...

out photographing. Once I have more relevant photos I'll post more. Until then, you may go about your normal business without reading this blog.

How far ahead...

can we look ahead and prepare for? We can see a little bit down the path, and if there is an obstacle in sight you can prepare for it. But if your walking with someone else and are too focused on them to notice the road ahead, you may end up walking right into an obstacle without having any time to prepare for it. While that is not necessarily a bad thing, it can lead to trouble if a hasty decision is made and a situation isn't handled properly. Having backup plans can benefit you if properly executed, although you've still gotta keep your eyes open for road blocks so you don't walk your way into unsafe territory.

The Long and Winding Road

There are very few things in life that are as straightforward as we want them to be. And even those things that are straightforward may not be what we perceive them to be.

The one thing that will always be clear to me is that what I have right now won't always be this way, and I have to make the most of the time I have while its still here.

I have a long road to walk down, and I'm glad I don't have to walk down that road alone.

Childhood...

Does anyone else wish life was as simple as it was all those years ago, before our eyes were open to all the bad that is in the world? Back then, the world didn't feel quite as lonely as it feels today. Maybe its just me, or maybe this horrible post-9/11 world really is all that different.

But anyway, as a kid, we never had to worry about what road we wanted to travel on in life. We certainly had no realistic expectation for life, thats for sure. Sure, some of us may have wanted to be cops or lawyers or doctors, but we didn't really know what being those things truly meant, and what had to be done to actually become those things.

It felt like there were more roads to take back then, and that the roads were a bit wider. You could even stray off of the path and find your way back later. These days, the road feels so narrow, and straying away from the path doesn't ever seem to do much good.

I guess I just miss the "good old days" when life was simple.

The Water

I love sitting out by any body of water. Just being able to sit and stare at the water is very relaxing. But every time I get a chance to go over to the lake and just stare out, I realize that these days are numbered. I've only got so much time before society demands I grow up and jump into the real world. Which, now that I think about it, must be a lot like jumping into a pool. It will be really cold and uncomfortable at first, but once I take a minute to splash around I'll find myself to be very comfortable with where I am.

I just wonder how long I get to stay dry, and if I'm going to have the pleasure of jumping into the water myself, or if somebody is going to push me in.

Time Capsule: Looking back to a blog posted June 27, 2008

Originally titled: The World is Such an Ugly Place

I'm sure at one point or another you've all looked around at what was going on around you and thought "Damn this world is such a crappy place to live"

If you haven't, you may want to take a real good look at the world.

Lets face it. Planet Earth is such an ugly place to live. And I don't mean that like everything and everyone on this Earth are hideous creatures. On the contrary, every single one of you are beautiful creatures.

But it is an ugly place to live. Not only is there war, but there isn't peace. There's famine, genocide, holocaust...do I really have to continue the list? There's no such thing as pro choice. There's no such thing as innocence in this world anymore. I guess you could say that life is not like a Walt Disney movie.

But the point I'm making is...

Yea the world is ugly, but only you can work on making it a better place to live. One person at a time. One cause at a time. One election at a time. One performance at a time. Its everything around us that makes it worth sticking around.

Yea sure you can blame alot of ugly things on whats all around us, but you can also credit alot of whats beautiful on whats around us. Those are the things you have to let stand out in the spotlight. Focusing on the negative is not the way to make things better.

You gotta keep positive, and things will eventually get better. But not without you. You have to want to make things better, and work on fixing whats broken around you."

That could be as easy as recycling products, instead of just throwing everything away, or as difficult as solving world hunger.

It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you know why your doing it. You've gotta know how what you do will effect other people, because what you may see as a good idea may be the worst possible situation for someone else.

I guess I'm saying that humanity in general need to learn how to properly communicate.

If you want this world to be a great place for all of us to grow up, raise a family, and grow old and die, you've got to think about your actions today.

John Lennon was wrong when he said "Nothing's gonna change my world". Now is the time where something has to change OUR world

Now to end with a different John Lennon quote "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you will join us and the world will live as one"


PS: This isn't meant to be taken as a pessimistic point of view. Its the honest truth. While I made a point to mention how awful it is to be here, there is alot of good. Learn to see the good and not the bad. If the bad is right in plain sight, and you can't look away, do something about it.


