A Guest Blogger Writes...Stuff.

As our regular readers know we have a couple guest bloggers here, who often share their view on things (and on that note, we're always looking for more guest blogger), and sometimes, as with Kerry Stott, their professional medical advice, her blog post submissions on topics such as Suicide, Anxiety, and more, can be found near the bottom of our "special" archives page: http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/p/our-recommendations-weeded-from.html under 'Guest Bloggers'.

But today we have a new-ish guest blogger...

We met Jake on Twitter, he's been a follower for awhile. He's even had us on his Podcast, The Nothing But Show "recently" (http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2011/08/our-podcast-interview-with-nothing-but.html) - this is his second guest blog entry with us. Read what he has to say about making choices, and his general view on taking control of life, from his personal example. Our favorite line comes from the last paragraph "I guess in the end, my legacy will be whatever I make it." and made us laugh because we received and read this post just as we were writing our post yesterday about a film review (http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2011/11/adjustment-bureau-film-review.html) that touched on the subject of creating, or changing, your own destiny.

And now...Jake...

So it's been quite a while since I have written. I felt that doing the podcast was enough of an outlet. I guess maybe I'm finding that I was wrong. Dead wrong. Just like Biggie. I've been flirting with the grey areas in my mind. The dark side if you will. Not in my marriage though, I'm good there. No issues with that at all really except sometimes I wish I could do more. I just find myself becoming driven to a point where it's hard to pull the parachute and slow down. And there's no such thing as easing off after a certain time. All I can do after that point is watch the crash and burn from a front row seat. I mean this in relation to others thoughts and feelings. As I've talked before in decent detail about my 'hyper-vigilance' affliction, I sometimes get to a point where I'm so up in my head that I drift away from the connection I have with those around me, and my desires and ideas become all I see after a while. I'm no where near that at all right now in my life, but I'm seeing very faint signs. It's like one of those storm chasers on the Discovery channel or whatever. I normally see the storm and have either aimed straight for it, or gave it a good goddamn glancing blow. Well, this time is truly different. I'm very happy in my life. I think in the past, my moods and feelings have been in charge of steering my hurricane survival mobile, and in this case I guess they still are. Except this time they're positive feelings instead of negativity. Sorry about the storm analogy. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Maybe all of this 'doing it right this time' shit is just because I'm getting older and finally learning. I mean, I'd like to think so. But part of me feels like this has been in me all along, and I've known better. I just never had the fortitude to stick to it and live it. For example, these whim decisions that I've been known to make, as some people call them, aren't really whims to me most of the time. Honest. Once again, the Hyper-Vigilance (HV) comes into play. I feel like I have thought out a scenario 5 times to your one most of time. And to be honest, most of the time I have. I just don't always have an accurate weight prediction of consequence. I never have. I always have dreamed huge, and in return consequence has always been justified in my mind as collateral damage I think. Wow, I literally just made a revelation. I never said that statement, or wrote it down for that matter. I just figured it out for myself just now. Hey, that's huge for me.

I'm driven right now to make my show as big as I can make it, while still maintaining control of the content that we put out. And by in control, I mean that us partners in the endeavor. Not just me. I want to do this shit for a living. I want to put my thoughts, ideas, and words out there and have them entertain people. I don't have to be rich. I really don't. I know some mufuckas say that and then go all Kanye on you once they make a few dollars but I'm serious. I just want to make a living enough to send my kid to school, and not worry about needing anything that is a necessity in life. That's really all I ever ask for. I feel like we really have something that in time can be huge. I know we're fairly new, and we have to fine tune our shtick so to speak, but we really are on to something.

