2 years walking

I love how many gravviless and wet noodled resolutions back flip out of each new year, and how easily you can tell they'll momentarily careen right through the screen door on their galactical merry way to the edges of acknowledged existence.

I prefer to talk about what I DID, rather than what I "will" do.

BUt I still resolutions. I'll post them somewhere, but first I need to revisit the old ones. The single best iota representing 2008 is the fact that I still have my Goal Page.

In the mean time, start making 2009 the best year of your life and REPORT it.

Karmic Eloquence

For most of us, it's another day, another dollar. But today is a big one for the Big Guy.

Stay classy and keep it outta business class.

Ships, Pirate and Rocket in Nature

When I was in AIESEC, I'd often fantasize about getting to hang out with my conference friends on a regular basis. The amount of awesomeness that they'd pack into a weekend, night, or road trip was not 1 iota away from forcefully blowing brain out of my nose.

Images of what we could create Out There were regular guests to my dreams and I constantly schemed (then and now) of how I could bring us all together to concentrate, create, and change.

Fortunately, I had a solid tribe in Madison that regularly gave me that urge to blow, and the cohesiveness, respect, and unforced teamwork that they displayed rests as the model I aspire to create in all endeavors now and forever.

I had never thought of my network as an asset before, largely because I was too dumb to do so. I was too caught up in it.

But, as I alluded to, if the past 2 months have taught me anything, it is that now we are There. The deep, absolute friendship, generosity, time, and invested energy that I've received has left a tangible mark on me. Asking for nothing, giving of everything; true shoulders of giants.

Unique New York

... Is not where I am. May have accidentally lied to a few folks when I said I was based in NYC.

When at establishments slightly more upscale than the Patriot Saloon, there is a noticeable pressure on your shoulders to "be" New York. At a certain point you have to make the conscious decision to accept or deny this subtle influx of attitude and demeanor, and it seems like those who do generally venture to different destinations than those who don't. Just a first impression.

On the 9th day of this journey, we find Mix already investigating 2 new business ideas. Both show initial promise. Both represent the underlying reason he dropped here.

My network is proving time and again the most valuable asset I own, but I still haven't made my first dollar.

Brand Equity

Father: Going back to work?

Mix: If I stop for too long I'll lose momentum.

Father: Is that momentum or mementum?

File papers, get a biz

My idea is now a legal entity, I think. New Jersey, I hope you have lenient tax laws. To celebrate, I bid on my first projects; $8100 of work I probably won't get. 

But you gotta start somewhere. Like Ron says, half of Victory is showing up and being competitively priced.

All I can do is hustle

I forgot just how efficient my home was at providing absolutely no social stimulation. Outside of my house I have literally nothing to do, and it has been a very long time since this has been the case.

I should be able to hit my Monday goal. I've been blogging more and also knocked out a bio page.

I'm not used to the cold, not quite adjusted to hours at a time staring at a screen, but things are moving. Starting is the hardest part; after that it's all about hustle:

Rebirthing

I came back and one cat has a limp and bald spot on her tail, the little man is now driving, and my new bed is a futon.

Like last time I returned, I struggle to sleep past 630am and the pistons slow to a halt by 8pm. The days are filled with tasks necessary for one starting their next business and moving to New York City in 6 weeks.

In between the periphery, I shall recount the stories that've been diligently awaiting their rightful rays of light... 

Which reminds me: ever go to Echo in a limo?

Maximize the P's

The June-July plexus of happenings is shaping the period into the Month of Mix. Things are really coming together in many aspects of life; a positive development after having things seem so fragmented for so long.


IMG_1425 by Mix Master on Zooomr

Although it is not yet ready to be fully defined in the definitive sense, that which is the Near Future is dividing itself into 3 distinct stages, each sating a noted purpose, passion, and pace.


IMG_1429 by Mix Master on Zooomr

Soon, however, I believe the Month of Mix can be penned in a clear manner and other parties may see crannies where they may fit in.


IMG_1408 by Mix Master on Zooomr

Until then, if you haven't checked out this batch of photos, you should. It is one of the best photo series I think I've ever perused. From time to time, everyone could use a little of the inspiration of knowing a Dream was just lived.

