Hi there! Welcome to my blog! I love, love, love talking about all things metaphysics, writing, and blogging. My hope is that you leave here feeling much better than when you came. It's great to see you!
I’D LOVE TO…
I know exactly why seeing the scrawl inside of this book makes me want to cry. Because I was crying when I wrote it. Hell, I’m crying now. I pulled out this book tonight because I’m going to mention it in the e-book I’m writing about applying to business school, and I wanted to refresh my memory. I was completely taken aback however, to find what I had written on the first page.
3/29/2011 was ten days after my dad passed away. His death was so sudden, all I could do with the time off work was read, drink a lot of coffee, and cry, cry, cry. I had been reading this book, Trust Agents, well before my father passed, but finished it shortly after. It’s written by Julien Smith and Chris Brogan, and the front cover definition of the book says it’s about “using the web to build influence, improve reputation, and earn trust.” But really, it’s about so much more than that.
I remember buying it because I was a big fan of Chris Brogan, and wanted to learn a little something about building a reputation on the web. This was around the time I’d just started loving the internet and had been thinking about starting my own business doing something cool.
Essentially, this book took me from thinking about wanting to do something cool on the web, to actually doing it. It taught me “how to use the internet”, it taught me to play nicely with others (on the web), and how to ask for something without asking for it. It taught me patience. It taught me to “let them want to come to you” in terms of building an audience. It literally gave me the confidence I absolutely did not have to start this blog, to tell people “I want to start my own business!”, and to take advantage of all the opportunities the web had to offer. This book is the reason I went from partying and a 9-to-5 job to partying, a 9-to-5 job, and a bazillion side projects. It provided light in the darkest time of my life, and I think I realized that after finishing the book. What else would have driven me to write such a thing on the very first page? I do admit however, I was not in my right mind at the time, but that’s neither here nor there.
Every day we live, we are changed. Certain things happen to us, people influence us, yell at us, and misfortune says hello. All of it reshapes the way we think about things, no matter how subtly. Every once in a great while though, one huge event, one great circumstance, rocks the center of our being and shakes the ground we stand on, and in the heat of the moment, we usually don’t have a pen or a pencil to write it down with.
Finishing this book was my heat of the moment, and I wrote that shit down because it shook me.
Pray tell, has there ever been a book that shook you?
I would say it’s time to prioritize my projects, but I’m having too much fun. I would say it’s time to focus on one thing and see if I can become successful at that before moving on to the next, but I am honest to God having too much fun. I’m about as happy as Hermione from Harry Potter, pictured above, throwing in a little of this or that in a ho hum sort of way, knowing all the while she’s kickin’ ass. In my case of course, the cauldron would be my life and what’s to become of it when it’s cooked. The ingredients are up to me, and I’ll tell you right now, there’s a lot goin’ in that pot.
Because I consistently yap about all of my different projects over various blog posts without updating you on how they’re all coming along, it’s only natural for you to think I’m not working on them. But let me tell you, I am the most worker on-er of all projects ever worked on. I’m not even spending equal amounts of time on all of them, I’m just working on them all over the place and all the time.
Here’s an update so you know what the AYCH is going on with me lately.
- I’ve written ten pages in my e-book on applying to business school.
- I’ve published two Mursa Pie videos.
- I got my Alexa rank on this blog down to under a million (an SEO thing)
- I finished New Self, New World by Philip Shepherd (I am halfway done with the review for Examiner.com)
- I am working on gathering bloggers to be featured in my Passion Series (Plan A didn’t work out so I’m on to Plan B)
Other projects I’m hoping to get to this week:
- Making progress in my HTML coding class (which ended a couple weeks ago, but I have access to the videos and learning materials forever)
- Writing a few more articles on Examiner and AllVoices
- Making decent headway in the new book I’m reading Eating Smoke.