In the past, I have been extremely selfish with decisions, and with bands I've been in I've really acted like more of a dictator than a partner or friend. Granted, all of these projects, including this one, I have started. I have normally always been the initiator due once again to the HV. I have to be doing something creative in my life in order to feel balanced out. If I keep all my thoughts to myself I think I'd implode. I don't know if that's good or bad or both. Probably both. But I have had to realize the hard way, and through ruined and wounded friendships discover how to not make the same mistakes in future situations. I have always used the 'I started this shit' excuse as a reason to do whatever I want, and for the most part it has been justified. I also realize that just because actions are justified it doesn't make them the correct way to go about things. That has been one of the hardest things I have had to learn in my life. This time around, with this project/show/endeavor, I have included my cohorts every step of the way. I mean, the way I look at it now, all these people have helped me make the content what it is. I couldn't have done all this myself. I have to remind myself of that at times. Now, make no mistake, while the people involved in the show are proud of being on it, and proud of doing their part to contribute to it, I do the majority of the booking, planning, editing, website work, promotion, etc. But here's the thing. I realize now that I'd be doing it anyway. That's the beauty of it all. I know now that this is just built into me, and I have to do it. Even if everyone had split up tasks to perform 'equally' for the show, I know that my mind would always be wanting to have a hand in it anyway so I might as well do it, and ask for opinions along the way. So far it works, and as long as I include my friends, co-host, contributors, and colleagues along the way, I should be fine I think. So far it's working for the most part. And right now I'm very happy in my life. Now I realize that having my mind be a part of every aspect of the show is a very keen look into the issues that I have with people but I don't have enough time and finger muscle to type about that shit today. I'm ok with it right now just know that. It ends up working to my benefit more times than not as long as I do it this way.

I guess in the end, my legacy will be whatever I make it. And as corny and contrived as that sounds, it's true. I know I won't always be positive, and I'll have low moments. I just have to remember to weather those and not take people for granted. We're really all kind of stuck on this giant ball of molten rock and metal we call a planet together. Thanks for reading,

Jake, @Onezees, The Vagabond King, or whatever else you'd like to call me.

www.nothingbutshow.com

Other entries by this guest blogger:

• How To Tie A Nose With Words (Jake @Onezees)

Just send us an e-mail at justcallmefrank2010 @ gmail.com (take out the spaces, of course, they are only there to prevent being spammed) we prefer mental health topics, but are open to ideas.

We Host A Drawing Contest For Halloween: The Results!

By the way, this is our second blog post today...check out 'The Adjustment Bureau: A Film Review' http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2011/11/adjustment-bureau-film-review.html one we posted right before this one, if you want to read a movie/film review...or check out the scads of writing that grace the pages of this blog ('Our Recommendations - Weeded From Our...Feeded?' http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/p/our-recommendations-weeded-from.html). Sorry about all the typos and grammar/punctuation mistakes around here.
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@Calamitys_Chaos

Because we were not able to trick or treat, or go to Halloween parties this year, meaning no dressing up, we decided the beginning of October to have an avi contest (http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2011/10/we-host-drawing-contest-for-halloween.html) for a digital consume, we didn't get as many entries as we thought we would, mostly because we didn't have time to promote it what with all the packing, and moving, and cleaning we did in October (sometimes we don't plan things very well)...but we did get a few drawings (one known one is

Drawn and submitted by
the sweet @Serenity_X

Submitted by our pal @T0MFooL3RY

THE WINNER!


<- The winner, after Serenity cleaned it up a little and e-mailed it to us. We liked the martial arts blade type image behind the name, but it didn't make it through editing...it's still a kick ass picture though...

We also got a request from a follower who asked if he good do a 140 Tweet description for us, instead of a drawing...of course we said yes...we love creativity! Turns out he turned it into a story and made it a cliffhanger; we hope that once NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) is over we get to find out the end...even though he opted to use another concept for the contest, we hope he finished this story in December.
This is that story...

