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DarkLittleCloud
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Name: jacob
Country: United States
State: California
Metro: Sebastopol
Gender: Male
Interests: i love god, strangers, art film, philosophy, being a waiter, debate, poetry, jumping jacks, books, cats, and music; a ton of it, so here are a couple essentials:
+ bright eyes
+ regina spektor
+ tom waits
+ the pixies
+ death cab
+ arcade fire
+ modest mouse
+ bjork
+ elliott smith
+ the white stripes
+ radiohead
+ nick drake
+ belle & sebastian
+ the flaming lips
+ iron & wine
+ david bowie
+ coldplay
+ the decemberists
Message: message me
AIM:  TragedyInStereo
Member Since:
9/5/2005
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| what could be more epitomically characteristic of the human condition than laziness. each day we think up newer and easier ways to avoid our problems rather than confronting them. once we begin routinely engaging in this behavior, we manufacture a vicious cycle that's difficult to escape from once we convince ourselves we've let too many problems accumulate to return from our escape and try to look at them with a poker face. what universal principle underlies all of our mechanisms of escape and objects of ultra-distraction. is it pleasure? no, for some of us attempt to escape the pain of our lives do so by causing ourselves other types of pain. it's human nature after all. have you ever accidentally hurt yourself and bit your hand or squeezed your fingers to have a different pain to focus on? it's a response we all participate in to some extent.
but then we also try to escape our strives by pursuing various sources of cheap pleasure. we try to transcend our stress by artificially altering our cognition and neuro activity; we try to drown out our anxiety with hypnotic quantities of hyperstimulating media; we try to burry our problems with sheer and utter ignorance; deeamphasize them with obsession over a superficially productive reoccurring activity; downplay them with juvenile rationalizations and comparisons; sleep through them in our slothfulness, reject them in our arrogance, and deny them in our pride.
it seems like extravagantly lazy behavior, but maybe we're just beginning to develop the muscle mass to endure the huge-feeling problems we're about to face for the rest of our lives. IHOP doesn't let you order off the kid's menu even if you're only hungry enough for a little kid-sized meal; life doesn't let you slide along with kid-sized problems once you start morphing into an adult. these hardships that start to kick our ass during late adolescence and early adulthood are but a sneak preview of all the heavy-hitting adult-sized realities that are gonna be pounding us into the ground until we're dead and buried in it. when you're this young, nearly *nothing* you do or don't do is gonna be the end of the world for you. but what we do in this time sure shakes us up that much, because it's just now hitting us that when those life-defining decisions and misfortunes do start coming at us, we're gonna be all alone. our parents can't help us, they've already taught us everything they know how to and we've gone and left them by now anyway. our friends can't solve anything for us, for they're the same scared kids playing play-for-keeps dressup that we are.
no, in this season of our life, we begin to realize that it is finally all upon us, and how successful we are may very well depend on how much attention we were paying when our parents and friends *were* able to advise and assist us. nonetheless, the memory of those easier days isn't the slightest of comforts. instead, those memories serve as an warm and soothing introduction to what will shape up to be a cold and unforgiving period of growing pains.
and isn't being alone through this - the vulnerable singularity, the loneliness, and ultimate isolation - isn't this the most potent experience to upset our lazy nature? for what could be more volatile to the lazy person than to have no one with them to validate their presence and help them retain some tangible sense of anchorage into the network of postmodern human connectivity?
if we're too lazy or too afraid to identify and neutralize the damaging aspects of our human experience (perhaps for fear that failure in our attempts will leave only ourselves to blame), then we become doomed to immerse ourselves into patterns of self-indulgence or self-abuse. this is the resonating whisper of urgency that we must respond to in order to correct our present and preserve our future. if one doesn't confront this ensuing reality at their first awareness of it, there's a 90% chance they won't respond to it until it returns in the wake of incredible damage, and a 50% chance that they'll never break the cycle even after the devastating wakes to come.
this infinite and instantaneous moment which is the present, this cellar door into the tangent reality of our unrealized potential, this immeasurable fraction of a second that we currently inhabit - *this* is that moment upon which we must act.