Did Johnny get a tan?

Vineeth in Singapore by Mix Master on Zooomr

PS That is beer in that bowl.

Building a Desk: Good for Rep?

Step 1: buy a hammer, some decently long nails, kahlua, creamer, and vodka

Step 1.5: Get a nice, ergonomic glass, add ice, and pour a beverage. Think.

Step 2: Plan to use plywood, you can usually find some on clearance at Home Depot (also known as Hope Depot). They can also cut the pieces for you, usually for free, so no saw necessary. Make sure you are specific in how accurate they must be with their cuts... don't let the guy just be a loose canon.

Step 3: I basically built 2 file cabinets to use as support structures. It's important to put a shelf or 2 in there because this will help support the cabinet laterally. I essentially copied the dimensions of a standard 2-3 drawer file cabinet. I can't remember the exact dimensions, but you should be able to get all pieces out of an 8ft or so length piece (you'll need to design your cuts beforehand to tell the home depot bitch cutter). I think the height was around 2.5ft and the width was like 12 inches.

Wood is hit or miss, but if you're lucky you can find some good deals. Either way, $50 or so should cover it all. The emotional satisfaction is free.

Note: When designing your pieces, make sure you incorporate the width of the wood pieces in your measurements.

a momentary lapse of... noise

It's been quiet here because I've been in a funk with the usual tertiary anti-blog vibe.

It'll pick up again when I get my ducks in a row. Heck, the shisha has hardly been sparked as of late. That changes tonight with my new Peach shisha (thanks), a nugget of glory amidst my recent grind.

I'm relentlessly focused on 2 things right now:

1) Growing hobohookah.com
2) Testing the viability of a new business idea

Nothing else matters; if it doesn't relate it doesn't happen. As such, that doesn't make for very interesting blog posts and I'm still pretty tired of the blind getting blinder.

Hello World Redux

My first post ever, from a Mac. Let's see if it sticks. If you know of any good resources for such a transitional experience, leave it in the comments (please).

Another shoe drop

TOMS Shoes had their 2007 shoe drop, which is worth checking out, even if only for the cool photos. Somewhere in South Africa, a kid just received a new pair of shoes courtesy of Mix and TOMS. It goes to show how a business can still make money while contributing to an idea larger than itself.

Which is what I'd like to somehow emulate.

A little slow to the draw, like usual

Make this year a good one, buddy.

Bonus pic:



And look at these champions of a team:

Had to

Not even a carry-on

Sometime in the near future I think I'm going to start another blog. I think it'll look something like this.

crashed pad

The Jesse is swinging through town for a few days as part of a totally sweet 6 week SE Asia tour. This recent text message string should sum things up quite nicely:

the jesse: omg i am in a cab w 2 ppl i met at the twin towers! They r taking me 2 their house 4 lunch. Am i going to die?

mix: Don't let either of them get behind you. If it becomes hostile, proclaim love for 'durian'

the jesse: They r old and want 2 know about usa. Man this weird and random. Tell my parents i love them.

Speak softly and carry a big stick?

Fuck that shit. I'm going to be launching Lightning Bolt after Lightning Bolt while making shrill noises.

Lyrical Poetry

I'm not totally sure what Kaitlin was talking about, but I do know it was something about circles, and so is this.

Back in the times of yesteryear, while residing near a small park inside a blue house fronted by a porch with 3 couches, we through a festival with a "Full Moon Party" theme. Hilarity was hypothesized by the DJ and his sidekick, me, if a throwback of pure purity to the party's theme was executed.

...

During the DJ's time in Thailand, he recounted, a song of utmost ridiculousness also enjoyed utmost popularity. It was called Sexy, Naughty, Bitchy.

...

It can be neither confirmed nor denied, but memory argues we played the song during that most epic and grande of parties.

And yes, you guessed it. Today, it was played for the dance class at my gym. I think I sat there the whole time and just listened to it.

Thailand - Gilman Street - Kuala Lumpur. That's some good distance.

