Twyler(dot)com

I love to read. For some reason I occasionally will fall off the wagon (or is it ‘on the wagon’? I always forget…) and not read anything for a while, but I do love the books. I’ve actually been reading a lot of digital versions of books on my netbook as opposed to the ‘real thing’, but that’s a whole different blog post (or book)…. I’m trying to update more frequently so I can’t ramble on as much as I might like.

I really enjoy the feeling I get from learning; feeling someone else’s life-work get in my brain and fire tiny pistons that light up and twinkle with knowledge. It’s amazing… reading really does give you knowledge and knowledge really is power. Maybe those motivational speakers in high school actually were right… I should have paid attention.

But seriously, if you want to learn about something, learn how to do something, find out about Anything, you can find almost anything ever written about any subject. Anything! It’s crazy. Of course the more time you spend reading the less time you spend actually doing these things or putting these ideas into action, but still – if you want to get better at something, if you want to be more interesting or just better yourself, read a freaking book.

Here’s what I’ve been reading:

I discovered Dan Deacon when I randomly picked up his CD at the Tulsa County Library the other day. It was under Electronic/Percussion music, so I figured I couldn’t really go wrong. I was right. His music is fun, crazy, pumped-up hippie dance party electro-rock. Right? Plus apparently he played at Bonnarroo this year, so he must be pretty hip.

Paddling Ghost by Dan Deacon (c) 2009 Carpark Records
Directed by Natalie van den Dungen http://www.natalievandendungen.com

If I could focus on one thing – a craft, skill, trade, creative outlet, etc. – for even just one year without having to deal with the crazy frivolousness of this modern everyday life, I would undoubtedly become famous, rich or insanely wise. Possibly just insane… but only because I would have to return to the ‘real world’ after my ‘year of discovery’. I wouldn’t have to worry about paying rent, eating trans-fats, Fox News, politics or talking to people in India when I have a question about one of my many bills. I would just be able to learn, get better at what I want to do and live the purest life I could. There are so many little things in life that just slow us down and keep us from reaching our true potential… but that’s just life right?

I have so many ideas rumbling around in my head that at times it’s hard to deal with these moronic drivers or incompetent customer service reps or all the other excruciatingly mundane things that everybody in America has to put up with. It’s hard to be creative and really get into my writing or musical state of mind when I’m constantly worried about getting financially screwed by some corporation or run off the road by an old lady texting or simply not having enough energy at the end of the day to do anything for myself. Not to mention all these mind-bending things that keep happening that are convincing me that the end of  mankind is looming (BP DISASTER, politics in general, the Snuggie for dogs, the growing number of seriously twisted people, the exponentially growing population that this Earth can’t support for much longer, etc…). It’s all too much, like the Beatles sang a while back. Especially if you really think about it.

If I could just spend a whole year focusing on writing/recording music or living in the mountains making art or roaming around the country writing about anything and everything… I think I would finally be able to free my mind and get all of these wonderful images, sounds, thoughts and ideas that seem to be stuck behind reminders, to-do lists and utility bills out there in the open. It’s not that I can’t do all of the things I want to do, it’s just that we’ve become so bogged down with information and so wired to be worried about money and possessions and corporate ideals that we forget to live. We forget about why we’re alive, why we exist, why watermelons grow from a tiny seed and taste sooo good at the first sight of summer… It has almost become unnatural for people to think that way, but it should be the essence of natural.

We don’t have enough time here to forget these kinds of things. I don’t have enough time on this earth to not write or not create music and art when I was given the skills and the drive to do so. I don’t have time to simply go about my life without cherishing every single second and every little tiny thing my daughter learns and does. Being responsible and having goals and plans is incredibly necessary in this crazy world. If you don’t pay your electric bill those corporate bastards won’t think twice about shutting off your electricity, no matter how pure your outlook is on life. Nobody cares if you don’t have any money. This is how the world works and you have to accept that… but don’t forget about what really matters.

Does your plasma TV matter to a homeless person on the side of the road? Will it matter to you at all (or anything you’ve ever watched on it) when you’re about to say goodbye to the ones you love? Cherish your memories, leave your kids great ones, enjoy what you do and own your life. No matter where you are in it and no matter where you’re going. Own it. There is no time to waste.

Drinking coffee after 7PM is a lot like drinking alcohol before noon… only for the exact opposite reasons. But sometimes you just have to do it. Maybe you’ve been dragging all day and you still have a pile of work to do before the morning or you absolutely have to stay awake studying for finals. Maybe you just lost your job, your dog ran away and you woke up to find your partner has left you via Facebook. These things happen. There are times in life when nothing is more consoling than a screwdriver with your eggs and bacon (Rarely! And not if you have to work or drive…), and there are also times in life when you have to choke down some muddy caffeine water at 9 or 10 at night just to stay upright.

