365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 120

TUESDAY, APRIL 30th, 2013  

42 (forty-two) is the natural number immediately following forty-one and directly preceding forty-three (thanks for the enlightenment, Wiki).  It is also the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything," according to the Douglas Adams highly regarded literary work, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

According to the book, the answer is easy.  It is finding the right question that proves to be the difficult part.  

Also noteworthy, forty-two happens to be the number of days that blood can be stored at forty-two degrees fahrenheit.  You can freeze blood on a long-term basis as well (thanks to Harold Meryman - see photo of the happy fella with the cow below), but that requires glycerol, a chemical preservative used to prevent the formation of ice, and of course, liquid nitrogen.   

Why is this information important?  All in due time, dear reader(s).

The takeaway from this entry is to be certain to ask the right questions.  Answers are irrelevant if you've got the question wrong.  

Today I ask the question, "how does this relate to Jazz Hands?"  But if you want the correct answer, that is the wrong question to ask, obviously.

Happy Fella with Cow

Today's Jazz Hands delivered a calf through a freeze-drying experiment.  Day one-hundred and twenty complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 119

MONDAY, APRIL 29th, 2013  

I witnessed no cracks in the plaster this morning and although no official measurements were made the house seems to be approximately the same size as it was yesterday.  Incremental change is fairly difficult to notice, so time will ultimately tell whether or not the walls are physically closing in.

I jazz my hands to praise this minor victory.  To praise normalcy. 

Off to work I go, a mostly sunny day is in store with a 60% chance of volatility.  

The finely primped and trimmed suburban landscape goes by, one beautiful Florida home after the other, painted in the bright colors of consummation.  Flowers are neatly planted around mailboxes, address numbers carefully stenciled and painted on the curbside cement.  Thick, lush grass, sprinklers, shiny automobiles, Jogger Lady, kids walking to school, it is all very, very pretty and quaint.  And pretty quaint. 

Onward I go and a yard, seemingly out of place sticks out badly with its uncut grass, perhaps the inhabitants are on vacation.  Further still there is a house with shingle tiles the color of algae, probably due to the growth of algae.  No flowers carefully planted here.

A drug store.

A post office. 

Cutesy, suburban neighborhoods give way to commerce. 

A bar.

A place that specializes in scrap booking, a gun shop, Tobacco Hut, a filthy pink store renting private viewing rooms.  What little grass that grows here are tall weeds that have not been tended to in quite some time. 

Onward I go.  The course of empire firmly branding the landscape, destruction as far as the eye can see.

The road has cracks in the pavement.  The trees grow tall, battling vines for sunlight.  The wild is taking over and encroaching the roadway.  Buildings that were once occupied with some form of business, desolate.  Broken out windows, trees growing from the gutters, weeds as tall as a man, mother nature is taking back what ultimately belongs to her.

Pretty soon I am the only car on the road.  The street lights, tangled in vines, no longer operate.  Nothing but green taking control of everything.  A true savage state has emerged.

It's beautiful.

Until I cross through the portal of Kennedy Blvd. and Dale Mabry and everything is back in place.  Order is restored.  The street lights function, the businesses are buzzing with activity, traffic, lots of traffic, all around.  I look back to where I came from and in the rear view mirror all I see is a decaying metropolis, begging for reclamation.  Let the volatility commence.

Today's Jazz Hands lived 'The Course of Empire.'  Day one-hundred and nineteen complete.

"The Course of Empire - Desolation" Thomas Cole - 1836

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 118

SUNDAY, APRIL 28th, 2013  

Playtime is over.  The dust has settled on yet another brief weekend and the house falls silent of all weekend sound.  The lawnmowers and leaf blowers and splashes in the pool, all tucked in ready for bed. 

Only in times of silence like this do you begin to understand how incredibly loud nothing can be.  The ice machine clunks and plunks.  The water jug burps and gurgles.  But that's not the extent of it.  Life moans and creaks all around from everywhere and nowhere at once, like ice cracking under your feet.  

The walls give a subtle snap.  I can almost hear them sliding ever so slightly.  Monday morning will find the house full of hustle and bustle.  The plaster and wood will be frozen in place, but I'm certain there will be evidence of their slow, glacier like advancement toward the center of the room.  There will be incremental slivers of floor missing.  It may only be a tiny fraction of space but every square millimeter accumulates over enough time.  There will be fractures in the plaster and the windows will be slightly more difficult to open...not necessarily by noticeable volumes, but the change is inevitable.

