AndrewBrunelle.com

I recently streamlined all my supermarket club cards onto a single small piece of paper. I did it with the help of a new website known as JustOneClubCard.com. I taped the piece of paper to the back of my Jimi Wallet and now I don’t need to have all those cards cluttering up my key ring. The only store I believe that is not featured on the website to create a barcode is Blockbuster. Therefore, it is the only card I have left on my key ring. Of course, many stores let you use your phone number, but not all of them. The ones that do that are in my area don’t even warrant having any barcode with me because I always have the option of remembering one simple number.

Since I work in a grocery store, I see some of the most cluttered key rings in existence. Some of the people who have these cluttered monstrocities look like they could be dungeon masters. I currently only frequent four stores right now, so I do not need more than that many cards, but for those of you who frequent more than eight stores, you may need to print out multiple cards from the website linked above.

I just thought I would mention this tidbit of information today because if you are looking for more room in your wallet or on your key ring, it is vital for you to check out that website and see how well you can streamline your card clutter.

Edit:  This post was originally scheduled for earlier this month but I could not seem to find a camera to show how the whole setup is for my keyring.  Possibly in the future I will find our digital camera and take picture of the whole setup.

Caffeine saved my life. No lie. When I wasn’t feeling so good after my brain cancer scare, coffee got me back on my feet again. I went to numerous doctors and finally when I went to a neuro-opthamologist, she suggested I drink lots of water and some caffeine and I will start feeling better. I was skeptical at first and since my lifelong pursuit of health had me eschewing caffeine for the majority of my life, I took it one step at a time. I started drinking one Starbucks DoubleShot Espesso drink every day and saw improved results when it came to my headaches and impaired eye movements. But it did not work on its own. I also needed tons of water along with the caffeine. But that was of no consequence because caffeine is a natural diuretic, which means it forces water out of your body. So I kept myself from dehydrating while at the same time keeping myself feeling great. Sure, caffeine is addictive and I try to limit myself when I am feeling good, but if I am having an off day, I go for the best energy drink I know of to this day.

I can make coffee a healthy drink if I limit the cream and sugar intake. If I go to a gourmet coffee shop like Starbucks, the sugary, creamy drinks may tempt me, but I always stick with good old fashioned regular coffee. And I use only raw sugar in very small quantities (i.e. half a teaspoon for 10 oz.). I use occasional cream, but only enough to make the coffee taste unlike swill. It is a very dark brown. I might switch over to Silk soymilk creamer in the near future. I brew my coffee at home not because it will save me money, but because I control what is in the coffee. If I wish to make a frozen coffee drink in my Magic Bullet, all I have to do is put excactly what I need into the mix and nothing else. Raw cream and raw sugar are a big part of this magic drink I am accustomed to make every now and then. It will be great for this upcoming summer.

But I do prefer just a regular cup of joe. It is a nice pick-me-up, but I never do it to excess. About 12-15 oz. a day is all I can truly take because I don’t do it every day anymore and overdosing on caffeine makes you feel terrible. A wonderful lift can turn into the worst crash you’ve ever seen.

I shouldn’t ramble to long about this as the caffeine is really starting to get to my head now. I hadn’t had any real caffeine for a few days before today and I think I am seeing God now. And I thought only hardcore addicts got that far. Well, I’ll be back writing soon and I hope my loyal readers are still with me. I’ve been experiencing writers block lately and I need some inspiration.

Side Note: One fascinating practice I’ve been looking into is called breatharianism. Look forward to a post about that in the near future. It is the equivalent of spiritual and physical perfection where no more food or drink is needed. It seems out of the box, but then again, isn’t the box getting too crowded? Don’t worry because I am in no way going to try this any time soon because of the obvious health risks. But it is definitely worth studying because it is yet another weird little quirk I can add to my resume.

Thanks guys for reading.

I have become the “mad declutterer.” When I am done, I have no idea what I will have left. The further I go down this road, the better I feel about it. Most of this stuff is going to the garbage can, but books go to the library and clothes get dumped in the donation pile. The less I have, the lighter I am. Getting rid of books I will never read or movies I will never watch again is a liberating feeling. Those things no longer own me. I own me.