- Featuring a blogger for my Passion Series
- Reading all of the white papers and e-books I’ve recently downloaded
As I said in the beginning, there’s a lot going on, and perhaps focusing on one project for longer than an hour a night would be of some benefit. But I’m just having too much fun flitting back and forth between all of them. Literally, it’s like going to a buffet and piling all of your favorite foods on your plate. You take a bite out of the pizza, then the burger, then the chow mein, then the mac n’ cheese. You just have to get a bite in from each one because they’re all so tasty. You can’t just eat one at a time!
So that’s what my projects are to me. I can’t just work on the e-book and not the blog. I can’t just work on the blog and not be reading or learning or writing or video editing or thinking of more ideas for the blog at the same time. I like variety! I like pizza! Throw some mac n’ cheese on it while you’re at it! And some mashed taters!
It’s just like Nietzsche said, “Live as though the day were here.” Don’t you think that’s wise?
I once went to a bar that didn’t serve Corona and I was really craving one with lime. I said, “Do you have anything that tastes like Corona, then?” The bartender replied, “Water.”
I’m in a beer mood, and given my recent bar experience, apparently it’s a cheap beer mood. At a party last night someone said to me, “All we have left is Bud Light and hard liquor. So I’m taking shots.” I said, “Wow that must be brutal!” Swigging from my Bud Light, I asked him, “What’s wrong with Bud Light?”
“I don’t drink Bud Light.”
Haha, oh beer people. I know, there are a great many beers out there, and certainly the cheap piss water kind is frowned upon. But maybe it’s because of my sincere lack of experience with great beer that has me chugging cheap piss-water left and right. Either way it gets the job done. And I actually crave the taste. I was planning on drinking wine tonight at the little Oscar party I’m going to, but I might switch it up. I think I’m just missing Vegas and pool parties and the smell of sunscreen.
Last night I went to a SPACE JAM party. Tell me you’ve been to one and we’ll discuss. It was the coolest thing, a few people even dressed up, and there was a Space Jam wall to take pictures in front of. Bailey and I took a picture with Michael Jords.
And then I took a picture with Taz.
This morning I watched a little bit of the Daytona 500 with Bails, and now I’m going to work on my New Self, New World review (finally finished the book). I’m also going to try and start planning out my next Mursa Pie (Lady Gaga edition), and potentially stare for a few seconds at the undone laundry on my bed. Around 330pm I’m heading over to my dad and Lynne’s house for food, munchies, and red carpet trash talk. It’s going be a sensational way to finish off the weekend.
Oh yeah, and this is officially post number ten for this month! One more, and I’ll have hit my goal of 11. But who says I’m stopping there? God I love blogging, life, and beer.
(Videos by VAN. Watching these videos gives me a few cents,
and a few cents are always welcome.)
Well, I’ve done it again. I’ve successfully created another Mursa Pie, meaning another short video in a hopeful video series, of certain aspects of my life. A ‘slice’ if you will.
This may be a regular thing.
I have probably close to 100-150 videos of random footage of my life stored in my computer. Maybe more. They sit and collect digital dust in my Videos folder, just waiting to be shared with the world. Remember when I told you about how I just felt like being creative and making a video, a couple of posts ago? Well, I made another one. And like I said right before this paragraph, those kind of videos might become a regular thing. They’re so fun to make, and why not make creative use of that build up of comedic shit from the last 2 years?
The thing is, I’ve videotaped a lot of shit. I mean, there are things I’ve videotaped people doing, that they would never want seen. I mean, nothing too crazy, but more embarrassing than the most embarrassing of things. So let’s just say, I have dirt on you if we’ve met. But for the most part, it’s only been to capture a moment. Any time I go somewhere new, or see something particularly funny, it’s like I have to document it. I don’t know what the hell for. I’ve been a bit better about it these days, though. Like I can finally drive without videotaping the trees.
The name “Mursa Pie”, in case you’re wondering, comes from two things: one, a nickname Adam calls me, Mursa (my last name, Muro, with an -sa at the end), and the last half of “sweetie pie”. I guess instead of calling me “sweetie pie”, Adam decided to call me “Mursa Pie”, and for some reason when I was making these ‘slices’ of my life, I thought, why not let these little videos be like, slices of Mursa Pie?