The walls are closing in.  They stalk by night, and the sound of their approach is deafening.

As I lay here in relative peace despite the nagging silence, every time I hear a creak or moan I deploy Jazz Hands to find that it briefly halts the slow, inward advancement of the surrounding walls.  I can't jazz my hands all night long, unfortunately...I fear that this practice merely postpones the inevitable.  Monday will surely come, and life will seem slightly more cramped and full of nonsense than it did the day before.

Today's Jazz Hands felt claustrophobic.  Day one-hundred and eighteen complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 117

SATURDAY, APRIL 27th, 2013  

Dear valued reader(s?),

The author of this blog, believe it or not, actually jazzes his hands every single day.  I am not certain how it is possible, but it seems that the embarrassing display gets worse with every deployment.

He has written about me from time to time, but it has been quite a while, most likely due to the fact that he fears my sense of reason.  He seems to feel threatened by the honesty I generously provide and he can not stand the fact that I believe contractions are overrated.  Mostly, he hates that I am always right.  Remember the deer?  I told him that would occur.  That happens to be the last time you heard about me, if I am not mistaken.

He can choose to ignore me, but he can not shut me up.  I will continue to be that nagging voice in his ear, and I will not stop preying on his propensity for self-doubt.

Go ahead, keep reading.  Your author will continue to deploy his jazzings and he will continue to write about them...or as it turns out, continue to write about whatever the hell he feels like and pretend it is related to Jazz Hands.  

Just know that you are an enabler.  And so long as he jazzes and so long as you read about whatever it is he writes about, I will be the itch he can not scratch.  

I am his slow descent into madness...

Regards,

-Mitch.

PS.  This is what part of the alphabet would look like if 'Q' and 'R' were eliminated.  Alright.  

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 116

FRIDAY, APRIL 26th, 2013  

Today a colleague arrived to our lovely place of business on schedule and two hours early all at once, proving that the earth is spinning faster than it had before or that time travel is possible after all.  Since there is no actual, scientific evidence that our planet has increased its rate of rotation, time travel is the logical explanation.

Colleague was both from the future and of the present.  Since he is from the future, there is a considerable likelihood that too much of his time is spent living in the past.  A trap everyone inevitably falls into now and again.

If time is an irrelevant, manmade construct, how do you explain anticipation?  And if you can travel back in time, can you retroactively anticipate?  This time travel stuff is confounding.  

I have now deployed the first hand jazzing of the weekend in anticipation (the standard variety) of some much needed lollygagging...knowing full well that the weekend will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Today's Jazz Hands tried to keep pace.  Day one-hundred and sixteen complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 115

THURSDAY, APRIL 25th, 2013  

“The full moon, well risen in a cloudless eastern sky, covered the high solitude with its light. We are not conscious of daylight as that which displaces darkness. Daylight, even when the sun is clear of clouds, seems to us simply the natural condition of the earth and air...We take daylight for granted. But moonlight is another matter. It is inconstant. The full moon wanes and returns again. Clouds may obscure it to an extent to which they cannot obscure daylight...We do not take moonlight for granted. It is like snow, or like the dew on a July morning. It does not reveal but changes what it covers. And its low intensity---so much lower than that of daylight---makes us conscious that it is something added to the down, to give it, for only a little time, a singular and marvelous quality that we should admire while we can, for soon it will be gone again.”

― Richard Adams, Watership Down

Today's Jazz Hands were excerptastic.  Day one-hundred and fifteen complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 114

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24th, 2013  

The wind still swirls but the dust colored canopy has lifted.  The moon is large tonight, perfect for an after dark hand jazzing.  My outstretched arms appear coated in silver.  I am some sort of a machine, metallic and shiny.  

The silver coat is widespread, illuminating the trees and ground and everything around.  At the same time long shadows are cast, concealing familiarity.  The moon refuses to allow me to examine the world on my own terms, instead reveals a different perspective to consider.

Mechanical deployment complete, I carefully step around the mercury and head inside.

