in the past had made him successful in being a merchant.  Not because he cared about being a merchant, but because he was a good person.  People do business with those that they know, like, and trust… so where Kamaswami was pissed off when Sid would go on a road trip, and not come back with the rice or other supplies he was supposed to get, Sid knew that because he got to know the people – rather than hurrying back upon seeing someone beat him to the sale – that they would be happy to do biz with him in the future, since now he’s a friend.

I think that piece is why I can survive on my journey… ’cause I’m just happy to get to know people… whether I can do business with them right now or not. One day I’m couchsurfing, the next we’re going to NASCAR together VIP Style, the next I’m building their ecommerce site… the next I’m driving through a few states just go hang out with them low-key for my birthday, because they are my friends, and whom I want to spend my special day with.

Sid’s Shramana ways keep him from being obsessed with business, but after a long while of getting it on with Kammie, and kicking ass at business, he starts to forget his former life, starts liking his house and servants, and entertaining people, and gambling…. oh yeah, he totally becomes an addict.

Sid becomes miserable…. He wins at gambling because he’s fine with losing it all… he kind of does this to try and lose it all, to prove that his ascetic ways are still intact…. and regular people don’t deal well with people who are unpredictable, trying to lose, and have a lot of money to gamble.

After years, he sees Kammie one last time, and then skips town, practically suicidal, and leaving all his stuff. Oh yeah… he knocked her up before skipping town- but she had foreshadowed that this would happen, so it’s cool.  And they totally loved each other.  She was in fact that only thing he cared about the entire 20 years he was in the city.  Reflection for all of us:  what have we done that’s against our nature for that special someone?

He woke up after the deepest sleep he’s ever had…. thinking he may’ve died.

Life didn’t suck anymore.  He had nothing, but he was fine with that.  He heard “Om” – you know, that sound you do in Yoga or meditation!  It used to be a big part of his life when he was younger (he actually grew up next to the riverbank, so both Om and the River were a big deal), and now he kind of heard it from the river he was next to.

More interestingly, he had a creepy stalker watching him sleep!  Ok… it wasn’t a creepy stalker, it was a well intentioned Buddhist… which turned out to be Govinda!

Go was now a yellow-robe-wearing skinhead.

Go didn’t realize that it was Sid he was watching sleep… he was just trying to be nice, and protect a passed out dude from snakes, or other nasty critters that may kill him in the woods.  Since Sid was dressed like a rich dude, rather than his old loin-cloth set up, and his hair smelled nice, Go didn’t realize who it was, and that the sleeping guy actually knew how to survive the woods.

Sid thanked Go for watching him, and they said goodbye, but then Sid gave away who he is, by saying “farewell Govinda!” They catch up, and both claim to be on Pilgrimage… but Go has issue with this, as Sid doesn’t look like a Pilgrim, as much as a successful businessman.  I’ll actually use a REAL quote from the book, ’cause it’s awesome:

“I believe you, my dear Govinda. But now, today, you’ve met a pilgrim just like this, wearing such shoes, such a garment. Remember, my dear: Not eternal is the world of appearances, not eternal, anything but eternal are our garments and the style of our hair, and our hair and bodies themselves. I’m wearing a rich man’s clothes, you’ve seen this quite right. I’m wearing them, because I have been a rich man, and I’m wearing my hair like the worldly and lustful people, for I have been one of them.”

“And now, Siddhartha, what are you now?”

I can’t speak for you, but I’d like to think that we’ve all been different people.  We’ve worn different clothes (seriously… look at the 80′s!), had different jobs.  I’ve been fat, I’m currently at the thinnest I’ve been.  I’ve had a nice car, motorcycle, and a nice highrise on the bay in South Beach….. I’ve also worn hideous clothes, and lived in a tiny roach-infested apartment that cost $300 per month while I was studying 3d in california (after the Art Institute).  I’ve been confident, I’ve been shy.  I’ve been happy, and I’ve been sad.  People from my past are often surprised to realize who I am when they happen upon me… the only thing permanent is my corny sense of humor, and my creativity.

Govinda had said “WHAT are you now”– I dig that…. ’cause I deal with that question daily.  What am I?  A traveler, an author, a consultant, an adventurer, a public speaker, an entertainer, a designer, a friend, a lover, a consultant, a salesperson….. our experiences overlap each other, but it really helps to know our values. When we know what we want to be, we can take steps to become that.

