60917475

Hi, I'm Ray.
I'm having a wild time while I experience this existence of mine. I'm trying to live the best way I can by doing a few things - keeping an open mind, learning, being willing to change and trying to enjoy myself. I am an aspiring writer, film maker, entrepreneur, musician and a couple of other things too. I am trying to "make it" in the entertainment industry but in order to earn money to fund my creative ventures I have started a business that I work very hard at. I love the ocean and everything about it (beaches, boats, sea life, salt air, bonfires, etc.). I'm a "Parrothead" - meaning that I'm a big Jimmy Buffett fan (he is one of the coolest musicians out there and he's been a large inspiration for me). I like doing stuff with my buddies like going on spontaneous road trips and having some pretty wild nights out (in NYC we usually see the sunrise pretty much every night we hit the bars). Sometimes we get a bit nutty and wind up in a place like Disneyland while tripping on mushrooms and make total fools of ourselves. Or the time we stole a keg from the 14th floor of my old dorm as we pretended to be R.A.'s (they thought we were confiscating it). I have a lot of other crazy stories but if I put some of them on myspace I might get a knock on the door by the cops, haha. My favorite color is blue, I cheer for Boston sports teams, the Tampa Bay Rays (the Blue Jays suck by the way), and Notre Dame - Go Irish! I like buffalo wings (with blue cheese - not ranch) and Chinese buffets quite a bit and my favorite sports are hockey and soccer. --- oh, and get funky --- (just thought I'd randomly throw that in there...) The three cars I enjoy the most are the Jeep Wrangler, BMW convertibles and the Bentley GTC - gotta put that top down. Laying under a palm tree with a friend and a bottle of rum while looking up at the stars is one of my favorite ways to spend a night. I have fun doing stuff like meeting new friends, traveling, hanging out at the beach, hitting up bars, trying all sorts of new stuff, visiting some of my favorite places (like the central coast of California, New England, NYC, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean), watching live music, reading and watching documentaries, balancing on my Indo Board, checking out abstract art, researching psychedelics, foggy beach days, admiring architecture (I especially like modern style homes, log cabins and castles), laying in my hammock (I own four different types of them), drinking cheap rum, and appreciating some of the "finer things in life". Lately I've been playing the guitar a lot, trying to learn French and Spanish, playing tennis, meditating and brewing beer with my brother.
Politically I am pretty liberal (with a bit of a libertarian outlook cause we need more social freedoms - way more). I think that most drugs should be legal (with no jail sentences for any drug), we should be a much more caring and sensible society in general, a lot of laws are too prude (like 1:00 AM closing times), there are way too many unreasonable laws, police brutality needs to end, any adult should be legally allowed to marry any other adult, handguns and other weapons like this should be banned completely, American society is backwards on issues like sex - like how something beautiful and natural like nudity is frowned upon, and the idea that we still have the death penalty disgusts me. We also need to reform the broken jail system and expensive college education system. There must be an emphasis on the notion that we're all in this together. We can be way better. I feel that people need to wise up and mellow out and that right winged conservative christians are the reason why our country is being laughed at by Europeans. I think that religion is ridiculous, incredibly ignorant and it's one of the worst things for a society to have. It's a horrible belief system that limits your ability to think freely (religion is even against questioning itself) and it severely hurts everyone it touches. Reason should be used to decide things in life, not some shakey set of "morals" that some belief system believes is "right". Also, I can't stand the conservative red state (or redneck) mindset and I think it's a horrible way to think. It bothers me about as much as my other least favorite thing which is littering. One of my favorite things to do is to think about subjects like psychology, the future of technology, transhumanism, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cognitive enhancement, alien life, existence beyond humanity, sociology, philosophy, other possibilities of consciousness, and what the world will be like in the far future. I think that the future will be amazing in ways that we have not imagined. I also believe that we will create creatures with incredible "artificially" produced intelligences and let them enjoy the ultimate existence. It would be a merger of science and art to create the most magnificent thing possible in the entire universe - the ultimate beings (it's all about the set and the setting)...
