Now Motivated: Carnies are a Rip-off - or was it the Jager?

Now Motivated: Carnies are a Rip-off - or was it the Jager?: Was it the Jagermeister? I'm not sure, so I gathered my brains this morning and pulled out the Palm Beach Post TGIF section and sure enough ...

Carnies are a Rip-off - or was it the Jager?

Was it the Jagermeister? I'm not sure, so I gathered my brains this morning and pulled out the Palm Beach Post TGIF section and sure enough it said that the Hellzapoppin sideshow revue show at Fright Nights admission was free with the Fright Nights admission. Granted, the official website Frightnights.net did not advertise that there was a side show available. So the sideshow was actually an added bonus. But there was an additional admission fee, $5 per person. So how the hell did we spend $180 in addition to $75 on admissions for five people? I'll answer that: it must have been the Jagermeister.

The Palm Beach Post reported that the side show had freaks and geeks like a lizard man, a man/iguana man, a one-armed burlesque dancer and a wolf boy - none of which were actually part of the show. Although their likeness was painted on the side of the tent.

Now I'll tell you the acts that were actually part of the show and I'll add that the show was indeed worth every bit of the $5 extra that was charged. I still don't know about where the $180 went, but we'll let that slide. There was a knife swallower who then swallowed a larger than the knife piece of wood. The emcee swallowed a condom- wrapped pocket knife and then pulled it through his nose.  Although, I feel, we could have done without the explicit opening of a condom from it's wrapper in front of little kids. He also took two corn kernels, put them up his nose and squeezed them out through his tear ducts. There was very hungry flame eater, a glass eating act, glass walking and jumping on a pile of glass act, a climbing several rungs of sharp edged knife ladder act and oh yeah can't forget the climatic knife blade box act. All of the performers were fairly fit and decorated with many tattoos, facial and body piercing, ya know, that goes with the territory.

I was overcome by the desire to research the underbelly of the carnival act (as I have in the past) and visit where they live when they aren't on the circuit, if they even have a permanent residence. Also to visit their living quarters while they travel. I frequently wonder what they do for entertainment and relaxation when they aren't performing. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't heavy drinking and drugging involved, actually. I think they are likely artists of their own ilk and kind and deserve to be flushed out in the form of a novel or at least a chapter in my novel.

I believe that my very own Margo Spamozzi will be following a carnival because of her lust for the overall experience. There's a dark side in all of us. For Margo, it's part of her being fickle. You'll have to stay posted for that one.

Anyway if you're interested in seeing Hellzapoppin sometime they are reported by the Post to have appeared on National Geographic and the History Channels, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and now the subject a a new reality TV show - check them out if you dare!

Halloweening

What does Halloween mean to you? And what will you be doing?

To me, besides it being just another holiday and a precursor to the Holiday season, Halloween is a fun time to be someone or something you're normally not. In costume we often can act out our fantasies, palyact a role we can't on a day-to-day basis or just be silly. This year I bought three wigs to wear on three different nights I braved the haunted houses at Busch Gardens Halloscream. Other then a few curious looks and compliments given by the security guards all I got out of it was an itchy head!

If you have kids Halloween probabaly has an altogether different definition. Like that you have to pick out a costume that isn't too expensive but cool enough so you're kid will fit in with the latest fad and their friends. Perhaps you'll walk your little ones around your neighborhood or someone else's (that's has better candy) on Halloween night. Then you'll go throught the bags of candies at the end of the night to make sure nothing "bad" is in there.

For those who don't have kids perhaps you'll attend a Halloween party where you can act out your own party rage and then, like the joke I heard about a needed Jaggermeister warning, you wonder to yourself' the next day while nursing a hangover "What the hell was I thinking?"

Or maybe you'll have a great date with a hot guy (or girl) that night, go to a random party and wake up the next day thinking about your date or looking at your date in the morning and saying to yourself "What the hell was I thinking?".

Who knows?

As for myself, I'd like to say that I'm going to read a few Edgar Allen Poe scary stories around a campfire to the kids but I doubt I will. Or that they'll want to hear them. I have no idea what I'll do Halloween night or what it means to me this year. I guess it is just another day before the Holiday Season, that's what.

Now Motivated: Tit 4 Tat

Now Motivated: Tit 4 Tat: People should be supportive on one an others dreams despite personal insecurity, self-doubt or some other 'hidden agenda'. Because I truly ...

