Saturday Happy Song - Cher - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss) (Mermaids Soundtrack) (Official Music Video)

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity."
-Gilda Radner

More of my weird hobbies

Good morning!

 

Julien Rossire

Plans for the evening...

ah depression.
So warm, so soft...so welcoming. It would be so easy to just slide into your arms and eat ice cream and watch youtube videos in bed till I fell asleep...

Instead I will drill the 3/4 shimmy until my bad ankle hurts.Or until I fall over from tired.

Maybe I'm just tired? I am really bad when I'm tired, I don't eat well, I am grumpy. Pretty sure this is a layer of tired on top of depressed. Either way, I have to err on the side of fighting the depression and use one of my managers. The area I need most improvement in is dance, so I'll do that. Other managers are cleaning, playing ukelele, hiking, yoga, meditation, singing out loud with music or watching a favorite movie or tv show or youtube. How do you guys fight the funk?

Happy Solstice!

Summer Solstice Blessings!

Enjoy the longest day of the year!

Happy Father's Day 2015

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there! 

Go call your dad if you can. Or hug him. Tell him you love him.

Play Has A Place In The Good Life

Taylor Kreiss, Founder of Oughtology

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

I have two left feet, so I’m glad Nietzsche wrote metaphorically. With this quote, I think he was saying something true and profound about the importance of play – that it’s an essential part of living a good and balanced life.
What I hope to convey are some philosophical, scientific and personal reasons for why we should all get serious about messing around. I hope that by reading this, you’ll feel compelled to actually pencil in some time for more frivolity.
Philosophically Speaking
Are you familiar with the bestselling book The Top 5 Regrets Of The Dying? As the title suggests, it’s about what dying people wish they had done differently. The information is philosophically valuable because it sheds light on what we ought to do now to ensure we use our time correctly and live our best possible lives.
Here are the top five regrets:
1.“I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”
2.“I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”
3.“I wish I had let myself be happier.”
4.“I wish I’d had the courage to express my true self.”
5.“I wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams instead of doing what others expected of me.”
In America, we have a mild obsession with “success” in financial and status-building terms. There’s a productivity imperative that’s always nagging us to work work work and “make something of ourselves.” But dying people rarely look back at their lives and wish they’d spent more time rat-racing. Instead, we tend to wish we had prioritized enjoyment and authentic pursuits with the people we loved.
With this philosophy in mind, play isn’t just a bit of foolishness or an indulgence. Instead, it’s integral to living the good life. It helps us avoid regrets like “working too hard” and “not being happy enough.” Play facilitates social bonding and keeps us in touch with friends. It can even be an indicator of what kinds of activities we ought to pursue in our work to “express our true selves” and “realize our dreams."
It’s important to get out and frolic a bit or, as Nietzsche would put it, “Hit the dance floor and shake your tail feathers” (which is probably not how Nietzsche would put it, but you get the idea).
Scientifically Speaking
Play is just plain fun, which is a reason enough to want more of it but there are also scientific reasons to believe that play is instrumentally vital for well being.
Psychology has recently gotten serious about play and its benefits for kids and adults alike. Studies suggest that flirting, humor, imagination, sports and other forms of play bolster positive emotions, creativity, engagement, relationships and even achievement.
I’m not going to delve off into the nitty-gritty of any particular studies, as my purpose is more of a philosophical persuasion in favor of more play, but I’ve included links (see bottom of page) that I recommend for further reading. What I’d like to emphasize is that these are not just intuitions or flights of argumentative fancy; the scientific community has much to say about the value of play. Here are some examples:

• It’s been shown that play is generally lacking in individuals who end up in jail. 
• Time for play is often abundant in the lives of those considered to be creative types. 
• Just getting up and wiggling your body playfully can improve your mood. 
• Social play improves relationships.
• Taking time to play can make you more productive.

As Positive Psychology superhero Christopher E. Peterson put it, play is “…a robust predictor of how satisfied we are with our lives.”
Personally Speaking
This isn’t going to be one of those “Hey, I was a schmuck, but now I’m awesome” kind of stories where I discovered play and my life transformed overnight, but I did have a eureka moment that helped me reengineer many of my habits and thought patterns in a positive way.
Back in my university days, I was depressed. I was having trouble getting out of bed to face the day and it seriously sucked. There was at least a full year there where people would say I wasn’t my usual happy-go-lucky self and they’d continually prod me to find out what was wrong.
Thankfully, I was living next to a fascinating woman who helped me out of my funk. Olivia was one of the all-time eccentrics. I would usually run into her while she walked her pet chinchilla through the nearby park (shoeless of course). She’d read me poems she had written about her past lives. She informed me that during her psychedelics phase that she had taken LSD over 200 times. She was 65 years old. She was a hippie, a philosopher, a published author and one of the most authentically caring people I’ve known.
One day I decided to share my life’s concerns with her. Her response? "Have more fun." She said it simply and with the kind of conviction that comes from a lifetime of experience. It was her mantra and I think it’s one of the all time greatest pieces of advice I’ve ever received. It resonated with me and helped me reprioritize my activity in a way that got me up and moving.
There are some compelling reasons to think that play is more than just a good time. Philosophically, scientifically and personally, I think it’s a bonafide necessity. If you agree, take a couple hours this week to “have more fun.”
Further reading: 

• Ted Talk: Play is more than just fun
• Psych today: The power of play
• Psych Today: When work is play

___________________________________

Taylor Kreiss is the founder of Oughtology, a movement focused on using positive psychology and philosophy to live The Good Life. For more articles like this one and to like Oughtology, go here.

