Roswell: Cozy Cowboy Cottage

I will be working in Roswell, NM for the next month. It may sound bad, but when you get a paid stay at Cozy Cowboy Cottage, it’s not too shabby at all.

There are six of us in this house, ages ranging 27-57, 6 beds, 2 floors, and 3 TVs with every channel. Half of us speak Spanish by default, while 83.3% of us like to spend the evening watching football, and 16.7% of us brought our guitar and computer to pass the time.

I’m glad Cozy Cowboy Cottage has free Wi-Fi. That way I can continue to knead ibelieveinhumans.com with my sweet, sweet words.

During lunch today, I joined my fellow Spanish-speaking workers (P.C.) and was offered chicharrones with homemade red-chile-del-árbol along with a delicious bean burrito with a chile relleno in the center. They warned me that it might be hot, and our other white worker (non-P.C.) said:

What, you don’t think he can handle it because he’s a white boy?

Laughter broke out. But I ate the burrito and insisted on talking about how good it was so they knew I could handle it. Then I pulled out something from my lunch bag:

Worker: What is that, a tortilla burger?

Me: It’s a quesadilla.

(Groans of approval)

Then I proceeded to offer some sugar-coated almonds. The results were less than satisfactory.

After work I went shopping to stock up on groceries for the week. Then, as I was unloading my bags at Cozy Cowboy Cottage…

“You’re really into that healthy shit, huh.”

Then I turned around, clutched my rice to my chest, and hid my Whole Foods bag as a tear rolled down my cheek.

One Thing

Occasionally I meet up with Brian to play drums while he plays guitar. It’s apparent that our jam sessions are not frequent enough for me to remember how we played any of the songs. I usually just wing it on drums anyway, sort of like throwing paint at a wall.

Brian showed me a selection of websites, most notably sites with amazing cheap wholesale electronics from China that I never knew existed, such as cell phone watches. But, for the less-consumerist approach, I think you should check out these rather moving photographs inspired by children’s drawings.

After Brian’s, I drove straight to band practice where Coma worked on a new song. I captured the last minute here.

I finally got to see Man on Wire tonight, English subtitles in tact, and was deeply satisfied. The theme has haunted me; you pick your one thing, no matter how outrageous it is, and all that matters is that it means everything for you to do it.

Massez et les Films

Today I got another massage, this time for free because my mum had a bunch of friends helping her work a chair massage booth at the Arts & Crafts fair. I stopped in because I wanted to look at some art, maybe with a slight desire to find inspiration to paint again.

After that I went to see Ninja Assassin with Josh Montoya and Callie P. The movie was about as good as the title.

Later that night, I went to Josh (bro’s) and Erin’s to watch Man on Wire, but the subtitles weren’t working. So we watched Angels and Demons instead. Of course, it had nothing to do with angels, nor demons, but about Tom Hanks running around fitting clues together to rescue clergymen, all in perfect timing, as the screenwriters just wrote everything backwards for him.

I realized that whenever I see Tom Hanks in trouble, I visualize him shouting, “I wish I was big”.

Garage Ping-Pong Battles

I had to work today, during this lovely holiday weekend. I was out of mental sorts the whole day, unwilling to work, and unwilling to pack myself a good energizing lunch. I came home with a desire to do nothing productive. I probably would have accomplished nothing tonight, if it hadn’t been for Joel’s phone call to join him and Joe Wilson for a hearty serving of Ping-Pong.

It was probably the most competitive session of Ping-Pong I ever endured, and all I had to show for myself was 1 single victory and an injured elbow from a recklessly executed high kick that threw me off balance. A moment of frustration drove me to round-house the Ping-Pong ball, but the Pong-Gods willed instant karma unto me for disrespecting the sport. To the concrete I went.

And it came to pass thy Pong-Gods shone beams of favor brightly upon Joel this eve, for he wailed upon Joe and I both, making a glorious feat of nearly every round.

Cocky sonofabitch.

Carl Jung and Billy Corgan

“The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate. That is to say, when an individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner contradictions, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposite halves.” – Carl Jung

I encountered this quote in an email today, and got thinking about Jungian ideas; shadow integration, and dream symbols/archetypes.

Later, I went on youtube to search for videos on Jung, and found this video where Billy Corgan is part of a talk about Jung with a psychologist named Morgan Stebbins. It’s not a very good quality video, but if you’re into this type of thing, it’s pretty easy to get past.

Stebbins is the psychoanalyst presenting Billy Corgan with archetypal imagery and they talk about what it could mean. He mentions how imagination is a tool to integrate shadow, the repressed sides of ourselves, where our potential also lies.

Hicks: “We are the imagination of ourselves”

Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge”

Reality is at the mercy of our perceptions, our inner world. It’s all a big spiral of mind-blow.

Massage Day

I purposely set up a full-body 90 minute massage for today to start Thanksgiving weekend off right. I feel like I’ve been run through a rolling pin, with an added endorphin high.

And now Boss wants me to work on Friday. Knots shall be reactivated then.

(There’s no photos for today. Just picture me naked under sheets with a woman’s hands all over me.)