Tit 4 Tat

People should be supportive on one an others dreams despite personal insecurity, self-doubt or some other 'hidden agenda'. Because I truly believe that the reason why we might, at least one some conscious level, be envious when someone close to us, or someone that is a colleague or just a random famous person gets ahead because it stirs up a fear inside us. The fear that we don't deserve or we can't have our own personal dreams achieved!

I believe there is total abundance in the world, in fact, enough abundance that there is enough for each and every one of us. As paraphrased from the book called "The Secret" not everyone wants we specifically want. 

We can have, once we conquer our own self-doubt or fears, whatever it is that we desire. We can have once we have a clear definition of what we want.

The very definition of getting what we want is knowing what we want. We need to know very clearly and very specifically so that we can generate the positive energy toward us to manifest that dream.

Hope your dream comes true!!

Now Motivated: Listen to the internal voice

Now Motivated: Listen to the internal voice: We should listen to our internal voice, our intuition despite the loud opinions of others. Live our own lives; we shouldn't get caught up by...

Listen to the internal voice

We should listen to our internal voice, our intuition despite the loud opinions of others. Live our own lives; we shouldn't get caught up by the dogma, the wants of others, the expectations that others have for us. Because it is OUR life, after all and our lives will eventually end. Therefore our time is limited.

The above paragraph is paraphrased from the now infamous words of Steve Jobs at his Stanford University commemorative address.

I am currently struggling and have been for over a year and half with this very theme: other's opinions of what I should be doing for a living. It's interesting but these "others" don't pay my bills, or help to take care of my home, or deal with the daily issues that come up in my life. It's puzzling than, also, why I allow these others opinions have such a profound effect on me.

Well, they shouldn't have that much affect on me. Nor should anyone else allow the other's opinions to change the direction they know they need to go in! I wanted to be a writer my entire life and I wrote, avidly in my journals... now I intend to write for a living. There are many of us who wish to do the same. Yet we face this immense difficulty getting our words out in publishable print. And from what I gather, so far, that difficulty is caused by the opinions of others.

Like Jobs, if you believe in your product, despite all of the criticism and doomsayers, you've got to stick by it. And my message today to you is to encourage you as I encourage myself, to stick by your product - whatever it is. After all look how far that attitude got Jobs in his iconic and illustrious career.

Not to Waste Time

I had another installment of my recurring nightmare last night. Well, the term nightmare might be an exaggeration, perhaps we can call it an annoy mare. One that can set your day in the wrong direction, only I didn't allow it to today!

The dream is about me going back to the mortgage industry, one is which I had an illustrious career of sixteen years all with the same Bank that went ca put along with the collapse of the housing market. In reality I knew it was over but despite what my intuition was telling me, I stayed in the field for two more years working with other outfits and experienced a tremendous amount of negativity and rejection. The role of a loan officer in today's economy was completely redefined and it wasn't pretty.

In reality I had planned to retire before the collapse hit - call it burnout. Regardless, on some level of my consciousness I couldn't accept that it was over for me until the reality that it was over slapped me in the face - literally.
I woke up, smelled the coffee that was life and quit.

Last night in my writer's chat room a comment was brought up that quiting is admitting to failure. I disagree. Leaving a profession is difficult for anyone but knowing when to leave is actually a success, in a sense.

Back to the dream. In the recurring dream I continue to re-enter my former profession with renewed vigor and earnest effort only to have it extinguished by the manager, client, customer or whoever it is in the dream. I guess that's the reason for the dream's re occurrence: on some mental levels I have not accepted the decision I made to leave the profession.

But I think the primary message in the dream is that I'm really uncertain about the profession I have now chosen to be in and that is writing.  So I'm now to face a whole new world of rejection and difficulty in the profession of writing. That perceived rejection is really the subject of today's posting.

It is accepted and often stated in the writing community that one can not expect to make a living or much of one from writing.

My response to this is: bull! Is there ever a day that goes by when you don't read something in print: a newspaper, a magazine, a blog, an on line article, product instructions or - yes by golly - a book? People write. People get paid to write. AND people should believe their writing is worthy of being paid!

Expect to be paid and you will!!

That's my shtick and I'm sticking to it!
 Ciao for now!