Outlandish Josh dot-com
Outlandish: The blog
About: Who is this guy?
Life: The adventure of a lifetime
Art: My church
People: Make it worthwhile
Politics: The art of controlling your environment
Work: Necessity, purpose, honor
Contact: Only connect
Pussy, it's what's for dinner

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Vintage Outlandish!

This Content From 2003 (or earlier) see index

[outlandish] | [my story] | [love] | [sin] | [places] | [philosophy]

Life...

"Believe in the holy contour of your existence"

-- Jack Kerouac

Life: the adventure of your lifetime

Life is the only thing that really keeps me going these days. Sheer existence is such a gas I can hardly stand it, man. I mean, hell. Even with all it's faults, pain, sorrow, suffering and sadness, the world is still undeniably full of truth and beauty. Anyone who tells you different has been jaded by their inability to participate.

Quick -- before you misconstrue what I just wrote and mentally crucify me for talking about "participation" from my obvious position of privilege as a White Male American -- let me tell you what I mean by that. Usually the jaded ones are the ones with privilege. When you're beat, when you're on the front lines of the daily grind and you're hungry for every drop of sweet goodness the heavenly dynamo has to offer, you realize real fast that cynicism isn't cool. You realize that playing at being world-weary won't win you any real respect, and that being world-weary/jaded/cynical for real is no fun at all.

Digging into life, that'll get you a lot of respect. Why? Because then you're something. You're coming up with output. You're putting off energy for other people to feel, not just sucking up (and cutting down) whatever's around you.

I'll tell you this, life is made worthwhile by hunger. It's a holy waltz of contrast that keeps the giant wheel spinning. Jump in the river.

By the way, I think I need a mentor. If the zen proverb has come true and the student [me] is ready and the master [you] are appearing, let me know.

Anyway, this is where I collect the various things that to me fall under the generalized heading of "life," as in "that's life," of "c'est la vie."

  • Story
    Simple autobiographical outline with a little bit of the background and a high level view of the now. A few links and tales to tell. A growing chronology and accretion of content.

  • Love
    Stuff about romance, crushes, pathos, soulmates and the neverending quest to make the divine scene.

  • Sin/Vice
    The juicy bits. Not for those of young persuasion. Sex and drugs and rock'n'roll.

  • Places
    Physical locales that figure big into my consciousness, where I love or hate to be, where I find myself returning to or longing to visit.

  • Philosophy
    Thoughts on how to go about the task of living. Basic idea: get inspired, act out the inspiration, pass it on. A bit of elaboration and some cliche's I try to keep in mind.

  • The Monkey Family
    My intentional neo-hippy family tribe. Maybe belongs under "people" but screw that, this is the stuff of life.

[outlandish] | [my story] | [love] | [sin] | [places] | [philosophy]

Blogroll: Stuff I read often, other blogs I know and love.

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* denotes freshness

Trips

Trips in Space and Time 8/02/03

Big Wheels in Berkeley
I scored a set of west-coast wheels today at the Ashby BART station flea market. It's a very tall schwinn road bike, black, deceptively heavy but smooth-riding. Thirty-five dollars to boot. I oiled and cleaned the works, dialed in the bakes and took it out for a shake-down cruise immediately. Nice riding on a beautiful saturday, realizing how out of shape I am as I wheezed my way though the hilly area behind the Berkeley campus.

After about an hour I started to get the swing of it. Made some minor mechanical adjustments (including a free wheel truing at the bike collective on Shattuck), drank a few liters of water and started finding my groove, cruising up and around and ending up with a beautiful view of the whole bay. The roads here are not kind to the speed inclined -- too many stop signs and crosswalks and lights -- but it was good to get out and proj for a while. This changes my summer dramatically.

...older trips...

...context...



Smother Me With
Filthy Lucre