Why You Should Be A Slacker

This is a follow up post to our basic slack lining post, read on to discover the benefits of being a slacker.

If you're like most people you're probably looking at the picture above and thinking to yourself, "Why in God's name would anyone ever want to do that!?" Well, that my friends is the question that I'm going to try and answer in this post. 

I'll try and list all the benefits of being a slacker but I doubt that I'll be able to list them all so, if you have any more reasons why you think slack lining is awesome or if you have any questions about anything please post in the comments! With that being said let's get to it! 

The Benefits!

• Physical: For those of you who haven't ever slack lined and think that it doesn't look very physically demanding I've got some news for you, it is! Now don't get me wrong it is actually pretty mellow especially when you're first learning and you can't stand on a line for longer then 1 second it isn't all that demanding. Once you're good though and can stay on a line for over 5 minutes you will start to feel the burn. You know those exercises where you hold your arms out to your sides for 5 minutes and your shoulders start to burn? Well, it's like that but you don't just feel the burn in your shoulders. You use your core as well as your back the entire time you're on a line because you're constantly trying to maintain balance and correct your posture causing your core muscles to always be contracted! You'll also be using muscles you probably rarely use in daily life which means that they'll have to adjust which is quite the challenge. Not to mention you have to tighten the line which is a whole body workout by itself!

• Mental: People make it look easy when they walk on a line but I promise you that it takes an incredible amount of focus, especially if the line is 1,000 feet in the air! Most people today are almost always running around trying to do 100 things at once. Think about it when is the last time you completely focused all of your attention on just doing one task? It's probably been a while right? Well when you try to walk on a 1 inch wide piece of webbing that's moving around you literally cannot think about anything else. I mean, I guess you can but you're going to fall off. This is especially true when you're first learning. It takes 100% of you're effort to just stand up, let alone walk on the thing. What I like to do when I walk is just look at the end of the line and breathe. I breathe audibly and consciously say "in" and "out" with every breath. I don't always do this because sometimes I'm just goofing around but it's become a habit when I'm trying something difficult to buckle down, focus, and breathe. What you'll likely notice after doing this for sometime is that you have the increased ability to focus when you're on a line but, also off the line too. You'll be able to focus more at work, school, and even in conversations with others. You won't constantly be thinking about a million things at once. Having this ability to relax, focus, and breathe will probably also lead to decreased stress which leads us to.

• Emotional: Since you now have the awesome ability to focus on the task at hand and block out any negative thoughts or emotions you will probably notice a huge decrease in overall stress. When you're walking on a line it's not just enough to be able to breathe and focus you have to be able to shut down negative thoughts, and learn some positive self talk. Simply put, if you think you're going to fall and saying to yourself "Oh no, hold on!" Odds are pretty high that you are in fact going to fall. It's not enough to say "don't fall" you have to be able to tell yourself "I can do this" and actually believe it. You have to know for a fact that you are completely capable of what you are trying to do.This is hard enough when you're just a couple of feet off of the ground but imagine when you're 500 ft up. It's absolutely paramount that you be able to focus and that know that you can walk on this line. Since you'll be thinking and telling yourself all this positive stuff pretty frequently while you slack line it will naturally become a habit and transfer to other areas in your life. You won't shirk more responsibility at work for fear of failing because you'll be able to say and know for a fact that you can do new things without fear of failing. You won't worry about flunking a test because you'll know that you've prepared yourself thoroughly and that you're fully capable of passing.Now, I'm not saying it's absolutely perfect and that you'll never be stressed again because I'm sure you will be. You should notice a significant decrease overall though, and that's a pretty good start. 

• Social:You may not think that something only one person can do at time would have a social factor but it actually has a surprising one. For starters, tightening lines is pretty hard and it's much easier to tighten a line with more people so, invite your friends and tug! Also, things like high lines take an incredible amount of effort to set up. You may have to rock climb to get to the anchors or you might have to hand drill the bolts for the anchors, which is quite the experience. You'll also have to haul all of your gear around. Slack lining is quite like any number of hobbies it's just generally more fun with more people! I mean, when is it not a good time to have a group of people with a similar interest get together? You and your friends can also push each others limits which works great for preventing plateaus. You can all encourage each other to learn new things on the line or maybe even new disciplines. I was introduced to high lining through a friend who had met some high liners in Yosemite who just happened to come to our home town. I actually almost tried to back flip off of a line once just because I saw someone else do it and figured I could too.(I didn't actually buck up and try it though, flips are scary!) You'll meet great people and after a full day of trying to push each other and learn new tricks you can all hang out and have a brewski together it's just overall a great community of people. 

• Financial: I'll be honest this one is sort of a catch 22. You can get everything you need to get started in this sport for 100 dollars or less. That's pretty cheap considering that you'd be pretty set to continue in the sport for as long as you like and you'd get all the previously mentioned benefits. I mean, it's a whole lot cheaper than paying for a therapist for reducing stress! That much money could get enough gear and webbing for a nice primitive set up. You would actually be able to afford more webbing than you'll need in the beginning but if you just get one long piece from the start you won't have to buy more later on. Anyway, you could learn the basics with traditional slack lining, and then as you progress depending on how much webbing you have you can continue to make your lines longer and longer, or you can start to get into trick lining. Really you can do whatever suits your fancy. If you're really creative you can even set up something like a water line, these are amazing by the way! You won't be able to set up lines past a certain length or high lines without a serious investment though. If you really love slack lining and you know that you're going to keep doing it then I think it's worth the investment to get some long line equipment. You can actually get into long lining for a pretty reasonable amount  considering once you have the gear you're pretty well set for life. You can also ghetto rig a long line for really cheap if you're creative. There's no law that says you have to buy the nicest possible gear from Slackline Bros that money can buy, though they do make some seriously quality gear. You can buy pulleys and line lockers from hardware stores like Lowes for a fraction of the price. It won't be specifically designed for slack lining but you can definitely make do. If something breaks while you're on a long line your not very high off the ground anyway so I'm sure you'll be fine. It's your decision though so if you do get hurt you better not sue me! Now, where this changes is when it comes to high lining. Never under any circumstances ghetto rig a high line! I don't care if it's your life and you don't care if you die! It affects the rest of the slacking community and could possibly lead to certain lines getting shut down. Don't do it! Period! I haven't heard of anyone dying on a high line and I don't want you to be the first. It's a serious sport and requires some serious research, and some seriously expensive gear. High lining is the most expensive type of slack lining it's a huge money pit, but let's be honest your life is probably worth more than a couple thousand bucks. That might not sound like much to some people but to me that's a pretty big price tag for a hobby and it's not like low lining where you can say "this carabiner is old, but whatever if it breaks it's no big deal." You have to constantly check and replace any shoddy gear. Once again it's you're life we're talking about here, and now you've been warned before going in that it's expensive. If you absolutely must high line but don't want to pay for it get out and meet some people who are already into the sport. Be nice and helpful and chip in for other stuff and they'll probably love having you along to help them haul and set up all their gear. It's also a great way to learn things, and there is an absolutely huge amount of information to be learned when it comes to high lining. Just make sure you're new found friends are safe too! 