I am going to start writing shorter blog entries because I feel like being too wordy is just a waste of time for myself and my readers. When I do stand-up comedy, the less words the better, so I believe I can splice that theory into my blog. I want to create a style of blogging that is short, sweet, and gets right to the point. No wandering around the center. No segues. Just cold, hard truths that I believe. Excess is thrown out the window. Less is more. More is less. You get the idea.

I am also going through what I would call a mental decluttering. I am letting go of the past and embracing the present. I am optimistic about the future and am getting to where I need to be. And this is a comforting feeling. Focusing on my goals is what is most important to me. Getting done what needs to get done is a top priority. I need to spend my days perfecting my life and living to the fullest extent. Wait, no I don’t. I can’t stand those petty overachiever types. Those Type A personalities. I am a more intuitive guy. I do what feels right. And right now it feels right to end this blog entry. Good bye.

Here is the list from 43things.com.

Just thought I would share what I am doing on that website. It is a wonderful place to track your goals and meet with those who have similar goals. I have a list on there of goals I’ve completed as well, but I will not post it here because some of them are just stupid or silly. Anyway, I hope this code works like it is supposed to.

I am just so grateful for things like this to help me on my way. I encourage those of you who have not yet gone to this website to check it out. There are so many diverse characters on there and so much to learn. You can even ask questions pertaining to a particular goal and have those who are in the same boat as you try and answer them. I am expanding myself out into other circles and it has been a good experience. Good luck to all of you in tracking your goals.

P.S. The thing I love about this is that every time I update my list, it will update here as well. I just said I had finished converting my life to minimalism, meaning I had succeeded, so now it is off my list, not just on their website, but here as well. Amazing.

I guess it is time for another blog post. I don’t know. Every now and then I just stop writing or write very little over a long period of time. I think this is to be expected. I’ve been thinking about what else I could possibly touch on and there is quite a bit I should write about, but where do I start? What is going to be my next frontier of blogging? I think, in a way, I’ve gotten over the whole personal development phase in my life. I guess my life is moving in another direction. I’m still working on spiritual development and comedy, but not so much on constantly changing and tweaking my diet, because I just can’t do it right now and that is okay with me. I’m letting certain parts of myself coast while I work on other things. And this is something that has to be done.

I am eternally grateful to have this medium to express myself and I often wonder why I don’t use it so much anymore. I have this wonderful feeling of nostalgia when I read some of my previous posts and remember how committed I once was. But life comes at you fast, and in my effort to slow down the pace of my life and try and spread that message to others, I do not accomplish quite as much, but I do enjoy myself more than I did previously. I felt like I was running around in circles trying to be one of those superachievers that most people loathe. I am not a type A personality. I would say I am more of a type Z as in Zzzzzzz. But at least I accept that. And I know I can lead a good life like this and be successful, so it shouldn’t really matter so much how motivated I am at particular times.

Thinking outside the limiting box and moving into new and exciting possibilities is always something that keeps me afloat. As I start getting back to the health I often took for granted, I think about how my comedy career is going to pan out and how I can improve as a writer. I’m spending a lot of time in natural settings, such as under trees and in the woods. I am developing a deep appreciation for life itself and its cycles. I guess you could say I am relearning to enjoy life again. I am, at times, developing an almost child-like view of the world, watching ants and squirrels walk about in the forest and noticing things that adults are supposed to have tuned out by now. I like watching the turtles swim in the water while I finish reading my latest Chuck Palahniuk novel. I now really appreciate all forms of artwork and I can see the person who created it in all of the works. It’s a nice feeling.

I am more fully adapting to a minimalist system because I now see how trivial most of the things we own really are. However, there still are some things I cannot do without and many of the gifts I got from other people have this sentimental value I can never forget. When people ask me what I want for Christmas, I have no idea what to tell them. Maybe some comedy CDs, but I feel if I get to many of those, I’ll never listen to them all enough and feel like they weren’t worth the money someone spent on it. I have YouTube and that is all I really need right now. Actually, I probably don’t need that so much, but it is nice every once in awhile to look at some of George Carlin’s or Steven Wright’s material. And Chris Rock. And Richard Pryor. And Louis C.K. And Zach Galifianakis. There are just too many…and Jeremy Hotz.

