To Someone, somewhere...hopefully--

I haven't written in almost two years. I'm back because I imagine not very many people stumble upon this website anymore and if they do they probably don't stick around. I'm hoping that someone, somewhere out there might accidentally read this thought I've had and say "Yes, I agree and yes, let's try and make it happen!". Or even just "I've thought about that too" so I don't feel totally absurd every time I ponder on this.

Ok, bear with me. What I'm about to propose might seem slightly gross and indelicate but-- what if they could figure out a way to turn face oil into energy producing oil? What if they figured out a way to suck the oil out of some pimply adolescent and convert that oil into something that could power a light bulb, maybe two, or maybe one day an entire house? And, as an added bonus, that pimply kid would suddenly and wondrously be acne free.

Thoughts? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

There's nothing to say

There's really nothing to say except that I have completely neglected my duties as blog holder and writer. With ambitions in my head and heart of becoming a true, working, professional writer, my love and passion for the short stories I have penned on these blog pages have been blown to the wayside. It makes me sad.

With a smile on my face now, I am turning a new page, or creating more new posts as this technology filled world goes. Here is a new story to titillate your senses...maybe.

I'm back!

Mad Max Here:
I've used the excuse before but I have returned from my somewhat lengthy hiatus. While I haven't been posting my tales as I should have I have still been writing. There are plenty of tales to come. It wasn't that I was lazy this time or that I wasn't interested in my blog. I was recently told by someone very close to me (*cough cough- my father) that I shouldn't be posting things on my blog in such "rough form". For a while I agreed with him.

Now however I have begun to realize that he is not my only critic. There are others out there who do read my stories every now and then and enjoy them for what they are. Yes they may be a little rough around the edges but that doesn't mean they aren't worth merit if they aren't perfect, right? So in an effort to keep up a readership with those who like my stories I am posting more of them starting again today.

For your viewing Pleasure

Mad Max Here:
In talking with people who have read my blog I have gotten some very helpful feedback not only on what I've written but on the layout. When I post short stories that I split up into chapters it would have been helpful if the blogging site recognized which is chapter 1 and put it at the top. It however does not do that. Instead it archives by date. Therefore I have changed a few things.

Firstly, on the right hand side of the page the older posts will appear first under the archive section and this will hopefully alleviate the issue of which part of the story comes first as I always post the first chapter of any story first thereby making it the older posting.

Secondly, and maybe most importantly, I have included the chapter numbers in the title of the post as well as within the body of it. This will certainly clue those in on where to start if they are arriving at my site for the first time.

As stated at the top of my blog you can also click on the "Tales" section in the labels area on the right hand side of my page to sort through my stories and pick one you would like to read exclusively.

Hopefully this will help clear things up and make my blog even more enjoyable to read and easier than ever to use.

Vacation has come and gone

Mad Max Here:
It has been a little while since I've posted anything and this is not due to the problems I was having earlier in my blogging career where I couldn't buckle down and write. I was on vacation and I felt that a vacation meant a seperation from everything including my blog.

I love the blogging experience of course and so having returned to normal life I am returning to my writing. Today I am posting this little aside to let people know I've been gone but have returned and to share another new story or as I like to think of them as mini adventures. I hope you enjoy!

New day, same old Traffic

Mad Max here today:

Everyday I am baffled and truly frustrated by the congestion of cars that roam the streets of Los Angeles. Everyone is of course forewarned of this problem before visiting or if they take the big step, moving here. And while I've lived here for almost 3 years everyday I struggle with the stop and go, bad driving of others and general mayhem that ensues with too many cars, too many people and not enough road. I have recently come to the conclusion however that it may not be any of the aforementioned things but the traffic lights, the timing of them and the way it affects the flow.

Have you ever noticed that if you're traveling from Hollywood to say the Westside of Los Angeles the moment you hit Beverly Hills everything slows down, the roads get almost smaller in width and it seems like you've entered a third dimension of driving. I used to attribute this to the old, stuck up people who generally live in the area. First of all, if you're old it's probably a given that you're going to drive more slowly than the rest of us. Secondly, Beverly Hills being its own municipality tends to want to stray from whatever the norm is in Los Angeles and I figured that if you've got that kind of clout legally you'll change the driving laws to whatever you damn well please. It turns out that this isn't far from the truth. Being its own municipality Beverly Hills is on a different lighting grid from the rest of Los Angeles slowing down traffic. In fact there are times when I will be on little Santa Monica going through the heart of Beverly Hills and I will see three green lights in a row, one red light and another green. How on earth does that make sense? Not only does it disturb the flow of traffic but it's just ridiculous.