Tonight's Jazz Hands had a silver lining.  Day one-hundred and fourteen complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 113

TUESDAY, APRIL 23rd, 2013  

Just because something might be the case, doesn't mean it is the case.  Just because an argument is bad does not make the conclusion wrong.  Just because the argument is good does not make the conclusion right.  And just because a reasonable outcome is probable does not mean that the outcome is probably reasonable.

There is a 50% chance that the flip of a coin will land on heads, yet it would be unreasonable to expect heads to turn up 5 times out of 10, consistently.  Additionally, it should not be a surprise if the coin turned up heads 100% of the time since every flip of the coin had the exact same chance to land on the exact same side every time.

The expectation of reasonability is fallacious.  

  

Today I deployed Jazz Hands ten times.  Half of which seemed well executed, the other half awkward. Half of the deployments were done in front of a mirror, the other half were not.  

Draw your own conclusions.

I exist.  I do Jazz Hands.  Therefor, everything that exists does Jazz Hands.  Day one-hundred and thirteen complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 112

MONDAY, APRIL 22nd, 2013  

If you are your own worst judge, then is it okay to be judgmental?  Judge not lest ye be judged yourself still applies, but since you are self-critical, does that give just license?

There is something really fascinating about a well-defined algorithm that can be used to solve any quadratic equation.  The algebraic identity so elegantly completes the square, as they say in certain math circles.

Take the quadratic equation in standard form, ax² + bx + c = 0.

Now divide each side by a, the coefficient of x.  Then rearrange the equation so that the constant term c is on the right side.  Add the square of one-half of b, the coefficient of x, to both sides.  This completes the square, converting the left side into a perfect square.  Now write the left side as a square, and simplify the right side, if necessary.  Produce two linear equations by equating the square root of the left side with the positive and negative square roots of the right side.  Now you merely solve the two linear equations!

I write this to exemplify that there are things that are actually quantifiable.  Some things actually do have standard measurements.  Some things actually can be judged with the use of equations and facts.  Objectivity can be quite sophisticated and once analyzed, beautiful in its precision.

Today I am required to judge with the use of quantifiable measurements but draw subjective conclusions...Tis a tedious undertaking and the results will be anything but beautiful or precise...just like today's Jazz Hands deployment.

Today's Jazz Hands were the square root of subjectivity.  Day one-hundred and twelve complete.  

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 111

SUNDAY, APRIL 21st, 2013  

The weekend ritual is now almost complete.  

The yard work the housework the overpriced restaurant the monthly poker with the gang the shopping the sports at the park the sports on the television the big Sunday dinner with the family leftovers given to family dog the obscure metaphor that seems darker than it actually is and, of course, Jazz Hands deployed.  

Today's deployment did not ward off hungry wolves at the doorstep, did not bring different cultures closer together and did not save any lives.  No.  Today's Jazz Hands were fairly garden variety.  And that's alright by me.

Today's Jazz Hands will now enjoy riding the weekend off into the sunset.  Day one-hundred and eleven complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 110

SATURDAY, APRIL 20th, 2013  

If wolves are on the doorstep you must ask them to leave...if they oblige, please understand that you have not seen the last of their kind.  

On a day where the sky is the color of dust and the winds swirl, steady and robust, on a day not unlike today, they shall return in greater numbers and they will not be turned away.  Their impatience lacks boundary.  Their hunger, impenetrable.  These wolves have journeyed from far off lands.  Your only defense is...Surprise Attack Jazz Hands!

Just kidding.  There is no defense against hungry wolves at your doorstep.  It'll likely just piss them off.

Today's Jazz Hands heard a knock at the door.  Day one-hundred and ten complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 109

FRIDAY, APRIL 19th, 2013  

Question:  Can scale be defined if there are no physical attributes to measure?  How big is God?  How big is love?  How big is a solution?  How big is the problem?  Some things are not quantifiable with scientific measurement, as we've adequately covered before.

It may surprise you, then, that the answer is yes.  You define the scale of something with zero mass, metaphorically, with Jazz Hands.  You probably saw that coming. 

Today I witnessed a coworker deploy unintended, subconscious Jazz Hands as he vividly expressed the enormity of a work related conundrum, one without physical size or weight.  Although the issue is quite an immense obstacle, it is of the invisible variety.  