It feels good to get back into writing again, though. Most writers understand this. You forget how it feels to type out something that is coherent, well-thought out, and has a message to share with the outside world. It is liberating in a way because you are so free in this way of writing. There are no boundaries, except for maybe the English language. Well, I have to go. Prior committment. Peace.

Today is my first blog post from the college campus where I am attending: Coastal Carolina University. I figured I would blog to take up a little time before my next class. Here are my impressions so far of the campus:

While these are just primary observations and they are not as detailed as I wished, I am tired and need to relax for a bit. I also have a bit of studying to do and need to work on math problems. And believe me, they are problems. The toughest thing is coming up with a solution. Good day.

Recently, I took a week-long trip to my hometown of eighteen years after a three-year hiatus in South Carolina, where I currently live. The only words I can use to describe the situation are enlightening, depressing, and underwhelming. When you live somewhere for a significant portion of your life, move away, and then go back, you will most likely be disappointed, depending on where this location is. The place where I made so many fond memories was no longer my base, and therefore no longer felt like home. It was an almost alien feeling, as if I had fallen into a parallel universe where people no longer work towards any goal, any ideal, and just sort of stagnate at the same level of awareness and maturity for many, many years until the inevitable happens.

I stayed with my good childhood friend who, to my surprise, rejected a full scholarship to a university of his choice to work in a nursing home stocking food and other items. He lives in the apartment above his father’s which does not have a shower, a washer/dryer (neither does his father), air conditioning, carpeting, real furniture, anywhere comfortable to sit, etc., etc. The one thing I really missed the most was the central air conditioning, something we take for granted in South Carolina. In Myrtle Beach, everything is new, everything is appeasing to the eye. In Rhode Island, everything is old, nothing looks nice, it is all one disappointment after another. At least in the city in which I stayed. To be honest, I never really cared for that city, but it was my home. Maybe my memories of that place were exaggerated to make it seem like it was a great venue.

For the second half of the trip, I just kept saying to myself, “It will be over soon. It will be over soon.” My friend has lost his path, and the sad thing is, he cannot even have a meaningful conversation. Every time I tried to discuss things like purpose or what he was going to do with his life, he would shrug it off like the plague, and he could not be serious. I’ve worked on myself for the past two to three years and going back there and seeing someone who had not matured or raised his awareness one centimeter really saddened me, but at this point, I do not know how to help him because he has not indicated he wants or needs help in getting his life in order. It could be his context about reality that is holding him back. I don’t know, but all I can really say is I hopefully will never go back to that city because, honestly, there is not much there for me.

I remember reading a short story about this guy who grew up in the South Boston housing projects and witnessed four or five of his brothers’ deaths while he was growing up, moved away, and was so anxious to come back because even though it was a terrible place, it was his home. I canot say, for one moment, that I feel the same way. When I was in it, when it was my reality, it was acceptable because it had to be. Now that I am in a much nicer, more comfortable area, I can finally see my old hometown the way an outsider would see it, and now I can move on to bigger and better things. Now that I am back home and in the environment where growth is abundant.

I don’t mean to come down on my hometown, but now that I went back, I can see why people are depressed. I can see why some situations can cause problems and I feel for those who are trapped in a similar situation because I felt trapped up there in Rhode Island, away from my normal life, away from all the things I hold dear to myself, especially my family. I wish I had a way to get through to my friend that living in what I called “a third-world country” in a terrible city is not the best life he could hope for, but as long as he remains to look content with his surroundings, in his average, meaningless life, where he looks out only for short-term graatification and never looks for the future, I have to bite my tongue and let him go.

That is all for now. Stay tuned for uplfting posts as I get myself back to peace and away from depression.

Writing is something I do because it allows me to express my thoughts in such a way that other people can relate to them. Every now and then I have an insight into my life and think to myself if anyone else could benefit from what I now know. I choose to write about whatever is on my mind and go from there. I never know where I will end up, maybe even somewhere I cannot come back from. But it is okay because I can always hit the delete key. Free form writing and creative endeavors really get my mind in the flow state.