Go was confused at that notion.  Like so many close minded people, it seemed to him absurd that one can just ditch one life, and choose another…. That one can go from beggar to rich dude, and back to peasantry… voluntarily… blew his mind.

I deal with this on a daily basis, as I try to help people move from where they are, to where they want to be. Some people don’t believe that they can travel, despite wanting to.  Others make the change- my dear friend Kathryn (whom I only met in early March of this year), is 2 days away from her one-way flight to Guatamala. She just sold her car today.  She will volunteer at some schools there, but also make sure to experience the adventures that the country has to offer, and then head south, until she finally gets to Chille, and then take a cruise to Antartica.  After that is will probably be Africa.  She’s invited me to join her in Guatamala, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, and of course, on the cruise…. not bad for someone who until recently only went to work, and came home.

I believe that people want to live the amazing lives they can have…. but most people are afraid of change.  The Govindas of our lives try to hold us back by questioning our sanity, and introducing a stream of “What if”s.  We have to stay strong, and do what we believe is right… sometimes losing those friends.

Well intentioned friends and family believe they are saving us, protecting us… but often times they just don’t want you to succeed with that new business or relationship (or whatever ) because if you succeed, there’s a pressure on them to better themselves too, and people fear that.  So, if you don’t take the chance, they don’t have to move out of their comfort zone.  This is not all my opinion by the way.  It’s  been discussed by most people who teach the psychology of achievement, and self development.  I say that, ’cause I will not debate you over this…. But the following scenario is pretty much a daily piece of conversation:

Them: Oh my god, I love what you do!  I wish I could travel like that!

Me: You can!

Them: I wish… it’s easy for you to say, but I ____________ (have kids, have a job, don’t have a lot of money, or any of a million other excuses… and trust me, they are excuses)!

Me: But you can!  Watch… just ____________  (logical strategy session where I connect them with people who travel with children, do their job remotely, have no money, but still travel.  I then help them figure out how they can get to travel the way the want, do the things they want, etc… and I give them resources on how to take each step.)!

Generally, they look dreamily at the possibility, then remember their life as it is, as compared to how it can or should be… and decline the chance to live happily.

“I’ll just live vicariously through you!”

I wish Kathryn would blog more often.  The conversations we have on the phone are very exciting and inspiring for me too. Make sure to check out Kathryn’s Blog, The Social Caterpillar. She is a great writer, doesn’t tell the stupid jokes that I take so much pride in telling, and maybe will inspire you in a way that I haven’t been able to.  If nothing else, she’s an awesome person that you can get to know…. one of so many amazing people that if I hadn’t followed my own path, I never would have met.

Govinda took off. He didn’t want to start a fight after Siddhartha had expressed that we change, and can be whatever.

Sid got on his way, and ran into the Ferryman again.  This time he offered to give him his fancy clothes as payment.  The Ferryman was surprised, and finally remembered who Sid was… from 20 years prior.  Sid told him that he wants to apprentice with him. They became roomies, learned from the river, and from their wealth of knowledge, rumors started flowing that there’s these two prophets / wisemen that operate the boat.

They made listening to the river popular.

Everything was peachy, until Buddah was on his way out… as in dying.

Kammie had heard Sid talk about how awesome and enlightened Buddah was, so since she closed up shop after Sid left, she wanted to seek enlightenment by talking to him. She took baby Sid, and got on the road.

I have no reflection about babies… but I’ve seen in myself and others that hope… be it true or false.  The hope that “If I just_______, everything will be better!”

I too can have enlightenment if I read that book, take that course, get on Oprah, make that new demo reel…… the things I’ve heard or come up with is never ending…. It’s also extremely profitable for Trainers/Speakers/Info-product creators… I won’t be a dick and name drop, but I’ve seen friends drop all their money on going to every course that so and so has (at a cost of 5 to 6 figures, that they didn’t have).

Blame can not be placed on those that sell the hope, as if they don’t sell you the hope of an easy solution, then someone else will…. religious institutions included.

It doesn’t all have to do with parting with money.  Some people make excuses for exiting relationships, or any number of things…. “If we have a kid, then things will work out between us!”

*Sigh*

I like the wisdom of my friend Jason Moffatt (who’s house I’m currently house-sitting): Figure out who your teacher is, and don’t check out anyone else until you’ve done what they said.