Well folks that just about wraps it up but there is one more reason you should try slack lining. It's just plain fun! Honestly it's and absolute blast but if you don't believe me get out there and try it! Like I said earlier if you have any more reasons why this sport is awesome or any questions about getting started post in the comments! I promise I'll get back to you! 

What the Heck is Slack Lining? Why Do It?

In my last post discussed the numerous benefits of MMA fighting and how I got started. In this post I want to do the same thing but for slack lining. If you've never heard of slack lining you should definitely read this post!

Slack What?

Slack lining is literally one of the neatest things I've ever had the opportunity to experience and I hope this article will help you have that same opportunity.

Some of you might be thinking "slack lining?" "What the heck is that?" Maybe some of you have heard the word or seen someone doing it in the park but you don't know exactly what it entails. A lot of you probably saw Andy Lewis' stellar slack lining performance in the Super Bowel a couple of years ago without realizing what it was.

The basic premise of slack lining is you take a 1-2 inch piece of webbing, similar to what's used for truck tie downs, and you string it tightly between 2 points and try to walk across it. It's very similar to tight rope walking except the line is "slack" hence the name. 

Different Types of Slacking

Now there can be a lot more to slack lining then what I just described above. There is numerous different styles of slacking that can all be combined or performed al la carte. These styles can include, 

• Traditional Slack Lining This what I just described above and is usually performed close to the ground. Usually you use 2 trees as the anchor points and use what's called a primitive set up to tension the line just a couple of feet off of the ground. This is how most people are introduced to the sport and is the best starting point in my opinion. You're close to the ground so you have a pretty small chance of hurting yourself which makes it the perfect way to learn. I do have a friend that actually got interested in slack lining through high lining though.

• High Lining The name really says it all for this one. You take your webbing and put it between 2 anchor points way up in the air. This style has really progressed and become more popular. People have high lined all over the world including The Swiss Alps and Yosemite Falls. There's even a new type of high lining called sky lining which is when you take your webbing to the highest possible altitude you can. Some people also choose to combine high lining with other disciplines such as long lining.

• Long Lining This is exactly what it sounds like. You try still have your webbing between 2 anchor points but you try and have the anchor points as far away from each other as possible. The current record for the longest line walked is 1000+ feet and was performed by Lukas Irmler. Check out this video of the craziness.

   

• Trick Lining Because walking around on a piece of 1 inch webbing that keeps moving around and bouncing wasn't hard enough people began to add tricks. Some simple tricks include walking backwards, turning around at the end, starting from a sitting position, and jump starting onto the line. Some more complicated tricks include doing flips off of the line, holding yoga poses on the line, doing flips and landing on the line, juggling, and all sorts of other things that shouldn't be possible. You're only truly limited by your imagination when it comes to trick lining. 

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the types of slack lining that are out there and as the sport progresses there where only be more to come. You may be asking yourself "Dallas, why for the love of God and all that is holy would I possibly want to walk across a 1 inch piece of webbing? That's not even a challenge!" To those of you that don't understand why people would possibly do this for one I only have one thing to say. Try it! Just try it at least 1 time, please, for me! 

Once you try it once and inevitably fall off you will become trapped in addictive black hole. I remember when I was learning how to slack line on dirt bike tie downs that were chained together and tied between two trees. It wasn't a great set up but it worked, don't judge me! I fell once and tried to grab the line but missed and instead slid my arm down the line and got the worse rope burn I've ever had in my life. It burned horribly but guess what I did. I got back up and tried again. That's how addictive this sport is! 

For those of you who are thinking, "I've been walking every day of my life since I was 2! How hard could it possibly to walk a couple feet off the ground!?" I once again say try it! It is not nearly as easy or graceful as some people make it look. Also it's not like walking a tight rope where the line does not move and you're holding a bar trying to stay in a more static position. The line shakes as well as bounces, and it's slack which means that it sags and stretches as you walk on it. 

You're entire body is involved in trying to maintain your balance as you move across the line. You flail your arms and legs and gyrate your hips just to keep from falling off. While that might sound and look absolutely ridiculous to some there is a silver lining. It is incredibly good for your body! All that movement and focus do amazing things for a person and that's what we're going to go over next time. So, don't forget to check back in and find out just how good for you slack lining really is!  

Greatest Quote Ever!

"When life gives you lemonade make lemons. Then life will be like, 'What!?'" -Phil Dunphy

Why You Should Try MMA Too Part II

This post is a follow up post to my last one on why you should try out MMA. In my last post I described how I was first exposed to the sport and got started. In this post I want to go over the reasons why you should try MMA too. There's so many benefits to participating in this sport that I doubt I will be able to cover them all but I will do my best. If you know of any benefits that I forget to mention let me know by leaving a comment. 

Since trying MMA for the first time I have noticed numerous benefits in multiple areas of my life. I'm going to divide the benefits I've noticed into mental and physical categories. They could be divided into different categories and even more subset categories but I want to try and keep this at least somewhat simple, also I've there's a bunch of categories then there would just be a bunch of overlay between categories. So, let's dive in then!

Physical: I'm going to start with the physical benefits because these are the most obvious benefits, and they're probably the first thing that people think of when it comes to MMA. The first thing that comes to mind as a physical benefit for most people is probably just the pure exercise portion of MMA. For people who have seen UFC and think you could stand around and flail your limbs for 3 minutes like it was no big deal I only have one thing to say, You're Dumb! Alright now that I've gotten that out of my system I feel much better. Trust me on this! The first time I tried boxing with my friend we were both sucking wind like we were about to die. He even mentioned that he couldn't understand why he was so tired from just throwing his arms out in front of him. I've got to admit that I don't really know why we were so tired but I do know one thing, we were. Even if you don't ever want to actually fight a real human being you can do the same training and feel the burn. I have a free mp3 workout from How To Fight Now that I shadowbox to 3 times in a row. I know what you're thinking, "That doesn't even involve punching real objects! You're just aggressively dancing by yourself!" Well, you're right both accounts, but I don't care it's still exhausting. I'm a decently in shape person but after repeating that workout 3 times I look like I've just gone swimming in my own tears after discovering I'm so physically inadequate I can't even punch air without becoming tired. Just kidding. But, seriously that's how I look. 

