Who or what are the positive influences in your life? No famous people.

No famous people really are. So that works.

1) My family is a good place to start. They're flawed, of course. But they're solid people. My mom is virtually a saint. She's the most good and pure woman I've ever known (or at least tied with her mother). My dad's kind of a jerk sometimes but he really is a damn good dude. He puts his life in danger at age 63 as a volunteer firefighter. So he gets out of bed at 3AM, having to get up for work at 5AM to help people and he gets NO pay for it.
My brother and sister are awesome people, too. They've both been through a lot and they've overcame and are overcoming it all.
My dad's mom virtually raised me and I credit her for almost everything that I am.
Then there's my son. I can say with certainty that I wouldn't be here today if not for him.

2) My friends are pretty big too.
My best friend Tara is an incredibly strong woman. She doesn't seem to see her strength but it's there. She's got plenty of shit, but knowing someone like her exists and seeing her strength makes me a more positive person. And now I see that I can choose to be positive or not to be positive. So I choose to be positive for me and for her. She doesn't need anymore negativity.
My friend Karen's great at beating positivity into me. She thinks I'm more down on myself than I am, though. But she doesn't hold back or bullshit which is what I expect and desire from all of my friends.
CoCo is someone I don't really know well. But to say that she hasn't had a major, positive influence on me would be a load of bunk. She helped me see so much stuff differently.
I don't want to leave anyone out, but if you're my friend you're one of them. Otherwise you wouldn't be in my life.

3) Me. I have goals. I want things in life. My ambition isn't obvious to everyone but don't mistake me for someone without a truckload of ambition... I really do think I'm a great person. But there's always room for improvement. And I want to be happy. Others can assist me in being happy but only if I allow it in myself.
I'm also able to step back and analyze things. I can step back and see what in my life and environment makes things bad. The two most underrated are SLEEP and EATING RIGHT! Depression makes both of those hard or seem unimportant, but you have to force yourself to do both or things WILL NOT improve.

4) Music.
I can't remember a time in my life where music wasn't on my mind like... 90% of the time. I'm lucky enough to love MUSIC as a whole and not genre by genre. So I am flexible and I can listen to and enjoy lots of things if I give them a chance.
I love angry music. It's probably half of my library. But I know that the biggest parts of my life need to be positive if I'm going to be positive. When I made that realization, a large part of my metal library went un-played and I amped up the Cat Stevens, John Lennon, Prince, Queen, Bob Dylan, Kottonmouth Kings (they're like 80% positive, damn it!), etc.
So now I'm humming and singing things like "I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy to be calm when you've found something going on. But take your time, think a lot. Think of everything you've got. For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not."...
That's a huge deal. People don't realize how big of a deal it is. Give it a chance.

5) A lack of crappy people.
I've always tried to keep crappy people out of my life. Not that I don't love them. I do. But I know there are people who want things from me. They want me around because I can benefit them and that's their sole concern. I'm not cool with that. I don't put up with it. Those people have no place in my life right now. I'm still very polite and kind to them (that's just me), but I don't let them drag me down.

6) Prince (Sorry! His overall positive/not depressing music has helped me A LOT!)

Wow... That was a lot. Good question though, anonymous person!

Ask me anything

If you had one chance to tell someone what you've always wanted to with no consequences, who would you say what to?

I was asked the following question on Formspring and just realized that it didn't also post to my blog...  So I am doing that now manually. =)

Also, if you want to ask me questions like this or about anything at all, go to http://www.formspring.me/theprynce

Q: If you had one chance to tell someone what you've always wanted to with no consequences, who would you say what to?

A: I have a strict 'no bullshit' policy in my life. I don't bullshit people and I assume and expect the same from the people in my life.


That's not to say that I don't stress over telling people things. I do. I can't think of anything right now though that I haven't already told them. There may be some things I may still think, feel, etc. that I should refresh some people on but that's about it.
There are people that I've hurt that I may not have directly apologized to but I'm certain they know I'm sorry. Even the most horrible people I've encountered; I don't want to hurt them. But I have wasted a large portion of my life in trying not to hurt people. It isn't worth it.

So I guess the short answer is that there's nothing that comes to mind. I have no clue what happens to us when we die, but I'm always mindful that nothing may happen. When we die that may be it forever. All I do know about death is that it can happen at literally any minute to anyone.

I don't think it is ok to put off telling people things. You may die with it on your chest or they may die before you can tell them. Neither are positive. Piss on procrastination. It's a slow drain on a short life.

Visions of Johanna Are Now All That Remain

I decided today that I want to start blogging a lot more.  It really isn't a matter of me thinking that anyone gives a shit about what I have to say or think.  It's just that my brain has been an absolute mess lately.  It has been that way before, but when I used to blog a lot it seemed to make my thoughts at least a little more...  linear.

I just saw a commercial a few hours advertising a new Jamey Johnson album, The Guitar Song.  Its a double disc album at that.  I really haven't heard anything from the CD but I can only imagine it's awesome.  One of my favorite CDs of the last 4-5 years was his That Lonesome Song.
Jamey Johnson just does things that you don't hear in music anymore.  He doesn't have that polished sound that you normally hear on the radio these days and his lyrics are absolutely incredible.  Show me anything else on the radio anything at all like 'The High Cost of Living'...

