So I'm reading about lucid dreaming.

...And the information I'm getting is blowing my mind. Not the fact that lucid dreaming is possible or that it's so amazing but the fact that not everybody can't do this. It's like if you found a bajillion websites that were like "Did you know there's this thing called smelling? It turns out some people have a sense of smell and you can train yourself to smell too!" something ridiculous like that.

Maybe the fact that I daydream constantly has something to do with it. Do other people not constantly daydream? Most of the time, though, I don't even actively think about whether or not I'm dreaming, I just do stuff I can't do in real life. I just kind of always thought that's how it worked. This isn't the first time, I mean I read a lot of stuff about dreaming back in highschool because of this story I was writing but it didn't really click how they're acting like basically nobody does this. It's like controlling your heart rate, breathing, blinking, or smooth muscle, you don't have to, but it's not that hard. Whatevers.

Also, I just downloaded this book called the artist's way
that I read about in a Jason Mraz blog a while ago and it's kind of like a text book with assignments and such in it. And it has these weekly check-in things where you talk about your experience with the lessons before and how well you've completed the assignments. My check-in day is tomorrow and I'm considering blogging it. We'll see.

Time

So I've always had sort of an obsession with time. And I'm not old, but I've been noticing that time's been passing faster the older I get and it's sort of creeping me out. So, I did what I do every time I think of something for a while and I googled it. Some people are calling it a subjective kind of increase based on having fewer new experiences but I know for a fact I've been having WAY more new experiences in the past 3 years than I did when I was 13, but the past three years and the one year I was Thirteen seem to have fairly similar time durations.

I know perception is inherently flawed, but I also know there's almost always something real driving perception. . .basically, time must be moving considerably faster than it was at the beginning of the universe. I mean this time shortening thing is pretty much universally experienced and every clock ever made (except for, atomic clocks), after a while, ends up minutes behind what it should be.

I don't know enough about physics or Einstein's relativity theory to explain this why this happens, maybe it has something to do with the accelerating expansion of the universe and how time is one of the spatial dimensions.

someone's gotta figure this out.

-maybe I don't know anything

I use the term obsession pretty frivolously.

sucralose

can suck my tit

reform

I'm thinking of developing a policy of not caring how I present myself to new people at parties and whatnot. I've tested it and I've been liking the result.

There's no sense in obsessing over giving the most accurate sample of yourself to people you wil probably never have deep, quality interactions with. Especially when it's probable that you're the most yourself when you're alone and if you're like me when you're alone, you don't really do anything external.

What I'm saying is, in most cases of social interaction the lulz tend to be more important to me than anything. Might as well be dedicated to entertaining myself instead of stuff that doesn't really matter in the long run. Besides it's not a lie if you don't intend to be believed; it's storytelling and maybe it'll kill both birds.

-eff rambling

Title?

So, I've been thinking about my 24 before 25 thing and how little time I really have to get it all done. And I'm thinking maybe setting up benchmarks would be the best way to go about it, for example focusing intensively on increasing skill in one instrument for two months, playing only that for the duration. On second thought, 8 times 2 is 16, plus, I'm trying to learn five more and spending too much time (like over a year) not playing an instrument will ruin whatever work I do to build my skill.

Also, I need to improve my focusing and time management by. . .a lot. I think each benchmark should have an element of that.

You know what I miss about xanga and myspace. . .and BEDA? there was more of a blogging community in those times. Oh well, time to figure stuff out myself.

OH! maybe I should do, like a P90X type deal for my MIND! . . .also, my body. I'm pretty flabby. maybe.

Also, Year 23 needs more Adventure. It's almost here.

Oh hi, BEDA Was I supposed to be doing you this year?

Whatevers. So what's going on right now?

Writing a short story in song form about how Gilligan goes maniacal and purposely sabotages everyone's chances to leave the island.

No phone, no lights, no motorcars,

not a single luxury.

We're all pawns in a sitcom

and the main character is me!

It's told from the perspective of Mary Ann, because my brain loves perspective songs. I don't know whether or not it has a happy ending yet.

Weird stuff happens when I write using instruments I don't normally write with. Also, when I write in the park.

Here's hoping I don't forget that harmonica intro.

There's a whole world out there too.

Been spending the majority of my life inside my own head.

Let's begin to venture outside.

extrospection.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

My friend Matt introduced me to the concept of a 22 before 22 list, and I thought it was great because I love giving myself numerical challenges with set deadlines. The problem is, I was already 22 at the time so I'd have to pick a new age and therefore a new number of things and try to make them all substantial an goal fulfilling. It's a really interesting type of challenge, because it's not a "what would you like to do now," type of thing it's more of a pick an age and decide what you'd like to have accomplished by that age and then seriously lay down checkpoints on that road.

