In My 'Skine

I love my Moleskine. However, if there any knocks against my famous Moleskine Legendary Notebooks it is the people that say they are expensive. On this point of course I beg to differ because I don’t find Moleskine Notebook expensive if you account for their high quality paper and nice build construction. Moleskine are higher quality notebooks, so yes, they do cost more than a standard Walmart composition pad or the little freebie notepad you get from your insurance agents during this time of the year. By the way, remember, garbage in garbage out. Actually in this case it’s garbage out garbage in. Maybe the adage is backwards, but there is a solution to the otherwise “quote-unqoute” expensive Moleskine Legendary Notebooks.

Bring on companies like Borders or Barnes and Noble who if you sign up for their affinity programs like the Borders Rewards Plus membership you will get your inbox flooded at least once a week by coupons allowing you to take 30% off, 40% off, 50% off and during the glorious holiday season like today upwards of 60% off any item you purchase in the store with said coupon. Simply, you print out these special coupons at home, carefully fold them up and place them safely in the back pocket of your Moleskine and head straight to your local Borders brick and mortar store.

Today I got just such a coupon offering me 33% off any item in the store with an additional 10% because I am a Borders Rewards Plus Member so today 60% off my $20 Moleskine a gives me a $8 Moleskine(Plus+ membership cost $20p/y). Not much more expensive than the piece of crap you could possibly buy from Wal-Mart.

So the way to save money and get the type of journal that you would love, is to simply sign up for a free Borders Rewards Membership card and just wait and watch him box for coupons a rolling and use those coupon times to buy your Moleskine Legendary Notebooks. Or if you buy a lot of books you can sign up for the Barnes & Noble’s Card which cost $25 however B&N offers a lot of times much bigger discounts on books, magazines, music and DVD’s. Both companies off discount on coffee to so the cards will pay for themselves in no time.

Since all the naysayers that say Moleskine Legendary Notebooks are pretentious and expensive I say shut the hell up print out your coupon and keep the pen moving. Well that’s enough of this blog post now my buddy Philip and I are on our way to Borders to buy more Moleskine Notebooks.

Aloha

I just got the world best email today from the folks at Apple iTunes Music Store saying my podcast was approved. This is great news but I wonder if Apple knows they spelled “exclusively” wrong. After they have approved over 100,000 podcast? Am I the first to notice this. Read the last paragraph of the notice.

My friends over at Hawaii IRL decided to add a nice follow-up piece to my In My Skine Podcast Episode 6 “Passion or The P-Word!” blog posting. This extra feature was started by Melissa Chang (@Melissa808) of Non Stop Honolulu when she fettered our podcast on the blog “Urban Mix Plate”

Thank you so much Hawaii IRL for keeping the fire going. Looking forward to seeing more responses on http://hawaiiirl.blip.tv/.

My friends over at Hawaii IRL decided to add a nice follow-up piece to my In My Skine Podcast Episode 6 “Passion or The P-Word!” blog posting. This extra feature was started by Melissa Chang (@Melissa808) of Non Stop Honolulu when she fettered our podcast on the blog “Urban Mix Plate”

Thank you so much Hawaii IRL for keeping the fire going. Looking forward to seeing more responses on http://hawaiiirl.blip.tv/.

@DocRock and @Yoon001 talk about Finding Your Passion. You can read the whole post as I covered it  here on InMySkine.com

In the Podcast we cover some volunteer organizations, here are the links so you’ll have no excuses not to give your help and support. Remember you got to get your hands dirty.

United Way: http://liveunited.org

Aloha United Way: http://www.auw.org/

Big Borthers and Big Sisters: http://www.bbbsa.org/

Big Borthers and Big Sisters of Honolulu: http://www.bigshonolulu.org/

The Salvation Army: http://www.salvationarmyusa.org

If you want to search a database of places that need help check out Just Give at http://www.justgive.org/

In My ‘Skine (inmyskine.com) is about the Fanatic appeal of Moleskine Legendary Notebooks and One Wanna Be Author’s journey to create his first book in 30 days.

Please leave us your feedback. Don’t forget follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/docrock orhttp://twitter.com/inmyskine. You can check out my personal blog at http://mrdocrock.com

Now we weren’t talking about the passion some of you perverts are thinking of. It used to be a big thing for everyone to tell each other what they were passionate about not necessarily for bragging right but to get them try things you were into. If you would talk to a devotee of any major evangelical religion they would the cornering speech of your life as to why you needed to find God and Jesus(BTW I’m a Secularizationist so don’t worry this is not going to be a Jesus Camp advertisement). What ever happened to these people or those who would try so hard to get you to join Amway by calling every night until you finally broke down and went to a circle drawing meeting.

“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community >around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” - Mitch Albom

The Crisis

I polled a few friends not that long ago and was slammed to the turf by their rejoins. I simply asked them what they were passionate about.

The most common answer was “uhhh… I dunno”, “I guess (fill in the blank)” and most surprisingly “I never really thought about it.” What the fuck was that? Nothing, are you kidding me. I mean at least have some passion for not wanting to ever disclose your passion. Something is better than nothing. What happened.