Aside from all the wonderful man sweat, and air sucking there's another awesome thing about MMA. Never once have I felt like I was working out! I've never had to drag myself to the gym even though I didn't want to go. Nor have I forced myself to workout in my room till I'm blue in the face. Do you want to know why? Because it's fun! Yes you did in fact read that right. I actually enjoy shadowboxing and doing my jujitsu drills because I know that next time I roll around at the gym I'll be better than I was the last time. Also, let's face it when you beat all those horribly mean imaginary foes with your flying fist of fury while shadowboxing you pretty much feel like a bad ass. Think back to when you were a kid and you used to run around and pretend you were a superhero(I pretended I was Robin from the Teen Titans, which looking back he really wasn't that cool of a superhero, anyway I digress) You could run around for hours imagining you were vanquishing all the evil in the world and no one told you to! That last bit is the important part. No one had to drag you outside when you didn't want to and make you play superhero. Training for MMA is literally the same thing and that's why I think it's so fun. You also don't just have to pretend if you're feeling up to it you can actually punch or submit a real live human. If you used to pretend you were a lame superhero like Robin then you might be terrible at this part and you'll probably just tap out all the time. Eventually though you will get the hang of it especially if the guys you train with are nice enough to give you all sorts of sweet tricks and tips and help you out. Just be really humble and actually listen to their advice and you'll probably grow at an insanely fast rate. Unless of course their advice is crap but I've yet to get crappy advice so I wouldn't worry about that to much. If you are arrogant and built like a brick wall and you think that you could easily take on anyone then go for it. My fingers are crossed that you get knocked out or cry like a little baby after about 5 seconds, but try to at least put on a good show. 

Another thing that I know has already crossed your mind is that after working out and training so hard you can wind up looking jacked like this guy.

Then all the ladies will love you. Unless you're an arrogant douche in which case no one will love you, not even your own parents. Seriously though, not only will you make all the ladies swoon, and some males question their own sexuality but you'll generally feel more awesome. You'll get all the benefits of regular exercise but with way more fun. These include increased energy, decreased stress, and decreased risk for numerous diseases such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, and all sorts of horrible things that you don't want to get. Now that we've covered some the physical benefits lets talk about some of the mental benefits.

Mental: The first big thing that comes to mind was also a physical benefit and that happens to be decreased stress. You know when you have a crappy day and you hate pretty much everything well think about how much better you would feel if you could punch all that rage out. Maybe someone cut you off while you driving but you don't have the guts to hit an actual person. No problem! Just head over to your local gym and beat the crap out of a heavy bag while picturing their face. It's been shown that exercise in general decreases stress level but why not at least do something fun while you're exercising. 

Fighting or just training to fight can also be seen as a sort of moving meditation. I don't mean the sort of meditation where you cross your legs and chant to yourself either I mean the cool kind where you know, you punch stuff. Most people today are constantly going from one thing to the next. They rush around like busy bodies and never just take a moment. Well a great way to take your mind off of the business of the day is to have someone throw fist at your face. You literally can not think about anything else. I mean, I guess you can but odds are good that you're going to get hit in the face. You lose yourself completely in the moment of fighting and that's a good thing. No distractions, problems, or worries. Just you and your opponent duking it out. This is true even if your opponent happens to be a heavy bag hanging from the ceiling. 

MMA is a lot like trying to solve a puzzle, and play a game of chess at the same time. Except the loser of the game gets their face rearranged or possibly gets their limbs torn apart. The point being that it's a great mental exercise. No need to play some boring bain training game that treats you like you're retarded anymore. Just go fight someone that's better than you and I guarantee your brain will get a workout just trying to keep up. Also it's called MMA which means that there is so many different styles each with completely different techniques that you can try and learn. It's literally a never ending vault of things that you can study your entire life. You can keep studying and learning forever! This should keep your brain from turning into goop and becoming useless as you get older. 

Thanks to looking like a stud muffin and generally having a feeling of increased badassness you will get a major confidence boost. After being punched and kicked repeatedly in the face and body or having your limbs almost bent to the snapping point other things in life just aren't as big of a deal. You won't feel the need to hunch your shoulders and look at the ground every time you walk into a room. Asking for a raise doesn't seem that scary anymore. Quitting your horribly boring day job to try and find something you're passionate about is no big deal compared to eating a knuckle sandwich. You should be warned though you probably won't have any increased confidence while you're at the gym right away. There will be people that have been doing this for years that will make you cry for your mommy and tap you out like a little baby in a matter of seconds. It's no big deal though if you ask them how they destroyed you so quickly and actually learn from them. These guys are a wealth of knowledge and let's face it who doesn't like having their ego stroked. Also, hopefully these guys will be super helpful and nice, they'll try not to make you feel to retarded. At least the guys at my gym have been that way to me. You'll also feel more confident and assertive, in a positive and not douchey way, because you can! I mean you'll learn how to pummel peoples faces until their unrecognizable, and rip their limbs apart. That knowledge is practical and works on people other than your training partners. That means that when some douche who isn't you gets up in your grill and is just generally douchey, you can politely and respectfully ask him to stop knowing full well that if he tries anything you can break him. Don't go out and pick fights just because you can though that would make you the douche. Also, fist can't beat everything including guns, knives, and bats so be cautious even if someone else is being a douche. I've seen people who have had their jaws broken clean in half by bats at work. It's not a pretty site. I'm just saying that in today's day and age you never can be to safe so it's nice to know at least a little bit about fighting in case of emergencies don't go flaunting it though. Alright you've been warned. 

MMA is based in martial arts which have a long and proud history which means that it's very tied into values such as honor, courage, commitment, patience, respect, and discipline. These things used to be ingrained into our society as a whole but these days they are seriously lacking. People today don't even know what it means to be a person of character. They don't what it is to serve something higher than themselves and think about other people. I admit that I barely know what any of that means and I think that is one of the greatest tragedies of our time. By taking up MMA hopefully we can all learn to have some more traditional values and become greater men and women in the process. 

I know that I've already learned so much in the way of values just from my short stint in the sport and I hope that you will join me to reap the benefits of this amazing sport. That my friends is why I think you should try MMA. 

How I Got Started In MMA and Why You Should Too Part I

SMACK! That was the noise I heard when I became a man, and found out what I'm truly made of. It was the noise of a 16 oz leather boxing glove catching me squarely on the jaw. I instantly became dazed as my jaw bone smashed up into a bundle of nerves for the first time in my entire life. I looked at my good friend who was apologizing profusely and thought to myself, "That was AWESOME!"

Have you ever felt overweight, under driven, physically or mentally weak? Maybe you just sometimes feel unsatisfied with yourself. If this is you, I think I've found the cure... It's MMA. If you've ever seen the movie Fight Club then I can tell you from personal experience that the movie isn't to far from the truth. Have you ever been in a fight before? Have you ever even been punched before? Have you ever lost yourself in the moment and felt completely and totally alive? Have you ever woken up early and pushed yourself to your breaking point while actually being excited about it? If you answered no to one or all of these questions then you should definitely check out the world of mixed martial arts. 

