You Can Vote However You Like!

If you didn't know that before, you will after you watch this video:

Lifetime Guarantee

Ever have someone tell you that "deserve" something good in your life because you're such a good person? Or maybe you've gone through a tough time and one of your friends tells you, "You're definitely due for some good stuff now."

Did I miss something here? Was there some contract that I didn't get a chance to sign that guarantees us all happy lives and good times? The fact of the matter is that life itself doesn't assure anyone that just because they're "good" or "deserving", they get what they want out of life.

Not everyone gets what they want.

From that point, there are a few different ways to approach the issue. Some would say that our destinies are written already - that some of us are already fated to have crappy lives or awesome ones. Others will say that we make our own fate, constantly pushing that boulder uphill just to let it roll down the other side and push it up again.

Religious folks would say that God (or Buddha or Vishnu or XR-82 or whatever) wants us to be good...but even they can't agree on what role being a "good" person has to do with your life. Some divisions of Christianity believe that you can and should do as many good works as you can with your life; others believe that no matter how many good works you do, it doesn't matter because your faith is what is ultimately important.

So the real question here is: how do you get what you want out of life? Or even more broad - can you get what you want out of life?

I don't pretend to have all of the answers but for all of my pondering about this lately, I've come up with this answer: You can get what you want, but you have to be very clear about what that is first.

A lot of people think they know what would make them happy. They behave like a "good" person in order to achieve that goal. But usually, people don't really know what they should be focusing on. And if you try too hard to make it work, you might end up doing more harm than good. I think, at least in my case, when I find myself wondering if life has it out for me or if my being a "good" person is having any effect, I need to pause for a moment to reevaluate what it is that I want from life. What do I "deserve"?

There is no annoying fabric-thingy sewed on to us like they do on mattresses that confirms that each of us has a right to what we deserve. But if we can figure out what it is that we expect from life, it makes it a bit easier to work for it.

In our thoughts...

This weekend has been a bad weekend for some people:

Jennifer Hudson's mother and brother were killed and her nephew is missing.

KATV (Little Rock, AR) morning news anchor Anny Pressly was brutally beaten and died this weekend.

Life can be so unexpectedly cruel sometimes.

Friday Funnies

I figure it might be nice to add some of my favorite comic strips to the blog every Friday...just to give people a laugh.

We'll start with one of my favorites:

To Barney or not to Barney...?

So, I figure it would be a good idea to start this with some feedback - should I get a dog or not?

I'm a big fan of dogs (definitely moreso than cats) and I wasn't really able to get one before because I was traveling a lot. But now that traveling has slowed down a lot, I think I can pull it off.

The only problem is...well, do this for me, ok? Pull up Google and search for "good apartment dogs". You'll notice two things from the lists you pull up:

1. Every list is different.
2. The common dogs listed are the kinds you expect to be wearing pink sweaters and nail polish.

...that's not me. However, I did see on some sites that beagles can be good choices, as long as they're given plenty of exercise. I figure I can work with that, right?

My mother, meanwhile, is having a hard time understanding how a dog can be expected to ride an elevator down 14 floor just "to piddle". I figure - it's not my elevator and I'd be paying a pretty good deposit for them to fix stuff like that, right?

Here's the crowning achievement - I looked for dogs and found one that seems almost perfect. In fact, almost too perfect.

So I'm putting it out there - what do you guys think? Do I need company in my apartment? Or is it not quite time?

welcome

After much procrastination, I've finally decided to give in and start my own blog. I don't really expect it to be ground-breaking or all that fascinating, really - it'll just be my thoughts and random things whenever I feel like posting. I have a habit of getting all emo every now and then, so I'll try to keep that to a minimum as much as I can. And who knows - maybe I'll ask some of my friends to join me and write some of their own stuff on here.

The name of the blog comes from one of my long-time favorite songs by Lifehouse - yeah, yeah, go ahead and laugh. But they were who the cool kids listened to in high school, don't deny it. The song is "Somewhere In Between" and every time that I listen to the song, I'm struck by how it manages to be both optimistic and disappointed at the same time. (I won't post the lyrics here, but you have Google - you can find them.)

I was listening to it the other day and I got to thinking about being "in between". Mostly, I was considering the thought that for most of our lives, we're all "in between" something. People like to say that they're "in between jobs" or "in between moves" or "in between boyfriends". I guess I mean it on a more metaphoric level; in some ways, we're all in the midst of progressing, growing and moving on.

We won't stay there, obviously. But, as many other people have (sometimes cheesily) said, "life is all about the journey, not the destination". So it was my thought that maybe by paying more attention to these "betweens", we can learn more about ourselves and each other.

...this is clearly turning out a bit more preachy than I intended, but I think you get the point. Not everything on this blog will be so serious and introspective. I'll put some fun stuff on here too. Either way, let me know how I'm doing every now and then, just to make sure I'm not making a complete fool out of myself.