... Random Short Stories ...

The Universe is a funny place you know.

I'd been having troubles with my thoughts due to some recent life experiences. Ruminating, obsessing, I tend to look at a problem from every angle, upside down, inside out, back to front...I'm starting to realise now that by doing that all I'm doing is submerging myself in problems and not really finding any solutions.....

So anyway...

I bought myself an MP3 player as a 'cheer up buddy' gift and to have some distraction from my worrisome wayward mind while I stare at ceilings and walls all day. (I'm a construction painter...work can get mind numbingly boring at times, a lot of repetition and not a whole lot of creativity).....

Half an hour into the day I was bopping away, listening to my music and I was just getting into some really great book passages I'd recorded two nights before when...boooomp....ran out of battery!

What was the universe trying to tell me?...

"You got shit you gotta deal with son...cant hide or run...you face it...sort thru it...come to a decision"...lol

That day ended up giving me a great lesson...because later on...

In the past I'd get uptight at having my plans changed at the last minute...I'd just started this new job (there was a half dozen of us new guys) and we got a little bombshell dropped on us just around smoko time. We were told we'd have to drive into the city to do an induction for the new painting crew we'd started with (the foreman didn't have the appropriate paperwork with him). An hour there...an hour for the induction...then another hour back...IN PEAK HOUR TRAFFIC...and no, the tight fisted little **** of an employer wasn't going to pay us for the time.

In the old days I would've stewed and CURSED under my breath for the rest of the day...as did most of the guys who got the news.

Today I thought..."Well...cool...here's my decision.I haven't got my music so ill leave work earlier and go for a drive...he's not paying me for it anyway. I'll leave just after lunch, that should be good, I'll have a steady afternoon spin in to the city, beat the traffic, I'll drop in and see my mate Marcus on the way home, haven't caught up with him for a bit...might have a beer, it'll be alright, nice and cruisey, should actually be a good afternoon."

Either way I thought I was going to be short a few hours work so I chose the path of least resistance.

I ended up just cruising along in a light hearted mood for the next few hours at work and then at lunchtime...lo and behold.....the paperwork turned up and we didn't have to go anywhere! We all got to do the induction on the job, paid for and all (and in the employers time!...bonus!)

How cool was that?...

I had made a decision to be cool about it all and it ended up being just about as cool as it could possibly be!!!

Instead of wasting a half day of my life in a "neg-head downer mood", I smiled, made my decision, and floated. Beautiful.

Amazing!

Lessons all over the place

That's how cool it is

I realise my days are completely up to me, I may not get to choose what comes my way, but I certainly get to choose how I'm going to handle it, how I'm going to talk to myself and help myself through this steady flow of life.

Go with the flow

Make the best out of a situation

Find the positive

Be cool baby, just be cool

It's all so true!

Yeah the universe is a funny place at times...

If there is a divine plan...the Divine Planner's a gag writer, I'm sure of it!

Think well...be well...feel good...be good

Accept it all and flow on through, keep on truckin' so to speak.

It was a good day, I understand now it was a good day because I chose to MAKE it a good day.

That's a pretty good feeling.

Corregio is said to have killed a man himself with his bare hands so he could look upon the face of a dyeing man and see what he would see in his face. For him to more truly give depth and understanding to his paintings he killed somebody. I found this painting on the net years and years ago...it's haunting...the story of it too...beautiful...strength.

Habit forming....

Perseverance: the act of starting again, over and over.

Thinking positively is an acquired habit. Just as thinking negatively is an acquired habit.

Everything requires practice – painting houses, saving money, thinking positively, eating well, getting enough exercise.

Habits require repetition, reward, and an orientation to becoming ingrained and 'natural'. Habits of thought, habits of health, habitual states of being.

Our relationships are habitual.

Relaxation is habitual.

Learning to relax is easier when made habitual.

"Happy to be here…" habitual thought.

Let Old Habits Die

LET YOUR OLD HABITS DIE.

Most of us are slaves to habit and familiarity. Our present environment is a symbol of our present thoughts. My family is me, my job is me, my friends are me. It has been observed a wounded animal will return to what is familiar. Because man is also an animal he likes familiarity and in time of trouble will also return to what is familiar.

There is a compelling force driving us to old surroundings because these surroundings remind us of how we were, or are supposed to be - they are comforting and reassuring.

How does one go about changing years of habit?