You see, just 3 weeks ago I was just like you are now. I had never been in a fight in my 20 years of life or even been punched once that I can remember. I had absolutely zero fighting background. Luckily that all changed and it started approximately a month and a half ago. I was in Fresno visiting my girlfriend when I went with her sister's boyfriend to watch a UFC fight. I had heard of UFC but I'd never watched an entire event like this. His friends went all out too, with all sorts of delicious food and the full Pay Per View package. I don't even remember the fighters names but I do remember getting completely caught up in it all. In every single fight that night both fighters would push their bodies beyond the breaking point just for the sake of pure competition. There was something even more then competition and violence though. Beyond the shear physical aspect there truly was a beautiful and inspiring art form. You could see the pure skill that these guys developed after years of intense dedication and training. They punched, and kicked, and grappled all with so much power and precision it was completely astounding. If you've never thrown a punch just stand up and throw the best punch you've got for 3 minutes. You'll probably be completely exhausted and realize that you punch like a 12 year old girl, or at least that's how I felt when I first tried it. Hopefully now you realize it's more than just two guys throwing random hay-makers and hoping for the best. After being utterly blown away by all of these athletes a deep curiosity formed inside of me and when I got home I began to do some research on the subject. I still didn't know I would actually want to try it but I definitely wanted to find out more. 

Upon returning home I began to do some research starting with boxing. I turned to Art of Manliness as it seemed like a logical place to start and as I've said before I just love this site. They just so happened to have a great series on the fundamentals of boxing starting with how to wrap your hands. This article series seemed to be of good quality and looked like an excellent place to start. I read the entire series and played around with the basics of stance, defense, and striking in my room. I felt completely awkward and slightly ridiculous doing this by myself in my bedroom but at the same time I was having a blast. I would clown around and swing my fist through air and practice slipping and rolling punches for a couple minutes to work up a slight sweat. I didn't think of it as exercise it was more of an experiment. I began to search YouTube and Google for even more resources to better learn the basics. One night on YouTube I stumbled upon this video and discovered yet another resource. The resource was Trav's YouTube channel and his website How To Fight Now. I have found all his videos not only extremely informative and helpful but also incredibly entertaining. I began to shadowbox in my room, which for those of you don't know is when you dance around and fight all these invisible opponents and generally make a fool of yourself, even more frequently. I began to really focus on technique and I actually noticed a very minimal but exciting improvement.  

Upon returning to Fresno I asked my friend who had originally taken me to the fights when we were going to fight. He informed me that he had head gear and one pair of gloves and that he actually used to do Muay Thai. He told me that he would be more than willing to spar and suddenly my curiosity spiked and just had to know what it was like. I wanted to know what it would be like to actually punch another person who was punching back and more than anything I wanted to fight! 

We didn't get a chance to spar while I was in Fresno but when I got home I realized it was definitely something I was thinking about more seriously. One night my parents were out of town and my good friend Bodey was over and I mentioned in passing that I had become interested in MMA. I told him that we should body box somewhat jokingly but I only had one pair of gloves. It just so happened that he had some hand wraps and gloves in his truck. We grinned stupidly at each other and decided that this was the best idea we had ever had. He ran out and grabbed his gloves and we began moving furniture so that we would have enough room to hit each other. I set a timer on my phone for 3 minutes and we began. I was fighting!  Neither one of us knew what we were doing and we looked completely retarded but we had an absolute blast! I utterly lost myself in the moment of trying to hit and defend. It was amazing! We mainly just caught each other in the arms but we both got our wind knocked out pretty severely once and I took several solid punches to the sternum. Then something beautiful happened. We had agreed to just punching each other in the body but Bodey accidentally missed my body on one shot. I didn't even see it coming but instantly my head was turning and I was looking dazed and wondering what had happened. I slowly came back to my senses and realized that I had been punched square in the jaw. Bodey was apologizing but I just looked at him and said that it was alright and in fact it was utterly amazing! I now knew what it felt like to get punched in the jaw, to be dazed, and to be a man. I was on top of the world. That was the moment I realized that this sport was for me. 

I was able to get a free 2 week membership at the local MMA gym by donating blood. I remember the first time I walked in and was hit by the smell of dedication, hard work, and perseverance. For those of you who don't know what that smells like is a whole lot of sweat, blood, and tears. I went to my first class which was kickboxing and tried jiujitsu right after. Everyone was absolutely amazing. They were all extremely helpful and didn't mind that I had no real idea of how to even throw a punch. Since that first class I fell in love and haven't looked back. I've been exercising more than I ever have in the past just due to pure excitement, and let's face it punching stuff is just plain fun. I'm constantly thinking about my technique and form and trying to iron out all of the kinks. I decided I'm going to get a 1 month membership to the gym so I can go more frequently and really immerse myself prior to leaving for the NAVY. I've honestly just had an absolutely amazing time and I'm so happy I was exposed to this sport. In my next post I'll go over why you should try out MMA too with some cold hard facts that prove it is awesome so stay tuned.  

How I Started a Roth IRA

Money

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Today at work I had a rather slow day. My job doesn't include any hard manual labor and requires a lot of sitting at a desk and looking at a computer screen. This means that on days like today I have ample time to research and read about whatever my heart desires. Now, I’m preparing to leave for the NAVY on February 18th of next year so I should spend my free time studying up on what I need to know for boot camp. Let’s be honest though a lot of that stuff is really boring and I’ve got a good grasp on most of it so it’s pretty easy for me to rationalize doing other things. Most the time I read stuff on The Art of Manliness because I freaking love that website and the information they put out and I think that website has done so much for my development into not just an adult but a man! Today I did quite a bit of reading on that site (I read the series on resiliency and started the series on honor in case you’re interested) but eventually my brain wandered on to the subject of money.

You see, I've always had somewhat of a draw to money. I was frugal even at the ripe age of 10 and I actually would read financial books such as Rich Dad Poor Dad before my father and let my mom know if they were any good and if they were something my dad might be interested in. Due that exposure at such a young age I became fascinated with money and what one could accomplish with enough of it. I’m not talking about the work your fingers to the bone and sacrifice personal relationships with family and friends sort of fascination either. It was more like you can start a Nonprofit organization with enough money or stop suffering at a job you hate to do things you really like. Really all of the possibilities are absolutely aimless. Now while I had read… and read, and read about finances I didn't actually do anything with the information due to my age but recently that has changed.

After signing my contract with the NAVY and turning 20 I realized holy crap I’m not a kid anymore! Don’t get me wrong I’m still a kid in most respects, probably about 99% but I make enough money now to do things like invest. This sudden realization made me want to start really getting serious about my finances. Like I said I’ve always been frugal and saved the majority of my money but I wanted to move beyond just saving money. Due to my sudden desire to get serious I read Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Revisited book. This book is more targeted towards people who have debt and want to get out of it and start saving for their future. Luckily for me I’ve got great parents(and frugality) so I’ve never had debt for anything including emergencies. I still started at the beginning of the book and read through every single chapter including how to handle money with your kids even though I don’t have any. Overall I personally thought the book was amazing and full of sound advice if you follow the advice in it you’ll probably be ahead of 90% of individuals financially. What I realized after reading the book was that I could skip all of the paying off your debt stuff and go straight into saving and investing. The first step is making an emergency fund. I already had an emergency fund of 3000 dollars but I thought that I should grow it a little bit. A general rule of thumb that is that you should have 3-6 months of living expenses saved up in your emergency fund. I still live at home with my loving parents so I have almost month to month necessary spending which made this step a little tricky for me. What I decided to do was save up enough to replace my most expensive belonging should I need too. If you haven’t guess that belonging is my car which is actually only worth about 1500 dollars but I saved up 5000 dollars because I wouldn't just want to replace it I would want a better one.

