Out With’da Gout
“I feel like 41 is too young to have gout.”
But my doctor of 13 years and my wife’s Uncle said, “Nope, it’s gout. No beer and no red meat for a few weeks. Did you eat something recently to trigger this?”
“Yeah, a pork knuckle sandwich and a bunch of IPAs. You know, Indian Pale Ales?” This doctor happens to be Indian.
He laughed and said, “Yes, I know them. No more of those for a while. And then when you do, only in moderation.”
“I don’t do moderation well.”
“You wanna walk?” he said.
I went to get my prescription filed at the grocery store right across the parking lot from the doctors office. Outside they had a giant smoker with two signs: the first let me know that I was in the “Slow Smoking Zone.” The second read “BBQ Ext. 75 feet away.” Which let me just say, was bullshit. It was at least 175 feet away. And when you have gout, that matters.
I really wanted ribs. I used my phone-a-friend and got over the craving and picked 3 chicken drumssticks instead of rib tips and the lady gave me 2 cups of sauce on the side. I grabbed a Pure Black Tea, paid and found my way to the deli table.
I was halfway through my second drumstick when a 70 something year old lady sat down at the table in front of me and said “Hello, nice weather we’re having.”
Really?
We exchanged several pleasantries and I could tell she wanted to talk. I know I didn’t, I was eating chicken legs. But I looked around and saw that 2 grocery guys were talking to each other and not paying attention to us, so I told her about my doctor’s visit and how I couldn’t have beer or BBQ for a while.
She said, “Oh and it must feel like the end of the World for you!”
“Yeah kind of. At least it’s the end of summer,” I said.
“It’s time to wake up kiddo. You can’t live like you did in your 20s. You start eating right, so that weight comes off, and when you’re my age you won’t be dealing with the same crap as your friends. Most of them will be dead.”
“Oh I forgot,” I yelled, “there was a funeral right outside the window at the doctor’s office. I took a picture of it before the doctor came in.” She looked grossed out at that statement. “But when I was talking to the doctor I said, ‘I don’t want to end up in that funeral over there.’ He just laughed and said ‘Yeah, I noticed that.'”
She waved it off and said, “Keep eating that chicken, enough with the beer and you’ll be ok.”
I thanked her for the conversation, headed past the beer isle toward the pharmacy, grabbed a few iced teas and thought, Well here we go again.
A little inspiration.
BTW, the title Out With’da Gout is a phrase my cousin’s friend says when he calls in to work when his gout flares up. I think it’s hilarious when he says it in his hillbilly accent. Now I can’t stop saying it. I almost said it to my boss when I called in today from the parking lot of the doctor’s office. “I’m out with’da gout.”
Now if I could just get out of the US for a week or so.
My Private Used Book Store
I have recently been accused of being a book hoarder. I have also been accused of not reading all the books I own. There are hundreds on the shelf, so maybe they’re right. Ok, it’s true, both statements. But for the record, I have read more than I haven’t.
Either way I’ve started pulling half-read books off my shelves and am knocking them down like cans on a fence post.
I just finished Life Without a J.O.B. by Barbara Winter tonight. It’s a classic how-to find your bliss book. I have 10 or 12 pages left in The $100 Startup by Chris Gullebeau. He documented 50 entrepreneurs who started their businesses with $100-$1000. Once I finish The $100 Startup, I’m moving on to The Art of Original Thinking by Jan Phillips.
I almost feel like a have a really cool used book store in my house. The shelves are full of essayist, poets and philosophers. There should be enough material to get me to the end of the year. Maybe my New Year’s resolution will be to finally break down and buy a Kindle, then I won’t be able to see all the books I’ve bought but haven’t read yet.
My New Project
In case you are wondering what I’ve up to, I have started doing research for a book on businesses that a person could start for under $1000. My premise is, “If you lost your job tomorrow, would you be willing to get out and hustle if I showed you 50 different businesses that you could start tomorrow for under $1000 and be making money by the end of the week?”
Solid businesses can take years to build, but the hardest part for many is just having an idea and then getting started. My mission is to chronicle people who did it and show others how to get started. I will post some of the stories as the interviews come in.
Here’s to your health and wealth and I hope you have a great day.
Kustom Kulture (Revisited)
About 6 or 7 months ago I did a tribute poem/video to Robert Williams, Big Daddy Roth and Von Dutch called Kustom Kulture. In case you don’t follow Hot Rod culture, these three men are the godfathers of that genre.
I started my own YouTube Channel today, so I thought I’d repost the tribute poem. You can click here to see it. Or if you’re on the my page, you can watch it below. Please feel free to “like it” on the YouTube Channel as well…you may very well be the first person if you do it today.
52 Things For Writer’s To Do To Get Known
I’ve been writing this blog on-and-off for a couple of years now. So yesterday I decided to take a look at how many subscribers I have. It had been at least 6-8 months since I looked last. I was shocked to learn that I have 576 subscribers signed up to read my stuff. No, it’s not a million. But it’s a substantial amount considering I was expecting maybe twenty.
