Purpose

I am on a quest to find out my ultimate purpose in life...

why is it so difficult?

It seems like once I choose my direction in my life it will be so much easier to go forward and continue on my path. While I am uncertain, everything is full of resistance, and nothing is certain. So then what the hell is my path?

....

I love music.

so perhaps this is my path.

....

Tekkonkinkreet

One of the best anime's ever! Please note the dvd comes in english and also japanese with subtitles.

Tekkonkinkreet will take you into the world of treasure town, and into the lives of the street kids named prophetically black and white. With stunning animation and artwork that could make this a masterpiece by it's self, you will be pleasantly surprised to find an intense and thought provoking story-line intertwined into the film. If you are a fan of princess mononoke, a lover of anime, or just want to see one of the best anime's ever, check out tekkonkinkreet.

Click here for the DVD

Tekkon Kinkreet

P.S. Tekkonkinkreet means reinforced concrete in japanese

Only Organic

I thought I could skimp on the quality of my food and save some money, only to find that eating non-organic food gave me the worst energy ever. I was really tired all the time, my stomach was upset and I just didn't feel "right." Eating non-organic meats and canned food was a bad idea, if you are currently on a similar diet, see what investing a few extra dollars in quality food will do to your energy level. I think it's worth the extra dollars. 

Cool Grandaddy Album

The Sophtware slump is a wild ride through the strange mind of singer Jason Lytle and is bound to take you on a journey. Whether or not this journey contains a canoe in the city or just a wild ride into the high tech yet dysfunctional society we live in, you will be taken to new locations of the mid 2000 tech boom and following the software crash, spelled sophtware in jason's iconic and unique style. 

Heres a link for The Sophtware Slump

Kittens in a Barrel

The one on the left is named jeremy

enjoy

If you like electronic music, you might like this

If you enjoy electronic music, you might like this

Enjoy this Math Rock song I made and remade on the Monome

http://monome.org/

Have you ever had a grand idea?

What about a million dollar one?

How about one that would make you billions upon billions while you sat back and watched it?

All it needs is to be implemented. 

"Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon hill

Multiple Streams Of Blake

Here are my four largest streams excluding blogger, 

How big is your stream?

Facebook

Myspace

Linked in

Elance

How to live off $100 a month

Ever wonder if it's possible to live off only $100 of food a month?

I am undertaking this challenge this month, and I will be updating regularly on my progress. 

Think about it, $100 isn't that much. At 3 meals a day, thats 84 meals a month. 

$100 / 84 = $1.19 a meal. 

Do you think you could eat off $1.19 a meal?

I may be able to show you how.

FAVICON FAIL

The first way not to make a favicon is do what I did below...

dear readers, there seems to be something missing, 

I think you can do ico, or png files. 

Hmmm... I'll keep you posted. 

FAVICON

Did you know you can add a custom Favicon to your blog?

Favicon? Look to the left of the website address, and you will see my personal favicon, a red B. Before it was bloggers Orange B.


Why would you want a Favicon? A Favicon adds a personal brand to your Blog, instead of that little B to the left of the link.


What is a Favicon? A Favicon is really just any pic 16x16 pixels that you can add to your blog/


How to make a FAVICON, Your ready to dominate the world and you are ready to make your own Favicon

Step 1. open up illustrator, photoshop, paint, or whatever mac has and make your brand


(ideas)

KEEP IT SIMPLE, try 2 colors and a LETTER, that would be professional, and people will be able to read it.


Step 2. Upload your favicon to your blog.

Heres mine:

heres it bigger

Question on this step?
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41641


Step 3. press Preview, and right click on your Favicon and copy shortcut, (I am literally clicking on the favicon above.

Step 4. go to Layout in your blogger dashboard, click edit html

add the shortcut to your pic above this "head tag" near the bottom of your html code:

It should look like this:

And publish your template

Voila, Let me know below in the comments section if you need any further assistance

also check out this site, where I learned about this

LATER BLOGGERS

Feelings are Things

When you feel it. 

Others can feel it too. 

Our feelings are like clouds

And it affects us

Lose Hope, Gain Ground

How many people do you know who never try because they are afraid of failure?

I can think of a-lot, in fact I often find myself caught in the sticky web of avoiding action in order to delay any risk. But in our society the risk has been greatly removed. In fact I would even bet that the risk is almost non-existent. 

What's the worst that could happen if you go to a job and drop a resume? So what if there is a stack of Resume's 200 high, what's the worst that could happen.... not getting hired? Think back a few thousand years when the risks of doing what you needed usually ended in a battle with a wild animal and usually ended in death. Luckily our survival isn't as brutal. Unfortunately the part of our brain that is hard wired for us to avoid this savage death is still very alive, acting upon our every decision. 

Thats why we get so anxious moving in a direction we may even KNOW is good for us. Why do you think people get so anxious when approaching women they might like to date, or going in for a job interview? These feelings are long remnants from a time when living in the wild was full of danger, and acting in the wrong way could have easily caused maiming and death. 

Good thing we live in the year 2009, now all we have to do is get over our negative programming and move ahead no matter the forecast. Essentially lose hope, it's a numbers game, you are always competing with hundreds of people for select positions in any market, the best you can do is get your word out to as many people. 