After you do that first baby step according to Dave you’re supposed to start saving up for purchases and paying cash. Like I said I don’t have a whole lot of purchases so I’I've always done this and could sort of skip this step. Then and only then should you start saving for retirement! That’s Dave’s philosophy at least and I agree, it doesn't make sense to save for tomorrow if you can’t even afford today! Realizing I should start saving for retirement and realizing I had no idea where begin I trusted the almighty Dave and his judgement. His recommendation is putting money into mutual funds through a Roth IRA and putting money into a 401K if your employer offers a matching option. I’ll be honest I didn't check with my employer because I’ll be leaving the company soon for the NAVY and would rather just set up a TSP with them once I get there. Armed with this knowledge I politely asked someone at my bank(Umpqua for those of you wondering) if they provided any sort of investment opportunities through the bank. Now, I’ve always been impressed with Umpqua’s customer service but this gal went above and beyond! She asked how much I had to invest and I honestly told her not much but I wanted to get started young. She told me that they use to have someone on staff at the bank that dealt with questions like this but now they use the company Umpqua Investments. I balked a little when she told me that she thought they had a 20,000 dollar minimum for initial investments but she was completely undeterred. She said that she would give my number to the folks at Umpqua Investments and that they should call me soon, but to let her know if they didn't reach me. I received a call later that night from Umpqua Investments and had a very long heartfelt conversation about my goals and where I was coming from. The man on the other end who is now my financial listened attentively and recommended exactly what my man Dave did that I invest in a mutual fund through a Roth IRA for long term growth.

After this telephone I took about a month to save up my substantially lower initial investment of 1000 dollars throughout that period I was sent links to several funds that my financial adviser thought were good matches for my goals, and I had all of my questions answered in extreme detail. I had my first meeting with my financial adviser approximately 3 weeks ago to fill out all the paperwork to get the fund started and just had my initial investment deposited this last week. Now I used a financial adviser even though I have read enough and have a wide enough knowledge base to have started doing this on my own for several reasons. 1) The fee seemed incredibly reasonable to me it’s 40 dollars a year plus 1% of whatever money I make from the investments that I make with his advice. To some people that may seem like way too much money but I don’t paying someone off of how much money they make for me, and 40 dollars is well worth the money to have a sounding board with numerous years of experience in the financial industry. 2) I’m not going to say I don’t have time to read numerous prospectuses but I definitely don’t have the want to spend all my free time reading tons of boring prospectuses and comparing my findings. Prospectuses are boring! So, it’s nice to have someone do that research for me and I still get the final say in where the money goes.  3) I’m just getting started with all of this stuff and even with a wide knowledge base a lot of financial stuff can still go over my head and quickly become a confused mess. It’s nice to have someone be able to explain the concepts to me that I just don’t quite get. 4) With me leaving for the NAVY with a high probability of me going overseas for extended periods of time I wanted to have someone who knows what’s happening financially in America and can change where my money goes accordingly without any sort of hassle. 5) Just plain old fashioned trust. Since the first time I talked to this guy on the phone there was an immediate connection that’s pretty difficult to put into words but I've never felt cheated or like he was telling me where I had to put my money or anything of that sort.

All of this recent “serious” financial activity has caused me to ponder my finances a lot more and thus how I began googling money related topics this fine evening. A phrase that I've heard and read frequently is “make your money work for you,” pretty much use your money to make even more money instead of slaving away for money and then not knowing where it disappears to. This quote is great and it’s partially the reason I began investing but what I realized tonight was I want my money to work even harder for me. A Roth IRA is great but I don’t want to wait till I’m 60 years old to reap the seeds I sow today. I've realized that I've sort of “maxed out” financially. I’m not in debt, I’m not saving for any huge purchases, I pay cash for everything, and I've started a retirement account. There is other stuff I could do like try and get a high yield checking account but Umpqua has been great to me and right now I’d rather just stay with them. I also can’t get a pay raise due to the fact that I’ll be leaving the company in 2 months. I also have a job with what I like to call is a ceiling where you reach a certain point that you really can’t push past so there’s not even a lot of opportunity to grow at my job even in ways other than financially. Noticing all of this is why I began searching for ways to “make my money work harder” on google tonight. Then I realized that some things simply take time. I mean I've reached a point where I don’t have to worry about my car breaking down, how I’m going to retire, or how I’m going to pay to take my girlfriend out on a nice date. That in itself is a huge stepping stone that plenty of people never even reach. Some people struggle just to put food in their stomachs and here I am happy as a clam with very little effort and still unsatisfied. I think the next logical step is to give money to just causes that I think can really help someone. I've done that in the past and always feel like it actually helps me emotionally and even spiritually more so than it helps the person in need because money is just that, money. It is often overvalued and undervalued but few people give it the value it deserves. It can accomplish great things  and devastate people. It is a tool and a resource and should be treated as such, nothing more and nothing less. With all of that being said I will continue being frugal and saving slowly but surely for my first house, and my wedding, and my wants, but mainly for those people in the world who are unable to save for themselves for the need it far more than I do.

I'm back...

   Yes I'm back once again! You see, I do this thing where I go through "phases" I become interested in something and focus on it for a week or two and then move on to something else. I've decided that perhaps my intentions were slightly off point when I initially started writing on this blog and perhaps that's why I lost interest. I don't even remember what exactly my intentions were but if I had to guess it probably wasn't something I'm passionate about or even all that interested in and that, is wrong. This blog is mine and I can write about whatever I damn well please! From now on I will try to do just that. I will write about what I think about, and enjoy. Perhaps I might actually stick with it this time. 

The Second Day

   I woke up at 2 a.m. with cramps just as bad as they had been before. I laid there writhing on the bed for several minutes and then sprinted to the bathroom just in time. Diarrhea. It was back again but this time with a vengeance. I hobbled back to bed feeling completely and utterly miserable. I was supposed to be on vacation and enjoying myself and here I was at 2 o'clock in the morning practically crapping myself, and experiencing some horrible stomach pain. I squirmed around for a bit in the bed sweating a little bit and gritting my teeth against the horrible cramps until sweet sleep took me once again. I awoke several hours later around 8ish feeling quite a bit better but still not 100%. I was determined to make it on schedule to McCleary though and stomach problems weren't going to stop me. They did however. I continued to have horrible diarrhea and after discussing it with Alex we decided it wasn't worth risking a 9 hour drive. Now what? We were in Bonanza which is such a small town it literally takes about two minutes to drive through the whole of it, and I was sick. There was nothing for us to do. So guess what we did, just that, absolutely nothing at all and let me tell you it was utterly amazing.

