I do it in the shower, and so should you.

I'm going to ramble again.
Washington is so beautiful.
Tacoma is beautiful.

I remember the trees are what I was attracted to as a child.  The evergreen. The beauty that stays with the season. Covered in snow as a dangerous killing machine or silhouetted in the noon sun, in my eyes it was my oasis in the desert; that spot you go to in your mind when that one negative invading force tries to... well, invade your life with the negative. That place you go to center yourself, to free your mind.

I do it in the shower.
The water as hot as i can stand it.
I meditate.

I know I can't be the only person who does this, and for those who say they don't, you're lying.
That time is sacred to me nowadays, those ten-fifteen minutes in the mornings.
Getting centered is now a major part of my day, so as to be prepared to accept the things that will come to me that day. Being more aware of not just receiving positive vibrations from the world, but extending positive vibrations outward. Karma has a huge influence in that. Think what you may, but I cannot sit here and write that I have not witnessed first hand the awesome power that is true spiritual entanglement.
It's all too confusing really, I have just become more aware of the things I do, I guess. Well, some of them anyway.

It is one reason that I have just recently begun playing the guitar again.
Before I get ahead of myself, yes, there will be videos. I want to show my progression, so I did record my first few practice sessions in my living room.

I think it is going to be pretty cool to utilize youtube in my endeavor. If I post my videos, other guitar players can post video responses if they want to help me, if they see any talent and notice that I'm doing things wrong. I don't know, it's a stretch, I know, to think people on youtube are going to post response videos about the guitar at all. Prob just their own video to get more traffic to their page. I'm doing it anyway.
I'm starting kinda weird, I am sort of teaching myself with the internet and my own musical ability.
The story starts with a dream. A few clicks on the Samsung Galaxy s II, Rachel and $88,
a pawn shop, and a car. We had to get some gas, so a gas station, too. Oh and Shelby was there...

Wow.

Had a feeling and it just said go to a few *porn shops* and look at some acoustic guitars, so I talked Rachel into driving the baby and I around town to add some more footage to my Tacoma video log and buy an axe.  She wouldn't agree to the porn shop, however. (*funny misspelling when I wrote the post that I wanted to keep for you all reading*)

I had the figure $70 in mind.
We stopped at a total of three places, and I found her at the last Pawn Xchange.

I scored a Fender for $88, and the guy threw in a hard case.
The guy hooked me up. I came to find that out later at a local music store when I was buying other needed equipment.

I practiced for two days on that guitar before one of the strings broke.
It was kinda funny because the thought of the strings breaking hadn't really occurred to me when I was playing a guitar built 15 years ago, with strings and dust to match the era.

Great customer service at the Plaza II Music Center btw. When I brought in a guitar and asked the guy to show me how to string the thing, it took me a moment to feel at ease asking questions to someone who was clearly more knowledgeable in the subject of music than I, but only a moment. Before I knew it, I had a few essentials and I got out of there for less than $30; my guitar was tuned and restrung by a professional who teased me with the beautiful deep rich sound when wielded by a master. And he let me know that I got a "steal" on the whole setup; "the case was easily fifty bucks" and "the guitar sells for up to $450."

I don't care how much it's worth. It's nice to know I got a great deal, but the value is in being able to finally learn to play like I always have wanted to, and to be able to do it while Shelby is a child, to be able to have her grow up in a musical environment.
Shit, she's already such a happy child, and so freakin smart. I can only imagine where she will go if she takes an interest. All of that is why I believe it was smart to follow the world telling me to go look at some pawn shops.

My first song, or one of the first songs I am learning, is Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes.
My fingertips are numb from the practice but I'm sticking with it. Since I quit smoking, I need something for my hands to do anyway.

Keep your eyes peeled for the links to my practice videos and other videos on youtube.
I'm gettin crazy with it, I know, but it's fun.

I am going to go stare out the window now, strum my guitar and watch it snow.
I am going to visualize playing music and inspiring my children to follow their instincts.

The "Drive" thru Tacoma

I am a spontaneous monkey who searches for the better banana. I really try hard. I succeed in my head; however, I end up with the banana I started out with in the first place...
Every now and then I find a better banana.

 It was a great idea, I would get a camera and take pictures and video of Tacoma from my perspective and from the perspective of the beautiful city that should be shown to the world via the world wide web. The camera, a Bloggie Touch from Sony, was supposed to take hd video in 1080 p at like 30fps (frames per second). $100. Step one, the internet: secured. Step two, camera: procured. Step three, get Rachel on board: check. The baby cooperating, we headed out to film Tacoma the right way. Rachel (my Gf) at the wheel, armed with the street knowledge to outsmart a native, we embarked.

 It started off great. I snapped a quick few pictures and took a few 10-second videos while the light was still good. Problem is with the spur of the moment trips like we take, the lighting is the furthest thing from our minds. We once drove three hours in the middle of the night just to walk on the beach the next morning. And make out. I think there was a lot of making out on that trip.

 Anyway, the light started to give out as we tooled around the city, and all the while the baby was snoozing in the securely strapped rear-facing car seat. We just started to make it back into downtown when its started sprinkling and made the camera...work...too hard I guess?? Not sure but the pics looked a lot less than 1080 p hd or whatever they are supposed to be. I might have gotten one or two usable shots to post on tacomalove.tumblr.com the "Official" Tacoma Love Tumblr.

 Its OK though, because it gave Rachel and I the motivation to really make this video something to be proud of. Something Tacoma would be proud to see on YouTube or daily-motion representing us in Japan, China, and Russia. I'll get the shots that nobody has yet. A lot of the shots I think are going to the commons, I believe as share alike public domain photos anyone can use if they just throw a bit of credit my way. Moral of the blog post: keep being spontaneous, but in more of a planned kinda way. I mean, with a little research and thought, I would have remembered certain construction blockings that ate precious time from the light I had for shooting. that's all. Nothing else.