That number strikes me funny because since I’ve started my current job a year and a half ago, I have barely have had time to write. So I haven’t posted much on my blog in the last year and I wanted to change that.
Then a couple of weeks ago I found this article called 52 Things Ideas for Writers for 2015 by Brooke Warner. Most of these are ideas are pretty simple, others may take longer. Either way, if you implemented half of these ideas, you’d be on your way to your first book deal in no time.
This leads me to what I tell people (and myself) all the time when they say they want to be a writer. I say, “If you want to be a writer, then you need to write, preferably every day.” And if you want to be a professional writer, you need to start treating your writing like a profession, which means doing things on this list every day to get your writing out there.
So now I’m taking my own advice right now…here’s a link to the article. Click here.
A Simple Idea
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life–think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” –Swami Vivekananda
Memories On the Wall
I dropped Jaya off at her Nani and Nana’s today and when I came home, I sat around for a while and looked at all the art we’ve made and collected over the years and this is my favorite piece.
I did this stencil of Jimi a couple of years ago when I got on a Banksy kick. After I printed the image out, I traced it on to a piece of cardboard and then spent an hour or so X-acto kniffing it out.
I then got some black spray paint and sprayed the stencil on the canvas. And let me tell you, after spending an hour or so cutting it out, the 2 seconds it took spraying it on was anti-climatic to say the least. But at least it looked like Jimi.
I then painted the canvas with water color and let it dry.
Then I cut out a piece of paper and put it over the Jimi image and tapped it down. I then let my 3-year old daughter paint around the piece of paper.
She painted it however she wanted it. There was no prompting. No, “Put a little more red over here.”
Above is what she came up with as a background on her own.
Pablo Picasso said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
And because of that, this is the most vaulable painting I will ever own.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pablopicas385182.html#LsB3IOBFhC7K2TaB.99
“What Is Unique In Your Head?” with David Choe
People who have a creative vision have a long way to go in order to monetize their idea. Making something out of nothing is the entrepreneurial dream.
In this interview, artist David Choe discusses his creative path with Joe Rogan.
“What Is Unique In Your Head?” with David Choe
Watch here: http://youtu.be/bRnQXElR0xE
Freethinking – Pass It On
I came upstairs from running on the treadmill this evening and I heard my five-year old daughter crying in her bedroom. I made my way down the hall, double-time, and opened her door. She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face and then she dropped her head back down.
“What’s the matter hon,” I asked.
She didn’t want to answer.
“What’s wrong?”
Silence.
“Come on Babe! What’s the matter?” I said.
“Daddy, I don’t think God loves me anymore,” she said.
I let out a long sigh. “Why not?”
“Because he doesn’t talk to me,” she said.
Being a Freethinker, (aka Atheist/Agnostic/#notgoodwithlabelsaboutGod) it would be really easy for me to crush the innocence’s of a child’s beliefs and say, “Well He doesn’t exist, so don’t worry about it!”
But I didn’t do that. Instead I said, “Do you know that people from all over the world believe differently about God?”
“No,” she said.
“Grammy’s and Grandpa Wallace’s family believe that Jesus is their God. Nani and Nana’s family believes that Krishna, Ganesh and Vishnu are their Gods –one God under a different form,” I said.
“What do you believe Daddy?” she said.
Great! I thought.
People who know me know that I was a strong Christian until I was thirty years old, then I went to Mexico and saw the Mayan ruins. By age thirty-five, I didn’t believe in God at all. At forty, my thoughts have changed even more.
So I told her, “I believe that if there is a God, it isn’t a Him or Her. It’s a power or a force that our human brains will never fully understand. But I’ll tell you this, if you know that feeling, then it knows you too. And you don’t have to worry about it not knowing you. All you have to know is that it’s there for you if you need it.”
She said, “I think I’m going to be Hindi like Nani and Nana.”
“You mean Hindu?” I said.
“Well they pray in Hindi,” she said.
“They might,” I said, “but their religion is called Hindu. Either way, it doesn’t matter what you pick. You’ll change your mind a dozen times by the time you’re my age. Believe whatever you want,” and I walked away and left it at that.
Then she yelled, “Daddy!”
“Yeah Babe.”
“I don’t think I’m going to go to church anymore with Grammy,” she said.
“That’s up to you Babe,” I said. “But you know what?”
“What?” she said.
“It’s good to keep an open mind and learn as much as you can about all of the Gods because it’s part of our culture as humans and you never know…”
She seemed to be ok with that and about a minute later I could hear her singing her little Hindu prayer in Hindi that she sings with her Nana, asking for protection over the family. It seemed it was her way of getting right with herself and with who she considers her God. And as a Freethinker, I’m perfectly fine with that.