   Now, I don't work crazy hours at a ridiculously difficult job or anything, but I did have a very full plate this last semester between school, work, and volunteering and it left me pretty tired. I think doing nothing but lounging about with Alexandria was exactly what I needed to do. We laid in a bed for a bit, and then we moved to the couch, and the kitchen to eat, and after eating we went back to the couch and passed out. I think all the sleeping we were doing was making us tired. We'd wake up and visit with aunt as well as my uncle if he happened to be around and then go back to doing nothing but sitting with each other in pure bliss. Eventually we did go outside and look at my aunt's green house as well as her chicken coop to get some ideas for when we have place of our own, and then went straight back to the couch. We decided that we should do something but didn't quite know what to do when it occurred to us to go see a movie. We had just recently read The Great Gatsby and the movie had just come out so we settled on that after much deliberation. We went to the show around 6 o'clock I think it was. We had a bit of difficulty finding our way around Klamath Falls but eventually we did find the theater. It was the smallest theater I think I've ever been to and when we showed up we were the only people there. We got our tickets and then went and sat down and waited for the show to start. The movie was quite good and very similar to the book my only complaint is the music. I was expecting all this great roaring twenties music and instead my ears were greeted by the likes of Jay-Z. After the show we made our way back to Bonanza to enjoy a delicious home made dinner and some more visiting time with family. 

    That's about all that we did on our second day of vacation which as you can tell wasn't all that much. Also I must apologize you see I was a bit out of it at the time I got to experience all this nothingness so it's a bit of a struggle to recollect in a fascinating sort of way. I'm also currently not in it to win it which is why my writing really isn't all that swell but it still gives you a good idea of what we did which wasn't really anything at all.

Washington...Finally!!!

   Finally! I'm finally writing about my trip to Washington! It only took me a full week to get around to doing it! Now, don't get to excited I'm only going to write about the first couple of days but at least I'm starting. So, to begin the plan was to leave on the 13th of this month at around six in the morning and go to Klamath Falls, Oregon. We were going to stay the night in Klamath Falls and then get up in the morning and drive to McCleary, Washington were we would set up a sort of home base for the trip from which we venture forth and explore the great state of Washington for a whole entire week. Now, the trouble started on the morning we were going to leave.

   It was around 5:45ish in the morning on the 13th when I awoke with terrible stomach pains that felt quite like cramps but were by far the worst cramps I had ever experienced. I rolled around for a bit trying to console my stomach into feeling better as if mindless motions the rest of my body made could affect it. Finally I decided that if my stomach wouldn't just cut it out and feel better on its own or with just a bit of help from my worm like writhing movements, that I would make it feel better. Dammit I was supposed to be going on vacation! I wearily dragged myself out of bed bleary eyed and dreading what was going to come next I forced myself to 'walk' although it was more of a blind stumble towards the toilet. This is it I told myself. I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and force myself to throw up and after that I'll feel all better. I honestly couldn't have been more wrong but I feel that my determination deserves at least a bit of noticing. I knelt down on the ground and gave my great porcelain cure a hug letting it's coolness bring me at least a little twinge betterment. I bowed my head over the bowl quite like someone at a guillotine whose resigned themselves to what's about to happen next, and I did it I forced my self to vomit. Now, I'll spare you the details because nobody likes to hear about throwing up and everyone already knows how dreadfully horrible it is. All I will say is that it was just as dreadful and just as horrible as one might expect.

   After this horrible waking up I did feel a little bit better and a little more hopeful that perhaps this vacation wouldn't be so bad after all. Wrong, once again. "Are you throwing up?" Called my mother from her room. "Oh, We're golden!" I replied with more than a hint of sarcasm. I more limped back to bed  than walked but I did make it back to my little sanctuary that cradled my sick body like a cloud sent from heaven. Naturally, after all the disgusting and loud noises I had made Alex came in to check on me and see how I felt. We laid together in bed for a bit while I tried to gather my strength and all the determination I had in my bones. Nothing was going to stop from going on vacation! The problem is that determination in the real world is nothing like the determination that you see in movies or read about in books. The kind where through hard work and determination a person can reach any goal imaginable. No this determination is the kind that makes you sit in a car for hours on end grabbing at your gut and trying to sleep through the pain. This determination makes you pull over on the side of a freeway so you can puke not only out your mouth but out of your nose as well because you're just that determined!

   Once I had gathered all of this stupid determination we finally forced ourselves out of bed yet again. We skulked downstairs and I forced some food into my stomach though I didn't really feel like eating. I took a shower and crammed all of my toiletries into my luggage. I finished all the other last minute packing I had to do. Then finally we set off at around 8 2 hours behind our original schedule - not that I care for schedules much - and tired from my awful night of sleep we made our way out of the driveway. My stomach didn't stayed settled for very long though. About two hours into the trip I was fighting to keep my eyes open and my horrible stomach cramps started coming back. After about another 30 minutes the cramps were getting so bad it was all I could do to concentrated on the road. Defeated, I pulled over and asked Alex if she wouldn't mind driving. With all of her love coming through in her voice like a song she said, "No, I don't mind driving." Ordinary words, but at the time they formed the most glorious sentence I had ever heard. We switched seats and were off once again I curled up with a giant feather pillow that I hugged to try and comfort myself into sleep, while Alex drove on.

   I awoke a while later with cramps that were even worse then the ones I had already experienced. Awesome, I thought this couldn't get any better. Oh, but it did. We were in Redding when it hit. I felt like I was going to have diarrhea. We took an exit and stopped at a gas station were I figured we could get some gas before continuing our journey from hell, and I could evacuate my bowels. Needless to say what occurred in that bathroom was a complete and utter horror and should probably never be talked about again. After this incident we hopped back in the car and continued on down the road. It was my turn to drive but seeing as how wasn't feeling well Alex continued to drive, and I continued to suffer through. I don't have much to say on what occurred between Redding and Weed California because I tried to sleep through most of it. Once we reached Weed I was feeling somewhat better so I decided I would try and drive once again. This didn't last long however because once we had been on the 97 towards Klamath Falls for just a little bit the cramps came back with a vengeance. I pulled over an told Alex I was going to get out and see if I could puke or go to the bathroom somewhere on the side of the road. I made a good effort but to no avail. I stumbled back towards the car extremely frustrated and feeling like death. I opened the back door and haphazardly lay down on all of the stuff we had brought with us utterly exhausted. This peaceful moment only lasted for a minute though. I jumped and leaned outside the car vomited not only out of my mouth but also out my nose. I proceeded to vomit not being able to catch my breath when finally I stopped and Alex handed me a napkin. I collapsed back into the backseat even more exhausted now that I had spent the last of my energy. Alex looked at me with growing concern on her face. "Your face is all red and so is your neck!?" I looked down at my arms and they were starting to turn read as well but didn't acknowledge it acting like it was just my body being exhausted. Then I started to notice how itchy my body was becoming everywhere. My arms became redder along with my face and neck and then I started noticing little bumps popping up every where. Oh God! I thought, this can not be good. We drove on now slightly concerned because it seemed I was having an allergic reaction to something. We called my mother who called my Aunt Linnea who said she would meet us in Klamath Falls and take me to prompt care. That was one hell of a car ride! My body was so itchy I wanted to rip my skin off! Anything would have been better than what I was experiencing! We finally made it to a park in Klamath Falls though where Linnea was waiting already armed with drugs, and liquids. We agreed I shouldn't take any medication until we got to prompt care because they might want to give me something in particular for situation. We once again took off following Linnea through the one way streets of Klamath. We got to prompt care and low and behold I had to fill out paperwork. Now, ordinarily I hate paperwork but on this particular occasion I absolutely despised it! 

