Can I use your phone?

I flew home to Minnesota for Christmas. I like to think that by using the mass transit I am helping my friends, my environment, and my community by investing in a social project in which I believe. Hopefully my 5 dollar all day pass will be used to contribute to more stops on the subway, and better cars, and, in the far off future, some sweet teleporters.
Anyhow, I was on the third transfer of my trip and was about 5 stops from disembarking the train and beginning the bus section of my commute.
I had been texting my 3rd favorite girl in the whole world (the princess) and a young gentleman leaned across the aisle to ask if he could use my phone for a minute. Now I had three bags and realized I would make for a really easy target for a phone thief as I would have to leave my bags or leave my phone if he opted to take off, but my phone is not state of any art, nor did this gent seem like he was itching to take it. I also pondered the idea that I might have 58 other people without cell phones following him to ask if they could make a call as well.
I threw caution to the urine soaked seat in front of me and told him to go ahead, handing him the phone.
I overheard him say, 'yeah, this is me, come pick me up now,' and that was it. he handed it back to me with no further, longwinded argument about where he'd been and why he didn't have the bread or the bread money anymore.
He introduced himself as Carlos and we struck up a conversation. Carlos was studying at Cal State Long Beach while being the highest earning salesman for his Sprint office. He aspires to travel someday and do amazing things in sales.
He also has a girlfriend of two years whose phone number he doesn't know. He was worried that she would be upset with him for not calling but he honestly had no clue what her phone number was.
About one month into the relationship I had decided the memorizing the princess's number would be a good idea. I have called her from numerous phones and texted her from countless others.
It's a good idea to have some people's numbers memorized.
Pick a person who is important to you and memorize their phone number. It will come in handy someday

Uncle Lon

Here's some great sales tips. Let the customer price it before you tell them. How much would you pay for this??

Never take an item back from a customer.
Lon showed me a rachet, whilst describing all the amazing features, then set it down in front of me and said, "How many do you want?"

Another great tip, pay attention to this one princess, it will tell you why you do so well, people don't buy products, they buy the person that sells the products.

My uncle embodies all the characteristics that women are attracted to per the evolution of desire (mentioned in a previous post) and consequently, has so many amazing stories to regal an audience that you would be able to sit and interact with him for days.

Plus he has some of the craziest drug stories ever!! (Shocker, I know, being as this is a recurrent theme in my blog)

Nathanial

I met Nathanial on a red eye flight. I wanted nothing more than to get a few hours of sleep as I was suffering from a horrendous cold and coming off of the most ridiculously evil day in the history of womankind. That is just shorter than the history of mankind, but directly correlates with my, and all men's, lack of one rib.
I was reading a book by the name of "The Evolution of Desire" which I greatly recommend to anyone who wants to understand why we do the things we do.
I was struck by a particular paragraph in this book describing how, in a controlled test, the more faces included in a merged photo (utilizing different characteristics but, ultimately, removing any asymetry) the more attractive it was considered. This fun fact was something I threw at my seat mate and we struck up a two hour conversation about life, attraction, tv and goals. Nathanial will someday write music for movies and television. Just the man I needed to meet. I feel that we will have great use for one another in the future.
When we were awaiting our luggage I introduced my family to his. To tell the truth, Bob and Rita were somewhat puzzled when I told them I felt like I knew them already and gave them a hug. My mom is amazing and as I was talking a little with Bob and Nathanial she struck up a conversation with Rita. They were getting along like old friends. I think my mother either contributed to my outgoing personality or she just doesn't care how ridiculous I make her feel.
Either way, what a woman!

Target

I began speaking to a lady at Target the other day and opened with a statement. I told her that my girlfriend was thinking about getting a third tatoo and I was curious if that is too many.
The lady looked at me and, completely straightfaced, said, "you have a girlfriend?"
I no longer wanted her opinion.

Hugs for the Homeless

Yesterday I walked out of the grocery store while it was raining. As per usual, there was a lady asking if I had any spare change. I did. I gave it to her and asked how she was. she replied, "well I"m getting wet," as it was raining. I, brilliantly, asked if she was excited that christmas was around the corner. (At this point I was wishing I had a taco to give her for that insensitive comment. I don't mean to stereotype, but I am confident that the homeless don't go all out when celebrating the birth of Christ)
She said she was excited and then saw my sheepish expression. "Give me a hug," she said.
It was a great hug!

Car Trouble

What's worse than having your car act up?
Yes, female genital mutilation is obviously worse than car trouble but that might be the only thing that qualifies.
So my car started making stupid noises at me. I brought it to the mechanic and there was a gal in a nice gray sweater behind the counter. She was talking to a friend on the phone when I walked in and she asked what was the problem with my car. About 2 minutes into my description I asked if there was a mechanic I should tell these things too. I hung my head in shame as he stood and said, "you just did." I, then, saw her gray mechanic's pants and felt like an uber ass. I made up for it by giving her a taco. Yeah, I sometimes give out tacos as compensation for unfair profiling.
She ate the taco and, later, as we discussed what was going to happen with my car she told me she'd take good care of me. I then commented that I thought she would do a fine job cause she had eaten the taco I had given her after knowing her for 2 minutes. I mentioned that she was trusting and cool cause I could have easily put a rufi in it. She quickly replied, "I love rufies!!"
I knew then, that my car was in witty, capable hands!

