CHICKEN SOUP

Today is approximately day 5 of recovering from having the flu. There were two really strong days of chills, body aches, sinus problems and a deep cough (cough still persisting DAMN IT!) Now I'm just afraid to go outside in the 'perfect for getting sick again'-rainy gross weather. My immune system has not been strong this past winter and I'm not quite sure why. I exercise regularly and I eat healthy foods. I have a moderately active life walking to and from work and running back and forth at work for 8 hours. Could it be lingering stress?
My life is great and I generally don't make it through a day without laughing and smiling. Good things happen to me often enough that I'm really being somewhat rude if I ever allow some dark areas of my life to overshadow the light. The gloomiest corners of my mind are host to ridiculous things like jealously and bitterness. I'm Jealous and bitter that friends have more artistic success or liberties than I have. My own "lack of success" being of my own design, of course. I also worry that I've not yet graduated to an honest "adult" status since I often can't/don't pay my bills! Yet here I sit in front of my computer not doing much to change my life, and instead I pitifully reflect in hopes to gain some sympathy(?)
My girlfriend is also considering a job in New York, and the place of potential employment has had her on stand-by for months now since her first interview. Will we be moving to New York soon? Can I afford it? Will I miserably fail my own girlfriend with my lack of preparation for such a move? and why have I been asking myself this for months and am not looking for more work to afford such a change? Do I even deserve the good life that I have? Am I actually a baby? ... and so on...
Of course my girlfriend tells me not to worry, and my parents tell me I impress them with my independence; but, what do I think about me? I know I can be impressive and confident, but I have pretty high standards for myself, and when those standards are not met, I guess I simply stop trying sometimes. Then my will power gives out a little, and my finances shrink, and my confidence glazes over, and then stress surfaces and illness finds me and I want to hide under the covers.
Tomorrow I will remove the covers and go back to work after missing 3 days. I will be catching up on production all the while mindfully monitoring the congestion in my chest. If I'm so good at reminding myself to keep my chin up and look forward, then what piece of the puzzle am I missing that could really take me there... Up and out...  *cough*

MIRO IMAGE

The below image is of me holding an original Miro. Indeed I am holding it ever so carelessly without gloves or anything. As a matter of fact it felt appropriate to be so nonchalant for some reason which I can't yet understand.
 A customer dropped this off at my job to be custom framed. I suppose my coworker somewhat blindly took the order, but I later filed the paper work with the art work and then noticed the signature; Miro. I then noticed the signature was shiny, the way graphite is shiny. My heart started to beat a little faster. "I think this is an original Miro," I stated out loud to whomever was or wasn't around. After a few minutes of visual- and some very subtle physical- forensic analysis I decided to call the customer for confirmation.
It's an original alright! This piece may not be an example of Miro's best work, but in it's own little way it's still quite the celebrity to me. What a special thing it is to have an intimate experience like this with the work of a very special artist. I am humbled and excited at once.

BIRTHDAY BUDDHA

The lady came through again for my birthday... *ahem* HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ME!
One of my amazing gifts was a fourth generation Buddha Machine. If you aren't familiar with the Buddha Machine, they are somewhat hard to describe despite their simplicity. The little rascal's creators, Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian are a music/design duo based in China. The two create minimal meditative music that loops seamlessly and repeatedly. Nine of these simple compositions are then housed in a little plastic box with a built-in speaker. Other features of the box include an eighth-inch jack (for headphones and such) and two control dials; one for volume and one for pitch shifting. The pitch shift  ability is an amazingly intimate feature as you can really tune the music in to your own frequency to find that perfect harmony between man and his machine!
Not only is this a unique and wonderful gift idea for anyone, but it is a splendid therapy and could be the key to severe peace for everyone.

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON LIVING

Melanie Hoch bought me an incredible album for Christmas; Kreng's Works for Abatoire Ferme 2007-2011. Within the past twenty-four hours this frankensteined masterpiece has become my favorite album (I'll consider all four 12" LPs and the 10" record in the box set to be one complete album.) Thank You, Mel, for being an amazing friend and sharing a very wonderful 2012 with me.
For everyone who reads C.O.P: You might absolutely want to listen to this...

"CHRISTMAS TIME TRAVELER" RETURNS SAFELY TO POST-12-21-12-CHRISTMAS EVE! (AGAIN?)

Merry Christmas, Everyone! And Happy Birthday , Mithra, you old fart (not the Son of God, but the God of the Sun- whose birthdate was lent to Christianity in order to nail down a day for the merry-making we know today to be Christmas) Christmas certainly does garishly mark the passing of a year for me and most Americans. Even New Year's Eve/Day doesn't have a marketing campaign that completely envelopes the senses the way Christmas does. We always seem surprised that Christmas is here again, and that it's over so quickly, and then we're quick to look forward to Spring and Summer. I remember teasing a friend, who was exhausted from the holidays at the start of the year, by saying, "Before you know it, it will be Christmas again!" I feel that just by repeating that phrase in my head now, I have managed to somehow skip those 360 days and here I am back on Christmas Eve. I time traveled! Even the same tree found its way into my living room, and if it wasn't for a few new ornaments on that tree I could almost assume I traveled back in time. Yes, Christmas is here again. Familiar holiday sights, sounds, and smells have been assaulting me for over a month now and I can only hope to make it safely back to my time machine to do it all again next year... or last year... or maybe on another planet...

NUTS ABOUT DROSE

Drose is a band from Akron Ohio and they have problems. The music is irritated and distressed. The singer is scared and may be a ghost. I love the minimal complexities of the instrumentation (and how that oxymoronic description embodies said tension). The singer pretty much displays the same cadence in each track, but it's a style that's pretty unique so I allow it to do it's haunting on me.
Hear for yourself! click here!
Also, kudos to the band for making one of the creepiest album covers. Look at that thing!

THE END

The Mayan calendar ends on the fast approaching 21st of December, 2012. Does this mean the world as we know it is going to come to an end? No. It's certainly more likely that I'll be filing my taxes come February.
Suppose, just for the sake of this post, that the world is going to end on Friday the 21st and maybe we're even as ill-prepared as ever. How can one say his goodbyes to everything? If you're made aware of your own passing; you can muster up some noble form of reflection, but knowing that everything will be gone along with you is a different breed of eternity.
My long farewell would go something like this:
Does a peace need to be made now? Or will it be made regardless? Will my enemies finally face their doom? Or will I just think about them a lot less? I won't miss my loved ones. That seems to make the most sense of all. Don't miss your loved ones. Friends, Family, Pets; they have connected with, and not missed, you. Beautiful architecture that I have not hardly begun to understand will finally be relieved of its duty. All color will turn off the light and sleep in an abyss of non-color and the abyss itself will suddenly be nothing more than awake. Goodbye to every small item on the far side of this planet, and at the far edge of this universe, to where I never travelled. Were those items ever real? or were they only illusions? Now they are as real as gods and I too will soon be that real. Although, anything that might survive to bear my footprint would remember the impact as having lacked any god-like oomph. Goodbye silly words like 'oomph'. Goodbye.