I've got the POWAAAAA (as in, Power...a la Snap!)

"Positive things happen to positive thinkers" - Robert De Niro in The Fan.

Although his character was a certifiable psycho in the movie, he was onto something you have heard preached in hundreds of blogs, speeches, television programs, etc.

So if it's so simple why don't more people say "YES" to their positive thoughts instead of letting the negative ones pollute their head-space?

I would be lying if I said I have never had a negative thought or took negative actions in my life. I am not a completely 100% positive person and I doubt anyone truly is...but I do try to block out negativity, as I truly believe (as you should) that it is harmful, toxic, and dangerous not only to your well-being but to others' too.

Exposing yourself and others to negative words/actions releases stress and kills the brain's health which directly affects the health of a person's body. It's scientifically proven in a variety of studies, and it makes perfect sense and yet still...people refute the idea and choose to dwell in a wasteland of destructive thought.

I hope if you are one of them, you will stop. Now.

Lying, deceiving, backbiting, stealing, and hurting others are all negative behaviours spawned from the wrong kind of thinking.

If you feel inadequate or jealous of someone else, trying to hurt them or being negative towards them will definitely not help your state any further and will make you even more vile and destructive.

I have observed it ruining friendships, relationships, and making people literally crazy.

Some believe positive thinkers are unrealistic or dumb.

Well, I am a mostly positive thinker and I happen to be very in touch with reality and am certainly far from dumb. Not acknowledging or partaking in childish games, or jealous competitions does not make someone dumb, it makes them smart...for not wanting to live a life of hate and pettiness.

Like the Eagles sang: So often time it happens, we all live our life in chains, and we never even know we have the key.

Think about it.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts. ~Samuel Johnson

To be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have. ~Ken S. Keyes, Jr., Handbook to Higher Consciousness

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. ~Oscar Wilde

It`s not all about looks...

On Saturday night I was lucky enough to be at Alice in Chain's sold out show at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre (capacity: 16000)...they are, and always will be one of my favourite bands ever.

The consistency, quality and uniqueness of their songwriting and presentation will always be special to me...from their unique "Alice in Chains tuning" to the merging of harmony with classic rock and other genres, their songs are consistently full of depth and I respect them immensely as musicians!!

I mentioned how much I adored the band while speaking with another fan and he asked "why? do you have some crush on Jerry Cantrell?" as if that could be the only reason a female could be fond of musicians.

First of all, no offense to Jerry Cantrell, because in some circles he might be a stud, but I don't find him remotely attractive.

And second of all, that statement made me feel like he thought females could ONLY be into music if the artist was physically appealing, which is not true.

There is a saying "if you never judge, you can never be mistaken..." and this cannot be any further from the truth. Labels and judgement are unfair.

His jaw dropped when he learned I have been playing instruments since I was very young. I learned guitar by age 13 and had a deep appreciation for all kinds of genres before I even knew what sex appeal was...his shock to me was silly and makes me a little bit nauseous because I am definitely not distinct in this regard.

Maybe he was just saying it out of ignorance or has some man-crush on Jerry Cantrell himself...I don`t know. But it made me feel like we were in 1950, not 2010.

The end.

Put your hand down, you are not pimpin'

Coke Zero is the best.

Diet Coke and Pepsi, your asses need to try harder....you just aren't as good.

Courtney Love is my new TBFF

Last night I could not sleep.

I turned to Twitter for entertainment but being 2am, there was not much activity and I wasn't in the mood to read the time-released tweets about being a social media expert or top ten lists of why your pet is deviant or reasons you suck at using Twitter.

Then, as I scanned my stream over I noticed Courtney Love online entertaining questions, like a lot of celebrities do...usually during more conventional hours...but then again...this IS Courtney Love we are talking about! Anyway, I decided to send her a question and sign out and try to sleep again.

My question to her: "Are guys from the south really gentlemen?" I had noticed a lot of people tweeting her so I didn't expect her to talk to me but she answered with "no! I LOATHE Jack Daniels a LOT!"

She told me what she likes to drink and what she drinks it with...she even retweeted my answer to her followers. You can all go creep her and my profiles to see our brief convo but it was pretty cool seeing her answer people's questions and ranting about random stuff like how she was thinking of doing a Gaga cover and how it's Joan Jett's loss completely for slamming her in the 90s.

Love her or hate her, she is always entertaining.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Worst

Fail of the day: Putting your ipod on speaker and the worst song ever comes on and everyone looks at you like you totally suck for wasting gigabytes on it but then you realize you accidentally synced all music from your laptop onto your ipod...including the Sample Music folder.

Let it Be

It never ceases to amaze me how some people do not possess one iota of courtesy, respect or sociability whatsoever.

Two individuals who possess this mind-blowing array of no-skills have made my life hell today (IRL before anyone jumps to the conclusion this is a digital matter).

Although through digital channels these people are not absent. I am not going to waste a full blog about them because I have already addressed this issue before and no amount of truth, proof or reason can make these people apologize or even acknowledge they bought into untruths or constructed judgement based on false information.

Seems a lot of people do not subscribe to the philosophy of Peace & Love anymore. That makes me sad.

Pizza

I need to remember today, for today I made the mistake of ordering pizza from Pizza Pizza.

Disgusting. Never again.

End of blog.

My first concert (out of +/- 3000)

Who remembers their first concert? I do. I was 15. All I really wanted for my Sweet 16 was to go to a rock show and be cool! Obviously since I had no job and relied on my parents for money, my mom took charge of the plans and I didn’t know what to expect but I was assured that I would get my wish and she would take us to see guys who have long hair who play guitars; so I was pretty pumped! She ended up buying about 10 of us tickets to go see Collective Soul (who happened to be in town on the exact day of my birthday –also a Monday night so I have no clue how any of us went to school the next day).

We clearly went to the venue directly after school and got to meet a couple of members from the band outside the venue randomly. First we saw the bassist in the park across the street, and totally had to go bombard him …at some point I think he said something like “y’all” and we started giggling uncontrollably and asking him “why do you talk like that? You’re not a rapper!!!” But he was still cool to us and hung out despite our lack of knowledge of geographical dialect differences. His sly exit was “oh look, he’s in the band too! Go get his autograph!” pointing at one of the guitarists. He wasn’t into it and told us he wasn’t in the band and swiftly ran away. We were like “what a LIAR!” later when we saw him on stage during the show.

The show was relatively fun. We were front row in the pit and wanted to mosh really badly cuz that’s what they did at rock shows on TV. I guess no one else wanted to (wrong concert?) so we simmered down and listened to the music… we didn’t know any of the words which pissed all the die-hards in attendance off. Some crazed-fans started yelling at us that we didn’t deserve to be front-row and that we were little bratty kids etc. But that just made us laugh cuz they were so serious and full of rage over something so inane.

After the show we went to the tour bus where apparently we could meet the band (according to an anonymous tip). At the time it didn’t seem crazy that we were taking advice from a man who came to the show alone and followed them from city to city. The lead singer was “sleeping” already but the bassist was willing to talk to us again and we saw the guitarist who pretended not to be in the band before the show. He ignored us and we decided he was the worst one.
The drummer ignored us too so he was the second worst.

Maybe I will scan the pictures I have of meeting them that long ago later.

The end. Thanks for reading.

** Edit: found the set-list in my nerdy scrapbook from high school...

Disciplined Breakdown

Listen

Collection of Goods

Maybe

Heaven's Already Here

Love Lifted Me

Blame

Forgiveness

Wasting Time

December

Shine

Precious Declaration

Crowded Head

Everything

Revolution (Beatles cover)

Smashing Young Man

Where the River Flows

The World I Know

Gel