Queen Mary is not my friend yet

It's 12:24am on Friday night and I'm in my room on my computer as I smoke a shisha by myself. I'm listening to different versions of the same song, by Bob Dylan.

At least part of this equation is wrong.

I've recently donkey punched Month 2 of my stay here, and it was about this time in Egypt that I ventured north east to Turkey to meet another nomad. Shortly after that the blocks began falling into place and a foreign city slowly flowered into a City of Dreams.

Sometime in college I learned that before you can really massage a body, you need to know where the joints are, where the soft spots are, and where the tense parts are. Once you know how the parts all fit together and what does what, then it just becomes an activity of properly manipulating those parts, or "massaging them" if you're so privy.

I hypothesized that it was probably pretty hard for a blind man to do.

Club Survival Manual - for las ladies

Getting swarmed by dudes is no joke, and you CAN prevent it. Pull these moves the next time you feel like having a night to yourself, and your saucy ladies, and you should be bombardment free... (HoBlog)

I think this one is Digg worthy. Check it out and lend it some juice.

Do you

realize?

The fan is clicking

I now write for another blog, Self Pursuit. My first entry (On how not to talk to women) is a little hostile; I think I found a home for my surmountable cynicism.

The HoboHookah site has undergone a face lift. We're still doing some tweaking, but check it out and let me know what you think. Expect some other exciting announcements (hopefully) real soon.

It looks as if I'll be part of the founding crew for some sort of creative-industry focused association here. Khailee, a revolutionary and coworker, and I are tackling the creative energy and relationship void here in Kuala Lumpur. Let's see how it develops.

To carry with

From the celebration of the weekend past, where I laid in stone my love for wedding celebrations. Cheers to those who shared in the revelry. A fitting last bang.

all tied up

The last rendezvous took place in the Fox Hut, and nearly all is squared away. I leave yet a little more than I can comfortably do on my final day, but energy is not gained without energy getting spent, as it goes. In a few hours I give my final farewells. Then it is just me and the open road.

And the Dreams begin. One Year. Do with it what you will.

Malaysia Navidad!

Roadie

Closure is quickly approaching, but could not come without a necessary road trip. Saddled up with a few boxes of hobos, a gleaming eye, and a most trusted companion, we adventure west, ready to take the world on. The boom box has batteries for now and CD's adorn its side car. Let's make this last one a real doozie.

My going away party will be hosted by six girls I met last night.

So that happened...

And college ends with me in an empty room sitting in a desk chair, laptop in my lap, Ian's Pizza in my hand, and the sun rising. Worry not, the night ends with the assigned tasks not quite completed, per normal. A fitting end.

I think it is time for this writing space to reinvigorate; much has happened, but much is left to be done.

The Future, navidad!

golden fears

In the theme of measuring unmeasurables, there are several different levels of relation between a person and their desire to acquire or not acquire material possessions. On one end, you have those defined by their possessions, the kind in an endless pursuit for that which is currently It, and on the other end you have those with an aversion to nice possessions, those defined by what they don't, or can't, have. I fall somewhere in the middle, I think.

As the Hobo gets ever closer to revolutionizing The Party everywhere, and my next steps loom closer, I've begun to think about what effects I'd come to face should I achieve some level of success. I'm talking mainly about money, but also the relational changes between myself and associates, friends, and yes, strangers. For now, I'll think about money, and what doors it opens and perhaps closes.

At a certain income threshold, it becomes easy to pick up dinner on the way home or order it to your doorstep, maybe or maybe not justifying it with tiredness or lack of time. Cooking is just so hard! You buy a TV one size larger than planned, speakers with a little more wattage, and an apartment on the top floor, for the parties you lack the energy or time to throw. You subscribe to five magazines but don't read them. You've got a lot of nice shit. It's all nice. You also work your ass off, and usually come home exhausted mentally, physically, and emotionally. You get about 36 hours of weekend each week if you're lucky, but Friday is dominated by the week past and Sunday by the week ahead. Yet, you're there, man. You can fly to Barcelona on a dime or buy the next iPod coming out, since it has an extra five gigs of space, even though the other wasn't filled. Give the old one to the nice kid who picks up your laundry.