Miracle Worker

Talking about meeting some cool cats! I met a new director friend at a party last night. Mad Props to the princess for bringing me to this party, it was a pimping good time.

For no reason, other than it's sparked my curiosity, I began my conversation with this young man by telling him about my experiment. He was intrigued as well as to how many interesting people have interesting beliefs in this town. We spoke on beliefs for a few moments before he blew me away with, "I have seen a lot of miracles happen in the past few months." He went one to explain how he, himself is 'manifesting' these miracles. Now I had to take this guy at his word because he was very chill, calm and collected as he described how he and his family and friends have manifested miracles by their concentrated mental efforts.
This, objectively, sounds unreal but I really appreciated how my new friend described his own feelings, prior to these experiences, as skeptical regarding the existence of a higher being that took an active role in humanity. I felt this young man's honest confusion and wonder as he detailed some of the events that had occured in the previous months. In ten days he was able to film and edit a music video that was selected from all entries as the winner. It was good too, I have seen it. 10 days!! I was in a music video last year and 8 months passed before we saw a single thing from it. That, to me, is miraculous. Check out this video and tell me if you think it's good or not! 10 days!!!

I cannot wait to get to know this great guy more. These are the events that really catch my interest.

Max!

This could say something about me, but I have been meeting the drug lords lately.
Last night I met three gents. They were annoying, sad and Max. He's an artistic designer and he nearly picked up his bachelors in Chemical Engineering before switching to film. I was very happy that the lovely princess was distracting annoying so I could further delve into the spendor which is drug manufacturing. I was completely unaware of how Acid is made and now have a rough idea of some of the intricacies of the two day process. Were you aware that Acid can be purchased as a liquid, in a gel tab or even in paper form?
Sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it? Don't get to ambitious though, if you possess more than one sheet of acid (about 100 hits) you can be charged with a federal crime. Also should be noted that if you take over 10 hits in a lifetime, you can be considered clinically insane. (I am not sure about this but Max preached it as the good word)
For those who are less drug experienced (I am one to talk!) Acid is a steadily increasing, peak, then steadily decreasing trip that lasts around 8 hours. This is distinct from a trip that could be triggered by Shrooms which have any number or variety of highs and lows throughout their duration in your bloodstream.
Another interesting fact about Mushrooms or Acid is that it interrupts your sensory perception. People under the influence of such 'Hallucinogenic' drugs have claimed to be able to taste colors or to hear smells. This interruption of the senses also interacts with the ocular reception. Between the cones in your eyes and your brain interpretation, these drugs can warp your vision and cause you to see things which would seem impossible. (e.g. dripping lights, light trails.) Perhaps you have already seen some images in this style but were unaware. How about these artists: Salvador Dali or MC Escher.
Interesting, yes???
Wow, what an educational day it was!

Crazy Cat

The following interaction began because I happened to be reading Ken Kesey's 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's nest'. The gentleman asked how I liked it and I replied that it was disappointingly slow. He soon revealed that he had spent a great deal of time with Ken Kesey and some of the other 'Merry Pranksters'. Now, I was in the musical 'Hair' and did a great deal of research on the era for that purpose but I had never heard of this group.

My new friend regaled me with tales of his own experiences with drugs and parties with the Merry Pranksters. It was fascinating for me to meet someone who had a very hands on experience with the drug induced 60/70's.

Apparently Ken Kesey's spent a stint in a VA hospital talking psychoactive drugs, including cocaine, lsd, and acid all for the benefit of science. After this clinical stint, Kesey and the Merry Pranksters continued the 'experimentation'. Kesey wrote 'One Flew.." regarding his experience in the hospital while participating in the Army testing. When the first 3000 copies were sold the publishers were pressured to change some of the details about characters that were too real to life and, consequently, the book is no longer the same work that Kesey penned under the influence of psychoactive drugs. What a shame!

My favorite quote from this great guy was when he attended his first party with the Merry Pranksters and he looked out over the yard and....I couldn't help but blurt out, 'realized that you were drugged and were now tripping!!' With straighface he shook his head and said, 'not that time.'


I regret to inform the reader that I forgot to ask my friend if he believed that psychoactive drugs are, in fact, mind-enhancing.

Jeffrey

Jeffrey is a cool cat. He must be in his late thirties to early forties and he owns and operates his own watch repair store/antique watch shop. We struck up conversation and I soon discovered that Jeffrey wanted/wants to be a movie star. He had moved to LA in 1990 and almost immediately got a recurring role on a primetime sitcom.
Jeffrey still works occasionally in film and television but has, more or less, given up the idea of 'making it'. He knows some actors who film a couple movies a year and do a guest starring role occasionally but he is feeling rather content with over 1 million paid on his home in the Beachwood neighborhood of LA. That's a lot of equity. He does this with his watch store. Talk about making good money doing something else.
Jeffrey was as worried about the future of the environment and, more specifically, our country as my girlfriend (the princess) and I. It was very fun meeting someone who had incredibly high and, some would say, unrealistic goals but somewhere along the line found a different way to get the house and lifestyle he desired. That's some ingenuity!
Night, the princess beckons.