I've sort of figured 25 is the age in which you're fully, solidly an adult. 18-24 is more of a transition phase from childhood, but 25, that's when you not only have the path laid out but you have all the equipment you need to make it down said path and have already reached your first landmark at least. Twenty-five is when Bruce Wayne decided bats were the best way to strike fear into the hearts of the superstitious and cowardly, when Clark Kent takes to the skies, analogously speaking, when Ted Mosby moves to New York, when Ash probably does catch them all, when Bruce Lee gets his role as Kato, and when Jimi Hendrix, Jason Mraz, Frank Zappa, Eminem, and like a hundred other people released their first studio albums . Jesus was about five years late on this one, but you get the idea, 25 is big. So in order to prepare for my life-defining landmark, I've compiled a list of skills needed and accomplishments to undertake before April 23, 2013; most of these cost money so a steady income flow is implied. It took a surprisingly long time for me to finish the list (the first 22 were easy) but I finished last night and here we are. I picked 24 because it makes more sense if 24 comes before 25.

24 before 25
(a marlon approved list of challenges to complete in a timely fashion)

1. Krump/Break/Tap.

   Knowing one or all three of these dance styles would make me unspeakably awesome in any setting that included music being played, clearly. Plus they look so fun!

2. Record an album.

   More specifically, write all the songs, record all the songs, make the artwork for, produce print and freely give away copies of an entire album.

3. Magic Tricks.

   Fact: Both of my favorite characters from both of my favorite TV shows, do magic. I wan to as well.

4. Publish book of haiku.

   (write, publish and illustrate) It's going to be a small small book I already have at least half of the haiku written. It involves dinosaurs.

5. Live on my own.

   "On my own" meaning "alone". No family, no room mates, just me and my cat.

6. Play a total of at least 13 instruments. (this requires getting better at bass, piano, and harmonica)

   The only ones I'm pretty confident in my ability to play are guitar, mandolin, clarinet, and bongos; I have a mouth harp, bass guitar, piano, and 2 harmonicas but my skill is marginal I must get better at these, then own and learn five more.

7. Build a PC.

   to improve my LEET status!

8. Own a drumset.

   May be included as part of challenge 6. It's something I've always wanted to do.

9. Learn how to fix cars.

   I don't know about you guys, but anytime I see someone on the side of the road with their hazard lights on, I want to stop and help them, but I'd only be able to if they need a Batery jump, and that's sad. Also, I'm a man.

10. Beat every Final Fantasy between 1 and 10.

    I own them, so might as well not only have 7, 4, and 9 complete.

11. Skydive

    I like falling.

12. Learn a martial art/get nunchaku

    I NEED this! NEEED!

13. Sculpture.

    I want to have a bit of comprehensive art knowledge so I need sculpture, dance, martial art, and photography checked off. I didn't put photography on the list because photography is boring.

14. Carpentry.

    I've always had a fascination with woodworking also, Jesus's step-dad did it.

15. Build an instrument.

    It's an exercise in taking skills learned and combining them.

16. Tend a bar.

    I want to be a bartender who doesn't drink.

17. Groundlings.

    I absolutely have to take classes there before I'm 25. Improv is pretty much what I want to do with my life, currently, I lack the funds to go though.

18. Get at least two degrees.

    College degrees.

19. Leave the country.

    To another country. ANYWHERE!

20. Go to coast of Maine.

    To be at the opposite side of the country.

21. Fly a plane/be a clown/a mascot/do something I've always wanted to as a child.

    Ok, most of this list is things I've always wanted to do as a child, but this one is like a bingo free space.

22. Beatbox.

    I want to be able to make music with my whole body.

23. Read the entire Bible.

    As someone who considers it the most substantial guide for living I think it's important that I at some point in my life read all of it.

24. Hunt.

    I want to at least once take part in my food's journey from living organism to meal, and farming's too gay, my people have been forced to do agriculture for too long, I don't have the patience for plants. Also I'd like to fire a gun and eat the meat of an animal I've not yet tried. It's a compound experience.

Things that helped me complete the list:

http://www.marcandangel.com/2008/06/02/50-things-everyone-should-know-how-to-do/

http://www.slideshare.net/andrei.semen/24-things-everyone-should-know-how-to-do

http://www.esquire.com/features/75-things-0808

This is not a new year's resolution.

First of all, it'd be kind of late for that. Secondly, I don't believe in those, sure they're kind of good in theory, but they tend to stem from chronologically based guilt which is, from a long-term perspective, a terrible way to get things done.

I have to blog more, and little by little make myself a better person.