I noticed the hand jazzing motion and immediately called him out, pointing at him saying loudly like a six-year-old child, "You did Jazz Hands!  You did Jazz Hands!"   He outright refused to believe he deployed Jazz Hands and a dispute ensued.  I mimicked his hand motions to describe his actions, and he then mirrored my hand motions saying "I did not do this."  Note the scathing emphasis he placed on the word 'this.'

"Yes, you did do this!"  I emphatically retorted, all while hand jazzing back.

There we were, face to face, deploying Jazz Hands at one another.  It was as if we were dancing and it was awkward and beautiful all at once, like watching mating Sandhill Cranes in the springtime.  Exactly the same but instead of big awkward birds in a field near a stream, we are big awkward men dressed in Friday Business Casual in an office near a conference table. 

The moment was larger than life, which is a metaphor used to describe the scale of something completely unseeable and subsequently unquantifiable.  The both of us, at the exact same moment in time, realized the strange nature of our argument and abruptly ceased.  Without another word, we turned away and walked to our respective work stations.

The awkwardness of today's Jazz Hands persist.  Day one-hundred and nine complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 108

THURSDAY, APRIL 18th, 2013  

It's been a long time since we've seen this guy.  Way too long, in fact.  It's okay to live in the past at times.  Just don't mingle there too long, you may not want to come back.

Today's Jazz Hands had a lot to say and even more to ask, but settled for showcasing the Jazz Hands mascot, who says it all without using a word.

Day one-hundred and eight complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 107

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17th, 2013  

Such places exist where sound is not noise.  Such places exist where the rattle of modernization is too distant to resonate, where the machine of life is no machine at all.

Our connection is a fond memory.  Our connection is a yearning.   We may not reside in these places, instead these places must reside within us.

Today's Jazz Hands want for nothing save the strength to navigate.  Day one-hundred and seven complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 106

TUESDAY, APRIL 16th, 2013  

I woke today as many others did, to find the world still spinning.  As it does so, I suppose we shall continue to stumble and fall down.  Inevitably, we will find a way to pick ourselves back up again, knowing full well that the vicious cycle will do what vicious cycles do, proof positive that we are resilient when unreasonable obstacles arise.

I had an entry ready for publishing yesterday, but held off submitting it due to the day's unfortunate events.  I did not feel comfortable with the contents and thought it relatively insensitive, all things considered.  Instead, I wrote what I wrote.  Today is a new day and we must carry on...as cliché as that might be, it's true.  

Today you get what was intended for yesterday.  Please keep in mind that the following is an unedited version of what I had written prior to the afternoon's total unravelling.  Note the eery coincidences, both blatant and subtle. 

Yesterday's intended post:

Approaching the stop sign at one of our several neighborhood intersections, I gradually bring the large contraption I'm driving to a halt.  I look both ways and then slowly proceed to make a righthand turn toward home.  Suddenly a jogger, the most famous jogger in our local community known to everyone as "Jogger Lady", is directly in front of said large contraption.  The brakes firmly applied to avoid running over Jogger Lady, she stops dead in her tracks and throws her arms up in fear.  She is so close, in fact, that she could have bent over and kissed the hood of the car if she chose to do so.  

She did not choose to do so.

First things first, I have to ask why both of us stopped to avoid the collision?  I understand the logic behind my stopping, but she had absolutely nothing to gain and would have been much better off letting instinct take over, jumping out of harm's way.  Stopping directly in front of a moving vehicle has limited outcomes.  First outcome is that the vehicle stops in time, the second outcome is that it does not stop in time and absolutely nothing good can come from that.

I readily admit that the mistake is fully on my shoulders and I never, ever want to see that type of horror on anyone's face again as long as I live.  I feel a slight bit of guilt, amused by her raised hands in what some might classify as Jazz Hands.  

I looked at her, frozen in fear inches from the bumper of my car, with an apologetic expression on my face and sincerely hope she understands that elusive joggers that are hard to see, are...hard to see.  

I can not remove the haunting image of Jogger Lady's horrified jazzing hands out of my head.

Today's Jazz Hands are checking twice.  Day one-hundred and six complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 105

MONDAY, APRIL 15th, 2013  

Horrific events take place everywhere on a regular basis.  Innocent people are targeted throughout the world, the justifications vary greatly as does the count of unfortunate casualties.  It is disturbing to contemplate the frequency of horror inflicted worldwide.  Unfathomable, really.  The fact that it occurs on your own turf does not make it more tragic...it just seems to magnify the nightmare.