A Better Angle!

In an attempt to more accurately provide what the title of this blog states I am going to move the purpose of my meeting people away from solely discussing beliefs. I am hoping to, instead, discover some interesting people and some wonderful stories. Keep your eyes peeled for a less specific blog dedicated solely to the purpose of meeting others.

Jack Sparrow

This morning I did it! I crossed that first line of nerves that were keeping me from getting precious information out of the strange. There is a gentleman who dresses up as Jack Sparrow and hits Hollywood Boulevard to 'make some scratch,' as he put it. This gentleman really perked up when I mentioned how my beliefs, from an objective point of view, are rather infantile.

Before we get too far along into his beliefs it should be noted that Pirate McPoorAccent was the the photo double for JohnnyDepp in both Pirates 3 and Sweeney Todd. He was also living in his girlfriend's car. From a hollywood perspective this doesn't seem plausible. A photo double of that caliber should be making plenty of money but Pirate McPoorAccent did believe it to be true. That's just one of his beliefs.

Over the course of our 15 minute train ride I found out that Johnny Wannabe is a 'staunch atheist'. Atheism is a religion of sorts. It is the belief that there is no higher power, enlightened one, or deity of any kind. Scallywag Nomustache felt that any person can form a more effective religion than all that currently exist. If a person were to state 'God is in my shoe' then, based solely on the fact that it doesn't contradict itself, he would be more inclined to believe in that religion. There were different moments of profound revelation like when he revealed to me that the true God is either Brian Boitano or Scott Baio. Perhaps it's a combination of both. (You can do the combination work if you want to see it.) 'Regardless', Pirate McPoorAccent stated soberly, 'if there is a God he is Anti-David Hasselhoff!'

If there ever was a true statement.

Drug Use?

Today I had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman in his 50's. For the sake of a moniker that is representative of him he shall be called Drinky McWorkingdrunk.
Drinky McWorkingdrunk was something of a disappointment as well as something of an eye opener. I tried to elicit some of his beliefs that he feels might be viewed as unbelievable from the objective point of view. He had a few ideas that he threw out there: There is other life out there and the government does have proof of this. Drinky McWorkingdrunk was convinced that the government has intercepted positive proof that alien life exists and is keeping if from us.
Drinky McWorkingdrunk also felt strongly that humankind is only using about 2 percent of it's brain capacity and that we, most likely, have the capacity for esp, telepathy, levitation and even time travel. As soon as we access the parts of our brain that can rationalize and solve the dimension of 'time' we will be able to use it in any way we choose.
The real belief of Drinky McWorkingdrunk that struck me as worthy of this blog was his conviction that the God of christianity is the same God of all other religions. He claims that, 'all people are different and God needs to reach them in different ways because of that. That is why he takes different forms like Buddha, Muhammad, and Brama. This is not too different from the doctrine of a church called the Ba'hai Faith. As you may have just read, the Ba'Hai Faith believes that the diety of the world has taken different forms in different cultures but the same message of peace and goodwill is the undercurrent of all his teachings. I like this belief.

It is important to note that in all his 'beliefs', the later being exempted, Drinky McWorkingdrunk was not 100% willing to commit his faith. He mentioned that drug use and age made him feel uncertain about alot of things but this did not prevent him from showing great zeal while discussing these various 'objectively unlikely' concepts.

On a side note, I spent about an hour in the LA metro system. I did not question a single person about their beliefs. Frankly, the black man singing his music loudly and stopping occasionally to brag about the various people he has sung with, the homeless lady who was occupied talking to herself and the mexican lady who wouldn't make eye contact threw me off and made me nervous. If I am going to benefit from this project I had better get some balls and start being crazier than the crazies.

By the way, day one post prophetic and LA is still here, not yet swallowed and charred by the mother. Yes!!!

Ashram

I met a young lady whom is near my age (mid 20's) this evening. It was kinda weird at first because she was with her boyfriend but was giving me eyes everytime I scanned the room. (I was catering, I cater, we scan the room) I thought it was peculiar but am a mostly accepting guy so I let it slide.
When Thinlips McHotbod approached later to get a water she did strike up conversation.
I couldn't even tell you how it came to pass but at some point Thinlips McHotbod started explaining to me exactly how 'the mother' (nature/the planet) was going to swallow Los Angeles into her center and she was going to burn it to ash. 'Ash', Thinlips McHotbod explained, 'is the only substance that cannot become any other substance. it's only purpose at that point is to fertilize the next generation of living things.' This is how the mother is going to cleanse itself of our precious 'glittering cities'.

I was somewhat perturbed by how insane this concept sounds but, even moreso, perturbed by the idea that I might still be living in Los Angeles when this happens.