This place looks a little familiar

First order of business: I feel I owe you all, dear, loyal readers of this virtual space in which my mind has deposited its thoughts, otherwise known to George Bush as the "internets", an apology. Since starting this space and putting my thoughts into words, this is the longest I've gone without an update. I'm not sure why I did that exactly. Believe me, twas not for the lack of material. I've seen and read so many things over the past nine days that have inspired me, that have provoked powerful thought, and that have even enraged me. Yet, for some reason unbeknownst to me, I have failed to bring them to you dear, loyal reader. And for that, I apologize.



Now that I've gotten that out of the way, why don't we talk a little bit about a lot of things, without too much focus on a singular topic.



By now I'm sure you, my readers (all 3 of you), are aware that I am in the early, developmental stages of the most difficult, damning thing I've ever chosen to undertake, a.k.a. writing a book. After finally deciding to begin this massive untertaking just a few short weeks ago, I've already scrapped the original title and theme altogether. Hey, don't blame it on me. Blame it on my recent found love for throwing myself out of a perfectly good aircraft at 15,000 feet. As I said last week, it changes the way you see things. As of today, the new working title is "The Jump: Taking the Plunge" While this title was obviously inspired by my first skydive, the title serves a dual function. It metaphorically represents the decisions we as humans make when facing great uncertainty about the subsequent consequences of those decisions. These decisions can be anything, because we each lead individual lives, and therefore each of us has widely varying priorities and face many different decisions in daily life.

I had an interesting thought recently about reality, what it is, and how to explain what it is. Most often we hear people reference reality in a negative manner. For instance, when someone is talking about a best-case scenario, or a dream they have to do something great someday, there always seems to be someone present, ready and waiting to quickly retort, almost snappily "That's nice and all, but it's not realistic." So I've been wondering more and more lately: What exactly is reality? What makes something realistic? The simplest way to explain reality is through the following statement: What is, is. But wait, is that not too simplistic? The trouble with defining reality that way is that it implies acceptance. That something is the way it is, and there's nothing that can be done to alter it. What is, is. Deal with it. In my reality, the only things one must accept are death and taxes. Everything else is negotiable via optimism and creative thought. My advice then, would be to not accept someone else's reality other than your own. Imagine where we'd be today if the great optimists and non-realists of the world accepted someone else's reality. What if someone like Henry Ford had accepted the way things were prior to the automobile? Would we be commuting down our highways and interstates via horse and buggy? You see where I'm going with this. You make your own reality, bottom line.

Karma's a bitch. Thirteen years after unexplicably being acquited of murdering his wife and family friend Ron Goldman, OJ Simpson is once again facing the possiblity of life in prison. How's the old saying go? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Let's hope the judicial system gets this one right.

I can't stop listening to the new Kanye West record. Talk about a breath of fresh air! It's that good, honest. In the past four years, the guy has almost single-handedly evelated the game to a higher level of conciousness through the implementation of thought provoking lyrics on everything from politics to racial issues to superficiality and the worshipping of fiscally acquired luxury wares. For those simpletons among my readers who are afraid of actually engaging a few brain cells from time to time, there's always "Crank That" by Solja Boy, a barely pubescent teen whose single is somehow #1 in the country, boasting a chorus encouraging other young males to "Superman that ho" and furthermore "Supersoak that ho". I don't know what supermanning that ho means, much less supersoaking her, nor do I want to find out. America is getting dumber by the minute and we wonder why. Do yourself a favor and pick up Kanye's record.

Speaking of guys elevating their game, Tiger Woods has been absolutely off the charts in the past two months. The guy won the Tour Championship, and thusly the FedEx Cup, going away this past weekend. He has been the most dominant athlete in the world for the past decade, and I feel priveledged to live in his era. Roger Federer is a very close second.

I have my candidate for the next President of the Unitest State of America. His name is Barack Obama.

Females continue to confuse me.