He’s right… there’s so many recipes for success out there, and many of them work… if you do the work, as compared to starting with them, taking a few steps, and then deciding that what so and so said sounds sexier, so I should do what they said, and not complete what the first person told me.

Jason is one of the most interesting people that I’ve ever met.  He has so many exciting stories from discovering his own path.  He does just fine, does what he wants, when he wants, and is definitely not a stuck up asshole. He’s funny, supportive, and positive.  Currently, he is on a 6 week road trip with an equally funny hottie.  Check out His page, and you may learn a thing or three (and be entertained).

Does it seem like I’m just rewording Herman Hesse’s work, just so I can pimp out my friends?  If you think so, then you’re missing the point!

Other than Jeannie (whom I do not have a page to link to anyways), most of the people I mention are people that I’ve couchsurfed with.  They ARE my close friends, and I treasure them– as part of my journey, part of my life, business resources, incredible people, inspiration, friendship,, and people who keep me going… They are no Govindas!

I also mention them, because I said earlier that I would speak of my couches…. You see, like the Ferryman- whom only after revisiting after 20 years did  Siddhartha discover his name, Vasudeva — our paths have crossed, and often recrossed.

Where I relate to Siddhartha, Jaime (whom is not one of my couches actually) related to Vasudeva.  She brings people to their destination without judgement, whereas I keep traveling, steadily reducing my belongings as I discover more and more truths.

There is a Zen saying, “Every man is my teacher, in that I can learn something from him.” – I have learned so much from these people, about life, business, myself, and every other topic under the sun.  Equally, I am always happy to impart what wisdom I have to offer…. recently, it was offered as showing someone what they don’t want in a relationship… and I learned from that person the same… as well as the things that I do want.  Those Zen folks sure know their shit!

Ok… Siddhartha… let’s fast forward- Kammie gets bitten by a snake, does not get to see Buddah, but gets to see Sid one last time. She dies, he gets the kid. The kid’s a dipshit, and wants to do his own thing, no matter how nice Big Sid is about everything.

Big Sid, who could never really love anyone or anything, finally had something he loved… his little baby… and now he gets to experience the misery that his dad got to experience– loving his kid enough to try to protect him. Until finally the kid runs away, steals his money, steals his boat, and wrecks it.

Despite Vasudeva pointing out to him what a dumbass he’s being, Sid doesn’t want to give up on Little Sid, and tries to find him.  But then he sees the city, remembers everything he’d been through, remembers how he blew his dad off, and never came back…. to pursue his own truth… We’re talking total flashback here…. especially the part about being a gambler, and rich, and having orgies… yeah! I forgot to mention orgies earlier, Sid had ‘em.  He felt ill, and again, remembered the Om, and realized he needed to let the kid go (see earlier cliche about “if it comes back it was meant to be”).

He goes back to the Ferrymen, they live happily ever after… until Vasudeva dies.

Sure enough, as all cliche characters do, Govinda shows up right on time…. and, as previously, he again did not recognize Siddhartha!

They talk of searching, and Govinda says that he’s been searching, and is still searching… and maybe the ferryman (now Sid) has some wisdom about searching.  Sid tells him that he’s just searching too hard.

Like most people who are not willing to take their journey, Go still doesn’t get it.

Sid invites Go to come couchsurf with him, and he does.  I had people that I’ve couchsurfed with come couchsurf with me.  It’s wonderful to be able to return the perspective and hospitality.

Before bailing, Go asks if Sid’s got any teachers or beliefs.  He is floored and in disbelief when he hears that Sid learned from a ferryman, from the river, from a hooker…. He was expecting people more enlightened than Buddha, not non-celebs…. Sid even mentioned the gamblers! Go really thought Sid was messing with him.

Siddhartha gives a wonderful explanation of change and truth… that knowledge can be passed on, but not wisdom.  He gives a ton of examples, and Go just doesn’t get it.  The ending is basically the point of the whole novel.

Speaking of novels, what I intended to be a few paragraphs has now evolved into its own novel…. so I shall end it with my final thoughts (it’s 5:30am, and I’ve been writing this for near 7 hours– which might account for the length of this post.).

