Benjamin profile picture

Benjamin

steps taken forward, sleepwalking back again, dragged by the force of some inner tide.

About Me

"Whooo are yooou?" said the hookah smoking catepillar to Alice. I'm someone who loves people and hates them at the same time. I love them because people are infinitely varied. Each person has a story and that story is as important to them as mine is to me. And i am always interested in getting to know that true self if they are willing or able to share it. Often times i hate people because their story is all they care about and they never take the time to question their own choices. They don't take the time to see life from a perspective that is not their own which often results in pain for others and pain for themselves. Sometimes i believe that life is a riddle that we are all in together... Each individual knowingly or unknowingly seeking out pieces to a puzzle that will ultimately set them free. But in order to do that you have to be able to look past your own little world, and try and see the world that is actually surrounding you. Perhaps 'hate" is too strong of a word. I just wish that more people would realize that most of us are lost in one way or another. That most of us are afraid. I think that if we all realized that then we would better be able to communicate with each other which in turn would alleviate those fears and set us on a path to togetherness. Or at least...on the path of being alone, together. Well thats just one philosophy that i have. And I just might change my mind. I like to think that i'm constantly changing, evolving into a better person even though i know that's not always true. Who am i? I'm different every day. Whooo are yooou?

My Interests

Comedy, Stand Up, Movies, Books, Music, Writing, Travel, College Football, Tennis, Chess, Guitar, Singing badly, Street fairs, Coffee, Animals, Science, Inventing, Ideas, People, Fantasy, Philosophy.

I'd like to meet:

I would like to meet those who think strange thoughts in their heads and those who play make believe every night before bed. I'd like to share minds with poets and fools and perhaps see them dance their dance in a duel. And watch the king laugh and the glorious queen cry and sit with the court as the menagerie goes by. I'd like to find genius in the most unlikely place, and talk to a blind man about what he sees in a face. I'd like to meet those who rule their own lives despite the world and its blanket of lies. I'd like to drink beer in a far away land in the company of a story teller whose just lost his hand. I'd like to talk to an honest man on the run and get the real story to pass on to his son. I'd like to laughcry with the saddest and lonliest soul and tell him that i understand the depths of that black gaping hole. I'd like to meet anyone who has something to say, with the light in their eyes that keeps the darkness at bay. I would also like to meet David Gilmour, Richard Linklater, Jack Johnson, and anyone who i can learn from or who needs to learn from me.

Music:

Pink Floyd, Jack Johnson, Ryan Montbleau, Dave Mathews, Beatles, Zepplin, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimmy Hendrix, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, Phish, Sting, Springstein, Guns&Roses, U2, Neil Young, Santana, Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Prince, NIN, Type O Negative, Credence, Marley, The Doors, Black Crows, Black Eyed Peas, Mozart, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Beach Boys, The Eagles, and on and on.

Movies:

Waking life, The Princess Bride, Rushmore, Boondock Saints, Braveheart, Team America, Before Sunrise, Labrynth, Office Space, The Adventures of Baron Munchowsen, Big Fish, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Moulan Rouge, LA Story, X-Men, Johnny Dangerously, What The Bleep Do We Know, Kung-fu Hustle.The Big Lebowski, Goonies, True Romance, Spies Like Us, Raising Arizona, Young Frankenstien, Snatch, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Dazed & Confused, A Christmas Story, Scrooged, Swingers, Coming to America, The Golden Child, Oliver, Highlander, South Park, Bigger Longer and Uncut, Blow, Vanilla Sky, Pink Floyd's The Wall, Fantasia, State&Main, Bowfinger, The Three Amigos, School of Rock, Requiem For A Dream, SpaceBalls, My Cousin Vinny, Tombstone, Punch Drunk Love, Spanglish, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmour, The Water Boy, Shakespeare in Love, Star Wars 1-6, Indiana Jones, Unforgiven, Harry Potter, the first Batman, Pulp Fiction, Resevoir Dogs, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, Almost Famous, Oh Brother Where art thou?, Garden State, Blazing Saddles, Casablanca, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, Gotcha, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, The Game, Dead Poet's Society, Toy Story,The Incredibles, Idol

Television:

Family Guy, Arrested Development, Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sienfeld, Nip Tuck, Andy Richter Controls The Universe, Grosse Pointe, Whose Line is it Anyway, Conan, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Scrubs, Lost, The Shield, The Office (both)

Books:

Authors: Hemingway, Lewis Carroll,Anne Frank,Mario Puzo, J.D. Salinger, Robert Jordan, John Irving, Christopher Durang, Bertolt Brecht, Neil Simon, Ray Bradbury, Ayn Rand, William Goldman, Stephen King, Robert McCammon, Frank McCourt, Roald Dahl, Hans Christian Anderson The Brothers Grimm, Jack London, A.A. Milne, Dan Brown, Shel Silverstein, Vergil, Dante,Gregory David Roberts, George R Martin, Eckhart Tolle, James Redfield, Paulo Coelho, Shakespeare, Dr. Suess

Heroes:

My Parents, My Teachers, Those who make it a priority to make other people's lives better. Anyone who can conquer their fears enough to follow their dream, despite all the people who don't understand.

My Blog

from Self-Reliance

from Self-Reliance There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as hi...
Posted by Benjamin on Sat, 29 Jul 2006 12:03:00 PST

Thoughts

"Drop him here" "Where am I?" "Well i don't know either... but its somewhere. And its going to determine the course of the rest of your life."      -Waking Life   "The ke...
Posted by Benjamin on Sat, 29 Jul 2006 11:51:00 PST

Creation

Ode We are the music-makers       And we are the dreamers of a dream, Wandering by lone sea breakers,      And sitting by desolate streams;- World-los...
Posted by Benjamin on Sat, 29 Jul 2006 11:33:00 PST

Persevere

INVICTUS Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.   In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cr...
Posted by Benjamin on Sat, 29 Jul 2006 11:22:00 PST