I'm kind of a hippy at heart. I have had some perspective changing stuff happen in my life (some very good and some very bad) and I guess I'm just doing the best I can. Sometimes it seems like the whole world is in on a secret they won't let me know. I want to learn how to let go of myself and realize that some things I "know" are merely a perception which I should be able to let slip away. I want to be free. I want to make sure that I think about things going on and always question or challenge what's happening. I want to be interesting rather than impressive. I daydream and "space out" sometimes. I think that becoming who I want to be (although I'm still not totally sure who that may be) is my main goal right now, that's what I consider success. After that comes other ventures (career stuff etc.) . I also think your imagination is one of the best things you have. Everything that happens in your life can have an impact on who you are - even the things you never thought affected you're mindset. There is more than this and the whole thing is absolutely a crazy wonder. We take this magnificent and almost magical human experience for granted. Just being here should be a great joy we never get to mixed up to forget - just look up at the stars and see how wild this whole thing is (or look in the mirror). I feel like in three months I'll be different from the way I am now. Sometimes we meet someone who whacks our mind pretty hard - those are the best encounters we can have. I like weird things and people sometimes (like when I eat cold ravioli out of the can) or hang out with characters that some may look at as being a bit too out there. I've realized that I'm a real person with real emotions but I don't know what direction to go. I guess that people just have to be wise about figuring out who they want to be and strong enough to become it. I have faith though and I'll be all right. We'll just keep moving on.
I've done some cool things like co-produced a cable television show called "Massholes", been on a few cross country road trips, I was the president of my fraternity pledge class, done a bunch of other neat things, met a lot of great people, and worked a number of funny jobs (an ice cream man, a lift operator at a ski resort in Colorado, I taught english in China, was the "Sam the Minute Man Mascot" for Umass (a.k.a. ZooMass) for a while, a bartender in Key West for a summer, a "Woofer" in Australia - that means that I worked for food and a place to sleep, and a head Lifeguard at a water-park among others). I've got some pretty funny stories to tell and I always try to have a good time. I have learned a few things like existence is bigger than me, variety is essential, changing and questioning your perspectives (especially your most beloved) is necessary - think of the mind as a river and not a lake - it's always changing. Simplicity can be key, your health is one of the most important things you have, very few things are "set in stone", treating others well and equally is extremely important and I think that having faith that everything makes sense but we just may not know how is a good notion. I still have a lot to learn. I am passionate about getting my mind in the best state, keeping an open mind and I think that enjoying who you are (or at least trying to) is one of the most important things you can do - without that you're lost. Your mind is what matters. I also feel that the people in your life are some of the most important things someone can have so meeting new friends and spending time with my existing ones is always a joy - it's all about who you are and who you're with... Most of all though I want to fulfill my potential, live my dreams, create works of art, have so much fun that it's utterly ridiculous and truly enjoy who I am and who I'm becoming.
Some of my Favorite Quotes:
"There are few things in this world that salt water can not cure, whether it be in the form of sweat, tears or the ocean." - Anonymous
"If life gives you limes, make margaritas." - Jimmy Buffett
"Say who you are, say what you mean, question yourself, are you really what you dream?" - Dispatch
"The world is but a canvas to our imaginations." - Henry David Thoreau
"Success is not in what you have, but who you are." - Bo Bennett
"If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse." - Walt Disney
"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance." - Socrates
"The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding." - Leonardo da Vinci
"As long as people are still having premarital sex with many anonymous partners while at the same time experimenting with mind-expanding drugs in a consequence free environment, I'll be sound as a pound!" - Austin Powers
"Everybody wants to be closer to free." - The Bodeans
"Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than being really, really, ridiculously good looking?" - Derek Zoolander
"If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters." - Alan K. Simpson
"A mind can be limitless due to imagination, curiosity, the abilities to learn and change, and the desires to explore, progress, and be happy." - Me
"No, no, no! Don't stop-a-rockin'!" - Homer J. Simpson
"Feed your head." - The Dormouse from Alice in Wonderland
"I can't understand why people are afraid of new ideas. I'm afraid of old ones. - John Cage
"Every-ting cool" - Caribbean Proverb
"Last night I dreamt I at a ten-pound marshmallow, and when I woke up the pillow was gone!" - Tommy Cooper
"A ship is safe in the harbor but that's not what ships are built for." - William Shed
"Todo bien, pura vida." - Costa Rican Saying
"The harder the battle the better the victory party." - Me (my high school yearbook quote)
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www.couchsurfing.com (People list their couches for travelers to sleep on for free. It's very cool because you can meet cool people from all over the world and stay in their homes. My profile is www.couchsurfing.com/people/ray14)