Now the city of Los Angeles itself isn't all that much better than Beverly Hills for they will frequently have similar lighting incidents where there are several greens in a row, interrupted by a red and then more greens. I understand that Los Angeles, being so big, having so many drivers and so forth is going to be a on a different system than New York City but New York’s truncated system where the lights in a strip of street turn Green one second behind each other makes sense. Traffic flows from east to west in one stream and then from north to south in one stream of cars and pedestrians. Why can LA not be the same? It seems to me that each neighborhood (which I rave about as a cool facet of Los Angeles: having all the different neighborhoods in one big city) are on their own grids causing this massive blockage all around town. People need to start talking to one another, neighborhood lighting systems need to start syncing up when one flows into another, when a boundary line is crossed.

Or maybe it's not Los Angeles at all and the people are really just terrible drivers and instead of paying attention to the road, driving defensively and understanding the rules they just get behind the wheels of the car and press the accelerator.

The Triangle, which line do you follow?

I have been having an emotional crisis which leads to self investigation and discovery. What, prey tell, is my crisis? It's the obsession of the great happy life, the perfect triangle. It can be argued that one is always searching for the best of three things: the perfect significant other, the perfect place to live and the perfect job. Why, when two of those things actually do fit into our idea of perfect do we obsesses over the one thing that isn't quite right?

Can all of those three ever be in perfect tandem anyway? I called one of my girlfriends last night to lament about my current sadness with one leg of the triangle. I know that crying and complaining only makes one a victim and to really find the route to happiness you have to take back control and do something about your situation. It's hard to do so when you are stuck in the situation and everywhere you turn seems bleak and dreary. My girlfriend, commiserating with me told me that she felt that every leg of her triangle was broken, not one of those things she was happy with. It got me thinking that maybe I don't have it so bad.

Then I started to wonder if one of the legs could be more important than the other two. If that is case then maybe, just maybe, if you are truly happy with that one leg that you hold to be the most dear then it can make up for the other leg or other two legs that you aren't truly satisfied with. Then again if that one leg isn't meeting your needs then it can cause the whole thing to come tumbling down, conceivably destroying the other two legs in the process.

So how to fix the problem? Being proactive is an easier proposition that’s said than done, I think. What if you don't have the perfect significant other? How then to go about finding one that truly fits you? Going to a bar can be disastrous. It seems to me that meeting someone you meet at a bar can only lead to a one night stand or maybe an interesting yet casual conversation. If you take that person home that night it seems unlikely that a lasting and respectful relationship can be forged through it though there have been exceptions of course. Dating websites are an entertaining idea though many people find them to be pathetic or a last resort. I don't know what my feelings are on those websites. Going through friends is probably the best option because it's like an off handed reference of sorts. However, if it doesn't work out or their recommendation is no good it can jeopardize your friendship with that person, not to mention the awkward failed attempt at a set up or blind date you have to experience in the process.

Finding a perfect apartment in this market might be the easiest plan. Many people are selling or renting out spaces and a lot of times they are furnished in neighborhoods that would normally run hundreds of dollars more in a different financial climate. The idea of moving out all of your stuff could be pretty daunting and going from apartment to apartment to look for places requires a lot of patience and real estate knowledge. However, with enough research and some time to spare perfection in this leg might be easily attained.

Finally, finding the perfect job is a life long search in any climate but in this economy it seems next to impossible. People who don't have jobs are looking for anything they can get and people who do are too scared to give them up for fear they might never find one again. Those who are in a job they love in this market might be the luckiest people out there. I believe that this leg of the triangle holds a lot of weight because as Americans, capitalist, no less, we spend so many hours of our lives doing our jobs just to thrive and do things that we love outside of those jobs. It can be very rewarding or very grueling. What do you do when you don't have the perfect job or don't know what the perfect job is?

I guess, however that question is a question to relate to all three of these legs? What is perfect? In one of the very first episodes of Sex and the City (yes, Sex and the City) Mr. Big (the main male protagonist) is talking to Cary (the show's narrator) about dating models and how there are so many beautiful women in NYC, how do you know which ones are models? All this invariably leading up to the question of perfection and is beauty the true idea of a perfect mate. Mr. Big quickly negates this thought and says "At the end of the day you just want to be with the one who makes you laugh." And while it might be hard to see how this can apply to all these legs I think it is an important thought. At the end of the day we just want to laugh and be happy so do whatever it takes to make that triangle as straight and complete as you can.

What's monotony worth?

