heya, how you doin?
i'm in a pretty kickass mood, i must admit. why, you ask? it's because i had somewhat of an active week. more so on a mental/spiritual kind of plane. granted, this weeks developments aren't what many would call earth shattering or anything, but i felt valued in a few different situations, and that's always a kickass way to go through life.
earlier in the week, two of my co-workers each acquired a 2g iphone, and they needed help getting them unlocked. one had never been unlocked, and the other one had, but was acting alllll crazy. i've never unlocked an iphone, but i have a few things going for me; a desire to help, mixed with a "dude, i can totally do that" attitude when it may or may not actually be based on previous experience(depending on what it is i've decided that i can totally do), and resources to help when the previously mentioned false sense of security only gets me so far.
so sunday night, i'm at home with the aforementioned iphone. armed with info that i found online (and the guidance of my pal michael) i got down to it. i ran into a few snags, then i realized that i needed the new version of the application that i was using to unlock the iphone. once i updated that, it was all gravy. here's some action shots:
the pineapple appeared when it was unlocked and booting up (the boot icon was changed in the unlock process), and the other picture was taken while the baseband was being updated. don't ask me wtf a baseband is, but man, i'm glad it got updated!!!!!
i was really proud of myself when i called my coworker from his newly unlocked iphone. badass. he was giddly like a little school girl, and really, who could blame him? those phones rule, plain and simple.
the other iphone was fixed the next day, and my coworker was shocked, suprised, and reminded me that i was the man all day long. gotta love that.
the other example of feeling valued came thursday evening, courtesy of my pal michael. he's a nice guy, fo sho. anyway, he sent me an email, and i'll post a little bit of it here. kind of a call to action, if you will.
"I've been toying with the idea of leading an internet video production experiment. The concept is simple: make a video blog out of interviews with random people from all walks of life, then provide a transcript of the interview in a blog post with video embedded from YouTube, and a photo album from Flickr."
a social tv station/blog? anyone who's seen my hard hitting man on the street interview with the morbidly obese santa bear knows that this is right up my freekin' alley. my reply went something along the lines of "oh hell yes, sign me up!" so we talked and messaged a bit today, and i'm happy to say that the project is underway. more on that as it develops!
i gotta say that it's really nice to feel valued. it's not that i don't regularly feel valued per se, but it's nice to have people place their trust/belief/whatever in you and you deliver.
on another front, i've been feeling the need to streamline things; to rid myself of belongings and stuff. ever go through a period in life when you felt that you needed to simplify? that's where i am right now. perhaps it's maturity, perhaps it's gas, perhaps it's from watching too many episodes of clean house on the style channel. about a month or so ago, i went up to the attic, got all of my simpsons collectables, along with the majority of my reunion-era kiss collectables and tossed them up on ebay with the intent of not making a mint, but just to rid myself of them. it's not that they were taking up valuable space (they were in the attic), but if they're in the attic, that means i don't use them, and if i don't use them, why have them? now you get my drift.
over the past few weeks, i'd sit in my office/guitar/computer room and look around at all the stuff (primarily guitars) that are sitting in there. i don't know for sure exactly how many i have, but i'd have to guess around 16 or so. 16 guitars that don't get played a whole ton. i've noticed that the more guitars i've had, the less i play. irony? i think so too. i finally decided to thin the heard; i've come to grips with knowing that there will most likely always be a project that i'll want to build (i've probably got 2-3 imaginary guitars in my head right now), so if i don't clear out the ones that have been mentally replaced, i'll be like the old lady who has 120 cats, except i'd have guitars. at least you can't be allergic to guitars. anyway, i decided that i'm selling five of them right now. today. why the hell not? i'd much prefer to unload all of them together, but from the interest i've received thus far, it doesn't seem to be going that way, which is also fine. it's not about the money (although who doesn't mind that?), but more of the process of trying to break away from the mentality of letting my things define me. that said, i haven't become a minimalist who has sold off or given away all of his stuff (although that'd probably be an interesting, not to mention freeing process). but i guess i'm seeing that i have a lot that i don't need. granted, there's a few that i have that i'd never get rid of, but i guess if nothing else, i'm making an attempt to streamline things a little. besides, it's not like they'll no longer exist when i'm dead.
which brings me to this question for you, dear reader:
Q: let's say i handed you a coin and told you that if you flipped it and it landed on "heads," you'd get everything you've ever wanted in life; but if it landed on "tails," you'd die an immediate, yet painless death.
would you flip it?
what's interesting to me is that i don't totally know my own answer to that question. i think i have an idea, but i have a feeling that soon, i'll know for sure. i look forward to that.
