Archives for January 2013

Whoa, did you feel that? It was the rush of a thousand women as they all simultaneously picked up pitchforks, lit their torches, and vowed to never return to Self Stairway due to the misogyny of this post. “Pickup artists?! What are you thinking?” Now hear me out before I get crucified and lose my readers.

Apparently, pickup artists (PUA) aren’t all pretentious jerks who want to use sleazy methods to seduce “easy” women. I came across this article while reading Ramit Sethi’s words of wisdom and this really interested me in the topic.

Naturally, I conducted a bit of research and look, I came out just fine! I didn’t transform into some sort of fist pumping guido with a no-shirt policy (okay, maybe it’s because I’m too thin).

What I’ve learned is that these are all just normal people with the desire to better themselves as an individual. PUAs aren’t relying on pickup lines, tactics, and lies to get women to sleep with them. This comes as much as a shock to me as it does to you.

People often have some sort of one-way relationship with their friends, one more dominant than the other. One teaching while the other absorbs. This is very true for most of my friendships and I always felt like the one who had the lessons to give, teaching constantly and rarely absorbing anything new back. Not to say these relationships are any less interesting because I sincerely enjoy the company of all of my friends. There is just something different about one particular individual whom initially I was not the greatest of friends with, until one fateful ritual was established. I didn’t see the brilliance of this man’s perspective until our encounters were ritualized and perfected. The brilliance of a mentor mentoring his mentor.

People are told all the time, “be yourself,” but what does that mean? They promise everything will just fall into place as long as you remember how to be yourself, as if it is some profound, life-changing advice. Why didn’t you and I think of that? Huh, “be yourself.”

Really though, what does it even mean to be yourself? Even if you wanted to, do you know how to be yourself?

Truthfully, I doubt that many people even figure out who they are and perhaps never will know what it means to be themselves.

Who had themselves figured out? Abraham Lincoln? Teddy Roosevelt? Colonel Sanders?

Nope, during their lifetime they were just working up the self-stairway (hey, that’s the name of the site!)

Starbucks for me has always been an amazing place of excitement. The atmosphere always felt just right for not only the high school and college crowd, but also young adults, and even people of business. I love walking to Starbucks or even Coffee Bean on any given day with a friend or two just so we can enjoy a quick ice cold Frappuccino. Then we’d excitedly sit down on the not too flashy black chairs and just converse on any topic. It was the simple things.

There’s something about the aura that makes you want to open up more. Not to mention the fact that there’s a sort of pop culture image of the intellectual or soulful tortured artist that ties in with the coffee shop scene. This image makes you feel like you are indeed an intellectual, taking part in an ancient tradition that may lead back to the great philosophers of Greece themselves.

When some people think of Starbucks, some terms may pop into their head. Maybe one person may shout out “overpriced”, the moment the coffee behemoth is mentioned. A more snobby critique would be “hipster”, and maybe put more kindly “lame”. It has an interestingly negative reputation, as all companies seem to once they dominate a certain market (think Walmart vs. small, local businesses).

Quite honestly though, the whole coffee shop scene that have swept across the states in recent years opens up a lot of amazing opportunities, for example:

I wish I were a superhero. No, not the type that flies around, shoots lasers through his eyes, and then walks through walls. I don’t long to be in some Stan Lee cartoon or film adaptation. Instead, I wish I could help those in need, regardless of how troubled, saving them from their faults and unfortunate situations.

Look at me, I’m talking like some sort of soon-to-be superhero, dawning his cowl for the first time. My English butler-aid would ask me, “Who will you be saving today, sir?” I guess maybe in some ways I am a superhero.

The things that cut the deepest are the situations that seem the most unfair, the most unforgiving; they’re the ones that hit closest to home, while in my case was quite literal. I had two tenants who lived in my house, sharing my roof for two years or so. Their names were Paul and Carol and they were two of the most genuinely beautiful couples you can hope to meet, on the outside at least. Surely not without their own characteristic faults, but nonetheless truly life-appreciating people. It’s unfair how life has treated them for the past few decades. Did I mention they’re both older than my grandparents? Imagine that.