Soundtrack 3.20.11

Here With Me-Dido

I Know, I Know- Tegan and Sara

Love You 'Till The End- The Pogues

Cigarettes and Wedding Bands- Band of Horses

Run-Snow Patrol

Whadda Ya Want From Me- Adam Lambert

Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want- The Smiths

Lover Lay Down-Dave Matthews Band

Both Sides Now-Joni Mitchell

The Ocean Breathes Salty- Modest Mouse

Soundtrack 3.19.11

1. White Blank Page-Mumford and Sons

2. Rolling In The Deep-Adele

3. The Ends- The Naked and Famous

4. All of This- The Naked and Famous

5. Wave of Mutilation- Pixies

6. It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I feel fine)-REM

7. Boy-Ra Ra Riot

8. I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)- The Proclaimers

9. It Was a Good Day- Ice Cube

10. Breathe Me-Sia

Soundtrack for 3.18.11

1. Come On Get Higher-Matt Nathanson

2. Run-Snow Patrol

3. Volcano-Damien Rice

4. I will follow you into the dark-Death Cab for Cutie

5. Joyful Girl- Dave Matthews

6. Young Blood-The Naked and Famous

7. Ghost- Indigo Girls

8. Boats and Birds-Gregory and the Hawk

9. Don't Leave Home-Dido

10. Fidelity- Regina Spektor

What would make you feel embarrassed in public?

Question number two on the reconnect with yourself experiment.

What would make you feel embarrassed in public?

My goodness. This is a blog not a novella.

I think the biggest thing is probably being made to look stupid. That seems redundant though...hmmm. Lemme think...I guess something that really embarrasses me is when I am reactionary. I used to do that a lot. Fly off the handle and become chaos theory personified. Thankfully there is medicine for that.

Anyway, 99% of the time, I would regret it. And would write it off as the fact that I am "passionate". I am passionate. But reactionary was something I had to learn to make distinctions about and learn that people were causing me to be reactionary and causes were why I was passionate.

I am sure my days of "showing out" in public are not done and I am sure that I will do worse things to embarrass myself...like falling "up" stairs...not that I've done that or anything. Well, you can't prove it.

Question # 1

If you missed the story behind these questions you can find it here


1. What is that thing that no one, not even your partner, your mother or your best friend, knows about you?


 Boy. they know how to start this off, don't they...I am pretty much an open book. But there are a few things that any of those people don't know about me but if I had to pick one, I would say that I wish I would have the chance, just once to meet my sperm donor. I would have liked to have seen if we had matching freckles and did he love the taste of beer. Did he suffer from mental illness? Did I get all my bad habits from him?

I don't think I have ever told anyone this because you shouldn't want to meet the douche that abandoned you when you were in utero.  You are supposed to hate him on principle. Trust me, I do.

But I'd like to have someone to blame for my inability to tan,

Cook.Write. Change.

I have been looking for a way to get inspired since my break up. Yeah, I know I haven't written about it and frankly I don't think I am ready to write about it right now. But like most people, after a crappy break up, you start to wonder what the hell is wrong with you. I decided that I needed to go on my own personal journey...my own eat, pray, love so to speak...only mine is called Cook, Write, Change. I have always loved to cook and really use it as a way to express my love for people. What am I going to cook? I don't know. With countless cookbooks, I am sure I can find something. And it has to be a recipe it can't be something I just whip up. That is too easy for me. Way too easy. I need to learn the patience and gratification of following a recipe. That sometimes it is perfect exactly as it is. I plan to document my cooking here on the blog with recipes, pics and video if possible.

Ok, so that takes care of Cook...now what about write? Well, I write two columns a month, I am a student. I blog AND I journal. A lot of writing. But, how can I really challenge myself? I found it  here.

 These 62 questions I will answer on my blog. Even the super personal ones. No holding back. I am not sure how often I will answer them, but this will certainly be a challenge.

Now we are onto Change. Change what? I want to change everything. The world. Myself. My community. My hair. Whatever it is, I want change. Why? Because the fear of change stifles. It is the worst kind of drug. And frankly, I have been mainlining it for years.

Jason Mraz and Being a Buddhist at Christmas

I don't which I am more embarrassed to admit, the fact that my life right now is a Jason Mraz song or the fact that I KNOW my life is a Jason Mraz song. The jury is out.

I won't tell you which one just yet, I do have some pride left.

As someone who is not a Christian, the "Spirit of Christmas" is something I have a hard time grasping. I look at it as mass consumerism and an excuse to eat my weight in tamales. So I have been looking around at what the spirit of Christmas means to me.

I want to make one thing clear,  not all Buddhists have the same philosophy as I do and I respect that. I think that you can be a Buddhist and appreciate the message of Jesus Christ.

First things first, I am not getting into it with Christians about the veracity of the "Christmas Story". For the sake of this blog, I will assume it is all historically correct  and tell you that I love the story. I still tear up at A Charlie Brown Christmas when Linus tells the story.

The idea that this one man was sent to change the world is why I love this story. One person. He then inspired others to change the world, and so on and so forth.

So what, as a Buddhist can I do to embody the Spirit of Christmas? I guess I set out to change the world. Or at least the life of one person. So if I change your life in the next twelve months let me know... and if I don't I assure you, my lip sync of Jason Mraz may change your opinion.