brightmillion blog

here is what happens when a fat cat sits in a little box:

Make a gif

but he sure loves his boxes.. he’s been sitting in the flattened box for a couple days now, i even tried to tape up the sides for him, but even packing tape cant take the weight…!

its new years eve and i’m gonna go crazy tonight! so crazy i might just sit at home and update this blog and read a book.. i know, slow down dan, life in the fast line can catch up to you..! hope everyone is having a good new years eve, (its only 6pm here in LA so i dont think anyone is in super party mode yet…) and will be planning a SAFE new years eve..! although new years resolutions can be daunting, they are useless if you are dead or in jail.. so um, buckle up, call a cab, or stay indoors hiding under a sturdy table.
the real reason i type right now is to let you in on a secret, the secret of whats happening to my brain.. in a literary sense anyhow… I’ve just added a “widget” aka a box, on the right side of this blog page that show “what dan is reading” im sure youve been dying to know
its towards the bottom, since there is more important stuff towards the top (links swaying you to buy things, sign up for things, give me things,etc!!)
but, scroll on down there and you’ll see what im currently reading, whats on deck to be read, and what is old news to me by now.. and after i read the books, ill give a little review or rather my thoughts and inspiration from the text, not really a review, i dont care how a book is written or if you should read it, just how it affected my thought process and where it leads me to next. i think its a shame most adults (at least in america) dont read books! once they are out of school its “no more of that reading crap for me” but as some famous person im too lazy to google and give credit to said “a person who doesnt read is no better than a person that cant read’ !! so true. and its fun, and someone once gave me a finely color-crayoned page from a care bears coloring book that had a caption under the picture that said “books make good friends too” ahahaha also so true, although humans make good friends too, when you can find good ones, and cats make good friends too as long as they dont bite you.
please feel free to comment on the books if youve read them, or have recommendations on what i should read next. although i’ll be upfront with you – i dont usually go for romance novels, graphic novels, history of war books, cook books, sports books, and most new fiction… i have a list a mile long of classic fiction to get through in my life, so its gotta compete with Hemingway or Vonnegut to get me attention if you are into those books i listed, its ok, i still love you, different strokes for different folks.
of course if you really think i need to read a book and want to give it to me as a gift, well, then…. i may consider . hehehehehe
been another relaxing holiday week for me, hopefully for you too. i wrote a little song for a childrens educational app for the Barnes and Noble Nook tablet. it will come out soon, i’ll let you know.. hmmm,what else,,my week in review: i worked on my veggie car a little bit, read some books, drank some veggie juice, played some scrabble, took my cat to the vet (he’s OK! just a little sneezy cold, he’s already better), organized our rehearsal studio tony likes things organized and is very happy with all the new space. little does he know i plan on filling that space with more stuff..! building a vocal booth, boxes of brightmillion merch that has been sitting in the bandvan, a drumkit i need to put somewhere, etc.. shhh dont tell him., ummm what else,, i watched some King of the Hill, ran around the Silverlake reservoir a few times, stopped at the post office to buy a stamp, ok i guess im getting a little too detailed in the non important details.. BUT next week is GO TIME! prepping for the studio FOR REAL this time. hopefully we have 3 song EP done and ready to SHip by Feb 1st, thats the goal.!
i just heard a helicopter fly over outside, so i guess the new years party has officially started…
see you in 2012!!!

Happy almost New Year…! incase you forgot to get your roomate something for xmas and he wont stop making passive agressive remarks about it… – howbout a blast from the past- a real life physical CD… and not just any CD, the Brightmillion ‘Start a New Day’ EP

now available on CD from Amazon.com:

So…. Another year, another year…. I guess we still have a week or so left of this one, but it seems everyone has already shut down into holiday mode and is on autopilot til next year ☺ and rightfully so! We all run around with our chicken heads cut off busying ourselves and never take any time to “sharpen the saw” … as in this little parable from Steven R. Covey ::

Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree.

“What are you doing?” you ask.

“Can’t you see?” comes the impatient reply. “I’m sawing down this tree.”

“You look exhausted!” you exclaim. “How long have you been at it?”

“Over five hours,” he returns, “and I’m beat! This is hard work.”

‘Well, why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?” you inquire. “I’m sure it would go a lot faster.”

“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” the man says emphatically. “I’m too busy sawing!”

—

the holidays are a good time to sharpen the saw! Take some time to relax, focus on whats important, and spend some time NOT worried about the mundane aspects of life. As in (To poorly quote another proverb-) – “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water”
there will always be wood to be chopped and water to be carried…. The car will always need a wash, or need to be fixed, the house always needs to be painted, the lawn mowed, the room cleaned, etc,etc…. that’s just life. But, what a waste to make that the FOCUS of life!
When we take time to stop and sharpen the saw, we re-focus our attention on what matters to us, and what doesn’t. I think there are many ways to “sharpen the saw” and its different for everyone what is most effective. Most importantly, its just STOPPING! And maybe doing nothing.. which is a scary thought and damn-near impossible for most people! I know im one of them. There is always something to be done..!!!!! ahhh!! BUT< I am slowly changing my ways – being “over-busy” and frantic and task oriented is a HABIT. That’s it, it’s a habit that maybe came from conditioning as a child, from school, from your job, etc. but wherever you picked it up, its not WHO you are, its what you DO. Any hopefully, its what you have DONE in the past, not what you do anymore!
But, habits don’t die easily. Such as that one smart guy mark twain said:

“A habit cannot be tossed out the window; it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time.” – Mark Twain

I sure am “quoting” a lot today.. ha! Maybe some day I can come up with my very own uber profound thing to sum up in one sentence. Hmmm how bout “life is like a box of chocolates…” hmm no that doesn’t sound right.

