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Showing posts with label Gloria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gloria. Show all posts

Thursday, May 23, 2019

The insane voice, installment 9: A negative times a negative is a positive and other profound thougths

Anyone who knows me well knows that I tend to tweet a lot.  So, I was tweeting, retweeting and liking along my merry way today and I stumbled across a tweet which caught my attention: A negative times a negative is a positive.  So, I decided to make a blog post of 'profound thoughts'. As this is my 8th installment of this particular blog (insane voice), I will list 9 of my recent deep thoughts. So, without further ado, here goes

1) When you are in a group bitch or gripe-fest, ALWAYS ALWAYS, make sure you have an even number of people.  After all a negative times a negative is a positive, but a negative times a negative times a negative is a negative.

2) If we are in a store looking at throw pillows should we toss them here, there and everywhere just to make sure they work?

3) If you follow others without tweeting, does that make you a 'tweet stalker'?

4) Is "I Choose You" sung to my wife while I am intoxicated at a karaoke bar, romantic or upsetting?

5) Is the list of what you would do for a Klondike bar a static list or is it growing all the time as more possibilities are suggested?

6) Is the list you'd give of what you would do for a Klondike bar things you actually really want to do, but need to the cover of a reward to do them.

7) With regard to the one famous song, "Yes I Think It Is About Me.  Don't I?! Don't I?!"

8)  Speaking of positives vs. negatives.  On the positive side, parents like seeing their kids do well.  On the negative side, as kids guess correctly, we secretly do like embarrassing them.

9) If like is a highway, is a family drama a multi-car pileup?

Anyway, just a little lightheartedness in a pool of life's stresses.

-- Rich

Way before the St. Louis Blues adopted Gloria (Spring 2019) as their theme song for winning, it was MINE for the insane voice.  So, I'm reclaiming it.  HA


Sunday, September 13, 2015

The 'insane' little voice in our head and entertaining ourselves

My church--Harvester Church of the Nazarene is in a transition period.  Our beloved lead pastor of 17 years--I think it was that length--retired this spring and we are looking for a permanent replacement.  So, we've had guest speakers/ministers take on the role of leading while the board and the district find someone to fill that role.  Anyway, Rev. Michael (Mike) Palmer gave a good sermon about being real with our church family.  Anyway, details aside about that, sometimes when I am tired my mind drift, one time the minister said that Jesus said "Follow me" and my face immediately lit up with a smile as my mind drafted to the Uncle Kracker song of that name.  Anyway, I thought about that again this morning and smiled again and got to thinking about how the mind operates.  This all reminded me of my something I've long thought...

I've often asserted that each of us has voices in our head.
  • A voice of reason.
  • A voice of insanity
  • A voice of good and proper.
  • A voice of deviousness. 
 The voice of good and proper is often depicted as little angel version of us on one shoulder.  The voice of deviousness on the other hand is often depicted as a little devil version of us on the other shoulder.



 The voice of good and proper of course is depicted as the killjoy.  The voice of deviousness is considered the funny one.  But, I digress.   I will focus on the voice of deviousness.

I refer to the devious or 'bad' voice as the voice of insanity.  It doesn't care what trouble it gets you into.  It just wants to be inappropriate, funny, even a little mean.  I believe that voice comes out more when you are super tired, under a lot of stress, or have had a bit too much wine.  It is a battle sometimes, the voice of good (VOG) says don't say it or do it while the voice of deviousness (VOD) says, go ahead and say it or do it.  The VOD is like a little like a kid who keeps on asking his or her mom or dad for permission even after their parents have said no.  Eventually, the VOD hopes to wear us down and sometimes it succeeds.  We give in or cave hoping that it will leave us alone and it does for a while often.

When I "go there", I explain it away by saying the "insane" voice in my head told me to say it and I had to listen or say, "there I said it, got it out of the way and will never have to say it again".  My other favorite line is that "I was just following the script and the script said this and you know you can't go against the script".   You know as if there is a script and we can't step out of character.

I will wrap this up by letting my insane voice talk a little.  My insane voice wanted to tell you that he was behind these situation (or at least how I handled them).


  •  My fiancee Kristi was at church with me when the minister said that Jesus instructed his disciples to "Follow Me" and I smiled looked over at her and let her in on my imagining Him dancing and singing and instructing them to "Follow Me" like Uncle Kracker did.
  • One episode of Extreme Home Makeover I was watching as the gang built this house for this poor lady who was in a wheelchair who had a disease which made her bones brittle and easily breakable.  Anyway, the did all kinds of things to make it safe for her.  At the end of the show they put their hands and arms in a circle and said, "Go team" or whatever and quickly lifted them up.  I imagined them accidentally knocking over the poor old lady and giggled.  My ex wondered what was so funny.  I prefaced it by saying I know this is not right, but... Of course, she didn't particularly think it was funny, but I noted that I didn't try to think it and warned her before I told her.
  •  I noticed my cat Simon when I was sort of walking in front of him, his eyes were following me and it occurred to me at a later point, I wonder if this applies to humans too.  So, at a later point, I started pacing back in forth in front of my ex to test this theory and found that humans can't help but to naturally follow us as we move back and forth too.   Of course, she said, "stop that" at which time I let her in on my testing a theory.  Olivia just stared back when I tried this on her: smart girl.
  • I liked the song, "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" and had just heard it.  My dog Sherman was around and so was Olivia's grandma and her mom.  I noted Sherman's nice colors and markings.  Anyway, my insane voice said, how about the song from Sherman's perspective.  "And the colored dogs go 'bark ba bark bark ba bark..." Make a bark on the wild side.  I believe they thought I was crazy, but even so, they had to laugh at that one.  She said, "where did you find him?", meaning me.
  • One my all time favorites is when someone asks a question or talks about something and I just stare at them and don't say anything.  I've noticed that most of the time we seem to thrive on or expect feedback whether it is just a nod or "uh huh" or whatever.  So, depriving them of feedback can sometimes discombobulate them.   
Messing with the mind of someone who has a sense of humor is fun, but sometimes it is even more fun messing with the mind of someone who doesn't.  Anyway, back to I of course, being me, discussed this concept of the good vs. devious voice with Olivia and she seemed to understand and appreciate that.  I expect to get payback one day from Olivia for unleashing my devious voice a bit on her.

I have told a few friends that it's okay to have the funny voices in your head provided that they don't start calling, "Gloria, Gloria".   I will let you all figure out what I mean by that reference.  Hint: look and listen below:  Haha


P.S.  The voice in my head has nagged me to write this blog for a while and I finally caved to it.  Haha