There is no here there. :)

Today, there are fewer Steel-Cheeseheads in my mind. Which is good, because those things take up a lot of room, and they are quite pointy. And they make an annoying jangly sound when you walk...

Let's see...where are we now? I use the royal "we" because there are many different shades and iterations of myself right now, kindof like what happens when you and 4 other roommates share the same bathroom. It can be terribly inconvenient when you need to use it and it's already occupied. So, the roommates currently sharing my brain-loo are an odd lot. We've met the Cheeshead fellow. I'll introduce others as they arise.

But today, I am more "me" than "other-than-the-me-that-I'd-like-to-be", ergo, I am gooderer and happier. I did, after all, just get a call for an interview in the industry I've always wanted to be in (the Video Game industry), the sun is out, and life stretches before me as infinite possibility.

And, amongst other things, I had a couple of friends point out the obvious, which is what I also pointed out in my very first Opening Salvo. "Where-ever you go, there you are," but different variations thereto that sank in better.

One version, which I did enjoy much, was "Success is how you experience each step and not the step itself," which, while uncredited, I believe is from an Internet marketing success program. It evidences clearly though that it's how we react to everything that makes all the difference.

The other version, was wisdom from the finest of all the self help gurus: Ziggy. Yes, the potatoe-shaped lump of a cartoon character.

Buckaroo Banzai-like, Ziggy taught us simply

"You should enjoy here while you’re here, because there is no here there."

Ain't it the truth.

The Steel Cheese-Head...The Butcher's Knives for Hands, of course.

And yet, here I am -- in my 40's, so overwhelmed by life that I find the smallest things hard to do -- and yet I yearn for the old days when I would simply have been shoved into an asylum and pumped full of Thorazine...where the evil doctors would perform experiments on me while I was conscious or the whole place would burn down around me, melting gobs of asbestos on my paralyzed skin. Then, later, of course, my spirit would be re-awaken and roam the halls as an apparition with a steel cheese-head shaped face with ultra-huge butcher's knives for hands. And I could then exact my revenge upon unrelated travelers who stumbled upon my haunted psych ward, flaying them alive, really for no other purpose than the fact that I, for some reason, had been spiritually re-invented with a steel cheese-head for a face and two ultra-huge butcher's knives for hands...well, where-ever we go, we also must use what we are given.

Opening Salvo

With much former-Aloha, I greet you all as a former-resident of the Hawaiian Islands...moved there 3 years ago after some health issues and a bollocksed-up 14 year career at a Fortune 500 company ended for the same reason. But hey, a new start in Paradise!

Well, paradise it was, but not so much a fresh start...more like a 3 year vacation that ended after the last dime was spent. Kindof like when you go to Vegas and you have just so much to gamble with; when it runs out, the place ain't so much fun anymore! And so the natural beauty of paradise seemed to fade, and at last, I gave up the beaches and sun and palm trees and moved back to California...to the .... beaches ... and sun ... and palm trees.

:)

But, starting from zero.

At a little over 40.

:O

As Buckaroo Banzai said, "Where-ever you go...well, there you are!"