The Freelancer Solution

I imagine where I'll be in 5 years, and I won't be tied down to a job.... that's too risky! 

I'll be traveling the world with my laptop, my hand held phone that will practically be a computer of it's own, and I will be working remotely across the world while experiencing the amazing oddities of the planet earth. 

With the price of living in America Rising, and only going up, I think living where it costs a fraction of the price, yet can pay the same wages remotely, is an excellent solution. 

Lets see if I can do it.

Timothy Ferris can. 

New Website

Check out my personal info site:

www.blakedallen.com

Thanks

Cello Breakthrough!

I am happy to report after picking up the cello a year ago, and devoting hard practice, time and energy I have reached a breakthrough. I have just played Bach's prelude in G major, from start to finish. Mind you this professional piece is being played all over the world, with critical fame from since it was written. I started being barely able to play one measure, and now a year later I can play the entire piece. 

For an example of this song being played by Rostropovich, one of the best players of all time, click here. 

Slow and steady wins the race. Also having a clear goal helps a ton. I knew I wanted to play this song the second I heard it, the arpegiations are exquisite. I couldn't have kept on without creating these goals for myself, and to any aspiring musician picking up a new instrument like I was, start with what you really WANT to learn, I don't care if you don't think your good enough, and the fact is your not... YET. But bit by bit you'll carve away at the piece and you'll end up with so much more than if you had just done exercises.

While I was studying under a Cello Teacher, I noticed we we're focusing on primarily excercises, in fact during the two years I spent at UCSC the "bulk" of what I learned in the music department consisted of various excercises. 

When I left my Cello teacher I had the bare fundamentals necessary to grow my talent, basic bowing technique and scale fingering. But what kept me going was the fact I was working on an actual Song, and I knew the rewards would be great once I mastered the suite I prelude. 

Now I want to master all of the suites! 

----

Thanks for reading

Thanks for supporting my cello habit!

Your Job is Your Most Valuable Asset.

Recently on the cover of Time Magazine, the title was "Your job is your most valuable asset."

And with the value of Real Estate dropping I can understand why. 

However this isn't exactly true. Your job may be your most valuable asset, because most people dont have any assets! 

Most people's source of income is only their job. And if you ask me there is a big problem there, since all it takes is one boss to pull the plug and bam, you've just lost your source of income. 

Your job may be your most valuable asset, however it should become your least. 

For more information check out Steve Pavlina's 10 reasons you should never get a job.

THE LOVE WORD IS A BURDEN

What? Love, the thing we're all looking for right? Well actually only probably 95% of us really want it, but that's still the majority. Almost everyone I talk to would rather have a stable and steady relationship with someone they thought was excellent, than a short fling no matter how fun it was. 

Lets face it people, we want security with our happiness. Even us men would rather have a great girlfriend they could love than another notch on their bedpost. 

However why then is it such a burden when someone says the words I love you?

I remember one time a girl said those words to me, and I immediately froze up, got anxiety and thought about what that "meant" and how it was going to alter the relationship. I was going through all the thoughts of, oh shit, is she obsessed with me, is this going to turn into a life sapping thing where our personalities turn into a gray mesh and both of us are dependent clinging to an idea of what love is. 

No, in actuality she just loved me, plain and simple. 

But the problem wasn't the love... IT'S THE WORD> when you hear someone say "I love you" its like a bomb drops in your stomach, and you think what the hell does that mean, and do I have to change what i'm doing in order to keep this "love" around?

Well never change yourself for someone else... period. Its not good for you, and they don't get to experience the real you... which is not good for them. The more you alter your course, or compensate for what you think other people want, the more your going to build resentment over time. 

If you really love, or like someone... don't tell them with words. Words are so insignificant. Show them through actions, thats the best way to love someone. A word wont hold a match up to a picture... how could it even begin to communicate an emotion as powerful and refreshing as love. Nope give up on your proposals and long winded explanations of your feelings, and get into the full effect of the moment. Thats where it really happens. 

BOREDOM - Anger + Impatience

Boredom, its universal, we all feel it from time to time. But maybe we feel more than we think.

Its most likely your bored... your probably bored right now. A-lot of people wake up bored, and go to sleep bored, they live their lives in a state of planned and predictable boredom. 

Thats why Unpredictability is king. Break free from bored by doing something different, unexpected and down right fun. I decided to skateboard the other day... something I haven't done for years. I fell once or twice but I scraped myself back up and left buzzing with a new love for skating. 

There's more to life than work, exercise, food, bills. 

No wonder we're bored... we've been duped into thinking the necessities are all there is.

And that's just it, the necessities are necessary, necessary for the cream of the cream in life. 

Go out try it, do something wild, you'll be glad you left your dark cave once, and you might even do it again. 

Emotions The Most Addictive Chemicals Known to Man

Emotions are the most addictive chemicals known to man.

Since anything is capabable of creating a strong emotional surge, it is possible everything is addictive.

Recently I watched a podcast about video game addiction on Current.

Check out the link at the bottom of the page.

What I think could be more important is these people applying their love of games in a positive way. If these people play games for 40-60 hours a week, why not become a play tester? Or even a new in game content creating level designer? By converting the "wasted" time into useful time, both video game companies and gamers can prosper.

http://current.com/items/89038857/i_m_a_video_game_junky.htm