My new goal is to convince people that they should chase after the things that would make them feel good about themselves. I've spent this last week running into people who seem to think that all these external forces mean a lot. "My viewpoint is justifiable because others have it." "Things that are widely popular have more value." "I won't do that because I think it's for children."

Mostly I got into a fight with a long-term internet friend, and otherwise I occasionally hang out with people who's favorite pass time seems to be to talk shit on everything that passes in front of them. When it comes to the internet friend, I told him to fuck off, because clearly there's not a lot of "friend" in "internet friend" when all they can do is say bad things about your interests. With the people I deal with in reality and can't just stop talking to, I'm trying to keep an open mind.

Clearly these people hate themselves.

It's understandable. They're losers. They back up their shit talk with arguments and justifications that merely make them look worse, such as calling age an issue ("I'm too grown up to do THAT, but I will play videogames!") or citing difficulty level (because clearly anything that is hard to learn isn't worth doing) or even saying such activities seem like a waste of time (even though they'll gladly sit for hours in front of a television set).

So, what can I do? What is the problem with these people? How did they wind up full of so many reasons not to do things? Have they spent their whole lives talking themselves out of doing things they enjoy, so now it's just natural that they try to bag on everyone else's interests?

My friends who are merely sad, who aren't raging assholes, seem to suffer from a similar problem, except it's directed inwardly. The things they enjoy aren't "acceptable" for various reasons so they don't do them, and spend all their time wishing they would. A lot of the time the reasons are foolish: It would take too much time (it'll take even longer if you keep waiting). I'm too fat to start (then start losing weight now?). I don't have the time (how about you turn off the television or stop browsing the net for hours for no reason?). I would look foolish or people wouldn't appreciate what I do (who the fuck cares! be a fucking adult!).

Think about the things that you spend your day doing, and think about what do you do that actually makes you happy. What do you do when you first wake up in the morning? I used to sit on the internet for a couple hours, randomly browsing stuff and reading things. Did this make me happy? No. It helped my bide time to get through my day. Reading books make me happy, but I was allowing myself to be distracted by something that didn't actually make me feel accomplished at all. Accomplishment makes me feel something, probably you too, so maybe you should look for that.

Other than that, when I was at home, I'd play video games, which I think are turning into an even bigger waste of time than the internet and television as a whole. The purpose of a videogame is to fill you with a false sense of accomplishment, and it is false, because it wanes very quickly and the actual feeling is completely empty. I didn't actually do anything, but I did something. Now I'll go play a different game and do something different all over again but by doing the same thing.

It's the ultimate idiot machine. So many people sit around and get fat, loading themselves up on all this false accomplishment, when they could challenge themselves to games that improve themselves in the real world. Instead of getting a high score in Halo 3 today, how about you see how many times you can walk around the block before you get tired? It's surprising, but exercise actually helps increase confidence, especially when you're doing it when striving for a goal. Slowly increase the number of push ups you can do on a daily basis.

Just... if you see something that you think you'd like to do, then do it. Don't make excuses, don't put it off, just do it. Sometimes you can't just immediately jump into things (flying a plane, swimming across the Bering Strait) but those things require practice and discipline and that, all by itself, is fun, too.

Next time you want to sit around and play a game of Halo with your buddies, go to a park and throw a baseball around, or kick a soccer ball back and forth. Go outside and enjoy your life. If you spend too much time sitting around not doing anything, you're just going to forget what living is all about and waste your time (while telling others their lives are wastes of time) wishing you were different from the way you are. Stop being scared!

Practice writing, start jogging, talk to more women/men, figure skate, do yoga, take skydiving lessons, read a book, sit and think about the life you've lived and how lucky you are to still be alive. Now, fucking use it. Go out there and be an awesome sexy person. Listen to music, love somebody, be loved by somebody.

Relax and live, people. There aren't any mulligans in real life. You've got one shot at every day, and you better nail it. If you keep lying to yourself by telling yourself that it's OK that you didn't do "that one thing" today, then you're cheating yourself out of a whole lot of awesome.

Song Note: This album is named after The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nation's Millennium General Assembly, which is an elaborate work of "art" built entirely in private by a simple dude who was maybe a little bit crazy, but damn if he didn't do what made him happy: building this stuff out of junk for 6 hours a night for over 14 years. Good for him.