My wrestling training is still on, just in a different way.
For the last few months I have been training once a month with the UPWA out of Wilmington, NC.  I've learned a good deal of stuff.  Unfortunately, the art of wrestling itself is not something I've learned a lot about in my time there.  I like the people, the experience of setting up, tearing down, and working the shows.  I love that stuff.  And I'm learning so much about etiquette and how things work in the business.
The only problem is that my only ring time is after set-up but before people start coming in for the show that night.  That means that in the time and money I've dedicated to going to the shows to train, I've really learned very little of in-ring work.
At my last session I did meet some guys who charge about the same per month.  They also train about 3 miles from my house and 4-5 nights a week.  It's $25 a month more but there's a chance of like 20 sessions for that amount instead of nearly the same amount (or exactly the same amount when factoring in gas and food on my Wilmington trips) for once a month with almost no time to train.
I haven't started the local classes yet.  I haven't had the money.  It is something I hope I can do in the next few months, though.
My hope is that I can train in Myrtle Beach and work the shows in Wilmington for experience behind the scenes and all.  I like the owner and the people he surrounds himself with.  I've learned a lot and hope I can keep at least working around the shows.  Otherwise I'll have to stick to the Myrtle Beach classes exclusively. I'm too damn poor to drive all that way for something that's going to take 5 years to get me trained.  I've lost about 25 pounds since July which comes largely from not being able to afford anything but a loaf of bread and a pack or two of bologna each week.  I have no problem doing that for a year or two if I have to but not for 5.  Not if I'm just training.

Anywho, enough about wrestling.  I'd rather be learning it than writing about it but since I'm still a few months (due major car problems) away from getting back into the mix, this will be the last you hear about it for a while.

Know what I hate?  The formatting on my blog's layout.  There's something about the posts that are all kinda of screwed up.  I want to try to fix them but it worries me.  Redoing this thing is a bitch every time.  It has to be done.  I realize that.
That being said, the word for the day is procrastination.

I'm out of generally uninteresting things to say.  I hope I can get back into the rhythm of this again and regain some of my old readers or gain new ones.  So few blogs or bloggers interest me anymore so the old school 'networking' doesn't apply for now.
I guess if anyone can recommend some general (or niche, I guess) blogs that you think I'll like, let me know and I'll check them out.

Thanks for reading (if you read)!

-=The Prynce

Pissing on a Black Flag

Urination is one of my favorite words. It sounds so fucking powerful. But in reality its just piss. It is a little disappointing.

I went to a Henry Rollins 'spoken word' show this past weekend. I enjoyed it. I'm not a crazy Rollins fan like a few people that I know, but the guy's got some great shit to say.
He's not exceptionally funny so I always wondered why he did these shows. My thinking was that its just some former punk rocker who wrote some shit going out and doing a monologue. While that's not entirely untrue, I think it went a bit beyond JUST that.
I really found myself listening to every word he said with great interest. In the end, it was just me and a few hundred people listen to a dude talk about his views on the universe and his travels and experiences around the world, but it was a great time and he frames, words and explains things in a rather brilliant manner that I really dug.

All of that being said, I'm still not a huge fan of his music. And in all honesty I first learned of him through the bitchin' TV show from back in the day Unsolved Mysteries (remember?). Back in what seems to be the early 1990's, they did a piece on the murder of his friend Joe Cole who was murdered in front of Rollins during a robbery in the house they they shared.

At any rate, if you have a chance to see his 'spoken word' show, do it. Your mind likely won't be blown, but I don't see how you can not be pleased.

I finally got an Internet connection in my apartment. I'm talking like... I'm paying for it and not just sniping a local wireless signal. I feel like a responsible adult. It is not my favorite feeling.

The point is that I may start posting more now that I have more 'Internet free time'. I'm blogging right now and I sat down with the intention of find a torrent and checking my Twitter account so you never know... I think boredom leads to blogging. I can only speak from my own experience (obviously) which I'm doing (just as obviously).

Right. Well. Later, Blogger-bitches.

-=The Prynce

Becoming Andy Kaufman (Part II)

I know I said I would update within a week or so of my class. I didn't. Deal with it. Ha!

Things went well. It was painful but I learned so much.

I was there about two hours or so and in that time, I learned to do back bumps (which I had to only do 3-4 of to get the form down thanks to my previous training), front bumps, run the ropes, collar-and-elbow tie-up, waist lock reversal and to some degree, I learned to do 'shoulder rolls'.

I did pretty well with all of the above minus the shoulder rolls. Basically the move is to do a sideways front flip but to let your left arm be there to kind of glide across. I didn't do a single one correctly. I got close, though. I could roll on my right if I needed to but when I'd try the left I'd either smash my elbow or shoulder straight into the mat before I'd roll it over.

I liked the trainers. I liked the people I was training with. The guys there with me were really good and I couldn't believe they had only a few weeks under their belts.

I have not been back since the first class. It isn't because I didn't want to but that I couldn't afford it. I do still intend to enroll and get this thing going once my hours are back to normal if it is still around.

As expected, I was sore the next day(s). Not as much as expected, but sore nonetheless. My back wasn't hurting very much from the bumps or from hitting the ropes as I had anticipated. My left shoulder was in great pain for a few weeks, though and is still giving me a bit of a problem. I also tweaked my neck at some point. I think it was from holding my head up a little to high on a back bump.

I'm hoping to be back there within a month. They're supposed to start running shows again pretty soon.

Hopefully I didn't leave anything out that I intended to say. If so, I'll post more later.

I need to start posting some non-wrestling posts. I know that. No one even reads the wrestling ones.

-=The Prynce