(Sydney Hell's source)

Saturday Happy Song - Led Zeppelin - Gallows Pole (Deluxe Edition) (2014)

Glass Olive

(artist)

Whole Lotta Sabbath (Led Zeppelin vs Black Sabbath Mashup) by Wax Audio

Off of work in 15 mins...HAPY FRIDAY!!

Why Adults Need To Take More Breaks

Somewhere around 10, we can probably all agree we graduate from using the word play in the traditional childlike sense. We tell that light-hearted word to stay swaying on the swings and climbing up the tree houses of our youngest age bracket.
We cement the one-dimensional definition in and tend not to use it unless it's a verb for sports, a live production we buy tickets to see for or something we tell kids to do in the backyard.
Since Adult Land is all about commuting and calendars and co-workers, we need a reason for doing things. A means to an end, a next rung, a monetary reward.
Considering play wants to loan firecrackers to our imaginations and unleash our right to goof off, you can see the conflict.
But play what makes us pause in all the adult hullabaloo to get our blood going again.
The other week, one of my best mates and I blew the dust off of Cliff Nobles, hit the gas and ended up at the beach two hours north. We halted on route to go poke around abandoned farmhouses, take photos by old motel signs, climb into an unsupervised ferris wheel and feast on BBQ in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it town. When we got to the deserted beach, we ran for the swing set. If you're anything like me, you asked yourself, "When's the last time I jumped off a swing?"
So I did.

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." - Khalil Gibran

It wasn't scheduled into a day planner and I definitely didn't make any cash doing it.
Yet, the spontaneous play through the whole day pulled the rug out from under all my regularly scheduled programming and took a defibrillator to my office-weary heart.
I needed it.
I needed it because play has a necessary place in balancing out responsibility and deadlines. Play pulls me back from the cliff of taking everything too seriously and gives my steaming brain permission to take a breather.
When I tally what play gives me - a broader perspective, a well-deserved break, the incredible company of my friends in brand-spankin' new places, a plate full of inspiration to pour back into my work - it's pretty ludicrous that I can be so convinced it's the territory of children.
We all need it.
So the next time you're yawning into a half-cup of coffee in the midst of too many open tabs, you know what to do: go play. (source)
___________________________________
Dani Kreeft is the one woman force behind paper goods brand Dani Press, currently based in Toronto, Canada. If she isn't scrambling to ship greeting cards and art prints across North America, she's probably wandering around with her camera foraging for a coffee.

To aide the Monday Blues - Robert Plant!!

Surrounded by paparazzi at the TSRTS (The Song Remains The Same)  premiere - NYC 1976

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" ~Bernard of Clairvaux

Saturday Happy Song - Pizzicato Five - GOOD

Forgot to load the Saturday Happy Song this week, so here it is now, at 2am on Sunday!

Woke up hung over. Have spent the day on the couch re-hydrating and shoe shopping. Look at this cute new Vans shoe design!! Cherries and Checkers!! LOVE! I might need to get these...

So ticked off the buyer that won my Dr. Martens granny boots never paid. Have to wait 5 days for eBay to resolve the non-payment complaint before I can relist. Poop.

I also love these Vans classics:

I will probably get these eventually...but right now, with my last available eBay earnings, and cause I really need a pair of slip in shoes I can jump into before going to the store, I will get these:

By Betsey Johnson. The least expensive of the 3, they remind me of some airwalks I had about 6 years ago that I got at payless. They wore out, but they were great. Skull and crossbones, little lightning bolts, and...I don't remember the other little designs.  I wore them constantly. 

Saturday Happy Song - Grease - Summer Nights

My shoes came in le mail!! 

The New Balance yesterday, the Converse today. Between gift cards and old crap sold on eBay I paid less than $20 for both pair. 'cause I'm all frugal and shit. Kudos me.


Yeah sneakers! I have never owned New Balance or Converse before, I feel like a weirdo wearing sneakers. I wear boots. But, since the fractured ankle fiasco I've had to have more supportive and comfortable options on hand.

Can't wait to try these. 

240 page views between sunday and monday again. Odd.

Google states must be off...

Anyhow, hi all. Still trudging away in post. Had to get talked off the ledge this morning. One co-worker goes "There is a homeless woman with dirty feet trying to break in the back door!! Is that what you want to be? Jobless with no shoes?!!"

Nope. I for one love shoes. I have 2 pair on the way to me in the mail now.

Yep. Love me some shoes.