Today's Jazz Hands are dedicated to the victims of the senseless violence that took place in Boston this afternoon.  What an ugly scene.

Day one-hundred and five complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 104

SUNDAY, APRIL 14th, 2013

Nine Lives requirements:  Two beach balls, adequate space, two or more people with working knowledge of the rules.

Part One - Two Beach Balls

Almost any type of beach ball will suffice, although some hurt much less on impact...understanding the difference between the varying degrees of painful beach balls is a delicate balance of common sense mixed with trial and error.  Only one beach ball is needed for game action, but there will come a time when a new beach ball is required due to their tendency to pop throughout the rigors of fierce battle.  

There are also game variations where multiple balls are in play at the same time, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.  Walk before you run and so on.  The point being that it is a good idea to have more than one beach ball handy...personally, I like to have a stash of about six or so just to be on the safe side.

Part Two - Adequate Space

A 12x12 room works great, even if you have a larger, more open area, confining the Nine Lives court to a 12x12 space is optimal.  The court does not require boundaries as the out of bounds locations are more for safety reasons than anything else.  A location with some structure and obstacles makes for an interesting game where the ball can deflect or bounce off of various objects and surfaces.  

The game can be played outdoors as well as indoors and can be played standing or sitting.  If your court has a hard, even surface and you have chairs with wheels on them available, this might be the most optimal method of play, allowing the competitors to roll around freely.  Mobility is a nice option and stationary chairs are not recommended.  The chosen court environment should have as little valuables within striking distance as possible.  They will definitely get broken.

Part Three - Two Or More People With Working Knowledge Of The Rules

The game of Nine Lives is played with all competitors facing each other in a relative circle.  A game can be played with as little as two competitors, in which case the circle formation is fairly irrelevant. A game of Nine Lives with only one person is considered juggling, which is not a game of Nine Lives at all.  

The ball is served and hit around the court between all of the competitors and play continues until a life is lost, usually due to the ball hitting the floor/ground.  It is a misconception that the object of the game is to keep the ball from hitting the ground.  While each competitor's goal is to prevent ball to floor contact, the idea is to create a situation that makes it difficult for each of your opponents to do so.  Each time the ball is struck it must be placed in a gettable fashion, but not necessarily easily gettable or returnable.  The object is NOT to keep the ball airborne.  No.  The object is to survive.  To survive, your opponents must die nine times each.  If you are playing a game with six total players, that makes forty-five lives that have to be lost before you lose nine.  

Just like in most aspects of life, the odds are stacked against you...you might as well go down with a fight and your hands jazzing.  

Today's Jazz Hands put the ball in your court.  Day one-hundred and four complete.

"Nine Times"

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 103

SATURDAY, APRIL 13th, 2013

The Jazz Hands word of the day is "continuity."  Today I will announce rule number ten for the game of Nine Lives.  For the sake of continuity, all rules will be listed leading up to the new one (one through ten) so that all rules thus far are neatly packaged up into one tidy post.  

Tomorrow will feature a backstory and a general outline of game flow...just in case the two of you ever meet and decide to get a rousing game of Nine Lives going, provided you have a beach ball at your disposal.

Without further ado:

RULE #1 - OBJECT OF THE GAME:  Survival.

RULE #2 - BALL PRESERVATION:  Never, under any circumstances, let the ball hit the ground.

RULE #3 - SERVICE TRAJECTORY:  You must NOT spike the ball on the serve.  The ball must be lofted in a nice, "gettable" fashion directly to another player. 

RULE #4 - SERVICE RETURN TRAJECTORY:  Since the serve is lofted nicely with proper arcitude, it is improper etiquette to return a service with a spike (straight line trajectory).  After the serve and after the return, the spiking may commence.  By rule, the ball must be struck a minimum of two times prior to a spike gaining eligibility.  The third strike may be a spike.

RULE #5 - NO APOLOGIES:  Never, ever, ever apologize.  Upon apology occurrence, one life will be deducted from the guilty player's total.  No exceptions to the rule.  

1st Amendment to RULE #5 - BLOODLETTING APOLOGIES: Never, ever, ever apologize, no exceptions...unless blood is drawn.  If blood is spilled in any quantity, the player who dealt the punishment is bound by the Governance of Obligatory Forgiveness Request Policy (GOFRP).  If blood is drawn, play must cease immediately (for proper cleanup).  

