Leaving Averageland: Quit Your Job. Dump Your Girlfriend. Get on the Playing Field!

 

Averageland sucks.

This blog is just simply to carry on the essence of the my first blog. 

Talk trash and back it up. 

It's amazing how many wannabe Content Creators or wannabe Entrepreneurs don't have a simple blog. 

Something they can just express their thoughts on their craft for FREE.

You would think that COVID would spur on a whole new sense of urgency to break out of the shackles of enslavement from the powers that be. 

Quite the opposite has happened. 

There are plenty of experiments that show that when the door is open. 

People will not walk through, not only that, they will close the door on themselves. 

It is a form of Stockholm Syndrome. 

So, while people are on trips spending money they don't have. Racking up bills and getting fat. I am in the zone, making sure my success is guaranteed. I have barely made the cut on every team I ever played for. But always have won the MVP by the end of the year. 

How?

These CRUCIAL 7 days of Work where everyone else is seriously indulging in every vice possible. 

I am in the gym no matter what. 

I am working on my business. 

I am making cuts for the year. 

Not putting up with slow, lazy and dumb people no more. 

They want things spoon fed to them. 

Where does this attitude come from?

It's a prevalent one. 

It is celebrating before you've actually done anything significant. 

I get this from married dudes a lot. 

They have tons of advice for unmarried dudes.

The longer they have been in the marriage the more irrelevant their 'ideas' are. 

But this is what is going on everywhere in the Content Creation world.

No one lives what they say. 

It's just fiction. 

I'm not saying I'm a lady slayer. 

When I could be. 

But, I know this is not wise either. 

There is one guy I agree with. 

G, named Andrew Tate. 

This guy seems like he's been reading my mind. 

He's been making banned videos for a long time. 

And I see why some of it is controversial today. 

Minimizing the pain of heartbreak is essential to getting anything done. 

And, many things he's said that rang true that came naturally was never sacrificing my self respect for pussy.

Even if you have to sacrifice and destroy the relationship. She was going to do whatever she was going to do anyways. So, any ultimatum is just to save my dignity rather than save the relationship. 

My dad always told me how women are ruthless. 

I am seeing in in full force in my early 30s. 

Most dudes I know are deep in the marriage with kids. 

And still think they are hip with it. 

They picked their poison. 

Marriage is the ultimate grown up move. 

What do these people know about anything. 

They can barely take care of themselves and they are now taking care of a family. 

That's serious responsibility.

So telling anyone like that to quit their job would be a dickhead move. 

But, don't be telling me what to do when I have 0% responsibility to another human. 

The internet is a crapshoot. 

And most of these ramblings is just therapy for me to get shit off my head. 

This is not because I'm bitter or jealous, which is most people's default diss toward me. 

How could I be possibly jealous, when I'm closer to freedom than they will ever be?

But, whatever happened to the courage of putting your money where your mouth is?

Whatever happened to Bros over Hoes? 

Bros are Hoes. Today. 

They always have some niggling thing to say. 

But that's out of jealousy. 

Trust me. 

Those little barbs, punch to ribs are signs they are jealous of you. 

Never take your foot off their neck. 

As for the ladies. They are around. 

But, the key to life is defeating men. 

So, here I go for another year. 

The 7 Days of Carmike is always here. 

There are many subtle disadvantages of having a girlfriend, especially in a crisis. 

1. You are dumb, lazy and blind to actual opportunities that could change your life.

2. You are held back by her need for comfort and security.

3. She is sabotaging your success by being either a bitch or a motherly figure. 

4. She doesn't really want to see you succeed.

5. It's like playing the game on "Free" mode. Nothing counts. No score. But she wins. 

6. The ideas that you actually have are shit because they involve not pissing her off. 

If there is an 'ism' there is a 'ist' and that's just the truth. 

Exploitation of race and sex is the most obvious. 

But, the great thing about making money is that money doesn't see race or gender. It goes to the ones who want it the most without being needy for it. 

Banks and Women:

When you need them. They do not need you.

When you don't need them. They need you.

This is why you do not meet truly supportive women at the bottom of the mountain. 

You get the opposite woman. You get the woman who sabotages those very faint dreams by supporting your dumb ideas. 

Beautiful Women and Quality Customers with money have the same nature. 

Broke boys and Average Girls are one in the same. 

The problem with falling in love with women who you do not know if they are pretty or not is that, you may be spoiled for choice at the bottom. But, you'll never want to climb the mountain of Winning because of the fear of the unknown. 