Frankie the Blade

A short story

By Caleb Frost (a.k.a @ChuckyBreadHead)

Frankie walked down the sidewalk, her 6 inch stiletto boots clicking loudly on the concrete, a slight limp just barely noticeable. There were scratches on her face and arms, some long and deep, others barely breaking the skin. The black trench coat that engulfed her blew up in the breeze, revealing the holsters all over her torso, containing knives of every shape and size. From switchblades to kitchen knives, totaling at 30 different blades. The skintight black jeans she wore stopped right beneath her ankles, concealing a butterfly knife in each boot. Her blouse, a deep purple, buttoned half-way up and the top of her bra just showing. On her back, underneath the coat, were crossing sheaths. One contained a samurai sword, the other, a rapier. Her nails were long and a deep blood red color. Tonight being a special night, she also had a nightstick strapped to her right leg, along with a small, black case in her right hand. She got to her destination, an old, grungy, two story building. She pushed her way through the door, and the smell of the hookah bar that was the ground floor filled her nose. She walked to the back, the few people who were there watching her closely. She sat across from a very greasy looking Italian man. He ran a hand through his slicked back hair and smirked at her, his yellow teeth and foul breath making her wince.

“Did you get it?” He asked, his eyes looking her up and down. She tossed the case on the table towards him. He grabbed it greedily, and his smirk dropped. “This feels light,” ice forming on the words as he spoke them, “Why’s that?”

“I subtracted my fee and some damages from it.” She said, fighting to keep a smirk from spreading on her face. He opened the case, and his face becoming a mask of rage.

“It’s empty, you thieving cunt. Are you trying to rip me off?!” He shouted at her. Three body guards, built mentally and physically like silverback gorillas, appeared when his voice raised. Frankie glanced at them and chuckled, pulling out a switchblade and flipping it.

“You didn’t give me full information. I almost died. I’m not ripping you off, I’m making a profit. Next time, don’t try to set me up.” The greasy man’s face turned almost purple with the rage, and he snapped at the guards, “Take her out back and beat the shit out of her. Keep her alive, though. We’ll turn her in and make my money back in a day or two.” The land masses that were his guards nodded in unison and the main one grabbed her by the shoulder.

“You’re going to lose these men. You know that, right? They don’t stand a chance.” She said, still flipping the blade. The greasy man merely gestured toward the door. Frankie sighed and stood up, walking out the back door, followed closely by the bodyguards. They stepped out and the guards made a circle around her. “Really boys, this is uncalled for. You don’t have to die for his idiocy.” In response, one of the guards tried swinging a punch at her head. She whipped out the nightstick and slammed it into his arm faster than he could even see. A sickening snap was heard, and the guard winced slightly. Another guard tried sweeping her leg, and she threw the nightstick at his head. He fell the minute it hit him, and she flipped open the switchblade, slicing the third guard from face to hips. He fell to, screaming. “Pussy.” She muttered, then turned her attention back to the last guard, unfortunately a minute too late. He hit her over the head with a piece of rebar. She crumpled and, as she passed out, heard a car pull up and a few gunshots. Then, the world went black.

To Be Continued…

The Adjustment Bureau: A Film Review

One of the many topics that is interesting to us, one that brings about questions, and contemplation, is fate. Is fate real? What is fate? Who decides your fate? What is the diference between fate and destiny? If they are real ideas, can either of them be changed?

Now, ultimately none of us believe in fate or destiny, though we like to play around with the concept of their existence; however we recognize that there are people who do, people who think that there is a play book, a “plan” written out for their life, and that everything that happens to them is part of that plan, whether good or bad. We also realize it’s what makes people comfortable, it’s what helps people cope, probably…its part of the constructs of religion, ideals that we are very familiar with on some level, but mostly not. (we used to be Baptist missionaries...'Religion, You Say? We Have a View On That'
http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2011/03/religion-you-say-we-have-view-on-that.html)

While there are endless philosophy books written on these subjects; fate, destiny, religion…we only wish to introduce you, as a primer of our thoughts on the subject, to the concepts; and also a review of a good film that inspired this blog post for today, one which offered an interesting take on fate, free-will, decision making…and destiny.


The difference between fate and destiny are not strongly defined in past reference; but simply put in present tense, fate refers to events that are "inevitable"/unavoidable and implies you do not have a choice in the events of your life. Destiny is the end result of the final outcome of all of the unavoidable events.

Our interpretation of these description is: Your future is your destiny, it is fate that will being you there.