I have been pretty bad at keeping up with this blogging thing I know but I'm working on it. In an effort to keep working I have decided I need to create a schedule for my blogging, a routine that I can stick to thereby remembering to blog and having new and exciting topics on a consistent basis. In making this schedule and trying to adhere to the routine it got me thinking about responsibility. The responsibility of blogging, sure, but what other responsibilities require a routine? And with routine does monotony inevitably follow because of the constant similarity; the repetition of said routine? Routine is usually something we put in place to make sure we do something on time and correctly, aka Responsibility. Does monotony equal responsibility?

I got into a discussion about this with my father, a wise man, and he thought otherwise. Dear old Dad believed that routine was a comfort, something that fills our days and that allows us to have a constant rhythm to our life, a beat to follow. I agree with that, I actually like routine. It helps the days move along when you have something that you must do everyday. It creates a sense of achievement when that task is done or maybe something to look forward to constantly when that task is something as enjoyable as writing (if of course you like to write, though why would you if you didn't?).

However, certain routines are the signatures of being an adult such as paying bills and rent every month, taking your car in to be cleaned, oil changed, tires rotated, and if you're truly ambitious, walking a dog, feeding it, cleaning it, etc. These routines are not necessarily enjoyable though neither are they truly abhorrent but they certainly signify adulthood. If you are able to pay bills and rent on your own it can be assumed you have a job, another flag that you must be what society deems a "responsible adult". The same can be said for a car. Having a dog is usually something people do when they have what they like to call stability in their life, where they feel they can cater to a dog's need. Said stability comes from the routine of adulthood where money, time and the desire to have something else rely on you are in place.

Another argument could be made that all this consistency also comes from having a constant flow of cash which unfortunately cannot just be plucked off trees. The cash needs to come from a working job whereby repetitiveness tends to reign. Maybe not all the time but jobs usually have a daily steadiness where we do the same things everyday.

Yet another argument is that this whole idea of being what society calls an adult isn’t necessarily being an adult. Maturity is a large portion of what people like using as a qualifier for determining an adult. I have know people who were wise beyond their years and younger than I. By the same token I have known people who were 15 years my senior and had the maturity level of a teenager. I hate to say it but it’s usually men who have the hardest time growing into the maturity level of their years which is why I feel you usually see older men with younger women, they have a maturity match.

So what makes adulthood interesting? How do you break up the routine without feeling the shakiness? Do you need that routine and stability to be in place to be called an adult? One day I hope to test the boundaries of my routine and mix things up, maybe get a job that requires me to never be in one place for more than a few days. But until I feel that sudden urge to be a risk taker, I'll stick to the ebb and flow or lack thereof of good ol' regularity.

Is a Picture really worth a thousand words?

I'm not the best at this idea of writing frequently on a blog I guess. I had hoped I would be more of a--responsible is not the right word-- consistent writer than I am. But writing is writing nonetheless and here I am again putting in my two sense. My lack of writing could be due to several reasons, some of it being sheer lack of worthwhile topics, some of it being busy with a full time job, a full time life and a photojournalism class I have recently started. In our first class many people, including our instructor brought up some interesting questions and thoughts about pictures and taking pictures, one of which is: Do people really like their picture being taken?

People might argue that portraits are a way of looking into the subjects soul, their eyes being the gateway to everything they are and will be. But portraits are often posed images where the subjects are placed just so in situations that are generally contrived or preconceived. A lot of the time people in said portraits can look uncomfortable because their smile may be plastered on, not having reached the eyes through genuine mirth. Other times a portrait says nothing about those within it, merely, here we are, do we look normal?

In taking this class I had to think about what I liked taking pictures of and why. I mentioned my love of capturing people who are unaware of a camera being there at all. When they are laughing or being silly you can truly see who someone is, especially in a photo where the eyes can be looked at more closely and without the individual’s knowledge of a camera sometimes it seems as though the soul really does shine through. Maybe the reason that portraits can sometimes look so unnatural is because there is a camera present in the first place.

I have noticed that people suddenly stiffen up or plaster on some sort of look that they have cultivated over the years believing that it truly represents who they are. But how can something be a representation of you when you put it on pre-meditatively and hold it for the duration of time it takes for everyone to get in the picture and get their poses on or for the flash to go off? The flash is a whole other story that can also dilute the sincerity of an image, though technology is advancing now where kids don't look like demons from red eyes or dogs look like aliens because of their eye pigmentation being augmented by the flash.

The problem lies then in capturing those beautiful moments between people or a person with themselves without making them aware of the camera and without making it something that you plan in advance. I guess that is the test of a true photographer. I am going to experiment with a different notion. Take enough pictures with people around, even though they may be aware of it, they will become accustomed to its presence and forget the ideas they may have about photographs or even forget they are being photographed at all. We'll see how it goes. Until next time...