Plus, when I look back on my life, and these videos, I don’t want to have to sift through all 100-150 of them. I’d rather just watch a few Mursa Pies, and get the gist. Like everyone else. Also, this took me 9 hours to make. An entire today. But I had so much fun! Let me know if you like.
Lately, it seems everyone around me is doing well. Happiness, passion, and harmony seem to be just oozing out of the crevices of Facebook statuses and text messages, making it pleasantly difficult to ignore.
A friend of mine on Facebook recently graduated from PT school, and she is now working as a licensed physical therapist. Another friend of mine who was having boyfriend trouble, is now free to be her own person. My sister got a full-time job doing something she enjoys, and it pays well. A friend of mine who has been fervently working on a documentary for the past two years is finally getting a Kickstarter project up to raise money for the film. Lastly, my friend Melody is finally getting back on her feet, working more hours, and trying to start up her own business doing personal training on the side.
What all of these personal accomplishments have in common, is passion. You can sense it in the way a person talks about the passion they have for some art, hobby, or craft. Their eyes get this fiery determination behind them, and they light up like a pair of tea lights. You can see it in their manner, and hear it in their voice, and it has made my heart so incredibly full, I feel like a child.
This blog has been my passion for the last year and a half, and I’m going to be introducing what I like to call a “Passion Series” next week, in which I feature one blogger every week to write a short post on either something they are passionate about, or how blogging has helped them become even more passionate about it. The posts won’t be any longer than 500 words, and the bloggers will be very carefully chosen. I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not guest blogging would be a good idea for this blog, as I’m very selective about disrupting the user experience, and the content I create. But this Passion Series is going to be something that I feel will be truly inspirational to both me and my readers, and it would be a great way to connect with other bloggers who enjoy blogging as much as I do.
I also may not do it every week because I’m not sure exactly how many bloggers will respond to my query on helpareporterout.com, but we’ll see! Worst case scenario, I’ll do it bi-weekly, or even monthly. Either way, I think it will be a great thing, and this blog is, after all, about my quest to do great things.
(Videos by VAN. Watching these videos gives me a few cents,
and a few cents are always welcome.)
SIX DAYS! Six, grueling days since I’ve last blogged, 144 hours! My sanity has been festering inside a computer screen without me for six long days, alone and scared, but now we have reunited, and it feels SO good.
Lots to report! But I’ll stick to the basics. Valentine’s Day was fun, went to the Artwalk with Bails in Downtown, all the pics are mostly in my Instagram feed, so feel free to skip on over there if you’d like to see. Over the long weekend I visited a coworker’s apartment at the beautiful Watermark building in downtown LA, where some taco shells in a toaster caught on fire and almost destroyed us all (sad to report my phone was too full to record/take pictures). Among other nearly catastrophic events, I could not fix my apartment garage remote (so I had to struggle to find parking the last few days), I had both In’n’Out AND Chipotle, I did a massive amount of chilling with Bailey, got my brakes fixed for FREE from my stepdad, who also doubles as a car mechanic for us, AND I made a video.
What video, you ask? Well, given my A.D.D when it comes to having new ideas, I actually just went ahead and made this video without blogging about it first. Usually when I have an idea I’ll blog about it, and if I actually get to the idea, I’ll blog about it, or while I’m in phase 2 or 3 of that idea I’ll blog about it.
This time? I just went ahead and fucking did it. I thought, you know what? I feel like being fun and creative and I LOVE video editing footage from past parties and events. I didn’t feel like making any plans. As Kurt Vonnegut would say, I just felt like farting around.
A lot of times what holds me back is my perfectionism. Saying things like “well, I’d need to watch some tutorials first because I want it to look professional” or “I need a professional to make this look/sound better” and all that other sort of head talk that makes us think we can’t do something. Not this time. The phrase “You’ve gotta start somewhere” came and smacked me in the face. It’s not about being perfect in design or in quality, sometimes. ESPECIALLY if that’s what’s holding you back. It’s about the fire, the passion for doing something you love. I’ve been holding my creativity back because I was afraid it wouldn’t look professional? Oh please, Perfection. Sit down okay? Take a breather, grab a drink.