It all sounds like a bunch of bullshit if you get wrapped too far into it, but pretty fun to philosophize about. No?

(sorry about the brief advertisement, we try to find YouTube videos that exclude them, it is becoming harder all the time to do it)
(Links provided are to Internet Movie Database, and are to provide access in case you do not know who the actors/actresses are, or if you have never heard of this film)

The Adjustment Bureau is a sci-fi, thriller, romance film starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt that explores the concepts of free will and fate, and taking control of your destiny.

We didn’t chose the film, a few weeks ago we read the synopsis when The Boyfriend and us were trying to decide on a movie to watch and we passed by this one, but last night we were not feeling well and so we had him chose a film from the giant collection The Mother has amassed over the last year or so. She collects movies/films. She has around 3000 of them. This was the one he chose.

In The Adjustment Bureau the main character of David Norris, played by Damon, meets a Elise (Blunt), in the men’s room of a hotel washroom at a pivotal point in his life. They both know they are meant for each other and through a series of events throughout the film where “Fate’s Agents" try to keep them apart, they are continually brought together by chance.

The main plot of the revolves around Norris accidentally discovering the Agents of Fate and therefore understanding he is not always in charge of his will, he learns that human kind over history have had their free-will taken from them, because they are never responsible enough to be 100% in charge of their own decisions/actions, and they continue to come close to destroying the world. While the concept of humans not being responsible enough is an underlying theme, it is not the main one. The main themes seem to be taking control of your fate/your destiny...and of course...powers of love (*gag*)

Norris understands that the job of the Agents is to work to bend his will through powers of suggestions, and by creating “blocks” or adjustments to get in the way of his personal decisions in his day to day life…but not too many adjustments as to cause an excessive amount of “ripples” in the lives of other (and ultimately the plans for their lives). String are pulled behind scenes so that he stays on point with the “plan for his life” written by a man called "The Chairman". The problem is that Norris character is too observant, asks to many questions…some might say he is hyper-vigilant, and it's all made worse by his awareness of Fate's Agents.

The film, as previously mentioned, centers around concepts of fate and free will, and the strict adherence of plans for each human being written by a mysterious higher power/person who has a team of agents working together controlling events to make sure The Plans written for the lives of people are successful. The struggle Norris' character endured battling between his own desired free-will and predetermined fate raised many interesting questions. Can there be fate AND free-will? Can you change your fate if you fight hard enough? Can you not only change your fate if you fight hard enough, but can you re-write it?

Clearly this The Adjustment Bureau had religious undertones, but the overall message (which we predicted early on) that while there may be “a plan”, but by following your gut, following your heart, questioning things, you can gain control over your life, rather than sit idly by and let the world/the chairman/whatever the name is that you attach to the writer of your fate…control it for you.
Without providing too many spoilers, halfway through, at a heartbreaking realization to Norris, one thing we wondered...if their dreams (his to be a famous politician, her's to be a successful dancer/choreographer) were not to come true, and they ended up together as they desired, did that necessarily mean they would not be as happy had their dreams come true without each other? Can people be just as happy with the ability to change and transform their dreams? That's a whole other subject, of course.

Director George Nolfi did a great job with the assistance of cinematographer John Toll, the scenes of the film were beautifully orchestrated. The best scene by far is one of the final scenes where Norris is running through the streets accessing a series of doors used by the Agents (so they can maneuver the the word faster), while he tries to get to Elise in time to stop her from making a mistake. The soundtrack, the shots, the angles, everything about the scene is gorgeous and enthralling.

It’s very interesting to note that the final scene of the film is an alternative ending, and is not the originally shot scene…guess we’re going to have to go back and look at the DVD extras…

Meanwhile, do you believe in fate? Do you think fate and free-will can exist together? If your future is predestined, if your destiny is pre-determined, how can there be free-will (aside from what you will eat for breakfast, or if you will have a Coke with lunch)…?
If you watch the movie we'd love to hear (in the comments section) any questions it brings to mind for you, any answers you might have realized watching it. Or at least what you thought about the movie.