Who's in control now?

The other day I was sitting, watching TV, full of food and feeling like there was no way I could possibly get up to make my lunch let alone go outside and walk around the block with the dog. It got me thinking, I'm not quite sure how but I started to wonder whether the mind or the body is in more control.

Most people are aware of the effects the brain can have over the physical body. Stress can cause people to loose hair, stop eating, or even have a heart attack. The placebo effect, a now common practice scientifically, is when someone shows marked signs of improvement from an illness when given medication they believe will work, though the medication they are given might be nothing more than sugar pills. Because the patient believes that the treatment will be beneficial they end up showing signs of progress.

On the other hand when one is paralyzed no matter how much they believe they may be be able to walk again or fantasize and dream about running in the fields they generally cannot will themselves to no longer be paralyzed. When we are asleep and dreaming no matter how hard we scream in our dream, most of the time our body will not awake out of the dream until our REM cycle has completed and our body has gotten the rest it needs. When our bones are broken only inactivity and rest can heal the physical.

If our body is destroyed there is nothing the mind can do but sit there. Conversely if s our imaginative abilities, rational sensors and/or emotional systems are destroyed we are deemed less than human, a vegetable, which in most cases results in ending a life that is believed to no longer be true life.

In reading various blogs and websites there were large arguments made for the mind being the true controller of all things human. We decide that we want to stand up and in those few milliseconds our brain sends signals down our arms telling them to push on the chair to stand up on our legs that have also been told by our brain to get ready for the imminent activity. But if those legs don't work doesn't that make everything the mind tries to achieve futile: in other words useless?

I'm not really sure there is an answer but I found it curious nonetheless. In reading one website a gentleman makes a diplomatic case (if we were to believe the two entities as opposing sides of an argument) that the two are inextricably linked and neither can function without the other. It seems to me that there have been cases where a person is breathing but in a coma with no higher brain function. Are they still human? And people continue to survive without the use of their limbs, thinking, creating and rationalizing with the rest of us. Are they truly human? I see his point, that the mind and the body work so closely with one another that you can't discredit one or give more credit to the other. Our bodies react to our emotions causing us to feel sick to our stomach or full of excited energy. Our brains get tired when our bodies are causing us to drone out in front of the television not really watching or listening.

I guess it's true that one cannot be without the other but it still made me wonder how much control my brain had over my body when I was in that food coma on the couch.


The Gentleman's article I referred to above is: http://ezinearticles.com/?Conceive,-Believe-and-Achieve---Mind-Over-Body,-or-Body-Over-Mind?&id=123040

A Responsible Kid at Last

The lunchboxes have arrived! And so much faster than the Stum (as my roommate will now be called) and I had expected. From now on we will be bringing our lunches in style. Admiring my lunchbox today I felt it was the best 15$ (including shipping and handling) I’ve spent in a very long time. In an effort to be frugal in these struggling times I have begun to cut frivolous costs, including, as some of you may have read, by bringing my lunch to school- I mean work.

I have a few money saving tips that in my opinion are helpful tools for keeping cash in the bank though they may be obvious or maybe I'm a fiscal genious. I'm gonna go with the former but in the spirit of blogging and putting ideas and such out there I'm going share what I've learned in my very few years as a responsible “adult”.

1. It is important to know your own economic limitations. My father always said that I should take a certain percentage of my paycheck and put it away in some kind of savings account. These days a good savings account is also one that accrues interest. Places like www.img.com have a 3% interest rate on their savings account, which can be opened by anyone at anytime online. What I mean by know your limitations is it's good to know how much you are receiving each month and how much you are spending. A lot of people (myself included) end up spending more than they are earning. What's hard, however is to know where the extraneous costs are.

2. I believe that it is worthwhile to have fewer credit cards thereby reducing your potential credit debt or spending more than you have (limitations!). Another good idea when it comes to credit cards is to always pay them in full and on time. In full so as to avoid interest rates on the left over amounts on your card and on time so that you don't damage your credit score. I find it's helpful to put a mental limit on how much money I spend on my credit cards each month and stop using the card once I've gotten to that limit (which sometimes happens early on in the month).

3. Now I pay off some of my bills on my credit cards automatically. It's important to track what those bills are and the activity of those bills. Recently I discovered that my cell phone bill was quite large, unnecessarily so. I was paying for more minutes that I ever used and features like early nights and weekends that were not needed when I had rollover minutes that were accumulating and not being touched. I immediately changed my phone bill to fewer minutes and a lower amount of dollars. Then I went back to my credit card bill and saw a charge for my gym. I haven't been to my gym in over 6 weeks and in being honest with myself I'm not sure when I'll be going back. I immediately contacted my gym and cancelled that sucker.