I am in the opposite world. I cannot get an average woman to save my life. They are locking their men into 30 year mortgages and townhouse contracts and babies and all that shit. 

So, y'know. 

That's not what freedom is about?

Take smart risks. 

Go all in. 

I can have kids until I'm dead. 

There's no rush. 

It's been a long time, been a way long time.

"I never knew I could record my own music and so cheaply." - Carmike

After band split ups, disagreements and all the drama that comes with collaborating with other people. I finally learned how to play a guitar to record my first EP. Drums, Guitar, Bass and Vocals all me. 

I wish I could say my First EP is what I wanted to do. It's what I could do at the time. There is tons I want to say through Art. A lot of false lovers. A lot of false friends. A lot of false family. A lot of falsity that can drive me crazy. But, I have found my outlet to show myself that I am still The Man. Always have been. Like it or not. 

In Austin Kleon's book, Show Your Work, there are two concepts I really liked. 1) Let my interests talk to each other and Obscurity is the Gift. I remember when the indie band was an actual DIY, band. So doing it yourself, learning and acquiring new skills along the way to create something new to me is essential to Artistic Growth. Which is more important to me, than money right now. 

In Robert Greene's Mastery. A similar concept of going back to when you were a child and seeing what I naturally gravitated to. Telling people what to do is one, but chess is another one. Any game that has mind power, I really like. So, I downloaded the Chess.com app once again. Having fun on that. Thinking of buying a chess set so, I can practice live. 

I'm not a solo artist. I'm more of a interim one man band. I haven't met anyone that is really up for jamming like they did back in High School. People my age got commitments and other priorities. They are silently competing and doing all that covert drama that high school is renowned for. 

But without sounding bitter, there is sweetness to this game. And this comes with the real relation to the music, that I have been really concentrating on. The 2nd Law by Muse, has been a major influence on myself to acquire a digital piano. 

I have been a Muse fan since 2004. And it was about 10 years later I saw some dude with the 2nd Law t-shirt. It wasn't until 7 years later I would give the album a real listen. And how important this album is today. I don't want to give away most of the nuances of the album. I just recommend a concentrated listen. 

But, for the first time I can focus on my making of things and more frequently and more consistently. 

So, when I go tell people to do shit, I can say that I've done it. Therefore it is a good idea for them to consider. Empty commands are just that. Empty if I haven't done it. 

I have always remained true to the fact that doing Art to appease people who ultimately 'cancel' me is not a good idea. So, remaining secure in my own skin through Art, if that's possible, is the standard I want to hold for myself. 

In my 20s, I forgot to go travelling. But I do not travel for travelling's sake. I'm not one of those people who need to get away. I like the mundaneness. Plus, I haven't met anyone who has 'wowed' me with their travelling stories. The truth always comes out. There's always something missing. No matter how great their excursions are. 

Traveling, today seems like it's for the IG more than anything. It's ambiguous. Because on one hand, what's the point traveling if you can't show your friends cool spots around the world. That's the essence of IG. But on the other hand, da Narcissism... 

Starting cool bands is for young people. Making cool shorts is for young people. Wearing the right clothes is for young people. Making noise is for young people. Gaining skill and technique is for young people. And then, yes, I think traveling is a good idea to go once, you've acquired an untouchable skill. 

But the quickest way to get woke is traveling. The quickest way to go broke is traveling.

What a long story, what a long time coming. I wish I could go into the pure details of why it took so long. It has been eventful. Blame is a dual sword. I find there are many people that tried to pry my goals just to pay attention to what they are doing with no real commitment to me. 

Black Poindexter says, Life happens when you're busy living it. So the thing is, I have so much more music in this head of mine, but who knew learning a guitar would be so rigorous. The real artists out there make it look like a cinch.

Anyone, not everyone can play guitar. I started fairly late, like most things in life. I didn't learn how to skate until I was about 8. Ended up playing pretty good hockey with players who have been skating before they can walk. 

For the first time, I can focus on who I am. 

With that said, Psyburbia EP is just a 3 track demo, that I made over the pandemic. It has 2 instrumental tracks, and a full track with vocals. This is a major achievement of mine. I always thought recording was for the big dogs. But for less than a couple grand, I am right on par with my favorite bands. 

There will be a lot more to come, but my soundcloud is filled with the misses and experiments of making this EP. The lessons of learning an instrument while recording and putting it out into the world... 

Yeah, the first baby steps of learning an instrument as complex as the guitar and having the right philosophy about it is why this project is so fulfilling. Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead has famous quote about the challenge of learning new instruments..

