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Category Archives: All posts
Digging Out of the Hole
You don’t like your fucking job. Day in and day out you make sacrifices, filling up your weeks with other people’s problems just so you can siphon off a little stream of revenue from the big river of cash in … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Self-Improvement
Tagged depression, digging, grind, happiness, happy, hole, hustle, improvement, philosophy, Self-Improvement
2 Comments
On Ron Howard’s “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” 2000, Starring Jim Carrey
When I first entered the theater, it was pitch dark. Outside the sun had been shining brightly, at its apex on an azure winter day. I waited inside the threshold for either my vision to adjust or to be rescued … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, great, Philosophy
Tagged breakups, christmas, dr seuss, education, family, grinch, holidays, jim carrey, logic, movie, movie review, movies, philosophy, the grinch
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Coffee Is—
Coffee is science. Or at least I’d like to think it is. Coffee is turning over one stone and knowing the entire forest. Coffee is the process of cobbling together the bigger picture by studying each one of its parts. … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged coffee, coffee industry, poem, poetry, specialty, specialty coffee
2 Comments
What I am Failing to Remember
I keep feeling like I’m on the cusp of remembering something, and everything I do in a given day contains bits and pieces of an overarching design that I need to recover. It’s like the feeling of a recurring dream, … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged creative, creative writing, deja vu, memory, remembering, writing
2 Comments
The Fast and the Furious 9: A Critical Review, or, How to Retcon Absolutely Anything
After finishing a long-term freelance assignment, it felt like the pressure had been lifted off my shoulders. I’ve had more time to relax and more attention to direct towards whatever project I might want to pursue. A little more time … Continue reading
Posted in All posts
Tagged fast 9, fast and furious, movie review, movies, pop culture, review, the fast and the furious, the fast and the furious 9
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Staring at the End (Prose)
Mostly my frame of reference is at the edge of some yawning precipice, open throat of the Earth, and any spell of vertigo might send me tumbling off into the depths. There is a constant gravity in the off-kilter pull. … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Snippets
Tagged apocalypse, creative writing, end, end of the world, entropy, juggernaut, prose, prose writing, staring at the end, the end, universe, writing
2 Comments
Staring at the End
Mostly my frame of reference is at the edge of some yawning precipice, open throat of the Earth, and any spell of vertigo might send me tumbling off into the depths. A spinning tunnel, haunted house; constant feel of the … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Snippets
Tagged apocalypse, creative writing, end, end of the world, entropy, juggernaut, poem, poetry, staring at the end, the end, universe
1 Comment
Stonelike
Fears. With eyes shut tight the heart rides waves of tension in my chest, squeeze of electric impulses. Tides of resistance swell and recede. My hero’s gone, and in his place stands but a cheerleader whose words remind me that … Continue reading
Isolation, Artifacts
Sometimes it takes the whole world stopping to rediscover what you love. When things come to a grinding halt maybe you first glut yourself on the vices you’d used to distract yourself from misery. Maybe the very things you’d framed … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Mindfulness
Tagged artifacts, coronavirus, covid, covid19, happiness, isolation, pandemic, past, peace
2 Comments
Boulders
Tawmbout belief, gratitude, visualization. Buzzwords that I’ve typically spent a lot of time avoiding! Two days ago, while walking up to the Happies with Alex and Mae, I said in conversation how I’d like to focus on being a … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Self-Improvement, Snippets
Tagged bishop, bouldering, boulders, climber, climbing, dream, dreaming, dreams, grateful, gratitude, happies, hulk, visualization
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kaleidoscopes
the feelings that move in me like slow kaleidoscopes or the impressions of perfection that pierce my chest and make me melt like taffy, a bug tumbling in thick amber or a child who’s jumped into a pool shift all … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Snippets
Tagged creative, creative writing, kaleidoscope, kaleidoscopes, love, poetry, revelations, writing
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Perched
Do I love you because I am melancholy? Is it simply due to hours expended that I am expectant, waiting, entitled in my way, and you oblivious, or else unwilling— the cliff ahead we face yet you are turned away, … Continue reading
Vision/Winter
She said I had a “distinct lack of vision for the future.” Maybe I had imagined “distinct,” channeling some ancient jargon on my elementary school report card, a long-lasting impression of shame I’d applied to myself as a functional adult. … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged basin, bishop, buttermilks, creative, experience, future, hope, mt tom, optimism, personal, vision, visions, winter
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How to Fall in Love Completely
The first step is to invest in yourself. Become your own best friend, then your own boss, then your own stockbroker. Take risks. Risk it all—be silly, do stupid things, do everything. Do it with the desperation and conviction that … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged adventure, growth, how to fall in love, how to fall in love completely, love, true love
2 Comments
Do I Dare Dream Again?