 If you love Tacoma or want to see what it looks like here. Go to the Tacoma love tumblr. However, I think if you click the pics you come back here... Or they go to my flickr. I think it's cool; you guys prob all think it's lame.

 I am lame.

 Tacoma video in the works, first filming hitting the editing bay in the next few days. Rachel and I are going to do one section of Tacoma a week, complete with cool little either unknown or little-known facts of the section we will be covering. Shelby might present it like a freakin' news reporter, who knows. I love my city. I love My Family.

Smallz Out.

Insanity In a Smallz, he who dares to be blunt.

-My January 21st 2012 Insanity in a Smallz-

-J.d. Smallz

I am like a new child.

I am like a newborn blogging child.

Better off starting with a little truth, right?

I won't be told what to do, I won't be told how to write, how to eat, what to wear, what to say. I am one of those sexually power-driven Scorpios, stubborn as hell, with civility.  With me, Chivalry is not dead; if I had the money, I would pay for meals, I do open doors for my woman, I love to watch her sleep, I'm sure she would think it's kinda creepy, so I try not to let her catch me though.  I hold my breath at night sometimes if I think I am breathing to loud, and try to match my breathing pace with the rise and fall of her chest. I know it's weird, but they are all things that I just do, they seem hardwired somehow into this thick skull I have developed over the years.

 Now that doesn't mean I think I am old or anything, on the contrary, I believe I will always have more to learn and do, as long as I learn and do them on my terms.  Which brings me to somewhat of a point, well, at least what I sat down here to blog about.

Why do I have to use those "Tried and True Gems" everyone's pitching on the internet? Let me know if I'm wrong, but it seems like the old gag where you get to the site and, ... oh that's right, the ol' bait and switch, where you then have to buy a cheap ass  E-book with info that you can find with a lot of your own research.

 I don't know anything in particular about blogging, frankly I can't even really write all that well, but I gotta believe that if I write about a topic I am passionate about, a topic that I love, a topic that I own and wrote the book on for gosh sakes, people will find it, people will "get it" and in a few days I'll have 1,000 followers from here to Mumbai, right? Doubt it, I am just not that consistent, I am just not that interesting.

 I want to build a persona online. I want to create a brand. However, as much as we think it's our personas that we create online, I believe those personas were already there and they created us online. I walked right into View My Smallz and will happily, and without protest, keep saying yes to paying to be an awkward and/or lame online version of myself.  It's like the internet thinks we as humans are lazy, but it's all in the name of convenience, right? That's what they say, it's ok that our teens don't have to know how to spell because we have spell checker. They don't know how to interact with each other or the world because of texting, so they keep turning "Emo" on us and want to cry a lot and play stabby games.

We don't even have to use our own minds, or money, for porn anymore. Thank heroin addiction and serious daddy issues in the 90s  for that one! However, I have a feeling our forefathers were well on their way to instituting some kind of porn policy anyway, who wouldn't want to monatize sex, it's a crazy money maker today.  Damn, it used to be so hard to watch porn on the internet, too. Now my six-month-old could smash her little fingers so innocently on the keyboard and BAM! grandma being plowed by three chickens and an albino midget wearing a body condom, sorry, that was bad, "little person" wearing a body condom.

 I remember trying to be all sneaky, putting a blanket over the tower so my mom wouldn't hear the dial up beeping, I would cough just as connection started, you all remember the sound, all while trying to beat one off to a half-naked thumbnail of Angelina Jolie (who, by the way, is still in the yank bank but on a steady decline since Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). Sorry, TMI? Really, I can't help it, I can't be told what to say, remember?

So..

It's all classic sales right, I get it, I've been in sales all my life. Supply and demand. I want to know how to be sucsessfull online so I can spend time with, and take better care of, my family. And someone hears that call, makes a website and sells the shyt out of it, probably every second of the day from every corner of the world! Seems almost forced upon, conspiracy?... nope not gonna be that kind blog... I just am recently noticing how tracked online we are, it's like we have become horny little purchasing ad generating rabbits, marketing cockroaches or hatchery fish released into the wild to bring back our friends to the same sick spawning ground and it will never be the same again, that's already a given.  Notice the Adsense, I do get the Irony of this post btw.

Do Bibles still sell? I could do that.

I have even been "That Guy" that called you that one time just after your aunt Sally met her untimely demise by tripping and then subsequently also killing your three-week-old kitten, and weren't you sitting down to supper when I rang? Or that one kid who knocked on your door and sold you $350 of magazines that you then: A) got yelled at by your wife for using 4 checks to purchase, and B) then used those same mags to burn in your fireplace later that day because you realized you bought 10 subscriptions to Modern Eskimo and 15 to Underwater Basket Making Secrets.

 Not my fault I'm charming is it, somehow the sly little tricks I used back in the day, I must have learned them from somewhere, I just can't place it...*Cough-TV-cough...mainstream-cough-media ack- ahh that's better, had a little phlegm is all.

I did have a point when I started this, which with my apparent adult onset ADD, I can't even remember.

I will rant, I will rave, I will complain while typing on my laptop wireless-ly piggybacking off McDonald's free internet and sparkling employee conversation. All the while learning all your tips to be a successful blogger.

I am like a new child

I am like a newborn Blogging child.

I read it's best to end with a little truth.

Catch my next posts, all about twitter, myspace, facebook, and Hash..um hashtags.

In a few days when the medz wear off.