Can we blame the disposable society we live in? I would say no. Blaming society is too easy. Even with the 7-11 instant gratification mentality many folks still find a way to be passionate about things like “Charity Water”. Can we blame MTV and the over watched television crown, No because once again people are doing thing just not a large percentage.

Too many people think their contribution would not really make a difference. So rather then trying to make a contribution anyway they just crawl back into their respective domiciles and do nothing. This is the world we live in these days.

Food for thought

I have been passionate about many things and I changed causes like I changed underwear at one point in my life. I was still very motivated to make a change and make a difference none the less. I think could at least pick something and go for it. Part of the problem is we don’t teach our kids at home or in school about giving the gifts of charity any more.

Hundreds of books about tithing and charity have been written over the decades. Many explain the benefits of giving ten percent of all you earn as a way of making space for new money to come in. Some say you’ll get back in three folds what it is that you give away. My grandmother would tell us over and over again “If somebody steals your shirt offer them your coat too”.

The Quick Fix

I think we all need to go around asking each other what we are passionate about so at least we start the conversations again. this is the only way we can kick start a new revolution and reevaluation of this lack of passion. It won’t fix everything overnight but at least it is a start

What are you passionate about today.

To discover you passion, I would say for starters would be to start looking for an answer outside of yourself. Self preservation is an automatic seed of passion and a leading factor in why people don’t know what to be passionate about. If we only looked to survive and make enough money to be comfortable mankind as a whole would soon decline and diminished to the ashes of carbon we came from.

Look around and see what in the world bothers you and you think you have an answer or at least some suggestions as to how to fix them. Think of something you want to create that would add beauty and life to the world around you. If all else fails go online and look through some of the charity sites to see what out there strikes you as something you could care about. Not the basic caring but the kind you could lose sleep over at night. this is a good place to find your passion.

Conclusion

As soon as you start giving more of yourself to some great causes or just to life in general you will surely find an awakened spirit within yourself. You will be surprised how fast you can get passionate. It may just make you a better person, better lover, more successful or better yet save your life.

When attempting to communicate with your mate try to remember women and men do not think alike. we never have and we never will. It is a matter of needs and emotions. For years people have been wrongfully attempting to change their mate way using the misguided information. Try these little tips and enjoy a much better outcome.

A Quick Tip for the Ladies

Newsflash: Ladies the “Other Woman” is not more attractive than you are, more sexy than you are or more slutty… she is just more fun than you are. Guys are simple we thrive on two major emotions winning and having fun. Stop expecting us to think like you do. All we want to do is have fun. It’s our nature.

A Quick Tip for the Fellas

Newsflash: Fellas the “Other Guy” is not more handsome than you, richer than you or sexier than you… he just constantly makes her feel beautiful and attractive. Dude’ Ladies only have two major emotions as well the need to feel attractive and maternal instincts.We are in charge on only one. Make her feel attractive at all times. Easy job ya dipshits.

Today I wrote about the magic of just learning to say Hello. Most people complain about not knowing where to meet people yet they walk past a few thousand people almost every day. If not you really need to get out more. It was a rather extensive chapter but I for the first time ever will release the juciy deets to you early. Day 3: I wrote 2,093 words in 139 minutes thats 4,894 of 50K http://bit.ly/aIl6bx I’m 107 words off pace!

You Had Me At Hello

The moral of the story is if you really want to get you dating started on a fast track and not even read the rest of the book you could start simply by launching a few thousand hellos with a smile. You will be surprised how many extra doors you can open just my being cordial to the people around you. Worse case scenario, you could place a smile on the face of a person who was otherwise having a shitty day. I don’t for one second want to take away the pain from senseless incidences like office and school shootings, but when you ask the gunmen why they sparred the lives of the few survivors they will routinely say they were the people who were nice enough to say hello to them.

Action Steps a.k.a Homework

For the next 30 days make it a point to offer a smiling greeting to every person you have eye contact with. Like we say in the Islands… “Spread the Aloha”!

Keep track of your greetings! Track how many you give out and how many you receive. Record the reactions and interactions created by just saying hello.

Record in a journal how you felt during these interactions. pay close attention to all of your surroundings and describe this in detail in your journal.

Example Journal Entry

Today I launched over 25 greetings. Initially I felt sick to my stomach but the more I let them fly the stronger I felt in side. It was like I was SuperHello Man complete with anger proof vest and a cheer the hell up cape.The more I let my greeting flow out I could almost feel a wave of warmth all over my body. I spoke to this one person at eh local Starbucks how looked like they were having a bad day and after hello I extended a few thought on how much I liked her shoes, she looked down and released a small laughed held back by the boiling anger from her day. when she looked back at me she said thanks and then apologized for her stalling. She informed me of how her boyfriend never payed any attention to her outfits even though she spent so much time trying to dress up for him to notice her. It felt good. I hope I see her again soon. Now when I smile at people and say hello I can’t help but smell the pungent aroma of Pike’s Peak coffee burnt to a crisp by an inept barista. Her name was Stacie, Stacie with the red shoes. ###

Soon you will find you have solved the mystery of the cold approach.