Many people who have had near death experiences or have had severe trauma in their lives come away with instant change. Their lives are never the same and it is most noticeable by those most familiar with them. Meaningful change does not have to come by hitting yourself over the head with a hammer nor do you have to sign up for courses or college. Change can come fairly easily, in simple steps, which are subtle and for the most part unnoticeable.

Before change can come there needs to be a desire for change. A complete lifestyle makeover can be accomplished over a period of time without the trauma of hitting yourself over the head with a hammer. Habit simply means you are doing the same thing over and over again, there is no growth in repeating steps.

The very meaning of life is movement! Lasting change does not come with making a change, but with commitment to keep changing until it becomes a habit - a habit of change. One of the best times to start your change is first thing in the morning. Commit yourself to making at least one tiny change everyday and it doesn't have to be the same change. Try turning your alarm ahead or back 10 minutes. Try leaving your house 15 minutes early for work one morning or take a different route -you will see new people and different things.

Make small subtle changes, which will not upset your life or those around you.

Make this your priority every day - to do something different. What you are going to start noticing is how things start changing around you and how people will start to treat you differently.

Crater 1.

Sedan

Storax Sedan was a shallow underground nuclear test conducted at the Nevada Test Site at 37.177, -116.047 by the United States on July 6, 1962 as part of Operation Plowshare program to investigate the use of nuclear weapons for mining, cratering, and other civilian purposes.

The blast had a yield of 104 kilotons (435 terajoules) and displaced more than 11 million tonnes (12 million short tons) of soil and resulted in a radioactive cloud that rose to an altitude of 3.7 km (12,000 feet). The radioactive dust plume headed northeast and then east towards the Mississippi River. It created a crater 100 m (320 feet) deep and has a diameter of about 390 m (1,280 feet). It is about 21 km (13 miles) away from Area 51.

Basically all the atoms within this atomic divot are hot and reactive (which means they're just jumping around and buzzing like crazy). This means that if your body was exposed to it for a micro-second you would short circuit and your cells would begin to function in anomalous ways.. ie...you'd mutate till you died, your cells would mutate till you died.

An inverted mountain. Like death on the Moon. Like a drawn-out crow's call. I wouldn't be hiking around it.

This bomb was so powerful, but really, look at its neighbours and cousins........................this is small fry...

Check Nuclear valley on earth Google sometime...

Its really fantastic hay...you'll like it.

There's a scene in "Barfly", a film starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway who play two alcoholics living the seedy undercurrents of bars and booze. Rourke plays a gifted writer whose life is dominated by the bottle and the The book/movie  is supposedly based on the life and writings of Charles Bukowski.

Charles Bukowski, (Born: 19__ to 19__ )

In one scene of the movie, a female publisher comes to see Rourke at a bar to tell him he's been 'discovered'. He's been there for a while, he's been drinking.

At this point she had no idea what he looks like or who he is...She's never met him or seen him, so when he leans into her face at their initial spontaneous meeting and she asks, in a slightly defensive manner, "Who are you...?"

He replies, "Ahhhhh..mmm....the eternal question...and the eternal answer is............I don't know..."

The film is a stark and grimy immersion into a look at an alcoholic life filled with poetry of both words and poignant life experiences, both rich and dismal...at times...there are splashes of colour...not only the dawdry hues of back-alley neon lights upon wet streets (where Bukowski has late night fist fights with Eddie, the wanker barman) , but also colours of instances that sometimes populate our own lives....like when...

...Bukowski walks along an overcast New York city street in the mid-day and passes an old drab 'British racing green' delivery van. He looks into the passenger side window on passing. Sitting there is a pure white dog. There is no driver in the car. The glass is fully closed but the window is clear and as he steps closer the dog bares its fangs. The red and pink and white of its teeth, lips and jaws are in stark contrast to the van the dog sits in, the gray of the day outside, and the greasy haired 'bum'  casually leaning in to look through the glass. The dog grows thicker and whiter and fills out until the barking and snarling and baring of sharp teeth have totally filled the interior of the truck...

.....Bukowski stands there with his face only inches from the glass, looking into the window and whispering... "Ohhhmm, yeaaah, you're beauutiful!"..... as the dog almost goes into convulsions with rage and spit begins to fleck on the inside of the window...!

It's a lovely piece of cinema, a powerful piece of writing...and well worth the effort to watch it.

and the poem I wrote?...I'll put it up soon