When I started listening to the book, I was a bit bored.  I persisted, and got through the whole thing. It grew on me part of the way through, and despite that being only 24 hours ago, the book has grown on my by leaps and bounds…. It has made me reflect on my life. We come and go.  We go through different phases…. teachers and students.  Guests and hosts.  It is an evolution… the seasons of life, some would say.

Like Siddhartha, I felt an itch to find my own truth.  I defied my parents’ concept of what my life should be, and have been on a long quest for truth and inner peace.  I have learned from the various teachers… some of them are not people that others would have expected me to learn from.

On my journey I’ve discovered something… Me! I know who I am better than I ever did.  Because I know what’s important to me, I now follow the path that I believe leads to my happiness, and I’ve learned about Karma, people, and the world, and am a much better person than I was before. I’m a lot more helpful, and a connector.

Despite my many jobs, lifestyles, etc… being in the past, they are all a part of who I am, and still surface once in a while.

We have to be willing to ditch our comfort zones, even if we lose friends, wealth, or other things in the process.

We need to experience everything, so we can have a perspective on it– we need to learn from everything.  The only failure is a failure to learn from a win or a loss.

I could go on and on with lessons I’ve learned… and that’s part of what I’m doing with my book that I’m writing now (you can sign up on the right side of this site).

If you enjoyed this post, share it with whomever you like, and leave a comment.

Remember, you can read the entire book for free on Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2500/2500-h/2500-h.htm – or get it on audio book, or paperback from your favorite reseller.

Thanks Jaime… for being a muse, a teacher, a friend, a connector, and opening my mind to a book that I would probably never have read otherwise.  Amazing what can happen in 1 day.

I admit that I often don’t know what day of the week it is. Couchsurfing takes me around to different people in many places, and I keep growing because of it.  Day of the week… not important most of the time.  But now that I’m actually working with a goal (remember:  Goals are dreams with a deadline) of writing my book, I am racing the clock.

The first lesson is probably the most important, and that is

that asking too many questions is just my (I’d say “Your”- but I don’t want to speak for you) way of procrastinating some more.

“What do I want to write?”
“What do I want the outcome of having a book to be?”
“What style do I want to write in?”
“What format do I want my book to be?”
“What do I do with the book once I’ve written it?”

Sure… they’re decent questions, but as my friend  (and one of my couches!) Allison Nazarian told me (and she is a very highly paid professional writer), “DON’T JUDGE! JUST WRITE!” <— damn great advice, and yes, she wrote it as a text in all caps!

Seriously, you can edit later.  Just write.  What’s on your mind? What do you know about a topic? What do you remember? Just write!  Let your fingers do the walking as they say!

One of the tools that Allison told me about (that @thewaffle told her about) is OmmWriter! I tried this free app, and got a lot of really great writing done in an evening. Here’s their demo video:

As many people have mocked me for, you may have an easier time counting the grains of rice in a sack of rice than counting how many apps and browser tabs I have open at one time.  I also can’t stand the way MacOS handles the menu bar and full screen functionality, so this app is plain wonderful.

Since you know my love of puns, Plain Wonderful was definitely that! It’s very plain! It’s designed to just give you a blank screen that hides all menus (including its own), gives you zen (relaxing/new-age/peaceful– pick your adjective of choice) sounds.  Not only a multi-track music track with many choices (When I say multi-track, I mean that there are many elements to each track, and while they each loop, it is not like a song that repeats, but rather a song that never ends… and they give you multiple versions to choose from as well).

They also give you multiple choices of sounds that you want your keyboard to produce with each keystroke.  The menus are very simple.  Simplicity is the key here…. Come here to tune out the world, and just write.  It works well!  Thanks Allie for the wisdom, and the app.

I asked people what to write, and got many different replies…. both on the phone, and in comment form. Asking that question is a wonderful way to confuse oneself even more.

As Steff (who is an extremely talented writer that has found her voice) told me:

Screw what everyone thinks! It’s your story, you have to write it. Also, it doesn’t matter who thinks what.  Check out How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen – and write only a book proposal.

Basically, worry about what the publishers want… ’cause they’re the ones who publish, not my friends.  Even if I don’t use a publisher, and do it myself, at least having a proposal written, I’ll know what my book is about. I’ll have focus.  Great idea!

