Rock the Bottom

I’ve been sitting at a great little place called Waffle & Wolf in Williamsburg, staring out the window for the last ten minutes thinking about what brought me to this point. How do you get where you are if you’re not content of even happy where you’ve ended up? Financial pressure? Lack of direction? Or you simply don’t know what you really want to spend you time doing. Being in a state of limbo myself, both financially and life – I’ve been contemplating a Rock-Bottom situation. In doing so the brain completely takes over and imagines the worst possible outcome and tries to convince you that that specific outcome you fear most will certainly come to fruition. A very frightening thought indeed. But in suffering in that moment for a few minutes and responding accordingly with nervousness and an increased heartrate, something occurred to me.

The same paradigm (not read as para-dig-em, an easily confusing pronunciation for the freshmen Psych major), that very thought process that put you at rock-bottom can result in a complete mental shift all together, creating new possibilities. Think about it, you got to where you are (your perceived rock-bottom circumstance) in a mental state that left you powerless; whether it be a loss of a job, bad relationship, whatever. But there are opportunities to be seen in such a situation, by being cut loose from those attachments. That’s happened to me in the past few months and it is hard to keep taking risks with no quick result but I’ve come to realize that failure equals growth, if you keep moving.

So if you’re at Rock-Bottom, make the decision to rock the bottom and see how quickly things change.

Stop by Waffle & Wolf for a cup of coffee and a savory bacon waffle.

iVacuum

We all know about the lack of motivation one gets to make changes in one’s life, and the self fulfilling prophecy of failure when faced with a difficult situation. The loss of a job, or a break-up, these things can be devastating to someone’s sense of security and esteem. These instances can cause a complete paralysis in action and thought; you know you should do something, and you know what you have to do, but you just can’t bring yourself to take action and the steps to get it done. I’ve recently been calling it the iVacuum (see Inspiration Vacuum). For all intents and purposes in the new tech digital age, an iVacuum is a vicious cycle of inaction from no-inspiration moments, continuously perpetuating themselves, resulting in a vacuum of motivation and stagnation. How does a person break this cycle of frustrating thought? A perspective change is what’s necessary. To get out of this detrimental thought pattern, there needs to be a change in input to change output. Similar to writer’s block, the iVacuum is a snowball of negative thoughts that help you get NOWHERE.

There is no cure for the iVacuum, but there are ways to get out of it by proxy. Change your environment and seek inspiration from others and new experiences. You think new ideas and inspiration will come from just sitting in front of your computer day in and day out? Nope. That’s the purpose of this podcast, interesting people that simply share interesting stories. Now personally I get extremely pumped when finding what people I find interesting are about, collecting their ideas and experiences through their context and tone of their voice, body language, and everything involved in a shared experience with others. If I can meet people that I find inspirational and can share what I get out of speaking with them, maybe that can help to lead to some changes in others too. What’s better than a situation like Heavy Brunch – combining both physical nutrition from great eateries and mental nutrition from great conversation. It’s win/win in my book.

Coffeeshop Phone Ettiquette

Right now I’m at nice little pastry coffee shop on Graham Ave called The Blue Stove trying to get some work done on an idea I have for another one of my projects, but I had to quickly interject on any and all work to cut in on any productive efforts to rant about Coffee-shop etiquette and question if there even is any.

I’m sitting at a long wooden table similar to one you’d see in an elementary school cafeteria, except the people here aren’t trying to trade their mini carton of 2% for the sweetened chocolate variety, and the tabletop is a naturally weathered pine and not the government subsidized laminated plastic mahogany. They’re intently gazing into their laptops or wincing in their design journals trying to milk the free refills as long as possible without looking like a mooching dbag, and trying to get some work done doing it. The Blue Stove’s atmosphere has an inviting, country kitchen-like aesthetic that seems to encourage healthy conversation between patrons, but the current situation I’m in now drives me bonkers.

A lady two seats down from me has claimed the title of “that guy” in here. For 45 minutes and only three sips down on her now cold beverage, she is broadcasting work talk that is cutting through my headphones and distracting me to the point of flipping the table. After tapping her on the shoulder, smiling, and giving a friendly “inside voices” pantomime which was seemingly well received with a “Sorry” and shrug, it was not withstanding. Vocal Volume was pumped up louder. The problem is that fact that she’s not conversing with anybody at the table, well, not a physical body anyway. She’s on her goddamn iphone practically yelling into it as it’s plainly obvious she doesn’t know how the receiver on the headphone cord picks up audio. Not only that, she’s got Skype open with the message ring on. What the fuck. Is there no cultural etiquette for talking on a phone, inside an eatery, at a table? Go outside and have some common courtesy because nobody gives a shit how your boyfriend made fun of you for liking Nic Cage’s National Treasure. Yeah, you deserved it but still, nobody wants to hear it.

When does the situation from she’s either dumb or inconsiderate to “wow, that guy’s an asshole for telling her to be quite or go outside”? But this question only comes into play for someone that cares what others think, because if you’re bothered you can sure as shit guarantee the dude sitting across from you that looks like that toothbrush he’s designing is the only thing that can save the future of teeth is definitely not in the mood to hear it.

What do you think?

5 Leaves

Yesterday wasn’t a bad time to grab a quick bite to go over format planning for the blog and the place I had breakfast never disappoints. 5 Leaves has been a brunch staple for me since I moved to North Williamsburg over two years ago. Their coffee is great and the atmosphere is hectic from major popularity by weekend scenesters. Anybody visiting me from out of town is going to suffer the 30 min wait to grab a table at this place.