Do I dare start to dream again? Is it time to put all these woes and all these trivialities behind me? Do I once again sweep away all of the presumed things of importance to open up that space, crepuscular … Continue reading
Geometry of Dreams
The things that I’ve dreamt about before are no longer relevant, no longer show up in my dreams—all the myriad places and happenings and locations portrayed in shimmering detail, my brain building tiny simulations geographic and geometric in its quest … Continue reading
Alienation of the Self
As I get older, I find myself regarding my body with disbelief and incredulity. It seems that every time I see myself in the mirror I get further and further away from the mental image of myself that I hold … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Philosophy, Snippets
Tagged aging, alienation, belief, child, children, identity, man, manhood, old, self, self-alienation
2 Comments
Sandcastles/Spinning my wheels
If only they could see that none of these things scratch the surface, that all of the things I’ve done and all of the stories that I tell about myself are just hollow excuses, and they don’t really mean anything … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Snippets
Tagged creative writing, fiction, impermanence, loss, sand, sandcastles, truth
1 Comment
Time is on my Side
Time is on my side. The buds of spring appear before my very eyes; the leaves spread open in the sun for me to watch. They say the moment rests upon a razor’s edge, the past behind, the future gone— … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Snippets
Tagged creative writing, perspective, poem, poetry, season, seasons, spring, time, time is on my side, writing
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The Immersion of Memory
It’s dumping down outside, mazes of pockmarked rainwater running everywhere on the ground. My life is made up of memories—this shirt I got from a different place, reminding me of this person—every piece of clothing on my body is linked … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Snippets
Tagged action, creative writing, experience, gestalt, immersion, immersion of memory, memory, navigating, personality, poem, poetry, rain, time, water
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Rags to Riches; Belief
There’s no running from this anymore: My name is Joseph Clifford, and I am a king. There’s a lot I want to talk about in this post. Writing, life circumstances, dreams, commitments, wealth, finances, personal responsibility, and the difference between … Continue reading
Falling
Falling in love is like autumn. Small, perceptible changes begin to take place—veins of color slowly changing shade—and one at a time the leaves begin to fall. The feeling, the anticipation of the event comes first; in crisp individual moments … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Snippets
Tagged autumn, change, fall, fall in love, falling, falling in love, love, season, seasons, spring, summer
4 Comments
Reinvention
I woke up in a rage. The feeling of disgust as I saw everything around me arranged in exactly the same way. The old objects splayed around my room in their respective posts, the sun tilting through the windows as … Continue reading
Media & Inspiration
I am trying very hard. They say that one only rises to the level of his or her expectations. That you’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with. That you are what you eat. I am trying … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Philosophy, Self-Improvement
Tagged art, book, books, giger, H.R. Giger, ideas, inspiration, literature, media, salvador dali, social media, videos, youtube
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Meditations on Death
The time before you hold your breath, the time leading up to the dive, is the most important part. You breathe with intention, in and out, a steady rhythm. The goal is to achieve absolute physiological calm, and this takes … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Philosophy
Tagged angst, breath hold, breath holding, death, diving, dread, emotions, free diving, life, meditation, meditation on death, meditations, meditations on death, philosophy
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The Stone Within My Self
When I hold you, like a looking glass I bring your ghost to life. I condense your spirit into something tangible; it sparkles in the sun in my eye. When I hold you close I make you real, and take … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, great, Snippets
Tagged attention, body, body poems, cash tornado, condensing, empty, focus, hollow, love, meaning, poem, sadness
1 Comment
Seedlings
How can I look back on you with anything but reverence? How to cast the eye of memory back to any of the times we shared and not be humbled, have my heart melt and the coil within my … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, great
Tagged breakup, love, peace, poem, poetry, prose, relationships, seedlings, seeds, time
4 Comments
Adventure Club Manifesto
Our bodies are grossly capable. The human form, physical and spiritual, is incredible. We are equipped to deal with any possible hardship the world can throw at us: climbing a mountain, swimming in a flood, fighting off predators, running a … Continue reading
Posted in All posts
Tagged adventure, adventure club, bodies, body, exercise, facebook group, manifesto, movement, nature, physical, society
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The Call to Life, Pt. 2
Trying hard ain’t everything. When it comes to answering life’s call, there’s only one response: I will do it. I will be better, I will try harder. The immediacy of the call warrants this response. There is palpable tension that resides in … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, great, Philosophy, Self-Improvement
Tagged afred molina, burn, call to life, doc ock, Dr. Otto Octavius, drive, jesus, life, motivation, otto octavius, sex, sex drive, spider-man, the call to life, urge, yoke
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The Call to Life
When all else is taken away, there remains only the basic urge, the never-ending summons, the constant pull towards the unknown and the insane excitement of new potential just coming into focus on the horizon. There is only the adventure … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged call to life, drive, life, motivation, poem, poetry, prose, purpose, sex, urge