And so, my quandary. I seek the quickest route to financial freedom, yet timidly look forward. It's not that I admonish a life of wealth, or getting yourself nice things, even things you don't need. It's that, should I get there and have to carry with me the long, toiling hours of work and strain usually necessary to sustain the lifestyle, will I possess the ability to ever let it go? Could I drop it for better access to the finer things out There? Or will I hold on as it drives me into the ground?

I'd like to believe I know the answer now, but what about when it all changes?

Quietly in the house

Our house begins shaking at 7am each day, courtesy of the construction men tearing up our street. It provides for some crazy daytime dreams and a wake-up experience that does not include vitality. I'm fighting it and losing.
The blog has been dormant; I've been trying to iron out some sort of consistent schedule... and failing, which begs the question, "Why can't Mix ever line up a good summer job?"

Better blogging coming up. Until then, check out the sweet stories over at the Hobo Page.

PS The Zooomr gig has been interesting to watch from afar.

In the theme of Office Boys in Egypt

I am in the office in NYC. (Navidad!) A few hours ago, I walked by a diligent delivery boy dutifully putting together a fresh new desk chair. "How nice of him," I thought. "Way to maintain some rep, robot."


...A minute later when I walked back past him I realized it was in fact AdamB, not some little peon.

Lesson: even delivery boys can be revolutionaries.

Tap Cap

There is no night cap at Echo Tap. Only the Tap Cap, where you wake up not knowing what hit you.

And for MVP of the week:
Kyle: mvp of this week goes to Jason from sales. he gets on a cold call and straight up isl ike "hi my name is jason hall i'm with aiesec and was wondering if i could meet with you tomorrow"
and the guy is like, what?
so jason is like, i'm with an organization from uw
and the guy asks how to spell AIESEC, so jason proceeds to misspell it twice
and the guy is like, well i definately can't meet tomorrow already
Kyle: and somehow jason pulls a meeting for monday out of his ass, during a time when he's supposed to be at an exam
so jason emails his professor and gets to take the exam earlier, just the funniest like 15 mins ever

I guess there were a few visitors last weekend, but I can't confirm. Good company I'd imagine. There is another this weekend.

"morning" coffee

I hear Bruni coming from a mile away, his brick shoes alerting his presence to the neighborhood. He walks in to the kitchen. He opens the fridge. He of course sees nothing of value. Shoulders slump, he sighs.
"Don't you do that every morning?" I ask, continuing, "I use the term 'morning' loosely here."

He turns around, empty handed and proceeds to the door. He looks at me, I finally notice his headphones, his mouth kind of moves a little. The door shuts behind him.

This is the foundation of our interactions.

Springing Forward

As things wind down, my mind winds up. The finish line looms near, a book unread opens its pages and Mix must choose which chapter to begin.

Standing on the moon, I see a shadow on the sun
Standing on the moon, the stars go fading one by one
I hear a cry of victory, another of defeat
A scrap of age-old lullaby down some forgotten street

back in the 21st century

I have re-secured a telephone. If you want a call 2 days late for your birthday, shoot your number to MixMaster(AT) nomadlife DOT org. Not sure how long it will take me to break/lose/both this one.

Now, I just gotta find that 21st century fox..

random thoughts of the day

The mouth-breather behind me nearly got form tackled after class today, instead I simply wrote in my notes, "mouth breather behind me today. should die."

We have a sexy website set up for Rowdy ROKS 2007, magicked up by Anne. Check out it's sleak design for a break from your daily grind.

I'm really digging this Grateful Dead show right now.

Hearting

We lived the dream last night. Burbs and MP are arriving soon with treasure from the liquidation sale, to continue the Living.

From Kansas, with love.

The Deal, and The Road

I went with the Brady method last night. I was standing in a bar with someone with whom I am not well aquainted and as such, simply asked, "So what's your deal?" You're not always sure where, but it always leads somewhere. I'll use it again sometime.