   I could hardly focus with how itchy my skin was becoming. I had to try and fill out as much paperwork as possible in between stints of scratching my skin raw. I took the papers up to the front desk and it wasn't quite good enough the first time so they told me what I needed to fix and sent me back to my seat. The second time I had still done a pretty terrible job but they accepted my feeble attempts, I think it's because they could hear the growing distress in my voice. I slumped back into my seat scratching wildly. I got up and went to the bathroom to scratch some of the more hard to reach places in privacy and finally came back out a few minutes later and just as itchy as ever. "Dallas Rhinehart?" I heard a nurse call as she opened the door. Finally! I was going to get something done about my body's mental breakdown. She led me to the back her long hair curling over her pink scrubs like a golden sea. She didn't take very long to decide that I was breaking out in full blown hives. I explained that I figured I was having an allergic reaction but that it was strange because I had also been having stomach problems all day long. She acknowledged that this was strange but then left saying the doctor would be in in a bit. I laid back on the bed figuring I might as well attempt to make myself comfortable while I waited. I stared at the ceiling wondering in the world could possibly make my body act like this and trying to scratch myself senseless. Finally the doctor came in he was an older gentleman bald with a sort of goatee and glasses hanging from his neck bouncing off his blue scrubs like one of those paddle ball games. He asked me all the same questions the nurse had asked me about if I'd been hiking around or exploring anywhere. I told I hadn't and that I had literally just been sitting in the car all day long, as well as telling him about the stomach troubles that had accompanied me on my travels. 

   Now, this doctor told me in a quite confident voice that I was having an allergic reaction and said he would give me some Benadryl to get rid of my hives. On the subject of my stomach trouble he said that it could be from the ulcers I had once. Mind you I had these ulcers in the year of 2010 and I haven't had sort of issues since but he stuck firm by his diagnoses and said he would write me a prescription for some drug that I don't remember and bowed out to get the Benadryl. Suffice it to say that I was a little frustrated with this diagnoses partly because my aunt already had Benadryl, and partly because I knew my stomach troubles weren't related to my ulcers. Also, I had to pay 123 dollars to be told something I already knew. I couldn't just pay my copay because it was my first time at this prompt care and because I was from out of state. The doctor returned a little while later gave me my Benadryl and sent me on my way. 

  We all decided we would stop at the grocery store to get some food and some Zantac because said that it might help with my stomach as well as my rash.We all meandered around the grocery store for a bit getting the Zantac and my aunt kept asking me if there was anything at all that I would like to get because she was making roast for dinner and she thought it might upset my stomach. She kept apologizing but I insisted that I thought it would be delicious. We left the store and headed for Bonanza which is about 30 minutes outside of Klamath Falls and also where my uncle and my aunt own about 5000 acres of land that they farm and raise cattle on. I'm not really for the agricultural revolution or mass farming but I do have to admit that Bonanza Oregon is one of the prettiest places I have ever been. We sped towards Bonanza as I tried to recognize some of the familiar landmarks from the summer I had spent working up with my uncle on his ranch. As we got closer and closer I started to recognize more I was able to predict which turns we would take on what roads, and point out the upcoming dairy farm. We finally started passing by some of my families property and I was able to point out a mile long field that I had to disc multiple times, and then finally we took a left turn onto a dirt driveway that led to the house we would be staying in we had made it! We parked in the driveway and walked into the house with a feeling of ecstasy crawling over our bodies. We had finally made it! We walked through the front door and I saw a giant couch that looked more comfortable than any other couch I've ever seen. I collapsed into it with the biggest stupidest grin on my face. 

   I spent the rest of the evening in a daze finding it impossible to focus or even think clear thoughts partly due to exhaustion. We visited with my aunt and Alex got to meet my Uncle Randy, as well as my Cousin Lacy. Then at around 9 o'clock I actually put some real food into my stomach and eventually I was able to change into pajamas and collapse into bed and quite possibly the best sleep I have ever had. Until early the next morning... 

   

Catching Up

   Hello there! I realize that I haven't written anything in over a week and for that I apologize but you see I've been busy. I realize that being busy is quite an unexciting excuse for not writing and I will admit that it is pretty weak but I was actually doing interesting things that will be talked about in later posts. You see, I went on a road trip with my astonishingly beautiful girlfriend to Washington. We left on the 13th around 8 a.m. and returned home on the 20th around 7 p.m. It was quite a fun trip and I can't wait to write about all of the fascinating things we got to experience and I will try to post about the first day or two tomorrow. I would have done it today but I'm still trying to adjust to a normal nights sleep after taking my dear friend Jordan to the airport at 2 a.m. yesterday and I overslept today, you have my apologies people of the internet. In other news while in Portland I got another Daniel Quinn book called The Story of B and have just finished reading it today and I have to say it quite literally shattered my worldview all over again quite the same way that Ishmael did and I will have to write about some of the thoughts that I inspired me to think in hopes that writing them down will help me develop them into fully formed ideas. Now, I must go for my love is having stomach troubles and I feel the need to love her back to health but hopefully I can get caught up on my writing at least a little bit tomorrow for now goodnight.  

Reading

   Hi, it's me again. With my lovely lady out of town for a couple of days and my book that I checked out from the library I have managed to read away many hours of today. I'm currently reading My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn and I've got to say it's truly an amazing book. I wouldn't say it's of any different quality of the original Ishmael I would just say that it manages to address some different topics with some different approaches. When I originally read Ishmael it completely altered my view of the world, I mean to say that it resonated with the very deepest parts of my soul and shook the cob webs that had been obstructing my view of the world from my eyes. My Ishmael is currently doing exactly the same thing and it is utterly fantastic. It is also however quite tiring. You see these books are not for the faint of heart the cover some very heavy and deep material that isn't meant to be read passively for enjoyment but rather actively read and digested so that the information can be used to change a person. Due to how heavy this book is and how tired I am as well as the fact that I haven't finished it quite yet I don't feel justified in writing any sort of objective review or anything like that at the moment. I will most likely talk about the ideas in the book in later post though still not as a subject review or anything just as thoughts and ideas that the book has inspired me to think. I wish I could write more but my body is exhausted in its entirety and therefore I shall go to bed goodnight.

