An excerpt taken from "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle. One of my favorite passages in the book:

The world will tell you that success is achieving what you set out to do. It will tell you that success is winning, that finding recognition and/or prosperity are essential ingredients in any success. All of some of the above are usually by-products of success, but they are not success. The conventional notion of success is concerned with the outcome of what you do. Some say that success is the result of a combination of hard work and luck, or determination and talent, or being in the right place at the right time. While any of these may be determinants of success, they are not its essence. What the world doesn't tell you--because it doesn't know--is that you cannot become successful. You can only be successful. Don't let a mad world tell you that success is anything other than a successful present moment. And what is that? There is a sense of quality in what you do, even the most simple action. Quality implies care and attention, which come with awareness. Quality requires your Presence.

Let's say that you are a businessperson and after two years of intense stress and strain you finally manage to come out with a product or service that sells well and makes money. Success? In conventional terms, yes. In reality, you spent two years polluting your body as well as the earth with negative energy, made yourself and those around you miserable, and affected many others you never even met. The unconscious assumption behind all such action is that success is a future event, and that the end justifies the means. But the end and the means are one. And if the means did not contribute to human happiness, neither will the end. The outcome, which is inseparable from the actions that led to it, is already contaminated by those actions and so will create further unhappiness. This is karmic action, which is the unconscious perpetuation of unhappiness.

www.oprah.com/anewearth

Today I came across this website that has a list of the 100 best NES games ever, and Dragon Warrior 3 was number 29. I basically devoted my entire youth to playing every Dragon Warrior game there ever was. Most kids aged 10 - 13 found these games incredibly slow and boring, but I, being the super geek that I was absolutely loved them. Check out what this guy had to say about the game. The part that I bolded about metal slimes is just sooooo true and funny:

"Dragon Warrior is an incredible RPG series, but it's also an underappreciated one. Very few people I know bought these games, which is probably why Dragon Warrior III and Dragon Warrior IV are the only legal cartridges I know of that still sell for about $40-50. If you've never known the sheer elation of encountering 8 metal slimes or the crushing disappointment of watching 7 of them run away before you kill them, I suggest you find a means to play this game immediately."

i've been selling off all my childhood toys on ebay. so far most of the transformers are sold. i've made almost $1500. i can't believe i made that much. but it wasn't easy. i had to clean each toy off with a toothbrush and dish detergent because they were so dusty and dirty. and i took like 20 pictures of each and photobucketed them and linked ebay to the pics. some guy messaged me today just to tell me how much he appreciated the pics. most people who sell vintage toys just put like 1 pic with a description. i bet half the time they're lying about the condition. but it is a lot of work to take all those pics. but it's been well worth it because of the money i am making.

check out my auctions:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150211072243&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=005

So they just moved the NBC nightly news to 7. The commercial said, now it's actually on when you're home to watch it. I think it's a good idea, putting it on when people can watch it.

I used it hate it when it was on earlier and I wasn't home. I hate to miss the news. I mean if I'm not up to date with who got blown up in Iraq, and which celebrity was photographed without panties I just feel so out of the loop.

My blog is so stupid. I never have anything interesting to say. Why even bother? Nobody reads it anyway. Why am I even writing this? I know I'm wasting my time, yet I continue to do it. I wish I had something funny to say. How do I end this paragraph? This is so frustrating. That's it, I'm just going to stop typing.

In Rainbows. Very good. Yummmy. Tasty. I like.

this day is mine

the only thing i can say about today is that i (barely) survived another day of work. i also found out that for my cobra benefits i will have to pay the entire premium most likely, although i don't know how much that is. but since it is a group premium, it will be less than individual health coverage premium.

i feeeeel like shit and i need to go to bed. eyes, back, and leg all hurt today. leg has been especially bad today. i haven't been going to the gym really for the past month. i've probably gone about once a week on average. and my diet has turned to shit too. i have gotten so completely off track. i just don't fucking care. i've lost my will to really do anything. it will remain like this until i am free from this disease (work)

just finished watching hour 3 of the new season of 24. it's great, but the only thing taking away from my enjoyment of it is knowing that i have to go to sleep in a few short hours, which will be followed by getting up for work tomorrow morning. how unpleasant. i almost want to hold onto this tape and wait until i quit my job to finish watching. then it would be so much more enjoyable.

today was another very unpleasant day at work. my eyes were killing me. the office lights are so bright. it's like trying to read a book at the beach when the sun is glaring in your eyes. maybe my eyes are really sensitive. i wonder if it bothers other people as much as it does me. i am lucky that i still have my vision. pretty soon i'll be blind. i just realized that my blinky bear picture is squinting, haha

i need to do some things before i quit. first, i need to find out how much it's going to cost for cobra benefits. then i need to figure out how to write up an official notice that i'm leaving. i also need to decide if i'm going to quit this monday, or wait until after the vacation. i don't even know if i'm going on the vacation after the fight my parents had the other night. i also need to decide if i'm going to cancel my cell phone. and switch to dsl. to save money. i wish this whole fucking process were over already. it really sucks. i haven't been sleeping well lately thinking about this shit.