Now that it has been quite some time since I've written, or even looked at this blog entry I posted in the form of a facebook note so long ago, I'm beginning to see that I tend to write some pretty insightful stuff. I hope that with everything I post here you'll all be able to see a side of me that unfortunately doesn't get out as often as I'd like it to. For those of you who read this, whether you actually follow the blog or wait until my facebook status tells you to come here, thank you for taking the time to read what I have to say.

Lonely Road

I don't know how many of you listen to The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (Excluding their song Face Down), but if you haven't listened to their latest album Lonely Road, I highly recommend you listen to the title track of the album. Take a few minutes to listen to it a few times, look the lyrics over, and then come back here and read my blog entries. My blog is about a part metaphorical, part literal journey we as humans take through life, and this song was made to be the theme to this blog. So check out the music player to the right. You can here the song play from there from now on.

With that said, updates are going to come as frequently as I can write them. There may be some days where I get two entries posted, and there may not update at all in a week. It depends on what comes to mind that is relevant to the journey.

And in case you were wondering, I am taking every single photograph that is being used in these blog entries, unless otherwise specified.

The Ripples

I love sitting by the edge of a lake, or any body of water, and just stare out into the water. Every time you look you might see something different. But the one thing that is there every time you look at any body of water are the ripples. But they aren't the same ripples.

Its strange. Ripples start out small, but they grow surprisingly quickly. It is kind of like every action any of us do. Even if it seems like your doing something so insignificant, you never know how big the outcome of those actions will be. For all we know, we could be altering the world with these actions.

But what if you knew what exactly was being changed when you did something? What if you saw how big the ripples got before you even made them? Would you do things differently, or would you be helpless and be forced to hopelessly look at a predetermined future? As much as we'd like to know what the future holds, I think we would be better off not knowing. If we knew what was gonna happen in our lives, then why bother living? I think we're all better off just living life not knowing what the future will bring.

Uncertainty

How do you go about life not knowing what your future holds for you? We all just keep walking blindly into the darkness, not knowing whats right in front of us. For how long can we all keep this up? How long before the darkness causes us to walk right off a cliff?

How long until we realize the best thing to do is bring a flashlight?

Time Capsule: Looking back to a blog posted June 7, 2008

Titled, The Road We All Travel



There's always more than one path in life. Even if it doesn't look that way.

Sometimes the right path isn't visible on first glance, so you head down the path frequently traveled. But then you start to backtrack on the path, and you notice the fork in the road that you missed earlier.

You failed to notice the path because it was a beaten dirt road, and its clear that its the road less traveled. You take a step onto the path, and you immediately fall flat on your face. Do you get up and continue down that beaten path? Do you turn back, and continue towards failure on the road traveled by many? Or do you just stay down, and wait for someone to help you up?

What if that person your waiting for never comes around? Are you just gonna stay down? It seems like the obvious answer would be "Of course not. I'm gonna get up". Okay, but then what? Are you going to continue down the beaten, untraveled path, and run the risk of falling down again, or are you going to get back on the main road, and fall into the same trap as everyone else?

What if you don't know which road is right for you? What if you can't tell which is the more dangerous path? What if you can't tell which is less traveled? What if
you backtracked too far, and your back at the beginning? Do you start over, and pick a different final destination?

What if you don't know where your final destination is? Do you just stop until you figure out where it is, or do you just keep going, and hope things work out for the better for you?

How many times is the road going to fork? How many dead ends are you going to run into? How many broken bridges are you going to have to repair along the way?


Only you can answer that for yourself. And I'm the only one who can find an answer to my problems.


Wow, looking back at this old blog I posted on my myspace over 6 months ago, I realize thats its more relevant than its ever been. It fits well with the metaphorical adventure that I mentioned in my last blog post a few hours ago. If I do see the adventure in front of me, how will I know its the adventure I'm meant to go on?

Well, like I said back then, only you can answer that for yourself. I'm gonna have to figure it out myself, somehow

A metaphorical adventure

Some days, I sit at home in my room, reading through some of my favorite books, and I wonder if I will be able to go on adventures like all my favorite characters have.

I'm almost certain I won't be able to help thirteen dwarfs regain their gold from a greedy dragon, and come across a magical ring along the way. I'm positive I won't be going away to a wizarding school to learn magic, or go down the rabbit hole and into wonderland.

But I wonder if I'll have a story worth telling. When will my great adventure come, and will I know it when I see it? Will I go on that adventure when the opportunity walks by, or will I just stare at it, not knowing that its my chance to do something great? Will I miss out on my big break? Or will I realize its staring at me and take it?

I guess that's something everybody thinks about every once in awhile.