This Friday night is one of those nights for me. I’ve had so much on my to-do lists that it just seems impossible, especially with my crazy (and amazing) almost-two-year-old taking a good deal of my daytime energy. All these notes and pieces of scribbled-on paper have been mocking me for too long, reminding me of all the things I desperately need to get done that I have yet to accomplish. What I need to do is focus only on the things that I know I accomplish and then let the other things take care of themselves. I’ve been reading “The Law of Attraction in Action” which is a great starting place for this kind of thinking…

The hardest thing for me at this point, though, is just doling out my limited resources (energy, time, emotions, etc. ) in a way that maximizes my productivity. My daughter always comes first, but then I have to juggle my work, my work I don’t get paid for (blogging!, networking, etc.), job-hunting, and all the things that fulfill me and make me happy. This happens to everybody, but I’m in a sort of transitional phase now where I’m trying to make my hobbies into a career while taking care of the bottom line and staying afloat until everything works out. So, here’s the plan. Here’s the idea…

Envision it. What do you want? Picture it, go through the motions in your mind. Once you have an idea of what you’re trying to accomplish and you envision yourself following through and making these things happen then it’s eerie how things just fall into place. Star athletes do this all the time; they picture themselves breaking ankles and crushing their opponents and then rely on their talent and drive to make it happen. You have to focus on what you want and not all the things that could potentially get in your way. If you focus on problems that you think might slow you down or all the possible negative outcomes then those problems will in fact come up.

What you consistently focus on is what you believe. I have a lot I want to get done tonight, so I’ll relax and be in ‘Friday mode’ later… maybe Sunday. Tonight I’ll drink coffee, break through this wall and be more productive than any weekday afternoon, because that’s what I’m going to make myself believe I need to do. Drink some coffee, do what you need to do. It’s early still.

I ran across writer/blogger/entrepeneur Penelope Trunk on Twitter (@penelopetrunk (I’m @Twyler)) and then found her blog and I must say, she is an excellent writer. What first impressed me were her tweets, which are almost poetic and aren’t at all like the all-too-common awkwardly short ‘haircut’ or ‘i just ate this’ tweets. She also created Brazen Careerist which is ‘a social network to help young people manage their careers’. What are you saying? That I’m young and I need to manage my career in a social networking environment? Well I suppose you’re right, I’ll check it out.

Anyway, her blog post ‘Five tips for asking better questions’ got me thinking about some things, so I thought I’d share with you, the whole world.

“When you’re lost, look for questions, not answers”

Do you know what you really want out of life? Do you know what exact qualities you must have in a person who you’re in a relationship with? Do you know the things you absolutely could never have in your life if you’re going to be anywhere near happy? If you ask yourself these questions and really spend some time thinking about your goals and beliefs and values, then you’ll know what you must have in order to create a fulfilling, happy life.

Ask yourself about your job… Is there anything else you’d rather be doing? What realistically stand in the way of making that happen? What kind of environment do you need to really do your best work?

These are the kinds of questions I’ve been dealing with myself. I’m currently looking for a job and I’d be great at pretty much anything I choose to do, but I know for the most part what I would absolutely love to do, what I would tolerate (in the meantime), and what I would absolutely not do. It’s rough out there, but if you’re constantly unhappy then you should make it better, do something about it.  Another good career question to ask yourself: what kind of person would you want to work for, ideally? My answer: someone eerily like myself. Ok, so I’ll start my own business and do everything exactly how I want. Awesome.

Good questions can really move you along if you’re trying to achieve something or change something.  So, why do I blog? I have no idea. I need to write, I need to be creative, blogging makes me hip, I’m always right and people need to know that… there are a lot of reasons, but I mainly do it for the money. Big fat wads of cheddar. I’m not sure when the checks are supposed to start coming in, but surely it will be soon.

I just ran across this really interesting article on the Motley Fool about how Google, Facebook and Apple are just crushing all hopes for any competitors, and the negative effects this may have. It’s true, though. Google is the only search engine I use and it’s my only email host. No social website even comes close to Facebook in the amount of people (over 400 million) or time spent on the site, which is great for advertisers. Plus Facebook has the creepy super-targeted ads that are far superior to run of the mill print ads (for the advertisers). And of course Apple is way ahead of everybody else in the technological and cool-factor, so no one can get anywhere close to their broad-reaching  range of products. Plus people are more than willing to pay a premium price for their premium products.

The article, which caught my eye because of the title “Apple, Google, and Facebook Are Killing America”, goes on to explain some of the implications of these monopoly-like media giants. There’s always an uproar about how huge oil companies and multi-national corporations are ruining the lives of Americans, but when it’s Facebook and the maker of the iPod, nobody cares. And why would they? Nobody wants the Microsoft Zune to sell as heavily as the iPod or iPhone because the Zune sucks in comparison. So what’s the big deal ? These companies are changing the way we do things, and in turn are changing the way America runs. Are they killing the idea of traditional media and causing journalists to lose jobs? Well, maybe.

“Newspapers can blame Craigslist for killing their classifieds and Google for disrupting their circulations, but the inability for many print companies to thrive online is even more telling about the inadequacies of the fading print model. Still, you’re a meanie, Google, to be taking down the newspaper and magazine industries like that.”

I love the way Rick Aristotle Munarriz writes in this article, so you should read it after you finish here. I think he makes some really good points and lays things out in a pretty simple way. I don’t like the idea of any businesses having a strangle hold on the market, but these companies seem to come across as innocent, do-good companies that are just making the world a better place. Apple can still pull that off in my opinion- I’ve always believed in their mission and their products – but Facebook creeps me out and Google has been into some pretty shady stuff recently.

This article is geared toward investors, but it also says a lot about the current state of the media industry and how things are seriously changing. Most people don’t even bother to think about these things, but these enormous, global, profit-out-the-ears tech companies are changing our way of life. Deal with it, bitch about it, ignore it or whatever… but think about what you do and where you put your money. If these three companies get any more popular they will kill all the weakling competitors and we may just be doomed as a society. Think about it, America.