One of the things that people talk about in writing is “Finding your voice” and I’ve been told that since I started my blog a million years ago, I’ve definitely found my voice.  It takes 10,000 hours to get to mastery, and I’m certainly closer to that with all this blogging, and writing I’ve done for clients and guest posts.

I’ve recently studied a littlle bit of story structure…. I read a little bit by Gary Provost, but a lot of it really had to do with a conversation with my older brother, Barak.

Barak and I are polar opposites, and we don’t always see eye to eye.  However, he said do not mix genres (which Gary also says), and that he thinks I have a similar style to David Sedaris(click here to see his stuff on Amazon).

This was such a compliment!  I did not know it at the time, as I had to go to Audible, and get his Audio Book version of “When You Are Engulfed In Flames” — I loved it!  Lesson: Find writers you like, and then try to figure out why you like their work so much!

Ok… maybe I overdo things!  I got every audio book of David Sedaris’!  They are so enjoyable!  But I sat there for 3 days listening (and I’m not done yet), and trying to figure out why it’s so captivating.

Things I like about David Sedaris’ work:

1. He reads it himself!  (This has added to my goals for my book– I’d like to do live readings, like David does.)
2. In just one book of short stories he managed to make me feel as if I know him, his neurosis, his family, his lovers, why he is the way he is, the way he views the world.
3. His writing is funny, super-witty, and captivating.
4. Each “Chapter” is a full short story, where David captures the entire story… whether it is an hour, a day, or many decades…. he has a creative start, and a creative end– often I consider his endings to be punchlines (especially since he performs them, and has a dramatic pause, or a way of pronouncing it that really has the completing effect that a punchline has on a joke).

I’m sure I can keep going, but this post isn’t titled “David Sedaris is awesome!” It’s titled “Lessons in Unplugging and Writing”, so while David has been a large influence (I believe my writing style had already changed to encompass some of the things I like about David’s work, starting with my  awesome father’s day blog post), it’s not the only thing I’m writing about.

So, to summarize… if you have authors (or if you work with other media- photography, sculpting, painting, engineering, engineering, etc… then whomever you admire in that field), figure out who they are, and what you like about their work, and make a checklist that you can check your work against.

For me, these things include complete story / fleshed out characters / making sure that it’s not just a narration of what happened, but rather what happened as seen through my eyes / a strong ending.

I am taking Barak’s advice, and working on multiple short stories.  But that brings us to the next point:  Which stories to tell, and what to include in them?

Three and a half years of Couchsurfing with my pace and interests has led to so many adventures, I can not tell them all.  Initially, I thought I was going to just tell my story, kind of like Jack Kerouac’s On The Road – but there’s too much to list.  So, now rather than “I did this, then I did that, then I did this, then I did that” format, I’m limiting it to stories that are more about importance.

I use Mind Mapping to organize ideas often. Mind Mapping is a form of outlining that’s more visual and haphazard… the way the brain naturally works.

An outline is NOT how the brain works.  It’s too linear.  There are many free mind mapping tools out there, as well as many tutorials on how to mindmap.  Though, if you really want to get into it, you should check out Tony Buzan’s The Mind Map Book – as he basically invented Mind Mapping, and really covers it in wonderful detail.  He actually explains the benefits of Mind Mapping way better than I do in this simple post!

Seriously… Mind Mapping is very very powerful, and you can use it to retain information, study, make presentations, write, and much more!  Please take a little (or a lot of) time to learn about it.  It will improve your life!

My favorite application to use to Mind Map is called Personal Brain.  They have a fancy schmancy version, but I just use their free version.

Why do I like Personal Brain?  Because I’m a creative type, and it’s pretty! It moves!  It’s easy to use!  It’s more interesting to me than the fancy ones like MindJet Mindmanager (which is kind of an industry standard), but decide for yourself… they have a 30 day free trial.

That was a pretty long talk about Mind Mapping, when this time around, I didn’t really use it! I generally use it as my 1st step when coming up with a client’s marketing campaign, the things that a website should include, what keywords to do a pay per click campaign on, etc….

A program that I really enjoyed using to catalogue my adventures is called Scrivener.  I love this program for writing, and idea organization.

An old trick of writing is to forget the computer, and just use index cards.

• Write which ideas you want to include in your book- one per index card.
• Write a summary paragraph of each idea on the other side of each card (hint: if you can’t fit it on an index card, it’s too complicated!).
• Organize the cards in the order that makes the best sense.

