Turns out..... I'm not the Master of the Universe!

Shocking revelation - right?

Hell - it's no surprise to me.... I've always considered myself the Greatest Underachiever of All Time.

And let me say right up front none of this is self-loathing, self-pity or anything else resembling "Aaah Boo Hoo Poor me."

It's simply a straightforward, unbiased, objective Self-Assessment.

It has been an incredibly interesting, challenging step back in 2016 so far.

I've always considered the natural order of things including life progress to be a series of thrusts and resolutions or retracements.... think Fibonacci retracements.

Holy shit - WTF is a Fibonacci retracement?

Turns out a really smart Italian mathematician name of Leonardo of Pisa, aka Fibonacci....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci

came up with a series of mathematical relationships.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number

that explains a lot of things including natural phenomenon such as the shape of a nautilus shell and most importantly, a numerical representation of patterns of human behavior.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_retracement

You wanna know how the stock market works (which is the ultimate study in human behavior) and make some sense of rallies (bull markets) and retracements (bear markets), do some Fibonnaci extensions and retracements on any stock or index you want and VOILA - you will be amazed.

All of these algorithms and supercomputers that predict and model stock market movement have a huge dose of Fibonacci technology programmed into them.

So what does this have with the incessant challenge and relentless pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness?

Ever heard the saying "3 steps forward and 2 steps back"?

It's a simple statement of the concept of how you seek and perhaps succeed at making progress in life and then have setbacks that challenge your methods and approaches a la Fibonacci.

What - you have no methods and approaches for progressing in Life?  Ok - well maybe that's the problem.

But, assuming you do, you have to face the facts that for every meteoric rise or triumph in life, there will be those times when all you're doing is working your ass off just to keep your head above water or, worse yet, you find yourself backsliding down the slippery slope of life, fighting tooth and nail just to keep from giving it all back.

Maybe circumstances change and your methods and approaches don't or a new unforeseen challenge or problem pops up and it throws you back or into an earthward tailspin.

These usually occur when you venture into uncharted territory, make big changes in your life or seek escape from the quicksand or quagmire of a stagnant Life, Location or Lifestyle.... in another words, you try to better yourself.

Life has a way of saying.... "What? You think you're gonna try to slip past me and skip along all happy and carefree.... I got something for yo ass!"

Such has been my experience over the last year or so.

I've moved from the Texas Gulf Coast where I lived my entire life to the city of Santa Fe New Mexico and adopted and adapted to a different lifestyle.

I moved here to take my Life and Lifestyle to a new level of elevation, activity, awareness and experience.

While the premise and the potential of the effort was valid, there were other elements in life that have conspired to cause a retracement in all the desired outcomes.

It turns out I dragged along the life long problem of an arthritically degenerated left knee that simply couldn't keep up with my mind's desire to pursue my passions of activity in the great outdoors and the torrid and intense pace of physical activity I asked it to support.

So my active lifestyle became a less active one..... until I get a Left Knee Total Knee Replacement.... which is already scheduled for April 4th.  The plan, logistics and schedule for this will be detailed in another blog post.

Suffice it to say, I am fighting tenaciously to defend my progress in this move to Santa Fe, but will likely undergo a 61.8% Fibonacci retracement before the whole TKR deed is done.

Fair enough - I'm down for that.... and then I'll be up for that.

Because that's what I do..... I get knocked down and I get up again.

And I write about it.... on this blog.

Which brings me to another interesting anecdote that occurred recently.

I received an email from a USC PhD student that was doing a study of blogs where people talked about their personal lives and experiences on their blog.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the Blog Study email I received.....

"I’m interested in how the thoughts and experiences written by people like you on weblogs and other social media can be used to make conclusions about society as a whole. I am contacting you because I am trying to collect reliable data about bloggers’ opinions, experiences, and characteristics in order to refine and evaluate my analyses."

"In the course of this study, we will also be analyzing the public posts on your weblog using natural language processing technology. The goal of this analysis is to correlate your responses to this survey with what you write about your life on your weblog."

One of the questions in the survey that was provided was....

"Why do you relate experiences and information from your personal life on your blog?"

My answer was that I wanted to provide information that I thought might be helpful to people and also that writing about myself and my life was a way of better understanding and improving myself.

I mean let's face it.... anybody that writes about their life on a public blog probably has some issues.... right?

I have taken the time and the life approach over the last few years to deal with a lot of issues... and to try to improve, to get better, not necessarily to fix what's broken but to at least evolve to a kindler, gentler, more balanced version of my former self.

Yeah.... when I was 20 years old, the World was my Oyster, I was 9 foot tall and bulletproof, had a big "S" on my chest and leaped tall buildings in a single bound.

At 53, I'm limping, can't walk a block, am a whole lot less smart than I was when I was 20 and have realized I am not and never was....

The Master of the Universe....

I've been listening to the Sick Puppies quite a bit lately and have been really enjoying their upbeat melodies, positive and hopeful lyrics and just the general good feeling that I got when I listened to their songs.

And then this song came up and when I heard the initial bass riff introduction, I knew.....

This song was different.

The title is kinda dichotomous cause I was thinking this was gonna be another positive, I can conquer the World kinda song.

But I was wrong.

I looked at the lyrics while it was playing on iHeart and I thought....

Holy Shit - this song was written about me (which is probably what another 500000 dysfunctional people thought when they listened to it!)

But as I like to say.....

Let 'er Rip Tater Chip!

So if you've done your best in Life and ended up on the bottom looking up or

if you've "met your potential and fulfilled the worst" or

"in the race for disaster you came in first"

Then you might find some solace in this song....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsJS8edFb0A

"Master Of The Universe"

If you want to know how far to go to hell
Just ask me
If you want to see the view from your knees
Come down and join me
I'm the final straw
The nail in the coffin
Just by being who I am
Is so Goddamned

I'm not the master of the Universe
I walk the Earth the wrong way
Met my potential and fulfilled the worst
My best is cursed the wrong way

Your glass is half, his glass is full
My glass is empty
You're running short of not enough
Well I got plenty
I've come a long way
I went the wrong way
And who I am
Is so Goddamned

I'm not the master of the Universe
I walk the Earth the wrong way
Met my potential and fulfilled the worst
My best is cursed the wrong way

And when I die I'm gonna fly and come and get you
And when you try and run I'll be the curse above you
It's gonna end
It's gonna end

In the race for disaster I will come in first
That's what I've learned
The hard way

What?!

If you want to know how far to go to hell
Just ask me
If you want to see the view from your knees
Come down and join me

I've come a long way
I went the wrong way
I've come a long way
I went the wrong way
I've come a long way
I went the wrong way

Being a belching man myself, I fucking love the burping at the end....

Perfect ending to a Life that gave you a Belly Ache.

But hey - let's end this kinda downbeat post on a positive note.

This fucking Life Rally ain't over yet.... all this retracement is about is a little Breather to get you better positioned for the Breakout that is yet to come.

So take your licks, but make your plans and then get to work.

Cause while you may not be the Master of the Universe - 

Believe it or not.....

You are the Master of Your Life!