best of luck,
jacob ward
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| A Letter to the IRSDear Internal Revenue Service,
We at RedBox Publications were very alarmed and dismayed upon receiving your audit. RedBox Publications is, as it always has been, a non-profit charity organization, and we are hence uncompelled to entertain your monetary demands. If the charitable nature of our fine organization is indeed under scrutiny, I would beseech you to consider the fact that we have full support from Bono and Alanis Morsette. In fact, 10% of all RedBox revenues have been allocated into the altruistic coffers of the Evangelical Christian church, and the remaining 90% have been awarded as scholarships to myself as well as our research staff. On a personal note, I would urge you to stop sending letters to this address, as am now happily relocated to Mexico, and you will never find me.
Sincerely,
Juan "Jacob Ward" Martinez
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| a post..?
yes, after nearly half a year, i am posting. i must be really. reallly. really. booOoOoOOooored. (let's see if anyone still even looks at my xanga, traha.)
so, Starbucks, crappy coffee extraordinaire, has FINALLY launched Starbuck Records.
 "Who am I..?"
you may have already heard this, but they have even signed x-Beatle paul mccartney (whose really at the top of his game about now.......)
 "I'm still cool."
this is what we call "brand extension," when a brand (starbucks) extends itself away from its original product line (beverages) into new territory (paul mccartney.. and music.. and stuff..) but even thought it's completely retarded for a coffee corporation having enough problems as it is (i.e., the high-ups are worried that starbucks's are losing their authentic charm due to the lack of fresh coffee-smell at the stores), the good people at Starbucks realized that it's high time that they give we the public what we've all been waiting so long for: Starbucks Records.
 (hint: if you grind coffee beans, your store will smell like coffee...)
now, i really shouldn't be this critical. there have been far more insidious brand extensions in the past...
yes, Hooters Air. where we once thought that Hooters was good at nothing but chicken wings and boobies, now Hooters is your gateway to the world.
 check the leering business man, on his third apple martini, no doubt. (it's almost noon, after all)
unfortunately, Hooters Air didn't have a wide enough target market to stay afloat, so we've fallen back on more sensible ventures like Starbucks Records.
keep in mind that companies aren't the only entities who extend their brand. there are also celebrities, who are brands of their own, in a sense. luckily, the best hollywood actors of all time (like steven seagal and sylvester stalone [note that tough-guy actors' names are S-illeterations]) haven't strayed too far from their expertise as they've extended themselves:
 kickass strait-to-video star, energy drink creator. simple. elegant. juicy.
but steven has had more to offer our culture than sweet movies and energy juice... he's also an accomplished musician..
 featuring such original hits as "music," "lollipop," and "dance." doncha wanna daaaaaance maan??
now, sylvester stalone is another story. even though his music career hasn't quite taken off (despite the tight song he wrote/sang in the credits of "Paradise Alley"), he, like steven, has contributed to the gourmet corner of your refrigerator:
 mmmmmmmm!!! more Stallone Pudding mom!!!!
maybe it's me, but i think yogurt is one of those things that should be endorsed my a woman. i just don't trust guys, especially strait guys, to make good food. and i shouldn't say that, since i myself am an awesome chef, but i guess i just feel like i'm special. it's just.... i dunno, i want OLD WOMEN to make my food. older the better. they cant drive, but they seem to have incredible attention to detail in their cooking. think about how much attention guys have to detail, and their commitment to quality. heck, today i was in wal-mart and i found a 3-in-1 bodywash+shampoo+conditioner. a woman needs like, 5 hair products and 3 skin products, minimum. but i grabbed the manly-scented 3-in-1 scent as quick as i saw it. and even though you might be totally lost at this point, that 3-in-1 guy soap/shampoo is EXACTLY why i wouldnt eat Stallone Pudding.
anyway, i've got more but i needa go do homework. peace.
-jake
(darklittlecloud@gmail.com)
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| quit ihop.
now serving at a sushi place.
trying to finish redbox today.
the end.
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| IHOP, underappreciated waiter
JC, full-time student
RedBox, stressed out editor/researcher
Traffic Violator School, begrudging attendee
Uganda Fest, groundbreaking musician
that's me, lately.
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