Lauren.

"Know the masculine, Keep the feminine.".

I want to thank everyone for joining in and dropping me notes.  I do miss you all.  Maybe we can have some fun this summer?

Thanks and love,

Manny

It's black and it's medium and it says LOST and has an ABC logo on it.  It's just fell out of a plane and landed on my lap.  I'm a burly fellow and my caridigan is hermetically sealed to my body so I figured I'd offer it up to my loyal and devoted fans and friends. Just send me an email by friday 12/5 with "t-shirt" as the subject line and I'll throw your name in a hat.  If you win I'll send you an email, you send me your address and the t-shirt will be mailed to you from one of my loyal associates. Hope to hear from at least one of y'all.  Happy New Year!!!!!!

 

PS:  Some people seem confused so allow me to clarify.

This is a lottery. You email me on Myspace and I'll pick a name on friday and then contact the winner and send them the shirt.  There's only one.  But it's pretty.  Be cool if the winner sent me a shot of them in the shirt so I could post it too but if not that's cool too.  Thanks for playing and Happy New Year all.

I mean get in a time machine of your own making and go back in time.  Of course I mean 1/5/2007. Sorry. I'm tired.

How are we to find our way if were not allowed to walk on our own?  See the light if everyone is showing us the way? We all need to live, love, laugh and all the other L words that make up a fulfilling existence with observance rather than direction. Everyone needs to find their own way through this thing called life.  All the uninitiated masses should have the opportunity to make the same mistakes that were all meant to make - love the wrong person, work at the crappy job for far too long, loan money to a friend because these experiences help make us the unique and interesting individuals well eventually become.

 

It took me a long time to learn this. I used to think I could, no make that should, tell people what I thought they needed to do.  That great deal not such a great deal -- that thing you really want you dont want that -- that love of your life let me tell you what I know about him/her. Now I might have been right more than not but I wasnt doing anyone any favors.  I wasnt just denying them a bad choice and alienating a friend; I was denying them the chance to learn from that choice and myself the chance to see how bad I must have looked when I made that same decision.

 

Hey we always want to help/give someone the benefit of our experience. If you think you need to do something, protect a friend from themselves, or offer up your opinion on someone elses life choice, theres only one time to do it; when asked. And even then you have to act with tact and diplomacy.  And just as a warning; starting your suggestion with an Are you crazy or When I was a kid is a waste of your time and theirs. An opinion should never be an order.

 

And heres the biggie - when a decision involves love or money unsolicited advice will only lose you a friend.  And if youre asked your opinion dont expect to be listened to.  Just give it in hope. Your advice your opinion in these matters, when not verbally requested can put you in a very unenviable position.  And dont fall for the, I dont know what to do followed by the long pause. Thats just a trap.  Say nothing.  Let the pause hang there and fire back with the concerned look.  It will save you every time.

 

When it does blow up or hey, if it all works out - yeah right - always be humble and understanding. Be gracious, be smug to yourself, but always be a friend. Never drop the I told you so.  Never say, Yeah, well I knew it wouldnt last. Never be the know-it-all because you dont know-it-all.  None of us do.  Were all just going through this gig with our hands out-stretched flailing to find our way and just hoping it all works out for the best.

 

Theres a Korean proverb that goes, Power lasts ten years; influence not more than a hundred, which I personally read as, you can make someone do what you want for only so long or you can allow them to do what is right and they will continue to do it. How you choose to take the quote, my ramblings, and what you get out of it all are really up to you. Hey... Ive just told you want I think you should do.  Now disregard all of it and go out and live your life the way you want. Ahn-nyung.

I want to WELCOME and thank all my new MySpace friends for visiting my page and reading my thought and mental excursions.  I enjoy your questions and comments immensely. I hope you understand that at times I cant really answer all of YOUR questions with the specificity most of you would like.  NEXT time you ask questions Ill try my hardest to supply as much information as I can provide.

 

One of my other hobbies is photography.  I try to take interesting pictures and VIDEO as often as possible. As a young adult I often envisioned myself a young photojournalist getting the breaking story for the national news magazines... ah those childhood dreams and ambitions. So I really wanted to give my totally amateur photos a nice viewing place and found the gallery on MySpace to be wanting. 

 

When I first joined MySpace I met a lovely lady named Lena. When she learned of my off-hours interest in photography she pointed me to a site called Flickr. If you get a chance or have some time take a look at my photos. And thanks again Lena for your helpful generosity, your discretion, and for just being you. You can meet some of the nicest people on MySpace.  Enjoy.

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mandrakewig

When I was a child my father told me that he invented Jeopardy.  Yes the TV game show. He said it came to him while he was reading a comic book and pondering the universe. I was a child at the time so every word from my father's mouth was like gospel written in stone. I would tell all my friends at school that my father had invented Jeopardy and they'd laugh at me but seeing as we were children they werent totally sure what to believe.  My father would instruct me to answer any and all doubters, in the form of a question.  Example, to "you're a liar," I was to say, "What is something a layperson thinks but cannot prove?"  Or "You're dad's crazy," to which I would reply, "What is a conclusion not supported by any facts presently available?"