4. Finally, more words of fiscal wisdom from my father, don't set monetary boundaries that are unrealistic or become too stringent. Don't put away too much money for savings leaving you with not enough money to have a few small frivolities, like dinner and drinks with friends during the weekend or catching that new movie in theaters. You should always have some running around money, make it so that you don't limit yourself so much that you're having to say no to a lot of fun activities like dinner thereby making yourself more miserable if you were in debt.

Of course, there is a fine line between being prudent with your money and being frivolous. I don't think there is an exact science to it and everyone's patterns and behaviors are different and can differ from day to day and month to month. There are a few helpful blogs and websites that can give you further and more detailed tips for saving money on a daily and case by case basis like this one: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/02/06/little-steps-100-great-tips-for-saving-money-for-those-just-getting-started/. It documents 100 different ways to save money from buying stuff for yourself to watching TV and buying gifts. This website is accredited and has a more organized list of ways to save: http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/your-money/2008/05/05/smart-money-saving-tips-you-need-now.html.

Of course my list is about the very basic stuff and again, probably common sense but it's good to share the wealth of sense that is floating around out there and in our heads.

Growing up Kids

I find that as a newly made responsible adult that I am constantly finding ways to revert back to my childhood, as many people in their early twenties and beyond constantly are. We buy gadgets to sublimate for toys. We join club sports leagues in place of after school games. And for many of us, like myself, who are on a limited income, we bring our lunch to work, instead of to the classroom.

Making my lunch becomes a nightly ritual that I have found somewhat enjoyable as I decide what I will eat the following day; how it will be a slight variation on the day or two days before. In an effort to to keep the excitement going while concurrently jumping back a decade in time, I have found myself scouring the web for lunch boxes. And not just any lunch boxes, metal lunch boxes of the "old school" variety with characters from a past life, where PBS was the highlight of my morning (and possibly my--at the time--stay at home father's as well).

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what makes a perfect lunch box, though my roommate (who has recently joined the hourdes of lunch bringers) and I have certainly tried. Iming back and forth our favorites we wandered through the web looking for the right fit. So many of what we found were soft and "insulated", with sports team logos or just plain navy blue. It seems that both she and I agreed, we wanted metal, square and something from an era where Dora the explorer and Pixar were not even around yet.

What is fascinating is that she and I are not the only ones who are in the market for some old time fun. Websites like lunchboxes.com stay around probably for people who collect lunch boxes, a practice I find strange since they aren't the most attractive items. It made me wonder what the kids now-a-days carry their lunches in or if they are bred on the Kraft lunchables that were so popular and "cool" in my day. Do kids still trade items from their lunches or is everything now so delicious and processed that kids can get chubby and happy on their own foods?

One thing is for sure, whatever the kids are doing now, so many of us, I'm sure, can agree that we wish we were doing it too, instead of this daily grind we've been relegated to.

What we chose:

A Literati stuck in a digital Age

I'm new to the world of blogging. I've been a child of newspapers, books and magazines since before I can remember. I keep talking about how I aspire to be a journalist and when people ask me what kind of journalism I'd like to be in I immediately say Print. But print is a dying medium. The newspapers are going broke. People don't like the feel of the ink on their fingers or the trouble it takes to fold the New York Times over four times just to read one article, only to have to do it again to read another article on the next page five minutes later.

Frankly I've always found the idea of blogging self indulgent, like going to a psychiatrist. Though I do like talking to a shrink. It feels relieving unburdening all my problems onto someone else who probably won't tell me something I don't already know or who won't ask me a question I haven't heard before but having their Ph.Ds and MD diplomas in front of me makes me feel like my money is being justly spent by having someone "experienced" tell me what my problem is. And here I go again, ranting about what I feel. I just wonder who really cares about these opinions.

I said something very similiar to my roommate when I told her I was starting a blog and felt a little embarrased by it. She responded very quickly and rationally saying "It's no different from facebook or myspace where people are constantly posting how they feel one moment or what they did the next. What do you think all those status updates are for?" So here I am blogging with the best, or maybe just the rest, to flex my writing and cramp my fingers. My father said I should write down how I'm feeling for ten minuets a day, even if it's just to say that my stomach hurts and the dog took a big-- well you know-- outside. So in the spirit of self indulgance and narcism I've decide to write my thoughts down on the world wide web for, well, the whole world to read or not.