Voila! You now have your book written! Well, a simple form of it. Your table of contents, and you can tell someone what each chapter or idea is about…. quickly.  Now just go back in and fill in the gaps.

Scrivener gives you a virtual index card / corkboard set!  But it does so much more! Here is an awesome video made by Ed Dale on how to use it:

The app has a 30 day trial, and is only $40.  I highly recommend it if you’re serious about writing.

To recap, now we know how to figure out what kind of writing we like, reverse engineer it into a checklist we can measure our writing against, extract our ideas for what we want to write about using mind mapping and index cards, write in a Zen place, just write — editing later – consider what publishers are interested in, or at least having something we can present about our upcoming book… which gives us focus. Don’t ask too many questions, or you’ll never get started.

That whole “DON’T JUDGE! JUST WRITE” was listened to… don’t think I blew it off to come up with my chapters / stories…. I went into Scrivener’s Corkboard, and pressed Command N (keyboard shortcut for new index card)– another great tip! Know your keyboard shortcuts! It will speed up your productivity by leaps and bounds!), and just write!  For me it was writing potential chapter names (here’s a few of mine):  Zappos, Austin, Know who you are, Ground Industries, How-To, It Begins, Introduction, Angela, In retrospect, Photography, Difficulties, Ditching Heavy Baggage.

I then double click on each, and write a description. Unlike the real index cards, I actually wrote more than a card can hold… don’t judge, just write!  I’ll shorten it later…

There were some that were so broad (such as the “Adventures” card) and I couldn’t write what they cover on a card.  Why’s this important?  I just click and drag on the index cards, as if they were in a pile, and I was really grabbing them and arranging them.  I arranged the ones that had good meat on them in the front of the pile, and the ones that are too vague are in the back of the pile.

The reason I mention everything in the order that I have said it, is because this stuff is cumulative!  I am now using my “Things I liked about Sedaris” to check my index cards against!

In my case that means:  Does each card have specific characters that can be fleshed out? Does it have a beginning and an end? Can I end it in a way that is meaningful, and is definitely an end? Is it something I care about, and can I explain why (in my earlier summary of David’s style, I called this telling the story through his eyes)?

I have a bunch of cards now, but not too many.  When I compare them like this, I can really get a feel for which ones make a good chapter/story that I can tell.  Scrivener is not only a corkboard application!  Don’t think for one second that it is!

I can now go to each “chapter” and start writing it in Scrivener… or, I can go into OmmWriter, and Write in the Zen with out other distractions.

Avoiding distractions is a bitch though! I came out to La Jolla, and had planned to unplug… i.e. avoid social media, phone, and e-mail.  Yeah right!  I’m too damn social!  What to do?

Despite having an assistant go through my e-mail, and send me what needs dealing with, I still keep getting stuck in Social Media.  “Just a quick check to see….”  “I need to get on Facebook and post my new blogpost ‘s link…. oh, new updates!  Oooh, check it out, Terra’s using my photo as her main pic!  Lisa changed her relationship status? About time! Oooh, someone commented on my photo”  – ARGGGGGGGH!  I’m fighting myself!

FREEDOM! That’s the solution!  Despite my isolated’ish location (a studio,  7 blocks from the beach) which is quiet and inspirational, I still keep getting distracted… so Freedom is the solution.  This application cuts off your Wi-Fi!

Yes, that’s right!  You tell it how many minutes you want to unplug for– from 15 minutes to 8 hours — and your Wi-Fi is off for that duration!  Now, they know how us clever people are… “I’ll just kill the process, and internet will come back, and then I can check my tweets!”

No… that won’t work! With Freedom, if you want to bring your Wi-Fi back, you have to reboot your computer… which is generally a hassle, as you have to save all your work (You should always be saving and backing up your work anyways!), close down all your apps, wait for the computer to shut down, and then wait for it to restard. *yawn* (although, oftentimes that will improve computer performance).

Basically, because you’re off the web, and rebooting is a pain in the ass, you just do the work you’re supposed to do!

I bought Freedom tonight. It’s a whopping $10!  For $10, I got $2,400 of productivity in 40 minutes!  Wow, was I focused!

This brings me to another point…. Coffee!