 

This never really worked for very long but they were usually so caught off-guard by the fact that I didn't just answer with, Is so or wanna bet, that they'd usually believe it and thereby leave my parentally-induced fantasy intact. Now I know this might sound like a form of child abuse to some of you but I was a kid.  It's like when your dad tells you that some guy on a baseball team he admires is the best player in the league and you go to school and tell all your friends that so-and-so is the best.  Now if you are an adult you look at the stats and discern which ballplayer is the best and correct the fanboy but as a child you go with what you're told - a blessing for a parent and an eventual lie that needs to be corrected - until you meet a well-read child or know-it-all adult.

 

As I grew older I wasn't really telling the Jeopardy story much because like most kids, I wasn't really talking up the parents anymore.  Then one day I met a new kid and we started hanging out.  One day he mentioned in passing that his father had invented Jeopardy. I must have been standing totally still in a state of shock because he tapped me on the shoulder asking if I was alright.  After a few minutes I told him that was impossible because my father had invented Jeopardy. I tried to catch him off guard with my usual question response but he wasn't having any of it.  He just looked at me and responded, I've heard about you. 

 

Seems that, unbeknownst to me, my childhood claims had spread.  And they apparently reached the ears of this kid. He told me that he had heard about the lies I was spreading and he was making it his duty to tell anyone who would listen of his father's achievements in a effort to set the record straight.  Now we are kids and to have another kid setting the record straight with your peers is a little like an attack.  So I felt it was my duty to protect my father's and my family's honor. 

 

To clear the air and end the conflict I insisted we have a battle in the spirit of the game.  He gladly accepted.  We picked a day for the competition and had a teacher prepare the questions and answers under the guise of helping us in our quest to be game show question scribes.  Yeah it sounded dumb then too. I think the teacher was humoring us but I felt like a real grifter at the time. The category we agreed upon was pop culture references. We flipped a coin to see who went first and rock/paper/scissored our way through the rest of the questions since we didn't have access to any sort of buzzer system. 

 

Question #1

It was the first R-rated motion picture.

 

Question #2

Classic Sci-Fi movie E.T. the Extraterrestrial is watching in the film.

 

Question #3

To which Ralph replied, chicken necks.

 

Question #4

Not a friend to the radio star.

 

Question #5

Kitty Carlisle starred on this game show.

 

I'm not going to tell you whether I won or lost. But I will tell you this, questions 3 and 4 really stumped me and my father never invented Jeopardy.  I don't think the other kids father did either.  I don't really know or care to be honest. It appeared to me at the time that both of our fathers were fond of telling tall tales to impressionable youngsters.  We remained friends for a short time and then kind of went out separate ways as kids tended to do. I still love my dad and I think the other kid, I think his name was Charlie Griffin, did too. I only tell you this story to remind you that the truth has a lot of power to control and influence.  Always use it wisely.  The truth can set YOU free. The only way to free your mind is to keep it open.

It wasn't my fault but it was my problem. When you're paying attention but not watching what you're doing things tend to happen. I was going places, seeing people, and being seen all at the same time. Hanging with friends and just hanging out. I was sober as a judge. But I wasn't a good judge of the condition my condition was in. I was supposed to be taking a trip, flying literally but when you're out and about late the night before and your flight leaves early the next morning you tend to either stay up and make it or sleep in and get a good nights. I did the later.

The alarm clock didn't go off. But I woke up like it was 1985 to the sound of... wham and I was wide awake. Good morning and I gotta get to the airport. Down Under to Angel City and I'm a few minutes if I'm a mile from the departure gate. The plane is leaving and I am plain out of luck here. Say good bye to my ticket outta here and hello to another day exactly where I started. I'm running and I'm running and I'm running and I'm not running and I'm standing in a line and I'm taking off my shoes as I watch a pretty bird fly away and I realize I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.

I go back to the hotel and I fall to sleep quickly. In haste, unchaste, a complete waste of the final frontier. When I wake up I have the distinct feeling I'm not dead or missing and presumed dead or dead and presumed dead, missing, or otherwise. I turn on the TV cuz I was expecting something but I didn't know what to expect except that I should expect something and I get it. The plane didn't make it. It didn't get there. It never got there. It ain't anywhere but I'm right here. People will be sad. People will be worried. People will be relieved. I'm all three and I'm on a flight back to the Golden State and I am far from being a warrior.

Did I escape death or miss out on the adventure of a lifetime? Or both? All I know is, my parents are ecstatic, my friends are manic and my pissed-off ex that hates my guts cuz I couldn't commit is erratic. On the way home sweet home from the airport I fall asleep in the cab dreaming blissfully of what the future holds, the women unmet, the food untried or vice versa and all that I am about to accomplish when guess what my driver, my chauffer ok my cabbie falls asleep and it's all Mr. Toad's wild ride and I ain't got a seatbelt.

See, what I didn't know was that the guy had a long night. A really long night. Some might call it a "paperclip" and instead of sleeping it off and packing it in he stayed up all night just to make his shift. Just to make his flight. Just to get to work on time. Just to pick me up at the airport and park the car running, under and eighteen wheeler. Facial reconstructive surgery - that's what they call it when your face needs fixin'. I'm still me but I'm not. I'm still ok but I'm got a chip and it's firmly placed on my ability to tip another cabbie for the rest of my life.


So how do I look? I'm still me and it's my problem.