And now I'm headed somewhere I am quite familiar with: the Open Road. It came upon us rather quickly, but we shall not hesitate. Strap on your spurs and saddle up, Cowboy.

Heart Land Navidad!

Let it be known...

A girl in my class walks up to me today and says she saw me at one of our info sessions last week. I ask her which one. She tells me. Then she says, "Your suit really fit you. I don't know... It was like, you should be in a suit all the time."

My response?

"Affirmative."

why I love America

I just saw The Bruha, the first time in 8 days (yea, I was gone for 3.5 of those). We live together. He's in the kitchen mumbling, or producing noises that sound like mumbling, right now.

Raiden 0.5 in the morning Hosted on Zooomr

For some reason, those thoughts just led to a question of mine. Why does this university, which has a shitload of money, skimp on toilet paper so bad? Honestly, you'd think they could go a notch or two above single-ply, see-through TP. The same question goes for various businesses vying for my (limited) dollars.

Vexing

The long and arduous journey I found myself on over the past month will end tomorrow with a mother notified her son will still be unemployed. A wide open road before me, there are millions of possibilities...

Nine mile skid on a ten mile ride,
hot as a pistol but cool inside.
Cat on a tin roof, dogs in a pile,
Nothin' left to do but smile, smile, smile!!!!

immersion

Part of the reason I struggle to put forth any real effort into Spanish homework is the lack of any immersion or real benefit it gives me at this point in time. I get home and want to build this shit or other shit, not squint at a few pages and try to remember how my Spanish friends say 'door.' Institutionally, I'm only allowed a half-mast approach to learning the language for now.

If I were down south or maybe a little east, well, then it might be a different story...

tortoise or hare

In weeks like this, where I have an overwhelming amount of work to accomplish, I tend to listen, more often than not, to high octane, like-a-punch-in-the-face type music. It keeps my heart beating at the proper rate and, for some reason, brings me comfort, maybe because it matches that week's pace of life. My mind scurries about, notching all the things to accomplish and squeezing those precious minutes out of each day. I walk faster.
I'm going to try something different this week and keep it real. Be a Gentry of Moderation. No energy-focused tunes or power walking. Just getting it done, without the buzz.

ride to glory

Notch another notch on the reception tally. This episode of immigration adventures brought to you by unmatching birthdays and names on various residency documents. Pray tell me when I'll get through one of these sans a glitch. We spent 2 hours, yet only $40 at the grocery store...Adjustment might take a while. Milwaukee has some cool cats and they'll take good care of our guests.

The long days are worth it when you feel the deep appreciation for the help you've provided. I saw it in his eyes and something in me flamed. I've been on both sides. No thanks needed.

The many good-byes of such a transitional period wear on me.

Eve?

The scariest thing happening to me lately is the occasional thought about Apple and the potential appeal of their products...

an idle muse

Once I get that magical piece of paper, I don't foresee occupancy a job where I have little say in what I work on. I also will not sit in a place where fear prohibits free thought, where one can't have faith their decisions will be supported, barring morony.

Today my appreciation for nugs.net grew yet again as the Grateful Dead got me through another day of minimal thought. Birdies fluttered through my mind as a great show took me to a far off place. I said I didn't hear her because of such focus on the data entry. In reality, I was there.
I was there, man!


Well, I ain't always right but I've never been wrong.
Seldom turns out the way it does in a song.
Once in a while you get shown the light
In the strangest of places if you look at it right.

not quite loving to hate

I've finally released my binds to one of the worst classes I could ever imagine. I might burn the notebook, which I hardly used, and video tape it. If I had a camera of my own I would definitely do it. I would say 5% of that class tested your ability to think a problem through, your thought-process, your analytical abilities, etc.

Check that.

2%
Quite an embarrassment to the university system and very disrespectful to all the students who just wasted a shitload of man and woman-hours on that sorry excuse for teaching/learning.

A keg sits on my porch, unempty; a personal vendetta requires I, the sole occupant of my 7-person house this night, finish it. Wouldn't want it to be too heavy to return
tomorrow.

Oh yea, in the unending hilarity of my finals schedules, in 5 hours yet another test awaits my exemplary effort.