Every once in awhile, somebody will create something that feels truly inspired, truly original, and real.  Freelance cartoonist Gavin Aung Than just did this.  Gavin takes inspirational quotes, and turns them into cartoons.  He recently took a quote by Bill Watterson, the artist and author of Calvin Hobbes, and turned it into a cartoon, in a Calvin and Hobbes style.

http://zenpencils.com/comic/128-bill-watterson-a-cartoonists-advice/

It is very much worth the look.  Gavin’s website is zenpencils.com, visit it, often.

The other morning the weather was nice, so I went out and took a walk around Mill Ave. in Tempe, shot some footage, and put it to “Where to Start”! I came across some nice people while shooting the video. I couldn’t believe that Hippie Gypsy was open at that time of the day!

If you’ve been to Mill Ave., I’m sure you’ll recognize the places in this shot!  It was fun to get out, walk around, and pay attention to a few things I’ve never paid attention to before.

Here’s the video, check it out.  I hope you like it…

The summertime heat here is brutal. Summer’s saving grace (besides the clothes), is the monsoons. This summer has been rough, we haven’t seen much in the way of monsoons around here this year.  In other parts of the state, sure, but not here…

It sounds strange, but the weather has a big effect on me as a whole.  When it’s nice, or when it’s raining, or when it’s storming, I’m happy.  It’s easier for me to write, play, perform, and be creative.  When the weather is just oppressively hot, it’s hard for me to do anything.  It’s almost like I go into a depressive state.

That said, we’ve taken quite a bit of time off this summer, it’s been rough.  I wake up early though, every morning at 4:30 and workout outside for an hour.  The past few days, the temperature has been in the 70’s, which is beautiful!  Even if it’s hot during the day, the heat is giving way to the night time now, which is so much better than it was a month ago, when the lows around here were still close to 100 degrees at 4:30 in the morning.

I can feel the pull again, the season is calling me. The sun is retreating a little earlier, the heat is giving way to the night, and I feel a familiar energy that somehow feels new each time I feel it.

Ok, so I know this is out of the ordinary, but I wanted to share this…

I’m hooked on mint limeade this summer, so I wanted to share my mint limeade recipe.  It’s not exactly sugar free, but it is delicious.  You’ll thank me later this summer when you’re drinking this while it’s hot outside…

There’s only 4 ingredients…

• 1 bag of limes
• 1 package of mint leaves (usually a few sprigs)
• Water
• Sugar

Tear the mint leaves off of the stems, and add it to 1 1/2 cups sugar with 2 cups of water.  Mix this together, and boil it.  Once it’s boiling, take if off the burner, and stick it in the fridge.

Juice enough limes to get 1 1/2 cups of lime juice.  This usually ends up being about a bag of limes.

Once the mint syrup is cooled down, dump it into a pitcher (with the mint leaves still in it), add the 1 1/2 cups of lime juice, and add 8 cups of cold water.  Stir it up.

Put some salt or some sugar on the rim of your favorite glass, add some ice, and pour this over it.

I’m tellin’ ya, you’re gonna be glad you did.

For the most part, people are naturally risk averse.  We’re afraid of it.  We wonder, “what will happen if I don’t succeed?”  We’re afraid to fail.

The thing is that any great thing in my own life has come as a result of being willing to risk something.  But,what if you don’t have anything you’re willing to risk?

People also enjoy being comfortable.  We don’t want to be uncomfortable, and we typically avoid people, places, things, and circumstances that make us feel this way.

This combination of being risk averse, and wanting to be comfortable creates a space where we don’t have anything we’re willing to risk, due to our own comfort.  It’s easier to look and wish rather than to put in the effort, or extend the faith needed to make something happen. It becomes easier to complain than to put in the effort.

We buy things to feel better about ourselves, we take drugs to put our minds at ease. We become well-trained consumers.  We want, we want more, then we want again, and so it goes.

We shouldn’t be surprised to find the battle going our for our minds, all the time.  There’s a lot of money to be made off of comfortable, discontent people.

The world that mattered most to us as a child doesn’t even exist today.  Things change. Things get lost, stolen, they burn in fires, we lose them in floods and storms, but what we have is memories, memories of how things were, to us.  We remember the past as we experienced it, colored with the love or hate for our families, the sadness of those we have lost, the joy of those we had and still have in our lives that we love.