1 Comment
How To Live (in this Shitshow)—Introduction
I. Living with Yourself II. Living in Society III. Living with Others The purpose of this book and the purpose of my life have long been one in the same. For the longest time I’ve been obsessed with the idea … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Philosophy, Self-Improvement
Tagged behavior, book, books, comfort, decision, decision-making, discipline, ethical, ethics, faith, fulfillment, habit, habitual, how to live, How to Live in this Shitshow, identification, identity, introduction, life, live, living, meditation, mindfulness, moral, morality, morals, others, parade, people, philosophy, purpose, routine, self, shit, shit parade, shit sandwich, shitshow, shitstorm, shitty, society, temperance, value, virtue, vision, willpower
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Think Pretty Thoughts
I’ve been occupied recently with the question of the soul—is there more to the human being than raw materials? Do we live in a strictly materialist universe? Is there a soul hiding out in your body, or is it just … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, great, Philosophy
Tagged art, eternal, eternity, german, herman hesse, hesse, life, literature, materialist, soul, steppenwolf, thought
5 Comments
Words from a Friend
Life that life man. Be your self man. Do those things man. Don’t be scared man. Climb those rocks man. Read those books man. Get that girl man. Write those words man. Do your best man. Try it all man. … Continue reading
Walls of Resistance
“Your success is on the other side of the wall. Can’t jump over it, or go around it. You know what to do.” —The Rock Where does your success lie? Through the wall. Where do your dreams reside? Where is … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Self-Improvement
Tagged action, mantra, mantras, motivating, motivation, rock, rock clock, success, the rock, the rock clock, through this wall, walls
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Doubt and the Butcher
Lay me to the bone, oh Lord, and vivisect me whole, should you exist. Cut through these layers of monotony, this sense of ought and should and duty, and let me know there lies, beneath the flesh, some metaphysics I … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative
Tagged butcher, doubt, exitence, god, Gott, perspective, poem, poetry, questioning, youth
1 Comment
Individualism
Better and more helpful than adopting any set of rules or particular ideology is to come to the realization that you are your own person; that your decisions and your desires are all in your best interest, that your own … Continue reading
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Based on a True Story
An angel graced me from above, and filled my life with love and light. She shone as fierce as any sun; I saw her star within so bright. The calm of many days has passed since she enmeshed herself with … Continue reading
Habituation
I’ve long fancied the idea that, since we are all products of our environment, were our environment ever to change radically, we could become completely different people overnight. As you go about your day, think that you always open the … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Self-Improvement
Tagged deja vu, grind, grinding, habit, habituation, routine, variegation, variety
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HARD MODE++
I’ve often dreamed of the “hard levels.” Unlocked after beating the game, they are so difficult that they are a lifelong endeavor to complete. Bordering on impossible, they provide a precise balance of frustration and reward, obstacle and progression, pushing ever onward at the … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Snippets
Tagged dreams, expansion, games, growth, reality, tron, videogames, virtual, virtual reality
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On Veganism and Doing No Harm
Recently I’ve become vegan. It was a gradual change, starting with the desire to eat less meat, fueled by a discomfort towards opaque corporate practices; more specifically, towards the lack of transparency regarding food. I found out one of my friends had … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Philosophy, Self-Improvement
Tagged agriculture, behavior, benevolence, dairy, dairy industry, do no harm, guidelines, harm, kindness, meat, meat industry, vegan, veganism, vegetarian
3 Comments
Life Update
After lots of pining away and wishing that things were just a little bit different in my life, I started to make some of those “big changes” I’ve been alluding to. In the beginning of June, I quit my job … Continue reading
Posted in All posts
Tagged BC, british columbia, canada, experience, glacier, glacier national park, life update, los angeles, montana, peak experience, peaks, santa cruz, seattle, setting, socal, travel, victoria
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Big Changes and The Grind
If you want something, then give it time. It might not come to you as soon as you want it—this night, next week, this year. But it will come. Those who persist will win out. This is the long-distance run, … Continue reading
Posted in All posts
Tagged big changes, boring, changes, excitement, grind, monotony, routine
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Recognition, Recollection
I work downtown in a relatively small area. I see hundreds of faces on any given day. I live in the same town I went to college in, and there are old faces everywhere: anyone I recognize could be someone … Continue reading
Posted in All posts, Fiction/Creative, Snippets
Tagged details, history, identity, old man, past, recognition, recollection, story
4 Comments
Higher Passions and the Commodification of Everything
There are times when I feel like I’m sleepwalking; during these times there’s an undercurrent of doubt, dread, and remorse. At any moment I worry that some circumstances will bring all of this underlying tension to the surface, causing a … Continue reading
Dioramas
I’ve wanted to preserve the past in tiny little dioramas, the curator of some mental museum, impeccably aligned artifacts depicting experiences pristine, preserved out of time, so when I’d access them (later, always later) I could say yes, people have loved … Continue reading
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