So since I felt like being creative and spunky, below is the result of that spunk. I hope you enjoy it! I have plenty more to say, but it’ll have to wait for other days. (Presumably days like tomorrow.) Subscribe if you haven’t yet, so you can feel the rumble and hear the ramble.
I think I find myself in writing. Tonight I came home and just had the itch to write articles. I joined a website you’re probably familiar with called All Voices, wrote an article for them, and also wrote an article on Examiner on love, given the not-so-official upcoming ‘holiday’.
I’ve sort of lost touch with article writing over the last year or so, simply because I lost interest in it. I used to write a bunch when I first graduated college, because I was trying to generate an income from it. Back then though, I had no idea what keyword placement or impressions were, and didn’t realize how little I was making, nor did I understand how I could optimize my articles so they’d be seen. While I’m no content marketing guru, I do know a thing or two about writing for the net, and I think working in online advertising has benefited me in that regard.
More to the point however, I am happiest when I am typing away. It doesn’t even feel like work (when it’s something I want to write about, that is). But even when it’s not something I’m interested in, immersing myself in learning new things and crafting a story behind them, is an amazing feeling.
So I came home and did just that. Now that my applications are through, I have been coming home after work each night and working on random projects, whatever the hell I feel like working on. Monday night, I wrote 755 words in my e-book on applying to business school, journaled a little bit, read about 20 pages, and did some research for my web series idea. Tuesday, I reflected the entire night. I think I wrote a blog post…? Yes, that was last night. But I ended up sifting through old poetry, and a journal full of my favorite literature quotes. Or was that Monday?
Point being, when I come home from work, there’s no goddamn structure. Nothing is expected of me outside of work, so I do whatever the hell I want. The only small problem with that is I seem to be A.D.D with all of my projects, and happiest when I have multiple. I need to be writing a book, maintaining my blog, researching a web series idea, and taking an HTML class all at the same time or I’m not happy. I go into a zone, if you will. My bedroom is like a room in the tallest tower of a fairy tale place, and when I close the door behind me, I’m a mad scientist, rather than a princess.
Oh yeah, and tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Isn’t that sweet? I look forward to spending it with my sweetheart. Even though he despises the holiday because “if we go out to dinner we have to order from an exorbitantly priced dinner menu, and the flowers always die so what’s the point?” But he’ll be a sweetheart on the actual day anyway. Last year we went to Beso in Hollywood.
(I may or may not be missing my short hair).
I told him I didn’t really care what we did this year, as long as I could be with him. I even mentioned going to one of those Dine-in theaters and seeing the new Die Hard because I know he loves those movies. How fucking cool of a girlfriend do you have to be to let that be the Valentine’s Day date? Pretty cool I’d say. But I love him like that girl from Les Miserables loves that guy who doesn’t love her back when she’s singing about him in the rain, so whatever we do I’ll be okay with, so long as we’re together.
Enough SAP! I’m going to go do some more writing probably or maybe apartment hunt or maybe Tumblr peruse or maybe finish my book. What are you doing for the big V-day? Leave me a comment, let’s rub noses.
I just want to be out in the world tonight.
The book I’m reading has transformed me so much, that I want to take the evening to immerse myself in it.
I have under 100 pages to go, and I want to share with you a few quotes that bring me a great deal of peace before I get back to it.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Men have talked about the world without paying attention to the world.
The present is an unknown. It has never been here before, and neither have you.
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be experienced.
If you love it enough, anything will talk to you.
It has often been said that we carry the sea around with us, as evidenced by the percentage of saltwater in our blood…
Our potential for harmonizing with the natural world is obscured by our instinct to dominate it.
If you put three grains of sand inside a vast cathedral, the cathedral will be more closely packed with sand than space is with stars.
Is not all art a celebration of loss?
I may or may not finish this book tonight. I may read it more slowly. Part of me never wants it to end.