You don’t have to be on stimulants, but you should know a lot about yourself.  There are actually different types of people: Night Owls and Larks.  Check out this fascinating article by James Owen for National Georgraphic.

Basically, your body actually does function better in the day or night.  Regardless of how many times my older brother tells me to get a regular 8 hours of sleep, wake up in the morning, and get stuff done, it just doesn’t work that way for me.  I get distracted in the daytime, and I get tired.  For me, the day is good for communicating, exercising, exploring, and occasionally napping.

The night is when I kick-ass…. and yes, the occasional burst of caffeine helps, though since I’ve been on my cleanse, and started again with caffeine tonight, I feel like a Motley Crue member (you remember how they’d go into the studio with bins full of cocaine?)!  Ok… I’m not jittery or anything, but I am very focused.

Knowing about myself, I know that I’m a night owl, that I like caffeine, and because I’m ENTP on the Myers Briggs test(it’s free!), I get charged up by being around people.  I don’t even have to interact with them.  It just helps to people watch, or know others are around…. so, I went to a coffee shop, and I stay charged up.

I used Twitter and Facebook to find a coffee shop near me.  Another tool that would’ve been useful if Facebook/Twitter answers hadn’t started pouring in is Yelp.com, where people rate and review everything… especially restaurants.

I was initially recommended “The Living Room” in La Jolla, which was close enough for me to jog to- 1.4 miles each way.  Cool!  It was in La Jolla Cove, a pretty neat area.

I did not like The Living Room at all.  Their Baklava was delicious!  But they only had ONE outlet in the whole place!  Like, really!  They had unscrewed the outlets from their sockets, so there was only this one… near the door, and underneath their hanging merchandise.  Their logo is cool actually.

Their internet was broken. A stunning brunette with a beautiful face walked up to me and asked if I could get on the web.  “Nope.  I asked them an hour ago, they said their router broke this morning.”  “What? I just called before coming here, and they said it was fine!”  “Nope, sorry, don’t kill the messenger.  I’m in pain here too!”

Not only was The Living Room’s internet broken, but that one outlet which I was using had decided to stop working as well.  It was just a matter of time before my battery went to empty.

I then found a place called Lestat’s. This place is rad(yes, I did just say rad!)!  It has art, live music (though I didn’t catch a show), more outlets than I have the patience to count!  Wifi that works!

Lestats has a massive selection of  chairs, couches, poofy things, stools, and other seating aparatus of all shapes, sizes, and tables of all heights.  You can definitely find one that is comfortable for you to work on.  I’ve been here for hours now! Very productive, and very comfortable.  This may be my new home…. Did I mention that Lestats is open 24 hours a day, while The Living Room is only open until midnight.

What’s the point? Find a place where you can work and be productive.  It may be a clean office.  It may be a coffee shop.  It may be an eclectic cafe. My friend Jared had spent 2 months going from coffee house to coffee house until he found one that he considers “home”.  Don’t underestimate the importance of being comfortable.

Here’s a powerful combination for you- take your checklist, do the index card thing, mind-map to extract ideas, go to a place you’re happy/comfortable/energized by, disable your internet with Freedom, and just write away in your happy place in OmmWirter.

Just so you know, I am telling you EXACTLY the tools and processes that I use.  They are not the right or wrong way to do it, they are just how I do it…. and I hope they work for you too.

I mention this because there’s a zillion courses out there, and a zillion tools out there, on how to write….. and yet, so many people tell me “I want to write a book!”

I’m not really a published author.  I’m a problem solver and consultant who is working on writing his very first book.

I am highly resourceful, and I’m pretty adhd– I cover a lot more links on the web than you do   So, these are just the conculsions and tools that I’ve come up with… feel free to ask around, use your favorite search engine, read whatever books and articles you want, and come up with your own conclusions… or just try these ones on, and see how your productivity goes up.

I truly hope this helps you!  I’ve certainly had a lot of mental anguish trying to come up with the answers that I’ve included in this post.

If you have any questions I can further answer, leave a comment below, and I’ll make sure to get to it! If you have your own tools or techniques that you like… leave those in comments too!  I’m sure that will help some people. If you got anything out of it, share the link, so others can benefit too.

If you want to know more about my book, you can sign up on the right hand side of my blog under “Interested in my book?” – and of course you can sign up to keep up with my adventures, insights, and tips by using the Keep up with my adventures (rss) part!