From our personal standpoint, if there is such a thing as fate/destiny…and there is a plan written for our life predteremined by some mystrerious man…we’d like to have a talk with him, because he need writing lessons.

Sweet Release And A Rant

We’re ready to get back in the swing of…sitting in The Mothers basement…we guess.; but really we’re ready to finish writing about the last two years, continuing to write more interesting blog posts (more life topics, special interest, those types), finishing a few websites we had started in September, and start planning our big adventure for the spring. And Twitter, of course (duh) :)

The sweet release is thanks to some of the things weighing on us heavily that got sorted our this past week when we were back in the city where we used to live.

• ·         Apartment cleaned and keys turned in, check.
• ·         Real Estate agent set to task cleaning up the shithole state of the house that was left by the former (and previous) tenant (at a hefty 7% commission charge, of course), check. We no longer have to worry about dealing with disrespectful wastes of oxygen.

Now all we do is sit and wait for the house to sell (hopefully it does), and start planning our trip to the United Kingdom…because James has to leave the country by mid-January for about two months…and we’re going with him (and so will you, via our blog and Twitter)! When we come back we’ll be starting our United States tour/Adventure, which we are getting excited about because we plan to meet some of our followers/friends. The list has already been started.

We’ll be adding a tab to this blog to keep our friends updated on the plans (such as states/cities we plan to visit and tweetups we are considering).

We know this isn’t a very exciting post tonight, but it is for us. We’re trying to find the positive in everything while tolerating this city in where we live...and less stress was an adequate start.

You know what we saw today at the grocery store? A sign at the checkout making sure customers using checks understood that the information on their checks were going to be used to withdraw the amount on the check from their accounts. How fucking dumb are people that they need that explained?! Furthermore, who the hell bothers using checks?

Coming back to America after seven years, to this city, is eye opening…and disheartening.

“You know, if we eliminated foods with MSG and high fructose corn syrup we won’t be eating any processed food.” We loudly exclaimed to James (The Boyfriend) as we were going up and down the aisles at the grocery store, trying to figure out our new eating practices/habits (it's harder now, believe it or not). We, as well as James, have concerns about some of the things they put in foods here, such as High Fructose Corn Syrup.

It’s appalling. Why do you need to add High Fructose Corn Syrup to Corn Flakes (in addition to regular sugar) and Special K?! Other countries do not do this.

Somehow other countries (Canada, namely) can even make a quality frozen pizza with half the calories and no HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup)…why can’t the United States? We’ve been searching all over this city for a new frozen pizza brand to replace our old favourites (McCain International Thin Crust and Dr. Oetkers), because sometimes we just feel like eating a frozen pizza (we don’t really like delivery pizza). So far we have failed at finding anything close to it because the calories in processed pizzas available in these grocery stores is astounding.

We also went in search of a bookstore today (looking for a laminated map of the United States) only to find out in a city of over 50,000 they only have one small bookstore in their tiny bleak excuse for a mall (the bookstore we remember being there is now replaced a children’s clothing store…) the guy at the bookstore didn’t even understand what we meant when we expressed ourselves.

“Are you the only bookstore in this city?” 

“Yes”, he said. 

“That’s tragic” we replied, and were met with a blank stare.

Is this America? What is happening to it?

*sigh*

Thank you for reading our rant…we’re going to enjoy our wine now (and dinner) and try to erase the memory of todays disappointments, and embrace the sweet release of less stress.

Tootles,

~Catherine (et als)

Distraction #6

I'm "channeling" Catherine tonight...this cartoon strip makes me think of her.

I'm not in the mood to write tonight, we have a lot to write once we get back "home" (The Mothers basement) which is supposed to be tomorrow, but the people living in the house we have to put on the market have not turned the key into the place they were supposed to, so here we wait, in this hotel room.

This is my post for tonight. If you're in a reading mood just keep reading the 'previous' posts.

Stupid stuck here again...and all I want is some Doritos (which we are not allowed)

~Cassandra