Been Around the Block. Got Some Stories. These are Them.
At the foot of Mt. Shasta, October 26, 2011: Today I found an inspiring micro-story on Shafin de Zane’s facebook account. I’m reprinting it here. Maybe you’ll enjoy it too …
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I had a dream once and it caught a horrible disease: disbelief. It almost died for I knew no cure, but somehow survived, it was a strong dream. Yet many others have died, especially the ones that I had when I was little. And
Northern California, October 2011: Some folks — including some very serious physicists — think that there may exist multiple universes, perhaps an infinite number.
In a way, these universes may all be here in the same space, but somehow vibrating at a different rate; and if that were true it might account for some folks reports of visiting “fairyland,” “hell,” “captured by aliens,” and other reports of non-terrestrial experiences.
According to some, and I personally suspect that it’s probably true, every time in your life that you have made a decision — left or right — that the universe split into two universes, and a *you* is in each one, and in one case the *you* turned left, and in the other one the *you* turned right.
If that is true, and the number of universes is infinite, then in one universe you are the Queen of England, and in another you live below a bridge on a freeway, and another you’re a movie star, and another you’re on death row.
One of my most productive mental self-help methods is to (in the “imagination”) walk through a doorway into another universe, where the Richard/Arthur has already solved the problem in question, and ask for advice. I call it “dimensional guidance,” and it’s proven to yield remarkably interesting and generally useful guidelines for solving the various problems I face.
It’s fun and helpful. Go figure.
October 5, 2011: Apple Computer has announced that Steve Jobs died today.
That sucks, and I’m saddened.
I remember an evening, many years ago, I think a Tuesday, at the regular monthly meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club, which was held at the Stanford Linear Accelerator building.
I’d ride my (somewhat small) 360 Yamaha motorcycle down Interstate 280 from San Francisco, and my tushie was frazzled by the time I arrived. But it was worth it. Those were exciting times, with new announcements about CP/M and new peripherals for the Altair. Some of the people attending have now become household words, and I met the infamous Captain Crunch there, who was imprisoned for hacking long distance calls with a whistle that came in Captain Crunch cereal boxes.
And on that particular night, there were two scuzzy guys in the foyer. They weren’t on the regular program, so they’d set up just inside the door but before you went into the auditorium where the “real” program was going on.
They were demonstrating a board they’d just developed that displayed … (gasp!) … colors. (At the time, displays were black and white.)
These two guys reminded me of my hippie days. Steve and Steve, their names were. Wozniak and Jobs.
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In the wake of his departure, here’s one of my favorite quotations, and maybe it has even more meaning today …
“Almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” — Steve Jobs
Weed, California, September 2011: I was just sitting here thinking that I really miss those days, a few years back, when live telemarketers used to call me all the time.
Because I used to have a lot of fun with them. Perhaps it is evil of me, but my theory is that if they wish to call me up with their agenda, then it should be OK for me to answer the call with *my* agenda.
Their agenda was to sell me something. And almost 100% of the time it wasn’t something I needed.
My agenda was to take a break and have some fun. Here’s what I learned …
Here’s what you do: [Read more…]
Weed, California, July 1, 2011: When I was quite young I had great difficulty making decisions. I was impulsive, and it largely stemmed from being extremely fearful and accepting my worries as if they were external objects. (That is, I had no insight that they were my creations, and I had no clue how to actually operate my mind and it’s automatic creations.)
So I was wishy-washy, I flip-flopped, I made great long lists and then still flip-flopped because the basis of all my decisions was the emotional content most pressing at the moment. But then …
June 1976, San Francisco: As I mentioned, the Network Answering Service was created in my studio apartment at 495 Third Avenue, north of Golden Gate Park, and according to the employee manual, the primary purpose of the answering service was to feed Rosie the Cat.
Of course, we had a more noble mission, and- But that’s neither here nor there, because this is about the CopyDragon, copywriter extraordinaire, raconteur, and gentleman at arms. That is, ahem, myself with my writing-copy hat on.
As best I know the first copy written was some advertising for Simple Simon bookkeeping (myself), and then there was a brief audiotext positioning message for my high-tech and newfangled answering machine, but this summer as I prepared to launch the answering service, I began writing a lot of what’s called “commercial writing,” which simply means writing for business purposes.
It includes:
[Read more…]
[reprinted with permission from CopyDragon.com webwriters]
Some people think they have nothing to say. Some people believe they cannot express themselves.
These are illusions.
These illusions, these thoughts, are caused by the unconscious mind’s automatic learning. It learns something, usually in childhood, and quite often these “solutions” are brilliant, given the resources you have at the time. Unfortunately, like how to tie your shoes, these solutions are re-generated automatically below consciousness ever after, and sometimes they fit, but oft-times these solutions suck!
These beliefs, emotions, thoughts, and automatic reactions are a part of you, operating below consciousness, but they are illusions. (In which we are sometimes as trapped, and blind, as fish are to the water.)
(If you want to learn more about how the unconscious mind both helps and sometimes harms you, in its effort to promote your survival, pick up my free book at http://beinghappytoday.com. You can one-click unsub the newsletter if you wish.)
Let’s talk about how to make writing, and self-expression … easy.
Weed, California, Easter Sunday 2009: Here is an Easter gift for you … a super-quick little thing you can do in about twenty seconds, and it makes you feel really good. Most likely this is very good for your body and mind as well, though I can’t prove it!
I call it ‘Arthur’s Twenty Second Tune-Up,’ and it’s both startlingly effective and super-easy.
First, get an index card, or something similar, about 3″ x 5″. And then … [Read more…]