My personal goal in this next month or so is to improve my writing skills beyone anything I have ever seen. I must find a way to come across even more coherently in a way that does not overcomplicate things. I am not one to use big words to sound ultra-smart because I feel small words can fulfill the same duty, sometimes even moreso. I may not follow all the rules of proper grammar, but at least I know what I am talking about…most of the time.

I like to just sit down and write for awhile. I never know what is going to come out of me, and that is exciting in a way. If you realize that every post you write is a creation, like giving birth to a new baby, then you will become fascinated by the disparity and diversity of your schools of thought. As I look back on previous posts, I realize those posts were written with a completely different state of mind. I can no longer resonate with some of the previous ideas I wrote about and now have to move on to the ideas I have now, and even they will pass.

I guess what I am getting at here is impermanance. Nothing is permanent, so it is best not to be attached to anything in particular. Time flies while you are creating and the flow state is almost inevitable. Working from this standpoint, how can I possibly stop? Consciously thinking of new ways to think about ordinary things is a challenge I choose to undertake. I am working in a field known as metacognition: thinking about thinking.

Maybe I should think about my thinking about thinking, and then go another level deep, and so on until I go completely insane. You know, I always wondered what it would be like to try on a strait jacket anyway. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

If you look at the world in a completely objective sense, you will start to wonder what you can do about it, and it will seem overwhelming, but if you then look at it in an subjective light, where you are equally everything, and you are consciousness, you start to have power, you can start to make a change. This is something that is becoming increasingly familiar in my life. I now know that the power resides within, as long as I believe it is there. And the fact I acknowledge this power and take action to improve this power makes me motivated to keep going. I believe this post is of sufficient length, and now I rest my fingers. The last ailment I need is carpel-tunnels.

Plase Note: I am starting to use Google Adsense and I am going to try and find the best ad configuration in my spare time to see what works best for myself and the readers. I will probably place them towards the bottom and not mix them in with the posts to obstruct your view. I will also probably put them on the side banners so that way it will not interfere with the reader so much. Thank you.

Hello, I am here to tell all of you I went to Google Adsense to start to try and monetize this website. Here is the first ad I every tried before and I will continue to look for the optimal size ad that will allow for less obstruction and more of an easy transition to a better site. I figure if I can get enough traffic to this site by promoting it, I may be able to earn a living off of it, which would be great. The harder I work, the better it will turn out. This is a preview of things to come.

Well, it took me almost a year to make the leap from small time blogger to domain-owning blogger.  I have loved every step of the way.  Now that I own a domain name, there is so much more I can do with this site, things that will be beneficial to both the reader and the writer.  Here is what I have planned for this website and this list will ultimately be ever-changing as my state of mind changes constantly, but here are a few things I would like to do with this site:

• First of all, I plan on writing much more in-depth blogs about the very things that interest me, filled with pictures (maybe) and various links, which will allow more people to get a better benefit out of the site.
• I am going to put in a humorous stories section, most of them made up, some of them true to life, and the whole basis of these humorous stories is that they will alow you to take time away from the stressful, busy world and lighten up your day.
• I plan on adding an audio section, where I will have some clips from my stand-up act and it will show you the band of comedy I am most comfortable with.
• I am also planning to launch Google Adsense on this site as soon as I become comfortable with the technical skills needed to run the ads in the places I want them to be. 
• With the freedom I acquire from having my own website, I am now free to try almost anything and I believe this site will get better recognition, therefore becoming more popular.  So, I want you to enjoy this site even better.

So, what I am going to do in the next couple of weeks is figure out a way to link my original Wordpress blog to this one, using HTML, so that I do not have to keep posting full-text articles there, but just links to this blog.  So any new blog entries I write will still have a spot on the old site, but the blog entry will be a link to this site, as a way to get the ball rolling for web traffic.  I realize that many people who subscribe to this blog have the RSS feed on the old site, so they would have no idea if I wrote a post here, so putting a link to this site on the old site is probably a great idea. 

I know I will enjoy this process and through my joyful expression, I hope you benefit immensely from this transition.  I now leave you with high hopes and a feeling of serenity.