Today

Hi there,
   It's me again and I haven't got much to say but I figured I should write anyway. Yesterday I discovered the most amazing thing I've ever discovered! Now you might be wondering what is this magical things so I'll tell you. It was the library! Now someone might read this and think well what's so great about a library and why did you just discover it so I suppose I should explain that as well. You see I've known about libraries ever since I was a child and quite like most children I thought it was a great place but no one ever explained just how amazing it actually is which is especially unfortunate considering I love to read, but yesterday I went and discovered for myself just how wonderful the library truly is and I suppose discovering it for myself made it even more amazing then if someone had simply plopped me down and told me it was amazing. I went to the library with the intention of simply getting a library card because in my 19 years of life I've never had my own library card and after reading an article on artofmanliness that mentioned in passing the free resources one could attain through the library, and given my hunger for learning I figured I should get a library card. So on I went with my beautiful girlfriend Alexandria to the library and I walked in and to be honest at first it wasn't much different than I remembered it nothing fanciful or wonderful about it other than the smell of books which I happen to love, especially old well read books. Then we started walking around not really with any purpose just sort of meandering through the collection of knowledge with some sort of inkling of looking for The Great Gatsby but not really a hard and fast search for the book. I was just breathing in the smell of dust riddled pages, and soaking in the signs labeled philosophy, art, and all other sort of words. These signs hung from the ceiling and above different bookcases almost like lighthouses beckoning you to your desired shore. The shore we desired to find happened to be fiction which given its tremendous size was quite easy to find but also given my limited knowledge of how the library works a little overwhelming to navigate. So there we were delighted to have found the fiction section but a little lost on how to find the precise treasure we were looking for. We started meandering the aisles in a somewhat orderly fashion just skimming the books and hoping we'd just find the one we were looking for by pure happenstance when I started noticing that all of the books had tiny white tags on the bottom of their spines almost like a tattoo. Now these white tags had but only six letter printed upon them in two rows of three stacked on top of each other in all capital letters and a very squarish robotic looking font and the top three letters on all of the books were identical FIC. It didn't take much of a leap to figure out that these letters stood for fiction which was the shore we had landed on while drifting in the sea of knowledge that is known as the library. But what about the other three letters these were the same on books that were next to each other but then changed through the alphabet as you moved down the aisles. Once again it didn't take long before I realized that these corresponded to the authors of the books with the three letters being the first three letters of the authors last name. This may seem a fanciful way of explaining something so ordinary but to me it wasn't ordinary like I said I've never really gotten to experience the library in all of its fullness and I'm simply recounting the event with all the wonderment I beheld upon actually experiencing it. Once I figure out how the books were organized the search was on to discover our treasure, The Great Gatsby. We walked through the aisles at a much brisker pace then before now that we had a way of attaining what we were actually hunting down all we had to do was simply skim of over the black and white tattoos on the books spines every once and a while to ensure that we were headed the right way. DEF, EAC, FIC we had made it to the F's! Now all we had to do was close in on our prize. Skimming the spines of the books in silence with eyes somewhat squinted in pure concentration we saw the name we had been looking for Fitzgerald. There weren't as many books with this name on their spines as I had expected there to be but all the same it only made the search easier but then to soon the search was over we had look at the whole section and not seen The Great Gatsby. But how could this be it's an entirely famous book by an entirely famous author if you can't get such a book at the library where can you get one? So, we looked a second time, and a third, and we even halfheartedly skimmed the section a fourth time but there was nothing to discover it simply wasn't there. Well we had come all this way and the search had been so enjoyable I thought why not look for another book and this time I decided to search for The Story of B by Daniel Quinn. You see I've been wanting to read this book for over a year ever since I read Ishmael and it changed my life but despite my want for the book I couldn't quite separate myself from the sum of cash that was required to purchase it and none of my friends had even heard of it so I couldn't borrow a copy from someone. Here we are though I thought to myself perhaps the have a copy I can read for free so we searched for the QUI section in the FIC section and discovered that there was only one Daniel Quinn book. This time it didn't take looking three times to come to grips with the fact that the library didn't have the book I so desperately wanted I simply accepted the fact as it was. After this disappointment though I figured it was time to get my library card and see if perhaps they did have the books that we  wanted so bad and perhaps we just hadn't seen them so head hanging low we walked to the counter in one last attempt to get what we wanted and it is here that my amazement really took hold. The nice lady at the desk was like an oracle able to attain any book with any piece of knowledge in it that you could ever desire! As I was signing up for my card she explained that they could get The Great Gatsby from one of their other branches and put it on hold for us and they would email me to let me know when it was available. She also sent me to another desk to request The Story of B because it wasn't in any of their libraries but they told me the would request it from another library and they would call me when it came in which would be in about three to four weeks. While they were explaining all of this and I was walking back and forth between the desks I started to notice even more of the details that made up the library such as all the amazing seating furniture they had they had dozens of couches and chairs and every single one of them looked so comfortable that it seemed almost dangerous to sit in them for fear of not ever being able to get back the cloud like hug that you would surely receive upon sitting down. I also noticed that there was free coffee and creamer being offered as if to say it's alright just have your cup of Joe and sit down relax and enjoy yourself and bury yourself deep into a book, it was almost to much to resist. As is if all this wasn't enough I noticed a huge book on tape section as well as a movie section filled with classic movies that seemed so good I can't believe we ever kept making movies after them for surely they can't be improved upon. The books on tape section is important because for those of you who haven't tried it's quite like watching a movie except you're given the script and characters but you get to direct it and choose what everything looks and feels like through the power of your mind. Finally I noticed the magazine section which was less impressive than everything else I'll admit but still wonderful considering all the magazines you could read on a monthly basis without ever having to pay for a subscription. Finally though I had to leave this wonderful magnificent place for I had a job to get to so I begrudgingly pulled myself away I know I'll return though, for I have to because I checked out my very first book My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn for those of you interested. This my friends is the story of how I got to discover the library which you get to read all because the love of my life is out of town and I feel lost without her and don't know what to quite do with myself. Quick Alex come back before the internet has to be dragged through another story!

Hello World!

Hello there,
   This is my very first post on my new blog that I've just spent a good two hours setting up. I realize that not many people will ever see this blog or read it but I haven't created it with others in mind. You see I created this blog for myself so that I would have a place where I can rant, ramble, and rave about whatever is on my mind whenever I like whether it's at three a.m. or lunch time. This blog will be mine and I hope to keep it though all the ups and downs of life so that one day my children and my grandchildren can look it up with some high tech gizmo and read a little about what I thought and felt way back in the dinosaur days of blogs. With this information I must bid you goodnight oh great internet for I am tired and have a new book by Daniel Quinn that I want to start reading.


                                                         -Dallas