The Zone of Imminent Catastrophe

Our tire ripped apart on the way to Gallup today.

But that’s not even the meat of today’s events. Earlier, I thought I was dead for sure.

In my haste to get to work, I sped past a group of slow cars on the freeway. I got in the far right lane to get to my turn-off, and found myself in a zone of imminent catastrophe.

This type of thing happens all the time; where you see a terrible mishap coming for you (sometimes slowly), but no matter what decision you make, there is no escaping it. I like to relate it to the times in elementary school, when I’d be facing a kid who was kicking the soccer ball, and helplessly watch the ball get bigger and bigger till I’d see stars.

Anyway, on the freeway, a semi-truck with no trailer was clearly losing control. By the time I’d realized that the truck was skidding at a 45 degree angle, he was pointed straight towards me, having sped my car straight into his death zone.

Of course, my initial reaction was to slam on my brakes when I saw the entire freeway at the mercy of this monumental clumsy machine. But that only positioned my little 4-cylinder Honda deep into his magnetized circle of destruction.

But I was lucky. I suppose the anti-sleep auto-pilot must have kicked in and recovered for him. The semi-truck straightened out only moments before I saw the left half of my body swallowed by my car door.

Yeah, that was crazy, but when our work truck started fish-tailing on the way to Gallup, I thought for sure the Final Destination demon was chasing me.

Thanksgiving 2.

The picture was of my mileage when I pulled up and parked at work today.

My sister came in town today. It was Thanksgiving 2. I’ve had two early Thanksgivings already. Now I’m wondering what I’m going to do on real Thanksgiving.

Thankful for the internet.

I had a wonderful evening with my family, celebrating this fine early-Thanksgiving with Turkey, pumpkin pie, and high quality beverages.

For every Thanksgiving, my dad likes to do this thing where he has everyone go around the table and talk about something we’re thankful for. He always announces this ritual with an underlying joking flavor to get past the resistance of those who dread doing it.  I’m one of those who dread doing it. So I took the less emotionally-forced route this year and declared that I was thankful for the internet.

While that may seem nerdy and boring to some people, think about what you’ve accomplished with the internet. Most likely, not as much as you should have, and maybe it’s turned you into quite an addict. Well, one can get addicted to something SO easy on the internet these days. I mean, EASY (echo).

But if you want an answer to a question, any question you have, you can use the internet to find it, or something that will lead you to a solution elsewhere, etc.

But, my friends, there is an elite few who speak of regulating the internet. That is, the content we view online would be limited to what the corporations want us to see. That means, no more blogs,  no more blogs, no more personal newsfeeds, no more blogs, or anything from real human beings. Only websites that serve the corporate agenda to censor everything and to make you buy more stuff you don’t need, driving the masses further into a conforming, docile, sheep-state of mind.

And what do these elite “Internet 2″ promoters promise in return?

A faster connection. That’s it.

They already regulate the internet in other countries, like China. The government doesn’t want infinite information exposed to their population.

That’s because what you can find online may point to what will liberate you. Honest, free information might even motivate some people to start a revolution.

I am Thankful for the internet, for it shall be a catalyst to free our minds.

Or… we can continue to visit facebook, myspace (R.I.P.), play video games, and/or watch porn.

All we need to do is pay attention to when we are consuming, versus when we are inspiring ourselves… and find the most preferred balance.

Maybe that’s just one of my addictions. Getting “inspired”…and preaching about it.

But you have to preach sometimes, because T.V., radio, magazines, billboards, teachers, parents, politicians have been preaching to you all your life.

And, thank the lord of Thanksgiving, because we can use the internet to say what’s on our minds without getting imprisoned, Chinese-water-tortured, etc.

Scurvy

Don’t ask me why, but today I was reading about scurvy.

“Scurvy, also called vitamin C deficiency, is of the most serious diseases affecting teenagers today.  It is caused by a dietary lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid), a nutrient found in many fresh fruits and vegetables, particularly the citrus fruits.   Ascorbic acid is important in the formation of collagen (an element of normal tissues), and any deficiency interferes with normal tissue synthesis.”

The first website I found had testimonials, 100% worth posting:

Having scurvy was an awful experience. All of the kids at school made fun of me and called me “fat veins”. Now I make sure to eat lots of limes so that won’t happen again. The kids call me “limey” now but at least my gums don’t bleed any more.

My sister was severely anorexic until I warned her about the dangers of scurvy. Now she eats up to three grapefruits a day!

Teenagers today think they’ll live forever. They start living life on the edge, going to extremes, doing dangerous stuff like drunken driving, drug use, unprotected sex, and worst of all, avoiding their vitamin supplements. That’s why it’s so important that we get scurvy information out to the public.

I had a horrible rash, and I was afraid that it was scurvy! I couldn’t understand it because I had been making sure to eat lots of spinach. Then I went to the doctor and he said that it was just genital herpes. What a relief!

Just compare each photograph with the quotes and try to picture each kid actually saying those things out loud.

When that doesn’t work, try to picture what kind of person thought those testimonials would be a good idea.