I found the Buddha on the internet

"When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky"--random quote from the Buddha that I found on the internet. It brought a smile to my face when I read it. Oh, here's another good one: “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” I love it. I think partly because the Buddha was all about not believing anything or accepting anything at face value; instead he advocated investigation, common sense, and really seeing for oneself the truth of anything. Maybe this is all the more interesting to me because I'm reading Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and piecing together how insane people can be when they forfeit reason and common sense for blind, unquestioning faith and belief.

First Timer

OK, so this is kind of random, starting a blog and all that. I've started at least half a dozen journals in my life, all of which have fallen victim to the "blank page" syndrome within 10-15 pages of the journal. I can't help it. Some people are manic-depressive, sliding up and down a rollercoaster of mania and depression, while I'm artistic-blank, sliding up and down a rollercoaster of being artistically inspired and drawing blanks.

So in any case, I suppose at the onset of this little project I will clarify why I've chosen "Oodles of Charm" as my url. It's because I can have oodles of charm when I want to. This is a phrase taken directly from Kurt Vonnegut's novel Breakfast of Champions. He is my favorite author, I use the action word "is" loosely here, since he died a few months ago, but his death did not change his current status as my favorite author. So simply because he was, does not mean he can no longer be. OK, getting off topic here...where was I? Ah yes, blogging. And clarification.

I'll get the hang of this sooner or later and attempt to limit my digressions. Although it's all those off topic, off the beaten path type wanderings of one's mind that hold the most interest to anyone. Think about it. You're in a class, a seminar, discussion group, or other what-not, and all of a sudden your mind is off in a different place. You are still sitting in your seat and presenting all the physical signs of someone who is present, possibly even involved and engaged, while the thing that makes you you is contemplating what you'll eat for dinner, the last time you had sex, why you keep wearing those shoes that hurt your toes, if wherever you're sitting and whatever you're doing matters in the least bit. Funny how that works. Some guy somewhere with a half a dozen degrees and a copy of the DSM-IV in his library might classify you as abnormal--attention deficit disorder, or something like that. You can't focus? You are easily distracted? This has been going on for an extended period of time? Boom--we have confirmation, you are abnormal. But what is normal anyways? Riddle me that.
Oh but wait, I got off topic again...