The further we get away from these experiences, the more import the memory of them is to us. We not only have to hold onto those memories, but as we get older and understand this point, we should work hard to create new, positive ones, both for ourselves, and for those around us.  We should cherish those moments that we have with our loved ones, cherish those moments we remember.  Write them down, take pictures, keep them close to our hearts.  There’s enough to do, the lists of those things that others want us to do will always be there, it’s important to take some time, and get some things right.

The clock is ticking.  It’s a reminder that we can hear, that time is ticking away, moving on.  We’re getting older, time is going by.  Are we making the most of it, or just letting it pass us by?

The expectations of the world are changing.  The world as we know it now, it will not be the  world of the future.  Things will change.  Change is coming, it always has, and it always will.  The first radios allowed people to connect with each other all around the world.  We’re not so much building radios anymore.

Stay curious, and live with passion.

Spreading the wealth isn’t about handouts, but hands out, it’s about helping each other.

The less we are dependent on the wealthiest, the less we depend on big stores for our needs, the less we depend on pharmaceutical companies to make us well (for the things we can control anyways), the less cards they hold.  Their house is an impressive house of cards.

We can grow our own food (or at least in communities), and live healthy, productive lives.

The people that control the wealth, control us.  They hook us on the things that make us sick, then hook us on the things that make us well. Life is supposed to be about love, about common sense, not dollars and cents.

They want a divided nation, one that doesn’t work together to help solve each other’s problems. When we have a problem (that they manufactured), we buy the cure, from them, or they let the government subsidize the cure, and let the government pay them, while the government hands out the cure like candy.

When we break free of their definitions, and their addictions, we’ll be able to see just what has always been possible. I’m not touting socialism, just love, love for each other, and love for ourselves.

So, here’s a couple of things related to noise…

First, I don’t drive the nicest car in the land, which is OK, because it gets me to and from work (and the occasional gig), which I’m very grateful for.  I’m not complaining, but I thought you might get a kick out of this sound (it’s loud, just be prepared…)

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/80283720″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

This is the sound of driving my car down the freeway.  That sound is the air coming in through the windows that are rolled up…

So needless to say, I’ve been driving with my windows down.  I’ve recently been sensitive to how much noise there is though.  Have you ever paid attention to how noisy life is?  We shut it out by rolling up our windows (at least when we’re driving), but I’m here to tell you, it’s really loud out there!

I started thinking about this more though, and really, there’s just noise everywhere.  Noise that keeps us from concentrating on what we want/should be concentrating on.  There’s “news”, (which anymore just seems to be creative storytelling, trying to get your attention for advertising dollars), politics, obscene amounts of advertising, television, and really just endless communication methods to occupy our time…

When was the last time we took a moment, and just took a breath? Found our way to the ocean, and just watched and listened to nature? Found our way to a mountain or forest, and just listened to the sounds of the earth?

I know, it sounds “new-agey” or whatever, but the longer we go without shutting out the noise, the harder it’s gonna be to know what we should be listening for.

I had a good conversation with a good friend today, and he reminded me…

There are no guarantees, ever.

See… I have this job, and it’s always provided me with some creative outlet.  As time has gone on though, the things that have always kept me interested in said job have fallen to the wayside, and things have changed, and so I’ve adjusted.  I started wearing the button-up shirt and tie everyday, I started checking, and rechecking, and checking again, work email on my phone.  I live and breathe this job, and feel like I have to fight against the current to be true to myself.

There’s security in my job, and that’s always been my reasoning for every decision I’ve ever made regarding my life…  “There’s security in my job”.  My friend reminded me today though that there are no guarantees, ever.

He reminded me of who I am, and why I used to make the decisions that I always made, and made me realize that I’ve been quietly judging people who don’t make the same decisions I do, based on this “security”.

Security is a great thing, but when it’s weighed against creativity, control over my own destiny, control over my department, and having to play political games, it’s less worth it.  It’s making less and less sense.  When I back up away from it, and see it in proportion to the other things that I’ve been looking at while standing so close to “security”, I see that it’s not a big as I thought.

So here I am, trying to make this music thing work, and realizing that I’ve been holding onto this security so hard, that I haven’t been able to let go.

I mean, I still have a family to provide for, and there’s no way that I can pay the bills doing music, right?  There’s no way I can do this for a living, is there?  These are the questions I ask myself everyday.

But as my friend reminded me today, there are no guarantees, ever.