I can now say that I know that feeling. But as it has been released, it is of the past. I will end this blog here. As I'm working on a more challenging project, with more instruments, including the piano and DAW controller. 

Now I am in my element for the time being and health permitting. So, I wish you well wherever you are reading this and good luck to your ideas in making them reality. 

Carmike. 

PS- I just bought a New Watch. Pretty happy with it. 

The Older I get. The Younger I become.

 

TLDR: Know your knowledge. Create your Creativity. Stay Away from Pessimists posing as Optimists.

When I hear that people who want to make money should learn how to code. This is a mythical and misleading statement. It presupposes that coding is easy. Which it isn't. And the better you get, like anything the opportunity becomes more difficult. The risk of disappointment goes up. 

When I was in coding school, one of my mentors, who was always in a hurry told me, in passing, that the biggest mistake of his career was "I thought I was too good. That's when major mistakes were made." The first lesson I had after watching The Social Network is that empires can be coded in a weekend. Wrong!

Techniques if concentrated wholly can be achieved rather quickly. By moving slowly. Whenever the Blue Jays are playing, I still remember where I was when Jose Bautista hit that homerun. I was coding. When all the crushes I had were travelling the world. I was coding. When I was getting my ass kicked by a computer, most people were having the best time of their lives. I can rant on and on about this. Let's just say. Things are not always the way the seem. Especially on the Social Media. 

I cannot control what other people do. But, I sure as hell can control what I can do with my time, and what my priorities are in life. The Older I get. The Younger I become. So I never really scoffed at the idea. I wasn't doing anything wrong. I wasn't building an empire. Like #MoneyTwitter likes to preach about. I am building the skillsets that can build another empire when the first one topples over. 

 

Wisdom is the reward of working. Like anything it has its paradoxes. Such as, whenever I think I'm going somewhere. I have gone nowhere. Vice versa, whenever I think I'm sinking in quicksand. I'm on the Autobahn. Life is weird like that. But there are crucial insights here. Grass isn't greener. Never get high on your own supply. Players pay the price. Everyone else spectates. Whenever something is hard, your brain either fights to solve it. Or it flees away from it. 

My dad always asked these questions such as "Who would you pick the old doctor or the young doctor?" The one with experience, or the one with the new techniques? Good question. The Older I get the Younger I become. I would have to side with the youthful techniques. As techniques used in the proper way outperform experience in this economy. Fast is Slow. Slow is Fast. As the title card states: Creativity is the knowledge and application of techniques to deliver an intended result. 

 

Like my mentor said. Arrogance and fleeing from problems are the cause of Empires falling. Whenever you see too much of it, you know something bad is going to happen. When humans stop caring about one another, and ego trips become the law of the land, something bad is going to happen. I have faith in the North American system, from this pandemic, prices may be going up, but they are not skyrocketing by any means. There are people on the internet who really like to hammer on the West. But they never leave. Or even worse, have profited off the freedoms of the West and continue to bad mouth it. Hypocrites all. There is no East, there is no West. And the Pandemic really did prove this. One powerful country's problem is another's and it reverberates down to every human on this planet. 

New techniques for preventing massive issues are being ignored today on a grand scale and probably always will. But this is not a statement of pessimism. This is a statement that indicates that somehow, someway the way the World is set up, we stave off elimination. But we should never taken our big or little problems for granted.Deforestation Pact was signed yesterday. Which is a good start. 

Humble Beginnings

I had a blog back in the day called "I don't like Carmichael Reid and (t)his blog sucks!" Man I loved that blog. You can still check it out at carmichaelreid.blogspot.com. But, that was a long time ago. You can see what I was about back then. Today, I am a much more experienced person. I have improved perspectives to implement in every day life.

 I didn't have much of my own work to show. It was more like Instagram meets Twitter meets Tumblr. So, here we go with another experiment. I have been inspired by this journal I get every four months titled, "Lapham's Quarterly".

I will be emulating this with my own work, as when I was in school, I, along with colleagues were subjected to great simplicity of culture exercises. Create a story in 5 lines or less. It taught us to make impact with as less words as possible. Plus it gave the Prof a lot less reading to do. Smart on both parts...

 

 Happy Accidents at the the Music store. Where I found "Bluey". Same guitar color!

I have had all of the above. And "success" is still not guaranteed. 

So, without preaching or teaching, I will just show you what I'm up to from here on out.

This is the journal I am very happy to recreate with my own personal projects ranging from Music, Art, Literature, Sports, and Architecture.. Let's do this, Carmichael Reid