2nd Amendment to RULE #5 - SARCASTIC APOLOGIES: Never, ever, ever apologize, no exceptions...unless it's in the form of sarcasm.  If forgiveness is requested, a loss of one life will follow unless blood has been drawn from an opponent.  If no blood is drawn from an opponent then that apology had better be snarky.  Or smarmy.  Or oozing with sarcasm. Oozing blood, or oozing with sarcasm...otherwise no apologies.

RULE #6 - ANTI-RANDOM:  Nothing random allowed.  No exceptions.

RULE #7 - ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS SETTLEMENT:  All disputes are to be settled with a battle of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

RULE #7.1 - ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, BEST OF THREE SETTLEMENT: All Rock, Paper, Scissor battles must be resolved in a best of three series.

RULE #8 - ANTI-COWERING:  Never cower.  If the game ball is spiked toward a player and that player ducks out of the way, resulting in the ball hitting the ground, the ball is deemed "gettable" and the fault falls squarely onto the cowerer.  The guilty player is to lose one life for this act of cowardice and shall be looked down upon in shame by the other players of the game.

RULE #9 - MULTIPLE HITS:  A player can not make contact with the game ball more than once until they become eligible to do so again.  To clarify:  A player may not make purposeful contact with the game ball with successive hits.  If a player contacts the ball purposefully multiple times prior to another player making contact with the game ball (of any kind, intentional or not), that player will lose one life.

RULE #10 - COMPLIMENTARY ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS:  The loser of any best of three rock, paper, scissors settlements is required to compliment the victor.  This compliment can be regarding anything pertaining to the opposition.  The compliment may NOT be in the form of sarcasm, and compliments must not be used more than once in a game of Nine Lives.  In other words, no complimentary plagiarism.  If a compliment is not made by the losing party to the winning party of the rock, paper, scissors dispute prior to the game ball being re-served, the loser will lose yet another life and if the paid compliment is plagiarized from an earlier compliment paid in the same game, the loser will lose yet another life.

Today's Jazz Hands compartmentalized.  Day one-hundred and three complete.

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 102

FRIDAY, APRIL 12th, 2013

Quoting Ernest Hemingway, "Never confuse movement with action."  

The difference between intelligence and whatever it is that I possess is that Hemingway summed up in one short, perfect sentence what I've been attempting to explain for the past one-hundred or so days.  He also wrote, "It makes one feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch."

The man drank a ton of Cognac, what can I say?

Never confuse movement with action is an interesting lens to view my Jazz Hands deployments up until now...a lot of movement, not much action.  Never confuse movement with action can also be rephrased to say never confuse a lot of words with actually saying something.  

Doubt shall abbreviate today's entry and spare both of you some time on this one-hundred and second day.

Today's Hemingway Hands did not live the full life of the mind, was not exhilarated by new ideas nor were they intoxicated by the romance of the unusual.  

Day one-hundred and two complete. 

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 101

THURSDAY, APRIL 11th, 2013

At the onset of every day I have seemingly infinite Jazz Hands options at my disposal...so many options, in fact, that it becomes very difficult to decide on any one particular deployment.  As a result, I fall back on an old familiar, tried and true version that I feel relatively comfortable with...Surprise Attack Jazz Hands!  Unfortunately I don't feel at peace with this decision at all, and not just because I look stupid.  

Over the course of one lifespan, the average person has an infinite number of paths to choose from.  Of course those paths can be neatly categorized as you can imagine.  There are paths that are righteous, less traveled, circular, one way, wrong way, high, low, left, right and everything in between.  Infinite covers a lot of ground, you see.

Although some paths can be defined clearly as bad or as good and the difference is black and white, there is a ton of gray area to be found and there seems to be a deficit of color coded road maps to assist in guiding the way.  

As soon as you step onto one particular path, millions of options disappear while an infinite number of new ones emerge.  

Enter paralysis.

Being metaphorically paralyzed by choice leads to the literal adherence to familiarity and we all know familiarity begets contempt and oblivion.  

Some days I settle for oblivion...perhaps tomorrow I'll throw more caution to the wind and step outside of this tidy, hand jazzing comfort zone.

Today's Jazz Hands is investing in a good compass.  Day one-hundred and one complete.