So, back to coaxing those habits down the stairs.. and some habits, like being “too busy” to stop and smell the roses, or sharpen the blade, or whatevah, is a habit that’s probably not even up on the second floor, it has most likely moved itself up more than a few floors, and will need to be coaxed down multiple flights of steps… but I think its worth it. I’d hate to be plunging to my fiery death in a light speed space pod and have someone say, “well at least you enjoyed your life” and I turn and say, “well, actually I’ve been real busy, but ive been meaning to stop and do that sometime, but , oh man, I guess its too late now” (oh, didn’t I tell you, im gonna live to be a few hundred years old, and such will be flying through outerspace at some point in the near-distant future)

Ive been scheduling time everyday lately to do “nothing” . its been quite weird, and it feels a little dirty actually. Ive always had (in my head) way too many things to do and not enough time to do them. But when I actually stopped to think about it, maybe most of those things aren’t worth your time to do. And some of those things take major life changing action to get them out of our life. Hence the scary part of it all. Im not just talking about putting off washing the car for a few weeks, I mean getting rid of the unnecessary burdens that take you away from your PURPOSE!

Wait, we have a purpose? You say? Um, yup. Even you. I don’t care if you’ve been selling shoes for 40 years and decide today that you cant stand feet anymore. – ditch the shoeshop! Or maybe the love of shoes has faded? Maybe its time to refocus on what made you love feet in the first place… maybe your shoeshop has become successful and now all you do is punch the numbers to keep the shareholders happy, so actually you havnt touched a pair of feet in years? Well, then maybe the shoeshop isn’t the issue, maybe its time to get back out on the floor and shoe-horn some heels with your bare hands again!

You’ll maybe never realize what the problem is if you just keep being busy, punching the numbers and then being angry inside because you are unsatisfied…. The only way to really know is to stop and sharpen that saw.. a lot of people think taking time to be alone or do something just for yourself is selfish… and I admit, there is some of that in me, BUT if you never stop to re-organize your life to be in harmony and purpose, you’ll just be an angry, bitter, stressed person to all those you love- which is actually much more selfish.

I’ve heard it said that 15min of meditation is the equivalent of 3 hours sleep. Well, however it breaks down, the point is that being focused and serene makes you many times more effective on the tasks you do choose to undertake- instead of just runnig around mad all the time, you will choose your tasks more selectively and accomplish them quicker, more effectively, and probably better than ever before. Thus, leaving more time on the table for sharpening the saw! You might even just enjoy life a little along the way…

So, maybe doing nothing is too big a step at first, oh dear, here comes another quote….. this time from Blaise Pascal (the scientist guy you learned about in high school, he invented the mechanical calculator i think.. and who, if he was my child I wouldn’t have named Blaise, but Blaze, haha)

“All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone. “ -Blaise Pascal

lots of noise running in our heads, the only problem is that its everybody else’s noise- things people say, people said, you heard here, there, whatever… and the same noise repeating itself every day! When we stop and be alone, that noise is SO LOUD! Its almost unbearable, that’s why no one stops,, to pretend its not there. But it is, and the only way to quiet it, is to confront it. It slowly quiets, I promise, im no super monk guru that meditates hours a day, but even ive been able to slowly grow quieter over the past months just by forcing myself to sit alone…

but why? You ask… well, once you clear all that nonsense out of your noggin, there ends up being all this extra space in there, space that you can fill up with what YOU choose. And that is how you start to create the things in your life you REALLY want. By focusing on what you want.

Um, ok, so sitting alone in a room (most people call this meditating) for an hour doesn’t sound doable to you, well, start off slowly, and sharpen the blade a different way- maybe take a walk, even better walk in nature, or read a book purely for enjoyment, go to a museum, or maybe play some basketball, or go ride a horse (As long as the horse is ok with it), or weave a blanket, do yoga, or take a class on sketching, or learn to swim (that’s what im gonna do in Jan… ive always been quite edgy around water, and don’t really know how to swim, so im gonna nip that one once and for all and swallow my pride and take “swimming lessons for dumb adults who cant swim” class! But, shhh don’t tell anyone my secret, although soon enough I’ll be able to swim al by myself, even without floaties)

As you are finding out with this much longer than usual blog post, when you take time to refocus your life and get rid of the excess non-important BS, you have lots more time to actually be productive, (like write long blog posts, AND even go back and sorta spell check it). Ive been doing way less, and accomplishing way more. I’d quote the Dao Te Ching here, but essentially it says something like “do more, by doing less” and hmm, I think that guy was on to something…

I’ll bore you more with my new “out with the old me” way of life in future posts, along with some tips on time management that have been working for me.. and some reading recommendations, (ive read a few great books recently) and a few documentary recommendations ( watch “Forks over Knives” today! Its on Netflix instant streaming and YOU have to see it. Your life depends on it, literally.)

SO……… stop to sharpen that saw Larry. Or judy, or bill, or whatever you happen to be called by others in public.

if I don’t post in the next few days. – happy holidays  as you know im not a religious man, but “holidays”, whatever that means to you, should be observed as a time to be with your loved ones,(or at least your favorite cats), to be thankful for everything you have, relax, and have fun!!

Oh yeah, and brightmillion has still been making music, don’t worry, im not gonna give up the music to become a professional ranting blogger. At least not yet.

my writing here was so intriguing that my fat cat lucy fell asleep on my leg while i’m writing it: