Merry Christmas to you!

Below are countries I can identify as visiting my blog. If your country is not here, let me know.

Thank you for visiting and Merry Christmas!

Michael

Argentina

Thanks for visiting and Merry Christmas!

Australia
Brazil
Canada
Croatia (Hrvatska)
Czech Republic
Denmark
El Salvador
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
Norway
Old style Arpanet (arpa)
Pakistan
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Ukraine
Unresolved/Unknown
Russian Federation
Sierra Leone
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
Vietnam
.com
.edu
.net
.org
Non Profit

I find this timely article surprising because there is a trend of late of people going on a Gluten Free diet when they have no physical need to be on one. There are a lot of benefits to eating a gluten free diet. Copying the Standard American Diet (SAD) is not one of those benefits. Hence the frustration, and feelings of denial that surround a Celiac diet verses the less than great SAD diet.

This brings me to one of two comments I digress on in this timely and mostly well written article. The paragraph starting with, “Does a gluten-free diet help people lose weight?”, is both true and not so true. The particular portion I disagree with is the type of food one can eat on a gluten free diet. The actual comment is quoted as being spoken by Christina Tennyson, MD of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University in New York City.

The Doctor’s quote is indeed correct, although used in a slightly less than perfect context. I am sure Dr. Tennyson really did not intend. the quote intones the only diet available to one on a Celiac Diet is highly processed, high calorie laden food. I think if the good doctor had the opportunity to elaborate on the comment, she would have cleared any conjecture about her lone comment.

If one wants to be on a gluten free diet and eat as if they are eating the Standard American Diet (SAD), it is possible, and can be a reasonably healthy diet.  One, if money is no object, or eating like everyone else is a high priority, there are plenty of alternative highly processed foods, that are high in calories. It should be noted that the SAD is generally a culmination of the same types of foods, only they are cheaper and contain various amounts of wheat per high calorie serving.

Cakes, cookies, chips, ice cream, pastries, noodles, etcetera are a major part of SAD, and can be part of a Celiac diet. This is the SAD truth. If one is willing to pay more than is reasonable, one can eat a gluten free diet, and not notice they are not eating SAD by looks alone.

On the other hand, and I am sure Dr. Tennyson would agree or followup on if questioned further, the Celiac diet does not have to look like a SAD diet, nor does it need to be frugal and nutrition starved as alleged in the last paragraph, “What’s the treatment”.

A Celiac diet if one is willing to forget everything about SAD, can eat healthy well balanced, nutrition filled meals for about the same cost of the SAD diet. Starting with beans, rice, and corn as staples of a Celiac diet, there is a lot of room and dollars for adding fruits and vegetables to each meal.Many Americans forgo fresh fruits and vegetables because they are addicted to their SAD diet of high calorie, high fat, and high sugar.

For thousands of years most of the peoples on the earth made do without highly processed junk foods, and without wheat, barley, and rye. They lived well, and they were healthy. Healthy eating, just like choosing a Celiac diet if one has options is a life changing choice.

For inspiration or ideas look to the cooking of South America, Far East, and the lower Americas. There are more delicious, nutritious, and healthy meals available than imaginable. All that needs to be done is forget what has been programmed into each of us since birth about healthy eating.

If you are curious about Celiacs, and what it means to be Celiac and ignore it, click on the link at the beginning of he article, or do a quick search of this blog for more information on Celiacs. I have a few articles in my blog. For some available foods click on the link on the right side of the page for ideas.

As strange as the name was, the more complex the formula was, the easier it was to input on a Hewlett Packard Calculator. Not only were those calculators the finest in the world for complex mathematics, they were also almost indestructible.

The only ‘real’ computer in the eyes of professionals was an IBM Desktop Computer. There were many other companies making computers, but only IBM had the words “Business Machine” in their name. Who else could dominate the early business computer market without having the words Business Machine in their name?

Almost anybody with a basic understanding of electronics, computers, and a garage were placing themselves in a position to sweep the new Home Computer industry. That is how Apple got their start. A little electronics knowledge, access to hardware, and some assembly skill were all that was required. Many electronics hobbyists were in the computer making and selling business before they knew it.

If IBM could sell a computer for five thousand dollars, they could sell you the same computer for three thousand dollars minus the big name on the label. Around that time,  the term “Plain Vanilla” arrived on the PC scene from the finance industry for the name of these no-name computers.

While I was plodding along on my mere twenty-five hundred dollar Plain Vanilla PC, I was secretly craving a real IBM PC. I remained a faithful HP  calculator consumer.

Around that time HP entered the home computer market in a fashion. Hp Computers were built like their calculators. The world might end, but your HP Computer would keep running. Drop it off your roof, and plug it in and your HP Computer still worked. But it was expensive!

In an effort to stifle Plain Vanilla computers, the big players, HP being one, started a new trend. Proprietary. Whenever you bought a big name brand, you were chained to the company. If you wanted more memory, bigger hard drive, new processor, you paid through the nose from the BIG manufacturer whose computer you could not live without. This drove the cost of long term ownership of these computers further out of my price range.

Those beige Plain Vanilla Computers were making headway, and the proprietary strategy further isolated consumers from the big name Computer makers. Eventually the big companies pretended to compete with Plain Vanilla computers.

This is where I became a HP fanatic. Out of the blue, there was a HP computer I could almost afford. It was more than plain vanilla, but instead of saying “xyz’s” on the label it said “Hewlett Packard”! The goodness of the earth came into my life at last! I owned an HP computer!

That first HP desktop was everything one could ever want in a computer. Then I passed it on to family and bought a newer HP computer. Thus started the trend that made HP lose my and thousands of other consumers business, driving down both price and quality of home computers in the process.

Every HP Computer model I upgraded to started having problems about a year later. The CD reader/writer would fail, the memory would die, the hard drive would crash. The first two times this happened I was sure it was a fluke. The third HP computer I owned started to die, and I let it die without throwing more money into it. I bought another HP Computer to replace it. After all they were the best company in the electronics industry, so why wouldn’t I buy HP?

Then I wised up. HP had changed their business model and I did not notice. Bottom end computers were one-third cheaper and lasted longer than the pricier HP Line. I finally did what my smarter computer enthusiast friends did a few years before me. I quit buying HP and started buying no name computers.

Now HP announced they are giving up on the home computing industry. I read HP claims there is not enough money in low end computers for them to bother with. I am totally indifferent to this news. For me HP quit making computers many years ago. In the intervening years  they succeeded on their reputation and their marketing wizardry. Today, the HP computer uses I know say once again HP computers have improved and once again are among the best computers in the market place.

Today computers are commodity purchases. The software is once again running behind the hardware, trying hard to catch up. Plain Vanilla generic computers are making a few dollars a sale times millions of sales each year.

When the software catches up, the computer market will once again boom, but it may be to late for the Giants of the industry. They move to slow, and do too little, too late. Long live HP, and other companies like them who created an industry, took all they could out of it, and moved on.

Hp and other companies who went down the path they did have made me grow up as a consumer. Whenever a company large or small wants me to jump on their bandwagon, I will be looking carefully to see what the wagon is made of, hot air and hype, or real value.

Occasionally I find myself wondering, if the whole situation whatever it is, was contrived for the sole benefit of the other person and I am cameo in the scene? Have they lived all these years and lived through untold trials and tribulations waiting for this moment to enter my life, and tell me in a few seconds, something that I need to hear, but keep choosing not to hear?

In other circumstances when life becomes difficult, I wonder if I spent my life and went through all my life experiences to enter someone else’s life with a different way of approaching a problem? Perhaps, my ‘different way of approaching a problem’ contributes to more frustration on their part. Maybe the interaction was contrived to make this one day even worse than it would be had I not appeared in their day?

Before I learned, or perhaps understood that the type of people I would normally have problems with will keep showing up over and over again until I see myself in them and accept them; that without fail, these same types of people showed up over and over with nothing better to do than frustrate and make me miserable.

Now that I am (mostly) beyond that way of thinking about why they were always in my life, maybe it is now my life responsibility to enter into the life of others and frustrate them with the way I act. Maybe myself and others like me are constant problem in their lives, bouncing from one situation and conflict to another, causing stress in the lives of others without realizing it.

If I know the answer to that question, I am am not aware at the moment that I do know it. I do know that knowing that life is a long series of challenges and conflict since I was born is enough to know at the moment. Whether I would become bored, or not with my life if I was not challenged on all fronts, is not really that important any more.

It is much more fun to take each day as it is, and know that some days are better than others. In the end of my life there is no prize given out, or listing of where I finished in comparison to whatever imaginary group I was being compared to. Often, we tend to forget that thought.

At the end of my life, if I am fortunate not lose my life in a split second accident, there is no prize given out at that moment for how I lived my life. There is no one standing by with a scale measuring how I handled each life event, good or bad, and rating it against an imaginary group.

What is real is the knowing that life is not stagnant. Because I have worked towards a goal for an hour, week, month, or lifetime, does not mean I am entitled to always see the fruit of my labor. What I am entitled to is knowing what I did or did not do.

Knowing that I accepted change, struggle,  and adversity for what it is. Change, struggle, and adversity are benchmarks in any life. Because of them I know I am alive, and taking responsibility for my life and how I live it.

It is not hard to live life going which ever way I am moved by the winds of those around me. Though that is not living life, that is going through the motions of waiting to die. I prefer to live my life as best as I can, and take responsibility for myself and my actions.

It is knowing that I did the best I could with what I had to work with that is important. Living my life the best I know how, like my future death is not a team event.

I share my life with you and those around me, but I am the only person living my life. In those instances I may wish to live someone else’s life if only for an instant, it is up to me to do the best I can with what I have to work with. Unfortunately what I have to work with is not always what I would prefer. That’s life.

A very successful and famous singer, and songwriter named Janis Ian wrote a song that swept the nation in 1975. If any other songs, except for a few Country and Western broken heart songs ever came from so deep down in the heart and expressed such raw emotion, I have not heard it. The emotion and desperation, and the ugly truth of life as it is, is captured in the words of Janis’ song.

Here is a short excerpt from Janis Ian’s song, ‘At Seventeen’

And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone

I remember in my young and single years, I would be strolling along a sidewalk, or walking in a store, and I would be attracted by some woman’s hair. I would stroll behind her at some distance thinking about how beautiful her hair was. While doing that I would usually be working up the courage to tap her on the shoulder and speak to her. After all she had to beautiful, who else would have hair that shimmers and tumbles across her shoulders?

Most of the time, probably because I was shy, with no effort on my part, the young woman would turn to look at something that caught her eye. Maybe she sensed someone was looking at her, and wanted to see who it was. Faster than the urge hit me to talk to her, the urge would leave me. She would have bad acne scars, or something else detracting from her perfect self that I had built up in my mind.

It was one of those things in my life I did not like in myself. I worked on this flaw deep inside of me. It is quite hard to see some people as real people, and not see them as most people, which is completely ignore them. This time, after Janis Ian finished her song, and before I started typing, I wondered in the space of a few moments how many opportunities I passed up before I changed myself.

I am not sure where the behavior comes from. Almost without exception we all share this same behavior flaw. We don’t see people who are too fat, skinny, crippled, or otherwise not normal by common standards. For many of those people we choose not to see, invisibility has been their life.

Some of these people have put up barriers of their own for protection. Perhaps due to years of pain from thinking someone really wanted to talk to them they build walls. I know one person who I see almost daily, and they rarely turn around when I call their name. I usually have to tap them on the shoulder to get their attention if they are not facing me. Who would be interested in them after all?

I find that like anyone else, they are only people trying to live their life as best they can. Occasionally someone may mistake interest in them for something more, especially if it is someone of the opposite sex having the interest. Someone is paying them some attention, maybe the first and only attention in months. What would you think if after months of invisibility someone showed an interest in you? It may be awkward to define the relationship as friendship, or as an acquaintance, but that awkwardness lasts only a few moments for you. For the other person, it lasts a lifetime.

One more snippet from, ‘At Seventeen’

And dreams were all they gave for free
To ugly duckling girls like me.

We have enough isolation in our lives without building more barriers and pretending one or two people we see every day are invisible. By making certain people invisible to us, we make ourselves invisible too. I don’t know how you feel, but I prefer not be invisible to prevent a moment of my attentions being misunderstood.

In front of me was a young woman with two little girls, the five year old and a younger girl of perhaps four. The three of them were ahead of me, standing around the cart, waiting for their turn to check out. Suddenly the girls, in a flash of impulse saw the flowers for sale display a few feet away.

The flower stand was circular perhaps and eight foot circle, and composed of four tiers with the fourth tier a circle large enough for a single container holding three small bunches of flowers. The stand was filled with flowers, either no one could afford them, or it had recently been restocked.

The little girls kind of skipped and hopped over to the flower stand. The youngest girl was content to stare at one section, admiring the colors and moving a few feet to repeat her observations. The older girl however had a completely different approach.

The older little girl was looking at all the flowers, re-arranging the their positions in a sequence that appealed to her sense of where they should be. After she finished moving the flowers around she started taking out loud to individual flower bunches and telling her mom to look at how pretty each bunch was. Almost laughing, she would pick up a bunch of flowers, say something to each bunch of flowers, and put them back in the container they came from.

The younger girl bored of the flowers, and went back to the cart, and sat on the bottom. Her shoes were worn, and a few sizes too big for her tiny feet. She didn’t seem to notice though, so I think she was used to hand me downs, fitting correctly or not. I then noticed that no one in the small family of three were dressed very well. All their clothes were well used and more than a little worn.

The older girl, was absolutely bubbling by now, flitting about the flowers, taking them off the stand, hugging them, saying something to them and putting them back. She reminded me of a honey bee collecting pollen, or a humming bird sucking up nectar. She was lost in a her own little world she had created with nothing more than a stand of cut flowers in a grocery store.

The magic of her enthusiasm over the flowers pulled me in, and I asked the Mom if it was okay to give the little girl money to buy a single bunch of flowers to bring home. The Mom was not sure how to respond and mumbled something that did not sound like a firm no.

I gave the little girl five dollars and some change to make the tax on the flowers at four dollars and ninety-nine cents a bunch. I was called to another register and it was time for me to check out. I paid my bill, and left the store, wondering if the little girl had bought her Mom, her Sister, and herself fresh flowers to take home, or did she decide to save the money and use it for something more important like proper fitting shoes for her sister.

I would like to think her Mom told her to pick one bunch of flowers for herself. If so, when they wake up tomorrow morning, the flowers will be there there to bring a little sunshine into their lives. It does not take a lot of time, effort, or money to make a positive change in a life.

I now remember that is not completely true. I did open and account on one site. They did not seem to be overly concerned with who I really was, so I made up some information for the site and created an account.

I kept it active for about six weeks, and then let it die a slow lingering death due to inactivity. I am sure by now it has passed into the great data collection point in the sky and made it into a non important database.

It is not that my life is anything more special than anyone else’s life, or I am a fugitive from justice trying to evade capture and incarceration. I prefer to have my life be my own as much as possible.

Sharing information or pictures about what I am doing or have been doing is a fun idea, but I find I can do it quite well using email, or a phone call. Both of them to me are a little more personable, than posting on a site and checking back to see who if anyone has visited and looked at what I put up there.

This week, the subject came up again, I had an invite from a long time friend to join him on facebook. This time I actually thought about it, and did a little checking on the net to see what I could find. I had heard all these wonderful stories about meeting old friends, catching up with schoolmates, etc.

I went to facebook’s site to check it out, that seemed the most logical. At first glance it looks like an official government site, conservative and blue. I was surprised that  there were no sample accounts to see – unless I signed up for an account. If you are like most people, that did not slow you down. For me it sent up red flags of caution and fireworks of concern.

I decided to check out some facebook pages, and could not look at any. To even have the opportunity to look at a facebook page, I have to have a facebook account. Hmmm. I found that interesting. I did find these bits of information clicking on the policy link at the bottom of the web page:

• Consent to Collection and Processing in the United States. By using Facebook, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States.

and under statement of rights page, number 13. Amendments…

• “We can make changes for legal or administrative reasons upon notice without opportunity to comment.”

You also may want to read the second to last paragraph of the about page. The paragraph starts with:

• “Examples of the types of information”

Still on the fence about whether to join or not, I thought about facebook videos. It seemed logical that someone made a video of, on, or about facebook. I googled facebook, clicked on videos, and found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

It was not quite the pot of gold I expected though. Here are a few youtube links I watched. I have no idea whether they are accurate or not, nor do I know anything about them other than I watched them.

1. What is facebook
2. Facebook pwnd
3. Facebook: What they really have one you

Facebook and other social networking sites may be wonderful, and I may be too cautious and overly concerned with my private information. It is one thing to know there is a lot of publicly available information on anyone. It is quite another to put so much information in one place.

In facebook’s, and other social networking sites defense, I imagine they are trying to provide a service, and make a few dollars along the way. Who can fault that? The policies they have in place are the most responsible policies reasonably possible, I am guessing.

You, of course will have to decide for yourself, as always, what is right for you and your use. My opinion on this matter is obvious, I choose no thankyou.

In my life, I have a lot of coincidences. How these coincidences come about is another matter, and not my intent here. A most recent example is a book I was looking for that I purchased and read a few years ago. At the time the subject matter was a curiosity for me. Now a few years later life has worked itself around to where the book is worth a re-read for me. I could not find it. I checked my bookshelves, I checked the books that I had placed in a box, put away for some future time and date. The book was nowhere to be found.

I decided I had lent out the book, or it grew feet and walked out the door. I thought I would try the library for a copy when I found time. I came home from work one day last week and there was the book next to my computer desk chair. All I can think of is my two cats for whatever reason were playing or searching for something in the area and pushed it out from its hiding place while on their quest. I am grateful for coincidences.

I mentioned in a previous post(s), but I spent some time in the military over seas. One Holiday in particular stands out in my memory. It was cool damp winter night and I was in a gate shack, the lone one man team on a deserted stretch of flight line. Around the middle of my duty the food panel van arrives. I thought a nice hot turkey dinner was on its way. I could not quite identify what it was I ate, but it was not hot, barely warm, and tasted pretty bland. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself until that spring when I overheard some visiting Army guy talk about his cold canned rations that comprised his Easter dinner a week earlier while he sat in a wet hole that passed for a bunker. Listening to him improved whatever it was I ate that holiday night immensely. I am thankful for having the opportunity for hot meals whenever I am hungry.

When I left the military in the early nineties, I was viewed by some as little better than a pan handler who saw the light and became a responsible citizen.

These days many people taking time from their lives to thank returning soldiers for their sacrifices. I am thankful that todays soldiers are recognized for the sacrifices they make and have made so our life can continues in whatever manner we deem right for us. I am thankful for the reception veterans receive these days. I am thankful for their sacrifices too. Unless you have served and gone over seas, it is hard to understand the price our folks in the service pay why we go on with our lives.

I am thankful for those people who have lives filled with struggle and tragedy. They not only show me how to thrive and survive my own struggles, but also show me no matter how bad things are life could always be worse. Some people live their lives with emotional, physical, and other forms of debilitating problems and they learn how to succeed in spite of their handicaps. I am thankful for the depth and quality of their spirits to never give up.

Last, but not least, I am grateful for emergency services. The policemen, firemen, emergency room people, and utility workers. They venture where few mere mortals want to go. If ever I need their help, I am thankful in advance that they will do everything in their control to help me, not knowing anything about me, and not caring because I am a fellow human being. If ever I could feel empathy and passion as they do.

One last thought, if it were not for all the people who donate their time and energy, I would be writing this in a paper journal. I am thankful they have their passion. I am thankful you took the time to read this.

For me being out of town without a lot of cash is easy. I like to walk. If given the choice when out of town if something is in walking distance I walk there instead of drive.

Walking gets me out of my hotel room for a longer period than driving somewhere close will. A few minute drive can become a thirty minute walk. Two thirty minute walks to and from where I am going to have my dinner means an hour or more of my evening is taken up in an enjoyable way.

What is a walk like in a strange place? I have taken more than a few, so I will share a few stories. Walking in some places was not the best decision I could have made. Walking in other places has been a unique experience. Generally an hours walk around the area I am staying is fun and relaxing.

I once wandered lost in the streets of an American  ghetto. I was followed for about twenty-five minutes by three young men, who could not quite bring themselves to bother me, but followed me in case they had the opportunity. I was lost and it was not fun. In Israel I walked as a tourist in places where no tourist should have been walking. People were being kidnapped, and buses were blowing up. Most people with me thought it was too risky to be out and about and they stayed in their rooms, very bored. In one small town where I stopped for a night, I watched porch lights come onm heralding the direction of my walk. Porch lights lit my way for almost a mile before I returned to where I started. I was impressed with the speed of the telephone and the power of a stranger in a strange town.

Some trips like this one to Austin are very good. Today I went on an hour stroll along the infamous Austin river walk near the South Congress Bridge. I watched people jog and walk by. People cruising along on bicycles from one place to another. People walking in groups, and people walking with their dogs.

I had a interesting chat with a homeless man who had the motor portion of a ceiling fan. He was trying to turn it into a generator for his personal use. While he tinkered with the motor pondering possibilities, he shared some of his life with me. I never would have had that chat from my car or room.

I walked my way back to the South Congress Bridge, and asked around for a salad bar within walking distance. There happened to be a salad bar of sorts about eight blocks up the street. I walked hearing bits of conversations in dialects I never heard before. Possible they are tourists like myself, or perhaps business people working hard on closing the deal.

During my walk back, homeless people were staking out their sleeping quarters for the evening. The incongruity of skyscrapers worth untold millions with homeless men and perhaps women sleeping in their daytime shadow was a study of contrasts.

I arrived back on the South Congress Bridge in time to observe the nightly flight of approximately 750,000 bats starting their nightly feed. While waiting for the flight, I chatted with people standing next to me about traveling, they gave me their impressions of their Jerusalem visits. What a small world, a stranger on a bridge having been to Jerusalem too.

Over all, getting out walking, listening, and talking to complete strangers is a thrifty and enjoyable way to pass part of an evening. Walking in some neighborhoods is indeed risk taking at its best. For most walks however, being out and about on foot is enjoyable, and a stress reliever. Use common sense, leave your valuables and extra money in your room, and get out and see what the locals take for granted.

If you are fortunate, you will get the kind of comment I did last night when I wandered too far from the beaten path. A car slowed, a window came down, and a womans voice said, “You lost”, and she laughed. I turned back the way I came knowing the next vehicle to stop may not be so friendly. If you are not that lucky, you may get a little nervous. Use your head and don’t stray any farther away than you have already. Head back to where you started and walk in a different direction.

Being just out of diapers with so much to explore and do, body functions would tend to get away from me. Children that young do not know the concept of lying but I was on my way to learning in my own way. I would be so busy exploring or playing the fact I had to take a crap right now would be in the back of my mind as I danced around trying to not think about it. Suddenly it would be too late, and it was coming out and I was not on the toilet.

As an enterprising little boy who was starting to learn the art of lying, I started blaming my accidents on my dog. I would say when my Mom was frustrated, “I didn’t do it, Rebel [my dog] did.” Perfect logic for a toddler to have something in his pants that his best friend, his dog Rebel put in his underwear while he was not paying attention.

One day when my Dad was watching me, it happened again. As people we use whatever works, and blaming my dog for my accidents was working fine, so I used it on my Dad. My dad listened to my excuse, cleaned me up, and put clean clothes on me. Then he spanked me. As I cried my father said, “You didn’t get the spanking, Rebel did.”

I learned a lesson that day, and the days of my dog Rebel messing my underwear came to an end. What continued was the idea of being someone else. When I was old enough to leave the yard and meet other kids for a baseball game, or football we did what I imagine most kids did and maybe still do. We would pick who we were going to be for the game.

As I became an adult, being someone else faded. Occasionally I would wish I were someone else, but never actually named someone I wanted to be. Instead, I would think if I were Muhammed Ali, what would I do or say right now. If I were Chuck Yeager, what would I do? It was a way of pretending to be someone else. Instead of being that person for a time, I would do what I thought they might do.

While trying to be like my heroes would in this situation helped, when I was a child actually pretending to be that person it was easier. The problem with trying to be someone is it only works in the short term. It is easy to act like your hero for a few minutes to a few hours, but any longer and the cracks start to appear. After you have gone through all the actions you know they do, you start becoming yourself again.

Eventually I changed or become eccentric, and started being exactly who I thought I was instead of someone else. People would either like me, or they would not. At any rate, I was tired of acting. Acting is a hard job, and even harder when you act every waking minute.

What I found was life was more genuine, and real. Some people did not care for the change in me, others of course loved it. I found I loved the change in me, because I did not have to think about who I was supposed to be, I could just be me. I took the blame for me, and I took the credit for me. Being me was a nice change in my life.

Pretending to be someone else is fun for an hour or two. It helps you experience things you may not have the courage to try on your own. Pretending to be someone else for so long, people around you think your acting is the real you, is possibly flattering to that person, if you do it well, but terribly hard on you.

When you find yourself in a tough spot, think about what your hero would do, and imitate them, but do not try to be them. Make what you think they would do a part of your character so it becomes a part of you. Think of it as a life building exercise. For your normal day in life, practice being you. It works much better for you and others in your life.